54 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Our powers of instinct, passion, and emotion, and the power of 

 will whereby we choose ends of action, are oriven in our constitution ; 

 open possibilities of good or evil lie before us ; the working and 

 development of these powers are in the hands of each individual for 

 himself, and, under this nicely adapted law of habit, the permanent 

 consequences of his conduct attach to each individual as his due 

 reward. This court of justice differs from our ordinary tribunals. 

 These are fallible, they are liable to the eiTor of implicating the inno- 

 cent with the guilty ; they are inadequate to meet all cases demanding 

 redress ; they keep records, which may be lost, and attach penalties 

 according to the standard of a written law, which may be misinter- 

 preted ; their decrees are never instantly carried into execution, but 

 are generally delayed. This law of habit, however, is liable to no 

 such imperfection in its application. It is infallible, as being pre- 

 scribed by the primary source of all law. Before it the innocent, 

 the guilty, "all men are equal." Its decrees cannot be reversed by 

 appeal, they are carried out instantly upon the act. It immediately 

 rivets into the constitution of every responsible creature the con- 

 sequences of liis action, recording his deeds neither against nor for 

 him, but engraving them in him, in such a way that in the condition 

 of his ultimate attainment may be read not only the just outcome, 

 but also the infallible index of his life. 



If the above apprehensions of the subject of habit be correct, some 

 important consequences follow, among which might be mentioned 

 the following : — If the stability and assurance of tendencies I'est upon 

 and are proportioned to their exercise, immediate conversions and 

 unpremeditated changes of opinion cannot give a stability, purity, 

 truth and strength of character such as is induced by long-continued 

 practice in well-doing ; and, as a reliable criterion for estimating 

 character, a man's professed creed falls far below his habitual attitude 

 of life. 



These considerations suggest to us most important practical les- 

 sons, which the educator, whose function it is to train men, intellec- 

 tually or morally, should never for a moment forget. The nature of 

 education can be read in the etymology of the word ; it consists of 

 drawing out the powers, causing them to be energized, and directing 

 them aright ; and all our faculties, intellectual, moral or physical, are 

 developed through the same law. It has been said that we may learn 

 the whole secret of education in a gymnasium. Every organ to be 



