By an examination of the preceding table, and by a few simple calculations, the following particulars, being annual averages of the last ten years, are deduced, viz.:

Annual average number of those entering college,.

16.8

Annual average number of these who were received from the public schools,.

7.7

Annual average number of the same who were received from other schools,..

9.1

14.4

Annual average number who entered Harvard College,
Annual average number who entered other colleges,.
Annual average age at entering college, (which is probably too low by
nearly six months, as the months which exceed the years as
fractional years have been omitted in every case in the table
given on page 559,).....

....

2.4

17.3

It will, therefore, be seen that during the last ten years, one hundred and sixty. eight boys have been fitted for college at the Latin School,-seventy-seven who entered the school from the public schools, and ninety-one from private schools. Of these, one hundred and forty-four entered Harvard College, and twenty-four went to other colleges. In this connection it may be well to look back a few years, and see what the school has heretofore done toward producing collegeeducated men. In the year 1814, the school took a fresh start, recovering from the effects of the war then just terminated, and was restored to its proper standing under the excellent administration of our late distinguished citizen, Benjamin A. Gould, Esq. Mr. Gould was followed, in succession, by the eminent scholars, Frederic P. Leverett, Esq., Charles K. Dillaway, Esq., and Epes S. Dixwell, Esq., and these, by the present learned head of the school, Francis Gardner, Esq. The whole number of young men prepared for college by each of the above-named gentlemen, together with the years of service of each master to the school, and his average annual contribution to the colleges, can be seen at a glance in the following table:

Do not these figures show how eminently useful the Latin school has been in its highest vocation-the production of classical scholars? During the last forty-six years nearly six hundred young men have received their first instructions in classical learning within the walls of this school, and with such thoroughness that they have been admitted to honorable standing in the several universities and colleges of New England; and, undoubtedly, many more who have not proceeded immediately from the school to college have been indebted to the school for a large part of their preparation for college. Many of these young men are numbered among the first scholars of the country; and, indeed, we have the highest authority for stating that the Boston Latin School has a most important influence in sustaining the high standard of excellence demanded by most of the colleges in New England in the examination of applicants for entrance, arising chiefly from the eminent standing of the Latin-school boys after their joining classes at college. No school, we believe, is more thorough in imparting elementary knowledge of Latin and Greek to its pupils than is ours, an advantage which its scholars always prize and acknowledge.

FRANCIS GARDNER entered on the Mastership of the Latin School in 1852, having fitted for Harvard College under the instruction of Master Benjamin A. Gould, and been employed as an assistant in the same school under Masters C. K. Dillaway, and E. S. Dixwell. Under no former Master has the number of pupils been so large, the course of instruction more thorough, and the annual contribution to the colleges so high. The following account of the school has been drawn up by Mr. Gardner at our request:—

"As the Latin School is maintained to prepare young men for a collegiate career, its course of studies is in a great measure prescribed by the colleges, and it simply remains for the government of the school to accomplish the desired object, with the greatest benefit to the pupil. In the following sketch we propose to give some account of the existing regulations of the school and the reasons for their adoption.

Every pupil must have reached the age of ten years, and pass a satisfactory examination in reading, spelling, writing, and in the elements of arithmetic, geography, and grammar.

Inasmuch as from the very nature of the subject, the memory is a very important agent in the acquisition of grammar-the pupil being ignorant of the whole nomenclature-it has seemed best to employ those years, when the verbal memory is strongest, in the acquisition of this indispensable knowledge. Therefore, for nearly the whole of the last fifty years, the age for admission to this school has been fixed at nine or at ten years.

II. METHOD OF INSTRUCTION.

The studies of the school are divided into two departments, the Classic, including Latin, Greek, Mythology, Ancient Geography and History; and the Modern, including Mathematics, French, Modern Geography, History, English Grammar, Compositions, Written Translations, Reading, and Spelling. Immediately upon entering the school, the pupil has assigned him a lesson in Latin Grammar, for one of his two lessons for each day, the other being in the Modern Department. As it is assumed that his knowledge is very limited, he is called upon to commit to memory a very short lesson, great care being taken that he shall understand, not only the general meaning of each sentence, but the particular signification of each word. When he has committed this portion to memory, test questions of all kinds are put, in order to ascertain if he understands fully what he can repeat. The reason why the words of the book are required are twofold, because they express the ideas to be conveyed better than the pupil can give them in his own language, and because it is the shortest and easiest way of acquiring the desired knowledge; the test questioning making it impossible for the learner to acquire mere words without ideas. When the class has advanced as far as Syntax, they then begin to translate and parse, quoting from their grammars all that is applicable to the word under consideration. The rules of Syntax are learned as fast as they occur.

