say, that for our advancement we must improve the scraps of time, as we strive to teach our pupils to improve them.

By discharging our duties well, our profession will be honored much more than by talking with great words about its dignity.

But I fear I am not writing these common notions in so good a form as that in which they have often occurred to your own mind. But let me ask, what are your incentives to exertion? Have you in your mind a picture of a beautiful school, which you will strive to realize? It is very well. Do you crave the approval of good judges and good men? That is well. But duty and benevolence must be your abiding impulses. Cherish that sense of duty and that feeling of benevolence which the Bible teaches. Then, if you reflect on your pupils' wants, your energies will not stagnate. Responsibility to employers is less effective than responsibility to God. Ambition may urge, but a desire for a mortal crown is a poor stimulant to labors which the public can never see, to counsels, coercion, and restraint, whose first fruits are often dislike, rather than gratitude. What shall secure faithfulness in the thousand little cares and watchings, which, to the teacher, die when performed, and are in oblivion for ever? Nothing but duty and benevolence. Benevolent feeling never tires; it is happy only in benefitting, and never thinks of reward. It gains strength as the need increases. It kindles at others' coldness, and gives most light in the darkest hour. Yours,

With the best wishes for your success,

The velocity of the electro-magnetic fluid is estimated at 288,000 miles per second. With this velocity, a telegraphic despatch might be transmitted through a distance equal to the circumference of the earth, in a little more than one twelfth of a second.

"Suspicions, among thoughts, are like bats among birds, they ever fly by twilight."

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Anger is like rain, which breaks itself upon that on which it falls.

"Men overrate their talents, and underrate their influence."

Alas! for the lordly vessel,

That sails so gallantly ;
The winds may dash it,

The storms may wash it,

The lightnings rend its tall masts three;
But neither the wind, nor the rain, nor the sea,
Can injure me, can injure me.

The lightnings cannot strike me down,
Whirlwinds wreck, or whirlpools drown;
And the ship, to be lost ere the break of morn,
May pass o'er my head in saucy scorn:
And, when the night unveils its face,
I may float, unharmed, in my usual place;
And the ship may show to the pitying stars
No remnant, but her broken spars.

Among the shells,

In the ocean dells,

The ships, the crews, and the captains, lie;
But the floating straw looks up to the sky.
And the humble and contented man,
Unknown to fortune, escapes her ban;
And rides secure when breakers leap,
And mighty ships go down to the deep.

May pleasant breezes waft them home,
That plough with their keels the driving foam.
Heaven be their hope, and Truth their law,—
There needs no prayer for the floating straw.

DICKINSON PRINTING HOUSE,

DAMRELL & MOORE, Publishers, No. 26 Washington Street..

To whom all letters should be addressed. TERMS-One Dollar per annum in advance, or One Dollar and Fifty Cents at the end of the year. Twenty-five per cent. allowed to agents who procure five subscribers, and all payments by them to be made in advance.

THERE is, probably, no subject connected with common school education, upon which a more decidedly opposite opinion exists among teachers, than upon emulation. With some, it is considered all-important to the right management of a school; while others discard it altogether. By emulation, we mean, what we believe is commonly understood by it, the desire to excel others for the satisfaction of the triumph, or for reward or honor.

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Emulation," it is said, "is a principle inherent in man; an inborn, original, constituent element of his character." In the present artificial state of society, it is certainly a very common motive; but that it is an original element of charac-. ter, we have yet to learn. The natural order of society has been reversed; and instead of families, in which one member is of necessity dependent on another, we find mankind grouped together in a totally different order. Society seems to have resolved itself into classes; not where the strong and the weak, the high and the low meet together; but the strong are blended with the strong; the lofty with the high; and the lowly mingle with the poor. "Society unites all elements that are like, and separates the unlike." There is no natural dependence, no "looking down or looking up; "- but each is equal to, and independent of, his neighbor.

