luted when devoted to the service of sin,—become ennobled and sanctified when directed, by one whose constraining motive is the love of Christ, towards a good object. Let not the Christian, then, think " scorn of the pleasant land." That land is the field of ancient and modern literature-of philosophy, in almost all its departments of the arts of reasoning and persuasion. Every part of it may be cultivated with advantage, as the Land of Canaan when bestowed upon God's peculiar people. They were not commanded to let it lie waste, as incurably polluted by the abominations of its first inhabitants; but to cultivate it, and dwell in it, living in obedience to the divine laws, and dedicating its choicest fruits to the Lord their God.

IX. SCHOOLS AS THEY WERE SIXTY YEARS AGO.

To understand the real progress which has been made in the organization, administration, and instruction of institutions of learning in this country, and at the same time to appreciate the importance of many agencies and means of popular education besides schools, books, and teachers, we must, as far as we can, look into the schools themselves, as they were fifty and sixty years ago, and realize the difficulties and deficiences under which some of the noblest characters of our history were developed. As a contribution to our knowledge of these difficulties and deficiences in our schools, we bring together the testimony of several eminent men who were pupils or teachers in these schools, and who assisted in various ways in achieving their improvement.

LETTER FROM NOAH WEBSTER, LL. D.

NEW HAVEN, March 10th, 1840. MR. BARNARD: Dear Sir-You desire me to give you some information as to the mode of instruction in common schools when I was young, or before the Revolution. I believe you to be better acquainted with the methods of managing common schools, at the present time, than I am; and I am not able to institute a very exact comparison between the old modes and the present. From what I know of the present schools in the country, I believe the principal difference between the schools of former times and at present consists in the books and instruments used in the modern schools.

When I was young, the books used were chiefly or wholly Dilworth's Spelling Books, the Psalter. Testament, and Bible. No geography was studied before the publication of Dr. Morse's small books on that subject, about the year 1786 or 1787. No history was read, as far as my knowledge extends, for there was no abridged history of the United States. Except the books above men. tioned, no book for reading was used before the publication of the Third Part of my Institute, in 1785. In some of the early editions of that book, I introduced short notices of the geography and history of the United States, and these led to more enlarged descriptions of the country. In 1788, at the request of Dr. Morse, I wrote an account of the transactions in the United States, after the Revolution; which account fills nearly twenty pages in the first volume of his octavo editions.

Before the Revolution, and for some years after, no slates were used in common schools: all writing and the operations in arithmetic were on paper. The teacher wrote the copies and gave the sums in arithmetic; few or none of the

pupils having any books as a guide. Such was the condition of the schools in which I received my early education.

The introduction of my Spelling Book, first published in 1783, produced a great change in the department of spelling; and, from the information I can gain, spelling was taught with more care and accuracy for twenty years or more after that period, than it has been since the introduction of multiplied books and studies.*

No English grammar was generally taught in common schools when I was young, except that in Dilworth, and that to no good purpose. In short, the instruction in schools was very imperfect, in every branch; and if I am not misinformed, it is so to this day, in many branches. Indeed there is danger of running from one extreme to another, and instead of having too few books in our schools, we shall have too many.

I am, sir, with much respect, your friend and obedient servant,

N. WEBSTER.

Dr. Webster in an essay published in a New York paper in 1788, "On the Education of Youth in America," and in another essay published in Hartford, Ct., in 1790, "On Property, Government, Education, Religion, Agriculture, etc., in the United States," while setting forth some of the cardinal doctrines of American education as now held, throws light on the condition of schools and colleges in different parts of the country at that date.

The first error that I would mention is a too general attention to the dead languages, with a neglect of our own. * * * This neglect is so general that there is scarcely an institution to be found in the country where the English tongue is taught regularly from its elements to its pure and regular con struction in prose and verse. Perhaps in most schools boys are taught the definition of the parts of speech, and a few hard names which they do not understand, and which the teacher seldom attempts to explain: this is called learning grammar. * * * The principles of any science afford pleasure to the student who comprehends them. In order to render the study of language agreeable, the distinctions between words should be illustrated by the difference in visible objects. Examples should be presented to the senses which are the inlets of all our knowledge.

Another error which is frequent in America, is that a master undertakes to teach many different branches in the same school. In new settlements, where the people are poor, and live in scattered situations, the practice is often unavoidable. But in populous towns it must be considered as a defective plan of education. For suppose the teacher to be equally master of all the branches which he attempts to teach, which seldom happens, yet his attention must be distracted with a multiplicity of objects, and consequently painful to himself, and not useful to to his pupils. Add to this the continual interruptions which

The general use of my Spelling Book in the United States has had a most extensive effect in correcting the pronunciation of words, and giving uniformity to the language. Of this change, the present generation can have a very imperfect idea.

