which the greatest number of other lives are made a sacrifice; and that it is noble in a hero, to prefer even a short life, attended by this felicity, to a long one, which should permit a longer life also to others.*" We can scarcely think of any thing more justly to be censured, than for a tutor to lead his pupils through the Iliad, and not point out the furious, detestable, and unchristian spirit and temper of the heroes, and even of the Gods, whose characters are delineated in that surprising performance; and not enforce on them the pacific, benign, rational, and infinitely superior doctrines and precepts of Divine Revelation. If we were to guide a company of youths through the field of Waterloo, we should not think we had done our duty, when we had pointed out to them, the position of the contending armies; the spot where the battle commenced; the ground where the main shock of the conflict was endured, where battalions perished after battalions; the eminence from whence Napoleon beheld the fatal struggle; and the places at which the Prussians entered the bloody plains, and decided the eventful day; no,-we could not visit such a scene merely to do so, or to eulogize the victors; amidst the hillocks covering the multitudes of the dead, we would have denounced, with glowing eloquence, could we have commanded it, the accursed system of war, which had cut off, as in a moment, so many of our race; which had blasted all the fondest hopes of so many mothers; which had made so many wives widows, and so many children fatherless: we would have feelingly uttered the lines of the indignant philanthropist, "One murder makes a villain! Millions, In such a scene, we would have shewn, most convincingly and incontrovertibly, not only the horrible iniquity of war, but the policy, rationality, and imperative duty, of settling both national and private differences by arbitration. If the mind of the tutor were well informed, and if he were properly alive to the importance of his charge, and the greatness of his responsibility, he would scarcely find a page of a classic which would not furnish him with the opportunity of denouncing some vice, of recommending some virtue, or of enforcing some religious truth. We do not mean, that he should deliver long, studied discourses on such occasions, but brief, pithy, striking, and comprehensive remarks, such as could not fail, by the Divine blessing, to find a place in the memory, to impress the heart, and to regulate the life. In reading the classics, the pupils should, we think, be often asked, what, in the portion they have been examining, they regard as good or bad, or true or false; and what they think should be imitated or avoided. And it would have a beneficial effect, if they were some. times to write brief reviews of what they consider as blamable or praiseworthy, in the leading characters of antiquity. In all cases it would be laudable in the tutor, to show the vast superiority of the principles and precepts of Christianity to paganism. *John Foster. Amidst the monstrous absurdities of the mythology, which is every where obtruded on us in the classics, we would often show among our pupils, how little reason there is for supposing, that we should have been any wiser than the great men of Greece and Rome, as to our knowledge of the only First Cause, of man, or of his destiny; or, than our ancestors the druids were, without Divine Revelation. For though it is true that our Deistical, do not abound with such foolish views of things as the Pagan writers, they owe it, not to any superiority of genius over a Cicero, or a Socrates, but to the discoveries of the very volume which they reject. For, as Mr. Locke justly remarks, "Every one may observe a great many truths which he receives at first from others, and readily assents to, as consonant to reason, which he would have found it hard, or beyond his strength, to have discovered himself. Native and original truth is not so easily wrought out of the mine, as we who have it delivered ready dug and fashioned to our hands, are apt to imagine." The frequency, with which a mere rabble of deities are introduced to our notice in the classic pages, might naturally lead to the mention of some of those beautiful and sublime Scriptures which describe the glorious character of the one living and true God. The combats of the gladiators, in which men killed one another for the amusement of the public, a spectacle which no people would now endure, and which no auditory could be found to witness; and the shocking description of the general state of manners even in Rome, as described in the orations of Cicero, might very naturally lead the tutor to contrast the superiority of the arrangements of modern polity, and to ascribe them to the diffusion of the Sacred Scriptures, the true source; since these Holy writings have given men a more just view of their true interest, and have gradually influenced them practically to adopt those measures which will be beneficial to the whole community. To give one more example of what we mean; if, in course of classical reading, those passages of Virgil should come under examination, which have a reference to futurity, in which the poet describes the Elysian fields, or the state of the virtuous; and the state of the wicked, who, he says, are enjoined