to be well grounded is much more essential than is generally supposed; for after excellence is thereby more likely to ensue, and even moderate proficiency thereby rendered more valuable.

There is a golden rule in Practical Education, that every mother should study, whatever young women learn, let them be taught accurately.'.'The knowledge of the general principles of any science is very different from superficial knowledge of the science; perhaps, from not attending to this distinction, or from not understanding it, many have failed in female education.'— Chapter on Female Accomplishments.

There are several excellent introductory works to aid a mother in teaching the elements of music ;-the 'Guida Musica' of Hook, though old fashioned, has been found very efficient.

It has proved very beneficial to write down, on small pieces of paper, the different portions of the gamut, one portion to be learnt at a time; thus, the names of the five treble lines may form one lesson; the four treble spaces another; then the five bass lines; and next, the four bass spaces; and so on, till all the names of the notes are learnt to be read in the books, and their places on the instrument pointed out; as thus, 'Treble Cliff:'

First line, E.
Second line, G.
Third line, B.
Fourth line, D.
Fifth line, F.

It is a common complaint that pupils are disposed to look down on their fingers, and are with difficulty brought to look up on their books. How can it be otherwise? By repeatedly sounding the different keys, their relative places on the instrument can only be known; some time must be required to gain this knowledge; until it is gained, how can a child ascertain whereabouts she is to place her finger to strike a certain note? Let not, then, instructers harass themselves and their pupils with premature attempts to do, what time and practice can alone enable them to do; much wrangling and vexation may be thus avoided. At the end of a twelvemonth,* (but seldom before,) children begin to know the places of the keys, and can look at their books whilst they play.

* It is well known, that even adults, and persons advanced in life, require some months' tuition, ere they can read music as they play it.

The study of music may be divided into four parts, or progressive steps:

First, to know the notes in the book and on the instrument.
Second, to sound every note in the piece.

Third, to play in time.

Fourth, to play with execution and taste.

Each of these steps must be attained in the order they are noted, and each well attained before the following one is attempted. Most especially should children be informed, that every note of the piece they are practising, must be sounded, or no degree of excellence can be attained? Is this observation sufficiently inculcated?

It is generally recommended to practise the third and fourth fingers; those fingers, being little used in other mechanical operations, are usually weak and untractable. In playing, they are often called into action, and therefore must be strengthened by use for the probable demand.

Care should be taken that the pupil sits in a good posture at the pianoforte, and this not upon the principle of avoiding ungenteel and unfashionable attitudes, but upon the more rational principle of avoiding a much more important evil, the risk of growing crooked. It is the incurring of this deplorable calamity that precludes very young girls learning to play on the harp; the position demanded for the touching of that instrument usually producing some degree of deformity in growing children. It ought, therefore, never to be attempted until girls have ceased to grow.

Above every other consideration, the greatest pains should be taken to inspire a right motive for the acquirement of music as an accomplishment-proper feelings to attend its exhibition. By most human beings it is considered as the most delightful art; for its own charms let it be cultivated, for its power of pleasing let it be displayed. Impress strongly on the young mind that it is for the pleasure her performance bestows, not for the applause she receives, that she ought to be anxious;-that it is not how well she plays, but how much she gratifics, that is of consequence. It has been elsewhere said that 'the performer who can be thinking of the applause of listeners, instead of the harmony of her performance, may fancy herself possessed of science and of taste, but can have little of the true musical tact.'

Some parents object to boys learning music, as a knowledge of this art may draw the attention from more useful studies, and lead the pupil into pernicious society. Music has, howev

er, been found to be an amusement that has presented agreeable home resources for young men, and has assisted to withdraw them from love of public gaieties aad indiscriminate society. Circumstances must, therefore, determine when music is a desirable attainment for youths.

Let it be carefully instilled into pupils of either sex, that a moderate knowledge of music, with accuracy and taste, produces more gratification to the listener, as well as to the performer, than the greatest brilliancy of touch and rapidity of execution without taste and accuracy. A girl of very moderate musical talent may play and sing to please relatives and friends, the only persons she ought to desire for auditors.

REVIEW.

Report of a Sub-Committee of the School Committee, recommending various Improvements in the System of Instruction in the Grammar and Writing Schools of this City. Boston. Nathan Hale. 1828. 8vo. pp. 37.

Review of the Mayor's Report, on the subject of Schools, so far as it relates to the High School for Girls. By E. BAILEY, late Master of that School. Boston. Bowles & Dearborn. 1828. pp. 54.

