The introduction of the free-school system would be the greatest possible boon to them; but it is not possible that it can be done as long as the class distinction breaks society up into castes as inflexible as those of the East. But, it may be asked by the reader, are there no free schools in Germany? Does not the government provide for the education of the poor? Yes, it does; but how? It gives, to those who are too poor to pay tuition, schools of commensurate pretensions. It provides small back rooms, unventilated of course, and in squalid neighborhoods; it places over them teachers of miserable education, in many cases even speaking impure German, and in no way capable of imparting valuable instruction to the pupils; and this is all. Such a magnificent system as ours, which is more sedulous for the education of the poor man's sons than of the rich man's, has never been dreamed of here. Our school system, I feel it more and more, is the glory of America; it is the corner-stone of our prosperity; it is the pillar on which our future hopes depend. This is a truism, but its verity is less a common-place when pronounced in Europe than when uttered in America. I would not exchange this single organic element, the freedom of our schools, for ten times the proficiency in classical Latin and Greek which is given in a German gymnasium.

And here I touch upon a point which wants a little further expansion. We often hear the "thoroughness" attained in the German schools held up to an unchallenged approbation. So far as just two studies are concerned, it is no doubt true; but beyond that, it does not seem to me to be so. Owing to the great prominence given in the Universities to the languages of ancient Greece and Rome, the German teachers are far better fitted to impart instruction in the former literature of these two lands than our American teachers are; but there we have to stop. The modern languages, the sciences, metaphysics, and general history are, on the whole, better taught in America than here. In the last-named study but one, there is no comparison between the relative degree of advancement reached in the two countries. Go into any school and listen to the reading, the mathematical, geographical, and historical exercises, and you will give the preference to the exercises of the American schools. Our school-houses are not more superior to theirs than are the teachers whom we employ, and the excellence of the methods employed. And the reason is not hard to find. In Germany, men press eagerly into the ranks of teachers because it gives them a good position, a sure living, and much leisure. They will "do better" in this calling than in any handicraft which they might adopt. But it is not so with us. The American teacher has an assured position in society it is true, but his income is often not so great as that of the carpenter or the wheelwright. He, as well as the clergyman, takes his place at a pecuniary sacrifice. Such a test will always call out the best men. It is because the love of the calling is stronger than the love of money that makes our American teachers and clergymen the first in the world, the most efficient, and the least perfunctory. Once in a while the true ring comes out here, but it is not frequent. I remember a letter of Carl Ritter's, written before his appointment as Professor at Berlin, and while he was considering whether he should accept an invitation to be Pestalozzi's successor in Switzerland, in which he says that while he should like to live on the banks of the Rhine best, yet that for the sake of the rising generation he could go to the

world's end. If one saw more of this spirit in Germany, there would be more of that enthusiasm which animates American teachers, and far less of that mere professional spirit which is so marked in this Old World.

There is one feature in the German school-system which awakened the special admiration of Horace Mann, and which made him so urgent that we should model our schools on the European pattern. It was the method of imparting religious instruction. I am not familiar enough with his writings or his recently published biography to cite his opinions, or to attempt to show that they were rightly or wrongly based; but, speaking independently, I confess that religion does come into the foreground here, as all well-wishers to the Christian religion might wish it to do at home. And yet it is not possible, at the present day certainly, that it should be in America as in Germany, for here the state church is the symbol of a unity in religious matters of which we know nothing. Not that there is any real unity, but there is no outward mark of dissent, and the church machinery can be coerced by the State authorities, so far as to prescribe the use of certain manuals of religious instruction, and make it incumbent on every teacher to question his pupils from them. It is true these are not such books as our Sunday-school societies publish; they confine themselves usually to the undisputed facts of Bible history, they can be accepted alike by the believer and the rationalist; but they do give an acquaintance with the Bible as a classic and as a historical work, which is rarely equalled by the scholars of our Sunday-schools. It may be said, and will be said by many good and earnest people, that all this is nothing; that without the enforcement of Gospel truths, the most extended familiarity with Biblical history, antiquities and geography must pass as nothing. But so it does not seem to me; the pupils do not remain in heathenish ignorance of Bible facts; they have a good foundation on which the clergyman and the parents may build; and with faithful supplementary instruction there is no reason why the German youth should not become eminent in piety. If they do not do so, it is not because the system is faulty in the schools, but defective out of them; not because school teachers fail in their part, but because pastors and parents fail in theirs. So far as I am familiar with Mr. Mann's opinions, these were that the German system could be introduced into the United States; but, in the present clashing state of the various religious sects, it does not seem to me that such an event is possible. The most that we can hope for is unity in ethical principles, and that unity seems to be a consummated fact. Taking things as they are, with due allowance for the great efficiency and the immense compass of our Sunday-schools, there is little that is wanting, even morally and religiously, in our American schools. And yet there is a little that could be supplied without calling down any harsh criticisms. There is no church which could or would criticize the introduction of Biblical geography as a department of study; and yet this is one of the things in which American youths are the lamest. When we reflect that American scholars have done more towards the forwarding of this department than those of any other land, and when we reflect also on the many excellencies of our Sunday-schools, it is indeed surprising that we suffer our children to be so ignorant as we do of the simplest elements of Biblical geography.

