To these new schools Mr. Mann gave most hearty support, and helped them to weather legislative storms for a decade before they became firmly established as parts of the school system of the State. Probably nowhere else in the Union could the normal school have been established at so early a date, or, if established, been allowed to remain. Speaking at the dedication of the first building for normal school purposes erected in the United States, at Bridgewater, in 1846, Mr. Mann showed the deep interest he felt in the establishment of normal schools, when he said:

(c) Importance of the Normal School

I believe the Normal schools to be a new instrumentality in the advancement of the race. I believe that without them free schools themselves would be shorn of their strength and their healing power, and would at length become mere charity-schools, and thus die out in

fact and in form. Neither the art of printing, nor the trial by jury, nor a free press, nor free suffrage, can long exist to any beneficial and salutary purpose without schools for the training of teachers; for if the character and qualifications of teachers be allowed to degenerate, the free schools will become pauper schools, and the pauper schools will produce pauper souls, and the free press will become a false and licentious press, and ignorant voters will become venal voters, and through the medium and guise of republican forms an oligarchy of profligate and flagitious men will govern the land; nay, the universal diffusion and ultimate triumph of all-glorious Christianity itself must await the time when knowledge shall be diffused among men through the instrumentality of good schools. Coiled up in this institution, as in a spring, there is a vigor whose uncoiling may wheel the spheres.

and hearing the pupils recite what they had memorized from the work of the teacher was largely confined to keeping order and with small texts, almost entirely devoid of illustrations, the early textbooks are here reproduced. With such subject-matter, early educational history, a few typical pages from two popular To illustrate the type of instruction that was common in our 351. Examples of Instruction from Early Textbooks

text.

Q. What occasioned the battle of Lexington?
A. In April 1775, Col. Smith and Major
Pitcairn were sent with a body of troops to de-
stroy the military stores which had been col.
lected at Concord, about twenty miles from
Boston.
At Lexington, the militia were col-
lected to oppose the incursion of the British
troops.

Q. Were the Lexington corps successful in
their opposition?

A. No: they were dispersed, and some of
their number killed,

Q. When did the battle of Lexington take
place? A. On the 19th of April 1775: here
was shed the first blood in the American Revo-
lution.

STATES"

These show the catechetical form of the volume

FIG. 86. MAP OF THE WORLD, PRINTED OPPOSITE TITLE-PAGE OF MORSE'S "ELEMENTS OF GEOGRAPHY"

This was one of the two maps the volume contained, the other being a rough drawing of the eastern part of the United States, but not showing state lines

The first selection, given on page 631, reproduces two pages from a History of the United States, by B. Davenport, published in Philadelphia, in 1831. This was a little book, three and a half by five and a half inches in size, which contained eighty-one pages of questions and answers covering American history, arranged in catechism form, to which was added the Declaration of Independence, the Federal Constitution, and a Table of Chronology of thirty-two pages, extending from the creation of the world (4004 B.C.) to 1830. The entire book contained a hundred and fortyfour pages.

The second selection (pages 632, 633) reproduces the main map, as well as the title-page and one page of text, of a very popular early Geography. This was also a volume of a hundred and fortyfour pages, three and a half by five and a half inches in size. It contained two maps, but no illustrations.

Lies weft of the Miffifippi, over against the Uni-
ted States and weit Florida; having the Gulf of
Mexico on the fouth, and New Mexico weft. It
extends indefinitely north..

New Orleans is the capital of this country, a
place of very great importance to the Spanish-do-
minions, fituated on an island on the caft fide of
the Miffifippi, 105 miles from its mouth. Before
the grea, in 1788, it contained, 1, 106 koufes,
feven eighths of which were confumed in the pace
of 5 hours.

This is a moft, delightful country, yielding all
the productions which have been mentioned as grow.
ing in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida.

This country was firft difcovered by Ferdinand de Soto in 1541, but was not fettled till the beginning of the 17th century.

UNEXPLORED COUNTRY.

Under this head we include the vaft region ly-
ing weft of the Miffifippi, Upper Canada, and the
Hudfon's Bay fettlements; and north of the fet
tled parts of Louifiana, and New Mexico-hav-
ing the Pacific Ocean on the weft, and extending
to the north pole. This immenfe country is in-
habited by numerous tribes of Indians, of whom
and of their country, we know very little, except
from the late difcoveries which have been made
on the northwest coaft, by enterprifing people
who have traded there for furs, from the United
States and various parts of Europe. It is fuppofed
that fome, if not the greater part, of the human
inhabitants and of the animals, who first came to
America

These reveal the nature of the subject-matter of the text

FIG. 87. TWO PAGES FROM MORSE'S "ELEMENTS OF GEOGRAPHY"

water, to which is attached a part of Readington Township. He will equivalent) in the Center schoolhouse, being District No. 8, of Bridgeschool for the term of thirteen weeks of five days in each week (or an Joseph Thompson hereby agrees to teach a common English day

of the time was supposed to give. ter of the school, and the fact-type of instruction which the school interesting as showing the subjects taught, the ungraded charac1841, is typical of thousands of contracts of this period. It is (Murray, David, History of Education in New Jersey, pp. 141. Washington, 1889) The following teacher's contract, executed in New Jersey, in

352. A Typical Teacher's Contract

give instruction to all the youth of the district that may be placed under his care in some or all of the following branches, as their capacities may reach, viz: Orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, geography, history, composition, and bookkeeping by single entry. And we, the trustees of said school, do hereby agree to furnish said teacher with fuel and all necessaries for the comfort and convenience of said school, and at the expiration of the term pay to him or his order in compensation for his services the sum of sixty-five dollars. The said teacher shall have the privilege of instructing his own children in said school and not be required to pay any proportional part of the above sum. All pupils which do not belong in the district and attend this school to learn any of the above-named branches, one half of their schooling shall belong to the teacher, and the other half to go into the funds of the school. The excess of charge for higher branches (if any are taught) shall belong exclusively to the teacher. If circumstances should occur to render it necessary to discontinue the school before the expiration of the term, a majority of the trustees or the teacher may discontinue, and he receive pay for the time then taught.

In witness whereof the parties have to these presents interchangeably set their hands this thirtieth day of October, in the year of our Lord 1841.

JOSEPH THOMPSON, Teacher.
ABRAHAM A. AMERMAN,

PETER Q. BROKAW,
ABRAHAM AMERMAN,

353. The Elementary Schools in Berlin in 1838

Trustees.

(Bache, Alexander D., Report on Education in Europe, pp. 231-35. Philadelphia, 1839) At the time of Professor Bache's visit (1838) the elementary schools of Berlin were divided into two classes, the first covering instruction from six to ten, and the second from ten to fourteen. He gives the subjects of study, for both boys and girls, for each class, to be as follows:

For the first class:

Subjects of Instruction

1. For religion: the Bible, Catechism, the positive truths of Christianity.

2. For the German language: language considered as the expression of thought; the most general rules of grammar, clear and intelligible pronunciation, reading and orthography.

3. Writing.

4. Arithmetic, to fractions and the rule-of-three, inclusive.
5. Singing, and particularly exercises in sacred choral music.