RUTLAND COUNTY TEACHER'S ASSOCIATION. The members of the Teacher's Institute holden at Fairhaven, on the 19th of June 1861, J. S. Adams, Esq., Secretary of the Board of Education, in the chair, organized a society called the Rutland County Teacher's Association.

Messrs. H. J. Ballard of Poultney, B. F. Bingham of West Rutland, D. G. Moore of Rutland, Henry Clark of Poultney, and J. H. Wood of Fairhaven, were appointed a committee to report a constitution. Said committee reported as follows.

CONSTITUTION.

ART. 1. This Society shall be known as the Rutland County Teacher's Association.

ART. 2. The object of the Society will be the improvement of Teachers; and an elevation of our present Educational System.

ART. 3. The officers of this society shall be a President, two Vice Presidents, a Secretary, and an Executive Committee of five, one of which shall be the Secretary.

ART. 4. Every person in the county, who shall sign this Constitution and pay fifty cents annually to the Treasurer in the month of February, shall be a member of this Society; and such membership shall continue until such member shall lodge with the Secretary a certificate of his withdrawal from said society; or shall actually remove from the county.

ART. 5. The President and Vice Presidents shall perform the usual duties of such officers.

ART. 6. It shall be the duty of the Secretary to keep a true and fair record of all the proceedings of the Society and Executive Board, to warn all meetings of the society by direction of the President, and to receive and conduct all correspondence for the Association.

ART. 7. It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to receive and disburse all monies of the Society, subject to the approval of the Executive Committee.

ART. 8. It shall be the province of the Executive Committee to superintend and execute all affairs of the society not otherwise designated; they have direction of the funds

of the society, and shall arrange all the exercises of the Association.

ART. 9. This Society may institute branch Associations in the several towns in the county, when, in their opinion, the interests of Education will warrant.

ART. 10. The Society at its regular meeting may pass such By-Laws and Regulations as may be necessary for the government and well being of the same.

J. H. Wood of Fairhaven, and D. G. Moore of Rutland, were appointed a committee to nominate officers, to serve until the First Regular Meeting of the Association. The committee reported as follows. For President, H. Clark, of Poultney; For Vice Presidents, Rev. Francis Smith, and Hon. Barnes Frisbie, of Middletown; For Secretary, H. J. Ballard, of East Poultney; For Treasurer, John W. Eddy, of Fairhaven; Executive Committee, L. B. June, of Brandon, B. F. Bingham, of West Rutland, R. D. King, of Benson, and Rev. A. Hyde, of Pawlet.

Due notice will be given in the county papers, of the time and place of holding the First Regular Meeting of the Association.

Signed,

Fairhaven, June 19, 1861.

H. J. BALLARD,

Cor. and Rec. Secretary.

AT RUGBY.

He raised himself up and looked round! and after a minute rose and walked humbly down to the lowest bench, and sat down on the very seat which he had occupied on his first Sunday at Rugby. And then the old memories rushed back again, but softened and subdued, and soothing him as he let himself be carried away by them. And he looked up at the great painted window above the altar, and remembered how, when a little boy, he used to try not to look through it at the elm trees and the rooks, before the painted glass came, and the subscription for the painted glass, and the letter he wrote home for money to give to it; and there, down below, was the very name of the boy who sat on his right hand on that first day, scratched rudely in the oak paneling.

And then came the thought of all his old school-fellows; and form after form of boys, nobler and braver and purer than he, rose up and seemed to rebuke him. Could he not think of them, and what they had felt and were feeling; they who had honored and loved from the first the man whom it had taken years to know and love? Could he not think of those yet dearer to him who was gone, who bore his name and shared his blood, and were now without a husband or a father? Then the grief which he began to share with others became gentle and holy, and he rose up once more, and walked up the steps to the altar; and, while the tears flowed freely down his cheeks, knelt down humbly and hopefully to lay down there his share of a burden which had proved itself too heavy for him to bear in his own strength.

There let us leave him-where could we better leave him than at the altar before which first he had caught a glimpse of the glory of his birthright, and felt the drawing of the bond which links all living souls together in one brotherhood?-at the grave beneath the altar of him who had opened his eyes to see that glory, and softened his heart till it could feel that bond.

