disgust. First corrupted and degraded by man, they take a tenfold and terrible vengeance for the wrongs they have suffered, by spreading in every direction the most loathsome of all bodily diseases, and a degree of mental corruption infinitely more appalling. To the theatre these miserable outcasts look as a principal means of support, in its neighbourhood they are invariably settled, and to it they seem to be as necessary adjuncts as the stage itself or any of its trappings. This fact, independent of all other considerations, renders the playhouse a heavy curse to the neighbourhood in which it is established. I fear the foregoing remarks will not be thought very flattering by my fellow-parishioners; upon reviewing them, however, I think they contain only what truth and justice demand. Nothing can be farther from my intention than to represent Clerkenwell as inferior in its moral condition to the rest of London: indeed I think the parish would gain much in comparison with many others. The staple trade is watch making; and the inhabitants are undoubtedly entitled to a high character for industry; while every part of the world in which a watch is found will bear testimony to the ingenuity and superior excellence of their workmanship. There is a Savings Bank in the parish, to which a multitude of its prudent inhabitants continually resort; and on the Sabbath, most of the places of worship are filled with hearers, respectable in appearance and attentive in their deportment. It cannot be denied, however, that there is still abundant room for the labours of the Christian Philanthropist, and a ud call in the parish for increased exertions in the cause of truth and virtue. The chief topographical curiosity in the parish, is the "New River Head," the fountain-head of that wonderful system of hydraulics by which the greater part of London is supplied with the purest water that is used by its inhabitants. May it soon be equally famous for an abundant supply of the "water of life," that every virtue may spring up and bear fruit in it a hundredfold, and that throughout its whole extent true piety may grow as the lily, and cast forth its roots as Lebanon." TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS. J. C. THE doctrine taught by Pythagoras and embodied into the Pagan religion, that the soul of man, never dying, tenanted new-born bodies in succession, was, with all its high colourings, and however adorned with all the imagery of poetic fiction, as the bard's inventive mind disposed, but a corruption of the Christian Resurrection. Notwithstanding the fabulous embellishments and romantic exaggeration of the philosopher and his sociales, the doctrine of the resurrection shines forth in all the glory of uncorrupted truth, and forms that immoveable foundation on which Christianity has been founded; it is, of a truth, that rock on which a house if built cannot be overthrown, though the wind and seas rise up against it. It has been universally acknowledged from all periods of the world; and were it not preserved in the sacred volume, and stamped with the attestation of the Most High, yet even then we have a glorious hope of immortality implanted within us, never to be eradicated, to which the dying agonies of each infidel adds a confirmation, which no violence can shake, or sophistry gainsay. "None is good but God; nothing is good without God; heaven would be nothing without him; earth with him would be made the beginning of heaven." OBSERVATIONS ON THE INFANT SCHOOL SYSTEM. Ir is very seldom that circumstances are favourable to an entire and faithful statement of the advantages or disadvantages attending the system of infant schools, because the subject is seldom expatiated upon, except in sermons, or books designedly intended to gain the contributions of the charitable in order to support these institutions. It is, however, the wish of the writer of these remarks, who has had the benefit of observation of several infant schools during several years, to state as impartially as possible the impression made upon his mind, both respecting the benefits and the disadvantages attending the system. Disadvantages, he conceives, unquestionably attach to it; and as in most other systems of human invention, cannot wholly be avoided; while at the same time the benefits immensely preponderate. He will endeavour to state both of them separately. His observation will have respect to circumstances as they are, not as they might become upon improvement. Among the disadvantages resulting from the circumstances respecting infant schools as they now exist may be reckoned one, that the persons who propose themselves for the office of masters and mistresses are generally not sufficiently informed, or rather educated, themselves, to admit of their occupying the situation with the greatest advantage to the children. When the age of children in an infant school is considered, which is from two to seven years old, that age the most important of all others to the future habits and moral character of the children, it will be acknowledged that the teachers ought to be persons of the best common sense, who have themselves imbibed habits of propriety of every kind, who are well informed upon the subject of education, who are aware of the dangers to be avoided, and of the good to be aimed at. Here however I must acknowledge, that, as far as my observations go, such persons are rarely found among the teachers of infant schools. They are not unfrequently enthusiastic, selfopinionated, and impeded by all the disadvantages of ignorance. Yet the salary paid them (seldom less than 100. per annum) ought assuredly to secure persons well educated and trained to the office of instructors. It has been ascertained as a fact, that the majority of persons thus employed at present have been mechanics of some kind or other, who, finding business not answer, have undergone six weeks or two months' training at some central school, and thenceforward