that its years of tuition had arrived. Thus it was pleasantly initiated into Israel's wisdom, hopes, and prospects, and guided into a way of thinking, feeling, and anticipating, which penetrated upwards through the clouds of heaven, and forwards through the bounds of time. Having enjoyed the benefit of such a popular education in the highest sense of the word, many a young Israelite came forth from the paternal dwelling, vigorous in body and in mind, with an eye open to everything that is worth observing; susceptible, like good ground, of the best cultivation; and carrying in his hand, from his very home, the key of scripture, of history, and of nature. The stars of heaven, the trees and flowers of the field, preached to him; and the instructive voices of the Levites and Prophets, which were constantly heard through the country, found in his mind a ready attention."

Were Elijah again on earth, could he use more appropriate language than the following, taken from the Word of God, to fulfil his mission of turning the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.

"Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make known to their children: that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children: that

they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.*

William Cowper, whose beautiful poetical works have occupied shelves in the libraries of all the nobility and gentry of England, for the last half century; has in his "Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools," given many well founded reasons for giving a preference to private tuition, instead of sending boys to schools or colleges. In the poem alluded to, he describes the pleasures of parental instruction.

"A father, blest with an ingenious son,
Father, and friend, and tutor, all in one.
How-turn again to tales long since forgot,
Æsop, and Phædrus, and the rest? Why not?
He will not blush, that has a father's heart,
To take in childish plays, a childish part;
But bends his sturdy back to any toy,
That youth takes pleasure in, to please his boy;
Then why resign into a stranger's hand
A task as much within your own command,
That God and nature, and your interest too,
Seem with one voice to delegate to you?

Why hire a lodging in a house unknown,

For one, whose tend'rest thoughts are round your own?
This second weaning, needless as it is,

How doth it lacerate, both your heart and his !
The indented stick, that loses day by day
Notch after notch, till all are smoothed away,

Bear witness, long ere his dismission come,
With what intense desire he wants his home."

Now let us inquire what is the object of this banishing system of education amongst the nobility and wealthy commoners of Great Britain.

I once read a very well written novel, called "Reginald Dalton;" and that book enables me to answer :

Psalm lxxvii. 1, 7.

that it is to make those young men, on whom the coronets and lands of Great Britain are entailed, from generation to generation, the most experienced gamblers, drunkards, horse-racers, and cigar-smokers, the civilized world can produce.

Now let us take a glance at what are called the "Learned Professions," into which the younger sons of the nobility and gentry of Great Britain are obliged to enter, to obtain a livelihood, unless they prefer being trained to break the sixth commandment.

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I never learned Latin, but I find on referring to Henry Butter's Etymological Spelling Book, that the word Doctor," means a man that has taken the highest degree in Divinity, Law, or Physic, viz: D. D., L. L. D., or M. D., and that it is derived from a Latin verb Doceo, I teach."

Now concerning the privilege of putting D. D. after a man's name, I have searched the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation, and I have not been able to find that any of the servants of God, of whom that book gives the history, ever had D. D. after their names.

The law is a profession, which derives its chief support from the crimes committed by what are called "the lower classes of society." And if those confirmed christians, who have promised the Bishops or Archbishops, (who laid their holy hands" on their heads, during the confirmation ceremony,) that they would " renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world," never "laid up treasure in earth," to tempt "thieves to break through and steal," there would not be so much occupation for lawyers and judges in criminal courts.

Lawyers are also enabled to live in splendid mansions, and to travel about in magnificent equipages in England, because the people who possess the land in

England are so frequently quarrelling about the right and title they have individually to the possession of said land.

It being a progressive profession, renders it also prejudicial to the growth of the benevolent sentiments. For instance, a barrister who has toiled successfully in his profession, and has been promised the next vacant seat on the bench, must naturally feel as anxious for the speedy death of one of his friends, the judges, in order that he may see how he looks in a large wig, as Henry V. did, when he tried on his father's crown parent's death was approaching.

as his

Now for a contemplation of that very learned profession, which enables the kings of the creation to put M. D. after their name.

A doctor who has arrived at perfection in the study of the interior of the human body, and the medicines required to assist in curing the diseases to which it is liable, would never be able to live himself, nor to support a wife and family by the profession, if none of the rich people, in the neighbourhood where he might decide on establishing himself in that profession, were ever to become ill, or to send for him to cure them. He might

take a house, and have no means to pay the rent; he might hire servants, and have no means of paying their wages; he might order the necessaries of life from the butcher, baker, or grocer, and some of its comforts from the draper, and have no means of paying the bills. Under such circumstances, when he kneels down to pray for his "daily bread," after he has adopted such a very uncertain method of obtaining it, is it not very natural for him to pray to the "giver of all good," in the following terms: O Lord, I pray thee, afflict with illness some of my rich neighbours, that I may be well paid

I

for curing them; cause that some of them may break their limbs, or eat too much, or drink too much, or sleep too much, and thus bring on some disease which arises from indigestion, and give me an opportunity of sharing some of their superfluous wealth, by healing them. O send some epidemic into the country, that they may be frightened.

How can a man, whose interest it is, that his neighbour should be ill, "love his neighbour as himself." As long as it is the interest of Physicians that people should be ill, the more simple methods of curing diseases, such as Mesmerism, Homeopathy, and Hydropathy, will never be brought to perfection.

Romish Monasteries, and English Colleges, have each done the part in the advancement of Christ's Kingdom, which the Almighty disposer of events assigned to them. But, like all other human instruments, which He uses at his will, He will lay them aside when he is done with them. Monastic Institutions were most valuable, before the art of printing was invented; the Romish Monks, like the scribes in the Jewish Church, transcribed and preserved the written word. And when the Reformation triumphed in England, Colleges were important institutions for developing the intellectual faculties of youths, who were ambitious of distinguishing themselves amongst their fellow-men. It was less injurious to the development of those benevolent feelings, which are ultimately to triumph over selfishness, that a boy should be ambitious to win a prize or a medal, by the exercise of his intellect, than by merely arriving at perfection, in the use of destructive weapons, boxing, wrestling, &c. And when grown men thirsted after fame, it was better for the human race, that there should be opportunities of winning it by the pen, than by rely