knowledge, improvement in every department of society; and there will be equally few who will not look with distrust upon politicians who will do nothing to promote the kind of progress which is of more importance than all other public measures, and which alone can enable the little Commonwealth of Massachusetts to maintain a station of eminence among the States of the earth. Every successive legislature should be held to a strict accountability, by their constituents, till they shall have found out that the advantage of the Commonwealth is something different from the obtaining of offices for themselves and their political friends, and of more importance, too, and which the people are determined to cause them to attend to, in preference to their own emolument or station. Something to promote this greatest of all public objects should be done each year, and every year till the end is certainly and securely obtained. Then, and not till then, shall we have done our duty to the fathers, who knew so well "what constitutes a State," and who bequeathed to us such great opportunities of improvement, and our duty to posterity, who will have a right to the best that we can do for them, and who must not accuse us of having neglected or misused the privileges we are bound to transmit to them, not merely unimpaired, but increased.

LETTER FROM THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

HONOLULU, Sandwich Is., Sept. 3d, 1852.

(Concluded from page 55.)

Geography is a study which takes more of my time for preparation than any other. We go by no particular text-book, though Bliss's Analysis is nominally our text-book. I assign particular countries, and the class have a set of topics to be examined with reference to all these countries. They get their information from all sorts of resources, encyclopædias, histories, geographies, &c., &c. Each scholar is expected to examine every topic, though some get a great deal more than others. When one is called upon to recite a topic, for instance the soil, if any think he is wrong they make their statement, and then we compare notes; or, if any one has anything additional to state, he raises his hand and an opportunity is given. This is very common, and in this way we get a full statement of all the facts in the case; and many times I get information from the scholars-facts which I did not know before. I pay more attention to the great physical features of the countries. I do not require them to learn many numbers, and these only in round numbers, such as latitude and longitude, area, population, lengths of the most important, not always the longest, rivers, heights of mountains, elevation of table lands, &c. We pay

but little attention to subdivisions of countries into counties and townships, &c., except such towns as are of much commercial or manufacturing or political importance. We should spend more time, for example, with Boston, than with all the rest of the towns in Massachusetts. Every scholar is required to draw a map of the country, or section of country which he is studying, from memory, on the blackboard. Each scholar draws a map every day, and we recite mostly from these maps, pointing out the position of towns, describing rivers, surfaces, &c. The older scholars spell once a week-fifty words each week-on Friday afternoon. The lesson, sometimes in misspelled wordsin which case the scholars are to find out how they should be spelled these are commonly words which have been misspelled in their compositions-are handed to some of the scholars who print them neatly on the top of the blackboards, where they will be out of the way, and the scholars study them during the week. On Friday, P. M., the words are put out to the school, who write them in nice books, previously prepared; these books are then collected and handed to me. Then the words, or such of them as I choose, are put out again, and the pupils called upon to spell them orally, define them, and illustrate their meaning by a sentence, and we frequently spend a considerable time on one word, examining and illustrating its different meanings. I examine the written lessons, and such as have missed five or more words re-write the lesson. The smaller scholars spell every day the words of their reading lesson, some orally, and some writing them on the blackboard, according to their age. Writing and drawing alternately, each every other afternoon, about three-fourths of an hour. Those who do not draw write every afternoon except Friday. I keep some scholars a whole term on a single copy, till they get a free use of their hand.

Singing comes the last thing before the long recess. There are two classes, those who are learning to read the notes, and those who can already read them; the first attend more particularly to the rules, and the last to singing tunes. There are other studies, but I will not stop to particularize further. My general plan is the same, varying according to the nature of the study. We have a recess of ten minutes at half-past ten, at twelve, and one, of an hour, from half-past one till half-past two, and a short recess about a quarter-past three, closing at four, P. M. We close school with singing. Between the recesses there are little rests of two minutes each, when scholars can communicate with each other, and, by obtaining permission, can leave their seats to get anything they wish; at other times there must be nothing of any kind going on between one scholar and another. A report of scholarship, deportment, and attendance is sent home every week and returned again, signed by

the parent. I find this very efficacious for good. But I have written much more than I expected on these points, and will stop.

A word or two in regard to our rhetorical exercises. We declaim every week, on Friday afternoon, before the recess. About half of the pupils declaim each week. Some of the older boys write their own pieces for declamation. Our compositions are carefully attended to; all who are able to write are required to have a composition in my drawer as soon as Wednesday night. They are dropped in through a hole in the top. If the composition is not in Wednesday, the scholar is marked a failure, and is required to write a composition the next day at the long recess. This is an invariable rule. My principle in all the exercises is not to allow a scholar to fail unless previously excused for a good reason. I take no excuses after the failure, except in extraordinary cases. If a scholar fails in his recitation, he must stop and learn it at the long recess; I am always in the school-room, or about it, at that time.

