The whole number of persons who have received the benefit of the Asylum, is 221. Of these 106 have gone from the institution; leaving 115 for the present number. The State of Massachusetts has supported 77, 18 have been supported, in whole, or in part, by New Hampshire; eight, in the same manner, by Maine; and 18, by Vermont. The rest have been kept in the Asylum at the expense of their friends. No person is received into the institution, who is under ten years of age, or over thirty; nor is any one admitted for a less term than two years. HAWAII.-SANDWICH ISLANDS. Extract of a Letter from Mr. Goodrich to the Corresponding Secretary of the American Board of Foreign Missions. 'The state of things at this station is very interesting. The house of public worship will not contain half that assemble to hear the word of life. The chiefs have lately begun to build a new meeting house of much larger dimensions.— Schools are rapidly increasing in all the eastern half of this island; and all that seems to be wanting is books and teachers. I am unable to supply one twentieth part of the call for books. Some have already left the school, commenced by us about ten months since, and have gone out to teach others; and many other teachers are immediately wanted. I have taken eight or ten persons from different lands to educate for teachers, who, finding their own food, are no expense to the mission. Most of them will soon be qualified to commence the business of instruction. A wide field of usefulness is open here on either hand.' [A view of the state of schools, and of the progress of education generally, at the various missionary stations would, we think, form an interesting subject of contemplation to the friend of intellectual and moral as well as of religious improvement. An article embracing a wide and systematic survey of this kind is in preparation; but the necessary researches have hitherto delayed its completion.] KOSCIUSKO SCHOOL. The Kosciusko School, for the education of Free Colored Youth in the United States, is an institution worthy of the age, and of its enlightened and generous donor. This school, which it is proposed to establish in the vicinity of Newark, N. J. was organised at a recent meeting of the trustees of the African Education Society in that place. The intention is to appropriate the Kosciusko fund, and to raise a similar sum for its endowment. The origin of the Kosciusko fund, and consequently of the name of the school, is explained in the New York Observer as follows: "That distinguished champion of civil liberty, on bis last visit to the U. States, left in the hands of his friend and compeer in patriotism, the venerable Thomas Jefferson, a will, of which he was appointed the Executor. By this will, he gave to Mr. Jefferson a fund, the available amount of which, at this time, will be about $13,000 to be employed in liberating enslaved Africans, and bestowing upon them such an education, as, (to use his own words) would make them better fathers, better mothers, better sons, and better daughters. The ilJustrious and lamented executor, in his life time, intrusted the management and ap plication of this sacred fund to Benjamin L. Lear, Esq. of Washington City, and one of the Board of Trustees; and we are authorised to state, that the appropriation of the fund, upon the principles recommended at the above meeting, and adopted by the trustees, received the decided approbation of Mr. Jefferson." Geneva Gazette. · LIVINGSTON COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL.-GENESEO, NEW YORK. The Committee designated to manage the concerns of the Livingston County High School, have chosen a scite for the buildings of this institution, near the old Town House, on the eminence, about half a mile east of the main street in this village; and we are happy to state that such proposals have been received as will, in all probability, enable the committee to close, within a short time a contract for their erection. We understand that every apparatus necessary for the use of a school upon this plan, will be procured, and every arrangement made for the commencement of the school so soon as the buildings shall be completed. When the general health of this village is considered-its location, and its exemption from the many allurements to dissipation to which students are exposed in cities and larger towns, it must be admitted that a place better fitted for a literary institution, can nowhere be found. A more beautiful site for the buildings can hardly be imagined. The prospect from this eminence is one of the finest in the state. Geneseo Journal. PHYSICAL CULTURE AND MEDICAL ADMONITION. It is with much pleasure that we inform our readers of a periodical paper to be devoted chiefly to the above objects. The Medical Intelligencer has, we understand, passed into the hands of Dr. J. G. Coffin, whose intention is to make it a vehicle of useful information, as acceptable to parents, and to the community at large, as to physicians. The abilities and other qualifications of the new editor, are extensively known and appreciated: this circumstance, as well as that of his having contributed to the pages of our Journal most of the articles on physical education, would make it superfluous or improper to dwell on this point. The most material deficiency, perhaps, that has ever existed in prevailing systems of education, is the want of instruction regarding man's corporeal structure and capacities. Most of those acts or habits of imprudence, which we daily see laying the foundation of fatal disease in persons of every condition in life, proceed from a want of information respecting the human frame, and the means of preserving and improving health. The attention now so generally excited on the subject of physical education will, no doubt, diminish the deplorable frequency of such cases, by furnishing means and opportunities for invigorating the body, and protecting it from injury. More than this, however, is needed. Implements and a ready hand are good things; but they can effect nothing without intelligence to guide them. So it is in the culture of health: opportunities and means of exercise are valuable; -but a well inforined mind is requisite in order to use these