Another old castle, with a very jolly baron in it, who has two sons, the one a great villain, the other the very "mirror of knighthood." One murder, two dreadful rencontres, a very faithful servant, a dark cave, and an inquisitive chambermaid. The whole ends either in a happy marriage, in hopeless ruin, or in retirement to a convent.

Now this was somewhat expensive and limited material, and in consequence, it was after a while all used up. And novelists fell into despair, until such writers as Dickens and Fredrika Bremer struck into the inexhaustible mines and riches of the "poor and lowly human heart." They found the material of the deepest tragedies, where "lords and ladies never come. The feeling fresh from the heart, the unaffected outburst of strong nature, the mysterious sympathies, the heroic struggles, the generous self-devotion, the anguish of spirit, and the overflowing joys of every day life, are made the "golden web" of each thrilling tale. It is a deeper reflection, a more thoughtful view of men, that penetrates beyond the factitious and meretricious splendors of conventional distinction, into the immortal attributes of the divine soul. Now a popular author never creates the taste for which he writes in his own time. Hence it argues elevation of sentiment and a more thoughtful cast in the popular mind, that such a change has come over the popular literatare.

The two chief characteristics of Dickens' writings are humanity and humor. A deep current of most original humor mingles with a yearning and tender pathos that forces the tear and the smile at the same time. It is a pity that this "rich vein " is not always pure. He is not always mindful to avoid vulgarity, coarseness, trifling and nonsense. There is now and then a spirit of persiflage, which is inconsistent with true humor, or with dignity of character. But if one do but read him thoughtfully, he can never fail to find some material for reflection and some impulse to humanity from most of his tales.

The central idea and general spirit of all Dickens' works are expressed in the following passage: "There are great victories and struggles, great sacrifices of self, and noble acts of heroism, done in every day nooks and corners, without chronicle or outline, which might reconcile the sternest man to such a world and fill him with belief and hope in it. It is a world full of hearts, and one on which the sun never rises but it looks upon a thousand bloodless battles, that are some set-off against the miseries and wickedness of battle fields. It is a world we need be careful how we libel, for it is one of sacred mysteries, and its Creator only knows what lies beneath the surface of the

lightest image." This is truly fraught with deep thought and feeling, and if he would always sustain himself in this region, Dickens' writings would be immortal; but as it is, they stand only as wonderful delineations of what is actual, and are too far removed from what is true ideal, to reckon on more than passing admiration and praise. COOPER FEMALE SEMINARY, Dayton, August, 1852.

J. C. Z.

SCIENTIFIC.

For the Ohio Journal of Education.

Sublimities connected with the study of Science.

NO AGE of the world has developed such scientific truth as the present. The rapidity with which it has been evolved from nature has surprised even its devoted admirers. The history of a Pre-Adamite earth has been geologically read; infidel theories in regard to the creation of the world overturned; and new discoveries in the heavens made with the telescopic eye.

Science unlocks the boundless storehouse of Nature. With her for a guide, the world is only a museum, classified, but not methodically arranged; a moving panorama, where the scenes, ever varying, are still instructive; a lesson of wisdom, enabling us, in the crystal dew or in the rainbow arch, the flower-spangled prairie or the majestic forest, the coral ledge or the expanded continent, to behold an infinite Benefactor.

The sublimity of science is seen in the beauty and grandeur of the universe. The vast and the minute, the illimitable and the microscopic, the gigantic mammoth and the smallest insect, the huge ocean king and the almost invisible coral animalculæ, the wide waste of waters, the snow-crested mountains, the far-reaching plains and channeled valleys, -this earth, where the ice pillars are shining, the crystal waves dashing, the green carpet growing, the sand clouds burning, and the innumerable heavenly orbs glittering with radiated or reflected light,—are among some of the sublimities which deck the temple of science.

But this study is not alone connected with the present. Through it we can trace animate and inanimate nature back to their origin, read their history, and understand their use. We admire the sublimity of a mass of icy mountains, of Niagara, of a lava-breathing volcano, and of a furiously circling mælstrom. We view, as sketchings of the sublime

in nature, an ocean sunrise, a lightning-veined storm-cloud, and the northern sky silver-sheeted with the radiant Aurora. All these excite in the soul its strongest emotions. But diversified as the earth appears, beautiful and thrilling as are her present natural splendors when viewed by the light of the sciences, yet they are only a very few of the many grand scenes which our globe has presented from its first evolving to the present time.

Science reveals that the world had been in existence myriads of years before the time of Adam, that before the present races of animals and plants had been created, there were several distinct creations, each existing many thousand years,-that at the terminating and commencing of each, the world was convulsed, continents sank and ocean-beds upheaved,-volcanoes were quenched and new ones lighted, -rivers changed their courses, and seas and lakes were formed anew. She tells us that this earth was once a partially melted ball of fire,— again it was somewhat evolved, but the boiling ocean and molten crust told still of internal heat. Another period finds mountains, plains, rivers and valleys, but not a vestige of animate life inhabits it. The sun rose and set on a verdureless continent and a tenantless sea. Another revolution, and life came. A few species of plants decked the stony soil and the crystal-edged rock, and varieties of shell-fish first sported amid the surf on the lake and ocean shores. Another and another revolution! the earth at each successive period becoming more and more prepared for higher orders; and finally, after the last convulsion, oceans and seas were placed within their present limits, the latest races of animals and plants created, and God's crowning work, MAN, breathed the breath of life.

