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The school taught them nothing-they learned all themselves in spite of the school. The artificial is as often a curse as a blessing. Which it will be, depends both upon the subject-matter on which it is based, and the manner in which it is applied.

In all the varied facts of Nature, then, and the relations, active and passive, that exist between the mind of man and the objective world, are to be found the materials for education. These will include not only the sciences, but the records of these in histories, and the arts which the ingenuity of man has elaborated from them. Thus man, by a better understanding of his relations to all around him, will be better able to discharge his duty to all around him, which duty, leavened by spiritual aspiration and Christian faith, will, when his work is done, secure for him that glorious eulogyWell done, good and faithful servant, Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

INFERIAE AD FRATRIS TUMULUM.-THE LAST RITES.
FROM CATULLUS, xcviii.

THROUGH many a city borne-o'er many a main-
To these sad rites, my brother, am I come-
To pay thee death's last dues, and, though in vain,
Hold converse with thine ashes, cold and dumb,
Since thee, my brother, Fate hath riven away-
Thee, oh! so dear, so doom'd-so long before thy day!
These offerings-which our fathers' customs tell
Are meetly render'd to the mournful dead-
All in a brother's weeping watered-

Accept; and evermore, sweet brother, fare-thee-well!

Εἰς Ερωτα-ΤO LOVE.

FROM ANACREON.

HARD is his fate who never thrilled with love,
Hard, too, his fate in whom its fierce flames burn;
But harder than them both does his fate prove,
Who loving, meets not with love's kind return.
Love spurneth with contempt, birth, wisdom, wit;
Bright, glistening money is its sole delight.
Curst, and for ever lost, be he who first
A love for money in his bosom nursed;
By this is cut the tender tie of brother-

Is crushed the tender care of father-mother;

It stirs up wars and broils, and what is worse,

This love of money is-the lover's curse.

CONTRO L'INGRATITUDINE.-AGAINST INGRATITUDE.
FROM METASTASIO.

THOUGH We think it hath no feeling,
Yet that little tree is grateful

To the friendly streamlet, stealing
Underneath, that it may never thirst.

Thence its graceful leaves deriving,
See the gratitude it renders,

When the sun's fierce rays it hinders
From drying up the breast by which 'tis nurs'd.

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EDUCATION-SECULAR OR RELIGIOUS?

THE necessity of educating the masses of our population is now no longer a subject of discussion. All are agreed upon that. But great diversity of opinion exists with regard to the nature of that education, and, consequently, the manner of establishing it. A small party upholds the right of the people to educate themselves by voluntary effort, but that view, we apprehend, would be as effective as sustaining by similar means the regular dispensing of public justice. Education, we think, is the province of the executive. The real question now is, what educating instruments shall we put into the hands of the exccutive? And the main bone of contention is, shall education be secular or religious? We think that genuine education must be religious in character. Education cannot be purely secular. This involves the definition of education, which we conceive to be this-the operation of all those influences which tend to fit man to perform the purposes of life. Man's chief end is to glorify God in this world, so that he may enjoy Him in the next. All the minor purposes of life are subordinate to this main one-the glory of God; and every minor purpose must be impregnated with the spirit of the main one, for they are the particulars of which the main one is constructed. Some arts that we acquire as instruments in these, may be alleged as not tending thereto; but this is a short-sighted view of their use, and cannot be advanced by a thoughtful person. The minutest phase of this life has an influence on our destiny. God has placed within our reach the means and instruments for accomplishing this will with regard to ourselves. He has planted in our constitution the instruments, and in His uttered word and created works the means of educating ourselves. Mere knowledge is but the husk, religious morality is the kernel of education. Was nature intended by God only to appease man's craving curiosity? Was it not designed as a revelation of himself, so far as He has chosen to relate himself to man? What is the use of knowledge, unless by deep thought it be digested, so as to invigorate the soul by imparting increasing faith and enforcing moral conduct? It may be said,-Let the teacher impart knowledge at school, and let the minister or parent take charge of the religious instruction. But here the art of teaching is misunderstood. Education is not a house of knowledge which the teacher may construct and the minister or parent may fill with a tenant. It is rather a living organisation which can only devour a definite modicum of food, and must wait in the course of nature till that food has been digested, and has invigorated the system, before it can receive more.

