rior mental endowments-conscious (as upon the few desultory remarks we Goldsmith was for instance) that he have above indulged in, let us advise could argue best in his closet" than the our younger readers (those intellectually mortification which is so apt to await given), to do battle against vanity and an individual of this description in his self conceit, as being the bane of gencolloquial intercourse or encounters uine merit; wherever the latter becomes with men of much inferior mental en- subjected to their sway. dowments to his own, but possessing much greater presence of mind. We cannot help the surmise, that vanity exercises no inconsiderable influence in bringing about the very mortification we allude to. Vanity, of course begets a constant, nay eager desire to excel, but by a man's writings or conversation (as the case may chance to be) to elicit or draw forth the flattering comments of readers and listeners alike. Now conversation, next to authorship, constitutes the choicest arena possible for intellectual display, it follows that to "shine in convarsation," no matter who may constitute your audience, is an achievment quite as gratifying to one's vanity as any other display. An Optical Delusion. Here is a neat delusion. Roll a sheet sion to the brain, and that organ, unable to disencagle them, lands us on the palpable absurdity of a materialized hole. of writing paper into a tube ten inches in diameter and hold it to the right eye, looking through at any convenient object, keeping the left eye also open. Place the left hand, open with the palm upward, against the tube an inch or two from the further end. The surprising effect apparently seen will be a hole through the hand the size of a cross section of the tube. Now, in place of the hand, put a sheet of white paper with a hole in it of a quarter of an inclı in diameter; stare intently into the tube, and you will see the hole in the sheet of paper floating in the whole of But alas, and alackaday! among the tube, clearly defined by the differauthors who have earned immortality ence of illumination. Each eye obby their writing (of course we make an viously transmits a different impresexception in the case of public speakers who have become authors,) how "few and far between" have been those who could lay claim to the merest distinction (to say nothing of immortality) on account of their conversational ability. Johnson, we suppose, was the great exception-and there have been we rather think, a few others, whose names will probably occur to the reader without any mention on our part. Now to talk of Johnson being actuated by vanity in his determination to lead the conversation, in whatever company he might find the himself would it appears to us, involve a misnomer. Johnson did not know what vanity really was, although he defines it in his dictionary. Downright arrogance, he knew perfectly well the meaning of, and did not fail on any occasion, or in any company, to bring it to bear upon the indiscreet individual any position certainly merits not only who might prove rash enough to dis- a just but a liberal reward. pute his literarry authority. Enough of the great lexicographer, WORK. To make work pleasant it must be varied. A constant round of hard, physical labor many hours each day, dulls the comprehension, blunts the sensibilities, obscures the perceptions, and begets moroseness and discontent; while continual association with coarse and crude materials, distorts and brutalizes the features, and lowers the status of the individual. Although work is essential to sonnd mental and physical development, yet it must be diversified and made agreeaable if we wish to obtain its good effect. CONTINUOUS and honest service in KEEP your temper of course; but and now by way of moral, as bearing that does not mean not to have any. PERSONAL AND EDITORIAL. MISS MAGGIE Cox, formerly of the Martinsville High school, is teaching in the Terre Haute schools. THE present No. of the TEACHER Will reach many new subscribers in various parts of the State. Let all our friends set to, and get up clubs. We want an agent in every township in the State. WE rejoice to be able to chronicle thal Prof. Campbell, Supt. of Monroe Co., has graded his schools. Lawrence and Monroe will now go hand in hand, up the highway of progression. LET everyone carefully read the articles of this issue. We are getting a number of able contributors, and it is our purpose to make our journal second to none, in point of literary and educational worth. WE ask County Superintents to bring the TEACHER to the notice of teachers of their respective counties. It will aid them very much in developing a sentiment among their teachers, in favor of system in the district school. Such a sentiment is of great importance to the successful grading of the schools of a county. THE college at Bedford is doing good work. The work of erecting a first class college building is soon to begin, so we are informed. The institution under IN our article on "Who oppose Common Schools," in the October No., the types made us say, "First of all, as is the letter and spirit of all our schools in all the States, let a good, thorough, common school education be given to our children, then as for us, we can provide for the higher education." It should have read as follows: "First of all, as is the letter and spirit of all our school laws in all the States, let a good, thorough, common school education be given to our children, then as far as we can provide for the higher education." We hope the editor and printer will be more careful in the future. WE have received a prospectus of the East Indiana Normal School, located at Charlottesville, Hancock Co., Ind. Walter S. Smith, Principal. This school opens under the auspices of the Charlottesville Educational Association, seconded and approved by the Board of Trustees of the Charlottesville public schools. The winter term opened Oct. 30, to continue sixteen weeks. The tuition is very moderate, ranging from $4.00 to $9.00 for this term. The spring and summer terms are from $3.00 to 7.00 for twelve weeks each. A care fully prepared course of lectures on the Theory and Practice of Teaching will be delivered during these terms. Also moral and religious lectures on Sunday the present management, presents afternoons, which add much to the atmany inducements to students who traction of the school. Boarding can wish to prepare themselves for teaching be secured in the best of families at and the active business of life. Send for circulars. $3.00 per week, and at the rate of $3.00 per week for the five school days. Rooms for self-boarding can be had at THE following card of visitation of from one to two dollars per month, County Superintendent and Trustee, thus reducing the cost of living to a was adopted by the teachers of Law- mere nominal consideration. Prof. rence County, at the annual institute, Smith is one of the best educators in 1876: "1. Inspection of 1st Grade. 