room which is occupied by the teacher, the wall is covered with blackboards and maps. There too we find, ready at hand, all needed apparatus and a library, in a safe and convenient repository. The light is not admitted in front, to the great injury of the eyes, as is too often the case, but is received from the east and west, thus falling as it should upon the sides of the pupils, and affording the greatest supply when needed, namely, in the morning and afternoon. The warming apparatus is so constructed as to diffuse an equable temperature throughout the room without subjecting any part to the extremes of heat and cold; while the apparatus for ventilation effectually removes the air as fast as it becomes unfit for breathing, and supplies its place with the pure, unadulterated atmosphere of heaven. Mats, scrapers, water, clothes closets, and a suitable place for fuel, are all supplied. And there it stands, the beautiful structure, with its little tasteful park, its shrubbery, its flower-pots, and all other needed appurtenances and ornaments. There it stands, the daily blessing of many children and youth who resort to it for the bread of knowledge. There it stands, the surest guaranty of the future happiness and prosperity of the community among whom it is located. It is itself a teacher. It teaches neatness and order. It promotes good morals and manners. It instils into the tender mind of childhood the love of the beautiful in nature and in art, and proclaims to every passer-by the dignity and importance of education. It is not a cold abstraction; it is a living epistle to be read of all. But this fit home for the school to dwell in did not spring up out of the ground, like Jonah's gourd, in a night. It cost treasure, and it cost labor, but it amply compensates for both. Such a school-house is far more economical than those of the poorest class. By a few simple operations in addition and subtraction, it may be shown that no district can afford to support a poor school-house. If any one doubts it, let him sit down with me and sum up the cost of keeping up such a concern. Reckon the sums of money you annually sink in paying teachers to work without suitable tools and means, not forgetting that, as a general rule, you will be compelled to put up with the poorest teachers, for the best will not put up with such accommodations without extra compensation. Add to this the loss of half or threefourths of the school-time of your children. Calculate the value of that knowledge and intellectual culture which your sons and daughters are thus deprived of forever. Compute, if you can, the amount of loss sustained in injured lungs and spines and eyes; in colds and fevers and consumption, and all the train of evils, generated or aggravated by the defects of the bad school house; and to this add its unhappy effect upon the taste and moral sentiments, those faculties which are so intimately connected with whatsoever things are lovely, and whatsoever things are of good report. Bring together these items in one grand sum total, and then say if any community can afford to support a poor school-house. PESTALOZZI AND HIS PHILOSOPHY. [From our Foreign Correspondent.] The subjoined extract is translated from Madame de Stael's Allemagne. I have hardly met an article of any length that conveys sounder and more practical views on the subject of education. A finer tribute to the work of Pestalozzi cannot be found in any language. The reader cannot fail to remark the similarity between Pestalozzi's method of instruction and that of Dr. Arnold; and indeed, that thought which is thrown out near the commencement of the extract, the method of Pestalozzi, is capable of application to the higher branches of study, and is reconcilable with the deepest study of the ancient languages, has been shown by Arnold's life and career as a teacher, to have been based on truth. I met this passage in casual reading, and was so impressed with its excellence that I offer this hasty translation, as preferable to any thing which I can write upon the interesting schools of Prussia. The reader will not fail to notice passages which demand reflection and self-examination. Ir appears at first inconsistent to praise the old method which made the study of languages the base of education, and to consider the school of Pestalozzi as one of the best institutions of our age. I believe, however, that these views can be reconciled. Of all studies, that which gives, with Pestalozzi, the most brilliant results, is Mathematics. But it seems to me that his method might be applied to many other branches of instruction, and that it would there effect sure and rapid progress. In fact, it has been applied with success to Grammar, Geography, and Music. There is hardly such a thing as an almost in the system of Pestalozzi; the pupil either understands, or he does not understand; for all the propositions are so closely connected that the second step is always the immediate consequent of the first. Pestalozzi conducts children by a road so easy and so sure that it costs no more pains to initiate them into the most abstract sciences than to instruct them in the most simple employments. Every step is as plain by its relation to the preceding, as the most natural consequences drawn from the most ordinary circumstances. What wearies children is, to make them leap over intermediate steps; making them advance without their knowing thoroughly what they suppose they have learned. There is, then, in their head a sort of confusion which renders an examination fearful, and inspires in them an unconquerable distaste for work. There exists no trace of these troubles with Pestalozzi: the children amuse themselves with their studies; not that they play with them, but because they enjoy, in childhood, the pleasure of grown-up men,-of knowing, grasping, and defining that which they have learned. It is a singular spectacle which the school of Pestalozzi presents, of children whose round and delicate faces take naturally a reflective expression. They are attentive of themselves, and regard their studies as a man of mature age would occupy himself with his business. It is a remarkable thing that neither punishment nor reward is necessary to stimulate them in their tasks. This is, perhaps, the first instance that a school of a hundred and fifty, children has succeeded without resort to emulation or fear. How many evil thoughts are spared to man when jealousy and humiliation are removed from his heart; when he does not see rivals in his