hideous yells that can be conceived are sent | length, with a single exception, we became forth from at least three score of throats; possessed of the demons of liberty and and Ovids, and Virgils, and Horaces, idleness. We were, to a great degree, imtogether with the more heavy metal of patient of the restraints of a school; and dictionaries, whether of Cole, of Young, or if we yet retained any latent sparks of the of Ainsworth, are hurled without remorse emulation of improvement, we were unforat the head of the astonished preceptor, tunately never favored with the collision that who, on his side, groping and crawling under could draw them forth. We could feelingly cover of the forms, makes the best of his have exclaimed with Louis the Fourteenth, way to the door. When attained, and light | mais a quoi sert de lire! but where's the restored, a death-like silence ensues. Every use of all this pouring over books! One boy is at his lesson; no one has had a hand or a voice in the recent atrocity; what then is to be done, and who shall be chastised. Sævit atrox Volscens, nec teli conspicit usquam "This most intolerable outrage, from its succeeding beyond expectation, and being entirely to the taste of the school, had a run of several days; and was only then put a stop to by the interference of the faculty, who decreed the most exemplary punishment on those who should be found offending in the premises, and by taking measures to prevent a further repetition of the enormity. "The ushers, during the term of my pupilage, a period of four years or more, were often changed; and some of them, it must be admitted, were insignificant enough; but others, were men of sense and respectability, to whom, on a comparison with the principal, the management of the school might have been committed with much advantage. Among these was Mr. Patrick Allison, afterwards officiating as a Presbyterian clergyman in Baltimore; Mr. James Wilson, late one of the associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States; and Mr. John Andrews, now Doctor Andrews of the University of Pennsylvania. It is true they were much younger men than Mr. Beveridge, and probably unequal adepts in the language that was taught; but even on the supposition of this comparative deficiency on their part, it would have been amply compensated by their judicious discipline and instruction. "With respect to my progress and that of the class to which I belonged, it was reputable and perhaps laudable for the first two years. From a pretty close application, we were well grounded in grammar, and had passed through the elementary books, much to the approbation of our teachers; but at boy thought he had Latin enough, as he was not designed for a learned profession; his father thought so too, and was about taking him from school. Another was of opinion that he might be much better employed in a counting-house, and was also about ridding himself of his scholastic shackles. As this was a consummation devoutly wished by us all, we cheerfully renounced the learned professions for the sake of the supposed liberty that would be the consequence. We were all, therefore, to be merchants, as to be mechanics was too humiliating; and accordingly, when the question was proposed, which of us would enter upon the study of Greek, the grammar of which tongue was about to be put into our hands, there were but two or three who declared for it. As to myself, it was my mother's desire, from her knowing it to have been my father's intention to give me the best education the country afforded, that I should go on, and acquire every language and science that was taught in the institution; but as my evil star would have it, I was thoroughly tired of books and confinement, and her advice and even entreaties were overruled by my extreme repugnance to a longer continuance in the college, which, to my lasting regret, I bid adieu to when a little turned of fourteen, at the very season when the minds of the studious begin to profit by instruction. We were at this time reading Horace and Cicero, having passed through Övid, Virgil, Cæsar and Sallust. From my own experience on this occasion, I am inclined to think it of much consequence, that a boy designed to complete his college studies, should be classed with those of a similar destination." A picture of academy life prior to 1800its material outfit of building and apparatus, its teachers, studies, and students, in Georgia and Virginia, has already been given, and does not differ essentially from "the beg garly elements" above described. more tion was sufficient to furnish a quota of scholars, who could at once reside with their in-parents and get the advantages of the higher education.* To provide for children and youth in smaller towns and in sparsely populated counties, where they are obliged to go away from home for a higher education, Academies and Seminaries have been largely endowed, so as to reduce the cost of tuition and the expense of residence. These schools are becoming fewer in number, but the few are better endowed, and better equipped for the work of classical and scientific teaching. Public High Schools-Endowed Academies. In the original organization of public struction in New England, provision was made for a school of a higher order than the common district or neighborhood school, where the mother tongue, penmanship and arithmetic were taught to all, so that "so much barbarism as a single child unable to read the Holy Word of God, and the good laws of the colony could not exist." This school in Massachusetts and New Hampshire was a town grammar school for all towns of one hundred families. In Connecticut the same original requisition gave place in 1672 to a school of the same grade for the head town of each county, and to diminish the expense of tuition, and ultimately to make the instruction gratuitous, was aided by grants of public lands, and to some extent endowed by individuals. By degrees in all parts of New England, where there was a difficulty in establishing the local grammar school, either from paucity of inhabitants, or want of popular appreciation of the necessity or the advantages of instruction of this grade, either the clergyman in his own house fitted young men for