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C-Boys' entrance.

I-Centre aisle, eight feet.

L-Aisle between each range of seats and desks, two feet four inches. K-Side aisle, four feet four inches.

M-Space five feet wide.

T-Teachers' platform and desk.

R-Recitation rooms, each twenty-three feet by twelve, furnished with twenty chairs, seven inches from the wall and thirteen inches apart.

Q-Library and apparatus, from eleven feet by fourteen feet.

N-Kimball's desk and two chairs.

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Fig. 5. Transverse section exhibiting the manner in which the ventiducts or hot air flues are carried up on the inside of the walls, under the roof, till they discharge into the Stationary Top or Ejector.

Fig. 6. Lateral section of the ventiducts or foul air flues, showing the manner in which the flues are packed together and carried up separately from the floor of each room until they discharge into the common Ejector. The cut does not represent properly the manner in which the flues are carried under and out of the roof.

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THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL HOUSE of the First School Society, situated on the corner of Asylum and Ann streets, was dedicated with appropriate religious and literary exercises on the 1st of December, 1847, "to the cause of good learning," "to the breeding up of hopeful youth for the public service of the country in present and future times," and "for a life of active employment," as were duly set forth in the statutes requiring of such towns as Hartford the setting up of a Grammar School, "the master whereof being able to instruct youths so far as they may be fitted for the university;" in the bequests of Edward Hopkins and others; and the Act incorporating the Trustees of the Grammar School, which is now practically merged in the High School.

The following is the Programme of the Dedicatory Exercises:

I. READING SELECT PORTIONS | And there's a gem that foils
OF SCRIPTURE.

II. MUSIC.

BY REV. A. C. COXE.

Directed by Mr. Barnett.

Original Hymn by Mrs. Sigourney.
The pilgrim fathers,-where are they,
Who broke this stranger.clod?
And patient taught a new-born world
To lisp the name of God?

Where are the hunters, swift of foot

The bounding deer to trace,
And stay the sunward eagle's flight?
Where is that red-browed race?

Not here! Not here! But in their place
Behold a favor'd train;

Who, nurtur'd 'mid these verdant vales
Where peace and plenty reign.

Amid the ashes of their sires

Do consecrate this day,

A dome their unborn sons shall hail
When they are cold in clay.

III. PRAYER.

BY REV. JOEL HAWE3, D. D.

IV. ADDRESS.

BY HENRY BARNARD.

V. MUSIC.

Original Hymn by Mrs. Sigourney.
If thou a wreath hast twin'd,

Or gathered glittering gold,—
Thy hidden horde the thief may find,
A blight thy buds unfold.

But there's a flower that fears

No adverse season's strife,

And still its living fragrance cheers
The wintry eve of life;

The robber's searching eye, Enshrined within the mind that toils For immortality.

Oh ye, whose brows are bright,

Whose young hearts feel no thorn, Seek knowledge, by the rosy light Of life's unfolding morn,

With ardor uncontrolled

Seek wisdom's love divine,
And win the garland, and the gold
That can not fade with time.

VI: ADDRESSES:

REV. H. BUSHNELL; REV. J. HARRINGTON;
REV. W. CLARK; REV. DR. HAWES.

VII. MUSIC.

Original Hymn by Mrs. Sigourney.
In vain the builder's toil,

In vain the watchman's care,

To guard this home to science dear
In strength and beauty fair;

Unless God's spirit deign

To light the altar's flame,
And aid the teacher and the taught
To sanctify His name.

Oh, may He deign to bless

The streams that here shall flow,
The seeds that in its mold are cast
The blossoms here to blow,-
And make these cherished walls
Even to remotest days,
Throughout our nation's utmost bound,
A glory and a praise.

VIII. BENEDICTION.

BY REV. THOMAS ROBBINS, D. D.

PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL.

In the preceding pages we have presented a variety of plans for the construction and internal arrangements of buildings designed and erected for Public High Schools. Whenever and wherever the interest of the community can be sufficiently awakened to call for a public school of the grade generally understood by the term High School, there will be no difficulty in raising the funds necessary to erect and furnish a suitable edifice for the accommodation of the school. It may not, then, be amiss in this place to present a few considerations and facts bearing upon the establishment of a school of this grade in every large village and city in our country.

