PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. "Were I to advise any student of Philosophy, I would say to him that philosophy should not consent to narrow the field of her inquiries, but that she should learn circumspection and caution from the past. What man can know, what man ought to do, and what man is, and what he may hope to be: these are the questions about which philosophy has been busy from old time. Let her abandon none of them. Philosophy is but wise and disciplined thought upon the subject on which all men think. The minds of men left to their own natural working will never cease to think on these things; and if philosophy should cease to attempt to think wisely on them, she abandons her position as a guide. She has been to blame for the carelessness of her procedure, for the overweeningness of her pretensions; but the remedy is soberness, not scepticism. It is, after all, an evil that in some directions we fail to attain certainty by mere thinking. To me it appears that the philosopher, after he had shut out all that sensation did not record, and after he had examined all the sensible world, and with all his sensations sorted and tied up and labelled to the utmost, might chance to find himself the most odious and ridiculous being in all the multiform creation. A creature so glib, so wise, so full of discourse, sitting in the midst of creation with all its mystery and wonder, and persuading you that he is the master of its secrets, and that there is nothing but what he knows; you can imagine the self-satisfaction that would beam out in his smile. If he were as yet possible, we should attend his lectures probably, and, catching some reflection from the light of his self-esteem, we should be proud that we too knew the secret of things. But we should attain this only by much selfsuppression, and nature will not be suppressed forever. There is the eternity behind us out of which we came; there is the eternity before us, into which we are speeding; there is our idea of God, and with it a faculty of obeying God and loving him, whom no man hath seen; there is our desolate sense of the incompleteness of this life, with its interruptions, its fragmentary hopes and plans, its heart-breaking separations; there are our yearnings for another life hereafter that may not be incomplete, but may answer to all that is noblest and best in our desires and longings. It is all very well to say that we will have no knowledge but what is certain knowledge, but the very fact that I can think upon these awful things lays on all the necessity of seeing them. And the things which stir my spirit most are not always the clearest things, for which you have found the arithmetical formula; but they are loves and hopes, and the wish to live the highest life that is possible. As in nature the picture that you see is not broad light and dark, but a thousand tender tones and hues melting into each other, and vibrating together between the light and the dark, so is the mind of man. Philosophy, while she is teaching morals and religion, will soon come to a point where her teaching ends; and she will confess that in order to know duty, a life of duty must be lived, and in order to know God the soul must learn to love Him." - Archbishop Thomson. INTELLIGENCE. MASSACHUSETTS. BOSTON. Hon. John D. Philbrick has been honored with an appointment as chief of the Educational Department of the United States at Vienna, and he writes that our interests will not suffer at all from comparison with the educational departments of the other countries of the world. The chart, prepared at the expense of Mayor Pierce, representing the educational facilities of Boston, will probably bear off the palm. Boston University is making long strides by way of departments. The School of Theology is the oldest, and has attained very considerable proportions, and offers excellent advantages. The School of Music is flourishing, and proves the wisdom of those who thus early established it. The School of Law, with Hon. Geo. S. Hillard, LL. D., as dean, is at once a rival of the best law schools in the country. The School of Medicine, with Dr. I. T. Talbot as dean, presents an array of homeopathic talent which can but demand a full class. We are pleased to notice the name of one recently in our profession, Chas. R. Brown, M. D., late of the Phillips School, Salem, as lecturer before the school. Though the teacher's profession numbers one less earnest worker, we are glad to see him taking such a stand among the physicians of Boston. The School of Liberal Arts, with John W. Lindsay, D. D., as dean, must be a popular and powerful school, with such men as Prof. A. H. Buck, of the Boston Latin School, for the department of Greek; Prof. T. H. Kimpton, of the Chicopee High School, for the department of Latin; and Prof. Lewis