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has been done during the whole term intervening between examinations.

Tenth. Examinations should be so conducted as to exhibit all the results of education, to whatever point it may have progressed. In order to this, the examiners should carefully note every indication of mental development, and moral improvement. These will be manifested in a greater variety of ways than might, at first, be suspected; and certainly in a much greater variety than can be here laid down. The deportment of the pupils, towards their instructors, examiners, and among themselves, will furnish one criterion. The order of movement, and the state of the furniture in a school-room, will furnish another. The mechanical execution of the task assigned, whether on the blackboard, the slate, or on paper, may be considered as a third.

Extempore compositions-by which is meant, essays written by a whole class, upon a topic suggested by the examiners, without time for previous reflection, or any aid from grammars, dictionaries, commonplace books, or authors-might serve as a fourth.

In a word, as education aims at making a man what he ought to be, and furnishing him with an acquaintance with all that he ought to know; examinations should be so conducted, as to exhibit all the effects of discipline, instruction, and education— the formation of habits- the acquisition of knowledge, and the building up of character. When this shall be done, examinations will be different in their character and uses from what they have too often hitherto been. October, 1836.

W. H. McGUFFEY.

A PLAIN TALK WITH TEACHERS.

This is a practical age and the teacher is a practical man. "Who has no lack of qualities ideal,

But far too much of palpable and real."-Goethe. Normals are teaching how to teach. Methods are not only the theme of our conversation, but of them we dream dreams and see visions. Meanwhile scholars and scientists are looking upon our efforts with at best but lenient toleration, and from results it almost seems that we are trying to solve the problem of how little morality we can teach. There is no need that a Casca ask why we are abroad without the badge of our profes

sion, for the grave mysterious dignity of the schoolmaster and the stern cold hostile manner of the lady teacher are among well-bred people the theme of piquant sarcasm. One noble prince even profanely intimates that teachers have been seen to move their ears. True those of our cavilers may be of more than the proscribed length, and we feel our badge a regal one when we read "Louis Agassiz, Teacher," yet 'tis a grave question whether we too be worthy of the purple robes. I have no words for any but earnest souls, for those who with Thoreau can say, "In any weather, at any time of the day or night I have been anxious to improve the nick of time and notch it on my stick too, to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and the future, which is precisely the present moment, to toe the line."

Of such as these, I ask is not our energy misdirected? Are our children acquiring a love for true scholarship? Are we teaching them to think, to investigate, to see for themselves all that the eyes that God has given them are capable of seeing? How many of them desire any other than social triumphs after commencement day? Are we not ourselves paying too dearly for experience and that perfection in detail which is absolutely indispensable by the loss of our youthful enthusiasm? Is not Homunculus imprisoned in a phial impatient to begin human existence, a fit symbol not only of Goethe's poetical genius struggling for expression, but also of the teacher who would breathe his soul in broader spaces? And this is what we must do even if we are content to merge our own individuality in the teacher's existence, for we can not speak inspiring words to other hearts save our own be eloquent. Some feeling that, "Diseases desperate grown, By desperate appliances are removed or not at all" have broken away from the profession "to live deliberately, to front the essential facts of life" and to teach mankind the way of living, others remaining have beautified their lives and have given us examples which wake an infinite hope and call us all to emulation. Whence drew they their inspiration? What aids, what resources had they? Conversation, Books, Nature. The delight in good company doubles the value of life, and conversation doubles our powers. In the attempt to express our thoughts to others we make them more surely our own, new illustrations present themselves, and we see the subject in new aspects. This is the case when we talk not for effect but for truth,

comfort, and joy. When we talk of humanity and of great deeds of men, when we dare to defy the canons of society and say what we think. True this requires a higher courage than that which enables a man to face the cannon on the field of battle, yet there have been men who have been brave enough to say to a mighty nation, "This is good for your trade and necessary for your dominion, but it is unjust to your neighbor and will not profit humanity, therefore away with it." One who hurled in the teeth of his countrymen raging with the fever of an unjust war, "If I were a Mexican as I am an American I would welcome you with bloody hands to hospitable graves." True he could not control opinion, we the strong man Ahab valiantly took from Naboth a portion of his little vineyard, but when darkness gathered thick around ourselves, when President Lincoln with anxious troubled heart sought a man whose word would carry with it weight and influence, one whom these same Mexicans would receive and respect, Tom Corwin was the man. Well-dressed intellectual peoplelike ourselves-sometimes exhibit features very like a mob and endeavor to put down a sentiment contrary to their own by browbeating instead of argument, yet he who conscientiously and modestly asserts himself at such a time and defends what he believes to be an unpopular right wins at least his own approval. I do not recommend an armed contest with windmills, nor an ill-bred contradiction for the sake of showing independence, but a simple honest statement of opinion and a gentle tolerance to kindly-expressed opposition. There is another point in respect to which we teachers violate the laws of good breeding more frequently than any other class of people making our pretentions to refinement. We talk shop in society. Perhaps this is because we are full to overflowing with love for the work, and from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, but I fear that, in my own case at least, 'tis some times from paucity of ideas on which to base a conversation. Talk to the best people you know, seek the best circles to which you have access, but don't complain of the one that closes its doors to you. Be worthy, be patient and you will be welcomed everywhere. Meanwhile you can have the best society in books. Books the treasured wealth of nations. Books in which we may grasp the hand, speak face. to face, yea read the innermost heart of not only the mighty living, but of the mighty dead. John Quincy Adams "The

