498 
Ufairiitg for % lottug. 
A POCKET-MONEY SUGGESTION. 
The Inventor affirms that the artist has grasped 
his Idea. We don’t know what the artist thinks 
about it. lie has not been seen in the editorial 
rooms since leaving the drawing. The Inventor, 
however, claims for his Invention : (1) amuse¬ 
ment; (0) a quickly - selling article, and (3) 
aesthetic loveliness. 
These figures may be sakl lo be the fruit of the 
imagination, as the graceful forms owe their 
Charm to raisins, dried apples, peaches, nuts, etc. 
The dorsal tin of these “ queer fish " Is made of a 
wire, and any boy or girl with an ounce of Ingenu¬ 
ity can construct the figures. Their grotesque 
appearance creates a market, and they can be 
made and sold at a price to pay for trouble of 
making, with a handsome profit added. 
The Inventor Is a humane creature, with a great 
love for children and an abhorrence of wealth. 
Consequently ho gives Ills Idea to the Rubai. 
cousins without price, reserving no right, and 
claiming nothing except their everlasting grati¬ 
tude. He expects every household In the laud to 
be adorned with this “ object of bigotry and vir¬ 
tue,” as Mrs. Malaprop would say,and as its manu¬ 
facture will make an unusual demand on dried 
fruits, be will Invest largely, control the market, 
and sell at, an advance,—but lie does not care to 
make auythlog, the toy Is free 1 
We should like to hear who sells the greatest 
number of the little fruit men and women, and 
wlmt Is realized In pocket-money. 
HOW POOR READERS ARE MANUFAC¬ 
TURED. 
WAV MAPI.K. 
“Why are there so many poor readers?” Is a 
question often asked. And yet but few, compara¬ 
tively speaking, are able to give a satisfactory 
answer. Hut It Is not, In my humble opinion, a 
difficult question to solve, though poor readers 
will long continue to weary the souls or their 
listeners before the nuisance will be banished. 
Of course, one’s natural predilection has some¬ 
what to do with good or bid read lug. 
But the fault Ilea principally in our common- 
school system. The constant ciianglngof teachers 
every three, four or five months Is enough to 
spoil the best natural reader In existence, even 
though each Instructor was a clever elocutionist. 
Not one in five can lay claim to the merit. 
One term brings a teacher with a strong uasal 
twang, and the next, one with a deep gutteral 
Intonation. Another has the down-east Vankee 
drawl, uniting as many vowels in one syllable as 
possible; a.% luiMountaln. This one runs vowels, 
consonants, syllables and words Into ono Indis¬ 
tinguishable mass, without pauses or paragraphs, 
and his successor “clips the words so much that 
one loses the meaning of the author—In trying to 
fill out the words with the proper sounds. 
A clear and distinct articulation Is entirely out 
of the programme when the instructor has ne¬ 
glected to cultivate Ills own voice, no matter how 
well he may drill his class In the rules of elocu¬ 
tion, The ebilti will imitate the tones he dally 
hears rather than follow any printed directions. 
All too soon, one heat s the lisping, stammering 
teacher in the Bpeeeh of the pupil. Such Instruc¬ 
tors do more harm to rising generations than can 
well be estimated. 
Again the Jimmies and Ilarrys, Jennies and 
Matties are sent to school when five years of age. 
They tire brlgholeyed, rosy-cheeked, warm-heart¬ 
ed little home treasures; they have various 
capabilities, aud if properly trained each would, 
in all probability, make a noble specimen of 
scholarship, and a good reader, if not the very 
best. 
Miss A. has just entered the profession of teach¬ 
ing. She la anxious to please her patrons and to 
win a reputation as a successful Instructor. She 
Is pleased with the efforts of her pupils, and de¬ 
termines to pusli them forward In their studies, or 
rather In their books. The little ones are taught 
to know the most of the letters at sight, and are 
then put Into sentences. iTohahly one out of six 
or eight In the class can master each simple 
sentence readily, and Is thus able to make rapid 
advancement. The rest of tli e class arc pushed 
along, taking the same lesson with this one (who 
chances, peruaps, to bo exceptionally clever), 
stumbling and blundering, like people walking 
unfrequented paths In the night, boss and less 
do they understand of what they are trying to 
learn, as they rapidly approach the closing pages 
of the primer. The prodlg v of the class has an 
aptitude for books that none or her mates possesses. 
