brought up. We need not have recourse to the opinions or customs of the wisest nations among the Heathen to prove this, though many useful hints may be borrowed both from Sparta and Rome on the subject. The word of God neither leaves us in ignorance of its importance, nor of the best manner of performing this duty; and it is among the number of distinguished advantages which we enjoy beyond those who preceded us for many centuries, that the facilities afforded the instructors of youth for the training and cultivation of the infant mind are so ample. Not only have tales of fairies and giants given place to rational and amusing stories, in which the improvement of the morals are still more aimed at than the gratification of the fancy; but useful information on every subject, and in every branch of knowledge is simplified, and religious truths of the most important nature are intelligibly arranged, so as to be brought within the compass of the newly expanded intellect, and placed in such engaging points of view, as to attract the affections and open a way to the heart, ere it has become callous and indifferent, through the evil influence of a world that is yet ❝lying in wickedness." All this is well, and as it should be.

Parents have reason to bless the Giver of every good, that their little ones possess such advantages; they have cause of thankfulness for having lived in times, when their families enjoy such means for the development of mind, and the encouragement of good and gracious dispositions. But while they are thankful for the abundance of these means, and while they rejoice in the mental and spiritual light that has shone upon us, they should, I humbly conceive, rejoice with trembling, knowing that to whom much has been entrusted, of them the more will be required, and that the very magnitude of the Christian privileges was the argument adduced by the Apostle, to prove the impossibility of escaping a judgment, were they neglected or abused. That they are frequently abused is, I apprehend, too evident to require any proof. A forward and selfsufficient spirit, and a tendency to indulge in criticism, at an age when children should be teachably observant, is only too common, and it cannot be otherwise than useful to have the attention of parents directed to a subject so intimately connected with their own comfort, and the future advancement of their offspring.

It is an indisputable fact, that the happiness of man is best attained by the application of all things to that end for which the Creator designed them; and that every thing is then most perfect in its kind, when it most perfectly possesses the character which its Almighty Author intended. And what character did he assign to the infant mind? What character is most consistent with the nature of man at that age, and most promising for future eminence in all that is worth the attainment? Our Saviour satisfies us on this head, by his manner of instructing the disciples. He tells them they must receive the kingdom of heaven as little children, if they would enter therein; that they must humble themselves as little children, that is, become teachable, obedient, distrustful of self, and disposed to bow before superior wisdom and authority: and

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that such are the characteristics of the young mind in its right and healthful state, reason and common sense, as well as the voice of inspiration alike declare. The habit, however, or fashion of the present day, by calling on children to use their immatured reason on every subject, whether it legitimately comes within their scope or not, goes far in providing society with a very different description of young people, viz.-a set of juvenile critics, ready and competent in their own eyes to sit in judgment on every thing that comes before them, and pronounce, condemn, or applaud, as seems good to their green and unseasoned powers. That the reason should be early cultivated is, indeed, most desirable. Our predecessors erred, perhaps, in forming so high an idea of parental authority, and so low an estimate of the mental faculties at an early age, as led them to dogmatize and legislate for their children, without concerning themselves to produce conviction, or encourage the growth of a rational judgment; but assuredly at present there is much danger of our running into an opposite extreme, and the assent of children is too little required to things which they are incapable of understanding, and consequently, the habit of mental obedience and docility, is not acquired at the only time when it is likely to be cultivated with success. Let the reason be used as much as possible, exercise will strengthen it, but let it be used on things which can be lowered without injury to the level of the youthful understanding; and let not parents hesitate in showing their children that there is much that cannot be so lowered to their standard, till time and experience, with increased knowledge, have rendered them more capable. How common is it to hear parents confessing "this child asks me such shrewd questions I am quite puzzled to answer them." And the difficulty is laid completely at the door of infant ingenuity, while in fact, if the questions be rational, the parents are at fault in consequence of the child's incapacity to receive a reasonable explanation. Children should be made to feel and understand this: they can never be the worse for knowing their own deficiency; it is always disadvantageous when that deficiency is allowed to appear on the part of the parent or teacher, as it lessens the reliance which should be placed on their judgment, and diminishes that confidence which it is well that the instructed should be able to place in the instructor.

