referendæ gratiæ cupiditas! atque in optimâ quaque indole maximè apparent."-De Finibus, v. 22.

The imitative faculty is strong from earliest infancy, and affects the physical as well as the mental developments. The features, the voice, and the gestures of its associates are reflected from the child,-it is a faithful copyist. Possessed of unbounded confidence in its parent or protector, it will, until that confidence has been forfeited by gross deception, be ever ready to act as he may act, to speak as he may speak, and even to think as he may think. If then it is not unimportant that pleasing countenances and graceful figures should surround the young imitator, it is of immense importance that the moral patterns presented to his view should be pure and spotless, and that the ideas introduced to his mind should be marked by truth and utility. The heathen moralist, on this point, uttered the language of Christian duty, when he pronounced the injunction: "Let nothing shameful to be said or seen approach the walls within which is a child.” Then let the youthful attention be as far as possible directed to the noblest works of the Almighty, to the most attractive features of nature and the finest works of art, but above all to the highest standards of morality and truth. Set before the eye of the child the beauties of the animate and inanimate creation, and present to his mind the example of the adorable Saviour of mankind.

Curiosity, or the desire of knowledge, is a principle which is observable in the earliest periods of life. It is frequently the best index of the amount of intellectual power. You present the juvenile toy; see how it is handled and felt, and turned from side to side; observe the repeated attempts to bend or break it. Is this a simple exercise of the juvenile muscles? We believe not. Vision is yet limited. This repeated turning and feeling indicates a mental, not less than a physical process. By these efforts the figure, bulk, hardness, softness, and other properties of the object are investigated, under the impulse of one of the strongest principles implanted in our nature. Of this desire it may be said, " Crescit sibi indulgens.” It requires to be directed with skill and discrimination. It is the mainspring of the most laborious exertions; leading one to pursue this branch, and another that, with untiring devotedness. The educator must enlist it as one of his most powerful auxiliaries. The pleasure of anticipated discovery will encourage the desponding, and stimulate the inert. Columbus will also sometimes descry a "terra incognita," which, although not exactly the latitude he wished to explore, will yet revive his drooping spirits and rally his mutinous forces. The result of the student's efforts may not be precisely that at which he desired to arrive, but it may be one more important and more useful. To secure a proper culture of this principle, we recommend analysis as a mode of tuition immensely superior to synthesis. In the study of numbers, e. g. let no rule be employed that has not been previously deduced by sound reasoning, from simple premises; or, to speak differently, let no pupil be allowed to perform any process until he is able to state distinctly what he is doing, and why he does it. This will prepare for a career of invention and discovery. The habit of correct investigation will thus be formed—a habit of more importance than the utmost expertness in the performance of mere routine operations. The one system will form the man of power and of progressive excellence; the other, the dexterous but yet important imitator. That knowledge which is acquired by personal research will make a deeper and more permanent

impression on the mind than that which is imbibed from the mere ipse dixit of even a Pythagoras. With which town are you better acquainted— with A, through which you followed your friend with implicit confidence, being never for one moment detained in hesitancy with respect to the right turning; or with B, through which you traced your own way, with no other aid than that afforded by your little map?

Another useful principle of action, and effectual engine in the business of education, discovers itself at a very early period,-we speak of the love of esteem. The child, long before he is capable of reflection, can discern the expressions of approbation or of contempt, and is no less elated and encouraged by the one than mortified and offended by the other. Thus he may be early trained to habits of self-restraint and exertions of self-denial. The voice of commendation or of reproach will lead him to control the most boisterous passions, and regulate the keenest appetites. Although we may not class this desire among the highest motives of action, it is a powerful auxiliary to more exalted principles; it operates before reason and conscience exert their mature influence, and renders it an easier task to subject the passions and predilections to the rightful sway of the latter. "Mihi detur ille puer quem laus excitet, quem gloria delectet, et qui victus fleret."-Quinctillian.

The last innate desire which we shall notice in this brief paper is the love of power. An infant exerts its nascent strength on every little object which it can find, and is dissatisfied when any incident occurs to demonstrate its weakness. The school-boy shoots his arrow, or throws the prohibited stone, and views with satisfaction the range of his projectile; he brings his agility into competition with that of his playmates, and exults in the consciousness of superior might; the pleasure with which he contemplates his own power frequently urges him to its wanton abuse; his weak and untutored judgment finds pleasure even in the torture of a fly; he hath exerted his muscles he hath taken successful aim at the chickenhe hath sent it limping away; had he but a sharp knife, and Sir Slaughterer's permission, he would-O horribile dictu!-gratify this urgent propensity by severing even the jugular vein of a hog!

