MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
THE STUDY OF GEOGRAPHY. 
The science of Geography when well 
taught is one of the most pleasing and en¬ 
tertaining studies which can engage the at¬ 
tention of the young. NotH hstanil ng, we 
boliev <5 that it occupies too much of the 
children’s time in school. It is not uncom¬ 
mon for children to bo required to study it 
at a very early age, and to pursue it tor 
several years in succession. This should 
not be allowed, and is not by good teachers, 
such as understand their vocation. 
It is readily perceived that the study ot 
geography, is not calculated kko that oi 
arithmetic, to teach the child to reason 
hut rather to furnish the mind with knowl¬ 
edge to bo remembered for future use.— 
llmice its study is an exercise of the under¬ 
standing and the memory. We would not, 
if allowed to have our own way. permit a 
child to study geography until the under¬ 
standing is pretty well developed. Then 
the outlines may be soon learned. A child 
at the ago of twelve, that has been well 
taught, will learn more geography in three 
months, than he would under ordinary cir¬ 
cumstances in three years, that is from nine 
to twelve years of age. We not only think, 
hut we know that much valuable time has 
been wasted, and is still wasting over the 
study of geography by those who are too 
young to learn it. 
The first years of a child’s school going 
days should be devoted almost exclusively 
to the arts of reading and spelling. r lhe 
ographies. the osophies and the olugics have 
been so multiplied in these latter days, that 
children have no time to learn to be good 
spellers and good readers. 
We would say then to parents and guar¬ 
dians. do not require your children or those 
whose education you aro to provide foi, to 
begin the study of geography too soon. At 
a suitable ago it can be well learned in a 
little time. As it is now studied it is seldom 
well learned though much time is spent 
over it. 
The student in geography should direct 
his mind chiefly to the study o i maps. It 
is thus that he will make himself acquaint¬ 
ed with the locations of places. This done, 
the foundation of geographical acquisition 
is well laid, and the knowledge of the oai th 
may be rapidly gained by the reading o* 
good books on the subject. 
AVe would recommend to botb tcachcis 
and parents, that they require of those who 
are studying geography, to confine their at¬ 
tention mainly to the maps. Our advice on 
this subject is the result of both observation 
and experience. 
PARENTS.—TARDY AND IRREGULAR 
SCHOLARS. 
as 
'VAr-g'TVU.,- 
;ww'- ' w; - ..-. ■ ■ 
SUSPENSION BRIDGE AT NIAGARA FAILS. 
The Suspension Bridge across the Niag- I ers, where the six unite in one cablo and ful achievmcnts of Art should bo placed 
ara River, is among tho most remarkablo pass over the top of one tower across the near one ot the grandest exhibitions ot Na- 
works of art in America, and one of the eu- 
river, and the seven in a similar way unite turc. The Suspension Bridge is in liarmo- 
and pass over the other tower, each thus ny with Niagara. As you turn away, sol- 
supporting its own side of tlio bridge. emnized by tho majesty ot the Cataract, 
Those cables are composed of small wire there is no revulsion of feeling in being 
(No. 10 .) bound together by wire wound charmod by the beauty of the bridge.— 
around them. The number of wires in the As you look at it from a distance and sec 
bridge, is 1767. The bridge was thrown its outline revealed against the the sky, it 
about a mile below tho 1 across the chasm in a peculiar way. A kite seems poised between earth and heaven as 
rushes beneath it with was first sent across bearing a small rope, if sustained by a power within itself, as it it 
riesities of Western New York. It was 
erected under the supervision of Ciiahi.es 
Eleet, Jr., and completed in July, 18-18.— 
Wo quote tho annexed description from 
Holden’s Magazine: 
“ It is situated 
falls. The river 
tremendous power and velocity, girded by By this, a wire was drawn over, which drew were a work ot nature, and a thing ol life— 
perpendicular banks 250 feet in height.— a double and triple wire, and so on till tho and it excites your sympathy by its seeming 
The length of the bridge is 759 feet; the | cables were borne over and fastened. Ellet frailty, and your admiration by its real 
height of the towers at either end, oyer first passed on a wire in a small car. The strength. \ ou see a carriage cross over it 
