even a single species, the ox, for instance, (as we purpose to do some day,) the catalogue would startle those who have not turned their attention to the subject. splendours into the shade, and shine as stars in the firmament for ever. Like Jupiter, calling the hundredhanded Briareus to his aid, you now possess means, such as you will never possess again, for multiplying your But the animals are not less valuaagency a hundred-fold. Only pro- ble to us as subjects of instruction pose to yourselves worthy objects-in knowledge, than they are as subobjects such as God will approve and jects of usefulness in the supplying bless-and invite the co-operation of of our bodily wants. It is, indeed, your equals in age, and they will rally chiefly to the mind that they address around you; lead, and they will themselves; and if we question them follow; work, and they will assist; with proper understanding, they be worthy of their assistance, and tell us more of the wisdom and they will render their unhired help for years to come. THE STUDY OF ANIMALS. power of our Maker, than any other Let AMONG all the wonderful produc-limb, or a fin; and let him, at the tions with which the bountiful Creator has furnished the earth, for the instruction of man, the animals, perhaps, have the strongest claim on our attentions. In their uses they stand higher same time, attend to the particular style of flight, or walking, or swimming, which the mode of life in its owner requires, and he will not fail to discover a perfection of structure and adaptation, which the most casual must admire, but which the highest effort of human skill cannot imitate. than any of the rest; for taking them in their various races, they attend us, and watch for us, they work for us, they feed us, they clothe us, and they Then, the chemistry of the animal supply us with many things, both for economy,-the wonderful assimilause and for ornament. If it were not tion, or change of the food into all the for the leather supplied by the ox, substances of the feeder. Only think our steps over the rough path, and of an elephant turning the coarse the paved street, would be slow and grass of the jungle into ivory; or the painful; if it were not for the wool of beaver preparing the very finest mathe sheep, many gusts of the winter terials for a hat, out of dry sticks, wind would bring diseases; and were it and withered bark; of a sheep connot that the caterpillar of a very verting turnips into blankets; or an plentiful and easily reared moth, spins ox changing the load of hay, which a silken cocoon, in which to pass the his strength fetches home, into shoes intermediate state between the crawl- for his master;-only think of these ing caterpillar and the winged insect, things, which are but a few out of the gay and the wealthy would be de- many, and then think what a wretchprived of their most beautiful attire, ed creature man would be without and many thousands of industrious the animals. families would be without bread. But beautiful as are the mechanics These are but a few out of the many of animals, and incomprehensible as uses of the animated race; and if we is their chemistry, they are the mere were to enumerate all the uses of results of that which is in itself far more wonderful and worthy of study. ments of their working have invaria We may examine wings, from that of bly been human. It could not have the white falcon of the rocks of lone been otherwise: for if man is utterly and dreary Iceland, (Hierofalco of unable, without revelation from Cuvier,) whose arrowy rush almost above, "to know himself," how utgrinds the atmosphere into lightning, terly impossible must it be for him, and whose morning flight before thus unaided, to obtain any knowbreakfast may be some five hundred ledge whatever of a Being who is miles; or the long sailing pinion of an infinite, eternal, and unchangethe " "man of war bird," which com-able Spirit,-before all change began, mands the broad expanse of the At- after all change shall be at an end, lantic, with as much ease as an without beginning of days, or end of owl commands an ivy bush ;-we life, and to whom eternity is one unmay take wings, from them to the broken to-day, without yesterday or balancing flapper of the ostrich, the to-morrow? fin-wing of the southern penguin, But when we are taught by the or the rudimental wing-bones of the volume of inspiration, that Almighty aptoryx of New Zealand; or we may power commands the materials, as take any other kind or gradation well as the working; and that all of organs, be they as singular and these wonderful creatures were called varied as they may. But when we out of nothing,-commanded to be, have dissected all their structures, and they were,-we are led to contemand discovered the modes of all their plate them in another light. We can actions, we are still viewing them as see, and we must admit, that One we would view the works of man; who could call peopled worlds out and the conclusion to which this of empty nothing, can rule and would lead us, is merely that of govern them according to the good structures far superior in degree to pleasure of his will, without any any that we can contrive and con- material sceptre; and make place, struct, but still not differing from time, and circumstances, all harmothem in kind. This is the view of nize in giving them those