adopting from us whatever can contribute to the same great results of personal and national prosperity, which are so fast accumulating here.

Instructers, it is true, like all other classes of society, are impelled onward by the great stream of improvement; and they cannot retrograde nor stand still, without injuring themselves. Their interest will induce them to raise their qualifications; and the demands of society will be met to some extent. But the mind which is willing to rest satisfied with this assurance, must be narrow indeed. Shall we place on the same sordid level the man who is to train our youth for the duties and the character of American citizens--with him whose services reach no higher than mere animal wants, or than idle gratifications which have no connection with the moral and political aspect of society? We are happy to see this important subject beginning to receive a portion of the attention which it merits; and we hope that the indications which have been given of a disposition to effect something in this department, will issue in provisions which shall be worthy of the character of those states in which such measures have been contemplated.

The system of mutual instruction, under various modifications, and different names, continues to advance with a celerity which cannot fail to render it the predominating method in every department. It is no longer a problem whether this system can be applied to the higher branches of intellectual culture. The system is daily gaining ground in our cities, and no less rapidly in our villages and school districts, generally. On this topic it is unnecessary to be more particular: the intelligence in our own pages may be taken as a specimen (for it is no more) of the progress of this department of improvement.

Among the numerous objects to which the attention of our readers has been directed, none seems to possess a deeper interest in connection with the general improvement of society, than the subject of mechanics' institutions. These useful establishments have multiplied and spread with astonishing rapidity in Europe, and bid fair to transform the intellectual character, and change the moral and political condition of the most numerous class of European population. Intelligence and refinement are fast raising the operative classes to a station in society, which none but a visionary would have predicted, fifty years ago. Political distinctions can offer no effectual barrier to the silent and gradual revolution which education is now effecting in the more enlightened nations of Europe; and happy will it be for all classes of society in those countries, if a regular and progressive melioration should effect what has hitherto been the result of revolutionary struggles and their attendant miseries-if the condition of the mass of society can be improved by mental culture so as to qualify the whole community, without reserve, for taking an active and intelligent part in the management of public affairs.

Mechanics' institutions, though not so immediately connected with the general interests of society in this country, still possess a peculiar interest in relation to the numerous class for whose benefit they are more particularly designed. In such schools of practical instruction there is something congenial to the spirit of our institutions, which at once demands and cherishes a high standard of intelligence in all classes of society, and presents no permanent obstacle to the career of improvement. The vast resources, too, of the country which enterprise and skill caa alone develope, hold up high encouragement to scientific culture among our

mechanics. It is truly gratifying, therefore to observe schools of the kind just mentioned, becoming matters of popular attention and interest in our larger cities, and extending in some instances to seminaries of a higher order in villages. Among establishments devoted to scientific improvement in connection with preparation for the duties of active life, the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia is entitled to a distinguished place. Its Magazine for mechanics, and its High School for a superior style of practical education among youth destined for active pursuits, furnish advantages of a character hitherto new in this country; and which will, in all probability, exert a highly favorable influence on institutions that may spring up in other places, for the advancement of similar objects.

Proprietors of extensive manufactories have it in their power to do a great deal for the improvement of the persons employed by them. Some enlighted and benevolent individuals are beginning to feel their responsibility and discharge their duty in this particular, by assigning an hour daily to the business of instruction, and furnishing various facilities for making attainments in useful knowledge and in the arts.

The education of the agricultural class of our people was mentioned at an early stage of our work, as a branch of the subject which is entitled to peculiar attention. In England and Scotland, this department is daily receiving increased attention. Reading associations and lending libraries are constantly becoming more numerous, and are diffusing among the farming class the same spirit of improvement which has made so rapid a progress among mechanics.

Associations for mutual improvement are growing in number, in various parts of this country, and particularly in New England. These societies will, it is to be hoped, be soon so numerous as to be found in every village throughout the country. A regular plan for the formation of such associations has been proposed in this Journal: its leading features will be found serviceable in giving direction and scope to improvement whatever course may be adopted in the details.*

The establishment of the London University, as affording room for the interesting experiment of practical education on the broadest scale hitherto attempted, seems likely to produce an extensive reformation in the instruction given at higher institutions. An attentive mind cannot but observe how little there is in the whole range of college or university education which, on impartial examination, can be deemed serviceable to the great interests of actual life-how little there is of active training for definite pursuits--how little of invigorating discipline to the mind--how much that aims no higher than mere scholastic refinement, in obedience to the usage of antiquity--how much that has no definite aim whatever, beyond a suitable preparation for the enjoyment of a learned leisure; and how much that fosters an indolent and inefficient character of mind.

