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contemplation cannot be dishonouring to the Creator nor unworthy of us. Vacant apathy and dull conceit are sufficiently evinced towards the tokens of the Deity around us : a brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this:" but we cannot perceive how there is in this state of mind and form of character, any security for social well being.

Mechanical knowledge would be an appropriate addition to this training in physics; for it is melancholy when the machine which man attends for some minor office, seems more intelligent than himself. Powers are employed in wondrous forms and combinations, but those powers are very simple. It is in this simplicity that they are great. Let them be scanned, explored. No rude curiosity, no superstitious dread, will then be left to prey upon the mind. Even the overweening pride of human achievement will be humbled. It will be seen that, in the most complicated engine, there is no power created, that the power had always existed, that its more laborious operation is only redeemed or its collision prevented, that there have been but discovery and adaptation of it, that it has no inbeing in the human mind, that it subsisted in the works which were from the foundation of the world. The ingenuity of man in the invention is not denied, but "his God doth teach him to discretion;" and it is only ingenuity in collecting gifts, and following laws, which He has bountifully and wisely provided.

Refinement of taste may be fostered among the classes addicted to the extremest labour. Wherever the arts abound, this refinement descends to the humblest ranks of life. In Athens the common people acquired such an accurate ear from the models of eloquence among them, that the slightest offence of tone and pronunciation was immediately detected. The love of music, painting, sculpture, grows upon the most unsusceptible minds when the noblest specimens are familiarised to them, and would not this elegance be a happy exchange for coarse sentiment and manner? Would it be in any danger of sinking into effeminacy? We should like to see our people in the Botanical Garden, in the Picture Gallery, in the Musical Academy, in the Philosophical Museum. We should rejoice if such were their recreations and amusements. We would that they were embued with the true sense of beauty. The poor on the Continent mingle with the rich in public places, and there is no rudeness they walk in the same arcades and parterres, and there is no spoliation. Our countrymen have been distrusted, and, therefore, have been debarred from these higher advantages. Surely it is time that a new trial should be given them. They have already proved themselves worthy of the privilege. Let them have access to the trophies of nature and the wonders of composition, and there will be witnessed a taste, a most worthless substitute for a deeper education as many a country shows, but which

will crown the deeper education of this country with a most appropriate grace and a most softening influence. The exhibition of the fine and mechanical arts, to which the Sabbath school child is admitted during some holiday, not only gratifies the curiosity of all, but there may be an eye which receives the first impression of lovely forms and ingenious contrivances, a mind which carries away its first idea of proportion and design, a hidden zest and genius which emits its earliest spark, the young observer may be the future painter, sculptor, and machinist !

It is not expected that all will concur with our next recommendation. But we are deeply convinced that the industrious classes should receive a political instruction. If government be in any sense an arrangement for their benefit and a trustee for their security, it ought to be shown in what manner it acts on their behalf. A foundation should be laid for their confidence. If apparent wrong be done them in any legislative measures, they have a right to be satisfied that it is not real, or that, if real, it is indispensable. Prove to them that the reclamation of the common, where their poultry strayed, was demanded by the general consumption of the country. Convince them that it is only just that they, in the excise on the necessaries of life, should pay the largest share of the national burdens. Make it plain to them that their own interests are chiefly consulted in the withholding from them of all part in the direction of

national affairs. If you can bring proof, they will be readily satisfied, or at least will submissively yield : if you cannot, it is at your peril that you proceed. A government has no proper arcana; it is a great social regulation, a strict convention. It is the executive for the greatest possible happiness of the greatest possible number of its supporters. It is only a relative thing. Not a thought can it legitimately bestow upon itself. Its strength, firmness, revenue, are of the people, and for the people. It is no truce of party, it is no game of faction. Its force is in the sound, thinking, influential, preponderant, ascertained, majority of its subjects in favour of its measures, -and in the unanimity of its subjects in favour of its institutions. Throw all light over its frame and working; make the people parties to it; let them appreciate the use of every principle and adjunct; invest them with a beneficial interest in all; while they "sit by the fire," let them know "what 's done in the Capitol;"* and your commonwealth is imperishable. The advantage of this kind of education is twofold,—you bind the people to the State, but in their improvement, if the State be wrongous and defective, you must raise the State to the people. Such a populace might be trusted in the most critical times. It would bow to the severities of what it saw was inevitable scarcity. It would acquiesce in the lowness of the price of labour, when it perceived the slackness of Shakspeare. Coriolanus.

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demand. It would hold no quarrel with the seasons. It would not suicidally destroy property. It would not listen to the nostrum of the political empiric. It would not sway to and fro under every noisy leader. Among its ranks might be seen an enlightened patriotism to encourage the public spirit of other orders,— at least to expose the timid and to shame the venal.

One feature of popular education ought never to be overlooked. It cannot be denied that the mental circumstances of the labouring poor form a sort of proscription. In vain we say, that every man in our country can rise into a better lot. It is theory. It is possibility. How may it be? It is the duty of those who can impart education so to fashion and direct it as to lift the people universally to this starting point. Give them the capacity thus to rise. When elevated to a few degrees, it is their fault alone if they do not advance. The progress, henceforth, must be their own. But until then, they hardly can emerge from a deep debasement. The hope of extrication has not whispered to their ear. The instruments of melioration are not furnished for their use. Waken the soul from its sleep. Stir up its powers of life. Give it its place in the competition. Let it have room for the race. And then will it be no idle mockery, nor ribald insult, to the meanest, when we assert that he may improve his social condition if he will: the chances remain not so much to be drawn as that a prize is actually won. It is a goal already gained,

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