rightly cultivated, give us more elevated natures and a wider range of enjoyment. It is for such a cultivation, and for the attainment of such a happiness, that "God hath set the solitary in families." But this object is to a great extent lost, without arrangements corresponding to the end to be secured. There must be a time and place for quiet and social intercourse with books, and periodicals, and objects of taste at hand, which shall aid in the development of the mind and the heart. The place for these associations is the family sitting-room. It is, in fact, the center of home, the point to which the wanderer looks back with longing heart, when far from his father's house. You supply, then, a great family necessity, when you provide a comfortable, quiet, tasteful room, with suitable furniture, in all particulars inviting as a gathering place for your family at home. Does any one object that such arrangements are too nice and fanciful for a farmer's house? that it is better to spend the evening before the old-fashioned kitchen fire, where apples can be pared, and hickory nuts cracked, and ax-helves whittled, without any fear of detriment to carpets and sofas? Allow me to suggest, my friend, that you are the very one that needs that sitting-room, with its elevating and humanizing influences. Nuts and apples, and ax-helves, are all good

in their place; but you and your children have hearts and minds as well

as stomachs. Unbend your back a little, and look up to the blue heavens above you. The view shall kindle within you the latent spark of immortality. Look around upon the brutes that perish, and acknowledge that you are not like one of them. Drop your ax-helves, then, and devote the evening hour to your higher nature. The farmer who finds no use for a sitting-room is not the man for the Great West, in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO LABOR.-A few years since, a notorious burglar named Tay, was tried at Toronto, U. C., and sentenced to the penitentiary for twenty years; when brought up to hear the judgment of the court, and asked if he had anything to say why the penalty of the law should not be pronounced against him, he replied as follows: "No, my Lord-I have violated the laws of my country. I have been tried by an impartial jury and convicted, and I humbly bow to their decision, throwing myself entirely npon the leniency of the court. There are, however, two favors which I would ask, if a felon in the dock dare ask a favor; first, that, as, I have no means of my own, though a portion of the money taken from me belonged to myself, the court would see my counsel properly feed, since he has ably, though unsuccessfully, defended me. The second is, that when I am sent to

the penitentiary, they would intercede, and have me taught a trade or profession, in order that, should I ever be released from it, I may be able to earn an honest livelihood. I attribute my present course of life solely to the circumstance, that I was never brought up to any trade. Should I not be taught any occupation while in the penitentiary, when I come out, I shall be friendless, homeless, penniless and ragged; and I must necessarily resume my old habits and become-what I was before-a robber."

PARENTAL TEACHING.-If parents would not trust a child upon the back of a wild horse, without bit or bridle, let them not permit him to go forth into the world unskilled in self government. If a child is passionate, teach him, by gentle and patient means, to curb his temper. If he is greedy, cultivate liberality in him. If he is selfish, promote generosity. If he is sulky, charm him out of it, by encouraging frankness and good humor. If he is indolent, accustom him to exertion, and train him so as to perform even onerous duties with alacrity. If pride comes in to make his obedience reluctant, subdue him, either by counsel or discipline. In short, give your children the habit of overcoming their besetting sins. Let them accquire from experience that confidence in themselves which gives security to the practised horseman, even on the back of a high-strung steed, and they will triumph over the difficulties and dangers which beset them in the path of life.-Maine Democrat.

DOUBLE YOUR MONEY.-By taking an interest in your schools and your children's proficiency, you can double the value of your school money, and make one dollar worth two. Let the children see that their parents feel a deep interest in their improvement and they will be likely to feel the same. Talk with them-see if they learn thoroughly-encourage them, and always visit the school. Half a day spent for that purpose will be worth more than a five dollar bill to lengthen out the school. Why not make the most of your money?—Maine Democrat.

DECISION AND TRUTH.-Whatever you think proper to grant a child, let it be granted at the first word, without entreaty and prayer, and above all, without making conditions. Grant with pleasure, refuse with reluctance, but let your refusal be irrevocable; let no importunity shake your resolution; let the particle 'no,' when once pronounced, be a wall of brass, which a child after he has tried his strength against it half a dozen times, shall never more endeavor to shake.

PROFESSIONAL.

Ideals in Education.

An Essay by RACHEL S. BAILEY, read before the Belmont County Teachers' Association, at Flushing, May 5th, 1854.

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"Our most important are our earliest years:

The mind impressible and soft, with ease
Imbibes and copies what it hears and sees;

And through life's labyrinth holds fast the clue
Which education gives it, false or true."

