value. Arithmetic, geography, etc., have their uses; the first especially is indispensable in all the active pursuits of the world. Yet for most men a limited knowledge of it suffices; but everywhere that men and women meet each other, whether for the services of religion, the transaction of business, the interchange of thought, the pursuit of pleasure; in the counting-house, on the street, at the fireside, in the social circle, the medium of all intercourse is language. A man's defects in other things might not become apparent in an evening's conversation, but a business letter from his hand, or five minutes' talk with him wherever you may chance to meet, will show his want of culture in the use of his native language. On the other hand, correct habits of expression, clear statements, good pronunciation, precise questions, succinct answers, distinct narration of facts and events furnish higher and better prima facie evidence of the scholar, than any amount of acquirement in other directions.

In our schools there is need of persistent correction of common faults of speech, the formation of correct habits of thought, and finally of the cultivation of clear, forcible, and elegant expression. These things ought to be taught at every step in the progress of a child, not under the head of language lessons alone, but in every exercise of the class-room. Here there is eminent need of teaching by "precept on precept" indeed, but even more by example than by precept. Here the best qualities of the successful teacher find exhibition. In no other direction does the greater part of our corps fail so signally as in this.

READING. Through the Primary and Grammar school grades, reading is taught, not from the school readers alone, but for every year, from the Primary to the graduating class of the High schools, provision is made for a course of reading outside of the ordinary text-books. In the lowest classes are found the "Nursery "; in the grades higher up, "The Little Chief," "The Young Folks," and other periodicals adapted to their reading. In the High schools are read selections from the works of Hawthorne, Irving, Dickens, Longfellow, Tennyson, Scott, Milton and Shakspeare.

Why teachers have adopted this scheme is fully set forth in the report of last year. Let it suffice to say here, that without some special introduction to English literature, we have found pupils graduated from High schools, and many of them, too, who knew so little of the leading historians, for instance, that they supposed the authors of the compilations used in their studies to be the great standards of authority, and to whom the reading of Shakspeare and Dion Bourcicault were literary enterprises of equal merit and magnitude. If we do not send our scholars from the public schools with some taste for good reading, some knowledge of the better authors, some appreciation of sound thought, noble sentiment and pure style, and an impulse to improve themselves, our work in school is all of little avail. It is not what we do for these young folks that will most benefit them, but what we lead them to do for themselves.

PREPARATION FOR TEACHING.

[From Annual Report of MALCOLM W. TEWKSBURY, Superintendent of Public Schools, Fall River.]

As we have abundant and good material for teachers in our own schools, the only question is, how shall they be properly prepared for the work. In nearly every city in the Union the same difficulty has arisen, and has been met in the same way in which it is being provided for here; by the establishment of Training schools, and a Normal department to the High schools.

In the Normal class in our High school, there are eleven young ladies who have completed the three years' course of the school; and at the close of this term, they will have completed a year's work in the Normal department and will then be candidates for teachers' positions.

This year's work, I believe, has been of the greatest value to them. The branches which they will be required to teach, are those which they pursued in the lower grade of school, and at an age when they did little else than to memorize. During this year they have not only studied reading, geograhy, grammar, and

arithmetic, but they have had illustrated the best methods of teaching these branches; and have been required to explain, step by step, their work as they would to their own pupils. They have studied the best works on the theory and practice of teaching, and on the management and discipline of schools. I have no doubt that their services will be worth one-third more to the city than they would be if they were graduates from the High school course only. If, in addition to what they have obtained, they could go into a school where they could not only see school work performed in the best manner, but have the privilege of conducting recitations under the supervision of experienced and skilful teachers, for the coming three months, they would be better prepared at the time of annual appointment to take charge of schools. Those who have spent three or six months in the Training school and have received appointments, have exhibited most fully in their schools the benefits of their instruction. Without exception, they have placed their schools, from the first, among the best in the city. I would most earnestly recommend as a measure calculated more than any other to improve the schools, and thus promote the interests of education in our city-the adoption of some plan for the more thorough preparation of teachers for their work.

