But ah! from those bright worlds, from the pure sky above me, and more audibly still from the deep recesses of my own soul, a voice cried, It is not so; man lives! You may miss him from this visible scene of things, you may lay his body in the dust, but he lives; lives where there are no heads made hoary with white hairs, where no arms are spent and weary with thankless, bitter toil. More than this, far more, he lives with Christ and God a spiritual life."

"Feb. 17th. - If we acknowledge a revelation of God's goodness and power in the external world, in the material forms around us, if we say that these are good, (and cold, lifeless, and ungrateful must he be who denies this,) still more do I believe that there is a revelation of the same love and power in the spiritual nature of God's noblest works, the heart and soul of man. If, in the world of sense, he has not left himself without a witness, I know that here also he speaks, and loudly."

"March 2d. The doctrine is a cold, heartless, and false one, that all the enjoyments of life, all happiness and bright hours, are limited to childhood and youth. There is for every age a store of delights reserved, if we are not unjust and untrue to ourselves. As though this beautiful world, these blue skies, these clouds and winds, these woods and rivers, were only intended to give pleasure to the few first years of our dwelling among and beneath them! As though the stars did not ever call us to God, and fill the soul with love and adoration! As though sunrise and twilight did not speak to us in their silent grandeur, and bid us be glad, and feast our hearts with beauty, sublimity, and high hopes! As though we could not, when we please, go back in memory to by-past hours, and live them all over again! God is good; if we are unhappy, He does not make us so; of that be sure. Besides the ever-varying scenes of beauty that the external world displays to us, have we not moral perfection and beauty to contemplate and strive after? Has Jesus lived and died in vain? Have all good men given us their examples for no use or benefit? Have we not powers to develop and cultivate? affections to cherish and enlarge ? Let us not, then, talk of unhappiness, when there is so much glorious work to be done; so many heavens around and within us, if we will but look about and examine ourselves." "March 10. I was much surprised to hear of Mr. G-'s death. The ways of Providence are truly incomprehensible. Yet do we not believe that all is right? Do we not believe that there is a just and holy and merciful God, to whose word we should bow with all humility and reverence? Would that my faith were increased and strengthened."

The thought of his own mortality was often present to Mr. Hildreth's mind. How vividly so must it have been to have prompted the following sentences. At the end of his "Life," in the Class Book," he had written, "Died 18-,

;" leaving blanks for the insertion of the time and place of his death. With what an emphasis must this warning strike upon the ear, borne as it were from beyond the grave!

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Stop, thou! whoever thou art, that recordest the day of my death. Stop! and ere thou writest the fatal word, breathe one prayer of peace to my parted spirit! Have I wasted my life in a vain pursuit after phantom pleasures? Have I left nothing for the good of my fellow-men ?

"Not so do thou! The bubble pleasure breaks in thy grasp, and study is a weariness to the flesh. There is but one way for thee, the narrow path; but one burden, the yoke that is easy and light. If I have been mistaken in my choice, and I tremble while I write it, thou art not left without warning. If thou hast chosen aright, this warning will cheer thee onward ; if wrong, oh! let it call thee back with a thunder-peal. But if all is well with me, I pray, classmate, it may be so with thee."

The present writer must repeat, in conclusion, that he did not undertake to give any complete account of the lives of his friends; he has tried to present that aspect of their characters, which was most familiar to him. He has not attempted to describe the filial piety which graced the fireside of home, or to paint the visions of future enjoyment in their society, which the Providence of God has so mysteriously dispelled. Still less could he look into the sanctuary of their souls, and listen to those communings with their Maker, which, to be without alloy, must be unknown to all created beings. What was most affectionate and holy in their hearts is left to the conception of those like them in spirit. The purity of their outward lives must have flowed from a pure source within. "They both died young; but who can say that either died untimely? Rather be it thought, that they had done their work; they had fitted themselves for immortality; and as for the work of the world, what God purposes, God will do, using indifferently the agencies of good and evil, as of day and night, sunshine and storm."*

*Hartley Coleridge.

C. S. W.

NOTICES AND INTELLIGENCE.

The School Library. Published under the sanction of the Board of Education in Massachusetts. - We received, a short time since, the Prospectus of this Library, issued by Marsh, Capen, Lyon, & Webb, Boston. More recently we have been permitted to look over the Introductory Essay, which is to preface the whole work. And the more we see and think of this great enterprise, the more do we admire it, and anticipate the highest and best results. But its success will depend mainly on the reception and encouragement given it by the community. It is important, therefore, that the plan should be fully understood.

