It must be borne in mind that the following lessons have gone through innumerable transformations from year to year, as their effect upon the minds of pupils has suggested difficulties to be cleared, greater truth, or new sources of interest to be added. If the reader is inclined to condemn the imaginative frame-work in which the lessons are set, let him have a little faith and patience. I would not be guilty of the presumption of hinting the possibility that his own mental development may have been checked by a false education on the side of imagination : yet only let him calmly, but faithfully, TRY the experiment with the young, and, if he does not find that the youthful reason and memory are wonderfully quickened by the alliance of the imagination, let him pass sentence without fear.

These remarks apply also to the introductory dialogues, which, let the reader be forwarned, make no pretension to be a tale. The illustrative form which this portion bears, and which might have been impertinent had it been primarily addressed to older and more logical minds, was given to make it impressive on the minds of young teachers for whom it was first composed. With them it seemed to answer the purpose intended,-of giving a kind of Simonidean Memoria-technica to aid the memory in retaining, in their proper relation, the principles intended to be conveyed,—as well as of enlivening the general interest,

Many will say, let us have either a tale or an essay, and not this compromise between the two. And yet, in so saying, we may be setting up our own minds-with, perhaps, the critical faculties of taste, or logical faculties of the understanding, too exclusively developed-as standards for the wants of others. There are, no doubt, thousands and tens of thousands of minds in society, to whom it is desirable to teach

some portion of philosophical truth, but with whom-unless that truth be set in description, which appeals to the imagination and the sympathies human life-the pure love of abstract knowledge will not be sufficient to sustain them through a long act of attention to its setting forth. In actual experience our most abstract truth is interwoven with life and Nature, and what then should forbid the teacher from presenting it in this its natural association, especially if thus it best recommends itself to multitudes ?

Do not expect, in the lessons of the mere teacher, a work of high art in which the common materials of life and imagination are worked up to produce deep and thrilling interest as an end; be content to find these materials applied sparingly to add interest and liveliness as a means to another end, instruction, and there is no more ground for complaint that the work of the teacher does not satisfy our conception of art, than that the work of the artist does not satisfy our expectations of philosophy.

MONTON,

Eccles, near Manchester, Feb., 1853.

ERRATA.

Page 120, line 10-for "Atlas Mountains, in Africa," read "Altai

Mountains, in Asia."

line 22-for "Atlas range," read "Altai range."

Page 159, line 40-dele "and All-powerful."

THE TEMPLE OF EDUCATION.

THE old baronial hall of Ainsley stands on the declivity of an elevation, and commands, on one side, a large extent of rich and level country, which is dotted with numerous populous villages, and presents in the distance the large and wealthy manufacturing town of W- From the summit of the elevation, the eye, looking in the opposite direction, rests on a more varied tract of undulating surface, which affords snatches of beautiful valleys, with winding and glittering streams, flanked by dark wooded hills, and then stretches away to the basis of the P― range that extends in all its wildest majesty and beauty from east to west, bounding the horizon.

But it is neither the hall nor the view from the eminence above it that principally attracts attention, but a vast and noble structure which rises from above the hall and crowns the very summit of the eminence.

This majestic pile appears in form, and almost in dimensions, like one of our fine old cathedrals or minsters. Like them it is built in the form of a vast cross, traced as it were upon the ground. A lofty tower of the most beautiful masonry springs towards heaven over the spot in which the two portions of the cross traverse each other; and two other lighter but equally beautiful towers crown the eastern* end. An inscription in Gothic characters over the great portal, informs the observer that this is a "Temple of human culture, erected to be an ever-reminding symbol of the grandeur, religiousness, and progressiveness of education, and to afford a worthy retreat in which the work may be pursued."

The history of this edifice may be briefly told.

Lord Ainsley, the proprietor and occupant of the princely hall under the brow of the hill, is one of those who feel that

*This variation from the common arrangement, which places the smaller towers at the western end, will be hereafter explained.

B

wealth and influence are powers over human fate which almost terribly enlarge to their possessors the sphere of duty, and place in their keeping to a fearful extent the best interests of the world. From his childhood this nobleman showed that moral thoughtfulness of character, that earnest desire to know and to act the very truth, which is the foundation of all true moral greatness. His was one of those souls in earnest that seem incapable of repose until they feel they stand on the eternal realities; and in the consciousness of this worship for the truth, he stood fearless before all systems, doctrines, institutions, however ancient, solemn, or pretending, calmly asking them for their credentials to his trust before he bowed the knee.

At school and college he distinguished himself among his contemporaries by great abilities and proficiency. But, the truth-loving character of the youth could find little appreciation or sympathy among the numbers of plausible men who surrounded him. They seemed never to have felt this necessity to have that very truth, the passion for which ruled him with so deep a power. He saw the men, not only the frivolous, but even the learned and pious—with whom it was his fate to be cast-yawn, sneer, or start away with pious dread at the very statement of many of the great questions which profoundly occupied his own meditations. Accordingly he often found himself frowned upon and even treated with severity, for that which to him seemed deserving of all praise and honour-faithfulness to the most sacred of his instincts. Yet this love of truth was not with him a pragmatic love of his own opinion or of singularity. He was the most unobtrusive of youth, ready to listen with respect and attention to any one who could help him to view a thought in a new and truer light,—and, at once, frankly confessing the fact when such light dawned upon him. He could scarcely converse with any one, however opposite in view, without making the confession that he had learnt something new from the conversation.

Yet, with all these noble characteristics, Lord Ainsley was no model of perfection. Many a shadow darkened his growing life. While his sentiments generally breathed the most pure and heroic virtue, his conduct sometimes seemed to give new licence to vice, and sneers to the sceptics in human goodness.