to bees and other insects; to the succession of farm processes from seed time to harvest; to the manipulations necessary to produce a crop and prepare it for the market; and to the processes and products of household labor and economy - all can be turned to good account in the process of education, doubling the interest in study and increasing the products manifold.

In following this method, the teacher is but obeying one of the most fundamental of all the laws of mental development, proceeding from the known to the unknown, and making the previous experience of the child the basis for its future growth. Besides the advantage to the child itself, this method aids education in other ways. It takes away from instruction the reproach of being unpractical, it excites an interest in all school affairs on the part of all parents, and it leads to continually more intelligent action in home and farm affairs. We may hope it may also have the effect of leading to a higher appreciation of country life, and of arresting the present tendency of migration toward the cities, and the abandonment of the farm for trades or for the professions. — From "Principles and Practice of Teeaching,"

- " by Jas. JOHONNOT: Published by D. Appleton & Co.

When any one speaks of the "Spelling Reform," he is immediately met with such inquiries as these: What is meant by this “reform ?' Where and how did it originate? What has it accomplished? These questions I propose to answer briefly in the following sketch:

In 1874, at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association, held at Hartford, Connecticut, the president, Prof. March, of Lafayette College, in his inaugural address, introduced the subject as follows: " When there is talk of improving language, the first thing that a man who uses the English language thinks of is the spelling. It is of no use to try to characterize with fitting epithets and adequate terms of objurgation the monstrous spelling of the English language. If all the words in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, and all beside that Dr. Fitz Edward Hall has found or made, they would hardly make a suitable impression in these days of exaggeration. Spelling is often thought of as child's work, and of little serious moment, but it is by no means so. The time lost by it is a large part of the whole school time of the mass of men, and with a large majority

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of those who are said to read, and who can read if you give them time, it is a fatal bar through life to that easy and intelligent reading which every voter, every human being ought to have at command.” At the annual meeting held at Newport, R. I., in 1875, the president, Prof. Trumbull, of Yale College, again brought the subject before the association, In his address he said: “There are indications of increased interest in this subject. The popular mind seems awake as never before to appreciation of the difficulties, eccentricities and absurdities of the standard English cacography. The spelling matches' which last winter became epidemie, had their influence by bringing more clearly to popular apprehension the anomalies of the current orthography, and disposed many to admit with Mr. A. J. Ellis, that 'to spell English is the most difficult of human attainments. Among scholars there is little difference of opinion on the main question --- Is reform of the present spelling desirable?" Subsequently at that meeting, a committee, consisting or Profs. Whitney, Trumbull, March, Child and Haldeman, was appointed to take the matter into consideration and report at the next meeting.

At the meeting, held in New York in 1876, the committee presented a report containing, in eight sections, a statement of fundamental principles in accordance with which reform should be attempted. Briefly summarized, these declare that while the sole office of alphabetic writing is to represent spoken speech, yet a representation of the nicest varieties of articulation is not needed, and room may be left for individual and local peculiarities; that in changing the mode of writing a language, regard must be had to what is possible as much as to what is desirable; that the first step is to break down the prejudice which regards the established modes of spelling as having almost a sacred character and as being in themselves preferable to others; and that the Roman alphabet is too widely and firmly established to be displaced, and that in adapting it to improved use for English, efforts should be directed to a uniform use of it in conformity with the usage of other nations. This was a long step in the right direction. It gave a safe starting-point. That starting-point was the Roman alphabet which contained originally but eighteen articulations, every one of which is in general use, not only in our alphabet, but also in that of other languages. The committee determined to make this the basis of their plan, and accordingly at the next meeting of the association, held at Baltimore in 1877, it made a report in which it was stated that there are eighteen Roman letters, rep

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resenting in English nearly the same elementary sounds which they represented in Latin, and that four other consonant sounds have now special signs appropriated to them, and consequently the following twenty-two letters shall remain as now: a (as in far), b, c (= k), d, e, f, g (as in go), h, i (as in pit), 1, m, n, o (as in so, go), p, r, s, t, u (as in full, pull), v, w, y (as in yet), z. There are three short vowels unknown to the early Romans, and without proper representatives in English, for which we need new letters. These are the vowel sounds heard in cat, not, but, and for these new letters, modifications of a, o, and u are proposed. We have five elementary consonants represented by digraphs, viz.: th (as in pith), th (=dh as in then, thine), sh, zh (as in azure, fusion), ng (as in sing). For these and for the two sounds represented by ch (as in church), and g=j (as in gin, jet), new letters are wanted. Thus according to this scheme, the alphabet consists of thirty-two letters, ten of which are new to us, although the early English (Anglo-Saxon) had a character to represent the sound of a in that, and distinguished th (as in thin) from th=dh (as in then), the the latter being simply a crossed d. Were we now to use all these new characters at once, it would make a great change in the looks of many words, and consequently the committee recommended the gradual introduction of new letters and spellings, such for example as the use of only those new letters which resemble the displaced ones in form, and the dropping of silent letters.

