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TRUANCY AND ABSENCE.

by-laws, to the Justice of the Peace, or
Court exercising the jurisdiction of the
Peace, who by said ordinances, shall
have jurisdiction in the matter; and said
persons thus appointed shall alone have
authority to carry into execution the judg-
ment of said justice or Court.
SEC. 3. This act shall go into effect
from and after its passage.

True copy-attest:

JOHN R. BARTLETT Secretary. -Rhode Island Schoolmaster.

The following Act was passed in the Legislature of Rhode Island, in June last. It is almost an exact copy of the law as passed by the Legislature of Massachusetts, and is commended to the notice of school committees, and towns and councils in all the States. Attention has been turned to this very important matter, and almost all educators are rapidly approaching a unanimity on the subject nearly-Mr. Jones, in his Life of Bishop Horne, unparalleled in the annals of educational discussions. Every interest of the community is involved in this, and we commend this act as an experiment in the right direction : AN ACT concerning Truant Children and

Absentees from School.

CLEARNESS AND DISTINCTNESS OF SPEECH.

speaking of Dr. Hinchcliffe, Bishop of Peterborough, says, that in the pulpit he spoke with the accent of a man of sense, such as he really was in a superior degree; but it was remarkable, and, to those who did not know the cause, mysterious, that there was not a corner of the church in which he could not be

It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows: SEC. 1. Each of the several towns of heard distinctly. The reason which Mr. this state is authorized and empowered Jones assigned was, that he made it an to make all needful provisions and agree

ments concerning habitual truants, and invariable rule to do justice to every conchildren not attending school, without sonant, knowing that the rowels would any regular and lawful employment, grow-speak for themselves. And thus he being up in ignorance, between the ages of came the surest and clearest of speakers; six and fifteen; and also all such ordinances and by-laws respecting such chil- his elocution was perfect, and never disdren as shall be deemed most conducive appointed his audience. to there welfare, and the good order of such town; and there shall be annexed RULES FOR STUDY.-The other evening to such ordinance suitable penalties not Professor Davies, the eminent mathemaexceeding for any one breach thereof, a fine of ten dollars, or, instead of this fine, tician, in conversation with a young the offender may be committed to any friend of his upon the importance of sysInstitution of Instruction, House of Re- tem in studying, as well as in everything formation, or suitable situation, as may

be provided for this purpose under the else, took a piece of paper, and wrote off authority given in this act, for a time for him the following important rules: not exceeding one year; provided, that all such ordinances and by-laws shall first be approved by the Commissioner of Public Schools.

1. Learn one thing at a time.

2. Learn that thing well.

3. Learn its connections, as far as possible, with all other things.

SEC. 2. The several towns availing themselves of the provisions of this act, 4. Believe that to know everything of shall appoint, at their annual town meet

ings, or annually by their Town Coun-something, is better than to know somecils, three or more persons, who alone thing of everything.

shall be authorized to make the complaints|

in case of violation of said ordinances or MEANNESS is always worse than Misery.

From the College Review. spare him the mortification of that anADVANTAGES, TO THE GENERAL STUDENT, OF THE STUDY OF GEO-nual interment, by which they now seek to consign his amiable memory to a disrespectful oblivion.

METRY.

BY REV. ADDISON BALLARD, A. M., Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and Lee Lecturer on Astronomy, Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio.

But Geometry is further recommended to our acquaintance by the vast practical benefits she has conferred on the world, and by her almost miraculous achievements She early became the friend of the mariner, who, through her aid, was no longer subjected to the caprice of cloud

meted out sea and land. And now we

THIS branch of Mathematics claims our antecedent respect from its great antiquity, and from the illustrious names, with which its progress is associated. It is the earliest of the sciences. Its in- and tempest which often vailed his difancy was cradled by that land, of old, rectory in the heavens. The geographer the foster-parent of literature and the learned to value the magic of her skill in arts. On its introduction by Thales, in fixing with accuracy the position of places the fifth century before Christ, from on the globe. Indeed, she soon accomErypt into Greece, it was cherished by plished all that her humble name made the greatest philosophers with a regard pretension to. She had compassed and bordering on veneration. When tired of tossing on the uncertain sea of metaphy-may imagine her looking around on these sid speculation, they turned with de- terrestrial conquests and sighing, like light to a pursuit where the mind could Alexander, for a new and ampler field for rest on the sure basis of demonstration. the display of her powers. Nor is she A nong its distinguished votaries are found doomed like the weeping conqueror of the names of Anaxagoras, whose lonely kingdoms to sigh in vain. Beneath her prison-hours were beguiled by attempts humble Grecian dress she discovers wings to solve that world-renowned problem-then turns a wishful eye to the heavens which has bewitched the brains of mathe- and soars away to gain new and richer matical wits from that time to the triumphs in the fields of infinite space.seat, the Quadrature of the Circle; of There is the scene of her proudest and Pythagoras, whose enthusiastic devotion noblest victories. There, her achieveto his favorite pursuit is traditionally at-ments are on a grander scale than those tested by the hecatomb offered to the she won before on this little ball. There, Muses for the discovery of the beautiful the stars are her signals. There, she proposition which has immortalized his lays her base lines of millions of miles in name; of Plato, who paid a still higher extent in unobstructed space, wings her compliment to the grandeur and dignity way

