Purpose and Indecision.— The same circum¬ 
stances which produce some men’s best, produce 
other men’s worst. One by unwavering firmness, 
and adherence to right, goes irom poverty and de¬ 
spair up and up to the heights of mortal endurance 
and mortal triumph; and, though the world may 
not see his victory, he feels it deep in his own 
heart—a treasure which no hand can deprive him 
........ 
JUNE 6. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
fhutatflp. 
The Public Schools op Maine.— Accordirg to 
the report of Mr. John P. Craig, late Superinten¬ 
dent of the Common Schools of Maine, the num¬ 
ber of pupils between four and twenty-one years 
of age, who attended the common schools of that 
State during the year 1856, was 2-11,097. The ave¬ 
rage wages of male teachers, per month, exclusive 
of board, was $27 30, and of female teachers $21 90. 
The whole number of public schools was 4.S55, and 
the whole number of school houses 3,082. The 
number of school houses which are well construct¬ 
ed, commodious and in good repair, is 1,784; not 
in good repair, 2,013. The value of all the school 
houses is $S95,9S7. Number of new school houses 
built the past year, 127, valued at $1*29,248. The 
amount of money raised by tax in 1855 for the 
support of schools iu 1855-6, was $386,438, which 
was an excess over the amount required by law of 
$39,237. There was received from the State for 
the same purpose, $00,016, and the 6um of $17,736 
raised from local lunds. The whole amount ex¬ 
pended for school purposes during the year was 
$040,188. These figures all show a large and en¬ 
couraging increase over the statistics of 1855. 
“ Let Your Light Shine.”— When first we are 
brought to know Christ, this “light” is kindled— 
kindled by being brought in contact with Him who 
is u the Light of the world.” Having been thus 
kindled it, must shine. The new life is the shining. 
The new feeling, the new desires, the new tempers, 
the new words, the new walk and conversation— 
these are the beams of light which should stream 
out from us upon a dark world.— Bonar. 
- •- 
When young or old, think it i3 neither too soon 
or too late to turn over the leaves of your past 
life, consider what you would do if what you have 
done were to be done again. 
The ordinances of God are the means of salva¬ 
tion; but the God of ordinances is the author of 
salvation. 
A thousand hopes, a thousand fears, 
A thousand prayers, a thousand tears. 
A thousand acts of good untold. 
Outweigh five thousand pounds of gold ; 
A thousand hopes in beaTen gain 
An interest that ne’er brings, pain ; 
A thousand tears—oh l these will spring 
And safety o’er thy treasures fling ; 
A thousand prayers for good below 
A mine of wealth and peace bestow ; 
A thousand tears from pity's eyes 
Are jewels bright, set in the skies ; 
A thousand acts of kindness done, 
A kingdom great by these are won. 
TRUE PRINCIPLES OP EDUCATION-. 
UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU READ. 
SING TO ME OF HEAVEN. 
O, sing to me of Heaven 
When I am called to die, 
SiDg songs of holy ecttaoy. 
To watt my soul on high. 
When cold and sluggish drops 
Roll off my marble brow, 
Burst forih In strains of joyfulness— 
Let Heaven begin below. 
Then to my ravished ears 
Let one sweet song be given ; 
Let music charm me, last on earth. 
And greet me first in Heaven. 
Then close my sightless eyes, 
And lay me down to rest, 
And clasp my cold and icy hands, 
Upon my lifeless breast. 
Then round my senseless clay 
Assemble those I love ; 
And sing of Heaven, delightful Heaven, 
My glorious Home above. 
For Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
OUR ELLA SLEEPS. 
LOVE TO CHRIST. 
For Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
PARENTS. VISIT YOUR SCHOOLS. 
If yon would see the money which you expend 
for educational purposes bearing fruit in the 
healthful, mental, moral, and physical develop¬ 
ment of your children; if you would have the 
salutary influence of the home education fostered 
and promoted, rather than neutralized and counter¬ 
acted by the school education; then, we say, pa¬ 
rents, visit your schooL 
It is not onr present purpose to give our reasons 
for this advice, but only to express our conviction, 
after eight years’ labor in the training of the 
young, that in no way can you reap such ample 
dividends h orn the money invested in education, 
as by visiting your school. 
