Museum, have been commenced by the Society of Inquiry on Missions. We notice as peculiarities in the course of study, only the use of "Eschenburg's Manual," and a regular Bible Exercise, on Thursday afternoons for each of the three lower classes. The Faculty consists of the President, 5 Professors, and 4 Tutors, and 2 Lecturers. Prof. Fowler has recently been transferred from Middlebury to Amherst College.

WILLIAMS COLLEGE.

The catalogue gives, Seniors 37; Juniors 31; Sophomores 38; Freshmen 29; Total 135. The Faculty consists of the President six Professors, and one Tutor. There are few Colleges in the country where a more thorough and finished education is given than at Williams. The officers are men thoroughly trained to their profession, and we know it, of most of them, and believe it of allof uncommon powers of mind, and of accurate, and thorough scholarship, and possess the excellencies of a complete corps of instruction in a very rare combination and balance. The departments of Natural Philosophy and Mathematics, commonly united, have been separated, and the very able Professor of Natural Philosophy accompanies his lectures with celestial observations and the practical use of instruments. The observatory which he has reared, and the extensive collection of astronomical and other philosophical instruments he has made, furnish facilities for the successful conduct of the studies of his department, which are seldom, if any where in our country, to be met with. The President, Dr Hopkins, is well known as an eloquent writer, and has few rivals in teaching intellectual and moral science.

THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

Contains 102 Students, 34 pursuing the studies of the first year; 25,of the second; 20, of the third; and 23, of the fourth. The course of study and method of instruction here, are in some respects worthy of notice. Classes are formed in the University according to the several topics or authors, which arise in the course of instruction. Any student may, at the same time, subject to the advice and control of the Faculty, pursue the studying of one, two, or more departments in any of the classes thus arranged. But in no case is a student allowed to join an advanced class in any department, without exhibiting a satisfactory acquaintance with all the previous studies in that department. The classes are divided whenever it is

necessary, into sections according to the relative attainments and progress of the members. The students are examined, at the close of each study, by the faculty, and also annually by the faculty, and a committee, during the three weeks preceding commencement, in all the studies pursued under the direction of the faculty. The examinations are intended to be exact and thorough, and in each case the attainments of every student are noted and recorded." The Faculty consists of a President, and six Professors, men of great ability and possessing we believe, in a peculiar degree the power of inspiring an ardent and generous love of study and a worthy idea of its object.

ALLEGHANY COLLEGE.

This College contains 173 Students. Seniors 8; Juniors 11; Sophomores, 22; Freshmen 66; and in the preparatory department 66. The number properly members of college, is of course 107. The Faculty are a President, who is also Professor of Moral Science, four Professors, and two Tutors. The requisites for admission to the Freshmen class are Arithmetic, English Latin and Greek Grammar, Historia Sacra, Cæsar's Commentaries, Virgil's Eneid, and the Greek Testament. The College Library contains about 8000 vol·

umes.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN PARIS.

By the latest reports which have just been published in France, it appears that the Royal Libraries and the other public repositories in Paris, contain 1,823,500 volumes of works in every department of literature, 180,000 manuscripts, 100,000 coins and medals, 1,600,000 engravings and prints. The Royal Library alone is said to contain 900,000 volumes; 300,000 plans and maps, and a very extensive collection of rare prints and coins.

PROGRESS OF FOREIGN LITERATURE.

The catalogue of books, published during the late Leipsic fair at Michaelmas, consists of nineteen sheets and contains the names of 3,400 finished works, and of 492 publishers who have issued them.

LEMPRIERE'S CLASSICAL DICTIONARY.

Enlarged by Professor Anthon of N. Y. has been abridged and republished in England, by E. H. Barker of Thetford. It is announced there as " from the seventh American Edition, by Charles An

thon Esq." We doubt if Prof. Anthon's Lempriere has yet reached a seventh edition. It is entirely out of print however, and in considerable demand, and the author cannot do better than to reprint it. It is the best edition of the original work, though it needs many reductions and additions and modifications still, to render it what it should be.

HARROW.

