the distant isles of the South Sea, have returned with accounts which confirm what has been said, and may serve to convince us, "that man is born," as the Scripture expresses it, "like a wild ass's "colt;" and, without education, will continue such: that he is born with capabilities only, and is in reality what he is made by instruction. These accounts should produce in us a sentiment of pity for our fellow-creatures, whose condition is so truly deplorable; and one at the same time of gratitude to our heavenly Father, who has cast our lot in a fairer ground. Some modern philosophers seem to think the rocks of Patagonia, and the deserts of New Zealand, to be the only schools in which human nature can be studied to advantage. But surely we might as well expect a statuary to accomplish himself in his art, by looking all day at a block of marble, because out of that block a statue may be formed. Shall we judge of a plant, by contemplating the seed from which it is to spring? No: let us view the tree, its root fixed in the earth, and drawing moisture from beneath; its trunk fully grown, its branches expanded, and drinking in the dew of heaven from above; the whole invested with its foliage as a beautiful garment, and crowned with its fruit in the season. us not frame our ideas of human nature by surveying an infant or a savage. Show us the man completely formed and perfected by a liberal, a learned, and a religious education.

Let

From the mountains of Switzerland a voice has

Job, xi. 12.

been heard, proclaiming that we are all mistaken; and that to teach (in matters of religion and morality) is to prejudice; and, therefore, infuse, says this philosopher, no principles into the minds of youth; let them adopt their own when they come to years of discretion.

But still, it is an indisputable fact, that men must learn and they who do not learn betimes, will learn with far more difficulty, when advanced in years. The soil stiffens and hardens by continuing untilled. The ground must be broken up, and good seed must be sown, by him who expects to see valleys covered over with corn at the time of harvest. Weeds and thistles only will be the spontaneous and unhappy produce. If children are not early conducted into the paths of truth and virtue, they will be found, at a maturer age, in those of error and vice. We cannot, I am afraid, prevail upon the world, the flesh, and the devil, to stand neuter, during the experiment; an experiment which whoever shall make once, without pretending to the spirit of prophecy, we may venture to predict, will find no encouragement to make it again. The truth is, we must teach children the best we can while they are young, leaving them to alter and correct afterwards, if they shall see occasion. The nature of the thing admits of no other method consistent with the dictates of reason and common sense.

Instruction being thus necessary, we are to consider through what hands it may be most advantageously conveyed. Through those, perhaps it will be said, of the parents. One should certainly imagine

so at first sight. But then, all parents are not able to instruct, having not been themselves sufficiently instructed. Those of them who are able, may not be willing to submit to the task; while many, both able and willing, cannot find leisure from their necessary business to undertake it. The fault of Mr. Locke's treatise is, that it supposes none of these cases to happen, but that a father shall always be at liberty to take care of his son's education. The same fault is chargeable on the plan of a very sensible and agreeable instructress of a neighbouring kingdom. With great force of genius and goodness of heart, she describes two persons of noble birth as giving up the world, and retiring, for a course of years, from public life, that they might devote their time and fortune to the education of their children. Undoubtedly, the design is praise-worthy. They were excellently well employed. Would to God, that many of their rank were so employed in every kingdom upon earth. But all cannot do it; the scheme can never become general.

There is, besides, another difficulty in the way. The partiality and fondness of the tutor, when that tutor is a father, may often do the pupil an injury, the effects of which will go with him through life. To prevent this, the Spartans, by a law of the state, took children, at a certain age, out of the hands of their parents, and placed them under other masters. The Hebrews had their schools of the prophets, the Greeks and Romans their academies and gymnasia ;

Theodore et Adele, par M. la Comptesse de Genlis

and since the revival of learning in these latter days, the western world has abounded with schools and universities; of which, without incurring the charge of self-adulation, we may truly say, none have exceeded those in our own country.

In a public education, the means and instruments necessary for the acquisition of learning are possessed in a more full and complete manner. The master can give his time and his thoughts wholly to the work. Constant and long experience confers a degree of skill not otherwise to be attained. A spirit of emulation is excited in the scholar, who goes on with more sprightliness and alacrity in the company of his school-fellows, forgetting those that are behind, and pressing forward to those who are before, with the determination of a Cæsar, that nothing is yet done while any thing remains to be done. A regular succession of business at stated times inures him to live by rule, and forbids him to be idle; while the discipline by which it is enforced, renders him healthy and hardy in mind and body. By being put so soon to manage and bustle for himself, he is prepared for the world into which he must enter, and in which he must pass his days: the various tempers and disposi tions of his numerous companions bring him acquaint ed with those of mankind, among whom he is to pass them and he forms connexions, which by banishing selfishness, by exchanging offices of friendship by mutual assistance and communication of studies, as well as in many other ways, contribute towards his passing them with pleasure and emolument. If all who are engaged in the superintendence of our pub

lic seminaries could only bestow equal attention on the learning and morals of those under their care, so that they might go forth (and such, you will all bear me witness, have lately gone forth from hence) good MEN as well as good scHOLARS, the dispute between the patrons of public and private education would be, perhaps, in great measure, at an end.

Respecting the method of school instruction at present in use amongst us, it is one which has been long tried, and found successful; witness those great and shining characters, formed under its auspices, which adorn our annals; nor have its adversaries yet been able to propose another, liable, upon the whole, to fewer objections.

The observations made by an excellent writer on the plan proposed by the great Milton, are too valuable not to be recited to you upon the present oc

casion:

The purpose of Milton, as it seems, was to "teach something more solid than the common liter"ature of schools, by reading those authors that "treat of physical subjects, such as the Georgic "and astronomical treatises of the ancients. But "the truth is, that the knowledge of external nature "and of the sciences which that knowledge requires or includes, is not the great or the frequent busi"ness of the human mind. Whether we provide "for action or conversation, whether we wish to be

"useful or pleasing, the first requisite is the religious " and moral knowledge of right and wrong: the next "is an acquaintance with the history of mankind,