Scheme of the Creator.

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who intend to keep domestics at all, begin the work of preparation and education immediately after marriage. Let them receive those who they intend shall be the future companions of their children, in the capacity of domestics, at once into their houses, and commence, as a business of the highest importance, the work of educating and instructing them. Let them be received as young as possible, and let but one be introduced at a time. After the first has been under our fostering care two or three years, another may be adopted, to be submitted to the same course. The assistance and influence of the first in the management of the second will be of very great importance, and if a right direction has been given, and the right sort of character, by dint of much exertion, has been formed, a sort of public sentiment, it is believed, may be formed, so elevated as to prove the great safeguard to the domestics and to the family. Gradual additions may be made to the number of these domestics, from time to time, till our wants, present and prospective, are fully supplied.

As at least a substitute for public seminaries for educating domestics, we should at first be inclined to think favorably of the scheme here proposed. And indeed upon second thought why should it appear any less favorable? It has one advantage indeed over all others, in that it has been tested by a long experiment-an experiment of six thousand years. The Creator it seems, has been beforehand with us. The first pair introduced servants into their families, in this very manner, and it has been the almost universal custom ever since; and seems to be in obedience to God's own express direction. In short, we do do not see but the system of servant keeping is one the Creator's earliest institutions;-one against which it were as wrong as it is hopeless to declare. According to His scheme of things, these domestics are introduced into our houses as young as they possibly can be, and under circumstances as favorable as can be to their correct early education.-We have then precisely the schools for domestic education; and nothing remains but that we make the wisest possible use of them.

We have not been merely amusing ourselves, in the foregoing article, at the reader's expense ;-we mean something by it. Though opposed to the custom of having domestics, properly so called, in families, as subversive of the best interests of society, and though we believe our own children are, as a general rule, the appropriate and only safe domestics, yet if there must be other domestics, we wish to call the attention of the community to the best means of educating them for their highly responsible task. We wish to have it distinctly understood that we believe

558

One species of Fraud exposed.

their influence in the formation of the character of the young, whenever the latter are submitted to that influence, is much greater than is usually supposed. Even their influence on the juvenile intellect is important and lasting; but the impress they make upon the physical and moral character and habits is, if possible, a thousand times more so. Let the subject be no longer passed over as it has hitherto been. Let it be taken up as a matter of practical christian philanthropy. Let the questions how character is formed and how it should be formed, be taken up and examined in the love of God and of our fellow men, and if they are so, the results cannot possibly be otherwise than happy.

'MANAGEMENT.

MANY of the wrongs which are inflicted on mankind, and which, in other worlds, perhaps, go by the name of fraud, are softened down, on our own planet, by the application of a milder term-management.' This, though it may convey the idea of wrong, is not usually allowed to include that of fraud. Management is to fraud only what the conduct of the pseudo Quaker was to that dignified course for which his more upright brethren have usually been distinguished; who said to his neighbor of the 'world''I cannot allow myself to take away a hair of thy head dishonestly, but if I can I will outwit thee!'

We were led to this remark by reflecting on a course which we know to be sometimes taken by those whose interest it is to promote the sale of a favorite book. Their anxiety to sell the work sometimes leads them to adopt a method of giving it publicity, which, to say the least, is unwarrantable, and which we believe, is unjust. We do not, of course, suppose that there is always criminal intention on the part of those concerned. They are only conforming to what is to a considerable extent customary. But the custom is in this case wrong; and though this may sometimes palliate the guilt of him who acts in conformity to its requirements, it does not entirely remove it. Neither scripture, nor reason, approves of following a multitude to do evil; and both disapprove, with equal certainty, of doing evil that good may come.

We have known the recommendations of reviewers and others, published from one end of the land to the other, by those whose interest it concerned; not with the modifications and qualifica

tions which should have accompanied them; but garbled in such a way as to make them speak a language entirely foreign from what was originally intended. If any thing can justify such management as this, it is not its commonness. It is the fact that the garbling is usually done by clerks or assistants, and done in haste or in ignorance. How far this lessens the guilt of those who employ them and trust to their discretion, we leave to others to decide. It may however, afford some aid in coming to a decision to know that they are seldom visited, in these cases, with any tokens of the employer's disapprobation.

Were the cases to which we refer of unfrequent occurrence, we might possibly pass them over in silence. Were we alone the sufferers, we might, perhaps, have endured the wrong, rather than seem severe on any individual or class of individuals. But it is not so. The wrong-if it be a wrong, and a gross one too, -is one which is often repeated, especially in reference to school books and works on education. The latter in a fortune hunting, pleasure seeking community, like our own, have a very slow sale; and therefore, it is, perhaps, that their friends sometimes make extraordinary efforts to circulate them.

