example himself of open, manly, and straight-forward conduct. He must not attempt to despise others for conduct which he himself is guilty of.

He should set an example of industry, thriftiness, and good management in his own household; by this he will gain the good opinion of those around him, and very much increase his power of doing good.

In his religious teaching he should impress upon them and show it in his own conduct, that Scripture truths are not intended as mere idle words, always in their mouths and little thought of, but are intended to be acted upon.

The following passage from a paper of Addison's in the Spectator conveys an instructive lesson, and requires no comment :

"It is of unspeakable advantage to possess our minds with an habitual good intention, and to aim all our thoughts, words, and actions at some laudable end, whether it be the glory of our Maker, the good of mankind, or the benefit of our own souls.

"A person who is possessed with such an habitual good intention, enters upon no single circumstance of life without considering it as well pleasing to the great Author of his being, conformable to the dictates of reason, suitable to human nature in general, or to that particular station in which Providence has placed him. He lives in a perpetual sense of the Divine presence, regards himself as acting, in the whole course of his existence, under the observation and inspection of that Being, who is privy to all his motions and all his thoughts, 'who knows his down-sittings and his up-rising, who is about his path and about his bed, and spieth out all his ways.' In a word, he remembers that the eye of his Judge is always upon him, and in every action he reflects that he is doing what is commanded or allowed by him who will hereafter either reward or punish it. This was the character of those holy men of old who in that beautiful phrase of Scripture are said to have 'walked with God.'

Some of these observations may appear trite and commonplace, and I will not go on adding to them. The schoolmaster ought to see and feel that life is made of

little things-that man is a "bundle of habits," and that it is therefore of importance he should acquire good habits in youth, and that although each single thing may not of itself appear of importance, it is only by attending to each separately that good as a whole, and in the aggregate, can be produced-that its only by impressing upon the minds of children over and over again, by example and by precept, the importance of these little things and these little duties (in addition to other instruction which he has to give), that he can work out a good result, and discharge those duties to society which are expected from him.

"Think nought a trifle, though it small appear;
Small sands the mountains, moments make the year;
And trifles life."

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

In having put forward these views on the subject of secular instruction in our schools, I hope it will not be supposed that I am either indifferent, or would give less attention than ought to be given, to those Scriptural truths which are the foundation of all sound teaching, and without which an education of a merely secular kind may be a very delusive guide.

case.

In the middle and educated classes, a religious foundation may generally be laid at home, but with the labouring and uneducated classes, this can hardly be said to be the My own experience tells me that the more they have of secular knowledge-the more they know of their own language, the grammar of it, etc., so as to get at the construction of a sentence, the better they will understand, and the greater interest they will take in those fundamental truths of Christianity which it is essential for them to know, and without which they cannot even be called Christianstruths which they ought to know and believe for their souls' health; the more also they will feel that the precepts of the Gospel are intended for their guidance through life— to be acted upon, and not merely to be talked about-to

guide their thoughts and words and actions--and that, if they do not take them as their guide, and, by God's help, endeavour to act up to them-whether they belong to the church or dissent from it-they are merely nominal Christians, and might as well be called by any other name. That if religion does not make them better in all the relations of life, as parents doing their duty to their children and all around them as children* obedient to their parents, grateful to them in after-life, truthful and honest in all they do— so far as they are concerned, it has failed in its intention, and that they are not doing what they profess they ought to do. That practical good conduct is the best proof which they can give that they believe what they profess—that the same substance of Christianity is contained in that beautiful passage from St. Paul, which cannot be too often or too deeply impressed upon their minds, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; lookfor that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, might rescue us from the power and dominion of sin, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works ;" and that they ought to endeavour to acquire the virtues, the temper, and disposition of a real Christian.

