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MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND .FAMILY NEWSPAPER, 
THE MOUNT HOLYOKE SYSTEM. 
The world has too little knowledge of Miss 
Mary Lyon, the founder of the celebrated 
school at Mount Holyoke, Mass. We know 
something of her system, and believe it to be in 
many respects the very best system of female 
education the world has ever known. She ap¬ 
pears to have aimed at a complete revolution— 
the old, trifling, senseless mode of educating 
women she abhorred and trampled under foot. 
In substance her plan is perhaps nothing more 
than the often tried, but always failing system 
of manual labor schools. In her hands this 
principle succeeded. It would succeed any¬ 
where, and with either sex, we are confident, if 
it was committed to skillful managers. In con¬ 
nection with scientific studies, the girls were to 
learn housework thoroughly, and thus attain 
these four things :—1st, Be fitted for house¬ 
keepers, whenever in the course of Providence 
they should be placed at the head of families. 
2d, Cheapen the cost of their education by de¬ 
fraying part of its expense with their own labor. 
3d, Secure their own health by abundant exer¬ 
cise. 4th, Break down the silly prejudice 
against labor. This plan is known to have been 
carried out by Miss Lyon with decided success, 
and the Institution that she established in 1836, 
we believe keeps up its reputation since her 
death. 
Miss Lyon did not call hers a manual labor 
school—she even repels the idea of its being 
such a school, but, nevertheless, we think it 
was a manual labor school, and that, too, with 
marked improvement, — in fact on the only 
practicable plan. The young ladies did no 
work but housework, and paid their expenses 
only in part. Her aim was mainly to reduce 
expenses, and in order to do this, she adopted 
the working principle to a limited extent. This 
experiment demonstrates that the manual labor 
principle is not impracticable, if applied judi¬ 
ciously. Commonly students have been allow¬ 
ed to do too much, and the plan financially has 
proved a failure. Let labor supply a third, or 
at most, half the students’ expenses, and labor 
will be found to operate well in connection with 
schools. 
It is due to Miss Lyon, to state that her plan 
embraced a thoroughly Christian education. 
She calls her institution “ a school of Christ.” 
She wished to teach Christianity, and to impart 
a religious and missionary spirit to her pupils. 
Her views of education were of the noblest 
kind, but she had not a particle of extravagance 
about her. Her judgment was eminently sound, 
her zeal irrepressible, and with a moderately 
inventive faculty she struck out a truly feasible 
and philosophical mode of improving and ex¬ 
tending female education. For this discovery 
her name will be handed down to posterity as 
one of the benefactors of her race.—iV. O. Adv. 
t f itutatfif 
Written for Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
SPIRIT MESSENGERS. 
Ho branch of study can be compared with 
mathematics as a means of mental discipline. 
We would not depreciate other branches of 
education, as taught in our schools, for the 
purpose of unduly advancing mathematical 
science, but we do not hesitate to say, that its 
early introduction and thorough pursuit by most, 
if not all classes of students, are of infinite 
advantage. Mental arithmetic of an elementary 
character, can be entered upon at an early age, 
and it is a matter of surprise to see mere chil¬ 
dren, who have been properly instructed in this 
department, analyze and explain a problem 
that would utterly confuse an older head which 
had never undertaken the solution. 
The tendency of the undisciplined mind is to 
fly off from the close investigation of a subject, 
to leave the point under consideration, and go 
upon anything else than that required. In the 
investigation of mathematics, it becomes abso¬ 
lutely necessary that the mind be chained down 
to the matter under consideration, until the 
solution is perfected; for if, at any point along 
its course, the attention be once withdrawn, the 
whole effort is lost, and the subject must be 
commenced again. For this and other reasons, 
mental arithmetic, demonstrations in Geometry 
and other kindred departments of the science, 
are the most effective. To beginners, the 
arithmetic is of course the branch most proper 
to be pursued. 