commence a labour, which requires perhaps more than any other an intelligent mind, much knowledge of the human heart, and an acquaintance with the sentiments of the best writers on education. With all the native conceit of ignorance, the teachers of infant schools are generally impatient of any suggestion from others. I have known instances, in which intelligent visitors have ceased to advise, from very discouragement itself: and upon a change of the master being suggested, it has been replied, that it is a doubt whether a better could be obtained. Hence the masters have been permitted to go on in a noisy, inefficacious mode, out of despair of amending the preceptor, or of exchanging him for a better. The preceding remarks will be deemed important by each reader, in proportion as he understands the value of proper qualifications in the teacher of an infant school in respect to the moral and intellectual welfare of the children. Another disadvantage attendant upon infant schools is, that the system itself does not provide for the learning to read of the children, although in many schools a portion of the day, both in the morning and after noon, is devoted to the work of teaching reading and spelling, and which is conducted generally in a separate room, or in a part of the room not otherwise occupied. The method of teaching the letters and of teaching reading is very nearly that of the old system of the "school for children." The advantages of an infant school are numerous, and are sufficient to counterbalance every defect. 1. The children are thereby removed out of the way of their parents during five or six hours every day, at a very moderate expense; the parents, and especially the mother, being at liberty to pursue any avocation, or to attend to her domestic duties. 2. Habits of cleanliness are promoted among the children at that age at which they are likely to become durable; it being an universal requirement of these institutions, that the children come with clean hands and faces, with hair neatly combed but not curled, with clean and mended clothes, &c. 3. The writer cannot profess himself to be one of those who have formed high expectations from the intellectual culture to be expected from these institutions. The lessons indeed themselves exhibit a great array of various learning-arithmetical tables, poetical quotations, grammar, geography, and even geometry! It is important to remark, that the lessons are almost universally sung or chaunted. The writer has often made the following experiment. Having heard the children chaunt, without hesitation, and all together, the Pence Table or the Time Table-such as, 60 seconds make a minute, 60 minutes one hour, 24 hours one day, 7 days one week, 4 weeks one month, 12 months one year, 365 days one year- has desired the teacher to bring to him the three or four of the children of both sexes whom he considered to be the cleverest and best taught in the school. He has then asked them separately, how many days in the year, or weeks in a month, or minutes in an hour, and he has almost always found, that when dissociated from the chaunt, and from the rest of the particulars of the table, and from the order of the table, the children gave a false answer. He suspects that almost all the knowledge apparently possessed by the children in an infant school is of a similarly doubtful nature. Still he thinks good results are to be anticipated from the questioning of the children in the history and doctrines and precepts of the scriptures, which is part of the system, and which, if kept up and persevered in with variety of questions, may be very useful. Still how much depends upon the teachers! He once went into an infant school when the master was talking to the children about Naomi the leper! The benefit of the tuition in an infant school is, that it exercises the faculties of the children, trains the perception, and facilitates their improvement when they are removed to the national schools, which ought not to be deferred in any instance after the seventh year of a child's age. : 4. A considerable benefit may be anticipated from the religious part of the system. Religion, in persons of all ages, is more a matter of the affections than of the intellect or, as it was said by Pascal, one of the purest and most exalted of human beings, the truths of religion descend not through the intellect into the heart, but ascend from the heart into the understanding. Still the affections must be regulated by knowledge, and knowledge must be instilled into the mind; yet where it is done as in an infant school, not by catechising, or by statements and proofs, but in the most cate. gorical way imaginable, the ideas being simply suggested to the imagination, the affections, it is hoped, will be excited in minds that have not yet learned to doubt or to demur. The following is the mode usually adopted. "Who took children to his arms? The chil dren unitedly exclaim, Jesus. Q. Where is Jesus now? A. In heaven. Q. Can Jesus see little children? A. Yes. Q. Will he hear them if they pray to him?___Will_he pardon their sins if they daily request it? Does God see you by night and by day? Does God hear every word I speak? Does God know iny thoughts? What does God do when he hears us say a bad word or think a bad thought? A. He writes them in his book." These, and a variety of similar questions, respecting prayer, the duties whereby the sabbath-day is to be observed, &c. are calculated to impress the mind with those principles of religion, the presence of God, and the duties by which he is honoured and served (that is to say, the principles of religion from whence good conduct flows), at a time when the mind is most susceptible. The benefits of the system in this respect are inestimable. Another benefit is, that the mechanical part of the system is calculated to keep the children attentive. The changes of posture are frequent. Now they stamp their feet-they point-they bow-stoop-speak