It was a very common inquiry among the ancients, why the number of excellent orators, under all the encouragements the most flourishing States could give them, fell so far short of the number of those who excelled in all other sciences. Oratory is the highest goal of human attainments; and the answers given to this inquiry, are as diverse as modes of occupation and degrees of intellectual culture. Were the youth about to make his first attempt on the arena of life, to propose a like inquiry as to the smallness of the number of men who attain to the highest excellence, the replies would as widely differ. One author says that Homer ennobled his heroes by making them appear like the gods, thus displaying only the imitative energies at the expense of the noble original, which naturally belongs to every hero. Another writer states that Marius Aurelius secured the good opinion of the reader by declaring with great modesty, that it had been his chief care always to imitate the gods. The good Aurelius afterwards says, that in imitating the gods, he endeavored to act like them in the proper use of his understanding, and of all other faculties, thus presenting to the world a perfected model of what the gods had made him capable of becoming.

This sentiment may serve the educated young man as a golden thread to lead him to the highest excellence and to the most valuable success. While he forgets not his proper manhood, that he is subject to innumerable temptations, which will entice him to deviate from reason and goodness, he is urged by every

motive to imitate the pure and to imbibe the divine; to spurn the war-geniuses of Rome and of Macedon; to neglect the pleas ures which ruined the one, and the profane ambition which shed the blood of the other. The noblest portraitures of excellence in the intellectual and moral sublime, solicit a correspondent development from his insipid man within. While he rejects the opinion that circumstances make the man, he candidly holds that they may serve as the occasion which suggests his career or gives celerity and effulgence to his already ascending orb. It is the man who makes the man, the intellect which bursts its own imprisonment and forms the intellect, the soul that refines and elevates the soul. He reflects upon the circumstances and conditions of Homer, of Virgil, and of Milton; he takes the most extended view of their state, and then accounts for the production of the Iliad, the Eneid, and the Paradise Lost. On the same principle he explains the sublime discoveries made in natural philosophy and mathematics, by Galileo and Newton. He beholds Bloomfield making shoes in a garret and composing poetry which has delighted posterity, and Goldsmith, compounding drugs in a laboratory, who could indite such imperishable pictures of human life; the immortal bard of Scotland, who, following the plough, or keeping sheep on the hill-side, could arrange "thoughts that breathe, in words that burn," for the admiration of future ages; and the prisoner pilgrim of Bedford, who has produced strains that echo to the holiest frames of the inner man wherever the Bible has found its way.

Opinions formed in early life have great influence in directing our career and shaping our destiny. Character formed on the most excellent model, is replete with the good of the world; and the youth most enterprising in noble thoughts and deeds, regards himself as the world's man. He learns to study the living manners as they rise, analyzes the living heart of the species, and understands how to touch the harp of sympathy with the waking power of human lightning.

The student of books alone, is a cold star, gleaming from a frigid sphere from among abstruse mathematics and abstract philosophical principles. He comes from his study out into the world, but the smell of books is on his garments, his look and acts speak of the inhabitant of the closet, the laboratory, and the observatory. He blesses the world, but only through secondary influences, and it loves him not with a full flame, for he has not touched its sympathies and won for himself a place in its heart. But the philanthropist of preeminent talents has a genial warmth, which glows purely and brightly, and humanity is cheered by his career and inspiring presence. Men gather even about his tomb with true and affectionate admiration of him, as the heaven-cherished property of the world, its presiding,

sympathizing genius. Such were Newton and Howard. The fame of both is imperishable: that of the former is bright, distant and cold; that of the latter, bright, cheerful and warm. Newton captivates the imagination, Howard enchains the heart; the one is a crystal intelligence, the other is a glowing sympathy. Both had implicit faith in the most elevated destiny, and while the one believed and thought and studied on, the other believed, acted and felt and drew men after him by the sacred attraction of sympathy. Newton stood by the altar of learning, ever stirred the embers and poured on the sacrifice of his best strength, and the pure flame went curling up among the spheres of heaven; but Howard stood by the fountains of human comfort, and even cast salt into their waters.

How high the hope, how pure the faith, which illumine the path of the young and piously-educated teacher, who goes forth to act for mankind! In his symmetrically developed character, the philanthropist, feeling for humanity, the patriot acting for his country, the Christian, claiming his high birthright and destiny, are beautifully blended and harmonized. To him who with a master's hand can move the emotional nature, can stir the tenderness of the heart, can awake the strong to high thoughts and noble deeds, true learning and genuine eloquence pay their homage and tender their service. The power of the bar, the efficiency of the pulpit, the wisdom of the senate, the eloquence of the popular assembly, wait on the steps of the great master of feeling. Christian learning is destined to renovate the world. Her ministers and the educated Christian teachers of our age, shall attend her way, share her honors, and glory in her triumphs. To them are entrusted the lights of wisdom, from their hearts proceed the refreshing streams of renovating truth. They rule the destiny of the world, its happiness is theirs, and its ultimate elevation will be the reward of their toils, their sacrifices and their conquests. Such are the true nobility; and when the force of battles shall be no more, when hereditary titles and honors shall have passed away, when the race shall have won its ultimate limit of enlightenment, then shall these heirs of immortality claim their reward, and receive their "Excelsior."