2. Indiana. When he puts his hand to Inspection of 2nd Grade. 3. Inspec- the plow he never looks back. He is tion of 3rd Grade. 4. Inspection of the man that rescued the office of 4th Grade. 5. Inspection of 5th Grade. County Superintendency from the 6. Inspection of Daily Programme. 7. clutches of an unconstitutional law, by Inspection of Manner of Teaching. 8. Inspection of School Furniture and condition of house. bringing it before the bar of the Supreme Court for decision. The men of progress in the State will not soon for get his untiring perseverance and much | to conflict with his cherished theories, sacrifice of money and time to secure in matters of religion he yielded a blind, this important decision. The Normal school Charlottesville, under the superintendence of Prof Smith, cannot fail to be a success. Let the young men and women from every part of the State flock to it. VISITING CARDS. 25 fine visiting caids, 10 cents; in gold, 15 cents. M. H. VESTAL, Bedford, Ind. WE propose, hereafter, to get the TEACHER out the first week of each month. If any subscriber does not get his number by the 20th of the month drop us a postal card. THE TEACHER is one of the best mediums in the State for advertisements of school books, school furniture, etc. Let firms who wish the patronage of school men remember this. Our terms are reasonable and liberal. VISITING CARDS.- 20 visiting cards for 10 cents with your name neatly printed on them. Send 10 cents for agent's outfit, consisting of the different styles of cards and price list. Address, JOHN JOHNSON, JR., P. O. box 219, Bedford, Ind. We have seen Mr. Johnson's cards, and know that they are first-class. Christopher Columbus unreasoning faith. To him a dream was a revelation. In his sleeping visions he heard a voice that to him was the voice of God. His piety, though deep and fervent, was nevertheless tinctured with the superstition of his times. He engages in every important enterpise in the name of the "Holy Trinity," whether it be a voyage of discovery or the shipment of a cargo of slaves to be sold in the shambles of Seville. If, however, he enslaves untutored savages, it is with a view to Christianizing themsuch is his implict faith in the saving power of baptism and the efficacy of the holy water. At a time when the popular imagination had not thoroughly purged itself of the legendary lore of fairies and salamanders, hippogriffs and anthropophagi, dog-faced women and lion-bodied men, flying islands and fountains of perpetual youth, it is not surprising that Columbus should have seen "mermaids," though not so like ladies as they are painted, or should become the bearer of dispatches to that mythical potentate Prester John, or, fancying he had discovered the river that flowed from the fountain of the tree of life, should have located the terrestrial paradise upon the apex of the "pear-shaped" earth, far above the "heats and frosts and storms" of this lower world, like the enchanted gardens of Armida in the Fortunate Isles. It is somewhat surprising, however, in view of the apprehensive fears of his superstitious crew, that on his first voyage he should have set sail on a Friday, and not a little remarkable that he should have discovered America, and returned again to the port of departure, all on the same unlucky day. Few men belong less to the age in which they lived than Columbus. In truth he can scarcely be said to belong to any age. Thoroughly imbued with the spirit of chivalry, he was a Knight Templer who had lost his way amidst the romantic cycles of the twelfth century, to find himself a discoverer among the practical though daring enterprises of the fifteenth. Had he lived during the first Crusade, he might have been sung by Tasso as the "star of knighthood" and the protagonist of the "Jeru- In the life of Columbus, so full of illusalem Delivered." A singular compro- sions and strange vicissitudes, there is a mise between a paladin and a philoso- striking disparity between the ends he pher, he would have been about equal- aimed at and those he actually accomly at home with Peter the Hermit or plished. Like Saul, the son of Kish, Copernicus, Godfrey of Boulogne or he went out in search of his father's Gilileo. While he challenged philoso- asses, and found a kingdom. The son phy at every point where she appeared of a wool-comber, with the key-note of December. The Blue Laws. a great discovery ringing in his brain, pedants, or curbing a cabal of Spanish he emblazoned on his shield the royal hidalgos; whether engaged in piratical arms of Castile and Leon. His favorite expeditions against the infidel, or erectdream had been to find a direct route ing wooden crosses on every headland westward to the rich and populous of the New World—he is ever inspired realms of Kublai Khan, and he discov- with the same glowing enthusiasm— ered a new world instead, though he that sublime fervor of an ardent imagidied in ignorance of the real grandeur nation that dignified his failures scarceof his achievement, He had stipulated ly less than his success, and shed a with the Spanish sovereigns, in the halo of romance around the simplest of event of his success, for honors and his acts as well as the grandest of his emoluments that were regarded at first achievements.