in the Pay Schools, the number has been smaller. Since the formation of the Society, the schools have instructed between 4000 and 5000 children. Many of these pupils are the children of parents who are poor and grossly ignorant, some of them unable to read; and not a few of them intemperate.

These schools have thus far been sustained entirely by private contributions. The teachers are all females, and the Board of Managers consists of twenty-five ladies. The objects of their care have been infants, from two to five or six years of age, many of whom were clothed by the benevolent managers, before they were introduced to their respective teachers. To secure these poor children only for a few hours in each day, from the contagion of evil influence, were, of itself, a noble act of charity-to give them intellectual instruction, is a work still nobler. Yet we hope they will be so conducted as to invigorate their bodies, develope their minds, and, above all, to cultivate their hearts.

PHILADELPHIA INSTITUTE.

From the Second Annual Report of this Institution, we learn that it is still in a flourishing condition. During the past year, the number of members has increased from 243 to 390. The Library now numbers 751 volumes. They receive sixteen weekly and daily papers, and eight monthly and quarterly periodicals.

The tax of fifty cents on each member has been abolished, and nothing is now required of the members but suitable age, and respect to the rules of the Reading and Lecture rooms. No such infraction of the rules has yet occurred, as to make it necessary to expel a member. The moral and religious lectures, both on the Sabbath and during week days, have, during the past year, been sustained by the effort and expense of the Board of Directors, and have been well attended.

BOSTON ACADEMY OF MUSIC.

At the commencement of our editorial labors, we urged upon our readers the importance of vocal music, as a branch of education, on account of its happy influence both on the body and the mind; and gave some account of the simple method of instruction devised in Switzerland. We are gratified in being able to announce, that an association has been formed in Boston, by a number of gentlemen who have long been interested in the subject, for the purpose of providing instruction in singing on this plan; and of extending and improving the taste for social and sacred music. With these views, they have engaged as their professor Mr Lowell Mason, late President of the Handel and Haydn Society, whose science and skill, as a musician and teacher, are well known.

Mr. Mason has occupied himself, for some time past, in the intervals allowed by his business, in giving instruction to children gratuitously; and his Juvenile Concerts have excited deep interest in all who heard them. He has now consented, at the solicitation of the Academy, to devote his whole time to this object. Several schools are in operation; and he is expected, as soon as the requisite preparation can be made, to commence lessons in private schools, to organize other special schools for children, to open a class for teachers, who wish to learn the improved method of instruction, and to prepare such elementary books as may aid in their introduction into our schools generally. We need not pledge anew, our good wishes and best efforts for the execution of these plans.

We are gratified to learn, that the success of schools instructed according to the Pestalozzian system, by Mr Ives of Philadelphia, has been complete; and also to find, that other gentlemen in this city, are turning their attention to the same objects.

ENGRAVINGS OF ANIMALS.

We have been much gratified to receive the four first of a series of Engravings of Animals, and now in the course of publication by the American Sunday School Union. They are drawn with great truth and spirit, and finely executed; and are accompanied by descriptions and illustrations in a large type, to be exhibited to a class Their durability is secured by putting them on pasteboard. We have seen nothing so well adapted to the object; and think they deserve a place in every school. We only regret that the proportionate size of the animal cannot be preserved. The figure of a man in connection with every such drawing, would aid in forming correct ideas on this point.

AMERICAN

ANNALS OF EDUCATION

AND INSTRUCTION.

APRIL, 1833.

ART. I. PRIZE ESSAY ON TEACHING PENMANSHIP. An Essay on the Teaching of Penmanship, presented to the American Institute of Instruction,

By B. B. FOSTER,

Teacher of Writing in the Albany Academy and author of "Practical Penmanship."

SECTION I.- PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

I SHALL endeavor, in this Essay to point out, in a plain manner, the most effectual mode of teaching the art of Writing. The method pursued, will be to lay down, in their natural succession, the rules which experience and reason have approved as the best for communicating the art, from its first elements to the attainment of the greatest elegance and expedition; and such practical remarks will be interspersed, as may incidentally occur.

Two things are essential to skill in this art. edge of the forms and proportions of the letters; er of executing these letters on paper.

FIRST, A knowlSECOND, The pow

It must be apparent, on the slightest examination of the subject, that both the above requisites are indispensable to make a good penman. If a person be deficient in the first, although he may possess inimitable ease and freedom in the use of the pen, his performance will displease, from its want of just proportion and symmetry of parts. If he is wanting in the second, however correct the form of each particular letter, there will be no freedom or grace in the general aspect of his writing.

It would be highly advantageous to learners if they could be first thoroughly instructed in the forms and proportions of the letters, before undertaking to execute them. They would then have but one thing to learn at a time; whereas, they are now embarrassed with all the niceties of form and proportion, at the same moment when they find their whole power of attention little enough to encounter all the difficulties of a correct posture, and manner of holding the pen, and the other requisites for good execution. Yet with the very young, a theoretic knowledge is too often no knowledge at all, and it is therefore generally found expedient from the outset, to suffer the pupil to learn the form of each letter, by making it with a pen. Thus, both the requisites above mentioned, are acquired simultaneously. Admitting this to be a necessary evil, the principal objects of attention arrange themselves in the following order :

1. The position of the body.

II. The position of the paper.

III.

The manner of holding the pen.

