when we read of the poor creatures who were chained, for fear that they should do some mischief to themselves, or others. It is indeed dreadful to think of. We do feel very sorry for the poor Deaf and Dumb people, and we thank God that we can hear our parents and brothers and sisters, when they speak to us and can answer them. . . . We are that portion of your children' known by the name of The Second Division in Reading, in the Marietta High School."

THINGS PERSONAL.

Mr. THOMAS MCCARTNEY has, on account of ill health, resigned the superintendence of the Schools in Canal Dover, Tuscarawas county, and removed to Londonderry, Guernsey county. Mr. M. has been an active and successful educator, and we sincerely hope that restored health will very soon permit him to resume his professional work.

Mr. A. E. TYLER, Principal of the S. E. District School, Dayton, has resigned his position.

Mr. W. K. LEONARD has been elected Superintendent of the Schools in Findlay, Hancock Co., O. Salary, $600.

Mr. E. B. PEIRCE, late Superintendent of the Schools in Martin's Ferry, O., has been appointed to a Professorship in McDonough College, Ill.

A gentleman wishes to engage as Principal of an Academy or Union School. Would teach all or part of the year. The best recommendations can be given. Address M. D. BUELL, Seville, Medina Co., O.

YOUNG AMERICA ON PARADE.

The "Drum and Fife" have been introduced into the Columbus Schools, and, as terrible as they are to certain nervous gentlemen, the Republic, so far, has survived the shock; our national flag still floats gracefully on the breezes of summer; our national bird still spreads his wings in proud defiance of all tyrants, and "E Pluribus Unum" (Latin for " Hail Columbia") remains a living and blessed fact.

Col. George C. Smith is Principal of the Third District Schools in this city. He has organized a company of Public School Cadets, and on the 4th ult. they appeared on public parade, to the number of sixty muskets. They were "armed and equipped as the law directs," and made an exceedingly fine appearance. Napoleon's Old Guard never more promptly and exactly obeyed the command of Marshal Ney, than did these Cadets answer to the command of Col. Smith. The citizens of Columbus were proud of their boys, and felt no regret that they had subscribed several hundred dollars to procure their equipments.

APOLOGETIC.-Several communications, our monthly notice of books, catalogues, etc., and many items of news, prepared for this number of the Journal, are unavoidably deferred, on account of the length of the proceedings of the Association.

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES.

and in autumn.

A great many Institutes are to be held in the State during the present month We have not been able to ascertain the precise time of all, and friends to furnish us with facts for our next issue.

will request our

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF EDUCATION, Will meet at Detroit, Michigan, August 12.

Addresses by Chancellor Tappan, Prof. Welch, D. Bethune Duffield, and others. THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION will hold its 27th Annual Meeting at Springfield, Mass., on the 19th, 20th and 21st days of August.

Addresses by President Walker, Governor Boutwell, Hon. S. S. Randall, Thos. Sherwin, and others.

New York S. T. Association meets at

Pennsylvania

Michigan

Indiana

Troy,

August 5th.

New subscribers to the Journal, who desire to do so, may commence with the July number, though there are many reasons why we prefer that all should take the back numbers of the present volume.

Persons writing us on business, are earnestly requested to give their post office address infull. We have several letters on hand, asking us to send their Journals to "this place," which letters have no dates; and where "this place" is, we are not able to find out.

CORRECTION. In a note on page 216 of the Journal for July, we noticed the death of a lady. Our information was direct and positive, but, we are most happy to say, the report was a mistake.

OUR EXCHANGES.-The Journal is sent to many papers in Ohio which are not sent to us in return. After the present number, we shall send to none that do not come to us.

THE

Ohio Journal of Education.

COLUMBUS, SEPTEMBER, 1856.

"THE WILL AS AN EDUCATIONAL POWER."

An Address delivered before the O. S. T. Association, at Mansfield, July 2, 1856, by the REV. J. B. BITTINGER, of Cleveland.

The popular interest, which has, of late years, attached to everything connected with Education, has prompted inquiry into all the departments of the subject; and to such a degree has the general surface of the subject been examined and expounded, that it is difficult to find a point of space unoccupied, or at least unnoticed. We have abounded in lectures, on all the theories, and all the arts of teaching; we have had volumes of codes for the government of schools; the moral suasion code, the code flagellation, and the half-and-half code. We have all heard of the duties of Parents, and Teachers, and Legislators to schools. We have listened to lectures on singing and writing by the tick of the clock; we have had dissertations on prizes and emulation; we have had homilies on perseverance, attention and punctuality; and discourses on the training of the judgment and the cultivation of the taste and the understanding; to all this variety, has been added, as an indispensable appendix, essays on cleanliness, politeness, accomplishments — but in all these ollapodrida of subjects, I've never heard of but one write who recognized the importance of the will as an educational force.

