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order to acquire a competent knowledge of the several arts and professions to which they devote themselves.

Thus, we observe that the woodpecker, who is a natural carpenter, supplied with a tool that serves both as chisel and mallet, goes untaught to the forest, selects his piece of timber, and forms his abode; and all this without instruction. The beaver, who is both carpenter and mason, architect and house-builder, furnished with teeth that perform the work of the axe and saw, and a tail which discharges the office of a trowel - he too performs his work, not by the plummet and the rule, not after the plans of a draughtsman, but, from the simple lessons of instinct. The bittern that wades along the pool is a fisherman that seldom fails to secure his prize, when he thrusts his spear into the water. The hawk is a sportsman that rarely stoops in vain upon his prey. The pensive heron, that stands while the tide is out in the briny mud, is an oyster-catcher by profession. And all these, as soon as they are hatched and have taken to their wings, go straight to their several vocations, without a single lesson, and yet with a perfect understanding of them. How different is the lot of man! How many are the trials, how long the practice, before he can become instructed in even the commonest pursuit by which a mere livelihood is to be obtained.

In modern times, the art of committing ideas to paper has been extended and perfected by the art of printing. This has widened the field of knowledge, and offered facilities for education unknown to former ages. In our day, a man cannot rise to a level with his fellow-men without being able to read. But how slow and tedious is the process by which the child is taught the alphabet, and then taught to combine syllables into words and words into sentences! How many months of toil are required to compass this common, but necessary branch of education! It is not so with the brute creation. All the knowl. edge necessary to their existence, all that is required for the fulfilment of their duty and their destiny, is the gift of God. They need to learn no alphabet at the point of the penknife; they need no admonition from the birch or the ferule!

We have spoken of man's physical nature, and his intellectual powers. But there is another important point of consideration. Of all the various sentient beings which people this vast world, man is the only one that has been permitted to taste of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He is the only being that has a moral nature; the only being that is ca

pable of perceiving beauty in virtue and deformity in vice; the only being that has a capacity to distinguish between truth and falsehood, between equity and injustice, between right and wrong, the only being in whose breast Heaven has established the holy tribunal of conscience. Man then alone, of all this earth's creation, has moral faculties.

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It would be easy to illustrate this position, and show the difference between man and animals in respect to moral perceptions. Let us take the golden rule, laid down by our Saviour, which is the basis of justice between man and man another as you would have another do to you." sooner presented to the human mind than its force is perceived and the obligation to obey it felt. But animals are utterly destitute of a capacity for such perceptions. Might, with them, is the universal rule of right. The dog snatches the bone from the cat by the prescriptive privilege of mastery. The raven yields the carcass to the vulture, the vulture retires and waits till the feast of the sea-eagle is done. The hungry jackal surrenders his prey to the wolf; the wolf gives up his to the hyena. Thus, throughout the brute creation, there is no recognition of any principle of justice; no judge or jury but force; no other rule of right than that the weak must yield to the strong.

And man in his moral, as well as his other faculties, is also the subject of education. The inspired proverbialist, affirms that the child trained up in the way in which he should go, will not depart from it in after years. And let it be remarked that he attaches no conditions; he adds no qualifications. The maxim is positive, and involves the doctrine that the moral nature of man may be formed and moulded by education. And this, though uttered three thousand years ago, corresponds with every-day observation. "Just as the twig is bent the tree 's inclined," is a passage which illustrates the power of cultivation over the soul as well as the mind. The heart has often been compared, and with apt propriety, to a field, which may be cultivated like a garden, and, divested of noxious weeds, made redolent of flowers and fruit; or, left to the wild luxuriance of passion, it may resemble the overgrown forest, whose thickets are infested by the adder and the scorpion.

All this is well understood. It is also admitted that man's moral nature is the most exalted portion of his being. Virtue is superior to knowledge; the good man is ranked as superior

to the great man. "An honest man's the noblest work of God." The Scriptures ever give the first place to the righteous man, the man of high moral character; not to the man of genius or talent. The highest exercise of reason is in the discovery of moral truth. The intellect is thus made to be the pioneer, the servant of the soul.

Yet the high gift of moral faculties is not bestowed without conditions. If a man use them wisely they will ensure happiness; if otherwise, they will work out his ruin. With the power to perceive the beauty of virtue and the deformity of vice, he must follow the one if he would be happy and shun the other at his peril. This is the weighty condition, and it cannot be resisted or evaded. The law is coiled around the soul of man, and while that soul endures it cannot be shaken off. It is the law of the moral universe, and is as pervading and inflexible as the principle of gravitation, which draws back to the earth a stone hurled into the air, while, at the same time it reaches to the planets, and sustains the balance of the heavens. It is a law ordained by Omnipotence and administered by Omniscience.

If, then, man has moral faculties; if these are the highest portion of his nature; if upon their right exercise his happiness depends; and if these are subject to the great law of education, how important, how supremely important, is that education! I shall not here attempt to explain why there is no systematic provision in our schools for moral culture, and why this most essential branch of education is too often neglected altogether, or left to the uncertain and capricious management of parents. I content myself with a few illustrations of the force of moral culture, with a view to impress upon the mind the fact that the heart is subject to the law of education; that as the body may be trained to health, grace, and vigor; as the intellect may be stored like a granary with the varied harvest of knowledge, so the soul may be imbued with the love of truth, justice, and charity; that by proper culture the noxious weeds of passion may be checked or eradicated, and the fragrant flowers of virtue made to spread their immortal bloom over the spirit.

Whoever has watched children with care has noticed that any passion or feeling becomes stronger by repetition. In the first instance, it is dim and feeble; in the second, it is more vivid and vigorous. By degrees it grows stronger; and when,

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 arin

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 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

own.

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