while he animates, the nations who are girding up their loins for the Day of Freedom? In metaphysics, truly, we boast a writer whose position (assigned by more instructed judges than ourselves) is second to few that ever reasoned of 'fate, fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute.' Yet so strange is our insensibility, that it may be doubted whether more than one-half of any miscellaneous audience would understand the plainest allusion to their immortal countryman. It is impossible to expand the subject further. True-hearted earnestness, concentration, and perseverance would effect a change. The sincere coöperation of the rich alone would put causes in action, that would soon pervade and stimulate the whole community.But, whatever present disappointment may await hopes like these, literary men ought never to relax their efforts, never to undervalue their noble calling. Overlooked they may be, in the busy world, or beside the political idols of the hour; but they have sources of cheerfulness, and sustaining dignity, within, which neither fickle fortune, nor fickle party, can take away. Their peace of mind is not laid up in vessels which a demagogue can shatter; their honors are not transitory as the tenure of office; their independent thoughts are not tortured to conformity by the machinery of party; their soul's vital aspiration is not staked on the issue of a canvass; old age is not, to them, the 'pining atrophy' of worn-out or disappointed statesmen. A living fount of mental gladness sparkles in their bosom. Solitude is not solitude to them: the shadows of the past, the wide-spread, every-varying Universe, are passing before them, and visions of the future beckon them on. Sometimes, perhaps, amidst the glare and hurry of a great metropolis, struck with the results of her confederated minds, the man of letters may feel useless and alone. Let him reflect, that all usefulness, and all happiness, are a compromise; and that periodical eclipses are the price of habitual enthusiasm. Let him ponder, and compare ;-but never mistake so widely as to link, even in wish, his immortal part to the drag-rope of the world's affairs. His pursuits refer to higher, though less obvious things; to ideal beauty,-abstract truth,--universal interests, enduring principles: they bring wealth to the soul, and transport to the mind: they drop seeds which shoot up a growth for perpetuity: they collect radiance for the torch which Faith waves to man, contending with shadows and billows on this world's shore, ere his eye catches that fixed and purer beam, which burns always on the battlements of his final home. TRUE STUDENT LIFE.-Letters, Essays, and Thoughts on Education, Studies, and Conduct, aedressed to Young Persons by Men Eminent in Literature and Affairs. Edited by Henry Barnard, LL.D. 416 pages. $2.50. CONTENTS. PAGES PART I.-EDUCATION-ITS NATURE, SCHOOLS, AND OBJECTS..... 9-64 PART II.-STUDIES AND CONDUCT. 65-286 I. LETTERS BY MEN EMINENT IN PUBLIC LIFE.. 67-80 1. SIR THOMAS WYATT TO HIS SON AT SCHOOL.... 67 2. SIR HENRY SIDNEY TO HIS SON, PHILIP SIDNEY, AT SCHOOL.. 69 71 .. 74 77 II. THOUGHTS ON THE CONDUCT OF LIFE... BISHOP HALL-BISHOP TAYLOR-DR. FULLER-DR. BARROW. III. ESSAYS ON SUBJECTS AND METHODS OF STUDY.. 1. LORD BACON-2. ARCHBISHOP WHATELY. 2. LORD CHATHAM.-LETTERS TO HIS NEPHEW AT SCHOOL. 3. JOHN LOCKE.-STUDY: ITS LIMITATIONS, OBJECTS, AND METHODS.... 145 129 4. LORD BROUGHAM.-Letter to Father of Lord MACAULAY... 161 165 5. GEORGE BERTHOLD NIEBUHR.-LETTER TO HIS NEPHEW. 169 V. ESSAYS AND THOUGHTS ON CONVERSATION... 177-192 1. LORD BACON.-ESSAY ON DISCOURSE. 177 2. ARCHBISHOP WHATELY-DEAN SWIFT-ADDISON-SIR WM. TEMPLE... 179 3. THOMAS DE QUINCEY.-Art of ConverSATION.. 185 193-204 VI. LETTERS IN RESPECT TO IMPERFECT and NEGLECTED EDUCATION....... 1. THOMAS DE QUINCEY-2. THOMAS CARLYLE.. 193 VII. BOOKS AND READING TO SUPPLEMENT AND CONTINUE SCHOOL EDUCATION 205-230 1. VALUE OF BOOKS AND LIBRARIES.-CHANNING-MILTON-EVERETT.... 207 2. HINTS ON READING.-WATTS, POTTER, SEDGWICK GRIMKE................... VIII. TRAVEL-IN LIBERAL CULTURE.. 215 231-242 IX. MANNERS-IN EDUCATION AND LIFE. 1. LETTER O SIR PHILIP SIDNEY TO HIS BROTHER ROBERT.. 231 2. LORD BACON-SHAKSPEARE-MILTON-LORD HARDWICKE-MACAULAY. 235 3. DR. AIKEN.-EYES AND NO EYES: OR, THE ART OF SEEING. 239 243-248 X. MONEY-ITs ACQUISITIon and ManaGEMENT.. 1. DR. FRANKLIN.-POOR RICHARD'S WAY TO WEALTH. 2. LORD BACON.-ESSAY-OF RICHES.-POPE.-THE MAN OF Ross. 5. LORD BULWER.-THE ART OF MANAGING MONEY. XI. WISDOM-IN THE CONDUCT OF LIFE.. 289-294 295-368 1. WILLIAM VON HUMBOLDT.-THOUGHTS of a Retired StatesMAN.... 273 2. ROBERT SOUTHEY-HENRY TAYLOR.-WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE... 277 PART III.-THE EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN.. 287-416 I. ST. JEROME.-LETTER TO A ROMAN MATRON... II. KARL V. RAUMER.-ON THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.. III. SIR THOMAS MORE-ADMIRAL LORD COLLINGWOOD-MACKINTOSH...... 369-380 IV. JAMESON.-DUPANLOUP.