being destitute of these advantages, were not exposed. These self-taught men-a Franklin, a Rittenhouse, a Ferguson, a Roger Sherman, or a Murray were thrown entirely upon their own resources. They saw clearly that the work of Education, if performed at all, must be performed by their own labor; they were not led to put a false trust in the aid of teachers or systems of instruction. They took the helm into their own hands, and steered their course with the energy and enterprise, natural to those, who know that their destiny depends on their own effort. On this account there was much in their circumstances that we might well envy, however much our nominal advantages may be superior to theirs. Consider the difficulties, with which Franklin struggled. There was strength flowing to him from these very difficulties: these quickened his enterprise: opposition armed him with fresh energy. Consider Rittenhouse, our other self-taught great philosopher, The young student of astronomy of our own day, provided with the best text books, the best maps and illustrations, and perhaps lazily pouring over them, might have been provoked by very opposition to the study, had he been obliged like Rittenhouse, to chalk over his father's fences and ploughs, for lack of proper diagrams and writing materials. Consider the great astronomer, Ferguson—a self-taught man, employed in his early years as a shepherd, while his flock were feeding around him, he used to busy himself in making the models of mills, spinning-wheels, &c. during the day, and during the night in studying the stars, like his predecessors of Chaldea. With his miserable astronomical apparatus of threads and beads, he learned truths that have never entered the heads of many of the highly favored students of astronomy of our day, who enjoy the company of philosophers, and are permitted to frequent the proudest halls of science. Consider again the early years of Alexander Murray, of Scotland, a self-taught man and as great a linguist as ever lived. With no other book than a little catechism, which was commonly locked up as being too good for ordinary use, and with no other slate than the board of an old wool card, and no better pencil than a brand, snatched from the fire, he laid the foundation of a better education than he would probably ever have acquired, had he been pampered in the lap of indulgence, and surrounded as so many of the youth of our day with the best facilities for instruction.

Now, if the right view of education prevailed, the same spirit that inspired these self-taught men would be carried into all our schools and seminaries of learning; we should then

consider, that not only they who have narrow opportunities, but that all, whether in school or out of school, much favored with advantages, or little favored, should take the business of education into their own hands; that in short there is but one kind of education that is good for any thing, and that is selfeducation. It is from lack of adopting this right view, that so much less effect is produced by the immense improvements in systems of education, than might be expected to be produced, and so much dullness and inefficacy pervades our seminaries of learning. The young act on the principle, that they are sent to school and to college to be educated, rather than to educate themselves. They thus give themselves up passive instruments into the teacher's hand, as if the labor were his, rather than their own. Thus many a young man who has enjoyed years of instruction, and all the advantages which wealth can bestow, has failed of acquiring as much true wisdom and strength of mind as his father possessed at a like age, who had perhaps but six or twelve weeks schooling in the year and that probably not of the best kind, nor continued many years.

And here we may insist on a distinction that is obvious enough in itself, but too often unheeded, the distinction between knowledge and true wisdom, or true strength of mind. It is clear, that a man may know all the events that history records; he may have read all the books that have ever been written, and may remember all he has read, and yet be little wise, and have little power of intellect. Yet we are apt to suppose, that because knowledge is now widely diffused, power of mind is equally well spread; that because the most valuable information may now be obtained by every man, even at his own fireside, true wisdom is equally universal. A greater mistake cannot be made. Knowledge indeed is power, according to the oft quoted saying of Lord Bacon. But it is power, not when it is merely retained in the memory, but when the mind takes hold of it with a strong grasp, penetrates into its inner principles, and converts into living truth that which would otherwise have been but an array of dead materials.

I might go on and endeavor to point out instances of a lack of originality and freshness, and to speak of the tame uniformity of mind which prevails in our own day in consequence of the wrong views and practice in relation to self-education, and the wrong value attached to the mere machine work of education. I might speak of the master minds of the ancient world, and show how much of their greatness may be attributed to their

being compelled to work out their own education-even the wealthiest of them being compelled to seek for instruction in foreign parts, and even then to avail themselves of it by the most intense labor. But I pass on to say a word of the need of self-formed men, as respects our political, moral, and religious interests.

The same sort of influences that are breaking down the originality of individual intellects by subjecting them to the machinery of system, and stamping with the same stamp, minds which Providence has so wisely and wonderfully made to differ, is at work in the political and religious world. Party spirit in politics and the tyranny of association among many religious bodies, is taking away much of the just independence of individual minds. Public opinion, that despot of our country, takes from many minds their natural freedom, and marksthousands, who should think and act for themselves, with the brand of moral slavery. Thus there are myriads among us, who are as much the slaves of other men's minds or of the multitude's will, as if they owned the sway of a Pope, or had their ideas cast in the unalterable mould of Hindostan or China.

