* *

of the same grade in Boston, that they might be better prepared to form a just judgment of the comparative proficiency of our own." "It is proper to remark here, that teachers experience no small amount of embarrassment from the different courses pursued by examining committees. One year, the gentlemen holding this office require a definite and thorough knowledge of the text-books, and even the very words of the authors. Another year, the text-book is laid aside, and the child's acquaintance with the principles involved in the year's progress is tested."

The Committee are of opinion that, taken as a whole, their schools will not suffer in comparison, either as to discipline or scholarship, with others in the vicinity. They say:

"We were particularly struck with the admirable physical training of the two upper divisions of the Washington school. The boys pass through a series of calisthenic exercises with the precision of a military drill, affording them at once a vigorous muscular exercise, arousing the flagging faculties of the mind, and bringing the whole company of nearly two hundred into a state of absolute order and quietness.

It is proper, also, to express the gratification felt by the committee in witnessing the public literary exhibition by the first two divisions of the Dudley school."

These two schools are the only grammar schools now in operation in Roxbury. Both together contain about one thousand scholars. Messrs. Reed and Plympton, the Principals of these schools, stand in the front rank of teachers.

On the services and salaries of female teachers, the committee speak admirably. We quote the following paragraph as a sample :

"There is no province of public labor, in which the sex can acquire greater honor, or perform a higher service for the race, than in the profession of the teacher. Her gentleness, kindness, patience, and mental activity, united with a harmonious development of the moral faculties, render her an admirable companion, guide, and educator of the young. But she must be trained to the work; must become a thorough scholar, and a skilful tactician, as well as an amiable and patient disciplinarian. To secure this end, and direct the attention of the most worthy and able minds to the profession, an adequate compensation and encouragement must be offered. The female teacher's profession should not be considered as the last shelter of orphanage, or final retreat from the heavy pressure of affliction and poverty, but an honorable and open field for the chastened ambition of an earnest mind, seeking to fill up the measure of a useful life, and to leave an impression for good upon society."

This is the true line of policy, to pay female teachers a good salary, and then employ only those who are competent, and take an interest in the business. We find much in the remarks of Messrs. Wayland, Anderson, and Shailer, which nothing but lack of room prevents us from transferring to our pages.

P.

Of the scientific students, 33 study engineering, 22 chemistry, and 14 attend to other branches. There is not one in mathematics.

The total number of books in the libraries of the University is as follows:-Public Library, 60,000; Medical, 1,200; Law, 14,000; Theological, 3,000; Society Libraries of the students, 12,000. Total, 90,200.

BOSTON LUNATIC HOSPITAL.

WE have received the Twelfth Annual Report of the Boston Lunatic Hospital. It is from the pen of Dr. Clement A. Walker, the accomplished superintendent of that institution. The whole number admitted is 776; discharged, 535; more or less improved, 57; recovered, 244; died, 176; remaining, 241. Of the causes of insanity, intemperance stands at the head. Of the 92 admitted the last year, 50 were born in Ireland.

"Among the admissions is one the cause of whose insanity, for want of a better term, is recorded 'bewilderment.' The case has been an exceedingly interesting one, from the age and circumstances of the subject—an intelligent Irish lad. The little

fellow, but thirteen years of age, arrived at Boston, on board an emigrant vessel, in July last, having no friends here, with the exception of a brother who had preceded him but a few months. He landed on Thursday, and on Saturday became a raving maniac. Confused by the strangeness, and to his eyes, the magnificence of the city, which for weeks had been the culminating point of his anticipations, he wandered about, gazing upon the novelties by day and dreaming of them by night, until he believed himself the inhabitant of a fairy land, and could not recognize the brother, whose bed he shared; for,' said he, he was dressed so nice, and we usedn't to be so at home.' Reason soon fled, and for weeks, he by turns babbled like a child and raved like a madman. At length convalescence was established and has since rapidly progressed. A few weeks more, and he will doubtless go out from us whole."

6

P.

The Ohio Journal of Education: Vol. 1. No. 1. Jan., 1852.

