For the Poughkeepsie Casket. thus upon her, when by the peculiar arrangeFEMALE EDUCATION. ment of society she could not display those Among the multifarious blessings enjoyed by qualities of mind and soul which she possesses, the people of a free government, that of Educa-man became accustomed to treat her as a subtion diffused among the mass, untrammelled by the restrictions of political bigotry, holds an exalted rank. Correctly imparted, and properly received, it forms an enduring cement to the political and civil institutions of a republic, and adds strength and beauty to the structure, which the storms of centuries, though impelled by the malignant powers of surrounding despotism, cannot destroy or efface.

In this country, Education has taken deep root, and flourishes with a vigor unknown where distinctive castes mar the beauties of the social system, and abridge the privileges of the many for the gratification of the few. Here, too, a proper deference is paid to the majesty of female intellect, and on every side, our mothers, our wives and our sisters are developing traits of character compatible with that exalted station which they fill as the mentors of those who, in our legislative halls, will control the future destinies of the nation.

Formed by the God of nature with a delicacy of frame inadequate to endure the arduous toils incumbent upon man, woman has ever been considered by the opposite sex rather as a para. site than a co-worker-rather as an inferior or. der of creation than a co-equal gem in the bright coronet upon the brow of intelligence. Looking

darkness of night, compelled even the proud master to look upon his slave with astonishment.

While custom and unrevealed religion bade man look upon the weaker sex as his property rather than companion, the genius of the female mind slumbered in apathy. But the profound ethics of the Nazarene-He who spake as man never spake'-the great Prophet of Israel, taught the divine doctrine of EQUALITY, and bade

the weaker sex-bade him look upon her intellectual faculties as a portion of his own nature

servient and obedient creature, and custom sanc-
tioned the unholy despotism. She was consid-
ered as merely an appendage to his nature, and
useful only as a means of perpetuating his spe-
cies and gratifying his appetites. Thus for ages
was woman chained to the gloomy car of Ignor-man cherish, and love, and honor with respect
ance, and that beautiful and glowing spark from
the altar of Intelligence, the female mind, was
hidden, like the brilliant pearl, in the depths of
the great ocean of moral darkness. All those
bright and enduring qualities of mind; those
pure and holy traits of affection and love; those
graces and virtues which adorn the name of hu-
manity, now awakened by the glorious influence
of Christianity, were all enshrouded with the
shadow of Ignorance, without a single prompter
to their developement. Is it a wonder then that
man should have for ages remained a savage?
and, cultivating nought but his physical energies,
exhibited but a faint image of his Creator? Is
it a wonder that feuds and contention should
have agitated the whole social compact, when
the holy influence of woman, bright in all her
mental charms, should have been wanting? No!
True, the fire of inborn intelligence would some-
times burn too brightly even for the dampness
of universal ignorance and the behests of cus-
tom, and bursting forth like a meteor amid the

bade him listen to her voice as the organ of love and intelligence, and to permit her to sit in the high and holy places of society. Wherever the resplendent rays of the Star of Bethlehem || hath penetrated and illumined the dark chambers of the human heart, it is there that the beauty and excellence of the female mind are exhibited in all their enchantment. Since the giant minds of Luther and his coadjutors rent the veil of ignorance and superstition that shrouded the altar of Christianity, where alone for ten consecutive centuries the lamp of litera. ture was kept burning, how many resplendent stars have been added to the galaxy of American and European literature, from among the fair daughters of each clime!

Notwithstanding the system of female education ever has been, and still is, greatly defective, yet hundreds have taken their inefficient staff and scrip,' and set out upon a successful pilgrim

Poor Matilda had strongly loved, but she knew it not. Love had been represented to her as something criminal; but her own consciencr told her there was nothing in those pure ar d generous emotions which swelled her heart when she first listened to the voice of Edward Wor th

spot where his dishonored remains were bestow ed. For the first time, Matilda suspected her heart of affection for Edward. The certainty that he was lost to to her forever, fell like a sudden blight upon her spirits, and she felt an almost irresistible inclination to rush to the place of his interment and pour out her lamentations upon his grave.

