"If happiness be our being's end and aim,' and if that which promotes the great end of our being be right, and that which has a contrary tendency be wrong,-then have we obtained a simple and intelligible definition of right and wrong. It is this: Whatever, in its ultimate consequences, increases the happiness of the community, is right; and whatever, on the other hand, tends to diminish that happiness, is wrong.' A proposition, as once clear in itself, and encouraging in its application; and one which will scarcely be rejected but by those who are unaccustomed to take a comprehensive view of any subject, or whose minds, misled and confused, perhaps, by words without meaning, mistake the means for the end, and give to those means an importance, which is due to them only in as far as they conduce to the end itself, the great object of all our pursuits, and the secret mainspring of all our

actions.

"Every action whatever must, on this principle, be followed by its natural reward and punishment; and a clear knowledge and distinct conviction of the necessary consequences of any particular line of conduct, is all that is necessary, however sceptical some may be on this point, to direct the child in the way he should go; provided common justice be done to him in regard to the other circumstances, which surround him in infancy and childhood. We must carefully impress on his mind, how intimately connected his own happiness is, with that of the community. And the task is by no means difficult. Nature, after the first impression, has almost rendered it a sinecure. She will herself confirm the impression, and fix it indelibly on the youthful mind. Her rewards will confer increasing pleasure, and yet create neither pride nor envy. Her punishments will prove ever watchful monitors; but they will neither dispirit'nor discourage." P. 12.

Mr. Owen does not inform us at what age his young people begin "to connect their own happiness with that of the community;" but we infer from what follows that it is in the second or third year of their age.

"A child who acts improperly, is not considered an object of blame, but of pity. His instructors are aware, that a practical knowledge of the effects of his conduct is all that is required, in order to induce him to change it, And this knowledge they endeavour to give him. They show him the intimate, inseparable, and immediate connection of his own happiness, with that of those around him; a principle which, to an unbiassed mind, requires only a fair statement to make it evident; and the practical observance of which, confers too much pleasure to be abandoned for a less generous or more selfish course." P. 15.

In ancient days a journey to Lanark was a formidable undertaking. Thanks to the Soho and other vehicles of that description, we may travel thither now with very little inconvenience. And we cannot help flattering ourselves that the day

will come when we shall hear and see the wonders that are wrought therein. "The garb of old Gael" must yield to the habiliments adopted at Lanark.

"The dress worn by the children in the day school, both boys and girls, is composed of strong, white cotton cloth, of the best quality that can be procured. It is formed in the shape of the Roman tunic, and reaches, in the boys dresses, to the knee, and in those of the girls, to the ancle. These dresses are changed three times a week, that they may be kept perfectly clean and neat." P. 33.

These infant Catos are imbued at an early age with more than Roman learning.

It has been deemed necessary, in order to meet the wishes of the parents, to commence teaching the children the elements of reading, at a very early age; but it is intended that this mode should, ultimately, be superseded, at least until the age of seven or eight, by a regular course of natural history, geography, ancient, and modern history, chemistry, astronomy, &c. on the principle, that it is following the plan prescribed by nature, to give a child such particulars as he can easily be made to understand, concerning the nature and properties of the different objects around him, before we proceed to teach him the artificial signs which have been adopted to represent these objects. It is equally impolitic and irrational, at once to disgust him by a method to him obscure or unintelligible, and consequently tedious and uninteresting, of obtaining that knowledge, which may, in the meantime, be agree ably communicated by conversation, and illustrated by sensible signs; and which may thus, by giving the child a taste for learning, render the attainments of reading and writing really interesting to him, as the means of conferring increased facilities, in acquiring further information." P. 34.

In addition to natural history, geography, chemistry, and astronomy, which are to supersede the alphabet until the children are seven years old, they are also to learn toleration, liberality, and other branches of modern learning, at the same tender age.

"To the latter will belong such simple and distinct details, as may explain the phenomena of nature, of science, or of civilization, together with such as tend to create enlarged ideas, to repress illiberal or uncharitable sentiments on any subject, or to teach children to value every thing for its real worth, and prevent their being misled by the relation of events, which are too often held up as glorious and praiseworthy, but which, reason teaches us, are equally irrational and injurious to the happiness of the community." P. 34.

"The minds of the children are thus openedand they are pre

vented from contracting narrow, exclusive notions, which might lead them to regard those only as proper objects of sympathy and interest, who may live in the same country with themselves-or to consider that alone is right, which they have been accustomed to see or to suppose those habits and those opinions to be the standard of truth and of perfection, which the circumstances of their birth and education have rendered their own.” P.47.

This is the ne plus ultra of modern philosophy. Upon the subject of religion Mr. Dale is not as candid as his father, the latter having publicly rejected Christianity, while the former affects to acknowledge it. Was this worldly wisdom acquired uuder his parents instruction?

"RELIGION.-The founder of the schools of New Lanark has been accused of bringing up the children without religion.

"The direct and obvious tendency of the whole system of education there, most fully warrants, as it appears to us, a representation the very reverse of this; and as much has been asserted, and still more insinuated on the subject, we may be allowed to state our reasons for this opinion.

