All investigations of nature, even those of the most elementary. kind, will be found of eminent service in developing and training the mind to habits of observation, inquiry and reflection. They draw attention to natural theology, and are highly calculated to elevate the soul by the admiration which the wonders of creation can not fail to excite, at the same time that they provide young people with an inexhaustible source of mental enjoyment, and afford them positive advantages for the practical purposes of life. This is particu larly the case with chemistry, the application of which is so universal and so immediately connected with the arts and all the wants of man. "In this new magic," says Cuvier, "the chemist has only to wish; every thing can be changed into any thing, and any thing can be extracted from every thing." The minds of young persons will be opened to a train of thinking, which, in some, may lead to most im portant results, if they are occasionally shown by experiments that the infinite varieties of the material world are only different com. pounds of a few elements.

The thoughts of children may also be directed to their bodily frames, which present all the considerations of color, form, dimension, properties, uses, &c., belonging to matter. The teacher may explain the functions of the sensitive, the vocal, and the muscular organs, the utility of which can be made obvious to the youngest child; he may, as an example of that admirable adaptation to each other of all the parts of the animal economy in man, show them how beautiful is the mechanism of the hand, how wonderfully calculated it is to execute the commands of the human mind. They will thus be impressed with the consciousness of the infinite wisdom of Him who, in making man superior to all other animals by his intellectual powers, has given him the instrument with which he can exercise his Bovereignty over the creation.

From a consideration of the external organs he may pass to that of the internal; he may examine with his pupils the functions of the stomach, the lungs, the heart, and the brain; the structure of the bones; the manner in which the different joints, muscles, nerves, and vessels perform their office; their mutual subserviency and happy adaptation to the preservation, strength, motion of the body, in fact to the whole constitution of man. Few subjects are more easily taught orally than physiology and anatomy. The presence of the living body precludes, to a great extent, the necessity of written descriptions, of preparations, models, or skeletons. With instruction on this subject should be combined explanations of the great hygienic principles, the observance of which is indispensable. Young persons

should be made acquainted with the constitution of the atmosphere, and with the relation of its elements to the functions of respiration and to the composition of the blood: they should be shown the influence of exercise on the muscles and bones, on digestion and circulation. They will be less tempted to violate the physical laws of their nature, when they are aware of the consequences of the violation. They will better guard against accident or disease, when they know in what manner the human constitution is influenced by air, food, exercise, and moral causes. Every parent is bound to give to his children that information on which their future existence and well-being so greatly depend. universally diffused would be a check on medical quackery.

A knowledge of physiology more

The close dependence and analogy which exist between the func tions of the physical and those of the mental faculties, will render inquiries about the latter both easy and interesting. There is nothing, for example, in our introductory Book which may not be made as plain to children twelve or thirteen years old, as any other subject of inquiry to which we have adverted. The study of the mind as well as that of the body, is founded on familiar facts placed within his powers of observation and discrimination. He can early be made to consider the different states and actions of his own mind, and to discriminate between attention and reflection, memory and imagination, judgment and reasoning. He may be made to observe what passes within himself when he receives perceptions, when he associates ideas, when he compares and draws conclusions, when he has desires and contracts habits. He can be shown when he applies properly or otherwise his moral and intellectual faculties. He will thus acquire a knowledge of himself and a habit of self-examination, which will teach him how to use his faculties to the greatest advantage; at the same time that it will make him feel his dignity as an intellectual being and as a creature destined to immortality. "But," says Alison, "the great advantage which he will derive from inquiry into the laws of his own mind, is much less in the addition which it gives to his own power or wisdom, than in the evidence which it affords him of the wisdom with which his constitution is framed, and the magnificent purposes for which it is framed."

To be continued.

MATTHEW VASSAR, the founder of Vassar Female College, was born in the county of Norfolk, England, in 1792. In 1796, his pa rents emigrated to America, landing in New York city in December of that year. With a view to an eligible location for a tiller of the soil, his father explored the country, penetrating into the then great West as far as Utica. Not being inclined to settle in the wilderness, he purchased a farm, in the spring of 1797, about three miles east of the city of Poughkeepsie. In the spring of 1798, the father and uncle put into the ground the first barley ever sowed in Dutchess County. The vicinity affording an abundance of wild hops, these gentlemen commenced following the old English custom of making "Home Brewed Ale." The beverage becoming a favorite among the Dutch settlers in the neighborhood, the farm was sold and extensive works for the manufacture of the desired article were erected in the village of Poughkeepsie, in the spring of 1801. Young Matthew was employed about the establishment in such capacity as suited his tender age, but disliking the business, his father proposed to bind him out to learn the trade of a tanner. Not fancying this, the subject of our sketch, now a stout boy of fourteen, resolved to leave his father's roof and seek his fortune. With his entire wardrobe in a red cotton handkerchief, and six shillings in his pocket, he bade a tearful adieu to his aged and beloved mother, and went forth, he knew not whither. Engaging with a country merchant in Orange County, in his adoptedState, as second clerk for three years, he was afterwards appointed first clerk for two years, when he returned to his parents with $150, the net proceeds of five years' industry.

