to subdue human nature: therefore human liberty is its special antagonist, which it is its object to vanquish. To this purpose is its mission and hope directed. The province of our rulers is to strengthen our liberties, in order morally to control them. Religion can and ought to act solely by moral influences; and the free will should be respected whilst being applied to direct it. This they have not done; and in the end, the religious influence has itself suffered as much as liberty. This is a system of truth on which we might as well waste our breath, as on the stones of the wilderness. Easy and good-natured credulity rides rampant. Praise and thanksgiving cannot be too highly exalted; but is it not almost verging on impiety to pray rather for what we wish, than what He wills? Is not this a mark of folly? The pleasure of a religious man is an easy and portable pleasure, such a one as he carries about with him in his bosom, without alarming either the eye or the envy of the world. "Cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils." Innocency is the key to happiness. If man would really wish to know what the great God speaketh, he must go into his closet, and shut the door. GOD will not make Himself manifest to the coward. He must listen to himself-to GOD's secretary within him; and occasionally withdraw himself from all the accents of other men's devotions, as our Great Exemplar did again and again. When I sit in the presence of the Deity, who shall dare to come in? When I rest in perfect humility, when I burn with pure love-as did not His disciples' "hearts burn by the way"-what can Calvin or Swedenborg say? St. Augustine described the nature

of GOD, as "a circle whose centre is everywhere, and His circumference nowhere." Is it not too much the custom of our nation to erect the opinion of a mere human being into an infallible judge? Surely we neglect one great means of improvement, if we do not pause to weigh and consider well, the living words of sensible friends, as well as the more silent voices of books. The great light of truth shining on the vast polarising mass of humanity, is broken into myriads of reflections, which each mind, according to its position or brilliancy, mirrors with greater or less clearness and beauty. To suppose our own views infallible, more especially when they are not the result of a laborious examination of the views of others, is one of the greatest mistakes into which it is possible to fall; and if persisted in, may lead to partial or general insanity.

The act of judging implies that of comparing; therefore the right of judgment can only belong to those who possess the power and the materials of comparison. Those "unhasting yet unresisted ones" seldom have that homage paid to their persevering talents which their plodding industry merits. The tiniest spark-the glimmering rushlight-is often looked upon as if it were a constellation of ample size and brilliancy. Few persons have courage enough to appear as good as they really wish; for no one likes to be peculiar. No matter, our map tells us we are to be a "peculiar people, zealous of good works."

Life has been likened to a field of blackberry bushes; mean people squat down, and pick the fruit, no matter how they black their fingers; while genius, proud and perpendicular, strides fiercely on, and gets nothing but

scratches. Well, Mr. Sincerity, never mind; good men and true know that external is better than internal counterirritation. Genius is a heavenly endowment—not a trade stock. Truly, weaving of verses and weaving of calicoes do not agree! That man who sincerely endeavours to do all the good he can, will probably do much more than he imagines, or will ever know until the final account. It cannot be too often nor too deeply impressed on the mind, that there is no evil unaccompanied by some countervailing good; and that, for aught we know to the contrary, all evil may ultimately bring about, by some unseen agency, an amount of benefit fully, or more than fully, equivalent to any suffering which may have been caused by it. But how difficult to realise Pope's favourite line

"Whatever is, is right!"

As to the diversified capacities, it is clear that while their fulness varies for the same capacity, all men are far from being of equal capacity. Men whose intellects are of small calibre, are more easily filled than those of vast dimensions. Cannons are of various calibre, and can hold only a given quantity of metal, and can carry only certain distances. It is as physically impossible to force more sense or acquirements into a man's head than it can contain, as it is to cram him corporeally into a pint pot. The causes not unfrequently assigned by our monitors for the non-performance of certain duties by our juveniles, as well as adults, have no more influence than the erection of Tenterden Church-steeple had on the accumulation of the Godwin Sands. The prevalent system of endeavouring to pour more knowledge into a lad's head, under every vary

ing circumstance of his bodily condition, is a crying evil of the present day, and one which calls loudly for redress, as being a common primary cause of insanity, or a predisposition to it, which only ends with life. What is stimulated precocity but being blasted with excessive light? What is mental repletion beyond their capacity in adults, but the same? Who discriminates? Do our monitors make any distinction between children of varied calibre of mind? or, in other words, in the endless diversity of temperaments and nervous power? If the boiler burst, it is too late to remedy the evil. Do not the faculty discern daily, that one person shall be strung up with chords like gossamer, and another enammelled with steel? It is with mind as with matter—what is gained in breadth, is lost in depth. The schoolmaster may be abroad; but upon these important physiological matters we fear there is a deplorable vacuum, which nothing but a better acquaintance with the science of life, and study, can fill up.

We trust we have thrown out hints—a fulcrum upon which the lever must point before scholastic education can arrive at its zenith. Our monitors of all grades should hide their diminished heads, until they are tolerably conversant with Anatomy, Physiology, and Chemistry. Human versatility is tried to the utmost by Mr. Bull, to add new discomforts, the repercussion of which spreads over an untold area. It is a merciful arrangement, that every punishment reflects the special sin that provoked it. For every evil we must blame ourselves. Our Maker has done His part; let us do ours-repent, reform, do our first works, what the "still small voice" within us enunciates

we ought to do. In this mad world too much eagerness is manifested to play games of deception and delusion, in which the best player is the winner. The majority are always glad to give their moral judgment a holiday; and no wonder, when self-delusion passes for virtue, and our juveniles are swaddled and mummified in red tape, and in the end unwilling to shake off the prosaic bondage of custom. Anything is better than being lugubrious, perhaps verging upon hypochondria. Carlyle says-"If you don't want a man to do a thing, get him to talk about it: the more men 'jaw,' the more certain it is that they never intend to do anything else." Such are worse than the laziest fish in the sea-viz., oysters; for are they not always found in their beds?

The almost universal desire for intellectual distinction is a fever that rather needs sedatives than stimulants; but it is an evil which if left to itself will effect its own cure -verily, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life! The passions are yet under no self-government. If, reader, you doubt the facts, look at our asylums, jails, and other islands in the ocean of misery, work-houses, hulks, colonies for transports. Better reformatory institutions are needed. A Roman orator has said with equal beauty and brevity,-"est metus videlicet ad omnes, pœna ad paucos, pervenerit;" that is, the infliction of punishment should fall on few, but the fear of it upon all. Thus, in decreeing and awarding punishment, both legislator and judge ought to have their eyes upon two parties, the criminal and the bye-standers. Who labours to overcome the primary cause of evils? May we not exclaim-The blame