But it may be said, "You are not debarred from inculcating natural morality-it is only the moralities of peculiar religions we except." Well, we would exclude all other moralities save our national one, that of Protestant Christianity; and we apprehend the difference to be this-religious morality, as exhibited in the Bible, contains natural morality and more-the doctrine of the fall of man from a state of grace with God-his redemption and consequent re

storation to that state through Christ our Redeemer. It is this additional feature makes it Christian, and we see not, if this be a Christian country, why these two facts, or rather that one fact-for the one involves the other-should not be taught also. Some time ago, ministers of all evangelical denominations met together in Christian brotherliness on the general principles of Christianity-those essential points on which all evangelical Christians are of one mind. They knocked down, for the time, the petty partitions of individual systems, and met together to implore the Divine blessing on combined Christian duty in the grand undivided temple of Christ; the bounding truths of which were, Love to God, love to man, redemption through a common Saviour, and faith in the Spirit of God. Can we not do so in Education? Can we not introduce what is essential and leave out our peculiar systematic theologies? All can agree to this, for they have already admitted its practicability in producing effective Christian work. The London Missionary Society employs missionaries of all denominations, and it works successfully. Education is a work of the same kind as missions, in which sound evangelical truth is to be taught, and not peculiar theologies. It is only the general principles of Christianity that can be taught in a general school. None of the special differences that exist among Christians occur in the general practice of a school. A special occasion would be required for them even were they ordered to be introduced.

Through the Bible God has spoken more directly and more specifically than through nature, and are we to be restricted from using the special means because we have the general? Nay; is this direct one not the most valuable to us? It is an admirable book of instruction. Every person finds in it some part suited to his years. It is often said that it is too difficult for children. Are not some parts too difficult for men? Yet they study it. Why not then let children study what they can comprehend? In this, also, it may be abused as well as rightly used. Besides, children must study the book of Nature, and yet there are many things in it that highly-cultivated intellects cannot comprehend. In this we would say, sufficient for their time of life is the portion adapted to their tender understanding. This does not imply the using of the Bible as a horn-book, by means of which to learn the subordinate arts of education. No sensible teacher would ever employ it as such. Ought the precepts of Christianity to be taught in our schools? is a question that, in a Christian community, deserves no answer. Το those who do answer in the negative, let us propose this question in another form. A school is a place for instruction and training, so as to qualify for a certain end. That end is the ability of conduct towards man and God, and the peculiar instruction and training must tend to fit thereto. Now, as conduct is but precept acted upon, what better precepts could be acted on so as to produce the conduct we wish, than the two upon which the whole moral essence of Christianity depends, namely:"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and

with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength;" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Will any one deny that they ought to be taught these? If they do, they convey their own refutation in their answer. A true educator will only instruct in knowledge, and train to the art of thinking that they may be productive of genuine wisdom. If this conduct, guided by wisdom, be the ultimate end of education, how can we neglect a material so productive of both?

We can hardly realise the existence amongst us of a school regulated by any other principles than those of Christianity. That conduct, as well as physical and intellectual, is a part of school duty (we would say the chief part) no one can surely deny. Where is the school in which the following laws are not obeyed? Learn your lessons because it is the command of God that you improve your mind-Act openly and honestly towards your master and fellow-pupils, because God hates a hypocrite-Defraud no one, even though you can do it without discovery, because your every action is open to the all-seeing eye of God-Bear not false witness against a fellow-scholar, because God hates a liar, etc. Rules such as these must regulate the conduct of every school in a community such as The only thing that can be altered is the reason of obedience, and what shall we substitute? Learn your lessons, because if you learn your lessons well, you will get a prize at the end of the session; and if you don't, you'll get a poena? Act openly and honestly, because if you don't, you will get a black mark against your name? Defraud no one, else you will be kept in during play-hour? Bear not false witness, else you will get a flogging? Immediate punishments are no doubt salutary, but only so when made emblematic of the severer displeasure of God. It is this latter, alone, that takes away the appearance of personality and revenge on the part of the master.

ours.