Such is Science, as she reads the history of our earth. Is it doubted? It is written in eternal characters on our gigantic mountains, amid our massive quarries, within our mammoth caverns, and along our boulder pathways. Within the beds of solid rock, beneath our hills and plains, the physical history of our globe is legibly inscribed, and by the aid of science that history can be plainly read. It shows where land and sea were found uncounted years ago. It tells us, without the aid of revelation, that Niagara has rolled over those jutting rocks for thousands of years. It tells us that in this western region, where now the tops of high hills appear, once existed a broad plain, and that all the various inequalities of surface-the dell where the fountain springs, or the deep valley where the river flows-have all been channeled out by natural causes, during the protracted flight of time. It records an era when

our temperate zones glowed with the warmth of the burning tropics, and gigantic palms and ferns, and club-mosses, luxuriantly vegetated; and again it tells of a time when every hill-side, nook and mountain glen, were the beds of vast glaciers whose branching banks reached for hundreds of miles.

Yet this is not all: the sublimities connected with science reside not in earth alone. They cluster around the golden lights in the upper vault; the planetary worlds moving harmoniously around central luminaries; suns innumerable, with all their trains of satellites, and brilliant comets revolving in cycles vast; the immeasurable celestial machinery, all nicely adjusted, circling on their eccentric orbits. And far, far away in the ocean of ether, beyond the present visible stars, where the brightest ray of our sun never reaches, where the sapphire lens of the telescope alone has penetrated, bright suns sparkle out of the nebulous mist, and with their attendants-glittering constellation after constellation—are seen to roll on in the same cycles as they were placed on creation's morn. Is not this a scene of sublimity? Is not the horizon-bounded sky, gemmed with worlds floating in space, sufficient to inspire the true lover of science with elevated perceptions of the great Creator who sent them "twinkling forth from chaos"?

Such are the sublimities of science. They speak of scenes of grandeur almost beyond belief; and were it not for the irrefutable proof which the hammer of the geologist and the lens of the astronomer have established, we might view them as romantic theories, which the wildest votaries of fiction had never before been able to conceive.

The religious lesson which they convey is by no means trifling. Infidels have attempted to wield them as formidable arguments to disprove the existence of God and the truth of religion; but the revelations of science, fully developed, blast their infamous design. It was one of her crowning glories, that when her geological records were seized by atheistical hearts, who endeavored to render obscure a true revealed religion, that she soon emerged, tearing down the strongholds in which infidelity had so confidently entrenched itself, and furnished additional testimony to the truth of holy writ. Yes, the connection of science with religion is its greatest sublimity. It shows, in a measure, God's goodness to man-his unbounded benevolence in preparing a habitation for his noblest work. It conveys a lesson in morals. As we move onward along life's pathway, whether pampered by luxury, grappling with fate, or tried by penury; whether officiating in the holy sanctuary, struggling on the race-ground of fame, or drinking at the fountains of

learning; it tells us to sever the cords which bind us to all that is not pure and holy; it gives us enlarged views on the topics which task the wisdom of earth; and it turns the soul from always contemplating the trifling affairs of this world, and bids it look through the limits of science, up to the God of sublimity.

CUMMINSVILLE, O.

M. S. T.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Late Anniversaries.

THE eighth annual meeting of the N. Y. State Teachers' Association was attended at Elmira (a town on the Erie Railroad containing 7,000 or more inhabitants) on the 4th and 5th of August. The attendance was large, and the session one of interest and profit: a much better state of feeling seemed to exist among the members than at the meeting in Buffalo last year.

The opening Address was delivered by N. P. STANTON, Jr., of Buffalo. An interesting Report upon Union Schools, and Graded Public Schools was made by W. W. NEWMAN, of Buffalo, which presented in a strong light the disadvantages of the present system of single, small, and feeble School Districts (which prevails in New York quite as generally as in Ohio), and the important advantages to be gained by the adoption, wherever practicable, of the Union School plan.

A Report upon Teachers' Institutes was read by Mr. H. G. WINSLow, of Nunda, urging the importance of effort to introduce them more generally into the counties of the State. It would seem that for four or five years past, the Teachers of New York have done much less for their own improvement, by this instrumentality, than those of Ohio.

Lectures were delivered by Prof. A. J. UPSON, on "The History and Peculiarities of the English Language in America;" by Prof. GEORGE SPENCER, on "The Relations of Thoughts and Language;" by Mr. C. H. ANTHONY, on "The Sanctions of Law;" and several other topics were presented more or less fully in lectures or reports.

Mr. T. W. VALENTINE, appointed for that purpose, reported a plan for an Educational Periodical, to be published under the direction of the Association. After some deliberation it was decided to publish such a periodical monthly, in octavo form, at $1 per year. Several hundred