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PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF A FEMALE SEMINARY IN THE CITY OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.
Designed for Forty Pupils, and under the management of Mr. JOHN KINGSBURY.

CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER.

I. What is a German University?
II. Causes of Individual and National Enlightenment (continued)
III. MISCELLANEOUS: 1. Great Men.

2. Poetry of Pope. 3. Extract from Poem by N. P. Willis, Esq. 4. Absence of Courage in promoting Education. 5. Hints to Teachers-Reading. 6. How to Teach Children. 7. Dignity of a Teacher's Employment. 8. Derivation of the name Canada. 9. Dynasties which have ruled Britain. 10. Historical Antitheses. 11. Industrial Arts in 1851-Extract from Lord Elgin's Speech. 12. The Poet's Pen. 13. Humble Merit successful. 14. Goldsmith's Poetry. 15. Happiness,

IV. EDITORIAL: 1. Progress of the arrangement for procuring Library Books. 2 Educational movements-State of New York. 3. Misapplication of the School Fund by Trustees. 4. Highly favoured position of the British Soldier as regards Education. 5. Extracts from Local Superintendents' Reports, 1850,

...

PAGE. 33 34

36

40

V. Collateral advantages of a well organized System of Public Schools (communicated)

42

VI. Official Circular to County Clerks,

43

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VII. EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: 1. Canada. 2. British and Foreign. 3.

VIII. LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE,.....
IX. EDITORIAL AND OFFICIAL NOTICES. ADVERTISEMENTS,.

WHAT IS A GERMAN UNIVERSITY?

48

A popular notion seems to be that a German University is an institution to which a person may resort in almost any stage of study without previous examination, pursue any branch he chooses, to the entire neglect of the "dead languages," and quit at pleasure; the whole being quite a cheap, almost a self-supporting institution, receiving students, to considerable extent, below the range of the college course. The German Universities are no such crude and heterogeneous systems.

What is the rank of a German University? It is higher than that of our colleges; it is really a cluster of professional schools. Does it admit all students that choose to come? And does it receive students not versed in Latin and Greek? No, no, to both inquiries. Every student must have passed the severest examination before admission, and have attained a proficiency in Latin and Greek far beyond that of college graduates in the United States. The regular place of preparation is the Gymnasium, where all students go through a thorough course of classical study. "They are not only taught to read Greek and Latin with fluency, but to write them. They are moreover accustomed to speak the latter language with ease, in the latter part of their course to hold all their exercises in it." [Dr. Robinson, in Bib. Repos. Vol. 1.] They undergo semi-annual examinations in the Gymnasium; the last of which, designed to show whether they are fitted for the University, is very severe; for three days they have to write exercises on questions proposed to them in history, the Greek and Latin languages, mathematics, besides themes in German, and in at least one foreign modern language-while locked up alone and without books. Oral questions are added.

A certificate of having creditably passed this examination is necessary to admit them to the University. Those who do not come from the Gymnasium are subjected to a similar examination before a commission appointed by Government. As the whole system is under the control of Government, the process is in all cases equally thorough. Foreign students, unless intending to hold employment in the state to which the University belongs, are indeed admitted to the lectures, but not to a membership of the University,

wihout this certificate; but such practical and powerful checks are intentionally thrown around it by Government, that the attempt thus to evade a regular course, says Dr. Robinson, never occurs among German students, and "any erratic course of education is impossible," with those who aspire to any station of influence or emolument.

If then the studies of the German University and their order were wholly optional, this, in the case of young men who have had the training of the Gymnasia, (superior in some respects to that of our colleges,) and are now entering on their professional studies, would be a very different affair from what it is to turn a band of untaught boys into a college course, to cull out studies to their liking, or according to their incompetent judgments.

But are the studies of the University optional with the student? An affirmative reply gives a very erroneous impression to the American student. Practically, to the great mass of students, they are not. We have seen that it is not optional whether the student have a thorough knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages in order to enjoy the benefits of the University. When in the University, the student may take his own time, and, with some exceptions, his own order of studies; he may, at his choice, extend his pursuit collaterally. But a certain prescribed course for each profession he must attend, in order to be admitted to examination. That examination, too, is of the most rigid searching character; and on his passing it, his hopes for life depend. These courses, in the several professions, are called Brod Collegia, because "a man's future bread depends on having attended them."

