............ . _ 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
Cjre (fctmcator. 
For the Rural Hew-YorV.er, 
STUDY OF THE LANGUAGES, 
That it is absolutely necessary for many 
to possess a thorough knowledge of the an¬ 
cient languages cannot be denied, for it is 
necessary to ensure success in some particular 
callings in life—that it would be in a measure 
advantageous to all of any occupation or pro¬ 
fession did they possess this knowledge, is 
equally evident—that the study perseverirgly 
pursued, forms a salutary though partial dis¬ 
cipline for the youthful mind, is a'so readily 
admitted—but, that the knowledge of either 
of the dead languages is absolutely necessary 
to the full development of anyone mental fac¬ 
ulty, is not so readily perceived. Farther, 
that young persons having the time and 
means at their disposal, (who never intend to 
use these acquirements in after life,) cannot 
employ them more advantageously than in 
pursuing a classical course is very doubtful, 
even though the advantages to be derived 
were all that they are ever claimed to be.— 
Finally the assertion mode by a late writer, 
that the classical man, (1 mean as he did, the 
purely classical one, who knows not the 
moaning of the names even of the mere prac¬ 
tical sciences) can determine “ without resort 
to lexicon or master,” the precise mean¬ 
ing of such name, or of any English word 
derived from the Latin, savors so strongly 
of boasting that a plaiu denial would ap¬ 
pear ridiculous. True, a knowledge of the 
primitive words “ conveys a meaning to the 
classical man,” but a precise idea of the 
meaning of a derivative, is very seldom con¬ 
veyed by that of its original, and therefore 
the test can never be relied upon. Let us il¬ 
lustrate for the benefit of the credulous.— 
You knew the infant in its mother’s arms, or 
rather you knew its mother well, but can you 
from this knowledge alone, give me any relia¬ 
ble information respecting the character of 
the full grown man ? You meet him, are told 
who he is. “ Ah,” you exclaim, “ I might 
have known you sir, you so nearly resemble 
your mother in the face.” Take the words 
that are analyzed by the writer before alluded 
to. First, trigonometry, from treis—three, 
gonia—an angle, and raetreo—to measure.— 
Perhaps the Englished lad of the present day 
has some features in common with each of 
his classic ancestors, it might perhaps easi'y 
be determined from what race he has descend¬ 
ed, but is the resemblance striking ? Who 
could know from these three original wGrds, 
that Trigonometry is the modern name of a 
science? Next, Hydrostatics, Hudor—wa¬ 
ter, Statikcs— standing, and implies, the 
writer says, “the study of fluids at rest.”— 
Now the idea of study never could have been 
originally suggested to any mind, by either 
of the words, Hudor or Statikos, but must 
have been learned in some other way. And 
so on through the list, until at last the writer 
virtually declares himself run aground on the 
word suburbs. 
In fact use, not derivation, is the law of 
language, and that use varies, and is continu¬ 
ally changing. Oar words cap, captain, cap¬ 
tion, capital, capitol, &c., are all derived 
from caput—a head—bat they all differ in 
signification from caput, as well as from one 
another. Hence a knowledge of the original 
word is calculated to lead a person into er¬ 
ror, to misunderstand and misuse its derivative 
of different meaning. 
It is often asserted that classic studies are 
necessary to ensure a well balanced mind, in 
other words, while mathematics with all rhe 
other practical studies develop a part of the 
mental faculties, still a portion remain unim¬ 
proved, or at most but partially benefited. 
The question naturally arises, which of the 
mental powers are left thus deficient? This 
must remain to be answered by some one who 
can prove the assertion. 
