Year: 1869

used in the process, whether by
himself or others. In this sense,
Education is but the latch-key or
pick lock to the treasury of knowl-
edge.


| Hence, when we hear men of
sense objecting that Education is
relatively worthless, or too expen-
sive, we must understand them as
declaring, not that true Education
is this or that, but that what they
disparage is not true Education.


True Education begins, not with
the primer, but with our entrance
on this ''visible diurnal sphere If,
indeed, many Of the influences which
powerfully affect it do not take rise
even antecedents to this. And, as
it begins with our mortal life, so
does it co-exist and end with it;
though, for certain purposes, it may
be said to be concluded when this
subject is fitted for a useful, hon
orable, man or womanly) career.


By keeping these two ideas dis
tinct, it will be easy to solve some
of the most difficult and stoutly
contested problems-as, for in
stance, whether Religion should or
should not he taught in schools, and
whether the State should or should
not provide for moral as well as
mental training; thus placing itself
in a most important parental rela-
ton to every child.


| Viewing Education, then, in its
broader and truer sense-as the
forming, training and arming Of the
man for Life and for Eternity, be-
ginning with the mothers cradle
songs and ending with the final
prayer by the bedside of approach
ing death, let me inquire, For how
much are parents responsible How
far are their best efforts liable to be
thwarted by the malign influences
: Of want and misfortune? How
much of it should the State under
take?' How far may we trust to


what is vaguely termed Human
Nature? How far may we hope to


overbear malign circumstances by
the force of a happy constitution,
physical and moral? What light is
shed upon this vast theme by the


observations of sages and the les


sons of History?


1t cannot be denied that many


children inherit vicious constitutions


from their parents-not merely


defective or deficient senses and


physical frames, tainted and cor


rupted through parental error or


vice, but moral natures also de


praved and inclined to chicanery,


theft, debauchery and crime, from


the same source. Let those who


would understand and respect the


fearful truth on this subject consult


the standard writer's on human


physiology, especially those of the


great phrenologists, and the less


timid writer's on Marriage. Whether


Phrenology is science or not, its


apostles have undoubtedly contri-


buted immensely to mans knowl-


edge of himself, and the infexible


laws which govern his complex


being. If it be, indeed, a delusion,


then may we say at least that, as


Alchemy was the pioneer of Chem


istry, and Astrology Of Astronomy,
so has Fhrenology in our own day


contributed to the perception and


appreciation of a new continent OF


true and vital knowledge.


I think parental responsibility for
the moral infirmities of children is
, not yet sufficiently realized and
considered. We need to feel its full
l force, in order to Undue us with
= adequate charity for the faults which
strike us SO unpleasantly. Here is


one-bad- tempered, or gluttonous,
or envious, even at the mother S
r breast; do we readily and uniformly
remember that some parental vice
or error was the cause of that mis-


fortune? Do the parents them
: selves always realize that they owe
/. more to this unfortunate, and should
treat it with greater tenderness and
forbearance, than the morally
healthy and sane brother or sister
whose life is a perpetual joy to
itself and all around it?


=, Whether, to the fair blossom OF


immortality just alighted on the
, shore Of Time, the dangers of


Wealth or Poverty are the greater,
, is problem requiring patient con-


sideration.


"Give me neither poverty nor


riches,'' said the wise Agur of old ;
t and modern divine has only
l shaped the general aspiration into
$ prayer in adding "especially pop
: erty" If the perils of Wealth and
a of Want are equal, those of the
/ latter are to the general mind far
e more palpable and appalling; and
i it is undoubtedly true that not in
I tellectual growth and expansion
. alone, but moral culture and per
! fection also, are cramped and OBJ
f stucted by Poverty, Gerald Massey,
$ one of our newest aspirants to soar
: from the hovel of misery to the
Y heaven of poesy, thus touchingly
E moralizes on his own sad experience
: of poverty stricken, hunger bitten
) infancy and youth:


!, II have been congratulated by
$ some correspondents on the uses of
: suffering and the riches I have
, wrung from Poverty, as though it
: were blessed thing to be born in
: the condition in which I was, and
, surrounded with untoward circum-
f stances as / have been. Ny ex-
II por;anoa TOLLS mo fbot Povortu ic