arrangement, could be more economically and successfully instructed by females. Legal provisions are already made in this State for such a consolidation of Districts. This would invite a more perfect classification of scholars, and would allow the central Schoolhouse to be so constructed, and to have the seats and desks of such a hight as to be convenient for the larger grade of scholars, and still be comfortable for other purposes for which it might occa sionally be necessary to occupy it. Such an arrangement, while it would obviate the almost insuperable difficulties which stand in the way of proper classification and the thorough government and instruction of Schools, would at the same time offer greater inducements to the erection of more comfortable and attractive Schoolhouses.

SCHOOLHOUSES IN CITIES AND VILLAGES.

The plan suggested in the last paragraph may be perfected in cities and villages. For this purpose, where ner ther the distance nor the number of scholars is too great, some prefer to have all the Schools of a District or corporation conducted under the same roof. However this may be, as there will be other places for public meetings of various kinds, each room should be appropriated to a partic ular department, and be fitted up exclusively for the accommodation of the grade of scholars that are to occupy it.

In cities, and even in villages with a population of three or four thousand, it is desirable to establish at least three grades of Schools, viz: the Primary, for the smallest children; the Intermediate department, for those more" advanced; and a Central High School, for scholars that have passed through the Primary and Intermediate Schools. While this arrangement is favorable to the better classifi cation of the scholars of a village or city, and holds out an inducement to those of the lowest and middle grade of Schools to perfect themselves in the various branches of

study that are pursued in them respectively, as the condition upon which they are permitted to enter a higher grade, it also allows a more perfect adjustment of the seats and desks to the various requirements of the children in their passage through the grades of Schools.

The extent to which the gradation of Schools may advantageously be carried, is well illustrated in the public Schools of the city of New York, two hundred in number, in which six hundred Teachers are employed, and in which one hundred thousand children annually receive instruction. The Free Academy, which stands at the head of the public School system of New York, and which is a School of the highest grade, was established by the Board of Education in 1847. The expense of the building, without the furniture, was $16,000, and the annual expense for the salaries of professors and teachers is about $10,000.

No students are admitted to the Free Academy who have not attended the Public Schools of the city for at least one full year, nor these until they have undergone a thorough examination and proved themselves worthy. Its influence, hence, is not confined to the one hundred or one hundred and fifty scholars] who may graduate from it annually, but reaches and stimulates the six hundred Teachers of the city, and the hundred thousand children whom they instruct, and thus elevates the Common Schools of the city, and places them much more favorably before the public than they otherwise could be.

Smaller cities, and especially villages with a population of but a few thousand, can not, of course, maintain so extended a system of public Schools; but they can accomplish essentially the same thing more perfectly, though on a smaller scale. For the benefit of Districts in the country and in villages, a few Plans of Schoolhouses will be here inserted.

D D, doors. E E, entries lighted over outer doors, one for the boys and the other for the girls. RL, room for recitation, library, and apparatus, which may be entered by a single door from the Teacher's platform, as represented in the plan, or by two, as in Plan No. 3, p. 457. S S, stoves with air-tubes beneath. K K, aisles four feet wide-the remaining aisles are each two feet wide. cv, chimneys and ventilators. I I, recitation seats. B B1 black-board, made by giving the wall a colored hard finish. G H, seats and desks, four feet in length, constructed as represented on the 357th page. Other styles of seats and desks are given on pages 387 to 402 of this volume. This plan is from the author's work on Universal Education.

Plan No. 2, Fig 1.-Front Elevation

A, School-room for Primary classes, both sexes. BB, School-rooms for second grade, sexes divided. C, Recita tation-room, common for both sexes, and repository for books and instruments. D D D D, Clothes-rooms. EE, Wood-closets. FF, Entrance lobbies. G GG, Teachers' platforms. A side elevation is given on the next page.

The three Figures of Plan No. 2, are each on a scale of 20 feet to the inch.

The drawings of the three figures represented in Plan No. 2, were furnished by Messrs. Jordan & Anderson, of Detroit. This plan, it will be seen, has separate entrances, on opposite sides of the building, for boys and girls, who meet in the Primary Department, represented at A on the preceding page. Separate entrances for the sexes are also provided on the other front, for students attending the Second Grade, in the rooms represented at B B.

This plan, it will be seen, provides separate entrances for the boys and girls of each of the two departments. As the Schoolhouse has two fronts, it might appropriately occupy a square, or be located between two streets, in a village or city, which would readily admit of separate play yards for the boys and girls of each of the two depart

ments.

Plan No. 3, Figs. 1 and 2, on the two following pages, is from the author's work on Education. It is adapted to the division of a School into three Departments-for Primary, Intermediate and High Schools. The rooms of this plan may be furnished with a simple style of seats and desks, as represented at Fig. 1, or by the improved furniture represented on pages 387 to 402 of this volume.