734 
 2>76 
 
 STACK ANNEX 
 Cage
 
 BRIEF DESCRIPTION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 
 
 AUOfTKD IN THE 
 
 CELEBRATED COMMON SCHOOLS 
 
 PRUSSIA: 
 
 SOME NOTICE OF SCHOOL BOOKS 
 
 CORRESPONDING [N CHARACTER 
 
 TO THOSE USED IN THE SCHOOLS OF THAT COUNTRY. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 HOG AN AND THOMPSON 
 
 No. 30 North Fourth Si rest. 
 
 1838.
 
 BRIEF DESCRIPTION 
 
 SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 
 
 ADOPTED IN THE 
 
 CELEBRATED COMMON SCHOOLS 
 
 PRUSSIA 
 
 SOME NOTICE OF SCHOOL BOOKS 
 
 CorrespottDftts fix Character 
 TO THOSE USED IN THE SCHOOLS OF THAT COUNTRY. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 HOGAN AND THOMPSON, 
 
 No. 30 North Fourth Street. 
 
 1838.
 
 O. SHERMAN AND CO., PRINTERS, 
 
 19 St. James Street. 
 

 
 734 
 
 so 
 
 > 
 
 \ 
 
 PUBLIC 
 INSTRUCTION IN PRUSSIA 
 
 THE writer has been requested to furnish some particulars 
 of the system of national education in present use in the king- 
 dom of Prussia. The spirit, rather than the details, of this 
 great institution is applicable in the United States, and its 
 whole economy and general character are exhibited in Mrs. 
 Austin's translation of Cousin's Report. In the preface to that 
 work the author asserts that, " There is such a coherency, 
 both in the fabric it describes, and in the description, that no 
 one will fully understand the system, who cannot bear the toil 
 arf following the author step by step. Portions may be select- 
 which show the beautiful spirit pervading the whole, and 
 
 <$vhich must, I should think, touch any human heart ; but its 
 
 anerit as a piece of legislation as a system living and WOrk- 
 iH " . 
 
 bang can only be appreciated when studied connectedly and in 
 
 detail." These remarks of Mrs. Austin suggest the character 
 ^of this institution, and it is hoped, will commend it to persons 
 N interested in public education, and in its practical improvement 
 3 in the United States. 
 
 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, in relation to this system, signifies, " in- 
 J struction provided for the whole public by the state"* 
 "5 The territory of the kingdom of Prussia is divided into ten 
 F provinces, the provinces into departments, the departments into 
 
 1 
 
 V * Cousin. 
 
 11740
 
 4 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 circles, and the circles into parishes. The whole of the public 
 establishments of education, throughout these subdivisions of 
 territory, comprehend elementary or primary schools; burgher 
 or middle schools ; gymnasia or high schools ; and Universi- 
 ties. All the institutions are under the regulation of the laws, 
 and under the protection and ministration of an appointed ma- 
 gistracy. The present system came into operation in 1819 ; it 
 has therefore been subjected to fifteen years of experiment, and 
 has been constantly growing in popular favour, and in the estima- 
 tion of the most public-spirited and philosophical minds over all 
 Europe. The whole system is under the cognisance and con- 
 trol of the minister of Public Instruction, who is assisted in his 
 function by a council, which, to use the words of Cousin, serves 
 to prevent the probable errors of " a single and variable head ; 
 to make new rules or modify old ones ; to aid the judgment of 
 the minister as to what establishments it may be desirable to 
 found, or what to suppress ; above all, to guide him in the ap- 
 preciation and the choice of men, and to serve as a rampart- 
 to ward off solicitation and intrigue." The council are some- 
 times severally employed to visit the institutions under cogni- 
 sance of the minister. These visits are unexpected, always 
 determined by a real necessity, and entrusted to men espe- 
 cially fitted for the occasion. In the general course of affairs, 
 the correspondence and intervention of inferior authorities, im- 
 mediately connected with the ministry, is sufficient to carry" 
 on the system in its ramifications most remote from the cen- 
 tre of authority. 
 
 Every department, circle, and parish, has its school board, 
 which regulates its respective affairs, and every school its 
 proper inspectors or committee, consisting of laity and clergy, 
 who have particular and frequently recurring duties in regard 
 to the schools. The minister, though thoroughly informed of 
 results, does not interfere minutely with details. His informa- 
 tion of the operation of the whole system is nearly perfect, < 
 being gathered from full and accurate reports of the dependent j 
 functionaries. \ 
 
 Two features in this system are very striking one, is the ; - 
 respect felt by the nation for the dignity and uses of educa-
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 5 
 
 tion ; and the other, the positive fitness required by the laws, 
 for the exercise of the respective duties of those employed in 
 the administration of it. " The high rank assigned to the head 
 of public instruction, marks the respect in which every thing 
 relating to that important subject is held by the government ; 
 hence science assumes her proper place in the state. Civilisa- 
 tion, the intellectual and moral interests of society, have their 
 appointed ministry. This ministry embraces every thing re- 
 lating to science, and consequently all schools, libraries, and 
 kindred institutions." 
 
 " The spirit of the Prussian monarchy is decidedly adverse 
 to unpaid functionaries of any kind," says M. Cousin, there- 
 fore the administrators of the public education have generally 
 some small salary proper to their office. " In Prussia all 
 public servants are paid ; and as no post whatsoever can be 
 obtained without passing through the most rigorous examina- 
 tions, all are able and enlightened men. And as, moreover, 
 they are taken from every class in society, they bring, to the 
 exercise of their duties, the general spirit of their nation, while 
 in that exercise they contract habits of public business." By 
 such an arrangement it must be seen that voluntary benefac- 
 tors are excluded, except in the bestowment of donations and 
 legacies to the schools, and also that the intrusive counsels, 
 and arbitrary proceedings of well intentioned ignorance, can- 
 not prevent the constant improvement and progress, which 
 wise men, associated together for the public benefit, will cer- 
 tainly aim at, and may probably accomplish. No languor, 
 negligence, and apathy are likely to enter into the applications 
 of a system guarded in so many ways. Every parish must, 
 by the law of the land, have a school ; and the pastor, or mi- 
 nister of that parish, is in virtue of his office, the inspector of 
 that school ; associated with him is a committee of administra- 
 tion and superintendence, composed of some of the principal 
 persons in the parish. If all the operations of this association 
 were carried on without any check or authority, the methods 
 and results of instruction might be correspondent entirely to 
 the knowledge or ignorance, the vigilance or negligence, of 
 the school committee, or trustees. But every department has 

 
 6 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 a board of education, called the Regency, which employs 
 school-inspectors, who reside in the chief town of every circle, 
 and who inspect all the schools in it ; and another officer, the 
 school councillor, also inspects the schools, quickens and keeps 
 alive the interest of the school committees and the school- 
 masters, and makes reports to the higher authority of the ex- 
 cellences and defects of the particular schools ; and thus what- . 
 ever is wrong is known, and is put in the way of redress. 
 
 The preceding statement is only a brief notice of the gene- 
 ral economy of these schools. The translation of Mrs. Austin 
 is limited to the details of primary instruction, and to this only 
 the present abstract from Cousin is also restricted. Cousin 
 divides his report into the rules and the facts, thus : 
 
 I. The orginization of primary instruction ; the laws and 
 rules by which it is governed. 
 
 II. What the laws and regulations have actually produced. 
 The rules are, concerning the duty of all parents and guar- 
 dians to. send their children to the primary schools ; the duty 
 of each parish to maintain a school, at its own cost ; general 
 objects and different gradations of primary instruction ; how 
 primary teachers are to be trained, placed, and rewarded or 
 punished ; authorities employed in superintendence ; and pri- 
 vate schools. 
 
 The duty of parents to educate their children, by means of 
 schools, letters, and science, has long been recognised in 
 northern Europe. Cousin believes that the system of the 
 present education in Prussia originated in national tenden- 
 cies in a deep and general feeling that the moral and intel- 
 lectual well-being of the state, and of the individual, must be 
 promoted by letters, science, and religion ; the last two being 
 especially represented and inculcated by means of literature. 
 
 " This duty," says Cousin, " is so natural, so rooted in all 
 the moral and legal habits of the country, that it is expressed 
 by a single word, [in English.] school obligation. In Prussia 
 the state has for many years imposed on all parents the strict 
 obligation of sending their children to school, unless they are 
 able to prove that they give them a competent education at 
 home, They are bound to send their children to school from
 
 IX PRUSSIA. 
 
 the age of five years. By the law of 1819 this obligation is 
 rigidly enforced, and yet it is not esteemed tyrannical, but 
 the. school is generally regarded as a privilege. All masters 
 and manufacturers who employ children as servants or ap- 
 prentices, says the law, shall be required to give them a suita- 
 ble education from their seventh to their fourteenth year in- 
 clusive. No child can be removed from school till the in- 
 spectors examine whether he has gone through the whole 
 elementary course. A rigid census is taken of children, and 
 in case of any negligence of parents or guardians, in regular 
 attendance at school, the magistrate is called in, to enforce the 
 law. But considerable facilities are afforded to the observance 
 of this law for the time employed upon lessons is so arranged 
 as to leave children several hours daily for work at home. 
 Care is every where taken to furnish necessitous parents with 
 the means of sending their children to school by providing 
 them with clothing, books, &c. To these facilities are added 
 the benevolent and enlightened persuasions of the school com- 
 mittee, who represent to the parents the exceeding value of 
 a good elementary education, and spread among the young a 
 thirst for knowledge, which they can only obtain by means of 
 the legal provision, which offers it to them. 
 
 Every parish is bound to have an elementary school. The 
 schools are supported in part by endowments variously de- 
 rived, by a tax upon property, and by contributions of parents 
 who are able to pay for education. The financial provisions, 
 are procured in these ways, according to local circumstances. 
 It may happen that one village will be too poor to defray the 
 expense of a school ; in that case the combination of several, 
 including insulated farm-houses, is allowed in order to form a 
 school. 
 
 The number of children in one school must not be too 
 great. One master cannot take more than a hundred. Dif- 
 ference of religion does not prevent children from attending 
 school together, unless the populousness of the place conveni- 
 ently separates them into schools of distinctive denominations. 
 
 In relation to the maintenance of the schools, the law thus 
 defines the provision :
 
 8 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 1. A suitable income for schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, 
 and a small annuity for them when past service. 
 
 2. A building for the purposes of teaching and exercise, 
 properly laid out, kept in repair, and warmed. 
 
 3. Furniture, books, pictures, instruments, and all things ne- 
 cessary for the lessons and exercises. 
 
 4. Pecuniary assistance for necessitous scholars. 
 
 Some mention has been made of the sources by which the 
 expense of the schools is defrayed. A small but certain re- 
 compense is afforded to the teacher while labouring, and when 
 superannuated, and some assistance is afforded by the public 
 bounty for the widow and orphans of this most respectable 
 and honoured labourer for the public good. 
 
 The conditions which are essential in a school-house are a 
 healthy situation, rooms of sufficient size, well ventilated, and 
 kept with the greatest neatness. Every school in a village, 
 or small town, has a garden, and this garden is made available 
 to the scholars for instruction in botany, and horticulture. A 
 gravelled court must be laid out in front or rear of the school 
 for exercises. 
 
 There shall be, according to the degree of every school, a 
 collection of maps and geographical instruments ; models for 
 drawing and writing ; instruments and collections for studying 
 mathematics and natural history. Similar articles for the in- 
 ferior schools, must be regulated in quantity and quality by 
 the possible means of procuring them. 
 
 All landholders, tenants and householders, contribute, in 
 proportion to their property, to the support of the schools. 
 The scholars, according to their means, or the funds of the 
 school, which may be greater or less, pay school fees. No 
 schoolmaster collects the fees, but this must be done by the 
 committee. Children are permitted to contribute a fund for 
 the education of others too poor to pay their portion of the 
 charge. Tnere are some schools in large places entirely 
 free to the poor. 
 
 No schoolmaster can be allowed to increase his income by 
 occupations unsuitable to the dignity of his office, or deroga- 
 tory to morality in the highest sense, or likely to divert his at-
 
 Iff PRUSSIA. 9 
 
 tention from his studies. He may be a clerk or organist in a 
 church, .and may receive the income of the place, provided 
 the service of the school be not interrupted by such employ- 
 ment. No master or mistress shall engage in any other oc- 
 cupation without special permission, and that is never granted, 
 except perfectly consistent with the peculiar decorum of the 
 teacher's station. 
 
 The committees are legally responsible for all expenses of 
 the schools, and management of funds. 
 
 The province of primary, middle, and high schools, together 
 with the universities, is recognised to be nearly the same in 
 Prussia as we regard it, except that the Prussian system aims 
 at higher objects than the common education of this country, 
 and employs more definite means for the peculiar ends of 
 instruction. 
 
 " The first vocation of every school/' says the law of 1819, 
 " is, to train up the young in such a manner as to implant in 
 their minds a knowledge of the relation of man to God, 
 and at the same time to excite both the will and the strength 
 to govern their lives after the spirit and precepts of Christian- 
 ity. Schools must early train children to piety, and therefore 
 must strive to second and complete the early instructions of 
 parents. In every school, therefore, the occupations of the 
 day shall begin and end with a short prayer and some 
 pious reflections, which the master must contrive to render 
 so varied and impressive, that a moral exercise shall never 
 degenerate into an affair of habit. All the solemnities of the 
 schools shall be interspersed with songs of a religious cha- 
 racter. 
 
 " Care shall be taken to inculcate on youth the duty of 
 obedience to the laws, fidelity and attachment to the sovereign 
 and state, in order that these virtues may combine to produce 
 in them the sacred love of country. 
 
 " The paternal attachment of the masters, their affectionate 
 kindness towards all their pupils, are the most powerful means 
 of preserving them from immoral influences, and of inclining 
 them to virtue. 
 
 "No kind of punishment which has a tendency to weaken 
 
 2
 
 10 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 the sentiment of honour shall in any case be inflicted. Cor- 
 poral punishments, in case they be necessary, shall be devoid 
 of cruelty, and in no case injurious either to modesty or 
 health." 
 
 Some further regulations of these schools, and the detail of 
 their course of instruction is taken entire, as follows, from 
 Cousin's report : 
 
 " Incorrigible scholars, or those whose example or influence 
 may be pernicious to their schoolfellows, after all the resources 
 of paternal authority, joined to that of the masters, shall have 
 been exhausted, shall be expelled in compliance with the judg- 
 ment of the school committees. 
 
 " By making the pupils themselves, as they advance in age, 
 assist in maintaining order in the school, they will be accus- 
 tomed to feel themselves useful and active members of society. 
 " Primary instruction shall have for its aim to dcvelope the 
 faculties of the soul, the reason, the senses, and the bodily 
 strength. It shall comprehend religion and morals, the know- 
 ledge of size and numbers, of nature and man ; corporeal 
 exercises, singing, and, lastly, imitation of form by drawing 
 and writing. 
 
 " In every school for girls, without exception, the works 
 peculiar to their sex shall be taught. 
 
 " Gymnastics shall be considered as a necessary part of a 
 complete system of education, and shall be taught by simple 
 rules favourable to the promotion of the health and bodily 
 strength of children. 
 
 " Every complete elementary school necessarily compre- 
 hends the following objects : 
 
 " 1. Religious instruction, as a means of forming the moral 
 character of children according to the positive truths of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 " 2. The German language, and in provinces where a 
 foreign language is spoken, the language of the country, in 
 addition to the German. 
 
 " 3. The elements of geometry, together with the general 
 principles of drawing. 
 
 " 4. Calculation and practical arithemetic.
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 11 
 
 " 5. The elements of physics, geography, general history, 
 and especially the history of Prussia. 
 
 " Care must be taken to introduce and combine these 
 branches of knowledge with the reading, and writing lessons, 
 as much as possible, independently of the instruction which 
 shall be given upon those subjects specially. 
 
 " 6. Singing ; with a view 'to improve the voices of the 
 children, to elevate their hearts and minds, to perfect and en- 
 noble the popular songs and church music or psalmody. 
 
 " 7. Writing and gymnastic exercises, which fortify all the 
 senses, and especially that of sight. 
 
 " 8. The simplest manual labours, and some instructions in 
 husbandry, according to the agriculture of the respective parts 
 of the country. 
 
 " The instructions in religion, reading, writing, arithmetic, 
 and singing are strictly indispensable in every school. No 
 school shall be considered as a complete elementary school, 
 unless it fulfil the whole scheme of instruction just marked out. 
 
 "Every burgher school shall afford instruction on the fol- 
 lowing heads : 
 
 " 1. Religion and morals. 
 
 " 2. The German language, and at the same time, the lan- 
 guage of the country in the provinces not German ; reading, 
 composition, exercises in style, study of the national classics. 
 In all the . German part of the country, the modern foreign 
 languages are an accessory branch of study. 
 
 " 3. Latin is taught to all the children, within certain limits 
 as a means of exercising their faculties and their judgment, 
 whether they be or be not to enter the higher schools. 
 
 " 4. The elements of mathematics, and especially a thorough 
 course of practical arithmetic. 
 
 " 5. Physical science, as far as is sufficient to explain the 
 most remarkable phenomena of nature. 
 
 " 6. Geography and history combined, in order to give some 
 knowledge of the earth, of the general history of the world, 
 of the people who inhabit it, and the empires into which it is 
 divided. Prussia, its history, laws, and constitution, shall form 
 the subject of a special study.
 
 12 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 ' 7. The principles of drawing shall be taught to all concur- 
 rently with the lessons in physics, natural history, and geome- 
 try, 
 
 " 8. Writing must be carefully attended to, and the hand 
 trained to write distinctly and neatly. 
 
 " 9. The singing lessons shall be attended by all the pupils 
 not only with a view to form them to that art, but to qualify 
 them to assist in the services of the church with propriety and 
 solemnity, by singing the psalms or choral music with correct- 
 ness and judgment. 
 
 " 10. Gymnastic exercises, adapted to the age and strength 
 of the scholars. 
 
 " Masters must take pains to know the particular character 
 and qualities of each pupil, and must give the greatest possible 
 attention to the periodical examinations. 
 
 "Every scholar of an elementary school shall, when he 
 leaves it, receive a certificate as to his capacity, and his moral 
 and religious disposition, signed by the masters and the school 
 committee. These certificates shall always be presented to 
 master-manufacturers or artisans on being bound apprentice, 
 or to housekeepers on entering service. 
 
 " The certificates shall not be given to the scholars till the 
 moment of their finally quitting school ; and in both the 
 burgher shools and the gymnasia, this shall always give occa- 
 sion to a great solemnity. 
 
