must differ little from death itself. A living body without feeling seems a contradiction, but a soul without sensibility is far more inconceivable. | be surrounded with persons and objects calculated to elicit the best sympathies of their nature, and that they should be early taught to govern themselves. We fear that many of our public schools have been but ill adapted for this important work; where the masters or the dames have generally been out of temper; where the rod has been the chief instrument of discipline; where the amount of knowledge imparted has been at the lowest minimum; and the scholars themselves are more like irrational and impetuous animals than human beings; it would be the height of folly for us to expect that youths trained in such schools will be distinguished for the virtues of civilized men and women. And if to imperfect or vicious seminaries be added the influence of ignorant and depraved companions abroad, and of ungodly parents at home, we need not feel much surprise at the reports which have reached us from the inspectors of agricultural, mining, and manufacturing districts. A very little consideration of the faculties and affections of the human soul must convince us that scarcely anything has ever yet been done to render man what his Creator intended him to be. Few comparatively of those who have conducted public schools have been acquainted with the essential qualities of mind, and therefore have been altogether unfit to elicit the best affections of the heart, or to train their pupils to govern themselves. All human beings, from the cradle to the tomb, are excitable, and this excitement is nothing but excited thought, and in producing it we ourselves are the principal agents. Other persons may suggest to us the subject which has kindled these latent emotions; but still it would be as easy to set asbestos on fire, as to inflame the soul were it destitute of sensibility. We cannot feel by proxy; all our tempers and passions are our own work; whether good or evil, we ourselves have produced them, and must give an account of them to God. As Satan suggested the first sin to Eve, so our fellow-creatures, or even the old Serpent, may tempt us to what is evil; but then the sin of Satan in suggesting evil was altogether distinct from the sin of our mother in plucking the forbidden fruit; so, in like manner, the sin of those who attempt to awaken in us unholy feelings is very different from our own sinfulness in allowing ourselves to be led astray. They are guilty in attempting to excite in us evil affections; but we are more guilty for giving ourselves up to such ungodly impulses. We ought to be taught from infancy that our tempers and affections are under our own control, and that as we think ourselves into a rage, so we can by the agency of thought change the fury of the mind into a calm. We often tell others "not to give way to their feelings;" and we know many who never allow their minds to be ruffled; and if one human being can govern his pas-dual. sions, then all may do so. Every power and faculty and feeling of the soul has a natural tractability belonging to its very essence. The mind was made not merely to be governed, but to govern itself, and therefore docility is one of its essential attributes. The term gentle-man is evidently a compound of the word gentle, and the name is applied to persons of rank and education, because such are supposed to have a dignified control over their feelings. A real gentleman is "not soon angry;" to yield to every impulse of wrath would be unworthy of his rank. One grand distinction between civilization and barbarism is, that the savage, like a wild beast, is hurried headlong by every gust of feeling, while the civilized man has been taught to govern his temper. All our passions then are the result of thought, and all of them are under our control; and therefore the great end of education is, first, to communicate those ideas which will excite in us virtuous emotions; and secondly, to teach us how to govern and direct our feelings. As we must think and feel, and as all passing events make some kind of impression upon our minds, it is of everlasting importance that children should VIII. All human action is dictated by thought, and therefore must correspond with the ruling ideas or opinions of every indivi It will be generally granted that every moral action is dependent upon the human will; and, further, that will, or volition, is nothing more than thought in action. We never perform an action without thinking. Could we act without thought, we should be automata rather than voluntary agents. When we speak of a thoughtless action, we cannot mean that the person acted without any thought, but that no due consideration was exercised. Our blood is circulated and our food digested without any mental effort of ours; but then volition and morality have nothing to do with these physical operations; they often perform their tasks as well for the man who thinks nothing about them, and knows nothing of their mysterious movements, as for the philosopher who has made the study of their functions the business of his life. But though we may digest our food without thought, we cannot move our feet, or hands, or tongues, without an effort of mind. It is true that our thoughts are very fleeting, and that when the soul is prompting an action, it has hardly time to contemplate itself, or its volitions; but still we are perfectly convinced that all our voluntary actions have been dictated