Turning from this subject, let me allude to an error exceedingly preva

lent in this country-namely, that, because America is the "New World," every thing is there rude, unsettled, unformed. It was brought out not long ago in a conversation with a distinguished teacher. He had taken me over his school-house, which was new, and really excellent for Germany, but by no means comparable to one which we should have in America, in a city of the same size. The grade of the institution compared to that which we call a "high-school," and yet there was no arrangement for ventilating the rooms, the seats were rude backwoods benches, the walls were very bare, and the whole appearance of the building would be inferior in American eyes. Still, as I said, it was an excellent house, for a German one. The teacher regarded the building and its appointments with conscious pride. After we had inspected the whole building, he turned and said, "Well, how do you like it?" "Very well," I said, "very well, it is a good house; it must be one of the best in the country." "Yes, it is," he answered, with increased exultation; and by and by, if your country goes on, you will be able to have schoolhouses as large and good as this." I thought it high time to undeceive him, if he thought that America needed any such sympathetic pity as that implied, so I answered him quietly: "Oh, I wasn't comparing this house with those in America; but since you seem to think that we are behind you in this respect, I ought to tell you, that in a city as large as this such a house would be reckoned second or third rate. Nowhere in Europe are the schools so palatial as in the United States." He regarded me with a look as if of inquiry whether on this particular subject I might not be a little insane, and then went on to say, with the utmost nonchalance: "Oh, we don't expect much of America as yet; you have a new country; by and by you will, no doubt, be able to have every thing as fine as we have in Europe." That was a little too cool; but there was no use in going off in a passion, and so I took him up at the words "you have a new country," and spoke a little more at length. I asked him whether, when neighbors and friends of his took all their children and goods, and put them in a boat and crossed over to the other side of the river, built a house and began to reclaim land, it was necessary to presuppose that they reduce themselves to the level of savages, and must build up their civilization de novo? And would it make any special difference in the principle involved whether the journey across consumed ten minutes or a month? After getting that point settled, I showed him, or attempted to do so, that in all respects England is now, and has been for centuries, just about a century in advance of Germany in all that constitutes the comforts of civilization,-a country without carpets and easychairs, without water-pipes and decent beds, without cooking stoves and ventilators, without an art of cookery, and without newspapers (so far as the body of the population is concerned)—a country where all that exists, which is not of French or English origin, carries us back to greater rudeness than has been known in England for a hundred years, as I took special pains to show this eminent teacher. That point being settled, I asked him how he would demonstrate, that if English people, who, two hundred years ago, were more than a century in advance of the Germans, moved their effects to America, and took all their culture and civilization with them, we could be spoken of as a "new country," and the hope expressed about us, that by and by we might enjoy all the advantages of the

Old World. It was a good earnest "talk," and I trust will not be forgotten, as it was received without a particle of ill-nature. I cite it here merely because it illustrates one phase of German opinions about the New World. Other men are wiser, and know how to measure us. Every year there is a better knowledge of America and its institutions; but much remains to be taught yet. We hear a good deal about German ignorance of American geography, but I wish that this were the worst of their sins concerning us. Notwithstanding the intelligent books written about America, and the great influence of such papers as the Leipsig Illustrated News, the darkness which rests upon Germany is very great. But one of the radical reasons why we have been so much misunderstood is the one hinted in the above conversation, that, as we are a new country," we have not yet risen above the mists of barbarism and the estate of savagery. W. L. G.

"

MR

A SUMMER LETTER.

