they are not trammelled by improper and pragmatic interference from abroad, the institution must prosper.

I take this opportunity also to acknowledge your patronage of my daughters, and your kindness and attention to them. The female academy over which they now preside, with great credit to themselves, and advantage to their pupils, was planned and put into operation by you. Their School is now crowded with young ladies, and they only want for room to extend their plan. I once thought it probable that they would not toil for bread; but it is honourable to them that they now render useful to their sex, the liberal education which they received from able masters, under my own inspection; though intended, when bestowed upon them, for their own amusement, or for the circles of private society.

The mode of education adopted by them, is, as far as circumstances will permit, similar to that which we have chosen for the Asbury College. They wish to pay great attention to mental improvement, and but very little to the puerile trifles, with which the time of young women is too frequently wasted. Wise and learned men, are now generally agreed, that the common routine of female education, is miserably defective. In every instance where the experiment has been fairly tried, women have kept pace with men, in the race of literature and science.-There is no sex in mind. The position is fully proved by the works of learned women in our own day. Excuse this digression. Old men will sometimes speak of themselves. I return to the subject of our college.

One circumstance seems to mcrit peculiar notice :-It has been suggested that the admission of small boys, into a collegiate system, necessarily proves injurious to it. In some instances this cannot be denied. The cause is easily assigned. Professors of science or of profound literature, are disgusted with the dull monotony of Abecedarian elements, and can hardly descend to the drudgery of teaching them. They often select favourites from amongst the elder pupils, on whom they bestow too much attention: they deem the honour of their respective departments concerned, and to bring forward a few favourite scholars, with eclat at an examination, seems their only object.

Our college acts upon a broader and more liberal scale; our professors descend from the rostrum to assist the tutors in conducting the almost infant mind. They feel the importance of forming in its juvenile state the judgment, which they are destined to direct, in its more advanced stages of improvement. It is but two centuries, since the Jesuits were the most learned men, and the most excellent teachers in Europe; they condescended to develope the latent talents even of children, and they thus produced many illustrious characters, who were an honour to the age in which they lived. Contrast the conduct of these venerable men toward their pupils, with that used in some of our modern systems, and it is possible that, with all our boasted light and learning, the balance will appear against us. The minor schools of this seminary, conducted as they now are, will furnish to the higher wards, a regular supply of well prepared students, accustomed to the exercise of reason from its early dawn, with the saving of half the time and half the expense incurred in the customary mode. Such youths will moreover give us much less trouble than we shall be compelled to encounter from the promiscuous admission of grown boys, whose prominent qualities, too often, are, ignorance, conceit and insolence. I have, more than once, seen the college militant, to suppress the stupid insubordination of these adult dolts who come to the seminary, presenting one hand for the minimum pittance of learning, while the other is reserved for offensive or defensive operations. This is the real cause of all the insur

rections that, so frequently, disgrace our seminaries. Our youths are not trained up in the love of order, the love of science, and submission to the laws. They therefore soon grow weary of the yoke, and use all their energy to shake it off. Unable to appreciate the incalculable worth of learning, they assert their liberty; an imaginary insult rouses the college to rebellion, the dunces take the lead, and social feeling induces the well disposed and orderly students to lend their support, or to be silent spectators of misrule and riot. This is not conjecture,-1 have seen the whole acted out to the life.

Respectfully yours, &c.

GEORGE BLACKBURN.

To the Rev. Samuel K. Jennings, M. D. President of the Asbury College of Maryland.

SIR,

Baltimore, January, 1813.

