amuse your leisure hours by reading it, familiarizes you gradually with vice, which may, in time, beguile you even to the very end of the broad road that leadeth to destruction."

""Tis a pity," remarked William, "that the light literature of the present day teems so much with exceptionable conversation."

"Yet," returned Dr. C., "it is vastly purer in that respect, than the light literature of former days; but there is no amusement comparable to the solid pleasure of deriving real information from some writer of sterling excellence; and now the science and erudition which used to be locked up in expensive works, unintelligible to the ordinary student from their technicality, is to be enjoyed in treatises as simple as they are beautiful, while the arts of printing and papermaking place them within reach of comparatively slender purses."

"Ah, the other day I was at a bookseller's "rejoined one of he flippant visitors," and upon honor, I was at a loss to select rom the stores of wisdom and entertainment around."

"Take the wisdom first, and the entertainment afterwards. I should recommend you to peruse some trustworthy advice upon the subject, such as is contained in J. A. James' 'Christian Father's Present to his Children;' Todd's 'Student's Guide;' or Professor Smythe's 'Lectures on History;' Foster in his Essay 'Upon a man's writing memoirs of himself,' dissects in an admirable manner the multiplicity and variety of influences which gradually form the character, and amongst these, the books we read constitute no small item."

"Dear papa, I never thought of that," said Kate, "then it would be a good rule always to think what its probable influence may be before one reads a doubtful story."

Dr. C. was here called away, but Mrs. C. took up the conversation. She did not often talk, but when she did speak, her quiet dignity gained attention to remarks which never failed to evince deep thought and enlarged experience. Now, the hectic flush which contrasted too visibly with the wanness of her figure, told impressively that her opinions were illuminated by the light of a rapidly approaching eternity, and the young people listened almost with awe as she observed,—

"Books have such vast and enduring influence, that we

cannot be too careful to select the most useful.

Our prison records are full of melancholy testimonies to the debasing effects of bad books, while tract society reports exhibit the happy and holy tendencies of the little messengers of mercy now so widely diffused. When the eye becomes dim, and the mind enfeebled, how important will it be to have the memory stored with useful, or at least with harmless recollections. In approaching the grave, how anxious we shall be to drop every unholy taint-every spotted garment: how invaluable then, will appear the book which opens to us the knowledge of the future world-which prepares us for the society of heaven. There, only three books will be of consequence to us: the "Book of Remembrance," concerning those that feared the Lord, and spake often one to another-the Book of Judgment, and the Lamb's Book of Life, wherein, if our names be written, we may stand joyfully in the presence of Him who sitteth upon the throne. Seek ye out of the Book of the Lord, and read till you are assured you have an inheritance there, my young friends; then turn to general literature, and choose such as will expand, ennoble, and refine your intellectual powers-such as shall correct and purify your moral feelings such as shall excite and enliven your devotion to that God whose you are, and whom you ought to serve."

THE PRICE OF A SCHOOLMASTER.

E. W. P.

The following dialogue forms part of an official report on Education in America.

A. calls on one of the trustees. "Well neighbour A." says the trustee, 66 we have hired a man to keep our school this

winter."

Oh! how much do you give him a month?

Twelve dollars.*

You must be a bright one to pay a man such high wages, these hard times, to keep our school. I've just hired a man to work for me this winter at chopping, thrashing, and drawing

* The dollar though nominally rated much higher, is only worth about 48. The annual income would therefore be less than £30.

logs, and I give him only eight dellars a month-and he's a real smart fellow too. He can thrash ten or twelve bushels of wheat in a day and clean it up in the evening; and he'll chop his four cords of wood day by day and not wink at it, and I think it is a pity if we can't employ a man to sit round the stove all day, and have thirty or forty to wait on him, as cheap as I can hire one to do the work I have for a man to do; and I think it's a chance if he has much of a school. "I know" says the trustee, "it's too much; but no one else came along, so we thought we had better hire him.”

"Didn't you try to beat him down any ?"

He

"I should think we did. We worked him from noon till nine o'clock at night, and got him down four dollars. asked sixteen dollars at first."

"You should beat him down four dollars more; and that would be more than a teacher ought to have."

WHAT EDUCATION SHOULD BE.

ONE of our most eminent Statesmen, many years since, gave it as his opinion, that in Education "nothing less than thorough would suffice." The following facts appear fully to

bear out that assertion.

