DEAF AND DUMB IN EUROPE.

At the last anniversary of the Asylum for this class, held recently in London, the chairman said he would mention that it had been ascertained that in England the number of deaf and dumb persons was 12,000, in France 16,000, and in Austria 27,000. In England there were forty schools for the education of the deaf and dumb, which afforded education to 492 children. The proportion of deaf and dumb persons educated in England, amounted to one in every three so afflicted; in Scotland, to one in every one and a half; and in Ireland, only one in every seven. In some parts of Germany, however, every one of that unfortunate class was afforded the means of education.

NOTICES.

Historical Class Book. Part first. Containing Sketches of History, from the Beginning of the World to the end of the Roman Empire in Italy, A. D. 476. By Wm. Sullivan, LL. D. Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the Massachusetts Historical Society. (Author of the Political and Moral Class Books.) Boston: Carter, Hendee & Co. 1833. 12mo. pp. 264.

We are gratified to see the increasing number of historical works written by Americans, and in the spirit of American institutions. We hope they will be so multiplied as to exclude from our schools the imperfect works of Goldsmith, and those of other authors, who have written in a manner little adapted to our country. Few men are better qualified for this task than the author of the work before us, and our favorable anticipations concerning it have not been disappointed. The style has the terseness and force found in other works of Mr Sullivan, with more, we think, of clearness and elegance, and with not less of practical application. We are glad to see that many of the fables, so carefully preserved in most of our historical school-books, including even that of Romulus and Remus, are rejected by Mr Sullivan, with the contempt that Niebuhr has so fully shown them to deserve. The forms and changes of government, and other important events in the history of ancient nations, are employed to mpress practical lessons upon American youth. The authenticity and divine origin of Sacred History are presented with a distinctness and boldness, which are not common in works of this kind; and the Hebrews are placed in their proper tank among the nations of the world, as the channel through which must be deduced the moral and religious improvement, and the social refinement, to which mankind have attained.' The classical student is also clearly taught the miserable deficiency of ancient patriotism, and learning, and refinement, and morals, when compared with the standard which Christianity has formed. The concluding comparison of ancient nations with our own, presents our advantages and dangers in the most striking and forcible manner; and we wish it could appear in some form which will call the attention of our citizens as well as our youth. We think, however, that war and glory are presented in too fascinating a light, even in this work.

The New Children's Friend. By Mrs Markham.

We are disappointed in this work. Its scenes are in many particulars unnatural; they contain too many practical instructions in evil, which would rather excite than check an active child; and they are generally adapted to a state of society and modes of thinking quite unlike ours. Transmigration is quite objectionable. Some of these stories, however, are very interesting, and the spirit of the work is admirable. We think, however, Berquin is not rivalled in his peculiar province.

Primary Geography for Children, on an improved plan, with Eleven Maps and numerous Engravings. By C. & H. Beecher, Principals of the Western Female Institute, Cincinnati. Corey & Fairbanks, 1833. Sq. 18mo. pp. 112.

We are gratified to see this and other evidences of western enterprise on the subject of education. This little work combines the plans of induction and comparison. It commences with a clear and interesting account of the nature of a map, so necessary at the outset; but we cannot approve, in a first book, of the plan of proceeding immediately to the abstractions and mathematical terms of Geography; nor do we see any reason for deferring the account of the United States until the pupil is acquainted with other portions of the world. These defects in the plan are balanced by the simple and graphic style of description, and the interesting details which fill up the body of the work. We think, how. ever, the accounts of pagan cruelty, are too much extended for a child's book. The engravings are generally good, though not new; but we are sorry to see bad drawings among them. Every opportunity is taken to inculcate moral and religious instruction, and we think the work will be very interesting to children, without cultivating a false taste or gratifying the appetite for the marvellous.

Elements of Geometry, with Notes. By J. R. Young. Revised and corrected; with additions, by M. Floy, jr, A. B. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard. 1833. 8vo. pp. 216.

