that the men to whom the power is given, ment-a man who has been cudgelled instead should be men of judgment and principle-of of another within an inch of his life is not unswerving firmness in the discharge of their duties and disposed to administer their little government according to the strictest dictates of justice. But a knowledge of the doings in many of our schools would reveal cases of gross injustice to parties, that never now are known beyond the consciousness of wrong that the injured parties feel, which is fostered and brooded over. Children are very sensitive-there is much human nature in children -and they have a very keen sense of injustice. Hence an act of partiality is clearly seen and appreciated by them, and a charge of impropriety or of insubordination applied to one scholar when it belongs to another, is at-nary law, be a sort of republic-the teachers tended by heart aches, in silence, for right dares not make complaint against power. pleased to hear that he is innocent of the of fence for which he has been thrashed-but it sets the matter right in the eyes of the world, and it is pleasant to find a man candid enough to admit he has been in error. In the exercise of the power possessed, more care should be had lest an idea of injustice find its way to the mind of a child. A teacher, as well as any man, is liable to mistakes, and his judgment is subject to error as well as that of the tiniest in his kingdom. He should be very careful that temper forms no part in his decision, and he should weigh evidence where there is doubt in a more exact manner than where the interests of men are involved in our justice courts, for in the courts there are appeals until just decisions are arrived at. In the schools the ipse dixit of a subordinate teacher may consign an innocent boy to punishment, from which he has no appeal, and the word of a rash teacher put down the timid testimony of dreading children, that would tell against himself. The right of the scholar is as positive as that of the teacher, and while the former is called to pay due regard for discipline, the latter is bound to make the discipline such as will best tend to the good order and decorum of the school, without resort to tyranny which no young American, who has a due sense of his rights, can submit to without choking. A school should, in the grand respect of discipli deriving their power from the consent of the governed. Not, perhaps, fully, but in a degree recognizing this great principle, and with a proper regard for his scholar as a thinking being, a teacher would live a happier life and get along far easier than when, as Sir Oracle, he mounts the tripod and no small dog in his company dare bark when he opes his mouth. Philadel. Perry, Brookfield New York Sears, Byerley, Haven, Windsor New York Rochester Philadelphia Webster, New York Wiggins, New York Will some one gather a list of such as are now published?-Publisher's Circular. The rule of infallibility of judgment on the part of teachers has too long been believed. The claim that the king could do no wrong was never more positively put forth than that the school master can do no wrong has been understood, and many acts of injustice have been done, that perhaps have been repented of, but no acknowledgment of wrong has scarcely ever come from the immaculate lips. Our own experience-running over a distance of some thirty years-recalls many such. True, after GOOLD BROWN.-Goold Brown, the wellthe wrong has been done, with the back and known grammarian, died on Tuesday evening, the heart still aching with the infliction, there at his residence on South Common street, at is but little individual satisfaction in having a the age of sixty-six years. Mr. Brown was man say he was wrong in inflicting punish-born in Providence, R. I., and was a descend ant of the founder of Brown University. He practice, and was in Springfield partner of E. was for a number of years principal of an D. Beach, Democratic candidate for Governor in this State. He married and moved West, and commenced the practice of his profession there. Now he is the ruler over a great and growing State. English and Classical Academy in New York, and was much celebrated as a teacher. Mr. Brown was the author of several works on Grammar; and in 1851 he published his "Grammar of English Grammars," which was Without any outside help, and with only the result of twenty-six years of unremitting the advantages factory boys usually have, he toil, and which will perpetuate his name to has stuggled along up to his present position. future generations. It is one of the greatest-Worcester Ægis. works in the English language.-Lynn Weekly Reporter, April 4th. A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE.