1st. Ought we ever, in writing to a married lady, to use the husband's given name preceeded by Mrs?

2d. Ought the name of the town in which we reside, or our post-office address, (when they are different,) to be placed before the date of our letters?

3d. What is the correct orthography of that part of ground wheat called kernel, and why is it so called?

To the first, we will answer. As a man and his wife are one, it is proper to call her by his name. If it is proper to write Mr. John Smith, we do not see any impropriety in writing Mrs. John Smith. But all such titles are very improperly used by common consent. Mr. means Master and is properly used as a prefix to the name of a graduate of the Second Degree from some respectable College.

Rev. should be prefixed to the names of such clergymen only as have been ordained. We once knew a man who on receiving a letter through the post-office, with the affix Esqr., took his horse from the pasture and rode four miles, to the village, to enquire if he had been appointed Justice of the Peace.

The second question is answered in a few words. If we expect replies to our letters, as a matter of course, we must give our correspondent the correct post-office address and it is much more natural to write it with the date, unless we wish also, for some reason, to make known our place of residence. In this case, special directions as to post-office address, should be given at the close of

the letter.

The word "kernel" seems to be nearly related to the saxon word cyrnel, (a little corn or nut), the French word cerneau, (kernel of green walnut), the Latin cor and the Greek ker, meaning heart. We regard the orthography here given as correct and presume it is so called because it means the core or heart of the seed.

A LIBERAL OFFER.-To every person who will send us the names of six new subscribers to the Vermont School Journal with $3, we will send the seventh volume free, and every seventh volume for a larger number. For three new subscribers and $1,50 we will send volume III of the Journal free, or a copy of Gleanings from School Life Experience. With the low price at which the Journal is offered, may we not depend upon earnest efforts on the part of our friends to increase our subscriptions. Now is the time to settle the question whether the Journal shall survive the war. Shall

it live, or will the friends of our cause incur tho disgrace of letting it die?

A BOARDING SCHOOL FOR BOYS-FOR SALE.-This school is pleasantly and favorably located; the building is in excellent repair and convenient for the accommodation of a family and ten boarders; it has a pleasant school-room well furnished and sufficiently large to accommodate forty pupils. This property will be sold, in part on time, and at a reasonable price. For particulars enquire at this office.

TOWN & HOLBROOK'S PROGRESSIVE SERIES. We call attention to this series of Text Books as advertised in our Journal. These are books of rare merit; books that will bear examination and have stood the test of the school-room. They are in use already in more than two-thirds of all New England schools and seem to be finding their way into the other third. When a change shall be desirable in Vermont, (where these books are not already used), we recommend the introduction of Town & Holbrook's series.

OUR BOOK TABLE.

THE GRADED SCHOOL; By Wm. H. Wells, A. M., Supt. Pub lic Schools, Chicago; A. S. Barnes & Burr, New York.

This is a book of 200 pages by one of the wisest and most gifted educators in our country, and upon a subject the most important to the interest of our schools. The Graded is the only true system, and if this book, as it claims, presents a Graded Course of Study combining the best elements of the different systems adopted in Chicago, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinati, and St. Louis, it is truly valuable. Every Teacher and school officer

should own a copy.

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.-October No. is on our table as fresh and inviting as ever. Contents, Autumnal Fruit; David Gaunt; Euphorion; House Building; Mr. Axtell; Leamington Spa; Sanitary condition of the Army; An Arab Welcome; Elizabeth Sara Sheppard; Resources of the South; The Battle Autumn of 1862.

Send $2,50 to this office and we will forward a copy of the Atlantic and Vermont School Journal to any address for one year. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS.-This valuable Journal is published the first of every second month, at New Haven, Ct., by Professors B. (and B. jr.,) SILLIMAN and JAMES D. DANA, in connection with Professors GRAY, AGASSIZ and GIBBS. Price $5 per year.

HARPERS NEW MONTHLY for October is received. The contributors for the present number are Robert E. Coleman, Geo. W. Curtis, Marian C. Evans, James G. Fuller, Alfred H. Guernsey, Alice B. Haven, J. T. Headly, Benson J. Lossing, D. M. Mulock, Kate J. Neely, H. E. Prescott, Samuel T. Prince, Anthony Trollope.

We will furnish this Magazine and the Vermont School Journal one year, for $2,50.

THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY is one of the best of its kind. Price $3 per year, postage prepaid, or cheaper to clubs. Address J. R. Gilmore, 532 Broadway New York.

