the culture that elevates and refines home, are bringing out a beautiful type of womanhood.

There is nothing in the College life that would offend the most fastidious taste. There are no public exhibitions, no vulgar copies of the bad manners of college boys, no hazings and no slang. The students do not seem to forget that they are young ladies, nor to respect themselves as well as respect others. We heard of many charming customs which have already grown up at the College-the lovely Flower Sunday, when the chapel is decorated with flowers, as a welcome of the girls to their new home-the Wellesley fashion of hazing the Freshmen with bouquets and kind greetings from the Sophomores; the corridor parties; the receptions; the College societies; the boating crews, with their pretty customs and pretty costumes, their salutes and their songs; as we recall these, we say again, beautiful young lives-beautiful, happy years.

As we close our remarks about the students, we must refer to their protest in favor of honest scholarship, which ought to find an echo in every institution. During the first year a "black sheep" was found in their number, who, among other peccadilloes, was given to "ponies" and "keys." After she left the College the girls voted for a law of their own, that the use of ponies should be considered as a crime against the students; that if any one should be guilty of using them, she should be waited upon by a committee of the classes and solemnly warned not to repeat the offense; that if the offense should be repeated, they would demand from the Faculty the exclusion of the offender. We say well done for the higher education of women, when it bears such fruit. Would that this were the students' law in every school and college. There is nothing more disgraceful or dishonorable than the practice, now so common, of using keys and ponies. It implies a low tone. of honor in the persons who tolerate it, as well as moral dishonesty in those who practice the deception.

WHAT HAS WELLESLEY ACCOMPLISHED?

We find ourselves turning back from this general survey of the College life, and inquiring what has been the practical outcome of this movement for the higher education of women? What has Wellesley College accomplished in this work?

One result, certainly is, that it has created the most beautiful home for our girls that the world has yet known, with much, if not everything, that wealth, science and patient. industry can gather, for their comfort, health and well-being.

It has established a complete and thoroughly equipped college, with a regular curriculum of the highest standard; with a collection of scientific apparatus that is unsurpassed by any college we know of; with a large and carefully selected library, that ranks among the first half-dozen of our college. libraries; with ample cabinets in Natural History; and with thoroughly equipped laboratories that place it in the first rank.

It was the first College to introduce the new method of laboratory instruction in physics upon the broad and scientific plans which were originated by Professor Pickering.

It has also the honor of being one of the earliest American institutions to establish laboratories for the study of Biology, and give instruction in this new science.

We believe that it has already done more than any College to promote the study of microscopy and its practical applications. In the apparatus and equipment for instruction in this science, we know of no college that can compare with Wellesley.

It has inaugurated in the Teachers' Collegiate Course a new era of progress and reform for the female teachers of the land; and, although this is but the germ of a great conception, its practical utility is already demonstrated and appreciated.

Best of all, it furnishes a practical example of the true philosophy of education. With our experience for the past forty years, and after a careful survey of the field, we are compelled to admit that this young College furnishes to-day the most practical, the most thorough and complete illustration, which we know, of the natural methods of instruction.

So much for what Wellesley has accomplished in the last four years. If in the years to come the same spirit of progress, the same practical wisdom and the same breadth of view, govern its counsels, it will demonstrate the truth of the opinion with which we commenced this article, and which grows with our growth and strengthens with our knowledge, that the movement for the higher education of women is one of the great ocean currents in the history of our race, and not a passing excitement or temporary reform.

THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AT WASHINGTON.

1867.-1870.

INTRODUCTION.

THE earliest recognition by the General Government, of education in the several States as a great national interest, was made in the census of 1840. We have already mentioned Mr. Barnard's early efforts in 1838, and in 1839,* to bring this subject to the attention of the President, and Secretary of State, and the use made by him and Mr. Mann in 1842, of the statistics of institutions, teachers, and students, and the illiteracy of the adult population of both native and foreign birth, to show the magnitude of this interest, and the utter inadequacy of existing means of popular education to meet the exigencies of a Republican government.

In 1842 and 1843, Mr. Barnard urged on large public audiences in legislative halls, and elsewhere in nearly every State, the importance of collecting and disseminating by official, or associated agency, reliable information on the condition and improvement of common schools, and other means of popular education, and of establishing in each State, and some one city for the whole country, "a central repository or office, supplied with plans of schoolhouses, apparatus, and furniture, and a circulating library of books and pamphlets on education, and a specimen of school library;" "and to give the highest efficiency to any and all these agencies of school improvement, the employment of an individual who should devote all his time to their promotion."

In 1845, and again in 1847 he tried to get "the diffusion of a knowledge of the science and art of education, and the organiza. tion and administration of systems of public schools" into the plan of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1849, in the Committee charged with presenting topics for the consideration of the Convention of the Friends of Popular Education, he proposed "the establishment at Washington of a permanent Statistical Bureau charged with the decennial census, which should present an annual report on the educational statistics and progress of the country."

In 1850 he proposed to secure the same object for New England with some modifications, such as the establishment of a monthly Journal, through the American Institute of Instruction; and in 1854 the "plan of a Central Agency for the Advancement of Education in the United States," by the Smithsonian Institution, or

• American Journal of Education XIX, p. 837; Do I, p. 921. After the secession of the Southern States in 1861, a Government Bureau of Education became possible, and the agitation thereafter was in that direction. See Paper by S. H. White of Illinois, in 1864; by A. J. Rickoff of Ohio, in 1865; of J. P. Wickersham, o Penn., in 1865, and of E. E. White of Ohio (now of Indiana), in January, 1866,-all printed in the American Journal of Education for those years. A history of the Act, and of its many hindrances, will be found in Volume XXV.

