Q 171 .5426 TRANS 171 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by Light & STEARNS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. PHILOSOPHY OF SELF-EDUCATION, BY B. B. THATCHER.- Age of associations. Result of civilization. The social power-abuse of it. Schemes of education. The education of the age. All mankind educated. The principle of self-education. Social education. Self- study. A complete education unknown. Neglect of the moral powers. The physical department. Literary part of education. Facilities-use of them-how to do without them. Education too easy. Philosophy of OUTLINE OF PHILOSOPHY, BY LIEUT. ROSWELL PARK.-Phi- losophy defined. Use of books. Largest libraries. Statistics of books. Books in our language. Tree of philosophy, or classification of the branches of human science and art. Connection of the branches. An- cient and modern branches. Avenues to the pursuit of knowledge. ADVANTAGES OF EARLY RISING, BY WM. A. ALCOTT.-- Antiquity of early rising. Testimony in its favor. Its pleasures. Early rising for the purposes of labor-study-health. Sleeping in the day- time. Eminent early risers. Longevity of early risers. Economy of early rising. Franklin's estimate. Artificial light-its effects. Time wasted in sleep. Calculations. Means of early rising. Motives. In- MAY-FLOWERS, BY D. H. HOWARD.-The flowering season in this country. Foreign flowers and names. The violet. Houstonia. Ane- mone. Cowslip. Columbine. Buttercup. Flowering Dogwood. Swamp honeysuckle. Poisonous honey. Apple flower. Strawberry. Lily of the valley. Bellwort. Geranium. Barberry. Lady's slipper. NATURAL HISTORY OF WATER, BY. C. T. JACKSON, M. D.— Water essential to organized beings. It belongs to the mineral king- dom. Expansion of freezing water. Hail. Icebergs. Snow. The ocean. Substances dissolved in it. Lakes. Rivers. Cascades. Im- portance of pure water. Sources of impurity. Impure waters predis- pose to disease. Tests of impurity. Different kinds of springs. State of wells in Boston. Testimony of physicians. Analysis of well water PLEASURES OF SCIENCE, BY W. M. ROGERS.-The blessings sci- ence bestows. Aid of science to commerce. Science conduces greatly to happiness. Objects of interest abound in the universe. Curious facts respecting ants. Popular and scientific reading. Incident in the life of Mungo Park. Instinct and science. Remarks of Kepler. . 145 HISTORY OF PEACE SOCIETIES, BY WILLIAM LADD.-Different 169 SCIENCE OF HUMAN LIFE, BY SYLVESTER GRAHAM.-Preva- 193 HISTORY OF TELEGRAPHS, BY J. R. PARKER.-Rapidity of the telegraph. Antiquity. Introduction into England. Shutter telegraph. Semaphoric telegraph. Numerical system. Marine telegraph. Ad- vantages and future extension of telegraphs. Telegraphing by means of COMBUSTION, BY R. A. COFFIN.-Phlogistic theory. Supporters of 233 GRANITE ROCK, BY SAMUEL FISH.-Stones used in building. Geo- 265 THEORY OF THE EARTH, BY SAMUEL FISH.-Duration of mat- ter. Relation of planets and comets. Four states of matter. Scripture epochs of creation. Geological epochs. Primary, transition, secondary, tertiary and alluvial formations. Analogy of light to other substances. PHILOSOPHY OF SELF-EDUCATION. BY B. B. THATCHER. Age of associations. Resuit of civilization. THIS is an age of associations. Almost every new enterprise, in whatever department, is carried through, or at least attempted, by a party, or a society, or a corporation, or an association under some other form and name. If a course of lectures is to be delivered, or a canal to be dug, -if an India-rubber factory is to be put up, or a vice or abuse in the community to be put down, the first movement, infallibly, is to call a meeting, and the second, to organize an institution, for the purpose. Combination is a characteristic of the age; and it is so in our own country more than in any other, by far. We are a people involved in the meshes of all sorts of associations, year in and year out. They scarcely leave us the liberty of breathing, without some society's vote, certified by the secretary thereof. To a certain extent, this general state of things is necessarily the result and accompaniment of civilization. Men are gregarious in all conditions; in a condition of civilization more so than in barbarous communities; variously so in various civilized communities, according to circumstances innumerable; but of all others, most likely to be so, and likely to be most so, in precisely a country and a state of society like our own. The circumstances that produce this tendency need not be here detailed. The social power. Abuse of it. Enough for our present argument, that the effect, and the fact, are as they are; that the spirit of the age is essentially and eminently a public spirit,—a spirit of enterprise, and combined enterprise,-a merging, in other words, of individuality in the social principle, (as ice is wasted away in a warm air;) and that the spirit of our country, for permanent reasons peculiar to itself, is the foremost representative and leader of the spirit of the age. Great good results from this tendency; not great achievements only-moral and physical-beyond the reach of individual resources,-but great good. In this country, especially, as it is one of the consequences, so is it one of the causes,-one of the chief ones,—of our unexampled prosperity. Our associations, great and small -in every department of society and life-from the Federal Union down to the least of all the organized operations of the bodies of men it includes-have carried everything before them. The world never has witnessed before such a development of the social power. But with the great things and good things which have resulted from its action-and still result-and still will-evil also, great evil, has been and will be mixed. Some of it is inevitable, and some of it incidental and needless, while yet another portion perhaps lies between these two classes. It is not wholly to be either prevented or remedied, but is greater than it need be. It admits of being guarded against to a certain extent; and for that reason, if for no other, it should be well understood. We have alluded already to the amalgamating process in character (so to speak) which, under these influences, is going on among us; and that is the result we now particularly refer to as one to be kept in mind. It is the melting down of individuality in the floating character of the ambient community, and in the warm incumbent |