e
and value of every step; the foresight of the direction and magnitude
of the section that remains, are qualities so essential to the
teacher, that without them all instruction is but an insult to the
learner's understanding. And in virtue of these it is that the most
cultivated minds are usually the most patient, most clear, most
rationally progressive; most studious of accuracy in details, because
not impatiently shut up within them as absolutely limiting the view,
but quietly contemplating them from without in their relation to the
whole. Neglect and depreciation of intellectual minutiae are
characteristics of the ill-informed; and where the granular parts of
study are thrown away or loosely held, will be found no compact mass
of knowledge, solid and clear as crystal, but a sandy accumulation,
bound together by no cohesion, and transmitting no light. And above
and beyond all the advantages which a higher culture gives in the mere
system of communicating knowledge, must be placed that indefinable and
mysterious power which a superior mind always puts forth upon an
inferior; that living and life-giving action, by which the mental
forces are strengthened and developed, and a spirit of intelligence is
produced, far transcending in excellence the acquisition of any
special ideas. In the task of instruction, so lightly assumed, so
unworthily esteemed, no amount of wisdom would be superfluous and
lost; and even the child's elementary teaching would be best
conducted, were it possible, by Omniscience itself. The more
comprehensive the range of intellectual view, and the more minute the
perception of its parts, the greater will be the simplicity of
conception, the aptitude for exposition, and the directness of access
to the open and expectant mind. This adaptation to the humblest
wants is the peculiar triumph of the highest spirit of
knowledge.--_Martineau's Discourses_.

AN AMERICAN RIVER.

The picturesque banks of the river Connecticut are dotted with
charming little villages, that break here and there upon the sight
like feathers of light, dancing among the willow leaves; there is such
a dazzling irregularity of house and hill--so much fairy-like
confusion of vista, landscape, and settlement. Now we pass a tiny
white and vine-clad cottage, that looks as if it had been set down
yesterday; now we sweep majestically by an ambitious young town, with
its two, three, or half-a-dozen church-spires, sending back the li