Poetry by Mrs. Cornelia S. Lansengh 
hour- Meet emblem, my - self a drooping flowV. Let the air with their in - cense sweet be fraught, 
[Written for Mnore's Rural New-Yorker.] 
SCHOOL-TEACHING vs. SCHOOL-KEEPING. 
ScnooL-TEAcniNO and School-keeping are 
terms of a widely different signification, yet they 
are so nearly allied that one cannot exist in an 
individual independent of tbe other, under the 
present condition of the common-school system. 
It is a matter of great importance that a person 
who offers himself aa a candidate for taking 
charge of a bcIiouI, be well educated in the 
branches which he expects to teach; but it is a 
matter of equally great importance that he be 
qualified to govern ami manage the school that 
he has under his charge, in a manner conducive 
to the highest interest and most rapid advance- 
The time was when all 
hour- Meet emblem, my - self a drooping fWr: Let the air with their in - cense sweet be fraught, 
Let flowers 
ment of his students, 
which was thought necessary for a person to 
possess to take charge of a country school, was 
great muscular power,—a sufficient commanding 
faculty to "knock down and drag out,"—instead 
of carefully pouring in mentally. But, happily, 
that opinion is fast dying away, and is superseded 
by the just belief that it is not 90 much the peda- 
gogue as the instructor that is called for iu this 
progressive age. 
It is my belief that the wheels of time and 
will soon roll round tbe time when the 
“ Can you govern a school," aa asked 
Let flowers be brought in my dying hoar; 
Meet emblem, myself a drooping flower •. 
Let the air with their incense sweet be fraught 
And music, low music be also brought. 
progress 
question, 
by commissioners and trustees of the present 
day, will be but idle words; and the all-impor¬ 
tant interrogation, "Do you know enough, and 
have you the power of imparting, in a clear and 
comprehensive manner, to the young ideas, that 
which you do know ?" will he put more rigorously. 
This would, Indeed, be a great change, and no 
less great than good. It would not only prove a 
great benefit to the scholar, but also to the 
teacher. It will be taking from the teacher one 
very burdensome obligation, and, consequently, 
giving him more strength to perform, with suc¬ 
cess, that which remains. My short experience 
has taught me that it is an exceedingly difficult 
matter to fix the minds of a class of scholars on 
an illustration of any particular point, when, in 
other parts of the room, there is something else 
to attract their attention. The consequence is, 
double and even triple the lime and labor is 
required to make them understand, had the in¬ 
structor nothing to do but teach. 
Bat, as some may properly ask, who are to 
bring about this change? Is it the school¬ 
teacher? Is it the commissioner? Is it the 
legislator? However great influence they may 
exert, they cannot effect this change unaided by 
other sources. The parent is to be the great 
auxiliary assistant and oo-laborer with the 
teacher in cringing the common-schools of our 
country up to that position which they arc des¬ 
tined to occupy. Parents, yon are accountable 
for your children’s advancement at school. It is 
upon your shoulders the future well-being of your 
children rests. Will you have them grow up 
around you, heaping blessings upon your head, 
and shedding joy and happiness on those who 
come within the circle of Ibeir influence? Would 
you have them a benefit to society, and, as they 
go through life, leave " footprints on the sands of 
time,” which will withstand the annihilating 
raid of ages? Instill into their minds, ere they 
croBB the threshold of your door to go to the 
school-room, that they go there to search out 
treasures that are hidden, and which must always 
remain hidden, unless found out by their own 
exertion. Teach them, while yet under your 
watchful care, that it is not to idle their time 
away, in mischievous sports, that you Send them 
to the school-room. Incite them with a desire 
for knowledge,—teach them to look upon their 
teacher with respect,—that he is not there to 
beat and to hate them, but that lie is placed over 
them to love and to teach them that which they 
are ambitious to know. Thus you will secure for 
Let my hand in my lov’d one’s close be pres!., 
And lay my head upon his breast-, 
Then meeting his glance in a flow of son^. 
My spirit will join the seraph throng. 
I would be laid where the birds do sing 
Their morning and their evening hymn; 
Where flowers and trees might o’er me wave 
» 
And moonbeams smile softly upon rny grave. 
brought 
POVERTY. 
AN EARLY FLOWERING SHRUB. 
