stones and minerals and shells and insects into cabinets; and witness some experiments in chemistry, it is supposed that they have studied the sciences. But all this is child's play; or, at best, only useful for the healthful bodily exercise, which is sometimes involved in making herbariums and cabinets. Astronomy does not consist of the heavenly bodies, but of their laws of motion, and relations to each other; nor chemistry of the earthly substances of which it treats, but of their laws of combination and means of analysis. In short, nothing need be said to prove that it is absurd to attempt to teach the sciences to children under twelve years old. They should be led to nature for the picturesque and for poetry, not for the purpose of scientific analysis and deduction. They should look upon its synthesis as sacred. The time will come when they may explore it, as God's means for aiding and completing the building up of their own Intellect; and it is a positive moral injury to them to study it while they are too young to understand this object. My readers may smile, and yet it is true, that in teaching Geometry I have been in the habit of so presenting it to the minds of my pupils, that fretting and passion when occasioned by the difficulty of mastering a demonstration of those laws by which the Creator constituted the universe, could easily be checked by a single word reminding them that it was the Creator's mind we were studying. Nothing can be more blessed than the influence of this view, when connected, as it should be, with benignant views of the Deity, as the all-cherishing, and all-animating Father of our Spirits. Mr. Alcott says,-Let children sketch from Nature, cultivate flowers, cherish animals, keep shells, and pretty stones, but not study natural Philosophy, Botany, Zoology, Conchology, Mineralogy, &c. &c. till after they have learnt those principles of arrangement, which are to be found within the soul and which are nearer and more easily apprehended than any natural science and is not this rational?

Also, if Mr. Alcott does not pretend to teach the natural sciences, he does what will ultimately prove of the highest service to Scientific Education, in giving his scholars the habit of weighing the meaning, and considering the comparative force of words. A long preparation of this kind

for the study of the Sciences, is fully made up by the ease with which any science is mastered, through a previous knowledge of words. Time is wasted to an incalculable extent, in common education, and even in self-education, on account of our want of precision in the ideas we attach to words, which are too familiar to our ear, for us to realise that we do not clearly understand them. A great effort is made to remember lessons, and then they are forgotten. Perhaps those are the soonest forgotten, which it is the greatest effort to remember. But if the study is chosen with reference to the state of the mind, and the words of the lesson are perfectly understood, there need be no effort of mere memory. A clear and vivid conception, together with actual growth of mind, is remembered, involuntarily. Nothing is more common than to confound intellectual labour with fagging. Yet nothing can be more different than these. Bodily accomplishments, sleight of hand, &c. are attained by mere repetition, but intellectual accomplishment and acuteness are not attained by mere repetition of impression, though this is very commonly thought, but by a perfectly clear and vivid conception in the first place, dwelt upon so long that its most important relations may be developed, and not long enough to harass or weary the mind. Indeed, it is well known, that repetition of the same mental impressions, may destroy the memory altogether. The laws of bodily and mental discipline, are precisely the reverse of each other. I could deduce a thousand facts under my own observation, to confirm this view with respect to the true culture of memory. But I will merely state, in this place, that I have tested the advantage of a nice logical preparation for the study of the sciences, in my own school. Convinced that children were not benefitted, by committing to memory text books of natural science, or even by witnessing experiments, until they had previously looked upon the creation with the poetical and religious eye which regards every fact as an exponent of Spiritual truth, I steadily opposed their studying them, making the sole exception of Geometry, which is not so much a science of external nature, as a contemplation of the Intellect. I found their knowledge of the intellectual habit of abstraction made the theory of geometry easy to them, while their understanding

of words enabled them to master the particular demonstrations, rapidly and completely. It was a favorite study with a whole school of thirty-five scholars, minds never subjected to the slightest artificial stimulus, not even what might arise from my keeping a weekly record, or changing their places in a class. All became expert in geometrical reasoning. Even the slowest of all, a child formed intellectually, as well as bodily, for the early death she met; and whom I never could carry farther in grammar, than to separate the names of sensible objects from other words, nor deeper in natural history than to remember the facts that addressed her social affections; did go through the plane Geometry with pleasure, and do all the problems with success, though not without long and faithful labour. When, at about thirteen years of age, these children were set to the study of natural philosophy; even without the advantage of an apparatus for experiments, and with no means of verification but geometrical demonstration; they made a progress which more than answered my own expectations, and has astonished every experienced person who has heard the details. It would be perfectly safe, and perhaps even better, were language taught as it should be, that the natural sciences, together with history, should not come among school studies, but be deferred to the period of life immediately succeeding the school period. Drawing, language, arithmetic, geography and geometry, indeed whatever can be more easily acquired by the assistance of others, should be school studies. These would train the mind to a maturity, which makes books of natural science, and of political history, easily understood, and acquired. It is very easy for a prepared mind to learn, or at least to reason without an instructor, upon facts, which no mere industry could apprehend in relation to each other. And it is to form this prepared mind that Mr. Alcott aims.

