MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL. 
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BY L. WETHERELL. 
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION. 
Keene, N. II, Aug. 12th, 1851. 
Lectures this morning. 
In the afternoon Miss E. P. Peabody 
occupied sometime in presenting a method 
of teaching history. It is called the Polish- 
American System of Chronology, origina¬ 
ted by Gen. Bem. This system is taught 
by the aid of charts. The years of time 
are placed before the student upon the 
chart in order to impress the mind through 
the eye. 
W. D. Swan at 3, addressed the Teach¬ 
ers as follows: 
“ The requisite of success in the teacher 
is to govern well his school. The first les¬ 
son to be taught is that of implicit obedi¬ 
ence. Time is wasted by the teacher in 
the school room upon the detail of disci¬ 
pline. Endeavor to keep the minds of the 
pupils occupied. It will then be compara¬ 
tively easy to govern them. Physical edu¬ 
cation does not receive that attention which 
it demands. Children go to school too 
much. And by the time usually, that they 
reach their * teens,’ they have studied near¬ 
ly everything, and have learned scarcely 
anything as they should. 
Three or four hours a day, is enough for 
children to be confined in the school room. 
And this should be in the morning. They 
should never be sent to school in the after¬ 
noon. 
Deal gently and kindly with peevish ones 
in particular. There is some cause for this- 
Seek it out, and correct it if you can. 
Again: Teachers should be well qualified 
for their work. They should make them¬ 
selves familiar with the facts of history— 
the philosophy of mind. They should read, 
and think upon what they read. Teach 
children to think and how to teach them¬ 
selves. In educating for eternity, the intel¬ 
lect, alone, is not to be cared for—the heart 
and the affections are to be trained. Here 
the mother, as well as the teacher has a 
work to perform. Nothing in the instruc¬ 
tion of youth is too trivial to be cared for- 
There must be constant watchfulness.— 
Teachers should have frequent conversa¬ 
tions with their pupils upon moral subjects. 
Say not, there is no time for this. Some¬ 
thing more than cultivating mind is to be 
done. 
The teacher has other duties than those 
that pertain to the school room, to perform. 
He must influence public opinion. Law and 
order reign supreme because the school 
master is in the land, forming mind and 
character in harmony therewith. 
Let Teachers invoke the aid of the clercrv 
and of the press to aid them in the good 
work. 
In conclusion fellow Teachers—Let us 
be faithful. Whatever seeds we are now 
sowing shall germinate and bring forth 
fruit in future time, and in eternity.” 
After the lecture, the question whether 
Arithmetical Keys should be used was dis¬ 
cussed ? The first speaker said, that he 
wished they were all burned up. “ Father 
Greenleaf ” said that he made a key to 
his work, because it was demanded, and 
fashionable. Every body that makes an 
arithmetic makes a key. The question 
was farther discussed by Messrs. Burbank 
Hagar, Wetiierell, Morse, Northrop, 
and Horace Mann, who spoke at length 
from experience and observation, and had 
long since come to the conclusion that the 
influence of Arithmetical keys is bad. This 
was a very animated discussion, and nearly 
all the speakers opposed the use of keys. 
Evening lecture by Wm. D. Northend, 
of Salem, Mass., on “Popular Education 
and Republicanism.” 
“ What imparts strength and prosperity 
to a government? It is said to exist by 
the consent ol the people. The govern¬ 
ment will then be good or bad according to 
the condition of the people. Mexico fur¬ 
nishes an example of a government con¬ 
trolled by a degraded people. The United 
States, the opposite. The latter educate 
the people. They have erected the meet¬ 
ing-house and the school-house, and in New 
England established a system of free schools. 
The education of the people, and it is edu¬ 
cation alone that can perpetuate the system 
of government under which we live. 
Moral and religious education have more 
recently been separated from intellectual 
culture. It does not require very great sa¬ 
gacity to foretell what will be the result of 
this. It was to the Christian religion that 
our fathers looked for support to the gov¬ 
ernment. Morality cannot live without re¬ 
ligion. 
[His argument here was almost identical 
to that which we recently presented in the 
Rural on the same subject.] 
