discuss, in a friendly way, of what has gone before." So if we, whose heads have been whitened by the frost of more than three score years, in discoursing upon the past, and comparing it with the present, should incline to eulogize the former, and perhaps in some instances question the positions of the latter, and thereby entail upon us the title of Old Fogies, it is undoubtedly no more than will be said of the youth of the present day fifty years hence. Fifty years ago family government was an acknowledged necessity, and was generally exercised over the household until they attained to near their majorities; and when it ceased, the individual was supposed to be capable of self government; but the wisdom of the present age has seen fit, in most cases, to reverse this rule, and the child commences self government and domestic rule as soon as will power is sufficiently developed, and holds the reins over submissive parents until either death relieves them from this involuntary servitude, or renunciation by the petty tyrant enables them to pass a few of their declining years in comparative freedom. The fruit of this change is perhaps first experienced in the government of our common schools, and it is probable no one thing has more conduced to make them literally free schools, so far as the actions of pupils are concerned, than this change. I use the word frce in its most extensive signification. It next becomes visible in our legislative bodies, which, by modern sentimentality, tone down the laws for the punishment of crime to the mildest possible forin in comparison to the offense committed, and as a result, courts and juries may often be considered institutions for clearing the accused rather than administrators of justice to protect the innocent and punish the guilty; and whenever the law is administered in its purely executive clemency, is too ready to annul the sentence for good behavior during a brief state of probation.

Fifty years ago our common schools were inferior in many respects to those of the present day. Yet I am inclined to think that modern improvements consist more in what relates to the comfort of the pupils than in the government of the schools, the text books used, or the manner of teaching. It is true that the few branches originally taught were of a more practical nature

than many of those at present. The boys and girls (pardon me for not using the terms gentlemen and ladies) left school at the age of sixteen better readers, better writers, and better spellers than the average of those of to-day; and those who had mastered Lindley Murray need have no fears of discussing the principles of English grammar with any of the normal teachers of our state.

At that time the reading books were compilations from such authors as Addison, Steele, Sterne, Young, Goldsmith, Johnson, Pope and others, who wrote at a time when the English language was at its zenith for purity; and although it is said that Pope took his inspiration from books rather than nature, yet his pastoral poetry, for smoothness of versification, has never been equalled in our language; and in scanning the periodical literature of the present age we look in vain for anything that will compare with the "Spectator," written more than one hundred and fifty years ago; and if many of our American writers of prose and more of rhyme (for poetry is seldom seen in our day) had never shamed the muse or "called her from her sacred hill," it would detract very little from the literary status of our age.

Fifty years ago cradles were an absolute necessity. One kind bore a conspicuous place among the tools of the farmer,

In whose skilled hands with wondrous will and main
And measured steps, swept through the ripening grain,
Proud of his tact in length and breadth of sweep,

He laid the swaths in beauty at his feet.

The other was watched with pride and solicitude by the mother, as its oscillatory motion lulled to repose those who were to be the future patriots and protectors of our country. The modern reaper has now taken the place of the one, with an increase in the expense of harvesting, and the miniature chaise is doing much less work in proportion to numbers than the other for a rising and more effeminate generation. Fifty years ago the monotonous thud of the flail reverberated upon the ear from early morn till closing day, through the greater part of the winter solstice, but its echoes are no longer heard. The modern thresher performs as much work in a few hours as this primitive instrument will accomplish in days, but at a vast increase in the expense.

10-W. S. A. S.

Thus we see that the improvements by machinery consist in the amount of labor performed in a given time, and not in lessening the cost.

Then while we who are living in this so called age of improvement, and are sometimes inclined to sneer at the primitive methods of our fathers and those who have not kept pace with the age, remember that with all the inventive genius our American people can boast there has never been a machine constructed that will sow forty acres of wheat as quickly as a good seedsman can accomplish it by hand.

Go through the whole list of grain harvesting machines, from the first invention to the last ones perfected, with their automatic binders, and not one can cut forty acres of wheat at so little expense as it can be done with the old hand cradle, followed with. the rake in use fifty years ago; and the same can be threshed with the old antediluvian flail at one-half the cost of the best Case machine that follows the road.

