plinarian of the old school, and strictly adhered to the wise king's advice. A bunch of switches or cat-o'ninetails were freely used to correct the naughty.

Leather spectacles were worn for slighted work. Much attention was paid to the position, for if the head leaned down, Jamestown-weed burs strung on tape were ready for a necklace, or if a person stooped, a steele was at hand. This was the length of the waist, and held up the chin by a piece extending round the neck, and a strap confined it down. It was not very comfortable to the wearer, though fitted to make the "crooked ways straight," but a morocco spider worn on the back, coufined to the shoulders by a belt, was more usual. The celebrated painter, Benjamin West, had been the companion of Mrs. Way's childhood and youth. As absent friends, they kept up a correspondence in age, and it seemed much pleasure to her to relate anecdotes of his early days. Isaac Hendrickson, of Swedish descent, and then one of the most respectable shipping merchants, married her only daughter, a handsome and lovely woman, and highly esteemed. He owned the opposite corner where they lived. Mrs. Way was aged, and had declined teaching to live with her daughter. Her only son, a young physician, was also an inmate of this family. Mrs. H. and the Doctor both fell victims to the yellow fever of 1798. This sore calamity “brought down her gray hairs in sorrow to the grave.”

SCHOOL LIFE IN RHODE ISLAND.

Dr. Channing thus describes the discipline of the dame school of his boyhood in Newport, R. I, (1780–1794:)

"I was a little amused with the objection which you say the s made to your proposed school, that you want those essential qualifications of a teacher -gray hairs and spectacles. This objection brought back to my mind the venerable schoolmistress under whose care my infant faculties were unfo'ded. She, indeed, would have suited thes to a hair. Her nose was peculiarly privileged and honored, for it bore two spectacles. The locks which strayed from her close mob-cap were most evidently the growth of other times. She sat in a large easy-chair, and, unlike the insect forms of modern days, she filled the capacious seat. Her title was Madam, a title which she exclusively enjoyed. When we entered her door we kissed our hands, and Madam was the first word which escaped our lips. But I would not have you suppose that there was nothing but a title, and spectacles, and gray locks to insure our respect. Madam was wiser than the -——————8. She did not trust chiefly to age. On the right arm of her easy-chair there reclined what to common eyes appeared only a long, round stick; but so piercing was its vision, so quick its hearing, so rapid its motions, so suddenly did it reach the whispering or idle delinquent, that Ovid, had he known it, would have been strongly tempted to trace it, by many a strange metamorphosis, back to Argus, or some other watchful, sleepless being of ancient mythology. We, trembling wights, were satisfied with feeling, and had no curiosity to explore its hidden properties. Do you ask where this mysterious wand is to be found? I fear it is irrecoverably lost. The storm of revolution, which has so lately passed over us, not contented with breaking the sceptres and hurling down the thrones of monarchs, burst into the schoolroom, and Madam's title and rod were swept away in the general desolation."

As he grew older William was advanced to the boarding and day school of Mr. Rogers, which was considered the best in the town, and indeed had so high a reputation, that boys from a distance, especially from the South, were sent to his charge. It was the habit of that time to use flogging as the common penalty, and no master would then have responded, as all good ones must now do, to the words of Vogel:-"When we teachers become fully competent to our work the necessity of corporeal punishment will cease altogether." This is

mentioned because it is certain that what he then experienced outraged his sensitive honor, and served to arouse the feeling of indignation against any form of violence used toward children which grew so strong in him in later years. He would often tell an anecdote of a little boy in school trying to shield with his arms a larger one whom the master was about to whip. The contrast of the great heart with the small physical power, the noble position of the young remonstrant against tyranny, produced an indelible impression upon his childish imagination, and made the severity of the teacher and the quarreling of the children detestable and hideous.*

Judge Story, in a letter to the biographer of Dr. Channing on the influence which surrounded that eminent man in his college career at Harvard between 1794 and 1798, writes:

You express a desire "to obtain some general views of the circumstances under which the students lived." I believe that this can be best done by giv. ing you a brief sketch of the state of college, and the relation which the students had with the existing college government. Things are so much changed since that it is somewhat difficult to realize all the influences which then surrounded them. In the first place as to the course of studies. It was far more confined and limited than at present. In Greek we studied Xenophon's Anabasis and a few books of the Iliad; in Latin, Sallust and a few books of Livy; in Mathematics, Saunderson's Algebra and a work on Arithmetic; in Natural Philosophy, Enfield's Natural Philosophy and Ferguson's Astronomy; in Rhetoric, an abridgment of Blair's Lectures and the article on Rhetoric in the "Preceptor;" in Metaphysics, Watt's Logic and Locke on the Human Understanding; in History, Millot's Elements; in Theology, Doddridge's Lectures; in grammatical studies, Lowth's Grammar. I believe this is near the whole, if not the whole, course of our systematical studies. The college library was at that time far less comprehensive and suited to the wants of students than at present. It was not as easily accessible, and, indeed, was not frequented by them. No modern language was taught except French, and that only one day in the week by a non-resident instructor.

