windows were first introduced, the same objection would still hold good. "We have had very comfortable houses without these expensive additions. Our fathers never had them, and why should we?" And at this day, if we were to attempt in certain parts of the Scottish Highlands to introduce the practice of wearing pantaloons, we should probably be met with the same objection. "We have had very good men without pantaloons, and no doubt we shall continue to have them." In fact, we seldom know the inconveniences of an old thing till we have taken a new and better one in its stead. It is nearly a year since the New York and European sailing packets were supposed to afford the very ne plus ultra of a comfortable and speedy passage across the Atlantic; but now, in comparison with the newly established steam packets, they are justly regarded as a slow, uncertain, and tedious mode of conveyance. The human race is progressive, and it often happens that the greatest conveniences of one generation are reckoned among the clumsiest waste lumber of the next. Compare the best printing press at which Dr. Franklin ever worked, with those splendid machines which now throw off their thousand sheets an hour; and who will put these down by repeating, that Dr. Franklin was a very good printer, and made very good books, and became quite rich without them?

I know that we have good teachers already; and I honor the men who have made themselves good teachers, with so little little encouragement and so little opportunity of study. But I also know that such teachers are very few, almost none, in comparison with the public wants; and that a supply never can be expected without the increased facilities which a good Teachers' Seminary would furnish.

2) "Such an institution would be very expensive."

True, it would cost more than it would to build a stable or fence in a few acres of ground; and in this view of the matter a canal is expensive, and so is a public road, and many other things which the public good requires and the people are willing to pay for. The only questions worthy of answer are: Whether the expense be disproportionate to the object to be secured by it? And whether it be beyond the resources of the country? To both these questions I unhesitatingly answer, No. The object to be secured is one which would fully justify any amount of expense that might be laid out upon it; and all that need be done might be done, and not a man in the State feel the poorer for it. We could not expect a perfect institution at

once. We must begin where we are, and go forward by degrees. A school sufficient for all present purposes might well be maintained for 5000 dollars a year; and what is that for States with resources like most of the States of this Union, and for the sake of securing an object so great as the perfection of the school system? If the kingdom of Prussia with 14,000,000 of people, two thirds of whom are very poor, and the other third not very rich, can support forty-two Teachers' Seminaries, surely such States as Ohio and Pennsylvania and Virginia, and others, with populations of more than a million, none of whom are very poor, and many fast growing rich, can afford to support one.

3) "We cannot be certain that they who study in such institutions, would devote themselves to the business of teaching."

This objection applies with equal force to all professional institutions; and if it is of any weight against a Teachers' Seminary, it is equally available against a medical school. The objection, however, has very little weight; for after a man has prepared himself for a profession, he generally wishes to engage in it, if he is competent to discharge its duties, and if he is not competent, the public are no losers by his withdrawal.

But let it even be supposed that a Teachers' Seminary should be established on the plan above sketched out, and occasionally a man should go successfully through the prescribed course of study, and not engage in teaching; are the public the losers by it? Is the man a worse member of society after such a course of study, or a better? Is he less interested in schools, or less able to perform the duties of a school officer, or less qualified to give a useful direction to the system among the people, than he would have been without such a course of study? Is he not manifestly able to stand on higher ground in all these respects, than he otherwise could have done? The benefit which the public would derive from such men out of the profession, (and such would be useful in every school district), would amply remunerate all the expenses of the establishment. But such cases would be too few to avail much on either side of the argument; certainly, in any view of them, they can argue nothing against the establishment of Teachers' Seminaries.

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4) Teachers educated in such an institution would exclude all others from the profession."

Not unless the institution could furnish a supply for all the schools, and they were so decidedly superior that the people would prefer them to all others; in which case certainly the

best interests of education demand that the statement in the objection should be verified in fact. But the success of the institution will not be so great and all-absorbing as this. It will not be able at once to supply half the number of teachers needed, and all who are educated in it will not be superior to every one who has not enjoyed its advantages. There is great diversity of natural gifts, and some with very slender advantages will be superior to others who have been in possession of every facility for acquisition. That such an institution will elevate the standard of qualification among teachers, and crowd out those who notoriously fall below this standard, is indeed true; but this, so far from being an objection, is one of its highest recommenda

tions.

5) "One such institution cannot afford a sufficient supply for all the schools."

This is readily conceded; but people generally admit that half a loaf is better than no bread, especially if they are hungry. If we have a thousand teachers, it is much better that 300 of the number should be well qualified, than that all should be incompetent, and 500 would be still better than 300, and 700 better than either, and the whole thousand best of all. We must begin as well as we can, and go forward as fast as we are able; and not be like the poor fool who will not move at all because the first step he takes from his own door, will not land him at once in the place of his destination. The first step is a necessary preliminary to the second, and the second to the third, and so on, till all the steps are taken and the journey completed. The educated teacher will exert a reforming influence on those who have not been so well prepared; he will elevate and enlarge their views of the duties of the profession, and greatly assist them in their endeavors after a more perfect qualification. He will also excite capable young men among his pupils to engage in the profession; for one of the greatest excitements of the young to engage in any business is to see a superior whom they respect in the successful prosecution of it.

