ART. II. Letters to the Rev. Joel Hawes, D. D., in Review of his 'Tribute to the Memory of the Pilgrims.' By SAMUEL J. MAY, Pastor of the First Church in Brooklyn, Connecti- ART. III. — ORIGENIS Opera Omnia, quæ Græcè vel Latinè tantum ART. V. -The Biblical Repository. No. I. January, 1831. Con- ART. VI. — A Harmony of the Gospels, on the Plan proposed by ART. VII.1. Review of Mr. Whitman's Letters to Professor Stuart, on Religious Liberty. [From 'The Spirit of the Pilgrims.'] With an Appendix not before published. 2. A Reply to the Review of Whitman's Letters to Professor THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER. No. XLIII. NEW SERIES-No. XIII. MARCH, 1831. ART. I.1. The Library of Education. Edited by WILLIAM RUSSELL. Vol. I. Containing Some Thoughts concerning Education, by JOHN LоCKE, and A Treatise of Education, by JOHN MILTON. Boston: Gray & Bowen. 1830. 12mo. pp. 317. 2. Account of the Edinburgh Sessional School, and the other Parochial Institutions for Education, established in that City in the Year 1812; with Strictures on Education in general. By JOHN WOOD, Esq. Printed at Edinburgh. Boston: Reprinted by Munroe & Francis. 1830. 12mo. pp. 204. THE first of these volumes is a reprint of works which have been long known to scholars, but not, we presume, very generally read. Milton's Treatise, however, is so short, that, though it well deserves the space which it occupies in this publication, it cannot prove of much practical assistance to parents or teachers. The plan of Locke, in his 'Thoughts concerning Education,' embraced a greater variety of topics, and amplitude of discussion; and his work ought to be a manual with all who are interested in the important subject of which it treats. Its plain good sense, its lucid order, its excellent morality, make it one of the most valuable works which parent or teacher can read. We know not that we can praise it more highly than by saying, that it is just such a work as we should have expected from John Locke, the gentleman, philosopher, scholar, and Christian. VOL. X. -N. S. VOL. V. NO. I. 1 The Account of the Edinburgh Sessional School' deserves to become a standard on elementary instruction. It describes with minuteness of detail the results of actual experiment, and it is, which we certainly did not look for, not only a practical, but an entertaining book. Encouraged by the appearance of these works, we venture to offer some remarks on the worn but not worn-out subject of moral education; for such works would hardly have been published here, if the interest of the community in the subject had ceased. We have abundant reason for gratitude to Heaven, and to those instruments in the hands of Heaven, our worthy ancestors, for the numerous and excellent institutions of learning, and means of education which we in this country enjoy. For the most part, we evince our gratitude for them by the value which we set upon them; though we are not yet grateful enough, for we do not yet value them highly enough. We do not value them highly enough, because we do not correctly appreciate nor universally understand the great purpose and end of instruction. Many among us are not in the habit of regarding this purpose as a moral purpose, and this end as a moral end. We are afraid that, from the poorest to the richest of us, the mind is considered as the principal object of education, and the information of the mind. as education's peculiar and ultimate design. Though there exists very remarkably in our country, or at least in this part of our country, a great desire in parents to secure an education to their children, and a general willingness to spend their money for this gift, yet we believe that it is common for the poor to bestow what means of education they can on their children, under the sole idea of preserving them from the disgrace and the inconvenience of ignorance, and for the rich to furnish their children with every accomplishment which wealth can command, with the predominant impression and hope that they are qualifying them to push their way in the world, and make a figure in the eyes of society. They do not seem to extend their views, or if at all, not with a due anxiety, to that far nobler and more important office of education, which is simply and beautifully described in the words of the prophet Ezekiel. They seem not to apprehend that it confers its best and most finished endowment on their offspring, only when it has taught them 'the difference between the holy and profane, and caused them to discern between the unclean and the clean.' This is education's perfect work. When it has done this, it has done every thing; and till it has done this, it has done nothing effectually. Who has a finished education, as far as any education may be called finished? Not he who is often complimented by the world on its possession. Not he who has been through all the most expensive schools, and yet without learning his duty to God and his neighbour. No; if he is master of all accomplishments; if his brain is filled to its remotest cell with all manner of knowledge, and still he does not discern, or does not act as if he discerned, between the unclean and the clean, his education is not finished in the most important respect; it is imperfect; it has stopped short of its destination, for it has stopped short of true wisdom, and the pupil is as yet immature, superficial, unfurnished. Who has a finished education? He has it, who, though he may have only learned to read and write, has learned, beside, the difference, the immense difference, between the holy and profane; has cultivated his moral capacities; has acquired sound opinions, and firm principles, and good habits; has preferred and chosen the paths and the rewards of virtue. His education is really finished, for its true end is attained; it has given him the wisdom to perceive, the ability to discharge, his personal, his social, his religious obligations; it has placed him as a column in the great fabric of human relations; and though he may not adorn that fabric, to the eye, as much as some other columns which art has more carefully enriched, he supports it quite as well in the simple beauty of strength and durability. We mean not to say, that every thing which informs and enlarges and embellishes the mind, has not a natural tendency to educate the heart, and establish the character on enduring foundations. We cannot be such recreants to the noble cause and holy faith of letters. We believe that education, in all its fulness, and all its variety, has a powerful and beneficial influence on morals. It is precisely because we believe this, that we say it is never finished till it has exerted that influence; morals being its end. Mind is its first object, but it is not its only, nor its final object. Through the mind it must reach the moral sentiments and convictions, or it reaches not its mark. That is but a partial education, which does not lead its pupil to the knowledge and the practice of duty. That is a complete education, the education of a man, which makes a man feel himself one; an accountable creature of God; a free and a noble spirit, discerning the difference between the holy and profane, the unclean and the clean, and renouncing the evil and embracing the good, for his own sake, for society's sake, and for God's sake. That by such an education, and in no other way, or in no other way so well, some of the greatest blessings of life are to be widely and permanently secured, we have no doubt. If such an education is impracticable to any greater extent and degree than has already been attained, then, with all our faith in human improvement, we should be obliged to acknowledge that no further improvement was to be hoped for, in this world. A few remarks on some of the advantages which can only result from a general and thorough system of moral education, will best explain our reasons for attributing to it so great an importance. We must be permitted to say, then, that we know not in what other way the best political blessings are to be secured to our country. We are as prosperous, as powerful, and as free as we are, chiefly because we have been thus far, and comparatively speaking, an intelligent and a moral people; because knowledge has been remarkably diffused among us, and our habits have been simple, and for the most part virtuous and religious. But luxury has increased with our wealth, corruption with our numbers, and ambition with our strength. The virtue which carried us through the time of our tribulation, may relax and be dissolved in the time of our prosperity. Those principles of honesty and justice and freedom which we only wrapped the more closely about us while the storms of persecution and poverty were blowing, may be loosened and perhaps thrown off under the warm suns of plenty and ease. It was a day of peril and of trial, when, to guard their rights and liberties against an arrogant and superior force, our fathers stood on the brink few and faint, yet fearless still,' and dared and suffered the worst; but, if we are not greatly mistaken, our country may see a day more perilous and trying than that; the day when it will have to contend with the passion and the pride and the lust of its own children. If it escapes from such a trial safely and with honor, it will be only owing to the prevailing |