It has been asserted, "that man acts more from habit than from reflection," and of the truth of this no one can

* And canst thou, mother! for a moment think

That we, thy children, when old age shall shed
Its blanching honours on thy drooping head,

Could from our best of duties ever shrink?
Sooner the sun from his high sphere should sink,
Than we, ungrateful, leave thee in that day
To pine in solitude thy life away,

Or shun thee, tottering on the grave's cold brink.
Banish the thought! where'er our steps may roam,
O'er smiling plains, or wastes without a tree,
Still will fond Memory point our hearts to thee,
And paint the pleasures of thy peaceful home;
While Duty bids us all thy griefs assuage,

And smooth the pillow of thy sinking age. H. K. WHITE.

doubt-but how important then that, in the education of youth, the training of the mind should be such as to influence for good the habits which are then formed, and on which the character of the man so much depends; not only should he be made to feel that, in a worldly point of view, his success and his respectability in after-life depend upon the habits of industry, of manly virtue, and of honest, straightforward conduct, the groundwork of which is laid at this period of life—but that all his actions and all his feelings should partake of the spirit and of the devotional feeling which sees, as one of our sweetest poets has beautifully expressed it

"There lives and works

A soul in all things, and that soul is God.

Happy who walks with Him! whom what he finds
Of flavour, or of scent, in fruit or flower;

Or what he views of beautiful or grand

In nature from the broad majestic oak

To the green blade that twinkles in the sun,
Prompts with remembrance of a present God."

Not that children should be made to feel that there is anything gloomy in religion, or in those feelings which spring from viewing the works of nature in a devotional spirit; on the contrary, I should wish to have them taught to look on the cheerful side of things, and to find lessons of happiness in the works of nature which are around them

Behold! and look away your low despair-
See the light tenants of the barren air :
To them nor stores nor granaries belong;
Nought but the woodlands and the pleasing song.
Yet your kind heavenly Father bends his eye
On the least wing that flits along the sky.
To Him they sing when spring renews the plain,
To Him they cry in winter's pinching reign;
Nor is their music nor their plaint in vain-
He hears the gay and the distressful call,
And with unsparing bounty fills them all.

Observe the rising lilly's snowy grace,
Observe the various vegetable race;
They neither toil nor spin, but careless grow;
Yet see how warm they blush, how bright they glow.

C

What regal vestments can with them compare-
What king so shining, or what queen, so fair?
If ceaseless thus the fowls of heaven He feeds;
If o'er the fields such lucid robes He spreads;
Will He not care for you, ye faithless, say?
Is He unwise?-or are you less than they?

THOMPSON.

Paley, in his "Natural Theology," after having inquired into the works of nature, comes to the conclusion that "the world, after all, is a happy one;" and, in the sense in which he intended it, this view is perfectly right, and it ought to be the duty of every teacher to train up the young to see and contemplate the goodness of the Almighty in the designs of the creation-to see in everything "that happiness is the rule, and misery the exception❞—to contemplate with pleasure "the air, the earth, the water teeming with delighted existence;" he goes on to say, “In a spring morn or a summer evening, on whichever side I turn my eyes, myriads of happy beings crowd upon my view; the insect youth are on the wing; swarms of newborn flies are trying their pinions in the air; their sportive motions testify their joy, and the exultation which they feel in their lately discovered faculties. A bee amongst the

flowers in spring is one of the most cheerful objects that can be looked upon; its life appears to be all enjoymentso busy and so pleased; yet it is only a specimen of insect life, with which, by reason of the animal being half domesticated, we happen to be better acquainted than we are with others. The whole winged insect tribe, it is probable, are equally intent upon their proper employments, and under every variety of constitution gratified by the offices which the Author of Nature has assigned to them. But the atmosphere is not the only scene of enjoyment; walking by the sea-side in a calm evening, upon a sandy shore, and with an ebbing tide, I have frequently remarked the appearance of a dull cloud, or rather a very thick mist, hanging over the edge of the water, to the height, perhaps, of half a yard, and of the breadth of two or three yards, stretching along the coast as far as the eye could reach, and always retiring with the water: when this cloud came to be examined, it proved to be nothing else than so much