Every well educated teacher does much towards qualifying those who are already in the profession without sufficient preparation, and towards exciting others to engage in it; and thus, though the institution cannot supply nearly teachers enough for all the schools, yet all the schools will be better taught in consequence of its influence. Moreover, a State institution would

* See Note D, at the close of this Article.

be the parent of many others, which would gradually arise as their necessity would be appreciated from the perceived success of the first.

6) "The wages of teachers are not sufficient to induce teachers so well educated to engage in the profession."

At present this is true; for wages are generally graduated according to the aggregate merit of the profession, and this hitherto has not been very great. People will not pay high for a poor article; and a disproportionate quantity of poor articles in market, which are offered cheap, will affect the price of the good with the generality of purchasers. But let the good be supplied in such quantities as to make the people acquainted with it, and it will soon drive out the bad and command its own price. The establishment of a Teachers' Seminary will raise the wages of teachers by increasing their qualifications and augmenting the real value of their services; and people eventually will pay a suitable compensation for good teaching with much less grudging than they have hitherto paid the cheap wages of poor teachers, which after all, as has been well observed, is but "buying ignorance at a dear rate."

NOTES.

NOTE A. CHINESE EDUCATION.

THERE is a regular system of schools in China of two kinds, the people's schools, and schools for the nobles. The course commences when the child is five years old, and is continued very rigorously, with but few and short vacations, to the age of manhood. In the people's schools the course consists of four parts, each of which has its appropriate book. The first is called Pe-kia-sing, and contains the names of persons in 100 families, which the children must commit to memory. The second is called Tsa-tse, and contains a variety of matters necessary to be known in the common business of life. The third is called Tsien-tse-ouen, a collection of 1000 alphabetical letters. The fourth is San-tse-king, a collection of verses of three syllables each, designed to teach the elements of Chinese morals and history. Such is the provision for the common people.

For the nobles there is a great university at Pekin, the Koue-tze

kien, to which every mandarin is allowed to send one of his sons. The candidate for admission must go first to the governor of a city of the third rank for examination, and if approved, he receives the degree of Hien-ming. He then goes to the governor of a city of the first rank, and if he maintains a good examination there, is admitted to the university.

A mandarin is annually sent out from Pekin to visit the higher institutions in the larger cities, and to confer degrees on the pupils according to their progress. A class of 400 is selected and passes through ten examinations. The 15 who have acquitted themselves best in all these examinations, receive the degree of Sinoa-tsay, the most important privilege of which is that they are no longer liable to be whipped with the bamboo. Rich men's sons, who cannot always obtain this degree by a successful passage through the ten examinations, can procure the equivalent degree of Kien-song by pay. ing a stipulated sum into the public treasury. Having attained either of these lower degrees, the pupil after three years can offer himself at Pekin for the higher degree of Kin-jin, which must be obtained after rigorous examination. The successful applicants for this honor, after one year longer, can demand at Pekin an examination for the highest academical degree, that of Tsin-tse. He who obtains this is congratulated and feasted by his friends, he is regarded with veneration by the people, is eligible to the highest office in the state, and may be raised by the emperor to the dignity of Han-lin.

The emperor himself is required to be a man of learning, and the care of his early education is committed to a special college of learned men called Tschea-sza-fu; and he is regarded in law as the educator and instructor of his people, as well as their ruler. In each village there is a public hall where the civil and military functionaries assemble on the first and fifteenth of every month, and a discourse is delivered to them on the Sacred Edict. This Sacred Edict contains 1) The principle of Khong-hi, an ancient emperor. 2) A commentary by his son Young-tching, who reigned about the year 1700, and 3) A paraphrase by Wang-yeou-po. It was translated into English by Rev. W. Milne, Protestant Missionary at Malacca, and printed in London in 1817.

In the above brief sketch, it is plain that the Chinese have a great veneration for learning, and that the emoluments and honors of the empire are designed to be accessible to those only who have taken academical degrees. But the whole system is arranged to make them Chinese. It excludes everything of foreign origin, it admits neither improvement nor variation, and the result is manifest in the character of the people.

Some, however, of our modern improvements have long been known and practised in the Chinese schools. Such as the practice of the children reading and repeating together in choir, the art of mnemonics, and others of the like kind.-See Schwartz's Geschichte der Erziehung, Vol. I. p. 68-75.