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Men of Thought.

BY A. DUGANNE.

MEN who ponder, list to me!

In the depths of all your hearts, Something lives and something starts: It would mount-it would be freeChain it not, I counsel ye!

Men who in the furrow tread,

Sowing seed within the earthTrusting in its future birth,Lo! within yor HEART lies dead Seeds that may be future bread!

Men whose lives with toil are fraught—
Ye who o'er the anvil bow,-
In your souls, O gaze ye now:
There abides the anvil, THOUGHT-
There may mighty deeds be wrought!

Acorns blossom to the oak

Drops of rain to ocean swell: Dare not ye your thoughts to quell! Never yet was truth outspoke, That hath not an echo woke!

Dare not ye your thoughts to hide!
On the waters cast your bread!
Prophets were by ravens fed!

If to speak it hath not tried,
Then is Thought a suicide!

Speak ye, men of thought speak out-
Trust ye still response to find!
Thoughts will wake in kindred mind;
Even as the arousing shout

Starts reply from caverns deep.
Echoes, till ye speak, will sleep.

Patch not ancient lies with new! Moths will seek their old abode; Build on sand a marble road, And 'twill sink its basis through, Rivets in a rotten shield

Will but make it sooner yield.

What though ye be weak and few?

What though never a sunbeam smiles? INSECTS build the coral islesInsects pierce the ocean through; Ye are MEN-and will ye quail, When the insect did not fail?

Clothed with nightshade thrive the oaks.
Truth, though bound in shackles thrives:
Error forgeth her own gyves,
As itself the nightshade chokes,

Stars, and flowers, and all things bright,

Work through darkness into light.

Speak ye, then, to echoing souls,

Till the eternal concave sound-
Till around Creation roll
Voices from the vast profound:

Even like the glorious shouts that rang
When morning stars together sang.

TEACHING THE EYE.-The great majority of mankind do not and cannot see one fraction

of what they intended to see. The proverb

that "None are so blind as those that will not see" is as true of physical as of moral vision. By neglect and carelessness we have made ourselves unable to discern hundreds of things which are before us to be seen. Thos. Carlyle has summed this up in one pregnant sentence: " The eye sees what it brings the power to see." How true is this! The sailor on the look-out can see a ship where the landsman sees nothing; the Esquimaux can distinguish a white fox amidst the white snow; the American back-woodman will fire a rifle ball so as to strike a nut out of the mouth of a squirrel without hurting it; the red Indian boys hold their hands up as marks to each other, certain that the unerring arrow will be shot, between the spread-out fingers; the astronomer can see a star in the sky, where to others the blue expanse is unbroken; the shepherd can distingnish the face of every sheep in his flock; the mosaic worker can detect distinctions of color where others see none; and multitudes of additional examples might be given of what education does for the eye. The Five Gateways of Knowledge.

THE POWER OF LITERARY MEN.-Sir Thos. Brow once said, "Scholars are men of peace; they carry no arms, but their tongues are sharper than Acua's razor; their pens carry farther and give louder reports than thunder. I had rather stand in the shock of a basilisk than in the fury of a merciless pen."

A boy at school in the West, when called to recite his lesson in history, was asked :— "What is the German Diet?

"Sour krout, pretzels, schnapp, blut-worst and lager-beer," was the reply.

EDITOR'S DEPARTMENT.

Robert Allyn, Editor.

Think of This.

A FEW days since we were setting by ourself in a place where through an open window we could hear more than we could see. So we allowed our ears to open themselves, and gather what they could both for our own profit and if possible the edification of our readers. In a house over the way from us we heard a voice.

of Mrs. Caudle. Their young minds are absolutely poisoned by them. We were where we overheard a child say not long since, as she sat in what her own mother called "a fit of the sulky pouts," say to herself:

"I dont see what's the use of trying to do right. If I do what mother tells me, I don't do it in the right way; and if I do it in the right way I don't do it at the right time; and if I get the right thing, and the right way, and the right time, there is something else to find fault with. I do wish mother was a little girl, and I had to order her round! would'nt I pay her back? I don't believe she'd come any nearer to doing right than I could. I know she could'nt."

Now that little girl was not by any means a solitary case, and the very same thoughts, as we happen to know, are daily flitting about the heads and hearts of thousands of children; they do not always take as definite shape as they did in the case we overheard. There was one other case of child-thought that we knew of, and which proved to be a severe rebuke to a very conscientious, exact, and yet a very unthinkingly censorious teacher. He was reproving Benjamin for making some fun or sport to amuse himself and his companions; and he administered the reproof severely, unlovingly, and bitterly. "Mr. H.” said Ben, looking into the old man's face with the honest, sincere look of a child of seven,— were you ever a boy in your life, and do you know how boys love fun?"

