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ery regulation of individual conduct, we have to view it in two aspects: in its relations to truths regarding things not seen, and more especially and peculiarly in its relation to the offers or promises of the gospel of peace.

"In considering the operation of faith in regard to the truths which relate to things not seen, we have to keep in mind the peculiarity of the situation in which we are placed in the present state of existence. In our connection with the things of the present world we are surrounded by physical or material objects; with these we communicate by means of our bodily senses; they are continually obtruding themselves upon our attention with little or no exertion of our own, and therefore they exercise over us a constant and extensive influence. But these are not our only relations; as moral and responsible agents, as immortal beings, we have to do with objects as real as those which are presented to our senses, though of a very different nature. The truths by which we ought to be influenced respecting them are addressed to a different part of our constitution, and are to be received upon a separate kind of evidence. They do not come under the cognizance of any of our senses, but are addressed directly to the mind; and their due influence upon us is produced through that mental process which we call faith.

"The word which is usually translated virtue is well known to imply, in its original and strict signification, fortitude. In its connection in this passage it appears to mean simply a firmness and consistency of mind in reference to the truths which are the objects of faith, a determination to contemplate them steadily in all their tendencies, and an habitual effort to keep them before the mind, so that they may become regulating principles in the whole conduct. It includes, therefore, an earnest endeavor to cultivate that character and conduct which the truths so believed are calculated to produce in every one who really believes them. This is the first great step in that mental exercise which constitutes living by faith; and it cannot be too strongly impressed upon us how much it is a process of the mind, of which every one must be conscious who really performs it. From the want of it, we see such inconsistencies of character in those who profess to believe the most important truths and who think they believe them. They have, it may be, directed some attention to the evidence of the truths, and have yielded a certain assent of the understanding to their reality, but this conviction has not been followed up by that necessary process of the mind which is calculated to bring the truths into practical operation upon the moral condition; they have neglected entirely the exhortation to add to their faith virtue.

"This important exercise of the mind must be in habitual and active operation in him who desires to live by faith. The things of time and sense with which we are continually surrounded exert over us a constant influence; and it requires a peculiar and intense direction of the mind to withdraw us from their power, and to cause us to feel as we ought the influence of events which are future and of things which are not seen. It requires this exercise to be in a state of peculiar activity when we are called upon to act under the impression of these future and unseen things, in opposition to pres

ent feelings and present interests, and in circumstances it may be in which this has to be done by great exertion and at great personal sacrifice.

"That this discipline of the mind, so essential to the health of every moral being, may be conducted upon right principles, it is necessary to pay minute attention to the truth and soundness of those opinions which are thus received as objects of faith, and adopted as regulating principles in the character. Therefore, continues the apostle, to your faith and virtue add knowledge. This is a consideration of the utmost importance, which, though it may be recognised in theory, is less attended to in practice than it ought to be. Whatever is received as the object of faith must first be presented to the mind as the object of knowledge; that is, it must be received only upon full examination, and upon such evidence as is sufficient to convince the understanding of its truth. On this subject various errors are committed, but all of them are of serious moment. One of the most common, perhaps, is indifference.

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* Others affect to disbelieve these great truths, and to consider them, perhaps, as the superstitions of vulgar minds.

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There are persons of a third class who, professing a sincere love for the truth, wander from it by their own speculations. For preserving from all such perversion of the understanding, and that pernicious influence on the whole moral economy which follows, the only security is in a close attention to the apostle's exhortation, that to faith be added knowledge. For this purpose the utmost care must be habitually exercised, that the mind be calmly and steadily directed to an examination of the truth, and the utmost anxiety felt to prevent it from wandering into partial views or speculations guided by favorite fancies. Such is the discipline of a mind which seeks the truth in the love of it; and in the prosecution of its inquiries, conducted with humility and candor, it is encouraged to look for an influence from Heaven which will preserve it from error, and prove to it strength, and light, and wisdom.

