Battersea schoolmaster," I wish to point out what I conceive, after an experience of thirty years, to be an important, I had almost said a fatal, omission in his ingenious solution of his own query, "How to make a pen ?" It consists in this, that your correspondent after bringing the process of penmaking down to the point of what is commonly denominated "nibbing," proceeds to say, that " this part of the manipulation must be done dexterously, and at one emphatic cut." Now sir, here I am compelled to differ toto cœlo from this gentleman, and I am fully convinced that the true art of nibbing, on which the excellence of the pen is mainly dependent, comprises two emphatic cuts, the first of which must be at an angle of about 45 degrees with the longitudinal axis of the quill, and the second, at right angles with the same axis. This second and finishing cut is to be at a distance from the extreme point of the pen, proportioned to the propensity of the writer for what is termed a broad or narrow nib, and I trust your kind insertion of this amendment in your next number will be found useful to those who wish to write currente calamo, without falling into that cacoethes scribendi, which we should all endeavour to avoid. Your obedient Servant,

SCRIPTOR.

Orme Square, Bayswater, Jan. 1847.

QUERIES FOR SCHOOLMASTERS AND TEACHERS.

THE following "Questions for the Use of the Teachers' Mutual Improvement Society" at Manchester, have been kindly forwarded to us. They show, at all events, that the attention of the members is directed to the most profitable subjects, and in a thoughtful and practical manner. We shall be glad to receive any other papers of the sort that may from time to time be issued. If the Manchester Church Education Society does all its work as well as these Queries (which bear its device), seem to indicate, we heartily wish it all success: it cannot fail of doing great good. would be happy to find room for answers too.

We

"There is nothing more beautiful in the whole world than a teacher who devotes himself with youthful enthusiasm to his sacred task."

1. Do you consider the purely monitorial system worthy of perpetuation, or merely as a make-shift, justifiable by the circumstances of our schools?

2.-What, in your own experience, have you found to be its advantages? and what its disadvantages?

3.-How may the former be most effectually secured, and the latter eschewed?

4.-A teacher, as it respects the entire economy of his school, should have in his own mind a high standard of excellence-a beau idea-to which he constantly endeavours to attain ?

5. In teaching young children, the instruction should, as much as possible, be imparted conversation-wise?

6. And all scientific terminology, and technical terms generally, as also abstract phraseology, should be avoided?

7.—But such difficult language and technicalities as properly belong to the subjects in which the elder children are instructed, should not be avoided, but thoroughly taught?

8. What plans have you found most successful in securing personal cleanliness and tidiness among your scholars?

9. What in securing regular and punctual attendance?

10. To teach well collectively is generally allowed to be difficult. What makes it so ?

11.—What are the chief characteristics, both negative and positive, of a collective lesson when efficiently given?

12.-Suppose you approve in any degree of the simultaneous method, what rules can you give in reference to its right employment?

13.-Why, as an instrument, does language merit the teacher's highest regard?

14. What are the uses and abuses, and the rules for the right application of the elliptical method of questioning?

15. The degree of control which different individuals possess over children varies very much. What are the principal elements in the character of a teacher that give this control?

16. It is a subject of frequent complaint, that many of the children on leaving our schools, not only do not continue the education begun in them, but that they very soon forget what they had acquired-and, moreover, that they do not attach themselves to any religious community, or not to that in whose principles they had been instructed. How is this state of things to be accounted for ?-and what can the teacher do to remedy it? 17. The detection of the sensible qualities of common objects-especially when these are elicited and spoken of in simple language--forms a useful lesson for young children?

18. Such a lesson is far from being equally well suited for older children-why?

19.—The fixing of the scholar's attention depends mainly upon exciting a desire or a dread, and producing a perception. Whether do you prefer an attention that results from a dread or a desire-and why?

20. With respect to your own education, the teacher should never stand still?

*** These questions have been purposely confined to general subjects, and such as have not been discussed in the society. It is intended to issue others as occasion may require.

W. Ross.

EXAMINATION PAPERS AT ST. MARK'S COLLEGE, CHELSEA.

December, 1846.

By PROFESSOR MOZLEY, One of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools.

CHURCH HISTORY.

(One Question only is to be answered in each Section.)

SECTION I. 1.-In what respects does the world appear to have been prepared for the Advent of the promised Messiah?