organizathe matter which has in all ages been tions and instincts, and causing them taken of the works of nature ge- to appear at those times, in those nerally, and of the animals in particu- places, and in the numbers which are lar, by those enquirers whose minds most conducive to the beauty and have not been enlightened by revela-perfection of the whole. tion. Many of them have arrived The law of the Almighty is binding at the knowledge of what they con- upon them in the greatness and the sidered a god, or more generally, of constancy of its power; and their a plurality of gods, each performing obedience to it is perfect in all things. a different office, and not unfrequent- If the law say come," they come; ly clashing and quarrelling with each and if it says, "go," they go; both in other in the performance. They have the individual, and in the race. invariably, however, been "gods after Their most wonderful and most powthe image and similitude of men;" erful actions, their most curious fancied deifications of human charac- works, and their most wonderful preter, greater in power than ordinary parations for the protection of the inhuman beings, and generally, if not dividual or the race, cost them not a invariably, deeper and darker jot of trouble or of care; for the in crimes; but the modes and instru- whole of their conduct is one simple 66 This is a portion of mental discipline, which requires far more caution and circumspection, especially in the early stages, than many are aware of. No part of nature has so many attractions for the young mind as the living part of it; and none has so many of the apparent characteristics of man, considered merely as animal. In all the species which are most attractive and familiar to the young, there is a resemblance to man in the organs of the senses, and more or less also in those of motion and action. There is, therefore, some danger in being entangled with the animal, when we come to seek the knowledge of the spirit; and as the surest way of escaping the entanglement of error is, not to avoid the subject involving it, but to study it thoroughly, the knowledge of the animals becomes a necessary preparation for the knowledge of ourselves; and it has this, in common with every other means of God's appointment, that the way is pleasant as the end is profitable. A MOTHER CORRECTING HER MISTAKE. (From a mother to her son in London, on discovering she had sent " Eustace's Classical Tour," instead of a religious book for which he had written.) It was thy mother's hurried hand, And yet the melancholy page There, with imperishable grace, When Time's proud column from its base, TEMPTATIONS OF THE METROPOLIS. WERE it possible for one concerned for the best interests of the youth of our country, and especially of the metropolis, to have passed any considerable portion of his life in this great city, in so secluded a manner as to be quite unacquainted, by personal observation, with the various phases of temptations it presents; or could he boast so happy an ignorance as never to be visited by a cautionary suggestion, or a whisper of suspicion, from the reminiscences of the past; still might he, with infallible certainty, conclude, from his knowledge of the corrupt and evil tendencies of an unsanctified nature, that the allurements of a city like London must, without a counteracting principle, prove fatal to the virtue and honour, the health and happiness, the temporal and eternal welfare of unnumbered thousands of its youthful inhabitants. For who, that is not utterly unstudied in the propensities and passions of that nature he possesses in common with others, requires to be told that the objects of sensual indulgence and the whole array of, what may be termed, the pleasures of the world,-present not only presented a general caution against the most ensnaring temptation of youth, but a special direction by which alone the influence of this species of temptation is to be overcome. Many of the dangers and the only hopes of safety is in flight. That youth, however virtuous his intentions may be, is already more than half subdued, who will venture into scenes of temptation, on the presumption that, however others may have yielded, he has sufficient strength of virtue to resist. ing alike an aspect of enmity to God and to the souls of men,-make their appeals with peculiar force and advantage to those who are in the bloom of youth, and in the spring-time of their vigour and health? Who does not know that youth is the season of evils of life are to be met in the spirit passion; and that the ebullitions of of a determined resistance; but here sensual desire require at that period of life especially, the restraints of reason and religion to counteract their destructive power? The fires of lust burn most fiercely in the morning of life. Their force abates as age advances, and as the natural strength decays; although the influence of viLet the most virtucious principles and the strength of ous but suffer themselves to be enindulged habits may maintain, even ticed to visit any of those haunts of to the decrepitude of age, a fearful dissipation where thousands of young predominance over the soul. We men in this city commence a career have known sensualized old men, in of folly and sin; let them be deterthe frigidity of their bodily frame, act mined to gaze on alluring beauty, over