Mental culture, said the lecturer, cannot 
alone sustain a Republic. To the teacher 
is committed the moulding of both the 
heart and the mind of the pupil. A per¬ 
verted mind, educated, is more potent for 
evil than when uneducated. Hence the 
question among distinguished educators, 
whether education should be diffused among 
the people unless accompanied with moral 
and religious training. 
Upon our system of education, depends 
more than anything else, the perpetuity of 
our government. w. 
“IS BEING BUILT.” 
I have examined with more than usual 
care, the “Remarks” appended to my “last,” 
and have learned from them how to pro¬ 
ceed in the further discussion of the sub¬ 
ject. I shall, in this communication, em¬ 
brace all that I deem absolutely necessary, 
(although I have materials for another ar¬ 
ticle,) promising to add no more, unless it 
shall be necessary for explanation, or cor¬ 
rection. I shall now consider the subject 
analogically, philologically, and philosophi¬ 
cally. 
1st. Analogically. All verbs except the 
defective, have their participles, only two of 
which are used in the regular conjugation 
of a verb: viz. the Imperfect, or Indefinite 
(sometimes called the Present,) and the 
Perfect: as, 
Active—Pres, or IncL, Building—Perf., Built. 
Passive— “ “ Being Built--Perf., Built. 
In conjugating the verb, we say, 
Inch or Simp.—He builds a house: 
Progressive—He is Building a house. 
This is the Active voice. To form the 
Passive, add the proper participles, to the 
verb be, (or is.) But in the change of the 
active voice to the passive, all grammarians 
and philologists agree that the object of 
action becomes the subject of the verb; 
(The exceptions are few, and are either 
idiomatic, or anomalous;) as, Act. “Cain 
(agent) killed Abel(object.) Pas. “ Abel 
(object) was killed by Cain,” (agent.) But 
when an event, either from its nature, or 
from circumstances, is progressive, we use 
the Progressive form; as, 
Act.—He is building (imp. net. part.) a house. 
Pas.—A house is being built(imp. pas. part.) by 
him. 
If this is not analogical, there is no such 
thing as analogy. The word is a phonasm, 
a superfluity. 
2d. Philologically. “Being,” says my 
opponent, “when a participle, signifies ex¬ 
isting in a certain state. But this “certain 
state” may either be a state of permanence; 
or a state of implied change. Hence the 
verb be is often used in a sense that implies 
change; as, “And they twain shall be (be¬ 
come, be made,) one flesh.” We also say 
of an active boy, “ he will be (become) a 
great man.” So also the participle; as, 
“ Without being (becoming) weary.” “The 
work being (becoming, having become,) 
finished.” This is Mr. Webster’s second 
definition of the verb “ be.” Now this idea 
of “becoming,” “being made to be,” of as 
it is frequently said, “ getting to be,” is the 
very meaning of the participle “ being” in 
the disputed phrase “ is being built,” and 
others like it; as “The house is being (be¬ 
coming, getting to be, progressing, in pro¬ 
gress, &c., towards completion,) built.”— 
All these forms are frequently used, even 
by the advocates of the “ is building” the¬ 
ory; as, “The country is fast becoming de¬ 
populated.”—“ The building is in process of 
erection.”—“The road is in progress of con¬ 
struction.”—“The lands are in the course o 
being occupied;” &c. The phrase then 
means just what it is intended to mean, and 
is therefore philologically correct. 
3d. Philosophically. In language any 
thing is philosophical that is in accordance 
with the well-established principles of lan¬ 
guage. One of the first principles, and a 
universally acknowledged one, is, that when 
the object of a transitive verb is made the 
subject, the passive construction should be 
used; (auomalies excepted;) as, “Colum¬ 
bus discoved America;” “ America was dis¬ 
covered by Columbus.”. The phrase, “The 
house is building:,” is a violation of this first 
principle, is therefore unphilosophical, and 
can be justified only as an idiom, or an an¬ 
omaly. The disputed phrase, “ The house 
is being built,” accords with this principle, 
and is therefore philosophically correct. 
I have thus shown that/the phrase, “The 
house is being built,” (and by inference all 
others similar,) is analogically, philologically 
and philosophically correct.—Q. E. D. 
