allowed to embarrass the operations of our winter schools, till they shall have acquired at least the rudiments of reading and orthography.

The reasons suggested in favour of a gradation of our common schools, and a division of labour in the instruction of them, apply with equal force, in favour of the establishment of high schools. I have already alluded to the statute making provision for the schools. The words of it are, that every city, town, or district, containing five hundred householders or families, shall be provided with a master of good morals, competent to instruct in the history of the United States, book-keeping by single entry, geometry, surveying, and algebra; and shall employ such master to instruct a school in such city, town, or district for the benefit of all the inhabitants thereof, at least ten months in each year, exclusive of vacations in such convenient place, or alternately at such places in such city, town, or district, as the inhabitants, at their meeting in March or April annually, shall determine.' These schools were intended as a substitute for the old Latin and Greek grammar schools, and no one can regret the change. To say nothing of the great utility of the branches taught in these schools, the influence they exert upon the common schools furnishes a sufficient reason for their support in every town. As things are at present situated in most of our towns, the pupil enters our common schools with nothing before him but the dull routine of mere common school education. He soon becomes fatigued and disgusted. There is nothing to excite him to exertion. Place in prospect before him a school of a higher order, an admission to which will require definite attainment, and here is a motive to exertion which cannot fail to operate on him. It will address itself to the most powerful principles of human nature; pride, love of distinction, emulation, and, above all, novelty, that magic principle which seems to prevent the whole world from becoming stagnant. It was for these reasons, that I remarked that every town, whether containing five hundred families or not, ought to support one of these high schools. A liberal, which is always the true, economy, would dictate this measure. That is, the same sum of money, appropriated in this way, would do more for the promotion of good common education, than it would, appropriated in any other way. In the healthy and pleasant towns of New England, where board and the means of living may be obtained at a reasonable rate, instructers for such schools, duly qualified, might no doubt be obtained for a

salary of three or four hundred dollars per annum. And if this should be regarded as too heavy a tax for a single town, I apprehend a school of this description, for six months in the year, would effect the object of it in a great measure. And in this way, an instructer might have charge of the high schools in two towns, leaving to each the certainly very inconsiderable burthen of one half the expense of supporting one instructer. A great advantage resulting from such an encouragement would be, to give permanent employment to an instructer-a consideration, which, next to that of emolument, will enable us to command the best talents in the instruction of our youth.

These remarks, Mr. President, on the subject of a gradation in our common public schools, are submitted with much diffidence, not with an expectation nor even wish that any sudden or radical change should take place in their organization, but that the attention of this board, as well as that of intelligent individuals, should be directed to a subject, which all will acknowledge is fraught with deep interest to this community. Our population is rapidly increasing. Large and populous villages are springing up in our once literally desert places. And unless the means of intellectual as well as animal culture, keep pace with the rapid strides of our population, we may be wealthy and powerful; but the true glory of New England will have departed from us.

I apprehend that I should do injustice to the sentiments of this board, and certainly to my own individual sentiments, were I, in speaking upon the subject of popular education, to pass unnoticed an humble but beautiful branch of it, embraced in our system of Sabbath schools. As an officer of our courts of justice, it would argue no small degree of prejudice or stupidity not to notice and acknowledge the grateful influence they exert in suppressing the crimes and retaining the order of society. . They furnish a striking illustration of the fact, that, in the moral and intellectual world, effects bear no proportion to the simplicity or magnificence of the causes that produce them. It is unquestionably true, that the simple means of Sabbath school instruction prevents the commission of ten crimes to where the law, with all its array of terrors, punishes one. Innumerable facts might be adduced in proof of this assertion. But I will only appeal to the common observation of every candid mind. Considered, then, merely in reference to the common and ordinary interests of society, its order, peace, and security, these schools, under a judicious management, are certainly entitled

