He promptly passes, takes his position at one extremity, puts down "No. 1" for his example, which is immediately read, repeats the example and proceeds to his business. A second is called, and taking his position next, writes "No. 2," repeats his question; and so on until the board is filled. As soon as any example is completed, the worker of it resumes his seat. By the time the last one for whom there is room has repeated his question, the first one should be ready for explanation, and is called upon not by name but by number. If incorrect, or very imperfectly explained while the work is correct, some hands are pretty sure to be raised, and another trial is given to the example. As soon as it is disposed of, the explainer erases it, and a new pupil proceeds to occupy the place, while a second explanation is going on.

The questions assigned are those which the author gives; but in review others are frequently selected, to see how well and promptly the principles can be applied in new cases. It is well if the pupils themselves can be induced to make questions under the rules. I believe they are almost always pleased with the idea of having new ones proposed. Not unfrequently when the consideration of a rule has been completed, the teacher should assign to the class some general question covering all the varieties they have been over, for them to think of, and answer at the commencement of the following recitation.

For the Journal of Education,

TEACHERS' SALARIES.

MESSRS. EDITORS: I noticed in an article of your selection from the New York Teacher, on "Teachers' Salaries," under topic 2d, the following observation: "If teachers would make money, they must be keepers at home."

I think I shall not disagree with a majority of teachers, in asserting my opinion that teachers should, out of their compensation, be able to deposit their "fifty dollars" in the "Savings' Bank," at the close of each term, and enjoy a pleasant recreation trip, even though it should chance to "benefit the railroad stockholders" and the "first class hotels." I cannot believe a teacher's occupation is so much inferior to that of a “bar-tender” or counting clerk, as to limit his salary to so meagre a pittance as to deprive him the enjoyment of a vacation visit with the loved ones of his, perchance, distant home, or a short excursion to restore vigor to his exhausted mental or physical organization, after a long and tedious application to hard labor in our (at present) ill-ventilated school-rooms.

But, setting aside these inducements, we believe it is a duty as well as a pleasure that a teacher should travel, in order to gain that general knowledge of persons, places and things, which can only be acquired by traveling; that

knowledge which "Geography and Bayard Taylor's travels " do not impart, nor the limited circle of his own little town afford.

We believe that a teacher should not only possess a knowledge of books, but of the social customs of at least his own nation; that his manners should be polished, and his actions refined; that he should be instructed in the calisthenics of the great school of life, and versed in its unwritten library, and not an artificial pedagogue, manufactured within the dim college walls, by some A. M. or A. B., and sent forth stereotyped to take his place in our public schools.

To be a popular teacher, in this progressive age, one must be constantly acquiring instruction. The scholar of fifty years ago is not prepared to take charge of a public school under the present system of teaching. The demand is for the scholar of to-day to fill the teachers place, and if talent and culture are desirable qualifications, why not compensate these, as well as the ability to measure tape or wield the tools of the mechanic? Is it because the mind is of inferior value, that those employed in its culture must be limited to wages barely sufficient to satisfy the necessities of the present? or should the salaries be increased in proportion to the exertion requisite to fill their places with honor, as instructors of mind? If the latter, then it should be unnecessary for them to be "keepers at home, to enable them to make the last few years of their lives comfortable."

And now, teachers, you who, like myself, love to travel, do not hesitate to deposit your "fifty dollars" in your pocket, and, when it is time, invest such a portion of it as is necessary in "railroad tickets," and enjoy a pleasant vacation trip; and, step aside with me while I whisper in your ear, strike for higher wages when you get home, and see if there is any preference for the teacher who travels. A TEACHER.

EDUCATION OF THE AGRICULTURALIST.-No man is so high as to be independent of the success of this great interest; no man is so low as not to be affected by its prosperity or decline. Agriculture feeds us; to a great degree it clothes us; without it we could not have manufactures, and we should not have commerce. These all stand together, but they stand together like pillars in a cluster, the largest in the middle, and that largest is agriculture. We live in a country of small farms and free-hold tenements; a country in which men cultivate with their own hands their own fee-simple acres, drawing not only their subsistence, but also their spirit of independence and manly freedom from the ground they plow. They are at once its owners, its cultivators, and its defenders. The cultivation of the earth is the most important labour of men. Man may be civilized in some degree, without great progress in manufactures, and with little commerce with his distant neighbors; but without cultivation of the earth, he is, in all countries, a savage.-Daniel Webster.

For the Journal of Education.

THE VALUE OF A GOOD SCHOOL-HOUSE.

UNBER ONE.

A MAN of wisdom has said, "The price of wisdom is far above rubies." By wisdom, we are to understand all that pertains to man's physical, mental and moral well-being: health, intelligence, refinement and virtue. These are the sources of individual, and, consequently, of national prosperity. All that contributes to the advancement of these is priceless. Who will presume to deny that a well-located, well-constructed school-house is a powerful auxiliary in this advancement? Assuming such to be the case without argument, let us notice its value, pecuniary, political, social and moral.

A good school-house costs money, but in the end it saves money. Every true economist sees its real value. There is a false economy abroad in the world, which leaves a dollar in the pocket to-day but to return and take two to-morrow. It is the economy of the man who runs a mile to catch a horse that he may ride half a mile; of the man who attends Auctions to buy old furniture, which he must pay the same auctioneer for selling. This kind of economy is far too prevalant. Many a school-house requires the presence of the mechanic nearly as many months in a year as of the teacher. "Who cares for the old school-house," has cost many a district more money in ten years than would have sufficed for the erection of a good school-building.

