Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

$50,5%
19,08

.1,428 476 02

Amount raised by taxes for the support of public schools, including only wages, board, fuel and care of fires Income from State and local school funds, voluntary contributions, &c............ Aggregate returned as expended on public schools alone, exclusive of expense of repairing and erecting school houses, and of the cost of school books Sum raised by taxes for the education of each child in the State between the ages of five and fifteen years of age-per chiid.... Number of high schools in which the Latin and Greek languages are taught.......... Number of incorporated academies returned Average number of scholars.......................................... Amount paid for tuition.

[ocr errors]

Number of private schools and academies
Estimated average attendance......
Estimated amount paid for tuition.

125,311,17

.1,565,108,75

6.32

102 65 3,561 $71,294.75

640

Must I keep them free from stain,
That all unspotted from the world,
My mother may wear them again.

Yet I know that the dust may touch them,
And dim their lustrous rays,

And I know that harm can reach them,
In many, many ways!

And so, I pray Thee, Father,

Till Thou countest Thy jewels above,
To keep mine, fair and spotless,

In the casket of Thy love!

From the Massachusetts Teacher.

A Humble Petition to Teachers.

THE undersigned, a universally recognized character in the Kingdom of Letters, over which 15,933 you hold jurisdiction, would respectfully repre$358,659.17 sent that he is unlawfully deprived of the power

Each town is required by law to raise by tax which is rightfully his. All writers upon the an amount equal to $1 50 for every child between Laws of Speech agree that he shall have a right the age of five and fifteen years, and 290 of the to appear in certain classes of spoken words; 384 towns have raised $3 or more per child. The but, through want of vigilance on the part of town of Brookline heads the list, having appro- your honorable body, and he grieves to say, priated $20.04.8 for each child between the age through your pernicious example, his right has of five and fifteen, and the town of Belmont is been considerably abridged, and his authority second, having appropriated $17.34. Boston is transferred to another. If such a sacrifice on the eighth on the list, the appropriation for each his part is demanded by the public good, your child amounting to $10.52.7.

For the Schoolmaster.

My Jewels.

BY GRACE NORTON.

No gems from the distant ocean,
No pearls from the summer sea,
No diamonds from the river,

Have wreathed a crown for me.

And yet, it is more radiant

Than any king doth bear! And like a queen, right proudly My coronet I wear!

My mother wore it, lovingly,

And dying, gave it me;

Gave me these precious jewels,
My little sisters three.

petitioner humbly hopes that he has virtue enough to make it; but, as human speech, instead of being benefited thereby, is rendered less euphonious, more arbitrary, and in some respects, ambiguous, he would beg your honorable body to exert your authority and secure to him his rights.

Before setting forth more minutely his grievances, your petitioner would state that he has lived in good fellowship with his associates, and has never sought to deprive either of any portion of the power which has been assigned to him by the wise framers of the Constitution of English Speech; and, though certain perverse talkers persist in excluding him from the Constitution, all will candidly admit that he has been foremost in support of the Union.

First, he would call the attention of your re

There's Maud, with her young heart brimming, spectable body to that province occupied by the

O'erflowing, with love for me.

And Alice! my beautiful Alice!

Oh! what shall I say of thee !

And Blanche, the dearest and youngest!
A beautiful gem of light,

Tute family and their dependents, over which all legal authorities give him undisputed control. Your petitioner's authority is there derided, and the power of a rival upheld. The Toots are supplanting the old families, and push

Glory of Physical Geography.

ing their conquests with great vigor. Institoots, Substitoots, Constitoots, etc., are manifesting themselves in all directions, and he really fears [THE following brief report of an address by he shall be obliged to abandon the whole proLieut. A. F. Maury, at the laying of the cornervince, or, at most, maintain over it but a divid- stone of the University of the South, is thrilled sovereignty. He has nothing to say against ingly eloquent, at the same time that it teaches the renowned name of Toots; the great novelist the practical utility of the modern study of has immortalized it; but he does protest against Physical Geography.—Journal of Progress.]

the substitution of that name for one even more 66 ancient and honored. The Tootses may say, "It kin. is of no consequence;" but the slightest consideration will show you that it is of great con

sequence.