pre

of the science by asserting that the "Su- "Far as the universe spreads its flaming wall,” preme Being finds His highest delight in "Unwinds the eternal dances of the sky." geometrical laws;" and of Euclid, with She follows the sunbeam in its quick dewhose inimitable "Elements," if Fresh- scent, applies the line and rule to its men were only taught to associate that bright track, and measures the extent benignity of temper and purity and sim- and rapidity of its subtle flight. Astroplicity of life for which their author was nomy, which before seemed to have reachpre-eminent, they would undoubtedly led the highest point it was capable of at

H

taining, welcomed with joy this new en- teries? Throughout the whole range of terprise of her aspiring sister, and hailed science, what so lets us in to the awful it as the precursor of her own greater wonders of the material universe, or gives glory. And such has it proved. The im- us so fearful but glorious a view of God's pulse thus imparted has not ceased to Alinightiness!

operate till it has made Astronomy the the noblest of the physical sciences.

But our object was not panegyric. All that is claimed for the science on the The grandest result at once of the Ba- ground of practical utility will readily be conian induction and of applied Geome- conceded. Students do not need to be try is the discovery and demonstration of told that a knowledge of its principles is the Law of Universal Gravitation. We indispensable to the navigator, the astro follow the mind of Newton as it makes nomer, the land-surveyor, the civil enits slow but sure way up the successive gineer, the accomplished architect. What steps of hypothesis, theory, and law. they wish to know, is, whether the study What in the way of intellectual exploit will be of any real advantage to the procan be more sublime? In the beautiful fessional man or the man of business. words of another, "He has seen the apple That it will be of such advantage, can, fall from the tree, the rain from the cloud, we think, be made clear to any reflecting the meteor from the sky. He has watch- mind. To show this, let us inquire— ed the eagle and noticed that at his high- | First, What kind of preparation do proest flight he still flaps his wings." The fessional men need in order to success in thought occurs to him: May not this their respective callings? and, same mysterious influence reach indefi- Second, Does the study of Geometry nitely beyond the flight of the eagle-give or tend to give that preparation? even to the heavenly orbs? In the still- 1. And, first, what have these men to ness of midnight he goes forth alone and do? They have, first, to master fundalooks up into the far-off azure depths. mental principles, and, second, they have To his ears comes the prelude of a celes- to apply those principles to the particular tial harmony-the true music of the subjects or cases which arise in the disspheres-whose notes science shall write charge of their professional duties. Now and all men may read. On his gaze are what kind of discipline does a man need bursting the outlines of a physical truth to enable him to master a great principle more vast than had ever entered into the in law, in medicine, in divinity? To heart of man. By the aid of Geometry trace that principle to its source and he is empowered with an attribute which clearly to follow it out in all its minute the prophet thinks not too mean to as- ramifications? What kind of mental cribe to Jehovah; for he weighs not only training does a lawyer need to help him mountains, but worlds, as in a balance. unravel a difficult case, and so to analyze, Thus has Geometry furnished us with and arrange, and present the argument, the most splendid eulogy on the powers as to make it clear to other minds? What, of the human intellect and the persever- to enable a minister to grasp, dissect, and ance of human industry. Who would exhibit a great Bible truth? have said that it were posible for man to The thing needed is, the power and the soar to those illimitable heights, decipher habit of intellectual abstraction and conthe beautiful hieroglyphics of the stars, centration. It is the power of commandand reveal to mortals their giant mys-ing the attention perfectly-of withdraw