In compliance with your request, 1 give the outline of the plan of instruction. observed in my department. I own, I feel pleasure in submitting it to you, as an enlightened and scientific man, and who, at our late examination in the Eutaw church, witnessed its efficiency. I have uniformly endeavoured to avoid the tediousness of the old scholastic method, of communicating classical knowledge. Wherever it is pursued, I am not surprised to find this elegant and useful branch of education much neglected. It is a well known fact, and which is evinced by every day's experience, that many youths, though confined to the study of the Greek and Latin languages for the term of two or three years, have scarcely advanced beyond the elementary authors. Too much time is commonly occupied in the reiteration of declensions, conjugations, and rules of syntax; yet notwithstanding this great expense of time and labour, youths thus educated, are seldom capable of critically analysing, even the few authors they have read. To remedy these inconveniences and to obviate the common-place objections to the study of the classicks; I have adopted the plan which I now pursue, and which I have uniformly found to be practically efficient. By means of it, I enable my pupil to sur:nount innumerable difficulties, and animate him to pursue with alacrity and zeal, the attainment of literature. When he has learned the declensions and conjugations, I give him some easy author to translate, and I myself, become his Grammar and Dictionary. In this way, I translate, parse, and analyze, with him for one month. By the improvement he makes in this short period, I generally find him prepared to commence some of the elementary authors, and thus with ease introduce him, at once, to the study of the classicks. This method, it is obvious, gives much additional labour to the teacher, but smooths the path of learning for the scholar. The mode of instruction pursued at this important period of the student's progress, will accordingly as it is well or ill conducted, fix his taste for classick learning, or probably induce his final abandonment of it. I therefore give my pupil, not only the meaning, but the beauties of the author. I compare the notes of different commentators, take inferences from the whole, and assign my reasons for the inferences so taken. By this means, his judgment is called into action, he is obliged not only to translate, and to analyze in a general way, but also to give an account of every peculiar turn of expression, that occurs in his author. I have thus sketched two important stages of my plan. There remains a third, namely, the complete acquisition of language. In this, I entirely dispense with the common school-boy style, and lead my pupil into the spirit and feelings of his author, and when I have once gained VOL. I.

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this point, I deem my success as almost certain. He becomes enthusiastically fond of his studies, his inventive powers are called forth, his imagination becomes vivid, and his language classical and elegant. This, Sir, is the general outline of my plan;-to detail all the minutia, would exceed the compass of a letter.

I am, Sir, with sentiments of respect and esteem,
Your obedient humble servant,

MICHAEL POWER.

Communication from Dr. Jennings to the Editors of the Methodist Magazine.

Mr. Blackburn has been but little accustomed to solicit patronage, it has always been in his power to command it when he pleased: he has indeed, often met with instances of friendship, and of kindness; but, so far as his professional duties are concerned, he has always repaid them with interest.

From numerous testimonies in his favour, it may not be improper to give the following to the public.

From the right Reverend James Madison, D. D. President of the college of William and Mary, and Bishop of Virginia.

William and Mary College, Nov. 4, 1811. I do hereby certify, that Mr. G. Blackburn has acted as Professor of Mathematicks in this college, during the last seven years, and that he has evinced, not only an extensive and profound acquaintance with these sciences, but also the happiest talent in rendering them accessible to all those who have been engaged, under his direction, in the pursuit of this important branch of col. legiate education.

[Signed]

J. MADISON, President.

From the Reverend Jonathan Maxey, S. T. D. President of the College of South Carolina.

Columbia, Sept. 6, 1815.

DEAR SIR, ******** I have no doubt that your instructions in Mathematicks, for three months, will be of more importance to your pupils, than those of ordinary teachers for as many years. Parents are not aware of the injury done to their sons, by incompetent teachers. The deficiency of mathematical knowledge is generally great in most of the youths that enter this college, and this deficiency retards and embarrasses them during the whole course of their co!lege studies: this you know from your own experience here. * * ****** Your mode of teaching is so scientifick, and you render every subject so intelligible, that your pupils are astonished to find themselves capable of comprehending the most difficult and abstruse principles with ease and facility. J. MAXEY.

********

Mr. Blackburn.

I would observe that Dr. Maxey has been many years president of different colleges in the United States, and is a man of profound learning, genius and eloquence. With him Professor Blackburn maintained an uniformly good understanding, during the three years that be delivered lectures in the college of South Carolina.

The most grateful incense that a teacher can receive is the applause of his own ingenuous pupils :-the Professor has frequently enjoyed this pleasure, and it has amply compensated him for the many instances of stupid malevolence which he has had to encounter, and which is, too often, the portion of men who render themselves useful to mankind by superior talents.

From his pupils of the South Carolina College, in his opinion, one of the most excellent classes that he ever taught, he received the following letter.

South-Carolina College, June 10, 1815.

