Speaking of the first transfer of the children from the mother's care to that of the teacher, Pestalozzi says:

It will therefore become possible even for a stranger, and one who is a stranger also to the mother, by a certain mode of conduct, to gain the affection and confidence of the child. To obtain them, the first requisite is constancy in the general conduct. It would appear scarcely credible, but it is strictly true, that children are not blind to, and that some children resent, the slightest deviation, for instance, from truth. In like manner, bad temper, once indulged, may go a great way to alienate the affection of the child, which can never be gained a second time by flatteries.

This fact is truly astonishing; and it may also be quoted as evidence of the statement, that there is in the infant a pure sense of the true and the right, which struggles against the constant temptation arising from the weakness of human nature, and its tendency to falsehood and depravity.

In the following passage Mr. Wilderspin points out the error of employing incompetent teachers :

It is indeed a melancholy truth, that moral training is yet to a very limited extent estimated; and this is mainly owing to its not being understood by the generality of those selected for the office of teachers of infants; nor can it be expected that persons of sufficient intellect and talent to comprehend and carry out this great object can be procured, until a sufficient remuneration is held out to them to make it worth their while to devote their whole energies to the subject. It is a fatal error to suppose that mere girls, taken perhaps from some laborious occupation, and whose sum total of education consists of reading and writing, can carry out views which it requires a philosophical mind, well stored with liberal ideas and general knowledge, to effect. They may be able to instruct the children in the mere mechanical parts of the system; and as long as they confine themselves to this, they will go on capitally; but no farther than this can they go; and though the children may appear to a casual visitor to be very nicely instructed, and very wonderful little creatures, on a closer examination they will be found mere automatons; and then, perhaps without a further thought on the subject, the system will be blamed, not considering that the most perfect piece of mechanism will not work properly in any hands except those who thoroughly understand it.

We must however take this with some qualifications, and not despair of success even with ordinary teachers; for daily experience proves that most persons by devoting their minds steadily to one subject, can attain to a certain proficiency, and this special study will enable a sufficient number to qualify themselves, whose views in life may lead them to devote themselves to the work. But in order to do so, they must at least know what they aim at, and this they can not do without a proper training in some well conducted model school. Perhaps it is more important that the infant school teacher should have received a regular course of training than any other. The plans are such as are not likely to be guessed at: when known, they present no insuperable difficulty, but it is necessary that they should be learned to be successfully practiced.

III. SCHOOL RULES AND REGULATIONS.

Good rules are as important for a school as good laws for a country; neither the one or the other will go on well without them. The rules for parents may be printed, and distributed to them when they enter their children. The rules for the internal management of the school should be explained to the children at stated periods.

RULES FOR PARENTS.

Parents are requested to observe the following rules :—

1. Parents wishing their children to be admitted must apply on any morning of the week, except Monday. The names, residences, &c., of the children will then be registered in a book kept for the purpose, and as vacancies occur, they will be sent for in the strict order of their respective applications-except in the case of pupils who have been dismissed for irregularity of attendance, who are not to be received again till after all the other applicants shall have been admitted.

2. No child can be admitted who is under two, or more than seven years of age.

3. The doors are closed every morning precisely at ten o'clock, and the children are dismissed at three, except on Saturdays, when the school closes at twelve o'clock.

4. If any child be frequently absent, or absent five days successively, and the cause be not made known to the teacher before the expiration of the five days, such child will be discharged from the school. If the parents wish the child to be readmitted, they must get the name entered in the application book as at first, and wait till after all the children who have applied for the first time shall have been admitted.

5. The payment is per week, to be paid the first day in each week the child attends; and should any child be unavoidably absent, payment must nevertheless be made weekly so long as the parent wishes the name of the child to remain on the roll.

6. No child having any infectious disease, or who is deficient in personal cleanliness, can be admitted or retained in the school.

MAXIMS AND REGULATIONS TO BE OBSERVED BY THE TEACHER.

1. Endeavor to set a good example in all things.

2. Never overlook a fault: to do so is unjust to the children, since you will, no doubt, soon have to correct them for a repetition of it.

3. Spare no pains to investigate the truth of every charge; and, if you can not satisfy yourself, make no decision. Leave it to the future to develop.

