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"Work."

The following is an extract from a lecture recently deliverd by Mr. Walter Wells, before the Merchants' Literary Association, of New York. In urging the dignity and necessity of the great law of labor, he says:

its currents -the Gulf Stream, rushing along at the rate of thirty miles an hour, with a power that would turn all the machinery of the globe with its little finger. These ocean-currents drive the mighty icebergs to warmer seas, prevent the whaler from being frozen in, in the Northern Ocean, carry food for fishes thousands of miles, and prevent the excess of salt in tropcal seas.

none of

"The earth is as much a piece of work as a cotton factory, and its present condition has cost an enormous outlay of labor. The area of the "Going higher, to organic forms, what actiglobe is 196,000,000 of square miles, and this vity exists in plants? Every plant is as much vast surface is covered with powdered rocks, an instrument of work as a wood-saw, and is the production of which cost much work and put together so as to perform its work. [The the outlay of a vast amount of power. What lecturer here described the circulation of the is it but work when earthquakes shake the sap and its elaboration, in the leaves, into starch, mighty Andes, and crack the rocky epidermis sugar, milk, and turpentine, and the reparative of the earth, reducing millions of tons of rock process by which it sustains the entire plant.] to powder? The pyramids of Egypt cost the No wonder the plant sleeps at night, after such labor of 360,000 men, working twenty years. a day's work. But in South America there is a mass of solid "Rising to animal life, it is scarcely necessarock, forty times greater than Cheops, which ry to say that every animal works for its living. was upheaved from depths of miles below to The minute insect on the leaf of a rose geranimiles above, and that, too, in a vertical direcum, the painted butterfly, who seems always to tion. It took 5,000,000 of men two years to play, the little creature which lives at the botbuild the wall of China, but what is that to the tom of the deepest pits of the ocean — mighty chain of the Andes, or the Himalaya, these can escape the operation of the great law lifted by Nature's forces? Every chain of moun- of labor. They must all work or die. The tains is a memorial of labor, performed upon condor, to get his breakfast, must fly one hunand in behalf of the earth. Its surface, once dred and fifty miles, carrying from forty to secovered with craggy mountains, like those of venty pounds. What overtasked housewife the moon, has been reduced mostly to plains. works harder than this? The humming-bird If it costs $3,000 to smooth a mile of railroad, must ply his wings at the rate of three hundred how much labor must be expended in breaking vibrations per minute- and this is hard work! down the mountains of the earth? And the "This whole system of labor points to the earth is as truly the theatre of work now as need of one higher worker-intelligent man. Plants show this by the fact that they are al"Much work is done by agents which get no ways improved by cultivation. Man is placed credit for it. The sunshine is considered but an on the earth as a co-worker with God. Yet he idle thing, yet light is produced only by vibra- comes far short of his duty. Of all the valuations of inconceivable rapidity, and thus sets ble metals he uses but few; has not conquered all eyes to shaking everywhere, and by other all the powers of steam, electricity or magnetvibrations to the eye produces the effect of heat ism, nor discovered the uses of all the plants, and color. The sunshine, too, lifts the vapors which he erroneously calls weeds. It is not and sets the wind in motion. Nothing works only not respectable to be idle, but it is wicked. harder than this same idle sunshine. The wind, The spider spinning its web is more faithful in too, literally works itself to death, for it must the eye of God than a lazy man." blow until it produces an equilibrium, and that

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stops it. It cools the tropics, carries vapors to THE following is an instance of crime severefind the rain, ventilates the earth, and gives to ly punished : Thomas Stephens, formerly a vegetation that exercise without which it can clerk in the Montreal City Bank, and a prisoner not thrive. For a tree needs exercise as much for forgery, has just come into possession of a as a man. Wasn't he who wished himself as fortune of four hundred thousand dollars. Had idle as the wind, a little in advance of his reck- he resisted temptation, he might have enjoyed oning? There, too, is the lazy ocean, which his fortune; now it only serves to gild his shame does nothing but toil in its bed. But look at and embitter his regrets.

