that it is the most sublime, it is the most practical, of all sciences. * * The foundation of all true religion is a belief of the existence and perfections of God. We must conceive of him, and represent him to the young, as the Maker and Preserver of all things; as a being on whom the whole creation is entirely and continually dependent; who is every where invisibly present, and knows all our thoughts and actions; from whom we receive all that we enjoy; to whom we must look for all that we hope; who is our constant Benefactor, our Father in Heaven. The feelings toward him, which should be first formed and cultivated in the minds of the young, are those of gratitude, love, and reverence. In endeavouring to impress them with these sentiments toward God, we ought to take advantage of those occasions when they are most cheerful and satisfied with themselves. It is then that his idea is to be presented to their minds. Should they be touched by the beauty or sublimity of nature, we may then endeavour to give them some just conceptions of that infinite Spirit, whose agency is displaying itself on every side, and of whose presence all visible forms are the marks and symbols. When we teach them something respecting the immensity of the universe; that the portion of this earth with which they are acquainted, is only a very small part of an immense globe, forever wheeling through void space; that this globe. is but an inconsiderable thing, compared with others that are known to us; that the stars of heaven are a multitude of suns, which cannot be numbered, placed at distances from each other, which cannot be measured; we may then direct their thoughts to that Power, by whom this illimitable universe was created, and is kept in motion, and who superintends all the concerns of every individual in every one of these myriads of worlds. When we point out to them any of the admirable contrivances of nature, which appear around us in such inexhaustible profusion and variety, so that we tread them without thought under our feet; when we explain to them, that each of the countless insects of a summer's day is a miracle of curious mechanism; we can hardly avoid telling them by whose wisdom these contrivances were formed, and by whose goodness their benevolent purposes were designed. When their hearts are opened by gladness, and their feelings spread themselves out to find objects to which to cling; you may then, by a word or two, direct their thoughts to God as their Benefactor. When the occasion is of importance enough to give propriety to the introduction of religious ideas, you may lead them in their sorrows to the consolation and hope which a belief in him affords. You may thus do what is in your power to enthrone the idea of God in their minds, so that all the thoughts and affections shall pay homage to it. You may thus do what is in your power toward forming that temper of habitual devotion, to which God is continually revealing himself in his works, and in his providence. You may thus give the first impulse to those feelings of love, reverence, and trust, which connect a good man so strongly with God, that, if it were possible for him to be deprived of the belief of his existence, it would be with the same feeling of horror, with which he would see the sun darkening and disappearing from the heavens. LESSON LXXXVIII. The Young, of every Rank, entitled to Education.- THE benefits of education should be extended to all children, without exception. They never have been denied to those who are born to rank and wealth, or even to a competency and mediocrity of estate, except till very lately, and, in some respects, in the case of the female sex. But, even at this enlightened day, it is not entirely a superfluous task to vindicate the claims of the offspring of the poor, of the poorest, of the vilest, to that mental cultivation, which it is in the power of every community to bestow. That old notion is not yet stowed away among the forgotten rubbish of old times, that those, who were born to labour and servitude, were born for nothing but labour and servitude, and that, the less they knew, the better they would obey, and that the only instruction, which was necessary or safe for them, was that which would teach them to move, like automatons, precisely as those above them pulled the strings. I say, we still hear this principle asserted, though perhaps in more guarded and indefinite language; and a more selfish, pernicious, disgraceful principle, in whatever terms it mav be muffled up, never insulted human nature, nor degraded human society. It is the leading principle of despotism, the worst feature of aristocracy, and a profane contradiction of that indubitable Word, which has pronounced all men to be brethren, and, in every thing which relates to their com mon nature, equal. In short, it is only to the domestic animals, to the brutes that God has given for our use, that this principle can with justice be applied. Their education is not to be carried beyond obedience, because their faculties will not authorize a more liberal discipline. We are to feed them well, and use them gently, and our duty toward them is performed. But, to say that this is the extent of our obligations toward any class or description of our fellow beings, is to advance the monstrous proposition, that their capacity is as low as their circumstantial situation, and their degree among those who bear the yoke, and eat the grass of the field. But the truth is, that the minds of any one class are as improvable as the minds of any other class of men, and may therefore be improved in the same way, by the same means, and to as good purposes. Once grant that all human beings nave the same human faculties, and you grant, to all, the complete right of the unlimited cultivation of those faculties. Nor is it at all more rational to suppose, that a judicious education of the poor, conducted to any attainable extent, will be liable to abuse in their hands, and lead them to forget their station and their duty, than that it will have similar effects on those who are nourished on the lap of affluence. The experience, that has been collected on this point, only strengthens the deductions of analogy, and confirms the important position, which has hitherto gained too little practical faith in the world, that, the more a people know, the less exposed they are to every description of extravagance. * * Wherever there is an unimproved mind, there is an unknown amount of lost usefulness and dormant energy. If this is so through the negligence or perversity of the individual, with him is the guilt, and with him be the punishment; but if it is so through the influence of sentiments which are current in society, the fearful responsibility rests with those who avow and maintain them. I see not why the man who would repress, and who does repress, as far as in him lies, the moral and intellectual capabilities of a fellowcreature, is not as culpable as if he abused and destroyed his own. I have said, that even the children of the vilest and low est portion of the community share in the general right to the advantages of education. Their claim possesses a peculiar title to our consideration. Some have spoken, as if such were beyond or beneath our assistance, and would bring contamination from their birth-place. Their lot is in the region of irreclaimable wickedness, it is said; and as their parents are, so are they destined to become. Destined! and so they are, if you will not save them. They are destined, and forever chained down, to a state of moral loathsomeness, in which degradation seems to be swallowed with the food, and vice breathed in with the air. And shall they stay in such a pit of darkness? Is not their situation the strongest possible appeal, which can be made to your pity, and your generosity, and your sense of justice, and your love of good? Does it not call on you, most loudly and imperatively, to pluck these brands from the burning, ere yet they have been scorched too deeply and darkly by the flame? I Nothing is more probable, than that such children may be preserved to virtue by a timely interference; nothing is more certain, than that they will be lost, if they remain. know of no case, which promises such ample success and reward to the spirited efforts of benevolence, as this. Vice may be cut off, in a great measure, of her natural increase, by the adoption of her offspring into the family of virtue; and, though it is true, that the empire of guilt receives constant emigrations and fresh accessions of strength, from all the regions of society, yet it is equally as true, that they, whose only crime it is that they were born within its con'fines, may be snatched away, and taught another allegiance, before they have become familiar with its language, its customs, and its corruptions, and have vowed a dreadful fidelity to its laws. LESSON LXXXIX. Childhood and Manhood-an Apologue.-CRABBE. "Men are but children of a larger growth." 'Twas eight o'clock, and near the fire And with the title of a sire My ears expected to be greeted :— But vain the thought: by sleep oppressed, Or, nodding, rolled from side to side. "Let this young rogue be sent to bed❞— For new delay, though oft denied, "Alas! poor infant!" I exclaimed, 66 Thy father blushes now to scan, In all which he so lately blamed, The follies and the fears of man. The vain regret, the anguish brief, Which thou hast known, sent up to bed, Portrays of man the idle grief, When doomed to slumber with the dead. And more I thought, when, up the stairs, When nature claims their forfeit breath, 'Tis morn; and see, my smiling boy |