The means of knowledge from external sources was very limited. The intercourse between us and foreign countries was infrequent, and I might almost say that we had no means of access to any literature and science except the English. Even in respect to this we had little more than a semi-annual importation of the most common works, and a few copies supplied and satisfied the market. The English periodicals were then few in number, and I do not remember any one that was read by the students except the Monthly Magazine, (the old Monthly,) and that was read but by a few. I have spoken of our semiannual importations, and it is literally true, that two ships only plied as regular packets between Boston and London, one in the Spring and one in the Autumn, and their arrival was an era in our college life.

In respect to academical intercourse the students had literally none that was not purely official except with each other. The different classes were almost strangers to each other, and cold reserve generally prevailed between them, The system of "fagging" (as it was called) was just then dying out, and I believe that my own class was the first that was not compelled to perform this drudgery at the command of the Senior class in the most humble services. The students had no connection whatsoever with the inhabitants of Cambridge by private social visits. There was none between the families of the president and professors of the college and the students. The régime of the old school in manners and habits then prevailed. The president and professors were never approached except in the most formal way and upon official occasions; and in the college yard (if I remember rightly) no student was permitted to be with his hat on if one of the professors was there.

• Memoir of William Ellery Channing, Vol. I., p. 44.

VII. ENGLISH PEDAGOGY-OLD AND NEW.

CHARLES HOOLE.

CHARLES HOOLE, an eminent schoolmaster in his day, and the author of at least twenty-four contributions to the pedagogical literature of the English language, was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in 1610. After receiving his elementary training in the free school of his native place under Robert Doughtie, a Cantabrigian of high reputation, he proceeded at the age of eighteen to Lincoln College, Oxford, on the advice of his kinsman, Dr. Robert Sanderson, where he earned the reputation of a superior scholar in the Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages, and in philosophy. After receiving the degree of bachelor of arts, he commenced teaching in 1633 in Lincolnshire, and in Rotherham, Yorkshire, and acquired from the start considerable note in his vocation, and about 1649 he was invited to London by several noted citizens to start a private grammar school, first in Redcross Lane, and afterward (1651) in Token House Garden in Lothbury near the Royal Exchange, where, according to Wood, "the generality of the youth under him were instructed to a miracle." He afterward removed to Montmouthshire on the urgent request of some of his old London patrons, but not being satisfied with the result, he accepted a prebendship in the church in Lincoln offered him by Bishop Sanderson, and soon after became rector of Stock Billerica, near Chelmsford in Essex, where he died March 7, 1666, and "was buried in the chancel of the church, under an arch in the wall, near the communion table," according to Wood.

Mr. Hoole published in 1633 "Pueriles Confabulatiunculæ, &c.;" in 1637 he composed "The Usher's Duty; or a Platform of Teaching Lily's Grammar," and "The New Discovery of the Old Art of Teaching," which were printed in 1659, together with a little treatise entitled "The Petty-Schoole "-which together throw more light on the old and the improved methods of teaching, than any one publication of that period which has come to our notice. In 1653 he published "Phraseological Pueriles, &c.;" and in 1654 his "Grammar in Latin and English in four parts," first intended

for the use of his private grammar school, but which passed through several editions on the recommendation of Dr. Sanderson and others, of being "the shortest, orderliest, and plainest, for ease both of master and scholars, that has been then extant."

Hoole was one of the pioneer educators of his century; with others, he labored to improve the elementary school by composing and publishing a "Plain and Easy Primer for Children wherein the Pictures of Beasts and Birds for each Letter in the Alphabet are set down, &c.," and by translating and publishing in 1659 the "Orbis Sensualium Pictus" of Comenius, under the title of "The Visible World; or a Picture or Nomenclature of all the Chief Things that are in the World, and of Men's Employments therein". "adorned with pictures, to make children understand it the better." The preface anticipates many of the arguments advanced two hundred years later in favor of Object Teaching, as will be seen by these

extracts.

