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er this conjecture is likely to be correct or not. Two hundred pounds of earth was dried in an oven, and afterwards put into a large earthen vessel; the earth was then moistened with rain water, and a willow tree, weighing five pounds, was planted therein. During the space of five years, the earth was carefully watered with rain water or pure water. The willow grew and flourished, and, to prevent the earth being mixed with fresh earth, or dirt being blown upon it by the winds, it was covered with a metal plate full of very minute holes, which would exclude everything but air from getting access to the earth below it. After growing in the earth for five years, the tree was removed, and, on being weighed, was found to have gained one hundred and sixty-four pounds. And this estimate did not include the weight of the leaves or dead branches which, in five years, fell from the

tree.

Now came the application of the test. Was all this obtained from the earth? It had not been sensibly diminished; but, in order to make the experiment conclusive, it was again dried in an oven in the balance. Astonishing was the result—the earth weighed only two ounces less than it did when the willow was first planted in it! yet the tree had gained one hundred and sixty-four pounds. Manifestly, then, the wood thus gained in this space of time was not obtained from the earth; we are therefore compelled to repeat our question, "Where does the wood come from?" We are left with only two alternatives; the water with which it was refreshed, or the air in which it lived. It can be clearly shown that it was not due to the water; we are, consequently, unable to resist the perplexing and wonderful conclusion, it was derived from the air.

Can it be? Were those great ocean spaces of wood, which are as old as man's introduction into Eden, and wave in their vast but

solitary luxuriance over the fertile hills and plains of South America, were these all obtained from the thin air? Were the particles which unite to form our battle-ships, those noble walls of wood, ever borne the world about, not only on wings of air, but actually as air themselves? Was the firm table on which I write, the chair on which I rest, the solid floor on which I tread, and much of the house in which I dwell, once in a form which I could not as much as lay my finger on, or grasp in my hand? Wonderful truth! all this was air.-Life of a Tree.

For the Schoolmaster. Singing Birds.

BY J. SWETT.

By the river, by the lake,
Where the silver ripples break,
In the lonely mountain glen,
In the crowded haunts of men,
In the woods from footsteps free,
In the garden apple tree,
Lights and shadows flitting round,
Little singing birds are found.

In the northern land of storms,
'Mid the icebergs' awful forms,
Under burning tropic skies
Where the verdure never dies,
Where Siberian exiles roam
In their cold and cheerless home,
Where the Niger rolls his tide
Little singing birds abide.

In the valleys green and low,

Where the brooks through meadows flow, Where the dark pines rear their forms, Battling with the mountain storms, In the fields amid the flowers, In the sunshine after showers, Lights and shadows flitting round, Little singing birds are found. Feather River, Cal.

For the Schoolmaster.

Relation of Christianity to Education.

body the principle in common life? Did they

erect it into a system until it permanently existed, set forth in the moral nature of man?

THE history of the evangelists and the gos-No, it never ranged itself along the heaven

kind.

pel writings plainly indicate that the idea of genuine, religion, in union with enlightened knowledge, never existed in the world before the commencement of the Christian era. All other kinds of ancient intellection-the schools of philosophy, and general progress in knowledge, were hailed with delight among manThe grand maxims that entered the soul of Greece, and lodged in the minds of Athenian scholars, did not influence in any marked degree, their characters. The doctrines were embraced as speculations, not as great moral principles, and they never appear to have urged the recipients of them into a devotion to the higher obligations of life. The plant of genius was cultivated for the ease, repose and shade it transmitted, not for the precious fruit it yielded. The thought of imparting knowledge to the vulgar among the Greeks or Romans, was utterly at variance with all established usage; and even the religious regulations of the Jewish people, was never intended for those distant, idolatrous nations who knew nothing of a spiritual revelation.

Until Christianity became developed as a system, no universal and comprehensive use was made of knowledge, nor was instruction freely imparted to the whole living race of men. The heathen philosophers, many of them, believed in the immortality of the soul. Thales, one of the seven wise men, it is said, first declared the soul of man to be immortal, and the eloquent Cicero, in one of his orations, says: "If I err in believing that the souls of men are immortal, I am willing to err, nor would I have this error, which is the delight of my life, extorted from me." What use, however, was made of this knowledge? Did they, with the zeal of sincere devotees, em

touched confines of their being until Christ made it what God intended, a never-dying principle in the spirit of man.

When Christianity was established, it was "There is no upon a basis of free thought. distinction," said the Great Teacher, "between Jew and Gentile, but Christ is all in all." In this idea the freedom of all the nations was founded. The instructive epistles of Paul, exclusive of their doctrine, show how far he was animated with the spirit of a preceptor, and how faithfully he devoted himself to the service. There is in those writings, the most minute instruction with regard to the regulation of the world of home, and for all domestic virtues. To study them attentively, is to understand our duty to wife, child, father, mother, friend and servant. Were any sick, Luke, the physician, was ready among the diciples to blend his skill with mind healing. Were any in sorrow, John poured the balm of consolation into the wounded heart. upon their knowledge, so freely imparted, gave them a might and majesty never before

Miraculous gifts ingrafted

known in the world.