And let us not be hard on him, if at that moment his soul is fuller of the tomb, and him who lies there, than of the altar, and Him of whom it speaks. Such stages have to be gone through, I believe, by all young and brave souls, who must win their way through hero-worship to the worship of him who is the King and Lord of heroes. For it is only through our mysterious human relationships, through the love and tenderness and purity of mothers and sisters and wives, through the strength and courage of fathers and brothers and teachers, that we can come to the knowledge of Him in whom alone the love and the tenderness and the purity and the strength and the courage and the wisdom of all these dwell for ever and ever in perfect fullness.-Tom Brown's School Days.

SCRIPTURES, WHY GIVEN.-The Scriptures were not given to make work for interpreters, nor to teach men how to doubt, but how to live. The Holy Spirit has made undeni ably clear and manifest all those precepts that enjoin faith and obedience, which are the great points of religion, and weak men cannot correct him and do it better themselves.

EDITORIAL MISCELLANY.

VACATION

In our schools is of importance to their success, as well as term time. It affords a temporary release from burdensome care and fatiguing labor, and a change which is favorable both to health and progress. If the greatest improvement in study were the only question, more is accomplished in forty than in fifty-two weeks. Twenty-two days are better than twenty-six for a month, and five and a half days for a week, are of more value than six.

In this reduction of time, the teacher's convenience is not consulted, but the good of the school. It is stupid ignorance, therefore, which often prompts district agents to demand of teachers full weeks and months of school labor. On the other hand, teachers ought not to be allowed to teach six days one week, and to dismiss the school on the Saturday following. This defeats the object in view, viz: a respite for the pupils of half a day each week.

Another thought is suggested in this connection. The vacation should be employed for all the home service needed; parents should not detain their children from school during the term, nor allow regular study hours to be interrupted by labor or play. The loss of a single day, or a single lesson, is a serious injury, both to the individual pupil, and the school. There is nothing that tends to dishearten the true teacher as irregular attendance on the part of his pupils, and when parents tolerate the habit, it becomes ten-fold more annoying.

Let parents examine this account of" profit and loss," and learn the importance of employing their children in vacation all they need them, that they may have no excuse for irregularity at school.

OUR EDUCATIONAL CONVENTIONS

Meet this month; Let it not be forgotten. Our State Association meets at Middlebury on the 19th and 20th of

August. Its business and exercises will be crowded into a short day and a half. We must be prompt and active, if we hope to make progress this year.

The American Institute of Instruction will favor Vermont with a visit, and we should show our appreciation of the honor by a full attendance. No doubt every teacher who comes to Brattleboro' to spend the 21st, 22d, and 23d of Aug., will be amply repaid for his time and expenses.

A Meeting of Editors.-The Ct. Common School Journal suggests a meeting of the Editors of Educational Journals throughout the country, at Brattleboro', during the week. of the meeting of the Institute. The object of the meeting is to discuss questions pertaining to the interests of education, and the best method of conducting our Journals. We second the motion," and hope to see a large number of our brothers present on that occasion.

A liberal offer.-We now offer the Vermont School Journal one year, (Vol. III, which extends to Jan. 1862,) for 50 cents. We extend this offer to any new subscriber, to induce the friends of education to stand by us through the war. We hope to add many names to our list.

The Difference.-Two clergymen in the state write us in regard to our Journal. The first says "Please stop it. I presume it is good, but seldom if ever read it, and I hove failed as yet to find a teacher that wanted it as a gift! Having so many such publications, they defeat their own end and leave their authors and friends to mourn!" This is truly discouraging, but we are in doubt how much time. our friend has spent in laboring to induce teachers to take the Journal? He has "seldom if ever read it," he "presumes it is good." Did he tell these intelligent teachers who refused to accept the Journal as a gift, these facts? And how many "such publications" have we in the field. Our "end" is not "defeated," and we have more occasion to mourn the facts, that we have such professed friends, than the multiplicity of Educational Journals in