fusion of knowledge among the people, and flict. The country never saw before, it has their general improvement, inculcating the grand never seen since, any thing of mortal mould to lesson of morals as well as of wisdom, that compare with the men of the revolution. Take whatever they learn, of whatever accomplish- that Congress which gave to the world the ment they become possessed, in a word, all their | Declaration of Independence, and we challenge acquired talents as much as their natural gifts the annals of mankind—all of ancient and are a trust held for the benefit not more of them- modern history to produce a deliberative body selves than of their fellow-creatures, and of the that ever contained an equal amount of moral use whereof they will one day have to render a and intellectual greatness. It occupies the strict account. The impressions left on the mind records of history without a parallel. It stands in early years are so lively that they last through like a beacon light on some mighty headland, life; and even when partially affected by other to guide, instruct and awe the world.—Penn. studies, or by the cares of the world, they stili Educator.

exert some influence, and may often be found

A Sketch of Pekin.

A VIEW OF THE CITY AFTER ITS CAPTURE.

far more than is supposed to modify the coun- [Correspondence of the London Times, December 28.] teracting and neutralizing influences which they cannot resist. This undoubted truth is not the less important for being often admitted, though there is reason to fear oftener admitted than acted upon in practice."

Learning.

Has any one described Pekin to you? The capital is two cities, known as the Tartar (north) and the Chinese (south); the latter an oblong, stretching between four and five miles from east THE influences of learning upon the great to west, while from south to north it is not much masses of society has been exemplified in all over a mile wide; the former nearly three and one-half miles square, and resting on the centre ages. Inform the minds of the people, and they of the southern city, so as to produce with it a will have discernment enough to discover their T-shaped figure, with a disproportionately stout truest interest, to seek their own welfare and to perpendicular. North of all is a large earth-work, consider that which is best for the whole mass the north outline of which is exactly parallel to and not a select few. It will inspire them with the north wall of the city, and distant from it perpatriotic feelings and become the bulwark of haps a mile. From its extremities fall the east liberty, which has always been dependent upon and west faces of the enclosure, aligning themthe intelligence of the people. No sooner does selves with the east and west walls of the city. education become general than the ensigns of Thus you have a figure somewhat of the form of freedom spring up fresh and lovely on every three parallelograms, rising above each other, A hand. Greece, England, Germany, and all the being the earthwork, B the north city, and C the distinguished nations of the earth owe their south city. In the centre of B, again, stands an happiness and wisdom to the intelligence of inner city, walled and gated, and in the centre of their people. this the innermost precinct of the Emperor, also The benefits of learning are experienced and walled and gated, and guarded by numerous happily demonstrated in our country. They functionaries and men-at-arms. It is remarkable, may be seen in our civil institutions, based upon by the way, in what apparent security this carethe importance of imparting knowledge to all ful despot dwelt at his country palace. There classes of society. Whence, but from the gen-were barracks for a strong force, and the books eral intelligence of the people, arise liberty of of China show a corps of some magnitude as conscience and the right of private judgment—proper to Yuen-ming-Yuen, but the palace or palprinciples which lie at the foundation of our aces were as accessible to the outsiders as any national prosperity and happiness ? gentleman's park in England.

To what but intelligence do we owe our revo- To return to Pekin: as you approach it from lutionary struggle and our separate, indepen- the north, the walls, some sixty feet high and in dent existence as a nation? This aroused the good order, with very high buildings overtopping slumbering energies of the people, and explored the gates, are decidedly imposing. You draw all the hidden depths of their nature. Then it nearer, and are moved to laughter at John Chinawas that they sprang, Minerva-like, fully armed man's consistent adherence to his baby-like from the forehead of the revolution, disciplined fashions in matters of war. These great gates and prepared for the mighty and successful con- seem to you, far off, to be provided with five

tiers of guns, which you cannot imagine would hail, and from its official position the demand is ever be fired without bringing down the whole immense. Its meat is driven in from a considtower. Nearer inspection satisfies you that the erable distance; its fuel-coal, at least-travels tower is in no danger from this cause, at least. siowly in from the South and West; the coal itThe embrasures, which are as crowded as in an self on camels, a noble breed; the coal dust, old line-of-battle ship, are simply apertures closed which is compounded with earth for the use of with a shutter, on which is painted a circle with stoves, on mules not less noble in their way. a bull's eye. On occupying the gate the force Rice, as we all know, should arrive by the way did find, right and left of it, some very nice guns, of the canal, but the canal's machinery has been laid as if, up to the last moment, thoughts had in abeyance this many a year, and rebels flank it been entertained of resisting this introduction of here and there. Grain does come, to be sure, by bayonet-bearing barbarians within the holy of sea, so long as no one cares to block the Peiho; Chinese holies. but the position of the Yank-tse-Kiang Valley

