ORIGINAL POETRY.

AN EVENING RHAPSODY.

BY WILLIAM MARTIN.

Dear Evening! dear Evening! how calm is thy glory-
How sweet are thy shadows-how soft is thy close,
When the mist on the mountain grows clouded and hoary,
And the dun of the valley hath looks of repose:
Thy lights and thy shadows, so tenderly stealing,
Will soften the bosom while charming the eye,
And the soul hath a charter in each gush of feeling,
That tells her she is too exalted to die.

Oh! how blissful the time when the sun is descending,
With a deep ruby splendour behind the gray hill;
And our thoughts, like the twilight, seem peacefully blending,
With all that is tranquil and all that is still.

Then the wild briar rose, though in autumn airs fading,
Seem gifted once more with the blush of its bloom,
Like the spirit, whose visions no dark doubts are shading,
Illum'd by its God on the verge of the tomb.

Oh! sweet to the ear when the night airs are coming,
Is the soft-timed tread of the wandering fawn;
And sweetly the dull and monotonous humming

Of the beetle's night-song o'er the spirit is borne ;-
Of the spirit that fain would be lull'd from the fever
That daylight still breeds in its tumults so wild,
And longs for the hour of repose, to deliver

Itself from the thraldom of feelings defiled.

Yes! welcome to me is thy coming, dear Even,
And dear thy red ray, glowing bright in the west;
For surely thy smiles hold a mandate from heaven,
To kindle a love in the untainted breast;

And when thy deep silence is pure, or but broken
By the fall of the leaf, or the hum of the bee,
Will it not breed high thoughts that may only be spoken
In holy communion, Great Spirit, with Thee?

There is joy in the heart when the dawn is just waking,
And throws down, all jocund, her mantle of dun;
And a rapture when nature, from night's embrace breaking,
Expands to the first golden kiss of the sun :-

For that hour seems to speak of the time when the spirit
Shall leave this dim prison of desolate clay;

And shall soar unencumber'd by guilt, to inherit
The unfading joys of an unending day.

But at eve there's a solace more lovely than splendour,
In her brightest of moments, can give to the mind;

For her soft western smile is so touchingly tender,

And so sweet are the odours that float on the wind,
That the storm-bruised heart and the tempest-rent bosom
Are shut from the wrongs they have suffered, and yield
Το
repose and to peace, and close up like the blossom
A dew-drop in love has cemented and sealed.
VOL. I.-Feb. 1835.

M

66

The note of the mavis, when plaintively trilling

Her sweet vesper hymn from the blossoming thorn,
Like some air harp, o'er which the soft zephyrs are thrilling,
Would temper the night-breeze to those that would mourn;
And when the proud grandeur of day is declining

Will soften the dun of each shadow, and bring

A balm to the heart, in its sorrows repining,

To lessen their weight, and to draw forth their sting.
The gloom of the twilight, though silently sealing
The eye and the ear in a fetter'd control,
Impregnates the breast with some glorious feeling,
And wraps, in the pride of its musings, the soul;
And darkness herself, whose wing passeth over

The brow, like some fiend sent by terror to chill,
Appeals to the heart, with a voice that would move her
To thoughts that eternity's reign cannot kill.

Then may not the spirit, thus big with emotion—
So matchless, so high, so pure, and refined-
Soar upwards to heaven on the wings of devotion,
And leave the gross feelings of nature behind?

May not FAITH beam more bright as the shadows are falling,
Like some glow-worm's pure light through the darkening air,
To cheer with its ray when the gloom seems appalling,
And throw brilliance of hope on the tremor of prayer.

Then come to me, ye that find rapture in weeping,
And would linger in love with the slow sinking sun,-
Come to me at eve, when each flowret is sleeping,

And the nightingale's earliest hymn is begun ;-
Come and taste of the bliss in high holiness dwelling,
Beneath the spread bough as the shadows increase,-
Come and listen to nature, while plaintively telling,
By eloquent silence-her lessons of PEACE.

SPIRITUAL SONGS FOR YOUNG CHRISTIANS.
No. 2.

BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN, FOR THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED."

BY BERNARD BARTON.

When hopes that on our path-way bright
Of early being, shed their ray,
Are shadowed o'er by sorrow's night

Or pass like morning dreams away :—

What cheers us in that hour distress'd?
What heals the pangs of "hope deferr'd”?
Christ has pronounc'd his mourners blest,
And seal'd it by his holy word.

But not for passion's bitter tears,
Or hearts by worldly anguish torn-
Engross'd by selfish hopes or fears-

Is hope from this glad promise born.

'Tis their's, and their's alone to claim
The blessing promis'd by his Son,
Who glorify God's holy name,

And meekly say "Thy will be done."
To these by pure confiding faith,-
By treasur'd hopes laid up in heaven,-
By love that triumphs over death,—
This bright beatitude is given.

These shall confess its truth their stay,
And prove the Gospel cannot err;
For God will wipe their tears away,
And Christ will be their Comforter.

No. 3.

HOW SWEET IT IS IN PEACE TO DWELL.

BY WILLIAM MARTIN.

How sweet it is in peace to dwell
And do our Father's will;

His name to bless, his praise to tell,

And feel him near us still:

At morn to raise a merry song,
At eve a joyful lay,

And strive to please him all day long,
While time flies swift away.

