treatment of it. In the National Educational Associations recently held in the city of St. Louis, a paper was presented in which its author claims that collegiate and university education should be wholly supplied by the State. It may be easy to write or speak in glowing terms of compelling all the youth to attend the Common School, and of defraying the expense of all grades of education, from the lowest to the highest, out of moneys obtained by taxing the people; but you cannot bring men's minds, in this country at least, to unite upon any such scheme. On the other hand, the system of popular training now employed in this country, it is believed, may be supplemented and brought to perfection, and Common School education become in fact as well as in theory, universal. Thus, without interfering at at all with the rights of the individual, or the prerogatives of the family, without weakening the spirit of independence peculiar to American character, or checking the growth of a generous manhood, we shall be able to overcome the evils we deplore and the dangers we apprehend; and, in the grand good time coming, all the children will take to needful learning as naturally as young ducks take to water. THOMAS D. CROW. A SCHOOL-BOY MEMORY. BY GEO. 8. BURLEIGH. Out of the old, old days, how long A school-girl, with her twelve bright years, Blue eyes that know but pity's tears, Small hands already prompt to serve; A tender, sympathetic face, Fair, if not beautiful, more sweet He that enjoys the intimacy of the great, and neither disgusts them by familiarity, or disgraces himself by servility, proves that he is as perfect a gentleman by nature as his companion is by rank. RECOLLECTIONS OF THE EARLY DAYS OF THE RHODE ISLAND STATE NORMAL SCHOOL-(Concluded.) Of the teachers, perhaps I have sufficiently spoken. They were eminently enthusiastic as a class and in particular. Colburn, magnetic, attractive, held not only the attention but the sympathies of all. His enunciation of a principle, his treatment of a theorem were lively and characteristic. Just what he was at Institutes, he appeared daily to be in his classes. There was no letting down of enthusiasm, and I doubt whether he was ever aught but active in thought and effort. Sumner we afterwards knew as a successful co-laborer with eminent men in the preparation of Warren's Physical Geography. All the characteristic spirit of the first edition of that truly remarkable and excellent work, we as pupils received and worked out under Sumner's own eye. Such originality and breadth of teaching are the heritage of but few. Colburn's "Arithmetic and its Applications" and Warren's "Physical Geography," worked out under every day development of their authors by a body of teachers preparing for actual service, would make a rare event in the history of any school. Each day some one page or chapter or topic of each was criticized and amended. It is time I should say what I have to say of the plan of instruction. We did not have a text book. Our teachers were capable of making their own. And they did make out a course, noble, generous, full and sufficiently particular. Not to speak of this in detail, I may say that we exhausted every store of facts within our reach. We studied by topic. One day, Sumner would inquire, "What are the physical features of Mexico?" The next day the matesay rial brought into the class was criticised, canvassed, talked over quite familiarly; teachers our teacher first gave an exercise; pupils puzzled, discomfited their teacher for the nonce if they could; each took his place in his order, by nomination, sometimes by acclamation, before, in presence of and under the criticism of the class. He gave his exercise. His manner, his language, his style, his posture were severely discussed in fair, severe criticism. Occasionally there was a lecture by a traveller or some literary friend of literary ee EARLY RECOLLECTIONS. 397 people. Dr. Hayes gave us one lecture on the Arctic Regions; a gentleman detailed his own observations on the Mexican War; another taught us of words; another, about science. So the work was done day by day. This was the day's routine: Eight o'clock, roll call and prayer; eight to one, recitations and exercises; one, to an unlimited hour, nearly to sunset, studying in either one of the three rooms of the school. It was these unfettered hours of study which were delightfully enjoyable. Seated around a large table, students pored over big geographical dictionaries and physical atlases - then the science of physical geography was but just popularized by Guyot and his compeers some of us at the blackboard worked over the lesson assigned. No kind of discipline was needed. Some chatted, others sung together at the piano. Most of us seated in some cosy nook in a quiet way studied as we pleased. No one was in these study hours required either to remain or to go at any call. We aided each other in study, we read some geographic account of a country, or in lieu of study at the school-room, all of us who pleased studied at home. There was absolutely and really no restraint whatever upon conduct or study. Yet I never knew of a better ordered school, and never heard of but one case of discipline. This is rather said as a compliment well earned, than as a model motto for a school to follow. In a year or thereabout, something like this was accomplished: Grammar, under Professor S. S. Greene, of whom, now in active service, I could not speak so freely as of the other teachers. As to this study, our course was first systematic, then discursive, ranging over each and every topic taught in any grammar. A particularly tangled case in construction he would dispose of in a word or two by saying, Look at chapter, section 7, remark 9, of the grammar,-where we found the case amply treated-certainly to our satisfaction. We had on the whole an enviable course, and we learned how to teach what we learned as we went along. In Geography, during the time I was myself present, I studied and I understood too, thoroughly, the United States,—I wonder if I could name the rivers in their order now, beginning with the St. Johns and ending with the Red. No,-for the time is too great and the distance too crowded with other things. Alas! Colburn is dead, and dying, how was it our enthusiasm seemed to wane.-But this in parenthesis. And we studied more than a month - perhaps two months - Mexico, that charming country, which, changing with the moon, is full of antiquities, curious history, romance and attractive geography. And we became well acquainted with Europe, with South America-none of us but could summon up a picture of sea-coast, slope history, physique and people. In Algebra, we canvassed and conquered elsewhere than the common text-book, learning the earlier operations from Hackley, culling problems from Smythe, Day, Robinson, learning the binomial theorem out of Sherwin, progressions from Bourdon, and everything else from the inexhaustible stores of Colburn's own head, which was equal to any emergency. We spelled and read, too, we canvassed Arithmetic thoroughly, and we gave exercises.-These exercises deserve another paper for their discussion.-But here these little sketches must close. A FEW HINTS TO TEACHERS. BY JOHN R. CRAIGHOLM. IN getting up a school entertainment, don't make it too long. Most exhibitions are too long by half. I have attended several of these affairs, where I was obliged to sit from half-past seven until half-past eleven, or twelve o'clock, in a crowdel, uncomfortable seat, in a hot, ill-ventilated room, and this, too, without being able to see or hear half that was going on in the way of an exhibition. After a few experiences of this sort, you may be sure nothing but a rigid sense of duty takes me to school exhibitions. However, as I belong to the Craft-pedagogical, and this is an age of progress, and one must keep up with the times, especially if one attempts to write for the Festival, I do go, as often as I can, and I am confident that an entertainment two hours long, or at most two hours and a half, is |