again, in their defiled imagina- or be tempted to wanton dalliance; tions, the vile debaucheries of their and it is not difficult to foretell how younger days. Still it is in youth far beyond their innocent intentions that the passions require a double they will be drawn, and how destrucguard. And it would be well for tive a wound to their character and each young person, who would pre- conscience they will assuredly receive. serve his soul from the snares of the Much may be done to break the devil, to remember that, wherever he force of those temptations to which goes, he carries with him the motive young men in London are exposed, principle to every evil, and especially by their shunning any voluntary asthe tendency to sensual indulgence; sociation with other young men of and remembering this, it will require dissipated habits and licentious prinno strength of reasoning to show that ciples; much more may be effected his safety must chiefly be secured by by a solemn resolution to abstain from a careful avoidance of the companionship of the vicious, and also of those scenes of temptation where every object that meets the senses is a direct incentive to unlawful desires, and whose natural tendency is to entangle vantage against every temptation that the soul in the labyrinths of sin. If is to be found in constant and useful therefore there be one advice more occupation, either of body or mind. important than another to be im- For nothing so effectually exposes the pressed upon the minds of young men soul to the inroads of evil as a habit in London, or elsewhere, it is that of indolence. The great malignant which is presented in the words of spirit in his march through this world, Scripture," Flee youthful lusts." In makes an easy prey of those whose which exhortation, it seems, there is nights are lengthened by unnecessary intoxicating drink, and by a determination to avoid the company of females whose characters are not free from every suspicion of unchastity. Next to this might be urged the ad and relaxing slumbers, and whose educations, which have preceded it, auxiliaries, as long only as they are kept in subordination. The moment they rebel, they are its worst foes. days are suffered to run on in listless vacancy. But it must not be disguised, that nothing short of the possession of the vital influences of reli- Moral and religious education are gion can ever prove an infallible safe- essential to each other. Religion is guard amidst the various temptations not a mere sanction of morality; it is to which, in a fallen and sinful world, the highest order of morality itself. both young and old are continually They are not to be separated, neither exposed. There is no security-no are they to be confounded. Religion, absolute security-against the most true to its noble name, is pre-emidestructive and debasing crimes for nently " OBLIGATION.' It is the law the man who yet possesses an unre- of DUTY. It is conscience taught by generate heart. Education may be a God in his Revelation. It embraces stone wall, and moral habits may be " in nuce," all the obligations. It a hedge of restraint; but how often, extends to the most intricate, as well in the hour of temptation, has the as to the most simple. The social stone wall been thrown down, and man, in reference to society at large, how often has the thorny hedge been broken through: although in no case is the ominous declaration of Scripture more certainly verified, "Whoso breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him." "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?" is a question of infinite importance, proposed by the oracles of truth; and the only satisfactory reply is to be the mere determination or performderived from the same source, in the comprehensive words, "By taking heed thereto, according to thy word." MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. to the various masses of society, -has numberless functions to fulfil. Then come the various subdivisions of these great classifications, each with its line of corresponding duties. The distinguishing and defining these duties is moral science,--their practice, morality. But neither are religion and morality to be limited to ance of duties. They go much deeper both in individual and national education. Their great end is to form the character to such a temper, that the practice of each and all of these duties shall naturally follow. Under this aspect they are, especially, Educa (Education Reform, by T. Wyse, Esq., M. P. tion. 1837.) USEFUL EXERCISES. No. III. THEY who would build the great work of human perfection, without calling to their aid the chief instrument by which it is to be accom- THE Apostle Paul having conplished, attempt not merely an im- gratulated a young man on having possibility, and secure only a failure, known the holy Scriptures from a but render dubious, and frequently child, adds, "All Scripture is given injurious, those very acquisitions for by inspiration of God, and is profitwhich they have already laboured able for doctrine, for reproof, for corwith so much care. The education rection, for instruction in righteousof the moral man is the education of ness, that the man of God may be the most essential portion of our na- perfect, thoroughly furnished with all We shall find in the other good works." But it is evident that ture. |