branches and light accomplishments, have originated many pernicious practices in the school; and I hesitate not to affirm, that these erroneous notions, where incorporated into a system of instruction, render any institution of learning useless, if not positively injurious. The limits of this address will not allow a specification of other evils; we must, therefore, be content to substitute the presentation of a few additional general principles, which, if observed, will do much to correct or to prevent the errors incidental to the subject.

Education pre-supposes the imbecility, as well as the ignorance of the young; and hence, it should tend not only to enlighten the understanding, but also to develop the various faculties of the mind. Nature has happily suggested the method of combining instruction with discipline. She has so connected the exercise of mind with the acquisition of knowledge, that the child's earliest efforts in the pursuit of the one, necessarily invigorate the other. It is the general notion that an education is a certain amount of knowledge acquired, and that an educated person, is one of great learning, one who has perused many books, and who can repeat many facts in history, or many truths in science. It is forgotten that the memory may be gorged with undigested lore until the student becomes an animated encyclopedia, and yet the judgment, the taste, and the imagination remain unimproved. That uniform development of all the powers which constitute the strength and activity of the mind-a ready common sense for all times and all subjects-is of more value than all the memorized learning of the schools. The erudite book-worm can never, in this sense of the term, become better educated than his shelves; he has no higher title to the honor of the name than a circulating library.

It is some times the case that this error is embraced by the teacher, and that he labors to store the memory with words, to the entire neglect of the cultivation of the mind. But he scatters seed upon a stony ground, who undertakes to instruct without culture. Knowledge should be regarded as the means, and not as the sole object of education. In conveying instruction to the young, the teacher should arouse the whole intellect, awaken every energy, until the soul becomes ready for the work of assimilation-and thus, each truth that is communicated will not only illumine, but likewise invigorate the mind. The maxim which these reflections naturally suggest, is one which we have long since adopted as the basis of a system of intellectual education. Thorough culture the object, and familiar instruction the means.

These principles are utterly at variance with that worse than useless method known as the rote system, by which teacher and pupil are, in a great measure, exempted from the labor of thinking for themselves. Text-books are useless, except as assistants to oral and experimental instruction. But when they are substituted for the familiar lecture, or for the invigorating exercise;

when they, alone, furnish the teacher with his questions, and the pupil with his answers, they become fatal to scholarship, and often to mind. The ultimate tendency of this wretched system, is to produce another, more wretched still. From making the book, instead of the subject the text, the puerile pencil system has originated, by which the employment of the pupil has been reduced to the stupid task of marking the lesson, and repeating the same by rote, in reply to printed or prepared questions, which sometimes injuriously contain or suggest the answer. These exercises are generally continued until the closing day of the monotonous term, when the public are summoned to witness the pageant of an exhibition, where the pupil, with slumbering mind is made the puppet, and the astonished parent becomes the dupe: deceived by system into the belief, that the daughter, for whose education he had long and anxiously toiled, has now become the real, of that vision which hope and pride and love, had made the idol of his heart. Alas! the surfeited memory of the graduate, soon surrenders its borrowed verbiage; a blankness comes over the mind, as word after word passes into oblivion, and soon, all that is left, is a vain conceit of scholarship, and a passive imbecility of all the mental powers.

Fortunately for the nation, this sacrifice of youthful mind, is seldom witnessed in this enlightened day; and the time is near at hand, when the common sense and the humanity of the people, will rescue the young without exception, from a condition worse than ignorance itself.

No education can be regarded as useful or philosophical, unless it be adapted to the nature of the individual. That is the most miserable pedagoguery which prescribes an invariable routine of study and exercise, to which every taste, and age, and grade of capacity must conform. Indeed, this Procrustean practice has ruined many a sprightly mind. In the development and illumination of the intellect, it must be remembered that no general system can be desired, applicable in its details to every one. Yet, at the same time, there are fundamental principles, general laws of mind, on which education, as a science, is firmly established. To these, all minor systems, all the regulations of the school, all the details of practical instruction, should conform. One of the most important of these laws, is the supremacy of the moral sentiments. If it be true, that the noblest endowment of man is his moral nature, it follows that supreme regard should be paid to its culture in the disciplinary department of the school.

I am aware that schools alone, cannot form characters independent of parental and social influence; but they exert a most important agency in nourishing the virtuous or the vicious principles. It is a solemn truth, which parents should ever bear in mind, that in the room of the instructor, the scholar, at each moment, either advances or retrogrades. This is peculiarly true with respect to

his morals. The intellect, once deeply impressed with any truth in science, seldom relinquishes it; but the heart of the boy, that may glow with the ardor of love to-day, may heave with the tempest of passion to-morrow. The literary career of the student is generally progressive. Each page, and lecture, and experiment, necessarily increases his store of information, and even idleness and inattention, but robs him of time. But a vicious example, emblazoned in history, or delineated in verse, may give to passion an ascendency that, in the end, may triumph over virtue. Perhaps, at no period of life is the moral man entirely stationary; certainly in youth, when every affection is pliant, and every sensibility acute, the heart is strengthening either in virtue or in vice.

It would be superfluous, on this occasion, and before this community, to dwell upon the importance of moral culture. The great question, in which we are interested is-How shall our schools and colleges correct the follies of the young, inculcate the principles of sound morality, and establish the supremacy of an enlightened conscience?

Unfortunately for the young, genius and learning are too commonly exalted as the only standards of human greatness. A thoughtless world has so often rendered its homage to personage, instead of to character, that the ambition of the youth, kindling with the spirit of the age, has burned for distinction as a scholar, rather than as a Christian-has sacrificed to Apollo rather than to Virtue. Yea, misled by the voice of the populace, he pursues the bubble of fame to the end of life, and seeks in death for the heroe's slab, rather than for the martyr's crown!

