AT THE DEPOSITORY, IN CONNECTION WITH THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT FOR UPPER CANADA. CANADIAN ROTARY MAP STANDS. National Series, No. I., 10 Maps, $38. Do do No. II., do do. Smaller Series, No. I., 10 Maps. $34. Do do No. II., do do. Separate Maps, mounted on rollers and varnished, as follows: National Map World, $3.50; Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Palestine, England, Ireland, Scotland, United States, Canada, &c., $3 each; size of Map, 6 feet 8 inches by 3 feet 6 inches. Canada School Room Map of Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Palestine, England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, &c., $2.38 each; size of Map, 4 feet 2 inche,s by 3feet 6 inches. Set of Maps in Case: Series No. I., 10 large Maps, $24. Do No. II., 10 small do $16. Beautifully Raised Maps of Modern Italy, Modern Greece, Italia Antiqua, Grecia Antiqua, &c., showing the physical features, $15 each. GLOBES in various styles, viz.: Thirty-inch Terrestrial Globes, with Walnut Stand and Quadrant, $65. Eighteen-inch Globes, high Walnut Stand, with Compass and Quadrant, per pair, $90. Eighteen-inch Globes, low Walnut Stands, per pair $70, singly $36. Twelve-inch Globes, high Walnut Stands, with Com pass and Quadrant, per pair $35, singly $18. Twelve-inch Globes, low Walnut Stands, $14. Six-inch Globes, low Walnut Stands, $6. Six-inch Globes on Bronzed Stands, with brass semiframe meridian, $2. Six-inch Globe on Walnut Stand without meridian, Three-inch Hemisphere Globes. 75 cts. New Canadian School Planetarium, on high walnut Brass Geared Tellurian, with Sun, Moon and Earth, Lunarian for illustrating phases of the Moon, &c., NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. NOTICE IN REGARD TO PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOKS, SCHOOL MAPS, APPARATUS, AND PRIZE BOOKS. The Chief Superintendent will add one hundred per cent. to any sum or sums, not less than five dollars, transmitted to the Department by Municipal or School Corporations, on behalf of Grammar and Common Schools; and forward Public Library Books, Prize Books, Maps, Apparatus, Charts, and Diagrams, to the value of the amount thus augmented, upon receiving a list of the articles required. In all cases it will be necessary for any person acting on behalf of the Municipality or Trustees, to enclose or present a written authority to do so, verified by the corporate seal of the Corporation. A selection of books, maps, or apparatus to be sent, can always be made by the Department, when so desired. NOTE. Before the order of the trustees can be supplied, it will be necessary for them to have filled up, signed, and sealed with a proper corporate seal, as directed, a copy of the Form of Application. On its receipt at the Education Office, the one hundred per cent. will be added to the remit. tance, and the order, so far as the stock in the Depository will permit, made up and despatched. Should the trustees have no proper corporate seal, the Department will, on the receipt of $2 additional, have one engraved and sent with the articles ordered ** If Library or Prize Books be ordered, in addition to Maps and Apparatus, it will be necessary to send not less than $5 additional for each class of books, with the proper forms of application. The one hundred per cent. will not be allowed on any amount less than $5, which must be remitted in one sum. Text-books cannot be fur Guinea and Feather Apparatus, $4.50. Electrical Machine; plate 12 inches, $19. Electrical Inclined Plane, $3.60. Thunder House, $1. Leyden Jars, $1.25 each. Dancing Image Plates, $3.30. Aurora Borealis Apparatus, $2.10. ELLECTRO MAGNETISM. Sulphate of Copper Battery, $6. Apparatus for the Decomposition of Water, $4.20. Oersted's Magnetic Experiment, $2. Electro Magnet and Keeper, $1.50. Helix and Bar, $3.60. Horizontal Revolving Armature Bell Engine, $12. Alcohol Blast Lamp, $2.50. Pyrometer, $4 40. Funnel Holders, various prices. Universal, Vertical and other supports. Boxwood Thermometers, from 38 cents each. nished on the terms mentioned above. They must be paid for in full at the net catalogue prices. THIS DAY IS PUBLISHED, A SUMMARY OF CANADIAN HISTORY, 101s 3ts. ond. pd. Toronto, October, 1860. ADVERTISEMENTS inserted in the Journal of Education for twentyfive cents per line, which may be remitted in postage stamps, or otherwise. TERMS: For a single copy of the Journal of Education, $1 per annum; back vols., neatly stitched, supplied on the same terms. All subscriptions to commence with the January Number, and payment in advance must it all cases accompany the order. Single numbers, 12 cents each. All communications to be addressed to J. GEORGE HODGINS, LL.B., Education Office, Toronto, LOVELL AND GIBSON, PRINTERS, YONGE STREET, TORONTO. CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER. I. RECENT EDUCATIONAL SPEECHES IN ENGLAND AND CANADA-(1) The Right H Lord Brougham (2) The Right Hou Sir John Coleridge. (3) The Rev. J. Travers Lewis, LL.D. (4) The Rev. W. H. Checkley, B.A. (5) Mr. Angus McKinnon II. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES-No. 24. Joseph Locke, Esq., M.P, No. 25. IV. PAPERS ON COLONIAL SUBJECTS-(1) Imperial Table of Colonial Prece- V. PAPERS ON PHYISCAL GEOGRAPHY-(1) The Saguenay River of Canada. (2) First Discovery of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. (3) Vegetation at the Red River. (4) Marvels of the Mississippi.... VI. MISCELLANEOUS-(1) The Death of Wolfe. (2) Sir Isaac Brock, "The Hero of Upper Canada." (3) Directions from a Father to his Son, on his entering into Mercantile Business. (4) A Score of Impolite things. (5) The Oxford Middle Class Examinations VII. EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE VIII. DEPARTMENTAL NOTICES AND ADVERTISEMENTS PAGE 161 166 168 170 171 173 174 176 RECENT LITERARY AND EDUCATIONAL SPEECHES IN ENGLAND AND CANADA. 1. THE RIGHT HON. LORD BROUGHAM, LL.D. THE PROGRESS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. Lord Brougham delivered the inaugural address before the Association for the promotion of Social Science in Glasgow, on the 24th ult. In his introductory remarks, he said :-In the outset of our proceedings we are naturally led to mark the progress of social science in past times, as well as its state at this day. The novelty of the name to designate what was before unknown in its various branches proves how little till of late years men had devoted themselves to these inquiries in the aggregate, although particular subjects might more or less have engaged the attention of different classes without regard to the relation subsisting among them. But, indeed, we cannot go far back in the history of statesmen and lawgivers, and of the community at large, without the conviction that the attention of any class fixed exclusively upon one or other of the branches is only to be observed in the more recent period of our social annals. We shall best ascertain the progress of our science by casting an eye over the history of the parties which have divided both the rulers and the people, and observing what attention was given to it, and how far it entered into their controversies. That men of rare endowment flourished in those times-indeed of the highest qualities ever displayed in public life-is undeniable; and that their talents fitted them for government in an extraordinary degree is as certain as that by their eloquence they were masters of debate. Besides Walpole, there were Cartaret and Pultney, of first rate distinction as orators-nay, Canada. No. 11. Bolingbroke, according to all tradition the very first of modern times. But their lives were in council devoted to the intrigues of party, in the Senate to party eloquence, in office to preserving all things as they had found them; and when Lord Chatham, somewhat later, was at the head of affairs, either in opposition or in the minority, not only were his whole attacks upon his adversaries confined to purely party grounds, but his own policy shows him so little in advance of his age, that, as regarded France, it was grounded upon the narrow, antiquated notion of natural enmity; and, as regarded America, upon the equally narrow and antiquated notion of natural sovereignty. To work out those great principles-to attack all invasion of the one either in alliances or in war, and of the other in government, was the object of his public life. Yet so powerful is habit, such the force of routine, he seemed wholly unable to comprehend that it is our first duty by all means to cultivate peace with our nearest neighbour, as the first of blessings to both nations, each being able to do the other the most good in amity, the most harm in hostility; but he could only see glory, or even safety, in the precarious superiority grasped by a successful war. In like manner, as often as the idea of American independence crossed his mind, he instantly and utterly rejected it as the destruction of our national existence, instead of wisely perceiving that to become the fast friends of the colonies which we had first planted and long cherished under our protection, would benefit both ourselves and them the more by suffering them in their full growth to be as independent as we had always been. Was Lord Chatham singular in those feelings? Not at all; but he was not at all wiser than others. The American war had raged for years before the word separation crossed the lips of any man in either House of Parliament-the mismanagement of the war and ill-treatment of the colonists being the only topics of attack upon the Government from those whose averred object was to prevent the necessity of separation. But out of this war and this revolution arose fundamental differences of opinion upon the great questions of allegiance, of popular rights, and, generally, of civil liberty-opinions caried still further by the greater Revolution (not unconnected with that event) which convulsed Europe a few years later; and parties became marshalled according to principles thus entertained by many, professed by more; and the end of the century was distinguished, as had been the greater part of the century before, not by the absence of all party and personal combination, but by important principles on matters of Church and State becoming the ground of attachment or opposition