Can you not spend the time? One day each 
term is all that is required of any one, if all pa¬ 
rents do their duty in this matter. Farmers, leave 
your laborers in the field without your supervision 
for a day, and look after those whom you have 
employed to cultivate the precious soil of your 
children’s minds. Merchants, trust your merchan¬ 
dize to your clerks for one day, aud go and learn 
to what, keeping you have committed your greatest 
earthly treasures. Mothers, can you trust a 
stranger with the morals, minds, and health of 
yonr sons and daughters, and not know whether 
he is fitted lor and faithful to the trust? 
Think of if, all who have children in school, is 
it not reasonable? is it not your duty to your chil¬ 
dren, to the State, to Him who made your fathers 
and mothers? a h. d. 
Sodus, N. Y., 1857. 
DESPOTISM IN SCHOOLS. 
Education in Ohio. —From the last annual re¬ 
port of the Ohio State Commissioner of common 
schools, we learn that the total number of school- 
houses in the State is 8,148, the number of new 
ones built last year being 027. Number of teach¬ 
ers employed, 17,813, of whom 9,449 are males, and 
8 ,3'.i temales. Number of white and colored 
youth in the State, 826,680; number enrolled for 
the schools, 501,315; number in average daily at¬ 
tendance, 322,643. 
TnERE seems a strange difficulty in comprehend¬ 
ing the true aims of Bcbool discipline and instruc¬ 
tion. It can have but two purposes—to train and 
inform tbe man. Of these, the former ia incom¬ 
parably the most important and lasting in its 
results, yet the latter receives almost exclusive 
attention. Indeed, it is declared that training is 
secondary, a mere incidental to the acquisition of 
positive knowledge, and hence the constaut and 
almost uncontrollable tendency to gorge pupils 
with definitions, rules, principles, facts, theories, 
etc., just as if a ready, accurate, practical use of 
them would follow as a matter of course. Chil¬ 
dren, by hundreds, leave our schools, annually, 
furnished with complete sets of ruleB aud princi¬ 
ples, but, who know no more of their use than a 
savage does of the sextant. All that Buch children 
learn of any practical value, is learned after they 
leave schooL It is a common remark among even 
educated men, that they have been compelled to 
stndy anew every branch they had previously 
studied at school, in order to possess themselves 
of its uses. To those who cease to he students 
when they leave the school, what seemed most 
familiar ia soon lost. For instance, scarcely any¬ 
thing of geography iB retained after the book is 
laid aside—in many cases not the definition of the 
most oommon terms. The pupils of our High 
Schools, after the lapse of only a few months, are 
generally unable to obtain fifty per cent, of cor¬ 
rect nnswers on lists of questions not more diffi¬ 
cult than those upon which eighty per cent, was 
obtained when they were first admitted. It is, to 
say the least, extremely questionable whether itia 
policy to invest such large amounts as are annual¬ 
ly expended in the schools, in stocks that depre¬ 
ciate so rapidly.—A. J. Rickoff, in Report of Cin¬ 
cinnati Schools. 
In reading never permit yourselves to pass over 
words, with the meaning of which you are un¬ 
acquainted, in works you are perusing. Go at 
once to the fountain head—to a dictionary for un¬ 
intelligible words, to an encyclopaedia for general 
information, to a classical authority for mytholog¬ 
ical and other similar facts. You will not read as 
fast, by adopting this plan, bat you will soon 
realize that you are, nevertheless, advancing much 
more rapidly, in the truest sense. When you 
have not works of reference at command adopt 
the practice of making brief memoranda, as you 
go along, of such points as require elucidation, 
and avail yourself of the earliest opportunity of 
seeking a solution of your doubts. And do not, I 
beg of you, think this to laborious The best 
minds have been trained by such a course. De¬ 
pend upon it, genius is no equivalent for the ad¬ 
vantage ultimately derived from patient persever¬ 
ance in such a course. I remember well, that to 
the latest year of his life, my old Iriend, De Witt 
Clinton, one of the noblest specimens of the race 
it has been my fortune to know, would spring up 
like a boy, despite his stiff knee, when any doubt 
arose in conversation, upon literary or scientific 
subjects, and hasten to select a book containing 
the desired information, from a little cabinet ad¬ 
joining his usual reception room. His was a gen¬ 
uine love of learning, for its own sake; and the 
turmoil and toil of political life never extinguish¬ 
ed his early passion, nor deprived him of a taste 
for its indulgence.— R. 1. Schoolmaster. 
