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ONE DOLLAR A YEAR.

VOLUME IV.]

NEW SERIES-PUBLISHED MONTHLY.
EDITED BY A. B. STREET, S. S. RANDALL AND JAS. HALL.
ALBANY, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1844.

Common Schools and District Libraries.

BY S. 8. RANDALL.

We have thought it due, not only to the importance of the subject, but to the very intelligent and respectable gentlemen of the county of Orange who have united in a recent movement in that section of the State on the subject of our Common School Laws, to transfer from the columns of the District School Journal the following review of the peculiar grounds of hostility to the theory and practical operations of our existing system of public instruction, which have been assumed by its opponents.

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tax upon the property of the State. Failing in the accomplishment of these favorite objects, they are prepared at once, and without compunction or reserve, to dispense entirely with the common school system-to pull down the whole fabric of elementary public instruction-to disband the eleven thousand school districts of the State-and "at one fell swoop" to annihilate the results of nearly half a century of public and private exertion for the advancement of popular education, the elevation of public morals, the diffusion of useful knowledge, and the extension of christian civilization. Have these men, indeed, "counted the cost" of such an abandonment of our long tried, thoroughly tested and laboriously compacted system of common school education? Have they cast an inquiring and an intelligent glance at the past-dispassionately surveyed the present in all its aspects—and carried forward their views to the possible-nay, probable, future? Have they in imagination "congregated around the temple of legislation the six hundred thousand children of the State, with their innocent smiles, beaming with ardent hopes and high aspirations, hungering and thirsting after knowledge, and submissively lifting up their little hands in silent supplication for kind and competent instructors, for comfortable apartments, and for all the appliances which would enable them to discover and obey the laws

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If we understand aright the positions occupied by this portion of our fellow-citizens, they are these: They would have the Legislature increase the fund annually to be distributed among the several school districts, for the payment of teachers wages, first by taking from the Literature Fund, the chief portion of the existing annual appropriation to colleges and academies, and diverting it into this channel. Second, by the application of the present School District Library Fund, to the same purpose: and thirdly, by a similar application of the various amounts now paid towards the compensation of county superintendents, the subscription to an educational journal, and the expenses of a State Normal School. These various appropriations would increase of the Creator?" Have they weighed the tremendous the amount annually distributed to the several districts responsibility involved in this parracidal desertion of a for this purpose, by the sum of about $130,000. And policy which formed the corner-stone of the civilization by the addition of a corresponding amount, to be raised introduced by the Pilgrim Fathers of our beloved coun by taxation in the several counties, (leaving out of view -a policy co-eval with its earliest settlementthe amount already required to be raised to meet the pervading all its civil and social institutions, and peneexisting library appropriation) would impose an addi-trating with its elevating and humanizing influences tional annual tax on the people of the State, for the support of the Common Schools, after deducting the amount which would be saved by the abolition of the office of county superintendent, of about $58,000. It is obvious, therefore, from this practical view of the subject, that while the contribution of the inhabitants of the several districts, on rate bills, for the payment of teachers' wages, would be somewhat lessened, the expensiveness of the system, taken in the aggregate, would be materially enhanced. The argument, then, resolves itself into this. To secure a slight and scarcely perceptible reduction of their quarterly rate bills for the education of their children, the opponents of the present system are prepared to withdraw all public pecuniary encourage. We are not prepared to deny that the amount of the ment from the higher institutions of learning, to sacri-annual appropriation from the State Treasury, to the fice all the advantages, present and prospective, of a several colleges and academies, is inexpedient and disdistrict library, to dispense with an enlightened and sys-proportionate when compared with the appropriation for tematic supervision of the schools, to reject the advan- the benefit of the common schools. But because the entages of periodical information of the progress of the lightened friends of our entire system of Public Instrucsystem, and of the various improvements in the science tion, and the Legislature, think otherwise, as they maniof education, which the increasing intelligence and en- festly do, and are likely to do, does this afford a sufficient terprize of the age is constantly furnishing, both at reason for denouncing that system in all its parts, and dehome and abroad, to abandon all attempts to prepare manding its abandonment? If it is desirable to make our teachers of common schools for the efficient perform-schools free, in accordance with the system adopted in ance of the responsible duties of their station; and fi- Massachusetts, and in our principal cities, this can nally, to impose an additional and burdensome annual readily be done by taking off the existing restrictions

