oped, and where facts in history, geography, and archæology applicable to the text are stated. The desire to benefit others must be alone apparent as his motive. No line he pens should rob another of his due. If possible, it would be well that no passage should be merely translated, and so left. The data may be collected for the pupil, but in nearly all cases it were well, that he should be left to draw for himself the inference which gives him the interpretation. Such, in their main features, are the aids offered by Professor Lincoln. He has taken the latest and most approved text as the foundation of his own. The selections are judicious. We are particularly pleased with the selection of the entire books which relate the occurrences during Hannibal's invasion of Italy, an event so momentous and interesting. We must close this notice with the expression of the hope, that all our scholars will remember, while they are provided with such improved instruments for observation as these modern aids for understanding the style and reaching the meaning of the ancients, that their ultimate aim should be, not merely to contemplate the instrument, nor even to observe the phenomena it reveals, but to deduce the great laws of human and divine life and thought displayed thereby. Locke Amsden, or the Schoolmaster; a Tale. By the Author of "May Martin " and "The Green Mountain Boys." Boston: B. B. Mussey & Co. 1847. 12mo. pp. 231. THIS volume, written by Judge Thompson, of Montpelier, Vermont, is greatly superior to his former publications. It is the first novel that we have seen, the main purpose of which is to advocate and improve the American system of common schools. The writer has performed his work with discretion, good sense, and some skill and humor in the delineation of character. He does not dive among transcendental ideas to find a new basis for elementary education, but represents children and facts as they actually exist, and proceeds to point out the best modes of improving the people's colleges. As nineteen children out of twenty in our land receive in these common schools all the instruction which they ever obtain, it is of measureless importance that the schools should be constantly watched, and the proper mode of managing them be generally understood. Locke Amsden comes forward as a judicious and popular advocate of school reform, and discourses with considerable ability about school-houses, ventilation, school-books, school-committees, and competent teachers, as well as the best modes of instruction and government. These topics form the main trunk of the book, round which the author has quite prettily entwined the tendrils of a love-story. While book-learning has its place of honor assigned it, self-culture and habits of reflection not learned from books are strongly inculcated. Captain Bill Bunker is the character introduced to illustrate these qualities. Locke Amsden is the schoolmaster, who shows both sources of knowledge united, and his character is well sustained throughout, though it is less origi nal than that of Bunker. His examination as candidate for the situation of teacher of a country district school is laughable enough, and shows with ludicrous fidelity what a farce is acted over in this respect, every season, in most of our villages and smaller towns. The superiority of the solid to the merely ornamental branches in education is humorously set forth in the contrast between two families. Every young lady in the United States might derive a profitable lesson from this portion of the story. The burning of Carter's house, near the end of the tale, is, we confess, rather too tragic a catastrophe for our taste, though professed novel-readers may not complain of it. heroine is left in the house, and while her lover and father are vainly seeking for her among the flames, she suddenly appears on the roof, which is about to fall. It required all the sagacity of the ingenious Captain Bunker, and all the desperation of a frantic lover, to rescue her from death; and we must think, that the rescue was effected rather more easily than the perilous circumstances would permit. We know that love, at such a crisis, has giant strength and angel wings; but we remember that gravitation does not, on that account, relax a tittle of its claims. With regard to style, the work is an improvement on May Martin. The language is clear and strong, though there are a few sentences which might be remodelled to advantage. The chief aim of the book is worthy of all praise. It recognizes that central principle in the Prussian system, "As is the teacher, so is the school"; and its main purpose is to illustrate the doctrine, that competent teachers cannot have bad schools, incompetent teachers cannot have good ones. If New England would elevate her seminaries of learning to the point required for the due support of civilization, liberty, and religion, she must have accomplished teachers. We know of few books on this all-important subject which can be read with more profit by all classes than Locke Amsden, revealing, as it does, the defective systems of instruction that are in use, and suggesting the proper remedy for existing evils. 4. The Journals of MAJOR SAMUEL SHAW, the first American THIS Volume is a valuable addition to the materials, not only for our revolutionary, but for our commercial history. The part of the work executed by Mr. Quincy is marked by the grasp and vigor of intellect which have stamped themselves upon all his words and deeds. The memoir of Mr. Shaw is written with excellent taste and judgment. It illustrates one of the most pleasing characters that adorned the times of our great national struggle. Samuel Shaw was born in Boston, October 2d, 1754. He was educated at the Boston Latin School, that prolific mother of good and great men, under the care of Master Lovell. But instead of going to college at the close of his school-days, he entered the counting-house, where he continued until the troubles with the mother country gave a military turn to his thoughts, and opened a different career from the profession he had chosen. As soon as he attained the age of twenty-one, he enlisted in the army then under Washington, at Cambridge. From this time to the end of the war, he wrote a series of letters, addressed to his father, his brother, and the Rev. Dr. Eliot, which not only display the most amiable qualities, but give very interesting glimpses of the scenes and characters of the Revolution. We are greatly struck with the correctness and elegance of their style, and it is pleasing to observe the classical taste which Mr. Shaw preserved in after life from the discipline of the Latin School. The relations between him and his parents and friends were of the most confidential and delightful kind; and we feel grateful to Mr. Quincy for this peep behind the curtain of the past, into the pri Ivate life of the olden times in Boston. Some