JUNE 14. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
193 
t f tntfatur. 
SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 
We have taken occasion once or twice before, 
to allude to the above-named office, recently 
created by the Legislature of this State. As 
required by law, the Supervisors undoubtedly 
met in the several counties on the third instant, 
made the first appointments, and fixed the 
amount of salary; probably in most instances 
at the minimum limit of five hundred dollars. 
We have heard in some cases, and it is prob¬ 
ably true in most, that abundant candidates 
existed for the office, and that they represented 
every shade ^)f opinion, political and religious, 
as well as educational; that men whose pur¬ 
suits were the farthest remove possible from an 
educational sphere, were very anxious to re¬ 
ceive the appointment, and appropriate to theii 
own use the five hundred dollars. 
There is an unfortunate class of individuals 
in every community who have a penchant for 
office, and entertain the notion that they are pe¬ 
culiarly fitted to serve their country in a public 
capacity, and get their living in some other way 
than at any private or laborious employment. 
Such men always hang around the portals of 
nominating conventions and the avenues to the 
appointment offices, and too often obtain place, 
to the exclusion of better men, who have neither 
the time nor the inclination to enter the arena 
of strife. 
The office of School Commissioner is an im¬ 
portant one, and if judiciously managed, will 
result in great good - to the community. Under 
our municipal charters it is found absolutely 
necessary to have a Superintendent to manage 
the public schools j and the same necessity ex¬ 
ists in kind, although not perhaps in degree, in 
regard to our country schools ; but, to make the 
law effective of any good, great care must be 
exercised in the selection of competent persons. 
Any man might find it very convenient to pock¬ 
et the five hundred dollars, but it is far from 
every one who is able to render the proper ser¬ 
vice. A person whose tastes, habits and em¬ 
ployment leads him in a path remote from lite¬ 
rary pursuits, who never heard of an Arithme¬ 
tic except Daboll’s, and thinks Murray s 
Grammar is the latest issue, who supposes the 
Testament and the old English Reader exhaust 
the catalogue of reading books, who condemns 
Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, the higher 
Mathematics, &c., as new-fangled and out of 
place in a district school, and whose ideas of 
what comprehends a full course for such an in¬ 
stitution accord with those of a past generation, 
is not the man for the office of School Commis¬ 
sioner. It is not necessary that the incumbent 
should within the past year or two have been a 
practical teacher, although even that is no slight 
qualification ; but he should at least have taken 
an interest in the schools, and occasionally look¬ 
ed within a school room. 
It is no easy matter to find just the man for 
the place, at the salary offered; but that is 
probably about as much as the community can 
afford to pay. The County Superintendence, 
formerly in existence, was well enough, and 
might have been made an agent of great good to 
the cause of education, but in the details of its 
operation, it proved inefficient, and not equal to 
the expense incurred, and consequently the of¬ 
fice was abolished. Great care must be exer¬ 
cised in the administration of the present office, 
or it will speedily follow the other in its brief 
existence and early decease. 
but will continue with each paper received. In 
this way the scholars will learn more of the 
real science of reading, though they may not be 
able to repeat scores of rules or by studying 
«instructions” forever.] [Let teachers adopt this 
plan, and if they are not satisfied with the 
progress of their pupils, then take me for no 
prophet, and let them fall back upon “ first 
principles.” Carroll L. Grovelaxd. 
Centerville, N\ Y., May, 1856. 
THE GIFT OF TEACHING. 
Written for Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
READING IN SCLIOOU. 
Tuere are thousands of School Readers 
written, published, and used, all of which re¬ 
ceive a puffing from each of the many professors 
to whom they are sent gratis, and who give 
them but a hasty examination ; and being thus 
recommended'they work they way into the 
schools. There never was a School Reader 
I think it plain to common observation, that 
the power of acquiring knowledge is not al¬ 
ways accompanied by an equal power of im¬ 
parting it. Men of very rapid perceptions, who 
learn with extraordinary facility, are often un¬ 
able to retrace the steps by which they arrived 
at their conclusions ; or if they can do it, in 
such a way as to make their steps clear enough 
to their own minds, they are frequently too hur¬ 
ried or too concise for ordinary minds, and their 
explanations are obscure. They are apt also to 
be impatient at the slowness of the young learn¬ 
er, and to frown upon it as dullness. Original 
and inventive minds grow fastidious at reiterat¬ 
ing what is old, and are apt to lose all interest 
in lessons which they have heard a hundred 
times before. On the other hand, it is not very 
unusual to find men who were not distinguish¬ 
ed, when at school or at college, for quickness 
or brilliancy of parts, excelling as teachers. It 
has even been truly said of some, that they could 
teach more than they knew. They had the 
quality of the grindstone, to make others sharp, 
though unable to cut. They know how to 
arouse the genius of the pupil, if they have lit¬ 
tle of their own. Having a true zeal for knowl¬ 
edge, they have the art of inspiring with it the 
mind of the ingenious youth. Conscious of the 
difficulties that met them on the rugged path 
which they themselves have climbed, they are 
patient with the young aspirant, and feel no 
surprise or disgust at the slowness with which 
difficult truths find their way into his mind. 
