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It consists of a Preparatory, Collegiate, and Theological department. Students over twelve years are admitted to the preparatory class, are furnished with regular instruction, by experienced and well qualified teachers, and enjoy the same privileges as those of the college, with regard to the library, chapel, workshops, &c. The necessary yearly expenditure of a student is comparatively small, and the facilities are great for defraying a portion of that sum by wages for work during hours of exercise. Ample accommodations are provided for such as use mechanical tools. The compensation in the workshops, or for gardening and agriculture, is from three to twelve cents per hour. Some students have in this way done much towards defraying their expenses. Others have gained little besides health of body, and vigor and elasticity of mind. There are now in the Collegiate and Preparatory Department, 80 students; and in the Theological Department, three pursuing Philological studies, and one Systematic Theology.

IMPROVEMENT IN CAMDEN.

Amidst the gloom in which the schools of New Jersey are shrouded, it is cheering to see the noble example set by the town of Camden. A Committee appointed at a town meeting in March last, have reported the expediency of erecting a building for a public Monitorial school—one room to be opened at suitable times, as a reading and lecture room, of purchasing a library for the use of the pupils and citizens, and of employing two able teachers estimated at salaries of $600, and $300-raising $1350 for the annual expenses, by a tax on 850 taxable inhabitants. The average annual expense of each pupil is estimated at $4.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

SELECT LETTERS OF PLINY THE YOUNGER; with Notes, and Illustrations of the Manners, Customs, and Laws of the ancient Romans. For the use of Schools. Boston: Published by Perkins, Marvin & Co. Philadelphia: Henry Perkins. 1835.

The design of the editor, in making this selection from the letters of Pliny, will sufficiently appear from the following extract from his preface.

"The object aimed at in the present selection, has been to exhibit the author's powers on a variety of subjects, and thus to render the work as interesting as possible to the student, to whom the reading of the whole would prove a tedious task. The notes are intended solely for the explanation of the text.'

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The selection seems to have been, in general, judiciously made in reference to the editor's design; and no one, we think, can read the table of contents, without wishing to peruse the letters to which it refers. We should have been gratified by the insertion of the celebrated letter of Pliny, relating to the character and conduct of the Christians of his day, together with the reply of the Emperor Trajan. The style of these two letters is such as would well entitle them to a place in any selection; and their subject matter would seem to invite the particular attention of all who feel an interest in the antiquities of Christianity. In the latter view, it is probably the most important document, respecting the christian church, which can be furnished from the whole mass of ancient heathen literature.

Although it was the professed design of the author to furnish explanatory notes alone, it would perhaps have been well, had be, as a guardian of the morals of youth, occasionally given a word of caution, respecting the irreligious tendency of some of the sentiments to be found in most of the Latin and Greek classics, aad even in some of the letters of Pliny. The letter relating to Aria, might have afforded a good opportunity for this purpose.

To the readers of the 'Annals,' and to all who take a deep interest in the subject of education, the letter relating to the school at Corno, cannot fail to afford a high gratification. The views of education presented in that letter, seem to us to be eminently just, and we would especially recommend to the attention of parents, at the present day, the sentiments of Pliny relating to the advantages to young men, of residing in their parents' families, during the period of their education.

The epistolary style is one which presents considerable difficulties to the young student, in the solution of which, he will commonly need the assistance of judicious notes. His difficulties are, in general, of two kinds, such as relate to customs, and to historical and geographical facts, of which he is ignorant, and such as belong to the idiomatic character of the language. The former may often be best explained by reference in the notes to standard treatises, relating to these subjects. To remove the embarrassment arising from difficult idioms, three different courses, at times, are pursued. The first, is to translate all difficult passages; the second, to give philological notes explanatory of idioms and phrases; and the third, to refer to grammars in which they are explained. The first, which is the one generally adopted by the editor of this work, serves but little purpose beyond removing the difficulty in hand, it does not teach the student how to surmount other and similar difficulties. The other modes therefore, and especially the last, whenever it can be adopted, seems to us the preferable mode, as it leads the learner to the acquisition of philological principles of extensive application, in his subsequent progress in the classics.

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THE LYCEUM ARITHMETIC, in three parts, each adapted to dif ferent ages and classes; prepared for Common Schools, High Schools, and Academies. By an experienced Teacher. Boston: William Peirce. 1835. 18mo. pp. 248.