every hamlet, every neighborhood, every town, village and city of our vast confederacy? Are they prepared to reject the counsels of the great Father of his country, whose last and most earnest injunctions to his fellowcitizens, were, "to promote as objects of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge?” Is the concentrated wisdom of the great, the good, the enlightened and the patriotic of our own and other climes to weigh as nothing in comparison with the immediate and temporary advantages, if advantages there are, awaiting the disbandment of an organization which involves a slight pecuniary sacrifice and requires a slight degree of gratuitous labor? ·

upon the amount of school money now authorized to contents, a constantly accumulating collection of books be raised by county and town taxation, and permitting, devoted to the elucidation of the various departments of or directing, as may be deemed most expedient, the literature, science and the arts—and which presents the inhabitants of each town, annually to raise the requisite noble spectacle of a government profusely lavishing its amount, to meet in connection with the public money, surplus means for the mental and moral culture of every the entire expenditure for school purposes. This, in individual of all classes of its citizens, without excepour judgment, would be sound policy; and we enter- tion or discrimination? Rather let us dry up the suptain very little doubt that it will ultimately prevail, by plies for the civil administration of our political institu the general and cordial assent of the people. Nor tions-withhold all aid and encouragement to the innushould we very strenuously object to the augmentation merable objects of public and private enterprise which of the Common School Fund, provided that measure annually demand our fostering care-pause in our rapid could be accomplished without diminishing or entirely career of internal improvement and postpone the further exhausting funds hitherto set apart, after mature deli-development of our vast physical resources-than take beration, to other objects which it is the policy of the from our two million of citizens and from their childState and the interest of the people to cherish and pro-ren and children's children the bread of intellectual and tect. Those who would leave our academies and colleges to be supported exclusively by individual contributions, run the imminent hazard, in our judgment, of fostering a literary aristocracy and of leaving the advantages of these institutions to the children, only of the wealthy, instead of opening their doors as now, to all desirous of participating in their benefits.

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moral life, which we have undertaken to dispense to them in ample profusion. We may trust to the intelligence and virtue of our people for self-governmenttheir energy and enterprise will speedily hew out abundant channels for individual and combined capital-the great thoroughfares of business and industry will sustain and support themselves-and science and skill will adequately and seasonably expose the yet undiscovered resources of our land; but the blessings present, and prospective, which result from a judiciously selected and well regulated School District Library, admit of no substitute their deprivation, of no compensation.— There is, it is true, great reason to apprehend, that these blessings are not adequately appreciated nor improved in a majority of cases to the extent of which they are capable; but these are defects incidental to the best systems of human origin; and they will disappear in proportion to the spread of knowledge, and the prevalence of a more enlightened and cultivated public sentiment, aided by the experience and informa

tion the counsel and direction of the various officers charged with the administration of this branch of the system of public instruction. We trust the day is far distant when the fund destined for the annual augmen tation of these noble institutions of an advanced civilization will be diverted from this high object, to any purpose not absolutely indispensable to the fundamental welfare of the community.

