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stitutes. The department including reading, elocution, declamation, grammar, rhetoric and composition, will be under the care of Mr. Russell; the mathematical department under Mr. Dana P. Colburn of the State Institutes, a graduate of Bridgewater Normal School, and for nearly three years a teacher in that seminary; the classical department, including the Greek and Latin languages, and the department of modern languages, including German, French and Italian, are expected to be under the charge of Mr. Krusi, son of the coadjutor of Pestalozzi of the same name, till whose arrival a temporary arrangement will if necessary be made; drawing as a branch of elementary education, will be under the direction of Mr. William J. Whitaker of the Boston School of Design; instrumental music, the pianoforte, under the charge of Mr. George L. Babcock, for several years a pupil of Azerney; vocal music under Geo. W. Pratt, M. A., instructor in the public schools of Boston and Roxbury; the French language in the female department-under Miss Anna U. Russell, for severel years a pupil of Mr. Charles Picot of Philadelphia, and subsequently Instructess in Merrimac Normal Institute; penmanship under Mr. Algernon S. Shattuck, teacher in Merrimac Normal Institute. The following, and other gentlemen, will give lectures on their respective subjects during a portion of the year; Prof. A. Guyot on geography; Prof. Samuel S. Greene on the analysis of language; Francis T. Russell, instructor in elocution, Trinity College, Hartford, on elocution; Calvin Cutter, M. D., on physiology; Prof. Wm. Russell on English literature, general history, logic and intellectual phylosophy, modes of education and methods of instruction. Other teachers and lecturers are also engaged, whose departments will be more fully mentioned in the prospectus of the Institute.

The academic year will consist of a summer and a winter term of twenty weeks each, at nearly equal intervals; the former commencing on the Second Monday of May, and the latter, on the Monday following Thanksgiving week in the State of Massachusetts. Tuition Fees will depend on the number of branches selected by students, individually. Board, on the terms assigned by families resident in the vicinity of the Institute.

Particulars regarding these matters, and the arrangements connected with the Model Schools may be ascertained, by letter, addressed to William Russell, Director N. E. Normal Institute, Lancaster, Mass.

The examinations of the Institute, and the conferring of Certificates, will be conducted under the supervision of a Board of Visitors, consisting of the following individuals :— Barnas Sears, D. D., Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of

Education; Edward A. Park, D. D., of Andover Theological Seminary; Hon. Horace Mann, M. C.; George B. Emerson, Esq., of Boston; Rev. Charles Packard, of Lancaster; Hon. Henry Barnard, State Superintendent of Schools, Conn.; Hon. E. R. Potter, State Superintendent of Schools, R. I.; Professor John S. Woodman, of Dartmouth College; Charles G. Burnham, formerly State Superintendent of Schools, Vermont; Hon. E. M. Thurston, formerly Secretary of the Board of Education, Maine.

For the Rhode Island Educational Magazine.

MANNERS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

In reading the proceedings of Educational Conventions, and also their printed lectures, nothing has struck me more forcibly than the almost entire omission of both speakers and writers, to notice the important question of manners. An experience of ten years as a member of the School Committee, and a reading of all books within my reach, on the subject of education, have seemed to make me know the deficiency of correct information, or rather, of any information respecting a topic so conducive to our enjoyment in daily intercourse with our fellow beings. While I have read, or heard lectures upon nearly every branch of school Instruction, I can call to mind two or three only, treating specially of manners. The most conspicuous of these lectures is that delivered by Mr. Thayer, of Boston, on Courtesy, several years since. A writer in the Massachusetts Teacher has, likewise, given a good article upon the same topic. If a call is made at a book store for some manual of manners no satisfactory book, until recently, could be found. If an effort is made to call attention to the introduction of a text book on this subject into public schools, the attempt is so coldly received, and so much indifference is expressed as to its being considered one of the necessary branches of education, that the mover becomes disheartened, and can only express his regret that while all are favorably impressed with good manners whenever met with, few admit the necessity of early training childhood in its paths. The writer can speak experimentally upon this sad fact, having endeavored to call attention to some remarks upon Manners, and being met with the inquiry as to the length of time they would occupy! All other lectures may be read at the writer's option, let the topic be hackneyed, but this subject is to be admitted by favor, if at all. This neglect should be remedied.

A book called the Manual of Manners, written by Miss Sedgwick is now published. At its first appearance a suggestion was made that a copy should be put into every school in Rhode Island to be used by the teacher in giving instruction by reading one para. graph every day and explaining it to the pupils. The benefit might not be confined to the schools. It is to be hoped that the plan may yet be carried out, and that our small State may be the first to train its children systematically by a daily lesson in good Manners. T.

THE BIBLE.

The following beautiful lines originally appeared in a small book, "My Early Days," published about twenty years ago. Whether the name, Walter Ferguson, affixed to it, is the real name of the author or not, we do not know. The whole story is very interesting, and is written in a very superior style. It should have a place, not only in every Sunday School Library, but in every family and private library.

A MOTHER'S GIFT.

Remember, love, who gave thee this,
When other days shall come;
When she, who had thy earliest kiss,
Sleeps in her narrow home.
Remember 't was a mother gave
The gift to one she'd die to save.

That mother sought a pledge of love
The holiest for her son;

And from the gifts of God above
She chose a goodly one.

She chose, for her beloved boy,

The source of light, of life, and joy.

And bade him keep the gift,-that, when
The parting hour would come,

They might have hope to meet again

In an eternal home.

She said his faith in that would be
Sweet incense to her memory.

And should the scoffer, in his pride,
Laugh that fond faith to scorn,
And bid him cast the pledge aside,
That he from youth had borne;
She bade him pause, and ask his breast,
If he, or she, had loved him best.

A parent's blessing on her son
Goes with this holy thing;
The love that would retain the one,
Must to the other cling.
Remember 't is no idle toy,

A mother's gift-Remember, boy!

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In another column of our present number will be found a very eloquent and impressive extract from the North British Review, on the moral and social influence of popular songs. It has suggested to our minds a few thoughts, to which, as well as to the extract itself, we beg the attention of our readers.

There is probably no branch of public instruction, that involves more of the social enjoyment, and the general amelioration of the manners and habits of a community than music, and it may be affirmed with equal trnth, that scarcely any branch has received, in our country, so little systematic attention. In no part of the United States, (so far as our information extends,) has vocal music been introduced, and liberally sustained as a permanent branch of instruction. That it has been taught in some schools, more or less systematically for a time, we all know. But no one will pretend that it has ever, in any place occupied the position, in the circle of popular science, which it occupies in several European countries.

In England, popular music has been for many years a prominent object of attention from the Committee of Council on Education. The great advantages which were seen to result in the manufacturing counties of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Norfolk, from the cultivation of old-song music, and from the formation of chord and harmonic societies, (especially to apprentices and operatives of various ranks,) were too obvious to escape observation, and when the inquiry was raised, why all

the countries and towns were not in the enjoyment of the same source of gratification and refinement, the cause was soon found to be the general neglect of the science as a regular branch in elementary schools. How much more general the indifference to the subject which prevails in the United States, we need not say.

In consequence of this neglect, we loose the opportunity to cultivate, by a most effective method, patriotic and ennobling sentiments, such as are breathed in the national songs and ballads of the old countries. Indeed there is no other so easy method of interweaving with the domestic sympathies and associations of humble life, the motives which animate industry, the sentiments of virtue and benevolence, and the traditions of events which, in popular estimation, gives strength and greatness to one's country. No one can estimate the extent to which the songs and marches, that are associated by title or otherwise with signal actions, or with the achievements of eminent statesmen or generals, contribute to popular confidence in national power and dignity. We do not include, of course, in commendatory remarks of this kind anything that ministers to corrupt, ambitious, or unchristian principles or practices, but simply those events which mark the progress of truth and right. The song entitled "Adams and Liberty, beginning*

Ye sons of Columbia who bravely have fought,

with the chorus

For ne'er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves,

While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves,

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has probably given birth, in its day, to more patriotic emotions, than any speech or volumn of speeches extant. The same remark may be made with equal force respecting the class of songs and ballads that breathe the purer spirit of peace and

love.

Americans have no national song, ballad or anthem. "Yankee doodle" is no exception to this remark, inasmuch as it owes its interest chiefly to local accociations, and is quite unworthy to be dignified as a national song. We have nothing to answer to the French Marseilles hymn, or the English "God save the King." If there is any one class of musical compositions, which can be said to have a national universality, it is that which is known as the "negro melodies ;" and probably no lower grade of metrical or poetical art was ever reached. What it is in these airs that takes so marvellously, we do not

*It is confidently asserted, that this song as well as Yankee Doodle owes its mu sic to a foreign pen, and a by gone age.

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