LINKING TWO.XOHRISTMAS - TIMES, 
SONG FOR THE CHILDREN 
Come, stand by my knee, little children, 
Too weary for laughter or song; 
The sports of tho daylight arc over, 
And evening la creeping along; 
The snow fields are white in the moonlight, 
The winds of tho winter are chill, 
Bat tinder tho sheltering roof-tree 
The fire shineth ruddy and still. 
Von ait by the fire, little children, 
Your chocks are ruddy and warm; 
But out in the cold of the winter 
Is many a shlverlDg form. 
There arc mothers that wander for sheltor, 
And babes that are pining for bread, 
Ot thank the dear Lord, little children, 
From whose tender hand you are fed. 
Come look in my eyes, tittle children. 
And tell me through all the long day 
Have you thought of the Father above us, 
Who guarded from evil your way ? 
He heareth tho cry or the sparrow 
And careth for great and for small, 
In life and in death, little children, 
His love la the truest of all. 
Now go to your rest, little children, 
And over your innocent sleep. 
Unseen by your vision tho angels 
Their watch through tho darkness shall keep, 
Then pray that the Shepherd, who guideth 
The Iambs that he loved so well, 
May lead yon lu life’s rosy morning, 
Beside the still waters to dwell. 
TALKS WITH OUR BOYS AND GIRLS, 
BT UNCLE PAUL, 
similar style. The style is in the Corinthian 
order. The northern, eastern and southern 
fronts of the superstructure are each to be sup¬ 
plied with a portico of eight detached columns 
in front. Tho western fajado presents the same 
exterior, excepting in entering the building you 
pass into tho basement through a stylobate, the 
portico not projecting as far as on the opposite 
front. The dome comprises two stories, first 
ornamented with full columns, and the second 
with pilasters. On the top of the latter springs 
the dome proper, surmounted by a lanthru. 
There will be a balustrade on the top of the 
entablature of the first story, consisting ot 
pedestals and balusters. The entire dome, from 
tho ground to the top of the lantern, is 254 feet; 
at its base 88 feet in diameter, outside of walls. 
The interior is to be finished in elaborate style. 
devoid of beauty, meagre in appointments, and 
in every respect inadequate for Its purposes. 
We are happy to know, however, that a struc¬ 
ture worthy of tho position New York holds as 
the first State in the Union, is soon to take its 
place. Under the act passed by the Legislature 
last winter, providing for a new Capitol, plans 
have been accepted by the Commissioners, and 
on the 9th inst. ground was broken at Albauy 
for an edifice which it is thought will approxi¬ 
mate to that at Washington in beauty and 
elaborateness of design. SVe hope to give an 
illustration of it in a future number of the Rural, 
Illinois took the iuitial steps for a new Capi¬ 
tol last summer, and we give herewith a view 
Of the building, at Springfield, as It is to be. 
The ground plan of the building is that of the 
Greek Cross, arranged to present four fronts 0 f 
As a people, wc arc beginning to pay proper 
heed to architecture. The old crude and narrow 
notions concerning it are giving way to well de¬ 
fined and liberal ideas, that of late years have 
been manifest in a growing regard for rich and 
massive public buildings. Our National Capitol 
is a truly magnificent edifice, and may well be a 
source of uational pride. And there are a tew 
State Capitols, erected within a decade, which 
reflect credit upon the respective Common¬ 
wealths that reared them. Ohio has one of 
these, Tennessee another,— both elegant and 
costly monuments of popular good taste and 
enterprise,— and when the war broke ont South 
Carolina was busily engaged in erecting another, 
not less magnificent. The Capitol of our own 
Empire State has long been a source of morti¬ 
fication to public-spirited citizens, being utterly 
THE EASIEST WAY. 
Well, well, young friends, Winter is here at 
last, isn’t it? Now for the skating and coasting 
you dreamed of when the frost first set the fields 
glistening! Now for the merry times, the jolly 
sleigh-rides, tho glad boll-music, and the glow¬ 
ing cheeks! 
There is joy for the boys and girls everywhere 
in the first snow storm. Charlie goes out and 
flounders through the fast-forming drifts, half 
losing himself amid their light piles, and so prob¬ 
ably do thousands on thousands of other Char¬ 
lies and Harrys and Franks, who tie their 
trowsers tightly around their ankles, draw their 
“car-tabs” down, and defy the cold, 
“Coasting is grand sport!" So Chart, rE said 
this morning, on coming lu from a trial of 
it, upon the hillside. Ah! we know It. We 
have bright memories of certain clear, crisp aud 
bright nights sot away back yonder somewhere 
in the years, when wo coasted to our heart’s 
content. No, not quite that, either, for wc are 
not apt to do anything entirely to our heart’s 
contest; but when we liad the merriest and 
gladdest little coasting parties, In the moon¬ 
light, aud skimmed over the glassy snow-crust 
right gloriously. 
