Spartacus to the Romans Starling, Account of a Steam-Engine, Account of the Tell, William, Story of Terror, Voyage of the The Boy and the Brick. The Boy at the Dike The Bear and the Horse The Crippled Boy of the Tyrol The Dreamer and Doer. The Dutch Shipmaster The Expeditious Frog The Fatal Blow The Four Words The Value of a Good Temper Warwick Castle Washington, Statue of Whale Fishery, The What will People Say? Wood, where it comes from .372 273 93 237 .101 134, 135, 249 26 Extract from a Prologue Farewell, A First Grief, by Hedderwick Hannah Binding Shoes. Harvest Home Hofer's Execution. Hymn I Remember, I Remember Lament, by Sir Walter Scott Little Bell, by T. Westwood Little by Little Nature to her Pupil Night, Sonnet to Not, my Soul, what thou hast Done Religion the Unfading Flower. Sonnet from the Italian Scene on the Penobscot Snow-Drop, To the Strike On Summer The Beggar-Girl, by J. Clement The Breeze in the Church 200 Evening Prayer. Early Rising .358 .115 272 .363 .353 .302 25 .325 96 235 . 217 190 .147 52 191 126 The Esquimaux Kayak The Excellent Man, by Heine The Giant, by C. Mackay 15 . 11 Revenge is Sweet The Cause of Winds The Challenge The Conqueror and the Old Man The Hero through Cowardice The Monarch's Pledge The New Schoolmaster. The Novel-Reader. 78 SARGENT'S SCHOOL MONTHLY. No. I.—JANUARY, 1858.-VOL. I. THE BOY CRUSADERS. THAT spirit of mingled superstition and enthusiasm which gave rise to the Crusades showed itself, in the year 1212, in a form as strange as it was unlooked for. While the nations and warriors of Christendom were busied with various crusading projects, a number of boys in France and Germany formed the wild scheme of marching to rescue the Holy City from infidel hands. Incredible as it may seem that such a plan could be carried out, its rise and subsequent history are so well attested by historians that no doubt can be thrown upon its truth. If we consider the romantic spirit of the times, when the golden light of chivalry shōne on every adventurous enterprise, we may imagine that the recital of the misery and oppression endured by pilgrims to the land of promise, and the solemn calls to the liberation of the holy sepulcher, and the repeated processions held with reference to that subject, may all have so worked on youthful imaginations, as that they should deem it practicable to execute a work which had fallen unaccomplished from the hands of princes and kings. The originator of this juvenile band was a peasant-boy named Stephen, of a village | abundantly supplied with provisions and money, and when asked whither they were going, they would reply, "We go to seek the Holy Cross beyond the seas." of Vendôme, in France. Like Joan of Arc in after years, he gave out that he had seen heavenly visions-that the Saviour himself had appeared to him in the guise of a poor pilgrim, and given him authority to preach the cross. In a short time he was surrounded by a large number of young followers. Soon afterwards he removed from his native village to St. Denis, where the credulous populace honored him as a worker of miracles, and his companions daily increased. When his fame got bruited abroad, several other young enthusiasts started up in various parts of France, and drew after them many followers; but all honored the shepherd-boy of Vendôme as their superior, and were fully persuaded that under his command they should obtain a glorious victory over the Săracen'ic arms. They reverenced him as a saint, and that one was thought happy who could obtain a fragment of the garments worn by the holy youth. It might naturally be supposed that immediate and adequate measures would be taken to suppress such a movement: but nothing shows more strongly the superstitious spirit of the age than that King Philip Augustus thought it necessary to summon the professors of the University of Paris, and consult them on the propriety of interfering with the young crusaders. After serious deliberation, they pronounced it expedient to do so. The greater part of the ecclesiastics deemed the movement to be the effect of witchcraft. A royal edict was accordingly issued, commanding the boys to return to their homes and useful employments. This mandate was obeyed by some; but, as no steps were taken to enforce it, the greater number held together as firmly as before. They constantly formed processions through the towns and hamlets, bearing banners, censers, and tapers, and singing hymns suitable to their enterprise; and, so far from being molested, were followed by admiring crowds, even laborers leaving their work to join the train. They were The same spirit spread rapidly through Germany, where the standard of the cross was followed, not only by boys of humble rank, but by some of noble families, who resisted all the efforts of their friends to restrain them. The German boys, several thousands in number, clad in long pilgrim robes marked with a cross, and bearing scrips and staves in their hands, commenced their march toward Italy across the Alps; but their fanatical illusions were destined soon to give place to hardships and sufferings of the most pitiable description. Many perished in traversing the rugged and desert mountains; some from excessive fatigue, others from hunger and privation. The expedition of Stephen of Vendôme and his young crusaders was destined to meet with a termination still more deplorable than that of their German imitators. About thirty thousand in number, they marched toward Marseilles to embark for Palestine, headed by Stephen, who rode in a tap'es-tried chariot, attended by armed satellites. Their dreams of glory faded very quickly. A more atrocious plot is not recorded in history than that laid for those simpleminded children, on their arrival in Marseilles, by two slave-merchants of that city. These traders offered them the use of their ships to convey them to Syria without remuneration, pretending to rejoice in such an opportunity of aiding a pious enterprise. The unsuspicious boys accepted the offer with joy. Convinced that Providence had favored them, and would soon crown all their hopes, they embarked in seven vessels. After two days' sail, a violent storm swept the Mediterranean; two of the vessels were wrecked on the west coast of Sardinia, and all on board perished. In after years, a church was built upon the coast in memory of the New Innocents, as they were termed, and the bones of those washed on shore were shown as sacred relics. READING FOR INSTRUCTION. The other five ships escaped the storm; but, instead of landing in Syria, the ruthless merchants, who accompanied their prey, sailed for Egypt, and sold every one of their helpless victims in the slave-market of Alexandria. The merchants took care that not