of the boy is "like that of a doll," and fails to represent the "Barefoot Boy" as Whittier conceived him. Mr. Whittier probably is the most competent judge in this case, and he says of the picture: "It is a charming illustration. of my little poem, and every way satisfactory as a work of art."

Thousands of this chromo have been sold, notwithstanding its "doll face," and "feet like uncooked sausages," evidently because they have "no bones in them!" The Boyhood of Lincoln" is by same artist, who stands in the highest rank of American genre painters. This is one of his master-pieces. It represents a young boy, coarsely clad in homespun clothes, and wearing cowhide boots, sitting reading a book by the light of a log fire, in the big, open fireplace of a backwoods cabin; everything around him rude and poor. This is a picture for the family, one from which the mother can draw instructive lessons for her children.

"The Two Friends," an exquisite portrait of a child and dog, by Geraud, an eminent living French painter, and “The Unconscious Sleeper," by Perault, another French genre artist, "A Friend in Need," and "Under the AppleTree," are all sweet home pictures.

For a lady's boudoir nothing can be prettier than "Easter Morning," by Mrs. James Hart. It represents a massive marble cross, encircled with a wreath of roses, fuchsias, pansies, and other flowers exquisitely painted.

For the nursery or children's bedroom, the "half chromos" afford a pleasing variety at a low price. They are nearly as pretty as the full chromo. Our seven-year-old Frankie has almost gone into ecstasies over his picture of the "Frightened Ducklings." The yellow, downy ducklings chased by a roguish puppy are running to the pond or brook; one has tumbled "head over heels," as we should say if we were referring to a boy, into the water; others, having advanced a little beyond, are looking back in terror, and the whole brood exhibit such frightened physiognomies and positions as to awaken mirthfulness in the beholder. "The Twins" represents two pet twin lambs in their nursery, with their fond mother. A bright, pleasant landscape, with hills and dales, and water, and flocks of sheep, form an attractive background, while in the foreground is seen a group of lambs. This is a very suitable picture for the children's room. Of others we might speak, but already have we lingered too long on this point.

We wish now to offer some further suggestions in regard to the choice of pictures. They

are solely the result of our own personal obser vations, and as we have never seen this point brought out by critics, we may not be altogether correct in our judgment.

There are paintings which favorably impress us at the first glance. We are delighted with one picture, while another, at its side, presents but little attraction-it looks insignificant compared with the first. Between the two we should be at no loss to choose. By-and-by we look again at the two pictures, and our impressions are somewhat modified. The former does not so forcibly impress us-the latter reveals new points of interest. After a time we compare again the merits of the two, and the one that captivated us at once has decreased in our estimation, while the almost slighted picture rises rapidly in value. The result is, that it entirely displaces the first from its high position it in the beginning had taken in our mind. The truth is just here. The first picture had a few prominent features which were revealed at a single glance; but the second picture, being more quiet and varied in its characteristics, did not reveal all of its beauties; some, half-hidden, required several views to be noticed and appreciated. Gradually its fine points are manifested, and thus it is a picture of growing interest, and lasting, too, for the mind soon unfastens from an object that has power only to take it captive by storm, and puts forth no additional attractions.

We were recently more fully convinced of the correctness of our conclusions by comparing two sunset views, one, Bierstadt's "Sunset in California," the other, Prang's recent publication, "Sunset on the Coast." At first we were enraptured with the last, a large and striking ocean scene, and scarcely deigned a look at the smaller and more unpretentious painting by its side. We uttered our unqualified exclamation of delight, and remarked that possibly we might have thought the California sunset quite pretty if it had not been brought before us in such striking contrast with the ocean sunset. After we had sufficiently examined them, we turned to other things. Several hours afterward we entered the room where they were hung side by side, and now our fever had somewhat abated, we more closely looked again at both. The bold impressive sunset failed to produce the same emotion as before, while the other seemed more attractive. In a day or two we would not have chosen for its beauty and superior artistic execution the one which at first so delighted us. The California sunset had displaced it in our estimation. The

truth is, every point in the first attracted us. We saw them all at once, while the other unfolded its attractions more and more. Such is the kind of pictures to select, if we would have them ever prized by us, instead of wearying by their monotony.