The same spirit that inspires the young man with this idolatrous passion for earthly grandeur, has erected for the young woman, the gilded altar of fashion, and it is often the case, that the school merely indoctrinates her into the service of this Protean goddessaccomplishing her as a scholar, it may be, but detracting from her worth and loveliness as a woman.

The formal lecture, the lesson in ethics, the strict regulation and the prompt penalty, never inspired youth with the love of virtue. Eloquence may define it, history may illustrate it, poesy may depict it, until the judgment comprehends its nature and fancy acknowledges its beauty; yet still the heart unimpressed, may turn with indifference from its contemplation and again attach itself to vanity or to vice. The most abstruse science or the most intricate art may be simplified by the skilful preceptor until the mind of a child can comprehend it with clearness; but instruction alone, I repeat, is insufficient to kindle within him the spark of piety or of virtue. The discourses of Socrates and Plato, elucidating some of the sublimest principles of morality, illumined the darkness of the Pagan's night and revealed the abominations of his worship; yet their instructions never quickened the seeds of virtue, nor warmed a single heart with the glow of true devotion. The light of their

philosophy shed upon a benighted world, the glimmerings of a cold yet brilliant splendor.

I cannot recognize in the school, in the family or in the nation, a single principle of genuine virtue germinating in the heart, and living in the conduct, that does not owe its existence and sustenance to the influences of Christianity. I care not whether the skeptic affects, or feels within him, the moral life which he professes; I regard his ingratitude, as more unreasonable than his creed, for even he owes the excellency of his virtues to the inspirations of that system which he opposes. A familiar study of the youthful heart has convinced me, that neither the parent nor the teacher can develope high moral characters; can inspire a love of the beautiful, the true, and the infinite, without calling to his aid the sacred influences of the Christian Religion. With this conviction upon my mind, I would endeavor to impress every parent in the land, with that first and most important of educational truths-Early piety, the only basis of a virtuous character.

If man's happiness, temporal and eternal, by a law of his being, is made dependent upon the proper development of his moral nature, and if this nature has been brought under subjection to a code of revealed law, as a disciplinary measure, it is surely presumptuous in man, to devise any other system for the accomplishment of an object, which Heaven has thus wisely and benevolently planned to secure. The wisdom of a finite creature cannot improve the schemes of an infinite mind. That course of preparatory study and discipline, which has been already prescribed by the Great Teacher, in order to accomplish man for the society of Angels, is perfect in all its provisions, and in all its departments. The best system of moral instruction for the young must, therefore, embrace these principles which have originated with Him whose eye ever watches for the good of His creatures. Systems of morals, golden rules of conduct, and lectures for the young, may fitly adorn the library of the family, and be profitably adopted as class books into the school. But no compilation, no production of man, can supercede the Holy Scriptures as a text-book for the young. Its delineations of character, the inspirations of its devotion, its noble precepts, to which obedience is won by promises of future glory, conspire to render it emphatically the book for the heart. The close, critical study of its moral code; a familiar and habitual perusal of its touching story; and, especially, the application of the heart to its heavenly poesy, must necessarily give to the pupil an early bias to virtue, and implant within his bosom the germ of a rational and ennobling piety.

That the precepts and poetry, the prophecy and history of the Scriptures should be prescribed as a regular study in all our schools, I have long conscientiously advocated. But that the teacher, as well as the parent, may become a bigot, and enslave the young and inquisitive mind to sectarian prejudice, I freely admit. Yet

it would be absurd to argue that this possible abuse of his station and influence, releases him from the solemn obligation to inculcate a pure morality, a meek and consistent piety, in all whom nature or chance may place under his charge. The love of truth should be among the earliest inspirations of childhood. But a passion for the beautiful and the true-the earliest and noblest manifestations of the soul-perishes under the influence of bigotry, whether religious or political. He who would rob a young mind of its independence, and shackle it with opinion, is the worst of all tyrants, for he is a tyrant of the soul.

But it is not the adoption of the Bible as a text-book alone, that is sufficient to accomplish the great educational purpose proposed. An habitual reference of the daily conduct and conversation of the student to its practical requirements, is necessary in order to render it the standard of character, or an effectual agent in its formation. It must therefore be adopted as the Law-book of the school-as a system of regulations for the moral disciplineof the pupil. Its precepts should by a single statute of College, be incorporated as common law, for the regulation of the behavior, the formation of manners, and the discipline of the heart. By this means, a constant reference will be made to a perfect standard of character, and the young will learn from necessity and exercise with pleasure, obedience to the laws of Heaven as well as to the regulations of the school. The simple, yet comprehensive injunction, Do right-when enforced as a will of a Divine Teacher is worth a thousand explicit statutes, enacted by a Faculty and armed with the penalties of the school. In the language of a popular and elegant writer* of the present day, "search the Scriptures; they are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. These terms comprehend a widerange of knowledge and are by no means confined to metaphysical doctrines or religious tenets. It embraces something of almost all branches of information, and on some subjects comprehends all that is known, while on the true nature and destiny of man, it contains all that we can know, because it is all that God has chosen. to reveal. It would be absurd, therefore, to reject the Bible in a system of education, if it were considered merely as a book of literature or knowledge; but when it is considered as a book of divine law inspired of God, to reject it as a means of instruction, is not only absurd, but insane. It would be to shut out light and welcome darkness, for no reason but that man loved darkness better than light."

• Mr. Mansfield..