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become impregnated with their ferocity and cruelty; and read with fresh delight, that one great hero dragged the dead body of his antagonist three times round a city, and that another pierced the body of his foe in a thousand places. And this is enough to account for that horrid system of flogging and severe corporal punishment, which exist in them, and which is a sufficient proof of how little their systems are calculated to soften or improve the human heart. But we trust that a new era is about to commence in education. The minds, not only of the enlightened few, but of the powerful many, are evidently directed to it; and positive knowledge will be required to be communicated, instead of the fleeting shadows of worldly instruction. It will be held indisputably just, that every one, whatever may be his station, should be enabled to comprehend his true relations to the external world, and to his fellow creatures; to know the dignity inherent in him as a moral and intellectual agent, and the propriety of submitting to all the natural laws, physical, organic, moral, and intellectual; to keep in view the ends of existence, and to feel that the meanest and the humblest are as useful and as noble as the proudest, while performing the duties of their calling.

With regard to the agricultural school of Fellenberg, we look upon it as a model for the national schools of England to copy. The constitutions of these schools and the principles on which they are founded, will not allow the same latitude of religious opinion as at Hofwyl; but this concerns not the introduction of the industrial part of it, and the assimilation of the purely secular instruction which might be given. It has been proved by Mr. John Hull, that an agricultural school, if put under a judicious manager, might be made to pay much of its own expense. In agricultural districts such schools would be highly serviceable, in preparing that portion of our population for the Allotment System. No school, whatever may be its system, should be without a large garden, and the government, in making their grants through the educational societies, ought to stipulate expressly for this as a condition. We have ourselves tried the plan, and can bear ample testimony to its excellent effects on the children, the parents of the children, and even the teacher. The rights of property are more clearly defined and understood, the meum and tuum principle is connected with moral obligation and equity. Let such schools be established, affording also a broad, a comprehensive, and a useful education, by those who can cast away the foolish and miserable fear, that the poor can be over-educated, and the result we feel assured will be in the highest degree beneficial to the nation. It is with pleasure that we observe that an agricultural school, in accordance with the principles of Fellenberg, for the preparation of teachers, and for the instruction of the children in agricultural and other labour, has already commenced with considerable promise of success, and we hope at no distant period to be able to lay before our readers, a particular account of the workings and the effect of this highly laudable and useful institution.

ORIGINAL POETRY.

LINES WRITTEN IMMEDIATELY ON HEARING OF THE DEATH OF WILLIAM WILBERFORCE.

"And we shall meet,

Where parting tears shall cease to flow:

And, when I think thereon, almost I long to go."

WHY should we mourn the happy dead?

Why grieve, as though below,

Those yet were mingling in our cares,

Who are as seraphs now?

Have they not gain'd their long-sought homes

That home they love the best,

"Where the wicked cease from troubling,

And the weary are at rest?"

Was it well to tread the path

That Christ had trod before,

And cheerfully to bear the Cross

That he so willing bore?

"Tis better far to share his crown,

With him an equal guest

"Where the wicked cease from troubling,

And the weary are at rest."

Was it well to speak of peace,

To search into distress

To make, by bearing well our own,

The woes of others less?

'Tis better far to see the soul

From every pain releas'd,

"Where the wicked cease from troubling,

And the weary are at rest."

Was it well with bread of heaven

To feed the hungry soul

To preach how grace, with mercy crown'd,

Shall fear no judgment scroll?

"Tis better far to hear that soul

Invited to be blest

"Where the wicked cease from troubling,

And the weary are at rest."

'Tis best to be where prayer and praise

Are never faintly pour'd,

And charity that knows no stain

By heavenly hosts ador'd;

Where happiness shall light upon

The many here distress'd

"Where the wicked cease from troubling,

And the weary are at rest:"

And nothing heard from those we love

That both would wish unsaid,

And nothing from temptation more

That we ourselves may dread.

Oh then we are reposing

Upon our Father's breast

"Where the wicked cease from troubling,

And the weary are at rest."

THE SCHOOL-BOY'S CRY.

Give us knowledge, give us knowledge; oh! let this be our cry
By day, by night, from year to year, and never let it die;
Reveal, from heaven's own book, our God,—implant in us his word,
And let us know salvation too, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Give us knowledge, give us knowledge, why keep away the light?
Our God who made the sun to shine, gave with it sense of sight;
His noblest gift, that universe-of soul, and sense, and mind,
He never gave for man to dare to keep it dark and blind.

Give us knowledge, give us knowledge, of number, form, and space,
That we our way in life's rough road with certainty may trace;
That art may not o'er-reach us, nor sly cunning do us wrong;
That we may reckon cost and loss, and be in prudence strong.

Give us knowledge, give us knowledge, of our dear father-land,
Oh! tell us of the hero hearts, that stood a glorious band,
To guard their children's liberty, or hurl the tyrant down ;
And dar'd to save, in days of strife, the altar and the throne.

Give us knowledge, give us knowledge, say how this sphere is made;
Reveal the wonders of our God, in earth or heaven display'd:
Oh! tell us of the million stars, above in glory spread;
Oh! tell us of the rocks and gems, in earth's dark secret bed.

Give us knowledge, give us knowledge, of nature and her laws,
And lead us from our ignorance, to know the great First Cause ;
That we may feel ourselves a part of the all-wondrous whole-
Link'd, by his wisdom and his love, as body is to soul.

Give us knowledge, give us knowledge; cast coward fears away;
Show us the laws that govern us, else how shall we obey:
The ermin'd judge may move along in pomp, parade, and pride,
His course is guilty, while the throng this knowledge is denied.

