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I 
BROCKPORT NORMAL SCHOOL. 
The Brockport Normal School, located 
in the lieavt of Western New York, (some 
twenty miles west of Rochester,) has long 
ranked among the best institutions of its 
class in this country, as we can affirm from 
personal knowledge. We therefore take 
pleasure in giving the accompanying view 
of the Building, and the following data rela¬ 
tive to the School, from Randall’s “ His¬ 
tory of the Common School System of the 
State of New York,” published by Ivison, 
Blakeman, Taylor & Co, of New York, 
a work we have heretofore warmly com¬ 
mended to our readers; 
The Brockport Training and Normal 
School was organized by act, of flic Legis¬ 
lature of April 7, 1866. The building is 
constructed of dark Medina sandstone, in 
the Normal style of architecture; is 300 feet 
long, and consists of a main or central build¬ 
ing, 50 by 60 feet, and two w ings, each 50 
by 75 feet; together with two transverse 
wings, each 50 by 84 feet, running cast and 
west, one at the northern and the other at 
the southern extremity. The central build¬ 
ing is four stories in bight, and the two 
wings three stories above the basement. 
The grounds comprise about six acres, at 
the head of College street. Estimated value 
of lmilding and grounds, $110,000; library 
and apparatus, $8,634.47 ; furniture, $4,300; 
in all, $122,93147. 
The Training School consists of a prim¬ 
ary, an Intermediate, and an academic de¬ 
partment. Its object is to test the ability of 
pupil teachers—to reproduce the drill they 
have received in the Normal School—and 
to give them an opportunity of practising in 
their profession, both as to methods of leach¬ 
ing and governing. The academic depart¬ 
ment 1ms courses of study corresponding to 
the courses in the Normal Department, 
called higher English and classical, and also 
a course preparatory for college, and a com¬ 
mercial course. The whole number of 
pupils taught during the year is about 650. 
The lion. Jerome Fuller is President of 
the Board of Trustees, and Daniel Holmes, 
Esq, Secretary. The Faculty is composed 
of the following: 
C. D. McLean, A. M., LI. H.. Principal. 
Win J. Milne, A. M., Vice Principal and Pro¬ 
fessor Ancient Limirwages. 
Francis B. Palmer, A. M., Principal Training 
School. 
H. G. Burlingame, A. M., Teacher of Mathe¬ 
matics. 
W. If. Lennon, A. M., Teacher of Natural 
Sciences. 
C. B. Fairchild Teacher of Commercial De¬ 
partment. 
Hubert J. Gordon. Teacher of Penmanship. 
Mrs. W. C. Sylla, Preceptress. 
Miss Helen Itoby, Timelier of Mathematics. 
Miss Clara Koby, Head Teacher Intermediate 
Department. 
Miss Sarah M. Efncr, Teacher Mathematics 
and History. 
Miss <’. M. Chrlshwell, Teacher English. 
Mrs. Mary A. Cmly, Teacher Objects. 
Mrs. M. J. Thompson, Head Teacher Primary 
Department. 
Miss Elizabeth Richmond, Teacher of Rending 
and Vocal Music. 
Miss Fanny Barnett, Teacher of Drawing. 
Mrs. F. C. Ailing, Teacher of Instrumental 
M usic. 
-»♦» 
PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 
The Christian Union sneers at practical 
education, and closes an article with the fol¬ 
lowing paragraph: 
The liberal education of the past, what¬ 
ever its defects—and they are serious, tried 
by the standard of necessities — had this 
great merit, that it aimed to ho truly liberal. 
Its purpose was to enlarge and elevate a 
man, to give hint something better than 
ability to make money. To do this it would 
familiarize him with other civilizations than 
those in which he lived; would strengthen 
the noble faculty that grasps pure abstrac¬ 
tions; would open to him, in short, a world 
of knowledge and enjoyment wholly beyond 
the visible present in which lies his bread 
and butter. But iu this age there is a ten¬ 
dency to make the whole of education a 
mere preliminary training for success in the 
professional or business pursuit of after-life. 