We once heard a distinguished friend of 
education say that, next to the Bible, Colburn’s 
Mental Arithmetic was the best book ever 
published. A thorough knowledge of vulgar 
fractions is all-important to a successful pursuit 
of mathematics; they meet the student at every 
step of his progress, whether solving problems 
in simple arithmetic, or calculating the phenom¬ 
ena of the heavens, and tracing the courses of 
the stars. In practical life, also, as well as for 
the purposes of mental discipline, mathematical 
studies are of the highest importance ; and it is 
desirable that the youthful mind be turned 
early to their pursuit. 
BY MYRTA MAY. 
If holy thoughts come ever o’er thee stealing, 
As softly fall the darkening shades of even, 
Unto thy spirits gaze, almost revealing 
A radiant glimpse of the far, glorious Heaven, 
Know then, that angel-wings are hovering near, 
Bearing unto thy soul a soothing halm 
In mercy sent, thy weary heart to' cheer, 
And bid the troubled waves of grief “ Be Calm. 
Those thoughts within thy heart’s inmost recess 
Forever shrine, and let them not depart. 
They are “ The Father’s” messengers, to bless 
And purify from earthly stains thy heart. 
Oh ! seek not, in Earth’s busy care and strife, 
To banish these pure messengers of love,— 
They tell thee of a holier, happier life, 
And point thee to the “ Better Home” above. 
And when the twilight shadows darkly creep 
Across the golden portals of the West— 
When earthly passions all are hushed to sleep, 
And for awhile the throbbing heart may rest— 
Then, holy thoughts, borne on the angel-wing, 
Will softly steal, as dew upon the flowers, 
Or, like the balmy breath of early Spring, 
Which sighs amid the southern orange-bowers. 
And bearing thee away from earthly care, 
Far, far beyond this ceaseless toil and strife, 
To pierce the veil of sense, even thou shalt dare 
And read the mysteries of the “ inner life,” 
And slowly on thy heart shall dawn the light, 
The first, faint glimmering of the glorious Day, 
And thy glad soul shall plume its wings for flight, 
And learn to tread its upward, starry way. 
Attica Centre, N. Y., 1855. 
Written for Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
“TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?” 
“ Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of 
Eternal Life.”—John vi. 6. 
It is not given to man, elevated as be is in 
the scale of creation, to stand out an independ¬ 
ent being. There is One higher than he. And 
happy is that man who has felt himself depend¬ 
ent—who has asked “ to whom shall we go ?’> 
in the spirit with which Peter declared his 
belief in the Son of the Living God. 
Hoes it need argument to show that temporally 
we are dependent upon the Creator ? We may 
toil, we may plan—and do so, earnestly and 
wisely, as far as human strength and wisdom 
can do ; it is with One stronger and wiser than 
we to say what the reward of our efforts shall be. 
Intellectual dependence marks the human 
mind. Wise as men are—profound as were the 
depths to which the ancient sages sounded,—the 
great questions which come home to the heart— 
which sooner or later every man asks—•“ Whence 
am I ?” and “ Where am I bound,”—are answer¬ 
ed only by Revelation, the Word is of God. 
Morally the great standard is the Spirit of 
Truth “ which accuses or else excuses a man.” 
“ How shall man be just with God ?” has been 
the great cry of the human soul ever since the 
Fall. And the spirit never rests satisfied when 
it learns dependence on Him who “has the 
words of eternal life. 
“ To whom shall we go ?” Outward blessings 
and advantages may seem to come from beneath, 
but it is the Inner Life which makes the man. 
Character is distinct from outward seemings 
and surroundings. If the inner life be pure 
and noble, the character will be such ; it will be 
subject to the holy influences of its communion 
with the Highest. 
Reader, “to whom will you go?” To Him 
who can give you all things—even Eternal Life; 
or will you hang upon objects dependent like 
yourselves ? h. 
IGHTINGALE. 
ale, see second column of preceding page. 
For Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS. 
