Editor's Department.

ON being installed into office the editor found himself in possession of an almost empty literary treasury, and, from want of time to organize his forces, has had to make up his present number more entirely from his own resources than he hopes to be obliged to do hereafter. He believes, however, that his readers will not regret the appearance of the selections he has made from foreign sources; and he proposes to make a judicious selection from such sources a permanent feature in his management of the Teacher. We have much to learn from foreign precept and example; and the editor's investigations into educational literature have taught him that much material of extreme value to teachers lies hidden in out-of-the-way corners, some of which he believes his readers will thank him for bringing to their notice. Nevertheless, he trusts he shall not be obliged to draw too largely on such supplies, but that original matter of equal value will be furnished him in sufficient abundance.

He would ask particularly for assistance in the department of intelligence both personal and general. It is a feature which ought to characterize a journal like this, and it is a department in which the editor will be peculiarly dependent on the vigilance of his friends and contributors.

And again, in the matter of book notices, the editor holds that the only really competent reviewer of a school-book is the teacher who has fairly and thoroughly tested it in the school-room. He would call on all teachers who have thus tested new text-books to give the impartial result of their examination. It is of great importance that the public should be guided to the selection of the best schoolbooks by the actual results of such test examinations; but the editor will always hold himself ready to notice the contributions of his publishing friends by an account of the contents of every new school-book, and by giving fairly and frankly the results of his own or of some competent reviewer's general impressions.

AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION.

Before our magazine reaches its readers, the first regular meeting of this new association will have been held, and in our next number we shall hope to give some account of its proceedings, so far at least as they relate to the subject of Education. As many of our readers know, the association was formed at a preliminary meeting called by the Board of State Charities, and held at the

State House on the 4th of October last, at which His Excellency Gov. Andrew presided. A permanent organization was then formed, modeled after that of the British Association of the same name, and, like that, divided into Departments, 1st, for Education; 2d, for Public Health; 3d, for Economy, Trade, and Finance; 4th, for Jurisprudence and the Amendment of Laws. The following officers were appointed: President, Professor Wm. B. Rogers, LL. D., President of the Mass. Institute of Technology.

Department of Education. Vice-President, Rev. Thomas Hill, D.D., President of Harvard College; Director, Rev. E. O. Haven, D. D., President of the University of Michigan. Secretary, Hon. Joseph White, Secretary of the Mass. Board of Education.

Department of Health: Vice-President, Dr. Samuel G. Howe; Director, Mrs. Mary Eliot Parkman; Secretary, J. C. White, M. D.

Department of Economy, Trade, and Finance.-Vice-President, Hon. Geo. S. Boutwell, M. C.; Director, David A. Wells, Esq.; Sec., Hon. Geo. Walker. Department of Jurisprudence.-Vice-President, Francis Lieber, LL. D.; Director, Hon. Emory Washburn; Secretary, Prof. Theodore W. Dwight.

General Corresponding Secretary, Samuel Eliot, LL. D.; General Recording Secretary, F. B. Sanborn, Esq., Secretary to the Board of State Charities; Gen. Treasurer, James Jackson Higginson, Esq., 40 State Street, Boston.

The British Association, upon which the American Association is modeled, has been in existence eight years, and has published as many volumes of interesting and important transactions. It was founded by a few earnest laborers in the cause of humanity, under the lead of Lord Brougham, who has been from the beginning its President. So great was the interest felt in the subject, however, that, very early, a large number of justly distinguished persons became members of the Association. Among these were Earl Russell, Lord Shaftesbury, the Earl of Carlisle, Lady Byron, Edwin Chadwick, Sir Walter Crofton, Miss Florence Nightingale, Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, Mrs. Jameson, Lord Houghton, Miss Mary Carpenter, Dr. Lankester, Matthew Davenport Hill, Gen. Sabine, Arthur Helps, and Sir Fitzroy Kelly. At the annual meetings, which were held successively in Birmingham, Liverpool, Bradford, Glasgow, Dublin, London, Edinburgh, York, and Sheffield, a large attendance testified to the public appreciation of the labors of the Association; while the course of legislation, following the changes wrought in public opinion, gave evidence that the measures advocated at these meetings were of a practical sort. Several important bills, resulting in Acts of Parliament, have been carried by means of the discussions and the exertions of the Social Science Association.

As this is a movement which we think ought to be peculiarly interesting to teachers, we copy from the prospectus the following account of the objects of the Association:

"This association proposes to afford to all persons interested in human improvement an opportunity to consider social economies as a whole.

"The persons composing it are expected to meet together to read papers and pursue discussions, and to seek the assistance of those who have a practical acquaintance with reform, as well as that of purely abstract reasoners.

"They are to collect all facts, diffuse all knowledge, and stimulate all inquiry, which have a bearing on social welfare. It has long since been shown that the man of science, who confines himself to a specialty, who does not, at the very least, conquer the underlying principles of other branches of scientific inquiry, is necessarily misled, and cannot avoid frequent mistakes. To have any perception of the perspective of his subject, he must see it in its relation to other subjects. Something like this is true of those who investigate the necessities of society. If they associate themselves together, they have the advantage of each other's knowledge; they do not misunderstand their own relative positions; and they insure an economy of time, labor, and money.

