A NORMAL SCHOOL for the State of Illinois is building at Bloomington. The act providing for unable to accept, for I could not sever abruptly the ties which for a number of years I have been accustomed to consider as binding me for the re-its erection, enacts that the avails of the Seminamainder of my days to the United States. Moreover, I cannot suppose that the instruction which was entrusted to M. d'Orbigny could be interrupted for a sufficient length of time, to permit me to finish certain embryological labors which I have undertaken with a view of comparisons with the fossils of the epochs anterior to our own, and which would lose all their interest if left incomplete. I find myself, therefore, under the painful necessity of refusing a position, which in every circumstance, I shall always regard as the most brilliant to which a naturalist can aspire. ry and Uuiversity funds should be appropriated for the support of the institution, but that no part thereof should be used in purchasing sites or erecting buildings. It was thought proper that these essentials should be provided gratuitously by any city or county where the school should be located. The Board of Education was instructed to locate the Normal University in that city or town, accessible and not otherwise objectionable which should offer the greatest donation. It was understood that the central portions of the town were "accessible," and then competition ran high. At first almost every town in the interior took the initiatory steps towards making a bid: but sometime before the day for opening the proposals it was whispered around that Bloomington and Peoria were ahead of all other competitors. Most of the smaller towns decline to submit their proposals, and the contest virtually lay between the two cities. The board visited these two points and examined the sites It may appear to you strange that I should allow a few ovules and embryos to weigh in the balance which is to decide for the remainder of my life; but, doubtless, it is to this absolute devotion to the study of nature that I am indebted for the confidence of which you have just given me a mark as signal as it is nnexpected; and it is because I would continue to merit this confidence for the future, that I have taken the liber-offered. Upon opening the bids it was found ty of entering into these details. Allow me, also, to correct an error that has been circulated in reference to myself. I am not French. Although of French origin, my family has been Swiss for centuries, and I myself, though expatriated for more than ten years, have not ceased to be Swiss. I beg your Excellency to receive, with the reiterated assurance of my lively regrets at my inability to accept the chair that you offer me, the assurance of my high consideration. LOUIS AGASSIZ. Boston Transcript. NEWSPAPERS IN WISCONSIN.-There are 20 daily newspapers published in Wisconsin: 16 triweekly or semi-weekly, and 111 weekly publications-total 147. The Janesville Gazette publishes a complete list of them. They make a formidable column of names to be supported in so young a State as Wisconsin. THE States of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, which in 1840 contained 74,000 people, now contain a million and a half. that Peoria had offered $30,000 and Bloomington $140,000. The institution was of course located at Bloom ington. The building will be three stories high exclusive of the basement, 166 feet long, 100 feet wide and 156 feet from the ground.-Illinois Teacher. THE "COLLEGE DE FRANCE," one of the most renowned literary and scientific institutions of Europe, has hitherto enjoyed a certain independence-nominating its own professors and assistant professors, regulating its own course of lectures, administering its own pecuniary and other affairs, etc. But the French Emperor has just decreed that henceforth its independence shall cease, and that it shall be placed in subjection to the government. Accordingly, it is the government, instead of the professors themselves, who will henceforth nominate the assistant professors, and who will regulate all the business of the college. The measure has naturally afforded anything but satisfaction to the distinguished men who belong to the Collège de France, and the public is loud in condemning it. IN the election for a vacant professorship of Natural Sciences in the University of Glasgow, an honor has been conferred on Prof. Henry D. Rodgers, Geologist, of the State of PennsylvaMORE than 42,000 pupils attend the public nia, who was unanimously elected to fill the vaschools in N. Y. city, daily. cant chair. IN OUR last number we spoke of the removal to the West, of Mr. EDWARDS, of the Salem, Mass., State Normal School, and of the appointment of Mr. Hagar, to fill the vacancy. THE CITY OF CANTON.