"Why Jane, what a naughty girl, how you do act; don't you know anything? Are you a fool? and do you really mean to be wicked? Why I never did see such a young one! It does seem as if you'd plague the life out of me, I do declare. You did'nt mean to break it? You did'nt? No, I know it. You never did mean to do anything. I know you don't. You are an innocent thing, ain't you? O, yes, budging about here with dishes in your hands and never looking to see what lies on the floor. Could'nt see while you were looking up to hear me? Well, I know I am always to blame. I do all the mischief. I am the only person in this house that does anything. You always do exactly right, or would if I was not round. O, dear! what a sinner I am. Well, I never did see. Now what are you pulling that stocking for? Why don't you keep on with your knitting? Stopping to hear me? Why don't you knit and listen too? I wish if you do Aye, that is the question to you, ye scolding, hear me you would mind, for I never did see such fault-finding parents. Were you ever children, a hateful creature. It does seem as if I could'nt and did you ever love fun, or laziness, or thoughtstand it any longer. If children only thoughtlessness and boisterous rollicking riot and disorwhat a plague they were! How awful unhappy and miserable you do make my life."

We heard a great deal more that we cannot accurately remember, and that would be of no particular interest to our readers if we could. In a short time, we dropped into the house over the way, and we found the good lady all smiles and courtesies. She accosted us most blandly. "Why dear Mr. SCHOOLMASTER, how long you have kept yourself away! I have really been wondering what had become of you? Why hav'nt you called? What a pleasant morning! I have been thinking all the morning how delightful and how much I do enjoy this fine weather."

der? Think of that, you teachers, and ask yourselves, were you ever scholars, and did you ever love play or hate the arithmetic and the teacher? And is not your memory as good to recall your sad feelings when you were misapprehended and scolded for nothing as to remember the rules of grammar that you learned? And could not the thing that you longed for-sweet kindness-rendered lovingly, be a good kind of medicine for the young heart's cure of many of its evils?

But we have not yet done with examples. We went into a school-room, a time-not less than a month nor more than twenty years ago-and found two young ladies teaching about one hunWhat we said, need not be told. It would pro- dred and ten children, in a primary, or primarybably do as little good here as we suspect it did intermediate school. The children were all the there. But we have one other word and by-and-way from four-year old infants in A B C, up to by, another example, to say on this subject of fault-finding and scolding children. We know places where the children are daily afflicted with lectures equally pungent and intolerable as those

incipient men and women of twelve, in grammar and history. As we entered, we were met with a smile from the really handsome, graceful and commanding Principal. She accosted us in tones

of honied sweetness. Her very eyes flattered us, and her words were softer than butter and blander than May. Our heart was a captive, for we may as well confess it at once-we were a great deal younger than now, and then admired young ladies for a purpose, as we do not now, of course. She spoke of the weather, how lovely it was; of the delightful ride we must have had; of the pleasure she had in receiving a call from any one-especially-but the rest of the sentences was to us like the ends of the sentences that Gen. Jackson read through the spectacles that Jack Downing gave him-" all covered in glory." "Do you not," said she, "think school-keeping gives one an opportunity to learn much of human nature?" It was spoken in a low tone, so that the school did not hear it, and with a beautiful smile of the eye and dimple of the cheek and mouth. Before we could reply, we heard, "John, come here, you rogue! Did'nt I tell you to mind your

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SINCE inditing the last paragraph for the May Schoolmaster we have had some rare enjoyment. We propose to devote a little space to saying a few words as to the ways and means.

And first,

we attended the dedication service of the new Bridgham School in Providence, on the 26th of May. We were delighted with most of the exercises; one part we did not profess to criticise or to enjoy all else we were pleased with. The school-house is a fine structure having cost $20,000. It stands on more than a half-acre in the city-a very commendable breathing-place for the scholars. It is of brick, and most thoroughly finished in all its parts, without display, sham or jimcrack ornaments. Every room is easy of access, convenient, appropriate and elegant. We need say no more. We know some of the teachers, and will only say of the Principal and his assistants that they are worthy of the stern, angry and caustic, as vitriol to the tongue.place, and of the city which has built so good She went on now much milder. "No you need'nt, and substantial a building. go back to your seat and stand."

lesson? Go under that desk!" The tone was

The contrast in the tone, manner and expression, was too striking to be unnoticed; and we saw then the difference between speaking to an equal or a superior on indifferent and commonplace matters, and speaking to an inferior in re

gard to some point where that inferior is supposed to have offended or gone purposely wrong. Now

what is the use for a grown person, having a tol

erably well disciplined mind, to get out of all manner of patience with a little weak-minded child? And how many think of the necessity of treating a child like an equal, or like a reasonable being?

