fulness, and he reserves his own immediate attention for their riper age; and yet before the child shall be taken under his especial care, its habits, its disposition, and its mode of thinking and of actting may be radically formed, and these may entirely counteract all his judicious efforts for the correct education of his children.

I repeat it, therefore, it is all important that those who will early have so much influence over the young, and in consequence over their after conduct, should at the same time have the ability to instruct them.

There is one other consideration which presses upon us the importance of thoroughly educating our female children-it is the consideration of public good. I have endeavored to show that a judicious education must eventuate in their individual happiness, and in the happiness of those domestic circles, to which they shall respectively belong. And what is public happiness but the aggregate of domestic happiness? Well regulated families make a well regulated community. From these seats of discipline and affection is imparted that social order, and those wholesome rules which bind men together in bonds of affection, as well as of interest, and tend essentially to promote the general weal.

Licentiousness in a people, may be traced to licentiousness in the circles of private life. Virtue is sapped there, corruption commences there, and from thence is its poison diffused through the veins of the body politic.

These children who now repose on the bosom of maternal affection, are to be the future arbiters of the state. These are to form our magistrates, our legislators, our rulers. To their keeping are to be intrusted all the immunities we possess. If they are intelligent and virtuous, in their hands these immunities will be safe: if they are ignorant and base, by their instrumentality may those great blessings be jeopardised or lost. Let their minds therefore be taken hold of early and powerfully, let them be trained from childhood to the exercise of manly thought, and be imbued with the principles of a strict and unyielding integrity.

In every point of light therefore, in which it can engage our attention, how important is the female character, how great its influence upon the well-being and the operations of man! Wherever an opportunity has been afforded to it of developing its capacities, it has shown itself worthy of all the culture it has received, and equal to what it has undertaken to perform; respectable in all those departments of literature in which it has been employed, unrivalled in those of taste, of fancy, and of feeling.

Thus calculated both to adorn and to instruct, if we but improve the natural talents of our female children; if we but give to them a good education, we prepare them to become the ornaments of their

families, a blessing to their children, and to rank deservedly among the useful and meritorious members of the community.

I have thought it necessary to make these remarks upon the opening of this Institution, which, on a liberal scale, is to be exclusively devoted to female education. I have thought it necessary, because, although at this enlightened period a general sentiment prevails in favor of extending the benefits of a good education in common to our children; yet prejudices do exist in the minds of many worthy parents, against the necessity of giving what is termed a finished education to their female children.

I would not wish to be understood as advocating their attention to any abstruse branches of science. Such knowledge is not necessary for them, nor would it be useful, and the prejudices against female learning may have arisen from its being in some cases improperly directed; but I do advocate their being made thoroughly acquainted with those branches of knowledge which will be particularly useful in all the various concerns of life. They should be made critically acquainted with their own language; and it would be well that they also receive instruction in other modern languages, and especially in the French, the use of which at present so generally prevails. They should be made acquainted with the world in which they live; its form, countries, beings, and properties. Their studies should be directed to practical arithmetic, to geography thoroughly, and to the principles of astronomy. All these branches of education are comprehended in the course of instruction which is prescribed for this Seminary; and it will be found upon examining this course, that those subjects of knowledge, which are necessary for females in domestic economy, have not been sacrificed to those which are ornamental. Such a judicious selection has been made both of study and employment for the pupils as is suited to their sex, and will prepare them for presiding with skill and prudence in those domestic stations, for which providence has designed them. This course of education will, as far as it is practicable, be pursued upon the monitorial system of instruction. The advantages of this system, in regard to elementary instruction, we have had sufficient time and opportunity to test fully during the last year, in our school for male children; and as some have expressed apprehensions, lest in so great a collection of female children, it might be difficult to preserve that order and neatness which their sex peculiarly requires, I would answer those apprehensions by referring those who entertain them to the public schools established for the education of poor female children in various parts of this city. I have never witnessed more discipline-neatness-propriety of conduct, and greater proficiency among pupils, than I have witnessed in those public schools. In fact, I would invite those who doubt,

to visit those schools-it is the most powerful argument I can use; for I venture to say, that no one can visit them without feelings of the deepest emotion, and without being fully convinced of their great utility in all those elementary principles of education to which those schools are devoted.

This Seminary commences under the fairest auspices. It is established in a part of the city which has been uniformly healthy, and which in the course of a few years will be in the very centre of our population. The ladies who will teach in its different departments have been highly distinguished in other institutions, and some of them have had much experience in the monitorial method of instruction.

