The atmosphere of the workshop, the counting-room, and the stock exchange is too arid for constant breathing. Daily infusions from cultivated social life, from books and lectures, are necessary to health.

Who shall say how much the immediate vicinity of Cambridge has done to extend, elevate, and purify public sentiment in Boston? Neither the annual nor triennial catalogue contains the names of all the students educated by, if not in, our colleges.

And so, also, with our public schools. When the father returns to his family at evening, surrounded by his children, conning their daily lessons, he finds himself in a different world; and he is a wise man if he can answer all the questions that are puzzling the brains of the younger members of his household.

The common school, therefore, is not only the educator of the children between five and fifteen, but of the whole community. It is the nature of all good institutions, as well as good men, that "virtue goes out of them."

The indirect influence of our colleges is yearly recognized by honorary degrees, conferred on those who have attained excellence in some department of learning, outside the walls, but not without the aid of those institutions.

It is no less a claim of influence, on the part of our higher institutions, than a compliment to the recipients of the degrees. To many a man who never paid a tuition fee, or attended prayers in the college chapel, is old Harvard the alma mater, in a stricter sense than to hundreds whose sonship is chiefly evidenced by a scrap of parchment.

I know it is common to speak of men who have become distinguished, though they have not had the benefit of a college course, as self-made men; and this, in a limited sense, is just; but, I believe, as a class, they will be found to have as lively a sense of obligation to the great institutions that have furnished the best books in science and literature, as those more favored ones who have received instruction from the lips of tutors and professors.

If other proof were wanting that our schools and colleges do, in fact, educate the community at large to higher views and a juster estimate of life, it might be found in the fact, that the same brains that convert all our natural productions to gold, are not

satisfied till the gold itself, purged of its baser dross, is transmuted into wisdom, virtue, religion.

There is scarcely a college, an academy, an asylum for the blind, the insane, or the dumb, a hospital of any kind, or any beneficent institution, that is not a monument to the generosity of those who, by the discipline and knowledge obtained in our schools, have amassed wealth, without forgetting that the worth of the dollar consists in its exchangeable value for that which is more precious than rubies.

Hence those immense sums invested in institutions whose dividends stand accredited to the world, and whose accounts are audited and approved in heaven.

EDUCATION A MASTERY OVER TIME. By the word education is meant the best training for the young with a view to their after life. We are at once brought face to face with the great question of time by this statement, what time can be given for training? Time is paramount lord of all progress. As soon as men have any time at their disposal over and above what is needed to get food, they employ it in making some advance towards a higher state of life, mental or bodily; that is, they employ it either in getting knowledge for its own sake, or for the sake of the advantages it brings. And as years pass on, there is much stored-up power which has been acquired in this way. Education keeps the key of this treasure-house. The treasure-house of time is barred and locked. Mankind have to wage a never-ceasing contest against time: first, for food and bare subsistence; then for the mastery over his more precious secrets, and to get the key of his treasure-house; and whether men make him do their bidding and give up his treasures, or follow him wherever he drags them, is no slight difference. It is the difference between being a slave in the world or a master. The progress of the world turns on this mastery over time. And this mastery over time, in its best and widest sense, is the best of education,- education is the master and keeper of time and his treasures, and all the main distinctions of man from man, and class from class, depend on it. For in a free country all classes are working classes, and the superiority of one class to another, in the long run, depends on the value of its work; and the value of the work depends on the capital, intellectual or other, required before the work can be done, and both intellectual skill and money, in the ordinary course of events, are the result of a mastery over time. And education gives this mastery. Each generation hands over much of its acquired capital to the next in this way. - Thring; Education and School.

RESIDENT EDITOR'S DEPARTMENT

MEN AND WOMEN TEACHERS.

THE School Committee of Newton voted to reduce the number of school districts in their town from eight to four, and that the same reduction be made in the number of male teachers. The only reason given was, that the substitution of female teachers for the discarded gentlemen would be a pecuniary saving to the town.

This radical change in the school system has called out much discussion and petitioning in the town, which, with its sixteen thousand inhabitants, distributed in eight or ten distinct villages each with its own post-office, churches, graded schools, etc., is quite unlike any other town in the State.

The "Teacher" is not the proper medium for discussing the local questions of any town even when they are educational. This matter, however, bears directly upon the educational system of our State, and, in the estimation of many, vitally affects the highest interests of our schools.

It is upon educational grounds that the question the relative number of men and women teachers in our schools - should be discussed, and, if possible, settled. The people of Massachusetts demand the best schools possible for their children; and while they wish to practise true economy in all things, they will never refuse to appropriate money for any measure deemed of advantage to the schools.

