me to attempt, as I had cheerfully agreed to do, to address the Association now about to assemble in Troy. I all the more regret my inability to perform that assumed duty, that I hoped to be able clearly to illustrate, by means of my new Map of North America, especially colored for the purpose, the close and absolute dependence of the laws of climate, the relative fertility and the distribution of the great agricultural staples peculiar to our continent, upon the physical configuration of its surface and its outlines; and at the same time, to point out the vast influence of these natural and permanent conditions of the continent upon the mode of growth, the present social condition, and the future prospects of this nation. I thought that this would be the best method practically to show the intimate relations of the various branches of geography, physical and civil, and from these relations to derive the principles of a method of geographical teaching truly natural, that is actually indicated by the nature of the object to be studied. It is self-evident that in geography, where forms and relative situation of material objects underlie all the other phenomena, the first foundation must be laid by the method of object-teaching. It is not less so that the study of a good and faithful physical map, which is the only substitute possible for the object itself, ought to be the first and primary step required from the pupil; the one without which all the others can be but failures. I cannot enough recommend to the consideration of my fellow-teachers in that branch of learning the simple truths just stated. I remain, dear sir, with much regard, Truly yours, A. GUYOT. JAMES CRUIKSHANK, LL. D., Cor. Sec. Teachers' Association State of New York. The meeting was evidently enthusiastic; the attendance large; the Reports of Committees able; the addresses good; and we regret that want of space compels us to give so brief a notice of so important a meeting. If any teachers, however, desire a full account, we recommend them to subscribe for the New York Teacher, one dollar a year, in advance; address J. Munsell, Publisher, Albany, N. Y. This is one of the pioneer educational journals, having recently entered upon its thirteenth volume. Its resident editor, Dr. James Cruikshank, stands second to none of the noble band of educators in the Empire State. We have never heard of a person who would part with his complete files of the New York Teacher for five times the money they had cost. STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.-This Institution has been removed from Fourth Street to Assembly Hall, corner of Sutter and Kearny streets. Mr. Carlton has entered upon the performance of his duties, and the prospects of the school are very favorable. Students may now enter with every assurance that the special work of fitting themselves for the teachers' profession can be successfully carried on. We hope to hear of many accessions to the school. Let our friends from the interior be sure to spend an hour at Assembly Hall, when they visit the city. OUR CORRESPONDENCE. It has occurred to us that a little space in each number of THE TEACHER might profitably be set apart for extracts from letters received at our office, where our friends can have a word passed on to the fraternity, without the formality of "writing for the press." To illustrate the idea, take this, which is simply told, occuring in a business letter, and yet interested the editors more than sundry set "articles" of fifteen pages foolscap : This district is on the hills, * * * and needs a school and a missionary teacher. I have taught here four months in the cheapest kind of a barn, not a pane of glass, set on the top of a very steep hill, with only a horseback trail through the brush. I should like the CALIFORNIA TEACHER, if you please. We do "please " to send THE TEACHER to every such locality, and only regret that we cannot send back the dollar which was inclosed, as well as the journal. But after all, we might as well keep the dollar, as there can be no chance for our patron to spend it in that small place. GREENBACKS.-We are about to take a long text to preach a short sermon from, and we beg our friend, Superintendent Wells' pardon for the use we make of his letters. CHICAGO, July 30, 1863. To the Publishers of the California Teacher: W. H. WELLS. We found inclosed a dollar greenback, and acknowledged its receipt as follows: WM. H. WELLS, ESQ. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., Aug. 24, 1863. Dear Sir-Yours of 30th July, inclosing one dollar (greenback) is received to day. We had previously put your name on our free list as one of the apostle of education whom we ought not to charge; but our mercenary motives prevail to such an extent we can't think of sending back any money that once comes into our possession. We therefore credit the General Fund with six "bits," the current value of greenbacks in this longitude, and with sentiments of gratitude therefor, superimposed on our high personal esteem, we remain, Yours very truly, Per EDS. CALIFORNIA TEACHER. In due course of mail we received the following with thirty-five cents in postage currency: Esq., CHICAGO, Sept. 18, 1863. My Dear Sir:-Nothing was further from my intention than to send you a short weight subscription for the CALIFORNIA TEACHER, which certainly promises to be worth a gold dollar. I saw only the price named at the bottom of the title page; and though I knew you had a substratum of gold, I never suspected that your currency rested on a specie basis till your letter and circular called my attention to the fact. You will pardon me, then, if I insist on inclosing the balance of a full paying subscription. With sincere thanks for the kind and courteous tone of your letter, I am, So much for the text. The sermon is, that we desire to announce to the United States as a great fact worthy of all good citizens' attention-inasmuch as all good citizens wish to know the proper method of paying for the CALIFORNIA TEACHER-that in this State gold and silver are understood to be money, and that other circulating mediums, as potatoes, greenbacks, corn, grapes, etc., are taken at what they will bring in money. As brother Wells didn't know it, the probability is that the masses of the people at the East need the enlightenment this sermon is designed to give them. PROF. GUYOT'S WALL MAPS.