SELWYN'S BUILDING, 366 WASHINGTON ST., ROOM 18.

Address editorial communications to EDITOR of MASS. TEACHER, Boston; letters relating to advertising to JOHN P. PAYSON, Chelsea; those relating to subscriptions to GEORGE K. DANIELL, Jr., Office of Mass. Teacher, Bos W JONES Boston Highlands.

EATON'S PRIMARY ARITHMETIC. Beautifully illustrated, and made attractive for beginners.

EATON'S INTELLECTUAL ARITHMETIC. On a progressive plan, with numerous drill exercises for review.

EATON'S COMMON SCHOOL ARITHMETIC. A complete practical arithmetic, full enough for all ordinary business purposes.

EATON'S HIGH SCHOOL ARITHMETIC.
High Schools and Academies.

A thorough and exhaustive treatise for

EATON'S ELEMENTARY ALGEBRA. Designed for beginners, and yet sufficiently full for the preparation of students for College.

EATON'S GRAMMAR SCHOOL ARITHMETIC. Unites the Common School and High School Arithmetics, and is sometimes preferred where only one Written Arithmetic is used.

EATON'S ELEMENTS OF ARITHMETIC. A short course of Written Arithmetic, designed for Evening Schools and special classes.

Eaton's Series present a full and practical exposition of the metric system of weights and measures, and the latest and most improved methods of mathematical instruction."

From hundreds of testimonials, in regard to the high character and successful working of Eaton's series in the schools, we present the following:

From Hon. John D. Philbrick, Superintendent of Public Schools.

The use of Eaton's Arithmetics in all the grades of our public schools, during the past four BOSTON, Sept. 23, 1869. years, has only added new proofs of their excellence. The protracted and severe test to which they have been subjected in the school-room has fully confirmed the opinion of their merits expressed by me some years ago.

From C. Goodwin Clark, Esq., Master of Lincoln School.

After using your Arithmetics four years, I can sincerely indorse the testimony given to their BOSTON, July 9, 1869. merits. They have stood the test of use and criticism, and are now standard works on arithmetic. From A. P. Marble, Esq., Superintendent of Public Schools.

Eaton's Common School Arithmetic has been used in the schools of this city with good success WORCESTER, MASS., June 15, 1869. for several years. For a ciear statement of important principles, in connection with a sufficient number of fair test questions, and for the absence of all mere lumber, I do not know that it has a superior in the field which it covers.

From A. P. Stone, Esq., Principal of High School.

I have examined Eaton's Arithmetic with considerable care, and am very favorably impressed PORTLAND, ME., July 6, 1869. with its merits. Its definitions, rules, and enunciations of principles are remarkably clear and comprehensive; and the explanations and examples are admirably adapted to illustrate the principles of the science, and to give the pupil an understanding knowledge of the subject. The work seems to me eminently philosophical and practical, and well worthy of use in the school-room. From H. E. Sawyer, Esq., Principal of High School, and Superintendent of Schools. Eaton's Arithmetics have been used in the public schools in this city for nearly four years, and MIDDLETOWN, CONN., Jan. 20, 1869. have given satisfaction generally to the teachers. The Primary and the Intellectual are well adapted to their purpose. The rules in the Common School are concise, the explanations clear, and the examples good. It is probably one of the best books of its class and kind.

From Prof. Wm. B. Graves, Instructor in Phillips Academy.

ANDOVER, MASS., Nov. 19, 1869.

I have used Eaton's Algebra one term. It is entirely satisfactory in the class-room. My impression is, that it is superior to any other elementary algebra.

Eaton's Arithmetics are used exclusively in the public schools of the city of Boston; also used in whole or in part in the cities of Worcester, Lynn, New Haven, Bridgeport, Waterbury, Middletown, Meriden, Norwich, Newport, Dover, Bath, Biddeford, and Saco.

Eaton's Arithmetics have been adopted by the State Boards of Education of California and Nevada as the arithmetics for the schools of those States.

They are used very extensively in the cities and towns of Iowa, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and other States.

