I HAVE in my garden a choice rose-bush; I plant-,, ed it there when a little one, a mere root, with one little shoot just peeping out. I planted it in the fairest and most auspicious spot I could find The soil is rich and mellow. It is sheltered from rough winds. Soft showers and gentle dews visit it. There the sun shines from morning till evening. Daily have I watched its growth. I have carefully plucked out the weeds as soon as they appeared. I have loosened the soil gently about its spreading roots. In a season of drought, I have daily watered it with the purest water. My cares and anxiety have been rewarded. How delighted I was when the first bud appeared! How that delight was increased as the delicate petals opened and disclosed the soft and beautiful hues! Then many buds put forth, and many flowers opened; the air was filled with fragrance, and this thing of life and beauty was perfected. Curious were the reflections which now arose in my mind. Nature had done the work, and yet my culture had aided nature. There was in the plant too, a vital force, and its own wonderful law. An action had been going on within its own bosom. The sunshine, the moisture, the genial earth, and the careful culture would all have been in vain, had not the vital force been busy drinking in all, assimilating all—had not the constructive law governed and determined all. The finger of God was there-it was his work-a work which no other than a Divine artist could produce. The rose-bush seemed to breathe of heaven. There was in and about it invisible ministries. It was an impulse of natural piety to kneel down beside it and exclaim, "Thy God is my God-beautiful flowers, ye are emblems of wisdom, love and beauty ineffable!"

I have another garden—a garden of human souls. One plant there appeared and promised fair. It was beginning to put forth its buds, when a night came, and an invisible hand removed it. Then another plant mysteriously appeared in its place, and that yet remains growing up in strength-but what it is to be is hid from me. And then another appeared, just smiling into life-it was like a sunbeam from heaven-a cloud passed over it, and I saw it no more. And then another was given, and it

yet remains a beautiful opening flower-dear to my heart. I have hope, but it is not given to me to prophesy. And then one more appeared, and five summer suns shone upon it, and it was most lovely and gentle-a spirit of heavenly thoughts and promises breathing into my heart: I hoped it was mine to keep and nurture; but a wintry storm passed over it, and it was gone. And yet that wintry storm, as it swept away, went up high into the heavens, where it melted into a soft and rose-like light, and showed an angel's wings and form as it disappeared.

And thus three are transplanted into a heavenly garden, where my care cannot reach them, and where they do not need my care. Is not the soil more genial there-are not the dews and showers more quickening-is not the sunshine brighter-have they not the ministry of angels— is not the smile of God ever upon them? Yes, I am content to have them there, although I have shed many tears over their loss. It is far better for them to grow in the garden of souls in heaven, than to take their lot in my garden of souls upon

the earth.

But the two that I have remaining herewhat shall I do for them? O Parents! O Teach ers! O Ministers of God! All ye that hav gardens of souls on earth, weigh well the charge ye have. The nurture of souls, is not this the loftiest duty of human beings? And this is what we mean by Education. As the rose bush must be nurtured according to what it is—in view of its vital force and its constructive law, that it may have the most perfect growth, and produce the most beautiful flowers; so is it with the soul-it, too, must be nurtured according to what it is-in view of its true spiritual force and constructive law. It is made after the Divine likeness; God is its archetype. Its end, therefore, is reached only as it grows to be perfect as its Father in heaven is perfect. It is not a mere creature of the earth-earthly, to be prepared for mere earthly uses, and to be adorned with mere earthly accomplishments: it is constituted for an immortal growth, and in its growth to develope its divine form and measure. It may be left like: a rose in the desert, to grow wildly and by accident, not without beauty and fragrance. Or it

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may be distorted, choked with weeds, and trampled down. The great aim of education is to give it the most genial soil, the fairest sunshine and sufficient moisture; to remove hurtful weeds, to prevent inimical visitations, to provide all kindly influences, whereby it may grow into its true form, and by its inner power and law clothe itself with wisdom, beauty, and love. We must treat the soul as a soul; we must enkindle it to feel itself to be a soul, if we would have it to become a true and godlike soul.

Education, therefore, as a discipline, must begin by inspiring souls with a sense of their own worth and dignity; and that, in their education, as a process, intellectual and spiritual, are contained their great personal interest, hope, and well-being. Education is not a mere means to an end it is the end to which all things else should contribute as means. Education as a discipline, next provides means and influences, the best which earth can afford, or which have been gained from heaven, for instituting and conducting education as a process-a process of growth, developing form and properties; and which, while it scatters on every side deeds of usefulness like ever-budding flowers and perpetual fragrance, spreads abroad the fair boughs more and more; and carries them higher into the sunshine, until the time of transplanting come.

