schools, that of illustrating the sciences by means of simple and
appropriate apparatus, deserves to be particularly noticed. Apparatus
for the illustration of the sciences has long existed in colleges,
and no institution of the kind would be thought worthy of patronage,
which did not possess it. But apparatus is not more necessary in
colleges, than is appropriate apparatus in schools. Indeed, from the
nature of the case, it would seem to be more necessary in schools
than in colleges. Children and youth, in the earlier stages of their
education, are naturally volatile, and need something to fix their
attention. They are less accustomed to abstract reflection than
persons of a more advanced age, and therefore have greater need of a
visible illustration of the sciences.
Apparatus for schools needs to be materially different from that
usually found in colleges, which is generally so expensive, as to
be altogether beyond the reach of ordinary schools. Apparatus for
schools must be cheap, or it will not be generally introduced; it
must be neat, or scholars will turn away from it with disgust, and
science will be disgraced by its slovenly appearance; it must be
scientific, or it will be good for nothing. It may be scientific
without being expensive. The value of a machine for scientific
illustration depends much more upon its peculiar construction, than
upon its mechanical execution.
By the use of apparatus, two avenues are opened to the mind where
but one existed before, and the eye becomes auxiliary to the
understanding, in the acquisition of knowledge. Appropriate apparatus
is alike calculated to illustrate the sciences, and deeply to impress
their principles upon the memory. Some kinds of apparatus have long
been found in schools. Geography has long had the aid of maps, and
no teacher would use a geography which was not furnished with a
respectable atlas. But maps alone are not a sufficient apparatus
in teaching geography. A globular revolving map of the world, a
globe, and a cylindrical revolving Mercator's chart, will furnish
important aid in explaining the globular, polar, and Mercator's
projections of a map of the world. Astronomy and natural philosophy
can no more be successfully taught without the use of machines,
than can geography without the use of maps. No text-book on these
subjects would be thought fit for use, which was not furnished with
plates and diagrams. But plates and diagrams are but an inferior
kind of apparatus; the objects which they represent are extensively
presented in perspective, and the coarse manner in which these
plates are executed, as well as the intrinsic difficulties of the
subject, render them but imperfect substitutes for machines and
models for illustration. The great leading principles of descriptive
astronomy may, by means of a cheap machinery, be made matters
of ocular demonstration, and thus be rendered intelligible to
children. Natural philosophy acquires a greatly increased interest,
in an illustration by experiment. All that variety of labor-saving
machinery by which human toil is so extensively superseded, and the
arts and conveniences of life so signally advanced, are but different
combinations of the mechanical powers. Mechanics, not illustrated by
machinery, is a dry study, but by its use a great interest is created
in the subject, and some slumbering genius may be awakened in a
common school, that may originate discoveries in the arts, which will
tell on the destinies of men, like the cotton-gin of WHITNEY, the
cotton-spinning machines of ARKWRIGHT, or the steam-boat of FULTON.
The time is rapidly coming, when no school will be considered well
furnished, which has not a respectable apparatus for the illustration
of the sciences, nor any teacher well qualified for his work, who
does not understand how successfully to use it. Skill in the use of
apparatus must be the result of much attention to the subject; and
the teacher should labor to acquire it with the same assiduity with
which he strives to make himself acquainted with the sciences which
he professes to teach.
It is interesting to reflect on the cheering prospect which the
advancing cause of education holds out in regard to the perpetuity
of the American government, and the extension of the blessings of
freedom to the civilized world. In passing over the long tract of
time which authentic history discloses to the view, it is painful to
observe how extensively tyranny has swayed an iron sceptre over the
destinies of men; how governments, instead of being calculated to
promote the interests of the people, have been artfully contrived to
cause the multitude to toil and sweat for the gratification of the
pampered few. How few are the green spots in the history of man, on
which the friend of human rights delights to fix his contemplations!
There have indeed existed some commonwealths, under the name of
republics, but they have generally failed to affect, to any great
extent, the purposes of a well-organized government. Greece and Rome,
in their best estates, though denominated republics, were turbulent
democracies, or over-bearing aristocracies, and both by turns.
