MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER 
Q. What is Hie cause of mist? 
A. Currents of air from the water coming 
n coni act with colder land currents. 
Q. Why are the currents of air from the 
lan i colder than those blowing from the water? 
•th radiates heat after 
an water, consequently 
contact with the land 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
MORAL EDUCATION IN COMMON SCHOOLS. 
Tire Honorable Secretary of State tells us 
that the Bible cannot be used in our Common 
Schools, under the recognition of any of our 
school laws. Or, what is the same thing, lie 
asserts that the teacher has no authority in 
this regard: and I suppose if the teacher were 
of the delegated powers of the 
[Written for the Rural New-Yorker.] 
-- 
w- . 
A. Because the 
sunset, more freely 
the air which conies 
is collier than that which conics in contact with 
the water. 
Q,. Why are windows often covered with thick 
mist, and ihe frames wet with standing water? 
V. Because the temperature of the external 
air always fails at sunset, and chills the window 
glass will*which it comes in contact. 
Q. How does this account for the mist and 
water on a window? 
A As the warm vapor of the room touches 
tin -old glass it is chilled and condensed iuto 
m st; and the mist, (collecting into drops,) rolls 
d.)wn the window frame in little streams of 
water. 
(>. Docs the glass of a window cool down 
moro rapidly than the air of the room itself? 
A Yes; because the air is kept warm by 
i;:os. and by the animal heat of the people in 
die room: in consequence of which, the air ol 
t, room suffers very little diminution of heat 
from the setting of the sun. 
Q. Whence arises the vapor of a room? 
A. 1st.—The very air of the room contains 
' vapor. 
2nd.—The breath and insensible perspiration 
of t n<• inmates increase this vapor; and, 
— Hot dinners, steam of tea, and so on, 
increase it still more. 
t>. What is meant by the “insensible per- 
-nii ationi” 
A. From every part of the human body an 
i.-cnsible and invisible perspiration issues all 
light and day; not only in the hot weather of 
unmer, but also in the coldest day of winter. 
(.) 1 f the perspiration be both insensible and 
risible, how is it known that there is any 
h perspiration? 
A. If you put your naked arm into a clean, 
iry glass tube, the perspiration will condense 
on the glass like mist. 
Q. Why are carriage windows very soon 
covered with thick mist? 
A. Because the warm vapor of the carriage 
is condensed by the cold glass, and covers it 
with a thick mist. 
Q. Why is the. glass window cold enough to 
condense the vapor of the carriage? 
A. Because the inside of a carriage is much 
warmer than the outside, and the glass window 
is made cold by contact with the external air. 
Q. Where does the warm vapor of the car¬ 
riage come from? 
A. The warm breath and insensible perspira¬ 
tion of the persons riding, load the air of the 
carriage with warm vapor. 
Q. What is the cause of the pretty frost¬ 
work seen on bed-room windows in winter time? 
A. 'Ihe breath and insensible perspiration 
of the sleeper, (coming in contact with the icc- 
cold window.) are frozen by the cold glass and 
form those beautiful appearances seen in our 
bed room on a winter morning.— From “ Fa¬ 
ir V IDA FA I It FIELD. 
How rapid speeds the (tight of years, 
llow swift time’s lifeless tread, 
Unheeding human hopes or fears, 
Or pleasure’s smites, or sorrow's tears, 
The living or the dead. 
Unheeding how the storm may ride, 
Or rude winds lash life’s sullen tide. 
No spell can bind the circling hours, 
Or hid the tyrant stay, 
On, tho’ his presence blight the flowers 
Of pleasure in youth’s rosy bowers, 
Which bloomed but for a day ; 
Tlio’ beauty from his path has fled. 
And hearts lie crushed beneath his tread. 
He marches over battle-grounds, 
Where hones are bleaching bare, 
And smooths the grassy hillock clown, 
As if a warrior of renown 
Had never slumbered there ; 
And bids us mark how weak a pride, 
The fame for which the hero died. 
He hurries by' while nations fall, 
And kings resign their sway', 
And ivied-porch and ruined wall, 
Spread like a daik and solemn pall, 
O’er cities of to-day-; 
And proud hearts beat no longer high. 
And weary forms lay down to die. 
He will not pause, tho’ at his feet, 
A world in ruins lay, 
Tho’ pestilence and famine meet, 
And desolation in the street 
Grim stalketh at noonday; 
Tho’ fiercest woes are in his path, 
“The seven vials of God’s wrath.” 
But, mid that tempest’s awful roar, 
An angel form shall stand, 
“ One foot on sea and ono on shore, 
And swear that time shall be no more, 
By God’s Almighty hand.” 
Then shall the monarch yield his crown, 
The sword and sceptre, Time lay down. 
New Haven, Conn., Rob., IS54. 
