Friendship, affection, paternity, filiality, association, are all processes of education, which, to conduct aright, require an acquaintance with the human soul, its faculties, its aspirations, and its tendencies. Each man is the educator of his brother man. Mighty truth, how easily spoken, how difficult of full realization! Oh, that we could rightly estimate our responsibility, and accurately calculate the influence for good or evil which we scatter through the world! Music, Poetry, Painting, Sculpture, History, Conversation, Business, Debate, &c., can only exercise themselves well as educational agents when directed by a mind carefully and elaborately acquainted with the results of speculative science. From this remark it will be perceived, that we do not think that education fulfils its duties correctly or adequately when it stores the passive mind with the chief facts of those branches of knowledge most in request, but when it excites the germinating powers of the soul to the productions of new thoughts, new conceptions, new imaginations and ideas. With all due deference, then, to the positivism and utilizing spirit of "the present age" -despite of the prevalent disposition of men in our own day to reiterate the questions, "cui bono?" and "how much per cent.?"—we would most respectfully depone, that, merely in consequence of our inertitude and carelessness regarding the problems of Psychology, mighty truths which might set the world astir, and move the deep stagnation of men's souls, are slumbering in the oblivion caused by our deficiency of skill so to develop and educe the mental faculties as to enable men to bring forth their latent-lying thoughts in such a manner as must impress and penetrate the world. We do not believe that all investigations except such as regard mere sensuous appearances are impracticable and absurd. We do not believe that no solution can be found for the problems of the Reason. We do not admire the protracted apathy of this gold-adoring time to the momentous queries which the soul is necessitated to propound. We do not look with complacency on the practical contempt which men entertain concerning the irrepressible instincts of their nature-that forth-goingness of soul which implicitly asserts the unsatisfactory nature of the present, and is the substratum of the thoughts and speculations in which metaphysicians are engaged. Well, but-it is argued against us-if it be true, as you assert, that the soul of man is naturally and irrepressibly urged on to desire a reconciliation between the perplexing anomalies amid which it finds itself placed, how account ye for the fact which you yourself admit and lament, viz., that there is a manifest disinclination in the public mind to occupy itself with Philosophical speculations? One answer to this is obvious. Man is a dual being; there is within him a contention of natures-a strife between mind and matter-a conflict between the outer and the inner world-and man has become embondaged in the present, the practical, the utile, the positive, the ཕ་ས sensuous. Reason and Faith-the intuitional and the external-man's state and his desires-human nature and the material world, are at variance, and man has acquiesced in the materialistic, and oppugned the spiritual, instead of striving after their consentaneous union and agreement. The slave cannot remain ungalled, so neither can the mind long refrain from exerting that aggressive and progressive energy which inclines it to ponder on the mystery of cognition, to reflect upon the nature, powers, and designs of Him who setteth the mechanisms and spiritualities of creation in motion, and to muse upon the after-destiny which awaits it. Positivism, it is true, replies that all things are passive and enduring-that nowhere is there anything possessed of a self motive force, but everywhere an inherited and inviolable mobility-that antecedence and sequency are bound together by an invincible and irrefragable law-that change succeeds change in unalterable consecution-that force after force whirls its gigantic waves athwart the universe irrevocably and indissolubly interlinked. Positivism becomes thus the negation of Philosophy, and denies the possibility of our ever attaining any higher knowledge than that which relates to Law. Thus whispers she to the human soul-The ponderous orbs which circle amid the dark-blue sublimities of heaven-the comets which traverse the immense vastitudes of the universe-the storm-maned ocean"Dark-heaving, boundless, endless, and sublime," which appears to us as if, in very wantonness of spirit, it tumbled tumultuous in its fierceness-the wind, the poet's image of inconstancy, which to human eye "bloweth whithersoever it listeth," move not but under the governance of Law, and why shouldst thou, "Poor thing of doubt and clay, whose faith is built on reeds," imagine that thou art free