intended to glorify God by being made instrumental in the production and improvement of moral excellence. The whole creation around us, both material and immaterial, is made to subserve the object of the Creator in bringing up as many as possible of the race of man to a state of the highest mental and moral perfection.

This is education. The object of it, so far as we can perceive, is the same as the object of God in the creation; and those who engage in forming and reforming,-in instructing, regulating and guiding the hearts and minds of moral and intellectual agents, are fellow-workers with saints and angels, and are so far the agents and servants of Him who is over all, blessed for evermore.

This universel law of creation, by which all things advance from very small or very rude beginnings, towards a more improved condition, and so onward towards that which is more and more perfect, applies very remarkably to man. Not to speak of his physical or intellectual infancy, we now apply the remark to the infancy of his social and moral attainments; and without moral culture, without teaching from some superior mind, without drawing from some stores of accumulated wisdom, human or divine, and without training, and discipline, and inculcation, what is man? What especially is woman? Let the answer be taken from the Hottentot and the South sea islander :-and let them be compared with such women as Mrs. Fry, Mrs. Graham, Mrs. Judson, and Mrs. Hannah More.

The history of the female sex most remarkably shows how slowly the effects of moral culture are diffused; and it now begins to show, in a new and most striking point of light, how great and unexpected may be its fruits. Not that the moral power of women of highly improved minds was unperceived in former times;-not that examples of illustrious female virtue were wanting;—not that women were unhonored in ancient Rome, or their influence in forming the character of the people unacknowledged ;-not but that our Savior most remarkably distinguished them;-but these examples were few and insulated. Even after the spread of christianity, and after the reformation, and in the full light of modern times, the education of women has been generally turned towards elegant and attractive attainments, to the exclusion of the solid and useful. As a general fact, female education is still, as it ever has been, directed towards ornament and elegance chiefly. It is still so in the great world. It is still far too much so among christians. But we admit that a great improvement has been made within the last thirty years, both among christians and others; and we insist that it is the influence of our religion which has produced this effect, even among those who do not acknowledge its power.

Now, female education begins to be conducted with a just regard

to the proper character and deportment of the sex. Woman is taught, and formed, and brought forward into life, with useful knowledge, cultivated power, and fixed principles, without being metamorphosed into a literary, philosophical, moral, or intellectual Amazon. Hence the wives, and mothers, and daughters, which are seen among the sober and reflecting classes of Great Britain and America. Hence our schools for young ladies where the cultivation is, bestowed mainly upon the understanding and the heart. Hence our ten thousands of Female Sunday School Teachers, upon whose co-operation that system of teaching chiefly depends. Hence our Orphan Asylums, Houses of Refuge, Visitants of Prisons, Infant Schools, and the great multitude of female benevolencies;-and hence the ladies, who, not reckoning their lives dear to them, go in missionary families, and leave country and friends forever to live and die at the antipodes. And hence the extensive usefulness of such a book as these 'Letters to a daughter.' We hardly know any work of moral precept, which without being trite, embraces more practical wisdom, nor any work of religious inculcation, in which religion is presented more attractively. Throughout the perusal we have been surprised at the zest and freshness which the writer has infused into his letters upon subjects, many of which have been often before discussed. The following is the table of contents:

Introductory, Early Friendships,-Education, General Directions,-Education' Various Branches.-Education, Domestic Economy,—General Reading,--Independence of Mind,--Forming the Manners,--Conversation,--Amusements,-Intercourse with the World,-Marriage,-Forming Religious Sentiments,-Proper mode of treating Religious Error,Practical Religion,-Self Knowledge,-Self Government,-Humility, Devotion,-Christian Benevolence,-Christian Zeal,-Improvement of Time,-Preparation for Death.

We regret that our limits will admit of only a few extracts.The passages are not selected merely because they are striking"; but rather to give an idea of the practical character of the Parental Monitor. They will exemplify the deep feeling of evangelical piety which pervades the whole; and the reader will need no prompting to remark the sacred eloquence with which they are inspired.

