V. History.

VI. Physical Geography.

VII. Botany and Gardening.

VIII. Natural History.

IX. Drawing.

X. Music, including lectures on the theory and practice of music, constant practice in singing, and playing the organ, piano-forte, and violin.

XI. Pedagogy, or the art of teaching children. This is taught in village schools attached to the Colleges, in which the young men practice teaching under the personal direction of the Professors.

XII. Medicine. This may seem a strange part of their education, but every student in a Prussian Teachers' College is taught how to treat cases of suspended animation, wounds occasioned by the bites of dogs, injuries by fire, &c.; also how to distinguish poisonous plants, and how to employ some of the more ordinary antidotes.

Public examinations are held every year, in each of these great Institutions, and at these times all the students, who have completed their three years course of education and practice, and all other candidates who choose to present themselves, are examined by the Director and Professors.-Every one who passes this examination, receives a diploma, stating his fitness to be a Teacher. Those who do not, are obliged to continue their education at their own expense, until they are able to prove, that they have attained adequate knowledge and sufficient expertness in the art of Teaching to deserve one. Without such a certificate of merit, no one in either Germany or Switzerland is ever allowed to practice as a Teacher.

It must not be imagined, that it is the Government which appoints to the vacant posts in village and town schools. The parochial and town school committees do this; and as they always prefer a tried and experienced man to a young and untried one, the successful Teachers always get moved on, from the inferior situations, until they obtain the places of Professors or Directors in the Normal Colleges.

From this sketch, it may be imagined what an able and efficient class of Teachers is obtained. I spent many months in the society of these men, both in the towns and in the quiet country villages throughout Germany and Switzerland, and am only too happy to bear testimony to their ability and industry, and to the admirable effects of their labors.

In Prussia alone, there are 30,000 men who have been trained in this manner, now at work in the Primary Schools; while the 45 Prussian Normal Colleges contain 2,600 young persons who are being educated to supply the vacancies annually occasioned in the Teachers' ranks by deaths superannuation, illness or other causes.

And a similar system, be it remembered, is in operation throughout the whole of Germany, Switzerland and Denmark.

EDUCATION." He that has found a way," says Locke, “to keep a child's spirit easy, active, and free, and yet at the same time to restrain him from many things he has a mind to, and to draw him to things that are uneasy to him-he, I say, who knows how to reconcile these seeming contradictions, has, in my opinion, got the true secret of education."

Youths' Department.

"What's the Use."

"Where's Sam?" asked Joe Dennet, coming into Mrs. Powers' yard, and seeing Mrs. Powers at the door. "Up in his study," answered Sam's mother.

"And where is that?" asked Joe; “I did not know that Sam had a study." Sam's mother smiled and told him to go in the garden and may be he would find it.

He did so, and shouted-"Sam where are you." "Hallo!" said a voice from above. Joe looked up and saw his friend perched in the crotch of an apple tree, with slate and book in hand.

66

Come," said Joe, the boys are going a boating, and want you to go.” "Can't," answered Sam; "I am trying to master this algebra. We all missed to-day."

"Why, it is Wednesday afternoon, and that is our time. I wouldn't study, I'm sure; what's the use?" asked Joe. "Well, for my part, I am bound to get this lesson the first thing I do,"said Sam.

Pooh, it's too hot to study; besides I hate algebra; what's the use of puzzling your brains over x plus y?" "I think it is of use to get our lessons,"

"What are you going to do after that?" asked Joe. "I am going to weed the onion beds," said Sam.

"Oh it's too pleasant to work; what's the use of tying yourself up here all the afternoon? I know I would not," said Joe Dennet. "Well, I think it's of use to do what needs to be done," was Sam's answer.

