God; this object has the advantage of contributing to the happiness of individuals in this world and in the world to come. It would be vain to say that the child's destiny differs from that of man, as all tends to prove that the life of the adult is but a continuation of infancy. What chiefly distinguishes my system of education from that of most writers on the same subject, is that I place my hopes in the development of instinctive and innate faculties, and that I am ever desirous to develop in the infant soul, the love of God, and of mankind, and the love of the beautiful and true.

In the opinion of many, to educate a child is to correct its vices and evil propensities, as though they necessarily predominated in the infant soul; according to my views we have not young criminals to reform, but we have rather to develop the seeds of good qualities; in the generality of cases, there is a kind of equilibrium between good and evil propensities in children, and the task of education is to give preponderance to the good, so that the evil may have less influence. In the first point of view, which I do not advocate, unrelenting severity is indispensable, while in the second, kindness, benevolence, and all social feelings, are brought into action.

I have the pleasing conviction that I shall be understood by mothers, and governesses, and that those who adopt my system, will find the child whose soul is filled with elevated sentiments, has little room for bad propensities; that child is docile and happy, and renders those around it so much so, that severity is useless. To bring up a child by fear and punishments, is to debase it, by acting principally on bodily sensations.

To bring up a child by the medium of love, sympathy and reason, is to act on its soul, its mind, its conscience, the noblest parts of human nature; it is in fact appealing to angels, to intellectual beings imprisoned in the human frame, and requiring aid and support to govern this body during the time of probation, before they return to the bosom of the Almighty from whence they sprung.

ON DUTIES TOWARDS GOD.

View religious hommage as a natural expression of gratitude to the supreme being for all his goodness.

BLAIR.

what was to be the object should also in childhood be There is no period in life in

Our first duties, and those which can on no account be dispensed with, are our duties towards God: this fact led a celebrated moralist to say that, of man's thoughts during life, the object of his education. which a man ceases to be under an obligation to his Maker for all the mercies he receives; consequently, there is no period in which it is not his duty to acknowledge these mercies and to be thankful for them. The thought of God is undoubtedly that which most elevates the heart and mind: the love of God, as revealed by nature, and by God's own word, is of all sentiments the most pure, and that which most facilitates the accomplishment of our duties towards him, and towards mankind. On reading the sublime truths contained in the Bible, we are struck by the miracles performed by the Almighty in favor of his chosen people, and it is there made evident that what brought celestial wrath on the said people, was their forgetfulness of God, of his gifts, of his mercies, in fact their ingratitude.

The knowledge of God properly revealed to children, should elevate their young hearts and minds, the letters of his name alone do not represent him: the idea of the supreme Being when rightly conceived must call forth sentiments of love, confidence, deep respect, and gratitude which form worship.

When a child has the conscience, the knowledge of its own existence, and understands its double nature, when it has learnt to listen to its soul, it soon understands that the thought, the sentiment, in fact the soul or angel that guides it, comes not from itself, but it recognizes a parent mind, an original intelligence from whom is borrowed the principle of thought, and activity which is in use. If the child be old

enough to observe, it sees so great a number and variety of creatures endowed with a nature in harmony with their destination, these same creatures supporting, and supported by each other, all sustained by a common order of things, and shewing different degrees of happiness according to their respective faculties, that it is naturally and necessarily led up to the father of so numerous an offspring, the fountain of such wide-spread happiness.

But the idea of God as it should be understood, cannot be taught by reason alone, the ancient philosophers who represent all the efforts of unassisted reason have admitted the unity of God, but said not what he was; enlightened by revelation we conceive God to be before all, above all, greater than all; he is shewn to us in the Bible, clothed in the full power of beauty and perfection; and we there apply to him the glorious appellation of Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, supreme Lord, and law-giver of all rational and intelligent creatures.

