AMERICAN

ANNALS OF EDUCATION

AND

INSTRUCTION,

FOR

THE YEAR 1837.

CONDUCTED BY WM. A. ALCOTT.

WILLIAM C. WOODBRIDGE, FOREIGN EDITOR.

VOL. VII.

BOSTON:

OTIS, BROADERS & CO., 147 WASHINGTON STREET.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837,

By WILLIAM C. WOODBRIDGE,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

Tuttle, Weeks & Dennett.....Power Press....17 School St.

PREFACE.

THE labor of six years, in sustaining a periodical on Education, has not diminished the Editor's sense of its importance. He came abroad in search of strength and materials, which would enable him to pursue his task to better advantage. But a wise Providence calls upon him by unforeseen changes in his state of health, to prolong his stay in Europe, and to resign the immediate charge of the Annals to other hands. To this intimation that his care is no longer necessary, he cheerfully submits. And at such a moment, he is deeply grateful that this same Providence enables him to congratulate the friends of the work on the accomplishment of the great object of his efforts and theirs. He trusts that it may now be announced with safety that the existence of one American Journal of Education is secured, so far as it can be by a solid commercial basis and by the number and activity of its supporters. He knows not that he could have chosen a more favorable period to retire from his post than that which Superior Wisdom has appointed; and he commits the work, with much confidence, to this same direction, and to the care of its friends.

He adopts this resolution with the more cheerfulness, from the belief, that those on whom the immediate direction of the work will devolve, possess the zeal and qualifications necessary for this task. Dr Wм. A. ALCOTT, the gentleman to whom the domestic editorial labor will be committed, is well known to the public as the author of several works, which exhibit the correctness of his views, as well as his zeal, on the subject of education. It is only necessary to say that he has been the constant assistant of the Editor from the commencement of the Annals; that he has written some of its most valuable articles; and that for six months past it has been exclusively under his direction. His judgment and his views, in undertaking this task furnish a sufficient guaranty that he will maintain the great principles which have been established; that he will not permit the work to become the vehicle of the spirit of party or sect of the personalities, or the ultraisms, or the papal exclusiveness which characterize too many of the publications of the present day ; — and that he will not seek to gain a transient popularity, either

iv

by catering for the deteriorated taste of the public, in these respects, or by flattering the vanity of individuals or of institutions. He rejoices in the hope that the traces of perplexity and disease and languor which have too often appeared in the pages of the Annals, will hereafter seldom be visible; and that under the care of one who enjoys health, and is free from the difficulties of a new enterprize, the work will assume a more animated and attractive character than it was possible to give it under other circumstances.

On the other hand, he trusts that the friends of the work will still adhere to the resolution which has preserved it hitherto, that " one American periodical on Education shall be sustained." He is happy, however, in the belief that the spirit of inquiry which is roused upon this subject, will demand and maintain many others, and thus render the existence of any one of far less importance than it was at the period when the Annals was the only survivor of all that had been undertaken. The desire of continuing to be a fellow laborer in the same great has induced the Editor to engage to furnish materials for the pages of the Annals, as he has done during the year past, so far as his health and circumstances will allow; confining himself chiefly to the foreign department, in connection with the interests of education at home. It will be a consolation to him in his temporary exile, if he can contribute to render its pages more interesting or useful, or the labor of its guardians less severe.

cause,

AMERICAN

ANNALS OF EDUCATION

AND INSTRUCTION.

JANUARY, 1837.

THE PESTALOZZIAN SYSTEM OF EDUCATION.

In the account of the Philanthropinic school of education,* in the number of the "Annals" for Nov. last, it was observed: "It is a part of the feebleness of human nature, to vibrate incessantly, from one extreme to another. Our views are seldom perfectly just our institutions remain ever imperfect. When we launch into the broad ocean of discovery, we seldom fail to encounter storms; and when we keep near the shore, we cannot always avoid the rocks and quicksands."

It is not less true that there is in the vibrations of the human mind, a kind of cycle, or regular period of revolution, which brings it back to the same train of thought and feeling, which was long since abandoned. Every useful plan, and institution, and custom, and system of truth is liable to abuse and exaggeration; and in seeking to avoid the errors into which it has imperceptibly led, it is often entirely abandoned. The reformer, who should but correct and amend, destroys. The building which needs only to be repaired and improved, is torn down by the zeal of those who perceive its defects and the structure, which is formed from its ruins, is often too imperfect to afford a shelter, or too frail to resist a single storm.

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It

Still, in the course of ages, there is an evident progress. is by successive falls, that our race, like its children, learns the art of walking in safety. We are not so easily deluded with

The word Philanthropinic is derived from the name Philanthropin, which was applied, by Basedow, to an institution founded upon his principles. It should not be written Philanthropic as in a former article.