divine worship is much more strongly developed in America than in his own country.

In conclusion we can not but express the opinion that it is good for both Europe and America that such men as Dr. Wimmer, Dr. Siljeström, and others we might name, should come to this country to study our educational systems and give their opinions upon them. If they point out such faults as defective methods of instruction, bad classification of the scholars, and a want of thoroughness and symmetry in prescribed courses of study, they will not, they can not fail to admire the adaptation of our school system as a whole, to the principles of civil and religious liberty, which we all hold so dear; and they will gain for imitation in their own lands, many good ideas, in our Teachers' Associations and Institutes, in our well constructed and well ventilated school-rooms, and in our employment of female teachers, in one of the noblest spheres where the influence of woman can possibly be exerted. D. C. G.

BERLIN, Prussia, Nov., 1854.

MODEL DEPARTMENT OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL AT NEW BRITAIN.

THE Schools of the First District are, by their regulations, intimately connected with the Normal School. There is probably no system of schools precisely like this in any town in New England. The general charge of all the schools is placed under the care of the Associate Principal of the Normal School. The Principal of the High School is also expected to have an immediate oversight of all the departments of the Model Schools. In each department is a principal teacher, appointed by the district committee, and responsible to that committee, with the concurrence of the Principal of the Normal School. This teacher, with the assistance of the Visiting Committee and the Teachers of the Normal School, arranges the studies, directs the lessons, has charge of the discipline, and all the general arrangements of the school.

When the classes are formed and the programme of exercises made out, the presiding teacher of each department forms a list of classes for which teachers from the Normal School will be required. Teachers are then assigned by the Principal of the Normal School. They go to their respective classes at the hours designated, and hear

recitations and impart instruction, under the direction of the teachers of each department, and with the criticisms and suggestions made by the teachers of the Normal School, and the Principal of the High School.

This arrangement affords not only a large amount of instruction from members of the Normal School for which the district are not required to pay, but has secured also the benefit of the wise counsels and varied experience of the Principal, an influence which otherwise could not have been exerted on the school; exemplified in the invaluable suggestions made, in the interest awakened, and in the encouragement given to teachers and pupils.

This arrangement also affords important advantages to the Normal School. The principles involved in the art of teaching can in no way be better illustrated than in their actual development in schools well arranged, and properly conducted. In the present system, all the grades from the primary to a high school, are brought under the same roof as the Normal School. Classes in different studies from the Alphabet to the higher departments of language, mathematics, and natural science, are daily reciting under the direction of the best teachers that can be obtained. The very best methods of instruction can thus be seen in practice in connection with the lectures and instructions of the Normal School.

At the same time the circumstances in which these schools are placed, bring them constantly before the eye of the best educators of this state and others.

Methods adopted here must exert an influence over the schools in all parts of the state. There are high inducements for teachers, committees and citizens, to spare no pains to make these schools the best possible for the true and right education of children and youth.

It would be difficult to conceive of a system that should combine more of sound judgment and constant watchfulness in its planning and operations, or that should bring more high and varied talent into exercise, than is the case in these schools.-Prof. Camp's Report of Schools of New Britain School Society, 1854.

SCHOOL-HOUSE ORNAMENTS.

THE very thought seems paradoxical. Why a few years ago we felt the need of a clock in our school-house, and what was more to

the purpose, resolved to have one. But not feeling quite able to buy one-they cost then three dollars-we drew up a subscription paper, and as we called on our patrons presented it, invoking their benevolent aid.

On the teacher's account most were willing to give a quarter, but with one voice it was decided to be useless, as the clock would inevitably be broken before a month had passed. We hoped not,' and carried round the paper, till at length the sum was complete, the clock was bought, and to this day stands in that school-house, and tells of beauty while it ticks off time.

So of maps, and of school apparatus, all are too nice for the schoolroom. We suspect the reason why the black-board was allowed earliest, was for the very reason that it had no beauty to hinder it.

To be sure, ornaments for school-houses as they were, or as some yet are―would seem a little strange. If we were fated to sit once more on a slab bench, backless, unplaned, and tottlish, and had a dime to spend, we should rather put it in toward buying new chairs, than to hang our room with paintings. So would anybody-wouldn't you?

But a prophetic angel in the shape of Barnard's School Architecture, has declared that the time for such school-houses as we can remember, shall be no longer. No new one is built after those ancient models-nor ever will be. Public sentiment can not go back in this respect.

