student. But after this is completed a special or departmental course of studies should be selected, such as appears most likely to conduct him to his appropriate sphere of usefulness. Collateral studies of different kinds may always be allowed, but they should be subordinate and subsidiary, and need not interfere with the great objects of his especial education.

"A common college education now culminates in the student becoming what is called a master of arts. But this in a majority of instances means simply a master of nothing. It means that he has spent much time and some labor in besieging the many doors of the temple of knowledge, without effecting an entrance at any of them. In the practical life which he is about to follow he will often have occasion to lament, be he ever so exemplary and diligent, that he has wasted on subjects irrelevant to his vocation, both time and labor, which, had they been otherwise devoted, would have prepared and assisted him in the particular work he is called on to do.

"Young men, as well as their parents in their behalf, are justly ambitious of a collegiate education. Older men often regret that they have not had the opportunity to receive it when young. And this is because of the generally acknowledged fact, that four years, spent under the tuition of faithful, accomplished and gentlemanly teachers, can hardly fail to improve their character, language and bearing, as well as their store of useful knowledge. It is the habitual contact and guidance of superior minds, as well as the progressive attrition with each other, which make young men proficients in rectitude, in honor, in science, in polite literature, in tact, and in manners. And this result will appear, whether they have been taught French at West Point, or Greek in Harvard or Yale."

We think that Dr. Bigelow has well indicated in this passage the nature and true worth of the service done by a collegiate education. It is not in any mysterious value inhering in a training in dead languages, or transcendental mathematics that that service is contained, but in the "contact and guidance" of trained minds, and the discipline derived at that particular age when the mind is developing from puerile to manly proportions, from the thorough pursuit of any course of study in liberal arts and sciences. It is not, therefore, that the higher university and college training is useless, but that it should be enlarged and adapted to the new wants of the new age that the friends of reform in education plead. Self-education can never take the place of the training of the higher schools, though in the case of able men self-education may often be far better than a bad and unsuitable college training. It is with regret, therefore, that we find our author, a few pages afterwards, seeming to give the weight of his authority to the view too commonly held in this country of "self-made " men, that a higher training is useless to an able man, who had better be the architect of his own education as well as his own fortune. That the over-cultivated 'youths of cities are outstripped by the rude uncultivated force of country-bred men is no argument to prove that that rude force would not have been the better for a true and real training. On this point, Mr. Ware says very admirably and justly, "There can be no more mistaken or mischievous notion that

there is a natural conflict between men of natural force and genius, and men of education, unless, indeed, it is the notion, that, when they are brought into conflict, it is the self-trained man of genius who holds his own, and the man of education that goes to the wall. Our public life, indeed, sometimes exhibits its chief successes in the persons of men born and bred in the woods and wilds. But the art of administering government is with us, as yet, still in its infancy. Our political system is still primitive and crude; only its main principles have as yet been struck out; and only the simplest methods of availing of the natural forces at our disposal, so to speak, have as yet come into use. Our domestic relations, at least, are still in that state of development in which, in all the arts, a vigorous common sense and singleness of purpose are most efficient. Yet the impartial biographer of Jackson and of Clay finds ample cause to regret that the wisdom that comes from learning was not also theirs. It has not been found that genius for war has been able to manifest itself to any considerable extent, except under the favorable influences of a technical training. Instances of such transcendent natural powers as to overcome every disadvantage of education are, indeed, sometimes found in science, seldom in literature, in art almost never.

"A great deal is said about a self-sufficient and all-subduing nature, but the men of genius themselves are not deceived by it. They clamor for discipline, for training, for being taken in hand and put through all they should go through, for being taught all that it becomes them to know. An institution that can perform such service for such men is a great civilizing agent."

But in the main, and with these limitations we heartily agree with Dr. Bigelow in his notions of education; and we fear there is too much truth in the following criticism of our school system.

"The human intellect, though varying in capacity in different individuals, has its limits in all plans of enlargement by acquisition, and these limits cannot be transcended without aggregate deterioration in distracting the attention, overloading the memory or overworking the brain and sapping the foundations of

health.

