man may study music till he can perform admirably himself, and yet Schools. He has "kept" these Common Schools in just such possess very little skill in teaching others; and it is well known school-houses as he speaks of below, and has encountered all the difficulties which he proposes to have removed. He has made Education a business-and as a child, scholar, father, and teacher in the Common School, the pulpit and the college, he has set forth such a worthy practice, as to show that he has had just views and come to just results.

that the most successful orators are not unfrequently the very worst teachers of elocution. The process of learning for practical purposes, is mostly that of combination or synthesis; but the process of learning for the purpose of teaching, is one of continued and minute analysis, not only of the subject itself, but of all the movements and turnings of the feelers of the mind, the little antenne by which it seizes and retains its hold of the several parts of a topic. Till a man can minutely dissect, not only the subject itself, but also the intellectual machinery by which it is worked up, he cannot be very successful as a teacher. The orator analyzes his subject, and disposes its several parts in the order best calculated for effect; but the mental processes by which he does this, which constitute the tact that enables him to judge right, as if by instinct, are generally so rapid, so evanescent, that it may be impossible for him to recall them so as to describe them to another; and it is this very rapidity of intellectual movement, which gives him success as an orator, that renders it the more difficult for him to succeed as a teacher. The musician would perform very poorly, who should stop to recognise each volition that moves the muscles which regulate the movement of his fingers on the organ-keys; but he who would teach others to perform gracefully and rapidly, must give attention to points minute as these. The teacher must stop to observe and analyze each movement of the mind itself, as it advances on every topic; but men of genius for execution, and of great practical skill, who never teach, are generally too impatient to make this minute analysis, and often, indeed, form such habits as at length to become in capable of it. The first Duke of Marlborough was one of the most profound and brilliant military men that every lived; but he had been so little accustomed to observe the process of his own mind, by which he arrived with such certainty at those astounding results of warlike genius which have given him the first rank among Britain's soldiers, that he could seldom construct a connected argu- There must be competent and faithful instructers-male ment in favor of his plans, and generally had but one answer to all and female-'apt to teach,' fond of the employment, skilled the objections which might be urged against them, and that was in government, patient, conscientious and laborious: instrucusually repeated in the same words," Silly, silly, that's silly." Aters who will be always at their posts, working month in and like remark is applicable to Oliver Cromwell, and several other month out, for the pleasure of it, as well as for the wages, men distinguished for prompt and energetic action. The mental and delighting in nothing so much, as the intellectual and habits best adapted for effect in the actual business of life, are not moral improvement of their pupils. always the mental habits best suited to the teacher; and the Teachers' Seminary requires a mode of instruction in some respects dif. ferent from the practical school.

After bestowing deserved commendation on the "Common District School System of New England," because it is republican in principle and in operation; because it plants down its school-houses within convenient distances, all over the face of the land; that it brings children of all classes together upon one common level; and that it provides instruction for those who are in the most indigent circumstances, as well as for their rich and thriving neighbors-he remarks, that this system, like any other piece of machinery, must be moved by adequate power-and this power is the co-operation of the people with the government.

The teacher also must review the branches of instruction above enumerated with reference to their scientific connexions, and a thorough demonstration of them, which, though not always necessary in respect to their practical application to the actual business of life, is absolutely essential to that ready command which a teacher must have over them in order to put them into the minds of others.

OUTLINE OF A PROSPEROUS COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM.

In order to reap the highest advantages from our admirable system, there must be a sufficient number of school-houses, pleasantly and healthfully located-well built, warmed and ventilated-admitting enough, but not too much light; and comfortably fitted up with seats, writing desks, and such other conveniences as will rather attract than repel both teachers and scholars.

must be furnished with suitable reading and spelling books; The children, likewise, must be sent steadily to schoolwith slates, pencils, writing apparatus, maps, geopraphies, arithmetics, dictionaries, and whatever else is necessary to aid and encourage them in these studies.

To pay the teachers and defray other necessary expenses, moneys must be raised either upon the scholar, or by assessments upon the property of the town or district, or from such permanent funds as may be provided by individual liberality or legislative appropriations.