 " For religious instruction, which, in protestant schools, is 
 founded mainly on the Holy Scriptures, the Bible and the 
 catechism generally adopted shall be used. The New Testa- 
 ment shall be given to children who can read. The more ad- 
 vanced sholars shall have the whole Bible in Luther's trans- 
 lation. This book shall also be used for the religious instruc- 
 tion in all the classes of the gymnasia, to which shall be added 
 the New Testament in Greek. 
 
 " The lesson-books shall be carefully selected by the school- 
 committees, with the concurrence of the higher authorities, 
 without whose approbation no book can be admitted. It is 
 commended to teachers to examine elementary works, and 
 their opinion is regarded in the choice of such books.
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 13 
 
 " If there is a deficiency of elementary books in any branch 
 of learning, the minister shall see that proper ones be written 
 or compiled. 
 
 " The masters of the public schools must choose the methods 
 best adapted to the natural growth and improvement of the 
 human mind ; the methods which gradually and constantly 
 enlarge the understandings of the children, and not such as 
 instil merely mechanical knowledge. 
 
 " It will be the duty of the school committees to inspect the 
 methods adopted by the masters, and to aid them with their 
 advice; they are never to tolerate a bad method ; and they 
 shall refer the matter to a higher authority if their advice is 
 disregarded. 
 
 " Parents or guardians have a right to inquire into the 
 system of education pursued in the school, and into the pro- 
 gress made by their children. In order, however, to avoid 
 continual applications of this sort, measures shall be taken 
 for giving a public report of the state of the school from time 
 to time. 
 
 "Parents may address any complaints to the higher au- 
 thorities charged with the superintendence of schools, and 
 these complaints must be examined into with the greatest 
 care. 
 
 " On the other hand, those who intrust their children to a 
 public school are bound not to oppose any obstacle to their 
 conforming exactly to the rules established in the school. 
 They are bound, on the contrary, to second the views of the 
 masters, to fulfil all their obligations towards them, and to 
 furnish the children with every thing necessary for their 
 studies. 
 
 " It is essential to the general order that every pupil in every 
 public school should be obliged to go through the whole course 
 of fundamental instruction of the degree or stage to which 
 that school belongs ; and parents shall not be allowed to with- 
 hold a pupil at pleasure from any branch of instruction. Dis- 
 pensations from any branch must be asked of the higher au- 
 thorities, who will judge of the validity of the reasons. 
 
 " Every public school, in as much as it is a national insti-
 
 14 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 tution, ought to afford the greatest publicity possible. Conse- 
 quently, in every boy's school, besides the private examina- 
 tions on passing from one class to another, there must be 
 public examinations calculated to show the nature and the 
 excellence of the studies. 
 
 " Besides this, the director, (or chairman) of the committee, 
 or one of the masters, shall give an account of the state and 
 progress of the school in a written report. Lastly, from time 
 to time, a general report on the state of education in each 
 province shall be published. 
 
 " Every establishment shall be at liberty to choose the days 
 on which to give the public the means of knowing the state of 
 the school, by speeches or other exercises. But the anniver- 
 saries of the most remarkable days in the national history are 
 to be selected in preference. 
 
 " As girls are destined by nature for a quiet and retired life, 
 these exercises or trials are never to be public in their schools. 
 The examination shall take place only in the presence of the 
 masters and parents. 
 
 " But if, on the one hand, it is incumbent on those charged 
 with the conduct of the public schools to strive to accomplish 
 the duties the state imposes on them for the training of citizens, 
 they, on their part, have a right to expect that every one 
 should pay the respect and gratitude to which they are entitled 
 as labourers in the sacred work of education. Masters and 
 mistresses ought, therefore, to be the objects of the general 
 esteem due to their laborious and honourable function. 
 
 "Institutions for the public instruction have a right to claim 
 from all, even those who do not send their children to them, 
 assistance and support wherever or whenever needed. All 
 public authorities are required to protect the public school, 
 each in his sphere of action, and to lend their aid to school- 
 masters in the exercise of their functions, as to any other ser- 
 vants of the state. 
 
 " In all the parishes of the kingdom, without exception, the 
 clergyman of every Christian communion shall seize every 
 occasion, whether at church, or during their visits to schools, 
 or in their sermons at the opening of classes, of reminding the
 
 Iff PRUSSIA. 15 
 
 schools of their high and holy mission, and the people of their 
 duties towards the schools. The authorities, the clergy, and 
 the masters shall unite their efforts to strengthen the ties of 
 respect and attachment between the people and the school; so 
 that the people may accustom themselves, more and more, to 
 regard education as one of the essential conditions of public 
 life, and may daily take a deeper interest in its progress." 
 
 " The best plans of instruction cannot be executed except 
 by the instrumentality of good teachers ; and the state has 
 done nothing for popular education, if it does not watch that 
 those who devote themselves to teaching be well prepared ; 
 then "suitably placed, encouraged, and guided in the duty of 
 continued self-improvement; and, lastly, promoted and re- 
 warded in proportion to their advancement, or punished accord- 
 ing to their faults. 
 
 " A schoolmaster, to ,be worthy of his vocation, should be 
 pious, discreet, and deeply impressed with the dignity and sa- 
 credness of his calling. He should be thoroughly acquainted 
 with the duties peculiar to the grade of primary instruction in 
 which he desires to be employed ; he should possess the art of 
 communicating knowledge, with that of moulding the minds of 
 children : conscientious in the duties of his office, friendly and 
 judicious in his intercourse with the parents of his pupils, and 
 with his fellow-citizens in general; finally, he should strive to 
 inspire them with a lively interest in the school, and secure to 
 it their favour and support." 
 
 Such is the character, which the laws and public opinion in 
 Prussia demand in a teacher of children and youth a just un- 
 derstanding, well cultivated; an upright and benevolent heart, 
 disciplined by a wise judgment; amiable and prepossessing 
 manners; generous and enlarged sympathies; and a power of 
 intellect and a warmth of feeling which act upon other minds, 
 and cause to be comprehended and valued by others, the truth 
 he honours, and the cause he serves. Let us review for a brief 
 space the circumstances which have led to this estimation of 
 the teacher and his office. 
 
 Our attention has been turned in the preceding pages chiefly 
 to the government of the Prussian Schools ; their connection
 
 16 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 with the state ; and the course of instruction pursued in them. 
 No such government could have any power, nor could any 
 such course of instruction be more than a dead letter, if the 
 human instruments destined to carry the whole into effect did 
 not thoroughly comprehend, and heartily concur in the design 
 of the institution. If the school inspectors should not be en- 
 lightened and benevolent men, vigilant in the execution of a 
 trust which they perfectly understood, they could not direct the 
 teacher in his duty, nor protect, encourage, and suitably re- 
 ward him in the performance of it. If a system of education 
 in this country should embrace the same scope and design, it 
 would require for its application a superintendence as active, 
 intelligent, and truly interested for the common welfare, as the 
 Prussian system presupposes. And that enlightened superin- 
 tendency could effect nothing without the entire co-operation 
 of teachers perfectly capable of appreciating the value, and 
 the means of the school system in question. The Prussian 
 law assumes this fact. No other profession or calling in life, 
 is allowed to be taken up among us without some prepara- 
 tion. When the laws do not forbid it, conventional usage 
 slowly admits an uninstructed person to the exercise of a new 
 function. The trust in his sufficiency, which must fall in with 
 every man's exertions in any new path, in order to give power 
 to them, is not readily accorded to an unpractised person. It 
 is to be wished that the same restraint of opinion were applied 
 to professional teaching. 
 
 Institutions for the training of schoolmasters have been long 
 esteemed in Germany to be very essential to the exercise of 
 that function. Schools for the education of schoolmasters 
 may be traced, according to Cousin, to the beginning of the 
 last century. About 1730, education and the educator be- 
 came objects of general interest in that country. Lectures on 
 School Method then began to be delivered regularly and ex- 
 tensively in the country, and special seminaries for the benefit 
 of those destined for teachers in the classical or learned 
 schools, gradually became attached to all the principal univer- 
 sities. Before the Prussian law had established the present 
 schools, a meritorious individual, named Hecker, founded at
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 17 
 
 Berlin, in 1748, a nursery of popular instructors, of which in- 
 stitution, Frederic the Great, an earnest promoter of this vital 
 interest of humanity, became a patron, and enjoined by royal 
 ordinance, that the country schools should be supplied with 
 teachers from it. Another private establishment became soon 
 after a model-school for the formation of teachers. The foun- 
 der, who wrought, during many years, for a reform and 
 enlargement of popular education, by name Von Rochou, 
 multiplied these schools on his own estate. Their uses were 
 fully proved, and, in 1806, fourteen seminaries for instruction 
 of teachers, existed in Prussia in 1833 they were nearly 
 quadrupled. 
 
 In Cousin's report, the schools for the instruction of teachers 
 are called Normal schools. This is the French name for 
 them. The course of study in these schools lasts three years. 
 The probable wants of every district in the department is 
 ascertained, and a certain per cent, of new teachers is pre- 
 sumed to be the annual demand for them ; and the normal schools 
 take so many pupils and no more than can find employment in 
 the country. The same normal school trains masters for the 
 lower and higher schools. Ability and knowledge suited to the 
 latter being based upon the elementary principles illustrated in 
 the former, youths, who exhibit a decided talent and natural 
 aptitude for teaching only, are admitted to the normal schools, 
 and they enter them from sixteen to eighteen years of age. 
 
 The pupils of the normal schools are expected to acquire 
 competent knowledge of all that is required to be taught in the 
 common schools, and to add to that species of information, 
 just, enlarged, and practical notions on the art of teaching. The 
 principal aim of the normal schools is to form men, sound both 
 in body and mind, and to imbue the pupils with the sentiment 
 of religion, and with that zeal of love for the duties of their 
 station which is truly allied to religion ; which aims, by patient 
 continuance in a right course of exertion, to promote the wel- 
 fare of man in obedience to the law of God. The course of 
 instruction received by the pupils of the normal schools is, of 
 course, the same which they are expected in due time to im- 
 part; and during the last year the pupils of those schools are 
 
 3
 
 18 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 practised in a school of experiment which is attached to the 
 normal school. 
 
 The instruction of these schools is afforded at a low price, 
 and the expense of them is chiefly defrayed by government. 
 Preparation for the vocation of a teacher is not limited to the 
 normal schools, though they afford the approved labourers in 
 this good work : and the standard of fitness which is set up in 
 them, is applied by law to all other preparations for the duty 
 of teaching. No normal school admits more than sixty or 
 seventy pupils. They are divided into larger and smaller 
 schools, and also into Protestant and Catholic. Clergymen, 
 or skilful schoolmasters may train masters for town or village 
 schools, but the masters so trained come before the authorities 
 which give license to the pupils of normal schools. Females 
 are subject to a legal preparation for the tuition of their own 
 sex. Any man of mature age, of irreproachable morals, and 
 sincere piety, who understands the duties he designs to fulfil, 
 and gives satisfactory proof of his capability, is permitted to 
 exercise the office of a teacher, and may find employment in 
 the public school, or establish a private seminary. 
 
 The election and nomination of schoolmasters resides in the 
 committee, and in the inspector of schools conjointly. They 
 generally look to the normal schools for teachers, and never ac- 
 cept one unless he is recommended according to law. The ap- 
 pointment is ratified by the provincial board, and sometimes 
 by the ministerial authorities. Teachers are solemnly installed 
 in their office, and it is held by those thus appointed in the 
 same place, according to the mutual satisfaction of both par- 
 ties. The teaqher is sometimes preferred to a more lucrative 
 place when experience of his services proves him to be de- 
 serving of promotion.- 
 
 Incompetent teachers'are sometimes returned to the normal 
 school for additional preparation, and are again restored to 
 their occupation, but no inefficient teaching and discipline are 
 overlooked, or permitted in the schools. It is expected and 
 desired that the masters of schools will be constantly im- 
 proving their own minds. Their office is to store the minds 
 and sharpen the intellect of their pupils, to reason with them,
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 19 
 
 and cultivate their moral sentiments a stupid good man can 
 do no such thing, but one with his faculties all alive, and fur- 
 nished with a multitude of ideas, alone is fit for this service. 
 
 The directors of schools are expected to be the guides and 
 friends of the teachers. " They shall especially attend to the 
 young masters," says the Prussian law, " give them advice, set 
 them right, and excite them to aim at perfection, by attending 
 to the plans of more experienced masters, by frequenting their 
 society, by forming school conferences, or other meetings of 
 schoolmasters, and by studying the best works on education." 
 
 The provincial consistory, that is, the school-board or coun- 
 cil, are required " urgently to address themselves to the in- 
 spectors of schools to promote associations of teachers in town 
 and country, for the purpose of keeping alive a sense of the 
 dignity and sanctity of their vocation, of continuing their own 
 improvement by regular meetings, by consultations, conversa- 
 tions, practical essays, dissertations on particular branches of 
 tuition, and by reading together." 
 
 The provincial consistory may at their pleasure recall mas- 
 ters highly susceptible of improvement from their school, and 
 place them in some educational establishment, there to go 
 through a more complete course of tuition both in theory and 
 practice ; and particularly that they make themselves acquaint- 
 ed with the latest improvements in the art of teaching ; and 
 also that they may effect a stricter union among themselves, 
 and establish a beneficial interchange of learning, experience, 
 and opinions. 
 
 The most eminent masters, those who are to become di- 
 rectors of normal schools, shall, with consent, and by sugges- 
 tion of government, be enabled from the public funds to seek 
 by travels, both in Prussia, and in other countries, more exact 
 and extended information on the organisation of schools, and 
 their wants internal and external." 
 
 Clergymen in Prussia are required to study both the theory 
 and practice of education, and become acquainted with the 
 organisation of the public schools, and the subjects there 
 taught. At the time of the examination for the office of a 
 pastor, particular attention is paid to the knowledge which the
 
 20 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 candidate possesses on the subjects of education and teaching ; 
 and none are admitted to orders who do not give proof of the 
 knowledge necessary for the right management and superin- 
 tendence of schools. This is required in order to preserve the 
 bond between the church and the school, so that the duty of 
 the clergyman in the school shall be performed with dignity, 
 gentleness, and love ; that the clergy may honour the respect- 
 able profession of teacher, in the person of all its members ; 
 that they may endeavour to secure to them in their parishes 
 the consideration which is their due ; and always support 
 them with vigour and firmness. 
 
 " Public schools are the basis of popular instruction in Prus- 
 sia. The government of that country takes good care not to 
 leave to chance or private speculation the noble task of the 
 training of youth, nor does primary instruction depend at all 
 upon private schools." But, notwithstanding the paramount 
 importance conceded to the public institution, private establish- 
 ments are permitted, though not without license, and liability 
 to an inspection of the local school commission, which may 
 inform the higher authority of any great defect or breach of 
 regularity in such schools, and they may be suppressed when 
 it is clear that they are not in accordance with the general 
 system. The particular plan of tuition, the choice of books, 
 of methods, and discipline are left entirely with the proprietors 
 of the schools, and they are in fact benefited by the super- 
 intendence they are under, being commended and encouraged 
 by those who regard the welfare and virtue of all persons, 
 without exclusion of any useful enterprise, or private service 
 to society. 
 
 The facts which illustrate the present applications of the 
 Prussian system remain to be stated. " According to the 
 latest census, the population of Prussia is 12,726,823. Out 
 of this population it is computed that the children from 
 seven* to fourteen, in attendance at these schools, is 2,043,030, 
 
 * The statute makes* Jive years the legal period to commence school attend- 
 ance but usage does not enforce the law till the age of seven.
 
 iy PRUSSIA. 21 
 
 being thirteen fifteenths of all the children of the age men- 
 tioned. 
 
 The number of elementary schools in 1833 was 22,612, of 
 the monarchy, and these employed 27,749 masters and mis- 
 tresses. " We may be certain," says Cousin, "that there does 
 not exist a single human being throughout that monarchy who 
 does not receive an education sufficient for his moral and in- 
 tellectual wants so far as school education is sufficient. This 
 result, glorious and admirable as it is, is an incontestable fact." 
 This was written with the school reports before his eyes. A 
 respectable Prussian gentleman* now in this country, told the 
 writer that such was rather the aim and tendency of the 
 Prussian system of education than its positive result. Cousin 
 himself states that some of the provinces are more advanced 
 than others, and that " Berlin shares the fate of all great 
 cities, where a thoroughly exact control is peculiarly difficult, 
 and where the law cannot be rigidly enforced." But in Sax- 
 ony and Brandenburg, " the taste for instruction is so gene- 
 rally diffused that parents anticipate the age fixed by law for 
 sending their children to school;" therefore in those highly 
 civilised provinces, the compulsory law of school-obligation is 
 no compulsion at. all, but is regarded as a general blessing, as 
 education is in this country with some exceptions that might 
 easily be overruled. There is a sufficient number of normal 
 schools in the kingdom to supply almost all the masters of the 
 public schools, elementary and intermediate, so that there is 
 no remote place, nor any prejudice, nor mercenary exclusion, 
 nor local poverty, nor deficiency of superintendence, nor lack 
 of labourers, that can leave human beings to grow up in 
 heathenism and sin, unpitied and untaught without care of 
 the state, or beyond reach of the ennobling and renewing in- 
 fluences of rational and Christian education. 
 
 The present occasion does not, perhaps, permit a more 
 ample representation of the rules and facts, which illustrate 
 the Prussian system of education. It only remains to consider 
 its spirit, and its possible application to the American people. 
 
 * Dr. Julius.
 
 22 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 For its spirit, what can be more worthy of a paternal govern- 
 ment, what more salutary for the formation of national cha- 
 racter, what more preventive of the deterioration and cor- 
 ruption to which uninstructed and unregenerate man tepds ? 
 M. Cousin truly says, " the whole fabric rests on the firm 
 basis of Christian love." The principles which enter into the 
 institution are strictly in accord with the universality and 
 beneficence of Christianity, and the system has the beautiful 
 character of truth stamped upon it. It is an experiment not 
 a speculation it is education " actually given and actually 
 received." And then how admirable are its extensiveness and 
 thoroughness. It is not the manna of the seventh day, the 
 provision of emergency, but the bread of every day it is 
 not generosity, it is justice it is not a gift, but the payment 
 of a debt it is not a charity that celebrates the giver, but 
 an obligation of the parent state, to the dependent child, and 
 blesses alike him that gives and him- that takes it. It makes 
 law a magnificent benefactor to all that are the organs and 
 the receivers of this great bounty, and unalienable blessing, 
 and excludes from despotism itself every trait of severity and 
 unreasonableness, 6f favour and preference, of neglected mercy, 
 or selfish domination. 
 
