"D'ye ken, Mr. Wilderspin, (said a child at Glasgow one day) that we have an oblong table: it's made o' deal, four sides, four corners, twa lang sides, and twa short anes; corners mean angles and angles mean corners. My brother gi'ed himsel sic a clink o' the eye against ane at hame; but, ye ken, there was nane that could tell the shape o' the thing that did it!"

A little boy was watching his mother making pancakes, and wishing they were all done; when, after various observations as to their comparative goodness with and without sugar, he exclaimed, I wonder which are best, elliptical pancakes or circular ones?' As this was Greek to the mother, she turned round with · What d’ye say ?'-when the child repeated the observation. Bless the child (said the astonished parent) what odd things ye are always saying?-what can you mean by liptical pancakes? Why, you little fool, don't you know they are made of flour and eggs, and did you not see me put the milk into the large pan, and stir up all together? Yes, (said the little fellow), I know what they are made of, and I know what bread is made of; but that is not the shape: indeed, indeed, mother, they are elliptical pancakes, because they are made in an elliptical frying-pan.' An old soldier who lodged in the house was now called down by the mother, and he decided that the child was right, and far from being what in her surprise and alarm she took him to be."

"On another occasion a little girl had been taken to market by her mother, where she was struck by the sight of the carcases of six sheep recently killed, and said Mother, what are these?' The reply was dead sheep-don't bother. They are suspended, perpendicular, and parallel, rejoined the child.' What? what?' was then the question. Why, mother, (was the child's answer) don't you see they hang upthat's suspended; they are straight up-that's perpendicular; and they are at equal distances that's parallel.'"

Another anecdote may be added here, to show that children, even under punishment, may think of their position with advantage (!). Dr. J., of Manchester, sent two of his children to an infant school for the upper classes, and one of his little daughters had broken some rule in conjunction with two other little ladies in the same school; two of the little folks were placed, one in each corner of the room, and Miss J. was placed in the centre. When the child came home in the evening, Dr. J. enquired, Well, Mary, how have you got on at school to-day?' The reply was Oh! Papa, little Miss and Fanny and I were put out; they were put in the corners, and I in the middle of the room; and there we all stood, Papa, a complete triangle of dunces.' ”

This, it seems," shows that children, even under punishment, may think of their position with advantage!" The moral position, then, is entirely lost sight of in the fruitful meditation of their position in space. Penitence used to be defined "contrition," &c. We think her geometrical studies were likely to make little Miss J more of a hardened than of a penitent little sinner. But these are exceptions. We adduce them for

the purpose of showing that such schools must be managed with a great deal of good judgment, and the new art not be pushed to an extreme. The general good sense of Mr. Wilderspin's observations must be held to balance such absurdities

as these.

The last work on the list has been produced by Mr. Wilderspin with the help of Mr. Terrington of Hull, with whom we do not think Mr. Wilderspin has been particularly fortunate in thus publicly associating himself. An essay by Mr. Terrington, and some pieces in poor verse of joint authorship, with some lessons in morals and religion, make up this little book. The essay shows the author to be somewhat of a sciolist, and more self-sufficient than able. He has produced twelve pages, in which there are to be found about as many sentences of clear thought, and tolerable English. His estimate of the state of religion in this country at present is not remarkably charitable, and shows from how limited a range of observation his induction is derived, "Within our own times (he says) it (viz., Christianity) here and there raises up a bright flower under its fostering sunshine. How beautiful are its influences on the heart set forth in Leigh Richmond's exquisite Annals of the Poor;' how brightly does it shine in the truly patriarchal Life of Pastor Oberlin; and how sweetly are its truths propounded in Leighton's excellent Commentary on St. Peter!" These are the little pet books of the Secretary to the Hull Infant School Society. We think we could mention one or two other works still more wonderfully showing that Christianity has not quite died out, though per haps Mr. Terrington might not find quite so much in them of the exquisite and the sweet as might suit his taste. The sciolist also betrays himself in such blunders as "septagon," "nonagon, &c., and makes one feel how difficult it must be, in detail, to find persons of even tolerable accomplishment to carry out this system over the whole face of the country.

We must now bring our remarks to a close; but we cannot do so without calling upon our readers to deplore the necessity which exists for such institutions. They stand in our view on the same platform with foundling hospitals, betraying a moral condition of our people at which the spiritual guides and instructors may well stand aghast. When a thing becomes common, and the mind accustomed to contemplate it, its deformities are forgotten. Even vice, by familiarity, loses somewhat of its hatefulness. How much more shall a moral and social evil, by its very inveteracy and universality, be hidden from the abhorrence of mankind! A great mass of our people become parents, without the smallest intention of fulfilling the duties belonging

