This is in violation of the principles of the object system, as regarded by the advocates of the American method.

The American method teaches elementary reading by beginning with objects that are well known to the child-followed by words as the representatives of the object; and one of its fundamental principles is, that ideas should be presented before words-that the thing signified should be apprehended by the mind, before the arbitrary sign is taught. Here is a principle, susceptible of very wide application in building up a system of education; and the American system claims that it is the basis of the only true theory of mental develop

ment.

But let this whole subject of object teaching, both as to its principles and its practice, be thoroughly discussed by our educators, without prejudice or partiality, and fairly tested in the school-room, and we shall settle down, eventually, upon the true system. The English method, slightly modified, and as practised in the Oswego Schools, is explained in the excellent works of Mr. Sheldon; what is more peculiarly the American system, is set forth in the works of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Calkins. The works of Mr. Wells and Mr. Welch will also be found useful in aiding the teacher to arrive at correct conclusions upon this important subject. We shall again, from time to time, refer to this interesting subject-"Object teaching"; and we shall discuss again and again, "THE OLD AND THE NEW IN EDUCATION."

TEACHERS' INSTITUTE IN CALI

OV

FORNIA.

UR thanks are due to S. I. C. Swezey, Esq., of Sah Fran cisco, for a copy of the "Proceedings of the California State Teachers' Institute," a pamphlet of 166 pages. This Institute was held during six days of the week commencing on Monday, May 4th. It is recognized by law as one of the educational agencies of the State, the Superintendent of Common Schools being ex-officio the President thereof.

Some conception of the magnitude and importance of this meeting may be formed when we state that there were 463 registered members present, representing 31 counties, and including four from the territory of Nevada.

The lectures and discussions embraced a wide range of topics in nearly every department of education, and the entire proceedings evince a degree of talent and zeal, tempered with discretion, that confers great credit on the educational head and heart of California, while it promises the most auspicious results for the Golden State. The principal lectures were by Superintendent Swett, on the "Duties of the State to Public Schools," and "Concerning Common Sense in Teaching;"-both of which prove that Mr. Swett is a man of “ mon sense," by the Rev. Professor Willey, of the College of California, on "The Place and Relations of the College in our System of Education,"—which shows that Professor Willey sustains the right "relations" to the right "place,”and by Mr. Swezey, on "Normal Schools," which indicates that he

com

he knows. The lecture of Mr. Swezey is thorough and exhaustive, and ought to be widely circulated on both sides of the mountains. Under the guidance of such

We understand that the acts of the Legislature of Western Virginia will make a compactly printed volume of some two hundred and fifty pages. Among others is a very superior and inherently efficient free school system. Think of it-the Massachusetts or New York school system on the soil of what was once the "Old Dominion." What a mighty stride towards-shall we say civilization? -yes, for such it is! If the legislature had done nothing but inaugurate that free school system, it would have merited the lasting gratitude of every man and woman within the State who real izes that the perpetuity of all liberal and Christian government rests for its foundation on the intelligence of the million, and that without the one the other is never for a moment secure. Nothing so separates the dross from the gold as the fire of the furnace. Who can tell what the Great Rebellion shall profit America? Who is able to recount what development War shall give to our favored Land? Shall not the schoolboy of to-day live to see a district school everywhere in the South? And the apparatus of the schoolroom familiar to the eyes of every Southern child? And the SchoolMaster, even the radical New England School-Master, at home in every hamlet, and a very welcome visitor at every hearth of the Sunny, now suffering, South?

A MODERN CRITIC says we need

some one to correct our "slovenly pronunciation of the Latin," which hides from us the genius of the language, renders its quantities unintelligible, and leaves us without conception of the intonation, which "vivifies the soul of words."

"WHAT," asked the Schoolmaster, "is the term applied to the crime of possessing two wives at one time ?" "Bigamy," replied

the scholar. "And if there be more than two, what should you call it ?" The scholar reflected a moment; then chancing to cast his eyes upon a map of Utah that decorated the wall, he smiled, and confidently answered: "Brighamy, sir!”