The coup d'œil from the north walls is indis- prevents the transmission of copper from the far putably gratifying. Past experience of Chinese South-west, and the dearth of this metal has encities will have prepared you for an absence of tailed on the government a resort to iron money, what we call public buildings in the view below than which nothing can be more terrible, except, you. Still there is the Imperial Palace, protest- perhaps, the government paper.

ing in this case against your rule, and, besides the gate-towers, a fair sprinkling of lofty temples, the whole interspersed with much wood. The palace seems to have almost a park of good, middle-sized trees about its artificial lakes, and bridges that

SNOW STORM IN THE OLDEN TIME.-The year 1717 is memorable in the history of New England, on account of the unusual quantity of snow which fell February 20th and 24th of that

ered with snow from ten to fifteen, and in some

have been comely, and are still, at a distance, pic- year. In those two storms the earth was covturesque. On the whole, you feel favorably towards Pekin. But descend into the streets, and places to twenty feet deep. Many houses of you become painfully sensible that there is not a one story were buried, and, in numerous cases, more squalid collection of houses in an Arab vil- paths were dug from house to house under the snow drifts. The visits were made by means of lage, or in the old city of Limerick. The streets are wide, and have been, in some instances, pav-snow-shoes, the wearers having first stepped ed, but they seem to have long been forgotten by out of their chamber windows. One gentleman, the Macadam of these parts. On a dry day their wishing to visit his "lady love," walked three soft loam sends up a cloud of dust that puts your miles with snow-shoes, and entered her resiface and whiskers past the recognition of your dence as he had left his own, namely, by the most intimate friends. If it rains, you are knee- chamber window. He was cordially received, deep in mud, and a journey along the disjointed stone chaussee is a service of real danger to your horse's fetlocks.

The bulk of trade belongs to the southern city,

which is traversed from north to south by a few broad streets at right angles to one or two crossing it from the east gate to the west. The lesser feeders of these, I say, take me back to the banks of the Shannon twenty years ago, and even in the larger arteries there is not, as a general rule, the regularity or substance which you will find in the west suburb of Canton or the show streets of Ningpo. We see the place, it is true, at a disadvantage. Many of the wealthy and respectable have fled, and are but now beginning to return; but the poorer classes and even the middle ranks are more poverty-stricken looking than any Chinese I have seen, except at Tien-tsin.

Supplies of all kinds are, of course, just now high-priced, but Pekin must always be an expensive abode, as it has positively nothing within

as he was the first person the family had seen from abroad for a week! Cotton Mather has left a manuscript account of "this great snow," and the many marvels and prodigies attending

it.

"I have seen

A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract
Of inland ground, applying to his ear
The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell;
To which, in silence hushed, his very soul
Listened intensely; and his countenance soon
Brightened with joy; for murmuring from within
Were heard, sonorous cadences, whereby,
To his belief, the monitor expressed
Mysterious union with its native sea.
Even such a shell the universe itself
Is to the ear of Faith: and there are times,
doubt not, when to you it doth impart
Authentic tidings of invisible things;
Of ebb and flow and ever-during power;
And central peace subsisting at the heart
Of endless agitation,
WORDSWORTH,

For the Schoolmaster.

"As Thy Days so shall Thy Strength Be."

-

grade of thought are thrown into the exact field of their usefulness! Yet we are contin

We have each some part to act in the busi-ually wondering at the arrangements of Infinite ness of the world; in the great plan of eter- Wisdom ceaselessly hoping that events will nity not a being has ever dwelt or will ever further our narrow personal plans! Methinks dwell on the face of our planet-home, but he it will be well here as elsewhere to heed the in"Be still and know that I am God." fills some niche, though small, in this architec- junction, ture of God, and is responsible for and performs But there is a higher use to which Our Father some part in the drama of life. As the great puts us in the sentient world; and for this we Master Builder, so we have three distinct na- are specially prepared by finer sensibilities and tures in our being; we have bodily presence, nobler powers. In our animal existence is our mental calibre, and moral vim. These are our lowest form of usefulness. Just as important three acting forces. and acceptable doubtless as any other is our

