MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND EAfflLY JOURNAL. 
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MB— 
(ibucatiotiol lepartnient 
BY L. WKTHKRELL. 
FREE SCHOOLS-AGAIN. 
Mr. Editor: —Logicians have, I believe, 
what are called syUoffisms; and, if I mistake 
not, they sometimes play ‘‘fox and geese'* 
with compositions of a certain description. 
I purpose giving one or two examples.— 
The materials for the first may be found in 
the very elaborate “Iteview of the Free 
School Law,” by H. D. Barto, and stands 
thus:—“The principle of direct taxation for 
the support of common schools is a funda¬ 
mental error.” “ The building and repair¬ 
ing of school houses, furnishing fuel, and 
paying for the teaching of indigent scholars,” 
are important items in the bill for the sup¬ 
port of common schools. JSrgo, direct tax¬ 
ation for these purposes is [what? “A fun¬ 
damental error?”—No, but is] perfectly 
right, and may be retained in a radically re¬ 
formed system of common schools. (!) 
Now for syllogism No. 2. “ It is unjust 
to tax one man for the eduction of another 
man's child. The old school system did not 
do this to the extent that the new one does: 
therefore the old school system was j>er- 
fectly just, and a glorious good one to 
boot”(!) The materials for No. 2, you 
may find in, perhaps, a majority of the ar¬ 
ticles published in opposition to free schools. 
I mean no caricature, and trust this is not 
one. I have not read these articles cap¬ 
tiously, nor subjected them to any very 
searching analysis. These contradictions 
(call it looseness, if you please,) appear on 
the very face of them. They result, I con¬ 
clude, from an attempt to force individual 
feelings into a logical mould, and the bant¬ 
ling thus produced is bapti/^ed by the name 
of “Logic.” 
But I earnestly protest against this method 
of conducting a discussion of such vital im¬ 
portance. We liave a common interest in 
this matter, and that interest lies in the di¬ 
rection of truth. But “no lie is of the 
truth.” When, therefore, a principle is con- j 
demned as false, it should be utterly dis- 1 
carded, and not merely restricted, or applied ' 
in an other direction. Thus, if direct taxa- j 
tion for the support of common schools, is 
a false pri)iciple, it is so intiinsically, and 
not because of its relation to, or bearing 
upon, the subject of free schools. In this 
case, whatever is done for the support of 
common schools, should be done without a 
resort to direct taxation. Is a school-house 
to be built? Direct taxation, for this pur¬ 
pose, is not to be thought of. The same as 
respects the repairing of school-houses, fur- 
nisihing fuel, &c., &c. I say, tf the princi¬ 
ple of direct taxation for this purpo.se is 
false 1 cannot yet see it to be so, but, 
when fairly proven, will embrace it, along 
•with other truth, as a treasure incompa'-a- 
bly more valuable than all the taxable prop¬ 
erty of the State of New York. But enough 
of this. 
I now return to thc-qiicstion discussed, 
in part, in my first communication, vk : Is 
it the right and duty of the State to pro¬ 
vide the means of an education for the 
children within its limits ? I referred to the 
common objection, that government has no 
duty, or legitimate power even, beyond sim¬ 
ply the* protection of human rights. * Or, 
as stated by H. D. Barto, that “ the pri¬ 
mary, if not the only legitimate objects of 
government, are the protection of persons 
and property.” In answer to this I have 
farther to say, that government owes it to 
its subjects to protect itself This I con¬ 
ceive to be a high governinental duty. I 
know that here there is great danger of 
abuse. But the principle is not at all af¬ 
fected by this liability. This duty of gov¬ 
ernment, to protect itself, is commensurate 
with the interests involved in its existence 
ant! perpetuity. 'The true measure of this 
duty is found in a just answer to this ques¬ 
tion ;—What is the government of this State 
worth to me?—What to all the inhabitants 
thereof? Suppose the government of this 
State and of the United States were struck 
out of being to-day, what would be the loss 
to each individual, and to the mass of their 
inhabitants ? All our powers of calculation 
are baffled in the attempt to estimate it— 
How, then, can government neglect what is 
essential to its own healthful existence, with¬ 
out incurring great guilt? And who will 
dispute that a properly educated people is 
thus essential ? In all governments—even 
the worst managed—among civilized na¬ 
tions, it is the custom, I believe, to educate 
the sovereigns. Ours, both State and Na¬ 
tional, is a popular government The sove¬ 
reignty is lodged with the people. With 
an uneducated people, thcn,w)e have an un¬ 
educated sovereign. And just to the ex¬ 
tent that ignorance is found among the peo¬ 
ple, does it characterize the sovereign. - 
A government of the people is not neces- 
I sarily a beau ideal of poUlical perfection, as 
j it was conceived in the mind of Thomas 
Jefkkrsok. It maj'^ degenerate till it shall 
! eclipse the worst of monarchies in its un- 
J statesman like policy, and prostitutecl pow- 
j crs. What will prevent? Hear Hon. 
