THE AMERICAN Journal of Education. EDITED BY HENRY BARNARD, LL.D. VOLUME IV. HARTFORD, F. C. BROWNELL. LONDON: TRÜBNER & CO., 12 PATERNOSTER ROW 1857. ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by HENRY BARNARD, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. THE American Journal of Education. No. X.-SEPTEMBER, 1857. I. MEMOIR OF EDMUND DWIGHT. By Prof. Francis Bowen.... II. COLLEGE PRAYERS. By Prof. F. D. Huntington, D. D., Harvard College.. III. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN SARDINIA. By Prof. V. Botta. Continued.... Annotations. Sir William Cecil; advice to his son.. IX. LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF JOHN Sturm. XI. ART AS A BRANCH OF POPULAR EDUCATION. By M. A. Dwight.. XIV. INSTRUCTION IN DRAWING. By M. A. Dwight...... XV. CATECHISM ON METHODS OF TEACHING. Translated from the German, by Dr. 3. Arithmetic. By Diesterweg.. 5. Natural History. By Hintze.... 6. Natural Philosophy. By Diesterweg.. 7. Astronomy. By Diesterweg... XVI. EDUCATIONAL MISCELLANY AND INTELLIGENCE. GERMANY.-Communication by Dr. Wimmer.. PRUSSIA-New Regulations from Common Schools.. I. MEMOIR OF EDMUND DWIGHT: BY FRANCIS BOWEN, Professor of Moral Philosophy in Harvard College, Mass. THE services of the late Edmund Dwight to the cause of common school education were numerous and important enough to earn for him the title of a great public benefactor. During his lifetime, they were but little known beyond the small circle of his intimate friends, and of those who were closely associated with him in his labors. It was his pleasure that it should be so. His taste was nice even to fastidiousness; and any public mention of what he had done, seemed to grate upon his feelings and to lessen in his opinion the efficiency of his work. The agency which is bruited abroad, appeared to him, partly by bringing the motives of the agent into suspicion, and partly by mingling personal considerations with the cause, to lose in force what it gained in notoriety. In reference to the workings of society and government, he was deeply convinced of the truth, that far the most important and beneficial results are produced by that part of the social machinery which is most quiet in its operations, and consequently attracts the least notice and remark. He made it a condition of his numerous benefactions to the cause of common schools, that his name should not be mentioned in connection with them; and whatever of personal effort, of time and attention, he contributed to the same end, was in like manner studiously kept back from public observation and acknowledgment. During his lifetime, his friends respected his wishes in this particular; but death has removed the seal of secrecy, and the story of what he accomplished ought now to be told, in order to discharge a debt of gratitude from the public, and to set forth a useful example to others. Other considerations impart interest to a notice of Mr. Dwight's life and character. He was an eminent member of a remarkable class of men,-the merchant princes of Boston during the last half century, a class remarkable alike from the nature of the enterprises by which they acquired their wealth, from the high qualities of intellect and character which were manifested in their undertakings, and from the munificence of their public and private charities. He was the compeer and associate of the Eliots, the Appletons, the Lawrences, the Perkinses, and other distinguished merchants, whose liberality, foresight, and public spirit have contributed so largely, not only to the |