In practice there is therefore a necessity, and that of the sternest kind, imposed upon the great mass of students to pursue most thoroughly a certain established routine according to its nature. As the University belongs to the Government, this necessity is imposed, not through the laws of the University, but by its own direct requisitions in its various posts of honour and profit. It is done thus:

All stations of honour or emolument, all public employments in church and state, from that of statesman down to that of village teacher, are the gift of the Government. It thus holds almost every avenue to distinction and success.

For these posts it rigidly prescribes its course of preparatory study. A man cannot be an officer of state, a teacher in a higher institute, a physician, a lawyer, or a preacher, unless he has been at a University." This is a question which, if answered in the negative, precludes all other questions. The only exceptions are in the case of village schoolmasters, and the department of the mines; for both of which there are special seminaries, which take the place of the University course." [Robinson.]-For each of these employments the student must study the prescribed course and sustain a severe examination; if he fails in examination, one more opportunity is allowed him, when, if he fails again, his hopes are at an end. As comparatively few of the students can subsist on their own resources for life, but more than nine-tenths of them are looking to some situation in the gift of the state, the extent of their option is thisstudy this course or starve. The stimulus has no parallel in this country. The Government prescribes even the time of study at the University, four years for the profession of medicine, three years for the others.

Is the German University a cheap, self-supporting Institution? No; it is endowed with royal, and, in that country, almost incredible munificence. The University of Berlin occupies an immense building, formerly the palace of King Henry: has a large botanical garden, vast and expensive collections in the various departments of Natural History, Anatomy, &c. ; has the use of the Royal Library of 400,000 volumes, and besides ample supplies for occasional wants, receives an annual appropriation of $60,000 from the Government. Every thing is on a scale proportional. The University of Bonn and Halle each receive $56,000 annually from the state. Bonn also occupies a palace, has its botanical garden, its Cabinets. Not to go further into detail, some idea of a German University and the scale on which it is conducted may be had from the single item of their Libraries. That of Gottingen contains 360,000 volumes; that of Reslau, 250,000; that of Heidelberg, 200,000; Tubingen 200,000; Munich 200,000; Leipsic 112,000; Erlangen 100,000.

The above facts being drawn from the statements of Dr. Robinson in the Biblical Repository, from the Bibliotheca Sacra, the Encyclopedia Americana, and other authentic documents, may be relied upon.

THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSES AND RESULTS OF IN. DIVIDUAL AND NATIONAL ENLIGHTENMENT.

[BY A CORRESPONDENT.]

(Continued from Vol. III., Page 172.)

While the external circumstances of life among which every one necessarily exists, produce an increasing and unavoidable effect in moulding individual and national character; it is also obvious, that the general tendencies of various nations are productive of marked results in the formation of character, aided by numerous physical causes, whose action may be traced through the history of races. The maritime pursuits and commercial character of a people are usually the result of the physical features that mark the country they occupy; the simple quietness of agricultural pursuits usually stamps the popular character with corresponding features, and the harsh and stern, though often sublime scenery of a land of mountain and of flood imparts to its possessors the bold and daring habits of the huntsman and the warrior. Various races also often retain, apparently by hereditary descent, peculiar traits and tendencies under great variations of external circumstances. A restless energy of purpose, and anxious desire for improvement, will urge to perpetual change one body of colonists in a strange territory, while another similarly situated will plod through centuries of smiling contentment without a thought of alteration.

The question is not now, which will be the most happy or virtuous; but which will have the better chance of obtaining the larger share of the general enlightenment making its unavoidable progress through the world.

