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such exhibitions, in order that the positions of the countries, where the different objects are to be found, may be pointed out. These pictorial representations may be hung around the walls, or on posts, fitted up for that purpose, in such numbers as the allotted spaces will conveniently contain.-The specimens of natural history may be arranged around the walls of the school in presses, with wire or glass doors, so that the greater part of them may be exposed to view; and the apparatus and other articles may be deposited, when not in use, in the two large presses or closets formerly mentioned.

Although the various articles now alluded to could not be procured all at once, yet they might gradually be increased, and a considerable variety of them would doubtless be obtained in the way of donations from the private museums of liberal and philanthropic individuals in the vicinity around; and many of the little urchins who attend the school would rejoice in being instrumental in adding whatever they could procure to augment the splendour and variety of the museum.

There is one very simple instrument, not hitherto duly appreciated, which might be rendered subservient both to the amusement and the instruction of the young; and that is, the Optical Diagonal Machine, for viewing perspective engravings. This instrument, as sold by opticians, consists of a pedestal, somewhat resembling a large mahogany candlestick, having a plain mirror and a convex lens moveable at the top. The print to be viewed is placed on a table, before the instrument, in an inverted position. But this form of the instrument generally produces but a very slender effect, owing partly to the small diameter of the lens commonly used, and partly to the circumstance, that the engraving is generally visible to the eye, at the same time the observer is viewing its magnified image through the machine. To obviate those defects, about seventeen years ago, I fitted up a machine of this kind on another and more simple plan, of which the following is a brief description. It consists of the following parts: -1. A box made of thin deal, 2 feet deep, 2 feet long, and 1 foot broad, open in front. 2. In the side opposite to the opening, and near the top, a circular hole, about 6 inches in diameter, is cut, into which a tube containing the lens is put, capable of being moved an inch or two backwards or forwards. The convex lens is 5 inches diameter, and 20 inches focal distance, and its centre is about 20 inches above the bottom of the box. 3. The reflecting mirror-which is 12 inches long and 8 inches broad, and which should be formed of the best English plate glass the longest dimension being perpendicular to

the horizon. This mirror is suspended, immediately before the lens, on two pieces of wood connected with a cross bar, which is capable of being moved backwards or forwards to its proper distance from the lens; and the mirror itself moves on two pivots like a common dressing-glass, so as to stand at any required angle. When the instrument is properly adjusted, the mirror should stand at half a right angle to the horizon. The top of the box opens by means of a hinge, to afford a facility for adjusting the mirror. The perspective views are placed on the bottom of the box, parallel with the horizon, and in an inverted position with respect to the eye of the observer. The engravings should be at least 17 inches long and 11 inches broad, exclusive of the margins, and coloured after nature.-This instrument, thus fitted up, is greatly superior to the one commonly in use, as nothing is seen but the magnified image of the objects, and no conception can be formed of them to distract the attention, till the observer actually looks through the instrument. Every person who has looked through this instrument, has at once admitted its superiority to those of the common construction, and many individuals have got similar machines fitted up after this pattern. It may be fitted up at an expense not exceeding eighteen or twenty shillings; that is, nine shillings for the lens, seven shillings for the mirror, and two or three shillings for the box.

The following figures will convey some idea of this construction of the instrument. Fig. 1. represents a profile of the machine, one of the sides of the box being supposed to be removed. A is the mirror, standing at half a right angle to the lens and the picture, Fig. 1. Fig. 2.

E

D

with its back turned to the eye. B is the lens, fixed either in a tube or in a hole cut out of the side of the box next the eye. C D is the bottom of the box, on which the perspectives are placed. EF is the top of the box, from which the mirror is suspended. Fig. 2 represents a view of the back of the box, or that part which is next the eye when the observer is viewing the prints, in which I, represents the lens by which the prints are magnified.

