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least, possible to mitigate some of them, which seem, as if they were wantonly introduced, from an exaggerated taste for distinction. It can hardly be expected, under existing circumstances, that a nobleman will send his children to be taught in the same school with those of his cottagers; but, there seems no reason why, for instance, a wholesale dealer should remove his child from the establishment in which he has placed it, merely because one of the shopkeepers, whom he supplies, has gained admittance for his child in the same establishment; nor can it well be conceived, what mighty gulf there is between a shopkeeper of the first, and one of the second, line of business. The inconvenience, I suspect, would be but very trifling, to have "the mural down between the two neighbours."

As to the general practicability of uniting the different classes in education, independently of the peculiar state of things in this country, at the present time, we have experience in support of a principle, so consonant with the spirit of christianity. In one of the Pestalozzian establishments at Yverdon, I saw, at one and the same time, the son of a count, designated by his government as consul in the Levant, preparing himself for the university; a young peasant, whose father wished that he might stand behind the plough, a more enlightened man than himself; and the son of a neat'sherd, from the mountains, who paid for his son's education, not in money, but in cheese. They slept in the same room, ate at the same table, and partook mainly of the same instruction; and, in observing them at their studies, or in the hours of recreation, you could not have pointed out, which was his excellency, and which was Jack. And let it not be supposed, that this is a single, or very extraordinary, instance. In one of the minor kingdoms of Germany, I have seen the son of a cabinet minister in the same school with grocers' and tailors' boys; and similar sights,—in this country "incredibilia dictu,"-you might see, in many of the well managed schools of the Continent. That the same

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things are not now possible here, I repeat it, I am aware of; but I have stated these facts, in order that those, who are liable to draw general inferences from their own peculiar case, and to fancy their own system the pattern of systems, may likewise be aware, that a more humane, and a more Christian state of things, is, in itself, possible, and that they may not treat, as a chimæra, the attempt to return gradually to a less artificial state. That such a return is necessary, is, on more than one ground, obvious. Are we not looking forward to the ultimately perfect establishment of Christ's kingdom on earth, in which there will be dignities and powers, but no adventitious or invidious distinctions? Every step of approximation to the state of things, as it will then be, is a blow at the hundredheaded hydra, self, who has so effectually ensnared us in our own fashions.

The empire which these fashions exercise over us, is not sufficiently taken into account by those, who lament the corruption, and strive for the improvement, of the public morals; nor is there in education a sufficient degree of attention bestowed upon that part of our nature, in which these fashions have their root, viz. the moral feelings.* All the impulses to action, in an unregenerate state, are derived from them, and religion can never have a true hold upon our nature, nor exercise a vital influence over our conduct, until it has impregnated our feelings. Hence it is, that the dogmatical instruction in religious truths, which is, in our days, considered as the sum of religious education, has no influence whatever in amending the heart.

* I call them moral feelings, not to denote that they are morally good, but to distinguish them, as the feelings of our moral nature, from the animal feelings, to which the word feelings, by itself, is most commonly applied. There cannot be a stronger proof of the oversight, which the moral philosophers of this country have committed on this head, than the entire want of an appropriate name for a thing, which in other languages has received such distinct appellations. No,English word will ever supply the place of the German Gemüth, or of the Greek ons and buμós, which denominate the same, the former in its receptive, the latter in its selfactive manifestation.

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It is as reasonable and agreeable to nature, to attempt to convey food to the stomach through the eye, as it is to make religious impressions upon man through the understanding. It is proper that the eye should see what the mouth receives, and so, likewise, that the understanding should be enlightened on that, which nourishes and quickens our feelings; but there is yet more hope of one that feels religion, without understanding it, than of one that understands, but feels not, even as there is a fairer chance for him who eats in blindness, than for him who sees the food, but keeps his mouth shut. Now, the same power, which our feelings have for good, when penetrated by the good spirit of God, is given up to evil, when our feelings are left to the sway of our own selfish and corrupt spirit. To this dominion, as much as to the impulse of animal appetites, must we attribute the vices of different classes of society; nay, of many vices, by which the animal man is mortified, the root must be sought exclusively in the moral feelings. It has, perhaps, never been observed, how great a share fashion has, in upholding vicious habits among different classes. In the higher ranks the rage of fashion is admitted to have a powerful, nay, an all-overbearing influbut that the same should be the case with the depravity of the lower orders, is less obvious, though not less true. A fellow who has grown up in a sphere of society, in which drunkenness is considered as a sort of heroism, will, independently of all sensual appetite, nay, perhaps, even to the mortification of it, be as reluctant to yield to the better conviction of his conscience, and thereby to expose himself to the sneers of his associates, as an officer, to refuse fighting a duel, though the fear of death, and the sting of conscience, may be combined to dissuade him from it. Such is the power of fashion, that a man will rather do, what he knows to be wrong, and what he hates in itself, than make a bold stand against the laws of iniquity, which usage has sanctioned, and which owe all their authority to the love of approbation and the fear of

