IX. That each meeting be opened by the reading of a portion of Scripture, without comment, by the Chairman.

X. That at each meeting, the subject for discussion be introduced by some member who has at a previous meeting expressed his intention of proposing it.

XI. That the meeting adjourn at five o'clock to the Temperance Hotel in Wood Street, for Tea.

XII. That each member subscribe twopence per month to defray incidental

expenses.

DISCUSSIONS.

XIII. That the proposer be allowed not more than half an hour for his introduction.

XIV. That each member be expected to criticise, but not to occupy more than ten minutes.

XV. That after the criticisms have been given, the proposer be allowed twenty minutes for reply.

Eorrespondenre.

REPRODUCTION.-Among the many acquirements which are needed to make a teacher successful in his business, one of the most important is the art of reproduction. A teacher may thoroughly understand the lesson he has to teach and yet be unable to impart it fully and accurately to his pupils; and on the other hand the children may be well acquainted with that which has been taught and yet be at a loss how to convey their own ideas of the subject. Knowledge is nearly valueless if those who possess it have not the power to communicate what they know to others; but are obliged to keep their thoughts locked within their own minds because for want of language they cannot express them. It is not the amount of knowledge possessed which constitutes the greatness of a teacher; he may be as rich in knowledge as Cræsus was in wealth, but if he be unable to impart to others the learning he has acquired he is no teacher: it is the ability to instruct his children so that they may thoroughly understand every part of the lesson and be able afterwards to reproduce that which they have been learning which marks the well-trained educator.

There are several branches of instruction in which children cannot be too early initiated; the reproduction of what they have been taught is one which may be classed among that number. Even children of four or five years old may by skilful training be taught to reproduce the greater part of that in which they have been instructed.

The following are the methods we have seen extensively carried out and with great

uccess:

I. The common method of interrogation and ellipses.-In every lesson a teacher gives his class ought to be taught the art of reproduction: whatever subject the pupils are being instructed in, they ought to be well interrogated upon it and good ellipses interspersed through the whole of the lesson. In interrogating, care should be taken that the questions be not too difficult and yet not so easy as to be answered without thought: they ought also to be so arranged that the answers no or yes may rarely if ever occur, and also be so definite that there can be but one correct answer. In giving ellipses the children should fill up the most important part of the sentence; and no part of a word should ever be given in order that the remaining part may be filled up by the children. For instance, no thoroughly trained teacher, if he wanted to educe from the boys the word absorbent would ever think of giving the prefix ab and expect them to fill up the remaining part of the word, viz., sorbent by way of ellipsis.

II. The requiring a complete sentence for an answer.-This method of making children give a complete sentence instead of the part of one is found to be an excellent plan for drawing out their powers of reproduction. It is quite as applicable in teaching young children as it is those of a more advanced age. For example if the question be put to one of the children: Who made the sun? the word God should not be taken as a correct answer: but God made the sun: again, What do cows give? the word milk should not be received as a correct answer: but Cows give milk should be considered the proper one. The youngest children in a school might soon be trained to give such answers as these; and the elder boys would of course be able to give sentences for answers of a more complicated nature and might be habituated to compose sentences of considerable length and difficulty.

Every teacher who employs this method is actually giving two lessons at the same time: for if he be giving a Geography Lesson he is also giving one on Composition, for every answer a boy gives is a sentence, and every sentence is of his own construction. This plan of proceeding is employed by the Prussians in their system of education, and accounts perhaps in some degree for their producing so many great writers.

III. Writing on slates the substance of a lesson previously given.-The lower classes of the school are confined to the preceding methods, but this one may be used in addition with great advantage in the upper classes because it gives the pupils an opportunity of practising their powers of reproduction and composition in writing. For instance, after a teacher has given a Scripture Lesson, he may provide each boy with a slate, and let him write down the substance of the lesson given. During the time the boys are composing the given subject the teacher should be careful that each boy's work is his own, and that no one copies from another. After the composition is finished, each slate should be carefully examined, and the mistakes corrected and commented upon. This done, the particular excellencies and defects generally common to the whole class may be pointed out, and the means by which those defects may be remedied.

Royal British Schools, Brighton.

W. S.

SIR,-Would one of your correspondents furnish me through your valuable Papers with the notes of a Lesson on the Wars of the houses of York and Lancaster. I should also be very glad to be informed of the best work on Composition published at a low cost.