4. Never correct a child in anger. It rarely happens that we know the truth of a case without investigation.

5. Do strict justice to all, and avoid favoritism.

6. Always prepare for your gallery lessons by previous study; never attempt to teach what you do not know thoroughly; and if at any time you are unable to answer a question put by the children, acknowledge your inability.

7. Try to bring forward the dull and backward children. The quick intellects will come on without your notice.

8. Teach thoroughly, and do not try to get on too fast; remember that you are laying the foundations of knowledge

9. Never leave the children alone, either in the school-room or play-ground. 10. Attend strictly to the personal cleanliness of the children; and watch against the entrance of disease.

11. Let particular care be taken of the pictures, books, and apparatus, and see that all is kept in working order.

12. Attend to the cleanliness and neatness of the school-rooms and offices, and to the order and neatness of the play-ground and garden borders.

13. Attend to the ventilation and heating of the rooms. In summer keep the

16. Take every opportunity of moral training. Consider that it is better to make children good than clever.

17. Constantly seek self-improvement, and try to enlarge your own stock of information. Remember that knowledge is your stock in trade.

18. Let your intercourse with the children be regulated by love. Remember that our blessed Lord loved little children, and took them in his arms and blessed them.

SCHOOL-ROOM RULES, TO BE REPEATED BY THE CHILDREN AT THE CLOSE OF THE week.

1. We ought to be kind and gentle in our conduct towards each other, and, when injured in any way, not to revenge ourselves, but seek the protection of the teacher.

2. Always to speak the truth without reserve.

3. Never to speak evil of others.

5. Never to take any thing which is not our own, nor keep any thing we may find belonging to another.

5. Never to covet any thing other children have, nor try to deprive them of it. 6. To obey the teachers in all things, and pay strict attention to their words. 7. To keep silence when in the gallery, except when permitted to speak, and never interrupt either the teacher or any other person who may be speaking.

8. To be strictly attentive to lessons at all times, and always seek an explanation of what we may not understand.

9. To keep our books whole and clean, and never to touch or injure the pictures or apparatus.

10. To come in time in the morning, and with clean hands, face, and clothes.

PLAY-GROUND RULES.

4. To be gentle in play, and careful not to hurt the very little children.

2. Not to be selfish or exclusive in play, but to endeavor to make others happy, as well as ourselves.

3. Never to interfere with or interrupt other children's amusements.

4. Always to try and comfort and assist any one who is hurt or in trouble.

5. To refer every cause of complaint to the teacher.

6. Not to touch or injure the flowers, nor to tread on the garden borders.

7. Each class to use the swings (or other gymnastics) in turn, as appointed. 8. Never to go in the way of the swings, nor interfere with others who may be using them.

9. To form quickly in line when the bell rings for lessons.

Sanitary Regulations.

VENTILATION.

Children breathe more quickly by about one-third than grown persons. A child under seven years of age will render impure nearly three cubic feet of air in a minute. Now if we take as an example a school-room forty feet long, twenty wide, and fourteen high, and say that there are one hundred infants in it at one time, it will give (allowing for the space occupied by gallery, furniture, &c.) about one hundred cubic feet of air for each pupil, and if there were no ventilation this stock would be exhausted in thirty-three minutes; but long before this limit is reached, the air of the room becomes unwholesome, the oxygen or life-supporting part of it being absorbed into the blood, and a deleterious gas (carbonic acid) returned in its stead; if means are not taken to remove this, and admit pure air, the children will become languid and dispirited, and their health will suffer. An air shaft, with an opening near the top of the room, having a sliding lid that can be raised or let down, is a simple and effectual mode of ventilation. Where no other means occur, the top sashes of the windows should be kept down a little, to allow the heated air to escape as it ascends.

CLEANLINESS.

Cleanliness is next in importance to ventilation: for, independently of the unpleasant and demoralizing character of a dirty school-room, the dust raised by so many feet, when taken into the lungs, is highly injurious.

TEMPERATURE.

When the room is heated by an open fire-place, it is well to admit the air for ventilation as near the fire as possible, as by that means a more equal warmth is kept up. It is dangerous to overheat the school-room, as it causes the children to take cold when changing to the play-ground: the temperature should not rise above 700 or fall much below 600 Fahrenheit.

