and the rapid combustion, I can see no advantages in the open | ber of brick, furnished with openings and tube, as described fireplace which cannot be secured in the large open stove. above. But this, although better than receiving cold air The original Franklin stove, or fireplace was constructed of through every crack and crevice, as at present, would be vastcast iron, and by means of a circuitous chimney or smoke flue, ly inferior to the double bottomed stove. A room, supplied which was surrounded and intersected by air passages, open- with either of these contrivances, however, would be so full ing at one end out of doors, and at the other into the room, of air, as to cause it to press outwards, besides furnishing a the heat of the fire was retained, and a current of fresh warm supply for the draft of the stove, instead of having cold air air was constantly flowing into the room. This is quite a dif- continually pressing in." ferent thing from the ordinary open fireplace. The double fireplace is a modification of Franklin's plan.* It is made from any common fireplace by inserting within it another fireplace made of soap stone, leaving an empty space of about an inch in depth, between the two, so that when finished the back and sides may be hollow. This hollow space, communicates at one end with the open air by a pipe, and the other opens into the room, on the side of the chimney. In this fireplace the advantages of an open fire of wood or coal can be enjoyed at the same time a current of air is warmed in the rear of the fire.

The same thing can be secured by a similar arrangement connected with stoves for burning anthracite coal. In the Olmsted stove, for instance, the pure air from without can be made to pass in contact with the exterior, as well as the interior surface of the radiators and thus be warmed before entering the room. The last stove has an advantage, in admitting of the slow combustion of billets of wood in connection with nut or pea coal, and thus maintaining a fire which will keep up a uniform temperature of the proper degree at the cheapest rate. In Dr. Arnott's thermometer stove there is a contrivance for keeping up a uniform temperature by an apparatus Various plans have been proposed and adopted elsewhere which regulates its own combustion, increasing or diminishing to make the common stove, whether close or open, serviceable the draft so that the quantity of air admitted to the fire shall in warming pure air before it is thrown into the room. Mr. be such as to sustain always the degree of temperature requirWoodbridge in his essay on school houses in the transactions ed. Whenever anthracite coal can be had, the Olmsted stove, of the American Institute of Instruction for 1831, describes adapted to schools, seems to me as well calculated to answer one as follows:-the stove is enclosed on three sides in a case the end of warming a school room, at a uniform temperature of sheet iron, leaving a space of two or three inches beneath in every part and with as little loss of heat, and as little trouble and around the stove, and as it rises around it becomes warm-in the management, as any anthracite stove with which I am ed before it enters the room at the top of the case. The case acquainted. A fire once properly kindled and regulated in is moveable so as to allow of the cleaning out of any dust this stove will require but little attention in adjusting the which might collect between it and the stove. The quantity of air admitted can be regulated by the heat of the stove and of the room. Mr. Palmer in his Manual for Teachers, which received a prize of $500 offered by the American Institute of Instruction in 1839, secures the same object by conducting the air from without, into a passage which traverses the bottom of the stove five or six times before it enters the room, and thus becomes warm. It is thus described-Let there be a double bottom to the stove, the lower fitting closely to the upper by the four edges, and by the flanges, marked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Let there be two openings in the back part of the plate; the one at A, communicating with the outward air, by a pipe, which passes through the floor, and thence through the south wall; the one at B, communicating with the schoolroom.

damper, so as to increase or diminish the draft or the temperature, as the circumstances of the school may require. The large radiating surface which is nothing more than prolonged pipe tastefully and conveniently arranged, imbibes and diffuses all the heat evolved by the combustion of the fuel, so that at the point where it enters the chimney, the heat of the pipe is scarcely preceptible.

