American Institute of Instruction.

215

stimulus of a healthful public sentiment concerning them, they would, doubtless, almost disappear. THE Thirty-Second Annual Meeting of the Perhaps the mere mention of them here will serve American Institute of Instruction will be held in for that line upon line,' which these subjects Brattleboro', Vermont, at the Town Hall, on the 21st, 22d, and 23d days of August.

seem to require for a due awakening of the public

interest in tl em.

The Board of Directors will meet on the 21st, at 11 o'clock, A. M.

The public exercises will be as follows:
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21ST.

"An unusual degree of success attended the Evening Schools of the past winter. There were six in operation during the season, and about nine hundred persons reaped the advantage of this imAt 2 o'clock, P. M., the meeting will be organportant department of the public service. ized for the transaction of business. The usual "We cannot close this report without alluding addresses of welcome having been made, the Preto an occurrence, which is incidental to the stormy sident will deliver his annual address; after which period of our national history now in progress, but the following subject will be discussed: which, nevertheless, illustrates a great fact in so- How many hours a day ought pupils to be concial economy, to wit: that popular inntelligence is fined in school; and should they be required to the safeguard of liberty and loyalty. The secesprepare lessons at home? sion legislature of Missouri has recently perverted the school fund of that State from its great purpose, for the furtherance of treasonable designs We are bound against the Federal Government.

At 8 o'clock, P. M., a Lecture by Hon. Anson Smyth, State Commissioner of Schools of Ohio. THURSDAY, AUGUST 22D.

At 9 o'clock, A. M., a Discussion. Subject: The Proper Qualifications of Primary School Teachers. At 11 o'clock, A. M., a lecture by H. E. Sawyer,

Esq., Principal of High School, Concord, N. H. At 2 o'clock, P. M., a lecture by Lewis B. Monroe, Esq. Subject: The Human Voice.

to believe that such a suicidal step as this could only be taken where the standard of education is low. The loyalty of the free States is greatly guaranteed by that intelligence, which is the result of a high standard of public instruction. Rhode Island has reason not only to be proud of her excellent school system, but also to be profoundly grateful to God for this bulwark of her prosperity. At 8 o'clock, P. M, a lecture by Calvin Pease, "In conclusion, we express our earnest convic- D. D., President of Vermont University. tion, that your honorable body has no heavier burden of responsibility resting on it than the great

At 3 o'clock, P. M., a Discussion. Methods of Teaching Elocution and Reading.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23D.

lican Government.

At 9 o'clock, A. M., a Discussion. Subject: Unipublic school trust; and no broader field for benefi-versal Education the Great Safeguard of a Repubcent care and culture, than that which opens before it in its almost half century of schools. "Respectfully submitted, for the School ComWILLIAM C. RICHARDS, N. VAN SLYCK,

mittee,

ESEK ALDRICH."

At 11 o'clock, A. M., a lecture by D. G. Moore, Esq., Principal of Public School in Rutland, Vt. At 2 oclock, P. M., a lecture by T. D. Adams, Esq., Principal of Public School, Newton, Mass.

At 8 o'clock, P. M., a lecture by Prof. Edward North, of Hamilton College, N. Y. Subject: The Tuition of Amusements.

EXCELLENT SCHOOL BOOKS.-Among the orders Ladies attending the meeting will be welcomed adopted by the School Committee of this city at their quarterly meeting last Tuesday, was one to the hospitalities of the citizens of Brattleboro'. from the Committee on Text-Books, for the intro- Those who purpose to be present will greatly oblige duction into all of the Primary Schools of "Eaton's the Committee of Reception, and will avoid perPrimary Arithmetic." Eaton's Written Arithme-sonal inconvenience, by sending their names, as tic has been used in all our Grammar Schools for early as possible, to Hiram Orcutt, Esq., West the past two years with much satisfaction, and the Brattleboro', Vt., or to the Secretary, West Newadoption by our Committee of the Primary Arith- ton, Mass.

metic, so soon after its issue, shows the estimation in which these Arithmetics are held.-Boston Transcript.

It is expected that the usual reduction of fares on the several railroads will be made, of which due notice will be given in the newspapers.

WM. E. SHELDON, Recording Sec. West Newton, June 12, 1861.