-People who have nev er seen an unadulterated Eastern City, are apt to entertain very erroneous ideas upon the subject, when we talk of a great city of a million of inhabitants. The whole circuit of the walled city is just six miles. The mass of habitations are about fifteen feet high, and contain three rooms; they have one entrance, closed by a bam We understand the people of Jamaica Plain have raised Mr. Hagar's salary to $2.000, and he is still to remain with them. They know what the best interests of their schools demand. Prof. ALPHEUS CROSBY has received and ac-boo screen. Some of the shops have a low upper cepted the appointment, and entered upon his duties at Salem. Massachusetts has four State Normal Schools in successful operation, and the people may well be proud of them. story, and the house, "roof and terrace altogether, may rise twenty-five feet from the street. Better houses there are, but they are not more lofty. All these edifices are of the most fragile description, built of soft brick, wood or mud.-London Times Correspondence. THE papers record the death of John Seneca, President of the Seneca Nation of Indians, aged about 70 years. He was one of four who formed the first Mission Church upon the Buffalo Reser HERR VON TSCHUDI, the celebrated traveller and naturalist, two of whose works appeared in translations in Murray's Series, is about to commence a scientific journey in Rio de Janeiro, and will sail from Hamburg for Rio at the end of September. He intends to take the hitherto un-vation, nearly forty years ago, (Presbyterian.) explored route between the rivers La Plata and Amazon. NEWSPAPERS IN MINNESOTA.-There are at the present time, (Sept. 7,) 43 weekly and three daily newspapers printed and published in Minnesota. More than one half of these 43 newspapers are less than one year old. Nine of them date the commencement of their existence, within the past two months. BAYARD TAYLOR says that the fishermen of Norway are supplied with wood by the gulf| stream. He will soon send to press a new volume of travels. Its title will probably be "Northern Travel: Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Lapland and Norway.". He was a man very much respected by his own Nation as well as the whites. THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL announces that Henry L. Bowen, the biographer of Tristam Burgess, has prepared a lecture upon the life, character and eloquence of that distinguished Rhode Islander. A good quality of coal has been discovered on the claim of Mr. George B. Holmes, about two miles south of Topeka, Kansas. THE highest habitation in Europe is on the summit of the Aiguille du Goute, 13,000 feet above the level of the sea. ONE mass of copper brought to Detroit from Lake Superior, within a few weeks, weight 8,749 pounds. THE Austrian Government has decided to in THE Paris papers announce that M. Maccarthy, a young member of the Geographical Society, has left France to undertake, entirely unaccompanied, a journey into Central Africa. He pro- troduce the decimal system in its currency fort poses going to Timbuctoo by a route not yet attempted. with. IT is said that there are now laid up, in t THE Academy of Sciences of Paris has recommended M. d'Archiac and M. Bayle to the Gov-vicinity of Buffalo, about 1,000 canal boats. ernment as candidates for the chair of Paleontology, in the Museum of Natural History, vacant by the death of M. d'Orbigny. A NEW fragment of a planet between the orbits of Mars and Jubiter has been discovered at the Washington Observatory. This makes the 47th. THE eight saving banks in New York city hav on deposit an aggregate of $29,000,000. OUR cotton crop of last year was $130,000,000. This year it will be worth $160,000,000. A vein of cannel coal has been discovered in the bluffs above Doniphan, Kansas, 13 in. thick SCHOOL EXERCISES. We hope our mathematicians will give due atention to the problems in this number, and send n the solutions. Questions for Solution. 6. In Algebraic multiplication a term affected with a minus sign multiplied by another term affected with a like sign produces a positive quantity. Now, since zero multiplied by zero produces zero, why does a minus quantity multiplied by a minus quantity produce more than zero, that is a positive quantity? 1. There are two rods, one of which is four feet in length, and the other three, there being to lines of division upon either to assist in measring. How can they be placed so that, while ouching each other, one end of one shall be ex-veying." ctly five feet from one end of the other? 2. A grey squirrel is turning such a wheel as is commonly attached to squirrel-cages. Now, if it be granted that the squirrel will lose every year one half the weight which it had at the beginning of the year, and that the pivot on which the wheel turns will, in like manner, wear away one half every year; and farther, that the squirrel will possess muscular energy to turn the wheel, so long as it shall retain the least quantity of matter, and that the pivot will continue to support the wheel so long as it retains the least quantity of matter, it is required to determine whether the squirrel or the pivot will fail first, and how soon the wheel will cease to revolve. 