After tracing practical religion as commencing in the understanding, controlling the affections, having a perfect identity in every variety of circumstances, as enduring, and destined to increase continually, Dr. Sprague remarks:

There are two distinct views in which we may regard practical religion, as it stands connected with the trials of life; as triumphing over them, and yet as being advanced and strengthened by them. When you talk of human suffering, there is a chord in every bosom that vibrates in a response to the truth of what you say. The trials of mankind are indeed almost infinitely diversified; there are scarcely two individuals whose cup

of sorrow is composed of precisely the same ingredients: but there is not a solitary individual, whose personal experience does not furnish ample testimony that this world is a vale of tears. There are those, it may be, who, to the surrounding world, always bear a cheerful aspect, and who might almost leave an impression, by the uniformn gladness of the countenance, that the sorrows of life had never invaded their hearts. But if you could know all that passes within-if you could, even for a single week, have access to every secret thought and feeling, you would no doubt find that, though the countenance seemed always to beam with joy, yet the heart was often overburdened with sadness. There are comparatively few who do not, at some time or other, become the objects of sympathy from being openly buffeted by the storms of adversity; but there are few too, who do not experience trials, and sometimes those which bring into the heart the keenest anguish-of which the world knows nothing. Now I say with confidence, that practical religion confers upon its possessor a glorious triumph amidst the sorrows of life. Suppose poverty come with its train of calamities; or suppose detraction points its barbed arrows against a blameless character; or suppose bereavement cast a withering shade upon the best earthly hopes and joys; or suppose disease, which mocks the highest efforts both of friendship and of skill, impress itself upon the countenance and make its lodgment in the very seat of life;--or suppose, if you please, that this whole tribe of evils come marching in fearful array to assail an individual at once, I am sure that I do not say too much for practical religion, when I declare to you that it will enable its possessor to meet them all in serenity and triumph. To do this must require a high effort of faith, I acknowledge; but only such an effort as has been exemplified in the experience of thousands. Oh! when I have stood amidst such scenes, and witnessed the sweet aspirations of hope, and seen the bright beams of joy irradiate the countenance over which sorrow had thrown her deepest shades, just as the bow casts its brilliant hues upon the dark cloud in the going down of the sun, I have looked upon religion as a bright angel come down from heaven to exercise a sovereign influence over human calamity; and if I have formed a wish or offered a prayer in respect to you at such a moment, it has been that this good angel may be your constant attendant through this vale of tears.-pp. 149, 150.

In the following beautiful sketch, our readers will recognize the late venerable Dr. Lathrop of West Springfield, to whom Dr. Sprague was for some years a colleague.

I have rarely seen the legitimate operations of true religion in forming the character so sublimely exemplified, as in the case of a reverend friend, whom, not many years ago, I followed to the grave. He was a man upon whom nature had bountifully bestowed her choicest gifts, and who combined every intellectual and moral quality, which was necessary to stamp upon his character the seal of greatness. But above all, he was a practical christian. I knew him when his locks were silvered with years, and his eyes were dim with age, and his limbs tottered beneath their burden. On his furrowed cheek sat the smile of contentment, the living image of peace and joy. He could hardly open his lips but in some expression of penitence for his sins, or of thankfulness for his mercies. While he was cheerful in the enjoyment of temporal blessings, the eye of faith and hope was fixed on heaven. I saw him when the impressions of disease had fastened upon his countenance; when the symptoms of dissolution were advancing in slow but certain progress, and when eternity was opening its

doors to receive his almost disenthralled spirit. I watched him to see if I could discover a symptom of terror or agitation, any thing like the shrinking back of the soul from the grasp of death: but all was calmness and triumph. Just as he had reached the boundary between earth and heaven, I said, My father, art thou dying in peace?' and his animated expression told me that the songs of seraphs were already trembling on his ear. His dying eye shot forth a beam of rapture, and told, in language more than mortal, the vigor of a spirit on the wing for immortality. Never before did I behold christianity march with so much triumph into the territories of death. The scene is imprinted upon my memory, and I would fain carry the impression of it to the grave --pp. 152--153.

