THE DISTRICT SCHOOL JOURNAL
Is published monthly, and is devoted exclusively to the promotion of

Popular Education.

EDWARD COOPER, EDITOR.

TERMS. Single copies 50 cents; seven copies $3 00; twelve copies $5 00, twenty-five copies $10 00, payable always in advance. All letters and communications intended for the District School Journal, should be directed to the Editor, Syracuse, N. Y., Post Paid. Printed on the Power Press of

BARNS, SMITH & COOPER,

At the Office of the Daily and Western State Journal.

DISTRICT SCHOOL JOURNAL.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL EXAMINATION. The semi-annual examination of the pupils of the State Normal School, held during the last week in March, was a rigorous scrutiny into the knowledge and abilities of the pupils and their qualifications for the profession to which they have devoted themselves. All the classes gave the most satisfactory evidence of the excellent character of the instruction on the part of the Teachers, and of faithful study and reflection on the part of the pupils.

It was our design to have given a minute description of the examination of each class, but we find it necessary to omit doing so in order to make room for the

poem, valedictory and other addresses on the occasion. We must be permitted, however, to take notice of the maps and drawings executed by the pupils under the direction of the accomplished Teachers of these respective departments of instruction. More accurate and elegant maps we have never seen than were exhibited at this examination. All who witnessed them must have been gratified with the great perfection with which they were drawn, and especially with the assurance that their accomplished authors are soon to impart their knowledge and skill to the youth of this state.

No special arrangements having been made for the examination, the exercises were a severe test of scholarship and professional skill, and must have given renewed confidence in the Normal School.

Too high commendation can hardly be given to the Principal, Mr. PERKINS, and his worthy associates for their unwearied efforts to promote the interests of the cause of education.

The closing exercises were commenced on Thursday afternoon at half past 3 o'clock, in the Chapel of the school. The exercises were opened with prayer

[No.

by the Rev. Dr. HORATIO POTTER, after which the following poem was read, which was composed by Miss MARY L. MALLORY, of Genesee county, who is a member of the graduating class.

WHO ARE THE TRULY GREAT?

On fancy's wing I mount, and trembling soar,
And for true greatness every land explore:
I search the records of all ancient time,
And find its shadow sweeping every clime.
Its rainbow hues are glittering on the field,
Where warriors meet to mingle steel with steel;
Where life's red current pours its purple gore,
And bristling bayonets gleam 'mid cannon's roar;
I see its form on yonder giddy height,
Where fame's proud temple stands in lurid light;
I see it shining in the halls of state,
Where all within would fain be truly great.
But, oh! the contrast ever to be found
Between the substance and its empty sound.
Mark well the current of that infant mind,
Whose deeds of daring seem by Heaven designed;
Look how he listens to the voice of praise,
When first he mingles in his childish plays.
To what the world calls greatness he aspires,
And seeks the altar where ambition's fires
Forever glow, 'mid shouts and praise of men;
He scorns to creep, and walking, falls again,
But still he scrambles on, and nothing fears
If hurt, he weeps, but smiles amid his tears.
The watchful mother opens all her store,
Calls him her hero-and the smart is o'er.

Advancing onward in his wild career,
We now behold him with his glittering spear;
Look how he rages while his martial eye
Reflects the sunbeam from his panoply.
Intent on fame, ambition fires his soul,
He pants, he burns, to reach the shining goal,
For this he lives, for this his heart beats high,
For this he toils, for this he dares to die.

But hark! the tocsin sounds afar,
And now rolls on the tide of war;
The foemen fierce are coming fast;
I hear the bugle's fearful blast.
Such myriads 'merging from the vale,
The boldest warrior now looks pale;
Their lengthened lines all gold appear;
The vanguard now is even here,
Yet nearer still, with fife and drum,
The foe advance-on, on they come:
A shout ascends, the charge is made,
And reeks with gore each battle blade:
The rattling musket flashes death,
And friends and foemen gasp for breath;
The thundering cannon shakes the ground
And strews the mangled corses round;
Still ebbs and flows the tide of war-
Its cloud obscures the brightest star;
The death-winged shot is almost spent,
Yet many a soldier's bosom's rent;
But high above the storm of war,
The bugle's blast the cannon's roar,
A shout is heard-unsheath the steel
Strike for the palm; let tyrants feel.
On rush the warriors like a flood,

