EVENING SESSION.

At the opening of the session this evening, Rev. Mr. Duncan, from Florida, was called upon, and he responded by making a brief statement of the condition of things in that State. They have established schools generally for the negroes; but the whites have no system of public schools. The colored and white people are getting along in “sweet harmony."

Rev. Mr. Ware spoke of the work of education among the freedmen in Georgia, where he had been teaching. They are trying to wipe out the question of color in Georgia, in respect to schools.

A memorial address was then delivered by Elbridge Smith, Esq., of Dorchester, Mass., which will be found in another part of the volume.

THIRD DAY.

FRIDAY MORNING SESSION.

The Institute was called to order at nine o'clock. Prayer was offered by Rev. A. A. Miner, D. D., President of Tufts College.

DISCUSSION.

The first matter in the order of discussion this morning was, "Right-mindedness favorable to Intellectual Growth."

Agreeably to arrangement, Dr. Miner was present, and opened the discussion upon this question, in a very able address. His remarks will be found in another part of the volume.

Rev. Mr. Stebbins. It is with a great deal of pleasure that I have listened to the presentation of this subject before us this morning. It seems a very happy supplement to the subject, which is also important, which has been discussed at length by us. It is a subject that I believe needs to be presented often and with great earnestness and force to the community generally; and nowhere is it more important than in a gathering of teachers. There is a depth to this subject that is greater than it is possible for us to exhaust. We are apt to float over the surface of it, ordinarily. If there be one law in our nature which it is important to observe, and without the observance of which we cannot even begin right, much less proceed right, it is the law of the condition that we recognize when we say every human being has been created

as a subject of divine law, from which it is utterly impossible for him to depart without going astray from the grand and high object for which he was created. When we adopt the theory which is sometimes adopted and asserted with a great deal of positiveness, that it is the business of the public schools to attend to the intellectual training of the pupils only, I believe we have made an assertion which is totally fatal to the realization of the object of the public schools.

The public school, more than others, should be comprehensive in its aims; it should feel bound to attend to the character of the pupil, and seek to develop the highest possible human results out of each individual subject of the public school. For the very assumption is, that the State has a right to the best results to each individual member of the public schools; and that is, that each shall become a citizen of a high character, and noble and generous aims, who goes forth in the best possible condition to enter upon the grand work of doing good to the world. This cannot be realized unless we recognize that man is the subject of law; not simply of physical or intellectual law; not merely moral law; but law in its fullest sense; that which takes in every possible element and condition of the human structure and organization, and that embraces the religious also. Now, those who do most to bring their pupils in early life to recognize this condition heartily, certainly do the best thing possible for the scholars.

In the beginning, one of the most important things for the pupil to recognize is, that he is to be a humble student, searching for truth for its own sake, and most earnestly for that truth which is most valuable. It is utterly impossible for us to tell beforehand, I think, what truth is most plausible, or what system of truth is most plausible. If I recognize the one great fact, that I am a subject of the Creator, that He

has made me under certain conditions, and for certain ends, then I am prepared to recognize the fact that I am not qualified to mark out my course in regard to the great ends for which I was created. And especially am I unqualified to judge that in the very .beginning of my learning. The student should be made to know and feel that if he would hope to know what the conditions of his being are, he must sit as a humble disciple in the school of revelation. God, who has made him under certain conditions, and for certain aims, has not left him without the means of knowing what those conditions and aims are, nor where it is impracticable to know what he most of all needs to know. The simple condition is that he recognizes his inability to learn, of himself, and that he may learn of Him whose child he is.

Cultivate an implicit faith, in the beginning, in the authority of the divine teachings, and cultivate a disposition to take cordially the teachings of God, whether learned in the great school of nature and science, or in the revealed word of God. Let him take these as he would accept the teachings of a parent, or the teachings of an instructor in whom he has the most perfect confidence; then he is in a condition which comes the nearest to right-mindedness of any that I am able to conceive or express.

I most heartily accord with the views which have been presented with regard to the importance of the motives which we bring to bear upon pupils. I deprecate, in common with the speaker, the presentation of the motive of gaining superiority for its own sake. Nothing can be more cultivative of selfishness, -pure, unadulterated selfishness, than that. How small the motive; how degrading in itself! It operates in a twofold way. If the pupil is aiming only at superiority, then the means employed are of little consequence. If the pupil who stands in the way, can be

brought down below his own present level, without any rise on his own part, his object is attained, and it is done more easily, it may be, than if, while the other pupil is continually rising, he is compelled to put forth his own energies with greater intensity to outstrip him. Therefore, he is likely to congratulate himself over anything that makes the attainment of his own object any easier. And when it is done, what has been done for the successful person? Is he any more of a symmetrical man? Is he more likely to go forth to bless the world by his own benefactions and efforts? Is not the contrary more likely to be true? Success in acquisition of what is worthy, may be held before a pupil. Sometimes a prize may be held up, indirectly; but we should be careful not to be the occasion of a damage which far outweighs the highest possible good. We should do everything that we can do to cultivate generous feelings; everything we can do to make pupils rejoice in the success of every other pupil; feeling that what the world wants is the largest amount of desirable knowledge, the largest amount of excellent character, and the largest amount of good motives and aims. If we can lead the pupil to rejoice in the attainments of any scholar who contributes to the treasury of the world, lead him to rejoice in that, and because of that, — then we may be sure that scholar is being educated into a truer manhood, or a truer womanhood. And those schools in which these feelings prevail, are the best gardens for the cultivation of the intellect and character which it is possible to form. To be instrumental in any degree in the cultivation of such a garden, is more valuable than any thing else. It is one in which we may be well content to labor on, even though for the present the labor carries with it but little appreciation.