-FEMALE EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT...... 381-416 Orders received through Post-Office Box "U," HARTFORD, Conn. COTTON MATHER AND BONIFACIUS. MEMOIR. COTTON MATHER, D.D. (from the University of Aberdeen), and member of the Royal Society, London, was born in Boston, Feb. 12, 1663, the son of Dr. Increase Mather, and Maria, daughter of Rev. John Cotton. He was a pupil of the Latin school under Mr. Ezekiel Cheever, and graduated at Harvard college in 1678—before he was sixteen years of age, a youth of prodigious industry and retentive memory. For six years after graduation he continued a hard student, and fitted young men for college. At the age of twenty-one he was ordained colleague of his father over the South Church, where he continued pastor after his father's death, until his own death in 1728, aged 65. His publications, including numerous Sermons and Tracts, number 382—all of them evidencing vast industry, his ardent desire to do good, and his extensive reading; but the best in point of style and extensive research are weakened by strange conceits and peculiarities, and overloaded with Latin quotations of the most commonplace sentiments. But with all these drawbacks we have met no other writer of his age who had so cxalted an estimate of the worth and power of the office of teacher, or the necessity of good schools to the well-being of society. Dr. Mather's indiscriminating eulogy of the fathers of New Engand has caused his zeal to preserve memorials and traditions of their character and services to be overlooked even by those who profit most by his labors; and in our condemnation of his errors of opinion in the matter of witchcraft, and the interference of magistrates, and ministers with the manners of private life, we too often forget that he only expressed the opinions of many men still regarded among the wisest of their generation. He was undoubtedly one of the most learned men of his day, and one who strove conscientiously to do good to every body in any way open to him. But his indiscreet zeal, and lack of common sense, greatly diminished his influence, and deprived him of positions for which his learning and love of letters eminently qualified him-such as the presidency of Harvard college. He died Feb. 13, 1728. BONIFACIUS; OR, ESSAYS TO DO GOOD. Mather's 'Essays to Do Good,' by which title it is referred to by Franklin as having had an influence on his conduct through life, and inspired him with a desire to be a doer of good-was originally published by the author in 1710, with the following title-pago: 'BONIFACIUS: An Essay upon the good that is to be derived and designed by those who desire to answer the great end of life, and to Do Good while they live. A book offered first, in general, unto all Christians in a personal capacity or in a relative. Then more particularly unto magistrates, ministers, physicians, lawyers, schoolmasters, gentlemen, officers, churches, and unto all societies of a religious character and intention; with humble proposals of unexceptionable methods to do good in the world,' without the name of the author. It has gone through many editions, or reprints, but in all which have come under our notice the title has read: "ESSAYS TO Do GooD: Addressed to all Christians, whether in Public or Private Capacities. By the late Cotton Mather, D.D., F.R.S." In the elaborate Preface the author turns to Sir William Ashurst as the type of a Public Spirit, which delights in doing good, and makes the doing of good every day and to everybody, as opportunity offers, a duty. He cites the Koran, which again and again asserts, 'God loves those who are inclined to do good,' and enforces a Christian duty by a Pagan proverb, that 'a good man is a common good.' The book proper opens with three chapters, to show that there is much occasion to do good, as well as of excellence in well-doing, and rewards for doing so. The true nature of good works consists in the motive, which is to glorify God and to justify our faith. Our opportunities to do good are our talents. Our capacity to do good makes the doing of it a duty. To develop this capacity, inward piety and frequent self-examination are necessary. Having made ourselves good, or at least put ourselves into favorable conditions for doing good, our author goes into particulars, which we present in the order of his treatment, numbering the same for the sake of distinctness. 1. On doing good to our relatives, children, and domestics. Once or twice every week 'let us call over our several relations and devise something that may be called heroical goodness in our discharging them,—the duties of husband and wife-each in their sphere. PARENTS! How much ought you to be devising for the good of your children. Often consider how to make them "wise children;" how to carry on a desirable education for them, an education that may render them desirable; how to render them lovely and polite, and serviceable to their generation. Often consider how to enrich their minds with valuable knowledge; how to instil into their minds generous, gracious, and heavenly principles; how to restrain and rescue them from the "paths of the destroyer," and fortify them against their peculiar temptations. I would betimes do what I can to produce a temper of benignity in my children, both towards one another and towards all other persons. I will instruct them how ready they should be to communicate to others