In training mind the instructor who desires, 
and would achieve much in his peculiar calling, 
should thoroughly acquaint himself with cer¬ 
tain laws of nature which, directly or indirectly, 
affect those under his guidance. He must, in a 
greater or less degree, possess the faculty of an¬ 
alyzing, or reading the mental formation of his 
pupils, in order to fathom the secret workings 
of each organization, the motives which prompt, 
the feelings Avhich actuate, and the particular 
incitements necessary to call forth in brilliant 
and successful operation both mental and physi¬ 
cal energy. The disposition, whether stubborn, 
gloomy and taciturn, or yielding, cheerful and 
frank ; the perceptions, whether keen and com¬ 
prehensive, or dull and obtuse ; whether the 
pupil is one of a class held through fear of the 
power resident in law, or of those to whom 
words fitly spoken are “ as apples of gold in pic¬ 
tures of silver.” It is also necessary that the 
teacher should individualize, for each child is an 
independent item ; general rules, and penalties 
may direct, but the impulse that moves to a free 
and generous progress comes from within. The 
aims and aspirations of youth are not the result 
of association, but the workings of hidden, secret 
thoughts. 
Capacities of Pupils. —Many teachers have 
imbibed the idea that to merit the titles of suc¬ 
cess, it is only requisite that those under their 
charge should make rapid progress in the grades 
of mental discipline. This is an error of serious 
nature. The system of advancement should be 
governed by, and adapted to, the capacities of 
the scholar. To be really benefited in the pro¬ 
cess of acquiring knowledge, the youthful mind 
should be enabled to exercise the faculty of 
judgment, which it will be utterly impossible to 
do without some knowledge of the fundamental 
principles forming the base of the subject under 
consideration. The elucidation of thought is 
one of the first duties of the teacher. This can 
be done by precept and example, and when so 
trained, the pupil himself will become the index 
of the position which he should occupy. There 
will then be no faltering, no retrogression, but 
straight-forward, onward movement. The de¬ 
sire to learn will be fully awakened, and the 
youthful battlers on the “hill of science” be 
possessed of eager hearts and ready, compre¬ 
hensive minds. w. t. k. 
Franklin Square, N. Y., 1856. 
At a recent meeting of the English Railway 
Club, which is composed of the representatives 
of the principal English railways, Mr. Edward 
G. Watkin, the General Manager of one of the 
most extensive lines, presided, and made a 
speech, which was received with great attention. 
He said those present represented £300,000,000, 
employed more than 90,000 men, and adminis¬ 
tered a revenue of £20,000,000 annually. In 
regard to the safety of railway traveling, Mr. 
Watkin furnished some novel statistics. He 
said that he had often thought that if a person 
wanted to be in the safest place in this world, he 
should get into the first class railway carriage, 
and never leave it. 
In 1854 the English railways carried 111,000,- 
000 ; the number killed, in consequence of acci¬ 
dents beyond their control, was 12. Those 111,- 
000,000 traveled about 15 miles each, so that it 
was clear a man must make between 10 and 11 
journeys, traveling between 150,000,000 and 
160,000,000 miles—and that would take, he cal¬ 
culated, between 2,000 and 3,000 years—before 
a fatal accident might be expected to happen to 
him. How, he challenged comparison, in point 
of safety, between railway traveling and that of 
any other mode of traveling, or any other avoca¬ 
tion. Two-thirds of the accidents occur from 
moral causes; and not from physical ones, as the 
breaking of an axle, or some defect in the per¬ 
manent Avay. 
The care of this important beacon is commit¬ 
ted to four men ; Iavo of them take charge of it 
by turns, and are relieved every six weeks.— 
But as it often happens, especially in stormy 
weather, that boats cannot touch at the Eddy- 
stone for many months, a proper quantity of salt 
provisions is always laid up as in a ship for a 
long voyage. In high winds such a briny at¬ 
mosphere surrounds this gloomy solitude from 
the dashing of the waves, that a man exposed 
to it could not draAV his breath. At these dread¬ 
ful intervals, the two forlorn inhabitants keep 
close quarters, and are obliged to live in dark¬ 
ness and stench, listening to the howling storm, 
excluded in every emergency from the least 
hope of assistance, and without any earthly 
consolation but what is administered from the 
confidence in the strength of the building in 
which they are immured. Once, on relieving 
this forlorn guard, one of the men Avas found 
dead, his companion choosing rather to shut 
himself up with a putrifying carcass, than, by 
throwing it into the sea, to incur the suspicion 
of murder. 