Fortunately the tidings of Edward's death did

soon; as, in that case, they would have given a true interpretation to her frequent sighs and in-coherent exclamations.

age to the fountain of human knowledge, where,dles naturally, and burns without interruption, with the natural ardor and enthusiasm of the must be supported by combustible materials, and female heart, they have drank large draughts will not easily go out. from the Pierean spring,' and dispensed the blessings thereof with a bounteous hand. Until within a few years females were seldom permitted to indulge in studies beyond the elementary knowledge of schools; and it was considered as equivalent to a waste of time and money to bestow on them the expense and labor of teach-ington, that deserved censure. He was vi tu.not reach the ears of her fastidious guardians so ing them the higher branches of education.ous, and she respected him; he was brave, and History, Astronomy, Mathematics, Algebra, she honored him; he loved her, and she was Philosophy, Rhetoric, et cetera, were consider- grateful; he was unhappy, and she pitied him; ed useless studies, and necessary only for the and all these feelings inspired her with tenderintended professional scholar, whose business it ness. But she did not know that this was loveis to acquire a knowledge of these things. pure, genuine affeetion. Edward first beheld To teach them the use of any language but the young Shakeress at the house of worship, their vernacular tongue, was a thing scarcely where he had gone out of mere curiosit y. He dreamed of; and to have intimated that young was pleased with her appearance, and shortly ladies were capable of delving into the occult afterwards obtained an interview with her. She mysteries of natural science, and the abstract listened to his discourse, and it was such as principles of metaphysics, would have subjected Virtue herself would not have blushed to hear; the asserter to the sneers of the many. But such and he, perceiving that she was not indifferent notions are fast disappearing before the onward to him, asked her in marriage of her father, a march of UNIVERSAL EDUCATION, and throughout conspicuous member of the Shaker community. the length and breadth of our land, seminaries As may naturally be expected, the old man for the exclusive benefit of young ladies are was much alarmed when he learned that Edward had already conversed with his daughter. She was closely confined in a dark chamber, where no human being was allowed to visit her,

springing up. Within their walls many future Mores, Hemans, Sigourneys, Sedg. Leslies may be storing their

De Stae. wicks, Goulds a

al

But Matilda strove to control her grief, and so far succeeded in quelling every outward de. monstration of sorrow, that the Shakers suspected not the real cause of her infirmity, but looked upon her as one whom Death had marked out for an early victim.

It was while things were in this situation, that one of the old ladies, who has already figured in this narrative under the title of mother Jemima Richardson, had occasion to go to an adjacent village, to purchase some implements of housewifery, and Matilda asked permission to Edward's grave, should they fall in.with it duraccompany her, with the intention of visiting ing their journey. Matilda had been disappoint ed in the morning, for Jemima took the nearest route through the woods when she went to

intellectual garners with fruits of study, excepting an elder, who occasion: ally waited up-town; but in returning, she preferred getting

which harvest will give them sustenance that will never fail in its bounty during their wan

on her, and strove to bring her to repentance.
As Matilda had been taught to consider mar-

into the road as soon as possible, not relishing. sylvan scenery after night-fall. By this means,

derings and researches in the variegated fields ||riage the most heinous of all crimes, it did not Matilda gained her point with much less trouble require much time to obtain from her a promise

of literature.

It is a noble scene-a scene

than she had anticipated at the commencement which makes the heart of the wise and benevo. that she would discard Edward forever, when of the journey..

lent glad, to see the female mind free from the effects of those illiberal prejudices which en. thralled it, and all its proverbial ardor becoming

she learned that he was in love with her.
Edward was sent for, that he might hear her
determination from her own lips; and a smile

tilda felt a superstitious awe, which caused her Upon approaching the melancholy spot,'Mato pause for a few moments; but during those

beautified and strengthened by an extended of triumph played around the mouths of the few moments, Memory came with ebon wing,

nowledge so necessary to the wife and mother, >whose care is intrusted the infantile guidance id formation of character of the statesmen who 9 hereafter to wield the destinies of this great public.

B. J. L.

first fell upo ch, surrounded by the shadowy
the highway, whi
bled the form of a human
darkness, nearly resem..
being.

She pressed her hands upon her breast, as
though endeavoring to check the violent throb-
After giving vent to one
bings of her heart.
long, deep sigh, she slowly advanced; and in
another moment she stood over the mangled re-
mains of her lover-Edward, the suicide!

Matilda was then released from her confinement, but was still closely watched; as the emotions which she betrayed, when Edward with an agonized look bade her adieu, and the hec tic flush and wasted cheek which followed hard upon, convinced the faithful ones that her heart was with the exile.

