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classic course extending through Virgil and into Cicero in Latin, and through the Anabasis and into the Iliad in Greek. (4) The Robinson Female Seminary, at Exeter, with a property valued at $300,000, of which $100,000 is in grounds and buildings and $200,000 in productive funds; 9 female instructors, besides a president; a threeyears collegiate course, with music, drawing, painting, French and German, and other languages, if required," but no note of any students. (5) Tilden Seminary, West Lebanon, with grounds and buildings valued at $40,000; 13 instructors; whole number of pupils, 116, but no designation of those in college-classes. Music, drawing, paint ng, French, and German taught, and a "fine gymnasium" possessed, with limited chemic laboratory, philosophic cabinet, natural-history-museum, and art-gallery. A specially interesting feature of the catalogue here is a named list of 111 graduates of the first degree, 187 of the second, and 25 that have received a diploma for an elective course. In all these lists the marriage-name, as well as maiden-name, is given, as far as ascertained-the number of the married reaching 143.

The Kimball Union Academy and Littleton Graded School appear, from the schedule of studies in their catalogues, to rank with the above, the latter going up into Virgil, the Anabasis, and Iliad; the former into the same, with a considerable course in French and a fair one in German. In both these, as well as in the New Hampshire and New Hampton Seminaries, there are classes for young men as well as for young women. TEACHERS' INSTITUTES.

Institutes were held, as required by law, in every county in the State, and in Coos County two were held. Nearly 900 teachers, comprising over one-third of the number in the State, received instruction at these institutes, while 100 school-officers and 4,800 citizens were in attendance, a large increase over previous years. Practical and experienced teachers, fresh from school-work, were employed as instructors, to each one being assigned that department for which he appeared peculiarly qualified.

Teachers' institutes are no longer an experiment in New Hampshire. Experienced educators acknowledge them to be among the most efficient means devised for improving the greatest number of teachers in the shortest time. In numerous instances, on visiting the public schools, the superintendent has witnessed the practical application of improvements suggested at the institutes. It is believed that one of the most valuable results attending this work is the powerful influence diffused among parents and citizens in the community where the session is held, in awakening and strengthening correct ideas of the public-school-system.

STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

The annual session was held at Plymouth, on Thursday and Friday, October 24 and 25, 1873. Preliminary remarks by the president of the association. Prof. Quimby, of Dartmouth College, explained the object of the organization to be "in no sense to perform the work of a teachers' institute, which places the common teacher subordinate to the professor and simply in the attitude of a learner. In this association none are simply learners, but all are teachers, as well. We meet to see and confer with each other, to become acquainted and learn from each other's experiences. All teachers and citizens, as they are affected by the educational interests of the day are invited to take part in the discussions. Let teachers relate their new elements of success and especially their failures." Among other subjects considered, which bear closely upon the interests of the public schools, was the necessity of shortening the daily sessions, especially of the primary and intermediate schools. The discussion was opened by Prof. Pearl and was participated in by Prof. Quimby and others. The marking-system was discussed by several members, a majority being in favor of it, while two objected to the plan decidedly, as a means of encouraging the strong over the weak. State-Superintendent Simonds gave his report on the sub ject of the abolition of school-districts and other reforms. He advised the discussion of the school-district subject, so that people at large might understand it better, and gave a history of the system from its inception to 1870, when the legislature made the abolition of districts optional with the towns.

The great discussion of the session, on the co-education of the sexes, was opened by Mrs. H. M. Miller, of Concord, who assumed her position by earnest request, although generally declining to come before the public otherwise than as interested in subjects pertaining to reading. She believed that, with co-education, manliness would prevail among men and womanliness among women, and that such education tends to fit each for better fulfillment of mutual relations in life. This view was coincided in by five participants in the discussion, only one, Prof. Orcutt, of West Lebanon, taking the opposite side. The professor insisted that as woman was to fill a particular sphere in life she should have a special training.

OBITUARY.

Silas H. Pearl, late principal of the New Hampshire State Normal School, was born at Albany, Vermont, July 27, 1833. His boyhood was passed on the paternal farm.

His early educational advantages were limited to the district-schools of his native town, yet he early acquired a taste for study and formed the purpose of securing a liberal education, a purpose in which he persevered, notwithstanding many inducements to a contrary course held out to him by friends, preferring to work his own way through college rather than to be assisted in business. He fitted for college at Craftsbury (Vermont) Academy, partly under the tuition of Hon. Judge Ross, now on the supreme bench in Vermont; entered the university at Burlington in 1855, and graduated in 1859.