For it is not for moral education only, that self-analysis and the study of the "truth of our nature" in Jesus Christ is desirable. It is no less beneficial to the intellectual education. The soul itself, when looked on as an object, becomes a subject of scientific classification, in its faculties and operations; and the consideration of the true principles and conduct of life, is most favorable to the develop

ment of right judgement, especially when parallel lives, shewing approximations to the Ideal, or even wanderings from it, are given in connexion with the study of the life of Jesus, affording variety of illustration. Indeed, there is something peculiarly appropriate to the young, in the study of Biography. But there is very little biography written, which gives an insight into the life of the mind, and especially into its formation. It is only occasionally that we find a philosopher who can read other men's experience, and to whom the incidents of a life are transparent. But for the purposes of education, there should be biographies of the childhood of genius and virtue, on the plan of Carlyle's life of Schiller, and his articles on Burns and others.

To supply the want of biography, Mr. Alcott relies a great deal upon Journal writing, which is autobiography, while it hardly seems so to the writer. To learn to use words, teaches us to appreciate their force. And, while Mr. Alcott presents this exercise as a means of self-inspection and self-knowledge, enabling the writers to give unity to their own being, by bringing all outward facts into some relation with their individuality, and gathering up fragments which would otherwise be lost; he knows he is also assisting them in the art of composition, in a way that the rules of Rhetoric would never do. Every one knows that a technical memory of words and of rules of composition, gives very little command of language; while a rich consciousness, a quick imagination, and force of feeling, seem to unlock the treasury: and even so vulgar a passion as anger produces eloquence, and quickens perception to the slightest inuendo.

Self-analysis, biography, and journal writing, therefore, since they bear upon the skilful use of language, are as truly the initiation of intellectual as of moral education. And language has always professedly, stood in the forefront of children's studies. The Ancient languages, although they took their place in that early stage of education which they now occupy, when they were living languages, and necessary for the purpose of any reading whatever, have retained the same position, notwithstanding many disadvantages which the study of them, at that period, has involved, mainly because of the good effect which has been

experienced from the concentration of attention upon the vernacular words by which the Latin and Greek words are translated; and from the acquisition of the spirit of one's native tongue, by the recognition of its idioms in contradistinction to those of other languages. For no thorough method of studying English, independently, has been practised; and it may be freely admitted, that to study another language is better than to study none at all. And it would have a much more creative influence upon the faculties of the young, besides saving much time and distress, if the study of Eng'ish, on Mr. Alcott's plan, should come f first; and that of the ancient languages be delayed a few years. Boys, generally speaking, would be better fitted for college at fourteen or fifteen, even in Latin and Greek, if they did not begin to learn them till they were twelve years old; always providing, however, that they thoroughly study English by means of self-analysis, poetry, and religious revelation up to that time.

Mr. Alcott, it is true, has Latin taught in his school, with reference to fitting boys for the other schools; and it does not interfere with the prosecution of his own plans, since his assistant has long been in the habit of teaching it, with reference to such results as he secures by his exercises on English words.

These observations on the intellectual bearings of the study of language, will explain much that is peculiar in Mr. Alcott's school. And it will show that the intellectual results are never separated from the moral, and consequently never neglected. Gradually, self-knowledge becomes psychology; knowledge of language, grammar; and the practice of composition, leads to the true principles of rhetoric. Even if, by removal from the school, these results are not attained under his immediate observation, he cannot doubt that they will surely come out, from the principles which he sets into operation.

But I am frequently asked,-will children ever be willing to study from books, who have been educated by Mr. Alcott? I have always answered to this question, and I will here repeat it, they will study from books more intelligently, thoroughly and profoundly, just in proportion as they imbibe the spirit of his instructions; for they will