Of

the cordial welcome offered, and the facilities liberally given, by almost all in authority at the different centres of education in America, and, while acknowledging it with the utmost gratitude, will probably be inclined to wonder regretfully whether an American teacher coming over to England would be likely to attain his or her object with equal ease. course, a great deal must be allowed for differences of temperament and habit, and the natural distinctions between an old country, with time-honoured usages both for good and evil, and a new one, where things are hardly enough systematized for comfort; but the fact is, I am afraid, undeniable, that it is a great deal easier to see, mark, and learn, in one country than in the other.

Who has not wished that such a thing as mental photography were possible? While I write I am conscious of the strongest wish to convey to those who care to know about Oberlin, and cannot see it for themselves, just the impression which my own mind received during a stay of ten days; comprising a series of constant visits to the different class-rooms, and frequent conversations with the professors

and teachers. But I find myself met at the outset by the extreme difficulty presented by the total unlikeness of all I saw to anything English with which I can compare it, the widely different conditions of society in which the writer and the reader find themselves, and the unfamiliar tones of thought and life, of which it is so hard for the one to convey an idea to the other.

Perhaps the present life of Oberlin will be best understood by a reference to the history of its origin and progress.

I take the following account of "Oberlin, its Origin, Progress, and Results," from a pamphlet by Professor Fairchild, originally produced as an Address to the "Alumni of Oberlin, 1860," and simply condense the information therein contained.

The plan of Oberlin originated with Rev. J. Shipherd, the pastor of a Presbyterian Church, and combined the expression of very strong religious feeling with the desire for an extensive and cheap system of education for both sexes. It involved a school, open to both sexes, with various departments, Preparatory, Teachers', Collegiate, and Theological,

common

furnishing a substantial education at the lowest possible rates," with facilities for selfsupport by manual labour. This school was to be surrounded by a "Christian community, united in the faith of the Gospel," and a covenant of "consecration to the work" was framed, binding its subscribers to a " purpose of glorifying God in doing good to men," to a "community of interests as perfect as if a community of property;" to an appropriation of any surplus obtained by industry and self-denial to the spread of the Gospel; to a renunciation of "strong and unnecessary drinks, even tea and coffee," and of "all bad habits" (in which their successors, at least, seem not to include incessant spitting), as well as "tight dressing and ornamental attire;" and to an endeavour to "extend the influence of Oberlin to our fallen race."

These descendants of the Puritan fathers succeeded, in 1833, in obtaining a site for their purpose, in the centre of dense forests still uncleared in the northern part of Ohio; log cabins were erected in the same year; and though the "Indian's hunting-path still traversed the forest, and the howl of the wolf

was heard at night," a school was opened at Christmas, and by the end of the first year the pupils numbered one hundred. In 1834 the first" College class" was organized, and in the course of that and the following year students flocked in numerously, though for more than two years "the devious tracks through the forests were often impassable to carriages."

The distinctive spirit of Oberlin soon found expression in a flourishing theological school, the members of which spread through the country during vacations, teaching and preaching with great energy, as well as encouraging "temperance" and "anti-slavery" meetings on all occasions, to the admiration, as may be supposed, of some, and the great disgust of others.

In the winter of 1834-5, the Trustees took up their definite position with regard to one of the questions then even more bitterly agitated than now, and decided it by the free admission of all coloured students on equal terms with the whites. This step marks an epoch in the educational history of America; for though solitary coloured students had been

admitted at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, and possibly elsewhere, no such proclamation of welcome had hitherto gone forth from any educational body, and the extreme opposition which the measure called forth is the best testimony to the merit of its supporters.

The original founders of Oberlin were anxious to combine manual labour with mental study, and made it obligatory on all students to work with their hands for four hours daily, thus defraying chief part of their expenses. This feature has been now materially modified, and labour is no longer compulsory, though it is still very common to find pupils of both sexes who support themselves wholly or in part by the labour of their hands, as a large proportion of the students have very small independent means, and there is, I suppose, hardly one person of any wealth among the whole number.

While sitting in the matron's office, I heard more than one of the female students request exemptions from the study of geometry, or natural philosophy, or chemistry, because she "could not get through all her housework, and she had to work for her board."