Physical geography makes the whole world Of all the departments in the domains of physical science, it is the most Christianizing. Astronomy is grand and sublime; but astronomy overpowers with its infinities, overwhelms Then there are the Ews. There is no question with its immensities. Physical geography in regard to your petitioner's authority over charms with its wonders, delights with the bethem, and they ought to submit quietly and nignity of its economy. Astronomy ignores the cheerfully. There are influences, however, at existence of man;-physical geography conwork to carry them over to his enemy. A few fesses that existence, and is based on the Bible remain steadfast; but the new comers soon learn doctrine that the earth was made for man. Upto transfer their allegiance. His culinary de- on no other theory can it be studied; upon no partment has also been invaded. He can have other theory can its phenomena be reconciled. no more stews. This is not only an insult to his The astronomer computes an ephemeris for his stomach, but a serious injury to the oyster trade. comets; predicts their return; tells the masses In short, there is scarce a province over which of the planets, and measures by figures the dishe holds universal sway. He is driven from the tance of the stars. But whether stars, planets "blue above and the blue beneath;" deprived or comets be peopled or not. is, in his arguof the only day of the week upon which he had ments, theories and calculations. of no conseany claim, robbed of his pet children, Luke and quence whatever. He regards the light and Lucy, forbidden to sue in the courts, and under heat of the sun as emanations - forces to guide any circumstances to appear as a suitor; and so the planets in their orbits, and light comets in depressed in spirits that he can no longer sing their flight-nothing more. But the physical his favorite tunes. He therefore appeals to you geographer, when he warms himself by the coal to rescue him from his forlorn condition, to de- fire in winter, or studies by the light of the gas clare his rights, and to sustain him in them. burner at night, recognizes in the light and heat And as in duty bound will ever pray, which he then enjoys the identical light and heat which came from the sun years ago, and which with provident care and hands benignant have been bottled away in the shape of a mineral, and stored in the bowels of the earth for man's use, thence to be taken at his convenience, and liberated at will for his manifold purposes.

[ocr errors]

LONG U.

66 Here in the schools which are soon to be

THE United Service Gazette says that Prince Alfred is being brought up in the service precisely the same as if he were the son of a private gentleman: He messes with the midshipmen, keeps the regular watch, dines occasionally in the ward-room, and takes his turn to dine with the captain. He is treated by his opened, within the walls of the noble institution which we are preparing to establish in this messmates as, in all respects, one of themselves; wood, and the corner-stone of which has just is called to order by the caterer, and runs the same risk of being made the subject of a prac-science will teach our sons to regard some of the been laid, the masters of this newly-ordained tical joke as other young gentlemen — himself, however, being generally pretty forward in the commonest things as the most important agents business of playful mischief, Upon one quesin the physical economy of our planet. They tion, that of smoking, the young prince is stern-are also mighty ministers of the Creator. Take this water (holding up a glassful) and ask the ly denied the privilege indulged in by the other student of physical geography to explain a porofficers." tion only of its multitudinous offices in helping

To be angry with a weak man is proof that you to make this earth fit for man's habitation. He are not very strong yourself.