B. Munroe for the department of oratory. The Musical Festival of the city schools was a grand success; the audience was large, and composed of first-class literary and musical talent. No city in America is doing for the musical education of the children what Boston is, and all appre ciate it. The results warrant the expenditure. The exhibition of drawings in Horticultural Hall this year was very satisfactory and encouraging. LAWRENCE. - Few cities have been more favored than this in its High and Grammar School principals, and best of all, their work has been fully appreciated by the citizens. Albert C. Perkins, Esq., has been principal of the High School for several years, during which time he has been constantly sought by other places. College professorships have been tendered him, but his love for Lawrence and his school kept him. Chelsea made him a tempting offer, but the committee of Lawrence raised his salary from $2,000 to $3,000, and since then his ear has been deaf to all entreaties until invited to Phillips at Exeter, with a salary second only to Harvard's president, when he accepted the call. Mr. Perkins enters his new field of labor in the Fall. Mr. Brewster of the Grammar School has been equally popular in his sphere of work, and now rumor has it that he retires, on account of failing health, to accept of a tempting mercantile offer. GLOUCESTER. Mr. H. M. Willard, superintendent of schools, has been tendered the principalship of the Lawrence High School, but we understand he will not accept. From our personal acquaintance with Mr. Willard as a scholar, as a teacher, and as a man, we hazard nothing in saying that, can he be secured, there is no better man in Massachusetts as successor to Mr. Perkins. CHARLESTOWN. - The High School Association recently gave a most enjoyable social entertainment. The annual exhibitions of the High and Grammar Schools will be held on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday preceding July 4th. An exhibition of drawings will be given in each school, and specimens of the work of the Evening Drawing School will be exhibited in the High School house. Miss Coombs, assistant in the High School, has resigned; also Miss Humphrey, of one of the Primary Schools. It is understood that Mr. Brown, of the High School, will visit Europe, where he intends to remain some three years. ORLEANS The school committee unanimously elected Rev. Chas. E. Harwood as superintendent of schools. Mr. S. C. Smith is in charge of the Yarmouthport High School. PEABODY.-Miss S. J. C. Needham, second assistant in the High School, is in Berlin for a few months, pursuing her studies. Her place is supplied by Miss A. E. Whittemore. Hereafter the Peabody School year begins in September. An increase of $150 in salary has been voted to the Grammar masters, and an increase of $100 to each of the female teachers below the High School. The last report shows thirty-six teachers employed, 1,019 pupils in average attendance. - Mr. Fitch Poole, the librarian of the Peabody Institute, retires from the School Board this year after serving twenty-six years. MAINE. We congratulate Prof. G. T. Fletcher upon getting into his new school building in connection with the Eastern State Normal School. Gov. Perham and superntendent Johnson were present at the dedication, and made speeches fitted to the occasion. Ex-Governor Coburn, of Skowhegan, has given $5,000 to the Industrial School for Girls. Prof. Hamelin, it is said, will not accept the professorship at Bowdoin. Linneus has voted to have a free High School, and appropriated money therefor. Henry M. Heath, of Gardiner, is now preceptor of the academy at East Machias. John B. Carter, of Orland, is teaching his one hundred and fifth term. The Farmington Normal School closed June 13th. North Seal Cove has a new schoolhouse. -The new buildings for the Classical School, Hallowell, are nearly. completed. Auburn is to have a new school-house; so is Lewiston. GENERAL. FRANK L. STEVENSON, Son of Maj. John L. Stevenson; Benj. I. Butler, son of Gen. Butler, and Wallis O. Clark, son of W. G. Clark of Chelsea, were the only young men accepted from the Massachusetts recommendations to West Point. Fred O. Ripley, of West Bridgewater, a recent graduate of the Normal School, has been elected teacher of the Grammar School in Canton, Mass. C. C. Coffin "Carleton " - has been offered $6,000, gold, as salary for editing a paper in Japan. David H. Gibbs, of Bridgewater, has been appointed master of a Grammar School in Woburn. - Clinton, Mass., is overcrowded with children, and new school-houses are to be built. Texas school-houses are fast burning up. Milwaukee teaches German as early and regularly as English; more than half the population are Germans. One half the children of Ireland above five years of age are unable to read or write. · Pennsylvania