be the possession of the Alexandrian library, could all its four hundred thousand volumes be made to arise from their ashes.

That each national system of public instruction shall embrace every branch of human knowledge."

That the whole series of its schools and colleges shall be open to all classes.t

But that, as, until society shall be better organized than it is at present, many of the industrious classes, for want of leisure, must find it impossible to avail themselves of these opportunities in their full extent; the Educational Committee will bestow especial pains on the early steps of the system: to the end that those who pursue it no further, may, notwithstanding, receive a moral, useful, and rational education.

persons

The Educational Committee will recommend that all who are to be about children, shall be specially trained for their important calling, in public institutions established for the purpose.‡

That in all the infant schools, physical education, or the conditions of health, as derived from the natural laws, shall be thoroughly understood and carefully put in practice, and ultimately taught also to the children themselves; together with the higher lesson that the care of health is a religious and moral duty; a sound body, as well as a sound mind, being necessary to the performance of the relative duties of life.

That hand in hand with this physical training, the broad foundation of religious and moral training, by rules derived from the natural laws of mind,§ be firmly laid.

That during this early period of physical and moral training, all checks on innocent gaiety and all needless confinement in-doors be avoided.

That, as much as possible, instruction be conveyed by superintending and directing the play-ground amusements and daily life of the pupils, in such a manner that every childish transaction shall produce an experience in favour of some moral principle, or cause the perception of some natural law.

That all punishments which degrade or provoke to anger, and all excitement of opposition, or of resentful feelings, whether among the pupils or towards the teachers, be avoided.

That the faults of children be always treated as mistakes, occasioned by inexperience.

That an explanation be always given mildly and kindly, showing wherein consisted the mistake.

See "Essay on Public Instruction," first series.

For details, see the same.

+ See the same.

See first Essay of first series of "The Light of Mental Science applied to Moral Training."

That the encouraging hope be always held out that, after such explanation, the error will not be repeated.

That children be always treated as moral and rational creatures, possessed of a nature, and gifted with faculties, which render them accountable beings.

That the elevating principles of self-respect and desire of approbation be thus early excited.

That all the cheerful, social, gentle feelings, be kept in habitual activity.

That the children be constantly employed in administering to each other's comforts and pleasures; a method which, according to the natural laws which hourly modify mind, cannot fail to produce mutual good-will and bland and placid feelings.*

That to avoid the excitement of rivalry, the source, according to the laws of mind, of innumerable bad feelings, the approbation which the children must be trained to desire, should be always approbation for positive, never for comparative merit ;† for such approbation all the pupils can assist each other to deserve, without fearing injury to their own claims. Thus no child is placed in circumstances to induce regret at the success, the prosperity, or the happiness of a fellow-being.

Seeing, also, that in the schools which receive the children from the infant asylums, studies too severe for the still tender age of the pupils, and confinement to school-rooms, too long continued, are injurious to the health of children; the Educational Committee will recommend that the pupils shall not be made to study, from books, for more than a limited portion of each day, according to age; but in no case for more than one, or, at most, two hours at a time. And that during the intervals of their sedentary studies, their daily exercise shall consist of working in the gardens, farms, and workshops attached to the establishment, according to regulations suited to their age and strength, and under the superintendence of persons capable of teaching them, by entertaining experiments and demonstrative lessons, what are the natural laws, on the observance of which, success, in each operation, depends.

That the pupils shall thus receive, in the gardens, practical lessons in the culture and improvement of fruits, vegetables, flowers, &c. ;-on the farms, practical instruction in agriculture, the nature of soils, methods of recovering and improving such; manures, earths, their adaptation to grains and grasses; fattening of cattle, improvement of kinds of stock, prevention and treatment of diseases in cattle; implements of husbandry, construction of farm-houses, &c. ; and in the workshops, practical teaching in every trade and manufacture, rendering apprenticeships unne

* See first Essay on Moral Training.

+ See the same.

cessary; demonstrating the principles of mechanics by machinery in action; and showing, in a like practical manner, the application of each science to useful purposes.

That thus the pupils may be spared the excessive mental fatigue attendant upon the study of theories and abstract ideas, so often fatal both to mind and body; yet, so far from sacrificing to this precaution the precious years of youth, acquire thus more accurately than they could have done from books, a knowledge of all the laws of nature, which constitute the elements of the sciences. Pupils thus trained will arrive at manhood with active habits, vigorous health, and a store of useful knowledge, which will render them capable of following out any science required in their special calling, or, in other words, of adapting, at any time, the inherent forces of nature to the purposes of daily life, were it but to live, and breathe, and have their being comfortably. For during every moment of our existence we are all, however unconsciously, either obeying or disobeying some natural law; and in consequence of such obedience or disobedience, either succeeding or failing in some effort. Yet the conditions of perfect success are generally quite simple; and if the knowledge of all these conditions had been thus practically acquired in youth, our success through life, in all things dependent on such conditions, would necessarily be uniform.

