MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL. 
BY L. WETHERELL. 
•* Having ligift, we seek to impart it.” 
That part of the year so well adapted to 
the intellectual cultivation of the farmer and 
his children, has nearly passed by—only a 
few weeks remain to consummate the plans 
for special improvement—then will arrive 
the time when books must be exchanged 
for the axe, the plow, and other implements 
of husbandry. What progress has been 
made during another series of long winter 
evenings ? How have the boys and girls 
who have been attending, and are still go¬ 
ing to school, been doing? Have they 
been well furnished with books? Have 
they had, and are they still enjoying the 
aid and instruction of a good and faithful 
teacher? Are your children taught that 
they must obey their instructor in all things ? 
We fear that this last question from what 
we have been told, must be answered in the 
negative. A man from the country—a 
trustee of a school district, said to us a few 
days since, that there are many teachers 
employed who do not, and dare not, use the 
means to preserve order in school, for fear 
of law-penalties. If it has come to this, it 
is time that .'ill such teachers were dismiss¬ 
ed and the schools discontinued, until parents 
will delegate to the teacher or teachers, 
whom they employ, authority to govern the 
children sent to school. The school cannot 
be governed without authority, and the 
teacher cannot exercise it effectively unless 
he is sustained by parents. 
Says an eminent man—“ In the arrange¬ 
ment of Providence, the training of the child 
is committed, as a general rule, to the father. 
The relation of parent and child is the pe¬ 
culiar work of God, and to him we must 
answer for our fulfillment of its obligations. 
But in the arrangements of social life, pa¬ 
rents, for the most part, act upon the 
assumed theory of a division of labor. They 
think that they transfer their religious re¬ 
sponsibility, by sending their children to the 
Sabbath School. They think that they 
transfer their intellectual responsibility, by 
sending them to the district school and the 
academy. They pay a certain tax for both 
these imaginary substitutes, and in that pay¬ 
ment they suppose that they have discharged 
their duty. And yet, while they fancy that 
they have transferred their accountability, 
they never transfer that without which the 
obligation cannot be fulfilled. They retain, 
in their own hands, the whole of their pa¬ 
rental authority. They expect the pastor 
and the teacher to do their work, without 
the power which the work requires. And 
if their children be not educated to their 
mind, they blamgjgheir supposed substitutes, 
when they ought, in strict justice, to blame 
themselves.” 
Let ever}’ parent and guardian remem¬ 
ber, that to interfere with the due exercise 
of authority by the teacher in his school, is 
to defeat the very purpose for which the 
school was opened. If any one doubts this, 
let him visit where the teacher is afraid to 
govern his school, because some of the pa¬ 
rents in the district have threatend to pros¬ 
ecute any teacher who null use such means 
as are sometimes found to be absolutely 
necessary for the reformation of the child, 
and for the good of the school. Parents 
must delegate authority to teachers em¬ 
ployed to assist in educating their children, 
or else dispense with the aid, and resume 
that education themselves. 
No boy, nor girl that disregards the fifth 
commandment, has any reason to anticipate 
enjoyment in the life that now is, nor hap¬ 
piness in that which is to come. Will eve¬ 
ry child who is in the habit of disobeying, 
and thus dishonoring his parents remember 
this? Says the author of the precept re¬ 
ferred to, “ Obey my voice, and thou shalt 
live.” Remember, then, that life hath its 
conditions which must be fulfilled, or else 
the claim to it is forfeited by the possessor. 
The way to speak and write what shall 
not go out of fashion, is, to speak and write 
sincerely. 
THE GRAMMAS OR ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 
We have just been favored with the ex¬ 
amination of a part of a forthcoming work 
by Goold Brown. One of the most accom¬ 
plished teachers of our country, who has 
made himself familiar with many of the 
learned researches of this indefatigable au¬ 
thor, sends us the following communication. 
If we were not afraid of being charged 
with committing a blunder in terms we 
would say that he has well nigh exhausted 
the exhausiless subject of grammatical biblio¬ 
graphy. We commend the work to all the 
teachers of the Grammar of our vernacular 
tongue.— Ed. 
It is pretty generally known, especially 
to our educators of youth, that Goold Brown, 
Esq., author of that excellent and popular 
school-book, the “ Institutes of English 
Grammar,” has been for many years devo¬ 
ting himself to the production of another 
and much more extended work on the same 
subject, to be entitled" The Grammar of 
English Grammars.” So little among us 
of late years had been seen or heard of the 
author, — who, by-the-bye, at his quiet resi¬ 
dence in Lynn, Mass., has been bending all 
his energies to his great undertaking, often, 
we regret to state, impeded by feeble health, 
—that many persons had come to think that 
the “ Grammar of English Grammars” 
would never appear. Mr. Brown, however, 
was never the man to take up, and after¬ 
wards abandon a project, on slight grounds. 
