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A regard for the Bible.-Sincerity.

with which we have rightfully associated any of that reverence which belongs to the Deity; such as the Sabbath, the Bible, the ordinances and truths of religion, death, judgment and eternity.

3. Every teacher should show a proper regard for the Bible. It is scarcely necessary to say that there may be a superstitious regard for this holy book, as well as a rational one. But there is a manner of treating it which cannot fail of making very favorable moral and religious impressions. It is not, indeed easy to illustrate the idea which we are now endeavoring to enforce. Let every teacher duly consider the subject— let him recollect the author of the book, his character, his purposes in sending it, and our responsibility in receiving it, and it seems to us he cannot fail to perceive both the force and the bearing of the sentiment.

4. The teacher who aims to be a successful religious teacher, should be a truly religious man. It is not sufficient that he wear the drapery of religion; it is not sufficient that he attend public worship, kneel or bow at the altar, and say, Lord, Lord! unless he is in earnest. The world, especially the juvenile world, are eagle-eyed to discern and detect insincerity, wherever it exists; and as ready to despise as to detect it.

We have seen teachers who passed with the world, for religious men; and who doubtless thought they were so. They passed current with the world, we say; yes, even with the juvenile as well as the adult world. That is to say, their pupils, who witnessed their words on the Lord's day, and at other times, could by no means refuse to them the general character of religious people. And yet they could see imperfection. They could and did discover a heartlessness in their conduct, whose impression was inevitable. We beg teachers to remember this; and to remember moreover, to beware with what intent' they approach the sacred place and sacred services, in the presence of those whose eyes are keener to discern things as they really are, than most of us are accustomed to suppose. We do not urge them to deepen the semblance of religious devotion, and a devotional spirit; for this would be to encourage a deeper instead of a less glaring hypocrisy. But we beg them to be what they and their pupils know they ought to be. We beg them to become humble and devoted worshippers of that God who is a spirit, and who requires that we should worship him in spirit and in truth, or else quit their vocation. The responsibility of a teacher or a parent is too weighty to be borne by any but the humble and the contrite; they who are conformed, in all things, to the spirit and temper of Christ.

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We have now mentioned four different ways, or means, of producing religious impressions on a school, to which we suppose no individual or sect in the wide world, would ever present an objection. But there are other means of accomplishing the same result, which we think will be regarded, with few exceptions, as equally unexceptionable.

5. We believe few parents-if indeed any-would even object to opening and closing the school, every day, with the reading of a few verses from the Bible, and a short prayer. There are some who would object, perhaps, to requiring the pupils to be concerned, formally, with the exercise as in reading a verse; or number of verses, in their turn. But the teacher may read them; there is seldom, if ever, any objection to this.

6. Another admirable and so far as we know, universally acceptable method of making religious impressions, is by frequent appeals to the Bible, for authority in enforcing discipline. Thus the fifth command, which enjoins and enforces obedience to parents, may be read, and sundry other passages of the same import. The duty of servants to masters, may be referred to, as in Ephesians. Passages may be read condemning the fault committed, or requiring the conduct or duty which is omitted, &c.

7. There are a few teachers who possess in a greater or less degree of perfection, the happy talent of Dr Franklin; that of drawing, with great readiness, moral lessons from the commonest occurrences. When a person who is not only moral, like Franklin, but truly religious, possesses this happy talent, tempered with some discretion, he may not only moralize but spiritualize, on the most familiar events of life. But no teacher should fail to seize on sudden accidents or deaths, and striking or unexpected events, of any sort whatever, as a means of making those impressions which, in our present state, it is one object of the Creator to produce on us by all his dispensations.No parent, so far as our own observation has extended, ever complains of this sort of instruction. Few indeed, seem to regard it as religious instruction, unless it has some immediate connection with prayers or religious exercises.

8. Dr Paley thought the habit of seeing God in his works was peculiarly valuable. For example, in studying the wonderful adaptation of the parts of an animal to the purposes which they subserve, as the soft wide spread foot of the camel, to the sandy deserts he is made to travel over; and the fine warm fur which covers animals in the cold climates of the north; he thought the habit of looking upward to the great contriver of these things, was one of the most desirable habits in the world. Now we think this habit should be assiduously and strenuously cultivated by

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Where Character is chiefly formed.

the schoolmaster. It can be done in the study of almost any thing whatever. The wisdom of God, in the works of Creation and Providence, shines out every where; and he must be a stupid teacher indeed, who does not perceive it; and an unfortunate one-if such a person there be-who has not the art of directing that way, the attention of his pupils. Perhaps the mind of the young cannot be more readily drawn to look through Nature up to Nature's God, than in the study of the anatomy and physiology of the human being. A teacher, however, whose heart is full on this subject will find God-we mean now through his laws-every where; not in men alone, not in the huge animal, or the gigantic tree alone; but in the meanest of all animal and vegetable and mineral forms; nay, in the simpler elements of water, earth, air, &c.

