including the Bible, were faithfully read and studied. In the winter of 1843-4 he taught his first school near Ravenna, Ohio, for eleven dollars a month and "board round "-wages which he afterwards thought more than an equivalent. Hearing of Normal Schools in Massachusetts and furnished with a letter of introduction to Rev. Samuel J. May, then of Lexington, Mass., he set out with little other outfit, and traveling by stage and canal and perhaps on foot, he finally completed the journey, that he might enjoy the advantages of such an institution. Kindly received by Mr. May, but destitute of means, he, through his recommendation, obtained a school in Hingham for the winter, and spent the spring and early summer at his trade as a carpenter. In the following August, 1845, he entered the Normal School at Bridgewater, then conducted by Nicholas Tillinghast, and here obtained his first ideas of what a teacher should be and do. He completed the prescribed year of study, spending the winter again at Hingham, and teaching the following winter in Waltham, where he made the acquaintance of Rev. Thomas Hill, now President of Harvard College, whose active friendship has since been of essential service on more than one occasion.

Mr. Edwards then spent a year in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, N. Y., employed during the last six months as "Repeater," or pupilteacher. After a short service, in the spring of 1848, as civil engineer in a subordinate capacity upon the Boston Water-works, he was engaged by Mr. Tillinghast as assistant in the Normal School, also aided by Dana P. Colburn, afterwards principal of the Rhode Island Normal School. Here he spent five years of laborious, illy paid, but most profitable service, the chief oversight of the school, owing to the failing health of the principal, often devolving upon him, while in addition to his duties in the school, much aid was rendered by him in the State Institutes, then under the management of Dr. Barnas Sears, Secretary of the Board of Education. At Bridgewater, Mr. Edwards added much to the efficiency of the school and devised and arranged almost wholly the methods of teaching geography, for which that school has been distinguished. In January, 1853, he resigned to take charge of the Bowditch English High School for Boys in Salem, from which he was called the following autumn to act as State Agent in visiting schools, advising teachers and school officers, addressing public meetings, instructing in Teachers' Institutes, &c. In September, 1854, he received charge of the State Normal School newly established at Salem, and in the three years in which he was here engaged, was developed in its main features that system of professional drill which he has since so successfully followed.

In October, 1857, Mr. Edwards removed to St. Louis to organize and take charge of the City Normal School, designed for preparing teachers, principally females, for the public schools of the city. The misappropriation of the school fund by the rebel authorities in 1861 seriously crippled the schools, though the Normal School was still maintained, in conjunction with the City High School, both institutions being placed in charge of Mr. Edwards. In the spring of 1862, he resigned his position here, much against the wishes of his employers, and accepted a position in the State Normal University of Illinois, of which he was appointed principal in the following June. He is here still engaged, (1865,) having as principal the almost entire charge of the strictly professional instruction, besides the general oversight of the institution and the early instruction of

as well as he can, is wiser than they. He does nothing to be seen of men; and that was their motive for most of their actions.

Now for the philosophy which relates to knowledge. Knowledge is a brave thing. I am a plain, ignorant, untaught man, and know my ignorance. But it is a brave thing when we look around us in this wonderful world to understand something of what we see; to know something of the earth on which we move, the air which we breathe, and the elements whereof we are made; to comprehend the motions of the moon and stars, and measure the distances between them, and compute times and seasons; to observe the laws which sustain the universe by keeping all things in their courses; to search into the mysteries of nature, and discover the hidden virtue of plants and stones, and read the signs and tokens which are shown us, and make out the meaning of hidden things, and apply all this to the benefit of our fellow-creatures.

Wisdom and knowledge, Daniel, make the difference between man and man, and that between man and beast is hardly greater.

These things do not always go together. There may be wisdom without knowledge, and there may be knowledge without wisdom. A man without knowledge, if he walk humbly with his God, and live in charity with his neighbors, may be wise unto salvation. A man without wisdom may not find his knowledge avail him quite so well. But it is he who possesses both that is the true philosopher. The more he knows, the more he is desirous of knowing; and yet the further he advances in knowledge the better he understands how little he can attain, and the more deeply he feels that God alone can satisfy the infinite desires of an immortal soul. To understand this is the perfection of philosophy." Then opening the Bible which lay before him, he read these verses:

My son, if thou wilt receive my words,—

So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;

Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest after her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;

Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee,
To deliver thee from the way of evil.

“Daniel, my son," after a pause he pursued, “thou art a diligent and good lad. God hath given thee a tender and dutiful heart; keep it so, and it will be a wise one, for thou hast the beginning of wisdom. I wish thee to pursue knowledge, because in pursuing it, happiness will be found by the way. If I have said any thing now which is above thy years, it will come to mind in after time, when I am gone, perhaps, but when thou mayst profit by it. God bless thee, my child!"

He stretched out his right hand at these words, and laid it gently upon the boy's head. What he said was not forgotten, and throughout life the son never thought of that blessing without feeling that it had taken effect.

VIRGINIA.

EDUCATIONAL CONVENTIONS.

