be none, we should think, respecting the uselessness of disputation upon points, which ever have been, and ever will be, while man is in the flesh, utterly inscrutable. To dispute about things, touching which the disputants have no ideas, and know nothing, has a peculiar tendency to harden the heart, sear the conscience, and in every way to inspire bigotry and bad feeling. To prevent these results is the object of this sermon, and to direct religious exertion to those plain and solemn doctrines and points of morals, about which there can be no dispute. Some of the last paragraphs strike us, as being peculiarly eloquent and impressive, and we can refer to no publication, in which, in so small a compass, is compressed so much information, in relation to the opinions of distinguished Christians in the early periods of the church, as in the notes appended to this sermon. We earnestly hope, that all those, who do not wish to see religion confined to a name, to a sect, and a self assumed orthodoxy, will read this discourse, and ponder the observations of the writer.

We have just seen new editions of the Primer, Child's first Lessons, Juvenile spelling book, and Juvenile Mentor of the Messrs. Pickets. There are many obvious improvements in these over former editions. In the spelling book, new and important tables are added, two or three of which are," at once novel and very useful. We regard the bible lessons at the close of the Mentor, as admirably selected, and among the very best and happiest of the kind, that we have seen. Indeed, from the commencement of the career of these gentlemen, in making school books, the most striking trait, that has marked all their works, is a quick and discriminating judg ment in their selections; and this, though deemed a very common attribute, is, as we think, one of the most rare. There are very few extracts, in the whole series of their school books, to which the heart of the young pupil does not respond. Most of the pieces will be found to be striking, from the best authors and the best selections from those authors.

We understand, they have it in contemplation to remodel, and give a new edition of their Juvenile Expositor, than which we scarcely know a better collection of lessons for reading and speaking. We place it in the same class with the National Reader, both admirable works of their kind. We earnestly hope, that these gentlemen, who have labored so long, and with such exemplary patience and assiduity, in furnishing a series of school books adapted to every advancing stage of the mind, from the first dawn of capacity for instruction to that of children on the highest forms of our schools, will be duly estimated and rewarded by the public.. They were the first to commence the scale of improvement in these important rudiments of general education. They have been copied, plagiarized, imitated, traduced, and in various ways deprived of the fair fruits of their exertions. After Webster's, their school books have had, decidedly the most extensive circulation of any in the country. Yet, we believe, they have been by no means the most amply remunerated, either in pecuniary compensation or gratitude,

On the western people these western editions of school books have peculiar claims. The amount of these elementary works, distributed among us, is inconceivable. The freight and commissions on an article of such immense sale, and requiring to be so often reproduced, is no mean item in the cost of these cheap works. It is important, that we should encourage the exercise of this most honorable and useful industry among us. The obligation is still more imperative, when the books appear to be the cheapest and best of their kind extant,

Exposition of the System of Instruction and Discipline pursued in the University of Vermont. By the FACULTY.

THIS is a pamphlet, containing an expose of the changes, which have been introduced into the University of Vermont, by which its rules, its discipline, and course of studies are made materially to differ from those of most other colleges. We intended to have given place to an abstract of those changes. What space we have, will best be occupied in making the following extract from the pamphlet.

The yearly terms for study in the University of Vermont are two. The first - begins four weeks after commencement, which occurs on the first Wednesday in August; the second, eight weeks after the first Wednesday in January, the two intervals being occupied with vacation.

The principal subjects and authors studied in the University are arranged below, under the several departments. Classes will be occupied with the principal subjects of each department in both terms, with a few exceptions. In some subjects no text books are named, because in some instances none will be used, and in others those in use are not expected to remain so long. In all cases we expect to make changes in text-books whenever better ones can be obtained than those in use. In the languages we prefer entire books and treatises, chiefly without notes, to the compilations of extracts which are frequently used.