to persons, or of the ties that held parties together. But in the course of time, and improvement of men's views touching their real interests, their attention was turned to opinions and principles among the most important of all, but on which the leaders of particular classes could not fasten so as to appropriate them, because they so plainly concerned the whole community, or were of such unquestionable soundness and truth that no dispute could arise respecting them, any diversity of views being necessarily confined to points of detail, and, consequently, they were placed beyond the field of party conflict. The duty and the expediency of philanthropic policy in one sense comprises all the subjects belonging to this class; but even in a more restricted acceptation it embraces some of the most remarkable. One characteristic of these opinions has just been noted, their not lending themselves to party controversy; another and equally striking is their being held by those who had no special interest in them. ERRORS IN EDUCATION-DISPARITY BETWEEN THE NUMBERS OF TEACHERS AND PUPILS EMPLOYMENT OF EDUCATED WOMEN. After alluding to the necessity of public education, his Lordship continued:-There are two subjects of a more general description, one of which has often come under discussion, and is not unattended with difficulty: but the other of great importance, and by no means of difficult consideration. A great error was at one time committed, at the establishment of schools upon the plan of Bell and Lancaster. The facilities afforded for teaching great numbers under a single master gave rise to a prevailing impression that cheapness of instruction could best be secured by these means, and there was too great a disposition to make this the ruling principle. But experience has proved, what a little reflection might earlier have shown, the great advantage of numerous teachers. In truth, this is essential, not only for securing thorough instruction, but for maintaining that discipline, that influence of moral authority which is the most important benefit conferred by attendance upon a school. It is to be hoped that the whole of this subject will be fully considered by the department, and the facts, which are the result of men's actual experience, be gathered together, and the inferences to which that experience leads be distinctly pointed out. But though education and training, imparting sound knowledge, religious and moral, and exalting the character, as of rational beings, is the most important of all our duties towards the humbler classes of our fellow-citizens, it is by no means to supersede the care of their temporal welfare, or to be taken as a substitute of that other imperative duty. A wide field is thus opened to social science, and it is one which only in modern times has received any cultivation. Count Rumford was a great benefactor to the world in promoting the more important of its branches. His plans, for the most part, were well devised to increase the comforts of the poor, and, carried into execution while he held high court and military employment in Bavaria, deserve the greatest of attention; and the study of his essays, in which they are minutely detailed, is a duty incumbent upon all well-wishers to the prosperity and the peace and order of society. The subject hardly to be surpassed in importance, the employment of educated women, was discussed at the last congress, and a society was soon after formed for promoting it. Last Easter it became connected with this association; and the laudable exertions of Miss Bessie Parkes, whose interesting paper had mainly led to its formation, and of Miss Faithful and of other fellow-labourers in this good work, have alrady been attended with marked success. Several papers upon various views of the subject will be read at this meeting. It may now only further be stated that the meeting held in last June, presided over by Lord Shaftesbury, was very numerously attended. The great object of finding employment suitable to educated women was fully considered, and our secretary, Mr. Hastings, took a prominent and useful part in the discusion. Among other occupations, law-engrossing, book-keeping, and printing may be mentioned as well fitted for educated women. The printing press, conducted under Miss Faithful's superintendence, has been eminently successful, and since the meeting in June has received a high sanction of the Queen's approval, signified in a gracious letter by Her Majesty's commands. It is very gratifying to find that the experience of this press has removed most, if not all, the objections which were at first raised against the plan. It is fit to add that the energy, perseverance, and discretion of Miss Faithful have mainly contributed to this happy result. 