spiritual welfare of his child. For undoubtedly, very nice judgment is required. On the one hand, it is true that children must be accustomed to say prayers before the heart can pray, the will must be submitted to some superior, and taught obedience in order to form humility and resignation. The child must obey the natural parent as the first step, otherwise he will never obey his heavenly Father. On the other hand, if the first lesson of obedience is too hard and compulsory, the change to the second will be too great, the compulsion will be missed, and obedience will fail. In leading to spiritual contemplation, it seems best to trust, by degrees, certain duties to the child alone. This begins when the child first says his prayers alone. So also, instead of causing a chapter to be read aloud, and then, as is not uncommon, intimating the duty is over, it is advisable to exhort children to read a little by themselves also, just as they pray by themselves. Then converse with them a little on the way they do this, explain that the Bible has a verse, if you can find it, for every sin, every temptation, and every want, and that whatever may happen to them though they should live a hundred years they may find their case is only that which hath been-in short, that the Bible is like a chart for this ocean of life, having every rock laid down, directions how to avoid them, and accounts of wrecks and escapes at every one. Teach each to look out for his own peculiar failing, and make the Bible a practical book. By the way, these steps to devotion are the more requisite, to

counteract the effect of making the Bible a book for every-day lessons. This daily reading will teach the law, but peculiar private advice is required to apply it. Beautiful hymns are also useful to attune the mind to meditation. For we are, even to a proverb, influenced by hearing the same thing repeatedly. Besides, such devotional pieces occupy the mind, keep idle thoughts out, and accustom it to holy sentiments.

Presuming that what I have now advanced will be allowed, with such concessions I feel myself in a position to say a little more on Liberal education. Science and the classical, as the basis of all other literature, I can now argue, are pre-eminently part of liberal education, because they extend the sphere of thought, and lead step by step to holy meditation. It raises the standard of man's amusements more nearly to the level of his highest duties. Think of the man of ordinary education; what are his amusements? not always of an intellectual kind at all; and should they be, he reads the newspapers or novels, and this not to study human character, no, but for that foe to piety, excitement; and the general effect will be any thing but improving; to come to the point, it will be a long step from these to holy things, from an excited to a tranquil state of Christian thought. And this is true, even without any allowance being made for the immorality of some of these works, but on the grounds that should they have no other effect for good or for evil, an excited is not a wholesome habit. Many will reply, that this kind

of reading does them no harm; I am sorry to hear it. This is the very thing of which I complain. In many minds the thoughts suggested, and the tone imparted by "light reading," have more purity and harmony than the sentiments which the same minds would originate if left to themselves. One of the novels founded on the exploits of highwaymen, may chance to occupy some young thief who would otherwise be planning robbery. One of a higher kind might keep a mind occupied and innocent without any positive effect either way. Then a reader would say it did him no harm. But the style of reading for which liberal education will give a taste, disdains to boast of no harm, but of positive good. Have we never heard men of sound reading say they do not like novels, not only because they think there is harm in them, but because novels do them harm; because their minds may become unsettled, and lose their relish for works that encourage thought and meditation? Consider the subjects in which men of the higher order of education find intellectual recreation. Some investigate the wonders of creation, or study those sciences on which all exact investigation must be founded: some delight to trace one simple cause, exerted by Omniscience in a multiplicity of apparently dissimilar effects, whether of organic or inorganic bodies. Some study the nature of living things, to see how wonderfully each is adapted to its peculiar sphere; how the elephant is armed with might to defy, and the hare with alacrity to evade his enemy. Some

compare the structure of man with the substances on which he feeds, and the air he breathes. Some investigate the nature of light, and how wonderfully it is suited to the delicate organs of human sight. Others go beyond the limits of the physical world, and reason with Aristotle and Butler on the moral constitution of man; ascertain the exact points in which the light of nature failed the former in his researches, and how the latter, calmly examining the deductions of the philosopher, adopted some in corroboration of his own reading of revelation; and, employing his talents for the noblest purposes, shewed that the light of the Gospel was as exactly adapted to the nature of the human heart, as the light of the sun to the human eye. These are the pursuits of the wellformed mind, and whatever be the degree in which, by forbidding the passions to be excited, and the imagination polluted, they cause a diversion from the sinful lusts of the flesh, the same is the degree in which liberal education is to be preferred by every Christian parent. The noblest contemplation is the Godhead itself, in which all our affections may be satisfied, and our deepest aspirations fulfilled: still, though this is the first point to wish, unfortunately it is the last to gain. We must not disdain to keep the mind of youth innocently, when not profitably employed; and patiently wait the time when prayers are heard, and grace mercifully vouchsafed, and when the soul finds all its support, its comfort and delight, in heavenly things,

ON THE STUDY OF LANGUAGES, AND CULTURE

OF TASTE.

On the study of Languages, I will quote a passage from La Bruyer, an author whom Locke commends as "a very observing gentleman.""One can scarce burden children too much with the knowledge of languages; they are useful to men of all conditions, and they equally open them the entrance either to the most profound, or the more easy and entertaining parts of learning. If this irksome study be put off to a little more advanced age, young men either have not resolution enough to apply to it out of choice, or steadiness to carry it on; those on whom the child depends, have authority enough to keep him close to a long-continued application."-Locke is of the same opinion, and thinks that the choice of languages should depend on the mode of life for which the pupil is preparing. Nay more, he asserts, at the risk, he intimates, of being deemed an innovator, that the most desirable language for every man to know is his own. Since my love of the Classics does not cause me in any way to dissent, I will condescend to consider the way to teach English first. And to begin with.

Reading-every parent has some notion of the advantage of good reading to a Clergyman: this, however, is an accomplishment that does not commence in childhood; for though a correct and distinct enunciation cannot be taught too early, every other point depends on voice, musical ear, and,