An Elementary Treatise on Algebra, Theoretical and Practical, with attempts to simplify some of the more difficult parts of the science, particularly the Demonstration of the Binomial Theorem, in its most general form; the Solution of Equations of the higher orders; the Summation of Infinite Series, &c; intended for the use of Students. By J. R. Young. First American edition, with additions and improvements. By Samuel Ward, jr. Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, Chesnut st. 1832. 8vo. pp. 352.

We have laid aside these books for some weeks, to wait a moment of leisure and vigor, for a task which seemned to be serious. We were at length compelled to take up the geometry after a day of toil, and were not a little relieved to find amusement in place of labor. The distinctness of the definitions, and their immediate connection with the theorems to which they belonged, and the regular and easy succession of subjects, the variety and usefulness of the problems, and the general transparency and simplicity of the reasoning, led us on with an interest wholly unexpected. The author has attempted to combine the vigor of Euclid's demonstrations, with the improvements of modern French mathematicians; and has introduced more converse propositions than usual. We cannot venture to pronounce on the accuracy of a work of this kind, when the author informs us that a proposition of Simson's Geometry, current for upwards of seventy years, is false ! But we feel justified in recommending it, as a safe and peculiarly interesting guide, to the student in Geometry.

The treatise on Algebra is fully described in its title. The elementary rules we think are not so clearly explained as in some other treatises; but the illustra tions which we have been able to examine, in other parts of the work, are clear and interesting, and the examples are calculated to render them practical. The character of the author is an additional security that it will be a valuable textbook to the mathematical teacher.

The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. By Washington Irving. Abridged by the same. New York: G. C. & H. Carvill1. 832, pp. 267.

This work has been recently recommended by the Legislature of the State of New York, for general and other schools. We cannot better express our views of it, than in the following language of the Superintendent of Schools in N. York: 'The Life and Voyages of Columbus were written under circumstances well calculated to secure, what the author is universally admitted to have attainedfidelity in historical detail, and in delineations both of national and individual character.'

The abridgment, which the Legislature have recommended in the foregoing

resolutions, to be used in the common schools as a class book, possesses all the characteristic merits of the original work, although in a composition so full of beauties, many have necessarily been lost in compressing it into a narrower compass and the Superintendent does not hesitate to say, that he knows no work better suited to be introduced into the common schools, for the use of the higher classes. Independently of the unblemished purity of its style and thought, it exhibits in a minute detail, with which all should be familiar, the discovery and first settlement, by civilized men, of the continent in which our own country occupies so conspicuous a place a continent destined, perhaps at no distant day, through the influence of the free institutions which have taken root among us, to change the political character of the old world, by pouring into it, in streams far more precious than the fountains of wealth which were opened by the discovery, the treasures of an enlightened and practical freedom.

Philosophical Conversations, in which are familiarly explained the Causes of many daily occurring natural phenomena. By Frederick C. Bakewell. With Notes and Questions for review. By Ebenezer Bailey, Principal of the Young Ladies' High School, Boston, author of First Lessons in Algebra, Young Ladies' Class Book, &c. Boston: Carter, Hendee & Co. 1833. 12mo. pp. 286.

This work is not intended, as the editor observes, to be a full treatise on the subject of Natural Philosophy. It is a series of familiar conversations, superior to any we have seen of this kind, except Miss Edgeworth's occasional specimens, explaining the most common phenomena, and the most simple experiments, which can be employed to introduce the pupil to this study. The questions are intended, as all questions should be, to assist the scholar in examining himself; but we are happy to see that there are among them such as would puzzle the mechanical teacher. and force the parrot scholar to think. The notes of the American editor are valuable, and we are pleased with the plan of reprinting the figures interspersed through the work, in a separate form at the end, for the purposes of examination. We consider this a valuable accession to our library of school-books.

The Improvement of the Mind. By Isaac Watts, D. D. With Corrections, Questions, and Supplement. By Joseph Emerson, (late) Principal of a Female Seminary, &c. Revised Stereotype Edition. Boston: James Loring. 18mo. pp. 234.

One of the best guides to self-education ever published; prepared for the use of schools, by an able and experienced teacher. We need not say more. We wish it an extensive circulation; and we hope an edition will be published in superior style, for high schools and private reading. The corrections,' we are assured, extend only to the inaccuracies of language.