7 in possession 
V district, if the whole district, with the cxcep- 
( tion of one man, wished the Bible introduced 
ft iuto school, by the same exposition of the Hon- 
< orable Secretary, the authority of ihe teacher 
7 would remain the same—a minus, and not a 
!S ‘positive quantity. Now, I do not design to 
( enter into an examination of the doctrine con- 
Tiich 1 have referred, 
taiued in that paper to wi 
but will simply say, that while the Honorable 
Secretary lias limited the power of the teacher, 
he does not produce, to any reflecting mind, 
any sufficient authority to substantiate the doc¬ 
trine he sets forth. 
Now, what is the authority of the teacher? 
"What may he do, and what may lie not do? 
He is the teacher , to whom, for the time being, 
is delegated the. authority of the parent. It 
is his duty to establish proper discipline in his 
school, and he has also authority to enforce it. 
But what shall he teach? AY hat hands shall 
prepare the proper aliment for the immortal 
mind? There is more, much more, for the 
teacher to do than merely to instill into the 
youthful mind the highly important principles 
of natural science. This is plain business.— 
The primary laws of matter are few, and easily 
understood ; but how intricate and obscure 
are the laws of immateriality! It is easy to 
demonstrate a mathematical problem, to trace 
the various relations of different forms of mat¬ 
ter, or to expound the laws of language ; but 
how to cast a proper influence over the heart , 
how to direct the moral nature of the child, 
is far more difficult. But lias the teacher 
nothing to do in this respect? Is the teacher 
of a common school a teacher of moral science? 
A writer in a recent number of the Rubai. 
tells us, “the child is in the hands of the teach- j 
er, as clay in the hands of the potter.” In j 
some degree this is most fearfully true, nor can 
we make it otherwise. Day by day that youth-! 
ful mind is developing; day by day the lump j 
of clay is receiving impressions which will fade j 
only with the mind itself. Must the child be i 
taught Arithmetic and Geography, and not be 
taught how to think and act ? It is not in the I 
province of any physical science to do this.— 
Arithmetic enables the scholar to deal cor-1 
rectly with numbers, but it does not teach him j 
the proper application of them in all cases, i 
Geography brings the different nations of the | 
globe beneath the eye of the scholar, but it 
does not teach him how to feel towards them. | 
Can a teacher impart a knowledge of the nut- j 
ural sciences, and fail to enforce the great a 
moral lesson found in every examination? Cun f 
he fail to exclaim, us lie examines the various { 
departments of creation, 
“My Rather made them ali? ” 
The teacher has a moral influence, and hence 
he imparts moral instructions. He may do 
much. He may impart lessons, aside from 
those found in our common school books, 
which would be of great and lasting benefit to 
the mind. But some tell us the moral educa¬ 
tion of the child is the work of other hands. 
“ Let the parent or the minister attend to that.” 
But while it is the duty of the parent and min¬ 
ister to labor in this behalf, it is none the leas 
the duty of the teacher. Children who listen 
daily to the instructions of their teacher, be¬ 
come accustomed to regard bis word as nearly 
the highest authority. Then what power for 
good or evil has that teacher over the mind of 
the child! When that little immortal being is 
just beginning to discern ideas in the written 
language before him—wLea he is just trans¬ 
forming those hitherto arbitrary characters into 
tangible forms, is it not very important that he 
read something of the God that made him, and 
of his duties of love and obedience? Then, if 
ever, is the important time. 
But shall the Bible be introduced into com¬ 
mon schools? Why not? There is certainly 
no law against it 1s it not an excellent book 
—chaste, pure, elegant in style, and faultless 
in doctrine? It is almost the only book of mor¬ 
als that is free from sectarianism. It is our 
glory that we live in “ free, Christian Ameri¬ 
ca!” that we can boa.A of a government found¬ 
ed on the Bible! 0! how we love the piety 
and sterling integrity of our noble ancestors! 
And while we rather sneer at the “ Catechism 
and Testament” of old New England times, is 
there not danger of forgetting how much we 
owe to that Testament? Shall we exclude 
from our common schools the chief cause of 
our patriotic glory? That spirit would turn 
our glory iuto shame. J. A V. Barker. 
Kendall Mills, N. Y. 
C-UTTA PEE-CIIA BRANCH. 
For description of Gnlta l’erclm,— its discovery, history and use. 
