250 RULES FOR THE PROPER EXERCISE 



which may lead us to encroach on others. It gives 

 a strong sense of duty, with which it is agreeable 

 to act in conformity, but which it is painful and inju- 

 rious to oppose. It gives weight and force to the 

 impulses of the other sentiments, and, joined with 

 intellect and the sentiment of devotion, gives that 

 faith in the beneficence and equity of the Deity, 

 and in the immutability of all his laws, that forms 

 the strongest encouragement to virtuous conduct 

 and temporary self-denial. And here again, living 

 in society, engaging in the active duties of life, and 

 acting justly amid the conflicting interests of others, 

 and not seclusion and privacy, are manifestly in- 

 tended by the Creator as our proper sphere. 



I need not follow out this exposition in detail. 

 The above illustrations will suffice to explain the 

 principle ; and to exceed this limit would withdraw 

 attention too much from the matters more directly 

 before us. 



For the same reason that every faculty ought to 

 be exercised directly upon its own objects, the 

 exclusive use of book-education as a means of con- 

 veying instruction, is manifestly unnatural as well 

 as inefficient. If allowed to handle and examine a 

 new object, a child will pursue the investigation 

 with pleasure, and in five minutes will acquire more 

 correct knowledge than by a whole hour's reading 

 about its qualities without seeing it. In the one 

 instance its perceptive powers are stimulated by the 

 direct presence of the qualities of which they are 

 destined to take cognizance ; while, in the other, 

 they are roused only through the imperfect medium 

 of artificial language, and the child has to create the 

 object in his own mind before he can take notice of 

 its qualities. When we recollect the different ideas 

 which the carne written language suggests to differ- 

 ent mature m?nds, we may form some conception of 

 the impossibility of a child making progress in this 

 way, and of the weariness and ennui which the 



