that she had a separate cell for herself, which escaped our search. So she saved her own life, but she lost her little ones. OSCAR. For the Wreath. MR. EDITOR:- I feel slighted. You are all writing for the "Wreath," but not a soul of you has asked me to contribute to your interesting paper. Why is this? Have I not heard some of you say that I know as much as many human bipeds of the same age? Don't I understand almost everything that you say to me? And if I only could talk, would n't I rattle away as fast as any of you? I bet I would. If I don't talk, it is n't because I've got no ideas, depend on that. you see I can write, although perhaps you did not know it. But fearing I am an intruder, I will stop. THE SNOW. But ROVER. For the Wreath. Now HURRAH! The snow has come! won't we have fine times! I like to see it come thick and fast, and bury everything up. How curious it is, to see the woods, and fences, and stones, and roofs, and fields, and hills, covered with the pure white snow! What fun it is to roll and tumble in it! I like to have the roads all blocked up, so that we can't get anywhere, not even to school. Then what fun it is to break out the ways! We have a large sled, with a plow lashed to the off side. Then we hitch on six or eight yoke of oxen, and are ready for a start. The boys load up the sled, and a lot of men go ahead to shovel through the deep drifts, and so we go all over town till the roads are broken out. RON. For the Wreath. He ran A WARNING. A young lad who had, caused his widowed mother much trouble and anxiety on account of his bad conduct, was drowned last Sabbath in the pond near Highburg. away from home in the morning to avoid going to the Sabbath school, and having borrowed a pair of skates of another bad boy, attempted to amuse himself upon the pond. But while skating across the channel the ice broke, and he went to the bottom. Let all remember that the Bible says, "The way of the transgressor is hard." For the Wreath. SPELLING SCHOOLS. ARE we not to have some spelling schools this winter? We scholars think them pleasant and profitable, and we hope THE HOME WREATH will favor them. SPELLER ENIGMA. I am composed of 35 letters. For the Wreath. My 6, 10, 17, is a river in Germany. rope. My 13, 31, 15, 6, 24, 9, 24, 21, is a lake in South America. My 20, 14, 1, 20, 34, 30, 9, is a sea which forms a part of the boundary of Europe. My 4, 16, 22, 25, 6, is a city in Asia. My 29, 3, 12, 33 27, 10, is the capitol of one of the United States. My 19, 2, 26, 11, 16, 23, is an island in the Mediterranean. My 18, 1, 35, 5, 21, 17, 7, is a city in France. My 10, 16, 28, 32, 27, 10, is a river in British America. To my whole the readers of THE HOME WREATH are greatly indebted for superior teachers. G. H. Answer in the next number of THE WREATH. Gleanings. Digest what you read. It is not what you eat but what you digest that gives nourishment to the body; so with the mind. Young people sometimes run through a book, and are not able to tell afterwards what they have been reading. "John," said the schoolmaster, "you will soon be a man, and will have to do business. What do you suppose you will do when you have to write letters, unless you learn to spell, better. “O, sir, I shall put easy words in them." "Dick, I say, why don't you turn the buffalo robe t'other side out?-hair is the warmest." Bah, Tom, you get out. Do you suppose the animal himself didn't know how to wear his hide?" As two children were playing together, little Jane got angry and pouted. Johnny said to her, "Look out, Jane, or I'll take a seat up there on your lips." "Then,” replied Jane, "I'll laugh, and you'll fall off.” gold diggings in Iowa, says three days explorA New Hampshire man, who was at the ation with a spade had enabled him to discover" several very small grains of gold and several tons of exaggeration." "Mr. President," said a member of a school committee (out West), "I rise to get up, and am not backward to come forward in the cause of edication. Had it not been for edication, I might have been as ignorant as yourself, Mr. President." EDITOR'S DEPARTMENT. Close of the Volume. WITH this number we close the year 1858, and it has been deemed best to close the volume with the year. This is done for several reasons. All publications of this kind should commence the year with January. Many persons suppose the volume commences with January and order it accordingly. We have a series of articles in contemplation upon Rhode Island Schools, which should commence with the volume, and we wish to insert the first upon the Providence High School, with an original engraving of the buildingin the January number. Many wish to subscribe, and wish their subscriptions to commence with January and with the volume. It is the best time, also, for the friends of THE SCHOOLMASTER, who wish to see it succeed, to solicit subscriptions. We shall therefore with our next issue commence volume V. This change will not affect the present