In ancient times when the "people" did not exist, save as a mass of human animals, to be driven to the farm, the forest, or the field of blood, at the pleasure of their owners, the idea of a direct means of instruction, with a view to their elevation, intellectual or political, could never have been thought of. Even the Spartans who certainly framed a system of popular education, had evidently in view the elevation of the state only, as a military or political power; the training afforded to the people was exclusively with a view to the performance of certain duties wisely deemed effective in supporting the then existing state of things; the moral man was utterly neglected and even degraded, while the citizen was carefully formed; personal character was altogether sacrificed to the upholding of a governmental machinery.

Through the long gloom of the dark ages, the masses of the nations of the earth, reared and matured under an atmosphere of discord, ignorance, and blood, could scarcely hope for aid in the path of intelligence, even if they knew its value; but what will be said to certain "wealthy philosophers" of the nineteenth century, who would still close up that path, as leading to mischief, when pressed by the foot of the artisan or the labourer? That the ignorant or depraved should neglect the offered advantage from its presumed expense in time or money, from a sluggish indifference to all improvement, or from that unhappy "let-well-enough-alone" principle, that has chained so many of the sons of labour to the rock of their fathers' ignorance, is not to be wondered at. But that the educated man, the man of estate and standing, the patron of refinement and elegance, whose whole enjoyment and happiness are necessarily, more than those of others, bound up with, and dependent on, the firmness and strength of the bands of social polity, that such a one should cry down the truest and soundest means of upholding the fabric, might well be esteemed a prodigy past belief, were we not well aware of the existence of such an anomaly. The opinions of such persons are utterly undeserving of refutation. Though many, however, do not go to such extreme lengths, they are yet perfectly apathetic on the subject. It is difficult to get the unenlightened mass to weigh prospective benefits. They can see an immediate result, but they cannot look forward. Laws must be made to restrain the vicious, punishments inflicted to deter them, and life and property must be protected. These are direct necessities, and they can acknowledge the expediency of contributing to the support of an expensive machinery to ensure the results on which social peace and comfort directly depend. Such are the means of cure and they must be applied. But is the same care evinced as regards the means of prevention? Certainly not. It is only within the last half century that even the most enlightened statesmen appear to have thought the prevention of crime a principle de

serving of consideration. Not many years have passed since the laws of England were based exclusively on the necessity of punishment, while every circumstance was left untouched which might have exercised an influence in preventing the offence. Nay, further; many of the arrangements for internal government were of such a eharacter as to elicit all the evil and repress all the good. example wanted? Prison discipline, at least up to a late period, suffices. This is one instance only, in which an education of vice instead of moral and intellectual enlightenment has been provided by authority. Many others might be adduced, but it is unnessary.

Is an

We have now at length learned, that the great means of national moral elevation is direct instruction, and that the arrangement and management thereof are as much the duties of the statesman, as any consideration of internal government or foreign policy. Such an education or system of instruction must be of the most general character, unfolding the intellectual powers, elevating the moral sentiments, training the heart to piety, forming the child for his duties here and hereafter. Of course to be in all respects practical and worthy, it can never be of a special or limited character. This education of a nation, this developing of the mind, which is the real aim of education, is not an idea to be rejected or entertained, to be cast aside or acted on, according to the peculiar circumstances of that mind. It is a matter that must be dealt with. The intellectual portion of man is there; it must be guided, trained, regulated, taught. The talent is entrusted to society, and it must not be thrust aside under a napkin. I say that we incur a tremendous responsibility, when we dare to neglect that portion of man, which ennobles him while here, and which, after it is freed from the body, passes off into the immensity of eternity to fulfil the destinies assigned to it by its Creator. This is a question which cannot be silenced; the nations of the world, most of the civilized ones at least, have, during the last fifty years, discovered and acknowledged its existence, and having done so, they must act on that acknowledgment. Society even on the most selfish grounds can readily discern the benefits to be obtained by the instruction of those who compose it. This question of education is thoroughly and preeminently general, and affects all classes of society-the prince and the peasant. Its great principles are the same in all classes; and to these chiefly the education of the masses is more particularly limited. When, however, we pass beyond popular education, in the common acceptation of the term, then commences that special education, based, of course, on the great general principles already alluded to, but varying in its details, in order to mould and direct the character of sections of society for particular pursuits. The intellect, man's special mark, that gift by which he rises above the lower animals, in right of which he is a sentient being, and however frail and guilty, enters into communion with his God, must not be neglected even in the lowest grade. Unfortunately, though knowledge multiplies itself, ignorance begets ignorance, and few are so difficult to be persuaded of the advantage of knowledge, as those who never tasted its benefits. In fact, one of the most essential steps for the complete success of any scheme of popular instruction is to secure in its aid the active cooperation of all parties, more particularly the people themselves; and few experiments in connexion with the subject are more discouragingly painful than the attempt to thrust the boon of learning on the ignorant and apathetic.