There is one glaring defect in the exhibitions made with this instrument, which has never yet been attempted to be remedied; and that is, that in every landscape the right side of the view appears where the left should be, which presents a confused and unnatural view, particularly of those objects and scenes with which we are acquainted. This defect may be remedied by cutting out or etching the landscape on the copperplate-not reversed, as is always done, but in its natural position; in which case, the engravings, when thrown off, would be reversed, like the picture formed by the common camera-obscura. Such engravings, when used for the Optical Diagonal Machine, would represent objects exactly in their natural positions; and if the true perspective of a street, a large hall, or a landscape, be accurately delineated, the scene will appear almost as natural and interesting as if we were viewing it from the point whence the picture was taken. As there are thousands of perspectives engraven expressly for this machine, I would humbly suggest to engravers and print-sellers the propriety of having such engravings etched on the plan now proposed. The fineness of the engraving is of very little consequence in such views, provided the perspective has been accurately attended to; but the colouring should be light and natural, and very different from the glaring and clumsy daubings which appear in most of the perspectives which are sold for the use of this machine.

Such are some of the objects and external accommodations which might be procured for every village school. Such a school would form a striking contrast to most of the schools which exist in our country, particularly those which are found in many of our cities and towns, pent up in narrow closes and lanes, in the midst of filth, noise and gloom, destitute of pure air, where the children are packed like hounds in a kennel, cramped in their movements, and can scarcely find a passage from one part of the school-room to another, and where no objects of delight arrest their curiosity and enliven their spirits. Instead of such scanty and wretched accommodations— which may be considered as so many juvenile prison-houses, to which the young are frequently driven by dint of force-we should thus have it in our power to introduce them into a kind of magnificent muscum, where every object would excite curiosity and arrest attention. Instead of associating with scholastic exercises the ideas of tasks, stripes and imprisonment, we should thus present to their view a delightful avenue and portal to the Temple of Knowledge, which would excite a spirit of observation, rouse their intellectual energies, and produce a high degree of plea

sure and enjoyment. And nothing can be of more importance to the best interests of the young, and to the cause of the universal diffusion of knowledge, than to strew the path of science with flowers of every hue, and to render all the early associations connected with it exhilarating and cheerful. The road which leads to knowledge, moral virtue, happiness, and the higher enjoyments of the life to come, ought undoubtedly to wear a bright and alluring aspect, and to be divested of every object which has the appearance of austerity or gloom.

In towns, a number of these schools might be connected together in one large square or building, surrounded with as extensive a space as can be procured, forming one grand seminary, where children of all ranks might associate without distinction in their amusements and scholastic exercises. The amusements and the exercises of such numerous groups of the young, both within and without doors, would form a lively and interesting spectacle to every philanthropist; and public schools, when properly situated, and governed on Christian principles, so far from being a nuisance to the neighbourhood, as they are generally considered, would constitute one of the best ornaments, and the most delightful scenes, connected with general society. Where large towns diverge into extensive suburbs, a variety of distinct seminaries might be erected at proper distances from each other, to accommodate the inhabitants of the adjacent district, so that the children would not require to go too great a distance from their homes.

School-Books.

There are few things of more importance in the arrangements connected with education than the judicious selection and compilation of the Books intended to be put into the hands of the young. I have already offered a few strictures on the inefficiency of the schoolbooks which have been most generally in use in our borough and parochial schools; and although of late years several improved schoolcollections have been introduced, scarcely any have yet appeared completely adapted to an intellectual system of tuition. The following general principles ought to be recognized in the compilation of every class-book for the use of schools:

1. That the subjects introduced be level to the comprehension of those for whose use the book is intended.

2. That every article it contains be calcu lated to convey some portion of useful knowledge.

3. That the selections in general have a moral tendency, and that every thing that

might foster a spirit of pride, avarice, ambition or warfare, be carefully excluded.

4. That moral and physical facts should form a prominent feature in such books, and mere fictions be entirely discarded.

5. That the lessons be so constructed, that every sentiment and description may produce an accurate and well-defined idea in the minds of the young.

These rules proceed on the assumption, that the communication of ideas—the elements of thought—and the formation of moral character, are the great and ultimate objects of education.