"The school system of New England is at the present moment our glory and our shame. We feel a just pride that among us education is accessible to all, because our public schools are open to the humblest persons. But in our zeal for general instruction, we sometimes forget that a majority of men and women must labor with their hands, that the world may not stand still, and that all may not lose by disuse the power to labor. We cannot train all our boys to be statesmen and divines, nor all our girls to be authors and lecturers, or even teachers. We ought not, therefore, to drive them into the false position of expecting to attain by extraordinary effort a place which neither nature nor circumstances have made possible. Many unfortunate children have been ruined for life, in body and mind, by being stimulated with various inducements to make exertions beyond their age and mental capacity. A feeble frame and a nervous temperament are the too sure consequences of a brain overworked in childhood. Slow progress, rather than rapid growth, tends to establish vigor, health and happiness.

It has always appeared to me that a desirable and profitable mode of school education would be one in which every hour of study should be offset by another hour of exercise required to be taken in the open air."

Of the details of Prof. Ware's excellent course of instruction, we have left ourselves no room to speak. It is broad, liberal, and comprehensive, and cannot fail if well carried out, to elevate the character of the profession in this country, and thus to give what we have but few of now, architectural works which shall be ornaments and not eye-sores. We need hardly point out the wide field that is opening to energetic young men possessed of the right aptitudes for this profession.

The discourse is printed, not published, but we presume it can readily be obtained by any person interested in the subject, by applying to the author.

A TEXT-BOOK ON CHEMISTRY FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES, by Henry Draper, M.D., Professor Adjunct of Chemistry and Natural History in the University of New York, with more than 300 illustrations. New York: Harper & Bros. 12mo, pp. 507.

A critic, far more competent than we are to judge of the merits of this book, writes us as follows respecting it, and embraces in his criticism some considerations respecting the study which we think will be of interest to high-school teachers.

"The current text-books of Chemistry may be divided, as you know, into three classes: the elaborate treatise, like the works of Graham or Regnault : the compact manual, like the excellent, but now somewhat antiquated book of Fownes; and the ordinary school-book like Silliman's, Youman's, and all that tribe. Prof. Draper's book belongs to the last class, and will be found to compare favorably with any of its competitors. It is written in a plain, simple, direct style, and is a good book of its kind. Whether this kind of book is not a trifle out of date is another question; certain it is that it ought to be. It is high time that Physics should be taught in our schools for its own sake, and not come in merely as a sort of appendage to a smattering of Chemistry. In my opinion the Chemistry had far better be left out altogether from the school course, and the Natural Philosophy taught by itself.

"In the work of Prof. Draper we have a continuation of the old fashion of opening with a disquisition upon certain physical properties of matter, a disquisition which runs through full one third of the book. All this, it is true, is knowledge which should by mastered by every student at some time; but its pertinence as the preface to a treatise on Chemistry is more than questionable. The tendency of the system is to dilute the physics to the lowest point, and then to bring the chemistry to the same level. My own opinion is that it is not wise to attempt to teach Chemistry in this manner. I believe it would be better to dwell upon the simpler physical conceptions during the school course, and leave the less tangible matters, like Chemistry, until the pupil is eighteen years of age or so. It will not require many years of experience in our scientific schools to determine whether I am right in this view. I have already had a tolerably large experience in the matter, and can say that at present, in the ordinary

laboratories all over the world there only two classes of pupils, first-rate and execrable, and that young first-rates are rare."

SPENSERIAN KEY TO PRACTICAL PENMANSHIP. ney, Blakeman & Co. 12mo, pp. 176.

New York: Ivison, Phin

A very elegant illustrated volume, got up in extremely good taste, and which contains, we should think, everything that can well be said on the useful art of penmanship. We like especially the chapters on the analysis of letters, and the pointing out of probable faults: for it is only by this minute attention to particulars that a bad handwriting can be changed to a good one. We do not hold to making everybody write alike: we prefer to see something characteristic about a handwriting, provided always it is not a characteristic illegibility; but nothing can be of greater importance than teaching young people a proper position and proper mode of holding the pen, and impressing on them the value of a good, clear, legible handwriting. The Spenserian style is flowing and elegant.

THE LOST TALES OF MILETUS, by the Right Hon. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart, M. P. New York: Harper & Bros. 12mo, pp. 182.

