We know God is good.

How do we know that God is good?

The Bible says so.

How did the Bible people find it out?
God told them.

How? was it in the same way as Christ says: their angels beheld the Father when they were babies? in another place-the pure in heart see God.

I do not remember of seeing God, said one.

A

He says

Not the form or image of God, which you have in your imagination now, perhaps; and not the name of Godwhich you certainly did not know till you began to use your ears; but you may have felt his character, and it was that, perhaps, that made your first feelings happy, loving, and confidential. Your feelings remember God-for you are very sure God is good; and that is a very different thing from your head's remembering a name. The remembrance of God's character is Conscience. I dare say when you act according to conscience, you feel all is right, and as if you had got home again to God, after being away. This conversation was applied to their duties. They all had the care of infants and little children, although they were themselves so young for thus it is in the families of the poor, when parents are obliged to go out to work. Adverting to what they had said, of babies seeming to expect people would be kind to them and love them, I remarked how different babies were in this respect from animals, who began with being afraid of every thing; and I remarked that if babies did "behold the father," it was no wonder they believed in kindness and love; had confidence and faith in others; and that it was so long before a child could get so completely frightened by its pains, that its faith would not kindle up at a smile-which is God's image in the face. They all recognized the fact that babies do not begin to be afraid until they are many months oldunless they have a great deal of pain; and they seemed to take the idea very completely, of how important it must be to watch them, when they could not speak, in order to understand what influence we were having over their little minds; and how careful we ought to be, that they should not suffer from neglect and carelessness, before they could think or understand, lest doubt and fear should take the

place of love and faith in their dispositions. I told them anecdotes of children who used to cry unaccountably; of one who was found, after many months, to have been afraid of the rough feel of broad cloth; and another, of whatever was black; and how a wise care and tenderness should see that the little mind be not exposed to distress and shocks, which might lay the foundations of weakness, scepticism, and fear of the unknown; but how every thing should be done to strengthen and cherish that feeling of God's character, without which, it would be of no use to know God's name.

It may seem to some persons rather out of place, to bring philosophy to bear upon taking care of babies. But here is the starting point of education. And Mr. Alcott does not disdain to let his thoughts begin at the beginning; since so did Christ. "Whosoever offendeth one of these little ones, it were better for him that a millstone were hung about his neck, and he were cast into the uttermost depths of the sea." The principles growing out of the few primal facts of human nature which are stated above, carried out into the whole education-this is Mr. Alcott's system. He would teach children to discriminate spiritual happiness from that bodily ease and enjoyment, which too often takes its place; to cherish the principle of love, by feeding it on beauty and good, and not on illusion; and to clarify and strengthen faith, by getting knowledge in the right way; not by accumulation, but by growth; for there is something at the foundation of the human soul, analagous to the organization of a plant, which does indeed feed on the earth from which it springs, the air in which it flourishes, the light of heaven which comes upon it from afar; but which admits nothing that it cannot assimilate to itself. We may assist a plant, if we will study its nature, but there are things which might be put round one plant, which would destroy another. And so we may assist a soul; but there is only one way. We must study its nature; we must offer the individual those elements alone, which it needs, and at the time it needs them, and never too much, and always enough.

Then we shall find that each soul has a form, a beauty, a purpose of its own. And we shall also find, that there are a few general conditions never to be shut out: that, as the light of heaven, the warmth of earth, and space to expand, are necessary to the plants; so knowledge of God, the sympathy of human love, and liberty to act from within outward, are indispensable to the soul.

APPENDIX.

Instead of re-inserting the appendix of the first volume, I will put in its stead, Extracts from three Journals made this winter, (1836.) The first is from the diary of a little girl, and the two others from those of boys of ten and eleven years of age. The first does not show so much talent, as those of the boys, but it gives a pleasing idea of the succession of the exercises, in the mind of a simpleminded little girl. It is put in with all its errors.

The general order of Exercises for the Sehool, during this particular quarter, may be seen from the following card. (See next page.)