JOURNAL OF EDUCATION December, 1849. but because they regarded only a part, and not the rtue, I did not altogether approve them." Such were of law in less favored ages and countries, and history uch the spirit and manners and social advancement of people have been influenced by their laws. They give Fociety; they penetrate into its interior character; and argely to determine the spirit and tone of its members. principle of legislation, then, should be justice to all; t should be goodwill to all. The perversion of the funcslation to any lower or narrower purposes is a wound nterests of society-a loosening of its bonds-profaning ess of law, and paralyzing its authority. Hence the uage employed by President WAYLAND, of Brown UniS., on the duty of a legislator:-"He is bound imparry into effect the principles of the general and the parpact, just in those respects in which the carrying them s committed to him. For the action of others he is not unless he has been made so responsible. He is not the section, or of a district, much less of a party, but of irge. And he who uses his power for the benefit of a of a party, is false to his duty, to his country, and to his al legislation does violence to the moral constitution of I weakens its foundations. The power of law is in its justice is its weakness. The Author of our constitution art of creation deposited the moral power that can enlaw. Physical force alone can do it; and in exact as physical force takes the place of moral force in the of society, is freedom abridged, and despotism extended. acy of law is essential to the freedom, the security, and ess of society-is the only protection of a minority ajority in a free country-the only guarantee for the d permanence of its institutions; but the law must be justice in order to maintain that supremacy. In those here the laws are the most equitable between man and etween all classes, the exercise of physical power by the is least needed, and the largest amount of personal and rty is enjoyed; but in countries where the laws are untheir origin and application, armies are required to susand liberty is crushed beneath them. gree of permanence is also necessary to invest law with ess and authority, and to render it tributary to the adof society. I refer, of course, to such laws as affect the d duties of society at large, or of considerable portions ettledness in any part of the social frame-work is detriocial progress. Legislation is the means of supplying e wants which society creates ; but the want should be islation should be a response to its demands-not the theory, much less the offspring of passion or party. ese views of the principles and province of legislation essed upon the public mind, I think law-making among è an easier task than it is, and our own social advancebe correspondingly promoted. s legislation is the representative act of the people, and to be, the embodiment of their deliberate sentiments on all matters provided for by law. There is not a merica where the power of legislation is more extensive ada. Annexation could add nothing to the Legislative he people of Canada, and would deduct largely from the their local executive power. It is therefore on the enand right spirit of the public mind that we must depend islation as will best develope the elements of our counement and greatness. e legislation and laws of the country exert so powerful for good or for evil upon its social progress, the Adof Government is an agency of still greater power, to de, to elevate or degrade, to promote or retard Society al relations and interests. If the laws should be just, e administration of them to be equally just? admitted in respect to the Judiciary Department. And be disregarded in the Executive Department without he true ends of government? Can this be done without This is infiicting injury upon Society? Government operates on mind; its province is to influence and control the conduct as well as interests of intelligent agents. It is, in the social compact, the living fountain of honor and power. Should the flow of that fountain be pure or impure? If impure, can it otherwise than pollute whatever it influences? And how voluminously does history inform us of the demoralization of Societies, flowing from the corruption of their governments! And what is corruption in government but partiality and selfishness in the exercise of its functions? There may be various degrees and modifications in that corruption; but its essence is one in every age and country, as is the poison of its deleterious influence. Various reasons may also be assigned for selfish partiality in the exercise of Executive power; but they all, in one form or other, resolve themselves into an expediency which has been pleaded for extinguishing liberty at Rome,--for peopling Siberia with exiles, and for drenching Hungary in blood! Justice is the end of government; and justice should ever be the habitation of its throne. It should stand before the people as the living personification of "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report." Then, though an unscrupulous combination of selfishness might seek to ostracise it, as it did an ARISTIDES, it would be enthroned in the conscience of the country; it would be a conservator of morals as well as of peace and order; it would compel the homage of enmity itself, if it could not disarm it of