various penances : "And some we hung to bleach upon the wind; Some plung'd in waters, others purged in fires,” through the period of a thousand years, when they again return to the earth, to inhabit some new body: surely, on reading such passages as these, the tutor should not fail to show the nobler views, yea, the infinite superiority of the Christian system on this most interesting and all-important topic. With emotions of elevated delight, of which none but a good man could be conscious, he would enlarge on the excellencies of that Gospel, which, to use its own expressive language, "has brought life and immortality to light." Should these few hints, on an important subject, be but in a slight degree useful to those who are entering on the work of tuition, we should be gratified. Southampton. B. H.D. FELLENBERG'S SYSTEM. (Continued from page 280.) INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION ON THE MIND AND CHARACTER. No point excites stronger interest in the minds of those acquainted with the system pursued at Hofwyl than the connection of physical education with intellectual improvement. It is universally admitted that the mind can never be capable of exerting all its energy, unless the body is in a state of health. It is frequently found, that a defect which appears to be simply intellectual or moral, is connected with a morbid or imperfect state of the body, or a want of harmony between the various portions of the system; and that cheerfulness may even depend upon a slight variation of food. Indolence, Fellenberg has found by experience, is so directly opposed to the natural disposition of young persons, that unless it is the consequence of a bad education, it is almost invariably connected with some physical defect. He has often found it yield to the invigorating effects of the cold bath, or exercise in the open air; or when it is the result of preponderance of the animal system, it has been relieved by interposing an unusual proportion of exercise between the hours of study, and thus rousing the body from that torpor which benumbed the faculties of the mind. The habit of wandering from one subject to another, which so often gives rise to useless remonstrances, and still more useless punishments, is frequently connected with debility or disorder of the nervous system, arising from natural constitution, from rapid growth, or from previous excessive exertion. It can only be remedied gradually, by careful attention to the degree and methods of occupation, and to the means just mentioned. To the same causes may often be traced that impatience and irritability of temper which so often sours domestic happiness, and at every turn throws a bitter drug into the cup of enjoyment. It is the object of the physical education given at Hofwyl to remove the causes which produce these and similar evils, by exercise in the open air, and by engaging the pupils in the pleasing labours of their little gardens. Thus they insensibly lose these constitutional predispositions, or they are prevented from being formed. But these exercises have also a tendency to form and improve the character in a variety of respects they lead the idle to habits of occupution and industry by the attraction of an employment adapted to their taste; they cultivate the habit of perseverance in accomplishing their objects, and in working out the ends of their designs; they inspire with courage and enterprise, by teaching the pupil how much may be accomplished by effort, patience, and perseverance; they invigorate his resolution in subduing himself, and struggling with difficulties, and in producing that force of will, for want of which so many men of the best principles and attainments fall a sacrifice to the temptations around them, and even to the persuasions of others. At the same time they furnish him with a lesson of caution and prudence, by the habit they produce of considering the object to be accomplished, of measuring his own strength, and of devising the best means of bringing it into action. VOL. I.-June, 1835. The care of their little garden spots in the Autumn and the Spring, furnish also useful lessons of foresight and calculation. It is interesting to see them in the Autumn, collecting and placing in a green-house provided for that purpose, such plants as cannot sustain the cold— putting their hot-bed and other ornamental shrubs, which might be injured by the weather, under shelter, or heaping up the earth in such a manner that it may be penetrated and mellowed by the snows of winter and the influence of the air. In all these occupations the children labour with the greatest interest and delight; and the fondness with which they watch over the progress of their little estates, shows how well the plan is adapted to the nature and constitution of man. Their annual journies to the mountains seem not only to inure their bodies to hardship, but to accustom them to self-denial. They give them the experience of the vicissitudes of life, and present some of its shadows, of such a depth as is suited to prove the courage and call forth the energies of youth without oppressing them. They form in spirit a kind of preparation adapted to their strength, for the real evils and privations of life. They also serve to enlarge their views of mankind in their individual