actual working of existing laws, by visiting one or more schools in every town, and conferring with teachers and school committees, as the basis of all his operations. To prepare the public mind for a more efficient system, he resorted to every agency within his reach to disseminate in. formation as to existing defects and desirable remedies, by conversation, and by familiar and practical lectures, in every town in the state; by preparing and circulating" Educational Tracts" in every family; by aiding districts and committees in the construction of school houses and the employment of well qualified teachers, that he might be able to point to at least one model school house and one model school in each county, and as early as possible in each town; by aiding lyceums in procuring lectures on the subject of education; by enlisting clergymen of different denominations to preach on the subject; by securing the sympathy and co-operation ef teachers in the advancement of a work which must carry along with it their individual and professional advancement; and finally, as the result of the whole, by preparing a bill for a public act respecting common schools.

Mr. Mann has recently afforded the teachers at four different points in Massachusetts an opportunity to profit by similar exercises; and if those who attended have gone away with the same kind feelings towards each other, and the same glowing interest in the whole cause of school improvement, which pervaded the Rhode Island institutes, then has a great work been done for our state.

The friends of education should become better acquainted with this new agency for advancing the qualifications for teachers. As a contribution to the object, I sond you herewith an article from the Journal of the Rhode Island Institute, which presents, in a condensed form, the origin and history of this system of instruction. Let the good work which Rhode Island has begun, and which she is now carrying forward so successfully, be continued as vigorously and happily for a few years more, and she may boast of a system of common schools not surpassed by any other state in the Union. The smallness of the state, the gathering of the population into villages, the fact that so much of the wealth of the state is employed actively, and After being one year before the people, this above all, the judicious beginning and prosecu bill was passed in both branches of the legislation of the work by practical agencies, seem to ture with scarcely a dissenting voice, although guarantee great and immediate results. it involves the raising of money by tax in towns which had never before voted a dollar for edu cational purposes, and provide for a thorough supervision of the schools by district, town, county, and state officers.

Here then is a state which has completely reorganized its system of public schools in less than two years, and incorporated with it the best features of the systems of other states. During this period, more than five hundred addresses have been delivered in the different towns, and nearly one-sixth of the school-houses have been either rebuilt or remodeled. Town, county, and state associations of teachers and friends of education, have been formed, which have held more meetings in two years than the same number of similar institutions in Massachusetts have held in five. The novel feature of an itinerating at school agency, operating directty upon the several schools, has here wrought out its most happy results.

An Educational Tract" has gone into every family in the state that takes an almanac, and a "Library of Education" hhs been established in every town, for the use of teachers and school committees, to say nothing of the great variety of books and pamphlets, relating to the subject of popular instruction, which have been widely disseminated among all classes of citizens.

The superintendent has just closed a series of "teachers' institutes," throunh which a large amount of practicol knowledge has been impart. ed to more than half the teachers employed in the winter schools; and what is still better a zeal for improvement as individuals, and as a profession, has been inspired, which must accomplish still greater results. I have enjoyed the privilege of being present at two of these institutes, and have formed a very high estimate of their utility. I have attended, at different times, a variety of teachers' conventions and associations, but justice requires me to say that I never before received so much valuabl einstrucsion on the subject of teaching, in the same space of time.

Andover, Dec. 12, 1845.

W. H. W.

SENATOR PRESTON ON EDUCATION. Hon. WM. C. PRESTON, the illustrious ex-Senator of the United States from South Carolina, was inaugurated as President of the College of South Carolina on the 5th inst. and delivered an address to the students, so admirable that we are impelled to copy those portions of it which have no personal or special bearing. They are as follows:

