that the State contributed for all the purposes of public education, about $1,000,000; but the expenditure in the State the past year, for which the people tax themselves, is over $4,400,000. Surely we may congratulate ourselves that this is not an age of materialism with us, when the people so fully appreciate the importance of cultivating the mind.

No parent is justified in withholding from his child the benefits which he may receive from such ample provision for his education. The law passed by the Legislature, at its last session, abolishing the district system in all parts of the State, has been carried into effect cheerfully, and with the best results.

There may be cases of hardship and inconvenience in a few instances, but a new order of things will soon be established, better suited to the wants of the time, and more in accordance with our enlightened system of public instruction.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

WE have received from the Librarian, JOHN L. SIBLEY, A. M., the catalogue for the present academical year. The number of undergraduates is 563, viz. Seniors, 130; Juniors, 159; Sophomores, 126; Freshmen, 148. There are also 2 Graduate Students; 4 Resident Graduates; 36 Divinity Students; 120 Law Students; 43 Scientific Students; 9 Mining Students; 306 Medical Students; 16 Dental Students; 10 Episcopal Theological Students; in all 1,107, after deducting for those twice counted. The total number of books in the different libraries is 184,000.

REQUISITES FOR ADMISSION.

Candidates for admission to the Freshman class are examined as follows:

In the whole of Virgil,

LATIN.

The whole of Cæsar's Commentaries,

The Orations of Cicero included in Folsom's, Johnson's, or Stuart's edition, Latin Grammar, including Prosody,

Or the whole of the Anabasis of Xenophon, and the first three Books of Homer's Iliad (omitting the Catalogue of Ships in the second Book),

Greek Grammar, including Prosody,

And in writing Greek with the Accents.

Real equivalents will be received for any of the books named above, or for parts of them: as, for instance, six Books of Ovid's Metamorphoses in place of either the last four Books of the Eneid or the Bucolics and Georgics of Virgil; the Catiline and Jugurtha of Sallust, in place of the last three Books of Cæsar;

the first three or the last three Books of Xenophon's Cyropædia, or the extracts from Herodotus in Felton's Greek Historians, in place of the last three Books of the Anabasis.

No particular grammars are designated, as the object of the examination is to ascertain rather the candidate's knowledge of general principles and forms, than of specified books. What is contained, however, in Harkness's Elements of Latin Grammar or Allen's Latin Grammar may serve to indicate the amount required.

In Latin the following pronunciation is recommended: ā as in father, ǎ the same sound shorter, è like a in fate, è as in set, i as in machine, i as in sit, ō as in hole, ŏ as in nor, ū as in rude, u as in put; j like y in year, c and g like Greek x and Y.

Instructors are requested to teach their pupils to pronounce Greek with the Greek Accents, and with the so-called Continental sound of the vowels and diphthongs; for example, giving a the sound of a in father, ʼn that of a in fate, i that of i in machine, ɛ that of ei in height, ov that of oo in moon, au that of ou in house.

MATHEMATICS.

η

In Arithmetic, including the Metric System of Weights and Measures,
The elements of Algebra, as far as through Quadratic Equations.

Elementary Plane Geometry, including so much as is contained in the first XIII. Chapters of Professor Peirce's Treatise.

And (after 1870) in the use of Logarithms.

HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY.

In the elements of Physical Geography.

In Ancient and Modern Geography.

In the historical and geographical notices found in the required Greek and Latin text-books.

And in Smith's Smaller History of Greece, or Sewell's History of Greece.

ENGLISH.

Students are also required to be examined, as early as possible after their admission, in reading English. Prizes will be awarded for excellence. For 1870, students may prepare themselves in Craik's English of Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar, or in Milton's Comus. Attention to Derivations and Critical Analysis is recommended.

Students are advised to pursue an elementary Course in Mechanics before entering College.

A set of recent Examination Papers will be sent to any Teacher, on application to the President's Secretary.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

[The following "answers" have been sent us by one of the Contributing Editors. We agree with him in the opinion that a department of this kind might be made very useful.]

"SCHOOL.”—I shall be charitable enough to suppose that your teacher did not intend to deceive the committee, but that he thought the recitation in geography would be more interesting than the writing. It is not wise for any teacher to change his regular order of exercises because there is company in ; yet, I have had a lady turn to me when I was visiting her school, and say, “What would you like to hear?" indicating a readiness to take up any branch to please me. With the committee, such a question should generally be asked; but before casual visitors the programme should be followed. Had your teacher said, "We usually devote the next half-hour to writing, but perhaps you would prefer some other exercise," then the pupils would not have thought that the teacher desired to "show off" in his favorite branch; nor would the committee, if he should learn the facts, think that the teacher had deceived him in order to keep out of sight badly written or untidily kept copy-books.

"X. Y. Z."— The lack of interest which your pupils indicate in respect to their studies may arise from several causes, but judging from some suggestive expressions in your letter, I am led to believe that the predominant reason in your case is, that you do not bring your personal presence to bear as directly or forcibly upon them as you might. Let the teacher be the teacher, not the text-book the teacher. If the eyes of the instructor, or rather school-keeper, are held close to the text-book, and one question after another is doled out mechanically to the pupils, the fore-finger of the right hand tracing out the printed answer, which the scholar is trying to say, then no wonder the drones predominate. Yesterday morning I heard a clergyman read his sermon; heard, no, no, dozed while he did it, and now, do not know a word of it. At evening, I heard another, but how different. The man and the subject were both alive, and every eye was closely fixed upon the speaker. There will be no difficulty in remembering that discourse. A teacher can make any study interesting, provided he is freshly posted upon it, and is personally prominent in imparting the subject. It is terribly easy to be a lazy teacher, and to loll about in a softcushioned chair, hearing recitations; but quite a different thing to stand wide awake before the scholars, bound that even the dullest shall know, and shall be able to express his knowledge; turning to the black-board and illustrating; watching the first wavering of attention and regaining it, in a word, exhibiting Webster's qualities of the perfect orator, " Action, action, godlike action."