From the New York Teacher. Vassar College-- Female Education.

BY C. B. HALSTEAD.

THE name of Mr. Vassar will hereafter rank

be commenced at once, and it is hoped to be completed and open for the reception of pupils in September, 1863.

Of the necessity and utility of such an institution we may now speak. While legislative aid has been unsparing in the endowment and in history among the philanthropists of mankind. His princely gift, for one of the noblest bestowing of aid with a lavish hand upon colobjects that could engage the head or heart of leges and institutions for the education of young man, has no parallel in the annals of our coun- men, there is not a single fully endowed institry.

tution for the education of women in our whole

Having been blessed with a large fortune, and country. True, there are many institutions that have done, and are doing a noble work in the having no direct descendants to inherit it, it was thus within his power to provide the means of education of females; as the Troy Female Semdoing much good; and having the heart, which inary, Elmira College, Antioch College, in Ohio, too often is wanting in such cases, he conceived and others; yet, we have not one fully endowed and furnished with a corps of professors, to the noble project of erecting and endowing a give instruction in the various higher departCollege for the education of Females.

For this purpose he obtained a special act of ments of science and arts, and of a character, incorporation from the legislature, setting forth stability and permanancy equal to our best colthe end for which it should be established, and leges. It is evident that for the last thirty years the manner in which it should be governed and controlled, viz.: "To promote the education of young women in literature, science and arts"; and then, with a liberality and magnanimity of mind rarely found, became his own executor, and donated and made over for its erection and endowment the sum of four hundred and eight|

thousand dollars.

The grounds donated, and belonging to the bequest, on which the college is to be erected, comprise two hundrd acres, and lie about one mile east of the city limits of Poughkeepsie.

the standard of female education has been constantly rising in our country. A prominent feature at the present day is the prevailing notion that girls should be educated. This idea is becoming so popular that in most of the States nearly as many girls as boys are now attending school. The all-wise Creator, having bestowed upon woman the same intellectual constitution as upon man, she has the same right as man to intellectual culture and development.

The same course of training best calculated to develop the mind and to elevate the thoughts The college building, including the president's of the one, will have a corresponding effect on house, residences for four professors, chapel, li- the other. The minds of both are alike strengthbrary, art gallery, lecture and recitation rooms, ened and prepared for usefulness and happiness &c., are to be on a grand scale, and together with precisely the same course of study. Hence will be five hundred feet in length. The cost the means should be provided adequate to give of the structure is estimated at about two hun-woman a position of intellectual equality with dred thousand dollars. man, in domestic and social life. Experience It is the wish and design of the donor that, has shown that the mind of woman is as susafter the college shall have been erected and ceptible of improvement as that of man, and fully “furnished with all needful aids and ap- the harmonious development of the human race pliances for imparting the most perfect educa- requires that both should be carried on simultion of body, mind and heart," that the remain-taneously and proportionately. It is true, that der of the funds be expended in the preserva- in social life woman is mistress of that which tion of the grounds and buildings; the support decides its hues and gives sunshine and shadof the faculty; the replenishing and enlarging ows to its phases. Then let her be trained and of the library, cabinet, art gallery, and in add- educated to wield her power and influence with ing to the capital stock; so that it shall always intelligence and skill for the best interest of contain within itself the elements of growth society. "Look at the domestic circle! Not and expansion, of increasing power, prosperity more surely does the empress of night illumiand usefulness. nate and beautify the whole canopy of heaven, This great crowning act of the life of Mr. than does woman, if educated aright, irradiate Vassar we hope and trust may prove a rich and give her fairest tints to her own fireside." blessing to the country and the world. It is to For the love, honor and happiness, then, of

American homes, let the most liberal culture of the female mind be encouraged.