subscribers. They will receive their numbers until March, when bills will be sent for the following year. Their year will of course be closed with February, and the new year with them will begin with March, the same as though no change were made in respect to volumes. If any choose to pay their bills at the commencement of the year, we shall not refuse to accommodate them. Permanence of Intellectual Attainments. A few weeks since I heard a distinguished and educated D. D. make the following remark from the pulpit: As far as intellectual attainments are concerned the words of the Apostle are applicable, We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. A philosopher will be no better off than an idiot in another world if his philosophy perish with him, and perish it must. It would be rubbish in heaven, it would be fuel in hell.' If the subject comes within the limits of your journal, and you and your correspondents will give your opinions upon it, you will gratify A TEACHER." It is not surprising that a teacher should be startled by such an announcement from the sacred desk. To one who has toiled for years to attain the necessary knowledge, and culture, and who has labored with equal zeal and with greater fatigue to impart that instruction to others, it must appear a chilling and discouraging doc trine that the results of such laborious and selfsacrificing efforts must all be brushed away by the rude hand of death. We can scarcely conceive of a more discouraging thought to a teacher. But can this view be true? Is it possible that our Creator, who is all-wise and infinitely benevolent has so decreed? We do not believe it. Dr. Thomas Dick. in his Philosophy of a Future State, has the following: "A great outery has frequently been made, by many of those who wish to be considered as pious persons, about the ranity of human science. Certain divines in their writings, and various descriptions of preachers, in their pulpit declamations, not unfrequently attempt to embellish their discourses, and to magnify the truths of Scripture, by contrasting them with what they are pleased to call the perishing treasures of scientific knowledge.' 'The knowl THE question whether our intellectual culture will be of any avail in another world is one which has doubtless often arisen in the minds of all. No one can have attained to any considerable degree of mental improvement without ask ing: "Will this knowledge which we acquire on earth be lost to us in our future state of exist-edge we derive from the Scriptures,' say they, ence?" Our attention has been called to the is able to make us wise unto salvation; all othsubject at the present time by the following note: er knowledge is but comparative folly. The "Dear Sir:-It has often been a matter of knowledge of Christ and him crucified will enthought with me whether the education which dure forever; but all human knowledge is tranwe labor so hard to obtain and to impart to oth-sitory and will perish forever when this world ers, will be of any value to us in another world. comes to an end. Men weary themselves with whose reading and observation have been confined within the narrowest range, who are most forward in their bold and vague declamations on this topic. We never find, in any part of the Sacred Records, such comparisons and contrasts as those to which I allude. The inspired writers never attempt to set the word of God in opposition to his works, nor attempt to deter men from the study of the wonders of his creation, on the ground that it is of less importance than the study of his word. On the contrary, they take every proper opportunity of directing the attention to the mechanism and order, the magnificence and grandeur of the visible world; and their devotional feelings are kindled into rapture by such contemplations. When the Psalmist had finished his survey of the different departments of nature, as described in the crv. Psalm, he broke out into the following devotional strains: How manifold are thy works, O Lord! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches, so is the great and wide sea. The glory of the Lord shall endure forever, the Lord shall rejoice in all his works. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my be "Now, although some of the above and similar assertions, when properly modified and explained, may be admitted as true, the greater part of them, along with hundreds of similar expressions are either ambiguous or false. But, although they were all admitted as strictly true, what effect can the frequent reiteration of such comparisons and contrasts have on the mass of the people to whom they are addressed, who are already too much disinclined to the pursuit of general knowledge- but to make them imagine that it is useless, and in some cases dangerous, to prosecute any other kind of knowledge than what is derived directly from the Scriptures? And what is the knowledge which the great majority of those who attend the public services