The New National Spelling-Book and Pronouncing Tutor, on an improved plan; exhibiting the precise sound of each syllable in every word, according to the most approved principles of English Orthoepy, with Progressive Reading Lessons. By B. D. Emerson. Boston: Carter, Hendee & Co. 1833. 12mo. pp. 168.

This work is decidedly an improvement upon the former, by the same author. The Key is more simple; the Reading Lessons are more judiciously selected; the arrangement is improved, and it is more practical. We observe that the k in publick, frolick, &c, and the u in favour, honour, and many other words of this class, are omitted; which, alone, will recommend it to many teachers.

A Word to Teachers; or, Two Days in a Primary School. By Wm. A. Alcott. Boston: Allen & Ticknor. 1833. 18mo. pp. 84.

This is a brief but sprightly exhibition of simple and practical methods of instruction, which would be of great value to many a young teacher, and might, if attended to, benefit some who are older.

THERE could not be a greater solecism in political economy than universal suffrage, with limited education, and yet, this is the maxim adopted in practice by our own country. More than a million of free white children in the United States, are left without even a common school: another million of our youth, between 15 and 20, find no places provided for their instruction beyond the mere elements of knowledge which they may have acquired;* and a large part of these future citizens, have no means of paying for education. How are these alarming defects in the foundations of our institutions to be supplied?

The duty of providing for the wants of the poor, is imposed by the statute book of the christian, upon all who possess the means; and enforced by the conduct of his great example. It is also recognised by the civil law in most christian nations. To leave them to suffer for want of food, or raiment, or shelter, would be considered a cruelty, of which only pagans and savages are capable. But are these their only wants or their most pressing necessities? Is it a duty to satisfy the hunger of the body, and may we still leave the mind to starve, for want of its appropriate nourishment? Are we bound to supply other necessities, and not to give them so much instruction as shall open to them those sources of knowledge, from which they may learn their present duties, and their future condition, and shall enable them to understand and govern their own passions and appetites?

* See Annals of Education, Vol. III. p. 361, and p. 404.

But in addition to all the obligations of duty, the whole community have a direct interest in the education of the poor. The statistics of poverty and crime, abundantly prove, that the intemperance or evil habits, which were the first steps in the progress of corruption, may be traced to the want of instruction, in two thirds of the number of convicted criminals.

One gentleman, examined before the British House of Commons, stated, that in seven hundred or eight hundred juvenile culprits, whose cases he had examined, he found the first causes to be the want of education and instruction. Another stated, that of the children he had visited in the different prisons, he had found about two thirds without education; and that as to those who had been to school, it was found they had not attended school with any regularity, nor been enabled to read.'

In the prisons of our own country also, most of the criminals are destitute of the elements of knowledge — but of five hundred and fifty convicts of the Massachusetts State Prison the greater number could only spell out the words of a book, and one hundred were ignorant of the alphabet. One half of the juvenile of fenders in the House of Refuge, in New York, were unable to read.

We are by no means of the opinion, that mere knowledge will preserve the morals; for some of the most learned men have been among the most corrupt, and some of the most accomplished villains, have been more dangerous in consequence of their knowledge. Education must be combined with instruction, and the principle of religious responsibility must be inculcated, or the mere knowledge of letters will be of little avail. Scotland, which was formerly inundated with beggary, has been entirely freed from it by its parish schools; but it is also true, that these schools were imbued with the spirit of religion.

The opinion of almost every writer on political economy, even in France, is, that the education, both intellectual and religious, of the mass of the people, is essential to the welfare of a state. It is admirably observed by Sumner; Of all obstacles to improvement, ignorance is the most formidable, because the only sure mode of assisting the poor is to make them agents in bettering their own condition.' Colquhoun, the able investigator of the police of London, observes; In my opinion, there is too little exertion used in preventing the propagation and growth of crimes, and too much exertion used in punishing them when they arrive at maturity.' Another writer remarks; To suffer the lower orders of the people to be ill-educated, and then to punish them for crimes which have originated in bad habits, has too much the appearance of creating delinquents, for the purpose of putting them to death.'

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