DISEASE.

Although it is the parents' duty to attend to the health of the child, yet in epidemics or sudden illness, it is necessary for the teacher to be able to distinguish the premonitory signs of disease, as he stands for the time in the parents' place. The following diseases may with certainty be considered as infectious :-Measles, scarletina, mumps, small-pox, and hooping-cough.

The symptoms of measles are sneezing, running from the eyes and nostrils, sickness, cough, together with heat of the skin and quick pulse.

The approach of scarletina is known by alternate shivering and heat, quick pulse, sickness, white tongue; and later, by red spots or patches on the face, neck, and chest.

Mumps are known by painful swellings above the sides of the throat, on a level with the ear.

Hooping-cough comes on like a common cold, but with violent cough, in which a watery fluid is expectorated; watery discharges from the eyes and nostrils; hoarseness and sneezing. The child is generally languid and out of spirits. When much advanced, the symptoms of this disease are so evident as not to require description.

A well-regulated school tends to preserve and improve the health of those attending it, but it is evidently necessary to return to the care of its parents any child who exhibits signs of sickness or disease. Even in case of common diarrhea the child should be immediately sent home.

In inspecting the children for cleanliness, the head should be particularly observed; and if there is any appearance of ring-worm or scald-head, the child should be kept at home until the disease has entirely disappeared, as both are infectious and troublesome, as are most cutaneous diseases.

ACCIDENTS.

Accidents rarely occur in a well-regulated school: but as there is a possibility of such things happening, where so many children are collected together, we give a few simple directions for treatment.

In case of a bruise or wound from a fall or other cause, the part should be washed clean, and a piece of old linen or lint dipped in cold water applied.

Sprains require the limb to be kept quite still, and bathed with vinegar and

water.

In case of a cut from any sharp instrument, slate or glass, bring the edges of the cut carefully together and apply a slip of common adhesive plaster.

Should so unfortunate a circumstance happen as that of a child falling into a fit from disease or constitutional causes, the children of the school should not be allowed to witness the painful sight, but the sufferer should be removed from the room, and exposed to the fresh air, with the clothes loosened. No restraint should be used in the convulsion, except to prevent the patient from injuring himself.

* His Grace the Archbishop of Dublin has kindly communicated to us the following note:

arduous enough, without this additional perplexity

The Play-ground.

With regard to recreation in the play-ground, let it be as unre strained as possible; nature is the best gymnastic teacher, and little can be done to assist her. Whatever apparatus is introduced should be very simple, as scarcely any is free from danger. A dry floor under foot, a free circulation of air, and a constant gentle superintendence, which, by affording protection to the weak or injured, secures the greatest amount of liberty to each, are the chief requisites; and any one who has witnessed a well-regulated infants' play-ground, must be aware how perfectly the happiness of the assembled group is secured. If we come to inquire into the causes, we shall find that freedom and the gratification of the craving for sympathy and society are the chief. In the large number assembled together, each finds companions whose age and taste suit its own; peculiarities of character find free play. Some naturally take the place of leaders, while others are content to serve. If any one wishes to be an architect, he will soon find plenty of builders at his command. Perhaps another is a rider, and he easily persuades some one to be horse; or, if he likes to drive, he may have a whole team! In one place you may see a little knot of exclusives, who would not for the world admit another member to their club; while close by is a laughing face which has formed a dozen associations in the hour! Here the imitative faculty develops itself in a mimic school, including a very fair copy of the teacher (peculiarities and all) from which, if he be wise, he may take a lesson in turn. It is true that, in the first formation of the school, many of these different elements will come in collision, but constant moral training will teach them to associate together in harmony and love, and we repeat, the less interference the better.

No play-ground should be without a border of flowers, and, if possible, fruit trees. The moral discipline afforded by teaching the little ones to respect these things, is not their only use; they give pleasure to the senses and cultivate a love of nature. The gymnastic apparatus should be carefully watched to avoid accident, and the proper mode of using it be taught to the children.

Time Table.

The time table should be so arranged as to bring those lessons which require mental effort as distant from each other as possible, and oecure frequent relaxation in the play-ground. Those subjects