In the physical creation there would be inter- manual service, and the head hath no need to stices were it not that the tabernacles in which say to the feet or hands, "I have no need of we dwell are of finer mould than the objects of thee;" still a place in the physical world and sense about us, and God has appointed to each labors in the busy roughs of life are things we of his rational creatures some particular space hold somewhat in common with creatures of into fill; and it is remarkable that the two are stinct alone. Next higher is our aptitude for the exact admeasurement of each other. Per- mental service; for discerning and supporting haps herein is contained the reason that no two truth-for discerning those immutable laws by persons are precisely alike in form and figure. which God's eternal truth is spread before us. We are told by the fable that it is perfectly use- And here, as in the physical realm, we may be less for the frog to try to equal the ox, besides cheered by remembering that the wisdom and being a very dangerous experiment: so who can authority which appoints our surroundings is a doubt that the attempt would have been quite soundless deep of love; and there is a matchas dubious and unsuccessful if the ox had en- less tale of armor to which we all have access vied the frog, so little and sprightly, and had and in which we need never fear discomfiture determined to assume its duties and shrink to or doubtful success. But far beyond our effiits pigmy size. There are calls and require- ciency in both physical and intellectual toil is ments resting on each according to the place he the capacity we have for moral influence over None can occupy two places at the same each other. We are all impressible beings and time, so then considering simply our relation as by nothing perhaps so much as by natures simiOur fellow beings possess a matter to adjacent matter, none can be spared lar to our own.

fills.

from his own place to take ours, and we need power over us and we over them almost illimitnot attempt to shirk the claims upon us, by able. This power is necessarily exerted to make leaving our legitimate post and assuming other those on whom it falls like ourselves—like the labors. Although not very gratifying to our being that gives the impress. We may deny self-conceit and vanity, it might be beneficial for that we have any such intention, we may even us to remember betimes that another might find it rather difficult to shrivel sufficiently to enable him to get into the crevice which we just fill; another might be cramped to enter quarters perfectly commodious to us - amply spacious in all respects.

hope that this result may not follow; but it is all useless, the matter is not an optional one; we are creatures of imitation and sympathy we must be continually giving and taking, and are fearfully responsible for the b'as given or

received.

--

These same considerations may be urged in How fearfully and wonderfully we are made! speaking of intellectual capacity. Peculiar men- How dreadful to injure our fellow travellers by tal service is prepared for us each to perform giving an evil impulse, by the setting of a particular opinions are to be combated, and as bad example or by endorsing false precepts and an offset, to perfect our responsibility and make principles. In addition to this, the Bible nothe plan of creation complete, each one has an tices the sin of omission as well as that of comindividual fitness for the work appointed him. mission, and a good man has said that “an opWhat diversity of powers and capabilities in portunity to do good is tantamount to a comthe mental world! How varied the labors re- mand to undertake the service." It was the quired, and how providentially persons of any talent hid in the earth and never devoted to the

The Secret Revealed.

usury intended that condemned the steward, and at the great Court of Judgment to be found WHY was Aaron Burr the grandson of unfaithful to any trust committed to us will be President Edwards- the child of many prayers no light thing. It has been urged long ago that and of an eminently Christian ancestry, so deswe are not our brother's keeper; we all know titute of moral principle, so profligate and dehow futile was the plea then, has it gained per-based that his name is left to posterity recorded tinence or pungency since? Humility, mock or on the roll of infamy? The Christian public true, may urge that we have no influence. We have not known how to solve it. The followsurely know better than that—our poor hu- ing statement found in the Americau Messenger manity has many a time boasted its power. for October reveals the true cause, and speaks However independent, we can never stand volumes to the hearts of parents and guardians. alone; and there will ever be some kindred na- The little child was early bereft of parental ture to imbibe our habits of thought and tread care, and through sympathy and mistaken kindmore or less in the steps we have taken. Con-ness suffered to grow up" without discipline sidering, then, the mighty responsibility which or restraint. The consequences of this neglect we cannot avoid, who is sufficient for these in this single instance as they are traced on and things and who shall be able to stand. Just on through time and beyond it, who can comhere, then, where our native sufficiency cowers pute? and shrinks away, and the rallying agency must come from without, appears the tried promise, "As thy days so shall thy strength be;" and we find that man's extremity is God's opportunity. Whatever our surroundings may be, we may remember that the same Being that ap- DISCIPLINE AND RESTRAINT FOR THE YOUNG. pointed our place is at hand to furnish all need"The eldest son of President Edwards, coned efficiency and develope a fitness for the sergratulating a friend on having a fine family of vice required which even our dull powers of sons, said to him with much earnestness, Reperception shall one day acknowledge. Doing member, there is but one mode of family govthe best we can and the most we can, we need ernment. I have brought up and educated fournever fear a failure, for the Everlasting Arms teen boys, two of whom I brought, or rather are underneath and the fair scroll of promise suffered to grow up, without the rod. One of

waves within our reach: "I will never leave

nor forsake thee. Methinks there are many

times in life, mid the burden and heat of the

Will not those who have the care of children

put this extract in some conspicuous place and read and re-read it prayerfully when in doubt how to treat the faults of their children that involve a manifest breach of moral principle?

