preparation for the felicities and employments of the world to come. Such a noble object can only be obtained by impressing such views on the minds of the rising teachers, and training them up to habits of universal benevolence and of Christian piety and devotion, that, in their turn, they may communicate the same habits, feelings, and affections, to young immortals over whose instructions they may be afterwards called to preside.

Every candidate for the office of schoolmaster, previous to being received into such a college or seminary, should be strictly examined as to his mental powers and natural capacity for acquiring and communicating knowledge, his moral principles and conduct, and his leading motives and aims in wishing to devote himself to the office of an instructor. It should be understood that he has previously acquired the elements of a common education-can read his native language with some degree of correctness, can write a tolerably good hand, and has acquired a knowledge of the leading rules of arithmetic. For it would be inexpedient to spend much time in such elementary instruction, except in the higher departments of arithmetic, and in demonstrating its fundamental rules. No candidate should be under eighteen or above thirty years of age. From eighteen to twentyfour would, perhaps, be the most eligible period for admission. The course should continue at least three years; and if the student can afford the time and expense, it may be expedient to extend it to four years. About eight or nine hours every day might be employed in public and private studies-and ten months every year, allowing a vacation of a month about midsummer, and another of the same length about Christmas. During the period now specified, under the direction of zealous and enlightened professors, a far greater portion of substantial and practical knowledge might be accumulated than is generally acquired at our universities, in a course of instruction extending to more than eight years. Examinations should take place, at least once a-week, to ascertain the progress made by every student, and the degree of attention he bestows on the several branches of study. After having passed through the usual course of instruction, a more minute and extensive examination should be appointed of all the candidates for the office of schoolmaster, on all the branches of instruction, both theoretical and practical, to which their attention had been directed. Those who are approved should re ceive a certificate, or license, signed by all the professors, speci fying the progress they have made, and their qualifications for the art of teaching-which certificate should be considered as a sufficient guarantee to secure their admission as teachers into any

vacant schools for which they may apply. Those who are found deficient in qualifications may be recommended to remain another year, or other period, to revise their studies. The teachers who

had been inducted into office, previous to the arrangements now supposed, should be enjoined, or at least requested, to attend two months every year at the Preceptoral College for three or four years in succession, in order to finish their education in all those branches which are considered as necessary for an accomplished instructor.

The proper training of teachers lies at the very foundation of a moral and intellectual system of education; and no class of men but those whose minds are furnished with a large stock of general knowledge are capable of carrying it into effect. It may be laid down as a general principle, that no man can communicate to others knowledge of which he himself is not possessed; and consequently, whatever knowledge it may be judged necessary to impart to the great mass of society, must previously exist in the minds of those who are appointed to instruct them. Even the lowest class of schools, such as infant schools, and the details of primary instruction, require men of general knowledge as superintendents and teachers. For it requires more care and attention, more experience and sagacity, and a more intimate acquaintance with the principles of human nature, to direct the opening intellect in its first excursions in the path of knowledge, than to impart to it instructions respecting any particular science in after-life. An infant-school teacher, for example, should be intimately acquainted with the facts of sacred history, with general history, with physical and geometrical science, with the phenomena of nature, and the processes of the arts, with human nature in its different aspects, and with the scenes of domestic life. For, it is from these sources that he is to derive those facts, exhibitions, descriptions, and illustrations, which are requisite to excite the attention, to interest the affections, and to gratify the curiosity of the infant mind. He must tell them stories borrowed from sacred and civil history-he must describe the appearances of naturehe must perform entertaining experiments-he must tell them of other countries, and the manners of their inhabitants-he must describe the conduct of bad children and of good, and have a story at hand to illustrate his descriptions. He must vary all his descriptions, experiments, and anecdotes, as much as possible, so that new scenes and subjects may be gradually opening on their view, to prevent that satiety which a frequent repetition of the same topics would necessarily produce. It is evident, then, that

no one but a person possessed of extensive knowledge is qualified fully to accomplish such objects.