Nor is this all. There is a great variety of methods for inculcating the same truth; and the diversities of mind are quite as numerous as the varieties of method. One mind can be best approached by one method, and other mind by another; and in respect to the teacher, one of the richest treasures of experience is a knowledge of the adaptation of the different methods to different minds. These rich treasures of experience can be preserved, and classified, and imparted in the Teachers' Seminary. It the Teacher never studies his profession, he learns this part of his duties only by the slow and And finally, the great mass of the people must move togethwasteful process of experimenting on mind, and thus, in all proba- er or the end will never be accomplished. Parents of all bility, ruins many before he learns how to deal with them. Could classes, must be warmly enlisted in the improvement of their we ascertain how many minds have been lost to the world in conse. children and the prosperity of the schools. Without their quence of the injudicious measures of inexperienced and incompe. hearty co-operation, whatever else you may do, the primary tent teachers, if we could exhibit, in a statistical table, the number schools will languish and ultimately, run down. The families of souls which must be used up in qualifying a teacher for his pro- of a village or neighborhood are not mere inert masses of matfession, by intrusting him with its active duties without previous ter, to be moulded and fashioned according to your pleasure, study, we could prove incontrovertibly that it is great want of econ-like so many potter's vessels; but living, thinking beings, to omy, that it is a most prodigious waste, to attempt to carry on a sys-be swayed by motives, and to co-operate with you in your efof schools without making provision for the education of teachers. forts to do them good.

School committees, selected from the most intelligent and best educated class of men in the respective school societies and districts, must be appointed to hire and examine teachers; to select and recommend books; to visit the schools, and to aid the instructers with their best influence and advice.

"C THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION."

This is a hasty outline of what I take to be essential to the highest prosperity of our common schools. But the great importance of the subject seems to require considerable enlarge

SCHOOL-HOUSES.

Under the above head, Dr. Humphrey, President of Am-ment, for which I must crave the reader's indulgence. herst College, is communicating a series of excellent articles to the New York Observer. We have on a former occasion made some extracts from the earlier numbers of the series. We shall here enrich our columns with some of his thoughts on "Common Schools." Dr. Humphrey's opinions on all subjects, are entitled to much weight, but on this, no one can question his competency to make valuable suggestions. He is a son of Connecticut, and Connecticut may be proud of him. He received his early education in her Common

has been written on this subject, within a few years past, and Are they where and what they ought to be? A great deal there is, in some places, a manifest improvement in schoolhouse architecture; but I suspect that even now, some thousands of school-houses might be pointed out, within the bounds of New-England and New-York, to go no further, which are anything but neat, pleasant and convenient. I might call them juvenile prisons, if they were not so slightly built, and kept in such miserable repair. But whatever they may be like, let us go and visit one of them. There it stands, on a burning sand

bank, or upon the margin of a dead swamp, because the place | school-house will do another year. It will want a few shinis twenty-five rods and a half nearer the centre of the dis-gles and some other patching, to be sure, but then it looks trict, than the fine verdant lawn upon which some of the pro- about as well as it did ten years ago, when every body was prietors were anxious to have it built. Every thing around is satisfied. Besides, the times are hard, and they have just desolation and forbidding. The school has opened for the been laying out so much money in building, or buying land, winter, and the glazier is coming next week to mend the win- that they have nothing to spare. Some dissent and remondows: which however seems to be a needless expense, as by strate; but this is the voice of the majority, and it prevails. careful use, the boys' hats, which now supply the place of sev- Thus the children of the district, (from thirty to seventy or en by nine, will last till spring. A little wood there is, piled eighty in number,) are compelled to take up with accommodaup under the snow; but it is as green as a Norwegian pine, tions, in pursuing their studies through the long and cold win and if it were dry, there is no sign of a wood-house to shelter, which no one would think tolerable any where but in the ter it from the weather. This looks dreary enough, in a sharp common school-the place of all others, I was going to say, winter morning, but let us go in; perhaps we shall find things which should be made neat, roomy, warm, and in all respects better than we expected. Not at all. See how small the attractive. There must be new stables and new plans and exroom is, how low the ceiling, how badly constructed the stove, periments to fatten the full-blooded Berkshires, but the old or fire-place, how high and rickety the slab frames, how close- dilapidated school-house, is almost too good to be pulled down ly huddled together the smaller scholars, half roasted on one at present. side and half frozen on the other; how awkwardly and miserably fitted up the writing desks, how snow-blinding the light, for want of curtains to exclude or soften it; how-but why should I go any further? If you wish to remain longer, I have no earthly objection, provided you will release me from this carbonic and sporific confinement.