A good example costs us but little, yet its value 
we seldom appreciate. The school-room, prop¬ 
erly conducted, Is a source of pleasure as well as 
of usefulness. Happy hearts and cheerful coun¬ 
tenances should always be found therein. Time 
flies swiftly by, yet, on tlio wings of memory, our 
minds often retnrn to those happy scenes which 
cluster round tbe Old Rural School-house, and 
our youthful associates, where first we started to 
ascend the rugged hill of science. 
C. Keeney. 
There is a great deal of pretense and cant re¬ 
specting poverty, and Its numerous blessings,— 
about the advantages of having been born poor,— 
about contempt for riches, and all that sort of 
thing,—all of which talk being not mat, becomes, 
like everything else of that character, contempt¬ 
ible and disgusting. This cant originates in the 
fact that certain individuals, finding at fifteen, 
twenty, or twenty-five years of age, that they have 
nothing in the world hut their active minds, strong 
arms, and still stronger mils, have yet, by hard 
i struggling succeeded in working their way up¬ 
ward among the foremost men of tlio age, while 
others, who havo been pinched by poverty all 
their lives, have, by the moderation of their de¬ 
sires, been more contented and really happier 
than somr who have been pampered and petted by 
fortune. Whereupon, from these indisputable 
premises, certain elegant writers, who have bor- 
i-nwnd a (rood deal from that ‘‘distance ’ which 
Editors Rural New Yorker: —I have seen at 
the East a shrub flowering very early, and bear¬ 
ing yellow flowers, before the leaves appear. 
Wishing to procure It the present spring, for our 
garden, 1 was umiblo to name or describe ft, so 
that I have failed this spring, I am bound to 
have it in the fall, if you can tell me what it is.— 
A Young Lover of Blowers, Michigan, d%,1860. 
WHY I AM A FARMER. 
Young lluralist column of a late number consisted 
mainly of an article with the above caption, evi¬ 
dently written by one more advanced in years 
than the majority of the Contributors to this 
Oolumn. 1 could hardly believe it at first, but on 
a second reading, was convinced of what I before 
suspected, that the writer was a certain former 
teacher of mine, and one who stood hi go in his 
profession. I was a little surprised, but at the 
ftamo time gratified, to know that one so well ac¬ 
quainted with the natural sciences should take a 
place in the ranks of the farming community. 
After ho gets established on his farm, I hope to 
hear from him again. 
But, Mr. Editor, if this subject be not already 
worn out, I would like to give my reasons. It is 
getting to be a notorious fact, that the profes¬ 
sional market is overstocked with lawyers, phy¬ 
sicians, and merchants, and that the supply of 
clerks greatly exceeds the demand; and this 
while the reverse is true with regard to farmers 
and farming. Horace Greeley (good authority) 
states his belief, that there are three times as 
many lawyers and physicians in this country as 
are needed, and not half enough farmers. Now, 
why is this? It appears to uie that ambition and 
laziness are two of the whys and wherefores. A 
large portion of our yonng men, possessing lofty 
aspirations for fame and glory, regard tilling the 
soil as the last road to that desirable object, as it 
would be no place for the display arid apprecia¬ 
tion of their fancied talents; which might, per¬ 
haps, be very true! A larger portion dislike labor, 
or any thing like vigorous personal effort; some, 
from a pure love of indolence, and others because 
they consider it degrading, ungenteel, &c. This 
state of things is apparently not as it Bhould bo. 
But the remedy Is as apparent, and to do my share 
to carry it out, is my strongest reason for being a 
Auother, nearly as strong, is the endear- 
EDUCATION. 
Education is not confined to any one class of 
individuals, but is universally diffused throughout 
the masses, so that the poor reap its benefits as 
well as the rich. It is not to be obtained by a 
close application to books alone; they are only 
aids to the attainment of this much to be desired 
object; they arc only aids; if we rely upon them 
entirely, onr purpose will be defeated. We are 
assisted iu our education as much by a close 
observation of men and things, and by studying 
nature, as we are by books. Iu fact, it is pro¬ 
gressing so loug as we sojourn here. Its advan¬ 
tages are too numerous to mention. What cannot 
I he accomplished by it? How much has already 
been done? It has enabled the geologist to ana¬ 
lyze the earth; tbe astronomer to traverse the 
doing, Becuro ior your children redoubled 
energy and labor, on the part of tbe teacher, to 
promote their best interest, and advancement. 