Let the voices of those who speak against Christianity being taught in schools, be rather heard in denouncing the Paganism that has been taught in them for such a length of time. Said a preacher to an actor once, "How is it that you can draw tears from your audience while they know that what you utter is but feigned, whereas I, though I utter the most sublime truths, can hardly keep them from falling asleep?" "Because you preach truth to them as if it were fiction, and I act fiction as if it were truth," was the reply. And so is it with this Pagan mythology. It is eloquent with the glow of a most imaginative people, and stamps itself forcibly upon the youthful mind, in which imagination is more powerful than reason; whereas the Bible, with its infinitely beautiful contents, is, we fear, too often rendered offensive to it by the manner in which it is forced upon it. The matter of the Bible has been blamed for the faults of the manner of conveying its truths-a very common error, but very easily corrected. The nature of the mind must be consulted, as also Nature's method-whether we have done so truly will be seen in the result. she will come in at the window." we seem to triumph over her,

"Put Nature out at the door, and When we offer violence to Nature, and to make her obedient to our

power. Alas! what we imagine a triumph is but, in fact, her just retaliation, and she is powerfully present in her revenge at the very moment we flatter ourselves we have banished her.

Our deepest conviction of the necessity of Scriptural instruction and training in schools rests on the nature of our mental constitution. We think, with Brown, that "The true science of education-that noble science which has the charge of training the ignorance and imbecility of infancy into all the virtue, and power, and wisdom of mature manhood-of forming of a creature the frailest and feeblest, perhaps, which Heaven has made, the intelligent and fearless sovereign of the whole animated creation-the interpreter, and adorer, and almost representative of the Divinity-is the philosophy of the human mind applied practically to the human mind; enriching it, indeed, with all that is useful or ornamental in knowledge, but, at the same time, giving its chief regard to objects of yet greater moment; averting evil, which all the sciences together could not compensate; or producing good, compared with which all the sciences together are as nothing." In the New Testament have we not the highest possible example in Him who went about averting evil and doing good? We think, with Cousin, that the "admirable organisation which elevates us above all other animated beings is a rich and varied instrument which it would be folly to neglect, that the spectacle of the world is a permanent source of sound and sublime instruction;" but with him, too, we account psychology, or the science of the soul, pre-eminent above and directing the science of mind that the Divine instinct in the soul is a more noble and truer self than the natural reason of the mind, and that through all we ought to follow where our nobler destiny leads. As Cousin

in philosophy, so we in education, which is, in fact, philosophy reduced to practice, would maintain, "Our true doctrine, our true glory is spiritualism-that philosophy as solid, as generous, which the Gospel has spread abroad in the world."

LEANDER AT THE HELLESPONT.

I LOOK towards the dwelling of my love,
That sweetly rises on the distant shore,
And sigh for wing of sylph, or god above,
To bear me to her o'er the ocean's roar.

Ah! why can Fancy now no more allay

This throbbing breast, which once she clasp'd to hers?
Blest be that moment!-blest that bridal day,

Whose memory seas of fond emotion stirs!

O for Arion's deep-enchanting skill,

That charm'd the finny coursers from the deep!
Then would I cleave the watery way at will,
And to her arms in eager transport leap.

In vain-bold heart and sinews tough must bear
Leander to his matchless Hero's arms.
Neptune, befriend!-thou, Venus, be my care!-
Deep sea, I brave thee for my Hero's charms!

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