But there is one drawback to riding down hill. 
“Isn’t it a draw-up. Uncle Paul?” asks 
Charlie. He has hit the word better than wc 
did, probably because bis recollections of climb¬ 
ing the hill for the sake of gliding down it are 
more recent than oars, 
Going down is the easiest. We found it so about 
tho first time we tried riding down hill. There 
to preside. Having stuck your stakes aud drawn 
your line, stand by them through evil aud good 
report. With “Excelsior” written upon tho 
banners you Ulug to tbe breeze, and “ Thorough¬ 
ness” your motto in teaching, success must 
crown your efforts. Old Teacher. 
North Chili, N. Y. f 18U7. 
WHAT WE ARE MADE OP. 
Wrltteu for Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
HABITS IN THE SGH00L-R00M, 
The following is from an article by Dr. 0. W. 
Holmes: 
If the reader of this paper lives another year, 
his self-conscious principle will have migrated 
From 1U prueent tenement to another, the new 
materials of which have not been put together, 
A portion of the body which is to be, will ripen 
in the corn of the next harvest. Another por¬ 
tion of his future person he will purchase or 
others will purchase for him, headed up in the 
form of certain barrels of potatoes. A third 
fraction is yet to he gathered in the Southern 
rice fields. The limbs with which ho Is then to 
walk will be clad with the flesh borrowed from 
the tenants of many stalls and pastures now un¬ 
conscious of their doom. The organs of speech, 
with which he asks so wisely, and speaks so elo¬ 
quently, or speaks so effectively, must serve his 
humble brethren to bleat, and to bellow, and all 
the varied utterance of bristled or feathered 
barn-yard life. His bones themselves arc, to a 
great extent, in posse and not In esse. A bag 
of phosphate of lime, which he has ordered for 
his grounds, contains a large part of what is to 
be his skeleton. And more thuu all this, by far 
the greater part of his body is nothing at all 
but water; the main snbstauce of his scattered 
members is to be looked for in the reservoir, 
the running stream, at the bottom of the well, 
la the clouds that float over his head, or diffused 
among thum all. 
HOME AND. SCHOOL EDUCATION 
He who directs, develops, instructs, disci¬ 
plines and leads into the ways of health, use¬ 
fulness and life the pliant soul of youth, is a co- 
worker with Him who came from heaven as the 
Great Educator; who took little children in his 
arms and blessed them; who taught the people 
many things in every place where he found 
them; teaching them daily in all knowledge as 
never man taught. I say the pure educator is 
a co-worker with Him who came from above to 
teach, and who spoke of wisdom as the principal 
thing. 
This world is but the passage to another, and 
through, it lie two ways—the way of folly and 
the way of wisdom. The starting point is the 
cradle. The way of folly Is the way of disobedi¬ 
ence and darkness, leading to death ; the way of 
wisdom is the way of obedience and light, lead¬ 
ing to life. A proper education will lead.’.the 
child from the way of folly into the way of wis¬ 
dom. Parents are the educators —teachers and 
books are hut aids lu the great work. A true 
and efficient system of education is home and 
school influence united. Edacation begins at 
home; the child iB sent to school to be taught 
what the parent has neither time nor ability to 
teach. 
Where home and school traiuing are com¬ 
bined, there is efficiency, “ In union there is 
strength." Here lies the ground-work of the 
power, the eminence, the glory, the happiness, 
the prosperity of the nation—the church aud 
the State. 
It is a mistaken idea which some persons have, 
that the machinery of education is altogether 
confined to the school room. To educate the 
human being correctly, is to develop body, 
mind and heart from infancy. And it is only 
when home and school education work in uni¬ 
son, that this, the greatest of all earth’s work, 
is properly wrought.— Selected. 
is to get my scholars in position. Many scholars 
sit and stand all in a heaj). This I cannot toler¬ 
ate, for l know that the Almighty designed men 
to have an erect posture. 1 think a good deal of 
the perpendicular position. So much, indeed, that 
if I were a military Professor I should instruct 
the cadets to ignore aiming in a horizontal posi¬ 
tion, and lire off their carbines altogether in a 
perpendicular direction. In these new tactics, 
which I hope to see superseding all others, the 
order would be, 
When e’er you shoot, shoot upward, men, 
Take aim towards the sun; 
The grass does so, the wheat, the cane, 
And flowers every one. 