old man eloquent," "The master of persuasive speech, The clear-toned Pylian orator, whose tongue dropped words more sweet than honey," said, "at no hour of your life will the love of letters oppress you as a burden or fail you as a resource. In your struggles with the world, should a crisis ever occur, when even friendship may deem it prudent to desert you, when. priest and Levite shall come and look on you and pass by on the other side, seek refuge in my unfailing friends and be sure you will find it in the friendship of Laelius and Scipio as well as in the precepts of him whose law is love and who taught us to remember injuries only to forgive them." But even here caution is necessary. Don't buy a library or seek to take in at one draught the whole range of literature. 'Tis that you assimilate which strengthens. That which must be sought is gradual ordered development. The mind should not be forced into premature inflorescence, but should unfold leaf by leaf as does the lily or the rose. One good book, read, studied, assimilated as I said above is quite enough for a winter's work. I would mention some authors who have spoken to me words of cheer and comfort, but no doubt you each prefer your own friends to mine, and I will only say cherish the book which after making you dissatisfied with yourself leads you to higher lands and pastures green. And in our reading let us not forget Nature that glorious old book from which literature has derived its bone and sinew, its tissue and life blood. There is a sense in which the pantheist is right when he cries out "In nature I find God," for where can the longing reverent heart come nearer to the great soul of the creator? Is not God in all that liberates and lifts, in all that humbles, sweetens, and consoles? Is this not but another version of the sublime song, "The heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament showeth his handiwork, Day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night showeth knowledge."? Then find out what the winds say, hear the story of the summer rain. A thunderstorm is a grander oratorio than "The Creation" or "The Messiah." Do you know that there are flowers that flame? That there are insects made of a song or a fire? That there are grand old trees with the souls of heroes, and other motherly ones with a tender brooding look? Lowell says that nature like a woman is but our own conceit of what we see-Certain it is that she unfolds not her heart to the careless gazer but enjoys to the fullest her feminine privilege of being wooed but is not the best of it.

Who cares for the sweet looks dealt to all things, men and flies? Indeed it is like sharing the heart of my friend to speak of what the flowers and trees say to me, or even to point out my favorite views to those who are not akin. And then the glorious reward of passionate seeking, for when won right royally she loves, and she speaks to her lover words of wisdom and truth. Emerson felt this when he said, "If you agree with me, if Locke or Montesquieu agree I may still be wrong; but if the elm-tree think the same, if running water, if turning cool, if crystals, if alkalies in their several fashions say what I say it must be true." Mrs. Browning also when she said ""Tis by such symbols and bright degrees art childlike climbs to the dear Lord's knees. And with her we long for a seer to call the tree and flower by name.

The sum is this, we are deifying the practical and real, we are in danger of smothering the highest, noblest, and best part of our nature. In serious danger of driving our pupils with Dr. Blimber's young gentlemen to the conclusion that all the fancies of the poets and lessons of the sages are a mere collection of words and grammar, and have no other meaning in the world, and the only way out of the ruts and grooves, the only path to true scholarship and pure morality is through the heart and brain of the teacher. Eaton, Ohio.

A. P. W.

INDUSTRIAL ART EDUCATION.

We have, at length, with some surprise, waked up to a realization of the fact that the first step towards becoming a successful manufacturing people is "to give the workman a broad and industrial education, based on science and art." If the awakening had been general throughout the land, as it has been real and earnest in many localities, we might say with pride, “Well done, American people"! As it is, there has been but a partial awakening; the open-eyed believers must do the rest. It has been said by an American writer in whose opinions we have faith, that "Most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief." Perhaps, with what truth he has said these words, we teachers best know. It is a slow, wearisome and difficult process, this taking-off the brow-binding bandages of ignorance, blindness, narrowness, and prejudice-the handkerchiefs which men put upon their

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