PERINTENDENTS.

It was always the intention of the act creating the County Superintendency, that none but persons competent, not only by age, citizenship, etc., but also by proper literary, scientific, and professional skill and experience, should hold the office. Till recently, however, no nominees of the Directors' Conventions have been rejected, except on grounds other than those of sufficient knowledge. We are glad to learn, from the official matter in the August and October numbers of this journal, that there is now vigor enough in the system, to protest against literary and professional incompetency in aspirants to the Superintendency, and firmness enough in the School Department to make such objection fatal, when duly established. We regard this as one of the best amongst the many good school signs of the times; and we predict the very best results from the stand thus taken.

COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE.

At page 104 of the October number, there is a report by a committee of the State Teachers' Association, on "Absenteeism and its Correction;" concluding with the outline of a law to put into operation the project which they recommend. This is commended to the careful consideration of the reader. It is not our intention again to open up this long discussed, and we had hoped, abandoned question; but as it is again so formally presented, we cannot forbear asking the candid reader just to figure to himself, the scene of confusion and opposition to the system that would follow the attempt to rigidly enforce so much of this project as is set forth in the first three sections; and the indignation that would arise, even amongst honest, well meaning and intelligent

matter which God and nature have entrusted to themselves alone. And again, to imagine the scene in a Directors' monthly meeting, under section 4, when parents, good and bad, should attend to swear themselves out of the fine, and their children out of the black list. Respecting the Committee as we do, and knowing their ability and earnestness as teachers, we are really at a loss to account for their want of sagacity in not foreseeing the inevi table result of their proposition.

As to truancy-or the absence of a child from school against the consent of the parent, as well as of the school authorities-we have not a word of objection to the plan proposed.

The

The first part of section 7 is good. last clause we do not, perhaps, understand. Does it mean that after 1880 no youth shall find employment who has not had at least 18 months' schooling? If so, it is as possible as it is impracticable.

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

Little out of the usual course has occurred during the month of October. In-door college exercises proceeded with their usual regularity, and without any disturbance from the out-door work. In fact, the one has become so well interwoven with the other, and the transitions and changing of details so methodized, that no jarring is felt, and the preparation for both is as prompt and as perfect as could be expected in any institution exclusively devoted to either.

The preparatory school has been thrown into two divisions, the more advanced reciting in the forenoon and working on alternate afternoons, and the other reciting in the afternoon and working on the alternate forenoons. Contrary to expectation, the recitations in the afternoon are little subject to the drawback of after

The main labor of the month has been the cutting off of the corn,-of which 2400 shocks have been cut and set up by the students; the raising of about 300 bushels of capital winter potatoes, exclusive of the large quantity used during the summer and fall; and the grading and walling of the barn-yard for the purpose of better making and preserving the large quantity of manure produced from the stock of the place. When completed, it is believed that this important agent in enriching our fields will compare with any in the State. The new Turnpike from the College to the end of Nittany Mountain, where it unites with one to Bellefonte, is rapidly progressing and will probably be open for travel the greater part of the way in a month. Thus we shall have a good road in all weathers to the railway. By this means, too, we are getting rid of many heaps of stones and unsightly stone walls gathered off the fields, and heretofore sadly in the way.

The Carpenter and Blacksmith shops are in efficient working order; and the convenience of having repairs promptly made and many new implements furnished as they are needed, can scarcely be expressed,-to say nothing of the mechanical knowledge therefrom derived.

The Experimental Farm of 100 acres, attached to the college, is getting quietly but successfully into admirable working order. Without pretending to be exclusively or even highly scientific, it is so arranged, in experimental plots covering 25 acres, as to be already producing many test results-especially in the grasses, corn, oats, barley and potatoes; in most of which its improved products took the premiums at the recent State fair. This series of these experiments, when accurately recorded and contrasted for ten consecutive years, cannot but have a deciding effect upon many questions now dividing the opinion of the best practical farmers. The rest of the farm is also well worked, and in a few years, it is believed, will be a model in many respects.

At the present moment some twenty of the students are preparing to start, for a four days' hunt, to the Allegheny Mountain,-some twenty miles north of us,-in charge of the President, one of the Professors and the Master Mechanic, who is also an old hunter. The design is to camp out in the woods and have a good time of it, and the expectation is to get a deer or two if possible; but if not, to get good fun and good appetites,-to supply the

Next month the result will be re

The prospects for a large increase of students next year are already good. In addition to inquiries and applications from the counties of our own State, several have been received from other portions of the Union,-New Jersey, Maryland, District of Columbia, even Kansas and Texas. It is not exactly in rule to admit any but sons of our own citizens; but so long as there is room and the other States pay us this compliment, their youth, if properly qualified, will be accepted.