The best mode however, at the same time of warming and ventilating a school room, especially if it is large, is by pure air heated in a stove or furnace placed in the cellar or a room lower than the one to be warmed. No portion of the room, or the movements of the scholars, or the supervision of the teacher, are encumbered or interrupted by stove or pipe. The fire in such places can be maintained without noise and without throwing dust or smoke into the room. The offensive odors and impurities of burnt air, or rather of particles of vegetable or animal matter floating in the air are not experienced. The heat can be conducted into the room at different points, and is thus diffused so as to secure a uniform summer temperature in every part of it. A room thus heated, even without any special arrangements for this object, will be tolerably well ventilated, for the constant influx of warm pure air into the room will force that which is already in it out at every crack and crevice, and thus reversing the process which is at this hour going on in every school room in the State. By an opening or rather several small openings into the ceiling, or a flue, which in either case should connect with the outer air, the escape of the impure air will be more effectually secured. By an ingenious arrangement, suggested by Prof. Reid, the House of Commons in London, is at once effectually warmed and ventilated. The fresh air is warmed in a lower room by passing over a large surface of hot iron bars (hollow and kept full of water) and is then conducted by means of tin pipes under the floor, and enters the room from a vast number of small openings. From its lightness this air is always rising, is breathed, and ascends to the top of the room, and escapes through openings in the ceiling made for the purpose. These openings all discharge into a common flue, which conducts this impure heated air down to the grate, where it is used to feed the fire. Since this arrangement was introduced the draft of the smoke chimney has been increased, the steady combustion of the coal secured, a regular and agreeable change of the atmosphere of the house kept up.

From the above figure, it will be perceived, that the outward air entering in at A, will pass six times, lengthwise, across the hearth of the stove, before it passes into the room at B. It will thus be sufficiently warmed, and yet, being protected, by the ashes, from the great heat to which the sides of the stove are exposed, it will not be burned, i. e. deprived of its oxygen, and thus rendered unfit for respiration, as air heated in furnaces commonly is, in a greater or less degree. By coming out at the back part, it will not be liable to be drawn in at the door of the stove. There will thus be a continual interchange of fresh, warm air, for the fouler air passing into the stove to supply the draft. The heat of this air should not be greater than is pleasant to the hand, being regulated, reciprocally, by the quantity of ashes in the stove, and directly, But whatever may be the mode of warming adopted, whethby the intensity of the fire. Such a stove-plate as has been er by open fireplace, or grate, stove for wood or coal, or furdescribed, might be procured at any foundry. Where it can- nace, the temperature of the room should be uniform, and of not be had, its place might be supplied, in some degree, by re- the proper degree in every part. Not a child should be exposmoving the legs of the stove, and placing it on a small cham-ed to sudden or extreme changes of temperature, or compelled

*See Bigelows Useful Arts, Vol. XI. Mass- Common School Library, p. 310.

when overheated or at any time to sit against an inlet of cold air, or with cold feet. This last is a violation of an indispen

sable condition of health. To secure a uniform temperature, than the one concerned. They should be so arranged as to a thermometer will not only be convenient but necessary. It facilitate habits of attention, take away all temptation and encannot be ascertained, for different parts of a room or for thirty couragement to violate the rules of the school on the part of or forty persons, differently circumstanced as to heat or cold, any scholar, and admit of the constant and complete supervisor differently employed, some of whom are seated, some stand-ion of the whole school by the teacher. These principles ing or changing their position from time to time, without some have been regarded here.

less variable and uncertain standard than the teacher's feelings. The general arrangement of the seats and desks in referHowever anxious he may be to make every scholar comforta-ence to the aisles are such that each scholar can go to and ble, he cannot be conscious at all times of the differing circum- from his seat, change his position, have access to his books, stances in which they are placed. He is not exposed to the attend to his own business, without incommoding any other rush of cold air from a broken or loose window, or from cracks person. There is no facility, or temptation to whisper or in the ceiling or the floor. He is not roasted by a seat too otherwise communicate with each other. No one is required near the stove. He is not liable to a stagnation of the blood from h s position, or tempted by the sight or sound of passing in the feet from want of exercise or an inconvenient bench. objects in the street to look out of the windows. When proEven though he were capable of thus sympathizing with them, perly seated, his face is turned away from the street and tothe temperature of the room after the fire is thoroughly going wards the teacher, who from his platform can survey the and the doors closed, may pass gradually from 650 to 600 whole room at a glance, conduct the reading and recitations without the change becoming perceptible. Now though we of his classes, or go to each scholar in his seat without incommay breathe freely in such an atmosphere, gradually heated, moding any other. we cannot pass into the open air 40° or 50° colder as would be the case on most winter days, and much less receive a current of such air on a portion, and a sensitive portion of the body, without great danger. With a thermometer in the room, the beginning and progress of such a change would be indicated, and could be guarded against. But I cannot pursue this topic further. In a climate where owing in part to the suddenness and degree of the changes of temperature, and partly to our imperfect modes of ventilation and warmth, and partly to our imprudence in dress and modes of living, so many of the young die of consumption, no precaution which will diminish the activity of any of these causes should be neglected. We will add a single consideration more in connexion with temperature.

