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WHY CHURCHES ARE NOT ALWAYS BUILT DUE EAST
AND WEST.

One end of every church doth point to such place where the sun did rise at the time of the foundation thereof was laid, which is the reason why all churches do not directly point to the east. For if the foundation was laid in June, it pointed to the north-east, where the sun rises at that time of the year; if it was laid in the spring or autumn it was directed full east; and if in winter, south-east; and by the standing of these churches it is known at what time of the year the foundations of them were laid.—Chauncy's Hertfordshire.

A TAME WOLF.

By way of enlivening the description of the structure of animals, he (M. de Candolle, Lecturer on Natural History at Geneva, introduced many interesting particulars respecting what he called leur morale, or their natural dispositions, and the changes they underwent when under the dominion of man. Among other instances of the affection which wolves had sometimes shown to their masters, he mentioned one which took place in the vicinity of Geneva. A lady, Madame M-, had a tame wolf which seemed to have as much attachment to its mistress as a spaniel. She had occasion to leave home for some weeks: the wolf evinced the greatest distress after her depar ture, and at first refused food. During the whole time she was absent, he remained much dejected; on her return, as soon as the animal heard her footsteps, he bounded into the room in an ecstacy of delight; springing up, he placed one paw on each of her shoulders, but the next moment he fell backwards and instantly expired.—Bakewell's Travels in the Tarentasse, &c.

IDLENESS.

There is no greater cause of melancholy than idleness; no better cure than business, as Rhasis holds; and howbeit to be busied in toys is to small purpose, yet hear that divine Seneca," Better do to no end than do nothing." -Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.

ANECDOTE OF BARRY THE PAINTER. While Barry was a young man, residing at Dublin, an incident occurred which strikingly illustrates the character of the man. He was brought into contact with some young persons of dissipated habits, who on several occasions enticed him to form one of their tavern parties. As he was returning home late at night from one of these carousals, he was struck by a sudden conviction of the folly of the course he was pursuing, in thus wasting the time which might so much more properly be employed in laying the foundation of his future respectability and independence. Diffident perhaps of his own power of foregoing the gratifications which he had the means of purchasing, and certain that the most effectual preventive would be to rid himself of the means at once,-he took all his money, which was probably at that time no great sum, and threw it into the Liffey, and afterwards shut himself up with great perseverance to his professional studies-Life of Barry.

STRANGE MODE OF CURING A VICIOUS HORSE.

I have seen vicious horses in Egypt cured of the habit of biting, by presenting to them, while in the act of doing so, a leg of mutton just taken from the fire: the pain which a horse feels in biting through the hot meat, causes it, after a few lessons, to abandon the vicious habit.-Burckhardt.

CONFOUNDING THE NATIVES.

"I perceived the fires of the natives at no great distance from our camp, and Dawkins went forward, with a tomahawk and a small loaf. He soon came upon a tribe of about thirty men, women, and children, seated by the ponds, with half a kangaroo and some cray-fish cooked before them, and also a large vessel of bark containing water. Now Dawkins must have been, in appearance, so different to all the ideas these poor people had of their fellow-men, that on the first sight of such an apparition it was not surprising that they, after a moment's stare, precipitately took to the pond, floundering through it, some up to the neck, to the opposite bank. He was a tall spare figure, in a close white dress, surmounted by a broad-brimmed straw hat, the tout-ensemble somewhat resembling a mushroom; and these dwellers by the waters might well have believed, from his silent and unceremonious intrusion, that he had risen from the earth in the same manner. The curiosity of the natives, who had vanished as fast as they could, at length overcame their terrors so far as to induce them to peep from behind the trees at their mysterious visitor, who, not in the least disconcerted, made himself at home at the fires, and on seeing them on the other side, began his usual speech, What for you jerran budgery white fellow? Why are you afraid of a white man?' He next drew forth his little loaf, endeavouring to explain its meaning and use by eating it, and then began to chop a tree by way of showing off the tomahawk; but the possession of a peculiar food of his own only astounded them the more. His last experiment was attended with no better effect; for when he sat down by their fire, by way of being friendly, and began to taste their kangaroo, they set up a shout which induced Dawkins to make his exit with the same silent celerity, which no doubt rendered his début so outrageously opposed to their ideas of etiquette, which imperatively required that loud cooys' should have announced his approach

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before he came within a mile of their fires. Dawkins had been cautioned as to the necessity for this, but he was an old tar, and Jack likes his own way of proceeding on shore; besides, in this case Dawkins came unawares upon them, according to his own account, and it was only by subsequent experience that we learnt the danger of thus approaching the aboriginal inhabitants; some of these carried spears on their shoulders, or trailing in their hands, and the natives are never more likely to use such weapons than when under the impulse of sudden terror."—Major Mitchell's Australia.

