PREFACE.

The present pamphlet is the result of a suggestion made by a number of friends with whom the writer has conversed, that a report of his observations as delegate to the Educational Conventions recently held at Buffalo and Boston, should be prepared and presented to the School Board. The reason assigned for the performance of such duty is, that the embodied views of experienced educators, as they are contained in their lectures and expressed in their debates, may be of service to the friends of education generally, in affording them, in brief review, the plans and purposes of active and efficient agencies that are operating in the cause of enlightenment and human progress. Especially, it is said, that such may be the result in regard to persons actually engaged as co-laborers in the great enterprize.

The efforts of all intelligent and experienced teachers, tend to the development of the true basis upon which our educational systems are founded, and the manner in which they ought to be conducted. There are important principles that underlie those systems, and it is necessary that they should be known. Although but few, they are varied in their forms and features, and require research and examination. Their illustration in the exhibition of the theories based upon them, and their adaptation to practical use, must always be matters of interest to the intelligent mind.

It is true, the mere rehearsal of acts performed and sentiments expressed, may not be as effective as the actual witnessing of the scenes in which they occurred, which were as inter