The Normal College of New York City.

port of Frederick the Great. Other normal schools were opened in Hanover, Austria, Switzerland, France, Holland, Belgium, and, about forty years ago, in Great Britain, whence they have extended into nearly every civilized country. The aims of the schools are well expressed in the following extract of the Prussian law: "The directors of teachers' seminaries shall rather seek to conduct the pupil-teachers by their own experience to simple and clear principles, than to give them theories for their guidance; and with this end in view, primary schools shall be joined to all teachers' seminaries, where the pupil-teachers may be practiced in the art of teaching." There are now about 850 normal schools in Europe, the British colonies, and British India, the latter having 104.

Massachusetts was the first State in the American Union to establish normal schools, of which there now are 137, with over 29,000 pupils and over 1000 instructors, Ohio and Pennsylvania each having twelve schools, while New York State has nine, Illinois and Missouri eight each, and Massachusetts seven. The largest number of pupils are in New York, however, where there are 4158. The necessity of such schools needs no other enforcement than a few statistics relating to education in the United States. Nearly 9,000,000 scholars are enrolled in the public schools. Nearly 5,000,000 are in attendance daily, and about 231,000 teachers are employed, including 133,000 women. The expended annually upon this vast scheme, which seems almost fabulous, is about $82,000,000, and the imagination is carried away by the tremendous suggestiveness of the figures.

Previous to the establishment of the present college, normal instruction was shabbily provided for in New York city. A school for teachers was opened in 1856, and closed three years later; hut ample amends for past deficiencies are made in the existing institution, to which the citizen who is shamefaced in the consciousness of the political iniquities manifest in scores of ways can with returning pride direct a visitor's attention as the completest of its kind in the world. The building is one of the most attractive sights in the city; it covers, with the inclosed ground surrounding, the whole block hounded by Lexington and Fourth avenues, Sixty-eighth and Sixty-ninth streets; it is 300 feet long, 125 feet wide in front, 78 feet wide in the rear, and the principal material used in its construction is red brick, which is still fresh and glowing. It overlooks Central Park, and is within a stone's-throw of the Lenox Library, the Museum of Natural History, and the Carnivorium. A female grammar school with accommodations for about 300 and a primary with accommodations for about 500 pupils are attached to it. The corner-stone was laid on March 19, 1872 — a wild, blustering day — and eighteen months later the enormous pile had risen as if by