such studies as astronomy, physiology, the history of our own state and nation, the principles of our state and national constitutions, political economy, and moral science; in fine, such a course of study as is now given in more than fifty towns and cities in New England, and which shall prepare every young man, whose parents may desire it, for business, or for college, and give to every young woman a well disciplined mind, high moral aims, refined tastes, gentle and graceful manners, practical views of her own duties, and those resources of health, thought, conversation, and occupation, which bless alike the highest and lowest station in life. When such a course is provided and carried out, the true idea of the High School will be realized.

Third. It will equalize the opportunities of a good education, and exert a happy, social influence throughout the whole community from which it gathers its scholars. From the want of a public school of this character, the children of such families as rely exclusively on the district school are isolated, and are condemned to an inferior education, both in quality and quantity; they are cut off from the stimulus and sympathy which the mingling of children of the same age from different parts of the same community would impart. The benefits, direct and indirect, which will result to the country districts, or poor families who live in the outskirts of the city, from the establishment of a school of this class, cannot easily be overestimated. The number of young men and young women who will receive a thorough education, qualifying them for business, and to be teachers, will increase from year to year; and the number who will press up to the front ranks of scholarship in the school, bearing away the palm of excellence by the vigor of sound minds in sound bodies, of minds and bodies made vigorous by long walks and muscular labor in the open air, will be greater in proportion to their number than from the city districts. It will do both classes good, the children of the city, and the children of the country districts, to measure themselves intellectually in the same fields of study, and to subject the peculiarities of their respective manners, the roughness and awkwardness sometimes characteristic of the one, and the artificiality and flippancy of the other, to the harmonizing influence of reciprocal action and reaction. The isolation and estrangement which now divide and subdivide the community into country and city clans, which, if not hostile, are strangers to each other, will give place to the frequent intercourse and esteem of individual and family friendship, commenced in the school-room, and on the play-ground of the school. The school will thus become a bond of union, channel of sympathy, a spring-head of healthy influence, and stimulus to the whole commnnity.

Fourth. The privileges of a good school will be brought within the reach of all classes of the community, and will actually be enjoyed by children of the same age from families of the most diverse circumstances as to wealth, education, and occupation. Side by side in the same recitations, heart and hand in the same sports, pressing up together to the same high attainments in knowledge and character, will be found the children of the rich and poor, the more and the

less favored in outward circumstances, without knowing or caring to know how far their families are separated by the arbitrary distinctions which divide and distract society. With nearly equal opportunities of education in childhood and youth, the prizes of life, its best fields of usefulness, and sources of happiness will be open to all, whatever may have been their accidents of birth and fortune. From many obscure and humble homes in the city and in the country, will be called forth and trained inventive talent, productive skill, intellectual taste, and God-like benevolence, which will add to the general wealth, multiply workshops, increase the value of farms, and carry forward every moral and religious enterprise which aims to bless, purify, and elevate society.

Fifth. The influence which the annual or semi-annual examination of candidates for admission into the High School, will operate as a powerful and abiding stimulus to exertion throughout all the lower schools. The privileges of the High School will be held forth as the reward of exertion in the lower grade of schools; and promotion to it, based on the result of an impartial examination, will form an unobjectional standard by which the relative standing of the different schools can be ascertained, and will also indicate the studies and departments of education to which the teachers in particular schools should devote special attention. This influence upon the lower schools, upon scholars and teachers, upon those who reach, and those who do not reach the High School, will be worth more than all it costs, independent of the advantages received by its pupils.

Sixth. While the expenses of public or common schools will necessarily be increased by the establishment of a school of this class, in addition to those already supported, the aggregate expenditures for education, including public and private schools, will be diminished. Private schools of the same relative standing will be discontinued for want of patronage, while those of a higher grade, if really called for by the educational wants of the community, will be improved. A healthy competition will necessarily exist between the public and private schools of the highest grade, and the school or schools which do not come up to the highest mark, must go down in public estimation. Other things being equal, viz., school-houses, teachers, classification, and the means and appliances of instruction, the public school is always better than the private. From the uniform experience of those places where a High School has been established, it may be safely stated, that there will be an annual saving in the expenses of education to any community, equal to one half the amount paid for tuition in private schools, and, with this saving of expense, there will be a better state of education.

