RESIDENT EDITORS' DEPARTMENT.

THE INSTITUTE AT PAWTUCKET!-A GREAT GATHERING!-A

GREAT SUCCESS!!

The 10th, 11th and 12th of October, 1866, will be marked days in the Rhode Island Teachers' Calendar hereafter! More than four hundred teachers were in attendance at one of the most able, practical and successful Institutes ever held in Rhode Island. Some of the most eminent educators of the country were present to instruct, and the most intelligent men and women of the State came to be taught in the best methods of instruction and discipline. All went expecting large blessings from the Institute; all came away with their "great expectations" more than satisfied,—even delighted.

Several things cause us to remember those days with delight. One was the beautiful panorama of autumn glory, which God spread before us for delightful study. Who that saw, failed to adore? "The undevout is mad."

Another was the great assemblage of leading educators of our own and other States at a State Institute. There are giants in these days. We have seen them.

Still another was the high order of lectures, addresses and discussions. How could it be otherwise, when we remember that Dr. Lowell Mason, Dr. Barnas Sears, Prof. S. S. Greene, Prof. Mark Bailey, Prof. F. S. Jewell, George N. Bigelow, Esq., G. F. Claflin, Esq., and Dr. Trine, were our teachers.

Another was the large intelligence of the teachers who formed the Institute. The 'Hub " may boast a larger gathering, but we will not yield to any State the position of social and intellectual attainments manifested by the members of this Institute.

Neither shall we soon forget the excellent and large hospitalities of the good people of Pawtucket in opening their doors, beds, tables and pleasant society to this large band of teachers. Blessings on them as long as they live. "So say we all of us.' Especially to the local committee, Messrs. Robbins, Tillinghast and Tolman, are editorials and general thanks due. "Friends in need are friends indeed."

Time and paper fail us to tell all the good things we have laid up in memory's store house.

All in favor of another Fall Institute will say "Aye;" contrary minds, "Nay." The "Ayes" have it, and so it shall be.

OBITUARY NOTICES.

MISS HARRIET L. WILCOX.

Miss Wicox died in September, at her home in Warwick, of quick consumption. She possessed a mind of unusual strength, clearness and vivacity, and a moral character of rare purity and excellence. These qualities, added to a fine personal appearance, won for her a large place in the affection of her friends, and made her beloved by her pupils. She chose teaching as her work, because she loved to do good, and her influence and power in and out of the school-room, were elevating and controlling.

She had completed the regular course of studies at the State Normal School under Mr. Kendall, and while there secured the high regards of her teachers and companions. After graduating at the Normal School, she devoted herself to teaching, with fine success, for a year and a half.

Feeling the need of better attainments, she again devoted herself to study at the Seminary at East Greenwich, and before finishing her plans there, she was called away from life.

A fellow-laborer of truest motive and noblest enthusiasm, has finished her work with us. She sought the best gifts for herself, her profession and her pupils, and has now attained a better knowledge than that which she so fondly searched after here.

To her other endowments was added, by the grace of God, the loveliness of the Christian temper and life. Her character thus become symmetrical and harmonious, and she studied and taught as constantly under "the Great Task Master's eye."

Companions of her studies, labors and trials, though with sad hearts and tearful eyes you read of her departure, take thought of her life,-how pure and true it was; and of her death, how beautifully it introduced her to immortality.

MISS AMEY BISHOP.

Died at Pawtucket, March 13th, of typhoid fever, Miss Amey Bishop, of East Providence, aged 17 years. Miss Bishop was a young lady of excellent social, mental and moral gifts, and gave promise of doing much good in her chosen field of labor. She had finished her Academic studies at the Pawtucket High School, and had but just begun the work of life as a teacher, when death came and took her away. Her life, though brief, was bright and beautiful, and though her career as a teacher of youth was short. she has now become to all who hold in trust, memories of her, a better teacher of Virtue, Faith, Love and Submission.

A FRENCH GRAMMAR. By E. H. Magill, A. M., Submaster in the Boston Latin School. 12mo. Published by Crosby & Ainsworth, Boston. 1866.

We welcome this well arranged and handsomely printed French Grammar, by one who, like ourselves, was once a "Rhode Island schoolmaster." It is a successful attempt to present, in a concise and systematic form, the essential principles of the French language. It does not propose to teach "French in six easy lessons without a master," nor does it lead the pupil to a knowledge of the language by the very gradual and very tedious path opened by Ollendorff. It means work for both teacher and scholar, but it promises, as a reward of that work, such a knowledge of the principles and idioms of the language as results from diligent effort alone.

We have always maintained that a grammar of any language can be best written by one to whom it is not vernacular. A foreigner who masters a tongue, best appreciates its difficulties, observes its peculiarities, and thus becomes prepared to guide others in the path he has himself been obliged to tread. He may not, perhaps, be so much at home in its nicer idioms as one "to the manner born," but this defect is compensated by his more scientific discussion of its principles. He may not, perhaps, prepare so good a phrase-book as a native would, but he can write a better grammar.

This principle is illustrated in Mr. Magill's Grammar. We suppose that a Frenchman might point out here and there an instance in which common French usage would not justify the example cited in support of some assertion; e. g., on page 159, it is said, that in subordinate affirmative sentences, after "nier" "ne" is used without "pas," and the example given is, "Il nie qu' il ne vienne." But Bescherelle says, when "nier" has an affirmative sense, the verb of the subordinate clause does not take "ne." "Je nie qu'il soit venu." Future editions will, doubtless, correct

such inaccuracies as this.