De Bow's mortality statistics, compiled from the last census, show that the people of the United THE Duke of Marlborough, a young nobleman States are the healthiest on the globe. The deaths are 320,000 per year, or one and a half per cent. of of England, has given notice that he will at no disthe population. Virginia and North Carolina are tant day call the attention of Parliament to the the healthiest of the States, and have six hundred state of education in India, especially the excluand forty-eight inhabitants over one hundred years sion of the Bible from the schools and colleges established by the government. old.

Physical Education.

"The chair of Physiology is to be filled by Dr. A circular lies on our table giving the directors Josiah Curtis, whose State Reports and other writand faculty of Dr. Dio Lewis' Normal Institute for ings occupy so large a space in medical libraries. His pupils will derive special advantages from the Physical Training. The inauguration takes place on the 4th of July, 1861, course to continue nine varied means of illustration employed by him in a weeks. We can scarcely imagine a more illustri-course so important to those who would become ous galaxy of names than those of the directors, guides in physical training. Each pupil in this demen whose names are synonyms with all that is partment will be required to join a class for recitation, and will come under the Professor's direct, worthy of a scholar or citizen. The faculty empersonal examination. braces the highest order of medical and physiological talent and experience. The circular thus begins:

"The chair of Hygiene will be occupied by Dr. Walter Channing, who held for so many years a high professional position in the Medical College of Harvard University; who is so well known to the profession for the largeness of his observation and experience in all departments of Sanitary Sci

"This Institution is presumed to be the first ever established to educate guides in Physical Culture. And it is believed, that, of all schools, none is more demanded by the exigencies of the times. Teachers, managers of schools, the people them-ence; and whose profound interest in the success selves, are awakening to a vivid perception of this of this movement could alone induce him to leave his well earned retirement to engage in a work so vital want, and beginning earnestly to inquire how it can be best supplied.

"Books discussing the subject in some of its various aspects, have long occupied a place in our libraries; but we have failed to be improved by them, chiefly because physical culture, especially in the department of gymnastics, is one of those arts which demand the living teacher. We need a college, in which persons may be taught both the art and the science of physical training.

onerous.

"The chair of Gymnastics will be occupied by Dr. Dio Lewis.

Besides the services of the distinguished gentlemen above-named, those of several others, among the best thinkers in New England. have been se

cured for a course on the Philosophy of Education. "Tickets for the course, $75; matriculation fee, $5; diploma, $10.

"Ladies will be charged twenty-five per cent. less than the above prices, and that reduction is

"After due consultation with leading educators, it was lately resolved to organize such a college; and that resolve, under a statute of the Common-made

wealth, has now been carried into effect.

because of the unjust disparity of compensation which everywhere obtains between male and female labor.

Address T. C. Severance, Secretary, Bank of the Republic, Boston."

The report says:

"HIGH SCHOOL.

"Readers of our educational journals, are, to some extent, familiar with Dr. Lewis's system of gymnastics; since, in connection with his appearance before the American Institute of Instruction, WE have received the Report of the School last year, those journals, as also large numbers of the daily press, gave somewhat full accounts of the Committee of the city of Fall River, Mass., for the principal features of that system. It is a novel year 1860-61. In looking over this report we find system; novel, alike in its pilosophy, and in its that the schools in that city are all in a prosperous and healthy condition. We can only speak of the practical details. Dispensing with the whole cumbrous apparatus of the ordinary gymnasium, its High school, which has flourished under the eximplements are all light, easily managed, and de-cellent government of our friend Charles B. Goff. signed less to impart mere strength of muscle than to give flexibleness, agility and grace of movement. This school has been in a The exercises are accompanied by music, and all of flourishing condition during the year. At the them so arranged that both sexes participate in close of the spring term, fifty applicants for adeach. mission into the High School sustained satisfacto"Competent judges acquainted with the corps of ry examinations, and were promoted from the professors attached to this Institution, will deem it Grammar Schools. The number of pupils in atno hyperbolism to say, that an abler, a more earn- tendance has been larger than at any former time est corps could be furnished by no other city in the in its history." country. "The Principal, with the approval of the Com"The chair of Anatomy will be occupied by Dr. mittee, has introduced Dr. Lewis's system of gymThomas H. Hoskins, author of the invaluable nastics into this school with very gratifiying rework entitled What we Eat.' His lectures will sults. The expansion of mind can now go hand be abundantly illustrated by skeletons, manikins, in hand with the expansion of body. Mental efmodels, paintings and diagrams. To a judicious fort will now be counterbalanced by physical exerleadership in physical culture, a knowledge of an- cise. The lassitude of study will now be coufrontatomy is much more important than to the practice ed by the vigor of recreation. We hope this exof medicine," ample may be imitated in other schools."