Each scholar is furnished with a seat and desk, properly adapted to each other, as to height and distance, and of varying heights, (the seats from nine inches and a half, to fifteen and a half, with desks to correspond) for children of different age or size. The seats are so made, that the feet of every child when properly seated, can rest on the floor, the upper and lower part of the leg will form a right angle at the knee, and the back and shoulder blades find rest and support against the front of the adjoining desk, which reclines 24 inches in 16, to correspond with the curves of the spine. It would have been an improvement on the seat, if it had been made more like an ordinary chair, (as in Fig. 4,) and detached from the adjoining desk, so as to have allowed the scholar or the teacher to stand up or pass behind it. The average expense would not have exceeded one dollar for each seat.

In our arrangements for artificial warmth especially in all stoves for burning anthracite coal, where intense heat is liable Each desk which is 2 feet long by 1 1-2 wide, is provided to be communicated to the iron surface if we would preserve with a shelf for books, an opening (b Fig. 3,) for a slate, and the purity of the atmosphere at all degrees of temperature, it another (c Fig. 3, for an ink stand, which is covered with a is necessary to secure the presence of a certain quantity of metallic lid, and a groove, (a Fig. 3,) along the outer line of moisture. The difference between winds blowing from dif- the level portion, to prevent pens or pencils rolling off. [The ferent quarters, as to health and comfort, is principally owing slate and ink stand belong to the desk, and are furnished by to the proportion of moisture they contain. Whenever the the district.] The upper portion or writing part of the desk air has less than its due proportion, it becomes powerfully inclines one inch in a foot, and is not removed from the seat absorbent of it in every thing with which it comes in contact, either in distance or height, so far as to require the body, the whether vegetable or animal. Hence the impression of burnt neck or the chest to be bent forward in a constrained manner, air, the disagreeable sensation of dryness on the surface of or the elbow or shoulder blades to be painfully elevated whenthe body, and the delicate membrane of the throat, the shrink- ever the scholar is engaged in writing or ciphering. These ing and cracking of furniture, the blight and withering of last positions, to which so many children are forced by the plants, which are universally experienced in a dry and over- badly constructed seats and desks of our ordinary school heated apartment. Most of these and other effects may be houses, has led not unfrequently to distortions of the form, avoided by not overheating the air, but not altogether. There and particularly to spinal affections of the most distressing is a difference in the moisture of the atmosphere at different character. Such marked results are principally confined to times, without reference to artificial warmth, and however females of delicate constitutions and studious and sedentary careful we may be to maintain a uniform low temperature in habits. While boys and young men engage in active ex era school room, we are liable to experience some of the incon- cise and sport during the recess and at the close of the school, veniences above referred to. These can be avoided, even and thus give relief to the overstrained and unnatural applied where the room is overheated by an evaporating dish, suppli- muscles, and restore the spring or elasticity to the cushion ed with pure water. The water should be frequently changed. like substance which gives the flexibility to the spinal column, The gathering and settling of dirt and other impurities in the girls exercise less in the open air, indulge but little in those vessel containing the water can be guarded against by closing sports which give variety of motions to the joints and muscles, the top except to admit a suspended linen or cotton cloth, and are confined to duties and studies which require their bewhich will absorb the water and give it out again from its ex-ing seated out of school hours too much and too long at any posed surface. This surface can be varied to the varying circumstances of the atmosphere.

7. Seats and Desks.-In the construction and arrangement of the seats and desks of a school room, due regard should be had to the convenience, comfort and health of those who are to occupy them. To secure these objects, they should be made for the young, and not for grown persons; and for the ever varying heights of children of different ages, from four years and under, to sixteen and upwards. They should be made in reference to the length of time during which they will be occupied at each session of the school, and be adapted to each other and the purposes in which they will be used, such as writing and ciphering, so as to prevent any awkward, inconvenient or unhealthy positions of the limbs, chest or spine. They should be easy of access, so that every scholar can go to and from his seat and change his position, and the teacher can approach each scholar and give the required attention and instruction, without disturbing any other person

one time.

