writing for me,"

when he found that he had bruised and disabled the thumb of his left hand. Such was the force of habit that he had used his right hand to strike with, not thinking of the object he had in view until the mischief was done.

When we consider the few studies pursued in our Boston Grammar Schools at the time I attended them, the inferior text-books, the want of apparatus, the imperfect methods of instruction, and the harsh discipline, we are struck with the great improvement which has been made in their condition. Forty and fifty years ago, "there was," as Mr. Philbrick has said, "no vocal music, no drawing, no object-teaching, no instruction in geography worthy of the name; no vocal training, no physical exercises, no writing of compositions, and no instruction whatever in the elements of science." Arithmetic was taught very imperfectly; I do not call to mind any attempt by the teacher to show the reason of the "rule"; the direction was to follow it. I can say for myself, that it was only after I had entered the English High School that I obtained an insight into the principles of arithmetic, or even understood the reasons of the rules relating to fractions. In the Boylston School, the principal part of the time was occupied in reading and writing. It never seemed to occur to any one that it was worth while to take pains, by written exercises, to enable a pupil to use his own language at least with some degree of readiness and accuracy, paying at the same time a proper regard to correct spelling, and the right use of capitals and marks of punctuation. There was very little attempt to connect book knowledge with the relations of business life upon which many pupils were soon to enter. There was no instruction in human physiology or in the laws of health. The boys knew there is a natural world, but would have been puzzled to give an explanation of the most common phenomena.

Let me end these rambling sketches by contrasting the entertainment now provided every year at Music Hall for the Medal Scholars, with the dinner to which their predecessors were invited at Faneuil Hall forty or fifty years ago. We all know what the former is. It is attended by the Medal Scholars, boys and girls, with their fathers and mothers, and teachers of both sexes The Mayor, after a short address, 'presents a bouquet to every medal scholar; refreshments are liberally provided, but not a drop of intoxicating liquor. An excellent band plays the best and most appropriate musical compositions, and the whole winds up with a merry dance; after which, at about sunset, all retire, well pleased with the good time they have had. Nothing occurs to mar the enjoyment of the occasion. Now look upon another picture.

It was my fortune to obtain at the Boylston School one of the Franklin Medals; and, according to custom, I was invited to dine with the City Authorities at Faneuil Hall. How beautiful the hall looked when I entered it, decorated, as it was, with flags and bunting! The long tables were covered with the fruits of the season, and the dinner was excellent, the City providing bounteously. Wine (Sherry or Madeira) was furnished in abundance. We boys, the most conspicuous guests at the feast, each wearing his medal suspended around his neck by a beautiful blue ribbon, sat together at one

table. After we had satisfied our appetites, the Mayor arose, and made us a short address, in which he congratulated us on our progress in our studies, and our success in obtaining the medals, by no means forgetting to say that Boston, pointing to us, exclaimed with Cornelia, "These are our jewels," and also adding that among us was a future President of the United States. He then directed the waiters to fill each boy's glass with wine, and we then and there had the honor of drinking with the chief officer of the city, each boy emptying his glass, in imitation of his elders.

I was proud of the notice taken of us, of the compliments which the Mayor lavished upon us, and which I had no doubt were deserved; I was glad to be where my merits were appreciated, and began, I am afraid, rather to consider the company as looking up to me than I to them. Judge then of my indignation and humiliation, when, immediately after the glass of wine with the Mayor, some constables with painted poles came up, and calling upon us to rise, marched us all out of the hall, two constables bringing up the rear, to see that no stragglers were left behind. We were ignominiously turned out, just as "the feast of reason and the flow of soul were commencing, of which I longed so much to partake. I wished very much to remain to hear the speeches of eminent gentlemen, to listen to the songs and the music and the jokes; in short, to learn exactly what a public dinner is. I tried to slip back, but these constables, unlike the modern police, were at their posts and vigilant. It was impossible for me to get by them; so I went into the street, and stood under the windows of Faneuil Hall, listening to applause and roars of laughter, but unable to hear a word, and wishing with all my heart that I could know what it was that caused so much enthusiasm or merriment.