college, or a college graduate at his own risk opened a temporary school for pupils, whose parents desired for them more of arithmetic and grammar than could be obtained in the district school. In such Academies out of New England. Out of New England generally, where the township plan of settlement did not prevail, and where even neighborhood schools were not provided for or made obligatory by law, the educational wants of the few families, who cared for higher, as well as elementary instruction for their older and younger children, could be most readily and economically obtained for them by associated efforts, which soon resulted in special charters for convenience of management; and hence all over the country the policy of Academies, not only for large districts, like one or more counties, but for all large towns and cities prevailed. In such States, the demand for educational facilities for the more wealthy and educated families being thus partially, and in some cases even liberally supplied, it has been difficult to overcome the force of habit, and inaugurate a school policy large places, if there were few men, or even one man of public spirit and energy, sooner or later an academic institution would spring up, towards the support of which donations or bequests would be made, and for its better and broad enough to provide at once for eleof public lands would be asked and obtained management, corporate powers and grants from the legislature. In Massachusetts alone these charters and land grants were made originally, as a settled policy-only for districts where the grammar schools could not supply the wants of a higher education, and for not more than one institution in a Without the higher element, the public school mentary and higher grades of schools at the public expense for the entire community. inevitably sinks down into a class institution -common, not only because it is rudimentary and cheap, but because it is poor and only for the poor. By degrees the Graded System of Public large extent of territory like that of a county: Barnard, and particularly by the latter in Schools, presented by Mr. Mann and Mr. By degrees this policy was forgotten and disregarded, even in Massachusetts, and addresses delivered before the Legislatures charters were freely granted, and the Acad- and in the principal cities of seventeen States between the years 1842-1848, and in emies came to rival and supersede even the Town Grammar schools-until public atten- numerous publications on this subject, of tion was arrested to the fact, first by James which over 1,000,000 copies have been printG. Carter in 1824. From that time strenu-ed and distributed-was established in all ous efforts have been made by the friends of the principal cities of the country, where are public schools to restore the earlier and better policy, of Public High Schools for boys and girls in every city and town where the popula According to the Report of Massachusetts Board of Edutowns in the State, embracing 82 per cent of the population, cation for 1870, High Schools were maintained in 162 out of 335 in nearly all the towns having over 2,000 inhabitants. now found the best specimens of our American system of Public Instruction. Outside of the Public High School, the incorporated and endowed Academies and Seminaries, until quite recently, were avowedly denominational in the religious profession of their teachers and the general influence of the institution. Recently, several schools of the secondary class have been established on the basis of corporate powers, but the instruction has been made free or cheap, and all sectarian preference and influence has been disavowed and guarded against. Of this class are the Putnam Free School at Newburyport, Mass., the Free Academy at Norwich, and the Morgan School at Clinton, in Connecticut. Female Seminaries and Colleges. Although variously designated, all the institutions for female education of the highest grade, yet established in this country, belong properly to the department of secondary instruction, these are nearly all the creation not only of the present century, but of the last twenty-five years. But before noticing a few of the more prominent institutions which are fast rising into grade of superior schools, we cite from a communication of Rev. William Woodbridge, an account of the education of girls as it was more than one hundred years ago. Girls had no separate classes, though generally sitting on separate benches. A merchant from Boston, resident in my native town, who was desirous to give his eldest daughter the best education, sent her to that city, one quarter, to be taught needlework and dancing, and to improve her manners in good and genteel company. To complete this education, another quarter, the year following, was spent at Boston. A third quarter was then allowed her at the school of a lady in Hartford. Another female among my schoolmates was allowed to attend the same school for the period of three months, to attain the same accomplishments of needlework, good reading, marking, and polished manners. These are the only instances of female education, beyond that of the common schools before described, which I knew, in a town of considerable extent, on Connecticut river, until 1776. first of Watt's five methods of mental improvement, "The attentive notice of every instructive object and occurrence," was not then in circulation, but was exemplified in practice. Newspapers were taken and read in perhaps half a dozen families, in the most populous villages and towns. Books, though scarce, were found in some families, and freely lent; and in place of a flood of books, many of of the best character. They were thoroughly read, which are trifling or pernicious, there were a few, and talked of, and digested. In town and village libraries, there were some useful histories, natural and political. Milton, Watts' Lyric Poems, Young's Night Thoughts, Hervey's Meditations, the Tattler, and Addison's Spectator, were not scarce, though not generally diffused. Pamela, Clarissa Harlow, and an abridgement of Grandison, were in a few hands, and eagerly read; and the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, was the chief work of this kind for the