Seventh. The successful establishment of a High School, by improving the whole system of common schools, and interesting a larger number of families in the prosperity of the schools, will create a better public sentiment on the subject than has heretofore existed, and the schools will be regarded as the common property, the com mon glory, the common security of the whole community. The wealthy will feel that the small additional tax required to establish

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and sustain this school, if not saved to them in the diminished tuition for the education of their own children in private schools, at home and abroad, is returned to them a hundred fold in the enterprise which it will quicken, in the increased value given to property, and in the number of families which will resort to the place where it is located, as a desirable residence, because of the facilities enjoyed for a good education. The poor will feel that, whatever may betide them, their children are born to an inheritance more valuable than lands or shops, in the free access to institutions where as good an education can be had as money can buy at home or abroad. The stranger will be invited to visit not only the institutions which public or individual benevolence has provided for the poor, the orphan, the deaf mute, and the criminal, but schools where the children and youth of the community are trained to inventive and creative habits of mind, to a practical knowledge of the fundamental principles of business, to sound moral habits, refined tastes, and respectful manAnd in what balance, it has well been asked in reference to the cost of good public schools, as compared with these advantages, shall we weigh the value of cultivated, intelligent, energetic, polished, and virtuous citizens? How much would a community be justified in paying for a physician who should discover or practice some mode of treatment through which many lives should be preserved? How much for a judge, who, in the able administration of the laws, should secure many fortunes, or rights more precious than fortunes, that might else be lost? How much for a minister of religion who should be the instrument of saving hundreds from vice and crime, and persuading them to the exertion of their best powers for the common good? How much for the ingenious inventor, who, proceeding from the first principles of science onward, should produce some improvement that should enlarge all the comforts of society, not to say a steam-engine or a magnetic telegraph? How much for the patriotic statesman, who, in difficult times, becomes the savior of his country? How much for the well-instructed and enterprising merchant who should suggest and commence the branches of business that should bring in a vast accession of wealth and strength? One such person as any of these might repay what a High School would cost for centuries. Whether, in the course of centuries, every High School would produce one such person, it would be useless to prophesy. But it is certain that it would produce many intelligent citizens, intelligent men of business, intelligent servants of the state, intelligent teachers, intelligent wives and daughters, who, in their several spheres, would repay to any community much more than they and all their associates had received. The very taxes of a town, in twenty years, will be lessened by the existence of a school which will continually have sent forth those who were so educated as to become not burdens but benefactors.

These results have been realized wherever a Public High School has been opened under circumstances favorable to the success of a private school of the same grade, wherever a good school-house, good regulations, (for admission, attendance, studies, and books,) good teachers, and good supervision have been provided.

The Principal of the Latin High School of Boston, in a letter written 1846, says,

"There is no institution so truly republican as such a school as this. While we, the present teachers, were undergraduates of the school, the rich sent their sons to the school because it was the best that could be found. They ascertained that it was not a source of contamination, but that their boys learned here to compare themselves with others, and to feel the necessity of something more that mere wealth to gain consideration. At that time, poor men sent their sons hither because they knew that they here would get that education which they could afford to give them in no other way. They gained too by intercourse with their wealthier mates a polish of exterior manners, and an intellectual turn of mind which their friends could appreciate and perceive, although they could not tell what it was that had been acquired. Oftentimes also the poor boy would take the lead of his more pampered classmate, and take the honors of the school.

In a class lately belonging to the school were two boys, one the son of a man of extreme wealth, whose property cannot be less than $500,000; and the other the son of an Irish laborer employed by the city at a dollar a day to sweep the streets. The latter boy was the better scholar."

The Principal of the English High School in a letter writes,

"The school under my charge is pricipally composed of what are called the middling classes of our city. At present, about one third of my pupils are sons of merchants; the remaining two thirds are sons of professional men, mechanics and others. Some of our best scholars are sons of coopers, lamplighters, and day laborers. A few years ago, he who ranked, the last year of his course, as our third scholar, was the son of a lamplighter, and worked three nights per week, during his whole course, to save his father the expense of books, &c., while at school. This year my second (if not the first,) scholar, is a cooper's We have several sons of clergymen of distinction and lawyers of eminence. Indeed, the school is a perfect example of the poor and the rich, meeting on common ground and on terms quite democratic."