Deriving their notion of republics from these splendid failures,
European politicians, on the commencement of the American experiment,
predicted for it a disorderly course, and a speedy termination.
They seemed to have overlooked the fact, that the constitution of
the American government, and of American society, is wholly unlike
that of the ancient republics. But while they have been watching,
and waiting, and in many instances, hoping, for its downfall, their
hopes have been signally disappointed. The American government has
indeed been exposed to agitations. The storm of party violence and of
sectional interest has beaten around it. But, like the majestic oak,
instead of being prostrated by the blast, it has only caused it to
strike its roots more deeply, and to obtain a firmer footing in the
soil.
A general and well-conducted education nursed American liberty in
its infancy, and is destined to sustain it in its maturity. The
first settlers of New-England, whose example has told so widely
on the destinies of the American people, after constructing a few
log-houses, for the accommodation of their families, generally
proceeded to the erection of a church, and planted a school-house
by its side. The cause of education has never been regarded with
indifference by the people of the United States, and it is yearly
taking a deeper hold of the public mind. The governors of the states
recommend it in their annual speeches to the fostering care of the
legislatures, as one of the most important public interests, and laws
are frequently enacted for its protection and advancement. Means are
in increasing operation to raise up a nation of intelligent freemen.
There is no fear that the cause of education will become retrograde
in the United States. The old states are laboring to supply their
former deficiencies, and some of the first acts of sovereignty in
the new states consist in legislating for the advancement of the
interests of schools.
Every intelligent citizen of this republic cannot fail to be
convinced of the excellency of the government under which he lives,
and of feeling a deep interest in its stability and perpetuity.
He will perceive how abundantly it secures to him the unmolested
enjoyment of all his rights, and at how cheap a rate all this
protection is afforded. However the great Johnson may scowl upon
the sentiment of the equally great Milton, that 'the trappings of a
monarchy are sufficient to set up an ordinary commonwealth,' many
a man, under an oppressive monarchy, who has been taxed from the
crown of his head to the sole of his foot, and from his cradle to
his grave, has felt the full force of its truth and importance.
Education, by enabling the American citizen to compare the
excellencies of his own government with the defects of different
governments, in other nations, and through all time, has a tendency
to strengthen his love of country, and thus tyranny itself becomes
auxiliary to the support of the American constitution.
One of the greatest dangers to which the government of the United
States is exposed, is party spirit, which arms one portion of the
community against another, and causes measures to be approved or
disapproved, not from their intrinsic excellencies or defects, but
from a blind devotion, or a virulent opposition, to those by whom
they are supported. This is one of the evils incident to freedom.
But party spirit can never put on its most appalling form among an
intelligent people. However a few men, who are seeking for stations
of honor and of profit, may pursue a course which has their own
advancement only for its object, the mass of the people can have
no interest which is separate from that of their country. And with
intelligence to understand the true interests of the republic, and to
judge correctly of public men and public measures, they will be proof
against the arts of ambitious demagogues, and extensively free from
party violence. They will cling to the constitution of their country,
as the ark of their safety, and the charter of their hopes.
Education is not only moving onward in the United States, but it is
also assuming a more promising aspect in other parts of the world.
In Prussia, in Great Britain, in France, in Germany, and in some
other European countries, it is advancing, and in some instances
with surprising rapidity. That this advancement will be favorable
to civil liberty, there can be no doubt. The most intelligent
nations have always been the most free, and the most difficult to
be enslaved. There is not a throne in Europe, but is based, to a
greater or less extent, upon the ignorance of the people, and which
will not totter and fall, or be greatly modified in its structure, by
the general prevalence of education. Oppression and abuses will not
abide the light. The multitude are too strong for their oppressors.
They need only to understand their rights, in order to assert them,
and they need only to assert, in order to maintain them. They now
obey despotic rulers for the same reason that the inferior animals
are subject to man, because they know not how to resist, or that
resistance would be availing. Education will instruct them on both
these points.
