little attentious that may be shown to a sick pupil will often-I believe, always--be productive of permanent good. The susceptible nature of youth highly appreciates such evidence of tender consideration. It awakens a new sense of the teacher's interest in them, and inspires a new faith in the teacher's efforts for their improvement. The return to the school-room of a pupil who, during sickness, has been affectionately visited, is often marked by a more earnest effort to perform faithfully all school duties than has ever before been manifested, while a new light in the eyes shows that now, indeed, the teacher is regarded as a friend.

Children do not stop to reason about these things. Love begets love; and when they once feel that a teacher really cares for them, their affection is spontaneously given.

Then, when a teacher, by genuine courtesy, both in and out of school, has won the hearts of his pupils, he may mold them as he will. Their desire to please him will know no limits. He may lead them to any height of mental attainment of which they are capable; and, better than all, he may guide them in paths of moral truth and purity, and impress lessons of heavenly wisdom upon hearts that are ready to receive and profit by his teachings.

Another, and perhaps not a secondary consideration, is that children, ever more ready to learn from example than from precept, will insensibly adopt the habits of those whom they love and esteem. The little amenities and charities of life have a charm for their young hearts that needs but the encouragement of example to win them to all good and kindly deeds.

HE whose sympathies with nature have taught him to feel that there is a fellowship between all God's creatures, to love the brilliant ore better than the dull ingot; iodic silver and crystalized red copper better than the shillings and pennies forged from them by the coiner's cunning; a venerable oak-tree than the brandy cask whose staves are split out from its heart-wood; a bed of anemones, hepaticas, or wood violets, than the leeks and onions which he may grow on the soil and in the air they made fragrant; he who has enjoyed that special training of the heart and intellect which can be acquired only in the unviolated sanctuaries of nature, "where man is distant, but God is near," will not rashly assert his right to extirpate a tribe of harmless vegetables barely because their products neither tickle his palate nor fill his pocket; and his regret at the dwindling area of the forest solitude will be augmented by the reflection that the nurslings of the woodland perish with the pines, the oaks, and the beeches that sheltered them.-Marsh: "Man and Nature."

1866.]

The Dimensions of the Earth-How Ascertained. 111

DIMENSIONS OF THE EARTH-HOW ASCERTAINED.

Tdimensions of the globe on which we live, its distance from the sun, To many it is a matter of mystery how such facts as the exact

and the magnitude of the sun, are ascertained. It is supposed that none but astronomers and profound mathematicians can understand such matters. This is a mistake. For, although we may not have the ability of a Newcomen or a Watts to invent a steam-engine, there is no reason why we should not understand its operations after it is invented. So it is with the world. We may understand the methods employed to ascertain its magnitude, without being gifted with the mind of a Herschel or a Newton. The earth is so large that we can not grasp it, and so diversi fied with land and water, mountain and valley, that we can not walk about it in a direct line to measure its circumference; nor can we penetrate through it to ascertain its diameter; nor recede from it, to take such observations as would enable a land-surveyor to tell the height of an object on the opposite side of a river. Some other contrivance must be resorted to, in order to obtain the desired information. If the earth were strictly a sphere, the measurement of any of its great circles, such as the equator or a meridian, would give its circumference; or, as all circles, from the ring which adorns a lady's finger to the meridian which surrounds the world, are supposed to be divided into 360 equal parts, called degrees, it is evident that if we knew the length of one degree of a circle we could obtain the circumference. But how shall we know how much of the earth's surface corresponds to one degree of its meridian? The reader will please accompany me on an imaginary journey; but, before our departure, we will stroll out into the open fields, and, on some gentle eminence, will pause to survey the beauty of the azure vault above and around us, glittering with stars. We shall not fail to be impressed with the sensation that we are standing in the center of a vast dome, with its base resting on the horizon, and its summit directly over our heads. Now, let us find the North Polar Star, by whose guidance the wanderer in northern latitudes is directed. To do this, we must turn to that conspicuous object in the northern heavens, the "Dipper," a part of the constellation known as the Great Bear.

The two stars opposite the side of the Dipper to which the handle is attached, are called the "Pointers," because almost in a right line through them may be found the Polar Star. The Pointers are five degrees apart, a convenient measuring rule to find the number of degrees that one star is from another, or that a star is from the zenith or from the horizon. Looking in the direction indicated by the Pointers, and about four times the space between them, or about 20°, we shall find the object of our search. It is

not a very large or brilliant star; yet is larger and more conspicuous than any of the stars in its immediate vicinity.

Having found the star toward which the North Pole of the earth is directed, and measuring its distance from the horizon by the space between the Pointers, we find that it is about 40° from the horizon.

We now set out on our contemplated voyage, traveling directly souththat is, on a meridian of the earth-until we have gone over a distance of seventy miles. Looking back on the North Star, we find it one degree nearer the horizon than when we started. We travel another seventy miles. Our guide is two degrees nearer the horizon. Reflecting on the cause of this, we conclude that we must have traveled two degrees south on a meridian to cause the Polar Star to sink two degrees toward the northern horizon. Such is the fact; every degree of seventy miles (or, more correctly, of 69 miles) traveled toward the south will make the star appear one degree nearer the horizon, until we reach the equotor, when it will be seen glimmering on the verge of the northern horizon.

