the motives and inducements by which benevolent persons have been led to originate and support these institutions, and of the distinguished place which the active and philanthropic author of these works has gained for himself in the estimation of all wellwishers of his country. They may not be aware, however, how very largely the system has spread itself, and how very generally it has been adopted-what high and distinguished personages it has obtained for patrons-and what an important part Infant Schools are already playing in the great work of preparing the coming generation of our citizens. The first work on our list will furnish them with this information, and will also make them conscious of the need that there is for the wise men as well as the benevolent to give their attention to the subject.

Before saying anything farther of the system as it presently exists, or of the principles on which it has been recommended or constructed, we think it good to throw out some general considerations that need to be kept prominently in view by all who speculate, or contrive, or judge upon so delicate and practical a question. And this we do, because we are persuaded that it is never safe to be merely practical; that a sound understanding, well furnished with the reasons, principles, and ends of things, is essential to the discreet and salutary exercise of the faculty of invention; that the theoretical is the guard of the practical; and that a really advantageous practical result can be attained, only by aiming at something far higher and nobler, and more true than anything which can be realized in the world. The practical can never be any thing more than such attainment of the theoretical, as surrounding conditions of human infirmity and providential possibility shall admit of. This attainment will be high or low according as the mark was high or low which was aimed at. The end which can be attained must never give law to the end which is desired, contemplated, or contended for. The former must spring from the latter, and must be such a measure and degree of the latter as zeal, guided by prudence, discretion and mercy, can accomplish. All management, indeed, and administration of human affairs, is a bringing of the absolute down to the possible; but a doing of it so as never to lose sight of the absolute. Expediency rightly understood, is, in mercy to human infirmities, in acknowledgment of the sentence of vanity, to which the creature is at present subject through the fall of man, and in hope of that absolute perfection which the redeemed creation shall yet attain to in the day of the manifestation of the sons of God, accom modating that which is right to that which can be effected. The summum jus is before the eye, but the summa injuria is

not inflicted. But so soon as it is not felt to be an accommodation, then has come in a loss of principle; the practical has not been carried, by struggling for the most that could be reached of the theoretical; but it has itself carried the day against the theoretical. Thenceforward there can be nothing but descending instead of condescending, yielding instead of upholding, justifying sin instead of pardoning it, corrupting justice instead of mingling it with mercy. Those who are ignorant or regardless of principles are not to be trusted with expedients. If theoretically to perov be all the object, decency will not be practically attained. He who thinks only of what he can do, will do something less than he thinks of. Therefore, St. Paul told the Philippians what to think of what to have in their eye. "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, (venerable), whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Their reason was to occupy itself in the contemplation of these things, and the elevation of their reason to these objects would secure a proportional amount of practical attainment.

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There is another cause, in some degree peculiar to the days in which we live, that makes us wish to bring forward these general considerations. There is at present a disposition in men's minds to call in question every thing which they have received by way of custom, tradition, and inheritance. Every practice, and observance, every form, mode and name, rites, rubrics, and dresses, are called forward to give an account of themselves, and to show some reason or principle on which they can claim respect and continuance. Along with this is a lively spirit of phi lanthropic invention a scheming and experimenting in the science of wellbeing as if the world was not greyheaded, but grown young again as if all the past was little better than a long blunder, and the true and triumphant means of human happiness and perfection were yet to be sought for, as if men must go to sea again, and make voyages of discovery, in search of solid land, on which the edifice of material and spiritual good might be reared. In such a time, every good and prudent man is desiring to cling to and maintain the things that are the proved things, of which the good and the evil are known—and to avoid falling into the snare of them that are given to change. To enable an honest man to do this, he needs to have his reason informed in the principles of constituted things, both for the satisfying of his own conscience, and for enabling him to render a reason to such as may be willing to hear it.

Mere

prejudice, however valourous, however firm, must yield before light, whether the light be that of heaven or not; and faith alone, consciousness of truth alone, can stand; for they that are of the contrary part, have for their matter, and in their sort, a faith, and are servants of a god, in that which they say and do. The Hegelite Christ and the Pantheistic god are neither Christ nor God; yet the faith in them is a faith according to its kind, and the only antagonist that can prevail against it is faith; the only thing that can save the individual, the Church, or the people from it and its works, is faith. The faith should, therefore, be continually reiterated and expounded, and held out to men's view, that they may feel that they have not got to go to sea again, but are already on the solid land: that they need not either to seek back for the fashions of the past, or to devise uncertain new things; but rather to stand steadfastly where they are, where the dew of divine benediction may light upon them, and where the hand of God may find them ready for wholesome progress in the day of his visitation.