hostility; its influence would be a vital stream of moral healthfulness and social good-will circulating throughout the hamlets and townships and cottages of the land; in its presence party bitterness would stand rebuked, and under its sway party controversy would lose its acrimony; while it would be the focus to which the sentiments of the country would converge, it would be the point whence would radiate the impulses of social ameliorations and progress; and if it could not transform Canada into an Eden, it would, at least, enable each of her sons to say"Sweet clime of my kindred, blest land of my birth! The fairest, the dearest, the brightest on earth! Where'er I may roam-howe'er blest I may be, My spirit instinctively turns unto thee!" I think that Canada has much to learn on this subject, and it is one in which is vitally bound up our future well-being as a people. Ethical and several political writers in the neighbouring States have set it forth upon the elevated platform of Christian virtue and the true principles of public morality and patriotism, and some of their Chief Magistrates have avowed themselves the impartial administrators of the laws for the whole people. In England, notwithstanding a long succession of reforms have been effected by alternate parties, it is only within a few years that her leading Statesmen have avowed and acted upon the principle of advising the exercise of the power of the Crown with a view to the greatest good of both Church and State, and not for the mere benefit of individual partizans; and among the early results of thus basing the administration upon the principles of justice and patriotism, are a great reduction of the current expenses of government, and the moral strength and sublime stability of that government amidst the convulsions and wrecks of neighbouring kingdoms. I rejoice to observe that the word justice has superseded the word party in the vocabulary of some of our most distinguished Canadian Statesmen. trust that recent occurrences and pending theories, will lead all thinking and virtuous men to examine into the sure foundations of society and public economy, and the true ends of civil government in its executive, as well as legislative and judicial administration ; and I am satisfied the conclusion will be that which is clearly stated by the Author of Moral Science, already quoted, in the following words: "Not only is an executive officer bound to exert no other power than that committed to him; he is also bound to exert that power for no other purposes than those for which it was committed. A power may be conferred for the public good; but this by no means authorizes a man to use it for the gratification of individual love or hatred; much less for the sake of building up one political party, or of crushing another. Political corruption is in no respect the less wicked because it is so common. Dishonesty is no better policy in the affairs of state, than in any other affairs; though men may persuade themselves and others to the contrary." I will only add on this point, that the importance of these views may be inferred from what we are accustomed to see transpiring around us. It has ever been the tactics of the avowed adversaries of any administration, to fix upon it the charge of partiality and injustice. Why has this course been pursued, except from the fact that the moral sense or conscience of society at large instinctively condemns partiality and injustice in what involves the common welfare a strong proof that the conscience of a Christian people is the true basis of government, and the development of that conscience its obvious duty and best policy. III. From legislation and government-the two-fold instrument employed by Society for the promotion of its interests-let us advert to the component parts of that Society, in order to consider their bearing upon its advancement; and in the Appropriate relation and Sympathetic action of those parts, we will find a third element of social progress. The variety that appears in the aspects of nature and in the productions of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, has its counterpart in the diversities of human genius, condition, and employment. The adaptation of different objects in nature for different purposes, is not more obvious than that of different men for different pursuits. In this boundless variety there is endless beauty; and that beauty largely consists in the adjustment of the several parts to produce unity of effect,—of which we have a remarkable example in the formation and disposition of the various parts of the human body. The same wisdom and beneficence are seen in adapting the various talents, professions and employments of human life to the one great end of individual and public happiness. They are not rivals, but fellow-helpers; not aliens, but members of the same household, and parts of the same body. The active sympathy of these relations is the arterial life of a country's social advancement; and it is when its pulse throbs in all its members, that society will exhibit the signs of moral strength, energy and expansion. Society assumes and demands the merging of the individual man in the social man; and the very law of its existence is, that the interests of the whole society are binding upon each member of it. He who is unfaithful to this law, is unfaithful to