Before the end of the present term, which closes on the 16th of December, a new and full catalogue will be issued, setting forth the present condition and the plan and future prospects and requirements of the institution. This could not be done sooner, owing to the fact that the plan or theory on which the college has been conducted since its reopening in February last, were, to some extent, merely experimental. Being now verified by practice, future operations can be spoken of with certainty.

OFFICES FOR COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS.

The demand upon the county authorities, by Superintendent Wickersham, for an office at the county seat for the County Superintendent, is not only right and expedient, but shows a power in the system it did not always possess. The Commissioners of the counties are rapidly conceding the justice of the demand, and placing this chief school officer amongst the other county officers, as one charged with interests and duties, at the least, as influential and important as any in the service of the public. The school is now a recognized permanent institution in the State, and its head, in each county, takes his proper place as a public agent. This, too, is a great step.

THE COMMA.

Were we to specify the particulars in which is found the superiority in expressiveness of the English language over all others with which we are acquainted, we would probably say it is in the variety and force of its Prepositions, the number and precision of meaning of its auxiliary verbs and in the power which its words exercise over each other from mere locality or juxta-position.

The number and power of its Prepositions

not only leave little, if any, necessity for what is | called case, in highly inflected languages, but express the intended idea with a precision wholly unattainable by the terminal case sign. Whether "to" or "for" is meant by the dative and "by" or "from" by the ablative in Latin, for instance, can only be known by the context; but in English when we mean to, we say to, and when we mean for, we say for; and so of the other cases. Here is absolute precision of expression as well as of meaning. So of the auxiliaries, which are with us mainly the mood and tense signs. Whether "might, could, would, should, or ought" to love is meant by the one Latin word which expresses them all, is only discoverable, as before, by the context; but when in English we mean might love" we say so, when "would love" we say so, and thus of all the rest of the helping or mood and tense verbs. Here again is absolute certainty of meaning.

Finally, the relative position of words in an inflected language has very little agency in expressing the sense; so little, in fact, as to leave their ordinal arrangement to the writer's taste, -in most cases, as a mere matter of sound or euphony. Put this simple sentence in Latin: "A black man has a white head," and no matter how the words may be placed with regard to each other, there can be only one meaning in them or taken out of them. Not so with the English. The position of these words with regard to each other is absolutely essential to the proper expression of the meaning. For, by changing their relative position, the meaning may be changed very materially and in half a dozen different ways. It may be:-A white man has a black head, or a black head has a white man, or a white head has a black man, or a man has a black white head, &c. Of course some of these meanings are not very good sense, but they are all good grammar, and can be parsed according to rule. The difference is an essential one between the inflected and the non-inflected languages; and though it is not so obvious in long and involved sentences, still it is one of the differential laws of the two classes.

From this importance of the local relation of words, arises another necessity, and therefore distinctive feature of the English and all other inflected or only partially inflected languages: that of full and correct punctuation. In fact, so essential is this to the comprehension of English words arranged in sentences, that without some marks to separate the clauses of a sentence from each other, and to show where one sentence ends and another begins, it would often be impossible to more than

guess at the writer's meaning. This, it is true, might be affected by the use of capitals; or by placing each clause in a line by itself and each sentence in a paragraph by itself. But more conveniently, and now universally, it is done by the use of points or stops called punctuation marks, placed at the end of clauses and sentences, according to their value and relation to each other. And, therefore, these are of the utmost importance in composition, and their proper use is a portion of grammar of no minor importance.

Neither is the use of these stops confined to writing or printing, nor even to the reading of manuscript or print. It is equally valuable and imperative in speaking-even in extempore speaking, as any one will admit who listens critically, in this regard, to a good speaker. He will not find the orato, it is true, counting "one" for every comma, "two" for each semicolon, "three" at a colon, or "four" when the sentence is ended. But he will not only detect natural and accurate pauses in the flow of sound which properly and perceptibly mark each break in the sense, but that inflection of the voice which, united with this spoken punctuation, makes the very music of oratory.

