EDUCATION. 



271 



them right. A few then grow bolder, and, by some felicitous chords, 

 essay to supply the harmony to the dominant melody. 



An education so delicate, so varied, so complex, is it that of a 

 machine, of a brute reduced to instinct ? Who can refuse in this to 

 acknowledge a soul ? 



Open your eyes to the evidence. Throw aside your prejudices, 

 your traditional and dei'ived opinions. Preconceived ideas and dog- 

 matic theories apart, you cannot offend Heaven by restoring a soul 

 to the beast.* How much grander the Creator's work if he has 

 created persons, souls, and wills, than if he has constructed 

 machines ! 



Dismiss your pride, and acknowledge a kindred in which there 

 is nothing to make a devout mind ashamed. What are these ? They 

 are your brothers. 



What are they ? embryo souls, souls especially set apart for 

 certain functions of existence, candidates for the more general and 

 more widely harmonic life to which the human soul has attained. 



When will they arrive thither ? and how ? God has reserved to 

 himself these mysteries. 



All that we know is this : tliat he summons them — them also — 

 to mount higher and yet higher. 



* The reader must not identify the translator with these opinions, which, however, he 

 did not feel at liberty to modify or omit. 



