consider this to be a very subordinate object. It has not been a subject of complaint that the duties of the teachers were too arduous for their strength and compensation; and the design of relieving them, was merely that the exertions which were saved to them, might be directed to better effect than at present; and this, we are abundantly satisfied, is the fact on our system. The teacher is, indeed, constantly and arduously occupied, but far less irksomely and more effectually. The exertions which were formerly wasted in unavailing attempts to preserve discipline, have now a more direct and influential bearing on the order and tuition of the school."

"Order and discipline-which form the second object proposed, are attained, to a very gratifying degree; punishments are obviously far more rare, in the monitorial, than in the other schools; and we are not without hope, that a further continuance and improvement of the plan, would banish severity entirely.

"The increased animation and interest imparted to the pupils by this system, are unquestionable-this is an invariable fact, in the worst, as well as the best of these schools, and it requires ten minutes presence only of the most sceptical observer in one of them, at any period, as usually conducted, to be convinced of it.

"We are equally satisfied with the result of this system, in respect to rapidity of tuition; the most important of the improvements contemplated. A system which gives constant and almost involuntary action to all the pupils, upon every branch of their studies, must, of necessity, communicate to them materials of the memory, in greater number and frequency than could be effected, when the reception of them depended on their own reluctant exertions, and the uniform testimony of the teachers, and of our own observations, only confirm our expectations on this head. But a question here arises, whether the solidity of the attainments, or in other words, whether the accuracy and perfection with which the various exercises are fixed on the memories of the pupils, are proportioned to the celerity of acquisition, or whether the former is sacrificed to the latter.

"If the pupils on the common system were really engaged in study, when not in examination, and were found to be desirous of employing all their time, diligently in their own improvement, this question of the accuracy of their acquirements would be a more serious one; and even then, would be but a doubtful question. But while the fact obviously is, that the greater part of the children in our schools, spend in idleness and play most of the time allotted to them for study, we cannot perceive how they are enabled by this conduct to imbibe the various branches of their education, with greater precision and permanency, than by an active operation in the school, which compels their participation. The ques tion, however, is to be decided like all others, by observation; and so far as ours have extended, we have not perceived any defect in the thoroughness with which exercises are performed by pupils, which we could trace to our plan. In regard to reading and recitation, two very important branches, the advantage of perfection is decidedly on the side of the Monitorial system.

"We learn from a member of the Standing Committee a fact, which throws some light on this subject. He examined, last September, a school in district No. 1, where the Monitorial system, on our plan, is in operation. The teacher had been but a short time elected. She received the school in a low state; the two first classes which had received their incipient instruction on the common system, were still at the time of examination, inferior in their acquirements to the average of other scholars of the same classes in the district, while the two lower classes which had been educated by herself entirely on our system, exhibited a degree of perfection very rarely seen in pupils of that standing. think this fact serves as much as any single instance can do, to indicate the influence, a complete tuition through all the classes will have on the ultimate perfection of the pupils.

"The second objection, (the incompetency of monitors) has, in one instance, been realized, and has occasioned some embarrassment. This has not, however, arisen from the youth of the children generally; for there are some pupils under six years of age, who are quite competent to the office, and in the majority of the schools of the city, there are enough of qualified pupils in the first classes, for all the purposes of the system; but it is owing to the inequality of the schools in this respect-for there are some, in which there is scarcely any first class; while in others, nearly one third of the school is advanced to that grade. In the seven schools selected by us, without any consideration of this circumstance, there was only one (as has been stated) where the experiment was defeated, or even obstructed by the incapacity of the monitors. The fullest force of this objection, would only, therefore, go to prove, that the system is inapplicable to some of the schools, and those we believe to be few; while it would have no bearing on the greater number. But the example of Miss Quincy's school will serve to show, that even where there are no competent monitors for the object of instruction, a partial application of the plan may be made with advantage.

"With regard to the novelty and complexity of the plan, we have found it to be an objection which has vanished upon trial. There is no teacher who has yet adopted it, who has not found it perfectly easy and practicable in every part, even when deterred by its appearance at first; nor do we believe there is any teacher in the city, who is at all competent to be such, who would not be familiar with its execution in less than a month. The explanations' to be given or required on a 'story' is the only part of a plan which has given any embarrassment to any instructor; and this has been soon relieved, while on the other hand, some have managed this point in an ingenious and highly interesting manner, and one which we think pecul.arly beneficial to the children. "But we will go further, than simply to deny this objection; and assert, that the plan is more useful to a dull, than an able instructor; as it is minute in its detail, and leaves less to the judgment of the teacher, than the common system. An instructor who follows its provisions exactly, could not but teach her pupils, whether her own capacity is great or small. We have noticed a greater and more perceptible improvement in schools of ordinary, than those of higher character, and hence we infer that a general introduction of the system would tend to

the equalization of the schools, which has always been a desideratum with the Board."

We have thus endeavoured to throw before our readers the evidences which we find in the publications before us of the advantages to be expected from the introduction of the new system and the erection of High Schools (to use the fashionable appellation) in towns, and wherever a sufficient population may be found to justify the attempt. An extension of the means of obtaining for our youth a sound and liberal education, must be one of the objects which lie nearest the heart of every patriot; for, in the language of the New-York Report-"Unless we can diffuse, very extensively, among the rising generation, a knowledge of the ordinary details of practical science, they will be unfitted for public trust. Our free governments require a sober, well-instructed, and virtuous population, furnished with a knowledge and capacity for business, and educated in the strict discipline of well organized schools. All our hopes and wishes rest on this foundation. Without this controlling principle, popular government is liable to be perverted, and to become formidable by its abuses, to the safety and happiness of the people."

