cipal of this school, and the ability with which he conducted its affairs, proved satisfactory to all. W. D. Henkle is to take the Professorship of Languages, M. C. Stevens the department of Mathematics, and J. S. Wilson that of the Natural Sciences.They have each the department best suited to their talent and inclination, and to say they are qualified for their respective positions, would be merely to repeat what is already acknowledged by those best capable of judging. The classes of Green Mount have been quite as thorough as in any similar institution in the country, and have given their Alma Mater a wide spread popularity through this State, Ohio, and the West generally. We understand it is the intention to introduce a Normal department, in which those who wish to become teachers can have especial instruction in the practical as well as the theoretical duties of their profession; but this will not be permitted to usurp the rights of other classes, which will be continued as heretofore.Richmond Palladium. The Normal School at Lancaster, of which Prof. J. F. Stoddard is Principal, is in a very flourishing state. A resolution has been offered in the Legislature to repeal the law which creates the office of County Superintendent. Gov. POLLOCK IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF HARRISBURG.—On Tuesday, Governor Pollock, accompanied by the Deputy Superintendent, the County Superintendent, and Board of School Directors, visited the various public schools in this borough. In every instance the Governor and his escort were handsomely received, and the occasion was one of unusual interest. The following is an extract from the recent Message of Gov. Clark: "I can not regard our school system as complete, until it shall extend free academical instruction to every child, residing in the State, desirous of its benefits. This can be done, by placing all the schools in each town under the control of a Board of Education, charged with the duty of general superintendence, of selecting suitable text and library books, supplying proper apparatus, grading the schools, and establishing in each town academical departments, or high schools, whenever a majority of the inhabitants shall deem it proper; or the Boards of Education in adjacent towns may combine to secure this result, where the territory is limited, and the means of a single town are inadequate to the purpose. This policy would remove the objection which is now urged, that the masses have no direct interest in the welfare of institutions imparting academ-' ical instruction. The benefit of such instruction would be offered to all the children of the State." NORMAL SCHOOL.-Prof. S. B. Woolworth has been elected Secretary of the Regents of the University, in place of Dr. Beck, creating a vacancy in the Principalship of the Normal School, which has been filled by the appointment of Prof. Cochrane. Prof. Charles Davies has accepted the chair made vacant by the resignation of Prof. Plympton. We have room for no further news in our present number. THE OHIO JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.-Upon reflection, we have thought it best to extend the time for procuring subscribers, with a view to the premiums offered in the February Number, to April 25th. We do so because of the fact, that the vacations in many schools occur in April, and this will afford Teachers time for this business. About 200 new subscribers were secured during the month of February. March ought to give us 1,000 more. We trust that all Teachers will feel an interest in this matter. Our big-hearted friend, E. W. L., from the very small village of Waterville, has sent us eleven subscribers, and is getting more. If all our friends would do proportionably well, the Journal would soon boast 50,000 subscribers. In our next number, we intend to commence a series of letters to the children of Ohio. This we shall do with the hope of interesting and benefiting our young friends, and rendering the Journal a more welcome visiter in the family circle. A WORD TO CONTRIBUTORS.-Please be patient. We can not put every thing into the Journal at once, and some things we never can. CORRECTION.--Page 76, for "MARY" EASTMAN, read MARTHA EASTMAN. From various sources we learn that TEACHERS' INSTITUTES will be held as follows: Franklin, Portage Co., March 17, continue two weeks. Lexington, Richland Co., March 24, one week. Newtown, Hamilton Co., March 27, three days. Winchester, Adams Co., March 31, one week. Batavia, Clermont Co., April 15, one week. Mr. JOHN G. STETSON, a graduate of Bowdoin College, has been appointed Principal of the High School in Columbus. Mr. JOHN EATON, Jr., late Principal of the Clinton Street School, Cleveland, has been chosen Superintendent of the schools in Toledo, in place of A. Smyth, resigned. Mr. A. BURTON PALMER, late Principal of the Mayflower Street School. Cleveland, has accepted the appointment of Principal of the Toledo High School, Prof. ALPHEUS CROSBY, of Dartmouth College, has been chosen Principal Editor of the "Massachusetts Teacher." Rev. ALONZO H. QUINT, of West Roxbury, has been appointed member of the Massachusetts Board of Education. DIED.-In Peru, Huron county, on the ult., Miss Mary McCutchan, daughter of Rev. John McCutchan, aged about 21 years. Miss M. received the greater part of her education, icdluding a thorough knowledge of Latin and Greek, under the tuition of her father. Subsequently she spent one year in the Perrysburgh High School. She taught schools in Fremont and Toledo. At an early age has she fallen a victim to consumption. Her friends are consoled by the confidence that Mary had chosen that good part which insures everlasting blessedness. THE Ohio Journal of Education. COLUMBUS, APRIL, 1856. WHAT WE SHALL READ, AND HOW. BY REV. WILLIAM W. WILLIAMS. We are unquestionably a reading people. It cannot indeed, well be otherwise; for go where we will, books are at hand tempting us with their white pages and fair print. Books in the drawing room — books in the library, and books in the servants' hall. Books piled upon dusty shelves books arranged tastily upon the center table, and books stowed in the lofty garrets. Books of every color-yellow, red and green books of every size, from the miniature to the folio - books bound in every style; in cloth, in morocco and gilt, in velvet and clasps books bound in the antique-books that are half calf and books that are all sheep. Books for