police establishments of the nation, which may be reckoned at seven times that sum, we shall have an amount of £1,400,000 on this head :—whereas, less than one-fifth of that sum would be sufficient for the preservation of order among a renovated popula tion. Many other items might have been stated, but the above sums, amounting to nearly twenty millions, would be more than sufficient for carrying forward a system of national education on the most ample and splendid scale. It is therefore madness in the extreme to attempt any longer to repress crime by such a machinery as has hitherto been employed, while we neglect the only efficient means by which its operations may be controlled, and its principle extirpated. The very principle of economy, if no higher motive impel, should induce us to alter our arrangements, and to build on a new foundation. It was lately said to the public of Edinburgh, with great propriety, when solicited to contribute to the erection of a school,-" Give your pence to infant schools," (I may add, to well conducted seminaries of all descriptions,)" and save your pounds on police establishments, jails, bridewells, transportations, and executions." In this way we should be enabled, at the same time, both to improve society, and to increase our national resources.

II. Such an education as now proposed, universally extended, would improve the mental faculties, and raise the character of man far beyond the level to which it has hitherto, attained. During almost the whole of the past periods of this world's history, the human faculties have been seldom exerted with vigour, except for the purpose of promoting mischief, procuring the means of animal subsistence, or indulging in childish and degrading amusements. Even in the present enlightened age, as it has been termed, what are the pursuits which fascinate and absorb almost the whole attention of the higher classes of society? Horseracing, fox-hunting, prize-fighting, gambling, duelling, coachdriving, "steeple chases," slaughtering moor-fowl "o'er hill and dale," masquerades, theatrical amusements, and dissipations of all kinds. And what are the employments of a great proportion of the lower ranks, besides their stated occupations? Cock-fighting, gambling, sauntering about the streets, indulging in drunkenness, licentiousness, and cruel sports and diversions-while they remain in ignorance of all that is grand and beautiful in the Creator's works, and feel no relish for intellectual enjoyments. Even the acquirements and pursuits of professed Christians are far inferior to the standard of intelligence and morality which religion prescribes; for we behold, even among this class, ignorance of most subjects with which every rational and religious being

ought to be acquainted, combined with hatred of all religious sects but their own, with wealth-engrossing dispositions, and "covetousness, which is idolatry."

What a pitiful picture of ignorance and degradation would the inhabitants of this world present to the view of intelligences of a higher order! Were an inhabitant of the planet Saturn to wing his flight to this globe of ours, and were he capable of communicating his sentiments in language intelligible to man, we should expect to learn from him a minute detail of the history and geography of the globe to which he belonged, of the peculiar phenomena of nature in that region, of the various aspects of the moons, the diversified appearances of the magnificent rings which encircle that world, and descriptions of the different scenes of nature, the operations of art, the sciences cultivated by its inhabitants, and the plan of God's moral government among them; and, doubtless, our curiosity to become acquainted with the physical and moral arrangements of another world, would be abundantly gratified. But where an inhabitant of our globe, from among the lower or even from among many of the higher classes, to be transported to one of the planets, what account could he give of the arts and sciences, of the history, statistics, and natural scenery of our world? What could he say of its continents, rivers, islands, oceans, and volcanoes; its mountain scenery, and the properties of its atmosphere, of the variegated surface of the moon, and the peculiarities of its motions, of the history of its inhabitants, or the progress they had made in knowledge? What description could he give of the arts and inventions of modern times, of the construction of the instruments by which we view distant objects, and by which we penetrate into the scenes invisible to the unassisted eye, of the principle of air-balloons, steamengines, air-pumps, mechanical powers, electrical machines, or galvanic batteries? Above all, what could he tell them of the moral dispensations of the Creator towards our world, and of what is contained in the revelations of his word? He could perhaps tell them that there were hills, and rivers, and four-footed beasts, and men that were employed in killing each other; but could convey no precise idea of any thing in which this world differed from that to which he had been transported. He would be looked down upon with pity as a kind of lusus naturæ, unworthy of the name of a rational being. Of 800 millions of men that people our globe, there are at least 750 millions of this description, who could give little more information respecting the peculiarities of our world to the inhabitants of another planet,

than they could receive from an elephant or a beaver, if such creatures had the faculty of communicating their ideas.

Such is the present character of the great majority of this world's population-and how is it to be elevated to a standard befitting a rational and immortal intelligence? Only by the universal extension of such an education as that, the outlines of which we have faintly sketched. The communication of knowledge is the first part of that process by which the human character is to be raised and adorned, as light was the first agent employed in the arrangement of the material creation; and this knowledge must, in every instance, be conjoined with religious principle and moral conduct, otherwise it will only prove the intelligence of demons. Man, although, in one point of view, he is allied to the beasts of the field, in another, he is allied to superior natures, and even to the Deity himself; and therefore ought to be rendered fit for associating with such intelligencesfor receiving from them communications of knowledge and felicity, and for imparting to them similar benefits in return. If man is destined to a future world, as we profess to believe, he will, doubtless, mingle with beings of various orders during that interminable existence which lies before him; and his preparation for such intercourses will, in a great measure, depend on the training he receives, and the principles he imbibes, during his sojourn in this sublunary sphere. There is no essential difference between men on earth, and the highest created beings in any region of the universe, but what consists in the degree of knowledge, and the degree of holiness, or moral perfection, which they respectively possess. When man is endowed with a competent measure of these qualifications, he is fitted for the highest degree of social enjoyment, both in this life and in the world to come; and therefore, in so far as we refuse to lend our aid to the cause of universal instruction, or set ourselves in opposition to it, we do every thing in our power to debase the character of our fellowmen, to prevent them from rising in the scale of intelligence, and to interpose a barrier to their present and future happiness.

