in opinion and haughtiness of demeanor. Especially are such faults or vices apt to spring up in weak or ill-furnished minds. A teacher who cannot rule by love, must do so by fear. A teacher who cannot supply material for the activity of his pupils' minds by his talent, must put down that activity by force. A teacher who cannot answer all the questions and solve all the doubts of a scholar as they arise, must assume an awful and mysterious air, and must expound in oracles, which themselves need more explanation than the original difficulty. When a teacher knows much, and is master of his whole subject, he can afford to be modest and unpretending. But when the head is the only text-book, and the teacher has not been previously prepared, he must, of course, have a small library. Among all the Prussian and Saxon teachers whom I saw, there were not half a dozen instances to remind one of those unpleasant characteristics,-what Lord Bacon would call the idol of the tribe,' or profession,-which sometimes degrade the name and disparage the sacred calling of a teacher. Generally speaking, there seemed to be a strong love for the employment, always a devotion to duty, and a profound conviction of the importance and sacredness of the office they filled. The only striking instance of disingenuousness or attempt at deception, which I saw, was that of a teacher who looked over the manuscript books of a large class of his scholars, selected the best, and, bringing it to me, said, 'In seeing one you see all.

Whence came this beneficent order of men, scattered over the whole country, molding the character of its people, and carrying them forward in a career of civilization more rapidly than any other people in the world are now advancing? This is a question which can be answered only by giving an account of the Seminaries for Teachers.

From the year 1820 to 1830 or 1835, it was customary, in all accounts of Prussian education, to mention the number of these Seminaries for Teachers. This item of information has now become unimportant, as there are seminaries sufficient to supply the wants of the whole country. The stated term of residence at these seminaries is three years. Lately, and in a few places, a class of preliminary institutions has sprung up,-institutions where pupils are received in order to determine whether they are fit to become candidates to be candidates. As a pupil of the seminary is liable to be set aside for incompetency, even after a three years' course of study; so the pupils of these preliminary institutions, after having gone through with a shorter course, are liable to be set aside for incompetency to become competent.

Let us look for a moment at the guards and securities which, in that country, environ this sacred calling. In the first place, the teacher's profession holds such a high rank in public estimation, that none who have failed in other employments or departments of business, are encouraged to look upon school-keeping as an ultimate resource. Those, too, who, from any cause, despair of success in other departments of business or walks of life, have very slender prospects in looking forward to this. These considerations exclude at once all that inferior order of men who, in some countries, constitute the main body of the teachers. Then come, though only in some parts of Prussia,-these preliminary schools, where those who wish eventually to become teachers, go, in order to have their natural qualities and adaptation for school-keeping tested; for it must be borne in mind that a man may have the most unexceptionable character, may be capable of mastering all the branches of study, may even be able to make most brilliant recitations from day to day; and yet, from some coldness or repulsiveness of manner, from harshness of voice, from some natural defect in his person or in one of his senses, he may be adjudged an unsuitable model or archetype for children to be conformed to, or to grow by; and hence he may be dismissed at the end of his probationary term of six months. At one of these preparatory schools, which I visited, the list of subjects at the examination,-a part of which I saw,-was divided into two classes, as follows:-1. Readiness in thinking, German language, including orthography and composition, history, description of the earth, knowledge of nature, thorough bass, calligraphy, drawing. 2. Religion, knowledge of the Bible, knowledge of nature, mental arithmetic, singing, violin-playing, and readiness or facility in speaking. The examination in all the branches of the first class was conducted in writing. To test a pupil's readiness in thinking, for instance, several topics for composition are given out, and, after the lapse of a cer

tain number of minutes, whatever has been written must be handed in to the examiners. So questions in arithmetic are given, and the time occupied by the pupils in solving them, is a test of their quickness of thought, or power of commanding their own resources. This facility, or faculty, is considered of great importance in a teacher. In the second class of subjects the pupils were examined orally. Two entire days were occupied in examining a class of thirty pupils, and only twenty-one were admitted to the seminary school;—that is, only about two-thirds were considered to be eligible to become eligible, as teachers, after three years' further study. Thus, in this first process, the chaff is winnowed out, and not a few of the lighter grains of the wheat.

