condition of the whole human family, than have grown 
out of the efforts of the mightiest conquerors, or than 
have followed the most renowned revolutions of em¬ 
pire 1 To those whose moral education has fixed in 
their hearts permanent and actuating principles of 
conduct. There have been men of erudition, whose 
memories were libraries for the singular benefit of 
their associates, but whose learning died with them. 
There have been men of forecast and sagacity unsur¬ 
passed,—our own times have witnessed some of them, 
—who, having no rule of action except their own im¬ 
mediate advantage, have been governed by circum¬ 
stances, instead of subjecting circumstances to their 
own control. But those who are widely and lasting¬ 
ly useful, are the men upon the stability of whose mo¬ 
ral character reliance can be safely reposed. With 
such the sense of duty is habitual; and, therefore, 
even if they cannot boast of uncommon talents, exten¬ 
sive acquirements, or a broad field of action, still, as 
all their acts have the same tendency, their influence 
is always in the same direction : and, operating si¬ 
lently and unseen, is the cause of meliorations in the 
moral tone of society, perceived after a few years by 
ail, but understood while they are going on only by a 
few reflecting observers. With such, the perform¬ 
ance of duty is pleasant, because all their desires 
are trained to accordance with the moral sense ; and 
they, therefore, do good naturally, and as of course, 
with less effort and internal struggle than the bad ex¬ 
perience when they do evil. 
“ It has sometimes been strangely questioned, whe¬ 
ther a popular sound morality might not be the natu¬ 
ral offspring of ignorance and delusion, and whether a 
refined education did not weaken in the soul the sanc¬ 
tions of religion, and relax those bonds which hold 
together the compact of society. But were it not 
blasphemy against the God oftruth to doubt, that the 
illumination of the intellect with the radiance of wis¬ 
dom infuses into the heart the love of virtue 1 Good¬ 
ness is the imprint which the sense of truth stamps in¬ 
delibly upon the character. All noble thoughts are 
types of noble action. From the contemplation, to the 
imitation of ideal excellence, the transition is natural 
and easy. The divine light of moral science sheds a 
clear distinctness over our true interests, and shows the 
path of duty marked in a bold outline. Before its 
purifying beams, all evil thoughts and low desires va¬ 
nish as the noonday splendor dissipates the mists of 
the valley. The well-educated man stands before 
the world the image of his Maker, having attained as 
nearly as may be to the perfection of his moral nature. 
He exhibits not merely a speculative but an active 
virtue, and all beholders are constrained to confess 
that wisdom is justified of her children. 
“If indeed the security of the public morality re¬ 
posed on the public ignorance, if delusion were the 
palladium of our well-being, miserable would be the 
condition of humanity ; for ignorance is of the earth, 
earthy, and must soon pass away. But the progress 
and prosperity of our race rest on no temporary and 
precarious reliance. When delusion has died of old 
age, truth will still flourish in eternal vigor. She re¬ 
news her youth like the eagle. When to mortal eyes 
she appears vanishing for ever, behold, like the young 
sun rejoicing in his course, she rises again. She is 
not of created things, and is therefore exempt from 
their destiny. God’s well-beloved daughter knows 
neither age nor decay. Before the work of creation 
began, she was with the Father of all things ; and, 
when Time shall have ceased to be, she will stand 
before his throne, and still bask in the living light of 
the ineffable presence. 
“ It is not merely poetry, but the ultimate result of 
all moral argument, that, 4 true self-love, and social, 
are the same.’ 4 This is the foundation of all human 
wisdom,’ says Le Pere Buffier, ‘the source from 
which all virtues, purely natural, flow, the general 
principle of all morals, and of all human society, that 
while I live with other men, who equally with myself 
desire to be happy, I must try to discover the means 
of increasing my own happiness, by augmenting that 
of others.’ Cicero regarded it as the basis of ethics, 
4 ut eadem sit utilitas uniuscujusque et universorum.’ 
A higher authority than Cicero has established a 
whole code of duty upon the maxim, 4 Do ye there¬ 
fore unto others as ye would that others should do 
unto you.’ 
44 It is impossible therefore that the study even of 
temporary interests should derogate from the just in¬ 
fluence of moral principles, at least while conducted 
on broad and comprehensive views ; since there is no 
contrariety between them, but rather a strict confor¬ 
mity, the more evident as those interests are better 
understood. 
44 But it is not to be forgotten, that the cultivation 
of the intellect is but a part, and not the most import¬ 
ant part of a good and perfect education. The pre¬ 
eminent worth of moral cultivation should be strongly 
impressed on every parent and teacher. With a Tit¬ 
tle care, many salutary precepts may be instilled into 
the minds of youth, such as shall deserve to be treasur¬ 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
ed up among the guiding maxims of their lives, and 
meditated upon as the fundamental principles of prac¬ 
tical wisdom. These, being firmly rooted in their 
memories, will help them to form solid and substantial 
characters, which in after life will stand the test of 
every trial. Correct habits must be acquired, the 
sovereignty of conscience over the whole man must 
be established, the power of self-reliance must be 
gained, and the sentiment of independence nourished. 