"The immediate and ostensible object of our association is the pursuit of learning, and this might seem to be our sole purpose; but, in truth, learning is only a means to the great end we have in view. It is an instrument which is prepared and fashioned here, with some instruction as to the mode of using it. It is bnt the armor, but a part of the armor to be worn in the battle field of life for the achievement of honorable and glorious victories, for the triumph of truth over error, of virtue over vice, of right over wrong. And although I cherish the conviction that there is a natural and intimate connection between knowledge and virtue, yet I know that they are not inseparable. There have been melancholy instances of great intellectual powers, united to acquisitions from the whole circle of learning, without a corresponding moral elevation. These, however, I regard as anomalies; I rejoice to believe that in the general order of Providence, whatever enlarges and exalts the intellect promotes, purifies, and invigorates the virtues of the heart. If I did not believe in such a connexion, I would abandon myself to indolence and despair. But the noble and distinctive faculties of man, whose combina. tion constitutes his dignity and glory, are harmonized by his Creator into a concerted action for a common purpose. Whatever enlightens the mind improves the heart; as the sun, which illumines the atmosphere, warms the earth, and although it may happen that his beams are reflected from fields of ice, yet his general mission is to call

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Let him remember the rewards of faithful teaching.

their provisions in detail, are duly complied with, few important benefits can be expected. Our Permit me to mention some of them. present school system judiciously provides the needful facilities, by which ALL the children of Without stopping to speak of the fame or forthe state may be properly educated; but experi- tune which one may win by teaching, I will say, ence has shown us most clearly, that these facili-that a love for teaching, which is an essential reties are insufficient, without the aid of some exe-quisite in a teacher, will be gratified, and a re. cutive, supervising power. This supervision is now wisely provided by law, in the appointment of Town and County Superintendents.

ward will be derived from the pleasure of teaching. And while imparting knowledge, he will receive more than he imparts. Teaching certainly affords an extraordinary opportunity for moral and intellectual self improvement.

In self-government particularly, the teacher will find a reward; as all men love to exercise author. ity; and to the good, but few things are more pleasing than the exercise of self-authority.

This the teacher may practise every day; and will he not be richly rewarded, if he can realize a constant growth in patience, firmness, perseverance and efficiency?

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We may consider the pleasure enjoyed in witnessing the progress of pupils, as another reward.

Any man who has been conversant with the common schools of this state, for any considerable period previous to the commencement of stated visitations by these officers, can hardly entertain a doubt, as to the importance of the office and the necessity of its continuance. My own observation has convinced me, that greater edu. cational improvements have actually been made since the appointment of County Superintendents, than had been, during the last twenty, if not thirty years previous to that time. Concerning this matter, especially, I think I can speak with some degree of understanding, having been conversant with the condition of primary schools The farmer derives great satisfaction from seeing as an Inspector, from the enactment of the law the growth of his young animals, a lady from requiring such a board, till its repeal, for the sub-witnessing the improvement of her choice flowstitution of one, vesting the power of inspection ers; and the artist, in beholding the completion in a county officer, whose services were to be of his painting or statue, enjoys a HEARTFELT DEwholly devoted to that business. All must admit, LIGHT-delight so absorbing as to render him, that much has been done, during the last four at times, too indifferent in regard to the future. years. School houses have been constructed bet-Indeed, one must be an artist, if he would know ter, both for comfort and convenience. The cha-HIS pleasures and rewards; and one must be a rácter and discipline of our schools, and the modes teacher in order to enjoy the happiness of seeing of instructing, have undergone valuable changes. a physical growth more noble than that of animals; The qualifications of teachers have been greatly a mental developement more beautiful than that of improved; more talent has been enlisted, and the the flowers; and the expansion of images and imamount of knowledge, ordinarily imparted in a pressions more pleasing and enduring than any given time, has been more than doubled. made upon canvass or marble.

These are valuable considerations connected As another reward, I may notice, the opportuniwith the prosperity of our primary schools, and ty to inculcate good sentiments-sentiments which the good of the rising generation. And these may influence whole nations, for ages to come; results have, in the main, been brought about and thus the teacher's life will be prolonged; for through the agency of County and Town Super-I think a man may be said to live, as long as his sentiments continue to influence others. intendents, acting in their official capacity.

em.

