m, and let the child, under the
supervision of the teacher or monitor, actually _see_ that four gills
make a pint, etc., and he will learn the table with ten-fold greater
pleasure than he otherwise would, and in one tenth the time.

The same general remark will apply to the other tables of weight and
measure, to experimental philosophy, and to nearly every branch of study
pursued in the common schools of our country. I have but one other
general remark to make on this subject, and that is in relation to the

INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL-HOUSES.--Cicero observes that the face of a man will
be tinged by the sun, for whatever purpose he walks abroad; so, by daily
associations, the minds of all persons are influenced, and their
characters permanently affected, by scenes with which they are familiar;
and especially is this true during the impressive periods of childhood
and youth. Many persons seem to think that schoolmasters and
school-mistresses do all the teaching in our schools. But it is not so.
Fellow-students, neighbors, and citizens teach by precept and by
example; and especially do _school-houses teach_. And oh! what lessons
of degradation, pollution, and ruin they sometimes impart! as he can not
fail to be convinced who remembers the testimony already introduced in
relation to their condition.

I have seen the fond parent accompany his lovely child of four summers
to the school the first day of its attendance. The child had seen
pictures of school-houses in books. Pictures, if not always pretty,
usually please children. It was so in this case. The child, anxious to
go to school, talked of the school-house on the way. There arrived, the
parent passed his innocent little one into the care of the teacher, with
a few remarks, and was about to retire, when the child, clinging to him,
said, pathetically and energetically, "Pa! pa!! I don't want to stay in
this ugly old house; I am afraid it will fall down on me: I want to go
home to our own pretty parlor." But the parent, breaking away from his
child, leaves it in tears, with a sad heart. How cruel to do such
violence to the tender feelings of innocent children! And how baneful
the influence! The school, instead of being a comfortable, pleasant,
and delightful place, as it should be, is to the child positively
offensive, and the school-house a dreary prison. "Just as the twig is
bent, the tree's inclined." The child learns to hate school, to hate
instruction, and all that is go