USEFULNESS.

How barren a tree is he that lives, and spreads, and cumbers the ground, yet leaves not one seed, nor one good work to generate after him. I know all cannot leave alike, yet all may leave something, answering their proportion, their kinds.—Owen Feltham,

CHARACTERISTIC TRAIT OF BOSWELL.

"On the road to Bath it occurring to me that it might be useful for me to be early in seeing Sir W. Young, who is just come from the West Indies, and that he was not a quarter of a mile out of the road, I drove to his house, Huntercombe, and staid all night. The visit did not turn out to answer any good purpose. Boswell there, a great enemy of the Abolition-said that he was at Kimber's trial, and gloried in it. Sir William read a letter from G. to his father-some wit, but affected, and full of levity and evil; written in 1773, when he was near sixty, alas! Bozzy talked of Johnson, &c. Sat up too late. Sir William very friendly-talked of Slave Trade, and mentioned having found a great number of children without relations on board several ships he visited, who from irouiry appeared to have been kidnapped.— Wednesday. Had some serious talk with Bozzy, who admitted the depravity of human nature, Last night he expressed his disbelief of eternal punishment. He asked Sir W. to take his boy home, and walked off into the West of England with the Spirit of Athens' under his arm, and two shirts and a nightcap in his pocket, sans servant."-Wilberforce's Diary.

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THE MUSIC OF HUMANITY.

The rudest and the most advanced nations abound in songs. They are heard under the plantain throughout Africa, as in the streets of Paris. The boatmen on the Nile, and the children of Cairo on their way to school, cheer the time with chants; as do the Germans in their vineyards, and in the leisure hours of the university. The Negro sings of what he sees and feels,— the storm coming over the woods, the smile of his wife, and the coolness of the drink she gives him. The Frenchman sings the woes of the state prisoner, and the shrewd self-cautionings of the citizens. The Songs of the Egyptian are amatory, and of the German varied as the accomplishments of the nation, but in their moral tone earnest and pure. The more this mode of expression is looked into, the more serviceable it will be found to the traveller's purposes of observation.—Miss Martineau.

OLD AND NEW TIMES.

An inhabitant of Horsham, in Sussex, now living, remembers, when a boy, to have heard from a person whose father carried on the business of a butcher in that town, that in his time the only means of reaching the metropolis was either by going on foot or riding on horseback, the latter of which undertakings was not practicable at all periods of the year, nor in every state of the weather-that the roads were not at any time in such a condition as to admit of sheep or cattle being driven upon them to the London markets, and that, for this reason, the farmers were prevented sending thither the produce of their land, the immediate neighbourhood being, in fact, their only market. Under these circumstances, a quarter of a fat ox was commonly sold for about 15s., and the price of mutton throughout the year was only five farthings the pound. Horsham is 36 miles from London, and the journey between the two places now occupies less than four hours; more than thirty stage-coaches travelling at this rate pass through Horsham every day, on their way from and to the metropolis, in addition to numerous private carriages and post-chaises; the traffic of goods-principally coal and agricultural produce---carried on in the district of which Horsham is the centre, exceeds 40,000 tons a-year, besides which, the road is constantly covered with droves of cattle and flocks of sheep.---Porter's Progress of the Nation.

THE MOST UNHAPPY.

Cosroes, king of Persia, in conversation with two philosophers and his vizier, asked,—“What situation of man is most to be deplored?" One of the philosophers maintained, that it was old age accompanied with extreme poverty; the other, that it was to have the body oppressed by infirmities, the mind worn out, and the heart broken by a series of misfortunes. "I know a condition more to be pitied," said the Vizier, "and it is that of him who has passed through life without doing good; and who, unexpectedly surprised by death, is sent to appear before the tribunal of the Sovereign Judge."—Miscellany of Eastern Learning.

CURIOUS CLOCK.

