with practical education. We had thought, sir, that what ever strengthened the faculties, would be of use in practice.

The philosophy of grammar, is the philosophy of human lifebecause it is the relations of common things, about which language is employed, that constitutes the relations of the words of which language is composed. All grammarians and rhetoricians have remarked the profound logic involved in philosophical grammar. This logic, and this philosophy, all must understand, tacitly, at least, who would hold intercourse with their species, as rational beings. But the relations of thought, are best learned, (if this be not the only way,) by studying the relations of those sensible signs by which they are expressed; or, in other words, by the study of language. Every one must have observed, how rapidly the mind of a child is developed, when it begins to employ language as an aid to thought. But the fact, that "deaf mutes" can be taught the use of these faculties only by means of language, is decisive of the question, whether language be the main medium of cultivating thought.

This being admitted then, the question will be between the ancient and modern languages. And here, we think, there can be but little doubt, as to which ought to be preferred in the business, as a means of mental training.

If language is a diagram of thought, that language will furnish the best diagram, which is most copious and most regular in its inflections and combinations.

In a word, that language will best answer the purpose, which presents to the eye, relations of words most nearly analogous to the logical relations of the thoughts which those words express. And here, every scholar knows, that the advantages in favor of the Greek language, for instance, over any modern tongue, is in the proportion of about five to fifteen hundred.

see,

Our Arabic numbers, Mr. President, and Algebraic notation, do not furnish facilities in calculation over the clumsy expedient of the Roman numerals, X, for ten, and M, for one thousand, greater than do the regular declensions and conjugations of the Latin and Greek languages, over every modern language. Besides, in studying a sentence of our vernacular tongue, the process is analytic. We and understand the proportion, and parsing is merely ascertaining the relations of the several ideas to each other, which we determine merely by the relation of each to the whole. But in construing a sentence in a foreign language, we first ascertain, as well as we may, the relation of word to word, and then of each to the whole; that is, we proceed by synthesis, and work out the proposition or meaning of the sentence, by ascertaining the agreement of the words among themselves, before we can form any conjecture of their general relation to each other, as parts of one complete whole.

But, sir, I have a practical argument, which I value more than all the rest. I state it thus:-In Miami University, we have had an English scientific department” for ten years: a good number of the first young men of the country have pursued, in it, the regular course of instruction, given in our institution, with the exception of the dead languages, that is, Latin and Greek. Within these ten years, it has frequently happened that a number of young men of equal acquirements, and equal talents, and equal industry, have entered, at the same time, some the "English scientific department," and others the College proper.

Now, without a single exception, during this whole period, those who have taken the regular course, that is, the languages, in addition to the sciences, have made equally good progress in the sciences, as those who studied nothing but the sciences; and, in some instances have, after devoting half their time to Latin and Greek, found the other half amply sufficient to surpass their scientific neighbor, in his favorite and exclusive studies.

Such is the invigorating influence of classical studies upon the youthful mind, that one-half the time may be safely given to them without any detriment to other studies: or rather the classical scholar, other things being equal, will do as much in half the time, as his unclassical neighbor can accomplish in double the time, and with twice the effort.

Let it not be said, that the experiment has been unfairly made. It has often been repeated, and, after a course of four years, it has uniformly been found that those who devoted half that period to classical studies, have excelled, in science, those who devoted that whole period to science alone, to the neglect of the languages. And, besides all this, several instances have occurred, of young gentlemen changing their plan, after a year's trial, of the scientific course, and their commencing, in connexion with their Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, a regular course of Latin and Greek; and the result has always been favorable to their progress in science, both as to accuracy and speed, though they now devoted fully half their time to classical studies.

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IX. MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF SEVEN, TO WHOM WAS REFERRED THE PREPARATION OF A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION.

I. EDUCATION, by common consent, seems to be divided, in reference to the human constitution, into three departments, physical, intellectual, moral. In America, the intellectual predominates, the moral is less cultivated, and the physical scarcely at all. Yet, in a well balanced and healthy state of body and mind, all are indispensable. The different states of temperament and of disposition, modify the necessity for these different cultures, so that some persons are able to exist with great exercise of one part of their constitution, connected with almost total idleness of another: yet the rule is so general, that few such can be found, who do not terminate their experiments in the ruin either of body or mind. Circumstances peculiar to the first settlement of a new country, have required here but comparatively little attention to physical education. Other circumstances, peculiar to the original immigrants to America, and their immediate descendants, made moral culture a part of the general system of the people then, as particularly attached to places of instruction. All, however, that was peculiar to such a settlement, and such an immigration, is rapidly wearing away, and the necessity for the cultivation of correct affections has become necessary to the school, as well as the fireside. Indeed, the admission of these facts is now nearly universal, and would seem to indicate in these particulars, at least, a change in some of the chief departments of education.

II. There is another division in the subject of instruction, which is necessary to be made between what is to be taught, and how it is to be taught. Long experience teaches, that we can place but little reliance upon the amount taught, if it has not been learned in the right way; and this also is so gene. rally admitted, that it has become a favorite object with

many, to found institutions which shall instruct in the mode of teaching, as well as the things to be taught.

We shall here do little else than state propositions, and that, too, in nearly a naked form.

1. In reference to physical education, there is something in the power of the teacher, as well as the parent.

2. What is in the power of the teacher, relates to air and exercise, chiefly.

3. Air, breathed by pupils, as well as all others, should be pure, free, and temperate.

4. For this purpose, the school room should be neither very small, nor crowded.

5. It should be surrounded by open ground.

6. It should have a free circulation of air in summer, and be moderately heated in winter. In the country, there may be too much exposure in the winter, but in towns, over-heating is every where the prevailing error.

7. As action is a fundamental law of nature, so the exercise of the body is the only counter agent we have for the evils occasioned by studious habits.

8. Play, and the free and universal use of the limbs is natural to children, and it is habit and discipline only that restrains them from it; hence, when the hours of study are over, they should indulge in this activity of body, and renew their strength for coming exertions.

9. The ground about the school house should, therefore, be extensive enough to permit free, active sports, without injury to others.

10. Boys should rather be encouraged to play, than to study in the hours of intermission.

11. They should be encouraged to engage in active sports of all kinds, rather than sedantry amusements; and if it were possible to learn some useful handicraft; their exercise should not be one which exercises only one portion of the body.

12. In these respects, the teacher can exercise some direct control; but they are not the only ones; by advice and enquiry, he can exercise not a little influence over another not less important department of physical education.