quisite to form the letter, he tries to write a number of the same letters in succession, on the line drawn on the slate immediately opposite. Mr. Buchanan has found this plan greatly to facilitate the accurate formation of the letters, in the first attempts of children to write on slates; and it certainly deserves a fair trial in other seminaries. Short words might be indented in the same manner; and when the pupil is at a loss as to the formation and the joinings of the different letters, he may recur to the indented model, and by following with his pencil its turnings and windings, three or four times in succession, he will soon be enabled to form the word on his slate.

On a principle somewhat similar, a child may be taught to write with ink upon paper, by setting before him a piece of good writing made with a red pencil, and making him pass and repass over all the strokes and curves with a pen full of black ink.-In Professor Jacotot's system of education-instead of commencing with elementary lines, curves, and letters, in what is called text-hand-a complete sentence, written by the master, or engraved in small hand, is put before the eyes of the pupil, which he is directed to copy He writes, as well as he can, the first wordsuppose The;' and no further progress must be made, till, by an attentive comparison of his own performance with the original copy, he becomes conscious of the faults and defects of the former. Such questions as these are then put. Q. Is this T well made? A. No; it is too high, or too short, or too long. Could it be made better? A. I think so. What must you then do to improve it? Make it longer, or broader, or shorter, &c. Q. How could you have made it better at first?

Q.

A.

lines and pieces which they copy, should uniformly contain religious and moral precepts and sentiments easily understood, and state ments of historical, geographical, astronomical, and scientific facts, in order that no opportu nity may be lost in familiarizing the mind to useful knowledge. For example, instead of the unmeaning words generally given as 'copics,' such sentences as the following might be substituted:

"The eyes of the Lord are in every place. beholding the evil and the good. He knoweth our downsitting and our uprising, and understandeth all our thoughts. The darkness cannot hide from him; for the darkness and the light are both alike to God." "The power and wisdom of God are seen in the construction of the smallest insect. In a single drop of certain kinds of water, hundreds of little animals may be seen, by the microscope, swimming like fishes in a pond, every one of them having eyes, a mouth, stomach, and bowels, and instruments of motion." "About sixteen hundred years after the Creation, the whole earth was covered with a flood of water, which reached more than twenty feet above the tops of the highest mountains." "Fear God, and keep his commandments. Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and live peaceably with all men. If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. For God is long-suffering and kind, even to the unthankful and the evil; He causeth his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth his rain to water the fields both of the righteous and of the wicked." "The world in which we dwell is round, like a globe or ball; and it would require a journey of nearly twenty-five thousand miles be"The Atlantic ocean lies between Europe and Amefore we could go quite round it." rica, and it is three thousand miles broad." "Africa is a very hot country, and there are great numbers of people living in it whose skin is entirely black. "China is the most The principal object of writing is to compopulous empire in the world: it contains municate our sentiments to others, or to record about three hundred millions of inhabitants. the fleeting thoughts that pass through our The whole world contains above eight hunown minds for the subject of future consideradred millions." "The moon is two thousand tion. The art of writing should therefore be one hundred and sixty miles in diameter; and made to bear, as soon as possible, on the prac- is two hundred and forty thousand miles distical purposes of life. Instead of continuing tant from the earth." "The sun is ninetychildren for years, at the formal practice of five millions of miles distant; and is more writing from 'copy-lines-as soon as they ac- than twelve hundred thousand times larger quire a tolerable hand, they should be accus- than the whole earth." The air, or atmotomed to write forms of mercantile accounts sphere, presses upon every square yard of the statements of arithmetical operations-cards earth's surface with a force equal to more of invitation-letters of friendship or business than nineteen thousand pounds." "The river -forms of address and superscriptions-and Amazon is three thousand miles long, and whatever else they may afterwards have occa- is the largest river on the globe," &c., sion to practice in the actual business of life. The miscellaneous sentiments embodied in the

A. By paying more attention, &c. But I leave it to the writing-master to adopt such plans for teaching the formation of written characters as his experience may deem most expedient, and conclude with two or three general remarks.

