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hope that a blessing from on high will descend on our pious endeavours also.

Assistance to be derived from our Course of Language in the Cultivation of the Heart.

We have already shown the extent and the importance of the assistance which instruction in language, if well regulated, may render towards the cultivation of the intellectual faculties. We have named the principal points towards which it should direct the thoughts of the pupils; and the exercises to be gone through, in order to give their minds due expansion, correctness, and solidity. Now it remains to prove that this same instruction is calculated to form young hearts after the model which we have selected, and which every Christian is bound to imitate, under pain of forfeiting all claim to his name.

In order to decide this great question, we need only appeal to the instruction which our pupils have received under the paternal roof, and to its results. Undoubtedly these pupils are still children, and at their tender age the character can be only faintly marked out; but yet all the noble tendencies of our nature, which draw us towards its perfect model, have been awakened, and manifest themselves more or less, not only in word, but also in action.

And to what are we indebted for this happy result, if it be not to the words of the mother, who, when she first loosed the tongue of her child, hastened, drop by drop, to instil into his mind Christian truths, in the persuasion that these truths would produce on the heart and life of her pupil the effects which she herself experienced from them? Neglected as is the education of women, you will find few mothers who know the great maxim, "Men act as they love, and they love as they think;" but good sense has taught them its substance, and they practise it according to the degree of light and purity of heart to which they have themselves attained. Thus, without being able to trace out the springs of human nature, for of these they are unhappily ignorant, they still teach their children truths which are calculated to restrain the deviations of

the personal tendency, and to stimulate those other tendencies, from whence flow all that is good and great in man.

Though we only speak of the mother, we are not ungrateful enough to forget the wholesome influence of the father over his children, or of the elder over the younger ones, nor even that of good servants in the family of their masters; but we name the mother, as playing the most important part in the training of those beings to whom. she has given birth at the risk of her own life, and whom she loves as none other ever will. With a few exceptions, she is always the first teacher of language to her children; and to her they express, by their earliest smiles, their love, their gratitude, and their confidence, which reposes on her, and receives her words as so many oracles. Thus received, they sink deep into their hearts, and direct, as well as awaken, their affections.

The mother also, when she speaks of God, studiously gives Him the name of Father; a name which is sanctioned by the Gospel, and which may be apprehended by the heart, as well as by the head of the child; nor will she fail to speak of the child Jesus, who came down to us from the Father, who spent His life on earth in doing good and working miracles, who was persecuted by the wicked, and who died for us on the cross; who rose triumphant from the grave, and ascended to heaven, where He now reigns, and has prepared a place for the righteous. Thus the mother sows the seeds of Christianity in her child, and hastens to direct his attention to the model after which he should form his heart and life.

Now our course of language, following up the instructions of the mother, will endeavour to complete what she has begun, and will thus deserve the name of an educative course of instruction in the mother-tongue.

True it is that in this course it will no longer be a beloved mother who will teach her child, and therefore the words will lose some of their effect; but yet I dare to affirm that, in all other respects, the advantages will preponderate on our side; and I shall now point out some of the most important benefits to be derived from such a course of instruction.

Our course of language, as may be seen in the preceding book, undertakes to develope the intellectual faculties. In doing so, it adopts a strictly progressive system, for this alone can ensure success; and as the faculties only acquire vigour and correctness by exercise, the pupils are called upon, throughout the whole course, to exercise their judgment on the thoughts submitted to them, and to compose themselves in imitation of what they have just heard. Moreover, these continuous exercises are not confined to the grammatical department, which must be meagre, but they extend to the logical, and thus afford a perpetual course of mental gymnastics, in which perception, intelligence, memory, and even imagination, are called into action. And if we are asked, what avails this great intellectual developement? we confidently answer, "It is in order to convey to our pupils the great truths of life, even Gospel truths, which, when once received into the heart, will not fail to influence the affections and the conduct."

