That Cristes gospel truly wolde preche: Wyd was his parisch, and houses fer asondur; This noble ensample unto his scheep he gaf, That, if gold ruste, what schulde yren doo? Lydgate resembles Chaucer in style. He works. belongs to the fifteenth century. "So faint ant mate of weariness I was, Skelton lived in the early part of Henry Eighth's reign. (Died 1529.) Though ready to coin words," says Hallam, he has comparatively few that are obsolete.” He was a satirist, but not a great poet. "What trow ye they say more How in matters they be raw : In the church's right. "This I admonish you to do; that, whether you write of serious matters or of trifles, you write with diligence and consideration, premeditating of it before. Neither will it be amiss, if you first indite it in English; for then it may more easily be translated into Latin, whilst the mind, free from inventing, is attentive to find apt and eloquent words." Letter to his Children, Sept., A. D. 1525. Roger Ascham was contemporary with More. (Born, 1515; died, 1568.) His sentences are not so smooth as More's. The quotation following, is from the preface to "Toxophilus," a treatise on Archery. "He that will write well in any tongue, must follow this counsel of Aristotle: to speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do: as so should every man understand him, and the judgment of wise men allow him.” Ascham was the author of the "Schoolmaster." To give a specimen of Spenser's style is to pluck a leaf as a representation of the tree. He lived in the golden day of good Queen Bess, to whose court he was introduced by Sydney. It was in Ireland that his Fairy Queen had its birth. Writers find more pleasure in the study of its language than from their interest in its thoughts. The poem itself is so often met that a specimen, were it easy to be had, would only be useful as a contrast to the writings of the older poets. Those whose love of his style has been sufficiently zealous to lead them through its endless paths, may be better able to judge of its merits than the writer of this article. To most readers, The Paston Letters" belong to the fif-he poem is dull. Spenser and Shakspeare were contemporary. Their age, the latter half of the sixteenth century, is distinguished for the number and merit of its excellent writers. For the Schoolmaster. Home Education. THERE is a prevailing error in reference to this department of education. There are multitudes of parents who consider their duty performed when they have furnished their children with the required quota of books and placed them under the care and instruction of the appointed teacher. As far as this goes we have no exceptions to take, but this is not enough. The child needs a Home Education-it is absolutely a necessity, without which one essential element in To detect the progress of prose literature, the the proper development of the mind is lost. reader may compare the following, from Wic-| By Home Education we do not mean the riglif's Bible, with the common version, trans-id rule we have known some parents to adopt lated in 1611. "Nyle ye deme that ghe be not demed. For in what doom ye demen: ye schulen be demed, and in what mesure ye meten; it schal be meten agen to you. But what seest thou a litil mote in the yghe of thi brother and seest not a beem in thin owne yghe? Or how seist thou to thi brother, brother suffre, I schal do out a mote fro thin yghe, and lo a beem is in thin owne yghe ? Ypocrite do out first the beem of thin yghe, and thanne thou schalt se to do out the mote of the yghe of thi brother." J. W.O. For the Schoolmaster. Kind Words. How little "words of kindness" cost,- In hearts of flesh they sink to live. The suffering man's sad tale of woe; Who seek to by the scalding tear, And make the sorrowing heart to glow. From pains and toils of human kind,- ICHABOD DOOLITTLE, JR. towards their children, of requiring in the evening a strict recitation of the lessons of the day, and when recited in accordance with the letter of the text book, to pronounce it satisfactory. We believe in the child's obtaina knowledge of mechanics at the proper time, but we do not believe in the mechanical recitations, without one single well defined idea in the mind that will be of future benefit. Every child has his peculiar trials at school and they are to him, actual. The parent has passed through them and the experience of mature years makes them appear to him as mere bubbles in the air soon to explode and vanish away. They are not so with the child-they are realities, and oftentimes discourage and dishearten him, and lead him to wish there were no such thing as school, and by and by, his ambition is gone and he does not care to learn. Now here is where Home Education performs its mission. When the child returns from school with a disheartened and downcast expression, the warm sympathies of the parent should flow out to meet him. The child should be encouraged to unbosom his trials and his difficulties, and it is the privilege and duty of the parent by counsel and encouragement, to assist him to overcome them. Oftentimes these difficulties arise from not clearly understanding some simple principle. Other boys seem to catch the idea, which he does not, and the fear of ridicule and laughter, deters him from asking for information. This principle may be essential to the proper understanding of what is to follow, and, as a matter of course, what succeeds is equally unintelligible, and then comes a sullen inactivity and loss of ambition. The familiar acquaintance, on the part of the parents, with the disposition of the child, together with