And those, moreover, who know his mental 
habitudes, are aware that whatever he at¬ 
tempts in his peculiar department, is wont 
to be profoundly, thoroughly elaborated. 
Few scholars of the present day could be 
found,—nay, we may perhaps say that 
Goold Brown is the only one,— possessed 
of sufficient energy of purpose, of the indom¬ 
itable will, of enthusiasm in the cause of 
even a favorate stud)', to grapple, sponta¬ 
neously, with an assumed task of twenty 
year's toil —and that, for a compensation 
at the best but reversionary, and not with¬ 
out incertitude. 
The labor performed by the ingenious 
author in the present instance has been tru¬ 
ly Herculean. Of this the reader would be 
convinced, who should turn over a dozen 
pages of the work: he would ,moreover, if 
conversant with the extant works in this de¬ 
partment, be surprised at the minuteness 
of detail, and the compass and amplitude 
of the Grammar of Grammars. • 
To compile an English Grammar at the 
present day, would seem to be no very stu¬ 
pendous achievement—especially if we may 
judge of a “ kind,” whose name is Legion, 
and whose distinguishing attributes, in the 
vast majority of cases, are superficiality and 
twaddle. Moreover, to compile a grammar, 
and to write a Grammar, are two things 
very different. Now Goold Brown, of all 
men who have labored in this department, 
is perhaps as little entitled as may be to 
the name of compiler. Albeit this term 
precisely expresses the function of most of 
our amiable grammar-wrights. Compilare, 
by legitimate classical usage, has for signi¬ 
fication, “ to pillage or plunder:” and, conse¬ 
quently, compilatio, “ a pillaging, plunder¬ 
ing.” We may assume compilator as the 
source of our "compiler.” Good Bindley 
Murray was honestly entitled to the name 
he thus modestly assumed ; eminently so 
have been his copyists and followers,—with 
the entire late omnium gatherum throng, 
with their re-hashings and crambc recocta. 
“ The Grammar of English Grammars” 
is an original work, so far as originality is 
predicable of a work which must needs, in 
completion of its plan, embrace all those 
results which have been arrived at in inves¬ 
tigating the phenomena of our language, 
whether by the author himself, or by his 
predecessors. The name of the book, sug¬ 
gested to the author by kindred works of 
the French grammars, is entirely apposite. 
Our numerous grammarians of less or great¬ 
er fame, are brought under review—their 
teachings tested—and where found wrong, 
made to “ stand corrected” in court 
" The Grammar of English Grammars” 
has all the severe accuracy of which the 
“ Institutes” is so remarkable an example. 
The same doctrines mainly re-affirmed, and 
copiously illustrated. Indeed the book 
abounds in illustration, and is a happy in¬ 
stance of what the French philologers term 
a " grammaire raisonnee ." Its expositions 
are so felicitously wrought up, that it would 
be an interesting book for reading by persons 
not conversant with grammar. 
Messrs. S. and W. Wood, of this city are 
the publishers, though the work goes through 
the Boston press, which secures it the ad¬ 
vantage of the author’ ssupervision. Zeal¬ 
ous teachers will anxiously await its advent; 
and all true lovers of “ pure English and 
undefiled,” our popular writers and speakers, 
our erudite scholars, will welcome to their 
shelves a work possessing the true dignity 
of an English Grammar, and which may 
take place beside the learned philological 
thesauruses of other lauguage.— Jour, of Ed 
Remarks. —We are very glad to learn 
that the “ Grammar of English Grammars" 
is soon to be published. It will be eagerly 
sought by teachers, who know the author’s 
high reputation. We were favored with an 
opportunity, about three years since, of ex¬ 
amining with the author a part of the forth¬ 
coming work. -I 
WINTER EVENINGS AT HOME. - (NO. 5.) 
Thomas. —Now, father, as I have got 
pretty well into the mysteries of snow, wind, 
air, and light, tc-ll me what is meant by the 
word gas? 
Father. —By gas, is meant all teriform 
fluids, all air fikfc fluids that are not sensible 
to touch, and but few of them to sight— 
The air we breathe is a gas or a compound 
of gases. Some of them are heavier and 
others much lighter than atmospheric air, 
and are important agents in all the produc¬ 
tions of nature, both organic and inorganic. 
