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quest of various strangers seeing them, to dif SCHOOLS IN HOLLAND. ferent parts of the world. Rev. Dr. Thomson, First part of the report on the establishments for ten years agent of the British and Foreign for public instruction in Holland by M. Cuvier. Bible Society, acting in Mexico and South Ame- It would be difficult to describe the effect rica, when he arrived at the city of Mexico, produced upon us by the first primary school from a visit to this city, ordered a considera- we entered, on our arrival in Holland. I was ble quantity of specimens of different kinds, at one of those maintained at the public expense, produced in part by those street scholars. A for the children of the poorest classes. Two large few days since, I received from him the third or rooms, well lighted and well ventilated, confourth package, containing some Indian curiosi- tained three hundred of those children, all ties. If the street boys and girls in New-York cleanly dressed, arranging themselves without city can enter into exchanges with the Mexican any confusion, without noise, without rudeness, Indians, and in a manner to benefit schools doing all they were desired, in obedience to through our country, (for the specimens re-signals, without the necessity of the master ceived from Mexico have gone out to many parts of the country,) it will perhaps be difficult to propose any limits to the system of exchanges. Surely New-York, with its admirable system of county and town superintendents, can enter upon it, and carry it out more completely, perhaps, than in any other part of the Union.

An exchange in county maps, simply, between the schools of this state, would, as it seems to me, be a great and good enterprise. These maps might embrace, not only the geography, but the topography, geology, botany, and other depart. ments of Natural History; also agriculture, manufactories, internal improvements, educa. tion, &c. &c., forming together, materials for a "New-York Book," good for every school and every citizen of the state. Please, my dear sir, to give that subject a thought. I remain, as ever, with great respect, Your friend,

saying a word. They learn by sure and ready methods, to read fluently, to write a good and correct hand, to understand such arithmetic as is required for ordinary life, both mental and written, and to express their thoughts clearly in short written exercises. The books put into their hands, and the examples they get to write, advance by such judicious gradations, and the precepts and examples are intermingled so skilfully, that the children imbibe, at one and the same time, the truths of religion, the maxims of morality, and that knowledge which will be useful to them, and afford them consolation in their unhappy lot. By means of frequent questions, and by encouraging them to state their difficulties, it is fully ascertained that they understand what they read. Prayers, and hymns sung by the whole school, both composed expressly for these children, and all breathing a spirit of duty and of gratitude, give a charm to the business of teaching, while at the same time they impress upon it a religious and benevolent character, calculated to produce lasting effects. One master, and two assistants, who might themselves be taken for pupils, maintain com. plete order among this large number of children, To Dr. Chalmers' treatise on Political Eco- without any speaking, or angry words, or nomy, is appended a note, from the communica- corporal punishment; but by interesting them tion of a gentleman residing in Holland to un-in what they are about, and keeping their at other in Scotland, setting forth the favorable tention constantly alive.

J. HOLBROOK.

EXPERIMENTAL EDUCATION. (By the author of Popular Lessons, School Friend, &c.]

change that had taken place of late years in the The first sight of the school gave us an agree. general tone of manners and morals. The wri-able feeling of surprise; but when we entered ter affirms that though the country had, during the last half century sustained many revolu tions, and had suffered the decay of its commerce, and all the external evils incident to political changes, yet the people were steadily advancing in decorum, industry, intelligence, and comfort; and he attributed this manifest improvement in their character and condition to their schools. A full exposition of the state of education in Holland has been made by Cousin, formerly minister of public instruction in France.

