AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION.

THE Forty-fourth Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Instruction will be held in the City Hall, Concord, N. H., on July 8th, 9th, and 10th, 1873.

ORDER OF EXERCISES.

Tuesday, July 8th. — 4.30 P. M. Business Meeting of the Directors at the Eagle Hotel.-7.30. Opening Exercises, Reports, Appointment of Committees, etc. 8.00. "Charles Dickens as a Reader; " by Prof. M. T. Brown,

of Tufts College.

Wednesday Morning.-9.00. Business Meeting.-9.15. "History, and the Study of History in our Schools and Colleges;" by C. L. B. Whitney, A. B., late Graduate Scholar of Harvard University.

Discussion. — 10.15. "The use of Text-books in our Common Schools;' by Prof. Larkin Dunton, principal of Normal School, Boston, Mass. Discussion.-11.30 "Disused Expressions in English; their Origin and History;" by R. F. Leighton, A. M., principal of High School, Melrose, Mass.

Wednesday Afternoon. 2.30. "The place of Natural Science in Education;" by Prof. W. N. Rice, of Wesleyan University.

Discussion. - 4.00. "Teaching the Invisible by means of the Visible; " by Rev. Mark Hopkins, D. D., LL. D., late president of Williams College. Discussion.

Wednesday Evening.-7.30. Business Meeting.-7.45. "The English Language and its Characteristics;" by Prof. E. D. Sanborn, LL. D., of Dartmouth College.

Thursday Morning.-8.30. Business Meeting, Report of Committee on Nominations, Election of Officers, etc.-9.00. "The American Common School the National Instructor in Public Virtue;" by Rev. A. D. Mayo, of Springfield, Mass.

Discussion. 10.30. A Paper by Hon. Amos Hadley, principal of Normal School, Plymouth, N. H.

Discussion.

Thursday Afternoon. - 2.30. "The Hieroglyphic Language of China;" by Chan Laisun, Chinese Commissioner of Education, Springfield, Mass. 3.30. "Teaching of Natural History in our Public Schools;" by Prof. Sanborn Tenney, of Williams College. - 4.30. Discussion: "The Study of Greek as an Element of Liberal Culture." It is expected that this discussion will be opened by Prof. W. W. Goodwin or Prof. William Everett of Harvard University.

Thursday Evening.-7.30. Unfinished Business, Report of Committee on Resolutions, and Brief Addresses by Representative Educators from different States. — A special invitation to attend this meeting and participate

in the discussions is extended, not only to all present members of the Institute, but also to all interested in the cause of Education.

Entertainment. — Ladies, members of the Institute, desiring free entertainment, should send in their names to some one of the Local Committee, consisting of the following persons: Rev. Elisha Adams, J. D. Bartley, Miss I. F. Nutter, Miss S. R. Moulton, and Miss C. B. Cottrell.

To Members of the Institute. The Hotels will furnish accommodations at the following rates: Eagle Hotel at $2.50 per day; Phenix Hotel at $2.00, and the Elm House at $1.50.

Railroad Fares. - Free return tickets will be given to members coming over the Boston & Albany R. R., west of Worcester, also over the Boston & Montreal and Maine Central.

Round Trip tickets, at reduced rates, for Concord, can be purchased at Worcester, Portsmouth, Newmarket Junction, Lawrence, Manchester, and at the office of the Boston & Lowell R. R. in Boston.

M. C. STEBBINS. PRESIDENT,

W. E. EATON, SECRETARY,

Charlestown, Mass.

Springfield, Mass.

NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

STATE HOUSE, NEW HAVEN, CONN.,
June 7th, 1873.