In the first books put into the hands of children, the lessons should be so constructed that the leading ideas they contain, or the objects they describe, may be immediately pointed out, either by means of the specimens contained in the museum, by pictorial representations, or by the objects around them in the scene of nature; so that every word, or at least every description contained in the lesson, may be associated in the mind of the child with the idea of its objects. Hence the propriety, in the first instance, of restricting the descriptive lessons solely to sensible objects. It is through the medium of the senses that the elements of all our knowledge are derived. We perceive, in the first instance, a variety of objects which immediately surround us, and gradually become acquainted with some of their qualities. As we advance in life, and mingle in society, and make excursions from one place to another, the number of our perceptions is indefinitely increased. We have the power of presenting to the view of the mind the images or ideas of these objects at pleasure, even when the objects which first produced them are removed. Those ideas are nothing else than renewed representations of what we have at any time perceived or felt through the medium of the organs of sensation. Having received such impressions or ideas, the mind has the faculty of contemplating them at pleasure, whether their objects be present or absent-of combining them together, of compounding and decompounding them, and of modifying, comparing, and examining them, in an infinite variety of lights; by which means it is enabled to enlarge the objects of its perception and contemplation, and to acquire an inexhaustible treasure of other ideas, distinct from the former, though necessarily resulting from them. Such is the origin and progress of all our knowledge-and thus the human mind pursues its course from simple perceptions and trains of ideas, and from one discovery and chain of reasoning to another, till it rises from the first dawnings of reason to the full blaze of intellectual light, and to the height of moral improvement.

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These considerations evidently point out the mode in which instruction ought to be communicated, and the objects towards which the youthful mind should, in the first instance, be directed-for want of attention to which, many of our school-books are nearly as inefficient for the purpose intended as if they had been written in a foreign language. I have just now lying before me two initiatory books lately published, entitled, "First" and "Second Books for Children," in which there is not a single sentence conveying the idea of a sentiment or fact, nor even a single word, that will produce an idea in the mind of a child-every page being completely occupied with such sounds as these "gra, cre, dre, dro—gaff, puff, groff, sniff-gyve, gyre, gybe-baffle, socle, struggle, &c. &c. Such books can never be interesting to the young, and must present to their view nothing but a bleak and thorny path to the temple of knowledge. Nor will such vague sentences as the following, with which our primers abound, produce a much better effect:-" My son, walk not in the way of bad men; for bad men go on in sin all the day.-Set thy heart on the right way, and mind the law of the Lord.-Do not break the laws of God, and shun the ways that lead to death," &c. Such sombre sentiments and exhortations, however sound the morality they inculcate, can never produce a well-defined idea in the mind of a child, or excite to moral action, and consequently cannot have the effect of producing pleasing emotions and a taste for knowledge.-Every sentence of a child's lesson should convey to his mind a picture or representation of some object; and it is quite possible to accomplish this end, by simplifying our descriptions, and selecting those sensible objects which are calculated to attract attention, and which may be presented to the view. For example:

not covered with clouds-The stars shine forth "The sun shines.-The sky is blue, when it is at night.-Snow is white.-Rain comes from the is red-Lead is heavy; cork is light; coal is clouds Gold is yellow; silver is white; copper black.-Trees grow in the fields; they have roots, branches and leaves.-Flowers grow in the fields and gardens;-some of them are red, some are grows in the fields: when it is ripe it is cut down, white, some are yellow, others are blue -Corn and ground into meal, and then baked into bread. tail-A bird has a beak, two eyes, two wings, -A dog has a head, two ears, four feet, and a two legs, and a tail; it is covered with feathers, it chirrups and sings, and flies through the airWhen we strike a small bell with a key, it senda forth a sound.-When we shut our eyes, all appears dark around us, and we can see nothingWhen we open our eyes, we can see the sky, the clouds, the fields, the trees. the houses; and men, sitting in the school -The sun rises in the east, women, and children, walking along the road, or and when he rises it is day; when he sets in the The sun shines upon the trees, the houses, and west, it is night, and the stars appear in the sky. the water, and every thing looks bright and beauti

ful when he shines upon it. He shines in all countries, over all the earth.-He is so bright, that we cannot look at him, but when he is covered with thin clouds. If you take a piece of red or green glass, and hold it between your eye and the sun, you may look at him without hurting your eyes. The sun gives us light and heat, and he is the most bright and glorious work of God that can be seen

in the whole world," &c.