In those particulars in which the author claims to have made decided improvements in the systematic statement and arrangement of grammatical rules, such, e. g., as the rules for gender, the table of irregular verbs, the development of the tenses, and the admirable comparative vocabulary at the end of the book, we think that his claim must be admitted. We are glad to learn that the work has already been introduced into many of the schools of New England. A book of "French Lessons," with copious references to the Grammar, is in course of preparation.

MORALS IN SCHOOLS. Under the above head, the "Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Schools of Fall River," has the following remarks:

"It is feared that the practice of requiring pupils to keep records of their own scholarship and deportment is a dangerous one. It is a temptation to dishonesty ; and, no doubt many scholars yield to it. The whole system of artificial rewards and merits is of very doubtful propriety; except, perhaps, in some of its simplest forms. It is a poor substitute for the natural stimulants to well-doing. When means are devised by skilful teachers to awaken a just sense of the true value of an education, and of the pleasure of performing well every duty in school, the influence on the young is immeasurably better than the envy of prize-medals, of rewards of merit, and of all the artificial stimulants to study and to good behavior. The school-room should be made a place of pleasurable resort, and the young taught to feel the importance of an education in itself, on account of the happiness it affords. Anxiety to obtain gewgaws or prizes is a very different thing from earnestness of soul to attain the highest regions of human thought, the boon of that cultivation which consists in "the harmonious development of all our powers." Any thing which awakens and fosters envy, the least erected spirit in man, should be deprecated, both in the schoolroom and out of it. Children should never be led into evil emotions, or into any temptation whatever. No doubt many pupils have been guilty of falsehood under an unjustifiable pressure. Some teachers and parents require children to condemn themselves. The worst criminal in the eye of law is not compelled to convict himself in a court of justice. Why should more be required of undesigning, erring children than of designing, adult villains All reasonable means should be employed to encourage pupils to be truthful.

"I doubt the propriety and the utility of many of those performances in schools called public examinations. What a misnomer! They are more properly schoolexhibitions, especially when the exercises are conducted wholly by the teachers and the pupils. The supposed disguises of special training for such occasions are, in many cases, not even 'film deep.'

"I have known teachers who have degraded themselves in the estimation of their scholars by preparing such shallow performances for the closing exercises of terms.

Yet these exhibitions have sometimes elicited the highest encomiums. Children have a much keener perception of moral justice than many suppose. An abuse of the faculty inevitably leads to dishonesty. In one of his late Reports, the learned Superintendent of the Public Schools in the city of Boston observed: "I was recently pained to hear an eminent citizen say that he removed his son from one of our Public Schools because the pupils made a practice of cheating in their lessons.' "In schools, great attention should be given to the formation of good habits of body and mind in accordance with the highest forms of Christian morality. 'The diminutive chains of habit,' said Dr. Johnson, are seldom heavy enough to be felt, till they are too strong to be broken.'

"Good behavior implies courteous deportment and refined language. Juvenile profanity and obscenity are among the growing evils of the day, and the Public Schools are in danger of being seriously infested by them. School-rooms should be the nurseries of Christian civilization. Intellectual cultivation pillared on immorality loses half of its value by losing all of its spirituality."

HEALTH OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.-The Medical School of Middlesex County, Mass., having considered for several successive meetings the influence of public schools on the health of children, has authorized the publication of the following maxims as the deliberate opinions of its members:

1st. No child should be allowed to attend school before the beginning of its sixth year.

2d. The duration of daily attendance (including the time given to recess and physical exercise) should not exceed four and a half hours for the Primary schools; six hours for the other schools.

3d. There should be no study required out of school,-unless at High Schools; and this should not exceed one hour.

4th. Recess time should be devoted to play outside the school room-unless during very stormy weather-and as this time rightfully belongs to the pupils, they should not be deprived of it except for some serious offence; and those who are not deprived of it should not be allowed to spend it in study; and no child should ever be confined to the school-room during an entire session. The minimum of recess-time should be fifteen minutes in each session, and in Primary schools there should be more than one recess in each session.

5th. Physical exercise should be used in school to prevent nervous and muscular fatigue and to relieve monotony, but not as muscular training. It should be practiced by both teachers and children for at least five minutes in every hour not broken by recess, and should be timed by music. In Primary schools every half-hour should be broken by exercise, recess or singing.

6th. Ventilation should be amply provided for by other means than open windows, though these should be used in addition to the special means, during recess and exercise time.

7th. Lessons should be scrupulously apportioned to the average capacity of the pupils; and in Primary schools the slate should be used more and the books less, and instruction should be given as much as possible on the principles of "Object Teaching."

THIS is an exercise which, for want of a better name, we have designated as above. After a thorough and most satisfactory trial of two years, we confidently commend it to the attention of teachers. Three leading objects are obtained from it.

First. The pupil on whom the exercise devolves acquires valuable information, which is so effectually fastened in the mind that it can scarcely fail of being retained permanently.

Second. The facts presented, having been collected and condensed with great care, are communicated to many other minds, under circumstances calculated to attract attention and impart interest.

Third. But the most important object is, to cultivate the power of clothing thought in appropriate language, and presenting it in an easy, colloquial style, to a company of listeners..

It may be rendered so simple and easy, that the little child in the Primary School may engage in it as readily and profitably as the member of a High School. Indeed, it ought to be commenced by the children in the lower grades, that, as they advance into the higher, they may gain the full benefit which continued practice will impart.

Suppose the pupil
Mountains, the sea

The preparation of a "recital” is simply this. has recently returned from a trip to the White side, or a long journey. He has seen many new objects of interest, and has many beautiful mental pictures of them treasured up, to