many schoolmasters like Gluelphi, and many magistrates like Arner, the world would be in a far better case!" And there the matter ended. But Pestalozzi would not let it end there. He published, in the following year, his "Second Book for the People," namely, "Christopher and Eliza," by which he hoped to draw the attention of the readers of "Leonard and Gertrude," to the real object, which he there had in view, and by, familiar illustrations of some of the most important topics touched upon in it, to show how a variety of useful lessons might be drawn from a book, which was generally considered in no other light than an amusing tale. Thus, while endeavouring to bring the results of his experience home to the hearts and minds of the cottager, he attempted also to interest the literary world in his views on education. In a Basle journal, published by the celebrated philanthropist Iselin, he inserted various essays, entitled, "Evening hours of an Hermit," containing more systematic accounts of his mode of instruction, and his plans for national improvement. But at that time, men sought not for such information, as tended to cure their vices or prejudices. The tendency of popular education ran quite counter. The universalization of reading, writing, and a sort of encyclopedic scrap-knowlede, was the fashion; and Pestalozzi's voice, telling no wonders of electricity, no secrets of chemistry, but ever loud as to mental and moral improvement, continued in spite of all his efforts, to be as the voice of one speaking to the wind. He gave somewhat more currency to his ideas by a weekly journal, undertaken in 1782, named, "Schweizer Blatt," or "Swiss Journal." This curious publication continued till 1783, and forms two octavos. It touches, in a popular and interesting style, upon an endless variety of topics, all, however, connected with his one great object-national improvement. The period between 1783 and 1790, (one of increasing public difficulties and embarrassments,) could not be favourable to literary composition; yet it was not wholly left without a record of the state of Pestalozzi's mind. Pre-occupied by private affairs, and the menacing ruin of his schools, he was yet not indifferent to that ferment of ideas, which preceded the explosion of the French revolution. Society was hastening on to its dissolution, though most rapidly, yet not exclusively, in France. In this crisis, every human passion presented itself in its most hideous aspect; and Pestalozzi, gifted with a deep insight into the recesses of man's heart, collected the caricatures of humanity, which the times presented, into a volume of fables, published under the enigmatic title of "Figures to my Spelling Book." After the breaking up of his institution, we find Pestalozzi in a condition truly deplorable. Dunned by creditors, reviled by enemies, insulted by men in power, sneered at by the vulgar, treated with ingratitude by many whom he had served, and separated from the few that might have been grateful, destitute of all assistance, but overwhelmed with mortifying advice, cast down by a succession of misfortunes, and tormented by the consciousness of having contributed to them by his own failings, he consumed his days in painful desolation, on the same spot which he had made the dwelling place of love and mercy, now become an abode of anxiety and He had deprived his wife and only son of those advantages, to which their education and circumstances had a claim; and he could not even compensate them with the tranquil comforts of retirement. He was rivetted to a ruined and disordered economy, which, at every step, brought painful recollections and anxious prospects before his mind. Of the cause nearest his heart he durst not speak; sarcastic hints as to VOL. XI. 4 L its success would have been the answer. He was obliged to conceal from men his love to them, and to receive as compassion their considering him a madman. In this state he lingered, when a greater disappointment, than the failure of his private plans, aroused him to a far deeper investigation-one which concerned net temporary evils, under which different classes laboured, but went to that root of evil in man's constitution, which causes us, both individually and socially, to stray from the higher purposes of our existence. Ever since the first excitement of his mind by the investigation of legislation, he had, in political opinions, followed somewhat that stream of popular feeling which, in France and other states, was fast undermining all by its subterranean current. He was deceived, like others, by the hope, that the general circulation of ideas of liberty indicated the dawn of a brighter era, when men would be treated not as brute masses, subservient to purposes of political cunning and ambition, but would be acknowledged individually as the objects whose intellectual and moral cultivation is the great end of society. The horrors of the French revolution undeceived the admirers of phrases, which, on the lips of a chosen few, were expressive of generous feelings, but, in the mouths of the depraved multitude, were only signals for a free indulgence of every