society. The very law which imposes so weighty obligations on government as the central agent of society, imposes corresponding obligations on each of its members in his more limited sphere, and according to his personal ability. As the happiness of society is but the aggregate of the happiness of the individuals who compose it; so, its social advancement is the aggregate result of the elevation and exertions of its individual members. Any arrangement, or policy, or feeling, therefore, which isolates and alienates the members of society from each other, and prevents their mutual sympathy and co-operation for the common interests, is inimical to the advancement and welfare of society. It is so in the domestic circle; it is so in the larger family circle of a neighbourhood or a country, especially of a comparatively new and feeble country. Such a country has no superfluous strength to waste in the suicidal work of social warfare, nor can it afford to have any part of its resources perverted and prostituted in the mutual hostilities and havoc of its children. All arbitrary class distinctions, professional exclusiveness, and hostile factions, are, then, so many impediments to the social advancement of the country; and as they prevail to a less or greater extent, will the energies of society for the common welfare be crippled and paralyzed. It was thus that Greece was rendered powerless, both for improvement and defence, and lost its liberty by an ignominious annexation to the kingdom of Philip and Alexander; and it is thus that France is paralytic under a new democratic republic of boasted "liberty, equality and fraternity." May Canada be mercifully preserved from like calamities! And here I think is our danger as well as our duty. We are threatened by no foreign foe. We are living in peace and amity with our American neighbours. The obstacles to the advancement of society among us are of our own creating. Our divisions are local; our weakness is internal; and if the existing institutions of our land perish, they will fall by the hands of its own sons. The strength of all free institutions is in the principles and affections of their subjects, and not in the laws of the Statute Book; and the progress and happiness of society are involved in the dispositions and conduct of its individual members. Milton has truly said"The mind in its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of hell, or hell of heaven." It is so with the mind of a community as well as of an individual. If the spirit of sect be stronger than the spi the love of party overmatch the love of humar tion trample down the love of country,and indiv the spirit of patriotism, then the twilight of cursor of a future night, and not the harbin But if the ministers and members of the suasions would seriously consider the vital d and interests wherein they agree, in com (magnify them as they may) wherein they ardent men of party, and even the abettors o upon the vastly broader grounds and stronge honor, co-operate with and seek to benefit di sections of their fellow-subjects; than to em and means to vilify and depress them; an leisure and of the several professions, inste selves up in selfish exclusivenes, would p ligatures by which they are linked to societ ally to the more numerous labouring classes business and trades would think of both pleasures of mind, and the best means of in ing them if the various members and por act upon the convictions induced by such a s obligations and best interests, how mighty to its advancement, and how soon would its elevation and enjoyment be multiplied ten-f behold on a large scale, what affords us so m a small scale in Mechanics Institutes,―men professions, parties, trades and employments, the spirit of intelligence, goodwill and philan of useful knowledge, and the advancement o Was this spirit of fraternity expanded, and activity enlarged to the. widest dimensions comprehension of all its essential interest strengthening rather than a compromise of v ciples-there would be a large extension of feelings; there might still be differences doubtless are in the Committees of your ow differences would be without personal hosti there would still be earnest and varied discu the manly discussion of gentlemen equally i object, and not the personal detraction and s frequently witness hissing through the colum Would the members of the several persuasio and employments thus bring their offerin tolerance and philanthropy, and lay them of our country, their hallowed odour would pe atmosphere, and awaken the spirit of grov patriotism throughout its habitations. I subm not a claim to this devotion from each of he upon the son who refuses to acknowledge tha is himself who prefers sect to Christianity, who would spread over his native, or adopted functionaries, rather than enrich it with the t and animate, cement, and ennoble it with th and generosity, the spirit of charity and pro IV. The mutual relations and obligations and members of the social compact, naturall to the existing appropriate facilities for t knowledge and the inspiration of elevated s throughout the land. My next topic of rema Books and Periodical Literature as a fourth vance ment of Canada. Books of Canadian aut none; nor have we any native counterpart of t and elegant Monthlies which issue from th press-forming a varied and comprehensive ripest scholars and