But we must reserve for another occasion, the most important as well as most interesting method-for common schools-of engaging the attention of the young, and leading out their affections to their Father in Heaven. On that, we shall dwell at considerable length; for we flatter ourselves that if we present nothing which is truly valuable, it will at least have one recommendation; that of novelty. It is a plan of religious instruction, of which, it is believed, few district school teachers-possibly none but ourselves-have, to any considerable extent availed themselves; but to which no parent of any christian sect whatever, would ever think of objecting for a single moment.

INSTRUCTION BY HOUSEKEEPERS.

[THE following is extracted from a volume 424 pages, written by the editor of this journal, and just published by George W. Light of this city, entitled 'The Young Housekeeper, or Thoughts on Food and Cookery.' Though intended principally for housekeepers, it is, after all, in its bearing and tendency, little else than a work on physical education.]

'We boast of our literary institutions-our infant schools, our common schools, our high schools, our institutes, our colleges, our universities. But what is the influence of these, excellent as it may be, compared with that of the kitchen and parlor ? Say what we will, it is here-exactly here-that our characters, even in a literary point of view, are determined. I would not say formed; for of this, I am not so sure. But I have never yet

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known, personally-others may have known such instances-of a lover of knowledge or moral progress, who was not initiated into this love by those who had the control of his early infancy and his childhood. On the contrary, I could fill half this volume with anecdotes of those in whom the seeds of that love of literature and science which they subsequently manifested, was sown in early infancy by that maternal teacher whose influence is, after all, most awakening, most impressive, and most perma

nent.

Were it left to my choice to say which of two things the world should have-the right sort of household management and education, with no school instruction whatever, or the best sort of school education of every grade, but without any thing done in the household beyond what is now done by nine tenths if not nineteen twentieths of mankind-I should not hesitate a moment to decide on the former. Such is the value I attach to the domestic institution and the family school; and such are my conceptions of the native dignity of housekeeping.

I do not mean by all this, that the house-keeper is to have, necessarily, her set hours and set lessons of instruction, though I wish her to have time for even these. But I mean that she should so manage in all concerns of the household-and these it is which, as I shall never cease to repeat, go far to form character, the great object and end of education-that the results, along with the aid of those who co-operate with her, shall do more for the children which form a part of it, than all else which is done for them, directly or indirectly, in the whole process of their forming stage of progress. But is not that the truest, noblest literary institution in the world-nay, is it not more than all others-which secures all this as its inevitable results?

Let me not be understood as saying, that in the present state of things, every housewife who had leisure to do things as she ought, and to control things as she ought, would do them right. There would be still, as there now is, both good and bad education. But even as the general knowledge of housewives now is, the common belief that the family is more important, because more influential on character than all other schools, would be in favor of human happiness, provided they would adopt, as speedily as may be, those principles, and that rational system of housekeeping, which it is the object of this work to recommend and inculcate.

I would have the young housekeeper form and pursue a meditated plan or system for her own comfort and health, but much more for the sake of her own peace, and quiet, and edification. I would have her do so for the comfort also of her hus

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Instruction at Home.

band and children, who are certainly, at all times, the more happy for it, in body and mind. But I would have her do so, above all, that she may find time not only to do her work slowly and instruct her daughters-yes, and her sons, too-in regard to the nature of her employments; but to give them numerous lessons in philosophy, chemistry, natural history, physiology, health, &c.

Nor should I be satisfied till she had so simplified her business, as to find time, even for set lessons in her family, both in the forenoon and in the afternoon. The education-the right education-of a family of children, seems to me, I must say again, the more important part of the duty of a housekeeper, provided she is, at the same time, as I maintain she generally should be, the wife and the mother.

But this subject of combining house-keeping with maternal instruction, cannot be pursued to its full extent in this volume. I will only repeat here a remark which can never be too often repeated, that the combination of elementary instruction with household duties, is one of the best methods-perhaps the only successful method-which can ever be devised for rendering the family what it was obviously intended by Divine Providence it should be, the most agreeable as well as most happy place in the world, for the young of both sexes.

It is almost unnecessary to add, that should the time ever arrive, when the sons and daughters of our citizens come to prefer the kitchen, the parlor, the garden and the chamber, and the company and familiar conversation of the mother and of each other, to all the pleasures and enjoyments to be found abroad, half the temptation, and half the vice and crime in the world, will be prevented.'

PREPARATORY, OR FAMILY INSTRUCTION.

UNDER this head, I might include all that kind of instruction which is given either at home or at school, or which is believed to be indispensably necessary, prior to a child's commencing the regular study of any of the sciences. Thus, before he commences the study of grammar, as such, there is a process of preparation for it, which is of the utmost importance, if we mean to have the subsequent study of this science either pleasant or useful. It is for want of this preparation, more than for any other reason, that grammar now is and long has been considered both dry and unintelligible.