THE TEACHER'S VISION.--One of our city teachers has favored us with a copy of the following poem, written some years ago, by J. W. Barker, of Niagara Falls. We deem it worthy of enshrinement in these pages:

The sun had left the meadowland,

And left the glowing hill;

"T was sunset on the rippling streams
That turned the quiet mill:
And thro' the dusty window frame
Some mimic shadows fell
Amid the rows of vacant seats

Where youth were wont to dwell.

Far off upon the village green,

Were heard some wild and varied notes; Like bursting shells on battle field,

Had burst a hundred noisy throats. The joy and life of childhood's sport Were kindling many a pleasure there, While in the study room a form

Sat dreaming in his "easy chair."

Thro' "real life" the weary day
Had passed away on leaden wings,
And fainter grew the tinted ray

Which hope around the spirit flings.
The words of love, the gems of thought
So kindly given, now seemed to be
The tiny drops of summer rain

That fall upon the yearning sea.
He saw the faithful husbandman

Throw wide around the shining grain,
Then wait, with cheerful, trusting heart,
The inspiring sun and genial rain.
Green grew the fields, and day by day,
He saw the income of his toil,
And autumn, with her golden hand,

With wealth and plenty clad the soil.

Not thus the teacher's earnest eyes

On fields of golden fruitage rest, Not thus the sun and genial rain

His earnest labor seem to bless.

THE SAN JOAQUIN CO. INSTITUTE was convened in Stockton, October 31st, and continued its sessions through the week. It was well attended, about 90 per cent. of the teachers of the county being present. Lectures were delivered by the President, Melville Cottle, Esq., on Practical Education; and by Messrs. Burke, Woodward, Rev. Mr. Birdsall, and H. P. Carlton, Principal of State Normal School. That on Language, by Rev. Mr. Birdsall, is said to have been a very fine production. That on Physiology, by H. P. Carlton, is characterized by the Independent as "one of extraordinary interest; an evidence of the growing interest in that branch of our schools. Miss Slater, of the Nor

mal School, kept the convention in a lively condition and up to concert pitch, by her exercises in Calisthenics. Miss Kendall, a normal pupil, gave an interesting and instructive exercise in Phonetic elements. Miss Carswell, also from the State Normal School, gave an object lesson on Animals, based upon a cow: this exercise was an exceedingly amusing and interesting one. It had been well prepared, was given in an animated style, and developed some astonishing information on the part of the young men who did not appear to be much acquainted, as to details, with the animal in question. There are six or seven pupils from the Normal School, in this county, and their action in the convention was prompt, and their influence manifest. San Joaquin County appreciates normal school instruction, and will be well represented at the school next session. Some other counties we could mention had best wake up and look to their laurels. This convention was a success, and the utmost good feeling existed throughout the session. The Independent says, it was one hundred per cent. ahead of the one held a year ago, owing to a very big disgust created last year by some outsider. Mrs. Edgerton read an Essay on the Relation of Science and Religion; and Mrs. Grove, one upon Woman's Influence on Education, said to have been very fine. Dr. F. O. Barstow, County Superintendent of Calaveras, gave a series of evening readings which were well received and applauded. On the last evening he again read and personated Dr. Valentine's Ventriloquist, causing much mirth; and H. P. Carlton recited Poe's Raven to an attentive and appreciating audience. The Institute closed with a re-union, and all went home to duty, refreshed and invigorated with the exercises and social stimulus of the convention.

MARYSVILLE INSTITUTE.-The Joint County Institute of the counties of Yuba, Sacramento, Butte, and Sutter, was held at Marysville, October 23d to 28th. About eighty teachers were in attendance, and the exercises passed off pleasantly. The teachers of Sacramento county and city, who are not excelled in professional spirit and pride by any corps of teachers in the State, were there in a body, and added greatly to the interest of the occasion. Able addresses were delivered by Rev. Wm. H. Hill, City Superintendent of Sacramento, Dr. F. W. Hatch, County Superintendent of Sacramento, Rev. C. V. Anthony, of Marysville, D. C. Stone, of Marysville, and Dr. E. J. Schellhouse, of Butte County. A State examination, at which twenty-eight applicants appeared, was conducted by the State Superintendent, and the several county superintendents, assisted by members of the various county boards of examination.