of religion have acquired of the contents of the Sacred Oracles? It is too often, I fear, exceeding-ing.' For the visible works of God display the ly vague, confused, and superficial; owing, in a great measure, to the want of those habits of mental exertion, which a moderate prosecution - of useful science would have induced. same essential attributes of Deity, and of his superintending providence, as the revelations of his word; and it is one great design of that word to direct men to a rational and devout con templation of these works in which his glory is so magnificently displayed. And, therefore, to attempt to magnify the word of God by degrading his works, or to set the one in opposition to the other, is to attempt to set the Deity in opposition to himself, and to prevent mankind from offering a certain portion of that tribute of adoration and thanksgiving which is due to his name." "Such declamations as those to which I have now adverted, obviously proceed from a very limited sphere of information, and a contracted range of thought. It is rather a melancholy eflection, that any persons, particularly preachers of the gospel, should endeavor to apologize for their own ignorance, by endeavoring to undervalue what they acknowledge they have never acquired, and therefore, cannot be supposed to understand and appreciate. For, although several well-informed and judicious ministers of religion, have been lead, from the influence of custom, and from copying the expressions of others, to use a phraseology which has a tenden"That is, the display of the divine perfections in ey to detract from the utility of scientific knowl- the material world, as the connexion of the passage edge, yet it is generally the most ignorant, those The Christian world generally, we believe, admit this view presented by Dr. Dick. He supposes that the sciences, and whatever tends to show to created beings the extent and greatness plainly intimates." of God's universe, His power and goodness, and all His attributes will be subjects for study and contemplation in the future world. It certainly seems derogatory to the character of God that He should annihilate all which we have learned in this present state of existence, on the moment of our entering upon another sphere of being. "The faculties we now possess will not only remain in action, but will be strengthened and invigorated; and the range of objects on which they will be employed will be indefinitely extended. To suppose otherwise, would be to suppose man to be deprived of his intellectual powers, and of the faculty of reasoning, as soon as he entered the confines of another world. When we enter that world, we carry with us the moral and intellectual faculties, of which we are now conscious, and, along with them, all those ideas and all that knowledge which we acquired in the present state. To imagine that our present faculties will be essentially changed, and the ideas we have hitherto acquired totally lost, would be nearly the same as to suppose that, on entering the invisible state, men will be transformed into a new order of beings, or be altogether annihilated. And, if our present knowledge shall not be destroyed at death, it must form the ground-work of all the future improvements we may make, and of all the discoveries that may be unfolded to our view in the eternal state." Our labor in the improvement of the mind, therefore, gives us a more enlarged and expanded basis of improvement in the future world. Dr. Dick asks the question: "Can we suppose, for a moment, that an ignorant profligate, who has been brought to repentance, and to the knowledge of the truth,' only a few days before his entrance into the world of spirits, shall, at the moment he has arrived in the world of bliss, acquire those enlarged conceptions of Divine truth, which an Owen, a Watts, a Doddridge, or a Dwight, attained at the same stage of their existence? or that a Hottentot who had been brought to the knowledge of Christianity, only during the last month of his life, shall enter into heaven with the expansive views of a Newton or a Boyle? Such a supposition would involve a reflection on the wisdom of the Divine administration, and would lead us to conclude, that all the labor bestowed by the illustrious characters, now alluded to, in order to improve in the knowledge of Divine subjects, was quite unnecessary, and even somewhat approaching to egregious trifling.” It is a glorious thought, one full of encouragement and consolation to the teacher, that the improvement of our intellectual faculties is not merely for this short life, and that it will give us enlarged views and expanded faculties in the world to come; that our progression and development in that world will be accelerated by our diligence in the cultivation of the faculties God has given in this. We have preferred to quote thus largely from so distinguished a man as Dr. Dick, to using words of our own; and will close this article by the