come, when by the united action of the State Association, a competent Editor has been secured, whose time and energies can be devoted to its interests, instead of being mainly occupied in other and sufficiently exhausting labors. All who have any regard for its prosperity, are earnestly requested to do their utmost, to increase its circulation and enlarge the sphere of its usefulness.

A. D. LORD.

Rev. A. SMYTH

CORRESPONDENCE.

CINCINNATI, Dec. 29, 1855.

Dear Sir: At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Ohio State Teachers' Association, held yesterday morning, in the Neil House, Columbus; it was unanimously resolved, that the place of Agent and Editor of the "Journal of Education," for the ensuing year, be offered for your acceptance.

In communicating to you this resolution, which I take great pleasure in doing, suffer me to express the conviction, which is that of the whole Committee, that you are eminently qualified for the important and responsible position, and that you possess our entire confidence.

Earnestly hoping you will be enabled to return a favorable answer to our proposal, I subscribe myself, with highest respect,

Dear Sir: My appointment to the editorial chair of the Ohio Journal of Education, was entirely unexpected; and as it involved questions of much interest to me and to others, I have taken time to consider well whether to accept or decline the office. I have given to the subject most careful and serious attention; have consulted friends here and elsewhere; have received letters from gentlemen in various parts of the State; and in making up my opinion and determination, have acted, I trust, from convictions of duty.

It is no affected humility that prompts me to say, that I have experi

enced many fears that I should not be able to meet the demands of the position to which you call me. I have feared that many gentlemen in our Association over-estimate my qualifications for the office. I have feared that I should forfeit whatever of confidence may now be reposed in me by the friends of education: for error and weakness are nowhere so exposed, so apparent and transparent, as in the editor's chair. And more seriously have I feared, lest those great interests which should be entrusted to my guardianship, might suffer through my want of higher qualifications. The demands of the position are high and sacred; for education is not the cause of man alone, but also of God; the interests involved are not such as relate exclusively to time, but they reach forth to the endless future; and the influences exerted will be as enduring as the immortal soul.

These considerations have led me to hesitate in regard to accepting the post offered. But my hopes in the matter have outweighed my fears; and I hereby signify my acceptance. I am led to this decision by the belief that, on many accounts, the office is a desirable one; that if I succeed, I shall be in a position both honorable and useful; and I have received so many assurances of sympathy and assistance in the discharge of my duties, that I strongly hope to be able to meet the just and reasonable expectations of those who are most interested in this matter. I make no promises-offer no pledges-further than to say, that if “there is nothing impossible to him that wills," I shall not fail; for what I can, I shall!

You may expect me to edit the February number of the Journal; but as I have much to do in closing up my official and personal business here, I cannot promise its appearance before the middle of the month. When it is remembered that the office I am to assume is one in which I have had but very little experience, that many of its duties will be new and strange to me, that with many private cares and responsibilities upon me, I so suddenly make my home among strangers, I am confident that you will be indulgent in regard to all short-comings and imperfections.

Permit me to say that I shall greatly rely on you, Sir, and the other members of the Executive Committee, especially on Dr. Lord, for advice and direction in all questions of doubt and difficulty.

EDITORIAL.

Prolegomena.

If any of the younger portion of our readers are in doubt as to the meaning of the rather high-sounding word which we place at the head of this article, and if they have not given heed to the kind-hearted gentlemen of Springfield and Boston, who so often admonish us to "Get the Best," it becomes our duty to explain.

We have read, somewhere, of a preacher who began his sermon on this wise: "My hearers, I wish to make a few remarks before I begin to speak.' What he meant by this was, that he wished to make some remarks preliminary to introducing the main theme of his discourse. And that is just what Prolegomena signifies; it is what one says before he begins to speak.

In commencing the duties of principal Editor of the Journal of Education, custom and propriety demand that we publicly indicate the course which we intend to pursue, and the principles by which our official acts will be governed. We deeply regret the necessity of making this exposition at a single sitting; not that it will thus be made too brief, but too crude and indefinite. But February has come, the compositors are waiting, the Journal is due, and we must hasten.

Every day the conviction is deepening in the minds of the intelligent, that the facilities for popular education should be increased and improved. To this conviction, daily utterance is given by pen and tongue, by press and pulpit. Our Governors proclaim it in their messages, and all friends of free institutions, all patriotic, philanthropic, wise, and good citizens, respond with acclamation.

