Perhaps they have an instinctive feeling, that malice being driven from the door, conscience may rush in with a demand for reparation, a demand which they are predetermined to reject.

DXXIV.

It deserves to be better considered than it has been, that New Churchmen possess, in the personal character of Swedenborg, an invaluable example of unsurpassed nobility and spirituality of character, moral and intellectual. Every New Churchman would do well to place this example constantly before him, as an object of the sincerest veneration, and the closest imitation. Well may he regard the example of this truly great man, as an all but perfect practical commentary on the example of the Divine Man, our Lord Jesus Christ. Children might be advantageously impressed with this, because, at their age, the influence of a doctrine depends very much on their reverence for the person of its teacher. A personal sanction of such great weight immensely adds to the moral power of the doctrines with the external man, (which is part of the mental constitution of all,) however powerfully the internal may be impressed with their abstract excellence.

DXXV.

If in your intercourse with others, you really wish to benefit them rather than to please yourself, carefully observe what it is they want to know, or wish to convey, in preference to what you desire to say yourself. However valuable the latter may be in the abstract, it can be of no value to those who turn a deaf ear to it in consequence of their minds being pre-occupied with another object.

DXXVI.

He who is too prompt in giving his opinion, because he would not appear at a loss, is liable to be so lightly impressed with what he has said, as to give, without knowing it, a contrary opinion at another time. Thus he falls into the unhappy position of being suspected as a man deficient of sincere reverence for the truth, fickle in opinion, and without a proper regard to consistency. There is no remedy for this failing but in the Psalmist's prayer, Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips."

66

(To be continued.)

ON FEMALE EDUCATION.

It is with some timidity that we offer any additional remarks on a subject that has been so repeatedly as well as so ably discussed in the pages of this Magazine, but its importance must be our apology. It is more

especially to the defective nature of the education usually given to the female sex, that we desire to direct the attention on the present occasion. We most cordially agree with the very useful and just remarks of R. E. in the Intellectual Repository for November, 1848, relative to the undue value placed upon the ornamental accomplishments in comparison with the estimation in which the useful ones are held, which, indeed, are hardly permitted to enter the list at all, though no lady deserves to be styled accomplished who does not possess both kinds of knowledge the ornamental and useful. The fact that among a considerable portion of society it is considered quite lowering to the dignity of a lady to acknowledge that she has assisted, in any degree, in preparing the viands she sets before her friends, is a grievous evidence of the disrepute into which usefulness has fallen with the so-called genteel part of society. This is truly the degeneracy of refinement, and is but a poor preparation for that state in which use is regarded in the first place. Here the order is inverted: the idle and useless are looked up to, whilst those who are daily ministering to the wants of others in various ways, are regarded as unworthy of notice or consideration. This is an evil greatly to be deplored, but it is so deeply interwoven with our social laws and customs, that it seems hopeless to endeavour to remedy it, though it becomes each of us to make the attempt.

But to return to our subject:-The writings of the New Church teach us that there is an internal and external mind, the latter being as the storehouse from which the former selects those knowledges which assist in forming its intelligence and wisdom. Swedenborg says that "Man from infancy, even to the end of his life in this world, is perfecting as to intelligence and wisdom, and if it shall be well with him as to faith and love; scientifics principally conduce to that use; scientifics are imbibed by hearing, seeing, and reading, and are stored up in the external or natural memory; these serve the internal sight or understanding for a plane of objects, that it may choose and select thence such things as promote wisdom; for the interior sight or understanding, by virtue of its light which is from heaven, looks into that plane, or into that memory, which is beneath itself, and from the various things contained therein, it chooses and selects such things as are agreeable to its love; those things it then calls forth to itself, and stores up in its own memory, which is the internal memory, hence the life of the internal man and his intelligence and wisdom," &c.-A. C. 9, 723.

Such being the case, does it not appear desirable that we should endeavour to store the external memory as fully as possible with scientifics of various kinds for the internal man to make use of, thus promoting its

intelligence and wisdom? The mind being the immortal part of man, carries with it, into the next world, all its powers complete, but capable of more extended delights in proportion to the degree in which its powers have been exercised according to order in this world. It is true that the greater development of the mind will only serve to increase the misery of those who have made use of their knowledge for evil purposes; but this is no argument against the cultivation of the intellect amongst the young.

Having arrived at the conclusion that no portion of the functions of the brain has its uses confined exclusively to this world, we shall readily acknowledge that an education which tends most fully to develop all the mental powers is most valuable, and this equally for girls as for boys; and it is manifestly the duty of all parents to do what lies in their power to procure it for their children. The instruction of young people, of both sexes, is too frequently restricted to those branches of education only of which parents see the manifest use in external operations, from the false idea they entertain that various departments of study will be of no use to them when they grow up; but a little reflection will shew that every kind of knowledge is capable of improving and elevating the character, and increasing the usefulness of its possessor.

