tablish habits of research which will enable the individual to raise for himself in after life, a superstructure on the foundation laid for him by others in his youth. To supply this defect in our system of national education, Mechanic's Institutes and Lyceums have been established, which besides attending to the instruction of the young, provide for the mutual and self-improvement of adults, of both sexes and of all ages and classes indiscriminately. The arrangements made for effecting these objects in such associations generally, are very similar to those which have been adopted by the institution recently established in our town, a detailed account of which, (as we know it will be expected,) will be given on the present occasion. The Mechanic's Institute of Lexington has been in existence but a few weeks. At the meeting on which the Constitution was adopted, a Board of Managers was appointed consisting of nine persons, two thirds of whom must be mechanics, to whose discretion is entrusted the management of the principal affairs of the Society. The Society meets only once in three months to receive the report of the Managers and to transact such business as does not come within their province.

'The Board itself meets weekly, and if the punctuality, the spirit, and harmony which prevail at its sittings can be looked upon as ominous of the success of our institution; truly its prospects are of the most flattering character.

'One of the first steps of the Board of Managers was to provide a Library, the delivery of Public Lectures, and an Apprentices' School, all of which have been in whole or partially effected. The nucleus of a Library has been formed, a course of Lectures for three months, in which two, members of the College Faculty and three members of the Medical Faculty of Transylvania University have promised to participate, may be considered as commencing with to-day, to be continued every Thursday evening in this place; and a very promising School for young mechanics, whether apprentices, journeymen, or masters, has been in operation for a week, and will be continued every Tuesday and Friday evening under the instruction of four or five gentlemen who have volunteered their services for this purpose. To be admitted a member of the Mechanic's Institute, application must be made to the Board of Managers. The terms of membership are the payment of one dollar on subscribing the Constitution, and of two dollars as an annual contribution to be collected quarterly. The fee for tuition in the School is one dollar per quarter.

'The members of the Institute have the use of the Library and the privilege of attending the Lectures with their families and apprentices, without additional expense; to all others a separate charge will be made for each. In addition to these provisions the Board of Managers design as soon as practicable to lay the foundation of the cabinets of Models and Minerals contemplated by the Constitution."

'In bringing these remarks upon this part of the subject to a conclusion I would ask, whether our conduct evinces that the people of Kentucky are sufficiently impressed with the importance of popular education. The question is one of immediate and vital interest to us all; it is appropriate to the occasion and the audience, and I will give it an honest answer by saying, it does not. Why else is it, that one half or four hundred of the children of the town in which we live, the most eminent in the western country for its literary privileges, are not to be found at school? I speak from actual investigation. The corporation of Louisville, have within a few weeks past voted $1500 a year for the payment of Teachers in a Public Free School, besides $400 for the purchase of Apparatus, and $150 to defray the expenses of the Superintendent whilst visiting the Monitorial Schools of New York. What does this example speak to us? Our Board of Trustees are exemplary for their liberal attentions to the streets and other public objects in our town, and would not the people bear it that part of the money thus expended to accommodate the soles of their feet, or even an additional sum should be bestowed for improving the minds of their children, and educating the swarms of little outcasts that infest our streets.'

'There is now and has been for twenty years, a standing law appropriating 6000 acres of land to the establishment of one academy in every county. But what has been done for the introduction and maintenance of a system of common schools in other words for the education of the great mass of the people?

In 1822 a promising excitement prevailed upon this subject. One half the profits of the Commonwealth's Bank, estimated at $60,000 per annum, was set apart as a public school fund. A committee was appointed to prepare and report to the next Legislature a plan for common schools. This committee sent out their circulars to all parts of the Union. Our liberality was applauded abroad, our hopes and expectations were high, at home; but what has been the result? The re

port was written and presented, it is true, but was never heard of afterwards. And what has become of the fund which by this time, had it been managed with ordinary wisdom or even fidelity, would have exceeded half a million of dollars? It has dwindled down to $150,000. Where is the remainder? It has gone to make up the deficiencies of the revenue. By what right has it been thus diverted? I leave this for our Legislators to answer. One thing I will assert however, that it is a question which they ought to be called upon to answer, and that speedily, otherwise it may be too late. The deficiency in the revenue for the current year will be upwards of $80,000, and if this is to be made up from the school fund, in two years this fund will be annihilated.'