In fine weather these wretched beings scram¬ 
ble a little about the rocks when the tide ebbs, 
and amuse themselves by fishing, which is the 
only employment they can have, except that of 
trimming their nightly fires. Such total inac¬ 
tion and entire seclusion from all the joys and 
aids of society, can only be endured by great 
religious philosophy, which we cannot imagine 
they feel; or by great stupidity, which in pity 
we must suppose they possess. Yet though this 
Avretched communication is so small, we are as¬ 
sured it has sometimes been a scene of misan¬ 
thropy. Instead of suffering the recollection of 
these distresses and dangers in which each is 
deserted by all but one, to endear that one to 
him, we are assured the humors of each were 
so soured, they preyed both on themselves and 
on each other. If one sat above, the other was 
commonly found below. Their meals, too, were 
solitary—each, like a brute, growling over his 
food alone. The emolument of this arduous 
post is twenty pounds a year, and provision 
while on duty. The house to live in may be 
fairly thrown into the bargain. The whole to¬ 
gether is, perhaps, one of the least eligible pla¬ 
ces of preferment in Britain.— Selected. 
The following relative to the early life, educa¬ 
tion and habits of Washington, is worthy the 
consideration of young men,— especially on the 
commencement of a new year : 
“Having no longer the benefit of a father’s 
instructions at home, and the. scope of tuition of 
Hobby, the sexton, being too limited for the 
growing wants of his pupil, George was noAV 
sent to reside with Augustine YVashington, at 
Bridge’s Creek, and enjoy the benefit of a 
superior school in that Neighborhood, kept by a 
Mr. Williams. His education, however, was 
plain and practical. He neirnr attempted the 
learned languages, nor manifested any inclina¬ 
tion for rhetoric or belles letters. His object, or 
the object of his friends, seems to have been 
confined to fitting him for ordinary business. 
His manuscript school books still exist, and are 
models of neatness and accuracy. One of them, 
it is true, a ciphering book, preserved in the 
library at Mt. Vernon, has school-boy attempts 
at calligraphy; nondescript birds, executed 
with a flourish of the pen, or profiles of faces 
probably intended for some of his schoolmates; 
the rest are all grave and business like. Before 
he was thirteen years of age he had copied into 
a volume forms for all kinds of mercantile and 
legal papers; bills of exchange, notes of hand, 
deeds, bonds, and the like. This early self¬ 
tuition gave him throughout life a lawyer’s skill 
in drafting documents, and a merchant’s exact¬ 
ness in keeping accounts, so that all the concerns 
of his various estates, his dealings with his 
domestic steAvards and foreign agents, his 
accounts with government, and all his financial 
transactions are to this day to be seen posted up 
in books in his own handwriting, monuments of 
his method and unwearied accuracy. 
“He was a self-disciplinarian in physical as 
well as mental matters, and practiced himself 
in all kinds of athletic exercises, such as run¬ 
ning, leaping, wrestling, pitching quoits, and 
tossing bars. His frame, even in infancy, had 
been large and powerful, and he now excelled 
most of his playmates in contests of agility and 
strength. As a proof of his muscular power, a 
place is still pointed out at Fredericksburg, near 
the lower ferry, where, when a boy, he flung a 
stone across the Rappahannock. In horseman¬ 
ship, too, he already excelled, and was ready to 
back and able to manage the -most fiery steed. 
Traditional anecdotes remain of his achieve¬ 
ments in this respect. 
“Above all, his inherent probity and the 
principles of justice on which he regulated all 
his conduct, even at this early period of his life, 
were soon appreciated by his schoolmates; he 
was referred to as an umpire in their disputes, 
and his decisions were never reversed. As he 
had been formerly military chieftain, he was 
now legislator of the school, thus displaying in 
boyhood a type of the future man.” 