2. Account for the general rejection of the Messiah by the Jewish nation. 3. What two fundamental propositions in respect to the propagation of the gospel, has Paley established in his "Treatise on the Evidences of Christianity"?

SECTION II-1. Write the names of the principal Fathers of the first three centuries in chronological order.

2. Give some account of the life and writings of St. Ignatius.

3. What were the heresies against which the councils of Nice, Ephesus, Chalcedon, and Constantinople were severally held?

SECTION III.-1. What part was taken by the early British Church in the conversion of the Anglo Saxons? What inference do you draw from the answer to this question?

2. Give some account of the superstitious worship of the Virgin Mary in the Church of Rome, and of the falsehoods by which it is kept up.

in the

3. Give examples of the superstitious practice of self-tormenting Church of Rome? Of what Pagan worship does it form a part? From what system of Philosophy does it appear to have been derived?

SECTION IV.-Give the dates of

1. The Diet of Worms.

2. The publication of Tyndale's Translation of the New Testament into English.

3. The first publication of the Common Prayer.

SECTION V.-1. What is the character of Wicliffe's version of the scriptures? What evidence have we of the manner in which copies of it were multiplied, and of its reception by the people?

2. What is the history of the Catechism?

3. Describe the last days of Dr. Rowland Taylor.

SECTION VI.-1. In what respects did the Second Book of Edward VI differ from the First.

2. What Protestant Liturgies had been published before the Second Book of Edward VI was compiled; and in what respects have they been imitated in our Book of Common Prayer?

"When we assemble and meet together to render thanks for the great benefits we have received at His hands, to set forth His most worthy praise, to hear His most holy word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary as well for the soul as the body."

To what parts of the service do these clauses in the Exhortation severally refer?

SECTION VII-Write down the Tenth Article, explain it fully, and establish its truth on the authority of scripture.

SCRIPTURAL KNOWLedge.

SECTION I.-What events are associated with the following dates?

1. 2,349, B.C.

2. 1,921, B.C.

3. 515, B.C.

SECTION II. What events are associated historically with the following places?

1. Hebron.

2. Jabesh Gilead.

3. Tahapanes.

SECTION III-Give some account of the reign of one of the following kings:

1. Saul.

2. Jehoshaphat.

3. Josiah.

SECTION IV.—1. Explain the following passage.

"And he shall stand before

Eleazar the Priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the Judgment of
Urim before the Lord."-Numbers 27-21.

2. What is known from scripture of the life of Isaiah? What miracle is recorded of him? What is the tradition in respect to his death?

3. What fulfilled prophecies of Isaiah-other than those having reference to the Messiah-are the most remarkable ?

SECTION V.-What prophecies have reference

1. To the divinity of the Messiah?

2. To the circumstances of His birth?

3. To His offices?

SECTION VI.-1. By which of the Evangelists is the divinity of our Lord chiefly asserted. On the authority of which of the Fathers is this believed to have been in opposition to a prevalent heresy ?-What heresy ?

2. Mention some of the events in the gospel narrative which are related exclusively by one of the Evangelists.

3. Relate the miracle of the curing of the Paralytic at Capernaum. SECTION VII.—1. Now when John heard in the prison the works of Christ he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

Jesus answered and said unto them, go and show John again these things which ye do hear and see:

The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them.-St. Matthew, xi, 2-5.

In what respects are the words of Our Lord in this passage an answer to the enquiry of John?

2. "He that should come."-Matthew, xi, 3. Give parallel passages to this. To what prophetical name does it refer?

3. Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.-St. Matthew, xi, 11. Explain this passage.

SECTION VIII.-1. What facts are recorded of St. Peter in the Acts of the Apostles?

2. On what passages of the Acts of the Apostles is the chronology of that book founded, and in what way?

3. Give an example of "undersigned coincidence," between the Epistles of St. Paul and the Acts of the Apostles, and state concisely Paley's argument founded thereon.

SECTION IX.-What, according to the doctrine of the Church, is God's method in the salvation of a sinner?

ENGLISH HISTORY AND THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

SECTION I.-Give the dates of the following events:

1. The accession of Henry the Eighth.

2. The death of Charles the First.

3. The accession of George the Third.

SECTION II.-1. Give some account of the last years of the reign of Henry the Third.

