330 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



THE WANDERER'S RETURN. 



Ye guardian angels bright, that shield old England's 



strand, 

 And pour down richest blessings upon her happy 



land, 

 Now shed your choicest favors, from Plenty's 



golden urn, 

 To welcome with rejoicing the " Wanderer's 



Return." 



Lo ! Spring has shed her mantle o'er mountain 



and o'er plain, 

 And wild flowers by the road-side are smiling 



bright again ; 

 He is travel-stained and weary, from where 



scorching sunbeams burn, 

 Then smile, oh ! gentlest Spring-time, on the 



"Wanderer's Return." 



From sweetest bowers summon the scented 

 zephyr's wing, 



And bid it o'er his pathway a song of England 

 sing, 



Of green fields and of valleys, and dells of waving 

 fern, 



That spread their leaves rejoicing in the " Wan- 

 derer's Return." 



Bid the waves with softest cadence, that dash 

 along the strand, 



MurmuriDg, sing their welcome to his own, his 

 native land, 



And the white old cliffs of England, so stately 

 and time-worn, 



Rear their aged heads in sunshine on the " Wan- 

 derer's Return." 



And ye, guardian angels, watch him ; hover round 



with viewless wing ; 

 And o'er his pathway sunshine and early blossoms 



fling; 

 Speed him on his journey, to his home where fond 



hearts yearn, 

 With anxious longing always, for the " Wanderer's 



Return." 



From that home for many a year, at morning and 



at even, 

 Earnest prayers for the beloved one have sought 



the gate of Heaven, 

 That blessings might be showered from Mercy's 



flowing urn, 

 And our waiting hearts be gladdened by the 



" Wanderer's Return." 



Lo ! now our prayers are answered ; and the God 



of Peace and Love 

 Has sent into our dwelling bright joy from Heaven 



above ; 

 Then smile, oh ! gentle flowers ; murmur softly, 



gentle burn ; 

 Foe to us all sings a welcome for the 



"Wanderer's Return! " 



Alice. 



May, 1852. 



MODERN RELIGION. 



SNOW & STEAM,— A REMARKABLE SIGHT. 



The art of appearing what you are not ; and the 

 practice of hating bitterly the creed of every one 

 who diners from yourself. 



Climbing over a layer of congealed snow, 

 hardened, I imagine, by the falling steam of the hot 

 spring, I saw right before me three jets of steaming 

 water — the largest one several inches in diameter 

 — shooting from the high, steep bank of the little 

 stream, through the massive unyielding rock, and 

 sending the steam high up into the clear atmo- 

 sphere. The sight was most beautiful. The steep 

 bank, and the boiling hot water, which shot hissing 

 out, while flakes of snow lodged close around the 

 edge of it, was a strange spectacle in such a region 

 of frost. High over the edge of the bank hung an 

 immense quantity of snow, like a monstrous feather- 

 bed just ready to slip down by its own weight. The 

 steam kept licking the lower parts of the heap ; 

 while the sharp south-wester, which blew through 

 the dale, hardened the crust, and retained the snow 

 in its precarious position. The steam itself con- 

 gealed and was transformed into icicles, and thus 

 served to prop the snow like so many columns. 

 Out of this self-formed winter palace rose the steam 

 vapor ; and the warm sum shining upon it, changed 

 it into myriads of glowing pearls, tinged with the 

 most radiant and beautiful colors of the rainbow. 

 — Gerstaecker's Journey Hound the World. 



DEFECTS IN MODERN EDUCATION. 



Our Asylums are now affording proofs 

 innumerable, of the error that exists in the 

 early education of children. Their brain 

 is unfitted for the task assigned it, and in 

 later years the result is insanity. This is 

 just what might be anticipated. 



There are two classes of individuals to 

 whom the truth, that the mind influences the 

 body, and through the body itself, ought 

 to be a subject of serious consideration — pub- 

 lic men and parents. It is the vice of the 

 age to substitute learning for wisdom, to 

 educate the head, and to forget that there 

 is a more important education necessary 

 for the heart. The reason is cultivated at 

 an age when nature does not furnish the 

 elements necessary to a successful culti- 

 vation of it ; and the child is solicited 

 to reflection when he is only capable of sen- 

 sation and emotion. In infancy, the atten- 

 tion and the memory are only excited strongly 

 by things which impress the senses and 

 move the heart ; and a father shall instil 

 more solid and available instruction in one 

 hour spent in the fields, where wisdom and 

 goodness are exemplified, seen, and felt, 

 than in a month spent in the study, where 

 they are expounded in stereotyped apho- 

 risms. 



No physician doubts that precocious 

 children, in fifty cases for one, are much 

 the worse for the discipline they have under- 

 gone. The mind seems to have been strained, 

 and the foundations of insanity are laid. 

 "When the studies of maturer years are 

 stuffed into the head of a child, people do 