That was a fair sample of Samuel Powers and Joseph Dennet, two boys who lived in the same neighborhood. It is twenty-five years since this kind of talk took place, and the boys are now men. Sam Powers is called a man of "iron will," because he lays plans and carries them out with a patience and ene gy which never gives up. He is one of the first business men in the State, and a truly pious man too. How is it with Joe? He goes through life a man, just as he did a boy. If there is any extra exertion to be made in his business, he asks, "What's the use?"and goes to it with so little heart, that he is sure to fail. He is always complaining of hard times, and wondering how people get ahead so.As for his religion, he does not live as if it were of much use to him or any one else.

There are some boys, who when they have anything to do, or are called upon to do a little more than usual, try to shirk off by asking, " O, what's the use?" The fact is, boys, there is use in doing like a man what you have to do. There is use in getting your lessons and getting them thorough and well besides, and making extra exertions to get them if they are difficult. There is use in weeding the garden, chopping at the woodpile, finding the cows, cultivating a taste for reading, and in doing

what your parents ask of you. Whenever I hear a boy trying to excuse himself from duty, by asking fretfully, "O, what's the use?"I mark him as a lazy, shuffling, shirking boy, who will be very likely to be good for nothing when he grows up. You must have a hearty interest in your work; and always feel very suspicious of yourself, if you find an inclination to dodge duty with its meaningless excuse.-Selected.

LORD. This is a word of Saxon origin, from Hlaford. Dropping the H, it became in the course of time Laford, and this was still further contracted to Lord. Hlaford is itself a compound, being made up of Hlaf, a loaf of bread, and ford, to give. It signifies, therefore, a giver of bread. In the days of the Saxon supremacy, the men of rank and wealth to whom this title was applied, were accustomed to feed the poor among the people, and hence the name by which they were called." It might be well, if those who now bear that name would remember its origin.

JOURNEYMEN. It is still the custom in Germany for those who have been apprenticed to any mechanical art, after having served their time, to travel from place to place, in order that by working under dif ferent masters, they may perfect themselves in their art. The same thing was practiced anciently among our Saxon ancestors in England. From this custom sprang the word journeyman, so commonly applied to those who have served an apprenticeship to a trade, and work for wages.

SELF-RELIANCE.-Were we ask a hundred men, who from small beginnings have attained a condition of respectability and affluence, to what, under God, they imputed their success in life, the general answer would be, "It was from being early compelled to think for and depend on ourselves."

ANECDOTAL.

WORK IF YOU WOULD RISE.-Richard Burke being found in reverio shortly after an extraordinary display of powers in Parliament by his brother Edmund Burke, and questioned by a friend as to the cause, replied, "I have been wondering how Ned has contrived to monopolize all the talents of the family; but then again, I remember, when we were at play he was always at work." The force of this anecdote is increased by the fact, that Richard Burke was considered not inferior, in natural talents, to his brother. Yet the one rose to greatness, while the other died comparatively obscure. Don't trust to your genius, young men, if you would rise, but work! work!

TALENT AND CONDITION.-A visitor going lately into a free school, in New England during the half-yearly examination, noticed two fine-looking boys, one of whom had taken the first prize and the other the second. “Those are two fine-looking fellows," he said to the teacher; “I suppos

they belong to the higher class of society." "That is not the way we class our boys," the teacher said; "we follow the old maxim of 'handsome is who handsome does.' The boy who took the first prize is the son of the man who saws my wood; the one who took the second is tho son of the Vice-President of the United States."

BE KIND TO YOUR MOTHER. "What would I give," said Charles Lamb, to call my mother back to earth for one day, to ask her pardon upon my knees, for all those acts by which I gave her gentle spirit pain."

ARE WE KILLED.-A little girl, who was in the car that was partially demolished by the accident on the railroad, below Burlington, the other day, noticing the alarm created among the passengers, turned to her grandma, who was with her, and said, "Are we killed?"

THE REWARD OF DILIGENCE." Seest thou a man diligent in his business?" says Solomon; "he shall stand before kings." We have a striking illustration of this aphorism in the life of Dr. Franklin, who, quoting the sentence himself, adds, "This is true: I have stood in the presence of five kings, and once had the honor of dining with one." All in consequence of his having been" diligent in business" from his earliest years. What a lesson is this for our youth, and for us all!

