LESSON XXXIV.—THE COMMON GOOD.

1. Suppose some persons had entered your father's house to steal his money or goods, and men were standing near who knew the persons were thieves and meant to steal all they could, what would you think the men standing near ought to do?

2. Suppose the men who knew the thieves were stealing your father's property were to say, "it is none of our business if they do steal; we do not mean to tell tales; let the owner find out therogues if he can." Would you think such men good neighbors? Would you think that they were truly honest men?

3. If several boys at school get angry and commence or threaten to fight, what ought those standing near to do?

4. Will any boy be free from blame who stands near and hears angry words, or sees a quarrel among his associates, and says nothing whatever to encourage or prevent a difficulty?

5. If any one, or several of the scholars of a school know that the rules of the school are intentionally violated by others, would those, knowing the facts, be free from blame, if they did not, in some proper manner, communicate the information to the teacher?

6. If others should threaten to injure you if you exposed their misconduct, or their plans of mischief, what would it be your duty to do?

7. Suppose a part of the scholars of a school say that a certain rule is not a good one, may they break it because they do not like it'?

Besides the regular studies of the school, it is considered an object of much importance to introduce a few general exercises of such a character as will tend to relieve the monotony of the school room; cultivate other faculties of the mind than are usually awakened by the rudiments of arithmetic, or the study of language; and, still further, cultivate early habits of observation and reflection in the minds of children. There is an incalculable amount of intellectual and moral power to be gained, and of blessings to be enjoyed and diffused, by awakening a strong appetite for every kind of useful knowledge in the minds of the young, which is often entirely overlooked by teachers. It will be only after long years of experience with practical men, that the importance of constantly exciting and constantly gratifying the curiosity of a child, will be fully understood by teachers; but it is certainly proper that every teacher should make a beginning in this effortshould proceed as long and as far in this course as he can walk in the clear sunshine of success. As will be seen from the programme, ten minutes of each day is set apart to exercises of this nature. The following questions for two weeks, three for each day, may give some idea of the method at present pursued in our secondary schools:

CAUSES OF THINGS.

XVI.

1. Why is the eye pained by a sudden light?

2. Why do we have two eyes instead of one?

3. Why does shallow water freeze sooner than deep?

XVII.

1. Why are the teeth of some animals pointed or sharp, while those of others are round?

2. What causes the gurgling noise when water is poured out of a jug?

3. What causes the water to rise in springs and flow off on the surface of the earth?

XVIII.

1. Why do the jaws of some animals move only up and down, like shears, while those of others move sideways, also, as the jaws of the ox?

2. Why do young animals know how to swim without learning, while children have to learn before they can swim?

3. Why will not water run out of a cask unless the vent-peg is taken out?

XIX.

1. Why will an egg float in strong brine, when it will sink in pure water? 2. Why do swine love to wallow in the mud?

3. Why will wood sink, after it has remained for a long time in the water? XX.

1. Why do fish never make any noise ?

2. Why do birds sleep so well on waving branches?

3. Why does the bee lay up a store of food in cold countries, while it never does in the torrid zone?

XXI.

1. What causes the frost on our window panes in winter?

2. Why do boys who wish to make a long jump, first "take a run?"

3. Why do we find successive circles from the heart to the sap-wood, in trees?

XXII.

1. Why may some plants live by simply watering the leaves, while the roots remain in the earth quite dry?

2. Why can fleas jump so much farther than other animals, in proportion to their size?

3. What causes the leaves to change their color in autumn ?

XXIII.

1. What causes persons to turn pale when they are frightened?

2. Why does the horse stand up to sleep, while most other animals lie down? 3. What causes our fingers to become numb in a very cold day?

XXIV.

1. What causes the wrinkles on the skin in old age?

2. Why do not fish have eye-lids?

3. Why will two or three small sticks, placed near together, burn better than a large one, alone?

XV.

1. Why will not plants grow if all the leaves are kept rubbed off?
2. Why do frogs have a transparent membrane to draw over the eye?
3. Why do we prefer the night or a dark room for sleeping?

Besides the daily interest which it is hoped may be awakened by exercises of this character, the aggregate amount of useful information acquired from term to term and from year to year, is a matter of no inconsiderable importance. And it may be well here to remark, that when the importance of awakening to vigorous action the latent faculties of the child is appreciated, and its capacities for acquiring useful knowledge are rightly understood, a demand will exist for attainments in the teacher of children, such as the best human instrumentalities only can furnish.

Under the head of Narratives and Descriptions, the same general objects are kept in view as in the Primary Schools—namely, to cultivate habits of observation, together with the power of expression.

In a future number of the Journal, something may be said of other departments of our School System.

SANDUSKY, October, 1854.

M. F. C.

Phonography.