ence;

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contempt. It is on this ground, that attempts have been made, to use that love of approbation, and that fear of contempt, as a lever in education, to obtain the practice of certain virtues, or the fulfilment of certain duties; but it has been forgotten, that those feelings, powerful as they are, to prevent a man from forsaking evil courses, have no power whatever, to produce good, being the offspring of the unregenerate nature, and therefore evil in themselves. Outwardly good conduct may, in some instances, be obtained; but even that will generally fail; for it must be observed, that it is not approbation or contempt, generally or abstractedly, that man loves or fears, but the approbation or contempt of those, with whom he sympathises, and to whose suffrage, therefore, his own feelings give an internal sanction. The reveller, who shrinks from the sneers of his associates in sin and debauchery, is perfectly indifferent to the contempt of an honest man, or of a chaste woman. The case of Montgomery, who, after a long course of profligacy, poisoned himself in Newgate, to avoid the disgrace of a public execution, and who was tormented in his last moments by the idea, that he had been guilty of insincerity towards the turnkey, in concealing the laudanum from him, is one of those singular instances of a strong sense of shame remaining in individuals, whom we should suppose to have been long dead to all shame. If this subject were seen in its full importance, there can be no doubt, but that the inadequacy, both of discipline and instruction, in the present systems of education, would be felt; and it would likewise be perceived, how much a less strict separation of classes might contribute, to neutralize the influence of the prevailing fashions of each class. But enough has been said on a topic, which might have been dispatched with a simple reference to the brotherly union, in which Christians are enjoined to live together, had not a highly unnatural state of things rendered the practicability of that command questionable, in the eyes even of those, who do not deny its divine authority. Having urged its importance, and

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RELIGIOUS DELUSION OF OUR AGE.

pointed out its blessings, I must leave it to the conscience of every one, individually, to do as much as is in his power to give it effect; and I proceed to inquire, how far, with reference to religious instruction in particular, Christianity has hitherto been permitted to influence education.

If we take the answer, which some of the most zealous advocates for Christianity return to this much discussed question, at their public meetings, we shall persuade ourselves, that Christianity is not only perfectly established, as the ground-work of all other things, in the education of a great proportion of our children, but, likewise, that its influence is making rapid progress in those quarters, where it had been neglected hitherto. The ground on which they rest such presumptuous statements, is, that, in almost all schools, the doctrines of Christianity are carefully taught, and their superiority to all other knowledge, their absolute and infallible authority, is emphatically inculcated. It never seems to occur to these trumpeters of good tidings, that the most absolute practical ignorance of religion, is by no means incompatible with the most complete doctrinal knowledge of it; that the mouth, nay, and that mystic power, the memory, too, may be full of high doctrines, of well-chosen and well-interpreted texts, exhaling, continually, the sweet savour of sanctity, and yet the heart be in a state of perfect alienation from God, and the mind utterly darkened against his light. This was the religious state of the Pharisees of old, and this, I fear, is the state of far the largest proportion of the so styled religious world, in our days. They are obtruders on the kingdom of Heaven, hoping, by their high and supercilious professions, to gain admission there, where humility of faith, in a spirit of genuine love, will alone be acceptable.

If we inquire into the causes from which this spirit of Pharisaism arises, in the first instance, individually, we shall find that it has, for its ground-work, the general corruption of the human heart, which, in these false saints,