For admission to pursue the studies of all the departments, there is required a knowledge of common Arithmetic, Elements of Algebra-Ancient and Modern Geography-English Grammar-Greek and Latin Grammar-an ability to translate with facility Jacob's Greek Reader and six books of Homer's IlliadJacob's Latin Reader, Sallust or Caesar's Commentaries, Cicero's Select Orations and Virgil, or an equivalent amount of other authors-Students not intending to study the Languages, are not required to exhibit the above named acqui sitions in them. Satisfactory evidence of good character, and a bond to secure the payment of the term bills unless payment be made in advance, are required No person is admitted to become a member for less than one year's tuition.

'FIRST DEPARTMENT. Structure and history of the English Language-history of English Literature-Rhetoric-General History.-Text-Books. Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric, portions of the rhetorical works of Cicero and Quintilian, Heeren's Elements of History-Lectures will be given on all these

subjects, particularly on the first two-Exercises. English Composition, Declamations and Forensic disputations, both written and extemporaneous in public, and exercises in reading and criticism in private.

'SECOND DEPARTMENT. Grecian and Roman Antiquities-Greek, Latin and French Languages.-Text-Books. Adam, Herodotus, Homer, Plato, Theophras tus, Eschylus, Lysias, Demosthenes ;-Livy, Tacitus, Cicero de Oratore, Horace, Cicero de Officiis, Terence, Telemaque, Vertot, Racine. Other authors in addition to these are read by those so disposed, and instructions given in them. Classes are formed when wished, in Hebrew, Spanish, Italian, and German.Lectures on Greek, Latin, and French Languages and Literature.

"THIRD DEPARTMENT. Geography, Algebra, Geometry, plane, solid and spherical, Trigonometry, plane and spherical, and their applications to Surveying, Navigation, Levelling and Projections, Conic Sections, Elements of Differentialand Integral Calculus-Mechanical Philosophy, Electricity, Magnetism, ElectroMagnetism, Optics, Astronom, Anatomy and Physiology.-Text-Books in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. Translations from different French authors by Professor Farrar. Lectures on Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology in the first term, on the different branches of Natural Philosophy with experimental illustrations as the subjects receive attention, in both terms. Classes are formed when wished in Natural History.

'FOURTH DEPARTMENT. Logic, Political Economy, Politics and Constitutional Law, Laws of Nature and of Nations, Ethics, Metaphysics, Natural and Revealed Religion.-Text-Books. Say, Constitution of the United States, Kent's Lectures, Cicero de Legibus-Cicero de Officiis, Stewart, Locke, Paley, Old and New Testament.-Lectures on most of these subjects.

'The necessary expenses of a residence in this institution are somewhat variable, according to the wishes of students. The average expenses for all charges at the Treasury, and for forty week's board, washing, fuel and light, are about $90. In some cases during the past year it has been $100, in many others not over $75, and will probably continue within these limits.'

The Federal Calculator, a Concise System of Practical Arithmetic. By WILLIAM SLOCOMB. Wheeling, J. Curtis. pp. 148.

Ir can hardly be hoped, that any thing new can be offered in the construction of a school arithmetic. This comes recommended to schools by the authority of a number of names of high respectability. We have given it a cursory perusal, and consider it, as possessing some of the highest requisites in such works, great clearness and simplicity. It seems, also, to be full, without being redundant, and to be concise, without being deficient. It adds to the list of respectable school books, which the West is beginning to furnish for itself.

OUR next number will contain an article on Mr. BOLMAR'S system of teaching languages, as distinct from that of Mr. Hamilton.

THE

WESTERN

MONTHLY REVIEW..

SEPTEMBER, 1829.

ATTACK OF BRYANT'S STATION.

I know of no place nearer, than the sources of the Mississippi, or the Rocky Mountains, where the refuge of a 'Station' is now necessary. The last one in the west will soon have mouldered; and history and the lexicon will be the only depositories of the knowledge, what the term imports. Of the million readers in the United States, it is, probably, a large allowance, that five thousand of the first settlers of the west, or as we call them, the 'old residenters,' have a distinct idea in their minds of the aspect and intent of the establishment. I have been in a number, that were erected on our north-western and southern frontiers, during the late war with Great Britain. I will endeavor to transfer to my readers the distinct picture, which was thus impressed upon my own mind.

