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a 0CT _ 4 , MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
321 
Written for the Rural New-Yorker. 
GOOD BEADING. 
r ‘ Those who have not a very correct taste, 
will not be much benefited by a mere perusal 
of the rules of Good Reading.” The reason is 
plain ; a defective taste long under the control 
of a bad habit, prevents their perceiving their 
own faults. Such, then, should have recourse 
to the living teacher. If there be a correct 
taste, a ready discernment of faults, the careful 
study of a system of judicious rules and illus¬ 
trations, accompanied by careful observation 
on the practice of good readers and speakers, 
will very m'ucli facilitate the progress of the 
student. 
A correct taste depends very much, if not 
wholly, upon a correct ear. A nice discrimina¬ 
tion of sounds, and an ability readily to pro¬ 
duce the varied musical tones, are important 
prerequisites to good reading. Indeed, without 
these qualities possessed to a reasonable extent, 
it may be doubted whether a person can be¬ 
come a reader of the first class. 1 he cause is 
palpable; good reading requires a play of the 
organs, and a modulation or variation of the 
voice, if not equally musical, yet little less ex¬ 
tensive than good singing. 
A very important direction to every one who 
aims at being a good reader, is, “ study the sub¬ 
ject to be read, with the same care with which 
you would study any other lesson or subject, 
for recitation.” 1 do not mean that you should 
commit it to memory. That you might do 
without studying it. Rut having made yourself 
acquainted with the meaning of it, if it be a 
speecn, imagine yourself the speaker. Then 
taking each sentence by itself, consider how the 
speaker probably spoke it. What inflections of 
voice—what tones, emphasis, cadence, &c., he 
would naturally employ, and what the sense 
would require. In this way you may be able 
to correct your faults, if you have any, and to 
establish good habits. If a dialogue, put your¬ 
self into the place of one of the parties, and 
then read your part as you suppose he spoke it. 
Be careful to note what degree of energy, what 
peculiar tones, what emphasis, ifcc.,he probably 
used, and make use of the same. 
In the reading of prose, if the meaning be 
known, there will be less danger of error, from 
the fact that the emphasis or accent seldom 
falls on words in themselves unimportant. In 
the reading of poetry, however, where regard 
must be had to accent and quantity, little words 
often hold a prominent place. Hence, the 
reader is often tempted to give them undue im¬ 
portance. Thus, in the lines, 
“ Lord of the worlds above, 
How pleasant and how fair 
The dwellings of thy love, 
Thy earthly temples are.” 
The little words “ of” in the first, and the third 
lines, and “and” in the second, occupy places 
on which poetic accent falls, and hence many 
read them with a full accent; thus, 
Lord of the worlds above, &c., 
whereas, there should be no accent on “ of,” but 
the first word in the line should be spoken with 
a full voice, and the second lightly ; thus, 
Lord of the wsrlds above, Ac. 
The practice of making a pause at the end of 
every line, whether the sense requires it or not, 
should also be avoided. Thus, in the example 
above, instead of a pause at the end of the second 
line, the word “fair” should be spoken with a 
full utterance to mark the end of the line, and 
the next word should follow without any per 
ceptible pause. n. 
Out West, August, 1858. 
plan or principle which determined its size and 
furniture, was the minimum scale of expenditure ; 
if the pupils, while attending school in it, should 
suffer from heat or cold, from too much or too 
little light ; if the quantity of air contained in 
it, is so small as to be soon exhausted of its oxy¬ 
gen, and to cause the pupils to suffer from dull¬ 
ness, depression, and headache ; if, in short, it 
is so badly constructed, so imperfectly ventilat¬ 
ed, so replete with vulgar ideas, and so utterly 
repugnant to all habits of neatness, thought, 
taste or purity, as to cause the pupil to regard 
it as the most comfortless and wretched tene¬ 
ment which he ever entered, to think of it with 
utter repugnance, to dread instinctively the 
tasks which it imposes, and, fiually, to take his 
leave of it as a prison, from which he is but too 
happy to escape; if such is the condition of 
their school house, then, surely, parents ought 
to remember that if their children attend school 
in such an inconvenient, repulsive, disparaging, 
unhealthy tenement, their lives will be endan¬ 
gered, their intellects impaired, their love of 
learning deadened, their moral sensibilities 
blunted, their manners become vulgar, and 
every impression connected with the school, 
deepened into the most irrepressible antipathy. 
—Michigan Journal of Education. 
GOOD SCHOOL HOUSES. 
THE MOST POPULAR BOOKS. 
Slump, 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
THOUGHTS OF GOD. 
BY CHARLES T. CLOTHIER. 