Now, why were we boys excluded from the hall, and shut out from what ought to have been the best and most intellectual part of the entertainment? There can be but one answer to this question. It is this: the City Fathers did not wish the young to know what some of them or of their guests might say or do, under the influence of intoxicating liquors, of which there was an abundance at all public dinners at the time referred to. Remember, no woman was allowed to be present at this dinner; no city officer took his wife to it; no female teacher, or meritorious scholar among the girls, wąs invited to it. It was a "gander party," and even the boys were at a certain time turned out from it, in order that the men might sit and drink as much wine or other liquors as they pleased, smoke cigars, · and not blush for shame, in presence of their children, if some jolly companion told an improper story, sang an unsuitable song, or conducted indecorously. And for the same reason the women were not invited. No one could attend, as I have done, a School Festival in 1828 and another in 1872, without gratefully acknowledging that the world is improving, and that the "good old times" had certain customs "more honored in the breach than in the observance." What an improvement in the old School Festival has the mere presence of woman made! She necessarily and immediately banished wine from it, and also, the use of tobacco. She puts man upon his best behavior; in her company he becomes courteous, refined, chastened; and what a grace, beauty, and charm she gives

to all these school gatherings. Fathers and mothers, male and female teachers, school boys and girls, mingle together like one happy family; and the Festival is Thanksgiving and the Horticultural Exhibition joined together, presided over by the City Fathers, assisted by the Graces.

YE OLDEN TIME.

ACCORDING to Winthrop, in 1645, "By agreement of the commissioners, and the motions of the elders in their several churches, every family in each colony gave one peck of corn or twelve pence to the college at Cambridge.”

In the same year, Winthrop writes in his history that, "Divers free schools were erected, as at Roxbury (for maintenance whereof every inhabitant bound some house or land for a yearly allowance forever), and at Boston, where they made an order to allow forever fifty pounds to the master and an house, and thirty pounds to an usher, who should also teach to read and write and cipher. Indians' children were to be taught freely, and the charge to be by yearly contribution, either by voluntary allowance, or by rate of such as refused, etc., and this order was confirmed by the general court. Other towns did the like, providing maintenance by several means."

It appears from the records of the time, that "on the thirteenth of 2, 1635,” a vote was passed "that our brother, Philemen Pormort, shall be intreated to become schoolmaster, for the teaching and nurturing of children with us." He was doubtless the first Boston master. He was succeeded by Mr. Daniel Mande, who was chosen, according to the margin of the record, "on the 12th of the 6th Aug., 1636." A list of those who contributed to his support is given, among whom are "the Governor, Mr. Henry Vane, Esq., ten pounds; the Deputy Governor, Mr. John Winthrop, ten pounds; Mr. William Coddington, thirty shillings." There are forty-one others, who contributed from twenty down to four shillings.

In 1642, nine bachelors commenced at Cambridge; they were young men of good hope, and performed their acts, so as gave good proof of their proficiency in the tongues and arts. At this commencement, complaint was made to the governors of two young men of good quality, lately come out of England, for foul misbehavior, in swearing and ribaldry speeches, etc., for which, though they were adults, they were corrected in the college, and sequestered, etc., for a time."

It will be noticed that John Winthrop, in his diary history, was very fond of his etc's.

G. T. L.

GLEANINGS, BY W. P. A.

[From "Notes of Thought," by Charles Buxton. 1 vol. London, 1873. Charles Buxton was son of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, and author of the well-known biography of his distinguished father,—a book which has passed through thirteen editions in England alone. Some American publisher should reprint this little book, full of the ripe thought of a cultivated, accomplished, and excellent man.

W. P. A.]

TEACHING BOYS SELF-CONTROL. "Give self-control, and you give the essence of all well-doing in mind, body, and estate. Morality, learning, thought, business, success the master of himself can master these.. "Every one allows this. Every one sees that it is self-control that bestows the blessings of perseverance, punctuality, due observance of all duties, kindness, courtesy. Why, then, is it not one of the first aims of those who bring up youth, to teach self-control ?

