rents, and to prevent most of those crimes which injure the peace and prosperity of society. The immoral principles and vicious habits in which multitudes of children are trained under the domestic roof, not only lay the foundation of their own unhappiness and ruin, but are productive of many pests and nuisances to general society. In cities and populous towns, this fact is too frequently realized. Many children are trained up, even by their parents, to habits of pilfering, which they sometimes learn to

of early instruction."-Here we have a specimen, in the case of very young children, of nice discrimination in regard to the principles of moral rectitude and of reasoning, which would have done no discredit to an assembly of

senators.

3. Infant critics. Having discoursed one day on the difference between isosceles and scalene triangles, I observed that an acute isosceles triangle had all its angles acute; and proceeded to observe that a right-angled scalene triangle had all its angles acute. The children immediately began to laugh, for which I was at a loss to account, and told them of the impropriety of laughing at me. One of the children immediately replied, 'Please, sir, do you know what we were laughing at?" I replied in the negative. Then, sir,' says the boy, 'I will tell you. Please, sir, you have made a blunder.' I, thinking I had not, proceeded to defend myself, when the children replied, 'Please, sir, you convict yourself." I replied, 'How so?' Why,' say the children, 'you said a right-angled triangle had one right angle, and that all its angles are acute. If it has one right angle, how can all its angles be acute?' I soon perceived that the children were right, and that I was wrong.-At another time, when lecturing the children on the subject of cruelty to animals, one of the little children observed, 'Please, sir, my big brother catches the poor flies, and then sticks a pin through them, and makes them draw the pin along the table.' This afforded me an excel lent opportunity of appealing to their feelings on the enormity of this of fence; and, among other things, I observed, that if a poor fly had been gifted with powers of speech like their own, it probably would have exclaimed, while dead, as follows;- You naughty child, how can you think of torturing me so? Is there not room enough in the world for you and me? Did I ever do you any harm? Does it do you any good to put me to such harm? How would you like a man to run a piece of wire through your body, and make you draw things about? Would you not cry at the pain?' &c. Having finished, one of the children replied, 'How can any thing speak if it is dead?' 'Why,' said I, 'supposing it could speak.' 'You meant to say, sir, dying, instead of dead.'-In this case I purposely misused a word, and the children detected it."-Here we have another instance of the nice discrimination of which children are capable, and of the great importance of their being taught to think-one of the most important parts of education, which has been so long overlooked. In consequence of their having acquired the elements of thought, they were enabled, in the one case, to refute the assertion of their teacher, by a conclusive argument; and, in the other, to detect the misapplication of a term. A whole community taught to think and reason, would be the means of preventing numerous evils, and of introducing innumerable blessings into the social state.

practise with the utmost cunning and expertness, without the least sense of moral delinquency. It was estimated, that in the year 1819, in the city of London alone, the number of boys who procured the greater part of their subsistence by picking pockets, and thieving in every possible form, amounted to from twelve to fifteen hundred! One man had forty boys in training to steal and pick pockets, who were paid for their exertions with a part of the plunder; and a woman who had entrapped eight or ten children from their parents, had them trained up and sent out in every direction for the purpose of thieving, till she was happily detected. Such children, in all probability, were chiefly procured from the families of the ignorant and the vicious; and when a habit of pilfering is early indulged, it not only leads to the practice of falsehood, cunning and deceit, in all their diversified forms, but entirely blunts the moral sense, and leads to the commission of almost every other crime. It is no uncommon thing to observe in the police reports of London, accounts of boys, and even girls, of six or seven years of age, being apprehended for the offences of pocket-picking, shop-lifting, stripping children of their clothes and ornaments, and similar depredations committed with all the expertness of an experienced delinquent. And, if such mental activities are so early displayed in the arts of wickedness, how important must it be to bend the active powers of the young in a contrary direction, and how many useful energies might we soon bring to bear upon the renovation of the moral world! For, notwithstanding the depravity of human nature, children may be trained to exert their skill and activities in the cause of virtue, as well as in the arts of mischief, if the same care and ingenuity be employed in their instruction.-Now, infant schools are peculiarly calculated to promote in children habits of virtuous activity. They are taught to think and reason, and to apply the rules of Christianity to their actions and social intercourses with each other are instructed in the evil of lying, swearing, stealing, and other vices; and some of them who had previously been addicted to these vices have been effectually cured of such evil propensities. Not only so, but the sentiments and habits they have carried home to their parents have sometimes been the means of arousing them to consideration, and turning them "from the error of their ways." And, although infant schools were established for no other purpose than prevention of crimes, it would save to the public ten times the expense that might be incurred in their erection and superintendence; for, in large cities, such young de. linquents as I have now alluded to, regularly supply the place of the hundreds of old and experienced thieves that are yearly con

victed and transported to another country; and the expense attending the conviction and transportation of one delinquent, is sometimes more than would suffice for the erection of an establishment for the instruction of a hundred children.

