as It is a source of great gratification to review the progress of the classified schools of Ohio for the last ten years, and especially is it a matter for congratulation that the free school principle has been so cordially, so thoroughly, and, apparently, so permanently adopted in our State. But while a rich harvest of blessings has already been reaped, it needs to be distinctly understood that the capacity of our free school system for usefulness remains yet almost entirely unrevealed. While it is true that our free classified public schools have been successful, still that success has not been of the first order. Valuable far as it goes, it is still not worthy of the highest commendation. It does not, or has not yet, generally, involved the highest human attainments in its accomplishments. It has not yet so changed the face of society as to make the difference apparent to the common observer. What has been already gained is, in general, mostly preparatory to what should follow. By bringing together in a free school all the diversified gifts of all the children of a community, and thereby uniting and diffusing all the advantages which social position and home culture can furnish, some degree of success must almost necessarily follow, and, if to the foregoing is added a judicious classification of the pupils in schools, the work of intellectual instruction can be conducted with marked success by Teachers of quite ordinary attainments. Two highly essential elements of prosperity, like those just mentioned, being understood and incorporated into a school system, progress to some extent, and in some form, becomes almost inevitable. The Teacher soon regards his labors with complacency, and community points with satisfaction and pride to VOL. VI.-No. 1. 1 the liberal institutions flourishing in its midst. As before said, this is all well. It is progress, and progress in exactly the right direction. It is a matter for sober and rational exultation, that so much has been achieved. But let us be liberal in our views upon the great question of providing the best possible education for the young. Let us be specific when we speak of the excellencies of our school systems. Let us be candid and honest in defining the nature of our labors and in estimating the value of our services. We turn then to the question, are our schools progressive-both conservative and progressive? We are to seek evidences of excellence and progression, first, in improvements upon past and present, known methods of school organization, school discipline, and instruction. In this respect it is believed that our schools have been, for several years, decidedly progressive. But, second, we are to look for progress in the invention and introduction of subjects and modes of instruction not hitherto known or practiced in any measure-more philosophical in plan, more efficacious and far-reaching in their tendencies. As the highest order of human culture is introduced, we are to look for a change in the whole moral atmosphere of a community. Truth, justice and charity will begin to be gloriously triumphant. Selfishness, fraud and uncontrolled appetite rapidly disappear. Are these evidences of progress around us? Perhaps so in some measure, but certainly they are not super-abundant. The demand for these modes and results is not yet sufficiently distinct and emphatic. On the part of the parent and of the public, there exist only the vague hope or expectation that the Teacher, somehow, is educating, somehow will educate the child. Whether the skill of the Teacher is expended upon the intellectual or the emotional and moral nature of the pupil, has seldom been a subject of thought or inquiry, much less a matter of careful observation and analysis. On the part of the Teacher also, it is feared that little beyond instruction in the sciences and the culture of the intellect is seriously and deliberately undertaken. The preparatory training on the part of the Teachers themselves is still wanting, the skill is wanting, the instrumentalities are wanting; and, more still, the ideal is too often wanting, or exists in but a misty, shadowy, form, in all that relates to the culture of the emotional and moral nature of the young. It certainly can not, in truth, be said that the child is properly educated, when his knowledge of the sciences is accurate and extensive, and yet his impulses all wrong, while his intellect has been highly dis 1 ciplined, yet his temper never subjected to control, his taste in letters most refined, yet his sense of justice most uncertain and obscure. Let us then be temperate and candid in speaking of our educational condition and progress. Giving proper credit for all that we have that is essential and truly valuable, let us aim at a higher standard of excellence than has before been sought. We must not, for a moment, be satisfied with former conquests. We must not repose on old virtues or old laurels, while so much remains to be achieved. If, ten years ago, there was a pressing necessity for a liberal, judicious school organization in our State, there is an equal necessity now, for just and liberal sentiments in relation to the higher departments of education. If Teachers of prudence, energy, experience and zeal, were then needed to introduce the more outward, material elements of a free, public school system to popular favor, Teachers are now needed to inaugurate emotional and spiritual culture into the free school training of our country. This may, indeed, appear difficult, discouraging,-seemingly almost impossible. So have all other valuable achievements. It is sufficient for us to know that its accomplishment is necessary and possible. SANDUSKY, Dec. 1, 1856. M. F. C. THE MOON. Dr. Scoresby, in an account that he has given of some recent observations made with the Earl of Rosse's telescope, says: "With respect to the moon, every object on its surface of one hundred feet was now distinctly to be seen, and he had no doubt that under very favorable circumstances, it would be so with objects sixty feet in height. On its surface were craters of extinct volcanoes, rocks, and masses of stones almost innumerable. He had no doubt that if such a building as he was then in were upon the surface of the moon, it would be rendered distinctly visible by these instruments. there were no signs of inhabitants such as ours -no vestige of architecture remains to show that the moon is or ever was inhabited by a race of mortals similar to ourselves. It presented no appearance which could lead to the supposition that it contained any thing like the green fields and lovely verdure of this beautiful world of ours. There was no water visible- not a sea, or river, or even the measure of a reservoir for supplying town or factory—all seemed desolate." But COMMUNICATIONS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE OHIO JOURNAL OF EDUCATION: Dear Sir-You ask me to give you some account of the progress and present state of the Night Schools of this city. I do so with pleasure, and only hope that it may be interesting to your readers. With us there is such hurrying to and fro, in the excited search for wealth, and so many branches of business in which young men and women may profitably engage, that few remain at School long enough to complete even a good business education. Of 16,673 pupils registered last year in all the Public Schools of this city, only 2,468 were over twelve years of age, and more than half of the whole number were under nine. Children engaged in any industrial pursuits at so early an age, cannot be supposed to take any great interest in the business that occupies them, but rather that they should regard their labor as a task imposed, not for their own good, but for the good of others. Nor do they feel the weight of responsibility which rests upon those of maturer years, and which modifies and restrains their natural impulses. Their time is not all occupied, and their intervals of leisure are devoted to mere amusements and matters of temporary or trifling moment. What they learn at School is forgotten. Habits of study previously formed are superseded by irregular and even vicious courses, and the work of early education is nearly obliterated before manhood is reached. The period of which we speak is one of no little importtance to the commonwealth. Any one who observed the processions of the last political campaign, and heard the shouts which, as the roar of many waters, surged up the hill-sides that encircle us, will acknowledge that there is a power in Young America which is to be respected and cared for. Well, to bridge over this period which intervenes between the school-going age and maturity, is a problem which has scarcely yet been solved. Atheneums, Philosophical Associations, Mechanics' Unions, etc., etc., have been established without number, both in this country and in Europe, and they seem to answer a condition of American society, every where. institutions have assumed a new shape. eous elements of the Public School system. In this city, I believe, these Every Winter, for sixteen years, have night Schools been established in various parts of the city, by the Board of Trustees and visitors of the Public Schools. This Winter there are ten of them, in as many of |