following fitting extract from the same source: "Not only will the views of the saints in heaven be different in point of expansion and extent, but their love to God, and the virtues and graces which flow from this principle, will be diminish "An old Welsh minister, while one day pursuing his studies, his wife being in the room, was suddenly interrupted by her asking him a question, which has not always been so satisfactorily answered Johned or increased, or, at least, somewhat modified Evans, do you think we shall be known to each other by the narrowness or expansion of their intelin heaven? Without hesitation he replied To be lectual views. If it be admitted that, the more we know of God the more ardently shall we love him, it will follow, that in proportion as we acquire a comprehensive and enlightened view of the operations of God in the works of creation, in the scheme of Providence, and in the plan of redemption, in a similar proportion will sure we shall, do you suppose we shall be GREATER FOOLS there, than we are here?'-If the reader keep in mind that our knowledge in heaven will be INCREAS ED, and not diminished; or, in other words, that we shall not be greater fools there than we are here,' he will be at no loss to appreciate all that I have hitherto stated on this subject." our love and adoration of his excellencies be ardent and expansive. In this point of view, the the saints in light' will make improvement in holiness throughout all the ages of eternity, though, at every stage of their existence, they will enjoy pure and unmingled bliss. Every science they cultivate, and every stage to which they advance in intellectual improvement, will enable them to discover new glories in the Divine character, which will raise their affections to God still higher, and render their conformity to his moral image more complete." Arrangement of Clauses in a Sentence. Nor infrequently do we find most ludicrous ideas conveyed by the careless manner in which many persons construct their sentences. A newspaper recently gave the following startling announcement: "A man was saved from drowning in the dock with a large iron safe in his pocket!" when the writer merely intended to state that the man who was saved from death had in his overcoat pocket the well-known household article, a flat-iron. A clergyman informed his eongregation one Sabbath afternoon that on that very morning he saw a woman, while he was preaching in a state of beastly intoxication. His audience must have been induced to inquire whether their minister was really sober when he said that. A teacher informed a friend the other day that there was hanging in one of the rooms at the High School, a map drawn by a boy seven feet long and four and a half feet wide! Reader, beware or you may get caught in some expression equally infelicitous. What is an Angle ? In reply to this question from a correspondent from New Hampshire, who is not satisfied with the definition given by Webster, or by Legendre, we would offer the following: WE are sorry to say that our attempts to place before our readers the song of "The Deep-Heaving Sea," which pleased so many at the institute at Newport have been unavailing. Mr. Blanchard personally solicited the song and the music from the publishers, but it was refused. Had the publishers given permission it would have been published, words and music, in this number of THE SCHOOLMASTER. We hope to be able to present school-songs and music to our readers regularly next year. We may be disappointed in this, but we hope not. THE report of Mr. Gulliver's lecture, and an extract from Mayor Rodman's poem will appear in our next. SCHOOL EXERCISES. Questions for Written Examination. ARITHMETIC. 1. Write in figures, twenty-four hundred and six thousand nine hundred and ten, and seventythree ten thousandths. 2. Add thirty-five and four-tenths; five hundred twenty-nine and seven millionths; sixtynine, four hundred and sixty-three thousandths; two hundred sixteen and two hundreths; nine hundred seventy-seven and two-tenths. 3. 4. From 37 11-15 take 3 5-7 of 1-3. If 42 horses eat 70 bushels of grain in 18 2-3 days, how many bushels will 41 horses eat in 21 days? (To be performed by analysis, and explanation to be written out.) 5. If 3-4 of a bushel of wheat cost 7-8 of a dollar, what part of a bushel can be bought for 35 of a dollar? (Explanation to be written out.) 6. How much money would be received at a bank, on a note for $2714 93 payable in 30 days at 6 per cent. interest, and how many pounds of tea would this last purchase at 37 1-2 cents per 1. An angle is the opening between two straight lb. ; and by selling the tea the day the note belines met. 2. An angle is measured by the difference in direction of two straight lines, which meet at a common point. came due, at 50 cents per l., how much would be gained by the transaction, after paying 1-2 per cent. for brokerage, and $7 50 for truckage and storage and the note at the bank? |