Against this we bold that, whenever it is 
possible, the first eighteen or twenty years 
of life should be devoted to developing and 
enriching a man’s nature in ils broadest, 
range. After-life will press lianl toward 
making him a mere minister or sea-captain, 
or merchant, as the case may he. It Is the 
proper work of a liberal education to secure 
that, over and above the capacity for his 
Special vocation, lie shall be a man. So we 
plead Unit the boy shall learn “jography,” 
though he is not to be a sea captain; and not 
only grammar, but rhetoric, logic and the 
languages, though he is not to be a minister. 
Wo insist, on the contrary, that what is 
called “the liberal education” of the past 
has dwarfed the lives of more men than it 
has enlarged, and compelled iheru to travel 
in traditional and conventional grooves when 
they ought to have been free. The absurd 
idea that a practical education is incom¬ 
patible with a liberal one, ought to be cx- 
pl<4ed ; and the more absurd idea that if a 
man is educated, and taught how to do 
something when he is young, lie will he any 
less a man, or less developed and enriched 
than if he spends the first eighteen or twenty 
years of his life learning abstractions, is un¬ 
worthy the utterance of so practical a man 
as Henry Ward Beecher. Every day 
men who have received what is called a 
“ liberal education ” at the schools, and have 
spent the best (first eighteen or twenty) years 
of their lives “enriching their natures,” 
come to us and go about the streets whining 
with -effeminate helplessness because their 
great learning, rich natures, and broad dc- 
Nortli Germany and Switzerlend excel you 
in the thoroughness and universality of their 
systems, and this, I believe, is entirely owing 
to the fact that in those countries the parent 
has not the right to deprive the child of the 
excellent, training which the State lias pro¬ 
vided. When the parent fails in his duty, 
the state stands in loco parentis, and this is 
failure. Before the machine can be made 
it must be in the man’s thought; its mate¬ 
rial and every dimension must be exactly 
known; without carefully measured little 
things, no great thing is possible. 
Perhaps ouc of the most common forms 
of ambition is to be a great writer or speaker; 
and many who desire this utterly neglect 
NORMAL SCHOOL BUILDING, BROCKPORT, 1ST. Y. 
vclopment arc not appreciated and pen¬ 
sioned by the unfeeling world — because 
they cau find nothing to do that they can 
do. And they never will do anything be¬ 
cause they have been educated too liberally 
to be fit for this hum-drum life. The won¬ 
der is that they consent to stay on this 
groveling earth. These are the men whom 
Brother Beecher’s “ liberal education ” lias 
developed—men altogether useless except to 
perpetuate the educational evils of which 
they arc living examples. 
Every day, too, “ accomplished ” or 
“ learned” women visit the newspaper offices 
f this city and throng our streets, wailing 
out their complaints that they can find noth¬ 
ing to do. They have drummed their fingers 
almost off on piano keys, screeched till they 
are hoarse in their efforts to master the 
scale, studied “ French ” under “ accom¬ 
plished native teachers” who never were in 
France, and mastered “jography " and the 
mathematics, and Latin grammar, needle 
work, oil painting and crayon sketching, 
have read all the novels and light literature 
they could lay their hands on, and have 
broadened their capacities for life until they, 
too, are utterly helpless—are more tit for 
Heaven and Eternal Rest than for life and its 
active duties. And this is the sort of edu¬ 
cation—one that is now demanded by those 
who suffer from it—which Mr. Beecher 
would have us believe ouly can developc 
man's and woman's nature in its broadest 
range. 