She clings to her book as the bee to the honey- 
tiled fl wer. it Is seldom out of her hand, and 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
AUG. 3 
never out of her mind. Of course, she makes rapid 
progress, and when she reads the last page, Is 
ready, as far at least as pronouncing the words 
Is concerned, to go Into a higher bosk. But It 
will never do to “ pass ” that child above the rest 
of her class. There would be an appearance of 
Injustice, and Miss A.'s patrons would have 
occasion to be offended. Her reputation as a suc¬ 
cessful teacher would be called In question, and 
that thought la not to be endured lor a moment. 
So she sings the praises of her pupils, remarks 
upon their large capabilities and powers of learn¬ 
ing easily; and when the lllllo Mary has “her 
book by heart,” new books for the wholo class are 
ordered. The parents, thoughtlessly placlug per¬ 
fect confidence In the Judgment of the teacher, 
get the required article without ever testlDg the 
ability of the children In the old book. And those 
pupils who cannot pronounce, at sight, the words 
of the most simple sentences lo the primer, or 
even spell and pronounce the words, are put Into 
the First Reader. 
At the close of the term the children “speak 
their pieces,” receive their rewards of merit from 
the teacher, aud go home for vacation. The hooks 
are put upon the shelf, there to remain till the 
next term commences, two or three months later. 
Mias A. also receives her reward, financially, and 
goes her way. 
Miss B., her successor, hears how rapidly the 
pupils, now under her (Miss B.'s) charge, learned 
at the last term, and determines not to bo out¬ 
done ; and so t his little class of bright scholars are 
sent forward, but downward Into the abyss of 
seeming stupldliy, by having a Second and a 
Third Reader put luto their hands all too soon. 
if by chance Miss C. or Miss I>. should have 
thoughtfulness and experience enough to see the 
utter folly of such proceedings, and so suggest the 
Idea of returning the majority of the class to 
the Primer, she would at once be In disgrace 
with two-thirds of her patrons. Their children 
were just as smart and could learn “ Just as well 
as neighbor B.’s girl. No I they must read lu the 
new books.” 
Alas! for them; their doom la sealed, as rar as 
good reading Is concerned, six out of seven will 
go through life unable to read a single paragraph 
In a really intelligible manner. Amid ho 
many difficulties, and with so little really good 
training, we do not wonder why there are so few 
superior readers, but are almost surprised that 
there are so many who render an article passably 
well. 
iaMrat| |lfatinu|. 
OF THE MISCHIEF AND DANGER OF EX¬ 
AGGERATIONS IN RELIGION. 
E. m. a . 
Loko Bacon somewhere compares religion to 
the sun, which has two contrary effects upon live 
and dead substances. Live animal substances,— 
the living body of man, lor example,—the sun In¬ 
vigorates, and cheers, and promotes the functions 
ot life m tlicm^ Bnt In dead animal substances 
the suu brceds'worniB, and turns them to corrup- 
llon. Similarly, he says, religion invigorates a 
sound mind, and cheers a sound heart, while In a 
morbid mind It breeds noisome superstitions, and 
miserable scruples, and grotesque, and even mon¬ 
strous fancies; the fault however not being In 
religion,’but In the diseased mind, which Is sub¬ 
jected -to Its Influences. Such Is the thought or 
the great philosopher, if these are not the very 
words In which he has expressed it. 
We have only to survey tbelilstory of Christian¬ 
ity, to see how eminently Just this comparison is. 
The Gospel, as taught by Our Lord and Ills Apos¬ 
tles, 19 holy, pure, divine, transparently clear, ra¬ 
diant alike with the glory of God and the happi¬ 
ness of man—of that there is no duubt; yet what 
twists has the mind of man contrived to give It, 
so that In some rorms of Christianity you can 
hardly at all recognize the original draught, as it 
came from the Divine mind! What follies, fan¬ 
cies, superstitions, licontlous doctrines, have 
founded themselves—not Justly, or course, but 
with a most perverse Ingenuity—upon the Scrip¬ 
tures of the Old and New Testament I 
This Has arisen, uot from any fault or short- 
coming la the scriptures themselves (God forbid! 
His Word Is, like Himself, perfect), but from a 
certain morbid tendency In the human mind to 
caricature truths presented to It. I believe we 
cannot express the teudency In question more 
exactly than by calling it a tendency to carica¬ 
ture. A caricature la the likeness of a person, in 
which the artist has caught, some of the leading 
points of the countenance, but has so unduly ex¬ 
aggerated them aa to make the whole likeness 
absurd and grotesque. There la always a point 
of resemblance In a caricature, or persons would 
not know for whom It was meant; but the point 
la excessively magniued and thrown out of all 
proportion to the other lineaments, or peojde 
would t ike It seriously, and it would cease to be a 
caricature, and become a portrait. Now It would 
he very interesting to consider every heresy 
which has hitherto arisen, ana see how In each 
case li has been a caricature or some one point of 
Christian Truth,—an exaggeration by which the 
lair proportion of Uie Faith (of .which St. Paul 
speaks In the Epistle Lo the Romans) has been 
distorted, and a single passage ot Scripture or a 
slngloelass of passages brought into undue prom¬ 
inence. 