But the phrase is “ uneuphonious.” Eu¬ 
phony in language is a very indefinite attri¬ 
bute. “ Nil disputandum gustibus,” is as 
true now as it was in days of yore; and the 
extensive use (I have collected about 100 
examples within a short time,) of the dis¬ 
puted phraseology does not greatly harmon¬ 
ize with its so great want of euphony. 
But “ why not use the good old English 
phrase, ‘is building?’” Ans.— 1st. Because 
we do not consider it “ good,” for reasons 
already given, besides many others; only 
one, or two, of which (though implied in 
what is said above,) will here be noticed; 
viz., it does not, to our mind, convey the 
meaning intended. Taking my opponent’s 
definition which I allow to be correct —“is,” 
says he, “ is used to supply, in part, the de¬ 
fects of the verb be, whose sense is, tostand> 
remain, or be fixed." Appjy either of these 
meanings to the example under considera¬ 
tion, using the participle according to its 
established meaning. “ The house stands 
building,”—“ remains building;”— is fixed 
building.” It is difficult for me, I confess, 
to attach any meaning to the phrase, unless 
that a finished house is doing something. — 
“New States are forming;” (Bancroft,) i. 
e. “New States are {stand, remain, arefix- 
ed,) forming.” “ If such a solecistic, an¬ 
omalous, * unmeaning,’ phrase can be said 
to mean any thing,” it must either mean 
that a State that is not formed, stands, re¬ 
mains, not in a state of progress, (what is 
the “passive progressive” meaning of form¬ 
ing, if not, “ being formed ?”) but in a fix¬ 
ed state, (the very reverse of what is meant,) 
and is therefore a State before it is formed; 
or that it is in both a forming, i. e., a chang¬ 
ing, and a fixed State, at the same time.— 
Such is the beauty and philological consis¬ 
tency of the “good old English” phrase¬ 
ology ; (a beauty which is not much im¬ 
proved by the mistiness of the explanations 
that are given of it;) and such the dilem¬ 
ma from which the simple phraseology, “is 
being built,” formed,<fcc., as explained above, 
is free. 
2d. Because it does not meet the stand¬ 
ard requirements of a new-coined phrase; 
viz., it is not “ necessaryit is not “ per¬ 
spicuous.” Ergo, we cannot adopt it will¬ 
ingly, and we have too much of the spirit of 
the “ Boston boys,” to allow it to be forced 
upon us. Being, moreover, somewhat “ec¬ 
lectic” in our views, wc care little about 
“authorities,” who themselves lay no claim 
to superior knowledge of language, but only 
to greater facility in the use of it, and who 
are not acknowledged as standards, even by 
their own advocates. 
In what I have now written, I have not 
labored for victory, but for truth. My ar¬ 
guments are now before the public for whom 
I have written, and with whom I am willing 
to leave them; and whether “ victor,” or 
not,—“ Hie — caestus artemque — repono," 
until invited to take them up again, (.except 
as above.) h. 
P. S. I was unfortunate in the use of 
the phrase “ I am being loved, ” because I 
would neither use it myself, nor is it ever 
used, for the simple reason that it is not re¬ 
quired. My object in using it as I did, was 
not argument, but illustration. 
Down East, July, 1851. H. 
Re,mark.— In the absence of the editor 
of this Department, we publish the above 
without comment. 
An Eternal Now.—To anticipate is 
pleasant; but in order to enjoy, we must be¬ 
gin now; must find as we pass along, all 
the flowery places, the happy thoughts, the 
sunny scenes we may,—for these constitute 
the poetry of common life—these fill the 
rill of happiness that murmurs along the 
monotonous plain of everyday existence.— 
To enjoy all these; and to anticipate, if we 
may, still higher and purer joys, is the 
creed and the practice of the happiest. 
Good manners is the art of making those 
people easy with whom we converse. Who¬ 
ever makes the fewest persons uneasy, is 
the best bred in the company. 
THE SPIDER WASP. (Pompilus.) 
The mason-wasp, the sand-wasp and the 
mud-wasp and others of like habits, are 
classed in the nintli order of Insects, called 
Ilymenoptera, comprehending such as have 
four membranous wings, mandibles—the 
females being usually armed with a sting 
in the post extremity. 