(To be concluded in our next.)

SONG.-I SIGH FOR THEE.

BY MRS. CRAWFORD.

I SIGH for thee, my distant love!
When day folds up her wings of light,
And flowers beneath, and stars above,
Like lover's hopes, are beaming bright;
In waking hours, in dreams by night,
I sigh for thee,

Mavourneen!

I sigh for thee, when music tells

My list'ning ear of joy that 's flown;
When breathing lips, or village bells,
Remind me of thy sweeter tone;
In festive halls, and when alone,
I sigh for thee!

Mavourneen!

LITERATURE.

NOTICES OF NEW WORKS.

A School Geography. By JAMES CORNWELL, Author of "The Young Composer," Joint Author of "Allen and Cornwell's School Grammar," "Grammar for Beginners," &c.

MR. Cornwell is already favourably known to the public as the author of several useful and successful books for the young; but we shall be greatly mistaken if this do not prove the most successful work which he has yet produced. The plan is altogether new, and it is as happy as it is original. The excellence of the execution corresponds with the merits of the design. Among its characteristic features may be mentioned the distinction which is everywhere broadly marked between physical and political geography,—the number of names of which the etymology is given the taste and judgment displayed in the arrangement of the author's facts-the length of the exercises-and the plan of giving the pronunciation and accentuation of difficult names at the time of their occurrence. The object of Mr. Cornwell is, by calling into exercise the reasoning faculties of those who use his book, to render geography a philosophical study, instead of a mere list of hard names and numbers. The work, though small in size, is a perfect encyclopædia of useful and interesting knowledge; and he who can treasure up in his memory its contents, will have good claims, though unacquainted with other books, to the character of an intelligent man.

The Royal Shetland Shawl, Lace Collar, Brighton Slipper, and China Purse Receipt-Book.

us

THIS little fancy book is got up by Messrs. Dicker and Clark, of Crane-court, with surpassing taste as regards its external appearance, while those who ought to be judges assure that Mrs. Gore, the authoress, has executed her task in a corresponding manner. The great cheapness of the publication, combined with its beauty and utility, ought to ensure it a large sale.

$

THE BATTLE OF BENEVENTO.*

AN HISTORICAL NOVEL OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

ABRIDGED FROM THE ITALIAN OF F. B. GUERAZZI, BY MRS. MACKESEY. NEW-Y

CHAPTER XXIII.

"No! the Provençal has not conquered; he has passed the frontiers as the trader passes from the Roman States into our kingdom. Let this be all his glory! May destiny have none other in store for him! Let him extol, in the grossness of his mind, the shame of such a victory; the heavens have not granted to him the modesty which is the attribute of even thieves, to enjoy the fruit of infamy in silence. Certainly, if he cannot conquer by treason, he can conquer by no other means. Kingdoms are not easily acquired by stratagem; and the path of treachery is not one of safety, though it is of disgrace. On the road which leads to royal Naples now rises Manfred, armed with the sword of the Emperor Frederic, and preceded by the eagle which, for so many years of victory, has been accustomed to repose in the tent of the vanquished; and surrounded by his faithful nobles who first retrieved the kingdom, inch by inch, and then bestowed it upon him. Battles very different from those of the Provençals are now prepared for Charles: here are no vassals protected by innocence alone; here are no barons with only justice for their safeguard; in truth, if we had no other defence than these we might yield, at once, as conquered; for Charles, as the world knows, in combating innocence alone is invincible. But we have for our defence ten thousand Apulians and Germans, beside all the Saracens of Lucera, vast quantities of arrows, impregnable walls, perilous swamps, inaccessible mountains. But why speak we of swamps, mountains, and bulwarks? Have we need of ramparts for armour? Are we so much degenerated from our ancient valour, that our souls require any other defence than our own breasts? Shall French pride exult in the unexpected compliment? Shall Italian courage mourn over the unusual disgrace? We regret that we have contemplated these ignominious fictions. Our fathers fought in the open field, and we too will sally forth to the open plain,

* Continued from page 142.

March, 1847.-VOL. XLVIII.—NO. CXCI.

R