Continuing our journey southward, and leaving the star which has so far been our companion to sink from our view, we pass through the southern regions, and around on the other side of the world, northward, until we reach the equator, when our long-lost star will again appear. It will continue to rise as we advance, until we reach the north pole, when it will appear exactly over our heads, or in the zenith. Pursuing our journey southward and homeward, the star gradually sinking, we arrive at the city of New York, 41° degrees north latitude, with the Polar Star 41° degrees from the horizon.

Sufficient, it is presumed, has been said to show that we must look to the stars to tell us the length of the degrees of our meridians. Let us select some point, on an open plain, that shall have a star exactly in the zenith. Then the distance, either directly north or south of this station, that will cause the star chosen for our observation to appear just one degree north or south of the observer, will be the length of a degree on the earth's surface, which multiplied by 360, if the earth were strictly a sphere, would give its circumference. Such, in the main, are the means employed to find the dimensions of the world. But, in measuring these degrees or arcs of a meridian, it was found, by a series of observations, in different countries, in different latitudes, and by different mathematicians, that the degrees differed slightly in length, gradually increasing from the equator toward the polar regions, which proved that the earth, instead of being a sphere, is what mathematicians call an oblate spheroid.

Only one arc of a meridian has been measured in America, and that was about one hundred years ago, by those eminent astronomers and mathematicians, Mason and Dixon, who surveyed and established the fa mous boundary known as Mason and Dixon's line," which separates Pennsylvania from Maryland.

AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL MONTHLY.

MARCH, 1866.

MA

THE REGIMEN OF BOARDING-SCHOOLS.

AN, in opposition to every thing else in nature, thrives best when worst fed.

Very few would assent to this proposition as it stands; but cover it with a little pseudo-science, and garnish it well with fine talk about physiology, health, beauty, simple diet, etc., and you have the actual, if not the avowed, theory of many. A man who would attempt to rear prize-cattle on straw would be likely to have his sanity doubted. Should he advocate a corresponding diet for men, he would be in danger of being called a philosopher. There are many such philosophers in these days; and it has become very popular to commend a meager diet. Some even insist that our food should be strictly vegetable; and are so infatuated with the theory as to practice it upon themselves. Others, and probably the majority, are not quite so sure, and are willing only to try it upon their children. It is a favorite notion with these theorists, that most of the various ills that flesh is heir to may be ascribed to one cause-overfeeding-especially during childhood. And so exaggerated are the effects attributed to "high living," that parents, in their anxiety to be on the safe side, are unwittingly carried to the other extreme, and feed their children too little, instead of too much. While chemistry, physiology, and common experience alike teach that children require more abundant and more nutritious food than adults, they are generally put off with not only an inferior quality, but an inferior quantity.

Dr. Erasmus Wilson, speaking of this matter, says, that the practice of under-feeding children is almost universal; and that the majority of the diseases of children arises from this habit of under-feeding.

If a person who has attained full growth does not desire much food, and prefers one kind to another, there is no reason why he should not gratify his taste and inclination; but there is reason why he should not insist upon regulating the stomachs of others, especially of children, by his own.

Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his able work on "Education," protests

strongly against this practice of under-feeding children, and the confidence with which most parents legislate for the stomachs of their children. "It proves," he says, "their unacquaintance with physiology. If they knew. more, they would be more modest."

But it is not at home that children are likely to suffer most from the effects of this pernicious theory. It exerts a powerful influence in determining the regimen of our schools; and, what is worse, it is sometimes made a pretext, while profit is the actual motive. We would not be so unjust as to intimate that selfish motives alone govern those proprietors of boarding-schools, who, acting upon the theory that simple food is best for students, provide only the simplest elements of nutrition, and in the least possible quantity and variety. The majority are doubtless conscientious, and only the theory is in fault; but the kindest intentions will not atone for a vicious practice. It matters little to the pupils what the master's motives and opinions may be, so long as the rations run short.

"It is notorious," writes Dr. Wilson, "that the importance of a substantial diet is not sufficiently recognized in our scholastic establishments; and the consequence to the pupils is debility and disease, a constant appeal to the doctor for tonics, vice food; a frequent outbreak of ringworm; and, worse than all, the laying of a foundation for future organic disease and morbid life, or premature death." This evil is, doubtless, less frequent in this country than in England; but there is need of reform here.

Those who advocate a simple or vegetable diet, base their argument chiefly upon a chemical theory, still quite popular, although recent authorities have shown it to be unfounded in nature and fact; and, holding to the common theory of the nature and action of the various kinds of food, they will doubtless exclaim against the following, prescribed by Dr. Wilson, as a diet of health, capable of making a sound body, and also a sound mind; but it is founded upon reason and sound science; and we would like to see it established in every family and family school: "The diet of children of all ages, should be substantial breakfast, with animal food in some shape; a substantial dinner of meat, vegetables, and cereal pudding; and a substantial supper also, consisting in part of animal food. The drink may be milk, tea, cocoa, and possibly beer."

"There must be no putting off of the stomach," he adds, with bread and butter and slops, as the effigies of two of the three meals of the day, but a generous intermingling of all the elements that constitute a sound and nutritious diet."