of it which is so rapidly diffusing itself: Thirdly, inquire with whom this great charge of educating the rising generation should be entrusted: and lastly, address myself to plead the cause of that society for which we are assembled. And may God be my instructor, while I do my endeavour to open the subject of instruction to so many wise and reverend men as are now before me.

I. In order that we may rightly conduct the education of youth, whether in families or in schools, in private or in public; and that we may become good judges of the way in which it is to be conducted, and so fulfil to God, and to our country, and to the rising generation, the great trust from which no man is exempt in one form or another, whether of duty or of charity; it is most necessary that we should have a just idea of that which is included under the word Education: to which idea all our plans should be shaped, and all the details of our plans be subservient. Now, it seemeth to me, that the true idea of education is contained in the word itself, which signifies the act of drawing out, or educing; and being applied in a general sense to man, must signify the drawing forth or bringing out those powers which are implanted in him by the hand of his Maker. This, therefore, we must adopt as the rudimental idea of education; that it aims to do for man that which the agriculturist does for the fruits of the earth, and the gardener for the more choice and beautiful productions thereof; what the forester does for the trees of the forest, and the tamer and breaker in of animals does for the several kinds of wild creatures; this same office in

a higher kind, according to the higher dignity of the subject, doth education propose to do for the offspring of man, who is to be the possessor of the earth, and the enjoyer of its beautiful and fragrant fruits, the monarch of all the creatures, the possessor of knowledge, the subject of laws, and the worshipper of God. And that system of education alone can be regarded as liberal and enlarged, as complete and catholic, which takes into the compass of its view all the powers and capacities which are given to man, and capable of being educed or brought forth by good and skilful husbandry.

It is necessary therefore to consider and classify those powers which are given to human nature; those original capacities of the soul of man, which all possess, though in different degrees; the universal and catholic attributes of humanity, without which men were not to be regarded as men, nor allowed to carry on in the midst of men the vocations of human life. These capacities seem to be threefold, rising in the scale of dignity above one another. The first is, the capacity of knowing and understanding the properties of those things which we see and handle and taste, and in the midst of which we are to pass our life: that is, the knowledge of nature as it is submitted to our five senses, and can be discovered, examined, and discoursed of by our understanding, which judgeth by the sense, and taketh means to an end. The second is, the capacity of knowing and understanding our own selves, of judging amongst, and rightly regulating, those thoughts and emotions of the soul which command the actions of the body, direct the observations of the senses, instruct the understanding to labour in

this or that province of outward nature; the capacity which unites us in families, in friendships, and in societies, enacts laws and forms of government, submits to them when they are enacted; and, in short, produces all that inward activity of spirit, and outward condition of life, which distinguishes man from the lower creatures. The third is, the power of knowing, and worshipping, and obeying the true God; which, though it be a faculty lost and hidden in man by the Fall, is now renewed in him by the word and Spirit of God, whereof assurance is given to all who believe the Gospel, by the blessed sacrament of Baptism, which declares, not by words but by signs, that from the earliest hour of life, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost implant the lost capacity of divine and spiritual life, which thenceforth education may consider as the third and noblest province of her kingdom. Now, that education is liberal, catholic, and complete, which embraceth this threefold capacity of human nature, and ordereth itself in such wise as to give to each its proper place in the scale of dignity; and that again is narrow and sectarian, and hurtful, which embraceth only a part, or disordereth the relative dignity and subserviency of the several parts.

Two questions may here be started, whether man hath these three capacities of physical, moral, and religious education, and whether this is the proper order of their dignity. Nor, is it to be expected that we should have a universal consent upon this subject, seeing there be some wretches who teach that man differeth only from the brutes in having a better constitution of senses, and who reject all his moral and religious distinctions, as

the imagination of the superstitious, or the deceptions of the cunning. But, setting these aside, who are generally of such a degraded type of man, as not worthy to be heard in any court holden upon man's proper dignity, we have, for the proof of this second division of man's capacities, the universal consent of all the wise and virtuous, who have held self-knowledge far more important than natural knowledge, and self-command far more excellent than command over the most hidden secrets of the three kingdoms of nature. We have also the whole body of civil history, which is the narrative of the moral being of man: we have the whole body of law, the many forms of government, the world of his imagination, the infinitely various records of his feelings, his discourses skilfully framed to move the feelings of others, the books of morals and of metaphysics; and, in short, every form of literature holds of man's moral being, save books of natural science and natural history, which, though they have made a great noise in the world of late, and in a manner deafened its ear, are to the books which record the phenomena of man's peculiar and moral being, as the small tithe of poultry and of garden stuffs are to the exuberance of the whole earth. And, with respect to the reality and dignity of the third capacity, our capacity of Divine knowledge, it is real, and it is dignified, only to him. who believeth in the revelation of God; and to him who believeth not, it is but a shadow, and an ineffectual doctrine. For the religion that is called natural, I consider but as a higher form of morals, and not entitled to any separate consideration; but the religion which is called revealed, is so high

and noble in its beginnings, so infinite in its ends, so real in its discoveries, so full of peace and joy and blessedness, to our moral being, that to one who knows it, and believes it, it is not necessary to exalt its pre-eminence over the other two; and to one who knows it not, this is not the time to enter into the controversy, and hardly the place, seeing I understand myself to be discoursing before the believers and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, who have come hither to be instructed in his faith and discipline.

But, a matter of such vast practical importance as education should not be allowed to rest upon any individual's notion of the capacities of the human mind, or to be conducted according to any private judgment concerning the ends and objects of human life. And I reckon that the more novel and original any scheme is, which has education for its object, the less worthy it is of our regard. For, of a thing so common, so ancient, so full of anxiety to every one, and so full likewise of reflection to every one, men must surely by this time have got to know the first principles, and to practise the best rules. Therefore, I were willing to renounce both the classification which hath been given above, of the capacities of our nature, and the order of their respective dignity, if it should be found not to have received the common consent of men, or be not embodied in their practice, and required by their institutions. But when I see that in every well-ordered family, the first lesson of a mother to her children is of God and of conscience, of religion and of duty, and that almost all schools, academies, and universities of any standing, have heretofore generally