-The man who Goold Brown was not "a descendant of the stands upon his own soil, who feels that by founder of Brown University," but the two the laws of the land in which he lives-by the were descendants of a common ancestor. He laws of civilized nations-he is the rightful was the son of Smith Brown, who died in and exclusive owner of the land which he tills, Pembroke, Mass., a little more than thirty is, by the constitution of our nature, under a years ago, and in which town he married wholesome influence not easily imbibed from Lydia Goold. Smith was the youngest son any other source. He feels-other things being of Elisha Brown, who died in North Provi- equal-more strongly than another, the chardence in the year 1802, aged 85 years. He acter of a man as lord of an animated world. was one of the most prominent men in the Of this great and wonderful sphere, which, State of his day. He was long a member of fashioned by the hand of God, and upheld by the General Assembly, and at one time Deputy his power, is rolling thro' the heavens, a part Governor. He was a man of ability, enter-is his-his from centre to the sky. It is the prise, and wealth. Elisha was the tenth and space on which the generation before moved youngest child of Rev. James Brown, who was in its round of duties, and he feels himself one of the pastors of the First Baptist Church, connected by a visible link with those who and whose wife was grand-daughter of Wm. follow him, and to whom he is to transmit a Harris, one of the first six who came to Pro- home. Perhaps his farm has come down to vidence in 1636. James was the grandson of him from his fathers. They have gone to their Chad Brown, who came here from Salem in last home; but he can trace their footsteps 1637, the year after Roger Williams. Chad over the scenes of his daily labors. The roof was also pastor of the First Baptist Church, which shelters him was reared by those to and succeeded Roger Williams in that office.- whom he owes his being. Some interesting Providence Journal. domestic tradition is connected with every enclosure. The favorite fruit-tree was planted ANOTHER EXAMPLE.-Arthur McArthur, by his father's hand. He'sported in boyhood late of Springfield, and for a short time prac- beside the brook which winds through the tising law in New York, is now acting Gover-meadow. Through the field lies the path to nor of Wisconsin. He was elected Lieut. the village school of earlier days. He still Governor, and is at present in the Governor's hears from the window the voice of the Sabseat in consequence of the resignation of Gov. bath bell which called his father to the house Barstow. of God; and near at hand is the spot where Gov. McArthur was, a few years ago, a his parents laid down to rest, and where, factory bby, and worked hard among the when his time has come, he shall be laid by his bobbins and spools of a factory in Uxbridge. children. These are the feelings of the owners But he employed the brief time after working of the soil. Words cannot paint themhours in studying, with a fixed determination gold cannot buy them; they flow out of the to get an education that would fit him for deepest fountains of the heart; they are the another kind of business. He persevered in life-springs of a fresh, healthy and generous his purposes, studied law, was admitted to national character.-Edward Everett. gain a reputation and exert a happy influence, men must be active, persevering, and energetic. They must not quail at shadows-run from lions, or attempt to dodge the lightning. Go forward zealously in whatever you undertake, and we will risk you anywhere and through life. Men who faint and quail, are a laughing stock to angels, devils, and true men. SMILES AND FROWNS.-Which will you dosmile, and make your houeshold happy, or be crabbed, and make all the young ones gloomy, and the older ones miserable? The amount of happiness you can produce is incalculable, if you show a smiling face, a kind heart, and speak pleasant words. Wear a pleasant countenance; let joy beam in your eyes, and love glow on your forehead. There is no joy like that which springs from a kind act or a pleasant deed; and you will feel it at night when you rest, at morning when you rise, and through the day when about your business.-Home THE GRANDEUR OF NATURE.-We live peaceably on the surface of the earth, while oceans of fire roll beneath our feet. In the great womb of the globe, the everlasting forge is at work. How dreadful must an earthquake be, when we are told by Pliny that twelve cities in Asia Minor were swallowed up in one night! Not a vestige remained; they were lost in the tremendous maw forever! Millions of human beings have been swallowed up while flying for safety. In the bowels of the earth Nature performs her wonders at the same moment that she is firing the heavens with her lightnings. Her thunders roll above our heads and beneath our feet, where the eye of mortal man never penetrated. In the vast vortex of the volcano the universal forge empties its melted metals. The roar of Etna has been the knell of thousands, when it poured forth its cataract of fire over one of the fairest portions of the earth, and swept into ruins ages of industry. In the reign of Titus Vespian, in the year 70, the volcano of Vesuvius dashed its fiery bil-Journal. lows to the clouds, and buried in burning lava the cities of Herculaneum, Stabie and Pom- READ BEFORE YOU BUY.