upon the expediency of an act or request, and after once deciding, she remained firm in her decision. When a request was once negatived, importunity did not gain an affirmative. She endeavored to show the reasonableness of her rules, and, though they might be irksome, that a benevolent regard to the good of the school required submission. There was exhibited in her that intellectual and moral superiority, together with affection for her pupils, and a desire for their interest, by which they were led to obedience, much more effectually than by the presentation of a code of laws.

The tap of Cæsar's finger is said to have awed the Roman Senate, not, we imagine, from any fear of his personal power, but from a feeling that there was that in him worthy of their regard. Well would it be if all Teachers possessed those qualities which command respect and obedi

ence.

Another element of success in a Teacher is patience and perseverance, and which Miss Lyon possessed in an eminent degree. None could have more serious trials and obstacles to surmount than she. In commencing a Seminary which was, in many respects, different from any in existence, she met with many discouragements. Objections were raised by many; but the determination and perseverance with which she prosecuted her plans, sufficiently testify to her energy and perseverance.

A fourth characteristic was her power of discriminating character and adapting herself to the individual peculiarities and capacities of each.

The last I would mention, and the one in which she shone with peculiar lustre, was her character as a moral and religious Teacher. The religious interests of her school were made second to no other. Aside from the hours devoted exclusively to such instruction, was the constant influence, the felt presence of a religious spirit and Christian example. Believing that man accomplishes the great end of his being by the development of all his faculties, moral, intellectual, and physical, and that the moral takes precedence of all others, she earnestly and faithfully labored to discipline and develop the moral natures of those committed to her care. Through her whole life can be seen the controlling influence of Christian benevolence. She was a bright example of missionary labor and missionary devotedness. She was a constant illustration of her own teachings.

Though years have passed since the death of Mary Lyon, her influence still lives. Deeds survive the doers. The act remains, though the hand that wrought it may have perished.

And may we not expect

that through future generations that Institution will continue to bless the world, and that the name of Mary Lyon will not be forgotten?

The influence of such a Teacher who can estimate in its far reaching results? An arrow may cut the air and yet leave no trace behind to show us where it passed. A ship may plow the ocean and the succeeding wave efface the impression it has made. Not so with Mary Lyon. She left behind her an ineffaceable impression, not upon perishable brass and stone, but upon immortal souls. Her influence will live and spread in ever widening circles, till no human power can estimate their number or extent.

Let us as Teachers strive so faithfully to discharge our duty that we may leave as our memorial on earth the marks of our earnest purposes to do good. Our trials are many, our discouragements are oppressive, but if a sincere desire to benefit our pupils prompt our efforts, God will bless the humble endeavor, and our reward shall meet us when we shall have finished our work and gone hence. TOLEDO, Feb. 1856.

MARY EASTMAN.

SOUTH-WESTERN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.

By a resolution of the State Teachers' Association, adopting a petition to the Legislature in behalf of a system of Normal Schools, the South-Western State Normal School was virtually recognized as one of its instrumentalities in carrying out its noble designs for elevating and energizing our State system of public instruction.

The McNeely School has been established by acts of the State Teachers' Association as such. The South-Western has been established by members of the same Association, who for this purpose formed themselves into an auxiliary society, called the South-Western Normal School Association. These Associations, though distinct, are not and can not be antagonistic. Leading members of either are members of the other. The trustees and teachers of the South-Western are members, and we trust all living members of the State Teachers' Association; and are equally as desirous to promote the interests of one association as of the other.

The organization and action of each school have thus far been favora

ble on the other, and we doubt not will continue to exert a healthful influence on each other.

The petition adopted by the State Teachers' Association has in view a law by which the State shall be districted, and all parts equally well accomodated with Normal Instruction. There is every encouragement to believe that the petition will not call in vain, for an arrangement so much needed to give general efficiency to the School Fund, furnished by the State for educational purposes. The intelligence and worth of the large majority of the members constituting the present Legislature, their well known educational tendencies, their general reformatory character, give the members of the Association who sign this petition strong ground for hope, for the expectation that their prayer will be granted.

Whether soon granted or not, the South-Western State Normal School has marked out for itself a noble destiny, a high and independent course of action. It is sustained by firm friends, by unflinching supporters. It has the means of vitality and growth within itself; not only so, but of wide and beneficent action.

While, however, it is destined to exert an elevating and energizing influence on the interests of Education in the south-west, it is bound to coöperate and harmonize with the State Teachers' Association in all its noble efforts in behalf of Popular Education in all parts of the State. It will aid the State Teachers' Association directly in the individual and associated action of its officers and members; but more, indirectly through its pupils, who will go forth to their numerous and wide-spread fields of labor, full of ardor in the general cause, and fully persuaded that the State Teachers' Association is inseperably identified with the advance of this great cause.

