ing future events must, to a naturally desponding temper, be a source of incessant misery. In vain does fortune smile: In vain are his wishes fulfilled: In vain does happiness seem to solicit his acceptance ;-the gnawing worm of discontent preys upon his bosom; a morbid irritability of temper adds its cruel stings; and if the loss of reason does not fill up the measure of his calamity, the want of energy, which is consequent upon despondency, will, in the ruin of his worldly affairs, probably justify the most gloomy forebodings of despair.

How different would have been the situation of such a person as has been now described, had the first conceptions of the Deity and of revealed religion been associated with cheerful, exhilarating, and agreeable impressions! He would not then have so easily been led to relinquish principles which had been made to him a source of hope and consolation for a blank and joyless sceptism. Had religious sentiment been blended with all that touches the heart and charms the

imagination, the beauties of nature, and the still superior beauties of moral truth, it would not so readily have yielded to the attacks of the witty, or the arguments of the plausible; but have remained to solace and invigorate the mind in every event, and through every period of life.

Here a fact comes in to the support of theory; and I can assert the observations I have presumed to make to be amply justified by experience.

One gentleman it has been my happiness to know, who entered upon life at the age of sixteen, without guide but his own principle, without monitor but the precepts of education, and the dictates of his own heart. Unsullied by the temptations of a capital, he was plunged into the temptations of a camp. Fond of society, where his cheerful temper and easy manners formed him to shine, but still fonder of improvement, neither the inducements of camp or city interrupted his unwearied pursuits of literature and science. Surrounded by companions who had caught

the contagion of scepticism, he, at this early period of life, listened to their arguments; weighed, examined, detected their futility; and rejected them! In prosperity and adversity, in public and in private life, the sentiments of religion retained their influence on his heart. Through life they were his guide, in death his consolation. When sinking by painful steps into an early grave, "With what gratitude," he exclaimed, “with what delightful gratitude, do I now look back to the period of my infancy, and to the judicious conduct of my mother, who made religion appear to me in colours so engaging and so congenial! Had I been taught as other boys are taught, my passions would have made me an easy prey to vice; my love of inquiry would have led me to infidelity. She prepared me for the trial of faith and virtue, and, thanks to GOD, I have come off victorious. Had religion been made to me a gloomy task in infancy, where would now have been my consolation?"

From these, and a thousand similar in

stances, it appears of great importance to prepossess the minds of children at an early period in favour of religion. It appears to me, that if the mode on which we convey to them the rudiments of religious knowledge is calculated to excite aversion or disgust, we shall, instead of prepossessing them in favour of religion, prepossess them against it, and prepare them for receiving with avidity the poison that is offered in a more inviting form, and of which they cannot taste without peril to their souls.

LETTER XIII.

SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

If the establishment of religious principle in the minds of our pupils, on a firm and lasting foundation, appear to us an object of importance, we shall not be satisfied with a slight and hasty survey of the means of accomplishing it. I shall therefore enter into a still farther investigation of the subject, assured that those who agree with me, in considering religion as the only never-failing source of joy and consolation, will not begrudge me their attention.

The graces and virtues which adorn the Christian character are of such intrinsic value as to attract the esteem and veneration