When we see the fairest creature in the world rich in the furniture of her mind, our admiraThe controlling influence that mothers exert in tion and affection both pay tribute to her power. molding the character of the young, and in deter- Beauty alone can never secure the permanent mining the nature of our institutions, and shap- respect of a discerning mind. A woman admiring the destiny of our country, can not be too ed alone for her beauty of person, either real or highly regarded, or receive too much attention artificial, may charm and amuse for a time — at the hands of the patriot and philanthropist. but " time draws a veil o'er beauty's face," and beauty, like the summer butterfly or fading Napoleon was once asked what he desired, to flower, is soon past; while an educated mind, establish and perpetuate the real glory of France. like the towering oak, defies the tempests of His significant reply was, "Mothers." Cato said of his countrymen, "The Romans govern but a mind adorned with virtue and intelligence, years. Beauty, wealth and friends may forsake, the world, but it is the women that govern the Romans." The discovery of this very contiin which the improvement of the heart has kept nent is a lasting monument to the political in- pace with the enlargement of the understandHad not the favoring influ-ing, will live when all things else have expired.

fluence of woman.

A virtuous and well-educated woman is more to be prized than rubies - she is a blessing and vision of gladness to all around her. She im

ence of Isabella been exerted, Columbus had never worn the laurel that now graces his brow. There is significance in the remark of the French officer, who, after having visited the mother of parts a high and noble cast of character to those

Washington, exclaimed, "No wonder America has had such a leader since he has had such a mother!" Cicero was the greatest mind of Rome, and mastered the principles of all the sciences of the day, and bathed in the pure sunlight of intelligence far above the mists of ignorance that enshrouded the multitude; and yet, he was wont to court the society and association of intelligent women, for the refining, elevating and ameliorating influence they might exert upon his character and habits.

If

with whom she associates. It is not to be expected that all may or can become authoresses, and embalm their names in the grateful remembrance of posterity. Her power and influence is elsewhere; she is at home in the domestic circle this is her appropriate sphere. Yet the ramis, the first female sovereign, down to Cathapage of history, from the days of queen Semirine of Russia, and Victoria of England, has shown what she can do that she is not inferior to the sterner sex, the "lords of creation," in prowess, in literary excellence, or in all that education makes the man," it also makes constitute moral greatness or real worth. The the woman. Knowledge is her power as well as his. No charter has given him the monopo- shel and Emma Willard, are indellibly registernames of Mrs. Summerville, of Caroline Herly. The same powers and capacities of mind that the Creator has bestowed upon one, have| ed on the pages of science and history. The names of Isabella Graham, Harriet Newell, also been given the other. True, "woman is Mrs. Judson and Florence Nightingale, are asnot called to wrangle in debate, nor contend up-sociated with all that is lovely, estimable and on the political arena, nor plead at the bar, nor minister at the altar; her influence is noiseless and unseen, yet all-pervading as the sunlight. She may wield a moral power that may tell on a nation's destiny and a nation's hopes. She may send out from the quietudes of home a secret influence that shall be felt in our halls of We trust the day is dawning when no son may legislation, in the courts of justice, and, indeed, be found to spurn the ignorance of his mother, in every department of human pursuits. But or chide the want of intelligence in a sister— such an influence cannot be exerted by an igno- the day when an enlightened and well cultivarant an illiterate woman ted Christian womanhood shall throw around - her sphere of usefulness must necessarily be limited her light our patriotic sons the shield of safety, honor dim as the twilight." An education that disci- and prosperity, and both America's sons and plines the mind and heart is an adornment of daughters shall rise to fill the high destiny that woman; more so, in fact, than in man, because Providence has apparently marked out for them it adds what is dignified in him to what is love- in the scale of exalted being.

ly in her.

enviable in life. The names of Mrs. Sigourney, Mrs. Hemans and Hannah More will shine as stars of the first magnitude in the intellectual firmament, as long as poetry holds its charms to please.

NEWBURGH, July, 1861.

For the Schoolmaster.
"And in Prison."

