teacher has recently been published, from which it appears that the peculiarity of Jacotot's system, consists in little more than the extensive, if not universal application of an old precept, "Learn something thoroughly, and refer every thing else to it." His motto is, "Tout est en tout," which has been thus paraphrased: "Every thing is to be learnt thoroughly, and all possible use made of facts already known, in order that they may be used as paths to lead the learner in regions unknown and still to be explored." This principle is certainly good, whatever may be the character of Jacotot's application of it. The probability is, that he, like many other persons who attach themselves exclusively to one plan, knows his idea to be a good one, and so rides it to death.

Improvements in education, however, like improvements in every thing else, bring with them corresponding dangers; these sometimes arise (as in Jacotot's case) from pushing new plans and principles too far, and sometimes from an instructor working the additional power they give, with too high a pressure, upon minds predisposed to extraordinary intellectual activity.

Two very different classes of minds are exposed in opposite directions to danger, from the singular facilities which are now afforded for the acquisition of knowledge; I mean the indolent and the precocious. A mind that waits to be acted upon, instead of exerting its own native faculties, is not

an improving mind. The aim of a good teacher is not so much to infuse knowledge, as to develop power to encourage and to invigorate effort; he well knows, that the moment any mind begins to depend upon the facilities afforded it, rather than upon itself, its efforts are impaired and its growth checked. The easiest way of learning a thing is not always the best. If all the truths of any science could be transferred in a moment to a learner's mind, without any exertion of his own, it would do him very little good; he would lose all the benefit both of thinking and reasoning. It is far better that he should find the road somewhat rough, and be his own pioneer in clearing and leveling it.

But if it be (as it certainly is) an evil, to make the acquisition of knowledge so easy, that the mind becomes almost passive in its reception, and indolently ceases to make those efforts by which alone it can acquire strength and vigor, let it never be forgotten, that a far greater and more tremendous amount of mischief is accomplished, when, by undue excitement, an excessive intellectual development takes place, and the body, enfeebled by the dangerous activity of the brain, becomes the sport of a morbid irritability, or sinks into premature decay. Now, I think there are few good schools, where there is not some danger of one or more minds being injured in this way. The vanity of the parent, the ambition of

the child, the pleasure which the teacher experiences, when he succeeds in exciting and developing one or more faculties to an extraordinary degree, all combine to promote that excessive intellectual activity, which is always perilous, and often fatal. I speak not now of the moral effects of this unnatural excitement, how it enfeebles the will, how it excites the passions, and, by the increased susceptibility which it occasions, how it leads directly to excessive sensuality.* I say, I speak not now of these, because I am looking simply at its physical effects; and viewing the matter in this light alone, I am borne out by the united testimony of medical writers, in the assertion, that undue, and especially premature intellectual excitement, is the frequent, if not certain forerunner of impaired health, and of an early grave.

Take care, then, of precocious children; have no part in the process which is handing them over

* At Hofwyl, more than one instance has occurred, in which it was necessary to diminish the amount of the pupil's intellectual efforts, in consequence of the alarming tendency to sensuality which it produced. The same general truth is illustrated, by the comparison of nations and communities in different stages of civilization. While a certain degree of culture will diminish the sensuality of a savage tribe, or of a new colony, it rolls back in overwhelming waves upon those nations who have attained the height of cultivation and refinement, and whose intellectual faculties have been cultivated beyond the due proportion of their moral faculties.

Woodbridge.

to disease and death. "The early history of the most distinguished men will, I believe, lead us to the conclusion, that early mental culture is not necessary, in order to produce the highest powers of mind. There is scarcely an instance of a great man, one who has accomplished great results, and has obtained the gratitude of mankind, who in early life received an education in reference to the wonderful labors which he afterwards performed. Those men who have stamped their own characters upon the age in which they lived, or who, as Cousin says, have been the 'true representatives of the spirit and ideas of their time, have received no better education when young, than their associates, who were never known beyond their own neighborhood.' ”* Dr. Spur

zheim says, "No school education, strictly speaking, ought to begin before seven years of age.” But this opinion must be taken with limitations. Perhaps it would be better to say, that no intellectual effort ought to be required before that period. An infant school should be the happy asylum of babes, rescued by the hand of benevolence from penury, negligence, and vice: when such an institution becomes an "intellectual hot-house," it should be put down as a nuisance of the very worst description.

* Brigham on the Influence of Mental Cultivation upon Health.

Do not then, be found, among those who foolishly complain that their children are childish,they ought to be so. The slower good fruit ripens, the better and the more valuable does it eventually become.

The bearing which some of the foregoing observations have on religious instruction, will not escape the notice of the judicious parent or Sunday School teacher. On this aspect of the subject, (precocity in religious knowledge,) I could say much, but I forbear; the ground is tender, and it is difficult to avoid misapprehension. It will be safer for me to express my sentiments in the language of another, than to clothe them in my own. I adopt, therefore, the words of a correspondent of the Christian Observer, and add, "Mental precocity is not a healthy attribute, even when it assumes the character of religion. The religion of little children ought eminently to be an affection of the heart, grounded indeed upon scriptural truth, the elements of which are intelligible to a little child, but not ramified into all the doctrinal discussions and mental developments which we sometimes survey with wonder. Theology, as a science, may be made as great a stimulant to the infant mind as baby novel reading; and the effect will too likely be, that the subsequent relaxation will be in proportion to the undue tension. Evelyn's child [whose remarkable history had formed the subject of a previous paper,] was not alto