Such simple lessons may be made to produce a well-defined idea in the mind of every child, by exhibiting to his view, at the moment he is reading, the very object which his lesson describes; and if the object is not present, it may be represented by an engraving. When his lesson states that "lead is heavy, and cork is light," a piece of cork and a piece of lead of the same size may be put into his hands, which will not only convince him of the fact, but will enable him afterwards to recognize these circumstances. When he reads that "a bell, when struck by a piece of iron, produces a sound," the experiment may be exhibited before him-which circumstances will have a powerful tendency to arrest his attention, and keep alive his interest in the subject of his lessons.

ment or companion to a book of this kind, descriptions might be given of the particular objects connected with the locality in which the school is situated. In the first place, the school itself, with the various objects it contains; the trees, flowers, and shrubbery which surround it; the roads, streets, lanes and walks, and the most remarkable public buildings it contains-might be particularly described, and the descriptions accompanied with a plan or map of the place and its vicinity, and views of the most interesting objects, rural and architectural, which are connected with it. Such descriptions would always be read with interest by the young, and would excite them to habits of observation and reflection, besides affording them materials for conversation in their social walks and intercourses. Children are always extremely fond of having their ideas of sensible objects enlarged, and view, with a great degree of interest and pleasure, the representations of them in wellexecuted engravings. Yet, strange to tell, when I attended school, it would have been considered as a crime to have looked into a book which contained engravings. I recollect of a boy having brought to school a copy of "The Three Hundred Animals," but it was carefully concealed from the teacher, and from most of the scholars, through fear of punishment. We were so anxious, however, to see the novel figures it contained-the magnified picture of the louse and the flea, the bee-hive, the peacock, the elephant, and the whale-that we gave pins, marbles, cherry-stones, gooseberries, and even sometimes a whole halfpenny, to the proprietor, for half an hour's perusal of it.

The first class-books for schools should, therefore, be confined chiefly to descriptions of the appearances and qualities of such objects as may be exhibited to the senses of children, and instantly associated with the vocables of which their lessons consist. Descriptions of the form and habits of animals, such as the dog, the cow, the ass, the mole, the elephant, the rein-deer, the camelopard, &c.-of vegetables, the parts of which they consist, the places where they grow, the manner in which they are produced and cultivated, their fruits and flowers, and numberless varieties of minerals, Some persons will perhaps be disposed to obtheir various qualities, colours, and appear- ject, that such lessons as I now allude to are ances, the places whence they are procured, either trifling, or, at least, not so important as the processes through which they pass, and the moral lessons generally introduced into our the uses to which they are subservient in hu- initiatory books. In reply to such an insinuman life-might form one department of an ation, it may be sufficient to say, that it can initiatory class-book. Descriptions of the never be unimportant to convey a well-defined more obvious phenomena of nature, such as idea of any object worthy of being known, to the apparent motions of the heavens, the the mind of a child, if it is admitted that the rising and setting of the sun, the phases of great object of education is to communicate the moon, the movements and aspect of the the elements of thought. And as to producclouds, the phenomena of thunder and light- ing moral impressions, every pious and intelning, win-ls, rain, hail and snow; the most ligent teacher has an opportunity afforded of striking objects which appear in towns, vil- impressing the minds of his pupils with a lages, and throughout the fields, on hills, sense of the Goodness, Omnipresence, and mountains, valleys, rivers, and sea-coasts- Agency of God, every time he is teaching a might form another department of a school- lesson which is descriptive of the works of book; care being taken that the descriptions nature. Morality can never be effectually be sufficiently simple and vivid, and that long taught to the young by vague exhortations, and hard words be as much as possible avoid- and general rules and maxims,-more esed. Descriptions of some of the innocent pecially when such exhortations are not games and amusements of the young, accom- thoroughly understood. If we wish to impanied with delineations of some of them, press the youthful mind with the odiousness might likewise be introduce. As a supple- of vice, and the excellence of virtue, we

