but solemn tone, what I have endeavored to explain to you, is a sacred truth, which you cannot too soon begin to imprint upon your souls. Some of you have become scholars because your parents desired it, others from curiosity and idleness, and because you do not know what to do with yourselves on Sunday. I trust that some have entered the school with a better spirit and from a nobler motive, the desire to learn their duty towards God and towards man. You must believe me, when I say, that your teachers invite you only for your own sakes. Instead therefore of considering it a task to come here, you should consider it a great privilege; for if you endeavour faithfully to remember and practise the lessons we set before you, this little school may be, to each of you, the door of heaven. Having "remembered your Creator in the days of your youth," he will never forget you. In this world he will be your support and your refuge; and when you stand, as we all shall, before the judgment seat of Christ, he will welcome you to his glorious home in the heavens, with that blessed sound (read, Edward, the 34th verse,)" Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, from the foundation of the world."

I do not know how this little address may affect my readers; but, I can assure them, it had a very great effect upon the children and myself. The former, at a motion of her hand, took their seats and began to look over their lessons, but with a manner very different from that, which I observed before they rose. Every eye was intent on the book, every countenance serious. For my part, I congratulated myself, on having at length seen one teacher, who considered "hearing lessons," as a trifling part of the business. I am anxious, said I, to hear your class read. We are not ready, for 'tis our last exercise, and my boys have gone through none yet; but you may be interested by the opposite class which is just rising I see, replied my friend. I left her, therefore, upon her promise of a sign when she was going to begin, and approached the first class of girls. A young lady of mild and engaging manners was at its head, and as I listened to her gentle tone and observed the intelligent faces of her scholars, I promised myself another proof of "woman's skill” in reaching the heart. They read the 10th chapter of Luke, but to my great mortification, verse after verse was hurried over without a comment from the teacher. She corrected false pronunciation; but the proper tone, the proper emphasis, was apparently considered of no consequence. With an unmoved countenance she heard the most beautiful passages perverted into nonsense. They were readingthat was sufficient. Surely, said I to myself, when 'tis finished I shall hear her explain much, that to these children, must be unintelligible. Surely from the parable of the good Samaritan, from the characters of Martha and of Mary, I shall hear her draw useful and appropriate lessons, to inculcate on these young females, on whose tenderness and care, the wounded and the sick will hereafter be thrown;

and who, as heads of families, may, like Martha, be "careful and troubled about many things," and should therefore be excited to the "one thing needful." I was mistaken. The chapter finished, she quietly distributed the tickets, and in sorrow I was shaking my head at this addition to my list of negligent teachers, when my friend beckoned me. Her boys had just commenced the 14th chapter of John, which she had selected because it so beautifully and affectingly enforced what she had been endeavoring to explain to them. But instead of permitting a scholar to hurry over a verse, he was made again and again to repeat it, until he had caught its spirit and appeared to comprehend it. Every difficult word was explained quickly and with simplicity, and the attention constantly excited by her unexpected questions on the subject of the chapter.

My method necessarily takes time, said she to me, when the dismissal-bell gave us an opportunity of conversing. But I find reason every Sabbath to persevere in my plan, for I see it must be "line upon line, and precept upon precept" that these young minds can be enlightened at all. I am not anxious that much should either be read or acquired. I am anxious only that they should comprehend what I teach.

LIST OF AGENTS FOR THE TEACHER'S GUIDE.

Acton, Mass. Rev. Marshall Shedd,
Baldwin, Me. Rev. Noah Emerson,
Bernardston, Mass. T. C Newcomb,
Boston, Mass. T. B. Wait & Son,
Bristol, Me. Aaron Blaney, Esq. P. M.
Concord, N. H. J. B. Moore,

Dover, N. H. Samuel C. Stevens,
Farmington. Me. Hebron Mayhew,
Framingham, Mass. E. Parkhurst,
Gorham, Me. Nahum Chadbourne,

Lexington, Rockridge Co. Va. J. W. Paine,
Marlborough, Mass. Rev. Sylvester F. Bucklin,

Newburyport, Mass. Charles Whipple,

New Hampton, N. H. Rev. B. F. Farnsworth,
Northampton, Mass. E. S. Phelps,

Peacham, Vt. Joseph Thacher,

Portsmouth. N. H. Samuel Putnam,
Saco. Me. Thomas Fowler,

Salem, Mass. Whipple & Lawrence,

Shrewsbury, Mass. Samuel Witt,

Sidney, Me. Rev. Ezra Going,

Sturgeonville, Va. Henry Clary, P. M.

Stow, Mass. Rev. Isaac Stratton,

Taunton Mass. Charles J. Warren,

Vassalborough, Me. Philip Leach, Esq. P. M.

Rev. Thomas Adams,

West Jefferson, Me. Francis Shepherd, Esq. P. M.
Wiscasset, Me. William Boyuton,

Worcester, Mass. Dorr & Howland,

The circumstances attending the recent change in the situation of the editor, rendering it impracticable for him to issue No. 18, of the TEACHER'S GUIDE on the 15th of August; it was therefore deferred till the 1st of September. Our subscribers will be entitled to 24 numbers for a volume; and we shall probably commence the second volume on the 1st of January.

FIRST LESSONS IN READING AND SPELLING.