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the Association for the Advancement of Education, or a Bureau in one of the governmental departments, was submitted by him to the annual meeting at Washington in December, of the Association above named. A Committee consisting of Bishop Alonzo Potter and Mr. Barnard was appointed to confer with the President, and Head of any of the Departments on the subject. This "Plan," as will be seen below, embodies substantially the provisions of the Act to establish a Department of Education of 1867.

The following Plan for "the Increase and Diffusion of Knowledge" of Education, and especially of Popular Education, and plans for its improvement through the Smithsonian Institution; or the American Association for the Advancement of Education was submitted to the Association by Hon. Henry Barnard.

The Institution [or Association] to appoint a secretary or agent; with a salary, and to furnish a room for an office and depository of educational documents and apparatus, and beyond this not to be liable for any expense.

Agenda by the secretary or agent:

1. To devote himself exclusively to the "increase and diffusion of knowledge " on the subject of education, and especially of the condition and means of improving Popular Education, and particularly

2. To answer all personal or written inquiries on the subject, and collect and make available for use, information as to all advances made in the theory and practice of education in any one State or country.

3. To attend, as far as may be consistent with other requisitions on his time, and without charge to the funds of the institution, [or Association] Educational Conventions of a national and State character, for the purpose of collecting and disseminating information.

4. To edit a publication, to be entitled the American Journal and Library of Education, on the plan set forth in the accompanying paper (A.) 5. To collect

(a) Plans and models of school-houses and furniture.

(b) Specimens of maps and other material aids of education.

(c) Educational reports and documents from other States and countries. 6. To institute a system of educational exchange between literary institutions in this and other countries.

7. To make arrangements, and effect. if practicable, at least one meeting or conference of the friends of educational improvement in Washington (or elsewhere] every year.

8. To submit annually a report in which shall be given a summary of the progress of education, in each State, and as far as practicable, in every country

A.

PLAN OF PUBLICATION.—A quarterly or monthly issue under the general title of the AMERICAN JOURNAL AND LIBRARY OF EDUCATION.

1. A JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, to be issued in quarterly or monthly numbers, embracing articles on systems, institutions and methods of education, and the current intelligence of literature and education, and to make an octavo volume annually of at least 600 pages.

II. A LIBRARY OF EDUCATION; to consist of a series of independent treatises on the following [among other] subjects, to be issued in parts, and to be forwarded with the Journal to subscribers; the several parts or treatises make an octavo volume of at least 600 pages per year.

1. A CATALOGUE of the best publications on the organization, instruction and
discipline of schools, of every grade, and on the principles of education, in the
English, French, and German languages.

2. A HISTORY OF EDUCATION, ancient and modern.

3. AN ACCOUNT OF ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN EUROPE, based on the
reports of Bache, Stowe, Mann, and others.

4. NATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE United States; or contributions to the history
and improvement of common or public schools, and other institutions, means and
agencies of popular education in the several States (B.)

5. SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE; or the principles of construction, ventilation,
warming, acoustics, seating, &c., applied to school rooms, lecture halls, and
class rooms, with illustrations.

6. NORMAL SCHOOLS, and other institutions, means and agencies for the pro-
fessional training and improvement of teachers.

7. SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR LARGE CITIES AND VILLAGES, with an
account of the schools and other means of popular education and recreation in the
principal cities of Europe and in this country.

8. SYSTEM OF POPULAR EDUCATION FOR SPARSEDLY POPULATED DISTRICTS
with an account of the schools in Norway and the agricultural portions of other
countries.

9. SCHOOLS OF AGRICULTURE, and other means of advancing agricultural
improvement.

10. SCHOOLS OF SCIENCE applied to the mechanic arts, civil engineering, &c.
11. SCHOOLS OF TRADE, NAVIGATION, Commerce, &c.

this

12. FEMALE EDUCATION, with an account of the best seminaries for females in
country and in Europe.

13. INSTITUTIONS FOR ORPHANS.

14. SCHOOLS OF INDUSTRY, or institutions for truant, idle or neglected children,
before they have been convicted of crime.

15. REFORM SCHOOLS, or institutions for young criminar,

16. HOUSES OF REFUGE, for adult crimins.

17. SECONDARY EDUCATION, including 1. institutions preparatory to college,
and 2. institutions preparatory to special schools of agriculture, engineering, trade,
navigation, &c.

18. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.

19. SCHOOLS OF THEOLOGY, LAW, AND MEDICINE.

20. MILITARY AND NAVAL SCHOOLS.

21. SUPPLEMENTARY EDUCATION, including adult schools, evening schools,
courses of popular lectures, debating classes, mechanic institutes, &c.

22. LIBRARIES, with hints for the purchase, arrangement, catalogueing,
drawing and preservation of books, especially in libraries designed for popular

use.

23. INSTITUTIONS FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB, Blind, and IdioTS.

24. SOCIETIES FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF SCIENCE, THE ARTS AND EDU-

CATION.

25. PUBLIC MUSEUMS AND Galleries.

26. PUBLIC GARDENS, and other sources of popular recreation.

27. EDUCATIONAL TRACTS, or a series of short essays on topics of immediate
practical importance to teachers and school officers.

28. EDUCATIONAL BIOGRAPHY, or the lives of distinguished educators and
Seachers.

29. EDUCATIONAL BENEFACTORS, or an account of the founders and benefactors
of educational and scientific institutions.

30. SELF-EDUCATION; or hints for self-formation, with examples of the pursuit
of knowledge under difficulties.

31. HOME EDUCATION; with illustrations drawn from the Family Training
of different countries.

32. EDUCATIONAL NOMENCLATURE AND INDEX; or an explanation of words
and terms used in describing the systems and institutions of education in differ-
ent countries, with reference to the books where the subjects are discussed and
treated of.

The Series, when complete, will constitute an ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EDUCATION