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LXXX. INCONVENIENT IGNORANCE.

1. ALTHOUGH desirous of reaching the Lake of Constance with all possible speed, I was obliged to stop at Vadutz. Since our journey began it had rained in torrents, and now both horse and driver obstinately refused to go a step further; the beast because he sank in the mud up to his knees, and the man because he was wet to the bone. Indeed, it would have been cruel to have insisted on proceeding. Nothing but motives of philanthropy, however, could have induced me to enter the wretched inn whose sign had arrested our équipage.

2. Hardly had I set foot in the narrow entry that led to the kitchen, which was, at the same time, the common room for travellers, than I was taken by the throat by a sharp odor of sour-krout, which came as a sort of preannouncement of my billof-fare. Now, I can say of sour-krout, as a certain abbe said of flounders, that if sour-krout and I were left alone on the earth, the world would very soon come to an end.

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3. I began, then, to pass in review my whole Teutonic vocab'ulary, and to apply it to the, possibilities of the larder of a vil lage inn. The precaution was not untimely; for hardly was I seated at the table, where a couple of teamsters, the first occupants, were

of the disposed to yield me an end, than a deep plate, full

food, was placed before me. Fortunately I had been prepared for this infamous pleasantry, and I put aside the dish, which was smoking like a small Vesuvius, with a nicht gut (not good), so heartily enumerated that my hearers must have taken me for a full-blooded Saxon.

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4. A German always supposes that he has misunderstood you when you say that you do not like sour-krout; but when it is in his own language that you express your disgust for this national dish,, to avail myself of an ex countrymen becomes "mountainous." There succeeded, then, an interval of silence, of stupefaction, like that which would have followed some abominable blas phemy, and while it e it lasted the hostess seemed to be laboriously occupied in rallying her disordered ideas.

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5. The result of her reflections was a phrase, pronounced in a voice so changed that the words were wholly unintelligible to me, although, from the physiognomy, I interpreted them to be, "But, sir, if you do not like sour-krout, what do you like?"

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"Alles dieses ausgenommen," I replied; which I will remark, for the benefit of those not up with me in philology, means "All, except that." It appeared that disgust had produced upon

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me the same effect that indignation did upon Ju'vënal; only instead of inspiring me to versify, it had enabled me to pro nounce German; I perceived it in the submissive air with which the hostess took away the unfortunate sour-krout.

6. I remained, then, waiting my second service, amusing my. self meanwhile by making pellets out of the bread, or tasting, with many a shrug and grimace', a kind of sour wine, which, because it had an abominable flavor of flint, and was contained in a long-necked-bottle, was pleasantly called Hock. "Well?" said I, looking up.- "Well?" returned the hostess. "My sup"O, yes! And she brought me again the sour

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7. I made up my mind that unless I took summary justice upon it there would be no end to her persecutions. I therefore called a dog,- one of the Saint Bernard' breed, who lay toasting his nose and paws before the fire, and who, on recognizing my good intentions, left the chimney, came to me, and with three jerks of the tongue lapped up the proffered food. "Well done, beast!" said I, when he had finished; and I returned the empty plate to the hostess. And you?" she said. —“O! I will eat something else."-"But I have n't anything else," she replied. 8. "How!" cried I, from the very depths of my empty stomach; "have n't you some eggs?"— "None."- -"Some cutlets? "None." "Some potatoes?""None." "Some

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A luminis idea crossed my mind. I remembered that I had been advised not to pass through the place without tasting the mushrooms, for which, twenty leagues round, it is celebrated. But when I wished to avail myself of this felicitous recollection, an unforeseen difficulty presented itself in the fact that I could not, for the life of me, recall the German word, the pronunciation of which was essential, unless I would go hungry to bed. I remained, then, with open mouth, pausing at the indefinite pro

noun.

some

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9. "Some-some-how do you call it in German? Some-" -"Some?" repeated the hostess, mechanically. — “Eh? yes; At this moment my eyes fell upon my album. "Wait," said I, "wait!" I then took my pencil, and, on a beautiful white leaf, drew, as carefully as I could, the precious vegetable which formed for the moment the object of my desires. I flattered myself that it approached as near to a resemblance as it is permitted for the work of man to reproduce the work of

nature.

10. All this while the hostess followed me with her eyes, displaying an intelligent curiosity that seemed to augur most favorably for my prospects. “Ah! ja, ja, ja (yes, yes, yes),"

said she, as I gave the finishing touch to the drawing. She had comprehended the clever woman!-so well comprehended, that, five minutes after, she entered the room with an umbrella all open. “There!" said she. I threw a glance upon my unfortunate drawing- the resemblance was perfect!

ORIGINAL TRANSLATION FROM DUMAS

11 Saturday

LXXXI. THE CAVERN BY THE SEA.

1. THERE is a cavern in the island of Hoonga, one of the Tonga islands, in the South Pacific Ocean, which can be entered only by diving into the sea, and has no other light than what is reflected from the bottom of the water. A young chief discovered it accidentally while diving after a turtle, and the use which he made of his discovery will probably be sung in more than one European language, so beautifully is it adapted for a tale in

verse.