The effects of the posture above described in writing or ciphering, are increased and even induced by their being compelled to lean against the narrow edge of the writing desk, when their faces are turned towards the teacher. This edge comes against the weakest portion of the back, and the inconvenience or pain forces those exposed to it, to find relief by resting the elbows on the desk, and thus giving an unnatural elevation to the shoulder blades—or if no support of the kind is provided, they lean against each other, support the back by closing the hands over the knee, or resort to some other awkward or unnatural position, which if long continued will cause more or less of structural deviation, amounting not unfrequently to positive disease.

Dr. Woodward in a communication appended to Mr. Mann's Report remarks:-"High and narrow seats are not only extremely uncomfortable for the young scholar, tending constantly to make him restless and noisy, disturbing his tem

per and preventing his attention to his books; but they have also a direct tendency to produce deformity of his limbs. As the limbs of children are pliable or flexible, they are made to grow out of shape by such awkward and unnatural positions. "Seats without backs have an equally unfavorable influence upon the spinal column. If no rest is afforded the backs of children while seated, they almost necessarily assume a arrangements of the school room. If our school houses are bent and crooked position. Such a position often assumed and long continued, tends to that deformity which has become extremely common with children in modern times; and leads to diseases of the spine in innumerable instances, especially with delicate female children."

Dr. J. V. C. Smith, of Boston, in his Anatomical Class Book, says: "There is a radical defect in the seats of our school rooms. Mal-formation of the bones, narrow chests, coughs ending in consumption and death in middle life, besides a multitute of minor ills, have often had their origin in the school room." Again, "to these wretched articles, viz. badly constructed seats and writing desks, are we to look in some measure for the cause of so many distortions of the bones, spinal diseases, chronic affections now so prevalent throughout the country." Dr. Warren, in his admirable lecture before the American Institute of Instruction, in 1830, which should be in the hand of every teacher and parent, says :-"In the course of my observation, I have been able to satisfy myself that about one half the young females brought up as they are at present, undergo some visible and obvious change of structure; that a considerable number are the subjects of great and permanent deviations, and that not a few entirely lose their health from the manner in which they are reared." And among the causes which lead to such mournful results, he enumerates the unnatural elevation of the right shoulder, the habit of bending the neck, and the stooping posture of the body when engaged in writing, or similar exercises at school.

that with frequent and free exercise in the open air. To accomplish this, great and radical changes in the views and practice of teachers, parents and the community must take place. I know not where in the whole department of practical education the change is more needed, or should be sooner commenced. I can here only touch upon it in reference to the to consist of but one room for all the children, regard must be had for the varying circumstances of the winter and summer school. In the former the larger and older children predomi nate, and in the latter the younger and smaller, and yet in both ters of instruction, but in physical comfort. In summer, they the younger and smaller are sadly neglected, not only in mator at least a portion of them are seated "beyond soundings" on seats intended and occupied by the older scholars in winter, and in winter they are packed away on smooth, high, backless slabs, and in a roasting proximity to the fire. Now I know of no way of remedying this state of things, than by having a school room large enough to accommodate all who may attend, and to have seats and appropriate desks for all the children, be they young or old, large or small. In the dren as are not wanted be removed to the attic, or the woodwinter let so many of the seats and desks for the smaller chilroom, and their places supplied by some for the older. And in the summer let this arrangement be reversed. This change would not require a workman, in most cases, a half hour's time, or one dollar's expense, and even if it required both ten fold, it should be done.

