192 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



a practice conformed to them, I should hesitate in making any 

 general inferences. As it is, however, having stated the case, I 

 prefer to leave it to my readers to form their own conclusions. 



I could not help replying to this noble lady, that one of the 

 ologies seemed to be pretty assiduously taught in the school, and 

 that was theology ; for the catechism and creeds were inculcated 

 with peremptory authority, and the Bible was the only reading 

 book in the school. She admitted this, but an exception of this 

 nature needed no apology. I could not help thinking that the 

 course might have been enlarged, and other branches of instruction 

 have been introduced to advantage ; that some good for religion 

 itself might be gathered even from the simplest discoveries of 

 geology, and the wonders, and uses, and splendors of the min 

 eral world ; that the great and settled truths of physiology, those 

 which are directly practical in their character, might be of 

 service both to the health of the body and the mind, and conse 

 quently to the moral health ; that a general knowledge of 

 anatomy, both human and comparative, could scarcely be with 

 out its use ; and that it might be as serviceable, as it would be 

 interesting, if children were taught to understand some of the 

 marvels of their own structure, and led to see how this curious 

 frame of their bodies is knit together and compacted by an all- 

 powerful Architect ; and the still more wonderful capacities and 

 faculties of their own minds, where &quot; the inspiration of the 

 Almighty has given them understanding,&quot; and thus be led to 

 reverence the Divinity, who has made their own souls the 

 temples of his indwelling spirit. I could not think that it 

 would be straying far from the best objects of education, if 

 these children were early accustomed to see every object and 

 operation in nature instinct with lessons of heavenly wisdom. 

 I cannot think that any thing would be lost. Are we not bound 

 to believe that much would be gained by every advance in 

 knowledge of this kind ; if children were taught daily to 

 consider the flowers of the field, how they grow ; what causes 

 the earth to yield its food for man and beast, and makes the dry 

 seed spring up into a beautiful and fruitful plant, arrayed in a 

 splendor surpassing that of Oriental luxury ; and who takes care 

 of the birds of the air, who, though they have neither store 

 house nor barn, find their daily and hourly wants supplied by 

 an invisible hand and a paternal and an inexhaustible bounty ? 