I love to think — a thought of heaven, 
By grace supremely reared, and given 
Through grace to God — for God is love — 
Love to all— around, below — above. 
He doth command — the waters divide — 
His eye sees all,— his voice the winds outride ; 
He hates the false and loves the true — 
His gifts when spurned, he offers anew. 
He says to wandering sinners — come 1 — 
He calls the earth-worn traveler home, — 
Oh I let us cherish thoughts sublime 
Of Him, who loves throughout all time. 
Bark River, Wis., August, 1856. 
FITNESS FOB HEAVEN NECESSARY. 
AUSTRALIAN BARREL TREE. 
We regard it as a most hopeful sign of the 
times that religious biographies and manuals of 
devotion, however ill written, invariably com¬ 
mand a larger circulation thau any other spe¬ 
cies of literature. Thus even the enormous 
sale of the first two volumes of Mr. Macaulay’s 
history was eclipsed by that of an insignificant 
devotional treatise, which was published at the 
same time. Thus the second-rate compilations 
of Bickersteth brought him in (as we learn 
from his life) an income of £800 a year. Thus 
the sickly sentimentalities of Mr. X. are printed 
by thousands annually, and the reams darkened 
by the dreary verbosity of Mr. Z. would already 
girdle the earth. These facts are doubly cheer¬ 
ing, because the very mediocrity of such authors 
proves that their works are bought for the sake 
of their religion, and for that alone; whereas 
the innumerable editions of such books as 
Keble’s “ Christian Year,” Cecil’s “ Remains,” 
or Bunyan’s “ Pilgrim’s Progress,” may be ex¬ 
plained in part by their literary as well as by 
their devotional merit. The great circulation 
of their works proves incontestibly that the 
reading classes of England are sound at least at 
heart, and that, in spite of all which Mr. Car 
lyle tells us to the contrary, faith is not yet 
dead, nor Christianity obsolete.— London Quar¬ 
terly. 
Australia, on account of the richness of its 
auriferous deposits, lia3 attracted the atten¬ 
tion of the world for some years. The amount 
of treasure realized during the present year 
will exceed $100,000,000. The shepherds of 
this country are a noted class—the flocks of 
§ome numbering 60,000 head. Many of these 
enter the English markets with clips of 300,- 
000 lbs., receiving therefor the immense sum of 
$100,000. Is not this wool-growing on an en¬ 
larged scale ? 
As naturalists have entered the country, veg¬ 
etable and animal life has become the theme 
of discussion and examination. Many strange 
HOW SCHOLARS ARE MADE. 
The close connection of good school houses 
with good schools, is now conceded by every 
intelligent friend of popular education. 
Indeed, it is hardly possible to have a good 
school without a good school house ; and the 
ultimate success of our whole system of Common 
Schools depends as much on a thorough reform 
in the construction, furniture and care of school 
houses, as upon any other single circamstance 
whatever. 
The people should bear in mind, and be en¬ 
couraged by the fact, that when each district 
shall be provided with a suitable school house, 
the expense will not recur for a generation.— 
Parents should also remember, that the interest 
which their children take in their studies, and 
the progress which they make in the acquisi¬ 
tion of learning, most materially depend upon 
the condition, location and general arrangement 
of the school house which they occupy. If it 
is located without reference to the taste, health 
or comfort of the teacher or pupil; if it stands 
on the public highway, on the border of a 
swampy moor, on the top of a barren knoll, in 
the middle of a bleak plain, or in any other ex¬ 
posed, unpleasant, uncomfortable spot; if it is 
destitute of play-ground, enclosure, shrub or 
shade tree, and everything else calculated to 
render it pleasing and attractive ; if its ceiling 
is only eight or ten feet high, instead of twelve 
or fourteen ; if its dimensions are so contracted 
as to afford, on average, only forty or fifty feet 
of cubic air to each pupil, instead of one hun¬ 
dred aud fifty or two hundred ; if no provision 
is made for a constant supply of that indispen¬ 
sable element of health and life, pure air, ex¬ 
cept the rents and crevices which time and 
wanton mischief have made ; if it is so utterly 
destitute of internal conveniences and external 
attractions, as to resemble a gloomy prison or 
an Indian wigwam ; if it stands in disgraceful 
contrast with all the other edifices in the 
neighborhood, public or private ; if the only 
Costly apparatus and splendid cabinets have 
no magical power to make scholars. In all cir¬ 
cumstances a man is, under God, the master of 
his own fortune, so is he the maker of his own 
mind. The Creator has so constituted the hu¬ 
man intellect, that it can grow only by its own 
action, and by its own action it must certainly 
and necessarily grow. Every man must, there¬ 
fore, in an important sense, educate himself.— 
His books and teacher are but help ; the work is 
his. A man is not educated until he has the 
ability to summon in an act of emergency, all 
his mental powers in vigorous exercise to effect 
his proposed object. It is not the man who 
has seen most, or has read most, who can do 
this ; such an one is in danger of being borne 
down, like a beast of burden by aa overloaded 
mass of other men’s thoughts. Nor is it the 
man who can boast merely of native vigor and 
capacity; the greatest of all the warriors that 
went to the siege of Troy, had give* him 
strength, and he carried the largest bow; but 
because self -discipline had taught him hew te 
bend it.—D. Webster. 