the nursery and books for the study-books for the workshop and books for the office-books to be read at home and books to be glanced at by the way. Books upon all themes, from the manufacture of pastry to the constitution of a solar sytem-books learned in the mysteries of science-books deep in the speculations of philosophy-books stubborn in their array of facts, and books crowded with the fancies and fictions of the imagination. Books that are the products of a day, and books that are the labor of years books clipped from the columns of a news-paper, and books collected from the pages of a magazine. Books that sing the songs and embalm the legends of the almost extinct Indian books that are sad with the wail of the oppressed, or black with the hate of the enraged worker; and books that are blotted with the tears and stained with the blood of the enslaved African. Books which fill the pockets of the publisher, while they empty the brain of the reader; and books, which though they have impoverished their authors, are full of mental treasure for their purchasers. Books of all ages-from the deciphered hieroglyphic, dug VOL. V, No. 4. 7 from the buried libraries of Nineveh, to the ephemeral production of yesterday. Books of all degrees of worth, from the treatise that will be authoritative with coming generations, to the silly love-tale, that is forgotten in an hour. Books are every where. Steam presses produce them by the thousand. Every body reads books; almost every body makes books. It is possible that too many books are made - that too many books are read. Here is unquestionably a rich mine of invaluable treasure, open to every comer a fountain of which all are free to drink; and there is perhaps hardly any other thing, that so much influences the intellectual and emotional development of our people, as their reading. It is therefore, a matter well worthy of consideration, and particularly on the part of those who supervise our educational interests. The result of this pursuit must necessarily depend very much upon the object which induces it, and the manner in which it is prosecuted. Widely different is the effect which is produced upon the butcher, as the result of his occupation, from that which the anatomist experiences from his dissections, though each carves flesh and separates joints, for the one has his mind intent only upon juicy steaks, and fat roasts and noble joints, while the other is intent upon his study of the constitution of the body, the relations of its members and the functions of its organs. As widely different, will be the result of reading the same book in two persons, one of whom only aims to "catch the run of the story," while the other studies the style of the author, or the grouping of the scenes, or the customs of the time in which the plot was laid, or the delineation of character which it presents. There is a great diversity of motive in selecting, and of manner in perusing the books which are read. Some read, as the debauchee eats after a revel, to stimulate an appetite the healthy tone of which has been impaired by excess; and as he selects the most highly seasoned and strongly flavored dishes, they choose only such books as abound in maudlin sentiment, or improbable incident; now absorbed with some insipid love scene, and then gloating over some unnatural crime; here taking in greedily the most depraved doctrine in morals, and then adopting the most pernicious maxims in politics. Other readers are like the gourmand who devours all that is set before him, overloading the stomach, overtaxing digestion and inducing unnatural appetites. So they devour every book which falls in their way, crowding the mind with an immense store of unselected and unarran g ed matter some of it valuable, no doubt but whatever is usefu lost amid any quantity of rubbish, until they make of themselves, at best, but aggregations of material so unwieldy, as only to be a burden to themselves, and objects of unadmiring wonder to others. Then again there are readers who select and read books, as a gentleman of means and leisure, who understands and regards the laws of his constitution, selects for his table. His board is spread with many rare dainties, and tempting viands, but all chosen with a view to the healthy action of the system which they are to nourish. He eats but to have his cheerfulness and kindly feelings preserved so as to shed a genial influence over all who come within the sphere of his good nature. So these readers select the choicest books—those which will give the mind pleasant thoughts and bring it into healthy, though not severe action. They become well informed people, and have at full command what they have acquired from the books they have read; but never aim or care to become hard students, to labor with the difficulties of science, to unravel the mazes of philosophy. Nevertheless memory is well stowed with important truths, and its chambers hung with beautiful and tasteful pictures of the imagination. Others still are like the laboring man who selects the strongest and the most nourishing food, and whose quickened appetite makes him crave that which is hearty. His digestion, quickened by exercise, is equal to any thing he lays upon it, and his hard labor quickly works up what he consumes. So these readers, by hard mental labor, quickly digest what they read, and it soon becomes incorporated with their own intellectual faculties, and gives them mental ability for any undertaking, and leaves them with an appetite for the strongest mental aliment. The last two classes of this enumeration only, read to much or any advantage. The others select the least worthy books, and so read them that the little good which they contain is not secured. These two things therefore, lie at the foundation of all profitable reading; a judicious selection of books, and a proper perusal of what we read. To lay down any rule for selection, among the books which claim our attention, that shall be of universal application, would be difficult in the extreme; because there will be so many things personal to the individual making the application of such, and which should be taken into account. One's occupation in life may justly have its influence in determining this choice the taste, either natural or acquired, which one has for certain kinds of reading the faculties of mind which must require development, reason, memory, or imagination; these are import 148364 |