who have lectured before us, and that they be requested to furnish the Censors with copies for publication.

Resolved, That our thanks be tendered to the Directors and Superintendents of the several Railroad Companies for the facilities they have furnished us for attending this meeting.

Mr. Rainy, of Ohio, moved that the next meeting of the Institute be held in Ohio.

Resolved, On motion of Mr. Bulkley, of New York, that the thanks of the Institute be presented to the President for his courteous, energetic, and faithful discharge of duty.

The President read some appropriate lines sent in by a lady.

The evening of the third day of the Convention being well nigh spent, and the business of one of the most interesting meetings of the Institute completed, the twenty-first annual session of the Association closed with some happily suggested and very appropriate remarks by the President, and the singing of Old Hundred by the multitude in attendance.

Adjourned sine die.

JOHN BATCHELDER, Rec. Sec.

ANNUAL REPORT.

THE Directors of the American Institute of Instruction, in presenting their Report of the present condition of the Association, have much satisfaction in stating that, as far as the interest and activity of its members in the objects for which it was established are concerned, it is highly flourishing and thrifty.

At its Annual Session, held at Montpelier, in 1849, it added seventy-one new members to its roll; among whom were several of the most distinguished citizens of Ver

mont.

Its lectures and debates were of a high and useful character, and the attendance of teachers and other friends of education, large, and increasing to the closing day. The hospitalities of the citizens were tendered to persons from abroad, and Resolutions complimentary to the Institute were passed by the people, after the adjournment.

The volume for that year, containing eight lectures, has been published, and adds another valuable book to the educator's library.

The Secretary of the Board of Education has kindly invited the Institute to make use of his room at the State House, as a depository for its library, papers, &c., and for the meetings of the Government; which offer will be gratefully accepted, and the books, &c., be removed thither at an early day.

The renewal of the Legislative grant of three hundred dollars a year, which was petitioned for, at the last session of the General Court, was refused-through an accidental circumstance, as is supposed,—but the Directors have a well-founded assurance of success, at the ensuing session.

At any rate, believing, as they do, in the still existing capacity for usefulness, in the momentous concerns of the general education of the people, of the American Institute of Instruction, they devoutly resolve to sustain it by all proper means and efforts.

If it has "rendered the State some service," more remains to be performed, which it will be their purpose, as it is their pleasure, to see accomplished.

The Treasurer reports the funds in his hands to be sufficient to meet the claims of the Lecturers for the present year; and for other unavoidable expenses, they confidently trust that means will be furnished according to the need.

For the Directors,

GIDEON F. THAYER,
JOHN KINGSBURY,
WILLIAM D. SWAN,

Committee.

BOSTON, AUGUST, 1850.

LECTURE I.

GOD'S PLAN FOR EDUCATING MAN.

BY C. C. CHASE,

OF LOWELL.

THERE is a great law pervading the infinite universe, which to know is wisdom, to love is piety, and to obey is holiness. It is the perpetual revelation of the divine. will, the ceaseless manifestation of the Deity to man. By it the heavens revolve, declaring, as they pass, the glory of God. By it all nature lives and moves in delightful harmony. It bids the busy ant provide her meat in the summer, and the bird of passage to fly from the winter storm. It tells the confiding sparrow to build her nest upon the altar, and the young ravens to cry and seek their food from God. Such beautiful harmony has this great law introduced into all things which fill the boundless space, that the ancient philosopher, enraptured as he gazed, declared that he could hear the music of the spheres.

Alas! that a single discord should mingle with music so divine. Man alone has disturbed the harmony. Man

alone has wandered from the path of his own better nature; and it is the burden of revelation, of the atonement, and of all true religious instruction, to bring him back again. The beseeching voice, “return, return," was never uttered to the birds of the air, or to the beasts of the field, but to the children of men. The Savior does not point us for perfect faith to Abraham, or for perfect glory to Solomon; but to the fowls which receive their food from heaven, and the lilies by the wayside, which refresh their beauty in the morning dew.

How fondly man clings to the creations of his own fancy, how slowly he returns to the path of his own better nature, and how reluctantly he submits to the great plan of infinite wisdom, appears in many a tale even of simple life.

A cheerful submission to God's great plan for educating man, is, perhaps, the last lesson which the friends of education shall learn. The humblest mortal in the darkest hour, must try all his own theories before he can adopt the plan of infinite wisdom.

In yonder humble dwelling, behold a poor widow with her little son, the only sharer of the silence and the solitude with which death has shrouded her once happy home. The blush that mantled her bridal cheek has fled; the hopes that gilded her bridal morn have faded away; the face whose smile had sweetened all her toil, is mouldering back to dust; and nothing is left her but a dark future, and a life of lonely labor and consuming care. As she turns to her little son, a new pang visits the widow's heart. How many an evening hour had these fond parents whiled away, in forming plans