--

In April, 1837, the Legislature of Massachusetts authorized by law a certain expenditure, by each school district in the State, for the purchase of a District School Library. The Board of Education promptly decided to cause to be prepared a collection of books for this special purpose, to be called THE SCHOOL LIBRARY. They determined that no work should be admitted into this Library, unless approved by every member of the Board, that the best writers in the country should be employed to prepare either original or selected works, that the plan should embrace every department of science and literature,that no works of a sectarian or partisan character should be admitted, that the taste and pursuits, the instruction and interests, of all classes should be consulted in the selection, and that the mechanical execution, as well as the intellectual character, should be specially regarded, so as to furnish uniform volumes, in fair and durable form, and at a moderate expense. These are the general features of the plan. And having seen one volume already printed, and a list of those that are to follow, we have reason to believe that all that is promised will be performed. The entire Library is to embrace two series of fifty volumes each, one 18mo. the other 12mo. The first, or Juvenile Series, is intended for children of ten or twelve years of age, and under, - the other Series, for those older, and for parents. They are to be, not class or text books, but reading books, such as will interest and instruct children, and occupy their leisure hours. It is intended to draw particularly from the departments of History and Biography, preference being given to works relating to our own country. The plan will also include such branches of Natural Philosophy and Natural History as are most practical and generally useful, and regard will be had to the theory and practice of agricultural and mechanical pursuits, on which infor

mation is greatly needed. Each volume will be accompanied with ample illustrations, by maps, engravings, glossaries, &c., where the nature of the work requires it. And to put the whole within the reach of every School District, even those whose annual funds are most limited, the two series are to be issued in sets of five and ten volumes at a time, with considerable intervals; the larger at seventy-five cents per volume, and the smaller at forty cents, "which the publishers advisedly declare to be cheaper than any other series of works that can be procured, at home or abroad, bearing in mind their high intellectual character, and the style of their mechanical execution." Moreover, the Prospectus tells us that a "Book-case, with a lock and key, will be furnished gratuitously, to all who take the Library."

We are thus particular in giving the details of this novel scheme, both because we think it a noble one, and because the time has come when school committees and teachers should give it the patronage it deserves. We understand the publishers will not send the books to any who do not order them, and we hope they will not suffer from any want of application. The first ten volumes of the large series are now ready for publication, and are the following:-I. Life of Columbus, by Washington Irving, a new edition, revised by the author.—II. Paley's Natural Theology, two volumes, with selections from the Dissertations and Notes of Lord Brougham and Sir Charles Bell; the whole newly arranged and adapted for the School Library, by Elisha Bartlett, M. D. III. Lives of Eminent Individuals, celebrated in American History, three volumes; selected from Sparks's Biography. IV. The Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons, four volumes; by Rev. H. Duncan, D. D., of Ruthwell, Scotland; with important additions, and some modifications, to adapt it to American readers, by Rev. F. W. P. Greenwood, of Boston. These ten volumes are to be followed by separate Lives, original or prepared, of Washington, Franklin, Distinguished Females, The Reformers, &c., with works on Natural Philosophy, Physiology, Chemistry, Astronomy, Botany, Agriculture, Pursuit of Knowledge, Useful Arts, Geology and Mineralogy, Statistics of the United States, Internal Improvements, and a Familiar Treatise on the Constitution. These are already promised, and in the course of preparation by some of our first writers; as Story, Sparks, Wayland, Silliman, Olmsted, Potter, Bigelow, Jackson, Upham, Elton, &c. Indeed, if we may rely on names and appearances, we do not know that greater securities, in regard to authors, revisers, and publishers, could be given for the satisfactory completion of one of the largest and most important enterprises of the day.

And what day has seen a better promise for Education? In every civilized and some half-barbarous lands, there is a spirit awake and a work in progress, which must effect revolutions greater than any yet seen. Take our own country, and take but three of our States, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio. The two last are said to include about one-fourth of the population of the Union, and their present provisions and efforts for the thorough education of all classes are magnificent. New York has ten thousand five hundred School Districts, and besides other large appropriations, has applied the immense sum of $110,000, each year, for six years, to the special object of purchasing libraries for those Common Schools. Ohio, young as she is, has over eight thousand School Districts, with an active and able Superintendent, and the prospect of a similar appropriation for the same object. What Massachusetts is doing, our readers know. Several other States are but little behind. Let the work go on, and some of the worst fears entertained for our country will be relieved; especially as there is an increasing disposition to make this popular education moral as well as intellectual. There is wisdom and warning in the pithy exhortation of William Penn, which we find in the Introductory Essay of the School Library :"For learning be liberal. Spare no cost; for by such parsimony all is lost that is saved. But let it be useful knowledge,

such as is consistent with TRUTH and GODLINESS."

Means and Ends; or, Self-Training. By the author of Redwood, &c. Third Edition. Boston: Marsh, Capen, Lyon, & Webb. It may not be known that this popular book is part of the School Library just noticed, and that we are indebted for it to the projectors and publishers of that Library. It was written. for them on their application, and they have sent it forth by itself on account of its peculiar character and well-known author. It is now so generally in the hands of readers, and has found such favor even at the hands of reviewers, that our commendation can be little needed. We have been amused, however, by the fact, that the only charge which we have known to be brought against it, has alleged opposite degrees of the same fault. A Boston Review thinks it not democratic enough, -a New York Review thinks it too democratic, much too radical. For ourselves, we were not troubled with either quality. We read it, and have read it twice, without thinking anything about democracy or aristocracy, radicalism or conservatism. It is an agreeable, plain, matter-of-fact, truth-telling book. In its plan, we think there are some defects; and its execution is not re