We will take one or more instances rrom those 
heresies which are better kuown. The truth 
upon which the Quaker founds his whole system, 
la that the New Dispensation la spiritual. No 
truth can well be more vital, more important, or 
more apt, through tbo subtle encroachments of 
formalism (a sin which Is at all times waylaying 
us), to be dropc out or sight, it is quite neces¬ 
sary for all of us to turn round every now and 
then, and ask ourselves whether we are properly 
awake to It. That the law, under which Chrlste 
tlans live, Is the law, not of a written table, nor 
of a written book, but. “the law of the Spirit of 
life in Christ Jesus,” written on the fleshy table 
of the heart; thatlu place ot a code prescribing 
or forbidding actions, our Legislator has given us 
a ;code of Beatitudes on certain states of heart 
and feeling; that in the Gospel morality what we 
do goes for comparatively little, and what we 
are—our motives and intentions—for every thing; 
that each movement of the Ueart Is Judged by 
Him who reads the heart; that God Is a Spirit, 
and therefore to be worshiped In spirit and in 
truth, and that, accordingly, to approach Him 
with outward ceremonial, exclusive of the heart, 
Is as much an impossibility lu the nature of 
things, as to endow matter with the properties of 
mind, and make a stone work a mathematical 
problem; all this is not only true, hut. precious 
truth, of which we require to be reminded con¬ 
tinually : and the Quakers would have deserved 
the warmest thanks of Christendom, If they had 
done nothing more than brought It forward prom¬ 
inently, and Illustrated It strikingly. But, un¬ 
happily, having seized this one feature of the 
Truth as It is In Jesus, they caricatured It. 
They proceeded on the Iheory ot a spiritual dis¬ 
pensation to such an absurd extent,, as to rob the 
Church of her Sacraments, the repositories and 
vehicles of that very inward spiritual grace, of 
which the Quakers themsolvea were the stoutest 
main tamers, “it religion Ls spiritual,"they argued, 
“ wo must liuve nothing material aboutlt.; so, note 
withstanding the Lord's words, ' Go ye, baptizing 
all nations,’ and “ Do this in remembrance of 
Me,” we will banish from our meetings the water, 
the bread and the wine, and bo baptized and 
communicate In the spirit; only.” 
It has always been the opinion of pious and Ju¬ 
dicious divines In the Church, that because, even 
In the Sacraments, the Inward spiritual grace Is 
the chief matter, Christians shut, out from com¬ 
municating sacramentally (by Illness or other 
necessity) may do so spiritually la their closets 
by uniting their prayers and Intercessions with 
those which are passing In the Church; but, the 
actual renunciation of the outward visible sign, 
as the Quakers havo renounced it, would never 
have entered Into the head of any one, unless his 
mind had been possessed with some one Idea, and 
he had resolved to make the Idea stand for me 
whole of Christianity. 
We offer another and more recent instance of a 
very serious error, which we fear is fast assuming 
the proportions or a heresy. It Is the delightful 
announcement of Holy Scripture—which should 
make every heart bound with Joy,—and It may do 
said to be the very most fundamental truth of our 
religion, that “God is Love.” Ills Love He has 
shown by a Sacrifice whtcU must surely havo 
wrung to the utmost His paternal heart, If a sim¬ 
ilar sacrifice would have proved to a mere human 
parent the most acutely patntul of all trials,—me 
sacrlflceof Ills dear Son, Who from all eternity 
had lain in His bosom. Certain divines or our 
own day have perceived this truth of God's Love 
clearly. They cannot proclaim It too loudly,—not 
ir they had a hundred tongues, and the lungs or a 
Stentor. Down with all teaching, which by real 
logical inference oontradlcts this fundamental 
truth;—It must be false, unserlptural, mischiev¬ 
ous. 
