entrance of the first court, (DE), assigned to the pupils as a means of amusement and exercise; and at a little distance on the side of the hill, a circular cold bath of hewn stone, ninety feet in diameter and ten feet deep, in which they are taught to swim, with a neat bathing-house in the Gothic style.

On the west side of this court is the chateau or family mansion (F), in which Mrs Fellenberg resides with her younger children. It also contains the bureau of the establishment, in which strangers are received and the business of the Institution transacted by a person devoted to this object. It likewise serves as a depot for the little articles which the pupils have occasion to purchase at a distance from a large town, In the garden of the chateau is the school for peasant girls (G), under the immediate direction of Mrs Fellenberg and one of her daughters.

In the rear of the chateau are two buildings occupied by twenty or thirty pupils of the Practical Institution (H). These are lodged and fed in a more simple manner than the pupils in the Literary Institution; and are permitted to avail themselves of its lessons, and to partake of the labors of the farm or the bureau, according to their necessities and destination.

In the rear of these buildings is a second cold bath of hewn stone, (I) only two feet in depth, designed for the use of the younger pupils. Adjoining this is a building 150 feet long (K), the lower part of which forms a large sheltered arena for riding and gymnastic exercises in unpleasant weather. The upper stories are occupied by the class rooms, and dormitories of the Agricultural Institution; in which children of the laboring classes are taught the practical part of agriculture, and receive three or four hours of instruction daily in reading, writing, arithmetic, and other useful branches. One of the chambers in this building contains a small collection of minerals, and of wild and cultivated plants from the neighborhood, together with two models in clay, made by the pupils themselves, representing in relief the surface of Switzerland.

A number of the pupils of this school are prepared by theoretical instruction and practical essays in the inferior classes, under the direction of the superintendent, to become teachers. No regular course of agricultural instruction is given; but several of those who frequent the institution as boarders, in order to make themselves acquainted with the system of agriculture adopted at Hofwyl, attend a course of lectures, which are given by Fellenberg himself to the older pupils of all the institutions.

On the north of the buildings which we have described, is an extensive irregular range, containing the farm house (L), in which the pupils of the agricultural school take their meals, the various workshops, the laundry, dairy, barns, and stables. (See the plan.) The stables contain fifty cows, and a number of oxen, which excite the admiration of strangers by their size, and the neatness with which they are kept.

At a little distance from the principal group of buildings, on the eastern descent of the hill, is the house occupied by the professors, in which the parents of the pupils are also lodged during their visits to their children. It contains a reading room in which some of the principal political and literary journals are received for the use of the professors. In this building is the chemical laboratory, and a collection of the most necessary philosophical instruments.

An interesting branch of the Institution of Hofwyl, is the colony of Meykirk at the distance of five or six miles. It consists of eight or ten poor boys, who were placed under the direction of a teacher on a spot of uncultivated ground, from which they were expected to obtain the means of subsistence. It is designed as an experiment on the practicability of providing for the support and education of friendless children, without any farther expense than that of the soil which they cultivate. It resembles, in effect, an establishment in one of our new settlements, except that several hours are devoted daily to intellectual and religious instruction, and thus the children advance in cultivation and knowledge as well as in hardihood and industry.

You will perhaps think these local details too minute, yet I believe you will perceive in them the key to many of the principles adopted by Fellenberg, and will be better prepared to understand the mode in which they are applied. In a visit of a few hours, such as is usually paid by the stranger, he can learn little more concerning Hofwyl. Should he pass the day he will be struck with the unceasing activity, combined with the greatest regularity, which reigns in every part of the establishment; and with the good order and harmony prevalent among the pupils, in the midst of the greatest freedom and gayety. He cannot but admire the benevolence and perseverance which have led a single man, on the basis of his own private fortune, and in the face of the prejudices of those of his own rank, to create a set of institutions which furnish ample means for the

thorough education of the higher classes, and at the same time provide for the gratuitous support and education of one hundred and thirty children. It is only after a long continued residence, that he will be able to appreciate that unwearied devotedness of a large family, by which all this is accomplished, a devotedness which not only excludes them from the pleasures and amusements usually enjoyed by rank and fortune, but also obliges them to live for others, and to sacrifice in a great measure those social and domestic enjoyments, which are of far greater value. I am, &c.

ART. IV.-INFANT EDUCATION.

THE Scriptural declaration is in the mouth of every one who speaks of education, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it;' and yet we hear constant complaints, and see mournful examples of apparent failure in its application. Is it not for want of examining with sufficient care the full import of its terms, that these disappointments are experienced?