Education has almost invariably been regarded as an End; and our Statists have consequently terminated their enquiries where they ought in reality to have begun them. For the most part they content themselves with such facts as theseThe proportion of children in our Day schools was, in 1803, only as 1 to every 17 of the population. In 1846, it was 1 to 8. In Wales, where it was but as 1 in 26, it is now 1 in 9.

Now this, it must be admitted, is a very bald and unsatisfactory statement of the case. A question of Morals can never be answered by bare numbers. As well might the Physician attempt to reduce to Arithmetic the state of his patient's health. The Educationalist must look much higher. Has the Moral status of the country advanced in the same proportion as these figures-is the Intellectual gaining on the sensual-the Spiritual superseding the material in a like ratio? In one word, is

the country so much better than it was, as the relative value of these numbers would lead us to suppose.

Until within the last few years Crime had always been considered as the Pulse of Education. If arguments were required to prove that Education was deficient, the Criminal Records of the country were ransacked, and the number of offenders paraded in startling colors before the world. But as Education progressed, and Crime was found to keep pace with it, the argument was, without due consideration, abandoned by many who had before been its most strenuous supporters. Others, less honest, ventured to deny the plainest facts, whilst a third class endeavored to gloss over the matter by the most contemptible sophisms, "Education has advanced," they said, "and the increase of Crime has received a powerful check." True. But would not nine persons out of every ten suppose from this assertion that Crime had actually diminished? That this is not the fact needs no proof beyond a reference to the tables, framed expressly to prove the salutary influence of Education in suppressing it. In 1801, there were only 540 criminals in every million of the population; in 1821, 1,150; in 1831, 1,400; and in 1841, 1,870.

Nothing, therefore, appears to be more certain than that crime-or rather the number of criminals as compared with the population-has greatly increased since the commencement of the present century. This, indeed, is only contradicted inferentially and comparatively by those authors who take an opposite view of the case. For, after all, so far from shewing that crime is on the decrease, they really admit the contrary, being content to prove no more than this-that it has not of late years increased so rapidly as it did between the years 1801 and 1821. Now, what is this, in plain fact, but to contend that crime is essentially and necessarily a growing thing-that it must increase, in spite of every obstacle; and that, all which education or philanthropy can do, is to reduce the rate of increase. But this principle, if admitted, would go too far, for were we but to carry our enquiries backward, instead of forward, in a very few years the number of criminals would be reduced to a simple unit, and England would become a second Eden.

Notwithstanding all that has been alleged to the contrary, it seems pretty certain that the number of criminals in England is not diminished by the diffusion of Education, if we include amongst the taught classes, the mere spellers and scrawlers, or those who can only read, or read and write imperfectly. In some cases, indeed, those who have had somewhat higher advantages may be taken into the calculation.

It cannot, however, be disputed that our Parliamentary Papers on the subject, place at least two facts most vividly before us.

I. That a good Education is undeniably a blessing, the value of which increases in a rapidly accelerated ratio as its character improves; and,

II. That England is not yet educated as it ought to be.

During the ten years, 1837-1846 inclusive, the proportion of criminals in England and Wales, who were altogether uneducated, varied from about 30 to 36 per cent. on the total number; whilst of those who could read, or read and write imperfectly, it fluctuated from 52 to 60. But, as the education improves in character, and we arrive at the class which can read and write well, the proportion falls rapidly—in one case as low as 6th; and never rises above 10th per cent. A still more gratifying result is observable where the Education is described as "superior;" the highest average being less than

per cent.-the lowest little more than th. As regards these two last classes, the returns of Commitments in Scotland, and of persons taken in custody by the Dublin Metropolitan Police in 1848, tell a similar tale. In Scotland, where the total number of commitments is 4,909, the proportion of those who can read and write well is about 15 per cent.; while those of "superior" education furnish only about 1 per cent., or 77 out of the whole number. In Dublin, out of an aggregate of 45,234, only 1,768, or less than 4 per cent. could read and write well; and 192, or between and per cent., had

received a superior education.

With reference to this subject, Dr. Cooke Taylor has well remarked, that a knowledge of reading and writing is no more Education, than the possession of a knife and fork is a good dinner. These arts are, in fact, merely the tools and appliances