If ever there was a time when men were called upon to have minds of their own and energies of their own, it is now. Each man is called upon to do justice by his own efforts, to his own individual faculties-to form opinions and pursue a line of conduct for himself and not hide himself among the multitude, and be borne along with the crowd, as a feather on the tide. Bold and independent minds are needed, who can stand against the shock of multitudes, and be deaf to the voice of party. Such spirits are needed, for, now-a-days, both in politics, philanthropy and religion, measures are carried forward too much by crowdings and huzzas. "Things go too much by noise and hurra," says a strong-minded man, who has always thought and acted for himself: the shout is raised, up with it, up with it, and up it goes: down with it, down with it, and down it goes."

Let each man be true to his own nature-let him feel that God has given to him peculiar faculties, and has placed him among peculiar circumstances and opportunities; let him rise with his own God-given energy, and draw forth these powers, and be worthy of his opportunities; let him do this, and he will be an independent man-his mind its own master. Although his powers may be humble and his opportunities few, he will have a more respectable, perhaps a more respected character than many of those highly gifted minds who suffer

themselves to be borne along the current of popular opinion, or enslaved by the tyranny of party, or sect, or association. Every human being is an original from the hand of God. Let him not by negligence or ignorance or slavish imitation, mar the divine beauty of the original proportions.

Cincinnati, Ohio.

S. O.

ART. 10.-MANNERS AND HABITS OF THE WESTERN PIONEERS.

HUNTING.

The chief business of a frontier life was hunting. The preservation of life, from day to day, depended on the skill and fortitude with which it was pursued. It therefore constituted the highest dignity and enjoyment of a back-woodsman. A great hunter was his beau ideal of a great man. So dependent were our females at first on the produce of the hunt, "that it was no uncommon thing for them to live for several months without a mouthful of bread. It frequently happened that there was no breakfast until it was obtained from the woods."* Moreover, fur and peltry were the people's money. They had nothing else to give in exchange for rifles, salt and iron, on the other side of the mountains.

This traffic was denied in a great degree to the far west, owing to its distant position and the hostile state of the country. The exhilarating chase, so animating at any time, but stirring indeed, when the Indians might be lurking in any cane-brake, was principally followed in the fall and the early part of the winter, after deer; during the whole winter and spring, for the fur animals. The season for hunting was often expressed by saying that "fur was good in every month, whose name contains the letter R." As soon as the fall of the leaf had taken place, and the rains and light snows had come on; the frontier men, after having acted the part of husbandman as far as the hostile condition of the country would admit, longed to be in the woods after the game, with all the restless eagerness of the passion for hunting." "They became uneasy at home; every thing about them became disagreeable. The house was too warm, the feather bed was too soft, and even the good wife was not thought for the time a proper companion. The mind

* Doddridge, 123.

of the hunter was wholly occupied with the camp and the chase. I have often seen them get up early in the morning at this season, walk hastily out, and look anxiously to the woods and snuff the autumnal winds with the utmost rapture; then walk into the house, and cast a quick and attentive look at the rifle, which was always suspended to a joist by a couple of buck horns or little forks. His hunting dog, understanding the intentions of his master, would wag his tail, and by every blandishment in his power, would express his readiness to accompany him to the woods. A day was soon appointed for the march of the little cavalcade to the camp. Two or three horses furnished with packsaddles, were loaded with flour, Indian meal, blankets, and every thing else requisite for the use of the hunter." A hunting camp, or what was called a half faced cabin or camp, was formed sometimes with a large log for its back; eight or ten feet from this, a couple of stakes were driven into the ground, to receive the side poles, and opposite to them, two others eight or ten feet from the former. Thus the sides of the camp were formed. The roof sloped from the front to the back; this was covered with slabs, skins, or blankets; and if it was the spring of the year, the bark of the hickory, or of the ash tree was employed. The front was left entirely open and the fire kindled there. The openings between the poles were stuffed with moss and dry leaves, which formed both carpet and bed. Such were the temporary shelters from the inclemencies of the weather, which were raised by the hunters in a few hours. A little more labor, (but that was a hateful necessity to the free and independent habits of the Pioneers,) might have rendered a hunting camp proof against any attack from Indians. As it was, vigilance did not always protect the white hunters from surprise and death in their camps, from the Indians.

The site of the camp called for the aid of the best sagacity of the woodsman to shelter it from the north and west winds. Nor was the situation of his camp, the only way in which a hunter could show his wood-craft; so far from it, that a skilful hunter could tell by the state of the weather, before he left his more permanent home, where he should meet with the game, whether in the bottom, on the sides, or the tops of the hills. In stormy weather, the deer always seek the most sheltered places, and the leeward side of the hills. In rainy weather, in which there is not much wind, they keep in the open woods, on the highest ground. In all situations, the hunter required to know the direction of the wind, in order to sit on the lee side of the game. For this purpose, he would put his finger