Is po

clearly criminal in his conduct as he who brands himself as a felon by a direct breach of law. Is there not a fault somewhere when we find so many ignorant of this great fact? How often do we see the most active opposition given to efforts in favour of popular education on the part of those for whom it is specially intended. The very persons, who will use the most strenuous exertions in pursuit of the most trifling pecuniary gain, will treat with apathetic indifference or direct hostility all measures of improvement in a matter so immeasurably more important. It might be considered scarcely consistent with true liberty to meet this apathy with legal enactments of a coercive character. The true remedy will consist in the gradual enlightenment of the people; as that enlightenment spreads, the necessity of it will become more generally apparent; the want of it will be more felt, and the apathy or hostility succeeded by energy and anxiety.

The evils, however, of this apathy are incalculable. They are exhibited in the selection of unfit teachers and school-houses, and insufficient apparatus and books; in the appointment of incapable local authorities, and above all, in that species of general indifference sufficient to chill the enthusiasm of the most energetic teacher.

All who enter into the social compact are bound to a certain line of conduct with reference to their fellows under the same compact, and are subject to certain penalties inflicted by society for any breach of their agreement. In a nation, a social body composed of many millions, there are always those requiring to be coerced to the performance of this compact. Society is consequently empowered both to impose penalties and provide preventive measures. pular education a great preventive measure, is society bound to provide it for those who must otherwise be without it? Some have gone so far as to say that this measure should be compulsory. It certainly is compulsory on society to propound it, nor can there be any doubt, that all parents are morally bound to provide education for their offspring. In some countries, and these boasting of the freest constitutions, this obligation is discussed as one that might justly be made the subject of legal enactment. I mean to observe that it has been made a question, whether the parent, who neglects to educate his offspring, should not be treated as a criminal, and punished as such by the criminal laws. Most certainly the parent who neglects this great duty does much to forward vice and obstruct virtue, and is as

It must be considered an undoubted fact, that every one in the community should be moral and religious, and should have his intellect trained to the contemplation of truth, and familiarized with the order and beauties of nature. No possible condition or arrangement of society can affect our wishes and anxieties on this point. The fact then for any society to consider is, that the educable portion belonging to it consists of so many, and that true policy demands that the minds of that portion shall grow up in strength and freedom, unfettered by ignorance and prejudice, and unrepressed by surrounding circumstances in their pursuit of piety and virtue. The universality, then, of any system of national education must be such as to be unencumbered by any reference to special social conditions, and applicable to all grades of society and all sections of the community. Those powers and sentiments should be developed in infancy, which are afterwards to sway and control the actions of the grown man; and, much as this principle has been neglected by society, the very increase of order and legality in most of the civiized nations of the world is a direct proof that it is gradually producing, to some extent at least, a sensible result. The masses of nations have been left for so many centuries, in some instances so completely, without any efforts for their moral and intellectual elevation, and in others with attempts of so futile and insufficient a character, that it would seem, as if there were some instincts of a loftier nature in man's character, which, exclusively of circumstance, were capable of realising an order of their own. The advance of nations in order and civilization, independently of any direct efforts for their instruction in religion and morality, would lead to the opinion, that there are in operation some resistless agencies capable of producing such a result, though accompanied often by a greater degree of refinement, so to speak, in depravity and vice. The clevation of man, not considered in an isolated point of view, but contemplated with reference to his duty to his Creator, a view which in reality includes all even the most minute of his social relations, is or should be the true end of the educator; and in attempting to attain this end, the educator only guides, directs, and, above all, completes those agencies already unavoidably in action.