MEMORY.. "Yes, by all means. That teaching which totally disregards the memorizing of clear, concise, and comprehensive rules, after the principles upon which they are based are fully understood, will ultimately prove loose and defective. During the investigation of a mathematical principle, for example, the mind of the learner should be drawn out to original expressions of the laws involved; but after the substance of the right answer has thus been presented, the exact

technical form in which it is given in the text-book or by the teacher should be perfectly acquired.

One of the complaints which we have heard from some Normal graduates has been, that while they were able to make rules to apply to each class of arithmetical examples, their Normal training had not fixed formulæ so fully in their minds that they would recur instantly when wanted. They must go through a sum, and make a rule first by a protracted course of reasoning, and much time would be taken for reasoning when it is wanted for working on established rules.

M. E. H. — The surest way to gain the good-will of that unruly boy, is to make him feel that he is of some use to you. Ask him to assist you about something, and show that you place confidence in him. Visiting parents will also have its effect on a pupil. Do not go to find fault, but as a friend to visit friends. If inquired of in regard to him, tell the truth, but be sure to speak of something commendable, for no boy is so bad that you cannot find some good in him.

J. P.- No; never tell your pupils that you do not intend to use the rod. Do not let them know of your opposition to corporal punishment, for they will surely take advantage of that knowledge. Many teachers have failed by so doing. Punish as little as possible, but when you are obliged to resort to that, do it effectually.

Several inquiries are left over to be answered in our next. Any one desiring information upon points connected with Education is hereby invited to send his questions to the Editor.

BOOK NOTICES.

THE MODEL SPEAKER. By Philip Lawrence. Philadelphia: Eldredge and Brother.

A book of 400 pages, containing over 200 selections. It has but six or seven pages of introductory matter, but what is given is judicious and to the point. The selections are admirable, embracing the standard declamatory pieces, and fine extracts from modern writers. It is very handsomely printed on tinted paper, neatly and substantially bound. The books issued by Messrs. Eldredge & Brother are creditable to their judgment and good taste.

READING AND ELOCUTION. By Mrs. Anna T. Randall. New York: Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman & Co.

About the same size, and mostly upon the same plan as the above. Greater prominence, however, is given to elocutionary exercises. The introduction covers about forty pages, relating to Orthoepy, Quality of Voice, Force, Melody, Gesture, Methods for Self-culture, Analysis and Method of Teaching, &c. This part of the book is very suggestive, and cannot fail to aid both teacher and scholar. The selections afford excellent practice, and indicate an elocutionary as well as a literary taste, on the part of the compiler.

THE YOUNG COMPOSER: A Guide to English Grammar and Composition. By Henry N. Day. New York: Charles Scribner & Co.

This volume is in the same form and style of the author's "Art of Composition," "Art of Discourse," &c. It teaches grammar upon the synthetic rather than the analytic plan. Thought is the soul of language, and different forms of expression must correspond to different forms of thought. Hence the author commences with the thought, and leads the young student by slow degrees into all the mysteries of grammar and composition. Scholars formerly studied grammar many years without ever finding out that it had any. thing to do with language, or the expression of thought. It was an outside affair in which some became expert, able to rattle off a large number of technical terms which to most had no meaning. Not so will it be with students of books of this kind.

THE HOLY GRAIL, and other Poems. By Alfred Tennyson, D. C. L., Poet Laureate. Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co.

This little volume has been welcomed by hosts of readers. It disappoints a little; but that is because the former "Idyls" led us to expect too much. It has many passages of great beauty, and that richness of expression characteristic of its author.

THE POETICAL WORKS OF ALFRED TENNYSON. New York: Harper & Brothers. This edition of Tennyson contains all his poems. It is well illustrated and printed, and is the cheapest book we have seen this many a year. In paper covers it is sold for fifty cents; in handsome cloth binding, for one dollar.

MEDORA LEIGH; a History and an Autobiography. Edited by Charles Mackay. With an introduction, and a Commentary on the charges brought against Lord Byron by Mrs. Beecher Stowe. New York: Harper & Brothers. KITTY. BY M. Betham Edwards. Library of Select Novels, No. 332. New York: Harper & Brothers.

A. WILLIAMS & Co., 135 Washington street, are the agents for the Harpers' publications. We have also received from them THE ADDRESS, delivered by Prof. Agassiz on the Centennial Anniversary of the birth of Alexander von Humboldt, with an account of the evening reception.

The celebration of this Anniversary by the Boston Society of Natural History was an exceedingly interesting occasion. Many will desire to possess in this form the noble address of Prof. Agassiz, and the record of that day's proceedings. The amount raised for the Humboldt Scholarship was $7,463.31; to which will be added the amount received from the sale of the address.

A GERMAN COURSE; adapted to use in Colleges, High Schools and Academies. By George F. Comfort, A. M., Professor of Modern Languages and Esthetics in Alleghany College, Meadville, Pa. New York: Harper & Brothers. A book of five hundred pages. The first part contains practical lessons for learning to read, write and speak the German language, somewhat on the