A faculty is strengthened andMmproved by 
proper use. Memory seems to be ths first 
and principal faculty of the mind that is 
brought into use in studying the languages ; 
this appears from the fact that the yoimg 
mind is so much better adapted to this pur¬ 
suit than when older. The faculty cf memo¬ 
ry has been compared to wax ; soft and plia¬ 
ble when young, but age renders it harder and 
less susceptible of impression. At least it be¬ 
comes necessary to work upon it in a differ¬ 
ent way to produce an effect. The young 
never stop to think. Having a task before 
them, they set about it mechanically, (at least 
this is too often the case,) and they are able 
to perform it in this way, while older heads 
must see a meaning in what they learn.— 
Their harder memories must be operated upon 
by a lever of ideas, which mu3t be borne 
down by the power of thought lying" embod¬ 
ied in the very words that they would commit 
to memory ; because this stimulus is wanting 
they make little progress. This is the 
only reason why the study is so proverbially 
dry. There is not that in it that can interest 
the mind of old or young, that is to be found 
in almost every other study, as history, for 
example. Although the latter study is equal¬ 
ly an exercise of the memory, yet the words 
to be treasured up embody facts, and these are 
so pleasantly associated t hat the task becomes 
a pastime. Is it objected that the faculty is 
no longer developed ? then the task may be 
increased, if double the amount can be memo¬ 
rised by the same labor, the advantage is in 
favor of the study of history. A 3 much can 
be said in favor of other studies compared 
with the Latin. Hence memory cannot be 
that faculty which can be fully developed 
only by “ digging in the grave3 of deceased 
languages.” 
True a good classical education is the fash¬ 
ion, and where fashion is law it probably 
doe 3 , as has been said by another, “ stand in 
good stead for a lamentable deficiency in all 
branches of natural science.” True, “ a man 
so qualified will be much more likely to ob¬ 
tain an honorable position as the president of 
a college.” A man who can teach the class¬ 
ics, is indispensable at the present day, in all 
our colleges. But fashions change, they often 
change for the better, when strong-minded 
persons are convinced of an error, and take 
the lead. 
Now the question at issue is this, cannot 
the mass of young persons in this country, 
who have no special reason to the contrary, 
make a more profitable investment of their 
time and money, than to lay them oat in dead 
languages, (not to say in their shrouds ?)— 
It is said that persons who have studied the 
languages, are the best qualified to decide the 
point. Not -0 ; they are only fit to argue on 
the negative side of the question. Tney are 
prejudiced by education to favor their own 
course, while others who have spent the same 
opportunities in the pursuit of practical 
studies, are inclined to favor a different 
course. 
Some think the question settled by the uni¬ 
ted testimony of classical men, since compara¬ 
tively few are found to differ with them. But 
such testimony if not reliable should be re¬ 
jected altogether. The classical man may be 
able to set forth the advantages to be derived 
from a knowledge of the languages, in the 
be3t possible light, but he must be propor- 
tionably ignorant of practical science, while 
the man who has devoted hi3 whole time to 
the latter pursuit is qualified to perceive its 
beauty and its utility, and is necessarily not 
so well informed in the classics. It cannot be 
said that either has an advantage over the 
other in judging the point at issue. 
If the question is to be decided in this way, 
by experiment, justice and truth requires 
that it be fairly made; but before tbi 3 can be 
done, the same advantages mu3t be presented, 
and the same encouragements offered to the 
practical student that are now found onlv in 
our institutions, where the classics are consid¬ 
ered indispensable. Then it can be seen which 
course is best adapted to produce men, and 
also which sends them forth into the world in 
the most “ becoming dress.” It is entirely 
impossible for any one to know everything. 
The mental faculties may be fully developed 
by giving attention to the most important 
truths ; hence store the mind with these first. 
Knowledge is power. The cry arises from 
every corner of our land, educate the masses. 
In what ? in the classics ? First let them 
understand fully the laws of nature, the re¬ 
lations that exist between man and man, and 
man and God. Investigator. 
I Was Once Young.— It is an excellent 
thing for all who are engaged in giving in¬ 
struction to young people, frequently to call 
to mind what they were themselves when 
youug. This practice is one of the most 
likely to impart patience and forbearance, and 
to correct unreasonable expectations. At 
one period of my life, when instructing two 
or three young people to write, I found them, 
as I thought, unusually stupid. I happened 
about this time to look over the contents of 
an old copy-book, written by me when I was 
a boy. The thick up-strokes, the crooked 
down strokes, the awkward joinings of the let¬ 
ters, and the blots in the book, made me com¬ 
pletely ashamed of myself, and I could, at 
that moment, have burned the book in the 
fire. The worse, however, I thought of my¬ 
self the better I thought of my backward 
scholars ; I was cured of my unreasonable ex¬ 
pectations, and became in future doubly pa¬ 
tient and forbearing. Iu teaching youth, re¬ 
member that you once were young, and in 
reproving their youthful errors, endeavor to 
call to mind your own. 