The most curious thing in the cathedral of Lubeck is a clock of singular construction, and very high antiquity. It is calculated to answer astronomical purposes, representing the places of the sun and moon in the ecliptic, the moon's age, a perpetual almanack, and many other contrivances. The clock, as an inscription sets forth, was placed in the church upon Candlemas-day in 1405. Over the face of it appears an image of our Saviour, and on either side of the image are folding-doors, so constructed as to fly open every day when the clock strikes twelve, At this hour, a set of figures representing the twelve apostles come out from the door on the left hand of the image, and pass by in review before it, each figure making its obeisance by bowing as it passes that of our Saviour, and afterwards entering the door on the right hand. When the procession terminates, the doors close.Clarke's Travels in Scandinavia.

London. WILLIAM SMITH, 113, Fleet Street. Edinburgh: FRASER & Co. Dublin: CURRY & Co.-Printed by Bradbury & Evans, Whitefriars.

THE

No. XXIII.

"

PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM SMITH, 113, FLEET STREET.

BOUNCERS.

SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1839.

ONE of the most widely diffused of all the varieties or species of the genus homo, is that of the BOUNCERS. The Dictionary definition of a bouncer is-" a boaster, a bully, an empty threatener—a liar." This corresponds, in some measure, with the popular notion of a bouncer; and accordingly, in vulgar and cant phrase, to bounce" is simply "to lie." But such a definition only takes cognizance of the lowest and coarsest kind of bouncers, and leaves out of consideration a large and finely diversified family, which, like that of the antelopes, is composed of an almost endless and oftentimes graceful variety. This family occupy that great space in the kingdom of imagination which lies between aerial castle-building and broad, glaring, naked, vulgar falsehood. The castle-builder is quite an ethereal creature; he imposes on nobody but himself; like Alexander Selkirk, he can look round, and say, “I am monarch of all I survey." Not so the bouncer. He is the connecting link between the real and unreal worlds, and could not live in solitude. He walks to and fro between imagination and fact, and acts as a sort of man-milliner to truth; he cannot understand that beauty when unadorned is adorned the most, but is busily employed all day long in clothing the naked and gilding gold. He is a gold-beater also, and a wire-drawer; manufactures a large quantity of Britannia-metal; and can often

make

"auld claes look amaist as weel's the new."

When Wordsworth exclaimed-"Oh, many are the poets that are sown by nature," he doubtless was alluding to the bouncers. Poetry is simply real or common life, elevated, adorned, magnified; and to do this is the peculiar vocation of the bouncers. Their motto is the same as that of the poets

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"Unless above himself he can Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!" Therefore, feeling the dignity of their calling, they devote themselves to it; the most trifling action of life-that is, of their own lives becomes hallowed in their hands, or rather mouths; they glorify humanity! We speak not now of the vulgar tribe of bouncers, who are satisfied with silver spangle and coarse embroidery-dull-minded tabbies, who can rise no higher than barouche friends, rich uncles and aunts, medical man keeping his own carriage, gold watches, fine dresses, &c. No, it is of the higher class of bouncers that we speak-fine geniuses, who can create a soul under the ribs of death," and have a near affinity of relationship to the pure aerial castle-builder. They scorn to let their human nature sink into a mere literal matter-of-factism. Oh! with what unction one of them will tell you that he was part of a deputation to meet the prime minister or the chancellor of the exchequer; or that he is going to make a speech at a public dinner; or had the honour of a call from the Bishop of London. A glow is diffused over his face-his voice is softened down into a rich mixture of humility and pride-the bouncer feels himself indeed a man!

[PRICE TWOPENCE.

bouncers, grave bouncers, stupid bouncers, motive-wanting
bouncers, and bouncers on purpose. The TRADE BOUNCER is the
most common of them all, and is as widely-diffused as the grey
rat. Buying and selling are equivalent expressions for the exist-
ence of human beings, and therefore the trade-bouncer is as
universal as humanity itself. Solomon appears to have been

aware of the existence of "bulls " and "bears" in his time; the
one trying to toss up, and the other to trample down.
"It is
naught, it is naught, saith the buyer, but when he goeth his way,
then he boasteth." To be sure he does ;-he has made a good
bargain by depreciating the quality, and then he brags of it. No
wonder, therefore, that it is difficult to make a bargain with a Jew
old clothesman; for this trick of depreciation and exaltation has
been in the nation for two thousand years, and appears to have
run in the blood, like wooden legs.

