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"Pre

fully to understand what was said to them. caution," said my friend, "that is a hard word for you to what boy will tell me the meaning of this

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comprehend, word?" The boys hesitated, they first stared at their master, and then at each other, but gave no further sign of intelligence, — the case was desperate, they had got a tickler. My friend then, with the view of ascertaining the full amount of their ignorance, said: "Now tell me whether precaution is exported or imported." The bait took, for the head boy of the class at once shouted out" Exported, Sir!". - and, as a matter of course, the answer went the round of the class.

6. When we assume, in a disguised form, the principle which is to be proved.

This is commonly called begging the question.

Or when we take for granted any principle which requires proof.

In proving, for example, that the angles at the base of an isosceles triangle are equal to each other, if we assume that the angles on the other side of the base are equal to each other, we should take for granted a proposition, which is almost equivalent to the one which is required to be proved.

IV. Some general rules should be occasionally given to children for the conduct of their understanding in the pursuit of truth.

The following are a few examples of this kind:

Before commencing any inquiry, strip your mind of all prepossessions, prejudices, or hastily formed opinions, and yield yourself freely and dispassionately to the force of truth. Earnestly seek the truth. Never argue in support of opinions which you do not believe; for the habit of false reasoning distorts and warps the soul, and tends to confound all distinction of right and wrong: let the love of truth be your ruling principle. Remember, that you are responsible, as well for your opinions and judgments, as for your actions and conduct.

"Majestic truth; and where Truth deigns to come,
Her sister Liberty will not be far."

Weigh well the validity of your arguments, or, it may be, the accuracy of your processes of investigation. Never form hasty conclusions; always ask yourself, before you have come to a final decision, Is there no other view of the case which is as feasible as the one which I have taken?

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See that your axioms, or first truths, may be fairly ranked as such. You may explain first truths, but you

cannot prove them.

Be watchful relative to the authenticity of facts. In the formation of your opinions, and in the regulation of your conduct, give a due weight to all the facts which ought to influence your decision.

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Take care that your assumption, or it may be your definition, does not include the truth of the proposition which is to be proved. Remember, that the converse of an established proposition may not be true.

Clearly distinguish between an illustration of a truth, and a demonstration of it. Bear in mind, that facts may either illustrate the truth of a principle, or they may prove the truth of it. In reasoning from analogy, inquire whether there exist any points of difference between the analogous cases, which may make the principle of reasoning inapplicable.

ON THE CULTIVATION OF WIT AND INVENTION.

Wit is only a peculiar form of reason: wit is reason exercised in search of grotesque resemblances between things apparently dissimilar. The decisions of judgment, which is another form of reason, are slow-those of wit are rapid; but the heavy thunder clouds of judgment not unfrequently burst forth in the lightning flashes of wit. The passage from the settled gravity of philosophy to the electric gaiety of wit, is easy and not unnatural. Great philosophers have generally been remarkable for their wit. The earliest shoots of intellectual growth are witty. It would be well, if the teacher would try to en

liven the dull routine of school duties, by occasional sallies of wit and humour. His example would soon be followed by his pupils, for nothing glances, from mind to mind, more rapidly than the flashes of wit: such intellectual efforts are singularly procreative—one witty idea soon doubles and triples itself. Wit and humour, like gleams of sunshine, shed gladness and joy over a class of children. The great object of Divine benevolence, says the venerable Dwight, is the happiness of His creatures; and he who promotes the happiness of a little child for half-an-hour, is a fellow-worker with God.

Invention, considered with respect to reason, consists in finding out new relations, or in discovering new truths from these new relations, and in putting these relations in such an order, or form, as to show how new truths arise out of them.

If schoolmasters would endeavour to foster the development of the inventive powers of their pupils, we might have fewer learned unproductive drones, but most certainly we should have more inventors. We have known boys to make pulleys, and other kinds of wheel machines, electrical machines, and other sorts of experimental apparatus. Boys soon acquire such a passion for construction and invention, that they would rather spend their market halfpence in the purchase of the materials for construction, than in sweetmeats.

In order to cultivate the inventive powers of children, the teacher, after having supplied them with facts, might occasionally throw out suggestions like the following. Could you make anything of paper to illustrate the construction of the smoke-jack, or the wind-mill, &c.? Can you make a cone, &c., out of card-paper? In how many different ways could you divide the ground floor of a house into three equal apartments? How would you join three pieces of wood together so as to make a model of the principal rafters of the roof of a house? What would be an improvement to the common snuffers, &c., &c.? How would you join, without glue, in the simplest manner, two pieces of wood, so as to form a T square? And so on.

CHAP. VII.

CULTIVATION OF THE MORAL FACULTIES.

MAN was originally created after the image of his Creator, in knowledge and holiness: this was absolutely necessary in order that the creature should become the worshipper of the Creator; for we can only have a knowledge of God by the contemplation of His own image as it is reflected from our souls. The fall of man has neither eradicated any principle from his soul, nor implanted any new one. This disastrous moral catastrophe has destroyed the balance of the various moral and intellectual faculties, by giving a preponderance to what we call the malevolent and animal propensities over the intellectual and moral ones. One great object of teaching should be to restore, under the blessing of God, the various faculties of our nature to their first condition of purity and harmonious action, by stimulating the intellectual and benevolent affections, by curbing the undue activity of the selfish and animal propensities, and by directing them to their original ends and objects. There is no principle in our nature, which, under the blessing of God, may not be directed to what is good. In like manner, the fall of man has neither eradicated any law. or principle in physical nature, nor given birth to any new or supplemental principle: it merely destroyed the balance of the various laws operating in nature, by giving an undue preponderance to the operation of certain destructive or rather corrective agencies. The storm and the whirlwind, which at present frequently spread havoc and desolation over the earth, and the noisome weeds, which frequently infest the soil, become evils only from their undue preponderance. But the providence of God, co-operating with the labour of man, which can make the wilderness to blossom as the rose, which can make the dark and howling regions of the earth become radiant with joy and gladness, can also illuminate and purge those dark and foul recesses in the human

soul, which have become the seat of gloomy and demoniacal passions. The same beneficial influence, co-operating with the better nature of humanity, which can convert whatever is apparently evil, in the external world, into its original usefulness, can also divert the current of our evil tendencies into a right channel. The passions of suspicion, anger, hatred, and revenge, which arm the midnight assassin with the dagger or the poison cup, may be legitimately directed to the detection of error, to the denunciation of vice, or to the punishment of crime. "Woe unto you," says He who had no guile, "Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." The love of self, which, in the form of selfishness, is really the most fruitful source of the moral evils which at present exist in the world, may become the mainspring of religion;-"Why will ye die! O house of Israel." Pride, or the consciousness of power, which often leads us to despise what is humble and to oppress what is weak, may shield us from the meanness of falsehood, or raise us above the contamination of folly. Rashness and temerity, which often result in misery to ourselves, and in discomfort to our friends, may assume the form of that high-toned moral courage, which is one of the most essential elements of true greatness. Ambition, combined with inflexible purpose, which like a giant in its strength tramples upon whatever stands in its path, and ruthlessly sacrifices all that is great or holy at its shrine, may lead us to glory in what is good, and to esteem it a greater honour to be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to be a dweller in the tents of sin. The love of approbation, which, in its vitiated form, manifests itself in a vain and heartless display of our own powers, may, under proper guidance, stimulate us to merit the approbation of the good and great, and above all to seek the approbation of God and our own conscience. The man, whose soul has been expanded by philosophy, and sublimated by virtue and religion, possesses the same faculties as the being whose

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