It is to be understood that those who enter the seminary directly, and without this preliminary trial, have already studied, under able masters in the Common Schools, at least all the branches I have above described. The first two of the three years, they expend mainly in reviewing and expanding their elementary knowledge. The German language is studied in its relations to rhetoric and logic, and as æsthetic literature; arithmetic is carried out into algebra and mixed mathematics; geography into commerce and manufactures, and into a knowledge of the various botanical and zoological productions of the different quarters of the globe; linear drawing into perspective and machine drawing, and the drawing from models of all kinds, and from objects in nature, &c. The theory and practice, not only of vocal, but of instrumental music, occupy much time. Every pupil must play on the violin; most of them play on the organ, and some on other instruments. I recollect seeing a Normal class engaged in learning the principles of Harmony. The teacher first explained the principles on which they were to proceed. He then wrote a bar of music upon the blackboard, and called upon a pupil to write such notes for another part or accompa niment, as would make harmony with the first. So he would write a bar with certain intervals, and then require a pupil to write another, with such intervals as, according to the principles of musical science, would correspond with the first. A thorough course of reading on the subject of education is undertaken, as well as a more general course. Bible history is almost committed to memory. Connected with all the seminaries for teachers are large Model or Experimental Schools. During the last part of the course much of the students' time is spent in these schools. At first they go in and look on in silence, while an accomplished teacher is instructing a class. Then they themselves commence teaching under the eye of such a teacher. At last they teach a class alone, being responsible for its proficiency, and for its condition as to order, &c., at the end of a week or other period. During the whole course, there are lectures, discussions, compositions, &c., on the theory and practice of teaching. The essential qualifications of a candidate for the office, his attainments, and the spirit of devotion and of religious fidelity in which he should enter upon his work; the modes of teaching the different branches; the motive-powers to be applied to the minds of children; dissertations upon the different natural dispositions of children, and, consequently, the different ways of addressing them, of securing their confidence and affection, and of winning them to a love of learning and a sense of duty; and especially the sacredness of the teacher's profession,-the idea that he stands, for the time being, in the place of a parent, and therefore that a parent's responsi bilities rest upon him, that the most precious hopes of society are committed to his charge, and that on him depends, to a great extent, the temporal and perhaps the future well-being of hundreds of his fellow-creatures, these are the conversations, the ideas, the feelings, amid which the candidate for teaching spends his probationary years. This is the daily atmosphere he breathes. These are the sacred, elevating, invigorating influences constantly pouring in upon his soul. Hence, at the expiration of his course, he leaves the seminary to enter upon his profession, glowing with enthusiasm for the noble cause he has espoused, and strong in his resolves to perform its manifold and momentous duties.

Here, then, is the cause of the worth and standing of the teachers, whom I had the pleasure and the honor to see. As a body of men, their character is

The above described is a very common method of examining in the gymnasia and higher seminaries of Prussia, Certain sealed subjects for an exercise are given to the students; they are then locked up in a room, each by himself, and at the expiration of a given time, they are enlarged, and it is seen what each one has been able to make out of his faculties.

more enviable than that of either of the three, so-called, 'professions. They have more benevolence and self-sacrifice than the legal or medical, while they have less of sanctimoniousness and austerity, less of indisposition to enter into all the innocent amusements and joyous feelings of childhood, than the clerical. They are not unmindful of what belongs to men while they are serving God; nor of the duties they owe to this world while preparing for another.

On reviewing a period of six weeks, the greater part of which I spent in visiting schools in the north and middle of Prussia and in Saxony (excepting, of course, the time occupied in going from place to place), entering the schools to hear the first recitation in the morning, and remaining till the last was completed at night, I call to mind three things about which I cannot be mistaken. In some of my opinions and inferences I may have erred, but of the following facts there can be no doubt:

1. During all this time, I never saw a teacher hearing a lesson of any kind (excepting a reading or spelling lesson), with a book in his hand

2. I never saw a teacher sitting while hearing a recitation.

3. Though I saw hundreds of schools, and thousands,-I think I may say, within bounds, tens of thousands of pupils,-I never saw one child undergoing punishment, or arraigned for misconduct. I never saw one child in tears from having been punished, or from fear of being punished.