One of the most generally acknowledged means of leading in the right direction these unassisted and almost unconscious efforts of unenlightened masses for their own moral elevation is the direct instruction afforded through the instrumentality of great systems of public education; and thus such systems should be the result of the most careful enquiry, examination, and consideration, by persons possessed of the requisite experience, information, and intelligence. The broadest general views are essentially requisite in dealing with such a subject. All this is indeed now generally acknowledged, though unfortunately often not acted on. But how stands the case as regards the subordinate agents in carrying out such plans? Is their fitness always looked to; even in the very highest departments of such a scheme, the suitability of the agent is seldom weighed beyond the requirement of a certain amount of information regarding the particular subject to be handled, and a reasonable degree of quiet morality of life. Are the general tendencies and tone of the mind considered; the amount of general information taken into account: the demeanour and habits of life, and, above all, the power of communicating knowledge, ever considered? I fear but

seldom. Hence, we often meet lecturers who cannot lecture, and professors who cannot teach. How often have there appeared men celebrated for special literary attainments, whose other deficioncies were such as to render their efforts as teachers utterly worthless and sometimes worse. Among the higher grades of the profession of teaching there must necessarily exist a certain amount of intellectuality, which usually, though not always, prevents these defects becoming so glaring as they otherwise would. Still those who have visited many of the universities and colleges that exist at the present day, need not task their recollection much to recal the criticisms of students often indicative of very strong opinions regarding the capability of their teachers to communicate knowledge. In such cases, however, the evil, where it exists, is of comparatively less moment, because the age and intelligence of the students are to some extent an antidote to the mischief; but with the teacher of the primary school whose office, though humble, is so vastly important in any system of popular instruction, the neglect on this point is too often equally general and inconceivable. In the generality of professions, the public are content in most countries to consent to the establishment of a legal guarantee of individual fitness for the exercise of such professions; but in that of the school teacher, one of the most difficult, as well as the most important, this safeguard is too often over-looked. Very many persons usually unacquainted with literature, and certainly totally inexperienced in school management and the art of teaching, undertake without reflection to decide on the merits of schools and systems, by the strength of their own judgment. The most ignorant parent will unhesitatingly remove his child from a school, because, forsooth, the teacher, who may possibly be highly accomplished in his profession, may not have called upon that child to " say as many lessons" in the day, as the parent in his wisdom may think necessary. In fact, all parties, learned and unlearned, skilled and unskilled, pass a judgment on the subject, and what is worse, act on that judgment, often so as to effect a great public injury. Now, let any intelligent teacher record his opinion on such a state of things. Has his efficiency ever been impeded, his temper galled, and his duties made a source of pain, instead of pleasure, by such a system? How often may the very estimate of his professional qualifications be based on the verdict of those to whom he knows himself superior, and who, however intelligent in other matters, are, in nine cases out of ten, quite unfit from previous inexperience to form an opinion on the subjoct. Is the profession of the school teacher, take even the very lowest grade, as important, or is it not, as any of the learned professions? I assert most emphatically that it is. On him mainly lies the duty of forming the character and guiding the tendencies of the bulk of a nation. Take Canada, for example, apart from the duty of the most important of all, the Minister of the Gospel, on whom rests the responsibility of training up the youth of a large proportion of the population, but on the common school teacher? Are those who attend such schools of no importance in the state? They are of the greatest. In a great degree even now, and shortly, I trust, in a much greater, they supply the elements of a most valuable portion of the community, the middle rank. In other professions the species of interference, I have alluded to would not be tolerated for an instant; none obtain an entrance into them without a legal verdict as to their fitness by persons sufficiently acquainted with the mysteries of that profession to enable them to form a correct estimate. But in school teaching, we presume that there is no mystery-all is clear and plain-you have only to sit down and teach. I ask any skilful practical teacher, whether he has not obtained his skill by years of practice and study; does not every hour's contemplation of the subject afford him additional light, and open up to him new and improved views? In fact the mere mechanism, organization, and discipline requisite for the management of a large common school are such as to require long practice, and a considerable share of tact and information.

