who perform bodily and visible labor. Indeed, the labor of the mind exceeds, in national importance and usefulness, the mere drudgery of muscle and of physical force. To the mental services of professors of every class, the inhabitants of the earth owe an extent of gratitude which can never be sufficiently acknowledged. From the ancients and their successors, modern civilization has derived the fruits of both accumulated labor and wisdom. Nor is the apparent leisure of many of the most intellectual occupations to be. despised. Unfortu nately, the ignorant do not appreciate mental labor, and though the midnight student, wasting in power, like the flickering light of his lamp, may be developing the hidden treasures of nature, art or science, and preparing for the beneficial and active exercise of some new industry, his toils are often unrewarded, and, with Butler, the eulogy of the monumental stone, becomes his portion, instead of the bread which he needed." But the educator labors under other disadvantages. He finds great difficulty in augmenting the stock of his intellectual acquisitions. Now this to some persons may appear very strange, but so it is. There is no man, no matter what his occupation, business or profession, if he have any leisure at all, who is not in a more favorable position to make intellectual progress than the schoolmaster. The reason is plain. A man of business who is engaged all day in his warehouse, or superintending his workmen, or transacting commercial affairs, when he returns home in the evening finds it a positive relief to take up a book or a subject of study, because in so doing he brings into play a set of faculties which were dormant during the day. This is the reason why so many merchants and other men of business have been distinguished for their attainments in literature and science. But when the schoolmaster has finished his day's work, if he takes up a book, he calls into action only faculties already jaded by the labors of the day. The wonder should be, therefore, that they have done so much, rather than that they have done so little. But, however this may be, you perform a work without which society could not hold well together-you expend your energies in improving others rather than in accomplishing yourselves-you have the priceless satisfaction of your own consciences that you do the work which is given you to do, and this is a reward which finally is the greatest we can obtain. Yours is a great work if you will only so regard it : "All the means of action The shapeless masses, the materials- NEW EDUCATIONAL MUSEUM.-The Privy Council, Education Department, have arranged to open the new Educational Museum, at the New Buildings, South Kensington, in the Spring. The museum will exhibit, under a proper classification, all important books, diagrams, illustrations, and apparatus connected with education already in use, or which may be published from time to time, either at home or abroad. The producers of apparatus, books, diagrams, maps, &c., used in teaching, will have the privilege, subject to certain regulations, of placing their publications and productions in the museum, thus making them known to the public; and we understand that a unanimous desire to assist has been expressed by all the great educational societies and publishers. A catalogue will be prepared which will contain the price lists which exhibitors may furnish for insertion. The books and objects will be grouped under the following divisions:-1. School buildings and fittings, forms, desks, slates, plans, models, &c. 2. General education, including reading, writing, grammar, arithmetic, mathematics, foreign languages, histories. 3. Drawing and the Fine Arts. 4. Music. 5. Household Economy. 6. Geography and Astronomy. 7. Natural History. 8. Chemistry. 9. Physics. 10. Mechanics. 11. Apparatus for teaching the blind and the deaf and ECONOMIC LIBRARY.-The following announcement is copied from the Journal of the Society of Arts, for January 22d, 1857. It is desired to form, in the Library of the Society of Arts, a special collection of English and Foreign publications, relating to the condition of the working classes, and the means of improving it. This collection will particularly include the programme and annual reports of the various Provident and Benevolent Institutions in the metropolis and the provinces, and other minor publications, which are frequently required for reference by persons practically engaged in promoting the improvement of the physical and social condition of the people; but which, from their inconspicuous appearance, are not generally classed among the available contents of a public library. As the plan can only be carried out to full advantage by extensive coöperation, persons who can supply or obtain through their friends publications or documents of the nature pointed out in the following summary, are invited to forward them to the Secretary. N. B. The following indications are not to be considered as exclusive. Other subjects will suggest themselves by analogy. I. Programmes, Regulations, Annual Reports, &c., showing the organization of, and the results obtained by the various Institutions established for the benefit of the industrious classes, such as model dwellings, dormitories, sailors' and servants' homes, baths and wash-houses, soup kitchens, working men's coffee rooms, Fourneaux' Economiques, dispensaries, hospitals, asylums, eleemosynary institutions, reformatories, schools for the blind, deaf and dumb, creches, or public nurseries and infant schools, ragged schools, industrial schools, evening classes, mechanics' institutions of every kind, village libraries, clothing and provision societies, friendly societies and benefit clubs, savings' banks, and pawn houses, (Monts de Piete,) trades' associations, land and building societies, allotment societies, societies for the protection and guidance of emigrants, societies for the patronage of