SCHOOL STATISTICS.-The whole number of children in this State under fifteen years of age is shown by the last school census to be 136,189. According to the census of 1860, the children under fifteen years of age in the Pacific District comprising California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Washington Territory, constituted twenty-eight per cent. of the whole population.

It is probable that for California alone the children under fifteen constitute thirty per cent. of the entire population, which would give for the present population of California 450,000.

The average number belonging to the public schools in 1865 was 33,706; in 1866, 48,091, showing the large gain of 15,385.

The number of free schools maintained without rate bills has increased from 293 to 453, or a gain of 160. It is safe to assert that more than three-fourths of all the children who attend public schools are included in the " free schools." The total expenditures for the year are about the same as in 1865; but the school year for 1866 was for ten months only, and of course, the expenditures were only five-sixths as much as a full year of twelve months.

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GUYOT'S GEOGRAPHICAL SERIES.-We have received from A. Roman & Co. the first two books of this long expected series—the Primary Geography and the Common School Geography-both published by Chas. Scribner & Co., N. Y. The Primary Geography is small quarto in size, numbering one hundred and eighteen pages; the Common School, large quarto, one hundred and forty-seven pages. Those teachers who are familiar with "Guyot's Earth and Man," and Physical Maps," will be prepared to expect a radical departure from antique text books-and they will not be disappointed. These books were prepared under the general direction and supervision of Prof. Guyot, by Mrs. Mary H. Smith, of the Oswego Normal and Training School. In a double degree, therefore, these books are full of natural methods; and consequently, cannot fail to be unpopular among teachers who stick to the good old way of teaching geography. Ten years of teaching from the old-style text books, and five years' observation on the same kind of teaching by others, has thoroughly convinced us of the need of a reformation in teaching geography. Our State series of text books is adopted, and cannot at present be changed; but we ask all teachers to obtain these new books, and study them for the purpose of learning how to teach. They are beautifully illustrated; the maps are executed in the highest style of art; the typographical appearance is neat; the binding is substantial; and the subject-matter is the most valuable and the most interesting that we have ever seen inclosed in the covers of a school geography. We have no time to go into any detailed review of the book, and close by quoting from the preface the words of Prof. Guyot :

"During more than nine years it was my privilege to address thousands of teachers in the normal schools of Massachusetts and New Jersey, and in the Teachers' Institutes, on the subject of geographical teaching, and on the reform so much needed in that important department of instruction. To answer their eager and repeated request, I promised my earnest efforts to furnish them with the appropriate instrumentalities, maps and books, needed for carrying ont successfully the plan and the method of teaching geography which I so strenuously recommended to them.

This pledge I have begun to redeem by offering to them, and to all their fellowlaborers in the noble field of public education, the first and most important instrument in that department of knowledge, a series of physical and political wall-maps, without which the best books would be of little avail. These maps, the aim of which is to picture to the eye, in a bold manner, the grand and characteristic traits of the physical structure of the continents, and their relations to the political divisions of the globe, have been constructed entirely anew from all the geographical materials made public up to the date of their issue.

"The nature of our mind is such, that the acquisition of knowledge is always grad

ual. That gradual process, whatever be the object of our study, has three main stages. We first take a general outside view of the object, or of the field to be studied; we then fairly go into the study of all its parts; last of all we derive from this thorough analysis the means of rising to the knowledge of the laws and principles which regulate and pervade the whole, and we combine all its elements in a well-connected organization, in which the mutual dependence of all the parts and their co-operation to a final end, are clearly understood. The first stage, especially in the study of the globe, and in all the sciences of observation, may be called the perceptive stage; the second, the analytic; the third, the synthetic. The first is preparatory; the second constitutes the bulk of the study; the third is the scientific and final stage of perfected knowledge. "It is obvious that in each of the three stages the powers of the mind, which are called into prominent action, are not the same. The simple power of perception, through the senses, predominates in the first; the analytical understanding, in the second; the power of generalization, in the third. This successive predominance being precisely the same which obtains in the successive phases of development of the mind during the period of education in its beginning, middle, and end, the mode of presenting the subject must be considerably modified at each of these steps in accordance with those invariable psychological laws.

"I recognize, therefore, three normal grades, those above mentioned, each requiring a special treatment of the subject, and a separate text book.

