The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-07 00:00:00

si.liptions he, has tuts I.);mi (,Labh.:-.1 io" Le:p ihe wolf
from the door" of hiinself, wife, and family, now and
in time to come.

A. FEW THOUGHTS ON HISTORY.
(From Eliza C'ook's Journal.)
To know ourselves is the greatest conquest of
humanity, if we do not gain which, all other study
is futile. But inasmuch as it is a means, it must not
be our end. Our aim is God, who " looks with "equal
eye on all," because He is near to all and knoweth all.
History teaches us the great relationship, and
the use and power of every part of
character ; in great results it shows us ' the
springs of daily life ; but to gain this teaching
we must overcome some difficulties. Historiet are
imperfect records, depending on the character of the
times and persons which produced them. The earlier
were written when mind was very young, and thus
detailed only the strong-coloured and wonderful in
event—coronations, wars, pump, and show ; while,
as tune advanced, we had more of Lome thoughts,
givir g rite to popular movements, and svva) ing, by
their grJwmg force, the enemy of naious. Were
history perfect there would Le no wonder in it, for is
would be but a tale of familiar life nod hope. Such
will be the history of future days—nay, of ours ; for
each mind records its own convictioi,s, and the press
is stamping them upon the rich history our time is
building for futurity. Ye. t, as such is not the record
from which we learn, we must think the more ; haying
hut the gross materials, we must connect the structure
for ourselves; and as the chemist is unable to farm
a substance by synthesis, until he has found its
elements by analysis, so we can form no standard of
ancient motives and mind, until we have known our
own. So let us not be buried in the Past; one thing
lights us to another; we must seek to be omniscient.
The past is littleness—the future, boundless mystery;
in one we live to nothingness—in the other, to inac-
tion ; for he who waits for the future, is like the man
who lay waking to mark the time of his sleep. That
is ever far. It is ours to work, to learn from retro-
spect and hope in the power of a present Now ; for
by encouraging the widest view and hope, we are
rising nearest God. A limited thought is brutal.
There is another difficulty, and that is the misty
notions of pride and glory with which all history is
choked. These things belong not to creative action,
but to perfected being ; the glory of one age is the
disgust of another; one man's pride is another's scorn.
Therefore these are of the mind, dependent on its state,
and confused by its ignorance. Who can tell
where glory lies? Is creation glorious ?it is only
when some amount of it appears to our short
senses. We call a fair landscape glorious, but find
it composed of objects by themselves uninteresting;
the pencilled flower is glorious, but its smallest
particles we cannot see. It were idle waste of
life to watch each grain of sand drop in the hour-
glass ; yet, when the globe is emptied, we say a
glorious power has acted, for an hour of time is gone.
Where was the glory ? The thought of God, that
moved the hour, was present ere the first grain
dropped down. " Time was made for slaves,"- and
man is slave to his position ; he needs to see a glaring
result, before he can be conscious of a moving cause;
thus lie ads the strong-drawn past us glorious, and
his own life, of which he has to feel each moment, as
poor and commonplace. Would that man would
love, the pure and homely, hunting not gross glory,
which would teach him %o' seek crossing the ocean at
stride, deeming the - gradual means contemptible.
Glory is perfection—it 'is in our aim, but not our
grasp, we must struggle up to it by slow and quiet
steps. What we learn from history is this—in what
our fathers have done well, let us follow—where
they have failed, let us seek a better path ; for when
by certain means we have often and vainly striven for
an end, we know the means are wrong,
Nations have grown to power, and died 'away—but
this wi:l not always be; as every failure has had its
cause, so, when that cause is removed, -the failure will
not be. Greed induced the stronger communities to
overcome •and swallow up the weaker, until others
rose, strong enough to bind the strongnations, and
spoil their goods ; thus verifying the prophecy of old,
" What is wrenched by force, can by force be re-
stored ;" and where there occurs irregularity, nature
will shortly right herself. Thus old nations rose and
fell; glitter shows not strength, for when the sun
shines brighest the cloud is big with rain. We have
an under-current of lite ; they shone, but we burn, and
the heat that renovates us, radiates all around us ;
it flows from land to land, giving life to all : it must
be eternal, for it completes the magic circle; em-
bracing all the earth, it flows ever round. It is cer-
tain that where there is not between flat! -is free
intercourse, trade, and knowledge, there must be pre-
judice, partiality, greed, and passion, which are the
seeds of ruin.
The world has a quiet lustre mow, spite of its
recent revolutions ; these are but the outward signs
of turmoil, the efforts by which nature throws off
accumulated injustice and wrong, which, were it
carefully removed on its first dawning, would need.
ro such violent expulsion. War may rage around,
while pace is rif,ening within it ; customs, still
acting, are already dead, and we feel but the flutter
of the unconscious nerves ; the lightning flash
is never seen till the fluid is gone by, nor actions
till the thoughts that bore them. Life shall progress
with a fall tide, but noiselessly as the electric stream
passes from link to link of an unbroken chain ; it is
only in rupture there is noise and show. Let us be
great in our single worth, renewing ever the law of
God. It is yours and mine to work the way of
charity, and remember—" charity begins at home."

