prayers. But the thought is not much heeded when several hundred boys or girls are crowded into one school-room.

And this makes the teacher's labor severe. I doubt there being any busy hour, in any counting-house or bank, which taxes the mind in any degree to be compared with the tax which this constant care, while teaching, imposes.

If I mistake not, a change demanded is to make the schools smaller, and at the same time preserve or even improve the present classification.

We find vices and virtues in both extremes; but the vices of the upper classes have in some degree a dazzling aspect, whereas the vices of the lower classes appear in all their deformity, and offend more deeply the moral sense of the beholder. The difference is in the appearance, not in the reality. A vice which is common to both, is, it must be acknowledged, a far greater vice in a rich, well-bred, and well-informed man, than in one who is ignorant, and in want of food. With the former, it is an act of choice, with the last of necessity. Let us then contemn vice wherever we find it, especially in a depraved aristocracy, and let us not pronounce judgment upon men, as distinguished into two classes, but upon the individual man. The great, if they were the people, would indulge in plebeian vices; and the people would adopt the vices of the great, were they sharing in their distinctions. The balance is even between them; we must not poise the scales. I belong to the party who do not despise their inferiors in the social scale, whilst they respect those above them; whose wish, be it a dream or not, is to raise all men, without regard to the place they hold in the arbitrary hierarchies of politics, to the same degree of knowledge, of liberty, and of moral perfection.

*

LAMARTINE.

D'Alembert congratulated a young man very coldly, who brought him the solution of a problem. "I have done this to have a seat in the academy," said the young man. 66 Sir," answered D'Alembert, "with such motives, you will never earn one. Science must be loved for its own sake, and not for the advantages to be derived. No other principle will enable a man to make true progress."

DICKINSON PRINTING HOUSE,

DAMRELL & MOORE, Publishers, No. 26 Washington Street,

To whom all letters should be addressed. TERMS-One Dollar per annum in advance, or One Dollar and Fifty Cents at the end of the year. Twenty-five per cent. allowed to agents who procure five subscribers, and all payments by them to be made in advance.

REMARKS ON SCHOOL GOVERNMENT.

ALTHOUGH this branch of the art of education is scarcely inferior in importance to that of instruction, it has, as yet, received far less attention, and is practised with less skill and success. Where you have to go one mile to find one who instructs well, will have to go ten to find one who governs well. How frequently do we hear the remark, that such a teacher instructs well enough, but is no disciplinarian, and how seldom the

you

reverse.

Besides, it is well known to those who have been behind the scenes, that what is assumed to be the perfection of government, is sometimes, of all, the most objectionable, and but just one grade above pure anarchy. I mean that which is so exceedingly fair to the sight, where children are made to sit like statues, to wink in concert, and to breathe by rule. It begins in what is external, and ends in what is external. It is only skin deep. It degrades the school into a puppet-show for the amusement of admiring spectators, and is decidedly unfavorable to the cultivation of a proper self-respect, either in the governor or the governed. It is a pity that such government should be tolerated any where, it is a greater pity that it should be approved and commended. Nevertheless, it must be confessed, that it is still in good repute, in many quarters, and bids fair to hold its ground for some time. The truth is, it passes for a genuine article, the true ware, and hence is in great requisition; whereas, it is only the semblance of the true ware, and like all other wares, it will probably be furnished for the market, in quantities, proportioned in some degree to the demand for it.

No intelligent and honest teacher, however, dissipates his strength and abilities on such trifles, voluntarily. He does it, if he does it at all, contrary to the dictates of his better judgment, in obedience to the call of public opinion, that he may not seem to be behind the times. This showy style of discipline is one of the popular educational hobbies. It is the easiest in the world to manage, and the surest to carry the rider into the sunny climes of favor. You can take up scarcely a report on schools, but you shall find it lauded as the perfection of government. In one which we happened to be perusing, the other day, the school which headed the list on government, was said to approach the precision of military discipline, and that was its crowning excellence.

Such government may be popular, but it cannot be good. It may bear off the palm to-day, but when weighed in the balance of wisdom, against that which aims above all things to set the heart right, and sow good seeds, to be ripened in manhood, it will be found wanting. The most important work in education, as well as in architecture, does not at once reveal itself to the casual observer.

Says an old writer, "Present appearances and vulgar conceit ordinarily impose upon our fancies, disguising things with a deceitful varnish, and representing those that are vainest, with the greatest advantage; whilst the noblest objects, being of a more subtile and spiritual nature, like fairest jewels enclosed in a homely box, avoid the notice of gross sense, and pass undiscerned by us. But the light of wisdom, as it unmasks specious imposture, and bereaves it of its false colors, so it penetrates into the retirement of true excellency, and reveals its genuine lustre."