Give us knowledge, give us knowledge, oh! speak of other lands;
Tell us, if other nations lift to God their hearts and hands;
If beauty glows, and glory shines, and virtue is confin'd
To us alone, or if it beams throughout all human kind.

Give us knowledge, give us knowledge, oh! tell us of this form,
This flesh and blood now breathing forth, alive, and young, and warm:
Why beats this heart, how moves this arm, why thinks this active brain;
And why succeed these constant throbs of pleasure, and of pain?

Give us knowledge, give us knowledge, a curse will rest on those
Who strive to quench the human mind, or would its march oppose.
Go stay the sea from flowing, or forge fetters for the wind;
But do not madly, foolishly, attempt to chain the mind.

THE BLESSINGS OF EDUCATION.

(From a MS. work, entitled "The Friend of Man, in his Social, Philanthropic, and Educational Pleasures.")

BY A CLERGYMAN OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not, I searched out.

JOB XXIX. 16.

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It is very difficult to convince a man who has arrived at an advanced period of life, that there is any advantage in the possession of knowledge that hitherto he has never desired. Tell a man that you can increase his bodily comforts, and he will be all attention. And you increase bodily ease and recreation (for the body sympathizes with the mind), by an increased cultivation of mind. But it appears to the unenlightened to be too round-about a way, if any way at all. Mental delight hardly copes with sensual pleasure. And how can we be surprised, when a long life has been totally devoted to the one, and totally inexperienced in the other? The question has never raised a conflict in the breast―shall I lay a shilling out in the alehouse, or shall I buy a book? Never been raised, because though the man could drink, he could not read. When I have heard the candidates for the people's favour at an election appeal to their grosser appetites, I have thought it a severe satire on the people of England. Even in Ireland, and to a shoeless mob, O'Connell always calls to his aid the more elevated feelings of human nature. Pure patriotism seems to be at a lesser discount there than in England. Here the man, who gives away most, and keeps the best house, is the best man; and thus the people vote for their aristocracy, whom they talk of lowering, by voting for the wealthier candidate. They spurn one of themselves in point of birth and humble possessions, though he may be a man of talent and blameless character, and able to unravel the maze of domestic and foreign affairs. These things tell not in favour of the people, as regards their educational attainments. But in Ireland they are educated still less! May be so-but there is an inborn genius belonging to that people, which has never been weighed down by the sottish propensities of our own. Ours too certainly, are consigned to a slow and plodding work at an earlier age, and more continually. But this latter is not the reason, for many now, like Burns, may be

entire

"The simple bard, rough at the rustic plough,
Learning his tuneful trade from every bough."

or like Fergusson, the shepherd's boy, turning the contemplation of the stars to useful and elevating account; or like Carey and Morrison, be training themselves for the future labours of the learned and zealous missionary.

It is not my intention here to speak of the blessings of education on one particular cast of mind only, the mind endowed, by God's gift, with natural genius, or the highly cultivated. I speak of them, as they concern the greater mass of the poorer community that bears so large a proportion to the wealthy classes in every country. And let me be understood to speak of the fruits of education rather than of its process. For see that boy sitting on the school-room form and fixing his reluctant gaze on the dog-eared book: surely his present VOL. I.-June, 1835.

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sensations are any thing but pleasurable. And yet his very occupa tion, however sullenly undertaken at first, is fitting him for a respectable station in civilized life. Were the responsibility of a moral character, which reason attaches to him, no greater than that which may belong to animal instinct, he might be allowed to run wild in the fields, and as the nursery story of Valentine and Orson acquaints us, become fitting society for the beasts of the forest, or at least for that only of degraded men. But look again at the school-room form: see that neat clean boy with so precise a countenance. He has said his spelling early, and has just satisfactorily completed his task in arithmetic. He is fond of his book, invariably does his lessons well, and derives an inward satisfaction from the consciousness that he is doing right, and preparing himself for greater exertions. He will certainly do well in after-life, but he must sustain his habits of industry; and he, like the other, has gone through much difficult and crying work. So that even children must not be deceivingly told of the unmixed pleasures of the primal offices of education. Labour can never be materially removed from the human race, any more than pain. Now-a-days the amputation of a limb is a far easier process than formerly, and even the drawing a tooth is more expertly managed: but still to both of these operations there yet belongs very much suf fering. And so books are written to make knowledge easily acquired, but how well does our poet tell us of the first, as well as the more advanced labours of learning

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Reading made easy:" So the titles tell;
But they who read must first begin to spell :
There may he profit in these arts, but still
Learning is labour, call it what you will-
Upon the youthful mind a heavy load;
Nor must he hope to find the royal road.
Some will their easy steps to science show,
And some to heaven itself their by-way know:

Ah! trust them not-who fame or bliss would share,
Must learn by labour, and must live by care.”

Crabbe's Borough Letter, 24.

So speaks our poet Crabbe (whose writings all should read), and so have spoken all the poets, and philosophers, and orators, whose times we are acquainted with: and so will all wise men speak to the end of all time.

Education too must not be followed to the neglect of the more immediate concerns of life; or, like the cameleon, we shall be accounted as beings living on empty air. Education in its different branches, like religion, must be regarded as the guide and auxiliary of all our duties and occupations in active life. Even more, it may be looked on as the creator of occupations; and ways and means of existence are presented to the educated mind which the ignorant cannot attempt. And most certainly discoveries are made, through it, in the ways of pleasantness and paths of peace, which are wholly hid from the uncultivated intellect, and whose places must be supplied by those pleasures of the grosser kind, which, acting through the agency of the bodily senses only, we call sensual. It is not my object in this dis

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