into an examination of the details, it was imposible not to be sensibly affected, when one considered what these children would have come to, had they been left unnoticed, and what they then were. But we said to ourselves, this is perhaps a solitary case, the results of the exertions of a wealthy town, or of the zeal of some citizens of unusual liberality; we were assured, however, that the more we travelled through the country the more we should see reason to alter that opinion; and so it turned out, for Cousin's report was made in 1836, and has since wherever we went, we found primary schools been translated into our language by Leonard on the same plan, with the exception of some Horner, Esq. His translation was published in few instances, in which superannuated teachers London, and has not been reprinted in this could not shake off their old habits of routine. country; but its subject matter, and undoubted Nor was it in the towns that we found them the authenticity, render it of great importance to best; even on the frontiers of the country, in those who are seeking for all the lights of ex-Groningen, and many leagues from the great perience in practical education. A former com-lines of communication, we saw.primary schools mission in 1811, had been entrusted by the in villages as numerously attended, and compoFrench government to the celebrated Baron sed of a better class of children, and altogether Cuvier, and the results of his statements are fully of a better description, than those in the great corroborated by the later report.

The account given in brief by Cuvier of the schools he visited in Holland may be eminently instructive in this country, and on that account extracts from it are furnished to the Journal.

towns in the latter, the children of the opulent classes are educated at home, whereas in the villages they go to school like other children.

Wherever we went, we witnessed the same gaiety, the same propriety, the same neatness,

both in the pupils and the master, and every where the same kind of instruction.

The most remarkable thing of all is, that they have arrived at this state of excellence in a few years; by means simple in themselves. A short account of this important operation is essential to the right fulfilment of our object.

the immediate and pervading presence of the great Fountain of life, and light, and happiness. To us the moral is one full of interest and instruction. The gardens of Paradise are open to all; the "tree of knowledge of good and evil" is still standing in the midst; and the solemn injunction of the Creator of our spirits, warning us to beware lest we put forth our hands and take and eat of its forbidden fruit, is ever sound. unheeded, and the arts of the tempter still prevail, until the flaming sword of the angel of retributive justice debars us forever from the Eden of our existence? Shall we not rather listen to the voice of God, speaking through nature and revelation; learn to know ourselves, and our whole duty; and cheerfully and intelligently fulfil the purposes and the end of our being, while we daily and hourly reap the rich rewards of wisdom and experience?

Thirty years ago, the inferior schools of Holland resembled those of the same class in other countries. Masters, nearly as ignoranting in our ears. Shall this voice continue to be as the children they had to teach, succeeded with difficulty to impart, in several years, a slender amount of instruction in reading and writing to a small number of scholars. There was no general superintendence of the schools; the most of them were set up on private speculation: the different religious sects maintained several for their poor, under the supervision of their deacons; but these schools were exclusive ly for the children of the parish; those whose parents did not belong to some particular church were not provided for; the Catholics had no schools of the sort, although so numerous in the country. The result of all these circumstances was, that a large proportion of the young were sunk in ignorance and immorality.

To the YOUNG," the innocent in heart and soul," for whom life still blooms in all the freshness and beauty of hope and truth, who bask in the bright sunshine of moral purity and peace, little dreaming of the countless perils which surround them, breathing the ethereal odors of a Paradise they have not as yet forfeited, to such, how earnest, how unwearied, should be our constant and most impressive admonition-Avoid the first approaches of the tempter; heed not for a wavering moment his subtle and fatal voice; wrap yourselves in the sacred mantle of your innocence, and repose in trustful assurance upon the promises of the Author of your being, the Dispenser of the rich blessings by which you are surrounded-blessings you cannot now appreciate, but which once lost can never be recalled. The conditions of pres

