A school of the heart! In these words we arrive at the true operation of moral principle. The heart must be touched; the feelings affected; the baser propensities subdued; the higher emotions quickened; and all made love and joy within. And how can this be done? Only by moral and religious principle being confirmed by training and exercise, in reference to companions, parents, brothers, sisters, and other relations, as well as the general circumstances by which we are surrounded. The very act of loving and of consulting the feelings of those with whom we are domesticated, strengthens the tendency to well-doing.

*

Great mischief has been done by the repellent aspect habitually given to moral rule by its expositors; and immense benefits are to be anticipated from presenting moral rule under that attractive aspect which it has when undistorted by superstition and asceticism. If a father, sternly enforcing numerous commands, some needful and some needless, adds to his severe control a behaviour wholly unsympathetic—if his children have to take their pleasures by stealth, or, when timidly looking up from their play, ever meet a cold glance or more frequently a frown; his government will inevitably be disliked, if not hated; and the aim will be to evade it as much as possible. Contrariwise, a father who, equally firm in maintaining restraints needful for the well-being of his children, or the well-being of other persons, not only avoids needless restraints, but, giving his sanction to all legitimate gratifications and providing the means for them, looks on at their gambols with an approving smile, can scarcely fail to gain an influence which, no less efficient for the time being, will also be permanently

From Chambers's Miscellany.

efficient. The controls of such two fathers symbolize the controls of Morality as it is, and Morality as it should be. -HERBERT SPENCER.

The first care of a mother is to rear her child in sound bodily health; her second is to rear it in such a manner that it will grow up sweet-tempered and amiable, possessing good habits and dispositions--all which is comprehended in the term moral training.

*

But though direct moral teaching does much, indirect does more; and the effect my father produced on my character, did not depend solely on what he said or did with that direct object, but also, and still more, on what manner of man he was.

-JOHN STUART MILL.

It is only in accordance with all the other facts of associated feelings, that if a certain kind of conduct, say theft or evil speaking, is constantly made the subject of punishment, censure, or disapprobation, an associative growth will be formed between the conduct and the infliction of pain; and the individual will recoil from it with all the repugnance acquired during this conjunction between it and painful feelings. The general principle is confirmed by the actual facts; those that have received a careful moral education are almost as superior in their moral conduct to the offspring of dissolute parents, as the educated man is to the uneducated in any other respect. †

-ALEXANDER BAIN, LL. D.

• From Chambers's Miscellany.
From Mental and Moral Science.

100. THE MOUSE'S PETITION.

THE MOUSE'S PETITION.

Oh! hear a pensive prisoner's prayer,
For liberty that sighs;

And never let thine heart be shut
Against the wretch's cries!

For here forlorn and sad I sit,
Within the wiry grate ;

And tremble at th' approaching morn
Which brings impending fate.

If e'er thy breast with freedom glow'd,
And spurn'd a tyrant's chain,
Let not thy strong oppressive force
A freeborn mouse detain!

Oh do not stain with guiltless blood
The hospitable hearth!

Nor truimph that thy wiles betray'd
A prize so little worth.

The scatter'd gleanings of a feast
My frugal meals supply;
And if thine unrelenting heart

That slender boon deny,

The cheerful light, the vital air,
Are blessings widely given;
Let Nature's Commoners enjoy
The common gifts of Heaven.

The well-taught philosophic mind
To all compassion gives;

Casts round the world an equal eye,
And feels for all that lives.

If mind--as ancient sages taught,
A never dying flame,

Still shifts through matter's varying forms,
In every form the same;--

Beware lest in the worm you crush

A brother's soul you find;

And tremble lest thy luckless hand
Dislodge a kindred mind.

Or if this transient gleam of day
Be all of life we share,
Let pity plead within thy breast
That little all to spare.

So may thy hospitable board

With health and peace be crown'd;
And every charm of heartfelt ease
Beneath thy roof be found.

So when destruction lurks unseen,
Which men, like mice, may share,
May some kind angel clear thy path,
And break the hidden snare.*

--MRS. BARBAULD.

* By the mouse found in the trap where he had been confined all night by Dr. Priestly for the sake of making experiments with different kinds of air.

101. NAME AND FAME.

A good name is as a precious ointment.

-SOLOMON.

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold. " BIBLE-PROVERBS."

Honours, monuments, and all the works of vanity and ambition, are demolished and destroyed by the unsparing hand of time; but the reputation of wisdom is venerable to posterity, and a truly good name lives for

Good name in man and woman, dear my Lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls :

Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something,
nothing;

'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;

But he that filches from me my good name

Robs me of that which not enriches him

And makes me poor indeed.

-SHAKESPEARE,

Praises on tombs are trifles vainly spent ;
A man's good name is his best monument.
-AN EPITAPH.

* From A Book of Humour, Wit and Wisdom.