IV. The form of the letters.

V. The movements by which the letters are executed.

I. Great attention should be paid to the position of the body. This, and the second and third of the objects just enumerated, may to some appear unimportant, but they are far from being so. They cannot be too carefully attended to, as the neglect of either of them will retard the progress of the pupil, and in the end, prove a serious obstacle to his acquisition of a free and elegant current hand, which, of course, is his ultimate object. If, in these particulars, he be suffered to begin with wrong habits, they will grow upon him, and he will not afterwards be able to shake them off without much pains and trouble. It is much easier for him to form correct habits in the beginning, than, in later life, to divest himself of bad ones. I would earnestly press the remark on the consideration of every one who honors these pages with a perusal, that very much of the pupil's success depends upon attention to seemingly minute points, when first beginning to write. Deviations from a judicious course commenced at that period, are apt to be followed by the worst consequences, and often, the evil done is without remedy, from the fixedness of the habit.

The pupil should sit in an easy, upright posture. His seat should be near the desk, so that he may not be obliged to reach over, and the desk should not be quite so high as the level of his elbow when his arm is drawn close to his side. Thus he will escape all the evils attendant upon a distorted position; which are, first, discomfort and constraint, then pain, and lastly, disease. For when, as is too often the case, the head is thrown forward, and the chest contracted, and this posture becomes habitual, it is unquestionably the source-es

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pecially with those who write much, of many diseases of the lungs, which not seldom terminate fatally. A more natural posture would not only be more healthy, but would give greater freedom in the management of the pen. The body should bend a little forward, but should by no means press against the desk. The left side should be brought near the desk, the feet placed obliquely, in the same direction with the slant of the writing, and the weight of the body supported by the left arm, so far as necessary to be supported by either. The right arm should rest lightly on the desk near the elbow, and be kept three or four inches from the body. The position just described gives the body a firm attitude, affords the right arm an easy play, and allows it to move with perfect liberty.

II. The paper should be placed directly in front of the right arm, and parallel with the edge of the desk. This is recommended not only by my own uniform experience, but by the opinion of the most judicious writers.

III. The next thing to be attended to is the manner of holding the pen. This is a matter of the first importance. The teacher should not suffer the least inaccuracy in this respect to escape notice and correction. For although it is very laborious, and requires great patience, to regulate the position, paper, pen, &c. as often as is necessary, yet the correct method in all these matters must be acquired before the pupil can ever attain to any excellence in the art. The teacher should be constantly at the pupil's elbow, for if left to practise alone, he will be liable to continual error, and there is no limit to the mischiefs flowing from a wrong beginning. The pen should be gently held, not tightly grasped, between the thumb, and first and second fingers. Little children should keep the second finger nearly half an inch from the point of the pen, but pupils of ten years old and upwards, about one inch from the point. The hand may be supported on the top of the little finger, keeping the one next to it bent inwards; or if the pupil prefers, it may be supported on the ends of the third and fourth fingers, inclined towards the palm of the hand. In either of these positions a free, unfettered hand writing may be acquired. There is a trifling rule, which if attended to, would keep the pen in its right position, viz. that the top of the pen should always point to the right shoulder.

IV. The next object is, to gain a familiarity with the forms and proportions of the letters. The general convenience which teachers find, or imagine, in beginning their instructions on this head, at the very same time when they first put a pen into the hand of the pupil, induce me in the foregoing remarks to concede that the use of the pen and the forms of the letters might be taught together. In my humble opinion, they would more thoroughly, and more easily be learned separately. I am far from recommending that the

forms of the letters should be taught by mere verbal instruction. But every person of observation must have remarked, that almost every child, before he is brought to a desk, in order to be taught to write, amuses himself with making pictures, or more properly scrawling figures with such materials as he can lay his hands on. This natural inclination requires only to be properly directed, and the shapeless figures may be made to assume proportion and symmetry. Let the pupil continue to use the slate and pencil, or paper and lead pencil, to which he has been accustomed to resort for childish diversion; or, if more convenient, let him be provided with a black board and chalk. The teacher should then exhibit the forms of the letters by practical exemplifications, on a large black board, placed in full view of the class. The pupil should be requested to inspect each letter with care, and then to imitate it as nearly as possible, with the materials before mentioned.

The letter o, will probably be found the most convenient for reference, as to height and proportion; thus, the height of the n is the same as that of the o, and the distance between its principal strokes is the width of the o, &c. These proportions should be well impressed on the pupil's mind, by examination with question and answer, following his imitations of each letter. The same method may be extended from the simple elementary characters to their various combinations, and will, I think, be found the shortest and most effectual method of impressing the pupil with correct ideas of the forms and proportions of the letters.

Any teacher, who pleases, may, of course, allow his pupil to use the pen in the process above described; but I should myself advise not to use it yet. It may naturally be asked, since penmanship is to be taught, why not give the pupil a pen from the first? The answer is ready,--that it is desirable for a child to have its whole attention confined to a single object at a time. If we give a pen to the young pupil at his first lesson, his attention is alternately occupied by two objects, each of which is new, and consequently difficult to him, the manner of holding his pen, and the form of the letters. The distraction of mind which follows this constrained attention to two things at once, is apt to produce the ill effect, that neither is learned well or easily; and this is entirely prevented by simply teaching one thing at a time.

First, therefore, let the pupil learn the forms of all the letters by using any of the materials mentioned above; and afterwards, when these are perfectly familiar, let him take a pen, and he will then have nothing to do, but to learn the use of that new instrument. These observations, it will at once be perceived, apply only to beginners. Those who have been accustomed to the use of the pen, may with propriety continue to use it, in improving the forms of their letters.