During the above period, I witnessed exercises in geography, ancient and modern; in the German language,—from the explanation of the simplest words up to belles-lettres disquisitions, with rules for speaking and writing;-in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, surveying, and trigonometry; in book-keeping; in civil history, ancient and modern; in natural philosophy; in botany and zoology; in mineralogy, where there were hundreds of specimens; in the endless variety of the exercises in thinking, knowledge of nature, of the world, and of society; in Bible history and in Bible knowledge;-and, as I before said, in no one of these cases did I see a teacher with a book in his hand. His book,-his books,-his library, was in his head. Promptly, without pause, without hesitation, from the rich resources of his own mind, he brought forth whatever the occasion demanded. I remember calling one morning at a country school in Saxony, where every thing about the premises, and the appearance, both of teacher and children, indicated very narrow pecuniary circumstances. As I entered, the teacher was just ready to commence a lesson or lecture on French history. He gave not only the events of a particular period in the history of France, but mentioned, as he procceded, all the contemporary sovereigns of neighboring nations. The ordinary time for a lesson here, as elsewhere, was an hour. This was somewhat longer, for, toward the close, the teacher entered upon a train of thought from which it was difficult to break off, and rose to a strain of eloquence which it was delightful to hear. The scholars were all absorbed in attention. They had paper, pen, and ink before them, and took brief notes of what was said. When the lesson touched upon contemporary events in other nations,-which, as I suppose, had been the subject of previous lessons,-the pupils were questioned concerning them. A small text-book of history was used by the pupils, which they studied at home.

I ought to say further, that I generally visited schools without guide, or letter of introduction,-presenting myself at the door, and asking the favor of admission. Though I had a general order from the Minister of Public Instruction, commanding all schools, gymnasia, and universities in the kingdom to be opened for my inspection, yet I seldom exhibited it, or spoke of it, at least not until I was about departing. I preferred to enter as a private individual, an uncommended visitor.

I have said that I saw no teacher sitting in his school. Aged or young, all stood. Nor did they stand apart and aloof in sullen dignity. They mingled with their pupils, passing rapidly from one side of the class to the other, animating, encouraging, sympathizing, breathing life into less active natures, assuring the timid, distributing encouragement and endearment to all. The looks of the Prussian teacher often have the expression and vivacity of an actor in a play. He gesticulates like an orator. His body assumes all the attitudes, and his face puts on all the variety of expression, which a public speaker would do if haranguing a large assembly on a topic vital to their interests.

It may seem singular, and perhaps to some almost ludicrous, that a teacher in expounding the first rudiments of handwriting, in teaching the difference be tween a hair-stroke and a ground-stroke, or how an / may be turned into a b, or a u into a w, should be able to work himself up into an oratorical fervor; should attitudinize, and gesticulate, and stride from one end of the class to the other, and appear in every way to be as intensely engaged as an advocate when arguing an important cause to a jury;-but, strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true; and before five minutes of such a lesson had elapsed, I have seen the children wrought up to an excitement proportionally intense, hanging upon the teacher's lips, catching every word he says, and evincing great elation or depres sion of spirits, as they had or had not succeeded in following his instructions. So I have seen the same rhetorical vehemence on the part of the teacher, and the same interest and animation on the part of the pupils, during a lesson on the original sounds of the letters,—that is, the difference between the long and the short sound of a vowel, or the different ways of opening the mouth in sounding the consonants b and p. The zeal of the teacher enkindles the scholars. He charges them with his own electricity to the point of explosion. Such a teacher has no idle, mischievous, whispering children around him, nor any occasion for the rod. He does not make desolation of all the active and playful impulses of childhood, and call it peace; nor, to secure stillness among his scholars, does he find it necessary to ride them with the nightmare of fear. I rarely saw a teacher put questions with his lips alone. He seems so much interested in his subject (though he might have been teaching the same lesson for the hundredth or five hundredth time), that his whole body is in motion;-eyes, arms, limbs, all contributing to the impression he desires to make; and, at the end of an hour, both he and his pupils come from the work all glowing with excitement.

Suppose a lawyer in one of our courts were to plead an important cause before a jury, but instead of standing and extemporizing, and showing by his ges tures, and by the energy and ardor of his whole manner, that he felt an interest in his theme, instead of rising with his subject and coruscating with flashes of genius and wit, he should plant himself lazily down in a chair, read from some old book which scarcely a member of the panel could fully understand, and, after droning away for an hour, should leave them, without having distinctly impressed their minds with one fact, or led them to form one logical conclusion;-would it be any wonder if he left half of them joking with each other, or asleep ;—would it be any wonder,-provided he were followed on the other side by an advocate of brilliant parts, of elegant diction and attractive manner,-who should pour sunshine into the darkest recesses of the case,-if he lost not only his own reputation, but the cause of his client also?

These incitements and endearments of the teacher, this personal ubiquity, as it were, among all the pupils in the class, prevailed much more, as the pupils were younger. Before the older classes, the teacher's manner became calm and didactic. The habit of attention being once formed, nothing was left for subsequent years or teachers, but the easy task of maintaining it. Was there ever such a comment as this on the practice of hiring cheap teachers because the school is young, or incompetent ones because it is backward!