I Roger M. Sherman: —“As all our laws, 
and the administration of government in all 
its branches, arc derived directly from the 
people, and depend continually on popular 
sentiment, we stand in greater need of pop¬ 
ular instruction, than in tho.se countries 
where unchangable hereditary establish- 
' ments may possess and retain a character 
but little affected by the mass of the com¬ 
munity.” Does the State of New York, 
then, justly incur censure for providing the 
means of “ popular instruction” for its chil¬ 
dren and youths ? 
Hereafter, if I can find .time, and with 
your permission, I will answer the objection 
—That the principle that demands free 
schools, demands also “ free churches, free 
prcacliing, free pi-operty, free everything.” 
Plowman. 
Bergen, N. V., Sept,, 185!). 
VEGETABLE REVIEW OF THE SCHOOL LAW. 
There is a remarkable similarity of prin- j 
ciple existing between the animal and veg¬ 
etable kingdoms. In the Rural of Sept 
19th wc find a “ Cabbage Plant,” assum¬ 
ing the character of man, discourses elo¬ 
quently but deploringly upon the signs of 
the times. In its new position it sees steam 
cars whizzing through the air, and the uev/s 
of the country traveling upo'i the lightning’s 
wing. The paths of a century ago, now 
covered with ^'crdure and all animated na¬ 
ture, seem to bo in one general rush, each 
striving to outstrip the other in progress; 
and then casting a “ longing, lingering look 
behind” at the vegetable world, it finds the 
very beets and “ taters” arc likely to double 
their speed, and in future to be “made to 
order” by human hands. And, after view¬ 
ing from its dizzy height, its old “ cronies” 
of the “patch,” thus dejiarting from the 
time honored path of their ancestors, it is 
compelled in agony to exclaim, while yet a 
mere Plant, “ Oh my head grows dizzy at 
the whirling advance of improvement” 
But this instructive '^flection will no 
doubt be much modified by age. Many 
gardeners make it a custom to strip off some 
of the superfluous leaves of the cabbage to 
obtain a better growth of head, and with¬ 
out this process many a plant would never 
come to maturity. But when the gathering 
season comes, and you seek a good sound 
head for krout or slaugh, you find the plaiU 
has spread broad and wide, and been draw¬ 
ing from the soil and atmosphere susten¬ 
ance enough to have reared, under more 
favorable circumstances, vegetables suffi- ^ 
cient for many a dinner, yet attained only 
to the verdant reputation of a great Cab - ^ 
bage Plant 
And when man looks out upon the do¬ 
ings of the world with a want of liberal 
thought, and with views that extend not be¬ 
yond the limited territory of self —while he 
has a right to command the protection of all 
Christendom in the defence of life, liberty 
and his pursuit of happiness, by virtue of 
our confederation — we are inclined in our 
boundless charity to regard it only as the 
vision of the human plant, and trust in con¬ 
fidence, believing that a little stripping off 
(if so considered) of a few of the spare 
leaves for educational purposes may produce 
a material improvement in the region of the 
head, with ample satisfaction ultimately 
even to the party agrieved. Gardener. 
Lodi, N. Y., Sept, 1850. 
How True! —It is more difficult to make 
the eye lie than any other organ we are 
possessed of. To tell what a woman says, 
pay attention to her tongue. If you wish 
to ascertain what she means, pay attention 
to her eye. To talk in opposition to the 
heart is one of the easiest things in the' world 
j —to look this opposition, however, is more 
' difficult than algebra. 