BOUND by sin, a heavy fetter,
Lord, I lie thy endless debtor ;
Lo! look down with eyes of pity
From Thy golden-gated city,
Sick and weary and in prison,
Let me hear Thee say forgiven.

Yoke, all other yokes the lightest,
Hope, all other hopes the brightest,
Let me bow my head and bear them,
Thou my Lord hast deigned to share them.
What can hide the sin of years?
Let me pay my debt with tears.

Oh! that I might once, like Mary,
Bathe those feet, for me so weary!
Or, like John, might know the blessing
Of the Saviour's near caressing.
Lord, may I their love inherit,
Gift me with the self-same spirit.

By thy all forgiving power,
By that last and bitter hour,
By thy love, so mild and tender,
Lord, thy longing child remember;
Take me from my gloomy prison,
Let me rise as thou hast risen.

For thy loving kindness yearning,
Like a prodigal returning,
Father, let thine arms enfold me,
In thy safe, sure mercy hold me,
So from out my gloomy prison
I shall rise as Christ has risen.

Wire Across a Continent.

M. C. P.

The telegraph from the Atlantic to the Pacific is veritably a miracle! Its first opening is thus graphically chronicled in the New York World:

"We chronicle to-day the completion of a telegraphic line stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, across the whole North Ame-]

ment.

of our Eldorado, until it touches the very por.
tals of the Golden State. So in the midst of a
desolating war, which seemingly absorbs the
whole strength of the nation, the splendid mira-
cles of her science and her enterprise go on,
and new cycles of history take their beginning
from events which are unaffected by her victo-
ries and her defeats. It was deemed one of the
most wonderful of human achievements when
the cable was laid which, for a little time, con-
nected the New World and the Old; but this,
which binds together the widely-sundered ter-
ritories of our own continent and nation, which
makes the east and the west of our ocean-bound-
ed Union one, to us, at least, is of greater mo-
Henceforth, from the eastern to the
western ocean there is one pulsation, as there
has long been one common heart. To the eye
it is but a slender thread which binds us, but
it is stronger than a thousand bands of steel.
From east to west and from west to east will
throb tidings of joy or of grief, made common
now in time as in sympathy; the messages of
commerce; the edicts of law; the voice of pow-
er. Already the electric current will have told
the citizens of the Pacific slope of the death of
the most gallant of their number-slain here
by traitor hands on the banks of the Potomac -
and will have joined to their own great sorrow
the sympathetic grief of the millions whom
mountains and deserts and prairies have hither-
to parted from them. The common pain will
but make dearer the common cause for which
he fell, fighting so bravely. This triumph of
our enterprise and art is won at a most auspi-
cious hour. It presages the victory which, how-
ever long delayed, our armies will yet win-the
binding together again in one free and happy
nation the hostile north and south. Space and
time have been conquered to unite the east and
the west, but all the forces of nature, the laws
of trade, the canons and precedents of history,
fight with us as we go forth to the victory which

yet remains."

rican continent. At Cape Race the wire begins,
almost where the toiling surges are scourged
landward to the stormy coasts of Labrador, and
continues in an unbroken length down through If you would add a lustre to all your accom-
the British provinces and our New England plishments, study a modest behavior. To excel
States to the commercial emporium of the con- in anything valuable is great; but to be above
tinent, across the Empire State, through and conceit on account of one's accomplishments is
over the great valleys of the Ohio and the Mis-greater. Consider, if you have rich natural
sissippi, and the verdurous prairies of the west, gifts, you owe them to the divine bounty. If
over the sterile deserts as well, and through the you have improved your understanding, and
passes of the great mountain range which is the studied virtue, you have only done your duty.
the backbone of the continent, along the Great And thus there seems little ground left for vani-
Salt Lake basin and down the shining valleys ty.

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For the Schoolmaster.

A Small School for Deaf Mutes.

BY JOE, THE JERSEY MUTE.