3. Zeno's paradox respecting motion. "Achilles is pursuing a tortoise, the slowest of all nimals. The tortoise is a mile before Achilles t starting, and Achilles runs a hundred times s fast as the tortoise, yet he will never overtake ; because when Achillies has run one mile the ortoise has moved forward the hundredth part of mile. Again, whilst Achilles passes over this ne hundrenth of a mile the tortoise has moved on one ten thousandth of a mile, so that it is not yet overtaken. In the same manner while Achilles runs over that ten thousandth part of a mile, the tortoise has moved on the millionth of a mile, and is not yet overtaken, and so on ad infinitnm." How can this be reconciled with common experience? Questions in Surveying. D. G. TAKEN from "Alsop's New Treatise on Sur Example 1. The bearings and distances of the sides of a tract of land are,-1. N. 61. 20' W. 22.55 chains; 2. N. 10. W. 16.05 chains; 3. N. 60. 45' E. 14.30 chains; 4. S. 66. 40' E. 17.03 chains; 5. S. 86. E. 22.40 chains; 6. S. 31. 40' line is desired. The position of the division Example 2. To find the length of a tree leaning to the south, I measured due north from its base 70 yards, and found the elevation of the top to be 25. 10'; then measuring due east 60 yards, the elevation of the top was 20. 4. What was the length and inclination of the tree? Example 3. The boundaries of a quadrilateral are,-1. N. 354 E. 23 chains; 2. N. 75. E. 30.50 chains; 3. S. 31. E. 46.49 chains, and 4. N. 663 W. 49,64 chains,-to divide the tract into four equal parts by two straight lines, one of which shall be parallel to the third side. Required the distance of the parallel line from the first corner, the bearing of the other division line and its distance from the same corner, measured on the first side. Example 4. To determine the height of a liberty-pole which had been inclined by a blast of wind, I measured 75 feet from its base, the ground being level, and took the angle of elevation of its top 67. 43' 30", the angle of position of the base and top being 5. 37'. Then, measuring 100 feet farther, I found the angle of position of the bottom and top to be 2.29'. Required the length of the pole. Example 5. The distances from the three corners of a field in the form of an aquilateral triangle to a well situated within it are 5.62 chains, 6.23 chains, and 4.95 chains respectively. What is the area? 5. The mouth of the Mississippi river is said Example 6. The diameter of a circular grassto be farther from the centre of the earth than plat is 150 feet, and the area of the walk that its source, how then can you account for the south-surrounds it is one-fourth of that of the plat. erly flow of the river? Required the width. OUR BOOK TABLE. A TREATISE ON SURVEYING. By Samuel Alsop, author of a treatise on Algebra, &c. E. C. & J. Biddle, Philadelphia, 1857. We have received a copy of this new work on Surveying, through Messrs Phillips, Sampson & Co., Boston. It comprises 332 pages, with an Appendix, containing 100 additional pages of mathematical tables. It is a very complete work upon the whole subject of surveying,-one of the most important studies pursued in our schools and colleges. It is evidently written with great care, and is the result of much study, labor and experience. The author is an eminent teacher of mathematics, in the West-town Boarding School, Penn., an Institution of high rank, numbering some 300 pupils. We cannot speak of the work in detail, but from a partial examination we are much pleased with it. Perspicuity and Accuracy-two eesentials in mathematical works,-seem to be aimed at throughout. The completeness of the work may be judged of by the fact that there are ten chapters in the book, two only of which comprise a full treatise on surveying as practised in this country. The chapter on laying out and dividing land is eminently practical, and worth the attention of every student in surveying. The typographical and entire mechanical execution of the work is excellent. The mechanical execution of the book is commendable. The cuts are numerous and well executed. The subjects presented are systematically arranged, and are discussed in a pleasing and often highly interesting manner. The chapter on agricultural chemistry is instructive and important. We think in many instances the author has failed to simplify his language sufficiently to teach successfully the "elements of science to beginners." The chapter on Daguerreotyping, for instance, would fail to impress the child's mind with a very definite idea of the process. Why will not authors in their text books on such subjects, avoid the question and answer'system? THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW has been received, and we wish to tell our friends to read it. Those of you, who, for whatever cause, do not yourselves of a rich treat. read some work of this character, are depriving It is, indeed, one of the luxuries of life to sit down and drink in the rich thoughts of such essays as the one in this number of the North American, entitled, “Charlotte Bronté and the Bronté Novels;" or "The Dred Scott Case; or, "Brazil and the Brazilians." We are glad that New England can support such a quarterly. "THE EDUCATOR'S ASSISTANT, a Descriptive Catalogue of the Holbrook School Apparatus, with Globes, Maps, Charts, Philosophical, Optical and