Legislative enactments, accompanied with pub- The grateful remembrance of pupils, constilic munificence, my now to have embraced all tutes a reward. The proof of this proposition is the assential parts of a well digested school sys- found in our own experience. We feel, that the Little more, therefore in my judgment, re-faithful teacher merits our grateful remembrance; mains to secure the full benefits of a gool com- and, that, next to our parents, he will have a place mon school education to the present and each suc- in the memory of childhood's brightest hours. ceeding generation, than a joint and efficient cooperation on the part of County and Town Superintendents, sustained by the patrons of schools, and the friends ot education generally.

The faithful teacher seeks to promote the present and future happiness of those around him. He labors for his country and for the world. Let him be encouraged by the thought, that the truly Let all these unite their eff 3 under our exist. great and the good of all age ave preferred the ing organization, and the literary character of our same employment; that, a Washington fought for state may be elevated to a commanding position.liberty; a Howard sought to relieve and restore Means are now adequate to the end, and the attainment of the end, involves the best interests of the people individually and collectively. Yours respectfully,

S. TOWN.

For the District School Journal. THE REWARDS OF FAITHFUL TEACHING.

BY C. HOLLY.

After obtaining all the aid which the experience and instructions of others may afford you, teaching will yet be hard work; it will still be attended with many difficulties and sacrifices, and even the faithful teacher may be wearied or discouraged.

the destitute and the depraved; a Paul devoted his talents and his life to the preaching of the gospel; and, that, the teacher of a common school may also teach and practice patriotism, benevolence and religious truth.

The faithful teacher will be honored and rewarded by giving to his country educated mind. Though unable to enrich his people by pecuniary gifts, or the spoils of nations, he may elevate and ennoble them by cultivating mind, and well cultivated mind is the foundation of public as well as private prosperity, and the pillar of empire.

Faithful teaching is calculated to prevent much poverty, disease and crime. The amount of these evils is so great, that we cannot, dare not, estimate it. If any one doubts this let him supply

the wants of the beggar, and of those who prefer suffering to charity; let him see the diseased and their attendants; let him view the Hospitals, Alms Houses, Prisons and courts of justice; and let him remember, that there is mental poverty as well as pecuniary, moral as well as physical disease, and much hidden as well as open crime. These evils, so momentous here, are not confined in their results, to this world; but in another they will be co-existent with the soul, and terrible as the just and eternal wrath of the Almighty.

Men often wish for money with which to relieve destitute old age or dependent childhood. When we wait and watch by a sick friend, witnessing his agony, how strong the desire to relieve him. And who has entered the dark, cold and narrow prison cell, with its locks and chains, its iron door and walls of stone; and has there witnessed the wretched convict, lost to himself, his friends and the world, denied the privileges of a freeman, dead, as it were, yet condemned to a hopeless life or an ignominious death-who has seen all this without a feeling of the deepest anguish ?

a part of his reward, an opportunity of imparting and acquiring knowledge; of making self-improvement; of exercising self-government; of witnessing the progress of his pupils; of communicating enduring influences; of enjoying the grateful remembrance of pupils; he is permitted to enrich his nation by cultivating mind; and to prevent much poverty, disease and crime, as well as confer the means of much real pleasure. These are some of the rewards of faithful teaching. But it is a great thing to be a consistent and faithful teacher; and he who would be consistent and faithful must seek the grace and wisdom that cometh from above.

State Normal School, March 1846.

FIFTEEN MINUTES TO SPARE.

In passing from one engagement to another, during the day, there are often small portions of time for which many make no special provision, aud so lose them entirely. A good economist, however, of time, which is money, and to many their only capital, will always have something to Put together, they make Such is the fate, of not one only, but of thou. fill up these spaces. sands. These calamities are public, alas! with days, and months, and years, and are worth saving. these we are too familiar. Of secret want, and Some persons are so constituted, that it is next to crime and wretchedness, we have less knowledge. impossible for them to be systematic, methodical, Now, how great would be the happiness of him and steadily and continuously diligent. They can that could supply the destitute and heal the dis-work only by fits and starts; and they work best eased; who could restore the criminal to his when the spirit moves them, compensating, by the earnestness and energy with which they labor, friends and to society, giving him a quiet conscience, and an unsullied reputation; who could for the seasons during which they loaf or lounge. mitigate the private as well as the public ills of Such gentlemen of genius are, however rare. life. And may not one be as happy in preventing members of this class, have in fact, no right to be good many lazy fellows who imagine themseves as in curing the ills? Is it not far better to pre-ranked with them, and deserve to be talked to, vent than to cure? Well, this is what the faithful teacher will aim to do.