A year in the Normal department, and six months in a Training school, would be but a brief period to spend in professional training for so important a trust as that of a teacher of youth; but it would be productive of the highest good to our schools, if none were admitted to examination as candidates, except those who had taken such a course in our city, or an equivalent elsewhere. The salary paid teachers is sufficient to command special preparation for the work; and every citizen would favor a system so calculated to increase the efficiency, and thus enhance the value, of the public schools. No parent would object to his daughter's receiving the benefit of a training which would render her success more certain, and her work more satisfactory.

There may be good school-keeping by a person with a superficial education, but good teaching never. A person with a thorough knowledge of the subjects to be taught, and prepared to present

them in the clearest manner; acquainted with the duties of the school-room; with correct theories; and enthusiastic in imparting knowledge,— will not only succeed, but will accomplish more in two years, than without such preparation she would in three; and will be worth one-third more to the city. The water in the stream can never rise higher than its source; and the person who has not gone far enough in the fields of science to become an enthusiastic inquirer after knowledge, can never incite pupils to a love of learning. The person upon whom Nature has not set her seal of a noble heart and lofty purpose, so that she commands the respect and esteem of society, cannot win the love and respect of children. Such qualities of mind and heart should belong to one who is to exert untold influence upon the pliant minds of fifty children, at an age when impressions are easily made, that the attrition of all the years of human life will not wear away.

THE TEACHER OF THE FUTURE. - He must have a comprehensive idea of the condition of modern thought in all departments, and the power and learning of a master in that which he assumes to teach. He must be able to go behind all text-books and manuals, make his own analyses of his subject, and be capable of bringing out fresh and original conceptions of his field of study. The teacher who cons over a set of passages or formulas till he gets them by heart, and then, abandoning vigorous investigation, goes on in the same treadmill round for a score of years, is guilty of obtaining his salary by false pretences. He only can teach well who looks down upon the elements of his department from the heights of broad and solid attainment. — Dr. Anderson, of Rochester University.

Immortality of a Thought. - Beautiful it is to understand and know that a thought did never yet die; that as thou, the originator thereof, hast gathered it and created it from the whole past, so thou wilt transmit it to the whole future. It is thus that the heroic heart, the seeing eye of the first times, still feels and sees in us of the latest; that the wise man stands ever encompassed and spiritually embraced by a cloud of witnesses and brothers; and there is a living literal communion of saints, wide as the world itself, and as all the history of the world. -Carlyle,

ness.

Editor's Department.

SCHOOL-BOOK AGENTS.

THE principal school-book publishers of the country came together in a pleasant way a few weeks ago, and wisely concluded to make some changes in their method of carrying on the school-book busiOne of these changes is the withdrawal of all travelling agents after the first of July. There are now in the field some three or four hundred of these agents; some of them accomplished and scholarly men, very many of them intelligent and shrewd, and a few of them, it must be confessed, "bores."

What is to become of this noble army of martyrs we do not know. They have our sympathy. We know something of their labors and abilities, and we can but hope that some other worthy field of labor will gain what the educational field is so soon to lose. Their desire to have every scholar furnished with the best school-books has been truly laudable, and their little sacrifices to bring about that result will be long remembered. Many a committee-man, many a teacher, will, as he looks upon his library shelves, be gratefully reminded of the kind book-agent.

Representing princely houses, they have often conducted in a princely manner. If Webster's Quarto Pictorial was necessary to make plain the merits of a school-book which it would be cruel to withhold from the children, in some mysterious way the huge quarto appeared, and the children were blessed. If they came across men who could not see the good points of a school-geography till they had studied some great atlas of the world, the big atlas was laid upon the centre table, and never taken away. Encyclopædias, professional works, school apparatus, even those highly finished works of art, portraits of distinguished public men, made at the U. S. Treasury Department and attested by the proper signatures, have not been withheld, if they could assist in securing the best text-book for the children.

But publishers now say, no more bribes, no more subsidies, no more agents. Their books are before you, and if you cannot ascertain their merits without such aids, you may remain in delightful igno