But we scorn to take any notice of the vulgar kind of tradebouncers, whose motto is neither cheat nor be cheated, but rather cheat. To this class belong Jew brokers, common-place impudent quacks, touters at auction-sales, and all the herd who do not scruple at a downright lie to earn a paltry penny. It is a shame to class them with the true trade-bouncers, who would not lie for the mere sake of lying, and who have, moreover, a considerable tincture of imagination, which is essential to genuine bouncing. The true trade-bouncer is quite a superior animal to the cheating bouncer. He has a peculiar call, which, like the cry of the infant all over the world, is always pitched on the same note. He has also a fine under-tone, which he uses at times with considerable effect. When the trade-bouncer is in the humour to use his call, you have but to ask him how business is getting on, and you will get a hearty stirring answer. He is either doing a fine stroke of business; or he does not know what hand to turn to next; or he got an extensive order last week, and another yesterday; or, at the very least, he is getting on "pretty fair, pretty fair." But when disposed to speak in his under-tone, nothing can be finer than the manner in which he uses it. In particular, if he suspects that you have a long-standing account at half-cock in your pocket, ready to be thrust in his face, he shakes his head, and runs through a gamut of "little doing-trade very slackheavy expenses-bad debts-and really will give up, and retire from business, unless things take a turn." Then, as if struck by some sudden recollection, he exclaims-" Bless my heart! I have an important appointment for half-past one, and it is just on the time-I had almost forgotten it-good morning, sir!" It is curious, too, to remark how the trade-bouncer can use his call and his under-tone in the same breath. He talks of unlimited credit at the bank; has a friend who will discount for him to any amount; and has several shares in a railroad, a cemetery, and a joint-stock bank. But if you venture to ask a small favour, such as to cash a bill for you, the call is instantly balanced by the under-tone. "Oh! really, now I am so sorry; not ten minutes ago a friend called in-a man, in fact, whom I care very little about,-who asked me to do a similar favour for him, and I gave

There is a great variety of the bouncers. There are rattling him all my spare cash: besides, I have a very heavy bill to meet

VOL. I.

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Bradbury and Evans, Printers, Whitefriars.

just been using all his "interest" to effect a certain purpose, and therefore it would be of no use to try for you; but if at any other time you would just point out anything in which his services would be of the slightest avail, you may certainly "command" him, &c. &c. &c. &c.

to-morrow, and at this particular moment happen to be rather poor -it is unfortunate, but at any other time I should be happy to oblige you." If any particular article of consumption is under discussion, the trade-bouncer is sure to let you know that he deals more extensively in it than any other person in the same locality with himself; but if you are a traveller, and ask him for an order, The aspiring young lady bouncer is also another bore. We have the under-tone is in instant requisition. "Singular, at this par- one at this moment in our mind's eye; a sensible girl, intelligent, ticular juncture happen to have rather a larger stock than usual-sharp, and decided in her general conduct. But though her birth but, if you are passing this way in your next journey, just give and station do not give her the slightest warrant to enter what me a look in, and I will see what I can do for you." Or if the is called the fashionable world, it is astonishing how familiar she trade-bouncer is a traveller himself, he tells of the number of is with duchesses, dowagers, and countesses, and how often she towns he has raced through in a week, of the budget of orders he has danced with baronets, barons, and even marquises and dukes. has got, and the extensive connexion he has formed. But it She is somewhat literary, too, in her tastes, and though not quite would lead us beyond our present purpose to talk more at large a blue-stocking, may be termed an accomplished amateur. about trade-bouncing. It is more than an art-it is a science, and fact, if we are to take her testimony, she has been presented at is applied quite in a scientific manner, for the attainment of parti- Court, has been introduced at Almack's, has a box at the Opera, cular ends. has attended lectures at the Royal Institution, was at a private view of the Royal Academy exhibition, kept a stand at a fancy fair, next to the Marchioness of Fairymount, and is quite one of the observed. Poor girl! she does not tell direct falsehoods; there is always a slight foundation of truth on which her airy superstructures rest; but she has got such a florid taste-has such a fancy for the pointed style-that one cannot distinguish the building, owing to the profusion of ornament with which it is encumbered, or, as a bouncer might say, adorned.

