Mann gave a graphic description of the mode of teaching pursued in the schools of Germany, where teacher and pupil drew on the blackboard from recollection the principal physical features of each country, then located the chief towns, etc. The admirable works on Physical Geography by Prof. Trail, of Edinburgh, Sir John Herschell, and by Mary Somerville, the best of all, had made accessible to the general reader and to young students the leading points of a science that, with her sister Geology, is one of the daughters last adopted into the divine family of the Physical Sciences.

But Mary Somerville's work is too abstruse in some of its parts, presupposing in the reader a knowledge of kindred subjects, the want of which obscures the text.

The text book used in our schools-Warren's Atlas of Physical Geography-is too sketchy for our collegiate classes. He would confer a great benefit on education, who, from these and similar works (as Humboldt's Cosmos), should compile a treatise of moderate size, embodying their excellencies and leaving out all the details which are too scientific for an elementary work. Who is more capable of performing that important task than that accomplished scholar, T. W. Harvey, who has made Physical Geography the special study of his life, and to whose lectures on that subject many of us have listened with delight? May he be spared to undertake and complete a work which, perhaps, he is even now silently preparing!

Mr. White's little work has revolutionized the study of Primary Geography, and converted into a lively, mind-awakening exercise what before was a lifeless and wearisome drudgery-the committing to memory of unintelligible abstractions.

Guyot's charming book-"The Earth and Man"-traces out striking analogies which reveal systematic order, where hitherto we had seen nothing but accident and confusion. His schoolmaps now published, with the geographical text-books which are. promised soon to follow, will triumphantly carry on in the higher classes the work so happily begun in our primary schools by Mr. White's book.

But a new book, fuller than Guyot's and still more interesting, has been lately published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia: Ritter's Comparative Geography, translated from the German by

William L. Gage. In this work, within the moderate compass of about 200 8vo. pages, we have presented to us in language always clear and terse, occasionally rising to poetical expression and to eloquence, those beautiful analogies between the various continents, oceans, &c., of the earth, the exposition of which, to use the words of the author, converts geography from a mere lifeless aggregate of inorganic parts into a science where system takes the place of what had seemed chaotic confusion, and exhibits the habitation of man as a true organization, whose several parts contribute to the harmony, use and beauty of the whole.

We earnestly recommend this book to the young students of our High Schools and Colleges as eminently calculated to invest with new and wondrous interest what perhaps they have been learning merely from a sense of duty and necessity, rather than from its own intrinsic attraction.

To all teachers of Geography, this work is nearly indispensable, until its principal features are embodied into our common geographical text-books. The attentive perusal of either Ritter or Guyot, is a necessary qualification for a teacher who aims to be something better than the wearied recipient of lifeless recitations of tasks lifelessly committed to memory from the dull pages of a catalogue of proper names and political divisions arbitrarily parceled out of the surface of the earth, so beautifully prepared for the habitation of man by a wise and benevolent Creator.

INTERESTING WRITING LESSONS.

BY MISS ELIZABETH HACKING.

Teachers of Penmanship, who give many lessons in succession in the copy-book, may enter the school-room feeling as much enthusiasm as an artist might do when first coming in sight of the Eternal City. But this ardor will soon be chilled, for as soon as the pleasure of a new copy-book has worn away, with the want of variety, and the monotony of writing one column after another, the scholars lose all interest, and it then becomes more difficult for the teacher of Penmanship to keep the minds of the scholars

upon what they are doing, than in those branches in which new ideas are presented daily.

For an interesting exercise in writing, the scholars being prepared with waste-book, and wishing each member of the class to do something which interests him, I show them a number of specimens of various kinds. Placing one before them to criticise, and observing them as they look at it, some by their expression say, "I like that, and can do it"; while others may look listless, though, perhaps, not wanting in either taste or ambition. Presenting a different one to them, those faces void of expression before may change, and sparkle as the darkened waters of the ocean do, when the sun suddenly gleams from behind a cloud. So, I imagine, is it with artists; for were a number of them shown a painting, however beautiful it might appear to some, others would view it with indifference, and, if making it a study, would attain little of its perfection. When each pupil is provided with something which interests him, at a signal given by the teacher they begin to imitate the models they have selected.