The test questioning is kept up during the whole course, so that upon every

"advance lesson" the pupil is responsible for all that he has previously learned upon the subject, whether grammar, mathematics, or geography.

111.

DISTRIBUTION OF TEACHERS AND SUBJECTS.

At the beginning of each year a class is assigned to a teacher who is to have its entire management, in both departments, for the whole year. This arrangement is found to produce better results than when frequent changes are made, or when the pupils pursue different studies with different instructors.

IV. HOURS OF RECITATION.

There is no fixed programme for the recitations, and the hours for them, experience having taught that what may be an excellent plan for one class would be a most injudicious one for another. The teacher is constantly employed in hearing recitations, and the only rule imposed on him is, that each class shall recite twice a-day, and shall receive its due share of his time and attention. If, in his judgment, one of the lessons of the day demands more of his time than the other, he gives it.

V. STUDY OUT OF SCHOOL HOURS.

To the youngest classes an out of school lesson is assigned daily, intended to occupy the pupils one hour; to the highest classes a two hours' lesson is assigned. The great advantage of this is that the teacher thereby can profitably employ ⚫ all his time in drilling his classes. Were they to study only in school, he frequently would be obliged to wait for them to prepare a lesson, whereas now each of the three classes has a lesson in readiness to recite, upon entering school.

VI. DURATION OF COURSE.

Six years is the time allotted to those who enter the school at ten years of age. Very many however enter at a later period, and finish their course in two, three or four years. But experience has incontestably proved that it is impossible for a boy who begins the study of Latin at fifteen years of age, to make so good a scholar, at the time of entering college, as he would have been had he begun his Latin at ten, no matter how thorough his education may have been between ten and fifteen.

VII. CLOSING EXAMINATION.

The only closing examination is that made by the sub-committee of the school, in order to assign the Franklin Medals, and here the committee are required "to inspect the school records," to ascertain the standing of the candidates, as indicated by them. It is at the various colleges that the scholars undergo their examinations. If they fail there, any diploma or certificate of scholarship, which they might have received, would be but a mockery.

VIII. DISCIPLINE.

"As is the master, so is the school." Each teacher is held responsible not only for the order, but for the proficiency of his classes. There can be no order, no proficiency unless the teacher is really the master; unless the pupils are under his control. They perhaps may not know the fact, but unless it exists, there can be no satisfactory progress. The gentler the means by which this control is secured, the better for both teacher and pupil. He is the best teacher who produces the best results with the least application of force. But force of

some kind must lie in the teacher or good results can not be produced. Some men have a kind of magnetic force to which a boy yields unconsciously, and which it is impossible for him to resist. Others are obliged to have recourse to mere external force. These men rarely become successful teachers, however talented or learned they may be.

This account would be incomplete without the addition of the writer's belief respecting all preparatory education. It is not what a boy learns at school that makes the man, but how he learns it. All the knowledge that a faithful student acquires before arriving at manhood is as nothing, compared with the intellectual strength he has gained, and the ability he has of taking hold of any work that may present itself, and doing it. If the acquisition of knowledge were the chief object in education, very useful as an acquaintance with the dead languages is—indispensable, in fact, to the man of letters--one might with propriety doubt the expediency of spending so large a portion of youth and early manhood in the study. But the earnest, laborious student of language develops a power, which no other training could possibly give him, and in comparison with which, all his acquisitions of mere knowledge sink into utter insignifi

We give below the Regulations of the School Committee as printed in 1861, so far as relates to this school.

REGULATIONS OF THE LATIN GRAMMAR SCHOOL.

SECTION 1. This school, situated in Bedford Street, was instituted early in the 17th century.

2. The rudiments of the Latin and Greek languages are taught, and scholars are fitted for the most respectable colleges. Instruction is also given in Mathematics, Geography, History, Declamation, English Grammar, Composition, and in the French language.

The following regulations, in addition to those common to all the schools, apply to this school.

