six months, twelve and half cents for three months, in advance; or one cent a week. The paper consists of four pages about the size of large octavo pages, and is edited by Theodore Dwight, Jr.

The Youth's Penny Paper, says the prospectus, is designed to afford entertainment and instruction for the young; to aid them in their studies; to acquaint them with important passing events, as well as the elements of science; to inculcate religious and moral principles, to cultivate taste, and to prepare them for happiness and usefulness as members of society; also, to assist parents and teachers in training the young. Each number, continues the prospectus, will contain one or more engravings; true tales or anecdotes, designed to improve the mind or character ; sketches of real travel at home or abroad; a hymn or song, often with music; or short lessons on various departments of knowledge appropriate to different ages; with brief familiar notices of the news of the day. We are glad to see such a paper, and from such a source; for what the tact, talent, and perseverance of anybody can do towards sustaining such a paper, we are sure will be done by its untiring editor and zealous publisher. And if they can find men of like spirit with themselves— men we mean who care for something besides money, and who labor, in part at least, for a higher and nobler reward-to act as agents, all over the country, we doubt not their labors will do much good. We do not say we dare not hope it—that their paper will be popular; for what paper or journal whose main object was to do good, has ever been popular, in this country or in any other? What does not touch our consciences or invade our liberty-our liberty to do as we please with our time faculties and money, without regard to God-may be popular; at least if it espouses some party or sect.

We speak rather discouragingly on this subject, because we have had some experience in these matters. We were employed by the philanthropic proprietor of the 'Juvenile Rambler,' to edit that paper for himn about two years, till it was merged in Parley's Magazine. Subsequently we edited Parley's Magazine four years-we will not say with what success-we leave that to others. We will only say that had we sailed under the flag of a sect or party, and had other people been as willing as ourselves to 'work for nothing and keep themselves,' we have no doubt both works would have been better supported than they were; and we might have been willing longer to bear the burden of editing the latter. We ought, perhaps, to say, that Parley's Magazine is published still, by Messrs Joseph S. Francis, of this city, and Charles H. Francis of New York; but who the editor is, we are not informed.

AMERICAN

ANNALS OF EDUCATION.

AUGUST, 1838.

EMBELLISHMENT AND IMPROVEMENT OF TOWNS AND

VILLAGES.

THE Committee appointed by the American Lyceum, at its Eighth Annual Session, to take into consideration the question; 'What embellishments and improvements may be made in towns and villages, with advantage to intelligence and morals,' respectfully report:

That while they have not been able to give the subject that attention which its exceeding great importance, in their view, demands, they have nevertheless bestowed upon it all the time which their numerous other engagements would permit; and in so doing have come to the following conclusions.

In view of the condition and wants of human nature, as it now is, your Committee are fully of opinion that the health, the comfort, the intellectual and social, nay the moral and religious well being of man would be much promoted by a greater regard than is usual, to the structure, arrangement and embellishment of our cities, towns and villages. Of our larger cities, even Philadelphia and Boston, we do not hesitate to say that almost every thing, in their structure and condition, is at war with the highest physical and moral well being of their inhabitants. We do not indeed forget their beautiful commons and squares and public walks; but it is impossible for us to believe that a few of these will ever atone for that neglect whose effects stare us in the face, not merely in passing through dirty and filthy avenues, but in traversing almost every street, and in turning almost every corner. A single common, beautiful though it may be, as any spot on the earth's surface, and refreshed though it were by the balmy breezes which 'blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle;' or a few public squares, remembrancers though they be of him whose

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338

General Remarks on Cities.

praises will never cease to be celebrated while the city of brotherly love' shall remain, will yet never purify the crowded, unventilated cellars and shops-and dwellings, too-of a hundred or a thousand thickly congregated streets.

How then can these great marts of our country ever be brought to bear on the physical, intellectual, social and moral well being of man? Swallowing up, as they are, from year to year, much of the population of the country around them, especially its young men, and rendering them more sensual, more selfish, more effeminate, and more worldly, how can their influencetheir reaction on the surrounding country be any other than injurious? The heart of the great body, commercial and politic, being diseased, and its fluids more or less corrupted, how can it send out to all parts of the system those healthful streams for which it was originally intended? Graves, as cities are allowed to be, of the human species, are their victims destined to any 'better resurrection?'

But it is not the physical condition of cities and towns and villages alone-for much, nay most, which we would say on this subject, is applicable, in no small degree, to large towns and dense villages, as well as to our great cities-which your Committee regard as greatly susceptible of improvement. Nor is this topic of health directly embraced in the question on which we are required to report, except from its deep-we might almost say inseparable-connection with morals. Cities and towns and villages, especially in countries like our own, where every man is pre-eminently the artificer of his own fortune, are the graves of the human species mentally and morally, as well as physically.