"At puer Ascanius mediis in vallibus acri

Gaudet equo; jamque hos cursu, jam preterit illos;
Spumantemque dari pecora inter inertia votis

Optat aprum, aut fulvum descendere monte leonem."

Now this principle, in conjunction with the desire of knowledge, may be rendered useful in conducting its possessor to the heights of Parnassus. Bacon was not inattentive to the relation subsisting between the two, nor to their harmonious co-operation, when he penned his favourite apothegm"Knowledge is power." The object of the educator, in the treatment of this propensity, ought neither to be its extinction nor its diminution: his business is its proper direction: he finds his pupil impatient of control and averse to subjugation; let him then teach him how abject and imbecile he is when some vicious propensity or impetuous passion has hurried him from the path of rectitude and truth; show him of how many tyrants he is naturally the vassal, and give him to taste of the pleasure he may possess when he bursts but one fetter or gains one step of vantage ground; lead him from victory to victory, he that taketh a city may exult in the possession of power. But the wisest of men -the inspired Solomonpoints out a higher exertion of strength, and a nobler conquest: "He that

is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city."

The limits of a brief paper have compelled us to confine our remarks to a few of the mental emotions. Yet have we said enough to convince him who assumes the province of education that much care, observation, and wisdom are requisite to descriminate between different motives and dispositions, and to determine which ought to be encouraged and which to be restrained. The task is immensely important. The trite maxim, Principiis obsta, is the voice of truth and experience. We might, were we under the influence of poetic ardour, ransack nature for analogies, and find them in the pliant sapling, destined one day to become the sturdy oak, or in the small and ductile rill whose whole current the shepherd-boy diverts, that it may turn his little wheel or complete his pebbly cataract, but which, augmenting gradually and almost imperceptibly, at last rolls along, some boundless Nile or resistless Ganges. But we prefer to conclude with the words of the inspired writer whom we have already quoted: "TRAIN UP A CHILD IN THE WAY IN WHICH HE SHOULD GO, AND WHEN HE IS OLD HE WILL NOT DEPART FROM IT."

MY RAILWAY SHARES.

A TALE FOR THE TIMES.

1. Showeth how, and why, I bought them.

MY DEAR READERS,-I am what is generally termed a family man, or man of family ;—yet not of old family, since I should be puzzled to make you acquainted with the origin and calling of my grandfather; but with a young family growing up around me, which, as I have had some share in bringing it into the world, is more dear to me than a thousand ancestors could be to the proudest duke. My fortune does not entirely depend upon my own exertions; for which reason I am neither harrassed by any fears respecting the pecuniary welfare of my family, nor compelled to adopt the ingenious plan of the people of Folkestone. Now, you may not know anything about this ingenious plan; wherefore, and as I am not in any hurry to get to the end of my story, I will relate the history with brevity and dispatch.

And first you must know, that the people of Folkestone were not always the crack fellows that they are, in their own opinion, just at the present moment. There was a time when they had neither fine packet-boats to swindle you into the hotel, by getting into the harbour just too late for the London train, or a still finer hotel to swindle you out of your money. There was a time when they lived principally upon fish, and didn't know the taste of fresh meat from year's end to year's end. Well, in those days a stranger went down amongst them, who first created an immense sensa

tion by the mere fact of his having come at all, and then quite put that sensation's nose out of joint by cooking some rump-steaks for his own especial eating. Perhaps you don't think much of rump-steaks, because you can visit daily the abodes of Joe or Campbell, where, at your command, an obedient waiter will put his mouth to the call-pipe, and sing out, " One rump-steak-cut to a point, well done, with a little bit of fat;" or indeed anything else that you may choose to order: but if, like the Folkestonians, you had lived on such hard fare as skates and old maids all the days of your life, you would have a more vivid appreciation of their unfortunate case. As soon as the stranger had departed, which he did when he had finished his dinner, the natives gathered round his plate, and gathered up the scraps with wonderful assiduity; after which they carried them to the town-hall, that the elders might hold a council respecting them. And at this council it was moved by the Alderman Cute of the town, that the said fragments should be "put down," after the fashion in which the stranger had "put down" the original steak. This motion was seconded by all the hungry people in the town; but another alderman who had just dined, and consequently thought less of the present than of the future, moved that, if they were put down at all, it should be in the ground, so that they might bring up a plentiful crop for future emergencies. Now, the general wisdom of popular assemblies is so well known that I need hardly tell you of the result. As usual, prudence triumphed over appetite, and the steaks were planted. Well, you may be sure that the natives were jealous of each other all the time that the steaks were supposed to be growing-not allowing any one to go near the field, for fear lest he should take some mustard and salt with him and eat the buds as they came up. Once a week only the municipal authorities went in a body and watered the field with mushroom catsup, by way of giving the crop a flavour. At length, however, they could hold out no longer, so they went in a body to inspect the crop. Well, they searched the whole field over without finding so much as a single shoot, so that they began to fear that the robin-redbreasts had become carnivorous animals and devoured the harvest. length, when they were nearly in despair, one who was more hungry, and consequently more zealous than the rest, spied a snail who was crawling about and warming himself in the sun. "Hallo!" cried this fellow to his companion, "here's the crop coming up thick and strong, and, see, it's got bullock's horns on it already!"

