Page images
PDF
EPUB

'falsum jurare,' and pejerare? Why should Isis be here introduced? Who was this Ladas? Why locupletem podagram? Where was Anticyra? What is the derivation of the name? Illustrate its use here by quotations? Who was Archigenes, and what would be his office on this occasion? Quote an illustration? Derive sistrum and vomicæ.

Επὶ Μνησιφίλου ἄρχοντος, συγκλήτου ἐκκλησίας ὑπὸ στρατηγῶν γενομένης, καὶ πρυτανέων και βουλῆς γνώμη, Μαιμακτηριῶνος δεκάτῃ ἀπιόντος, Καλλισθένης Ετεονίκου Φαληρεὺς εἶπε.

Translate this. Explain the terms ἄρχων, συγκλήτου ἐκκλησίας, στρατηγοί, πρυτάνεις, βουλὴ, ἀπιόντος.

In what year was Demosthenes born? At what age did he make his first speech on public affairs? From what event did he date Philip's designs on Greece? Whatcircumstances gave Philip ground of interference in the affairs of Greece? Who aided him in his designs?

Ne dimissis quidem finem esse militiæ; sed apud vexillum retentos alio vocabulo, eosdem labores perferre; ac si quis tot casus vita superaverit, trahi adhuc diversas in terras, ubi, per nomen agrorum, uligines paludum vel inculta montium accipiant. Enimvero militiam ipsam gravem, infructuosam; denis in diem assibus animam et corpus æstimari.

Translate this? What number of campaigns was the Roman infantry required to serve? What new practice did Augustus introduce? Distinguish between 'missio' and 'exauctoratio.' Explain apud vexillum retentos,' and 'alio vobabulo? What was the value of the denarius at that time? What was the highest value to which it ever attained? What was the cause of this fluctation? What proportion did gold bear to silver at this period? Where were the principal gold mines of Europe?

ΟΡ.Δὺς τόξα μοι κερουλκὰ δῶρα Λοξίου
Οἷς μ' εἴπ' ̓Απόλλων ἐξαμύνεσθαι θεάς,
Εἴ μ' ἐκφοβοῖεν μανιάσιν λυσσήμασι.

What are the various forms of compounds of xspàs? What is remarked on the union of μανιάσιν with λυσσήμασι? Give similar instances? In which only of the oblique cases is this union observed? ὅταν δ' ὁ δαίμων εὖ διδῶ, τί δεῖ φίλων ;

Some read l yon glhoor What authority have we for such reading? State the various ways in which zo and dei are used?

Εἰ δ' ἐγκράτεις φεύγουσιν οὐδὲν δεῖ πονεῖν.

Correct this line. Explain the rule against which it offends, and the principle of your correction.

ART. II.-ON ATTENTION.

BY T. H. GALLAUDET.

For the Annals of Education.

VIGOROUS and efficient attention of mind, especially as a habit, depends very much on the state of the disposition and moral feelings. Strong desires for the accomplishment or attainment of an object, will induce a fixed and prolonged attention to the means that must be employed for the gratification of those desires. The object, it is true, may be good or evil, praiseworthy or deserving of blame. Hence very wicked men, for very bad purposes, may attend pertinaciously to objects of thought, of study, and of action, essential to the attainment of the ends they have in view. And good men do the same in the prosecution of great and good ends. How strong in this respect, must have been the intensity and perseverance of the power of attention in Howard, the philanthropist. Is it not a truth, also, founded in the nature of man and his connection with the moral constitution of things, that he who is on the side of what is right and benevolent has within his reach influences to produce vastly more power of thought, of feeling, and of action, than he who is on the side of sin and selfishness? Have not truth, justice, integrity, goodness and the kindred virtues more intrinsic energy than their opposites? This may not appear evident in the contrast of some particular cases; but more extended observation, and especially with regard to the steady and continued uniformity of this energy, will lead us, the writer is persuaded, to such a conclusion.

It would seem, then, that as the power of attention depends greatly on the state of the moral feelings, it is, on this account, an essential feature of a wise system of education, to train these feelings on the side of virtue and goodness. A sense of duty, a feeling of the obligations which the child is under to his parents, his teacher, his fellow men, and his God, will do more than any other principle of mental action to cultivate and sustain that fixed and concentrated attention without which nothing good or great can be successfully accomplished. The motives that the religion of Christ inspires, the co-operation of his followers with himself in the advancement of his kingdom on earth, and the preparation of themselves and their fellow men for the love and service of God

in a better world, place before the mind such noble, exalted, and soul-stirring objects of pursuit, that he who is truly one of his followers has, in view of these objects, such strong and abiding desires going forth towards them, that, from the very laws of the human mind, his attention will be fastened on the means necessary for the attainment of these ends with deep and continued intensity. These means embrace all the acquirements of knowledge, and all the capacities of action, which a good education proposes to furnish. Imbue the hearts of your children, then, with the feelings of a rational and ardent piety, and furnish them, as their minds acquire the requisite expansion, with clear and comprehensive views of the dignity and moral excellence of the christian's character and prospects, both for time and eternity, and you have pursued the most effectual course, in connection with the proper subsidiary helps, to give to the faculty of attention, what is at the foundation of all sure progress in intellectual and moral worth, and of all wise and beneficent action, a capacity of strong, steady and continued exertion.

