sonably expected from the actual state of his intellectual powers and previous attainments. The first exercises should be such as require less labor and exertion, than those which are to succeed them; but even these must demand such a degree of exertion, as will call into action all the powers of the student, and carry him forward to the next step in his progress to higher attainments. That burden which the laborer, by gradually increasing efforts, may become able to support, would completely overpower him, when he made his first efforts." "He that begins," says Mr. Locke, "with the calf may carry the ox; but he that will go at first to take up the ox, may so disable himself, as not to be able to lift the calf after that." When the mind has brought itself to attention and close thinking, it must be able to cope with difficulties, and master them without any prejudice to itself, and then it may go on readily." Still, as Mr. Locke elsewhere observes, "Quid valeant humeri, quid ferre recusent," must be made the measure of every man's understanding, who has a desire not only to perform well, but to keep up the vigor of his faculties, and not to baulk his understanding by what is too hard for it. The mind by being enaged in a task beyond its strength, like the body strained by lifting a weight too heavy, has often its force broken, and thereby gets an inaptness or an aversion to any vigorous attempt ever afterwards. In the same essay, he observes that too easy tasks are equally hurtful. "He that has for some time accustomed himself to take up what easily offers itself at first view, has reason to fear, he shall never reconcile himself to the fatigue of turning and tumbling things in his mind to discover their more retired and more valuable secrets."

Lord Bacon, whom Pope describes so happily and justly in one line, as

"The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind,"

-in whose works every teacher will find much to learn, expresses the same views. "The task," says he, "must be as exactly as possible, accommodated to the capacity and knowledge of the student; and should require neither more nor less than he can give. Too great a burden might depress those who have little courage; and a burden too easy might lead them to place such confidence in their own capacity, as both to repress their ardor, and to obstruct the progress of their studies."

The business of education is not merely to store the mind with useful information; but also to enable it to work with the materials which it has acquired and thereby to strengthen its powers, to invigorate its growth- to develope its facties, to give them a force and freedom of action in the day of small things, which shall enable them to cope with the difficulties which may arise in the broad theatre of the world, when the whole man must assume its panoply and be " ready against assail of troubles, by opposing to end them." A good net is worth more to the fisherman than a whole freight of the finny herds of the lower deep, or, as the same idea has been better expressed by others, "a tree is more valuable than a basket of fruit, and a good hawk better than a bag full of game." The analogy is readily perceived, as I transfer these homely adages to the mind; for who will not readily allow that the possession of faculties strengthened by use, of powers matured by action, of an intellect enlarged and expanded by exertion, is more valuable to their owner, than a mind stocked and stored with the lumber of lorea mere warehouse of facts, piled heap on heap in disorder and confusion. The sea which has no outlet may be swollen with the accession of a thousand tributary streams, but its miserly hoarding of its waters, gives it no title to the gratitude of mankind, for wafting from clime to clime the blessings of commerce, the interchange of reciprocal conveniences from the domains of equatorial day, to those of polar night,— or the diffusion of the charities of life among those remote regions, which although widely separated by nature, have been knit into brotherly union by art and science. It is so with the human mind. Like the sea with no outlet, it may be constantly receiving accessions from a thousand sources, the streams of knowledge may be pouring into it in rich profusion, yet unless its hoarded wealth of wisdom finds some channel by which to benefit mankind, it resembles more those reservoirs which pollute the air, and teem with foul corruption.

And how shall that mind diffuse its wealth, that cannot discharge its constantly increasing accessions of fact and fancy through the strains of the orator, the numbers of the poet, or the pages of the ready writer. Let us not, then, in our attempts to cultivate the mind, let us not imitate the phlegmatic Hollander, whose resources are expended in the construction of prodigious dykes, within which the beauties of nature and of art may teem with rich profusion; but rather let

us emulate his richer neighbor, whose means and whose powers are strenuously devoted to the construction of those facilities, by which the blessings of an honest commerce may be borne on every wave and be wafted by every gale.

The human mind is not a mere store-house. The figure, though less elegant, is more just that describes it as a workshop, and the intellectual faculties as the operatives. Materials, it is true, must be stored there, which those skilful artisans, intuitively taught, must be engaged in moulding and fashioning, but great care must be taken that these materials be neither carelessly stowed, nor inconveniently arranged, so as to obstruct the free motions of the laborers within. In other words, the cultivation of the mind consists in furnishing its various powers with opportunities for separate and united action; and thus enabling it to lean upon itself, rather than to be dependent upon others for its thoughts, its feelings and its opinions. To combine and to compare, to reason and to judge, to perceive and to discriminate, are as needful and as laborious duties of the faculties, as to discover and to acquire. Of all the duties required of the intellectual powers, the task of composition is the most important, and interesting; because it subserves the whole purpose of education, by calling each into both separate and united action.