a proper interest in his studies, helps him to meet and overcome what is to him an apparently insurmountable difficulty. But the question naturally arises, how is this home education to be accomplished, if the child has a natural aversion for study? The mode is the same whether the child loves study or not-the difference consists only in the amount, for, the sronger the natural aversion to study, the greater the necessity for home education. History furnishes a multitude of examples of great attainments under the most difficult circumstances. What child would not be interested in the narration of these facts? Let the parents spend some time and labor is hunting up such interesting anecdotes, and when the ambition of the child begins to falter, then, in the style of a narrative, bring out these illustrations and watch with care the effect upon his mind. His interest will be excited, fresh courage aroused, new ambition will be awakened, and he will put forth an energy of purpose he did not dream that he possessed. We remember very distinctly our first clear idea of the true form of the globe, and its diurnal and annual motions. It was gained by the simple experiment of tying a string to the stem of an apple and revolving it in the air. The untwisting of the string represented the daily motion of the earth upon its axis, and the revolution of the apple in a large circle represented its annual motion around the sun. It is an easy matter for a parent to throw around the task of the child these pleasing influences, and to meet, by a careful study of the disposition and habits of his mind, all these difficulties which retard his progress. who attend our schools during the week, attend the house of God on the Sabbath, and many of them the Sabbath School. At home, also, they may be surrounded by a general influence for good. But this does not always meet the case. The habits of the man are forming in the child, and if he be exposed to pernicious influences, his future life will bear their imprint. Let a parent be as careful as it is possible for any one to be, the youthful mind will come in contact with vice, in one or another of its varied forms-to escape which it is impossible. The duty of the parent, then, is plain. This wicked influence must be overcome by a stronger influence for good. A high moral sentiment must be inculcated, and so permeate the whole being that the mind will be filled with strong feelings of repugnance to the very appearance of evil. To accomplish this is the noblest mission of home education. The education of the intel lect alone, is of little worth in comparison with the nobler elements of man. The finer feelings of the heart must be developed, else there is a want of completeness and symmetry. The fireside, then, must be made pleasant and agreeable, and the anxieties of business or household cares should not be allowed to settle upon the hearth stone to cast a shadow of gloom upon the buoyant spirits of the young. This should be to them a sacred place, where they will ever gain lessoms of wisdom, and to which they will daily look forward with feelings of unmingled delight. Home education, then, is a duty of no small self denial and patience, but it brings with it When its claims shall a glorious reward. come to be fully realized, and acted upon, by every household, then may we look for a generation of patriots and noble men, such as the world has never yet seen. Beranger's Latest Lyric. I. D. JR. THE following is a translation of what is But there is another feature in home education full as important as that we have noticed.supposed to be Beranger's latest composition. It is the proper attention to the moral faculties of the mind. Every child is exposed at school, in his intercourse with his school companions, to many evil influences. We are aware that, as a general thing, the children It is understood to have been sent as a competing poem to a gentleman in this country, who had offered a munificent prize for the best poem on the Battle of Stirling. It has been translated by a gentleman who has undertaken to superintend the publication of the poems which were unsuccessful in that competition. The volume will contain poems by almost all the celebrated poets of the day. STIRLING BRIDGE-WALLACE. "You cannot pass !" was the stern reply of the To those who came from England's host, King "O soldier," cried the friars then, "beware our Beware how you dispute to-day his army's onward path! Go tell your chief to send away his forces from this place, And yield himself, as well he may, to Edward's kingly grace!" "You pass not by!" was still the cry of the Scottish sentinelle; "Tell Surrey that his threats have failed our gallant hearts to quell; We throw him stern defiance back across that sluggish flood, "They must not pass!" was still the cry of Scotia's men-at-arms; And, rising o'er the clash of steel and war's most It sounded on the battle-plain and cowed their And, long before that autumn day had reached its Of that great host that crossed the Forth so gay and full of life, A shattered, broken few were all that 'scaped the They did not pass. The North was saved, and That Stirling bridge was won, now dates her For on that bloody day was gained the freedom of her land, And fadeless wreaths around her brows were By his who raised old Scotland's name till Rotwined by Wallace's hand, man stars grew dim: Are monuments required to keep alive the fame of him?