THOMPSON, BIGELOW & BROWN also publish:

BRADBURY'S TRIGONOMETRY AND SURVEYING.
PHILBRICK'S AMERICAN UNION SPEAKER.
PHILBRICK'S PRIMARY UNION SPEAKER.
PHILBRICK'S PRIMARY SCHOOL TABLETS.
SMELLIE'S PHILOSOPHY OF NATURAL HISTORY.
WORCESTER'S GENERAL HISTORY.

THE UNIVERSAL SPEAKER.
QUESTIONS IN ARITHMETIC.
QUESTIONS IN GEOGRAPHY.
HALL'S MANUAL OF MORALS.
SCHOOL SERVICE BOOK.

Liberal terms given for first introduction. Descriptive Catalogue sent on application to the Publishers,

THOMPSON, BIGELOW & BROWN, 25 & 29 Cornhill, Boston.

We are willing that the controversy on the Geography Question commencing with the statement of facts in Newburyport, but spreading out somewhat into general matters, should be considered ended. We took up the matter in self-defence, and are ready to submit to a judgment from what has already appeared in these pages.

The Old and New - which is best?

As to Geographies, the question is one primarily, not of authors, but of systems. There are only two general systems of geography. One is the old-fashioned, that in which-from Morseto Mitchell-all of us were in bondage. This may be called the superficial or mechanical system. The other is the New System, now being adopted. This may be called the organic or natural system.

The authors or compilers of the Old System are legion; the New is represented BY ONLY ONE NAME, ARNOLD GUYOT.

Those who have studied the mechanical system know that it is made up of a mass or med ley of detached, lifeless facts: names of continents, countries, cities, rivers, lakes, oceans, mountains, islands and capes. Populations, boundaries, products, climates, altitudes, manufactures, and morals are promiscuously and profusely pressed into and over the pupil's memory; but the relation of the climates to the productions, of the rivers to the mountains, of the populations to both, are not revealed, and the mind of the scholar struggles under the lifeless load. This system is easier to teach because it is mechanical, and all the questions can be printed to the teacher's hand, and he ean, parrot like, ask them and get parrot-like answers; but it is words only that are learned, or, at most, isolated facts, and not ideas. Custom, inexperience, and indolence among teachers will, of course, favor this old system, and they will find abundant encouragement and support from those book publishers whose capital is in that system. But none of these interests, nor all of them, can ever make the system good. We might as well undertake to teach a correct astronomy out of the old Ptolemaic books as to undertake to teach geography correctly out of these old Geographies-it is not there.

How well GUYOT has succeeded in reducing the system to a practical result in his books and charts can only be fairly tested in the school-room by interested and intelligent teachers. The New system recognizes the fact that the earth is an organic structure, all of whose parts are vitally related to each other, No mountain can say to his neighbor mountains, I have no need of you. They are not only neighbors, but brothers. Neither can the rivers say to the hills, we have no need of you. A child may learn by rote, names, lengths, and directions of all the rivers between the Hudson and the reef of Florida, and the knowledge be of no more geographical value than the names of all the signs on Broadway. He knows that water runs down hill, but he does not know that that is the reason which determines the size, direction, and rapidity of all the rivers upon the globe. He knows that all the rivers between the Hudson and the Gulf of Mexico empty into the Atlantic Ocean, but he does not know why-and no geography of the Old kind teaches him, that the Alleghanies are a huge surface sloping that way. Physical Geography teaches such things and GUYOT'S GEOGRAPHIES TEACH PHYSICAL GEOG

RAPHY.

GILMAN H. TUCKER,

New England Agent for Guyot's Geographies,

At THOMPSON, BIGELOW & BROWN'S, 29 Cornhill, Boston.

ETYMOLOGY......

QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS...

THE ABOLITION OF THE DISTRICT SYSTEM

SONNET. TO ARNOLD...