dations for children of different age and size, is to have two The most effectual way of securing appropriate accommoor more school rooms, one of which shall be for the younger, and be fitted up accordingly. At one end, with no windows in the wall, should be a platform of seats (Fig. VI.) rising one above the other, on which the children can be arranged at No child should under any circumstances be long, or fre- ercise, and for all simultaneous exercises, such as singing, suitable times, for inspection as to cleanliness, for manual exquently exposed to any one or all of these causes of discom- simple operations of mental arithmetic, reading of scriptural fort, deformity or disease. With but a tithe of the expense and other moral stories, and lessons on real objects, pictures or prudence which parents devote to their own comfort and and other visible illustration. The gallery is an economical health, and indeed with little or no additional expense in the arrangement in respect to space and expense, and enables the outset, there would be no occasions for such exposure. Seats children to fix their eye more easily on the teacher, and the and desks can be as easily and cheaply made of different teacher to observe, explain, be heard, and direct more perfectly heights, and for convenient and healthy postures, as they are every movement of the children, and both teacher and chil now without reference to any such considerations. If desks dren, to profit by the great principle of social sympathy, and must be attached to sides of the room, which is objectional inimitation. Along the sides of the room should be a passage respect to ease of supervision, habits of study, as well as the at least two feet wide, and then a desk, so made as to hold a morals, manners and health of children, then let the seats be thin layer of sand (b Fig. V.) and receivea slate for each scholar provided with a moveable back like those in rail road cars and in no case be made for more than two. The kind of back referred to is cheap and convenient for desks constructed and arranged on any other plan. It not only affords a proper support to the back, but will allow of the scholars standing up behind the seat for reading or recitation, or even for a frequent change of position which is so much over looked in schools, and by students of every grade. No position, if long continued, is more irksome or more unhealthy, or at least operates so insidiously, and yet directly to derange the circulation and other vital functions as sitting, especially upright, or with the neck and chest bent forward. To young children it is cruel in the extreme, and wars directly with all healthy and symetr cal growth, besides ruining the temper, and imparting a lasting distaste to study, the school room and the teacher.

Fig. VI.

Fig. V. no matter how young. With the sand desks, and slate and pencil, models of geometrical figures, maps, diagrams, pictures and bold outlines of national costumes, the various impleI cannot leave this branch of my subject without saying a animal, vegetable and mineral kingdom, a judicious teacher ments of the arts and trades of life, and real objects from the few words more in behalf of those little children, and the can train the infant and juvenile mind to correct habits of obthousands such as they who are made to suffer, and many servation, which must be made the basis of all sound habits of them permanently, from being forced to sit long in one po- of comparison, imagination, and reflection and judgment, sition, without any occupation for mind or muscles, on seats accustom them to the discipline of a school and to lay the without backs and so high that their feet cannot touch, much foundation of correct habits, in every department of study. less rest on the floor. Nothing but the fear of punishment or The center of the room should be unencumbered with fixtures its frequent application can keep a live child still under such of any kind, so as to allow of the arrangement of the school circumstances, and even that cannot do it long. Who has not into drafts or classes, and the free movements of the children an aching remembrance of the torture of this unnatural con- when necessary. finement, and the burning sense of injustice, for punishment al exercises of schools for small children, they should be varied Whatever may be the intellectual and morinflicted for some unavoidable manifestation of uneasiness and and in such a manner as to require frequent and varied physi pain! Even though the seats are as comfortable as these are, cal movements-both change of position and place, from setyoung children cannot and should not be kept still upon them ting to standing, from desk to gallery, marching, clapping of long at a time, and never without something innocent or useful hands, and other exercises of the joints and muscles which to do, and under no circumstances longer than twenty-five or thirty minutes in one position nor so long at one study, and

shall bring them all into play, singing, &c. Even with this diversity of occupation in doors, young children, when healthy, and symetrical growth is governed by the great laws of constant and cheerful motion, require gamboling, frolicsome exercises for ten or fifteen minutes as often as every hour they are mentally occupied, in the open air if it is pleasant, or in the woodshed or other covered building in damp or rainy weather. A play ground safe from all exposure of the health and limbs of children, large enough to allow of trundling the hoop, and of free exercise of the limbs, supplied with a circular swing, &c., is an indispensable appendage to a school where children are to be reared with vigorous and symmetrical bodies. During the recess, the atmosphere of a school room, should be thoroughly renewed by the opening of windows and doors for a suitable length of time.

mon schools, which cannot be illustrated and taught to better advantage, than without them, while there are some to whose attainment they are absolutely indispensable. It is painful to go into our schools, and see how many little children are trying to sit still, with no occupation for the hands, the eye, or the mind, who might be innocently and usefully employed, in a sand desk, or with a slate and pencil, in printing the alphabet, combining letters, syllables, or words, copying the outlines of angles, circles, solids, or maps, diagrams, real objects; thus acquiring knowledge as well as correctness of eye and rapidity of hand, which will be of great use afterwards in learning to write and draw with the pen on paper. I have found invariably that children, who begin early with the use of the slate, the blackboard, in writing, drawing, spelling, arithmetic, grammar, are more accurate, rapid and practical scholars than others much older and with better opportunities in other respects, who have not been accustomed to their use. So important do I deem the former in the hands of every pupil, that I should rejoice to see the desk of every scholar in every school supplied with one by the district, of the best quality, and for the sake of economy bound at the corners with an iron band. It should not be left to the chance supply of parents who we know are very negligent on this point, as well as in some others more essential even. In addition to a large blackboard, conveniently suspended like this, so as to admit of its being elevated within sight of the whole school for any diagram, lesson, illustration, intended for all, or lowered within sight and reach of the reciting class, there should be several smaller ones as in this school, for local and individual use.*