"We would offer the widest hospitality to individual convictions, and to untried theories, provided only that such convictions and theories are the fruit of a serious purpose and an industrious life. To entertain the vagaries of the indolent would be at once undignified and unprofitable.

"1. Under the Department of Education will come every thing relating to the interests of Public Schools, Universities, and Colleges; to Reformatory, Adult, and Evening Schools; to Instruction in the Useful Arts; to Systems of Apprenticeship; to Lyceums, Pulpits, and the formation of Societies for the purposes of Public Instruction. In this department will be debated also all questions relating to Classical, Linguistic, and Scientific Studies, in their proportion to what is called an English Education; and the bearing of the publication of National and Patriotic Memorials upon Popular Culture.

"2. Upon the Department relating to Public Health a very large proportion of the popular interest will naturally be fixed. All Sanitary and Hygienic matters will come before it; and what the Sanitary Commission has learned in the last four years will be made available, through its action, to the people at large. The subjects of Epidemics, of the origin and spread of Cholera, Yellow Fever, and Eruptive Diseases, will be legitimately discussed here. It will consider all questions of Increase of Population, Vaccination, Ventilation of Public and Private Buildings, Drainage, Houses for the Poor, the Management of Cemeteries, Public Baths, Parks and Public Gardens, Places of Recreation, the Management of Hospitals and Insane Asylums, the Adulteration of Food and Drugs, all questions relating to the Duration of Human Life, Sanitary Regulations for the Army and Navy, and all matters of popular interest connected with medical science. We shall look to our ablest physicians and surgeons for contributions to this department.

"3. Under the head of Social Economy, we shall consider Pauperism actual rather than legal, and the relation and the responsibilities of the gifted and educated classes towards the weak, the witless, and the ignorant. We shall endeavor to make useful inquiries into the causes of Human Failure, and the Duties devolving upon Human Success. We shall consider the Hours of Labor; the Relation of Employers and Employed; the Employment of Women

by itself considered: the Relation of Idleness to Female Crime; Prostitution and Intemperance; Workhouses; Public Libraries and Museums; Savings Banks and Dispensaries. Here, too, will be discussed National Debt; the Subjects of Tariff and Taxation; the Habits of Trade; the Quality of our Manufactures; the Control of Markets; the Monopolies in the Sale of Food, or the Production of articles of common use; the Value of Gold; and all questions connected with the Currency.

"4. In the Department of Jurisprudence, we aim to consider, first, the absolute Science of Right; and, second, the Amendment of Laws. This department should be the final resort of the other three; for when the laws of Education, of Public Health, and of Social Economy, are fully ascertained, the law of the land should recognize and define them all. Under this head will be considered all questions of the justice, the expediency, and the results of existing statutes; including their administration and interpretation, and especially their bearing on Suffrage, Property, Privilege, Debt, Crime, and Pauperism. Here, then, will come up the vexed questions of Prison Discipline and Capital Punishment."

It will thus be seen that our scope is sufficiently general, and the field for our labors sufficiently broad. But we shall, without doubt, discover other topics which equally claim attention; and shall not refuse to entertain any inquiry by which the progress of humanity may be investigated or promoted.

Any person can become a member by the payment of $3 to the Treasurer of the association, and we trust its roll will include the names of many teachers.

TEACHERS' SALARIES.

We give below a schedule of the proposed salaries of the Boston public school teachers for the coming year, which, we presume, in spite of some technical objections on the part of the Common Council, will be definitely adopted before our magazine reaches its readers. The city of Cambridge has also raised the salaries of its teachers 50 per cent.; and we presume that the same action has been taken in many other places. We need hardly point out that at the present rate of living this is an act not of generosity so much as of simple justice to the members of one of the most laborious of professions, and that any narrow penny-wise policy on the subject now when so many new avenues are tempting men and women away in new directions, will surely result in a permanent lowering of the standard of educational ability. No greater misfortune, we think, could happen to the community than this. So far from being diminished, the scale of teachers' salaries should be increased, not only relatively to the increased cost of living, but in still greater proportion; for we believe that the services of public school teachers have never yet been adequately remunerated. We have this month to chronicle the departure from the profession in a neighboring State of an able and successful teacher. We trust we shall not have to record any similar losses in our own.

[Schedule of the Salaries of the Officers of the School Board, and Teachers of the Public Schools, of the City of Boston, with proposed increase, December, 1865.]

Mr. S. C. Stone, of Newton, was chosen Chairman of the next meeting. Mr. Geo. K. Daniell, Jr., of Milton, was appointed permanent Secretary of the meetings.

Mr. Frost, of Waltham, opened the discussion. The question read as follows: "What should children be taught from the age of fourteen till they graduate from the public schools?" Mr. F. thought that the subject was one of the first importance. It was one also upon which there existed a disparity of opinion which was steadily increasing. A child of that, or any age should be taught that which will be of the most service to him in after life. We have but one life