mightiest intellects have deposited many of their noblest produ neighbours eagerly hail every emanation scholarship and, through the medium of they soon adopt it as their own. Throug can obtain the best English works and E than fifty per cent. below the English price retail prices of the American Atlantic C choicest productions of British historian JOURNAL OF EDUCATION - and divines, may be supplied to the remotest of our ages at less than one-third the price at which the Engnor mechanic can slake his thirst at the same fountains. Library associations, such as may easily be formed and town, and such as I trust soon to see form part of chool System in every Township-I say by means of ciations, not only the best works of living authors can Accessible to our whole Canadian community; but we urr. back the tide of ages to its head, And hoard the wisdom of the honour'd dead." ough the medium of the best translations, hold converse tus and Livy, with Demosthenes and Cicero, with Virgil, the same as with Paul and Moses, and David ppily, the poison is everywhere mingled with the healthbooks are as numerous as good ones, and are perhaps read. Their moral leprosy spots the virgin heart of suspecting reader, and taints virtue and principle in their is the duty of all virtuous and intelligent persons to aid and, if possible, suppressing this growing evil. Good = important as good companions; and bad books are a pecies of "evil communications which corrupt good More importance should be attached to the quality of o their number and variety; a sentiment long since y SENECA, when he said-"Non refert quam multos uam bonos habeas." Thoughtful conversation with a iends will yield more profit than thoughtless conversalarge and promiscuous company. It is the thinking, most extensive, reader that acquires most knowledge. ruly and quaintly said-"Reading furnishes the mind ils of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we We are of a ruminating kind, and it is not enough to ves with a great load of collections; unless we chew gain, they will not give us strength and nourishment." ing and little exercise, is injurious to bodily health; so g and little thinking enfeebles, rather than strengthens That acute metaphysician, DUGALD STEWART, exself strongly on this point. "Nothing (he says) in ich a tendency to weaken, not only the powers of inthe intellectual powers in general, as a habit of extenious reading without reflection. The activity and force gradually impared, in consequence of disuse; and not all our principles and opinions come to be lost in the iplicity and discordancy of our acquired ideas." "extensive and various reading without reflection," of tive and truthful books, impair the mental powers; be the effects of the "extensive and various reading,” ment, of light literature and works of fiction? Such t not only enfeeble the mind, but pervert the taste and imagination. Such works are as untrue to nature as e to morals. Their characters are not less monstrous han hippogriff, centaurs, and mermaids in natural hisy do equal violence to the mind, the passions, and the thout adverting to that class of novels which outrage he impure profligacy of both their expressions and ilhow pernicious are the effects of reading even the better ? They may cause tears to flow at the artistical pichan distress; but do those tears ever open the hand for real distress? Sighs may be drawn forth over a fict of misfortune and wretchedness, but will such sighs he feet even to the next street or lane to visit and-comject of equal misfortune and wretchedness? The heart e to glow at the fanciful portraiture of filial devotion and ection, but does that glow make the daughter more afid submissive to the maternal cares and wishes, and the evoted to the happiness and interests of her husband Is the novel reading son the more virtuous, more industrious? Is it not notorious that the most extenof the works of fiction are the least disposed to the of life, and least contented under its cares and vicissie maullin sentiment imbibed from the novelist is as ue love, true benevolence and compassion, as is the tation of the intoxicated brain to the healthful activity December, 1848. robbed of its native simplicity and tenderness; and the mind fed by fantasies loses its vigor for the stern duties of life, and is borne away by every illusion, like a bulrush upon the tide.' May not the wide circulation and perusal of works of fiction by our junior population, explain the philosophy of the remark so often made, that the growing up sons and daughters, with all their superior advantages of schools and books, are seldom equal to their fathers and mothers in mental and moral stamina, in self-denying energy and enterprising activity? Apart from its religious aspect, the question deserves the most serious consideration of parents and young people. For the mind to become great, its activity must be great, and it must not be the companion of foolish characters or foolish books; but it must dwell in familiar contact with great subjects and great characters; and these are to be found in works of moralists, philosophers and historians, and not in the legends and fictions of the whole race of the BULWERS and DUMASES, the DICKENSES and COOPERS of our age. And in order to form the loftiest conceptions and the most influential views of truth, of morale, of personal