"The mental attributes which have been referred to in the preceding observations, consisting of faith, virtue, and knowledge, may be considered as those which form the foundation of Christian character; but they are the foundation only, not the real structure of which that character consists. From the consideration of them therefore, we are naturally led to that influence which they ought to produce upon the moral feelings of the mind and the regulation of the whole character and conduct, without which knowledge is vain and faith is barren. This most important part of the subject is divided by the apostle into two branches; the one relating to the moral condition of the individual himself, consisting of temperance, patience, and godliness; the other having respect to his conduct to his fellow-men, in brotherly kindness and charity. All these qualities are required to be in constant and harmonious operation, to constitute a healthy moral condition; and there is either self-deception, or a pretension of what is not really felt, when there is the appearance or profession of some of them without the harmony of the whole. Though a man may show much conduct having the charac

ters of brotherly kindness and charity, there is a radical error in the mental economy, if these are not founded upon faith and knowledge, and accompanied by temperance, patience and godliness. And, whatever display there may be of knowledge, these are but empty names unless they are accompanied by temperance and patience, and lead to brotherly kindness and charity."

Though the second part of this volume relates to a subject of a very different nature from that of the first, it exhibits the same spirit of practical wisdom. It treats of three leading features in mental discipline, mental activity in the acquisition of knowledge, in the formation of opinions, and in the culture of the heart.

3. Home Education. By ISAAC TAYLOR, Author of "Natural History of Enthusiasm," "Physical Theory of Another Life," &c., &c. First American, from the second London edition. New York. Appleton & Co. 12mo., pp. 322. 1838.

This is a work of great originality and power, and is thereby distinguished from the numerous brood of insipid books which are now appearing on the fashionable subject of education. Still, we are far from receiving this production as an oracle. It has nearly as many and as great faults as excellences. The author is too bold a theorizer, too warm an advocate of his favorite notions, too poetical in his conceptions, and too cloudy in his representations, for practical purposes. So far as his aversion to public schools, or his attachment to home education, is well founded, it applies to boys only, and not to young men. We agree with him, that in all the earlier parts of education, every thing is in favor of having a boy constantly under domestic influence, wherever instruction under these circumstances is practicable. But how few mothers, or fathers, or tutors, are competent to conduct a student successfully through all the departments of a liberal education! As a young man advances to maturity, he not only needs a teacher that is thoroughly qualified to instruct, but, in every new study, he needs to be brought in contact with an ardent and energetic mind, which shall impart its own character, and leave its own stamp on the young intellect. What teacher of the whole encyclopedia of literature, science, and art, can give even a tolerable vitality to all these branches of instruction?

But a large portion of Mr. Taylor's objections to a public education apply only to the state of public instruction in England. We should feel dissatisfied with his querulous spirit, were it not that gross abuses, to which we, in this country, are strangers, were immediately before his eye.

Having stated the defects of Mr. Taylor's book, and made them somewhat prominent, it is incumbent on us, also, to bear our decided testimony to its many and rare excellences. Even its aberrations are those of genius, while the just views which it exhibits are strikingly original and luminous. The following paragraphs, on the happiness of early childhood, will illustrate our remark:

"Adults look for external means of enjoyment, and seek happiness, in the gratification of specific wishes or desires; but an infant

VOL. IV.-NO. XIV.

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simply protected from positive suffering, is happy from the stock of its own resources, and by the perpetual gush of joyous emotions, having no determinate direction as they burst abroad, like rills from a hill top, and which sparkle and dance as they glide away.

"Every one who is not too fastidious, or too supercilious, to give attention to facts of this sort, must have admired the pertinacity of nature (if we might so speak) in securing the felicity of childhood under circumstances the most adverse-or adverse in our view. Particular instances of ill health, ill treatment, or ill temper excepted, children are as happy as the day is long, although grimed and grovelling about the gutters of the courts and lanes of London or Manchester: much more certainly are they happy-tattered, dirty, and ruddy, at the door of a hut on a common or road-side:-they are happy, more than might be believed, in the cellar or the garret of the artizan, or in a jail, or even in a poor-house! Nay, it must be granted by attentive and impartial observers, that the balance of joyousness would sometimes, and perhaps often, be on the side of children in some of these luckless positions, if put in comparison with those who, with golden ringlets and brilliant skins, make groups for the painter upon trim lawns, in front of sumptuous mansions; for it is true, that while, on the one hand, the spontaneous happiness of childhood requires only to be defended from positive disturbance, on the other, it may be curtailed, or totally dissipated, by an excessive and anxious interference, intended to promote it. The happiness of children is not a something to be procured and prepared for them, like their daily food; but a something which they ALREADY POSSESS, and with which we need not concern ourselves, any further than to see that they are not despoiled of it. This simple principle, if understood, trusted to, and constantly brought to bear upon the arrangements of a family, would at once relieve the minds of parents from an infinitude of superfluous

cares.

