your patience by any further mention of them or their works. Every intelligent man can surely discern the difference between originality of style, and innovation in doctrine-between a due regard to the opinions of others, and an actual usurpation of their text; and must be sensible, that, to improve the best of grammars, requires a degree of knowledge and skill which would enable a man to write in language of his own—to improve an inferior one would be a needless and foolish undertaking.

Whoever takes an accurate and comprehensive view of the history and present state of this branch of learning, though he may not conclude, with Dr. Priestley, that it is premature to attempt a complete grammar of the language, can scarcely forbear to coincide with Dr. Barrow, in the opinion that among all the treatises which have heretofore been popular no such grammar is found. In his Essays published in 1804, speaking of this subject, he says: "Some superfluities have been expunged, some mistakes have been rectified, and some obscurities have been cleared. Still, however, that all the grammars used in our different schools, public as well as private, are disgraced by errors or defects, is a complaint as just as it is frequent and loud."

What further improvement has recently been made, I leave to the unbiassed judgment of others. The public are interested in estimating it justly. The opinions expressed on this occasion, have been formed with candor, and offered with submission. If in any thing they are erroneous, there are those present who can detect their faults. In the language of an ancient master, I invite the correction of the candid. "Nos quoque, quantumcunque diligentes, cùm a candidis tùm a lividis carpemur: a candidis interdum justè; quos oro, ut de erratis omnibus amicè me admoneant-erro nonnunquam quia homo sum."-Despauter.

INFLUENCE OF ACADEMIES AND HIGH SCHOOLS

ON

COMMON SCHOOLS.

WHILE it shall remain true, that the great body of the community must depend on common schools for their stock of learning; it must likewise be true, that all the influences which are in operation, either to injure or promote the excellence of these numerous institutions, ought to be thoroughly examined by the friends of education. I shall therefore make no apology for introducing to your attention some remarks on the influence of academies and high schools on the common schools of our country.

In giving this form to the statement of the subject, assigned to me for examination, your committee probably intended to leave me at liberty to speak either on the influence that is actually exerted, or on the influence that ought to be exerted, by academies and high schools on common schools. That this influence is now great and salutary, and that it might be made more powerful and propitious, no one can doubt who has examined the relations of these classes of institutions.

I

It shall be my object to speak of what ought to be, though may occasionally notice what is, their influence. In order to do this, it is necessary to call your attention to the standing they occupy, which is that of a middle grade between common schools on the one hand and colleges on the other. Besides

the general influence which every literary institution exerts upon every other, in elevating or depressing the standard of education in the community, they have a direct influence upon the latter, inasmuch as they furnish them with a large part of their students; and upon the former, since they supply them with a considerable number of teachers. It is through them that the pure and healthful principles of science and literature, that spring from those higher institutions, flow down to common schools, to water and refresh the lowest strata of our population. And it is likewise through them, for the most part, that the young aspiring spirits of our land, as they leave those lower institutions, must pass in their ascent to the colleges, the fountain of learning.

What then are some of the means, by which academies and high schools may be improved in their condition, and be made to exert a greater and more salutary influence than they now do?

The first means to be noticed is the employment of permanent teachers. This is now done to some extent, and with the most beneficial results; so that from actual experiment we can gather an argument in favor of adopting it as a general measure. There are men who have, for many years, been employed as teachers in institutions of this kind, with great reputation to themselves, and great advantage to the community, and the cause of learning.

But how is the business managed now for the most part? Why, in such a way that the office of instruction in an academy or high school, is only a resting place between collegiate and professional pursuits, in which the individual may collect resources for preparing himself for his future occupation. The trustees of some such institution, being in want of a teacher, make application at some college, and secure one,for six months or a year, who is recommended, of course, as high as his qualifications will bear. When arrived at the place of his destination, he finds himself among strangers, the subject of inquiry and remark, and of comparison, it may be, with his