possible to estimate the benefits which would have been conferred upon our country? The untold millions that have been wasted by ignorance, would have been now actively employed in production. A knowledge universally diffused of the laws of vegetation, might have doubled our annual agricultural products. Probably no country on earth can boast of as intelligent a class of mechanics and manufacturers, as our own. Had a knowledge of principles been generally diffused among them, we should already have outstripped Europe in all those arts which increase the comforts, or multiply the refinements of human life. Perhaps, in the earlier history of our country, such knowledge would not have been adequately appreciated. That period, however, has now passed away. An impulse has been given to common school education, which cannot but render every man definitely sensible of his wants, and consequently eager to supply them. The time then would seem to have arrived, when our institutions of learning are called upon to place themselves in harmony with the advanced and rapidly advancing condition of society. 3. IT IS NECESSARY.-To us, it seems that but little option is left to the colleges in this matter. Any one who will observe the progress which, within the last thirty years, has been made by the productive classes of society, in power, wealth, and influence, must be convinced that a system of education, practically restricted to a class vastly smaller, and rapidly decreasing in influence, cannot possibly continue. Within a few years, the manufacturing interest has wrung the corn laws from the aristocracy of Great Britain. Let any one recall the relative position of the professions, and of the mercantile and manufacturing interests, in any of our cities, twenty years since, and compare it with their relative position now, and he cannot but be convinced, that a great and a progressive change has taken place. Men who do not design to educate their sons for the professions, are capable of determining upon the kind of instruction which they need. If the colleges will not furnish it, they are able to provide it themselves; and they will provide it. In New York and Massachusetts, incipient measures have been taken for establishing agricultural colleges. The bill before the legislature of New York, provides for instruction in all the branches taught in our colleges, with the exception of languages. It is to be, in fact, an institution for giving all the education which we now give, agricultural science being substituted for Latin and Greek. What is proposed to be done for the farmers, must soon be done either for or by the manufacturers and merchants. In this manner, each productive department will have its own school, in which its own particular branch of knowledge will be taught, besides the other ordinary studies of a liberal education. A large portion of the instruction communicated will thus be the same in all. Mathematics, Mechanics, Chemistry, Physiology, Rhetoric, Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, and Political Economy, will be taught in them all. The colleges teach precisely the same sciences, with the addition of Latin and Greek, in the place of the knowledge designed in these separate schools, for a particular profession. If the prestige of colleges should be thus destroyed, and it be found that as good an education as they furnish can be obtained in any of those other schools, the number of their students will be seriously diminished. If, by this dissemination of science among all the other classes of society, the tendency towards the professions should be still farther arrested, the colleges will be deserted by yet larger numbers. They may become very good foundations for the support of instructors, but very few will be found to avail themselves of their instructions. Is not such a result as this to be deplored? Is it desirable that so many teachers should be employed in teaching precisely the same things? All the branches of general science, taught in any one generous school, must be taught in them all. The colleges already have existing arrangements for teaching them. They are, to a considerable extent, supplied with libraries, apparatus, and all the means of instruction. Would it not seem desirable, that they should so far modify their system, as to furnish all the instruction needed by the various classes of society, who desire special professional teaching, and so arrange their courses of general knowledge, that all, of every class, may, with equal facility, avail themselves of their advantages? In this manner the colleges will reap all the benefit arising from the diffusion and progress of knowledge. Pursuing any other course, they would seem to suffer injury from one of the most hopeful indications of the progress of civili zation. From the college catalogue for 1850-51, it appears that a plan of studies, in accordance with the general principles of the Report, has been adopted. Classes of studies are designated, for proficiency in which the student is entitled to the Degree of Bachelor of Arts. The design of this department is to qualify young men for the professions. Other studies are specified, a competent knowledge of which is signified by the Degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. This degree "is designed for those students who are intended for the pursuits of active life." "The Degree of Master of Arts is intended for those students who desire to pursue a full course of liberal education." The list of studies for this grade is considerably comprehensive; it may be completed in four years, but if generously pursued, it may well employ the student for a much longer period. These degrees, it is to be observed, are all based upon proficiency ascertained by an examination of the candidates. Hence the time may perhaps be anticipated, when college honors shall have some significancy, with regard to the merits of the graduate. On the whole, we must regard the new arrangement in this university as highly conducive to its own particular usefulness, and to education generally. THE VOCATION ONCE MORE. OUR ears are often assailed in these days with woful lamentations over the low estimation in which the profession of teaching is held, and the provoking backwardness of the community to discover and acknowledge its importance and its merits. One feels it a grievance, that in our National Festivals, schoolmasters should be tacked upon the tail of the procession, and that, while the Clergy, the Army, the Navy, and the Militia are toasted, there is no toast for Education or its professors, although education in its true sense, is the most important of all conservators of republican liberty. Another complains because the business