If humble and teachable dispositions be not cherished, the various and easy paths which have been opened to the tree of knowledge, will prove, it is to be feared, rather detrimental than beneficial to our children; for the many fences and hindrances which formerly impeded their progress, had, at least, the advantage of stimulating industry, and making them feel their ignorance by the difficulty of removing it. The Apostle Paul declares, that knowledge puffeth up. Such is the frail condition of man, that every good is liable to abuse, and his best blessings are thus converted into a curse.— Knowledge then, though it is our glory and our duty to acquire it, has a natural tendency to puff up and inflate the mind with notions of self-importance and dignity; and such being the fact, it is incur

bent on all those who are influential in modelling the rising genera tion, to inculcate that humility and meekness of wisdom, and those lowly dispositions which can alone avert the danger, and are so peculiarly appropriate and lovely in youth.-" Bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply thy heart unto knowledge," is the same valuable counsel of the king of Israel to his son. The desirableness of the object to be obtained, and the right method of obtaining it, are both included in this little sentence. Knowledge is the object, to attain it all his powers were to be exercised; applying the words of the wise to his heart was the means, but bowing down his ear in a spirit of humility and teachableness, was the manner in which he could alone hear with profit. And if the ear be not thus bowed down, at a time when all the mental storehouses are, empty, they never will possess wherewithal to grace the lips of age. What confusion would it introduce into the natural world, were the labours of seed-time, and harvest, to be mixed up without any due attention to the peculiar cases and duties that belong to each period; and must not similar confusion and intellectual poverty result from the spring-time of the mind being occupied by the exercises suitable to maturity. "Be swift to hear, slow to speak," is the voice of inspiration, and our Saviour marking his view of the importance of this very subject, directs his disciples to take heed how they hear.

If this inestimable act of hearing well is of consequence to every class, it is now especially so to the young; and if it be important in the attainment of knowledge generally, it is more especially so in the acquisition of those things which belong to our everlasting peace. For these, beyond all doubt or contradiction, the hearing ear and the understanding heart are necessary, and for lack of these it is to be feared, Sir, that there are in our Churches more critics than converts, more hearers than doers of the word.

Oh! what a people, peculiar indeed, and zealous of good works, should we behold, if the crowded congregations for which our numerous places of worship are insufficient, were to enter those sacred walls with the teachableness that our Saviour commands, as the spirit of a little child, and did such parents instruct their little ones as to the temper in which it became them to sit at the feet of Jesus, and be taught of him while listening to the oracles of God, and receiving the advice and instruction of his ministers; of whom, blessed be God, we have now many faithful shepherds rightly dividing the word of life; then should our sons and daughters be as the polished corners of the temple, they should grow up as olive branches around our tables, richly clustering with goodly fruit.But are such happy effects to be expected, even under the most able and judicious ministry, if at home, a daily habit is induced, and strengthened in the youthful hearers of judging and criticising, when they should be seeking and learning; they are, consequently, placed beneath the sound of the Gospel, not with ears eager to drink in the glad tidings, and wholesome correctives it contains, but with critical discrimination, ready to detect every flaw in the

style or manner of the preacher; to form an estimate of his value, not by the practical truths he offers for their improvement, but by the eloquence of his discourse and the polish of his periods; and quarrelling, it may be, with things that tend to their eternal welfare, because they come not with excellency of speech, or enticing words of man's wisdom.