The miraculous gift of tongues teach us one great fact, the advantage of education, and how necessary it is for instructors to be possessed of the necessary endowments. Such supernatural aid is no longer vouchsafed to preceptors. There are no Pauls or Peters to speak with unknown tongues to wonder-striken hearers. We must first be taught in order to teach, and by human meditation not only, but by the mandate of the Infinite Spirit.

To come down to our times. Free instruction allied to Christianity, is the grand conception of the modern era. The light of

knowledge now poured in upon the soul in

Pestolozzi, of whose genius so much has heathen lands, where the labors of the mis-been written, simply embodied the idea of sionary heal the deformities of life, is made christian teaching, irrespective of class, conpalpable and abiding through the spirit of dition or nation. Unlike Aristotle and the Christianity. The school house is the off-philosophers of antiquity, who had only the spring of the church, and their agencies clear-rich and noble for pupils, he spread light ly assimilate; moreover, they can never have among the dark places,-among the vulgar their true efficiency without a total disunion and poor, those by the way, who always reof church and state alliances. Such was ear-quire instruction most and who are generally ly Christianity, and its spirit must exist in prohibited from its benefits. Some new printhe same freedom in our day, in order to have ciples were applied to the mental conditions its true efficiency. Two of the early fathers of pupils, to be sure, nevertheless, wherever speak of a bishop, and none of them of a he found pure native mind, rich in the power pope. Polycarp invariably calls the leaders of acqusition and retention, rewarding the in the church presbyters, literally ancients. world and his own care with a redundant

Reverence for the unseen world, and the glorious works of God, comes not through the panoply of power, and, in the blending of knowledge with religion, no political tendencies ought to intrude themselves. The covenanting spirit of grace organizing itself into beauty beneath the eye of God, knows not of thraldom. Who, in a time of distempered war and passion, brought about by the temporal policy of a sarcerdotal system, is fit to enter this kingdom of love, peace and instruction?

progress, it was in such a soil that he most improvingly and tenderly sowed the seed of thought, and waited for the harvest. So Christ chose his apostles from among all grades of humanity, and they stand forth huge, vast and grand in their proportions, successful builders of the temple of the human soul.

For the Schoolmaster.
My First Day in School.

C.

I remember it as though it were yesterday. It was more than thirty years ago. The

66

In the actions of our Puritan ancestors, free religion and free instruction were collat- Merry month of May" was unfolding its eral ideas. It was here, as it must be else- flowers, and had already rendered the woodwhere, always retarded by Indian warfare. land vocal with the early song of birds. The The general court of Massachusetts passed a sky was clear, and the air was balmy. From law ignoring the expense of schools until each my father's door the old wagon road wound village reached the aggregate of a hundred its way along the hill-sides, inclosed on either families. For a lengthened period the Indian side by the crooked rail fence, newly repaired, massacres limited the numbers far short of with here and there an intervening piece of that requsition, consequently appropriations stone wall, until the distance of a mile and a for schools were small and educational aid half brought us to the old-fashioned country from the towns very slight. Nothwithstand-school house. My anticipations were high; ing, we see at that remote period the first be- at least, my curiosity was thoroughly awake. ginning of that system of free instruction, I did not recollect having traversed the way now expanded and diffused into an august system.

before; and on coming within sight of the residences of two intervening neighbors, I

felt quite sure that each, in turn, was the school house. I was accompanied by an older sister, who, from past familiarity with the route, was able easily to rectify my mistakes; and at length we reached the school house, standing unguarded by wall or fence, upon a triangular space left by the intersection of two public highways and a cut across, at some little distance from the apex, for the accommodation of such as might prefer a gradual turn to a sharp angle. When we arrived, the children were assembling from various directions with their books, and their baskets of dainties, to be duly deposited in the large cupboard beside the fire-place, against the hungry noon-time. The cupboard had been thoughtfully located there for security against the attacks of frost in winter; or, perhaps I should rather say, to undo its work, for it was no uncommon occurrence for the minced pies, sausages, and apples, on their way to school, during the frosty mornings of winter, to emulate the condition of the walrus beef of the parties of Dr. Kane, on their exploring expeditions in the frozen north.

ceed in maintaining its own centre of gravity, and the summer display of mingled boughs of pine, and oak, and chestnut, and wild sunflowers, and red and yellow lilies interspersed, in the broad old fire-place-my schooldays had their beginning. During the first three months of my school-life, presided a teacher whom I cannot and desire not to forget. How much she knew, we could not precisely tell; perhaps we did not think. No doubt we all thought her very wise. One thing, however, we knew, for we felt it, she was kind, and we loved her. Beside her knee we stood to read our first monosyllables, and coveted no more enviable position. We learned rapidly, I am sure, for I could soon spell in "Baker Table," and read "The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion;" and "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it."