MR. C. W. H. Cathcart, State Commissioner of Common Schools for Ohio, who entered upon his duties in February last, tendered his resignation on the 11th of November. He has since been arrested on a charge of complicity in a conspiracy to release the Rebel prisoners confined at Camp Chase and in the State Prison. His guilt is said to be beyond all question. It is a singular circumstance that such a man should have been elevated to such an office in the noble, loyal State of Ohio. E. E. White, Esq., editor of the Ohio Educational Monthly, has been appointed as his successor.

THE College of New Jersey, at Princeton, has nearly received, as we learn, the amount required to place it on an enduring financial basis.

WE are gratified to announce that John J. Blair, Esq., of Warren Co., has endowed the Chair of Physical Geography and Geology in the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, in the sum of $30,000. This is the chair so ably filled by the distinguished Physical Geographer Professor Arnold Guyot. Henceforth Physical Geography is to take its place as an indispensable element in liberal education.

LARGE beds of graphite have recently been discovered in Siberia. This is good news for artists and men of business. Since the mines of Cumberland have in a great measure given out, our lead pencils are none of the best.

AN absent-minded professor, in going out of the gateway of his college, ran against a cow. In the confusion of the moment, he raised his hat, and exclaimed: "I beg your pardon, Madam." Soon after, he stumbled against a lady in the street. In sudden recollection of his former mishap, he called out: "Is that you again, you brute ?"

BATES COLLEGE, at Lewiston, Me., now has two hundred and seventeen students of both sexes in the seminary and collegiate departments. The college is conducted on the Oberlin plan. Some of its friends in Boston have promised it fifty thousand dollars when an equal sum is raised in other quarters, and the president is successfully at work raising this amount.

SOME learned chemists have been trying to find out the cause of the color of salmon, which is not half so important as to know how to catch them. Dr. Davy Macon says: "Their color is partially due to the nature of their food, and a special secreting power." A safe opinion.

THE late Lord Stowell was as fluent in Latin as English, and very generally used that language in his after-dinner conversations. We doubt if his guests always understood him.

THREE THINGS.-Three things to love-courage, gentleness, and affection. Three things to admireintellectual power, dignity, and gracefulness. Three things to hate

cruelty, arrogance, and ingratitude. Three things to delight inbeauty, frankness, and freedom. Three things to wish for-health, friends, and a cheerful spirit. Three things to pray for-faith, peace, and purity of heart. Three things to like cordiality, good humor, and mirthfulness. Three things to avoid-idleness, loquacity, and flippant jesting. Three things to cultivate-good books, good friends, and good humor.

THE number of legal voters in the United States who are unable to read and write is greater than the ordinary majority by which a President is elected.

THE Constitution for the incoming State of Nevada requires the Legislature to pass laws compelling the attendance at school of all the children between the ages of 6 and 14 years within the borders of the State. Strange it is that we must look towards the land of the setting sun for the rising of the star of hope and promise to the full fruition of our free school system.

MRS. CHAUDRON, of Mobile, has prepared a series of reading books for schools, the matter being taken from the works of Southern and European writers.

WATSON'S HANDBOOK OF CALISTHENICS AND GYMNASTICS. By J. MADISON WATSON. Svo. Cloth. $1.60, prepaid by mail. Published by SCHERMERHORN, BANCROFT & Co., 180 Grand Street, New York; 25 North Fourth Street, Philadelphia. PART FIRST of this volume, under the head of Vocal Gymnastics, embraces thorough and practical articles on Respiration and Phonetics, a masterly treatise on Elocution, and Recitations in Verse. PART SECOND, the most extended and varied course of exercises in Calisthenics ever published. PART THIRD, an exhaustive course of exercises in Gymnastics, with wands, dumb-bells, Indian clubs, and hand-rings.

