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The World as a Place to Live In.

The Teacher's Office.

"Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones."-MATT. xviii. 10.

Desirest thou a Teacher's work? Ask wisdom from

above:

MANY people seem to take a strange pleasure
in decrying this life, as unworthy of their notice
and unfit for their enjoyment. They forget that,
for each of us, the world is very much what we
choose to make it. They fail to remember that
this is the very world created for man, adapted
to his needs with consummate skill, and intro
duced to his notice as a residence eminently fit-
ting. The Creator at its completion "saw that
it was good." They are so irreverent and pre-
sumptuous as to insist that it is bad.
But, then, the world is unsatisfying and full They may be willful, proud, perverse,

It is a work of toil and care, of patience and of love,
Ask for an understanding heart to rule in godly fear
The feeble flock of which the Lord hath made thee

Overseer.

Alas! thou surely may'st expect some evils to endure

E'en children's faults are hard to bear, and harder still to cure ;

unsubdued,

in temper

In mind obtuse and ignorant, in manners coarse and rude,

weary and depress'd,

of disappointment. Of course, we would not wish to have it otherwise. No material blessing is a permanent pleasure. The sweetest sleep is but for a night. The most acceptable dinner Thou may'st contend with sluggish minds, till only appeases the hunger of a day. And this beneficent arrangement not only gives us a succession of dinners and dreams, but opens a way for the discipline of wakefulness and hunger, a discipline to which we owe more than we would Who never quench'd the smoking flax, nor broke like to acknowledge. Then, too, our plans are the bruised reed;

And trace the windings of deceit in many a youthful breast;

Yet scorn them not: remember Him who loved his lambs to feed,

sometimes defeated, our noblest efforts fail of Who for the thankless and the vile poured out his accomplishing their purpose. Be it so, in the precious blood;

name of all that is manly. Richly dowered as And makes His sun to rise upon the evil and the we are, we can afford an occasional defeat. Nay, good.

more, we cannot afford to do without it. Ulti- The love of God extends to all the works His hand has fram'd; mately, as a general thing, success follows de

unreclaim'd.

Pray that His Holy Spirit may thy selfish heart incline

sert. It is the uncertainty of each individual He would not that the meanest child should perish pursuit that gives it zest. When we fail we can make of the failure a pedestal upon which to stand while aiming at a loftier achievement. To bear with all their waywardness as He has borne God has not taken so much pains in framing and furnishing and adorning this world, that

with thine.

sin,

Thou perilest the precious souls that Jesus died to win ;

If thou from indolent neglect shouldst leave their minds unsown,

Or

shouldst their evil passions rouse, by yielding to thine own;

they who were made by Him to live in it should If by example, or by word, thou leadest them to despise it. Why then do we disparage it? For its wickedness? It shall teach us a loftier virtue. For its deceit and treachery? It shall make our frankness beautiful. For its poverty? No, truly; for it has given us very much that money could not buy. This very wickedness and deceit and poverty are needful ingredients in the soil from which the noblest fruit must grow. For our purpose the world does not contain too much. Let us take heed that it find not its only "superfluity of naughtiness" in ourselves. Springfield Republican.

THE worst passions of men, in common life. are sometimes inscrutibly prospered.-WILLIS.

Shouldst thou intimidate the weak, and thus destroy their peace,

Or drive the stubborn to rebel by harshness or caprice;

Shouldst thou their kindlier feelings chill by apathy

and scorn,

Twere good for them, and for thyself, that thou had'st ne'er been born.

But oh! what blessings may be thine, when thou hast daily striven

A well-informed mind is better than a hand- To guide them in the narrow path that leadeth up

some person.

to heaven;

What joy to see their youthful feet in wisdom's way Free Academy.....

remain ;

Boys' Grammar Schools.
do

To know that, by the grace of God, thy labor is Girls'

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To mark the sinful habit check'd, the stubborn will

subdued;

do

Primary Departments.
Colored Schoo's....
Frimary Schools.
Evening Schools.
Corporate Schools..
Total.......

820 25.632

20 670 66.429 26 917

2.291

15 567

7,000

165 226

Being an increase of 3,398 over the number un

The cold and selfish spirit warm'd by love and gra- der instruction during the preceding year. titude;

To read in every sparkling eye a depth of love un

known;

To hear the voice of joy and health in every silver

tone!

Of this number, 35,957 have attended school during the entire school year; 17,940 for eight months, and less than ten; 19,364 for six months, and less than eight; 29,008 for four months, and less than six; 29,672 for two months, and less

If such the joys that now repay the Teacher's work than four; and 32,664 for a period less than two

of love,

If such thy recompense on earth, what must it be
above!

