Few schoolmasters rarely recognise that fear is a depressant, and its antagonism, hope, a stimulant. Many a genius has been nipped in the bud, from the ignorance of the governor. On this granite fact we write feelingly and sympathetically, in relation to these remarks. As Burke objected,—if fear created the gods, what created the fear? Fear and hope,-more just to the grandeur of man, are the objects of our mission of love. We re-echo the cry-What created the fear? It is now needless almost to say, it invariably arises from a morbid sensibility of the pupil, possibly born under adverse circumstances, and, likely enough, ignorantly educated, ab initio, the physiology of the nervous system not being recognised; not unlikely, the teacher himself never having been taught the real and true philosophy, the groundwork of all education,-the primary principle. No wonder we have such odious products! To say the Deity wills it, is to libel His paternal and merciful attributes. It is the vacant mind that falls the easiest prey. To live for a good object, is indeed to be clad in armour. The hypochondriac, in fixing his consciousness with morbid intentness on certain organs, creates not merely his disordered sensations, but also disordered actions in them.

We are anxious for the advent of a giant mind, who has an indomitable iron will-to do or die. In the "to be or not to be," the question is-Are we to have happiness or misery-liberty or slavery? Everything in the condition of mankind pronounces the approach of some great crisis, for which nothing can prepare us but the diffusion of knowledge, probity, and the fear of the LORD.

While the world is impelled with such violence in opposite directions,—while a spirit of giddiness and revolt is shed upon the nations, and the seeds of imitation are thickly sown, war courted as a pleasure, the improvement of the mass of the people will be our grand security; in the neglect of which, the politeness, the refinement, and the knowledge accumulated in the higher orders, weak and unprotected, will be exposed to most imminent danger, and perish like a garland in the grasp of popular fury.

"Cursed be the gold and silver which persuade
Weak men to follow far fatiguing trade!
The lily peace-outshines the silver store,
And life is dearer than the golden ore."

CHAPTER XXIII.

LAVATER ON CAPACITY, TALENTS, AND CONDUCT.-REV. B. PARSONS' REMARKS ON MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

"Trust him little, who doth raise

To the same height both great and small,
And sets the sacred crown of praise,
Smiling on the head of all.

Trust him less, who looks around
To censure all with scornful eyes,
And in everything has found
Something that he dare despise.

But for one who stands apart,
Stirr'd by naught that can befal,
With a cold indifferent heart,

Trust him least and last of all."

LAVATER, pastor of Zurich, surnamed the Swiss Fenelon, one of the best writers of his age and country, and remarkable for his learning and his eloquence, the author of Physiognomy,-a decided realist, in his treatise on capacity, talents, and conduct, has an exclamatory burst of this sort, pioneering the way to matters of thrilling interest to every class of the community. The following sentiments, we think, cannot be too deeply engraved on the minds of our juvenile readers :

:

When, O men and brethren, children of the common Father, when will you begin to judge each other justly? When will you cease to require to force from the man of sensibility, the abstraction of the cold, the phlegmatic?

or from the latter, the enthusiasm of the man of sensibility? When cease to ask for nectarines from an apple tree, or figs from the vine? The lofty-souled philosopher then strikingly remarks-Man is man, nor can wishes make him an angel. So far as my own sphere extends, I am free-within that circle can act. I, to whom one talent has been entrusted, cannot act like him who has two acquisitions. True-they may lead to new acquisitions, but they will not complete new parts. My talents may be, however, well or ill employed. A certain quantity of power is bestowed on me, which I may use; and by use increase-by want of use, diminish-by misuse, totally lose. But I never can perform with this quantity (or kind equally) of power, what might be performed with a double quantity, equally well applied. Industry may make near approaches to ingenuity, and ingenuity to genius; but never can industry supply the total absence of genius or ingenuity. Let us be ever ready to put a genial construction upon acts of which the motive can only be guessed.

Each man,

but whether

This he may those of one

No man should shut up any of his senses. in respect of mind, is a sovereign prince; small or great, only in his own principality. cultivate so as to produce fruits equal to twice as large, the half of which is left uncultivated. But although he cannot extend his principality, yet having cultivated it well, the lord of the neighbourhood may add one to it (of his own) as a gift. Such being the nature of freedom and necessity, it ought to render each of us humble yet ardent, active yet modest. In the house of

GOD, there are to his glory, vessels of wood, of silver, and of gold. All are serviceable-all capable of Divine uses-all instruments of good; but the wood is still wood; the silver, silver; the gold, gold. Though the latter should remain unused, still they are gold. The wooden may be made more serviceable than the golden, still they are wood. No addition, no constraint, no effort of the mind, can give to a man another man's nature. [I suppose the operation of the grace of God to be here out of the question, as the addition conferred by this is Divine.] The violin cannot give the sound of the flute, nor the trumpet of the drum; but the violin, differently strung, differently bowed, and differently fingered, may produce an infinite variety of sounds, neither those of the drum nor the trumpet. Instruments, moreover, require their appropriate treatment. We may thump the gridiron with the tongs, but we must take the tender bow to the fiddle. I cannot write well with a bad pen; but with a good one I can write well or ill. Being foolish I can speak wisely; but I may speak foolishly, though wise. He who nothing has, can nothing give (ex nihilo nihil fit); but having, he may give or refrain. In like manner am I free, and not free. The sum of my powers, the degree of my activity, depend upon my organisation, internal and external, on incidents, incitements, men, books, good or ill fortune; that is to say, the will and over-ruling direction of GoD in His Providence towards me, which may vary with my conduct, or the use I make of the power originally bestowed.

In a collection of stuffed birds, where are the raven,