Nay more; I am not afraid to hazard the prediction, that as the schools open this very season, many a master will find that the repairs are not completed when he is ready to begin. The stove is not up, or the glass is not set, or the benches are not mended, or the wood is so green and wet that you might as well undertake to burn salamanders: and that many a teachNow I am aware, that this may be put down as an extrava- er, will also, in the course of the winter, be literally frozen gant ebullition, by some of your readers; but if any one can out, for two or three days at a time, through the neglect of prove to me that there is a grain of caricature in the picture, I those, to whom he is obliged to look for the necessary supplies will reward him handsomely for his trouble. At any rate, of fuel. Now if I am not entirely mistaken in these impreswhen I had the honor, in successive winters, to exercise some sions, is it any wonder that the children in so many of our of the youthful regiments of H- and L- counties, in common schools do not make half the proficiency which might, common school tactics, it was nothing strange to have the ne- under better advantages, be reasonably expected? How can cessary repairs put off till the last moment before the opening they do much, when they have to burn off the ice before they of the school-nay, to have the mason come in with his trow-can get at the wood, and it takes half the forenoon to warm a el, and the glazier with his putty, or bits of tin, in the midst of space ten feet square, nearest to the fire, and the ink freezes in our spelling and reading; to see a hardy yeoman drive up, with their pens, and their feet ache with the cold, and every thing the first load of green wood, or of what he had picked up on in short, is so cheerless and forbidding? his farm in the last stages of decay, to make room for more to fall down and rot, against the next season; to go sometimes to the school-house in the coldest weather, and not find a handful of re, or a stick to make it of; to wait and shiver and rub the icy fingers of the smaller children, till the larger boys could go and borrow an axe, and dig out and cut an armfull, and thaw off the ice, or as the case might be, finding no wood to disinter, to dismiss the school till some body could be put up to bring on his load.

I do not think myself competent, if I had time, to propose the best model for common district school-houses: and easy as the task may seem, I suspect that but very few professed builders have studied this simple branch of architecture with very much interest or success. Perhaps the reason is, that it has hitherto been regarded as of little importance. But really, I do not know how a man of ingenuity and practical good sense, could render himself more useful in very considerable sections of the country, than by turning his attention to the subject, All this and more I have seen and experienced myself; and inducing the friends of common schools to build upon such in districts too, which prided themselves in being rather in the improved plans as would commend themselves at once to fore-ground, than behind the times. That, however, was a every eye. In this way a great and most beneficial change great while ago; and school-houses, perhaps, may be better might soon be effected-for I will not believe that the majority now; wood may be better, and there may be more of it. But of parents any where, would rest contented with such unsighthow much better? If any body will agree to pay me a gener-ly and ill-contrived school-houses as are now common, even in ous premium for every school-house I can find answering to the above description, I will make a short excursion during the next vacation; and in case of failure, I will 'own beat,' and bear my own expenses.

It is certain, at any rate, that our school-houses in the country are for the most part fitted up with less regard to health, convenience, and attractiveness, than any other class of buildings. While every man of good judgment, in building his own house, spends a great deal of time and thought in planning other conveniences, he has regard also to the health and comfort of his children in the size and arrangement of their sleeping rooms. The reflection that it will cost him a few dollars more, to give them good than poor accommodations, weighs very little with such a father. "What is property good for," he asks, "if it is not to make ourselves and our families comfortable? My children will never thank me for thrusting them into some bye corner, in their tender years, for the sake of leaving them a little more to spend after I am gone."

Nor is the care of our men of thrift and enterprise confined to their children. It extends to all their domestic animals.The farmer will not only invite you to look at the good condition of his cattle and horses, but will show you what pains and expense he has been at in the fitting up of sheds, racks and stables. The swine, even, proverbially bristling and contrary, though they be, must have spacious accommodations and warm beds, as a matter of taste and economy. But when these same indulgent fathers and thrifty husbandmen come to the matter of their children's education, they "guess" the old

many parts of New England, if there were better models which they could be invited to examine.

