The needs and duties of each age require that intelligence should steadily advance, and in the field of truth there is always something valuable left for the latest gleaner. No one is fitted for the duties of to-day who dreads the spirit of free inquiry that breathes around him, and fearlessly addresses its questions in every direction. Especially should new and better hints be welcomed as to the true science and method of instructing the youthful mind. Patience, delicacy, intelligence, and skill are nowhere required more than in this. But while it is true that each generation must have liberty to do its work in its own way, no generation can afford to despise or disparage the wisdom and experience of previous ages, or to institute reforms which revolutionize the methods and the principles of the past. The intellectual triumphs and achievements which are the goal of one age are indeed no more than the starting-point of the next; but the links of connection must be preserved unbroken. The conditions of a successful and symmetrical development of the mental powers are substantially the same in every land and time, and there are great principles which, however variously we may apply them, can never in themselves be violated or discarded with impunity. So far as the new education so strenuously advocated in our day honors and observes the eternal laws of the mind, we can afford to contemplate the new ventures with equanimity, if not with hope; but there is reason to fear that the almost unlimited freedom of individual choice as to subjects of study accorded to young and inexperienced minds in colleges where new departures have been taken is scarcely compatible with the compliance those laws rigidly require. HISTORICAL RECORD. [_By sending to the editor brief contributions suitable for use in this department, readers will greatly add to its completeness and value._] Jan. 25.--About one hundred and fifty members of the Old Colony Historical Society were present at the society rooms in the State House, and listened to the concluding portion of Hon. Colin M. Ingersoll's paper entitled "Leaves from the Diary of a Young Man in St. Petersburg, 1848-49." Among those present were ex-Gov. English, Hon. C. B. Bowers, ex-Mayor Robertson, Rev. Mr. Leonard, Dr. Ayers, Judge L. E. Munson, Capt. C. H. Townshend, and many other well-known gentlemen, besides a party of friends of Mr. Ingersoll from New York. The paper was a rare treat. A vote of thanks was tendered the speaker, on motion of ex-Mayor Robertson, and interesting remarks were made by Prof. Baldwin. * * * * *