apprentices. As it is the evident interest of the foregoing institutions to become more extensively known, it is hoped that their Secretaries will be disposed to favor the Society of Arts with their respective papers. II. Publications and documents relating to the domestic economy of the working classes, including building designs and materials, fittings, furniture and household utensils, clothing, food, its production, commercial supply, preparation, adulteration, &c,; fuel, and other domestic requisites. III. Publications and documents relating to various departments of sanitary economy, such as drainage, sewerage, water supply, ventilation, removal of nuisances, prevention of casualties by inundations, shipwreck, fire, &c.; protection against the effects of hot, cold, dry, damp or changeable climates; prevention or relief of the accidents, injuries, and diseases which attach to many handicraft occupations; organization of medical assistance. IV. Essays and other publications relating to the social condition of the industrious classes; the relations of employer and employed; the organization of labor, &c. V. Acts of Parliament, official reports, statistical returns &c., bearing on the before-mentioned subjects. VI. Manuals and hand books for special classes or trades. VII. Publications describing or illustrating the condition of the working classes in the colonies or in foreign countries. VIII. Periodicals intended for the use of the working population or their friends. - Further indications will be found in a printed list of papers already presented to the Society of Arts, of which copies may be had on application to the Secretary. In absence of the publications themselves, particulars of them, and of the address where they may be obtained will be thankfully received. It is contemplated to form a classified list of all that has appeared in print within these last five or six years, of a nature to interest the friends of the working classes, and to continue this catalogue from year to year. It was agreed at the International Congress lately held at Brussels, that each country should forward such a list once or twice a year to a central committee at that place, in order that the whole might be published as an International Bulletin. [Individuals or Societies in the United States, can avail themselves of the facilities offered by the Smithsonian Institution, to forward Reports without charge to themselves or to the recipients.-ED.] IRELAND. NATIONAL EDUCATION.-The Commissioners of National Education for 1855, state : "That at the close of the year 1854, they had in operation 5,178 schools, attended by 556,551 children; and at the end of 1855, they had only 5,124 schools, with 538,246 pupils, showing a decrease of 54 schools, and of 18,305 scholars. The decrease in workhouse schools, amounting to 10,450 scholars, is included, of course, in the grand total mentioned. The number of schools struck off the list, during the year 1855, is reported at 209, to which must be added 23 in the 'suspended list, making a total of 232 suspended and abolished schools. In a subsequent passage the commissioners report the addition of 154 schools to their list, during 1855, and among the patrons of these new schools there are 34 Protestants, lay and clerical, and 96 Roman Catholics, ditto. The amount of salaries, gratuities, &c., paid to teachers, monitors, assistants, &c., was 105,0431. 3s. 11d., being an increase of 10,9521. 7s. 6d. over the expenditure of 1854, in this department; the total sum paid to 452 monitors, of whom two-thirds are males and the remainder females, being 1,8967. 158. The amount expended in premiums for cleanliness and good order during the year 1855, was 9381., being 13 graduated premiums of 221. 108. in each of the educational districts into which the country has been divided. During the year 288 national teachers-viz., 201 men and 87 women-have been trained at the model institution in Dublin, besides 39 teachers not connected with national schools. Of the 288 teachers above mentioned, there were 18 belonging to the established church, 41 Presbyterians, 2 connected with another dissenting denomination, and 227 Roman Catholics. At the close of 1855, there were 139 workhouse schools in connection with the National Board, leaving in all Ireland only 24 workhouse schools not connected with the national system. In the Agricultural Department, the number of model schools, either in operation or in course of erection, at the end of 1855, was 37, while of ordinary agricultural schools there were, 46; of workhouse agricultural schools, 79; of school gardens, 3; -making a total of 165, and showing an increase on the year upon all these classes of 10.' The entire outlay, 'exclusive of the cost of buildings,' amounts to 7,000l., for the agricultural instruction of 3,500 pupils and teachers.'" GERMANY. Correspondence of Dr. Hermann Wimmer. WE are happy to announce that our friend, Dr. Hermann Wimmer, of Borna, near Leipsic, will hereafter be a regular correspondent and contributor to our Journal, and particularly in all that relates to the current educational literature and movements of Germany. Dr. Wimmer is personally known to many of our readers, as an accomplished classical teacher, and by his work on "Education and Religion in the United States," published in Leipsic in 1853. He was educated in the gymnasium and university of Leipsic; trained for a classical teacher in the philological seminary of Hermann and Klotz,-was for several years professor in Blochmann College at Dresden,-has fitted young men for the university of Berlin and of Oxford, as private tutor, and taught with great success for a short period in one of our New England colleges. As an observer he has visited schools of every grade in the United States, England, and France, as well as in different parts of Germany, and he keeps himself familiar with the pedagogical literature of the day. We regard the voluntary