The subject that I have announced, is one of importance to every educator in our land. From the time when language was first reduced to writing until now, man has been racking his inventive genius to discover modes of shortening the methods of writing that he has at various times used.

To pass silently over the steps from the pictorial to the hieroglyphical representation of spoken language, and from that to the monosyllabic, and finally to the alphabetic, let us for a moment look and see if such efforts have not been constantly made, ever since the first establishment of the latter.

Instead of writing one, five, ten, fifty, or words equivalent thereto, I, V, X, L, were early resorted to as labor-saving abbreviations. But not satisfied with this, we have resorted to a still more brief method, by the general introduction of the Arabic system of notation.

The merchant writes Dr. for Debtor, Cr. for Creditor, Hhd. for Hogshead, Mdse. for Merchandise, and so on, through a long list. If we open any work “Table of Abbreviations" meets our science, a upon

eye.

Every where, from the plus sign of the mathematician to the formula of the chemist, we find the same practical acknowledgment that our

But man has not been will

mode of writing is quite too cumbersome. ing to stop with these abbreviations. For a long series of years he has been in search of some general method of writing, by means of which the now, tardy pen should keep pace with the lightning-like movements of the tongue.

After many, very many, unsuccessful efforts, (unsuccessful because unphilosophical), it has been accomplished. In 1837, Mr. Isaac Pitman, of Bath, England, brought out a system that meets this demand. It has been for so long a time before the public, that it is not necessary to say more about its principles, than that it consists of a philosophical representation of the elementary sounds of the language: the consonants being represented by right lines and curves, and the vowels by dots and dashes, and the diphthongs by combinations at once easily made and legible.

As a system of reporting, no one, probably, can be found who will question its value. While Dr. Dwight could dictate to two amanuenses, Napoleon to seven, and Lord Peterborough to nine: there is no one, I believe, who wishes to dictate to more than one phonographer at a time; and he finds his exact language recorded.

It is so legible, that, now, a lady in Cincinnati is writing out, from the unrevised manuscript of the reporter, a verbatim report of a recent debate, which occupied seven days, and which she did not hear.

But to the individual, it has more important uses than that of a system of reporting. It is now used by many, and may be by all, for keeping diaries and journals, for business and friendly correspondence, for book-keeping, for writing for the press, (limited only by the ability of the compositor to read phonographic manuscript,) for writing ser mons and lectures, and, in short, for every kind of writing in which the ordinary long hand is now employed.

the

While this is true, so far beyond doubt, that no one, who has given the subject even a slight examination, will call the fact in question, it does seem to me that there is a great responsibility resting upon educators of the present day, in respect to placing this great means of improvement in the hands of all who are now pursuing their school course. Permit me to ask each educator, whose eye may glance over this article, to look at the vast amount of labor it would have saved him, if, when he was receiving his school discipline, a pen had been placed in his hand that would have kept pace with his tongue, at least, if not with his mind.

Says Thomas Hart Benton, in reference to phonography, "had it

of

been known forty years ago, it would have saved me twenty years hard labor." In proportion to your age, can not you, fellow-teacher, say the same of yourself? If this system had been known in our schoolboy days, and those who had charge of our education had failed to urge it upon us as a necessary part of our school course, would we, today, feel that they had performed their duty as they should have done? I have been led to these remarks by a knowledge of the fact, that, while we are laboring to extend the blessings of a free education, that shall be "good enough for the richest, and cheap enough for the poorest," to every child in our land, only here and there is there a school in which this great means of self-improvement is placed within the reach of the pupils. The united testimony of all who have studied phonography is, that every one who has the capacity to learn to read and write the ordinary long hand, can, with more ease, learn to read and write phonography; and that so far from its being any detriment to their advancement in other branches, it aids them in mastering many of them. PLYMOUTH, October, 1854.

CHAS. S. ROYCE.

The first and most indispensable requisite in teaching morals, if we may be permitted to express an opinion, is a right example.

It requires no little courage to state this plain and simple proposition. One feels conscious they are meddling with edged tools; for a great practical truth is a two-edged sword, very apt to cut the fingers of those who handle it. What then? The world will revolve round the sun just the same, whether Galileo adheres to his principles, or denies them.

A right example, we suppose, should include at least the root and the branches. Some would insist that the whole idea presupposed a great deal more; as the entire idea of a tree includes life, objective form, growth, leaves, flowers and fruit; beauty, color, and all the corollaries, consequents and appendages of vegetable life. So of this right example; it may have many and multifarious graces, too numerous to mention, but it must have a root, because it must have life.

Children sometimes play "gardening," as they call it, putting down in the earth rootless branches of green and tying flowers upon them, and this is a pretty amusement enough-but no child is so credulous