The first immigrants, that fixed themselves in the fair valleys of Kentucky and Tennessee, came in companies and societies. A hundred neighbors, friends, connexions, old and young, mother and daughter, sire and infant, the house dog and the domestic animals, all set forth on the patriarchal wilderness trooping, as on a frolic. No disruption of the tender natal and moral ties, no revulsion of the reciprocities of kindness, friendship and love took place. The cement and the panoply of reciprocal affection and good will was in their hearts, and on their breasts, as they came over the mountains to the wide domain of the red men, and the wild howlers of the desert. Like the gregarious, tribes, and the vernal emigrations of the sea-fowl to the interior lakes, they brought all their charities, their true home with them. Their state of isolation concentered these kindly feelings. It has been found, that the current of human affections flows more full and strong, in proportion, as it is less divided, and diverted into numerous channels. This community, coming to survey new aspects of a nature, measured only by the imagination, new dangers, a new world, and in some sense a new existence, were bound to each other by a sacrament, as old as the human heart. I have a hundred times heard the remains of this race of the golden age deplore the distance and coldness of the measured, jealous and proad intercourse of the present generaVOL. III.-No. 3.

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tion, in comparison of the simple kindness, the frank and domestic relations of those primeval days, reminding me of the affecting accounts of the mutual love of Christians in the early periods of the church.

Another circumstance of the picture ought to be redeemed from oblivion. I suspect, that the general impression of fine ladies and gentlemen of the present day is, that the puritans of Plymouth, the episcopalians of Jamestown and the back-woodsmen of Kentucky and Tennessee were persons of an aspect, garb, beard, address, and toute ensemble, very little tending to tempt unregulated movements of the heart; in other words, precise, ugly, and natural dampers of love. Truth is, they were just the reverse of all this. Only mark, how careful the ruling elders and godly men of New England were, that the women should veil, and conceal their charms. It is notorious, that a woman was churched there, for cutting off the ends of the fingers of her gloves, and exposing the tips of her dainty and delicate fingers to the manifest annoyance and disruption of the spiritual chain of thoughts in the bosom of the worshipping beholders. What other fact in all history bears, I had almost said, such sublime testimony to the charms of the charmers of that day? It stands, in fact, in the history of the triumphs of beauty, like the famed text quoted by Longinus in relation to sublimity. What fine fellows the Virginians must have been, to have melted down the stern hearts of the red women at the first glance, as in the case of Pocahontos!

However it may have been with the Atlantic progenitors, I have no doubt that the first settlers of Kentucky and Tennessee were a race of a beauty as rare, as their courage and virtues. I have conversed with some hundreds of these people; and they are the finest looking ancients, male and female, that I have seen, noble, square forms, open chests, bright, clear and truth telling eyes. The ladies, I admit, had a little more of the amazonian, than comports with our modern notions of a pretty, square-rigged insect, made pale by strong tea, late hours, dissipation, brag, vinegar and chalk. But I can easily believe, what these venerable patriarchs affirm, that these people were, for the most part, perfect Apollos and Venuses. I have seen their sons and daughters; and I believe, that children are apt to inherit the physical and mental likeness of their parents; and it is my clear conviction, that there is, no where on our globe, a finer looking race of young men and women, than in these states. Nevertheless, love has softened down, even there, to a malady of slight fevers and chills, compared with the continued and ardent fever, which rioted in the veins of their fathers and mothers.

As I said, these emigrant societies brought all their charities with them, These feelings received even an accession of energy and intenseness from those peculiar circumstances, which render a similar sojourn in an Indian wilderness the strongest cement of neighborly affections. The air, before the forests were levelled, was generally remarkable for its salubrity. The chase yielded the most salutary viands, and immeasurable appetite and digestion corresponding. To these denizens of the flowering wilderness life was the sensation of high health, Herculean vigor and redundant joy. It was invigorating to hear the exhalatory interjection, the safety-valve respiration, as they struck their well tempered axe into the enormous trunk of the tree, they were about to fall. These were the men, who were parents