"Early Autumn on Esopus Creek" was our first chromo. At first sight we felt disappointed in it; but the more critically we examined it, the better we liked it. It is a painting of such soft, quiet beauty, that its fine points are half concealed. It is truly a rare chromo; there is such a delicacy of touch, such an artistic blending of varied tints, such a perfect transparency of water and reflection of brown banks, bushes and trees, as we never saw in any painting. This, among the many American chromos we have since examined, satisfied our mind more than any other. But had we been permitted to select from his many subjects, this would not have been our choice, but rather something that would at first delight us. We learn from this item of personal experience, that it is not

tific problems, not by knowing at once the conditions of every problem, or by being able at once to solve it, but by being familiar with the general current of scientific thought, and being able to apply the methods of science in the proper way when they have acquainted themselves with the conditions of the special problem. That is what I understand by scientific education. To furnish a boy with such an education it is by no means necessary that he should devote his whole school existence to physical science; in fact, no one would lament so onesided a proceeding more than I. Nay, more, it is not necessary for him to give up more than a moderate share of his time to such studies, if they be properly selected and arranged, and if he be trained in them in a fitting manner."

JAMES VICK,

THE EMINENT HORTICULTURIST.

to examine at different times those we are disposed to procure, and see how they affect us on more thorough inspection. A variety of objects and colors, when artistically arranged, will retain their freshness longer than a few clearly defined objects and shades.

We would not advise any one to furnish their rooms exclusively with paintings, whether in chromo or brush form. Elegant steel engravings, copies of costly originals, can be procured at a low price, and give better effect to a room than one style. Of these, however, we purpose to speak more fully in another paper. We have treated in this exclusively of lithography, and in entering another department of art we hope to find much to interest and instruct those who have not given special attention to the subject.

SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION.-The following views of Professor Huxley are eminently practical on this subject: "I do not mean that every schoolboy should be taught everything in science. That would be a very absurd thing to conceive, and a very mischievous thing to attempt. What I mean is, that no boy or girl should leave school without possessing a grasp of the general character of science, and without having been disciplined more or less in the methods of all sciences; so that when turned into the world to make their own way they shall be prepared to face scientific discussions and scien

verance, taste, mechanical ingenuity and zeal are all indicated in this organization. The temperament is mentalmotive-vital, the two former predominating in the order given. The whole composition is healthy, flexible, and enduring. He evidently has the intuition of his mother, with the frame-work, ambition, and executiveness of his father. His height is not far from five feet six; weight, 130 pounds; his complexion fair. The size of the brain is something above the average, and it is so disposed as to give him the talent, taste, energy, and enthusiasm which he manifests.

The phrenology indicates, first, very large Form, as shown in the width between the eyes; also large Size, Weight, Color, and Order. Indeed, the whole intellect is well developed in both the perceptives and the reflectives: Causality is prominent; Comparison is full. He manifests unusual powers of observation and a good degree of science and philosophy, as well as practical common sense. But his chief forte lies in his taste, growing out of Ideality, Sublimity, and a cultivated intellect. Benevolence is large,

life for themselves. Good habits and circumstances have tended to call out and develop all the better qualities of brain and character and to make him what he is, a clear, clean, vigorous, and enterprising citizen.

JAMES VICK was born near Portsmouth, England, in 1818. In early childhood he manifested a great love of flowers. A little garden was his play-ground and delight. When not more than ten or twelve years old he made notes of what he saw, and thought with a vague notion that he would make a book some time. Coupled with his fondness for flowers was a strong desire to learn the printing trade, but circumstances seemed unfavorable, and acceding to the wishes of his parents and the force of circumstances he engaged in other pursuits.

In 1833 he came to New York with his father's family, and soon found an opportunity to learn the printing business with Mr. J. S. Redfield, of this city. After remaining in New York about four years, his father, who was very fond of gardening and rural life, became tired of the city and removed to Rochester, N. Y., where young James, then eighteen years of age, found plenty of employment at his trade and abundance of pleasure in the culture of plants. His knowledge of horticulture even then made his services exceedingly valuable to the publishers of horticultural and agricultural journals, and while he set the type, he contributed interesting and valuable matter to their columns.

In 1850 he became the publisher and one of the editors of the Genesee Farmer, and in 1852, after the death of the lamented A. J. Downing, purchased the Horticulturist of Luther Tucker, of Albany, and became its publisher. In 1853 the then publishers of this JOURNAL delivered a course of lectures on Phrenology in Rochester, and at the close of each lecture examined two or more persons who were chosen by a committee appointed for the purpose by the audience. Mr. Vick had attended none of these lectures, but the committee were determined to have his head examined publicly. Their plans were well laid, and Mr. Vick was induced, after some remonstrance, to submit to the

lecturer's manipulations. The remarks of the examiner were so truthful and striking that the audience was delighted. At the close, on inquiring his profession, and being the editor of an agricultural paper, the examiner remarked: "I am quite sure he must know more about flowers than about potatoes," which caused shouts of laughter.

