you think the soft, gentle walk of the immense... camel, passing the gallery, would not disturb a half

Now, children, prepare to march to the playground. We shall sing the "Camel." March prettily-make little noise-do not scrape or beat the floor with your ... feet-Go on.

To many persons who are unacquainted with the Training System, this example must appear absurdly tedious. Slow, however, as the process is which we have exhibited, many points, even of the few that have been pictured out, are too abrupt. The whole, no doubt, might have been told the children by explanation, and embraced in half a dozen sentences; or by the question and answer system, in a couple of pages ;-but neither the explanatory system, nor the mere questioning, secures, in regard to children, an equal amount of understanding as the principle of picturing out.-STOW. Glasgow Training System.

27. Of the Labour-Schools of De Fellenberg.

De Fellenberg purchased about two hundred acres of land, of which fifty were arable, for the scene of his experiments. He intended to make the cultivation of his own estate the model by which others might learn how to improve theirs. The improvement was to consist in drainage and irrigation; in

manuring and mixing soils; in the rotation of crops, and in introducing new plants for cultivation; in the perfection of old instruments of agriculture, and the invention of new ones. He established workshops upon the estate, in which all the implements of husbandry for his own use, and for general sale, were fabricated, including also a department for making and preserving models of all machines in use, or which it was proposed to bring into use at any future time. All that had been done in England during the last half century, for the general improvement of agriculture, was aimed at by Fellenberg, in reference to the capabilities of his own estate and country. But Fellenberg's views and principles led him to perceive that labour might be regulated and modified so as to become a system of moral instruction, as well as one of industrial employment. He therefore determined to make an agricultural school his first step towards the moral training of children, and the improvement of their character. His first school was formed of the destitute or abandoned children of the neighbourhood, partly, no doubt, from necessity; for till confidence in his views had been established, no others were to be had. But Fellenberg was prompted by other motives also; by a deep and religious conviction that the Deity had originally made "all men of one common blood;" that the lowest, as well as the highest, are born with the same susceptibilities; that

the vices, therefore, into which the lowest ranks sink are engrafted by their position, and the neglect of their superiors, and might be prevented by early care, or obviated by better culture. To rescue the poor from their moral degradation governed all his views. He considered that the destitute children whom he might collect, and who commonly became the pests of the community would prove at once a test of the truth of his own principles of education, and of the real causes of the degradation of their character. His agricultural school was therefore his first essay in education.

The success of a school of this kind depends entirely upon the MASTER: who must be not merely the teacher of reading and writing, but the companion, friend, guide, and parent of the pupils: he must never quit them, by night nor by day; he must take his meals with them, labour with them, rest with them, explain everything to them, instruct them, play with them, and sleep in the same chamber. Without such a master, whom the children can love, because he is kind and amiable,- -reverence, because he is of a certain age and character, and respect, because he possesses a fund of knowledge and information useful to them on all occasions, and to which their curiosity can always apply and be satisfied, the system cannot succeed. Fellenberg was himself the friend and instructor at the beginning; but it was some time before he could

meet with one to supply his place in a character at all times perhaps difficult, but then entirely new. At last he discovered in Vehrli, one of his pupils, the disposition, kindness, simplicity, judgment, tact, and knowledge, he required. This person entered completely into his views, perceived their extensive and beneficial nature, and felt the honour of assisting in so valuable and useful an institution. He acquired the practical facility of conducting it, and did so with entire success until he removed to a school of his own a few years ago. The following are the details of management:*

* Children should be admitted at the age of five or six years, and remain in the institution till they are twenty-one. During the first ten years they are an expense to it: during the last five years they repay, by their labour, all the previous outlay upon their education. They then obtain situations in the world-in agriculture, or in some mechanical art, and maintain themselves, like other workmen, by their skill and industry; but being better taught and superior workmen, they more readily find employment; and being of a better moral character, they fill places of more trust and emolument; and possessing habits of greater economy and prudence, they turn their earnings to better account.

In the year 1813, twenty-six years ago, a commission was appointed to visit and examine the agricultural school at Hofwyl. At the head of it was Reuyer, one of the most distinguished men in Switzerland. They spent six days in examining all its details-food, dress, accommodations, religious exercises, studies, labours, and occupations. It then consisted of twenty-three children, taken from the lowest classes, the highways and hedges, destitute and abandoned; they were now living in harmony, peace, and affection; punishment was seldom wanted; when necessary, it consisted of mild rebuke,

The children rise in the morning at half-past four or half-past five o'clock, according to their age. Half an hour is allowed for washing, dressing, making their beds, and arranging their rooms. They then go to prayers; then to lessons, for one hour in summer, and an hour and a half in winter; and then to breakfast; then the master allots to each class, or to each individual, his employment for the day. At eleven o'clock they dine, and then have a lesson of an hour or an hour and a half. At four or five o'clock, according to the season, they have bread given them, and a third lesson. At seven o'clock they sup, and the master reviews the work of the day, and the conduct of the children. Their beha

remonstrance, in private or in public, before the other children; exclusion from social meals; and lastly, corporal, which, when necessary, is inflicted with the greatest consideration and concern, so that the pupil may perceive that nothing but necessity could have extorted it from the teacher. This necessity is explained to him; the danger, degradation of character, and ultimate misery and ruin occasioned by crime, and the propriety of preventing refractory habits by bodily pain when higher and moral motives are insufficient. Corporal punishment is never required except for new pupils.

One evening, after an interesting lecture, Vehrli cautioned one of the children, without mentioning his name, to be on his guard against a fault he had committed; immediately all became serious and silent, each seeming to take the reproof to himself. Very often, when conscious of having committed a fault, they pass judgment on themselves, and absent themselves from meals; Vehrli then sends them their food to a private room. In the year 1832 this school consisted of one hundred boys.