Now while the heart is like a flower,
Just opening to the spring,

Oh let us every thought and power
As holy offerings bring.

Now in the time of ardent youth,

Ere nature's powers decay,

Let's seek to know his love and truth,
While time flies swift away.

Oh what are all those moments past,
That we have idly spent?
They had not one poor joy to last,
But all like shadows went.

Our hours are debts laid to our cost,
That we can ne'er repay;

And years are but as moments lost;

For time flies swift away.

92

PESTALOZZI AND HIS SYSTEM.

THE Pestalozzian system of instruction has, within the last few years, gained considerable ground in this country, and some of its leading principles are beginning to be of general adoption; but still those not immediately interested in the business of tuition are very little informed either of the nature of the improvements being thus introduced into the various plans of instruction abroad or at home, or of the individual whose exertions some thirty years since, in a small village in Switzerland, laid the foundation of different principles in the great work of education.

:

It is about twenty years since the name of Pestalozzi reached this country. In the evidence appended to the Report of the Education Committee in 1818, Mr. Brougham alluded to the school of Pestalozzi, at Yverdon since that time, however, the principles of Pestalozzi have been making a gradual although a slow progress;-several boarding schools, under the conduct of highly respectable individuals have been opened in or near London, in which the plans and principles of Pestalozzi are publicly maintained; while the spirit of his method is finding its way into some of the largest schools for the education of the poor, and may be discovered in the character of many of the best books for the instruction of the young.

It is our object therefore, to supply the public with all the information we can collect of Pestalozzi, his system, and his principles of teaching, to lay before them an outline of the life and character of the man, to enter into an examination of his views, regarding the fundamental maxims which he has propounded for the guide and conduct of the tender mind,—and to furnish such practical results as will exhibit the effect of his system, and prove the truth or error of the theory which his admirers so tenaciously maintain.

Henry Pestalozzi was born at Zurich, on the 12th of January, 1745; and by the premature death of his father, who was a physician, became an orphan when he was about five years old, and was brought up under the care of his mother, and a faithful female domestic, in the most secluded habits. In his early years his habits were so extraordinary, that he was quaintly acknowledged by his companions by the nickname of Harry Oddity: he possessed a quiet and almost feminine disposition, which made him among his school-fellows at once the object of general affection, and the unvindictive butt of their heedless sports. In the bustling games-in the eager pursuits of boyhood he seldom joined, and was inferior in those manual acts of dexterity and quickness, in which school-boys generally pride themselves, and was thus looked upon as a little half-witted, and inferior in natural parts to those with whom he associated.

Pestalozzi, however, contained "that within himself which passeth show:"-maternal solicitude and love had deeply embued his mind with religious feeling, and developed in him that spring-dew of the soul, which waters all our affections and sympathies, and brings them up before our heavenly Father's face in the sweetest bloomings; and thus while he was looked upon by those that could neither com

prehend nor appreciate him, as a being of whom little could be hoped, energies and powers were at work within his heart, destined to be the mighty engines of moral improvement to his countrymen and to mankind.

This bent of Henry's mind naturally inclined his parents to educate him for the ministerial profession; but his first appearance in the pulpit as a candidate, was the occasion of his renouncing all his aspirations to holy orders;-his natural timidity, and that degree of nervousness which generally accompany men of refined genius, having rendered his probationary sermon such a failure, as to completely prevent his exposing himself to another.

Renouncing therefore divinity, he applied himself to the law; but instead of directing his studies in a uniform and progressive manner, his active imagination had embarked in various speculations on the forms of government; and although he had made considerable progress in classical acquirement, he by no means showed himself to be a proficient in the knowledge necessary for the legal profession. Pursuing his meditations, he was led to reflect on the errors of education, both in rulers, in teachers, and in the people at large; and the results of these he embodied in an essay on the bearing which education ought to have upon our respective callings; which he published.

Pursuing this subject in his mind, from his anxiety on this and on other pecuniary matters, he was thrown on the bed of sickness; and on his recovery, he formed the resolution of abandoning all his former prospects and pursuits; and left Zurich for Kirchberg, in the canton of Berne, where he apprenticed himself to a farmer of the name of Tschiffeli; who enjoyed a great reputation at that time, not only for his superiority in rural economy, but also for the warm interest he took in the improvement of the agricultural classes. His occupation soon improved his bodily health; and his peace of mind, which had suffered severely in his former anxieties, became in a great measure restored. After he had, under the direction of Tschiffeli, qualified himself for the conduct of a rural establishment, he occupied the small patrimony which his father had left him, in the purchase of a tract of waste land in the neighbourhood of Lenzberg, in the canton of Berne; on which he erected a dwelling-house, with the necessary out-buildings; and gave it the name of Neuhof, i.e. the new farm; being then in his twenty-second year. Here he devoted himself successfully to the cultivation of his estate; and in these his brightest days, sought and obtained the hand of Anne Schulthess a young woman, on whom nature and education had vied in bestowing their accomplishments; who, although the daughter of one of the wealthiest merchants in Zurich, set at defiance the voice of public opinion, the tastes of her sex, and all the considerations of worldly interest, to share the affections and destiny of a man whom it was her solitary glory to appreciate and understand.

This marriage put Pestalozzi in possession of a share in a flourishing cotton manufactory; and while it thus improved his worldly means, brought him in contact with another portion of the population; and