Fathers, will you not take this into considera¬ 
tion? Mothers, will you not take part of the care 
that too many of you, I fear, throw upon the 
teacher? Do not oiler the excuse that the teacher 
is hired and paid (though scantily,) for teaching, 
and therefore, you are not to perform his labor. A 
sad mistake,—you pay for teaching, and not for 
keeping your children. ^ ounu Teacher. 
West Dryden, Temp. Co., N Y., I860. 
We rather think the shrub you want is the 
I'ortythia viriilmima, which flowers early in May. 
The blossoms arc of a bright yellow color, rather 
loose and ragged, hut clustering thickly around 
tbe branches before the leaves appear. We give 
a drawing of a branch, showing the flowers, and 
the leaves just appearing at the extremity, while 
lower down arc the leaf buds. 
A Pretty Wild Flower. —If it will not be 
trespassing too much upon your time and pa¬ 
tience, please inform the many readers of the 
Rural iu this vicinity, in regard to the name 
and history of the plant, specimens of which you 
will find inclosed. It is a low trailing plant, 
growing wild upon the hanks of the stream, a 
shot distance above Taghunnock Falls. When 
in full blossom It is truly a beautiful object. 
When planted in the flower garden, and kept free 
from grass and weeds, it is much improved, and 
at the present time it is literally conn ed with blos¬ 
soms.—J. G. Clark, Trutnamburg, May 1», i860. 
This is the Phlox a hid at a, or Moss Pink, found 
growing on hill sides, the banks of streams, &c., 
in this State, and further south. 
farmer 
ing associations connected with the farm, and a 
decided inclination for rural scenery. There is 
not a pleasanter sight to my mind, Mr. Editor, 
than to sec a cosy farm house, with good barns, 
and neat surroundings, fences trim, and crops 
well ahead and growing even. I have been but 
once to the city, and that was some time ago, but 
I think I have formed a tolerably correct idea of 
city life from what I have read, and 1 ussurc you 
I should be happier and more contented in the 
possession of an establishment like the above,than 
with all tbe wealth, social und other pleasures, 
pertaining to the city. I have seen it stated that 
a large number of our farmer's boys, on attaining 
their majority, leave the farm for other pursuits. 
Though there may he good reasons for doing thus, 
yet I think they do not clearly see the pleasures 
and advantages of this profcBsiou (not occupation 
merely,) as they should. Having plowed, hoed 
aud mowed all their lives, they are apt to regard 
farming as mere drudgery, and are Just the class 
to be dazzled by the fine stories of fortunes made 
iu a day, at gold mines and at other places, that 
are not gold mines. But such most invariably 
turnout in the end poor in the pocket and m 
spirits, and are glad enough to get about their old 
employment again. L could give other reasons 
[Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker.l 
GOOD TEACHERS. 
A Yes or No.—A simple “ yes,” or an emphatic 
"no,” may cost you a fortune,—may cost yon a 
troop of friends,—may cost you a political promo¬ 
tion,—may cost you your character,—may cost 
you your soul! How many a public man has had 
his whole career decided by his course in aome 
trying emergency, or on some one great question i 
of right He is led up into the mount of tempta- ( 
tion, where some gigantic iniquity bids him bow | 
down and worship it, and promises in return, “all j 
the world and the glory thereof.” From that 
mount of trial he comes down a hero or a fooL ( 
If he lias honored justice and fei 
Humanity. — The inclination to goodness is 
imprinted deeply In the nature of man; inso¬ 
much that if it issue not toward men, It will take 
unto other living creatures; as it is seen in the 
Turks, a cruel people, who, nevertheless, arc kind 
to beasts, and give alms to dogs and birds—inso¬ 
much, as Busbequius reporteth, a Christian boy 
in Constantinople had like to have been stoned 
for gagging, in wuggishness, a long-billed iowl.— 
Lord bacon . 
---- 
When modesty is once extinguished, it never 
returns. 
1 to possess, yet the pupils snouiu unuersiauu 
their progress in learning and Bcicuce does not 
fc depend altogether upon their teacher, but in a 
great measure upon themselves. Great success 
’i requires great individual effort. It should be the 
% duty and pleasure of each scholar to obey 
f promptly the wishes of his teacher, aud iu so do- 
1 iug he not only merits the approbation of his 
& teacher, but advances the interest of the whole 
ift school. 
The die is cast, 
truth, then justice and truth will honor him; if 
not, his bones will be left bleaching on the road 
to a promotion he can never reach.— Cuyler. 