There is much more to be said on this subject, but I have already extended these observations to too great a length, and I shall therefore hope for an opportunity of resuming them in a future number.

X.

GREAT MEN. The whole history of great men, says Cousin, gives this result that they have been taken by others, and have taken themselves for the instruments of destiny-for something fatal and irresistible-e. g. Cyrus, Alexander, Attila, Napoleon, &c.--Am. Review, May, 1843.

66

Paiscellaneous.

THE POETRY OF POPE.

The Right Honourable the Earl of Carlisle lately delivered a Lecture on "The Poetry of Pope." A London paper remarks :-the Poetry of Pope" was presented to the audience, in an ingenious and popular style. There was industry and art in the setting of these gemmed lines; the household familiarity of which was cited by the lecturer as a "general testimony to the reputation, if not to the merit, of the poet, Pope."

"When there has been a pleasant party of people, either in a convivial or intellectual view-I wish we might think it of our meeting this evening-we say that it has been

The feast of reason, and the flow of soul.' How often are we warned-I have sometimes even heard the warning addressed to Mechanics' Institutes, thatA little learning is a dangerous thing.'

How often reminded,

An honest man's the noblest work of God.'

Or, with nearly the same meaning,

Who taught the useful science to be good.'
There is a couplet which I ought to carry in my own recollection—

What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.'

It is an apt illustration of the offices of hospitality,
Welcome the coming, speed the going guest.'

How familiar is the instruction,

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To look through nature, up to nature's God.'
As also the rules with reference to composition,

The last and greatest art-the art to blot.'
To snatch a grace beyond the reach of art ;'

And then as to the best mode of conveying the instruction,
Men must be taught as if you taught them not.'

There is the celebrated definition of wit,

"True wit is nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.'

Do you want to illustrate the importance of early education? You
observe,
'Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.'

Do you wish to characterize ambition somewhat favourably? You call it,

The glorious fault of angels, and of gods. Or describing a great conqueror,

'A mighty hunter, and his prey was man.' Do you seek the safest rule for architecture or gardening? • Consult the genius of the place in all.'

Are you tempted to say anything rather severe to your wife or daughter, when she insists on a party of pleasure, or an expensive dress? You tell her,

That every woman is at heart a rake.'

And then, if you wish to excuse your own submission, you plead,
· If to her share some female errors fall,
Look on her face and you'll forget them all.'
How often are we inclined to echo the truth,
That fools rush in where angels fear to tread.'
And this, too,

That gentle dullness often loves a joke.'
Who has not felt this to be true?

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Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blest.'

When an orator, or a parliamentary candidate-in which last capacity I have often appeared before some of you-wishes to rail at absolute governments, he talks of

The monstrous faith of many made for one.' Then there are two maxims, one in politics and one in religion, which have both been extremely found fault with, but the very amount of censure proves what alone I am now attempting to establish, not the truth or justice of Pope's words, but their great vogue and currency

For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate'er is best administered is best;
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.'"

March, 1851.

37

EXTRACT FROM A POEM DELIVERED AT THE DEPARTURE OF A
SENIOR CLASS OF YALE COLLEGE.

BY N. P. WILLIS, ESQ.

We shall go forth together. There will

come

Alike the day of trial unto all,

And the rude world will buffet us alike.
Temptation hath a music for all ears;
And mad ambition trumpeteth to all;
And the ungovernable thought within
Will be in every bosom eloquent ;-
But, when the silence and the calm come
on,

And the high seal of character is set,
We shall not all be similar. The scale
Of being is a graduated thing;
And deeper than the vanities of power,
Or the vain pomp of glory, there is writ
Gradation in its hidden characters.
The pathway to the grave may be the same,
And the proud man shall tread it, and the
low,

With his bowed head, shall bear him com-
pany.

