32 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOE. 



as an art. It necessarily involves a complete knowledge of the 

 subject to be read, the relation and dependencies of the phrases, 

 clauses, and members of the sentences, the proper meaning of 

 the words employed, and the connection between the sentences 

 themselves. This cannot be acquired without a vigorous em- 

 ployment of the perceptive powers, aided by those of comparison, 

 of analysis, of reasoning, of judgment, of taste, and of discrimi- 

 nation. Subordinate and auxiliary to the acquisition of this 

 important art, the student is recommended to exercise also the 



power of classification, while studying a reading lesson (which 

 should always be studied previous to practising it), to ascertain 

 under which of the above-mentioned classes whether narrative, 

 descriptive, didactic, etc. the piece he is about to read belongs. 

 The student who thus employs his faculties cannot fail to 

 feel a vigorous growth of intellect springing up in his own 

 mind, and will be amply compensated for his labour by a 

 command over ISie stores of literature not to be gained by any 

 other method. 



THE INFLUENCE OF MORALITY AND IMMORALITY ON THE COUNTENANCE'. 



1. THE CHILD: 

 YHiat will he become ? 



2. School. 

 6. The Street. 



3. Literary Institution. 

 7. Drunkenness. 



4. Success. 



8. Vice and Misery. 



5. Honoured Age. 

 9. Beggary. 



WHAT WILL BECOME OF HIM? 



THE above engraving is intended to illustrate the effects which 

 different modes of life have upon the human countenance. We 

 have only to look around us to discover how true this picture is 

 to that which it is intended to represent. Much has been said 

 of the science of phrenology ; but without depreciating the facts 

 on which it is professedly, based, we confess that we have a 

 more profound faith in the doctrine of physiognomy. No one can 

 deny that the " human face divine " has in it something expres- 

 sive of that which enters into and constitutes the character of 

 the man. It may come out in the eye, or the lip, or the nose, 

 or the general contour of the countenance ; but there it is, and 

 no one can give himself to the closer and deeper study of this 

 subject without being able, more or less correctly, to read, the 

 mysterious symbols of human character and destiny. 



Carefully examine the above engraving. Look at the head 

 and face of the child represented in the first figure. Who can 

 divine what that young intelligence will become in the future of 

 his life ? Is there anything in his features to indicate that he 

 will act a conspicuous part on the great wide stage of this 

 world ? Or is he to sink in the scale of intelligent being, till he 

 takes on the mere animal nature, or, what is still worse, till he 

 becomes the very personification of vice and sin ? Even in the 

 outlines of the infant countenance there may be the index of 

 the future man. These outlines will become more marked and 

 definite in the boy amid the studies and pursuits of the school. 

 The period of boyhood is one of wondrous development ; and if 

 this were but carefully watched, the foundation might in many 

 cases be laid for the erection of a true manly nobility and that 

 undermined, on which moral evil would otherwise rear her 



temple of darkness and impurity. Look at the eye, nose, and 

 mouth of the boy as ke is at school, or as he is located in one of 

 the worst parts of London, and who does not perceive, from the 

 very contour of the countenance, that his destiny will very much 

 depend on the influences by which he may be surrounded ? In 

 the one case, you see him pass into the higher and more polite 

 circles of the educated classes, yielding himself to all the 

 softening, subduing, refining elements of pure female society; 

 and in the other, you see him entirely lost to all sense of 

 decency and self-respect, rushing headlong into the scenes of 

 dissipation, and surrendering himself to all the worst agencies 

 of a wicked world. In the one instance you see him choosing 

 his profession, and contemplating a settlement in life wedding 

 himself to a virtuous, loving, and devoted woman, and in course 

 of time becoming surrounded by a loving and growing family, 

 over which his presence sheds a warm and sunny cheerfulness ; 

 in the other instance you see the man emerging from the 

 scenes of brufal intoxication to plunge into deeper, darker vices, 

 till his conscience is burdened with guilt and misery, and life 

 becomes a burden, from which he perhaps seeks relief in suicide ; 

 or it maybe that his conduct renders him obnoxious to law, 

 and he comes to a premature death. If he be spared this 

 tremendous fate, he comes to beggary, and goes down to the 

 grave unlamented and unwept. How different this from the 

 career of the man whoso happiest days are spent in the bosom 

 of his loving family, and who grows old amid the most genial 

 influences, honoured, revered, beloved ; who sees his children's 

 children unto the third or fourth generation, and goes down to 

 his last resting-place amid the prayers and tears of those he 

 loved, and whose dying moments are cheered by the hope of a 

 happy reunion in a world where life is perfect and joy complete. 