Knowledge.— How beautiful and exalted 
are the following sentiments of De Witt 
Clinton: 
“ Pleasure is a shadow, wealth is vanity, 
and power pageant; but knowledge is ecstat¬ 
ic iu enjoyment, perrenial in fame, unlimited 
in space, and infinite in duration. In the per¬ 
formance of its sacred offices it fears no dan¬ 
ger, spares no expense, omits no exertion. It 
scales the mountain, looks into the volcano, 
dives into the ocean, perforates the earth, en¬ 
circles the globe, explores sea and land, con¬ 
templates the distant, ascends the sublime!— 
No place too remote for its grasp, uo heaven 
too exalted for its reach.” 
The Art of Learning.— The chief art of 
learning is to attempt but little at a time. 
The widest excursions of the mind are made 
by short flights, frequently repeated ; the most 
lofty fabrics of science are formed by the con¬ 
tinued accumulations of single propositions.— 
Locke. 
Useful Dlifl, 
THE PLANTAIN. 
The plantain or banana tribe deserve a 
distinguished place amorg ;he yielded cf fibre. 
Sometimes improperly spoken of as tree.3. they 
are only large herbaceous p’ants, of which the 
stem is formed by the footstalks of the leaves, 
which successively ensheath or wrap round 
each other. These skea’hing footstalks—and 
therefore the entire stem ot ike plant, except 
the white and sprouting core—abound in 
fibre. From some varieties of plantain, and 
in some parts of the world, this fibre is al 
ready largely extrreted as an article of com¬ 
merce. The Manilla hemp, a'ready ■well 
kno vn as a substitute for the true hemp, i3 
the produce of a banana, the Musa texti/is. 
This variety of fibre has attracted much at¬ 
tention, from the beauty of its appearance, its 
durability, its power of resisting great straius, 
and also because it is lighter aud cheaper than 
Russian hemp. The rigging of many vessels, 
especially of American build, has been made 
of Manilla hemp, and the cordage of this ma 
terial, when worn out, has the advantage of 
being convertible into an excellent kind of 
paper. 
The banana wh’ch yields the Manilla fibre 
is a native of the Phiiiipine Islands, wlere it 
grows wild in natural groves which are con 
sidered as private property, and is also ex en- 
sively cultivated. The outer layers of fibres, 
contained in the stem are coarse in quality. 
The inner layers are of various degrees of 
fineness and are woven into cloth, which forms 
the universal wearing apparel of tfce country. 
Some of this cloth is so fine that a garment 
made of it “ may be inclosed in the b l ow of 
the hand.” Nearly all tfce other known spe 
cies of plantain or banana also abound in 
fibre. In India the fibre cf tfce common plan¬ 
tain ( Musa sapie’ tum ) is separated and pre¬ 
pared by the natives of Dacca, and numerous 
experiments have been made both in the East 
and West Indies, with a vfew of preparing it 
of good quality and at a cheap rate. 
Various samples from different localities 
were sent to the Great Exhibition, and it was 
stated that, besides yielding tfce usual crop of 
fruit, the banana stems, hitherto allowed to 
rot on the ground, would yield upwards of six 
hundred pounds of fibre per imperial acre. It 
was added on the part of the exhibitors from 
Demerara, that if a “ remunerative piice— 
some nine or ten pounds a tun—could be ob¬ 
tained for this fibre, a new branch of industry 
would be opened up to the colonists.” With 
a view both to our heme wants, therefore, and 
to our colonial prosperity, it is desirable that 
the preparation and use of these plantain 
fibres should be encouraged. In 1854. aver¬ 
age qualities of Manilla hemp brought from 
£44 to £50 a tun ; and in 1854, as much as 
£70 to £76. And although from other local¬ 
ities, aud from other species and varieties of 
the plant, fibres of equal strength and value 
may not be obtained, yet there is a wide 
enough margin to allow of a considerable re 
duction in the price of that which may be 
made in our own colonies, and yet leave a re¬ 
munerative return to the colonial grower.— 
Edinburgh Review. 
ELEMENTS 0E LOCKS. 