to will-that thou art not also one of the legion of dependent and passive beings-a slave of "circumstances that unspiritual God"'-a link in the aninterrupted chain of sequentiality-an item in the muster-roll of effects? Wherefore thinkest thou that on the circumference of the giddy wheel of Fate thou art not also swept ward to thy destiny? Why dost thou suppose that will, purpose, or action, are more controllable by thee than the orbitual onsweep of the comet-the measured march of the midnight constellations—the ragings of the upsurging ocean-the outbursting of a volcano fire, or the howlings of the tempestuous wind? Let me assure you, that as the forest-leaf is borne resistlessly away on the wings of the Arabic simoom, so also art thou driven along in the unpausing circuit of phenomena-governing Law. Philosophy attempts to lead us out of this "house of bondage"-to free us from the prison-withes of passion and of circumstance "wherewith we are darkly bound"-to burst the fetters of the fatalistic Logic with which physical science is apt to enthral us. It offers to lead us out of the region of sophistication, uncertainty, and apparency, into the territory of the true, the certain, and the absolute. It denies that the laws of man's being are given only in his organization-that he is a powerless agent in the flux and reflux of circumstancesthat his present nature is the measure of his powers-that his inclinations are the visible handwriting of the invisible yet resistless power of Law-that it is vain to resist our impulses, and sinless to pursue the ordinances of Destiny. It professes to be able to satisfy the yearnings of the soul-to be capable of unfolding to the mind of man those high thoughts and principles which ought to regulate the conduct, govern the reason, overrule the passions, elevate the nature of man, and teach him to "Adore with steadfast, unpresuming gaze Thou Nature's essence, mind, and energy, Coleridge's "Religious Musings." It professes to have the power of informing man regarding Destiny, Nature, the Soul, God, and all that interesting series of truths which are involved in these mystery-enshrouded terms. In our next we shall inquire what is the genesis, or birth-source, of philosophic thought-what is the nature of the queries originated in the philosophic intellect. These things we think it necessary to consider briefly previous to our proceeding to unfold to our readers the several solutions which have been given to "The Problems of the Reason.” Such a consecutive and concatenated view of " European Philosophy" as we then purpose to present, cannot fail of being useful, gratifying, and mind-improving; for there is much truth in the words of Buffon, "How much useful knowledge is lost by the scattered forms in which it is ushered into the world! How many solitary students spend half their lives in making discoveries which have been perfected a century before their time, for want of a condensed exhibition of what is known." THE IMPORTANCE OF APPLICATION TO STUDY. It is by dint of steady labour-it is by giving enough of application to the work, and having enough time for the doing of it-it is by regular painstaking, and the plying of constant assiduities-it is by these, and not by any process of legerdemain, that we secure the strength and the staple of real excellence. It was thus that Demosthenes, clause after clause, and sentence after sentence, elaborated, and that to the uttermost, his immortal orations;-it was thus that Newton pioneered his way, by the steps of an ascending geometry, to the mechanism of the heavens after which he left this testimony behind him, that he was conscious of nothing else but a patient thinking, which could at all distinguish him from other men. He felt that it was no inaccessible superiority on which he stood, and it was thus that he generously proclaimed it. It is certainly another imagination that prevails in regard to those who have left the stupendous monuments of intellect behind them-not that they were differently exercised from the rest of the species, but that they must have been differently gifted. It is their talent, and almost never their industry, by which they have been thought to signalize themselves; and seldom is it averted to, how much it is to the strenuous application of those commonplace faculties which are diffused among us all, that they are indebted to the glories that now encircle their remembrance and their name. It is felt to be a vulgarizing of genius that it should be lighted up by any other way than by a direct inspiration from heaven; and hence men have overlooked the steadfastness of purpose, the devotion to some single but great object, the unweariedness of labour that is given, not in convulsive and preternatural throes, but by little and little as the strength of the mind may bear it, the accumulation of many small efforts, instead