-Harper's Magazine for as absurdly extravagant. But if he insists on a tenth part of all the profits arising from his discoveries, it is not in his own personal interest, but that he Many persons who have from time to may obtain the means for fitting out an time heard of the Connecticut "blue expedition for the recovery of the Holy laws" have probably never had an opSepulchre and the evangelization of the portunity of perusing them. The terriheathen. And yet at a time when he tory now comprised of the State of Conhad vowed to furnish 4000 horse and necticut was formed originally of two 50,000 foot for a crusade against the in- colonies-Connecticut and New Haven. fidel Turk, he, who had "staked both The colony of Connecticut was planted soul and body on his success," had no by emigrants from Massachusetts and resort but an inn, and was for the most Windsor, 1635-6. The other one styled part, without the wherewithal to pay by its founders the dominion of New his bill; while it was reserved for an- Haven was formed by emigrants from other to confer his name upon the con- England in 1638. The two colonies tinent he had discovered; "a fine exam- were united in 1655. The statutes copple," as Voltair remarks, "of the quid ied below, from an ancient volume repro quo of glory." lating to the American colonies, were enacted by the people of the "dominion of New Haven," and being printed on blue paper, came to be known as the blue laws: He went out in quest of gold, and discovered tobacco, the "divine weed" of Spenser a discovery that has proved more productive, financially and commercially, than all the mines of Mexico or Peru. He sought to Christianize the untutored Indians, and thereby elevate them in the scale of modern civilization; but the lust, cruelty and rapacity of his followers transformed a paradise of almost primeval beauty and simplicity into a land of cruel bondage, desolation, and death. The governor and magistrates convened in general assembly, are the supreme power, under God, of this independent dominion. From the determination of the assembly no appeal shall be made. The governor is amenable to the voice of the people. The assembly of the people shall not be dismissed by the governor, but shall dismiss itself. Conspiracy against this dominion shall be punishable with death. But whoever he is or whatever he does; whether a penitent at the confessional or a suppliant at court, a desperate adventurer or a successful discoverer, a viceroy of the Indies or a Whosoever says there is power and prisoner in chains; whether chanting a jurisdiction above and over the dominSalva Regina or performing a pilgrim- ion shall suffer death and loss of propage to the shrine of our Lady of Guada-erty. lupe; whether quelling a mutinous crew, Judges shall determine no controversy or combating a junto of cosmographical without jury. No one shall be a freeman or give a with gold, silver or bone lace above one vote unless he be converted and a mem- shilling per yard, shall be presented by of one of the churches allowed in the the grand jurors, and selectmen shall dominion. tax the offender 3501. estate. Each freeman shall swear by the blessed God to bear true allegiance to this dominion, and that Jesus is the only king. A debtor in prison, swearing he has no estate, shall be let out and sold to make satisfaction. Whosoever sets a fire in the woods and it burns a house, shall suffer death; and persons suspected of the crime shall be imprisoned without the benefit of bail. No Quaker or dissenter from the established worship of this dominion shall be allowed to give a vote for the election of magistrate or any other officer. No food or lodging shall be offered to this dominion shall pay a fine of 147. an Adamite or heretic. If any person turns Quaker he shall be banished, and not suffered to return on pain of death. No priest shall abide in the dominion. He shall be banished, and suffer death on his return. Whosoever brings cards or dice into No one shall read common prayer books, keep Christmas or set days, eat mince pies, dance, play cards, or play on an instrument of music except the drum, trumpet and Jews-harp. No gospel minister shall join people in marriage. The magistrate only shall Priests may be seized by anyone with- join them in marriage, as he may do it out a warrant. No one shall cross a river on the Sabbath unless a regular authorized clergy man. No one shall run or walk in his garden, or elsewhere, except reverentially to and from meeting. No one shall travel, cook victuals, make beds, sweep house, cut hair or shave on the Sabbath day. with less scandal to Christ's church. When parents refuse their children convenient marriages, the magistrates shall determine the point. The selectmen, on finding children ignorant, may take them away from their parents. A man that strikes his wife shall pay a fine of 107. A woman that strikes her husband No woman shall kiss her children on shall be punished as the law directs. the Sabbath or fasting days. A wife shall be deemed good evidence The Sabbath shall begin at sunset on against her husband. Saturday. To pick an ear of corn growing in a neighbor's garden shall be deemed a theft. When it appears that the accused has confederates and he refuses to disclose them, he may be racked. No man shall court a maid in person or by letter without first obtaining consent of her parents-57. penalty for the first offense, 107. for the second, and for the third imprisonment during the pleasure of the court. Married persons must live together or None shall buy or sell land without be imprisoned. permission of the selectmen. A drunkard shall have a master appointed by the selectmen, who are to bar him from the liberty of buying and selling. Whosoever publishes a lie to the prejudice of his neighbor, shall be set in the stocks, or be whipped ten stripes. Every male must have his hair cut round, according to his cap. Up, then, young man, and gird yourself for the great work of self-cultivation. Set a high value on your leisure moments, and stock your mind with great thoughts-thoughts that will fill, stir, invigorate, and expand your soul. No minister shall keep a school. The education of the young is a mat |