Gently, brother! for our Ella sleepeth. The 
fever-rose no longer blooms upon the dimpled 
cheek; but the lily, white, calm and beautiful, re¬ 
poses ’neath those clustering ringlets. See how 
the little hands are folded upon the quiet breast— 
How calm, how deep, how holy are her slumbers. 
The very air around seems sacred. It is as if 
angels, unseen, were hovering o’er our loved one, 
and wooing her to their bright home in Heaven. 
And is it strange if angels love her? Nay—we can 
bat love her, sinfal and unworthy 3s we are of auch 
a treasure. Well may they, who know no sin, love 
one so lovely, one so like themselves. Aye, stoop 
and press those icy lips and marble brow. Sever 
one sunny ringlet from its fellows—take the last, 
long look, and press the last fond kiss —then lay her 
gently 'neath the parted sod, and strew sweet blos¬ 
soms of the early spring upon the tiny mound.— 
Precious bud—plucked by the heavenly Gardener 
to blossom in his own celestial bowers. We weep 
—such grief hath need of tears: and Jesus wept* 
Yet would we meekly kiss the uplifted rod. 
And, weeping, say, Thy will be done, O, God! 
Middleport, N. Y., 1857. Emma. 
'■ Eternity has no grey hairs!” The flowers 
fade, the heart withers, man grows old and dies; 
the world lies down in the sepulcher of ages 
but time writes no wrinkles on the brow of eter¬ 
nity. 
Eternity! Stupendous thought! The ever¬ 
present, unborn, undecaying, and undying — the 
endless chain, compassing the life of God — the 
golden thread, entwining the destinies of the 
universe. 
Earth has its beauties, but time shrouds them 
for the grave; its honors, they are hut the sun¬ 
shine of an hour; its palaces, they are hut as the 
gilded sepulchers; its possessions, they are toys 
of changing fortune; its pleasure, they are but 
bursting bubbles. Not so in the untried bourne. 
In the dwelling of the Almighty can come no 
footsteps of decay. Its day will know no dark¬ 
ening—eternal splendors forbid the approach of 
night. Its fountains will never fail — they sure 
fresh from the eternal throne. Its glory will 
never wane, for there is the ever-present God.— 
Its harmonies will never cease; exhaustless love 
supplies the song. 
KEATIB, OR TURKISH SCRIBE. 
EDUCATION AMONG THE TURKS.* 
Mohammed, who is the oracle on all subjects, 
having declared, that “the ink of the learned and 
the blood of the martyr are equal in the sight of 
God,” education is not so entirely neglected by bis 
followers, as is generally supposed. It may, in one 
sense, be considered general; for every parent is 
obliged to send his children, both male and fe¬ 
male, to the schools which are attached to the 
mosques, and supported by them. At Constanti¬ 
nople there are no less than 396 mektebs, or pri¬ 
mary free schools, attended by 22,700 children, 
both boys and girls. There are six other schools, 
for more advanced studies, attended by 870 pupils. 
The initiatory services t.o the Elif Be, literature 
of the young Moslems, are very imposing. The 
candidate, blooming with the roses of six short 
Bummers, is decked in bis best, and in the best of 
tbe neighbors’ too; for there is great borrowing 
of jewelry and rich embroideries, when the parents 
cannot afford to bay. The young tyro mounts a 
steed which vies with him in the splendor of its 
caparison, and with his badge of honor, a beauti¬ 
ful and glittering satchel slang over bis shoulder, 
parades the Btreets. The children of the school 
about to he honored by his attendance, are the es¬ 
cort; and the good old hodfa, or school-master, 
leads the train, and the tune, as they wend their 
way, singing and chanting; the boys and girls vo¬ 
ciferating in full chorus, Ameen! Ameen! 
