poses. To the most thoughtless observer it must be sufficiently evident, that there is in this way disorder, confusion, abuse, and consequent sin, lying heavily upon every conscience.

The faculties themselves, then, are not to blame; only our abuse or neglect of them. Instead of charging our nature with the fault, or instead of attempting to excuse our wrong-doing, by saying "this tendency is too strong for me, I cannot crush it out,-I cannot torture it to death: it springs up again like the fabled phoenix, even out of the ashes of a broken heart;" it would surely be wiser and better for us, to begin in very early life to consider which part of a child ought eventually to be the leading portion of his character. Its animal or physical portion must be cared for: it is very precious in the eye of human love. God has intended that it should be so. What belongs to the animal can never be got rid of, unless the child is immured in a dungeon, deprived of food and air, and almost of life. Happily, most happily, there is another way of acting; a way so natural, genial, kind, and conducive to health and joy, that the mother has only to look lovingly into the whole nature of her child to see what beautiful and holy thing she can bring forward to pour like blessed oil upon the troubled waters, thus producing peace and calm. For the destructive passions of her child, has the mother no benevolence to work with? no sense of right? no feeling of reverence for herself or others? If she finds no means of this kind inherent in her child which might be cultivated, exercised, and so perfected, it must be very low indeed in the scale of humanity-almost a monster. If from its earliest infancy she has sought these means, and been

more intent upon finding them than upon finding the first dimple in the cheek, or the first bright lock of curling hair, her lot will be indeed hard, and that of the child still harder, if, so seeking, she has never found the medicine which is to cure the evil she deplores.

Perhaps the mother tells, and tells with too much truth, that this medicine has never been so much as dreamed of, still less sought for or applied; that she never suspected there would be any need of it, until the wicked passions of her child (all animal) made her so miserable that she knew not what to do. Ah! foolish mother; and so you could see that when your child first learned to walk, and leaned so as to overbalance himself on one side, he would need to strike out his foot to support himself on the other; you could even examine these little feet, long, long before, in order to ascertain that the whole frame was likely to be rightly formed and justly balanced; but you could not bring the same philosophy to bear upon the whole character of your child, because you yourself did all your nursery duties just from instinct, from the simple love which nature gives the mother; and thus, in reality, it was no philosophy at all. Scarcely a love in any respect superior to that which warms the bosom of the brooding dove!

It is after much thought, much observation, and much inquiry on the subject of those who are considered most likely to know, that I venture to lay one very important consideration before the reader, as an established fact upon which to ground every argument and every suggestion relating to the formation of human character upon a healthy and perfect basis. I must again urge my conviction that there must be a balance

nearly equal in the strength and activity of the different faculties of our nature, in order to maintain the healthy action of the whole; and that the strength and activity of each must depend upon its early and frequent exercise. Those persons whose whole lives are devoted to distinction or excellence in one particular branch of art, are almost proverbially the subjects of remark for their eccentricity-often for their distortion of character, and consequent unhappiness. Under these circumstances, it is sometimes said that the love of fame has poisoned the springs of their being; and they are loudly censured for the indulgence of an ambition which is said to inflict its own inevitable chastisement. But in all such cases it seems to me that the fault is not exactly here; nor should the blame be laid always at the door of the suffering individuals themselves.

My observations have not been confined to any limited sphere, nor even directed especially to the accustomed modes of imparting what is called scholastic instruction. It is true, that in turning my attention to practical education I visited and had the privilege of inspecting some of the most celebrated schools in Edinburgh and elsewhere; but as the best method of imparting instruction was not the object of my search, I was compelled to look in other directions, and to consider human nature under very different aspects, before I could discover those appliances of means to ends, or those evident results from certain causes, which it is necessary to become acquainted with, to some extent, before the art of teaching can attain the rank and dignity of education.

With the exception of the Training School at Glasgow, conducted according to Mr. Stow's enlightened system,

I confess that I have not been able to learn anything half so valuable as the hints obtained whilst inspecting the Preston House of Correction, in the society of the Rev. W. Clay, Chaplain to that establishment. Strange as this may sound, I pursued my investigations and inquiries into regions still more strange in connection with the object I had in view: I made myself to some extent acquainted with the modes of treatment at the Lunatic Asylums of Hanwell and Lancaster.

The medical gentleman in attendance when I last visited the latter Institution, will pardon this personal allusion when I repeat an observation gathered from him, and which ought to be stereotyped upon the hearts of all who have to do with the training and education of the young. I had been asking a question relative to the popular idea that gifted minds are more likely to be deranged than those of more simple structure; his answer was, we find that our patients, considered as a whole, are not strictly speaking superior in their mental endowments, nor yet inferior. The largest proportion of them are persons in whom no just balance exists, persons in whose character one or more faculty or tendency has overweighed the others, so that the whole being may be said to have become disproportioned, and distorted, by the exaggeration of some powers to the injury or overthrow of others." "That," he added, "would be the best mode of education, and the greatest blessing to mankind, which should bring early into constant exercise and use all the different faculties of the entire being."

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CHAP. III.

ELEMENTS OF CHARACTER.

It is not my intention to enter very minutely into the subdivisions of the three portions of human character already designated as physical, intellectual, and moral. As already stated, I pretend to no philosophical analysis; but rather address myself to the sympathy of practical readers, whose own experience will probably supply them with facts sufficiently abundant and conclusive to confirm the truths which I am anxious to establish.

First, then, I think all will agree with me that man is born into the world much in the condition of a mere animal; but even less gifted with the power of self-preservation than any other creature entering upon the first stage of life. Hence even from this fact we might learn that he is intended to be at once thrown upon the protection of those higher powers or faculties in others which are destined in his own person to take entire charge of the animal; to govern, guide, and use it, as a servant or inferior throughout the whole period of life. It is the inalienable right and office of the intellectual portion of those human beings by whom the infant is surrounded to think for this helpless creature; and it is equally the duty and the office of the moral portion of such beings to desire to preserve the life of the infant,