 But if these schools only taught letters and sciences, if they 
 formed no moral principles and habits ; if they took no cog- 
 nisance of the laws of duty ; none of the defenceless state of 
 a mind uninformed of the evil that is in the world ; if they 
 never turned the attention of the young to the Providence of 
 God, and his divine attributes ; if they never connected the 
 present life to the eternal ; if they afforded no expositions of 
 morality ; if they presented it only in negations ; if they re- 
 ferred it exclusively to the Sunday, the minister, the church, 
 the casual Sunday-school, and the self-culture of ripe age to 
 what mere worldliness and technicality, to what selfishness 
 and implied materialism, to what small effects and low pur- 
 poses, would they be employed, and how much would they 
 leave undone, which their broad policy, and tried efforts ac- 
 tually accomplish 1 
 
 It has been shown that in the German schools great liberty
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 23 
 
 is allowed in the use of instruments of instruction. Masters 
 are invited to progress and improvement, and to the examina- 
 tion of new elementary works, and though they cannot adopt 
 new works without concurrence of the school-commission that 
 is " free to adopt the best books as they appear ;" and the 
 lesson-books are carefully selected by the committee, and re- 
 ferred, previous to the adoption. of them, to higher authorities 
 but cheapness, or any inferior consideration, does not hinder 
 these several authorities in their preference of what is abso- 
 lutely best, for it is their principle to " choose the methods 
 best adapted to the growth of the human mind ; the methods 
 which generally and constantly enlarge the understanding of 
 the children, and not such as instil merely mechanical know- 
 ledge." Under the influence of such principles, the teachers 
 seek for the best books, they look confidently to the assistance 
 of the committee for procuring them, and the latter may cal- 
 culate upon the judgment of the higher commission for appro- 
 bation of their judgment. In this sense co-operation is power; 
 the judgment of all parties concerned is mutually helpful in 
 procuring the best instruments of instruction. School books 
 are accounted of immense value in Germany. Mr. Bulwer, 
 addressing himself to Dr. Chalmers, says, "While we [the 
 English] have so many schools organised, and so little is 
 taught in them, just let me lead your attention to the four 
 common class-books, used in all the popular schools of Saxe 
 Weimar." Adaptation Connection Progress, are the prin- 
 ciples upon which they are forme'd. Morality and religion, 
 not sectarian in the least, but the truths acknowledged in all 
 religions, the laws of the external world, and of the human 
 constitution, enter into their plan. The culture of all the facul- 
 ties, the conscience, affections, reason, and imagination, is at- 
 tempted in a certain measure, that is, the measure of probable 
 and possible developement ; and they are perfectly intelligible to 
 young minds of ordinary power. Such books are an invaluable 
 help to a rational and faithful teacher. Of the German books, 
 Mr. B. says, " such is the foundation of the lofty, united, and in- 
 tellectual spirit which distinguishes the subjects of Saxe Wei- 
 mar," and, we might add, not of Saxe Weimar alone, but of
 
 24 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 every community put under the influence of this peculiar mode 
 of culture. 
 
 Can the Prussian mode of education be applied to this coun- 
 try ? It is difficult to give answer to this question. It has 
 been adopted in France, by recommendation of Cousin, a man 
 whose name stands first as a benefactor of nations in this age, 
 but not without national modification ; and Cousin believed 
 that after ten years of experiment it would require new adap- 
 tations to the French people. We may not be able to adopt 
 its whole economy, it may not be desirable to us. We can 
 only follow its suggestions, for it requires the word of legisla- 
 tion to order its operation, and it requires the public suffrage 
 to receive it. In Germany, Francke and Von Rochou showed 
 the importance and practicableness of improved schools by 
 forming schools for teachers at their own expense. A very 
 able writer, Basedow, urged upon the public mind new me- 
 thods, and constructed, also, at his own expense, new school 
 books, and illustrations of the sciences ; and a sovereign prince 
 aided their enterprises. And this for the special advantage of 
 a people ready for the reception of the benefit, but which it 
 has taken nearly a century to impart fully to them. We are, 
 it is true, in a different state already much advanced in the 
 use of science and letters, and feeling the importance of them 
 to our whole nation, and to posterity ; and, we are, severally, 
 and separately, as trustees of schools, or principals of them, 
 allowed much liberty in our function. We are, in a great 
 measure, able to enlarge* its uses, exalt its influence, and 
 choose its instruments. 
 
 Before education in this country can produce its best fruits 
 it must be reformed. This is not said to depreciate what is 
 good, but to increase that which is good, and correct what- 
 ever is imperfect in our practice. In the United States gene- 
 rally all the people can read, but all over the country there is 
 a vast misapplication and deficiency of means which might 
 turn education to better account. In some parts of the coun- 
 try, multitudes are growing up in total ignorance, and almost 
 every where, the common schools are far below what they 
 ought to be. No compulsory law is necessary in any part of
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 25 
 
 the United States, for inducing the people to send children 
 to good schools ; but in all parts the schools would derive much 
 of their efficacy from the inspection and regulation of an en- 
 lightened and vigilant public authority. When once the legal 
 managers of schools shall become acquainted with the means 
 of affording education of the best quality to the people, and 
 shall make it appear that they endeavour to procure it for 
 them, parents will feel perfect confidence in the public institu- 
 tions, and private ones will emulate their excellence. In the 
 present state of our popular education those who can possibly 
 procure it, obtain other and casual instruction for their child- 
 ren, of necessity, much inferior to that which the collective 
 means of any community, wisely and faithfully appropriated, 
 might afford to all the children, provided they were assorted 
 in a natural classification, and instructed according to their 
 different stages of progress, by judicious persons, with suitable, 
 varied, and progressive books in their power. At present a 
 large portion of the children, withdrawn by pride or principle, 
 from the popular schools, receive a substituted instruction, of 
 which no enlightened cognisance is taken, and they are at the 
 mercy of speculators ; whilst those who must rely upon the 
 public institution often suffer from it ; as the disesteem in 
 which it is held serves to depreciate it ; and the numbers with- 
 drawn, which might countenance and illustrate a good system, 
 are so many supports removed. 
 
 Schoolmasters worthily educated, adequately paid, and en- 
 couraged and assisted by intelligent and faithful supervisors, 
 would effect great improvements in society. The qualifica- 
 tions and suitable education of schoolmasters must depend 
 upon what they are expected to teach, and how they are re- 
 garded in society, as well as how they are paid. It has been 
 shown how much dignity the German system attaches to the 
 profession, and how it is cherished and guarded. Acknow- 
 ledged want of good teachers, and proper respect paid to their 
 wants and their happiness, will create a supply of them. It 
 may be objected, that such education as the projectors of im- 
 proved systems demand for the people, cannot be paid for. 
 Every thing else is paid for, according to its quality. All func- 
 
 4
 
 26 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 tions of government and magistracy ; all military defences, 
 and penal inflictions are paid for. Some of these would cost 
 less, and some would fall into disuse, if knowledge cost more. 
 But if no more should be paid, than is now paid for education, if 
 persons were thoroughly taught how to teach, and what to teach, 
 they would teach well as cheaply as they now teach ill, and 
 they would be as well satisfied as they now are. Of the use- 
 ful and contented teachers of the humblest cottagers of the 
 poorest villages in Germany, Mrs. Austin, says " if ever po- 
 verty appeared on earth, serene, contented, lofty, beneficent, 
 graceful, it is here. Here we see men, in the very spring time 
 of life, so far from being made, as we are told that man must 
 be made; restless, and envious, and discontented by instruc- 
 tion, taking indigence and obscurity to their hearts for life ; 
 raised above their poor neighbours in education, only that they 
 may become the servants of all, and may train the lowliest 
 children in a sense of the dignity of man, and the beauty* of 
 creation, in the love of God, and of virtue." Who will say 
 that the function of a teacher is not a holy and a high voca- 
 tion, and that he is not a minister of God for good? 
 
 Who shall afford a standard to teachers, and a method of 
 attainment ? Teachers are not likely to do it. Each for the 
 most part pactises under circumstances of too much restraint 
 and obscurity, to enable him to set up any very superior me- 
 thods or means of teaching, or to give them wide efficiency. 
 Those who can address the public through the press Patrons 
 and trustees of schools, have a better opportunity to inform the 
 public extensively on this subject, and, by their influence, to 
 stablish schools for teachers; to patronise good works de- 
 signed for the use of the young ; to expose all imposture and 
 unfaithfulness in teacning, and all lifeless mechanism; in short, 
 to strengthen the hands and encourage the hearts of upright 
 and enlightened teachers of both sexes, and to reject and ex- 
 clude all others; and thus to form the coming age to a higher 
 moral intelligence, and superior character than this, our day 
 assumes. 
 
 That part of the Prussian system of education most inimita- 
 table by us is the adoption of rational school books. The
 
 IX PRUSSIA. 27 
 
 teaching to read and the practice of the art of reading, when 
 acquired, is a great opportunity to inculcate useful truth. So 
 persuaded are the Germans that the sense of words, whenever 
 presented to children as the means of information, should be 
 perfectly clear to them, that they do not give them a written 
 copy to imitate; which has not obvious and applicable mean- 
 ing, nor a book to read which does not thoroughly explain 
 itself; nor a lesson that is not appropriate to their real cir- 
 cumstances, or their probable development. They condescend 
 to the young mind, and yet are in advance of it. They ad- 
 dress curiosity and all the faculties at proper times, and inter- 
 sperse all narrative and all reasoning with interrogations that 
 exercise the moral and rational judgment continually. 
 
 A series of school books upon this plan will be referred to 
 and described, after we have given a brief outline of the Nor- 
 mal Schools of Prussia.
 
 NORMAL SCHOOLS 
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 
 
 ONE of the most judicious, elegant, and convincing articles, 
 ever written on the subject of public instruction, is Mrs. 
 Austin's preface to the Report of Cousin. Her mind perfectly 
 apprehends the universal features of this beautiful system. She 
 sees that of knowledge, all cannot provide for all, and that the 
 mind that feels the want, cannot procure the supply. She 
 knows that the w r ise must have pity upon the ignorant, and 
 them that are out of the way, and that they must enlighten 
 the blind, and raise the low. She believes, also, that national 
 virtue is obtained and cherished by general intelligence, that 
 neither grow spontaneously, but are a result of the care and 
 benificence of the most enlightened and disinterested spirits of 
 a country. To such minds all that she says is properly ad- 
 dressed. She believes that such exist in the stations of middle 
 life, and she writes to just thinkers, and to those who are per- 
 fectly sincere, in morals, whoever they are, and wherever they 
 may be, and can exert any influence to those truly desirous to dis- 
 pel error and enlarge the limits of truth and right reason, to those 
 who would extend and secure the happiness of a people, who 
 can alone become zealous of good works through information 
 of immutable principles of right and wrong. 
 
 Mrs. Austin believes that in England a great fault is com- 
 mitted in the offering of selfish motives, of false ambition, to 
 young persons; we wish that we in America were free from 
 this error. The selfish principle in human hearts is strong 
 enough in itself, without being commended and praised as a
 
 Iff PRUSSIA. 29 
 
 salutary incentive to intellectual labour. Truth, for its own 
 sake, wisdom, because its ways are pleasantness; benevolence, 
 because it gives and gains the greatest good ; a feeling of bro- 
 therly kindness and of public spirit, are the influences which 
 that admirable writer commends to be infused into the percep- 
 tive and practical parts of popular education. In this country, 
 in entire opposition to this liberal and safe course, the visitors 
 of schools often address the most selfish and deceptive motives 
 to boys, as inducements to diligence and perseverance. " You 
 have heard," sometimes say these counsellors, " of the wise 
 Franklin, who became one of the chief men of this nation ; a 
 minister from our government to Europe, who lived and died, 
 honoured and admired by all who knew or heard of him. 
 This man was a mechanic a printer; but by means of his 
 industry, and fidelity in whatever he undertook, by the infor- 
 mation of all kinds with which he stored his mind, he rose to 
 this extraordinary eminence among his fellow citizens. You 
 have heard also of the good Roger Sherman, of Connecticut ; 
 of his independence and honesty; his excellent understanding 
 and judgment. He was bred a shoemaker; but he was not des- 
 tined to spend his days at the last. His superior mind, and 
 correct notions of politics, obtained for him the honour to aid 
 in the public councils ; to attain to many dignified places ; to 
 stand high in the esteem of the greatest men in the land. These 
 examples are set before you that you may do likewise; that 
 you may be as well informed and as faithful as these honoura- 
 ble persons, and that you may secure to yourselves equal ad- 
 vantages. And if you should resemble these great men, what 
 is to hinder you from being as fortunate as they were; as 
 much distinguished ? How many of the richest men in this 
 country ; the greatest merchants and lawyers in it, have been 
 poor boys! There is nothing to prevent you from following 
 their examples, and attaining to their good fortune. It is to be 
 hoped that you will not forget this truth, that you will not ne- 
 glect your opportunities, and come short of their success in 
 the world." Such is esteemed by many to be a very sensible 
 lecture. 
 
 Now it must occur to every sound mind that this is false in
 
 30* PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 principle. If all the printers in Franklin's time, or one-tenth 
 of them, had resembled him in all points of sufficiency for pub- 
 lic duties; and if all the shoemakers, or any number of them, 
 in Connecticut, had been as wise as Mr. Sherman, there "was 
 but one mission for the printers, and one seat in congress for 
 the shoemakers. And though the merit of all had been exact- 
 ly the same, the reward of that merit, did it really consist in 
 power or place, could not possibly be accorded to all. Print- 
 ing is more in request than diplomacy, and shoes are more 
 needed than legislation; that is, a certain sort of want is more 
 generally felt and acknowledged, more imperious in its de- 
 mands, than another class of wants in the community. A very 
 few persons, indeed, relatively to the whole, can supply the 
 rarer want; and a very large number are absolutely necessary 
 to supply the daily, physical, and outward need of society. 
 The common provisions of education, and the common chance 
 of success in life, must be for the latter chiefly in their original 
 vocation. So few are the high places of earth; and young 
 persons are so quick-sighted in perceiving " that which is set 
 on a hill;" and so very ready of their own accord to explore 
 the upward path, how hard soever to climb, that it is more 
 just, and more judicious, to set before children rational and 
 probable views of future life than the stimulants of a vain and 
 deceitful ambition; ambition, which often makes them self-seek- 
 ing, encroaching, and vain-glorious prematurely, and too often 
 leaves them in the end, without any moral correction in the 
 mind, a prey to the bitterest disappointment. 
 
 This truth is set forth with convincing power by the trans- 
 lator of Cousin. " It seems to me," says Mrs. Austin, " that 
 we are guilty of great inconsistency as to the ends and objects 
 of education. How industriously have not its most able and 
 most zealous champions been continually instilling into the 
 minds of the people that education is the way to advancement, 
 that knowledge is power,' that a man cannot better himself 
 without some learning ! And then we complain, that educa- 
 tion will set them above their station, disgust them with 
 labour, make them ambitious, envious, dissatisfied ! We must 
 reap as we sow. We set before their eyes objects the most
 
 lie PRUSSIA. 31 
 
 tempting to the desires of the most uncultivated men, we urge 
 them on to the acquirement of knowledge, by holding out the 
 hope that knowledge will enable them to grasp these objects : 
 if their minds are corrupted by the nature of the aim, and im- 
 bittered by the failure which must be the lot of the mass, who 
 is to blame ? 
 
 " If, instead of nurturing expectations which cannot be ful- 
 filled, and turning the mind on a track which must lead to a 
 sense of continual disappointment, and thence of wrong, we 
 were to hold out the appropriate and attainable, nay, unfailing 
 ends of a good education ; the gentle and kindly sympathies ; 
 the sense of self-respect, and of the respect of fellow men ; 
 the free exercise of the intellectual faculties : the gratification 
 of a curiosity that ' grows by what it feeds on.' and yet finds 
 food for ever ; the power of regulating the habits and the busi- 
 ness of life, so as to extract the greatest possible portion of 
 comfort out of small means ; the refining and traquillising en- 
 joyment of the beautiful in nature and art, and the kindred 
 perception of the beauty and nobility of virtue ; the strength- 
 ening consciousness of duty fulfilled ; and, to crown all, ' the 
 peace that passeth all understanding ;' if we directed their as- 
 pirations this way, it is probable that we should not have to 
 complain of being disappointed, nor they of being deceived. 
 Who can say that wealth can purchase better things than 
 these 1 and who can say that they are not within the reach of 
 every man of sound body and mind, who, by labour not de- 
 structive of either, can procure, for himself and his family, 
 food, clothing, and habitation." 
 
 The design of all popular education is not to raise up ex- 
 traordinary individuals, but to exalt the nation, to elevate 
 whole classes of people. Not to make the American people 
 or any particular nation, superior to other people in physical 
 resources and power, but to develope the whole faculties of 
 the human being and of aggregate man ; to multiply his de- 
 fences against evil, and his capabilities of enjoyment ; to afford 
 to every man security and enjoyment of what belongs to him- 
 self individually, and to promote among all men mutual and 
 safe confidence in their fellow men ; to enlarge the commerce
 
 32 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 of good offices, and multiply the interchanges of thought and 
 affection in human society ; and this must be done with some 
 regard to the structure of civilised society. 
 
 All men are moral beings ; all have the same rules of right 
 and wrong to apply to their own circumstances. The cir- 
 cumstances of different classes of men however are, and must 
 be, different. There ought to be extra provisions for extraor- 
 dinary means to obtain, and extraordinary capacity to profit 
 by, but there should be besides in every well regulated state, 
 one ample institution for the benefit of the whole people, supe 
 rior to all private and selfish dealings, in the sale and barte*. 
 of knowledge. This should supply what is wanting, correct 
 what is wrong, and prevent what else might be depraving, in 
 private and casual education. Such an institution Prussia 
 has established for all her children, and it is tending to produce 
 its natural effects. Such an institution France has imitated 
 from this great national experiment. Time, the demonstrator 
 of all true politics, and of all human projects, well or ill de- 
 vised, will show with how much efficacy in improving the 
 morals and manners of her people. Could this institution fully 
 accomplish its proposed ends, what wise legislator would re- 
 fuse to urge similar provisions for the public virtue and happi- 
 ness upon any community now destitute of them. 
 
 The direct instruments of this system of education are, first 
 of all, qualified teachers. How these are disciplined and pre- 
 pared for their function will be most correctly shown in the 
 representation of Cousin, who has described, in a very interest- 
 ing manner, some of the institutions which exist in Prussia for 
 the education of schoolmasters. 
 
 One of the most important features of the normal school is 
 the function of its head or director. " It is the constant prac- 
 tice of the ministry in Prussia, to be scrupulous to the last 
 degree in the choice of a director, and then to leave him great 
 latitude at the beginning, with reservation to the minister to 
 judge of the whole by the results, and to interpose his author- 
 ity after full knowledge of facts."
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 33 
 
 Extract from the Instructions for the Director of the Prirrtary 
 Normal School of Potsdam. 
 
