what she cherished as true and right. And Hypatia died at forty-five, unmarried. Next is the multitude of noble women, who, in the early ages of Christianity, and down through the terrible darkness of the middle ages, amid the upheaval of the Roman Empire, and the long bloody anarchy that followed it, devoted the best energies of their loving souls to the duty of nursing the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and in general of relieving the distresses of the poor, the unfortunate, and the suffering, -Sisters of Mercy in very deed. And these were wedded only to their divine work. In our own times we have Mary Lyon, accomplishing by her own self-sacrificing energy the beneficent purpose, conceived by herself, which had been pronounced impracticable by the men she had consulted, but which stands to-day an honorable testimony to the Christian benevolence that welled up in the heart of an old maid. And what multitudes of the poor, the insane, and the helpless, in our country, have reason to invoke blessings upon that noble friend of theirs, mighty in her gentleness, Dorothea Dix, who passed from state to state like an angel of mercy, arousing even hardened politicians to a strange appreciation of their duties to the unfortunate, and leaving in her wake substantial tokens of her regard in the form of asylums for the lunatic, the orphan, the blind, and the dumb? And Dorothea Dix still bears her maiden name. In our accounts of the Crimean War we have read of the good deeds of Florence Nightingale, until we have endowed her, in our own minds, with a sort of angelic excellence and loveliness, as she flitted from couch to couch in the hospitals, administering a kind word here, and a cordial there, until she was idolized by the army and worn out by her labor and exposure to disease. But this glowing heroine is an unmarried woman of forty-one years of age, and was more than thirty at the time of her eastern work of love.

Surely this is a record of which any class of our population might well be proud.

But what has all this to do with the objects of a teachers' journal ? Much every way. The State of Illinois has given freely of her best blood for the preservation of the national life. Her young men have fallen by thousands in defense of the glorious government that has come down to us from the fathers. And one of the effects of this will be a disturbance of the equilibrium that exists, under ordinary circumstances, between the number of men and women in our state. We shall have an excess of young women. Heber Kimball, that pattern of a holy apostle, says, according to Fitz Hugh Ludlow, that this is a preparation the Lord is making for the universal establishing of

polygamy- a sort of getting-ready for that glorious time coming, when "seven women shall take hold of one man", etc. That the divine hand is visible in these events we fully agree. But our mind hath it in a more modest working'. The army of young women must be enrolled in the educational corps. Their brothers and those that would have been their husbands have fallen fighting against treason and a disgusting despotism. Let them go forth into a war equally glorious against ignorance, the most effective ally of these traitors and despots. Thus shall they achieve a victory for truth, for their country, and for the race of mankind, whose influence shall be felt through the ages to come.

E.

POLITICAL

ECONOMY. -VALUE.

IF I take up a new lead-pencil from my table, for the purpose of examining all its qualities, I shall immediately perceive those which are visible and tangible. The pencil has length, a cylindrical form, a black color, is hard to the touch, is composed of wood and plumbago in certain relations to each other, and has the quality, when sharpened at the end, of making black marks upon white paper. Are then these, and such as these, the only qualities of the pencil? No! It has another quality, very important, which is neither visible nor tangible, but relative. IT HAS PURCHASING POWER. It had the power of purchasing from me, two hours ago, five nickel cents, United States currency; and if I should choose to take it back to the store where the exchange was made, it has doubtless the quality still of being able to purchase again from the storekeeper the same number of cents which it first purchased from me.

This purchasing power, which the pencil possesses in common with all other articles which are ever bought, sold, or exchanged, is Value, and is the subject of political economy. Political economy is the science of value, and of nothing else. Wherever value goes this science goes, and where value stops political economy stops.

It is convenient to regard value as a quality inhering in a commodity or service. The convenience of such expressions as The pencil has value, Gold has value, is so great that science will not consent to forego the advantage of using them, even though they be liable to mislead. She justly prefers to make her language intelligible and

popular, and then to explain precisely what she means by it. Strictly speaking, value is not a quality of any one thing, but a relation which one thing holds to another thing. It is not a quality, in and of itself, of gold, but a relation which gold holds to other things that gold will buy. The notion of value is not conceivable except by a comparison of two things, and, what is more, of two things mutually exchanged. Value is the power which one thing has of purchasing other things. Five cents had the power of purchasing my pencil, and my pencil has the power of purchasing five cents. In this transaction the idea of value is developed. A similar transaction first introduced that idea into the world, and the endless succession and variety of such transactions has kept the idea in the world, and will keep it here till the end of time. Value, then, speaking strictly, is not an independent quality of the pencil any more than it is an independent quality of the cents. Both are necessary in order that the value of either can be conceived of. The value of the cents is estimated, is measured, by the pencil; and the value of the pencil is estimated, is measured, by the

cents.