The thoughts which I have here briefly presented, are not new. I have seen them realized to a greater or less extent in school rooms in this country and in Europe. They are the fundamental principles of the schoolhouse arrangements, and the discipline of the schools of the Glasgow Educational Society, of the pauper school at Norwood, and of the best conducted Infant Schools in England. I cannot but regard it as a serious calamity to the cause of sound education in this country, that the Infant school system was commenced in our large cities with such ill advised haste, under teachers very well disposed, but not always properly trained for their work. The experiment proved in a great measure a failure, because too much was attempted, and that which was practical in it, was not prosecuted with sound views of the philosophy of education. I have no wish to see infant schools as they were The Abacus or numerical frame, the set of geometrical constituted and conducted ten or twelve years ago revived, solids, the diagrams of the same, and the blocks to illustrate but I do wish to see primary schools, where young children of the cube root, will prove highly useful not only in elementary both sexes can be trained to correct habits of body, mind and arithmetic, but in the correct understanding of language in heart, under the gentle and softening influences of well quali-daily use, as well as in the measurements and practical quesfied female teachers, established in every school society and tions in the higher departments of the same study. Instead especially in every city and central village in the state. of tables of weights and measure, diagrams or models, or real There are two other features of a good school house which measures of every kind should be set before the scholar till the friends of education among you, without expense to the his eye and hand, as well as his memory are familiar with district, have added to this. structure, thereby giving it a com- their varied sizes and relations. And so of our national coins pleteness which does not belong in an equal degree to any of different denominations. school house in the state.

In the study of geography and history and I may add the first principles of Astronomy, the globe, tide dial, orrery, season machine, large maps, outline maps, historical charts, plan of Jerusalem, &c., will enable your teacher, if you are careful always to provide one who understands their uses, to communicate more accurate knowledge in a school of four months, than is usually done in a twelve month, where these articles are not provided. The large beautiful maps which adorn these walls, not only gives a pleasing and attractive asfamiliarize the minds of the scholars early with the relative positions and sizes, of different countries, of which they have heard and read. With that splendid plan of Jerusalem (Catherwood's,) the bible and especially the new testament, and all the wonderful characters and events which are there recorded, will be read with tenfold interest and profit. The outline maps,† of the different divisions of the United States, of the Americas, of Europe, Asia and Africa, if copied as they should be by the pupils in geography, and filled up with the names of ranges of mountains, rivers, cities, will be the most useful exercise in this department. It would be better if they could begin with an outline map of Windsor, or even of

3. Apparatus.—Under this head I include slates, blackboards, globes, maps, diagrams, models, and other forms of visible illustration, including specimens from the mineral vegetable and animal kingdom, which may serve to educate accurately the senses and make the knowledge communicated by books, or orally by the teacher, accurate vivid and practical. The inefficiency of our school education of every name is mainly owing to the want of such cheap and simple aids, and of modes of communication based upon and adapted to them--pect to what ordinarily appears dingy and repulsive, but will begun early and continued throughout. Hence much that all of us acquire in schools, we have been obliged to unlearn, and more of it lies in dead, useless, unassimilated masses in the memory. It was never properly learned-it was not linked with our daily experience-it was not seen, felt, tasted, or heard in its own original sound-it was not done, no matter whether it was act of head, heart or body, it was not done by ourselves—it was not worked out by our own hands, so that process, principle and practical relations were mastered and Hence the knowledge we acquired from books or from our teachers, does not to the extent it should color our silent meditations,-it does not go with us into the field, the workshop, or any of the departments of business, but we are obliged to learn another arithmetic, grammar, history, and almost another language, both spoken and written, from what was taught in the schools. The knowledge of every day practical life is the result of self-education, the education of subsequent observation, experience and reading. Under any opportunities of self-culture, this self education It is a matter of congratulation to all teachers and friends of schools, that a must be our main reliance, and it will be useful and complete, series of large outline maps by Mitchell of Philadelphia, will soon be published provided our district school instruction is accurate and prac-as important an era in geographical studies, as did the introduction of the common by Mather, Case, Tiffany & Burnham. Their introduction into schools will form tical, and the habits of observation, comparison, classification, atlas. abstraction, and reasoning, are thorough and rapid. To make this instruction, and these habits, of this high character, as far as these children are concerned, the teacher if he understands the use of them, will find such aids as you have provided on these shelves eminently useful.