From such a class of hearers we can look for nothing that tends to the glory of the Christian Church; that it is too numerous is, I apprehend, beyond a doubt, but I leave it to you, Mr. Editor, whether this distemper of a delicate palate and critical acumen with which our Israel is afflicted, does not assume a character of more danger and disgusting unsuitableness, when the young and the unlearned are the most affected by it. Very often since I became a sojourner in this city, have I seen cause to lament over the evil tendency of the habit against which I have been pleading. When found in the families of religious professors (and unhappily it is sometimes so found) it throws a stumbling block in the road of those who see not as yet the advantage of early religious instruction and mental cultivation: it injures the soil into which the good seed falling might have taken root, had the ground been better prepared it dishonours the Gospel by cultivating a spirit in opposition to that which it commends, and by injuring the tone of the domestic constitution, it lowers that of society at large.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

THAUMATURGIANA HIBERNICA-OR MODERN MIRACLES IN IRELAND.

(Continued from page 355.)

Mr. Lawrence. Before the Doctor here reads any thing of the Wilgefortis character, permit me to relate an account of a miracle performed by the priest alluded to in the last anecdote. It is to be regretted indeed that these impostures are not more generally known; as well as the incontrovertible fact, that every man of the priesthood who prefixes the epithet of "blessed" to his name, and commences the performance of mock-miracles, does it after having been previously degraded for bad conduct. A man might write volumes of abstract reasoning upon the moral, religious, and political state of Ireland; but I maintain, that one strong, stubborn fact, like this, exhibits to a reflecting mind more of the pitiable state of the people, and of the knowledge which the Irish priests have of that I now put the case :-An Irish priest is stripped of the exercise of his clerical functions for immorality; what does he do? be

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comes a worker of miracles-at the same time that he is known by the people themselves to be a drunken sot, generally carried to bed each night in a state of intoxication. Does not this call for exertion from both charity and philanthropy? does it not cry aloud for education and religion? The man of whom I am about to speak was a notorious drunkard; and was as ready, and far more successful, with his fists, if a man chanced to anger him, than he was with his exorcisms. But to the story :—

There are, in the mountainous parts of this country, many secluded spots, remarkable for a character of wild and solitary beauty. Of this nature was the valley in which the lonely cabin of Jemmy Hughes was situated: the country around it was dark, hilly, and mostly overgrown with furze and sloe-thorn, except the tops of the hills, which raised their bald peaks over the brushwood that covered their sides. This valley was quite green during every season of the year, and presented an agreeable contrast to the dreariness of the surrounding scenery, which altogether, in consequence of its being barren and uninhabited, had an appearance of coldness and desolation. In summer, 'tis true, the hills were more light and soft-looking; the brushwood was green, and the goats, sheep, and stunted cows that straggled about in the freedom of perfect liberty, imparted to them an air of animation, which made them appear to the eye somewhat less heavy and lumpish; the birds flitted about from bush to bush in the dazzling light of a summer sun, and the voice of the lark might be heard pouring its ærial music over the hills below it, as they lay hushed in the silence of noon-day repose. No sign of human habitation was visible among them, except the smoke, rising from Jemmy Hughes's cabin on the side of the glen, in a light column that floated gently, when it reached mid-air, in the direction of the upper current, and ultimately melted, as it were, into the blue firmament of heaven. This glen commenced about a mile above Hughes's house; from a grey rocky level of upland, it narrowed itself gradually in a line from north to south, until about a hundred yards below the cabin it became a gut, narrow, deep, and precipitous. At its foot lay a meadow, visible from the cabin, which also commanded a view of the inland country, rich in all the hues of varied cultivation. On the opposite side of the glen, and constituting one of its deepest and most abrupt precipices, rose the Black Rock of K-, a spot long celebrated as the haunt of those fantastic and capricious beings called fairies. This rock was large, and its grey stupendous sides stood out in strong relief against the verdure of the glen, and the green coronet of immense hawthorns which covered its top; I say a coronet, for they were perfectly circular, and within them rose, in a form slightly convex, a portion of the rock, thinly stratified with earth, but sufficiently deep to produce a carpet of soft grass, that remained fresh and green throughout the year. Within this ring, which was not more than a few yards from the overhanging precipice, lay the scene of their elfin revels. I describe this scenery the more minutely, because you will perceive by and-bye, how