That our God is a hard taskmaster, requiring of 
us services, which will not ultimately make for 
ourown happiness; that austerities, as austerities, 
without any spiritual end, are pleasing to Him 
and propitiate his wrath (a notion utterly and 
simply heathen); that only the Second Person or 
the Blessed Trinity smiles upon us with a gracious 
welcome, and that the brow of the First Is al¬ 
ways contracted with a gloomy frown rewards 
sinners:—let these sentiments by all means be 
demolished with axe and hammer, because they 
contradict God’s own testimony respecting Him¬ 
self. But to go the length of saying that anger Is 
Inconsistent, with love, (an assertion which tue 
analogy or parental affection surely enables us 
liatljr to contradict,) or to go the further length 
of saying that Justice Is inconsistent with com- 
passion, against all experience of human Justice; 
(for over what offender led out to execution, does 
not the heart of man relent at the last moment, 
while yet reeling the justice and necessity or tno 
proceeding?) and to acknowledge no relations 
with God as a Judge, beeause He stauds to us 
In the relation of a Father, this la a monstrous 
exaggeration, whereby the Faith once given to 
the saints la grievously caricatured, and Its fair 
proportions marred. God loves me deeply, pure¬ 
ly, Intensely; longs to communicate himself to 
me;—that is Indisputably true, and I may take 
to myseir all the com tort of It without a moment’s 
hesitation. But God hates my sin, detests It, 
brought Christ to a strict reckoning for It, and 
will never consent to save mo from Its guilt 
without saving me from tho power of It too:— 
that Is equally true, and 1 may take to myseir 
all the warning of It, without a moment’a hesi¬ 
tation. 
These two instances are enough to show that 
very serious errors and heresies spring from not 
maintaining what St. Paul calls “the proportion 
ot the faltll,”—that Is from giving to any one doc¬ 
trine, however true and Important, so great a 
prominence that it throws Into the shade all 
others which counterbalance It. 
And be It remembered tUat, where there Is no 
formal or actual heresy, the one-sided tendency 
ot the human mind Is nevertheless operative in 
religious persons, and may lead to a vast amount 
or unsuspected mischief and error, which shall 
corrupt their religion, and breed lu it many mor¬ 
bid aud ranatlcal Uncles. In many spiritual 
books, which In the main are excellent,—perhaps 
I may say lu every spiritual hook, more or less, 
which Is not the Bible,—a strain la upon certain 
precepts of the Gospel, which not only carica¬ 
tures thorn, and perhaps sets them at Issue with 
other precepts resting on the same authority, 
but would have the effect of cramping into an 
unnatural state the mind which Bhould strive 
after obedience to them. As nothing Illustrates 
with the same effect as an example, I will give 
one; and, the better to exhibit the principle, it 
shall be in an extreme form. A Christian, who 
had attained a high degree or sanctity, and who 
dted In tho most acute Buffering, which he bore 
with exemplary patience, gasped out to the 
spiritual adviser who attended him, the follow¬ 
ing words "Dear friend, God has taught me a 
great secret, and I will tell It you, If you will put 
your head closer.” His frleud did as he desired, 
anxious to know what this saintly man consider¬ 
ed as the crowning lesson of a life of holiness. 
“ He has taught mo,” said the dylug man, the 
lines of whose countenance were distorted by pain, 
“to ask nothing, and to reruse nothing.” 
Where has He forbidden us, under suffering, 
to cry torreUer? Did Our Lord, or did He not, 
pray, “ Father, It it bo possible, let this cup pass 
from mo?” If He did, God evidently had not 
taught His only-begotten Son to "ask for noth¬ 
ing.” And His Son's Humanity was spotless In 
holiness,—He was clearly “ void of sin, both In 
Uls flesh and In His spirit.” Shall we, miserable 
sinners, presume with a frightful temerity to go 
further in conformity to the will of God than 
Jesus Himself went? Forbid It, Lord l We will 
go to Thee in our troubles with all simplicity, and 
make known to Thee our request for relief, In 
submission always to Tby Will; and having pre¬ 
ferred our request, we will leave It. there In our 
Father’s hands, and account that we have thence¬ 
forth nothing more to do with It. But llnd a vent 
towards God for our burdened heart we will, be¬ 
cause He Himself has opened such a vent when 
He says: “ Ye people, pour out your hearts before 
Him,” 
Do you not see now how this holy man erred 
by exaggeration; bow In bis dying sentiment lie 
caricatured the grace ot resignation? Resigna¬ 
tion no doubt Is a heavenly and Chrlstellke grace; 
but If you will push It to any and every length, 
regardless of other precepts of God's Word, aud 
even regardless of common sense, (a very valua¬ 
ble aid In religion), even resignation might be¬ 
come absolutely mischievous. Thus In countries 
where the weather la sultry, and the people con¬ 
stitutionally Indolent.one might conceive a beggar 
continuing In mendteauey, and doing nothing to 
raise himself above It, Dr to improve his con¬ 
dition, on the plea that such was the Will of God, 
and that, mendicancy was tho state of life to 
which he had been called. Resignation Is the 
ouly precept which such an one recognizes; and 
he his forgotten that In another corner of God’s 
Word, there la a certain maxim, less chivalrous 
perhaps than resignation, hut equally deserving 
his attention,—that "any man that would not 
work, neither should he eat.” Tills, of course, Is 
another extreme ease. 1 ouly adduce It, because 
It illustrates the fault which we are at present 
exposing and censuring. 
