making these attacks, because the schoolmaster is not a vindictive person. People are afraid of these oracles. If a paper undertakes to write down a man, at first he thinks himself utterly extinguished. In any discussion with a paper, a man is sure to be left worsted. He must not presume to differ with the oracle, except very mildly; he must address it reverently and as an humble suitor, with gifts and adulatory address. Now it is a fact that people are becoming familiar with these oracles also; and pretty soon they will inspire no more terror than that at Delphi now does. Yet unmindful of this waning glory, some of them thunder and bellow and smoke on the school question just if they were an oracle still. The editorial "we" is no longer the symbol of concentrated wisdom; the form, the mask, the armor is there; but we know it may cover only a skeleton or a boy. People judge for themselves more than they did. And many a man left for dead by his editorial adversary, walks off as if nothing had happened to him.—Superintendent A. P. Marble.

SOME OF OUR NEEDS.-We need to honor our profession more, not only before the public, but in our own hearts, so that we can say with pride: "I am a teacher." A few years ago two fashionably dressed young ladies, while away from home, appeared quite ashamed when it was found out they were teachers, and they asked as a favor that nothing should be said about it.

2. We need more communicability about our work. Thousands would benefit themselves and others by telling what they are doing, and how they do it. Doctors are continually reporting special cases. Symptoms, remedies, treatments and specific methods are continually talked about by them. Why should not teachers do the same?

3. We need more outspoken decision and judgment in reference to public affairs. Political discussion would help us very much. Active participation in public affairs would elevate us in the eyes of the world. In this way, some of our best teachers have risen to places of high authority, and we are all honored thereby.

4. We need more love for each other. A hearty, out-spoken and heart-felt affection for all who are worthy of it, would be a mighty lubricator. Without this co-operation it is impossible, and without co-operation, united action, so necessary just now, is utterly out of the question.

5. We need to be more genuine and honest, and not the tools and dupes of every gentlemanly "scalawag" who comes along with school books or supplies. -Barnes's Educational Monthly.

BOOK TABLE.

In this department we shall promptly acknowledge the receipt of all books which come to our table and make a brief review of the same.

Scribner's Monthly, Scribner & Co., New York. $4 a year.

It is certainly impossible to keep pace with the wonderful success of this, the foremost of all magazines. We are ready to pronounce the last one by far the

best issue. Be it as it may, the October number is worth a doliar to anyone, yet you can get it for 35 cents.

Arthur's Home Magazine, T. S. Arthur & Son, Philadelphia. $2 a year.

Considering the price, together with its class, it certainly is among the first as a home magazine. Try it one year.

Wide Awake, D. Lathrop & Co., Boston. $2 a year.

In our last issue we gave quite a full notice of the September number. All we said then may be repeated for the October number with emphasis. Indeed it is strange that so much choice matter, and such superb illustrations, can be furnished for so little money. Send 20 cents and get a specimen, and if you are not more than paid we will give you the ECLECTIC TEACHER free of charge. Rice's Practical Book-keeping, by Thomas A. Rice, President of Mound City Com. mèrcial College, St. Louis, Mo. Price $2.

In addition to the matter usually found in a first-class work on this subject are some new and valuable plans. It embraces nine sets in the theoretical and fifteen in the practical department. It contains some departments worthy of fav.

orable consideration.

Ehrich's Fashion Quarterly, Ehrich Bros., New York. 50 cents a year.

All the world knows that when a woman has once expressed a decided opinion upon any subject the matter may be regarded as settled, and the status of the article under consideration is defined beyond possibility of dispute. About sixty thousand of them have said that this is THE magazine for fashionable ladies.

White's Industrial Drawing Books seem to us to constitute a most valuable series for use in our schools by non-professional teachers of drawing. One great excellency of the system is that every design seems to have some meaning and purpose. One reason why drawing has not been more successfully taught in our public schools is because of the introduction of text-books that fail to excite the interest of the ordinary teachers of the lower grades. In these books the "guide points" are of great assistance to the younger pupils, encouraging them to make progress, because they work easily and are pleased with the good appearance of their results. The interest and progress of the pupils reacts upon the teacher and drawing becomes a favorite branch of education, especially in the lower grades. The books are printed on good paper and sell at reasonable prices. They are published by Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., New York. Peterson's Magazine, Charles J. Peterson, Philadelphia. $2 a year.

The ladies could not get along without this excellent journal. They take it before and after meals.

Godey's Lady's Book, edited by J. Hannum Jones, Philadelphia. $1 a year. This magazine is said to be an "old reliable," and we know is a new reliable, as it is always full of fresh and choice things.

The Scientific American, Munn & Co., New York. $3 20 a year.

This weekly paper should be read not only by all scientific men, but by every

farmer and mechanic in the land. Many a man has made hundreds of dollars be reading it.

The National Sunday School Teacher, Adams, Blackmer & Lyon Publishing Company, Chicago. $1 25 a year. The best of its kind. No rival.

National Repository, Hitchcock & Walden, Cincinnati. $3 a year. With EcLECTIC TEACHER, for $3 50.

