M. Stouber, the predecessor of the benevolent Oberlin, in the Ban de la Roche, at the commencement of his ministerial duties in that parish, had to lament the universal prevalence of the most deplorable ignorance, and its usual attendant, extreme wretchedness. The sagacious pastor was not long in finding out where the seat of the evil was located.

On inquiring for the principal schoolhouse, he was conducted to a miserable, dilapidated, log hut, where he found a company of squalid, noisy children, crowded together, without order and without employment. In one corner of the apartment, upon a little bed, lay a withered old man. He was the schoolmaster. For a great number of years he had been employed as a swine-herd, but having become too infirm to take care of pigs, he had been selected to take charge of the edu cation of children. As to instruction, however, he taught absolutely nothing, as he honestly confessed, for the simple reason that he knew nothing himself.

The good pastor immediately set about a reform. To accomplish this object, it was his first endeavor to procure teachers willing and competent to discharge the duties of their station. But this was no easy task; for the office having sunk to the very nadir of contempt, the more respectable of the inhabitants, regarding it as a disreputable trade, would, on no account, allow their sons to embrace it. In order to overcome this difficulty, the pastor was obliged to change the name of the office.

"Well, then," said he, "let us have no schoolmasters, since that would not become people of your station in life, but allow

me to select the most promising of your young men, and make them superintendents of the schools." To this they readily acceded. Again, that he might encourage those teachers whose pupils made the most rapid progress, he gave them, besides their salaries, the interest of a fund which had been placed in his hands to aid the cause of education.

The good pastor's efforts were not in vain; they were sig nally successful, thus proving the soundness of the theory which guided them.

What that theory was, it is not difficult to discover, and yet it is one which cannot be too often commended to the attention of the friends of improvement in common schools. Its chief element was plain common sense, an element too often wanting in theories on education.

Stouber took the right direction in the beginning. He set out with the idea, that as the teacher is, so is the school, everywhere and at all times. In the strife and contention about modes and systems, the importance of this principle is apt to be overlooked, but he who keeps it steadily in view, and acts upon it, will, in the end, prove himself to be wiser than those who do not. This great practical principle in educational economy is no discovery of modern times; it has always been recognized by wise men. Philip of Macedon thanked the gods for the gift, when he received news of the birth of his son Alexander, but he thanked them more, that the event should happen in the lifetime of such an educator as Aristotle.

As educators grow wiser, they always learn to depend less upon systems and statutes, and adminicular contrivances, and more upon the personal qualifications of teachers. Some have not stopped far short of the conclusion, that the best system of instruction is that which is best administered. It would require some ingenuity to frame one so defective and absurd that, in the hands of a good teacher, it could not be made to show good results. It is a part of the teacher's business to bring good out of evil. On the other hand, it is impossible for human invention to contrive one so perfect as to turn out well-formed minds, without the moulding hand of the skilful artist. It is the teacher that makes the school, not statutes.

This was Stouber's first conviction; his next was, that the great principles which regulate supply and demand, apply to talents for teaching, as well as to other sublunary things. It is one thing to find out the true object to aim at, and quite another to know how to aim so as to reach the object. Our reformer knew how to do both of these things. In order to secure the services of competent teachers, he did not disdain to use the proper means. He had too large a share of common sense to believe, that it

could be brought about by glorifying the profession in the abstract and decrying it, at the same time, in the concrete. Being a good Christian, doubtless he had due respect to the future recompense, but he did not overlook the power of temporal rewards. He knew that human nature had its laws of attraction and repulsion, as well as the world of matter, and he had the wisdom to act in harmony with them, instead of setting them at defiance.

He saw plainly what any one may see, if he will, that the greatest talents are found, as a general rule, in that sphere of action where the greatest prizes, in a worldly view, are to be carried off. Once in an age or two, we find a Howard, but men of rare endowments, as they must be who are eminent teachers, are few and far between, who will devote their lives to the good of their fellow-beings, through the evil report and the good report, and in the obscurity of a schoolmaster's life, from no other motives than those of pure benevolence. We wish it were otherwise. We wish that the sentiment of duty, and the hope of reward in the world to come, might draw the best talent into that profession in which it might be employed to the best advantage. But we dare not hope that these motives alone will suffice, in our day, to fill the ranks with such talent. The theory founded upon that expectation, is essentially Utopian. The clerical profession is, without question, actuated by as high and disinterested motives as any other, and yet, suppose the order of our present social arrangements to be remodelled, and the clergyman placed where the shoemaker or the blacksmith is, how long would the clergy stand before shoemakers and blacksmiths in talents and learning?