which the cables of wire pass, is 55 feet, and bridge is not wide enough for two carriages —it quivers in every part—you fear it will 
they are 14 feet square at the base. The i to pass each other. It is prevented from break—you think it must—but it does not 
deflection from a straight line of the cables | swaying, by wires running from different | break, the carriage has passed on in safety, 
at tho lowest point midway between the ■ points on cither side of it. to various points | and you involuntarily exclaim—Bravo ! no- 
towers, is 45 feet, and the distance from the on either bank of tho river. This does not \ bly done ! my worthy bridge! Yes, you are 
bridge to the water nearly 250 feet. The 1 prevent a certain tremulous motion, from ■ proud of it for its bravo endurance—you 
weight of the wire in the bridge is 35 tons, i one end to tho other, caused even by the 1 love it for doing so manfully what could not 
step of a man * j well be expected of it, and as you say to a 
It. was calculated that this bridge would ! bright vigorous boy who has done a great 
be enlarged so as to. serve as a bridge for j deed beyond his years, “Ah you will make a 
the Railroad to bo built from Detroit to 
Rochester, and to cross Niagara River at 
this point. 
It is fitting that one of the most wonder- 
ami the weight of the flooring or wood work 
is 40 tons. 13 cables, 7 on one side and 6 
on the other, support the bridge. These 
cables are fastened to the solid rock 
about two rods from the towers, each by it¬ 
self. They pass up from tho point of fast¬ 
ening at an angle of 45 degrees to the tow- 
man when you get larger,” so you feel like 
saying to this bridge—Bravo ! young bridge, 
you will make a great bridge one of these 
days!” 
The report of the State Superintendent 
of Common Schools for the year ending with 
last June, shows some eight hundred thou¬ 
sand children attending our district schools. 
How are theygattendlng school ? That is a 
question which parents ought to consider; 
and if need be, give it a day of fasting and 
reflection. ’Twill be but a short time, at 
farthest, before the control of this Empire 
State will be theirs. If these children grow 
up intelligent and virtuous, then, what a 
State. Who could measure its influence over 
the destiny of a world ? 
Visionary ! All impossible ! you say.— 
Well let us sec. That it will bo done is not 
expected. That it might be done is firmly 
believed ; that is, that tho great majority of 
these children might grow up, educated 
mentally and morally. Select any one child 
from this vast numbor and what, of neces¬ 
sity, in this State, will keep him ignorant ? 
What, here, like tho fiat of Omnipotence 
says, “So much canst thou know and no 
more.” But what is true of any ono child 
is true of the whole number. “ But” you 
say “ enactments of tho Legislature won’t 
do it! Teachers alone can’t educate them ! 
And the parents know—little more than 
nothing!” Admit this, still “in union there 
is strength.” They can do, unitedly, what 
none can do singly. 
Again, how are these children attending 
school ? Parents of New York, we put this 
question to you. To you, in a great meas¬ 
ure, teachers must look for the attendance 
of their pupils. Making a report of the at¬ 
tendance through November and December. 
1851, we find that some children have at¬ 
tended two days, some three, others four; 
some wore present two half days in a week, 
others a day and a half. And how often 
must the recitation be suspended, no matter 
how interesting; the explanation broken off 
no matter how perfect the attention of tho 
class, becauso of scholars who come in at 
any time between half past nine and noon. 
Doors are shut with a violence that starts 
the hinges, and the very building trembles 
as some tardy scholar goes pounding to his 
seat perhaps in the farthest corner of the 
room. Every ova is di vui'ttxl, ovory mind 
disturbed. Suppose that one minute is thus 
;ed—a short time—and you have 60 schol¬ 
ars. the loss then is one hour. “ An hour 
lost is a chance of misfortune for life.” Who 
gave that child the right to come there and 
steal an hour from the school ? Who made 
him a thief? But he is not of ago; we can 
not ask him. And then such scholars, al¬ 
ways away when they should be present, al¬ 
ways behind their class; a perfect clog upon 
its progress, a perfect nuisance to the school. 