We once spent an evening, in a quiet domestic way, with a bouncing family. They had no reasonable pretension to be considered anything more than decent, respectable folks, who were tolerably well to do. But the father, over his bottle of sherry, talked of his fatigues, his anxieties, his responsibilities, and, by inference, of his importance; he had just seen the lord mayor that day on some corporation business, and really it was a great trouble to him to neglect his business for matters of that kind; he was not very well either, and he wished to go down to Bedfordshire for a few days, but found he could not be spared; it was so hard that he could not trust his business to anybody! Then the mother had her story about her daughters, and their expectations, and her sons, and their prospects; how they were all provided for, in case father died; and how they were at Hyde Park, and saw the last review, and were going to Brighton in a few days. The daughters had a great deal of talk about balls, dresses, beaux, and bows from young Lord Firkin; and the sons were prodigious judges of horseflesh, made heavy bets at Epsom and Doncaster, and were quite intimate with several members of parliament. Two-thirds of the talk was composed of pure, unsophisticated bouncing; and yet all the members of the family kept each other in countenance with the greatest coolness in the world. A little child was introduced, in its night-clothes, to kiss all round, and receive evening compliments; and the manner in which it held its rattle in its hand showed that it also was a bit of a bouncer. A noise was heard at the door, and in rushed a blubbering boy, who ran up to his mother, and seemed to be making an effort to get into a faint or a fit in her arms. She could only elicit, from incoherent expressions, that some companion had attacked and ill-used him. "Why did you not stand up in your own defence?" asked one of his brothers. Straightway the spirit of bounce came over the youth. Bursting from his mother's arms, he exclaimed, "Oh, didn't I give it to him! didn't I give it to him, father! he'll never look me in the face again—I can tell you that much!" He then proceeded to relate his exploits in a style which made even his bouncing family to desire him to hold his tongue.

The patronising bouncer is a great bore. He is continually volunteering his kind offices in your behalf; has such a large circle of friends, and has such powerful influence; could put you, at a day's notice, into a snug clerkship in Downing-street or the Custom House; and if you know of any poor widow who wants to get her son into the Blue-coat School, you have but to apply to him, and he will get it done for you. The worst of it is, that when you press him for a share of all this favour and influence, it always happens that his most particular friend, the Duke of Wellington, is out of town; or, at that precise moment, he has

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As a "parallel passage" to our fair friend, we can produce a handsome young man, one of the best male bouncers we know. He always carries a pocket telescope and a microscope, and whenever he meets his friends he treats them to a view. Look at him before he opens his mouth, and you would imagine that he was only an ordinary mortal; but, as quick as lightning, he puts his microscope to your eye, and his little finger becomes thicker than a man's loins, and his buttons are magnified into huge dinnerplates. Like the fiendish poodle-dog that annoyed Faust, he goes on expanding, till you become afraid that the room won't hold him

"Swelling like an elephant,

He will make the ceiling scant:"

and you must shake him very hard to bring him down to his natural size. He is quite hand-and-glove with Lord John This and Mr. Spring That; has got an offer of an official situation, but does not choose to let himself be "shelfed" so soon; for he is certain of obtaining more active and important employment. He will talk on till old age or poverty comes over him; but nothing will crush his lively, vaulting, active, bouncing spirit. He will bounce to the very last; and we do believe that death will find it as hard to pin him, as to catch a fine, springy, industrious flea. We know another bouncer, however, the very ditto of the one we are speaking of, who has bounced to some purpose, for he has bounced himself into a good official situation—but then he is an Irishman.

There are more than one kind of fat bouncers. The dapper, happy-looking, sanguine, ruddy-complexioned bouncer, whom it is quite a pleasure to see; and the pale-faced fat bouncer, with a contemptuous scowl, and a pursy look; his white neckcloth rolled in a full manner round his short, thick neck, and his whole look disagreeably important. There are also several kinds of lean bouncers. The tall, smart, affable man, who has a quick eye and a touch of his hat for everybody; and the saturnine, solemn, lean bouncer, whose liver is of the nature called “lily," and is always desperately afraid that you are going to insult him. But why should we attempt to describe individuals of such a varied and multiform species as the bouncers? The cook bounces about her skill in cooking, the fine places she has been in, and the great

consideration that was always paid to her; the housemaid bounces about her relations, and how, once on a day, it was never thought that she would become a servant; nurse bounces about the influence which she possesses over "missus," and how free and familiarly "master "treats her; the wife bounces about her husband, and the husband sometimes about the wife; the carpenter bounces about his chips, and the compositor bounces, over his put of porter, about the quantity of types he can pick up in a day; the advertisement collector bounces about the huge circulation of his periodical, and the bookseller sometimes bounces about his editions; the traveller is an old privileged bouncer, and the world is a bouncing world: for even undertakers and grave-diggers bounce, and as the earth rattles on our coffins, the dead might almost hear the living bouncing over them.