T.— What do you mean by organic and 
inorganic ? 
F. —Organic substances are such as pos¬ 
sess organs, upon which depends their 
growth and structure- -as animals and plants; 
and inorganic are those of independent cre¬ 
ation, as stones, minerals and earth. 
T. —I will try and remember these defin¬ 
itions. Now tell me, is carbon a gas? I 
read a great deal about it in the agricultu¬ 
ral papers. 
F. —No. Carbon in a pure state is the 
diamond, and is very rare; but its ordinary 
state is charcoal and mineral coals—but 
carbon united with oxygen forms carbonic 
gas, an important agent in the formation of 
minerals and the growth of vegetation, and 
is one of the heaviest gases known. 
T. —How is it produced in sufficient 
quantities to supply the vegetation of the 
whole earth ? 
F. —The great bulk of this gas is pro¬ 
duced by the decay and fermentation of 
vegetable matter, that annually falls to the 
earth and undergoes decomposition. Im¬ 
mense quantities are also produced by com¬ 
bustion of wood fires of all descriptions, and 
all warm blooded animals, at every respira¬ 
tion,-throw off large quantities. 
T.— Is it considered healthy to breathe, 
when mixed with the air? 
F. —No; in any thing like a pure state, 
; it is wholly unrespirable—nothing can live 
in it one minute. It is the cause of so 
many deaths in descending into wells, is the 
choice damp oi the coal mines, and the cause 
of death by burning charcoal in tight rooms. 
It never exceeds about the one-thousandth 
part of the atmosphere. Water absorbs it 
from the air, as does every leaf of vegetable 
vitality, which inhales carbon and exhales 
oxygen; the contrary of the animal economy. 
T .— If I should ever be able to make or 
collect any of these gases, how shall I 
know one from the other ? 
F. —With some of them the process is 
very simple. For instance a tumbler full oi 
carbonic gas, although transparent, and in¬ 
visible, if the point of a smoking, burning- 
stick is stirred in it, so as to make it visible 
by pouring it out, will fall and run on the 
floor, owing to its greater density than the 
air— a candle or other blaze is instantly ex¬ 
tinguished, and a mouse or chicken immedi¬ 
ately dies. 
T. —This is not the case with all the gases. 
F. —No. Oxygen, which is about one- 
tenth heavier than common air, and consti¬ 
tutes one-fifth of the atmosphere, may be 
known by causing a flame to enlarge and 
burn brighter, and a red hot iron wire burns 
in it like a slow match. There are many- 
other ways of testing it, which involve pro¬ 
cesses that you would not understand. 
T.—Is there no other source of carbonic 
acid but vegetable matter ? 
id—I am rot aware that there is, or that 
any of the primitive created things, previ¬ 
ous to the formation of the secondary rocks 
and soil, contains carbon in any shape. 
T. —Then how did the first vegetables 
that commenced growing get their carbon, 
to produce stems and leaves and trees ?— 
there was none in the soil. 
F. —You have got me in the double cor¬ 
ner there. Go and study Robinson Crusoe, 
and I will think of it. . 
Lightning Conductors. —A writer in 
the Mechanics’ Magazine, in an ably writ¬ 
ten article upon non-conductors, remarks 
that those bouses which are surrounded by 
fig, cedar, beech, larch, fir, and chestnut 
trees, are more unsafe in severe tbuder 
storms than any other, such trees being non¬ 
conductors of the elctric fluid. Oak, yew, 
hemlock, and the Lombardy poplar, are 
conductors, and should therefore be chosen 
for shade trees, in preference to the former. 
Reaction —A balancing provision of na¬ 
ture, for the prevention of excess, whether 
in morals or mechanics. 
THE LARGEST FLOWER. 
THE RAFFLESIA ARNOLDI. 
This plant bears the largest flower known 
to the world. The first Europeans that 
saw it, or who made it known to civilized 
nations, were Sir Stamford Raffles and Dr. 
Arnold, whence its name. It has neither 
stem nor foliage, and its roots are so small 
that" they are embeded in the slender stem 
of a species of vine, aqd, as it were, incor¬ 
porated with that stem, yet bearing a flower 
of the most enormous dimensions.” 