When the children of the Saltan are about to 
begin their literary pursuits, the procession and 
rejoicings are, of course, in proportion to the ex¬ 
celling importance of the royal progeny over all 
inferior buds of humanity. The public are thus 
duly notified, though the instruction of the young 
Sultans is by private masters. 
The system of instruction in the Turkish schools 
is eminently primitive, and the branches taught 
are very elementary. They use neither quill nor 
desk, the peculiarity of the Turkish characters 
requiring the stiffness of the reed; and the impor¬ 
tance attached to calligraphy is so great, that the 
paper is held on the palm of the hand, in order to 
give the flexibility, requisite for the formation of 
the letters. The lessons of the children consist of 
spelling and writing; and the higher studies in 
committing the Koran to memory. In order to 
understand this sacred book, they are obliged to 
learn the grammar, in which proficiency is seldom 
made. Hence very few. even ot the officials, es¬ 
pecially of the ancien regime, can read or write cor¬ 
rectly, all their correspondence being performed 
by keatibs, or scribes. The general deficiency of 
education creates a great demand for men of this 
profession, whose services are needed for all sorts 
of letter-writing, for petitions, obligatory notes, 
contracts, etc. These persons are to he found in 
the court-yards of the mosques, in shops and 
kahvi’s near the Porte, and in many other places. 
(See engraving.) 
To those who knew not how to affix their own 
names to any document, a seal not only became a 
convenient substitute, but the universal style of 
who, like other boys that are never naughty, had 
to go through with it in their younger days. 
The Turkish, original Tartar, is at present com¬ 
posed of three different languages, viz: Arabic, 
Persian, and Tartar, owing to the different people 
with whom the Turcomans came in contact* The 
Koran being their fundamental study, the Arabic 
has become the basis of the language, as the Latin 
is of the European dialects, ft is written from 
right to left, like all other Oriental languages, with 
the exception of the Armenian. 
The Turkish has no capitals or Roman letters, 
but consists of italics—or in other words, the 
written and printed characters have the same 
form, nor have they any punctuation. Their 
calligraphy may be divided into five different 
styles. 
The Rika , or ordinary hand-writing, the same 
being used for printing. 
Sulus, or enlarged writing, is used for inscrip¬ 
tions, title-pages, or the headings of chapters. 
Divany, or the court script, which is an orna¬ 
mental style of writing, and only used at the Porte 
tor firmans, or edicts. 
Jaalik, or tbe Persian letters, is used in the ju¬ 
diciary courts, and for poetry. 
Siyakal, or Turkish hieroglyphics, is ODly used 
for treasury bonds. 
The Turkish language is, in itself, most copious 
and expressive, euphonious in sound, and capable 
of the greatest variety of expression, and is well 
adapted to the composition of poetry. Although 
the Osmaulis formerly possessed but little mathe¬ 
matical, philosophical, or scientific learning, the 
Muses have never denied their inspiration to them. 
Foreign literature baa been much in vogue ia lat¬ 
ter times, and many translations have been made 
into Turkish. The languages of Europe are also 
cultivated to some extent, and many are now to be 
found at the Porte, who speak the French and 
English quite fluently. 
The present Saltan has done much to elevate the 
system of public instruction in his dominions.— 
He has ordained a council to superintend all edu¬ 
cational affairs, and also has commenced the erec¬ 
tion of a magnificent public university, opposite 
the mosque of St* Bophio. 
There exists already, the school of the mosque 
of Ahmed, that of Suleiman, and one founded by 
the late Valide Sultan, for the education of the 
young candidates for public offices. There are, 
also, the medical, normal, and naval schools, and 
last of all, the agricultural school at San Stefano, 
the direction of which was, once upon a time 
given to the celebrated 1urkey Jim, of South 
Carolina. 
The Sultan himself ia present at the examina¬ 
tions of these various colleges, with his retinue of 
Ulema, Ministers, and Pashas; his majesty even 
propounds questions to the pupils, encouraging 
them by his gracious condescension of manner. 