-We have had the pleasure, through the courtesy of A. Roman & Co., of examining a part of the maps of this series, comprising South America, Europe, and the United States. Scientific men, as well as teachers, have been looking forward to their publication with deep interest, and the results exceed the most sanguine expectations. For accuracy, beauty, freshness, clearness, and harmony, they excel any before published either in this country or in Europe. Those teachers who have read "Earth and Man" need not be told, that few men live, so well fitted to prepare such a set of maps. He came to the United States in company with Prof. Agassiz-and in Physical Geography, occupies a place corresponding to that of Agassiz, in Natural History. The complete works of Prof. Guyot are now being brought out on a scale corresponding to their merit by Charles Scribner, of New York, involving an expenditure of $40,000. It is the intention of the author and publisher to furnish maps and textbooks adapted to all grades, from the Primary School to the University. The publication of these works marks a new era in the study of Geography. The miserable collection of names of innumerable towns, rivers, cities, capes, bays, etc., etc. down to infinity, will disappear. Their occupation is gone. Geography will soon be taught as a science that shows how the Great Creative Hand can be traced in all its departments; that the earth is an organic total, fitted for the home of man; that there is a "life of the globe;" that design is exhibited in all its members; that mountains, rivers, seas, and oceans influence the progress of nations; that Law rules universal, all over the face of the globe; that everything is adjusted with the most exquisite harmony-in fact, that Geography is a science, second in interest to no other-excepting, always, arithmetic with which the multiplication-mad teachers "discipline the mind.” Prof. Guyot was, in early life, a pupil of Carl Ritter and Alexander Humboldt. He early became an earnest investigator of the natural world; the mountains and glaciers of his native land were his school rooms; and since his removal to this country, he has become familiar with its mountain ranges, and physical features. We may well feel proud of the publication of such works in our own country -the author's adopted home. Will any one dare say there is no improvement in school text-books? A School Trustee, in one of our rural districts, objected to the "State Series," on the ground that they were full of "Abolition." Prof. Guyot's Map of the United States is full of Union speeches—for every mountain range, and every river, and every slope is stamped UNION. Look out for the maps then there may be a "nigger on the fence," and secession trustees should be cautious how they invest their money! FROM the moment an infant turns his eyes to follow the candle as the light from it crosses the line of his vision, his education has commenced he has become conscious that there is something in life which he does not comprehend. The impression of the object seen will linger in the consciousness of the child, until it learns that the name of the strange thing is light. Should the child in process of time, ascertain the origin and properties of light, he will have passed through those mental processes by which knowledge is generally acquired. To familiarize the child with these processes, or to enable him to receive correct impressions of material objects, and to acquire their names and their natures, uses, and relations, and finally to arrange, describe, and reason from the facts thus obtained, is the province of an educator. Such training and instruction as this the child rarely receives at home, and therefore he is sent to school at an early age, that he may laboriously extract from books that knowledge of the material world which he could acquire with almost unconscious effort, were he taught by the voice of an instructor and in the presence of nature and her myriad shapes. Not knowing the intent of his irksome school-tasks, the child soon regards the school-room as a mere prison; plodding along the hard road of learning with no definite aim, and nothing bright in perspective. Is it strange that he looks upon his school, his teacher, and his books as so many obstacles in the way of his enjoyment? Is it a wonder, then, that we have so many truants? or that when a child is sent from home in the morning, he should linger on the road to school? risking the punishment inflicted upon tardy scholars, rather than withdraw from the study of nature which he loves, and be immured within the four walls of a schoolroom? Within that circumscribed space, there is most commonly nothing to interest the active-minded scholar, and, more particularly, if possessing a nervous temperament, he has to sit under the vigilant eye of a teacher, who has no sympathy with his instincts, and whose sole office seems to him absorbed in showing that certain printed characters are called A, B, C,—1, 2, 3,—and that if they be put together, some how or other, they will spell ba, ta, ra, and the like. What young school-boy will not rather stay from school and blow air-bubbles, watching them rise and wondering what makes them do so, than remain in school and be told the cause of this phenomenon? If he have no practical illustration of the fact, will not such an one forget by night both the statement and the reason of the fact? The present system of "Object Teaching,' introduced into our schools, obviates in a great measure, the evil of which I speak, and by appealing to the powers of observation in the child it leads him to conceive clearly the nature and practical uses of books. Besides it gives him an incentive to learn, so that he may search and find for himself the hidden causes of things. Yet this system, with all its merits, will fail without the aid of the teacher, especially when instruction is to be given to children who are not old enough to employ their reasoning faculties aright. At such a time it is the province of the teacher to make her instruction interesting, to expatiate upon the topics considered, in terms perfectly comprehensive to the little ones; to wipe away the erroneous impressions that will often enter their crude and awakening minds; to cause them to think, and if they cannot come to a correct conclusion, to form such for them. Let the pupil know that there is a reason to be arrived at, and that it has been found by close applica |