 " These instructions, which prescribe the duties of the di- 
 rector, are rather calculated to suggest the point of view un- 
 der which he ought to regard his office, than to define his 
 functions and occupations with precision. These may un- 
 dergo various modifications from unforeseen cirmstances ; and 
 the director of an establishment ought not to adhere to the 
 literal meaning of official rules, but to be guided by more 
 large and elevated conceptions, and wherever the law is silent, 
 to supply the deficiency from his own intelligence. 
 
 " All that a rational and a pious father of a family is to his 
 household, the director ought to be to the whole establishment 
 and to each of its members ; the kind friend and colleague of 
 all the pupils and masters who are animated with a true feel- 
 ing of their duties ; on the other hand, the severe and inflexi- 
 ble ruler of those who refuse to listen to the voice of reason 
 and of religion. 
 
 " He ought to pay attention to the smallest things as well as 
 to the greatest, that nothing may trouble the harmony of the 
 entire machine committed to his watchful guidance. 
 
 He is bound especially 
 
 " 1. To manage the pecuniary affairs of the establishment. 
 
 " 2. To superintend the domestic economy and the steward ; 
 to have an eye to the library and to all the instruments, &c. 
 necessary for the school ; 
 
 " 3. To preserve and add to these, and to give an account 
 of the funds appropriated to th'e purchase of books, &c. ; 
 
 " 4. To carry on the correspondence, to make the report to 
 the school-board on the normal school and the school attached 
 to it ; to send in a list of candidates for admission, to keep the 
 archives, &c. ; 
 
 " 5. To call up, examine, and choose the candidates for ad- 
 mission, with the advice of the masters ; 
 
 " 6. To draw out and present plans of study, after having 
 referred them to the conference of schoolmasters, and to dis- 
 
 5
 
 34 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN PRUSSIA. 
 
 
 
 tribute and arrange the subjects of instruction, according to 
 the plan approved by the competent authorities ; 
 
 " 7. To overlook and direct the masters, both in their moral 
 conduct and their functions ; 
 
 " 8. To organise and direct the schoolmasters' conferences, 
 and to draw up prospectuses for them ; 
 
 " 9. To fix and direct the public examinations of the normal 
 school and the school attached ; 
 
 " 10. To maintain the high discipline of the normal school, 
 and of the school attached by all possible means, even to the 
 expulsion of a student, after the decision of the conference of 
 masters ; subject, however, to the obligation of making an im- 
 mediate and circumstantial report to the competent authorities. 
 
 " It is impossible more completely to justify the confidence 
 of the ministry than Mr. Striez, the director of the Potsdam 
 School has done. From year to year the normal school con- 
 fided to his care has made extraordinary progress, and in 
 1826 he laid before the public an account of it, which excited 
 the liveliest interest. This account I place before you ; it will 
 give you an accurate and complete idea of the material and 
 moral condition of the whole internal life of one of the 
 best primary normal schools of Prussia.
 
 REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PRIMARY NORMAL SCHOOL 
 
 AT POTSDAM, 
 
 BY F. L. G. STRIEZ, DIRECTOR OF THIS SCHOOL AND MINISTER OF THE 
 
 GOSPEL. 
 
 HISTORICAL STATEMENT. 
 
 " UNTIL the middle of the last century there were no primary 
 normal schools in Brandenburg. The schoolmasters were ap- 
 pointed by the parishes, either with the approbation of the au- 
 thorities or without their knowledge, and were all drawn from 
 the primary schools then established. All that was required 
 of these masters, who were chiefly mechanics, was to be able 
 to read, say the catechism, sing tolerably a few well-known 
 psalm tunes, and to write and cipher a little. Numbers of 
 shepherds, employed in summer-time in keeping sheep, during 
 winter assumed the office of teachers of youth. The nobility 
 used generally to bestow the place of schoolmaster (if it was 
 at their disposal,) on their valets or grooms, as a reward for 
 past services. The primary schools in towns sometimes had 
 masters a little better informed, but even they had neither 
 good taste nor method in their manner of teaching. 
 
 " Johann Julius Hecker, chief councillor of the consistory at 
 Berlin, and minister of Trinity church, was the first who un- 
 dertook to train young men for the art of teaching. With this 
 view he founded a school to supply masters for his own dio- 
 cese. 
 
 " This establishment, founded in 1748, remained for some 
 time a private one ; in the year 1753, it was raised to the rank 
 of a royal primary normal school for schoolmasters and parish- 
 clerks. The provincial authorities were enjoined, in a Cabinet
 
 3t> PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 order published the 1st of October, 1753, to select, as far as 
 possible, the members of this establishment for the royal 
 places of parish-clerk and schoolmaster. 
 
 " But this primary normal school was still far from meeting 
 the constantly increasing wants of the province, and little me- 
 rited the name of a royal school. The pupils, scattered in all 
 parts of the capital, were not properly watched nor directed 
 in their studies. Being all mechanics, they laboured at their 
 trades rather than their studies, and were besides exposed to 
 the influence of the corporation spirit,* and to the seductions 
 of a great town. In fact, the time which they devoted to their 
 studies at the normal school was in general too short to afford 
 any hope of effecting the end proposed. 
 
 " In 1771, Frederick the Great appropriated 4000 crowns, 
 interest upon a capital of 100,000 crowns, to the improvement 
 of the country schools in the Electoral March ; he used on 
 this occasion the following expressions : ' Primary education, 
 especially in the country, has been hitherto much neglected ; 
 it becomes imperative to remove the bad masters, and replace 
 them by competent men.' Understanding that the schools 
 were better organised in Saxony, he ordered that masters 
 should be drawn thence, and put in the place of those whom it 
 might have seemed fit to remove, in spite of their being de- 
 pendents on the crown or on the nobles. An increase of 
 salary was to be allowed to the new masters, from the special 
 fund lately created ; and the individuals most distinguished 
 among them to be held out to the primary normal school as 
 models for masters in training. 
 
 " But the benevolent intention of the king could not be en- 
 tirely realised ; either the persons intrusted with its execution 
 were negligent, or they found it difficult to draw skilful masters 
 from Saxony. To obviate this inconvenience, it was deter- 
 mined to place in the schools which were susceptible of reform, 
 theological candidates, who should fill the office of masters. 
 
 " This arrangement not answering the purpose, some lesser 
 normal schools, indeed, sprang up insensibly at Berlin ; but 
 
 * In Germany the members of each trade, till very recently, composed a Zun/t, 
 . guild, or corporation. TRANSL,
 
 IX PRUSSIA. 37 
 
 either they were not of long continuance, or they remained un- 
 important ; or else they had no other view than to form mas- 
 ters for Berlin and the neighbouring towns of an inferior 
 order." 
 
 Such was the state of things when, in 1809, the regency of 
 Potsdam, the ecclesiastical authorities, and the school-deputa- 
 tion began to give a new direction to the system hitherto fol- 
 lowed in primary instruction. 
 
 Nothing was more strongly felt than the want of good mas- 
 ters. Exact information w&s eagerly sought as to the condi- 
 tion of the primary normal school at Berlin, and in 1810, 
 great improvements were effected in this establishment. Upon 
 their success depended, in part, whether this school should be 
 continued and remain at Berlin, or whether it should be trans- 
 ferred to another place. Now, on experiment, the measures 
 adopted appeared inapplicable to the establishment at Berlin, 
 and the primary normal school of Berlin was superseded by 
 that of Potsdam. 
 
 PRESENT ORGANISATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL. 
 1. Direction and Inspection. 
 
 The normal school and its annexed school are placed under 
 a director or principal, subordinate to the royal school-board of 
 the province of Brandenburgh at Berlin, and to the minister of 
 public instruction. 
 
 The last-named authority lays down the principles to be 
 followed in this school, as in all other public schools ; exacts 
 an account of all important matters, such as the nomination 
 of the masters, and any change in the fundamental plan of the 
 studies ; and receives every year, through the medium of the 
 royal school-board, a detailed report, prepared by the director 
 of the school. 
 
 The school-board is charged with the special inspection of 
 the normal school : it must watch its progress, and from time 
 to time send commissioners to make inquiries on the spot. It 
 examines also and improves the plan of studies.
 
 38 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 2. Building. 
 
 ' 
 
 The normal school, situated near the canal and the Berlin 
 gate, is a large edifice two stories high with a frontage of 127 
 feet, and considerable back-buildings, which, joined to the 
 main building, form a square within which is a tolerably spa- 
 cious court. The whole comprehends : 
 
 " 1. A family residence for the director or principal, and 
 another for a master ; 
 
 " 2. Three apartments for three unmarried masters ; 
 
 " 3. An apartment for the steward and his servants, and suf- 
 ficient convenience for household business and stowage ; 
 
 " 4. A dining-room for the pupils, which serves also for the 
 writing and drawing class ; 
 
 " 5. An organ-room, in which the music-lessons are given, 
 the examinations take place, and the morning and evening 
 prayers are said ; 
 
 " 6. Two rooms for the scientific instruction of the pupils ; 
 
 " 7. Four rooms for the classes of the annexed school ; 
 
 " 8. Five rooms of different sizes, and two dormitories for 
 the pupils ; 
 
 " 9. Two infirmaries ; 
 
 "10. A wash-house; 
 
 "11. Two cabinets of natural history ; 
 
 " 12. Granaries, cellars, wood-houses, &e. 
 
 3. Revenues. 
 
 Are afforded by state funds, by fees from pupils, and from 
 children at the primary school which serve to pay 
 
 " 1. The salaries of the masters ; 
 
 " 2. The household expenses ; 
 
 " 3. The materials for instruction for the normal school and 
 the school annexed ; 
 
 " 4. The garden-ground ; 
 
 " 5. The heating and lighting ; 
 
 " 6. The repairs of the building, furniture and utensils, the 
 insurance, taxes, and expenses of the house, &c. ;
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 39 
 
 " 7. The maintenance of the pupils ; 
 " 8. The physician and surgeon. 
 
 4. Inventory. 
 
 " The establishment contains the following articles ; 
 
 " 1. Things required in the economy of the house, kitchen- 
 utensils, tables, forms, &c. ; 
 
 " 2. Sufficient and suitable furniture, consisting of chests of 
 drawers, tables, forms, chairs and boxes, for the class of the 
 normal school and the school for practice, and for the masters' 
 rooms, &c. There is also, for the poor pupils, a certain num- 
 ber of bedsteads with bedding ; 
 
 " 3. A considerable library for the masters and pupils, as 
 well as a good collection of maps and globes for the teaching 
 of geography ; 
 
 " 4. A tolerably complete collection of philosophical instru- 
 ments ; 
 
 " 5. A collection of minerals ; 
 
 " 6. A collection of stuffed birds, and other objects in natu- 
 ral history ; 
 
 " 7. The instruments most required in mathematical in- 
 struction ; 
 
 " 8. Complete drawing apparatus ; 
 
 " 9. A very considerable collection of music ; 
 
 " 10. A very good organ, and a piano-forte, seven harpsi- 
 chords, and many wind and string instruments. 
 
 5. Domestic Economy and Maintenance of the Pupils. 
 
 ".To support about eighty pupils, and to preserve cleanliness 
 in the house, a steward has been appointed, whose duties are 
 specified in a contract renewable every year. 
 
 " The food of the pupils is good and wholesome, which is 
 proved by the state of their health. Some parents think it need- 
 ful to send theis children eatables, or money to purchase them. 
 They are wrong, for the children have no such want; on the 
 contrary, so far from being advantageous, these presents only
 
 40 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 serve to take away their appetite at meals, and to make them 
 dainty and gluttonous. The orphans and those whose parents 
 are too poor to send them any thing, are exactly those who 
 are the strongest and healthiest. 
 
 " The director is almost always present at meals, to be sure 
 of the goodness of the food, and to prevent any irregularity in 
 the serving up. 
 
 " Sick pupils are sent to the infirmary, and are attended by 
 the physician or surgeon of the establishment. 
 
 6. Masters. 
 
 " All the masters belong exclusively to the establishment, in 
 which also they live. Each of them with the exception of the 
 principal, (whose number varies from twelve to sixteen,) gives 
 from twenty-four to twenty-seven lessons a week. 
 
 " The number of lessons being so great, one of the cleverest 
 pupils trained in the house is employed as assistant master, so 
 that the number of masters in fact amounts to six. 
 
 7. Number of Pupils. 
 
 " The number of the pupils is fixed by the regulation at from 
 75 to 80, and is now 78,* of whom 72 live in the establishment; 
 the other six have obtained a license to remain with their pa- 
 rents in order to lessen the expense of their maintenance. 
 
 This number is determined not only by the building, but also 
 by the wants of the province. The number of pupils to be 
 admitted is very easily determined. It depends on the average 
 number of new masters required in a year by the department. 
 This principle is fundamental. It is absurd to gather together 
 at random a crowd of students who have no security for ob- 
 taining employment. 
 
 8. What is required of Applicants for Admission. 
 
 
 
 " Once a year, 26 pupils are admitted. Of these are re- 
 quired 
 
 1831.
 
 INT PRUSSIA. 41 
 
 " 1. Good health and freedom from all bodily infirmity. 
 (Obstacles to admission would be, exceeding smallness of sta- 
 ture, short-sightedness, or a delicate chest ;) 
 
 "2. The age of 17 complete; 
 
 " 3. The evangelical religion ; 
 
 " 4. A moral and religious spirit, and a conduct hitherto 
 blameless ; 
 
 " 5. A good disposition and talents, amongst which are a good 
 voice and musical ear ; 
 
 " To be prepared for the studies of the normal school by the 
 culture of .the heart and mind : to have received a good reli- 
 gious education (which shall include a knowledge of the Bible 
 and biblical history ;) to be able to read ; to know the gram- 
 mar of the German language, of composition, arithmetic, the 
 principles of music. 
 
 " A written request for admission must be sent to the direc- 
 tor, by June at the latest, accompanied with 
 
 " 1. A certificate of birth and baptism; 
 
 " The director enters the petitioners on a list, and in the 
 month of June or July invites them, by letter to present them- 
 selves at the examination which takes place in July or 
 August. 
 
 " The examination is conducted partly in writing, and partly 
 viva voce. 
 
 " As a means of ascertaining the acquirements of the can- 
 didates, and of judging of their memory, their style, and their 
 moral dispositions, an anecdote or parable is related in a clear 
 and detailed manner, summing up and repeating the principal 
 points, after which they produce U in writing, with observa- 
 tions and reflections. 
 
 The oral examination usually includes only religion, read- 
 ing, grammar, logical exercises, and arithmetic. 
 
 They are also examined in music. 
 
 " After the examination, the talents and merits of the re- 
 spective candidates are conscientiously weighed and compared, 
 in a conference of the masters. The choice being made, it is 
 submitted to the sanction of the royal school-board with a de- 
 tailed report of the result of the examination. 
 
 6
 
 42 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 At the end of some weeks the candidates are informed of 
 the decision; their admission is announced, or the reason which 
 prevented it stated; with either advice to give up their project 
 entirely, or suggestions relative to their further preparation. 
 
 " The admitted candidate is bound to bring, besides his 
 clothes and books, amongst which must be the Bible and the 
 prayer-book used in the establishment, half-a-dozen shirts, six 
 pairs of stockings, a knife and fork, and generally, a bedstead 
 with all requisite bedding. 
 
 " He is also bound to sign, on his entrance, an engagement 
 to the director, with the consent of his father or guardian, to 
 observe the rules of the institution, to hold his future services 
 at the disposal of government, or to refund all expenses in- 
 curred on his account. 
 
 " The normal school is by no means designed for those who 
 are unfit for any business, and think if they can read and 
 write, they are capable of becoming schoolmasters. This no- 
 tion is so deeply rooted, that you hear fathers declare with all 
 the simplicity in the world ' My son is too delicate to learn a 
 business/ or 'I don't know what to make of my son, but I 
 think of getting him into the normal school.' We reply to 
 such, that the pupils of the normal school must, on the con- 
 trary, be sound both in body and mind, and able to brave the 
 toils and troubles of a career as laborious as it is honourable. 
 
 " Much neglect unfortunately still exists on a subject which 
 is of the highest importance the methodical preparation of 
 these young men for the calling which it is desired they should 
 embrace. 
 
 " A false direction is often given to their preliminary studies. 
 A young man is believed to be well prepared for the normal 
 school, if he have passed the limits of elementary instruction; 
 and if he have acquired a greater mass of knowledge than 
 other pupils. It frequently happens, however, that candidates 
 who come strongly recommended from school, pass the exami- 
 nation without credit, or are even rejected. 
 
 " The most immediate and the most important aim of all 
 instruction, is to train up and complete the Man; to ennoble 
 his heart and character; to awaken the energies of his soul,
 
 IN T PRUSSIA. 43 
 
 and to render him not only disposed, but able, fo fulfil his du- 
 ties. In this view alone can knowledge and talent profit a 
 man ; otherwise, instruction, working upon sterile memory and 
 talents purely mechanical, can be of no high utility. In order 
 that the teacher, and particularly the master of the primary 
 school, may make his pupils virtuous and enlightened men, it is 
 necessary he should be so himself. Thus, that the education 
 of a normal school, essentially practical, may completely suc- 
 ceed, the young candidate must possess nobleness and purity 
 of character in the highest possible degree, the love of the 
 True and Beautiful, an active and penetrating mind, the utmost 
 precision and clearness in narration and style. 
 
 " Such above all things are the qualities we require of young 
 men. If they have reached this state of moral and intellect- 
 ual advancement by the study of history, geography, mathe- 
 matics, &c., and if they have acquired additional knowledge 
 on these various branches, we cannot but give them applause; 
 but, we frankly repeat, we dispense with all these acquire- 
 ments, provided they possess that formal instruction of which 
 we have just spoken, since it is very easy for them to obtain 
 in the normal school that material instruction in which they 
 are deficient. 
 
 " It is nevertheless necessary to have some preliminary no- 
 tions, seeing that the courses at the normal school are often 
 a continuation of foregone studies, and that certain branches 
 could not be there treated in their whole extent, if they were 
 wholly unknown to the young men when they entered. We 
 have already mentioned the branches they should be most par- 
 ticularly prepared in ; but this subject being of the greatest 
 interest, we shall conclude this chapter with some suggestions 
 on the plan to be followed. 
 
 " 1. Religion. To awaken and fortify the religious spirit 
 and the moral sentiments. For this purpose the histories and 
 parables of the Bible are very useful. Frequent reading and 
 accurate explanation of the Bible are necessary. 
 
 " As to general history, there is no need of its being circum- 
 stantially or profoundly known, but the young men should be 
 able to refer with exactness to those historical facts which
 
 44 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 may be profitably used to form the heart, to exercise and 
 rectify the judgment, to infuse a taste for all that is grand and 
 noble, true and beautiful." 
 