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The Principal of the High School for girls in Newburyport, writes, "The Female High School was established by the town of Newburyport nearly three years since, under great opposition. It was the desire of its principal advocates to make it such a school, in respect to the course of instruction, and facilities for acquiring knowledge, and laying the foundation for usefulness, as should so successfully compete with our best private schools, as to supersede their necessity."

"A few days after we were organized, a gentleman came into the schoolroom to make some inquiries respecting the classes of society most fully represented amongst us. I was totally unable to give him the desired information, and judging from the appearance of the individuals of my charge, I could form no idea as to who were the children of poor parents, or of those in better circumstances. I mentioned the names of the parents of several, which I had just taken, and, amongst others, of two young ladies of seventeen or eighteen years of age, who, at that moment, it being recess, were walking down the room, with their arms closely entwined about each other's necks. The first of the two,' said the gentleman, 'is a daughter of one of our first merchants, the other has a father worse than none, who obtains a livelihood from one of the lowest and most questionable occupations, and is himself most degraded ' These two young ladies were classmates for more than two years, and very nearly equal in scholarship. The friendship they have formed, I am confident no circumstances of station in life can ever impair.

"We have had in our number many from the best families, in all respects, in the place. They sit side by side, they recite, and they associate most freely with those of the humblest parentage, whose widowed mothers, perhaps, toil day after day, at a wash-tub, without fear of contamination, or, as I honestly believe, a thought of the differences which exist. I have, at present, both extremes under my charge-the child of affluence and the child of low parentage and deep poverty. As my arrangements of pupils in divisions, &c. are, most of them, alphabetical, it often happens that the two extremes are brought together. This never causes a murmur, or look of dislike.

The session was suspended at twelve, and recommenced at half-past two. The provincial inspector notified the teachers that they must keep school all the year; and it would become his duty to take rigorous measures with those who should not fulfill this obligation. In reply to M. Deltombe, who said that sometimes there were no scholars, he said that he could not admit that there was a total want of scholars, that such a case was impossible.

M. Masson explained his method of teaching the catechism. He uses the simultaneous and individual methods, with explanations from time to time.

The ecclesiastical cantonal inspector, M. Brohez, said that these explanations should be prepared under the direction of the priest. He also directed the attention of the teachers to the pronunciation of the catechism and of the prayers.

An exercise followed in teaching French, and another in grammar, the latter being a method of distinguishing between the verbal adjective and the present participle, illustrated upon the board.

Cantonal inspector Dubois gave instructions in agriculture and gardening, and recommended the teachers to communicate such instruction to their pupils.

The provincial inspector stated a curious fact with regard to transplanting the beet. It has two rows of roots, always pointing to the east and west, which in transplanting must be set in the same direction, otherwise the growth of the plant is much retarded.

Inspector Dubois informed the meeting that the next conference would take place October 19, 1848, and that the subjects for discussion would be methods of teaching arithmetic, and the first three centuries of Belgian history.

NORMAL SCHOOLS.

The inspection, management, and instruction of the State normal schools, the normal departments annexed to the higher primary schools, and the episcopal normal schools, are substantially alike in the three classes of institutions.

All candidates for entrance are examined by a "jury," composed partly of government inspectors and partly of the instructors. The courses of study occupy three years. The pupils are usually required to board and lodge upon the school premises. The regular graduates have the first right of examination for vacant situations as public teachers; and government, besides the assistance given to the normal schools by erecting buildings and bearing part of the current expenses, appropriates about $12,500 annually in sums usually of about $40 each, to the assistance of a number of the more meritorious pupils.

Schools of application are annexed to all the normal schools, being the primary schools of the neighborhood. The following account of the government normal school at Lierre will give a fair general representation of these schools.

NORMAL SCHOOL AT LIERRE,

Candidates for admission to the normal school at Lierre, are first examined by the provincial inspectors of primary instruction, who are charged in particular to see that none are admitted who are inflicted with any deformity or infirmity incompatible with the occupation of teaching. If suitable, they are then examined by a committee or "jury" of two inspectors and three of the faculty of the school, in reading, writing, religion, and morals, the grammar of their own and of the French language, the four fundamental rules of arithmetic, the legal system of weights and measures, the elements of geography, particularly of Belgian geography, and the principal facts of Belgian history.