ed with the manufactures of this country for more than twenty years. I have found, generally, that we have been much superior to foreign countries in the general manufacture, but greatly inferior in the arts of design. The great mass of the community in this country, not merely the lower and middle classes, but a great portion of the upper classes, have not had their taste cultivated in proportion to their education.' Another gentleman being asked to what cause he attributed the superiority of the manufacture of French gloves, replied," To the knowledge the manufacturer has of the shape of the hand."" This as true of America as of England, and is a reproach to both countries. Let both strive to remedy this evil, beginning in the right place, at the foundation, and a few years will show mighty results.

For the first year there is not the least need of copy of any sort. Begin with the combination of form; perfect in that, go to perspective art, and afterwards either take nature for the model, or the rich prints of a well-cultivated imagination.

Wherever manufacture seeks to expand the sale of its productions, art will be needed to beautify, and the laborer, to produce the highest kind of beauty, must possess a knowledge of Drawing.

We complain of the want of native designers, but give them no chance to grow up among us. Let Drawing be introduced as a branch of instruction into all our public schools, and we shall no longer need to rely on other lands for our artistic designs.

"The works, no less than the word of God, proclaim the doctrine, that God designed the world for the benefit of the many in contradistinction to the few. What all possess in common, is more truly noble than the small part of creation which any individual fences round and calls his own. The laws of Nature are alike subservient to all, and our bounteous mother Earth pours forth her gifts with no regard to distinctions of birth or blood.

All alike breathe the vital air, and all possess in common the world of beauty and sublimity.

He who can appropriate to himself his full share of the or naments of nature, need not repine that he is unable to decorate his abode with expensive works of art. One who is unable to adorn a mansion with marble columns, may cover his cottage with climbing flowers; and if he cannot look within upon splendid mirrors and costly paintings, he may look abroad upon the green earth and cerulean heavens. Taste often enjoys, more than the owner, and without labor, embellishments which vanity has procured with toil and self-denial."-Prof. Olmsted.

From the Boston Daily Advertiser.

SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SUPERINTEN. DENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

THE second annual report of the Superintendent, though widely different from the first, is equally practical in its character, and promises to be equally useful in its results. It contains suggestions, which, without producing any violent change, are calculated to add greatly to the improvement of the schools already established. The general aim of the report is thus stated by Mr. Bishop :

66

Turning away, for the present, from the material view of school buildings, rooms and their various fixtures and furnishings, I shall aim at taking a stand-point, from which the practical workings of the interior operations of our schools may be observed, and from that position shall endeavor to trace the outlines, at least, of the laws of human growth, as they manifest themselves in the various developments of children during their school-going age, in order that these laws may be more generally regarded in conducting our schools.

"The great truths which are called the laws of physical, intellectual and moral growth, are not matters of conjecture. They lie before us, traced in imperishable characters by the Creator's hand, on the everunfolding leaves of the book of human nature, whose pages are continually inviting us to study them with the docility of children, and ever directing us to the Great Teacher of mankind, for those lessons of wisdom which alone can guide us aright in conducting the delicate processes of early education."

The report proceeds on the ground that there are certain established laws of growth or development, both of the powers of the mind and body, and that it is the part of true wisdom to ascertain by careful observation, what these laws are, that the educator, taking care not to violate them, may become a colaborer with the great husbandman by whom they were established and maintained. The truth of this general proposition is so obvious, that there hardly appears to be any thing of novelty about it, and yet I do not remember to have ever seen it distinctly set forth before, by any writer on the subject of education. It opens a new and vast field of inquiry, upon which Mr. Bishop professes to have barely entered, and to which he earnestly invites the attention of all who are engaged in the same work. It is not to be denied that the cause of education has suffered much by requiring children to study subjects and textbooks at a period when the faculties of their minds were not suf ficiently matured to enable them to grasp them. If Mr. Bishop, by showing the order in which the different powers of the mind are developed, and the perioes of life at which they are usually

manifested, can rightly adapt the several departments of study to the pupil, so that each shall be presented to him, neither too soon nor too late, but at the appointed time, he will have performed a labor for which all future generations will have cause to be grateful. Children have been often compelled to spend years in attempting to learn what at their period of life it was impossible for them to comprehend, and which they comprehended at last, not in consequence of their long toil and labor, but simply because the period had arrived in the development of their minds, when this became possible. Such a process is most irksome and discouraging. It cannot be doubted that the Creator in his wisdom has so ordained things, that studies may be provided which are adapted to the child in all periods of his life; and there is no problem in education more important than that which determines what these studies are, and the order in which they should be arranged.-Mr. Bishop's report is full of valuable thoughts and suggestions upon this subject, which can hardly fail to be followed up by himself and others, and lead to most important results. In the language of Mr. Bishop:

"In urging that the subject of education should be studied as a science, embracing those great principles in accordance with which human nature is gradually unfolded from infancy to maturity, we are only falling in with the uniform practice of men engaged in promoting the other great interests of society.

