explanation from the teacher, A. is ready to admit the statement of B.

C. has carefully examined the formation of clouds, rain, hail and snow. He reports as follows:-Heat is constantly vaporizing water from the surface of land and The vapor is conveyed away on the wings of the

sea.

wind. The warmer the air, the more water it will hold in solution. When any portion of the air is cooled, the water suspended in an aeriform state is condensed into globules of liquid, forming fog on the earth, and clouds in the air. When sufficiently accumulated they discharge their contents in the form of rain, hail or snow,rain, when the drops do not pass through a portion of air cold enough to freeze them, or sufficiently dry to evaporate from the surface of the drops fast enough to freeze them. Hail when the drops are frozen in falling, and chrystals of snow when freezing takes place at the instant of condensation.

D. has examined the formation of dew and reports: In the night, objects on the earth cool down below the temperature of the atmosphere, by radiating heat into space. The air in contact with colder objects deposits moisture, and thus dew is formed.

E. adds, moisture is collected in the same manner on the outside of vessels containing cold water in summer, and on windows in winter.

F. says, the frost work on stone and brick buildings, în warm days in winter, is moisture condensed from the air, and frozen by the cold walls, while snow and ice elsewhere are melting.

G. reports that he watched a little fleecy cloud as it floated along in the air, and saw. it melt away and disap

pear.

The atmosphere, he said, not being saturated with moisture at the temperature it then had, there was heat and dryness enough in it to vaporize the cloud. Not far off, he adds, another little cloud grew and gradually became quite large. Here the air had not heat enough to keep its moisture in an aeriform state and made a cloud.

This report was so rich and various that time was wanting to complete it, and the subject was laid over till the next day. This day the reports were equally interesting and various. We cannot now give them. The subject had been thought of, talked of, and all the powers of observation quickened into exercise, and a great variety of facts connected in their minds with the agency of

heat.

For the next day a few questions were proposed for solution, such as-1. How does water extinguish fire? 2. Why does the temperature rise at the beginning of a snow storm? 3. Why a sudden fall of temperature during a shower of rain? What effect have large bodies of water upon atmospheric temperature?

1st question, How does water extinguish fire? C. answers. In order that combustion may go on, a high temperature is necessary. Water thrown upon fire, is rapidly converted into steam, and in the transition from the liquid to the aeriform state, abstracts so much heat from the fire, or burning substance, as to stop combustion, or reduce it below the burning temperature.

2d question, Why the temperature of the air rises at the beginning of a snow storm? A. answers. The sudden condensation and freezing of vapor gives out so much latent heat as sensibly to warm the air.

3d. Why a sudden fall of temperature during a shower of rain?

the effect. 1st, absorbs its heat.

F.

says two causes may contribute to the drops are cooler than the air and

2d, a portion of each drop is probably evaporated in its descent and converts the free heat of the air into latent or insensible caloric.

4th question, What effect have large bodies of water on the atmospheric temperature? Four or five are ready with substantially the same answer.

They mitigate the intensity of heat in summer, and of cold in winter. Rapid evaporation in summer cools the air, by converting its free into latent heat, and in winter sets the heat of liquidity free, when the water freezes, and thus softens the severity of cold. Now in all this process several faculties have been exercised,—a growing interest excited-you have gone beyond the book to the very subject itself, and brought the whole mind into a good working attitude-many facts at first view very unlike are connected by a common bond and a favorable opportunity afforded to make a moral impression, by referring to the skill of the great Author of nature in employing one agent, in connection to be sure with others, to accomplish so many and so various results-with no interference, but with perfect harmony. Without a will of its own, it perfectly obeys the will of its Maker. Should not moral beings, with higher endowments to know and obey their Maker's will, yield him a voluntary and joyful obedience and homage?

HISTORY.

The great difficulty in teaching history which my own experience has had to contend with, has been to fix in

the mind of the pupil the causes and consequences. little value. It is not history. The treatises commonly used as text books do not give us much help here. They are for the most part barren, abridged narratives, from which, as Schelling remarks of Universal History, every thing extraordinary or important is excluded. "History," says the same writer, "must as a whole be regarded in the light of an Epos, which has no beginning or end. The student must select that point which he regards most important, or the most interesting, and taking his stand on that, must continue to build and to extend in every direction." This is an important suggestion. If history as a whole must be regarded in the light of an Epos, so to some extent may the history of a single country. If so, may we not, like the Fathers of the Epic, begin in mediis consiliis, in the middle of our subject, and travel backward towards the beginning, and forward towards the end? :

connection of events-their Without this, history is of

The great object of studying history is to profit by the lessons of the past. To do this, it is indispensable, not only that particular facts should be made quite familiar, but that their relations, causes and consequences should be traced out; that they should stand, if I may so speak, in the mind of the pupil, in the same relations and juxtapositions in which the facts themselves stand.

Take, for example, the history of our own country. Let the pupil first understand that the thirteen original States were English colonies. Explain the colonial re-. lation. Then let him study, briefly, the history of the revolution which severed the colonial relations, and of the beginning, progress and issue of the war which ac

companied it. This is the middle of our subject-the point at which we take our stand. The pupils have learned that a great event occurred, they have fixed its date, and ascertained its leading incidents. The natural inquiry of almost every pupil, unless his nature has been unmade by previous bad practices, is to ask for the causes. One of the first primary truths suggested to the mind, and acted upon by everybody, long before it is embodied in a verbal proposition, is, that every effect in the natural and moral world has an adequate cause. The mind naturally reverts to the cause. Every day indicates this tendency. If you have a cold, the first question is, how did you take it? If your house is burnt, how did it take fire? Are you hurt, what hurt you? Are you dead, what was the matter? If you are drowning, you can hardly get relief, till you have told how you happened to be in such a predicament.

Proceed in accordance with this strong natural tendency. The American revolution had its causes. What were they? To answer this question, the pupil must explore the whole field of colonial history, with the question before his mind. He must look at the origin of the principal settlements, make familiar acquaintance with the great minds among the colonists, which did most to shape the destinies of the country. He will note the influence of the French and Indian wars in rearing soldiers. will study the frequent and sharp struggles between the local Legislatures and the Crown. He will look attentively at the habits, the morals, and the religious character and opinions of the colonists. Having done this faithfully, he has no very imperfect views of the causes of the revolution. He can tell you something more

He