of the earliest of these letters are written from Cambridge, and contain details of the military operations, until the British evacuated Boston. In 1776, Mr. Shaw accompanied the army to New York, whence his correspondence continues, and is filled, not only with notices of military affairs, but pleasant sketches of manners and society there. Among the events particularly described in the letters are the battles of Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. It is pleasant to find the young soldier expressing, in confidential correspondence with his own family, in the most ardent terms, his affection and veneration for Washington. "When I contemplate the virtues of the man," he writes, under date of April 12, 1778, "uniting in the citizen and soldier, I cannot too heartily coincide with the orator for the Fifth of March last, who so delicately describes him as a person that appears to be raised by Heaven to show how high humanity can soar. It will afford you no small pleasure to be told, that the faction which was breeding last winter in order to traduce the first character on the Continent is at an end." Many other interesting notices of Washington occur in the correspondence. The writer's description of Philadelphia is more graphic than complimentary to the morals of the city which then affected to be the metropolis of America. A letter written from “Head-Quarters at Robinson's house" details the treason of Benedict Arnold, and that infamous affair is alluded to in several letters that follow, with the natural indignation of a youthful patriot. The accounts contained in the correspondence of the closing scenes of the war, and of the last great act of Washington's command, are of the highest interest. We cannot forbear quoting the following passage, relating to the discontent in the army and the publication of the famous Newburg letters. "The meeting of the officers was in itself exceedingly respectable, the matters they were called to deliberate upon were of the most serious nature, and the unexpected attendance of the Commander-in-chief heightened the solemnity of the scene. Every eye was fixed upon the illustrious man, and attention to their beloved General held the assembly mute. He opened the meeting by apologizing for his appearance there, which was by no means his intention when he published the order which directed them to assemble. But the diligence used in circulating the anonymous pieces rendered it necessary that he should give his sentiments to the army on the nature and tendency of them, and determined him to avail himself of the present opportunity; and, in order to do it with greater perspicuity, he had committed his thoughts to writing, which, with the indulgence of his brother officers, he would take the liberty of reading to them. It is needless for me to say any thing of this production; it speaks for itself. After he had concluded his address, he said, that, as a corroborating testimony of the good disposition in Congress towards the army, he would communicate to them a letter received from a worthy member of that body, and one who on all occasions had ever approved himself their fast friend. This was an exceedingly sensible letter; and, while it pointed out the difficulties and embarrassments of Congress, it held up very forcibly the idea, that the army should, at all events, be generously dealt with. One circumstance in reading this letter must not be omitted. His Excellency, after reading the first paragraph, made a short pause, took out his spectacles, and begged the indulgence of his audience while he put them on, observing at the same time, that he had grown gray in their service, and now found himself growing blind. There was something so natural, so unaffected, in this appeal, as rendered it superior to the most studied oratory; it forced its way to the heart, and you might see sensibility moisten every eye. The General, having finished, took leave of the assembly, and the business of the day was conducted in the manner which is related in the account of the proceedings. - "I cannot dismiss this subject without observing, that it is happy for America that she has a patriot army, and equally so that a Washington is its leader. I rejoice in the opportunities I have had of seeing this great man in a variety of situations; calm and intrepid where the battle raged, patient and persevering under the pressure of misfortune, moderate and possessing himself in the full career of victory. Great as these qualifications deservedly render him, he never appeared to me more truly so than at the assembly we have been speaking of. On other occasions he has been supported by the exertions of an army and the countenance of his friends; but in this he stood single and alone. There was no saying where the passions of an army, which were not a little inflamed, might lead; but it was generally allowed that longer forbearance was dangerous, and moderation had ceased to be a virtue. Under these circumstances he appeared, not at the head of his troops, but as it were in opposition to them; and for a dreadful moment the interests of the army and its General seemed to be in competition! He spoke,every doubt was dispelled, and the tide of patriotism rolled again in its wonted course. Illustrious man! what he says of the army may with equal justice be applied to his own character. Had this day been wanting, the world had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining.' - pp. 103-105. 999 At the disbanding of the army, Mr. Shaw, having been since 1779 aid-de-camp to General Knox, with the rank of Major of Brigade, received the most emphatic testimonials, not only from his immediate military superior, but from the commander-inchief. After the war, 66 an association of capitalists, who had united for the purpose of opening a commercial intercourse between the United States and China, offered to him the station of factor and commercial agent for the voyage." This was the commencement of the American trade with China. On his return, in 1785, he was appointed a secretary in the War Office, of which his old friend, General Knox, was the head. At this time he addressed a letter, printed in the Appendix to this volume, to Mr. Jay, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, giving an account of the occurrences in the voyage of "the first vessel that had been fitted out by the inhabitants of the United States of America for essaying a commerce with those of the empire of China." after this he left the War Department to engage in a second voyage, and received from Congress the appointment of Consul from the United States at Canton, being of course the first person who ever held that office. From this second voyage he returned in 1789. The next year he sailed on his third voyage, in the Massachusetts, a ship he had himself caused to be built for the China trade, and returned in 1792. In August of that Soon |