It is of no use to disguise the fact. Honor and emolument are the great centres of human attraction, towards which the mass of men are tending. These are the motives which govern the world at present, always have governed it, and are likely to do so for some time to come, at least, till a Christian education shall have achieved its divine mission. Stouber being a sensible, or what is sometimes called a practical man, did not think it worth while to wait for such a consummation, but, adapting his plan of operations to the state of things in which he found himself placed, he offered the proper inducements of profit and honor, and got his teachers. So can any other individual or community get them, and keep them too; but if they "expect the purchase they must pay the price."

The more honorable the profession of teaching is made, the less lucrative it need be to secure high talent, and vice versa. This is one reason why the public school has to bid much higher than the college for the same man, in order to secure

the prize. Noble souls enough there always are, willing to spend their lives in hardship and penury, for the sake of great usefulness and great honor. Others there are of no mean powers and accomplishments, who, caring little for the sweets of distinction, would do good work with good pay. But without one or the other of the inducements which I have mentioned, it is idle to expect that a large class of able and learned men will devote their lives to the work of public instruction. It would be difficult to find a single instance of an individual of superior talents and education, who has spent his days as an instructor, except in a situation very respectable or very lucrative. And yet we are constrained to feel that parents and school committees, as a general thing, do not regard this matter in its true light, judg ing from the reiterated complaints of the woful deficiencies of teachers; which constitute so large a part of the wit and rhetoric of" Annual Reports." The "Abstract of the Massachusetts School Returns" for 1845-46, might have been entitled, not very inappropriately, "The Book of Lamentations for the Incompetency of Instructors." It is but just to say, however, that these complaints are often accompanied with a fair statement of the proper remedy to be applied to the evils complained of.

I know it will be said, and said truly too, that teachers are often paid above their deserts, instead of below them. But let us see how these mistakes are made. A young man, full of talent and ambition, is hired for ten dollars a month, to teach his first school. He throws his heart and soul into the work, and success crowns his efforts. But he cannot subsist upon such a pittance, and is obliged to raise his terms. His employers have been so fortunate in him, that, rather than advance his salary and secure him, they choose to trust to good fortune again; and find, when it is too late, that their money has been worse than wasted. Nevertheless, the same policy is adhered to, year after year.

The teacher who is in the work must never slack his hand on account of poor compensation. His remedy is to quit it.

But the community have something to do besides complain. In the first place, they need to realize the value of good schools; in the next place, they must be brought to the conviction that the teacher makes the school; and finally, they ought to learn how to secure the right teacher. These were the three cardinal aims of Stouber, and he was successful.

GEOGRAPHY.

Geography is a science which treats of the earth. In this we should not be limited merely to the geometrical surface of the earth. It were then a superficial study indeed. How far, then, above the surface shall we rise? How deep beneath it shall we sink? Just so far as it will be profitable for us to do, consistently with our situation and design in teaching. The whole design of the study, it appears to me, is to obtain some knowledge of our geographical location, and of our national resources, as compared with those of other nations. By resources I mean not our wealth only, nor our products; but those instrumentalities by which we are to elevate ourselves in the scale of being. As wealth is desirable only as a means for procuring those things which shall increase our individual growth; as all wealth flows from the natural products of the earth, enriched by labor and art; as these natural productions are the result of peculiar geological formations, together with the influence of climate; and as the operations of labor and art are regulated by civil institutions; so should a knowledge of all these be somewhat connected with the study of geography.

Geography, then, is a science which has for its object a description of the earth, comprising somewhat of geology, of botany, of meteorology, of civil history, and, in order to locate places for easy and accurate reference, of mathematics; each of these furnishing facts and principles only so far as they are important to a just comprehension of our subject.

From these there arises the divisions of the science into physical, civil, and mathematical; the former of these exhibiting the form and more prominent features of the earth and its subdivisions, such as the mountain ranges of the different continents, the basins of the rivers, — treating, also, of the composition of these ranges, of their disintegration by means of cold, heat, and moisture, and of the deposition of this matter when thus decomposed, by means of rivers, and the various methods pursued by nature; of the kind of soil resulting from this action; of the climate of different localities, arising from their position and elevation, and of the productions springing from this combination of soil and climate. In this, the nature of our science would forbid minute inquiries into the geological arrangement or botanical classification of the various objects passing under our notice. We deal only with the facts of these, as they enrich our pursuit.

Intimately connected with these considerations, would be