There was no kind breast upon which she could lean for support-no confidant to whom she could unburthen her full heart. Had she acknowledged the deep interest which she felt in the banished youth, punishment and severe reproof would have followed the confession.

She pined in hopeless anguish. She did not strive to combat her feelings, for she knew not that love was gradually undermining her existence, and hastening her to that grave which kindly offers its asylum to the wretched. She did not conjecture that the holy flame which lit her young bosom was that self-same love which her worthy friends so severely censured; and therefore she always indignantly protested that her heart was untouched by passion, when in. sinuations were thrown out to that effect.

It is with love as with religion-those who She had languished thus for several months, talk the most of it, generally know the least of when she accidentally heard that her disconsoits power. A fire may be made to blaze consi lover had put a period to his own existence, erably by the aid of the bellows, but the wind- late. enlivened flame dies away when the extraneous that he was buried at the cross roads, and that support is withheld while that fire which kinda stake, driven through his breast, marked the

She convulsively grasped the stake for sup port; but hastily relinquishing it, she cried, 'No, shall I plunge it still deeper in his cold bosom ?' She sat down upon the damp ground, and then her feelings were vented without control. Fe. male timidity no longer chained her trembling tongue, but in all the recklessness of despair she made the surrounding woods echo with her moans and lamentations.

no-once have I placed the shaft in his heart

'I did love thee, murdered Edward! she ex

claimed, and Heaven approved my love—but I, wretch that I was, spurned the generous prof. fer of thy affection, and listened to the counsels of those who have destroyed thee! Oh! were it in my power to recall the past-could I but

make amends for".

She ceased, for at that moment her eye fell upon a white figure emerging from a thicket by the side of the highway. It approached her slowly. 'Twas a human form bound in deathclothes; its white garments fluttered in the

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ar

Re

Did Matilda swoon, or cry out with terror? No-had a thousand ghosts shrieked at once on the hollow wind,' the desperate soul of that broken-hearted girl would have looked carelessly on, and deemed apprehension folly, when the reality of her misery admitted of no aggravation.

threatens us?

She answered with a long sigh.

wind, and with noiseless step it came majesti. ward. The night wind is cold, and the storm of a withered woodsman were thrust forth from cally on. their obscurity, and the squeaking tones She answered not. A heavy clap of thunder of extreme old age demanded what the good rang through the forest, and the earth trembled. | gentleman would please to have; and at the 'Matilda! Come, we must leave this place! same time he proceeded to arouse his worthy said Edward. helpmate, who slumbered beside him, and repeated to her all Edward's wishes so correctly, He pressed his check to hers-he became alar- that it was fully evident he had been a quiet med, for her breathing was short and quick-she || observer of the whole scene from the first. pressed him convulsively to her bosom a moment. Suitable attentions were now paid to Matilda. Her grasp suddenly relaxed. Her head sunk She perfectly recovered, and Edward conveyed upon his breast. Edward seized her in his arms,her to his mother's house. In a few days, Ed, and bore her lifeless form to a cottage not far dis- ward and Matilda plighted their vows in the tant; but ere he reached it, the rain poured in presence of the 'holy man.' A happier couple torrents, the thunder roared and rattled along never existed. the heavens, the crinkled lightning leaped from Edward related these facts to me with his own Didst thou not drive him from thee?' asked cloud to forest tree, the brooks were swelled, and lips, and earnestly added' If ever you marry, the other, in a severe tonc. the broad streams, as they rushed tumultuously my boy, by all means marry a Shakeress-if from the hills, threw their spray high upon the foliage of the bowing wood.

Now, by the manes of him thou mournest, by the voice that's hushed for aye, and the eyes which are closed in their long, last slumber, tell me, maiden, what boon wouldst thou ask of one who hath power to grant thy dearest wish?' said the spectre, in a low, sepulchral voice.

• E'en to be laid beside him! answered Matil. da, wildly.

Yes, yes!' exclaimed she-But if thou art an inhabitant of the spiritual world, take this heart from my bosom and bear it to Edward. Tell him 'tis all I can offer as a propitiation for my unkindness-'twill be a most eloquent medi- ||

ator.'

'He accepts the offering!' cried the other; and throwing off his ghostly disguise, Edward pressed the repentant Matilda in rapture to his heart.

'My brain is bewildered,' sighed the astonished girl-'what tantalizing dream is this?'