Oh! blessed are the faithful dead who die unto the
Lord;

Sweet is the rest they find in heaven, and great is
their reward;

months.

For the Schoolmaster.
Physical Culture.

THE subject of physical culture is beginning to claim the attention of educators, and finds

Their works performed in humble faith are all re- the public mind ready for a reform in this branch corded there; of human development. Gymnasia are estabThey see the travail of their souls, the answer to lished in various parts of the country; authors their prayer: write long articles on the muscles and their deThere may the Teacher and the Taught one glori velopment; lecturers hold forth on the impor

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tance of attention to this subject, and enthusiasts, looking forward, see, in imagination, the American people with the perfect physical development of the ancients without their barbafous customs.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK.-The Notwithstanding the resolution recently passannual report of the City Superintendent of Public Schools was presented to the Board of Educa-ed by the common council of one of our goodtion on Wednesday evening. There are in the ly cities, to the effect that physical training is city of New York fifty-one Grammar Schools for not considered by that body a branch of public boys, fifty for girls, fifty Primary Departments, instruction for which the money of tax payers and forty Primary Schools; a Free Academy for can with propriety be employed, we venture to boys; three Normal Schools-one for female offer a few ideas and present a few inquiries teachers, one for male, and one for colored teach- arising in our own mind on this subject. ers of both sexes; twenty-three Evening Schools Is our educational system all that it should for males, twenty for females, and two for colored be? Does it accomplish all that the most arpersous, male and female; and ten Corporate dent lover of human progress could desire, or Schools, sharing in the distribution of the public are there defects, which, if understood, can be remedied? Does the educational mill which The whole number of teachers in the several takes in the unwrought material of humanity schools, under the jurisdiction of the Board, is at the primary school and turns it out at the 1548, of whom 1368 are females, and 180 males. university, finished, send forth men with that Of this number, 173 hold State certificates of qua- completeness of development which nature delification, 27 are graduates of the State Normal signed they should have with all the faculties Schools, and the remainder hold certificates from trained and ready for the active and stern duthis department. ties of life or has the stock been spoiled in the working and rendered unfit for anything through some defect in the machinery?

money.

The whole number of pupils in these several institutions, (exclusive of the Normal Schools) on the first day of October last, was 165,226, viz:

Let the question be answered by facts which

we have only to open our eyes to see. While learned it only to regret that she is lost so early. we look with a just pride upon our public Contrast the fresh, healthy appearance of the schools, our seminaries and our colleges; while enthusiastic young teacher just entering upon we look upon the high intellectual culture of his labors, with the ghostly, woebegone expresour times and thank God that our lot has been sion of the dyspeptic, who has spent only a few cast in this intellectual age, rather than in that years shut up in the school-room, paying no atbarbarous age in which the possession of mere tention to anything but the brair. His strength animal force was the source of all human great- is failing, for his stomach has refused to perform ness, let us not fear to look upon the dark side its duties, since it receives no assistance from the of the picture. Let us look at facts as they are. other members of the body, his blood flows slugWhere the effect is bad let us look for the g'shly in his veins, and soon his work will be cause, that we may know how and where to ended, perchance but half done. apply the remedies. But what are the facts? Read biography, and notice the number of While walking up Tremont street, Boston, one the intellectual, the brilliant and the gifted, day last August, in company with a friend, we whom the world cannot well spare, suddenly met a large crowd of men and women coming cut off in the midst of their labors and usefulout of Tremont Temple. Our friend, ignorant ness, victims of physical neglect and pitiable of the character of the meeting held there, af- weakness. ter looking upon the company in silence with a O, why, we say, must these bright lights so look of curiosity and surprise for a minute, ex- soon go out, since the world needs them so much? claimed, "Where in the world did all these Is it a cruel necessity of our nature that the giftsickly looking people come from?" These ed and the learned must be the first to pass away,

are the members of the American Institute of or is there some miserable defect in our educaInstruction," we said. "Ah, they are teachers, tional system by which our natures are develthen," he replied, "that explains it." After a oped, that sends so many to an early grave? short silence, as we walked along, he said: The fault is not in nature. There must be some "Cannot some of the intellectual persons here defect. Stern necessity does not require that so assembled devise some means of driving away many victims should be offered up at the shrine that ghostly look which sits upon the counte- of the intellect. nances of so many of our teachers? Are not