Make

HABIT." I trust every thing, under God," says Lord Brougham, “to habit, upon which, in all ages, the lawgiver, as well as the schoolmaster, has mainly placed his reliance; habit which makes everything easy, and casts all difficulties upon the deviation from the wonted course. sobriety a habit, and intemperance will be hateful and hard; make prudence a habit, and reckless profligacy will be as contrary to the nature of the child grown an adult, as the most atrocious crimes are to any of your lordships. Give a child the habit of sacredly regarding the truth-of carefully respecting the property of others of scrupulously abstaining from all acts of improvidence which can involve him in distress, and he will just as likely think of rushing into the element in which he cannot breathe, as of lying, or cheating, or stealing."

Py?"

WHICH IS THE HAPPIEST SEASON? At a festal party of old and young, the question was asked, "Which season of life is the most hapAfter being freely discussed by the guests, it was referred for answer to the host, upon whom was the burden of fourscore years. He asked if they had noticed a grove of trees before the dwelling, and said, "When the spring comes, and in the soft air the buds are breaking on the trees, and they are covered with blossoms, I think, How beautiful is Spring! And when the summer comes, and covers the trees with its heavy foliage, and singing birds are among the branches, I think, How beautiful is Summer! When autumn loads them with golden fruit, and their leaves bear the gorgeous tint of frost, I think, How beautiful is Autumn! And when it is sear winter, and there is neither foliage nor fruit, then I look up through the leafless branches, as I never could until now, and see the stars shine."

PARENTAL ADVICE.-The following advice was imparted to the late ex-President Adams, by his mother, in 1778, in a letter to him while he was in Europe: "Great learning and superior abilities, should you ever possess them, will be of little value and small estimation, unless virtue, honor, integrity and truth, are cherished by you. Adhere to the rules and principles early instilled into your mind, and remember that you are responsible to your God. Dear as you are to me, I would much rather prefer that you would find a grave in the ocean which you have crossed, than to see you an immoral graceless child."

BAD THOUGHTS.--Bad thoughts are worse enemies than lions and tigers; for we can keep out of the way of wild beasts, but bad thoughts win their way every where. The cup that is full will hold no more; keep your hearts full of good thoughts, that bad thoughts may find no room to en

ter.

Literary Notices.

▲ Critical and Universal Dictionary of the English Language, by Joseph E. Worcester, LL. D.

We have as little inclination as ability to play the part of umpire between the contending claims of this great dictionary and the work of Dr. Webster. For a fuller exposition of their respective merits we would refer the reader to the advertisements of their publishers found in our advertising pages. The vocabulary, in this work of Dr. Worcester's, is very full, the definitions concise and sententious, and the pronunciation is fully marked and accurate. Indeed it is in the departments of orthoepy and orthography that it claims superiority as a dictionary, its friends yielding the palm to Webster's unabridged quarto as a definer. We commend the book to the careful examination of those who are ambitious of a familarity with the English tongue. Dr. Worcester is a scholar of refined taste and his work will vindicate for itself a claim to a place in every scholar's library and on every teacher's desk. Published by Jenks, Hickling and Swan, Boston. For sale by S. D. Elwood & Co.

Advanced Course of Composition and Rhetoric, by G. P. Quackenboss. A.M.

A cursory examination of this book has impressed us with a feeling that it is a most valuable aid to the student of English composition. The subjects treated of are, the History of the English Language, Punetuation, Rhetoric, Prose Composition and Poetical Composition. Much valuable instruction is given under each of these heads. Nothing pertaining to the writer's vocation seems to have escaped the attention of the author, even to the correction of a printer's proof sheet, a specimen of which is given. Published by D. Appleton & Co., N.Y.

Thomson's Arithmetical Analysis.

The publishers, Messrs. Ivison & Phinney, N. Y., have sent us a copy of this little book. It is a mental arithmetic for the higher classes, and