THE SPRING TIME OF LIFE. [From S. S. RANDALL'3 "Mental and Moral Culture."] Whence is it that, in the advanced stages of existence, the "sere and yellow leaf" of our being: the mind so loves to linger upon the scenes and associations of life's opening dawn? that the heart forgets its withering sorrows and its bitter experience, and often and fondly recurs to the elastic energies which prompted the glowing anticipations and bright hopes of childhood and inno-ent enjoyment and continued happiness, are cence? The memories thus invoked, come to us clearly unfolded to your mental and moral percep loaded with freshness and fragrance; with a tion by HIM who called you into existence, and vivid impression of happiness and enjoyment, long curiously moulded the constitution of your being. unknown; with the distant echoes of a harmony, While those conditions are faithfully observed, which has ceased to vibrate upon our blunted that existence will prove a constant source of senses; with a soul-subduing gentleness, which pleasure, an unfailing well-spring of improve. has power to unseal the deep sources of feelings, ment, a perpetual concord of sweet and harmowhose destined current the cares and the passions, nious influences. Around and about you, on the anxieties and the sufferings, of worldly expe-every hand, are withered hopes, blasted expec rience have choked and suppressed. None are tations, irremediable sorrow, fruitless remorse, so far beyond the pale of humanity, as to be in- pain, anguish, disease, premature decay, and accessible at times to these soothing and benig-death. Hope not to disobey the voice of God nant influences of our mysterious nature. The within your souls, and to escape these dire and conqueror, in his mad career of crime, borne onward by the impetuous waves of passion, and revelling in feverish dreams of ambition, power, and fame; the miser, surrounded by his wealth; the sensualist, by his luxurious appliances; and even the doomed criminal, darkly brooding over his career of guilt, and its fearful retribution to each and all, the visions of early life, of unsul lied innocence and undimmed purity of soul, throng upon the mind, insensible though it may be to every other impression of goodness, of beauty, or of truth. It is the feeling which we may imagine our first parents to have experienced in all its intensity, when, after long years of wandering over the arid waste of a world no longer clothed, to their eyes, in its primeval freshness and verdure, they recalled the bright image of the Paradise they had forfeited,-its ever-present delights, its hallowed scenes of quiet bliss, its unceasing strains of celestial harmony, and all the pure and holy influences flowing from

;

bitter consequences of transgression. The rec
ords of human experience, from the creation of
the world to the present hour, furnish not a
solitary instance of such an exemption from the
penalty denounced by the voice of the Almighty.
Venture not, then, upon the fearful and most
presumptous experiment. Walk while you may
in the placid shades of innocence and virtue;
commune with the Being whose presence will
surround you at all times, and whose blessing,
"even length of days and life forevermare,
will consecrate and reward your obedience to
his perfect laws.

So live, that when the summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan that moves
To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Chained, to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasing dreams."

MAHOGANY.

MISCELLANY.

centuries, expands to such a gigantic trunk, throws out such massive arms, and spreads the shade of its shining green leaves over such a THE Common mahogany (called by botanists vast surface, that even the proudest oaks of our Swietenia mahagoni) is one of the most majestic forests appear insignificant in comparison with trees of the whole world. There are trees of it. A single log, such as is brought to this coungreater height than the mahogany-but in Cuba try from Honduras, not unfrequently weighs six and Honduras this tree, during a growth of two or seven tons.

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When we consider the enormous size of a the latter number. They are composed of slaves trunk of mahogany, and further learn that the and free persons, without any comparative dismost valuable timber grows in the most inacces- tinction of rank, and it very frequently occurs sible situations, it must be evident that a great that the conductor of such work, here styled the portion of the price of this timber must be made Captain, is a slave. Each gang has also one up of the cost of the labor required for trans-person belonging to it termed the Huntsman. porting it from its native forests to the place of He is generally selected from the most intelli its embarkation for other countries. The mode in gent of his fellows, and his chief occupation is which this difficult work is accomplished is high- to search the woods, or, as it is called, the bush, ly interesting; and we have, fortunately, the to find labor for the whole. Accordingly, about means of giving an account of the process the beginning of August, the huntsman is de (which, we believe, has never before been minutely described in any publication,) from some statements printed in a Honduras Almanac, which has been kindly put into our hands for this purpose.