by our thoughts. We take up a book, or we lay it down, because we wish to do so. We go to church or chapel, we walk about, or stay at home, we talk, or remain silent, by various efforts of will; and this mysterious moving thing is nothing more than a thought of the mind, or the mind thinking and acting. We think upon an object until we desire it; and then, if there is nothing in the way, we exert ourselves to obtain it. When we want to move others, we endeavour by argument and persuasion to induce them to think as we do; and we hope to influence their wills and actions through the medium of their thoughts. The arch-destroyer brought about the fall by moral means alone; he knew if he employed physical force there would be no guilt on the part of Eve, and his object would be defeated. In the history of the transgression of our mother, we have the whole intellectual process laid bare: "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat." Here we have volition in looking, volition in considering, volition in desiring, and volition in plucking and eating; and yet all these consecutive volitions are nothing more than the voluntary operations of thought. The mental process was perfect, and consequently the guiltiness of the action was as black as the old serpent could desire. If Satan could have looked into the mind of his victim, how he must have exuited at witnessing how well every thing answered his most sanguine expectations. "I saw," said Achan," I coveted, I took." Thought, by an act of volition, looked out through his eye at "the Babylonish garment and wedge of gold; by a continuous effort, it gazed, considered, coveted, and took. the narrative of these crimes we have the natural history of all voluntary actions. The mental machinery, and the moving power, though invisible, are clearly revealed, and in the conduct of Eve and Achan we see, as in a glass, the reflection of our own voluntary movements. In Much is said about motives and principles of action, and the subject has often been involved in profound mystery, and supposed to be beyond the reach of common minds; but, after all, a man's motives are his thoughts. It is true they are motive or moving thoughts, still they are not the less thoughts because they prompt us to act. The principles of action also are thoughts. Every moral action is originated by the mind, and that which originates an action is a principle of action. Were we to cease to think, we should cease to act, and consequently all our volitions and voluntary movements would cease at the same time. One of the most important features of these mental operations is their freedom. It is this characteristic which constitutes their morality. The time is nearly gone by for any one to doubt the freedom of the will. In fact, the phrase "Free will" is well known to be tautology. Without freedom there can be no will. Paradoxical as it may appear, the mind acts freely even when it seems to act under restraint. The man who prefers death to the abandonment of his principles, acts freely; two evils are presented to him-death, or the renunciation of what he holds dearer than life, and he prefers what he deems to be the less evil of the two. We sometimes say that we acted against our wills, but in every such case we act from choice. Could we have controlled circumstances, we would have acted differently; but as things were, we chose that course of conduct which seemed most advisable, and acted freely in coming to the determination that we did. This freedom of thought, or will, is the foundation of all responsibility. He who originates an action is its cause, and therefore responsible. Now we either act from ourselves, or from others; we move from compulsion, or from choice. If from compulsion, then he who moves us ought to bear the blame, or have the merit of our deeds; but if from choice, then the virtue or the turpitude of our conduct is ours alone. To hurl a number of individuals down a precipice, and to tell them we shall hold them responsible for the consequences of their fall, would be alike a mockery of justice and common sense. Were mankind not free they could not be responsible; but as we all act from choice, we must all give an account of our actions to God. Of this freedom every one is conscious. The savage knows that he murders his enemy from choice. The infant soon feels that it can act freely; the first voluntary action of mind is a notable period in the history of its career; it is the commencement of a series of deeds whose influence will last for ever. This freedom of will peculiarly qualifies us for moral tuition and restraint. Our intellects enable us to understand what is right and what is wrong; we can make a distinction between what is good and what is evil, between what is for the real benefit of ourselves and others, and what is injurious. We can understand the laws of morality and religion; and our freedom of choice makes it perfectly optional whether we will endeavour to conform thereto, or not. Every action of ours is a volition,— we have always to make a choice, and we must adopt a vicious or a virtuous course. We must obey the law of God, or the law of sin. "Choose you this day," said Joshua, whom you will serve." Every mind is active in inventing, or accepting and practising the religion which it professes. The apostle represents the heathen as volun C tarily refusing to receive the evidences of God's "eternal power and Godhead," which were everywhere manifest from his works. Peter says that