who has carefully studied mechanics and engineering who would be competent to make and manage such an engine. The place in which we live appears to us a very large place, and it contains a great variety of objects. There are natural objects, such as mountains and rivers, clouds and raindrops, plants and animals, minerals and metals, as well as artificial objects, as the clothing we wear, the ships in which we sail, and the books from which we learn. And as we grow older and observe more fully, the things to be known and studied become to us more and more numerous. Science, then, is a very general word, and may be applied to the right knowledge of very many subjects. Thus, there is a science of words: this is called Grammar. The science of the natural objects about us: this is called Natural Science or Natural Philosophy. The science of the heavenly bodies is Astronomy, and that of the elements, or materials of which the earth is made up, is Chemistry. Another branch of science treats of animals, another of plants. One science teaches of our bodies, and another of our mental and moral powers. The highest science teaches of God Himself; and of our relations and duties to Him. This is called Theology. Home Exercise.-1. Define labourer, medicine, includes, competent, grammar, and theology. 2. Say wherein the knowledge of grammar, as a science, differs from the mere knowledge of words. 3. Name six sciences, and say what each treats of. of you are already asking. And you add, "We know what School is, but we cannot think what Ethics means. It hardly sounds like an English word." Well, it is not an old English word; but as you have probably been told, besides our old English words we have many others from various sources that have become English. 'Ethics' is one of these, and is a slightly altered Greek word, and means, those principles or rules by which men act; in other words, the science of morals or right acting. Now, the Angles and Saxons who framed our language were a people who thought very little about what they ought to do, or why they did it. And hence, while they had plenty of words that stood for their modes of fighting and working, they had fewer words to express thoughts and feelings. And so, when the English took to thinking about right and wrong acting, they adopted the words of the thinking Greeks, and changing them a little, made them a part of our language. And now you say, "If Ethics means the rules by which men act, what can School Ethics mean? We are not men, so it must mean the rules by which our teachers ought to act." Yes, you are right as far as you go. School Ethics will show teachers how they ought to act to pupils, but it will also teach pupils how they ought to act toward their teachers, as well as how they ought to act to one another. You may now ask, very properly ;-Wherein, then, does School Ethics differ from Ethics in its common use? We answer, not at all in principle, only in the kind of actions by which those principles are shown. Thus, it is a principle of Ethics that it is wrong for the strong to oppress the weak; that is, it is wrong for one who is strong to take from the weak something that the latter possesses, only because the one has the power to take, and the other has not the power to retain. Amongst men this kind of conduct is known by such names as tyranny, oppression, and robbery; but amongst boys at school, although the motive is the same, and the action of the same kind, yet it is often called by only a mild term, such as cribbing, bullying, and helping one's self. Now, we want boys and girls at school ever to remember the line of our poet, "The child is father of the man;" and rest assured that, if at school they allow themselves to indulge in actions wrong in principle, though the acts themselves may appear trifling, they will probably as they grow older, indulge in the same kind of deed, though in matters of much greater consequence. All young persons like to hear of the noble and good deeds done by men in past ages; and most of them purpose that when they become men they will do the like. They mean to be generous to those who by misfortune fall into trouble. They mean to hold by the true and just, cost what it may. They mean to care for the welfare of their fatherland. This is as it should be; but they must remember that only "he that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much.” And the way to become a generous benefactor, a faithful citizen, and a true patriot, is by being the kind-hearted schoolboy, the conscientious pupil, and the unselfish playmate. The Child is father of the Man; And I could wish my days to be WORDSWORTH. Exercises.-1.Define School Ethics, tyranny, fatherland. and patriot. 2. Show why the Greek word Ethics' was used to express the principles of right acting. 3. Give reasons why young persons should be taught the principles of morals or ethics. THE MOUSE'S PETITION. Pensive, disposed to quiet Prisoner, one who cannot Betrayed, put into the Оí, hear a pensive prisoner's prayer, For here forlorn and sad I sit, And tremble at the approaching morn, If e'er thy breast with freedom glowed, Oh; do not stain with guiltless blood Nor triumph that thy wiles betrayed The scattered gleanings of a feast, But if thy unrelenting heart That slender boon deny, |