I might likewise have shown the utility of universal education, from the tendency it would have to induce the mass of mankind to lend their aid in promoting every scheme which tends to advance the improvement of the social state of man; the cultivation of the soil, the forming of spacious roads and foot-paths, canals, rail-roads, and bridges; the universal illumination of towns, villages, and the country at large, by gas-lights and other contrivances; the establishment of expeditious conveyances in

every direction by sea and land; and the carrying forward to perfection the various arts and sciences. But as I have elsewhere adverted a little to some of these objects, I shall only add, in the meantime, that the value and security of property in any country, depend, in a great measure, upon the intelligence and morality of its population. If the whole mass of society were thoroughly enlightened and moralized, we should no longer hear of "strikes" taking place among workmen, of servants embezzling the property of their masters, or of combinations being entered into in opposition to the interests of their employers. Every man's house would be his castle; and we should lie down to rest in the evening in perfect security from the incendiary, the insidious pilferer, and the midnight depredator. This security has already been partially felt in those countries where an enlightened education is general. Mr. Stuart, when describing the New England States, remarks, that "robberies very seldom happen in that country, and that the doors of houses are frequently left unlocked during night"—the inhabitants having little fear of either depredations or annoyance from their neighbours.

III. Intellectual and religious education, universally extended, in combination with every other Christian exertion, would be more efficient than any other arrangement hitherto made for hastening the approach of the Millennium. That a period is about to arrive, when knowledge, holiness, and joy, shall distinguish the inhabitants of the world in a degree far surpassing what we have yet experienced, is clearly predicted in the oracles of inspiration. By these oracles we are informed, that " All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations worship before him"-that "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the seas," ,"-and that "all shall know him, from the least to the greatest,”—that "the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh see it together,”—that "the heathen shall be given to Messiah for his inheritance, and the uttermost ends of the earth for his possession,"-that "all kings shall fall down before him, all nations serve him, and the whole earth be filled with his glory,"

that during the continuance of this happy era, "wars shall cease to the ends of the earth, and the nations shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace,”—that "the earth shall yield her increase, and be fat and plenteous,"—that the inhabitants “shall build houses and inhabit them, and plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them, and shall long enjoy the work of their hands,”—that "they shall go out with joy and be led forth in peace," that "there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy," and

that "righteousness and praise shall spring forth before all nations." In what manner, then, may we conceive that such predictions will be accomplished? Are we to suppose that, by one appalling act of Omnipotent power, the wicked will at once be swept from the face of the earth, and that the physical aspect of our globe will be instantly changed and renovated by the same Almighty energy, as at the first creation? Or, are we to conclude, that this auspicious era will be introduced in consistency with the established laws of nature, and by the agency of human beings, under the influence and direction of the Divine Spirit? For the former supposition we have no evidence whatever in any of the intimations given of this event in the Scriptures, and it would be inconsistent with all that we know of the by-past operations of the Divine Government; as might be clearly shown, by an induction of facts and arguments of various kinds, were this the proper place to enter into such a discussion. If, then, we admit the latter conclusion, it will follow, that the Millennium will be introduced by a concentration of the moral and intellectual energies of mankind directed to this great object—by following out those plans which are calculated to promote the renovation of the world-by the consecration of a far greater proportion of our treasures for this purpose than has ever yet been thought of— and by directing our eyes to the Supreme Disposer of events for that wisdom which is "profitable to direct us" in all our arrangements, acknowledging Him as the original source of all our activities, and who alone can render them successful.

What, then, are those means by which the moral world may be renewed" in knowledge and holiness, after the image of Him who created it?" Undoubtedly the efficient training of the young from the earliest period of infancy to the age of manhood, is one of the first and most important steps to the thorough renovation of the world—a subject which has hitherto been egregiously trifled with, and almost overlooked, in our Christian arrangements. We have all along laid too much stress upon the mere preaching of the gospel, or, in other words, the delivery of a piece of human composition to a mixed multitude, the one-half of whom are unprepared by previous instruction either to understand or to appreciate its truths; and hence the comparatively feeble effects which have been produced on the moral characters of men; hence the confused conceptions entertained of Divine truth; and hence it happens, in certain cases, that the truth delivered rebounds from the heart like a ball of cork from a wall of adamant, because it has not been previously prepared for its reception; and, to palliate our remissness and inactivity, we have sometimes had the pre