may recognize in it a drop of the very same

which watered the garden of Eden when Adam of no authority in matters of science. I beg was there. Escaping thence through the veins pardon; the Bible is authority for everything it of the earth into the rivers it reached the sea; teaches. What would you think of the histopassing along its channels of circulation, it was rian who should refuse to consult the historical conveyed far away by its currents to those records of the Bible because the Bible was not springs in the ocean which feed the winds with written for the purpose of history? The Bible vapors for rains among these mountains. Tak- is true; and science is true. The agents coning up the heat in those southern climes, where cerned in the physical economy of our planet otherwise it would become excessive, it hottles are ministers of His who made both it and the it away in its own little vesicles. These are in- Bible. The records which he has chosen to visible, but rendering the heat latent and innoc- make through the agency of these ministers of uous, they pass like sightless couriers of the air His upon the crust of the earth, are as true as through their appointed channels, and arrive the records which by the hand of His prophets here in the upper sky. This mountain draws and servants He has been pleased to make in the heat from them; they are formed into clouds, the Book of Life. They are both true; and and condensed into rains, which coming to the when your man of science with vain and hasty earth make it soft with showers,' causing the conceit announces the discovery of disagreement trees of the field to clap their hands, the valleys between them, rely upon it the fault is not with to shout, and the mountains to sing. Thus the the Witness of His records, but with the worm' earth is made to yield her increase, and the heart who essays to interpret evidence which he does of man is glad. not understand.

"Nor does the office of this cup of water in "When I, a prisoner in one department of the physical economy end here; it has brought this beautiful science, discover the truths of heat from the sea in the Southern hemisphere to revelation and the truths of science reflecting be set free here for the regulation of our cli- light one upon the other and each sustaining mates; it has ministered to the green plants, the other, how can I, as a truth-loving, knowand given meat and drink to man and beast. ledge-seeking man, fail to point out the beauty, It has now to cater among the rocks for the in- and to rejoice in its discovery? Reticence on sects of the sea. Eating away your mountains, such an occasion would be sin, and were I to it fills up the valleys, and then loaded with lime suppress the emotion with which such discoverand salts of.various minerals, it goes, singing ies ought to stir the soul, the waves of the sea and dancing and leaping, back to the sea, own- would lift up their voice, and the very stones ing man by the way as a task master; turning of the earth cry out against me. (Great apmills, driving machinery, transporting merchan-plause.)

[ocr errors]

dize for him, and finally reaching the ocean, it “As a student of physical geography, I rethere joins the currents to be conveyed to its ap-gard earth, sea, air and water as parts of a mapointed place, which it never fails to reach in chine, pieces of mechanism not made with due time with food in due quantities for the in- hands, but to which, nevertheless, certain offices habitants of the deep, and with materials of the have been assigned in the terrestrial economy. right kind to be elaborated in the workshops of It is good and profitable to seek to find out these the sea into pearls, corals and islands, all for offices, and point them out to our fellows; and man's use. when, after patient research, I am led to the "Thus the right-minded student of this sci- discovery of any one of them, I feel with the ence is brought to recognize in the dewdrop the astronomer of old, as though I had thought materials of which He who walketh upon the one of God's thoughts," and tremble. Thus, wings of the wind' maketh his chariot. He as we progress with our science, we are permitalso discovers in the raindrop a clue by which ted now and then to point out here and there in the Christian philosopher may be conducted in- the physical machinery of the earth a design of to the very chambers from which the hills are the Great Architect when he planned it all. watered. "Take the little nautili. Where do the fra"I have been blamed by men of science, both gile creatures go? What directing hands guide in this country and in England, for quoting the them from sea to sea? What breeze fills the Bible in confirmation of the doctrines of physi-violet sails of their frail little craft, and by whose cal geography. The Bible, they say, was not skill is it enabled to brave the sea and defy the written for scientific purposes, and is therefore fury of the gale? What mysterious compass

[ocr errors]

Over the River.

