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The opinion is daily gaining ground that in the education of youth too much attention should not be paid to special facts, that the object of a general education is rather to train the mind for the reception and investigation of any particular class of facts or subject into which, in after life, the student may be thrown, and hence we have in England so much pure classical and mathematical training. What I contend is, that exact physical science, proceeding always from the mathematical point of view, can be made as good a discipline for the mind, and is therefore as fitted to form a portion of the groundwork in education as a course of classical or purely mathematical study. I maintain further, that when scientific truth is taught with precision, and when it is made a matter of task work for the student to master the difficulties for himself, and to commit the laws and relations to memory, the result will prove more beneficial than a mere literary education; for there is one most important portion of our organisation which such a purely intellectual study does not the least call into activity, namely, the faculty of observation.

The practical benefits arising from the cultivation of the observing powers cannot be rated too highly; success in almost every path of life depends mainly on the true and accurate observation of what goes on around us, and it is in the study of physical science alone that these faculties are systematically and continually exercised. The problems which in the laboratory, for instance, are placed before the student are such as not only require for their successful solution the power of exact thought and reasoning, but need, in addition, the rapid and accurate exercise of the observing powers. In fact, the kind of mental activity called forth in the prosecution of experimental science, is exactly that which is necessary for the more varied employments and duties of after life.

RECREATION.

BY MR. S. DRAPER.

[An Essay on Innocent Pleasures and Recreations, read at the third Annual Meeting of the Birmingham Mutual Improvement Society.]

MAN is a compound being. He is a moral being; a mental being; and a physical being. Thus constituted, he requires recreation and diversion. I do not think that God created man to be an idler, for his external form seems to indicate that he was created for activity, and for higher and for nobler purposes than those lower animals which lie basking in the sunshine, or those insects which flutter in the breeze. Be this as it may, one thing is quite certain, namely, the rule is, that man does by the sweat of his brow earn and procure his daily bread. Toil is his birthright; for labour is a legacy which Adam bequeathed to all his children; and if labour is not a law of nature, it certainly is a law of necessity. The very clothes we wear, the houses we inhabit, the books we read, the sermons we hear, and the food we eat, all proclaim and verify this truth. But as the wise man said, "there is a time to sow, and a time to reap-a time to build, and a time to mend," and in effect he said, "there is a time to recreate ;" and I think it bad policy on the part of parents and ministers of religion, to instil into the minds of children and young people the idea that there is a fearful amount of evil, and that it is very dangerous to participate, in most of the amusements of the present day. "Teach a child

that there is harm in everything, and sooner or later it will discover the cheat;" and perhaps ere long it will disbelieve the teacher altogether, and think there is little or no harm in anything. I have no sympathy with those who check the innocent frivolities of childhood, who censure the harmless pleasures of youth, and who condemn the more manly and invigorating recreations of manhood. The first lesson to be taught is the necessity of learning to distinguish between things that differ, between what is good and what is bad, between those pleasures which are baneful and those that are beneficial. It is the duty of parents, guardians, and employers, not only to teach this lesson, but also to provide, as far as practicable, suitable recreations for those under their control and care. For, as a very eminent divine has lately said, "It is as natural for the young to recreate as it is for them to eat and to drink." Youth is peculiarly the season for the enjoyment of recreation, especially that of a physical nature. Hence it is, that young men who have left the quiet village, who are now no longer within the gaze of a mother's watchful eye, mor within the sound of a father's sage advice, should be particularly cautious not to choose any pleasure which savours of immorality, or perhaps they will find when too late that it was the stepping-stone to ruin. Sinful pleasures have made many a man a bankrupt, and have reduced him, like the prodigal in the Gospel, to wretchdness and want; they destroy the faculties, benumb the soul, and harden the heart. Pleasures," says a very quaint old writer, "unless wholly innocent, never continue so long as the sting they leave behind them;" and he adds, "Beware of the recoil of sinful indulgences, for we may break our neck over the orangepeel of our own throwing down." Still the young must recreate; yea, and they will recreate, and none will be able to repress it, for all men take pleasure in something ; therefore, in a restricted sense, all are pleasure-seekers, and I contend that in most cases young men must select their own amusements. This is self-evident, for we

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know by experience that a great variety of toys are required to suit the different tastes and capacities of children, and as the poet says,

"We are but children of a larger growth."

Hence it is that one kind of amusement is a source of great gratification to one person, which proves quite uninviting and uninteresting to another; there are, for instance, some men, and clergymen amongst the number, who prefer dancing to cricket, others cricket to dancing. Let this fact be borne in mind, for it may prevent us from sitting in judgment over our brother when we see him pursuing some particular pleasure which we neither appreciate nor understand; for depend upon it a man is not of necessity obliged to become either a philosophical or a practical unbeliever, before he can consistently play at cricket, row a boat, or run a race. Neither is it indispensably requisite that he should part with his Christianity, or free himself from the restraints which it imposes upon him, before he accepts an invitation to attend a concert, a pic-nic, or even a social party, where each join in the inspiring, the refreshing, and invigorating dance. And if ever recreation was necessary, surely it is in these days of competition and of opposition, of gain and interest, of electricity and steam. When business is the absorbing topic of Englishmen; when the din of machinery is heard both early in the morning and late in the evening; when the file is constantly grating upon the ear, and the hammer incessantly striking the anvil; when the greater portion of us are spending our strength in shops and warehouses, from twelve to fourteen hours in the day, recreation becomes not only lawful, but also expedient; for health is a talent, and no man has a moral right to labour either with his mind or body to that degree which will inevitably prove injurious to his constitution. True, we are commanded to be diligent in business." And man, as a mental being, ought to cultivate his mind, to discipline his reasoning faculties, to store up knowledge, and to impart instruction unto

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others-but not at the expense of sacrificing his health. I have in my mind's eye a few young men who are prosecuting their studies to such a length that they have no time to participate in lawful recreations-recreattions which would strengthen their bodies and relieve heir minds. In all probability their lives will be short, and in this respect their cases are analogous to those of fast men, who make pleasure their business, not their recreation; both cut out a short path to the grave. True, the instruments of destruction are different, but the effect produced is the same, and upon each of their tombstones might be written—

""Twas thine own conduct gave the final blow,

And helped to plant the wound that laid thee low." Excess is sin, and there is scarcely anything under heaven but what may be abused: but is the abuse of a thing good in itself a sufficient reason against its use? I think not; money is not an evil, but the love of it is. You may eat to excess; you may drink to excess; yea, you may love to excess. The husband may so love his wife (whom God in his providence has given him), that his affection actually becomes sinful; for whenever the creature is loved more than the Creator, it is idolatry, and idolatry is sin. Therefore in one sense all things are dangerous, and in this one sense are innocent pleasures and recreations dangerous. Take for example dancing, an amusement which Chambers says "is harmless." If it is loved inordinately, and participated in to the exclusion of positive and paramount duties, it becomes sinful; yea, this very recreation, which perhaps above all others is calculated to improve the figure and strengthen the frame, will, if carried to excess, mar the beauty, and bring down the strength of its devotees. The Bible declares that "there is a time to dance," and there must be time to rest, and time to sleep. It is said by some declaimers that dancing has an immoral tendency, and that those who join in it set a dangerous example. For my own part, I cannot see anything objectionable in the simple, but graceful movement of

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