to that relation they fulfil them not even so far as the wild Indian of the prairie does, in whom natural affection cares for and longs over the very dead: they are sopyo. A still larger mass of the people are incapable of the moral and religious care of their offspring, and are men under the weight of Christian obligations, yet groping in the darkness of Pagans. Their very desires after good, the promptings of their spiritual nature, only increase the snares and perils with which, in their unreached degradation, they are encompassed. The cleansing peace of the Gospel is ministered, but it never reaches them; in drudgery, squalor, rags, they hide themselves together. The Church knows not how to seek after them, and finds them not: even charity, only in sentiment, sees them as part of God's household dissent, opposition to things constituted, socialism, chartism, Mormonism-all earth-born and hell-born things and doctrines-delude them, entangle them, and poison their minds to the truth. Their children are taken from them, not by a kind relative, not by a godfather or godmother, not by an official functionary, not by the clergy who baptized them, by no authorized or trustworthy person; but by a philanthropist. They surrender them. The philanthropist may be a Churchman or a Chartist; they know not: they are not expected to enquire nature is scarcely strong enough in their breasts to protest against the interference. To the school the child goes. "The less he sees now of them the better." He becomes fond of the school, the playground, the master, and his little companions. In him also nature is set aside, and supplied by an artificial system. The invention of human philanthropy, supersedes the constitution of divine wisdom. He grows up to suppose that thus it ought to be: his children shall also be similarly disposed of. This shall be the groundwork of his future domestic theory. And what is his first great moral discovery? The tremendous discovery that his very parents are so debased that they cannot be entrusted with the care of him. You find the parent drunk with Noah, and you bring up the child to be a despiser like Ham. You meant to take an upward step, and you have taken a downward instead.

It is most painful to hear it so frequently said-“ Oh, we have no hope of the adults; but something may yet be made of the children, and their parents may learn through them:" and this (says Mr. Wilderspin) "in simple dependence upon the Divine blessing." And yet, you begin by subverting the Divine order of nature. How shall any ordinance stand-how shall it fare with the crown and the mitre-if the first ordinance of human being be disregarded? Let not our clergy be led away

And

into this error. Christ came to seek them that were lost. He gives power to his servants to do the same. Save the parent, and you save all the children. Thus society may be edified; by an opposite process it must be shattered and chipped into fragments. In God's order the child follows the parent. In the history of human life, the reversal of this order is a rare exception, and, as one may call it, a miracle. But the priest, the clergyman, has the power of his Master-the presence and countenance of his Master-and the divine gift, to go into the very prison and dungeon of men's most abject, moral degradation, and there with the light, and pardon, and peace, and consolation of the Gospel, to break the fetters of the prisoners. this is what must be done. Learning, taste, elegance, study, retirement, genius, must be forgotten for the wrestling place where the enemy of God and man is to be met and discomfited. The philanthropist is our reprover, and our example. We must follow in his footsteps, and we must follow with our higher wisdom, as the ministers of peace on earth, and good will toward men. Let us show that we have faith, by going there, and believing that Jesus Christ goes in us. Let us have courage, and compassion, and patience: let us conquer ourselves, and we shall lead our captivity captive. The pastor must live and die for his sheep. "I am the good Shepherd." The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

ART. VI.-Charles Fourier, sa Vie et sa Théorie par Ch. Pellarin. Docteur en Medicine. Paris. 1843.

2. Destinée Sociale, par Victor Considerant, Membre du Conseil Général de la Seine, ancien Elève de l'Ecole Polytechnique, &c. 2 vols. in 8vo. Paris. 1838.

3. Les Enfans au Phalanstère, Dialogue Familier sur l'Education. Paris. 1844.

WE had occasion in a former number of the Review, in writing on the spiritual and intellectual characteristics of the age, to refer for the illustration of some remarks into which our subject led us to the schools of philosophy at present existing in France, whose doctrines, under the names of Communism, Fraternism, or Phalansterianism-which may be generally classed under the designation of SOCIALISM-are rapidly spreading throughout that and other lands. We have since thought, that it might not be altogether uninteresting to our readers, if we were to bring before them some of the peculiar dogmas held by

the disciples of these schools; since they are, to a certain extent, exercising an influence on many of the rising generation, and may be expected, with more or less of modification, to enter into the constitution of political theories, if not of practical mea-i sures, and thus affect the future condition of society.

It may, perhaps, be considered by some, that an anticipation of this kind is not warranted by the nature of the case; it may be objected, that the views of Socialism, generally, are too illusory to merit a serious notice, and that the party, by whom they are advocated, is too insignificant to justify any apprehension as to its present power or ultimate success in advocating them. It may also be urged, that there is that quality of sound sense in the English mind, which will effectually prevent the Utopianism of the schools to which we have referred from gaining any hold: or exercising any influence in this country, whatever it may do elsewhere. To those of our readers who entertain these opi nions, we perhaps owe an apology for introducing any remarks upon the subject of Socialism here: at the same time, we feel it quite right to disabuse them as to the insignificance of the Socialist party, and the folly, at least in an intellectual point of view, of the Socialist doctrines, as they are advocated by many men in the present day. We may remark at once, that by Socialism we do not exclusively understand that which is gene+ rally recognised in this land under that name. We are far from believing that the higher classes of Socialist writers, to whom we shall have occasion to refer, would consent to acknowledge the Socialist communities of this country as true or proper expositions of the principles which they maintain. Between the nobility of that philanthropy, which they claim to possess, and which without doubt characterizes many of their sentiments, and the coarse invectives against all humanity by the popular lecturer of our manufacturing districts between the refinements of the metaphysical reasoning by which their systems are maintained, and the gross demonstration which they receive in fact, there is certainly a wide distance; and the philosophical dreamer of the theory, who has no opportunity of seeing it in action, would per haps not only have a repugnance but a difficulty in recognizing in the creeds and conduct of our Socialist communities in this land, the effect, in practice, of that which he is advocating in prin ciple: he would probably at once deny that there was, or could be, any connection between the two. We, for our part, however, believe that these results are perfectly legitimate, and such as ought to be executed by any one acquainted with the constitution of ther English mind and character. The intellectualism of a theory and its exposition are two very different things; the former may

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