whether in friendship, or to arrest as a prisoner.

A man enters

your house at midnight; this is one thing: the other and completing part of the whole procedure is to be found in what he does whether he shouts and drags you from devouring flames, or creeps stealthily to your bed and plunges a dagger to your heart. And it is in this-the thing meant, the wish harbored-that the moral quality of an act resides. An action, without the governing intention, is no more than the plant without the living principle. The question ever is, What does the person mean? A child inflicts a blow on his fellow; how instantly does the kind affirmation, "I did not mean to," end the strife and heal the opening breach. A British fleet is seen hovering about the West India islands; reliable information that no interest of our government is threatened, allays all anxious fears and withdraws attention to other subjects.

4. Those feelings, exercises, or qualities, at whose cultivation we are to aim, as constituting the beauty and worth, the life and happiness of our being, are such as gratitude, benevolence, love of moral goodness, and obedience to those standing above us and on whom we are dependent. These belong to the very essence of created, rational life. He who receives, must be grateful, or lessen the value of his being, beyond proper estimate. And he must be grateful to each one from whom he receives needful favors, no matter who he may be, or where he lives; whether he is a friend, or an enemy; whether he lives in his own family, or on the other side of the globe. And he must be grateful, too, in proportion to the number and value of the gifts received.

He who discerns moral qualities, must love moral goodness, or fail of goodness in his own character and conduct. He must love and seek it in himself, and must desire to see it in others, mourning its absence with oppressive sorrow.

He who lives among sentient creatures, must desire their happiness, and, if possible, do for the purpose of promoting it. There is no question here, no uncertainty. He who neglects to consider the welfare and enjoyment of those whom his conduct does or can affect, and aims not to promote them, cramps and belittles and im

poverishes his being. And he must be benevolent in proportion to the opportunity and means he may possess of administering to the relief and good of others.

In like manner, obedience, where it is due-in subordinate, dependent relations—is essential to proper life and the full measure of enjoyment. The child can secure all the good possible to him, on no other condition. For him to refuse filial submission, or to be restive under it, is to act a vicious, unhappy part. And the same remark holds true relative to the scholar, or the citizen, or any one occupying an inferior, subordinate position.

5. The remark just made is immediately applicable to our relation to God. Certainly we receive from no one so much as from Him; no one, and nothing, is so good and worthy to be loved as He; on no one are we so dependent as on Him; no one is so near to us, so present with us; no one's will is so explicit and just. We may ever hear a voice saying, This is the way, walk ye therein. And the way to which we are called, is the way which avoids all sin; and the way which avoids sin is the conscious, controlling aim to be grateful in proportion to the favors received, benevolent according to our means and opportunities of being so, lovers of moral goodness in proportion to the value of this quality, and obedient according to our relations of dependence and subordination, with all the involved and related virtues. Now, as doing what He does for us, being what He is unto us, and in the attributes he possesses, being the eternal God and our Father in Heaven, surely we must be grateful to Him to the extent of our ability, love Him supremely, and obey Him instantly and perfectly, or occupy a fallen, sinful, unhappy, position.

6. Man desires continual life or im mortality. The expression, "I would not live always," has respect to life under certain circumstances, and not to the continuance of life when all is satisfactory and agreeable. Let life and its conditions be such as meets a person's wishes, and he would have it never come to a close. Most are anxious to accept life under adverse and embarrassing circumstances. The thought of annihilation, unless it be to get

rid of fearful suffering and fearful sin, is repulsive beyond adequate expression. It is indeed true that "skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath," will he give for life, when life is full of enjoyment and prosperity.

7. If it be not certain that we live after death, neither is it certain that we do not live after death. If there be doubt as to the fact of man's immortality, there is, certainly, not less doubt as to the fact that his mind dies with the body or goes into an eternal sleep. All that our senses disclose is, that when death ensues, the mind ceases to act in connection with, and through, the body. It is not affected by any of those causes or agencies which war against the body and finally bring it to a state of dissolution. "Neither heat nor cold, neither darkness nor light, neither storm nor rain, has any known influence over that which knows and reasons and wills." The peculiar mental phenomena exhibited in sickness evidently result from the peculiar state of the bodily organs. But remarks on this point are needless. We can, to say the most, no more affirm with absolute certainty that the soul is mortal, than that it is immortal.

8. It is certain, therefore, that reason requires us to act as we should, if immortality were a certainty. All doubt here should insure to the benefit of life, and not to the gloomy fear of annihilation. If, in acting as immortal, we are not required to deviate from the course appropriate in case we are mortal, then certainly the statement in hand is true. And, if the line of conduct we should pursue in case we live after death, be different from what is right and safe in case death is the end of our existence, then the consequences of neglecting that different method of conduct, must furnish an adequate reason for anxiously pursuing it, even at the expense of present comfort. Nothing can be plainer than that it is the dictate of common sense, of those principles which we apply in the matters of this world, that the thought of immortality should influence and control, so far as our welfare beyond the grave requires, or would be promoted by such influence and control. E. L. C.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

AUTUMN MUSINGS.

The soft and dreamy Autumn days Are flitting fast away,

And each one beareth on its wings Some token of decay.

Sweet Flora's treasures all have fled,

Save here and there a flower-
Pale, solitary-droops it head
Within the garden bower.

Dry leaves are rustling in the path,
And hanging on the trees;
In tones of sweet, low melody
They 're whisp'ring to the breeze.
The breeze, like a faithless lover,
With strong, relentless hand,
Scatters the gold and crimson leaves
In showers upon the ground.
The sunbeams struggle feebly forth,
Through the smoky, hazy air,
But half-concealing, half-revealing,
The decay of all things fair.
A quiet, pensive, languid spell
Pervades the saddened earth;
At eventide bright fires blaze
Upon the accustomed hearth.

Home circles gather round the fire

In quietness and joy,

And converse sweet and merry songs
The cheerful hours employ.

Oh, home! it is a blessed word-
Angels might look, I ween,
With joy, upon such gatherings
As in true homes are seen.

As speed these lovely Autumn days,
On Time's resistless wings,
What record bear they to His throne
Whence every blessing springs?
Tell they of duties well performed,
Of words and acts of love,

Of efforts to prepare ourselves

For that blessed home above?

Or do they leave us purposeless,
Dreaming our lives away,
Forgetting that the precious hours
Will not for idlers stay?

Let us rouse ourselves to action,

Striving something to attain,

Which shall prove-our Autumns ended

That we have not lived in vain.

M. E. L.

Oct. 13th, 1859.

VERMONT BOARD OF EDUCATION.

THIRD ANNUAL REPORT.

To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of Vermont ; GENTLEMEN :-In conformity to law, the Board of Education beg leave to offer their Third Annual Report respecting the "state and condition" of the Common Schools of the State, and their own "official doings" the past year. In the discharge of this duty, they have but a few plain words to present, and these chiefly by way of introduction to the full and detailed Report of the Secretary herewith transmitted.

The Secretary's Report will comprise an account of the more important proceedings of the Board, and of the policy by which they have been guided. Some of these proceedings concern matters of so immediate public interest, that we respectfully invite special attention to them.

1st. Among them is the selection of an authoritative list of Text Books, under the law of the last Session. The difficulty and delicacy of discharging that duty will be better appreciated when it is considered how many private interests are directly affected by it, and what a diversity of partialities and, perhaps, prejudices exist, in different sections of the State, in favor of as great a diversity of Books.

It appeared that most of the School Books in common use were very good books, and well adapted to their purpose. The practical question, therefore, before the Board, was not, Which is abso