We take direct issue with all such doc¬ 
trine. It is not true that the men and wo¬ 
men with the richest natures and broadest, 
most useful and influential lives are those 
who have spent the first eighteen or twenty 
years of their lives studying books prepared 
for 1'ieir use by men who studied books be¬ 
fore them. Nor is it true that a business or 
practical education tends only to develop 
the ability to make money. Brother Beech¬ 
er seems to forget the necessity for adapta¬ 
tion to circumstances—that the theology of 
to-day is not that of yesterday, which would 
not be tolerated among intelligent men, if 
taught—that the demand for practical edu¬ 
cation grows out of the necessities of our 
time, and lias the same relation to the life of 
to-day that a telegraph and railroad engine 
has. And this talk about “liberal educa¬ 
tion”—meaning that of the past—is about as 
much an indication of insanity as to urge 
the people to give up railroading and con¬ 
template their great sinfulness from, and 
traverse the world in, an old-fashioned one* 
horse chaise. 
EDUCATION 1 IN AMERICA. 
Mr. Mandella, M. P. from Sheffield, 
England, in a recent speech in New York, 
uttered these wise words on the subject of 
Education:—“ I cannot conclude this part 
of my lecture without congratulating you 
on what your country has done and is doing 
for education. It lias been a constant de¬ 
light for me to go from school to school, in 
the towns and cities I have visited, and, with¬ 
out fearing to incur the reproach of flattery, 
I can say, familiar as 1 am with the school 
systems of Europe, that in private munifi¬ 
cence, in public liberality, in the beauty, com¬ 
fort, order and arrangement of your schools 
you surpass the world; but I should be un- 
caudid if I did not frankly tell you that 
what you chiefly ueed to perfect your educa¬ 
tional system. I have ventured upon these 
friendly criticisms because I am satisfied 
your country possesses the means and the 
opportunity of becoming first iu intellectual, 
as it is undoubtedly first in material pros¬ 
perity. Free from external enemies, no 
wasted years of military training are requir¬ 
ed from tin: nation’s youth. Benefactions 
of $10,000,000 in two years, for the advance¬ 
ment of the higher branches of education, 
evidence generosity and an appreciation of 
intellectual culture, unparalleled, so far as I 
know, in the world’s history. Free schools, 
free colleges and free universities are sources 
of national power and-wealth, greater than 
California mines and boundless prairies. 
Events present to every mind attest this. 
‘Not the nccdle-gun, hut higher education 
has conquered us,’ was the exclamaiion of 
an Austrian savant in 1866. Jules Simon, 
in addressing the French Chambers two 
years ago, said, ‘ Show me the nation that 
lias tiie best schools, and I will show you the 
premier nation. If the world does not ac¬ 
knowledge this to-day, it will do bo to-mor¬ 
row.’ How prophetic of that demoraliza¬ 
tion which ignorance has entailed upon 
France." 
-♦« ♦ 
The New Haven Theological Seminary 
opens with over seventy students. Six 
years ago it had scarcely ten. The new 
building Is overflowing, and it will be neces¬ 
sary soon to complete the quadrangle, of 
which two sides are finished. 
octal topics. 
LITTLE THINGS. 
Probably every one starts in life with 
some ideal he hopes to reach—is ambitious 
of distinction of some sort. This is well; 
for the proverb truly says, “He that aims to 
be Pope, will die a Cardinal”—some great 
success lie will probably have, if not all he 
aimed at. But, in aiming high, many seem 
inclined to neglect all the road between the 
two points—as if it were possible to run be¬ 
fore learning to walk, or to reach the lust 
step of the way before taking the first. It 
is said one asked of a music teacher wliat he 
charged, and when told it was two guineas 
for the first lesson, and one guinea for the 
second, replied, “Bother the first lesson, let 
us begin at the second.” We laugh at his 
blunder, yet we continually make the same. 