We cannot conclude this bouncing paper without a notice of the LITERARY BOUNCER. He is a elever fellow; is a good classical scholar; and knows German and Spanish as familiarly as his own mother-tongue, besides having a slight knowledge of Russian, a tolerable acquaintance with Arabic, and could make a shift with the Sanserit. He is fully competent to

"Search the moon by her own light; To take an inventory of a Her real estate and personal;

To measure wind, and weigh the air,
And turn a circle to a square;

And in the braying of an ass
Find out the treble and the bass
If mares neigh alto, and a cow
In double diapason low."

One more "last word;" a story, reader, but not a bounce. A very worthy man, a member of parliament, a gentleman, and a scholar, once advised us never to confess ignorance of any subject, especially in certain circles, or to certain parties. "Franklin," said he, "was impressively told to stoop,' as he went through the world, and he would miss many hard thumps; but," said he, "if you want to push your way in the world of London, BOUNCE, and bounce high, or you will never be able to clear the five-barred gates that stand in your way!"

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE.

A FEW years since, a ship "arrived at Liverpool, after having been for several weeks the sport of winds and waves. The mariner's compass having been washed overboard in a storm, their voyage was dreary and procrastinated, much caution being necessary; and despite which, their fate, but for a fortuitous circumstance, might have been inevitably sealed. Now, had the simple fact of the extreme ease with which a mariner's needle might be made been known to any on board, the peril might have been avoided. A sewing-needle, or the blade of a penknife, being held in an upright posture and struck by a hammer, and subsequently floated by cork on water, or suspended by a thread without iron, would become a magnetic needle, and point north and south; or the end of a poker held vertically, and passed over its surface from one extreme to the other, would impart magnetism, which, if the needle be of steel, would be of a permanent character." I take this case from a Mechanics' Magazine published in America.

Again, I read in the newspaper the other day as follows:-"A penknife, by accident, dropped into a well twenty feet deep. A sunbeam from a mirror was directed to the bottom, which rendered the knife visible; and a magnet fastened to a pole brought it up." And so of thousands of cases that occur daily in the mechanic's business; and a little science comes in play very well here, though a man does not know any more.

Timothy Claxton's Hints to Mechanics.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

EMANUEL VON FELLENBERG,

EMANUEL VON FELLENBERG, the celebrated founder of the institution for the improvement of education and agriculture at His father was of the patrician rank, and a member of the govern Hofwyl, in the canton of Berne in Switzerland, was born in 1771. ment of Berne; his mother, a grand-daughter of the celebrated Admiral Van Tromp, was distinguished for her enlarged benevolence and sincere piety. How much have the greatest characters owed Fellenberg urged upon him, by example and precept, the duty of to their mothers, from the Gracchi to Napoleon! The mother of relieving the unfortunate; and she awakened a spirit of patriotism in his young mind, by describing to him the public services of her grandfather in Holland, and by placing before him the history of his own country; and during the struggle of the Americans for their independence, her ardent feelings in their favour excited in her son a strong interest in the heroes of that unprecedented war, and warmed his heart in behalf of his own country. These feel ings were confirmed by the exhortations of his father; who, when returned from the council, fatigued, and almost disheartened by the failure of efforts to promote salutary measures, would enlarge upon the duties of a citizen, charging his son to live for his country. To these impressions of his childhood Fellenberg ascribes, in a great measure, his subsequent character and destination. At the age of fifteen, he was placed under the instruction of the celebrated blind poet, Pfeffel, at Colmar. The first bias of his mind towards the subject of education was given on his return to Switzerland, by an address delivered by his father as president of the Helvetic Society; and the intimacy of his parents with Pestalozzi, whom he early learned to revere for his genius and benevolence, strengthened this interest, and probably contributed much to give to his efforts the direction they have taken. On his return to his native city, at the age of sixteen, he found the pursuits and character of the young men of his own age so frivolous and corrupt, that he abandoned their society for his study, notwithstanding the petty persecutions to which this conduct subjected him. In order to improve his health, which bad been impaired by study, he gave up the delicacies of his father's table for very simple fare, and employed other means to harden his constitution, rendering himself independent of artificial wants, and devoting to benevolent objects the money wasted by his companions in luxury genial with his own, respecting the object of education, he felt the and amusement. Disappointed at finding in no one a spirit con. need of some regenerating influence on the mass of society. We might suppose that such a mind, enlarged, enthusiastic, and feeling its own power, might have been carried away by that spirit of in fidelity which then spread like a flood over the face of Europe. But, thanks to his early instructors, it was not so; his own faith in revelation never wavered; and so confident was he that no reflecting man could resist the evidence of Christianity, that he spent months of fruitless discussion in the residence of an unbeliever, on the banks of the lake of Zurich, with the persuasion that he should convince him of his error. For the purpose of acquainting himself with the state of the people of his own country, he travelled through Switzerland, usually on foot, with his knapsack on his back, residing in the villages and tarm-houses, mingling in the labours and occupations and partaking of the rude lodging and fare of the peasants and mechanics, and often extending his journey to surrounding countries. In 1790, he went to the university of Tubingen, to complete his studies in civil law; and where he attended the sessions of the committee of instruction. immediately after the fall of Robespierre, in 1795, he visited Paris, Perceiving, however, the storm which was impending over Switzerland, from the schemes of the French revolutionists, he returned to warn his countrymen against it, urging the sacrifice of some of the oppressive claims and exclusive privileges of the patricians, as the only means of averting it. But his predictions were disbelieved, and his warnings disregarded.