brutal passion, and pretexts for the accomplishment of every Satanic design. In these calamitous days, Pestalozzi, forgotten by the world, wrote his "Inquiries into the Course of Nature, in the Development of the Human Species." This work, published in 1797, marks the transition to a new era in Pestalozzi's views. Hitherto he had confounded, in some degree, the attendant circumstances of human happiness or misery with their causes. But when he saw in the revolution all those trammels removed, which he bad considered as chief causes of human degradation, and yet found the emancipated slave combining his tyrant's vices with his own, the scales fell from his eyes. He learned the truth, that, in the absence of all external impe diments, man is even less than under their pressure disposed to seek his own moral and intellectual improvement; he saw that there are greater obstacles to be overcome, than those created by the necessities of the earth, and the fetters of social life; and his mind gradually arrived at the conclusion, that the amelioration of outward circumstances will be the effect, but never can be the means, of mental and moral improvement. It may seem strange, that one educated with Christian principles, cherishing them, and making them the rule of his own life, should at the age of thirty have to discover a truth so essentially connected with the doctrine of the Gospel. But when we consider how universally it has been, and is, the tendency of education to keep God's revelations only as a text book for a future existence, and a few scanty fragments of this life that are referred to it, whilst the largest proportion of our present existence is devoted to time's objects, and made subject to a rule not only dif ferent from, but contrary to, that of Christ, it will cease to be a matter of astonishment, that half a century ago, a Christian in name, in heart, and in practice, was in some parts of his philosophy of human life, little better than a Pagan. To educate men whose happiness should not depend on their fortunes, nor their virtue on their circumstances, freemen in the true sense of the word, was indeed the way to save the cause of liberty from the shipwreck, which it had suffered in the revolution. But all his unformed plans were upset by the French invasion supported by a revolutionary party in the country itself. The only part of Switzerland that was not at once disorganised by it, were the ancient democratic cantons, round the the lake of Lucerne, whose inhabitants had preserved all that simplicity and vigour, for which they were celebrated in the days of William Tell and Arnold Winkelried. These democratic cantons resisted the invasion, with a resolution and perseverence, which could only be equalled by their attachment to the interests, which they believed at stake. But that spirit of "arrondisement" which presided in the councils of the French republic, and of the new Swiss government constituted under its auspices, knew of no respect for national and religious peculiarities; and the conflict that ensued could, therefore, be no other than a war of extermination. The fury of this war burst in September 1798, upon the canton of Unterwalden, whose capital, Stantz, was burnt by the victorious French, and its few defenders that escaped the general slaughter, flew to the recesses of their mountains, After a horrible massacre, in which neither age nor sex was spared, the whole of the lower valley presented one great scene of devastation. Widowed mothers and whole families of orphans were wandering without protection or support among the smoking ruins. High as party ran, yet the Helvetic government deeply lamented the vengeance of of their allies against one of the states of the ancient Swiss federation, and by affording assistance to the distressed, mitigated the impression, which the event could not fail to produce throughout the land. Active measures were taken to rebuild the destroyed dwellings; the remnants of the population were invited back, under assurances of security, and were supplied with provisions. This was the scene which the grovernment proposed to Pestalozzi for the first experiment of his plan of national education. Reasons for the Hope that is in Us. A series of Essays on the Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, the Immortality of the Soul, and other important subjects; adapted to the understanding of Young Persons. By Robert Ainslie, W. S. Anthor of A Father's Gift," &c. Edinburgh, Constable; Dublin, Curry, 1831. This beautifully printed volume is a credit to the heart and head of the worthy author. We have read it with feelings of thankfulness and satisfaction; and knowing by experience of what importance a concise collection and condensation of the Christian Evidences is to young minds, we rejoice to see the 'Reasons.' Mr. Ainslie's name is associated with that of Burns, as a friend, during part of the brief career of that child of sorrow and of song; and if we had no other evidence, this volume would be sufficient to induce us to wish that the author of " the Cottar's Saturday Night," had fallen in with more such counsellors and friends. And every right constituted mind must regard it as a pleasing re-action of truth and righteousness, that from Edinburgh, the former head-quarters of modern infidelity, should have proceeded some of the best demonstrations of the truth of Christianity, and that even the ranks of its lawyers and pbysicians have produced men able and willing to rebuke the cold and crafty sophistry of the northern philosopher, As we confidently anticipate a wide circulation of this work, we will take the liberty of pointing out two or three things in our opi nion rather calculated to impede its uselul ness, at least with young persons of a speculative or argumentative turn of mind, and which a little alteration might amend in a future edition. 