6

these was my youngest brother, and the other Aaron Burr, my sister's only son,' both of whom had lost their parents in their childhood; and from both my observation and experience, I tell you, sir maple-sugar government will never answer. Beware how you let the first act of disobedience in your little boys go unnoticed, and unless evidence of repentance be manifest, unpunished.'

day, when the weary frame and the sinking heart needs the cheer of some faithful word, the strength of some sure support. Emergencies call out the truer parts of us and develop unsuspected capabilities. We allow ourselves! many times to look anxiously into the future, distrustful even of the Providence above; but surely nothing acceptable to us and approved on high, is in hazardous care, for Omnipotence this world is concerned. It is a solemn lesson, itself is pledged that all things shall work together for our good, provided only we love God. And this is the condition which verifies to us all the good gifts of the Lord of Hosts for all such shall be his in that day when he maketh up his jewels.

A. P. C.

"Of all the sermons I ever heard, long or short, this has been the most useful, so far as

to be prayerfully pondered by all parents and guardians. The Bible lays down four great rules, involving the four great elements of the successful religious training of children-prayer, instruction, example and restraint. And it is useless to pray for, or with your children, if you do not instruct them; and it will be in vain to instruct them if your own example contradicts

EXTRACT FROM THE CODE OF A SCHOOL AT WORMS IN 1262.- Any pupil whose bones have! been broken, or who has been severely wounded your teaching; and in vain will be the prayer, by his master, in chastising him, shall have the the instruction, the example, if, like Eli, when right of quitting the school without paying the your children do wrong, you restrain them

For the Schoolmaster.
Absenteeism.

raised

ny. Their future standing and influence in society will depend vastly more or ought toupon their personal character and intelligence than upon their wealth. Since current knowledge and virtuous character are essential to elevated citizenship and extensive usefulness, the neglect of education must be a greater evil to the State itself than waste of money.

right of protection with reference to property When government, therefore, assumes the violated rights of the young in reference to eduand utterly passes over the neglected claims and cation, it plainly declares that it considers the lack of gold a greater misfortune in a citizen than a lack of a ripe and fruitful understandNo one will pretend that mere wealth, abstractly considered, is a good. To be a source of usefulness it must be controlled by virtue and intelligence.

Genius of Energy.

education. There are several reasons which show that government is more sacredly bound to interpose its protecting power in the latter ACCORDING to the Commissioner's returns, case than in the former. about one-third of all the public money To deprive children for the support of schools fails to accomplish viduals, than to deprive them of their patrimoof education is a greater evil to them, as indithe object to which it is appropriated on account of absences," the great majority of which are entirely unnessary." Every teacher knows that the operations of the school-room are always more efficient and successful when all the scholars are present. Therefore the average absence, compared with the whole number of scholars, does not express the real proportion of wasted money. On whom does the responsibility of this waste fall? Is it not chiefly upon parents and guardians? The State and town appropriate money for public schools, do they give the money as a charity, with the tacit understanding that the recipient may either use it or waste it, as his fancy may suggest or other interest seem to require? The equivalent expecting. ed and demanded is, that the whole rising race shall be educated. Whatever is found necessary to secure this the State has undoubtedly a moral right to require. The appropriation of public money for the support of free schools has a primary reference to the future well-being of the State itself. The State has, therefore, the right to make a law requiring every young person to attend school punctually, on pain of losing his right to citizenship. To require that one be educated before assuming the responsibilities of citizenship, would be to establish a condition of citizenship which has a natural and And you will further find, when you come to obvious relation to its responsibilities. If a measure yourself with men, that there are no State has a right to exist at all, it has an equally rivals so formidable as those earnest, determined valid right to a healthy, elevated existence. And minds, which reckon the value of every hour, to secure this, it has a right to require that its and which achieve eminence by persistent applifuture citizens, by whom its existence is to be cation. prolonged, should be educated. There are cases Literary ambition may inflame you at certain in which the right of government to interpose periods; and a thought of some great name will its authority between the parent and the child, dash like a spark into the mine of your purfor the good of the latter, is acknowledged. poses; you dream until midnight over books, Suppose a parent is a gambler or an intemperate you set up shadows and chase them downman, and by these vices is wasting his sub- other shadows and they fly. Dreaming will stance, does not the town claim the right to in- never catch them. Nothing makes the "scent terfere the right to secure the property to the lie well" in the hunt after distinction, but lalegal heirs, and thus save the family from beg- bor. gary and public expense? If government may, And it is a glorious thing, when once you are by invested authority, secure the rights of child- weary of the dissipation and the enui of your ren in reference to property, why not also in own aimless thoughts, to take up some glowing reference to education? One man thirsts for in- page of an earnest thinker, and read, deep and toxicating drink, and to gratify his appetite, long, until you feel the metal of his thought deprives his children of wealth. Another thirsts tinkling on your brain and striking out from for gold, and therefore deprives his children of your flinty lethargy, flashes of ideas that give

THERE is no genius in life, like the genius of energy and industry. You will learn that all the traditions so current among very young men-that certain great characters have wrought their greatness by an inspiration, as it were, have grown out of a sad mistake.