which are said to be gendered by the exercise of emulation, we are far from denying, that this principle, like every other, is liable to abuse, and may, under improper management, produce the effects ascribed to it. But we can, from experience, with confidence pronounce, that these are not its necessary fruits.

Even in the very moment of the most ardent competition, it has been our pleasure to witness, times without number, acts of the most generous and disinterested nature. Some of these, which had escaped our own observation, or been treated as matters of daily occurrence, have not failed to attract and draw forth the admiration of strangers. Who, too, are the fondest and most inseparable companions at play hours, but those, who, in their hours of business, most strenuously resist each others pretensions? Such a spectacle may excite, in the breast of the theoretical speculator, the like feelings of wonder, that arise to the clown, on seeing the friendly intercourse of two barristers, who, but the moment before, appeared to him to have contracted a deadly quarrel. But it is familiar to all who have had the happiness to be educated at a well regulated school. To many such we may appeal, whether, in those who struggled hard to tear the laurels from their own youthful brows, they have not found their warmest and their steadiest friends through life :

Their early friends, friends of their evil day;
Friends in their mirth, friends in their misery too;
Friends given by God in mercy and in love;
Their counsellors, their comforters, and guides;
Their joy in grief, their second bliss in joy;

Companions of their young desires; in doubt
Their oracles: their wings in high pursuit."

"*

All this, however, we confess, must go for nothing, if it be true, as is alleged, that the voice of Scripture utterly condemns the principle. But where is it that such condemnation has been pronounced ? Mr. Malan's correspondent, indeed, our friend Mr. Campbell, sweepingly tells us, that "the Apostle Paul expressly proscribed emulation 66 as one of the works of the flesh." But if the Apostle, in the passage referred to, is to be considered as proscribing under the word "emulation" all generous rivalry, as well may he be supposed to have condemned, under the word "wrath," in the same passage, all just and virtuous indignation, and under the term "variance," all difference in sentiment, however honest and sincere. Nor, assuredly, is it in the practice of the great Apostle, that we shall find any proscription of this principle. No man knew better than he, its predominance over the human soul, or ever wielded it more powerfully towards the accomplishment of his own important ends. He tells us himself the use, which he made of it, in his attempt to convert and to save his own countrymen, by twitting them with the superior privileges, which the Gentiles, whom they despised, were now earning to themselves. With an evident reference to a passage in one of their Prophets, recently quoted by him, which contains the following remarkable

*Pollok.

expression recognising the same principle, " I will "provoke you to jealousy by them which are no "people;" the Apostle proceeds,* "I say then, "Have they stumbled that they should fall? God "forbid! But rather through their fall salvation is "come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. For I speak to you, Gentiles, inas"much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I mag"nify mine office; if by any means I may provoke "to emulation them which were my flesh, and might save some of them." Nor can any thing exceed the skill, with which he employs the like principle, in the management of his various churches. To the Macedonians he boasts of the forwardness of the church at Corinth to contribute for the saints; while, to the latter, he is careful to communicate this boast, in order that they may show themselves worthy of it. "I know," says he to the Corinthians,+"the forwardness of your mind, for which I "boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia

66

your

"was ready a year ago: and faith hath pro"voked very many. Yet have I sent the brethren, "lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this "behalf; that, as I have said, ye may be ready: "lest haply if they of Macedonia come with me, "and find you unprepared, we, that we say not YE, "should be ashamed in this same confident boasting." What a contrast does tact like this, founded on a thorough knowledge of human nature, ex

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hibit, to the visionary schemes, which are our present object of consideration!

We would also, from experience, as well as from the reason of the thing, anxiously impress upon all engaged in the education of youth the deep importance of one species of emulation, which is free from some at least of the objections, that have been made to the other, we mean that eager desire to rival and surpass our former selves, so well pourtrayed by the poet* in the following lines :

A noble emulation heats your breast,

And your own fame now robs you of your rest;
Good actions still must be maintained with good,
As bodies nourished with resembling food.

This species of emulation is attended with the additional advantage, that it may be brought into operation in private and individual, as well as public education,-in the case of him, who, having risen superior to all his former companions, has no rivals left him to surpass, and of him, who despairs of rivalling those, with whom he is associated. To an ingenuous soul what can be a stronger excitement to exertion, than bringing to his recollection his former achievements, and reminding him, if he begin to relax,

-quidquid vita meliore parasti

Ponendum aequo animo.

But, above all, it ought to be a leading principle

• Dryden.

in education, to mark every the slightest improvement on the part of those, from whom little had been expected, with no less approbation, than their more rapid strides, on whom nature or previous education had conferred greater advantages. The benefits arising from the exercise of such a principle, have been amply experienced in the Sessional School. Under its influence we have had the happiness to behold some who had originally been mistaken for dunces, before leaving the school assume a very different character. Out of many we may be pardoned for selecting, for the encouragement of others, one instance, which occurred at the Sunday School in Market Street. The lad, to whom we now refer, was put to that seminary by the master with whom he wrought, at the age of fifteen. He had previously received the education, which has hitherto been in this country generally bestowed upon those of his rank in life, that is to say, he had been taught to read, write, and cipher, and to repeat the Assembly's Shorter Catechism. No pains had been bestowed to make him understand what he either read or repeated. He appeared uncommonly dull and stupid, and withal provokingly listless and indolent. At home, according to his own account, his master's service allowed him no time to do any thing else. His temper, moreover, seemed as sullen, as his faculties were to all appearance obtuse, and his habits inactive; and, in a word, he at that time exhibited, in the estimation of all about the school, a perfect

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