THE friends of education in Rhode Island will rejoice with us over the passage of the bill which reëstablishes a Normal School within our borders, and which gives to it, for its outfit, the sum of ten thousand dollars. Since the spring of 1865, the teachers of our State have not enjoyed the advantages of the limited professional instruction which had been secured by them during the existence of the old Normal School. That school afforded a crumb of comfort to those who passed through its short and partial course of study; and although its usefulness was largely curtailed by various embarrassments, chief among which was its insulated location, it was really better than none, and satisfied the people that a little learning even, was not a dangerous thing. Since its suspension, there has been a strong desire for its reëstablishment on the part of the most intelligent friends of common schools. Some work has been done to secure this result. Petitions have been made and special committees have urged the importance of the measure. There only needed the strong expression of the popular will in this matter, and that has at last been given in the almost unanimous vote of our legislators in favor of the immediate establishment of a first class State Normal School. To the honor of the General Assembly of Rhode Island for the year of grace 1870-71, not a man was found in either house who was willing to put his name on the record as opposed to a State Normal and Training School, and the question of pecuniary support was not how little but how much money is needed for its endowment, to ensure its absolute success.

As ardent friends of the proposed school, we may be pardoned something of extra exultation over so successful a passage of a bill which is fraught with so much good to the schools of the State. It is to us life from death, growth from decay, progress from retrogression, success from failure. The remotest school-district and the smallest school will feel the quickening influence which will come to them from a thorough Training School, and if properly established and well sustained it will work wonders in our common school system. What is needed now is the earnest and hearty coöperation of all true friends throughout the State to aid in making it the pride and the honor of our system of schools. Time and patient labor are elements required to give it stability, character and success. As Rome was not built in a day, so our Normal School must not be expected to do its work in a season, or to send out at its first graduation to every school district in the State the teacher needed and best fitted for the place. In its management the Board of Trustees will use all their care and prudence to make it worthy of the patronage of all those who shall hereafter become the teachers of our youth, and to them the legislature have committed great responsibilities, and grand possibilities. We shall await their action with deep interest, and pledge to them our most cordial and hearty sympathy in their noble work. The members of the General Assembly of Rhode Island, both in the Senate and House of Representatives, are not only entitled to the thanks of their constituents, but also of all earnest friends of education, for crowning our educational structure with this finishing cap-stone. Teachers, school officers, pupils, patrons and citizens, give thanks, take courage and go forward.

SCHOOL HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. THE DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE.

WHILE the city and town school-house has been advanced to a high state of preparation, the district school-house remains about what it was a generation ago.

The principal reason for this condition of things is the fact of concentrated and rapidly increasing wealth in cities and towns, and distributed and slowly increasing wealth in the farming districts. By

THE DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE.

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this means the former has had an ample treasury, with which to erect extensive public works; while the latter has always had a limited treasure, therefore very little overplus to expend in the interest of public institutions. Another reason is that ideas generally take form and are carried out first where people are brought under the influence of the peculiar social institutions of concentrated numbers.

Mind working upon mind produces results of which the isolated mind seldom if ever conceives, much less has power to grasp and perfect. We here speak of the representative classes, and not of the extreme isolated examples.

Probably the most defective feature about the district school-house is its ventilation. On account of being low-studded its first allowance of breathing-air is comparatively small; and want of sufficient provisions to change it, to introduce, in a proper manner, fresh air, only adds to the first evil.

The smaller the first allowance, the more abundant should be the additional supply; and the greater the first allowance, the more gradual and reduced should, or may be the additional supply.

Strange and unnatural as it seems to be, it is nevertheless true, that in the great majority of cases, the bountiful supply goes with the first ample allowance.

The consequences resulting from an incomplete supply of fresh air are most injurious, and we think that the scholars of the district school have suffered from it severely; as they also have from poor light, ill-regulated heat and rude accommodation.

In making improvements let them not be confined to the perfection of one feature. All should be worked up together, in perfect harmony, even as a first class artist works up his picture.

As a climax to the whole, let the architecture be also attended to and of a high order, and let the grounds about the building be in full keeping with it, that the whole externally, and internally, may be elevating in its influence on all who may come in contact with it,— to the mere passer-by, who sees only the exterior, as well as those who enjoy the benefits derived from a closer connection with its interior.

When almost everything else is making rapid strides towards perfection the district school-house cannot well afford to remain longer

without being affected by it. Wealth having concentrated in cities, its influence is not confined there. Improvements are extending and expanding, and will sooner or later reach the most isolated communities. They will reach first those localities which are the most favorably disposed. Invitations cement friendly relations. Where blessings are so profusely scattered it is wisdom to be on the alert to cultivate them with assiduous care, for they bring forth some fifty, and some an hundred fold.

I. P. N.

A WORD ABOUT ENGLISH GRAMMAR.-No. 3.

BY SAMUEL THURber.

And here I venture to recommend as special exercises, which, however, are only a few out of many possible ones.

1st. The practice of committing to memory beautiful and classic poems, which are within the comprehension of the pupils' minds, and yet require those minds to reach the heights of conscious thought. Teach rhythm thus without saying the words feet, metre and caesura. Thus show the melody of our numbers, the power of rhyme, the depth of poetic pathos, and all without criticism or much technical exposition. Such choice selections stored in the memory, will serve for frequent elocutionary exercises, in which the prime concern should be to express the sense naturally, and for frequent written exercises too, in which all the small details of writing may receive attention, while the dreariness of old saws repeated down a page may be wholly banished. But this exercise cannot safely be conducted mechanically, or allowed to degenerate into routine. He ploughs the sea or sows the sand, who dares to attempt the practice of a method without sharing its spirit; he invites failure, and prepares for himself only disgusts.

2d. The practice of interpreting literary expressions into common, but not vulgar, speech; the translation of very simple poems into language only so far poetical as the spontaneous imagination and feeling of the child makes it so. If a passage really makes its legitimate impression, there will be something to be said about it. Let the