MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL, LITERAL 7 AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
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PREJUDICE AGAINST COLLEGES. 
In a republican government the great effort 
ought undoubtedly to be directed towards the 
general diffusion of knowledge among the 
people; and consequently, the Common School, 
the People’s College, should receive special care 
and attention. It is in these institutions, and 
these only, that the mass of men receive 
their education, and of course whatever else 
they acquire above the branches taught here, 
must be obtained by their own personal and 
unaided efforts. Hence the necessity of en¬ 
larging the sphere of the Common School, 
and making it an institution for the instruc¬ 
tion of students in a course of liberal learn¬ 
ing, at least equal to the time and the oppor¬ 
tunity given them to attend. 
The Common Schcol ought to be regarded 
in its true light as auxiliary and prelimi¬ 
nary to higher institutions of learning, and 
not antagonistic to them. Both have their 
peculiar sphere of duties, and both are cc- 
workers in the same field. No better proof 
of the necessity of seminaries and colleges 
need be furnished than the readier se’ection of 
a graduate for the teacher of a Common 
School, and the higher rate of wages paid 
such an one over another who has never en¬ 
joyed these advantages. The very trustees of 
a Common School who cry out loudest against 
Colleges, pay marked deference to the diplo¬ 
ma, although, with regret be it said, that i3 
not conclusive evidence of scholarship.— 
Many persons object to the study of the lan¬ 
guages' pursued in our Colleges, as a waste of 
time—contending that it is advantageous to 
the “ learned professions,” but useless to every 
other person. We, for our part, can see no 
legitimate argument in favor of giving the 
lawyer, doctor, or priest, a classical education 
which will not apply with equal cogency to 
every other intellectual profession in life. 
Because the highest institutions of learning 
throughout the civilized world, from the revi¬ 
val of letters down to the present time, find a 
certain course of mental discipline the best 
possible one to develop the intellectual pow¬ 
ers, is, to our mind, good reason for retaining 
rather than rejecting it. The too prevalent 
opinion that a College education makes a 
man an aristocrat and unfits him for practi¬ 
cal employments, is utterly unfounded in fact. 
A great many graduates are aristocrats and 
unfit for practical employment, it is true; but 
the College education is not the cause. It is 
the abuse of their privileges, like the abuse of 
every other good thing, which turns a bless¬ 
ing into a curse. The haughtiest and most 
aristocratic clas3 in any community is that 
set of ignorant, purse-proud men, who, by 
trade or fortunate speculation, have raised 
themselves from low stations, and are now 
swimming upon a golden wave. They value 
a man’s worth by the length of his purse, 
and place the same low estimate upon intel¬ 
lectual greatness which is placed upon their 
own shallow brains, by all sensible men. 
Intellectual school discipline of no kind 
gives a man practice in any manual employ¬ 
ment ; but it prepares him for acquiring it 
more readily, inasmuch a3 it gives him men¬ 
tal superiority. If this were not the case, a 
fool would, for practical employment, be equal 
to a man of sense. A large number of those 
of our acquaintance who happen to be grad¬ 
uates are eminently practical men, and any¬ 
thing but aristocrats. Of eight young men 
known to us who attended together a distin T 
guished literary institution in New England, 
and all of them excellent scholars, two are 
lawyers, two are editors, one a banker, one a 
merchant, one an engineer on the State cana’s, 
and one a farmer—all of them eminently 
practical, and not one of them an aristocrat 
in any sense of the word. 
An individual, contendirg not long ago 
that a College education unfitted a man for 
the practical duties of life, was answered by 
another opposing him with the following fact. 
“ I know an individual on whom the Univer¬ 
sity of Rochester conferred the second degree, 
(Artium Magisler ,) who, on the same day, 
took a barrow and wheeled a winter supply of 
coal into his cellar with his own hand.” 
