space available for its purposes was be- | exercise of the pupils; but the opening of coming more restricted. Where recently a wide street through the whole length had been only swamps, pastures, and woods, streets were opening, and lines of building going up all around it. The period seemed not remote when a dense population would press upon it on every side. It had, by incurring a considerable debt, secured, as we hoped, grounds large enough for the necessary uses of the institution, and the indispensable out-door of those grounds, entirely marring them; and the prospect that yet another would be ordered, perhaps destroying the safe and easy communication between the different parts of the establishment, convinced its friends that it was in vain to attempt to stem the flood of improvement, and that their best plan was a speedy removal while an eligible site could be VIEW OF THE NEW INSTITUTION. secured on fair terms, and near enough to the business center of the city for necessary communication, yet not so near that the institution would, at least in our day, be again driven forth by the pressure of the advancing city. By the assistance of the state, a most eligible site was secured at Fort Washing ton. The grounds belonging, comprise thirty-seven and a half acres, bounded by the Hudson river and the Kingsbridge road, at the intersection of the Tenth avenue, about nine miles from the City Hall. The property was purchased by the board of directors from the family of Colonel James Monroe, by whom the mansion house was built in the year 1842. The dock or pier on the river front is of stone, filled in cribs to the average depth of thirty feet. It is forty feet in width, by sixty feet in length on the northern, and sixty-five feet on the southern side, the surface being macadamized to the depth of two feet. The cost of the pier has been $1,500. The site selected for the buildings is on the front lawn, at an elevation of one hundred and twenty-seven feet above the river, of which it has a commanding view, extending to the Narrows on the one side, and the Highlands on the other. To this site a winding road has been constructed on an easy grade, the average rise being one part in twelve. The road has been built in the most durable manner, with solid stone walls over the broken grounds, having four culverts for watercourses, and bank walls terraced on the inner side. The filling is mainly of stone, macadamized to the depth of from one to two feet, with paved channels for carrying off the surface water. The cost of construction has been about $3,000. The excavation of the principal site has been a work of much labor and expense, requiring the removal of rock covering a large portion of the area, and extending in several parts to a depth varying from five to twenty feet. The cost of the excavation will be from $12,000 to $15,000. The buildings designed to be occupied for the purposes of the institution are exhibited in the accompanying view, as seen from the south-west. A front building, with a wing receding from either end, and a school-house in the rear, form a hollow square, in the center of which is a building, connected by inclosed passages with the four exterior buildings. The principal | building is one hundred and fifty feet in front, by fifty-five feet in depth. In elevation, it embraces four stories, including the basement, and is surmounted by a dome or observatory, commanding an extensive and beautiful prospect. It has a central corridor, ten feet wide, extending from one end to the other in the basement, first and second stories, and the rooms on either side are twenty feet in width. The central, projecting part of this building is advanced twelve feet beyond the front of the main part. This projecting part is sixty feet wide, giving an entrance hall of twenty feet in width. The portico in front is twenty-nine feet wide by fifty-seven feet long. The main entrance is spanned by an elliptical arch of twenty-two feet, with semicircular arches of fourteen feet in the clear, on either side. The principal floor of the front building, as described in the drawings, contains a reception room, directors' room, a parlor, rooms for the president, as also rooms for the matron and steward. The second story contains rooms for the teachers, for visitors, and for other purposes. The upper story is devoted to the accommodation of the pupils, the dormitory at either end being separated at the center by an intervening hall, which affords a passage to the lantern to the top of the stair dome. The basement of this building contains rooms for domestics, store-rooms, places for fuel, furnaces, &c. connecting with the one in the front building. In the basement of each are wash and bathing rooms, and in the girls' wing a laundry. The sitting-rooms are each forty-two by one hundred and six feet. In the construction of these rooms, the columns usually required in the center, to support the floors above, are entirely dispensed with; the upper floors being sustained by rods, suspended from the roof trusses. The wings are united to the main building by towers, containing private passages and stair-cases, through which the steward and matron may, at any time, visit the apartments of the pupils under their respective care. The school-house in the rear is one hundred and fifty feet long by fifty-five feet wide, and contains class, lecture, library, and cabinet-rooms, and a hall of design. The latter is located in the upper story, and lighted by a sky-light. The first story of the central building contains the dining-room, in front of which are pantries, and arrangements connected with the kitchen below, and a private stair-case leading thereto. The second story contains the chapel, which is eighty feet long by sixty wide, and thirty feet in height. This apartment may be reached from the main building by the large staircase in front, and is approached by the pupils from the second story of the schoolhouse, through separate passages for each sex. The dining-room may be entered from the main building in front, and from the wings, by lateral corridors. The school-house is connected with each wing by a separate corridor, and there are also separate passages connecting each story. The basement, as well as the portico, window-sills, and lintel keys are of granite, and the other stories are