1500 PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATIONS. GET THE BEST WEBSTER'S UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY. NEW PICTORIAL EDITION. We have just issued a new edition of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, containing 1500 Pictorial Illustrations, BEAUTIFULLY EXECUTED. 9,000 to 10,000 New Words in the Vocabulary. TABLE OF SYNONYMS, BY PROF. GOODRICH, in which more than Twо THOUSAND WORDS are carefully discriminated, forming a fuller work on English Synonyms, of itself, than any other issued, besides Crabb, and believed in advance of that. Tables giving Pronunciations of Names of 8000 distinguished Persons of Modern Times. PECULIAR USE OF WORDS AND TERMS IN THE BIBLE, COMPRISED IN A VOLUME OF 1750 PAGES. They "We have seen specimen sheets of the Pictorial Illustrations. are well executed and will often be found useful in giving a much more correct idea of an object than can be obtained by a definition,"—New York Tribune, April 12, 1859. "We have seen specimen pages of portions in architecture and ornithology, and find them of artistic beauty, as well as of great practical value."-Christian Mirror, April 12, 1859. "We have seen specimen sheets of these Illustrations, and can hardly see how they can be improved in beauty or accuracy."-Boston Evening Transcript. Sold by all Booksellers. "GET THE BEST." Springfield, Mass., July, 1859. GET WEBSTER. THE Vermont School Journal AND FAMILY VISITOR Is intended to be what its name imports, a Journal of Educational News, and a welcome Visitor in every intelligent Family throughout the length and breadth of the Green Mountain State. Its columns will be open to a candid discussion of every subject of PRACTICAL INTEREST TO SCHOOLS OF ALL GRADES, from the Family, which is the first and most important School, to the College. It will aim to furnish short and practical articles, so as to give a PLEASING VARIETY TO ITS CONTENTS. Subjects that require lengthy discussion will be treated each in a series of articles. Notices and Reports of Teachers' Institutes and Associations, and of other Educational Meetings, will be welcomed to its pages. It is conducted by a Committee appointed by the Vermont State Teachers' Association, and is intended to be the organ of that body. TEACHERS, PARENTS, SCHOOL COMMITTEES, AND SUPERINTENDENTS, will find it a convenient medium of communication for such subjects and items of interest as they may wish to bring before the public. It will be published monthly, and will contain twenty-four pages, making, for the year, a neat volume of 288 pages. - Single copies will be sent to subscribers free of postage after the money is received. Advertisements of Schools, School Books, School Apparatus, &c., will be inserted, in a neat and conspicuous manner, on reasonable terms. Address all business letters and remittances to J. S. SPAULDING, Barre, Vt; and all articles intended for publication, to A. E. LEAVENWORTH, Hinesburgh, Vt. VERMONT SCHOOL JOURNAL, AND FAMILY VISITOR: Devoted to the Educational Interests of Vermont. SEPTEMBER, 1859. MONTPELIER: PUBLISHED BY A COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE VER MONT STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. PRINTED AT THE FREEMAN OFFICE. Address all business letters and remittances, to J. S. SPAULDING, Barre, Vt.; and all articles intended for publication, and Exchanges, to A. E. LEAVENWORTH, Hinesburgh, Vt. VERMONT SCHOOL JOURNAL AND FAMILY VISITOR. Volume I. SEPTEMBER, 1859. Number VI. THE PROPER USE OF TEXT BOOKS. In the July number of the Journal, in a note appended to an article on "English Grammar," is this sentence: "One great, yes, the chief fault in the management of our schools, is the too great reliance upon text books." Now, while I admit the correctness of the theory which penned this note, my observation of the practical work of teaching leads me to believe that it will prove a stumbling block, rather than a help, to many of our best teachers. Many a theory is exact and perfect when studied by itself, but totally fails, in the work of life, to produce the calculated results. The carpenter's rules are exact and demonstrable, but he usually fails in the attempt to apply them to the timbers offered for his proposed building. These timbers are found to be crooked, winding and rough, and he must first make them straight, smooth, and "take out the wind." This is precisely what the common school teacher must do with his pupils. My own experience, and a somewhat extended and careful observation of the work of others, leads me to believe fully that a good text book is the first, and most necessary instrument in the school-room. Not one in a thousand can teach well without it. In our common schools, not one in a hundred can do much by attempting to be, in any considerable measure, independent of it, and almost always he who affects to find fault with the text books in use, and to instruct |