A YOUNG TEACHER.

SIR,-Would you kindly insert along your Correspondence for next Month an inquiry for the best method of teaching Navigation to a first class, and the best text-book.

A Correspondent asks for a practical Time Table for a mixed Village School; average number 60; and for a weekly course of instruction for children from three to four years of age. He also would be obliged to any Correspondent who would recommend a cheap but useful Bible History, Church History, and a History of the Book of Common Prayer.--Another Correspondent asks for Notes of a Lesson on: "The different ways in which our Lord answered questions proposed by His disciples, by inquirers and by cavillers."

Liverpool.

BETA.

EXTRACTS.

Repetition is the mother not only of study, but of education. Like the fresco painter, the teacher lays colors on the wet plaster which ever fade away, and which he must ever renew until they remain and shine brightly.-Richter.

Though a linguist should pride himself to have all the tongues which Babel cleft this world into, yet, if he had not studied the solid things in them, as well as the words and lexicons, he were nothing so much to be esteemed a learned man as any yeoman or tradesman competently wise in his mother-dialect only.--Milton.

One important feature in catechetical teaching is its elementary character. The best means of gaining knowledge is, after all, by dwelling on simple elementary truths; working them thoroughly into the mind and developing their own native substance and inherent riches. Kindred facts gather round one given fact like flakes to a rolling snow-ball; and the attention by being fixed on one point only gains a strength and keenness it would lose in diffusion.-Monro.

GENERAL EXAMINATION OF CANDIDATES FOR CERTIFICATES OF MERIT.-EASTER, 1852.

MASTERS.

CATECHISM, LITURGY, AND CHURCH
HISTORY.

up; (c.) the sense in which they are to be understood; (d.) the persons upon whom they are binding, and the grounds upon which they are so bind

SECT. I.-1. Shew to which of the Ten Commandments the following ex-ing. tracts refer:

(a.) To honour His holy name and His word.

(b.) To honour and obey the Queen, and all that are put in authority under hor.

(c.) To order myself lowly and reverently to all my betters. (d.) To keep my tongue from evilspeaking, lying, and slandering. Prove from the New Testament the obligations stated in the passages in italics.

2. Write out the first clauses of the Lord's Prayer, and explain each as you would to your first class.

3. Explain the advantage of a Catechetical mode of instruction. Arrange under certain heads the several parts of the Church Catechism, and shew the fitness of the order observed.

SECT. II.-1. Name in order the first five parts of the Public Service, and account for the order in which they stand.

2. Name in order the several seasons of the Ecclesiastical year; explain the meaning of their names respectively, and state which of the Feasts are moveable.

3. Give as exact an account as you can of the Confirmation Service, and explain the doctrine of the Church of England as touching this rite.

SECT. III.-I. Prove from Holy Scripture the several articles in the Apostles' Creed which relate to "Jesus Christ our Lord."

2. Quote one of the following Articles, and prove from holy Scripture the doctrines asserted in it: vII. Of the Old Testament. XI. Of the justification of man. XII. Of good works. 3. (a.) Give an historical account of the Thirty nine Articles; (b.) the purposes for which they were drawn

SECT. IV.-1. Give an account of the progress of the Reformation during the reign of Edward VI.; confine yonr remarks to this reign.

2. Give an account of the Ecclesiastical History of England at any one of the following epochs: Under Edward the Confessor, Henry II., Henry V., Charles I., and William III.

3. Give an account of the Cistercians, Dominicans, and Benedictines, stating when and why they were severally instituted; and explain the distinction between the regular and secular Clergy.

SECT. V.-1. Explain the meaning of the following terms: 'Parish,' vicarage,' 'episcopacy,' 6 cathedral,' septuagint,' 'impropriation.'

2. Write out a short account of the following: Athanasius, Luther, Loyola. 3. State in order the several causes which produced the schism of the Eastern and Western Churches, the time when the final separation took place, and the principal differences between them at present.

HISTORY.

SECT. I.-1. Give a short account of Canute.

2. Name, with dates, the Danish princes who have sat upon the throne of England, and mention some event in the reign of each.

3. State what you know of the origin of the Danes, of their first appearance in England, and of their settlement in it. Describe their manners and customs, and any traces of them yet remaining in the country.

SECT. II.-1. When were the first attacks of the inhabitants of Scotland upon those of England? To what circumstances were they owing, and how were they met?

2. Since the Norman Conquest, what