PRINCIPAL LIBRARIES OF THE UNITED STATES, EXCLUSIVE OF THOSE CONNECTED WITH COLLEGES, &C. When

No. of

.....

5,600

4,256

15,121

1,350

12,872

1,265

2,540

LYCEUMS, MECHANICS' INSTITUTES, YOUNG MEN'S INSTITUTES, ART UNIONS, ETC. 433

name has been applied in France to collegiate schools answering very nearly to our colleges or public high schools.

The Conservatory of Arts and Trades at Paris, organized in 1796, by Vaucanson, is an example of the higher class of lyceum in its more extended sense. It has thirteen galleries of materials and machines, and courses of lectures, scientific and practical, which are largely attended during the winter by the working classes.

cles of natural or artificial production, to be increased and enlarged by mutual exchanges, by the different associations. Lectures and practical agricultural occupation, the results of which, it was supposed, would materially diminish the cost of instruction, also formed a part of his programme.

The first association formed in accordance with this plan was organized at Millbury, Mass., by Mr. Holbrook himself, in November of the same year, and was called "MillThe origination of the lyceum as a means bury Lyceum, No. 1, Branch of the Amerof mutual instruction in this country is due, ican Lyceum.' Other towns soon after orin the first instance, to Benjamin Franklin. ganized lyceums, and these were combined a His "club for mutual improvement" was few months later into the Worcester County founded in Philadelphia in 1727, and after Lyceum. Not long after, the Windham forty years' existence became the basis of County, Conn., Lyceum, with its constituent the American Philosophical Society, one of town lyceums, was established; Rev. Samuel the highest scientific societies on this conti-J. May, then of Brooklyn, Conn., rendering nent. There may have been, and probably valuable assistance in the work. were, other societies for mutual improvement organized in different towns and cities of the country, during the hundred years that followed the organization of Franklin's club; but there are no records of any such in the possession of the public, previous to 1824, when Timothy Claxton, an English mechanic, succeeded in founding one, or rather in modifying a reading society, which had been in existence for five years, into what was really a lyceum, in the village of Methuen, Mass. Its exercises were weekly, and in the following order: the first week, reading by all the members; the second week, reading by one member selected for the purpose; the third week, an original lecture; the fourth week, discussion. In 1826, Mr. Josiah Holbrook, then of Derby, Conn., communicated to the American Journal of Education, then conducted by Mr. William Russell, his views on the subject of "Associations of Adults for the Purpose of Mutual Education," in which were contained the germs of the plan of the Lyceum, as subsequently developed by him in his lectures and publications. From the first, his views were of wider scope than the organization of a mere local association; they comprehended the establishment of such associations in every town and village, and their union, by representation, in county, state, and national organizations. They contemplated also, not only mutual instruction in the sciences, but the establishment of institutions for the education of youth in science, art, and morals; the collection of libraries, and of cabinets of minerals and other arti-I

From this time onward to his death in 1854, Mr. Holbrook devoted his whole energies in one way and another to the promotion of these institutions, and to such measures in connection with the cause of educa tion as should promote mutual instruction in children as well as adults. By scientific tracts, by newspapers and other publications, by the manufacture of school apparatus, and by the collection of small cabinets of minerals, to serve as nuclei for larger cabinets, by scholars' fairs, by lectures, and long journeys, and by appeals to the members of Congress and of the state legislatures, he succeeded in rousing a powerful and continued interest in the subject of mutual instruction, which, if it did not accomplish all his own plans, at least gave a wonderful impulse to the general intellectual culture of the nation. The lyceums he founded have passed away, at least in their original form, but in their places, and in a great measure as an indirect result of his labors, we have in every considerable town or village debating societies, young men's institutes, mechanics' institutes, library associations-the three latter often with circulating libraries, courses of lectures, and classes for instruction in science, art, and languages, and often with schools attached for the instruction of the children of the members. We have also lecture foundations, either connected with our colleges or professional schools, or independent, in which courses of instruction in physical science, history, literature, or the laws of language, are communicated to popular audiences.

In rendering the scientific lecture a popu

The Smithsonian Institution, which combines some of the features of the lyceum, in its public lectures, classes, and museum, with its other objects, will be spoken of at length in another place. Its influence in promoting scientific research has been widely felt.

Mr. George Peabody has also made a most liberal endowment, amounting in all to about $600,000, for an institution at Baltimore, to include a public library, courses of lectures on science, art, and literature, prizes for scholarship in the high schools, an academy of music, and a gallery of art.

lar institution, our country is greatly indebted to the late John Griscom, LL.D., Prof. B. Silliman, Sr.. and Rev. Henry Wilbur. Dr. Griscom delivered his first course of popular lectures on chemistry in New York city in the winter of 1808; they were largely attended, and were continued for a long series One of the noblest enterprises connected of years. Prof. Silliman commenced popu- with this class of institutions is the Cooper lar lecturing on the same subject in New Union of New York city. The founder with Haven about the same time, in connection princely liberality has erected an immense with his professional courses. He subse- building, occupying an entire block, of the quently delivered popular courses of lectures most substantial character. A portion of on chemistry and on geology in most of the this building is rented, and the proceeds of large cities of the country. Within the last the rental go to sustain a free reading-room fifteen or twenty years, Prof. Edward Hitch- | as extensive as any in the country, a picture cock, of Amherst College, and several other gallery, a library, schools of design for male eminent geologists, have given courses on and female pupils, and classes for instruction geology to popular audiences. Prof. Guyot in sciences, the mechanic arts, and languages, has lectured on physical geography; Messrs. all of which have rooms and instruction free, Mann, Barnard, Page and others, on educa- under the most competent teachers. Courses tional topics; Hon. George P. Marsh on of lectures on scientific subjects for the worklanguage; Professor Lieber and others on ing classes also form a part of the plan of Mr. commerce, and other prominent scholars Cooper. on other subjects. The Lowell Institute at Boston, founded by the munificence of the Hon. J. A. Lowell, gives annually free courses | of lectures to large audiences on the most important branches of moral, intellectual, and physical science, and from the liberality of its compensation to the lecturers, induces elaborate and conscientious preparation on their part, and the benefit of this preparation inures also to other audiences, to which these lectures are repeated. It has unfortunately been the custom for a few years past of the young men's institutes, mercantile library associations, and other institutions giving courses of lectures through the winter season, to select lecturers who would amuse rather than instruct their audiences, and hence this mode of public instruction has become gradually less and less efficient, and the chief advantages resulting from these institutions have been the use of their circulating libraries, and their classes of instruction and debate. A revolution, however, is now gradually taking place in this respect; lectures on physical science are more frequently incorporated in the courses, and the highest talent is employed in the illustration of these sciences. The lectures of Professors Doremus, Draper, and Silliman, jr., on chemistry; of Mitchel, Youmans, and Loomis on astronomy, and of Agassiz, Henry, and others on geology, have uniformly attracted large audiences, and have led to the study of these sciences.

The number of institutions coming under the general head of lyceums in the United States, is very great; throughout the Northern states every city and every considerable town has some organization of the kind, all of them having their courses of lectures, and most of them debates, essays, readings, or classes of instruction. To them is attributable in no inconsiderable degree the very general prevalence of oratorical talent in our country, and that ability for impromptu argument and discussion, the faculty of "thinking on our legs," as an English writer not inaptly terms it. While much of the instruction communicated by lectures must necessarily be superficial, and is often wanting in accuracy, it cannot be denied that they have contributed much to the diffusion of general information and culture.

CHAPTER XXI. INSTITUTIONS FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB.

THE capacity of the deaf-mute to receive instruction was not generally acknowledged