more important to him and to society at large than any mental acquisition. Without religion and morality, knowledge, let it be repeated, is only the power of doing mischief.

SECT. VI.-DUTIES OF PARENTS WITH RESPECT TO INSTRUCTION.

Information, although only secondary in early education, must not be overlooked by parents. It is part of their duty to their offspring to prepare them for the arduous labour of scholastic instruction, and to give them habits of self-teaching, in order that they may not depend on the instructor for what should devolve on themselves. They ought to impart to them an accurate practical knowledge of their own language, with correct notions of the external world and of things in general, which may render more interesting and easy their future study, either of languages or of sciences. Home education should be subsidiary to public education.

However, parents should not force nature, but preserve the child from premature mental excitement. They will have no reason to regret his backwardness in intellectual education, if, on entering the third period, he be blooming in health and lively in spirits, if his sympathies are prompt, his curiosity active, his self-love duly controlled; if he habitually appeals to his conscience, and readily submits his will to that of his superiors. With such a preparation the period of mental culture will open with a bright prospect.

"The effect of the pains which are taken in the first nine or ten years of a child's life," says Miss Edgeworth, "may not be apparent immediately to the view, but it will gradually become visible. To careless observers, two boys of nine years old, who have been very differently educated, may appear nearly alike in abilities, in temper, and in the promise of future character. Send them both to a large public school-let them be placed in the same new situation, and exposed to the same trials, the difference will then appear: the difference in a few years will be such as to strike every eye; and people will wonder what can have produced in so short a time such an amazing change.

Suppose that parents educated their children well for the first nine years of their lives, and then sent them all to public seminaries, what a difference this must immediately make in public education! The boys would be disposed to improve

themselves with all the ardour which the most sanguine preceptor could desire; their masters would find no habits of idleness to conquer: no perverse stupidity would provoke them; no capricious contempt of application would appear in pupils of the quickest abilities. The pupils would be all fit companions for each other; they would not have any new character to learn; they would improve by mixing with numbers; and, though they would love their companions, they would not, therefore, combine together to treat their instructors as pedagogues and tyrants."*

The supposed training by which Miss Edgeworth imagines children to be prepared for public seminaries at the early age of nine, has, in the present state of society, no chance of being realised. The carelessness of some parents and the ignorance of others, will unfortunately long continue to supply those establishments with the seeds of all vices; and large assemblages of young people will always defeat the best efforts which the few persons placed over them make to check the progress of evil propensities among them. Anxious parents must then defer exposing their sons, and, more especially, their daughters, to the worst of influences-the example of mischievous companions,until their moral character is capable of resisting temptation. Under even the most favourable circumstances they cannot be formed to those moral and religious habits which will preserve them from the dangers of the scholastic life, before they have entered upon the third period of youth.

Public instruction is, in many respects, highly useful when the intellectual powers of the child are equal to the labour it imposes; and, with regard to the formation of the character, it has greatly the advantage over private education. However, the intercourse existing between the young inmates of large boarding schools is far from always possessing a beneficial tendency. It is said to be the best apprenticeship of life, on account of its analogy with the world; but, as in the case of this prototype, more virtue and self-control than young persons usually possess are required to pass through its ordeal, without contamination. When the moral habits and the intellectual development of young people enable them to attend public schools, we would prefer that it should be as day-pupils. This middle course, generally adopted in Germany, which combines the benefits of the two modes of education-private and public -would prevent many of the evils attendant on a long and

*Practical Education.

unnatural separation between parents and children; among others, the tendency which it has to weaken the ties of their mutual affection.

Many parents are apt to think they have no duty to discharge respecting the intellectual education of their children, from the moment they have consigned them to masters; they forget that their moral influence over them is much more powerful than can be that of a teacher. If they take an interest in their studies, and see that they earnestly attend to them, they will give efficiency to the training of the school. At the same time that they should refrain from any teazing interference with the peculiar province and business of the instructor, they ought to make inquiries about the behaviour and progress of their children; they ought occasionally to question them on the subjects of instruction in which they are engaged, and even examine them, whenever they are capable; they ought especially to sympathise with them when they come home elated with the pleasure of success at school. These marks of interest on the part of the parents will contribute to convince their children of the utility of the things which they are taught ; it will secure to the father the continuance of his authority, and will facilitate the office of the instructor.