It is not a settled question at all among educators and practical teachers, that children-boys or girls — should be more under the care of women than men teachers during the school-going age from six to sixteen. This is not a settled question; for while in every European country the number of men exceeds the women as ten to one, in Massachusetts nearly the exact reverse is true. So far as any discussion of this point has come under my own observation, whether in public or private, it has been universally conceded that the disproportion in Massachusetts is too great, largely accounted for by the fact that it has seemed to be a pecuniary saving to employ women rather than men teachers. How common is the remark made in the country-towns of Massachusetts, "We did not raise sufficient money to employ a good man teacher, and were obliged to take a woman." The interesting and valuable reports of Mr. George A. Walton, State agent, concerning the schools in the towns of our western counties of Massachusetts, tend to show that the schools in the outlying districts of our country-towns are inferior to those of twenty or fifty years ago, due in large degree to this wholesale substitution. Our most enlightened educators of the State, the Presidents of our Colleges, with George B. Emerson, Louis Agassiz, A. Bronson Alcott, Elizabeth Peabody, Julia Ward Howe, and others, if projecting a system of

public school instruction for the State, would probably allow two, possibly three, ladies to one gentleman, as the proportion among teachers; not a greater inequality, I am confident.

God has placed us in families; and the educating influence of father and mother is alike important with every child, — boy or girl. The careful observer may generally detect the unequal development in those children unfortunately deprived of the healthful, necessary influence of either father or mother. This question does not hinge at all upon the the woman question. If it is thought to, then the answer is, that we plead for a nearer approach to an equality of the sexes in the ranks of teachers. Explain it as we may, it is nevertheless true that, at present, women teachers alone do not and cannot generally exert so decided and salutary an influence upon children from ten to sixteen years of age in our schools, as gentlemen and ladies together. That the community so believe, is shown by the fact that, almost without exception, every High and Grammar School, as well as all academies and, seminaries, whether for one or both sexes, is presided over and pretty largely taught by men. The Boston Latin and English High Schools are taught exclusively by men. In the opinion of many, both those schools would be greatly benefited if accomplished lady teachers were introduced. Again, without looking to Europe, who have been and are now the great teachers and educators in our own country? In my opinion, ladies are coming and should come more and more to the front; but as few young ladies, when preparing for or entering upon the duties of the profession, anticipate or desire to teach more than two or three years at most, how can we expect such results from their instruction as from gentlemen who prepare for the profession as for a life-work? In my opinion, every child of average ability in our Massachusetts schools between the ages of ten and sixteen should come under the direct personal influence and instruction of genial, wise, and highly cultivated gentlemen teachers, at least for one course of recitation each day. As stated by Mr. Ware in his admirable address before the Boston city authorities on the Fourth of July last, our country is almost entirely ruled by politicians, and nearly all public offices are filled by demagogues, from the Senate Chamber to the School Committee; and herein is the great difficulty, which the teachers should earnestly endeavor to remedy. In Germany, boards of education, school committees, or directors are always constituted from practical teachers. As soon would a company of farmers or merchants be selected to examine or control a medical, law, or divinity school, as that the educational interests of the public schools be placed in the hands of others than educators themselves. This is a matter which concerns the self-respect and professional pride of teachers, and the educational interests of our State.

Our Massachusetts Board of Education, with their secretary, consists of eleven estimable gentlemen, the most of them lawyers and clergymen actively engaged, each in the duties of his own profession, with little time, and perhaps less inclination, to study the great problems of the time, relating to the education or right development of the human being, the highest and noblest

of God's creation; nor has one of them, so far as I know, taught in our public schools within the last sixteen or twenty years. Considering this condition of our educational forces, it is surprising that, instead of the German system of public instruction being superior to our own in eighteen particulars, as Dr. Northrup affirms, it is not superior to ours in all respects. We are verily at fault in not insisting that a larger number of ladies and gentlemen be placed upon our boards of education of state, city, and town, who have made the art of teaching and science of education their chosen and professional study.

If the above thoughts, uttered in the interests of the teachers and schools of our state and country, serve to draw attention to the subject, my object will be attained.

West Newton, July 9, 1873.

NATH'L T. ALLEN.

MASS. CLASSICAL TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

[Concluded.]

PRESIDENT ELIOT, OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY,

Considered it inexpedient to require the study of Greek of all pupils as a requisite for entering college. He thought there should be an option between Greek and German or French; assented to most of the positions taken by Mr. Collar; and advocated the study of German as essential to a complete education, in at least five important professions.

The Recording Secretary read the following letter from Prof. Goodwin, of Harvard College :

CAMBRIDGE, April 9, 1873.

My dear Sir:- I am very much obliged to you for your invitation to the Association of High School Teachers (on Saturday); but my extra work this week keeps me away.

As to the question of substituting German for Greek in the preparatory course of study for boys who are coming to college, I cannot for a moment admit that there is any such question, however much certain people may persuade, first, themselves, and then others, that it exists. The only question that is really worth discussing, and the only one which so far as I can see is practically under discussion, is one which I think very few educated men in this country would be willing to face squarely: this is, whether we are to give up classical study as the basis of a literary education. In my opinion (and it is an opinion, I may add, which almost amounts to a certainty to my mind), the substitution of German, or French, or Spanish, or any other modern language, for Greek, even as an alternative, would prevent a large number of those who would otherwise be our best scholars, from ever beginning the