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at length, it has become habitual, it is not only very apt and ready to return, but, like a vicious horse, it seizes the bit, and rushes forward in defiance of all control. Indulgence is the great principle of nutriment and culture to human passion. It is as the sun, and rain, and rich soil to vegetation. Thus, the indulged child becomes passionate, and gives himself up as easily to the gusty caprices of his humor as the seared leaf to the breeze. Thus, the savage, by dwelling constantly upon the thoughts of war, cherishes the spirit of revenge, until it becomes the master of his being. Thus, the miser, by perpetual poring over his gains, tramples down every better feeling, that avarice may flourish, spread wide its branches, and overshadow the soul.

It is the same with virtuous or vicious impulses; exercise is the principle of culture. There is this difference, however, that the latter appear to be most prompt and ready to spring up in the heart, if some kindly influence do not interfere to check them and sow better seed in their place.

Yes- for the smoothest lake hath waves'

Within its bosom, which will rise

And revel when the tempest raves;

The cloud will come o'er gentlest skies;

And not a favored spot on earth

The furrowing ploughman finds, but there
The rank and ready weeds have birth,
Sown by the winds to mock his care.

*

The spark forever tends to flame;
The ray that quivers in the plash
Of yonder river is the same

That feeds the lightning's ruddy flash.
The summer breeze that fans the rose
Or eddies down some flowery path,
Is but the infant gale that blows

To-morrow with the whirlwind's wrath.

But while the evil passions are thus quick and eager to spring into exercise, and while even gentle and good feelings are prone to excess, still, the principles of virtue are capable of being established in the heart. By being cherished, they become strong; by being founded in reason, they become fixed pillars, supporting the beautiful edifice of a consistent and just moral character-incomparably the most glorious spectacle to be seen on this earth. And let it be remembered that as indulgence and exercise give activity and vigor to bad

passions, so, on the contrary if permitted to sleep, they become feeble and reluctant to rise into exertion. As the arm of a man tied up in a sling gradually loses strength and becomes averse to motion, so any human passion, laid long to rest, wakes with difficulty and rises with enfeebled vigor.

Our slight survey of the progress of man from infancy to maturity, shows that in the development of his physical, mental, and moral faculties, he is wholly dependent upon education. A comparison of man with other animated beings shows that while he comes into existence with every thing to learn, they are endowed with an instinct which supplies them with all the arts and knowledge they require. Man then is made to be the subject of education; and in this he stands in contrast to every other living thing. It is true that some animals have a limited capacity for instruction. You may teach the elephant to bear burthens; you may train the ox to the plough, the horse to the harness, and the dog to the chase. You may thus render these animals subservient to the profit, the pleasure, or the caprice of man; but you do not confer on them any art which improves their condition, increases their happiness, or raises them above their fellow brutes. But it is otherwise with man. Heaven has imparted to him the mighty gift of reason, and permitted him to taste of the immortal fruit yielded by the tree of knowledge of good and evil; and endowed him with an independent and indestructible existence. He is destined to pass from one gradation to another as he ascends in the scale of knowledge; but experience is the process by which his faculties must be unfolded; education the ladder by which he must rise to the perfection of his being. The Creator has bestowed various instincts on the brute creation, and these are so wonderful in their power that they seem like scintillations struck out from the Omniscient Mind, and loaned to animals during their limited existence. But these creatures are not free agents; the knowledge they possess is not acquired, and is not their own. They are ever held by the leading-strings of instinct ; they are ever under the conservatorship of Heaven. But man is free; he acts from his own choice; he exerts his own faculties. These are distinct and peculiar ; setting him apart from the rest of creation, and marking him as the subject of a higher design and a loftier destiny. As the pyramids of Egypt have stood forth on the plains of Gizeh for four thousand years, the giants of human architecture, challenging and defying the rival

ry of later ages; so man is a monument reared beyond the approach of competition from Nature's other works. The instinct of animals is indeed marvellous, and might seem in some things to surpass the gift of reason. But compare the most skilful works of animals with those of man. Compare the village of the beaver -the most ingenious of brute contrivances with a human city. Compare its shapeless mounds of sticks and stones with one of our large towns, including its paved streets, illuminated at night by gas; its lofty dwellings, many of them enriched and embellished with a thousand ingenious luxuries; its diversified arts, its varied institutions, its libraries filled with exhaustless lore, its merchandize gathered from every quarter of the globe, its ships, which are taught to tread fearlessly the paths of the deep! Make this comparison of the city of the beaver with the city of man, and you measure the distance between animal and human nature; between the force of instinct and the power of education!