In Prussia and in Saxony, as well as in Scotland, the power of commanding and retaining the attention of a class is held to be a sine qua non in a teacher's qualifications. If he has not talent, skill, vivacity, or resources of anecdote and wit, sufficient to arouse and retain the attention of his pupils during the accus tomed period of recitation, he is deemed to have mistaken his calling, and receives a significant hint to change his vocation.

Take a group of little children to a toy-shop, and witness their outbursting eagerness and delight. They need no stimulus of badges or prizes to arrest or sustain their attention; they need no quickening of their faculties by rod or ferule. To the exclusion of food and sleep they will push their inquiries, until shape, color, quality, use, substance, both external and internal, of the objects around them, are exhausted; and each child will want the show-man wholly to himself. But in all the boundless variety and beauty of nature's works; in that profusion and prodigality of charms with which the Creator has adorned and enriched every part of his creation; in the delights of affection; in the ecstatic joys of benevolence; in the absorbing interest which an unsophisticated conscience

instinctively takes in all questions of right and wrong;-in all these, is there not as much to challenge and command the attention of a little child, as in the curiosities of a toy-shop? When as much of human art and ingenuity shall have been expended upon teaching as upon toys, there will be less difference between

the cases.

The third circumstance I mentioned above was the beautiful relation of harmony and affection which subsisted between teacher and pupils. I cannot say that the extraordinary fact I have mentioned was not the result of chance or accident. Of the probability of that, others must judge. I can only say that, during all the time mentioned, I never saw a blow struck, I never heard a sharp rebuke given, I never saw a child in tears, nor arraigned at the teacher's bar for any alleged misconduct. On the contrary, the relation seemed to be one of duty first, and then affection, on the part of the teacher,-of affection first, and then duty, on the part of the scholar. The teacher's manner was better than parental, for it had a parent's tenderness and vigilance, without the foolish dotings or indulgences to which parental affection is prone. I heard no child ridiculed, sneered at, or scolded, for making a mistake. On the contrary, whenever a mistake was made, or there was a want of promptness in giving a reply, the expres sion of the teacher was that of grief and disappointment, as though there had been a failure, not merely to answer the question of a master, but to comply with the expectations of a friend. No child was disconcerted, disabled, or bereft of his senses, through fear. Nay, generally, at the ends of the answers, the teacher's practice is to encourage him with the exclamation, good, right,' wholly right,' &c., or to check him, with his slowly and painfully articulated 'no; and this is done with a tone of voice that marks every degree of plus and minus in the scale of approbation and regret. When a difficult question has been put to a young child, which tasks all his energies, the teacher approaches him with a mingled look of concern and encouragement; he stands before him, the light and shade of hope and fear alternately crossing his countenance; he lifts his arms and turns his body,- -as a bowler who has given a wrong direction to his bowl will writhe his person to bring the ball back upon its track;-and finally, if the little wrestler with difficulty triumphs, the teacher felicitates him upon his success, perhaps seizes and shakes him by the hand, in token of congratulation; and, when the difficulty has been really formidable, and the effort triumphant, I have seen the teacher catch up the child in his arms and embrace him, as though he were not able to contain his joy. At another time, I have seen a teacher actually clap his hands with delight at a bright reply; and all this has been done so naturally and so unaffectedly as to excite no other feeling in the residue of the children than a desire, by the same means, to win the same caresses. What person worthy of being called by the name, or of sustaining the sacred relation of a parent, would not give any thing, bear any thing, sacrifice any thing, to have his children, during eight or ten years of the period of their childhood, surrounded by circumstances, and breathed upon by sweet and humanizing influences, like these !"

The Rev. Egerton Ryerson, D. D., Chief Superintendent of Schools, in Report on a System of Public Elementary Instruction for Upper Canada," after quoting the above passages from Mr. Mann's report, re

a

marks:

"In the above summary and important statements on this subject, by the able Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, I fully concur, with two slight exceptions. In one instance I did see a boy in tears (in Berlin) when removed to a lower class on account of negligence in his school preparations. I did see one or two old men sitting occasionally in school. With these exceptions, my own similar inquiries and experience of nearly three months in Southern and Western, as well as Northern and Middle Germany, and I might add a longer period of like investigations in Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and France-enable me not only to subscribe to the statements of the Hon. Mr. Mann, but would enable me, were it necessary, to illustrate them by various details of visits to individual schools."