SIR, **You have exhibited toward us that attention and respect which demand reciprocity, and which ensure perpetual remembrance. It is not merely our own private interest that prompts regret for your departure; but our earnest solicitude for the welfare of the institution, and for the diffusion of science,

In whatever circumstances you may hereafter be placed, it cannot but afford you pleasure to reflect that many of the young literati of our country, will recall the name and talents of Mr. Blackburn, with ideas of the fondest regret. *****

Signed by the COMMITTEE, &c.

One of his pupils, deservedly a favourite one, succeeds him in the Professorship of Mathematicks, &c. in the college of William & Mary.-Professor Campbell, is a lover of learning, and of science :-and though still a young man, is greatly useful to Virginia. It is, perhaps, not quite correct to give the page of private correspondence to the public eye; but as the following is at once honourable to him, and to Professor Blackburn, he will excuse the liberty.

MUCH ESTEEMED PRECEPTOR,

Williamsburg, July 16, 1817.

******** I congratulate you on your return to a part of the country, that must long acknowledge your faithful and ministerious services. Of you it may be said, without the semblance of adulation, that you have given to the youth of this, and other of our states, an impulse and taste for scientifick pursuits altogether unknown before; and by a faculty, as rare as wonderful, have shown the true mode of teaching the sciences, by divesting them of all the pomp which pedantry had mingled with truth: you have evinced what an eminent philosopher has very justly observed,-that the Mathematicks, though the most difficult of all the various branches of literature, are, indeed, when properly pursued, the language of nature.

Mr. Blackburn.

F. CAMPBELL.

Another favourite pupil of his, now Professor of the sciences in the college of Athens, Georgia, Mr. Camak, addresses him in language equally flattering. In a word he justly wears the only laurels which he esteems as truly valuable; the praise of men whose minds he has helped to cultivate, and whose merits he appreciated while they were yet strangers to their own worth.

SAMUEL K. JENNINGS.

t

Extract from the regulations of the Asbury College.

Of the President.

I. To the president is committed the superintendance of the interests and reputation of this institution, which he is bound to maintain and promote by every exertion in his power.

II. He is to see that prayers are made, morning and evening, and he will call attention to the evidences, general principles, and morality of the christian religion, at his own discretion.

III. He is ex officio president of the faculty, and the administrator of all their decisions in cases of discipline.

IV. Once in every week, or oftener, at discretion, be will make particular inquiry into the progress of every student and scholar individually, and reprove the indolent, or encourage and applaud those who continue to do well. V. He will deliver lectures upon ancient history, chronology, ancient Geography, Metaphysicks, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity.

Of the Professors.

To the professor of mathematicks and natural philosophy, is committed the instruction of the several wards in which are taught arithmetick, including the doctrine of proportion; vulgar and decimal fractions; the extraction of roots; algebra; the elements of Euclid; plane and solid mensuration; logarithms; plane and spherical trigonometry, with the branches depending directly upon them, as surveying, navigation, and nautical astronomy; conic sections; the application of algebra to geometry; the principles of fluxions, and every thing in practical astronomy necessary to determine the latitude and longitude of places by sea or land; natural philosophy, &c. all which he will fully explain and demonstrate.

He will give weekly lectures upon these subjects.

To the professor of languages, are specially committed the several wards in which are taught the Latin, Greek, and French languages. In giving his instructions he will use the following books, viz.

For the Latin course;-Latin grammar; Corderius; Historia Sacra; Eutropius or Viri Roma; four first books of Cæsar's Commentaries; Virgil's Eclogues; Sallust; first six books of the Eneid; Horace's Odes; Cicero; Lavy; Horace's Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry; Terence; Virgil's Georgics; and the Annals of Tacitus.

For the Greek course ;-Greek grammar; such selections from the four Gospels as the faculty may direct; Lucian; first four books of the Cyropedia ; Acts of the Apostles; first six books of Homer; Demosthenes; Longinus; Euripides.

And, should a more extensive course be required, the remaining classicks will be introduced at the discretion of the faculty.

The French language shall be taught by the ordinary course of reading, exercises, &c.

He will give weekly lectures, written or extempore, explanatory of the principles and philosophy of language.