our own, shape for ourselves a destiny which nothing your pupils. It will be yours to point out to them the but the omniscience of Providence shall change or im- true object of study; the connection of the truths thus pede. Let us, at this hour,-in this room where was learned with the commonest experiences of life; and registered our pledge to devote ourselves to the ad- create an appreciation of the neglected beauties of litervancement of common school education-in this room ature and art; in short, to educate the reason, the hallowed by memories which you need no monition imagination and the taste. And comprehending all to recall to your minds,-renew in our hearts that sa- this in its infinite importance, it will be yours to recred vow, recorded not here alone, and rendered even member that the increase of moral improvement in more solemn by the influence of these recollections. the human race has by no means been commensurate And when, with hearts filled with these generous re- with that of intellectual; and that in order to develop solves, you turn away to seek your respective fields their powers in just proportion, you must so adapt of labor, it will not be with a feeling of regret, alone, your instruction to this great end, that they shall ever for the termination of a season of enjoyment, but with recognize the Deity in his works, and experience in a glad consciousness that the time has at length arriv-discharging their duties to Him and the world, the highed, when you may bend your energies to that toil to est of earthly gratifications. which you are so solemnly dedicated, and for which Going forth as you do, to a labor like this, let not it has cost you so much protracted effort to prepare. your courage falter or your hearts faint within you.— Toil! cold and harsh as the word may seem, this To pause in your course, would, in itself, seem almost is the true charm which is to transform the elements criminal; for with you rests an accountability from of existence into pleasure. Man, "half-dust, half dei- which you can in no wise escape. Precisely accordty" as he is, has not a faculty but what demands labor ing to the spirit that guides you, will be the influence as essential to its health; and this principle, as une- of the knowledge you impart, on the world. The Gequivocally attested by both revelation and nature, is nius of learning has ever been the handmaid, not the directly derived from that Being in whose likeness he mistress of mankind. From the hour when she visitwas created. Without this condition, he would existed our first parents under the forbidden tree; appearthe most miserable of beings. It is toil that gives ing again, after ages of exile, in the rude arts and action to the pulse and vigor to the step; that quick- uncouth symbols of Egypt; visible among the Greeks, ens the appetite and distils upon the couch the sweet no less in their divine creations in poetry and painting influences of repose; that causes the cheek to flush and sculpture, and even the wild rites of their religion, and the eye to kindle with the inspiration of thought: than in the wisdom of their sages and the ideal philostoil imparts health alike to the body and the soul.-ophy of their schools; shining out in regal splendor Happy are those, who, embracing this necessity as the from the sterner literature and art of Rome, and then blessing it really is, rouse into action every faculty, driven from her throne by the barbarians of the north; discipline every power and develop every attribute of seeking refuge amidst the delights of "Araby the blest," their natures in the performance of legitimate labor; and imaging the tastes of its children in the gay and that which has for its ulterior object, the benefit of all. fanciful character of their architecture and song; Such toil is yours; toil as ennobling to other minds cowering in the cloister through the long night of the as to your own. Rejoice, then, that Heaven has as- middle ages, and ministering to the unholy appetites signed to you labor so glorious and godlike, that, of hoary superstition; and finally, emerging from her while fulfilling the conditions of your own happiness, retreat, to desert the bigotry which had so long held you cannot execute it without catching some portion her imprisoned, and unite with the mild spirit of of the divinity with which it is embued. Christianity in the performance of her true miss; on; Closely allied to the nature of the teacher's work through all these ages and in all climes, she has ever is the grave consideration, how it may be best ac- been in subjection to the spirit of the age. This influcomplished. Invaluable as are the instructions you ence it is in your power to guide. Enlightened by have here received, they will utterly fail of their in- her teachings and cheered by her smiles-uniting with tended effect, without that activity and independence the experience of all ages, the wisdom learned only of thought, on your part, which alone can enable you by studying the philosophy of life-you can look for to become true students of nature. Indomitable per- ward to a period when men shall realize all the severance, a resolute determination to hold in subjec-perfection for which enthusiasts have sighed, and retion to the will, all the unworthy weaknesses of your natures, and a constant recurrence to the origin of all knowledge, are indispensable to this result. Cast away But it is not of hopes and aspirations with regrets in imagination, for a moment, the appliances which at parting from school-mates, that the emotions of this art has brought to study, and standing alone amidst day are wholly composed. Mingling with these, and the miracles of nature, observe and reflect. Destitute tinging all with its influence,-giving to your fairest of your loved books and scientific apparatus, still are anticipations a shade of gloom, and deepening your the principles they illustrate, visible on every side sadness into sorow-is one reserved by Heaven in each sight and sound that meets the sense-each leaf; its inscrutable visdom for our especial affliction.that grows, and the breeze at whose touch it trembles Fain would I shrink from the duty of opening afresh -the very air you breathe, and your ability to breathe that wound, which time can never wholly heal; fain itare instinct with their presence. Could your eye, would I spare myself and you, the pain of recalling then, for an instant, pierce the clouds which dim our the memory of that dispensation which has invested: mortal vision, and gain but the merest glimpse of the the present Normal term with so great a pre-eminence: great truths which lie at the foundation of all existence, in sorrow. But the instinctive affection of every heart how would the few faint glimmerings of these truths, the undying love all bear his memory-forbid that which men have already been enabled to perceive, this hour should pass without yielding its tribute to the shrink into insignificance in comparison. Then in-goodness and intellect of him, under whose guidance deed, would you realize the true nature of your mission; and accepting the aid offered by the recorded labors of others, use it, not as a dependence, but simply as a clue to higher and yet unrevealed mysteries. This faculty it will be your privilege to awaken in

