states legal provisions are already made for such a consolidation of districts. This would invite a more perfect classification of scholars, and would allow the central school-house to be so constructed, and to have the seats and desks of such a height as to be convenient for the larger grade of scholars, and still be comfortable for other purposes for which it might occasionally be necessary to occupy it. Such an arrangement, while it would obviate the almost insuperable difficulties which stand in the way of proper classification and the thorough government and instruction of schools, would at the same time offer greater inducements to the erection of more comfortable and attractive school-houses.

CITIES AND VILLAGES.-The plan suggested in the last paragraph may be perfected in cities and villages. For this purpose, where neither the distance nor the number of scholars is too great, some prefer to have all the schools of a district or corporation conducted under the same roof. However this may be, as there will be other places for public meetings of various kinds, each room should be appropriated to a particular department, and be fitted up exclusively for the accommodation of the grade of scholars that are to occupy it. In cities, and even in villages with a population of three or four thousand, it is desirable to establish at least three grades of schools, viz., first, the primary, for the smallest children; second, the intermediate, for those more advanced; and, third, a central high school, for scholars that have passed through the primary and intermediate schools. While this arrangement is favorable to the better classification of the scholars of a village or city, and holds out an inducement to those of the lowest and middle grade of schools to perfect themselves in the various branches of study that are pursued in them respectively as the condition upon which

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they are permitted to enter a higher grade, it also allows a more perfect adjustment of the seats and desks to the various requirements of the children in their passage through the grade of schools.

NEW YORK FREE ACADEMY.-In the public schools of the city of New York, two hundred in number, six hundred teachers are employed, and one hundred thousand children annually receive instruction. The Free Academy, which is a public school of the highest grade, and which is represented in our frontispiece, was established by the Board of Education in 1847. The expense of the building, without the furniture, was $46,000, and the annual expense for the salaries of professors and teachers is about $10,000. Out of twenty-four thousand votes cast, twenty thousand were for the establishment of this institution, in which essentially a complete collegiate education may be obtained. No students are admitted to it who have not attended the public schools of the city for at least one full year, nor these until they have undergone a thorough examination and proved themselves worthy. Its influence is not confined to the one hundred or one hundred and fifty scholars who may graduate from it annually, but reaches and stimulates the six hundred teachers, and the hundred thousand children whom they instruct, and thus elevates the common schools of the city in reality not only, but places them much more favorably before the public than they otherwise could be.

Smaller cities, and especially villages with a population of but a few thousand, can not, of course, maintain so extended a system of public schools; but they can accomplish essentially the same thing more perfectly, though on a smaller scale. For the benefit of districts in the country and in villages, I will here insert a few plans of school-houses.

DD, doors. E E, entries lighted over outer doors, one for the boys and the other for the girls. T, teacher's platform and desk. R L, room for recitation, library, and apparatus, which may be entered by a single door, as represented in the plan, or by two, as in the following plan. S S, stoves with air-tubes beneath. K K, aisles four feet wide-the remaining aisles are each two feet wide. co, chimneys and ventilaсо, tors. II, recitation seats. B B, black-board, made by giving the wall a colored hard finish. G H, seats and desks, four feet in length, constructed as represented on the next page. The seat and desk may be made together, and instead of being fastened permanently to the floor, attached in front by a strap hinge, which will admit of their being turned forward while sweeping under and behind them.

A, entrance for boys to the High School. C, entrance for girls to High School. P, entrance for boys to the Primary and Intermediate Departments. Q, entrance for girls to the same. DD, doors. W W, windows. T, teacher's platform and desk. G H, desk and seat for two scholars, a section of which is represented at X, in the Primary Department. II, recitation seats. B B, black-boards. SS, stoves, with air-tubes beneath. cv, chimney and ventilator. R, room for recitation, library, apparatus, and other purposes.

High School, or Third Department, on second floor.

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A, entrance for the boys, through the entry below. C, entrance for the girls. G H, desk and seat: aisles from two to three feet wide. DD, doors. W W, windows. SS, stoves. cv, chimney and ventilator. T, teacher's platform. R, recitation-room. II, recitation seats in principal room. B B, black-board: as a substitute for the common painted board, a portion of the wall, covered with hard finish, may be painted black; or, what is better, the hard finish itself may be colored before it is put on, by mixing with it lamp-black, wet up with alcohol or sour beer.