The Teacher’s Duties.— Have you consider 
ed how great a thing it is to be a teacher, and 
to stand at the fountain whence springs the 
source of man’s usefulness? and have you 
thought how easy for you to drop into that 
fountain ingredients that shall embitter 
sweeten the whole current «f life, even where 
it is broadest and strongest ? When the peo 
pie of Israel complained to the old prophet of 
the bitterness of the waters of their land, he 
only went to the springs and put in a little 
handful of salt; and all the waters as they 
flowed forth were thereafter sweet and pure.— 
So the teacher stands at the place where bub 
bles up the stream of all influence, and he can 
throw in there silently and surely the salt of 
good principles, which shall make the waters 
go with healing wherever they wander. Oh 
beware, then, what you say, and what you do, 
Make honesty your rule, and fidelity yourprac 
tice.— R. I. Schoolmaster. 
Tnu teacher is not always surrounded by 
sunshine in the school-room. It is a phantom 
hope to expect to be. Sunshine, darkness and 
shade alternate at almost stated* intervals... 
Therefore, the teacher that embarks in the re 
sponsible calling of the guidance and guard 
ing of the youthful mind, must certainly be 
qualified for the position, or he will fail, in the 
same proportion as he lacks qualification to 
discharge the duties of his trust. 
Education, IIahit, and Imitation.—M en are 
every day saying aud doing, from the power of 
education, habit, and imitation, what has no 
root whatever in their serious convictions.— 
Charming. 
Nothing as quickly ruins government, wheth 
er in a family or a school, as frequent and 
excessive threats of absurd punishments. 
formations in each of these departments have 
been discovered. Among the most remarkable 
is the Barrel Tree, figured above. The trunk 
of this tree bulges out in the middle like a huge 
cask, sometimes to nearly three times its diam¬ 
eter at the lowest limbs. This singular char¬ 
acteristic gives it its name. A recent traveler 
in that country saw many of these trees, gene¬ 
rally upon the side of some precipitous hill, or 
at the summit. There are also trees on the 
island which have no branches at all, the leaves 
growing thickly about the stem, making it ap¬ 
pear, at a short distance, like an enormous 
plume such as are used by soldiers in their caps. 
THE PILOT FISH. 
HOW THE FLY WALKS ON THE CEILING. 
There are few things more singular than the 
connection which exists between the shark and 
the pilot fish. The shark, as is well known, is 
one of the most voracious monsters which are 
found in the depths of the ocean. He is al¬ 
ways hungry, and by no means fastidious in 
his selection of food. Nothing comes amiss to 
him—a young dolphin or a bonita, a piece of 
salt pork or a bullock’s hide ; a leg of a human 
being or a red-hot shot, are all swallowed with 
equal avidity, although they may not all equal¬ 
ly agree with his digestive organs. The shark 
is also an ugly looking rascal, with his dark 
grey rhinocerous hide, his round mouth awk¬ 
wardly situated beneath his chin, and his 
frightful rows of long sharp teeth. The pilot 
fish, on the other hand, is one of the most beau¬ 
tiful species of the finuy tribe. It is from six 
to twelve inches in length, aud is a remarkably 
well-proportioned fish, something of a dandy 
in appearance—wearing at all times a beauti¬ 
ful mottled dress—amiable in its deportment, 
so far as has yet been discovered, and most de¬ 
licious eating. Apicius himself would have 
swallowed a well-cooked pilot fish, with infi¬ 
nite gusto, especially after having been for 
some weeks on a short allowance of salt pro¬ 
visions. Indeed, there is nothing of an un¬ 
pleasant character connected with the appear¬ 
ance or habits of the pilot fish, unless his mys¬ 
terious and intimate connection with the shark 
may be considered suspicious. “A man may 
be known by the company he keeps,” is an old 
proverb—how far it may relate to fishes we are 
unable to say. 
It is well known that sharks are frequently, 
(not always) attended by one or more of these 
pilots. We have have seen as many as six, of 
different sizes, accompanying one of these sea 
monsters, and between the whole party there 
seemed to exist the most perfect understanding. 
