TIROCINIUM;

OR, A REVIEW OF SCHOOLS.

Κεφαλαιον δη παιδειας ορθη τροφη.-PLATO.

Αρχη πολιτείας απασης, νέων τροφα. DioG. LAERT.

[ARGUMENT:-Man's supremacy derived not from his outward form, but from the soul, I-Creation in vain, unless subservient to the purposes of an immortal being, 35-Heavenly truth not difficult to discover, 73-Man made to discover and declare it, 100-Duty of making it known to the young, 103-Importance of infant instruction, 109— 'Pilgrim's Progress,' 131-Happy if such studies were approved in riper years, 147—The Gospel rejected for false philosophy, 185—Corrupting influence of large schools, 201-Effects of bad example on the young, 220-College, 240-Errors in education from following established precedent, 255-Teachers connive at vice in their pupils, 269— Degeneracy of schools, 279-Early school associations, 296-Parents recounting their early follies to their children, 318—Advancement in the world expected from school friendships, 393-These are not always permanent, 436-Is emulation a right motive of action? 458-Great and small schools alike, 515-Parental confidence and companionship, 537-This confidence destroyed by absence, 561-Classics not enough, 605-Study of Nature, 630-A private tutor recommended, 658— Danger of association with servants, 688-Tutors to be treated with respect, 706-Where home example is bad, board in some retired house recommended, 735-The author's advice not likely to be followed, 779-The middle ranks warned against sending their sons to school, 807-Which should be managed better or encouraged less, 922.]

IT is not from his form, in which we trace
Strength joined with beauty, dignity with grace,
That man, the master of this globe, derives
His right of empire over all that lives.
That form, indeed, the associate of a mind

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Vast in its powers, ethereal in its kind,—
That form, the labour of Almighty skill,
Framed for the service of a free-born will,
Asserts precedence, and bespeaks control,
But borrows all its grandeur from the soul.
Hers is the state, the splendour, and the throne,
An intellectual kingdom, all her own.

For her, the Memory fills her ample page

With truths poured down from every distant age;
For her, amasses an unbounded store,
The wisdom of great nations, now no more;
Though laden, not encumbered with her spoil,
Laborious, yet unconscious of her toil,

When copiously supplied, then most enlarged,
Still to be fed, and not to be surcharged.
For her the Fancy, roving unconfined,
The present Muse of every pensive mind,
Works magic wonders, adds a brighter hue
To Nature's scenes, than Nature ever knew.
At her command winds rise and waters roar,
Again she lays them slumbering on the shore;
With flower and fruit the wilderness supplies,
Or bids the rocks in ruder pomp arise.
For her the Judgment, umpire in the strife

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That Grace and Nature have to wage through life,
Quick-sighted arbiter of good and ill,

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Appointed sage preceptor to the Will,

Condemns, approves, and with a faithful voice

Guides the decision of a doubtful choice.
Why did the fiat of a God give birth
To yon fair Sun and his attendant Earth?
And when descending he resigns the skies,

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Why takes the gentler Moon her turn to rise,

Whom Ocean feels through all his countless waves,
And owns her power on every shore he laves?
Why do the seasons still enrich the year,
Fruitful and young as in their first career?
Spring hangs her infant blossoms on the trees,

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Rocked in the cradle of the western breeze;
Summer in haste the thriving charge receives,
Beneath the shade of her expanded leaves,
Till Autumn's fiercer heats and plenteous dews
Dye them at last in all their glowing hues.—
'Twere wild profusion all, and bootless waste,
Power misemployed, munificence misplaced,
Had not its author dignified the plan,
And crowned it with the majesty of man.

Thus formed, thus placed, intelligent, and taught,

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His crimes and follies with an aching eye;

Look where he will, the wonders God has wrought,
The wildest scorner of his Maker's laws
Finds in a sober moment time to pause,
To press the important question on his heart,
'Why formed at all, and wherefore as thou art ?'
If man be what he seems, this hour a slave,
The next mere dust and ashes in the grave;
Endued with reason only to descry

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With passions, just that he may prove, with pain,
The force he spends against their fury vain;
And if, soon after having burned, by turns,
With every lust with which frail Nature burns,
His being end where death dissolves the bond,
The tomb take all, and all be blank beyond;
Then he, of all that Nature has brought forth,
Stands self-impeached the creature of least worth,
And useless while he lives, and when he dies,
Brings into doubt the wisdom of the skies.
Truths that the learned pursue with eager thought
Are not important always as dear-bought,
Proving at last, though told in pompous strains,
A childish waste of philosophic pains;

But truths on which depends our main concern,
That 'tis our shame and misery not to learn,
Shine by the side of every path we tread,
With such a lustre he that runs may read.
'Tis true that, if to trifle life away

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Down to the sunset of their latest day,
Then perish on futurity's wide shore
Like fleeting exhalations, found no more,
Were all that Heaven required of human kind,
And all the plan their destiny designed,

What none could reverence all might justly blame,
And man would breathe but for his Maker's shame.
But Reason heard, and Nature well perused,
At once the dreaming mind is disabused.
If all we find possessing earth, sea, air,
Reflect his attributes who placed them there,
Fulfil the purpose, and appear designed
Proofs of the wisdom of the all-seeing mind,
'Tis plain the creature whom He chose to invest
With kingship and dominion o'er the rest,
Received his nobler nature, and was made
Fit for the power in which he stands arrayed,
That first or last, hereafter if not here,
He too might make his author's wisdom clear,
Praise him on earth, or obstinately dumb,
Suffer his justice in a world to come.
This once believed, 'twere logic misapplied
To prove a consequence by none denied,

That we are bound to cast the minds of youth
Betimes into the mould of heavenly truth,
That taught of God they may indeed be wise,
Nor ignorantly wandering miss the skies.

In early days the Conscience has in most
A quickness, which in later life is lost:
Preserved from guilt by salutary fears,
Or, guilty, soon relenting into tears.
Too careless often, as our years proceed,

What friends we sort with, or what books we read,

Our parents yet exert a prudent care

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To feed our infant minds with proper fare,

And wisely store the nursery by degrees

With wholesome learning, yet acquired with ease.
Neatly secured from being soiled or torn