THINGS LOST FOREVER.-Lost wealth may be restored by industry-the wreck of health regained by temperance-forgotten knowledge restored by study-alienated friendship smoothed into forgetfulness-even forfeited reputation won by penitence and virtue. But who ever looked upon his vanished honors-recalled his slighted years-stamped them with wisdom -or effaced from Heaven's record the fearful blot of wasted time!-Mrs. Sigourney.

SELF-CONTROL ESSENTIAL TO THE TEACHER.

THERE is no qualification in the teacher more essential to his success in governing, than an ability to govern himself;-"He that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city;" and he who cannot control himself, will succeed but poorly in his attempts to control others.

The teacher who loses his temper, loses at the same time, the respect and affection of his pupils, and affords the mischief-loving urchin a strong temptation to experiment upon his weakness. The spirit of the teacher, moreover, by the force of natural sympathy, communicates itself imperceptibly and unavoidably to the minds of his pupils. If he be sour, morose and fractious, these unamiable tempers will soon be kindled in those who surround him. "Face answers to face." If the teacher's countenance be clouded with frowns, the dark image of his own ill-nature will be reflected back upon his own soul, from the group of faces around him that ought to be enlivened by the constant and bright expression of his own benignity.

The scolding mother wonders why her children are so provokingly disobedient. But she need not wonder. It is a provision of nature that the child should imbibe the spirit of those who stand in the place of a parent, and that child must be stupid and idiotic that does not reflect the image of parental peevishness, in impertinence and refractory disobedience. The parent or teacher who is always finding fault with those under his care will always have occasion for censure, for he effectually destroys all motive to good behavior.

The teacher should know how to censure without anger, to punish without passion, and to praise without infincerity. Amidst the provoking annoyances to which his calling is specially and continually exposed, the teacher needs a spirit disciplined to complete self-possession. He only rises to the true dignity of the teacher's work, who preserves his equanimity in the midst of annoying vexations. The passionate teacher if he be energetic, may preserve order, as it is called, but his government is that of fear rather than of respect and confidence, a tyranny rather than government. "They make a solitude and call it peace," said the indignant Briton of the invading legions of Cæsar. There are teachers who maintain their authority by a vigorous restraint upon the confiding and joyous spirit of childhood; who repress rather than guide the buoyant energies of their pupils; who silence rather than stimulate inquiry.

Such teachers may succeed in reducing their pupils to subection, with the exception of a few who show their superior intelligence by playing truant; he may repress the spirit of

gleeful childhood till the unfortunate subjects of his control have become as mute as mummies, and well-nigh as senseless. Government by fear can be maintained only by vigilant and painful effort. Let such a teacher for a moment relax the reins of his authority, and the elastic spirit of childhood, long subjected to an unnatural and cruel pressure, will rebound with ungovernable violence. The tumultuous finale, sometimes witnessed in the closing scenes of our district schools, furnishes a striking as well as noisy illustration of the beauties of this kind of school government. Benches are sometimes torn up, windows broken, and the schoolmaster pelted with snowballs, in the mere wantonness of boisterousness, rejoicing that a brief reign of odious tyranny is at an end. This is no fancy sketch;-many a teacher, after the fatiguing toils of the winter, has closed his thankless task thus ingloriously.

If the teacher does not covet so unpleasant a termination of his work, let him learn the art of governing others by governing himself. Let him discipline his spirit into uniform expression of benignity. And whilst he maintains an unshaken firmness, subduing the incorrigible by the force of an invincible will, let the law of kindness dwell upon his lips and in his heart. With such a spirit in the teacher, his presence will be a spell to charm the incorrigible and rebellious, and to awaken a thirst for knowledge and virtue. The close of a school conducted under such a benign influence will be no uproarious pandemonium, but the affectionate parting of mutual friends, rendered sacred by a thousand recollections of mutual good offices. ALPHA. Maine, March 17, 1852.

GEOGRAPHY.

ALL teachers agree that in the pursuit of this study the first great object is to form in the mind of the pupil a picture of the exterior of the earth, its countries, oceans, mountains, rivers, cities, &c.; also the relative position of all these, together with their size, form, and appearance. The only point at issue then is, how can this best be done? We know of no better way of doing it than that which we have practised during several terms, viz., requiring the pupil to describe routes from one part of the country, or from one country to another; naming the direction in which he travels, the waters on which he sails, the capes he passes, the rivers he crosses, the mountains he climbs, the cities he visits, and all other matters of interest in the journey. After becoming a little accus tomed to this, he may describe his return in like manner.