the infidels of his day "willingly," or from choice, remained "ignorant" of the many proofs of the deluge. In fact, all that a human being does, he does from choice, and the power to do what is good must involve in it the power to do evil, and the power to do evil must also include the power to do good. Here, then, we have another educative attribute of mind; a property which constitutes the dignity of man, but which depends entirely upon our thoughts or knowledge. Before any law can become a principle of action, it must be engraved on the mind, and be clearly understood; nothing but thought could apprehend it, and turn it into a volition. Every mind will adopt some rule; it may make its appetites its law, or its revenge, its indolence, its pride, its ambition, or its sympathy; or it may receive and adopt the laws of another, and conform itself thereto. And the sacrifices and sufferings of the various devotees of superstition, demonstrate how strong the religious power may be, even when influenced and guided by a false and foolish creed. To enlighten this capacity for piety, and to furnish it with sentiments, which, from their reasonableness, their justice, their purity, their adaptation to make all mankind happy, shall obtain dominion in the soul, and preside over every other thought and feeling, is one of the noblest achievements of education. The mind thus "thoroughly furnished unto all good works," is "a law unto itself;" and all its deeds show that "the work of the law is written on the heart." Such a mind can be left to its own freedom. The presence of a policeman, or the dread of the scourge, of fines, or imprisonment, is not requisite to restrain it from iniquity. "It knows how to refuse the evil, and choose the good," for it has had "its senses exercised to discern both good and evil." Such a person is in the best and noblest sense a human being; he can govern himself, can use his liberty without abusing it, and can be trusted anywhere and with anything. The continental systems of education are a failure. The existence of so many government functionaries to keep the people from going wrong, is a tacit confession on the part of the church and the state, that the majority of the population are incapable of taking care of themselves, and unfit to be free. Just in proportion as mankind are properly trained, policemen and prisons must decrease. Our gaols and constabulary force, our soldiers and our judges, are demonstrations that we have done but little as yet in the great work of teaching the people to govern themselves. Such expensive implements of physical force are evidences of moral disorganization, and can only be necessary where the people have been neglected. It is not reading, writing, and geography, nor even orthodox catechisms and formularies, that constitute the morality of a nation. The people may attend public worship, and hear the Scriptures read, and yet be grossly ignorant and immoral. The Jews of old had "Moses read every Sabbath in their synagogue;" and yet, when he "of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write" appeared, they knew him not. In some of the most ignorant and depraved districts in the country, there have been churches for centuries, and the Scriptures have been regularly read, and the liturgy repeated. But with all this apparatus, the minds of the masses have not been enlightened, nor have they been initiated into the great principles of governing themselves. Some have been told that they have no right to think for themselves-that sacraments will save them,-that attention to forms in religion is everything-that their election is problematical, and that they must wait God's time before they repent and become moral! The schoolmaster has perhaps been prohibited from teaching morality: that work must be left to the visits of the ministers of religion; hence it has not been deemed necessary that the superintendants of the education of the young should be religious persons, and in not a few cases both morality and intelligence have been dispensed with, and yet we have dreamt of becoming a Christian nation, and have been greatly surprised to wake and find ourselves surrounded with ignorance and vice! The reports from the mining and manufacturing districts seem to have produced a panic in Parliament; but there was nothing in these statements more than what might have been expected. If Lord Ashley or Mr. Roebuck had only taken the trouble to look at the character of the public instruction, and the instructors of the people, they must have anticipated that things would be ten times worse. When we consider the few rational and appropriate means that we have used to make the people intelligent, or to enable them to govern themselves properly, we must deem it nothing less than a miracle of divine mercy that we are not far more depraved than we are. An intelligent being, perfectly free, and yet governing himself aright, is the noblest sight in the universe. Of this excellence of principle and character, God himself is a perfect example; next to him stand the angels and archangels. Man also was created to take his station among these exalted intelligences; for, "though made a little lower than the angels, God has crowned him with glory and honour, and put all things under his feet." His mind, viewed merely as a mind, may perhaps be inferior to theirs, though we really talk of degrees when speaking of the essential properties of bodies. The least particle possesses them in as perfect a state