Beneath the whole surface of European society are smouldering fires,
which threaten to break forth in some terrible volcano, that may
spread desolation and destruction far and wide. The privileged few
are marshalling themselves against the oppressed many, and the
many are preparing for a conflict with the few, and their several
pretensions must at length be put to issue. The monarchs of Europe,
supported by the prescription of ages, and surrounded by powerful
aristocracies, as so many body-guards, may refuse to listen to
retrenchment and reform, and set themselves in array against the
rights of the people. With the means at their command, they may
oppose powerful obstructions to the progress of civil liberty; but
it will be like damming up a mighty river, the force of which will
be augmented by the resistance with which it is opposed, and which
must at length break loose, and bear all before it. Revolutions in
European governments are as sure as the progress of time; and the
increasing intelligence of the people affords reason to expect that
their result will be the more firm establishment of human rights.
A great intellectual and moral training is necessary, to prepare a
people for freedom; and a great change must take place in regard to
the intelligence and virtue of every nation in Europe, before an
entirely free government would be to them a blessing. LAFAYETTE,
though a republican in principle, judged, and no doubt correctly,
that a limited monarchy was the best government which France is
prepared at present to enjoy, and to the erection and support of such
a government he contributed his influence.
The advancing cause of education, however, is preparing Europe for a
higher destiny; and there is reason to hope that she will not stop in
her career of improvement, until the intelligence and virtue of her
population shall prepare them for the full enjoyment of freedom, and
put them in possession of its substantial blessings. How long it will
be before such an event will occur, no human sagacity can precisely
predict. The struggle of freedom may be protracted and arduous, but
her ultimate triumph is certain; and even the distant prospect of it
will be cheering to every friend of human rights.
H.
OLD AGE.
BY REV. C. C. COLTON, AUTHOR OF 'LACON.'
THOU anti-climax in life's wrinkled page,
Worst end of bad beginning--helpless Age!
Thou sow'st the thorn, though long the flower hath fled;
Alive to torment, but to transport dead;
Imposing still, through time's still rough'ning road,
With strength diminish'd, an augmented load:
Slow herald of the tomb! sent but to make
Man curse that giftless gift thou wilt not take;
When hope and patience both give up the strife,
Death is thy cure--for thy disease is life!
HUNTING SONG.
I.
AWAKE--awake! for the day-beams break,
And the morning wind blows free;
The huntsmen strain over hill and plain,
And the horn winds merrily!
'Tis the dawn of day; and the shadows play
O'er the paths in the woody glen;
And the scent lies still upon field and hill,
For the hound to thread again.
Away--away! while the morn is gray,
And the feathery mist hangs nigh;
The hound bays deep from the craggy steep,
And the horn winds merrily!
II.
Press on--press on! o'er the dewy lawn,
And through the greenwood still;
The brook is passed, and the stag breathes fast,
As he pants on yonder hill.
The sun peeps now from the mountain's brow,
And the wild bird carolls free,
While the hot steeds drink at the brook's green brink,
And the hounds lag heavily.
But hark! again through the tangled glen,
Over meadow, and wood, and lea,
The deep-mouth'd pack resume the track,
And the horn winds merrily!
_Wilmington, (Del.,) Nov., 1837._ HACK VON STRETCHER.
THE POOR RELATION.
AN AUTHENTIC STORY FROM REAL LIFE.
It was in the early days of Codman county, that Eldred Worthington
swung his axe upon his shoulder, and departed to seek his fortune
in her almost untrodden wilds. Like thousands of others, the early
pioneers of our land, he 'kept bachelor's hall,' until he had 'made
an opening, and reared his rustic cot.' Then, with buoyant heart, he
returned to the place of his nativity, to claim the plighted hand of
Miss Abiah Perley, to become his help-mate in his future home.
