ably, induced parents to yield to the restless eagerness of youth, always anxious to escape from the trammels of discipline, and confide in the strength of their untried powers. Pride, too, a false and injurious pride is apt to lend its assistance. Instead of measuring the child's progress by his advancement in learning and in years, the parent is too much inclined to dwell only upon the advance he has made in his classes, and to note, with peculiar gratifica- | tion, the fact, that he is the youngest of the graduates. Often, when it is evident to the teacher, that the pupil's lasting interest would be promoted by reviewing a part of his course, the very suggestion of being put back, is received as an affront, and indignantly rejected, though offered from the kindest and best considered motives. It is a mistake, a great mistake. To hurry a youth into college, and hurry him out of it, that he may have the barren triumph of extraordinary forwardness, is to forget the very end and object of education, which is to give him the full benefit of all that he can acquire in the period, which precedes his choice of a pursuit for life. What is gained by it? If, as frequently happens, he be too young to enter upon the study of a profession, there is an awkward interval when he is left to himself; he is almost sure to misapply and waste his precious time, and is in great danger of contracting permanent habits of idleness and dissipation. But even should this not be the case, of what consequence is it to him, that he should enter upon a profession a year sooner or later, compared with the loss of the opportunity of deepening, and widening, and strengthening the foundations of character, which are then to be laid in a seminary of learning. This opinion is not without decided support. Many intelligent parents have been observed to adopt it in practice, voluntarily lengthening out the education of their children beyond the ordinary limits. Such an improvement as has now been alluded to, ought unquestionably to be aimed at. The progress of liberal education ought to bear some proportion to the rapid advances our country is making in other respects, and to the character and standing which her wealth, her strength, and her resources require her to maintain. It is especially due to the nature of our republican institutions, in order to win for them still higher esteem with mankind, that their capacity should be demonstrated, to encourage and produce whatever is calculated to adorn and to improve our nature, and to contribute our full proportion to the great society of learning and letters in the world. It would be much to be regretted, if the multiplication of colleges were to have the contrary effect, of lowering the standard of education, or of preventing its progressive elevation. Let the competition among them be, not who shall have the most pupils within their walls, but who shall make the best scholars! SAUL'S LAST DAY. BY DR. R. M. BIRD. THAT day the spirit of the monarch fled, And, marvelling, watched their gloomy leader's mood. Shall the harp ring his flagging spirits on? The son of Jesse leads the hostile band.† * But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. 1 Samuel, c. xvi. v 14. "David and his men passed on in the rearward with Achish." (1 Then sound the clarion, wake the timbrel shrill Strike then the cymbal and the rolling drum !— * His captains spoke; the warrior raised his eye,- And they, and I, and Israel, and all."† "Know ye the weapon that ye bear in hand?" He told me not that I was lost to fame ! He told me not, my sinews should deny As rocks that topple from some mountain hoar, Sam. xxix. 2.) The jealousy of the Philistine lords, however, caused Achish to send David back into the land of the Philistines; and he did not appear in this battle. *The Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy. 1 Samuel, ch. xxviii. v. 16. † Ch. xxviii. v. 19. The Lord shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. 1 Samuel, xxviii. 16-20. So from Gilboa's reverend slope they fly, Hark! hark! a shriek! 'twas loud, and wild, and shrill, "Back, back, great king! Gilboa's caves shall show "Said I not thus, the godless should prevail Where are my sons?"--" These corses !"-" Said I not- Nor on his back received the Gentile blow. Haste, slave-strike, strike :* the victor shall not say * Ch. xxxi. v. 4. |