The progress of improvement in education has not hitherto been duly aided by combined and concentrated effort,-by mutual understanding and efficient co-operation. That this advantage is highly desirable needs not to be inculcated on any one who has attentively observed the operations or the progress of the religious and philanthropic institutions of the day. The piety and benevolence of separate individuals might have done much for the happiness of man, but could never have achieved the magnificent result of translating the scriptures into the languages of so many nations, nor that of turning a whole people from the rites of idolatry, or the habits of barbarism. It is matter of regret, that, whilst the zeal of thousands has been made to meet on so many other objects, and push them onward to brilliant success, no such union has hitherto been attempted in the great cause of education. Here and there we have had an excellent school-book, an eminent instructer, a vigilant and faithful school-committee, a distinguished institution, a memorable endowment, or a local arrangement which has justly immortalised its projectors. But there has not been any attempt made to offer to the country at large, the benefits likely to result from an association of men eminent and active in literature, in science, and in public life; from an extensive interchange of views on the part of instructers or from an enlighted and harmonious concurrence in a uniform set of books fitted to become the vehicles of instruction, and rendered as perfect as the united judgement of literary men and of teachers could make them. School-committees have labored industriously, indeed, but from the want of a proper channel of communication, they have not acted in concert. Endowments have, in not a few instances, been conferred with so little judgement as to become disadvantageous rather than beneficial; and town and state policy in regard to education has, though admirable in its temporary results, and its restricted sphere, been so cramped in respect to time and place, as to lose much of its proper influence. A society such as is proposed, would, in all probability, do away these and similar impediments to the career of improvement, and prove a powerful engine in accelerating the intellectual progress, and elevating the character, of the nation. 1. As the earliest stages of education require, from their prospective importance, as well as their natural place, the peculiar attention of parents and teachers, the proposed society would direct its attention to every thing which might seem likely to aid parents in the domestic education of their offspring, or in the establishment of schools for infants. 2. Another object of the society would be to aid instructers in the 487 discharge of their duties. So much has recently been written and so well on this subject, that it seems to require but little discussion here.* Let it suffice to say that every effort would be made, which might seem likely to be of service to teachers, whether by the training of youth with reference to the business of teaching, by instituting lectures on the various branches of education, by suggesting methods of teaching these branches, by using, in a word, every means of imparting a facility in communicating knowledge and in directing the youthful mind; so as to furnish instructers with the best attainable knowledge and the best possible qualifications in the branches which they might wish to teach. A school or college for teachers, though an excellent and a practicable object, cannot be put into operation in a day, nor by any single act of legislature, nor by the solitary efforts of any individual. If there is a season for every thing under the sun, there must be, in this undertaking, an incipient stage of comparative feebleness and doubt and experiment and hazard, which, however, will no doubt give place to a day of ample success, in an unparalelled amount of private and public good. The only questions are, Where shall this undertaking be commenced?-when?-and by whom?Should a simultaneous movement to effect this great object be made, as in all probability it will in New-York, in Connecticut, and in Massachusetts, and perhaps in other states,† such a society as is now proposed might contribute valuable services to the measures which might be adopted for this purpose. The society ought not to restrict its attention to instructers of any order, but should endeavor to embrace the services and the duties of all, from the lowest to the highest in the scale of advancement; and the mutual understanding, and the universal co-operation thus secured in the business of instruction, would probably be one of the greatest advantages resulting from this society.‡ 3. An object of vast importance in the formation of a society such as is contemplated, would be the collecting of a library of useful works on education. The members of the society would, by means of such assistance, proceed more intelligently and efficiently, in the prosecution of their views; and if the library were made to comprise copies of every accessible school book, American or Euro We refer to the interesting publications of Messrs. Gallaudet and Johnson, and the messages of Governors Clinton and Lincoln, as well as occasional articles in several periodical works, and recent pamphlets on education. + See the messages of Governors Clinton and Lincoln, and the report of the committee of the Legislature of Connecticut. See Jullien's Questions on Education in Nos. 7 and 8 of this Journal. pean, it would furnish its readers with the means of valuable and extensive improvement in their respective branches of instruction. The advantage thus afforded would be equally serviceable to such of the society as might be employed in aiding teachers by lectures or otherwise, and to those teachers themselves. 4. A subject closely connected with the preceding would be the improvement of school-books. It is a thing not merely convenient or advantageous to education, and to the character of our national literature, that there should be a uniformity in school-books throughout the country: this subject possesses a political value, which reaches even to the union by which we are constituted a powerful and independent nation. Local peculiarities of sentiment, and undue attachments to local custom, are the results in a great mea sure, of education. We do not surely lay ourselves open to the imputation of being sanguine, when we venture to say that a national uniformity in plans of instruction, and in school-books, would furnish a bond of common sentiment and feeling, stronger than any that could be produced by any other means, in the season of early life. The precise extent to which this desirable improvement might be carried would, of course, depend, in some degree, on the feelings of individuals, no less than on those of any society. But every rational and proper effort would no doubt be made to render such arrangement agreeable to the views and wishes of instructers, and of the authors of school-books, throughout the United States. 