MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
The great and increasing demand for books, 
and the numerous private libraries which are 
being formed in our country, are gratifying ev¬ 
idences of the intellectual advance of the peo¬ 
ple. It is not less gratifying to know that this 
increase is universal, and that it not only 
creates a large demand for American literature, 
thereby advancing the interests of our native 
talent, but has also made a vast market for 
foreign works. We learn that in Europe the 
prices of old books and standard literature have 
advanced at least thirty per cent., and that this 
advance is attributed by dealers in England, 
France and Germany, to the American market. 
We have now in this country bibliographical 
collections that bid fair to rival any private li¬ 
braries in Europe; and if our readers could 
visit the libraries of some of our Southern plant¬ 
ers, they would be surprised to learn even the 
money value of the books before them. It is a 
speciality of many Americans, and a noble ob¬ 
ject it is, to secure all of the early printed works 
relative to the history our own country. Oth¬ 
ers have selected the period of our Revolution 
as the object of their collections. 
It is pleasing to know that amid the lethargy 
of our public institutions and State Govern¬ 
ments, private enterprise is doing so much for 
the future history of our nation. Some of our 
State historical Societies deserve much praise ; 
but it will hardly be credited, that the Histori¬ 
cal Society of Wisconsin, so young a sister in 
our Confederation, has expended more money 
for books the past year than any other society 
of the same character in the United States.— 
This demand for foreign publications is by no 
means confined to works relating to our own 
country. Many gentlemen have large libraries 
on special subjects, such as trade and commerce, 
numismatics, agriculture, and in fact almost 
every topic has its votary.— National Intel. 
Written tor the Rural New-Yorker. 
SIN9 TO ME A SABBATH HYMN. 
Now that the Lecture season is opening, or 
indeed has already commenced, we desire to 
offer a suggestion or two as to the subjects most 
useful and appropriate for discussion before the 
various literary associations of our cities and 
villages. 
Of late years - lectures have become an im¬ 
portant and popular “ institution ” in many lo¬ 
calities—and the demand for this kind of en¬ 
tertainment has induced a host of Literati and 
others to enter a field promising to themselves, 
if not to their audiences, rich harvests. The 
result is that, although most of the gentlemen 
known as lecturers are eminently qualified to 
instruct and entertain their audiences by im¬ 
parting useful, practical and scientific know¬ 
ledge, many demote their lectures to “airy noth¬ 
ings”—to scintillations of wit, humor, anecdote 
and poetical fancies, which are very pleasant 
and amusing for an hour, but of no lasting ben¬ 
efit. Others have entered the field merely for 
the purpose of making money, and are neither 
qualified to instruct or temporarily entertain 
and amuse an audience—gentlemen who are 
soon found to be remarkable only for the depth 
of, not their understandings and knowledge, but 
the Artesian wells they excavate, and who 
may, therefore, in vulgar parlance, be denomi¬ 
nated bores of the first water. The fewer of 
these lecturers any association engages, the 
better it will be for their reputation, if not 
finances—yet the difficulty is that the “ sell ” 
is not discovered until after a trial. To the 
former class, however—the really talented and 
well qualified— no serious exceptions can be 
taken, for, if they furnish lectures of an evan¬ 
escent and “ popular ” character, it jjs because 
their audiences generally demand, or are pleas¬ 
ed with, such entertainments. The fault is, 
therefore, more in the people than the lecturers, 
if substantial mental food and suggestions are 
not imparted. 
Now, we would suggest more care and dis¬ 
crimination in the selection of lecturers and the 
subjects to be discussed. Our idea is that the 
lecture room should be an educational institu¬ 
tion—the place to impart and receive instruc¬ 
tion, and not devoted to mere entertainment and 
amusement.. Instead of having nine-tenths of 
each course of lectures of a literary and ephe¬ 
meral nature (as is the case before many, if not 
most, of our literary societies,) our view would 
be to have at least half of them of an instruc¬ 
tive character—on scientific and practical topics 
—thus imparting useful knowledge, and afford¬ 
ing suggestions which would lead the hearer to 
the investigation and consideration of subjects 
of permanent interest. Lectures on the Natu¬ 
ral sciences should be included, in our view, in 
every course of lectures, provided the associa¬ 
tion can afford to engage competent talent.— 
Such subjects as Chemistry, Geology, Meteorol¬ 
ogy and Climatology, Astronomy, &c., are, or 
ought to be, of special interest and importance 
to the people of the “ lecture towns,” so to 
speak, in which the Rural circulates, and we 
trust they will take precedence oL the tempo¬ 
rarily entertaining topics which now^constitute 
the staple of most so-called “jpopular” lectures. 
Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts may also 
be profitably and appropriately lectured upon 
in various localities—especially in many Rural 
villages of this region and the West — and we 
trust subjects of so much practical importance 
will not be overlooked during the present lec¬ 
ture season. If the most distinguished men in 
the land cannot consistently be secured to dis¬ 
cuss scientific and practical subjects — such as 
Agassiz, Silliman, Maury, Hitoooook, Mitch¬ 
ell, Dewey, and the like—others there are who 
are capable, and who can be engaged without 
materially impairing the finances of almost 
any literary institution or association. 
— In this connection it may be proper to re¬ 
mark (as we intended to have done in a former 
number,) that the two lectures recently de¬ 
livered before the Rochester Athenmum by 
Lieut. Maury, the modest but world-famous 
chief of our National Observatory at Washing¬ 
ton, were among the most instructive and able 
ever delivered in this city. And, what is still 
more gratifying, they were largely attended 
and highly appreciated — proving that at least 
some popular audiences can not only endure, but 
be interested in and entertained by scientific 
disscussions. His main subject, “The Winds 
and the Sea,” included observations and sugges¬ 
tions on Agricultural Meteorology, Climatology, 
<fcc„ which imparted facts of interest and im¬ 
portance to the great mass of community, and 
which we wish could be widely disseminated. 
Birdling in the rurf^le tree, 
Birdling, -will you sing to me ? 
Sitting on the bending limb, 
Sing to me a Sabbath hymn. 
Bluest skies are overhead, 
And upon the ground we tread 
Beautious flowers, blooming rare, 
Breath their fragrance on the air. 
In the sunshine stand the trees, 
Shaken slightly by the breeze, 
And in whispers seem to say 
Lovely is the Sabbath day. 
Within yonder dark church tower, 
Strike the bells the morning hour ; 
And the trembling music steals, 
Swelling — dying — o’er the fields. 
Like to memories of the past, 
Mournful as the winter blast, 
Is the sound to me that swells 
From the loudly pealing bells. 
From the whispering maple tree 
Sing then, Birdling, unto me ; — 
Sitting on the swaying limb, 
Sing to me a Sabbath hymn. 
Heidelberg, Germany, 1856. G. F. W. 
Note.—One pleasant Sabbath morning, I sat by my win¬ 
dow and heard the bells ring in the old Dutch Tower, and 
a bird sing in the garden. The sound of the bells was 
mournful, but the bird’s song, cheerful. 
ARABIAN CAMELS 
THE TEREDO, OR SHIP WORM. 
The Camel, as a means of transportation, has 
attracted the attention of our government, and 
thirty - five of these animals were recently 
brought from Smyrna and sent to Texas. The 
experiment is yet in its infancy, and no conclu¬ 
sion as to their value for the purposes designed 
can be drawn, though all has, so far, been very 
favorable. The first shipment of these animals 
to the Western Continent arrived at the Bay of 
Matagorda, Texas, on the 12th of ^ May, 1856.— 
One who witnessed the landing writes to the 
Phrenological Journal that on the 13th of May 
the “ animals were taken ashore, and at last re¬ 
gained their liberty.’ The inhabitants crowded 
around them with pardonable curiosity, to be¬ 
hold the huge, uncouth animals, and many were 
the sensible comparisons given vent to on the 
occasion. The Arabs and Turks, who had 
dressed themselves in rich Oriental costume, 
were kept busy explaining to the“inquisitive 
crowd. Now and then a camel, in the excess 
of its joy, would run with a terrible leaping and 
kicking among the people, who would conse¬ 
quently give it full room to gambol in. That 
evening they all started for their destination, in 
the regular Eastern order of a'caravan.” 
Of this animal there are two varieties, called 
the Badrian, or two-humped, and the Arabian, 
The latter is also 
THE FAITH THAT CANNOT GROW OLD. 
Other religions become sickly exotics, when 
you transplant them from their birth-place; 
change ol climate is fatal to their constitution. 
Christianity roots in every soil; it flourishes in 
every climate. You cannot plant Mahommed- 
anism in China, nor Confuciusism in Turkey. 
The subtle system of Hindooism will not do for 
the untutored mind of the African. But, thank 
God, Christianity is alike adapted to them all. 