But a nobler work than this, even, is to be accomplished by the Ohio Normal Schools. It is that of training teachers already in their work, and large numbers of them, in short sessions, until the whole profession throughout the State shall feel their influence.

It is proposed to establish four Normal Schools in the State; each one of which can accomodate 300 pupils. Now if there shall be four short sessions of 10 or 11 weeks in each school, and two-thirds of the scholars shall attend but one term, some two or three thousand teachers can thus avail themselves of the advantages of Normal training and thorough instruction, in the course of a year, without materially discommoding the schools in which they are engaged. School officers can so arrange their terms as to afford the teacher a vacation of 10 or 12

weeks at one time, during which vacation a session of Normal training and instruction might be enjoyed, for the purpose of acquiring, by study, observation, and practice in the experimental school, under the eye of a permanent teacher, such improved methods of teaching and government as would compensate a hundred fold for the slight inconvenience the district would suffer by such an arrangement.

Where is the teacher who will not gladly avail himself of such an opportunity? Should even one teacher from each township, thus spend one term or more at a Normal School, the influence of the Normal Schools would be felt by every teacher and scholar in the State. But four Normal Schools can, in the course of a year, receive and accommodate, for at least one term, two teachers from every township in the State.

Such teachers, returning to work in their several districts, will carry with them the improved methods of teaching and government they have obtained, and such a spirit of improvement as will induce them to form township associations, and thus to extend their influence among all the teachers and schools in their several localities. And year after year will witness the same teachers, or others sent by them, resorting to the Normal Schools for one or more sessions of training and higher instruction.

Thus the mission of the Ohio Normal Schools is obvious; nay, it is loudly demanded. Who will deny their necessity, or resist their claims, or object to their mission?

LEBANON.

A. H.

METHODS OF INSTRUCTION.

As to our methods of instruction, we can not at any time say that we are absolutely right. Especially does it behoove us to be diffident, where, as in this case, we have come into the practice of methods which have been handed down from those who have preceded us. It is rather a duty that we inquire diligently into the reason and philosophy of what has so tremendous an influence upon the ten thousand children of our schools, as the modes of their government and instruction. Few even of our teachers are satisfied with the plans which so universally obtain among us. Whatever of power they may have had in the hands of the masters who originated them, in the hands of copyists they have

no vitality to educate or inform the mind. Sometimes, as in the last examination by printed questions, we are startled at the results, and whatever may be urged in their excuse, all have been disappointed. Now is the time to ask whether the methods of instruction prevalent in our Schools have their foundation in the true doctrine of education. May we ever hope for better success from them than has already crowned the almost untiring perseverance of several of our ablest teachers.

Before the art of printing had multiplied the copies and cheapened the cost of books, teachers were the instructors, and the minds of their pupils came into close contact with theirs. Wrought into new combinations in the laboratory of his intellect, springing fresh from the warm fountains of his own heart, the teacher's thoughts had a power to arouse, to inspire, and infuse into the hearer's mind that ardor and zeal in the pursuit of truth which burned in his own. We do not learn that the progress of students at this period, was slower than at the present; indeed, we read of the rapid advancement and the early acquisition of many. When books came into general vogue, they were at first used as the auxiliaries of the school master, in fixing permanently in the mind what he had first explained and illustrated. Gradually however, they began to supersede his instructions, till at this day, the silent type has hushed the living teacher's voice; it has become the principal, and he the subordinate, and the perfection of teaching is to compel attention to the book. Society allows and indorses the change, and is satisfied if there be only a task-master employed for the children, who may stand a veritable reciting-post for his school. A previous knowledge of the lesson is scarcely necessary for the teacher in this process of instruction. Sometimes, he learns the lesson as he hears it repeated by the pupils or closely observes the text to see whether mistakes are made. With such teachers, it is not an unfrequent custom to hold the text-book of Geography in one hand, and the map in the other, glancing from question to map as questions are asked and answered, and I have seen classes delayed at every step, to give the teacher time to find the answers. So in History, have I seen the questions at the back of the book used while time was taken in hunting up the answer in the text, and this not in the course of reviews, but in the ordinary recitation. As a further illustration of the exclusive use of the text-book, to which we have come, I will mention another fact. questions proposed to all the teachers of the city was, tus have you, and if any, what use is made of it?" we have none and use none. Some in first commencing the instruction

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