[Such is the renewed interest in this sweet and touching prem, by our co respondent, Miss NANCY A. W. PRIEST, of Hinsda'e. N. H., that we can only supply the constant demand for cop es by a second re-publication.-Editor Spri gfield Republican ] Over the river they beckon to me

directs the flotilla of these delicate and graceful waters; fowls of the air, with beasts and cattle; argonauts ? Coming down from the Indian to bless, praise and magnify the Lord. Ocean, and arriving off the stormy Cape, they "To reveal to man the offices of these agents separate, the one part steering for the Pacific, in making the earth his fit dwelling place, is the the other standing for the Atlantic. Soon the object of physical geography. Said I not well, ephemeral life that animates these tiny naviga- that of all the sciences physical geography is tors will be extinct, but the same power which the most Christianizing in its influences?" cared for them in life now guides them in death, for though dead, their task in the physical economy of our planet is not yet finished, nor have they ceased to afford instruction in philosophy. The frail shell is now to be drawn to distant seas by the lower currents. Like the leaf carried through the air by the wind, the lifeless remains descend from depth to depth by an insensible fall even to the appointed burial-place on the bottom of the deep; there to be collected into heaps and gathered into beds which, at some day, are to appear above the surface a storehouse rich with fertilizing ingredients for man's use. Some day science will sound the depth to which this dead shell has fallen, and the little creature will perhaps afford solution for a problem a long time unsolved; for it may be the means of revealing the existence of the submarine currents that have carried it off, and of enabling the physical geographer to trace out the secret paths of the sea.

"Had I time, I might show how mountains, deserts, winds and water, when treated by this beautiful science, all join in one universal harmony, for each one has its part to perform in the concert of nature.

Loved ones who've crossed to the further side;

T'e gleam of their snowy rob 8 I fee,

But their voices are drowned in the rushing tide.
There's one with ringlets of sunny gold,
And eyes, the reflection of heaven's own blue;
He crossed in the twilight, grey and cold,
And the pale mist hid him from mortal view.
We saw not the angels who met him there;
The ga e of the city we coul' not see;
Over the river, over the river,

My brother stands wa'ting to welcome me!

Over the river the boatman pale

Carried another-the household pet;
Her brown curls waved in the gentle gale-
Darling Minnie! I see her yet.
She crossed on her bosom her dimpled hands,
And fearlessly entered the phantom bark;
we watched it glide from the silver sands,

And all our sunshine grew strangely dark.
We know she is safe on the further side,

Where all the ransomed and angels be;
Over the river, the mystic river,

My childhood's idol is waiting for me.

For none return from those quiet shores,
Who cross with the boatman cold and pale;
We hear the dip of the golden oars,

And catch a gleam of the snowy sail,-
And lo! they have passed from our yearning hearts;
They cross the stream, and are gone for aye;
We may not sunder the veil apart.

That hides from our vision the gates of day.
We only know that their barks no more

"The Church, ere physical geography had yet attained to the dignity of a science in our schools, and even before man had endowed it with a name, saw and appreciated its dignity, the virtue of its chief agents. What have we heard chanted here in this grove by a thousand voices this morning? A song of praise, such as these hills have not heard since the morning stars sang together: the BENEDICTE of our Mother Church, invoking the very agents whose workings and offices it is the business of the physical geographer to study and point out! In her service she teaches her children in their songs of praise to call upon certain physical agents, principals in this newly-established department of human knowledge: upon the wa- shall watch for a gleam of the flapping sail; ters above the firmament; upon showers and I shall hear the boat as it gains the strand; dew; wind, fire and heat; summer and win-I ter; frost and cold; ice and snow; night and day; light and darkness; lightning and clouds ; mountains and hills; green things, trees and plants; whales, and all things that move in the

May sail with us o'er life's stormy sea;
Yet somewhere, I know, on the unseen shore,
They watch, and beckon, and wait for me.
And I sit and think, when the sunset's gold
Is flushing river and hill and shore,
Ishall one day stand by the water cold,

I

And list for the sound of the boatman's oar;

shall pass f om sight with the boatman pale
To the better shore of the spirit land;

I shall know the loved who have gone before,
And joy fully sweet will the meeting be,
When over the river, the peaceful river,
The Angel of Death shall carry me.

A Blind Girl Feeling for a Sunbeam.

THE sun has just burst out through the clouds, and a heavy golden beam come in at our window.

