truth will, in a child, afford aid and duration to knowledge, and knowledge of all kinds will minister to revealed truths. Intellectual education, talents and acquirements of any order cannot give happiness, unless accompanied by religious education. I would that religious culture,

and intellectual culture should be under the same direction, and grant each other the stamp of holiness and reason; as to principles of morality, religion in all ages and in all countries is their firmest basis, and I doubt whether, in our times, morality can exist without the support of religion and the pure and true principles of christianity.

ON MORAL FEELINGS.

Our ideas, our feelings, our manners, and duties, are caused by reciprocal, and continued instruction; which stamps, on each individual, and on each nation its peculiar character.

In the preceding chapter I have alluded to the force of example, and if I required more than example in early religious education, it is because it appeared to me important to take advantage of the beautiful picture of nature to assist in developing religious feelings; and that I wished to impress on the infant mind the conviction of the existence of God, and connect the idea of that existence with children's earliest thoughts and impressions. Love God above all things, and love thy neighbour as thyself, is a religious, and a moral precept taught by our divine Redeemer. Morality without the light of Christianity would in the present age be preposterous, indeed incompatible with an enlightened and upright mind.

The morals of the ancients are as nothing compared with the moral of Chrisitianity; philosophers of ancient times who had most elevated the principles of morality, felt that the duties originating in human principles were weak and subjected to change, and these great philosophers wisely observed that men could only learn duty from a God. What was wanting in the philosophy and morals of the ancients, what would be wanting in the human philosophy of the present times is found in the Revelation. That is why I terminated the preceding chapter by saying that I doubted whether sound morals could exist unless founded on religious principles, and Christianity.

Love God above all things, and thy neighbour as thyself, this precept is the foundation of all morality. But to love God, the heart must be pure; the mind just; in fact children cannot too soon be taught to adore their maker; their conduct through life will in a great measure depend

on the efficiency of the governess under whose care they have been placed in early age, and on the power she possesses of instilling into the youthful heart sound religious feeling and principles, for moral sentiments require constant culture, and it is this culture that is unfortunately so little understood in education.

"Man," says a Roman philosopher, "is born for two things, to understand, and to act in accordance with his nature," that is to say, rightly and consistently; his happiness must not depend on being loaded with honors and riches, and on being surrounded by pleasures, his happiness should consist in being just and upright.

Justice and honesty, were the principal moral qualities of the ancients. To Love God above all things, and our neighbours as ourselves is the symbol of the new law, and the principle of the moral of Christianity. But it will not suffice to be just, it will not suffice to do unto others as we would they should do unto us; our Divine Redeemer has carried the principles of his charity to a much greater extent; he has made charity the basis of morals and the social tie that should unite all men. Here then is a subject suited to the meditation of mothers and governesses; for if educatiou were established on these sound moral principles it would not only tend to the good of the pupils but to the happiness both of parents and governesses.

All education not founded on religious and moral principles, must, in its nature be defective, and the results consequently unsatisfactory.

Charity, virtue, and honesty, are the foundation of moral excellence, charity is the basis of filial affection, and all other good feelings; let this sentiment be early cultivated, let it grow with children, and they will soon love and revere their parents, be respectful to their superiors, and kind to their inferiors; it is charity which produces sympathy, and does not sympathy improve the heart, give rise to goodness and benevolence, from which results mildness of disposition.

Children have feelings and propensities and it is by taking advantage of the one to moderate the other that all may be turned to advantage by those who understand the great art of education.

Propensities are necessary to youthful activity, but they must be moderated and circumscribed within proper limits; feelings are equally necessary, they are more elevated than propensities and serve to control the latter. In young children, propensities, feelings, faculties all seem to be developed at once, and in fact all are developed at the same time, though in different degrees according to the capacity of the mother or governess, who directs the infant mind, and knows how to draw from this human instrument sounds more or less harmonious.

The highest moral feelings are to be met with in those persons, whose intellectual powers have been best directed. Mental cultivation is necessary to understand the beauties of morals, as much as mental cultivation is requisite to understand the beauties of the art; and one of the great benefits resulting from the moral culture of the mind in early age, is that the development of moral feelings assists the intelligence and guides the mind in the choice of objects to which it is applied. But a serious evil in education is, that governesses are wanting who can feel and understand the importance of moral culture; if this work be commenced in very early life, while the heart is not yet taken with pleasure, the mind still free from care, and unfettered by prejudices against duty; then indeed may good impressions become permanent.

When moral feelings are cultivated in early age, much good may be effected by instruction, and by making the laws of God the foundation of education; but if through the neglect of parents, or the inefficiency of governesses, moral culture has been neglected; nothing can compensate for this great error; and though the judgment may be correct, the conscience can never acquire its full

powers.

Lest parents should say that these observations are generalities, and governesses should doubt the possibility of bringing them into action, before proceeding, I will endeavour to shew how moral feelings are to be cultivated in very young children.

In the first place what is moral education? It is the art of cultivating and governing the affections and dispositions, it is the art of enlightening, directing, and strengthening the conscience; Nature implants our affections, education cultivates, invigorates, and refines them.

Education does not create, it develops, directs, excites, or represses what exists, and I am of opinion that the application of the moral Christian law will be found more suited to youth than to any other age.

I have shown that parents who wish to cultivate religious feelings in their children, and inspire them with a love of God, act judiciously in associating with the idea of a Supreme Being the pleasure resulting from the admiration of the beauties of nature and by giving a constant example of the sound principles they desire to inculcate in the youthful mind. The same direction may be followed in order to aid the developement of moral sentiments. Love God for he is great, he is just, it is he who has created us, it is he who preserves us : love your neighbour, for by neighbour is understood, parents, relations, friends, in fact mankind.

Filial love is the basis of moral education, it is the first link of the chain of feelings, and duties which commences with our existence, and accompanies us to the grave. On the cultivation and development of this first sentiment depends in a great measure the happiness of individuals, and the excellency of their characters.

But filial love like all other sentiments requires culture, the duties of children towards their parents should be especially insisted on; filial affection is not to result from instinct alone, indeed legislators placed so little dependence on the mere instinctive feeling that the command