 It appears here, that mere chronological tables and books 
 or abstracts do not satisfy the German notion of learning his- 
 tory. The philosophy of history, its moral spirit, is communi- 
 cated in the very first lessons to the humblest minds. A brief 
 list of some of their elementary works follows : 
 
 " 1. Examples of Virtue, a collection of noble deeds and 
 characteristic traits from universal history, &c., 3 vols. 
 
 " 2. School of Wisdom and Virtue. 
 
 " 3. Logical Exercises. These ought to tend to produce in 
 young minds clearness and accuracy of ideas, justness of judg- 
 ment, and, by consequence, precision and facility in oral and 
 written explanations. 
 
 " 4. Exercises far learning to think in a methodical and. natu- 
 ral manner" 
 
 These are a few of the books used in the normal schools. 
 Their very titles express that they aim by direct means to sow 
 the good seed of moral truth in the juvenile mind. It is in- 
 tended to furnish in another place, as has already been stated, 
 some further notice of books pf a similar character to those 
 used in the Prussian schools, and which are adapted to the 
 wants of our own School System. 
 
 " 5. Reading. When once the pupil can read fluently, he 
 must be taught to give emphasis to his reading, and to feel 
 what he reads. He should be habituated to recite, and even 
 gradually to analyse the phrases and periods he has just read, 
 to change the order, and express the same idea in different 
 words to put, for example, poetry into prose, &c. Thus 
 these exercises serve at the same time to teach him to think, 
 and to speak. We advise also that he be made to declaim 
 pieces he has learned by heart. 
 
 "6. Arithmetic. This does not include either methods of 
 abstruse calculation or practical arithmetic. Nothing more is 
 required of the pupil than to use figures without difficulty, and 
 to calculate in his head. 
 
 " All the pupils are bound to pursue the course of the normal
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 45 
 
 school for three years ; their acquirements and instruction 
 would be incomplete if they did not. conform to this regulation. 
 
 9. Education of the Pupils by means of Discipline and of In- 
 struction. 
 
 " This important subject is of far too great extent for us to 
 attempt to exhaust it here. We shall take a future opportunity 
 of entering upon it, and show how all the branches of instruc- 
 tion are treated in the normal school.* At present we shall 
 content ourselves with the mention of the principles which re- 
 gulate the instruction and general discipline. 
 
 " In the education of masters of primary schools the wants 
 of the people must be consulted. 
 
 " We have abundant proof that the- Veil-being of an indi- 
 vidual, like that of a people, is no wise secured by extraordi- 
 nary intellectual powers or very refined civilisation. The 
 true happiness of an individual, as of a people, is founded on 
 strict morality, self-government, humility, and moderation ; 
 on the willing performance of all duties to God, and his neigh- 
 bours. 
 
 " A religious and moral education is consequently the first 
 want of a people. Without this, every other education is not 
 only without real utility, but in some respects dangerous. If, 
 on the contrary, religious education has taken firm root, intel- 
 lectual education will have complete success, and ought on no 
 account to be withheld from the people, since God has en- 
 dowed them with all the faculties for acquiring it, and since 
 the cultivation of all the powers of man secures to him the 
 means of reaching perfection, and, through that, supreme hap- 
 piness. 
 
 " Religious and moral instruction, far from leading to pre- 
 sumption and a disputatious spirit, on the contrary, produces 
 in man a consciousness of his own weakness, and, as a con- 
 sequence, humility. The object then should be, to give the 
 people solid and practical knowledge, suited to their wants, 
 
 * Page 48.
 
 46 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 which will naturally refine and soften their habits and man- 
 ners. 
 
 " If such be the instruction the people ought to receive, that 
 of the masters of the primary schools is at once determined, 
 and the principles to be followed in the instruction of our 
 pupils are equally clear. 
 
 " A more definite direction is given to religious and moral 
 instruction by belief in the revealed word of God in the Holy 
 Scriptures. But this belief must not be simply historical, as 
 amongst the learned. It ought rather so to penetrate the 
 heart of man as to produce a constant endeavour to have his 
 thoughts, sentiments, and actions, in strictest harmony with 
 the word of God. It is, then, on the living conviction of the 
 truths and doctrines of Christianity, that we base the religious 
 and moral character oT our pupils. Enemies to all needless 
 constraint, we allow the young men all the liberty compatible 
 with our responsibility, with our duty of guarding them from 
 every seduction, and with the internal order of the establish- 
 ment. We are indulgent to faults which arise not from bad 
 disposition, but we punish unldndness and rudeness even in 
 look and gesture. 
 
 " Our principal aim, in each kind of instruction, is to induce 
 the young men to think and judge for themselves. We are 
 opposed to all mechanical study and servile transcripts. The 
 masters of our primary schools must possess intelligence them- 
 selves, in order to be able to awaken it in their pupils ; other- 
 wise, the state would doubtless prefer the less expensive schools 
 of Bell and Lancaster. 
 
 " We always begin with the elements, because we are com- 
 pelled to admit pupils whose studies have been neglected ; and 
 because we wish to organise the instruction in every branch, 
 so as to afford the pupils a model and guide in the lessons 
 which they will one day be called upon to give. 
 
 " With respect to material instruction, we regard much 
 more the solidity, than the extent, of the acquirements. This 
 not only accords with the intentions of the higher authorities, 
 but reason itself declares that solidity of knowledge alone can
 
 IPT PRUSSIA. 47 
 
 enable a master to teach with efficacy, and carry forward his 
 own studies with success. 
 
 " Practical instruction we consider of the greatest import- 
 ance. 
 
 " All the studies and all the knowledge of our pupils would 
 be fruitless, and the normal school would not fulfil the design 
 of its institution, if the young teachers were to quit the esta- 
 blishment without having already methodically applied what 
 they had learned, and without knowing by experience what 
 they have to do, and how to set about it. 
 
 " To obtain this result, it is not sufficient that the young men 
 should see the course gone through under skilful masters, or 
 that they should themselves occasionally give lessons to their 
 school-fellows ; they must have taught the children in the an- 
 nexed school for a long time, under the direction of the mas- 
 ters of the normal school. It is only by the familiarising them- 
 selves with the plan of instruction for each particular branch, 
 and by teaching each for a certain time themselves, that they 
 can acquire the habit of treating it with method." 
 
 Annexed School. 
 
 " The annexed school was founded in 1825, and receives 
 gratuitously from 160 to 170 boys. The higher authorities, in 
 granting considerable funds for the establishment of this 
 school, have been especially impelled by the benevolent desire 
 of securing to the great mass of the poor children in this town* 
 the means of instruction, and of relieving the town from the 
 charge of their education. 
 
 " The town-authorities agreed on their part, to pay one tha- 
 ler and five silber-groshen (3s. 6d.) a year for each child. On 
 this condition we supply the children gratuitously with the 
 books, slates, &c., which they want. 
 
 " The annexed school is a primary school, which is divided 
 into classes, but reckons only three degrees : the second and 
 third classes are separated from each other only for the good 
 
 Potsdam.
 
 48 
 
 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 of the pupils, and for the purpose of affording more practice to 
 the young masters. 
 
 " The first class with the two above it, forms a good and 
 complete elementary school ; while the highest presents a class 
 of a burgher school, where the most advanced pupils of the 
 normal schools, who will probably be one day employed in the 
 town schools, give instruction to the cleverest boys of the an- 
 nexed school. 
 
 " Here is a table of what is taught in this school. 
 
 SUBJECTS TAUGHT. 
 
 Lowest 
 class. 
 
 The two 
 middle 
 classes. 
 
 Highest 
 class. 
 
 
 Lessons. 
 
 Lessons. 
 
 Lessons. 
 
 1. Religion 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 2. Reading 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 3. The German language 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4. Arithmetic - 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 5. Geometry and drawing 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 6. Writing 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 7. Singing - 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 8. Mathematics 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 9. Geography 
 10. Natural History - 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 11. History - 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 No. of lessons in the week - 
 
 26 
 
 26 
 
 30 
 
 " We shall add a few remarks on this plan. 
 
 " 1. In the two middle classes, the most common sorts of 
 knowledge are taught, together with reading. 
 
 " 2. The lessons in language consist, in the lower class, of 
 logical exercises and anecdotes; and, in the middle classes, of 
 exercises in language and grammar. 
 
 " The master of the normal school, who has prepared the 
 young masters beforehand is present during the lesson given 
 by them in the school of experiment. He listens, observes, and 
 guides them during the lessons, and afterwards communicates
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 49 
 
 his observations and his opinion of the manner in which the 
 lesson was given. 
 
 " It is requisite that every pupil of the normal school should 
 teach all the branches in the lowest class in succession; for the 
 master of a primary school, however learned he may be, is 
 ignorant of the most indispensable part of his calling, if he 
 cannot teach the elements. 
 
 10. Departure from the Normal School; Examinations; Cer- 
 tificates and Appointments. 
 
 " The pupils quit the normal school after having pursued the 
 course for three years ; for the lengthening of their stay would 
 be an obstacle to the reception of new pupils. 
 
 " But they must first go through an examination in writing 
 and viva voce, of which we give an abstract. 
 
 " 1. All the pupils of the primary normal schools shall go 
 through an examination on leaving. 
 
 "2. The examination shall be conducted by all the masters 
 of the normal school, on all the subjects taught in the house, 
 in the presence and under the direction of one or more com- 
 missioners. 
 
 " 3. Every pupil, before leaving, shall give a probationary 
 lesson, to show to what degree he possesses the art of teaching. 
 
 " 4. After the examination is over, and exact accounts of 
 the pupils leaving are given by the director and all the mas- 
 ters, a certificate shall be delivered to each pupil, signed by 
 the director, the masters and the commissioners. 
 
 " 5. This certificate shall specify the knowledge and talents 
 of the pupil; it shall state whether he possesses the art of 
 teaching, and whether his moral character renders him fit for 
 the office of primary schoolmaster. It shall include, besides, 
 a general opinion of his character and attainments, expressed 
 by one of the terms, ' excellent,' ' good,' ' passable,' and an- 
 swering to the numbers 1,2, 3. 
 
 " 6. This certificate only gives the pupil a provisional power 
 of receiving an appointment for three years. After that time 
 he must undergo a new examination at the normal school, 
 
 7
 
 50 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 But any pupil who, on leaving the establishment, obtained 
 number 1, and has, in the course of the three first years, been 
 teacher in a public school, shall not have to pass another ex- 
 amination. No other can take a situation, except provi- 
 sionally. 
 
 " 7. These new examinations shall not take place at the 
 same time as those of the pupils who are leaving ; but, like 
 those, always in the presence and under the direction of the 
 commissioners of the school-board. 
 
 " 8. In the first examination the principal object is, to ascer- 
 tain if the pupils have well understood the lessons of the nor- 
 mal school, and learned to apply them ; in the last, the only 
 object of inquiry is the practical skill of the candidate. 
 
 " 9. The result of this new examination shall likewise be 
 expressed in a certificate, appended to the first, and care shall 
 be taken to specify therein the fitness of the candidate for the 
 profession of schoolmaster." 
 
 " For which reason the pupils on their departure receive a 
 certificate, the first page of which describes their talents, cha- 
 racter, and morality, and the two following contain an exact 
 account of the result of the examination on all branches of 
 study. 
 
 " Those who have not obtained appointments in the interval 
 between the two examinations, shall present this certificate to 
 the superintendents and school-inspectors of the places where 
 they live, and, on leaving that place, shall demand a certificate 
 of conduct, which they shall produce at the time of the se- 
 cond examination. Those who have been in situations during 
 the three first years, shall produce certificates from their im- 
 mediate superiors. 
 
 " All the pupils cannot be appointed immediately on their 
 leaving the school : but a great number of them are proposed 
 by the director for vacant places, and are sought after by the 
 royal government, by superintendents, magistrates, &c. ; so 
 that at the end of a year we may calculate that they are all 
 established. 
 
 " I* can answer for the perfect fidelity of this description 
 
 * Cousin.
 
 I IT PRUSSIA. 51 
 
 of the normal school of Potsdam ; and in the long visit and 
 minute investigation of this great establishment which I made 
 in person, I came to the conviction that the representation I 
 have now just completed and which was drawn up in 1826, 
 was, in 1831, below the reality. 
 
 " The primary normal school of Potsdam now contains 
 eighty students : they all board in the house. The charge is 
 48 thaler a year (7/. 4s.) Half the students pay this entire 
 sum ; others have purses (exhibitions) or half purses. The 
 director and the masters, to the number of five, are all lodged in 
 the house. The director's salary is 1060 thaler a year, (159/. ;) 
 the five masters have 530, 480, 400, 220, and 200 thaler, not in- 
 cluding an allowance for wood. 180 thaler a year are devoted 
 to the maintenance of a garden, and of a gardener, who gives in- 
 struction in his art. 120 thaler a year are spent in books ; 
 the library already contains more than a thousand volumes. 
 There is a little cabinet of mineralogy and natural history, a 
 Collection of seeds, a tellurium for the illustration of geogra- 
 phical and astronomical lessons ; there is also a fine organ, for 
 every one of the pupils is expected to be able to act as organist. 
 Each study has its piano-forte, each, pupil his violin, and a 
 small collection of books. I have said that there are eighty 
 students : at least a hundred applicants for admission present 
 themselves yearly, out of whom twenty-six or twenty-seven 
 are chosen about the same number as quit the school. No 
 one can be admitted before the age of seventeen or eighteen, 
 but they may enter considerably later ; and I have seen stu- 
 dents as old as four-and- twenty. At the end of three years 
 there is a parting examination ; those who go through it with 
 credit are entered as candidates for the mastership of an ele- 
 mentary or burgher school. 
 
 " The course of instruction is very thorough, and at the 
 same time very extensive. 
 
 " I saw this scheme in action. The spirit which dictated 
 the arrangement and distribution of the tuition is excellent, and 
 equally pervades all the details. The normal course, which 
 occupies three years, is composed, for the first year, of studies 
 calculated to open the mind, and to inculcate on the pupils 
 good methods in every branch, and the feeling of what is the
 
 52 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 true vocation of a primary teacher. This is who\ is calh<i 
 the formal instruction, in opposition to the materiai, or more 
 positive instruction of the second year, in which pupils go 
 through special studies of a very solid kind, and learn con- 
 siderably more than they will generally be called upon to 
 teach. The third year, is entirely practical, and is devoted to 
 learning the art of teaching. 
 
 " As appears from the prospectus, the musical instruction is 
 carried to a very high point. There are few students who 
 have not a violin, and many of them leave the school very 
 good organists and piano-forte players. Singing is particu- 
 larly cultivated. The course of instruction embraces not only 
 a little botany, mineralogy, physical science, natural history, 
 and zoology, but exercises in psychology and logic, which 
 tend to give the young men the philosophy of that portion of 
 popular education intrusted to their care. I was present at 
 several lessons ; among others, one on history and chronology, 
 in which, out of courtesy to me, the pupils w 7 ere interrogated 
 on the history of France, particularly during the reigns of 
 Charles IX. ; Henry III., and Henry IV., a period of which 
 protestantism is so important a feature. The young men an- 
 swered extremely well, and seemed perfectly familiar with the 
 dates and leading facts. I say noting of the gymnastic 
 courses, as Prussia is the classic land of those exercises. 
 
 " What struck me the most was the courses, called in Ger- 
 many courses of Methodik and Didaktik, as also those designated 
 by the name of Pddagogik : the t\vo former intended to teach 
 the art of tuition, the latter the more difficult art of moral edu- 
 cation. These courses are almost always given by the di- 
 rector, who also generally gives the religious instruction, 
 which here comes in its propes place that is, first. There 
 are many examples in Germany of laymen who teach religion. 
 As all schoolmasters, who are of necessity generally laymen, 
 are bound to give religious and moral instruction in their 
 several schools, it follows of course that the teaching the art 
 of giving such instruction cannot be confined to ecclesiastics. 
 
 " I ought to add that all the students of the school at Pots- 
 dam had a cheerful happy air, and that their manners were
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 53 
 
 very good. If they brought any rusticity to the school, they 
 had entirely lost it. I quitted the establishment highly satisfied 
 with the students, full of esteem for the director, and of a re- 
 spect for a country in which the education of the people has 
 reached such a pitch of prosperity." 
 
 SMALL NORMAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 " THE small normal schools differ, generally, from the large, 
 not only in the number of pupils, which is much smaller, but 
 above all as being nurseries of village schoolmasters for the 
 very poorest parishes. The great schools furnish masters for 
 the country as well as for the towns. The masters from the 
 smaller schools, labour for these poor and backward villages. 
 To this their whole organisation, their studies, their discipline, 
 are to be directed. Unquestionably, the great normal schools 
 of Prussia are entitled to the highest respect ; but never can 
 there be veneration enough for these humble labourers in the 
 field of public instruction, who, as I have said, seek obscurity 
 rather than fame ; who devote themselves to the service of 
 poverty with as much zeal as others to the pursuit of riches, 
 since they toil for the poor alone ; and who impose restraints 
 on every personal desire and feeling, while others are excited 
 by all the stimulants of competition. They cost scarcely any 
 thing, and they do infinite good. Nothing is easier to esta- 
 blish but on one condition, that we find directors and pupils 
 capable of the most disinterested, and, what is more, the most 
 obscure, devotion to the cause. Such devotion, however, can 
 be inspired and kept alive by religion alone. Those who can 
 consent to live for the service of men who neither know nor 
 can appreciate them, must keep their eyes steadfastly fixed on 
 Heaven : that witness is necessary to those who have no 
 other. And, accordingly, we find that the authors and direct- 
 ors of these small schools are almost all ministers of religion,
 
 54 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION" 
 
 inspired by the spirit of Christian love, or men of singular vir- 
 tue, fervent in the cause of popular education. In these hum- 
 ble institutions every thing breathes Christian charity, ardour 
 for the good of the people, and poverty. I shall lay before 
 you a description of two ; one hidden in a suburb of Stettin, 
 and the other in the village of Pyritz in Pomerania. 
 
 " Stettin has a large normal school, instituted for the train- 
 ing of masters for the burgher schools. An excellent man, 
 Mr. Bernhardt, school-councillor (Schulrath) in the council of 
 the department, was the more powerfully struck by the neces- 
 sity of providing for the wants of the country schools. He 
 founded a small normal school for this sole purpose, and placed 
 it not in the town, but in a suburb called Lastadie ; he laid 
 down regulations for its government, which I annex nearly 
 entire." 
 
 Small Primary Normal School of Lastadie near Stettin, 
 
 " 1. This school is specially designed for poor young men 
 who intend to become country schoolmasters, and who may, 
 in case of need, gain a part of their subsistence by the labour 
 of their hands. 
 
