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NEW SERIES.

WITH the I umber for March, 1862, we shall commence a NEW SERIES of the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, and with a moderate encouragement from the thoughtful and active friends of educational improvement, we shall continue our quarterly issues, until they have reached at least six volumes. We shall make no change in the general plan of this periodical. It will be devoted as from the start, exclusively to the History, Biography, Science, Art, Systems, Institutions, and Statis tics of Education in different countries, with special reference to the condition and wants of our own. We shall studiously avoid the insertion of all papers foreign to these great subjects, or of a single line or word calculated to injure the feelings of any faithful laborer in any allotment of the great field of American Education. We leave the work of controversy to those who have more taste for it than we have, and shall labor diligently on the following points.

I. The History of Pedagogy, or the successive developments of human culture, both theoretical and practical, under the varying circumstances of race, climate, religion and government, as drawn from special treatises of teachers and educators in different languages, or as embodied in the manners, literature and history of each people.

In the development of this great theme, embracing many ages, races, and governments, we propose, not in precise chronological or ethnological order, but in papers prepared, from time to time, as our studies or those of our co-laborers may suggest, to show, to an extent which has not yet been attempted in the English language, what has been accomplished in the family and schools, by parents, teachers and educators, for the systematic training of children and youth :

1. In the Eastern nations, before the birth of Christ-in China, India, Persia, Egypt, and Palestine-by Confucius, by the Vedas and Buddha, by Zoroaster and the Ptolemies, by Moses, David, Solomon, and the Rabbi.

2. Among the Greeks, at Crete, Sparta and Athens, under the institutions of Pythagoras, Lycurgus, and Solon, by poets and philosophers and teachers, by Homer, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Plutarch.

8. Among the Romans, in the infancy, maturity and old age of Rome, by the didactics of Cato Seneca, Tacitus, the Plinys, Quintillian and Lucian.

4. Among modern nations as reached by the teachings of Christianity, in the gradual unfolding of the present received ideas of school organization, and of the principles and methods of instruction,—through (a) the peculiar organization and distinctive teaching of the early Christians; (b) the first popular school of the Christian Fathers, Chrysostom and Basil; (c) the Catechist schools of Clement and Origen; (d) the seminaries and cloister schools of Tertullian, Cyprian, Jerome and Austin; (e) the Monastic institutions of Benedict, Dominic and Francis; (f) the court schools and educational labors of Charlemagne and Alfred; (g) the mod. ifications wrought by Arabic culture which followed the incursions of the Moors; (h) the rise and expansion of universities; (i) the demand of chivalry for a culture for man and woman distinct from that of the clergy, and of incorporated cities for schools independent of ecclesiastical authorities; (j) the revival of the languages, and the literature of Greece and Rome; (k) the long-protracted struggle between Humanism and Realism, or between, on the one hand, the study of languages for the purposes of general culture and the only preparation for professions in which language was the great instrument of study and influence, and on the other, the claims of Science, and of the realities surrounding every one, and with which every one has to do every day, in the affairs of peace or war; () and the gradual extension and expansion of the grand idea of univer sal education of the education of every human being, and of every faculty of every human being, according to the circumstances and capabilities of each. While thus aiming to give in each number, contributions to the History of Pedagogy and the internal economy of schools, we hope in this series to complete our survey of—

II. Systems of National Education, and especially an account of Public Schools and other Means of Popular Education in each of the United States, and of all other governments on the American Continent.

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III. The history and present condition of Normal Schools and other special institutions and agencies for the Professional Training and Improvement of Teachers.

IV. The organization and characteristic features of Polytechnic Schools, and other institutions for the education of persons destined for other pursuits than those of Law, Medicine and Theology, including a full account of Military Schools.

V. The history and courses of study of the oldest and best Colleges and Universities in different countries.

VI. The life and services of many Teachers, Promoters and Benefactors of Education, whose labors or benefactions are associated with the foundation and development of institutions, systems, and methods of instruction.

HENRY BARNARD.

Hartford, March, 1862.

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