as the great globe. And probably the mind of man has all the essential attributes of mind in as great perfection as an archangel; and when properly trained and advanced to the kingdom of heaven, may vie with seraphs in obedience and praise; but to do this he must be educated to imitate them in governing himself; he must have "the law written upon his heart;" his "senses must be exercised to discern both good and evil." If unable to make such a distinction, he will be as likely to commit iniquity as to practise virtue. A blind man cannot distinguish colours; an unenlightened soul cannot choose between vice and virtue; and therefore, in the very nature of things, education is essential to self-government. In one of the texts given above, the apostle speaks of having the "senses exercised to discern both good and evil;" the word rendered "exercised" is " ," and is borrowed from the gymnasium, the public school, or place of exercise, in which Grecian youths were trained. Every school ought to be a gymnasium for the mind; and the chief object kept in view should be the " cise of the mental senses," that they may have a nice perception of "good and evil." Even our bodily organs improve by exercise. It is said that blind persons can, by practice, distinguish colours by touch. We have all heard of the delicate taste of the epicure, and the fine ears of those who have practically studied music. The perceptions of the soul, by proper tuition, can be rendered more and more acute. Nothing is so susceptible as mind, and its moral sense is its most sensitive faculty. It can be made to recoil from the thought of the least sin with the deepest horror. "Rivers of waters," says the Psalmist," have run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law." "Horror hath taken hold of me because of the wicked that forsake thy law." My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judg ments." 66 exer It may be said that this delicate moral sensibility is the result of regeneration and the work of God; and we most readily grant, that, "except a man be born again," and "born of God," he cannot be a Christian; but then we also believe that, in renovating the soul, God the Spirit makes use of scriptural knowledge, and also of human instrumentality in communicating it. "Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth." It would be just as reasonable to expect that the rain and the sun will produce a crop of corn and a copious harvest in a field in which nothing but weeds have been sown, as to anticipate that Divine influence will produce the fruits of righteousness in minds which have never been instructed in the Gospel, nor embued with divine truth. If we labour in disseminating the word, God will work with us; but he will neither produce a natural nor a spiritual harvest, unless we cultivate the ground and cast in the seed. : Moral sensibility, then, "to discern both good and evil," is the result of education, accompanied with God's blessing; and until this spiritual perception exists there can be no virtuous self-government. If we govern ourselves we must conform to some law; but before we can obey any law we must understand it and before we can do this, it must be clearly revealed to us. But have any adequate means been adopted as yet to write God's laws on the minds of the whole population? It is to be feared that some of the ministers of religion, who have undertaken this sacred duty, are both mentally and morally unfit for the task; and with respect to schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, we have as yet not deemed it necessary that they should be qualified for so important a work; and the consequence is, that we have myriads around us, in this land of bibles, who " are perishing for lack of knowledge;' and their blood is calling loudly for vengeance on those who have had the means of rescuing them from death, and guiding their "feet in the way of peace," but have neglected to do their duty. IX.-Conscience is an essential quality of the spiritual nature of man. to. Conscience is that power or affection of the mind which consists in a sense of duty, and of guilt when duty is not attended The feeling is universal. The North American Indian feels it to be a duty which he owes to himself, to his tribe, and to the Great Spirit, to endeavour to rob his enemy of his scalp and of his life. Were he not to attempt to perform this supposed sacred task, he would deem himself unfit to live. In all savage and barbarian nations, we find some sense of duty. All feel that there are obli gations which they ought to discharge, and that they sin if they neglect them. It is true that their code of morality is generally as barbarous as themselves; for "they call evil good and good evil;" but still, not having better laws, they use such as they have, and their sense of right and wrong cannot be more pure than the laws to which it owes its origin. In more civilized nations we perceive this same power of conscience; it exists in the breast of the Hindoo, of the Chinese, the Mohammedan, the Jew, and the Christian; and, in every country, and every sect, it is influenced by education. The Mohammedan child was born with the power of being conscientious; but with no more natural predilection for Mahomet than for Confucius or Jesus Christ. And in the newborn savage there is this faculty in as perfect a state as in the infant child of the holiest parent that ever lived. In the perversions of conscience, we have as striking demonstrations of its