In exact proportion as the public bounty flows in them, the rates of tuition are brought within the means of those of our citizens, who, anxious as they are to provide liberally for the education of their children, and to give them every opportunity accessible to the most favored, are nevertheless compelled to count the cost; and the moment this source of revenue is closed up, these institutions must necessarily rely for support upon those who can afford a liberal outlay in return for the more extended facilities for a finished education, which are here and here only to be found. Short-sight ed, however, as is, to our mind, the policy of withdraw ing from our colleges and academies, the contributions from the public funds, which the wisdom of successive legislatures, during the past half century, has priated to this object, the idea of abandoning the farther prosecution of the District Library system, for the purpose of enhancing that portion of the Common School Fund applicable to the payment of teachers wages, is still more preposterous and ill-judged. The institution of District Libraries is comparatively of recent origin, and although the idea was taken from the proceedings With regard to the abolition of the office of County of the British " Society for the Diffusion of Useful Superintendent, all the considerations connected with Knowledge," organized some fifteen or twenty years this subject, have been so recently and so ably discussed, since under the auspices of Lord Brougham, no institu- both by the State superintendent, and the chairman of tion of a similar kind has as yet found its way into the the committee on Colleges, Academies and Common educational systems of Europe. Our own State is en- Schools of the Assembly, Mr. Hulburd of St. Lawrence, titled to the exclusive credit of a systematic, enlight- and the public sentiment has been so repeatedly,strongly, ened and practical organization of this great department and unequivocally expressed in favor of the continuance of public instruction and popular education; and the of this office, that we deem it entirely unnecessary to proud results of five years experience of the value and urge a single additional argument. With the experience efficacy of these libraries, have amply vindicated the of the past three years before us, pointing to practical prescience of those eminent statesmen and devoted phi-results the most cheering, improvements the most indislanthropists, who contributed to their diffusion broad-putable, and influences the most beneficial, growing out cast throughout our extended territory. Shall we be of the judicious and enlightened administration of by the first to abandon that great experiment which origi- far the greatest portion of these officers throughout the nating with ourselves has justly attracted the attention State, we are compelled to believe that whatever of a dif and admiration of the civilized world-which has placed ferent complexion may have presented itself to the obserat the command of every inhabitant of our eleven thou-vation of the citizens of Orange County, must be chargesand school districts, of sufficient age to profit by their able to the injudicious measures of the local tribunals,

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or to an unfortunate misapprehension, either by the incumbent of the office, or his constituents, of the nature of the duties required at his hands.

What is the true duty of the American Classical Scholar?

resources. As necessary consequents of this spirit, sordid selfishness and a restless unappeasable desire to amass wealth, are quite without bound or restraint. Did men foil to increase their riches that they might become Thorntons or Macænases, the scholar and man of literary taste might take heart and labor on, but such is wide from the truth. To such an extent does this lucre-loving spirit prevail, that one can with difficulty suppress the ejaculation—

Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,

Auri sacra fames!"

To counteract this tendency, so ruinous to all literary and educational interests, the empire of mind must be boldly asserted and stoutly maintained, otherwise luxury and abundance will induce among us idleness and its concomitant vices; forboding to civil and social life, a destruction more terrible and complete than that produced by similar causes among the once noble states of antiquity.

In this country, where all nature opens wide her exhaustless stores, inviting the hopeful and enterprising to In conclusion, for we have extended our remarks al- their occupancy and development; great effort is neready to a much greater length than we had designed-cessary to preserve the due ascendancy of mind over we have only to express our anxiety to co-operate with matter. Almost the entire population of our land, are any portion of our fellow citizens, in such modifications pressing around to lay open and appropriate its physical of the laws relating to our great system of Public Instruction in any of its departments, as public sentiment shall require, and as an enlightened appreciation of the interests of education shall dictate. It is due, however, to a proper respect for the legislation of the past half century in reference to these great interests, to the wisdom and experience of the distinguished statesmen under whose auspices that system has been compacted and matured to its present symmetrical proportions, and to the opinion of the most competent judges on this head, in our own and our sister States, to say, that laying out of view those imperfections which must unavoidably attach to the most finished labors of human intellect, it would be difficult to re-create from the ample materials at the command of the legislators of the present day, a system of public instruction, embracing the vast interests of a population as numerous and diversified as our own, which in its practical workings, should afford an effectual substitute for that now proposed to be abandoned or essentially modified. In this respect, as in others For the accomplishment of this great work a few of a similar nature, relating to the structure and func-eminent scholars, such as were known in Athens and tions of civil institutions, it will invariably be found far Alexandria, are not competent; nor indeed a multitude easier to pull down than to build up, to demolish than of men learned in philology and the abstract sciences, to reconstruct; and, advocates as we are, of progress and of whom Germany and France have always boasted. advancement in political, social and civil economy, we The condition of society in the United States is too little would have nothing done in this department of our insti- perfected; its elements, unsettled and ever-changing in tutions, hastily, rashly or injudiciously,-nothing which their aspect, demand a spirit of active energy among might injuriously or disastrously affect the interests of all classes of men, to follow their drifting current, to the present generation not only, but those of the future, turn with them into their whirling eddies, and whenthe inheritors of that civilization which is now dispens-ever a transient rest will permit, to scatter among them ing its blessings to all classes of our favored clime. We would not commit to the tempestous waves of popular excitement and agitation, the time honored bark which has hitherto conducted us in safety over the rocks and shoals and eddies of an untried sea; nor would we endanger its precious freight by a hasty abandonment of.. living" shall come at less toil and less expense, then, the noble vessel, because its proportions failed, in all respects, to come up to our ideal standard of perfection, or because an unimportant portion of its crew were deemed incompetent to the adequate discharge of the duties of their station.

