and the New, Three Months in Labrador, Digging for Carthage, The Debatable Baby, George Rogers Clarke, Orley Farm, A Single Woman's Story, the Adventures of Philip, (by Thackeray,) Prince Napoleon, A Woman's Adventure, Monthly Record of Current Events, (itself worth the price of the Monthly,) Literary Notices, Editor's Easy Chair, Our Foreign Bureau, Editor's Drawer, Fashions for May.

Furnished by us the same as the Atlantic.

The Young Folk's Monitor is an illustrated monthly paper published the first of each month, at thirty-three cents per annum. The aim of this paper is to instruct and elevate the young, inculcating principles of Temperance and Morality. It will besides contain good reading for older people, and illustrated rebuses, eniginas, etc., to make evenings at home pleasant to the young. No quack notices inserted. Agents wanted. Eight copies for two dollars. Address R. M. Mansur, Mount Vernon, Me.

Peterson's Lady's National Magazine, and Arthur's Home Magazine, for May, are promprly upon our table, with their usual variety of engravings, patterns, fashions, etc.

Godey's Lady's Book is on our table, and as usual, is not only richly embellished with engravings, but is rich in style and matter. This is one of the best monthlies of the kind.

LEWIS' NORMAL INSTITUTE

FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

BOSTON, MASS.

The first Term of this Institute will open on the 4th day of July, 1861. It is fully incorporated and will have four able Professors, Dr. Dix Lewis filling the Chair of Gymnastics.

In this Institute Ladies and Gentlemen will be fully prepared to teach three hundred gymnastic exercises admirably adapted to schools, families, and the general gymnasium.

All interested can send for a Circular, enclosing stamp. Direct to Dr. DIX LEWIS, Box 12, Boston, Mass.

LEWIS' NEW GYMNASTICS

AND

BOSTON JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CULTURE. Edited and Published by Dr. Dix Lewis. Monthly, sixteen pages, quarto, only One Dollar per year; and to clubs of ten, 50 cents.

may2m

Address, Dr. DIX LEWIS, Box 12, Boston, Mass.

VERMONT

SCHOOL JOURNAL AND FAMILY VISITOR.

VOLUME III.

JUNE, 1861.

NUMBER VI.

PHYSICAL CULTURE AS RELATED TO MENTAL.

In this article we propose, briefly, to enter our protest against the practice so prevalent among parents, of urging on the mental development of their children, with little regard to the unfolding of their physical powers. One distinguished writer says,-" If you wish to develop the mind of a pupil, exercise his body; make him healthy and strong, that you may make him prudent and reasonable." The ancient philosopher, Plato, says, " Excess of bodily exercise may render us wild and unmanageable, but excess of arts, science, and music, makes us faddled and ef feminate. Only the right combination makes the soul wise and manly." The Superintendent of the Boston Schools, Hon. J. D. Philbrick, in a recent very excellent report upon this subject, writes,-" Hitherto we have directed our attention almost exclusively to intellectual education. The tasks of the brain have been greatly increased, without a corresponding increase of care for the preservation of health. This is the great defect of American education."

We might add the testimony of hundreds of the learned of all ages. It has surprised us, to note how nearly correct has the theory of the wise always been, upon this subject. But how lamentably defective has been their practice! It has been left to this generation to attempt this reform. Said Montaigne, years ago,-" It is the soul, and not the body alone, which we educate, and we must not train the one without the other." It is well for us now, when we see the majority of our precocious children dying at an early age, and the mass of our educated men dragging out a life of disease and suffering, to begin to

inquire into the reason of this unhappy result. Surely, if education is to be acquired only at the risk of health, it were better for all to taste sparingly of the fruits of knowledge. But we do not believe this. We know that our Creator has given no faculty of body or mind that may not be developed and cultivated without injury to any other faculty. It is not necessary to attempt to prove this, for all who believe in the beneficence of God, our Creator, will assent to the truth of this statement. Perfect harmony prevails in all His works, and not less in man than in the lower orders of creation.