In the year 1812, the brewery built by the elder Vassar was destroyed by fire. This, followed by the sudden death of his elder son John Guy, and other reverses, reduced his circumstances, when young Matthew established the business on a limited scale.

From this humble beginning in an obscure village which afforded few advantages for business, without wealthy friends to assist and encourage him, without capital aside from his own industry, economy, energy and character, arose his colossal fortune, the

benevolent use of which has elevated Matthew Vassar to an honorable place among the world's benefactors; among whom we may here briefly mention his illustrious relative, the great philanthropist, Sir Thomas Guy, founder of the Guy Hospital of London, which Mr. Vassar visited a few years since with reference to the endowment of a similar institution in this country, but upon subsequent reflection decided upon the erection of a College.

Mr. Vassar has long been esteemed by his fellow-citizens for his public spirit, and his liberality toward every enterprise connected with the prosperity of the city in which he resides. His generous contributions toward the erection of churches for various denominations; to the Public Library and the Home of the Friendless; his large donations to literary, religious, and charitable institutions; his liberal responses to the numerons calls which are daily made on his charity, have challenged the regard of all to whom the facts have become known. Yet even the knowledge of all this benificence scarcely prepared his best friends for the magnificent gift of four hundred thousand dollars, to found and endow a College for the education of young women, as set forth in the following statement, made by Mr. Vassar on the 26th of Feb. 1861, to the gentlemen whom he had selected and had incorporated as the trustees of the funds and securities which he had appropriated for this purpose.

Though suffering somewhat from an attack of paralysis, experienced in the winter of 1859, yet Mr. Vassar's general health is perfectly good-his perceptions clear and quick, and his judgment sound, and we trust he will live many years, to see Vassar Female College in full and successful operation.

MR. VASSAR'S STATEMENT

GENTLEMEN :-As my long-cherished purpose to apply a large portion of my estate to some benevolent object is now about to be accomplished, it seems proper that I should submit to you a statement of my motives, views, and wishes.

It having pleased God that I should have no direct descendants to inherit my property, it has long been my desire, after suitably providing for those of my kindred who have claims on me, to make such a disposition of my means as should best honor God and benefit my fellow-men. At different periods I have regarded various plans with favor, but these have all been dismissed one after another, until the subject of erecting and endowing a college for the education of young women was presented for my consideration. The novelty, grandeur, and benignity of the idea arrested my attention. The more carefully I examined it, the more strongly it commended itself to my judgment and interested my feelings, It occurred to me, that woman, having received from her Creator the same intellectual constitution as man, has the same right as man to intellectual culture and development.

I considered that the mothers of a country mold the character of its citizens, determine its institutions, and shape its destiny.

Next to the influence of the mother, is that of the female teacher, who is employed to train young children at a period when impressions are most vivid and lasting.

It also seemed to me, that if woman were properly educated, some new avenues to useful and honorable employment, in entire harmony with the gentleness and modesty of her sex, might be opened to her.

It further appeared, there is not in our country-there is not in the world, so far as is known-a single fully-endowed institution for the education of women. It was also in evidence, that for the last thirty years, the standard of education for the sex has been constantly rising in the United States; and the great, felt, pressing want has been ample endowments, to secure to female seminaries the elevated character, the stability and permanency of our best colleges.

And now, gentlemen, influenced by these and similar considerations, after devoting my best powers to the study of the subject for a number of years past; after duly weighing the objections against it and the arguments that preponderate in its favor; and the project having received the warmest commendations of many prominent literary men and practical educators, as well as the universal approval of the public press, I have come to the conclusion, that the establishment and endowment of a college for the education of young women, is a work which will satisfy my highest aspirations, and will be, under God, a rich blessing to this city and State, to our country and the world.

It is my hope to be the instrument, in the hands of Providence, of founding and perpetuating an institution which shall accomplish for young women, what our colleges are accomplishing for young men.

In pursuance of this design, I have obtained from the legislature an act of incorporation, conferring on the proposed seminary the corporate title of "Vassar Female College," and naming you, gentlemen, as the first trustees. Under the provisions of this charter you are invested with all the powers, privileges, and immunities which appertain to any college or university in this state.

To be somewhat more specific in the statement of my views as to the character and aims of the college :

I wish that the Course of Study should embrace, at least, the following particulars: The English Language and its Literature; other Modern Languages; the Ancient Classics, so far as may be demanded by the spirit of the times; the Mathematics, to such an extent as may be deemed advisable; all the branches of Natural Science, with full apparatus, cabinets, collections, and conservatories for visible illustration; Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene, with practical reference to the laws of the health of the sex; Intellectual Philosophy; the elements of Political Economy; some knowledge of the Federal and State Constitutions and Laws; Moral Science, particularly as bearing on the filial, conjugal, and parental relations; Esthetics, as treating of the beautiful in Nature and Art, and to be illustrated by an extensive Gallery of Art; Domestic Economy, practically taught, so far as is possible, in order to prepare the graduates readily to become skillful housekeepers; last, and most important of all, the daily, systematic Reading and