In respect to this wide-spread enthusiasm for good public schools, OHIO is second to no State in all our land. After long endurance of ill-digested and contradictory legislation,- after long endurance of as miserable schools as ever propagated ignorance and vice among young ideas, Ohio has arisen from her degradation, and enacted the most liberal and excellent school law ever framed in all the world. It is not perfect,-in some of its details it needs amendment. It is new, and in some places, its administration having fallen into incompetent hands, its machinery has worked with immense friction, causing disaffection in some minds, and with others, strong opposition. But in the estimation of men best qualified to judge of its merits, this law is, in its general principles,—in all its prominent features,— in almost all its details, the

best ever enacted.

Go to New York, go to New England, and the best

men you meet will eulogize the Ohio School Law.

66

But, the law is good if a man use it lawfully." Good as it is, it can never produce good schools, unless its provisions meet a wise and faithful execution. Neglected, it will be useless. Badly executed, it will be worse than useless. A railroad may be of the best possible construction, and yet so badly operated as never to pay a dividend. And in not a few places this is a fair illustration of the workings of our School Law. The fault is not in the road but in its equipment.

But some may ask what has the Journal of Education to do with the School Law? We are aware that to it we sustain no official relation. The law is a creation of the State, while the Journal is the organ of the "State Teachers' Association," a voluntary body, existing under its own constitution, governed by its own laws, entirely independent of all State control. In its character as an organization, it is not known to the law. But the individuals who compose the "Association," sustain to the law the most intimate relations. They are the Teachers of the Schools which it creates, and in this way the Journal occupies a position highly favorable for aiding its application to its appropriate purposes.

Believing that what the law most needs, to render it not only useful, but popular, is an intelligent and efficient execution,- believing that whenever it shall be worked up to its capacity, it will both bless and please the people, the aim of the Journal will be to disseminate correct ideas in respect to education, and to aid Teachers in making their schools what both policy and duty require that they should be. By this we must not be understood as claiming ability to instruct others, but by making the Journal a medium through which we can reason together, all may be benefited.

Four years have passed since the Journal first made its appearance. It has ever maintained a high character for talent and correct principles. Having been called to take the place of principal Editor, we announce what we desire to do for the Journal in that position. Our chief reliance is on the members of the Association for ability. to execute these intentions.

1. We propose having in each number a Leader of from eight to twelve pages, which shall be thoroughly elaborated and carefully written, an article of dignity and weight, adapted to interest the most cultivated minds in our State, or elsewhere. As a specimen, we will refer to the first article in the present number.

2. In each number, several articles, of from one to five pages in length, relating to any branch of education, to home instruction,-to

to manners, morals, or aught else which may in

school-room duties,
terest any class of our readers.

It is our wish that these articles should be of an animated and cheerful tone. We hope that our correspondents will not sacrifice too much to "dignity," as it is sometimes called. A vein of pleasantry running through an article will insure its being read, and will cheer many a Teacher, and drive away many a heartache. By this we do not mean that writers need endeavor to be witty and jocular; nor that a lively style should always be adopted. But we wish the Journal to be wide awake and earnest, either with force, or humor, or something else. 3. The decisions of the School Commissioner. esting to all, but to many they are of great value.

These are not inter

4. Our own contributions. What they will be, we cannot promise. We intend to occupy about one third the space in each number, embracing articles upon various subjects, a summary of educational news at home and abroad,- school anecdotes, answers to such questions as any may see fit to propound in regard to teaching and governing schools, and whatever else shall seem best adapted to usefulness.

We invite, yea, urge that communications be sent in without delay. If the Journal shall be worth reading, all its friends must put shoulder to the wheel.

The four days we have been in Columbus, have taken from us about all the ideas of romance and poetry with which we had ever associated the office of Editor.

And as we began this prolegomena with a clerical illustration, we may as well close it after the same manner. A good old deacon, somewhere "down east," imagined that he could preach. So he obtained permission from his Pastor to make the attempt. He went into the pulpit, read his text, coughed, repeated the text, wiped the perspiration from his face, and in agony exclaimed, "Brethren, if any of you think you can preach, just come up here and try it, I'm done!"

We feel a strong inclination to follow the deacon's example, and say the Association, "count us out."

to

P. S. Since writing the above, we have received the "Michigan Journal of Education," for February. The splendid puff it has seen fit to give us, sets us on our feet again, with confidence much reïnvigorated. We therefore " repeal the last sentence in the foregoing article, together with the associated anecdote. Thank you, friend Gregory, for such a powerful tonic. We feel the better for it, but still we do not flatter ourselves that your "laurels " are in any great peril.