The reason why College graduates are not 
so often mechanics or farmers as professional 
men, teachers, &c., is because they can do 
better, pecuniarily, at these latter employ¬ 
ments. Let them once see an opportunity to 
improve their condition by the chaEge, and 
our word for it, the editors would drop their 
pens, the lawyers their briefs, the banker his 
check book, the merchant his tape, the engi¬ 
neer his transit, and one and all “ take up the 
shovel and the hoe.” 
Tiik Misrry of Idleness. —A man who is 
able to employ himself innocently is never 
miserable. It is the idle who are wretched. 
TEACHERS' INSTITUTES AND ASSOCIATIONS 
Teachers of New York :—August and 
September are months of more or le3t rest to 
most of you ; but are you improving this re¬ 
spite from the regular routine of the school 
room, in a manner suited both to the refresh¬ 
ment of your wearied faculties, and to the 
maturing of proper plans for future action ? 
When about to commence a piece of work, 
bear in mind the adage, “ that it is half in the 
calculations.” You are about to commence 
operations anew, in a great field of labor— 
the most responsible, yet the most pleasant 
our country affords. Look around you and 
see if New York—the leading State in pop¬ 
ulation, politics and commerce—is paying due 
attention t.o the instruction of her youth.— 
Are not our sister States, instead of prefitirg 
by our example, actually eclipsing our efforts 
in th ; s great cause ? 
Think of the teachers of Ohio, in the morn¬ 
ing tide of prosperity, promoting the best in¬ 
terests of their schools, and, as a consequence, 
elevating the standard of their statesmen, by 
giving their support to associations for the 
improvement of teachers. As an example, 
the South Western Normal Institute has been 
holding a session in Preble county, with some 
200 teachers in attendance. After some two 
or three weeks spent in discussions,[and listen¬ 
ing to profitab'e lectures, they have agreed to 
establish a norma! school, and have actually 
raised several thousand dollars on the spot, 
for that purpose. 
Pennsylvania has her county superinten¬ 
dents, who are at work through ihe medium 
of institutes, and a mutual correspondence, to 
work a reform, even in the State of coal dust 
and forests. 
New Jersey and Connecticut are coming 
foremost in the ranks, by improvirg their 
schools and training their teachers—but where 
are we ? Shall we not, by mutual effort, raise 
the educational stardard of New York, high 
among those of her sister States ? 
Now is the time, before the winter terms of 
school commence, to organize institutes, ex¬ 
change views upon the best methods of in¬ 
struction, and to lay up a fresh supply of 
knowledge for the ensuing campa’gn. 
Remember, the whole man is to be educated, 
and that, therefore, no scrap of science in na¬ 
ture or art comes amiss with the inquiring 
youth. Wherever you are, observe and keep 
thinking; throw in your mite, in favor of 
truth and virtue. 
“ And it must follow, as the night the day, 
You cannot then be false to any man. ’ 
—W., in N. Y. Teacher. 
SCHOLARS. 
No one can be made a scholar ; almost all 
persons can make themselves scholars. Labor- 
saving machines do not apply to the mental 
world in the same sense a3 to the physical. It 
is not among vast libraries, surrounded by 
numerous teachers and professors, that prodi¬ 
gies of learning are produced. The person 
who in youth learns to exercise his own pow¬ 
ers of mind, is sure to turn out a scholar, and 
a useful practical man, if he lives to the mid¬ 
dle period of life. If he does not learn to think 
for himself, as well as to read books and re¬ 
ceive facts from others, he will never become 
really learned. 
Who ever heard of a scholar made by lec¬ 
tures, or by teachers in any form ? Has not 
every scholar who has yet appeared in the 
world become such by his own efforts—by 
personal application,—by the patient and per¬ 
severing use of the machinery within him ?— 
Who ever heard of hereditary learning, or of 
ideas manufactured like cotton cloth — by 
steam or water power ? 