There are as many as 80,000 books in the public 
libraries, written or printed in the different Orien¬ 
tal dialects, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, These 
* works treat of history, science, and theology, also 
ot. Anotner goes Irom the same condition down¬ 
ward, through lack of strength and reverence for 
himself, till he reaches the depth of human degra¬ 
dation and defeat—a bitter lot which no man can 
do more than mitigate to this suffering soul,— 
There is a danger to both these wayfarers—to one, 
that the victory he has won so hardly, shall seem 
in certain dark hours paltry and even despicable; 
to the other, that the good he has turned from 
shall seem so great aud exalted as to be unattaina¬ 
ble, There is also a lesson to both, coming frotn 
the deep voice of the surrounding world. Right 
ia cteruaL It is the incorruptible inheritance of 
all true work. Be the one and do tho other, and 
whatever thy present condition, it shall ultimately 
be thine. 
-- 
Earnestness. —Tho grand secret of all worldly 
success, which some men call will, I would rather 
call earnestness. If I were asked, from my experi¬ 
ence of life, to say what attribute most impressed 
the minds of others, or most commanded fortune, 
I should say, “earnestness.” The earnest mau 
wins for himself, and earnestness and truth go to¬ 
gether.— Bulwer. 
-- 
The Prussians have a wise maxim, that what¬ 
ever you would have appear in a nation’s life, you 
must put in its schools .—Home Journal. 
BASTINADO, 
signature. All the grandees have their meohurdar, 
or seal-bearer, and the Sadrazam officiates in this 
capacity to the sultan. 
The common punishment at schools is the world 
renowned bastinado, or falaka. The apparatus 
consist of a cylindrical piece of wood, about five 
feet long, and one inch in diameter, Near the 
contre of this rod, there is a loop of rope, suffi¬ 
ciently wide to hold both the feet of the truant.— 
The rod being turned the rope winds upon it, and 
thus secures the feet, which are placed therein. 
The person ia then thrown upon his back, by the 
raising of the feet, upon the soles of which the 
blows are applied with a cudgel by the school¬ 
master. (See illustration.) It is a rather painful 
operation, as some can tell from sad experience, 
• From an 1 atweiiting w ork recently published by Dsrs v 
& Jackson, New York, entitled “ The Saltan and His Peo 
pie." By C. Oscanyan, of Constantinople. Illustrated by 
a Native of Turkey. 
OR FALAKA. 
belles-lettres, and good breeding, on which last 
subject, the Osmanlls are extremely punctilious.— 
The young men. and even children, are exceed¬ 
ingly simple and unpretending, but at the same 
time, intelligent and polite in their demeanor.— 
They maintain a remarkable gravity of deport- 
meut, and iu the absence of their fathers, exercise 
the prerogatives of hospitality, with all the digni¬ 
ty of the patriarchy themselves. 
There are now twenty-one different newspapers 
and periodicals in the country, viz., two Turkish, 
eight Armenian, three Greek, live French, two 
Italian, aud one Jewish. 
* 
Little acts of kindness, gentle words, loving 
smiles — they strew the path of life with flowers, 
they make the sunshine brighter and the green 
earth greener; and lie who hade us “love one an¬ 
other,” looks with favor upon the gentle and kind- 
* hearted, and He pronounced the meek blessed. 
Not only the flowers unfold their petals to re¬ 
ceive the light—the heart of man also has a power 
of expansion. It is love which opens it and ex¬ 
pands it, so that the rays of the spiritual son may 
penetrate and illume it. The Christian, in the 
work of self-examination, need not direct Mb at¬ 
tention to many points; it is included'in the daily 
question—How is it with my love to Christ? That 
love to him is of grea6 importance, we must con¬ 
fess, since he, in truth, requires of us an affection 
for his own person, such as no one else ever claim¬ 
ed. O thou must be more than father‘and mother, 
than brother and sister, else how couldst thou, the 
lowliest among the children of men, lay claim to 
such superabundant love ? Since I have believed 
in thy word, all my desire has been to love thee. 