to advantage. Man's physical formation and habits were obviously designed to furnish sources of happiness; and education, we repeat it, is seriously defective, while it leaves him unacquainted with the structure of his body, the proper methods of enlarging its caparities, and of improving and prolonging its powers of action. In every seminary, this subject ought to receive attention, as a branch of useful knowledge, and of practical instruction. The Medical Intelligencer, in its new form, will, in the mean time, supply the requisite information to families and individuals; as it will contain the useful ele. ments of medical science, in a popular and intelligible form. That this paper may be rendered equally instructive and interesting, will be evident to those of our readers who enjoyed opportunities of attending the course of lectures on the physiology of man, delivered last winter, by Drs. Ware and Bradford. COLLEGE COMMENCEMENTS, 1826. The great number of these interesting exhibitions puts it out of our power to enter into them in detail. The general impression produced by them seems to have been favorable to the interests of literature and creditable to the character of instruction in our colleges and universities. Our want of room for particulars we regret the less from hearing that a sort of Annual Register of colleges in the United States, is about to be published by a citizen of Massachusetts. FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL.-PHILADELPHIA, The Franklin High School is now opened under the most flattering prospects. The room appropriated by the lustitute is very large, and well calculated for the purposes of the school. It is furnished, upon the most approved plan, with desks capable of holding two pupils each, and arranged in rows leaving passages between them. At these desks 304 pupils can be seated. In the recitation rooms, which adjoin the great room, there are circular eats and tables, at which the lessons are heard. To prevent noise, the rooms and the stairs are covered with thick carpeting. The number of pupils present at the opening of the school, was 252; and there can be no doubt, that the school will soon be supplied with the whole number which the rooms can accommodate.-Nat. Gaz. RENSSELAER SCHOOL.-TROY, N. Y. Circular to the Citizens of Villages and School Districts. A plan has been proposed by the Honorable Stephen Van Rensselaer, of Albany, for extending to every class of citizens the benefits of those departments of scientific knowledge, which are most intimately connected with the common concerns of life. For this purpose young gentlemen are prepared for giving instruction upon his plan, at a school established by himself for this and for other objects, in Troy, N. Y. in the year 1824, which was incorporated by a legislative act, in March 1826. These instructers are sent to different districts, with directions to conduct courses of instruction as follows: They are to give lectures on the evenings of Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, to popular classes, on experimental Chemistry, with its applications, Young gentlemen, from four to ten in number, selected by the evening class, are to be taught upon the Rensselaer plan; that is, they are to be present and assist in the preparations for the evening lectures and experiments, which they are severally to repeat in the form of experimental lectures on the following days. The schoolmaster of the district ought always to be one of the experimental class. By this method, several residents may be qualified, at a very cheap rate, for instructing others; so that every individual of every vocation may, in a few years, become familiar with the principles and manipulations of experimental chemistry, with their applications to the arts and manufactures, as well as to agriculture and the other various concerns of life, without any material loss of time. The course of instruction is not limited to chemistry. Natural philosophy and natural history will be taught on different evenings upon the same plan. Those who attend the popular course, will be compensated by much pleasure and profit; though the principal object should be to qualify a number of residents in every district for perpetuating the practical sciences among those whom they will aid most in all their important operations. It is presumed, that the disinterested munificence of the patron of this plan of education, will be duly appreciated by every individual to whom it is made known, and that sufficient sums will be paid by those gentlemen and ladies, who attend the Evening Course of lectures, to defray the expenses necessary for instructing the experimental class. Chemical apparatus is now so far simplified, and collections in Natural History are now so easily obtained, that any school district can afford the necessary expense for perpetuating these sciences. Fifty dollars will procure apparatus and specimens for giving a very profitable course in chemistry, natural philoso phy, and natural history, with their application to agriculture, domestic economy, the arts and manufactures. One hundred and fifty dollars, economically expended in procuring apparatus, &c. will be sufficient for a course as full as any school district will need. Where the districts are very small, four or five, or any other convenient number, may unite and fit up a laboratory in a central situation, where a definite number from each school may be taught annually, until every youth in each district shall become experimentally acquainted with those useful sciences, and with their application to daily exigencies. Though this undertaking is of vast importance in its tendencies, it is unquestion. ably practicable. Should it succeed, it must necessarily improve the state of society more than any other scheme hitherto proposed. When the human mind receives a bias in favor of the study of nature, it is immediately withdrawn from all vicious and frivolous pursuits. No one will question the correctness of the often repeated saying, that "the next step to the contemplation of Nature, is that of Nature's God." Samuel Blatchford, President; Amos Eaton, Lewis C. Beck, Professors. GYMNASIUM IN BOSTON, This valuable acquisition to the city is now open; and, from the large number of pupils of various ages, and the high gratification it seems to afford, it promises to meet if not surpass the expectations formed of its usefulness. NOTICES. WORKS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. Elements of Moral Philosophy: comprising the Theory of Morals and Practical Ethics. By John L. Parkhurst. Concord, N. H. 1825. 