The history of American Colleges for the 
last ten or twenty years fully proves that stu¬ 
dents who perform the most mental labor for 
themselves, and not those who hear the great¬ 
est number of professors, make the strongest 
and most valuable men. A large library is 
another facility in education, which by abuse 
is likely to do injury to students. A great 
reader, and especially a miscellaneous reader, 
is seldom a good scholar or a useful man. He 
may have a large mass cf materials collected, 
but he has no power to use them, either for 
himself or his fellow men. His mind is a 
mere lumber yard, anl himself an intellectual 
miser—a blank in a beautiful and harmonious 
creation around him. 
Thoroughness — thoroughness — and again 
I say thoroughness is the secret of success.— 
A child, in compassing the simplest subject, 
may get an idea of perfectness which is the 
type or aichetype, of all excellence, and this 
idea may modify the action of his mind thro’ 
his whole course of life. Be thorough there¬ 
fore, be complete in everything you do ; leave 
no enemy in ambush behind you as you march 
on, to rise up in tho rear and assail you.— 
Leave no broken link in the chain you are 
daily forging. Pei Act your work so that 
when it is subjected to the trials and experi¬ 
ences of life it will not be found wanting. 
Proficiency in knowledge is not to be es¬ 
timated by the number of bocks which are 
read, but by the'kind. “There is no worse 
robber than a bad book” is the doctrine of an 
Italian proverb, and according to which, the 
man who has a large collection of worthless 
bocks may be said to be in the midst of so 
many robbers. A man may become blind by 
reading, and yet be comparatively ignorant. 
It is only by reading thoroughly a few good 
books, and weighing their statement of facts 
and reflecting on the lessons of virtue they in¬ 
culcate, that we become wiser and better. 
-^ . ■ 
The opponents of any idea, fouuded on rea¬ 
son and common sense, are like men striking 
among live coals; they may scatter them, but 
'•* - . 
CEDAR OF LEBANON. 
If I wanted to inflict the greatest punishment ““ If- it . k • ’ 
c i . t ° it *. v only to make the n kindle and blaze m spots 
on a follow creature, 1 would shut him up ^v 
, . , , , , 1 teat omer vise they would never have tonch- 
aloue in a dark room without employment. touched_ Gotthc “ 
The most valuable part of every nnn’s ed- No one c an pur. ue sol.d learning and fiivo- 
ucation, is that which he receives from himself, lous pleasure at once. 
“The Forest of Cedars” on the famed 
mountain of Lebanon, which once furnished 
the sacred writers with so many beautiful 
images, has now almost wholly disappeared. 
Some few trees remain, to remind us of their 
former glory, (Isa. lx. 13) and to teach us the 
mutability of all sublunary things. 
Burckhardt, the celebrated traveler, de¬ 
scribes these ancient inhabitants of the forest, 
which are among the chief objects of the trav¬ 
eler's curiosity, in the following terms :— 
“ They stand on uneven ground, and form a 
small wood. Of jihe oldest and best-looking 
trees, I counted 11 or 12 : 25 very large ones; 
about 50 of middling size ; and more than 
300 smaller and younger ones. The older 
trees are distinguished, by having <he foliage 
and small branches at the top only, and by 
four, five, or even seven trunks springing from 
one base ; the branches and foliage of the 
others were lower, but I saw none whose 
leaves touched the ground, like those in Kew 
AN ELEPHANT WORKING. 
We passed an elephant work'ng on the 
road, and it was most interesting to wa : ch the 
half-reasoniDg brute ; he was tearing out large 
roots from the ground by means of a chain 
and hook, fastened round his neck by a species 
of collar. He pu ! led like a man, or rather 
like a number of men, with a succession of 
steady hauls, throwing his whole weight into 
it, and almost goirg down on his knees, turn¬ 
ing round every now and then to see what 
progress he was making. Really the instinct 
displayed by the elephant in its domesticated 
state is little short of reason in irs fullest sense. 