I will only, in conclusion, throw out some half dozen negatives, leaving the positives in more skilful hands. 1. A school-house, then, ought never to be planted down in an unhealthy or an unpleasant location. 2. It ought never to he without a spacious woodhouse, and dry seasoned wood or coal. 3. It ought not to be warmed by a close stove. The oxygen and hydrogen are both wanted for respiration. 4. It ought not to have high benches without backs for the martyrdom of abecedarians, whose feet cannot reach the floors by ten or twelve good inches; and, 5. The writing desks ought not to be so constructed, as to disturb the whole school, whenever the scholars open and shut them.

MONKEYS.

From the following paragraph it will be seen that monkeys are quite as improvident as men, and inflict the same evil on their offspring, by their badly ventilated nurseries and school rooms.

Tubercles on the lungs, which are the ripe fruit of consumption, may be formed in any other animal as well as in man. Cows, confined in close barns, in the midst of cities, and deprived of all change of air, will have tubercles on the lungs, and die of consumption. Physiologists have tried the experiment on monkeys, which, after being kept for some time on impure air, become consumptive and die, exhibiting every symptom of that fatal disease.

But what will astonish most, although it is an incontestabl fact in natural history, and can be proved by thousands of witnesses, is, that monkeys themselves, in their native country, often unite together, and construct a sort of tenement, where they confine the young of the whole flock, which tene-eye, and nothing but little stones, stones, stones, all about the same ments are so secluded from all access of pure air, that consumption in the young brood is the inevitable consequence, and great numbers of them perish, from generation to g ration, of that disorder.

ERRATA. In the last paragraph, for "monkeys," read "men," and for "tenement," read "schoolhouse." Mass. Com. School Journal.

reader is permitted at length to turn a leaf, and he finds himself in the region of the Abs-an expanse of little syllables making me, who am given to comparisons, think of an extensive plain whereon there is no tree, or shrub, or plant, or any thing else inviting to the size. And what must the poor little learner do here? Why, he must hop from cobble to cobble, if I may so call ab, eb, ib, &c., as fast as he possibly can, naming each one, after the voice of the teacher as he hurries along. And this must be kept up until he can denominate each lifeless and uninteresting object on the face of the desert.

After more or less months the weary novice ceases to be an Ab. ite. He is next put into whole words of one syllable, arranged in columns. The first word we read in Perry that conveyed any thing

DISTRICT SCHOOL AS IT WAS, BY ONE WHO WENT like an idea, was the first one in the first column. The word Ache

TO IT.

HOW THEY USED TO READ IN THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE IN DISTRICT
NO. 5.

In this description of the District School as it was, that frequent and important exercise, reading, must not be omitted-reading as it was. Advance then ye readers of the Old School-house, and let us witness your performances.

We will suppose it the first day of the school. Come and read,' says the mistress to a little flaxen-headed creature of doubtful gender, for the child is in petticoats and sits on the female side as close as possible to a guardian sister. But then those coarser features, tanned complexion and close-clipped hair, with other minutiæ of aspect, are somewhat contradictory to the feminine dress. Come and read. It is the first time that this he.or.she was ever inside of a school-house and in the presence of a school ma'am according to recollection, and the order is heard with shrinking timidity. But the sister whispers an encouraging word and helps tot' down from the seat, who creeps out into the aisle and hesitates along down to the teacher biting his fingers, or scratching his head, perhaps both, to relieve the embarrassment of the novel situation. What is your name, dear?Tholomon Icherthon,' lisps the now discovered he, in a phlegm-choaked voice scarce above a whisper. Put your hands down by your side Solomon and make a bow.' He obeys, if a short and hasty jerk of the head is a bow. The alphabetical page of the spelling-book is presented and he is asked, What's that?' but he cannot tell. He is but two years and a half old, and has been sent to school to relieve his mother from trouble rather than to learn. No one at home has yet shown or named a letter to him. He has never had even that celebrated character, round O, pointed out to his notice. It was an older beginner, most probably, who be. ing asked a similar quest on about the first letter of the alphabet, replied, I know him by sight, but can't call him by name. But our namesake of the wise man, does not know the gentleman even by sight, nor any of his twenty-five companions.