Imbued with virtuous principles, and having learned to 
prize above all price, and to preserve at every hazard, 
the testimony of an approving conscience, the youth 
goes into the world armed at all points. To gird him 
with this panoply should be the endeavor of his mo¬ 
ral education. 
“Almost the best defence, at least one of the 
strongest safeguards of morality, is the feeling of in¬ 
dependence. If the world thinks that to be right 
which you think to be wrong, follow your own opi¬ 
nion, and preserve your self-respect. Consider that 
you would rather be honorable and despised, than be 
honored and despicable. If the world holds you in 
light esteem because it misundertands your character, 
every mark of disrespect which it bestows upon you 
is a certificate of the beauty and excellence of those 
virtues in which it erroneously supposes you to be de¬ 
ficient. But if the world, while it knows your cha¬ 
racter, disesteems you, because the principles that 
regulate your conduct are above the received stand¬ 
ard of morality, and it is incapable of appreciating 
them, retire within your own bosom and enjoy that 
serene consciousness of rectitude, which can sustain 
undisturbed the hoarse clamor of popular invective. 
He who has the fortitude and the constancy to do this, 
and to go on steadily in the path of duty visible to 
his eyes alone, experiences not merely that tranquil 
satisfaction which a sense of obligation fulfilled brings 
always with it, but a loftier, nobler, prouder pleasure, 
even the most exalted of which our nature is suscep¬ 
tible here on earth, tint unalloyed felicity which is 
the perogative of integrity invincible amid allurement 
or peril. The stern and solemn joy which bore the 
martyrs triumphant and exulting through their trials, 
which supported them and gave them the victory over 
shame and anguish and death itself, is the due re¬ 
ward of original and peculiar virtue, of virtue mani¬ 
fested in spite of temptation,—in spite of what is still 
harder to be resisted, ridicule, opprobrium, and scorn. 
44 He who is educated as all the youth of a Repub¬ 
lic should be, his virtuous dispositions corroborated 
into fixed habits, his knowledge of his own powers 
and capacities perfected into a modest but confident 
self-reliance, his heart steeled with the inflexible de¬ 
termination to guard and preserve unviolated the 
sanctity of his own self, approval, while an enlighten¬ 
ed conscience with a distinct and unequivocal bidding 
calls him onward and upward in the path of a purer 
morality, though the blandishments of fashionable ex¬ 
ample draw him backward and downward with the 
witchery of sympathy, will never yield to the seduc¬ 
tion, nor be disobedient to the dictates of that moni¬ 
tor whose precepts are not set at nought without 
punishment. He will not follow the multitude to do 
evil against light and conviction. The mean and 
cowardly abandonment of principle for precedent, the 
despicable dereliction of that course, straight though 
solitary, in which the very instinct of a noble spirit 
urges him on, never suggests itself to his contempla¬ 
tion as within the range of possible alternatives. He 
will not sacrifice that pure delight which neither the 
smiles of the world can give, nor their frowns take 
away. He will not surrender himself an unwilling 
and a miserable slave to the tyranny of custom, a ser¬ 
vitude which becomes every day more and more in¬ 
tolerable, which exacts compliances still more and 
more degrading, which never loosens its hold till it 
has reduced the spirit, created to be free, to a grovel¬ 
ling dependence on the decisions and caprices of 
others. 
44 With youth so educated, we should have none of 
that dissipation, without relish, endured, under a se¬ 
cret disgust, for fashion’s sake ; none of that servility 
of manners, the corruption engendered in the dotage 
of feudalism, preposterously imported into the whole¬ 
some simplicity of a vigorous republic; no prevari¬ 
cation in business, no equivocation in professions, no 
cant in criticism, no shuffling in politics, no temporiz¬ 
ing in morals, no hypocrisy in religion. We should 
live in an honest and straight-forward world. Far 
distant though the dawning of this millennium may 
be, it is none the less desirable to hasten it onward ; 
and though it were taken for certain, that neither we 
nor our children should ever enjoy the full fruition of 
so blessed a state, we should none the less strive for 
the nearest approach that we can attain to it.” 