of a few grand and gigantic, but perhaps irregular, movements, on the part of energies that are marvellous-men have overlooked these as being indeed the elements to which genius owes the best and the proudest of her achievements. They cannot think that aught so utterly prosaic as patience, and painstaking and resolute industry, have any share in the upholding of a distinction so illustrious. These are held to be ignoble attributes never to be found among the demi-gods, but only among the drudges of literature; and it is certainly true that in scholarship there are higher and lower walks, but still the very highest of all is a walk of labour. It is not by any fantastic jugglery, incomprehensible to ordinary minds, and beyond their reach-it is not by this that the heights of philosophy are scaled. So said he who towers so far above all his fellows; and whether viewed as an exhibition of his own modesty, or as an encouragement to others, this testimony may be regarded as one of the most precious legacies that he has bequeathed to the world. Let me endeavour to guard you against this most common error of the youthful imagination, and into which you are most naturally seduced by the very splendour and magnitude of the work that you contemplate. The "Principia" of Newton, and the "Pyramids of Egypt," are both of them most sublime works; and looking to either as a magnificent whole, you have a like magnificent idea of the noble conception or the one mighty power that originated each of them. You reflect not on the gradual and continuous, and I had almost said creeping, way in which they at length emerged to their present greatness, so as now to stand forth, one of the stateliest monuments of intellectual, and the other of physical, strength that the world ever saw. You can see, palpably ough, how it was by repeated strokes of the chisel, and by a series of muscular efforts, each of which exceeded not the force of a single arm, that the architecture was lifted to the state in which, after the lapse of forty centuries, it still remains one of the wonders of the world; but you see not the secret steps of that process by which the mind of our invincible philosopher was carried upward from one landing-place to another, till it reached the pinnacle of that still more wondrous fabric which he himself has consummated. You look to it as you would to a prodigy sprung forth at the bidding of a magician, or at least of one whose powers were as hopelessly above your own, as if all the spells and mysteries of magic were familiar to him. And hence it is that nought could be more kind, and surely nought more emphatically instructive, than when he told his brethren of the species wherein it was that his strength lay-that he differed not in power, but only differed in patience, from themselves; and that he had won that eminence from which he looked down the crowd beneath him, not by dint of a heaven-born inspiration that descended only on a few, but by dint of a home-bred virtue that was within reach of all. There is much of weighty and most applicable wisdom in the reply given by Dr. Johnson to a question put to him by his biographer relative to the business of composition. He asked whether, ere one begin, he should wait for the favourable moment, for the afflatus which is deemed by many to constitute the whole peculiarity of genius? "No, sir; he should sit down doggedly," was the deliverance of the great moralist. And be assured, gentlemen, that there is much of substantial truth in it. Whether it be composition, or any other exercise of scholarship, I would have you all to sit down doggedly; for if you once bethink yourselves of waiting for the afflatus, the risk is that the afflatus may never come. Had your weekly or your monthly essay not been forthcoming, I should scarcely have deemed it a satisfactory excuse that you were waiting for the afflatus. With this doctrine of an afflatus I can figure nothing more delightful than the life of a genius, spent as it would be between the dreams of self-complacency and those of downright indolence. For I presume, that during the intervals between one attack and another of this mysterious etion, he may be very much at ease, living just as he lists; and for all his rambles and recreations abroad having this ready explanation to offer, that he had no visit this day free his muse to detain him at home. Existence at this rate were one continued holiday; be very sure, gentlemen, that it is not the existence by which you will ever be guided to ought that is substantial in the acquirement of philosophy. It would be a life of illusion— G an airy and fantastic day, that should terminate in nothing.. And we again repeat, that if at all ambitious of a name in scholarship, or what is better far, if ambitious of that wisdom that can devise aright for the service of humanity, it is not by the