2. RIGHT HON. SIR JOHN COLERIDGE. TENDENCY OF THE TIMES AND THE CONSEQUENT NECESSITY FOR EDUCATION. Sir John Coledridge, in a recent lecture at Tiverton, "on Public Schools," commenced his remarks by an observation which he had made before, and he repeated it now, that the irresistible tendency of the times was not so much to increase education as to bring into activity the political power of what were called the lower classes of the country. This was so marked a tendency, it was so regular in its advance, so vigorous in its springs of action, that it could not be overlooked. It therefore became their duty to strive to make the classes in question fit to exercise the functions cast upon them. Again, in order for the other classes to preserve their places in society, they must be diligent in their own education. It would not do to rest upon tradition or upon privilege, for if they still desired to lead they must make themselves fit to be leaders. They must strike out with the most skilful swimmers in the race. While all around the underwood of the forest was making vigorous shoots, their own growth must not be neglected, lest they were overgrown. Let them feel no dismay, for the stream which might overwhelm if they attempted to stop it would become a source of abundant blessing if they directed its course aright; but the ability to do so could only come by diligent self-culture. CHARACTERISTICS OF ETON COLLEGE EDUCATION. The greater public schools of the country were more especially the subject of his lecture. but, as he had abandoned the idea of including the Universities, so he should confine his remarks and illustrations principally to Eton-not merely because he knew more. about it than any other, but partly because he conceived, from its size and composition, it was at once the most important and comWith regard to Winchester, Harrow, Rugby, and plete of its class. other schools, their merits were well and widely known, and they Eton to Henry VI., and giving an elaborate sketch of the history had reason to be proud of their distinction. Tracing the origin of and character of the school, the Right Hon. Gentleman said that Eton and her fellow-institutions had ever fulfilled, and were still ful filling, their glorious mission; adapting themseves in form to the changing manners of the times, but always preserving their identity and spirit. Every educational institution had its idea-that which, so long as it was consistently carried out, influenced all its details. The idea of Eton was the union of liberty of action and independence of thought in the boy with that maintenance of discipline and subordination without which no school could exist, much less the scholars maintain progress in learning. Many of the schools seemed to have their idea founded upon the problem, how much of restraint and discipline was consistent with the maintenance of the vigour of the intellect and the warmth of the heart. Boys were trained to walk regularly rather than to fly high or far. Safety for all was These principles, however, sought rather than excellence for many. admitted of qualification. Each school, perhaps, had its merits, and England had room for all. The judicious parent would select a school according to his son's peculiar disposition, intellect and circumstances, for "The child is father of the man." There was, it must be admitted, for many children, danger in the Eton system. Even with men, liberty often trembled on the edge of licence, and it required great firmness, discretion, and skill, so to govern a school on this principle as to maintain constant regularity, obedience and willing application of the mind. The tendency of the Eton system was to make a boy generous and firm-minded, to teach him to exercise his common sense and feel his responsibility, and to make him act under the influence of generous shame and emulation,—— in short, to make him a manly boy, trusting because he was trusted.. This was a favourable picture of the tendency of the system. Many might fail to be influenced by it, but these were its natural results. The traditions of an ancient school had great influence upon the working out of its idea; and the Eton traditions were favourable to these results. Eton boys loved their school while there, and would leave happy homes to return to it with none of the usual schoolboy's regret. They were often idle, noisy, and not proof against temptation-they might desire, but could not easily make their boys faultless; but there were many faults from which an Etonian was free, in part, at least, because he was an Etonian. PROFESSION vs. PRACTICE IN SCHOOL STANDARDS. This After bestowing praise on the system of teaching adopted at Eton the lecturer said, it had been commonly remarked that Eton boys did not bring to the University and to the competitive examination that sound knowledge of the mathematics which Eton professed to teach, and the suspicion got about that there was a want of reality in mathematical teaching. It was, however said that within a few years a great apparent change had been made, but without corresponding results, as tested in the Universities and elsewhere. was much to be lamented, if true, for if there was one principle more sacred in schools than another, it was that nothing should be professed more than was performed, and that what was taught should be taught well. Was the other department of teaching sacrificed to this? He believed not, and yet the scholarship of the pupils appeared to him to be below what it had been, and the composition less accurate. And