result is, society divides itself into two classes, and an aristocracy is at once created. The dominant class will possess the property, administer the government, and give to social life, its laws. The servile class have little besides physical force to promote their own comfort or to contribute to the general prosperity. Hence, they are compelled to submit to whatever may be required of them. All this is the fruit of ignorance and all these evils may be removed by the influence of common schools. But we have not yet attained to the end in view. Our common schools are not sufficiently elevated to answer the demands of the whole community. Mr. Everett once said, "I send my boy to the public school because I know of no better." These schools should he so complete in their organization, so well provided with books and apparatus, so attractive and under instruction so efficient, that no private school of the same grade could exist in any part of the State. And we do not yet sufficiently realize the necessity of educating each individual in the State. It is of great importance to the rich and the poor, that all should enjoy equal advantages. We should, therefore, not only make ample provisions for their instruction, at public expense, but see to it that every child in every district. is brought into the school and kept there until he is thoroughly educated. In view of our subject as presented, how great and important is the work of public instruction. What a weight of responsibility rests upon those who superintend its interests. How earnest should we be, who have charge of the higher Institutions in the State in which the Teachers of our common schools must be educated, and with what fidelity should these candidates for the high office, labor to qualify themselves for their ìmportant duties and in the service of practical teaching. O. Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; any thing but live for it.-[Coltou. WRITING AS A MEANS OF CULTURE AND INFLUENCE. "To be accurate, write; to remember, write; to know thy own mind, write. " Writing is a sure test of knowledge. It points out its defects. It rescues ideas from the chaotic state in which they too often float in the mind, and gives them a distinct reality. It not only does this, but it multiplies our ideas. It stimulates us to think. As we write, thought gives birth to new thoughts. Who of us ever sat down to write upon any subject, without rising up with thoughts portrayed in ink that he little dreamed of when he sat down? There is no source of culture, after reading, which must precede and accompany it, at all equal to it. The two linked together by earnest thought, form the mighty engine that overcomes the inertia of the mind and applies the irresistible force that moves it to the conception of ideas that burn. In our day and country, he that would sway the multititude, must write. The orator may fascinate, for the moment, an American audience; but afterwards, in their cooler moments, they demand that his arguments be written out, so that they can carefully weigh and analyze them in the quiet of their own households. If they can withstand this test, it is well; his power is acknowl edged. Again, the person who can write well, may influence generations to come; so herein is his superiority to the speaker, also. And what a field for usefulness is opened here! To show how well it has been cultivated by some, we but instance a Washington Irving, or a Mrs. Sigour ney. Who can estimate the influence for good, now exerted by the latter? All may not equal her, but all may cultivate the talents they have in this direction. The importance of this acquirement in a business point of view, ought to convince every one of the necessity of greater attention being given to instruction in it, in our 327 common schools. We say common schools rather than schools, because in his early years must one begin to write, if he would ever become a ready writer. Need we any stronger proof of the truth of this assertion, than the strong reluctance on the part of the great majority of men, to attempt to put their thoughts upon paper? They may converse readily and even eloquently, but put a pen into their hands, and how suddenly do their thoughts cease to flow. We can do nothing well or easily, without much practice therein. Had these bunglers in the use of the pen been early taught how to use it, and that to write is merely to trace in ink upon paper the very words they would use in intelligent conversation upon the same subject, and had they practiced the use of the pen as persistently as they have the art of conversation, for both are arts simply, they could now write with the same freedom and ease that they converse. In this article it has been our purpose merely to call attention to this subject. But how to correct the evils that result from the neglect of instruction in it, is a question not easily answered. We would invite some of our practical teachers to an expression, through the pages of the Journal, of their views upon the best method of teaching the art of composition. L. RESIGNATION.-How calmly do those glide through all, even the roughest events, who can but make a right estimate of the happiness, as well as the virtue of a governable will, resigned to God's. How does it enervate and enfeeble any calamity! nay, indeed, it triumphs over it, and by that conjunction with Him that ordains it, may be said to command even what it suffers. It was a philosophical maxim, that a wise moral man could not be injured, could not be miserable. But sure it is much more true of him who has that divine wisdom of Christian resignation, that twines and enwraps all his choices with God's; and is neither at the pains nor the hazards of his own election, but is secure unless Omniscience can be deceived and Omnipotence defeated, that he shall have what is really best for him.-Palmer. PRAYER FOR THE UNION. A land of law and Gospel peace, Of richest fruits and flowers- How shall we prove our grateful thanks Whose own right hand hath made us one, Lord! write this law on every heart: For thou hast taught us through thy Son, The hero-souls, whose prophet-dreams Find here, at last, the "promised land "- Our hallowed flag of Stars and Stripes, For thou hast taught us through thy Son, The serpent crept in Eve's pure heart, A million hands, by madness nerved, O God! to whom our fathers prayed, In bonds of sweet communion, Stretch forth thy strong, Almighty Hand, And save our blessed UNION! -N. Y. Evening Post. REMORSE. Let the virtuous remember, amidst their affliction, that though the heart of a good man may bleed even to death, it will never feel a torment equal to the rendings of remorse.-Man of the World. "A SCHOOL, OR SOME SORT OF A CEMETERY." Not long ago, we were riding with a friend, who is, we suspect, a near connection of Mrs. Partington. As we passed a fine old estate, our friend remarked, " Mr. So-andso has purchased that place." "What is he going to do with it?" we inquired. "O, he is going to establish u school, or some sort of a cemetery." We quietly smiled at the grave blunder of our friend, and dropped the subject. But soon the words came back to mind, and we found our self silently uttering "a school or some sort of a cemetery !" These words rang in our ears, as we passed at night into dream land, and again when our eyes welcomed the newborn day. As we entered the school-room, at the wonted hour, and looked upon the scores of young people intrust. ed to our care, again and again recurred the now familiar words, "a school, or some sort of a cemetery!" Is this a cemetery, we mentally asked, and if so, who, or what, is buried here? and who is responsible for the burials? If this be a cemetery, what is our office here? Are we doctor, or sexton, or pall-bearer, or chief mourner? We have soberly meditated upon the possible connection between schools and cemeteries, and have been endeavoring to ascertain in what respects schools can be cemeteries. Here are a few skeletons of the conclusions reached. May the dry bones of a valuable subject, thus hastily dissected, not be quite devoid of interest. A school may be a cemetery for dead intellect. When words are taught with little or no reference to what they signify; when memory is cultivated at the expense of thought; when a child's inquiring spirit is checked by unnecessary restrictions and formalities; when the majority of the mental faculties are uncultivated, or wrongly directed; when the school work is permitted to become a lifeless round of drudgery; then, indeed, is the school a gloomy cemetery. Alas, how many ghosts of deceased intellects have pedagogic Charons driven across the mental Styx with birchen sticks. On the tombs of how many |