made our own.

With the slate and black-board, there is no study from the simplest rudiments up to the highest ever pursued in our com

For the various useful applications of the slate and blackboard in the hands of young children especially, see this Journal Vol. II. p. 181, "Modes of Instruction adapted to Summer Schools." In addition to the suggestions there made, wo would recommend that as a general rule, the teacher require that all requests to him or her be made on the slate, both to avoid disturbance, and as a practical exercise in language, as to writing, spelling and grammatical accuracy.

Mr. Lovell, in the Lancasterian school, New Haven, has been for years accustomed to teach geography by means of outline maps, and we have now before us some beautiful specimens drawn by his pupils.

Mr. Harrison, in the South District school, Hartford, who was a pupil, and an assistant of Mr. Lovell, teaches geography in this way, and with as much success as we have seen it pursued in any school public or private in the state. Miss Seymour, the principal of the primary department of the same school, has point to this school in its three departments, as in all respects one of the best in an interesting exercise of an half hour each day on an outline map. We can the state.

their own school district, so that they could thoroughly under- young men, who have gone forth from families poor in worldstand in the outset the relation which a map bears to the reali-ly wealth, and in the general intelligence, virtue, and public ty, and verify it by their own observation. They would thus spirit which has prevailed. Most of the eminent and useful also form accurate ideas of size and distance, on a scale which men in public or private life among ourselves, or who are now they would comprehend, and could then expand their concep- filling the ranks of the prosperous and eminent in other states, tions by degrees so far as to embrace states, continents, the owe their ability and their success to an early taste and habits globe and the system of which it forms a part. of reading, fostered by these libraries, and directed by the judicious advice of the educated clergyman. Without intending any invidious distinction, to what other causes can we assign the high state of general intelligence and virtue which have and still prevail, and the number of educated and eminent men who were reared in the towns of Salisbury, Lebanon, Farmington, Pomfret, New Canaan and Washington, than to the agency of good teachers, good books and good clergymen with which they have been blessed. Wherever these agencies have been felt, and especially where they have been found operating together for any considerable time, there talent and virtue which might otherwise have been buried under the disadvantages of poverty and ignorance, have been called forth, to elevate, bless and purify society. It is painful to see how many of the social or society libraries, which have at different times existed in almost every town in the state, have been scattered or sold, or are now miserably dilapidated, forsaken, or in a moulded condition. The departure of our educated and enterprising young men to the west, has in no department been more disasterously felt, than the consequent neglect of these libraries. Their places with the rich, or with the few who are willing to make some sacrifice of luxuries, or even comforts, for this object, are supplied by private libraries and with children of all classes who attend sunday schools, by the libraries attached almost universally to them. The former however can benefit but comparatively few, and in no case those who need them most; and the latter are expressly intended for the young and do not embrace the wide range of duties and interests into which they enter and become connected as they grow up to be the men and women, the parents, citizens, neighbors and business men of every name and relation in society. Such social libraries as still exist in a flourishing condition, are removed from many families whose children need them most, and are burdened with a quarterly many more, who though abundantly able, feel themselves too poor to spend a trifle in clothing and feeding the spiritual nature of themselves, and their children. The district school library system, either in the form in which it has been adopted in New York, or in the modified form in which it might be adopted in this State, obviates all these dificulties of distance and expense, and carries the blessings and advantages of good books to every point where there are families enough to maintain a school. In New York, one hundred and six thousand dollars a year for the space of five years, ending in 1843, must be expended in the purchase of books, and these books are to be placed, not in a few colleges, or cities, or towus, but in every common school scattered through every one of her ten thousand districts. Well may Governor Seward exclaim :

The study of geography and history could be made far more useful and interesting by pictures representing the great curiosities of nature and art, views of cities, and other spots memorable for great events, the manners, dress, edifices, ruins &c., peculiar to each country. One set of plates, could answer very well for all the schools of a society and pass in succession through the several districts.