GODEY'S LADY'S BOOK for October is a "rare and rich number, both in illustrations and reading matter." Address Louis A. Godey, Philadelphia.

ARTHUR'S HOME MAGAZINE for October is elegantly embellished and attractive every way. For $2,50, we will furnish it one year with a copy of the Vermont Journal.

PETERSON'S LADIES NATIONAL MAGAZINE has come with its usual variety and attractiveness. Only $2 a year. Send for it to C. J. Peterson, Philadelphia.

VERMONT QUARTERLY GAZETTEER No. IV., is on our table. It is a historical Magazine, embracing a digest of the history of each town, civil, educational, religious, geological and literary. Edited by Miss Abby Maria Hemenway, Ludlow. This number embraces a part of Caledonia county, and is embellished by a fine engraving of ex Governor Fairbanks. Miss Hemenway deserves a liberal patronage for the valuable service she is rendering Vermont.

THE HOME MONTHLY is devoted to home education, literature and religion. It is always interesting and safe for family reading. THE NEW ENGLANDER is published in the months of January, April, July and October, by Wm. L. Kingsley, New Haven, Ct. This is a valuable Quarterly and deserves a liberal patronage.

T. B. PETERSON & BROTHERS, Philadelphia, have published Geo. Francis Train's "Down Fall of England," and Archbishop Hughes "Civil War in America." Complete in one volume. Price 10 cents.

PATRIOTIC SONG BOOK.-A superior collection of choice tunes and Hymns, written and composed for the times. Sold at $8 per hundred, by Horace Waters, 481 Broadway, New York. CHOICE NEW MUSIC." We are coming Father Abraham six hundred thousaud more;" "I hear sweet voices singing," Rally round your flag boys." Published by Horace Waters 481 Broadway, New York.

THE MAINE TEACHER has not been received at this office for several months. We fear some evil has befallen this excellent Journal. Has it gone to the war? It had better stay at home to defend the State.

THE

VERMONT SCHOOL JOURNAL.

Vol. IV.

NOVEMBER. 1862, No. XI.

CLASSICAL STUDIES.-THEIR RELATIONS TO COMMON SCHOOLS.

BY REV. C. E. FERRIS.
Concluded.

The second part into which the subject given me naturally divides itself, is its practical aspects for our Teachers. From what has been said, will be seen the general estimation in which I hold classic culture. Holding this high view of it in mind, every scholar and still more every teacher will make it a constant endeavor to realize its advantages.

But it is not practicable to insist that every teacher in the common schools shall be classically educated, much less that every scholar in these schools shall study the ancient classics. Nor is this essential in order that all may derive advantages from classical study. Culture is transmitted from teaeher to pupil, as qualities of blood from parent to child. The child takes the blood one degree further removed from the old stock, yet it will be none the less genuine, and in some cases scarcely less pure. The teacher, if his culture be pure, cannot fail to impress it on his pupils. His words, his sentences, his tones will show it. So also will his logic and rhetoric, and his opinions and his philosophy and politics and religion are very likely to be toned, and his expression of them modified by his culture.

The practical question often arises, as to how far the

teacher and the guardians of our schools should encour age pupils to study the classics. In the departments o mathematics and philosophy the question does not admit of much difference of opinion; the pupil needs to be pu on the genuine classic track at the outset, and, so far as he goes in elementary study, he should be held to that track, from Numeration upwards. Mathematical text books should be adopted with chief reference to their scientific, selected, classical character, as fitted to carry the pupil upward, along the regular ascending scale of pure mathematics. I have little confidence in the text books that are prepared to simplify and make easy and attractive these studies. Yea, if I told the whole truth, I should say I loathe and despise them. The most healthy attraction is the pleasure derived from apprehending a truth, or solving a problem. The profit to be acquired is mainly derived from the strength gained by exertion. Anything that demands less strength, diminishes the prof. its. Besides, the rapid advance claimed from the use of simplified books, is commonly only advance in the book, not in science. Two lads may stand before a platform two feet in perpendicular height, the one chooses to ascend it by walking an inclined plane of 20 feet, the other by a vigorous effort, stands upon it with one leap, and finds himself all the more elastic and strong for the effort; but the other may boast that he has climbed ten times as far.

So in philosophy, the best text books are not the simplest and the easiest, but the soundest, and those which give the definitions and principles in the fewest and at the same time clearest words. We are more likely to find these desiderata in the old authors than in the new, or in the old authors edited by those who have studied them thoroughly with the aid of others.

The study of languages involves other principles, and should be recommended by other considerations, except so far as our own tongue is studied as a classic. Modern