to have as many of these schools established as can be supported; and as many supported as would furnish a teacher for every common school in the United States.

But however desirable this may be, it must for the present be considered as hopeless; and the better, because the more feasible plan, would be to have a class a part or the whole of the year, in every academy, who should pursue a specified course of study to qualify themselves for the profession of teaching. In this mode there would be less expense of travel and time, and the attention of the community would be turned to the preparation of teachers for their employment as a subject of great importance. The other scholars in the academy would become more or less acquainted with the system, so that they could judge of the qualifications of teachers, and if need be, could with comparative ease qualify themselves at some future time for the business of teaching.

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And here I would say that there should be a distinct and definite course of study marked out by the trustees of every corporated academy; and an acqaintance with a certain part of this course should be considered as a necessary prerequisite for admittance to the class that are qualifying themselves to be teachers. After they had entered this class, besides making them familiarly acquainted with all the branches taught in common schools, the preceptor should give them familiar lectures on the business of instruction and discipline; should afford to each one an opportunity of actually giving instruction to the class to which he belongs, or to a younger one. He should turn their attention to all the principal modes of teaching, and to the influence of the different motives employed, and urge them to read valuable treatises on the subject of education, introduce to their notice all the improvement in manuals and furnish philosophical criticisms on those in use. This would prevent, in some degree, the inconsiderate changes that are sometimes made in manuals, and, at the same time, would take the selection of books out of the hands of booksellers and publishers, who have a pecuniary interest in the sale of cer

tain books and the exclusion of others, and place it in the hands of the intelligent and disinterested part of the community. It is owing to the want of some such course as this, that certain evils prevail to some extent in the books used in common schools, as for instance the awkward and obsolete spelling of Johnson. The preceptor, moreover, by dwelling on the importance and dignity of the profession, which aims to form the minds of the young for high intellectual enjoyment in the performance of the various duties they owe to their friends, their country, and their God, could hardly fail to waken up an enthusiasm on this subject that would lead many of the finest minds, while they were engaged in improving themselves, to consecrate their talents to imparting instruction to others. In this manner a body of accomplished, earnest, and devoted teachers would go forth from academies and high schools to take possession of the length and breadth of the land, that they might diffuse over it the light of learning, the cheering influence of correct moral sentiments, and the warmth of piety. And on this subject we have much to hope.

Since the revival of literature in the 14th century, there probably never was a time when the subject of education attracted a more deep and universal attention than it does at the present. In Great Britain, to say nothing of continental Europe, and in our country, the philosophic statesman, who bestows his thoughts and his efforts on the great objects of political economy, that he may thus promote the prospects and permanent welfare of his country; the man of letters, who endeavors, through the medium of the press, to refine and elevate the public taste; the man of enlightened piety, who labors to prepare men for heaven,-unite in considering education as the grand instrument of promoting the weal or wo of human kind; while those who look only at their own immediate benefit, or that of their children, are disposed, many of them, to consider it when properly conducted as the certain means of personal success in life.

The importance of education may be seen not only in its direct influence in elevating and improving the character of him who enjoys it, but likewise in its various bearings upon government and religion. We may talk as much as we please of a government of equal laws, which secures the welfare of the whole with the least possible encroachment on the liberty of the individual; it will still be true that despotism will take its place, unless those who are governed are educated to understand their rights and the means of maintaining them.

We may talk as much as we please of the efficacy that religion gives to the laws, by ensuring their conscientious execution, while it diffuses through the community a healthful moral feeling; still it will be true that, without the influence of education, it will be converted into the wild dreams of enthusiasm or the sullen stupor of bigotry. Of the pillar upon which the structure of our national happiness rests, general intelligence is the pedestal, religion the shaft, and government the capital. Let either of these be shaken from its place, and the fabric falls.