‘Ah! Matilda—forgive the deception,' said Edward; 'I knew that you loved me in despite of your assumed indifference, and commission. ed a confidential friend to relate to you a forged story of my death.. I justly imagined that you would visit my grave, and I have watched your movements until now. I saw you approach-I planted my decoy, and it drew you to this spot, where I awaited you. Do you forgive the artifice ?'

Now wading up to his arm-pits, and now ploughing his way through sloughs and sands, Edward held firmly his precious burthen until he reached a small hovel, which, although not of very promising appearance, was lit up by a cheerful pitchknot, and built of the finest logs which the country afforded.

Edward impetuously stove open the door; which, not being provided with hinges, answer. ed his violent kick by a leap into the very middle of the room, quite to the discomfiture of some half a dozen chubby damsels, who were regaling themselves over a huge wooden dish of hominy, which was overturned by the onset of the flying

door.

you can.

LOSS OF LIFE BY WAR.

U. V. U.

It is estimated that thirty thousand millions of human beings have perished to satisfy the insatiable maw of war. Among the most dis. asterous of battles upon record, and the numbers slain, are-Austerlitz, 20,000; Dresden, 30,000; Waterloo, 40,000; Eylau, 50,000; Borodina, 80,000; Isus, 110,000; Arbela, 300,000; in two of the battles of Cæsar, 700,000; in the seige of Jerusalem more than a million; and at the taking of Troy, more than two millions. The New York Observer says that in the Russian campaign there perished in six months, more than half a million; during twelve years of the recent wars in Europe, no less than 5,800,000! The army of Xerxes, probably more than 5,000,000 was reduced in less than two years to a few thousands. Jenghis Khan butchered in the single district of Herat 1,600,000, and in two cities with their dependencies, 1,760,000; and the Chinese historians assure us that during the last 26 years of his reign he massacred an average of half a million every year, and in the first 14 years, no less than eighteen millions! 31,500,000 in 41 years by a single hand! Gre. cian wars sacrificed 15,000,000; those of the 12 Cæsars, 30,000,000; those of the Crusades, Her eyes met those of Edward. She rushed || 40,000,000; those of the Saracens and the towards him, and he caught her fainting form Turks, 60,000,000 each; those of the Tartars, 'I hear thy words,' without lifting her head in his arms. The inmates of the cottage stood || 80,000,000. "Go on-I will listen while thou talkest-I can- around, regarding the scene with mute astonishnot see thy eyes, for it is dark; but I can hear ment. The suddenness of their entry, the revi thee. I am very happy, and yet I can do noth. val of Matilda, her wild expressions and her ing but weep: but thou shalt talk until my tears swoon, seemed to affect them like magic, and are dry, and my heart has ceased to beat so vio-entrance their faculties so completely, that, af. lently. Tell me thou lovest me.'

But Matilda seemed to have paid little attention to Edward's explanation. Her arms were thrown about his neck, her head was reclined against his bosom, and, as if fearing he should again be torn from her, she started at every noise in the brake, and clung more firmly to his breast when the rising gusts of wind swept by them.

Will not my dear Matilda tell me that I am forgiven?' repeated Edward.

Yes, Matilda, you know I love you,' answer. ed Edward; and, as a first proof of that, I will bear you to a shelter, for the storm is ready to burst over our heads, and your fragile form is but ill qualified to cope with the tempest.'

་

Not now, my best beloved,' said she; 'rise not from this sacred spot, 'Tis too happy a place to leave. Let me hear thy words, Support me with thy right hand.' She then hid her face again in his bosom, and her emotion redoubled. 'Happy moment ! exclaimed Edward. After all my anxiety, my ceaseless watchings, and tormenting fears, I am assured that thou art mine.' The heavens were overspread with blackness, and heavy drops of rain began to fall.

Starting up, 'more in sorrow than in anger,' the astonished crew exclaimed-A gentleman with a dead lady! Some of the younger ones set up a violent scream as Edward entered with the pale and senseless Matilda. He called aloud for dry clothing, for restoratives; and then, unceremoniously throwing a handful of brush upon the embers in the fire-place, proceeded to chafe the temples of Matilda. She opened her eyesshe started on her feet, and, gazing wildly round a moment, exclaimed-Where am I? Where is'

EXPENSIVE JOKE.

