Another cause of defective school government is found in the natural inability of many teachers to command respect and exercise authority. The poet is born such; so are all really efficient school masters. A good disciplin. arian cannot be made. He may be improved, but if he has not the natural talent, education can never supply the deficiency. France had but one Napoleon, and even America has a thousand Greeleys to one McClellan. And how many are the instances in our schools where the teacher lacks that energy, life and power which give him the ability to control. He may be a good scholar and a good instructor, but he lacks authority. Alas! when we have said this, we have pronounced our pedagogue unfit for his position. It matters little what other excellent qualities he possesses; if he cannot govern, his school is comparatively worthless. There cannot be effective study and thorough mental discipline in a disorderly school

room.

Still another fruitful cause of defective discipline, is the frequent change of teachers.

In most of our district schools and many of our academies, the teachers are changed as often as twice a year. The result is, no well digested plan for the management of the school can be carried out. If a good disciplinarian has been employed, he has no more than time to perfect his system and secure uniform good order, before he must leave the school.

The next incumbent either destroys all that his predecessor has done or adopts a new method to secure the same object. In either case, the end in view is defeated by this constant change. In this way, the efficient master is shorn of his ability and the poor one is allowed to do all the mischief that the time will allow.

And frequently, lack of discipline results from want of interest in the duties of the school.

The teacher has ability, it may be, and would do well if teaching was his business. But he is engaged only for

a term and has no love for his employment. His thoughts and time are chiefly occupied in his studies at the Academy, College, or in some Profession. The school is of secondary importance; a mere matter of "dollars and cents" to him. And this lack of interest engenders lack of discipline and renders the school comparatively useless. If the amount of money that is annually wasted in Ver. mont upon this class of teachers, could be saved, it would well nigh pay our war tax during this infernal rebellion. If the time thus worse than wasted by our children could be well employed, they would be much better fitted for the positions and responsibilities that await them in mature life.

But what is the remedy for this admitted evil?

First, let special efforts be made to diffuse correct views of family and school government among the people. Let the Pulpit, the Press and the public Lecturer speak out on this subject, until parents shall learn not only to gov. ern their households, but also to sustain the authority of the Teacher.

Let a different method be adopted by town Superintendents in the examination of Teachers, and granting licenses. No man can judge correctly as to their qualifi cations simply by a private examination. He must visit the school, and there test the master's ability to manage and control his pupils. Let the license be withheld, until he has proved his competency by trial in the schoolroom. And if lack of discipline is a natural and prominent defect, let him be at once removed by the proper authority, and a competent person employed to fill his place. Where we cannot have well managed schools, we had better have none at all; for an ungoverned school is an absolute evil.

Frequent changes in teachers can be avoided only by elevating the calling; by making it a Profession to be sustained and remunerated as its importance demande. When it shall be required as a condition of entering the

school-room as teacher that the candidate has been professionally educated, and when suitable compensation is offered for such services, then and not till then, will this instability and inefficiency in our schools, give place to permanency and thorough discipline. Then will the incompetent and time serving seek some other employment, and every true friend of education will rejoice. Quackery should never be tolerated; whether in Medicine, Law, or School-keeping. 0.

THE SISAGANS OF ARMENIA.

Our remote ancestors, before they left their Asiatic home and emigrated into Europe, are thought, by some, to have occupied a part of the ancient kingdom of Armenia; and it is an interesting fact, that, in examining Ancient Armenian history, we find some apparent confirmation of this opinion. The people, who were called Sisagans among the Armenians, were probably the same as the Sacæ cf Strabo and Ptolemy. We find them occupying precisely the same locality, and distinguished by many of the same characteristics.

nobility of character, use of the bow. His situated in the eastern

The Sisagans of Armenian history were the descendants of one Sissag, or Sisac, who lived about 1800 years before Christ, and who was the ninth in descent from Noah, in the line of Japhet and Gomer. This ancester is described as a prince distinguished for his strength, beauty, and skill in the territory embraced all that region part of the ancient Armenian kingdom, between the rivers Kur or Cyrus and the Araxes, and extending west beyond the sea of Gelam or Kegham, named from the father of Sissag. It was one of the most fertile and beautiful provinces of Central Asia, abounding in every variety of excellent fruit and grain. The scenery of the northern and

eastern portions was the grandest possible, traversed by ir. regular mountain chains, full of dark ravines, deep gorges and excavated caverns, and on whose summits stood many & frowning castle, strongholds of a brave and warlike people.

It is said that Sissag, on receiving this country from his father, covered the whole face of it with towns and vil lages, and gave it the name of Sisagan. It is also sometimes called Seuni or Suni, and from these two appellations the inhabitants took the names Sisaguns and Sunis. One ancient writer says, that Sissag gave to the country the name of Suni, but that the Persians called it afterwards Sisagan. It was also called by the Armenians Sacasdan, or the province of the Sacas, and answers to the Sacassene of Strabo, and to the Syracene and Sacapene of Ptolemy. Turner, in his History of the Anglo-Saxons, says, the word Saxon is probably an abbreviated form of Sakai-suna, or the sons of the Sakai. What reason Turner had to translate suna, as from the Saxon, by the word sons, does not appear. It is quite as probable that the Sa kai were called Sakui-suna from the fact that they lived in the province of Suni, and if so, the Armenians must have first conferred upon our ancestors the appellation by which we are to-day distinguished. They would naturally speak of the Sacas, as the Sacas of Suni.

These Sisagans, or Sacas, according to Armenian history, were very powerful more than 1700 B. C., and were frequently allied to the Armenians in their conflicts with Assyria, with Babylonia, and in later times with the Medes. In the second century before our era, when Arsaces established the renowned Parthian kingdom of the East, and extended his conquest over Armenia; he formed, of the country occupied by the posterity of Sissag, one great principality, sometimes called Sisagan, and sometimes Suni. This sovereignty was during a long period, one of the most powerful which existed in Armenia in ancient times. It is said the Parthian king chose distinguished

men from the race of Sissag, whom he made sovereigns of this country. And he is said also to have done this, because he had learned from history, of the ancient renown and valor of this people. These Sisagan rules made alliances by marriage with the Parthian royal families, and were regarded as independent princes.

If we are not able clearly to identify these Sisagans with the Sakai or Sacae, who are supposed to be the Saxons of the East, we can, at least, trace many striking resemblances. Some further notices of this people may be given in a future number.

W. C. W.