We do enter our most emphatic condemnation of, and protest against all this everlasting scolding and be-rating of the dear little children in our houses and schools. We have not the slightest objection to having them governed and trained. Indeed, we insist on this. But we do not believe in the efficacy of Mrs. Caudle's lectures, neither to husbands, to children, nor yet to pupils. We believe that few words to a child are better than a flood; and that kind tones telling how and what to do, are vastly more effective than a long harangue of fault-finding. And here we wish to beseech our good readers, parents and teachers to examine themselves and see if they cannot get the blessed gift that Burns asked for, and which would have done him, as it would all of us, so much good:

"Owad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us,
It wad from monie a blunder free us,
And monie a hurtful notion."

The exercises were opened by the delivery of the keys from the building committees to the Mayor of the city. This was done in a neat speech by Dr. Snow. The Mayor replied appropriately and beautifully, after which, came the

After

reading of the Scriptures, the excellent song in praise of Wisdom in the Proverbs of Solomonand a prayer by the Rev. Mr. Wolcott. this, came a speech of great beauty and power by Rev. Dr. Sears, President of Brown University. These remarks were of great interest, and were, as the President's speeches always are, full of practical wisdom; we profited by hearing him, and so did others. This was the speech of the occasion, and though we wish we could do it, we shall not attempt a report of it. More was said after this, and at the close the large company adjourned to look at the rooms. Interspersed with these various exercises were anthems, hymns and odes, sung by a choir of children under the direc tion of Mr. Sumner; and this was not the least interesting part of the exercises. Three of the hymns were original, and were eminently adapt

ed to the occasion.

On the whole, the occasion, was one that could

not fail to strengthen the impression that the she may neglect, she will take care of her schools, city of Providence is determined, whatever else and at the same time to extend the appreciation and influence of her schools. Long may it be when the dedication of a new school-house shall be an event unnoticed and unknown.

On the 28th and 29th, was the adjourned session of the Annual Meeting of the Rhode Island

Institute of Instruction at Newport. The weather was awful, and of course but a comparatively few persons were present. We confess, to a little shame on account of the teachers in Newport County. But we know the manifold excuses they had for absence and apparent want of interest, and do not blame anybody but ourselves.

on

work out of the school-room that day, as well as for their efficient labors in it at other times. Success will attend them.

Israel G. Bixby.

as a member of various social and benevolent associations, he was promptly ready to assume and perform the duties imposed. Young in years, (twenty-eight) but rich in the jewels of an honored and honorable life, he has left the sphere of his earthly labors, and to no one could be more appropriately applied the following lines:

THE recent death of this young man, so highly On Thursday evening, Hon. George H. Calvert delivered a most elegant educational prose poem estimable in all the relations of life through "Moral Culture." We cannot say how much which he has passed in his few years of sojourn we were pleased with it. It took the only true among us, presents a fitting opportunity to menground that moral culture, or the training of the tion his good qualities as gathered from the vahigh and holy spirit of man, is the first and no-rious city papers. As friend, neighbor, citizenblest work of the teacher; and it enforced this grand doctrine in a manner at once delightful and profitable. The address was listened to with evident satisfaction by more than half the members of the General Assembly there in session. On the 29th, the forenoon and afternoon were given to discussions, in which Rev. Warren Burton, Prof. Colburn, Rev. F. A. Tenney, the Commissioner and others participated. Rev. Mr. BurHome ton read an address on the subject of " Education," which was a capital thing, and conveyed both a moral and a lesson well worth remembering. This lead to much profitable remark on the proper method of governing scholars that ought to have been heard by our readers.

In the evening, Rev. Mr. Stone read an elegant address on "The Study of Mathematics." It was admirable, and full of truth and beauty. On the whole, the Institute was very profitable to all who attended, and those who did not attend, have forever missed much pleasure and advantage.

"The good die first;

While those whose hearts are dry as Summer dust,
Burn to the socket."

But his conduct as a pupil in a public school, seems more appropriately to entitle him to a notice in the Schoolmaster. The following article, therefore, written as would seem from the initial letter, by his teacher, is inserted.

"Others have spoken of Mr. Bixby as a man and a citizen. I propose to drop a word about him as a boy and a pupil. In these last relations, I knew him well. We It is well someare wont to admire the ripened corn. times to turn to the processes by which corn is pro

duced. Character is the result of cultivation. Israel
was a boy before he was a man. In his boyhood he laid
the foundations for his future character. He was stu-

dious, conscientious, truthful, kind, and upright in all
his relations. A member of a school of more than two
hundred pupils, he took his stand in favor of duty and
right, and won the respect alike of his teachers and
fellow pupils. Some incidents might here be related il-
lustrative of his early moral bearing, but enough has
"hat the boy was the
already been said to show
father of the man." His success and high standing as
a man and a citizen arose from his faithfulness, and
moral stand in early life."

P.

