bestowed upon the private teacher, and as soon as an opening should occur to gratify his aspirations, either to money or popularity, he would leave the public school to seek it. It is not a little remarkable too, that during all the period above described, the school committees generally consisted of the very men who never sent their children to the public school. Whenever they entered the school, it was evident upon the very face of things, that they were overlooking an institution in which they had little confidence. Indeed, in many places, and for a long, dark period, the very name of "town school" excited in the minds of perhaps the majority, some such idea as we associate with the alms house, a sort of necessary evil to provide for those whose want of means prevented their providing for themselves. It was not uncommon to see a boy, who had arrived at fourteen or fifteen years, and had attained to some scholarship, when asked by others where he went to school?—with confusion hang down his head, and with conscious mortification, make the humbling confession in half stifled accents, that he attended the "town school." A sentiment of this sort gave rise a long time ago to a large number of academies in different parts of New England, which were excellent institutions in themselves, but which worked, nevertheless, a very unfavorable influence upon public schools. It is not the design of these remarks, of course, to undervalue these institutions, particularly when established among a sparse population, where public instruction in the higher branches could not advantageously be maintained. Very great blessings unquestionably have been secured by the facilities thus offered to those who sought a more liberal education than . could be afforded at the public expense. Yet whenever they have been brought into competition with common schools, devoted mainly to instruction in the branches there taught, dividing the youth in the village into two classes those who could and those who could not afford the expense of tuition, and of course withdrawing the interest and influence of the more wealthy portion of the community from the public school, there their influence, (perhaps without any designed hostility, except it were shown in diminishing the public appropriations)—has been most decidedly unfavorable to the cause of public instruction. This condition of things being introduced, went on to increase; because the more academies were multiplied, the worse would be the public schools, and hence the people reasoned "the worse the public schools, the more need of academies." In consequence of this, in almost every large town, the private schools became much more numerous than the public, the money expended for them swelling far beyond the sum appropriated for the public schools; and in almost every country village, an academy, painted white, with a bell and a steeple, while it added beauty to the village, and gave literary laws to those of the place who could afford it, wrought in many cases literary starvation to those who depended upon the town school for mental training. So true is this, that it is relied upon as a general principle, that where the private schools are most numerous and fully attended, and where an academy of the kind described is located and in flourishing condition, there you will find the public schools in the most deplorable state, because they have fallen into the most deplorable neglect. So far had this state of feeling been carried, that there were very many who were ready to declare against all public schools as a positive evil, and who would have been willing, at any moment, to cut off the supplies for their support. Complaining of the hardship of paying for schools they did not use, they would say, "The public schools are so wretched that I cannot trust my children there; if they were in such condition that I could send to them, I should gladly pay for them!" Just as if under this starving process, they could have been better! and just as if it had never entered their minds, that by first sending their children, and then giving their encouragement to the school, and their countenance and coöperation to the teacher, was the only way to make them the very schools they desired. But the time has at length come for the eyes of a blind public to be opened. They have begun to make the discovery that poor public schools-maintained just to fulfil the letter of the law, is indeed but poor economy. They have begun to perceive that paying for two sorts of schools, when they need pay for but one, is paying but ،، too dearly for the whistle." They have begun to learn that public schools, and public teachers, if they be but encouraged and patronized and smiled upon, may be as good at least as private ones, and they have somehow found out that the rich and poor may meet at the same school, sit at the same desk, recite in the same class, and cherish and reverence the same teacher, and all this without any more "contamination" than has been experienced elsewhere! In several of our large cities and in most of our large towns, the tide of feeling has already turned toward the public schools. School committees are chosen who send to them, more liberal appropriation is made for them, more is expected of them, and it is not saying too much to add, that under these circumstances, very much more is accomplished in them. Thus much public sentiment has done. But this sentiment is a growing sentiment. In almost every town and village in this state, there is an increasing interest in the public schools. Through the labors and measures of the Board of Education, by their able Secretary, a large amount of statistical information has been laid before the people, showing the comparative expense of public and private instruction. And judging from the Reports of school committees in every direction, and from the increased amount of appropriation in a large number of towns within a few of the last years, I think we cannot err in viewing this change of public sentiment as a great point gained toward improvement in the means of public instruction. If any should suppose, from the manner in which I have spoken of private schools and academies, that I have any hostility toward them or toward their instructors, I entirely disclaim any such motive. I speak as I should feel bound in truth to speak, if I were such a teacher myself, and as I suppose every one must speak, who has considered the subject, and who sincerely desires to see the well-being of the whole people" the rich and the poor together"in the highest degree promoted. My own views have been openly uttered, not because "I love Cæsar less, but because I love Rome more." Thus I have passed with great rapidity over a few items in which I think the cause of public instruction has made a decided improvement on the whole. I might remark still further on the diffusion of information in the community, as to what is needed to render our favorite system more perfect and complete. Several journals are now exclusively devoted to the cause, and are widely circulated through the whole body of the people. The whole business of Education is undergoing a discussion, not only in the public assembly and the halls of legislation, but at the smaller gatherings, and even about the social board, and at the firesides of the common people. Improvements in the means or methods of one teacher, are soon reported, and, by means of lectures and the press, go forth to benefit others, and thus become a part of the common stock. The people becoming better informed as to what a good school should accomplish, expect more of the school which they support, and their expectation is sure to find either its response or its remedy. In the preceding pages, I have been endeavoring to make it evident that an advance has been made in the MEANS AND METHODS of public instruction. Yet let me not be considered as looking entirely on the bright side of the picture, or as being moved by spirits too buoyant, and a zeal excessively confident. I am perfectly aware that all great reforms have moved slowly, and that, as a general thing, those enterprizes which have accomplished most for mankind, have not burst upon the world with the sudden and surprizing glare of the meteor's flash, but have dawned upon it, like the gentler coming in of the summer's morning, the light and the heat gradually increasing "unto the perfect day." And, (to carry the illustration a little farther,) as, while the light of the morning pours in upon the world, there are always caverns "deep and drear," from which darkness retires but slowly and reluctantly, and even the summer's sun may scarcely dissolve the ice which reposes in their depths, or dissipate the damps which hover about their |