PROFESSOR STOWE'S REPORT ON ELEMENTARY PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN EUROPE.

IN March, 1836, being about to embark for Europe, Professor Stowe received from Governor Lucas, of Ohio, two resolutions by the Legislature of that State, requesting him to collect, while abroad, such information as he could, respecting the various systems of instruction in the countries which he might visit, and report thereon. The report before us was made, under this request, upon the 18th of December, 1837.

Mr. Stowe states, that the Governor's communication to him, was a passport to all the institutions to which he went, and that assistance was every where given him freely and warmly.

The greater part of the report is occupied with the details of the Prussian school system, and an account of what has been done by Russia toward popular education. But before noticing these interesting points, we cannot forbear calling our reader's attention to one fact, which at this time, when Catholics are in our country held the foes of schools and popular government, deserves consideration: Louis of Bavaria, a Catholic monarch, has, of his own free will, given his people a constitutional representation in the government, and stands second only to Prussia in the universality and perfectness of his common schools. (p. 6.)

The Russian system is essentially that of Prussia: the whole empire is divided into Provinces, each containing a University, six of which had gone into operation in 1835. Each province is divided again into Academic districts, in each of which is one institution for classical learning, called a Gymnasium; another for the higher branches of a business education, called an Academy: 67 Gymnasia were in operation in 1835. The Academic districts are again divided into school districts, of which 1200, beside private schools, were at work in the year above named.

In order to keep alive a desire for education, the minister of public instruction publishes a periodical journal, in which he states every thing relating to the subject; recommending works and modes of instruction.

For every Academic district there is a school house architect, whose whole business it is to see to the planning and

building of those in his own district. Provision for teaching Agriculture, and all the arts of life, is made; and religious teachers are allowed to those who wish them. Professional teachers are thoroughly examined, morally and intellectually; and after their strength is gone, they all, public and private, receive a pension; and their families a support after the father's death. Every year, also, many are sent abroad to Berlin, Vienna, and England, to fit themselves for especial departments. In the Universities there is one teacher to every 8 or 10 pupils, and throughout, the proportion is much more just than in this country.

These advantages are extended to Poland, Siberia, and the barbarian provinces among the Caucasus. In those lately conquered from Persia, there were in 1835, 1300 children, and 60 teachers.

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At St. Petersburg is a model institution for educating teachers; in 1835, 76 graduated, and the number increases yearly. With Mr. Stowe, we say, In view of such facts as these, who is not ready to exclaim, Well done, cold, semi-barbarous, despotic Russia! may other nations more favored by nature and Providence emulate thy example!'"

That portion of the report which relates to the Prussian system is admirable; being clear, condensed, and practical. It is far better than Cousin's to the man who wishes only a general idea of the mode of action in the schools of that wonderful despotism.

The point first referred to is the "excellent order and rigid economy" of those institutions. "Every boy," says Mr. Stowe, "is taught to wait upon himself-to keep his person, clothing, furniture, and books, in perfect order and neatness; no extravagance in dress, nor waste of fuel, or food, or property of any kind, is permitted. At the doors are good mats and scrapers, and every thing of the kind necessary for neatness and comfort; and every student is taught, as carefully as he is taught any other lesson, to make a proper use of these articles, and to leave all things in good order at their proper places. Every instance of neglect is sure to meet its appropriate reprimand, and if necessary, severe punishment. " Probably no habits are more needed by Americans as a people, than those thus taught.

Another characteristic feature in the Prussian schools, is their success in teaching children to draw and sing. Mr. Stowe says, that the teachers told him, that any child that could learn to read and write, could learn to sing and design. "In regard to the necessity of moral instruction," says Mr.

Stowe, "and the beneficial influence of the Bible in schools, the testimony was no less explicit and uniform. I inquired of all classes of teachers, and men of every grade of religious faith; instructors in common schools, high schools, and schools of art; of professors in colleges, universities, and professional seminaries; in cities and in the country; in places where was a uniformity, and in places where was a diversity of creeds; of believers and unbelievers; of rationalists and enthusiasts; of Catholics and Protestants, and I never found but one reply, and that was, that to leave the moral faculty uninstructed, was to leave the most important part of the human mind undeveloped, and to strip education of almost every thing that can make it valuable; and that the bible, independently of the interest attending it, as containing the most ancient and influential writings ever recorded by human hands, and comprising the religious system of almost the whole of the civilized world, is, in itself, the best book that can be put into the hands of children, to interest, to exercise, and to unfold their intellectual and moral powers. Every teacher spurned with contempt, the allegation, that the Bible cannot be introduced into Common Schools without encouraging a sectarian bias in the matter of teaching; a contempt which I believe will be participated in by every high minded teacher in Christendom. "

Mr. Stowe then gives examples which he witnessed, of the principles to which we have referred--the economy, capability, and devotion of the children. Next sketches the course of instruction in the common schools, and goes fully into the practical school keeping of the Prussians. This portion of the report is full of interest and value, and every teacher should be familiar with it.