We must observe, too, that while instinct marks the animal races as limited in their capacity, it also marks them as limited in their duration; and that while education opens to man a boundless field of improvement, it shows that he is destined for an endless existence. God has assigned to every species of the animal creation a boundary beyond which they cannot pass. To them there is no onward progress. They reach, not by gradual development, but at once, and without the aid of instruction, the perfection of their being. To this point nature says they may go, but no farther. Here shall their existence be stayed. No longing hopes, no yearning anticipations for something beyond, are kindled in the breast. Death is not to them a curtain, which may be lifted, and behind which they desire to look. It is an impenetrable veil, which stops their view, and forever intercepts their progress.

But man first creeps, then walks. In infancy his intellect is feeble, and depends upon the imperfect senses for its development. But reason soon unfolds its powers, and who can stay its march? The imagination spreads its wing, and who can check its flight? Man is distinguished from every thing else as a progressive being. Day by day he accumulates knowledge; day by day his faculties advance in power and development. He feels that his march is onward, and anticipation takes wing and rises to hopes of immortality. And God has thus written in man's very nature that these hopes are

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founded in truth. He has set his seal on man as coined for eternity. It is to deny the image and superscription of one mightier than Cæsar, to deny that this gradual development of man's powers, and the hopes that rise from the consciousness of such a process, point to immortality as his assured destiny. Such then is man a creature composed of three natures, physical, intellectual, and moral, all united to form one being. Such is education the great instrument by which the character of man is to be formed — the instrument by which the powers of the body are to be trained, by which the mental faculties are to be developed and expanded, by which the heart, the seat of the affections, is to be moulded.

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I am well aware that in reaching this result, we have only come to a point that has been long established. That man is designed to be the subject of education, is a proposition too obvious to have been ever overlooked. I have already quoted a proverb, in use three thousand years ago, which shows that this truth was well understood then. In a later, but still a remote age, Philip of Macedon, in his famous letter to Aristotle, asking him to become the preceptor of the infant Alexander, says, "I am less grateful that the gods have given me a son, than that he is born in the time of Aristotle.' It is said of the emperor Theodosius that he used frequently to sit by his children Arcadius and Honorius, whilst Arsenius taught them. He commanded them to show the same respect to their master that they would to himself; and surprising them once sitting, whilst Arsenius was standing, he took from them their princely robes, and did not restore them till a long time, nor even then but with much entreaty. So high a compliment to one who administered instruction, marked the value set upon instruction itself. But, though it would be easy to multiply proofs that the power of education has been known in all ages, it is still true that the first instance of an attempt on the part of a sovreign to diffuse it over all classes of his subjects has been reserved for the present king of Prussia. He has indeed provided ample means for the intellectual culture of youth; but, with a jesuitical skill in human nature, he takes care to weave in, with the very texture of the mind and heart, a love of monarchy and loyalty to a king. And let it be remarked, too, that education in Prussia is as much a matter of conscription as levies for the army. The children are as sternly required to attend the schools and go through the lessons, as the recruit to appear on parade or submit to the drill.

While thus we perceive the despotism of the Prussian monarch, we cannot deny that he has taken an enlightened course to reach his object. He seeks to rule his people through knowledge, and not, like other sovereigns, through ignorance. His scheme is founded upon the doctrine that man is formed by education; that such is the plastic, yielding, impressible character of human nature in early life, that skilful teaching may mould it to any shape. He is willing, therefore, to enlighten his subjects by the diffusion of knowledge, taking care, however, to braid in with the strands of learning ideas of the necessity of monarchical institutions and the duty of loyal allegiance to the crown. The system involves the doctrine that early impressions may control even an enlightened intellect; that the associations of childhood may be so multiplied and netted over the mind as to lead captive the giant powers of mature manhood; and that an instructed people, thus tied to the car of despotism, while they will be more powerful, will be equally submissive with the ignorant and uninstructed slave. It is, therefore, a scheme founded in a deep knowledge of human character, and displaying a sagacity beyond the scope of ordinary kings. It is, however, a bold experiment, and the world will look on with interest for the result. Time will determine whether an instructed people, even though trained to the yoke of monarchy, will continue to bend the neck and toil submissively at the plough.

But, though the Prussian sovereign has undertaken to see that education is diffused over the whole community throughout his dominions, he is not the first despot that has been a patron of learning. In the darkest periods of history, kings have sought to fortify their thrones by collecting men of learning around them, and by establishing colleges and universities, founded on such principles, however, as to render them little more than engines of state. And while a pretended love of learning has been thus displayed; while the light of knowledge has been kindled in a college, and has shed its influence on a select number, the people at large have been sedulously kept in the darkness and the gloom of ignorance.

But the crowned despots of the Eastern Hemisphere have not furnished the only barriers to the progress of general education. Priestcraft, in almost every age, has sought to sway mankind, by keeping them in ignorance, or, what is worse, by subjecting them to the influence of superstitious fiction. There

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