Amidst institutions, which, though deservedly of a high literary and scientific character, are yet so deficient in relation to the actual purposes of human life, the London university has risen up unshackled by ancient usage, unwieldy forms, or official control. It has risen under the auspices of liberal and philanthropic men,

*The draft of the plan has since been improved and published separately by its author, Mr. Josiah Holbrook. Associations of the kind proposed by Mr. H. have been formed in considerable number in Worcester county, in this state, and seem likely to spread still more widely. Their results, thus far, are highly encouraging. We shall mention them more at large, at a more convenient opportunity.

who have the magnanimity to leave it free scope over the whole field of improve

ment.

An institution so nearly approaching to the great objects of education in this country, cannot but furnish many valuable suggestions for improvement in our colleges and universities. These, it is true, have been already modified in many respects, so as to meet the demands of society. But as, in common with those of England, they were necessarily modelled on the monastic institutions of remoter times, they need such a reformation as does not stop at the bare introduction of a new book or a new branch of study. The whole system needs revision and adaptation to the existing state of society--not to say of a more enlightened and liberal view of the human mind. Take for example two of the liberal professions, theology and law. A leading object in preparing for these pursuits should be a course of ac• tive discipline, bearing a resemblance as near as possible to the actual occasions of professional life. Instead of this the student, is immured for several years in his room, withdrawn from the great field of observation, of action, and of improvement,-is compelled to sit down in passive attention to his books, or his lectures-and is called on for active discipline, barely often enough to give him by anticipation an unpleasant impression of the labor of actual business. He does not issue from the hands of his instructers well trained for his pursuits in life: his personal discipline he has yet to begin. Even in the details of writing and speaking, in which he ought to have acquired a perfect facility, he is still halting through an imperfect and late preparation. The school and college requisitions, which devolved on him once or twice in a month or a term, he finds, if he reflects at all, to have been a mere mockery of exercise.

Our present limits will not permit us to extend our remarks on this subject; otherwise the actual deficiencies of college and university education might be pointed out in several other departments, where their consequences are not less injurious.

The growing results annually reported in the department of benevolent effort for the promotion of education, are, this year, unusually interesting. The number of institutions devoted to the improvement of the deaf and dumb, is increasing in this country as well as in Europe; and experience is daily suggesting better methods of instruction, for furnishing those who would otherwise be outcasts from human intercourse, with the means of intelligent and useful communication with the more favored part of their species. The improvement of the condition of the blind, is attracting increased attention in Europe; and several interesting reports have been presented of the high pitch to which their instruction has been carried, in the various branches of useful knowledge, and in the common arts of life.

In the department of missionary effort, the progress of improvement is peculiarly interesting. The magnitude of the operations which are here connected with education, does not seem to be sufficiently known or appreciated. Many of the various missionary stations throughout the world have attached to them schools of practical instruction in the useful arts, for the benefit of adults; and most are furnished with well managed schools of common education for the young, who are, in large numbers, receiving the same elements of knowledge and of improvement which are developed in the happier sphere of civilised and polished society. Some of the missionary stations provide instruction of a still higher order, and open the

benefits of collegiate education to those who might otherwise have passed their lives in the ignorance and degradation of their ancestors.

That our intelligence of this kind has not been more full in our first volume, has not been owing to neglect. The extent of this department, and the multitude of interesting facts which it presents, made a systematic arrangement peculiarly desirable; while at the same time, considerable research was indispensable, in some cases, to procure exact information. A report embracing the leading facts in this department, will, we hope, be prepared in season for an early number of our next volume.

In this, as well as in other spheres of human improvement, it is gratifying to observe education recognised as the surest and most successful instrument of effecting good, and as that which, though others may occasionally be more rapid and striking, seems to be the destined method of elevating the human race to a character generally if not universally--marked by whatever is pure, noble, amiable, or happy.