There is no doubt they do think, and also act 
upon experience and memory, and their capa¬ 
city seems to increase in an extraordinary de 
gree from their intercouse with man. The re¬ 
markable nicety and trouble they take in 
squaring and arranging the b'oeks of hewn 
stone when bui'ding a bridge is incredible, un 
less seen ; they place them with as much skill 
as any mason, and wi 1 return two or three 
times to give the finishing touches when they 
think the work i3 not quite perfect. They re¬ 
tire a few yards, and consider what they have 
effected, and you almost fancy you can detect 
them turning their sagacious old noddles on 
one side, and shutting one eye in a knowing 
manner, to detect any irregularity in the ar¬ 
rangement. Sidney Smith’s anecdotes cf ele¬ 
phants’ reason, in hi3 lectures on Moral Phi¬ 
losophy, although most astonishing, do not fail 
for want of corroboration. 
THE PREACHING MONKEY. 
There is a curious anima 1 , a native of South 
America, which is called the preaching monk¬ 
ey. The appearance of the animal is at crci 
grotesque and forbidding. It ha3 a dark, 
th'ck beard, three inches long, hanging down 
from the chin. This gives it the mock air of 
a Capuchin friar, from whreh it has acquired 
the name of the preaching monkey. They are 
generally found in groups of twenty to thirty, 
except in the morning or evening meetings, 
when they assemble in vast multitudes. At 
these times, one of them, who appears by com¬ 
mon consent to be the leader or president, 
mounts the highest tree which is near, and the 
rest take their places below. 
Having by a sign commanded silence, the or¬ 
ator commences his harangue, consisting of 
various modulated howls, sometimes sharp and 
quick, and then again slow and deep, tut al¬ 
ways so loud as to be heard several miles.— 
The mingled sounds at a distance are said to 
resemble the rolliug of drums, and rumbling 
and creaking of cart-wheels ungreased. Now 
and then the chief gives a signal with his 
hand, when the whole company begin the most : 
frightful chorus imaginable, and wi h another j 
s'gn, silence is restored. The whole scene is ; 
described as the most ludicrous, and yet the ; 
m03t hideous, that imagination can conceive. \ 
EGYPTIA N DIS COVERIES. 
Mr. John B. Greene, son of an American 
banker, has succeeded, notwithstanding the 
difficulties attendant, upon clearug away the 
Palace of Medinet Uabora, in discovering the 
celebrated Egyptian Calendar, of which Cham 
pollion could only copy the first lines. A 
cast of this monument was taken on the spot, 
bv means of a particular kind of composition, 
photography not reproducing it properly.— 
Different colossal figures, the upper parts cf 
which were only visible, have been now clear¬ 
ed away and brought to light ; one of them 
in excellet preservation, shows the features of 
Ramises III., and is about 19 metres high. — 
Mr. Greene in clearing around this-colossus, 
was able to discover and to he drawings of the 
inscriptions of the pylone or grand portal 
erected between two courts ; and he has also ! 
I Gardens. The trunks of the old trees are 
covered with the names of travelers and other 
persons who have visited them : I saw a date 
of the seventeenth century. The trunks of 
the oldest trees seem to be quite dead : the 
wood is of a grey tint. 
The cedar is a large majestic tree, rising to 
the height of 30 or 40 yards; and some of 
them are from 35 to 40 feet in gir*h. It is a 
beautiml evergreen, po-sessing leaves some¬ 
thing like those of the rosemary, and distils a 
kind of gum, to wh : ch various qualities are 
attributed. Le Bruyn sajs, the leaves of the 
tree point upward, and the f.u t bangs down- 
waid : it grows like cones on the pine tree 
but is longer, harder and fuller, and not easi¬ 
ly separated from the stalk Its seed, is sim¬ 
ilar to the cypress. 
The wood of the cedar is very valuable ; it 
possesses a strorg aromatic smell, and is re¬ 
puted to be inc >rruptible. The ark of the 
covena it, a r d many part3 of Solomon's tem- 
p’e, were constructed \>t it.” 