359

will see springing up many Darlingtons, Conrads, Carlins and Booths. I speak from acquaintance. When the Hartford school was in its infancy, and not so crowded as it now is, Loring, Backus, Booth, and several others, came The Gallaudet Guide and Deaf Mutes' Comout, preeminent for their moral, religious and panion, a monthly paper published at Boston, literary attainments; literally verifying the old Amos Smith, Jr., (a semi-mute,) editor, took saying, that from acorns grow big oaks.' A occasion, recently, to discuss the propriety of small school, then, is best. Why on earth do establishing a mute school within the borders of the hearing-speaking folks of Hartford resist Massachusetts, in opposition to Hartford. The the efforts of their former pupils to establish a deaf mutes of Boston petitioned the legislature, school within the limits of one single State for then in session in that city, to provide for the the instruction of their class, when Maine, Vererection of such a school in Massachusetts. mont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode They argued that the number of mutes in that Island- five States in all-furnish their AsyState, as far as they had ascertained, was large lum with pupils upon the foundation of the State enough to warrant the establishment of a school treasury? Even Rhode Island - small State as for their own instruction, independent of that at it is ought to have a mute school erected withHartford. They complained of the system of in its limits, as also Delaware, for the reason instruction pursued in the Hartford school; al- that a small school for the deaf-dumb in particleging that there the gestures and signs vastly ular, is absolutely necessary to their success in predominated over what is called "thinking in all that pertains to the moral and social virtues, words." A committee of investigation, chosen as a class. All we deaf mutes want, is a small by the legislature, visited the Hartford Asylum school conducted on the PRINCIPLES OF LAUThey expressed their satisfaction with the way in RENT CLERC. His (Clerc's) paper on deaf-mute which the affairs of the school were managed. So instruction, read before the convention of the the petition of the deaf mutes fell to the ground. teachers of the deaf-dumb several years ago, is The Guide, however, in a recent issue, intimated a document of infinite value, not only to the that the deaf residents of Boston would put forth teachers, but to the managers of the mute schools their efforts to procure the passage of a bill for the charter of a school in Massachusetts. There of education throughout the country have it in seems to exist no reason why Massachusetts pamphlet form, for future reference."

should not have a mute school of its own. Every State ought to have such a school established within its own bounds.

As bearing somewhat on this subject, I copy an extract from a letter which a teacher of the deaf-dumb wrote to the Guide for October:

on both sides of the Atlantic.

Let the friends

Who,

My own school, (the Philadelphia Institution, that is,) when in its infancy, produced several pupils distinguished for intelligence. Look, for instance, at the case of William Darlington, born under distressing circumstances. "Last week a friend lent me the August num- among mute men, can write better English than ber of the Gallaudet Guide, for a few minutes. he? Henry W. Conrad is one of the very few I see you again agitate the question of establish- who, deprived of hearing, yet make as much ing a mute school within the limits of Massa- use of written language as if they had the orchusetts. You are, in Western phrase, sound gans of speech. John Carlin, born deaf-dumb, on the goose.' I hope you will do all the good has published several poems, in which the rules for which opportunity may offer in the premises. of versification are rarely, if at all, violated. The more the matter is examined, the more im- And an excellent miniature painter, too, he is. perative seem to be the reasons for such an es- Albert Newsam, deserted at birth by his parents, tablishment. A visit to the largest schools for is well known in this country as an eminent deaf-dumb and the blind, will convince any one lithographic engraver. He possesses the rare of the injurious effects arising from a crowded faculty of producing in every instance the most school, especially for the 'can't - speak folks. striking and agreeable likeness, although little Children crowded together, and, as a necessary of the ideal appears in his compositions. James consequence, involved in petty quarrels, gener- Murtagh, now dead, if I am not mis-informed, ally find considerably difficulty in conning les- took out a patent for propelling an engine-car sons. Let us have a small school with a family by heat only. He had some talent for mechaproportioned to its dimensions, and ere long weꞌnics also. With regard to his intellectual char

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