Let us then think of ornaments. Maps, charts, plates, &c., are useful they may also be ornamental. There may be a beauty in them arising from their accuracy, their resemblance to nature, or to the combination of colors. But a pencil sketch of familiar scenery is more beautiful than they all. A painting exceeds this last. And when the painter presents on canvas the features of one we loved or almost venerated, and makes the soul shine in them, the loveliness of mingled mountains, rivulets, meadows, forests, clouds and sunshine, fades away before the glory of the pictured life.

The beauty which merely gratifies taste is intellectual, affecting the eye; it is like the rippling waves on the surface of a quiet lake. But there is a beauty which touches the heart and unseals the fountains of feeling-it is like the ground swell of the ocean, and moves the whole being. This beauty is found in representations of life. It is the field of the portrait painter and the sculptor-the secret of their power as well as the test of their success.

Ornaments clothed with such beauty are more than instructive,

they form character. The engraving of Washington, hanging in his father's parlor, has taught lessons of honor, patriotism, and truth, to many an earnest boy. Often after reading some of those noble deeds, which every heart admires, the boy has sought the picture and studied it with deepest interest, has studied too himself, with firm resolve that he would be like Washington-perhaps has scanned his own reflection in the mirror to see if he does not look some like the portrait.

Can there be no fit School-House Ornaments of this class? None that shall associate us with our models in the past, and daily teach us lessons of earnestness, humility, patience and love. A statuette, a medallion, or a picture of Pestalozzi, of Arnold, or-to come home-of Gallaudet, would furnish a subject for many of the familiar school talks which do so much to gain the hearts of pupils, and cultivate a love for the good. The teacher too would be inspirited and refreshed. Would not such ornaments be useful? Would not every teacher have them? Can they not be made accessible?

In the city, where every foot of land is worth more dollars than can be spread out on its surface, there is some apology for occupying basements as school-rooms. But in country towns and villages, where the commercial value of the soil is of less consequence, there can be no good reason why childhood's "school-going days" should be made gloomy and wearisome by confinement in damp and cheerless basements. A school-room where the plastic mind of the young is to receive its first bent unto good or evil, should always be attractive and pleasant, and by all means well ventilated.

But who ever saw an underground room that was pleasant and inviting? As for ventilation that is out of the question, where the ceiling is within reach of an ordinary sized man and the base of the windows three or four feet from the floor, or at least so high that all ventilation from that source must be like the instructions of some teachers, entirely above the heads of the pupils. Under such circumstances the air is constantly damp and chilly from the vapor which naturally rises from the earth immediately beneath the floor,

and many basements are so constructed that they become convenient reservoirs of impure and poisonous gases.

It is well known to every physician, that during the prevalence of epidemics, families who live in underground rooms, suffer more than others in the same neighborhood, who occupy airy and well ventilated apartments. Dysentery, typhus fever and cholera, as well as scrofula and consumption, make their deadly visits to such localities, and Harpy-like prey on their inmates. Instances are by no means uncommon, in which whole families have been swept off by the diseases which hover around these unnatural habitations. All animals, except reptiles and fishes, require pure, dry air, and the genial warmth of sunshine, and will languish and die without it.

I have been led to these remarks from having observed that some school-houses have been recently erected in this state, in a style of architecture which is truly noble and magnificent, but with basements for the Primary Department, which are very objectionable apartments for schools.

But if there must be a school in the basement, why assign it to the Primary Department? The pupils of this department, with the tender minds, flexible bones, and soft muscles peculiar to this age, do not possess the most strength to resist the pernicious influence of such a locality-nor are their minds less sensitive to external impressions than those of more mature years.

B. N. COMINGS.

DR. BARNARD'S WORK ON EDUCATION IN EUROPE.

[From the Westminster Review.]

MR. BARNARD's work on the "State of National Education in Europe," furnishes for the first time those actual data which are so much needed for the solution of many great and popular questions. The educational field has been hitherto too much occupied by mere enthusiasts in what is called the "Philosophy" of instruction, or heavy statistic-mongers in the matter of its social application and efficiency. Those "middlemen" whose minds are open on the one hand to the higher hints of individual culture which the advancement of theoretic science reveals, and alive on the other to the evident practical deductions which may be gleaned even from a few