These are noble things to be accomplished. How shall those, who will, yoke themselves to the task? The attack must be made at three points-upon the churches; upon the schools; but CHIEFLY UPON THE COLLEGES WHERE OUR RISING MINISTRY ARE TRAINED.

THE NEGLECTED CHILDREN IN SUNDAY

SCHOOLS.

It appears, from documents in our possession, that the average proportion of children in English sabbath schools who are unable to read in the testament, is about three-eighths of the whole: that the average number of children in a class is nearly seven : and that the average proportion of teachers who make no decided profession of religion is about two-fifths of the whole. In a school of 220 children there will, therefore, be 32 classes, 12 of which (or 84 children) are unable to read the testament; and 32 teachers, 19 or 20 of whom are decidedly pious, leaving 12 or 13 who make no profession. We plead on behalf of those 84 non-reading children who are to be found in every 220. But first we wish to ask to whose care are our clients usually committed? Why is it necessary for us to plead their cause? Because we fear that, in the generality of cases, the twelve nonreading classes are entrusted to the hands of the twelve nonprofessing teachers, and that most of them (say two-thirds) receive no religious instruction whatever. Here then we have at the least one-fourth of the whole number of children, who enter the sacred precincts of the sabbath school week by week-week by week departing from it without any sort of religious benefit, beyond what may be gained by hearing hymns and prayers and sermons which they do not understand, or picked up from the stray remarks of teachers, whose decided piety cannot be asserted, as they labour through the columns of the spelling book!!

We hope we have not over-rated the numbers of these poor children. At a low estimate, the total number of sabbath school children is one million two hundred and fourteen thousand. The number who cannot read corresponds, in proportion, with the number of undecided teachers, as we have seen. They are about two-fifths of the whole-four hundred and eighty-four thousand. We have already supposed that some of their teachers

impart religious instruction, and have thus reduced the number to one-fourth of the whole-three hundred and three thousand five hundred. Let us make a still further allowance, that we may be safe from every doubt, and the startling fact is yet forced upon us, that there are in the very bosom of our boasted sabbath schools, three hundred thousand neglected children! Christian pastors! have you pondered these things? Will you ponder them? RELIGIOUS instruction is the only proper business of any school that is held on the sabbath day; and those little ones who are professedly under the charge of a christian congregation, and yet do not receive any more of that sacred food than dwells in the pages of the a, b, c, and spelling book, are very pitiably neglected children. Pious teachers! shall such a state of things continue? We know something of your invincible diligence and zeal. In different and distant parts of the country we have tried you, and found you everywhere the same. We can testify that one heart beats in the body of sunday school teachers. Will that heart be cold at the thought of this-three hundred thousand children of the tenderest and most susceptible age, bringing their hearts and minds to you sabbath after sabbath to receive impressions, and you stamping thereon nothing but the letters of the alphabet and long lists of words!! We know, it is difficult to break the bread of life into crumbs-to adapt it to such small capacity. It requires much study, much love, and much prayer. But cannot you afford to give all this? We know you can, and will. In full confidence we leave with you these earnest thoughts.

But we are not satisfied to do this only. We are anxious to tender you the best of our practical aid, and therefore present to you the following outline of a plan which has been adopted, now, in many places with astonishing and uniform success.

A PLAN FOR CONDUCTING INFANTS' CLASSES. All the children who are unable to read easily in the testament are collected together, and formed into a junior school. They assemble with the other classes at the opening and close of the school, but are taught in a separate room.

This junior school is conducted by a superintendent, assisted by a number of junior teachers, who receive here the very best

of training. The children are kept in constant classification, according to their ability and acquirements, by the weekly diligence of the superintendent, and each class is assigned by him to its teacher. The order of employments is as follows.

First employment. Half an hour. The superintendent gives a collective lesson, in the manner of infant schools, to all the children the teachers sitting with them and listening carefully. This lesson is the result of thoughtful preparation on the part of the superintendent. He studies such books as Gallandet's “Bible Stories,” Goodrich's "Life of Christ," and the "Peep of Day," &c., and for the art of communicating he is never tired of reading Stowe's "Training System." The children are kept “alive” by question and ellipsis, and interested by narratives and pictures. The teachers too are, all the while, learning by example how to teach. Any gentleman may make himself fit to superintend, who can command his temper and be always kind, and who is moreover willing to work. We have seen several remarkable and very successful instances of persons of this kind, who were very diffident at first, making themselves fit.