R. EDITOR-One day last week I went to the Academy. It is at the north end of a large common, part of which is adorned by numerous shade-trees, well-grown and various. Think of the loveliest knoll in the Central Park ramble, and imagine, in place of the picturesque arbor there, an old two-story white building, with green blinds, a huge doorstone, and a somewhat imposing belfry. That is the outside of our Academy. I counted twenty-five pupils, little boys and girls, boys and girls "of a larger growth," several young ladies, and one veteran who served three whole years in the 18th Conn. Infantry, and is now just nineteen. As soon as he was mustered out, he announced his intention of resuming his studies. An acquaintance of his said to one of the teachers: "He is so bashful, I hope you will give him a desk by the wall, so that he can look one way without seeing girls." But they say he never looks that way! Alexander Hamilton said: "If I must have a master, give me one with epaulettes; somebody that I can look up to and respect, and not a master with a quill behind his ear." If all soldiers have that feeling when they return to private life, it must have been a hard thing for this young veteran to fall in under feminine command in the ranks of a summer school. He hesitated a few days, and then said that he may sometime be so situated that it will be of more importance to him that he has the knowledge he will gain this summer than under what circumstances he has obtained it. I noticed him during the opening exercises. He recited his Bible verse as sweetly as the youngest in the room. Just before recess a list of names was read, including the veteran's, for the game of croquet. The arches stand on the common, and in pleasant weather there is a long recess every forenoon for those pupils who have not whispered. On this occasion, as the others were selecting their mallets, the veteran said to a teacher near him: "I forfeited my privilege a few minutes ago.” So a substitute took his mallet. He, meanwhile, reopened his Natural Philosophy, and was soon working on his slate a problem of two locomotives; how they would compare in velocity, momentum, and striking force.

The

day was intensely hot, and the croquet players came in almost as damp as if they had all "gone up Salt River" by literal swimming, instead of the figure of speech peculiar to their game. At noon the pupils lunched and chatted under the Lombardy poplars. Nothing else afforded shade dense enough for such a day. When the bell rang, nobody wanted to come in. And it was so arranged that some of the lessons were recited out doors that day. When the afternoon recess was over, all came to order as they would in the school-room, but remained in the shade of the poplars. The veteran looked as if he thought it a pleasant encampment. Warm weather for school, most certainly; but not too warm for singing. "Music in the

air" sounded all the better, because the air was not confined by walls and doors.

The hour had come for the botany class. A small boy passed round some potato blossoms, which were analyzed by acclamation. We then considered other nightshades and other tubers, till the pupils were invited to re-enter the Academy for such recitations as could not so well be conducted out-doors. After the school had been dismissed, we read to each other till the lengthening shadows had covered the croquet ground. How did people ever entertain their summer visitors before croquet was invented? It was not played by school-children this time-not exactly. A number of old maids had been invited to come over sometime and try the new game. And they all happened to come at once. A bystander remarked that they played slowly. Another said it was because they hadn't played any thing since they were children, and that was so long ago! There was a little confusion sometimes; for instance, when the call was "Gray! Gray!" it was necessary to notice that it meant the lady with the gray mallet, and not the one with the gray hair. But I don't believe the Dutchmen that Rip Van Winkle saw playing ninepins had half as good a time as these worthy Yankee women in their first game of croquet.

On taking leave of the Academy and its grounds, I congratulated the principal upon the pleasant and orderly appearance of her young people. She said: "The art of government has always seemed to me to have its difficulties. I have heard of parents going to hear Mr. Rarey lecture upon horses, in order to learn how to control their children. For myself, I never had that privilege. But I obtained one hint from reading how a man once managed his dog. He had him in a boat with a friend, who laughed incredulously when he boasted of the dog's obedient habits. At last he offered his friend a wager that the dog would instantly do the first three things he might ask of him. The wager was accepted; whereupon the master threw him overboard, and said: 'Swim, Major, swim!' Major swam till he reached shallow water. Then his master called out: 'Wade, Major, wade' Major waded till he came to the shore. Then his master shouted Shake yourself, Major, shake yourself!' Major shook himself. So I say to my boys and girls: 'Go out doors!' and they go. When I see that this order is promptly and pleasantly obeyed, I say: 'Play croquet!' and they play. And when it is too hot to play any longer, I say: 'Sit in the shade !' and in the shade they sit."

ROSA.

WAPAQUASSET, CONN., July, 1866.