will have ten Normal schools before the close of the season. Saxony obliges all the people to become educated to a certain degree, and makes attendance upon evening schools compulsory with all uneducated. Iowa has a school fund of $3,000,000 already. - - Michigan had but one man to oppose the appropriation of $30,000 for current expenses of the Normal School. -The school superintendent of Florida is a colored man. — Rev. Dr. Cooke, of Wilbraham, has sued the "Holyoke Transcript" for $8,000 damage for libellous strictures on his management of the school during an epidemic. All but thirteen of the boys escaped from Westboro' are returned. Mr. Poland, prin cipal of the Salisbury High School, is popular with committee and parents, and the enthusiastic pupils made him a handsome present recently in testimony of their esteem. - Lizzie P. Sweetser has been teaching as assistant in the Prov incetown High School. English will supersede Japanese in Japan. The Rogers High School building of Newport, R. I., is to be a most creditable addition to the public buildings of the state. The bequest was $100,000. There are three hundred and twelve "students in the Georgia University. — Hon. Oakes Ames left $50,000 to the schools in No. Easton. -Chief-Justice Chase gave $10,000 to Dartmouth College. Illinois legislature appropriated $1,000,000 for schools. COLLEGIATE. WHITELAW REID, of New York, delivered the annual address before the Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Yale is one hundred and seventy-three years old. President Porter delivered the baccalaureate sermon this year. Brown University is one hundred and fifty years old. - Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., has invited Rev. E. C. Bolles, of Salem, to deliver the oration this year. The forty-eighth anniversary of Hobart College, of Geneva, N. Y., was favored with an oration by Rev. Dr. T. W. Gibson, of Utica. Madison University of Hamilton, N. Y., is fifty years old and healthy. Rev. Dr. Alvah Hovey, of Newton Centre, Mass., delivered the sermon. St. Lawrence University, Canton, N. Y., is seventeen years old. President Miner, of Tufts College, delivers the address before the theological school.. The thirty-fourth anniversary of McKendree College, Lebanon, Ill., was held June 8. - Rev. Dr. S. K. Cox delivered the address before the Roanoke College, Va.- Phillips Exe ter Academy numbers one hundred and sixty-two this spring term. Miss Julia S. Haskel is the salutatorian at Kimball Union Academy, N. H., this year. The closing exercises of the Newton Theological Seminary this year were very interesting. Prof. Gould addressed the graduating class. Prof. Young, of Dartmouth, has a battery of thirty-six cells, once used by Franklin. Cecil F. P. Bancroft, now in Germany, has been elected principal of Phillips Andover Academy. May he well fill the place so long honored by Dr. Taylor. - Prof. Clark Seelye, of Amherst College, still has under advisement the presidency of Smith Female College at Northampton. HARVARD. Col. J. D. Washburn, of Worcester, is appointed chief marshal; Hon. E. R. Hoar is president of the Alumni Association, and presides at the annual dinner; John Fisk, LL. D., is appointed assistant librarian; Geo. L Goodale, assistant professor of vegetable physiology and botany; F. E. Anderson, assistant professor in Greek; Geo. H. Palmer, assistant professor in philosophy; Clement L. Smith, Wm. Everett, and James B. Greenough, assistant professors in Latin; J. K. Paine, assistant professor in music; and Stacy Baxter, teacher of elocution. BOOKS. FLOWER OBJECT LESSONS; OR FIRST LESSONS IN BOTANY. A familiar description of a few Flowers. From the French of M. Emm. Le Maout. New York: Wm. J. Read. 1873. We have not been able to get a copy of the original with which to compare this translation, and hence must criticise it merely as it appears to us in its English dress. With Professor Gray's "How Plants Grow" and "How Plants Behave," and Miss Youmans' "First Lessons in Botany" already in the field, one naturally inquires with some surprise, what claim upon our attention another work of a similar character can possibly have. To take the place of either of the works above mentioned, it must certainly have extraor dinary merits. From the preface and introduction, we infer that it is intended for a very young class of pupils. Madam Kriege is quoted as saying, "I have no doubt that it is a great advance upon former botanies for beginners: and for the older children of the kindergartens, say from five to seven, would be highly useful." Mr. John L. Russell, botanist, welcomes the work "as the harbinger of a new era in the study of Botany." We look then for something new and striking. We first turn the pages and glance at the illustrations, just as a child would do. We find them simply execrable. They |