They foster, we will not say inevitably, but at any rate with certainty, that sclfishness, that avarice, that luxury, and that sensuality, which need no hot bed assistance. In one word, all the facilities which the social powers and social opportunities of man afford for elevating his whole nature, are now, too often, turned into a wrong channel; and contribute but to hurry our rising population of every rank, but especially of those who are above the most abject poverty, the more swiftly down the stream of vice and corruption to present and future wo.

There is one deteriorating tendency, of cities and villages and towns, which deserves, in passing, a more particular consideration. We allude to the facilities which they afford for gratifying and more than gratifying a perverted and perhaps vitiated appetite. The shops, the cellars, the stalls, and the awnings are crowded often to excess, with the good, and sometimes with the bad things of this life; and luxuries no less than necessaries, -confectionaries and extra stimulants no less than plain meat and

Improvement of Roads, Side Walks, &c. 339

drink-tempt and often seduce us. Nor is it physical abundance alone, which accelerates our ruin. The intellectual and sometimes the moral facilities of a dense population, as things now are, and in the hands of a perverted public sentiment, too often have the same tendency. The numerous books and papers which solicit-and with no little success-our attention; the social concerts, the clubs, the lyceums, the religious assemblies, even, (for religious things may degenerate into dissipation, common and abundant as they are, and in the hands of humanity as as it now is,) sometimes minister to our unhappiness.

The single grand principle which is overlooked in the present condition of large towns and villages is that the best specimens of human character are developed, not by abundance and ease and facility and luxury, but by difficulty. It is neither by gorging the stomach-physical or moral-nor by a starving process, that good character is formed; but it is ordained of man that he shall eat his bread to best advantage, in the sweat of his face; and his is often a more efficient body as well as a more active mind which is built up on a few scanty crusts and crumbs obtained with difficulty, than his who riots in all the abundance physical, moral or intellectual, of the dense village or the denser city.

What then is to be done? Can we pull down our cities? Can we speak with prophetic voice-at least with any hope of making an impression-Yet forty days,' or forty years, 'and Nineveh shall be overthrown?' Can we even render them stationary in their progress till a series of healthful influences may be brought to bear upon their condition? We expect no such thing. They must-they will-go on. Men will herd together, and that too for selfish purposes. They who merely declaim against it might as well declaim against the north east wind.What then, we repeat it, can be done?

The question which has led to these considerations more than hints at the true remedy for the disease. Since we can neither raze to the ground our cities, our towns or our villages, or even stop the wheels of their progress, one thing remains, which is to embellish and to improve them.

One of the first things incumbent on a town or village, both with a view to improve and to embellish it, is to furnish it with suitable and convenient roads, streets, side walks, &c. On this point, we know not that we shall oppose the views of the most rigid utilitarian. The first prominent step of the good Oberlin, fond as he was of putting works of utility in the foreground, was to make suitable roads, both to unite his people to each other, and to bind them more closely to neighboring cities. Those

340

The Means of Improvement.

who are familiar with his memoirs will remember the fact that with a resolution and a perseverance that knew no bounds but impossibilities, he led his people on, at once, to the erection and completion of a road, a mile and a half of which was formed almost entirely of rocks which were blasted and transported a considerable distance to the spot where they were needed; and that even this was scarcely a beginning of his labors among them in this department. And yet there is not a village or town in New England with which we are at present acquainted, which requires an amount of labor and expense, to render it well furnished with the best roads of every kind necessary, equal to that when the circumstances are duly considered-which attended this one single effort of the venerable pastor of Waldbach.

But it is not enough that we build good and convenient roads and walks every where, they must be kept clean and in good repair. We are aware that New England is by no means, in this respect, behind other portions of the United States. And yet we are also aware that much remains to be done, even among us. We are far from keeping our roads, in the best circumstances, sufficiently clean, even for the purposes of health. But beyond this, are there not substances, organic and inorganic, lodged from time to time, and for quite too long a time, on our most cleanly streets, which if they do not interfere with the public health, ought at least to be offensive to good taste? And, notwithstanding the excellent arrangements which are sometimes made among us, to the end in question, may we not do something in this respect, which shall conduce to a still larger improve

ment?

Is it asked what can be done which has not been done? We answer, by asking another question, namely; What is there which ought to be done, which it is not in our power to do? True, we cannot at present-nor do we believe it will be'expected of us--enter deeply into this part of our subject. We cannot dwell-though we might do it-on the duties of a city police. But if there were no town, or village, or city organization among us, which would undertake the work, are there no public spirited individuals to lead on to it? Have we no Oberlins among us? Has the example of the good minister of Bradford,* of whom mention has been made in our discussions, been

pre

*We refer to the Rev. Mr Perry, a minister of Bradford, in Massachusetts, now nearly seventy years of age, whose interest in Lyceums and in the youth in general of his parish, has so much endeared him to them, that they follow him in all the plans he proposes for improvement; and sometimes accept of invitations to join him in labors on the roads or side walks for half a day in a week.