excellence, let us go to the Records of Inspiration—to the lives of prophets, apostles and saints; above all, let us bow down in the humble and daily contemplation of that Divine Character, whichto use the words of ROBERT HALL,-"borrows splendour from all that is fair, subordinates to itself all that is great, and sits enthroned on the riches of the universe." But it is the PERIODICAL PRESS, which, perhaps more than any other agency, is contributing to form the popular sentiments and taste of our country, and to influence its social advancement; and our newspaper sheet is almost our sole representative of the stately Reviews and literary Magazines, the weekly and daily papers of Great Britain and the United States. "Turn to the press-its teeming sheets survey, Big with the wonders of each passing day; Births, deaths, and weddings, forgeries, fires, and wrecks, Harangues, and hailstones, brawls and broken necks." We "It tells us of the price of stock-how much produce is worth ; I doubt not, however, you will all agree with me, that the Canadian press does not altogether limit itself to the functions here indicated; but that it has sustained a position surpassed by the newspaper press of scarcely any other country in the discussion of some questions of civil government and public policy. But as the newspaper constitutes nearly the whole of the "Fourth Estate" in our periodical literature, how much is the country depending upon it for information and enlarged views on all questions of science, literature, and social polity, as well as common politics? The intellectual and moral constitution of society must be essentially effected by the character of the food periodically administered to it; and it will improve or decline just as that food consists of sound and varied knowledge, instinct with the spirit of candour, generosity and patriotism; or as it consists of harsh and coarse vituperation, administered in the spirit of selfishness and animosity. The free discussion of all questions of public interest, dictated by a spirit of intelligence and earnest investigation, and conducted in a tone of elevated moral philosophy, is a vivifying stream circulating far and wide over the social soil, and every where producing fertility and cheerfulness; but I know of nothing more vitiating to the public mind, minifying its views, enfeebling its energies, and embittering its kindliest feelings, than a publication, whose periodical issues are so many successive indictments of fraud, robbery, and conspiracy against all who may entertain other opinions and other preferences than those of some of their fellow-countrymen. The animus of such a publication, in whatever interest it may be enlisted, is Russian despotism; and the virus of its spirit, as far as it penetrates, corrodes all the elements which combine in the advancement of society. The mission of the Canadian press is important beyond estimate; its field of labour is wide beyond comparison; it is the palladium of that freedom of thought which is essential to the happiness and dignity of man, and the channel of that unlimited inquiry by which the human faculties are advanced; it is the great school-master of society, with an ubiquity spreading over the whole land, and imparting lessons of instruction alike in the cottage of the backwoodsman and the dwelling of the citizen, from the statesman down to the day labourer. If it be true to itself, its character, and its vocation, it will secure an appropriate reward, in the increase of its power and in the advancement of society through its instrumentality. Its point of temptation and danger is, mistaking men for truths, and substituting personality for argument, a course which violates the first principles of morals, which invades the sacred rights of others, which tends to loosen the social ties, and rive society to its foundations. On this important point permit me to adduce again the authoritative language of the work on Moral and Political Science, which is adopted as a Text Book in most of the Colleges and Academies of the United States. if (says Dr. WAYLAND) it be wrong to injure my neighbour's reputation within the limited circle of my acquaintance, how much more wrong must it be to injure it throughout a nation? If it be, by universal acknowledgment, mean, to underrate the talents or vilify the character of a personal rival, how much more so that of a political opponent? If it would be degrading in me to do it myself, by how much is it less degrading to cause it to be done by others, or to honour or dishonour with my confidence, and reward with political distinction, those who do it? Because a man is a political opponent, does he cease to be a creature of God; and do we cease to be under obligations to obey the law of God in respect to him? or rather, I might ask, do men think that political collisions banish the Deity from the throne of the universe? Nor do these remarks apply to political dissensions alone. The conductor of a public press possesses no greater privileges than any other man ; nor has he any more right than any other man, to use, or suffer to be used, his press, for the sake of gratifying personal pique, or avenging individual wrong, or holding up individuals, without trial, to public scorn. Crime against society is to be punished by society, and by society alone; and he who conducts the public press has