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EDITOR'S DEPARTMENT. — EDITORIAL ARRANGEMENTS, 130; ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS, 131; MEETING AT THE EDUCATIONAL ROOM, 133; MEETING OF CLASSICAL AND HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS, 136; EXAMINATION QUESTIONS, 143; INTELLIGENCE, 145; PERSONAL, 146; ITEMS, 147; CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN CAMBRIDGE, 148.

BOOK NOTICES. SHAW'S MANUAL OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, SHAW'S CHOICE SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, A SMALLER HISTORY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE, 149; SKETCHES OF CREATION, JOURNAL OF A VISIT TO EGYPT, THE UNKIND WORD, THE BIBLE AND THE SCHOOL FUND, BREAK UP, THE TONE MASTERS, 150; DIALOGUES FROM DICKENS, THE AMERICAN BOTANIST AND FLORIST, THE FRENCH ECHO, THE SUN, WONDERS OF GLASS-MAKING, 151; THE SUBLIME IN NATURE, MADVIG'S LATIN GRAMMAR, NEW SYSTEM OF VENTILATION, THE NATIONAL PRIMARY SCHOOL SLATES, 152.

OTHER MAGAZINES. - Subscribers who pay in advance for the Massachusetts Teacher may order, through this Office, the following Magazines, at the prices indicated.

THE NATION. E. L. GODKIN, Publisher, New York. A Weekly Journal. $5.00 per annum. Our Subscribers, $4.00.

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OUR YOUNG FOLKS: a Monthly, containing something in every juvenile department. $2.00 per year. Our Subscribers, $1.50.

STUDENT AND SCHOOLMATE: a Monthly, devoted to pleasing Boys and Girls. $1.50 per year. Our Subscribers, $1.00.

OUR BOYS AND GIRLS: a popular Weekly Magazine, edited by Oliver Optic. $2.50 per year. Our Subscribers, $1.75.

THE NURSERY: a genuine child's Magazine, richly illustrated. Monthly. By Fannie P. Seaverns. $1.50 a year. We will send it to our subscribers for $1.00.

THE AMERICAN NATURALIST: the admirable Monthly of the Essex Institution, Salem. Adapted both to scientific and ordinary readers: it is neither below the one nor above the other. $4.00 per year. Our Subscribers, $3.00.

PUTNAM'S MAGAZINE (price $4.00) and Teacher, for $4.50.

HARPERS MAGAZINE, WEEKLY, or BAZAR, $3.25 each.

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE, $6.75.

TERMS, Payable in Advance.- Single numbers, 15 cents.

Yearly subscriptions, $1.50.

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Address editorial communications to EDITOR of MASS. TEACHER, Boston; letters relating to advertising to JOHN P. PAYSON, Chelsea; those relating to subscriptions to GEORGE K. DANIELL, Jr., Office of Mass. Teacher, Boston; publishing, to D. W. JONES, Roxbury.

[A paper read by WILLIAM C. COLLAR at the meeting of the High School Association in February.]

It seems to me that no branch of elementary classical instruction has been so much neglected as that which forms the subject of this hour's discussion. In our latest and most popular school grammars, only some ten or twelve pages out of more than three hundred, or about one-thirtieth of the whole, are devoted to derivation; while in the Latin dictionaries in general use, the subject, though not ignored, is certainly most inadequately treated, and apparently deemed of very inferior importance. The etymology given of many words is absolutely erroneous. That of others is untraced, though often of exceeding historical or ethical interest, and though the investigations of recent scholars may have left no reasonable ground for doubt. The student would hardly suspect that the Latin is one of a great family of languages of which he may actually be studying three or four; but he would, unless put on his guard, be almost certain to infer that its words are, to a considerable extent, corrupted forms of Greek vocables.

This language may seem exaggerated; but it would not be dif ficult to establish its correctness, if time permitted. Even as I write these sentences, I lay down my pen, and open my lexicon almost at random. I glance at such words as domus, orum, lego, neo, ager, aratrum, alius, vinum, vulgus, and find they all come from the Greek; as though one people ever borrowed from another outright the names of the commonest acts and objects, to say nothing of the