Solomon Richardson has at length said A, B, C, for the first time in his life. He has read. That's a nice boy; make another bow and go to your seat.' He gives another jerk of the head and whirls on his heel and trots back to his seat, meeting the congratulatory smile of his sister with a satisfied grin, which, put into language would be, There, I've read, ha'n't I ?'

-ay, we did not easily forget what this meant when once inform-
ed, the corresponding idea, or rather feeling, was so often in our
consciousness. Ache-a very appropriate term with which to begin
a course of education so abounding in pains of body and of mind.
After five pages of this perpendicular reading, if I may so call
it, we entered on the horizontal, that is, on words arranged in sen
tences and paragraphs. This was reading in good earnest, as grown
up folks did, and something with which tiny childhood would be
very naturally puffed up. • Easy Lessons' was the title of about a
dozen separate chapters scattered at intervals among the numerous
spelling columns, like brambly openings here and there amid the
tall forest. Easy lessons, because they consisted mostly of little
monosyllabic words easy to be pronounced. But they were not
easy as it regards being understood. They were made up of ab-
stract moral sentences presenting but a very faint meaning to the
child, if any at all. Their particular application to his own conduct
he would not perceive of course without help, and this it scarcely
ever entered the head or the heart of the teacher to afford.
In the course of summers, how many I forget, we arrived at the
most manly and dignified reading, the illustrious Perry had prepar.
ed for us. It was entitled Moral Tales and Fables. As for the
Moral at the end, teachers never dreamed of attacting our atten-
tion to it. Indeed we had no other idea of all these Easy Lessons,
Tales and Fables, than that they were to be syllabled from the
tongue in the task of reading. That they were to sink into the
heart and make us better in life, never occurred to our simple un-
derstandings.

Among all the rest were five pieces of poetry-charming stuff to read, the words would come along one after another so easily, and the lines would jingle so pleasantly together at the end, tickling the ear like two beads in a rattle. O give us poetry to read, of all things, we thought.

The principal requisites in reading in these days, were to read fast, mind the stops and marks,' and speak up loud. As for suiting the tone to the meaning, no such thing was dreamed of, in our school at least. As much emphasis was laid on an insignificant of, or and, as on the most important word in the piece. But no wonder we did not know how to vary our tones, for we did not always know the meaning of the words, or enter into the general spirit of the composition. This was very frequently, indeed almost always the case with the majority even of the first class. Parliamentary prose and Miltonic verse were just about as good as Greek for the purpose of modulating the voice according to meaning. It scarce. ideas hidden in the great, long words and spacious sentences. It is possible that they did not always discover it themselves. Speak up there, and not read like a mouse in a cheese, and mind your stops,'-such were the principal directions respecting the important art of elocution. Important it was most certainly considered, for each class must read twice in the forenoon, and the same in the afternoon, from a quarter to a half an hour each time, according to the size of the class. Had they read bat once or twice, and but little at a time, and this with nice and very profitable attention to tone and sense, parents would have thought the master most miserably deficient in duty, and their children cheated out of their rights, notwithstanding the time thus saved should be most assiduously devoted to other all-important branches of education.

The little chit, at first so timid and almost inaudible in enunciation, in a few days becomes accustomed to the place and the exer-ly ever entered the heads of our teachers to question us about the cise; and in obedience to the speak up loud, that's a good boy,' he soon pipes off A-er, B-er, C-er, &c., with a far-ringing shrillness, that vies even with Chanticleer himself. Solomon went all the pleasant days of the first summer, and nearly every day of the next, before he knew all his letters by sight or could call them by name. Strange that it should take so long to become acquainted with these twenty-six characters, when in a month's time the same child be. comes familiar with the forms and the names of hundreds of objects in nature around, or in use about his father's house, shop or farm! Not so very strange neither, if we only reflect a moment. Take a child into a party of twenty six persons, all strangers, and lead him from one to the other as fast as his little feet can patter, telling him their respective names, all in less than ten minutes; do this four times a day even, and you would not be surprised if he should be HOW THEY USED TO SPELL in "the District School as it was." weeks at least, if not months, in learning to designate them all by their names. Is it any matter of surprise then that the child should There, the class have read; but they have something else to do be so long in becoming acquainted with the alphabetical party, when before they take their seats. 'Shut your books,' says he who has he is introduced to them precisely in the manner above esc bed? been hearing them read. What makes this row of little countenanThen these are not of different heights, complexions, dresses, moces brighten up so suddenly, especially the upper end of it? What tions, and tones of voice, as a living company have. But there wooden faces and leaden eyes, two minutes ago! The reading was they stand in an unalterable line, all in the same complexions and nothing to them-those select sentences and maxims in Perry's spell. dress, all just so tall, just so motionless, and mute, and uninteresting-book which are tucked in between the fables. It is all as dull as ing, and of course the most unrememberable figures in the world. a dirge to those life.loving boys and girls. They almost drowsed No wonder that some should go to school and sit on a bench and while they stood up in their places. But they are fully awake now. say A B C,' as a little girl said, for a whole year, and still find them- They are going to spell. Bu. this in itself is the driest exercise to selves strangers to some of the sable company even then. Our little prepare for, and the driest to perform, of the whole round. The