These essays were afterwards collected with others in a volume entitled “A Collection of Essays and Fugitive Writings, etc." By Noah Webster, Jr. Boston: 1790.

the students of one branch suffer from those of another, which must retard the progress of the whole school. It is a much more eligible plan to appropriate an apartment to each branch of education, with a teacher who makes that branch his sole employment. * * * Indeed what is now called a liberal education disqualifies a man for business. Habits are formed in youth and by practice; and as business is in some measure mechanical, every person should be exercised in his employment in an early period of life, that his habits may be formed by the time his apprenticeship expires. An education in a university interferes with the forming of these habits, and perhaps forms opposite habits; the mind may contract a fondness for ease, for pleasure, or for books, which no efforts can overcome. An academic education, which should furnish the youth with some ideas of men and things, and leave time for an apprenticeship before the age of twenty-one years, would be the most eligible for young men who are designed for active employments.

But the principal defect in our plan of education in America is the want of good teachers in the academies and common schools. By good teachers I mean men of unblemished reputation, and possessed of abilities competent to their station. That a man should be master of what he undertakes to teach is a point that will not be disputed; and yet it is certain that abilities are often dispensed with, either through inattention or fear of expense. To those who employ ignorant men to instruct their children, let me say, it is better for youth to have no education than to have a bad one; for it is more difficult to eradicate habits than to impress new ideas. The tender shrub is easily bent to any figure; but the tree which has acquired its full growth resists all impressions. Yet abilities are not the sole requisites. The instructors of youth ought, of all men, to be the most prudent, accomplished, agreeable, and respectable. What avail a man's parts, if, while he is "the wisest and brightest," he is the "meanest of mankind?" The pernicious effects of bad example on the minds of youth will probably be acknowledged; but, with a view to improvement, it is indispensably necessary that the teachers should possess good breeding and agreeable manners. In order to give full effect to instructions it is requisite that they should proceed from a man who is loved and respected. But a low-bred clown or morose tyrant can command neither love nor respect; and that pupil who has no motive for application to books but the fear of the rod, will not make a scholar.

LETTER FROM REV. HEMAN HUMPHREY, D. D.

PITTSFIELD, December 12th, 1860. HON. HENRY BARNARD: Dear Sir-I am glad to hear from you, still engaged in the educational cause, and that you are intending to "give a picturesque survey of the progress of our common schools, their equipment, studies, and character." If my early recollections and experience will give you any little aid, I shall esteem myself happy in affording it.

The first school I remember was kept a few weeks by a maiden lady, called Miss Faithy, in a barn. I was very young, as were most of the children. What I learned then, if any thing, I have forgotten. This was in the summer, of course. The next was a school, so called, kept a month or two by a neighbor of ours, who was the best trout fisher, with his horse-hair line, in all those parts. He wrote a fair hand, as I remember, on birch bark. What he taught

us, but to say tue and due, has escaped my recollection. We had no school. house then in our district, and we met as much for play as any thing, where we could find shelter. The next winter, another neighbor took us a few weeks into one of the rooms of his own house, where every thing but learning was going on. His speech bewrayed him of Rhode Island origin, and whatever he knew, he certainly could never have had much if any chance of being whipped in school when he was a boy. I remember his tremendous stamp when we got noisy in school-time, and that is all. This, however, is not a fair sample of school accommodations in my boyhood; and I had a better chance for two or three winters afterward.

School-houses..

Most of the other districts in the town had school-houses, but not all. The first winter that I kept school myself, was in a room next to the kitchen in a small private house. Some of the school-houses were better than others; but none of them in that or the adjoining towns were convenient or even comfortable. They were rather juvenile penitentiaries, than attractive accommodations for study. They were too small, and low from the ceiling to the floor, and the calculation of the builders seemed to have been, to decide into how small a space the children could be crowded, from the fireplace till the room was well packed. Not unfrequently sixty or seventy scholars were daily shut up six hours, where there was hardly room for thirty. The school-houses were square, with a very narrow entry, and a large fireplace on the side near the door. There were no stoves then. They were generally roughly clapboarded, but never painted. They had writing-desks, or rather, long boards for writing, on two or three sides, next to the wall. The benches were all loose; some of them boards, with slabs from the saw-mill, standing on four legs, two at each end. Some were a little lower than the rest, but many of the smaller children had to sit all day with their legs dangling between the bench and the floor. Poor little tlings! nodding and trying to keep their balance on the slabs, without any backs to lean against, how I pity them to this day. In the coldest weather, it vas hard to tell which was the most difficult, to keep from roasting or freezing. For those nearest to the fire it was sweltering hot, while the ink was freezing in the pens on the back side of the room. Master, I am too hot "-"Master, may I go to the fire?" That was the style of address in those days, and we did our best to be masters, anyhow.

All the school-houses that I remember stood close by the traveled road, without any play-grounds or inclosures whatever. If there were any shade trees planted, or left of spontaneous growth, I have forgotten them. And in most cases, there were no outside accommodations, even the most necessary for a moment's occasion. I now marvel at it, but so it was. In that respect, certainly, the days of the children are better than the days of their fathers were.

For the most part, the winter schools were miserably supplied with wood. I kept school myself in three towns, and in but one of the schools was there any wood-shed whatever; and no wood was got up and seasoned in summer against winter. Most of what we used was standing in the forests when the school tegan, and was cut and brought sled length by the farmers in proportion to the number of scholars which they sent. Not exactly that, either; for sometimes, when we went to the school-house in a cold morning, there was no wood there. Somebody had neglected to bring his load, and we were obliged to adjourn over