Parents, or the persons who supply their place, must take these observations into serious consideration. They should not only seize every opportunity to render the children better and wiser by religious, moral, and mental training; but they should also promote their physical development and innocent enjoyment by healthful exercises. Thus will they secure for them that normal state, the foundation of their future happiness and usefulness- -"A sound mind in a sound body," acting under the influence of sound morality (9).

GREAT as is the influence of parents over the moral education of the child, that of instructors over his intellectual improvement is equally great. Success in instruction depends as much on the competency of the teacher as on the excellence of the method; it may even be said that his influence over the learners is more powerful. A zealous, kind, skilful, and well-informed instructor will forward his pupils with any method, because he will know how to fix their attention, how to stimulate their exertion; whereas an indolent, irritable, or ill-informed teacher, will never make good scholars, even with the best of methods.

It devolves on the instructor to inspire learners with a love of study, to direct their attention towards useful pursuits, to create in them the desire to learn what he wishes to teach, to proportion difficulties to their capacities, to keep up and gradually gratify their natural curiosity, to assist them in discovering rather than to impart to them what he knows himself. It is his duty to moderate the over-ardent, to stimulate the indolent, to encourage the timid, to direct the wayward, and to overcome the obstinate.

The instructor who is anxious to discharge the noble duties of his office and to respond to the high trust placed in him, will identify himself with his pupils; he will enter with delight, even with enthusiasm, into their pursuits; he will make every moment during which they are in his presence conducive to the improvement of their minds and hearts.

In order to carry on efficiently the work of education, the preceptor should blend cheerfulness of disposition with firmness of character; he should have great command of temper and inexhaustible patience; he should possess all the feelings of a parent and the indulgence of a Christian; he should excel other

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men by the correctness of his conduct and the polish of his manners; for his example will have more force than his precepts. His address, deportment, and language, ought, at all times, to be such as to inspire his pupils with confidence, love, and respect. On the threshold of life, children unconsciously assimilate themselves to the persons in whose society they live. If it is desirable that they be honourable in their conduct and refined in their manners, their educator must be an accomplished gentleman.

Among the moral qualities which the professor in a public school should possess, may be particularly mentioned Justice; for he must distribute rewards and punishments as they are deserved; he must avoid injurious preferences among his pupils, and refrain from attending exclusively to boys of promising ability, to the prejudice of those who are less favoured by nature, in order to gain the dazzling honours of university prizes, thus resting the reputation of his school on a narrow, unjust, and dishonest foundation.

It is by his impartiality, and his love for the children committed to his care, that he will be entitled to govern them; it is by gaining their affection, that he will exercise over their minds that moral influence, which will enable him to direct them at his will and excite them to the noblest exertions. A taste for literary and scientific studies may be very effectively imparted by a kind and amiable instructor. It is only when personal influence does not exist, that recourse must be had to other stimulants. He who cannot rule by love must rule by fear. But, of all instruments of action, the most dangerous, undoubtedly, are emulation and corporal punishments. Without the greatest precaution, the first is but too apt to foster, in the bosoms of the young competitors, feelings of vanity, pride, ambition, envy, and jealousy; the second may sometimes debase a noble spirited youth, and inure him to perverseness.

"The usual lazy and short way by chastisement and the rod,” says Locke, "which is the only instrument of government that tutors generally know, or ever think of, is the most unfit of any to be used in education. This sort of correction naturally breeds an aversion to that which it is the tutor's business to create a liking to. How obvious is it to observe, that children come to hate things which were at first acceptable to them, when they find themselves whipped, and chid, and teazed about them? Such a sort of slavish discipline makes a slavish temper. The