he spoke the opinion of those who examined the boys for the Newcastle scholarship. He did not say that the best boys were inferior in the knowledge of metres, but they did not appear to grasp the ideas of the great writers as good Eton scholars used to do, and in composition they showed less of the manliness and simplicity of the great classical masters, and too much of Italian conceit and false brilliance. Scholars could distinguish what he spoke of; Lucretius would not have been ashamed of Dr. Keates' poem on the "Immortality of the Soul," and Virgil would have admired the verses of the Bishop of Lichfield. Some might smile, perhaps, and think he attached too much importance to these things, but they indicated a less perfect command of the language. PRESENT CONDITION OF ETON COLLEGE-PRIZES AND EXAMINATIONS EXCESSIVESCHOOL SPORTS. He did not think this was the result of too much attention devoted to other studies. The boys used to be incited to exertion by the honours they might gain, and the honours for competition were sent up for "good" and for "play" in the sixth form. The headmaster read them aloud to the assembled class in the former instance, and the sending up of a good exercise was the condition upon which the half-holiday depended. By modern practice, however, he thought these honours had been made much to cheap-too much the reward of good behaviour rather than of good composition; and the boys were content to reach the standard. He thought, too, that the number of prizes and examinations was excessive, and tended to distract boys from regular application. These prizes, however, were useful as testing results, and were most satisfactory when they were preceded by no specious training of the lads. With reference to the sports, he had watched the cricketing, boating, and drilling of the boys with increasing interest as some indication of the general well-being of the school. It was a bad time for the study of the school when the sports languished. RELIGIOUS TRAINING-NECESSITY AND VALUE OF PARENTAL INFLUENCE. There was, he was glad to say, marked improvement in the religious training of the school, in the knowledge of the Scriptures and ecclesiastical history, which was in some degree owing to the Newcastle scholarship, the influence of which had extended throughout the school, even to those who might never be in a condition to compete for the prize. On the subject of parental influence, the right hon. gentleman said that some parents expected everything good and great from their boys through the instrumentality of public schools, forgetting how many other agencies operated upon them, and doing nothing themselves to aid in the production of the virtues they desired. Some deliberately and almost avowedly disregarded the studies of the schools, rather leading their sons to consider that their first objects were the formation of good connexions for after life, and the acquisition of good manners. The boys, in such cases, were the victims of bad homes rather than bad schools. The sons of such parents were very injurious to the schools, and it was the duty of masters to give such boys ample warning and trial, but if these failed to send them away, as one would send away an infectious patient, as kindly as might be, and with as little disgrace as possible, so that the removal might not fail to produce a good effect upon the school, while it could not injure the boy himself, but might do him good. There was great wisdom in the maxim, "Learn to depart." INFLUENCE OF HIGHER PUBLIC SCHOOLS ON THE ENGLISH CHARACTER. In conclusion, he said the public schools of England had a powerful influence on the English character. To have been together at Eton, Harrow, Winchester, or Rugby was a tie for life; and to have been friends there was a charm which made the holiest friendship more holy. Even to have been in the same class, and the same chapel, was a link which bound together old and young, great and humble, soldier and civilian, and made personal strangers at once familiar by common associations. And so Wellesley, the stately and puissant governor of millions, and Charles Metcalf, a boy from Eton, commencing his course in life, met first on the banks of the Hooghley, and felt themselves the sons of the same mother. A feeling such as this operated on the character, and it spread so widely and deeply as to leaven the mass. But this was not all-for the education itself was of a kind to favour the growth of certain qualities. Of course a strong and uncongenial nature might overpower it, but it tended in itself, with a silent force, to make men ready to oblige, affable, and self-reliant; it helped to the development of common sense and dexterity in the ordinary concerns of life; to make men cheerful in retirement, agreeable in society, no less than to bear their parts gallantly and cleverly in the tumult and conflicts of public life. In a word, it fostered that assemblage of qualities which, combined with the higher ones of integrity and goodness, constituted the accomplished gentleman.