The mind, like the body, to be in a healthy state, must have all its powers brought into action. A more general education, both for boys and girls, is much wanted; this cannot be obtained without some sacrifice, and will parents refuse to make it? Will they, in order that their sons may equal other boys of their age, in their knowledge of Latin and Greek, doom them to ignorance of the modern languages, music, drawing, and, what is of still greater importance, of natural philosophy and the higher branches of arithmetic, as well as numerous other sources of instruction? It is true that but a small quota of knowledge, on these various subjects, can be attained during the years generally allotted to study; but what is termed education is really only the opening up of various inlets through which the mind may hereafter receive instruction. It is, so to speak, arranging so many empty vessels for the reception of various truths suited to them, which truths are again, in their turn, the receptacles of truths of a more interior nature, and this throughout eternity. Thus general truths, unencumbered by particulars, should be imparted in the first instance, and when these have received an orderly arrangement in the mind, they are capable of being divided and subdivided, until, at length, the mind is enabled to view the subject in all its bearings.

But we would further ask, will parents act as if they imagined

that a more circumscribed range of phrenological organs were bestowed upon the female than on the male sex,-that they must be shut out, by education, from the noble delights of scientific knowledge, the fascinating and exalting study of mathematics, or the enjoyments derived from reading the best Greek and Latin authors in their own languages? It is true that to obtain these advantages, they must devote a smaller portion of their time to the attainment of a proficiency in what are called accomplishments, and parents must forego the gratification of hearing or imagining that their daughters excel others in music, singing, &c. The sacrifice is small indeed, the gain great; for it is not confined to the happy possessor of so many sources of enjoyment; her friends, more particularly her husband and children, share with her in this treasure, and thus render it doubly valuable. Nay, it is impossible to calculate the increase of domestic happiness which would arise and bless our land, could husbands find in their wives companions who were able to enter into their intellectual pursuits, and enjoy them with them, instead of being compelled to seek, in other society, that mental association which they look for in vain amongst those whose education has been confined to mere accomplishments and the more ordinary routine of instruction.

As it is impossible to estimate the influence for good or evil which wives and mothers possess over their husbands and children, and, through them, on society in general, so too great care and attention cannot be bestowed in preparing them for their important duties; and we cannot see any reason why their branches of study should be more restricted than that of boys, as there would always be, in a well-conducted education, ample time for the acquirement of those departments of knowledge which belong more peculiarly to the female sex. We would earnestly appeal to those fathers who seek refreshment, after their daily labours, in the paths of science and literature, and ask, if the delight which such pursuits awaken in them does not recal them to a sense of the injustice they are guilty of, if they do not endeavour to place such enjoyments within the reach of all their children. Here, perhaps, we shall be met by the objection that such an education would be too expensive. In some cases this might be a just plea; but, in by far the greater number, we believe that a little more economy in dress, or the money expended in gaieties and superfluities, would easily provide for the increased expenditure, and prevent such an excuse from becoming hereditary; as the husbands of daughters so educated would find in their beloved partners not only a companion capable of sharing all their enjoyments, but one fitted also to become the instructor of their children during the first years of their lives, who, by this means, would be preserved from mixing, at

too early an age, with those whose companionship might prove injurious to them; and being thus kept ignorant of many vices, we might hope that the spiritual truths instilled into them would meet with less opposition, and secure a more permanent abode in their minds. But the advantages of a judicious early education, under the parental roof, cannot be enumerated, and the happiness resulting, both to parents and children, by such a plan, can only be fully realized by those who have adopted it. It will more than repay all the toil and anxiety attendant upon it, and will be an unspeakable blessing both to the teacher and the taught.

Perhaps some may entertain the fear that were women more highly educated, they might lose that modesty and humility which add so much to the loveliness of the female character, and pride themselves on their own intellect, instead of loving the truth received through their husbands; but we do not apprehend that this would be the result, if the cultivation of the intellect became more general. It is only when knowledge is possessed in an uncommon degree that its possessor is in danger of entertaining too exalted an opinion of his own attainments. No kind of study is so calculated to produce humility as that of the works of the Creator, as, the further we advance in any one department of the natural sciences, the more inexhaustible we shall find it; each fresh acquirement only awakening new inquiry, which, when gratified, again unfolds some hidden or mysterious law which the human mind seeks in vain to solve; and, impressed with its own ignorance and weakness, when compared with the Supreme Intelligence, exclaims, with reverential awe, "O Lord, how manifold are Thy works, in wisdom hast Thou made them all, the earth is full of Thy riches!" MARY.

EMBLEMS.

(Continued from page 29.)

PASSING to inanimate nature, we find it quite as rife of emblems as the organic world. What, for instance, is more beautifully emblematic of the flying of time than the perpetual rolling of a river? This thought, so natural in itself, from the readiness with which the resemblance addresses itself to the analogy-discerning faculty, has been expressed in verse by many of the poets, and can scarcely fail to have