Resemblance to similar institutions at home is not as yet to be
sought in the standard of scholarship, though that is rapidly
advancing. In an unevangelized community, the people move on a lower
level. Not only social condition, but morality and education, feel
the want of the elevating influence of the gospel. A seminary that
commences operations by teaching the alphabet must advance far, and
climb high, before its graduates will stand on a level with those
whose pupils were familiar with elementary algebra when they
entered; yet its course of study may be the best to secure the
usefulness of its members in their own community. If ragged village
girls, untutored and uncombed, studying aloud in school hours, and
at recess leaping over the benches like wild goats, now study
diligently and in silence, move gently, and are respectful to their
teachers and kind to each other, a thorough foundation has been
laid; and if, in addition to that, the literary attainments of the
lower classes to-day exceed those of the pupils who first left the
school, the superstructure rises at once beautifully and securely.

Leaving out the Bible,--which has been already spoken of,--to the
original reading, writing, singing, and composition; have been added
by degrees, grammar, geography, arithmetic, and theology; with oral
instruction in physiology, chemistry, natural philosophy, and
astronomy.

But we should neither understand the attainments of the pupils, nor
the source of their marked ability as writers, did we not notice
that, as a reward for good conduct during the day, their teacher was
accustomed to translate orally to them, at its close, at first
simple stories, and then such volumes as Paradise Lost, The Course