Handsome illustrations, choice articles, and withal a valuable number for autumn reading.

The Delineator, E. Butterick & Co., New York. $1 a year.

Illustrated magazine of European and American fashions, representations of latest styles in ladies,' misses' and children's wear. As a delineator it is without a rival. Send for a specimen copy.

Demorest's Illustrated Monthly Magazine, W. Jennings Demorest, New York. $3 a year. With ECLECTIC, $3 50.

Sixty-four three-column pages. A combination of the entertaining, the use ful and the beautiful, with fine art engravings and oil pictures in each number. This fills the bill in the ladies' eyes. It is a "love of a magazine.”

Harper's Magazine for October. Contents: "The Ascent of Fujiyama, by C. F. Gordon-Cumming, with four illustrations; Art-Needlework, by Lucretia P. Hale, with ten illustrations; Keats: a Sonnet, by John Tabb; Reminiscences of John James Audubon, by Thomas M. Brewer, with two illustrations; A Romance of the Hebrides, by Amelia E. Barr, with five illustrations; An Au. tumn Holiday, by Sarah O. Jewett, with four illustrations; A Demon-Hunt with St. Hubert in Touraine, by M. D. Conway, with nine illustrations; Does Farming Pay? A Poem, by Henry S. Goodale, with six illustrations; The Metro polis of the Prairies, by A. A. Hayes, jr., with twenty-two illustrations; White Wings: A Yachting Romance, by William Black, with two illustrations. Saint Nicholas, Scribner & Co., New York. $3 a year.

Had we a dictionary at hand we should collect all the choice adjectives and throw in all those that might be used with some degree of propriety in praise of this magazine. The world is certainly better and wiser by its monthly visits. The tens of thousands of families that it reaches are loud in words of praise. Heaven will reward the proprietors for their contribution to the elevation of society. It appears to be an indispensable to all families. The children are better by seeing those beautiful pictures, even it they cannot read.

Our School Friend, edited by the pupils of Female High School, Louisville, Ky., is on our table. It is the first issue, and a grand success at that, yet it promises better things in future. It costs but $1 50 a year, and is well worth twice the price. It occurs to us that "there is a great want" for just such a paper suitable for pupils in their teens--a paper that will give them valuable information that is sought by such persons-a paper that will lead them out into deeper thought and investigation, a paper for school girls and school boysnot a paper for idlers and loungers and gossipers. It merits a circulation of ten thousand copies. It is a three-column, sixteen page monthly. Send 15 cents for a specimen copy.

THE ECLECTIC TEACHER

AND

Southwestern Journal of Education.

FOR TEACHERS AND FRIENDS OF EDUCATION.

Vol. V.

NOVEMBER, 1880.

MORALITY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

No. 3.

BY GEORGE A. PERRY.

OR ten long years Ulysses and his men had fought around the walls of Troy. They wandered about for ten years more, trying to find their way home. But, after they had reached their Greek island, Ulysses soon wearied of idleness, and longed to see more of men and men's doings. So he proposed to go after the sun,-to sail beyond the western stars. "I and my companions were old and slow," says, when this desire came upon him, but he addressed them thus: "Consider whereunto ye are born; made ye were, not to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge." By this they were so

he

moved, says Ulysses, "that not even if I had wanted to turn them back from the enterprise, could I have done so."

This old Greek story, retold in many various forms, we can apply, not inaptly, perhaps, to the subject before us. There is in man a natural desire for virtue and knowledge. However it may seem to be wanting through immaturity or perverseness, or weak through weariness and old age, it nevertheless exists, and an earnest appeal, under proper conditions, will usually awaken and develop it into an active and guiding principle. "To arrive at a full and right conception of things," says Matthew Arnold-" to know oneself and the world-which is knowledge; and then to act firmly and manfully on that knowledge, which is virtue-this is the native, the indestructible impulse of the spirit of man." It is for the teacher to awaken and develop this spirit in childhood when it first begins to appear, and when, for its correct guidance, the utmost wisdom and care are required.

But every teacher is pretty sure to appreciate the difficulties of "moral teaching," when compared to his ordinary work. It needs but a brief experience to clearly demonstrate to oneself that, to instruct half a hundred boys in arithmetic is one thing; to inspire them, at the same time, with reverence for the true, the beautiful, and good, quite another. In fact, so large a part does the philosophy of morals take to itself of all kinds of teaching, that a satisfactory answer to this question is very difficult, involving, as it properly does, a discussion of the whole theory of government. We can speak briefly, therefore, of only a few general principles.

We assume that "moral teaching" is involved in all teaching, in whatever department of knowledge. A high condition of morals in a school implies a high efficiency in other respects, and conversely. Let us consider then, the general character of the work, the aim or the ideal, which the earnest teacher will set before himself. This might properly involve the discussion of three subjects: First, the inculcation of distinct moral instruction; second, the unconscious moral power which arises from the character of the teacher; third, the proper methods of school government.

We may say in regard to moral instruction as such, that it holds but little place in our public schools: and properly so, no doubt. If a teacher succeeds in what we may call intellectual teaching, he will. as a rule, cast about himself an influence that is far better than direct