A book for parents and teachers was not long since represented by some of those who are ever anxious to promote its sale, as highly recommended by Mr Gallaudet, of Hartford, late principal of the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb; when the facts were not so. Mr G. only stated, that from the knowledge he had of the author, he presumed the work, when it should appear, would be one which as a father he should desire to peruse.

The

In another instance a part of the communication of a correspondent of a Boston paper, to which an editor had prefixed a disclaimer, was published in this city in a way which would leave the impression on the public mind, so far as it left any impression at all, that it was the editor's own sentiment; thus making him express an opinion exactly contrary to what he intended. We have sometimes suffered in the same way. sentiments of our correspondent in regard to a certain book, recently found their way into a newspaper advertisement, and were presented as if they were our own, when the most careless observer, if he observed at all, would have seen that it was far otherwise. We were the more surprised at this, from the fact that we had given our own opinion of the work in our editorial capacity, in a previous number. It is, however, but justice to say, and we do it with pleasure, that the establishment for whose benefit the advertisement was inserted, immediately, withdrew it from the columns of the paper, upon our representation and request.

560

Efforts for Common Schools.

No individual has a right to regard as our sentiments, what we expressly state, in the Annals, to be the sentiments of another, even if we do not state in decisive terms, our own disapprobation. We do not endorse the sentiments of a correspondent, if we give his name or situation. Above all, no one has the right to do this-morally or legally-where we have expressly and obviously entered our 'disclaimer.' And could we know at any time, that such a measure was pursued with a consciousness of the wrong, even though the trick were softened down by custom, in the public mind, to management,' we should not hold him who did it guiltless; and if we refrained from seeking legal redress, it would not be for fear of any misapprehension in our own minds of the nature, illegality and criminality of the

act.

This article was written, thus far, nearly a year ago; and we had sometimes resolved, or nearly resolved not to publish itnot but that the sentiments are just, but because we feared their expression would do no good. But so many facts are perpetually coming to our knowledge on this subject, that we feel compelled to speak out; not without a due regard to consequences, but because we have full faith that if any effect is produced at all, it must be salutary.

AMERICAN COMMON SCHOOL SOCIETY.

AN Association has been formed in the city of New York, to be called The American Common School Society; whose avowed object is the extension and improvement of education in primary schools in the United States. This, society has been got up, we understand, and organized chiefly by the exertions of Mr J. Orville Taylor; who is its Secretary.

The following is an extract from the prospectus of the Society, as published in the New York Observer.

"The Society proposes to devote its energies to the improvement and extension of primary schools, throughout the United States; and in thus adopting, for its exertion, a field commensurate with our whole country, it will keep itself aloof from all sectional and minor influences that would circumscribe its usefulness.

'A cheap monthly newspaper will be published, which will contain the laws of the different States, providing for the support and regulation of schools; reports of successful schools and sys

Officers of a Common School Society.

561

tems of instruction in the United States, and also in foreign countries; drawings of model school houses; communications of literary men on kindred subjects; and earnest appeals to parents, teachers, pupils and school inspectors, to co-operate in elevating the standard of common school education.

To offer premiums for good school books, which may be printed and sold by agents of the Society.

To communicate with auxiliary societies and correspondents, for the collection of facts, and for the distribution of information; and to arouse attention by public lectures on the subject.

To open an office in the city of New York, where all books and information relative to schools, in this as well as in foreign countries, may be collected, and be accessible to inquirers-and where all the publications of the Society, and other approved books on education may be purchased.'

Now while we cannot doubt, for one moment, that the measures which such a Society might adopt, would do immense good in our country, yet we are also aware that it may do immense evil. It does not follow that because the public mind is awakened and excited on an important subject, or because splendid associations have been formed, and magnificent measures proposed, the cause of good will on the whole be promoted. Much depends on the ability of the Society to accomplish its objects. If it contain within it but one man who has the wisdom-we do not say knowledge-which is necessary in directing such a work as that of elevating common schools in a proper manner, and if that individual happens to be truly benevolent as well as wise, something may be done. If it contains more than one who possesses the same spirit, then its prospects are doubled, and more than doubled. But if it contain among its individuals not one such individual, then will it fail of its objects.

We see many worthy names in connection with the American Common School Society, either as its acting officers, or as honorary members. They are the names of men who are foremost in almost every other good cause, and the first thought, with many, may be that they will be foremost in this. We hope it will prove so.

We think, however, that, as a general rule, the officers of such a society-those, we mean, who are its actuaries-should know something of the real character of Common Schools, as they actually exist in this country. It is not sufficient that they have read what is said about them, or that some one of their number has visited here and there one of them in a particular section of the country, or town or city; or that he has run over the United States and stepped into a few schools in every State