"The various geographical topics, also, must be presented in each grade in such an order as will enable the pupil to grasp them intelligently, in their natural connection. Here, the order of natural dependence is the rule to be followed: the forms of contour and relief, without which the drainage of a country cannot be understood, before the study of the river systems; the climate before the distribution of plants and animals which it controls; the geography of nature before the geography of man, ethnographical, political, and statistical, which is regulated by the former. Thus each order of facts becomes a sure stepping stone for the intelligent study of the next.

"To disregard either of these two great principles is to insure certain failure. For then, bare memory, unintelligent, and therefore, not retentive, is the sole dependence of the pupil. That wonderful power, instead of being the useful servant it is intended to be, is the sole master and despot of the pupil's mind; and he is put back into that purely mechanical memorizing which makes his knowledge a burden, and of instruction nothing remains but the most empty and passing show.

"Let me close by expressing the sincere wish that the results of so much arduous labor may be productive of some lasting good for the cause of public education. Without that sustaining hope, these various works never would have been begun, nor can they be without it carried to a successful completion."

STATE TEACHERS' INSTITUTE.-A State Institute will be held in the City of San Francisco, on the first week in May, 1867.

NEW BOOKS.--The following new books have been received:

CLARKE'S NEW PRIMARY GEOGRAPHY. 52 pp. H. H. Bancroft & Co : San Francisco. The almost simultaneous advent of so many new and very excellent works in Geography would seem to indicate, quite unmistakably, that educators feel a pressing need of better means of presenting this science. The elementary character of the new book shows that it is not so much new matter as new method that is wanted. As we read the delightful pages, and linger over the truthful pictures, intensely interesting illustrations and beautifully clear maps, so utterly unlike the books of our younger days, we feel a glow of pleasure at the thought

of the delightful paths through which our children are to tread in pursuit of richer fruit than any that ever rewarded us for crawling through the thorny cow-trails of our old Geography. But the brightness of our hopes is shaded by well defined fears that much of the good of all this outlay of care, knowledge, ingenuity, taste, and skill may be lost through the unskillfulness of young, inexperienced, or indifferent teachers. If now some one would only step forth with a geographical sewing machine, by means of which the clumsiest five-thumbed creature alive shall be enabled to tastefully stitch together the beautiful geographical facts which are so lavishly furnished and almost thrust upon us; if, in strict accordance with the American peculiarity of distributing the skill of the gifted one among the unskillful many, by means of inventions, some real teacher would only arrange a system of doing the work, then, indeed, would our pleasure be unalloyed. And here it is: "Clarke's New Primary Geography " is just the book we want, to invest the most inexperienced teacher with a large share of the necessary skill to teach the substance of what is contained in all geographies. It compels the teacher to do the book work rationally. There are no gaps for want of system; no points are forgotten; nothing is left to chance. The child does not learn Geography, in course of time, and in spite of the teaching, but learns it rapidly, thoroughly, and unconsciously, as a mere consequence of going through the book. Dr. Clarke is not a geographer, and his series, of which this is the most elementary, are not treatises. He is a teacher, a skillful one, and this little book is a teacher's instrument-nothing more. No mere scholar is competent to judge of its merits; but a teacher, especially one who has examined classes taught by unskillful persons, will see the points readily, and appreciate this contribution to the Art of Teaching. M.

SCHOOL GOVERNMENT: A Practical Treatise, presenting a thorough discussion of its Facts, Principles, and their Applications, with critiques upon current theories of Punishment, and schemes of Administration. For the use of Normal Schools, Practical Teachers, and Parents. By Frederick S.' Jewell, A.M. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. pp. 308.

Prof. Jewell, of the New York State Normal School, has canceled, in part, at least, the debt which Lord Bacon asserts every man owes to his profession. The discussion is full, systematic, and complete. Each chapter has an analysis of contents, in addition to the general subject. We commend the volume, believing that its suggestions will prove useful to many a teacher, perplexed and annoyed by thoughtless pupils, and seeking what principle most wisely to apply, in order that the ends of good government may be secured.

THE ART OF AMUSING; Being a collection of graceful Arts, merry Games, odd Tricks, curious Puzzles, and new Charades. Together with suggestions for private Theatricals, Tableaux, and all sorts of Parlor and Family Amusements. A volume intended to amuse everybody, and enable all to amuse everybody else; thus bringing about as near an approximation to the Millennium as can be conveniently attained in the compass of one small volume. By Frank Bellew. New York: Carleton. San Francisco: A. Roman & Co. pp. 302.

The long title-page is as good a notice of this volume as can possibly be written.