At the approach of the French troops in 1798, he was active in raising and leading the men of his canton to resist them. But such efforts were vain against the disciplined forces of the enemy; Berne was taken, Fellenberg proscribed, a price was set upon his head, and he was compelled to fly to Germany. He had some intention of going to America, whither he had transmitted some of his property as a resource, in case of the utter ruin of affairs at home; but being recalled to Switzerland, he was soon after sent on a mission to Paris, to remonstrate against the oppressive and rapacious conduct of the agents of the French republic. In this

he so far succeeded as to procure the recall of one of the most profligate; but, disgusted with the utter disregard of principle and honesty which he witnessed in public men and measures, he resigned his office. Entering into politics upon his return home, he was equally dissatisfied with the want of faith and public spirit which he found on the part of the government, and abandoning political life entirely, he resolved henceforth to devote himself to the subject of early education as the object of his life, and as the only resource for ameliorating the state of his own and other sountries, and for preventing a repetition of the tremendous convulsions which he had witnessed. He was appointed a member of the council of education at Berne; but being soon convinced that nothing adequate could be accomplished through the medium of legislative commissions, and having come into the possession of an ample fortune, he resolved to form on his own estate, and on an independent basis, a model institution, in which it should be proved what education could accomplish for the benefit of humanity. He married, about this time, a Bernese lady, of the patrician family of Ischarner, who has born him nine children, six of whom, as well as their mother, are devoted coadjutors in his plan of benevolence.

The great object of Fellenberg was to elevate all classes of society, by fitting them better for their respective stations, and to render them happy and united, without destroying that order which Providence had appointed, and which the governments of Europe preserved with so much jealousy. He believed it important to collect in one institution the poor and the rich, each with their appropriate means of improvement, and thus to establish proper and friendly relations between them. He considered it of high importance to make agriculture the basis of such an institution. He regarded it as the employment best of all adapted to invigorate the body; but he also believed that, by elevating agriculture from a mere handicraft to an art founded upon scientific principles, and leading directly to the operations of the great First Cause, it would become a pursuit peculiarly fitted to elevate and purify the mind, and serve as the basis of improvement to the labouring classes, and to society at large.

With these views Fellenberg purchased the estate called Hofwyl, selecting it on account of its situation; so insulated as to secure it from the influence of bad examples, yet surrounded by villages that would furnish labourers, and only six miles from the city of Berne. It was an estate of about two hundred acres, under poor cultivation, lying on a hill filled with springs, and bounded on three sides by a valley eighty feet in depth. He commenced his work by draining the arable land and collecting the water into a streamlet; he then trenched the soil; and converted the swampy land into meadows, by covering it with a foot in depth of sand and soil from the upland, brought down partly by means of the streamlet, and partly by sleds raised by pulleys. He erected extensive granaries to provide for the abundant crops which he anticipated. All this excited ridicule among his enemies, and alarm and remonstrance among his friends, who left him, by his advice, to sustain the burden alone. By the system of stall-feeding he obtained an abundance of manure; and his various inventions and unceasing exertions have been crowned by the lands of Hofwyl being made to yield fourfold their former produce, with an unintermitted succession of crops. An establishment was also formed for the manufacture of his improved instruments of agriculture, which have been sent to every part of Europe; and Hofwyl has furnished experimental farmers to princes and noblemen, and directors of agricultural institutions.