Second employment. Twenty minutes. Each class "forms in order" round its teacher: and appointed monitors hand to each teacher a board, like that in the cut p. 17, with some text upon it which is intimately connected with the lesson they have just received. The teacher thus, beginning with the smallest word, teaches his class to read as much of the sentence as the time will allow-perhaps three or four new words. It may be more or less according to the capacity of the children. He teaches according to the "look and say" method explained in the next article.

Third employment. Twenty minutes. Each teacher with his class "revises" the superintendent's lesson. That is, he takes care that it is thoroughly worked into their memories. Sometimes he still further illustrates it, and adapts it to the peculiar circumstances of his own little charge. Thus the two great points of advantage in education are happily combined—the sympathy of numbers," and a careful "classification." The first is felt in the superintendent's "collective lesson," and the second in the teacher's "revisal."

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Fourth employment. Ten minutes. The children with one voice read the sentence through, at first with the teacher, and

afterwards by themselves as the teacher points, until they are able to repeat it from memory.

Thus may little children be taught to read with ease and pleasure to understand clearly—and to repeat readily, two texts of scripture every sabbath day. As the classes advance, the second employment occupies a shorter time and the third a longer one. When children are found to be able to read at sight whatever text the board contains, testaments are put into their hands. They are retained a little while longer reading from the book in the same method, and are then draughted into the higher school.

It need scarcely be mentioned that much depends upon the activity and zeal of the superintendent. His duties of giving the collective lesson-constantly examining the children-encouraging the teachers, and, if possible, instructing them in the week, are indeed arduous ones. But the rich reward he reaps, in the attachment of the teachers, the affection of the children, and the pleasure of doing good, are beyond all price to him.

The usual effect of introducing this system will be that of doubling the number of children spontaneously in the course of a few weeks. In one school into which it has been lately introduced, and that by a gentleman who had no previous experience of the kind, the numbers were more than doubled in six weeks time, and the interest of children and teachers shows no sign of abatement.

THE LOOK-AND-SAY METHOD OF TEACHING

TO READ.

When, in reading, we look at a certain combination of letters and immediately say the word which they were intended to represent, we do so by virtue of an old established association between the sight of those letters and their proper sound. The best method of establishing such an association in the minds of children is, therefore, the best method of teaching them to read. Mental philosophy would teach us that this may be most readily done by an application of the "law of co-existence" with that of "frequency;" or, in other words, that the sight and the sound must be felt together, and that repeatedly; or yet more plainly, that the child must often look at the word and say it in the same

C

moment of time. Let us examine how the association was established in our own minds-taking for example the association of its proper sound, with the following conjunction of letters: "rat." We stood by our teacher, and as he pointed, our little voices were heard saying, 'r' 'a' 't.' We then paused, keeping our eye upon the word. Our teacher said, "rat." We repeated, "rat." The process then is analyzed thus:

1. Naming the letters.

2. Looking at the word.

3. Saying the word.

Some children, it may be observed, get a habit of omitting the second part of the process, and, as long as they do so, never learn to read. Such children will "spell and be told” the same word a dozen times in ten minutes and not know it a whit the better at the end. How should they, for they have done nothing to associate the sight with the sound.

On the sing-song Lancasterian method of spelling, children are very apt to omit the second part of the process. Hence we have found many good Lancasterian spellers who could not put up a word, on our board, with moveable letters, though they could spell it very correctly. In truth, we ought not to call this spelling, but letter-naming.

Now it is evident that, according to the philosophical principles just laid down, the only parts of the above process essential to the establishment of the association we desire, are the second and third, and that these will be efficient only as they occur together. The sight of the word frequently occurring to our minds along with its sound, will at once remind us of its sound when we see it again. The two are now linked together by the power of mutual suggestion, and nothing more is necessary to enable us to read. Many children might be mentioned who have learned to read by the second and third part of the process, without the first. Little Nelly Vanner was one instance. We have met with many others in various parts of the country-at Guildford, at Bristol, at Eye in Suffolk, at Leeds, and at Hull. One of these children having a party of his little friends to tea, was much laughed at because he could not repeat his alphabet; but he could read better than any of them. He had just read Robinson Crusoe through in two days. His mother had taught him in the most truly philosophical and simple method, by