5. In infant schools, social habits and feelings may be cultivated with safety and with pleasure by the young. In most other circumstances the social intercourse of the young is attended with a certain degree of danger, from the influence of malignant passions and vicious propensities which too frequently appear in the language and conduct of their companions. "Evil communications corrupt good manners;" so that the minds, even of those who are trained with pious care under the domestic roof, are in danger of being tainted with vice, when allowed to indulge in promiscuous intercourse with their fellows. But in infant establishments, they are, during the greater part of the day, under the inspection of their teachers, both in school and at play-hours, where nothing immoral is suffered to make its appearance; and the exercises in which they are employed, the objects exhibited to their view, the mutual conversations in which they engage, and the amusements in which they indulge, form so many delightful associations, equally conducive to mental improvement and sensitive enjoyment, which will afterwards be recollected with a high degree of pleasure.

6. The establishment of infant schools in heathen lands, wherever it is practicable, will, I conceive, be the most efficient means of undermining the fabric of Pagan superstition and idolatry, and of converting unenlightened nations to the faith and practice of our holy religion. When we would instruct adults in any thing to which they have been unaccustomed, we find the attempt extremely difficult, and frequently abortive, in consequence of the strong influence of long-established habits. In like manner, when we attempt to expound the truths of Christianity to the heathen, and enforce them on their attention, we encounter innumerable difficulties, arising from preconceived opinions, inveterate habits, long-established customs, ancient traditions, the laws and usages of their forefathers, the opinions of their superiors, and their ignorance of the fundamental principles of legitimate reasoning; so that comparatively few of the adult heathen have been thoroughly converted to the Christian faith, notwithstanding the numerous missionary enterprises which have been carried forward during the last thirty years. But if infant schools were extensively established, in all those regions which are the scene of missionary operations, we should have thousands of minds prepared for the reception of Divine truth, having actually imbibed a portion of the

spirit of Christianity, and being unfettered by those heathenish prejudices and habits to which I have alluded. Every infant school, and every school of instruction conducted on the same principles, at which they might subsequently attend, would become a seminary for Christianity; and we might, on good grounds, indulge the hope that the greater part of the children trained up in such seminaries, when the truths and foundations of religion were more fully exhibited to them, would ultimately make a profession of adherence to its cause and interests, and regulate their conduct by its holy requisitions. In this case, instead of a few insulated individuals occasionally embracing the religion of the Bible, we should frequently hear (to use the language of Scripture) of "nations being born at once, and a people as in one day." For, the young thus instructed, when arrived at youth and manhood, would exert a most powerful influence on their fathers, mothers, friends, and relatives, and on all around them-while their own minds have been brought under the most salutary influence, being pre-occupied with those truths and habits which will serve them from the contamination of the heathenish practices which prevail around them.

hymns they had learned at the school. Mr. Buchanan, on a former occasion, assisted in opening and organizing a school at Caledon. On his late visit, he perceived a marked improvement in the dress and personal cleanliness of the children. At the opening of the school, out of thirty pupils, two only had any other covering than sheep-skins, and many were unclothed. When he last took his leave of them, they were all dressed like other children, and many of them with considerable neatness. It was apparent, that the children had acquired some sense of the propriety of dress and personal cleanliness, from their manner during the repetition of the lesson," To put my clothes on neat and tight, and see my hands and face are clean," and it was equally obvious that their parents appreciated the advantages of the institution, from the fact of some of them having voluntarily requested to be allowed gratuitously to clean out the school-room alternately, and of their having continued regularly to perform that service. The inhabitants of many other villages have expressed a desire for the introduction of infant schools among themselves offered to appropriate for that purpose the best house they had, and promised, when their lands shall be measured out to them, to erect a proper building at their joint expense. In several of the villages they had placed their children under the care and instruction of one of their own number, till a better teacher could be procured. Mr. Buchanan left at Philipston sufficient apparatus and lessons for the establishment of twelve schools-arrangements were in progress for their commencement -and six young persons were attending the schools, to qualify themselves for becoming teachers.*

Such are the auspicious beginnings of infant education in heathen lands, and the pleasure with which its introduction is hailed by the adult population. While many of them are unaware of the blessings to be derived from a reception of the doctrines of religion, they are attracted by the beautiful arrangements and exercises of infant establishments, and at once perceive their beneficial tendency and effects on the objects of their affection; and as their children advance in the accomplishments they acquire at these seminaries, they will every day become more interesting and delightful in their eyes; and it is not too much to suppose, that the knowledge and habits acquired by the children will be the means of enlightening the understandings and polishing the manners of their parents. It ought, therefore, to be one of the first objects of every missionary, to whatever part of the heathen

* See Evangelical Magazine for December, 1833.