We cannot dismiss this subject without indulging the animating hope, that the time is not distant when the statistical annals of every State in the Union will exhibit, with becoming emulation, the numbers of its children engaged in the progressive course of a useful and appropriate education :—and that the highest ambition, both of rulers and people, will be to manifest their gratitude to that Providence which has marked our nation and country with so many signal favours, by transmitting to their posterity the blessings of a free government, in combination with the means by which alone their liberties can be amply secured and rationally enjoyed.

ART. IX.-A Selection in Prose and Poetry, from the Miscellaneous Writings of the late WILLIAM CRAFTS. To which is prefixed a Memoir of his Life. 8vo. Charleston. C. C. Sebring, and J. S. Burges. 1828.

WE have read through this little volume with a melancholy interest. Having been intimately acquainted with Mr. Crafts,

we can add our testimony to that of his biographer, in favour of the amiableness of his disposition, and the gentleness and suavity of his manners, which were such as to disarm even the hostility which his imprudencies occasionally excited, and to awaken in this community a very general feeling of regret, we might almost say, of affectionate sorrow for his premature death. We remember what he was, and what he was expected to become-under what favourable auspices he entered upon life-admired even to idolatry for his talents and accomplishments-honoured with the confidence of the virtuous, and the attentions of the fashionable and the gayand seeming to have, at his command, whatever could gratify the fondest ambition of an aspiring young man. It is, at all times, painful to reflect upon the disappointment of such hopes, but there is an air of pensive sadness-a tone of settled, though subdued melancholy, and of meek resignation under misfortune-pervading some of his later Essays, which imparts to them a still deeper interest of the same kind, whilst it presents the character of Mr. Crafts to us, we confess, in a new light. We had always given him credit for an irrepressible buoyancy of spirit, and a self-complacency which defeat and disappointment never seriously disturbed-but the Essays alluded to are too much "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought," to have been the effusions of so light a heart.

These "Miscellaneous Works" are preceded by a well written and interesting biographical memoir of their author, from the hand of a literary friend. It appears, from this sketch, that Mr. Crafts was born in January, 1787, and was consequently in his fortieth year, when he died at Lebanon, in September, 1826. After being prepared for college, as boys generally are in this country, he was admitted in the autumn of 1802, into the Sophomore class of Harvard University. We are told by his biographer, that "he has retained to the present day, within those walls, a sort of traditionary reputation as one of the most brilliant Belles Lettres scholars who ever passed through them." His attention, at the same time, to the regular exercises of the institution, entitled him to the highest rank, as (what is called,) a general scholar. We should form rather an exalted idea of his ambition and his assiduity, if we believed with the author of the memoir, that in addition to the ordinary studies of his classes, he became a "tolerable proficient in the Hebrew." But we were not before aware of the fact, and we doubt extremely whether his knowledge of that language ever went beyond a mere smattering. Mr. Crafts' own notion, that the neglect with which the Hebrew was generally treated at Cambridge,

was as unjust as "the treatment a Jew receives from a Christian," although it proves him to be free from the prejudice, is not absolutely decisive as to his own conduct. We are informed, however, that

"The high collegiate reputation of Mr. Crafts must principally have depended on his viva voce qualifications-such as his readiness at every exercise of memory, his happy and elegant construction of the languages, and his beautiful declamation. It may appear somewhat remarkable, that his admirable talent at English composition had not yet proportionally developed itself. On inspecting his college themes, and other contemporaneous exercises, we could find not one, of a precocious character, not one, from which his subsequent eminence as a writer would have been predicted, or which we could submit to the reader as a worthy and kindred gem in the present crown of his fame. They are all, indeed, correct and respectable, and written with praise-worthy care; nor had William Crafts, the collegian, cause to be ashamed of them. But still they never rise above the mark of a good college theme. He even adopted, for his English oration at the Major Exhibition, the ominous subject of Fancy, which he treated, sometimes in a prosaic, and sometimes in a puerile style, that must have owed very much to his fine delivery for whatever enthusiastic reception it met from the audience. It would seem as if the hand of time had not yet stretched to the requisite point, even for some prelusive notes, that particular chord of his forming genius, which, after a very few years, was to throw off sounds that should enchant and instruct every hearer. The sphere, moreover, in which he now moved, was comparatively contracted. His intellect was one of those that rise with circumstances, and perhaps, we may add with regret, that sink them too. When transferred from the walls of the seminary, when starting on the labours and hopes of a noble and arduous profession, when the eyes of a community, or rather of a country, were directed, or to be drawn towards him, he was still found equal to the highest demand of favouring circumstances, in achieving, as he at that time did, some of the splendid productions which open the ensuing selections from his writings.

Much of these inspiring influences his sanguine mind already seems to have caught from without, when he arrived at the close of his college life, and felt himself approaching the responsibilities, trials and honours that awaited him in the field of public society. His Latin Oration, at the taking of his first degree, evidently exhibits a remarkable move in the progress of his powers. Happy in the choice and management of his subject, manly in his tone throughout, and nearly ripened in those external graces which were peculiarly his own, he now made an impression on his audience, and through them on the public, sufficient to satisfy any young man at his entrance into life. We should probably have given this oration a place in the selection, much as every educated reader would demur at the thought of having one's commencement exercises thus exposed, and small as might be the number of any readers who would feel interested in a Latin composition; but preVOL. I.-NO. 2. 64