Next to posture, or keeping straight upon the 
scat or in class, is keepnng still. Teaching schol¬ 
ars habits of self control is where comes in the 
tug of war. This breaking-in process requires 
patience of a high order. Job was said to be a 
very patient man, bat I doubt if be ever taught 
a common school. There are so many things to 
be done in the little circle of the school-room — 
every day “ line upon line, here a little and there 
a little "—that the list is almost endless. Among 
other things, neatness, politeness and punctu¬ 
ality should be Inculcated. I eadeavor to im¬ 
press it upon my pupils that the School Car 
starts at nine o’clock. I also give notice that 
there is to be no crossing the floors taster than a 
walk. Perhaps there is no place in the world 
where so much advertising is needed as in the 
school-room. There is a sort of “ irrepressible 
conflict” going on between the wishes and rules 
of the teacher, and the Ueedlessnoss, forgetful¬ 
ness and inattention of those under his care. 
As a teaeher I make a large allowance for 
In ail these matters the teacher 
The Theory op Meteors.— Sir John Herschel 
has recently advanced the theory, not wholly 
new, but never before supported by well-known 
facts, that meteoric showers are simply the light 
caused by the collision of the earth’s atmosphere 
with the tenuous substance of a comet. Prof. 
Adams, who shared with Leverrler the credit of 
discovering the planet Neptune, not only accepts 
this theory but attempts to establish the ideutity 
of the comet through which the earth recently 
passed with Tailler’s comet, whose orbit appar¬ 
ently coincides with that which, if a comet, the 
recent visitor would have taken. Those who 
have read Prof. Tyndall’s work on heat, may 
find in this theory an additional reason to ac¬ 
cept the learned writer’s hypothesis as to the 
origin of the sun’s light and heat. 
Celestial and Terrestrial Globe.—D r. H. 
Williamson has just patented a very ingenious 
combination of celestial aud terrestrial globes, 
giving to the student a vivid picture of the rela¬ 
tion of the sphere of the heavens to that of the 
earth. The outside celestial globe, inclosing 
the other, is made of glass, and on it axe gilded 
the stars. The outlines of the constellation 
figures are painted in transparent colors, so that 
the view of the earth within is not obscured. 
NO PLACE, 
A great many boys and young men complain 
there is no chance for them. It 16 hard to find 
anything to do. Perhaps it is hard to get just 
such places as they would like. That is not the 
point, however. When you get a place —and 
there are places; this big country, I am sure, 
has ueed of every good boy and girl and man and 
woman in it —when you getaplace, 1 say, make 
yourself useful in it; make yourself necessary to 
your employers ; make yourself so necessary, by 
your fidelity and good behavior, that they can¬ 
not do without you. Be willing to tike a low 
place at first, no matter what the work, if U be 
honest work. Begin at the lowest round Of the 
ladder and climb up. The great want every¬ 
where is faithful, capable workers. Make your¬ 
self one of them, and there will always be a 
place lor you, and a good one.— Child’s Paper. 
young scholars, 
should lead off and set the example. He is, so to 
speak, the copy, which all more or less follow. 
If his habits of position, punctuality and self- 
control are bad, woe to the school over which he 
presides. Ostensibly the pupils come to study 
the sciences, but they also study their teacher. 
They catch his look, his temper, his toue of 
voice, and even hD walk. Many suppose that 
there is nothing as catching as the measles aud 
small pox. This is a grand mistake. Bad habits 
are fuliy as contagious as any disease that can be 
named. 
But enough on these points. In conclusion a 
word of exhortation to my fellow teachers. Re¬ 
solve this winter, (the first under the new school 
law.) to kec-p a model school , and one that shall 
I excel any other over which you have been called 
Our Exports. —The exports of the United 
States for tbe year ending July 30,1807, amount¬ 
ed in value to three hundred and thirty-live mil¬ 
lion dollars In gold. About seven-tenths of 
these exports consisted of Southern products. 
Of course, the North produces much the greater 
portion of the wealth of the country. But cot¬ 
ton and tobacco find a large market abroad, 
while grain, corn, hay and manufactures are 
chiefly consumed on our own soil. 
The nearest approach to a brute that man can 
make is to become a mere creature of appetite— 
a feeder, a toper. So long as he is well fed, or 
well crammed, a glutton is a stupid, harmless 
lump; but deny him his provender and he be¬ 
comes a savage. Govern the appetites, or they 
will become tyrants, under whose bondage all 
that i3 noble in the human character will be 
crushed out of existence. Besides, indulgence 
of the appetites in time destroys health; and 
what is life without health ? 
Education is a companion which no mis¬ 
fortune can depress, no clime destroy, no enemy 
alienate, no despotism enslave. At home a 
friend, abroad an introduction, in solitude a so¬ 
lace, in society an ornament. It chastens vice, 
it guides virtue, it gives grace and government 
to genius. 
Power op the Voice. —The human voice, 
when its utterances are clearly articulated, and 
it is supplied from good lungs, will fill 400,000 
cubic feet of air, provided they be enclosed in a 
proper manner, and the voice placed and direct¬ 
ed advantageously. 
Be always at leisure to do a good action, never 
make business an excuse for avoiding offices of 
humanity. 
Kindly admonitions are better than harsh 
punishments. 