This flower grows parasitically on the 
stem of the vine, from wherever the seeds 
chance to alight, and its first appearance is 
that of a swelling in the bark, or small tu¬ 
bercle. This bud grows to the size of a 
large cabbage, and when blown, the flower 
is forty two inches in diameter, weighing 
fifteen pounds, and its hollow in the centre 
capable of holding almost two gallons. 
The petals are an inch and a half thick 
near their base. The color is a brick red, 
inclining to orange, wrinkled or embossed 
on the surface, aud marked with deeper 
blotches of the same color as the ground, 
and with white spots. The plant is dioecious. 
The stamens form a sort of beaded circle 
around a central abortive pistil, which is 
itself a large fleshy excrescence, flat at the 
top, and beset with elongated projections, 
which Dr. Arnold declares resemble cow’s 
horns. This superb flower soon decays, 
and is endowed with a most powerful but 
disagreeable odor, which, like that of the 
Stapelias, attracts flies in great abundance. 
It is found in Sumatra.— Boston Rambler. 
TREES IN VAN DIEMEN’S LAND. 
Last week I went to see two of the larg¬ 
est trees in the world, if not the very largest 
that have ever been measured. They were 
both on a tributary rill to the North-West 
Bay River at the back of Mount Wellington, 
and are what are here called Swamp Gums. 
One was growing, the other prostrate; the 
latter measured to the first branch 220 feet; 
from thence to where the top was broken 
off and decayed, 04 feet or 284 feet in all; 
so that with the top it must have been con¬ 
siderably beyond 300 feet. It is 30 feet 
in diameter at the base, and 12 at 220 or 
the first branch. We estimated it to weigh, 
with the branches, 440 tons. 
The standing giant is still growing vigor¬ 
ously without the slightest symptom of decay, 
and looks like a large church tower among 
the puny sassafras-trees. It measures, at 3 
feet from the ground 102 feet in circumfer¬ 
ence, and at the ground, 130 feet! We had 
no means of ascertaining its height (which 
however, must be enormous) from the den¬ 
sity of the forest. I measured another not 
forty yards from it, and at 3 feet it was 60 
feet round.; and at 130 feet, where the first 
branch began, we judged it to be 40 feet; 
this was a noble column indeed, and sound 
as a nut. I am sure that within a mile 
there are at least 100 growing trees 40 feet 
in circumference.— Rev. T. Ewing. 
ANIMALS IMITATING DEATH. 
During a visit to Cumberland we found 
several hedo-ehous in In trie wood Forest— 
o # o O 
One of these, in order to destroy it, we put 
in the pond. It swam about in a circular 
direction for some time, and reached the 
shore. After putting it into the water a 
second time, it remained motionless and ap¬ 
parently dead, and we left it on the grass. 
During the night, however, it walked away. 
The spider will imitate death to save itself; 
and canaries have been taught by some 
showmen to look as if they were dead. The 
most curious case, however, is that of a fox 
in the North. A farmer had discovered 
that he came along a beam in the night to 
seize his poultry. He accordingly sawed 
the end of the beam nearly through, and in 
the night the fox fell into a place whence 
he could not escape. On going to him in 
the morning, the farmer found him stiff, and 
as he thought, lifeless. Taking him out of 
the building, he threw him on the dunghill, 
but in a short time Reynard opened his 
eyes, and seeing that all was safe and clear, 
galloped away to the mountains, showing 
more cunning than the man who had en¬ 
snared him.— Preston Chronicle. 
The Feet of Water-Walking Insects. 
—Insects which, like the gnat, walk much 
upon the surface of the water, have at the 
ends of their feet a brush of fine hair, the 
dry points of which appear to repel the 
fluid, thus preventing the legs from becom¬ 
ing wet. If these brushes be moistened 
with spirits of wine, this apparent repulsion 
no longer takes place, and the insect imme¬ 
diately sinks and is drowned. 
Fact in Natural History.— The nu¬ 
merous creatures of the sea, from not ex¬ 
periencing the same extremes of heat and 
cold with those on the earth, are as prolific 
under the poles as under the equator. 
Dolphins have been known to follow a 
ship more than 1000 leagues, attracted by 
the scraps thrown overboard. In their 
gambols they sometimes spring 20 feet at a 
single bound. 
A SINGLE DAY. 
How much upon a single day depends. 
Throughout the vast and crowded Universe ! 
What turnings of the Mighty Wheel it sends, 
Revolving on for better or for worse ! 
Ye millions of the earth 1 who look to this. 
This small component modicum of Time, 
To vanquish sorrow or to welcome bliss— 
What fraction of a day is yours or mine ? 
