benefits of the system are strikingly manifest. Every boy is taught to wait upon himself to keep his person, clothing, furniture, and books, in perfect order and neatness; and no extravagance in dress, and no waste of fuel or food, or property of any kind is permitted. Each student has his own single bed, which is generally a light mattrass, laid upon a frame of slender bars of iron, because such bedsteads are not likely to be infested by insects, and each one makes his own bed and keeps it in order. In the house, there is a place for every thing and every thing must be in its place. In one closet are the shoe-brushes and blacking, in another the lamps and oil, in another the fuel. At the doors are good mats and scrapers, and every thing of the kind necessary for neatness and comfort, and every student is taught, as carefully as he is taught any other lesson, to make a proper use of all these articles at the right time, and then to leave them in good order at their proper places. Every instance of neglect is sure to receive its appropriate reprimand, and if necessary, severe punishment. I know of nothing that can benefit us more than the introduction of such oft-repeated lessons on carefulness and frugality into all our educational establishments; for the contrary habits of carelessness and wastefulness, notwithstanding all the advantages which we enjoy, have already done us immense mischief. Very many of our families waste and throw away nearly as much as they use; and one third of the expenses of housekeeping might be saved by system and frugality. It is true, we have such an abundance of every thing that this enormous waste is not so sensibly felt as it would be in a more densely populated region; but it is not always to be so with us. The productions of our country for some years past have by no means kept pace with the increase of consumption, and many an American family during the last season has felt a hard pressure, where they never expected to feel one.

Especially should this be made a branch of female education, and studied faithfully and perseveringly by all who are to be wives and mothers, and have the care of families.

The universal success also and very beneficial results, with which the arts of drawing and designing, vocal and instrumental music, moral instruction and the Bible, have been introduced into schools, was another fact peculiarly interesting to me. I asked all the teach

ers with whom I conversed, whether they did not sometimes find children who were actually incapable of learning to draw and to sing. I have had but one reply, and that was, that they found the same diversity of natural talent in regard to these as in regard to reading, writing, and the other branches of education; but they had never seen a child who was capable of learning to read and write, who could not be taught to sing well and draw neatly, and that too without taking any time which would at all interfere with, indeed which would not actually promote his progress in other studies. In regard to the necessity of moral instruction and the beneficial influence of the Bible in schools, the testimony was no less explicit and uniform. I inquired of all classes of teachers, and men of every grade of religious faith, instructors in common schools, high schools, and schools of art, of professors in colleges, universities and professional seminaries, in cities and in the country, in places where there was a uniformity and in places where was a diversity of creeds, of believers and unbelievers, of rationalists and enthusiasts, of Catholics and Protestants; and I never found but one reply, and that was, that to leave the moral faculty uninstructed was to leave the most important part of the human mind undeveloped, and to strip education of almost every thing that can make it valuable; and that the Bible, independently of the interest attending it, as containing the most ancient and influential writings ever recorded by human hands, and comprising the religious system of almost the whole of the civilized world, is in itself the best book that can be put into the hands of children to interest, to exercise, and to unfold their intellectual and moral powers. Every teacher whom I consulted, repelled with indignation the idea that moral instruction is not proper for schools ; and spurned with contempt the allegation, that the Bible cannot be introduced into common schools without encouraging a sectarian bias in the matter of teaching; an indignation and contempt which I believe will be fully participated in by every high-minded teacher in christendom.

A few instances, to illustrate the above mentioned general statements, I here subjoin :-Early in September I visited the Orphan House at Halle, an institution founded by the benevolence of Franke, about the year 1700, and which has been an object of special favor

with the present king of Prussia. It now contains from 2700 to 3000 boys, most of them orphans sustained by charity. After examining its extensive grounds, its commodious and neat buildings, its large book store, its noble printing establishment, for printing the Bible in the oriental and modern languages, its large apothecary's shop, for the dispensation of medicine to the poor, and the exquisitely beautiful statue of its founder, erected by Frederic William III; I was invited by Drs. Guerike and Netto to go into the dining-hall and see the boys partake of their supper. The hall is a very long and narrow room, and furnished the whole length of each side with short tables like the mess tables on board a man of war, each table accommodating about twelve boys. The tables were without cloths, but very clean, and were provided with little pewter basins of warm soup, and just as many pieces of dark and coarse, but very wholesome, bread, as there were to be boys at the table. When the bell rang, the boys entered in a very quiet and orderly manner, each with a little pewter spoon in his hand. When they had arranged themselves at table, at a signal from the teacher one of the boys ascended pulpit near the centre of the hall, and in the most appropriate manner supplicated the blessing of God upon their frugal repast. The boys then each took his bit of bread in one hand, and with his spoon in the other, made a very quiet and healthful meal. They then united in singing two or three verses of a hymn, and retired in the same quiet and orderly manner in which they had entered. It being warm weather, they were dressed in jackets and trowsers of clean, coarse brown linen; and a more cheerful, healthy, intelligent set of youthful faces and glistening eyes I never saw before; and notwithstanding the gravity with which they partook of their supper and left the hall, when fairly in the yard, there was such a pattering of little feet, such a chattering of German, and such skipping and playing, as satisfied me that none of their boyish spirits had been broken by the discipline of the school.