Rocks are the oxides of metals. Silex, the 
most abundant ingredient in rocks, mountains, 
and soils, is the oxide of silicum. This oxide 
constitutes nearly one-half of the solid matter 
of our globe. It is the principal element of 
quartz in all its varieties, which are exceed¬ 
ingly numerous, and some of them very beau¬ 
tiful. Quartz is the only mineral found eve¬ 
rywhere. Sknd is pulverized quartz. Pebbles 
are fragments of quartz, rounded by attrition. 
Gun-flint is quartz, breaking with a conchoi- 
dal (shell like) fracture. Jasper is red quartz, 
with a fine compact texture. Amethyst is 
purple quartz, frequently found in six-sided 
crystals, which is the common shape of quartz 
crystals in its different varieties. Agate is 
clouded quartz, in numerous varieties, some of 
which are much used for watch-seals, finger- 
rings, breast-pins, and other ornaments. Car- 
melian is quartz of a fine texture and of a yel¬ 
lowish red color. Chalcedony, blood-stone, 
catseye and many other gems, are varieties of 
quartz. 
The coloring matter giving most of the 
beautiful hues to gems, aud an endless variety 
of colors to quartz, is the oxide of iron. The 
oxide of silicum, and the oxide of iron are 
hence united in this same most abundant min¬ 
eral in the world. 
Next to quartz, felspar, or clay formed by 
the decomposition of felspar, is the most abund¬ 
ant element of soils. This, too, is composed 
of several oxides of metals in chemical combi¬ 
nation. Felspar is also very extensively unit¬ 
ed with quartz in tfce formation of rocks, not 
by chemical combination, but mechanical mix¬ 
ture. The felspar and the quartz can be sepa¬ 
rated by the hammer. Not so with the oxygen 
and silicum, forming silex. Chemical agency 
alone can separate chemical combinations.— 
Such combinations in rocks, soils a nd other min¬ 
eral bodies, are exceedingly numerous, compli¬ 
cated and delicate. Tfce most common stone 
tfcat meets the eye in any part of the world is 
composed of two oxides. The oxygen and the 
metals are each united by chemical affinity, 
and then the two oxides are again combined 
by the same agency to form a “ common stone,’’ 
evidently worthy of more respect than it com¬ 
monly receives.— The Inventor. 
National Meteorology. —Lieut. Maury, 
whose services to commerce in ascertaining 
the winds and currents of the ocean have been 
so valuable, makes a proposal that a system 
of observations be established on land with a 
view to agricultural matters, similar to that 
which he established on the sea with a view 
to navigation. 
True nobility is exempt from fear. 
PERFECTION OF THE MIND. 
Mental per fee ion should be tfce great aim 
cf life. To thi3 er;d should all our labors, 
struggles and prayers tend. In youth, in man¬ 
hood, iu age, we should seek to render more 
perfect our powers of miud. We ere never 
too old, aud but a few weeks too young for 
mental improvement. To perfect our minds 
we must contemplate perfect objects, both in 
the material and spiritual universe. We must 
dwell much upon these objects. We must ap¬ 
propriate their perfections to our own meutal 
use; cherish, aamire, love them. We must 
look for beautiful things, that images of beau¬ 
ty may throng our minds. We must cultivate 
amiab.e feeing?, that harmony of soul may 
enrich the inward temple with tfce music of 
its numbers. We must strive for perfection 
of action, that in onr daily wsik tfce halo of 
angel-Jife may surround us Deformity will 
not make us more perfect. Vice will not help 
us in our work. The artist never studies de¬ 
formity to augment his treasures of beauty.— 
Toe musician never makes discords and hark¬ 
ens to them thereby to cultivate the sense of 
harmony and beauty in his soul. So in life, 
we should surround ourselves with the best 
objects. We should always seek the company 
of sweet thoughts, lovely objects, amiable feel¬ 
ings, pleasant words good offices. These help 
to perfect our minds. Our thoughts are the 
chisels which carve the statuary of their souls. 
They do it well or ill as they are right or 
wrong. Bad thoughts are enemies worse than 
all outward ones. 
Dr. Chaoning says, “ The perfection of 
mind is to have a propensity to seek agreea¬ 
ble and m ertstiig objects, to have attention 
turn spontaneously to beauties of nature, ex¬ 
cellences of human character—God's perfec¬ 
tions. A mind thus filled is always improv¬ 
ing. always happy. A mind which turns to 
dbegresaole things, party agi"aliens, future 
uncertainties, <fcc., must oe depraved. All ob¬ 
jects may be viewed as expressions of good¬ 
ness.”— Phrenological Journal. 