joice in the consciousness, that to this result, your. own labors have not a little contributed.

this school has risen to its present state of usefulness, and who, but a few brief weeks ago, was struck down in our very midst by the unsparing hand of death.— But how-how can express the overwhelming griefthat even yet rises with every remembrance of that

the

very

fatal day? With what words shall I describe the tor-imagination-a power of speech that never failed to ture of suspense that racked every bosom, during the carry with it the sympathies of his audience, and dreadful hours while he was known to be struggling which often rose into strains of the loftiest and purest with the power of death?-how paint the agony that eloquence - equanimity which no emergency could succeeded that suspense, when the fearful conflict had disturb, and an energy and courage that no obstacle ceased? What language can do justice to the emo- could quell-what further than these, I ask,are necestions which accompanied the terrible certainty that sary to constitute greatness? Would that subtle intelthat glorious intelligence was blotted forever from lect have been powerless to cope with the diplo amongst the existences of earth? To speak of sorrow, macy of courts? or that eloquence to which all lisin the ordinary sense, would be mockery; to say that teners responded, have lost its charm within the walls all hearts throbbed with a common pulse of anguish, of a senate? Would the sacred desk have paralyzed would miserably fail to depict the intensity of our woe. its power? or would it have been impotent, when Nor had I the power, would I again bring upon you, pleading the cause of right before the tribunals of his the tide of affliction that swept over your souls. It is country? Did not that kingly presence, that mastery enough that you are Normals-that you knew him of human hearts, that unfailing self-possession, and whom we have lost. Recall that gloomy New-Year's steady judgment, and lightning-like perception, mark day which brought with it a realization of our worst him infallibly for one who could have led armies to fears; our solemn meeting within these walls, which conquest and wrought for himself an immortality of seemed indued with inaudible voices that continually historic fame-had inclination stooped so low? And spoke to our trembling souls the certainty of the para- yet, because he rose above the objects of ordinary amlyzing stroke. Did not every thing seem shrouded in bition, and, with sight reaching far beyond the limits blackness of the grave? At the commence- of time, lent these powers to the greatest work of hument of the term, but two brief months before, from manity, regardless of the unmeaning honors for which this very place where I now stand, had he pronounc- so many barter the fairest gifts of God-because, in ed your welcome again to the Normal School, in tones short, he disdained the idolatries of earth--men hesitate of feeling which even yet vibrate in your inmost hearts. to award the meed of greatness;-hesitate to distinHere, each morning, had he led its exercises; and guish with their tinsel badges, one who so little rescarcely more than a week had elapsed since here, in spected them as to be content to live and die, merely words of more than usual eloquence and pathos, he -a teacher? closed unconsciously to all, the career of his earthly teachings. And as you looked once more on the familiar tokens of the past as you gazed on the wellknown faces on every side, and your eyes sought again the vacant seats of your teachers for a brief instant, reason wavered before hope, and you could but believe that you had been laboring under the influence of a frightful dream, and that a few moments would give again to your sight the form you had imagined lost to it forever. But the miserable illusion was but momentary. One by one your teachers en- Accompanying this consoling reflection, cones a tered the room; silently each took his accustomed remembrance, to you, of an influence equally holy and place; and then-when you glanced from their hag-soothing. Associated with his death, is a consciousgard countenances, in which was written all the wretchedness of despair, to one still vacant seat in their midst then burst upon you the full extent and terrible reality of your bereavement. And so intense was the agony which this consciousness awakened, that when, amidst a silence, broken only by sobs that would not be restrained, you listened to the trembling accents of one who had ever been associated in your thoughts and affections with him, the very announcement he made, seemed in itself a relief.