But although it must be acknowledged that 
we find men of superior talents and great learn¬ 
ing who make very indifferent teachers, and 
that we find men of far less brilliant natural 
talents who excel in the arts of teaching, yet 
this merely indicates that there is something in 
the gift of teaching, sui generis —something dis¬ 
tinct from the other human facidties—something 
which may be wholly wanting in the most em¬ 
inent scholar, while it is possessed, in a good 
degree, by a man far less distinguished for 
splendor of talents. These, however, are ex¬ 
treme cases, and are adduced only to show the 
independent nature of the faculty under con¬ 
sideration ; and it is by no means to be inferred 
that talents of the highest order are not requir¬ 
ed for eminent teachers, much less that, as a 
general fact, men of moderate intellects make 
the best teachers. We only say that the gift of 
teaching is so peculiar a faculty, that a man of 
moderate intellect with it may make a better 
teacher than one of the most brilliant genius 
without it.— Denison Olmstead, LL. D. 
CHEAP PREMIUM OF INSURANCE. 
published, perhaps, but what had its excellen¬ 
cies, and from which something might not be 
learned. But there have been none published education of the moral sentiments soon runs 
George Sumner lately lectured in New York 
upon the Educational characteristics of Europe, 
where he has spent several years. We extract 
the following brief paragraph : 
«If there be any moral to the tale I have 
told, it may be summed up in a few words..— 
Pay your school tax without grumbling ; it is the 
cheapest premium of insurance on your proper¬ 
ty. You are educating those who are to make 
laws for yourselves and your children. In 
this State you are educating those who are to 
elect your Judges. Build more school-houses ; 
they will spare you the building more jails. 
Remember that the experiment of other coun¬ 
tries shows that the development of free and 
extended education has been followed by public 
and private prosperity ; that financial success 
and political tranquility have blessed the lands 
which have recognized its importance. Re¬ 
member that education without freedom is bar¬ 
ren in its results; that freedom without the 
Painting and Sculpture are kindred arts, and 
not unfrequently the ability to execute both 
well, is possessed by the same individual. A 
knowledge of each, at least theoretically, is 
necessary for the individual engaged in either 
department of the fine arts; and many of the 
fundamental principles are common to both. 
But literature and painting, that is, the ability 
to wield the pencil and the pen with equal 
facility and grace, are not so often found 
possessed by the same man. 
Washington Allston, whose portrait is given 
above, seems to be an exception, as he was 
equally noted both as an author and an artist. 
He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 
the year 1779, and was educated at Harvard 
College, where, on the completion of his course, 
he delivered a poem. On his return to South 
Carolina, he disposed of his estates and sailed 
for Europe, and for three years became a student 
in the National Academy of Design, then under 
the presidency of the distinguished American 
artist Benjamin W est. After leaving the Acad¬ 
emy, he made the tour of Europe, studying the 
art, and spending considerable time in the 
famous galleries of France and Italy. In the 
year 1809 he returned to America, and located 
in Boston, where he married the sister of that 
eminent divine, Dr. C hanning. After remain¬ 
ing two years in Boston, he went a second time 
to Europe, and resided in London for six or 
seven years, pursuing his d«uble profession of 
painter and author. Some of his finest produc¬ 
tions, both of the pen and pencil, were brought 
out during this sojourn. He had the misfortune 
while in Europe to lose his wife, an amiable 
and accomplished woman, by death. 
Having returned home again in 1818, he re¬ 
sumed his residence in Boston and vicinity, 
and married as a second wife, in 1830, the 
sister of Richard H. Dana. He continued up 
to the period of his death, which occurred on 
the 8th of July, 1843, to reside in and near 
Boston. One of Allston’s most remarkable 
paintings is an unfinished production of large 
size, entitled “Belshazzar’s Feast,” on which 
he was engaged at the time of his death. This 
picture, in its partially finished state, is in 
possession of the Boston Athemeum, and adorns 
the western wall of the gallery of paintings. 