His first school, of some 50 pupils, convened in a small and dilapidated schoolhouse, was successfully taught in Albany when he was 18 years of age. He continued to teach in public schools in the winter during his academic and college-course with good success. The fall after graduating he taught the academy at Craftsbury, where he had fitted for college. The three following years he had charge of a school at Danville, Canada East, from which position he was called to the principalship of the academy at Johnson, Vermont, in 1864. He found this school in a low condition, and at the end of seven years left it in a highly prosperous condition to accept the position of principal of the New Hampshire State Normal School at Plymouth. Here his work was equally difficult and laborious. The normal school was an experiment; the legis lature had simply given it license to live, if it could; the people were skeptic as to its utility; some neighboring academies, jealous of its rivalry, became its open enemies, and still other adverse influences from within and without tended to increase the difficulty of the enterprise. But, under Prof. Pearl's wise and energetic leadership, the school proved a great success, and gained many personal friends and much public favor, as seen in the fact that the State has contributed $18,000 in appropriations to finish and furnish its elegant building. At the end of two years, and chiefly through the efficiency of this lamented principal, the State Normal School has become one of the best of its kind in the nation.

As a student, Mr. Pearl is described by Judge Ross, his academic teacher, as diligent, thorough, and honest with himself. As an instance of his manly independence and self-reliance as a scholar, Judge Ross relates that he once encountered a difficult exam ple in miscellaneous algebra, in the solution of which he refused his assistance. At the close of the term he carried it with him to his home, and continued to work upon it at intervals all summer while engaged upon the farm, and finally overcame the difficulty. "This was the character of the boy as a student," says Judge Ross, "and years after, when, as a member of the board of education, I again met him, I found the man and teacher but the larger growth of the boy and student. He was characterized by the same thoroughness and the same conscientious performance of every duty."

Prof. Pearl possessed in an eminent degree the indispensable quality which may be termed authority, or the power to control and govern his school without apparent effort. His aptness to teach was evident to all who ever attended his class-recitations or public examinations. Thoroughness characterized all his work, whether organizing, managing, or instructing his school, and he had a wonderful faculty for imparting his own self-reliance and energy to his pupils; no teacher ever possessed more earnestness and enthusiasm in his work. This gave him power to infuse his own spirit into the minds of his pupils, to rouse them to activity, and to secure from them the best results of their efforts. His unbending Christian integrity and gentle, unassuming, Christian life were ever imparting a silent but salutary influence.-(Prepared for the State Teachers' Association, by Hiram Orcutt, A. M., principal of Tilden Academy, West Lebanon.)

LIST OF SCHOOL-OFFICIALS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.

BOARD OF EDUCATION.

Hon. DANIEL G. BEEDE, State-superintendent of public instruction and secretary of board, Concord. His excellency Ezekiel A. Straw, governor; Samuel F. Dow, John J. Morrill, William P. Newell, Bolivar Lovell, and Nathan R. Perkins, council,

NEW JERSEY.

[From reports of Hon. Ellis A. Apgar, State-superintendent of public instruction, for the scholastic years ended August 31, 1872 and 1873.]

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Total enrollment in the public schools.............................................................................................
Increase

178,826

286, 444 7,295 179, 443

617

Number attending public schools 10 months..

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Number attending between 8 and 10 months.

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Number attending less than 4 months..

71, 078

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71, 099

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The following table shows the remarkable growth of the public system within the past five years:

Year.

1869. 1870 1871

1872

1873

$100,000 00 $423, 868 86 $27, 539 46 $419, 622 69 $426, 896 90 $906, 525 59$1, 457, 933 91 $2, 980, 996 00 100, 000 00 462, 955 24||28, 722 88 513, 308 06 476, 606 83 989, 914 89 1, 581, 593 01 3,677, 442 00 1, 197, 481 72 49, 779 17 30, 993 50 417, 626 09 597, 400 201, 015, 086 29 2, 293, 340 68 4, 246, 998 00 1, 268, 803 08 44, 467 91 31,654 92 331, 673 81 586, 470 58 918, 144 39 2, 263, 070 30 4,966, 788 00 1,307, 331 00 51,313 33 35, 363 30 442, 345 48 660, 715 321, 103, 060 80 2,497, 068 43 5, 554, 828 00

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