tions of words, should be omitted. The attention of the pupil should be gradually drawn to the distinctions of number, gender, case, mode, tense, &c., and he will more readily comprehend them from his previous knowledge of the use of words in the construction of sentences. The truth is, no one method alone will ever give a thorough knowledge of the principles of the English language. The various plans of parsing, constructing, and re-constructing, analyzing, arranging, and re-arranging, remodelling, paraphrasing, making and supplying ellipses, correcting and re-correcting should be resorted to constantly. And in all these exercises, both written and oral, lessons should be required.

G. S. S.

MUSIC IN COMMON SCHOOLS.

Of

It is not our intention, at this time, to enter into an extended dissertation upon the beauties, the wonderful power to please and improve, or the use of the science of music. its use, we are fully satisfied; for where it has been taught, its good effects have been realized. Vocal music has been too long a regular branch of education in the public schools of Boston, and in many other places in New England, and its good results have become too familiar with us, to admit a doubt of its utility. But, possibly, many persons into whose hands this may fall, are not entirely satisfied on this point, not having tested it practically; therefore we regret that the members of the "Massachusetts Teachers' Association"-many of whom have witnessed its highly pleasing and beneficial consequencesshould have neglected to speak of its importance, through the medium of this valuable journal. It is a duty we owe to the young to recommend to them the study of music, on account of the happiness which, when properly conducted, it never fails to afford.

The happy and elevating power of vocal music, associated with poetry of a proper character, is acknowledged alike by the people of every nation; by the good and the bad, the aged and the young. It is considered an important part of religious worship here, and one of the chief employments in heaven. It may be used in proclaiming the Creator's love and goodness, or perverted into blasphemy. In either case, it is a most powerful agent in expressing the feelings of our hearts.

Who has not witnessed the sublime effects of congregational singing,—although it is seldom heard in its purity, -the joining of a large number in prayer and praise to the great Author of all good, through the medium of this divine art, and not realized the evidence of increased fervor and heartfelt devotion, by the blending of the voice with the soul?

And

who has not frequently been annoyed by the discordant tones of some, in their fruitless attempts to swell the volume of harmony?

To sing well, the voice requires cultivation; and proper cultivation must be the result of early instruction. The science of music should be made a part of common school education; not confined to the upper classes alone, but all should be required to engage in it. In other important branches of study, we commence with children; but in relation to the study of music,-a science capable, perhaps, of affording more universal and enthusiastic pleasure than any other; and which, to fully comprehend, is the work of more than a whole life,a wonderful decision has been made; namely, that children are not capable of learning to sing!

From such a conclusion we beg leave to dissent. Experience has taught us better. Having been, for several years, engaged in teaching music to the pupils of the grammar schools in Boston and Charlestown, we confidently affirm that children may be much easier taught to sing than older persons; and our opinion is, that the sooner we begin with them, the better. Even in the primary school, where they learn the elements of knowledge, they should be taught the alphabet of music. We are happy to say, that the propriety of introducing music into the primary schools of Boston is a subject now before a special committee of the Primary School Board.

The advantages resulting from an early attention to this subject, before bad habits have become confirmed, while the ear is unvitiated and the vocal organs unimpaired, it would seem, must be apparent to every one. The best method of teaching music in common schools the point that we propose chiefly to discuss is a subject of so great importance that we shall defer the consideration of it till future numbers; in which, should we be allowed to continue cur remarks, it will afford us pleasure to consider the best mode of imparting this instruction. J. E. G.

WHETHER the good man be great or obscure, it is not, after all, in the consciousness or the acknowledgment of other men, that he has his memorial, so much as intrinsically in the influence he imparts. The good man's monument is the influence he leaves behind him! Every thing has an influence, whether it be an atom or a star. So has every man. And the good man's influence is seen and felt in the conduct of his children; in the lives of those with whom he has associated; in the recollection of his example; in some good deed he did in the secrecy of friendship and of charity, or on the wider theatre of public action. Drop a stone into the water; see the narrow ripple that spreads out from it. Lo! another, and wider; another, and yet wider; and thus they stretch abroad. Where do they stop? who can set bounds to them? They shall break in billows yet upon some distant shore. So is it with moral influences. The least act of a good man, runs on and strengthens forever; and every expanding circle of love and truth, enriches and perpetuates a memorial of him. Every place where a man acts, his sphere of labor, sin, pleasure, devotion, is the arena, where a principle, either good or bad, is developed. Our work-shop, our counting-room, or farm, or study, our place of action, wherever it be, is that sphere. And there, as we do good or bad, shall each of us leave a

monument.