At Weisenfels, near Lutzen where the great battle was fought in the thirty years' war, there is a collection of various schools, under the superintendence of Dr. Harnisch, in what was formerly a large convent. Among the rest there is one of those institutions peculiar to Prussia, in which the children of very destitute families are taken

and educated at the public expense, to become teachers in poor villages where they can never expect to receive a large compensation; institutions of a class which we do not need here, because no villages in this country need be poor. Of course, though they have all the advantages of scientific advancement enjoyed in the most favored schools, frugality and self-denial form an important part of their education. Dr. Harnisch invited me to this part of the establishment to see these boys dine. When I came to the room, they were sitting at their writing tables, engaged in their studies as usual. At the ringing of the bell they arose. Some of the boys left the room, and the others removed the papers and books from the tables, and laid them away in their places. Some of the boys who had gone out, then re-entered with clean, coarse table cloths in their hands, which they spread over their writing tables. These were followed by others with loaves of brown bread, and plates provided with cold meat and sausages, neatly cut in slices, and jars of water, which they arranged on the table. Of these materials, after a short religious service, they made a cheerful and hearty meal; then arose, cleared away their tables, swept their room, and after a suitable season of recreation, resurned their studies. They are taught to take care of themselves, independent of any help, and their only luxuries are the fruits and plants which they cultivate with their own hands, and which grow abundantly in the gardens of the institution.

INSTITUTIONS FOR REFORMATION.

At Berlin, I visited an establishment for the reformation of youthful offenders. Here boys are placed, who have committed offences that bring them under the supervision of the police, to be instructed, and rescued from vice, instead of being hardened in iniquity, by living in the common prison with old offenders. It is under the care of Dr. Kopf, a most simple-hearted, excellent old gentleman; just such an one as reminds us of the ancient christians, who lived in the times of the persecution, simplicity and purity of the christian church. He has been very successful in reclaiming the young offender, and many an one, who would otherwise have been forever lost, has, by the influence of this iustitution, been saved to himself to his country

and to God. It is a manual labor school; and to a judicious intermingling of study and labor, religious instruction, kind treatment and necessary severity, it has owed its success. When I was there, most of the boys were employed in cutting screws for the rail-road which the government was then constructing between Berlin and Leipsic; and there were but few who could not maintain themselves by their labor. As I was passing with Dr. K. from room to room, I heard some beautiful voices singing in an adjoining apartment, and on entering I found about twenty of the boys, sitting at a long table, making clothes for the establishment, and singing at their work. The Dr. enjoyed my surprise, and on going out, remarked—“ I always keep these little rogues singing at their work, for while the children sing, the devil cannot come among them at all; he can only sit out doors there and growl; but if they stop singing, in the devil comes."-The Bible and the singing of religious hymns, are among the most efficient instruments which he employs for softening the hardened heart, and bringing the vicious and stubborn will to docility.

A similar establishment in the neighborhood of Hamburg, to which I was introduced by Dr. Julius, who is known to many of our citizens, afforded striking examples of the happy influence of moral and religious instruction, in reclaiming the vicious and saving the lost. Hamburg is the largest commercial city of Germany, and its population is extremely crowded. Though it is highly distinguished for its benevolent institutions, and for the hospitality and integrity of its citizens, yet the very circumstances in which it is placed, produce among the lowest class of its population, habits of degradation and beastliness, of which we have but few examples on this side the Atlantic. The children, therefore, received into this institution, are often of the very worst and most hopeless character. Not only are their minds most thoroughly depraved, but their very senses and bodily organization seem to partake in the viciousness and degradation of their hearts. Their appetites are so perverted, that sometimes the most loathsome and disgusting substances are preferred to wholesome food. The Superintendent, Mr. Wichern, states, that though plentifully supplied with provisions, yet when first received, some of them will steal and eat soap, rancid grease that has been laid aside for the purpose of greasing shoes, and even catch