indicated by courses of the same material, running around the entire building. The material principally used in the construction of the exterior walls is yellow Milwaukee brick, to which the granite affords an agreeable contrast. On either side of the wings are ornamented verandahs of cast-iron, painted in imitation of the material used for the portico. The roof is of slate, and is bordered by a handsome cornice and balustrade. The wings, the southernmost of which is devoted to the girls, and the other to the boys, are each one hundred and twenty by forty-six feet, and contain, in the first story, the saloon or sitting-room for the The corner-stone was laid with interestpupils; in the second story, separate dor- ing ceremonies on November 22, 1853. mitories, hospital-rooms, wardrobes, &c.; Addresses were delivered by the Mayor, and in the upper story, an open dormitory | Dr. Peet, the president of the institution, and the Rev. Dr. Adams. The latter gave some very interesting illustrations of the effect of deafness in sharpening the remaining senses. He said : There are many interesting psychological M inquiries which are suggested in regard to those who are deprived of one or more of the senses, as whether, to use the allegorical language of Bunyan, when 'ear gate' and 'eye gate,' those avenues of approach to the town of Mansoul,' be closed up, there be not some new method of access, not recognizable to our senses, by which our Father in heaven draws nigh to his afflicted children? I have no visionary theory to suggest on this subject; but it is a pleasant testimony that I am able to give, after a close examination, that in the process of instructing the deaf mute, it has been a question with me whether there be any disadvantage in the loss of human sounds of folly and error, which mislead and delude so many others. There has been an abundant success in developing the conscience, warming into life their religious sentiments, and establishing direct communion with the Father of spirits. I have often been delighted at the clearness, simplicity, and promptness of the replies which have been made by the mute to questions of a religious import. "Who made the world?' was the question once proposed to a little boy in the institution. Without an instant's delay, the chalk had rapidly traced the answer: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' "Why did Jesus come into the world?' was the next question proposed. With a smile of gratitude, the little fellow wrote in reply : "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.' The astonished visitor, desirous of testing the religious nature of the pupil to the utmost, ventured at length to ask: "Why were you born deaf and dumb, when I can both hear and speak?' With the sweetest and most touching expression of meek resignation on the face of the boy, the rapid chalk replied: "Even so, Father, for it seemeth good in thy sight.' "We rejoice in the privilege of taking part in the services of this occasion. We count it a pleasant thing to be present at the beginning of an edifice, where ampler accommodations shall invite multitudes of the afflicted to its fostering care. We welcome them not only to a safe shelter, to kindly protection, to useful arts, but to the teachings and consolations of religion. We congratulate those who will come after us, afflicted like those who are now with us, in the advantages which will accrue to them from what we have founded to-day. Here let knowledge and religion receive and educate them. On these pleasant lawns let their playful feet find recreation long after our own have rested from the pilgrimage of life. Here may God speak to them in the vision of the morning, and of the stars; and within the chapel here to be consecrated to his worship, may generations be prepared for the temple on high, where no tongue is silent and no ear is deaf." MOHAMMEDANISM. THE TEMPLE OF MECCA. OHAMMEDANISM is an intermediate religion-it arose out of the incompleteness, perversions, and semipaganism of the Christian form of worship that prevailed in the sixth century. The populations that subscribed to the tenets of the Greek Church were only half converted; even in Constantinople, the old formula of worshiping images was preserved with scrupulous exactness. In Arabia, the doctrines of the magi had by no means been extirpated; in fact, the Christianity that prevailed in the Eastern Churches-and we might consistently add, the Western-was merely a dogma ingrafted on the old trunk of paganism. The spiritualism of the creed was entirely neglected, and its expounders, like people groping in the dark, busied themselves almost exclusively with the discussion of scholastic subtilties. Sale, the historian, aptly describes the deplorable declension and ignorance that prevailed. He says: "If we look into the ecclesiastical historians, even from the third century, we shall find the Christian world to have then had a very different aspect from what some authors have represented, and-so far from being endowed with active grace, zeal, and devotion, and established within itself with purity of doctrine, union and firm profession of faith-that, on the contrary, what by the ambition of the clergy, and what by drawing the abstrusest niceties into controendless schisms and contentions, they had so versy, and dividing and subdividing them into destroyed that peace, love, and charity from among them which the gospel was given to promote, and instead thereof continually provoked each other to that malice, rancor, and every evil work, that they had lost the whole subcontended for their own imaginations concerning stance of their religion, while they thus eagerly it—and, in a manner, quite drove Christianity out of the world, by those very controversies in which they disputed with each other about it." Bishops fought like maniacs for episcopal seats; and Sale adds, in his old-fashioned, but forcible way : "These dissensions were greatly owing to the emperors, who, confounding the pure and simple Christian religion with anile superstitions, and perplexing it with intricate questions, instead of reconciling different opinions, excited many disputes. This grew worse in the time of Justinian-and corruption in the doctrine and morals of the princes and clergy was necessarily followed by a general depravity of the people: |