To those who know any thing of the difficulties encountered by the
first settlers, it will be unnecessary to portray the toils and
hardships they had to overcome, before the savage was driven farther
back to his forest-lair. They went forward, growing with the growth
of the place; and, in a series of years, rearing a family of eight
sons and four daughters. It was a natural wish of the parents that
their children should not suffer for want of education, as they
themselves had done in early life; and hence they yielded to their
particular wishes. Benjamin, the eldest, desired to be a limb of
the law; the second was for physic, and had his choice; and Thomas,
the third, also, was much gratified, when arrangements were made
for his departure to a neighboring sea-port, to serve a mercantile
apprenticeship. His father was so fortunate as to place him in the
house of an old acquaintance, Mr. John Howard, one of the first
merchants of the city. This gentleman, having commenced life with
nothing but his hands, had become extensively concerned in commerce.
It was the very field for the mercantile propensity of Thomas. He
devoted himself with unceasing assiduity; won the confidence of his
employer; was made supercargo of his vessels in several voyages; and
finally, as the good ship Ajax was bound on an East India voyage, he
again bade farewell to his friends, and went forth upon the distant
seas. He was faithful to the important trusts reposed in him. The
ship was laden and ready to return; when, to the sad dismay of all
on board, who were greatly attached to him, he could not be found!
Every effort was made, for weeks and weeks, but the ship was finally
compelled to sail without him.
Sad was the news for his disconsolate parents, and his good master,
Mr. Howard. Conjecture followed conjecture, but all was mysterious
and appalling. The Ajax returned again to the Indies. The strictest
injunctions were made by Mr. Howard, that no efforts should be
wanting in the endeavor to discover the fate which had befallen
his young friend. Captain Bradshaw, a most excellent man, was
indefatigable; but deeply did he deplore the day that once more
compelled him to weigh anchor, without the slightest tidings to
cheer the anxious parents. Though no voyage was made to the Indies
for many years afterward, without all possible inquiries, yet the
conviction had almost ripened into certainty, that the young man had
been murdered, perhaps in the hope of booty, at his last visit to the
shore, among an unknown people.
* * * * *
YEARS rolled away. The region of Codman county advanced rapidly in
settlement, enterprise, and industry. Where once stood the farm of
the elder Worthington, now the thriving, bustling, and enterprising
village of Weckford shot up its aspiring head, with its immense
factories, its capacious stores, and rich and tasteful dwellings. It
was upon the banks of one of the noblest rivers in the world, where
the elder Worthington had sagaciously sat himself down, relying upon
his axe and his arm. But how little did he think, that ere fifty
years had rolled away, the acres he then reclaimed would become
the abode of thousands, and himself thereby rendered one of the
wealthiest men of Codman county. Yet this is but one case of that
talismanic power which has converted the forest into cities, and
given to the poor great riches, in the mighty march of enterprise,
industry, and intelligence, in the marvellous realm of the New
World. Weckford had become a place of great note. It was a central
point of trade for the surrounding country, which was peopling with
astonishing rapidity; and all contributed to give an importance to
the family of the Worthingtons. They were not only very rich, but
were eminent in the estimation of 'all the region round about.' The
sons had grown up under all the advantages which wealth and connexion
could impart. They had studied learned professions, as a matter of
course, and settled in Weckford, relying upon the immense wealth
which the extraordinary rise of property had poured into the lap of
the family. Honors thickened upon them. Benjamin was twice elected to
congress, and all the brothers were at times elevated to favor in the
municipality, or the honors of state partialities.
