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What do the wings mean; don't they mean the feelings that go upward? All men have such wings. Men are not angels, said another boy. I pointed to a picture that hung in the room, and asked if he thought much of what that person thought? He said yes. Well, said I, I heard him say once, that unless we could believe in the angels that were around us, in shapes of men, it would do us no good at all to believe there were angels in another world. He seemed to be quite struck with the force of this person's authority. Mr. Alcott made some remarks upon the person referred to, and said, he had been an angel to many minds. I then asked them if they knew that in the Bible, it was said that the winds, and the flaming fires, or the lightnings, were God's angels; which showed that whatever told a story of God, could be called an angel, whether it was a man with wings, or a mere thing, or a thought within the mind? Mr. Alcott then took Krummacher's Fables, and read, by way of illustrating the subject,

ADAM AND THE SERAPH.

One evening Adam was reposing on a hill under a tree in the garden of Eden, and his face was turned upward, and his eyes were fixed on heaven. A seraph drew nigh unto him, and said; Why lookest thou up so wistfully towards heaven? What aileth thee, Adam?-What should ail me, answered the father of men, in this abode of happiness? My eye was observing the stars which glisten yonder, and I wished for the wings of the eagle, that I might fly up to them, and obtain a near view of their brillant orbs.

Thou hast such wings, replied the seraph, and he touched Adam, and Adam sank into a deep sleep and dreamt; and it seemed to him in his dream that he was flying up to heaven.

When he afterwards awoke, he looked around him and was amazed because he was lying under the tree on the hill. But the seraph stood before him, and said, wherefore musest thou, Adam? Adam answered and said, Behold, I was up yonder in the firmament of heaven, and walked among the stars, and flew around Orion and the Pleiades ; brilliant orbs, vast and glorious as the sun, whirled past me

-the milky way, which thou seest yonder, is an expanse full of bright spheres, and above this expanse is another and again another. And in these shining worlds dwell beings like unto myself; and they pray to the Lord, and praise his name-seraph, didst thou conduct me?

This tree, answered the seraph, hath overshadowed thee, and thy body hath not quitted this hill. But behold, Adam, within thee dwelleth a seraph, that hath the faculty to traverse the boundless regions of space, in which innumerable spheres revolve, and the higher he ascends the more profound is his adoration of Jehovah. Guard this seraph, Adam, with care and vigilance, that the passions may not obstruct his flight and fetter him to the earth. The seraph spake, and disappeared.

And an

Mr. Alcott asked them, if they understood what he intended to teach them by reading this? They replied, yes. After recess, I took my Latin class into the other room, and they all had their slates given to them, and began to analyse sentences into the parts of speech, and into the variations of cases. In the mean time, those who were with Mr. Alcott had read in Frank, and Mr. Alcott had asked the children what pictures certain words brought up to their minds; and had had several interesting answers. One boy of six, said, Try shaped itself as a strong man. other of five, gave quite an elaborate picture of Day. He said he thought of an angel sitting on the floor of heaven, which was our sky, and letting down through an opening, a cross, in which was the sun. When he lets down the cross, it is day, and when he draws it up, it is night. - He made appropriate gestures as he described this. Where did you get that picture? It came into my mind all of itself. When? Why, now. Where did it come from? said Mr. Alcott. Oh! I know. Well? God sent it into my spirit. How does the angel look? said I to him, when I came in and Mr. Alcott had made him repeat this to me. He is the smallest of all the angels of heaven, said he with decision. What does he do besides? Nothing but that, all the time. Does he forget this duty ever? Oh no! Did you ever think of that picture before to day? No. In regard to some other particulars which were asked in order to ascertain if it was distinct and steady before his mind, he answered without hesitation.

Another question which Mr. Alcott asked of the little boys was, how they employed rainy days? They gave various answers; and this boy said, that he sat down and thought over the stories he had heard, and acted them over in his mind, and sometimes made up new ones-Oh, very beautiful! with angels in them. This little boy afterwards added an angel of the Moon, who sat by the side of the angel of the Sun, and when the Sun was drawn up, put down the Moon in the same way. This angel also put down the stars, but not in crosses. He hung them down. But in the morning when the cross of the Sun is put down, these stars shoot back into heaven, said he, like balloons.

January 10th.-There was some mistake about the fire; and as the room was very cold, Mr. Alcott took all the children into the anti-room, there to spell and define the lesson, without having previously studied it. They remained with him till half past eleven, conversing upon the interesting subject, Conscience. The question arose, whether it was seated in the head or heart; and it was remarkable that those boys, whose conscience is to them the surest guide, and the most powerful, all thought it was in their heart, while those who are not so conscientious, thought it was in their head.