"In all ages of the world, for example, men employed in cultivating the fruits of the earth have been striving to ascertain the laws of vegetable growth, in order that they may bring the various plants which contribute to the wants of man, to the highest degree of perfection. And all progress hitherto made in the science of Agriculture, and in that beautiful kindred branch, Horticulture, has been made by observing the time and the order of the successive developments of each species of plants, and the modes of cultivation most favorable to their growth, until repeated observations and experiments have furnished the facts from which a careful generalization has deduced the uniform laws of vegetable growth. All skilful tillers of the soil place implicit confidence in these laws, and follow these indications of nature in adapting their cultivation to each successive stage of the development of their grain, which presents 'first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.'

"In the same way, from the very dawn of civilization, men have sought with equal zeal a knowledge of the laws of growth, pertaining to the animal kingdom. They have studied the nature and the habits of the various species of domestic animals, for the purpose of ascertaining the modes of treatment which harmonize most fully with the known principles of animal life. Thus men approach nature, seeking with docility what she teaches on these points, that they may comply with her instructions, and so train each kind of animals in accordance with the laws of its most perfect development, that they may rear the best specimens of the different species.

"For much stronger reasons, and for much higher purposes, it would seem, we ought to inquire what are the Creator's laws of human growth, which regulate the mysterious unfoldings of the physical forms of children, the powers of their minds and the feelings of their hearts. To every thoughtful mind it must be obvious, that these various developments begin to manifest themselves in accordance with the Creator's established laws, each of their manifestations appearing at the time and in the order of His divine appointment.

"The gradual expansion of the outward forms of children, and the increasing activity and vigor of their inward powers, are carried forward in accordance with the permanent laws of their growth, as truly as the opening flowers and the ripening fruits approach maturity, in obedience to the laws of vegetable life. As the corn rises from the germ through all the successive stages of its growth, first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear,' so the child's faculties are developed, each appearing at its appropriate time, and in the natural order during his progress towards maturity, and every instance of wrong training as he is guided along the course of his education, is sure to leave its unhappy traces upon his character. The consequences of all bad management of a child, in training the organs of his body, the powers of his mind, or the affections of his heart, will appear in his manhood, having injured the robustness of his constitution, weakened the vigor of his intellect, or impaired the moral tone of his spirit.

"All admit the general truth of these statements in regard to the bodies of children who have suffered from neglect in their earlier years. When gross mismanagement has stinted the growth of a child, or distorted his limbs or his form, we are all accustomed to acknowledge the existence of the laws of physical growth, and to trace these deformities to their true causes, and to deplore the ignorance which produced them, if we do not take any measures to prevent the repetition of the evils.

'But when a similar mismanagement at home or in school, has dwarfed or impaired the powers of a child's mind, we are slow to trace the effect back to its cause, as in the preceding case. We find ourselves half inclined to believe that some mysterious, undefined power or fatality has doomed these faculties to defective action and feebleness.

"And still more blind are we to the inevitable working of this law of cause and effect in human growth, when mismanagement has injured a child's moral feelings, and so perverted all his higher aspirations, that the nobler elements of his nature have been brought into subjection to his inferior propensities, and he seems to do evil, from the mere love of doing it.

"Hence, finding ourselves living under a constitution of divinely appointed laws, which pervade the whole world and regulate all its wonderful changes, we ought to strive earnestly to obtain so much knowledge of these all-pervading laws as will enable us to bring our efforts for the advancement of education into harmony with their appointed operations. For, placed as we are, in a system of things where every event in the material, mental and moral world is preceded by its cause, and followed by its effect, we cannot reasonably hope for the highest success in training the young, unless our course of instruction and our methods of pursuing it, shall harmonize with those estab

lished laws of God, which indicate the time, and the means of promoting the most healthful development of children. These laws he has sustained from the beginning, and still continues their ceaseless and resistless operations, forming that endless chain of cause and effect, which so mysteriously binds together the influences exerted upon childhood, with their legitimate consequences, which are sure to appear in the later periods of life. We need to study and to comprehend, as fully as we can, these beneficent laws of human growth, for the purpose of guiding aright our efforts for the improvement of ourselves, and of the pupils placed under our care, in order that we may not ignorantly violate these laws, and thus bring upon ourselves and upon those who receive their education at our hands, the inevitable consequences of such violations."

Mr. Bishop, in the application of his general principles, in considering some instances in which the laws of physical growth are violated, after speaking of the "sight and eye," of the "temperature of school-rooms," and of the "ventilation of school-rooms," proceeds to the "classification of the pupils." On all these topics his views are practical and highly valuable. In relation to a course of studies, he says:

"A COURSE OF SCHOOL STUDIES.-It would seem that a course of studies should be arranged and pursued in accordance with the three following general principles.

"First. It should be carefully adapted to the progressive development of the various intellectual powers of the children, in the successive stages of their advancement.

"Second. It should be pursued in that necessary order in which a knowledge of the first study prepares the mind of the learner to understand the second, and an acquaintance with the second prepares the way for the third, and so on throughout the course.

"Third. Whenever, without violating either of these principles, one of two or more studies may be arranged first in the course, that one should always precede which is most practically useful in the ordinary business of life."

He then proceeds to speak of these general principles, each of which is very fully and ably considered, and the Report closes with a few remarks on the teaching of morals in the public schools.

I am glad to see that the School Committee have ordered an edition of three thousand copies of this valuable document, and hope that those who feel a special interest in the subject of education will be able to provide themselves with the Report, that they may examine it in detail.

A PARENT.