In pointing out specifically the true discipline, we must begin by stating specifically what the soul is. It is a creature of Intellect, of fine and beautiful sensibilities, of conscience and active will. Its education, therefore, must comprise a genial and fitting discipline and nurture of all these. Truth and exact methods of reasoning for the Intellect the beautiful forms of nature and art for the Sensibilities: the religion of Christ for the Conscience: habits of attention, self-government, and energy for the Will:-these comprise all.

As to the order of discipline, we must follow the indications of nature. The faculties are to be cultivated in the order of their development. First, then, is the acquisition of languages orally; the cultivation of the senses by familiarizing them with their proper objects; the acquisition of descriptive knowledge, and an initiation into descriptive art. Next, the discipline of the intellect, gradually introduced, by exact and noble sciences, in connection with the higher forms of art, and the profounder study of language. This to be constantly accompanied with compositions in the vernacular tongue; the study of rhetoric and oratory, or the right use and utterance of language, and select readings in the vernacular literature. Last of all, mental philosophy, for not

until the mind has gone out in search of its proper objects, and thus developed itself to its own consciousness, is it prepared to know itself.

The discipline of the conscience and the will is to permeate the whole. It must begin with the first dawn of thought and feeling. It can never end. All other studies must be turned into discipline and aliment for these. But the religion of Christ, as an angel with outstretched wings, dropping gracious influences into the inner life, must hover over these growing souls all the while.

We often hear of accomplishments in distinction from education proper: but there is no just ground for the distinction. The arts of music and drawing, a knowledge of languages, and graceful manners, are really parts of a proper education; and all proper education consists in accomplishments of the soul. Whatever is foreign to the mind and heart is foreign to the human being. A disastrous use, however, is often made of this distinction, where it is attempted to cultivate certain æsthetical tastes, to acquire certain arts, to become familiar with a foreign language, and to acquire graceful manners, independently of the exact and thorough discipline of the intellectual functions. Education must aim at a well-balanced cultivation of our whole being. It is not for us, by neglect, to commit a suicide upon any faculty of our being. All that goes to make up the soul must grow in the proper and harmonious growth of the soul. And what can we hope for in the condition of that soul in which the high attributes of reason and conscience have been neglected—those attributes which govern and guide us, which unfold character, which bear the most resplendent marks of our divine original, which, more than all, make us souls, and reveal the light of truth, and contain the promises of immortality? Indeed here are the ideas which form the starting points of all beautiful arts. Hence this partial education must fail in its own sphere, because separated from those springs whence all grace and beauty flow.

The thoroughly disciplined mind will easily master the minor graces, for it has collected its strength in a higher region. But that mind which attempts nothing more than these, will often find itself inadequate to their mastery, for the very reason that it has not gained the full play of its powers. In conducting the educational process, two main principles are to govern us to grasp, with a clear and full understanding, whatever we undertake; and to allow full time for the growth of our thoughts. Imperfect acquisition begets superficial habits of thought, weakens the power of thinking, leaves no lasting fruits

in the memory, and creates a distaste for knowledge by shutting us out from its interior palaces of light and beauty; making us only dwellers on its cold threshold. But thorough acquisition marches through knowledge like a conqueror, gathering fresh strength; tastes the deep delights of truth, and makes for itself permanent possessions.

The necessity of sufficient time for the growth of thought is laid in the mind itself. I planted my rose-bush where it might receive all the quickening and nourishing influences and supplies of the heavens and the earth, and yet it could not grow faster, nor take to itself any other form, colors and fragrance, than had been provided for and determined by its own organic law. There might be a difference in the ministering influences and supplies, and these would make a difference in the growth and beauty of the flower. But this could be true only within a certain limit. The vital force would demand certain days and nights in which to work, and the organic law, under the most favoring clime, would permit the plant to drink no more moisture, to receive no gayer colors from the sunshine, to assimilate no more aliment than was required for the specific form and properties. So with the soul—childhood, youth, and manhood mark the stages of its growth -those stages which are symbolized by the corporeal structure in which it dwells. You cannot force it beyond the measure and form of its spiritual activity in the successive periods, nor minister more knowledge than the law of its thought will permit it to assimilate and make its own. As we must have the bud and the flower of a fruitbearing plant during their full time, before we have the fruit, and as the fruit must have its time for ripening; so the soul must have its budding, flowering, and fruit-bearing and ripening seasons.

