tion, in connection with some animal, or painted in a color whose name commenced with the letter to be learned.

The instructer may now select the more simple combinations of letters, and some of the easier and more common words. Of these he may make a twofold use. In the first place, one of the older boys may spell them aloud from the rostrum, which the whole school, arranged in classes, may be taught to imitate; and spelling may be thus learned after the manner used in acquiring the first steps in number. They may be also printed in distinct characters on counters. It must not be his wish to confine these counters within a limited number, as the use of them may occasionally form a lesson and an amusement to the whole of his school. For these he may provide a sufficient number of bags or boxes, and having divided them into those combinations which are more simple, and those which are more difficult, the older and more advanced children may teach classes which are less so. For this purpose the class may stand in a line at some little distance from their seat. The monitor may then take from his box one of the counters, and hold it at a sufficient distance before the class. The first child may then approach, and having spelled the word retire again to his place: This may be imitated by all the children in their order. When all have done this separately, they may then all spell the word together, beating time to each letter and to each syllable. By this mode of proceeding several advantages are gained. One word alone is presented at the same moment to the eye. The attention is kept alive by a constant change of place; and the whole is rendered pleasurable by rhythmical movement in the united spelling of the word. The boxes containing the counters should be occasionally changed from one class to another; and if there be a sufficient number of them, all the purposes of spelling may be thus answered.

In reading, it is advisable not to use books in infants' schools, as the little children are not supposed to be sufficiently old to handle them properly; it is difficult too, when each child holds a book, to fix the eyes of all on the word which it is proposed to read. The lessons in large characters may with better effect be fixed on boards. When the lesson is fixed, the little class is assembled round it; and the monitor, with a small piece of stick, points to the word which is to be read, which all the class spell and read together.

In the process of reading, it must also be remarked, the language should always proceed from that which is more simple to that which is more difficult; and the subject, too, should be such as will immediately commend itself to the understanding of a child. It should relate to something which he would most naturally observe in the events around him; some of the earlier duties of life,

or some of those admonitions to which even the weakest efforts of conscience are responsive. The infant should be immediately sensible that what he reads is true; that a possibility is described; that the lesson enforces an effort which is just and proper; that the instruction which he is receiving tends to serenity and peace of mind, and consequent happiness.

I may here further remark, that the mode of instruction thus unfolded may be extended to any measure which circumstances or propriety may suggest. The art of reading, it has been confessed, as every other art of the utility of which they are not able personally to form an estimate, presents some difficulties to the untutored mind of the younger infants. It is an error, however, which is too prevalent in the education of the young, to make this art always introductory to further knowledge. Whatever may be taught by the ear should not be communicated alone by the eye: and wherever the eye may be brought to receive the intended impression by a simple effort, it is unnecessary, in the case of infants, to aid the idea by the intervention of a complicated art. The instruction of infants should, then, be conducted very much by means of narrative or conversation; and the idea should, as much as possible, be assisted by graphic representation, or any other which may secure the aid of more than one of the senses.

If it were necessary, for instance, to teach them the nature of forms, or the relative properties of lines, these might be better effected by the assistance of solids, which they might handle, or by the postures of their own bodies, than by oral descriptions or representations on a flat surface. The progress would thus be from the number of the sides of a solid, or of its lines, to their relative length or form, and thence to their position in the figure. Their names would fall last under notice. A representation on a flat surface alone should in this instance be avoided, because it implies an exercise of mind in comprehending it, many removes beyond any effort to which an infant can have been accustomed. The method of narrative or conversation, with the aid of graphic representation, should be followed in the natural history of those animals with which the little pupils are likely to meet in life; and also of those whose names occur in the sacred volume. And in this department of knowledge, it will not be thought necessary to proceed beyond those points which are more prominent: a description of their form and color; of the country which they inhabit; of the means of their subsistence; of their peculiar habits; and of their various uses to mankind.

It will be manifest that the progress from these, by the same mode of instruction, to a description of some of the more useful arts and trades, will be simple; and as it is more than probable that

the majority of the little assembly will be destined to pass their lives in the employment of one or another of these, they may thus be introduced to an early habit of exercising their mind, and forming their judgement on that which they see around them, and in which they are occupied; and not, as is too frequently the case, be suffered to pass their lives impelled only by necessity, or guided by the inclinations to which the unchastened passions may give birth. THE SCRIPTURES.-The principal subject of instruction, however, should be the sacred volume; and all the ingenuity of the teacher should be exercised to prepare his little charge, not only for a ready use of that book, and a correct understanding of its various subjects, but also to approach it with those devout feelings which it so highly demands, and which are the best pledge of its real utility

to us.