young. But the daily, attentive study of the Holy Scriptures, the great source of all wisdom and discretion, was deemed indispensable in those days, when every child had a Bible, and was accustomed to read a portion of the lesson at morning prayers. This study, with the use of Watts' Psalms (a book, which with all the defects it may have, contains a rich treasure of poetry and thought, as well as piety,) at home, at church, and in singing schools, I regard as having furnished, more than all other books and instructions, the means of mental improvement, for forty years of the last century. When, at length, academies were opened for female improvement in the higher branches, a general excitement appeared in parents, and an emulation in daughters to attend them. Many attended such a school one or two quarters, others a year, some few longer. From these short periods of attendance for instruction in elementary branches, arose higher improvements. The love of reading and habits of application became fashionable; and fashion we know is the mistress of the world. When the instruction of females in any of the departments of science was first proposed, it excited ridicule. The man who devoted his time and heart to the work was regarded as an enthusiast. The off the sun is, when it is near enough to warm us?" cry was "What need is there of learning how far Almanacs?"" When girls become scholars, who "What, will the teacher learn his pupils to make is to make the puddings and the pies?" But these narrow prejudices have almost passed away. Many have since become equally enthusiasts on this subject, and the results of an improved system of female education have not disappointed their hopes or mine. By a true discipline of mind, and application to the solid branches of knowledge, our well educated females have become more You inquire how so many of the females of New England, during the latter part of the last century, agreeable companions, more useful members acquired that firmness, and energy, and excellence of society, and more skillful and faithful teachof character for which they have been so justly distinguished, while their advantages of school educa-ers, without disqualifying themselves for domestic tion were so limited. The only answer to this question must be founded on the fact, that it is not the amount of knowledge, but the nature of that knowledge, and still more, the manner in which it is used, and the surrounding influences and habits, which form the character. Natural logic-the self-taught art of thinking was the guard and guide of the female mind. The avocations. The first school of eminence exclusively for girls was the Moravian Seminary at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This was established as early as 1749, but was not opened as a boarding-school until 1785. Ît enjoyed about that date a national reputation. About the same period the Academy of the Visita- | In 1823, George B. Emerson, LL. D., opened tion, at Georgetown, the first Catholic Sem- a young ladies' school at Boston, probably inary for girls in the United States, was es- with a more complete outfit than any which tablished, and at this date there are upwards had preceded it. Soon after, the well-known of fifty under the care of different religious school of Mr. Kingsbury, an institution of orders in the different dioceses. similar grade and excellence, was opened at Providence. Miss Z. P. Grant and Miss Mary Lyon, both pupils of Rev. J. Emerson, were associated in the conduct of an excellent school for young ladies at Ipswich, Mass., in 1821. The energetic and perse pose of establishing a permanent Protestant school of high grade for young ladies, resulted in the establishment of the celebrated seminary at South Hadley, which was opened in 1837. In 1839 the first Normal School for female teachers was opened at Framingham. It has been claimed that President Dwight, in his school at Greenfield, opened in 1783, was the first in the country to admit pupils of both sexes to an entire equality of intellectual training of the highest order. When that famous teacher, Caleb Bing-vering labors of Miss Lyon, with the purham, removed to Boston, in 1784, he did so with the design of opening there a school for girls, who were, singularly enough, at that time excluded from the public schools. Mr. Bingham's enterprise was successful, and was also the means of revolutionizing the unfair school system of the city, and of introducing a plan which, though imperfect, provided some public instruction for girls. After many delays and defeats, the Girls' High School, in 1872, was left to occupy alone the largest, most costly, and best equipped school structure in the United States, under the direction of a principal (Samuel Eliot, LL. D.) who was recently a college president. In 1822, Miss Catherine E. Beecher opened a school for young ladies at Hartford, Conn., which she conducted with eminent. success for ten years. She afterward taught for a short period at Cincinnati, but her la bors for female education have subsequently consisted in various publications, and in the management of an extended scheme for a system of Christian female education, including a national board, high schools, and establishment of several valuable institutions. In 1792, Miss Pierce opened a school for girls at Litchfield, Connecticut, which continued in operation for forty years, and edu-normal schools; which has resulted in the cated large numbers of young ladies from all parts of the country. In the same year, at Philadelphia, was incorporated the first Female Academy in this country. From about 1797 to 1800, Rev. William Woodbridge, father of the well-known author and educator, W. C. Woodbridge, taught a young ladies' school, at first at Norwich, and afterward at Middletown, Ct. He had previously (in 1779) taught a class of young ladies in New Haven, Ct., and a Female Academy in 1789 at Medford, Mass. In 1816, Mrs. Emma Willard commenced her endeavors to secure for women the opportunity of acquiring a grade of education corresponding to that which colleges furnish to the other sex. The eminent success and excellence of her celebrated school at Troy are well known; and an important consequence of her labors was, that female