A sentence or two of this description might

be given to a whole class of writers, to be copied several times over; and after the class has finished the writing, the fact, or sentiment contained in the sentence might be explained and illustrated. By this means, a number of useful facts and practical rules of conduct might be gradually communicated to the youthful mind; and, being noted down in the pupil's copy-book, they might be reperused and referred to on any future occasion. Perhaps it might not be inexpedient to classify a number of fundamental truths, facts, and aphorisms, under such heads as the following Religious, Moral, Geographical, Historical, Astronomical, Chemical, Optical, Botanical, &c., allotting two or three pages of the copy-book for each department. The above suggestion proceeds on the principle, that in every department of study, an opportunity should be taken of imparting some new and useful truth to the unders anding of the young, or impressing some moral lesson upon the heart.

assumes the figure of a crescent, a half-moon, a gibbous phase, and a full enlightened hemisphere-might form another exercise.* Such exercises would tend to excite a spirit of observation, and to impress the mind with various facts, which would be found of immense benefit to the pupil when he should afterwards enter on the regular study of the sciences. When such exercises are prescribed to a whole class, a day and hour may be appointed, when a few of the compositions might be read by the teacher in the presence of the class. This will give him an opportunity of offering remarks on the merits of the different compositions, and of showing how the same ideas may be expressed in different language. On such occasions, orthographical and grammatical errors may be pointed out, and directions given how they may be avoided. At the same time, instructions may be given in reference to the proper use of capital letters, stops and marks, and the proper arrangement of any piece of composition into sentences and paragraphs.

As soon as the pupil is able to handle the pen with some degree of dexterity, he should be accustomed to write forms of letters, narra- The utility of such exercises will scarcely tives, essays, or real epistolary correspondence. be called in question. They would habituate He may likewise, at this period, be gradually the young to observation and reflection-instead taught the art of composition. This may be of looking at the objects and phenomena of effected, in the first instance, by recounting nature with an unconscious gaze, they would to him a striking narrative, or an interesting learn to inspect them with minute attention, historical fact, and desiring him immediately and investigate their forms, qualities, and to repeat it in his own style, and afterwards effects. In such observations they would feel to write it down nearly in the same manner. a variety of pleasing emotions; for the acquiAfter being accustomed to write, a few simple sition of new facts and ideas, and knowledge narratives, descriptions of some objects con- of every description, is a source of enjoyment nected with natural history, or some striking to every mind, whether young or old. Bemoral sentiments, may be read over several sides, such studies and employments would times in his hearing, as exercises in composi- have a tendency to prevent them from ention. He may next be requested to give a gaging in frivolous pursuits and mischievous narrative of any excursion he has made, either devices; and, in the future periods of their alone, or in company, and a description of the lives, they would be enabled to record and descenes he has visited, the events that occurred, scribe, with perspicuity, any remarkable ocand the friends by whom he was entertained. currences or facts that may fall under their He may also be desired to describe the rural observation. We have reason to believe that scenery around him, and the streets, lanes, many interesting facts in relation to geology, public buildings, and other remarkable objects mineralogy, zoology, meteorology, and other connected with the town or village in which departments of natural history, have been dehe resides. A stuffed bird or quadruped, an tected by persons in the lower ranks of life, insect, a plant, flower, or any other object, which have been lost to the scientific world, might occasionally be presented to him, with a request to describe in writing, its form, parts, proportions, and properties, as they appear to his senses after a minute inspection. The apparent motion of the sun during summer might be prescribed as an exercise of this kind, in which he might be desired to describe the direction or position of the sun at 6 and 9 o'clock in the morning, at noon, and at 3, 6, and 8 o'clock in the afternoon. A description of the different phases of the moon, and of the positions in the heavens in which she appears, immediately after sunset, when she

In order to understand the object of such an exercise, it may not be improper to state, that immediately after sunset, the moon, when in a crescent phase, appears near the west or south-west quarter of the heavens, in our northern latitudewhen of the figure of a half-moon, she appears nearly in the south at the same hour-when of a gibbous phase, about the south-east-and when a full moon. in the east, nearly opposite to the point of sunset, and sometimes a little to the south-east or north-east, according as she is in north or south declination. These circumstances can be easily ascertained in the course of a fortnight, and it is of some importance to a young person that he be enabled to determine them from his own observa. tions.