1. Too much respect is paid to the majesty of unassisted human reason. Very far indeed would we be, from detracting one iota from the power of intellect-"spark of the. Divinity within!"-yet believers in the full and ruin of man may safely leave it to Mr. Hume to talk of mankind "stretching their conceptions," and arriving at the idea of one great spiritual Being, the creator and governor of all. It may be true that in the voluminous writings of Plato and Aristotle there is no allusion to the sacred books of the Jews, nor any mention of the names of Moses, David, Solomon, or Isaiah; yet it is by no means an improbable supposition that fragmented and traditional revelation formed the basis of some of their sublime speculations, and that however acute and intelligent were the minds of the master spirits of antiquity, while "darkly feeling after God," they would never have arrived at the idea of one great Being, or a great Deliverer to come, had no glimmerings from the sacred fire that burned in the Jewish Temple shot across the gloom, making darkness visible. 2. As a necessary consequence from the foregoing, the attempt to prove the UNITY of God from the works of creation is unsatisfactory. Doubtless it is a pleasing and delightful occupation to trace the harmony that reigns in the universe of the blessed Creator; and-after we know by revelation the factconceive that analogy will lead us indubitably to his ONENESS. The two opposing principles of light and darkness, or the good and evil Spirits, are the more natural conclusions of the unassisted natural mind; and if a treatise on natural religion is to avail itself of all the aids that revelation affords, instead of being placed first in a series, it ought rather to come as a corollary to the treatise on revealed religion. This inconvenience could easily be obviated, by confining natural religion to the proof of the existence of a great First Cause, and referring the nature (il we may so speak) of that existence, whether UNITY OF TRINITY, to revealed. Let not this objection be thought trivial. 3. A great and prolific source of infidelity in young intellectual minds, just bursting into flower, is the want of a right perception of the character of man in the sight of God. Petulant and proud, they are apt to seize upon the apparent anomalies that perpetually cross our path, and sit in judgment upon the doctrines of the Bible. We grant that injudicious attempts to indoctrinate youth with what are called peculiar views may some times produce an opposite effect; but those who have felt the weight of sin on their own spirits, will not let such a fear make them shrink from their duty. And we are sure that Mr. Ainslie must have overlooked the fact, that the concluding sentences of his fourth chapter on natural religion are more upt to make a young person regard sorrows and trials as benevolent inventions of the Deity, intended to discipline us for a future state, than as resulting from the introduction of EVIL into the universe. ALL things work together for good to them that love Godbut let us always make a clear distinction between the things that are caused, and the things that are overruled. We cannot resist the temptation of adding, that the preface is carelessly written; and that in the appendix the publishers have overstepped, not the modesty of nature, but the modesty of the profession, in incorporating the laudatory strains in which different reviewers have spoken of that portion of the volume formerly published. The book will make its own way-it is deservedly calculated to do so and we trust that the circulation of such works will deliver many a youth in the British isles from the "perilous stuff" freely circulated by poor creatures like Carlile. Ob, if all who have the charge of youth were but fully alive to the importance of right or wrong early impressions, might we not safely say, that scarcely a young person, however dull, would be found unable to give a “reason of the hope" of the Christian, and that with "meekness and fear!" Memoir of the Rev. Basil Woodd, M.A. late Ree- 1831. We are glad to see this brief memoir of such a man presented to the public in so very neat and portable a form. Most of our readers will be aware that it is a reprint from the Christian Observer. Can a Christian mother read, without a tremulous emotion of the heart, the few hints given of the prayers and tears of