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ations, then it is conscience which commands, and not prudence which counsels.

There is also another palpable difference between the commands of the one and the counsels of the other. The commands of conscience are absolute; they dictate imperatively; they fetter the freedom of our choice, and pronounce every man guilty, and worthy of contempt and punishment, who dares to rebel against their authority. On the other hand, the maxims of prudence, in spite of the disguise afforded by the ambiguity of our language, are always conditional; they suppose that we wish to obtain the advantage expressed in the motive from whence the direction is derived, or to avoid the inconvenience which it sets before us. Moreover, these maxims are not accompanied by any sense of duty or obligation, as is the case with the commands of conscience: and as he who submits does not feel himself entitled to praise or reward, neither does he who resists experience any remorse, or consider himself a culprit deserving of punishment from God or man. Only see the difference that there is, in every point of view, between the benevolent man, who makes a sacrifice for the good of his fellowcreatures, and the selfish man, who has procured advantages to them by the mere prosecution of a well-concerted speculation.

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Our course of language, in the multitude of its examples, will furnish frequent opportunities of distinguishing the maxims of prudence from the decrees which are issued by the holy law of God engraven on our hearts. causal phrases, formed out of a reason or a conclusion, and the final phrases, expressing an object, or its means, are peculiarly adapted to this exercise. In the discussion on the principle of these examples, the pupils, under the direction of the teacher, will point out the wide difference between the two, and the advantage to moral cultivation is obvious.

Though I insist on this point, let it not be supposed that I would condemn all reference to personal interest; for this would be to arraign the wisdom of the Creator in having placed the love of happiness in our souls, and

together with it the opposing law of conscience; but we shall see hereafter how these two conflicting elements may be harmoniously combined.

To exercise Children in Moral Logic.

The orders of conscience entwine themselves round the mind of youth, in measure as it developes, and our course of language, which is from first to last a course of mental gymnastics, will endeavour to give it this wholesome direction.

To this end, it will deduce particular duties from general ones. As for example, "I ought not to injure my neighbour, therefore I ought not to tarnish his reputation." Or inversely, "You ought to anticipate the wishes of your parents, because it is your duty to show the utmost gratitude to them for their kindness to you from the cradle upwards."

It will also deduce a prohibition from a precept. Example: "We ought to forgive injuries, therefore we ought not to avenge ourselves." At other times it will deduce a precept from a prohibition. Example: "You ought not to unfit yourself for the great duties of life, therefore you ought to restrain the love of pleasure and self-indulgence."

From one reason it will derive many analogous duties. Examples: "The maimed are my fellow-creatures and my brethren; I ought not to laugh at them, but I ought to pity them, and do them all the good in my power."

"Degrade not thyself to the level of the brute beast, but rise towards heaven by noble aspirations; for there is thy Father, and there is thy home."

From several combined motives it will deduce one and the same duty, as we often do in life. Example: "Time flies rapidly, and never returns; therefore I ought not to waste my moments in idleness."

"Resist vanity, for it is ridiculous, and will lead you to do and say many foolish things."

"It is unbecoming in a child to contradict his elders, because they know many things which he cannot know, for he has not yet learnt them."

These examples will suffice to show how our course of language, based as it is on the developement of the mind, will impart to children a rich store of moral truths, which by reacting on each other will not fail to have a powerful influence on their hearts. The moral syllogism will also come in turn, when syntax will have attained to the phrase of three propositions; but we shall adopt it rather with a view to leave no means untried, than with any great expectation of its availing much towards the culti vation of the moral tendency.

To strengthen the authority of Conscience in

Children.

If we were actuated by the moral tendency alone, to know and to practise what is right, would be one and the same thing; for we do love and respect it. This is the trace that still remains in us of the likeness of God in which we were first created. But, born poor and frail, we have a personal tendency also, which, ever desirous of satisfying its numerous wants, covets many things which are not right, and recoils from many others which are not wrong. Thus throughout life there is a perpetual struggle within us. We must fight in order to conquer; and this warfare is that of virtue, which repulses, but cannot slay its enemy.

There are means of strengthening the natural love of what is right in youth; and education does turn them to account, but with much uncertainty and obscurity. Now we should walk in the light of day; for we never accomplish a task well, unless we undertake it with full knowledge of our subject. We will therefore offer the result of our observations and study of this important matter: and we have a great example before our eyes; no less than that of our blessed Lord in the education which He gave to His apostles, and through them to the Christian world.

It is in human nature that we shall discover the means of enforcing the oracles of conscience: and where else, indeed, should we seek them? What is alien to us can exercise no influence over us. Now there is in the moral

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tendency itself a natural prop to duty; and all the other tendencies present to us a moral aspect which may engaged in the service of conscience. We will now pass in review the different auxiliaries which our course of language will employ in furtherance of its object, and we will begin by that very one which an ill understood austerity has attempted to stigmatize and to expunge from the province of morals.

The innate Desire after Happiness.

We have been gravely told that as soon as this desire influences us, the love of what is right, if not extinguished, is at least compromised and polluted by selfishness. We will readily allow, indeed, that before we can lay claim to virtue, we must aim at what is right, we must love and desire it; or, in other words, reason, on which conscience founds the duties it prescribes, must be the guide of our will; but it does not follow, that what is right must vanish from our thoughts and our heart, the moment that self-interest adds its weight to the scale. There is then a mixture of motives, but the one does not exclude the other. If we do what is right for the sake of our own advantage, we do it also for its own sake, and in obedience to our conscience which prescribes it.

He knows nothing of human nature, or of its right treatment, who would require that we should become indifferent to that well-being which is the never-failing object of our desires. Neither does he respect the work and the will of the Creator, who has made man as he is. Of a poor weak dependent creature, we can never make a deity that shall suffice to himself, and shall therefore have nothing left to desire for himself. All that we can and ought to do, is to bring the desire of enjoyment into subjection to the requirements of duty; and we may further add, that we could not love what is right, unless it yielded to us pleasure after its kind.

Let teachers beware, then, of attempting to run ounter to nature, lest, instead of guarding their pupils com evil, they should rather plunge them into it. The roud philosophy of antiquity ventured to prohibit all

regard to self-interest, under pain of forfeiting all claim to wisdom and virtue; man was to stand erect and unmoved, though the universe should fall into ruin around him. But that ancient writer was right who exclaimed, "I fear lest in attempting to make gods, you should only make brute beasts."

Whence do we derive the knowledge of right and wrong, if it be not from conscience, which prescribes the one and prohibits the other? Now, the decrees of conscience are enforced by an inseparable sanction of promises and threats: "Do right, and you will be happy; do wrong, and you will be miserable." That self-called philosophy, then, is contrary to nature, which would mutilate man by mutilating his conscience, and would improve upon the work of the Creator.

The Gospel, which is and ever will be the light of the world, constantly combines, as does human nature and its Author, these two springs of action, and by means of the more noble one elevates the other, which we share with the animal creation. Our course of language follows the directions of our blessed Lord, which the Apostle has thus summed up: "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come *"

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Conscience is not only a legislative power which proclaims an irrefragable law, but it also provides for the execution of it; it judges us; it rewards obedience by its approbation, which is sweet to us, and it punishes disobedience by reproaches, which, in proportion to the gravity of our faults, may grow into corroding remorse, and so poison our whole lives. Our pupils at their early age will already have experienced the approbation and censure of conscience, as well as the hopes and the fears, the honour and dishonour connected with it. Our course of language will call their attention to this inward tribunal, and will produce in them the important conviction, that as right conduct rewards, so does wrong conduct punish itself.

* 1 Tim. iv. 8.

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