Those who are incapable of shining but 
bv dress would do well to consider that the 
contrast betwixt them and their clothes turns 
out much to their disadvantage. 
THE TRUE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 
God has made it the duty of parents to 
educate their own children. To accomplish 
this great and good work. He has given pa¬ 
rents authority to command their children, 
and has also taught children to love, serve, 
obey and honor their parents. 
If parents, for the want of time or ability 
or other reasons, find themselves incompe¬ 
tent to this gi-eat work, let them call to their 
assistance some competent person to aid 
them in their own house—if they cannot do 
this, then let them unite with kindred friends 
or neighbors, and employ such a person or 
persons as'they know to be suitable aids: 
then let the work be done under the direc¬ 
tion and by the authority of the parents. 
Never send a child from home to board 
and receive his education, if it be possible to 
avoid it We cannot im&gine circumstances 
that would justify sane parents in doing this. 
It is full enough to send away to school 
through the day when they arc expected to 
return at evening. Home is the place to 
educate and train children. Here let it be 
done so far as it is possible. The best train¬ 
ed children that we have seen, are those that 
have been to school from home the least or 
not at all. Home is the place for children. 
NEW PUBUCATIONS. 
Europk, Past and Present. —A comprehensive 
Manual of European Geography and History: 
with separate descriptions and statistics of each 
State, and a copious Inde.x, facilitating reference 
to every essential fact in tiie History and Pres¬ 
ent State of Europe. By Francis II. Unge- 
wiTTER, LL. D. New^ York; Geo. P. Put¬ 
nam, Broadway, 1850, pp. 671. 
The author of this book is a native of 
Germany, where he prepared several ex¬ 
tensive geographical -vt'orks which were 
successfully published in his native country. 
Mention is made of these facts to show the 
fitness of the writer to prepare a work of 
the kind before us, for the American peo¬ 
ple. We should be glad to see similar 
works presenting the Past and Present of 
Asia and Africa. 
He commences by giving a general geo¬ 
graphical view of Europe, then her Social 
and Political History, comprising a conden¬ 
sed general history of Europe. In desci ib- 
ing the fifty-six European States, the fol¬ 
lowing order of arrangement is observed: 
First, the statements about the area and 
population, surface, soil, natural products, 
manufactures, commerce and trade, public 
finances, form of government strength of 
the army, and of maritime states, of the 
navy, and the orders of honor; Secondly, 
the history; and thirdly, the topography of 
the Slate. We know no other book so well 
designed to give the reader a knowledge of 
the Past and Present condition of Europe, 
as Ungewitter^s Comprehensive Manual.— 
We commend it to teachers and students. 
It is well suited for School Libraries—also 
as a reference book for teachers. 
For sale at D. M. Dewey’s. 
Grecian and Roman Mythology. —By M. A. 
Dwight. With a series of Illustrations. First 
abridged Edition, New York: George P. Put¬ 
nam. 
This abridgement of the author’s larger 
work on the same subject was made in or¬ 
der to render it accessible to all who have 
a desire to acquire a knowledge of Mythol- 
ogy—so important to persons engaged in 
reading or studying ancient history. The 
book will be found highly attractive and 
entertaining, and may be used as a text¬ 
book, or reading-book. 
For sale by Dewey, Arcade Hall, Roch- 
ester. 
HARPER’S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
The first number of this Magazine was 
published on the first of June, last. Of the 
fourth number, published on the second day 
of September, it required the issue of 40,- 
000 copies to supply the demand. ** 
Each successive issue contains a summa¬ 
ry of Domestic and Foreign events, also 
Political, Literary and Scientific incidents of 
the current month. 
Each number contains 144 octavo pages, 
in double column.s, filled with the choicest 
of tlie Miscellaneous Literature of the age. 
This is undoubtedly the most highly enter¬ 
taining and instructive Monthly Magazine 
in the world. 
We hope our Rural friends will procure 
this excellent publication and enjoy the 
pleasure which the reading of it will give 
during the long evening-s to come. Picto¬ 
rial illustrations with a carefully prepared 
Fashion plate accompany each number. 
To be had of D. M. Dewev, Arcade Hall. 
It can be sent by mail or otherwise. Terms 
$3,00 a year. 
dEoIogical. 