THIS Journal is published under the auspices of the Ohio State Teachers' Association, and is conducted by a Board of Editors appointed by that body. Its typographical appearance is admirable. It throws us quite into the shade. Its pages are full of life and vigor; and if such is its infancy, what may we not expect from its maturity? There are noble souls laboring in the cause of education in the state of Ohio. They have resolved to establish and maintain a paper of their own, and we believe they will do it. They are young Napoleons. "They always do what they undertake." Their schools will eclipse those of Massachusetts before ten years, unless we bestir ourselves earnestly. Look at the record of the recent annual meeting of their State Association. There are the names of 212 teachers who were present, representing 41 Counties. We think it would be a good plan to publish the names of those who attend our associations, that it may be seen what teachers among us are willing to make some sacrifices for the cause. We thank you, brethren of the west, for the hint; and now be pleased to accept our hand editorially, professionally, fraternally. Success to your noble enterprise.

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES

For the Spring of 1852, so far as they are arranged. At Leominster, March 22-27.

"Hinsdale, April.

"Woburn, April,

"Conway.

"Wrentham, April 19-24.

P.

A FEW weeks since, I had the pleasure of meeting, in convention, a large collection of the teachers of Massachusetts, and long shall I remember the occasion as one, to me, of the highest interest; for I was re-assured that there are, enlisted in our ranks, men of such talent, enterprise, and professional zeal, that the time is not far distant, when we shall be no longer forced to rely upon the members of the other professions, to manage our associations, to oversee our business, and to do our thinking for us. Far be it from me, however, to undervalue the aid which we have received, especially from the clergymen of Massachusetts. We thank them for their approbation, their counsel, their zeal in the cause in which we labor; but we beg of them to believe that there are some things on which we have a few thoughts of our own. We protest that the time of acting as machines in developing the theories of other men, has past away, and we now claim that, like the members of other professions, we are the best judges of what we are able to do, and how it is to be done.

But I propose, in this article, to discuss only one point in regard to which the professional teacher is bound to resist any farther encroachment on the part of the other professions. I refer to the unequal share of labor which we are called upon to perform.

This in truth is no new complaint; for Mercury himself, the father of all pedagogues, as Esculapius was the father of all the doctors, used to grumble most bitterly at the amount of

work which he was forced to do, both in the realms of Pluto and on the top of Olympus. Indeed, he was almost the only god who had any labor to perform. He must instruct the orators, teach the boxers, run with Jupiter's love letters, carry round the punch, and do various other chores, both above ground and below ground, too numerous to be mentioned.

Such is fast becoming the condition of the teachers of Massachusetts. The list of studies which once consisted of scarcely more than Reading, Writing, Spelling, and Arithmetic, is now so large that a page of small pica will hardly contain it. The doctors require us to teach Anatomy and Physiology, the Clergymen call upon us to aid them in Natural Theology and Moral Science, and the Lawyers will find that the pupils of some of our schools are grappling with Political Science and Constitutional Law. In my own school, we have enough studies to frighten the shade of any old schoolmaster of the eighteenth century, and you may judge of my surprise when, on my way to the convention, above referred to, I was gravely asked by a distinguished friend of schools, why my boys did not attend to Intellectual Philosophy and Moral Science; and the first lecturer whom I heard on my arrival, urged the introduction into our schools, of the study of Meteorology, and a "Book of Common Things," and complained, with some severity, that teachers did not take their pupils out upon the hills to study the rocks and the trees, and, indeed, to open the great "Book of Nature". -a book almost as large as the work referred to in the last of John the Evangelist!! Alas, who is sufficient for these things? The lecturer was a clergyman, a distinguished writer upon the subject of common schools. To show the alarming state of ignorance now existing in respect to this last study which he proposed to introduce, he stated the astonishing fact that, in a certain school, he once asked a girl where Neponset River rises, and (oh, horrible) she could not tell! She was a good geographer, and lived close by the Neponset, but she had neglected the Book of Nature, and where the river came from the poor girl could n't tell.

We confess that some remedy should be found for such alarming ignorance. And now, inasmuch as the clergymen are all our friends, if, at their next general convention, they will return the many compliments which they have received from us, by inviting me to address them, I will endeavor to repay the ten thousand kind suggestions which we have received at their hands, to propose a fair division of the labor of instructing the community, and so to arrange the business that hereafter young folks of twelve years of age shall really know as much more than men of sixty, as some people seem to think they ought to know. Reverend gentlemen, I have not chosen my text, but