Time.-Whether we play, or labour, or sleep, or dance, or study, the sun posteth and the sand runs. In all the actions that a man performs, some part of his life passeth. We die without doing that for which only our sliding life was granted. Nay, though we do nothing, time keeps his constant pace, and flies as fast in idleness as in employment. An hour of vice is as long as an hour of virtue; but the difference which follows from good actions is infinite from that of ill ones. The good, though it diminishes our time here, yet it lays up a pleasure in eternity, and will recompense what it taketh away with a plentiful return at last. When we trade with virtue, we do not buy pleasure with an expense of time; so it is not so much a consuming of time as an exchange. Time is a ship which never anchors.

the saving health of piety and learning. When they shall have become composed and are governed by uniform and stable agreements-when every nook and dell at the west, as at the "east," shall have been cheered with the presence of society and good order

when

and not till then, may men rest in the mere enjoyment of literary taste and literary fame. Meanwhile, men in all professions, and especially professional educators, must labor each in his own department, to make it a very fountain of kindly influences, into which all antiquity and the experience of the great past, shall pour unfailing and health-giving currents.

Among these the man of classical taste and acquirement has an appropriate task. The day has passed, probably never to return, when men of but ordinary intelligence and cultivation need to be convinced of the great benefits resulting from a thorough and extended education in the classics. Experience has settled that question beyond the possibility of doubt. Having gained this high advantage, those engaged in such pursuits have only to obtain and press upon men the most systematic and feasible plan for reaping and imparting the pleasant fruits of this branch of learning.

In answering briefly and practically the questions heading this article, the same remarks are applicable that

have already been made in regard of education in gene- skilful criticism; to prune them for general use, from ral, namely: that any number of learned men, as such, all superfluous annotation; to dress them in the lanare by no means sufficient. Neither the times nor our guage of his country; and append whatever other guides present social arrangements, would warrant even tole he may deem necessary to their being better understood rate men who should devote themselves exclusively to and appreciated. Having done this, let him throw out the revision and emendation of elementary books and for the instructor's use only, the original commentaries the classical writings of the ancients. A glance at the entire, accompanied with what he may have gathered present state of such literature must thoroughly con- elsewhere, to give them greater value. That he may vince one that it would be sheer folly in the American render his task complete and of practical utility, let student, with the libraries to which he could gain ac-him seize upon the labors of grammarians and compilers cess, to make the attempt; and of a truth it is not ne- of elementary works, and appropriating all that is vacessary, since almost everything which may be consid-luable to his purpose, furnish to the hand of the young ered strictly the work of the philologist has been, or and hesitating, an inductive access to the pleasures soon will be, reformed and furnished to our hands. In that await him. Here, truly, is opened up an endless the old countries, classical scholars, surrounded by toil; this is the true field of labor and reward. abundant records and monuments of antiquity, have, Who is better fitted for this duty than the American for at least three centuries, devoted their time and scholar? The government under which he lives-the strength to such pursuits, that poets, philosophers and newness of his country, and his consequent spirit of statesmen, gray with age, might be drawn forth from enterprise-his accustomed activity of mind and his their obscure retreats and become the standards of clas- intellectual method, makes him of all others the most sical beauty and perfection in all coming time. Ernerti, competent. He is disposed by the very constitution of Gesner, Heyne, Wolf, Jacobs, Boch and Buttman, in his being and the wants of the social organization in Gerinany; Hernsterhuys, Grotius, Wittenbach, Perizo- which he lives, to arrangement, system and practical nius and Rupnken, in Holland; Stephens, Salmarius, perfectibility. He feels his superiority over the scholar Casaubon and Scaliger, in France; and Bentley, Mark- of foreign lands, for nowhere have grammarians and land and Musgrave, in England, have entered the very commentators given to the world elementary books arpenetralia of philological learning, have thrown back ranged with such simplicity, order and perspicuity. the lumber fast gathering over the stately and elegant Who that knows of the difficulties attending the first ancients, and rescued them from a cruel and hopeless lessons of Latin and Greek, would place before the oblivion. That their work might not seem but half timid boy the massive grammars of Buttman nnd Schilperformed, they have furnished for the classical world ler, to the exclusion of Bullions' series, or the Latin vast and learned commentaries upon all the most im-grammar of Andrews and Stoddard ? portant ancient authors, for the guidance of those who The text-books published by American critics, such might love still to linger near these moss-grown fountains. These princes among the learned have restored to their former beauty and character, Homer and Virgil, Socrates and Plato, Aristotle and Zenophon, Demosthenes and Cicero, Herodotus and Thucidides, the fathers of poetry, history, rhetoric and philosophy, and have brought out with them a host of lesser lights who lived as satellites to these centres of intellectual radi