By a Public or Common High School, is intended a public or common school for the older and more advanced scholars of the community in which the same is located, in a course of instruction adapted to their age, and intellectual and moral wants, and, to some extent, to their future pursuits in life. It is common or public in the same sense in which the district school, or any lower grade of school established and supported under a general law and for the public benefit, is common or public. It is open to all the children of the community to which the school belongs, under such regulations as to age, attainments, &c., as the good of the institution may require, or the community may adopt. A Public High School is not necessarily a free school. It may be supported by a fund, a public tax, or an assessment or rate of tuition per scholar, or by a combination of all, or any two of these modes. Much less is it a public or common school in the sense of being cheap, inferior, ordinary. To be truly a public school, a High School must embrace in its course of instruction studies which can be more profitably pursued there than in public schools of a lower grade, or which gather their pupils from a more circumscribed territory, and as profitably as in any private school of the same pretensions. It must make a good education common in the highest and best sense of the word common-common because it is good enough for the best, and cheap enough for the poorest family in the community. It would be a mockery of the idea of such a school, to call it a Public High School, if the course of instruction pursued in it is not higher and better than can be got in public schools of a lower grade, or if it does not meet the wants of the wealthiest and best educated families, or, if the course of instruction is liberal and thorough, and at the same time the worthy and talented child of a poor family is shut out from its privileges by a high rate of tuition. The school, to be common practically, must be both cheap and good. To be cheap, its support must be provided for wholly or mainly out of a fund, or by public tax. And to justify the imposition of a public tax, the advantages of such a school must accrue to the whole community. It must be shown to be a common benefit, a common interest, which cannot be secured so well, or at

all, except through the medium of taxation. What, then, are the advantages which may reasonably be anticipated from the establishment of a Public High School, properly organized, instructed, and supervised?

First. Every thing which is now done in the several district schools, and schools of lower grade, can be better done, and in a shorter time, because the teachers will be relieved from the necessity of devoting the time and attention now required by few of the older and more advanced pupils, and can bestow all their time and attention upon the preparatory studies and younger children. These studies will be taught in methods suited to the age and attainments of the pupils. A right beginning can thus be made in the lower schools, in giving a thorough practical knowledge of elementary principles, and in the formation of correct mental and moral habits, which are indispensable to all sound education. All this will be done under the additional stimulus of being early and thoroughly fitted for the High School.

Second. A High School will give completeness to the system of public instruction which may be in operation. It will make. suitable provision for the older and more advanced pupils of both sexes, and will admit of the methods of instruction and discipline which cannot be profitably introduced into the schools below. The lower grade of schools-those which are established for young children,-require a large use of oral and simultaneous methods, and a frequent change of place and position on the part of the pupils. The higher branches, especially all mathematical subjects, require patient application and habits of abstraction on the part of the older pupils, which can with difficulty, if at all, be attained by many pupils amid a multiplicity of distracting exercises, movements, and sounds. The recitations of this class of pupils, to be profitable and satisfactory, must be conducted in a manner which requires time, discussion, and explanation, and the undivided attention both of pupils and teacher. The course of instruction provided in the High School will be equal in extent and value to that which may be given in any private school, academy, or female seminary in the place, and which is now virtually denied to the great mass of the children by the burdensome charge of tuition.

As has been already implied, the advantages of a High School should not be confined to the male sex. The great influence of the female sex, as daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, companions, and teachers, in determining the manners, morals, and intelligence of the whole community, leaves no room to question the necessity of providing for the girls the best means of intellectual and moral culture. The course of instruction should embrace the first principles of natural and mechanical philosophy, by which inventive genius and practical skill in the useful arts can be fostered; such studies as navigation, book-keeping, surveying, botany, chemistry, and kindred studies, which are directly connected with success in the varied departments of domestic and inland trade, with foreign commerce with gardening, agriculture, the manufacturing and domestic arte

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