ODE TO THE MOUND GRAVES. 371 



Student, with maturer mind, may be prepared to investigate, the reasons, the 

 causes, and the laws which underlie the facts he has previously learned. " We 

 aim," says the committee of the Scientific Association, " to advance science by 

 the promotion of original investigation, which depends upon men prepared for 

 the work; do the schools of the nation, by their modes of scientific study, favor 

 or hinder this object ? Do they foster the early mental tendencies that lead to 

 original thought ; or do they thwart and express them ? We have an undoubted 

 concern in this matter, and it is, moreover, strictly identical with that of the 

 community at large; for there can be no better test than this of the real character 

 of a school system. When we ask whether a mode of teaching and a manner of 

 study are calculated to awaken the spirit of inquiry, to cultivate the habit of 

 investigation, and rouse independent thought, our question goes to the root ot 

 all true education.'' An attempt to study nature without abundant illustrations 

 from nature would be like the effort of a dentist, a carpenter, or a farmer to ply 

 his profession or trade without the use of tools or machinery. The tools of a 

 student of nature are collections of natural objects systematically arranged, and 

 these, like all machinery, facilitate labor and increase productiveness. But their 

 object, it should be remembered, is not to make acquisition of knowledge in 

 natural history easy, but to make it possible. 



ARCHEOLOGY. 



ODE TO THE MOUND GRAVES. 



BY JOHN EDWARDS, OF MARYVILLE, MISSOURI. 

 I. 



Beneath the mould of this unstoried heap, 



Close wrapt in coffins of their kindred clay, 



Hushed in th' embrace of death's cold, dreamless sleep, 



While untold years above them fleet away. 



Like the winged moments of the short lived day. 



May haply rest some nation's glorious dead. 



Consigned to dark oblivion and decay, — 



Save that poor pride hath made them here a bed, 



That lifts above the common clod its turf-crowned head. 



11. 



The warrior here hath wrapt him in his shroud. 



That shroud whose woof, though strong of old, I ween, 



Now melts within the breath like the dim cloud 