"How can it be taught? Never, at any rate, unless with government there is freedom. If a boy's life be always squared for him, if his dread of punishment alone be appealed to, if his own judgment and conscience be never left free to choose between the evil and the good, how shall he learn self-government? Depend upon it, neither boys nor actions can grow into the fulness of manhood, of self-reliance, and self-mastery, unless they drink deep of freedom. He whose eye is always on that of a director can never learn to direct himself. A few mischiefs, for the mme, would be well made up for in after-life, if, in school as well as out, discipline were combined with larger liberty." The difference in this respect between the discipline of English and of French schools is very striking. The great schools of England are only now just beginning to teach effectively anything which it behooves a man of the nineteenth century to know, but undoubtedly the freedom in which the English. boy is brought up in them tends to make a man of him; while the slavery of the French schools is one reason why Frenchmen have never yet learned, as a nation, to govern themselves.]

BARREN EDUCATION." It is a daily surprise to me to see how shallow, poor, barren-minded men may still be after the most prodigious amount of education. . . . But the truth is that there is one path to wisdom, and only one the path of thought."

READING VS. THOUGHT.

---

"Reading spreads facts, like manure, over the surface of the mind; but it is thought that ploughs them in."

CAN BOYS BE MADE TO THINK?" Depend upon it, nine boys out of ten might be made in a fair degree thoughtful. They only want a man to train them that way, and they will readily learn to mark (and re-mark) what passed before them. They have it in them, but so few teachers know how to draw it out."

HOW TO MAKE CHILDREN THOughtful, "The thoughtful teacher's aim will be to cherish John Smith the bud, into John Smith the blossom; not to turn John Smith the rose, into John Smith the fir-tree. In other words, he will try to make the most of the child's special nature, but not to squeeze it

into the shape of some fixed model. But how is this possible with this deadweight of Latin grammar to be borne by all the boys? Special cultivation of special natures is scarce possible without a greater variety of studies, so that one could be set in the way of studying natural history, another geometry, another history, a fourth language, and so forth. Still much might be done even now, and especially in drawing out the thoughtfulness of thoughtful boys, and the taste of the tasteful. Three boys out of five have in them a considerable natural capacity for thinking, which is left utterly waste. If their teacher would stimulate them to look into the causes of phenomena, if he would put them in the way of asking, "Why is this?" "How comes that?" an astonishing degree of spirit and vivacity would be given to their minds; and their enjoyment of life, both at school and afterwards, would be largely enhanced. So might their sense of the beautiful be immensely developed by their teachers sedulously drawing their eyes to mark the grace of all natural forms, and the loveliness of all natural hues, and making the study of English poetry a large portion of their work. How far brighter and how far more telling would school teaching be if it aimed at thus drawing out the powers of imagination and reflection, instead of solely seeking to teach application of mind by the direst of human studies." [For "dead-weight of Latin grammar" put dead-weight of spelling, English grammar, ciphering, and other dry bones and mere tools of knowledge, and we have here a just criticism of our own schools.]

DEAD LANGUAGES.-There is this radical fault in making dead languages [or the mere words and structure of any language] the one grand subjectmatter of school teaching, that, after all, in learning them the boy's mind is never striving to make out truths. It is solely occupied in moving words about; trying to say, in the words which dead gentlemen of two thousand years ago would have used, things in themselves of no moment or interest whatever. Surely, surely, no education is really good unless it sets boys seeking after truth, and teaches them to handle it."

People say, "Look at the result! what fine fellows we English are!" True; but not finer than our other advantages - our sturdy bread, our invigorating climate, our plentiful animal food, our manly habits, our wealth, our vast commerce, our freedom, our religion — would entitle us to expect. And, to say truth, in point of intelligence an English gentleman can rarely hold his own with a foreigner of the same rank. That is so, and not pleasant to think of." [Or an American either, which is also not pleasant to think of. If American life did not educate boys any better than American schools do, we should be at a bad pass; and American schools get the credit for much of the intelligence and capacity really exhibited by Americans, which should rightly be attributed to the educating influence of American life; which supplements, after a fashion, and unfortunately leads us to tolerate, the gross shortcomings of our schools.]