5. In the present early stage of this business it is thought better not to multiply or extend observations, but to leave details for a more matured stage of procedure. A useful guide to particular regulations is accessible in Count De Lasteyrie's Nouveau Système d'Education. See that pamphlet, or the translation of part of it, given in the appendix to Dr. Griscom's Mutual Instruction. Another useful guide will be found in M. M-A. Jullien's Esquisse d'un Ouvrage sur l'Education Comparée &c, mentioned in the last note on the preceding page. 6. The vastly desirable benefit of complete and harmonious cooperation, would require that several, if not all, of the large towns and cities in the United States, should contain a central committee for managing the concerns of such a society; as auxiliaries to which and modelled on the same plan, professional men and teachers, as well as other persons interested in education, and capable of promoting it, might associate themselves in every town or convenient vicinity. A corresponding member from every such association, and one or more from a central committee, might, with great ease and dispatch, conduct all the business of the proposed society in any one State; and a similar arrangement on the great scale, might complete the organisation of the society for the United States. The whole affair offers nothing either complicated or troublesome: all that is wanted is a sufficiency of zeal and enterprise to commence and of perseverance to sustain the undertaking. For an idea of the good likely to be accomplished by a society for the improvement of education, reference may be made to the proceedings of the French Society of Education, or to the present condition of the primary schools of Holland, which have attained to that condition through the efforts of a society duly impressed with the value of education, and vigorously devoting themselves to its improvement. The result of that society's labors has been nothing short of an intellectual and moral regeneration in the sphere of its action, accomplished, too, in the brief space of thirty years. Mention might here be made also of the British and Foreign School Society which has done so much for the dissemination of improved instruction at home and abroad; and which has rendered the benefits of education as accessible to the people of England, as they have been or are to those of Scotland, of New England, or of Holland. We might mention, too, the Infant School Society as an institution which is dispensing the blessings of early instruction and moral refinement, among the youngest class of British population. The subject of this article is one in which we hope all our readers will feel an interest; and we would take this opportunity of inviting persons who have been revolving this or similar subjects in their minds, to favor us with their thoughts in any form which may suit their own views. We shall be happy to select such communications as may suit for insertion in the pages of the Journal, for the purpose of increasing public interest in a topic so important to national improvement, and of accelerating the formation of such a society as has been proposed. REVIEWS. An Address delivered at the Collegiate Institution in Amherst, Massachusetts. By Heman Humphrey, D.D. on occasion of his Inaugu ration to the Presidency of that Institution, October, 15, 1823. Bos ton: 1823. pp. 40. THE main subject of this address has lost none of its merits from the length of time which has elapsed since it was delivered. After suitably noticing the character of his predecessor, and making a very brief but touching allusion to the circumstances under which he was himself called to occupy the place left vacant by the death of President Moore, Dr. Humphrey proceeds to call the attention of his audience to Education as the inspiring theme of an hour's meditation. 'This' says he 'in a free, enlightened and christian state, is confessedly a subject of the highest moment.' And the fact that it must always remain so, stamps a value on every effort to enlighten public opinion on any points that have a bearing, even a remote one, upon any of its interests: on 'every inquiry which relates to the philosophy of the human mind-to the early discipline and cultivation of its noble powers-to the comparative merits and defects of classical books and prevaling systems of instruction—to the advantages accruing from mathematical and other abstruse studiesto the means of educating the children of the poor in our public seminaries to the present state of science and literature in our country; and to the animating prospects which are opening before us. All these topics and many more, nearly related, present themselves to the enlightened and philanthropic mind, as it looks abroad from some commanding eminence, or ranges at leisure over the wide and busy fields of human improvement.' Dr. H. divides his subject into the three great branches of physical, intellectual, and moral improvement, including all that is requisite to form a sound and healthy body, a vigorous and wellstored mind, and a good heart.' About five pages of the address are devoted to the first of these three divisions, and they eloquently portray the advantages of an early, faithful and persevering endeavor on the part of parents, to lay the foundation of a healthy constitution in their offspring by subjecting them to that course of regimen, which takes the infant from the cradle, and conducts him along through childhood and youth, up to high maturity, in such a manner, as to give strength to his arm, swiftness to his feet, solidity and amplitude to his muscles, symmetry to his frame, and expan sion to all his vital energies,' Advice of this nature strikes with peculiar force on almost every ear. There is scarce a social circle among us, which does not mourn over the untimely decline and death of some youthful member; there is scarce a society or parish, that has not had to lament the blasting of their hopes by the wasting hand of consumption, laid heavily and surely on the young minister of promise, of piety and talent. Can these inroads of disease be prevented? Can any of life be recommended, which shall prepare the frame to combat with climate, and nature, and weariness of mind? Or shall we content ourselves with the belief that this scourge of our country exists in the air we breathe, irresistibly commissioned by over-ruling Providence to say to the tide of knowledge, Thus far shalt thou go habits |