When the idea of God is properly conveyed to children, the native propensities of mind to reverence whatever is great and wonderful in nature finds a proper object of hommage in him who spreads out the Heavens, and the earth, and who sustains and governs the whole. The admiration of beauty, the love of order, and the complacency we feel in goodness, must rise to the highest pitch when they unite in him who is the sum and source of all perfection.

Our affections depend on our opinions, if we believe perfect goodness to be the character of the supreme Being, and that he loves those who resemble him most, the hommage paid him will be rational and sublime. True faith in the divine character and administration is generally the consequence of a virtuous state of mind; the christian who is habitually good, feels the love of order, of beauty, of goodness in the strongest degree, and cannot therefore be insensible to those emanations of them which appear in all the works of God, nor help loving this supreme source and model. He cannot but think that he who has poured such beauty and goodness over all his works, must himself delight in

beauty and goodness, and that what he delights in must be amiable and happy.

God being considered as our supreme Guardian, our Benefactor, who loves his creatures tenderly, and more particularly those who are good and virtuous: what confidence must it not inspire to those who love what is right, what encouragement to the love and practice of virtue.

Gratitude for the goodness of God, as I have already said, is decidedly one of the most necessary virtues, and unfortunately it is one of those to which moralists have devoted the least attention. Pagans themselves felt the excess of man's ingratitude to his Creator, it is to guard us against this ingratitude that in the books of the Old Testament we are continually reminded of the gifts of God in the order of nature; most of the psalms of David express thanks for the goodness and bounty of the Creator. Moses and the Prophets were filled with gratitude when they thought of the graciousness of God to their people, and they ceased not to reproach the Jews with their ingratitude.

Were God shewn to children as he is in his relation to man, if their attention was drawn to his great goodness and mercy, it would kindle in their young hearts a sentiment of gratitude; but children like men, consider the gifts of the Almighty as their right, and are more inclined to murmur and complain than to be thankful.

Gratitude is the recollection of a kindness accompanied by a desire to repay this kindness, it is one of the most noble, one of the most elevated sentiments in human nature, it depends on a certain superiority of mind, and is the indication of moral sense.

God is too independent in his nature to require our thanks, but God having given to man a moral sense, and this moral sense being intended to serve us as a guide, gratitude is, according to the moral sense, the only means of returning thanks to God for his mercy to us.

Gratitude is an act of justice, it is not merely an imaginary sentiment resulting from education. The principle or seeds

exist in the young heart, the work of education is to develop them. It is undoubtedly a great error not to cultivate the feeling of gratitude; were governesses to pay due attention to this subject, children would not suppose they were naturally entitled to all the comforts they enjoy; were they led to be grateful to their God, they would also be grateful to their benefactors on earth, so that the accomplishment of duties towards God, which are but acts of gratitude would materially contribute to the accomplishment of duties towards men.

Ingratitude is a vice of the heart, an infirmity of the soul; it is a lasting injustice towards our benefactors. If this vice be made manifest in early age, what care should be taken to extirpate it, and to develop feelings of gratitude? How many parents relations, friends, and benefactors have suffered, and still suffer bitterly, from the effects of ingratitude? How often has the absence of gratitude towards a benefactor paralized the hand ready to give to those in distresss?

In my opinion, the sentiment of gratitude towards God, which is one of our first and most peremptory duties, is that which most contributes to the happiness of families, of society, and to the perfection of the individual.

I have already said that the sentiments of the heart were regulated by the opinions of the mind; and feelings of gratitude towards God will, in a great measure, depend on the manner in which the existence and greatness of God has been revealed to children. A person of pure heart and well regulated mind, will always feel grateful for a benefit conferred; and, is it possible, that God, to whom we owe our life, our health, and all the blessings by which we are surrounded, should have no claims to our gratitude: nothing can free us from this duty to our Maker; for divine justice cannot pardon faults that human justice does not overlook. It is, therefore, our bounden duty to render to the Almighty the hommage and thanks we owe to him.

In all ages, and in all nations, whatever may be the form