Let us draw a veil over this sacred scene. It is sufficient, that the recollection of that hour lives still within the sanctuary of your hearts;-so must it ever live. Tears of affection have gushed plentifully forth to water his grave, and ever will they keep green the laurel whose leaves mingle with its cypress. Holier than the flame that rose unceasing from the vestal altar, the fires of admiration and ove shall ever be kept alive in your bosoms by the remembrance of his genius and his worth.

And well may you linger with fondness on his memory, for seldom does the Deity vouchsafe to man, accomplishments and gifts as rare and various as were united in him. This place and hour-my own utter incapacity-forbid any adequate eulogy on DaVID P. PAGE; but from a few remarks on a character so admirable, I must not refrain. All bear unequivocal and earnest testimony to his virtues;-I ask, has he not an equal title to the award of greatness? With a soul above the paltry pursuits of the world-a mind pre-eminent for the highest attributes of reason and

Then be it so The day will come when such names shall shine brightest in the records of the world's history-when such men shall stand forth there, its true patriots and heroes The day will come when men shall vie with each other to do honor to his memory;

when enlightened generations shall turn their gaze backward into the dusky shadows of this age, and res cue from the relicts of its barbarism, the fame of one whose genius and desires carried him far beyond the scope of appreciation by his cotemporaries.

ness that the responsibility which the event threw on you, in connection with others, has been nobly met.You have proved yourselves worthy the confidence reposed in you by the guardians and teachers of the school. You, fellow-students, will be distinguished from those of other terms, for the prompt and unwavering support you yielded to it at the most critical period of its existence. The influences this affliction has cast around you, are purifying and holy. On you has descended a distinction most honorable and sacred; yours is a nobility of grief. It has been your melancholy privilege to listen to the last teachings of that gifted spirit, and look on the dust whence it had fled forever. And oh! may the remembrance of that last look never fail to recall a sense of your desti ny and your duty! may those teachings, coupled with his spotless example, and sanctified by his martyrdom in the great cause, ever be present in your minds, to guide you through the difficulties and temptations of life.

For such a man, our sorrow is both selfish and generous. We mourn selfishly for ourselves,-generously for the world. But how do we dare to murmur at his departure? Seemed it not, during those fearful days, that his spirit, wearied with its mortal probation, was struggling with the bonds that bound it to the earth? It was even so; his physician will tell you that it was not the disease that sundered the tie; it was the strength of a soul which no human power could longer detain from its native Heaven.

Let, then, our mourning be tempered with resigna

tion. Powerful as was his influence while on earth, is it not even greater now? Still may that spirit hover over the scenes of his earthly labor; still, drawn by sympathy and compassion, may it frequent these halls; still present, as before, may its whisperings strengthen the promptings of conscience and faith, and breathe into all its exercises, the holiness of its own purified nature. Still he lives; lives in influence and in name:

brightness through the charmed atmosphere of distance,--home, with its love of kindred, and luxury of fireside delights,-home, "sweet home," beckons you back to its loved retreat. Another life-- a life which you would fain picture to yourselves radiant with eternal sunshine-commences with your de parture from these halls. The clouds which have overshadowed you in the Past, seem to cast no shade on your future path. There all is light and hope; your way seems strewn with flowers, and your spirits continually bathed in the music of gladness.