Sunday schools--another fruit of christian philanthropy--are advancing with increased rapidity in the melioration of society.

The number of schools of this description is immense. Their beucâts are invaluable to all classes. To the illiterate and the neglected they furnish instruction and counsel, without which the young must unavoidably grow up in the accumulation of evil habits and misery, if not of crimes and punishment. To the better taught they aid the domestic department of their education, and provide them with larger advantages for religious and moral improvement.

The condition of these schools is not a little interesting to persons who take a pleasure in observing the progress of improvement in education. A simple, familiar, and explanatory style is gaining ground in the manner of imparting instruction. The Sunday School Union of this country, an institution of great extent, and which is effecting much in this department, gives a decided preference to this method, which cannot fail to introduce it widely in American Sunday schools.-This is, we think, a point of great importance in connection with the developement of the mind, and the formation of character. It is of the highest moment that while intelligible and natural instruction is becoming more and more prevalent in ordinary schools, religious and moral impressions should not be left to depend on mechanical acts of learning and saying by rote what is not rendered accessible to the understanding, or interesting and impressive to the heart.

One feature in the character of recent improvement is the vast superiority of current school books. The plan and design of such works are, to a much greater extent than heretofore, accommodated to the juvenile mind. A systematic and strictly scientific arrangement are sacrificed to one which is intelligible and practical. The order of the mind in its natural progress is consulted in preference to that of the subject abstractly considered. The formation of mental habits is regarded, and the discipline which every science and every book may be made to administer, is becoming a matter of more distinct attention. These improvements are conspicuous in books prepared for the earliest stages of education.

Among works of this character it is hardly necessary to mention Colburn's treatises on arithmetic, which are now in use in most schools where the teachers

are anxious that their pupils should enjoy the benefits of improvement in school books. There are perhaps no works in any branch of education, which have effected so much for the instructer as well as for the learner-none that have thrown so much light at once on the theory and the practice of teaching, or that have exhibited in so happy a manner the natural progress of the mind, in its developement under a judicious discipline. These few unpretending volumes have carried into the humblest of our schools the philosophy of instruction, and have, in numerous instances, roused the attention of teachers to the use of the inductive method in other and very different branches of education.

In geography, the valuable little work of Mrs. Willard* deserves particular notice, as attempting a simple and intelligible method, by which this branch is brought within the scope of maternal care, and by which all intelligent teachers, from the primary schools upward, may improve the aspect of geographical instruction, so as to follow the natural progress of the mind, and cultivate those practical habits of attention and rescarch, which are so serviceable to the business of life.

In the department of grammar, the works of Mr. Cardell are effecting a reformation which is much needed in the method of teaching the elements of this branch. Since Latin has ceased to sit as ' queen' among the languages, and to usurp a dominion over every other, how different soever in its character, it is high time that the English should assert its dignity, and receive that distinct attention to which it is entitled. It has long enough been tortured into the shape and attitude of a language with which it has very little in common, and by which its beauty and its power have been greatly diminished or obscured. We hope that time is not distant when it will not any longer be thought necessary to tramel children at a common school, with the whole equipment of the nomenclature and arrangement adopted by Latin grammarians; while the young learners have no other object in view, than a competent and practical knowledge of their native tongue.

The application of the inductive method to the study of the ancient languages has, within a few years, been much facilitated by elementary works prepared on the plan recommended by Locke,—that of using a simple narrative in conjunction with a literal translation. These manuals are becoming more numerous in England; and they will soon, we hope, be reprinted in this country. The prevailing method of teaching renders the study of Latin a dry and repulsive task, for at least the first year of the learners' progress; and by its unjustifiably slow and tedious manner of imparting knowledge, usurps a most unwarrantable proportion of the time and attention of youth; especially when we consider that of all the boys who enter a Latin school, a very small number ever turn their initiatory labor to any account, but, in fact throw away the invaluable hours of early life, which might have been devoted to useful acquisitions in practical knowledge. The new method adopted in the books just mentioned, is, on the contrary, pleasant and expeditious, as well as thorough. There is no delay for idle formalities; the learner is led at once to his object. In his very first efforts, he is conscious of the progress he is making; and he goes on with a cheerful impulse which accelerates his adGeography for Beginners. 96

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