Our Schools.---Parents.

children. When parents have cause to be dissatisfied with their school and teacher, it is the result of what they neglected at the time when it could have been helped.

Disquietude.

8. A. B.

In every other department of business men are accustomed to ask what can be done to increase the profits; and is it not wisdom for us to ask what we can do to increase the efficiency of our public schools? In every district may be found some DR. CHALMERS says: "If the most anxious and men who may know and realize the value of edu- unhappy men in the world were examined as to the cation and the importance of good schools. It is ground of their disquietude, it would be found in no less true, that in every district may be found nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of the one men, and parents too, whose entire wishes and thousand, that the provision of this day was not views will be fully met, if their school can be sus- the ground of it. They carry their imaginations tained by the money that is given them, and they to a distant futurity, and fill it up with spectres of be relieved from all taxation, and not called upon melancholy and despair. What a world of unhapto pay a single cent towards keeping the school in operation. With all such, the stereotyped language is, "The old school house is good enough," The cheapest teachers are jist as good as any," "The old books is the best." To reason with such

is almost useless.

piness would be saved, if the things of this day, its duties, employments and services, were to occupy all hearts, and the issues of the future commit ted in quietness to God, trusting that when the day comes the provision of the day will come along

with it."

The erection of a horse-shed or a hen-house, The scriptures say, "sufficient unto the day is with many, is far more important than the erec- the evil thereof," and further, that "one thing is tion of a school house for their children. They set over against another," and a thoughtful person are more concerned in the employment of a man can derive comfort from these considerations. "If to cultivate cabbage-heads, and the like, than they every day doth have its care, hath not every care are in the employment of a man to cultivate their its day." children's immortal minds. Fifty dollars would be We are too prone to shun the present moment, spent in purchasing useless things with more free- and not enjoy it, when in fact that time is all we ness than fifty cents would in paying for school claim as our own. We look forward for more satbooks. If the child says to his parent, "The isfaction than this present day affords to us, and teacher says I must have a book," they seem backwards to bemoan past time as having been to receive it as an insult. It is true that this is more agreeable, when the truth is, that when this not the case with all; but it will apply to very past time was present time, it found us in no betmany. It is said, "As is the teacher so will be ter temper for favorable thinking of enjoyment the school. First we would say, as are the parents than now. The trials and temptations of that peso will be the school, school-house and teacher. riod are made dim by distance, but its vivid recall The hearty and full cooperation of parents is in- will show at once the futility, not to say the wrongdispensable; for it is within the power of parents fulness, of complaint while passing through our to have their schools much what they desire to present day, have them. If parents are willing to provide a The wind is tempered to the shorn lamb, and suitable school-house, and whatever may be neces- many having passed through affliction will, if cansary for the teacher's and child's use at school; did, admit that they found it true then, but inconif they are judicious in selecting their school offi-sistently think that the next trouble will find them cers; if they manifest an interest in their teacher's unprepared to withstand the blow. Our Father in labors, and do all they can to cheer and aid him; Heaven has more kindly disposed of his gifts, and if they do what they can to inspire their children's in more equal proportion than any earthly father minds with a true spirit of obedience, respect and has the wisdom, however strong the will, to do.industry, and their teacher is what he should beExchange.

their school will be just what may be desired. One

INDOLENCE. If industry is no more than habit, of the greatest hindrances to progress in our schools 'tis, at least, an excellent one. "If you ask me is parents finding fault with the teacher's manage- what is the real hereditary sin of human nature, ment. If there is part of a district, and sometimes do you imagine I shall answer pride, or luxury, or but one or two in a district, who act in opposition ambition, or egotism?-No; I shall say Indoto the teacher's views, it affects them, their childlence. Who conquers indolence, will conquer all ren, and the entire school, in a manner that they the rest." Indeed, all good principles must stagdo not realize. If they see and know that the nate without mental activity. teacher is not doing his duty, nor conducting his school as he should, it would be far better for them AMERICAN METEOROLOGY. - Now, boy, what and for their children if they would go to the teach- are aerolites?" "Guess they're the remains of er with their complaints, instead of going to those secedin' stars smashed to pieces that have tumbled who know nothing about them, especially their out of the sky."-Punch.