Now it is not order that we would condemn, but this false standard of government so prevalent, which does not look beyond the present and the external, and does not inquire into the means used, provided they are not unpleasant. Suppose the physician, by administering palliatives and stimulants, to give to his patient, in the eye of the inexperienced, the appearance of returning health, while their effect is to hasten dissolution. What would the faculty say? Would they commend such practice as sound and judicious, or would they prescribe remedies of a more radical nature, going to the seat of the disease, and tending to aid nature in removing it, though at the cost of present pain and inconvenience?

The wisdom of government is chiefly displayed in the judicious adaptation of means to right ends, suiting them to the circumstances of the case; and the true test by which its excellence is to be tried, is its effects upon character. Like every

thing else, it should be judged, not by its appearances, but by its fruits, by its fruits, not of to-day, but in the long run.

But much need not be said concerning the standard of school government, because it does not seem to be very definitely settled anywhere. Indeed, there does not seem to be much, if any thing settled at present in regard to it, practically, except that it is in an altogether unsettled state. Perhaps it is in what geologists would term the transition state, the old foundations having been broken up, and no new one having been supplied in their place. And before this consummation is realized, a great deal must be said on the subject, a great many experiments tried, and a great many failures experienced. These processes are now in progress, and as sure as truth is stronger than error, something will be gained. Thus far, the burden of what has been said and written upon the subject, has related chiefly to one or two of the motives to be appealed to in government. We have, it is true, several valuable, practical essays upon the methods and means of discipline, but no such thing as a scientific treatise. Indeed, the sciences upon which it must be founded, or from the principles of which it must mainly be deduced, namely, the science of Human Nature, and Ethology, or the science of the formation of character, yet remain to be constructed. But till it is settled upon a philosophical foundation, deduced from an accurate and comprehensive knowledge of the principles of human nature, it will be constantly fluctuating between hostile and conflicting theories, and be blown about by every wind of doctrine. It will vary with the varying fashions and prejudices of the day, now taking one form to suit the views of this individual or community, and now assuming another to please the fancy of that one. To-day, emulation and the rod will be discarded as the relics of a barbarous age, and to-morrow re-instated and bid to do their work. Such instability is about as fatal to all the good fruits of a wise government, as the daily plucking up of a plant would be, to its healthy growth.

It is possible that some individuals, especially in that class who labor under the apprehension that wisdom will die with them, may be found, to scout the idea of a science of school government, from which the rules of the art may be drawn. If any such there be, they will triumphantly point you to experience, as the only source of knowledge in regard to this

art.

We would not undervalue experience; it is, without doubt, the great school of wisdom, though a dear one. But have we no knowledge that is useful, and practical, except that which we have received through the one channel of personal experience? Do we close our eyes against the light of recorded wisdom? Do we turn a deaf ear to the voice of those who have preceded

us? If so, our stock of knowledge is not very ample, and need excite no man's envy. There is such a thing as being wise in one's own eyes without being so in reality. To be truly wise, one has need to make use of the experience of others, as well as profit by his own.

There is a difference between experience and the routine of practice. Experience consists of a series of observations and experiments, with a view to ascertain facts; and it teaches, if it teaches anything, how effects are produced, and by what causes. All such knowledge of any practical value, may be reduced to propositions, and stated in general terms, and thus take the form of science. By this process, the sciences are to be constructed upon which school government is to be erected. There is no reason why school government should not be founded upon a scientific basis, as well as State Government. When we have traced effects back to their causes, under the same conditions, we may produce the same effects. Thus every process by which effects are produced by known causes, may be conducted on scientific principles. The whole operation of school government consists in such processes, and is, therefore, susceptible of a scientific form. The fact that hitherto it has wanted such a foundation, accounts, in some measure, for the many failures in this branch of education. "The man of scientific principles carries a light about with him which serves to illustrate every thing."

There is an evil quite generally experienced in the management of schools, growing out of the pernicious error prevalent upon this subject, that since the genius of our institutions is essentially democratic, therefore the government of schools should be conducted on the same principle. If the people of this country glory in any thing, it is in their individual sovereignty. The sentiment of loyalty, that sacred reverence for authority, that dignified obedience, that "subordination of the heart," which tempers the fierceness of pride, makes submission a grateful duty, and renders honor to whom honor is due, has no existence among us, and we know the meaning of the term only as we gather it from the pages of history and romance. This most amiable grace of social life, which has been said to cherish the flame of freedom even in servitude, was renounced by our fathers together with the kingly crown. This is a jewel I could wish that they had retained. But as a natural consequence, when the nation revolted against the evils and absurdities of monarchy, they swept away with them some things which might with advantage have been retained. It was not to be expected that in the first moments of emancipation, the spirit of reform should stop at the precise boundary which more mature reflection would have prescribed. Repudiating