When we have embraced the principle, that it is not the form of religion, but its spirit, that giveth life-the Bible at once becomes a new book to us; the fountain of its poetry and its eloquence is unsealed, and its waters flow over into our hearts in streams of refreshing and unfailing copiousness. Through the forms of different ages and of different minds, which rise up before us in delightful and animating variety, we can trace the working and development of the one eternal spirit, which fashions all hearts and minds for its own high purposes. In the child-like simplicity of the patriarchs, in the wisdom of Moses, in the fervent thanksgivings and plaintive melodies of the psalmist, in the inspired majesty of the prophets, in the sublime devotion and philanthropy of Christ, and in the rich unction of the spirit of St. Paul-we can feel, penetrating to us through various channels, which all terminate equally in the primitive source of light -the power of that divine truth, which ever finds a ready audience and a grateful response in every pure, simple, unprejudiced and unscrupulous heart.

When the servile prejudices by which we are now fettered shall have subsided-when we shall have learned to think more of the sense intended to be conveyed, than of the manner in which it was expressed-we shall probably find it desirable and convenient (without incurring the charge of profaneness, because we cannot regard the Mosaic account of the Creation, the Song of Solomon, or the visions of the Apocalypse, of the same practical importance with the Sermon on the Mount, or Christ's parting address to his disciples) to introduce a more exact classification of the books of Scripture, for the purposes of private reading and public edification, under the different heads of history, poetry, morality, devotion, and doctrine; and recommend them to the study of our youth, and use them in our places of worship, with an intelligent reference to their contents and to their relative value and importance, that will better serve the purposes of religious instruction and true piety, than that vague sentiment of reverence with which some people recur to the Bible, as if its mere words exercised a sort of mystical influence, apart from the spirit of truth and wisdom which breathes in them.

Amidst the apparent tenacity with which different sects adhere to their hereditary faith, traces may still be discovered of a preparation for a more enlarged and catholic conception of Christianity. To its realization a freer use of the Scriptures is indispensable. The point of union which all good men are seeking after, is not to be found in the letter, but in the spirit; not in the caput mortuum of creeds and confessions and worn out con

troversies, but in the living power of a hearty faith and universal love-prepared to adore a Father's presence in all things, and to reverence his image, as a title to honour and affection, in every child of man.

Meanwhile, it is the inevitable condition of such a state of transition, that great and perhaps painful differences of opinion should arise between the best men and the sincerest lovers of truth. To some we shall appear to be advancing too rapidly; to others, to be lingering behind. Let every man be true to his own convictions, and fearlessly do that which his conscience tells him is right. We are at best but instruments in the hands of a higher Power; and all he asks from us, is fidelity of purpose and endeavour in the exercise of such talents as he has entrusted to us. Children of the same Father, fellow-workers in the same great scheme of moral and intellectual discipline-let us not aggravate the toils and difficulties of our course by mutual distrust and alienation for differences of opinion, which God has decreed should exist, and which it is impossible for man to prevent. Let us possess our minds with a supreme love of truth, and a steadfast confidence in its final results; and let us esteem in each other that earnest desire to discover it, which we trust exists in ourselves;-convinced that, if we live and act in this spirit, we shall each fulfil the particular task of duty assigned us by God, and that, when this short life is over and gone, we shall meet as fellow-labourers under happier influences, and in a wider field of activity, where no differences of opinion and collision of interest shall ever more interrupt the friendship and the sympathy of the virtuous, but every effort they make, and every aspiration they indulge, will be directed by the light of heavenly certainty, and cheered by the influences of pure and unbounded love.

J. J. T.

ART. IV. PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION; OR, CONSIDERATIONS ON THE COURSE OF LIFE.-Translated from the French of Madame NECKER DE SAUSSURE. 2 vols. London: 1839.

THE valuable work of Madame Necker de Saussure upon Progressive Education has obtained an extensive circulation in France; and the translation of it by one who is evidently a practised and accomplished writer, puts within the reach of English mothers this valuable and practical treatise on the most important of all sciences.

Miss Holland, to whose exertions as translator we are so much indebted, tells us at the commencement of a short interesting preface, compressed, as she informs us, from two separate articles in the original, that the object of the work is to afford "a sort of moral history of life, in which the various means of improvement offered at different ages are pointed out." No one seems better qualified to accomplish such an object than Madame Necker. Endowed with a spirit of patient industry, and of calm inquiry, with a deep power of observation, and with a mind that can accurately understand the workings and development of the human character, she enters upon her task well acquainted with her subject, and cannot fail to carry conviction to every unbiassed reader, by the closeness of her reasonings, and the soundness of her deductions.