But all the victims thus immolated are not these teachers laying themselves upon the altar missed by the world. No, for their lamp of to be offered up a sacrifice to intellect, extin- life goes out before the world sees the light. guishing that light which might shine forth to So the great bustling world moves on as unillumine many a dark corner of our world? mindful of the multitude of young people who Are they not crushing out that life and energy are yearly laid in the grave as though they had which God has given them, and going down to never lived. Yet the loss is not less because an early grave, when they might live to bless unknown to the world. the world? I can look upon this only as a most We were about to say that the question might pitiable company, spending their life nobly as be asked, are these things really so? Is it a far as it goes, but far too soon bringing their fact, that so many are yearly sacrificed upon the life of labor and usefulness to a close." We altar of the mind, or is this a mere fancy sketch could not but feel, on hearing this, that our generated in the imaginative brain of the writer? friend was rather too hasty in his conclusions. Were any one so blind as to ask such a quesbut on a careful examination of the matter, we tion, we would say to him- Go into our cememust say that we believe he is about right. teries and there read the great number of in

Can we witness the career of some, yes, of scriptions written over the dust of the "early many of our lady teachers and not feel that it dead"; go into the families of our cities and is too true? See the young lady with elastic villages and there count the number of those step and bright hopes entering upon her chosen clad in mourning for a sister or a daughter who and noble calling, that of educating the young. has departed in the prime of womanhood, to be Soon her step loses its elasticity, the color fades forgotten by the world; count the number of from her cheek, a pale, wan countenance passes boys and girls, young men and women, who before her pupils and disappears, and the fair have returned home from the academy, the semyoung teacher is borne away to her silent rest, inary and the college, broken down by study, perhaps ere the world has learned her worth, or to die and be forgotten ere their work of life is

The house

begun, and then ask yourself if this looks like crushed out and all is dark again. a fancy sketch. Look at those who are to be hold is dark, the hearts of those parents are the feeble mothers of the next generation, and dark, and a still deeper darkness would reign ask if we paint a fancy sketch when we talk of there did they but consider that it was their a nation growing physically weak. ambitious spirit that hurried their child to his It is useless to waste time in proving what grave. But they, afflicted ones, console themnot only every intelligent educator, but every selves in this dispensation of Providence, with man of common sense, already knows. We, as the cheering thought that their beloved child a nation, are physically weak and are growing" knew too much to live." Kind parents, do not mock God by laying the death of your child to the charge of His Providence.

weaker, and we all know it. What is the cause of this defect. Let us seek that in order that we may know where to apply the remedy.

But we sometimes think that girls are much The answer must suggest itself to every think- greater sufferers, more pitiable victims to socieing mind. Our education is but partial. In ty, than boys. How often, when we see a troop the earnest attempt to elevate the mind, to cul- of school girls, are we reminded of sickly looktivate the intellectual, we have given almost no ing plants, colorless and fragile, growing up in attention to the physical. In avoiding the error the cellar where no sunshine can reach them. of the ancients in cultivating the physical powPoor little Augusta Adelaide must be a little ers exclusively, we have fallen into the opposite woman, and all her conduct must be perfectly extreme and avoided physical culture altogether. lady-like; she must not get in the dirt, but alNow this one-sided culture produces a one sided ways look as though just taken from the bandand dwarfed human nature, so sadly out of box; she must be careful that the sun does not balance that it topples over by its own weight in one grand ruin.

shine upon her fair skin, for it must be kept as colorless as possible; she must not be seen runWe have but to open our eyes to see victim ning, for that is vulgar and beneath the dignity after victim of the over-taxed brain falling of a lady. So the poor little plant grows up in around us. Yet in the very face of these glar- the shade to droop and die early, or to live to curse the world with her feeble progeny. ing and sad truths, fond parents deliberately lay their own children upon the altar to be offered up a sacrifice to intellect.

room, but again we say, far too many are. During the long years in which the intellect is undergoing its course of training, the body is almost entirely neglected, and when the youth comes forth with " finished education" to enter upon the duties of active life, his weak frame sinks under the pressure which the mind impo

We are not now talking of extreme cases, but of everyday life. True, the majority of childThe quick eye of the parent discovers the ren do not die so early in life, but far too many budding of genius in the little son- - perhaps do. All diseases which flesh is heir to are not long before it is perceptible to any one else, contracted at school, but far too many are. All and forthwith crams his little brain with all physical deformities are not owing to the hard sorts of profound knowledge at the expense of benches and bad management in the schoolhis bodily growth and development, while nature intended that during this time he should be growing. His tender limbs are made to conform to the hard, straight benches of the schoolroom for six long hours, where, much to the praise of the disciplinarian who rules there, everything goes on "like clock work," where "no muscle dare murmur, no nerve rebel; the ses, and that intellect, giant though it be, is fortongue must cleave to the roof of its mouth, the hand forget its cunning, the back ache but give no sign, the eye forbear its poetic frenzy and look right on at vacancy. brain is unduly developed, and his great head is carried about by feeble body scarcely able to sustain it. Soon his place is vacant in the We would not exalt the physical at the exschool-room, his voice is not heard at the fire- pense of the mental. By no means. But we side, he is missed at the table, for he has sunk would rather exalt the mental to a much higher down to die, unable to bear the heavy pressure. level by exalting the physical. It needs no arThe first gleaming of that light which might gument to prove that without the physical the have shone an ornament in the world has been mental must of necessity be inefficient. He