Sat. Sept. 11. The mail goes to-day. We are in successful operation in our fourth term,―eighty pupils and one assistant.

POPULAR EDUCATION, by Ira Mayhew, A. M. Second Edition. New York: D. Burgess & Co.

MR. MAYHEW was formerly engaged as a practical teacher in the State of New York; and afterwards, for a period of five or six years, he was distinguished as the able and efficient Superintendent of Public Instruction, in Michigan. His treatise on Popular Education was prepared in accordance with a Resolution of the Legislature of that State, and embraces the substance of the Lectures prepared by him while engaged in discharging the duties of his office. The great interests of physical, intellectual, and moral education are here ably and thoroughly discussed, in a volume of between four and five hundred pages. It is adapted to the wants of teachers, and parents, and pupils; and has already taken its place among the few standard works that we possess on the subject of Popular Instruction.

CHANGES.

Mr. F. Crosby, late principal of the High School in South Reading, succeeds Mr. Hunt in the Plymouth High School. Salary, $800.

Mr. Adoniram Alden, for several years past a highly successful teacher in Dorchester, has received the appointment of Usher in the Quincy School, Boston, in place of Mr. James O. Brown, promoted. Salary, $800.

Ir is a pleasing and beautiful thought that every thing in nature and providence and in mind and matter harmonizes with the entire universe for some useful end; that the smallest insect as well as the unyielding mammoth, and the morning dew-drop as well as the mighty ocean, tend alike to complete the gradation scale of creation's work, and exhibit the wisdom of creation's Lord. The physical world is vocal with attestations of its designed utility. There may be existences of whose relation to the great whole, and consequently of whose utility, we know nothing. But the imperfection of our knowledge even in reference to the most easily grasped truth, and our utter incapacity to comprehend the vast schemes and inscrutable intentions of their Author, whom we know to be wise and benevolent, should check us from making hasty assertions in reference to them. And at the same time all things of which we have anything like perfect knowledge, give evidence of an all-pervading, useful design, and most of them have it so legibly written on their face, that he who runneth may read" it. Whether Nature speaks by the soft cadences of her evening dew-falls, the deep silence of her midnight slumbers, the saffron robes of her sunny mornings, or the noisy clatter of her mid-day toil, she utters notes of wisdom, and leaves the impress of truth. Silent she may be, but it is the silence of eloquence, for her voiceless tongue pleads for her Creator and his honor with unequalled power.

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The world of mind, we reason from analogy, cannot be intended to effect nothing useful. The thinking principle, with all its vast plans and comprehensive powers, cannot have been designed as a blank amid the numerous beneficial influences which exist around us; but rather, by as much as its capabilities for effort and attainment are greater, and its means of usefulness more extended, by so much does it step forth to claim the power of conferring higher benefits.

It was given to man as the repository of knowledge and the investigator of science, that by its exertions in nature's field, and by the communication of its acquired information, it might sow the seeds of truth every where, and make its own attainments the property of the species. Created to know, it was sent forth on the accomplishment of its errand, with an earnest desire and unquenchable ardor to do it. Designed to communicate what it knew, two channels of communication were opened to it. Man was endowed with the power of speech, and Jehovah on twelve tables of stone set him the example to commit his knowledge to writing; each of these media becoming in turn the more available through which mind may utter its thoughts. To produce an immediate effect on congregated thousands, no doubt the living orator has a greater influence than the mere writer, but his influence is less permanent and extensive. Cicero's speech against Catiline produced its designed effect when accompanied with the effective gestures, burning words, and pointed rebukes of its author. It would probably have failed to drive him into exile, if it had been only an ink and paper missile. But that speech written does not allow its influence to die with Catiline and the Roman audience, for it perpetuates it forever. The written page is the best guaranty of permanency to the truly literary man, and also of the production of extensive and continued benefits to his fellow-man. The Roman Lyric poet beautifully expressed a truth when he wrote, " Exegi monumentum aere perennius.' Its influence and results are most extensive. The teacher need no longer confine his efforts to extend the conquest of truth to his own immediate presence. Standing on the other side of the globe, the million may feel his power by the simple instrumentality of a pen. He need no longer despair of reaching all the destitute of earth, and relieving them. A world may be aroused by the pen.

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The teacher need no longer mourn over errors which he cannot reach. The diffusion of truth in written characters can follow error through all its intricate windings, and drag it forth from all its dark hiding places.

The combined influence of written and spoken language will overcome every obstacle, and in spite of untoward circumstances will make the wilderness blossom as the rose.