work to the careful examination of every teacher interested in the study of our truly noble, but sadly neglected language.

An Elementary Class Book on Astronomy, in which Mathematical Demonstrations are omitted: by Horatio N. Robinson, A. M.This work is intended to meet the wants of those who are not prepared to study the author's University edition. "Some of the more abstruse parts of the science are omitted, and some of the more simple and elementary parts are more enlarged upon in this book, than in that." Although this is an elementary work, it is none the less scientific and logical in its treatment and arrangement of details. But few illustrations are introduced, as the author doubts their util

ity except in few instances. The well-known reputation of the author is a better guaranty than anything we can add in a brief notice, of the excellency of this work.

All of the above are published by Ivison, Phinney & Co., N. Y.

From S. S. & W. Wood, New York, we have received the following works :-- -The New York Primer, or Second Book: The New York Reader, No. 1, adapted to the capacities of the younger classes of learners, being selections of easy lessons, calculated to inculcate morality and piety: The New York Reader, No. 2, being selections in prose and poetry. While pains have been taken to introduce essays which will gratify the youthful fancy and, at the same time, strengthen and encourage virtuous feelings and a love for the truth, care has also been taken to exclude every thing having a tendency to inculcate the spirit of war, or promote a taste for theatrical entertainments: The New York Reader, No. 3, being selections in prose and poetry from the best writers, which culuted to assist the scholar in the art of reading, and, at the same time, to fix his principles and inspire him with a love of virtue. Correctness of diction, purity of style, and the moral tendency of the matter selected, have been the guides in the preparation of this number, and, indeed, of the whole series: The New York Expositor, or Fifth Book, being a collection of the most useful words in the English Language, by Richard Wiggins; to which is added a vocabulary of Scientific Terms, by John Griscom. This appears to be a very well prepared pocket dictionary. Johnson and Walker are the chief authorities for pronunciation, etc.

are cal

ATLANTIC MONTHLY.-Contents for March.-German Universities, The Professor's Story, Gymnastics, Land-Locked, Two or Three Troubles, Harbors of the Great Lakes, The Man who never was Young, The Men

of Schwyz, A Nook of the North, Behind the Mask, Diamonds and Pearls, Reviews and Literary Notices, Recent American Publications.

Quite a good number of our Lady friends have availed themselves of our offer, which is permanent, to furnish this excellent monthly with the School Journal for three dollars per annum.

TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS.

While a few, owing to hard times or a lack of interest, are requesting a discontinuance of the Journal, we are cheered by the encouragement and sympathy expressed to us by others, in letters enclosing pay for one and two years in advance. As we stated at the close of the first volume, we shall discontinue the Journal to no one who is in arrears. Those subscribers who have paid in full for one year from April 1860, may receive the remainder (three-fourths) of volume third for fifty cents. We shall continue to send the Journal to all subscribers who do not request a discontinuance. We hope the friends of the Journal will not permit the season to pass without an offort to increase its circulation in their respective vicin ities. It must depend mainly for support, upon the teachers and parents throughout the State who feel interested in the cause. Our inducements to those who act are liberal, too much so for our own interest, but our de sire that the Journal should reach every portion of the State, prompts us to make them. During the last three months we have distributed five hundred copies each of the Nov., Dec., Jan., and Feb. numbers, free, in order to bring the Journal to the notice of educators in every town in the State. We trust that those who received these numbers have used them in a way to promote our object.

We ask aid in the work to which we have been called, because we cannot do it alone. We do not come to our fellow teachers and the enlightened citizens of Vermont, as supplicants; but as fellow laborers in the noble work of training our youth for the service of the State, we ask you to stand by us, and lend the influence of your exam ple, your pen whenever occasion offers, and your one do! lar each per year, to make the Vermont School Journal worthy of the State and the cause it humbly labors to promote.

Our Advertising Department is appended to the Journa! but occupies none of its pages. Our readers ought to know that while these additional leaves cost them nothing, we could not sustain the Journal without the aid they afford..

VERMONT

SCHOOL JOURNAL AND FAMILY VISITOR.

VOLUME III.

APRIL, 1861.

NUMBER IV.

DIGNITY OF THE TEACHER'S PROFESSION.