How many such in every district, one or ten? 
And who is at fault ? Who governs at 
home, or who ought to? Often how trivial, 
how childish the excuse which permits the 
absence of the child. To whom belongs bis 
time, to the parent, or to the school and the 
teacher ? 
But we will stop here for the present, re¬ 
questing “Trustee” to review that portion 
of his article relating to teachers. 
Irondequoit, Feb., 18.>A. TEACHER. 
THE N0ACH3AN DELUGE. 
GUARD AGAINST VULGARITY. 
We especially commend the following ex 
tract to the thoughtful study of the young. 
Nothing is so disgusting and repugnant to 
the feelings of the noble and tho good t as to 
hear the young—or even the old—use pro- 
feme, or low, vulgar language. The young 
of our city are particularly guilty of profan¬ 
ity. In our day it seems the “ boy” does 
not feel himself a “ man” unless lie can ex¬ 
cel in this great sin. 
“We would guard the young against the 
use of every word that is not perfectly prop ¬ 
er. Use no profane expressions—^liude to 
no sentence that will put to blush the most 
sensitive. You know not the tendency of 
habitually using indecent and profane lan¬ 
guage. It may never be obliterated from 
your heart. When you grow up, you will 
find at your tongue’s end some expression 
which you would not use for any money.— 
It was one learned when you was quite 
young. By being careful, you will save your¬ 
self a great deal.of mortification and sorrow. 
Good men have been taken sick, and be¬ 
come delirious. In these moments they used 
the most vile and indecent language imagin¬ 
able. When informed of it. after restora¬ 
tion to health, they had no idea of the pain 
they had given their friends, and stated that 
they had learned and repeated the expres¬ 
sions in childhood, and though years had 
passed since they had spoken a bad word, 
they had been indelibly stamped upon the 
heart. Think of this, ye who are tempted 
to use imp roper language, and never disgrace 
yourselves.” 
The question in regard to the Noachian 
deluge has received considerable attention 
within a few years, and there still exists a 
diversity of views touching its extent.— 
Three centuries ago it was the general opin- 
on that it was universal ; now, but very low 
truly scientific men, and especially geolo¬ 
gists, hold such a belief. It is tho opinion 
of the profoundcst men of the age—men 
who can discover no irreconcilable discrep¬ 
ancies between physical science and divine 
revelation and who are firm believers in the 
truths of tho latter—that the Hood extended 
over a small part only of tho earth, merely 
that which was inhabited by man in the 
days of Noah. Indeed, such was the con¬ 
clusion to which some biblical scholars came 
before geology was born, and while some of 
the other physical sciences which aro aiding 
in the interpretation of tho Bible, were in 
their infancy. Nearly two centuries ago, 
Matthew I’ooi.e, the biblical commentator, 
wrote as follows: 
“It would !e highly unreasonable to sup¬ 
pose that mankind had so increased before 
the deluge as to have penetrated to all the 
corners of tho earth. It is, indeed, not 
probable thatthey had extended themselves 
beyond the limits of Syria and Mesopota¬ 
mia. Absurd it would be to affirm that tho 
effects of the punishment inflicted upon 
on the supposition that the deluge was not 
:i miraculous interposition of Providence, 
presents three strong reasons for believing 
it was not literally universal. The first dif¬ 
ficulty is the quantity required to submerge 
the whole globe ; the second, the providing 
for all the animals ; and the third the distri¬ 
bution of animals, together with plants on 
the globo. 
Touching tho first difficulty, I have but 
little more to remark than that, among all 
the theories advanced, no one proves satis¬ 
factorily how the entire globe coultl be at 
one and the same moment overwhelmed 
with water. Those who believe in such a 
phenomenon, usually refer it to a deviation 
from natural laws. On the supposition that 
only that part of the earth inhabited by 
man was inundated, the flood may he ac¬ 
counted for by natural causes—a rain of 
forty days, and tho breaking up of tho foun¬ 
tains, or the overflowing of the ocean. 