If

Of course, the general theory is, that parents are bound to care for the education of those whom they have been the instruments of bringing into the world. The body, soul, and spirit of the child is in their hands, and, in so far as man sees, at their mercy. To society they are responsible that it grow up a man; to the Church that it grow up a Christian. they do not feed and clothe it, they are punished. If they do not what lies in their power to make it a Christian, they fail in their duty to God, and to the Church. Accordingly, it is the parent who asks baptism for his child, and it is he who provides the sponsors whom the Church requires. Furthermore, the parents are the natural and most likely persons through whom their children are to receive discipline and formation of character. It is from them that the habits of obedience, self-controul," good order, attention, perseverance, patience, must be acquired. As the priest is God's ordinary instructor for the parent, so the parent is God's ordinary instructor for the child. As the divine doctrine distills like dew, by the lips of the pastor, on the spirit and understanding of the one, so, in its measure, does the other receive from his parent, insensibly, by little and little, from day to day, the same doctrine. As the first duty of a child, the early seed-leaf as it were of human virtue, is to honour his parents, so the test of virtue in a parent is his care of his offspring. As the blessing of God comes down upon a child who keeps the fifth commandment, so the man who comes short in the care of his offspring must live under the frown of heaven. Whatsoever interferes with this principle, whatsoever

shakes its soundness, or tends to loosen its hold upon the consciences of men, must be contrary to nature, and mischievous. It is one of the main screws of Christian, nay, of natural society, the loosening of which endangers the whole mysterious fabric.

The school is to be regarded as additional to the home; and the education afforded by it, as additional to the domestic, not a substitute for it. It is an advantage resulting from society. Even Aristotle teaches us that the roles is a divine order-a gift to men-for assisting them in their duties, and for enabling them to reach after the higher efforts and acts of which human nature is capable. The individual is not lost, swamped, or superseded in the community. It girds him with strength; ensures to him all the fruits of his personal efforts; and carries forward to some greater perfection such things as he has well begun. But it undertakes nothing as his substitute: it exonerates him not, though it helps him to bear his burden.

Again: the theory is that the clergy of the Established Church in each land are responsible to God for all its Christian inhabitants. To them belongs the entire subject of discipline both of the old and of the young. Whatsoever affects the moral training and formation of character comes within their sphere. As it belongs to the parent and the sponsors to prepare and to present for confirmation, so it belongs to the Church to see that none are left unconfirmed, and that none be confirmed until they be duly prepared. It belongs to the parent to bring his family to the common prayer, and to see that each of them, according to their capacity, be brought to it as intelligent worshippers. The Church, by her ministers, sees that all the worshippers be intelligent, and that God is not dishonoured and displeased by the coming together of an ignorant or superstitious assembly. These are the only two parties, who have any legitimate authority, or right of interference in this matter of moral and spiritual education. The godfather or sponsor is an organ or minister for the Church, in the sphere allotted to him, and a helper of the faith and care of the parent.

Christian education is like all other Christian actings-a thing of faith. Its results are left with God. It does not limit itself to what can be seen or exhibited. It demands present virtues indeed; but it proceeds to sow the seed of future virtues. It considers docility a greater acquirement than actual knowledge; an obedient temper, humility, respectfulness, and a dutiful disposition, of more consequence than any amount of acquaintance with objects, facts, ideas, or words. It is never to be lost sight of, that the groundwork of the Christian Taidela is the character impressed by God's act in baptism. A method

of education suited to the heathen or the Jew is a very shortcoming one when applied to the Christian child. There is a difference of the material to be worked upon. The remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and participation in the new life, which the Church receives by her union with the Lord Jesus Christ, make the baptized child a different sort of subject from the unbaptized. The thing to be developed is different; the conditions are more favourable for its development; the knowledge of God that can be imparted is different so are the hopes that are to be awakened, and the object and prospects of life that are to be presented for the mind's habitual contemplation. There is, indeed, a general development of the whole creature that is the same in all. For the new creature is not made by crushing, swamping, or extinguishing the old, but by exalting it-enlarging and aggrandizing it-and giving to it a higher scope and end. The spiritual does not lessen the natural. The sin and corruption which have come upon the natural are cast out; but the substance and properties of the creature, as it came good from the hands of the Almighty, are retained: they are saved. The new birth adds, but takes not away. No property or attribute is cut off. There is as much to develope as before the new birth took place. The difference is by addition only. But it is essential to Christian education that the peculiar, as well as the common, be cultivated and developed. That is not a Christian education in which the child is treated merely as a son of fallen Adam in his birth, and not as a son of God by baptism.

Instruction and education are synonymes, but they are not equivalents. Instruction informs the faculties; it furnishes the mind with its principles and its materials; it enables a man to judge of things and actions. It is education in so far as it calls the faculties into exercise, and invites them into development. Its value is not to be measured by the actual amount of knowledge imparted, for knowledge may be imparted in such a way as to leave dormant those faculties by which it ought to have been acquired. As money may be acquired through the gift of an indiscreet charity, and with a loss of the best elements of the receiver's character, instead of being acquired by industry, through which the character would be improved, so may it happen in the acquisition of knowledge. The education of a man is the development of his whole nature and all its properties. In begins with the dawn of consciousness, and it is unfinished so long as anything remains to evolve. It includes his physical, moral, intellectual, and spiritual nature-the senses, the faculties, the judgment, the disposition or genius, the emo