This work is divided into three courses; adapted to pupils at different stages of their progress. The first part contains examples of the most simple arithmetical operations, with all the necessary explanations. The second part applies the same principles to more difficult examples, and presents rules, following a series of examples, to explain the mode of operation, and fix it in the memory, instead of the ordinary, but absurd practice of giving an abstract rule in the first place. The third part requires the pupil to review the elementary principles, apply them to new examples, and then proceed to the higher rules. Mental and written arithmetic are combined. There is abundant evidence that this is the work of 'an experienced teacher.' The illustrations are so ample, that they will serve as an important aid to the inexperienced; and will render explanations unnecessary to an intelligent pupil.

We feel the more confidence in this work because we know that the plan was tried, and found useful, both to teachers and pupils, before its publication; and was revised and corrected, after it had thus been tested by experiment.

PINNOCK'S IMPROVED EDITION OF DR. GOLDSMITH'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND, &C.; with a continuation to the year of 1832. With questions for examination,-notes and engravings. Philadelphia: Key & Biddle. 1834. 12mo. pp. 454.

This is a new edition of Goldsmith's England, beautifully executed; and illustrated with a number of fine engravings. The questions and notes will increase its value to most schools; and it is much to be preferred to the old editions. We must, however, enter our protest, against presenting a work so well established, 'revised and corrected,' by an anonymous American editor. If his name is not deemed worthy of appearing on the title page, or if he is unwilling to be responsible for the alterations he has made, and to acknowledge their amount and nature, it will necessarily impair the confidence of those who know anything of the mysteries of book-making.

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THE benevolence of an individual, exerted for the benefit of the aborigines of our country, gave rise to one of its most venerable and useful institutions-DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. In the year 1743, Samson Occum, a Mohegan Indian, who afterwards became a worthy and acceptable preacher, solicited admission into an English school taught by the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, of Lebanon, Connecticut. The success of the experiment with Occum, induced Dr. Wheelock to form the plan of an Indian missionary school. Two boys of the Delaware tribe entered the school in 1754. In 1762, the number of Indian pupils had increased to more than 20. 25

VOL. V.-NO. VII.

290

Origin of the College.

Many of his pupils were sent out as missionaries and school masters among their brethren in the wilderness; and the school acquired so generally the confidence of the Indians themselves, that a larger number desired to have their children educated, and to receive teachers and missionaries, than the funds allowed. Private subscriptions, and grants from the legislatures of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and from the commissioners of the Scotch Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, were obtained for their maintenance. Among other contributions, a farmer, by the name of Moor, made a donation of a house and land contiguous to Dr. Wheelock's, in consequence of which, the institution received the name of Moor's Indian Charity School.

In 1766, the increasing demands and hopes of the institution induced Dr. Wheelock to employ the Rev. Mr. Whittaker, and his first pupil, the Rev. Samson Occum, to visit Great Britain, in order to solicit funds for prosecuting their benevolent designs. The Earl of Dartmouth and others were appointed by Dr. Wheelock, trustees of the funds, which finally amounted to £10,000 sterling, with authority to fix on the site for the school. As it increased, it was deemed best to remove it nearer to the Indians; and as the largest tracts of land were offered for its endowment in New Hampshire, it was finally established at Hanover, on the Connecticut river. In opposition to the views of the trustees, Dr. Wheelock resolved to establish a college in connection with the school, for which a charter was granted in 1769, but which was kept entirely distinct from the seminary for the Indians.

Thus New Hampshire is indebted to the Christian benevolence of a single individual, for an institution which has produced some of the most distinguished ornaments of the state and the country, and has furnished a regular supply of well qualified men to fill her professions and offices.

In 1770, Dr. Wheelock removed to Hanover with his pupils, although a few log houses were the only shelter provided for himself and family, now amounting to 70 persons. A small, two story, frame college was soon erected. The first commencement of the college was held in 1771, at which four students graduated. Of the whole number of students at this period, 24 were destined to be missionaries, of whom six only were Indians.

Experience, however, proved in this case, as at Harvard, and in other attempts of the kind, that the plan of a distinct institution for the Indians could not be sustained. Of 40 Indian youth who had been under Dr. Wheelock's care, 20 had returned to the vices of savage life. The reasons for this result have been so fully exhibited by Mr. Schoolcraft in his essay on this subject, published in a recent number of the Annals, that it should excite no sur

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