Why is it, then, that effeminacy of body so often accompanies attainments in knowledge? May we not conclude that the harmony of the law that governs the connection of the mind and body, has been disturbed? Every one of us has noticed the fact that the exercise of the body only, produces a great, coarse, overgrown, and awkward physical frame; and that the culture of the mind to the neglect of the body, always produces the opposite phys ical result, that is, a weak, sickly, and puny body, while the mind itself has not often that vigor and acuteness of perception which we should expect.

In a former article we took the position that activity is health to the body. The body being the tenement of the mind, and having such intimate connection with it that it is an anomaly for a truly sound mind to be found in an unsound body, we now assume the position that bodily exercise, moderate, but regular and thorough, is essential to a healthy development and action of the mind. We are glad to see that this truth is taking such a strong hold upon the minds of the educators of our country. But we fear that in our own State its importance is not felt as it should be. We know of many a school house whose seats are not very soft and pliable to the touch of the little ones sent there daily during these long summer months, to learn their " ab c's "and" to cypher and study geography," whose "patrons" would consider it an un

pardonable misdemeanor on the part of the teacher, to fail to keep the "little mischiefs" within the school-room at least six hours each day. No matter how bright or tempting the out door scenes, shut up just so long they must be kept, as per bargain of committee with teacher!

We would say to these teachers, as you value the future health and happiness of your little lambs, let them snuff an occasional puff of the perfume laden breeze. Have you a class in Geography, do not compel them to sit and con over the dry definitions of the natural divisions, but, if there is a hill in sight, or a brook, or a pond, throw open a window and illustrate the lesson by a sight of the real thing which the Geography is intended to teach. And would there be any harm in your taking your class and going down by the side of the brook or pond, and there teaching them what an island is, or a peninsula (almost) an island), or a coast, or a cape, or a bay? And then lead them to look away to the mountain, to the hill, and the valley, and thus acquire a relative and accurate knowledge of their study, and of its simplicity and importance. Would not this knowledge, so pleasantly acquired, be as valuable, and permanent too, as if the book had been blindly followed, and its definitions abstractly committed?

Children love to play with stones and sticks, and to build play-houses with them. Might not the wide-awake teacher use these to illustrate a lesson in Arithmetic, and out in the yard occasionally, too, as effectively as with her pupils perched up on the hard bench, with curved spine bending over theblack and desolate slate?

A very small portion of a child's education is acquired at school, and yet we too often act and teach as if we thought it all learned there. The great object of the school is not to secure the perfect committal of text-books. We hold that it is as much the duty of the teacher to have a constant regard for the health of his pupils, as for their progress in knowledge. And we would also assert that this is the surest way to secure thorough progress in

study, namely, by keeping a careful oversight of the healthy physical development of the bodies of their pupils. Ev ery teacher knows that a scholar will learn better when he feels well; that his mind is clear and more active. He also knows, if he has experience in teaching, that, to keep a scholar feeling well, he must keep him pleasantly employed. He must also avoid keeping him too closely confined, until his every limb and muscle aches, and then scolding him for being restless; and he should give him frequent change of place and exercise, so that neither body nor mind shall become weary. One great aid to the teacher in this respect, is the introduction of the simple gymnastic exercises, which may be used in concert by classes or schools, and in any school room with good ef fect. A few minutes thus spent each half day, will drive dullness from any school, and bring a healthy glow and a smile to the cheek of every pupil, and the teacher, too. Fellow Teacher, try it, and see to it, that while you abate not an iota of your efforts to promote the mental culture of your pupils, you do not neglect a proper care of their health, by failing to use every means in your power to develop their bodies. Thus, while you neglect not the latter, shall you most surely promote the former. L.

THE FIRST PSALM BOOK.-The first book printed in the United States was the Bay Psalm Book, 1640. It passed through many editions here, and was reprinted in England in eighteen editions, the last one being published in 1745. In Scotland it passed through twenty-two editions. The last one appeared in 1756. It thus appears that the first work printed in America enjoyed a lasting reputation, and had a wider circulation abroad than any volume which has since appeared. We believe it passed through seventy editions in all.

The man who lives for himself alone, lives for a mean fellow.