spatched on his important mission. He cuts his way through the thickest of the woods to some elevated situation, and climbs the tallest tree he finds, from which he minutely surveys the surrounding country. At this season the leaves of The season for cutting the mahogany usually the mahogany tree are invariably of a yellow commences about the month of August. The reddish hue, and an eye accustomed to this kind gangs of laborers employed in this work con- of exercise, can, at a great distance, discern the sist of from twenty to fifty each, but few exceed places where the wood is most abundant. He

now descends, and to such places his steps are directed; and, without compass, or other guide than what observation has imprinted on his recollection, he never fails to reach the exact point at which he aims. On some occasions no ordinary stratagem is necessary to be resorted to by the huntsman, to prevent others from availing themselves of the advantage of his discoveries; for, if his steps be traced by those who may be engaged in the same pursuit, which is a very common thing, all his ingenuity must be exerted to beguile them from the true scent. In this, however, he is not always successful, being fol. lowed by those who are entirely aware of all the arts he may use, and whose eyes are so quick that the lightest turn of a leaf, or the faintest impression of the foot, is unerringly perceived. The treasure being, however, reached by one party or another, the next operation is the felling of a sufficient number of trees to employ the gang during the season. The mahogany tree is commonly cut about ten or twelve feet from the ground, a stage being erected for the axe-man employed in levelling it. The trunk of the tree, from the dimensions of the wood it furnishes, is deemed the most valuable; but, for ornamental purposes, the limbs, or branches, are generally preferred.

A sufficient number of trees being felled to occupy the gang during the season, they commence cutting the roads upon which they are to be transported. This may fairly be estimated at two-thirds of the labor and expense of mahogany cutting. Each mahogany work forms in itself a small village on the bank of a river-the choice of situation being always regulated by the proximity of such river to the mahogany intended as the object of future operations.

After completing the establishment of a sufficient number of huts for the accommodation of the workmen, a main road is opened from the settlement, in a direction as near as possible to the centre of the body of trees so felled, into. which branch-roads are afterwards introduced, the grounds through which the roads are to run being yet a mass of dense forest, both of high trees and underwood. The laborers commence by clearing away the underwood with cutlasses. This labor is usually performed by task-work, of one hundred yards, each man, per day. The underwood being removed, the larger trees are then cut down by the axe, as even with the ground as possible, the task being also at this work one hundred yards per day to each laborer. The hard woods growing here, on failure of the axe, are removed by the application of fire. The trunks of these trees, although many of them are valuable, such as bullet-tree, ironwood, redwood, and sapodilla, are thrown away as useless, unless they happen to be adjacent to some creek or small river, which may intersect the road. In that case they are applied to the construction of bridges, which are frequently of considerable size, and require great labor to make them of sufficient strength to bear such immense loads as are brought over them.

If the mahogany trees are much dispersed or scattered, the labor and extent of road-cutting is, of course, greatly increased. It not unfre quently occurs that miles of road and many bridges are made to a single tree, that may ultimately yield but one log. When roads are

cleared of brush-wood, they still require the labor of hoes, pick-axes, and sledge hammers, to level down the hillocks, to break the rocks, and to cut such of the remaining stumps as might impede the wheels that are hereafter to pass over them.

The roads being now in a state of readiness, which may generally be effected by the month of December, the cross-cutting, as it is technically called, commences. This is merely divid ing cross-wise, by means of saws, each mahogany tree into logs, according to their length; and it often occurs, that while some are but long enough for one log, others, on the contrary, will admit of four or five being cut from the same trunk or stem. The chief guide for dividing the trees into logs is the necessity for equalizing the loads the cattle have to draw. Consequently, as the tree increases in thickness, the logs are reduced in length. This however, does not altogether obviate the irregularity of the loads, and a supply of oxen are constantly kept in rea diness to add to the usual number, according to the weight of the log. This becomes unavoidable, from the very great difference of size of the mahogany trees, the logs taken from one tree being about 300 cubic feet, while those from the next may be as many thousand. The largest log ever cut in Honduras was of the following dimensions: Length, 17 feet; breadth, 57 inches; depth, 64 inches; measuring 5,168 superficial feet, or 15 tons weight.