Indeed, the connection between the shark and 
the pilot fish is precisely of the nature of the 
connection fabulously reported to exist be¬ 
tween the lion and the jackall. The pilot fish 
is literally the shark’s piovider—and there is 
abundant reason to believe, that though sore 
pressed by hunger, the shark will never prey 
on his defenceless friend. The pilot fish seems 
attentive to the wants of his master, or pro¬ 
tector, and is constantly on the look-out to 
cater to his appetite. 
We recollect that once in the tropical seas, a 
large shark was seen astern of the ship. An 
event of this kind, which temporarily dispels 
the monotony attendant on a long passage, 
usually proves of great interest to the wlioie 
ship’s company. There being no shark hook 
on board, a bowline was immediately prepared, 
and a large piece of beef, attached to a piece 
of rope, thrown over the stern. The shark re¬ 
mained at a respectable distance, as if suspect¬ 
ing mischief—but in a few minutes two pilot 
fishes left his side, aud swam gently towards 
the stern of the ship. They were evidently 
attracted by the beef, which they passed round 
more than once, smelling it, aud apparently 
eyeing it attentively—they then returned with 
an increased pace towards their voracious 
friend, and appeared to communicate the result 
of their investigations. A whispering collo¬ 
quy, which continued a short time, evidently 
followed—when the shark, probably convinced 
that a bonne bouche was awaiting him, hesitated 
no longer, but made a dash at the beef, was 
caught in the bowline, and, notwithstanding 
his desperate struggles, was ingloriously cap¬ 
tured.— Portfolio. 
How the fly manages to walk over the 
smoothest surface with his feet upward, in defi¬ 
ance of the law of gravity, is a phenomenon 
that would interest us more than it does, were 
it not so common. It has been generally sup¬ 
posed that his feet were supplied with valves 
or suckers, and that he is thus enabled to hold 
himself upwards by atmospheric pressure.— 
Others have attributed this peculiar power to 
the secretion of a sticky liquid in the feet, 
which enables him to sustain himself in this 
seemingly unnatural position. The microscope 
has demonstrated that in piany insects of the 
fly kind, the foot is furnished with a pair of 
membranous expansions, termed pulvilli, com¬ 
monly known as valves, and that these are beset 
with numerous hairs, each of which has a mi¬ 
nute disk at its extremity. There is no doubt 
that this apparatus is connected with the power 
these insects possess of walking with the feet 
upwards, but there is still some uncertainty as 
to the precise manner in which it ministers to 
this faculty. We learn, however, from the 
Medical and Surgical Journal, that the recent 
careful observations of Mr. Hepworth, publish¬ 
ed in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopic Sci¬ 
ence, has led him to a conclusion which seems 
in harmony with all the facts in the case, viz., 
that the minute disks at the end of the hairs 
upon the pulvilli act as suckers, and that each 
of them secretes a liquid, which, though not 
viscid, serves to make its adhesion perfect. 
We need not only a title, but a fitness for 
heaven. A title to a property must be a per¬ 
fect one, or it is no title at all; if there be a 
flaw in it, the right of inheritance is gone. But 
the fitness for the enjoyment of a property 
may be more or less complete. Two men may 
have a title to equal properties; but one may 
be much more fitted for the enjoyment of it 
from his previous habits, disposition and infor¬ 
mation, than the other. It is so with the future 
rest. We have all of us, if Christians, the equal 
password; that password which needs but to 
be mentioned, and we range the whole uni¬ 
verse ; we become free of heaven and earth in 
“ Christ, and him crucified.” But each of us 
may have different degress of fitness, from the 
convert of yesterday to the martyr that seals 
by his blood the principles that he has been 
taught by grace. But more or less such fitness 
is required. In fitness for it we shall grow. 
Our daily life shall be a constant struggle to 
put on an excellency, and to be made meet by 
the Spirit of God for the kingdom of heaven. 
These two are inseparable. There is no such 
thing as a man being entitled to heaven and 
not being fit for it. There is no such thing as 
one being fit for heaven aud not entitled to it. 
These two are inseparable. 
A CONSTANT MIRACLE. 