Is it not true that all the lessons in our 
schools, in our workshops, and in our 
churches, are but the repetition of the warn¬ 
ing and the instruction “Take care of little 
things!” Would you he a great financier, 
swaying the commercial destiny of nations, 
or a merchant-prince, known in every clime 
—you must get the multiplication table well 
learned before this is possible. Would you 
be an engineer, civil or mechanical, you 
have the same need. If you desire to be a 
mechanic, your hardest lesson through your 
whole life, that many never learn, will he 
that given you oil the first clay—for it is al¬ 
ways the “ little things” that accomplish, or 
spoil, great things. In the geometric lathe, 
a variation of the one hundredth part of an 
inch would make the machine an utter 
the previous training necessary—the “little 
things” needed for that profession. Analyze 
tho speech or sermon you have heard or 
read, aud what does it show? The man has 
studied tho little things you have looked at 
with unseeing eyes; lie has spread them be¬ 
fore you, and pointed out their relations, and 
you perceive their value. The writer who 
has seen most little things, the editor who 
can condense most little details into an arti¬ 
cle—these arc the successful ones. When 
you find a speech or an article full of “glit¬ 
tering generalities,” you may be sure that 
speech may charm by magic of sweet voice, 
or fluent delivery (if those little things have 
been acquired,) but it will he immediately 
forgotten. 
What, then, is needed for success in life ? 
The Latin advice, “ Festma lente" —hasten 
slowly; as translated by Davy Crockett, 
“ Be sure you are right, then go ahead"— 
should be taken for your motto. Be exact, in 
all details; do not, be apt to say or think 
“it will do," if not exactly right. Many a 
bookkeeper has had to hunt over his books 
for a whole month because of one moment 
of inattention to a little thing. Train your 
eye, your hand, your ear, your thought, to 
exact perception and comparison of all little 
things,—you do not know how many things 
you see without perceiving. When you 
have done this for some time, so it has be¬ 
come a habit, you will gradually become 
able to deal with some great thing which is 
an aggregation of many little ones ; till you 
have done this your eminence is as impossi¬ 
ble as an ocean without drops of water 
would he. d. m. c. 
-—-- 
ROSES AMONG THE ANCIENTS. 
To enjoy the scent of roses at meals, an 
abundance of roses were shaken on the table, 
so that the dishes were completely sur¬ 
rounded. By an artificial contrivance, roses 
during meals descended on the guests from 
above. Ileliogabalus, in his folly, caused 
roses t« be showered down upon his guests 
in sucli quantities that a number of them, 
being unable to extricate themselves, were 
suffocated in flowers. During meal times 
they reclined on cushions stuffed with rose 
leaves, or made a couch of the leaves them¬ 
selves. The floor, too, was strewn with 
roses, and iu this custom great luxury was 
displayed. Cleopatra, at an enormous ex¬ 
pense, procured roses for a feast which she 
gave to Antony, had them laid two cubits 
thick on the floor of the banquet room, and 
then caused nets to be spread over the flow¬ 
ers, in order to render the footing elastic. 
Heliogahalus caused not only the banquet- 
rooms, but also the colonnades that led to 
them, to be covered with roses, interspersed 
with lilies, hyacinths and narcissi, and 
walked about upon the flowery platform. 
- ♦»»- 
It is in the middle classes of society that 
all the finest feelings and the most amiable 
propensities of our nature do principally 
flourish and abound. For the good opinion 
of our fellow-meu is the strongest, though 
not the purest, motive to virtue. The pri¬ 
vations of poverty render us too cold anil 
callous, and the privileges of property 
too arrogant and consequential to feel. 
The first places us beneath the influence of 
opinion, the second above it.— Colton. 
A LESSON. 
Last night I welshed, qultii wearied out. 
The question that perplexes still; 
And thut sud spirit we cull doubt 
Made the good naught beside the 111. 
This morning, when with rostod mind 
I try again the self-same, theme, 
The whole is altered, and I find 
The balance turned, the good supremo. 
A little sleep, a brief night's rest, 
Has changed tho look of all that Is I 
Suroany creed I hold at bent 
Needs humble holding after this. 
UTOPIA. 
TitEitR Is a garden where lilies 
And roses are side by side ; 
And all day between Mi cm In silence 
Tho silken butterllles glide. 
I may not enter the garden, 
Though I know tho road I hereto; 
And morn by morn to the gateway 
I see tho children go. 