ance.

It would not be wise to seek for much improvement upon works edited by such men and under such auspices. Beside to the American scholar time is limited to a small amount beyond what is necessary in the prosecution of his particular department, leaving him but little leisure for collateral investigations. In view of these facts, and in view of his almost utter destitution of these aids essential to such labor, he would exhibit no little vanity and rashness in the attempt at a work of such vast extent and difficulty.

It may be asked, what then remains to the lover of classic lore, if he be shut out from this high privilege? I answer, much, yea, much every way. The field of labor that spreads beyond him is boundless and full of richness and beauty. He need not hold out his hands to Great Britain and the Continent, and, without discrimination, cast these numerous editions, cumbered with comment, into our academies and universities. This would be to discourage the mass of youth from their study. His first duty is to separate those known and acknowledged to have been sent forth from the most

as Felton, Andrews, Dillaway, Anthon and Woolsey, have already won for their editors reputations truly enviable, both in this country and abroad. These works, although comparatively few in numbers, are not unimportant indications of what may and will yet be done in this country, for this department of learning. They are what they should be, and will do much towards awakening and cherishing the love of classical elegance among the active and promising youth of the land. They are the germs which at a future day, not far distant, will burst forth in the rich and golden harvest. May these and other men press on in the good work they have so nobly begun, assured that even now their countrymen feel, and are waiting to acknowledge their obligation to strengthen their hands and encourage their hearts, assuming the glorious motto of our State"Excelsior," may they bear on their lips the prayer of one of the brightest scholars of Holland

"Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem.” But the duty of the classical student ends not here; he has other work to perform as his legitimate task. When he shall have furnished the requisite means of success, the appliance of such education, much remains to be done, that he may elicit for his favorite study the warm and generous enthusiasm of the heart. Having drawn large draughts from the ever-gushing fountains of the past, with a spirit of true and sincere philanthropy, let him bear out upon the bosom of society, and spread with broad-cast these gems of beauty, sparkling and flashing in the light of intellectual splendor.

defence of New York and invented a sub-marine vessel for plunging under water. These plans were approved by the Government, but before he accomplished them, he died very suddenly on the 24th of Feb. 1815. His person was tall, slender and well formed. We have thought proper to give this full account of the first steamboat, that was constructed in this country, and of the great inventor. The advantages that have followed this discovery are too great to be calculated.

Classical elegancies and learning must be infused into routes for the canal, and was engaged with zeal in prosethe heart of all branches of polite and solid literature. cuting that object, on the breaking out of the war. In When this is done-when men in all professions and all 1812 he was again experimenting on sub-marine exwalks of life shall have imbibed some spirit and devo-plosions. In 1814 he contrived an armed ship for the tion for the pure antique, the classical, in its chaste and sublime elevation, then will such studies work out their legitimate effects, then bring fruits of ever-growing richness and fertility. Oh! what a triumph will have been achieved, when, taking a firm position among the liberal arts and sciences, these enduring records of past ages shall shed around them purifying rays, to heal and refine the wayward passions of mankind. And why should not these pleasant influences be turned in upon the whole intercourse of man? Why should not the sphere of human sympathies be enlarged, and fresh aspects be thrown over the whole face of society? Tc the classical student belongs this high behest-'tis his as a sacred pledge, a rich endowment, which he holds in trust for the dear youth of his country-to him it belongs to rekindle the fires which slumber upon the altars of the muses, and to wake in tuneful tone the lyre of Amphyon.