2. There was a tyrannical governor at Văvaoo, against whom one of the chiefs formed a plan of insurrection; it was betrayed, and the chief, with all his family and kin, was ordered to be destroyed. He had a beautiful daughter, betrothed to a chief of high rank, and she also was included in the sentence. The youth who had found the cavern, and kept the secret to himself, loved this damsel; he told her the danger in time, and persuaded her to trust herself to him. They got into a canoe; the place of her retreat was described to her on the way to it. These women

swim like mermaids. She dived after him, and rose in the cavern. In the widest part it is about fifty feet, and its medium height is guessed at the same; the roof is hung with stalac'

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3. Here he brought her the choicest food, the finest clothing, mats for her bed, and sandal-wood oil to perfume herself; here he visited her as often as was consistent with prudence; and here, as may be imagined, this Tonga Lean'der wooed and won the maid, whom, to make the interest complete, he had long loved in secret, when he had no hope. Meantime he prepared, with all his dependants, male and female, to emigrate in secret to the Fiji islands.

4. The intention was so well concealed, that they embarked in safety, and his people asked him, at the point of their departure if he would not take with him a Tonga wife; and accordingly, to to a

them to wait while he went into the sea to fetch her, jumped

reaû overboard, and, just as they were beginning to be seriously alarmed at his long disappearance, he rose with his mistress from the water. This story is not deficient in that which all such stories should have to be perfectly delightful, a fortunate conclusion.

The party remained at the Fijis till the oppressor died, and then returned to Vavaoo, where they enjoyed a long and happy life. This is related as an authentic tradition.

LXXXII. THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION.

1. AIR AND EXERCISE.

· London Quarterly Review.

SPECIAL attention should be given, both by parents and teachers, to the physical development of the child. Pure air and free exercise are indispensable, and wherever either of these is withheld the consequences will be certain to extend themselves over the whole future life. The seeds of protracted and hopeless suffering have, in innumerable instances, been sown in the constitution of the child simply through ignorance of this great fundamental physical law; and the time has come when the united voices of these innocent victims should ascend, " trumpettongued," to the ears of every parent and every teacher in the land. "Give us free air and wholesome exercise; give us leave to develop our expanding energies in accordance with the laws of our being; give us full scope for the elastic and bounding impulses of our youthful blood!"

2. EDUCATIONE IN THE UNITED STATES.

Webster.

That which is elsewhere left to chance, or to charity, we secure by law. For the purpose of public instruction, we hold every man subject to taxation in proportion to his property," and we look not to the question whether he himself have or have not children to be benefited by the education for which he pays. We regard it as a wise and liberal system of police, by which property and life and the peace of society are secured. We seek to prevent, in some measure, the extension of the penal code, by inspiring a salutary and conservative principle of virtue and of knowledge at an early age.

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We hope to excite a feeling of responsibility, and a sense of character, by enlarging the capacity and increasing the sphere of intellectual enjoyment. By general instruction, we seek, as far as possible, to purify the whole moral atmosphere; to keep good

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sentiments uppermost, and to turn the strong current of feeling and opinion, as well as the censures of the law and the denunciation of religion, against immorality and crime. We hope for a security, beyond the law, and above the law, in the prevalence of enlightened and well-principled moral sentiment.

Education, to accomplish the ends of good government, should be universally diffused. Open the doors of the school-house to all the children of the land. Let no man have the excuse of poverty for not educating his own offspring. Place the means of education within his reach, and if they remain in ignorance be it his own reproach. If one object of the expenditure of your revenue be protection against crime, you could not devise a better or cheaper means of obtaining it. Other nations spend their money in providing means for its detection and punishment, but it is for the principles of our government to provide for its never occurring. The one acts by coërcion, the other by prevention. On the diffusion of education among the people rest the preservation and perpetuation of our free institutions.

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They give the keys of knowledge to the mass of the people. I think it may with truth be said, that the branches of knowledge taught in our common schools, when taught in a finished, masterly manner, -reading-in which I include the spelling of our language-a firm, sightly, legible hand-writing, and the elemental rules of arithmetic, are of greater value than all the rest which is taught at school. I am far from saying that nothing else can be taught at our district schools; but the young person who brings these from school can himself, in his winter evenings, range over the entire field of useful knowledge. Our common schools are important in the same way as the common air, the common sunshine, the common rain,- - invaluable for their commonness. They are the corner-stone of that municipal organization which is the characteristic feature of our social system; they are the fountain of that wide-spread intelligence, which, like a moral life, pervades the country. From the humblest village school there may go forth a teacher who, like Newton, shall bind his temples with the stars of Orion's belt, — with Herschel, light up his cell with the beams of before undiscov ered planets,with Franklin, grasp the lightning.

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4. ON PAMPERING THE BODY AT THE SOUL'S EXPENSE. — Everett. What, sir! feed a child's body, and let his soul hunger! pam per his limbs, and starve his faculties! What! plant the earth

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