and recitations which awaken patriotic sentiments in the very dawn of life, and give each child a personal interest in what he is engaged about. A selection of these things might form a curious and characteristic publication, letting one into the very heart and spring of the national character. The stanza or two here presented are only fragments :—

'Tis a happy theme; like a golden dream its memory seems to be, And I'll sing with joy and gratitude, 'The Common School for me!'

'Tis a happy theme; like a golden dream its memory seems to be, And I'll sing while I have voice or tongue, 'The Common School

for me!""

This fell the more cordially into a Scottish ear, because of the familiar air, "There's nae luck about the house," to which it was sung with great spirit.

There is a very extensive Temperance Society, which bears the name of their great General as its rallying word. There is practical usefulness, both to the cause of Temperance and that of Patriotism, in teaching the children a strain like the following,

which, we need not say, is not introduced because of its poetry, but because of its influence :—

"Through all the wide creation,

This glorious reformation*
Must spread to every nation,
So nobly speeds it on.

Then let the cause speed on.

"Let the name of Washington
Be rung through all the land, boys,
Oh, boldly take your stand, boys!
Come, join us heart and hand, boys;
Remember Washington.

"He bared his noble breast, boys,
To give his country rest, boys,
Because we were oppress'd, boys.
Then let the cause speed on.

"Let the name of Washington
Excite each youthful heart, boys,
To act a generous part, boys,
When in the cause you start, boys.
Remember Washington."

If a few heart-stirring rhymes were introduced into those of our schools at home, where the art of singing is practised, they might produce a happy effect in awakening the patriotism and quickening the loyalty of our juvenile citizens, and worthily supersede "Little Tom Tuck," and his tribe.

What has been said of schools refers chiefly to the city and county of New York, but might be equally Isaid of all the counties and cities in the State. In all the Eastern States the impulse to furnish education is vigorous.

In Connecticut there is an extensive school pro

* Temperance.

perty, consisting of bonds and mortgages, bank stock, cultivated lands and buildings, and wild lands, which is portioned out according to the claims and wants of the several counties. The arrangement is probably nearly the same in all the New England States, and in the other Free States. The management varies with the places, but all have schools with libraries attached. Some have committees to examine and select books, and where no committee exists, the good people in the district do what they can to form useful libraries; and happily, by a common law, positively bad books are excluded from all public libraries.

The United States delights to call itself the Model Republic, and is a fair field for proving the republican form of government. In this world, where perfection is not found, we are often glad to do the best that circumstances admit of, and to yield points for the sake of unanimity; but this exclusion of religious instruction from the Common Schools is a very great thing to yield. They talk of the purpose of some religious bodies to erect church schools, and take the superintendence of their own children; and they are very right, if better may not be. But a distant spectator, who is ignorant of the adverse power which may arise to prevent a change, should it again be put to the vote, cannot but wish the matter were reconsidered before the most pious of the community withdraw from the present system entirely. If a more decided

duty were made of Scripture reading, if questioning on that, in the same manner as on other reading, were introduced, and if a few passages of the Bible and a few hymns, from the copious collections which exist, were committed to memory, and if a little sacred singing were added to the morning prayer, it would give solidity to the whole fabric, and form a foundation for all the moral lessons which it is the duty of the teachers to inculcate. To expend all the pains on preparation for this short life, and leave an eternity of happiness or misery unthought of, uncared for, is not the act of a truly kind and reasonable government.

A little French pamphlet, entitled "Le Palais de Cristal," contains a few sentences that apply but too well to this subject-they are here translated: "It seems as if all would work without the influences of religion, and without having recourse to its aid. They never call it to help them, and even they think to do, or to be able to do, better without it than with it. They pretend that it has failed of its aim—that it has not succeeded; and they leave it on one side in the positive expectation to accomplish their design. They will not mention it, because they fear, in doing so, to introduce a source of quarrels, of divisions, and animosities, as the past has proved-for men have quarrelled and gone to war and strife as much for religion as for politics and other things. No-Jesus Christ and his religion go for nothing in modern plans and projects. The

religious amelioration of man is of no moment. The sole object is the temporal, corporeal, material, and a little the intellectual good of man. All belongs to this world, and all is for this world; as if they supposed that man is not immortal nor fallen, and responsible before God. Here, man and his glory are the sovereign, nay, almost the sole object."

* Le Palais de Cristal, par le Rev. Z. V. Cachemaille, p. 11.