Mathematical Instruments, and Standard Educational Works." F. C. Brownell, of Hartford, has sent us a neat and very useful pamphlet of 84 pages, bearing the above title. Mr. Brownell will send it, worth the money merely to tell you what tools there are for teachers to work with. The author has had unusual facilities for writing a work on surveying. For many years a practical teacher of mathematics in a flourishing institution, in a part of the country where the mathematics are pursued to a great extent, a vig-We would advise every teacher to get it. It is post paid, to any teacher on receipt of 10 cents. orous teacher, and a hard working man, ardently attached to his department of labor, he has applied himself to the subject with an energy and diligence which are a sine qua non to the production of such a work. He has had ample facilities to test his rules and problems, in his regular excursions for practice with his class, upon the large farm connected with the institution. At the multiplication of good text books for our schools we rejoice, but unless some improvement is made in new books, we had better make no changes. FIRST BOOK OF CHEMISTRY, AND ALLIED SCI- This is a book of 200 pages, "designed to teach the elements of science to beginners." It is divided into 17 chapters, and discusses topics comprising a wide range in physical science, from "Atoms and Attraction" to "Geology." THE POLYLINGUAL JOURNAL: A magazine in five languages: French, Spanish, Italian, German and English. Hiram S. Sparks, Editor and Proprietor, New York. The first number of volume I, of this quarterly has been received, and placed on our list of exchanges. It "is designed to afford, in a cheap and convenient form, important facilities for learning" the above mentioned languages. COSMOPOLITAN ART JOURNAL.-New York.We have received the last number of this beautiful quarterly, and are glad to place it on our list of exchanges. Although sons of the "stern old Puritans," we are nevertheless fond of the fine arts. The times are changed, and we have more leisure for art than had our fathers. The R. J. Schoolmaster. VOL. III. NOVEMBER, 1857. For the Schoolmaster. THE history of France in the seventeenth century presents many dark pictures of scepticism mingled with superstition. The seeds which had been planted by Loyola were now yielding their baneful fruit, and the infidel theories, which were ere long received and cherished by Voltaire, were already blighting the faith of many. It is cheering, amidst such wide-spread corruption, to see Pascal arising, like a choice garden flower amidst the tangled weeds of some neglected spot, "Where once a garden smiled." With an intellect strong enough to expose the most plausible sophistries of the sceptic, and with a spirit bold enough to cope with the most cunning weapons of the Jesuit, he stood alone among the men of his time. NO. 9. consideration in their province, one of their ancestors having been ennobled by Louis XI. in the fifteenth century. In addition to the advantages derived from an elevated station, the young Pascals enjoyed the sympathy and the instruction of a learned and religious father, who, after the death of their beloved mother during their early childhood, devoted his whole energy to the education of his children. Removed for this purpose from the dullness of provincial life to the animated scenes of the French capital, the family of Etienne Pascal arrested universal attention by the freshness of their personal beauty, and by the wonderful attruction of their highly gifted intellects. The Paris of two centuries ago, like the Paris of to-day, was famed for its men of science. But it was not till a somewhat later period that it attained that brilliancy of litera XIV. the Golden Age of France. By his acknowledged attainments in mathematics and in natural philosophy, the elder Pascal found an easy introduction to that little society of scientific men, which formed the origin of the Royal Academy of Sciences. Among his intimate associates may be mentioned Le Pail It was in the little city of Clermont, perch-ry glory, which rendered the age of Louis ed among the lava-covered peaks of the mountains of Auvergne, that Blaise Pascal was born, on the 19th day of June, 1623. Here, where in the eleventh century, Pope Urban II. pronounced that eloquent appeal, which aroused all Europe to the First Crusade, he passed his early childhood until his eighth or ninth year. He was the son of the worthy and tal-leur, Roberval, and Father Mersenne, all disented Etienne Pascal, and the brother of Mad. tinguished philosophers of that age. Perier, his affectionate biographer, and of Jacqueline, who became a pious nun of the convent of Port Royal. In view of the remarkable humility, which characterized the life of Pascal and his sisters, it is not unimportant to notice that their family was held in high It is not without design that we refer to the social and scientific connections of the father, for to them, as we shall soon see, were due in some measure the peculiar development of the early genius of the son. From his earliest childhood Blaise display |