New-York tribune., 1874-02-21
Der his cernlcan home brood r.
or ethereal clouds WAS hoatiDg free.
- Ithnr si1u, t. Hun. and hc undcrstOOn.


" Never TO us sll. thy stems attain.
Nor ever 20 iBce may we draw nearer.
But i fair ~ Ky y.oia our Srl; , re'a ,r.
And re thou ours thine We are, |
For what were the near, were 1t not for the fari
"Loot above. aud boow-to the heaven, the PLAIN
The low aud the ieyel, they disappear.
the aloof ami the lofty atone rcmain
Aud, forever present tho never near.
Whist are the summit, Tire sky and the star,
still thine is the beauty of AL That we are"
"a wheat-stak or Tie Near Is the pendant to The
Blue Hills" Asa whole IL is less ideal ami less iascina
tins; but 1t contains little song full both OF
truth and OF music tnat must give it to You
o near ones, dear ones you, in whose right hands
Our own rests calm; whose faithful hearts AZ. day
Nilc open wait till back from dist lands
Thought, the tired traveller wends his bomeward wayl
Helpmates and heartmaes, caddeners of game years,
Tender companions OF our serious days,
Who color with your kisses, smiles. and tears
LIES warm web woven over wonted ways,
Young children. and old neishhors, and old friends,
Old scrvanis-yon whose smiling circle small
Grows slowly smaller till at last IL ends
Where grave Is room enough for all,
o shnt the world out from the heart yol cheerl
T.O' small The circle OF your smiles may bc,
Tie world Is Instant, aud your smiles are near.
This naxes you more than all the world to me-
"some OF the Fables are absurdly literal and com
monplace as Perfume and Her Followers" In which
man how he made bis fortune by falling heir 10
horse For the shrewd cOmmon-sense Of this homely
tale the grace of Robert the Rhymer hardly requ
honson brightest aud keenest wit and the tendercst
sympathy with human aspiration and endeayor; for
everywhere, said, the characters, whether bird or
beast plant symbolic the human, and appeal TO Us
as II they were OF kind. In THE T. Igle and
His Companions" eagle sat A" on q summit, supreme
and lone" longing for 10 share his solitude;
and poor duh, tired, hatorpid little black mole, who
had crept up there purpoe to raise himself to the
eagles level spoke to him. and the eagle answered utter
ing his wild fearless, farreachng thoughts which the
mole comprchended, let SAP abOut as well as some
Gretc-5n busy about her k-pals would have under
stood a rhapsody of Goethes, a sonata OF Beetho
vens and the eagle discovered that the vision which
hidden in his heart tho poet reveal only TO the
poet. Then he butterfly drawing nigh, an ex-
quste creature, fashioned OF tremulous petals whose
pure veins glow with gold and vermion and azure; and
this ceatue OF the sunshine he thought must surely be
the Spirit whom he had waited fol, lODged for aud
sighed for But the winds blew ont Of the clouds, aud
bruised and broke the poor, bright little atom Of hie
till, wounded aud sOre ho fell from hight TO depth, and
the eagle left again. companionlessthe fate Of him
whom nature has made to dwell on the mountain tops
Nothing surpass airy grace and the plaintiye
tenderness with which this story IN verse Is
told. But Others, in turn, as commonplace
and unnspired a. the faithful painting OF n Dutch
kitchen II curious volume this Ike garden where
homey csbbage and beets aud turnips. all useful in
their way grow beside and among, and heotropes
every reader must read for himself would keep
paco with the poetry of the period. He may smile at
such titles as "Teeoogy." and "Prematurity," and
Conservation Of Force" and "Pyrrhonsm; or The
Haunted Hem" or the prosac badness OF such lines
"A sobber'd gutter retching rain," or Haidr0Und,
you'd have still not cet :" but he will Dd also
passages purely poetca hayeSbeon written in this
generaon-musioal bird songs f, OF lilo and color
and moyemcnt-or OF a gentle retrospective sadness
which Il not akin TO pain"
Miss Peabodys Record OF Mr.. Alc9tts School" Is at
last before in the clear type Of Roberts Brothers II
is quaint and singular book. Miss Peabody contributes
two preaces. In the dated 1885, she seems to
be In warm sympathy with Mr. Aeotrs method but in
the one dated lsJ expresses her doubt of the wis
dom OF its details, having come TO hc conclusion that
Froebei's method OF "cutiyatng children through
artistic production in the childish sphere OF affection
and fancy, is healthier and more effective way than
sclfinspecton, for nj least those ye2r3 Of chd5 life
before the &c OF seven" But, while beloved old
enthusiast oi the kindergarten caEAot help putting in
this plea for the ideas which are at present the
10y of heart and the pride Of her lfe she yet
presses her sacred respect for the experiment made by
Mr. Alcott. She is sure that his school marked
benefit to every child with whom he came into com
municaon; for nc himself was imncasurably greater
influence than his specific method
The record OF the school written anlore by
Miss Peabody who at that time teaching It an
Arott. The school was rcopened by him, after four
wears interval at the Masonic Temple in Boston, I'm the
September OF 1884 The schOOroom seems TO have been
a model. Conceiying that the objects which meet the
every day for years must necessarily mod the
mind he chose spacious room, aud ornamented IL win
such objects would appeal TO the imagination and
cultivate heart In the four corners OF the room he
placed the busts Socrates. Shakespeare, Milton and
scott and on a table before the large Gothic window
by which the room was lighted ho set the image OF
Silence with raised finger, as II he said " Beware"
Opposite this window was his own desk, whose front
was as the arc of n circle. On this he placed a small
figure OF a child aspiring. Behind was very large
bookcase, aud fine east OF Christ In basso rellevo
fitted into this bookcase made to appear to the
scholars as just over the teachers head Near at hand
was a bust OF Plato.
On the northern side OF the room, opposite the door,
was the table Of the assistant, with small figure Of
Atlas bending under the weight OF the world Some old
pictures of Hardngs portraits, and several maps
we're hung upon the walls The desks for the scholars
with conYenences for placing all their books In sight
and with black tablets hung over them, were placed
against the wall There was sofa for visitors too, in
this model schoOroon; which refined an apart
ment be, In itself. protest against all rudeness
Mr. Alcott's methods OF teaching most individ
ual and unusual. Employed as he employed them,
they been OF nconceiyable advantage to his
pupils: but they were methods with which man Of
should dare even meddle He strove, all, TO
educate the spiritual perceptions. He taught sefex-
animation 10 his little scholars He coutented
that they should feel after the manner OF childhood,
without reflection and without analysis. They
know what they felt and why He cared to culti
desire for knowledge than TO surfcit them with
facts. lie governed like true epubcan. He would
naict punishment which the cupr did not feel aud
admit to be deserved. At time he adopted scheme
OF voarious punishment. most unprecedented. l am
snre in the history OF schools; but which appears 10
have been very effective He told the scholars that