Other systems are content to slumber within 
their own territory ; they make no attempt to 
acquire dominion over that which is the proper 
sphere of religion, the kingdom of mind ; Chris¬ 
tianity aims at and avows its intention of com¬ 
pleting the conquest of the world. In distant 
parts of the earth its banner is now waving, the 
sign of hope to the nations, and still its watch¬ 
word is, “ Amplius, amplius ; further still fur¬ 
ther 1 Onward, while there in a spot of earth 
unexplored, or a child of man unconverted.”— 
Other religions, after they exist for a century 
or two, give signs of inanition and feebleness ; 
the frailty of age is upon them ; whereas the 
strength of Christianity grows with its years ; 
it is not subject to the wasting influence of 
time ; age brings with it no feebleness ; cen¬ 
turies, aye centuries of centuries, write no 
wrinkles on the brow. It is eighteen hundred 
years old, and the dew of its youth is upon it. 
—Selected. 
some he left unprepared; and some partly 
painted—and sunk them in Elizabeth river in 
the month of April. “About the 12th of June 
the blocks and boxes were generally lifted and 
examined but he never was able to discover any 
of the animalculse—young teredo—until about 
the 20th of June. At this period of the year 
he generally discovered minute holes in the 
wood by the use of a magnifying glass. After 
this, the creature daily grows ahead, for it has 
no powers of locomotion ; it grows like an oys¬ 
ter, and has a calcareous or shelly sheathing, 
which adheres to the surface of its burrow.” 
In Norfolk harbor, Va., they grow from six to 
twelve inches in length, and from three-eighths 
to half an inch in diameter. The wood exca¬ 
vated by one twelve inches long, in a season, 
amounted to more than a cubic inch, if in a 
solid piece. No signs of the teredo were dis¬ 
covered by him inywood deposited after. Mr. 
Jarvis supposes that the teredo commences to 
develope about the 1st of July, and continues 
until cold weather arrives ; in Charleston, S. C., 
and further south, they develop during the 
whole year, whereas in the colder blasts, such 
as in the harbors of New England, they do but 
little injury, because the worm is feeble there, 
being like a fine thread ; it is believed to be a 
native of the torrid seas. The teredo is not so 
destructive on piles sunk under water at New 
York city docks, as those on the opposite side 
of the river, on the Jersey and Long Island 
shores ; this is owing, Mr. Jarvis thinks, to the 
amount of filth carried down in the city sewers. 
So much for the good offices of dirt. In Boston 
and Portsmouth, N. H., harbor piles will stand 
twenty-five years. One open nail in a sheet 
of copper, upon a vessel’s bottom, will allow 
the worm access to pursue its work of destruc¬ 
tion. All kinds of wood used in shipbuilding 
are attacked by it. To secure the bottoms of 
ships from the salt-water worm, and from coral 
Most of our readers have doubtless seen al¬ 
lusions to the theory of Captain Symmes, who 
maintained that the earth is hollow, with an 
opening at the poles. The following copy of 
one of his circulars will explain his theory :— 
“CIRCULAR. 
“ Light gives Light to Light Discover — ad infinitum. 
“St. Louis, Mo. Territory, North America. ) 
April 20, A. D. 1818. j 
“ To All the World: — I declare the world is 
hollow and habitable within, containing a num¬ 
ber of solid concentric spheres, one within the 
other; and that it is open at the poles twelve 
or sixteen degrees. I pledge my life in sup¬ 
port of this truth, and am ready to explore the 
hollow, if the world will aid me in the under¬ 
taking. 
“John Cleves Symmes, of Ohio. 
“ N. B. I have ready for the Press a ‘ Treatise 
on the Principles of Matter,’ wherein I show 
proofs on the above positions, account for vari¬ 
ous phenomens, and Dr. Darwin’s golden se¬ 
crets. My terms are, the patronage of this and 
the New World — I dictate it to my j wife and 
her ten children. I select Dr. O. H. Mitchell, 
Sir H. Davy and Baron Alexander de Hum¬ 
boldt as my protectors. I ask one hundred 
brave companions, well equipped, to start for 
Siberia, in the fall season, with [reindeer and 
sleighs, on the ice of the frozen .sea. I engage 
we find a warm and rich land, stocked with 
thrifty vegetables and animals, if not man, on 
reaching one degree northward of latitude 82. 
We will return in the succeeding spring. 
J. C. S. 
“ To his Excellency, Sir William Clark.” 
The above is copied into a number of Nile's 
Register for 1818, from an Ohio journal, which 
vouches for Symmes as a man of intelligence 
and respectability. 
or single-humped camel, 
called the dromedary. The firsF"is employed 
principally in Central Asia, the latter in Arabia, 
North Africa, Syria and Persia. 