-His last words then were,Esto perpetua. · 3. THE REV. J. TRAVERS LEWIS, LL.D., (Local Superintendent of Common Schools, Town of Brockville.) CAUTION AGAINST RELYING TOO MUCH UPON THE BOASTED PROGRESS OF THE HUMAN MIND. In his recent opening lecture before the Ontario Literary Society, Toronto, Dr. Lewis, after some introductory observations, remarked: That as a consideration which should serve to repress undue boasting, we should never forget, among other things, that centuries before the Christian era, science was so successfully cultivated in lands now given over to desolation that even the prostrate columns of their temples are deemed worthy of transportation to England and America, the sculptor's art having never since reached similar perfection. Layard has disinterred from a grave of two thousand years specimens of art and proofs of luxuriant refinement which seem even now extraordinary. Let us not forget, too, that the orators and learned of modern times acknowledge as their masters and models the Grecian and Roman who spoke and wrote for immortality. In the new world also, in Central America, have been discovered incontestible remnants of nations strong and civilized, barbarians only in their Paganism, but in the luxuries and refinements of life vastly superior to many countries of the present day, and those none of the most contemptible. Nay, when we would give utterance to our expression of the magnificence or grandeur, or would illustrate the power of man, do not the Temple of Solomon and the Pyramids of Egypt instinctively recur to our imagination, and, not to lengthen the catalogue of ancient glories, is not the oldest volume in the world the noblest specimen of sublimity of style? And yet what are the results in their birthplace, of these works performed in the infancy of the world? Little but the fragments all but miraculously preserved. Luxury and wealth induced immortality; immortality produced decay, until actual barbarism rioted where once philosophy and the arts flourished so eminently. From a settled conviction that possesses the human into an inferior position is almost impossible, we do not concede to mind that the destiny of man is ever progressive, and that a relapse hastily at their biography and our eye rests on the page which records the nations of antiquity their due meed of praise. We glance their degradation and mental slavery, and we hastily assume that their knowledge and power which the ravages of time have spared, but the antecedent civilization is overrated, and but for the monument of for the treasures which our libraries and museums present to our astonished gaze, we should unhesitatingly conclude that the wave of human progress has ever been advancing uniformly with a flowing tide, that the current of civilization had never ebbed, that storms and tempests had never dashed the wave back, nor broken it on the quicksand and the rock. RELATIVE INFERIORITY OF THE MODERNS TO THE ANCIENTS. Let me not then be thought partial when I venture to say that notwithstanding our great and absolute superiority, we are relatively inferior to the men of old time. Only let us take into account the advantages possessed by the present age, and any of those periods of the past which is famous for its learning or civilization, contrast the facilities possessed by each for the propagation and perfection of knowledge, and we shall be at no loss in ascertaining to whom the palm is to be ascribed. Compare the productions of Greece and Rome in the field of Science and Art with those of our time, and before adjudicating the prize to either bear in view the difficulties to be encountered in the infancy of any Art and the facilities possessed by us who have the experience of ages for our guide, and then say whether we progress in so surprising a ratio. We are contrasting, be it remembered, the works of an age when a manuscript was well nigh the toil of a lifetime, with those of a period when a useful idea is scarcely suggested, before it is diffused so rapidly and extensively by the Press as to excite our thanks and admiration. Who can deny that the Alexandrian Library, with its four hundred thousand manuscript volumes in the days of Cæsar, was not a more wonderful monument of human industry and skill than any Library of the present day? * *If, therefore, we compare the ability of the ancient with our own to cherish and foster literary and scientific pursuit, of the power to educate and reform the mind which our vast wealth bestows be taken into account, we shall find little cause for congratulation. Facts speak convincingly. The English people spend on the single item of ardent spirits more money than on all their religious and educational establishments combined; while the American people spend in their gratification in the single item of cigars a larger sum than is expended on all the Common Schools of the Union. The influence then is inevitable that literature and art must have been more highly prized and more ardently cultivated, for their own sake, by the nations of antiquity than by us, when we honestly estimate their difficulties and our facilities, their poverty and our resources. * OUR ANTIDOTE AGAINST THE FATE OF OTHER NATIONS. Where now in the scale of nations is that land to which we