1 proved the existence of a pavement of granite 
which probably covered ihe whole court, and 
above whreh rose a passoge which appears to 
have ltd into a second court. The excava¬ 
tions of Mr. Greene, which have just com 
p'etely made known one of the most impor¬ 
tant edifices of Pharaonic Egypt, will, by the- 
numerous inscriptions wh.ch they furnish, 
throw fresh light on different points of Egyp- 
tion philology.— Post. 
True Enough. — If a man’s projects suc¬ 
ceed, we applaud his sound business judgment; 
if they fail, we see the cause of failure so 
plainly, that we are astonished at hi 3 want of 
forethought in not seeing it at the beginning. 
*& Corner. 
For Sfoorc’a Sural Naw-Yorker. 
PHILOSOPHICAL ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 26 letters, divided into 6 
words. 
My 26, 22, 2, 3, 11 is one of the mechanical 
powers. 
My 12, 13, 15, 6,14, 20, 5 is an essential prop¬ 
erty of matter. 
My 9, 4, 21, 12, 22, 26 is one of the principal 
divisions of Natural Philosophy. 
My 5, 25, 18, 20, 8, 23, 10, 24 is a definition 
given to elastic fluids. 
My 1, 16, 7, 26, 26 is a machine operated by 
two of the mechanical powers. 
My 26, 1,17, 22, 14, 10, 5 is the name in op¬ 
tics given to images. 
My 1, 22, 9, 13, 13,19, 5 is a portion of the eye. 
My whole is an admonition which will be 
hailed at this time by all prudent men. 
gIP Answer next week. 
ANSWERS TO CHARADES, ENIGMAS, Ac. 
Answer to Charade in No. 297 : 
three epithets belong to top, 
M hich for generic term we drop ; 
ihe peg, the whipping, and the humming, 
M ith each its proper place to come in. 
The humming top in nurseries reigns, 
Ihe whipping in by-courts and lanes ; 
The manly peg all these disdains, 
And with his challenges is found 
Within the schoolboy’s proper ground. 
Uius far in unpoetic diction 
1 he topographical description— 
The schoolboy given up to play, 
Finds whipping-tops in learning’s way, 
Not thinking that, to serve good stead, 
The better top should be the head ; 
Tasks idly learnt, from memory slipt, 
Are top’s revenge by bottom whipt. 
Reverse the toy—you go to pot— 
Its irony -cot 1 fits and hot; 
It boils and broils, and stews and fries, 
Its uses, ends, and propeities. 
It were but silliness to tell, 
To make a Dulman’s chronicle, 
For which consult Cook’s oracle. 
An! scarcely needs it to be told, 
A riddled pot will nothing hold, 
Tho’ this your riddle to the top 
Holds water, and not spills a drop ; 
And to make clear the diagnostics, 
Oft in by-ways, on patches green, 
A gang of gypsies may he seen 
Boiling their pot upon cross-sticks. 
Answjr to Miscellaneous Enigma in No. 257: 
Napoleon Bonaparte. 
Jkbktjj fpMitgs 
TIME’S CURE. 
Mourn, O rejoicing heart! 
The hours are living !— 
Each one some treasure takes ; 
Each one some blossom breaks, 
And leaves it dying !— 
The chill, dark night draws near ; 
Thy sun will soon depart, 
And leave thee sighing ;— 
Then mourn, rejoicing heart, 
The hours are fly'pg ! 
Rejoice, O grieving heart ! 
The hours fly fast !— 
With each some sorrow dies ; 
With each some shadow flies ; 
Until at last, 
The red dawn in phe.east 
Bids weary night depart, 
And pain is past;— 
Rejoice, then, grieving heart, 
The hours fly fast! 
[Household Words. 
SMALL ITEMS. 