The Savearer Rebuked.— On a certain occa¬ 
sion, General Washington invited a number of 
his fellow officers to dine with him. While at 
the table, one of them uttered an oath. The 
General dropped his knife and fork in a moment, 
and in his deep undertone and characteristic 
dignity and deliberation, said, “J thought that 
we all supposed ourselves gentlemen .” He then 
resumed his knife and fork, and went on as 
before. The remark struck like an electric 
shock, and, as Avas intended, did execution, as 
his remarks, in such cases, were very apt to do. 
After dinner, the officer referred to remarked to 
his companion, that “if the General had struck 
him over the head with his sword, he could 
have borne it; but the home thrust which he 
gave him was too much.” It was too much for 
a gentleman. And it is hoped that it will be 
too much for any one who pretends to be a 
gentleman. 
GREAT VOLCANIC ERUPTION. 
The volcano of Hawaii, Sandwich Islands, 
was in a state of dangerous eruption in October. 
A letter from Hilo, Oct. 15th, states that the 
stream of lava, three miles wide, had flowed 
more than fifty miles, and was Avithin twelve 
miles of that city and advancing Avith sure and 
solemn progress. The people were naturally 
becoming anxious, and kept scouts out to watch 
the irresistible stream of fire. The Avriter says : 
“ For sixty-three days the molten flood has roll¬ 
ed down the mountain without abatement. Our 
Hawaiian atmosphere is loaded with smoke and 
gases, through which the sun shines with dingy 
and yellow rays. The amount of lava disgorg¬ 
ed from this awful magazine is enormous. The 
higher regions of the mountains are flooded Avith 
vast tracts of smoking lava, while the streams 
which have flowed doAvn the side of the moun¬ 
tain spread over a surface of several miles in 
breadth. The main stream, is still flowing di¬ 
rect for our bay, and is supposed to be within 
ten miles of us. It is eating its way slowly 
through the deep forest and the dense jungle in 
our rear, and its terminal must be the sea, un¬ 
less the great summit fountain should cease to 
disgorge. The burning stream now runs all the 
way in a covered duct, so that it can be seen on¬ 
ly at its vents, which let of the gas. These are 
truly fearful. Ve looked doAvn one of them and 
saw the fiery current rushing under us.” 
Eloquence is not only the art of addressing 
men in public — it is the gift of strong feeling, 
accurate thought, extensive knowledge, splendor 
of imagination, force of expression, and the pow¬ 
er of communicating, in Avritten or spoken lan¬ 
guage, to other men, the idea, the feeling, the 
conviction of truth, the admiration for the beau¬ 
tiful, the disposition to uprightness, the enthu¬ 
siasm for virtue, the devotion to duty, the heroic 
love of country, and the faith in immortalitv, 
which make men honorable—the feeling heart, 
the clear head, the sound judgment, the popular 
knowledge, the artistic imagination, the ardent 
patriotism, the manly courage, the attachment 
to liberty, the pious philosophy, and, lastly, the 
religion consonant with the most exalted idea 
of the Divinity, which render the individual 
good, the people great, and the human race sa¬ 
cred.— Lamartine. 
Curious Calculation.— What a noisy creature 
a man would be were his A T oice in proportion to 
his weight,.as that of the locust! A locust can 
be heard at the distance of one-sixteenth of a 
mile. The golden wren is said to weigh but 
half an ounce, so that a middling sized man 
would weigh down not short of four thousand 
of them; and it must be strange if a golden 
wren would not outweigh four of our locusts.— 
Supposing, therefore, that a common man 
weighed as much as sixteen thousand of our 
locusts, and that the note of a locust can be 
heard the sixteenth of a mile, a man of common 
dimensions, pretty sound in wind and limbs, 
ought to be able to make himself heard at a 
distance of one thousand miles. 
Those are the worst of suicides who volunta¬ 
rily and prepensely stab or suffocate their fame, 
when God hath commanded them to stand on 
high for an example.— Mrs. Jameson. 
An intelligent man will not yield to petty 
temptations like an ignorant one; and great 
temptations do not often conquer until the moral 
integrity has been previously sapped by minor 
delinquencies. 
The way to secure competent persons in any 
situation is to pay liberal salaries, and we hope 
school committees and trustees will be mindful 
of this fact. 
He who writes what is wrong, wrongs what 
is right. 
