engaged with you in the same office, that it belongs to form the public sentiment. How vast, then, is the responsibility attached to your office! And, will you suffer your, labors in it to decline through discouragement? Will you grow weary in your welldoing, and relax your energies; and so suffer vice, the only enemy our country has to fear, to make inroads upon us? Heaven forbid ! The rising generation pleads the increasing multitudes who are hastening into life, and who, when we are gone, will throng our streets and people our extended vallies, and fix their dwellings in every cove and dell of our mountains and hills-press forward on the scene and urge their claims and expostulations? They cry"For our sake be faithful, and for the sake of the countless millions that are to succeed us." Can you be insensible to these entreaties ? No: : you cannot. Go on, then, with spirit and alacrity in discharging the momentous duties of your noble vocation. Another consideration presses on my mind, but I hesitate whether to present it, because it may seem to some in the audience, if not to any of you, too solemn for the occasion. Be that as it may, encouraged by the respect for religion by which your discussions have been characterized,-for I have not heard a single remark or allusion drop from the lips of any speaker that savored of any other sentiments than those of piety and virtue,—I shall not withhold from you the expression of the deepest couvietions and feelings of my heart on this subject. Yours, then, my respected associates and coadjutors in the cause of education, is, in the fullest and highest sense, a SACRED office. If worthy of it, you have been called to it of God. And to Him, for the discharge of its high and solemn duties you are held responsible ; and to Him you are to look for your reward. Him you are to serve, in forming to virtue the mind which he places under your guidance and tuition. And, remember that, of virtue, the invigorating and life-giving principle is religion. Not the religion of the noisy declaimer, or angry polemic, the cunning Jesuist, the cloistered devotee, or the sanctimonious formalist; but the religion of the moral feelings, the religion of the heart and life, the religion taught by Christ in his Sermon on the Mount. You cannot teach your pupils any thing to purpose without teaching them this religion. The mind is God's temple. Its thought cannot go forth in any direction without meeting Him. Woe to the teacher, who, out of the elements of literature and science, weaves a screen to hide Him from the No! eyes of his pupils! But such will not be your course. with Heaven's own fire of pure and holy love burning in your bosom, its guiding light in your eye, and its sustaining power giving energy to all your faculties, you will lead your pupils to Him who is the Father and Friend of the good. And, in closing this address, I can frame no better wish for each of you, nor do I desire any thing better for myself, than to have a share in the

rewards which will follow such a course of instruction. When, for the last time, my head reclines upon my pillow, and fancy is busy in painting on the memory the scenes of the past, may the. consolation be mine-may it be yours-to look over the land and see here and there, faithfully serving God and their country, those, who, when the tidings of our demise,-a euthanasia may it be→ shall reach them, will say, while the tear of fond and grateful remembrance trembles in their eye-" He was my teacher, beloved, honored and revered! Blessings on his memory! for he taught me to love truth, to love virtue, and to aspire after communion with their AUTHOR."

NOTE.-The above Address was spoken extempore, and not reduced to writing till several weeks afterwards. Those who heard it will, doubtless, recognize the train of thought to be the same. The author of it has endeavored to preserve its identity so far as his memory would serve.

APPENDIX.

CINCINNATI, Jan. 12, 1839.

To the Executive Committee of the College of Professional Teachers:

GENTLEMEN: Having understood that matter is wanted for several pages in the volume about to be published, containing the proceedings of the late session of the College of Teachers in this city, the Public School Teachers' Faculty Association submit the enclosed report for your consideration. It was prepared by ELAM P. LANGDON, Esq., President of the Board of Trustees and Visi ters of Common Schools in Cincinnati, as chairman of the committee to whom the subject was referred, defining the relative duties of principal and assistant teachers. Should you see proper to have it inserted, it is at your disposal. Yours, respectfully,

G. R. HAND, Secretary.

The Committee, to whom was referred the communication of the Teachers? Faculty Association,

REPORT,

That, in answer to the question, "what are the relative duties of principal and assistant teachers, but especially when they occupy different school-rooms," they would briefly reply, that the terms principal and assistant go far to explain their relative duties. But being desirous of treating with the highest respect the wishes and communications of the Common School Teachers' Association, or any member of it, we will here be more particular, and state what we conceive to be the views of this board on that subject.