low or loud-clap their hands-and mimic every idea by gestures. Their lessons are games, and games they like to play at. They combine exercise of body with exercise of mind. They have relaxation at proper intervals. Public examinations delight them; and, what is of importance, they delight their parents. Hence the children are generally happy: their countenances exchange that complaining expression so obvious in the children of the poor, for one of cheerfulness. The system also brings the poor and the wealthy more into contact than they would otherwise be. The poor see that their richer neighbours care for them the wealthy learn that the poor are grateful. The clergyman has an opportunity of calling the parents together to address them after every public examination: the parents gladly attend. Hence an additional tie is instituted between the pastor and the poor. When the children are removed to the parochial schools, they are better adapted to enter upon the instructions they receive there; and above all, their minds are imbued with the early knowledge and fear of God. In a word, the benefit of the system is rather to be sought for in the cultivation of the heart and of good habits, than in the communication of knowledge to the understanding. Yet, again I remark, how much depends upon the master and the mistress! PASTOR. The writer of the preceding observations would also point out one lamentable defect attendant upon the infant school system, in the books out of which the teachers select the various lessons for the children. These books are generally written by some infant school master! and, strange to say, he has never known an infant schoolmaster who did not contrive to gratify his propensity for writing, and even for poetry! by composing lessons himself; and in most infant schools be believes the master teaches lessons of "his own composing" Would that some one qualified would take upon him to write or to revise the books alluded to! Let them be examined, and they will be found very ́ often to contain things grossly ridiculous or unintelli gible, bad rhymes, or that universal evil of rhyming, the use of a word in an unusual sense in consequence of the necessity of finding some word that jingles in sound with the preceding. The books for infant schools ought to be written by the profoundest philosophers and scholars of the age, for they alone are able to write lessons adapted to the understanding of the infant mind. Nothing above their power to comprehend, nothing that misrepresents the real nature of things, nothing that discourages by its harshness of sentiment or of sound, ought to be presented to the memory or understanding of infants. Throughout each succeeding period of life similar rules ought to be observed. The lessons also ought to be connected, and as a whole calculated to furnish a complete initiatory view of the subjects to which they relate. As a proof of the state of things in infant schools, the writer will relate two facts. 1. As a member of a committee of an infant school, he witnessed a person offering himself as a master. He had been a mechanic. Every third word he spoke, or nearly so, manifested his ignorance of the vernacular language. Yet, in enumerating his qualifications, he himself stated that he could write poetry. He was accepted, and his poetical productions soon appeared in the school in the shape of lessons! 2. In an infant school he one day visited, a skylight was left open, and a shower coming on, the rain fell upon the heads of some of the children. "There," said the master, "you are such naughty boys for making a noise, that the rain is coming on you through the windows." He who could be guilty of such an error in his mode of teaching, proclaimed himself capable of repeating the error whenever occasion occurred. It was, however, the too usual error in the education of young children, in giving them false representations of causes and effects, and facts in general, whereby their inquisitive minds, which would learn truth if not perverted, are discouraged, since they find that their own perceptions are thus contradicted; and it is feared by the writer that such instances conduce to the habit of falsehood! [We cannot fully coincide in all the sentiments of our esteemed Clerical correspondent, in his paper on Infant Schools; but we insert it, in the hope it may be the means of advancing them to perfection.- ED.] ON THE EXISTENCE OF MISERY AND EVIL. THE existence of evil and its natural consequent misery in the world, has ever been and continues to be the grand question in theological and sceptical controversy. But on such a subject we may say with Dr. Young, "Those things which our hands can grasp, our understanding cannot comprehend; why then deny to the Deity himself the privilege of being one amidst that multitude of mysteries he has made. Without these trials, we might indeed have been what the world terms happy, the passive subjects of a series of agreeable sensations; but we could not have had the delights of conscience; we could not have felt what it is to be magnanimous, to have the toil, the combat, and the victory; to exult that we have something within us which is superior, not to danger only, but which can vanquish even pleasure itself." AFFLICTION THE TEST OF VIRTUE. In those eventful instances of life, when our energies mental as well as corporeal are put to trial, when it is requisite that every manly feeling should be called into action, and each quality of the mind displayed in its true light, nothing is more calculated to inspire us with becoming resolution than a well-grounded principle of virtue, sufficiently strong to spurn the allurements of vice, and able to detect the tinsel of their temptations. "Virtue shines brightest in affliction's night;" and as the sun-rays beam forth with heightened splendor from the passing cloud, and shine in livelier lustre when the tempest has subsided; so is the man exalted in the view of us his colleagues