You must feed the soul according to its own law of growth. It is possible, indeed, to make a great parade of educational apparatus; to make a great noise and bustle of carrying young minds through all sciences and accomplishments; you can make them turn over the leaves of many text books, hear many lectures, recite many lessons, and impose upon them and upon an unthinking community, the belief that they are educated. But are they indeed educated? Their minds have been excited, but they have not been at work in the quietness of thought. They have tasted everything at overloaded tables, but instead of digesting they have been sickened. You have been concentrating the sunshine upon your plants through burning-glasses; you have smothered them with your com posts; you have deluged them with your watering, pots; you have violated, and

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not aided nature. There is time enough for the growth of the soul, if you will always let it be growing, and if you will minister to it aright. The great error is to hurry the soul on, by certain empirical and deceptive methods, to an imaginary point of development which is called a finished education, and there to leave it to grow no more. The task is accomplished-a disagreeable and toilsome task, because engaging an excited and hurried action about knowledge and accomplishments, without affording any opportunity for seeing into the heart of things, like a frightened humming-bird chased from flower to flower without dipping its bill into the honied cups: the task is accomplished; and now business and pleasure becomes the life, where the remembrance of the finished education only reacts in the direction of worldliness and folly. The soul has been teased, not disciplined. Had it ever known the delights of thought, it could never leave off thinking. But these wearisome pretenses it easily lays aside for engagements and enjoyments well suited to a garnished but uneducated being. Be not one of these. Make education the great business of life-as indeed, by the good man, it is contemplated as running through immortality itself. Let it be your highest personal interest; make it the noblest form of your benevolence to others; pursue it steadily in noble studies and holy duties. Be in no hurry, but be always doing with manful strength; seek not for easy methods, but for thorough methods; and believe that those tasks which seem the hardest at first, will yield most delight in the end, for the soul grows just as it puts forth its strength and wrestles for truth. Gain all the knowledge that you can gain well; but be more concerned for a harmonious development of your powers than for knowing many languages and sciences. We have an unending time in which to gain knowledge; but it is of infinite moment that we begin our immortal growth in a pure, rich soil, and under such influences as shall make us grow after our Divine archetype. And as the growth of the soul after its archetype comprises its highest hope and well being; and as it is acting most worthily for itself, when steadily, patiently, and with great energy acting for this end, a self-conscious spiritual plant exerting vital force, obeying its inner law, and revealing its beauty more and more; so there is nothing so noble and praiseworthy, and of such vast account, that a man can do for his day and generation, as to promote the growth of souls in any way that he best can. In taking care of thy own soul, therefore, forget not the souls which are growing around thee. Thou wilt grow most nobly thyself, while thou helpest others.

To make ourselves agreeable and respected, is at once to multiply our sources of happiness, and to increase our means of doing good. Made for social life, no small part of earthly joy is to be derived from the society of our acquaintance and friends. This joy may be greatly increased by a proper attention to the wants, wishes, and prevalent tastes of those with whom we mingle. We may add to their comfort as well as our own. And, if we may, we certainly ought.

There is a charm in good breeding, that is felt by all classes. The man whose ordinary deportment is courteous, who studies to render himself agreeable in every circle, and to whom politeness has become a second nature, who, without artifice or awkwardness, endeavors to abstain from what is offensive to others, and to perform those minute acts of attention which the rules of good-breeding require, wins his way into the good graces and affections of his acquaintances, multiplies the number of his friends, and readily finds admission into the society of the virtuous and the respected. At the same time, he is gradually extending his personal influence; and thus gives weight to his opinions, acquires power over the minds and hearts of his friends, and, if virtuous himself, recommends his own good qualities by presenting them in an attractive form. "He that regards the welfare of others should make his virtue approachable, that it may be loved and copied.”

The Christian owes it to his profession to make his presence and acquaintance courted rather than shunned. If possible, he should endeavor to invest his religion with such charms as to attract, rather than to repel. If, by the exhibition of kindness, and by a constant attention to the great law of courteousness, he can win to himself and his profession the good graces and the admiration of others, and so commend the religion of the cross to his fellow-men, he is greatly at fault if he neglects the cultivation of such a gift. If it is characteristic of heaven-born charity, or true religion, that it "doth not behave itself unseem

proper use."

ly," or indecorously; if the Christian is to pay special attention to "whatsoever things are pure, lovely, and of good report," and "if there be any virtue, any praise," to "think on these things," to study to excel in them, to "covet earnestly the best gifts,” then is it a great oversight, a great neglect of duty, for the follower of Jesus to pay no attention to the rules of good breeding, and to look with contempt on the art of politeness.

A kind expression of real kindness is the perfection of good breeding. To please others, and not one's self; never to give one's self the preference over others, even in little things; to manifest a uniform disinterestedness in trifles, in matters of small moment, as well as in weightier matters; these are essential to good breeding. But the great law of social intercourse, enjoined by the Great Author of our faith, includes all this: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Or, as the great apostle has expressed it, “Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification; for even Christ pleased not himself."