Dr. Trumbull, in 1875, in his address before mentioned, proposed that a list of words be made for which amended spellings might be adopted. Acting on this, and on the assurance that several influential papers would use a few amended spellings, the association at its recent meeting, held at Saratoga in July last, recommended for general adoption in writing and printing new spellings for the following words: have, give, live, definite, infinite, are, guard, catalogue, though, through, wished, these words being representatives of classes in which changes are desirable and easy to make. In their changed spellings these words appear in the following form: hav, giv, liv, definit, infinit, ar, gard, catalog, tho, thru, wisht. The chief change, it will be seen, consists in dropping silent letters, especially final mute e after a short vowel, as is illustrated in the first five of the above words. These are good examples of the proposed "reformed spelling.” Are they really the frightful destruction - bringing havoc, making the foes of En

, glish, which many supposed them to be? Are they not rather the dictations of common sense trying to tear itself loose from the unreasonable bonds imposed by expediency and sanctioned by custom?

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Such has been the action of this learned body of men, the originators and promoters of this movement which promises so much for the bettering of our language. Out of their action grew the International Convention held at Philadelphia, August 14-17, 1876, and in that convention originated the Spelling Reform Association, which has taken up and is now carrying on the work begun by the older society. The association held its first meeting at Baltimore in 1877, and adopted the alphabet and recommendations of the Philological Association. At the annual meeting in July last, the number of words for which new spellings are recommended, was limited to three of those above given, viz.: hare, live, give, which exemplify but one principle — the omission of mute e after a short vowel. The reasons adduced'for this were that more extensive changes would not receive such general adoption, that compositors and proof-readers could easily follow these few changes, and that, while they would puzzle no one, these changes would accustom readers to the beginnings of a reform, and would impress them with the idea that a reform is desirable. - R. H. CAROTHERS, in Pa. School Journal.

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MORAL EDUCATION.

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By this is meantithe kind of education a human being should receive at all hazards. So many still think it is done by sermons ! So many still think only clergymen can do it! So many still think it can only be done by professing Christians ! So many still think it is of no consequence;! And worse yet, so many are utterly incapable in spirit, life, or knowledge to instruct in morals !

How can a young girl of no seriousness of character, whose whole soul is given to her ringlets, make any serious impression upon her pupils? The folly of most of the so called educational official action will make its appearance at last in the way the public live. There never was greater hollowness in life than at present; and how can it be otherwise? John Jones gets John Smith in the adjoining school district, to give his son or daughter a "place to teach." They neither of them think that THE SCHOOLS ARE FOR THE CHILDREN. Not at all that, but to give Lucy Jones a chance to earn some money; she don't expect to teach morals; she couldn't. Thus have our schools fallen! !

A valued correspondent sends us an article from the Tribune on this theme:

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“ President Chadbourne, of Williams College, said to the Massachusetts teachers, at their recent meeting: 'If all moral and religious education is neglected, we shall some day be swallowed up by corruption. We want the same deep sense of responsibility and moral honesty that the Puritans possessed, though we want by no means to go back to those days. Enforcement of the principles of honesty, love of law, respect of labor, should never be forgotten, and we should ever aim to develop honest manhood and womanhood. Education does not consist in mastering languages, but is found in that moral training which extends beyond the school room to the playground and street, and which teaches that a meaner thing can be done than to fail in a recitation.'

“ If it be good to find a college president interesting himself in the common schools, it is doubly good to have from his lips a presentation of the greatest need of those schools. For, assuredly, there is no larger want in them just now than the want of simple, practical, moral training. Education, in its true sense - to amplify President Chadbourne's sentence - is not the cramming of certain facts and rules into the hard little head of a young Adam; it is the training that shall make his mind and moral nature malleable for the work of life; that shall cultivate honesty as well as mathematical capacity, truthfulness as well as linguistics, that shall send the boy out to his labor with a clean soul as well as a clever head.

“Of course, there would be no use in expecting in the Gradgrind sort of teacher the moral inspiration that could make him guide, with a practical little sermon here and there, his group of boys to higher life. But the teacher who goes to his work with his sense of its immense importance, with a realization of his obligation to something higher than a board of education - such a teacher holds a tremendous power in heart and voice. In heart we say — for it is the practical Christianity that moves to good living and thinking that is wanted, rather than the cut-and-dried morality of a third-rate dogmatist. A child may be given an upward bent with a single sentence coming in a happy moment, but that sentence must be a thing of spirit; never mind the form. We do not advocate long moral sermons in the schools, but let there be a constant current of quiet instruction in the things that go to make men and women true, honest, and high-minded. Fifteen minutes, for instance, could well be spared from a day's German instruction if they went to make two or three boys feel keenly that cruelty, of which there is far too much in schools, was a stupid and sneak

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