"Let any one, familiar with children, analyse a child's tranquil felicity while amusing itself, for an hour or more, with nothing better than a crooked stick, or a handful of pebbles. What can be the bare gratification of the sense of touch, or of the muscular power, or of the sight, which such objects can convey? It must be reckoned as extremely small. Nor is it possible to watch the movements and countenance of an infant of fifteen months, or two years, whilst so engaged, and fall into the great error of supposing that its delights are chiefly animal. It is the MIND, it is the rich, and grasping, and excursive human mind (such even in infancy), that is at work on the poor materials of its felicity. This crooked stick, or these pebbles, are symbols of many things we adults do not dream of in such a connection: and they suggest conceptions of things dimly recollected, and now absent, which people the fancy in crowds, and lead it on, until the soul is lost in the chace."

Who does not recognise, in these vivid representations, the author of the "Natural History of Enthusiasm ?"

Again: "The most powerful understandings become more or less enfeebled and perverted by a few years' seclusion in a closet,

with a stove temperature, and lamp-light. There is needed more than a little rough, farmer-like, daily occupation abroad, to keep the student clear of the pedant; and assuredly it is not an hour's pacing up and down a college-walk that suffices for this purpose. One would fain, in conducting a thoroughly intellectual education, counteract the debilitating effect of studious habits, so as to preclude the mortifying comparison, commouly made between the accomplished scholar, and the man of business, in whatever does not involve mere erudition. One would gladly spare a young man the pungent shame which many have felt-conscious as they may have been of high attainments, and yet compelled to feel that, in the broad and open world, no one has thought their opinions worth listening to a moment, in relation to the weighty interests of common life. And in such instances, what is felt to be wanting, is not so much the requisite information on the point in question, as a want of that intuition which seizes a notion in the concrete-that is to say, in its practical form; instead of groping about for it in the region of the abstract, where it has broken itself off from the actual concernments of mankind."

The following remarks are both very just and very important:

"Parents may be found, in the highest degree solicitous for the welfare of their children, and not deficient in general intelligence, who nevertheless are perpetually struggling with domestic embarrassments, and sadly depressed by disappointment, in the discharge of their daily duties. In such instances there may be observed, a something too much in the modes of treatment-too much talking and preaching, and a too frequent bringing in of ultimate motives, until the natural sensibility and delicacy of children's minds are, if the phrase may be allowed, worn threadbare; for all the gloss of the feelings is gone, and the warp and substance are going."

If we were to attempt to divine the secret of a prosperous management of children, perhaps it would resolve itself into the simple fact of a quick perception of the train of their ideas, at any moment, and a facility in concurring with the stream of thought, whatever it may be, which, by the slightest guiding word or gesture, can be led into whatever channel may be desired.

"The rule of management might then be condensed into the three words-discern, follow, and lead. That is to say, there is first the catching of the clue of thought in a child's mind; then the going on with the same train a little way; and, lastly, the giving it a new, though not opposite direction."

"Too much law breaks down all minds to a dull uniformity," are words which deserve to be written in letters of gold.

4. The Tusculan Questions of Marcus Tullius Cicero. In five books. I. Contempt of Death. II. Bearing Pain. III. Alleviation of Sorrow. IV. Perturbations. V. Virtue sufficient for Happiness. Translated by GEORGE ALEXANDER OTIS, Esq., Member of the American Phil osophical Society; Translator of Botta's History of the War of American Independence. Boston. 12mo., pp. 316. 1839.

Cicero, as a philosopher, is too little known, not only to general readers, but even to scholars. It is difficult to say, whether the

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