No. 85.] 383 



of human life — their intimate connection with the phenomena con- 

 stantly present to the eye and to the mind — their beautiful adapta- 

 tion to these processes which are periodically passing before the quick 

 observation of the child ? And will not the foundations of sound in- 

 tellectual culture be more strongly and permanently laid by connect- 

 ing its earliest stages with a full, systematic and clear exposition of 

 the nature, constituents and powers of those elementary substances 

 which surround us on every hand — enter into the formation, growth 

 and modification of all that our senses enable us to perceive, and make 

 up, in short, the material world in which we live, and move, and 

 have our being ? Now this knowledge can thus be illustrated and 

 applied, in the first instance, in no more direct, simple and efficacious 

 mode, than by its reference to the various pursuits of agriculture — 

 pursuits familiar, to a greater or less extent, to every child in the 

 land. 



The composition of the atmosphere ; the various elementary par- 

 ticles of matter ; their powers separately and in every variety of com- 

 bination ; the influences they are capable of exerting in the formation 

 and improvement of soils, the processes of vegetation, the culture of 

 plants, trees and vegetables of every description ; the beautiful adap- 

 tation of the different constituent elements of the atmosphere to the 

 varying requirements of animal and vegetable life, by means of which 

 plants are incessantly inhaling for their sustenance and nutriment, 

 the carbon, hydrogen, and azote or ammonia, emanating from ani- 

 mals, who, in their turn, obtain their essential nourishment from 

 these plants ; the preservation of the purity of the atmosphere by the 

 reproduction by vegetables of the oxygen consumed by animals ; and 

 the necessity of mineral substances no less than of vegetable mold 

 and atmospheric compounds, as food for plants ; all these, and many 

 other principles intimately connected with the every-day pursuits of 

 agriculture, may be ascertained, and their practical application point- 

 ed out in the schooi-room, and without any departure from the pre- 

 scribed routine of elementary studies. 



It is, in my judgment, a great mistake to Imagine that the ten years 

 which, in our systems of education, are devoted to the attainment of 

 the elementary principles of knowledge, can profitably, or indeed 

 without manifest injury to the government of the mind and the for- 

 mation of character, be spent in the mastery of the present restricted 

 outline of common school studies. During the general prevalence of 

 a system involving the necessity of the temporary employment of a 

 teacher for a few months of each year, it is apparent that the range 

 of instruction, however thorough, was necessarily confined to a few 

 branches ; and the long interval ordinarily permitted to elapse, be- 

 tween the successive terms of instruction, rendered it nearly indispen- 

 sable to go over in each successive term substantially the same course. 

 Under a competent instructor, permanently employed, and devoting 

 the principal portion of each year to the task of instruction, it is sus- 

 ceptible of demonstration that a single year will suffice for the ad- 

 vancement of the pupils far beyond the point heretofore supposed to 

 constitute the utmost verge of common school education, leaving them 