* The old chansonnier over whose remains the grave Whose waters e'er the day has closed shall pur- has so lately closed, with that playful irony of which pled be with blood; We came not here to treat, we came to win with our right hand The speedy disenthrallment of our own dear mountain land." he was so great a master, adds in a note to this line, that "a learned and public spirited acquaintance of his is projecting a scheme for the building of a monument to Noah on Mount Ararat. The fabric is to be an obelisk of Peterhead granite. An entablature on the one side of the basement is to record the account of the "Ha! pass we not ?" said fierce Warenne, "then Deluge, as given in Genesis, and on the other the name let the caitiffs know of the originator of the scheme, his birth, literary We'll drive them from their rocky perch with that "a great meeting to promote this object is to be works, public spirited acts, etc." He further adds sword, and spear, and bow; held on the plains of Syria, and that all the descendants They think, the boors, to emulate the deeds done of Shem and Japhet are to be invited to subscribe to in the pass the monument fund." The meeting is to be held on the Of old Thermopyla, with great and good Leoni- anniversary of the Flood, as settled by Newton's chrodas! nology, and the Khan of Tartary and the Emperor of Austria are to be the chief speakers. But forward now, my gallant bands, o'er stream, and bush, and brake, And let the Scottish rebels see how great is their mistake." 66 They must not pass," now ran adown the forming Scottish ranks, Scotsman. Thomas Jefferson on Popular Education. WE would call the attention of our readers As Surrey's army spread themselves along the to the following opinions of Thomas Jefferson river's banks; upon the subject of popular education, which A fierce invaders meed be theirs on this eventful we find in the Alabama Educational Journal. day, And, Scotland, yours a grand renown that ne'er can pass away; "No man had a larger share in shapin our political institutions than Mr. Jefferso See, see, the northern shore they seek, the north-No one has ever understood better than he ern bank they gain! Down, Scotchmen, from the crag, and sweep their leopards from the plain. the genius of those institutions. He may even be called the founder of the school of politicians who hold to this doctrine of limited powers of government, and none of his disciples, at this day, will claim to have outstripped their great master in political science. The following passage from his writings, collected by the commissioner of public schools of Ohio, prove, not only that he regarded the encouragement of education as one of the appropriate functions of government, but that he esteemed universal intelligence as the great bulwark of free institutions. Would that a larger number of those among us, who profess to make him their political oracle, shared his opinions and imitated his example on this subject. and an university, where might be taught, in To Dr. Priestly, January 27, 1800: "About twenty years ago, I drew a bill for our Legis MR. JEFFERSON'S PLAN OF A REPUBLICAN SCHOOL ture, which proposed to lay off every county of education. SYSTEM. In the revision of the laws of Virginia, about 1777, he proposed three distinct grades 1. Elementary schools, to be held in hundreds or wards of a proper size and population for a school, in which reading, writing and arithmetic should be taught. 2. Colleges for a middle degree of instruction, calculated for the common purposes of life, in twenty-four districts. 3. An university or an ultimate grade for teaching the sciences generally, and in their highest degree. He also proposed the establishment of a library. In a letter to John Adams, of July 5, 1814: "When sobered by experience, I hope our successors will turn their attention to the ad vantages of education-I mean education on "The unless If the To Col. Yancey, January 16, 1816: literary fund is a solid provision, lost in the impending bankruptcy. Legislature would add to that a perpetual tax of a cent a head on the population of the State, it would set agoing at once, and forever maintain a system of primary or ward schools, into hundreds or townships of five or six miles square. In the centre of each of them was to be a free English school. The whole State was also laid off in ten districts, in each of which was to be a college for teaching the languages, geography, surveying, and other useful things of that grade; and then a single university for the sciences. About three years ago they enacted that part of my bill which related to English schools, except that, instead of obliging, they left it optional in the court of every county to carry it into execution or not. I think it probable that the part of the plan for the middle grade of education may also be brought forward in due time." 66 To Mr. Correa, Nov. 25, 1817, urging that the Virginia Legislature should "enter at once on a general system of instruction," as follows: For this purpose I have sketched and put in the hands of a member, a bill delineating a practicable plan, entirely within the means they have on hand, destined to this 1. Elementary object. My bill proposes, schools in every county, which shall place every householder within three miles of a school. District colleges, which places every father within a day's ride of a college, where he 3. An university, may dispose of his sons. in a healthy and central situation, with the offer of the lands, buildings, and funds of the central college, if they will accept that place for their establishment. In the 1st will be taught reading, writing, common arithmetic, and general notions of geography. In the 2d, ancient and modern languages, geography fully, a higher degree of numerical arithmetic, |