is deductive." (I have seen more marked instances of this offence, but I have preserved no memoranda, and this happens to be readily furnished by memory.) The definition, " deducible; that is or may be deduced from premises," is by two thirds incorrect. Deductive denotes coming by deduction; and Glenville affirmed, not possibility of attaining knowledge in a certain way, but mode of attaining knowledge in a certain department. See how clearly distinct is the use of deducible by the following example: "The conclusion is not deducible from the premises."

The elements of Disport, as given by Webster, are dis and port. The given etymon of sport is D. boerten. But sport is doubtless abbreviated from disport, as is spite from despite; and the elements of disport are L. di or dis, and porto to bear aside, after the analogy of divert, from L. di and verto, to turn aside. As evidence of this assertion, the Romance languages furnish corresponding words, which are indisputably from di and porto. See Dictionnaire de la Langue des Troubadours: par M. Raynouard; Glossaire de la Langue Romane: par J. B. Roquefort; &c.-The abuse of the doctrine of literal equivalents is also illustrated from another source by the derivation of sport from the German spott, mockery, where the etymologist seems to have reasoned that r=s, and s=t; and as things equal to the same thing are equal to each other, ergo r=t, ergo sport is from Ger. spott.

Some readers may judge that, in particular instances, it is the critic who is at fault; but of this he will not greatly complain, if his accuracy and justice in general shall be acknowledged; for then it must still follow, that if he had continued his examination over forty pages instead of stopping with the fourth, in the multitude of cases that would have been considered, his affirmations would have been abundantly sustained. There have been found more faults in connection with comparatively unimportant words than I had anticipated; and, unfortunately, the number of articles reached, containing more than five definitions, has been only five, namely, Dark, Darken, Darkness, and Dash, verb and noun. But this is a necessary result of the course I have taken ;-a course adopted because it seemed fairer, as well as involving less labor, to subject a consecutive portion to minute criticism, than to gather the most notable blemishes from a thousand pages;-adopted, also, because it was the only way to exhibit the qual ity and measure of the defects alleged. But whilst a very small portion only of the dictionary has passed in review, the entire work has been in a manner criticized, and remarks of general application have been introduced; and, therefore, it may be a seasonable caution, that

no one, from the amount of criticism on a brief extent of text, carelessly exaggerate the measure of imperfection charged. Moreover, it may have happened, and in my judgment it has happened, that the faults on the pages taken by accident, for criticism, are numerically above the average. Finally, let it be noted that the superior value of Webster's Dictionary is not disputed; that, whilst it is viewed as imperfect, it is still gladly recognized as possessing a richness, such that no one can dispense with it without impoverishing himself; such that the future lexicographer who shall ignore it, will pass by the most essential aid to the completeness of his undertaking; and that the highest deference will necessarily still be paid it, wherever we cannot understand its errors, till there shall appear another work, as the result of profounder scholarship, nicer discrimination, and more extensive knowledge. But when I read such extravagant laudations as that of Dr. Dick, who declares that "AGES WILL ELAPSE before any other dictionary of the English language will be required;" or of Chancellor Kent, who claims for it the distinction of embodying the language, and hence predicts a duration outlasting the pyramids, and coëxtensive with the great globe itself; I cannot but imagine that if they were to return a century or two hence, and set forth the same view, they would be regarded as stranger dreamers than Rip Van Winkle, or those other sleepers of an ancient legend. And the thousand other voices of lesser fame, that in grand chorus shout its perfection, simply indicate what the dictionary is to their multitude; and no accumulation of such testimonials will avail anything with the judicious. Something better is needed, and will speedily be demanded. To call attention to this want, to hasten this demand in some humble measure, and so arouse the scholarship that shall delight in the labor to meet it, is the object of this article. A perfect dictionary would omit no point upon which it could legitimately be consulted. It would not stop short at approximate notions; it would present exact and accurate ideas. It would be not merely a useful counsellor, but the thoroughly informed and discreet umpire, to whose judgment any point in dispute might be safely left without revision.

NOTE. Since this article was written, I have had the pleasure of learning that the enterprising publishers of Webster's Dictionary have had for some years in preparation a new edition, on which more philological attainment will be employed than on any previous edition, and as much further investigation expended. This liberal and far-seeing measure is rich in promise, both to the publishers and the public. May the work continue to reäppear, ever in improved guise, till it shall merit all that has been said in its praise; till it shall attain unto the ideal standard of the most exacting, even perfection.

XV. PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL

[THE following considerations respecting the character and advantages of a school of the highest grade in a system of public instruc-. tion in cities and large villages, were first presented to the public in 1838, when there was not a single institution of the kind out of Massachusetts. They are still widely applicable in every State.]

