ed. "Riches and honor are with her, her fruit is better than gold, her revenue than choice silver." Philosophy has been called down from heaven, and, obeying the summons, is now within the reach of ordinary minds; and lamentable and desperate beyond all hope of awakening, must be the lethargy of that intellect, which is not excited to effort, and, in some degree, at least, improved by the countless facilities and the generous offers of aid, which surround it. In the words of another: "Science is no longer cloistered in monasteries. It is no longer imprisoned in walled colleges. It is no longer buried in unknown tongues. It is no longer reverenced as supernatural inspiration. It is no longer the privilege of the few, and no longer, as, while abused, it too often proved, the scourge of the many." No, my friends, a flood of intellectual light is flashing round us, and who shall forbid that you, and I, and all, shall not be baptized in its beams, and bask in its shine, and be warmed and invigorated by its heat. the once impregnable Gaza of learning have been unhinged, and carried off, by the intellectual Samsons of modern times; the veil of the inner temple of wisdom is rent in twain, and the broad pathway into the innermost recesses is spread wide open to all who would enter. Wisdom herself "now crieth from within and from without. She uttereth her voice in the streets; she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the opening of the gates: 'Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make my words known unto you.'

The gates of

Knowledge may be had, (thanks to the liberality of many of our States, it is specially so for their sons

and daughters,)—it may be had "without money and without price." In the delightful path, which spreads its grateful fruits and flowers before our sight, the good, the great, the mighty, the truly noble, both in character and in rank, princes and subjects of every degree, the votaries of science of every name, age and sex, have thronged in dense array. With concentrated and successful effort, they have assisted in the good work of clearing away whatever hindrances, ages of scholastic selfishness had heaped up, as barricades against their progress, and in smoothing and adorning the way, for the good of those who are to follow after them. Genius brings forward her theories and her speculations, and invention supplies to experiment the means of bringing them to the test. Never could it more truly be said, that "Wisdom is justified of her children." Since the spirit of investigation was awakened by Bacon, that giant-minded pioneer in inductive science, a host of ingenious and gifted men have arisen, who have made, and announced to the world the most wonderful discoveries. The race is not yet extinct. Why should I detain you, to recount their names and their deeds? They

urged forward the car of human progress; they widened the phylacteries of human knowledge; they ennobled science and art, and the very good they wrought for others, immortalized themselves. The gloomy, sullen shade of ignorance and vice fled before the sun, which, with "healing in its beams," darted its light athwart their eastern skies.

"So, when the sun, from his watery bed,

All curtained with a cloudy red,

Pillows his chin upon an orient wave,

The flocking shadows, ghastly pale,

All troop to their infernal jail;

Each fettered ghost slips to his several grave.

Yet, much as they accomplished, they garnered not in, all the fruits of the teeming fields of knowledge. Other and greater discoveries are yet to come; and who shall say, that some of those whom you are skilled to train and prepare for the work, shall not reap and bind the ample sheaves, and bear them rejoicing home? The deep debt of gratitude imposed upon us by the wise labors and thoughtful forecast of our ancestors, we must not fail to meet, and to pay, with full interest added. Nor must we fail to toil as sedulously for the good of posterity, as our progenitors toiled for our good, and we cancel the debt that we owe, just so far as we are earnest and successful in this duty. The good or the evil of untold generations will be influenced by what we do, and fearful is the responsibility. That all but limitless realm, that lies far towards the western sun, is to be tenanted by the countless throngs of unborn Americans. Upon these is our influence to operate, upon their minds is our teaching to bear; and whether rich garners of virtuous fruits shall send a blessed odor to their skies, or the noxious weeds of vice shall taint their moral atmosphere with pestilence and death, can alone be determined by success or failure, in planting and rearing, on every acre of that wide domain, the manners, the morals and the institutions. that bless and adorn New-England.

* Milton's "Christmas Hymn," as varied in Handel's "Samson."

LECTURE II.

THE SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS.

BY D. B. HAGAR,

JAMAICA PLAIN, WEST ROXBURY, MASS.

THE questions which are naturally suggested, when we look at this subject, are,—What are the interests to be supervised? What is the work the supervisor should perform? Who are the proper persons to execute that work? and, How many such persons are needed in each town?

I. What are the interests to be supervised? The importance to be attached to the oversight of schools, depends mainly upon the weightiness of these in

terests.

Body, intellect, heart;-these make up the man. The physical, the mental, and the moral powers, all healthy and vigorous, are all requisite to constitute the being that God created in his own image. The body, without developed mind, is a machine destitute of its proper motive power; without a cultivated

heart, it lowers man to the rank of the beast. The intellect, unsupported by a sound physical structure, becomes inactive and useless; unattended by the promptings of a virtuous moral nature, it is a dangerous weapon. The heart, in a diseased body, becomes enfeebled or debased; and uninfluenced by a strong intellect, is nearly harmless for good or for evil.

This

That it is the province of schools to train the intellect, and that its interests are therefore to be supervised, is a truth too manifest to require remark. The mechanic, the farmer, the merchant, the artist, the professional man, all must possess more or less knowledge and discipline, to be qualified for the discharge of their several duties in life. The school must furnish that knowledge and discipline. every body reasonably expects. But is it so generally understood and felt, that there are physical and moral powers to be developed and cultivated with equal assiduity? and that this important work belongs, in a great measure, to the school-room? Much, we know, has been written and said, of late years, upon the value of health and sound morals; but is it not a notorious fact, that examining committees, almost without exception, confine their investigations into the condition of schools, entirely to the intellectual department? And is it not true, also, that teachers, in preparing for the trials through which they must pass, devote, in self-defence, nearly all their time and energies to the same department? The interests of health and morality at present are not generally made the objects of supervision in our schools.

But if we take a right view of the matter, we can