might be smoothed and gravelled for a play-ground, and be accommodated with a few seats, or forms, and an apparatus for gymnastic exercises. 6. Behind the building, two water-closets, IK, should be erected, one for boys, and another for girls, separated by a wall or partition. The roof of the building should be flat, and paved with flag-stones, and surrounded with a parapet, three or four feet high. The pavement of the roof should be formed so as to have a slight slope towards one corner, so that the rain which falls upon it may be collected in a large barrel or cistern, placed underneath. An outside stair conducting to the roof may be erected at the posterior part of the building

This flat roof is intended as a stage, to which the pupils may be occasionally conducted, for the purpose of surveying the terrestrial landscape, of having their attention directed to the several objects of which it is composed, and of listening to descriptions of their nature, positions, properties, and aspects, and likewise for the purpose of occasionally surveying the apparent motions of the stars, and of viewing the moon and planets through tele

scopes.

Such are some of the external accommodations which every village school ought to possess. The plan here presented, is not intended as a model to be generally copied, but merely as exhibiting the requisite conveniences and accommodations-the plan of which may be varied at pleasure, according to the taste of architects, or the superintendents of education. The plot of ground should not, if possible, in any case, be much less than what is here specified; but where ground can be easily procured, it may be enlarged to an indefinite extent. I do not hesitate to

suggest, that even two or three acres of land might, with propriety, be devoted to this object. In this case, it might be laid out in the form of an ornamental pleasure ground, with straight and serpentine walks, seats, bowers, and the various trees and shrubs peculiar to the climate. In these walks, or bowers, busts might be placed of such characters as Bacon, Newton, Boyle, Penn, Washington, Franklin, Pascal, Howard, Clarkson, Wilberforce, and Venning, and particularly of those who in early life were distinguished for knowledge and virtue. At every short interval, sentences, expressing some important truth, or moral maxim, should be inscribed on posts erected for the purpose; such as, God is everywhere present.-His Wisdom and Goodness shine in all his works.—Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.-Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. -Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.-Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you.-The Lord is good to all; He maketh his sun to arise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.—God resisteth the proud, but bestoweth favour on the humble.-Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.-The lip of truth shall be established for ever; but lying lips are only for a moment.-To be virtuous, we must strive against many of our inclinations and desires.-The remembrance of virtuous actions is the most delightful consolation of old age.—An industrious and virtuous education of children is a better inheritance than a great estate.— The first step to knowledge is to be sensible of our own ignorance and defects.-Wisdom is better than riches.—Virtue and good behaviour are naturally productive of happiness and good fortune. The present life is only an introductory scene to a future and eternal world; and, therefore, the knowledge and habits we now acquire should have a reference to that endless state which succeeds the present, &c. &c.-Such moral truths and maxims, along with brief statements of scientific facts, should meet the eye of the young in every direction, so as to be quite familiar to their minds; and they might occasionally be referred to, and explained and illustrated, in the discipline enforced, and the instructions communicated in school.

Furniture of the School.

In fitting up the principal apartment of the school, it may be expedient that the seats be moveable, in order that they may be occasionally arranged, so that the children may sit in one compact body, with their faces towards their instructor. But every

seat or form should be furnished with a back, or rail, and a board before, on which the pupil may lean his arm, and feel quite comfortable and easy; for children very soon feel cramped and uneasy, when sitting long on bare forms, without such conveniences. Every boy should likewise have a wooden peg, either before or behind him, for hanging his hat and satchel. The seats in the two smaller apartments may be fitted up to accommodate those who are chiefly employed in writing, arithmetic, or geometry. In these, and various other arrangements, every minute circumstance should be attended to, which may contribute to the convenience and comfortable accommodation of the young, and to the maintenance of good order and regularity in all their move

ments.

Apparatus and Museum.-The principal furniture of every seminary intended for intellectual instruction should consist of specimens of the various objects connected with Natural History, and an apparatus for illustrating the popular branches of Physical science. These objects may be arranged under the usual divisions of Zoology, Botany, and Mineralogy; or, in other words, Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals. Under the first division may be arranged specimens of such domestic animals as can easily be procured; such as, the dog, the cat, the hare, the rabbit, the mole, the rat, the mouse, the bat, &c.-the peacock, the turkey, the partridge, the pigeon, the thrush, the linnet, the canary, the lark, the swallow, the goldfinch, the chaffinch, &c.-together with as many specimens of lizards, serpents, fishes, and insects, as can be most easily collected and preserved. Those foreign animals, such as the elephant, the camel, the lion, and the tiger, which cannot be directly exhibited, may be represented by coloured engravings. The leaves of different kinds of vegetables might be stuck on large sheets of drawing-paper, and occasionally exhibited for the purpose of distinguishing the different trees or shrubs to which they belong-several rare exotic plants might be kept in flower-pots-and the several vegetable pots around the seminary would furnish various specimens, in their natural state, of which physiological and botanical descriptions might be given. Various fossils and mineral substances, which can easily be procured, may also be collected and arranged in classes, such as, platina, silver, mercury, copper, iron, lead, bismuth, zinc, nickel, manganese, with specimens of their orcs-chrysolites, garnets, agates, corundums, jaspers-sulphur, carbon, bitumen, amber, caoutchouc, asphalt, charcoal-quartz, feltspar, hornblend, &c.-To these may be added various specimens of artificial objects and of sub

stances used in manufactures, as hemp, flax, cotton, silk, wool, and the various fabrics into which they are wrought.

The Apparatus may consist of such instruments as the following; an electrical machine, an air-pump, a barometer and thermometer, a magnetical apparatus, various glass tubes and phials, for hydrostatical, pneumatical and chemical experiments, a telescope, a compound and a solar, or an oxy-hydrogen microscope, a camera-obscura, concave and convex mirrors, a phantasmagoria, a sundial, a planetarium, a terrestrial and celestial globe, with large planispheres of the heavens,-a burning lens or mirror, with various instruments of recreation on philosophical subjects, such as the optical paradox and deception, the diagonal opera-glass, the communicative mirror, the sensitive fishes, the sagacious swan, the cup of Tantalus, the fountain at command, &c. Models might also be procured of wind and water mills, steam-engines, diving-bells, common and forcing pumps, gasometers, and the different mechanical powers.

In addition to the above, it would be requisite to procure systematic sets of well-executed engravings, exhibiting a view of the most striking phenomena of nature and the processes of the arts, -such as, views of rivers, sea-coasts, islands, cities, towns, and villages, streets, squares, aqueducts, columns, arches, public buildings, rural landscapes, ranges of mountains, volcanoes, icebergs, basaltic columns, glaciers, caves, grottos, natural bridges— the operations of brewing, baking, spinning, weaving, pin-making, forging, glass-blowing, ship-building, &c.—in short, of every object, natural and artificial, which can convey to the mind a definite idea of the different parts which compose the landscape of the world, and the operations of human art. Coloured maps of the different portions of the globe, on a large scale, should likewise accompany such exhibitions, in order that the positions of the countries, where the different objects are to be found, may be pointed out. These pictorial representations may be hung around. the walls, or on posts fitted up for that purpose, in such numbers as the allotted spaces will conveniently contain.-The specimens of natural history may be arranged around the walls of the school in presses, with wire or glass doors, so that the greater part of them may be exposed to view; and the apparatus and other articles may be deposited, when not in use, in the two large presses or closets formerly mentioned.

Although the various articles now alluded to could not be procured all at once, yet they might gradually be increased, and a considerable variety of them would doubtless be obtained in the way of donations from the private museums of liberal and philan