The Scriptures, then, under any form, should not be made a taskbook in an infants' school. They should not be placed before a child until he has acquired a moderate facility in the art of reading; and when read, the instructer should proceed in a different form from that of the common subjects of learning. The teacher should himself always superintend every lesson in the sacred Scriptures. He should endeavor to impress his class with the idea, that this book must be read with more serious and governed feelings than others of less importance and less authority. And he should then carefully lead the attention to each part separately, and teach the little pupils to pronounce the words distinctly and slowly as he may point to them. The lesson should never be so long as to induce a feeling which even approaches to weariness; and it should be at all times accompanied with an explanation of the meaning of every. more difficult word, and every clause as he proceeds. He will find very considerable assistance in this part also of his duty, in previous narrative and conversation, and in the use of suitable pictures. If thus the subject have been first explained from the mouth of the master, and illustrated by a representation of its principal features, the lesson will be read with the greater interest, and will be far more likely to infix itself on the memory and the heart.

WRITING, and SEWING, or KNITTING, are introduced into these schools, in the higher classes, the one of boys and the other of girls, for the purpose of teaching them to exercise manual ingenuity; for variety in their lessons; and to prepare them for the course of instruction in the parochial schools.

The mode of proceeding in the communication of the art of writing is the following. In the first place, the pupils must be instructed in the forms of written letters, until they are able to read them as fluently as the printed letters, with which they meet in their common lessons. Having thus communicated the idea, we

have laid the best foundation for the art itself. For the attainment of this, let a large board, painted black, be prepared and suspended on some conspicuous part of the wall of the room; and on a suitable desk, so placed as to afford an easy view of the board, let the slates be laid, on which the lesson is to be performed.

Now letters, as works of art, may be divided into the most simple elementary forms. These incipient forms, in an order constantly approaching to the construction of letters, and not the letters themselves, should be to infants the introduction to writing. When they are able to imitate them with sufficient accuracy, that which is afterwards necessary will follow without perplexity and with little effort.

When the teacher has prepared and arranged the incipient forms of the letters, he may then, at the periods allotted to this lesson, place his class before their slates, and having himself set the copy with chalk on the black board, superintend their first efforts. His object should not be rapidity of progress, but exactness of imitation. It will be desirable to have one side of the slate plain, on which the first efforts of the learner may be made as inclination may guide him. The other side may have two compartments. The upper may be divided into squares, and the lower into ruled lines. He may then sometimes divide his black board into compartments, similar to those which have been drawn on the slates, and place the copy in one of them, in order that the idea of place and posi tion may be communicated; and for obvious reasons, he may sometimes proceed to describe the form which is to be imitated, between lines.

[Mr. Wilson's method of teaching arithmetic, though it is a decided improvement, on that which is in common use, is not, in our view, so simple and practical as that contained in Part III. of the valuable little work entitled Hints to Parents. We omit therefore the details of Mr. Wilson's plan; and, at our first opportunity, we will give a sketch of the system of instruction recommended in the book we have mentioned.]

(To be continued.)

PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN HOLLAND.

[A FRIEND has put into our hands a pamphlet entitled 'New System of Education; or Mutual Iustruction applied to the languages, the sciences, and the arts, &c. by M. le Compte De Lasteyrie.Paris 1819.--(Transl.)-The most interesting

passage of this work is that which contains an extract from M. Cuvier's Report on the primary schools of Holland. This part of Count Lasteyrie's pamphlet Dr. Griscom has thrown into the Appendix of his valuable Address on monitorial instruction; and as this gentleman's translation is both neat and accurate, we shall employ it for the double purpose of recording facts highly important in the history of education, and of inducing those of our readers who have not yet seen Dr. Griscom's book, to embrace the earliest opportunity of perusing it.

To the friend of improvement in education we can furnish no matter more interesting than that contained in the following report. The spirit which pervades its details, is that precisely which we could wish to infuse into every individual, and every body of men, entrusted with the superintendence or with the actual business of instruction. We leave this article to speak for itself: it will prove we think much more eloquent in behalf of improvement, than could any remark of ours.]

It would be difficult for us to describe the effect produced upon us by the first primary school which we entered in Holland. It was one of those supported by public charity, for the children of the most indigent families, those who in many other countries would be obliged to drag out a miserable life, on the highways, either as mendicants or robbers. Two large, airy, and well-lighted halls, contained three hundred of these children, all in cleanly condition, placing themselves, without disorder, noise, or impoliteness, and performing, at a concerted signal, all that was required of them, without the master's uttering, necessarily, a single word. Not only do they learn by certain and ready methods, to read currently, to write a fine hand, and with entire correctness to perform mentally and by figures, all the calculations necessary in common life, and also to state their thoughts neatly in little essays; but the books which are given them, the pieces which they copy, are so well arranged, and succeed each other in an order so judicious, the precepts and examples are mingled with so much art, that these children become penetrated, at the same time, with the truths of religion, the precepts of morality, and all the knowledge which can be useful in active life, or consoling to them in misfortune. Care is taken to ascertain, by frequent questions, and by exciting them to state their difficulties, that nothing of what they read is lost upon their understandings.

Finally, prayers, and hymns sung in concert, composed expressly for the purpose, and breathing the sentiments of duty or gratitude, give a charm to this instruction, and, at the same time, impress a religious and tender feeling, well calculated to confirm its