of instruction has not been voted a learned profession, and placed on the platform with Law, Physic, and Divinity, and admitted to the same honors and emoluments. Others still are dissatisfied with the tone of the current literature and the newspaper press, which too often deal praise upon education, and sneers upon its professors. This class can hardly forgive Sir Walter Scott and Washington Irving for introducing to the world Dominie Sampson and Ichabod Crane. Now that this is a true bill, we shall neither affirm nor deny. But suppose it to be true. Suppose the charges to be much more numerous and aggravated. What then? Whose fault is it? I beg you, gentlemen, who make the complaints, to examine yourselves closely, and review your own course in regard to your profession. Have you discharged all your obligations to it? Every man owes a debt to his profession, unless he has paid it. My good sirs, let me inquire if you have paid yours ? Have you ever paid the interest on it? If not, pray do not complain that the whole corporation is bankrupt. We may be singular and eccentric. But we have opinions, and they are ours. When we can find better ones, we will exchange. We hope we shall give no offence by making some of them known. In the first place, then, it is our humble opinion, that every teacher who means to escape the imputation of being a dead weight upon his profession, and upon the cause of education, must patronize some educational journal, and read it, if he does not contribute to its columns. Not that every teacher who does not now patronize and read a publication devoted to the interests of education and the business of teaching is actually a reproach to his profession, but he is in danger of becoming such. He is liable to deteri orate, and fall into a retrograde motion, relatively, at least, if not absolutely. But if such a teacher, by his short-sighted and illiberal policy, does not positively contribute to bring his profession into disrepute, he must himself confess that he leaves undone that which would tend to elevate it to its true rank, and at the same time build up his own improvement. If a teacher reads diligently what pertains to his business, he will keep bright; and if he writes upon it occasionally, he will keep brighter. A growing teacher is honored, and brings honor upon his calling. But the duty of teachers to sustain educational journals, rests not merely on immediate personal advantage. They should do it for the cause of education. The press is an engine which we should use to create a correct and healthy public sentiment on the subject. If we will not use it when it is in our power, then let us not be so unreasonable as to repine if we are sufferers by the neglect. There is no way in which a teacher can do so much with the same outlay to promote education, the interests of his profession, and his own imimprovement, as by paying a dollar, annually, for an educational journal. Another duty which every teacher owes to his profession is that of attending, annually, at least one Teachers' Convention. It is worthy of observation that no one has ever called in question the utility of these gatherings, except those who have not been in the habit of attending them. Absentees are not so good judges as those who attend. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." The beneficial effects of such meetings, both upon teachers and the community, are too obvious to need extended illustration. They promote good fellowship and fraternal feelings between the members of the profession; new interest and enthusiasm. are awakened by the new and encouraging views of the business which are presented; and much useful and solid informa tion is to be gathered from lectures, discussions, and conversations. Let those who have not hitherto availed themselves of their advantages neglect it no longer. At least let no one ever complain of the state of the profession, till he has discharged the obvious obligations due to it from himself. TRAINING OF IDIOTS. Profold WE have a twofold object in offering to the readers of the Teacher a short article on this subject. In the first place, it is a subject of no inconsiderable interest, whether viewed with reference to its novelty-the number and character of those whose good is sought-or the results which have already attended the efforts made. Besides, there is, perhaps, no one influence which makes so much against permanency in the teacher's profession, and the consequent elevation of the office, as the feelings of impatience which teachers too often allow themselves to cherish and express in view of what they consider the repulsive features of their work. Now let us look at the materials on which the teacher of the idiot has to labor, and seriously ask ourselves, whether, after all, our patience is put to a test worth naming. Do we have to endure the constant sight of the most loathsome objects? Are we compelled, every step we take, to rack our invention to devise some new and unheard-of process by which to awaken the faintest glimmerings of intellect? Do we have to toil a whole year, and then find that all we have accomplished is to teach an apparently healthy boy of six or eight years the use of his limbs? Let us henceforth imitate the benevolence, the self-sacrificing spirit, the patience, the FAITH, of the teacher of the idiot, and apply ourselves with new zeal and increased ardor to promote the intellectual and moral well-being of our pupils. The history of the movement in behalf of the idiotic, so far as we can gather from the documents at hand, is briefly this. Not far from the year 1830 the condition of the idiotic in the insane hospital at Bicêtre attracted the attention of certain leading physicians, and especially of M. Ferrus, the Inspector General of the Lunatic Asylums of France. He organized a school for them, caused them to be taught habits of order and industry, and to be instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic, and gymnastic exercises. attempt was speedily followed by more systematic and extensive efforts, both at Biçêtre and at Paris, for the improvement of this unfortunate class of beings. The late George Sumner, in a letter to Dr. S. G. Howe, in 1846, speaks of about one hundred who were then enjoying the benefits of these benevolent efforts; and says they were making very surprising progress. In 1848 an association was formed and funds raised in England, with this object in view. What success has attended those efforts we are unable to say. In the United States, to Massachusetts belongs the honor of making the first movement in this benevolent work. A commission was appointed by the Legislature in 1846, at the head of which was Dr. Howe, "to inquire into the This |