The Last of the Plantagenets.

[THE following was written by one of the graduates of the Classical Department and spoken at the Exhibition of the Providence High School in May, 1861:]

history. Humpbacked and with the stature of a dwarf and a villain, his mind was no less deformed than his body. His ambition, hypocrisy and treachery, his crimes, and even his deformity, have been portrayed by the pen of the immortal Shakspeare,

and his name rendered infamous for all time. He Among the many monarchs who have figured in aspired to the throne, and to achieve his purpose, the past history of the world, comparatively few nothing was too infamous. At one time the actor have been ornaments to mankind. The lives of of a most ridiculous farce, and at another of a many have been but dark tragedies, far stranger dark and fearful tragedy. To gain the end of his than the creations of fiction. The mind is sicken- dark and cruel ambition he hesitated not to bathe ed with their deeds of violence and fraud, murder his hands in the blood of his innocent kindred. and rapine. Like the infamous Catiline, he had "a head to Perhaps no people have had fewer base and ty contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to exerannical rulers than the English nation. Yet many cute the hardiest attempt"; but he faithfully learnkings have sat upon the English throne who might led the lesson, "uneasy lies the head that wears a well be classed with the worst of the Roman Em crown,' when obtained by such inhuman means. perors. But of all their sovereigns, perhaps none have been guilty of so many revolting crimes as the hypocritical and unprincipled Richard, the third of the name, and last of the royal line of Plantagenet.

One by one his nobles deserted him, and the guilty monarch met his just reward at the battle of Bosworth Field. In the grey dawn of the morning a horse was led up to the church door at Leicester across the back of which was flung the body of Richard Third, a base usurper and cruel murderer, and the last of the royal line of Plantagenet.

His family had long ruled the English nation. Several of them rose to an eminence which was at once the admiration and the terror of all Europe. The banner of Richard the First had floated in tri- IDLENESS AND VICE. Young man, awaken umph over Palestine. Long after he lay quiet in within yourself an interest for the accomplishment the grave, his ponderous battle-axe of twenty of a purpose. Cultivate a habit of patient endurpounds of English steel was a legend among the ance. Let it be your desire to secure the approbaSaracens. When he and his followers had been tion of the wise and good. Link yourself to those dead for many a year, the Arab mother stili quiet- who are doing something in the world, and who ed her restless infant with the name of the lion-compose the frame-work of society, and let your hearted king; and the Moorish rider would ask his motto be determination, activity and perseverance. frightened steed, "Dost thou think King Richard Sit down, calmly, while you are young. and look is near?" Under their sway was obtained that over the ground, and get a clear view of what is great charta of English liberty and English law, before you. Then lay your foundation and go to the corner-stone of the most perfect government work. that the world has ever seen. One of their number has since been called the Justinian of England, and the father of the English constitution. It was under their rule that the House of Commons was established, that renowned body of which all other representative assemblies are mere copies. Then it was that the brave sailors of the Cinque Ports first made the flag of England terrible on the seas. In the reigns of Edward Third and Henry Fifth the banner of St. George was victoriously borne beyond the Alps and the Pyrenees.

lected.

Nor under their rule were the arts of peace negThen arose some of the grandest and noblest of England's architectural monuments. Then the English language took its first form. Then was begun that splendid literature which is the greatest and the most enduring of England's glories. The same age which produced the Black Prince produced also Geofrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry, and John Wycliffe, the first of English reformers.

If you have been dreaming away your life, wake up and take a new start. It is not too late. You can yet make your mark upon the world. These are stirring times, and though we do not, with some, think the world on the high road to perfection, yet we know that this is an age of wonders, an age of progress, and offers an opportunity for every man who wants to work, which has never been offered before.—Exchange.

A. F. K. writes: "The algebraical question in the April No. of THE SCHOOLMASTER, solutions of which appear in last (May) number, can be solved by means of the last condition alone. Can any of your readers furnish the solution? If not, I will."

Let us hear from A. F. K., as well as others.

WE are reliably informed that the annual meeting of the National Teachers' Association has been postponed until 1862, by a unanimous vote of the But the royal line of Plantagenet was destined board of cfficers and committee of arrangements, to an inglorious end. The character of Richard on account of the state of the country at the pres Third is well known to every reader of English ent time.

Philology.