"He is not dead; the great man never dies." From this event, we turn to the still more sudden departure of a school-mate. Totally unwarned of the change which awaited her-denied the privilege of Fellow-students, your course through life, if not a even one short prayer to compose her soul for its constant fruition of youthful visions, may be one of startling flight-with no hands of kindred to smooth contentment and pure joy. The performance of duty her dying pillow-one of our number has been snatch-to ourselves and to others is its own exceeding rich ed away in the very morning of life, when existence reward." Happiness is twin-born with virtue. You itself is a delight, to the immediate presence of her go forth to toil, indeed, but your toil mav be made God. In her accustomed place at the close of one sweeter than the most intoxicating pleasures of the week, her death was announced to us at the commence- voluptuary. You go to toil; but toil more honorable ment of the next, and her mortal remains, even then, than his who reared his throne on a pyramid of huhundreds of miles away, speeding to the home to which man bones, and whose sceptre flashed over the cor a few weeks were to have restored her, flushed with onets of a hundred kings. No history, perchance, health and hope, and the joy of that re-union. Little will chronicle your deeds on its false page; no shouts did her fond friends anticipate such a return. Yet are of swarming thousands herald the approach of your they not entirely unconsoled; the knowledge that her footsteps; but the record of your labors will be found duties, here, were ever promptly discharged, her re-written in golden characters in the revelations of eterlations unexceptionably sustained, must have been to nity, and your spirits borne to their home on high, amidst the songs of rejoicing angels.

their afflicted hearts

"Like healing sent on wings to sleep ;". To you, gentlemen of the Executive Committee, I for such an one could not have been ill prepared to die. would tender the adieus of my associates, and their And yet three more of the Normal band have been thanks for your kindness and your care. When the gathered to the grave. Three of those who in former school was so suddenly and painfully deprived of its terms, passed out from amongst us, have, during head, you reposed in them a confidence alike honorthe present, been called to exchange the mysteries of able to all. That confidence they have endeavored this life for the certainties of the next. It was the to justify. And during that hour of gloom, you more privilege of but few of us to enjoy with these a per- than realized the hopes of those who trembled lest sonal acquaintance; but we have been permitted to our institution should sink beneath the blow. It is a hear from the lips of those who knew them, such tes- privilege we cannot be denied, to say to you, on leavtimony to their purity and worth, that we can but joining, that the wisdom you manifested during that tryin the notes of mourning that followed their departure. May not these reminiscences, fellow-students, be to us like the admonitions of guardian spirits? As of old, gay revellers were often startled in the midst of their mirth, as their eyes fell on the skeleton form which had been introduced as a memento mori to their banquet, so may we retain in our minds the memory of these tokens of mortality, to remind us of the vanity of earthly pleasures, and the unresting flight of time that bears us onward to the grave. And so may they be remembered, that, even in life, death shall be robbed of its terrors :-may each

ing emergency, has won from us unreserved confidence and respect; and that, in wishing for you hereafter, an equal exhibition of this quality, we express, to the fullest extent, our anticipations of your success in the management of the school.

But to our teachers, I cannot hope to express the feelings which this moment inspires. Earnestly as we have endeavored to perform our various duties, we feel that whatever of success we may have had, is, in a great degree, attributable to you. Standing as we do on the threshold of departure, all the evidences of your unceasing kindness, rush with indescribable "So live, that when the summons comes to join distinctness upon us. Your gentleness, firmness, and Th' innumerable caravan that moves consistency-your untiring efforts for our improveTo that mysterious realm, where each shall take ment--are registered indelibly in our hearts. EspeHis chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry slave, at night, cially have these qualities been displayed, since so Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed fearful an inroad was made in your ranks. It was By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, then, that extremity developed in an eminent degree, Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch your conscientious interest in the school, and your About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." fitness for the trusts you hold. And, in our Principal, But the hour of separation must not be dedicated especially, no false modesty must prevent an expressalone to sorrow. Glimpses of the purest joy beam ion of our confidence. A crisis of the most alarming through the gloom upon us, like sunlight from the nature has occurred in the history of our school. It is cloud. The recollection of friendships formed, of due to our feelings--to the cause--to all who hear souls expanded, of principles imbibed, brings with it me to-day-that the views of those who have had the a sweet solace for our regret. All,-those who pass best opportunity of observing the results-those who hence forever, and those who return again to spend have known the school as it was, and as it is, and another season in the experiences of student-life, are who to-day receive the last token of its benefits-be inspired with impulses in no way akin to sorrow.— given, as we leave forever its hallowed precincts.The prospect of duties yet to do, nerves your hearts We would say, therefore, that our confidence in the with an energy mingled with strong joy. Home, with Normal School is unshaken. At that hour when clouds all its delights,-its old familiar haunts of childhood, and thick darkness enveloped its fate--when its and the faces, as familiar, of those who made them friends stood appalled by its peril, and its very existdear,-its dreams of youth, gleaming in their pristine [ence seemed to hang trembling on the slightest ad