I think her "task" must have been "delightful." Certainly she rendered that of her pupils so, and when she took leave of us, at I will not consume time in telling how the close of the term, we all wept tears of strange it seemed to me, at first, to be debar-real sorrow at the thought of separation, for red from a free expression of my sentiments, as inclination might dictate, or to be denied the free use of my limbs to carry me to the door when the rattling wheels gave notice of some passer-by; or how grateful was the hour of intermission, or how soon I knew the names of all the scholars-how much I enjoy-er left me. ed their sports, and how we sometimes quar-ant place. relled; I have invited attention for a different the rod and ferule and other like appliances purpose.

we all felt that we were about to lose a true friend. How much of our subsequent success we owe to this kind teacher it is impossible to say; doubtless much. For myself I may safely affirm it. Under her tuition I first learned to love my school, and this love nevSchool was ever afterward a pleasI continued to love it in spite of

of the times. Under her guidance I won my In that old building-small and low, and first success and gained the reputation of a shabby, guiltless of paint, within and with- good scholar, which, notwithstanding the out, and of all other ornament save that egotism, I shall venture to assert that I never which the "great boys" had carved on mu- lost. Through years of earnest study, amid ral desk of pine and seat of oak, a rough, difficulties and pecuniary embarrassment, it four-legged slab, which did not always suc-did not forsake me.

After three fourths of a

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score years of teaching, my love of study and
of school still remains fresh; and, if there is
truth as well as poetry in the familiar lines,
""Tis education forms the common mind;
Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined,"
I might not transcend the limits of truth,
were I to assert that I owe more of my suc-
cess to this unassuming teacher than to all the
rest whose instructions I have enjoyed. It is

said of one of our most talented and success-
ful public men, that he attributes his success in
no small degree, to the impulses that he re-
ceived from his village schoolmistress, who
always insisted upon having every task per-
formed promptly and well.

For the Schoolmaster.

Deaf and Dumb Institute, Hartford, Ct.

BY JOE, THE JERSEY MUTE.

I AM under obligations to the officers of the Deaf and Dumb Institute, Hartford, Connecticut, for a copy of the forty-first Annual Report of the directors of that institution. The report must have been drawn up—not by the directors, as it purports to have been-but by the Rev. Mr. Turner, the efficient principal of the institution. With regard to the literary execution of the report, it is evidently the production of a scholar. At the risk of wearying your readers, I print in full the following catalogue of the officers of the institution : Principal-Rev. William Turner, A. M. Instructor of the Gallaudet High SchoolJared A. Ayres, A. M.

Instructors-Laurent Clerc, A. M.; Samuel Porter, A. M.; Henry B. Camp, A. M.; Rev. John P. Keep, A. M.; John C. Bell, A. M.; Richard S. Storrs, A. M.; Edward M. Gallaudet, Wilson Whiton, James L. Wheeler, Elizabeth Bacon. Mary A. Mann, Sarah W.

Storrs.

In conclusion, I would just hint a gentle reproof to those teachers who, while enjoying the most ample opportunities for giving a right direction to the intellectual and moral character of their pupils, are longing, painfully, to be teaching older pupils and bigher branches. Let them remember there is no grade of scholars so low as not to furnish exercise for qualities of the highest order. Hon. Horace Mann gave a most fitting reply when asked his opinion respecting the right kind of a teacher to instruct young children, in saying, in substance, that the best teacher for the infant mind is the Infinite mind; thus indicating that the qualifications of a teacher, even for the young, cannot possibly be too high. I add one word of exhortation to those who would have their own "task" "delightful," in the present, and have it prove a source of delight, both to themselves and their pupils, in the future,-be ever kind, faithful and true in the discharge of your duties, in all circum-cuted stances whatever.

I. F. C.

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Teacher of Articulation-Eliza H. Wadsworth.

Teacher of Drawing-F. Julius Busch.
Teacher of Penmanship-W. R. Small.
Attending Physician-E. R. Kent, M. D.
Steward-I. M. Allen.

Matron-Mrs. Phebe C. White.

Assistant Matrons-Nancy Dillingham, M. A. Hull.

The report is embellished with a beautifully exelithographic portrait of the late Lewis Weld, for many years the principal of the Hartford Institution. To him belongs the merit of having educated some of the most gifted mutes in the country. Mr. John Carlin, of New York, a miniature painter of merit, and an author besides; Mr. Henry W. Conrad, of Philadelphia, a painter, and Mr. Albert Newsom, of Philadelphia, one of the best lithographic engravers in the United States, were his pupils.

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