2. In what reign was the poll-tax first levied, and with what results?

3. Under what circumstances was Richard the Second dethroned?

SECTION III.-1. Under what circumstances did the disputed succession between the Houses of York and Lancaster commence, and in what terminate? 2. Who were the husbands of Mary Queen of Scots? What claim had she to the English throne ?

3. Relate shortly the principal events in the life of Charles the First after the battle of Naseby.

SECTION IV.-1. Under what circumstances did the House of Hanover succeed to

the throne?

2. What were the principal naval engagements fought during the reign of George the Third, and who were the commanders?

3. Under what circumstances was the province of Bengal conquered by the British?

SECTION V.-1. Who is the first known Anglo-Saxon writer? In what language did he write? What is the earliest existing specimen of the Saxon tongue?

2. Through what successive stages has the Anglo Saxon passed in its transition to the English of the nineteenth century?

3. Who were the great poets of the fourteenth century in England and in Italy? and what were their works?

SECTION VI.-1. Give some account of the life and writings of Sir Thomas More. 2. Who were the great English writers of the time of Queen Elizabeth, and what were their principal works?

3. Give some account of the character of the Elizabethean literature.

SECTION VII.-Give some account of the writings of

1. Lord Bacon.

2. Dr. Jeremy Taylor.

3. Sir Thomas Brown.

SECTION VIII.-Write down a passage from the writings of one of the following poets, specifying where it is to be found.

1. Milton.

2. Thomson,

3. Wordsworth.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

SECTION I-1. Define the following terms:-A proposition, the subject of a proposition, its predicate and copula.

2. What part of speech is that which can by itself form the predicate of a proposition, but cannot by itself form the subject of one? Illustrate this definition by means of an example.

SECTION II-1. What part of speech is that which, not being the name of an object, is nevertheless capable of forming either the subject or the predicate of a proposition?

2. Explain the meanings of the words strong and weak as applied to the conjugations of verbs, and give examples of their application.

SECTION III.-Give examples of compound words formed,

1. By substantives preceded by verbs;

2, By adjectives preceded by adjectives;

3. By adjectives preceded by verbs.

SECTION IV.-1. Explain the following sentence, and parse it:-" This is a discovery of Sir Isaac Newton's."

2. Give the derivations and meanings of the following words:-Infant, methinks, surreptitious, fardel, cyclopædia.

SECTION V.-1. Give the derivations of the words printed in italics in the following sentence:-Genius! That power which constitutes a poet; that quality without which judgment is cold, and knowledge inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates.

2. Define the terms " ellipsis" and "pleonasm," and give examples of their application.

SECTION VI-Write a paraphrase of the following passage, and parse the words printed in italics :—

Hail, holy Light! Offspring of Heaven first-born,

Or of the Eternal co-eternal beam,

May I express thee unblamed? Since God is light,

And never but in unapproached light

Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,

Bright effluence of bright essence increate.

LATIN.

(Subjects for Examination:- First Class, the Passages from Cæsar and Tacitus relating to Britain. Second Class, Cæsar, Lib. I, 1-30, Exercises from Arnold's 2nd and 3rd Books.)

CLASSES I AND II.-Translate the following passages into English :

(19.) Quibus rebus cognitis, cum ad has suspiciones certissimæ res accederent; quod per fines Sequanorum Helvetios transduxisset; quod obsides inter eos dandos curâsset; quod ea omnia, non modo injussu suo et civitatis, sed etiam inscientibus ipsis, fecisset; quod a magistratu duorum accusaretur; satis esse causæ arbitrabatur, quare in eum aut ipse animadverteret, aut civitatem animadvertere juberet. His omnibus rebus unum repugnabat, quod Divitiaci fratris summum in populum Romanum studium, summam in se voluntatem, egregiam fidem, justitiam, temperantiam, cognoverat: nam, ne ejus supplicio Divitiaci animum offenderet, verebatur. Itaque, prius quam quidquam conaretur, Divitiacum ad se vocari jubet, et, quotidianis interpretibus remotis, per C. Valerium Procillum (principem Galliæ Provinciæ, familiarem suum, cui summam omnium rerum fidem habebat) cum eo colloquitur: simul commonefacit, quæ ipso præsente in