and then, perhaps too late, would be glad to get out those weeds which their own hands have planted, and which now have taken too deep root to be easily extirpated.

For he that hath been used to have his will in everything, as long as he was in coats, why should we think it strange that he should desire it, and contend for it still, when he is in breeches? Indeed, as he grows more towards a man, age shows his faults the more, so that there be few parents then so blind as not to see them, few so insensible as not to feel the ill effects of their own indulgence. He had the will of his maid before he could speak or go; he had the mastery of his parents ever since he could prattle; and why, now he is grown up, is stronger and wiser than he was then, why, now of a sudden must he be restrained and curbed? Why must he, at seven, fourteen, or twenty years old, lose the privilege which the parents' indulgence, until then, so largely allowed him? Try it in a dog, or a horse, or any other creature, and see whether the ill and resty tricks they have learned when young, are easily to be mended when they are knit; and yet, none of those creatures are half so wilful and proud, or half so desirous to be masters of themselves and others, as man.

We are generally wise enough to begin with them when they are very young, and discipline betimes those other creatures we would make useful and good for somewhat. They are only our own offspring that we neglect in this point, and having made them ill children, we foolishly expect they should be good men. For if the child must have grapes or sugar-plums when he has a mind to them, rather than make the poor baby cry, or be out of humour; why, when he is grown up, must he not be satisfied too, if his desires carry him to wine or women? They are objects as suitable to the longing of one of more years, as what he cried for, when little, was to the inclinations of a child. The having desires accommodated to the apprehensions and relish of those several ages, is not the fault, but the not having them subject to the rules and restraints, of reason; the difference lies not in having, or not having appetites, but in the power to govern and deny ourselves in them.

He that is not used to submit his will to the reason of others when he is young, will scarcely hearken to submit to his own reason when he is of an age to make use of it. And what kind of a man such a one is like to prove, is easy to foresee.-LOCKE on Education.

1 In this piece there are individual expressions as well as whole phrases which would now be considered far from elegant, but the matter is so valuable, as to lead us to excuse the manner. The pupil may be asked to exchange antiquated forms for what would pass in the present day.

I COULD relate many instances of injustice arising from precipitancy in awarding punishment, and of the beneficial effects of systematically deferring to pronounce sentence till the heat of the moment had passed; but the following anecdotes, for the accuracy of which I can vouch, seem sufficient to arrest the attention to good purpose.

Two men-of-war happened to be cruising in company; one of them, a line-of-battle ship, bearing an admiral's flag; the other, a small frigate. One day, when they were sailing quite close to each other, the signal was made from the large to the small ship to chase in a particular direction, implying that a strange sail was seen in that quarter.

The look-out man at the main top-mast-head of the frigate was instantly called down by the captain, and severely punished on the spot, for not having discovered and reported the stranger before the flag-ship had made the signal to chase.

The unhappy sufferer, who was a very young hand, unaccustomed to be aloft, had merely taken his turn at the mast-head with the rest of the ship's company, and could give no explanation of his apparent neglect.

Before it was too late, however, the officer of the watch ventured to suggest to the captain, that possibly the difference of height between the masts of the two ships might have enabled the look-out man on board the admiral to discover the stranger, when it was physically impossible, owing to the curvature of the earth, that she could have been seen on board the frigate. No attention, however, was paid to this remark, and a punishment, due only to crime, or to a manifest breach of discipline, was inflicted.

The very next day, the same officer, whose remonstrance had proved so ineffectual, saw the look-out man at the flag-ship's mast-head again pointing out a strange sail. The frigate chanced to be placed nearly in the direction indicated; consequently she must have been somewhat nearer to the stranger than the lineof-battle ship was. But the man stationed at the frigate's masthead declared he could distinguish nothing of any stranger. Upon which the officer of the watch sent up the captain of the main-top, an experienced and quick-sighted seaman, who having for some minutes looked in vain in every direction, asserted positively that there was nothing in sight from that elevation. It was thus rendered certain, or at all events highly probable, that

the precipitate sentence of the day before had been unjust; for, under circumstances precisely similar (or even less favourable) it appeared that the poor fellow could not by possibility have seen the stranger, for not first detecting which he was punished.

I must give the conclusion of this painful story in the words of my informant, the officer of the deck, one of the kindest, and bravest, and best of men :

"I reported all this to the captain of the ship, and watched the effect. He seemed on the point of acknowledging that his heart smote him; but pride prevailed, and it was barely an ejaculation that escaped. So much for angry feelings getting the better of judgment!"

