American Journal of Education. [NATIONAL SERIES,] No. 2.-JANUARY, 1868. CONTENTS. PORTRAIT OF NATHAN BISHOP, LL. D., first Superintendent of Public Schools in Provi PAGE. III. A NEW DISCOVERY OF THE OLD ART OF TEACHING, BY CHARLES HOOLE,.. 223 225 1. The Usher's Duty,... 2. The Master's Method, 3. Scholastic Discipline,.......... Memoir,.. 225 267 293 IV. ABRAHAM COWLEY, AND REALISTIC INSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND,. V. PLAN OF A PHILOSOPHICAL COLLEGE IN 1661, BY A. COWLEY,. The College, or Organized Society,.. Grounds, Building, Equipment,.... Professors, Scholars, and other Officers,. The School and Methods of Instruction,. Results of Education and Society, ESSAY ON AGRICULTURE IN 1661, BY A. COWLEY,. Suggestion of a College of Agriculture,.... VI. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN SWITZERLAND, CANTON OF ZURICH,..... Territory, Population, Government, School Organization,.. System of Public Instruction,... Compulsory Attendance-School Officers,. 325 325 327 327 328 329 331 333 334 336 337 337 337 338 338 Teachers' Certificate-Chapters-Synod-Annual Meeting of Teachers' Synod,... 346 (e) University, or Faculty of Theology, Law, Medicine and Philosophy,.. CANTONAL NORMAL SCHOOL AT KUSSNACHT,. Address by John S. Hart, LL. D., Principal of State Normal School, Trenton, N. J., 401 X. AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY,...... 425 Proposition for a National Society,.. 427 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, National Series, Volume I., for 1867-8, edited by Henry Barnard, LL. D., U. S. Commissioner of Education, is issued quarterly at $4.00 per annum, (four numbers,) by D. N. CAMP, Publisher, Hartford, Conn. I. THE CLERGY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. LETTER FROM PROF. WILLIAM C. FOWLER, LL. D. HENRY BARNARD, LL. D.: DURHAM, CONN., December, 1867. Dear Sir:-A few weeks since I had the pleasure of receiving from you a letter, in which you ask me to communicate some facts connected with the common schools in Connecticut "as they were." While I was endeavoring to collect these facts, I met some Gentlemen in Hartford who are active in promoting the educational interests of the Commonwealth; one of whom encouraged me to prepare for the press, some remarks which I made on a topic which came up in that interview. This I consented to do, with the purpose of uniting the two topics in one communication. But to whom shall this communication be addressed? My mind readily turned to you as a distinguished friend and advocate of popular education who has labored long and successfully in this State and elsewhere, first as a pioneer, and then as a victorious soldier, in this good cause. I feel too assured, that you will welcome every well-meant effort for promoting the same cause, however inadequate it may be. The topic, last mentioned, is, THE PROVINCE OF THE CLERGY OF CONNECTICUT IN THE PROMOTION OF POPULAR EDUCATION IN THIS COMMONWEALTH. These remarks and statements, will, I trust, be well received by them, inasmuch as they are in harmony with the views of the clergy of Connecticut from 1635 to the present time. The proposition which I shall endeavor to sustain, by the following plain arguments, is this, Ministers of the Gospel in Connecticut ought to take an active part in promoting popular education. My first argument in support of this proposition, is derived from the nature of Christianity. It is a religion which addresses accountable beings through their intellect. Just in proportion, therefore, as you improve their intellect by culture, will you enlarge their capacity of being influenced, in their moral instincts, by the objects of divine truth in that religion. Now as christianity is a general provision for the spiritual wants of all mankind, we may be sure, that all classes of the com munity ought to experience so much of intellectual culture as will enable them to appreciate and appropriate the full benefit of that provision. Other religious systems were designed, at least in some of their parts, for certain privileged orders, who should enjoy high mental culture; while the many, the oi polloi, were excluded from a full participation. Those systems had their esoteric or secret doctrines, which were communicated to the favored few, the initiated; and their exoteric or superficial doctrines, which were communicated to the common people, who were supposed to be incapable of comprehending those deeper doctrines. But among christians it is not so. To the poor the Gospel is preached. To them it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom. Now in order that this preaching be effectual, in order that these mysteries be adequately comprehended, some degree of mental cultivation is necessary. Evidently, then, it is the duty of the christian minister to promote the intellectual improvement of those whom he wishes to influence by his preaching; for in so doing he is preparing them to understand and appreciate the truths and duties of the Christian religion, and to yield their conscience and their heart to Christ the author of that religion. No christian minister, therefore, is justified in standing aloof from the great cause of popular education; for, without it, the light of the Gospel will shine in darkness, and the darkness will comprehend it not. In the early period of christian dispensation, the Clergy, the great lights of the catholic church, acted successfully on this principle; though they did not, in the existing social condition, extend it in its application, so far as we can do. They carefully guarded and preserved the learning of the times in which they lived, and, by the establishment of Institutions of learning and religion, helped to keep both, in their intimate association, alive on the earth. They carefully preserved the Greek and Roman classics, the Pandects of Justinian, the Hebrew copies of the Old Testament, and the Greek of the New Testament. Thus it happened, through them, that Classical learning could revive, and that "the public reason of the Romans" could be silently and studiously transfused into the public institutions of Europe, and the study of the Bible could become general. In many an Abbey and University, the lamp of learning, trimmed by their hands, burned brightly, illuminating a wider or a narrower circle, and sending down its cheering light to our times. Honor to whom honor is due. Let all honor be paid to the Catholic church, |