owe our Geometry, and Algebra, and Arithmetic? Hindoos and Arabs bequeathed these triumphs of genius to us, and yet they are fallen as a people, they are degraded as nations. What is now the social and political position of Greece and Rome; nations which once dictated to the world, and are so associated in the students' mind with the arts of war and peace, that it is difficult to believe in their present poverty of mind and imagination "Eternal summer gilds them yet, But all except their sun has set." But why mention other examples of civilization corrupted, knowledge perverted and glories departed? The splendour of the Italian Republics is gone. Nothing remains in memory of the departed glory of the empires of the past save their venerable ruins and incomparable public works, which even now bewilder by their vastness. And does analogy (it is the point which concerns us more immediately) justify us in dreading a like decay of Anglo-Saxon knowledge and power? No! There are certain safeguards, if we but employ them, which render the destruction of our civilization improbable, nay impossible. The bulwarks against that worst of barbarisms, corrupted civilization, are the diffusion of useful knowledge and our Christianity. NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN-SECURITY AGAINST THE LOSS OF OUR DISCOVERIES. It is almost certain that there is scarcely an invention in Art or Science of modern times which was not known in theory to some of the Philisophic ancients. Among recent discoveries we may single out the Stereoscope as an illustration of an invention singularly beautiful and creditable to the eye, and yet the principle of the instrument was known 1,500 years ago. But with the inventor perished the invention. The manuscript that contained the treasure was neither understood nor valued, and thus acquisitions to human knowledge were lost. In the present day, the diffusion of every Scientific and Literary achievement, through the aid of printing, renders such a disaster almost impossible, and thus perpetuity is is guaranteed to our discoveries. Hence it is that we should hail with joy the advent of every means by which learning is disseminated and the masses enlightened. Hence it is that we should rejoice in the attainment of every new motive to literary and scientific distinction. Therefore it is that the true philanthropist hears with satisfaction of every new school of science, and of every additional university, of every well regulated mechanics' institute. He knows full well that knowledge imparted does not diminish the store of the teacher, and he sees in every new improvement in the education of a people the surest means of retaining to the human family the blessings of past experience. CHRISTIANITY THE GREAT CONSERVATOR OF KNOWLEDGE AND VIRTUE. I have spoken of one of the securities possessed by the present age against the sudden decay of our knowledge. Let me now allude to another, to one which can save our literature from corruption and consequent decay, which can foster and promote scieoce while it preserves it from perversion, which can direct our research to what is good and divert it from what is evil, a bulwark against the abuse of learning and the aversion to it which is sure to follow-I mean the Christian religion. In the present age, we have no reason to dread that our arts and sciences will ever degenerate into superstitious or senseless theorizing. Astronomy in our hands will never again become Astrology. We may safely affirm that Chemistry will never more resolve itself into Alchemy and Magic, but we have other more substantial dangers; we may dread lest our Philosophy way outstrip our virtue. We should scorn the fallacy that there is no difference between denouncing the evil of knowledge and the knowledge of evil: it is the latter only that the Christian Philosopher may deprecate; he knows that it is not unusual to transform blessings into curses, or to use the instruments of our civilization as weapons against ourselves. The same railway which, by facilitating the intercommunion of nations, promotes knowledge and obliterates prejudices may, and often does, become an engine of widespread disaster. The same Press which can delight the reader with details of what otherwise he might never have heard, which can carry him in imagination into the universal world, which can please while it instructs, and prove a friend to the solitary and a guide to all; that same engine for incalculable good may poison the mind with pestilential productions; it may, and does cater to the diseased appetite of a corrupt nature; it may disseminate falsehood as well as truth; it may print the Bible to-day; it may pollute the innocent mind to-morrow. Alcohol, so necessary to many arts-who can recount the horrors of its abuse? Unless the corrective influence of Christianity accompany the prodigious force of modern invention; unless the spirit of benevolence (and who can possess it so disinterestedly as the Christian) keeps pace with our mechanical progress, unmixed evil may result; and the reason is obvious, for knowledge is evil when undirected by benevolence; knowledge, to prove beneficial, must