of England and the United States, that public property is always injured; that flowers cannot bloom, nor fruit ripen, unless when enclosed; and in France, which is considered as offering an exception to this barbarous practice, I fear that the result is produced rather by the certainty of detection and punishment, than by the influence of a higher motive. Education is the true source of relief from this reproach; if the child be trained to respect what belongs to the public, the man will never injure it. Such views have been decried as visionary, and the idea that a child could be so trained has been scouted. But facts prove, that the visionary persons were only a little in advance of the times, and their training system has succeeded, and its principles will finally be so generally adopted, that to doubt them will be as remarkable as the idea itself originally appeared. In this particular school, upwards of one hundred and eighty scholars, from the manufacturing classes of Glasgow, have been in the habit of using the playground for more than an hour and a quarter every day for two years and a half, without damage to the flowers or fruits which it contains. Great attention is paid to neatness in the playground, that the habits inculcated in the school may be carried out here. It affords, also, opportunities of exemplifying lessons on cruelty to animals, on truth, justice, kindness, and other virtues. The means of healthy exercise are given by the more simple kinds of gymnastics, one of the most popular and excellent of which is the circular swing. Wooden prisms are furnished for building, and the more ordinary games of ball, &c., are also practised. There is an opportunity in the playground for a full display of character, which, when observed, and rightly managed, leads to the same system employed by a judicious parent at home, with the advantage of better opportunities of judging of the points of character which require developing or repressing, from the influence of numbers in making these points more prominent."- pp. 187, 183.

A full account is given of the system of education in Prussia, which has attracted so much attention from its highly advanced condition. A very general misapprehension, which prevails respecting the system, is corrected by Professor Bache in a way that is conclusive. The notion has obtained currency, that the Prussian system is of comparatively recent date, or that it has been, within twenty years, moulded into its present form. This notion is traced to a hasty and erroneous assumption by Cousin, in his celebrated Report on Public Instruction in Prussia. The more careful examination of the whole subject by our countryman, conducted more by direct

personal observation, has led to the correction of the mistake, and shown that the system is the result of a long experience, modified and enlarged from time to time, according to the actual results, and the well-ascertained requisitions of the nation.

A chapter is devoted to the seminaries for the education of teachers, generally called "Normal Schools." As it is a subject, which must demand attention with the increase of common schools in this country, we add, in closing this cursory notice of Professor Bache's Report, a portion of his introductory observations on these establishments.

"Originating in Germany, they have been gradually improved there, and brought into their present condition, and have spread into Holland, France, Switzerland, and, more recently, into England, being modified only so far as to adapt them to the circumstances of society and education in these several countries.

"The most imperfect arrangement for providing teachers is that which requires an examination into merely the knowledge of the candidates in the branches required to be taught. This is specially imperfect in the case of elementary instruction, where the knowledge required is small in amount, and where the art of teaching finds its most difficult exercise. The erroneous notion, that an individual can teach whatever he knows, is now generally abandoned, and in those countries which still adhere to the old method, of depending solely upon examinations for securing competent teachers, examination is made not only of the acquirements of a candidate, but of his ability to give instruction. I have called this the most imperfect method, because the mere employment of a teacher, without examination or personal knowledge of his powers, which still occurs in countries where education is neglected, does not deserve to be mentioned in a discussion of the more enlightened national systems.

"The most obvious method of acquiring practice in the art of teaching is by serving in the lower departments of a school, under the eye and direction of an experienced teacher. Accompanied by private study, founded on previous knowledge, and by private lessons, this method may form excellent teachers of those who have particular aptitude for the profession. Considered in the general, however, it must be admitted to have a tendency to produce a routine system in teaching. The pupil-teacher imitates the methods of those with whom he is associated, and which are placed before him as models,

without examining their principles, or discriminating between their merits and defects. He places great stress upon peculiar modes of instruction in particular branches, and when they do not succeed, attributes the fault neither to the methods nor to himself, but to the pupil. The habits of observation and reflection, which enable him to profit by experience, are not developed by this method, and thus, though he may consider experience as a merit, it may produce none of its appropriate results in his case. Accordingly, wherever this mode of preparing teachers has been adopted as a system, as in Holland, or has been incidental to the method of examinations, as in Saxony, it has not stood the test of application in the schools where the modern improvements in teaching have been introduced, much less of a comparison with the method of instruction in special seminaries.