no more right, because he has the physical power, to inflict pain, than any other individual. If one man may do it because he has a press, another man may do it because he has muscular strength; and thus the government of society is brought to an end." May the Canadian press be preserved from such a course of proceeding; and may Canada be saved from such a destiny ! "Just men are only free, the rest are slaves." V. Hitherto my remarks have chiefly referred to the grown-up population of the country. I must now advert to that most vital element in the advancement of society which is involved in the Proper Education of the rising generation. As I have dwelt on this subject at large on other occasions, I will confine myself at present to a few remarks; but its vast importance forbids me passing over it in entire silence. It is said, that when ANTIPATER demanded fifty children as hostages from the Spartans, they offered him, instead of the fifty children, a hundred men of distinction: the Spartans rightly and nobly judging, that fifty children educated for their country were of more value than a hundred middle aged men even of rank and consideration. The act of the Spartans unfolds a sublime philosophy, and rebukes all indifference to the childhood of our land. In that childhood our posterity stands before us-our successors and heirs, as well as the fathers and formers of another generation. The present is the Spring season of their existence, and if its vernal months are without vegetation, what will be the barrenness and gloom of its future Summer and Autumn? Or,-to use a more appropriate Scriptural illustration,-if we suffer "thistles to grow instead of wheat, and cockles instead of barley," what will be our harvest? This is a matter of infinitely greate: moment than any of the struggles of faction, and involves interests far more important than even commerce and manufactures, than canals and railroads. The education of our youth requires that there should be Colleges and Schools adapted to their various circumstances and pursuits. It has been well remarked by the PRESIDENT OF HARVARD COLLEGE, in his recent Inaugural Address, that "in the very order of things, there must be a variety of employments, a gradation in their relative importance and utility, suited to the immutable laws of physical and social existence, as there is also a gradation in the capacity and original powers of the human mind. Hence the necessity, in every well-balanced state of society, of providing the means of education adapted to this order of things; the necessity of colleges and schools of various ranks, differing in their organization and immediate objects, but co-operating to aid and sustain each other, and to confer the greatest amount of benefit upon socie you break any link in the chain, every part will be y away the Colleges, and the Intermediate and Comm be without Teachers and higher examples; rem and the colleges will fall; and thus it is that the vi education consists in the intimate relations and cl its parts. The interests of the whole people are in having these relations and this union steadily strengthened.*" At the present time, which, is pre-eminently wit change, the waves of which are obliterating so mar marks, I regret to observe a tendency, in some inst value the importance of classical studies, and to lov of classical education. I hope whatever modific place in any of our Colleges, the standard of class will be raised higher instead of being lowered, a scholarship in Canada will ever advantageously co in any other part of America, and never be inferior Britain and France. Whatever superficial pertne materialism may say on the subject, the ablest st Europe and America have had their mental facul plined, and their taste refined and their views enlarg logic required in mastering the structure and philo: guages of Greece and Rome, in comprehending th in contemplating the characters and achievements tray in language which has, perhaps, never been other people or in any other tongue. It may see for one, whose life has been almost incessantly prac literary, to express himself thus on this subject; b mitted to observe, that for whatever of the little p or of language I may possess, I am in no small de it to the mental discipline and logic which an into losophical method of studying the elements of clas calculated to develope and impart ; and it has been n duties, (to which intellectual taste and natural ing subordinate,) that I have not been able to explore and deeply the enchanting fields of Greek and Ro But it would be ignoble in any man of the grownto wish his children and posterity to surpass him: of my present position, and the wants of the c posed upon me the task of advocating English, ra cal education; and the tendency of former time Inaugural Address of Jared Sparks, L.L.D., Pres College, delivered June 20th, 1849. The author made the following remarks on this subje Allress delivered June 22, 1342, at the opening of the ment of Victoria College "The study of the Classics will greatly contribute critical knowledge of the Etyn gy of our own langua thousand, of the fo. ty thousand words in the English, are and Latin origin. A sound classical scholar will. theref meaning of those words which are derived from the Gre out having recourse to an English Lexicon, and wil aptitude and force in the application of them