[The following article it will be perceived, is, in some respects, explanatory of others which appeared in preceding numbers of our work. It may contribute to a clear understanding of the writer's views, were our readers to revert to those articles, and reperuse them previous to reading the present. The sentiments of our contributor are such, we think, as must commend themselves to the attention of all who take an interest in the subject of mental cultivation, in its most important departments. We would take the liberty of soliciting the particular attention of parents, and of the teachers of childhood, to the principles developed in this essay. The whole subject of early education is, we doubt, but little understood because little observed. The mind of infancy is too often depressed and degraded by imperfect and low conceptions of its original worth and latent energies; and even when most assiduously cultivated, it is not unfrequently distorted and abused by being subjected to a discipline altogether unworthy of it, and tending to impair its native force, and to divest it of the ennobling consciousness of its freedom, and of rational and inspiring hopes of unlimited progress in its action.

The religious impressions of early childhood are seldom those which the zealous parent is most anxious to produce. The little being who is subjected too often to the process of arbitrary injunctions and theoretic inculcation, through the medium of a catechism, or the lessons of one who speaks from the experience perhaps derived from half a century's acquaintance with evil without and within, has but little sympathy with what he is VOL. III. NO. XII.

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taught, and probably as little understanding of it. He finds his religion in the benign arrangements for his happiness which he reads; without prompting, in the cheering light, in the serenity of heaven, in the vastness and grandeur of the firmament, and in the looks of love which are ever beaming on him from the human face, and in the wondrous thought of the great invisible Being, like his own mind, who has given him his life, and all its happy accompaniments. He has never broken the great law of love; and in the silent but eloquent purity and tenderness of his own example, he manifests himself possessed of perhaps the qualification of a higher moral character than has been attained by his teacher.

The human mind, instructers should never forget, is not a material something, thrown down before them to be moulded and fashioned by a routine of mechanical operations. It is an intelligent and voluntary agent, entitled to the free use of all its powers, and capable to a great extent, from its very constitution of at once choosing its own path, and shedding no slight proportion of the light which is to guide it.

The thoughts expressed in the following article, however, do more justice to this subject that it can receive within the limits of an introductory paragraph; and we present them to our readers in the full expectation that their truth and value will be deeply felt.]

EDUCATION is essentially the work of the individual; and the most that those around him can do, is to assist him. It is the result of a reciprocal action,-the human mind on one side, and the external world on the other.

In the phrase, external world, is here included not only the material universe, but the providence of God. Whatever does not originate in the individual, is the external world to him.

The first agency of the external world, in regard to the human mind, is, in creating its relation to space. The body determines what portion of the universe shall be first explored by the soul; and the difference in cast of character, which is productive of so much that interesting in human life, may derive its origin from each individual's thus setting out from a different portion of the universe. It is not improbable that all the involuntary and original differences of intellect, in regard to degree, as well as characteristics, may be traced to physical organization. Difference of organization necessarily induces diversity of mental action. Sometimes sight is denied; and

Brown has expressed in a very lively manner the difference such a deprivation, if universal, would make in some of the sciences. The colours and forms of nature in vain surround the blind. And there are, no doubt, physical deficiencies shutting up the mind in certain corresponding departments, which are quite as important as deficiency of sight but not obvious by any external sign.

The physical organization is therefore to be considered, in the science of education; and in no department of education, can so much assistance be given as in this. Nature does a great deal before the age of reflection. The appetites are keen ; but the mind is also impressible and it is as common, perhaps, to see children absorbed in play, till they forget the claims of the body, as to be absorbed in gratifications of the appetite, till they cease to be observing and curious. In both cases, when they occur, a dissatisfied state is produced, and the parents' affection and care come to the aid of helplessness. A mother's instinct does a great deal in finding out the peculiarities of constitution, and managing them according to the exigencies of the case. But the mother's instinct may be aided by reasoning; and, moreover, all assistance is vain, unless the individual is led to take up the subject for himself.

A child should have the mental advantages of temperance early pointed out to him, and be made to feel his responsibilities upon the point of preserving pure and uncontaminated the body God has given him. We must know all our avenues with the universe, in order that we may keep all open. If it is not given us to determine our relation to space in the first instance, or our degree of communication with the universe, yet we are free to be true or false to the elevation on which we are placed, and it is ours to preserve for our mind the free range which God has intended for it.