Decay will make no difference, and Death,
With his cold hand, shall make no dif-
ference;

And there will be no precedence of power,
In waking at the coming trump of God;
But in the temper of the invisible mind,
The godlike and undying intellect,
There are distinctions that will live in
heaven.

When time is a forgotten circumstance!
The elevated brow of kings will lose
The impress of regalia, and the slave
Will wear his immortality as free,
Beside the crystal waters; but the depth
Of glory in the attributes of God
Will measure the capacities of mind;
And as the angels differ, will the ken
Of gifted spirits glorify him more.
It is life's mystery. The soul of man
Createth its own destiny of power:
And, as the trial is intenser here,
His being hath a nobler strength in heaven.

What is its earthly victory? Press on
For it hath tempted angels. Yet press on!
For it shall make you mighty among men:
And from the eyrie of your eagle thought,
0,
Ye shall look down on monarchs.

press on,

For the high ones and powerful shall come
To do you reverence; and the beautiful
Will know the purer language of your brow
And read it like a talisman of love!
Press on! for it is godlike to unloose
The spirit, and forget yourself in thought;
Bending a pinion for the deeper sky.
And, in the very fetters of your flesh,
Mating with the pure essences of heaven!
Press on!" for in the grave there is no
work,

And no device."-Press on! while yet ye
may!

So lives the soul of man. It is the thirst
Of his immortal nature; and he rends
The rock for secret fountains, and pursues
The path of the illimitable wind
For mysteries-and this is human pride!
There is a gentler element, and man
May breathe it with a calm, unruffled soul,
And drink its living waters till his heart
Is pure-and this is human happiness!
Its secret and its evidence are writ
In the broad book of nature. "Tis to have
Attentive and believing faculties;
To go abroad rejoicing in the joy
Of beautiful and well created things;
To love the voice of waters and the
sheen,

Of silver fountains leaping to the sea;
To thrill with the rich inelody of birds
Living their life of music; to be glad
In the gay sunshine, reverent in the storm:
To see a beauty in the stirring leaf,
And find calm thoughts beneath the whis-
pering tree;

Of

sce and hear, and breathe the evidence
God's deep wisdom in the natural
world!

It is to linger on "the magic face

Of human beauty," and from light and
shade

Alike to draw a lesson; 'tis to love
The cadences of voices that are tuned
By majesty and purity of thought;
To gaze on woman's beauty, as a star
Whose purity and distance make it fair;
And in the gush of music to be still,
And feel that it has purified the heart!
It is to love all virtue for itself,
All nature for its breathing evidence;
And, when the eye hath seen, and when

the ear

Hath drunk the beautiful harmony of the
world,

It is to humble the imperfect mind,
And lean the broken spirit upon God!

Thus would I, at this parting hour, be

true

To the great moral of a passing world.
Thus would I-like a just departing child,
Who lingers on the threshold of his home-
Remember the best lesson of the lips
Whose accents shall be with us now no
more!

It is the gift of sorrow to be pure;
And I would press the lesson: that, when
life

Hath half become a weariness, and hope
Thirsts for serener waters, go abroad
Upon the paths of nature, and, when all
Its voices whisper, and its silent things
Are breathing the deep beauty of the world,
Kneel at its simple altar, and the God
Who hath the living waters shall be there!

THE ABSENCE OF MORAL COURAGE IN PROMOTING
POPULAR EDUCATION.

A VISION.

We select from a recent number of DICKENS' Household Words, the following exquisite satire upon the disinclination evinced by successive Governments to provide a comprehensive and generous system of popular education for the intellectually starving masses of the people of England. Its application to individual apathy in the great work of national education is no less pointed and severe: I saw a mighty Spirit, traversing the world without any rest or It was omnipresent, it was all powerful, it had no compause. punction, no pity, no relenting sense that any appeal from any of the race of men could reach. It was invisible to every creature born upon the earth, save once to each. It turned its shaded face on whatsoever living thing, one time; and straight the end of that It passed through the forest, and the vigorous thing was come. tree it looked on shrunk away; through the garden, and the leaves perished and the flowers withered; through the air, and the eagles flagged upon the wing and dropped; through the sea, and the monsters of the deep floated, great wrecks, upon the waters. the eyes of lions in their lairs, and they were dust its shadow darkened the faces of young children lying asleep, and they awoke

no more.