The Bible itself, says Prof. Maclagan, is a 
standing and an astonishing miracle? Written, 
fragment by fragment, throughout the course of 
fifteen centuries, under different states of soci¬ 
ety and in different languages, by persons of 
the most opposite tempers, talents and condi¬ 
tions, learned and unlearned, prince and peas¬ 
ant, bond and free; cast into every form of 
instructive composition and good writing, his¬ 
tory, prophecy, poetry, allegory, emblematic 
representation, judicious interpretation, literal 
statement, precept, example, proverbs, disquisi¬ 
tion, epistle, sermon, prayer, in short, all ration¬ 
al shapes of human discourse, and treating, 
moreover, on subjects notobvious, but most dif¬ 
ficult—its authors are not found like other 
writers, contradicting one another upon the 
most ordinary matters of fact and opinion, but 
are at harmony upon the whole of their sublime 
and momentous scheme. 
juft’s 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
GEOGRAPHICAL ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 17 letters. 
My 1, 6, 9,3, 5, 6,12, 13, is a city in Western 
New York. 
My 6, 1, 4,11, 17, is a town in Cattaraugus 
County. 
My 6, 7,16, 6, 17, is a river in Vermont. 
My 9, 10, 16, 17, 2, is a town in Maine. 
My 8, 12, 4, 2, 13, is a river in North Carolina. 
My 9, 11, 9, 10, 4, is a river in Arkansas. 
My 5, 16, 3, 4. 13, 6, 17, is a town in Ohio. 
My 14,15, 9, 3, 4, 13, is a river in the North of 
New York. 
My whole is a lake in North America. 
RanBomville, N. Y. A. B. M. 
Answer next week. 
CHARADE. 
The judgment is like a pair of scales, and ev¬ 
idence like the weights; but the will holds the 
balances in its hand ; and even a slight jerk 
wilt be sufficient, in many cases, to make the 
lighter scale appear the heavier. 
My first you may never espy 
In the street on a sultry day, 
For it hides in garrets dark and dry, 
Till the summer has passed away. 
B’t ’tis fouud through the livelong year 
In the wildest parts of the globe, 
And they who own it often wear 
A garb that a queen or an empress fair 
Would prize as her richest robe. 
Would you like my second to know ? 
Then go to a city fire, 
Or visit the haunts where spirits flow, 
Or the halls where the politicians go 
To save the country, or else to show. 
That the country's >n danger dire. 
But if you would see it in all its pride 
Just go out to Kansas and there abide. 
My whole is a thing mysterious, 
For, in earnest sober and serious, 
’T is seen, by poets when winds are light 
On the ocean’s face—a glorious sight— 
Seen too on a thought ful brow : 
And yet my whole, if I rightly read, 
Must a farmer be, for indeed, indeed. 
It always follows the plow. 
Answer next week. 
Answer to Miscellaneous Enigma in No. 351 
Judge before friendship, then confide till death 
Answer to Mathematical Problem in No 
351 : $298 33^. 
SEVERE, BUT TRUK 
The pungent Mr. Ryle, in one of his tracts, 
gives these sentences :—“ The plain truth is, 
that many believers in the present day seem 
so dreadfully afraid of doing harm, that they 
hardly ever dare to do any good. There are 
many who are fruitful in objections, but barren 
in actions; rich in wet blankets, but poor in 
anything like Christian fire. They are like the 
Dutch deputies, who would never allow Marl¬ 
borough to venture anything, and by their ex¬ 
cessive caution prevented many a victory from 
being won. Truly, in looking round the church 
of Christ, a man might sometimes think that 
God’s kingdom had come, and God’s will was 
being done on earth, so small is the zeal that 
some believers show. It is vain to deny it.” 
So say we ; it is vain to deny it.— Church Jour. 
profane words. 
As poliBhed steel receives a stain 
From drops at random flung — 
So does the child — when words protann 
Drop from a parent’s toDgne. 
The rust eats in, and oft we find 
That naught which we can do. 
To cleanse the metal or the mind, 
The brightness will renew. 
True Happiness. —He who confines his de¬ 
sires to his real wants, is more wise, more rich, 
and contented, than any other mortal existing. 
The system upon which he acts, is like his soul, 
replete with simplicity and true, greatness; and 
seeking his felicity in innocent obscurity and 
peaceful retirement, he devotes his mind to the 
love of truth, and finds his highest happiness in 
a contented heart. 
“ Give me,” said Archimedes, “ a point out¬ 
side the world, and I will lift it from its poles.” 
True Christianity is this point outside the 
world. It lifts the human heart from the 
double pivot of egotism and sensuality, and 
will one day lift the whole world from the evil 
course, and make it turn on a new axis of 
righteousness and peace.— D'Aubigne. 
The best thing to give to your enemy is for¬ 
giveness ; to your opponent, tolerance ; to a 
friend, your heart; to your chile), a good exam¬ 
ple ; to a father, deference ; to your mother, 
conduct that will make her proud of you ; to 
yourself, respect; to all men, charity. 
As we must render an account of every idle 
word, so must we likewise of our idle silence. 
....... 
