Extract from a Discourse, in Commemoration of the Landing Address, delivered on the Birth-day of Washington. Webster. 397 Education, how Affected by Circumstances. Mrs. Barbauld, 432 STUDIES IN POETRY AND PROSE. EARLY EDUCATION. THE education of man, commences under the most sacred and benign auspices; in confiding it to the heart of a mother, Providence seems to have taken it upon itself. Blessed are the mothers who understand their noble prerogative; blessed the children who can longest reap the benefits of watchfulness and love! Many individuals have hardly any other education than the maternal: and by the influence, which a virtuous mother exerts over the mind, it is prolonged over many into the years of maturity. All ages ought to find in the education of the cradle the model of self-cultivation: but even in those cases, where it has been such as to be fit for a model, has it been attentively studied? In this early education the pupil learns the use of his senses, and how to exercise his faculties. He is taught also two things, which are necessary to initiate him into all things else. He acquires language, and he learns how to love. Afterwards comes the artificial or school education, which should be a continuation of the preceding; but which seldom preserves its spirit. At this time there comes together with the direct instruction which the pupil receives from masters, the less perceptible, but perhaps more powerful and lasting impressions received from daily intercourse with companions and circumstances. This second period of education is profitable in proportion as it trains the pupil to act for himself, and this favors the progressive developments of the gifts of nature. So far as it prepares him to study and improve, it educates him; but it does not give him science and virtue; it only puts him in the situation to discover the one and to love the other. It calls, therefore, for his own co-operation, which becomes more important from day to day, in proportion as his strength increases and his experience is enlarged. The fundamental truth, which may direct and regulate every thing in our earthly career, is this;-The life of man is in reality, but one continued education, the end of which is, to make himself perfect. Man is always called, not only to govern himself, but to provide for the time to come. Every action exerts an inevitable influence over all that follow. Every step advances him a degree in his career. He must be enlightened by experience, and strengthened by exercise. Some men are not morally adult, until their maturity. Some in old age grow young for virtue. All can improve even at these periods of life. There is an education, as long as there is a future. 'THEY THAT SEEK ME EARLY SHALL FIND ME.' COME, while the blossoms of thy years are brightest, Soon will the freshness of thy days be over, Pleasure will fold her wing, and friend and lover Come, while the morning of thy life is glowing, Ere the gay spell, which earth is round thee throwing, Life is but shadows, save a promise given, Which lights up sorrow with a fadeless ray: Then will the crosses of this brief existence TO A CHILD. 'The memory of thy name, dear one, Linked with a thousand hopes and fears, THINGS of high import sound I in thine ears, Dear child, though now thou may'st not feel their power, But hoard them up, and in thy coming years Forget them not; and when earth's tempests lower, A talisman unto thee shall they be, To give thy weak arm strength, to make thy dim eye see. Seek TRUTH-that pure, celestial Truth, whose birth Was in the heaven of heavens, clear, sacred, shrined In reason's light. Not oft she visits earth; But her majestic port the willing mind, Through faith, may sometimes see. Give her thy soul, But from the one which passion forges; be The rule o'er chance, sense, circumstance. Be free. Shalt thou be nerved to a more vigorous might By each contending, turbulent ill of life. Seek Virtue; she alone is all divine; And, having found, be strong in God's own strength and thine. EXTRACT From a Poem delivered at the Departure of the Senior Class of Yale College, in 1826. WE There will come And the rude world will buffet us alike. And deeper than the vanities of power, The pathway to the grave may be the same, There are distinctions that will live in heaven, |