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EDUCATION. 



harous state of society, or a feudal state of society 

 might go on, without much religious culture or 

 principle 1 ; a vague superstition might suffice; but 

 so cannot a free state of society go on. It cannot ; 

 because questions are always arising in a free com- 

 munity, which nothing can settle but a solemn 

 sense of duty to the country. There is no other 

 power that can settle them but the power of con- 

 science. For we do not believe that there is any 

 mysterious principle in the machinery of a free 

 government, any conservative law amidst the con- 

 flict of its parts, the dashing together of its strug- 

 gling elements, which is to bring out of their 

 bare and uncontrolled action, order and prosperity. 

 No; the elements of reason and conscience must 

 mix in the contest, or rather they must be princi- 

 ples taking the guidance of it, to bring it to a safe 

 issue. 



It is strange, but not less true, that all our specu- 

 lations about government have been BO exclusively 

 intent upon mere formal institutions, that there 

 steals over the mind a feeling as if there were 

 something visionary in appealing to the power of 

 moral principles to stand us in stead; as if, when 

 we lay our hand on any thing but a fixed institu- 

 tion or a stable law, or the visible frame of a con- 

 stitution, there were nothing real beneath, to sup- 

 port us. But we firmly believe that it is at once 

 the tendency and only security of free institutions, 

 to bring the element of individual responsibility 

 into a place in government which it has never 

 occupied before ; to make the weight of the public 

 interest and the general weal to rest more and more 

 upon individuals ; to make men say, not always as 

 they now do, " the constitution, the constitution," 

 but more frequently to say, "conscience, conscience 

 is our safeguard!" 



But if this principle be so essential to popular 

 institutions, we shall now ask, whether the culture 

 of it ought not to be now fully and formally intro- 

 duced into popular education? What indeed is the 

 object of all judicious education, but to develope the 

 principles of human nature ? And if one of them 

 be the moral principle, why shall it not be put to 

 school, so to speak, as well as reason, or memory, 

 or imagination ? Why shall there not be classes in 

 every school in the rudiments of the science of 

 morals, as well as in the rudiments of geography, 

 mathematics, or natural history? 



Nor yet is the instructor's task accomplished, by 

 teaching morals from a book. He ought to blend 

 moral influences, as much as possible, with the 

 whole course of education. He ought himself to 

 be a man of high and pure moral sensibility; to 

 have that strong and feeling perception of the 

 beauty of all virtue, that would reveal itself in the 

 glowing countenance and the kindling eye when he 

 speaks of it ; to have, moreover, that highest of all 

 religious culture, which is requisite to the right 

 and salutary enforcement of discipline and inflic- 

 tion of penalties. No man ministers at a holier 

 altar than he. He should feel, we repeat, the de- 

 claration, that his business is to make good men, as 

 truly as to make good scholars ; that the heart is 

 committed to his care as truly as the understand- 

 ing. He may do much to mould it rightly; he 

 must do much to influence it. The school cannot 

 be too often contemplated, either by him or others, 

 as a moral scene. It is, indeed, a moral scene ; 

 but it is still made too mechanical, too much in its 

 moral administration, or too exclusively of other 

 means, a place of palpable rewards and punish- 



ments, or of catechetical instructions and formal 

 prayers. 



Indeed, the subject of public devotions, whether 

 in schools or colleges, seems to us to present ques- 

 tions of the most serious moment, and of no less 

 serious difficulty. That they are often irksome to 

 the pupils, we fear is too certain ; and if they are 

 so, how can they be useful ? We would not re- 

 commend the disuse of them; but it does seem to 

 us, that something should be done, by connecting 

 them, at the time, with familiar religious instruc- 

 tion, and by greater simplicity and fervour in those 

 who officiate in these services, to give them a new 

 character. If they were less frequent, and at the 

 same time, less hurried ; if more space were given 

 for reflection, and for the use of collateral aids, 

 what is lost in frequency might be more than made 

 up in impression. But, at any rate, they ought 

 not to stand apart, as they are apt to do, from the 

 tenor and character of every thing else in a school 

 or university. Those who take the lead in these 

 devotions should not be looked upon as occupying 

 a position entirely distinct from every thing else in 

 their character and conversation, as discharging a 

 merely official duty, as acting their part in the mere 

 machinery of a public institution. Their prayers 

 should breathe the spirit of their lives; a spirit not 

 superstitious, nor ostentatious, but cheerful, grate- 

 ful and devout, and desirous of inspiring their 

 pupils with those blessed sentiments of piety and 

 goodness, which will be their best resource and 

 surest safeguard in all the scenes of that world on 

 which they are entering. 



But to return : there are few departments of 

 scholastic instruction, whether higher or lower, 

 that may not be found to yield constant sugges- 

 tions for virtuous and religious excitement. The 

 teacher, who should skilfully avail himself of such 

 opportunities, would produce effects upon society 

 the most extensive and Listing, and the most 

 delightful. Sir James Mackintosh says of Dugald 

 Stewart, and we can scarcely conceive of a higher 

 eulogium, that " few men ever lived, perhaps, who 

 poured into the breasts of youth a more fervid and 

 yet reasonable love of liberty, of truth, and of 

 virtue. How many, (he adds,) are still alive, in 

 different countries, and in every rank to which edu- 

 cation reaches, who, if they accurately examined 

 their own minds and lives, would not ascribe much 

 of whatever goodness and happiness they possess, 

 to the early impressions of his gentle and persua- 

 sive eloquence!" Few men indeed possess the 

 powers or opportunities of the Edinburgh profes- 

 sor. But, to every instructor of youth, a sphere 

 is opened for the exertion of the noblest talents 

 and virtues. It is a most mischievous and absurd 

 idea, but one that has prevailed, if it do not still 

 prevail, that such a man is not required to possess 

 great talents, that he may be a dull and plodding 

 man, that he may be dull in his moral sensibility, 

 that he need not be a religious man, and yet may 

 very well discharge the duties of his station. But 

 if Heaven has given to any man talent or enthu- 

 siasm, or .virtue or piety, let him know that it is 

 all wanted here, and that he can scarcely choose a 

 nobler field for its action. Let a man enter this 

 field, therefore, not to go through the dull round of 

 prescribed duty ; let him throw himself into this 

 sphere of action with his whole mind and heart, 

 with every wakeful energy of thought and kindling 

 fervour of feeling; to think and to act, to devise 

 and to do, all that his powers permit, for the mindi 