 " 2. Nothing is taught here but those things necessary for 
 small and poor country parishes, which require schoolmasters 
 who are Christians and useful men, and can afford them but 
 a very slender recompense for their toils. 
 
 " 3. This school is intended to be a Christian school, founded 
 in the spirit of the Gospel. It aspires only to resemble a vil- 
 lage household of the simplest kind, and to unite all its mem- 
 bers into one family. To this end, all the pupils inhabit the 
 same house, and eat at the same table with the masters. 
 
 " 4. The young men who will be admitted in preference, 
 are such as are born and bred in the country ; who know the 
 elements of what ought to be taught in a good country school; 
 who have a sound straight-forward understanding, and a 
 kindly cheerful temper. If, withal, they know any handicraft 
 or understand gardening, they will find opportunities for prac- 
 tice and improvement in it in odd hours.
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 55 
 
 " 5. The school of Lastadie neither can nor will enter into 
 any competition with the great normal schools completely or- 
 ganised ; on the contrary, it will strive always to keep itself 
 within the narrow limits assigned to it. 
 
 "6. The utmost simplicity ought to prevail in all the habits of 
 the school, ajid, if possible, manual labour should be combined 
 with those studies which are the main object, and which .ought 
 to occupy the greater portion of the time. 
 
 " 7. The course of instruction is designed to teach young 
 people to reflect, and by exercising them in reading, writing, 
 arithmetic, and singing, to put it in their power to instruct them- 
 selves, and to form their own minds. For the humblest person 
 ought to be taught to think; but to enlighten him, to make him 
 a rational and intelligent being, does not mean to make him 
 highly learned. 'God willeth that all men be enlightened, and 
 that they come to the knowledge of the truth.' 
 
 " 8. The instruction ought to have a direct connexion with 
 the vocation of the students, and to include only the most es- 
 sential part of the instruction given in the great normal 
 schools. 
 
 " 9. The objects of instruction are, religion, the German 
 language, reading, writing, arithmetic, and singing. To these 
 are joined the first elements of geometry, easy lessons in natural 
 history, narratives drawn from the national history, and geo- 
 graphical descriptions. The principal object, and the founda- 
 tion of all education, is religion, as learned from history and 
 the Bible. The school of Lastadie will also strive to excite 
 and cherish in its pupils a love of nature, and to that end will 
 cultivate a taste for gardening and planting. 
 
 " 10. In treating of all these subjects, the pupils must be 
 trained to speak in pure and accurate language; for after the 
 knowledge of religion and of nature, there is nothing of which 
 children stand more in need, than to learn to express what 
 they know with simplicity, truth, and accuracy. 
 
 "11. The students know enough, when they speak, read, and 
 write well; when they can produce a good composition in the 
 German tongue; when they can calculate with facility and with 
 reflection, and when they sing well ; they know enough, when
 
 66 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 they are thoroughly versed in the Bible, when they *x ssees the 
 most essential notions of the system of that universe* which ' 
 they have constantly before their eyes, of that nature, in the 
 midst of which they live : they have attained much, when they 
 are Christians, rational, and virtuous men. 
 
 " 12. The period of study is fixed at two years. The first 
 year the pupils learn what they are hereafter to teach to others ; 
 besides which, they assist at the lessons the masters give to the 
 children of the school annexed to this small normal school. In 
 the second year the future teacher appears more distinctly, 
 and from that time every thing is more and more applied to 
 practice. They continue the whole year to practise teaching, 
 and at the end they receive, a set of rules, short and easy to 
 understand, for the management of a school of poor country 
 children. 
 
 " 13. To the school of Lastadie is joined a school of poor 
 children, in which the young men have an opportunity of 
 going over what they have learned, by teaching it to others, 
 and of exercising themselves in tuition according to a fixed 
 plan. ^This school consists of a single class, in order that the 
 students may see how a good school for poor children should 
 be composed and conducted, and how all the children may be 
 kept employed at once. 
 
 " 14. The number of pupils is fixed at twelve. The pecu- 
 niary assistance they receive will depend on circumstances. 
 The instruction is gratuitous. Six pupils inhabit each room. 
 The master lives on the same floor. They take their simple 
 but wholesome meals together. Servants are not wanted. The 
 pupils do the work of the house. 
 
 " 15. The daily lessons begin and end with prayers and 
 psalmody. It rests with the master to fix the hours of devo- 
 tion, (founded chiefly on the Bible and the book of psalms,) as 
 well as their number. So long as the true spirit of Christiani- 
 ty faith quickened by charity shall pervade the establish- 
 ment and fill the hearts of masters and of pupils, the school 
 will be Christian, and will form Christian teachers; and this 
 spirit of faith and of charity will be productive of blessings to 
 the poor and to the mass of the nation.
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 5? 
 
 :; 18. It will not, therefore, be necessary to lay down minute 
 regulations; but practical moral training must be combined as 
 much as possible with instruction. 'The letter killeth, the 
 spirit quickeneth.' But what will it not require to imbue the 
 whole establishment with the true spirit of Christianity, so that 
 masters and pupils may devote themselves with their whole 
 hearts, and for the love of God, to the children of the poor ? 
 
 " 17. Whoever wishes to be admitted into this establishment, 
 must not be under eighteen nor above twenty years of age. 
 He must bring the certificates of his pastor, of the authorities 
 of his parish, and of the physician of the circle, as to his pre- 
 vious conduct and the state of his health. He must, moreover, 
 have such preliminary knowledge as is to be acquired in a well- 
 conducted country school, on Biblical history, reading, writing, 
 arithmetic and singing. Those who join to these acquirements 
 the principles of piano-forte or violin playing, will be preferred. 
 The candidates for admission give notice to the director, and 
 are examined by the members of the departmental authorities 
 who have the care of the people's schools. 
 
 " 18. There is no public examination. The examination on 
 quitting is likewise conducted by the school councillors of the 
 department, and the certificates of capacity are founded on this 
 examination, according to the gradations 1, 2, 3, and are de- 
 livered by the departmental authorities. 
 
 " 19. As to the placing of the pupils, it is desirable that they 
 should work some years as assistant-masters, in order that they 
 may gradually acquire the necessary experience and confi- 
 dence, and may become well acquainted with children, and 
 with the inhabitants of villages. Under this supposition, the 
 age of admTssion might be conveniently fixed at sixteen ; and 
 this arrangement would be a great relief to aged schoolmas- 
 ters who are become burthensome to themselves and to their 
 parishes. 
 
 " 20. Particular attention is paid to singing and to horticul- 
 ture ; as means of ennobling and animating the public worship 
 of God, and the general course of a country life ; of providing 
 the pupils with an agreeable recreation, and, at the same time, 
 a useful occupation ; and, further, of combating the grossness
 
 58 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 of mind and the obstinate prejudices to which unedilcated hus- 
 bandmen are prone. 
 
 "21. All the students attend divine service in the church of 
 Lastadie on Sundays. 
 
 " 22. The vacations must not exceed four weeks for the whole 
 year : they are at Easter, in the autumn, and at Christmas. 
 
 " 23. The establishment has no other revenues than what it 
 owes to the bounty of the state. 
 
 " May this establishment, (concludes Mr. Bernhadt,) which 
 owes its existence to such fervent charity, not be deprived of 
 that blessing, without which it can do nothing ! 
 
 " Assuredly there is not a virtuous heart which does not 
 unite its prayers with those of the worthy and benevolent coun- 
 cillor. 
 
 " The second small normal school of this description was 
 founded in 1824, in honour of Otto, bishop of Bamberg, who 
 introduced Christianity into Pomerania, having baptized 4000 
 Pomeranians in 1124, near the fountain of Pyritz. When the 
 minister of public instruction granted the license for its esta- 
 blishment, he made it a condition that the students should be 
 instructed in agriculture, not merely as a recreation, but as es- 
 sential to their destination ; that they should be bound to study 
 gardening, the cultivation of fruit-trees, and of silk-worms. 
 The special superintendence of this house is intrusted to the 
 pastor of the place. The regulations are as follows : they 
 resemble those of Lastadie in many respects, but go into great 
 detail, and are perhaps still more austere as to discipline. 
 
 Rules of the small Normal School of Pyritz in Pomerania. 
 
 
 
 " 1. The purpose of this endowment is to give to every pupil 
 the training and instruction suitable for a good and useful 
 country schoolmaster : this, however, can only be done by the 
 union of Christian piety with a fundamental knowledge of his 
 vocation, and with good conduct in the household and in the 
 school. 
 
 " 2. Piety is known 
 
 " By purity of manners ;
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 59 
 
 " By sincerity in word and deed; 
 
 " By love of God and of his word : 
 
 " By love of our neighbour ; 
 
 " By willing obedience to superiors and masters ; 
 
 " By brotherly harmony among the pupils ; 
 
 " By active participation in the pious exercises of the house, 
 and of public worship. 
 
 " By respect for the government and laws, by unshaken 
 fidelity to our country, by uprightness of heart and of con- 
 duct. 
 
 ' 3. A thorough knowledge of the duties of a teacher are 
 acquired 
 
 " By long study of the principles and elements ; 
 
 " By learning what is necessary and really useful in that vo- 
 cation ; 
 
 " By habits of reflection and of voluntary labour ; 
 
 " By constant application to lessons ; 
 
 " By incessant -repetition and practice ; 
 
 " By regular industry and well-ordered activity ; according 
 to this commandment, ' Pray and work.' 
 
 " 4. Good conduct in the house and the school requires 
 
 " A good distribution and employment of time ; 
 
 " Inflexible order, even in what appears petty and insignifi- 
 cant ; 
 
 " Silence in hours of study and work ; 
 
 " Quietness in the general demeanour ; 
 
 " Care and punctuality in the completion of all works com- 
 manded ; 
 
 " Decent manners towards every person and in every place ; 
 decorum at meals ; 
 
 " Respect for the property of the school and for all property 
 of others ; 
 
 " The utmost caution with regard to fire and light ; 
 
 " Cleanliness of person and of clothing ; 
 
 "Simplicity in dress, and in the manner of living; accord- 
 ing to the golden rule, 'Every thing in its time and place. Let 
 things have their course. Provide things honest in the sight 
 of all men.'
 
 CO PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 II. 
 
 " 1. All the pupils inhabit one house and one room ; for they 
 must live in union, and form one family of brothers, loving one 
 another. 
 
 " 2. The whole order of the house rests on the master of the 
 school ; he lives in the midst of the pupils ; he has the imme- 
 diate superintendence of them, of their conduct, and of their 
 labours. He ought to be to those under his care what a father 
 of a Christian family is in his household. 
 
 " He is responsible for the accounts of the establishment, 
 the registers, the result of the quarterly examinations, and for 
 the formation of the necessary lists. He has the special care 
 of the provisions, the rooms, the library, the furniture. He is 
 responsible to the school-administration for good order in every 
 department. 
 
 " 3. The oldest and most intelligent of the students assists 
 the master. He is called the master's assistant. He must 
 take care 
 
 " That every one in the room under his care rises and goes 
 to bed at the appointed moment : 
 
 " That nobody without the master's permission, leave the 
 house, smoke, or carry candles into the passages or the loft : 
 
 " That no one wantonly injure the windows, doors, or furni- 
 ture, or throw any thing out of the windows : 
 
 " That the utmost cleanliness be observed in the sitting-room, 
 the passage, and the sleeping-room ; 
 
 " That all clothes, linen, books, &c., be in their places ; 
 " That no noise be made in going up and down stairs, or in 
 going to the children's school. 
 
 " It is his especial business to help his companions in the 
 preparation of their lessons, to hear them repeat, to prepare 
 the exercises for their master, and to assist him as far as he can 
 in all his business. He ought to be to his fellow-students what 
 a good elder brother is to his young brothers and sisters. He 
 is chosen, on the master's recommendation, by the school-com- 
 mittee. 
 
 " 4. The humbler sort of household work, such as cleaning 
 and putting in order the rooms, dusting the furniture, fetching
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 61 
 
 water, cleaving wood, &c., is done by the pupils, who serve a 
 week in rotation. The time of service is prolonged by order 
 of the master, in case of negligence. 
 
 " 5. The order of the day is as follows 
 " In winter at five, in summer at half-past four in the morn- 
 ing, at a given signal, all the pupils must rise, make their beds, 
 and dress. 
 
 " Half an hour after rising, that is at half-past five in winter, 
 and five in the summer, all the pupils must be assembled in the 
 school-room. The assistant first pronounces the morning 
 benediction, and each pupil then occupies himself in silence 
 till six. If any repetitions stand over from the preceding day, 
 they must be heard now. After this, breakfast. 
 
 " In winter, as well as in summer, the lessons begin at six 
 o'clock, and last till a quarter before eight. Then the students 
 go with their master to the children's school, attached to the 
 normal school, where they remain till ten, either listening, or 
 assisting in small classes ; some teaching, or they may be em- 
 ployed in their own studies at home. 
 
 " To these employments succeeds an hour of recreation, and 
 then an hour's lesson in the establishment. 
 
 " At noon, the students assemble in the master's room 
 where they find a frugal but wholesome meal, consisting of 
 vegetables, meat and fish, at the rate of two thaler (six shil- 
 lings) a month. 
 
 " The time which remains, till one o'clock, may be passed 
 in music, gardening, and walking. 
 
 " In the afternoon, from one till three, while the master is 
 teaching in the town school, the pupils accompany him, as in 
 the morning. From three till five, lessons. 
 
 " The succeeding hours, from five till seven, are, according 
 to the seasons, employed in bodily exercises, or in the school- 
 room in quiet occupations. At seven they assemble at a sim- 
 ple cold supper. 
 
 " From seven to eight they practise singing and the violin ; 
 then repetitions or silent study till ten, when all go to bed. 
 " Two afternoons of each week are free, and are usually
 
 62 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 spent in long walks. The time from four to six, or from five 
 to seven, is devoted to the practice of music. 
 
 " On Sundays or holidays all the pupils must attend divine 
 service in the church of the town, and assist in the choir. 
 The remainder of these days may be passed by every one as 
 he pleases : in the course of the morning, however, the stu- 
 dents must write down the heads of the sermon (the text, the 
 main subject, the distribution,) and in the evening must give 
 an account of the manner in which they have spent the day. 
 
 " Every evening, as well as on the mornings of Sundays 
 and holidays, a portion of time is spent in meditation in 
 common. 
 
 " A few Sundays after the setting-in of winter, and after 
 the festival of St. John,* the students partake of the Lord's 
 supper, in company with their masters. 
 
 " Every student, from the time of his admission, must 
 solemnly engage (in token of which he gives his hand to the 
 master and signs his name) to follow the rules of the house, 
 which may be summed up in these three principal maxims : 
 
 " 1. Order in behaviour and in work, combined with the 
 utmost simplicity in all things ; to the end that the students 
 who belong to the poorer classes, and whose destiny it is to 
 be teachers of the poor, may willingly continue in that 
 condition, and may not learn to know wants and wishes which 
 they will not, and ought not to have the power of satisfying. 
 For this reason, they must be their own servants. 
 
 " 2. As to the course of instruction, the repetitions must al- 
 ways be heard by the forwardest pupils. The pupils must be 
 made as much as possible, to teach each other what they have 
 learned of the master, in order that they may perfect them- 
 selves in the art of teaching. 
 
 " 3. Piety and the fear of God should be the soul of their 
 little community, but a true Christian piety, a fear of God ac- 
 cording to knowledge and light, so that the pupils may do all 
 to the Glory of God, and may lead a simple, humble, and se- 
 / 
 
 * May 6th.
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 63 
 
 rene life, resigned and contented in labour and travail, accord- 
 ing to the exhortation of the Apostle : 
 
 " ' Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the 
 same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be 
 done through strife or vain-glory ; but in lowliness of mind let 
 each esteem other better than themselves." Philipp. ii. 2, 3. 
 
 " And as many as walk according to the rule, peace be on 
 them and mercy !" Galat. vi. 16. 
 
 " I abstain from all comments on these two sets of regula- 
 tions. The greater number of the small normal schools of 
 Prussia are founded and governed in the same spirit. All 
 rest on the sacred basis of Christianity. But beneath their 
 simple lowly exterior we trace a taste for instruction, a feeling 
 for nature, a love of music, which take away every vestige 
 of coarseness, and give these modest institutions a character 
 of liberality. Undoubtedly all this is the offspring of the na- 
 tional manners, and of the genius of Germany ; yet Christian 
 charity might transplant a good deal of it into our country." 
 
 THE END.
 
 SCHOOL BOOKS. 
 
 THE great object of our public or common schools is to im- 
 part a plain but useful education to children throughout the 
 country, to diffuse general knowledge, rather than cultivate par- 
 ticular'branches of learning, to improve the moral character and 
 to extend the blessings of religion and the practice of virtue. 
 To pursue this course with any prospect of success, it is neces- 
 sary that there sholild be some system adopted in the schools, 
 and that the pupils be possessed of the very best Elementary 
 Books, in Spelling, Reading, Arithmetic, Grammar, Geography, 
 History, &c. Without books of this kind the teacher can do 
 but little to produce harmony of action in his school, the pupils 
 progress will be slow, unpleasant to himself, and disheartening 
 to both the teachers and directors. While on the other hand if 
 a regular and graduated series of books of the first character 
 be in use, a thorough system prevails ; every moment of time is 
 available or devoted to one or other of the classes. As a natu- 
 ral consequent the progress of the scholar is rapid ; and as every 
 thing which he learns in one day has had a foundation of a 
 simpler but broader character in the studies of the preceding, 
 so is his mind capable of analysing and retaining each fresh ad- 
 dition to his store of knowledge. 
 
 It is believed that books of this nature, and calculated to pro- 
 duce such good effects, are offered in the following series, by 
 Emerson, and others. So far as published, they are applicable 
 to the present wants of the schools. Those enumerated below 
 have already had the test of use in the large Common Schools 
 of Philadelphia, and in the New England States, as also in many 
 of the best private schools of the Union. The series will be 
 continued till it embraces all the works necessary to the wants 
 of the largest institution. Those already before the public, are 
 The New National Spelling Book,^ 
 
 The Fourth Class Reader, I By Benjamin D. Emer- 
 
 The Third Class Reader, I son, Principal of the 
 
 The Second Class Reader, j Adams' Grammar 
 
 The First Class Reader, and School, Boston. 
 
 Academical Speaker. J 
 
 rru Tv T ., . . ., . . ^ By Frederick Emerson, 
 
 The North American Arithmetic, * Principal of the De _ 
 
 T<U & TVT " i / partment of Arithme- 
 
 The North American Arithmetic, ( jn the Doylston 
 
 J School, Boston.
 