Stoi* one moment, Father, let me ask you a 
question, which seems to me to apply closely 
to the success of your school at present, and 
in the future. AATiile you send your children 
to that nursery of the mind, the common school, 
tell me, do you ever go there yourself and sit 
an hour or a day to see how they are progress¬ 
ing, not only in their studies, but also in their 
moral and physical education? AATiile you arc 
so careful of their interests at home, do you 
follow them to their school and scrutinize close¬ 
ly the character of the one under whose charge 
they are placed? Mother, you who, with that 
deep and fervent love which a mother only can 
feel, have watched that child from the cradle 
to early childhood, and now see your daughter 
just entering the joyous mazes of youth, or 
womanhood, do you visit that school, that you 
may know the influence which is hourly being 
exerted over her plastic mind? AATietlier that 
influence tends to elevate her and lead her to 
see the beautiful and holy as such, and admire ' parent 
accordingly, or if her mind is left to sink itself trom 
to the low enjoyments of the under strata of kefHH 
humanity, by a teacher who happens to belong yy 
t< A hat genus? Brother, you who have sat qq ie 
upon these seats and perhaps received the first n ing a 
impulse toward being a man within these walls, 46m.— 
have you no interest in the training of your 
juniors? Lastly of all; Sister, you to whom 
my scholars look up for example and precept, n,i]es s 
do you watch with Ihe eye of a critic the one part o 
to whose care are entrusted those in whom you New 1 
seem so much engaged at home? I sat and ^j ew * 
listened for an answer, but like an empty ves- Blaine 
sel, the ghosts of departed hours came back to ji„j t v 
my vision, as void of visits to my sanctum as deg. 5 
the snow of the mountain is of impurity. And deg. 1 
then I soliloquized, ’tis so in No. 1; is it so 1 
throughout the other districts? AATiy not visit -y 0 -’ ^ 
your school? IIow do you know in what way too m 
it isconducted? AVhy not thus encourage your side ol 
teacher by a visit; and more, why not encourage Jup 
your scholars also? Then let me ask you, ^ 
readers of the Rural, do you visit your school? 
E. G. Coe. J^dis 
DLs. No. 1, Ridgeway. . 
[Written for Moore's Rural New-Yorker.] 
PLANETARY PHENOMENA FOR 1854 
AV hat thoughts arise within mo at the utter¬ 
ance of those few but touching words ! AVlio 
is there that lias stood beside a dying friend, 
and seen tho death-struggle—the gasp for life, 
—the quick breathings—the last fond look— 
but feels a thrill pass through him at the mere 
mention of a death-bed scene ? 
But why this feeling of sorrow at the tlio't 
of death? To some, death is sweet; they feel 
no terror at its approach, no longings for life; 
they wait, as it were, impatiently for its coming. 
Yes, the good man welcomes death with a 
smile, and exclaims, “ 0 death! where is thy 
sting? 0 grave! where is thy victory?” 
AVlio would not wish that such might be his 
last hours; that, when called to leave this 
beautiful world of ours, he might be prepared 
“to die in peace, sleep in Jesus, and be raised 
in the morning of the last day, to life eternal?” 
Then let us “live the life of the righteous, tliat 
our last hours may be like his.” Nell. 
AERIAL VOYAGES OF SPIDERS. 
The number of the airouautic spiders occa¬ 
sionally suspended in the atmosphere, says Mr. 
Murray, 1 believe to be almost incredible, could 
we ascertain their amount. I was walking 
with a friend lately, and noticed tlrat there 
were four of these insects on his hat, at the 
moment there were three on my own; and 
from the rapidity with which they covered its 
surface with their threads, I cannot doubt that 
they are chiefly concerned in the production of 
that tissue which intercepts the dew, and 
which, illuminated by tiie morning sun, “ glit¬ 
ters with rubies and sapphires.” Indeed, I have 
noticed that, when the frequent descent of the 
icroiiautio spider was determined, a newly roll¬ 
ed turnip field was, in a few hours, overspread 
by a carpet of their threads. It may be re¬ 
marked that our little aeronaut is very greedy 
of moisture, though abstemious in other res¬ 
pects. Its food is perhaps peculiar, and only 
found in the superior regions of the sky. Like 
the rest of its tribe, it is doubtless carnivorous, 
and may subserve some highly important pur¬ 
pose in the economy of Rrovideuee; such for 
instance, as the destruction of that truly for¬ 
midable, though almost microscopically mi¬ 
nute insect, the Furia Infernalis, whose wounds 
are stated to be mortal. Its existence has 
been indeed questioned, but by no means dis¬ 
proved; that and some others, injurious to man, 
or to the inferior creation, may be its destined 
prey, and thus our little aeronaut unheeded by 
the common eye, may subserve an important 
good. 