must fix upon particular actions, apply to this projected work, I find the following them moral rules or precepts, and illustrate, "General outline of Contents." by familiar examples, their nature and tendency. Every teacher has daily an opportunity of directing the attention of his pupils to certain actions, both good and bad, which appear in their general conduct; and the judicious remarks he makes on the temper and dispositions manifested by particular individuals, will make a more definite and lasting impression upon the minds of the young than can be produced by the mere reading or repetition of moral maxims or general rules. And every child who has been regularly taught to understand every sentence he reads, and to exercise his judgment upon it, will undoubtedly be better prepared than others for forming a judgment of the propriety or impropriety of certain moral actions, when they are explained to him with simplicity and clearness. In a more advanced stage of education, however, moral lessons, accompanied with examples of virtues and vices, may with great propriety be introduced.

Some may likewise be disposed to inquire whether I intend to set aside exercises on the powers of the letters and the clementary sounds. Although I do not attach so much importance to such exercises as has generally been done, yet I would not altogether set them aside. Lists of monosyllables, exemplifying the long and short sounds of the vowels, and the pronunciation peculiar to certain combinations of the consonants, might be pasted upon cards, and hung up in view of the different classes; on which they might be occasionally exercised, rather as a kind of interlude or amusement than as a serious task. But it appears quite preposterous to confine a child for four or five months to the pronunciation of mere sounds, to which no ideas are attached. And, from a good deal of experience, I am convinced that the true pronunciation of words is to be acquired more from reading interesting lessons, and from the occasional remarks of the teacher on particular sounds as they occur, than by long and tedious exercises on the orthography of the language.

In a more advanced stage of education, after the pupil has read two or three small volumes consisting of such easy descriptive pieces as those alluded to above, a volume consisting of selections of a higher order may be put into his hands. So early as the year 1809, I had formed, and partly executed, the plan of a volume of this description, calculated to excite the attention of the young, to convey real knowledge to their minds, and to render the exercise of reading pleasant and profitable. In some papers connected with

1. Short and familiar lessons. 2. Narratives of real occurrences and facts. 3. Juvenile Biography-comprising anecdotes and lives of young persons who had made early progress in knowledge: early life of Sir I. Newton, of Ferguson the astronomer, of Pascal, Gassendi, Grotius, Crichton, Horrox, Baratiere, &c. &c. 4. Selections from Sacred History: History of the creation and fall of man-of the deluge-of the destruction of Sodom-of the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Samuel,-of the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, and the leading events which befel them in the wilderness and in Canaan-of the life and translation of Elijah-of the deliverances of Jonah, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego; Paul, Peter, &c.—of the circumstances which attended the birth, transfiguration, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, and the preaching of the Apostleswith illustrative remarks and observations, a map of the land of Judea, plans of the tabernacle and temple, and figures of the sacred utensils and vestments used in the Jewish worship. 5. Descriptions of objects connected with Natural History and Natural Philosophy : Forms, habits, and instincts of animals, with anecdotes; Natural curiosities-such as basaltic columns, boiling springs, icebergs, glaciers, volcanoes, whirlpools, natural bridges, subterranean caverns, Banian tree, &c.; Brief description of the parts and functions of the human body-the organs of sense, and the different kinds of knowledge they communicate. Phenomena of Nature in the atmosphere and the heavens: Properties of air-weight and pressure of the atmosphere, with descriptions of a few simple illustrative experiments; Descriptions of thunder-storms, luminous and fiery meteors, the aurora-borcalis, the clouds, the rainbow, the ignis-fatuus, rain, hail, dew, waterspouts, hurricanes, sounds and echoes; Descriptions of the mechanical powers-of electrical, magnetical, and optical instruments -of the apparent motions of the heavenly bodies-of the more interesting phenomena connected with the earth, and the other bodies which compose the solar system, &c. G. Nlustrations and descriptions of certain arts and trades: Pin-making, weaving, printing, papermaking, glass-blowing, &c. 7. Useful hints on various subjects: On taking care of books

cautions respecting the preservation of health-the dangers arising from fire, confined air, noxious gases-the prevention of accidents and infectious diseases-rules for the promotion of order, cleanliness and acti

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