 SCHOOL BOOKS. 65 
 
 An Improved English Grammar, in press. 
 History of the United States, ) 
 
 History of England, > By John Russell, A. M. 
 
 History of France, ) 
 
 Lardner's Outlines of General History, with Chronological 
 Tables, &c. and questions for examination of the students. 
 
 The Speller, and the Reading books correspond in arrange- 
 ment to those referred to by Mr. Bulwer, as used in the Duchy 
 of Saxe Weimar, and other of the Schools under the Prussian 
 System. 
 
 The Speller, which is designed to be the first one placed in 
 the hands of children, presents the alphabet in different sizes and 
 characters, illustrated words, &c., then follows in regular grada- 
 tion short exercises in spelling from words of two letters up- 
 ward. Interspersed with these are easy sentences gradually 
 advancing into reading lessons, consisting of descriptions of ob- 
 jects or actions with which the child has long been familiar ; so 
 that in his first efforts to connect words which he has just learned 
 to spell, his mind is not taxed beyond its strength to understand 
 those words when forming a sentence. These lessons progress 
 describing the external things of nature, illustrating moral ac- 
 tions, and inculcating religious feelings in plain and simple lan- 
 *guage. A key to the different vowel sounds is placed at the 
 top of each page, and figures over the vowel in the words refer 
 to the key, thereby fixing the sound of the letter in its particular 
 situation, and establishing the true pronunciation of the words. 
 There are many other improvements in the book which will 
 strike the examiner as advantageous to the cause of education : 
 to describe them here requires too much space, and therefore 
 those. wishing to become acquainted with their character are re- 
 ferred to the book itself. 
 
 The Reading books are four in number, designated as Emer- 
 son's Fourth, Third, Second and First Class Readers. In these 
 numbers, they are arranged upon the plan usually adopted by 
 experienced teachers, having the first, as the highest class in the 
 school, the books are therefore named in the order of the classes, 
 and the " Fourth Class, or Lessons for little Readers" succeeds 
 the Spelling book. The lessons commence with words of not 
 more than three letters, and terminate with dissyllables. The 
 style and sentiment is easy, and it is hoped will prove intelligible 
 to the tender minds for which it was designed, as well as condu- 
 " cive to their moral improvement. 
 
 To several of the first reading lessons a Spelling lesson is sub- 
 joined. This has been done merely as a sampler, and to remind 
 the teacher that the practice of exercising his younger pupils in 
 the orthography of the most prominent words in each lesson, im- 
 
 9
 
 66 DESCRIPTION OF 
 
 mediately after they have read the same, is at!' 
 
 advantage and will be found in no small degree to t ; >mo*e 'heir 
 
 improvement in reading as well as spelling. 
 
 The character of the Third, Second and First Class Readers 
 will be fully understood by a perusal of the following extracts 
 from the Author's introduction, and from his " Suggestions to 
 teachers" contained in the first part of each book ; especially 
 that portion from the First Class Reader, which more fully ex- 
 plains the system, and is therefore first given. It is almost unne- 
 cessary to remark that the Edinburgh sessional school is conduct- 
 ed on similar principles to those of the Prussian government. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. 
 
 FROM FIRST CLASS READER. 
 
 As the present is an age of experiment, as well as improvement in the modes 
 of teaching, the author ventures to suggest the introduction, into our American 
 schools, of a part of the explanatory system of instruction, so successfully prac- 
 tised in the Edinburgh Sessional School, under the direction of Mr. Wood. 
 We cannot better explain this system, in its application to the exercise of 
 reading, than by presenting an extract from Mr. Wood's valuable work. 
 
 " Before entering upon the consideration of the reading department, it may 
 be proper to premise some general observations, on that method of explana- 
 tion, which has been so highly approved of in the Sessional School. Its 
 object is threefold : first, To render more easy and pleasing the acquisition of 
 the mechanical art of reading; secondly, To turn to advantage the particular 
 instruction contained in every individual passage which is read; and, above 
 all, thirdly, To give the pupil, by means of a minute analysis of each passage, 
 a general command of his own language. 
 
 " It is of great importance to the proper understanding of the method, that 
 all these objects should be kept distinctly in view. With regard to the first, 
 no one, who has not witnessed the scheme in operation, can well imagine the 
 animation and energy which it inspires. It is the constant remark of almost 
 every stranger who visits the Sessional School, that its pupils have not at all 
 the ordinary appearance of school-boys, doomed to an unwilling task, but 
 rather the happy faces of children at their sports. This distinction is chiefly 
 to be attributed to that part of the system of which we are here treating ; by 
 which, in place of harassing the pupil, with a mere mechanical routine of 
 sounds and technicalities, his attention is excited, his curiosity is gratified 
 and his fancy is amused. 
 
 "In the second place, when proper books are put into the hands of the
 
 SCHOOL BOOKS. 07 
 
 scholars, every article which they read may be made the means, not only of 
 forming in their yoathful minds the invaluable habit of attention, but also of 
 communicating to them, along with facility in the art of reading, much infor- 
 mation, which is both adapted to their present age, and may be of use to them 
 the rest of their lives. How different is the result, where the mechanical art 
 is made the exclusive object of the master's and the pupil's attention ! How 
 many fine passages have been read in the most pompous manner, without 
 rousing a single sentiment in the mind of the performer ! How many, in 
 which they have left behind them only the most erroneous and absurd impres- 
 sions and associations ! 
 
 " But, in the last place, they little know the full value of the explanatory 
 method, who think it unnecessary, in any case, to carry it beyond what is ab- 
 solutely essential to enable the pupil to understand the meaning of the indi- 
 vidual passage before him at the time. As well, indeed, might it be main- 
 tained, that, in parsing, the only object in view should be the elucidation of 
 the particular sentence parsed ; or, that, in reading Csesar's Commentaries in 
 a grammar school, the pupil's sole attention should be directed to the manner 
 in which the Gallic war was conducted. A very little reflection, however, 
 should be sufficient to show,how erroneous such a practice would be in either 
 case. The passages gone over in school must of course be very few and li- 
 mited, and the direct information communicated through them extremely 
 scanty. The skill of the instructer must therefore be exhibited, not merely 
 in enabling the pupil to undersand these few passages, but in making every 
 lesson bear upon the proper object of his labours, the giving a general know- 
 ledge and full command of the language, which it is his province to teach, 
 together with as much other useful information, as the passage may suggest 
 and circumstances will admit. As in parsing, accordingly, no good teacher 
 would be satisfied with examining his pupil upon the syntactic construction of 
 the passage before him as it stands, and making him repeat the rules of that 
 construction, but would also, at the same time call upon him to notice the va- 
 riations, which must, necessarily he made in certain hypothetical circum- 
 stances ; so, also, in the department of >vhich we are now treating, he will not 
 consider it enough, that tho child may have, from the context or otherwise, 
 formed a general notion of the meaning of a whole passage, but will also, 
 with a view to future exigences, direct his attention to the full force and sig- 
 nification of the particular terms employed, and likewise, in some cases at 
 least, to their roots, derivatives, and compounds. Thus, for example, if in any 
 lesson the scholar read of one having "done an unprecedented act," it might be 
 quite sufficient for understanding the meaning of that single passage, to tell * 
 him that "no other person had ever done the like;" but this would by no 
 means fully accomplish the object we have in view. The child would thus 
 receive no clear notion of the word unprecedented, and would therefore, in all 
 probability, on the very next occasion of its recurrence, or of the recurrence 
 of other words from the same root, be as much at a loss as before. But direct 
 his attention to the threefold composition of this word, the un, the pre, and
 
 68 DESCRIPTION OF 
 
 the cede. Ask him the meaning of the syllable un in cr .? position, an<l 
 him to point out to you (or, if necessary, point out to him, 
 which it has this signification of not, (such as uncommon, uncivil) and, if 
 there be leisure, any other syllables which have in composition a similar effect, 
 such as in, with all its modifications of ig, il, im, ir, also dis, and non, with 
 examples. Next investigate the meaning of the syllable pre in composition! 
 and illustrate it with examples, (such as previous, premature.) Then exa- 
 mine in like manner the meaning of the syllable cede, and having shown that in 
 composition it generally signifies to go, demand the signification of its various 
 compounds, precede, proceed, succeed, accede, recede, exceed, intercede. The 
 pupil will in this manner acquire not only a touch more distinct and lasting 
 impression of the signification of the word in question, but a key also to a 
 vast variety of other words in the language. This too he will do far more 
 pleasingly and satisfactorily in the manner which is here recommended, than 
 by being enjoined to commit them to memory from a vocabulary at home as a 
 task. It is very true that it would not be possible to go over every word of a 
 lesson with the same minuteness, as that we have now instanced. A certain 
 portion of time should therefore be set apart for this examination : and, after 
 those explanations have been given, which are ^accessary to the right under- 
 standing of the passage, such minuter investigations only may be gone into 
 as time will admit. It is no more essential, that every word should be gone 
 over in this way, than that every word should always be syntactically parsed. 
 A single sentence well done may prove of the greatest service to the scholar 
 in his future studies." 
 
 In applying this system of instruction to the First-Class Reader, I would 
 recommend that the pupils have the reading exercise for the day previously 
 assigned to them, in order that there may be an opportunity for them care- 
 fnlly to study the same, in reference to the examination that is to follow. In 
 reading the book the first time, the examination should be general, rather 
 than otherwise ; let the pupils be questioned in regard to the general sense 
 of the piece, and the meaning of prominent words in it. Explanation and il- 
 lustration should be given by the teafcher ; such as the meaning of any pas- 
 sage, its allusions, figures, &c. may require. Care should be taken that the 
 scholars do not forget these explanations ; this may be prevented by recurring 
 to them at subsequent examinations. In order to show the nature of this first 
 examination, a specimen is subjoined. 
 
 In going through the volume the second time, a more particular examina- 
 . tion should be instituted. Not only the same kind of questions, which have 
 already been put, are to be repeated, but the pupils should be examined with 
 reference to the analysis of words, their inflections and analogies ; and also 
 with reference to the rhetorical features of the composition, and the topics of 
 general information suggested by the text. 
 
 Of this second examination, a specimen, such as our limits would allow, is 
 also subjoined. Its nature and character, the extent to which it may be car-
 
 SCHOOL BOOKS. 69 
 
 ried, and the interest, which it may be made to impart to the exercise, will at 
 once be felt and appreciated by every intelligent teacher. 
 
 We \v ill take for an example of the following examinations, an extract 
 from the writings of the Rev. Sidney Smith. 
 
 APPEAL IN BEHALF OF THE BLIND. 
 
 The author of the book of Ecclesiastes has told us, " that the light is sweet ; 
 that it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun." The sense of sight 
 is, indeed, the highest bodily privilege, the purest physical pleasure, which 
 man has derived from his Creator : to see that wandering fire, after he has 
 finished his journey through the nations, coming back to us in the eastern 
 heavens ; the mountains painted with light ; the floating splendour of the sea ; 
 the earth waking from deep slumber ; the day flowing down the sides of the 
 hills, till it reaches the secret valleys ; the little insect recalled to life ; the 
 bird trying her wings ; man going forth to his labour ; each created being 
 moving, thinking, acting, contriving, according to the scheme and compass 
 of its nature ; by force, by cunning, by reason, by necessity. Is it possible 
 to joy in this animated scene, and feel no pity for the sons of darkness ? for 
 the eyes that will never taste the sweet light? for the poor, clouded in ever- 
 lasting gloom? 
 
 If you ask me why they are miserable and dejected ; I turn you to the plen- 
 tiful valleys ; to the fields, bringing forth their increase ; to the freshness and 
 flowers of the earth ; to the endless variety of its colours; to the grace, the 
 symmetry, the shape of all it cherishes, and all it bears. These you have for- 
 gotten, because you have always enjoyed them ; but these are the means by 
 which God Almighty makes man what he is ; cheerful, lively, erect ; full of 
 enterprise, mutable, glancing from heaven to earth ; prone to labour and to 
 act. 
 
 This is the reason why the blind are miserable and dejected because 
 their soul is mutilated, and dismembered of its best sense ; because they are 
 a laughter, and a ruin, and the boys of the streets mock at their stumbling 
 feet. 
 
 Therefore, I implore you, by the son of David, have mercy on the blind. If 
 there is not pity for all sorrows, turn the full and perfect man to meet the in- 
 clemency of fate. Let not those who have never tasted the pleasures of ex- 
 istence, be assailed by any of its sorrows. The eyes that are never gladdened 
 with light, should never stream with tears. 
 
 
 First examination on the foregoing extract. 
 
 What is the title of the piece ? Who is the author? What sacred writer 
 does he quote ? What is the quotation? What is the " highest bodily privi- 
 lege ?" What is meant by the word " bodily ?" What is here meant by the 
 word " physical ?" What pleasures are higher and purer than bodily or physi-
 
 70 DESCRIPTION OF 
 
 cal ones? What other senses have we, besides that of sight ? Whose gif,. 
 are they? What is the " wandering fire," mentioned in the text'; Why is u 
 spoken of as " coining back to us in the eastern heavens ] " What are the 
 effects of its rising, so beautifully described in the text 1 What wakes the 
 insects and the bird.*, and sends man forth to his labour ? What are the 
 effects of its return on other created beings] Do these effects of light, prove 
 the truth of the sacred writer's assertion quoted above? What feeling should 
 our enjoyment of the morning light, excite towards the blind ? What beau- 
 tiful objects of sight are spoken of? Why do we forget their beauty and 
 value? What is the effect of the beauties of nature on man ? Why are the 
 blind sad and dejected ? Why are the blind peculiarly entitled to our com- 
 passion ? 
 
 Second examination on the foregoing extract 
 
 What is the meaning of the word " author ?" What is the equivalent word 
 applied to a female ? What is the meaning of " highest?" Of " purest?" 
 What is the effect of adding the syllable est, to a word expressing a quality ? 
 Give some examples. What is expressed -by the word " physical ?" To what 
 class of words do most of those which end in al belong? When thu termina- 
 tion al is added to a noun, into what is it changed? Define " Creator." From 
 what verb is it derived ? What is the meaning 1 of the word "wandering?" 
 From what is it derived? What is the effect of adding the termination ing to 
 a verb? Give examples. What does the termination ing generally express? 
 Ans. Continued action. What is the meaning of " finished ?" From what 
 is it derived ? What are some of the other derivatives of the same word. 
 What does the termination ed generally express? Give examples. What is 
 meant by the word " nations ?" What adjective is formed from nation ? 
 How? Define " eastern." From what is it derived? What other adjectives are 
 derived from the same word ? What is the meaning of the word "heavens" in 
 this connexion .' What other meaning has it? What adjective is derived from 
 the word mountain ? What is meant by " the mountains painted with light?" 
 Is this a literal or a figurative expression? What other instances occur im- 
 mediately afterwards of the same figure? What'is the "floating splendour 
 of the sea J" What is meant by " the earth waking from her deep slumber?" 
 Point out the words, in this part of the piece, used metaphorically. Why is 
 the day represented as "flowing down the sides of the hills?" What is 
 " painted" derived from? Name other derivatives of the same word. From 
 what is the word " waking" derived ? What other words have the same 
 derivation ? Give some of the derivations of the word " deep !" Of " slum- 
 ber," of" day." How do "hills" differ from mountains? What is the dimi- 
 nutive for "hill?" What are "valleys?" Why fs the term "secret" ap- 
 plied to them ? What is the meaning of " recalled ?" What does the first 
 part of the word " recalled" signify? Can you give any other examples of 
 that syllable having the signification (as remit, revert, &c.) What does the 
 latter part of " recalled" signify ? Give examples; (as miscalled, uncalled,) 
 What is the meaning of " life ?" What are some of the derivatives and kin-
 
 SCHOOL BOOKS. 71 
 
 dred words. (As lively, lifeless, livelihood, &c.) Define "bird." How does 
 " bird" differ from an "insect 1 " Define "trying." Give the derivatives 
 of try Define " wings." Give the derivatives of it. What do you consider 
 to be comprehended in the terra "created being]" Is it limited in the text 
 to Jiving beings!" Is the term, properly speaking, more comprehensive) 
 What is ihe origin of the term being? Does it apply to unorganised or life- 
 less matter, as well as to living creatures] Define, and give some of the 
 derivatives of the following words; move, think, act, contrive, possible. What 
 kind of animals obtain their food by " force ]" What animals by " cunning]" 
 What by "reason]" Is it common to find the word "joy" used as a verb in 
 prose writing ] What is the meaning of "animated ]" Its origin 1 Its kin- 
 dred words] What is the original meaning of "scene]" Is it applied in the 
 text literally or metaphorically] What is meant by the term, "sons of dark- 
 ness ]" What figure of rhetoric is this an example of! What figure of 
 rhetoric is used in the expression, " eyes that will never taste the sweet 
 light !" &c. 
 
 The above Specimens are deemed sufficient to show the nature and charac- 
 ter of the proposed system. The "Second-Class Reader" and "Third-Class 
 Reader" will contain similar Specimens adapted to the earlier stages of school 
 instruction.
 
 72 JDKSCRfPTlON OF 
 
 PROM THE SECOND CLASS READER. 
 
 " The title of the present publication sufficiently indicates its 
 design and the place it is destined to occupy in the series of read- 
 ing books of which it forms a part. 
 
 " As it is intended to be placed in the hands of the middle class 
 in common schools, the compiler has endeavoured to adapt it to 
 the intellectual advancement of those pupils who may be sup- 
 posed to hold a place in that class. He has sought for a requi- 
 site number of lessons suited to the understanding of young per- 
 sons and likely to interest them, and whose style is at the same 
 time easy, perspicuous and unaffected." 
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS, IN THE SECOND CLASS READER. 
 
 IN the First Class Reader, we took the liberty to suggest the propriety of 
 introducing into schools, in connexion with the reading lessons, a system of 
 explanation and interrogation essentially the same with that which is prac- 
 tised in the Edinburgh Sessional School, under the superintendence of Mr. 
 Wood. We there gave a specimen of the mode of interrogation to be used 
 with the First Class Reader, and promised similar specimens suited to the 
 subsequent volumes of the Series. 
 
 The questions in this part of the course, should necessarily be much more 
 simple and easy to be answered. They should refer less frequently to the 
 general information of the pupil, as being younger and less informed. When 
 applied to lessons in the early part of the volume, they should be fewer and 
 easier than in the latter part ; and in the progress of the pupil through the vo- 
 lume, and indeed through the whole series, it should be made an object to 
 draw out, at each examination, any of the knowledge acquired at a preceding 
 exercise, which may be more or less nearly connected with the subject of the 
 lesson under consideration. 
 
