for humanity by the divine Plato,-the ideal of sublime imagination, the severe Aristotle,-the close observer, reducing the processes of human thought to the necessary laws of truth, the all-embracing Cousin, the polished Stewart, the philosophic Reid, the eloquent Brown, and the crowd of others, who occupy the upper air. None, doubtless, have done more than they to advance this very work in which we are engaged; but in this empyrean, I have seen no one leading star, upon which I could fix my eyes and go safely over the dark and stormy waves.

To confine ourselves to the one subject before us, the first, so far as I know, who, reasoning from the facts of human nature, and guided by the gospel, has given its true place to the conscience among the elements of human character, is Bishop Butler. His three discourses upon Human Nature place in a clear and prominent light this whole subject of the subordination of the other parts of our constitution, and the preeminence and authority of the conscience, by which he evidently means the natural sentiment of conscientiousness, enlightened by an examination of our manifold relations, and with its empire enlarged and its action quickened by reflection. All his discourses are of great practical value to the teacher who would teach a code of morals founded at once upon reason and the light of nature, and upon revelation. It is true, they demand serious study, but they richly deserve the profoundest thought that can be given to them.

I would next refer you to the author of a discourse upon the "Constitution of Man." I insist not upon the physiological views on which this work professes to have been built. I long held them in derision, and am still

too ignorant in regard to them to have an opinion of any value. I speak now only of the classification of the propensities, sentiments, and faculties, which it contains, and the observations which are made upon them. By these a light is thrown upon the path of the educator which he looked for in vain from any other source.

I would also refer you to the works of the writers upon physiology, particularly to the work of Dr. Combe. So intimately are all the parts of the human constitution connected, and so vitally do the mental and moral depend upon the physical powers, that we can understand either only by studying them in connection with the others. For this reason, the knowledge of the laws of the structure, growth, development, and health of the body, is essential to a comprehension of the corresponding particulars in the phenomena of mind. And in no other way do we learn the all-important law, that every faculty of body and mind, every sentiment and every affection, is to be improved by exercise.

I have pointed out the three sources from which we are to obtain information in regard to that point in the philosophy of mind which is important to us in our present inquiry,—reflection upon what has occurred and is occurring within ourselves, observation upon the facts exhibited by others, and the study of books. From each of these we infer the fact that the conscience begins to act with the very dawn of our faculties, and with it begin the two other essential elements of the moral nature,love and veneration. Few of us can look back in memory to the time before which we had no feelings of right and wrong, or of affection for our friends, or of reverence for the Author of our being. And though each of these

sentiments manifests itself with different degrees of force in different individuals, yet how constantly do we observe, in children of the tenderest age, an artlessness of truth, a warmth of affection, and a confiding humility and sincerity of reverence, which bring to our hearts the words of the Saviour, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven." We have no epithets for purity, innocence, truthfulness, loveliness, trust, which mean so much as the single word childlike; and Jesus, when he would answer the question, "Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven," "called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them." Thus we have light from heaven thrown upon the conclusion which we had drawn from our earliest faint recollections of infancy, from the angelic aspect and first acts of childhood, and from the recorded observations of other men. At this age, then, moral education should begin, and the first teacher must be the mother.

This is not the occasion to dwell on maternal influence. But let it be remembered that it often rests upon the mother to give a shape to the future character. Reverence, truth, love, must exist in her breast, before she can impart them to her child. And perfect physical health, so important to the nurse of her own offspring, is but an emblem of the healthfulness of soul which she should possess. Unless the moral education be early and rightly begun, it will be in danger of beginning wrong at a later period. If, therefore, the mother would save her child from the infinite evils of a perverted education, she must begin herself to educate him aright; she must begin to teach him that heaven-inspired lesson, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God,

that wonderful epitome of duty to which human wisdom has been unable to add. Let the mother see to it that the first words which the child learns shall be words of truth, and that he be not, by act or look, by fear or by bribery, taught the arts of deception.

Justice is of such moment that it must never be violated, in the value of a pin. "Go back," said a Christian mother to her boy, "carry the pin back and restore it; it is not thine." This simple lesson made an impression, which years and the world's wisdom never erased; for nothing is little in the education of a child. And with men, as well as children, a violation of justice, no matter in what amount, is a great violation. Great injury is done to the conscience by giving softening names to bad things. A falsehood should be called a lie, and not a fib, and any departure from truth should be looked upon as reprehensible. He had studied the boundaries of truth, and the path which leads to falsehood carefully, who said that a child ought not to be allowed to state that as having happened in one window, which had actually taken place in another. Exact truth is the only rule for children.

In regard to the law of affection, it can hardly be necessary to say any thing. A mother's heart is usually right and true on that point, however false and wrong it may be on every other. The union of the law of love with that of justice, in the Christian rule, Judge not, is of too great importance to be omitted. The child should, from the beginning, be taught to obey this command. He should be shown that he cannot look into the thoughts of others, or see with their eyes, and that, therefore, what in himself would be a lie, may in his brother be a mis

take. Thus, from his earliest years, may he be taught not to look at the mote in his brother's eye.

But our business is particularly with the school, and we come now to the consideration of the third question, By what means moral education is to be conducted there. It is necessary, however, to premise one or two considerations. The first is, that of the three classes into which the elements of the human mind are divided, the propensities, which are common to us with the lower animals, the intellectual faculties, and the moral sentiments,-education has to do only with the two latter. The teacher should be acquainted with the existence, nature, and laws of the animal propensities, but it is only as the good man should be acquainted with the second table of God's revealed law, that he may know how they may be repressed. They are ready enough, of their own nature, to come into action, and he must be on his guard, lest any thing should be done or suffered which will have a tendency to excite them to activity.

The second observation which I would premise is, that the teacher must have constant reference to the wellknown law of physiology, that every part of our constitution, whether of the bodily frame, as our muscles and senses, or mental power, or moral faculty, is to be excited, improved, and brought to its highest perfection, by exercise, upon its appropriate object, begun at the right time, regularly continued, and proportioned in duration and force to the strength and state of the faculty. These conditions of exercise vary with every several faculty, and must be separately studied and ascertained for each.

We have seen that the essential point in moral education is to awaken the conscience, to give it activity, and