child cares no more in his heart about the arrangement of vowels had now learned the art of preserving it, and that his professional and consonants in the orthography of words, than he does how studies had led a to think more and more of the importance of many chips lie one above another at the school-house wood-pile.— But he does care, whether he is at the head or foot of his class; common schools, and the indispers bl necessity of improving to whether the money dangles from his own neck or anothers. This the highest pitch every form of elementary education and instrucis the secret of the interest in spelling. Emulation is awakened, tion. The s ambition roused. There is something like the tug of strength in the p was looked upon with suspicion and disapprobation wrestle, something of the alternation of hope and fear in a game of by his relatives and friends, as a descent, a degradation, to take chance. There has been a special preparation for the trial. Ob. charge of a district school at fifteen dollars a month, for one who serve this class any day, half an hour before they are called up to had been invested with the dignity of a medical diploma. But not read. What a flitting from top to bottom of the spelling column; so thought our School master. and what a flutter of lips and hissing of utterance. Now the eye twinkles on the page to catch a word, and now it is fixed on the empty air while the orthography is syllabled over and over again in mind, until at length it is syllabled on the memory. But the time of trial has come; they have only to read first. The third class may come and read. O dear, I havn't got my spelling lesson,' mutters Charlotte to herself. She has just begun the art of writing this winter, and she lingered a little too long at her hooks and trammels. The lesson seems to her to have as many again hard words in it as common. What a fluster she is in. She got up above George in the forenoon, and she would not get down again for any thing. She is as slow in coming from her seat as she possibly can be and keep moving. She makes a chink in her book with her finger, and every now and then during the reading exercise, steals a glance at a diffi.

cult word.

Having therefore made the necessary arrangements, I quitted my station, and in ten days, found myself once more in a district school. I need not tell you, perhaps, that I felt more real joy in the exchange than most seniors in college would feel, on being appoint. ed to the presidency.

I had placed myself-tho' only a few miles from home-among strangers. Yet it was a pleasant neighborhood; and had some advantages over many others. The schools in that region, as well as elsewhere in the State had been much injured, by an unconditional school fund; which, in dispensing its favors pretty liberally, had gradually led people to rely upon it, so far as there was actual need of applying money; and to put forth no exertions of their own. And he who knows anything of human nature, knows full well that no people, in such circumstances, will long retain much interest in But the reading is over and what a brightening up, as was said be. the school which is thus, as it were, supported by a foreign power. fore, with the exception perhaps of two or three idle or stupid boys However, I have spoken of the evils of funds in the first chapter. at that less honorable extremity of the class called the foot. That But in the district in which I had now engaged, it was otherwise. boy at the head-no, it was a boy, but Harriet has at length got They had been in the habit, from year to year, of taxing themselves above him, and when girls once get to the head, get them away to a considerable extent, especially for the support of their winter from it if you can. Once put the pride of place' into their hearts schools. The result was, that they had not only retained a stronger and how they will queen it. Then they are more sensitive, regard- feeling of interest in the school than many other districts were ac ing any thing that might lower them in the eyes of others, and seem customed to, but they actually had better schools. They not only the least like disgrace. I have known a little girl to cry the half of paid a price somewhat larger, but they continued the school longer. one day, and look melancholly the whole of the next, on losing her And while it lasted, they visited it more. place at the head. Girls are more likely to arrive at, and keep the first place in the class in consequence of a little more help from mother nature than boys get. I believe that they generally have a memory more fitted for catching and holding words and other signs addressed to the eye, than the other sex. That girl at the head has studied her spelling lesson until she is as confident of every word as the unerring Perry himself. She can spell every word in the col. umn in the order it stands without the master's putting it out,' she has been over it so many times. Now Mr. James get up again if you can, thinks Harriet. I pitty you poor girl, for James has an ally that will blow over your proud castle in the air. Old Boreas, the king of the winds will order out a snow storm by and bye to block up the roads so that none but booted and weather-proof boys can get to school, and you Miss, must loose a day or two, and then find yourself at the foot with those block-head boys who always abide there. But let it not be thought that all those foot lads are deficient in intellect. Look at them when the master's back is turn. ed, and you will see mischievous ingenuity enough to convince you that they might surpass even James and Harriet, had some other faculties been called into exercise besides the mere memory of

