cise will be exceedingly useful, as a severe discipline of the mind is involved in producing accurate proportions. And the class should be kept constantly on the alert in judging of the truth of the proportions between the several lines drawn by their companion. When greater ease has been acquired in drawing, and several towns can be despatched at a lesson, there will be a wider field for this exercise in adjusting the relative size and shape of different towns. Let the class thus pass through their county, taking for their lessons groups of contiguous towns. Their lessons may be lengthened with their increasing ability, and there should be a review for every four or five exercises. On the completion of the county let the drawing of the whole of it be assigned as a separate lesson; or if this be too much, let there be reviews of the towns till they can be all drawn promptly, with the hills and streams, and an entire map of the county be formed. Meanwhile the pupil may be put upon the General View of the county, always connecting his lessons with exercises in drawing for the benefit of direct reference. Thus, when engaged upon the part relating to Towns, he may mark the largest and most populous; when upon that part respecting Inhabitants, he may point out the portions where the people are employed in manufactures; when upon the Rivers and Mountains, he may draw them; and when learning the History, he may mark whatever places in the county may be there mentioned.

The pupil should be taught to turn to the list of definitions at the end of the book for all difficult terms, and to apply to his instructer if he do not find them there. Regular and close examinations by the teacher into his pupil's

knowledge of the meaning of these terms will accomplish, in this respect, all that is desirable.

Parents and teachers need not hesitate to undertake to teach this system of geography to their children and pupils, merely because they have never been so taught themselves. If they possess only a moderate interest in the subject of education, or the progress of the children under their care, they may begin according to the above directions, with perfect confidence that they will find themselves competent to every essential duty, which will be required of them.

PARTICULAR VIEW

OF

MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

Acton.

When white people first came to live in Acton, it was a part of Concord, and the inhabitants went to Concord to attend meeting on Sundays; and when any of them died they were carried to Concord to be buried. It was a great distance, and the people did not like to go so far; and when there were enough inhabitants in that part of Concord to have a meeting-house of their own, they built one, and were after that made into a separate town, which was called Acton.

Draw the shape of Acton. Draw the river that passes through one corner of it. Draw the brook, which runs through the town and empties into the river. What towns lie on the North of Acton? What town bounds it on the East? What town bounds it on the South? What town bounds it on the West? What is the name of the river that passes across its corner? To what town did Acton formerly belong? Why did the people wish to be separated from Concord and made

It is a pleasant town, and the land is very good to raise hay and grain upon. The men almost all of them work upon their farms, and are called farmers.

Ashby. There are two meeting-houses in Ashby, which stand on very high land, and may be seen by people at a great distance from them. The land of the town is all very high; so high that some of the brooks run towards the North and some towards the East. But the land is very good for pastures and to raise hay upon; and the people keep a great many oxen and cows and sheep. There are some mills on the brooks and river, which pass through the town, and men tend them or work in them; but the men generally work on the land, and raise corn and rye and potatoes.

Bedford is a very small town, and has but a

into another town? What is said of the land in Acton? What employment have the men generally in the town?

Draw the shape of Ashby. Draw the river and brooks which run through the town. What is the name of the river? How is Ashby bounded on the North? East? South? West? How many meeting-houses are there in the town'? How are they situated? What is said of the land of Ashby? What is it good for, and what animals do the people keep upon it? What employments have the people? What crops do they raise on the land?

Draw the shape of Bedford. Draw the streams which pass

few people in it. The inhabitants generally live scattered about over the town at great distances from each other. A part of the town once belonged to Concord, and a part of it belonged to Billerica. But the people lived so far from those places that they wished to become a separate town, and they called the new town Bedford.

Billerica is a very pleasant town. The meeting-house stands on high land, and near to it is a handsome building for an academy. It is an old town, and was called by the Indians, Shawshine. But it is not so old as some other towns, for it once belonged to Cambridge. Two large rivers pass through Billerica, one through the west part called Concord River, and the other through the east part called Shawshine River. The Middlesex Canal passes through the north part of the town and crosses both the rivers. It crosses the Shawshine by an aqueduct twenty feet

through the town.

What are their names? How is Bedford bounded on the North? East? South? West? Which way does the river run? What is said of the size of the town? Has it many people in it? Do the inhabitants live near each other or scattered about at great distances? To what other towns did Bedford once belong?

Draw the shape of Billerica. How is it bounded on the North? East? South? West? Draw the rivers that pass through the town. What are their names? Draw the Middlesex canal. How does the canal cross Shawshine river?