proffer of his services as correspondent, as a most valuable addition to our list of contributors. LETTER FROM DR. WIMMER. BORNA, SAXONY, Dec. 21, 1856. First of all, let me congratulate you on the assurance which the numbers already issued, of your American Journal of Education, give of the valuable contributions which will be made to the educational literature of not only your own language, but of the world. I know too well your practical energy in administration, and your knowledge of every department of this great field, to anticipate any sudden exhaustion of materials, or narrow discussion of the great and varied subjects which are presented in the past history and present condition of education in its broadest acceptation in different countries. And you will see that all these facts, gathered from so many sources, and the speculations of so many minds, go to secure the progress already made in your own land, and lead your legislators and teachers to gain still nobler heights. As an evidence that the schoolmaster is thought of some importance here, I will mention that a late number of our Illustrated News contained a portrait of Dr. Charles Vogel, the principal of the Real School, and the Burgher School of Leipsic, with a sketch of his merits as a pedagogical writer. It was really refreshing to meet with the intellectual face of an able schoolmaster, after all the pompous representations of princes, bishops, and chamberlains. The honor was well deserved by Dr. Vogel, who has also just received from the Emperor of Austria the gold medal for science and art, for his geographical text-books, and a diamond ring from the king of Saxony, for his oil maps. The merits of his school have been made known to the American public, by the reports of Mr. Mann, and of Prof. Bache, but your teachers may not know that he has applied his strong intellect to make school-books, which are at once scientific and minutely accurate, and yet clear and interesting to children. His School Atlas of Geography is illustrated by marginal designs, in which the characteristics of the population, as well as of the vegetable and animal peculiarities of every country-in other words, the history of man and nature-are given in sharp outlines, so as to make geography the centre to which many rays of knowledge converge. This Atlas is accompanied, for the use of pupils not No. 8-Vol. III, No. 1.]—18. acquainted with natural history, by "Naturbilder," (Pictures of Nature,) of which Humboldt wrote to the author: "You have solved a difficult problem; you have written a book entertaining, and with all its great variety of matter entirely correct." To facilitate the drawing of maps, Dr. Vogel has published "Netzatlas," (nets for drawing maps,) on oil paper, printed with oil colors, so that maps drawn with chalk, or green color, in case of failure, are easily wiped off with a sponge. This was lately followed by his " Wand-atlas," (for the wall,) of the same kind, to be used for class instruction. Both of these aids to teachers and pupils would prove useful in your schools, where map-drawing is much resorted to. Geography has received much attention in American schools-many of which, even in country districts, I found far advanced beyond schools of the same grade in Europe. But is it not taught too much as a matter of memory? Except Woodbridge's Geography, not one of those commonly used in schools which I examined in 1851, seemed to recognize the theoretical progress and the scientific development of this branch of knowledge which was begun by Ritter, and continued by Humboldt, Raumer, and Vogel. There was far too much political speculation and statistical dust, and not enough of the physical substratum or condition of the country and the population. Having recently returned from England, I am happy to say, that, in spite of the rejection, or withdrawal by himself, of Lord John Russell's conciliatory resolutions on National Education, there is a steady progress of public opinion in favor of a better system and more efficient agencies of public education. The parliamentary grant of £451,231, (over $2,000,000,) is an evidence of this. Dr. Adolphus Diesterweg of Berlin, that great pedagogue of old reputation, the editor of the Rheinische Blätter, for twenty-five years, formerly principal of a Normal School, and whom you saw in a green old age in Berlin in 1854, has just published his "Pedagogical Almanac" for 1857. He must have many friends in America on account of his liberal views, and his partiality for the institutions of your country. Charles Justus Blochman, the well-known principal of the College in Dresden, which you visited, the disciple of Pestalozzi, and teacher in his school at Yverden from 1809 to 1817, died and was buried near Geneva last year. The Pestalozzian Foundation in Dresden for the orphan children of teachers, established by the disciples and admirers of Pestalozzi, on the centenary anniversary of his birth-day, supports 21 boys and 120 girls, and has an annual income of 3796 thalers. Prince Schoenberg has established a Normal School for female teachers in Saxony-who have not been heretofore admitted to these seminaries. In truth females are not employed in village or country schools, either as principals or assistants, to any considerable extent. The establishment of female Normal Schools in Belgium, as part of the system of public instruction, is an important step in the right direction in European education. Be pleased to receive this communication with an account of the progress of Real Schools, and the latest educational statistics of Austria, as evidence of my interest in your editorial labors, and I will by next post send you the titles of several of our best Pedagogical Journals, Year Books, and Manuals, which may be of use to some of your readers, together with the lastest educational statistics of Prussia, Saxony, &c. Most respectfully, your ob't servant and friend, HERMANN WIMMER. |