in this turbulent world, who weathers the storms of adversity with honour, and fronts the malicious fickleness of fortune heroically and intrepidly. Is she now cloth'd in raiment white, From all distress and sorrow free, My Mother? Doth she now range the heavenly plain, Where love and peace shall ever reign, And has our loss become her gain My Mother? Shall we then weep and mourn, repine, Because above she drinks new wine Where her Immanuel's glories shineMy Mother? And has she pass'd that conquer'd foe, My Mother? NEW YEAR'S COUNSEL TO THE YOUNG. "WISDOM is the principal thing: therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting, get understanding." Prov. vi, 7. "Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman." Chap. vii, 4. "If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God: for the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh understanding." Chap. ii, 3-6. NEW YEAR'S COUNSEL IMPROVED. Enrich'd with the beams of thy light, It flows from the Father of lights; Shine forth, O thou Spirit of grace; 'Cherubim," Knowing ones; "Seraphim," Burning ones. Isa. vi, 2; Ezek. i, 5—13; x, 19, 20; Rev. iv, 6--9. THE CHRISTIAN PILGRIM. "For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God."Heb. xiii, 14; iv, 9. Earth hath not an abiding spot! Where change or sorrow reigns? Through this dark world our passage lies, This Earth is not our rest; Yet peace, and even joy shall shine, Which Earth can never give, Above Earth's changeful round; S. F. W. THE CHRISTIAN'S ANNUAL DIRECTORY With Tables for the Reading of Every Day; by which the whole of the Holy Scriptures may be read in a year. Designed to induce Young Persons to adopt the practice of Reading through the Bible annually, and to pursue it through life. By T. Timpson. Seventh Edition. This little Tract contains much information in its several Tables: the first of which embraces the order of every day's reading throughout the year. Table II, contains a list of the HISTORICAL BOOKS, with the names of their authors, the place where written, the period which each includes, its commencement and close, and the date of the year before the advent of Christ when each history terminates. Table III. THE DOCTRINAL BOOKS OF THE BIBLE. Table IV. The PROPHETICAL BOOKS. Table V. The DEVOTIONAL Books. Table VI. The MORAL BOOKS of the Bible, all on the same plan. The Tables are preceded by a useful Essay on the importance of reading the whole Bible. We think we are doing a service to our readers to recommend this cheap little Manual, as a Key to the Bible, adapted to lie within its cover for daily reference. This would form a cheap but valuable present to the young and the poor for the New Year. EPITAPH AT WELWYN, HERTFORDSHIRE, BY THE AUTHOR OF NIGHT THOUGHTS. If fond of what is rare, attend! Of perfect piety, Memorial for what deserves the greatest. Which shone through all The lesson and reproach of those above him. The polish'd marbles of the great. A tuif o'er virtue charms us more. "Think ye, sinners that hear me!" said one, "if God poured out His wrath on Christ, because iniquity was imputed to him, what will he say to you?” "As when the eye is fixed on the sun it loses sight of the stars; so when the sinfulness of sin, as committed against God, is seen, all minor considerations are lost sight of." The first volume of the Christian's Penny Magazine, from June to December 1832, is now complete, and may be had, neatly bound in canvass, price 3s. 6d. through any Bookseller or Newsman; and also any of the preceding Parts or Numbers. London: Printed and Published by C. WOOD AND SON, Poppin's Court, Fleet Street; to whom ali Communications for the Editor (post paid) should be addressed; and sold by all Booksellers and Newsmen in the United Kingdom. Hawkers and Dealers Supplied on Wholesale Terms, by STEILL, Paternoster Row; BERGER, Holywell Street, Strand; F. BAISLER, 124, Oxford Street; and W. N. BAKER, 16, City Road, Finsbary. We shall give some notices of the British colony at Sierra Leone; and then present our readers with a sketch of the history of that crying and abominable traffic, which commenced its bloody enormities in that place. Sierra Leone was colonized in 1787, by the British Government sending over from London about four hundred free negroes, with sixty whites, mostly women of bad character. Captain Thomson, of the navy, who took them over, obtained for their use a grant of land, about twenty miles square, from King Tom, the neighbouring chief; and which was confirmed afterwards by Naimhanna, the king of the country. This first attempt failed and his Majesty granted the land to the "Sierra Leone Company," who, October 19, 1791, held their first meeting. As this Company" conVOL. II. 4 66 templated the diffusion of Christianity, and by this means the civilization of Africa, we will record here the names of the committee of directors, who were then chosen. Henry Thornton, Esq. M. P. chairman; Philip Sansom, Esq. deputy chairman; Sir Charles Middleton, Bart.; Sir George, Young, Knt.; William Wilberforce, Esq. M. P.; Rev. Thomas Clarkson, A. M.; Joseph Hardcastle, Esq.; Granville Sharp, Esq.; John Kingston, Esq Samuel Parker, Esq.; Willian Sandford, Esq.; Vickeris Taylor, Esq.; George Wolfe, Esq." Every thing having been settled on equitable and benevolent principles, the ships sailed with the British colonists, to whom, in March 1792, were added 1131 blacks from Nova Scotia. The building of Free Town was commenced, consisting of about 400 houses, in nine streets, besides a church, and several public buildings. Before the end of two years, order, iddustry, and prosperity, appeared in such a degree, that the fame of this colony spread all along the whole western coast of Africa, and embassies of the most friendly character were received from kings and of the princes several hundred injles distant. Several native chiefs began to cherish and manifest such Confidence in the British, as to send their children to the C |