If he who saves a penny, even at the expense of a penny earned, is a gainer, how much more is this the case when the penny saved secures the two pence earned. A good school-edifice is a point of attraction to all intelligent, industrious and wealth-producing immigrants; while, at the same time, it repels all that feed upon the ignorance and vice of their neighbors. It stands a lasting and unmistakable monument to the intelligence and refinement of the people, and impresses upon the minds of the sturdy sons of toil, the very back-bone of our prosperity, who are seeking a home, the idea of permanence, and promises them all the needed comforts of a real home.

This source of pecuniary benefit, flowing from a good school-house, is by no means the most important. It is worthless when compared with even the pecuniary advantages resulting from health, intelligence and virtue. Labor is the source of wealth. Without health there can be no labor. Intelligence leads to a wise and skillful use of tools, and increases the profits of labor. It is known by all that compensation is in exact ratio to skill employed. It is a matter of observation in some of our largest manufacVOL. IL. 10

turing establishments, that the well-educated artisan, with an equal degree of physical strength, earns more than his less intelligent fellow. It is no part of my present purpose to show why this is so; all admit its truth. Health and intelligence produce-virtue saves wealth. That wealth flows from a good school-house, through these channels, has been assumed. Before discussing the question more fully, let us for a moment go to the past. Many of my readers can recall the "old school-house" as it stood, unenclosed, unshaded, unpainted, unventilated. And yet it was the most attractive object in the neighborhood of sand and lime, or mud and musquetoes. Its dimensions seemed to have been taken from the solid contents of those who were to occupy it. There we sat, with feet pendent from the edge of a plank, backs curved for their own support, and eyes watching the nervous movements of the teacher, rendered hourly more nervous and petulant for want of pure air. Can we not recall the unbidden yawn, the languid restlessness, the dull headache, arising from the absence of life giving oxygen? Now tell me, are such circumstances conducive to health? Can such surroundings create a relish for study or love for books, without which there can be little progress? Is the constant inducement to truancy an aid to virtue? I do not say that these channels of wealth already alluded to may not be constructed in a poor school-house, but I do say that the house itself will not aid in their construction. If constructed, then, it will be in spite of the house. Nor can any one deny that a good school-house is a very powerful auxiliary in the work.

In my next, I will allude to the political, and, perhaps, the social value of a good house.

"Resolved, That under the present organization of society, every young person ought to learn a trade."

THE idea conveyed by this resolution is this: a moral obligation rests upon every young person to learn a trade. It follows, as a matter of course, that the same kind of obligation rests upon parents and guardians to open the way for those persons under their care to do so.

The notion which prevails so generally in fashionable society, and which tinctures and tarnishes the sentiments of almost every young person in all sorts of society-that an apprentice is one grade beneath a clerk, or a student; and that a young woman who is supporting herself by making bonnets or vests, is not worthy to associate with a miserable shirk who does

nothing is so absolutely absurd and contemptible, that one scarcely feels like stooping to combat it. It is one of those abstract volatile ideas which can never be reduced to a developed tangible form, and brought into fighting shape. This false sentiment, I suppose, had its origin in a three-fold cause. The first, and the one which will be found altogether the most difficult to remove, is laziness. If humanity could be once made to see how inconceivably mean it is to be lazy, one great difficulty would be removed. The second cause is the fact that mechanical men, as a class, have been poorly educated. The third cause is another fact, namely, the idea which has prevailed among these persons, that they, as individuals, have no great moral and political obligations, and no duties in the field of literature, and that if they do their work well, and enough of it, their part in the life drama is well acted. Farmers, mechanics, and other laborers, are rapidly rising in this respect. The extreme of folly regarding the superior respectability of one useful calling over another, is passing from the public mind, and let us beware that in sailing clear of the rocks of Scylla we do not founder our barque upon the no less rugged shores of Charybdis. The Son of Joseph wrought at the carpenter's bench, probably nailed shingles and cased windows; Roger Sherman made leather shoes and boots, and Elihu Burritt made nails and shod horses. It is dignified, it is noble, it is man-like, it is God-like, to work. But there must be men for other business than working with the hands at what are termed trades. We need ship carpenters, but of what use would ships be without sailors. We want men to build railroads, but we must have men to conduct commerce, or railroads would be of comparatively little use. We must have men to teach school and to preach the gospel. Until that happy era is ushered in when "men shall be ashamed of the headache," we shall need physicians; and until all learn to "deal justly and love mercy," we shall be obliged to have lawyers, and he who fills well either of these offices must fit himself for it by more severe discipline and by more years of patient study, than would be required to make a good mechanic. Merchants are not all cheats-lawyers are not all liars-ministers are not all hypocrites-and school teachers are not all tyrants. What we need is not that every man should be a mechanic, but that every one should be good and useful. While I would have the labors and duties of the mechanic or tradesman "magnified and made honorable," I would just as highly honor the man or woman who, with patient industry, fills some other niche in the wide world of usefulness. I would, by all means, have every young person qualified in some way to earn his daily bread. I wish with all my heart it were utterly impossible for any person possessed of the requisite physical strength for earning his livelihood, to obtain it in any other way. But if you could oblige a young man to learn the blacksmith's trade, you could not oblige him to love the business, and if he were really lazy, you would not thus make him industrious. I know that professional men need exercise for physical development, but it does not follow that they must all learn the shoemaker's trade, any more than it follows that all shoemakers must study law for the sake of intellect