This is the only gymnastic drill-book, with words of command, and classes of movements, systematically arranged, in any language. It is the first work that seizes the theories of educators and philanthropists, "the forms of things unknown," and "turns them into shapes." In a word, it presents, in a simple and well-defined form, the means of rendering physical culture easy and certain to the rich and the poor, to persons of all ages, either individually or in classes.

Exercises for the lungs, the voice, the organs of speech, the joints, and all the muscles, are strictly classified, involving a prescribed number of positions and elementary movements, with an almost innumerable variety of combinations. These movements are executed simultaneously by several persons, in exact time, in connection with counting, phonetics, recitations, or music, either vocal or instrumental, thus insuring geniality and generous emulation alike in the school, the family, and the gymnasium.

NINETEEN PIECES OF APPROPRIATE PIANOFORTE MUSIC are introduced. Those not composed expressly for this work are selected and arranged from the choicest productions of the ablest masters by the well known and eminent musicians and composers, G. F. BRISTOW and H. B. DoDWORTH.

The wood-cuts are more numerous and better executed than those of any corresponding work, either gymnastic or military. They are from original designs, illustrating positions actually taken, and movements executed by the author. It is printed on fine and heavy tinted paper. The typography is unrivalled.

A work of equal merit has seldom been produced. It has already been adopted by the Board of Education of the Public Schools of New York City; and many orders have been received before the book came from the press.

WELLS'S GRADED SCHOOL. By W. H. WELLS, Supt. of the Chicago Public Schools. Price $1.00 by mail. A. S. Barnes & Burr, New York. Tuis work embraces copious practical directions to teachers, observations on Priinary Schools, School Discipline, School Records, etc., etc.

Many of our best teachers, at least the best minds, have no well defined conception of what a graded school is, and what the course of study should be; hence they work on no plan, circumstances determining the course, and precluding all hope of a proper classification and graduated system of training.

To such we commend Mr. Wells's timely treatise as one that will organize, divide, systematize, and render fully operative, school-room labor.

THE NORMAL: or METHODS OF TEACHING THE COMMON BRANCHES-ORTHOEPY, ORTHOGRAPHY, GRAMMAR, GEOGRAPHY, ARITHMETIC, AND ELOCUTION. By ALFRED HOLBROOK, Principal of the South-Western Normal School, Lebanon, Ohio, Price $1.25. Barnes & Burr, New York. THE plan of teaching spelling is worthy the consideration of progressive teachers. The department allotted to Grammar includes classification and definitions; improved methods of teaching Etymology, Syntax, and Analysis, to primary and advanced classes.

In Geography, the entire outline of the best methods of teaching primary, secondary, and advanced classes is embraced.

The instructions for Map Drawing are very sug gestive.

Mental, Written, and what is termed Theoretical Arithmetic are taken in order, and we find some novel methods of demonstration that will not fail to attract the attention of teachers.

Elocution has received its full meed of consideration. We may not be able to endorse all that is comprehended under the head of Reading, Speaking, and Gesticulation, but the second section, which embraces the means of training the voice, is one that will not fail to commend itself to professors in this department.

This book is brought out in the uniform style of Barnes & Burr's well known Teachers' Library." THE NORMAL WRITTEN ARITHMETIC. By EDWARD BROOKS, A.M.. Professor of Mathematics in Pa. State Normal School. Published by Sower, Barnes & Co., Philadelphia.

A FEW years ago an unpretending little book was presented to the public by Warren Colburn. This little work touched Arithmetic as with the wand of an enchantress, and transformed it, from a dry collection of mechanical processes, to a thing of inte rest and beauty. It infused a new spirit into the science, which has developed itself in the many improvements of modern text-books.

Mr. Brooks, in presenting his Normal Arithmetic, handsomely acknowledges his obligations to this and to other works which have followed it. He has brought to the task of preparing his book much reflection, and several years' successful experience as a teacher. His method of treatment is both Inductive and Deductive, embracing Analysis and Synthesis. His arrangement is logical; his solutions and demonstrations are simple and clear.