Again, the faithful teacher is rewarded in wit-, nessing the happiness which others enjoy through his instrumentality. In estimating this reward we must take into account both parents and pupils; we must remember the strength of parental affection, and consider that many parents have no lands, or treasures, and their children being their only treasures, are prized accordingly. Many a poor woman struggles on for the sake of her little

ones;

she hopes their lot may be higher and brighter than her own. And when she beholds their progress in knowledge is she not happy? Is she not grateful too? Who can estimate maternal love?

A

first, for their idleness, and secondly, for their impudence in trying to excuse their drone-like propensities, by pretending to be like the few eccentric great men, who are, in respect to the way in which they do things, a law unto themselves. Most people, to accomplish any thing, need to be constantly industrious; and for them, it is wiser never to have "fifteen minutes to spare," and always to have some little matter to to which they can turn their hand. A certain mathematician, we forget who, is said to composed an elaborate work, when visiting with his wife, during the interval of time between the moment when she first started to take leave of their friends, and the moment she had fairly finished her last words. We heard once of a "Hast thou measured the depths of yonder sea? young man, eager for knowledge, who read the And counted the sands that under it be? whole of Hume's History of England, whilst Hast thou scanned the height of Heaven above? THEN mayest thou mete out a MOTHER's love." waiting, at his boarding-house, for his meals to I recollect visiting a lady whose son, a bright be served. No excuse is more common for ignoactive boy, walked a long way to attend my school. rance, than a want of time to learn; and no exShe was poor, and endured many privations, that cuse is more frequently false. It is not always she might benefit her children; and when I spoke false. Unconsciously one may get engrossed in of the lad's diligence and improvement in school, business and entangled with engagements, so that emotions of happiness aud gratitude were visible he cannot well release himself and escape. upon her countenance. The sight was ample re- it is bad to do this; and against it one should be ward for my efforts in the boy's behalf, it awa- on his guard. In many cases, however, such enkened in my mind new emotions; it gave me a tire occupation of time is not the fact; it is only new impulse. The amount of happiness confer-imagined to be the fact. Every body, every day, red upon the children, is, if possible, still greater. wastes moments, if not hours, which might be "Where there is a will, If a good education prepares them for pure intel- devoted to useful ends. lectual enjoyment; if it enables them to see and there is always a way," says the proverb. A appreciate the wisdom and benevolence of the systematic arrangement of business, habits of Creator, and leads them to love and serve him, rigid punctuality, and a determination to gather up the fragments, will enable a man to make wonwill they not be happy? derful additions to his stock of knowledge. The

We have seen that the faithful teacher has, as

But

:

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fortable state of life; while a proper study of their own profession, would greatly improv their faculties and make them more and mor capable of all other knowledge.

But a proper education regards more than

small stones which fill up the crevices have almost as much to do with making the fair and firm wall as the great rocks; so the right and wise use of spare moments contributes not a little to the building up, in good proportions and with strength, a man's mind. Because we are mer-securing wealth and health and life and limb, chants and mechanics, we need not be ignorant of all that lies without the boundaries of the counting-room or the shop. Because the good woman looketh well to her household, she needs not to abstain entirely from looking into books. If, to make money, or get a dinner, the mind must be entirely neglected, it were better to be poor and starve. But there is no such necessity as this, as any one may discover, who will, with justifiable avarice, make good use of every "fifteen minutes he has to spare.”—Newburyport Herald. EDUCATION FOr an agriculTURAL PEOPLE.

than the mere supply of the animal necessities, even the making life as agreeable as possible. That is not deserving the name of education which provides only for a livelihood, a boon secured by mere instinct to the meanest animal. Education of man must provide for the well being of man-for the refined enjoyments of the man, for the higher senses of the body and for all the faculties of the mind. This is true not only of the higher classes-against which if we had them by hereditary descent, I have nothing to say; but it is true of the working classes. The working man is not educated properly as a working man-unless he is trained to the enjoy. Iments of a man.

