you are, you'm

Umbrella, rumberil wreck, rack

There is a pronunciation of the diphthongs ou and ow, in such words as cow, about, &c., common in the southeast part of Connecticut, and in some parts of this State, which it is almost impossible to represent with letters, but which should be avoided.

The word parent, and similar words, are often mispronounced, giving the a the sound of a in fate. This is contrary to Webster, Worcester, Russell, and the practice of the most correct speakers. It has been caused by a misunderstanding of Walker's notation. We shall probably resume this subject hereafter.

A GOOD SCHOOLMASTER.

The following excellent story is told of a New York school

master:

I heard one of your committees interfering with a vengeance, and turning out a school master for committing enormities in the way of illustrating lessons. It appears that he had enlisted the feelings of his pupils in Natural Philosophy, but was told to do the teaching and leave the nonsense. But nothing daunted, he got some apparatus himself, and told the boys if they would bring him a mouse or two the next day, he would

show the effects of nitrogen gas upon them. The next day came the committee to reprove him, because, forsooth, the boys in the eagerness to learn, had been up all night trying to catch mice for their master, and disturbed the house! He promised to do better, but when he came to Astronomy, he committed a more atrocious crime, for, being deficient of an orrery, he took a boy in the school and placing him as the sun, told him how to turn slowly upon his axis as the sun did; then he placed a little fellow for Mercury; next to him, a girl, for Venus then a representation of the Earth, then a fiery little fellow for Mars, and so on, till he got all the planetary system arranged, and explained to each one how fast he was to turn on his heel as it went round the orbit.

Then giving the signal, the Sun commenced revolving, and away went the whole team of planets round him, each boy keeping in his proper distance from the centre, trotting with proper velocity in his orbit, and whirling round in due proportion as he performed his revolutions. It must have been a rare sight, and a lesson which the boys retained; for do you think, my dear sir, that John, who represented Mercury, would ever forget that he had an easy time walking round the lubber in the centre, while Will, who personated Herschel, must have have been out of breath in scampering round his orbit.

But if the boys did not forget the lesson, neither did the master; they danced, but he paid the piper; for horrified, the committee then dismissed him at once he had been teaching, for ought they knew, the dance of the Turkish dervishes.

ABOU BEN ADHEM AND THE ANGEL.-LEIGH Hunt.
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room
Making it rich and like a lily in bloom,
An angel, writing in a book of gold;

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold;

And to the presence in the room he said,

"What writest thou?" The vision raised his head,

And with a look made all of sweet accord,

Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men."
The angel wrote and vanished. The next night
It came again, with great awakening light,

And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.

HINTS TO TEACHERS.

We commence in this number the republication from Mr. Barnard's Report of the outline of the exercises of the Institute held at Wolcotville, Ct. Sept. 30, 1850. It was prepared at the request of the Institute, by Rev. Thomas K. Beecher, and contains many valuable suggestions. We shall continue it in the next number.

OUTLINE OF SUBJECTS AND EXERCISES.

The spirit of the request, made by the members of the Institute, that an outline of the proceedings be printed, for future reference, demands that the matters be arranged topically, rather than according to the accidental order in which they were discussed.

It should be borne in mind, that the following pages are not offered as a treatise upon teaching. They are prepared for the use of those teachers who were present as members of the Institute, and are designed to preserve in a condensed form, principles and trains of thought, which were there presented and fully illustrated.

Among the most important of these principles, the following were stated as fundamental and properly introductory.

Knowledge being of two kinds; arbitrary, as names, use of words, notation, dates, &c., and inferential, as the successive unfoldings of any pure science, it follows:

I. Absolute or arbitrary facts should be freely and frequently told to the scholar, as arbitrary, and therefore to be learned without question or attempt to reason.

II. Inferred facts and principles deducible from previous knowledge, should be taught with and by their connections and in their various relations. They should spring up in the mind of the learner, and not be merely transplanted thither from a book or a teacher's mind.

Again the mind of childhood is living and active, possessing its likes and dislikes, its hungerings and loathings. Teaching is truly a feeling of the mind. Hence:

III. The attempt to teach without first exciting, or at least seeking for an appetite on the part of the learner, is unwise, and in most cases ensures its own defeat.

Again: Since we recognize in every child a triple organization, embracing the physical, the intellectual and the moral natures; and since true education covers all three departments, Hence :

IV. To cultivate any one part or power of childhood, at the expense of, or the neglect of other parts of his nature,