3. The instructors in this school shall be, a master, a sub-master, and as many ushers as shall allow one instructor to every thirty-five pupils, and no additional usher shall be allowed for a less number.

4. It shall be a necessary qualification for the instructors of this school, that they shall have been educated at a college of good standing.

5. Each candidate for admission shall have attained the age of ten years, and shall produce from the master of the school he last attended, a certificate of good moral character. He shall be able to read English correctly and fluently, to spell all words of common occurrence, to write a running hand, understand Mental Arithmetic, and the simple rules of Written Arithmetic, and be able to answer the most important questions in Geography, and shall have a sufficient knowledge of English Grammar to parse common sentences in prose. A knowledge of Latin Grammar shall be considered equivalent to that of English. 6. Boys shall be examined for admission to this school only once a year, viz: on the Friday and Saturday of the last week of the vacation succeeding the exhibition of the school in July.

7. The regular course of instruction shall continue six years, and no scholar shall enjoy the privileges of this school beyond that term, unless by written leave of the Committee. But scholars may have the option of completing their course in five years or less time, if willing to make due exertions, and shall be advanced according to scholarship.

8. The sessions of the school shall begin at 9 o'clock, A. M., and close at 2 o'clock, P. M., on every school-day throughout the year, except on Saturday, when the school shall close at 1 o'clock.

9. The school shall be divided into classes and sub-divisions, as the master, with the approbation of the Committee, may think advisable.

10. The master shall examine the pupils under the care of the other teachers in the school as often as he can consistently with proper attention to those in his own charge.

11. The books and exercises required in the course of instruction in this school, are the following:

Class 6. 1. Andrews' and Stoddard's Latin Grammar. 2. English Grammar. 3. Reading English. 4. Spelling. 5. Mental Arithmetic. 6. Mitchell's Geographical Questions. 7. Declamation. 8. Penmanship. 9. Andrews' Latin Lessons. 10. Andrews' Latin Reader.

Class 5. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, continued. lations. 13. Colburn's Sequel.

Prose Composition.

11. Viri Romæ. 12. Written Trans14. Cornelius Nepos. 15. Arnold's Latin

Class 4. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13, 15, continued. 16. Sophocles' Greek Grammar. 17. Sophocles' Greek Lessons. 18. Cæsar's Commentaries. 19. Fasquelle's French Grammar. 20. Exercises in speaking and reading French with a native French teacher.

Class 3. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, continued. 21. Ovid's Metamorphoses. 22. Arnold's Greek Prose Composition. 23. Xenophon's Anabasis. 24. Sherwin's Algebra. 25. English Composition. 26. Le Grandpere.

Class 2. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 15, 16, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, continued. 27. Virgil. 28. Elements of History. 29. Translations from English into Latin.

33.

Class 1. 1, 7, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, continued. 30. Geometry. 31. Cicero's Orations. 32. Composition of Latin Verses. Composition in French. 34. Ancient History and Geography. 35. Homer's Iliad, (three books.)

The following books of reference may be used in pursuing the above studies: Leverett's Latin Lexicon, or Gardner's abridgment of the same.

Andrews' Latin Lexicon.

Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon, or Pickering's Greek Lexicon, last edition. Worcester's School Dictionary.

Smith's Classical Dictionary.

Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities.

Baird's Classic Manual. Warren's Treatise on Physical Geography, or Cartee's Physical Geography and Atlas, is permitted to be used.

12. No Translations, nor any Interpretation, Keys, or Orders of Construction, are allowed in the School.

13. The instructors shall pay particular attention to the penmanship of the pupils, and give constantly such instruction in Spelling, Reading, and English Grammar, as they may deem necessary to make the pupils familiar with those fundamental branches of a good education.

The improvements made within even the present century, in this—the oldest school now in operation on the original plan in the country-as in all other grades, in material, outfit, and aids of instruction, as well as in the range of studies and methods of teaching are very beautifully alluded to by Mr. Everett in an Address at Faneuil Hall, in 1855, at the close of the Annual Examination of the Grammar Schools:

"It was, Mr. Mayor, fifty-two years last April, since I began, at the age of nine years, to attend the reading and writing schools in North Bennet street. The reading school was under Master Little, (for "Young America" had not yet repudiated that title,) and the writing school was kept by Master Tilestone. Master Little, in spite of his name, was a giant in statue-six feet four, at least