And it is not only necessary that we should form a due estimate of our own powers, in order to hold ourselves up to the exertion of which we are capable, but also in order to remit exertion, when the nerves and the vital spirits give the sign. Mental action often so disorders the organization by which the individual hangs upon the present system, that it ceases altogether. The frequent instances of insanity and idiocy from intense study, should produce caution and watchfulness. There are doubtless many near approaches to these states in persons, who are not considered insane, and these persons perhaps are more miserable and dangerous than those who are obviously insane;

for in lucid intervals they lament the mistakes they are not responsible for, besides inflicting misery upon others who do not understand their condition. Much of partial insanity, as well as complete insanity, is doubtless occasioned by intemperate mental exertion We should remember that when either proceeds from this cause, it is not only our misfortune, but, (and especially if we have been forewarned of it,) our fault. God has given us a physical organization, and brought the spirit into circumscription of it. He has said to the tide of mind as to the tide of ocean, hitherto shalt thou come and no farther,' and though we may disobey the command we shall not gain. When the boundary line is carried away, there will be chaos in one case as in the other. God was the author of both body and mind, and certainly has united them, for the welfare of the better part; and has enjoined their tranquil association in the command 'be sober.' It is a vice to 'get drunk with the wine of immortality,' for it makes us forget the claims of the body; though obviously it is not so degrading a vice, as that inebriation which makes us forget the claims of the spirit. Friends and teachers may do a great deal in making all this obvious to the mind of their pupil; but after all it is himself that must do what is to be done. We cannot be temperate and wise for our pupil-love him as we may. He must perceive the effect of mental action upon his physical organization, and the signs by which he is to know when the landmarks are approached. He must know the limits of his power in order to be made sensible of the extent of his power, his consequent responsibility, and also where his responsibility ends.

We have spoken of an action of the external world, which commences prior to mental action. We will now proceed to that which answers to the touch of spirit.

Attention, (always an individual act,) is a characteristic of spirit as contradistinguished from matter. It brings the individual into a constantly extending contact with the external world, which developes its hidden laws, and reveals its beauty to a spirit kindred in nature to the creating Mind; until the whole intellect is science, and the whole movement is taste.

To direct this power of attention and to neutralize whatever would interfere with it, is an office of education. It can hardly be said to depend on education for its first impulse. That is derived from within, or, to speak more correctly, immediately from the Creator.

As in the moral nature, there is, in the first place, innocence -which almost deserves the name of an active impulse to goodness-given by the Creator at the beginning, while progress in goodness is made the act of the individual, being only given to ardent desire, or in other words to prayer; so is it in the intellectual nature. The first impulse of attention is given by the Creator-it is the birth of the mind,-while the progress depends on exertion. And assistance may be given to the child, in that period of aimless curiosity and activity which finds its end, for the time being, because its delight, in acting.

Did life always place individuals in situations as strikingly interesting as it does in some instances, there would be little need of any rules upon this subject, laid down in books. Experience, or even observation of some of the more interesting relations in which human beings stand to each other, will often produce the consciousness of innate power. If this consciousness is produced in the days of purity, assistance from any minds below the supreme Mind, will hardly be needed.

But situations, early in life, are not always strikingly interesting. It becomes, then, the duty of those around children to meet attention with what may

— wake an echo in the soul Which cannot sleep again.'

Here, however, a caution must be suggested. The action of human beings upon human beings, is not like the action of material nature, always happy. Material nature moves by the divine will, and if the receptive mind means well, there is always a benefit. Men act often with a will at variance from the divine, and may therefore do harm. There are guards, it is true, against doing harm; conscience in the one case, and selfrespect in the other: but, that providence does not always neutralize the harm done, is evident both from observation and revelation. God, according to Moses' report, visits the sins of the fathers upon the children to a third and fourth generation; and the history of the oriental nations, of the Roman Catholic Church, and indeed the state of the whole world bears witness to what man has made of man.'

Perhaps nothing would quicken attention so vitally, as to bring the mind to observe itself, as an object, very early. But the mind cannot be said to have any existence, independently of its relations; and of its numerous relations which are to be selected? The answer to this question is easy; the most important of its relations, is, at the same time the simplest, its rela