'As to the education of teachers, it is believed that it is not necessary to wait until a splendid fund can be spared for the establishment of a seminary for this purpose. It has been ascertained that there are many, perhaps a sufficient number of young men in the country, who would embark in the business of instruction, as a profession, if they were assisted by the State or societies to obtain the necessary education. The School Bill introduced into the Senate last winter estimates our present school fund at $150,000. Now admitting that our eastern brethren with the very best opportunity of judging, do not attach too much importance to this matter, could a part of the interest of this sum be expended with a greater benefit to the State, than by assisting, say one young man at least from each county, to qualify himself at some of our colleges for the business of teaching? To give or loan even $50 a year to every such young man would educate one hundred for five thousand dollars.

'Would not the State be remunerated too for the expense of maintaining a qualified superintendant, who might render essential service to existing schools and teachers, by making himself acquainted with the best school books and the best methods of instruction, thus contributing to give uniformity to education; and who in addition to this might act as general agent to secure various grants of land to seminaries which have not as yet been appropriated?"

ART. VIII. ` Letters of Pestalozzi on the Education of Infancy.

(Continued from p. 432.)

LETTER VII.

In my last letter I endeavoured to show the degree of importance which every mother attaches to that period, when, for the first time, the regards of her child meet her own, and the expression of love which fills her own countenance gives birth to a similar expression upon the features of her child.

This fact, which a mother never looks upon without experiencing a sentiment of happiness inconceivable to every other person, conducts her towards a series of considerations which she can never repent having justly appreciated, and through which I am going to try to follow her.

At the first view a great truth comes to strike her mind. It is, that gentleness and the manifestation of maternal love have produced the first apparent impression upon the look and the features of her child. Experience will not be slow in justifying the sentiment which makes her recognize in this impression the influence of her individual conduct upon the mind and heart of the being that owes to her its life.

Let her never lose sight of this fact. Providence, in ordaining that the order of nature should be thus, has given for her guidance a truth competent to conduct her towards the desired end, and to become for her an infallible principle of education. In the formation of the character as well as in the mode of transmitting knowledge, kindness will be the first and most powerful of means. Fear can do much without doubt, and there are still other means which may be employed with some appearance of success; but in order to speak to the mind and to form the heart, nothing is more constantly efficacious than affection it is the most easy road for arriving at the greatest results.

This fact of which I have been speaking, I have called a manifestation of spiritual nature in man; and as such, it ought to engage the mother to consider under a new point of view her relations to her child.

This child is endowed like her with intellectual faculties; faculties much superior to animal life, and in a great measure independent of its laws. The less they are developed at the period of which we are speaking, the more of attention and care they require.

Providence has given to the mother all the means of satisfying the physical wants of her child; we have seen also that the child, on his part, is endowed with an animal instinct, which singularly facilitates the task of the mother: but when the regards of the one meet the regards of the other, it is not merely to seek the satisfaction of a present want, or the solace of a present feeling of uneasiness; they do still more, they express the first want of intellectual nature and especially sympathy.

Animal instinct is a principle whose most important purpose is the preservation of the individual; it is towards this end that its first efforts are directed, and in the course of its successive developments it is always I that is the centre of its action.

It is not so with the mind and the affections of the soul; for nothing more incontestibly demonstrates the intellectual nature of man, than this kind of self denial which leads us to sacrifice our enjoyments and our happiness to the pleasure of others, and to make our own personal desires yield preference to more noble views.

A philosopher has said that whenever the mind inclines to future and invisible objects in preference to objects visible and present, the soul manifests its rights.

If we apply this observation to the preceding remarks, we shall be able to deduce therefrom principles and rules, in virtue of which the mother will, without devoting herself to laborious researches, be capable of ably promoting the great interests of her child, and of contributing to the improvement of the noblest part of his nature.

Animal instinct, I have said, always attentive to what may contribute to the well-being of the individual, disdains whatever relates to the satisfaction or the interests of others.

So long as the other faculties still sleep, the action of this instinct and the exclusive influence it exerts over the child, cannot be regarded as vicious. As yet there is no conscience in him; and although selfish in appearance, he is not permanently so. It even seems that the Creator has given him this power, which thus gives him the advantage over every thing, only while conscience and the other faculties cannot contribute to secure the first element of animal life, preservation.

But after the manifestation of these principles in a more elevated order, if this instinct is permitted to act as formerly without regulation and without restraint, it will then begin to put itself in opposition to conscience; and the culpable indul