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ness; and thus gratitude is weakened, if not extinguished in their hearts. It will therefore be the duty of our course of language to impress upon our pupils that they owe everything to the kindness of their parents, and that if driven from the paternal roof, they would perish for

want.

This subject is so self-evident that we need not enter into further details upon it; but we shall subjoin a few examples, as a specimen of what our course of language will do.

"For a long time I was dumb, and my good mother it was, who endued my lips with speech. When I came into the world, I knew nothing, and my parents have taught me everything. Am I not lodged and fed by my parents, as a guest whom they graciously receive? I should be naked, if my parents did not clothe me. I daily pray to God to render to my parents according to their kindness to me, for I myself cannot repay them. God has given me parents to come in aid of my weakness and ignorance. I am still poor and blind, and my parents are my guides. The undutiful child who grieves his parents, is a heartless being, and unworthy to live. At twelve years of age, the child Jesus had the consciousness of His high dignity and mission, and yet it is written of Him that He was subject to His parents. When expiring on the cross, our blessed Saviour provided in His stead another son for His mother."

Clouds to be dispelled.

The grave duties of parents sometimes oblige them to refuse the inconsiderate wishes of their children; to call them from their play to work, to reprove and even to punish them for their faults, with a view to their correction. In all this they are liable to show impatience and temper; and these are so many clouds which veil from ignorant childhood the goodness of its parents, and thus impair its gratitude. Then it is no longer a child who renders willing obedience; but a slave under coercion, who champs the bit. And is it not the same in his religious relationship when man is thwarted in his inclina

tions, and thinks therefore that he has a right to complain of Divine Providence?

The following are some of the thoughts which our course of language will dwell upon in its exercises, with a view of preventing or dispelling the clouds which might check the expression of filial piety in the pupils.

"You take account of the denials of your parents, but not of their gifts. The life of man is full of privations ; therefore parents do well to inure their children to them early, in order that they may bear them the better. He who does not take to work when he is young, will learn nothing, and will be useless through life. The tree must be trained and pruned while young, or it will never take a right form. Be assured that it would be much pleasanter to your parents to have to praise your good qualities than to blame your faults. If your parents sometimes show temper, remember that it is because you provoke them."

Brotherly Love.

Between children who dwell under the same roof, eat at the same table, receive the tender cares of the same parents, there naturally springs up a close sympathy, from which results mutual benevolence. Moreover, they know that by living together in unity, they will afford pleasure to their parents, and thus filial piety hallows and upholds brotherly love.

Means of animating Brotherly Love.

Our course of language will invoke this aid, and will also imitate the pious mother who appeals to God in order to strengthen the mutual ties of her family, and to introduce among them that most excellent gift of charity which comes down from above. But in order to attain the object that we have in view, we shall not fear to refer to a very inferior motive, one taken from the self-interest of children. We shall appeal to their own experience, and ask them, whether by living in harmony with their brothers and sisters, they do not now enjoy the blessings of good-fellowship and mutual assistance, whilst by dis

union they would embitter their lives. This consideration will not undoubtedly inspire the most exalted feelings of brotherhood, but it may help to strengthen good resolutions. The following are some suggestions for our course of language :—

"Your brothers and sisters are your own flesh and blood; beware then of despising them. I deny my father and mother whenever I ill use the children whom they love. Parents consider whatever good or evil is done to their children, as done to themselves. God has not given you brothers and sisters that you should ill use them; but that you should be kind to them for His sake. You may conceal from your parents your ill usage of their children, but you cannot from Him who sees all things, and reads the secrets of the heart. Your brothers and sisters are not only the children of mortal beings, but of our Heavenly Father, who has placed you among them. When brothers and sisters quarrel, the aggressor and the aggrieved are equally uncomfortable," &c.

Obstacles to be removed.

Parents sometimes show partiality in their family, and thus sow the seeds of envy and jealousy, and perhaps cast a brand of discord among their children. None are jealous of the particular care bestowed by the mother on the babe in the cradle, or on the sufferer stretched on the bed of sickness; but not so with regard to favours granted to natural talents, to beauty of form, to pleasing manners: all of them qualities which imply no personal merit. And indeed this last does not always find favour with brothers and sisters, who are apt to lay claim to perfect equality in the love and in the gifts of their parents.

On this last point, our course of language, which aims specially at the moral developement of children, may rectify error, and destroy its ill effects. As to the former, it can do no more than comfort those who are least favoured by nature, and make them less sensitive to the partiality of their parents, and more ready to forgive the brother or sister who is the object of it. The matter is a delicate one, and the teacher must beware of promoting brotherly

love at the expense of filial piety. The following are some thoughts that may be suggested :

"Every child may, if he chooses, recommend himself to the favour of his parents, if he has a good heart and is docile. Beauty of form passes away as the flower of the field, but the beauty of the mind endures. If you deserve the affection of your parents, you may take comfort, even if you do not enjoy it to the extent of your wishes."

Faults to be avoided.

A child will often deceive his parents in order to screen his brother or sister from reproof or punishment, and will even take part in the fault of another rather than displease him. These irregularities, arising out of brotherly love, must be corrected by our course of language, which will appeal to filial piety, and will also derive its remedies from the same source as the evil. Examples: "If you lie in order to conceal your brother's fault, you do him a very ill service, because you prevent your parents from correcting him. If you loved your brothers and sisters with rational affection, you would dissuade them from evil, rather than encourage them in it, by joining with them."

The Love of our Neighbour.

The love of our neighbour is brotherly love, which, passing beyond its primary limits, embraces the whole human family in the name and for the sake of the common Father of all.

The love of our neighbour is of Christian origin; for it only exists in the human heart, inasmuch as the great Gospel truths of the fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of mankind, have enlightened and animated it. It also needs a model, which shall move and affect it; and this inspiring model is presented to us in the person of the Redeemer, who gave Himself as a sacrifice for our salvation.

It is He alone whose beneficence extends to all men; ours, with its feeble powers, can only act in miniature; but, in the eyes of God, a glass of cold water may have as great value as the most costly service, because the inten

tion is everything; and if we are commanded to embrace all men in our charity, it is but universal benevolence that is commanded. This is the duty of all without exception, because all may receive and foster it in their hearts; and when it is once kindled there, they will be beneficent according to their means.

Our pupils will bring the germ of it to our lessons, for without it they would ever remain strangers to the love of their neighbour; and this germ is the social tendency with which they were born. To it our course of language will address itself, because the object is to cultivate it; but for this purpose it will mainly employ the religious tendency, elevated as it is by the Gospel.

Now, in the social tendency we have pointed out two affections, which are in their nature boundless, and which education can and ought to transform into that love of our neighbour which our Lord has declared to be the distinguishing work of His disciples: "Hereby shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another, as I have loved you." These two primary affections are benevolence and compassion, by means of which we share respectively in the pleasures and in the pains of others.

Extension of Natural Benevolence.

Christian benevolence finds its due expression in the Lord's Prayer, which our pupils have long ago learnt to repeat, but which we wish them to say with their hearts as well as with their lips. For this, they must be able on seeing or thinking of a fellow-creature, to put themselves in his place, and, as it were, identify themselves with him. Then natural benevolence will speak in favour of our neighbour, that is, of all who are partakers of the same nature with us.

And how will our course of language set to work to obtain these results? It will specify the various points of resemblance between all men, and will say, for example, that in spite of the differences which distinguish one individual from another, all men have the same human form; all have souls which are encased in their bodily organs, and which act through their medium; all experience the

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