For the study of the natural sciences, and there is no study which can be made more useful or delightful in the hands of a judicious teacher, cheap collections of minerals, and specimens or drawings of plants and animals, would be not only useful but necessary. In this department the children could collect their own cabinets, and interchange of specimens between different districts and towns be effected. But this suggestion will seem so far beyond the practical, that I will leave it here. My own conviction is however, that many of the hot days of summer had better be spent in the fields, or the woods in search of the beautiful things which God has scattered over the earth and through it, even without a teacher, and much more with one who has a taste for natural science, than in the best unshaded school house of many of our districts.

The Magic Lantern in almost any of its improved forms, and especially in Carpenter's, is accompanied with diagrams to illustrate astronomy, natural history, cities, landscapes, costumes, &c., which bring the objects and truths represented, so vividly before the young that they can never forget them.

9. Library. The teachers, scholars and adults generally, of every district, should have access to a library of well selected books for reference and reading, in connection with the studies of the school, and the various departments of useful knowledge. The teacher should be able to extend his own acquaintance with the studies pursued, and to illustrate and explain any name, date, event, terms of art or science, or oth-or annual tax which effectually excludes the abject poor, and er allusion or question which might occur in the regular lesson, or which the natural curiosity of children, if encouraged, would suggest. Above all should he be furnished with the best books which have been published on education, and especially with that class which have special reference to the duties and labors of the school room, and have been prepared by experienced and successful teachers. Children, even the youngest should be provided with such books, adapted to their eye and capacity as will invest their studies with new interest, help them to observe and understand what they see and hear by the road side, in the field and in their daily conversations, and form a high standard to aim at in manners, morals and intellectual attainments. Many an idle hour would thus be redeemed, and the process of self-culture be commenced, which would go on long after their school life was ended. To ensure this, the farmer, mechanic, manufacturer, and in fine, all the inhabitants of a district, of both sexes, and in every condition and employment of life, should have books which will shed light and dignity on their several vocations, help them better to understand the history and condition of the world, and country in which they live, their own nature, and their relations and duties to society, themselves and their Creator. All that is wanted to fill the community with diligent and profitable readers among all classes, is to gratify the natural curiosity of every child "to know," to convert that curiosity into a well regulated taste, and confirm that taste into a habit, by easy access to a library of appropriate books. Without such books the instruction of the school room does not become practically useful, and the art of printing is not made available to the poor as well as the rich. The rich can always command more or less of the valuable works which the teeming press of the day is throwing off, but the poor must depend for their reading on such books as public libraries easily accessible, or the benevolence of more favored individuals may supply. Wherever such libraries have existed, and especially in towns blessed with a school of a higher order than the district school, and a clergyman of the right stamp, there the abundant fruits have been seen, in the number of educated

expended, in the purchase of books, more than half a million of "Within the five years limited by the law, there will have been dollars. Although an injudicious choice of books is sometimes made, these libraries generally include history and biography, voy. ages and travels, works on natural history and the physical sciences, treatises upon agriculture, commerce, manufactures and the arts, and judicious selections from modern literature. Henceforth, no citizen who shall have improved the advantages offered by our com. mon schools, and the District Libraries, will be without some scientific knowledge of the earth, its physical condition and phenomena, the animals that inhabit it, the vegetables that clothe it with verdure, and the minerals under its surface, the physiology, and the intellec tual powers of man, the laws of mechanics, and their practical uses, of moral and political economy, the history of nations, and espe those of chemistry and their application to the arts, the principles democratic principle in the governments on this continent, and the cially that of our own country, the progress and triumph of the prospects of its ascendency throughout the world, the trials and taith, valor and constancy of our ancestors, with the inspiring examples of benevolence, virtue and patriotism exhibited in the lives of the benefactors of mankind. The fruits of this enlightened and beneficent enterprise are chiefly to be gathered by our successors. But the present generation will not be altogether unrewarded. Al though many of our citizens may pass the District Library, heed