An eloquent and truthful writer has said, "It is not similarity, but dissimilarity, that constitutes the qualification for heartfelt union among mankind; and the mental affinities resemble the electric, in which like poles repel, while the unlike attract. A family-than which there is no more genuine

type of nature's method of arrangement-is, throughout, a combination of opposites; the woman depending on the man, whose very strength, however, exists only by her weakness; the child hanging on the parent, whose power were no blessing, were it not compelled to stoop in gentleness; the brother protecting the sister, whose affections would have but half their wealth, were they not brought to bear on him with trustful pride; and even among seeming equals, the impetuous guided by the thoughtful, and the timid finding shelter with the brave. And it is because one is reliable for knowledge, and another for resolve, and a third for the graces of a balanced mind, that all are held in the bonds of a pure affection."

How different such an arrangement from that which exists in our public schools, where the children are divided into classes, each containing a certain number of scholars, possessing, as near as may be, in the opinion of the teacher, the same natural ability, and the same amount of knowledge. It is ordered by the teacher that the pupil shall pass his time in school, not as in the family circle, in the company of his unequals, but of his equals. It is not strange, then, that emulation—which we believe to be the consequence of this unnatural arrangement should require but a breath to kindle it; nor that it should be deemed by some a principle inherent in the mind.

We have said it is the will of the teacher, that scholars of the same class should possess, as near as may be, the same qualifications; yet we have never seen a class of thirty, or even of half that number, in which there were not "diversities of gifts;" in which there were not some who possessed faculties above the rest, and whose genius nothing could repress. I am acquainted with three sisters who have been, alternately, at the head of a Grammar school in the vicinity most of the time for the last eight years. But they have not been the most laborious students; they possess a natural faculty of mind, which gives them an advantage over others in their class. And the experience of every teacher includes a knowledge of similar facts. If, then, we are unable to heal the breach that nature has ordained, let us not by any means attempt to widen it.

"Emulation," it is said, "has been the cause of great and glorious acts." It is, doubtless, with many, the main spring of action; it has led to what the world calls great and brilliant deeds; warriors and statesmen have bowed to its control; Mammon's worshippers have yielded to its influence; and even teachers and divines have been the victims of its power. But we have no faith in its purifying, healthful influence. There is nothing truly great or noble in it. Its tendency rather is to

shrivel up the generous, whole-souled, friendly feelings of our nature. It is a selfish principle, and curses all whom it controls.

But it is an inducement to labor easily offered, readily received and understood, and quick in its results. Hence it is that teachers are prone to encourage it in their pupils, even at the sacrifice of other principles more salutary and ennobling, but less easily enforced. It is somewhat difficult to make children realize the importance of obtaining knowledge for the value it will be to them in future years, or for the present good it will afford themselves; but it is not difficult to excite in them a desire to excel their schoolfellows for the sake of honor or reward. Tell a boy, that if he will acquire and sustain a certain position in his class, for a definite period of time, he shall receive a Franklin medal, or a gold pencil, or a silver cup,and he comprehends you at once; and if his talents be such as lead him to hope for success, his energies are roused to gain the prize. But his envy and his jealousy are also excited; and like the hero of the battle-field, he is resolved to conquer, let who will oppose, and whatever may be the consequences.

We have witnessed the pernicious effects of emulation in our public schools too often ever to become insensible to its unhallowed tendency. We think the teacher who encourages it, not only does a grievous present wrong to his pupils, but a lasting injury. He is sowing dragons' teeth, that may spring up into a future harvest of crime and misery.

The Boston medal system (if such it may be called), — the workings of which we have had ample means to know — offers a pertinent illustration of the unhappy consequences resulting from this principle. By this system, a bounty is offered, not upon industry, and all good fidelity in every thing relating to the school; but upon natural ability, upon inborn talent; and he that has ten talents may safely count upon the prize; while he that has one, two, or even five talents, although he may cultivate them with the most scrupulous and anxious care, may as well hide them in the earth, as think of contending against those whom his Creator has, in some respects at least, made his superiors. The greatest proficiency, not the greatest exertions, entitle the pupil to the medal! Repeatedly have we seen the prize taken by pupils not particularly distinguished for punctuality and untiring industry; but they were 'apt scholars;" they possessed an instinctive sagacity, and knowledge came to them as it were by intuition.

We have seen others, of lofty principle and noble bearing, toiling "in season and out of season," in the vain hope of obtaining the reward; taking their books with them to their chamber at night, and even placing them open upon the table