The principal teacher should be regarded as the head of the school, or department, of which he has the charge.

He is to regulate the classes and course of instruction of all the pupils under his care, whether they occupy the same room with him, or are taught by his assistant in a separate room. The want of firmness on the part of principal teachers, in performing the duties here referred to, has often been felt by

the trustees.

The principal teachers are selected for their known experience and qualifications to teach, and who are so thoroughly acquainted with the dispositions of youth and the ordinary difficulties connected with schools, and who, having acquired that self-control so essential to their responsible stations, are able at once to discover any defect in their own schools, or in the schools of their assistants, and to apply the proper remedies.

If a principal teacher cannot do this, or is unwilling to take upon himself the responsibility, it is his duty forthwith to make those defects known to the trustee and visiter of the ward, or district in which his school is located, that they may be corrected, whether they apply to the teachers or to the pupils under his charge.

It is then, distinctly understood, that, in the absence of the trustee of the district and his special instructions, or the instructions of the board of trustees, the principal teacher is expected to give the necessary instruction to his assistants, and to classify the pupils and regulate the schools under his charge. It is the province of principal teachers to do this, for they are more immediately responsible to the trustees, and to the parents of their scholars, for the faithful performance of those duties. These duties, however, should always be performed in the right spirit, and not in a manner that would in the least impair the character and standing of an assistant teacher, especially in the estimation of his pupils. And it is deemed to be equally the duty of an assistant teacher to guard the reputation, as well as to observe the directions given him, by his principal.

It is the duty of the principal teacher to see to the safe keeping of the school houses, and school furniture of their respective districts, and to have them kept clean and in order; and in the discharge of these duties they are fully authorised to require the co-operation of their assistants. And, all the teachers, whether principals or assistants, should make themselves thoroughly acquainted with the "Rules and Regulations adopted for the government of the Common Schools."

These relations and mutual duties of principal and assistant teachers, are rendered important in our common schools, on account of the frequent changes that occur, not only with teachers, but in the board of trustees. And, unless teachers, of the same house or district, act harmoniously in the government of their schools, they cannot long preserve order, or render their labors useful.

The correction of bad habits in scholars-securing their attenion to study the promotion of their morals, and formation of

character, are important considerations, and worthy of our highest regard; and these objects are always more easily and certainly attained, where the efforts of teachers are united for their accomplishment.

The Board of Trustees have already awarded credit to many of the Assistant Teachers in the Common Schools, who have become so well acquainted with their duties, and so faithful in their performance, as to require little or no instruction from their principal or from the trustees. Such, should they continue as instructers, may look forward for promotion at home, or to more lucrative places abroad. But, these qualities in the assistant do not impair the powers and duties of the principal teacher, or vary their relations to each other.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

ELAM P. LANGDON,

THOS. J. MATTHEWS, Committee.
E. SINGER,

Cincinnati, December 3d, 1838.

On motion of George Graham, Jr. Esq., it was

Resolved, That the Report be accepted by the board of Trustees and Visiters, and that a copy thereof be furnished to the "Teachers' Faculty Association," as an answer to their communication of the 12th November, 1838.

December 4th, 1838.

CHARLES SATTERLY, City Clerk.

The above Report, though drawn up in reference to the Common Schools of Cincinnati, is amply deserving the attention of teachers, trustees and visiters, in the various sections of the Western country. We notice it, that it may be read with the care which the object in view merits.-[EDITOR.

THE term, school-master, has been familiar to the world almost from time immemorial. His office and duties have been often and variously explained. And from the diversified situations and qualifications of school-masters, it would be a difficult task to determine whether justice or injustice has predominated in their case.

No doubt, by some, the school-master has been regarded as a kind of slave, and unworthy to rank with the polite and polished portions of society. He may have been deemed useful, whilst occupied in giving instruction and imparting knowledge to his