Ritkfji fltmttjjs. 
THE HISTORY OF LIFE. 
I SAW an infant in its mother’s arms, 
And left it sleeping. 
Years pass’d—I saw a girl with woman’s charms 
In sorrow weeping. 
Years pass’d—I saw a mother mourn her child, 
And o’er it languish ; 
Years brought me hack—yet thro’ her tears she smiled 
In deeper anguish. 
I left her—years had vanish’d ; I return’d 
And stood before her ; 
A lamp beside the childless widow burn’d ; 
Griel’s mantle o’er her. 
In tears I found her whom I left in tears, 
On God relying ; 
And I return’d again in after years, 
And found her dying. 
An infant first, and then a maiden fair— 
A wife — a mother— 
And then a childless widow in despair : 
Thus met a brother. 
And thus we meet on earth, and thus we part, 
To meet—0 never ! 
Till death beholds the spirit leave the heart, 
To live forever! 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker 
APPARENT DIFFICULTIES OF THE CHRISTIAN. 
inful flic. 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
A SCREW LOOSE IN SCIENCE—ERRORS. 
as yet, tbat would not grow old and worn out 
iu the course of three or four terms’ use. For a 
class to read over and over the same selections, 
let them be ever so valuable, is a dry and 
profitless task. I have noticed that every time 
a new book is introduced the scholars are aU 
wide awake to read. They are interested. But 
after it has been perused once or twice, it be¬ 
comes old and is read only because it is a task 
imposed by the teacher. 
The instructions usually given in School 
Readers are generally read over carelessly, not 
studied, nor is much notice taken of them even 
by the teacher. They, too, get old and dry, 
and unless this class of books is often changed, 
reading in school is an exercise from which lit¬ 
tle of worth is obtained. This should not be. 
One of the most useful of school accomplish¬ 
ments should be made pleasant and interesting, 
—and it can be. Let me suggest a course for 
teachers to pursue. Perhaps it has been spoken 
of before, but never mind, the oftener the better. 
Instead of using a book, let the class take a 
weekly or semi-monthly journal, and read from 
that. Then every time they recite they will 
have something new. The task will be in¬ 
teresting, and it will cost no effort to keep the 
attention fixed. There will be a tar wider 
scope for display of talent in reading. There 
will be witticisms, sobriety, grandeur, sublim¬ 
ity, scorn, contempt, hate, love, hope ; in short 
all the sentiments of the human heart, will be 
expressed, taxing the pupil’s and even the 
teacher’s ingenuity to give to all expression.— 
And this will not be for a single day, or week, 
into anarchy and despotism ; and that liberty, 
ever vigilant herself, demanding ceaseless vigi¬ 
lance in her votaries-—liberty will not linger 
long in those lands, where her twin-sister 
knowledge is neglected.” 
Love of Teaching. —The love of teaching is 
generally associated with a capacity for it, but 
the converse does not generally hold true. Men 
generally teach badly when they attempt to 
teach too much, or when they do not duly pre¬ 
pare their lessons. Presence of mind and that 
self-confidence which is based on self-knowl¬ 
edge are essential elements in a good teacher’s 
character. An earnest man, imbued with 
love of children, is seldom a bad teacher. By 
an interior principle of our nature, every person 
is so constituted that what he attempts from an 
affection he has the requisite sagacity to plan 
and power to accomplish. 
do in oak leaves, or wood, or dried pumpkin, or 
tobacco. 
These are sufficient, to justify the Gaution, 
“Take heed" what you read or hear . c. d. 
THE STUDY OF NATURE. 
Counter Influences. —Under the auspices of 
Senator Wadsworth, of Erie, a bill has been re¬ 
ported to the Senate to establish a new Normal 
School at Buffalo. In the Assembly another 
bill has been introduced to abolish the present 
school and add the moneys heretofore expended 
for its support to the common school fund.— 
Neither bill probably will pass.— N. Y. Teacher. 
By relying on our own resources, we acquire 
mental strength ; but when we lean on others 
for support, we are like an invalid, who, having 
accustomed himself to a crutch, finds it difficult 
to walk without one 
A selection appeared in the Rural, stating 
that a candle may be shot through a board, which 
is true, and that the candl« vn(l not be injured[ 
which is false. I have seen.'this experiment 
more than once, and have seen a large hole 
made in the board, or a smaller one, according 
as the candle struck it; but in either case the 
candle was smashed and scattered in a multi¬ 
tude of fragments. This must be the necessary 
result, whether the candle pass through the 
board or not. It would be contrary to the laws 
of nature, even miraculous, if the reverse were 
to occur. Even a lead ball is battered by being 
fired into hard wood. 
