have always admired the liberal spirit of Sir Thomas Browne, the author of the Religio Medici, in his remark, that "all the liberal professions have their origin in a common design to remedy the woes occasioned to the human race by Adam's fall." Some appear to have a different opinion, and we have witnessed amusing devices to raise what is called the "dignity of the teacher's profession," from what is thought to be a position much too low in the public mind. If such a state of things exists proper remedies should be sought. We have no great objection if teachers' conventions and associations pass resolutions of selfcommendation, though this process of acquiring" due dignity," reminds us of the experiment sometimes made by boys, untaught in the natural laws of action and reaction, who try to elevate themselves to a more conspicuous position by means of their boot straps. Still we are in. clined to think this method to win popular consideration, will not generally diminish the amount or the utility of the services of teachers, nor lessen the public appreciation of them. When however unfavorable com. parisons are introduced into popular assemblies, and common school teachers and those who are specially devoted to the cause of common school education, resort to the very old method of self-exaltation, that of pulling others down, they will do a greater injury to the higher institutions and eventually to themselves, from the fact, that their great services to the public being known and felt by all men, must give them an advantage in such a strife over those who are endeavoring to defend pop ular interests no less vital, though not so readily seen and estimated by the people according to their worth. And therefore it is that the friends of the higher institutions should earnestly protest against all such unwarrantable assumptions, and resist all popular tendencies

calculated to diminish their popular influence. Let them speak freely not arrogantly, but without fear, not as those "having authority," nor yet by dictation or permission “as the scribes."

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But give us self-made men, it is said Washington and Franklin never studied Greek or Latin, and some of the greatest men of this free country graduated at the common school

just as though there was a real foundation for the designation we often hear of a self-made class in the community, as though any man in such a country as ours could pos sibly arrive at an eminence truly respectable and honorable by any means in college or out, in an honest calling, except by efforts purely and personally his own-as though all young men who do not study what Washington and Franklin did not study, will therefore become Washingtons and Franklins.

If there is one popular error more detrimental to the progress of learn. ing in this country than any other, it is that which consists in not ap prehending the true uses of classi cal studies as a means of education. We think the impression is quite general, that there is no particular relation existing between the means of mental discipline furnished in the higher schools and those in the lower-that, therefore, the college studies do not directly prepare a teacher the better for service in an English school-and of course, progress in improvement in the lower schools does not consist in an approximation towards the studies and modes of training pursued in the higher seminaries, at least so far as respects the study of the classics. It is not many years since it was a matter of serious discussion in some of the colleges, whether the classics should not be dispensed with as a part of a course of liberal education, and something more practical be substi tuted. The Faculty of Yale College thought it necessary to publish an

able defense of the ancient system. The question was soon decided, and it will not again be raised in any of the higher institutions, and we trust that in the exercise of their proper vocation they will, ere long, entirely correct the popular errors that prevail on this subject. The time is not distant, we trust, when that which is deemed essential, as a means of mental cultivation in college, will be regarded as equally useful, for all young persons who are desirous, as far as they can, to improve their minds by the best methods and the best studies. If the word practical means whatever is useful, and the word useful, in respect to school studies, means whatever affords discipline, information, refinement and pleasure to the mind, then is the study of the classics a proper means of education most practical and useful, for boys engaging in all sorts of professions and occupations, demanding mental discipline and cultivation. Class ical studies are adapted to be elemental as well as complemental in a course of intellectual training. They are the best means to educate boys rapidly and thoroughly, while they are most admirable to instruct, refine and delight men.

"The study of language," says Dr. Arnold, "seems to me as if it was given for the very purpose of forming the human mind in youth; and the Greek and Latin languages, in themselves so perfect, and at the same time freed from the insupera ble difficulty which must attend any attempt to teach boys philology through the medium of their moth er tongue, seem the very instruments by which this is to be effected."

"The study of Latin and Greek is important, as a school exercise mainly because it enables us to understand and employ well that language in which we commonly think and speak and write. It does this because Greek and Latin are specimens at once highly perfect

and incapable of being understood without long and minute attention. The study of them, therefore, naturally involves that of the general principles of grammar; while their peculiar excellences illustrate the points which render language clear and forcible and beautiful. But our application of this general knowledge must naturally be to our langnage; to show us what are its peculiarities, what its beauties, what its defects-to teach us by the patterns or analogies offered by other languages, how the effect which we admire in them may be produced with a somewhat different instrument. Every lesson in Latin or Greek may and ought to be made a lesson in English. The translation of every sentence is properly an exercise in extemporaneous English composition, a problem how to express, with equal brevity, clearness and force in our own language, the thought which the original author has so admirably expressed in his."

Such is the testimony of the teacher of Rugby, showing the connection there is between the study of the classics and that branch of study which forms so important a part of common school education. We mean English grammar, including com. position, which is too generally neglected in the primary schools in this country. We do not think it would be wise for the pupils generally to study Latin in our common schools. The course of study in the primary schools should, in the main, be confined to the rudiments of an English education. Still the advantages of instruction in the classics should be enjoyed by as many of the youth of the land as possible. Such a course would be far preferable to that which is becoming fashionable, to devote very much of the time for the education of young men for agricultural and mercantile pursuits, to the study of elementary treatises on the natural sciencesmost of which, as means of mental

discipline, are no better than a newspaper. It is deemed of the greatest importance that teachers of common schools shall be as well furnished as possible for their work, but how long will it be before the work of improvement will have advanced so far as that every teacher of a New England common school shall be required, not to teach, but to be himself taught in Latin and Greek, as an essential preliminary to engage in his profession, according to that excellent feature of the normal school system in Prussia, which has been so highly extolled, and which requires of every candidate for admission to the teachers' seminaries that he be instructed in Latin and Greek.