Verses of poetry, business notes, a letter, or ornamental penmanship, form an attractive lesson which may develop some latent ideal of beauty, and kindle anew the waning interest of the pupil.

In criticising the penmanship of exercises in other branches, it may be observed that the signature is written with less care than the other portion. If one lesson be devoted at the commencement of a term to practice in writing their own name, grade, and the district which they attend, it will soon be seen by comparison that in giving such lesson the time is well spent. At the close of each regular lesson, one pupil's name, with grade, district and date, written on the board by the teacher to be copied by that scholar and criticised by the class at the next lesson, will secure, if persevered in, a permanent care as to names.

There is not a more beneficial or pleasing exercise for scholars than to practice ovals and "the line of beauty," and while doing so, to keep precise time to the teacher counting. When teaching a well disciplined class, who obey with military exactness, much more rapid progress will be made by counting for every line; for by this means some acquire a better slope, and others get rid of a contracted manner of writing. Counting also assists by guiding.

the hand and pen in much the same manner as an accompaniment of music aids the voice in making its various waves of melody.

Though the advance in number of columns will necessarily not be as great if the classes have one such lesson a week, yet with the now awakened enthusiasm of the pupils, and increased attention to explanations, a marked improvement will soon be seen in the copy-book which could not be attained by any number of regular drill writing-lessons.

The position of writing-teacher has, like others, its shady and sunny side. But in every occupation there are difficulties to contend with and obstacles to surmount; and Tennyson clothed a true thought in beautiful language, when he wrote-"Shadow and, shine is life, flower and thorn."

WILLIAM H. McGUFFE Y.

William H. McGuffey, D.D., LL.D., is the son of a Scotch Presbyterian farmer, and was born in Washington county, Pa., in the year 1800. During the first eighteen years of his life, he enjoyed no advantages of education beyond what were afforded by the rude schools which the frugal country people were able to sustain during the winter months. When William was still a child, his father removed to Trumbull

county, Ohio, and established his family in a log cabin, on a small tract of land which he had recently purchased, the country for miles around being yet an unbroken forest. Here William engaged

with ardor in the labors of opening a farm in the woods; but never allowed manual labor to dull his desire for intellectual improvement. In the intervals of farm-work, he improved every opportunity of gaining knowledge-borrowing books, wherever they were to be had, and occasionally, and at irregular intervals, obtaining an hour's instructions from the clergyman of the neighborbood. When about eighteen years of age, he began the study of Latin with borrowed books; and used to walk (once a week) a distance of several miles to the house of the country clergyman, to recite the lessons which he had prepared in the brief intervals of his daily toil.

His father being too poor to aid him in acquiring an education, William began the business of teaching so soon as he could be spared from the farm; and in this way sustained himself until he was enabled to graduate, which he did with distinguished honor, at the age of twenty-five, at Washington College, Pennsylvania, then under the Presidency of that great and good man, Andrew Wylie, D.D., subsequently for many years President of the University of Indiana at Bloomington. So high was Mr. McGuffey's reputation for scholarship, and such a reputation had he already acquired as a teacher, that upon his graduation, he was immediately elected to the Chair of Ancient Languages in the Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. In this chair he continued for seven years, noted for the accuracy of his learning and the thoroughness of his teachings.

In 1829, he was called to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, in which he has continued to labor ever since, but generally without having any pastoral charge. In 1832 he was transferred to the Professorship of Moral Philosophy in the same University.

In 1836 he was elected to the Presidency of the Cincinnati College, which in that year was reorganized, with a most distinguished faculty, embracing names already eminent in the departments of Law, Medicine and Letters; among which may be mentioned Doctors Drake and Gross, of the Medical Faculty, the latter being the celebrated surgeon who has so long been a resident of Philadelphia; Edward D. Mansfield, LL.D., the Statistician and Statesman; and Judges Walker and Wright of the Law School; and the late General O. M. Mitchel, the astronomer and