At

Now, I certainly will not vouch for the truth of this story; but I will say, that they tell it against the Folkestonians over all that part of the country. However, it has not much to do with my Railway Shares, having been put in more to fill up room than for any connection it had with the general tenor of my tale, which I will now resume.

I need not specify my exact age; but may content myself with stating that I sit rather longer after dinner than I was wont of old, that I address my juniors as "You young men," and that I am continually finding out "that things are not as they were.'

My family consists of a daughter, aged eighteen, and three little boys, aged thirteen, eleven, and ten, the "hiatus valde deflendus" having been caused by the death of two other girls, with whom I was originally blessed. I have plenty of friends, for I keep a good table, and give nice little parties ; and you know that in this funny condition of ours, which we call society, friends are like flies, and buzz around us so long as there is anything to

consume. But my two principal cronies are Jones and Smith, whom I have known since my boyhood; and in this place I must make the reader understand the main feature of my character, which is my extraordinary penetration and knowledge of character. I know all my friends well; but, in particular, I thoroughly fathom the motives of my friends Jones and Smith. Jones is a crusty sort of fellow; evidently discontented, or he would not be always telling me of my faults, as if I had more faults than other men; unsuccessful too, I'll be sworn, in all his schemes, or he wouldn't be always telling me that my schemes are foolish, likely to ruin me, and so forth. Jones has a son, about one-and-twenty, who is always coming to our house, and playing long games at chess with my daughter, without making a single move, and always losing his hat in the passage, and having to hunt for it a long time, whilst she holds the candle. But these things can't escape my eye, and if Jones thinks that his son is to marry my daughter he must be rather more civil. Now, Smith is altogether a different sort of man; quite another fellow from Jones. He is such a clever chap is Smith, and would have made his fortune over and over again if his luck hadn't always been against him. Many and many a time he has told me, as we sat after dinner, drinking up my sixty-shilling port, how he could have made ten thousand pounds by the Calcutta and Sauger Railway-only it failed, or by the Wheal Swindle Mines in Cornwall-only they hadn't anything to do with the common weal, or the wheel of fortune, or any other wheel, except that which is used in gaols, hulks, and other receptacles for the industrious poor. And then he is such a knowing fellow, and has such an insight into my character. Didn't he tell me only last week, when I lent him five-and-forty pounds, that he might take a share in the "Equitable Association for the Promotion of Mesmerism,"-didn't he tell me then, "Ah! Thompson (for my name is Thompson), you should have been a speculator by rights,-with your clear head, and your knowledge of business, you'd have been a pillar of the Stock Exchange? Didn't he tell me this; and didn't Jones, when I mentioned it to him, say, like a brute as he is, that Smith could only have compared me to a pillar because he knew that I was as stupid as a post? But Jones is a fool, and Smith is a very good fellow; and as for young Jones, he shall not come into the house any more after my daughter, that's flat. As stupid as a post, indeed!

But, just to shew you what a good, kind, real, true friend Smith is, I'll tell you what he did the other day. I was sitting at dinner when I heard his knock. It's a most peculiar knock, and always comes at dinner-time. Well, in he comes, and looks very knowingly at me, as much as to say, "Get your dinner over as soon as possible, for I've got some news for you." So, when my wife and daughter were gone,-they always go away as soon as they can when he is with us, for, somehow or other, they hate him—I don't know why; but women have so little penetration, so little knowledge of character. When they were gone, he drew his chair close to mine, pulled a large paper out of his pocket, and spread it on the table. It was a prospectus running as follows: "The Great Boulogne and Calais Railway, with a Branch to Guisnes ;" and it set forth in glowing terms that the Boulonnais and the people of Calais had long been filled with sentiments of brotherly love towards each other, and had earnestly desired more rapid means of communicating with each other than the daily diligences afforded; that the pic-nic parties to Guisnes were becoming so numerous as to require a railroad to convey them; that the interchange of produce between Bou