Fifty years ago economy and industry were the legitimate sources of wealth, and in them the youth of both sexes were thoroughly trained. The men upon the farm, in the work-shop, or some of the various occupations that required physical strength and close application, the women in the diversified employments of domestic life and household duties, educated as they were upon this permanent basis, they formed alliances without money. considerations, from pure, unadulterated affection. Vigorous both mentally and physically, invulnerable to many diseases which schooling without education and a want of muscular exertion has entailed upon many at the present time, they went forward animated with hope and with a fidelity worthy of imitation, and attained in a few years both wealth and position. In those days it was no stigma for men and women to work, and those who at tended to their ordinary household duties were not classed by the strong minded as slaves and drudges.

But times are altered; wealth engenders sin,

Virtue delays and idleness begins.

It is not to be supposed that every boy is properly constituted. for a farmer, any more than that all can make merchants or me

chanics, or in fact fill any one calling; but that a reasonable proportion are well adapted for tilling the soil there is no doubt.

There is many a boy who from his first recollection could not behold a fine horse or cow without being struck with its beauty, grace of movement, and general adaptability for the use of men. You may school this boy in all the intricacies of the legal profession, or, if you please, lead him through the devious paths of learning necessary for a student of divinity or medicine, but when left to his natural propensity he will seek his first love, delighted to hold the reins over a spirited charger, or, in the language of Scripture, "He will glory in the good and his talk will be of bullocks."

It seems to be a general impression and the idea is inculcated in our schools, that our youth by book knowledge, aided by the stimulus of wealth and parental pride, can attain almost any position in life to which juvenile fancy ever aspired, regardless of the peculiarities that fate has stamped upon their mental or physical organization.

Place, if you please, upon the shoulders of a boy the ponderous head of a Webster in all the perfection of infinite wisdom, and in his physical system a languid circulation of the life giving fluid from a want of the vis a tergo to stimulate it to action, and the boy is comparatively a fool. a fool. It is like attempting to move the machinery at the Centennial exhibition with a one horse engine, or a ship becalmed with too little breeze to fill her sails.

Upon the other hand, take a brain of much less caliber and perhaps less perfect in its organization, but let the fine arterial streamlets with systolic force stimulate its nervous fibre to tensity, and it comprehends the laws and motions of the planetary system, and solves the most intricate problem in mathematical science.

When shall we learn the necessity of educating our youth for the positions which nature intended they should fill?

Fathers and mothers who have taken much joy

In rearing a fine honest girl or a boy,
Don't ruin a farmer or spoil a good wife

By forcing them into professional life.

There's no grapes on thorns or figs upon thistles.

Pigs' tails are poor timber for the making of whistles,

and are of far greater value in their natural state than the whistles after being manufactured. The question has often been asked within the past few years: "What shall we do to keep our sons at home upon the farm?" I must confess I have been a little surprised at not hearing the same desire expressed in relation to the daughters.

The general run of answers to this question have been, that some plan must be adopted to make farming interesting; there must be a certain amount of recreation connected with it an interest in the proceeds and not too much work; in short, the answers have been of a character which I choose to denominate the sugar plum policy, a policy which has been very successful in many of our churches for securing a large attendance at their Sunday schools. This question may be answered in a very few words. Instead of impressing upon the minds of our youth that labor is honorable and that muscular exertion is absolutely necessary for physical development, we have directly or indirectly instilled into their minds that labor is degrading, and in a majority of cases they have been apt scholars.

We have not educated them to habits of industry and economy. I will venture a broader assertion; we have given them too much school and too little work, and the result is the cry has permeated every hamlet and household in the land, "what shall we do to gain a livelihood without physical labor?" And as our schools are the stepping stones to the different forms of professional life, they are flooded with those who will not dig, and in some instances are not ashamed to beg, and this not for the love of scientific pursuit, not for their adaptability as teachers or the learned professions generally, but simply for position and bread.

I am informed by the superintendent of schools for the first district of Dane county, that one hundred and thirty teachers were required for the schools in this district the past year, and certificates had been awarded to over three hundred, giving a surplus of over one hundred and seventy in one-half of Dane county; and I have no reason to doubt that the same state of things exists in other counties in the state.

A portion of this heterogeneous mass go to make up the stock