The good no matter who they were, or where they lived. They were great, perhaps, loved, powerful. Perhaps they were obscure, humble, laborious. Coarse-clad, it may be, they lived. When they died, few feet followed them, and they were laid in a lowly tomb. They went out from the abode of poverty, the place of toil, the house of prayer. In their life-time, we passed them by, and knew them not. No matter; they have left their monuments. In the fields where they labored; in the homes of their affection and piety; in places where they moved and wrought; there stand those monuments, the memorials that suggest and perpetuate them to other men. But their spirits are even now with Christ and with God. In no memorial of earth do they chiefly rejoice; but rather because their names are written in heaven. E. H. CHAPIN.

DICKINSON PRINTING HOUSE,

DAMRELL & MOORE, Publishers, No. 26 Washington Street..

To whom all letters should be addressed. TERMS-One Dollar per annum in advance, or One Dollar and Fifty Cents at the end of the year. Twenty-five per cent. allowed to agents who procure five subscribers, and all payments by them to be made in advance.

THOSE who entered this field of labor twenty years ago, with few exceptions, enjoyed not the advantages of special training for their high calling; but either adopted the course pursued in the schools of their boyhood, or attempted some untried theory upon the children committed to their charge. Sad alternative! in either of which, failure became rather the rule than the exception; not perhaps in the estimation of the parents or the committees,for deficiency in modes of teaching, of discipline, and of results, was the too general state of schools among us to excite any particular observation, —but in the opinion of the conscientious teacher himself. He felt his own short comings; he wished for better things; he yearned for the power of raising his school towards the ideal in his own mind; but it was an up-hill task. He mourned for lack of sympathy, felt a diffidence in his own capacity, and encountering unforeseen difficulties in the course of his ordinary instruction and management, his physical strength became exhausted, and he often found himself compelled, for a time, to yield to evils which he could not overcome, till experience had given him power, and created self-confidence, and one by one he introduced the improvements he desired; and thus, by the perseverance of years, he secured the benefits which the Normal school of the present day, to a good degree, confers in as many months.

Of the four thousand or more public teachers in our commonwealth, scarcely a tenth part, probably, have enjoyed the benefit of one of these valuable seminaries; and consequently, a very large majority are, to some extent, feeling their

way through the labyrinth of the multifarious duties of their vocation, much as did their predecessors in bygone gene rations. Not wholly without a clue, however; for discussions at conventions of teachers, statements of personal experience in instruction, lectures on modes of teaching and governing, essays on motives to be addressed, educational periodicals, teachers' institutes, and an increased liberality in the provision made for the comfort of the teacher and pupil, have breathed new life into those engaged in schools, and encouraged them to believe that they are rising in consequence in the social scale, and of course in the sympathy of those about them. Still, if the beginner is ambitious of magnifying his office, and of pursuing a course which will aid in giving to the "mark" he may leave upon the mind and character of his pupil, the elements of a finished man, he will need further assistance and counsel.

And if this periodical is to become essentially beneficial to our schools, it must be not only through the promulgation and advocacy of sound principles in morals, and the discussion of general truths, but also by unfolding the details of methods which have, in the experiment, been found successful. The young teacher may thus, from the experience of those who have wrought out with patient labor a system of operation, save years of anxiety, as well as of frequent unsuccessful efforts. Not that it is to be supposed that any one man's scheme, however excellent in the hands of its author, can be equally successful with every one. He who anticipates this, will inevitably be disappointed. Every man must be able to originate something for himself; or, at least, to modify what emanates from another's mind. He who is incapable of this, has mistaken his calling. Still the fact remains, that principles of action, applicable to every human mind, though perhaps not appreciated or thought of in connection with constantly-occurring cases in the schoolroom, should be presented to the inexperienced teacher, as the chart to guide him on his pedagogical voyage.

That portion of the exercises at any meeting of practical teachers, involving such details, is almost invariably considered the most useful of any presented. The young teachers are benefited, and perhaps the old. At any rate, the latter are gratified at the presentation of views congenial to their own; and carry to their schoolrooms a new impulse, from this corroboration of their sentiments. For, to the same conclusion most teachers arrive at last, who enter the profession with right views and motives. Hence, the enlightened experience of all, or nearly all, furnishes one set of rules of action, more or less modified by personal temperament.