existence and of its power as in its most pure and benevolent exercises. There is hardly a being upon earth but is highly conscientious, or deeply self-condemned for neglecting his duty. There is also scarcely anything so diversified as the operations of conscience. What a variety of consciences must present themselves to the searcher of hearts! The Scriptures speak of "a weak conscience," "a defiled conscience," "an evil conscience," " a seared conscience," "a good conscience," "a purged conscience," "a pure conscience," and "a perfect conscience." In these characteristics, we have brought before us, in a few words, the general features of every conscience in the world. Some are weak and superstitious; some are evil or malignant; some are awfully defiled and polluted with crime; and some are seared, or destitute of any holy sensibility. On the other hand, many have a good conscience, a conscience purged from guilt, purified and perfected by God's word and Spirit. And why should not every human being upon earth have a good conscience? There is no natural necessity for the existence of evil and polluted consciences. In fact, there is not an impure or seared conscience in the world, but may be traced to education. In the Gospel we have all the means necessary to give good consciences to the rising generation, and to quicken and purify those which are already polluted and dead to what is good. We must never lose sight of the fact that every variety of conscience upon the face of the earth has been produced by education. We are not going to assert that education calls into existence the faculty itself, because this would be as absurd as to affirm that he who teaches another to sing, not only shows him how to modulate his voice, but actually calls into existence his vocal powers. All the music-masters upon earth could not teach a raven or a peacock to sing; and all the doctors in divinity that have ever lived would fail to direct the conscience if there was no conscience to be directed. Conscience exists already; wherever there is a mind there is also a conscience. It is an essential quality of the soul, and cannot be destroyed nor effaced; it may be corrupted, misled, or seared, but still it is inseparable from the mind, or rather, it is the mind itself in a particular state. But wherever it is, or whatever it is, it owes its character to the training to which it has been subjected. Conscience, we have said, is a sense of duty but duty supposes a law which we feel ourselves bound to obey. Now we are born without a single idea in our minds, and therefore come into the world without any knowledge of right or wrong: and, consequently during the early and most import | ant part of our existence, we are dependent upon the guidance of others, and our consciences not unfrequently receive their direction for life before we have been capable of judging of the qualifications of our instructors, or the character of the laws by which they are guiding us. We are not passive in receiving the law from their mouths, because the mind is always active in drinking in knowledge; but then, though active, we are not naturally capable, during our infant years, to detect the errors into which others are guiding us. In too many instances also, in adult age, the mind neglects to inquire into the truth or error, the justice or the iniquity, of the religion in which it has been brought up. Those who teach falsehood or superstition generally labour to produce in their pupils a dread of all research, and not unfrequently impose heavy penalties on all inquiry after truth. The Mohammedan is not allowed to examine impartially the claims of his prophet to the character of a messenger from heaven. In the dark ages it was death to investigate truth. In several continental states freedom of thought is prohibited, and the press is put under the censorship of bigots and tyrants; and in our own country it is not unusual to brand free inquiry as scepticism, or perhaps to hold up the opinions of rival sects as too profane or absurd to be examined. What a vassalage of conscience is produced throughout the world, and under such training what a weak, polluted, malignant thing it becomes. Hypocrites of old "strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel." They "cleansed the outside of the dish and of the platter, but within they were full of extortion and excess." They "garnished the sepulchres" of the martyred saints and prophets, but persecuted the living servants of God with the utmost malignity. They paid "tithe of mint, anise, and cummin, and omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, faith." In modern times, we can hardly open our eyes without seeing the most absurd and destructive perversions of conscience. Trifles are magnified into essentials, while the fundamental truths of real religion are not unfrequently treated as matters of indifference. Christian love, without which there can be no real piety, is unheeded, and forms and ceremonies substituted in its place. There are those who would expect the pangs of the bottomless pit if they omitted a paternoster, who would nevertheless gladly apply the torch to the pile of a heretic! And we must not bear too-heavily on the Catholic, when we consider how many of the Protestants place the whole of their piety in a few outward observances. Alas! the religion of millions is nothing but a despicable caricature of Christianity. There is reason to believe that infidelity is indebted, both for its exist |