IN soliciting attention to the following pages, the writer begs to notice, in limine, that he is entering upon. the investigation of a subject now claiming to be ranked not only as a distinct but most comprehensive science. Closely allied to theology, its discussion by parties of different religious views, has tended hitherto rather to mix it up with the sectarianism of peculiar denominations, than to define its own principles and prerogatives; and though so well calculated to promote the best civil interests of the entire community, it has more frequently been degraded into an instrument for serving the mere purposes of a faction. Thus, in most cases, where it has been made a public question, it has only been dragged into the arena of political and polemical strife, dealing wounds upon society, instead of administering its native healing agency to those already inflicted. The progress of truth, however, is gradually detaching it from such an unseemly warfare, unfolding its own high mission and noble aims, and gaining for it the consideration due to its importance as an essential and distinct element in the social constitution. It cannot, however, be denied, that B it is the duty of the legislator to regulate and control the general interests of education, or of the ecclesiastic to lend his efforts in promoting the same cause. But the same thing is no less true regarding every private individual to the extent of his personal and official influence, which, indeed, is but an extension of the same principle that pervades all nature from the inorganic creation upwards. By the law of gravity, the larger masses of matter exert an influence over the smaller, in controlling their operations and movements. A greater degree of heat produces an exuberance of fertility in one climate, and an excess of cold renders barren another. The parent hen fashions the instinctive character and habits of her brood, by the influence of example, and the language of nature; and the propensities of all animals are modified by coming into contact with others of superior sagacity or a higher order. The senior child of a family is the unconscious instructor of his juniors, by exhibiting his own actions and movements as a model for their imitation; and even in what he does teach actively, it being the pure impulse of nature, more character is often formed, and intellect evolved, than from the more formal lessons of an experienced adult. The parent is an educator of a higher class, combining a moral influence with the weight of his natural example. The master of a number of workmen has also an educative power attached to his position; and so, of course, in their respective spheres, have the politician and ecclesiastic. But in all these different relations, the philosophy of an artificial education is never brought fully to bear upon the general purposes of life. Certain natural principles exercise an influence upon their legitimate objects; and, whether these operate actively or passively, upon matter or upon mind, a necessary obedience is yielded to their authority. In the inorganic and vegetable worlds, transformation is accomplished by the operation of a physical law; and in animal nature a similar effect is produced by a principle of instinctive imitation and selflove. Nor even is it when the principles of an abstract education have been generalised from an observation of the preceding laws, combined and digested by the metaphysician into a system of didactic rules, and assumed by sections of society to advance some party scheme of benevolence, that their intrinsic power is fully manifested. The laws of education are designed by Providence to arrange the discordant elements of the entire moral crea tion, and breathe an immortal existence into the universal mind. Instead of furthering the ends of many human alliances, they are intended to dissolve them, and remodel their constitutions upon a more philanthropic basis, to unloose the several knots that bind sections of society together, that the cords of affection and brotherly charity may be lengthened, so as to embrace the whole family of man. They are too spiritual in their nature to promote most of the present arrangements of society, based as these generally are upon the superiority of selfish and factional interests. Yet would not this be the case, were our civil and religious institutions inherently and in reality what they profess to be a means of promoting the essential and universal happiness of man. they even as pure as their principles profess, it would be different; but any religious corporation, so far as the practically moral and physical welfare of the people is concerned in the present life, is either too worldly, or—with reverence be it spoken-too abstractly spiritual for the purpose. It is too worldly, inasmuch as its framework is necessarily established upon a pecuniary basis, with an adamantine bulwark of emoluments Were around it that narrow and restrict the enterprises of its adherents within these prescribed limits. Besides, every social institution has a peculiar species of selfishness attached to it—a kind of aggregate reflection of the selfishness of its individual members; and thus, while the abstract principles upon which any society proposes to act, may tend to a universal good, their operation is often rendered nugatory for this end, by considerations affecting the mere interests of the society. And it is idle to say, that such a feeling pervades churches in any less degree than other civil institutions: while the selfishness of political partisanship is proverbially notorious. Most religious societies are also too abstractly spiritual for the purposes of a temporal education, since their chief business is professedly concerned "with things not of this life." Thus it is that, when any question such as that of modern education comes to be discussed by contending parties of churchmen and politicians, it is treated by each according to the views most conducive to its own. separate and social interests. The real merits of the question are soon merged, and become secondary matters in the unworthy, but all engrossing, struggle for ascendency. Yet of all subjects usually submitted to public attention, it is certainly the best entitled to meet with a calm and dispassionate consideration, and to be discussed with Christian forbearance and courtesy, by people of different views in matters of religion. It is one of the great moral engines that Providence has put into the hands of man for ameliorating and elevating the condition of all ranks. of society; but, in accordance with his usual mode of procedure, it is entirely left to a probationary course. depends, therefore, much upon the animus and skill of those who set it moving, and upon the objects towards which it may be directed, whether it produce its naturally It beneficial effects, or the contrary. If used for party purposes, and for gaining private ends, it will undoubtedly be the innocent cause of effectuating much evil; for, being in itself an acknowledged good, the mischief thus insidiously done, like the administering of poison in some palatable viand, will only be the more concealed and fatal. And in many cases equally lamentable are its individual effects upon those on whom it has partially and prejudicially operated, giving, for example, to the intellectual powers the aid of a heavenly light, by which the wicked purposes of the heart may only be the more extensively and the more fatally executed. Or, on the other hand, if an undue and improper application of it has been made to the feelings, unenlightened by reason and intelligence, no less pernicious consequences will result. In either of these cases it is putting a sharp instrument into the hand; but unless the hand be taught how to wield it, the chances are not small indeed, that pain will only be inflicted upon the operator himself, or upon those around him. A rightly directed system of education is a moral power in the universe, second only to that creating Energy that formed and sustains in existence its material framework. It is, indeed, a co-operating with the same Divine influence-it is carrying into effect the very laws which the Creator has established for the moral renovation and perfection of the species, for admitting it to a glimpse of that intellectual radiance emanating from the "Father of lights," and for opening up, by the magic influences of love and affection, those springs of joy and gladness that have their source in every human heart, and that would flow forth and encircle the whole family of man in one vast flood of blessedness. That a matter of such importance, therefore, should ever be |