ART. X.-REVIEW OF THE CHILD'S BOOK ON THE SOUL.

The Child's Book on the Soul. By Rev. T. H. GALLAUDET.

Ir the talent of a work is to be estimated, not merely by the depth and originality of the conclusions which are reached, but by the soundness of its philosophy, the accuracy of observation which it exhibits, and the nice adaptation of means to an end in attaining the object in view, then this little book displays more talent than half the octavo volumes, which have appeared in our language for many years. The problem proposed is to convey into the mind of a child five years old, a distinct idea of the soul;-of a being within us distinct from the body, endowed with peculiar attributes of its own, and destined to a separate and immortal state of existence. For the office of aiding the parent in such a task, Mr. Gallaudet is admirably qualified, not only by the general characteristics of his highly gifted mind, but by that long course of observation and experience, to which he has been trained in the instruction of the deaf and dumb. In accomplishing the object proposed, the author has given us a series of familiar dialogues between a mother and her child. The progress of explanation is strictly inductive. At every step, the child is first made to establish clear ideas and distinctions with reference to the objects under consideration, and is then furnished with names to represent those ideas. Commencing with the properties of a pebble which had been casually taken up, the child is led forward by degrees, to trace the points of resemblance and disagreement between it and vegetables and animals; is pointed to the existence of such a thing as vegetable and animal life; is reminded of phenomena within him distinct from the operations of the body; and is at last led forward, by successive stages, to the great truth on which all religion is founded, the existence of a moral being within us, distinct from the body, and destined to exist forever. As an example of the mode of illustration adopted, we quote the following.

R. Mother, I wish I could look inside of sister Eliza.

M. Well, what if you could?

R. I think, I should see some little wheels going round and round, like those in the watch.

M. What makes you think so, Robert?

R. Mother, you know the little things on the watch, that you showed me, the other day. Let me look at them now.

M. Here take the watch.

R. Mother, what do you call these two little things that go round and round, and tell us what o'clock it is?

M. They are called hands.

R. That is strange, mother; I was going to call them so, and to tell you, that the little wheels inside make them go, just as something inside of Eliza, makes her hands go.

M. We must try to find what this something is, inside of Eliza, that makes her hands go.

R. That we can never do, mother.

M. Why not, my son?

R. Oh! mother, you could not open my little sister, and look inside of her, without killing her.

M. That we will never do.

But, do you remember the little boy who died, last winter, in the small house, just beyond the bridge, and that I took you to see the corpse, before it was buried?

R. Yes, mother.

M. Before he was buried, the physicians opened his little body, to see, if they could find out what it was that made him die.

R. I suppose when they open a dead body, they can see all the little wheels inside, that made it go when it was alive.

M. Yes, my son, and when you grow older, you can learn all about what is inside of the body. But there are no little wheels inside of the body, like those in a watch. There are a great many different parts, however, that move one another, and make the whole body move. Do you know what it is that makes the wheels inside of a watch go?

R. Did not you tell me, mother, that it was a spring, and that it must be wound up, to make the watch go?

M. Yes, my son, the watch cannot make itself go, and if it was not wound up, it would soon stop going, and be still, and the hands would

not move.

R. Mother, can any body make any thing that will go of itself, and keep going!

M. No, my son, I never heard of any body that could. pp. 49–56. Having shown that the human frame moves without being wound up, Mrs. Stanhope, the mother, proceeds to show, that it is from thinking that the body acts. We think to do this, and that, and immediately our limbs move in obedience to the thought. Robert is next made to shut his eyes and think of something which he has seen before-something round, sweet, &c. He at length discovers that this thinking resides in his head-that William Baker, a little boy who had lately died, has ceased entirely to act, and therefore to think-and hence concludes, that that which thinks, is something distinct from the body, and probably exists somewhere else in another state of being. He has now an idea of the SOUL,