There are social wasps, and solitary 
wasps. The former live in societ}’, like 
honey-bees. The habits of the latter are 
very different. These, consisting of differ¬ 
ent species, build either mud-cells or dig- 
places in the earth, where they deposite 
their eggs. After they have made these 
► places, and have laid their eggs there, if 
you watch these insects you see them lay¬ 
ing in food for the young. One species 
puts in the cell a caterpillar—another a 
cockroach—another a spider—and another 
still, honey bees. 
Ray, the Naturalist, observed the sand- 
wasp dragging a caterpillar, three times the 
size of the wasp. This was deposited in 
the cell which was then filled with dirt, and 
pressed down by the wasp. Kirby, the 
Entomologist, says when walking with a 
friend, that he observed a spider-wasp car¬ 
rying to its cell a spider, which was depos¬ 
ited therein for the young to feed on. In 
these two cases, only one insect of the kinds 
mentioned was used by each of the wasps. 
Reaumur says that there is one species 
of the solitary wasp, that puts into its cell 
where the egg is laid, about a dozen little 
green grubs, selected full grown, and con¬ 
veyed with care. Some inquire, Why se¬ 
lect full grown larva? Because after hav¬ 
ing attained their full growth, and about 
to pass into the pupa state, they can live a 
long time without food. This judicious 
selection secures fresh nutriment for the 
larva or grub when the egg hatches. 
Cassigni gives an interesting account of 
the capturing and depositing a cock-roach 
by another species of the solitary- wasp.— 
After dragging the insect to the place of 
deposit, the wasp found the cock-roach too 
large for the cell. The wasp after a fair 
test, and becoming satisfied that the cell 
was too small, or else the insect was too 
large, commenced the work of dissection. 
It first removed the wings then the legs— 
after which it succeeded in placing the cock¬ 
roach in the cell where it was secured as 
food for the young. 
The mason-wasp, says Reaumur, after 
having inclosed a living caterpillar along 
with its egg in the cell, returns in a few 
days opens the nest and furnishes the grub 
which has consumed the first worm with 
another —and continues to repeat this until 
the young one attains its growth. Some 
other species do the same says Rolander 
Exclaims a naturalist of our own time, 
What a crowd of interesting reflections 
are these most, singular facts calculated to 
excite! With what foresight must the pa¬ 
rent insect be endowed, thus to be aware 
at what period her egg will be hatched, and 
how long the provision laid in will support 
the grub! What an extent of judgment, 
thus, in the midst of various other occupa¬ 
tions, to know' the precise day when a rep¬ 
etition of her cares will be required 1 What 
an accuracy of memory, to recollect with 
such precision the entrance to her cell, 
which the most acute eye could not discover; 
and without compass or direction unerringly 
to fly to it often from a great distance, and 
after the most intricate and varied wander¬ 
ings! If we refer the whole to instinct, and 
to instinct, doubtless, it must be in the main 
if not wholly referred, our admiration is not 
lessened. Instinct, when simple and direct¬ 
ed to one object, is less astonishing; but 
such a complication of instincts, applied to 
actions so varied and dissimilar, is beyond 
our conception. We can but wonder and 
adore!” w. 
The most prodigious power of muscle is 
exhibited by fish. The whale moves with 
a velocity through the dense medium of 
water, that would carry him if continued 
in the same rale, round the world in little 
less than a fortnight; and a sword-fish has 
been known to strike his weapon quite thro’ 
the cak plank of a ship. 
Fecundity. —A paper in Dickens’ House¬ 
hold Words, states that the spawn of a 
single adult oyster will supply 12,000 bar¬ 
rels. 
For Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
ELEGIAC STANZAS.* 
Hark, list to the notes that so joyously fall, 
■While their echoes ring out through the festival hall: 
Pause awhile to admire the happy young bride, 
Who is standing now by her husband’s side. 
What beauty and grace is here lo he seen. 
How sweet is her smile, how mild is her mien; 
A picture of health, and of loveliness rare, 
With cheeks like the rose, so blooming and fair. 
A few weeks have pass’d, the young bride let us seek, 
But oh what a change, how pale is iter cheek, 
Why do husband and kindred, now weep round the bed, 
Of Almina the young bride? She sleeps with the dead! 
How bitter the pangs which the father now feels, 
The tears ot the mother, her sorrow reveals; 
Their love though so ardent no longer could save, 
And brothers, and sisters must weep o’er her grave. 