a part of what they have; and they shall not want for encouragement when they discover a loving, courteous, and benevolent disposition. I will give them now and then a piece of money, that with their own little hands they may dispense something to the poor. Yea, if any one has hurt or vexed them, I will not only forbid all revenge, but will also oblige them to do a kindness, as soon as possible, to the vexatious person. All coarseness of language or behavior in them, I will discountenance. I would be solicitous to have my children expert, not only at reading with propriety, but also at writing a fair hand. I will then assign them such books to read, as I may judge most agreeable and profitable; obliging them to give me some account of what they read; but will keep a strict eye on what they read, lest they should stumble on the devil's library, and poison themselves with foolish romances, novels, plays, songs, or jests, "that are not convenient." I will direct them also to write out such things as may be of the greatest benefit to them; and they shall have their blank books neatly kept, on purpose to enter such passages as I recommend to them. I will particularly require them now and then to compose a prayer, and bring it to me, that so I may discern what sense they have of their own everlasting interests. I will never use corporeal punishment, except it be for an atrocious crime, or for a smaller fault obstinately persisted in. I would ever proportion chastisements to faults; not punish severely for a very small instance of childishness; and only frown a little for some real wickedness. Nor shall my chastisements ever be dispensed in passion and fury; but I will first show them the command of God, by transgressing which they have displeased me. The slavish, boisterous manner of education too commonly used, I consider as no small article in the wrath and curse of God upon a miserable world. I wish that among all the branches of a polite education, which I would endeavor to give my children, each of them, the daughters as well as the sons, may have so much acquaintance with some profitable avocation (whether it be painting, or the law, or medicine, or any other employment to which their own inclination may the most lead them), that they may be able to obtain for themselves a comfortable subsistence, if by the providence of God, they should ever be brought into destitute circumstances. Why should not they be thus instructed as well as Paul, the tent-maker? Children of the highest rank may have occasion to bless their parents who made such a provision for them. The Jews have a saying on this subject which is worthy to be mentioned: "Whoever teaches not his son some trade or business, does in reality teach him to be a thief." 2. On doing good to our servants. My servants are in some sense my children. While we impress on them lessons and lives of obedience, honesty, industry, and piety, we must teach them to read and to write-be solicitous about the company they keep. 3. On doing good to our neighbors. 'Pure religion and undefiled is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction '-'to deliver the orphan who has no helper, and cause the widow's heart to sing for joy.' Once a week at least would it be too much to think-'What neighbor is reduced to pinching and painful poverty, or impoverished with heavy losses? What neighbor is languishing with sickness, or afflicted with the loss of a dear relative? and then consider what can be done for them? What assistance can be rendered by expression of sympathy or direct pecuniary aid? If there are any poor children totally destitute of education, do not suffer them to continue in that state. Let care be taken that they may be taught to read, to know their catechism, and the truth of their only Saviour. But you must not only do good as a neighbor in reciprocal ways, but you must 'love your enemies, if you have any; bless them that curse you, and do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.' 4. Private meetings for religion. Families of a neighborhood should visit at each other's houses for prayer, for religious conversation, for psalm singing, and reading of sermons and religious literature. The men who compose such an association should privately mediate and ask themselves certain test questions as to the good that can be done at and by such conferences. There should be another sort of society-that of Young Men. These will become nurseries of the churches. [In the suggestions under this head we find the germs of many of the doings of Franklin's JUNTO-with less of prayers and psalm singing, but in the same spirit of self and mutual improvement. Here, too, we find the Young Men's Christian Association of this period.] 5. Proposals to Ministers of the Gospel. They are specially set apart to do good-by example, by visitation, by exhortation, by prayer, by studying and writing sermons with an inward conviction of the vital importance of each to the best good of the people, so that the words will go direct from the heart to the heart; by catechising in their pastoral visit on the subjects preached upon; by distributing little books of piety. And also all alms for the poor, and medicine for the sick, |