wildly, even though it should be the grandly, irregular march of a wayward and meteoric spirit that you will ever arrive at it. It is by a slow, but surer path-by a fixed devotedness of aim, and the steadfast prosecution of it-by breaking your day into its hours and its seasons, and then by a resolute adherence to them; it is not by the random sallies of him who lives without a purpose and without a plan-it is by the unwearied regularities of him who plies the exercise of a self-appointed round, and most strenuously perseveres in them. It is by these that mental power, I will not say is created, but it is by these that mental power is both fostered into strength, and made tenfold more effective than before; and precise, and methodical, and dull as these habits may be deemed, it is to them that the world is indebted for its best philosophy and its best poetry.—From an Address by Dr. Chalmers to the Students of St. Andrew's; Memoirs, vol. iii. REPORTS OF MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT SOCIETIES. The following resolution was adopted at a committee meeting held the previous night :"That the two volumes of the British Controversialist be purchased forthwith, and that next year it be taken in monthly." Milngavie Mechanics' Institution.-The pre-addressed by several of the members and friends sent session of the above institution was opened of the society. on Monday evening, December 1st, with an introductory lecture by Professor Eadie, D.D., LL.D., Glasgow. Mr. H. Ross, president of the insti tution, occupied the chair, and in a brief address introduced the learned professor, who delivered a most eloquent and high toned oration on " Man's connexion with the circle of the sciences." The lecture was listened to throughout with marked attention by a crowded audience. It was truly cheering to recognise and experience in so eminent a divine a warm friend of mechanics' institutions; and from his masculine recommendation of their design and tendency, we have experienced an infusion of new life into our institution, which is happily in a flourishing condition. The committee have secured the aid of many talented and respectable gentlemen to lecture during the winter, and there can be no doubt but that these lectures will, in every way, prove very beneficial and instructive to all who avail themselves of the advantages of the institution. The library belonging to the institution contains about 760, volumes, among which are to be found many of the recent, popular, and standard works of our most celebrated authors in every department of literature and science. The terms of membership are such, that it places within the reach of the humblest artizan an inexhaustible supply of those mental enjoyments and benefits, without which life is but the shadow of existence.-H. C., Sec. Leith Young Men's Society.-The seventh annual soiree of this society was held in Mr. Kay's class-rooms, on the evening of Friday, 26th ult. Mr. George T. M. Inglis, president, occupied the chair, and after tea made a few excellent remarks on "The literature of the present day." Mr. Richard Fotheringham, secretary, then read the annual report, which showed that in the course of the year 121 young men had been in connexion with the society; 30 of these, however, having resigned in consequence of removal, &c., left as the present numbers on the roll, 91 members; or an increase of 24 over last year's report. The following addresses were afterwards delivered in the course of the evening :-Mr. Jas. Brown, on "Freedom;" Mr. George Smith, on "The Head and the Heart"; Mr. Neil Jamieson, on "Motives to action, drawn from the character of St. Paul "; Mr. David Small, on "Ambition's noblest aim." The speakers did ample justice to their subjects, and the company separated at a late hour, all highly delighted. Kelvedon Mutual Instruction Society.-In the rural, although somewhat superior, village of Kelvedon, situate not far from the centre of EsBankfort.-Hebden Bridge Mutual Improve sex, there exists a band of young men, who, ment Society-The members of this society held although "far remote" from the excitement of their fourth anniversary meeting in the Wesleyan more mercantile and wealth-getting districts, have schoolroom, on Christmas-day. Mr. Thomas yet devoted their energies to the cause of the onSmith occupied the, chair. The secretary read ward progressiveness of human nature, and are the report, which stated that lectures had been beginning to make themselves felt as well as delivered during the past year on History, Che-known. The outward manifestation of their opemistry, Natural Philosophy, Phonography, Botany, &c., and discussions held on several important subjects. The meeting was afterwards rations is a mutual instruction society, where all the usual advantages which belong to such societies are made easily accessible. This society |