taken here, and maintained and educated for useful employment." The thought brought tears to my eyes. This was a new idea to me. I know not that it has ever been suggested in the United States; but surely it is the duty of government, as well as its highest interest, when a man is paying the penalty of his crime in a public prison, to see that his unoffending children are not left to suffer, and to inherit their father's vices. Surely it would be better for the child, and cheaper as well as better, for the State. Let it not be supposed that a man would go to prison for the sake of having his children taken care of, for they who go to prison usually have little regard for their children; and if they had, discipline like that of the Berlin prison would soon sicken them of such a bargain.

Where education is estimated according to its real value, people are willing to expend money for the support of schools; and if necessary, to deny themselves some physical advantages for the sake of giving their children the blessings of moral and intellectual culture. In the government of Baden, four per cent of all the public expense is for education-they have a school with an average of two or three well qualified teachers to every three miles of territory, and every one hundred children; and that too, when the people are so poor that they can seldom afford any other food than dry barleybread, and a farmer considers it a luxury to be able to allow his family the use of butter-milk three or four times a year. In Prussia, palaces and convents are every where turned into houses of education; and accommodations originally provided for princes and bishops are not considered too good for the schoolmaster and his pupils. But, though occupying palaces, they have no opportunity to be idle or luxurious. Hard labor and frugal living are every where the indispensable conditions to a teacher's life, and I must say, that I have no particular wish that it should be otherwise; for it is only those who are willing to work hard and live frugally, that ever do much good in such a world as this.

I pass now to the consideration of a question of the deepest interest to us all, and that is, can the common schools in our State be made adequate to the wants of our population? I do not hesitate to answer this question decidedly in the affirmative; and to show that I give this answer on good grounds, I need only to state the

proper object of education, and lay before you what is actually now done towards accomplishing this object in the common schools of Prussia and Wirtemberg.

What is the proper object of education? The proper object of education is a thorough developement of all the intellectual and moral powers the awakening and calling forth of every talent that may exist, even in the remotest and obscurest corner of the State, and giving it a useful direction. A system that will do this, and such a system only, do I consider adequate to the wants of our population; such a system, and such a system only, can avert all the evils and produce all the benefits which our common schools were designed to avert and produce. True, such a system must be far more extensive and complete than any now in operation among us-teachers must be more numerous, skilful, persevering, and self-denying-parents must take greater interest in the schools and do more for their support-and the children must attend punctually and regularly, till the whole prescribed course is completed. All this can be done, and I hope will be done; and to show that the thing is really practicable, I now ask your attention to the course of instruction in the common schools of Prussia and Wirtemberg, and other European States, which have done the most in the matter of public instruction.

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS OF PRUSSIA AND WIRTEMBERG.

The whole course comprises eight years, and includes children from the ages of six till fourteen; and it is divided into four parts, of two years each. It is a first principle, that the children be well accommodated as to house and furniture. The school-room must be well constructed, the seats convenient, and the scholars made comfortable, and kept interested. The younger pupils are kept at school but four hours in the day-two in the morning and two in the evening, with a recess at the close of each hour. The older, six hours, broken by recesses as often as is necessary. Most of the schoolhouses have a bathing place, a garden and a mechanics' shop attached to them, to promote the cleanliness and health of the children, and to aid in mechanical and agricultural instruction. It will be seen by

the schedule which follows, that a vast amount of instruction is given during these eight years—and, lest it should seem that so many branches must confuse the young mind, and that they must necessarily be but partially taught, I will say in the outset, that the industry, skill and energy of teachers regularly trained to their business, and depending entirely upon it; the modes of teaching; the habit of always finishing whatever is begun; the perfect method which is preserved; the entire punctuality and regularity of attendence on the part of the scholars; and other things of this kind, facilitate a rapidity and exactness of acquisition and discipline, which may well seem incredible to those who have never witnessed it.

The greatest care is taken that acquisition does not go beyond discipline; and that the taxation of mind be kept entirely and clearly within the constitutional capacity of mental and physical endurance. The studies must never weary, but always interest—the appetite for knowledge must never be cloyed, but be kept always sharp and eager. These purposes are greatly aided by the frequent interchange of topics, and by lively conversational exercises. Before the child is even permitted to learn his letters, he is under conversational instruction, frequently for six months or a year; and then a single week is sufficient to introduce him into intelligible and accurate plain reading.

Every week is systematically divided, and every hour appropriated. The scheme for the week is written on a large sheet of paper, and fixed in a prominent part of the school-room, so that every scholar knows what his business will be for every hour in the week; and the plan thus marked out is rigidly followed. As a specimen I present the following study sheet given me by Dr. Diesterweg, of Berlin, and which was the plan for his school when I visited it in September, 1836.

WEEKLY COURSE OF STUDY

In the Teachers' Seminary and Boys' School, under the care of DR. DIESTERWEG, at Berlin, in the summer term, 1836.