Be U remembered. In pursuing the train of 
thought which we have thus opened up, that in 
the lives of the early Spiritual .saints, who, next 
to our Blessed Lord, are our great models, noth¬ 
ing Is so remarkable as their perfect naturalness, 
and freedom from all affected or overstrained 
spirituality, The great Apostle ot the Gentiles, 
whose name and fame are In all the Churches, Ino- 
medlately after a miraculous escape from ship¬ 
wreck, bestirs himself to gather a bundle of sticks, 
and puts them on the lire (lor at. Paul was not 
above feeling cold and wet); and when writing 
under the afflatus ot the Holy Ghost, he bids 
Timothy bring the cloak wlilch he lert at Troas 
with Carpus, in anticipation of an approaching 
winter, "am! tho books, but especially the parch¬ 
ments;” for what studious man—and every min¬ 
ister ot Christ must be studious. It his ministry la 
to lie effective—cau hoar to he without his books 
and papers? These particulars have seemed 
to some too frivolous ror Inspiration, but they 
snow that Inspiration did nut destroy the 
perfect, simplicity and naturalness of those who 
wi re the subjects of It. 
Among tho early disciples you would have seen 
nothing overcharged lu character or manner; 
hay, you would have seen little lolbles, (not that 
these are to bo imitated,) oi lumper, ot supersti¬ 
tion, of prejudice;—you might have heard sharp 
words passing between great Apostles, and a 
rupture taking place lu consequence; you might 
have heard even Hi. Peter roundly and publicly 
reproved for clinging to a prejudice; and you 
might have seen a damsel, recently engaged with 
others In prayer which received a miraculous 
answer, lu such a Joyful trepidation of nerves 
when tho answer arrived, that she opened not the 
gate tor gladness, but mu lu and told ** how Peter 
stood borore the gate.” Most of us would thank-, 
fully acquiesce lu being as saintly aa the primi¬ 
tive Christians; aud surely 11 is a lesson tor us 
that t here Is l u their seautl ty so little over-studied 
so little walking on stilts, wo litiju of the forced 
unnatural attitude, luto which modern books of 
devotion sometimes try to cramp tho mind. In 
ancient, piety there was not a particle or asce¬ 
ticism or at Puritanism,—which two things I 
mention together, because they are the Roman 
and Protestant sides of the same fault 
How, then small the devout man keep Ms mind 
free from exaggeration both lu doctrine and 
practice; and hold lu check Its natural one-slded- 
neas v A u Impartial study of the whole of Scrip¬ 
ture Is the corrective. Read With real openness 
of mind, quite willing to renounce any such pre¬ 
conceived views as do not square with the great 
Canon of Truth. Of set purpose study, aud give 
their fair weight to, those doctiiues or practices, 
to which your mind is not naturally drawn. 
Pray tor tho Bereans’ nobleness or the mind, in 
that they brought even tho doctrine of Apostles 
to the lest of inspiration, and searched the 
Scriptures dally, whether those tilings were so. 
How much more, when men are not Apostles, 
but simply possessors of the mind of Christ, must 
their doctrine he thus searched and sifted! 
Much irreverent nonsense has been talked of late 
about a verifying faculty, but, (God bu praised!) 
wo have some more certain criterion ot Truth 
In a verifying Book. Uls true that there is no 
error whatever, which may not be bolstered up 
by an appeal to some part of the Holy Scrip¬ 
tures. Atheism Itself, It has been well said, may 
be proved from tho Bible, by leaving out the 
words, “The tool hath said In his heart.” But 
when applied Impartially, without favor or pre¬ 
judice, and in lull view of the passages on the 
other side. Holy Scripture Is a thoroughly safe 
and sound criterion. Do nor, merely read it, but 
Unhue your minds with It. Do not merely quote 
It, (a very easy and somewhat poor attainment,) 
but frame your religious sentiments upon It, and 
then you shall bear a charmed life against error, 
and heresy, and all manner of morbid fancies 
and fanaticisms. 