The sawing being now completed, the logs are reduced, by means of the axe, from the round or natural form, into the square. The month of March is now reached, when all the preparation before described is, or ought to be, completed; when the dry season, or time of drawing down the logs from the place of their growth com. mences. This process can only be carried on in the months of April and May; the ground, during all the rest of the year, being too soft to admit of a heavily laden truck to pass over it without sinking. It is now necessary that not a moment should be lost in drawing out the wood to the river.

A gang of forty men is generally capable of working six trucks. Each truck requires seven pair of oxen and two drivers; sixteen to cut food for the cattle, and twelve to load or put the logs on the carriages. From the intense heat of the sun, the cattle, especially, would be unable to work during its influence; and, consequently, the loading and carriage of the timber is per formed in the night. The logs are placed upon the trucks by means of a temporary platform laid from the edge of the truck to a sufficient distance upon the ground, so as to make an inclined plane, upon which the log is gradually pushed up by bodily labor, without any further mechanical aid.

The operations of loading and carrying are thus principally performed during the hours of darkness. The torches employed are pieces of wood split from the trunk of the pitch-pine. The river-side is generally reached by the wea ried drivers and cattle before the sun is at its highest power; and the logs, marked with the owner's initials, are thrown into the river.

About the end of May the periodical rains again commence; the torrents of water discharged from the clouds are so great as to render the

roads impassable in the course of a few hours, when all trucking ceases. About the middle of June the rivers are swollen to an immense height. The logs then float down a distance of two hundred miles, being followed by the gang in pitpans, (a kind of flat-bottomed canoe,) to disengage them from the branches of the overhanging trees, uutil they are stopped by a boom placed in some situation convenient to the mouth of the river. Each gang then separates its own cutting, by the marks on the ends of the logs, and forms them into large rafts; in which state they are brought down to the wharves of the propri

etors, where they are taken out of the water, and undergo a second process of the axe, to make the surface smooth. The ends, which frequently get split and rent by being dashed against rocks in the river by the force of the current, are also sawed off. They are now ready for shipping.

The ships clearing out from Balize, the principal port of Honduras, with their valuable freight of mahogany, either go direct to England, or take their cargo to some free warehousing port in the British Possessions, in the West Indies, or America.-Penny Maguzine.

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NEVER be cast down by trifles. If a spider breaks his thread twenty times, twenty times will he mend it again. Make up your minds to do a thing, and you will do it. Fear not if a trouble comes upon you; keep up your spirits, though the day be a dark one.

Troubles never stop for ever, The darkest day will pass away! If the sun is gone down, look up at the stars; if the earth is dark, keep your eyes on heaven! With God's presence and God's promises, a man or a child may be always cheerful.

Never despair when the fog's in the air!

A sunshiny morning will come without warning. Mind what you run after! Never be contented with a bubble that will burst, or with a firework that will end in smoke and darkness. Get that which you can keep, and which is worth keeping.

Something sterling that will stay When gold and silver fly away. Fight hard against a hasty temper. Anger will come; but resist it stoutly. A spark may set a house on fire. A fit of passion may give you cause to mourn all the days of your life. Never revenge an injury.

He that revenges knows no rest;
The meek possess a peaceful breast.

If you have an enemy act kindly to him, and make him your friend. You may not win him over at once, but try again. Let one kindness be followed by another, till you have compassed your end. By little and little great things are completed.

Water falling, day by day,

Wears the hardest rock away. And so repeated kindness will soften a heart of

stone.

Whatever you do, do it willingly. A boy that is whipped to school never learns his lesson well. A man that is compelled to work cares not how badly it is performed. He that pulls off his coat cheerfully, strips up his sleeves in earnest, and sings while he works, is the man for me. A cheerful spirit gets on quick; A grambler in the mud will stick. Evil thoughts are worse enemies than lions and tigers, for we can keep keep out of the way of wild beasts, but bad thoughts win their way everywhere. The cup that is full will hold no more; heep your heads and your hearts full of good thoughts, that bad thoughts may find no room.

Be on your guard, and strive, and pray,
To drive all evil thoughts away.

Youth's Penny Gazette.

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