The color of the camel is reddish gray ; hair 
woolly and soft, and very unequal in different 
parts, being long on the nape, under the throat, 
about the hump, and on the~tail, while it is 
short on the other parts. This is used for the 
manufacture of cloth. The two-humped camel 
is the larger and stronger, being capable of sus¬ 
taining a thousand pounds’Veight,[and is best 
adapted for rugged ground ; the other will live 
on a poorer and more scanty diet, endure more 
fatigue, and is, therefore, better adapted to long 
marches on the desert; besides, it is "a lighter 
variety, and is possessed of greater fleetness.— 
This variety is about seven feet at the shoul¬ 
ders, and is that which is most commonly seen 
in caravans. The feet are'soft and flat, there 
being a kind of cushion on the bottom, by which 
it bears upon the sandy surface over which it is 
formed to move. 
The two toes are united underneath by a 
kind of horny sole, almost to their points, and 
terminate in a kind of hoof. The nostril is pe¬ 
culiarly formed. It is capable of being closed 
at will, and is adapted to prevent the drifting 
sand from blowing into it during the violent 
gales which sometimes prevail in the desert. 
The humps give to the camel an awkward 
and rather disgusting appearance, and, at first 
sight, seem to be inconvenient to those who 
wish to employ its services. These unsightly 
humps, composed principally of fat, are deposi¬ 
taries of superabundant nutriment, which, how¬ 
ever, gradually disappear when the animal is 
deprived of a sufficient quantity of food, as is 
observed at the end of a long journey over the 
deserts, when food is very scanty. The camel 
has also another curious provision in its nature, 
adapting it to the arid deserts, viz., a peculiar 
sack or extra stomach which will contain a large 
quantity of water in purity, and which will be 
absoibed by the animal only so fast as the 
proper support of its constitution shall require ; 
hence the animal can march over burning sands, 
and under a blazing sky, for several days with¬ 
out drinking. When the Arabs on long marches 
are famishing for the want of water, they slaugh¬ 
ter a camel, and drink from its reservoir the 
water that yet remains unexpended in the sup¬ 
port of the animal. The callosities, or pads, 
which may be seen on the knee, the stifle, and 
brisket, enable the animal to rest on the scorch¬ 
ing sand without injury by, or even sensibility 
to, the heat. 
The common load of the camel for long 
marches across the deset t, is six or seven hun¬ 
dred pounds, with which it will travel thirty 
miles a day. At the command of his driver, he 
kneels to receive his load, but if this be too 
heavy he refuses to rise until a part of it is re¬ 
moved. When the animal approaches a stop¬ 
ping place, it smells the water for miles, and he 
urges himself forward with all his strength, to 
be rewarded for twelve hours weary journeying 
by a full supply of water, and a few handfuls of 
barley or dried oats. Notwithstanding these 
hardships, the camel rarely suffers in health, 
and frequently attains to the age of one hun¬ 
dred years. 
He who is so familiar with the Bible that 
each chapter, open where he will, teems with 
household words, may draw thence the theme 
of many a pleasant and pathetic song. For is 
not all human nature shadowed forth in those 
pages ? But the soul, to sing well from the Bi¬ 
ble, must be imbued with dew and sunshine.— 
The study of the book must have begun in the 
simplicity of childhood, when it was felt to be 
indeed divine, and carried on through all those 
silent intervals in which the soul of manhood 
is restored, during the din of life, to the purity 
and peace of its early being. He who begins 
the study of the bible late in life must indeed 
devote himself to it r ight and day, with an 
humble and contrite heart, as well as with an 
awakened and soaring spirit, ere he can hope 
to feel what he understands, or to understand 
what he feels—thoughts and feelings breathing 
in upon him like spiritual sounds and scents, as 
if from a region hanging in its mystery between 
j heaven and earth.— Wilson. 
If mind is a product—if men, in an educa¬ 
tional sense, are the results of the teaching 
process—then the teacher’s work is one of amaz¬ 
ing interest and power. And if this is so, 
further, the less than a million children in the 
schools of the State of New York are raw ma¬ 
terial—unsculptured marble, upon which the 
shape and fashion of a manly spirit is to be 
sketched, and the citizen to be formed by the 
teacher. 
If this consideration does not overwhelm the 
teachers of our schools with a sense of their re¬ 
sponsibility, the fact does not arise from any 
uninspiring interest in the reflection. Do they 
feel as they approach the shrine of fifty young, 
adoring spirits, day after day, that they more 
than the preacher or politician, or even the 
parent, in many cases, are building the morals 
or manners of a future society of the State ? If 
they do not, they have no business with the 
children. 