comrades, and judges in his teachers! Rousseau wished that the child should be exposed to the law of destiny; Pestalozzi creates himself this destiny during the education of the child, and directs its decrees towards its happiness and its perfecting. The child feels itself free, because it is pleased with the general order which surrounds it, the perfect uniformity of which is not deranged even by the talents, more or less marked, of individuals. He does not concern himself about success, but about progress towards a goal to which all are moving with the same earnestness. The scholars become teachers when they know more than their comrades; the teachers become scholars when they find some imperfections in their own method, and recommence their own education, to judge better of a teacher's difficulties. It would be wrong to suppose that there is nothing good to learn in the school of Pestalozzi but his rapid method of calculation. Pestalozzi himself is not a mathematician, he is little conversant with languages; he has only the perception and instinct necessary to develop the intelligence of children: he knows what road their thoughts ought to follow to arrive at the goal. This submissiveness of character, which spreads a calm so grand over the affections of the heart, Pestalozzi has judged also necessary in the workings of the mind. He thinks that morality has its share in the pleasure derived from a complete course of study. Indeed, we always see that superficial knowledge inspires a sort of disdainful arrogance, which causes one to reject as useless or ridiculous every thing which he does not know. We also see that superficial knowledge always obliges its possessor to conceal what he does not know. Candor suffers from all those faults of instruction, of which one cannot help being ashamed. To know perfectly what one knows, gives a peace to the mind which resembles the repose of conscience. The earnestness of Pestalozzi, which treats ideas as carefully as men, is the principal merit of his school; it is by this means that he assembles around him men devoted to the welfare of the children, and wholly disinterested. When in a public establishment, no personal desires of the directors are gratified; the moving power of the whole must be found in their love of virtue; the satisfaction which it gives can alone surpass the enjoyment of wealth and power. The institution of Pestalozzi is not to be imitated by simply copying his method of instruction; with this must be established perseverance in the teachers, simpleness of mind in the pupils, regularity in every kind of life, and, in short, the religious sentiments which animate this school. The exercises of divine worship are not observed there with more exactness than elsewhere; but every thing passes there in the name of divinity, in the name of that elevated, noble, and pure sentiment, which is the continual religion of the heart. Truth, goodness, confidence, affection, surround the children; and, for the time at least, they remain strangers to all the hateful passions, to all the conceited prejudices of the world. An eloquent philosopher, Fichte, has said that he expected the regeneration of the German nation from the institute of Pestalozzi; we must at least agree that a revolution founded on such a basis, would be neither violent nor rapid; for education, however good it may be, is nothing in comparison with the influence of public movements; instruction wears away the rock drop by drop, but the torrent removes it in a day. Berlin, June 3d, 1855. W. L. G. COOLIES FOR CUBA.-There has been for many months a project on foot for the introduction of 6000 coolies from China into Cuba, as plantation laborers, to supply the place of negroes, the importation of whom from Africa is to be prohibited, if possible. The English capitalists having the matter in charge, were delayed in their arrangements by the urgent want of vessels for the Crimea, which rendered it difficult to effect suitable charters in London. They have finally transferred the scene of their labors to this city, and a vessel is now fitting out at this port for China, under a contract for 1,250 emigrants. They will be landed at Panama, cross the Isthmus upon the railroad, and be re-shipped at Aspinwall for Cuba. What the expense of the voyage will be, we cannot state precisely; but as it cost the Railroad Company $100 per head for laborers from China to Panama, we estimate the expense of each emigrant to Cuba at $125 to $130. The French Government, or a company under the sanction of that Government, are negotiating also for a supply of labor from the same quarter for the French West Indies, so that a large number of the Celestials will have a fair chance for a home on this side of the globe. A vessel which recently arrived at Rio also brought 300 coolies, and we understand several owners of large coffee estates in Brazil, are trying to make arrangements for a regular yearly supply of laborers from Chinese ports.-N. Y. Journal of Commerce, April 19th. THE DUNTONIAN SYSTEM OF RAPID WRITING. "Be not the first by whom the new are tried, MUCH time and great expense have always been and still are bestowed on chirography in our common schools. It is a branch of instruction second in rank but to the art of reading, and de-. serves all the attention which has been given to it. It embraces, indeed, more of the principles of social benevolence than the art of reading; for it implies the exercise of the power of imparting knowledge to others, while reading is rather the means of self-gratification and improvement. Hence nothing gives the true teacher more satisfaction than any improvement or discovery which may aid him in imparting to his pupils the elements of this noble art; the art of giving to thought a form and substance that are impressed on the minds of succeeding ages. Still it would be a source of regret to witness any attempt to effect a sudden or radical change in the style or in the method of teaching penmanship. We ask not merely novelty, but improvement. The teacher who endeavors to stem the current of popular opinion, must not be satisfied with diverting it from its usual channel, but must turn it in a direction in which it may act with a stronger and a more effective energy. The tone of public opinion favors, and in accordance with the spirit of the age, will continue to favor, that system of penmanship which combines the legible with the rapid style. We have passed through the phase of popular opinion, which would sacrifice everything to |