I have seldom related this anecdote in any company without observing that it drew forth from those who listened to it a marked and unqualified expression of censure. And the case, I admit, is a very strong one. But before we condemn, without mercy, the object of our indignation, I would venture to ask, which man amongst us all, whether at sea, in the command of a ship, or on shore, at the head of a regiment, or in the sober management of a mercantile house, or even in the tranquil jogtrot of a family, in the most private station of life, can honestly and fearlessly say that he has never, in moments of haste, been guilty of acts, if not quite so severe, at least as unjust? I have already admitted that I myself am not of this fortunate number, and I may, therefore, be permitted to urge upon others the necessity of interposing as many artificial checks as possible upon the excitements of passion.-CAPTAIN HALL.

In the earlier stages of society, every member of the community may be said to supply all his wants by his own personal labour. He acquires his food by the chase-he sows and reaps his own grain-he gathers his own fruit-he cuts the skin which forms his dress so as to fit his own person-he makes the sandals or buskins which protect his feet. He is, therefore, better or worse accommodated, exactly in proportion to the personal skill and industry which he can apply to that purpose.1 But it is discovered, in process of time, that one man has particular dexterity in hunting, being, we shall suppose, young, active, and enterprising; another, older and of a

more staid character, has peculiar skill in tilling the ground, or in managing cattle and flocks; a third, lame, perhaps, or infirm, has a happy talent for cutting out and stitching together garments, or for shaping and sewing shoes. It becomes, therefore, for the advantage of all, that the first man shall attend to nothing but hunting, the second confine himself to the cultivation of the land, and the third remain at home to make clothes and shoes. But then it follows, as a necessary consequence, that the huntsman must give to the man who cultivates the land a part of his venison and skins, if he desires to have grain of which to make bread, or a cow to furnish his family with milk; and that both the hunter and the agriculturist must give a share of the produce of the chase, and a proportion of the grain, to the third man, to obtain from him clothes and shoes. Each is thus accommodated with what he wants a great deal better, and more easily, by every one following a separate occupation, than they could possibly have been had each of the three been hunter, farmer, and tailor, in his own person, practising two of the trades awkwardly and unwillingly, instead of confining himself to that which he perfectly understands and pursues with success. This mode of accommodation is called barter, and is the earliest kind of traffic by which men exchange their property with each other, and satisfy their wants by parting with their superfluities.

But, in process of time, barter is found inconvenient. The husbandman, perhaps, has no use for shoes when the shoemaker is in need of corn, or the shoemaker may not want furs or venison when the hunter desires to have shoes. To remedy this, almost all nations have introduced the use of what is called money; that is to say, they have fixed on some particular substance capable of being divided into small portions, which, having itself little intrinsic value applicable to human use, is nevertheless received as a representative of the value of all commodities. Particular kinds of shells are used as money in some countries; in others, leather, cloth, or iron, are employed; but gold and silver, divided into small portions, are used for this important purpose almost all over the world.

That you may understand the use of this circulating representative of the value of commodities, and comprehend the convenience which it affords, let us suppose that the hunter, as we formerly said, wanted a pair of shoes, and the shoemaker had no occasion for venison, but wanted some corn; while the husbandman, not desiring to have shoes, stood in need of some other commodity. Here are three men, each desirous of some article of necessity or convenience which he cannot obtain by barter, because the party whom he has to deal with does not want the

commodity which he has to offer in exchange. But supposing the use of money introduced, and its value acknowledged, these three persons are accommodated by means of it in the amplest manner possible. The shoemaker does not want the venison which the hunter offers for sale, but some other man in the village is willing to purchase it for five pieces of silver; the hunter sells his commodity and goes to the shoemaker, who, though he would not barter the shoes for the venison which he did not want, readily sells them for the money, and going with it to the farmer, buys from him the quantity of corn he needs; while the farmer, in his turn, purchases whatever he is in want of, or, if he requires nothing at the time, lays the pieces of money aside, to use when he has occasion.-SCOTT's Tales of a Grandfather.'

1. To what purpose? and how might | with their right hand (Lat. dexter) than the idea be better brought out? their left, and hence dexterity means

2. Most people can do things better cleverness.

THE following passage from the 'Records of Creation,' by Dr. Sumner, is so much to the purpose, and carries so much greater weight with it than anything which I could say, both as to the benefits arising from educating the poor, and making them as far as possible the instruments through which it is to be done, that I cannot but quote it :—“ Of all obstacles to improvement ignorance is the most formidable, because the only true secret of assisting the poor is by making them agents in bettering their own condition, and to supply them, not with a temporary stimulus but with a permanent energy. As fast as the standard of intelligence is raised, the poor become more and more able to co-operate in any plan proposed for their advantage, and more likely to listen to any reasonable suggestion, and more able to understand, and therefore more willing to pursue it. Hence it follows, that when gross ignorance is once removed and right principles are introduced, a great advantage has been already gained against squalid poverty. Many avenues to an improved condition are opened to one whose faculties are enlarged and exercised; he sees his own interest more clearly; he pursues it more steadily, and he does not study immediate gratification at the expense of bitter and late repentance, or mortgage the labour of his future