The following feature are claimed as peculiar to this work: new definitions of Number, Fraction, Last Common Multiple, Ratio, etc.; new and concise method of explaining Greatest Common Divisor; the development of Fractions by two distinct methods; the Analytic and Synthetic methods of developing Involution and Evolution; and the greater attention to Involution as a preparation to Evolution.

This book is the third in Mr. Brooks's series, it being preceded by Normal Primary Arithmetic, and Normal Mental Arithmetic. These we hope to notice at some future time.

The following letter, addressed to the author of Willson's Readers, shows how these valuable Readers are esteemed in Pennsylvania.

HIGH SCHOOL, LANCASTER, PA.,
November 12, 1863.

DEAR SIR:-Your series of Readers promises to do a good work in relieving our common schools and academies from certain pressure which now bears upon them. The Educational progress of the age seems to demand that natural history and the natural sciences be introduced into these schools as branches of study that deserve to rank in importance next to the old gentleman's "three Rs," Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic.

Every intelligent teacher deplores the fact that the natural sciences are almost wholly ignored in the common school curriculum of study, though he must at the same time reluctantly admit that, as our schools are at present organized, these studies cannot be pursued to advantage without serious detriment to others, universally regarded as essential. Every such teacher would desire his pupils to go forth into the world with at least a bias towards

mizing time, making school more attractive, and adding much to its efficiency. No other available means with which we are acquainted will so satisfactorily accomplish the like desirable results. Respectfully, J. P. MCCASKEY.

HALL'S

that knowledge which the Book of Nature affords; with the vivid impressions of his school-boy days upon these subjects coming back upon memory like the pleasant sound of his mother's voice; but how rarely, under the existing condition of things, is he enabled to effect this!

To accomplish this desirable result, text-books, already too numerous, must be multiplied; and time, already too short, must become even more crowded. Just at this point your Readers come forward to relieve all concerned from an awkward dilemma.

While, as attractive text-books in that branch, they teach reading as well as any others, and better than many, they, at the same time, supply the place of a number of text-books on various subjects. In the hands of a good teacher, they also give to the mind of the pupil the desired taste for the study of Nature, and leave him to a constant acknowledgment of the Great Architect in his wonderful Works. They serve to "bend the twig," leaving for after years to show how much "the tree is inclined." They give a glimpse into the bidden world of science, enough to make the pupil desire a fuller view. They afford a taste sufficiently decided to make him long for a full draught. No more than this can be effected in the study of the Natural Sciences in the Common Schools, but even this is infinitely better than that "Nothing at all," now almost universally the rule.

The teachers of the country, therefore, thank you for the relief you have afforded them in this direction. You have conferred a substantial benefit, both upon them and their pupils, in thus econo

SIZE, 6 FEET 6 IN. BY 5 FEET,

FINELY ENGRAVED, AND SUPERBLY COLORED. This chart is designed to exhibit to the eye the order in which the successive layers or strata of rocks are arranged, as it has thus far been determined by geologists; and, also, the characteristic fossils which have mainly afforded the key to this arrangement. It is intended to exhibit the appearance that would be presented if a section, or cut, were made from the surface towards the centre of the earth, thus exposing the different layers to view by their edges. It is, in fact, such a representation as may be seen in the banks of many rivers, as the Niagara, or in the high rocky cliffs of the lake or ocean shores, only it is much more extended than any such natural exposures.

This beautiful chart was prepared by Professor Hall in the hope that it might render a study so delightful in itself, and so practically useful, more extensively introduced, and more easily understood.

Unfortunately only a limited number of these charts were produced from the lithographic stones. The subscribers have now for sale a few of these charts, fresh and perfect, and they offer them MOUNTED ON CLOTH AND ROLLERS for $9.00 each; the sheets for same at $6.00. KEY TO HALL'S GEOLOGICAL CHART, 75 cents.

SCHERMERHORN, BANCROFT & CO., 130 Grand St., New York.

25 N. Fourth St., Philadelphia.

CHARLES

FELTER'S PRIMARY.