seminaries were admitted to receive aid from the literature fund of the State of New York, on the same terms with the male academies. From 1818 to 1830, Rev. Joseph Emerson conducted a young ladies' school of high reputation and efficiency, successively at Byfield and Saugus, Mass., and Wethersfield, Conn. In 1825, at Wilbraham, Mass., was opened the first of the Methodist Conference seminaries-institutions whose plan has sub、 stantially followed that of the Wilbraham Seminary, which was drawn up by Rev. Wilbur Fiske, its first principal, and admitted young women as well as young men to their advantages. Ten years later, Oberlin College, at first with no higher range of studies, but since largely increased, extended all its courses to females as well as males, and fifty years later Cornell University, with public and private endowments out of which $2,000,000 will be realized, has opened all its optional classes and schools, and all its degrees to aspirants of both sexes on the same conditions. In the number of largely endowed female institutions is the Packer Collegiate Institute at Brooklyn, N. Y., which had previously existed as the Brooklyn Institute, and received its present name in consequence of the munificent gift of $85,000 by Mrs. Harriet L. Packer of that city; and Vassar Female College at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., for which the vast sum of $800,000 has been given by Matthew Vassar, of that city. III. COLLEGES, OR SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION. INTRODUCTION. At the close of the Colonial period of our educational history, we have already noticed the fact of the existence of seven Colleges,Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Nassau Hall, Rutgers, Brown, and Kings-all of them founded on a common type, all of them including, as an essential part of their curriculum, the study of Latin and Greek, with special reference to the wants of the church, while they were all avowedly preparatory to the "learned professions of the ology, law, and medicine" generally. By degrees the term University came to be applied to this class of institutions-which, without changing in any essential particular the aims or studies of the American College, has perverted and belittled one of the most significant and noblest terms in the annals of human culture. We have yet not a single institution which, by the independent test of its admission, and the optional range of its instruction, based on a preliminary inof received science, is entitled to the desigstitutional drill in the elementary principles nation of University in its best European Our Universities, so called, with few honorable exceptions, can not, without great latitude of construction, be admitted into the classification of American Colleges; and great injury has been done to higher learning in this country by the indiscriminate incorporation of associations, all avowedly sectarian in their constitution and aims, with power to grant academic degrees, under the name of a college or university. sense. school at Newtown, which has since been called Cambridge. This year (1638) the Rev. Mr. John Harvard, a worthy minister residing in Charlestown, died, and left a donation of seven hundred and seventy-nine pounds, for the use of the fore-mentioned public school. In honor to the memory of so liberal a benefactor, the General Court, the same year, ordered that the school should take the name of Harvard College. In 1642, the college was put upon a more respectable footing, and the governor, deputy governor, and magistrates, and the ministers of the six next adjacent towns, with the president, were erected into a corporation for the ordering and managing its concerns. It received its first charter in 1650. Cambridge, in which the university is situated, is a pleasant village, four miles westward from Boston, containing a number of elegant seats, which are neat and well-built. The university consists of four elegant brick edifices, handsomely inclosed. They stand north-west, and exhibit a pleasing view. on a beautiful green, which spreads to the Harvard Hall, Massachusetts Hall, Hollis The names of the several buildings are, is divided into six apartments; one of which Harvard Hall, Massachusetts Hall, Hollis Hall, and Holden Chapel. Harvard Hall Hall, and Holden Chapel. Harvard Hall is divided into six apartments; one of which is appropriated for the library, one for the museum, two for the philosophical apparatus; one is used for a chapel, and the other for a dining hall. The library, in 1791, consisted of upwards of thirteen thousand volumes; and is continually increasing from the interest of permanent funds, as well as from casual benefactions. The philosophical apparatus belonging to this university, cost between one thousand four hundred, and one thousand five hundred pounds sterling, and is the most elegant and complete of any in America. Condition of American Colleges about 1800. The following account of all the Colleges in operation in 1796 is taken from Winter- Agreeable to the present constitution of botham's Historical, Geographical, Commer- Massachusetts, his Excellency the Governor, cial and Philosophical View of the United Lieutenant-governor, the Council and Senate, States, published in four volumes in London in 1796. The information was obtained by personal inquiries, and from such sources as Morse, Webster, Wirtherspoon, &c. We have added a few paragraphs and notes respecting institutions omitted by the above author, to make the account complete to the beginning of this century. MASSACHUSETTS.-Harvard University takes its date from the year 1638. Two years before, the General Court gave four hundred pounds for the support of a public the President of the University, and the ministers of the congregational churches in the towns of Boston, Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Roxbury, and Dorchester, are, ex officiis, overseers of the university. The corporation is a distinct body, consisting of seven members, in whom is vested the property of the university. Harvard University has a President, Emeritus Professor of Divinity,-Hollisian Professor of Divinity,-Hancock Professor of Hebrew and other Oriental languages,-Hol |