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prince of the power of the air, by which he accounted for the fact that it was so apt to strike the spires of churches. Cotton Mather would have come nearer the truth, if he had called it a shining manifestation of the power and skill by which the Great Author of the universe works out some of the mighty miracles of creation and nature. And only think, sir, that these newly discovered mysteries of the material world, unknown to the profoundest sages of elder days, are so effectually brought down to the reach of common schools in our time, that these our young friends, before they are finally dismissed from these walls, will be made acquainted with not a few of the wonderful properties of the subtile element, evolved and condensed by that machine, and which recent science has taught to be but different forms of one principle, whether it flame across the heavens in the midnight storm, or guide the mariner over the pathless ocean, or leap from city to city along the continent as swiftly as the thought of which it is the vehicle, and which I almost venture to predict, before some here present shall taste of death, will, by some still more sublime generalization, be identified with the yet hidden principle which thrills through the nerves of animated beings, and binds life to matter, by the ties of sensation.

But while you do well, sir, in your High School to make provision for these advanced studies, I know that as long as it remains under its present direction, the plain elementary branches will not be undervalued. There is, perhaps, a tendency that way in some of our modern schools: I venture to hope it will not be encouraged here. I know it is not to be the province of this school to teach the elements; but I am sure you will show that you entertain sound views of their importance. I hold, sir, that to read the English language well, that is, with intelligence, feeling, spirit, and effect; to write, with despatch, a neat, handsome, legible hand, (for it is, after all, a great object in writing to have others able to read what you write ;) and to be master of the four rules of arithmetic, so as to dispose at once with accuracy of every question of figures which comes up in practical life,-I say

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I call this a good education; and if you add the ability to write pure grammatical English, with the help of very few hard words, I regard it as an excellent education. These are the tools. You can do much with them, but you are helpless without them. They are the foundation; and unless you begin with these, all your flashy attainments, a little natural philosophy, and a little mental philosophy, a little physiology and a little geology, and all the other ologies and osophies, are but ostentatious rubbish.

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There is certainly no country in the world in which so much money is paid for schooling as in ours. This can be proved by figures. I believe there is no country where the common schools are so good. But they may be improved. It is not enough to erect commodious school-houses, or compensate able teachers; and then leave them, masters and pupils, to themselves. A school is not a clock which you can wind up and then leave it to go of itself. It is an organized living body; it has sensibilities; it craves sympathy. You must not leave the school committee to do all the work. Your teachers want the active countenance of the whole body of parents, of the whole intelligent community. I am sure you, Mr Smith, would gladly put up with a little injudicious interference in single instances, if you could have the active sympathies of the whole body of parents to fall back upon in delicate and difficult cases, and to support and cheer you under the burden of your labors, from day to day. I think this matter deserves more attention than it has received; and if so small a number as thirty parents would agree together to come to the school, some one of them, each in his turn, but once a month, or rather, if but twentyfive or twenty-six would do it, it would give your teacher the support and countenance of a parent's presence every day; at a cost to each individual of ten or eleven days in the year. Would not the good to be effected be worth the sacrifice?

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I have already spoken too long, Mr Mayor, and will allude to but one other topic. In most things, as I have said, connected with education, we are incalculably in advance of other days in some, perhaps, we have fallen below their

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standard. I know, sir, old men are apt to make unfavorable contrasts between the present time and the past; and if I do not soon begin to place myself in that class, others will do it for me. But I really think that in some things, belonging, perhaps it will be thought, to the minor morals, the present promising generation of youth might learn something of their grandfathers, if not their fathers. When I first went to a village school, sir, I remember it as yesterday; I seem still to hold by one hand, for protection, (I was of the valiant age of three years,) to an elder sister's apron; with the other I grasped my Primer, a volume of about two and a half inches in length, which formed then the sum total of my library, and which had lost the blue paper cover from one corner, (my first misfortune in life,)—I say it was the practice then, as we were trudging along to school, to draw up by the road side if a traveller, a stranger, or a person in years, passed along, and "make our manners," as it was called. The little girls courtesied, the boys made a bow; it was not done with much grace, I suppose: but there was a civility and decency about it, which did the children good, and produced a pleasing impression on those who witnessed it. The age of schoolboy chivalry is past, never to return. These manners belong to a forgotten order of things. They are too precise and rigorous for this enlightened age. I sometimes fear the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite extreme. Last winter I was driving into town in a carriage closed behind, but open in front. There were in company with me the Rev. President Woods, of Bowdoin College, Maine, and that distinguished philanthropist and excellent citizen, Mr Amos Lawrence. Well, sir, we happened to pass a school-house, just as the boys (to use the common expression) were "let out." I suppose the little men had just been taught within doors something about the laws which regulate the course of projectiles, and determine the curves in which they move. Intent on a practical demonstration, and tempted by the convenient material, I must say they put in motion a quantity of spherical bodies, in the shape of snow-balls, which brought the doctrine quite home to us wayfarers, and made it wonderful that we got off

with no serious inconvenience, which was happily the case. This I thought was an instance of free and easy manners, verging to the opposite extreme of the old-fashioned courtesy which I have just described. I am quite sure that the boys of this school would be the last to indulge in an experiment attended with so much risk to the heads of innocent third persons.

Nothing remains, sir, but to add my best wishes for teachers and pupils. You are both commencing under the happiest auspices. When I consider that there is not one of you, my young friends, who does not enjoy gratuitously the opportunity of obtaining a better school education than we could have bought, Mr Mayor, when we were boys, with the wealth of the Indies, I cannot but think that each one of you, boys and girls, will be ready to say with grateful hearts, "The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage."

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To you, Mr Smith, we wish entire success. nity looks to you with confidence, to add to your high repu tation as an instructer, and commits to you these its treasures, with the full assurance that you will be faithful to the

trust.

SECOND SPEECH ON AID TO THE COLLEGES.

Ar an early period of the session of 1849, a memorial similar to that of last year was presented to the legislature of the commonwealth, praying that, when the school fund had reached the limit of one million of dollars, prescribed by law, another fund of one half a million should be allowed to accumulate for the benefit of the colleges. The afternoon of the seventh of February was appointed by the joint committee on education for a public hearing, in the hall of the House of Representatives, of the friends of the colleges, in support of the memorial. President Hopkins appeared on behalf of Williams College, President Hitchcock on behalf of Amherst College, and President Sparks and Mr Everett on behalf of Harvard College, with other gentlemen, officers or friends of the institutions respectively.

The memorial having been read by J. Lothrop Motley, Esq., a member of the committee, Mr Everett spoke substantially as follows:

MR CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN :

I appear before you, at the request of the corporation of Harvard College, to unite with other friends of that institution, with the learned representatives of the other colleges, and with the friends generally of collegiate education in the 'commonwealth, in support of the memorial which has just been read by Mr Motley; a memorial presented to the two Houses at the commencement of the session, and by them referred to the joint committee on education. You may be surprised, sir, that, having been compelled to retire from the

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