tell the world a tale of lofty principle and noble sacrifice, which when set forth as veritable history, will kindle a healthful glow in every bosom. No people has made a figure in the life of nations without its heroes, and the loyalist fathers are the heroes of Upper Canada.

XVII. THE STABILITY OF OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. (From an Address at New York, August, 1855, on Popular Education in Upper Canada; by Mr. Hodgins, Deputy Superintendent.)

The principles upon which our elementary school system are founded having been more than once affirmed by the electors of the Province; it has not been considered sound policy to subject so vital an interest and so sacred a cause to the caprice of the evervarying current of political strife, unless its very existence were imperilled by rude and unpatriotic hands. Besides, the teachings of history have shown us that no great public concern, involving the highest destiny of a nation, and beset with difficulties requiring patient and delicate treatment, can ever be brought to a successful issue, where the mastermind directing it is liable to be changed at every adverse breath of public opinion. The renowned Michael Angelo alone perfected the colossal proportions of St. Peter's, and the genius of Sir Christopher Wren alone sketched the noble structure of St. Paul's. The fitful efforts of a succession of great men have never effected any noted or permanent good equal to that produced by the sagacity, prudence and foresight of a single will, unceasingly directed to its accomplishment. Wellington's renown is undivided. It is the unity of purpose conspicuous in the lives and deeds of all great men which makes their names stand out in bold relief through successive generations. Even in the political history of the United States, the great principle here stated receives a striking illustration. The founders of the federal constitution, knowing that the spirit of their own heroic times could not always remain to guard their national liberties, chose out their wisest master builders, and when the edifice was reared, they enacted that their own impress should remain upon it for ever, or be changed only by the two-thirds vote of a mighty nation. It is true that the permanent efficiency of our educational system is not held, to be of so much importance, as is the preservation of our political liberties; yet how little is it practically considered, that to that efficiency alone, aided by the influence of the Gospel, are we indebted, under Providence, for the very existence of the civil and religious freedom which we enjoy !

XVIII. OUR EDUCATIONAL FUTURE AND RESPONSIBILITIES.

(From the conclusion of the foregoing Address.)

Having sketched our educational history, from its earliest dawn, in 1789, down to the present time, I can only, from the past, point to the future,-which, with all its solemn grandeur and mystery, lies before us. But no mortal hand can lift the veil that shrouds it; for to us that future has been irrevocably sealed. It has been beautifully said, that the veil which covers the face of futurity has been woven by the hands of mercy. Our conjectures of the future can only therefore be founded upon the past, and our hopes and anticipations of that future alone brighten when the halo of the past is reflected upon them.

We may glance along the history of nations, and survey with a thoughtful eye the mighty contests, the civil commotions, and the fearful up-heavings which have rent these nations asunder, and have destroyed their power for ever. We can even contemplate their intellectual achievements and their unrivalled skill in the arts, but we look in vain for a parallel to our own times. Here "a new spirit stands before" us. As if tired of the spirit of war, the love of conquest, and the stately pomp of courts, we see each nation putting forth all her energy and strength to uplift the masses of the people to the dignity

of the Christian citizen. Schools are multiplied; the abstruse sciences of the alchemists of the days of chivalry are unfolded even to the capacities of the child; the Bible is circulated in every land, and in every tongue; and the profoundest intellects of the day are engaged in rendering attractive the hitherto sealed book of popular instruction and enlightenment. But who, from such a stand-point, ever caught a glimpse of the distant goal before us? Or who, from so brilliant a past, has ever gazed upon its corresponding future? Not one! Down the vista of history we see the rise and fall of nations, the beginning and ending of wars, the failures and the perfections of art, but the end of that mighty contest between light and darkness, that great experiment of the age in which we live, we have never yet witnessed. Nor shall we ever see it. On us, as nations, and on us as individuals, devolves, however, the solemn responsibility of guiding, directing and counselling (each in the sphere in which Providence has placed him) in the great work in which we are all engaged, fervently imploring that "wisdom and counsel and might" be imparted to the nations promoting so momentous an interest, and that the blessing of Almighty God would abundantly rest upon the exertions of all Christian men engaged in that noble cause and labour of love-the free and universal Education of the people!