which is from the imperfect mirror of an English Dictionary. T reflected rays of the sun at twilight, but they furnish tion of the glory of his meridian beams. The same ren ing the original, or best translations of the Classics. T to see the original - to read a reported Discourse or spe living speaker-to read what a writer is said to have the writer himself-are very different things, and pro impressions and feelings. The same remark is equal reading the Scriptures in the original, and in our e We will not make a better translation; but we will cannot be imparted by any translation-the scenes, the racters, the latent passions and modes of thinking and translation can convey. The study of the Classics aic ing that copia verborum―that rich variety of language portant, and gives one man so great an advantage over sation, in writing, and in public speaking. Nature, in in other things, makes large as well as arbitrary disti industry add to the bounties of nature, and marvellousl cies. Translating elegant writers from one language continued exercise in the best kinds of composition Poets, Orators, and Writers, cannot be fully appreciat quaintance with Grecian and Roman Literature. T elegance of their finest turns of thought are derived allusions. Apart from the discipline of ind, the phr ed professions, and of professio al intercourse, and t beautiful imagery, I will merely add, that familiarity the same effect upon the taste and feelings that intim ciety has upon the manners."—pp. 14, 15. to provide for the latter to the neglect of the former; but on dication of an opposite tendency, at least, so far as it relates assical antiquity, I may be permitted, if nothing more, to adthe words of a most learned and devoted advocate of popular tion, who held a somewhat similar situation in France to that I occupy in Canada. I refer to the enlightened COUSIN, in his famous Report on Public Instruction in Prussia, ades the French Minister to whom his report was presented, in llowing language : You, Sir, are sufficiently acquainted with my zeal for classical cientific studies; not only do I think we must keep up the of study prescribed in our Colleges, particularly the philologiart of that plan, but I think we ought to raise and extend it; us while we maintain our incontestable superiority in the cal and mathematical sciences, endeavour to rival Germany in olidity of our classical learning. Indeed classical studies are, ut any comparison, the most important of all; for their tenand their object is the knowledge of human rature, which Consider under all its grandest aspects; here, in the language terature of nations which have left indelible traces of their ge on earth; there, in the fruitful vicissitudes of history, antly remodelling and constantly improving society; lastly, in sophy, which reveals the simplest elements, and the uniform ure of that wonderful being, whom history, language, and lire successively invest with forms the most varied, yet all cted with some part, more or less important, of his internal tution. Classical studies keep alive the sacred tradition of oral and intellectual life of the human race. To curtail or le such studies, would, in my eyes, be an act of barbarism, a against all true and high civilization, and in some sort an act h treason against humanity." at is here commended as to a provision for teaching the er number who are able to pursue an University education, nguages and history and literature of Greece and Rome, can ca. One ur too strongly insisted upon in respect to the provisions for ng the much larger number of our youth the language and e and arts and history and literature of Great Britain and Our youth are to be prepared to fulfill aright the reland duties in society assigned them in the order of Providonoo dvancement of society does not merely require the high culof a few, but the appropriate culture of all. But as I have delivered and published three Lectures on the practical and education of the people at large, I will only add on this in the graphic language of the Honorable HORACE MANN, t the scientific or literary well-being of a community is to imated not so much by its possessing a few men of great edge, as by its having many men of competent knowledge; pecially is this so, if the many have been stinted in order to dize the few. How does the farmer estimate the value of mber lands?-surely not by here and there a stately tree, its columnar shaft should shoot up to the clouds, while all there is nothing but dwarfish and scraggy shrubs. moble trees are not enough, though they rise as high and as wide as the sycamore of the Mississippi; but he wants hole area covered, as with a forest of banians. And this be the growth of these immortal and longing natures which s given to all mankind. Each mind in the community should ivated, so that the intellectual surveyor of a people,—the statician, or he who takes the valuation of a nation's spiritual -es-should not merely count a few individuals, scattered here ere, but should be obliged to multiply the mental stature of the stature of all, in order to get his product. The mensuof a people's knowledge should no longer consist in calculatepossessions of a few, but in obtaining the sum total, or Ontents, in the possession of all. And for this end, the dims of knowledge, so to speak, must be enlarged in each rical direction; it must not