But Fellenberg occupied himself in improving agriculture only as a means to the more important end of improving man himself; and the germ of a scientific institution was formed, by associating two or three pupils with his own sons, and employing private tutors at his own house. About this time Pestalozzi being obliged to leave his residence, Fellenberg established him as a coadjutor in the chateau of Buchsee, about half a mile from Hofwyl; but the strict order and rigid economy which Fellenberg deemed necessary, agreed but ill with the ardent, but irregular benevolence of the good Pestalozzi; and the latter, being offered the much superior castle of Yverdun, he left Hofwyl, unhappily with feelings towards Fellenberg cooled by the necessity which the latter was under to restrain and curb the noble flights of his early friend. In 1807, the first building was erected for the scientific institution, and a school for the poor projected, which in the following year was carried into execution, with the assistance of a young man named Vehrli, the son of a schoolmaster in a neighbouring canton. About the same time a school of theoretical and practical agriculture, for all classes, provided with professors of the respective

sciences connected with it, was formed at Buchsee, at which several hundred students were collected.

In the same year Fellenberg commenced a more important part of his great plan the formation of a normal school, or seminary of teachers. This institution received great encouragement in the number of those who flocked to it to be taught, and a means was presented for regenerating gradually the schools of Switzerland ; but the rulers of Berne, without any apparent motive consistent with the spirit of a free government, forbade their teachers to attend these instructions on pain of losing their stations. Since that period this establishment has been connected with the agricultural institution only. Hofwyl had by this time become the resort of strangers from all quarters. Deputations were sent to inspect the establishment from several of the German princes; the late King of Wurtemberg visited it in person incognito; and a number of pupils of princely and noble families were sent thither for education. In 1814, the Emperor Alexander sent to Howfyl seven sons of Russian princes and noblemen, to be educated there, in accordance with a plan suggested by Fellenberg for the gradual amelioration of the Russian empire; but in a few years afterwards this powerful patronage was withdrawn on account of the political state of Europe; other foreign pupils were recalled, and of late about one third of them have been English, and the remainder Swiss.

In succeeding years several new buildings were erected, and Hofwyl now comprises :-1, the model farm, which supplies the wants of its population, amounting to about three hundred persons; 2, workshops for the fabrication and improvement of agricultural implements, scientific apparatus, and clothing for the establishment; 3, a lithographic press for music and other works; 4, a scientific institution, for the education of the higher classes; 5, a practical institution; 6, an agricultural institution; 7, a normal school. At the distance of six miles is the colony of Meykirch, consisting of eight or ten boys, who are placed on an uncultivated spot, to acquire their subsistence by their own labour, receiving daily instruction, and aided by a small capital supplied by Fellenberg.

Thus has this excellent and indefatigable man laboured to benefit his fellow-creatures. Difficulties did not deter him, nor the coolness of friends discourage him: he at last triumphed over all obstacles ; and not only has he reaped sustenance for hundreds from fields "where Ceres never gained a wreath before," but he has cultivated the barren minds of his fellow-men, and laid the foundation of moral and intellectual worth.

One peculiar feature in the system of education pursued at Hofwyl is the absence of the stimulus of rewards and distinctions; and complete proof is furnished in this establishment, that the most ardent thirst for knowledge and the most assiduous habits of study may be produced without resorting to the principle of emulation. The great aim of Fellenberg has been to produce men, and not mere scholars; his great principle is to unite physical, moral, and intellectual education. The invigoration of the body and the preservation of the health are carefully provided for, by the size and airiness of the buildings, the regulations respecting food and sleep according to the constitutions of individuals, and the extensive play-grounds. The fundamental views of Pestalozzi are adopted in many branches, with such modifications as are necessary in their practical application. The utmost watchfulness is used in moral and religious education; and the development of religious feeling, under the influence of revelation, aided by the cultivation of the taste, and the formation of habits of constant industry, order, and temperance, are the objects sought to be attained. Another great point has been fully established by the experiments of Fellenberg-that the poor may receive a good practical education at such an institution, without interfering with the usual hours of labour; and that if they can be retained to the age of twenty-one, the expense will be entirely repaid.

USES OF HISTORY.

HISTORY, however profoundly studied, will still, perhaps, leave us in doubt as to the rules which ought to regulate our own conduct, or our share in the general conduct of society, of which we

are members: but it will leave us none as to the boundless indulgence we owe to the opinions of other men. When we see that science is so complicated; that truth is so far removed from us, so shrouded from our ken; that every step in our work offers fresh difficulties to our investigation, raises fresh questions for solution ;when we are not sure of our own footing, how shall we pronounce sentence on those who differ from us?-Sismondi's Fall of the Roman Empire.

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