THE Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the National Educational Association will be held in Elmira, New York, on the 5th, 6th, and 7th days of August, 1873. Free return tickets are promised on the Erie and other Railroads centring in Elmira. A cordial invitation to hold the meeting in that city has been received, signed by the Mayor and Aldermen, and sixty-five prominent citizens, including judges, editors, presidents of banks, clergymen, lawyers, and the officers of Elmira College. A warmer welcome was never promised to the Association. No effort will be spared to render this meeting interesting and profitable. A large attendance is anticipated. The morning and evening of each day will be occupied by the General Association, and the afternoon by the four Departments. The exercises will begin at 10 o'clock, Tuesday A. M. After very brief introductory exercises, the Association will proceed at once to business. No time can be spared for elocutionary or musical entertainments. To give time for the thorough discussion of the topics presented, the several papers including them should be short, not occupying more than twenty-five or thirty minutes. As an Educational Conference, this meeting should invite a comparison of views by representative men from all parts of the country. To this end the discussions should be a prominent as well as attractive part of the exercises. The need of conden

sation and brevity is earnestly commended to all who take part in the proceedings.

GENERAL ASSOCIATION. -I. "Ought the Chinese and Japanese Indemnities to be refunded unconditionally, or devoted to specific Educational purposes?" In the discussion of the question, Mr. Chin Laisun, of Shanghai, will speak of the New Educational Movements of China, and Prof. E. H. House, of the Imperial College of Tokei (Yeddo), on "The Educational Plans of Japan."-2. "Upper Schools," by Dr. James McCosh, President of the College of New Jersey. Discussion opened by Samuel Fallows, Superintendent of the Schools of Wisconsin. - 3. "How much culture shall be imparted in our free schools?" by Richard Edwards, President of the Normal University of Illinois. Discussion opened by J. P. Wickersham, Superintendent of Schools of Pennsylvania. — 4. "Should American Youth be Educated Abroad?" by M. H. Buckham, President of the University of Vermont. Discussion opened by H. B. Wilson, Superintendent of Schools of Minnesota. -5. "Education in the Southern States," by Hon. J. C. Gibbs, State Superintendent of Schools, Florida. Discussion opened by E. H. Fairchild, President of Berea College, Kentucky.-6. "Co-Education of the Sexes," by President White, of Cornell University. — 7. "The Relation of the General Government to Education," by Prof. G. W. Atherton, Rutgers College, N. J. Discussion opened by John Hancock, Supt. of Schools, Cincinnati. - 8. "Educational Features of the Vienna Exposition," by Prof. J. W. Hoyt, of Wisconsin.

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NORMAL DEPARTMENT. - A. G. Boyden, Bridgewater, Mass., President. "The Duties and Dangers of Normal Schools." Richard Edwards, President State Normal University, Illinois. "Elementary and Scientific Knowledge." John W. Dickinson, Principal State Normal School, Westfield, Mass. "Training Schools - Their place in Normal School work." Miss Delia A. Lathrop, Principal Training School, Cincinnati. — A Paper on "The relative contribution of scholarship and the methods to the power of the teacher," by Henry B. Buckham, Principal State Normal School, Buffalo, N. Y.-The following questions are also presented for discuscussion: "To what extent and in what ways ought a Normal School to conform its plans to the wants of the region in which it is located?”. "What should the Normal School aim to accomplish in the teaching of Natural Science?"

DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER INSTRUCTION.-J. D. Runkle, Boston, President.-I. "National University;" by Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University.-2. "Study of the Classics;" by Prof. Edward S. Joynes, of the Washington & Lee University, Virginia. - 3. "A Liberal Education for the Nineteenth Century;" by Prof. W. P. Atkinson, of the Institute of Technology, Boston.

DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. - N. A. Calkins, New York, President.-Two Papers on "Elementary Reading. I. "Thought and Sentence Method;" by G. L. Farnham, Superintendent Public Schools, Binghamton, New York. — 2. "Phonetic Method with Pronouncing Or

thography, in its relations to other Methods;" by Dr. Edwin Leigh. Discussion of the subject to follow the last paper. 3. "Arithmetic - Principles and Methods of Illustration;" by M. McVicar, Principal of the State Normal Training School, Potsdam, N. Y. · 4. "How may the Elementary School Institution be made most useful to the future citizens ?" by H. F. Harrington, Superintendent of Schools, New Bedford, Mass - 5. "What number of school hours, daily, is most profitable to children under ten years of age?" by Andrew J. Rickoff, Superintendent of Schools, Cleveland, Ohio. QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION. "How may pupils in Elementary Schools be trained to speak and write our language correctly?"

DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE.-W. T. Harris, St. Louis, PresiDetails soon to be announced.

dent.

The Hotels reduce their rates to members of the Association about one dollar a day, as follows: at Rathburn House, $3 per day. Frazer, Delevan, and Hathaway, each $2.50. The Lyon House, $2.

BIRDSEY GRANT NORTHROP, President.

S. W. WHITE, Secretary.

MILTON ON THE CORRECT USE OF LANGUAGE. — Nor is it to be considered of small consequence what language, pure or corrupt, a people has, or what is their customary degree of propriety in speaking it a matter which oftener than once was the salvation of Athens; nay, as it is Plato's opinion that by a change in the manner and habit of dressing, serious commotions and mutations are portended in a commonwealth, I, for my part, would rather believe that the fall of that city and its low and obscure condition followed on the general vitiation of its usage in the matter of speech; for, let the words of a country be in part unhandsome and offensive in themselves, in part debased by wear, and wrongly uttered, and what do they declare, but, by no light indication, that the inhabitants of that country are an indolent, idly-yawning race, with minds already long prepared for any amount of servility. On the other hand, we have never heard that any empire, any state, did not at least flourish in a middling degree as its own liking and care for its language lasted. Vol. I, 739.

A CAUTION.

I WAS fond of all my teachers when I went to school, but Miss E. was my favorite. She was a friend of my mother, beautiful, I thought so, at least, and was in my mind the embodiment of goodness and learning. She taught our school several summers, and gave, so far as I know, entire satisfaction. The picture in memory, as I think of her, at the distance of fifty years' would be perfect but for one blemish which will not "out."

It was about three or four weeks before the examination that the first class in grammar began to parse the fable of the "Bears and the Bees," in the old English Reader,—

"As two young bears in wanton mood,

Forth issuing from the neighbouring wood,
Came where the industrious bees had stored
In artful cells their luscious hoard," etc.

We parsed it once, taking ten or twelve lines for a lesson, and then we parsed it again. "Shall we parse this lesson examination day?" said the boy who sat at my right hand, and whose thoughts always dropped out when he opened his mouth. "I don't know," said Miss E., "where you will parse examination day." And so it rested; but we were kept drilling upon that same piece, pummelling away at the young bears, and governing them by all sorts of grammatical expedients, till "that day for which all other [school] days were made," arrived. When the committee and visitors were seated, Miss E., taking the Reader and turning carelessly over its pages, said, "The first class in grammar may look at the piece on such a page, and be ready to parse it." The page of course let loose the bears, and we did n't study it, feeling sure that we could do what we had already done so often. After going through the other studies, — reading, spelling, arithmetic, etc., the class in grammar was called. Parson E., who always attended the examinations, and was the only member of the committee that understood the mysteries of "the indicative mood, present tense, third person singular," picked out all the difficult words, which we disposed of with much less trouble than the young bears had in their raid upon the "luscious hoards" of the bees. The lesson over, Parson E. said to the teacher, "That is an excellent class, Miss E.; they do their teacher much credit."

"I gave out the lesson," said Miss E., "since the committee came in." I opened my eyes a little wider than usual. It did not occur to me then, that the teacher was practising deception. I should have shrunk from any such suggestion with reference to Miss E. I did not speak of it to any one; but I could not get it out of my mind, till gradually it appeared in its true proportions, deception. That was the last summer that I went to school. Miss E. lived in the village, where I often saw her, and was always kindly recognized by her. She was afterwards married, and lived in a neighboring town. I met her frequently for twenty-five years, but I never saw her without thinking how it sounded when she said, "I gave out the lesson since the committee came in."