But I have been drawn, from the unity of my subject, by the more fanciful occupation - the tracing of analogies. The digression is not however altogether irrelevant, as its object is to show the importance of my theme.

The next step to be taken by the pupil is an attempt at narration. A short story or tale having been read to the class, an outline may be furnished, to assist them in writing the story in their own words. This method is particularly described in Walker's Teacher's Assistant, one of the very few works of transatlantic origin, calculated or designed to aid the pupil in his early attempts in composition. It is from the work of Mr. Walker, that this principle was copied into the "Progressive Exercises in English Composition," a volume prepared by your lecturer about five years ago, which contains many of the principles to which allusion has been made, or remains to be made in this lecture. This volume, I may here remark, is to be followed by a sequel, designed to treat of the subject in its higher departments, as well as to supply many deficiencies, and remedy some defects which the

haste, and the circumstances in which it was prepared, rendered unavoidable.

Narration with an outline, may be followed by a similar exercise without such assistance; and this, in its turn, may be succeeded by an amplified narration; in which the pupil shall be required to draw upon his imagination or inventive powers. To aid him in the performance, he may, as in description, be aided by, the suggestion of a list of particulars, some, or all of which are to be noticed in his written exercise, such for instance, as a description of the place or scene of the actions related, a notice of the persons concerned in the narration, the time, postures, state of mind, associations or trains of thought, &c., of the circumstances and the individuals mentioned. An additional list of particulars will enable him to present his exercise in a still more amplified form.

Again, the facts to be embraced in a narration, may be given to the pupil in the form of detached sentences, from which he may be required to write a connected narrative. Whether all these varieties of exercise should be embraced in a regular and progressive course, must depend upon circumstances of which the teacher himself will be the better judge. But another step which I would by no means have omitted, is the formal union of narration and description in one and the same exercise. Such a task will serve as a proper introduction to didactic composition; and the pupil may here likewise be aided by the suggestion of a few simple directions in the form of heads or divisions of his subject. Thus for instance, if he were required to write narration and description in a composition. On the public games of Greece," the following list of particulars would materially aid him in directing his thoughts to the subject..

Their origin their nature, or in what they consisted the places where they were celebrated, the obligations of the candidates for the prizes the rewards bestowed upon the victors the estimation in which these honors were held, -the station, character and profession of the candidates the character of the assembled spectators, the effects of these games upon the victors, and the nation by encouraging athletic exercises, and a spirit of emulation the probable effects of the institution of similar games at the present day, &c.

At this stage of his progress, the pupil, who has been well exercised in the preceding principles, will find little difficulty

in the production of a respectable performance-destitute perhaps of the graces of style and the ornaments of dictionbut still indicative of intellectual advancement. Frequency of composition is especially recommended at this time. The action which is seldom performed is never converted into habit; and it is very important to call the aid of that singular power, which, by the constitution of human nature, often relieves the tediousness of exertion, and the irksomeness of unpleasant employment. The mind is no less under the influence of habit than the body; and its several powers are as easily trained to the habitual exertion of any assigned operation as are the different organs of the body. The inventive powers require the same improvement from exercise, as do the memory, and the powers of reason and comparison. The teacher, therefore, who fails to call for this exercise frequently, and statedly, neglects the advantages which are to be derived from the power of habit, in the application, and exercise of the intellectual faculties.

Every teacher who aims at the faithful discharge of duty, must study the nature and the character of each of the individual powers of the mind. He must not confine his labors to the developement and improvement of any one single faculty. He must study the elements of general intellectual culture; he must aim at the improvement of perception. through the medium of the organs of sense, - he must strengthen the faculty of attention by practice in the study and consideration of abstract subjects, he must exercise the memory by entrusting the treasures of fact and principle to its charge; he must cultivate the imagination, by theory and suggestion he must improve the powers of judgment and reasoning, by the labors of their kindred faculties of invention and comparison, he must extend the principle of association, so that it will embrace the remotest degrees of analysis and analogy; he must exercise the powers of reflection, so that its eagle gaze will penetrate the very essence of things, and in fine, like the goddess of wisdom to the favored son of Ulysses, he must be the mentor to genius. In no branch of intellectual culture generally embraced in a common, or even in a liberal education, will these high and noble objects be more effectually secured than in the department of composition.

The time will fail me, I fear, if I attempt to extend these suggestions to the length which I originally designed. I feel