E. M. S.

COLLEGE OF PRECEPTORS.

The members and friends of this institution held
their general half-yearly meeting at 28, Bloomsbury-
square on Saturday morning. The chair was taken at
one o'clock, by Dr. Hodgson, principal of the High
School,Chorlton, near Manchester.

The SECRETARY read the report of the council,
which, after some discussion upon provincial matters,
was adopted.
The Rev. Dr. WILSON, the dean, made a few brief
remarks on the nature of the examination of the can•
didates, who upon this occasion consisted of seven-
teen gentlemen and two ladies. According to the
opinion of Mr. Hind, the senior moderator, there was
every reason to be satisfied with the attainments of the
candidates in mathematics. He animadverted upon
the absurdities of most elementary treatises on
arithmetic.

After some further observations of an opposite
character from Dr. WiLsoN, the Chairman proceeded
to deliver the certificates to the successful candidates,
whose names are as follows :

Classics—Class 1, nil; Class 2, Hayward, Mac-
donnell ; Class 3, Harris, Smith. Mathematics—
Class 1, Stoppard ; Class 2, nil ; Class 3, Acus,
Cheyne, Leeming, Swift. Elements of Commerce—
Class 1, Ellis, Class 2, Brightash, Phillips, Walliker.
French—Class 1, De Candt, Jones, Turrell. Spanish
—Class 1, nil; Class 2, Bernoit. Italian—Class 1,
nil , Class 2, Bernoit. In the Ladies' Department—
Miss Brandenburg, Miss Bryant. Miss Bryant passed
a very satisfactory examination in Latin.
Mr. KINGSFORD, one of the examiners of the col-
lege in history, made a few brief observations upon
the attainments of the gentlemen who had sub.
mated to examination in his department. The replies
to the questions which, in conjunction with his co-
adjutor, Mr. Wynte, he had proposed, often evinced
much good sense and natural capacity upon the part
of the candidates. It was a great pity that the
talents of these gentlemen had not been properly
cultivated; their knowledge was too often ill digested.
The opponents of this institution alleged that the
council required knowledge from the candi-
dates, but made little effort to impart it. He
hoped that this objection would soon be removed by
the speedy establishment of courses of lectures upon
educational subjects. Whatever might be the diffi-
culties that impeded the acquisition of knowledge by
the teacher, those difficulties must in some way or
other be overcome by him. To obtain the means of
living was a matter of difficulty in all professions and
occupations ; it was not to be expected that the
most difficult of all professions—that of the teacher—
would be free from the usual preliminary hin-
drances. He stated the objects of the college to be
threefold-1. To raise the standard of knowledge
and education. 2. To prevent improper persons
from becoming educators. 3.
tßyosaerous itlgpublhlc
opinion in its favour, to enable ha teacherswo
were properly qualified to obtain fair remunera-
tion..
respecting
If the first two objects were accomplished by
A in the
this institution, the last might be safely left to take
care of itself.
the election of a
room of H. S. Tut-
sell, Esq., who h
somenf t
be discussion
co
had lately resigned,and a vote of thanks
to Dr. Hodgson, the meeting broke up.
President After

A MAN OF ACCIDENTS.—On Tuesday last a man
nTahcaisedsa rtnie brokeodmsoannwittin
)histhleeglaosnt the
ereei years,
SteepliillhaLsintVict
before broken his bgs, and twice had his feet severely
crushed. The last time he had bis foot crushed he was
working at the Castle, and after the accident he was
taken to the hospital, where he lay for ten weeks, the
surgeons meanwhile being occupied in endeavouring to
effect a cure without amputati,n. They failed in doing
so, and au order was made for his admission to an hos-
pital in London. The surgeons at this establishment
took off two of his toes, and after healing the wound he
I was sent home. His foot soon became bad, and he was
again admitted to the hcspital at Lincoln, where the
whole of his foot, except the heel, was amputated, and
he recovered. Some generous individuals, about three
I months since, entered into a subscription, and purchased
the poor fellow a patent foot. He had just begun to
walk about the town with the artificial limb which had
been given to him when he slipped on the Steep Hill
and broke his leg. He is again in the Lincoln Hospital.--
.Nottinghant Journal.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge
visited her Royal Highness :the Duchess of Gloucester.
1 at Gloucester House, on Saturday.