8vo.

OUR object in mentioning these publications, is to take a convenient opportunity of saying a few words on the merits of the system of mutual instruction. The readers of the Journal do not need to be reminded that, from the commencement of the work, much space in our pages has been occupied with accounts of this system, and with intelligence of its progress in most countries where popular education attracts any considerable share of public attention. By referring, however, to previos articles on this subject, it will be found that, while the opinions expressed in these are generally in favour of the monitorial method, it was deemed necessary to suggest the dangers arising from a hasty, unreserved, or mechanical adoption of it.* Recent circum

* See, in particular, the Introduction to this vol. of the Journal, and the Retrospect at the close of the second.

stances connected with public instruction in the city of Boston, have given a fresh interest to this subject; and as local excitement has mingled with the question relative to the new system, a full and candid consideration of its claims would at present be peculiarly valuable to the interests of education, in our own vicinity, if not in other places. Whether it is possible for us, with what are thought to be our partialities for the system, to present a fair view of the case, our readers must decide. We would only premise that in the following statements we shall adhere as closely as possible to authenticated facts, and to a free exposition of the defects as well as the excellences of the method in question.

Before entering on the peculiar features of this system of instruction, it may not be useless to revert for a few moments to the circumstances in which it originated. To trace distinctly and satisfactorily its actual commencement would be by no means an easy thing; since it would be to state the exact time at which teachers first resorted to the aid of their older and better scholars in teaching the less advanced, or to tell the first instance in which assistance was derived from the use of an usher.

In a document originally submitted to the French Society for Elementary Instruction, the merit of devising the new system, as it is not unfrequently called, is claimed for a French teacher of the name of Paulet, who, it seems, used it with great success in a very numerous school, taught long before the European public had heard of the name of Bell or Lancaster. Mutual instruction, however, as a systematic aid to education, had not been formally acknowledged previous to the philanthropic efforts of Dr Bell in Madras, who, in the schools which he established there, borrowed several useful methods from the existing modes of teaching in the native schools of the East. Whether Joseph Lancaster derived the elements of his system from the reported exertions of Dr Bell, or was originally impelled by his own mind only, from a benevolent desire to extend the benefits of instruction to the large number of destitute children in the vicinity of his school, was a point long controverted in England, and with more heat and animosity than a plain question of facts ought to have excited. Passing this point, however, we come to the unexampled and rapid spread of what became generally known under the name ofthe Lancasterian system, throughout England, and in some parts of Scotland and Ireland. The diffusion of the system in other countries took place chiefly through the benevolent exer

tions of individuals or societies friendly to general improvement among the people.

The next stage of the history of mutual instruction, leads us to the formation of the British and Foreign School Society, established for the express purpose of employing the new method in the extensive dissemination of instruction among the people of the British empire. This noble institution still carries on its benevolent operations in every considerable town in England, in many parts of Ireland, and in the numerous foreign dependencies of the nation.

The influence of the Church gave rise to the National School Society, designed chiefly for the benefit of children whose parents were of the episcopal communion, but not excluding those of dissenters, who, however, generally prefer the schools of the other society, as less embarrassed by peculiar religious influence or restriction. The schools of this society are likewise all taught on the system of mutual instruction. It was as an advocate for this society that Mr Brougham first took ground in the great cause of popular improvement by means of general education. The National Schools form something like a 'parochial system' for the Church of England; and the number of scholars, already immense, is rapidly increasing every year.

On the continent of Europe, the new system prevails extensively, under the auspices of benevolent societies, or of the governments of particular countries. In France, the Society for Elementary Instruction supports a large number of schools, which are continually operating as models in most parts of the country, and to the improvement and increase of which the French Journal of Education is almost exclusively devoted. There is at present a fair prospect that, within a few years, every vicinity in the more populous parts of that country will be furnished with schools, through the indefatigable labours of that excellent society. In the Netherlands, the monitorial system is adopted throughout the country, and is carried to a high pitch of mental as well as mechanical improvement. In Prussia, also, the countenance of the government is extended to general education on this plan; and in Denmark, where public instruction falls under the cognizance of an appropriate officer, the vast majority of the schools is on this method, although the adoption of it is a thing altogether voluntary on the part of the teachers.

In the United States, the most extensive experiment of mutual instruction has been made in the city of New-York. In other places also it has been tried in public schools, and particu