progress beneath the sheltering wings of Christianity, and then we need not dread that abuse of the gifts of Providence which has ever led to woful re-action. FINITE LIMIT OF HUMAN INVESTIGATION. The philosopher alone can understand the littleness of his own attainments; the magnitude of every fresh discovery fills his heart with wonder and humility, from a consciousness that he is but treading the threshold of the temple of science while his intellect is overpowered by the bare conjecture of the majesty of what may remain in reserve for future discovery within the penetralia. This was the feeling which filled the mind of Newton, who could compare the extent of his noble investigation of natural laws to the work of a child gathering pebbles on the shore. Strange as it may sound, the simplest facts in nature are still bewildering mysteries. Phenomena, which from familiarity we deem intelligible, when It would seemi regarded philosophically, fill us with astonishment. as if Providence had permitted the human mind to triumph most in those subjects which lie remotest from itself, lest man becoming as well known to himself as other works of creation, should say in his heart, There is no God. How else does it happen that, while subjects relating to life and happiness are comparatively unknown, men whose names we reverence are permitted to pierce through the vault of Heaven and make such discoveries of other worlds and systems as keep the mind in suspense whether it is more delighted with the increasing precision of man's demonstrations or overWe naturally whelmed with the majestic vastness of the universe. wonder and admire when we hear that Leverier, by the aid of purely mathematical reasoning, could with certainty affirm that a planet as yet unseen, would be discovered in an assigned region of the heavens. The telescope is eagerly directed to the prescribed spot and the planet is detected. What a perfection of science is revealed in the fact that Murchison was able to announce that in Australia veins of gold must exist, though as yet not a particle had been discovered. By the aid of science we can predict with the certainty of personal knowledge, that when ages on ages have rolled by the glorious Southern Cross will again be visible on these Northern latitudes. But why dwell on such intellectual grandeur? Man turns from such contemplation to self, and he shrinks again into conscious humility. His success in the investigation of nature might intoxicate, if his failure in the knowledge of self did not recall him to sobriety. Yes! the field in which the mind can work is as infinite as the mind itself. Any moment may introduce us to some new discovery which may throw all former triumphs into the shade. On every side is the material open to experiment and observation, inviting every lover of nature to explore and wonder. INCENTIVES TO FUTURE EFFORT-ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERIES OF GREAT FACTS We owe It may perhaps appear paradoxical to urge the student of nature to perseverance by reminding him that many of the most brilliant discoveries have in every age been the result of accident, yet such is the case, and even here we can see the disposing hand of Providence allowing man to achieve miracles in the acquisition of knowledge, yet under such circumstances as must humble him. The discovery of the power of the telescope to pierce the firmament was like that of the glass of which it was composed, altogether casual. Galvani introduced us to the science of electricity by an accidental application of zinc and silver to the muscles of a frog, the wonders of the magnetic telegraph to the unexpected discovery of Orested that a galvanic current deflected a magnetic needle. Brinkley established the prodigious velocity of light while he was investigating a totally different phenomenon. Hargraves was indebted for his remarkable improvement in the spinning jenny, which so greatly influenced the commerce of England, to his child, who upset the wheel at which he worked; the wheel continued to work the spindle in a vertical position, he seized on the idea and multiplied immensely the power of the instrument. Had not Watt been employed as a workman to repair an atmospheric engine we might still have been ignorant of the power of the steam engine. Had not an apple fallen at the precise time it did at the feet of Newton we might still have been unacquainted with the law of gravitation. It was the simple observation that silver was blackened by the sun's rays which led to the discovery of the chemical power of light. Of these and many other discoveries the origin was in great measure accidental, not in the sense of a blind chance, but in their being introduced into the world under circumstances which loudly proclaim the hand of a disposing power, man appropriating to his use phenomena thrust (as it were) on his observation. The time again when these grand master-pieces of discovery were wrought prove the same conclusion. Who is there who does not see something more than a happy coincidence in the fact that the facilities of working the coal-mines of England were acquired at the precise |