"The most efficacious means of securing qualified teachers are to be found in the seminaries, where a number of young men intending to become teachers are collected, receive a common instruction in the subjects required for the grade of schools in which they propose to teach, or revise and extend this knowledge previously acquired, have lessons in the science and art of teaching, and practice the art under intelligent supervision. At first, these seminaries produced good scholars, who were, however, deficient as teachers. Then, to remedy this defect, lectures and lessons on the science and art of teaching were multiplied, forming good theoretical teachers, but who were still wanting in practice, which had to be acquired after entering their profession, and, therefore, at the expense of the first pupils placed under their charge. This difficulty is entirely obviated by schools attached to the seminaries, in which the theoretical lessons may be put in practice, and where the future teachers may observe the methods of others, try their own skill in the art under inspection, and, finally, take part in the regular instruction.

"The profession of the teacher is raised into respectability by the considerable acquirements exacted of him, and his salary is placed upon a footing appropriate to the outlay of time and means which has been made in reaching the profession. It is a mistake to suppose, that the low salaries given in some countries, as in Prussia, for example, indicate that a low estimate is placed upon the station of the teacher; the very reverse is the fact in the particular country mentioned, and the salary will be found adapted to the scale of expenditure of the country, and to the general style and cost of living.

"When education is to be rapidly advanced, seminaries for teachers afford the means of securing this result. An eminent

teacher is selected as director of the seminary, and by the aid of competent assistants, and while benefiting the community by the instruction given in the schools attached to the seminary, trains, yearly, from thirty to forty youths in the enlightened practice of his methods; these in their turn become teachers of schools, which they are fit at once to conduct, without the failures and mistakes usual with novices; for, though beginners in name, they have acquired, in the course of the two or three years spent at the seminary, an experience equivalent to many years of unguided effort. This result has been fully realized in the success of the attempts to spread the methods of Pestalozzi and others through Prussia. The plan has been adopted, and is yielding its appropriate fruits, in Holland, Switzerland, France, and Saxony, while in Austria, where the method of preparing teachers by their attendance on the primary schools is still adhered to, the schools are stationary, and behind those of Northern and Middle Germany.

"These seminaries produce a strong esprit de corps among teachers, which tends powerfully to interest them in their profession, to attach them to it, to elevate it in their eyes, and to stimulate them to improve constantly upon the attainments with which they may have commenced its exercise. By their aid a standard of examination in the theory and practice of instruction is furnished, which may be fairly exacted of candidates who have chosen a different way to obtain access to the profession.

"Objections have been urged against seminaries for teachers, which apply rather to a defective organization than to the system itself. First, that the youths issuing from them being over-taught, are, in consequence, dissatisfied with their duties, and leave the profession to push themselves forward in a different career of life; and, second, that theoretical, not practical teachers, are formed by them. The first objection points. out the necessity for restricting the instruction to that which is essential to a complete fulfilment of the duties of the teachers educated in these schools. The seminary should not go further, and hence the connexion of such establishments with secondary or other higher schools is inadmissible. If the tendency of a seminary course is to render the teacher dissatisfied with his occupation, experience shows that it is a fault in the particular course, the defect not being general to this class of institutions. That a pupil of talent may seek other and more congenial roads to station in life, is no reproach to the seminary where he was educated. The institution secures the services of this pupil to primary instruction by his pledge at entrance, for a number of years, in return for the education

which he has received, and has so far benefited the community. If by any means it prevents the individual from rising to the position where his talents would place him, an act of positive injustice is committed. Not only the instruction, however, but the whole plan of living in the seminary should be adapted to the future destination of the pupil, and indulgences should not be allowed, which would produce wants not subsequently to be gratified; such is, in fact, the very system of all properly regulated institutions of this class. That mere theoretical teachers are formed in well-conducted seminaries, is by no means the fact. Every care, on the contrary, is taken to avoid this; it is true, that general principles are inculcated, in order that routine in teaching may be avoided ; but these principles are constantly applied, and under circumstances where error is sure to be pointed out by the observation of classmates and teachers, and where it can hardly escape correction." pp. 323-327.

E. Eirrett.

ART. III.A Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio; in which the Opinions of the Conquest of that Valley by the Iroquois or Six Nations in the Seventeenth Century, supported by Cadwallader Colden, of New York, Governor Pownall, of Massachusetts, Dr. Franklin, Hon. De Witt Clinton, of New York, and Judge Haywood, of Tennessee, are examined and contested; to which are prefixed some Remarks on the Study of History. Prepared at the Request of the Historical Society of Ohio. By WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, of North Bend. Ne incognita pro cognitis habeamus. Cicero. Cincinnati, Ohio. 1838. 8vo. pp. 51.

THIS pamphlet discusses several important topics in the history of the native tribes of our continent, with spirit and ability. We propose to offer our readers some account of its contents, with a few extracts, as a specimen of the manner in which the subject is treated by the distinguished author. We have no doubt, that they will be generally interested in learning the views of one, whose long official connexion with the Indian tribes, in peace and in war, and whose familiarity with the topography of the region in question, give to his