Training is a term primarily applied to plants and vines whose branches are bent or spread so as to open them to the sun or shelter them from the wind, or display their beauties, or give them the best direction, and thus to prepare them to bring forth the best fruit, or enable them to sustain its weight.

This word is also employed to designate the methods which are used to accustom an animal to perform, with readiness and ease, those labors to which he is destined. He is first employed for a very short period in such as are lighter and more simple, and gradually for a longer time in those which are more laborious and difficult. But every exercise is proportioned to the strength, the temper and the experience of the particular animal. He is never burdened with a load which would strain or discourage him. He is gently and cautiously put into the harness that he may not be alarmed, and at first slowly and kindly led along that he may not be made to dislike his task. He is not expected to perform a difficult movement at once, nor is he ever driven by force until frequent drawing has proved ineffectual.

The soldier is trained by employing and treating him in the manner adapted to give him vigor and hardihood, as well as the

habits of rapid and easy movement which are required in his future efforts and contests. His eye, his foot, his hand, are all trained by repeated exercises to act instantaneously and easily, in accordance with the determinations of his own mind or the orders of his commander. He thus learns to accomplish objects with surprising rapidity and ease, which are impracticable to an untrained citizen, and to endure hardships and labors which would destroy a raw recruit.

The persons who were destined to run or wrestle for the prizes in the Olympic games, or those who in modern times prepare themselves for any trial of strength or speed, have always been trained for their work, not merely by daily practice, but by the most careful management of their bodies. Their hours of activity and repose, their food and drink, and all their occupations and habits are regulated with great care, so as to fit them in the best manner for the laborious efforts on which depended their victory or defeat, their honor or disgrace.

Training, then, when referred to a child, may be considered as involving all those influences and exercises by which he is to be prepared for his future duties and destiny in this life and another; and if these do not conspire to lead him in the way in which he should go, it is to this defect that our failures are to be attributed.

But a term of equal importance to a full understanding of this maxim is often left entirely out of view-what is meant by 'a child.' Will the maxim remain true if we wait till the age of twelve, of ten, of six, or even of four years, before we begin the training' prescribed? It is too little considered, we fear, when the infant begins to be a proper subject of training, and at what age he may become in one respect or another, insensible to its influence. Here, it seems to us, is the source of a large proportion of those failures, which lead some to speak of this as a maxim of doubtful correctness.

Trite and simple as the poetical paraphrase of this passage is, we wish we could see it more impressed on the heart of every mother,

'Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.'

If a plant is to be made to assume a given shape or direction, we find it necessary to commence with the scion or the earliest twigs, and to lead every tendril as it shoots forth into the course desired. Should we leave it until it becomes stiffened in a particular direction, the force necessary to change it will usually

diminish its vigor, and obstruct its growth. It will still tend to its former course; it will spring back the moment the bands which confine it are loosened or removed, and we can seldom destroy this tendency without a degree of violence which will produce deformity or impair the very principle of life. The obvious application of both these maxims is, that the human being must be taken while his character is in the most pliant state, if we mean to give it a high and holy direction. We must watch with the utmost vigilance over the first impressions which form the basis of its future character. We must take care that his first conceptions of things and words be true as far as possible, that he may not be accustomed to error in receiving, or falsehood in communicating ideas. We must strive to make the first impressions concerning manners, and conduct, and principles of action, derived from the examples he witnesses and the conversation which he hears, as pure as possible.

We must seek to restrain his propensities before they are ripened into habits, and teach him how to govern himself, before he becomes the slave of impulses.

Now what period can be assigned for the conmencement of a task so important and so difficult, unless it be that when the child begins to exhibit his feelings and to be influenced by others the first moments of perception and action?

Defer your efforts one day, and the shooting idea has assumed its form, the tendril feeling has taken its direction, and an increased if not painful effort will be necessary to alter it. It is only in commencing our training,' when the mind receives its first impressions, and the feelings first begin to strengthen themselves by exercise, that either reason or scripture authorizes us to expect that we can give that form to the character which we desire. How else can we hope to counteract that crowd of temptations from within and around, which beset the object of our solicitude? If a kind Providence should direct to a more happy result, imperfections or even deformities of character will usually remain the lasting and mortifying monuments of this early negligence.

But let it be understood we speak of 'training,' not of forcing the child. We would remonstrate against that course of education which considers him as a mere vessel to be filled with ideas and principles, or a mass of matter to be cast in the mould and stamped with the image and superscription of a self-appointed manufacturer of men. He should be treated, on the contrary,