week, by the mistaken idea of attempting to force in at the extremities what was unable to penetrate into the more noble and more intellectual part of the system. It is fortunate for the present generation that a more merciful system of management has been introduced, and that the schools of the present day are much better adapted for the cultivation of the minds of youth than at any former period when measures of much greater severity were adopted. It will not be necessary to enlarge upon this division of the subject farther than to observe that at this tender age it is essential to the future happiness of the child, and his usefulness in after life, that he should be kindly treated, and that upon a system calculated to develope his latent powers, and prepare him for a higher and more extended sphere of instruction. These are my views in regard to the early stages of training; and although there is a difference of opinion as to where and in what manner it should be given, I am nevertheless convinced that it should be received at a public school.

3rd.-Education during the Period intervening between the Age of Ten and Fourteen.

Assuming our views of infant education to be correct, we are now arrived at that stage of probationary existence, when the boy begins to think something of himself, and with feelings which deepen into manly independence he discovers a power which he considers peculiarly his own, and which he is unwilling to trust in the hands of others. This feeling should never be suppressed, but carefully watched and modified in cases where it tends to encroach upon the rights of others. In a public school it generally brings its own corrective; and in this little. republic there are those both able and willing to control the turbulent and self-willed intruder. To the agricultural

labourer, the mechanic, and the artisan, this is a time of vital importance, as at this period may be laid the foundations of future comfort, success, and renown. I do not mean by these observations to say that every candidate for honours in his particular walk of life will succeed; on the contrary it is only a few amongst the many that attain distinction. Yet the prize is worth looking after; but unless the taste for knowledge, and the power to apply it be there, it is vain to think of ascending the scale in the great contests of human existence. I speak from experience of these matters; and I can assure you it is a long time since I discovered that nothing valuable was to be attained without study, in the first instance, and constant labour and application in the second. It is, therefore, important that the boy should never lose sight of the object he is striving to attain, and that his mind should be directed to those points of study that are likely to stimulate him to action in the full and faithful discharge of his duties in after life. At this period, whilst the mind of the pupil is receiving the rudiments of a plain but useful education, care should be taken to ascertain the peculiar bent of his mind, and to encourage tuition in those branches best suited to his taste, and best adapted to the circumstances of his future entrance into life. This is the suitable time to give instruction in grammar, history, biography, arithmetic, geometry, and practical mathematics. All these may be taught with advantage, leaving subsequently to the pupil himself the choice of a profession or trade, in which the knowledge he has acquired can be usefully and properly applied.

Towards the end of his educational course the boy, if he be aspiring, assumes something of the character of the man. He begins to assert the dignity of his nature, and looks out for that description of employment by which he can maintain himself. This love of labour in early life is characteristic of

the youth of this kingdom. And here I cannot do better than reiterate a part of the speech of the Right Honourable Sotheron Estcourt, the chairman of the Poor Law Board, who, in his address to the members of the Hants and Wilts Adult Society, speaking of the difficulty of attaching young persons to educational pursuits, he said that, "in his desire to remedy certain evils, he was persuaded that anything like an attempt to catch hold of young men and young women after they leave school, and by holding out either a pecuniary reward, or in any other manner attempting to persuade them to take a deeper interest in the subject of education than their own minds naturally induce them to take, will end in failure." And in confirmation of the truth of these observations he further observes, “that it is rather too much to expect that an employer will consent to keep a boy at school when he ought to be at work; and, indeed, even in that case he doubted whether such a plan would be successful. He could give an instance in which it was not. Some years ago he was very desirous of doing something of the kind in his own parish, and engaged two boys to do a certain amount of work; but he made an engagement with them that he would not pay them unless the boy who was not employed in labour attended the school. He, however, totally failed, for the boys preferred labour to school, and both of them left his employment as soon as they could find others to give it them. He attempted to interfere artificially with their natural desire, and deservedly failed." Nothing can be more true than the above observations; and the question is, how to deal with this innate preference for labour so as to make it productive of good to the individual and beneficial to the community. In the solution of this question I hope to show that much may be accomplished in the next division of my subject, viz.

4th.-Adult Education from the Age of Fourteen to

Twenty.

This stage of intellectual culture is probably the most important in the whole scale of mental progress. At this time the wild passions of youth have to be controlled and brought within the bounds of moderation, and at this period scholastic instruction ends, and self-culture begins. This is a period of vital moment to youth, when a life of labour should be relieved by study, having for its object the acquisition of knowledge based on professional pursuits, and calculated to enlarge the faculties of the mind. It is astonishing how much a young man may gain in this way without the guidance or assistance of any teacher whatever. I will give you an instance from my own experience. I had to teach myself, and that without the aid of either tutors or mechanics' institutes, by a course of reading and practical mathematics, which I pursued from sixteen to twenty-four with unrelaxed avidity after the labours of the day were over, and which not unfrequently encroached upon the hours of sleep. I subjected myself to this system of self-teaching for five days in the week, devoting the remainder to pleasure and amusement; and now at this advanced period of life I find myself nothing the worse, but all the better for it. I will not trouble you with further examples, but proceed to state what course I consider necessary to be pursued in aiding the progress of a youth in mental culture during this early period of his career. We ought, in my opinion, to afford a knowledge of natural science in connection with labour and the professional pursuits in which those we teach are engaged. youth may be a mechanic, an artisan, or an agricultural labourer, or he may be a soldier or a sailor; it is all the same, whatever his professional pursuits may be, they involve certain duties, and these cannot be properly executed

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without a knowledge of the laws upon which they are founded. To become an expert workman in any handicraft employment is not entirely the work of the hand; on the contrary, the head is the director of every movement, and to effect these skilfully he must possess a knowledge of the laws which the Almighty has so intelligibly and so beautifully written upon the page of nature. labourer in the field cannot cut a drain or turn up the soil by the spade or the plough without having some perception of the objects of his toil. An artisan cannot weave a piece of cloth, nor a mechanic execute a piece of machinery, without some consideration of the principles on which these operations are conducted, or what I call the physical truths of construction, applicable in every case as fixed laws to the operations of man. Nor can a soldier or

sailor, in the defence of his country, adequately exercise the functions of his profession without some perception of the great laws by which the arts of attack and defence are governed. It is in the knowledge of these physical truths that we shall exercise our varied pursuits with most benefit to ourselves and most advantage to the community; and these should therefore form a part of every man and every woman's education. Yet in recommending the study of natural laws bearing upon the duties of life, it is not my intention, nor is it my desire, to institute a nation of philosophers, but only to instruct the rising generation of men and women in the more efficient discharge of their respective duties, and more particularly with a clearer apprehension of the unerring laws by which every operation of the human mind is governed, whether in the physical or the moral world. The economy of nature should therefore form a part of every man's instruction; and we shall best discharge our duty to the rising generation by imparting to our successors that knowledge which leads to nature and to nature's laws.