They should, with solemn and breathless 
haste, hurry from the school-room, and go to 
delve in the field, or deal with gross matter in 
some form, and leave untouched the subtleties of 
responsive mind—the potent element of States 
and Empires.—W., hi Westfield (Chau. Co.) 
Transcript. 
Common Schools in North Carolina. —It is 
frequently charged that at the South they have 
no Common Schools. From an official report 
by the President of the Literary Fund of 
North Carolina we find that the sum of one 
hundred and eighty thousand eight hundred 
and fifty dollars was distributed to the common 
schools of the several counties during the cur¬ 
rent year.— Selected. 
Religion is not so much a single duty as a 
something that has to do with all duties—not a 
tax to be paid periodically and got rid of at 
other times, but a ceaseless, all-pervadirig, in¬ 
exhaustible tribute to Him who is not only the 
object of religious worship, but the end of our 
very life and being. Piety is not for Sundays 
only, but for all days ; spirituality of mind is 
not appropriate to one set of actions and an im¬ 
pertinence and intrusion with reference to oth¬ 
ers, but like the act of breathing, like the cir¬ 
culation of the blood, like the silent growth of 
the stature, a process that may be going on 
simultaneously with all our actions—when we 
are busiest as when we are idlest—in the 
church, in the world ; in solitude, in society, in 
our grief and in our gladness ; in our toil and 
in our rest; sleeping, waking; by day, by night 
—amid all the engagements and exigencies of 
life.— Selected. 
We were shown this morning a living curios¬ 
ity, in the shape of a mouse, which possessed 
and exercised musical powers somewhat similar 
to a Canary bird. It w:w captured a few weeks 
since at No. 339 Broad street, near Fair, by a 
gentleman, who, while sick, made it quite tame > 
and was accustomed to hear it sing to him every 
day, sometimes without, ceasing. It is in ap¬ 
pearance similar to a common house mouse, and 
was first heard on the shelves in the store, and 
subsequently appeared in the gentleman’s 
sleeping room. The sounds produced are of a 
varied character, and denote most distinctly the 
presence of not only fear, distress, but content¬ 
ment and pleasure. Its voice is not very loud 
nor powerful, but still nossesses considerable 
compass, and the transitions from one note to 
another are made with remarkable grace and 
accuracy. When hungry it generally sings the 
loudest, in a somewhat plaintive tone, as if ask¬ 
ing for food.— Newark Daily Advertiser. 
When you see a man ever on the alert to de¬ 
end his reputation, suspect >,him. If it is 
strong, why should he be so anxious to support 
it ? it ought to stand alone. While others are 
consuming the time in attempts to secure the 
influence of prominent men, or Jn boasting of 
their skill, do you labor earnestly, prayerfully, 
to master your profession, and, regardless of 
present appearances, wait for Jen years to de¬ 
termine who is the ablest man. Till there is 
nothing more for you to learn, youjhave no time 
to tell how much you know. Be attentive to 
your business, neglect no duty, and you are 
sure to succeed. The Lord will take care of 
yourself and your reputation. Rivals may, by 
a different course, take the position you seek, 
and for a time you may appear to have failed ; 
but faint not; it is only a temporary delay, 
which, by enabling you to lay broader and 
deeper the foundation, will make your success 
in the end more certain. Suissao. 
Our Duty. —It is a solemn duty to speak 
plainly of wrongs which good men perpetrate. 
It is very easy to cry out against crimes which 
the laws punish, and which popular opinion has 
branded with infamy. What is especially de¬ 
manded of the Christian, is a faithful, honest, 
generous testimony against enormities which 
are sanctioned by numbers, and fashion, and 
wealth, and especially by great and honored 
names, and which, thus sanctioned, lift up their 
heads to heaven, and repay rebuke with money 
and indignation.— Dr. Channing. 
All that your friend says to you, as to his 
friend, is entrusted to you solely. Much of 
what a man tells you, in the hour of affliction, 
in sudden anger, or in any out-pouring of his 
heart, should be sacred. In his craving' for 
sympathy, he has spoken to you as to his own 
soul. 
Winter,- which strips the leaves from around 
us, makes us see the distant regions they for¬ 
merly concealed ; so does old age rob us of our 
enjoyment only to enlarge the prospect of the 
eternity before us. 
Always act as if you believed God was 
present, and that you must give an account to 
Him. 
He is sufficiently learned, that knows how to 
do well, and has power enough to refrain from 
evil.— Cicero. 
The silent eye is often a more powerful con' 
queror than the noisy tongue. 