only be extended on the surface, pened, until the whole superficies is cubed." One topic more and I have done. Society contains not the of man. Human societies die; man never dies. Man has er destiny than that of states. And that element of man's which bespeaks his higher destiny, is not to lie dormant, ed, trodden down in this the apprenticeship of his existence. ul has a heart as well as a body; and it is the pulsations of art which dispense the vital power of existence even to the December, 1849. social system itself: for without the operations of the moral faculty in man, there can be no law, no government, no society. The cultivation of that faculty is also favourable to the improvement of the mental faculties. Never are the operations of the intellectual powers more healthful and vigorous, than when the conscience and affections are right; never is the taste and relish for science (which necessarily involves acquaintance with some part of the works of God,) more keen and ardent, than when the moral and religious emotions are in harmony with the character of the Divine Architect; never is there less friction and greater momentum in the movements of the whole mental machinery, than when the conscience and the will, the understanding and the affections act in the same direction; and never are the powers of the mind more strengthened and enlarged, than when prompted, by the impulses of the heart to grasp moral truth and contemplate spiritual objects. The training of the moral part of man cannot, therefore, be neglected without inflicting the greatest possible injury both upon the individual and upon society. It is our duty to augment the intellectual power of society to the utmost; but it is equally our duty to give that power a right direction. We must provide a conductor, as well as raise the steam, and set the car in motion. An eloquent lady, in a little volume, entitled Studies in Religion, has beautifully remarked, "Our nature is a garment woven without seam throughout, and which cannot be parted without sacrilege. To be just to a part, we must be just to the whole." It is principles that make men; and it is virtue, and not merely knowledge, that gives strength to government and law, and security to freedom. The intellectual culture of the country, in all its degrees, varieties, and forms, should be conducted in harmony with this essential law of man's moral constitution, and this cardinal want of his social state. The GOVERNOR of Massachusetts, in inducting (in 1845) the Honorable Edward EVERETT into office as President of Harvard College, according to the form prescribed by law, made the following remarks :—" More than half a century ago, EDMUnd Burke, in speak, ing of the English and French nobility, said the latter had the advantage of the former, in being surrounded by the powerful outguard of a military education. How powerful that outguard was to the nobility of France herself, against the attack of an intornal foo, history has shown. It will be your higher purpose, and the purpose of those who co-operate with you, in this ancient seat of learning, to protect the youth committed to your care, by implanting in the citadel of their hearts the more powerful internal guard of a Christian education." : It is my earnest prayer, that such an "internal guard" may be planted in the heart-citadel of every youth of our land. It is the union of moral and intellectual qualities which adorn and elevate the individual man; and it is their united development which constitutes the life and strength, the happiness and progress of society. If then we wish to see our country accomplish its high destinies— our unbroken forests converted into weaving wheatfields-single manufactories growing into prosperous towns, and towns swelling into cities-canals and railroads intersecting the various districts, and commerce covering the rivers and lakes; if we wish to see our institutions settled and perfected, and cur government fulfilling its noblest functious-our Schools and Colleges radiating centres of intellectual light and moral warmth to the youthful populationthe poor as well as the rich properly educated, and a rich and varied home literature created-the experience of past ages giving lessons in all our domestic dwellings, by means of books and libraries ;—in a word, if we wish to see the people of Canada united, intelligent, prosperous, and happy-great in all that constitutes the real grandeur of a people-let us feel that the eventful issues of that anticipated futurity are in our hands, and that it is for each individual of our grown-up generation to say, how far these hopes of patriotism and philantrophy shall be realized or disappointed. Above all, let us never forget that there is a moral as well as physical universe; and as it is in the harmony of the two that the perfections of the Divine character and government are fully displayed; so it is in the harmonious development of the moral, with the intellectual man, that the perfection of his nature consists. What God has joined together we must never part asunder in any of our plans and efforts for the Social Advancement of Canada. Our motto should be the words of the inspired Isaiah-" Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times-the possession of continued salvation; the fear of Jehovah, this shall be thy treasure." [Didlop Lowth's translation.] |