The work before us is founded on the axiom, that all progressive education must consist in the steady and perpetual watching of the first development of the child's faculties. It reduces a long course of actual observations and their results to a complete system calculated to advance and perfect, most materially, that important science, the object of which is to improve the moral discipline and intellectual culture of the rising generation. These volumes therefore are a valuable addition to our knowledge of a science which has not hitherto been studied in a manner commensurate to its importance as being the most essential to the real advancement of the human character. For when we reflect that the education begun here is only preparing the human soul for its eternal progress, it becomes, not only a most interesting object, but a sacred duty, to investigate by what means the mind may be most improved, the feelings elevated, the will regulated, and those capacious powers developed which lie folded up in every breathing soul; thus to prepare the man,

not only for the ordeal of this life, but also for that state of moral and intellectual perfectibility to which he is heir.

Education, considered as a science, is a subject which has occupied the attention of some of the deepest thinkers and most enlightened writers, but even such minds as Milton's and Locke's have failed to establish any principles, founded on experience, for the first development of the child's powers and the gradual improvement of his capacity. Their systems are rather founded on theory than on such careful observation and experience as can alone furnish rules of practical utility which may be easily adopted and safely followed by all concerned in the management and instruction of children during the first stages of existence.

To Rousseau is the world indebted for having first made this subject interesting to the feelings and the imagination. No one can read his treatise, Emile, ou l'Education, without feeling the original conception, the eloquent description, the bold expression of this enchanting history: from infancy to manhood he accompanies his pupil: from the base to the summit of his ideal hill does he climb: often digressing to gather wayside flowers, and pausing to draw deep draughts of pure thought, and true philosophy. But though every one may read and study his work with advantage, no one can with safety follow it as a guide: his conclusions are the workings of his own imagination, not the result of his experience; his precepts are unsupported by, and often inconsistent with, facts; and we suspect that Emile would present but a melancholy appearance if compelled to engage in the active business of life, and to contend with this our struggling, striving, and self-interested world.

At the close of the preceding, and at the commencement of the present, century, a considerable attention has been given to the subject of early education; and several very interesting treatises on it produced, written, for the most part, in a calm and philosophic spirit. We have the works of Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. Hannah More, and the enthusiastic Pestalozzi. But the productions which, at the time, evinced the greatest originality, and effected most for the alteration and improvement of existing methods of instruction, were presented by those amiable and enlightened coadjutors, Mr. Edgeworth and his highly-gifted daughter, who employed their talents with so much success for the amusement and instruction of the young.

But though all these, and particularly the last-named, writers have furnished us with matter for much important consideration, and with systems of education, evincing deep and patient thought, and a searching knowledge of the human heart, in one point of

view they must, without doubt, be said to have failed to give rules of easy application; they offer to us the results of observations, but not the observations themselves; the inferences from facts, but not the facts; and often in cases of difficulty and doubt, when the parent hastens to consult these works for real and satisfactory information, they oblige him to trust to the indefinite conjectures of hypotheses, instead of the substantial evidence of actual experience. Free from these objections, the work of Madame Necker stands pre-eminent; we feel that we are there perusing the true and attentive observations of a judicious reader of human life; of one who has power to observe, to analyse, and to compare. Madame Necker must thoroughly have understood the ways, thoughts, feelings, and ideas of children: she gives no ideal delineation of their conduct; she builds no imaginary theory; her work is the result of long and patient examination, and of a constant attention to the wants, wishes, action, and development of the infant mind. She sets down nothing but what she has herself seen; and we feel that she has followed with patience and success a method which she strongly recommends to others; that every parent should keep a diary of her child's progress; of his mental, moral, and physical advancement; of his daily actions; and of his first impressions; thus securing for herself a safe and unerring guide in the education of her offspring, and enabling her to realize again, at any future period, the bright and evanescent scenes of infancy, and to turn at pleasure to a memorial which will unfold to her some of the purest thoughts, the sweetest feelings, that the human heart is capable of enjoying.

"I would have it a true journal, in which an account should be kept of every successive step made by the child; where every vicissitude in its health, whether mental or physical, should be registered, and where the measure of the child, in every meaning of the word, as taken at different periods of his age, should be noted down. Words, ideas, knowledge, feelings, every thing, in short, which is either naturally unfolded in the mind, or acquired by education, should be here recorded, together with the first appearance of every endowment and every defect; the original source of which would thus be open to our consideration. And as we cannot describe a child without relating his history, such a journal would be enlivened by the little incidents of each day, and the joy and sorrows peculiar to his age; nor would it be long before the task of keeping it would become to the mother the most interesting of employments. She would feel that she was securing to herself, for the future, the recollection of this most fascinating age; and how delightful would it be, thus to fix the fugitive image of infancy, to prolong to an indefinite period the happiness of beholding its charms, and to have the power of