The Second Edition of the Record, somewhat alters the arrangement of subjects, and inserts all the poetry &c. which is talked about by Mr. Alcott and the children. The chapter on General Principles, is altered, and a new appendix is added.

I will add one remark upon the Record itself. It has been said that the language of Mr. Alcott, in the conversations, must have been unintelligible to the children. It should be remembered, that in writing a record at the time, I was obliged to abridge a good deal. I therefore merely gave the sense of Mr. Alcott's questions and remarks; but took great pains to remember the exact words of the children. Mr. Alcott mingles illustration with his questions always.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

THE

RECORD OF A SCHOOL.

СНАР. І.

PLANS.

MR. ALCOTT re-commenced his school in Boston, after four years interval, September, 1834, at the Masonic Temple, No. 7.

Believing that the objects which meet the senses every day for years, must necessarily mould the mind, he felt it necessary to choose a spacious room, and ornament it, not with such furniture as only an upholsterer can appreciate, but with such forms as would address and cultivate the imagination and heart.

In the four corners of the room, therefore, he placed upon pedestals, fine busts of Socrates, Shakspeare, Milton, and Sir Walter Scott. And on a table, before the large gothic window by which the room is lighted, the Image of Silence, "with his finger up, as though he said, beware." Opposite this gothic window, was his own table, about ten feet long, whose front is the arc of a circle, prepared with little desks. for the convenience of the scholars. On this, he placed a small figure of a child aspiring. Behind was a very large bookcase, with closets below, a black tablet above, and two shelves filled with books. A fine cast of Christ, in basso-relievo, fixed into this bookcase, is made to appear to the scholars just over the teacher's head. The bookcase itself, is surmounted with a bust of Plato.

On the northern side of the room, opposite the door, was the table of the assistant, with a small figure of Atlas, bending under the weight of the world. On a small bookcase behind the assistant's chair, were placed figures of a child reading, and a child drawing. Some old pictures;