Into these details we cannot go, but before closing, must express our hope, that this report will be printed in such a form as will bring it within the reach of all that feel an interest in education, from all of whom, its author may rest assured, he will receive deep, though unheard thanks.

J. H. P.

[We cheerfully join our correspondent in thanking Professor Stowe for his labors in behalf of education. In Louisville, we are happy to say, that our public schools are in a thriving condition. Singing was introduced into the female departments, by our active Superintendant of City Schools, Mr. Samuel Dickenson, before this experiment had been tried in any other city in our country. The success with us has been enough to show the utility of this branch of instruction.-Ed.]

LETTERS FROM PALMYRA.

THIS work has been hailed with warm and general approbation. Amid the general sterility of elegant literature in this country, so much culture, taste, and refined thought, as it displays, are very refreshing.

The object of this book is to place us in Palmyra as it was in the reign of Queen Zenobia. Tadmor in the desert, built by Solomon as a halting place for his caravans, (so conjectures history,)-built for Solomon by the aid of Genii, (so prattles oriental tradition,) is now a waste of sand and marble.

"In mazy clusters still, a giant train,

"Its sculptered fragments whiten all the plain;
"Still stretch its columned vistas far away,
The shadowy stillness of their long array."

"But where," continues the poet from whose beautiful lines we are quoting

"But where the stirring crowd, the voice of strife,

"The glow of action and the thrill of life?

"Hark! The loud crash of yon huge fragment's fall,
"The pealing answer of each desert hall,

"The night birds shrieking from their secret cell,
"And hollow winds-the tale of ruin tell."

This "stirring crowd," this "voice of strife," and " "glow of action," it is the object of the work, which we now notice (somewhat tardily,) to restore. He imagines himself in Palmyra in the days of its greatest splendor. Zenobia, Aurelian, Longinus the philosopher, figure before us.

The task attempted was a difficult one, yet one which the imagination of our age often attempts. To reanimate the past rather than to explore the future, is the business of our novelists and romancers. The clan of Von Chronicles bear sway. We are never left alone with the present for a moment. The middle ages are with us in every parlor. Fresh breezes of Athenian gossip blow on us from the door of every book shop. We hear the cries of the Roman forum as we are buying fish in Quincy market. The Egyptian Pyramids reveal

* Palmyra.-An Oxford Prize Poem.

their mysteries to the uninitiated novice of the counter. Herculaneum and Pompeii cast aside their vale of lava, and admit the prying light to their minutest secrets. Nay, even the Goths and Huns, whose annals, as they did not write them even in hieroglyphics, we did not expect to read in print, are on us now. So much do we learn of the past that there is danger of our forgetting that its only true use is to aid us in interpreting our own day and ourselves.

If this has tended to produce many tiresome almanacks of past centuries, and catalogues of old clothes which had better have been done into paper than into print, it has also produced fictions of real excellence. The attempts at reviving classic times, are, however, far inferior to those which take the romantic era for their theme, and often show how unlike is the power of appreciating the antique style of perception and thought, to that of transferring it, or creating new forms for its expression. Some of these books have given me pleasure. They are not pictures of ancient times, they have little merit as regards historic fidelity, but, by lively presentation of the views which the author takes of a certain period, they rouse all our slumbering fancies, and brighten all our rusting knowledge about that period, by the pleasure thus given stimulating us to seek for more.

Wieland's Agathon, a book in many respects exceptionable, has been, I think, the book of this class which has most excited me to such retrospect. Next to that comes Lockhart's Valerius. This book I have not read for some years, but the lively interest it inspires in other minds corroborates my own impressions. Perhaps I should not like it so well now as I did then, as I have elevated my standard of what a good book should be. Yet, from what I know of Lockhart's power of sympathy with styles of character and intellect quite different from his own, and as I said before, from the enduring impressions which Valerius does not fail to leave on other minds, I suppose I should still esteem this one of the most successful essays in a class where I have, as yet, seen no masterpiece, with the exception of a singe drama in the German language.

This country has lately produced two works of merit in this department. The Philothea of Mrs. Child, and the work before us. In Philothea there is no living human nature or other nature. The figures are not even sculpture. They have the roundness of sculpture, and are subordinated to the sculptor's ideal of beauty and calmness. No chisel has beeen at work on them they have not the brilliant finish of marble—they are merely moulded in clay, but they express fine thoughts. Phil