In regard to providing for the animals 
in the ark, it is easy to see how it might 
have been done, supposing the collection in¬ 
cluded only those of a particular zoological 
province (embracing the entire domain of 
mankind at that period) which is probably 
the case. But, setting aside tho hundred 
and twenty thousand species of insects 
which have now been described, it is diffi¬ 
cult to understand how pairs of the thou¬ 
sand species of mammalia, tho two thousand 
species of reptiles, and the six thousand 
species of birds, all of which have also been 
, , . , . , , , described, and were probablv created before 
men alone, auined to places m which there I XT . ... , , , . , .. . 
1 - . , , . . . i Noah, could have been housed m one buud- 
were no men. It, then, we should entertain | . . . „ , , 
It is often extremely difficult, in the 
mixed things of this world, to act truly and 
kindly too; but therein lies one of the great 
trials of man—that his sincerity should 
have kindness in it, and his kindness truth. 
the belief thatnotso much as the hundredth j 
part of the gloo was overspread with water, j 
still the deluge would be universal, because ! 
the extirpation took effect upon all that | 
part of the globe which was inhabited.” 
Bishop Stiuingfleet, who wrote in the 
early part of the eighteenth century, enter¬ 
tained views similar to those of Poole.— 
Referring to he flood, he says : “That all 
mankind, tlioso in the ark excepted, were 
destroyed by t, is most certain, according 
to the Scriptures. The flood was universal 
as to mankind, but from thence follows no 
necessity at all of asserting the universality 
of it as to the globe of the earth, unless it 
be sufficiently! proved that tho whole earth 
was peopled be'ore the flood, which I despair 
of ever seeing proved.” >■ 
Dr. John Pe Smith, of Great Britain, 
and President Hitchcock, of Amherst Col¬ 
lege, arc amort}- the latest and most able ad¬ 
vocates of a pirtial submersion of the earth 
in the days of Noah. The latter, arguing 
mg the size of the ark. Those who have un¬ 
dertaken to show that it was capacious 
enough to contain the pairs and septuples 
of each species, have, according to their 
calculations, as Professor Hitchcock affirms, 
made the number of species amount only to 
three or four hundred—a number, I may 
add, which would include but a small por¬ 
tion of tho species found in almost any one 
of the fourteen provinces into which, as will 
be seen by Johnston’s Physical Atlas, ani¬ 
mals are divided. 
But allowing that the ark was spacious 
enough to hold pairs and septuples of the 
animals on the globe, how could they have 
lived to get to it ? While some animals, like 
man, inhabit almost all climates, others can¬ 
not survive distant latitudinal transporta¬ 
tion. The forced migration of certain spe¬ 
cies from the frigid or torrid to the temper¬ 
ate zone, would extinguish them at once.— 
But if the flood was limited to a small gco^ 
graphical province—the utmost boundaries, 
nevertheless, of man’s antediluvian migra¬ 
tions—that district might embrace only a 
single fauna; and it is not difficult to seo 
how such a group could survive a journey to 
the ark and be distributed after the waters 
had subsided. 
The great question is, What does the Bi¬ 
ble, correctly interpreted, teach in regard 
to the flood ? Are we told that its literal 
universality is taught in this language:— 
“The waters prevailed exceedingly upon 
the earth, and all tho high hills that were 
under the whole heaven were covered ?”— 
It may be answered, in the language of Pyk 
Smith, that “universal terms aic often used 
to signify only a very large amount in lium* 
ber or’quantity.” This is the case with al¬ 
most all ancient writers, and particularly 
those who penned the Scriptures oi’ the Old 
and New Testaments. When it is said of the 
Queen of Sheba that “she came from the 
uttermost parts of tho earth to hear the 
wisdom of Solomon,” it could not mean a 
distance exceeding fourteen hundred miles; 
yet literally the uttermost parts of the earth 
were nearly as many thousand, miles off.— 
Wheal referring to the time of tho Pentacost 
the New Testament asserts that there were 
dwelling at Jerusalem “Jews, devout men, 
out of every nation under heaven,” no one 
now, it is presumed, understands the pas¬ 
sage to mean more than the nations dwel¬ 
ling between Persia and Italy, the Black 
Sea and Egypt. The same limit must bo 
put to the meaning of many other passages 
which contain universal terms, and which 
aro pointed out by Professor Hitchcock on 
pages 134-5 of his “Religion of Geology.” 