For Moore’s Rur&I New-Yorker. 
MISCELLANEOUS ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 17 letters. 
My 3, 12, 11 is a vessel. 
My 13, 4, 5, 17 is an instrument for measuring. 
My 10, 6, 15 is an adverb. 
My 9, 12, 16 is a small animal. 
My 2, 5, 17 is a beverage. 
My 3, 7, 15, 16 is a place of safety for ships. 
My 12, 1, 8, 14 is a girl’s name. 
My whole was the name of a distinguished 
general. * a. o. p. 
Genoa, N. Y., 1855. 
glT* Answer next week. 
RIDDLE. 
We are three cousins strangely born 
And form’d as if in Nature’s scorn, 
And in fantastical caprice, 
For we have but one leg a-piece. 
Tho’ one of us has scarce a leg, 
One nothing better than a peg, 
The third’s is less a leg than toe, 
And not to stand on—but to go ; 
Just like a founder’d horse a-skipping 
A most umlackened pace by whipping. 
One only has a voice—a sound 
Like hollow muttering underground, 
Between a whistling and a drumming, 
And thus her tune is always humming, 
Better her dancing time to keep, 
Then drones and whirls herself to sleep. 
Till lost her breath, with staggering pace. 
She swerves and falls upon her face. 
All equally alike in figure— 
One tapering, one in body bigger ; 
One before action, tightly laced, 
Even with a cord about the waist, 
Which off is thrown, when in the ring 
She enters with a wondrous fling ; 
And what you’ll think most strange to be, 
We have no joint, we bend no knee, 
Tho’ few can move so fast as we. 
Now, turn me round—put tail before 
The head—I may have legs, even four, 
Or three ; two seldom, often none, 
But never, as I reckon, one ; 
I sometimes have an arm, a long one, 
Which for defence needs be a strong one ; 
For I’m much given co heats and broils ; 
And then the blood within me boils ; 
I spare no bones, and well can batter. 
And woe to those whom I bespatter ; 
Yet oft I’m cool provokingly. 
And show some tact for irony, 
So, friend, beware lest you be diddled, 
I am not fond of being riddled; 
And one of my sure diagnostics 
Is looking back upon acrostics. 
Answer next week. 
Answer to Miscellaneous Enigma in No. 296: 
Nicholas Copernicus. 
Answer to Geographical Question in No. 295: 
Astronomers usually reckon longitude from 
the meridian of Greenwich or Paris. When 
it is Monday noon there, any Christian in the 
Chiu^se Empire, 120° East, would say it was 
Monday evening ; and another in California, 
120° degrees West, would say at the same 
time it was Monday morning. The point of 
division between Monday and Tuesday would 
in this case fall upon the meridian of 1S0° 
where the eastings and the westiDgs meet, in 
the middle of the Pacific ocean. The last peo¬ 
ple our traveler would meet in his voyage 1 
who traded and communicated with America 
and Europe by way of the Atlantic, would 
tell him it was Monday ; and the first people j 
he encountered who communicated with these I 
continents in the opposite direction, would I 
tell him it was Tuesdav. 
For Moore’s Rara! New-Yorker 
THE VILLAGE GRAVE-YARD. 
£ *I came, but they had passed away, 
The fair in form, the pure in mind ” 
Leva years have passed ; and now once more 
At this lone hour of parting day, 
I’m standing, where in times of yore 
My feet so oft were wont to stray. 
Sad thoughts are mine ; each little mound, 
Each grassy hillock here I find, 
The new made graves so thick around, 
Bring back some cherished friend to mind. 
With misty eyes I stoop to trace 
The record on each mouldering stone ; 
And find wifhin this quiet place 
Are mo-t jf those to childhood known. 
The maiden in whose eye the light 
Of early hopes was ail undim— 
The.child, ef sunny brow and bright, 
With life just opening unto him— 
The gray-haired sire upon whose head 
The snows of four-score winters lay, 
Sleep each within their narrow bed, 
And moulder back again to clay. 