It met

It had its work appointed; it inexorably did what was appointed Called to, it went on it to do; and neither sped nor slackened. unmoved, and did not come. Besought, by some who felt that it was drawing near, to change its course, it turned its shaded face upon them, even while they cried, and they were dumb. It passed into the midst of palace chambers, where there were lights and

music, pictures, diamonds, gold and silver; crossed the wrinkled
and the grey, regardless of them; looked into the eyes of a bright
bride, and vanished. It revealed itself to the baby on the old
But,
crone's knee, and left the old crone wailing by the fire.
whether the beholder of its face were, now a king, or now a labourer,

now a queen, or now a seamstress; let the hand it palsied, be on
the sceptre, or the plough, or yet too small and nerveless to grasp
anything; the Spirit never paused in its appointed work, and,
sooner or later, turned its impartial face on all.

I saw a minister of state, sitting in his closet; and, round about him, rising from the country which he governed, up to the eternal It was heavens, was a low dull howl of ignorance.

wild, inexplicable mutter, confused, but full of threatening, and it made all hearers' hearts to quake within them. But, few heard. In the single city where this minister of state was seated, I saw thirty thousand children, hunted, flogged, imprisoned, but not taught who might have been nurtured by the wolf or bear, so little of humanity had they, within them or without-all joining in this doleful cry. And, ever among them, as among all ranks and grades of mortals, in all parts of the globe, the Spirit went, and ever by thousands, in their brutish state, with all the gifts of God perverted in their breasts or trampled out, they died.

The minister of state, whose heart was pierced by even the little he could hear of these terrible voices, day and night rising to heaven, went among the priests and teachers of all denominations, and faintly said: What shall we do to stay it? ! "Hearken to this dreadful cry One body of respondents answered, "teach this!" Another said, "teach that!"'

Another said, "teach neither this nor that, but the other!" Another quarrelled with all the three; twenty others quarrelled with all the four, and quarrelled no less bitterly among themselves. The voices, not stayed by this, cried out day and night; and still, among those many thousands, as among all mankind, went the Spirit who never rested from its labour; and still, in brutish sort, they died.

Then a whisper murmured to the minister of state : "Correct this for thyself. Be bold! Silence these voices, or Thou cans't virtuously lose thy power in the attempt to do it. Thou knowest it well. not sow a grain of good seed in vain. Be bold, and do thy duty!"

The minister shrugged his shoulders, and replied, "It is a great And so he put it from him. wrong-BUT IT WILL LAST MY TIME." Then, the whisper went among the priests and teachers, saying to each, "In thy soul thou knowest it is a truth, O man, that there are good things to be taught, and stay this cry.”

To which, each answered in like manner, "It is a great wrong —BUT IT WILL LAST MY TIME." And so he put it from him.

The Spirit, with its face concealed, summoned all those who had used this phrase about their time, into its presence. Then, it said, beginning with the minister of state :

"Of what duration is your time?"

The minister of state replied, "My ancient family has always been long lived."

"And you," said the Spirit to the priests and teachers, "what may your time be?"

They answered that they believed they were so strong, that they should number many more years than three score and ten. "But every man, as I understand you, one and all," said the Spirit, "has his time."

"Yes!" they exclaimed together.

"Yes," said the Spirit; "and it is-ETERNITY! Whosoever is a consenting party to a wrong, comforting himself with the base reflection that it will last his time, shall bear his portion of that And, in the hour when he and I wrong throughout ALL TIME. stand face to face, he shall surely know it, as my name is Death!" It departed, turning its shaded face hither and thither, as it passed along upon its ceaseless work, and blighting all on whom it looked. Then went among many trembling hearers the whisper, saying, "See, each of you, before you take your ease, O wicked, selfish men, that what will last your time,' be just enough to last forever!"

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