one should remain to return to Europe with the tale of their base treachery. After eighteen years had passed away, one poor captive escaped to his native land. He related the sad story, and told that several hundred boys had been purchased by the Governor of Alexandria, and were passing their days in servitude; eighteen had been tortured to death at Bagdad for refusing to embrace the Mahometan faith; while four hundred had been bought by the Caliph, and humanely treated. While pitying the superstition which for a moment tolerated so wild and calamitous an enterprise as the crusade of the children, we might reflect with profit on the energies put forth in that chivalrous age in pursuit of the imaginary and unattainable, so much greater than the efforts made in the cause of truth and righteousness by those who now walk in the full noontide of gospel light. The ch in chivalry has the sound of sh. For what were the Crusades undertaken? Pronounce toward syllables that a writer uses, so long as he speaks to you in fair and honest English. It is better for you- better a thousand times- that you should come upon a word or a phrase, now and then, the meaning of which you should have to seek out by inquiry, or by the help of the diction It is an old saying, that if you wish to to rhyme with board. Find Marseilles on the map, make a person a dunce, you have only to and trace the voyage of the Boy Crusaders to Egypt. A satellite is an attendant. ON READING FOR INSTRUCTION. THE object of all reading should be instruction. If you do not grow wiser, in some way, by what you read, that is, if you are only amused, and not instructed, by what you read, you are throwing away the greater part of the time spent in reading. To gather instruction from the pages of a book, you must understand them; and you can not understand without consideration and thought. While it is desirable that you should select such books and publications as you can master, it is indispensable that you should exercise the powers of your own mind, and be determined to master them. treat him as a dunce, and he is sure to become one. There is much truth in this, and it is not less applicable to a class than to an individual. If the uninstructed classes are written down to, be sure of one thing -they will be kept down. When a man or a lad acquires a taste for reading, he makes a grand discovery; he enters upon a new world -- a world as new to him as America was to Columbus when he first set foot upon it- a world full of marvels and mysteries, and, what is better than these, full of a wealth of wisdom of which he may help himself to as much as he can carry away, and make it honestly his own. The great drawback is, that he finds he can not carry much of it. The land of litDo not complain of the words of many erature is to him a strange land, and its A FIRST LIE. language, to a considerable extent, a strange language. In this dilemma he is apt to make the mistake of supposing that if simpler language had been used, he should have understood the subject at once, and enriched himself by a new possession. In the present day this idea is generally without foundation. There was a time when knowledge, which was not thought good for the common people, was boxed round with a kind of learned ped'ant-ry which rendered it accessible only to a few; but that time has gone by, and the best writers now address themselves to the largest classes for a very sufficient reason, namely, that in these days, when books are sold so cheap, it is only from the patronage of the multitude that they can hope for adequate remuneration. It is the interest of all popular writers to simplify their propositions, whatever they may treat of, as far as possible; but this practice of simplifying can only be carried out to a limited extent, after all, for a reason which, on a moment's consideration, will be obvi ous. What are words? Words are nothing more nor less than the names of ideas; if any combination of letters of the alphabet suggests no idea to the mind, such combination is mere gibberish, not a word. All the words that an illiterate man is acquainted with have their corresponding ideas in his mind; and all the ideas in his mind have their corresponding words in his memory. Now, if he turn the faculties of his mind to a new subject, a subject entirely dif ferent from anything which has before oc-, cupied his attention, it is as certain that he will meet with new words as that he will meet with new ideas; and, simplify as much as we may, it is not easy to perceive how he is to make himself master of any new subject through his old stock of words. Thus, in order to get new ideas, you must get new words; and in the proportion that you master their meaning will be your knowledge of the subject to which you turn your attention. To profit by literature, then, you must learn its language. All that has been done, or can or will be done, in the simplifying processes, will never do away with that necessity. Remember that the language you have to learn is your mother-tongue; that the words whose signification puzzles you are on the lips of your fellow-countrymen every day and all day long; that you have a living dictionary in your teacher or parent, who will help you; that you can buy a Webster's pocket dictionary for a quarter of a dollar; and remember, too, that every step you advance will render the next step easier. Take advice, if it suits your case. Select a volume of average reading; you may as well make it a history of the United States. Begin the perusal of it with a determination to understand the whole before you have done with it. Do your best with every sentence, using your dictionary with discretion. A sentence which may not be plain enough on the first reading may be so on the second or third. By this means you will learn the meaning of thousands of words which you did not know before. The language of literature once acquired, the world of literature is before you. It is a boundless field of delightful and exciting inquiry, if you make the right use of it. We will not promise that it shall lift you to worldly prosperity, but it shall build you up to a nobler state of being, and make you a credit and an ornament to any position you may be called upon to fill. A FIRST LIE. BY A LADY. I SHALL never forget my first lie, although it happened when I was a very little girl. My younger sister had a farthing, with which she wished to buy a fig; and, being too ill to go down to the shop herself, she engaged me to go. Accordingly I went. As I was returning with the fig nicely done up in a small paper, suddenly the thought occurred to me that I should like to look at the fig. So I very carefully opened the paper, when the fig looked so |