ponderous load to master it, and would be greatly discouraged and afflicted to find that all their energies were exerted in vain. Their fruitless mental labour and subsequent regret, disappointment, and mortification, would prey upon their physical nature, not yet sufficiently developed to sustain it. Even those of riper years, with well established physical energies, have experienced the prostration of their corporeal nature when the whole vigour of their intellects have been aroused, for successive days, to untie some gordian knot, or dig in some deep recesses for important hidden truths, too valuable to permit the ambitious mind even for a moment to yield to despondency, or give over its laborious research.

§74. It is always best to assume at once the position, and inform the child that the subject is only suitable for riper years, and that there must be a patient waiting for the proper season. This would at once allay the feverish excitement of the mind, and quench the thirst, as well as postpone the effort, to comprehend abstruse matters. It will, moreover, operate favourably in cheering on, as well as stimulating the child, after his tenth year, in the comparatively dull and painful labours of a Latin and Greek Grammar, and other dry preparatory studies, when he is instructed that these are to qualify him the better to comprehend, by a mind thus disciplined, the secrets of nature, and to dig deep into them.

§75. Any one that is an attentive observer of children, must be struck with the great avidity they manifest in seeing and knowing all that comes within their reach, and the insatiable curiosity which prompts them to make endless inquiries, especially if the parent should be so judicious as not to blunt that curiosity by continually neglecting to gratify it. Education should, therefore, fall in and accord with these principles of nature, and not be at variance

therewith. The whole round of the material world is the child's book; it is adapted to his nature, to his capacity, and to his inclinations, and at the same time interferes not with his wonderful propensity of flying about in quest of knowledge from flower to flower, and from object to object, especially when their beauties, qualities and history are familiarly explained to them. Now if, instead of profiting by these hints of nature, we take a child and mew him up for whole hours in a school room with a book in his hand that can have little to interest, if not much to disgust him, what mental developments are to be expected from such a course? for it should ever be remembered that these developments are only to be expected by a free exercise of the mental powers, taking hold of the subject and mastering its difficulties, when they are not too overwhelming for the intellectual capacity. And what 'important improvement is there in taxing the memory with a mechanical jargon of words, scarcely a sentence of which is intelligible to the child. Such a course must necessarily disgust and torment him, and render the walls of a school room like those of a prison house, of all places the most gloomy and afflictive. It is no wonder we see so universally the joyful smiles when a holiday is announced, and hear our streets re-echo with the loud huzzas when the little captives are set at liberty for a season.

§76. The course that has been pursued in relation to this matter we say is radically wrong. It is directly at variance not only with the proper physical and intellectual, but it is feared, with the very moral developments. The principal cause of evil to the physical economy arises, as was observed, not so much from confinement, as from the harassings of mind, and the frettings and disquietudes which prey upon the whole nervous system, and through it upon

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the stomach and all the vital powers of the corporeal being. We cannot but again quote a portion of that on the 28th page from Julien on Education. It is directly to the point, and should be remembered. "The course to be adopted with children, for the first ten years of life, is neither to press nor torment them; but by plays, exercise of the body, entire liberty wisely regulated, and good nourishment, effect the salutary and progressive development of the physical, moral, and intellectual faculties; and by continual amusement and freedom from chagrin, (which injures the temper of children,) they will arrive at the tenth year without suspecting that they have been made to learn any thing; they have not distinguished between study and recreation; all they know they have learned freely, voluntarily, and always in play. The advantages obtained by this course are good health, grace, agility gaiety and happiness; a character frank and generous; a memory properly exercised; a sound judgment and a cultivated mind." This much for the impropriety of the present system of education, in relation to the physical development; that of the intellectual, will, as has been stated, appear under its proper head.

§77. Finally, with respect to excessive sensibility, early and external means for the cure or prevention must be supported by internal aids. A taste for mental employment not exciting to the mind, but engaging its attention, and strengthening and calling into action its various powers,― a love of order and regularity, which is of incalculable importance, a disposition to active exertion, which will turn the sensibility into the channel of benevolence and piety, fortitude, with respect to personal pains, patience, with respect to personal privations,-the habit of self-control, early checking or preventing that wild craving after mere animal pleasures, which never yet did any thing but

harm; and which important habit, supported by reason and religion, will bridle every sensual gratification which prudence and duty forbid ;-these cannot fail of being attended with the most beneficial effects on health and happiness; they will conduct the youth to the maturity and vigour of his bodily powers, of intellect and affection: they will en able as well as prompt him to act well his part in life, with usefulness to others, and with honour and comfort to himself, so that the world will be the better that he has lived and acted, causing the radiance of a benign influence to shed its blessings on all around.

§78. X. Purity.-This branch of the subject of physical education, like that of the preceding, is very closely allied to the intellectual, but especially to the moral cultivation; for although the passions that belong to sense receive their chief stimulant from our physical nature, yet the mind, unrestrained by moral principles, and let loose to its own libidinous cravings, will be in danger of being betrayed into the lowest depth of moral depravity. Under the III. head, the subject having an intimate connexion with diet and temperance, was partially considered; but as it is so highly important, especially in these times of grovelling sensuality, some distinct remarks seem to be demanded. It has awakened the deepest solicitude in the bosoms of many of the best of men; and none can be said to be truly inspired with philanthropic feelings, that is not sensibly alive to all the sources of human misery and degradation; and while they see and weep over the wretchedness of depraved human nature, cannot but endeavour, by every possible effort, to close up the floodgates of vice and immorality, and roll back the desolating tide of ruin.

§79. It is all-important, studiously to preserve the young not only from contaminating example, but also from con

taminating language, by which the very imagination may be polluted, Nor should books be allowed to pass into the hands of a child without being carefully inspected; for it is not unfrequently the case, that the most sad and lamentable inroads are made upon the purity of moral feeling by the pernicious productions of certain authors, who possess little or no moral principles to guide their pen.

§80. The only safeguard is in the vigilant training of the child, from his earliest years, in the strictest habits of correct self-government, and of the most rigid industry, connected with the purest principles of morality; so that, under a deep and solemn sense of accountability, every thought and feeling may be preserved under good and wholesome restraints. It should ever be a great and leading doctrine, constantly to be inculcated, that the highest exaltation of man consists in his being allied to his Maker in purity and moral excellence, and that this alliance is only formed and maintained by the full exercise of his moral being; and that only in this, strictly speaking, substantial and unalloyed happiness is to be found. That next to it are the intellectual pleasures, worthy of the pursuit of an intellectual being, and that the lowest are the mere animal gratifications, which, if made primary, are debasing and ruinous. Contempt for them, therefore, should be early inspired. They should ever be regarded with apprehensive fearfulness—as the tempting, poisonous fruit-ensnaring, and too frequently fatally destructive of all that is refining, ennobling and elevating.

§81. Constant occupation and employment are of the highest importance; and no time for idleness, strictly speaking, should ever be allowed. Labour, study, sports and recreations, should have their incessant round. It was a common and very just saying of the late venerable Dr.