to leave out those words that are marked, the other children will fill them up as he goes.

"O Lord, how manifest are thy works; in wisdom hast thou made them all!"-Psalm civ. 24.

I subjoin, as an exercise for teachers themselves, the following hymn, as one calculated to induce reflections the scenes of nature, and direct the mind to that Being who is the Source of all excellence!

on

1 Hast

Through all

beheld

glorious

skies his circuit run,

At rising morn, closing day,

And when he beam'd his noontide

3 When darkness had o'erspread the Hast thou e'er seen the

And with a mild and placid

arise,

Shed lustre o'er the face of night?

4 Hast

e'er wander'd o'er the plain,
And view'd the fields and waving
The flowery mead,
Where all harmony love.

leafy grove,

5 Hast thou e'er trod the sandy And the restless

roar,

When roused by some tremendous
It's billows rose

dreadful form?

6 Hast thou beheld the stream

Thro' nights dark gloom, sudden gleam,

While the bellowing thunder's

Roll'd rattling

7 Hast thou e'er

the heaven's profound?

the cutting gale,

the biting hail;

The sleeting shower,
Beheld snow o'erspread the
The water bound icy chains?

8 Hast thou the various beings
That sport the valley green,
That warble on the spray,
Or wanton in the sunny

?

9 That shoot along briny deep, ground their dwellings keep;

Or

That thro' the

forest range,

Or frightful wilds deserts strange?

10 Hast the wondrous scenes survey'd
That all around thee display'd?

And hast

TO HIM

never raised thine

bade these scenes arise?

11 'Twas GOD who form'd the concave
And all the glorious orbs high;

gave the various beings birth,

That people all the spacious

The elliptical plan has been found to be most successful, and has been applied with equal success in schools for older children, and also children of another grade. Messrs. Chambers, I believe, are the only persons, as far as I know, who have the honesty to acknowledge the source from whence this plan was taken.

CHAPTER XXI.

REMARKS ON SCHOOLS.

National schools-British and foreign societies-Sunday schools— Observations.

"Is it then fitting that one soul should pine
For want of culture in this favour'd land?
That spirits of capacity divine

Perish, like seeds upon the desert sand?
That needful knowledge, in this age of light,
Should not by birth be every Briton's right?"

Southey.

ALTHOUGH it has been the special design of the present work to speak of the first efforts of art in assisting the proper development of the mental and moral faculties, I shall take the liberty of indulging in a few remarks on the methods at present adopted in the more advanced stages of education, as seen in our National and Sunday Schools. I need, I am sure, offer no other apology for so doing, than the fact that it is in these institutions the infant poor must complete their education; it is in these schools, the budding faculties must either ripen or perish; and the moral principles become confirmed or weakened. Certain I am, that it is the wish of all concerned in these praiseworthy institutions to do their best for the attainment of this object-the welfare and improvement of the rising generation of the poor classes; and therefore I the less reluctantly offer a few thoughts on the subject, which it is my humble opinion may not be altogether useless.

With regard to National Schools, I must say, there is too much form, and too little of the spirit of instruction to be found in their management: the minor faculties are attended to in preference to the higher ones; it is the memory alone which is called into action; the understanding is suffered to lie in a state of torpid inac