"An acquaintance with the works of the Deity, such as these children acquire, must lay the basis of true religion. The uniform consistency of such evidence, all nations, and all sects, at once acknowledge. No diversity of opinion can exist with regard to it. It is an evidence with which every one is really anxious that his children should adopt a true religion, must wish them to become acquainted; whether he may have been born in a Christian country, or be a disciple of Mahomet, or a follower of Bramah. Because simple facts can never mislead, or prejudice the mind. They can never support a religion which is false; they must always support one which is true. He who hesitates to receive them as the basis of his religion, tacitly acknowledges its inconsistency. And where there is inconsistency there is error. If the subsequent religious instruction, which a child is to receive, be true, then will the instructor derive, in teaching it, the greatest assistance from the store of natural facts, which the child has previously acquired; because true religion must be completely in unison with all facts. If such subsequent instruction be false, then will it certainly become a difficult task to induce a belief in its truth, because a child, whose mind has been thus prepared, will probably soon discover, that it is not in accordance with what he knows to be true; but every one must admit the advantage of such a difficulty. Even supposing a child instructed in true religion, and believing it implicitly, without however, having acquired that belief by deducing its truth from known or well accredited facts,-upon what foundation can such a belief be said to rest? The first sceptic he may converse with, will probably excite a doubt of its truth in his mind; and he himself, being unable to defend his opinions, and having no means of reasoning on the subject, may soon become a violent opposer of that religion, which, though true, had yet been taught to

him before he had acquired sufficient knowledge to understand its evidence, or was capable of judging of its truth or falsehood." P.52.

"At New Lanark, every opportunity is embraced of inculcating those practical moral principles which religion enjoins; and of storing the minds of the children with the most important and striking natural facts; but the consideration of any abstruse doctrines is, as far as the religious views of the parents will admit, reserved for an age, when the pupils shall be better fitted to judge for themselves, and to weigh, with an accuracy, which it would be folly to expect from a child, the opposing arguinents that are employed to support or to attack disputed points. By this means, the real interests of truth must necessarily be promoted; for it is evident that an individual, whose judgment has been thus informed, must be much less likely to reject truth, or to receive error, than it is possible for the unprepared mind of an infant to be.

"It appears to us, that if an individual be sincere in his religious profession, whatever peculiar tenets he may hold, he must, on mature consideration, approve of the plan, which is now suggested as the most certain method of disseminating his particular opinions over the world. And simply because each individual believes his own opinions to be true, or he would not entertain them.

"If it be admitted that a very large majority of the religions of the world are false-and it is certain, that only one can be truethen does the admission furnish an additional argument in favour of this mode of instruction. For it is very unlikely that any false religion would endure such a test: and it is certain, that a religion founded on reason and on truth, must be essentially promoted by it to the exclusion of all others.

"We shall not enter into any arguments in support of the doctrines propounded by Calvin; nor shall we question their truth or accuracy: the discussion is irrelevant to our present purpose; but it appears to us evident to a demonstration, that if these doctrines are true, we cannot adopt a more effectual method of inducing the whole world to become Calvinists, than that now recommended. If false, the sooner they are exploded the better.

"It is a fair question, whether too little interference in so der licate a subject as that of religion, or too great latitude in religious toleration, can ever exist? That an opposite system has excited the most bitter and violent of animosities, that it has armed the neighbour against his neighbour, the father against his children, has destroyed the peace and harmony of families and of nations, has deluged the world with blood, and under the sanction of the most sacred name, countenanced atrocities, during the relation of which we seem to listen to the history, not of men, endowed with reason, but of demons, possessed with an infernal spirit of savage madness these are facts, which every page of our history must establish. Can we be too tenacious in maintaining a principle, the practical influence of which, is to prevent the possibility of their recurrence?

"This is the principle that has always regulated the religious in

struction, in the New Lanark Schools. An endeavour has been made to rescue human nature from the imputations thrown upon it by the conduct of individuals, actuated by intemperate religious zeal-a conduct, which has often seemed to justify the strongest expressions regarding human deceit and human depravity. At New Lanark these imputations find no support: in supporting the system adopted there, no cause af complaint has arisen against the natural depravity of our nature. On the contrary, experience seems completely to warrant the opinion, that our nature is a delightful compound, capable, no doubt, of being formed to deceit and to wickedness, but inherently imbued neither with the one nor the other that if fear be excluded as a motive to action, a child will never become deceitful, for it will scarcely have a motive to deceive. That if a child be taught in a rational manner, it will itself become rational, and thus, even on the most selfish principle avoid wickedness-and that our only legitimate cause for surprise is the consideration, that human nature, as it now exists, is neither so de ceitful nor so wicked as the present arrangements of society would seem calculated to make it.

"We should apologise for this digression, but that we feel the importance of the subject, and the necessity that those who would improve and re-form the rising generation, should not create to themselves imaginary difficulties, where no real difficulties exist; and that we have seen how much evil may be done, when a teacher first takes it for granted, that all his pupils are all depraved and irrational beings, and then treats them as such. The very tone and manner, which such an idea produces, destroys confidence and creates distrust and dislike. When confidence is lost and dislike excited, the case becomes indeed hopeless; and the teacher, whatever be his talents, will meet with real and increasing difficulties, and daily discover fresh cause for distrust and vexation. Unjust suspicion first creates its object, and then glories in the penetration which discovered it. His pupils must consider that they have no character to lose, and are thus deprived of a great inducement to virtue. They will thwart him in all his measures, and deceive and oppose him on every occasion; because children will not act generously, unless they be treated with generosity.

"Before concluding this important subject, it may be necessary to say, that no allusion has been made in this place to a fact which has already been stated; viz. that the scriptures are and have always been statedly read, and the catech sm regularly taught there because this has been done, not as being considered the proper method of conveying religious instruction to the minds of young children, but because the parents were believed to wish it ; and any encroachment on perfect liberty of conscience, was regarded as the worst species of tyrannical assumption." P. 63.

We shall here conclude our extracts, passing over the remarks upon singing and dancing, which are subjoined to the chapter on religion. To such a religion as Mr. Owen's