Her husband returns to his desolate home, 
How cheerless, alas, he must sorrow alone: 
How swiftly time passes, a short year has gone. 
Since die bright bands of wedlock, had joined them in one. 
Alas, cruel death, thou dost often destroy, 
Tiie bright buds of promise, the cup of pure joy: 
Prepare now lo meet her, for gone is your love, 
H«r hope was in God, and her home is above. 
* Composed by Miss Sarah Peck, aged 15 years, on the 
death of Mrs. Almina Mosher, daughter of Mr. A. H. 
French, of Nfinda, N. Y. 
THE MIND'S IMMORTALITY. 
Will that which animates these forms 
which gives them the life and intelli¬ 
gence that alone makes them nobler than 
the earth on which they tread, and into 
whose bosom they must sink, in their last 
dreamless repose, survive the, “ wreck of 
matter and the crush of worlds,” and still 
remain in the proud consciousness of ex¬ 
istence when time shall be no more ? Is 
-“ this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 
This longing after immortality,” 
to be more a reality and less a delusion— 
more indestructible and less fleeting—than 
the seemingly immovable mountain that 
rises in grandeur above our heads, or than 
even the suns and systems of worlds that 
shine in the over-arching heavens on high ? 
So say the inspired Scriptures of un¬ 
changeable truth—so says the clear voice 
ot reason, as it calmly sits in judgment on 
the evidences that more than intimate, that 
prove, eternity to man—so say the unsatis¬ 
fied wants of the ever-aspiring soul—so say 
the persuasive and eloquent pleadings of 
the tenderest and purest affections 1 
And why not—can it be otherwise? 
Not unless blind chance is wiser, better and 
more omnipotent than Deity. It is this 
cheering and deep-founded belief that 
throws a light across the portals of the 
gloomiest grave—it is its denial which makes 
the “ chamber where the good man meets 
his fate,” instead of being a privileged 
place, “ quite on the verge of heaven,” the 
room where the shades of oblivion and an¬ 
nihilation are first cast over the dying mor¬ 
tal. How thankful ought every one to be 
for the consolations and blessings that flow 
from an unfaltering conviction that the grave 
of the body is the cradle of the freed spirit 
— that the dispensation which carries the 
one to the tomb, may send the other to the 
presence of the Sayior whom it loved and 
followed here. 
Yes —life everlasting is within us, eterni¬ 
ty is before us, and infinity is all around us. 
What less than an endless career of con¬ 
scious being would enable the mind to per¬ 
fect its knowledge, complete its investiga¬ 
tion of the numberless objects that fill the 
immensity of space, and learn their origin, 
purpose and end ? What though “passing 
away ” is written on every thing material 
—another and more glorious truth is pen¬ 
ciled in characters of fadeless light and 
hope on the destiny of the soul—“ It lives, 
and shall forever live.” Like the garment 
that clothes these limbs, let them waste 
away and return to the dust from whence 
they came—it was their native home—and 
thither let them go back ; but take not 
from this spirit Its unwavering and ever- 
brightening faith, that, even through these 
emblems of material decay, it sees shining 
the glorious and certain cup of its own 
immortality.—D. W. Ballou, Jr, in 
Western Literary Messenger. 
JOY AND CONTENT. 
There are two kindly flowers in the gar¬ 
den of human life, germinated upon the 
sweet rose-bush, happiness, and watered by 
the near running brook of infinite love. 
Happy he who shall be able to cull them 
without being wounded by the thorns! 
These leave their sting behind, and the 
beautiful flowers become metamorphosed in 
the hand of the gatherer to sorrow and dis¬ 
content. The thorns differ, and those keen¬ 
est are jealousy and doubt. These produce 
a lurking pang in the breast of the wound¬ 
ed, and change the fresh hue of the flowers 
of joy and content in the warm color of sor¬ 
row and discontent; yes, the wound is most 
often incurable. Consolation, hope and 
confidence, are the excellent herbs from 
which is prepared the balsam, that alone is 
capable of extracting the spreading poison 
from the serpent sling of the thorns, and 
give the flowers back their former color. 
He who can take advice is sometimes 
superior to him who can give it. 