POLISHED ROCKS-AGAIN. 
BY C. DEWEY, LL. D. 
Causes — Icebergs — Ocean and Ice-float Rocks 
— Bowlders — Power of Moving Planter—The 
Causes adequate. 
There is another cause, capable of pro¬ 
ducing great effects of the kind under con¬ 
sideration, wliich is well known—Icebergs, 
or mountains of ice in the Ocean. Naviga¬ 
tion of the Arctic and of the Antarctic 
Oceans, have shown up the multitude of 
these ice formations. The ocean is some¬ 
times covered with masses of ice of miles 
in extent, of moderate elevation. Icebergs 
occur also from 50 to 150, and even 200 
feet in height, and as they arc found to 
project any height their depth is known to 
be about eight times as great. They are 
carried from the north or south towards 
warmer seas and thus dissolved. From the 
north they sometimes pass in the Atlantic 
to a lower latitude than 40 degrees. Many 
of them have been found the past spring 
and summer in the path of our ships from 
New York, &c., to England. They often 
bear on them large rocks, mud, gravel, and 
sand. These must be deposited in the 
ocean where the solution of the iceberg's 
take place. 
Admit only that these icebergs have been 
floated by some convulsion of the waters of 
the ocean from north to south, sweeping 
over the land their loads of rock and grav¬ 
el to the place of solution, and you have 
an adequate cause for the transportation of 
bowlders to great distances. Let them strike 
portions of rocks, as the sandstone along 
Lake Ontario, and break and tear them 
away and bear them onwards by their 
mighty momentum, and you have an ade¬ 
quate cause for the roixnding and wearing- 
effect which has given the form and the 
new location of the bowldere of sandstone. 
Let them be borne along the surface in all 
their mighty pressure, grinding the surface 
by the sand, gravel and moving bowlders, 
and you have an adequate cause for the 
wearing, smoothing, polishing, grooving, and 
furrowing of the rocks over any extent of 
country. Let some of them be borne 
mountains high on the waves of the mighty 
deep, and you have a suitable cause of the 
scratches and furrows along the mountain 
tops. Let the operation be continued as 
long as is necessary for the effect, for there 
was no want of time in the period before 
tlie present races of men, animals and plants 
were created, and for whose habitation the 
exirth was thus manifestly prepared by Him 
who works and none can hinder. In such 
a flow of the ocean waters, you have an ad¬ 
equate cause of the position of the extinct 
animals of the ocean, whose remains, found 
in peculiar locations, are evidence of such a 
convulsion of waters. 
While the northern bowlders have not 
been transported to a low northern latitude, 
this fact is consistent with the cause and 
required by it, but the action of the waters 
alone in their great convulsion is fully seen 
in latitudes south of the location of these 
bowlders. 
There are some facts in the transporta¬ 
tion of bowlders, which even in our lati¬ 
tude seem to require the existence of large 
fields of ice formed on our mountains or 
lodged there till frozen to the mountain 
cliffs, so that the whole has been moved on 
by the action of a higher flow of the ocean¬ 
ic current afterwards. Thus, from the sum¬ 
mit of a mountain a little south and west of 
the springs at New Lebanon in this State, 
the rock has been removed in huge masses, 
across a valley and between two summits of 
the ridge on the east, over into Richmond, 
Mass., and the bowlders been deposited, 
sometimes in huge masses, for miles in 
length and only some rods in width. One 
of these masses thus removed for miles con- 
tmns some hundred tons, and another is 
forty feet in length and several feet in depth 
and breadth. The line of these bowlders 
is distinctly drawn, so that there can be no 
dispute. The whole has been examined 
by many of the most distinguished geolo¬ 
gists of the country, and there is but one 
opinion on the facts, and perhaps not a dis¬ 
sentient in respect to the cause. There 
are other similar cases, but none so strong¬ 
ly marked in that section of the country, 
and few more distinguished perhaps in any 
country. 