Charles Cotton, the author of Virgil Travestie, inserted a joke in that poem which cost him dearly. His sacrilegious wit could not spare ter the first exclamation, they were rendered in. the sacred character of his grandmother's ruff, capable of uttering a word. Still, an acute ob- which he ridiculed in a couplet. A stroke of the server might have detected the ruling passion in old lady's pen, however, revenged her own the rucful side-glance which several of them cast wrongs, and those of the Bard of Mantua at at the ejected hominy, which covered nearly once, for she struck Cotton out of an estate of one third of the circumscribed floor, and, gradu-£400 a year, which she had bequeathed to him ally elongating, was beginning to assume the in her will. proportions of the broad-mouthed Rio de la Plata.

In vain did Edward use threats and entreaties to induce the family to take charge of Matilda, and divest her of her wet garments; until at last, thrusting his hand into his pocket, he drew out a handful of change. The jingling of coin had surprising effect upon the whole company, and introduced a new personage upon the stage. A 'Let me convey you to some shelter,' said Ed-low door slowly opened, and the bronzed features

a

Perpirius Mason found in the hands of a book-binder of Lyons, the works of Agolart; the mechanic was on the point of using it to line the covers of his books. The original Magna Charta, with all its appendages of seals and signatures, was discovered by Sir Robt. Cotton one day at his tailor's; the man was holding it it in his hand ready to cut it up for measures.

Trust not to appearances.

THE ESSAYIST.

For the Poughkeepsie Casket.
NO. II.

gy.

poets and statesmen in all ages. Among those to support his frail existence, they at length ac. nations where the light of inspiration never quire a power which soars as far above the lion's shone, man has been held as a morally account. strength-yea, infinitely farther than does that able being, and the germs of a holier system animal's above that of the meanest reptile. And The proper study of mankind is man.-POPE. and purer faith, may be seen even among the ab- let it not be deemed irreverent when I ask It is often said that all knowledge is useful:surdities and impieties of the heathen mytholo-where, in the sphere of nature, shall we place a which could be true, only, if we were able to But with us man's moral nature derives limit to man's power? He has already brought acquire all. A knowledge that things exist as still greater importance. With the heathen phi- lightning from the clouds; and viewing mind they are, without an ability to apply that knowl-losophers, man's moral accountability was but as ever progressive, need we deem it madness edge to any useful purpose, or to discover the dimly shadowed forth by reason, while we have in man to conjecture that he may at length origin or final cause of their existence, it would the light of divine wisdom to teach us the way dive into the bowels of the earth and quench be merely tautology to say is knowledge of no to happiness and heaven; and to us the "sacred || the liquid fires which light up the volcano, or utility. Therefore the study of the natural sci-word" has become "erring reason's guide." with a loftier aim bid the thunders cease their ences, if considered as embracing a mere collecUpon the importance of intellectual philoso- muttering! tion of facts and events, gathered from the ma- phy or the study of mind, I need not dwell, for terial world, without reference to their utility as far as mind rises in dignity and importance in the arts and in the improvement of man's above inanimate matter, so does the study of moral and intellectual nature, clogs the mind that mysterious agency that wills and reasons, with idle and useless rubbish, fertile in the names rank in precedence before all other subjects of of things, but barren in the knowledge of prin- knowledge. The study of the natural sciences ciples. And yet it is a very prevalent error to is indeed interesting and highly useful when suppose that we are advancing in knowledge, pursued in reference to their legitimate end, as while our acquisitions are merely the names of conducing to the advancement of the arts, therethings, and not ideas. As a separate isolated by affording us more ample means of happiness, idea can form no useful knowledge unless it and as forming a beautiful and sublime system have some relation to other ideas, so a knowledge of natural theology. But the subjects which of some truths is wholly useless until they be form the natural science are secondary objects found to have some connexion with other truths. in the ultimate design of creation, and when After that knowledge has been acquired which they shall have fulfilled the objects of their bedifferent circumstances and occupations rendering, we are informed that they will forever pass necessary, for different individuals, it is then proper for them to turn their attention to that which is next in the order of usefulness.

In the vast field of knowledge displayed before us, from which we may gather instruction and wisdom, I would make three divisions: the first embracing the study of the attributes and character of HIM who is the maker and dis. poser of all things: the second comprising the study of the properties and laws of the material world: and the third-the study of MAN, the noblest work of creation.