By a Public or Common High School, is intended a public or common school for the older and more advanced scholars of the community in which the same is located, in a course of instruction adapted to their age, and intellectual and moral wants, and, to some extent, to their future pursuits in life. It is common or public in the same sense in which the district school, or any lower grade of school established and supported under a general law and for the public benefit, is common or public. It is open to all the children of the community to which the school belongs, under such regulations as to age, attainments, &c., as the good of the institution may require, or the community may adopt. A Public High School is not necessarily a free school. It may be supported by a fund, a public tax, or an assessment or rate of tuition per scholar, or by a combination of all, or any two of these modes. Much less is it a public or common school in the sense of being cheap, inferior, ordinary. To be truly a public school, a High School must embrace in its course of instruction studies which can be more profitably pursued there than in public schools of a lower grade, or which gather their pupils from a more circumscribed territory, and as profitably as in any private school of the same pretensions. It must make a good education common in the highest and best sense of the word common-common because it is good enough for the best, and cheap enough for the poorest family in the community. It would be a mockery of the idea of such a school, to call it a Public High School, if the course of instruction pursued in it is not higher and better than can be got in public schools of a lower grade, or if it does not meet the wants of the wealthiest and best educated families, or, if the course of instruction is liberal and thorough, and at the same time the worthy and talented child of a poor family is shut out from its privileges by a high rate of tuition. The school, to be common practically, must be both cheap and good. To be cheap, its support must be provided for wholly or mainly out of a fund, or by public tax. And to justify the imposition of a public tax, the advantages of such a school must accrue to the whole community. It must be shown to be a common benefit, a common interest, which cannot be secured so well, or at

all, except through the medium of taxation. What, then, are the advantages which may reasonably be anticipated from the establishment of a Public High School, properly organized, instructed, and supervised?

First. Every thing which is now done in the several district schools, and schools of lower grade, can be better done, and in a shorter time, because the teachers will be relieved from the necessity of devoting the time and attention now required by few of the older and more advanced pupils, and can bestow all their time and attention upon the preparatory studies and younger children. These studies will be taught in methods suited to the age and attainments of the pupils. A right beginning can thus be made in the lower schools, in giving a thorough practical knowledge of elementary principles, and in the formation of correct mental and moral habits, which are indispensable to all sound education. All this will be done under the additional stimulus of being early and thoroughly fitted for the High School.

Second. A High School will give completeness to the system of public instruction which may be in operation. It will make suitable provision for the older and more advanced pupils of both sexes, and will admit of the methods of instruction and discipline which cannot be profitably introduced into the schools below. The lower grade of schools-those which are established for young children,-require a large use of oral and simultaneous methods, and a frequent change of place and position on the part of the pupils. The higher branches, especially all mathematical subjects, require patient application and habits of abstraction on the part of the older pupils, which can with difficulty, if at all, be attained by many pupils amid a multiplicity of distracting exercises, movements, and sounds. The recitations of this class of pupils, to be profitable and satisfactory, must be conducted in a manner which requires time, discussion, and explanation, and the undivided attention both of pupils and teacher. The course of instruction provided in the High School will be equal in extent and value to that which may be given in any private school, academy, or female seminary in the place, and which is now virtually denied to the great mass of the children by the burdensome charge of

tuition.

As has been already implied, the advantages of a High School should not be confined to the male sex. The great influence of the female sex, as daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, companions, and teachers, in determining the manners, morals, and intelligence of the whole community, leaves no room to question the necessity of providing for the girls the best means of intellectual and moral culture. The course of instruction should embrace the first principles of natural and mechanical philosophy, by which inventive genius and practical skill in the useful arts can be fostered; such studies as navigation, book-keeping, surveying, botany, chemistry, and kindred studies, which are directly connected with success in the varied departments of domestic and inland trade, with foreign commerce, with gardening, agriculture, the manufacturing and domestic arts;

such studies as astronomy, physiology, the history of our own state and nation, the principles of our state and national constitutions, political economy, and moral science; in fine, such a course of study as is now given in more than fifty towns and cities in New England, and which shall prepare every young man, whose parents may desire it, for business, or for college, and give to every young woman a well disciplined mind, high moral aims, refined tastes, gentle and graceful manners, practical views of her own duties, and those resources of health, thought, conversation, and occupation, which bless alike the highest and lowest station in life. When such a course is provided and carried out, the true idea of the High School will be realized. Third. It will equalize the opportunities of a good education, and exert a happy, social influence throughout the whole community from which it gathers its scholars. From the want of a public school of this character, the children of such families as rely exclusively on the district school are isolated, and are condenined to an inferior education, both in quality and quantity; they are cut off from the stimulus and sympathy which the mingling of children of the same age from different parts of the same community would impart. The benefits, direct and indirect, which will result to the country districts, or poor families who live in the outskirts of the city, from the establishment of a school of this class, cannot easily be overestimated. The number of young men and young women who will receive a thorough education, qualifying them for business, and to be teachers, will increase from year to year; and the number who will press up to the front ranks of scholarship in the school, bearing away the palm of excellence by the vigor of sound minds in sound bodies, of minds and bodies made vigorous by long walks and muscular labor in the open air, will be greater in proportion to their number than from the city districts. It will do both classes good, the children of the city, and the children of the country districts, to measure themselves intellectually in the same fields of study, and to subject the peculiarities of their respective manners, the roughness and awkwardness sometimes characteristic of the one, and the artificiality and flippancy of the other, to the harmonizing influence of reciprocal action and reaction. The isolation and estrangement which now divide and subdivide the community into country and city clans, which, if not hostile, are strangers to each other, will give place to the frequent intercourse and esteem of individual and family friendship, commenced in the school-room, and on the play-ground of the school. The school will thus become a bond of union, a channel of sympathy, a spring-head of healthy influence, and stimulus to the whole community.

Fourth. The privileges of a good school will be brought within the reach of all classes of the community, and will actually be enjoyed by children of the same age from families of the most diverse circumstances as to wealth, education, and occupation. Side by side in the same recitations, heart and hand in the same sports, pressing up together to the same high attainments in knowledge and character, will be found the children of the rich and poor, the more and the