Though not literally correct, such forms of 
expression were distinctly understood by 
those to whom tho language was originally 
addressed. 
It is not true that, at the command of 
Joshua, the sun stood still, yet the language 
used in describing the miracle, was the only 
language which at that period—before tho 
discovery of the earth’s revolution on its 
axis—would have been clear to the human 
understanding. The Scriptures here, as well, 
as in many other places, speak, to use tho 
language of Rosenmuller, “ according to 
optical and not to physical truth.” I may add 
that they speak in accordance with the state 
of knowledge in the ago in which they were 
written. Hence, the terms employed in de¬ 
scribing the extent of the deluge, “ are not 
to be judged of by the state of knowledge 
in the nineteenth century, but by its state 
among the peoplo to whom this revelation 
was first made.” 
Whatever apparent clashing there may 
be between nature and the inspired penmen, 
the facts of science clearly understood, must 
agree with the statements of the Divine 
Word rightly interpreted. As Dr. Chalmers 
remarks, “we have no dread of any appre¬ 
hended conflict between tho doctrines of 
Scripture and the discoveries of science, 
persuaded as wo are, that whatever story 
geologists of our day shall find engraven on 
the volume of Nature, it will only accredit 
that story which is graven on tho volume of 
Revelation.” j. o. 
BulFalo, Fell., 1851. 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 
Many among you may think it inexpedi¬ 
ent to speak frequently, or indeed over, ex¬ 
cept on occasions of great solemnity, of re¬ 
ligion,—and to this I shall not attempt to 
reply. But the world cannot forbid you to 
manifest the spirit of religion in a holy life. 
You may therefore show forth its esseneo 
in every act and deed; even the most ordi¬ 
nary and trivial affairs of life need not bo 
devoid of the expression ot a pious heart; 
Let the deep and sacred feeling which in¬ 
spires and governs all your actions show that 
even in trifles over which a profane mind 
passes with levity, the music of a lofty sen¬ 
timent echoes iu your heart. Let the ma¬ 
jestic serenity with which you estimate*tho 
great and the small prove that you perceive 
the Godhead alike in everything; let tho 
bright cheerfulness with which you encoun¬ 
ter every proof of our transitory nature re¬ 
veal to all men that you live -'hove time and 
above the world. Let your easy and grace¬ 
ful self-denial prove how many of the bonds 
of egotism you have already broken, and 
let the ever quick and open spirit from which 
neither what is rarest or most ordinary es¬ 
capes, show with what ardor you seek for the 
Godhead, with what eagerness you watch for 
its slightest manifestation. 
If your whole life, and every movement 
of your outward and inward being, is thus 
guided by religion, perhaps tho hearts of 
many will be touched by this mute language 
and will open to the reception of that spirit 
which dwells within you.— Schleirmarcher. 
A Great Attainment. —How difficult it is 
to be of a meek and forgiving spirit, when 
despitefully used ! To love an enemy, and 
forgive an evil speaker, is a higher attain¬ 
ment than is commonly believed. It is easy 
to talk of Christian forbearance among 
neighbors, but to practice it ourselves, proves 
us to be Christians indeed. The surmises 
of a few credulous persons need not trouble 
the man who knows his cause is soon to be 
tried in court, and ho be openly acquitted. 
So the evil language of the times need not 
disturb me, since, in the day of judgment, 
my “judgement shall bo brought forth as 
the noonday.” 
