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cive to higher qualifications and enjoyment. The Sunday-school Teacher, having gained the sympathy of the children, would be welcomed by their parents for an hour three days in the week, to converse on the subjects of instruction, in which all might join, and thus the parents themselves would improve. Popular Lectures by the Clergyman, the Surgeon, Schoolmaster, and others, on infant training, and upon the conduct to be observed towards their children, would advance the adults, who would perceive how much, even in the improvement of their neighbour's children, they were interested, as being the companions of their

own.

This growing conviction of parental responsibility in all that concerns the progress of their children, would render the members more guarded in their conduct, strengthen conjugal affection, and raise the general character of the Institution. A new and superior public opinion would be rapidly formed, and the best means of improving the rising generation would become the most interesting and popular subject of inquiry.

Of all the wonderful phenomena in the wide range of creation, none have more forcibly arrested attention than the beautiful adaptation of means to ends. Such has been the ardour with which discoveries have been successfully prose

But

cuted, as well from the desire of gain as in the more dignified pursuits of science, and so endless the manifestations of design, that the conclusion is now formed, that there is no object, however worthless in appearance, but has its appropriate use and value; traced in every form of existence, these manifestations are most conspicuous in the endowments of all sentient beings, for the peculiar functions of their nature, but, most especially, in that attribute which raises man so pre-eminently in the scale of the creation, loudly proclaiming his higher destinies, and constituting the image in which he was made in the likeness of God. instead of that image being deepened and more defined with advancing years, it is to be feared that it is less discernible than in the dawn of existence. We shall, however, greatly mistake, if in consequence of the multitudes who abandon the pursuits of Science, when released from the discipline of the schools, we infer that the desire of knowledge, and for higher ends, can never become general. The few who escape without an unconquerable aversion to study, are referred to as proofs of the excellence of the present system of Education, whereas their success is the result of a native energy of character, triumphing over needless obstacles that have robbed so many of their brightest inheritance. We have the highest au

thority for confidence in the glorious results of right training, and which it requires no penetration to perceive has been hitherto imperfectly understood, or entirely neglected. Fortunately

for the youth of these Institutions, the most valuable period of their lives will not be wasted in the premature study of ancient or foreign languages:* accustomed to useful occupation and manly exercises, animated by living examples, as well as those recorded in history most worthy of imitation; dwelling amidst the wonders and beauties of nature, with kind religious instructors to guide their observation, the external world, instead of impeding would facilitate the growth of the inner man the sublime and figurative language of the

*If twenty boys in one of these establishments were educated in natural philosophy and the sciences, including mathematics, and all that is interesting to children, judiciously and religiously trained, without being permitted to open a Latin grammar until they had attained their thirteenth year, and then formed into one class for the study of Greek and Latin-in four or five years they would be found far more accomplished in classical attainments than those of the same age who had commenced earlier at any of our public schools. Milton's opinions on this subject are well known, and that great author, whose elegant Latin compositions are so much admired, is not likely to have undervalued the ancient classics; nor is the translator of Plutarch. "Another principal advantage," says Langhorne in the "Life of Plutarch," "which the ancient mode of the Greek education gave its pupils, was their early access to

Scriptures would be better understood, more highly appreciated, and the divine harmony between the Word and the Works of God more strikingly displayed.

Among the variety of talents that would be elicited, should there be a youth devoted to Astronomy, and anxious for an Observatory in the benefits of which all would participate; to such an object we may suppose nearly the whole of the members would lend their assistance, and speedily raise one in their leisure hours. Conservatories, Local Museums, Schools of Art, as well as philophical instruments and other aids to science, would soon follow.

"For man loves knowledge, and the beams of truth
More welcome touch his understanding's eye,
Than all the blandishments of sound, his ear,
Than all of taste, his tongue."

every branch of philosophical learning. They did not, like us, employ their youth in the acquisition of words, they were engaged in pursuits of a loftier nature—in acquiring the knowledge of things. They did not, like us, spend seven or ten years of scholastic labour in making a general acquaintance with two dead languages. These years were employed in the study of nature, and in gaining the elements of philosophical knowledge from her original economy and laws." The elder D'Israeli observes, "Cato, at eighty, thought proper to learn Greek; and Plutarch, almost as late in his life, Latin. Koornbert began at forty to learn the Latin and Greek languages, of which he became a master. Ogilby, the translator of Homer and Virgil, knew little of Latin and Greek till he was past forty."

SOME OBJECTIONS TO THE SELF-SUPPORTING INSTITUTION ANSWERED.

INCREASE OF POPULATION.

HOWEVER remiss we may have been in a due attention to the wants and the sufferings of the present generation, we cannot be accused of indifference to the fate of future ages; and the fears of a redundancy of population, that have prevailed for the last fifty years, have too often stayed the hand of benevolence, and reconciled many to the existence of misery which was considered irremediable. The first, I believe, who started this idea was Wallace, in his work on the "Prospect and Numbers of Mankind;" who, after describing the wonders that man would achieve, and the happiness he would enjoy, when correct principles of Christian Association were adopted, all at once discovered the evils that might ensue from overwhelming numbers, and immediately abandoned the beautiful fabric he had reared. Mr. Malthus, although a man of benevolence, but having little sympathy or confidence in the brighter prospects of Mr. Wallace, took up the principle of population, and endeavoured, by statistical inquiries regarding the progress of different countries, to

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