-At a public auction peii, which then flourished near Naples. In of the library of Dr. Francis Bernard, (an the streets once busy with the hum of indus-eminent English physician,) it happened in the try, and where the celebrated ancients walked, progress of the sale, that the auctioneer held the modern philosopher now stands and rumi- up a particular book, and called the attention "that there was nates upon fallen grandeur. While the inhab- of the crowd to it, saying, itants were unmindful of the danger which an important observation written in the volawaited them; while they were busied with ume he was about to sell, in Dr. Bernard's plans of wealth and greatness, the irresistible own hand!" This intimation produced a spirit flood of fire came roaring from the mountain, of rivalry among the bidders; but when the and shrouded them in eternal night. Seventeen book was knocked down at a high price, the centuries have rolled over them, and their lone-purchaser read to his astonishment-" I have ly habitations and works remain as their mon- perused this book, and it is not worth a farthing." uments. They are swept away in the torrent of time; the waves of ages have settled over them, and art alone has preserved their mem A pedagogue had two pupils; to one he was very partial and to the other very severe. ory. Great nature, how sublime are all thy late and were called to account for it. One morning it happened that these two were works! ENERGY.-See! how that fellow works! "You must have heard the bell, boys; why did you not come ?" 66 Please, sir," said the favorite, "I was No obstacle is too great for him to surmount; dreaming that I was going to California, and no ocean too wide for him to leap; no moun-I thought that the school bell was the steamtain too high for him to scale. He will make boat bell that I was going in." a stir in the world and no mistake. Such are the men who build our railroads, dig up the mountains in California, and enrich the world. There is nothing gained by idleness and sloth. This is a world of action. To make money, 66 Very well, sir," said the master, glad of any pretext to excuse his favorite; "and now, sir, (turning to the other) what have you?" "Please, sir," said the puzzled boy, “I—I was waiting to see Tom off!" For the Schoolmaster. • Prevalent Taste in Reading. "What a nation of readers we are?" said we, as we seated ourselves in the rail-car, for a short ride into the country. For first, while the cars were at the station, there came in two boys, in hot rivalry, crying, "'vdence Jour'l! Post! Trib'n'! 'NYork Pap'rs! Only two cents! And almost every man bought a paper-some bought two, and others none; but we noticed that many of these latter had each a book, snugly held under his arm. uninteresting to them, or unknown in fact. Ought it? They are each of them capable of mental growth and improvement, and why should they not seek to stimulate that growth, and hasten that improvement? Why not, to be sure? Bacon said that he had taken all knowledge for his province," and does not the common day laborer, in a vast number of things now know more than Bacon himself? To be sure he does not know about Latin and Greek, Aristotle and Plato, and all that; and about Algebra, Chemistry and Astronomy. But he does know a more practical knowledge of the arts of life, and of the common comforts of existence than ever Bacon and his peers knew. Soon the cars started, and then a young man with a bundle of books, came along to sell to any man so unfortunate as to have forgotten to take one from his library or a book-And why should he not assume for his province store, before setting out on his journey. Next the same youth, with his arms full of pamphlet novels, tales, sketches, narratives, and confessions, came for more custom. And, lastly, the same person came once more, with heaps of Magazines, Putnam's, Harper's, Ballou's, Godey's Peterson's, and we know not how many others. Ah, that is the question, and a very pertinent question it is; one that demands a candid consideration. What do we read? For every body reads, from the college professor, grave and dignified with his masterly Latin and Greek Epics, his fat, coarse-paper, red-edged German Treatises, and his clean and neat American Quarterlies and European Reviews; down to the hackney coach driver who sits reading the 'erald on his carriage at the station, while awaiting the arrival of the train, and the hod-carrier, who stops to light his pipe and read the news, before he ascends the dizzy ladder, with his load of brick and mortar. And why should they not all read? They are all men and citizens; they all have a deep interest in the welfare of the country; and nothing of human interest ought to be all science? Let him know or learn never so So we But our question will return: what do they read? So we called the young man, our friend-for everybody who sells or buys periodical literature is the friend of the Schoolmaster, which our favorite we means. recalled our friend, the seller of books, and asked him what he had to sell. "All the current magazines, all the