How very few of us 3top to consider that 
small items continually added make up a 
great account. The whole routine of life is 
compared of small matters, and he who sits 
down to wait for great occasions to occur be¬ 
fore he undertakes to act, will be very likely 
to pass to the end of his journey without ac¬ 
complishing anything. No one leaps at a 
single bound into the full powers of manhood ; 
the faint and futile efforts of the infant, 
and the prattle of an inarticulate tongue, 
must first be essayed ere the future man can 
either speak or walk. The athlete, who as¬ 
tonishes the world with his strength and 
prowess, and the orator who stir3 men’s blood 
with the thunder of his eloquence, mast reach 
their fortunes through a slow and toilsome 
process. 
Very few men, compared with the whole , 
human family, can be especially distinguished; j 
but all are competent to become urefal and 
beloved. The man who does to the best of 
his abilities the duties incumbent upon him in 
the community in which he lives, will be sure 
to enjoy the confidence and respect of his fel¬ 
low men, and the approval of his own con¬ 
science. That individual is far from being 
the most happy who is the mo3t renowned for 
envy, malice, and all uncharitableness, pur¬ 
sue him like a pack of fiends, and render his 
path in life a way of thorns. No class of 
men are more thoroughly hedged in by cares 
and anxieties, than the occupants of high sta¬ 
tions. 
Oar happiness consists very much in small 
things—in doing cur duty in the minutiae of 
life—little acts of kindness, gentle words, pa¬ 
tience under annoyances, smiles for those who 
look to U3 for comfort, and encouragement to 
the desponding. An infinitely greater num¬ 
ber come short of the true standard of human 
excellence, by reason of small defects of char¬ 
acter, than by the commission of actual 
crimes ; and he who would desire to fulfill the 
conditions of a perfect man, as near as may be 
in our imperfect state, must watch more close¬ 
ly the small errors of act and thought, than 
the tendencies to greater crimes. 
BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS 0E LIEE. 
Bishop Heber, upon departing from India, 
said in his farewell sermon ; Life bears us on 
like the stream of a mighty river. Our boat 
at first goes down the mighty channel—thro’ 
the playful murmuring of the little brock, 
and the willows upon its glassy borders.— 
The trees shed their blossoms over our young 
heads,; the flowers on the brink seem to offer 
themselves to our youDg hands ; we are happy 
in hope, and grasp eagerly at the beauties 
around us ; but the stream hurries on, and 
still our hands are empty. Our course in 
youth and in manhood is along a wider, deep¬ 
er flood, amid objects more strikirg and mag¬ 
nificent. We are animated by the moving 
picture of enjoyment and industry passing us; 
we are excited by our short lived enjoyments. 
The stream bears us on, and joys and griefs 
are left behind us. We may be shipwrecked, 
but we cannot be> delayed — for rough or 
smooth, the river hastens towards its home, 
till the rear of the ocean is in our ears, and 
the waves, beneath our feet, and the floods are 
lifted up around us, and we take our leave of 
earth and its inhabitants, until of our further 
voyage there is no witness save the Infinite 
and Eternal. 
Little Trials.— It is the little trials of life, 
which irritate the temper, and destroy the 
equanimity of the mind; just as the continual 
falling of water-drops, one by one, wears away 
the solid rocks. Pride—sense of wrong— 
consciousness of the sympathy and pity of 
others, may assist us to meet great trials, and 
strengthen us to endure severe sufferings ; but 
the grace of God alone is sufficient for us, in 
the numberless petty annoyances which con¬ 
tinually beset us in the path of daily life.— 
Without it, we are indeed weak to endure 
suffering, powerless to resist temptation. The 
daily life of the Christian, may, through 
watchfulness and prayer, be a silent admoni¬ 
tion to the unconverted, an incontrovertible 
proof to the unbelieving, of the reality of his 
faith. 
Hasty ebullitions are often best met by 
silence, tor the shame that follows the sober 
seccud thought pierces deeper than rebuke. 
‘ Guilt is best discovered by its own fears. 
