Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, By WILLIAM C. WOODBRIDGE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. Tattle, Weeks & Dennett Power Press....17 School St. PREFACE. THE labor of six years, in sustaining a periodical on Education, has not diminished the Editor's sense of its importance. He came abroad in search of strength and materials, which would enable him to pursue his task to better advantage. But a wise Providence calls upon him by unforeseen changes in his state of health, to prolong his stay in Europe, and to resign the immediate charge of the Annals to other hands. To this intimation that his care is no longer necessary, he cheerfully submits. And at such a moment, he is deeply grateful that this same Providence enables him to congratulate the friends of the work on the accomplishment of the great object of his efforts and theirs. He trusts that it may now be announced with safety that the existence of one American Journal of Education is secured, so far as it can be by a solid commercial basis and by the number and activity of its supporters. He knows not that he could have chosen a more favorable period to retire from his post than that which Superior Wisdom has appointed; and he commits the work, with much confidence, to this same direction, and to the care of its friends. He adopts this resolution with the more cheerfulness, from the belief, that those on whom the immediate direction of the work will devolve, possess the zeal and qualifications necessary for this task. Dr Wм. A. ALCOTT, the gentleman to whom the domestic editorial labor will be committed, is well known to the public as the author of several works, which exhibit the correctness of his views, as well as his zeal, on the subject of education. It is only necessary to say that he has been the constant assistant of the Editor from the commencement of the Annals; that he has written some of its most valuable articles; and that for six months past it has been exclusively under his direction. His judgment and his views, in undertaking this task furnish a sufficient guaranty that he will maintain the great principles which have been established; that he will not permit the work to become the vehicle of the spirit of party or sect― of the personalities, or the ultraisms, or the papal exclusiveness which characterize too many of the publications of the present day; - and that he will not seek to gain a transient popularity, either -- C 65067 |