If then, the supposition of large fields of 
ice in the northern latitudes be added, the 
solution of the transportation by an ocean | 
flood, of bowlders, the polishing, scratching. | 
and furrowing of rocks, becomes plausible ) 
from the action of causes known to exist ) 
To all this is to be added the powerful ? 
action of great bodies of moving water in | 
transporting masses heavy as rocks. It is | 
well known that most rocks are about twice 
and a half heavier than water. Hence 
rocks in •water lose two/fifihs of their weight, 
or that proportion of their weight is sup¬ 
ported by the water, and the mass is re- | 
moved with fai* more ease in water. A < 
mo'derate current, therefore, produces won- j 
derful results in the removal of rocks.— < 
There are astounding facts on this subject ' 
in the action of ocean storms upon rocky 
coasts. But I need not detail them. 
With the facts before the reader, this is 
the light in wliich philosophy is obliged to 
view the phenomena. The more extensive¬ 
ly the facts are known, the wider is the field 
over which they have been examined, the 
more extensively geologists have carried 
their investigations over the earth, the more 
plausible, probable, and necessary appeal's ! 
the adoption of causes of this character to 
account for the facts. No one, who has not 
entered widely and fully into these investi¬ 
gations or become deeply imbued with the 
knowledge of them, can be prepared to de¬ 
ny the probable conclusion. 
Moving masses of ice loaded with stone, 
urged forward by an ocean wave and press¬ 
ing upon the earth and gravel on the sur¬ 
face of rocks, arc fully adequate to produce 
all the effects to be accounted for; the pol¬ 
ishing, the rough smoothing, the scratches 
and furrows, and the transportation of 
bowlders. 
The phenomena sho-w that the polish is 
not owing to any formative process like that 
of crystalization, that while it has been ef¬ 
fected by natural causes, it is itself an arti¬ 
ficial operation—-in other words, that the 
rock was not made so or did not grow tlius. 
The objection has sometimes been made, 
that these bowlders never show any evi¬ 
dence of being smoothed, while they pol¬ 
ished and furrowed the fixed recks. Being 
80 much harder tlian the worn rocks is the 
adequate reason why the bowlders should 
not themselves be acted on. To polish or 
mark a stone, it must be acted on by one 
as hard, or harder than itself. It is enough 
that the bowlders arc rounded by attrition 
against each other. The common process 
of making playing marbles from limestone, 
or agate, or hard baked clay, explains the 
operation. 
Any other objection to this theory, or 
any preferable theory, will be gladly con¬ 
sidered, when one more view is presented 
Rochester, September, 1850. c. d. 
INSTINCT IN A BIRD. 
Once when traveling in Tennesec, Wil¬ 
son was struck with the manner in which 
the habits of the pennated grouse are adapt¬ 
ed to its residence on dry, sandy plains.— 
One of them was kept there in a cage, hav¬ 
ing been caught alive in a trap. It was ob¬ 
served that the bird never drank, and seem¬ 
ed rather to avoid the water; but a few 
*drops one day falling upon the eng^, and 
trickling down the bars, the bird drank 
them with great dexterity, and an eagcrr.css 
that showed she wa.« suffering with thirst 
The experiment was then made whether 
I she would drink under other circumstances, 
and though.she lived ertircly on dry Indian 
corn, tlie cup of water in the cage was 
for a whole week untasted and untouched; 
but the moment water was sprinkled on the 
bars, she drank it eagerly as before. It oc¬ 
curred to him at once, that in the natural 
haunts of the bird, the only water it could 
procure was from the drops of rain and 
dew. 
Singular Discovery of a Toad. —As 
some shipwrights were engaged in opening 
the brig Brilliant, of Workingham, lying in 
the Bute Docks, Cardiff, one of them had 
occasion to “ take a chip off ” one of her 
quarter timbers, when to his astonishment 
he saw a hole in it. After some • further 
examination of the part, and probing it, an 
immense toad was taken out The animal, 
on being handed ashore and placed in the 
sun, hopped about apparently delighted 
with its liberation from its oaken cell, and 
introduced to light and heat. The vessel is 
22 years old, and the toad must have been 
imbedded in the tree whilst growing. This 
piece of timber was traversed by bolts and 
other fastenings in almost every direction; 
but strange to say, Mons. Crapeau escaped 
unhurt, although in such a dangerous locality, 
after no one knows how long, nor how much 
knocking about ashore and tossing about at 
sea for more than 20 years, to and from va¬ 
rious parts of the world. 
Ip you would be rich, think of saving as 
well as getting. 
