seldom pleased the best judges. Perhaps some improvement may arise from acting a play of Terence or Sophocles; but I doubt whether a boy will be the better for emulating a stroller in a barn. The acting of boys is seldom equal to that of strolling players.

I wish to retain the practice of teaching boys to compose latin verse. But let me not be misunderstood. I agree with Mr. Clark, Mr. Burgh, and others, that when a boy is designed to fill a subordinate sphere in commercial or active life, to trouble him with latin versification, is to waste his valuable time. Such a mode of gaining an intimate knowledge of the classics is desirable to those only, who are to assume a profession or adorn a fortune. When the quantity of words is pretty well known, I have found it a very good method to place the words of one of Martial's Epigrams, or of any beautiful passage in the latin poets, out of their metrical order, and to require the scholar to form them into verses. I have likewise sometimes given him literal English translations from a Latin poet, written in lines corresponding to each line in the poet, and have desired him to translate them into latin verse. When this was done, the original was read and compared with the pupil's production.

A young student should be cautious not to talk on learned subjects unseasonably, lest he incur the appellation of a literary prater. And though I advise him to exercise himself in composition, yet I will also caution him against the itch of scribbling, or the love of writing without the pains of thinking. Let him never take the pen in hand till he has bestowed much time and deep thought on the subject. To the want of this

previous attention we owe the numerous productions, which disgrace letters, and die almost as soon as they are brought forth. Pretenders arise in every department and disgrace it. Let the liberal and solid scholar attend to the circumstances of time and place in the modest display of his attainments. It is unmanly timidity to conceal them on proper occasions; it is ridiculous arrogance to obtrude them upon unwilling and injudicious observers.-Knox.

A boy under my care constantly mistook the names of four letters of the alphabet. I made a law for a week, that all the members of my family should not ask verbally at table for bread, meat, vegetables, and beer, but that each of these four letters should stand for one of these, and that they should send the proper letters to express what they wanted, and that in case of a mistake they should not have it. On the first trial my young scholar made two blunders, and went without half his dinner; but by finding the necessity of learning the names of the letters in order to obtain his food, he was soon perfect in them, though he was thirteen years of age, and his friends despaired of his ever learning to read. After this one of the most intelligent of his school-fellows proposed cutting up some old books into words, and that whatever they had to say to him should be given to him in these printed words, properly arranged. This had an excellent effect, and in three months he read fluently and intelligibly, and of course comprehended what he read, which is not always the case.

When pupils are destined for the church they should certainly learn Hebrew. A minister of religion is inexcusable if unacquainted with the original language, in which the oracles of it were pronounced.-Williams.

At the age of fourteen, themes written in English and Latin should be exacted, with a proper attention to Dr. Samuel Johnson's practical precepts, by obliging the pupil to compose with celerity, as a means of introducing a facility and a quickness in the arranging his ideas. Correctness of thought and composition will be acquired by time and labour; but a slowness in the collecting and arranging ideas will ever attend the generality of persons, who have not from the beginning been necessitated, by the force of authority to use dispatch.

Some of the most elegant, forcible, and brilliant passages of the poets may form part of the exercises of the pupil, who should be made to repeat them aloud. If there are more than one pupil, one day in the week may be allotted for this purpose; but I would entirely prohibit the acting of plays for these reasons; it requires more confidence than a young person ought to have to acquit himself with spirit, in the character of an actor; and such exercises induce a swelling bombast stile in speaking, with an unnatural gesture and action. The stage-actors are of all persons the worst models of oratory; they would meet with no admiration did they not outstep the modesty of nature; and our tastes are so vitiated by these representations, that a pupil would lose the applause he deserved, did he condescend to excellence.

That wrangling disposition, that readiness to oppose the sentiments and opinions of others, and to engraft our fame, not on having illustrated some useful truth, but in the defeat of an antagonist, even at the expense of our integrity, like all other vices, lies in the defects of education. Logic, which is undoubtedly a necessary part of tuition, as it can alone enable us to defend ourselves against the wiles of sophistry, will necessarily make us adepts in the defence of errour. In the attic entertainments of these days a pert vivacious quickness carries away the triumphs due to wit; a sarcastic censoriousness takes place of honest satire; and sophistry, the most detestable of all human arts, finds in the applause of fools and knaves a reward for the abuse of reason, and the injury of truth.

To prevent young persons from falling into these depravities, we must endeavour to convince them that. true wit is ever on the side of good-nature and virtue, and that honest satire never wounds but with a view to amend. We must inform them that sublime geniuses, though they perceive the ridicule of things, do not delight in it, for truth and beauty are their pursuits. We must by example, as well as by precept, discourage every attempt at ill-natured raillery and cen

sure.

Instead of bestowing lavish praise on our pupils for conducting themselves with address in their debates, we must measure our approbation by the importance of the truths they have defended. We must expatiate on the beauty of that modesty and gentleness in youth, which makes them backward in contradicting, except where the interests of Truth demand their interposition. We must give a critical attention to

the manner of their conducting debates, and reprove or commend in proportion as they have showed patience in attending to the arguments of their opponents, as they have showed softness or the contrary, in the words they have made use of, or as civility and goodwill, or rudeness and disrespect, have prevailed in the tenor of their deportment.-Macaulay.

Even the best system of logic, considered only as the art or instrument of disputation, is more likely to confound truth than discover it. A public logical disputation resembles much the practice in former times of seeking truth by single combat. He that was most dextrous in the use of his weapons, whether a true or false knight, always proved victorious. Logic, I think, might as well have marched into oblivion with knighterrantry, justs, and tournaments. Nevertheless, if I divest logic of its Aristotelian jargon, if I call it the art of thinking, not of wrangling, or rather if I call it not an art but a science, the knowledge of myself, of the origin and progress of my own ideas, a system of logic will then appear a delineation, a chart of the human understanding, and consequently an object highly deserving my attention.

But suppose it to be of no use as an instrument of investigation, it is universally considered as a branch of academical learning; no young gentleman therefore would run the risk of appearing ignorant of logic as an art, its terms, and construction.-Berkenhout.