Now, did space serve, it would not be difficult to show that this punctuation is neither the arbitrary invention of the grammarians, nor are the marks of it employable one for the other, or omissible at pleasure; but that they are governed by rules as well settled on principle as any in the language, and as little admitting of change or disregard as any other rules. Our present intention, however, is chiefly to speak only of the Comma, and of one use or rather abuse of it now becoming very general.

It is one rule of the Comma that it is to be inserted in places in the sentence from which the copulative conjunction "and" may be grammatically omitted between two words of the same part of speech, and that it is to be omitted when the "and" is inserted. Thus, it is correct to write,-John, James and Robert came; but it is not correct to write John, James, and Robert came. It would not be correct to write John and James and Robert came, merely because the insertion of the first "and" would be contrary to usage; neither would it be proper to write John James and Robert came, because in that case the meaning would not be plain, the presumption being possible that there were not three persons spoken of, but only two, viz: a person whose Christian name was John, and whose surname was James-John James,-and another whose Christian name was Robert. In fact the reason of the rule-for

This is a rule which is now very generally disregarded, to the great waste of commas and violation of grammar sense,-by very many careless writers and many proof-readers.

The same mistake is made with more show, though with no greater reality of reason, in cases where not merely single words, but several clauses, each consisting of a number of words, are connected by the copulative and. The sentence, The General of the army and the Admiral of the fleet formed a plan of attack,-admits of no comma after the word army, for the reason that the copulative itself is present and performs its own connecting of fice; yet many persons would write it thus The General of the army, and the Admiral of the fleet, formed a plan of attack ;-not only erroneously separating the two members of the sentence, which together form the nomitive case or subject-of the verb " formed," but actually separating that nominative from its verb, and that when there is no interposing member of the sentence to interrupt the direct connection and dependence; which is contrary to all rule.

There are cases, it is true, where the and is to be used with the comma; but these are those in which some other word which might be grammatically repeated with the and, is, for the sake of brevity, and grammatically, omitted, a kind of ellipsis in fact; or, they are cases in which independent clauses which have no direct bearing as nominatives or subjects on

were, connected. But in all cases in which two words or clauses are connected by an and, with direct governing reference to some following verb, the use of a comma with the copulative is incorrect. Yet scarcely a book can be examined, without violations of this plain reasonable rule being found on every page.

An opposite charge to that now noted in reference to and, seems to be taking place in regard to the disjunctive, or; some few independent writers dropping the comma when the or is used, though the grammar rule requires its use with the disjunctive in all cases. We agree with them, never having been able to perceive good reason for this rule. It is true that or is a disjunction in its grammatical sense; that is, two nouns with an or between them will not have a verb in the plural, but in the singular, for the reason that they do not affect the verb together but separately or alternatively as John or James owns it that is John owns it or James owns it, not both. But this relation of John to James and of both to the verb own, is fully expressed by the word or, and needs no comma to make the meaning plairer. While, therefore, we regard as an improper liberty with the language, the use of a comma with the and, in the first class of cases alluded to, we can see no good reason why the or should always be accompanied by a comma in similar cases. The same rule should exclude the comma in both cases.

It may be added that in very many cases the comma rightfully precedes the conjunctive; but these depend on other principles, such as the introduction of new and somewhat inde. pendent clauses, &c., &c., and need not now be discussed.

PLAIN EDUCATIONAL TALKS with Teachers and Parents. By Albert N. Raub, A. M., Supt. Lock Haven Schools. 12 mo., 220 pages. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. 1869.

Here is, in the form of suggestions to the profession and to parents, the result of the experience, observation and reflection of a life wholly devoted, thus far, to the practical business of instruction in all its departments, from the primary school and the normal school, both as student and professor, to the charge of all the schools of one of our considerable and busy towns. It is given, too, in plain language and attractive style, and embraces a large round of those very topics which the expected, and

we venture to predict, the numerous readers of the book would prefer to see included. In proof of this, here are some of them :-True Education; Machine Education; Cramming; Fashionable Education; Practical Education; Self-Culture; Observing Faculties; Making Homes and Schools Pleasant; Play life; Home example; Government; Punishments; Moral culture; Physical culture; Training for Life's duties, &c., &c. We cordially commend the work to the parents and teachers of the State,especially to the former, to whom such works as this are not sufficiently often or pointedly addressed-convinced that the cause of sound school education and proper home culture cannot thereby but be greatly promoted. B.