They bring back light on their faces; 
But they cannot bring back to mo 
Wliat the lilies say to tho roses, 
Or the songs of the butterflies bo. 
fjtorits for fjurnlists. 
MARGARET HAMILTON; 
A STORY OF DUTY AND DISCIPLINE. 
BY PEN DENNIS. 
[Concluded from page 271. last No.] 
A few months ago 1 was so eager to be 
tried ami proved; now I almost, sin ink from 
bearing any responsibility. But 1 do think 
that a lilllo of the old longing for purity 
comes hack with my returning health. I 
wish my pant might hide itself away under 
dead leaves and that over its deadness some 
sweet common blossom might open to make 
the world less sad. 
iS/tflcanto in ; my good thoughts vanished, 
and I felt myself grow hard and bitter. She 
had a little dress of Floy’s upon her arm, 
and arter congratulating me upon my con¬ 
valescence, she asked me if I wouldn’t help 
her plan the trimming. Then she repeated 
items of interest told mo that Captain 
AVauuen had fallen and broken Ids collar 
hone— Sophui Howard had gone away to 
school—little Bob Brown had lliu measles. 
13t/i.—Good Dr. Gibson always brings 
sunshine into my room. For days past l 
have been tormented by the fear Hint l may 
never walk again. So 1 said when lie came 
to-day; 
“ Doctor, do you mean to keep me in this 
room forever ?” 
“Dear me!” cried he. “No, Miss Mar¬ 
garet; in fact you must begin to walk to- 
niorrow—take three steps the first day, six 
the second, and soon in geometrical ratio. 
At that rate you will soon walk out of Ellon. 
Give my regards to the Pyramids, if you hap¬ 
pen to see them, and tell the North Pole to 
keep cool. To tell the truth,” lie continued, 
“lam going to be so very self-denying as 
to banish you from our midst. I am tired 
of replying to all sorts of questions Concern¬ 
ing your temporal state, and I am resolved 
to revenge myself upon the village folk. 
Three weeks is all the time I cau give you, 
so make haste." 
Grace came over iu the afternoon with 
good tidings in her face. Ensley has writ¬ 
ten her from California, a gay, nonsensical 
letter, at the close of which ho urges an im¬ 
mediate answer, but says “ Don’t trouble 
yourself to rehearse the village mortality 
for months past, as you may remember l’vo 
no fondness for such dismal facts.” Poor 
Ensley ! 
Everybody seems so glad to sec mo silling 
up. Phillis comes up every day to sec me, 
and must puzzle her brain sorely to manu¬ 
facture the numberless dainties that she 
Bends for my sustenance. She comes every 
day, but I don’t like her. 1 simply endure 
her presence because there is no alternative. 
I shall be glad to go away, since I shall miss 
hearing her praises from others, and shall 
not see her const an lly. If my own mother 
had lived she would have helped me to 
make my life fair and sweet—I should be 
truer. Oh my own lost mother! 
Aunt Elltse is going to take me to her 
brothers, near S-, New Jersey. I find 
that it was settled days ago. Auntie is a 
distant relative of fathers, and this “ brother 
Richard” is a friend. How I shall enjoy 
the change. And now I shall close this 
little worthless volume — worthless to all 
but me—and let Auntie put. it with the few 
books that I want. Good-by, dear home 
ami dear home friends. 
May llth.— I think they were sorry to 
part with us. Of course they were. There 
were tears in her eyes—for A untie, I suppose. 
I enjoyed tho journey, and it fatigued me 
much less than I expected. I look great 
delight in watching my fellow-travelers, and 
’twas not linrd to make up a history to suit 
each face. Then, when I grew tired of this, 
1 had the changing oul-door view of field 
and hill and river. Going southward the 
leaf buds grew larger and larger, till in 
Philadelphia they were full grown, and the 
trees in bloom. We spent a night in Riglit- 
Anglc-dom, as somebody lias culled it, then 
steamed down the beautiful Delaware to 
S-. Richard Ellise met us at Urn 
