"That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth." Happy is that people that is in such a case; yea, happy is Psalm cxliv. 12, 15. INTRODUCTION. I HAVE been requested to preface this useful series of Addresses to boys at school with a short introduction, and gladly respond to the desire expressed, both on account of the interesting class which the Author designs to benefit, and the apt as well as valuable remarks contained in her book, The education of youth is confessedly one of the leading subjects of the day. This movement will be found by after generations to occupy one of the most prominent places in the chronicles of our times. It a curious fact, yet hardly to be disputed, that the recent progress of education through the masses of society has been from below upwards. In most other countries, especially those of ancient date, the order has been exactly the reverse. But in England, the great impulse in modern days touched first the working classes. Within the space of a few years a Government department may be said to have been created for the education of their children, and its operations have progressed with such rapid and gigantic strides that our country, which, in the days of our forefathers was singularly defective in what foreigners call primary education, has witnessed the erection of almost numberless new buildings replete with the best appliances for instruction, and these have been nied by an equally remarkable supply of well-trained teachers and well prepared books for teaching. This improvement in the education of the lower orders has been communicated to those above them. The middle-class examinations lately introduced, the stir now being made for the better management of our public schools, the alterations in the course of study at our ancient universities, are all testimonies to the educational advance going onward in the middle and higher classes, subsequent to, and I believe in no small measure originating from, the start which has been given by those beneath them. If this must be admitted to be one of the historical facts of the present day in reference to education in general, it must be specially confessed in regard to religious |