verbalities.

EXTRACTS FROM CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOL
MASTER.

The contents of the eleventh chapter of this little work is worth
to any teacher the cost of the volume a hundred fold. It gives the
results in some particulars of his ten a experience, observation
and reflection, in the life of a diligent, intelligent, enthusiastic
teacher of one who pursued its labors, not mainly for the pecuniary
reward, but from a desire in this way to improve the condition of
his fellow men.
How much of all his former difficulties, how many
acknowledged mistakes and errors, how many anxious days and
sleepless nights might have been avoided, how much more cheaply
might all the rich treasures of ten year's experience been acquired
by a single year's study under experienced practical teachers, and
six months practice and observation in a model school? But to our
We would remark that between the ninth and tenth year
of his experience as a teacher, he had studied and entered upon
the practice of medicine. His reasons for abandoning his new pro-
fession, was the conviction that he could do more good as a teacher!
he had now sufficiently recovered hi heal (which was the prin.
eipal ground of his abandoning it at the close of his ninth year,) and

extracts.

The district was very compact, and very pleasantly located. The house, though not large, was on the whole good. It consisted principally of the school room and an entrance. It was well warmed and lighted. It was indeed, on a public road, and very near several mechanics' shops, besides a number of dwelling houses. Still it was rather a pleasant location for the winter, though not so pleasant for summer.

The number of pupils was about forty; and they were of all ages, from three to twenty. I engaged for four and a half months, at fifteen dollars and my board a month. Of course I was required to walk around the district, and board in the families. I opened my school early in November.

Here I had resolved on a grand experiment, in school keeping; although I meant to begin cautiously. It was not my intention to at tack or even seem to slight old usages. My object was to change the spirit of the school, rather than to innovate largely upon its forms.

No stranger ever begun a district school with better advantageseverything considered-than I did, on this oscasion. I had the prepossessions of the people in my favor, with one exception; to which I shall refer presently. They had nearly all heard of my former reputation, as a teacher, as a citizen, and as a professional man; and were therefore prepared to hope much-perhaps too muchfrom my exertions. I was prepared, too, from what I had heard of them, to expect a good degree of co-operation and support.

SPELLING, READING, WRITING, ETC.

How the spelling was conducted. Writing. Arithmetic. Evening Schools. Assistance given mornings and evenings. School Li. braries.

All my pupils, as is usual in district schools, attended to spelling and reading; and nearly all of them to writing. I had also a very considerable number in arithmetic, grammar and geography. Deespecially the former. But of this last and grammar, I shall speak fining and Composition, moreover, received a degree of attention, at length in other places.

The spelling and reading were conducted in an appropriate and But I soon made them shorter, and paid more attention to the manrational manner, except that at first the lessons were rather too long. ner of their recitation or performance.

In spelling, I took great pains to pronounce each word as it should be pronounced, in good speaking or reading. It was quite custom. ones-in that region, to pronounce the word, if possible, in such a ary with young teachers-and it must be confessed, with some old manner that the pupil could not fail to perceive nearly every letter, even though were at the sacrifice of the true sounds of those let. ters. Thus instead of pronouncing the word regency, as we pronounce it in correct conversation, with the second and third vowels