The Cultivation of Perception and Conception.-"The ground of this business is, that sensual objects may be rightly presented to the senses, for fear they may not be received. I say, and say it again aloud, that this last is the foundation of all the rest. Now there is nothing in the understanding which was not before in the sense; and therefore to exercise the senses well about the right perceiving the differences of things, will be to lay the grounds for all wisdom and all wise discourse; which, because it is commonly neglected in schools, and the things which are to be learned are offered to scholars without being understood or being rightly presented to the senses, it cometh to pass that the work of teaching and learning goeth heavily onward, and affordeth little benefit."

The Understanding to be cultivated as well as the Memory "For to pack up many words in memory, of things not conceived in the mind, is to fill the head with empty imaginations, and to make the learner more to admire the multitude and variety, and thereby to become discouraged, than to care to treasure them up, in hopes to gain more knowledge of what they mean. Descend to the very bottom of what is taught, and proceed as nature itself doth, in an orderly way; first to exercise the senses well, by representing their objects to them, and then to fasten upon the intellect, by impressing the first notions of things upon it, and linking them one to another by a rational discourse. Missing this way, we do teach children as we do parrots, to speak they know not what."

Lessons with real Objects.—" Since some things can not be pictured out with ink, for this reason it were to be wished, that things rare, and not easy to be met with withal at home, might be kept ready in every great school, that they may be showed also, as often as any words are to be made of them to the scholars. Thus at last this school would indeed become a school of things obvious to the senses, and an entrance to the school intellectual." Is not the germ of Pestalozzianism here? The words "pictured out" are put in italics by our selves to call attention to the old use of this now popular phrase.

Use of Pictorial Illustrations.-" Pictures are the representations of all visible things of the whole world. Such a dress may entice witty children, that they may not conceit a torment to be in the school. For it is apparent that children

even from their infancy almost, are delighted with pictures. And it will be very well worth the pains to have brought to pass, that scare-crows may be taken away out of Wisdom's gardens."

Use of Blackboard-But little is said on this piece of school apparatus. It is, however, interesting to know that in a description of a school, written two centuries since, this useful adjunct for illustration is noticed. Comenius says: "Some things are writ down before them with chalk on a table. This notice would not have been so satisfactory as it is, but there accompanies the description a "copper cut," and there we see upon the wall a blackboard, as large as a window, with a diagram chalked upon it.

On the point of illustration we may add, "The judgment of Mr. Hezekiah Woodward, sometime an eminent schoolmaster in London. Certainly the use of images or representations is great; if we could make our words as legible to children as pictures are, their information therefrom would be quickened and surer. But so we can not do, though we must do what we can."

Masters must have Sympathy with the capacities of the children under Instruction. "A schoolmaster had need to bend his wits to come within the compass of a child's capacities of six or seven years of age, and to make that they may learn with as much delight and willingness, as himself would teach with dexterity and ease. And because any good thing is the better, being the more communicated, I have herein imitated a child, who is forward to impart to others what himself has well liked."

Phonic Method of Teaching to Read.-"It will afford a device for learning to read more easily than heretofore, especially having a symbolical alphabet set before it, to wit, the characters of the several letters, with the image of that creature whose voice that letter goeth about to imitate, pictured by it. For the young a b c scholar will easily remember the force of every character by the very looking at the creature, till the imagination being strengthened by use, can readily afford all things."

It may be necessary to explain, that what Comenius calls the "force of every character" is obtained from verbs denoting the actions of animals, instead of from nouns as is now the general practice. A series of "copper cuts" is given for this purpose, called “A lively and vocal Alphabet."

Tasks and Training.-" Because the first tasks of learners ought to be little and single, we have filled this first book of training one up to see a thing of himself, with nothing but rudiments, that is, with the chief of things and words, or with the grounds of the whole world, and the whole language, and of all our understanding about things." The reader will observe that the word "training" is used in precisely the same sense as by modern educationists.

The Uselessness of bare Rules of Grammar.-"You that have the care of little children, do not trouble their thoughts and clog their memories with bare grammar rudiments, which to them are harsh in getting, and fluid in retaining; because, indeed, to them they signify nothing, but a mere swimming notion of a general term, which they know not what it meaneth, till they comprehend particulars. For rules, consisting of generalities, are delivered, as I may say, at the third hand, presuming first the things and then the words to be already apprehended, touching which they are made."

Teacher's entire Dependence upon God's Blessing." And I pray God, the fountain and giver of all wisdom, that hath bestowed upon us this gift of teaching