Here we shall confidently appeal to the success of maternal instruction, and shall infer that still greater may be expected from ours, for this obvious reason: the mother does not think of awakening the intellectual faculties of her child, or if she did, she would not know how to set about it. Art, then, renders her no assistance, and every thing is trusted to kind nature and to chance. But our course of language treats of the science of mind; and, in accordance with its principles, proposes systematically the great truths of life, and at the same time prepares young minds to seize and to relish them, and to apply them justly. It seeks, especially, to awaken the conscience; and this is unquestionably the basis of all sound education. Having, by the study of the mind, ascertained the invariable principle by which right is distinguished from wrong, it has the key of the moral world in its hand, and it knows how to set to work to make the pupils approve what is right, and condemn what is wrong. Consequently, it has the moral feelings at command; it can touch the moral tendency, and awaken the hopes and fears which are naturally connected with it.

The mother, in her anxiety for her young family,

hastens to impart to them the truths which she believes to be most important; and foremost among these are religious truths: viz., those respecting God, the Saviour, a future state of retribution, and life eternal beyond the grave. But she appeals to faith, and expects to be believed on her word, rarely adding any allusion to the foundation in reason on which her assertions are based. The instruction she gives is purely traditional; but our course of language proposes to improve on her work, and to adapt itself to the exigencies of the times in which we live, which require something more than an ignorant belief.

If, at the first dawn of Christianity, the apostles insisted that the faithful should be able to give a reason of the hope that was in them*, why should we delay to enlist the opening reason of our pupils on the side of our hereditary faith, and thus guard them against the ensnarements of false doctrines, of bad example, and of the worldly spirit with which they will have to contend? Our educative course of language has undertaken to supply the deficiencies of maternal instruction, by giving reason as the basis of the fundamental truths on which all others are built. It will commence this work from afar, and will return to it again and again, in order to produce a deep and permanent conviction in the mind. And it is likely to succeed, because, on one hand, it undertakes to develope the intellectual faculties, and, on the other, to direct them constantly towards those primary truths which will incline the heart of man to what is right. We act as we love, and we love as we think.

Our course of language will render another service to education. The wanderings of the heart proceed from the wanderings of the thoughts; and we shall endeavour in our lessons, either to prevent these fatal delusions, or to destroy them, should they already have perverted our young pupils; thus supplying another deficiency in domestic education, which rarely detects the mischief, and knows still less how to repair it.

*I. Pet. iii. 15.

Limits of the Advantage to be derived from our Educative Course of Instruction in the Mother-Tongue.

Whilst we enumerate these advantages, we are so far from wishing to exaggerate them, that we shall now candidly point out their limits.

We have already said that, with regard to religious instruction, our course of language will not encroach on the functions of the ministry. It will only pave the way, by developing the minds and the language of the pupils, and thus enabling them to reap advantage from religious instruction of a higher order. And thus it will confess its inadequacy to complete alone the education of the man and of the Christian.

The mother hastens to speak to her children of the good God; and to lead them to contemplate Him as the Author of life, as the Creator of heaven and earth, as the invisible witness, not only of our actions, but also of our most secret thoughts; and as the Judge, who will hereafter reward the good, and punish the wicked. In order thus to raise the mind and heart of her pupils towards the Deity, the mother seeks to call their attention to the face of nature, that they may discern the invisible Author of all things in His visible works; and that, whilst enjoying His benefits, they may offer to Him the tribute of their gratitude. Here it is to be regretted that she should in general have such limited acquaintance with the grandeur, the beauty, and the wonders of nature; and that she should therefore be unable to establish this first article of Christian faith on as broad a basis as she might. Our course of language will counteract this defect. Adverting frequently to the face of nature, it will strive to give a fuller sense to those comprehensive words, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth;" and to accustom children to read in the book of Creation the innumerable proofs of divine wisdom and goodness which it displays. Nevertheless, we must acknowledge that our course of language, being fettered by its particular task, and the forms thus imposed upon it, will be unable to supply all that is required by this vast and important

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