We are not among the admirers of the Rt. Hon. E. B. Lytton, Bart. M. P. His reputation is great, but it is not one that will long survive its generation. A clever, versatile and unprincipled writer, he began with novels distinguished for a mixture of licentiousness, false sentiment and sham philosophy, and he has since tried his hand at almost every form of composition. He wrote a secondrate history of Greece, a fourth-rate epic poem, a volume of fairly good essays, made an unsuccessful attempt as a political orator, and now seems ambitious of adding new metres to English poetry, but we do not think he is likely to be successful when so many real poets, from Spenser down to Southey, have failed before him. What the lost tales of Miletus really were, can only be guessed at; it is much clearer that Sir Edward's imitations of them are a very mediocre performance.

NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION TO THE ZAMBEZI AND ITS TRIBUTARIES, AND THE DISCOVERY OF LAKES SHIRWA AND NYASSA, 1858-1864, by David and Charles Livingstone: with a map and numerous illustrations, 8vo, pp. 66. $5.

Here is another of those noble volumes of travel and exploration which form such a specialty in the Messrs. Harpers' catalogue. We can only repeat that it is the reading and digesting of such books as this that constitute the real study of geography; and we believe that a teacher will do better to give his class some lively oral lessons and readings out of such a book, always making them take notes, and in some way, orally or by writing, rearrange and reproduce these lessons, than to make them commit to memory the heights of all the mountains, and the lengths of all the rivers on the globe.

THIS IS A WHite Working-MAN'S GOVERNMENT. Speech of Hon. J. W. Chanler, of New York.

A copy of this speech has been sent us under the frank of its author. We can only say that we cannot too strongly express our disapproval of its illiberal, undemocratic, and anti-republican sentiments, or of the pandering to vulgar prejudice indicated by its title.

A CHILD'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, Vol. 3, Part 2d. History of the Great Rebellion, with Illustrations, by John Bonner. New York: Har& Bros. 16mo, pp. 366.

per

A little book which seems put together in a clever and lively manner, and which grown people will find useful to refresh their memories in regard to the sequence of the events which made up the great struggle. It is a neat little volume, and the wood-cuts are very good.

WALTER GORING. By Annie Thomas. Harper's Library of Select Novels;

75 cents.

We do not like the plot, but Miss Annie Thomas has a great deal of cleverness, and writes very readable and spirited dialogue. This novel is better than the average.

THE TOILERS OF THE SEA. By Victor Hugo.

Full of Victor Hugo's genius, if we are to believe the critics, and full, also, of his faults. The scene is laid in the little island of Guernsey, the author's place of exile and refuge.

THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL OF THE UNITED STATES. Philadelphia: J. P. Lippincott & Co. 8vo, pp. 158.

We hope to give this pamphlet a more extended notice in our next number.

THE NATIONALIST, Vol. 1, No. 2: Mobile, Ala. In the year 1856, when we were temporarily acting as Editor of this Magazine, we received a returned number from a certain town in Alabama, with the following more emphatic than civil endorsement: "Keep your d―d abolition doctrines to yourself. Stop this if you please. Mr. W. has gone to parts unknown." Of" abolition doctrines," technically so called, there were none, but that particular number was entirely occupied with a report of the proceedings of the American Institute of Instruction. We bound the number, cover and all, into our volume, as a curious memento of our brief editorial career, and gratified, no doubt, our irate Southern friend by sending him one number more, in which we had printed, side by side, some statistics of Northern education and Southern ignorance. We little thought in those dark days that we should ever live to receive a paper from Mobile containing these noble sentiments in its prospectus: "The NATIONALIST will advocate the radicalism which requires equal and exact justice to all men, irrespective of color or nation. It will insist that freedom is the true normal condition of all men. It will of course claim for the colored people, whose valor and loyalty have especially identified them with our vindicated nationality, and whose eagerness to avail themselves of the means of education which are now for the first time within their reach, and among whom there are already numbers possessing more intelligence than many white voters, the right to go to the polls with other men - that no restrictions should be placed upon them that are not equally applied to white men."

There is no longer need, thank Heaven! of coming to Massachusetts for "abolition doctrine." We bid the NATIONALIST God speed, and shall be happy to put it on our list of exchanges.