I will not cease to love thee, untiljt’nou art dearer 
to me than father, mother, and brother! If they 
deny thee, if they revile thee—what is so dreadful 
as to see one’s father and mother reviled at onr 
side!—but more than when they reproach father 
and mother, shall thy reproaches, thy wrongs go to 
my heart— Tholuck. 
It has been urged that tbe discipline on ship¬ 
board is too strict and the power too absolute; 
that courts iu their judgment are too apt to en¬ 
courage this despotism by sustaining officers in 
their power, or by infliction of mere nominal 
punishment for what seem serious offences against 
humanity. But on tbe ocean, within the limits of 
a ship, with the disproportion of twenty or thirty 
men against oue with no back door to retreat from, 
it seems almost right that absolnte power Bhould 
he placed in the hands of the officers. There is 
no such excuse, however, for placing so much 
power in the bauds of school-masters, and if the 
power is thus placed, care should be taken that 
the men to whom tbe power is given, should be 
men of judgment, and principle — of unswerving 
firmness in the discharge of their duties—aud dis¬ 
posed to admlaiater their little government ac¬ 
cording to the strictest dictates of justice. But a 
knowledge of the doings in many of our sohools 
would reveal cases of gross injustice to parties, 
that never now arc known beyond the conscious¬ 
ness of wroug that the injured parties feel, which 
is fostered and brooded over. Children are very 
sensitive—there is much human nature iu children 
—aud they have a very keen Bense of injustice.— 
Hence an act of partiality is clearly seen and ap¬ 
preciated by them, and a charge of impropriety 
or of insubordination applied to one scholar when 
it belongs to another, is attended by heart aches, 
in Bilence, for right dares not make complaint 
against power. 
In the exercise of the power possessed, more 
care should be had lest an idea of injustice find 
its way to the mind of a ohild, A teacher, as well 
as nny man, is liable to mistakes, aud his judg¬ 
ment is subject to error as well as that of the 
tiniest in his kingdom. He Bbould be very care¬ 
ful that temper forms uo part in his decision, and 
he should weigh evidence where there ia doubt 
in a more exact manner than where the interests 
of men are involved in our justice courts, for iu 
the courts there are appeals until just decisions 
are arrived at In the schools the ipse dixit of a 
subordinate teacher may consign an innocent 
boy to punishment, from which he has no appeal, 
and the word of a rash teacher put down the timid 
testimony of dreading children, that would tell 
against himself. 
The rule of infallibility of judgmeut on the part 
of teachers laaH too long been believed. The claim 
that the king could do no wrong was never more 
positively put forth than that the school master 
can do no wrong has been understood, and many 
acts of injustice have been done, that perhaps 
have been repented of, but uo acknowledgment of 
wrong baa scarcely ever come from the immacu¬ 
late lips. Oar own experience—ruuuiug over a 
distauce of some thirty years—recalls many such. 
True, after the wroug has been done, with the back 
and the heart still aching with the infliction, there 
is luit little individual satisfaction in having a man 
say he was wrong in inflicting punishment—a man 
who has been cudgelled instead of another within 
an inch of his life is not pleased to hear that he 
is innocent of the offence for which ho has been 
thrashed—but it sets the matter right in the eyes 
of tho world, and it is pleasant to find a man can¬ 
did enough to admit he has been iu error. 
The right of the scholar is as positive as that of 
the teacher, and while the former is called to pay 
duo regard for discipline, the latter is bound to 
make the discipline such as will best tend to the 
good order and decorum of the school, without 
resort to tyranny which no young American, who 
has a due sense of his rights, can submit to with¬ 
out choking. A school Bhould, in tho grand re¬ 
spect of disciplinary law, be a sort of republic — 
the teachers deriving their power from the con¬ 
sent of the governed. Not, perhaps, fully, but in 
a degree reoognizing this great principle, and 
with a proper regard for his scholar as a thinking 
being, a teacher would live a happier life and get 
along far easier than when, as Sir Oracle, he 
mounts the tripod and no small dog in his oom- 
pany dare burk when he opens his mouth.— Satur¬ 
day Eve, Gazette. 