Who shall its parts divide and take his own ? 
Oh ! rather as an undivided whole, 
The seed for inch one’s harvest field is sown, 
And the great reaper is the Human soul, 
For which this heaving pulse of time is meant, 
And day-springs bright on high from God are sent. 
[Journal of Commerce. 
THE USE OF WEALTH. 
At the late anniversary of the Historical 
Society, Dr. Bethune made the following 
beautiful and truthful remarks on the uses 
of wealth. It is time that such sentiments 
were read and pondered by all: 
A feeling pervades this community that 
it is not the possession of wealth, but the 
use of it, that dignifies and renders its pos¬ 
sessor worthy of respect. It is not the ex¬ 
hibition of splendor and fashionable pride, 
which entitles man to honor. If he shows 
me only his wealth and his elaborate furni¬ 
ture, he but reminds me of his wealth and 
my poverty, and I thank him not for it— 
But if he shows me upon’his walls pictures 
from the pencils of the native genius of my 
land—if he pleases my eye with the evi¬ 
dence of present success and promises of 
still higher future triumphs—if lie hasbro’t 
from some nook of obscurity a suffering 
child of genius, and has enabled him to glo¬ 
rify and serve his country—if he shows me 
he has laid the corner stone of some institu¬ 
tion for the young—then I thank him. I 
thank God who made him rich, and that he 
has used his riches for such noble ends.— 
There is no envy of such a man—all men 
honor and respect him, and he receives as 
he deserves, their eulogies. But the man 
who lives only to accumulate and hoard, 
and who leaves no record of his usefulness 
in arts or letters, or morals, or religion, or 
charity, goes 
“ To the vile dust from whence he sprung, 
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.” 
A CHILD’S FEAYEE. . 
A dear little bright-eyed child, who has 
been lying upon the fur rug before the 
sanctum tire, suddenly pauses in her dis¬ 
jointed, innocent chat; says little Bli. key 
has come to town, and that her eyes are 
heavy; creeps up to the paternal knee, and 
half asleep, repeats very touchingly to us, 
we must say, and certainly in the most 
musical of all "still small voices,” these 
lines, which a loving elder sister has taught 
her: 
Jesus, tender shepherd, hear me, 
Bless thy little lamb to-night, 
Through the darkness be thou near me, 
Watch me till the morning light. 
All this day thy hand has led me, 
And I thank thee for thy care; 
Thou hast clothed me, warmed and fed me— 
Listen to my evening prayer. 
The prayer itself dies upon her lips, in 
almost indistinct, sleepy murmurs ; only, 
when Kitty, who has come for her, is taking 
her away to the nursery, she says half awa¬ 
kened : 
-Take me when I die to heaven, 
Happy there with thee to dwell 1 
Since little Jose went up stairs, we have 
been thinking of this, and because it inter¬ 
ested us, we thought we would jot it down. 
— Knickerbocker. 
PREACHING TO THE POINT. 
Passing along one Wednesday night— 
for evening at the South is our afternoon— 
in Montgomery, Alamaba, I stepped into 
the Presbyterian lecture room, where a slave 
was preaching: 
" My bredren,” says he, " God bless your 
souls, ’ligion is like de Alabam river! In 
spring come fresh, an’ bring in all de ole 
logs, slabs an’ stick, dat hab ben lyin’ on de 
bank, an’ carry dem down in de current— 
Bymeby de water go down—den a log 
cotch here on dis island, den a slab gits 
cotched on de shore, and de sticks on de 
bushes—and dare dey lie, with’rin’ and dry- 
in’ till come ’notlier fresh. Jus’ so dare 
come ’vivial of ’ligion—dis ole sinner bro’t 
in, dat old backslider bro’t back, an’ all de 
folk seem cornin’, an’ mighty good times.— 
But, bredren, God bless your souls; bymeby 
’vival’s gone—den dis ole sinner is stuck on 
his ole sin, den dat ole backslider is cotched 
where he was afore, on jus’ such a rock; 
den one after ’nother dat had got ’ligion lies 
all long de shore, an’ dare dey lie till ’nother 
’vival. Beloved bredren, God bless your 
souls,— keep in de current." 
I thought his illustration beautiful enough 
for a mo?e elegant dress, and too true, alas! 
of others than bis own race.— Chr. Herald. 
There cannot be a more glorious object 
in creation, than a huann being replete 
with benevolence, meditating in what man¬ 
ner he might render himself most accepta¬ 
ble to his Creator, by doing most good to 
his creatures. 