 We present two specimens of the mode of examining pupils, which we con- 
 sider suited to the capacities of children, at the age when the present volume 
 is intended to be placed in their hands. The first is such a series of questions 
 as we would put to a child when reading the early part of the volume, or 
 going over the other parts for the first time. It is confined chiefly to those 
 points, upon which information is conveyed in the piece itself, sufficient to 
 furnish answers. The other specimen refers more to topics of general infor- 
 mation, and is intended for pupils who have nearly finished the volume, or 
 are going through it for the second time.
 
 SCHOOL BOOKS. 73 
 
 FIRST SPECIMEN FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 The Murdered Traveller. 
 
 WHEN spring, to woods and wastes around, 
 
 Brought bloom and joy again, 
 The murdered traveller's bones were found 
 
 Far down a narrow glen. 
 
 The fragrant birch, above him, hung 
 
 Her tassels in the sky ; 
 And many a vernal blossom sprung, 
 
 And nodded, careless, by. 
 
 The red-bird warbled, as he wrought 
 
 His hanging nest o'erhead, 
 And, fearless, near the fatal spot, 
 
 Her young the partridge led. 
 
 But there was weeping far away, 
 
 And gentle eyes, for him, 
 With watching many an anxious day 
 
 Grew sorrowful and dim. 
 
 They little knew, who loved him so, 
 
 The fearful death he met, 
 When shouting o'er the desert snow, 
 
 Unarmed, and hard beset ; 
 
 Nor how, when round the frosty pole 
 
 The northern dawn was red, 
 The mountain wolf and wild-cat stole 
 
 To banquet on the dead ; 
 
 Nor how, when strangers found his bones, 
 
 They dressed the hasty bier, 
 And marked his grave with nameless stones 
 
 Unmoistened by a tear. 
 
 But long they looked, and feared, and wept, 
 
 Within his distant home, 
 And dreamed, and started as they slept, 
 
 For joy that he was come. 
 10 

 
 74 DESCRIPTION OF 
 
 So long they looked, but never spied 
 
 His welcome step again, 
 Nor knew the fearful death he died, 
 
 Far down that narrow glen. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 Where were the murdered traveller's bones found 1 When ? What kind 
 of tree grew over the place where he lay 1 Why is it called fragrant ? 
 What sort of blossoms grew near? What birds lived near the place! How 
 did they employ themselves there 1 What do you know about the partridge ? 
 What domestic bird is it like! How were the friends of the traveller affected 
 by his loss? How long did they watch for him to return? Did they know 
 his fate? At what season of the year was he killed? How do you know 
 what season it was ? Was he armed ? Did he cry for help ? What became 
 of his body ? Who found his bones ? How did they dispose of them ? Why 
 was not his name put on the grave-stones ' Why did not those who buried 
 him mourn for him ? Did his friends at home show any interest in his fate 1 
 How? Did they ever know what became of him? Tell the story of the 
 murdered traveller as well as you can, after having read and studied the 
 verses. 
 
 SECOND SPECIMEN FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 Perseverance. 
 
 The celebrated conqueror, Tirnour the Tartar, was once forced to take 
 shelter from his enemies in a ruined building. There he sat alone for several 
 hours. After some time, desirous of diverting his mind from his hopeless con- 
 dition, he fixed his attention on an ant, which was attempting to carry a' grain 
 of corn, larger than itself, up a high wall. Its efforts, however, were unsuc- 
 cessful. Again and again it strove to accomplish its object and failed. Still 
 undaunted, it returned to its task, and sixty-nine times did Timour see the 
 grain fall to the ground. But the seventieth time the ant reached the top of 
 the wall with its prize ; and " the sight" said the conqueror, who had just be- 
 fore been despairing, " gave me courage at the moment, and I have never for- 
 gotten the lesson it conveyed." 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 Who was Timour ? Of what country was he a native ? Where is that 
 country situated ? How bounded ? What do you know of its inhabitants, 
 productions, &c. ? What misfortune befell Timour ? Where did he find a 
 shelter ? How did he divert his mind from his misfortunes ? How was the ant, 
 which he observed, employed ? Does the term corn apply to other things
 
 SCHOOL BOOKS. 75 
 
 besides Indian corn 1 What kinds of grain are included under the word corn, 
 taken in its more extended sense ? How did the ant behave when he failed 
 in his enterprise J How many times did he renew the attempt ! What was 
 (he effect of this incident on the warrior] What did he remember s Give 
 an outline of the story, as well as you ca.nl What do you understand to be 
 the lesson or moral conveyed by this incident 1 
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. 
 
 FROM THE THIRD CLASS READER. 
 
 THE system of interrogation and explanation presented in the First Class 
 Reader, and Second Class Reader, is considered peculiarly appropriate for the 
 present volume. Very young children need the assistance and encourage- 
 ment which such a system supplies, even more than those who are farther ad- 
 vanced in knowledge ; and whatever a teacher can do in the way of oral in- 
 struction produces, for them, a much more abundant harvest of improvement 
 and satisfaction. 
 
 We have therefore thought proper to present a more extended and detailed 
 specimen of the mode of examination and illustration, which we would recom- 
 mend in the use of this volume, than was thought necessary in those which 
 preceded it. It is believed that there is no piece in the book which does not 
 afford some useful information or pleasing moral ; nor any which is above the 
 comprehension of a child. But it is quite certain that the interest which the 
 child may feel in the lesson, may be indefinitely heightened by a judicious 
 use of the system which we propose. With the exercise of reading, oral ex- 
 planations should always be offered of the different words, phrases, and allu- 
 sions, not quite familiar to the child, which even the simplest narrative or the 
 most artless verse may contain ; and whenever a fact, principle, or moral ap- 
 plication suggested by the text, and likely to interest the young reader, may 
 occur to the teacher, he will do well to communicate it. The lively interest 
 thus excited in the reading exercise will fully repay the trifling loss of time, 
 and will leave a lasting impression on the opening mind. 
 
 When the exercise is finished, a few questions of easy solution will give a 
 fresh impulse to reflection, and a new incentive to exertion. The teacher 
 should begin with those which can hardly be missed ; and should proceed to 
 others which require a little more thought and study, always increasing his 
 requisitions with the increased capability of his class. 
 
 A few cuts have been inserted in the volume, not merely to gratify the eye, 
 but to exercise the powers of observation and comparison ; and it is believed
 
 76 DESCRIPTION OF 
 
 that no intelligent teacher will deem it entirely unimportant, to question the 
 children respecting the meaning and effect of these humble, but not useless, 
 illustrations. Whatever may profitably exercise the powers of attention and 
 discrimination, should claim the notice of all who are desirous to render edu- 
 cation practical and thorough. 
 
 FIRST SPECIMEN FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 Story of the Tame Bird. 
 
 1. CHARLES JONES found a poor young bird on the cold ground, so he took 
 it home to Ann. Here, my dear, said he, take this poor bird and put it in a 
 cage ; it will be a nice bird in time, and sing to you all day. 
 
 2. But where did you get it, Charles 1 said she. If you took the nest I 
 shall not thank you for your pains ; for I do not like to rob poor birds of their 
 house and their bed, which they made for their young ones to lie warm in. 
 Charles told her he found the bird. 
 
 3. Poor thing, said Ann, some bad boy took you out of your nest, I dare 
 say, or, may be, you got upon the edge of it and fell down. Well, I must 
 take care of you now. But I do not know how to make a nest, or else I would 
 make you one ; but you shall have some nice warm wool ; and you shall have 
 food too, when you want it ; so do not cry, poor bird ; it makes my heart ache 
 to hear you cry. [ will be as kind to you as your parent would be. 
 
 4. Ann was as kind as she said she would be, and brought up her young 
 bird till he could hop and fly ; and he was so tame, he would hop out of his 
 cage, and would peck out of her hand if she did but call, Dick, Dick. 
 
 5. At last Dick flew out of doors, and all the wild birds got round him ; 
 for they do not like tame birds. So Dick got up into a high tree to hide in 
 the thick boughs, but the wild birds soon drove him from thence. Then he 
 found a hole in the wall, where he was in hopes he should lie quite snug ; 
 but there a rat had like to have caught him. 
 
 6. At last dark night came on and he had no food. So, as soon as the day 
 came, and it was light, he flew back to Ann, and was glad to live in her cage 
 all the rest of h is days. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What is this story, which you have just read, about? Who found the bird 1 ! 
 Where did he find it? What did he do with it? What did he ask Ann to 
 do with it when he had got it home? What did Ann say to Charles about 
 robbing birds'-nests ? Was not she a very good-natured, humane girl ? How
 
 SCHOOL BOOKS. 77 
 
 did Chark'j tf-Il in he had got the bird 1 How did she suppose the bird came 
 ti/ be or. the ground! How did she treat the bird 1 ? What did she give it 
 instead of a nest 1 Did the bird grow tame ? What did he do when he 
 had become tame? Do wild birds do so? What did Ann call the bird? 
 What did Dick do at last 1 How did the wild birds treat him ? Do they not 
 like tame birds'! Where did Dick hide? Did the wild birds drive him out 
 of the thick boughs of the high tree? Where did he hide then? What 
 creature had like to have caught him ? What did he do in the morning ? 
 Where did he live all the rest of his life? Now tell the story yourself from 
 beginning to end. . Do you like Ann Jones? Why? 
 
 SECOND SPECIMEN FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 The Body and the Soul. 
 
 1. Every person has a body and a soul. You have a body and a soul : the 
 body is that part of you which can be seen and felt ; your soul is that part of 
 you which cannot be seen, but which thinks. 
 
 2. The soul cannot be seen, because it is a spirit. To die is to have the 
 soul leave the body. 
 
 3. When the soul leaves the body, the body loses its life, it is a dead corpse; 
 it is buried, its flesh turns to corruption, and its bones moulder away, till there 
 is none of the body to be seen ; but the soul still lives ; so that there is not 
 an end of us when we die ; the better part remains alive. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 Has every person a body and a soul ? Have you a body and a soul ? Which 
 part of you can be seen, your body or your soul 1 Which of these thinks ! 
 Why cannot the soul be seen ? Don't you find that there is something in you 
 which you cannot see, but which thinks? What is this? Which dies, the 
 body or the soul ? What does the body lose when the soul goes out of it ? 
 What is done with it then ? What does the flesh of the body turn to? Do 
 these things happen to the soul 1 Does that turn to corruption and moulder 
 away ? Is there an end of us when we die? Which part remains alive after 
 the other ? Which is the better part, the body that dies, or the soul that never 
 dies ?
 
 78 DESCRIPTION OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 
 
 * 
 QUESTIONS ON LESSON SIXTIETH. 
 
 The Countryman and the Snake. 
 
 What is this story about? What sort of a man was that mentioned in the 
 story? Was he kind to the cats and dogs and other animals ? Were they 
 fond of him ? May we make a mistake sometimes even in doing an act of 
 kindness ? What did the good-natured man find one cold day ? What did he 
 do with the adder ? Why did he put it in his bosom ? What did he do with 
 the adder when he got it home ? What did his children do ? When he got 
 warm, how did the snake behave? How did the children behave ? How did 
 the poor man treat the snake ? What did the poor man learn from this ? Is 
 it common for animals to be ungrateful for kindness ? 
 
 Now tell me about the picture. What is it a picture of? Does it represent 
 a place out of doors or in the house ? Does it seem to be in the parlour or the 
 kitchen? What objects do you see which make it appear to be a kitchen? 
 Where is the snake ? What is the man going to do ? Who are the folks in 
 the corner ? Do they look frightened ? What has frightened them ? What 
 is it which they have upset in their flight 1 See, now, how many different 
 things you can point out in this picture. 
 
 It is the design of the subscribers, who are the publishers of 
 the above books, to continue the series, as before stated, till 
 they complete as perfect a system of elementary books, as can 
 be produced by the experience and talents of those who have 
 devoted years to the advancement of education. Constant care 
 will at all times be observed to place none before the public, 
 but such as are useful and designed to aid in the developement 
 of the youthful mind. Several works of this description are at 
 this time in preparation, but as great care will be taken to per- 
 fect them, much time must necessarily elapse before they will 
 be published. 
 
 HOGAN & THOMPSON 
 
 Publishers, and wholesale booksellers, No. 30 North Fourth 
 Street, two doors south of Sanderson's Hotel, Philadelphia.
 
 POPULAR HISTORIES FOR SCHOOLS. 
 
 THE following series of Histories for school use have been pre- 
 pared with special reference to the Public Schools of the Country- 
 Each work comprises an interesting reading-book, and the whole 
 series, in four moderate size volumes, makes a complete course 
 of Historical Study, which is indispensable to the forming an in- 
 telligent young man. 
 
 RUSSEL'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 RUSSEL'S HISTORY OF FRANCE. 
 
 RUSSEL'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. 
 
 RUSSEL'S HISTORIES OF ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME. 
 
 LARDNER'S OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY. 
 
 The two first named of the above Histories, The United States and France, are al- 
 ready published ; the two others are in progress now through the press and will be 
 published in the ensuing spring. They are written with the express design of use 
 in American schools, and particularly harmonise in their character with the system 
 of Public School Instruction. They are not merely a dry detail of facts, but render 
 History subservient to the advancement of the thinking faculties and the elevation 
 of moral character, enlivened with anecdotes of eminent and virtuous individuals. 
 The grave study of History is delightfully relieved by the innumerable interesting 
 points of Biography. 
 
 Extract from the " Journal of Education." 
 
 " It is with no little pleasure that we have examined the new series of School 
 Histories, at the head of this article, recently published by Messrs. Hogan and 
 Thompson of Philadelphia. They are far the best of any that we have seen, and 
 until their appearance, we had thought that nothing superior to those in general use, 
 could be brought forward; the appearance of these volumes, convinces us that we 
 have been in error. The books are pure and simple in style, correct in outline, 
 and admirably arranged in chronological order, the illustrations are of a superior 
 class, and beautifully executed by the first artists. Representing, as they do, some 
 of the most soul-stirring events of the world, they cannot fail to attract the eye of 
 youth, and indelibly fix in their minds a recollection that such things have been ; 
 whilst the text of the author, teaches both to reason and think on their cause and 
 effect. 
 
 " We congratulate the talented author, the liberal publishers, and the growing youth 
 of our country, on the appearance of these volumes. 
 
 " To Teachers we cannot say too much in recommendation of this work." 
 
 From Chandler's Gazette* 
 
 History of* France. 
 
 Messrs. Hogan and Thompson, 30 North Fourth Street, have published the His- 
 tory of France, from the earliest time to the present day, on the basis of Sadler's his- 
 tory, and arranged for the use of Schools, with questions for the examination of 
 students, by John Russel, A. M. 
 
 We referred with commendation, a few days since, to a history of the United 
 States by the same author. A careful perusal of the History of France, leads us to 
 believe that Mr. Russel has in that acquitted himself with even more of success 
 than on his former attempt. The History of France is interesting, from the lofty 
 character of the actors on its scene, and the importance of the events with which 
 they were connected. The story has indeed been told, but rarely in a form for school 
 classes, and never, certainly, better, than by Mr. Russel. In general, we remark, 
 that in the account of the civil wars he seems anxious to do all the justice to each 
 party which existing or attainable records will allow him. The plan of the work is 
 fine, and the execution highljPcommendable.
 
 Gardner's Outlines of Universal History, 
 
 Embracing a concise History of the World from the earliest period to the present 
 time, arranged so that the whole may be studied by periods, or the history of any 
 country may be read by itself. With questions for the examination of students. 
 The work is beautifully illustrated with 49 superior engravings, representing 
 some of the most interesting historical scenes. 
 
 The author in his "Advertisement" to this work, says "The object of the writer 
 of the present volume has been to give a correct, and, as far as the limits wou 
 permit, a comprehensive epitome of the history of the world, which accuracy of nar- 
 rative and chronology would render valuable as a book of reference, and in wnu 
 general views and reflections would remove the dryness inseparable from a mere 
 enumeration of facts. And it is hoped, that the tyro who studies it with attention, 
 will tind himself at the termination of his labour, ignorant of few ot t 
 racters and events which occur in the history of the world." 
 
 The book is arranged with the chronological dates in the margin of each page, so 
 that the student may at a moment ascertain the time of any particular transacti 
 Besides, it has a copious index ; a tabular view of royal dynasties ; a cnrono ogic, 
 table of eminent persons, showing the time of their birth and death, and a c 
 logical view of important events from the first olympiad till the year 1 
 
 Every parent should place this volume in the hands of his children, and s 
 masters who value the time and improvement of those entrusted to their care, woul 
 do well to examine and place the work before their scholars. In it they wilt 
 much that is new in arrangement, and a vast collection of facts that have never yet 
 appeared in any one work of History. 
 
 Hogan and Thompson have for sale the following valuable 
 Arithmetic, just from the press. 
 
 KEITH'S ARITHMETIC, 
 
 Practical and self-explanatory, in which the mental and didactic plans are com- 
 bined, so as to form a completely plain system for all practical purposes, and at to 
 same time forming a thorough foundation for the study of the more advanced branc 
 of the Mathematics. The whole re-conslructed on the basis of the original work. A 
 Revised and entirely adapted to American currency, and use in American S< 
 By an experienced Teacher of Mathematics. 
 
 To which is added, a comprehensive Treatise on MENSURATION, and an original g 
 and perspicuous system of Book-Keeping. 
 
 The following from the Author, will give Teachers an idea of the value of the ( 
 work. 
 
 Extract from the Author's Preface. 
 
 "The long discussions to be found in the ephemeral Arithmetics of the present ' 
 day, tend to embarrass the learner by burdening his mind with a multitude of 
 
 words. Conciseness, clearness, and practical method are the merits claimed for the '; 
 
 work now offered to the public. The rules in it are short and plain in their Ian- V 
 
 guage to the comprehension of the child, and if there is a redundancy in any of its jjj 
 
 parts, it will be found in the uncommon number of Examples given to illustrate the '; 
 Rules. 
 
 " The arrangement of the whole work in detail, is such as to progressively de- v 
 
 velopc the faculties of the pupil, and lead him imperceptibly into the whole science of Y 
 
 numbers. He will be completed in all that is necessary to fit him for business, and * 
 
 have a wide foundation for the studies of Surveying, Geometry, and the still higher ^ 
 branches of mathematical knowledge. 
 
 " The Author desires to put forth this work with no pretensions, the truth of which ; 
 will not be realised by the experience of others. He has tested the practical utility 
 
 of his work. The manuscript in the hands of his pupils equalled all his expec- V 
 
 tations. The saving of time, of labour, and the advanced state of instruction, re- v( 
 
 suiting from its use, has been greatly over what he had ever gained by the use of j 
 
 books, overburdened with diffuse and tiresome directions, many of which it is im- ^ 
 possible for a child to comprehend." n^Mrift it Jt 9 l"y 
 
 * D
 
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