And yet the comparatively few classical teachers in this country are deprived of that popular sympathy which the masters of the English schools enjoy in full measure, because the mutual relations of the two departments of instruction are not seen, or because the utility of the classics is feebly or not at all apprehended. They are called upon to answer the questions, who are benefitted by your teachings, save as they may be useful as school drillings? and how can the writings of a remote age, in a language no longer spoken, stand related to the wants of the world in the living, active present? Let the teacher of Rugby reply, than whom no man of our times has lived with aims more intensely practical.

"The mind of the Greek and the Roman is, in all the essential points of its constitution, our own-and not only so, but it is our own mind developed to an extraordinary degree of perfection. Wide as is the difference between us with respect to those physical instruments which minister to our uses or our pleasures, though the Greeks and the Romans had no steamengines, no printing presses, no mariner's compass, no telescopes,

no microscopes, no gunpowder, yet in our moral and political views, in those matters which must determine human character, there is a perfect resemblance in these res pects-Aristotle and Plato and Cicero and Tacitus are most untruly called ancient writers-they are virtually our own coutrymen and contemporaries, their conclusions bear on our own circumstances, their information has all the charm of novelty, and all the value of a mass of new and pertinent facts, illustrative of the great science of the nature of civilized man-they belong really to a modern civiliza tion like our own; with a perfect abstraction from particular party names, which so much bias our judgment in modern and domestic instances, they discuss and illustrate the principles of all political ques tions, both civil and ecclesiastical, with entire freedom, with the most attractive eloquence, and with the profoundest wisdom."

There is one more mutual relation of the higher and lower seminaries of learning, to which we will but briefly allude, though in im portance, it may exceed all others mentioned. We refer to the common interest they have in relation to cor rect principles of moral discipline. The modes of moral discipline may, by reason of circumstances, vary in different grades of schools, and even in different schools of the same grade. But there can be but one correct system of moral discipline, the same in all the circumstances of childhood or manhood. The authority of law must be respected, there must be a willing obe. dience to it, and when it is willfully broken the offender must suffer, so that, at all events, the law shall be honored, and, if possible, that he may be led to reformation. As childhood is the proper season to implant the principle of obedience and a relish for it to continue through the whole period of parental

authority, so is the moral discipline of the common school related intimately to that of the academy and the college, the general duty of obedience and sentiments of respect which pupils owe to their instructors being the same in all schools. Therefore it is a point of infinite concern to the prosperity of the higher seminaries and the safety of the students connected with them, that the right principles of discipline be taught and practiced in all the primary schools. And the relation of schools of learning of every grade, to the security and happiness of the state, is in respect to no one point, more momentous than in this.

In all our colleges and in most of the higher institutions, it is believed that moral discipline is still administered on correct principles. Public sentiment still requires the maintenance of strict discipline, and the enforcement of extreme penalties, to secure the success and safety of students surrounded by the dangers and temptations of college life.

But for the common school, we have heard of new and improved systems of discipline, and in these new systems, though such terms as "moral discipline," "moral influences," and "moral suasion" are introduced, yet the word "moral" has such a meaning as gives it no right to be associated in any way with the idea of discipline.

It is said we must govern by the authority of love. The phrase authority of law sounds harsh and ungentle, and affects the nerves of those who are meekly perverse and good naturedly obstinate, and amiably criminal. The teacher must rule by the law of love and all will be well; he will ever find a ready response to all his wishes.

Now that teacher fulfils to his pupils the law of love, who teaches them to love the law and to reverence its sanctions, and who seeks to implant in them, if possible, an ever abiding

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regard for the rule of right conduct, a regard fortified by the motive of fear, yea, of exceeding dread of the consequences of wrong doing. And to ensure the habit of moral obedience, the teacher of right may, and in duty must, employ adequate means.

What is there in the idea of an unbending law of right that should be repulsive to young minds, that should be withheld, that should be softened down by smooth names? What child is too young to learn the most important lesson of sympa. thy, with the spirit of what is described in the celebrated words of Hooker, that "of law, no less can be said, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world."

We can not but think the discussions that have prevailed, in reference to the use of corporal punishment, have been uncalled for, and have been demoralizing in their tendency. There may be occasionally instances of severity in its use, but then there are means of redress and remedy, other than calling in question principles on which all authority rests. The exercise of the master's right in the primary school to inflict pain as the extreme penalty of school discipline, must, under judicious and sensible management, but very seldom occur, and then indeed, however painful it may be to the master, the moral uses of it are such as to render it his imperative duty to employ it. The calling in question his right to use this mode of discipline, must tend greatly to increase rather than lessen the occasions of administering it.

That theory of school government which is not safe to announce from the teacher's desk, is not safe to announce any where. That system which would naturally find sympathy with boys, inclined to be idle and vicious, should never be heard of by them. That good time, dreamed of by radical reformers, is never coming, when juvenile de