After recess they all came into the school-room, and Mr. Alcott took Krummacher's Fables, and read the story of the father who gave seeds to his three sons, and sent them this way and that, to plant them. When he had finished, he asked them what this story represented? The boys severally said, the seeds were of goodness; the ground was the heart; the father was God; the weeds were faults. Mr. Alcott asked what were the seeds of goodness? He was answered, love, truth, gentleness, &c. There was a good deal of interesting conversation; among other things, one boy said, if he had been there, he should have been better pleased to have planted his seeds at home, than to have gone away from his father's. Mr. Alcott said, who does the father represent? God. Well, have you not already been sent forth? Your father has already sent you forth, with your seeds. You came out of your father's heavenly house, to plant your seeds in this world.

In the grammatical analysis to day, there was some con

versation about the word object, and it was found by its etymology, to mean what lies out of, or before the mind. What mind laid -things out of itself-laid out before it every thing? God, said a boy of seven, without an instant's hesitation. Did he put any thing into things by which they might get up? Yes, in some things he put spirit, his own spirit. And so all things that have spirit within them get up and act as much as they can? No, said he, laughing; some are sluggards. What are you in earnest about, said Mr. Alcott, to the little boy of five, mentioned yesterday? Not about any thing. What is being earnest? Feeling that things must be done. And you do not feel so about any thing? Only about being good: Oh! Mr. Alcott, I have thought of an angel of rain! Well, how does he look? He sits by the angels of the Sun and Moon. Do they help him? No. How does he know when to have it rain? Oh, he can see! he knows when it is dry down here; (and he went on to describe his operations, but I could only understand that the angel took the water in a great bubble from the sea, and went up in it, and came down with the rain.) Cannot I see him, said Mr. Alcott? No, not till you die. How came you to see him? Oh, God sent the picture of him into my spirit.

January 12th. I arrived at a few minutes after nine, and found the children at their lessons. At a quarter of ten, Mr. Alcott took his youngest class, and began with telling over what he had read about in Frank the last time. Mr. Alcott asked them if they minded as Frank did? One held up his hand. Mr. Alcott said, you mind sometimes; well, that is better than not at all! But do you mind when you don't want to? No. Ah! but Frank did; because he thought, and he knew that his mother's wants were better than his own. He then went on, and read in another place, about Frank's going over the stile, &c.; and after he had done, he said: Well, now you have heard about meddling; the other day you heard about minding. Do you meddle?

At ten o'clock, he took the youngest division of the spelling class as usual, and heard them spell; and told them the meanings of the words. This lasted a quarter of an hour, when the rest of the class turned. At first, Mr. Alcott spelled

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the words, and called on the scholars to pronounce them. Then he gave the definitions, and required them to tell the words; then he called for an illustration of each word, in original or quoted sentences, in which the word was used. As usual, this led to a great deal of conversation; for the figurative uses of the words being brought in among the illustrations, Mr. Alcott always pursues the spiritual subjects thus introduced, thinking it the most natural way of interesting their minds in mental operations. Thus the word steep being illustrated by the expression, "steeped in wisdom," led to a consideration of the source of wisdom being an inexhaustible fountain. One boy said, with great simplicity, that he was not yet wet through with wisdom.

The word spot, led to unspotted-unspotted in character -Jesus Christ-the original innocence of character in childhood-how they had become spotted-(by disobeying conscience-not obeying parents who interpret conscience, by getting into passions, loving appetite too well, &c.) These disquisitions are always conversations; the references to Jesus Christ are always by describing his character; they respond saying, I know who you mean; and pointing to the cast of Christ. There is a strong expression of reverence, and natural sensibility to excellence, whenever he is referred to.

One of the words led to a discrimination between the words character and reputation; and then to a discrimination between the character and nature of a person. In the course of the conversation, the question arose, whether Mr. Alcott understood their characters? Some of the boys said they thought he did; others thought he did not. This led to a consideration of the evil of secretiveness, and the beauty and advantage of transparency. Secretiveness, Mr. Alcott thought, was naturally connected with selfishness; and frankness with generosity.

Mr. Alcott asked if all deserved to go out, at recess, when there had been so much noise? One boy said, he thought the good ought not to suffer for the bad. Mr. Alcott replied, that in God's world the good always suffered for the bad; and that it was a proof of a person's being good, that he was willing to suffer for the bad. The boy replied, that he was very wicked then, for he was not willing to suffer for the bad.