In order to understand the full importance of the will, in education, it will be necessary to go back a little, and refresh our minds with some plain principles of mental science. It is a popular belief, as well as a psychological axiom, that the mind is always active-not merely when we are awake, but in the repose of sleep. The mind of the dreamer is as active as the mind of the watcher. In the vacation of night, memory and imagination disport themselves, with all the activity of holydays. As the spider weaves his cunning web at night, that the dew may VOL. V, No 9.

17

string her pearls ready for the sun's first ray; so at night, when toil and task are done, the ever active mind sends forth memory and fancy to weave their airy garlands around the prosy topics of life, and to delight for a moment, our waking hour, with visions of the night. The mind never sleeps, and in these nocturnal diversions of the dreamer lies the proof of the ceaseless stream of life. Like the fabled Arethusa, now above ground, now beneath, but whether in Arcadia, or in Sicily, still the same immortal stream.

But the mind is not only ever active, but it is self-active-it has the power of originating action. The mind is not made to think, or to feel. or to will; but the mind, by its own force, thinks, feels and wills. It is not merely capable of being moved to these acts, but, on occasion, moves itself. Neither must we say that occasions are necessary to the motion itself of the mind; occasions only serve to give direction and variety to its motions. Like the sublime planets projected into space, once started from the divine hand, they move forever on, their direction only determined by nearer bodies, but not their motion. That was breathed into them by God, and with that immortal inheritance, they will live on, and move on, till He who sent them out, shall again call them in. So the mind once put in motion, by the inspiration of the Almighty, will move on, with the force of its original propulsion forever, unless God shall arrest it—but sleep is no arrest, neither is death. Or, to take a more familiar illustration, the mind is like steam in a boiler; its spontaneous activity will issue at any point where a vent makes an occasion.

To this spontaneous activity there are three general outlets-the intellect, the sensibilities and the will. These are the mind's great sluices through which, as occasion offers, its living waters pour unceasing currents. Man may shut off any two of these, but God only can shut them all off. A man may cease to think and feel, and only will; or he may will and think, but not feel; or he may feel and will, but not think; but he can not cease all three at once; that would be mental suicide.

You will at once perceive, that to the first two, the intellect and the sensibilities, a good deal of attention has been given, by lecturers and educators. To the general subject of the intellect belongs all that has been said of cultivating the perceptive powers, as sense, attention and observation here too belongs the memory and the judgment. To the sensibilities belongs what has been said of the manner and importance of cultivating the taste, the imagination, the fancy and the conscience;

while into the department of the will, falls what has been written about perseverance, energy, application.

one.

It is customary to speak of "the Republic of Letters," and if we carry the figure up to the constitution of mind, we will find that it has not only a beautiful application there, but a most apposite and illustrative. The intellect is legislative, the sensibilities judicial, and the will executive. And it is worthy of remark for our special purpose, on the present occasion, that the executive department is constituted in the most efficient manner. The will is a unit; it is never delayed by many counsellors; it is a miniature of the divine will; it too has its fiats; it commands, and it stands fast; it speaks, and it is done.

This

Before considering more fully the power and functions of the will, I will revert, once more, to the self-activity of the mind. It is true that mind is automatic; but it is also true that there are constitutional biases for moving, feeling and willing, in certain directions. This spontaneity, in certain persons, has more energy in some directions than in others. This constitutional aptitude accounts for intellectual preferences and successes in life. In some minds this self-activity flows more readily through the channel of the feelings. gives us the musician and the poet; hence the poet is born, rather than made, or barring the pun, poeta nascetur non fit; therefore, he who is not nascetur, is not fit. In other cases this spontaneous activity presses most in the direction of the will, and this preponderance gives us our Cæsars and Napoleons; men who have the perseverance of the ant, the assiduity of the bee, and the tenacity of the bull-dog. Regarding the mind as a fluid pressing equally in every direction, we may say that each person's constitutional bias is "the down-hill" of his mind; the inclination on which it runs with most alacrity, and generally with most success. I doubt not, every Teacher has had scholars who had no "down-hill" except for indolence and mischief, and with whom Mathematics and Philosophy, Grammar and Geography were all "up-hill" work. No engineering by books or Teachers seemed to make the proud temple of fame accessible to them. Like a standing pool on the sunny side of the mountain, they stagnate and fester, for want of a current or outlet. It is hoped such are exceptions, while the majority of pupils' minds are like the imprisoned winds of Æolus, ranging round their mountain cavern, and seeking quick egress at the first cleft, which the lucky hit of the master may open.

So far as the mind is controlled from within or from without, excepting always its subjection to God, the will is the controlling power. The will as executive, sees that the decisions of the sensibilities are car