But the same article, quoted in the Rural, 
stated a fact as follows—that a lead ball fired 
obliquely upon water would rebound or glance, 
but the shape of the ball is found to be altered by 
the impulse upon the water. This is all true. 
It is wonderful, however, that a writer should 
state this fact on the same page with the other. 
Is water harder than wood, or a candle harder 
than lead, that the one should be battered, and 
the other not ? 
There is much of this loose description in 
matters of philosophy. Statements of truth are 
often connected with others which are false, and 
this is done, not to propagate error, but from 
ignorance or inadvertence. Consider the fol¬ 
lowing cases. 
A late writer urges the free use of sugar by 
the people for various reasons, one of which is 
that the elemerds of sugar are contained in most 
of the vegetable matter used for food. Sugar 
is composed of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, 
three elements, found in most vegetable and 
even animal matter. I he same elements aie 
contained in wood, starch, all the vegetable 
poisons, all the nauseating, vegetable substan¬ 
ces, alcohol, etc.; why not infer that a free use 
of these is indicated by the fact that their ele¬ 
ments are found in most vegetable bodies l Let 
us make a free use of opium, ipecac, and prussic 
acid, because their elements are in sugar. It 
has often been said that alcohol is in all our 
bread, and therefore it is to be used. Y et it is 
certain, that not a particle of alcohol is contain¬ 
ed in wheat or bread, because the conversion of 
bread into alcohol has not yet occurred, as it 
must first be converted into sugar. 
Starch, abounding in wheat and potatoes, to 
speak of no more, as an important portion of 
our food, has been declared by some to be only 
carbon and water, or charcoal and water. It is 
absurd. The elements of water and carbon, do 
indeed form starch, but they must be united in 
a peculiar and definite manner, or you have an¬ 
other substance than starch, and far removed 
from it. Mix together charcoal and water, in 
the due proportions, and you have a mixture of 
charcoal and water, and not any starch. Starch 
is not carbon, or oxygen, or hydrogeD, but cer¬ 
tain equivalents of each of them to constitute 
the body, starch, that is, a very different thing 
from carbon and water. So while these ele¬ 
ments are thus combined in starch, water or 
alcohol, or sugar, no more exist in it than they 
The Study of Nature enlarges the mind. It 
“ grows with that it feeds on,” and the vastness 
of its themes compels the expansion and eleva¬ 
tion of its powers. In Nature there is nothing 
absolutely little. A leaf defies the power of 
imitative art as effectually as the giant forest, a 
single sunbeam as certainly as the sun itself. 
This study, furthermore, refines the passions 
and the affections. The heart of man, unless 
corrupted by unworthy and debasing associa¬ 
tions, will beat in unison with the exquisite 
chords of Nature’s harp. 
“ All natural objects have 
/In Echo in the heart. This fiesh doth thrill 
And has connection, by some unseen chain, 
With its original force and kindred substance. 
The mighty forest, the proud tides of ocean, 
Sky-cleaving hills, and on the vast of air 
The starry constellations and the Sun, 
Parent of life exhaustless—these maintain, 
With mysterious and breathing world, 
A coexistence and community.” 
The history of great and good men, in all 
ages of the world, attests the power of Nature 
to soothe and charm the heart, even when re¬ 
garded merely in her outward manifestations. 
How much more when her inward spirit and 
mystery are revealed to man, and he stands as 
it were in the very presence of the sublime 
Builder, beholding the processes of His myste¬ 
rious operations ! Can such a man take pleas¬ 
ure in the dissipations of the sensualist ? Can 
he delight in those groveling pursuits which 
check the currents of pure and generous feel¬ 
ing ? Reason and virtue answer, no !— N. Y. 
Examiner. 
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 
The Electric Telegraph stands out among the 
trophies of scientific discovery, with a glory 
and distinctness that equal, if they do not ex¬ 
cel, the renown of any event in past annals.— 
Its fame will extend with the progress of Time. 
A century hence telegraphic communication 
may, and in all probability will, be established 
in every quarter of the globe; and the girdle 
which the “ gentle Puck” proposed to put about 
the Earth “ in forty minutes,” may turn out to 
be no ideal cestus, but a tangible circlet of 
copper-wire—a highway for the flight of human 
Thought! 