in consequence of their being beheld with an drawings. Previous, however, to such atincurious eye, and from the observers having tempts, some of the principles of perspective been incapable of writing an intelligent de- would require to be familiarly illustrated. The scription of the objects which came under pupil might next be instructed in the delineatheir inspection. Hence the numerous bones tion of maps, the drawing of architectural of fossil animals which have been mangled plans, garden plots, and rural ornaments, maand destroyed, and thrown aside as rubbish, chinery of different kinds, and optical, matheby labourers and miners, had they been pre- matical, and philosophical instruments. In served entire, might have thrown a new light the present state of society, and amidst the on the extinct species of the animal kingdom, improvements now going on in all kinds of and on the former state of the world. But in machinery, a particular acquaintance with the present state of society, there is not one this department of drawing would be found out of a hundred capable of writing a per- of great practical utility, and there are few spicuous description of any fact, physical, mechanical exercises in which the young political, or moral, that may fall under his ob- would take greater delight. servation. If, therefore, young people were early excited to habits of observation, and to record in writing the results of their observations, they might afterwards, in a variety of ways, be eminently useful in contributing to the advancement of science and of general knowledge.

SECTION III.-Drawing.

In connection with writing, Drawing is an accomplishment in which every young person should be initiated. As writing consists in the imitation of characters and words, so drawing is the imitation or writing down of objects. Almost every child feels a desire to imitate the actions of others, and when he has it in his power, to draw representations, however rude, of the objects around him; and in such exercises feels no small share of enjoyment. He may be taught to begin with geometrical figures, as lines, angles, squares, parallelograms, triangles, polygons, arches, circles, ovals, cones, pyramids, cylinders, and the like, as being the foundation of all other proportions. He may next proceed to the drawing of fruits, as apples, pears, cherries, &c., with their leaves; of flowers, as roses, tulips, and daisies; of birds, beasts, fishes, and serpents; of the human body, with its several lineaments; and of houses, spires, public buildings, and landscapes. After he has executed some of these objects from patterns set before him, he should be encouraged as soon as possible to copy from nature. For this purpose, he might be directed to begin with attempting to draw the representation of an adjacent building, of the schoolhouse, with its garden and area, of a church, a spire, a tower, or some adjacent public edifice also the imitation of a tree, a flower, a horse, a cow, a dog, a ship, or a windmill. After drawing several landscapes from copies, he may be requested to delineate a particular landscape in the neighbourhood of the seminary; and if such an exercise were prescribed to a whole class, premiums (if such a principle be admitted) might be offered for two or three of the best finished

Drawing has hitherto been considered chiefly in the light of an ornamental study, and has been viewed as principally adapted to the amusement of ladies, and the higher ranks of society; and their attention has been chiefly directed to the copying of paintings, engravings, drawings, and fancy-pieces, which have no prototypes in nature. Hence there are comparatively few who have learned this art in the usual routine, that can accurately delineate a landscape from nature, draw an architectural plan, or give a correct representation of any instrument or piece of machinery. The art of drawing ought not to be considered as merely an elegant amusement: it is capable of being rendered of the greatest utility to science, and to those arts which minister to the comfort and rational enjoyments of human life. Were useful knowledge more generally diffused, and were the young universally taught to draw from nature, our views of the landscape of the world, of the facts of science, and of the operations of art, might be indefinitely enlarged. Every traveller would be enabled to take a sketch of the wonders of nature, the varieties of art, the domestic associations, and the more interesting scenery displayed in the different regions through which he passed; and such sketches, being afterwards expanded into panoramas, or engraved for the optical machine, might extend our conceptions of the scenery of the world, and convey clear and distinct views of objects which we may never have an opportunity of visiting. Every natu ralist would be qualified to delineate an exact representation of any unknown tree, flower, shrub, or uncommon animal, that might fall under his observation. Every one engaged in astronomical observation could represent to others, with accuracy, the phenomena of the solar spots, with their numberless variationsthe aspect of the lunar mountains, peaks, and vales, in every phase of the moon, and the changes which may occasionally be taking place-the varied appearances on the surfaces of the planets, as seen through telescopes→→