A history of public education in Rhode Island, from 1636 to 1876 ... Comp. by authority of the Board of education, and ed. by Thomas B. Stockwell ...

266 NEWPORT.
of choice selections; Cicero, four orations; Virgil's 2Eneid, books I, II, and VI;
Otto's French grammar finished; exercises in conversation; translation of "La
Poudre aux Yeux," "Athalie;" Otto's German Grammar to lesson XXVI; English composition, elocution, drawing, vocal music. In the classical department three extra recitations per week in Latin; Sallust's Catiline; three orations of Cicero; Goodwin's Greek Grammar; Xenophon's Anabasis, three books;
Latin composition; Ancient History. Students taking this course are allowed
to omit the work assigned for this year in French, German, English Literature
and French history. In the scientific department, students are allowed to substitute extra work in mathematics for parts of the regular course.
SENIOR CLASS.
Astronomy by lectures, with frequent use of the telescope; Eliot and Storer's
Chemical Analysis, pursued in the laboratory; Bradbury's Trigonometry; Botany; English Literature-critical study of parts of the writings of Milton, Shakspeare and Goldsmith; also of extracts from Chaucer and other writers of early
English; Abercrombie's Intellectual Philosophy; Moral Philosophy, by lectures;
Mrs. Fawcett's Elements of Political Economy; Rhetoric, by lectures; translation of "Les Doigts de Fe;" one of Moliere's plays; exercises in French conversation; translation of a part of the Odes of Horace; Otto's German Grammar
completed; translation of Eigensinn; two acts of Wilhelm Tell; English composition, drawing, elocution, vocal music. In the classical department, substitutions are made for all the above work, except English composition, elocution,
and music, as follows:-Virgil, 2Eneid continued, Eclogues; Cicero's orations
continued; Xenophon's Anabasis continued; Homer's Iliad, three books; Greek
and Latin composition; Ancient Geography and History; review of mathematics,
and of Latin and Greek authors. In the scientific department, students are allowed to substitute extra work in mathematics for parts of the regular course.
The requirement for admission to the Junior class is the ability to pass a satisfactory examination in arithmetic, English grammar, geography, United States
history and spelling.
There is one feature of the course of study for the high school, as given
above, to which especial attention is called. A portion of every class
leaves the school before the beginning of the second year, and the number is farther reduced before the begininng of the third year. It is very
important that each scholar's connection nith the school shall be asource
of direct and lasting benefit to him, be the period long or short. With
this end in view, the strictly practical and disciplinary studies have been
very evenly distributed throughout the four years. There is no point in
this course at which it can be fairly said that a pupil, leaving the school
at that point, has spent his time upon studies valuable, in the main, only
as preparatory to higher work.