into literary institutions. It would not develop the reasoning or thinking powers. It would awaken no new intellectual effort.

Such being the nature of these studies, it is plain that it ought not to be commenced by any pupil without a proper understanding of the difficulties, or the qualifications necessary to surmount them. These qualifications are the following:

I. Ability to understand the language of the work. It is not a child's book. It was written by a man, and was intended to be read by men. The editor has made no effort to alter it in this respect, so that the book stands on a level, as to its style and language, with the great mass of books intended to influence and interest the mature. It ought to be so; for to be able to understand such writing is necessary for all, and if the pupil is far enough advanced in his education to study metaphysics, it is quite time for him to be habituated to it. Let no pupil therefore, after he is fairly engaged in the study, complain that he cannot understand the lessons. This is a point which ought to be settled before he begins.

The pupil may read as attentively as he pleases. He may make use of a dictionary, or any other similar help. He may make occasional inquiries of a friend; but if he cannot, with such assistance, really understand the train of thought presented in any lesson, and give a tolerable account of it to his teacher, he had better for the present postpone the study of Moral Philosophy: his mind is too immature.

II. Mental cultivation enough to be interested in the subject of the work. The subjects discussed, and the views presented, are of such a nature, that the undisciplined can take no interest in them. They cannot appreciate them. Unless the mind has made considerable progress in its development, and in its attainments in other branches, and unless it has, in some degree,

Qualifications. First qualification, what? Language of the book. Second quali

ication.

formed habits of patient attention, it must fail in the attempt to appreciate such a study as this. The pupil, in such a case, after going a little way, will say that the book is dull and dry. He will attribute to the study, or to the mode in which it is treated, a failure, which really results from his own deficiency. He ought to reflect when tempted to make this charge, that it cannot be possible that the study is, in itself, uninteresting. This treatise of Dr. Abercrombie's has been bought and read with avidity by thousands in Great Britain and America, who could have been led to it by no motive whatever, but the interest which the subject inspires. They, therefore, who are not interested in it, after making faithful efforts, fail of being so because their minds are not yet prepared to appreciate what they read; and by complaining of the dryness or dullness of the book, they are really exposing their own incompetency to enter into the spirit of it. The teacher ought to take care that his pupils do not commence the work until they are capable of feeling the interest which it is calculated to awaken.

III. A willingness to give to the subject the severe, patient and persevering study which it demands. Some will wish to take up such a branch merely for the sake of having something new. Others because their vanity is flattered by the idea that they are studying Philosophy. Others still, because they wish for the honor of being in a class with certain individuals known as good scholars. Beginning with such ideas and motives will only lead to disappointment and failure. The pupil ought to approach this subject with a distinct understanding that though it is full of interest, it will be full of difficulty; that it will try, to the utmost, his powers; and that the pleasure which he is to seek in the pursuit of it is the enjoyment of high intellectual effort, the interest of encountering and overcoming

Consequences of commencing the study without it. The study really interesting: how proved to be so. Complaints of its dullness show what? Third qualification Wrong motives for commencing the study. Proper views of it.

difficulties, and opening to himself a new field of knowledge, and a new scope for the exercise of his powers.

I come now to describe a method of studying and reciting the lessons in such a work as this. I say a method, because it is only meant to be proposed for adoption in cases where another or a better one is not at hand. Experienced and skilful teachers have their own modes of conducting such studies, and the recitations connected with them, with which there ought to be no interference. The plan about to be proposed may, however, be of use in assisting teachers who are, for the first time, introducing this study to their schools; and the principles on which it is based are well worthy the attention of every pupil who is about to commence this study.

1. When you sit down to the study of a lesson in this work, be careful to be free from interruption, and to have such a period of time before you, to be occupied in the work, as will give you the opportunity really to enter into it. Then banish other thoughts entirely from the mind, and remove yourself as far as possible from other objects of interest or sources of interruption. The habit into which many young persons allow themselves to fall, of studying lessons in fragments of time, having the book, perhaps, for some time before them, but allowing their attention to be conunually diverted from their pursuit, will only lead to superficial and utterly useless attainments. It is destructive to all those habits of mind necessary for success in any important intellectual pursuit. It is especially injurious in such a study as this. Metaphysical Philosophy is emphatically the science of thought, and nothing effectual can be done in it without patient, continued, and solitary study.

Method of studying, why proposed. First direction. A common but faulty mode of studying described. Its effects, what?

2. Ascertain before you commence any lesson what place it occupies in the general plan of the book, with which, at the outset, you should become very thoroughly acquainted. Nothing promotes so much the formation of logical and systematic habits of mind, and nothing so effectually assists the memory, in regard to what any particular work contains, as the keeping constantly in view the general plan of the book; looking at it as a whole, and understanding distinctly, not merely each truth, or system of truths, brought to view, but the place which it occupies in the general design.

3. This preparation being made, you are prepared to read the lesson, which should be done, the first time, with great attention and care, and with especial effort to understand the connection between each sentence and paragraph, and those which precede and follow it. It should always b ørne in mind, that treatises on such subjects as these present trains of thought and reasoning, not mere detached ideas and sentences. Every remark, therefore, should be examined, not by itself, but in its connections. This should be especially observed in regard to the anecdotes and illustrations with which the work abounds. The bearing of each one on the subject should be very carefully studied. They are all intended to prove some point, or to illustrate some position. After reading such narratives, then, you should not only take care to understand it as a story, but should ask yourselves such questions as these: "Why is this story introduced here? What does the author mean to prove by it? What principle

does it illustrate?

The pupil, too, should avail himself of collateral helps in understanding the lesson. Every geographical, or historical, or personal allusion should be examined with the help of the proper books. If a distinguished individual is mentioned, find the account of his life in a

Second direction. Effects of this practice. Third direction. Connections of the passage. Anecdotes and illustrations, how to be studied?

Collateral nelps.

biographical dictionary. If a place is named, seek it on the map. There is one other direction which I am sorry to say it is absolutely necessary to mention. Look out all the words, whose meaning you do not dictinctly and fully understand, in a dictionary. Strange as it may seem, in nine cases out of ten, a pupil in school will find in his lesson a sentence containing words he does not understand, and, after perplexing himself some minutes with it in vain, he will go to his recitation in ignorance of its meaning, as if he never had heard of such a contrivance as a dictionary. Now the habit of seeking from other books explanations and assistance in regard to your studies is of incalculable value. It will cause you some additional trouble, but it will multiply, many fold, your interest and success.

4. After having thus read, with minute and critical attention, the portion assigned, the pupil should next take a cursory review of it, by glancing the eye over the paragraphs, noticing the heads, and the questions or topics in the margin, for the purpose of taking in, as it were, a view of the passage as a whole. The order of discussion which the author adopts, and the regular manner in which the several steps of an argument, or the several applications of a principle, succeed one another, should be carefully observed. There are the same reasons for doing this, in regard to any particular chapter, as in regard to the whole work. The connection, too, between the passage which constitutes the lesson, and the rest of the book, i. e. the place which it occupies in the plan of the author, should be brought to mind again. You thus classify and arrange, in your own mind, what is learned, and not only fix it more firmly, but you are acquiring logical habits of mind, which will be of lasting and incalculable value.

5. You will thus have acquired a thorough know

Examples of this. Use of dictionary. Fourth direction. Review of the lessop

Connections of the lesson.