This is a simple case of value, but it is not the simplest. In this case there is an exchange of one commodity for another commodity; the idea of value is instantly developed, and we say that the pencil is worth five cents, or, what is exactly equivalent, five cents are worth the pencil. The relation between the two purchasing powers is adjusted. This is the common case. The trade of all past ages, and the present commerce of five continents, presents us, in principle, with nothing different from this. The commerce of the world is substantially barter, the exchange of commodities for commodities; and, though many purchases and sales may intervene, and numerous forms of credit may come in, before the transaction is finally closed, these do not alter, in the slightest particular, either the notion of value or its laws. Each repeated purchase and sale presents us over and over again with the same phenomenon, namely, the estimated relation of two purchasing powers. And this relation is value.

The simplest case of value, however, will throw light upon the more complex ones, and will be found to include them. Two farmers, who are neighbors, find, on talking over their expected crops, that one has more hoeing and less haying this year than usual, and the other less hoeing and more haying. A says to B "Come over and help me hoe in June, and I will go over and help you hay in July." B agrees. It is a mutual advantage. And so, to use the old expression, which is better here than any scientific terms could be, THEY

CHANGE WORKS. В does a service for A, and A does a service for B. The two services balance each other. They are mutually exchanged one for the other; and in the way proposed thus to exchange them the notion of value is conceived, and in the exchange itself value is both produced and measured. B's help in hoeing is worth A's help in haying.

This exchange of one service for another service presents the simplest case of value; and I ask the reader's indulgence while I attempt to show that it essentially includes all other cases. If it can be shown that value is always and every where the same thing, that it is always and every where the relation between two services exchanged, then will political economy be seen to possess one grand characteristic of the great sciences, namely, simplicity. This can be shown. There are only four cases of value conceivable. 1st, When a service is exchanged for a service, as by the two farmers already supposed. 2d, When a service is exchanged for a commodity, as when a lawyer gives his client counsel and receives five dollars in return. 3d, When a commodity is given for a service, as in the last example reversed. 4th, When a commodity is exchanged for a commodity, which is the common case of commerce. Any cases of value which do not seem, at first sight, to come under any of these four will be seen, after all, on reflection, to come there. For instance, I buy United States FiveTwenty Bonds for legal tenders. It is commodity for commodity. The bonds give me a claim on the national property. So with a mortgage. So with any form of credit. These are commodities.

Now, then, what are really exchanged in all these four cases are mutual services. The client with five dollars in his pocket is just as much in position to do the lawyer a service as the lawyer is in position to do him a service with his counsel. The counsel is serviceable to the client, and the dollars are serviceable to the lawyer, and so they exchange. Value is the estimated relation between the two. And just so with commodities. The hatter serves me with a hat, and the shoemaker with a pair of boots, and I serve them with six dollars each; or, if the hatter be in want of boots and the shoemaker of a hat, they serve each other with their respective products. In every case of value, therefore, without exception, what are really exchanged, whether a commodity intervene or not, are mutual services; and value is then produced, and only then, when two persons are in position to render each other a service; and the respective services being rendered, that is, exchanged, and the balance being struck, we have the value of one expressed in the other. Springfield Republican.

PATRIOTISM AND

PARTISANSHIP.

THE Common-school system of this country is the admiration of the civilized world. The wisdom of centuries has been employed in laying its foundations, and upon these has arisen a system of public instruction which is the grand palladium of our existence as a free people.

To us of the present generation this rich possession comes by inheritance; and there is danger that we shall underestimate the importance of transmitting it in its highest perfection to our successors. We gaze with delight upon the beauty and symmetry of the superstructure, and seldom stop to inquire whether we have a duty to discharge in guarding and preserving its foundation-stones. In the session of the present, we are in danger of forgetting our obligations to the past, and our responsibility to the future.

pos

The essential and central idea of a common school is that of a school for instruction in branches of common interest and profit, and from which all subjects of a partisan or sectarian character are for ever excluded. Here is common ground, on which all may unite. Whatever party or sect may have the ascendency, it occasions no conflict or disturbance here, so long as we abide by these fundamental principles. But we need to have clear and well-defined views of what these principles are. The line between subjects which are appropriate in the school and those which have no place there should be plainly and sharply drawn.

Our common schools are sustained and controlled by the state. Out of this relation grow duties to the state which are paramount to all others. Whatever else may be neglected, patriotism and love of country, loyalty to the constitution and government, should be thoroughly and constantly inculcated. Pupils should learn what treasures of blood our national existence has cost. They should study the constitution till its teachings become a part of their own existence. They should be taught to feel that when the government is in peril no personal sacrifice to save it can be too great.

Lessons of patriotism should frequently be drawn from the lives of illustrious men, whose names adorn the pages of our country's history. Patriotic songs are no where more appropriate than in the school-room. In no other way can love of country be more effectually or more easily taught than through the medium of song.

Such are some of the lessons which should be taught in every