We therefore recommend this Institution to your patronage, and we trust that your children who shall be instructed in it, will by their moral conduct and their literary acquirements, repay your attention to them, reflect credit upon their instructers, and afford in themselves the best testimony that the patronage which you shall have bestowed upon this Institution, shall not have been bestowed in vain.

Board of Trustees.

John T. Irving, President; Gulian C. Verplanck, Vice President; Thomas R. Mercein, Secretary; Isaac Collins, Treasurer.

Members.

Stephen Allen, Samuel Boyd, Robert C. Cornell, Robert Sedgwick, Samuel Cowdrey, Dr. A. W. Ives, Lindley Murray, William Lawton, W. W. Fox, Philip Hone, Dr. Thomas Cook, Charles King, Cornelius Dubois, Thomas Eddy, Benjamin Demilt, Charles Town, James A. Hamilton, Morris Robinson, Archibald M'Vickar, Daniel Lord jun., James Benedict.

CHRIST CHURCH SUNDAY SCHOOL, BOSTON.

[The following account is extracted from the Report of the Superintendent of Christ Church Sunday School, Boston. It furnishes, we think, much useful matter, not only for the teachers of Sunday schools, but for every instructer who has the charge of young children, in any department of education. In the management of this school, valuable improvements seem to be borrowed from the methods of Lancaster, and Pestalozzi, and from the no less valuable, though somewhat obsolete, method of familiar explanatory instruction from the lips of the teacher, without regard to name or theory. The superintendent has, from all

these sources, compiled an ingenious and practical arrangement, which seems excellently adapted to the purposes of instruction. The valuable report, to which our present extracts form the appendix, is, we understand, to appear soon in print. That it will form a very desirable contribution to improvements in education, we have no doubt; and we hope that it will be extensively perused by parents and teachers.]

PLAN OF INSTRUCTION ADOPTED IN CHRIST CHURCH SUNDAY SCHOOL.

In giving an account of our plan of instruction, it will be necessary to advert to the manner in which our scholars are arranged, the order of lessons, &c.

Arrangement of Classes.

The children are arranged in classes, according to the best estimation we can form of their capacities for receiving and retaining instruction. They are divided into five classes; the highest of which is denominated the monitorial class, and is at present entirely under the care of the Superintendent. It is composed of those children, of both sexes, who, having attended to the lessons of the other classes, are preparing to become teachers in the school. When any of the teachers are absent, their places are supplied from this class.

The other scholars are divided into four classes; and each class is subdivided into as many sub-classes, called divisions, as are found to be necessary. At present, there are two divisions in each class. A teacher is appointed to each division. There is also a preparatory class, in which new scholars are placed, and continue till they are qualified to enter one of the regular classes.

The arrangement of the children according to their different capacities, brings together, in each class, children of nearly the same age. But as many children have better capacities than the average of those of their own age, and many others are below that average, this division will never be exactly according to their ages. The following Table exhibits the arrangement of our classes on this principle; and from it we form our scheme of the proper lessons to be learned by each of the classes.

Class IV. Division 2. Children under 4 years of age.

Our course of instruction is on an extensive plan; but the number of those who are able to avail themselves of it are few, compared with the whole number of our scholars. Many enter the school at an age more advanced than that of our lowest class, and others continue only a short time, or leave the school before they have gone through the prescribed course. Those who continue till they have gone through all the classes, attend to a complete and systematic course of lessons, and may be said to have a regular religious education. Those who do not enter at an early age cannot, at first, be placed in classes consisting of pupils of their own age and capacity; but if they are diligent, and attend faithfully to all the studies assigned them in the preparatory class, and the reviews taken by the other scholars of their previous lessons, they may, a short time, be raised to a standing with those of their own age and capacity. Those who leave school before the prescribed age, will of course lose all the benefit of the lessons learned in the clas ses to which they have not been advanced.

Lessons.

These are arranged in the following order.

1. Sermon.

in

2. Scripture.

3. Short catechism for children who are unable to read.

4. Hymns suited for

do.

do.

5. Morning and evening prayers for children of 3 or 4 years

6. Graces before and after meals.

7. Prayers on entering and leaving church.

8. Hymns.

old.

9. Morning and evening prayers for children from 4 to 8 years old. 10. Introduction to Church Catechism.

11. Church Catechism.

12. Explanation of the Festivals and Fasts.

13. Method of finding the places in the Bible and Prayer Book

easily.

"" reading the Bible so as to understand it the more

15. Prayers for children from 8 to 14 years old.

16. Explanation and Enlargement of the Catechism.

17. Exercises on the Catechism.

18. Explanation of the Liturgy, and directions for a decent and de

vout behavior in public worship.

19. Harmony of the Creeds, and the Creeds proved from Scripture. 20. Collects and prayers from Prayer Book.