Mr. Bowman, F. L. S., says:—“AVe arrested 
several of these little aeronauts in their flight, 
and placed them on the brass gnomon of the 
sun-dial, and had the gratification to see them 
prepare for, and re-commencc their aerial 
voyage. Having ctawled about for a short 
time, to reconnoitre, they turned their abdo¬ 
mens from the current of air, and elevated 
them almost perpendicularly, supporting them¬ 
selves solely on tho claws of their fore-legs, at 
the same instant shooting out four or live, of¬ 
ten six or eight, extremely fine webs, several 
yards long, which waved in the breeze, diverg¬ 
ing from each other like a pencil or rays, and 
strongly reflecting the sunbeams. After the 
insects had remained stationary in this ap¬ 
parently unnatural position for about half a 
minute, they sprang oil' from the stage with 
considerable agility, and launched themselves 
into the air. In a few seconds after they were 
seen sailing majestically along, without any ap¬ 
parent effort, their legs contracted together, 
and lying perfectly quiet on their backs, sus¬ 
pended from their silken parachutes, and pre¬ 
senting to the lover of nature a far more in¬ 
teresting spectacle than the balloon of the 
philosopher. One of the aeronauts I followed, 
w hich, sailing in the sunbeams, had two dis¬ 
tinct and widely diverging fasciculi of webs, 
and their position in the air was such that a 
line uniting them would have been at right 
angles with the direction of the breeze.” 
T11E IMMORTAL SOUL. 
“The sun is but a spark of fire, 
A transient meteor in the sky, 
The soul, immortal as its sire, 
Shall never die.” 
Thus AA r atts sweetly sings. A'es, the mind 
is immortal. Infinite wisuom had otherwise 
never implanted longings which all of earth 
leaves unsatisfied, or gifted us with capacity 
capable of indefinite improvement 
The brute is born, attains maturity, and hast¬ 
ens to depart. Its powers culminate and then 
sink into a decay ominous of extinction; whilst 
man’s longest life closes upon an intellect yet 
in rapid development. The body, as it runs 
quickly through its cycle from youth to age, 
proves oftentimes, it is true, a weariness and 
clog to the prisoner within; but their union 
severed like a bird cage-freed, the disenthralled 
spirit will soar away on pinions imperishable. 
Distinct as it is, in its nature, from the mate¬ 
rial, all analogy forbids that we should antici¬ 
pate the mind’s annihilation when that home 
where it briefly tabernacled has gone back into 
dust. Death involves a disintegration of parts; 
but in the immaterial we can conceive of no 
such separation, and hence can predict no de¬ 
cay. As the inrect flutters from out its chrys¬ 
alis in green and gold, to sport amid flowers 
and sunshine, so shall the purified spirit forsake 
its chrysalis, to dwell forever amid the beauties 
and brightness of heaven. There, in the fru¬ 
ition of its fondest hopes, will it find ample 
amends for all sorrow and every sadness, and 
participate in pleasures which thore who deny 
a future—because they dread its awards—can 
never enjoy. 
Then cheer up, travel-worn and Christian 
pilgrim. AVitli thankful heart partake of such 
as thy present affords, and trust unwaveringly 
in God, assured that whatever betide, hereafter 
thy voice shall be attuned to angel harmonies, 
and thy home be in that city whose walls'are 
jasper, and whose gates are pearl; along whoso 
streets murmurs the crystal river, and in whose 
midst blooms the tree of life.— Presbyterian. 
Education in Turkey. —The Boston Atlas 
states, on the authority of a recent English 
work, that since 1846 a law of the 'Turkish 
Empire requires every citizen, as soon as his 
children have reached their sixth year, to in¬ 
scribe their names in the books of one of the 
public schools, unless he can prove his ability 
to educate them at home. At Constantinople 
it is reported that there are now 31)6 free 
schools, frequented by 22,700 children of both 
sexes. There are likewise six secondary 
schools with about 1,000 pupils. In order to 
gain an entrance into these, five years must 
have been spent in the free schools. There is 
also a high school for young men, who are in¬ 
tended for public employ men ts, a college for 
the same object, a normal school for the edu¬ 
cation of professors, an imperial college of 
medicine, a military, a naval and an agricult ura- 
al school. Of these schools the Sultan is su¬ 
perintendent, and he attends their examina¬ 
tions. The public libraries of Constantinople 
contain 70,000 volumes. 
Tiie Real AVorlo. —'This which people call 
the real world is not real to me; all its sights 
seem to me as shadows, all its sounds echoes. 
I live at service in it, and sweep dead leaves 
out of paths, and do erands as I am bid; but 
glad am I, when work is done, to go home to 
rest Then do I enter a-golden palace, with 
light let in only from above; and all forms of 
beauty are on the walls, from the seraph be¬ 
fore God's throne to the rose-tinted shell on the 
sea-shore. 
Warfare of Life. —It is the duty of every 
friend of humanity to arm himself for life’s con¬ 
test, and keep his armor ready for constant 
use. AVe speak not of wars with flesh and 
blood—it is a more noble war to which we 
allude. It is a contest for the supremacy of 
truth over error—the triumph of virtuous and 
honorable principles over those which &re 
vicious and dishonorable. 
Impressions made upon the youthful mind 
are among the most lasting. An early incident 
will be remembered when later matters ore 
buried in oblivion. 