bidden to wave its sceptre of influence over the world, for its throne totters beneath it and crumbles to dust. Sometimes, indeed, reason may -or Virgil." His be said to forsake her throne, but much oftener may it be said that the throne breaks down under reason.

who has all the functions of the body in a good, designed that the boy should grow, let him healthy condition will be able to do much more grow, and let nature fashion him after her own mental and physical labor than the pale-faced perfect model. When the little girl feels herdyspeptic in the same time, and in addition to self so light that it is a task for her to remain this he has the promise of a much longer life, quiet for a moment, let her jump and run, for thus making his opportunities for usefulness nature has placed that very elasticity in her two-fold. limbs, and the jumping and running is necessary Both reason and example concur in support for her perfect development. Do not let the of this truth. Those men who have wielded little ones be cheated out of their share of sunthe greatest influence in the world, and whose shine and air. The heat which an active circunam es now stand highest on the scrolls of fame, lation of the blood, assisted by pure air, geneare they who have possessed a sound body with rates, is far more healthful than the heat issuing the sound mind, and who have had an ample from a stove filled with glowing anthracite. physical education. Says an eminent educator: Sunshine is far better than the heat from the furnace. "Intellect needs body. Come, then, and see Too true is the following, addressed to America by an ancient sage:

me build a man. A calm, silent devotion, a conscience pure and reverent, a heart manful. Oh ! latest born of time, the wise man said, and true, an intellect clear and keen, a frame of A mighty destiny surrounds thy head; iron, with these will we dower our hero, and Great is thy mission, but thy puny son call his name Washington. From me Wash- Lacks strength to finish what the sires begun; ington needs no eulogy. Free America is at Thy hapless daughters breathe the poisoned air, once his eulogy and his monument. It is use- Fair they may be, but fragile more than fair; less to say more. Every one feels in his heart a They know not, doom'd ones, that the air of heaven, For breathing purposes to man was given; higher praise than can be uttered by the tongue. But let me ask you, What would Washington's But melt their lives away where stoves and fires, They know not half the things which life requires, qualities of mind and heart have availed his And furnace issuing from the realms beneath, country, unless the manly strength, the frame of Distils through parlor floors its poisonous breath. iron, had been added? A good man he might Sooner or later must the slighted air have been, a patriot he surely would have been; And exercise take vengeance on the fair. but the Father of his Country, never! The Ah! one by one I see them fade and fall, soul that trusted in God, the conscience that Both old and young, fair, dark, or short or tall, felt the omnipotence of justice and right, the Till one stupendous ruin wraps them all." heart that beat for his courtry's weal alone, the mind that thought out her freedom, was upborne by a body that knew no fatigue, by nerves that knew not how to tremble."

That angel of mercy that ministered to the wants and cheered the hearts of so many sufferers in the gloomy hospital of the Crimea, might have possessed the same noble heart beating in compassion for suffering humanity, the same intellect, the same Christian love, the same gentleness and tenderness, which dwelt in her bo

som, still without that fortitude and power of endurance to carry into effect the promptings of her heart, the dying soldier would have seen no shadow upon his pillow to kiss as her angel form passed its nightly rounds, and the world would never have heard the name of Florence Nightingale.

B. F. C.

Common Schools in Massachusetts.

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The Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the State Board of Education was transmitted to the Massachusetts Legislature recently. The following summary is presented, which gives all the leading and important facts connected with the public schools of the State. The figures are for the school year 1859-60:

Number of towns in the commonwealth..

....

Number of public schools...
Number of persons in the State between
five and fifteen years of age, May 1st, 1859
Number of scholars of all ages in all the
public schools in summer.....................
In Winter.....

Averag- attendance in summer.
In Winter.....

Ratio of the mean average attendance to
to the whole number of children between
five and fifteen..
Number of children under five, attendirg
public schools.....

Since, then, reason and example alike teach the importance of a thorough physical develop. ment, let us exalt it to its proper level, and thereby render more efficient the intellectual powers. Let human nature have its due. While nature Number of persons over fifteen....

........

334 4,497

223,714

207,939

217,394

162,785

124,582

74

10,428 23,355

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