Men are to be judged by what they accomplish, and not by their professed ability; the dignity of any profession or pursuit is to be measured by its importance and usefulness, and not by any artificial standard. Somebody has said "that there are three kinds of great men: those who are born great, those who achieve greatness, and those who have greatness thrust upon them." If this statement is correct, it needs explanation. Greatness of birth must rely upon corresponding greatness of soul and intellect, and not upon the mere accident of ancestry, and even this will not be allowed unless evidence of the accomplishment of some noble deeds, shall accompany the demand for it. Those who have greatness thrust upon them, have no claim to the distinction.

"Pigmies are pigmies still though perched on Alps." "Those who achieve greatness honor, in whatever profession and

cumstances.

are the men whom we under whatever cir

And, judging of the comparative greatness of men and the dignity of their office by what they accomplish, what may we not claim for the teacher's noble profession? Which of the Learned Professions is more important? Is it the Law? Is it Medicine? Is it the Gospel Ministry? I admit that the "Ministry " was ordained of God, as the direct agency for the world's redemption, but even this is powerless without the school and the school-master. And who has educated the Lawyer, the Physician, the Minister, the Poet, the Orator, the Statesmen? Was it

not the school teacher? Indeed, the profession of teach. ing is the foundation, yea, the very corner-stone of all others. No other profession could have being, if the school-master was not abroad in the land. And is there not more dignity in that calling upon which the well-being, if not the very existence of society depends? And may not that man or woman who has proved an earnest and efficient teacher, and has trained hundreds and thousands, and fitted them for elevated stations of usefulness in life, claim a small share, at least, of that honor which is awarded to true greatness?

The office of the modern teacher is still more magnified, in view of the comparative importance of the sphere in which he acts, and the object at which he aims. The ancient teacher claimed efficiency only in one department; the modern must uuderstand all: the ancient lived in an age of comparative darkness; the modern basks in the sunshine of the nineteenth century, when the arts and sciences have attained the highest degree of cultivation. To be a teacher in this age of the world, therefore, requires much more extensive qualifications than in those early times to which we have alluded. The ancient teacher aimed simply to make disciples to his own favorite scheme of scholastic philosophy; the modern teacher. makes men, citizens, statesmen, and even rulers of a mighty nation. And inasmuch as he is more exalted, and his du ties and aims more elevated, so much the more is his of fice dignified and honorable.

Particularly is this true of the American teacher. His field of labor is in the home of freedom, and his work to cultivate and develop minds that will act an important part in the drama of the world's future history: The present generation of American teachers not only occupy an elevated position, but sustain a fearful responsibility. It is theirs to mould the destiny of this great Republic. It is through their agency that the experiment of free institutions is to succeed or fail. America may prove the

goes

last hope of the world, and if our sun of Freedom down in darkness, who can estimate how great a share of the responsibility will rest upon the instructors of the present generation of children and youth?

And if our experiment shall prove successful, who can tell what blessings will result to future generations and to other nations now shrouded in gloomy superstition, or crushed by the iron heel of despotism?

And again, the religious element in the modern system of education, adds to the moral dignity of the teacher's office. A cheerless philosophy pervaded the pagan mind. It was incorporated into their literature and science, and taught in their schools. They attempted, by the light of reason alone, to solve the great problem of human life, and the mysteries of the future world, but failed to accomplish their object. They failed to discover, by the light of nature, the simplest truths of morality and religion, and longed for more light, for something higher and holier than they had yet attained. Still they taught their own code of morals and the strange doctrines of Pagan theology.

But how powerless such teachers, when compared with those of modern times, who hold in their hands Divine Revelation, and have as their guide the example of the Great Teacher, JESUS CHRIST.

Socrates longed for a new revelation and expressed the belief that it would ere long be given, but he died before that light dawned upon his anxious vision. Dr. Arnold of Rugby, the representative teacher of our day, beheld the "Son of Righteousness," and felt the power of His "healing beams." What a contrast between Socrates and Arnold in this respect; the one a heathen philosopher, the other an enlightened Christian; both great and highly cultivated as scholars and men, but the one paralyzed by the heartless dogmas of a false philosophy, and the other inspired by the life-giving influence of the Gospel; the former bearing in his hand, the dim taper of per