daily newspapersBoston, New York and Providence-and the common literature of the day. Them's what I sell," said he, with the evident air of a patron of authors and printers. "The current magazines, daily newspapers, and common literature of the day," thought we. "Those are what people read in the cars. Well, what of that?" And what of it, dear reader? Did you ever think what that means? Let us see what it does mean. Here is a 66 Harper," the most widely circulated monthly in the world, we reckon read monthly by almost a million of people, perhaps by more than that number. Look at its table of contents for any given or combination of words, that could express the magnitude of the evils these books are setting in motion, to come down upon us like avalanches hereafter? We wish to lift up our warning voice, and to beseech every teacher of youth, and every parent or guardian, to look well to what the young are reading. month-this April for example-and what do And yet these books sell! and sell enoryou find? Many things very good, but every-mously too! And what of it? We do not thing-excepting a few chapters of Little know, and if we did know, is there any word Dorritt, by Dickens-a fragment, or a small article amounting to nothing. All very good for a half-hour's reading in a rail-car, but if you want any broad and liberalizing view of any science, or of any matter of permanent importance, just good for nothing. Any other magazine is quite as bad-most of them much worse. Many of them do not aim to give their readers anything but "stories "-and such stories! They tell nothing, teach nothing, mean nothing; but they do not fail to accomplish something. They take the time, distract the attention, defile the imagination, and deprave the taste. Then the daily newspapers are much worse. They are made up of the current news-worse than the tea-table chat of the most prurient gossips,-filled with minute details of common court trials-of murders, divorces, adulteries, forgeries, and what not. All these accounts are made up in the greatest haste, often by very young men as reporters-though many of these reporters are men of real taste and good morals-filled with the current gossip of conjecture as to what Mr. Buchanan, or Pierce will do if he does not do another thing, and abounding in the most abusive and vituperative epithets, accusing everybody of nameless crimes and enormities, till we are compelled to doubt if there be any virtue on earth. But then the "common literature of the day!" Our soul sickens while we are compelled-in order to discharge the duty begun in this article-to think what that term comprehends! Pirates' Narratives; Murderers' Confessions, and Exultations; Awful Disclosures; Full Particulars; Tales of Love and Adventure; Records of Crime; The Female Horse Thief; The Counterfeiter; The Burglar; The Forger! Oh what a dire confusion of sin and iniquity! And all written with the greatest superabundance of adjectives and epithets, with the most taking sentences, and the most bewitching rhetoric. To say there is no semblance of morality in these books or pamphlets, is to say nothing at all concerning them; and to say that the "hell-broth" made by the witches in Macbeth, would be innocent in comparison with these books, is to speak far below the truth. To read nothing but these books, papers or magazines, is to waste the time, and to deprave the taste, to misinform the mind, to corrupt the heart, and to debase manners, morals, and habits. Turn away from them yourselves, warn your children and pupils against them. Ask them to read, and teach them to love the works of the old authors, Milton,-his prose as well as his poems,-Jeremy Taylor, Thomas Browne, Addison, Johnson, and the good histories, the sterling reviews and criticisms, and scientific works of the times. Works these are, that will give information while they do not delude the heart, and which will tend at the same time to elevate and purify the mind, as well as to form the soul to a model of nobleness and virtue really worthy of a man. In our day we are forming our tastes for reading on the short and hastily written editorials in our daily papers, or on the fragmentary pieces of the monthlies, or on the exciting, flashy novellettes of the hour. We must change this. Let but a young man form a correct taste for solid and substantial reading, and he is better prepared for every duty, than the one who cannot read such books. How often do we find persons in our travels, having good minds, a keen intelligence, even much common sense, who, on account of the unfortunate habits they have early formed of reading nothing but newspapers—very good they are in their place-magazines, or tales and sketches, are nevertheless completely unable to read a book on Mental Philosophy, Rhetoric, Chemistry, Political Economy, or even on Morality and Virtue? They have never formed a taste for the plain substantials of reading and literature, and hence they can only read that which is highly spiced and exciting. A most unfortunate habit this, and it ought to be broken up at once. There is |