sentinel in the way of danger, and like the sentinel's voice upon the brink of ruin, should be considered as the pleasantest of all, though withdrawing us from the fondest pursuit.

So knowledge, which is pabulum animi, is agreeable to the mind. Who can have passed an hour with a child without perceiving his anxiety to know the cause of any thing and every thing around him? "Who made me?" "Where is heaven?" and questions of this nature, showing the activity of the mind and its desire to be informed, occur every moment. Philosophers well know that the most interesting questions are frequently proposed by children; and there is not a parent who is not conscious of the difficulty in solving their innocent, but intricate inquiries.

The origin of the love of knowledge seems obvious. A child sees the fire, and puts his hand into it. He discovers that, beautiful as the fire is in appearance, and warm in its immediate influence, it is, without caution, attended with great evil. A child was sitting in the garden eating his bread and milk out of a little bowl, when a snake, beautiful in appearance, approached, raised itself, and took a piece of the bread and retreated. He presently returned, and took another piece of the bread. The child lifted its little arm, and said, "Not so fast, speckled back." The snake bit the child. Children, therefore, soon discover that all is not gold which glitters, and are therefore soon anxious not to be misled. So the love of knowledge seems to originate, and, for the same cause, continues through life. What have we to rely

upon but knowledge? Therefore it is one of our most exquisite delights, and most powerful motives of action.

The power of the love of knowledge is irresistible; it surmounts all obstacles which are opposed by external circumstances. It is not diverted from its object by the tumult of business, the distresses of poverty, or the interruptions of a wandering life: it may indeed be impeded for a time, but it is never destroyed. When waves interpose, love converts his quiver into a canoe, one arrow is his mast, another is his oar.

"Over the mountains

And over the waves,
Under the fountains

And under the graves;
Under floods that are deepest
Which Neptune obey,
Over rocks that are steepest

Love will find out the way.

Where there is no place

For the glow-worm to lie,
Where there is no space

For receipt of a fly;

Where the midge dares not venture
Lest herself fast she lay,

If Love come, he will enter,
And soon find out the way."

NOTE (M).

"We see in all other pleasures there is a satiety, and after they be used, their verdure departeth: which showeth well they be but deceits of pleasure, and not pleasure: and therefore we see that voluptuous men

turn friars, and ambitious princes turn melancholy. But of knowledge there is no satiety; but satisfaction and appetite are perpetually interchangeable, and therefore appeareth to be good in itself simply, without fallacy or accident."-Bacon.

NOTE (N).

The Love of Excellence generates good feeling. "I have, through life, been willing to give every thing to others, and to reserve nothing for myself but the inward conscience that I have omitted no pains to discover, to animate, to discipline, to direct the abilities of the country for its service, and to place them in the best light to improve their age, or to adorn it. This conscience I have. I have never suppressed any man; never checked him for a moment in his course, by any jealousy, or any policy. I was always ready, to the height of my means, (and they were always infinitely below my desires,) to forward those abilities which overpowered my own."Burke.

It was noted to the praise of Cyrus, that amongst his equals in age he would never play at any sport or use any exercise in which he knew himself more excellent than they: but in such in which he was unskilful he would make his challenges, lest he should shame them by his victory, and that himself might learn something of their skill, and do them civilities.

Pedaretus, being left out of the election of the number of the Three Hundred, said, “It does me good to see there are three hundred found better in the city than myself."

I

NOTE (0).

In not chilling the desire, the conduct of the preceptor is all in all. The imparting knowledge is either for immediate use, or for growth. "The delivery of knowledge is as of fair bodies of trees: if you mean to use the shoot, as the builder doth, it is no matter for the roots; but if you mean it to grow, as the planter doth, look you well that the slip hath part of the root. . . . A desire to know is the very soul of education, without which she is only as a statue, lovely indeed to behold, but dead and motionless."

Knowledge for use may be imparted by direct instruction, where information is intentionally communicated; knowledge for growth is imparted chiefly by indirect instruction, or by the effect of accident and virtuous example.

Many Grecian philosophers were convened before the ambassador of a foreign prince, and every one, according to their several abilities, made some demonstration of his wisdom, that so the ambassador might have matter of report touching the admired wisdom of the Grecians. But amongst these there was one, as the story goes, who stood still and uttered nothing in the assembly, insomuch that the ambassador turned to him, and said, "And what is your gift, that I may report it?" To whom the philosopher answered, “Report unto your king, that you found one among the Grecians who knew how to hold his peace."

"Interdum magis afficiunt non dicta quam dicta."

It is not by the exertions, but by the temperament and example of the instructor, that the mind is awakened to be ever alive and ever active. It is seldom

effected by direct education; it results rather from the slow, indirect, silent, but certain and persuasive admonition of an intellectual and virtuous life. It does not originate in precept, but in the manner of the preceptor; not in the lecture-room, but by the fire-side, and amidst the sweet charities of private life; not in the praise of temperance, of simplicity, of diligence, but in being temperate, and meek, and industrious ; not in extolling wisdom, but in loving her beauty, in taking her to dwell with him, reposing with her, and manifesting that her conversation hath no bitterness, and to live with her hath no sorrow, but mirth and joy. "Mollia tempora fandi."

The author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, speaking of his pursuits in the university, says, "The mild behaviour of my tutor gained my confidence: I preferred his society to that of the younger students, and in our evening walks to the top of Hedrington Hill, we freely conversed on a variety of subjects."

In planting a seed, care must be taken that it is not cast on a soil destructive of its existence; that it is so placed, as to have its living powers properly excited; and, if it is intended to be healthy and durable, that it is not forced in its growth. So it seems to be in education. The love of truth ought not to be checked in its infancy by painful associations. It ought to be excited by natural causes of excitement; and if it is intended not for show but for substance, not to run out in talk for the gratification of the youth or the vanity of the parent, but for perpetual progress, it ought not to be stimulated into unnatural action.