and conveniences of the school-room are not equalled by those of any room that has fallen under our observation.

A fund is appropriated for the purchase of books and stationary for the use of the scholars. These articles are in the hands of suitable monitors, who deliver them to such children as need them, and charge the wholesale price for them. At the end of each quarter these monitors make a return to the treasurer of the amount delivered each child, which amount is included in the quarter bills. It is perfectly optional, however, with the parents to purchase of the trustees, or furnish their children in any other way. Two monitors have the care of the library, and deliver books to the pupils, once a week. No additional charge is made for the use of the library, apparatus, and fuel, or for instruction in the afternoon school, which was not in operation when the terms were fixed.

REVIEWS.

Elements of History, ancient and modern, with Historical Charts. By J. E. Worcester. Boston, 1826. PP. 324.

An Historical Atlas, containing 1. A Chart of General History.2. of Ancient Chronology.-3. Modern Chronology.-4. European Sovereigns.-5. Chronological, Genealogical, and Historical Chart of England.-6. of France.-7. American History.-8. Biography.-9. Mythology. By J. E. Worcester. Boston, 1826.

MR. WORCESTER, whose excellent works in the department of geography, have done so much for the improvement of that branch of education, has here rendered a still more valuable service to young students of history. Many of our readers have no doubt felt dissatisfied, either as parents or as teachers, with the common routine of historical education. One or two defective methods of instruction is prevalent. The pupil is either expected to 'recite' with perfect verbal fidelity, indeed, but with little regard to the train of thought or the course of the narrative, long paragraphs of words, about the meaning of which he is seldom troubled. As for the collateral branches of biography, mythology, and chronology, the impression seems to be that the study of history acquires a desirable simplicity, when relieved of such encumbrances! Another plan is to break up the continuity of historical narration, by reducing a lesson to fractional parts, and employing for this purpose the convenient form of question and answer,-by means of which, half the toil and trouble of the method just mentioned, is devolved on the

teacher, who faithfully recites the question printed for him, and receives the recitation of an equally faithful and unmeaning answer, in return.

Most parents who put themselves to the trouble of trying the value of these methods of what is falsely called instruction, and ask their children at home, a plain fire-side question on the substance of a lesson, find how little is actually understood, and how little is really gained, in either of the ways we have described.

After several years trial of various methods, the following seems to the writer of this article, to be the most successful way of making history an intelligible, practical, and interesting branch of education. In the first stages of instruction, abandon entirely the use of books, and resort to the simple and pleasing method of oral information. The teacher's first duty, on this plan, is to make himself familiar with all the details of the history of the city, town, or village in which he teaches, and to take particular notice of every spot or object which is linked with an historical association,-with the occurrence of any remarkable event. The second step in this practical method of teaching, is, to carry the young learners to as many as possible of these places or objects, and to fasten on the youthful mind a correct and abiding impression of them, as connected with the event which gives them their celebrity or their interest. Here are several great points gained: the health of the pupils is benefited by the fresh open air, and the invigorating exercise of walking; the corporeal effort and enjoyment produce an active and excited and happy state of mind;—every thing wears the aspect of reality, of nature, and of life;-curiosity is excited to the highest pitch, and receives its amplest gratification;-from the living voice of the teacher, the ear drinks in instruction with delight, in the very scene of the strange or romantic or glorious action which has left its indelible impress on the spot;-the teacher, too, loses the character of the taskmaster, and becomes the living and venerated oracle of his young circle of listeners, he becomes one of their sources of pleasure, and is loved accordingly. These results are brilliant; but they are not imaginary: they are those which took place in the early lessons received in childhood by the individual who writes this article, and which he has had the happiness of seeing realised in the young listeners to his own words.

Here, a person who is unacquainted with this method of instruction, may start an objection. But what if there is no high, romantic, and kindling interest in the scene where you teach? The simple answer is; it is not necessary that there should be. The interesting details of humble adventure, the narrative of domestic life, the tale of the early settlers,-all of which have a poetic charm for the young,-will suit the same purpose, will enkindle

curiosity, secure attention, and convert the study of history, from task or a book-dream, into a pleasing reality.-Another objection may be that, with young pupils, this method of instruction is neeessarily circumscribed:-they cannot walk or travel so far as to enbrace a very wide circle of classical or historic ground. Granted: still, every village has the little story of its early settlement, - 1 its spots or objects noted for something which took place in gone by; and should there be but one such spot or object, serve, if we begin with it, to give the study of history the as reality. For every event read in a wider circle of historical narr: tive, will by association be made to bear a resemblance to this The young pupil will be made to realise that such things were.

state

After such a beginning, the teacher transfers, as far as he can, the same method to the study of the history of the county in which his pupils reside, and afterwards to that of their native country. Geography, or rather topography, being substited for a personal visit to the scene of the narrative; and the in ucter not furnishing his pupils with books, but still retaining the... a listening circle to the words which fall from his lips. The acher may now cross the ocean; and with the additional and fas aid of chronology, biography, mythology, and antiquities, (mentally) his little groupe along with him, and instruct and them with the romantic history of the old world.

