tion or use, and even the meaning of the names of many articles constantly advertised in commercial papers! What is learned at school is usually talked about at home; and especially any new idea about things, that comes to the learner in a pleasant way, without the formality of an assigned task, and, consequently, without study.

In connection with this exercise, the routes usually pursued by navigators to and from the several ports, from which the articles of commerce, that become the subject of conversation, are imported, would be found a matter of curiosity and interest; and I believe none of our school-books in present use refer to the subject at all. I do not complain of this, but would recommend to the teacher to introduce it along with this miscellaneous exercise, as sure to give much satisfaction to the inquiring minds among his pupils. Caleb Bingham, the best teacher that Boston had in his time, had some questions and answers of this kind, in his little work, called The Geographical Catechism, which in my childhood was a great favorite with me, and whose impression, although many a long year has passed since I studied it as a class-book, is still vivid and pleasant in my memory.

Among other facilities for illustrating the subject of geography, are the raised maps, or maps in relief, representing the inequalities of the surface of the earth. These maps are found highly useful with the advanced classes of a school, whose members are capable of comprehending the scale of comparison introduced, and always fix and reward their attention. They are confined principally to mountainous countries, but are not without interest when typifying those that are comparatively flat. Several have been imported, representing Italy, Switzerland, Europe, Germany and the Netherlands, France and Belgium, Mont Blanc and environs, and others, whose most prominent mountains can be easily recognized by those who have travelled in the several countries, and have felt a sufficient interest in the subject to ascend their grand elevations, and institute comparisong between them. Those of the greatest altitudes loom up, even in these miniature models, with a degree of grandeur not readily anticipated, when the scale on which they are necessarily projected for school uses is considered; and they challenge the admiration of the young student, as, assisted by them and his own imagination, he climbs their snowy tops, and looks, almost giddy, into the vales below.

In some portions of a country denominated "hilly," the surface of the map is little more irregular than the outside of an orange; while that of others, like Mont Blanc, presents very striking elevations.

Thus, from the ordinary hill to the lofty peaks of the Alps, a careful, and, apparently, correctly-graduated scale, is adopted and followed throughout. Every teacher, therefore, who can command a set of these maps, would find great utility in their use.

They might be used to advantage in connection with the engraved classification of mountains, found in many school atlases.

The mere learning by rote of the names and heights of mountains, of the elevations and depressions from the surface of the sea of various territories, can make no impression on the mind to compare in permanency with what is acquired through the medium of the eye, assisted by the judgment; and hence these maps have claims superior to the other means of instruction and illustration, which have usually been found in the schools.

I have purposely avoided making the discriminations of Physical, Mathematical, and Political geography, because I wished to range freely and at large over the wide field embraced in the general subject; and because I believe that, in traversing the surface of the globe, unfettered by technicalities or rigid rules, I could appropriately touch upon any topic having near relations to the soil, and what it is producing, or has produced, worthy of being known to the young. Method is well, and there are studies which require a rigorous adherence to it, and particularly as the student advances in years and mental capacity; but, as I wander with my pupil, for a peripatetic lesson, and call his attention to the flower by the wayside, the rock of the crag, or the lofty tree of the forest, so, in the survey of the crust of the planet we inhabit, I cannot willingly pass specimens of the striking, the noble, or the instructive, without endeavoring to turn it to a profitable account.

We cannot make the school-boy's task too agreeable. There is no danger that he will not have labor enough, and vexation enough, and confinement to his books and the school-room sufficient to exercise all his patience and temper, his memory, his reasoning powers, and his physical endurance,-give him what auxiliaries we may. And this should always be borne in mind. The work that he is capable of doing I would require of him; but whatever of sunlight can be thrown in upon his path of intellectual toil should not be withheld. He will then not only acquire more, and comprehend what might otherwise be obscure in his mind, but will enjoy as he labors, and thus be encouraged to press on to higher and nobler attainments, urged by his own wishes and feelings, rather than by the requisitions of those who direct him. This is not only desirable for the pupil's sake, but changes the teacher's task to a delightful recreation.

LETTER XI.

REWARDS AND PRIZES.

THE subject of this letter is REWARDS IN SCHOOLS, as among the means to be introduced to secure the best results of school-education in the most genial, natural, and agreeable manner; to which I shall add some remarks on excessive school-study.

