-- fession,-qualities not of yesterday, but which long trial has incontestably proved, and exigent opportunity has sublimely unfolded, then may they be assured that, what they cannot accomplish, what it is vain for them to essay, shall be done effectually and permanently by a simple power, which they have not imagined, which they cannot compute,-but which can easily educate a country, for it is destined to Christianise the world! And there is one form of effort in our country which statesmen may well ponder. It is new and original. Despotism could not endure it. Christianity can alone guide it. It is the power of association. Men combine. Thus science is promoted Suffering is, in this manner, soothed and indigence relieved. The individual loses his helplessness in the concert and cooperation of some great fellowship and action. Christian men need not have sought the rule from others: their religion dictates it. The prayer of their Master, that "they may be one," in order that "the world may believe," is fulfilled. They are They are "one," they visibly appear as "one," they practically labour as one. They "strive together," they "contend earnestly," for a common end. The efficacy of the principle is amazing. It is a self-multiplying strength which exceeds calculation. It is the acorn becoming the oak: it is the oak becoming the forest. This method, which owes itself to the tendencies of our religion, now strengthens into a national characteristic and habit. It is a part of our life as a community. The stranger gazes on our institutions as the most singular features of our country. Their voluntary origin and support, their self-government and self-administration, lie beyond all his common prepossessions. He has heard of Hotel de Dieu, Krakenhausen, Orphan House, Paraclete,he has heard of personal bounty and bequest,--but he now beholds a new scale, receives a new conception, in guilds of benevolence, in corporations of charity, without charter, without impost, constituted in no perpetuity but securing it, entailed upon no descent but renewing it, exhaustless as the ocean, successive as the day! We wait for no Hero, we want no Hero, to guide the Heroism is in the age. He who invokes one, and professes his confidence in such an advent, must allow us to call the mighty spirit now moving over society, a Pantheism, though far different from that which he ill conceals, rather than the hero-worship which he avows. Surely they who hold the political helm of such a people, should study this their moral peculiarity, giving it favour, allowing it scope,-never questioning its independence, nor fettering its liberty. There are profounder researches still left for our rulers. The nation is deeply smitten with that earnestness of feeling before which fashions and expedients sooner or later must give way. It is thinking out great questions. It is pressing forward in the highway of mighty principles. The toy and the gewgaw no more Thomas Carlyle. can divert, no longer can deceive. There is inward energy. The fire enfolds itself. New impressions are made. All awakes and stirs. Let the course be observed and watched. But let not men, in their "tricks" of a "little brief authority," tamper with it. The giant is rising up, withe, rope, and web, and even beam, are alike weak to bind him! There is that which is yet farther removed from the ken of governments. It is not psychological problem nor national development,-it is the vitality of Christian motive. They understand, and sagaciously enough, how men will huckster the gold of the temple, while they make it their house of merchandise. They know what religion means in the mouth of those who regard it as their gain, and wield it for their aggrandisement. But most of them have yet to learn that there is a hidden principle, fed by a celestial influence, in constant exercise wherever beats the renewed heart. That is unselfish, pure, generous, unwearying. It seeks not praise of men. It asks no reward, but the success of its benevolence. It goes about doing good. And in this land, amidst its religious distributions, how intense is the ardour of Christian zeal! It knows not repose nor check. It is in unabating influence. Legislation could only mar and encumber such a spirit. you dig into the spring to assist it? Would you, by lever, enforce the growth of vegetation? The impulse of Christian principle is quite as much of its own nature, of its own progress, of its own self-evolution. Would Kings may "assemble;" when they "see it" they may "marvel:" yet need they not be "troubled nor haste away." It is no defiance. It is no usurpation. It is not "imperium in imperio." It gently rises and meekly spreads. It beautifies and adorns the strongholds of power which would otherwise only lour in their forms, and often binds them when otherwise they would only crumble amidst their breaches,-as the moss, with its little flower, often relieves, and, with its cementing and binding fibre, strengthens, some nodding pile or threatening ruin! Of one thing we are assured. The enemies of education must fail. They have no hold on truth. They have no resting-place in fact. For then neither the past furnishes experience, nor yet the future encouragement. They are counter-worked by all principle and all opinion. The entrenchments of physical force can no more avail them. A thought is stronger than a sword! A printing-press has more sway than a park of artillery, and a schoolmaster can put an army to flight! Tyrants have already fallen before this new power. Dyonisius is at Corinth ! We are bound in our system of education to cherish, with great steadfastness and benevolent approval, particular views of man. Others may instruct him in order to repress. We would interpret his characteristics as his destinies. To those destinies we would lift up all the knowledge which we impart. We desire his perfect development. Man is a creature of progress, whenever found in circumstances of civilization. Popular institutions have an expansive principle in them. The human mind, which naturally contains this tendency, is quickened in its advancement by the social element. We believe that the species, with many reverses and retardations, has gradually improved. Its own law of progress has been resisted, but could not be utterly destroyed. It satisfies the argument to show that there never was such an amount of all that enters into the civic good of man,-knowledge, law, liberty, refinement, invention, wealth, at any given period, as now subsists, since the world began. Like cross-currents of the ebb, we have beheld the contentions which would thwart this law of human progress,-but as such currents only precede and indicate the turning of the tide, so now we mark the flow and predict the flood. Our plan of educating the people must agree with this noble bias, and chief distinction, of our nature. Far be from us the injustice and madness of withstanding such a power of development and pledge of acceleration! We may seek to guide it,-to stop it is an attempt as impious as vain. The darkness of a general ignorance can never again cover the nations. The civilization of the world can never more recede. We must treat man accordingly. We must provide him for his journey and equip him for his race. Man, as seen in his present external condition, will certainly lay claim to greater liberty. Governments will |