Then-shall we say?-best of all, we attended a school pic-nic got up by the six female teachers in school District No. 3, North Providence, on the 5th of June, and a capital thing it was for the young folks. We did heartily enjoy seeing and hearing the children in the woods. There were over two hundred of them of all ages, sizes, sexes, dresses, &c., from thirteen, down to baby in mother's arms; and such a running, and hurry-scurring among the dry leaves beneath the green boughs, and up and down the grassy knolls, we have not seen this many a day. It was good for the eyes to look at, to say noth- Eleventh Annual Report of the Town of ing of the heart, to think upon it. We did'nt say much, but we did enjoy the sweet breath of balmy June, and the broad open sky with its canopy of clouds and the glorious sweep of the goodly landscape. The city was directly in sight, and how we did pity its inmates we cannot tell. But we must not say more. These teachers, Misses Stanfield, Weeden, the two Anthony's and the two Smith's, deserve to be loved for their good

Scituate.

EACH School is taken in the order of their numbering. In looking over the brief remarks, the Winter school of District No. 5, is reported as closing prematurely, on account of the ill-health of two teachers in succession. Why will not our schoolmasters and mistresses be more careful to apply their knowledge of the rules of health..

which are probably taught, or ought to be, in their respective schools, to their own particular welfare? The R. I. Schoolmaster contains in some numbers, a short article, teaching in a plain way of the different causes of losing health, and suggesting means of obviating them.

and intelligence of its citizens. In nearly all her young cities and towns, spacious school buildings have already been completed, or are now in process of erection. Chicago, Peoria, and many smaller towns and cities can boast of complete systems of graded schools vieing with the best of New England.

At the last session of the State Legislature, an act was passed for the establishment of a State Normal University on a most liberal scale. $10,000 per year for its support, $100,000 for school

But the truth, in too many cases, is that "they know the right but yet the wrong pursue." In one district, a teacher is noted for the thorough system of reading she adopts. The scholars are required to read in a natural and easy manner, and at the conclusion, to give a synopsis of what-buildings, 160 acres of land for a site-are facts ever they had read. This plan requires more attention from the pupils, but they profit more by the lesson.

District No. 13 had an exhibition at the latter part of the term. As the Report gives no account of the proceedings about this exhibition, it may be stated that the scholars took a great interest in it, and a small sum for admission secured a sufficient surplus over expenses to enable them to make a beginning for a library, by the purchase of books. The exhibition was fully attended, and did credit to teacher, scholars and

parents.

This district has set a noble example in commencing a school library. May others be induced to follow it. Books of reference should be furnished to every school by which the scholars can find the desired explanation of questions, and be more engaged in the lessons by having this opportunity of understanding them as they proceed in their studies. The teachers, likewise, will add to their knowledge, from this source probably, and the expense of the books will be more than repaid by more thorough instruction. Let every district try the plan.

A word for Illinois.

which need no comment. Arrangements are making to put it into operation immediately.

This brief visit of our friend Hovey, recalled the most vivid recollections of the meetings of a Teacher's Association formed some seven or eight years ago, in a little town in Massachusetts, of which he was an active member, then, as now, full of life, enthusiasm and vigor, ever ready with a cheering word, and full of good thoughts and wise counsels. He is a true teacher, and by his natural temperament, no less than by his thorough scholarship, enlarged experience and extensive acquaintance with educational movements, and the best schools and school systems of our country, is admirably fitted for the field of labor he has chosen. Success be with him. He deserves and will gain it.

OUR CONTRIBUTORS.-We have lately enjoyed the reading of the articles on English Literature by our contributor, J. W. O., and we trust our readers have done the same. His articles have been interesting and we hope they will be con

tinued.

We have the same good word, and more even, in regard to ANNIE ELIZABETH, who has written articles in poetry for our Magazine, from the beginning. She has our thanks.

And we will venture as much for MANFRED

and JOHN DUDD, whose articles are always wel

come.

WE recently received a call from our old friend C. E. Hovey, Esq., now Superintendent of Public Schools in the city of Peoria, Ill., and editor of the Illinois Teacher. He was on an educational tour to the scene of his former labors in the East, THE ATTLEBOROUGH WEEKLY BULLETIN is a and brings with him the most cheering accounts finely printed, well edited sheet, started by one of the state of education in his Western home. of our old friends, who deserves success. The In the midst of almost unexampled prosperity-Bulletin is published by William H. Berry, and property of every description rapidly rising in will do Attleborough more good, than it would value, new towns and cities springing up as it for her citizens to keep the money it would cost. were in a night-the wilderness or solitary prairie of yesterday, to-day alive with the hum of industry-the fever of speculation everywhere high. -the people of Illinois seem never to have forgotten that the highest and best prosperity of a State can only be secured through the education

THE INVENTOR is a monthly publication, devoted, as its name imports, to inventions. Published by Low, Haskell & Co., 304 Broadway, New York. It is worth more than $1.00 a year.

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