In all countries, and especially our own, I need not dwell at large upon what is the agricultural people is the people. Magnify as we may each other interest,-commercial, perfectly obvious, the pleasures which an im. manufacturing, they form but small fractions proved and improving mind will find in reading of the mass-themselves proceeding from and and in conversation and in those reflections intimately bound to the agricultural population, which belong only to improved and improving minds. They are but savages themselves who and receiving their character from it. Increase claim that savage is as happy as civilized life, our manufactures and commerce as we must, they can never employ a tythe of the community. and that the well informed and studious are no Our increasing millions must be chiefly agricul. happier than the boor in his chosen ignorance. tural, forming the nation, and governing the The happiness of improved and improving nation. Yes-governing the nation. In all minds is within the reach of the agricultural population, and that is not a proper education countries, and especially our own, weight is as numbers. The agricultural population do and for them which does not furnish them this happiness. Reading, reflection, conversation, will, directly or indirectly, govern the country. The farmers will regulate or distract manufae- such as belong to improved and improving minds, are the peculiar boon of the country. The absence tures or commerce-will secure or disturb our of variety, of objects to stimulate curiosity, civil policy. If they originate no governmental leaves the mind free to read the works of the acts, when they do but act or decline acting wise and good of all nations and of all times, upon propositions of good or evil, their decision forms the issue of every proposal. If the given as they are to the farmer in his own mother tongue-his accustomed solitude and breath, whether of patriotism or factions whether of wisdom or folly, proceeds from some quiet give scope to his own reflections upon this other region, it blows in vain until it moves the growing knowledge. level surface of society. On its agitation or quiet Whatever good or bad must depend the result.

are now prevalent among us, the agriculturist, have welcomed; whatever have been missed, they have rejected. Whatever is to be feared or hoped for awaits their decision. In proportion. therefore, as we discover the just principle of education for an agricultural people, do we provide for the welfare of the whole.

But when I speak of an education, to make rural life as agreeable as possible, while I require suitable reading, reflection, conversation, likely to be left out of view; I mean that agriI am desirous to insist on one particular more cultural education should prepare the people for their own peculiar enjoyments, to take delight in rural life, and especially in their own rural

home.

As to the general delight ical life, it can Of course the first direction is, that education should be such as to guide and aid labor to the hardly fail to follow, from that study of agricul best account; such as at once to make agriculture for other purposes which we have already ture more easy and more productive. I am commended. I am not afraid to say, that there sure that the general impression of society on is no employment of Man so likely to grow in this subject, as well as almost universal practice one's affections, as he endeavors to learn to carry is very defective. Agriculture needs and admts it on to the best advantage, as agriculture. an appropriate education, which may be gained Other employments are regarded more for their without teachers and schools; but is more profits; but this from step to step, as one tries likely to be begun and afterwards well pursued to improve it, more and more interests and in proportion as it should be aided by teach-delights the mind, while its results are ever ers and schools. Let the rudiments of agricul furnishing the finest pictures to the eye. ture be taught; let the proper books for gaining But I am yet more desirous, to see cherished further knowledge be pointed out. Let the a special fondness to one's home. for the endurconnexions of mechanical and chemical philoso-ing scene, its rocks and rivers and hills and phy with the labors of the field be understood. vales, its orchards and groves, as they were to Let the prejudice against "book learning" be the eye of childhood and as they will remain to discarded, and our rural population would rise the eye of old age, and for that new and improv. rapidly to better method, and to a more coming scenery with which industry and taste will