44 Wealth is not only fleeting; it is neither the sole, 
nor the best foundation on which to rest our hopes of 
happiness, even while it lasts. Respectability of 
character is of far higher value, and much less likely 
to be lost through the caprices of fortune. It would 
be a waste of words to show, that an unspotted moral 
179 
life must confer respectability, and that respect deriv¬ 
ed from whatever qualities, without this, must be 
short-lived and of little worth. Equally self-evident 
is it, that those who live in the constant practice of 
moral duty, though wealth arid respect should both 
desert them, have internal resources for consolation 
of which they cannot be deprived. He who posses¬ 
ses a conscience void of ofi> nee is passing rich, whe¬ 
ther he has much or little of this world’s goods. He 
who is not afraid to be alone with is Maker, is inde¬ 
pendent of the smiles or frowns of the world. The 
sunshine of prosperity, the tempest of adversity, nei¬ 
ther seduce nor terrify his steadfast soul. The basis 
on which his happiness is fixed, the immovable, im¬ 
perturbable basis of a good conscience, he owes to a 
good moral education.”___ 
Chemical Catechism—Chapter VI. 
[From Par fees’ s Chemical Catechism .] 
OF ALKALIES. 
What is the nature* * * § of an alkali ? 
The alkalies have an acrid and peculiar taste; they 
change the blue juices of vegetables to a green, and 
the yellow to a brown ; and have the property of ren¬ 
dering oils miscible with water. They are incom¬ 
bustible, but may be rendered volatile by great heat. 
They are soluble in water; form various salts by com¬ 
bination with acidsf; and act as powerful caustics 
when applied to the flesh of animals.J 
How many alkalies are there ? 
There are three alkalies ; two of which have been 
called fixed alkalies, the other the volatile alkali. 
Which are the fixed alkalies ? 
The fixed alkalies are potash§ and soda.|| 
Why have they been called fixed alkalies ? 
Because they will endure great heat without being 
volatilized ; and yet in a very high temperature, they 
are dissipated in vapor. 
What substances enter into the composition of these 
alkalies ? 
Till lately the fixed alkalies were considered to be 
simple substances, no one having been able to decom¬ 
pose them; but they are now found to be compound 
bodies. 
Have we any historical account of the discovery of 
these substances ? 
Potash was known to the ancient Gauls and Ger¬ 
mans ; and soda was familiar to the Greeks and He¬ 
brews. This latter substance was known to these 
ancients by the name of nilrum.M 
What is the origin of potash ? 
Potash is chiefly procured by lixiviation from the 
ashes of burnt wood, and other vegetable substances; 
but as it exists in minerals and earths, there is rea¬ 
son to believe that plants receive it from the earth, 
during vegetation : hence it may be proper to discard 
the word vegetable entirely, when speaking of this 
substance. 
What is the origin of soda ? 
Soda is generally procured from the ashes of ma¬ 
rine plants ;** but its great depository is the ocean, 
soda being the base of sea-salt, or muriate of soda. 
* To a person who has not had an opportunity of examin¬ 
ing an alkali, no written description that can be given will 
convey any correct idea of the taste or properties of this class 
of bodies: let the pupil, therefore, procure a specimen of each 
kind, before he enters upon this chapter. The juice of the 
gooseberry and the lemon, and many other vegetable sub¬ 
stances. will remind him of the general properties of the acids: 
hut having met with nothing analogous to the alkalies, it will 
be necessary for him to taste and examine one of these bodies 
in order to acquire any thing like a just idea of their nature. 
Let him form potash or soda into a neutral salt, by saturating 
it with one of the acids, and he will perceive still more of the 
nature of these bodies. 
f Potash becomes comparatively mild by its union W'ith 
carbonic acid; and the most caustic soda, if united to corro¬ 
sive muriatic acid, forms muriate of soda, our mild tea-table 
salt. 
f If a piece of animal flesh be put into a strong solution of 
potash or soda, it will immediately be acted upon by the al¬ 
kali, and soon be entirely dissolved. 
The alkalies have a great affinity for water: it is therefore 
probable that their causticity is owing to this circumstance, 
water being so abundant in animal bodies. If the alkalies be 
dissolved in a large portion of water, their caustic qualities 
are diminished, though notin any measure destroyed thereby. 
§ This alkali was formerly procured by burning vegetables 
in large iron pots; hence it acquired the name of pot-ash. 
|| Soda acquired its name from the plant salsola soda, which 
grows on the Spanish coast, and is burnt for its preparation. 
1[ This substance is found native in Egypt, and is there 
called natron; a name not much unlike that which it bore 
among the Jews and Greeks. 
** The salsola soda, which grows among the cliffs on the 
sea-coast, is said to be endowed with the property of decom¬ 
posing sea-salt, and that by some process of vegetat.on it se¬ 
parates the muriatic acid and absorbs the soda. Hence it ac¬ 
quired the name of saltwort. This plant is collected by the 
Spaniards with great care, and burnt for the manufacture of 
Barilla, which is a considerable article of commerce. Thus 
Nature has providentially furnished the inhabitant of the 
otherwise barren co'ist with a source of employment, and has 
enabled him to supply the interior with an article of indispen¬ 
sable necessity, for ages before the science of chemistry could 
afford him other means of decomposing muriate of soda. 
“ The saltwort’s starry stalks are thickly sown, 
Like humble worth, unheeded and unknown.” 
Charlotte Smith. 