COMMUNICATIONS for this Departinent should be addressed to HENRY CLARK, Pawtucket, R. 1.

NOTE EDITORIAL.-The writer of this note and of the following article is author of the whole series of papers on English Literature begun in 1857 and published in THE SCHOOLMASTER, marked by the successive letters of the alphabet, of which the paper below is the closing article. What was intended at first to be a few brief discussions of some

excellencies in our language, expanded into many essays, continued rather irregularly through four years. It only remains to be said that though all the papers in this series did not receive the signature J. W. O., they were all written by the same hand.

For the Schoolmaster.
The Melancholy of Cowper.

CAUSES PHENOMENA-SEQUEL.

W-Z.

Still the most probable, because the most prominent, cause lies in his own mental and physical condition. We may discover throughout his life, in the tone of his intercourse with the world. and to a slight degree in his letters and poems, a natural and unconquerable shyness or sensitiveness, such as in itself was sufficient to detail pain and suffering on any man. In a letter to Mr. Hayley, 1793, intimates a difficulty in the way of his cooperation with his "dear brother bard," and says: am so made up-1 will not enter into a metaphysical analysis of my strange composition in order eral view of the matter, I suspect that it proceeds to detect the true cause of the evil; but on a gen. from that shynesss which has been my effectual and almost fatal hindrance on other important occasions." This remark is expressive of his inability to compose verses except in solitude, but the latter part of it is sufficiently general to bear general application.

Here let us rest. There was some cause, to us unknown, that made him not only melancholy but often miserable through life. Whether it was disappointment in love or a natural and unconquerable shyness or the depravity of his heart, is not SO THEY'S life of Cowper gives a kindly and certain so far as his biography shows. Yet one sympathetic description of the malady of this gen- must notice, while reading the account of his life tle poet; but in no place is there distinctly marked already quoted, the exquisite sensitiveness of this any sufficient cause of his melancholy. Neither gentle poet, perhaps above all the natural qualities do the accounts of bibliographers seem to reach the study of his life reveals. This is so apparent, farther than facts, furnishing no clue to the cause and withal so characteristic, that it seems to fall leof them. gitimately under the general subject I have chosen. If any cause be required of the morbid melan-It was discoverable far back in his early life. While choly that oppressed him, it will be sought in vain at school, at the age of six years, he found the time in his works. His letters give the deepest insight he spent there to be a season of fear and mistrust, into his character, yet nothing opens a direct way mainly through the tyranny of a rude boy, of whom into his heart. It does not appear that he was by reason of his constant acts of abuse he felt in wont often to communicate in confidence with oth-constant fear. "I choose," says Cowper, "to conceal a particular recital of the many acts of barIt appears to be the opinion of an author (Mr. barity with which he made it his business continCroft) to whom Mr. Southey refers, that Cowper's ually to persecute me. It will be sufficient to say, disappointment at an early age in his suit for the that his savage treatment of me impressed such a hand of Theodora, his cousin, was the cause of his dread of his figure upon my mind, that I well remalady. But Southey seems to think that the dis-member being afraid to lift my eyes upon him higher appointed lover exhibited no evidence of mental than his knees; and that I knew him better by his suffering on the disruption of this attachment.

ers.

shoe-buckles than by any other part of his dress. May the Lord pardon him, and may we meet in glory!"

Cowper himself attributed the cause of his affliction to the depravity of his heart. But the suffering he endured was far out of proportion to that of When he expected to be chosen clerk of the jourcommon men in similar circumstances, and his let-nals in the House of Lords, after he had arrived at

ters and poetry are so uniformly chaste that there is no probability that he was accustomed to what he knew to be wrong.

In all his published letters that I have read, I have discovered nothing more than a hint, yet what it indicates is significant. He writes on the 9th August, 1763, to his friend Lady Hesketh "O my good cousin! if I was to open my heart to you, I could show you strange sights; nothing, I flatter myself that would shock you, but a great deal that would make you wonder."

44

the age of a young man, he suffered excruciating mental pain. Too proud or too delicate to expose his feelings, he visited the room where h was to have been shortly engaged, feeling more like a condemned criminal than a candidate to a responsible post. Distrusting his own powers, fearing the results of disappointment to his friends if he failed, impelled by the expectations of those friends to a pretense of interest in the duties for which he was preparing, he passed many days in the deepest misery, seeing no way of escape, but instead, either last