to the countenance and support of all who have lives to be protected or property to be secured. I do not speak of their influence upon men as religious beings. I will merely say, that until the laws of nature be so changed, that the good seed will spring up in beauty and strength by the way side, in the stony places, and amidst thorns, it is important that the minds of children be prepared, by a proper culture, for the reception of religious truth. It was the influence of these schools upon the intellectual character of a community, that I proposed more particularly to notice. And here I will not say that the instruction imparted in these schools is merely calculated to improve the memory or any other particular faculty of the mind, but that all the faculties of the mind, derive from the cultivation of correct moral and religious sentiment, that health and strength and vigour, which preserve them for successful effort. I know, however, there are many, who entertain a vague notion that the cultivation of moral and religious sentiment has no connexion with intellectual excellence. And currency is given to this idea, by examples of high intellectual attainments, accompanied by a deep and dark moral depravity. But if such an alliance ever did exist, it is an unnatural one. And it is equally unreasonable and illogical to draw a general conclusion from particular examples, which are perhaps themselves exceptions to a known and established law of mind. And besides, if examples of the kind supposed have existed, they have been rare, and an undue importance has been attached to them, on account of the singular propensity in men to notice and admire striking contrarieties in character. It was a truth once acknowledged, that the great man must be a good one. And it is a striking coincidence in the history of the opinions of men, that this plain and simple truth inculcated by heathen philosophers two thousand years ago, should have been recognized, and, for the first time, extended in its practical application to civil communities of men, by the pious and intrepid founders of New England. And that it was left to them to institute the sublime experiment, which in its progress is to illustrate the interesting fact, that the perfection of intellectual excellence in a people can be attained only in the purity and perfection of moral and religious sentiment. It is an experiment that must require ages for its full development. He who presides over it, heeds not the little days and months and years with which we span out the lapse of time. He has an eternity wherein to exemplify his law, and to execute his purposes, in relation to his moral and intelligent universe.

FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL, philadelphIA.

[In the number preceding our last, an account of this institution was commenced, and carried as far as the course of study.' The many just and practical observations interspersed with the following explanation of that course are, we think, highly important and interesting, in relation to the whole business of instruction. We consider these remarks as a valuable contribution of light on the subjects of preparatory discipline and practical schools of the higher order.]

The course of study, given in a preceding number, is not offered as a complete exemplification of practical and liberal education united. The combination might, however, be easily extended to the courses pursued at our colleges and universites. No good reason can be assigned why the higher branches of mathematics, logic, ethics, or metaphysics, should not be pursued simultaneously with those sciences and arts, which pertain to the active duties of life.

By referring to the course already delineated, the reader will perceive that it consists of four important classes of studies, each of which has generally been confined to a separate school. The first class includes English branches; the second, classical studies; the third, modern languages, and the fourth, mathematics and the practical sciences.

Whatever be the destination of the student, whether for active life, or for a literary and professional career; whether he shall finish his studies in this institution, or be removed to a university, the importance of his English course will, under every contingency, remain the same. A correct elocution, a degree of facility both in oral and written composition, a knowledge of the great outlines of ancient and modern history, some acquaintance with the principles of domestic and political economy, and a clear understanding of the provisions of those constitutions of government under which we live all these, in addition to the more common branches of English education, ought to be acquired by every youth who aims at success and usefulness in his future pursuits.

Those whose views extend to a more enlarged course of study, will, in addition to the usual preparation for college, find themselves actually prepared for a collegiate education, by having acquired the elements of most of those branches which they are

subsequently to pursue. Preparation for college often consists in a meagre, or merely passable, knowledge of Greek and Latin, a little geography, less arithmetic, and scarcely any other attainment. Both precept and example have concurred to inspire a great contempt in the minds of students, while at school, for every other species of knowledge. It is unnecessary to point out the numerous impediments, which a scholar thus slenderly furnished, must encounter in the prosecution of an extended course of liberal education. If the institution to which he is admitted, deserve the name of college or university, it will immemediately demand of him the use of powers and attainments with which he is not provided; and thus the business of his school remains to be prosecuted at the university, which, consequently, is reduced to the rank and condition of a mere grammar school. This degradation of our higher institutions, in consequence of the defects of our classical schools, has, among other causes, tended to bring the honours, bestowed by the former, into contempt. Men who have received degrees at the real universities of Europe, deride the idea of being re-doctorated at imaginary ones in America.

Those who understood its nature and influence, have seldom objected to a classical course, on any other ground than that of the vast expense of time and money which it involved, and the exclusion of other useful objects, which, on the old system of teaching, it necessarily implied. On the High School system, both these grounds of objection are removed. The expense, to those who study ancient languages, is no greater than to those who limit themselves to English branches; and by fixing a time for every thing, and causing every thing to be done in its time, no exclusion of useful objects is required. The scholar who is destined to be a man of business, is enabled to acquire all the classical learning which is necessary to a comprehension of the derivations and construction of his own language. The allusions to ancient customs and manners, which abound through our English literature, will, likewise, be sufficiently obvious to his understanding; and a taste for correct and chastened style in thought and expression, will have been acquired. This amount of influence from classical learning, is desirable for every citizen in an enlightened and civilized community.

The course of modern languages, is of equal importance whether we regard it as a part of a practical, or of a liberal, education. In all our commercial cities, the man who cannot use the French language, will find his sphere of profitable