Subsidiary helps, the writer is well aware, must also be employed, especially in the early stages of education. The objects to which we wish to direct the fixed attention of the child must be rendered interesting to him. Novelty and variety must lend their share of influence. Authority must sometimes dictate and even coerce. Resort must be had to rewards and punishments. Emulation, perhaps, under some of its chastened and less dangerous forms, will be found necessary. But the more the moral sense is enlightened and strengthened on the subject of acquiring the habit of concentrated and continued attention, from obligations of duty, and for high and holy purposes, and the more the other principles that have been mentioned are merged in this purer and loftier one, the more it will be found that this great object in education will be attained.

The voluntary action of the soul, in the exercise of its various faculties, from the motives which considerations of what is true, right and benevolent address to its moral sensibilities, and for the accomplishment of great and good ends, is infinitely superior to what can be produced by any inferior means partaking, more or less, of constraint and coercion.

uth who can be brought by a wise training, under the ace of divine grace, (without which all human efforts

are ineffectual,) to give his hearty, fixed, and continued attention to his lessons, his labor, or his trade, because, in addition to the interest of having his curiosity gratified, and of enjoying the pleasure of industrious effort, and of pleasing a parent, a teacher, or an employer, and of gaining the praise due to his exertions, and of enjoying the fruits of his application in other ways, he sees and feels that in doing it, he is using the means to fit himself the better to discharge his duties; to love and serve his God and Saviour; and to promote the best good of his fellow men; and all the while, too, to participate of the purest and highest kind of happiness of which his nature is susceptible in this life; and to prepare himself for still higher degrees of blessedness in the world to come. Such a youth, it is manifest, is cultivating the power and habit of attention in the most effectual manner, to render it what it ought to be, prompt to act at the command of the will,―carrying the heart along with it,—gratifying by its exercise the strongest desires of the soul,-intense, vigorous, undivided, unwearied. Such a power and habit of attention is worth possessing.

ART. III. PHYSICIANS TO SCHOOLS.

BY WM. A. ALCOTT.

For the Annals of Education.

It has long appeared to me desirable that schools of every form and grade should be under the regular occasional inspection of physicians. It is not sufficient that one of the board of officers appointed by law, or in compliance with the requisitions of the law, should be a medical man, as is at present, sometimes the case; though where nothing more can be done, even this is highly useful. Yet after all, there should be as it strikes me, a regular superintending physician to every school establishment, with a fixed salary, greater or smaller, whose daily or at least weekly duty it should be to visit the school, observe its condition, report at least every week to the proper officers-committees, trustees, &c.--and make every suggestion in regard to improvement which the circumstances appear to him to demand.

I have said that this duty should be attended to daily, or weekly. So wretched is the present condition of many of our schools, especially our primary and common schools-and above all those of cities-that for the first month, or perhaps for the first three months, a physician ought to visit each school at least once a day. Afterward, if his suggestions were duly attended to, weekly visits might be sufficient ; and indeed a time might arrive when all but monthly visits might be dispensed with.

Does the question arise to the mind of any reader what there is for a physician to do, at these stated visits? For if the child is sick enough to need medical aid or advice, it may be said, the parents will not be likely to send him to school; but if he is well enough to be at school what need is there of a physician? Is it not soon enough to seek for medical aid when we are actually sick? Or if the plan, new fangled as it is, were likely to be useful, who is to defray the expense? Is it to come upon the parents greatly impoverished as many of them are already?

In regard to the duty of a physician, at these stated visits, it may be observed that it is not to prescribe for the diseases of individuals, unless at the special request of the parents, masters, or guardians of those individuals. Most persons who have the care of infancy and childhood will probably prefer to use their own judgment in the selection of a physician when their children are severely sick; but in regard to general physical treatment at the school house, to prevent disease, it is believed they would be satisfied with the suggestions of such a man as should be selected by a judicious board of school officers--whether committee or trustees.

The duty then of the school physician should be general rather than particular; preventive rather than corrective; advisory rather than prescriptive. He should point out, or suggest, as I have already said, to the proper officers, in verbal or written reports; leaving it to them to act as their sense of duty to God and their fellow men may direct.

For example, suppose a superintending physician to be appointed to one of the primary schools in Boston. He calls at first in the morning; say at nine o'clock, about an hour after the school is opened. He makes it his chief object to note the temperature of the room. The teacher has no thermometer in the room, but the physician has one in his pocket. By

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »