struction and discipline. Thirty years ago or more, Horace Mann delivered in every county in the State an eloquent address on the proposition, "Special preparation is a pre-requisite to teaching." He set in a clear light the frightful waste of time and money in our schools for want of such preparation. But he found everywhere opponents who told him that the teacher was born, not made; that skill in teachhing was a gift that came by nature; that it was an art which was incapable of being imparted by any process of training. But, happily for us, a great change has taken place in this respect. There is now a tolerably general agreement among us about the necessity of special professional training as a means of fitting teachers for their important and difficult duties. Nor is there any great difference of opinion in regard to the expediency and economy of providing for this needed training, through the instrumentality of special schools which are exclusively devoted to this single object. We call these institutions Normal Schools, the name normal being derived from a Latin word, which signifies a rule, standard, law. Schools of this character were called Normal Schools, either because they were designed to serve in themselves as the model or rule by which other schools should be organized and instructed, or because their object was to teach the rules and methods of instructing and governing a school.

Twenty years ago, after a thorough and exhaustive discussion of the subject, the School Board of this city established a Normal School for the professional training of female teachers. This institution was not merely a Normal School in name; it was a Normal School in reality. And it did not aim or pretend to be anything else than a Normal School. Its sole aim was "to fit its pupils in training for the practical duties of teachers, by making them familiar with the most approved methods of teaching, and by giving them such command of the knowledge they have acquired, and such facility in imparting it as shall enable them to originate methods of their own, and to apply them successfully in the instruction of those who may afterwards come under their care." It commenced its career with the most flattering prospects of success, but before it had been in operation quite three years, the public sentiment demanded provision for the higher education of girls who were not intending to become teachers. The School Board undertook to meet this demand

by changing the character of the Normal School so as to make it a High School for girls as well. "It will not, however," said the advocates of the measure," entirely lose its character as a Normal School." True enough, it never has entirely lost its normal characteristics. But from that day it has been more of a High School than a Normal School. It has undoubtedly rendered great service to the city. It has always been a school of many excellences; many of our most successful teachers have been indebted to it for the best part of their education, and the establishment of the Training Department, eight years ago, deserves especial mention as a step in the right direction, from which our schools have derived considerable. benefit. Still, I believe that far better results would have been attained by two separate organizations. Everywhere, as education advances, educational institutions are simplified. Institutions become more efficient in proportion as their functions are limited and distinctly defined. The academy which enjoys the highest reputation in New England, and perhaps in the country, for fitting young men for college, limits itself to that single object. I have always regarded our plan for accomplishing the objects of two different schools under one organization as a temporary expedient, and its abandonment as merely a question of time. It has been too long delayed. But the degree of unanimity with which the Board has just now, after long deliberation, voted to have a separate High School for girls, and a separate Normal School for the training of female teachers, leaves no room to doubt that this vexed question is at length settled.

This important action of the Board will leave the High School in its grand edifice, free to expand itself, untrammelled, and to adapt its curriculum to the growing demand of the community for the largest and most liberal provision for the higher education of such young ladies as possess the disposition and capacity to avail themselves of it. The Normal School, on the other hand, not concerning itself with the business of imparting to its pupils a general education in literature and science, but limiting itself to the specific object of training its pupils in the science and art of education, of forming teachers of pupils who are already well-educated women, will be enabled to supply our schools with teachers of the highest qualification. If

these institutions are conducted on right principles there will be no rivalry and no antagonism between them, any more than there is between the Latin and English High Schools. They will harmoniously co-operate with each other for the promotion of the educational interests of the city.

TWO PICTURES.

II.-I. WILL.

I. WILL stand up like a hero
And smites the rock in its face,
Its black jaws open, a tunnel

Where his snorting fire-steeds race.

He snuffed the gales of the morning
That over the Spice Isles blow,
And built him an iron dragon

On the roaring waves to go.

In the very teeth of the tempest
He drove his rivetted scales;
And he has white wings to waft him
Before the obedient gales.

He has laid his hand on lightning,
And his bridle-rein is of wire;
And lo, on his three-penny errands,
Off trots that demon of fire!

He would whisper the price of cotton
To his neighbor just over the sea,
So the flame-imp dives to the bottom,
It is done within clock-ticks three.

The rocks of the steep Nevada

In his molars of steel are torn;
And he winnows his crags for treasure
As a farmer his golden corn.

He plucks the mantle of winter
From all the shuddering lakes,
To temper the burning solstice
When the fiend of fever wakes.

THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF NUMBER AS DEVELOPED WITH THE SIXTH CLASS.

BY MISS A. E. READ, TEACHER IN BOSTON.

In beginning my first lessons in number, I bring before the class a book, a pencil, or a bell, and ask different children the names of the objects before them; they give me the names of them, and then they are asked, how many books, how many pencils, etc.; they reply one. I ask them to repeat after me, one book, one pencil, one bell, and then different children volunteer to find me any one object that they may see in the room, always being required to connect the name of the object with the number found.

After a little drill upon one, I place one more beside the object first taken; if I have taken books, I place one book by the first, requiring the children to watch me closely. I put one pencil by the first, and then taking both away, ask any child to do as I have done. How many books did I put with the first book? How many pencils with the first pencil? How many have I now? If they cannot all tell me, I say, two books, two pencils, and then desire them to count

alone; one pencil, two pencils; one book, two books, and then the children are sent to find and count any two objects in the

room.

Three and four, and the numbers as far as ten, are taken much the same way, every new number being preceded by drill upon the numbers already given.

After they can recognize two and three readily, and have some idea of the increase of number by one, the numeral frame is taken, and a child is asked to move four balls to one side of the frame; he is then asked to take one ball from the four balls, and the class tell how many balls are left; then one is taken from the three balls, and the children tell what remain, and finally the class see that nothing is left, by taking one from each number of balls.

After considerable practice upon the first ten numbers, and their increase and decrease by one, the addition of numbers with objects (the sum not to exceed ten) is begun. I first take bright-colored blocks, as they are easily seen and handled; I place one upon my desk and ask the class how many blocks they see (one); at a little distance from it I place another, and they say it is one block; then we count the number of blocks upon the desk and find there are two; pointing to the first block, I say, one block (class repeats) and one block are two blocks; then the blocks are removed, and some child is asked to repeat it, selecting and placing as done at first.

After some little practice with the teacher at the desk, the children are sent to the boxes at the back of the room, which contain bright colored cards. The number of cards first sent for is very small, as two cards and one card; three cards and two cards; these are arranged at each side of the desk, and when all the children are ready the bell is struck, and each child stands in turn, and gives the number of cards at each side of the desk; and then their sum, as four cards and three cards are seven cards.

Another part of the programme is counting by objects to one hundred. Nail-prints, spools, blocks, or cards are used by teachers and children in learning the succession of numbers; and when that is well learned questions are asked the class upon,

First. The Relative Size of Numbers; as, Which would you rather have, sixteen tops or twelve tops? nine apples or eleven apples? and