Utica, July 13, 1844.

Robert Fulton-The first Steamboat.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

W.

FULTON'S ACCOUNT OF HIS FIRST STEAMBOAT.

Fulton, in a conversation with Judge Story, gave the following account of his experiment: "When," said he, "I was building my first boat, the Clermont, at New York, the project was viewed by the public either with indifference or with contempt as a visionary scheme. My friends were civil, but they were shy. They listened with patience to my explanations, but with a settled cast of incredulity on their countenances. I felt the force of the lamentation of the poet,

"Truth would you teach, to save a sinking land, All shun, none aid you, and few understand."

As I had occasion to pass daily to and from my buildFulton was a native of New Britain in Lancaster ing yard while my boat was in progress, I had often loitCounty, Pennsylvania, and born in 1765. His parents ered, unknown, near the idle groupe of strangers, gathwere in humble circumstances and were enabled only ered in little circles, and heard various inquiries relato give him a common education. He early exhibited a tive to the object of this new vehicle. The language fondness for painting, and at the age of 18 he establish- was uniformly that of scorn, sneer or ridicule. The ed himself in Philadelphia. At the age of 22 he went loud laugh rose at my expense, the dry jest, the wise to England to advance his talent, and was received into calculations of losses and expenditures, the dull but endthe family of West,—with whom he spent several years, less repetitions of the Fulton Folly. Never did a single and entertained a warm friendship. During his stay he encouraging remark, a bright hope or a warm wish cross became acquainted with the Duke of Bridgewater and my path. Silence itself was but politeness veiling its Lord Storhope, the former famous for Canals, and the remarks or hiding its reproaches. At length the day latter for his love of Mechanism. He soon turned his arrived when the experiment was to be brought into attention to the use of steam for propelling boats. In operation. To me it was a most trying and interesting 1796 he attained a patent for a double inclined plane. occasion. I invited my friends to go on board and witHe also professed himself a civil engineer, and publish- ness the first successful trip. Many did me the honor ed a treatise on Canal Navigation. He soon went to to attend as a matter of personal respect, but it was France and obtained patents for his improvements. He apparent they did it with reluctance, fearing to be partspent the succeeding seven years in Paris, in the family ners in my misfortunes and not of my triumph. I was of Joel Borlem, during which time he made himself well aware that in my case then there were many reaacquainted with the French, Italian, and German Lan-sons to doubt my own success.

guages, and acquired a knowledge of Mathematics, The machinery was new and ill-made, and many parts Physic, and Chemistry. He turned his attention to were manufactured by mechanics unacquainted with submarine explosions in the harbor of Brest, demonstrat- such work; and unexpected difficulties might reasonably ing the success of his discovery. The British Ministry invited him to London where he blew up a vessel which led them to wish to suppress rather than encourage his improvements, they therefore gave him no emyloyment. In 1803, he made several experiments in steam to apply his principle to boats-Chancellor Livingston was then minister to France. Fulton, with his aid, constructed a boat on the River Seine; this was in 1803, which fully evinced the practicability of applying it to boats. He determined to enrich his country with the discovery, and immediately embarked for the United States, and in 1806 commenced the construction of the boat, the results of which we have given. In 1811, Fulton was employed by the Legislature to explore the

be presumed to present themselves from other causes. The moment arrived when the word was to be given for the vessel to move. My friends were in groups on the deck. There was anxiety mixed with fear among them. They were silent, sad and weary. I read in their souls nothing but disaster, and almost repented my efforts. The signal was given, and the boat moved on a short distance, and then stopped and became immovable. To the silence of the preceding moment, now succeeded murmurs of discontent, and agitations, and whispers and shrugs. I could hear distinctly repeated-"I told you it was so-it is a foolish scheme; I wish we were out of it." I elevated myself on a platform, and addressed the assembly. I stated that I knew not what was the

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