XII. SELECTIONS FOR SCHOOL RECITATIONS.
Part II. English and Miscellaneous Addresses.

I. SCIENCE AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

(From a Speech at Birmingham, in 1855, by His Royal Highness Prince Albert.) No human pursuits make any material progress until science be brought to bear upon them. We have seen, accordingly, many of them slumber for centuries; but from the moment that science has touched thera with her magic wand, they have sprung forward, and taken strides which amaze and almost awe the beholder. Look at the transformation which has gone on around us since the laws of gravitation, electricity, and the expansive power of heat have become known to us! It has altered our whole state of existence-one might say the whole face of the globe! We owe this to science, and science alone; and she has other treasures in store for us, if we will but call her to our assistance. It is sometimes objected by the ignorant, that science is uncertain and changeable; and they point to the many exploded theories which have been superseded by others, as a proof that the present knowledge may be also unsound, and, after all, not worth having. But they are not aware that while they think to cast blame upon science, they bestow, in fact, the highest praise upon her. For that is precisely the dif ference between science and prejudice that the latter keeps stubbornly to its position, whether disproved or not; while the former is an unarrested movement toward the foun. tain of truth-caring little for cherished authorities or sentiments, but continually progressing-feeling no false shame at her shortcomings, but, on the contrary, the highest pleasure when freed from an error, at having advanced another step towards the attain ment of Divine truth, a pleasure not even intelligible to the pride of ignorance. We also hear, not unfrequently, science and practice-scientific knowledge and common sense-contrasted as antagonistic. A strange error! For science is eminently practical, and must be so, as she sees and knows what she is doing; while mere common practice is condemned to work in the dark-applying natural ingenuity to unknown powers to obtain a known result. Far be it from me to undervalue the creative power of genius, or to teach shrewd common sense as worthless without knowledge. But nobody will tell me that the same genius would not take an incomparably higher flight, if supported with all the means which knowledge can impart―or that common sense does not become, in

fact, only truly powerful when in possession of the materials upon which judgment is to be exercised. The study of the laws by which the Almighty governs the universe is, therefore, our bounden duty. These laws are most important branches of knowledge— their study trains and elevates the mind. But they are not the only ones: there are others which we cannot disregard-which we cannot do without. There are, for instance, the laws governing the human mind and its relation to the Divine Spirit-the subject of logic and metaphysics. There are those which govern our bodily nature and its connection with the soul-the subject of physiology and psychology. More which govern human society and the relations between man and man-the subjects of politics, jurisprudence, political economy, and many others. While of the laws just mentioned, some have been recognised as essentials of education in different institutions; and some will, in the course of time, more fully assert their right to recognition. The laws regulating matter and form are those which will constitute the chief objects of your pursuits; and as the principle of sub-division of labor is the one most congenial to our age, I would advise you to keep to this specially, and to follow, with undivided attention, chiefly the sciences of mechanics, physics, and chemistry, and the fine arts in painting, sculpture, and architecture. But these Divine laws are capable of being discovered and understood, and of being taught and made our own. This is the task of science; and while science discovers and teaches these laws, art teaches their application. No pursuit is, therefore, too insignificant not to be capable of becoming the subject both of a science and an art. The fine arts-as far as they relate to painting and sculpture, which are sometimes confounded with art in general-rest on the application of the laws of form and labor, and what may be called the science of the beautiful. They do not rest on any arbitrary theory on the modes of producing pleasurable emotions, but follow fixed laws, more difficult, perhaps, to seize than those regulating the material world, because belonging partly to the sphere of the ideal and our spiritual essence, yet perfectly appreciable and teachable, both abstractedly and historically, from the works of different ages and nations.

II. THE RISE AND FALL OF NATIONS.

(From a Speech at Bedford by the Right Honorable Lord John Russell.)

There have been many causes assigned for this rise and fall. Many states have fallen because they were too small to contend against their more powerful neighbors; because it is obvious when surrounding states have 100,000 or 200,000 men under military discipline that the smaller ones with ten or twenty thousand will fall under the superior force of the other. We have the case of Athens and the case of Florence, then I might allude to the great state of Germany and the smaller one of Portugal. I need scarcely allude to England, because this country is large enough and strong enough to maintain itself for ages to come. But there is another source of decline, and which is celebrated in a line of the Roman Satirist, as the immediate cause of the fall of the Roman Empire, which, after stretching its armies into almost every part of the world, fell from the effects of luxury. But there are other causes which it behoves us to consider, which have occasioned the decline of nations. There have been despotic institutions, where men have been forbidden to investigate subjects of science, or discuss any improvement in art -where they have been forbidden, under penalty of fire, from holding any religious opinion different from that of the State. Where that despotism has existed—where that persecution has prevailed, the nation has withered under the influence. Where such principles prevail, the state will always be unstable; but I say there can be no danger to the people of this country on that account, appreciating as they do the liberty of thought and of expression which they enjoy, and who would not under any consider

ation surrender that liberty to any power whatever. There is another cause which greatly tended to the decay of ancient nations, which introduced many crimes, caused a weakening of the manly character, and a falling off of the fortitude and industry which distinguished the early period of history. There was the institution of slavery-that institution which led the Romans to neglect the true interests of the empire, resulting in crime, which led them to leave the cultivation of the land to slaves-those lands which at an earlier period received cultivation from the hands of freemen. But happily those changes are not felt by this country; so far as our dominions are concerned, we have got rid of that curse. In an early period we find that the church spoke out strongly against the maintenance of slavery; and at a later period we have practically improved upon it, and those who carry on occupations of various kinds, whether agricultural, commercial or manufacturing in our dominions, are free from the curse of personal slavery. We have, therefore, a recognition of those mutual obligations upon which the ancient nations divided themselves, and which, as may be pointed out in the history of nations, cannot affect our personal safety. There are also other sources of decline-from the consequences of political events, from the calamities of war, from struggles long continued, from other objects of national interest, and other motives, the effect of which no person can perceive, and upon which no man would ever be entitled to your confidence, or the confidence of a nation, if he pretended to prophesy. These are subjects connected with the future, the knowledge of which is not given to man. Events may come to pass and contradict and overrule all his anticipations; but upon that subject you and your successors have a duty to perform as well as hopes to realise. It behoves you to maintain the liberty of this country, to maintain the Christianity of this country, and my belief is, that by cultivating your minds, by extending as much as possible your researches, whether in science, whether in literature, you will contribute to that end, you will strengthen the religious and political institutions of the country.

III. DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES AND MORAL FEELINGS.

(From a Speech at Manchester, in 1856, by the Right Honorable Viscount Palmerston.)

The intellectual qualities as well as the moral feelings of our nature are scattered broadcast over the face of the earth. We find them everywhere, in the lowest classes as in the highest. Their development depends on the opportunities which are offered for their culture, and it is to the literary and scientific institutions that we are indebted for the facilities which are so advantageously presented. In this country, fortunately, the road to wealth and to honors is open to all. Some of those among us who have filled the most distinguished situations have sprung from the humblest position, and have raised themselves by their talent and good conduct. Man is endowed with a double nature-the moral and the intellectual. Both contribute to his pleasure and happiness; his moral enjoyments are independent of external support. They begin with his home, and constitute his domestic attachments; extending a little further, they assume the character of friendship; in a wider range they become love of country and of patriotism, and with a still further development they take the shape of benevolence and philanthropy. Those pleasures are within the reach of every man; but while no man needs assistance to enable him to enjoy that happiness which consists in the exercise of his affections, his intellectual qualities do require assistance for their development. It is true that knowledge is power, and assuredly those who afford to all classes the means of acquiring that knowledge, even to a limited amount, contribute not merely to their advancement in life

N

but also to their innocent and laudable enjoyments. We have often heard quoted the words of one of our great poets, that

"A little learning is a dangerous thing,

Drink deep or taste not the Pierian Spring."

I hold that this is a mistake. The more knowledge a man has the better, but if his time and the means at his disposal do not permit of his acquiring deep and accurate knowledge, let him have as much as he can, and, depend upon it, he will be all the better for it; for, although he may not be able to drink deeply of that spring, if his lips have once tasted of it he will go back to the same delicious waters whenever he has an opportunity, and his draughts, be they great or small, will refresh his fancy, invigorate his intellect, raise him in the scale of civilization, contribute to his individual happiness, and make him a more useful and honorable member of society. Of all sciences the mechanism of the universe is that of which a man who has a little leisure at his disposal may most easily obtain an insight by the knowledge of those facts which are the result of deep study and careful calculation. An ignorant man believes that his country is the only one in the world, that this planet is the only great portion of creation, that the sun is placed in the firmament merely to warm him, the moon to light him home, and the stars to amuse him on the journey, but when he is led into the secrets of that vast universe, the contemplation of which fills the mind with awe, his views become liberal and enlightened, his mind is raised above the ordinary grovelling ideas of life, and he finds himself a superior being to what he had been before. It is clear, therefore, that institutions which promote such desirable objects are eminently deserving of the support of the people. They tend to bring together the different classes of society, combining them in the bonds of good fellowship, allaying their jealousies, mitigating their asperities, and causing them to work together in harmonious action for the general benefit of the commonwealth.

IV. PRACTICAL VALUE OF A COMPLETE AND RATIONAL
EDUCATION.

(From a Speech at Oldham, in 1856, by the Right Honorable Lord Stanley.)

It seems to me-that the foundation of a complete and rational education lies in the knowledge of natural laws, as deduced from recorded facts; a knowledge, first of those laws by which the inorganic world is governed-as those which regulate astronomical, geological, and chemical existences-- a branch which includes physiology in all its departments; lastly, a knowledge of that which, for want of a more recognised term, I must call sociology, embracing the investigation of social problems, and enabling us to trace the paths along which human action has moved in all countries and ages. I may be asked what man, unless solely and professedly a philosopher, can find leisure for such inquiries? I reply, it is not necessary to be an astronomer, a geologist, a chemist, a physiologist, in order to learn what have been the principal results of human thought in those departments, or what is their inter-connexion one with another. The slow progress of discovery affords no measure of the time required to appreciate the results of discovery. It takes ages to make the road which when made, may be travelled over in a few years. If interrogated as to the use of such investigations, I would point out that the two great questions which an intelligent mind, on beginning to reflect, naturally puts are these, "What am I?" and "What is this universe around me?" To give an answer, however partial and incomplete to these queries, has been the effort of the human intellect during more than 3,000 years, and may be for 3,000 more. No man is so dull that they do not interest him; none ever has been, or ever can be so acute that they do not perplex and baffle him. In addition to such reflections, we should not forget the practical applications of science, for in these