character and in their social relations. They are made familiar with the modes of life of the various classes of the community, and have collected the materials for those comparisons, which are so necessary to enable us to appreciate duly our own situation and circumstances. One object continually kept in view is, to enable them to acquire the mechanical habit of all those exterior forms which are necessary in life. These depend much more on habit than on the intellectual and moral character, and yet are important to usefulness. On this subject, Fellenberg observes" They should be especially accustomed to maintain the cleanliness so indispensable to health. An unpretending decency of dress and deportment should be rendered as familiar to them as the air they breathe. They should never be left to experience embarrassment of feeling for want of them, as it often happens to men of great merit and learning, when they are suddenly called upon to comply with forms to which they were not early habituated. It is lamentable that many good men have the weakness rather to make pretensions to cynicism, as if it were an inseparable companion of great minds, because here and there an individual of this character has not given himself the trouble to throw off the disagreeable garb which conceals his merit. EXTERNAL MEANS OF MORAL EDUCATION. Fellenberg does not forget how much the character of the individual depends upon the circumstances which surround him. The round of daily events which forms the moral atmosphere in which the pupil "lives, and moves, and has his being," is endeavoured to be rendered as pure and as far removed from the influence of vice as possible. Thus the character of every individual attached to the establishment, domestics and workmen, as well as teachers, is carefully ascertained as far as it can be, before they are received. Similar caution is used with regard to pupils: none are received without testimonials of good character. None are suffered to remain, who, after trial of the usual discipline, continue to exhibit examples of vice. The latter regulation seems, at first sight, scarcely consistent with the benevolence which should direct such an establishment. It seems unkind to exclude from such means of improvement the unhappy persons who are most in need of its privileges. But on the other hand, it is contrary to sound judgment, to mingle those infected with a malignant and contagious disease, with such as enjoy health. They should not, indeed be neglected, but they should be provided for, not in a house of education, but in a moral hospital. We have need of such hospitals for those corrupted with vice, as really as of lazarettos for those infected with disease. At the same time, Fellenberg does not expect to exclude entirely from the model of providential education which he proposes for imitation, those means which evil example and their results afford, for enabling us to see more fully the nature and consequences of transgression. On the contrary, he finds that the view of those who bring on themselves the disapprobation, the dislike, or contempt of their companions, or the displeasure and reproof of their preceptors by their faults, has often a more powerful influence on the minds of others, than any theoretical instruction; but he finds, unhappily, that with every precaution which the educator can employ, a sufficient number of such examples will remain for this purpose; nay, enough to demand all his vigilance, in order to prevent the illdisposed from exerting an influence on the public opinion. In order to preserve the purity of the pupil's sphere of observation, the books which are put into his hands are as important as the examples which surround him. None are left within his reach without being first submitted to the most careful examination, and excluding all which his age or disposition may render dangerous or dubious in their influence. Unless this is done, all other efforts may be rendered of no effect, and the mind may be warped, the imagination gradually heated or corrupted, before we can perceive or remedy the evil. He believes also, that it is not useful to read many works besides those which deserve to be studied in the early period of youth. Fellenberg also attaches great importance to unity of action and method in education. He does not intend that instructors, any more than pupils, should slavishly imitate a single model, or aim at an identity which can only be personal; on the contrary, that variety in the modes of thinking and instruction which stimulates the mind of the pupil to examination, selection, and originality, is one of the great advantages of public institutions. The contact with a number of instructors not only enlarges the sphere of experience of the pupil, and furnishes him more numerous points of comparison, but prevents his becoming the servile copy of any individual. At the same time it is of the first importance, that the course of moral education and discipline should possess absolute unity, that the pupil should always know what he is to expect; should be accustomed to the same method of treatment, and should never be able to conceal his faults, or escape punishment or self-accusation, amidst a diversity of opinion among those who have the charge of him. Each individual should feel as |