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One word on the advantages of this method of instruction, before we return to the works under review.

Early instruction should minister to youthful happine. The most unpleasant scene in human life is that of a teacher, inilicting corporeal and mental pain on a young being who is innocent of crime; and who, but for unintelligible and unmanageable lessons, or rather, as they are happily denominated, tasks, and their horrid consequences-might be happy in the gay morning of his life, enjoying the warmth and the brilliancy of his own delighted feelings. The method of teaching which has been suggested, does not bring over the mind of childhood a single cloud or shadow:-it renders, m fact, more brilliant the sunshine of glad emotion, which is the barthright of the young.

Another advantage of a happy union of the practical and the pleasing in instruction, is, the light in which it places the teacher. To this circumstance we have already adverted; and we leave it to speak for itself, in the situation in which it is there mentioned. Perhaps the most important results of such instruction, are the dissipline if silently gives the mind; the attachment it creates to the bustness of mental application; the force which it imparts to the power of attention, the strength which it infuses into the memory, -the delight and profitable occupation which it furnishes for the

imagination, that most active of all the faculties of the infantine or juvenile mind; the preference which it produces for reality and fact, over fiction and fancy; the practical spirit which it breathes into the habits of the susceptible mind of youth; the useful informa on which it conveys respecting that department of history in

a the learner is most concerned,-the history of his native sc3; the thorough preparation which it constitutes for a wider of historical reading; as well as the deep-rooted attachment When it creates for the scenes of early life.

६। We may mention here another mistake in the common method of teaching this branch of education,-that of beginning with general instead of particular history, and of commencing at the creation of the world, instead of tracing the subject backward from the pre

sent our.

To some of our readers, the attempt to trace the course of events upw in history, may appear strange or whimsical. But, to obviateuch an impression, we have only to ask how history is taugh at the fireside, in the oral communications of the parent. E he could trace his pedigree from Noah downward, he does not choose to begin family history so far back. He relates to his liste g and delighted children his own life and adventures, -the something of their grandfather's. One of the young groupe now ventures, perhaps, a question reaching into the dim antiquity great grandfather's times: the natural progress of the this case, is up, not down the stream. All doubt, however, about the propriety of adopting such a method with young learners, will, we think, be removed by a single attentive perusal of the historical department of Blair's Mother's Catechism. Our philosophical readers we would remind of this fact simply, that such a method of studying history keeps true to the acknowledged propriety of proceeding from the known to the unknown. That the popular arrangement of histories for the young is completely the reverse, we need not say.

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We have strayed far, we must confess, from Mr. Worcester's publications. But our grand object in this journal is usefulness; and if we sometimes sacrifice a minor propriety to our leading purpose, our readers will, we trust, bear with us.

The history and the atlas before us, will, we have no doubt, form the commencement of a new era in this department of education; if they are rightly used. After what we have written in this article, it will hardly be necessary to say to our readers, that what seems to us the proper place of these excellent works, is the close of historical education in schools and academies.

Used at this stage of education, they will be invaluable helps to the understanding and the memory. But if injudiciously thrust by

the teacher into the earliest course of study, they will be found injurious; as all general histories must necessarily be, in such a situation. We mean that they will enable the learner to discourse of the outlines of ancient and modern history, while they do not give him even a glimpse of the events which constitute the oral or the written record of the actions of his fathers. For this result, however, it would be unfair to blame the author who has furnished works so excellently adapted to usefulness in their sphere.

To speak more particularly of the merits of Mr. Worcester's labors: his Elements are a highly valuable work, calculated to do away the loose and vague manner of teaching and learning, which has hitherto prevailed, and to supply the means of communicating and acquiring definite, connected, and practical ideas on this branch of knowledge. A general history like this, being suited to aid the pupil in a review of his acquisitions, rather than to introduce him to the subject, affords less room for the method of teaching which we have suggested. Still, the uniting of the atlas with the elements, tends to render the study of history much more practical and interesting than it has hitherto been; and a judicious application of geography, to aid the pupil's progress in the history, will be found to secure many of the benefits of the system we have recommended. Mr. Worcester's Elements are carefully adapted to the young. Tytler, though, on the whole, a comprehensive and instructive author, is, in some places, too brief and cursory; in others, too philosophically profound for the youthful reader. Mr. Worcester is more just in the apportioning of his pages. He gives due space to every thing important; while he judiciously dwells but a short time on the fabulous and the obscure, and indulges but little in philosophic speculation. There is thus a symmetry and completeness in his work, which make it acceptable to the teacher. The style, too, is more simple than that of most manuals of this kind; and this is a point of no trifling value to the pupil. Had the Elements appeared without the atlas, we should have thought the work too brief for the subject. The author's intention however, is, that the two books should be used in conjunction; and as he has given express directions for the teacher to adopt this plan in instruction, we regard the Elements as filling up the outlines in the atlas, and as inseparable from it, and both works as designed for the purpose of review, rather than of initiatory instruction.

In the general character of the work, there are many traces of laborious research, and careful comparison. Candor and impartiality are equally conspicuous.

But we have left ourselves little room to speak of that part of the work which is comparatively original, and is entitled to the