This law of Christian love, then, if faithfully observed, will go very far towards the formation of good manners. The selfish propensities of the heart must be overcome, before this disinterestedness can be perfectly secured. But, in order to this, there must be an entire renovation of the heart. By nature, the heart is completely under the dominion of these propensities. As, therefore, nothing else can so change the disposition, so subdue the vengeful and selfish temper, and so inspire with true kindness and benevolence, as the grace of God in the gospel of Christ, so the very first and surest prerequisite to true gentility and sweetness of manners is, the attainment of pure and undefiled religion, by the renewing of the mind and the regeneration of the soul.

Though great ease and grace of deportment may unquestionably be attained without the possession of true piety, yet the same individual, it is maintained, would have found it far easier to

acquire such a degree of accomplishment, and have arrived at a still higher state of refinement, had he first sought and secured that benevolence and purity of heart, which flow from the possession of a heart renewed and sanctified by divine grace. He who has made this attainment, and learned from his great exemplar to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please himself, has already secured the first great element of a well-bred character; has a fountain of kindness and love within him, which, when properly directed, will, in the most natural manner, send forth its perennial streams to gladden every sphere in which he lives and moves.

A writer on "True Politeness, or Etiquette for Everybody," has very properly observed that - the essential part of good breeding is the practical desire to afford pleasure, and to avoid giving pain. Any man possessing this desire, requires only opportunity and observation to make him a gentleman." But this is the very law of Christian kindness to which I have just referred. The Bible constantly aims at the formation of such a character, and, as the most perfect example of it, exhibits to the admiring eye the faultless Jesus. If ever there was a perfect gentleman on earth, it was the son of Mary. The law of kindness was in his heart, and every act of his life was an expression of kindness in itself most kind. An intimate acquaintance with the spirit and manner of his life, and a constant study to be like him, will go very far towards the attainment of good breeding.

"If you wish to be a well-bred lady," says a fair authoress, "you must carry your good manners everywhere with you. It is not a thing that can be laid aside and put on at pleasure. True politeness is uniform disinterestedness in trifles, i e, (even in trifles,) accompanied by the calm self-possession which belongs to a noble simplicity of purpose; and this must be the effect of a Christian spirit running through all you do, or say, or think." Again, she remarks, "The charm which true Christian politeness sheds over a person, though not easily described, is felt by all hearts, and responded to by the best feelings of our nature. It is a talisman of great power to smoothe your way along the rugged paths of life, and to turn towards you the best side of all you meet."

To the same effect is the testimony of the Prince of Conti, of the house of Bourbon, in one of the Port Royal essays. He observes, that "worldly politeness is no more than an imitation or imperfect copy of Christian charity; being the pretense, or outward appearance of that deference to the judgment, and attention to the interest, of

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others, which the true Christian has as the rule of his life, and the disposition of his heart."

No one can have a correct knowledge of that religion which the Bible commends, and not unite in this testimony. True religion is love to God and man in the fullest and most constant exercise-the very essence of kindness. It teaches the most undissembled and unaffected modesty, humility, self-denial, gentleness, tenderness, meekness, simplicity, disinterestedness, and benevolence, of which the human heart is capable. It causes and promotes serenity, cheerfulness, approachableness, and even affability, or readiness for conversation. It enjoins respect for all, condescension to inferiors, and veneration for all of superior station or worth. All this flows spontaneously from the heart of an experienced Christian, without effort or constraint.

The modesty inculcated by the Gospel, leads us to be diffident of our own goodness, to esteem others better than ourselves, and to arrest all tendency towards arrogancy or disrespect. Its humility checks and destroys that pride and haughtiness, which, under "the various modifications of superciliousness, vanity, and false diffidence," occasion more offenses against good manners, and breaches of the rules of good breeding, than any other cause whatever. Its selfdenial leads us to disregard our own wants, comforts, and preferences, out of deference to the feelings of others; while its gentleness, tenderness, sympathy, and simplicity prompt us to seek the kindest expression of the kindness of the heart. Let the cheerfulness and serenity of true religion be shed over all this, and what can exceed the religion of the Gospel, as a means of promoting good-breeding?

"Religion," says Dr. Witherspoon, "is the great polisher of the common people. Let us go to the remotest cottage of the wildest country, and visit the family that inhabits it. If they are pious, there is a certain humanity and good-will attending their simplicity, which makes it highly commendable. There is also a decency in their sentiments, which, flowing from the dictates of conscience, is as pleasing in all respects as the restraint imposed by the rules of good-breeding, with which the persons here in view have little opportunity of being acquainted. On the contrary, unbred country people, when without principle, have generally a savageness and brutality in their carriage as contrary to good manners as to piety itself." Judging from an extensive observation, this distinguished citizen and divine observes, in respect to the middle ranks of life, "I scruple not to affirm, that whatever sphere a man has been bred in, or attained to, religion is