It is an egregious mistake to imagine, that the knowledge of a plan of teaching, or of the mere routine of a system of education, is all that is requisite for conducting the instruction of children. This is an error which of late has been too frequently acted upon, and which threatens to strike at the foundation of many of our infant schools. A young man, or a young lady, who has acquired only the elements of a common education, and who has never been in the practice of teaching in any seminary, is sent for six weeks to an infant school, to learn the system, and to witness its movements; after which, they are considered as properly qualified, and inducted as superintendents of infant seminaries, without much attention being paid to the range of information they possess. I am aware, indeed, that several worthy persons of this description have conducted these institutions with considerable energy and success, especially when they entered with vigour into the spirit of their office, and felt ardent desires for their own further improvement. But it would be dangerous to the existence and utility of such institutions to recognise such a practice as a general rule,-although in their first establishment, necessity compelled their patrons to select as teachers, pious and discreet persons, however deficient in general information. For the reasons hinted at above, I am clearly of opinion, that an infant school teacher should be instructed in all the branches of knowledge to which I have already referred as requisite for other instructors; and on this ground chiefly I rest my hopes of the permanency and efficiency of the system of infant training which has been lately introduced. In short, if the world is ever to be thoroughly enlightened and regenerated-if men of all nations and of all ranks are to be raised to the dignity of their moral and intellectual natures, and fitted for "glory and immortality," it is essentially requisite that teachers of every description, whether superintending infant, parochial, or Sabbath schools, or any other seminaries, be men of decided piety, of the highest moral attainments, and possessed of as large a measure of useful knowledge as mortals can acquire. And, although we may not be able to procure persons endowed with such high qualifications for another generation or two, yet nothing short of such an ele vated standard should be ultimately kept in view. Such charac ters, of course, would occupy a rank and station in society far more respectable and elevated than they have ever yet attained, and be looked up to as the directors of the intellectual and moral faculties, and the best friends and benefactors of the human race.

Four preceptoral colleges, at least, would require to be estab lished in Scotland, and about six times that number in England, for the training of teachers. Much expense would not be requisite in their erection, excepting what behoved to be laid out in the purchase of a library, a museum, and a philosophical apparatus ; which articles would be indispensable in such a seminary, and the more extensive the better. In the meantime, as a temporary expedient, arrangements might be made for establishing such a system of instruction in the different universities and colleges which already exist; as the same class-rooms presently used for the different departments of academical instruction, might, without much inconvenience, at separate hours, be devoted to the system of instruction now proposed. The principal country in which such seminaries have yet been established, is the Kingdom of Prussia, where they are designated by the name of Normal Schools. In 1831 there were thirty-three of these schools in full operation, containing from 40 to 100 pupils; that is one Normal school for every 385,660 souls; the population of Prussia according to the latest census, being 12,726,823. From these seminaries are furnished almost all the masters of the public schools, elementary and intermediate, in the kingdom. The annual expense of these establishments is 110,553 thalers, or £16,583, of which the state contributes £13,260. M. Victor Cousin, in his voluminous and somewhat tedious "Report on the state of public instruction in Prussia," states a variety of minute details in reference to the economy and regulations of these schools, but affords us no clear idea of the manner in which the different branches of knowledge are taught to those who are intended to be the future teachers of primary and burghal schools. Although these institutions are, doubtless, the most respectable and efficient that have hitherto been established in any country, yet the range of instruction is not so extensive as that to which I have alluded, nor is the office of a teacher placed in that elevated rank which it ought to hold in society. Teachers in Prussia are still considered as belonging to a grade inferior to that of ministers of the gospel, and are placed partly under their superintendence. But if teachers were once endowed with all the knowledge and qualifications to which I have adverted, they ought to be regarded as moving in a station equal to that of the most dignified clergyman.

CHAPTER XI.

On the Practicability of Establishing Seminaries for Intellectual Education.

To any new proposals for the improvement of society, however just or rational, numerous objections from different quarters are generally started. Difficulties are magnified into impossibilities, and a thousand prejudices are mustered up against innovations on established practices, and in favour of existing institutions. In attempting to establish such seminaries as now proposed, the most formidable objection would be founded on the difficulty of obtaining pecuniary resources adequate to their erection and endowment; and, it is frankly admitted, that a very large sum of money, reckoned not by thousands, but by millions of pounds, would be requisite for their establishment and support. A rude idea of the requisite expenditure will perhaps be conveyed by the following statements.

It may be assumed as a fact, that the number of children in any State, from the age of two to the age of fifteen years, is about. one-third of the whole population; at least this proportion cannot be materially different from the truth. We find that in the States of Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut, North America, there is one out of every four of the population attending a seminary of instruction. In the State of New York, the proportion of pupils to the whole population is as 1 to 3.9, a greater proportion than is to be found in any other country of the civilized world. The ages of the children attending these schools is, in all probability, from four or five to fifteen or sixteen years; for I presume that the children attending infant schools are not included in this enumeration. But although they were, it is well known that infant schools have not yet been multiplied to such an extent as to furnish instruction for one-fifth of the children who would require to attend these institutions. We may therefore fix on one-third as the proportion of the population that requires to be instructed at infant schools, and the higher seminaries of education. This position being assumed, the number of schools required in any city or country may be at once determined. Suppose, for example, we fix on a town of a medium size, such as Dundee, we can easily ascertain the number of seminaries requisite for the instruction of its juvenile inhabitants. The population of Dundee is about 48,000; the one-third of which is 16,000, or the number of individuals that require instruction. Suppose 80 scholars, at an average, to attend each school, there would require to be no