We learn from the Examiner, that the buildings of the school at Harrow, have been recently (about the middle of October) consumed by fire. The houses occupied by Rev. Dr Wordsworth, the head master, and of Mr Colenzo, the mathematical master with whom the boys boarded, and which presented a front of 160 feet, were entirely consumed. Dr Wordsworth who has gained an enviable reputation by his recent work, entitled, "Attica and Athens," lost his whole library except a single manuscript. It is expected that the governors of the school, among whom are many wealthy and influential noblemen, will make up the loss, for the sake of the school at which they were educated. Some of our readers will remember Harrow as the place where Byron "abhorred

The drilled dull lesson, forced down word, by word."

Yet he even retained an affectionate reverence for it. The masters of the school have been for many years, favorably distinguished for their classical attainments and their skill as teachers. Of the eminent scholars who received their early education there, it may be enough to indicate its character, if we select from a long catalogue, the contemporary names of Bennet, Parr, and Sir Wm. Jones.

Victor Cousin is printing the last volume of his translation of Plato.

JUSTICE TO ALL MEN.

In the remarks in the number of this work for October last, in reference to the efforts of Pres. M'Guffy, in behalf of schools at the West, not a thought was entertained of implicating Mr Lewis the Superintendent of the Ohio Common schools. We have too much respect for him to believe, for one moment, that he could be aiding or abetting in any such scheme. Facts since disclosed lead us to be somewhat doubtful whether Mr M' Guffy has, in this respect, been blame worthy; though we cannot but regret that he should suffer himself in any instance or shape, to become an instrument in the

hands of unprincipled booksellers for accomplishing selfish or unworthy objects. W. A. A.

TO OUR READERS.

The present number of the Annals is in several respects an inadequate specimen of what we intend it shall be. The lateness of the hour in which it came into the hands of the present editor, is perhaps a sufficient explanation. The concurrence of those interested in Education is very necessary for the accomplishment of some of our designs. The wish, for instance, to make a complete College Record, embracing all the Colleges in the United States. If the officers of those Institutions, will forward to us their catalogues, we can easily spread widely information which the public will value, and the general diffusion of which may be useful to them. We should be glad to do the same for Academies and High Schools, as far as our limits will permit. We wish also to notice all books, addresses, lectures, &c. relating to Education, and especially those designed for use in schools and colleges. The authors and publishers of such works will confer a favor, by sending them to us, and we will as far as possible give them a suitable notice. These are but examples of the co-operation we need. We invite also those who have thoughts on education which they wish to give to the public, to communicate them for insertion in the Annals, and particularly Teachers to present to their fellow laborers, the results of their experience, either in the form of dissertations, or in plans which have been found to work well in the school room.

Our next number will contain some notices of books already received, and matters of intelligence which we have been compelled to omit now for want of room. For the next and some succeeding

numbers we have in preparation a series of articles on the English Universities, and of important discussions on topics connected with self-culture.

AMERICAN

ANNALS OF EDUCATION.

FEBRUARY, 1839.

ART. I. MEMOIR OF BARON DE SACY.

[Concluded.]

IN 1785, the King having created a class of eight free members in the Academy of Inscriptions, M. de Sacy was included in the number. Immediately upon this appointment, he applied himself to the composition of his two memoirs on the ancient history of the Arabs, and on the origin of their literature. In the first he endeavored to fix the precise epoch of an event which holds an important place in the traditions of the peninsula, viz. the breaking of the dike of Irem, in Arabia Felix. This event, which occasioned dreadful disasters, obliged a great number of families to abandon their country and settle at Mecca, on the borders of the Persian Gulf, and even in Syria and Mesopotamia. M. de Sacy places this event, which he considers the starting point of our historical knowledge concerning the Mahomedan nation, in the second century of our era, and then gives a table of the Arabian dynasties after the emigration. The second is devoted to the original vestiges of Arabic literature, and gives a brief summary of its most ancient relics.

In the same year in which he drew up his memoirs on ancient Arabia, he married. He was also nominated a member of a committee which had been formed in the Academy of Inscriptions, appointed to make known, by analyses and extracts, the most important unedited works in the Royal