The practicability and expediency of teaching a child to read, previously to his learning the names of the letters, were, we believe, first suggested by Mr. Edgeworth. The difficulties which the child has to encounter in learning to read in the usual method, are described by him in the following manner.

"As it is usually managed, it is a dreadful task indeed to learn, and, if possible, a more dreadful task to teach to read. With the help of counters, and coaxing, and gingerbread, or by dint of reiterated pain and terror, the names of the four-andtwenty letters of the alphabet are, perhaps, in the course of some weeks, firmly fixed in the pupil's memory. So much the worse: all these names will disturb him, if he have common sense, and at every step must stop his progress. To begin with the vowels: each of these has several different sounds, and, consequently, ought to have several names, or different signs, to distinguish them in different circumstances. In the first lesson of the Spelling Book, the child begins with "a-b makes ab; b-a makes ba." The inference, if any general inference can be drawn from this lesson, is, that when a comes before b, it has one sound, and after b, it has another sound; but this is contradicted by and by, and it appears that a after b has various sounds, as in ball, in bat, in bare. The letter i in fire, is i, as we call it in the alphabet, but in-fir, it is changed; in pin, it is changed again;-so that the child, being ordered to affix to the same sign a variety of sounds and names, and not knowing in what circumstances to obey, and in what to disregard the contradictory injunctions imposed upon him, pronounces sounds at hazard, and adheres positively to the last ruled case, or maintains an apparently sullen, or truly philosophical and skeptical

silence. Must e in pen, and è in where, and e in verse, and e in fear, all be called e alike? The child is patted on the head for reading u as it ought to be pronounced in future; but if, remembering this encouragement, the pupil should venture to pronounce u in gun and bun in the same manner, he will inevitably be disgraced. Pain and shame impress precepts upon the mind: the child, therefore, is intent upon remembering the new sound of u in bun; but when he comes to busy, and burial, and prudence, his last precedent will lead him fatally astray, and he will again be called a dunce. O, in the exclamation oh, is happily called by its alphabetical name; but in to, we can hardly know it again; and in morning and wonder, it has a third and a fourth additional sound. The amphibious letter y, which is either a vowel or a consonant, has one sound in one character, and two sounds in the other: as a consonant, it is pronounced as in yesterday; in try, it is sounded as i; in any, and in the termination of many other words, it is sounded like e. Must a child know all this by intuition, or must it be whipped into him? But he must know a great deal more, before he can read the most common words. What length of time should we allow him for learning when c is to be sounded like k, and when like s ?-and how much longer time should we add, for learning when s should be pronounced sh, as in sure, or z, as in has? How much time shall we allow a patient tutor for teaching a docile pupil when g is to be sounded soft and when hard? There are many carefully worded rules in the Spelling Book, specifying before what letters, and in what situations, g should vary in sound; but, unfortunately, these rules are difficult to be learned by heart, and still more difficult to understand. These laws, however positive, are not found to be of universal application; or, at least, a child has not always wit or time to apply them upon the spur of the occasion. In coming to the words ingenious gentleman, get a good grammar, he may be puzzled by the nice distinctions he is to make in pronunciation in cases apparently similar. But he has not yet become acquainted with all the powers of this privileged letter in company with h, it assumes the character of f, as in tough; another time he meets it, perhaps, in the same company, in the same place, and, as nearly as possible, in the same circumstances, as in the word though; but now, g is to become a silent letter, and is to pass incognito, and the child will commit an unpardonable error, if he claim the incognito as his late ac

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quaintance f. Still, all these are slight difficulties: a moment's reflection must convince us, that by teaching the common names of every consonant in the alphabet, we prepare a child for misery, when he begins to spell or read. Suppose, that after having learned the alphabet, a child was to read the words, Here is some apple-pye, he would pronounce the letters thus: Aitch-ear-e i-es es-o-em-e a-pe-pe-el-e pe-wi-e. With this pronunciation the child would never decipher these simple words. It will be answered, perhaps, that no child is expected to read as soon as he has learned nis alphabet: a long initiation of monosyllabic, dissyllabic, trissyllabic, and polysyllabic words is previously to be submitted to; nor, after this inauguration, are the novices capable of performing with propriety the ceremony of reading whole words and sentences. By a different method of teaching, all this waste of labour and of time, all this confusion of rules and exceptions, and all the consequent confusion in the understanding of the pupil, may be avoided."

The author proceeds to describe a method of teaching, which he had practised with success, and which we have believed, from our first perusal of" Practical Education," to be altogether preferable to the method in cominon use. We extract the following paragraphs.

"In teaching a child to read, every letter should have a precise single sound annexed to its figure; this should never vary. Where two consonants are joined together, so as to have but one sound, as ph, sh, &c. the two letters should be coupled together by a distinct invariable mark. Letters that are silent should be marked in such a manner as to point out to the child that they are not to be sounded. Upon these simple rules, our method of teaching to read has been founded. The signs or marks, by which these distinctions are to be effected, are arbitrary, and may be varied as the teacher chooses. The addition of a single point above or below the common letters, to distinguish the different sounds that are given to the same letter, and a mark underneath such letters as are to be omitted, is the only apparatus necessary. These marks were employed by the author in 1776, before he had seen Sheridan's, or any similar dictionary. He has found that they do not confuse children so much as figures, because, when dots are used to distinguish sounds, there is only a change of place, and no change of form: but any person that chooses it, may substitute figures instead of dots.