118 THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION. 



delusive reasoning ! As well might it be said that when the vessel 

 spreads her broad canvass to catch the passing wind, and pursues her 

 way across the tumultuous ocean, that the directing hand of the pilot, 

 as he guides her through the various dangers that encompass her 

 track, unduly letters and restrains her free course. Let him but 

 once quit the helm and suffer the ship to obey the wild blind impulses 

 of the elements, and she will quickly be swamped by the rushing 

 waves, or stranded on some hidden rock. It is just so with educa- 

 tion. Let instruction, — that is, instruction in the spirit and word of 

 the Christian obligation — be once excluded from the preceptor's para- 

 mount duty, and the young mind, as its various powers are disclosed, 

 will be borne along through the sea of life a prey to wild passion and 

 conflicting opinions, and will ultimately make shipwreck of all its 

 brightest hopes. For, as the compass possesses no inherent power in 

 itself to guide the bark, or bring it to the wished for haven, but is 

 merely the instrument in the hand of the pilot ; so reason, undirected 

 by religion, is inadequate to ensure present happiness or secure from 

 future misery. At the same time, it should be distinctly understood, 

 that all bigotry is diametrically opposed to improvement ; for, where 

 the excellence is presupposed to be superlative, there can be no desire 

 for farther enquiry and no acknowledgment of the possibility of erring. 

 But the religion that inculcates charity and humility as its vital doc- 

 trines, must necessarily be at variance with all narrow-minded pride 

 and self-sufficiency. 



Some persons possessing weak reflective faculties and confined pre- 

 judiced notions, who are incapable of taking comprehensive views of 

 a subject, or of foreseeing remote consequences from present causes, 

 frequently express alarm at the rapid progress of improvement, and 

 inveigh but in vain against the increasing wisdom of the age. The 

 stream of knowledge cannot be arrested, and no sound thinker, no 

 general well-wisher to mankind would desire to stay its course. But 

 it is the duty of all to endeavour to direct its currents in those chan- 

 nels which will at once tend to enrich and adorn the intellectual do- 

 main. The human mind will inquire, it will endeavour to progress. 

 It must have food to satisfy its increasing appetite. 



The wonders daily brought to light by the researches of science, 

 and the speculations induced by the discoveries made relative to the 

 different capabilities of matter, present a constant and ever-varying 

 banquet ; but the viands must not be seized indiscriminately, and the 

 greatest care should be enjoined in adapting each to the peculiar con- 

 dition of the receiver. Where the intellect is highly cultivated, all 