the widowed woman over ber only child, and their blessed answer in his life and death? What would the Establishment be, if every pastor were a Basil Woodd! The Little Chimney-Sweep, an affecting narrative. With authentic Facts illustrative of the sufferings of Climbing Boys. Dublin, Curry, 1831. There are certain interested folks who, whenever slavery is rather bard pressed, turn round to the enthusiastic saint, and bid him mind bis slaves at home. This volume is one of the many replies that the saints are in the daily habit of giving to the slavish philosophers-they will pardon the sobriquet-for it is brought out by an individual who actually can afford to feel, and feel strongly too, for slaves any where and every where, of every age, sex, size, and colour; and as the profits are to be appropriated to the amelioration of the condition of climbing boys, we really do not think so meanly of Irish feeling as to suppose that this attempt to draw attention to a barbarous nuisance will fail. Our readers will recognise the narrative, if they are in the babit of regularly perusing the stories that appear in the Examiner, and this one is not unworthy of the pen of WILTON. We are sure that nobody can glance over the facts without feeling that the narrative is any thing but overdrawn; and without a regret that a practice so degrading, so ruinous, and so filthy, should still be persevered in, as the employment of children in sweeping chimneys. We heartily recommend the little work to the benevolent and humane, An Important Discovery, addressed to the Farmers and Peasantry of Ireland. Dublin, Curry, 1831. What an era of discovery is this! and how pregnant is the mighty and awakened mind of man with inventions conducive to the happiness and well-being of his fellow-creatures! In forming our estimate, then, of the superior merit of any particular improvement with which the present times are big, we ought not only to take into account the magnitude of the results, but also the means by which they are accomplished; and inversely, in proportion to the insignificance of the means ought the merits of the invention be esti mated. Thus, if a Marquis of Worcester can This is the House that Jack built. This- this is the house that Pat built. That keeps out damp, nor lets in rat, That eats up all, both lean and fat; That's cheap withal; and more than that, That calls on all to build like Pat. (!!) No wonder that the Author, strong in the merit of his discovery, should feel confident that all the nobility and gentry of Ireland, who are actuated by laudable and patriotic feelings, will be induced to devote their attention to the subject. No doubt they will-and we shall see troops of carriages and herds of landowners flocking to Mr. Curry's shop, to possess themselves of this valued tract, and acquire information respecting this happy discovery. We could indulge ourselves in more panegyric on this subject, but want of We shall space restrains our admiration. only announce further, that we believe that the modest author of so much benefit to his country is a Clergyman, as dignified as he is talented-a D.D.-and though, at first view, the reconstruction of mud walls and composi tion of striven may be considered as not exactly comporting with the dignity of a scarlet hood; yet, when we consider what apparent incongruities Pastor Oberlin meddled with, in order to work out improvement for his dear parishioners, how can we object, especially when the question might be asked, in what can a Doctor of Divinity be more appropriately employed, than in the work of edifi. cation. The Plot-an awful conspiracy against the religion and Church of Christ developed, and the discussion between the Rev. Messis. Pope and Maguire reviewed. By Gideon Ousley, (Author of Old Christianity, &c.) Calvanism and Arminianism-an earnest appeal intended to promote union amongst Christians. By Gideon Ousley. Dublin: sold by J. O. Bonsall. These works are the production of the well-known Methodist missionary and polemic, the Rev. Gideon Ousley, whose preaching perigrinations have been only inferior to his mighty master, John Wesley; and whose controversial work, "Old Christianity against Papal Novelties," is so highly valued by those who feel an interest in the controversy with the Church of Rome. Mr. Ousley, aware that the discussion between Messrs. Pope and Maguire, bas had a wide circulation in Ireland, and that Roman Catholics maintain that their champion had the advantage in that controversy, has given a reading and summary of the discussion, in which he exhibits the falsehood and weakness of the Romish disputant's cause when stripped of the sophistries, misquotations, and sneerings with which Mr. Maguire's cause is supported. We think this is a useful publication, coming as it does from the pen of such an experienced polemic, who has carried on his oral and written contests so unflinchingly and so successively for a long series of years. Of Mr. Ousley's other work we have not space to say more, than that though advocating, as all Wesleyan Methodists do, the cause of Arminianism; yet it is done temperately, and doubtless it would |