How bright and cheerful! It comes in so silently, yet it speaks to the heart. Thank a kind God for sunshine! Ages on ages it has illumi

That beam was radiant with beauty, yet she could not behold it. It gleamed upon a world, yet all was night to her. Its silver bursting in the east, or its golden fading in the west, followed as day followed day; but it burst not upon her vision, or faded at decline of day. It glowed in the sky, upon forest, and field, and lake, and river; but not in the blue orbs of the sightless girl. By a singular coincidence, the boy tried to feel of the breeze that came cool upon the cheek as the cars sped swiftly on. The breeze swept over the yellow fields and meadows, and still waters, and coquetted with the locks of the blind boy; but its footsteps were unseen by him. We involuntarily thanked God that we could look upon the beautiful world he has made, and dropped a tear for the hapless children who must grope their way to the grave through a long night. But the light of bliss will burst upon them. Long shall we remember the two blind children.-Baltimore Dispatch.

nated and gladdened a world, yet we hardly think of the great fountain of light and beauty. Writing of sunshine brings to mind a touching incident which came under our observation as we were travelling in the cars. Opposite was seated a family of four, consisting of a man and his wife, and two children — boy and girl· twins, and totally blind. Two lovelier children we never saw. The family were from the South. A southern sun had given each cheek a rich olive complexion, relieved by a beautiful bloom upon the children's countenances. The boy was lightly built, had finely chiselled features, and hair of a dark brown, clustering in rich curls around his neck. The girl was yet more slender, and fragile as a leaf, and of the most spiritualized beauty. Her habit was dark. Her hair was black as night. its heavy, glossy tress-in his inaugural address, made use of the foles confined by a golden band, which glittered lowing suggestive language :

PRESIDENT FELTON, of Harvard University,

brightly upon the dark background. They both "Our young American needs, more than the seemed happy, conversing with an intelligence European youth, the training that shall give beyond their years. The train stopped for a him composure and self-command that shall moment upon the route. The windows were give him the mastery of his faculties, and the all raised, and the children leaning out as if to habit of steady action. He is a citizen of a vast see. The little girl heaved a long sigh, and then republic, wherein every man has his career to leaned back in the seat, exclaiming, "O, mother, open, his fortune to make, his success to achieve. I cannot see anything." A tear trembled in her He feels, every moment, the social or party preseye, and her voice was so sad and low, that it sure, and the weight of individual responsibiliwent to the heart of every passenger who heard bility. These very circumstances make the pethe beautiful and unfortunate creature. "Nei-riod in which we live one which tempts the ther can I see, Bell; but I know that everything young man into premature activity. He is alis beautiful," said her brother, as the light winds lured into the busy scene when his faculties are lifted the thin locks. "You are beautiful, are but half unfolded; his principals are as yet unyou not, Bell?" Just then a flood of sunshine certain; his views vague, his hopes gorgeous as gushed from the white clouds in the west like a the rainbow, and perhaps as fleeting and unsubflash, and fell full and warm upon the cheek of stantial. His tastes unformed; and his moral the sad girl, and upon the tears in her eyes. being crude as the unripe fruit of every sumQuick as thought she put up her hand, and mer. A solid character is not the growth of a attempted to grasp the golden pencils that were day- the intellectual faculties are not matured playing through the thick braids upon her neck without long and vigorous culture. To refine and cheek. Eagerly she shut her hand upon the taste is a laborious process to fortify the vacancy, and a shadow fell upon her counte- reasoning power with its appropriate discipline, nance as she failed to touch the sunshine. "Mo- is an arduous undertaking. To store the mind ther, I cannot feel it; has it fled out of the win- with sound and solid learning, is the work of dow?" What, Bell ? " The sunshine, long and studious years. It is the business of mother. It touched my cheek, but I cannot the higher education to check this fretful impatouch that." The mother's eyes swam in tears, tience, this crude and eager haste to drink the as did those of nearly all in the car. A blind cup of life-to exhaust the intoxicating draughts girl feeling for a sunbeam upon her cheek of ambition."

64

« PreviousContinue »