12ino. pp. 257. This work is written with much of the zeal of one who regards the christian revelation as the source of all pure morality, and who wishes to make ethics the avenue to truth as exhibited in the scriptures. The whole character of the work is well adapted to this purpose: it is familiar and unassuming in thought and language, and simple and intelligible in its arrangement. The author's intentions are highly laudable; but his success would have been greater, we think, had his mind previously undergone a more rigid discipline on the elements of intellectual philosophy-the basis of the science on which he treats. His work is now a very good popular essay on the subject of moral philosophy; but it might have been made something more; it might have been rendered a work of philosophic rank and merit. As a reading book for families and schools, the Elements will be very useful in the way of enlarging and improving the mind, and placing the duties of life on an elevated basis. The chapter on Emulation and Ambition will, we hope, do much good among teachers. It speaks plainly on the evils arising from emulation, and the attempts cominonly made in schools and other seminaries, to clothe it in the garb of an angel of light, while in reality it is only a specious modification of selfishness. In this part of Mr. Parkhurst's work, however, there would have been more clearness and more directness, had he set out with discriminating between emulation, and that virtuous desire of meriting approbation, which mingles love and respect for others with all movements of the mind which revert to self. That the desire of approbation is a pure principle of action, which may be successfully transferred to the aid of instruction, needs no demonstration to those who remember that it enters into the impulse to duty towards parents, and benefactors, and the Supreme Being himself. And every teacher who cultivates it attentively and judiciously, will find it much more generally applicable, and more productive, too, of good results, than the selfish principle of emulation. On the whole this work is one which may do extensive good,—a higher praise than could have been merited by a work of more distinguished intellectual rank, but of a less decidedly religious character. The Juvenile Philosopher; or Youth's Manual of Philosophy. In four parts: Part I. Natural Philosophy. Part II. Astronomy. Part III. Chemistry. Part IV. Physiology. Second revised edition. Enlarged, and adapted to the use of Schools and Juvenile Readers. Geneva, N. Y. 1826. 18mo. pp. 372. As a school book the Juvenile Philosopher was not intended to supersede any work of real merit, but rather to supply a supposed deficiency; to furnish schools with a convenient and cheap manual relating to the elements of natural science— subjects too much neglected in the education of youth. That these subjects ought to be more generally studied, must be evident to all who consider the peculiar aptitude of most children and youth to examine the objects of nature, and investigate her operations; who consider the importance of early habituating youth, not only to be accurate observers of facts, but also to reflect on what they observe; to reason and judge correctly; to draw useful conclusions and derive salutary impressions from their observations: when it is also considered how many, for want of seasonable instruction, grow to manhood ignorant of the names, properties and uses of some of the most familiar and useful objects in creation-ignorant of the structure of minerals, plants, animals, and of their own persons; and remain through life incapable of discoursing, in appropriate terms, of these subjects.' The object of this school book is an excellent one; and its execution is very creditable both to the compiler and the publishers. A dictionary embracing the scientific terms used in the work, and the addition of marginal questions, would, we think, be serviceable in a future edition. In the meantime, the pupil's dependence for these advantages must be on his teacher; who should furnish, as far as practicable, the illustrations which such a text-book requires, not merely in the way of oral explanation, but by performing as many as possible of the experiments, or by aiding the pupils in their attempts at the same thing. The latter method will be found more entertaining to the pupils, and not less useful; whilst it will save time to the instructer. The Juvenile Philosopher is entitled, we think, to a place in every school; as it furnishes an uncommon quantity of that kind of knowledge which is useful in all situations in life. Geography for Beginners: or the Instructer's Assistant in giving First Lessons from Maps, in the style of Familiar Conversation. Accompanied with an Atlas. Being intended as the first, or Introductory Book, to a series of Geographical Works, by William C. Woodbridge, and Emma Willard; of which, the second book is entitled 'The Rudiments of Geography,' the third book, Universal Geography.' By Emma Willard, Principal of Troy Female Seminary. Hartford, 1826. 18mo. pp. 110. Very This is a fair attempt at rational, intelligible, and practical instruction. young children may here acquire some just and accurate notions-not of the magnitude or distance of the sun or of Herschel, but of the more remarkable and interesting features of the topography of their vicinity, and the geography of their own country; from which they proceed to that of foreign regions, comparing, as they go on, every object that is laid before them in the book, with something within the range of their own observation. This httle work, in the hands of an intelligent mother or primary teacher, may put a child in possession of more useful information than is to be found in most of the larger geographies ;-not that it offers such a multitude of facts, but that it |