ing it from every thing else and of fixing that Prof. Tatlock used to tell us, and he it unwaveringly on the subject of inves- said truly, that if, "at the close of a term, tigation. This is the key to success in a student finds that he can concentrate study. A topic, to be mastered, must be his thoughts on a given point for fifteen held steadily before the mind's eye till its minutes, while at the beginning of the relations and parts come out and arrange term he could do it but five, he has made themselves and take their proper places. very encouraging progress." What if he Dr. Emmons, that prince among logical has not acquired a great fund of informadivines, used to say that he "wanted stu- tion and is laughed at as a plodder? dents who could look half an hour at the Arkwright, after he had, by the invenpoint of a cambric needle, without wink- tion of the spinning-jenny, acquired his ing." Attention is the mind's edge, and millions, said in reply to an old aristowe must bring it into close contact with crat in the House of Lords who alluded the topic of thought, or it will not cut.- sneeringly to his former humble avocaThis is all we can do for a subject, name- tion as a barber-"True, sir, but I have ly, to fasten the attention immovably a razor now that will shave any of you." upon it. If, under this process, it does So the student, who, by diligent applicanot clear up, there is no help for it. All tion to the severer though less pleasant we can do is, to wait and try again. We and apparently unpractical parts of the apply the lamp to the photographic plate course, has thereby gained a power and a and watch for the picture to come out.habit of mental concentration, if taunted Put a piece of steel between the poles of by the voluble and shallow picker up of a battery-that is all you can do. Hold mere facts for his slender stock of inforit there. If the battery be powerful mation, may say, "True, sir, but I can enough, it will fuse the metal. But how- now acquire as rapidly as you, and can ever powerful, no fusion will ensue unless besides employ acquisition to vastly betthe object be held steadily within the ter purpose." circuit.

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What has now been said of the importance of attention applies equally to the man of business. Who is the man

This grasp of thought, as it is the highest intellectual achievement, so it is the most difficult. The mind reluctates likely to succeed in any kind of business against severe and continued exertions. requiring forecast and enterprise? It is, If it once gets hold of an abstruse subject, pre-eminently, the man who attends to his it is hard to keep its hold. The subject business-who can control his thoughts seems endowed with a marvelously pro-and confine them to the particular thing voking spiritual activity. It writhes to be done, and to every thing in its prounder the mental forceps, and pulls, and per season, and to one thing at a time till gets away again and again. And again it is done. There are various reasons for and again must the mind seize it, and commercial failure, but not the least of all hold it, till its Protean proclivities are is this very want of self-control, of menfairly subdued. What lawyer or minister tal concentration. If any project for inbut knows what is meant by thus "look-vestment is started, many men can not ing a subject into shape?" command their reasoning faculties long

It is only as a student makes progress enough and patiently enough to look it here, that he makes any progress at all-through, to see whether it be really a or any worthy the name. I remember safe enterprise. What makes a more

worthless clerk than this same want of Again, the pupil in this way acquires fixed attention to his business-this insensibly the habit of logical investigawandering of the eye and of the imagina- tion. In every proposition his mind is tion for which he must so often be chid-subjected to the screw-plate of exact deed by his employer. A good salesman is monstration. He is taught caution and one who can keep his mind on his cus- patience in constructing an argument, tomer till the sale be effected. He has an and in analyzing the arguments of others. object in view, and he omits no honor-Ile is led to do his own thinking, and to able and gentlemanly attention for effect-reject assertion unless accompanied with ing it. There is a logic of trade as well adequate proof. When proof is offered, as of discourse. he must feel every link in the chain. He

We would remark here, as an obvious must touch bottom at every step. Geoinference from the foregoing, that if, from metry gives him an idea of what an arstronger attachment to some other pur-gument is. It teaches him the pertisuit or from positive dislike to that he is nence and the importance of those much engaged in, a young man can not confine abused words "thence" and "therefore,” his attention to it, so as to master its and never to pervert or misapply them. principles and details, then the sooner he It forms a kind of intellect which the leaves that pursuit the better. This is world always needs-not so much men true of business and of study. The per- who are forever propounding "whys" functory apprentice should at once quit and "wherefores," but men who can give the college and the shop for some more us also the "therefores" of things-not congenial avocation. men who are puffed up with transcendental conceit because they can ask ques2. But, secondly, we affirm that this tions which nobody, not even themselves, power of fixed, sustained attention, the study of Geometry pre-eminently gives. can answer, and which, if answered, It gives it because it calls the power into would do nobody any good-but men exercise. It gives it because without it who can answer questions, who can give the student can not follow and grasp us substantial knowledge. Not men who those trains of reasoning of which mathe-seek to astonish the world by calling matical propositions consist. Who that spirits from the vasty deep, but which has tried it does not know that he can not be dreaming, or talking, or thinking of a thousand things besides, and get a theorem in Geometry? No. He must be alone, or at least uninterrupted. The idea of half-a-dozen students getting out any lesson together is unscholarly enough, Again, Geometry teaches the student but in Geometry is absurd. There is a to give exact definitions of terms. This is one of the most important things in series of steps to be followed, each depending on the preceding and leading di- the discussion of any question, and one rectly to the conclusion. This necessi- of the most difficult to do. A habit of tates the closest attention; and thus the stating the precise meaning of the terms habit of attention must gradually be employed would save the world an untold amount of misapprehension, bitterness of feeling, and vile logomachy.

formed.

will not come when they do call, but men of intellectual hardihood and robust daring, who can pierce the leviathans of the vast ocean of living verities and bring them up and make them subservient to

the wants and welfare of their fellows.

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