But here—oh here ! beneath this stone! 
Lies sleeping in a dreamless rest, 
The fairest and the dearest one, 
Of all whose love my young life blest. 
We trod together, through the hours 
Of childhoo d’s sunny day. and bright; 
A path of sunshine and of flowers, 
With overhead a sky of light. 
And when our youth had passed away, 
And we went forth ’mid scenes of strife, 
Each traveling in a different way 
Along the dusty road of life, 
Though other friends were clustering round, 
Twining our hearts with other ties, 
Though each a separate home had found, 
Waking her warmest sympathies,— 
Through every scene of good and ill, 
Through joy and sorrow, bhghtand change, 
Our hearts were ever beating still 
With love no distance could estrange. 
That loving heart lies hushed and chill, 
In death’s unbroken, dreamless sleep ; 
While o’er her memory, with me still. 
There’s nothing left mo but to weep ! 
Oh ! truly—Life’s an unread book, 
Whose pages one by one are turned 1 
And as we’re forced at them to look 
Some painful lesson must be learned. 
We see Time’s misty shadows flung 
Upa>n our once bright onward way, 
And hopes, we fondly prized while young, 
We sadly watch and find decay. 
Nunda, N. Y., IS55. Relief. 
TIME AND ETEUNITY, 
Time, like a river, carries all things away 
with a rapid course; they swim above tfce 
stream for awhile, but are quickly swallowed 
up, and seen no more. Tfce very monuments 
men raise to perpetuate their names, consume 
and moulder away themselves, and proclaim 
tbeir own mortality, as well as testify that of 
others. But now, on the other side, the en¬ 
joyments above and the treasures proposed to 
us by our Savior, are indefectable in their na¬ 
ture and endless in their duration. They are 
still full, fresh and entire, like the stars and 
orbs above, which shine with the same undi¬ 
minished lustre, and move with the same un¬ 
wearied motion with which they did from the 
first date of their creation. Nay, the joys cf 
heaven will abide when these lights of heaven 
will be put out, and when sun and moon, and 
nature itself shall be discharged their stations, 
and be employed by Providence no more.— 
The righteous shall then appear in their glory, 
and, being fixed in the divine presence, enjoy 
one perpetual and everlasting day—a day com¬ 
mensurate to the unlimited eternity of God 
himself, the great Sun of Righteousness, who 
is always rising and never sets.— Dr. South. 
SOMETHING TO THINK OF. 
“ My first step to ruin,” exclaimed a wretch¬ 
ed youth, as he lay tossing from side to side on 
the straw bed in the corner of the prison 
house, “ My first step to ruin was going fish¬ 
ing on the Sabbath. I knew it was wrong ; 
my mother taught me better, my minister 
taught me better ; my master taught me bet¬ 
ter ; my Bible taught me better. I didn’t 
believe them, but I didn’t think it would come 
to this. I am undone. I am lost.” 
Perhaps he said, “It is unpleasant to be 
| cooped up in church. What harm is there 
in taking a stroll in the wood ? What harm 
in carrying my fishing tackle and settirg on 
the banks to fish ?” 
What harm ? Why, the harm is that God 
is disobeyed, who says, “ Remember the Sab¬ 
bath day to keep it holy” The moment a 
youth determines to have his own way, choos¬ 
ing his own pleasure before God's will, that 
moment he lets go his rudder, his compass, his 
chart; nothing but God's word can guide you 
safely over the ocean of life. Give that up, 
and you will be lost. 
To consider the world as a dungeon, and 
the whole human race as so many criminals 
doomed to execution, is the idea of an enthu¬ 
siast ; to suppose the world to be a seat of 
delight, where we are to expect nothing but 
pleasure, is the dream of a sybarite; but to 
conclude that the earth, man, and the lower 
animals, are, all of them, subservient to the 
purposes of an uuerring Providence, is the 
system of a wise and good man.— Addison. 
Human Glory. — There are two things 
which ought to teach us to think but meanly 
of human glory ; the very best have had their 
calumniators, the very worst their panegyrists. 
We should walk through life as through 
the Swiss mountains, where a hasty word may 
bring down the avalanche. 
The error of a moment may become the 
sorrow of a whole life. 
If a good act benefits no one else, it bene¬ 
fits the doer. 