Then, the occurrence of a startling event will 
literally electrify the world, for the lightnings 
will tell the tale from sea to sea, from island to 
island, from continent to continent! How sub¬ 
lime the thought that within a hundred years the 
v^hole human race will be linked together by the 
agency of the Electric Telegraph. What tre¬ 
mendous barriers will it not overleap—what 
vast distances will it not annihilate ! The 
vibrations of the pen of this wonderful instru- • 
ment will eventually quicken the pulsations of 
the heart of the world. 
« Then, ‘ Thought’s highway’ from sea to sea— 
And o’er their trackless wastes shall reach. 
Till all the human race shall be 
One in a universal speech.” 
— N. Y. Examiner 
Although the follower of the Savior may 
walk continually under the shadow of the Cross, 
and may feel the hands of Jesus leading him 
into green pastures and beside still waters, these 
and even more than these constitute no assur¬ 
ance that his path shall be all sunshine, or that 
affliction the most sorrowful will not fall upon 
him. Or if he toil, need he expect to see all 
the fruits of that toil or reap all the reward of 
his labors, in gathering in an abundant harvest 
ere he is himself gathered into the upper gar¬ 
ners, by God’s Angel reapers ? The soul in its 
moral advantages, and eternity in its final de¬ 
cisions, are to be taken into the account. Let 
us limit our view to the present and think only 
of immediate good, and the promise to them that 
love God, will have lost all its beautiful signifi¬ 
cance. How often does it happen, that those 
who live nearest to God, walk their narrow 
pathway amid the most profound sorrow ! 
To those who have looked upon these suffer¬ 
ings of the faithful, within the narrow circle of 
the present, this fact has proved a great stum- 
I bling block ; and when they have seen the 
prosperity of the wicked, have exclaimed, 
«Where is thy God ?” Ah! could they with 
the eye of faith, pierce through the veil that 
shrouds the future, as do these suffering ones, 
they would gladly—oh how gladly — suffer, 
could they reign with them. 
We are told that Abraham went out not 
knowing whither he went, wandering in a 
strange country ; but he looked for a city which 
hath foundation, whose builder and maker is 
God. His eager eye found no resting-place 
this side eternity. So strong was his faith, 
that it brought lieaven down to him, where he 
beheld the realization of his highest hopes and 
the consummation of his largest desires. Nought 
save this unfaltering trust in those promises 
which tell of mansions prepared in the city of 
the New Jerusalem, where the radiance of God’s 
face shall forever fall, and where the golden 
streets echo only to the tread of angelic feet, 
could enable the suffering saint so meekly and 
patiently to endure the pain that often racks his 
feeble frame. 
Thus was it, that the early martyrs of the 
Cross could die with a smile upon their face, 
while the flames hissed and their bodies were 
consumed. The Missionary (who does not love 
that name) finds his strength and consolation 
in the thought of the happy souls he shall meet 
in the paradise of God, which he has taken by 
the hand and led to Christ. 
Were this world our final resting-place, and 
immortality a delusion, then might we wonder 
at the sorrows that fall on the purest hearts; but 
when we learn that this is but a stepping-stone 
to a higher and better world—this life a proba¬ 
tion—we can endure all the trials that come 
upon us, feeling assured that our interests are 
in the kindest hands. With such a faith, life, 
so mysterious, is stripped of all its mystery, 
and the path of the suffering one seems straight, 
though it be narrow. 
Dear reader, has God laid his finger upon 
you—confined you to a sick bed—shut your 
eyes forever on this beautiful world of ours— 
stopped your ears against all the music that 
floats upon and fills the air, or taken away one 
of the dear ones from the fireside ?—calmly 
await the dawn of that day when you and I 
(shall we be so happy ?) stand upon the bright 
shores of that land beyond the flood, and we 
will join that happy throng in praising our Fa¬ 
ther for every ill that befell us. 
Rochester, May, 1856. S. A. E. 
Written for the Rural New-Yorker. 
LIFE. 
Life must be happy if it do not choose for 
itself a lethargic sadness—an actual death. In 
this gloomy disposition of mind, man cannot 
prepare for immortality, for he understands it 
not, and strives not to make himself worthy of 
it. We call to mind moments of departed 
pleasure more vividly than past hours of sorrow. 
This proves that life was dear to us. Death 
should not be regarded as a liberation from 
prison;—it is only a remove from the valley to 
the top of the mountain where we enjoy a more 
extended prospect—the valley in which the 
light and warmth of the sun penetrated, and 
where also the love of God embraced us. Let 
us strive for eternal life I When we learn prop¬ 
erly to understand and love life, then will we 
rightly appreciate and love eternity. 
Manchester, N. Y. J. 0. 