As in the formation of individual character, the soul shapes its destiny to, and strives to realize, the ideal portrayed in the mind; and as that ideal constantly expands, rising higher and higher, in the scale of perfection; still, in its upward flight, leaving the real as far behind, apparently, as at the beginning, and ever in advance; the first elevation attained, the mind looks back wondering that so low a point of excellence, was ever the highest aspiration, and still moves onward in the scale of endless progression, with ardor increased by difficulties, and success secured beyond hope. So must the educators of immortal beings have the ideal of what the education of each one, entrusted for a time to their care, should be, distinctly formed and before them,-as the sculptor models the image of his fancy in the clay before he attempts to chisel the marble-feeling that on them devolves the moulding of the next generation, each individual being a unit in the millions that compose the nation; and that one of those units now learning its A. B. C. of sound or science, may in the future decide the fate of empires in accordance with something taught by its present instructors. For, though circumstances we may be unable either to make or change, control our destiny, yet were man's memory infallible, or his perception infinite, all the diversities incident to life might be accounted for readily, and traced to some lesson, intentional or inadvertent, given by the teacher in the school room, or some incidental occurrence from which many lessons are learned in the great school of life.

Then first, it behooves them to know what education is, or wherein it consists, and the object it has in view: to feel the full weight of the responsibility that rests upon them, not only as members of the great human family, but that they have a double, a triple share, since they are to make the first impressions, to give the first bent to immortal minds, which may retain, even in age, the inclination given either of

beauty or deformity. This ideal of education will be modified, of course, by each individual organization, yet in the outlines and most essential points, all will nearly agree.

The lexicographer variously defines the word as the "formation of manners in youth," youthful "training," "culture," etc.; and, in using the term, reference is generally had to intellectual growth and cultivation. But as there can not be a perfect structure where any of the parts are wanting, and as neither the intellect nor the heart makes the man, so if the intellectual, physical, moral or religious education be attended to, to the exclusion or neglect of either of the others, that education is correspondingly deficient; and as the various principles in man are so intimately connected, their improvement should be simultaneous; for without the education of the head and the heart, the chief design of creation is thwarted and the chances of present and future happiness lessened.

Childhood is a part, and an important part of life; then why not teach the child to live in the present, and provide opportunities accordingly? Let the present be enjoyed for itself as well as a continual preparation for the future, which all our lives certainly are, as much in age as in early youth; since this whole term of existence here, be it extended even beyond the allotted three score years and ten, is only an infancy for an eternity, which, if rightly nurtured, we may spend in endless progression and enjoyment, to find truths dimly seen here grow bright and explicit to our vision, as the wonders and mysteries of childhood are fully understood and accounted for in more mature years.

As to the object of education, that has varied in different ages of the world, as also the various tests of scholarship. At one time it was arms, at another gallantry, at another men dived deep into mystic lore, or hid sound and true philosophy beneath a gorgeous display of words. Even in our own day, with most persons the object seems to be to cultivate some minds for the influence they will have on others, and to fill the more prominent places in society;-and these are considerations not to be overlooked,—yet they should follow rather as a consequence than be considered a cause.

The primary reason for the education of each individual, is the “intrinsic value of each immortal soul;" for, since each mind is an emanation from the Great, the Universal Mind, He has created each a responsible being, who, alone, must answer for the development and cultivation of his every talent. The first object of every mind should be its own development. And, in instructing others, as much attention should be

given to teaching them how to acquire knowledge for themselves, as to imparting it to them; for one that knows nothing but what he has gleaned from text-books, or received orally from his teacher, and enters the great struggle of life, with the belief that his education is finished, and produces his parchment to prove it, is dead to half the pleasures of life, and will emphatically go through the world with his eyes shut.

The proper cultivation of one immortal mind or starting it in the right direction for investigating thoroughly the great truths of nature and of life, is unquestionably a noble achievement; and enviable are those whose vocation it is to lead the young mind through the rudiments of literature, to unfold the first principles of science, to open the store house of knowledge to his wondering view, and kindle a lasting thirst for the hidden treasures of science. To lead gently the trusting and timid, and guide aright the undoubted child of genius, is more truly worthy of commendation, than the proudest achievement on the battle field. For, to do this well, it requires a more skillful operator, a finer workman, than to sway the rod of empire, to follow the intricacies of political action, to guide the vessel over the pathless deep, or to control the commerce of nations; since the material to be wrought upon delicate, the machinery to be dealt with more complicated, the means to be employed greater, the goal to be won more distant.

is more

True, Franklin drew the lightning from the clouds and chained it harmless to the earth, Morse makes electricity the swift messenger of thought, rivaling the lightning itself in speed. Shakspeare sought the hidden springs of action in the human heart, and showed its secret workings; yet these master minds are but rarities in the human race, and others must claim their relationship to them, by following and equaling their creations and inventions. But for the teacher it is, to trace the subtile workings of another's thoughts, to mould the spirit made in the image of God, in accordance with his own ideal, to stamp upon the unfolding intelligence in the prospective man, an impress that shall lead it to aim at perfection, and prepare it for infinite enjoyment: trusting that time shall deepen the impression, and, that

"God shall make divinely real,
The highest form of that Ideal."

It is better to throw a guard about the baby's cradle than to sing a psalm at a bad man's death-bed; better to have a care while the bud is bursting to the sun than when the heat has scorched the heart of the unguarded blossom.-Sterne.