THOUGH no organized Educational Societies have existed in the State of Virginia, yet several important Conventions have been held, whose proceedings are deserving of notice. The first of these met at Clarksburg, in the north-western part of the State, on the 8th of September, 1841. The deficiencies of the then existing common school system and the condition of the people in point of intelligence, as referred to by Gov. David Campbell in the annual message of 1839,* and the alarming state of ignorance prevailing among the people, as shown by the census of 1840,† had excited general astonishment and apprehension. The first movement towards amendment was made by the people of Western Virginia in calling the above Convention. The feeling that prevailed in that section of the State is shown in the following extract from a letter of Judge E. S. Duncan, of Harrison county, which was read before the Convention: We in Virginia have been olamoring for the last fifteen or twenty years, about State rights and State sovereignties, forgetting or neglecting all the while

"The statements furnished by the clerks of five city and borough courts and ninety-three of the county courts, in reply to inquiries addressed to them, ascertain that of those who applied for marriage licenses, a large number were unable to write their names. The years selected for this inquiry were those of 1817, 1827, and 1837. The statements show that the applicants for marriage licenses in 1817 amounted to 4,682; of whom 1,127 were unable to write ;-5,048 in 1827, of whom the number unable to write was 1,116;-and in 1837, the applicants were 4,614; and of these the number of 1,047 were unable to write their names. From which it appears there still exists a deplorable extent of ignorance, and that in truth it is hardly less than it was twenty years ago, when the School Fund was created. The statements, it will be remembered, are partial, not embracing quite all the counties, and are moreover confined to one sex. The education of females, it is to be feared, is in a condition of much greater neglect.

"There are now in the State 200,000 children between the ages of five and fifteen. Forty thousand of these are reported to be poor children; and of them, only one-half to be attending schools. It may be safely assumed that of those possessed of property adequate to the expenses of a plain education, a large number are growing up in ignorance for want of schools within convenient distances. Of those at school, many derive little or no instruction, owing to the incapacity of the teachers, as well as to their culpable negligence and inattention. Thus the number likely to remain uneducated and to grow up without just perceptions of their duties, religious, social, and political, is really of appalling magnitude and such as to appeal with affecting earnestness to a parental legislature."-Message of Gov. Campbell, Jan. 9th, 1839.

"To show the lamentable degree of ignorance in Virginia and the necessity of an effectual reform in our school system, we need only examine the returns of the late census. More than 58,000 adult white persons were returned as unable to read or write. This amount of ignorance

to perform the very duties those rights required of us. We very properly deny to the Federal Government the right to interfere with our domestic concerns for the purpose of internal improvement or education, but we take care not to exercise the right ourselves for any valuable purpose. In truth, recent developments show much to alarm us about the condition of our noble State. The late reassessment of the lands shows an enormous decline in their value, and the census discloses the melancholy fact that in Virginia, proud old Virginia, there are more persons at this time who can not read or write than there were ten or twelve years ago, although our white population has diminished. Something therefore must be done speedily to arrest the State in its downhill course, or she will have little left but the shadow of her former greatness. I am gratified that the movement in favor of education has originated in the West. This is as it should be. Judging from the past we have little to expect from the East, and I verily believe that the regeneration of the State must depend upon the energy and patriotism of the West.

I suppose the Convention will memorialize the Legislature on the subject of education, as well as appeal to the people for their individual support. The latter, I fear, is the only reliable hope for success. I begin to despair of any valuable action on the subject by the Legislature, until that body be remodeled and the free white population of the West have its just weight in the councils of the government. Appeal directly to the people and arouse them to the necessity of educating their offspring. The people of the West, although poor, have the means, and, above all, they have the energy, and if they will it, they can do much towards the education of their children from their own resources. They should form local or neighborhood associations for the purpose.

The Convention at Clarksburg was attended by one hundred and thirteen delegates from sixteen counties of North-western Virginia and the valley of the Shenandoah. George H. Lee, of Harrison county, was elected President. Communications were received from Alex. Campbell, of Brooke county, from Hon. E. S. Duncan, and from J. D. D. Rosset, of Jackson county, on the subject of education; and from Pres. Ruffner, with the outline of a plan for the improvement of common schools. The deliberations of the Convention resulted in the appointment of two committees, by whom an Address to the People and a Memorial to the Legislature were prepared.

A second Convention was held at Lexington on the 2d of Oct., 1841, composed of delegates from the counties of Bath, Augusta, and Rockbridge, in the Shenandoah Valley. At the request of this Convention, a plan for the organization and support of common

is enough to alarm us; but were this all that the census discloses, we should not have thought it necessary to mention the subject here. An attentive examination of the returns will show, beyond question, that they come far short of the truth. Many and great errors evi

dently exist in these returns. They must be errors of defect, for no cause of excess can be assigned; while the negligence of the marshals and the reluctance of individuals to report their ignorance, may easily account for defects. We venture to assert also, that multitudes were reported as able to read, who could indeed labor through a printed page, but who were in no proper sense readers of books or even of newspapers, and who were in reality as ignorant, if not quite so illiterate, as those who had never learned the alphabet. When these things are taken into account, we must conclude that not less than 150,000 of the adult white population of Virginia are in a state of debasing ignorance. This is more than one-third of the 377,000 citizens over twenty years of age.”—Henry Ruffner, Pres. of Washington College, Va.