But the superiority of man's nature consists not in physical but in mental power; not in the truly wonderful but intuitive promptings of in. stinct, but in the considerate deductions of rea son. It is from experience only—from a knowledge of the past, aided by reason, that man can judge of the future; but without this experience, and devoid of instinct as he is, man would be more helpless than the feeblest of the brutes. The young of animals, without the promptings of experience, instinctively recoil from the dangerous brow of the precipice, while those of our species would creep upon its verge with careless insecurity. Man slowly learns; his lessons are taken in the rough school of experience, under a rigid discipline, that costs him many a sigh and away. When the heavens shall be rolled to- many a tear. But man can learn ; and although gether by the Almighty's hand, the laws of the history of the past is the only book of earthNewton and of Kepler will be no more; and ly knowledge, from its pages he may gather when the earth shall melt away, the diamond wisdom which will enable him to lay open the will lose its lustre, and the richest gems of Ar- arcana of the future. Acquainted with those aby will be dissolved in the chaos from whence principles of human nature which ever have it sprung. But MIND can never be dissolved. been and ever will be the same enabled to Of origin divine, its nature is immortality. The trace the motives of human conduct, and nicely gems of immortal thought will never lose their weigh the causes which modify them-knowbrightness, but rising from the chaos of dissol-ing what has been in human conduct, he can ving nature will grow brighter and brighter as safely predict under given circumstances what they approach the throne of the Eternal. will be. His legitimate deductions from the past are based upon a principle as unerring as it is universal, for the laws which regulate the influence of motives upon the conduct, as unstable as they may seem, are in reality as fixed as the laws of the universe.

In the first division, the study of the attributes When the Almighty had formed the earth and and character of the Deity, I leave the office of peopled it with living creatures, he created man instruction to those set apart for that sacred serin his own image and made him lord and gov. vice. In the second division we find the Natu-ernor of all this fair creation. That a being so ral Sciences,embracing a field as boundless as the feeble as man should hold the mastery over the Universe. Some of the subjects embraced in whole creation of animal life is evidence in it. All our actions towards our fellow men are this division, when properly pursued, derive their self of the superiority of man's nature-of an based upon the estimate we form of them. Daily chief importance from conducing to the ad- assimilation to its divine original, and marks a brought in contact with them as members of a vancement of the arts;-others afford high in- wide distinction between his destiny and that common society, our dependence lies upon othtellectual pleasure, and some, by unlocking the of the brutes which perish. But the power ers as much as upon ourselves, for the immediarçana of nature, and unfolding to mortal ken which gives man this mastery and clothes him ate wants as well as for the luxuries of life. We the harmonious system of laws which govern with such regal dignity is not found in his phy-make compacts with others, trust our property the Universe, serve to elevate our views above sical constitution, for there his strength is but terrestrial objects, and lead the mind "from na- weakness. In his infancy man is the most weak ture up to nature's God." But important and the most helpless of all the animal creation. engaging as is the study of the properties and The young of the lion-the lord of the brute laws of the material world, there is another sub-creation-after only a short period of depenject the study of "Mankind”—which has still greater claims to our partiality by reason of its intrinsic worth and practical utility. And should I fail to convince the reader of its high claims to his consideration, if, perchance, there were need of other arguments in its favor than his own mind has already suggested, he may blame the writer, but not his subject.

The study of mankind may be considered in a threefold light-man as a moral, man as an intellectual, and man as a social being, or member of society. These different views of the subject have been the theme of philosophers,

dence, soon acquires that maturity, which ena.
bles him to provide for himself, and range his
native forests the fearless monarch of the wild.
The scarce fledged eaglet, after a few trials of
its strength around its eyrie on the mountain
peak, soars forth on its native element, with
a wing as bold and flight as rapid as iis sire.
Not so with man. Generations of the inferior
animals may pass from the earth, ere man has
attained the meridian of his glory. But although
his faculties are thus slowly developed-al-
though during a lengthy period they are not even
sufficient without foreign aid from fellow man

and lives in their hands, lay plans for the future, and always with an eye to the characters of those with whom we are dealing; and if our judgement of mankind be erroneous, our hopes will most surely be blighted, and our prospects fail us. And if this knowledge of mankind be necessary to regulate our conduct with individuals in the humble walks of life, much more will it be needed by those whose station places them where they have to deal with communities of people, with states, and with nations. The philanthropist, if he would accomplish some worthy object of moral reform, and counteract by his efforts some prevailing vice, will not only fail of accomplishing his object, but will often be productive of evil where he thought of doing good, if he misjudges mankind and pursues impolitic measures. In this age of rail-road speed and