The father and mother of this numerous family were now in the vale
of years. The prudence, economy, and simplicity, which won the
esteem of all, and laid the foundation of their wealth, continued
to shed a benign influence over their declining days. They were
the very antipodes of the new races who had come upon the stage of
human action; and often did they deplore, in the bosom of their own
domestic circle, that heartless etiquette and cold formality, which
had rendered their children so ambitious to outshine others, and to
be looked up to as the exclusives of Weckford. But there was a deeper
feeling still, which hung heavily over their wasting years; the
painful disappearance of their son, who had ever been their favorite,
but who had also been regarded by the brothers and sisters with that
unnatural jealousy which such a feeling is apt to beget in the minds
of mere worldlings. In October of this year, the aged veteran was
forewarned, by the insidious influences of flickering mortality, that
he was soon to be 'gathered to his fathers:'
'For Time, though old, is strong in flight;
Years had rolled swiftly by,
And Autumn's falling leaf foretold,
The good old man must die;'
and, with the prudence, foresight, and calmness, which had actuated
him through all his well-spent life, he sent for his estimable
attorney, the honorable Phillip Longfellow, and by his 'last will and
testament' divided his immense estate equally among his children;
but an especial provision was inserted, reserving in the hands of
a trustee, during the period of twenty years, an equal portion of
the whole estate for Thomas, the income of which was to be annually
divided among all the children. The trustee was to use all diligence
in the almost 'forlorn hope' of endeavoring to gain tidings of the
long-lost son. The widow, beside her 'thirds,' had some benefices,
which were to go to the lost son, should he ever be discovered; but
if no intelligence should be gained, within the twenty years, then
the whole reservations were to be equally divided among the other
children.
Winter at length came, with its awful severity to lengthened life,
and the good old Mr. Worthington, mourned by all the villagers, was
followed to the family vault, in the Oaklands of Mount Pleasant,
at the ripe age of ninety-eight years. There is a wedded sympathy
between those who have been united in true love, that but ripens
with the lapse of time. Sixty-nine years had passed away, since Miss
Abiah Perley left her paternal abode, for the rude but rural cot of
Weckford. She had lived, during this long period, in the bonds of
holy love, a pattern of affection, kindness, and peace; and the death
of her husband severed a chord which nothing on earth had power to
unite. It weaned her affections from this world, and she sighed only
to join him in that 'better country' to which, in the fullness of
time, he had been called away; and in less than two years afterward,
the last rites of earth were performed over her departed spirit, as
her mortal ashes were laid beside his to whom her soul had so long
been wedded.
* * * * *
SEVERAL years had now elapsed since the death of the parents.
Weckford had continued to advance in population and wealth; and, as
a consequence, the Worthingtons had grown richer and richer. They
had indeed attained the apparent summit of their ambition, for none
assumed to rival them in fashion, wealth, or importance. They were
the leaders of the ton, and the very apex of the élite, in all things.
There were two principal streets in the village of Weckford,
stretching along the banks of the river, as far as the eye could
reach; and the offices, stores, dwellings, and factories of the
Worthingtons, their children, and connexions, were everywhere to be
seen. Many of the mansions, along Pleasant-street, were embellished
with balustrades, where the residents, at the close of the labors
of the day, came forth to enjoy the sweet odors from the flowers
of the gardens, the ornamental trees of the walks, and the cooling
breezes from off the beautiful river. It was at such an hour, that a
stranger, clad in miserable tatters, with a long beard, dishevelled
ringlets, and leaning upon a rough stick, cut from the woods,
tottered slowly and feebly into the village.
'Will you tell me,' said the stranger, inquiring at the door of
a descendant of the Worthingtons, 'where the dwelling of Thomas
Worthington, Esq. is?'
'It is that noble edifice which you see yonder, beyond the long row
of factories.'
The inquirer moved slowly on, apparently scarce able to sustain
himself, from physical imbecility. He was met at the outer gate by a
servant.
'Will you tell your master that a distant relation, from across the
water, who has experienced many misfortunes, desires to see him?'
The servant returned, and ushered the traveller into the outer hall;
and in a few minutes, the owner of the mansion appeared.
'I am, Sir, your supplicant,' said the stranger. 'You doubtless
recollect, that a brother of your mother, residing in Scotland,
had many sons. Misfortunes have thickened upon one of them. He is
poor, and, from a recent loss of every thing by shipwreck, is now
pennyless. He begs a lodging at your hands, and something wherewith
to clothe his almost naked frame.'
'I have nothing to give to stragglers,' said the lord of the mansion.
'Most persons like you are impostors.'