defined forms, fit for the reasoning faculties to work upon; that all the notions it conveys are subjected to the test of exact weight and measure; that the learner is trained to regard truth as the fountain of all intellectual beauty; to examine the most splendid creations of poetry and eloquence in her pure dry light; to seek for, and aim at, clear conceptions before brilliant display; never to rest content with any partial glimpses, any vague, dim, shadowy outlines, but to gaze upon the images of the remote past, until they are brought home to his mind with the vividness and force of a present reality.

And then I would add, that the instruction he receives should likewise be large. But here, too, it is necessary to explain and distinguish; for the term is relative, and will convey no clear meaning, unless it is referred to some standard of comparison. The soundest learning may be confined within a very narrow compass; but so long as it retains its quality, it will be the more valuable the wider the range over which it is diffused. On the other hand, the field of knowledge is boundless, and the attention is distracted, and time and faculties are wasted, if they are employed upon a too multifarious variety of objects. To find a just mean between such a pernicious dispersion, and an excessive concentration of the youthful energies, is one of the great problems of modern education. But there is a growing disposition to believe that the circle traced by the usage of former times for the objects of learning may be profitably extended; and that a system which only opens a few pages of the volume of History, without unrolling any portion of the book of Nature, is not sufficiently large. And this is an opinion. which it would not be wise or safe for us to disregard. The extent to which it may be beneficially carried into practice, is a question which must be left to the judgment and experience of those with whom the responsibility rests. But I

venture to think that a course of education will not long be commonly accounted large or liberal, which confines itself, even in its carly stage, to a single branch of knowledge, and which does not at least open an access to the rest, by embracing such studies as are preparatory to them, by exercising the faculties which are especially employed upon them, and by giving such an insight into their nature as may awaken an intelligent curiosity, and a desire for farther proficiency in them.

And once more, and above all, I would say that the education afforded by such an institution as this should be practical. And by this I mean neither to include nor to exclude that which often passes under the name, as if alone entitled to it-the knowledge which is applicable to the supply of the material wants of society. I could not admit that the sciences which are connected with this object are either eminently practical or eminently progressive, unless I believed that historical knowledge has no bearing upon action, or that it admits of no enlargement from future observations and discoveries. But when I speak of practical education, I am speaking of that quality, without which no education deserves the name, and which involves the highest end of all learning. What that end is, I may express in a few words better and weightier than my own. Our great sacred poet, whose learning was only inferior to his genius, when he was about to sketch a scheme of education so large and comprehensive, that it would seem as if our age must have degenerated from one in which so vast a thought could be conceived, prefaces his proposal with this description of its ultimate object: "The end," he says, "of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents, by regaining to know God aright, and cut of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest, by possessing our souls of truc virtue, which, being united to the heavenly grace of faith, Lakes up the highest perfection." And it is evident that

this is an end which must be kept constantly in view, and that the providing for it is not a business for which particular seasons are to be set apart, so that it may take its turn with others, but one which should be going on at all times. The discipline of the mind should be kept subservient to the discipline of the heart and of the will. Truth should be exhibited in its eternal triune being, as inseparably united with beauty and goodness. I have said that truth is the fountain of beauty; and the father of modern philosophy observes, "Certain it is that truth and goodness differ but as the scal and the print; for truth prints goodness." This is the impression which we would have continually made on the learner's mind by all his studies, whether they relate to the works or to the ways of God, to nature or to history. In all, he should be led to seek, and to love, wherever it is found, the true, the beautiful, and the good. Where such is the prevailing spirit of the place, the school becomes holy ground-a temple ever ringing with the exhortation, "SURSUM CORDA." UPWARD, HEARTS-upward, above all paltry, sordid, grovelling aims and desires: upward, to a level with the dignity of your calling, the privileges and duties of your station, the importance and arduousness of your work: upward, to a fellowship with the wise and good of all ages and all nations: upward, to the Father of Lights, the Fountain of all Goodness: LIFT UP YOUR HEARTS. And from the inmost depth of many devoted wills there rises the clear response, WE LIFT THEM UP UNTO THE LORD.

It is only when it has been thus purified and hallowed by charity and piety, that knowledge is sublimated into that wisdom, of which such excellent things are spoken, and to which such glorious promises are made, in the Word of God. The royal Preacher, indeed, immediately after that commendation of wisdom which has furnished a theme for our present meditations, subjoins a reflectior, which, like many in

this singular and difficult book, has a perplexing and a saddening sound, as if it came from another voice than that which had just declared, "Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness." For he proceeds to say, "The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness; and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all." To the wise man and to the fool; but that one event which happens to them, as to all mankind, is the only point in their history that is common to both. To the wise man and to the fool; but not to wisdom and to folly, any more than to light and to darkness. For light and wisdom spring from the same divine perennial Source, and can never be quenched or pass away. To the wise man and to the fool-to him who devotes his laborious days to the cause of truth and goodness, and to him who wastes his time and faculties upon selfish, frivolous, or mischievous pursuits—there happeneth one event—one in its nature; but how different its consequences for the one, from those which attend it for the other! The one closes a misspent life in an unblessed, unhonoured grave, with shame behind, and terrors before him. The other rests from his labours; but his works follow him. His memorial has not perished with him. Even upon earth he lives on, in the remembrance of the wise and good. The torch he carried is not reversed, but handed down to give light to future generations. His hope is full of immortality. That for which, and in which, he lived can never die. His name is enrolled among those who stood on the side of light against darkness, of good against evil. He will share their triumph. When all the powers of evil shall have been put to flight, when the last shades of darkness shall have melted into the perfect day, he will still be found amid that glorious company, beaming with the light of heavenly Wisdom, glowing with the warmth of infinite Love.

We need but a little acquaintance with mankind, in order to perceive that their pursuits are exceedingly various; the objects which they "thirst after" widely different. Sony make pleasure their idol; and, to attain it, throw off all restraint, "doing even what they list." Others have no higher view than the acquisition of wealth, and the providing largely for the present and future support of their families. With others, to attain a place of great distinction, to be widely known, and enjoy a high reputation among men, appears of all things the most desirable. In the meantime, God is forgotten, his worship is neglected, his Scriptures despised, his will unknown; whether he has made a revelation, or whether such lives conform to it, is no more considered than if it concerned a different race of beings. I need hardly say, then, that all who live with these views mainly before their eyes, are going astray more or less widely, more or less dangerously. Our Lord's blessing applies not to them. No blessing, but rather wo, attaches to those who are "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God"