The transcendental idea that the young are to study for the love of knowledge, or from a sense of duty, has of late gained many converts in our community; but I shall endeavor to show, - how agreeable soever it may be to influence, control, or direct, by such considerations alone, that, in large schools, especially with the very young, other motives must be appealed to. It cannot be reasonably supposed that a thing so unnatural to children as confinement in a school-room, in constrained, long-continued, and perhaps fatiguing positions, with little change or variety, is to be made tolerable by the annunciation of an abstract principle; particularly when the tasks imposed are as unattractive as the confinement. Children, like the young of other animals, delight in action. The kitten, the kid, the lamb, the colt, in their unrestrained habits of playing, gambolling, and bounding, symbolize children in a state of nature. Left to the exercise of their innate tendencies, they are found as buoyant and frisky as the young of the irrational creation. Most of the smaller birds never walk; but when in motion on foot always run or trip. So as a general thing with children, especially boys; when abroad, free, and left to their own choice, they seldom walk, but move with a sort of skip. Hence, we perceive the propriety and importance of measures that may call them out of this, their normal state, without violence to the instincts with which they come into life, and awaken an interest in objects and employments for which they have, with few exceptions, little or no natural propensity. How, then, is this to be done? Of course, we admit that there is, in most families, some degree of order, system, or discipline, to which the little ones are expected to submit ; and to which they do render what is considered submission, although

in various degrees, from the legitimate and prompt obedience of the olden time, down to what some disciplinarians would deem insurrection. This amounts to something, however little, in the preparation of the children for school. The animal buoyancy of the young being is, to some extent, checked. He is partially prepared for the most urgent of the school requisitions, and, in time, comes to look upon the scene of his daily life as other than a prison. Still, many things are to be introduced before it becomes to him a place of happiness or even of content. The kindness and parental consideration of the teacher are, undoubtedly, the most potent general influence, the first to be exercised, and the last to be surrendered. If the rcom is sufficiently spacious; if it is light, well-ventilated, properly warmed in cold weather, and has a pleasant location; if, still further, it contains within its walls specimens of art and beauty, engravings, paintings, sculpture, flowers, and the like, much is gained towards reconciling him to the various requirements of school. After a while, however, these influences lose a portion of their power. The young of the human race live on novelty. The expedient of to-day must give place to a new means of excitement to-morrow. Some form of indulgence, privilege, or distinction, must now be inaugurated. What shall it be? In some shape or other, it is a reward. No matter in what it consists: a picture- -a ticket of approbation a "merit;" they all come to the same point; all appeal to the child's love of approbation.

There are persons, of large experience as teachers, who disapprove of this, who denounce the use of emulation, condemn school prizes, and profess to use no means for exciting the ambition of their pupils; but who, by a simple system of weekly reports of the deportment, character of lessons, &c., sent to the pupils' homes, produce the highest degree of mental excitement,—in some cases to the sacrifice of health.

I cannot see the distinction between one of these modes of excitement and the other. Both induce to effort, and both may be abused. Discretion is required in either case; but it is not for him who resorts to one method to secure his object; to condemn him who prefers another.

At home, the mother's kiss, the father's smile of approval, his cordial shake of the hand, accompanied by the word of encouragement these may take the place of the tangible reward. They are, in fact, equally real and effective. They address themselves, in like manner and with similar force, to a motive ever rife in the mind of man,motive placed within him to be used, not crushed,—a motive which has led to the most heroic and magnanimous achievements recorded

on the page of history. It is the desire of praise, the hope of reward or personal benefit, in some expressive form. Tell me, if you can, where it does not exist, where it is not felt, encouraged and nourished. The mother cherishes it as she breathes the flattering word into the infant's ear while he frolics on her lap; that infant bears its impression in every step of his progress towards manhood. At home and at school, throughout his college course, he is under its influence; beyond that, in the maturity of manhood, in his second and third degrees; in all his promotions; in his titles of professional life; in his official positions; in his deeds of humanity, of daring, and of selfsacrifice. He rescues a human being from destruction; he emancipates an enslaved people; he introduces a means of meliorating human suffering; he discovers an antidote to disease; he invents a magnetic telegraph; descries a new planet; brings down the sun to paint his pictures; all these are followed by appropriate rewards: rewards bestowed by teachers of every grade; by humane societies; by learned professors; by academic governors; by grave councils; by the executives of states; by kings, queens, and emperors. And can all these be wrong? Why, among all the enlightened nations of antiquity, were statues set up, mausoleums built, and monuments erected in memory, or to the honor of, good or great men? Why have godly men even yearned for the glories of martyrdom? Is this desire for fame, - for an immortal name, so universally felt, to be scorned or ignored? Did not the great Founder of Christianity," for the joy set before him, endure the cross, despising the shame"? Did he not promise the inheritance of heaven to the pure, the humble, the benevolent, the obedient among all nations?

It seems, then, that throughout all time, personal advantage — real or imaginary has been at the bottom, has been the motive, the pole-star of the good and the great, as well as of the obscure among men. Of course, good results, beyond those of a personal nature, were expected, in most cases, to supervene; and many a one has been unconscious of the influence that stirred him in his noble work. Still that influence was the motive power.

Why, then, denounce the use of an agency so efficient for the mind's highest good; and that, too, in a department of human labor in which all proper appliances and aids are so much needed?

I do not mean to affirm that no conceivable collection of young persons can be educated without a resort to stimulants like those adverted to; but only to say that, as a general rule, rewards are indispensable to the attainment of our wishes in school. A limited number of children, of docile dispositions and unexcitable tempera