told by some one in the audience that he was

Mr. Vick, having disposed of the Horticul turist and his interest in the Genesee Farmer, in January, 1857, became horticultural editor of the Rural New Yorker, and held this position until his rapidly increasing seed business claimed his entire attention. For many years he had imported choice seeds from all parts of the world for his own use, and as presents to leading horticulturists and the correspondents and friends of the journals with which he had been connected. These importations became so large and expensive, and the demand for them so great, that he felt compelled to devote his time and energies to the importation, growing, and sale of seeds. This he has done for the past nine or ten years, and is now doubtless retailing more choice seeds than any other dealer in the country. He has twenty-five acres of choice land devoted to the cultivation of flowers, within a mile and a half of the center of Rochester, and also seventy-five acres about five miles from the city; besides two stores and an entire block of buildings devoted to the work of putting up and the sale of seeds, in which he employs more than a hundred persons. The majority of these are ladies, who receive just as much pay as the men who do the same work; for Mr. Vick has too much regard for right to rob women of the reward due their services.

The number of orders received daily during the business season, which is from the 1st of February to the middle of May, ranges from 1,000 to 1,500, and during this season Mr. Vick receives one-fourth of all the letters that reach the Rochester post-office. During 1869 he paid the Rochester postmaster $15,000 for postage stamps to pay the postage on packages of seeds and other mail matter.

Mr. Vick turns his knowledge of printing to valuable account, and his catalogue is superior in many respects to any other of a similar nature published, and that it is ap

preciated, the large edition called for fully proves. He has already issued 150,000 of his catalogue for 1870, and we doubt whether all the other seedsmen in America circulates as many.

Mr. Vick has connected with his establishment a complete printing-office and bindery, employing constantly four or five printers, and when the catalogue is in press, from twelve to fifteen binders.

Mr. Vick was for many years the Secretary of the American Pomological Society, and also of the Fruit-Growers' Society of Western New York, until increasing business prevented his giving the necessary attention to such official duties. He is now President of the Horticultural Society of Western New York.

NATURE OF THE AURORA BOREALIS,

AS REVEALED BY THE SPECTROSCOPE.

OPECTROSCOPIC analysis, that has so wonderfully expanded the limits of scientific research, was some time since applied to the light of an aurora with unlooked-for results. Instead of a parti-colored band of light, which might have been expected, showing that the aurora was due to solid particles excited to luminosity by electric action, it gave the single line of light characteristic of incandescent gas. But the line produced by each gas has its own position in the spectrum, and the line of the aurora does not correspond with that of any gas with which chemists are acquainted. Repeated observations by several skillful experimenters give always the same result. They can pronounce only that the aurora is due to the incandescence of a gas different from any known to science.

But another discovery has been made which, from its connection with the former, is of great interest. The zodiacal light, that faint gleam in the sky which has hitherto been supposed to be due to the light reflected from a vast number of minute bodies traveling round the sun within the orbit of the earth, has been an object of great interest to astronomers. It has, until recently, never been subjected to spectroscopic analysis, because its light is so faint that it was thought its spectrum could hardly be made visible. It was presumed, however, that if a

definite spectrum could be obtained, it would present, as the accepted theory of its origin required, a feeble likeness of that of the sun. A German scientist has at last succeeded in observing the spectrum of the zodiacal light, and instead of being as expected a faint copy of the ordinary prismatic spectrum, it presented only a single line, and that identical with the spectrum of the aurora. This proves conclusively that the previously received theories of the nature of the zodiacal light were erroneous, and that it and the aurora are due to the same electric influences operating in the same medium.

It is now believed by astronomers that the same methods of inquiry will show, when an opportunity occurs for making the test, that the tails of comets are of the same nature with the aurora and zodiacal light; if so, three of the most mysterious phenomena of the heavens will be traced to a common origin and their nature partially explained.

Our Social Relations.

Domestic happiness, thou only bliss

of paradise that has survived the fall!
Thou art the nurse of virtue. In thine arms
She smiles, appearing as in truth she is,
Heav'n-born, and destined to the skies again.-Cowper.

MY FATHER'S ELM.

BY E. T. BUSH.

My father's elm, that grand old tree
Beneath whose ample shade
Long years ago in childish glee

And innocence I played,
Shall ever have a sacred part

In Memory's cherished whole; 'Tis rooted in my very heart,

"Tis shadowed on my soul.

And scarce will Memory need recall
The scene; for well I find

Its trunk, its limbs, its twigs, its all,
Reflected on my mind.

Nay, should I roam through foreign lands,
East, west-no matter where,-
'Mid polar snows or tropic sands,

That tree were with me there. Let others sing of fancy groves,

With bordered walks between,
Held sacred as of early love's

Sweet whisperings the scene;
But, poets, sing of these to me-
Oh! sing of these no more;
Ye have not seen that lonely tree,
Before my father's door.