Pupil.-"Vanity."

Teacher." And is this a feeling worthy to interfere with the love for the beautiful."

Teacher." Why, then, you see your love for the beautiful is a very superior feeling-superior to indolence, love of play, love of eating and drinking-superior to anger, fear, the love of thinking highly of yourself, and the love of being thought well of by others. But I wonder if there is any feeling higher than love of the beautiful. Suppose, just as the mother is going out to enjoy the beautiful in nature, one of the children seems ill, and wants to nestle on her bosom; will the mother be right, now, to abandon her intention of going out, and give herself up to nurse her little one?—And what feeling in the mother's mind could lead her to make this choice ?” Pupil.-"Love, or affection."

Teacher." Then love, or affection, you mean to say, is a nobler feeling than love for the beautiful, and ought to be obeyed in preference ?Or suppose, just as the party is setting out, a person comes running in, telling the mother that a neighbour is very ill, and begs her to come and see her, to comfort her, and tell her what is to be done and the mother says, 'I cannot go out now, my children. I must go to see poor Mary Robson.' What feeling will be in the mother's mind, keeping her from going out to enjoy the beautiful ?”

Pupil.- -"Sympathy or compassion."

Teacher." And is the mother right in neglecting the love of the beautiful to obey her sympathy ?- -Then sympathy must be a nobler feeling than the love for the beautiful. Thus you perceive, though the love of the beautiful is a very high feeling, there may be others higher still. We ought to make our lower feelings give way to our love for the beautiful; but we ought to make love for the beautiful give way to higher feelings. But now, who causes things to assume beautiful forms and colours, and puts into them the power of uttering beautiful sounds." Pupil.-"The great God."

Teacher.- "Now, we cannot but think that God forms thoughts of all these things before he makes them. Why, then, the thoughts of God must be beautiful; must they not?And he would not have made these things beautiful, unless he had loved the beautiful himself? -Ah, then, we see why he made all these things beautiful. His mind is a world full of beautiful thoughts, and of love for the beautiful; and he wanted to make our minds like his own; and so made outward things beautiful, that we might look upon them, and listen to them, and have beautiful thoughts, and love beauty; so that—

'The mind

Might be a mansion for all lovely forms,
The memory be as a dwelling-place

For all sweet sounds and harmonies.'

Printed at J. T. PARKES's Steam Press, 21, Cross-street, Manchester.

PART II.

CHAPTER VII.

LESSONS IN THE PORCH OF NATURE.

MIND-BUILDING IN WORLD-KNOWLEDGE OR GEOGRAPHY.

The following lessons, it is respectfully suggested, may either be read to the children, by the teacher-who may simplify the language to the age and degree of information-or, in many cases, they may be read by the children themselves. The naked synthesis of ideas, upon which the lesson is formed, is prefixed.

LESSON I.-SYNTHESIS.

Idea of fairy power and fairy world-Longing of the mind for suchThis idea not all a dream-World of the mind-Wonderful power attainable therein-How to realize the mind-world-Difference in mind-worlds-Longing for a great and beautiful one-All our mindworlds at first small-How built up-by thoughts-We gain thoughts from the universe-The universe, model for our mind-world, and a symbol of an infinite mind-world-Hindrances to mind-buildingIndolence and love of play-Analysis of love of play-Comparison of the desires-Statement of our work of mind-building, or in-struc-tion, to gain mental representations of the outward world-We must gain these by continually asking the questions "what is," and "why it is" -The mind compelled to suppose a why, or reason, antecedent to every phenomenon―These two questions, what and why, the two portals of truth-But our own powers of observation not sufficiently extensive -We must use the observations and conclusions of others-These conveyed to us by words-Hint of the wonderful power of words.

MOST of you, I have no doubt, have enjoyed the pleasure of reading or hearing wondrous tales that described a charming world, in which beautiful beings-spirits, to which we give the name of fairies-acted an important part. You have in your fancy, as the tale went on, seen those beings shooting through the air, swift as light. Sometimes you have seen them floating like a silvery cloud

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over sea and mountain, or in pearly and magic car, sailing along far up in the blue heavens. Sometimes they would suddenly flash from some far region, and, with a touch of their wand, cause some mean cottage to become directly a vast and gorgeous palace, the poor ragged dress of the inmates to change to royal robes, and clods of earth and common pebbles to turn in a moment into gold, and silver, and marble, and alabaster vessels, and furniture, all richly worked. Whose imagination has not been carried away by such tales? How we have secretly envied that fairy power, and, in fancy, put ourselves for a time in the fairy's place, and flown through the air, and wrought wonders like her. And when we have turned away from the tale, and looked round, and seen where we were, have we not sighed to think it was all but a dream, and that we must move about slowly and heavily in this common world, take things as they are, and let poor hovels be hovels, and rags, and clods, and pebbles, be rags, and clods, and pebbles, still?

Yet I hope to interest you when I assure you that such tales are not all dreams;—that there is a world as wonderful as any fairy world of which you have ever read or heard; and that in that world you, even you, can enjoy more than fairy power. Yes, in that world you can float over mountains and seas, or glide along in your spirit car, or descend when you please, with the swiftness of light, or be spread abroad, spirit-like, through all the world the same. Fairy tales, properly understood, are true tales, foreshadowing-or hinting beforehand-to the young the real wonders of the mind.

But what, and where, is this wondrous world? It is the world of the mind, not the world of the body. Close your eyes, and fancy or picture in your mind whatever scene you please; you are in the mind-world surrounded by your own thoughts. Well, picture then, first, the thought of some miserable hovel, and yourself clothed with miserable rags. You are in the mind-world-not a very beautiful mindworld as yet, assuredly. I mean, not your body, but YOURSELF-your thought, your thinking part-is in that world. But now, at a command, let the hovel grow into a palace, and your rags change into kingly robes. And, at another command, let the palace vanish, and a beautiful world be there instead; and you, that is, your attention, or thinking, or consciousness, may now spring up a pure spirit, clothed in a robe

of light, and float through the air, looking down on beautiful green fields, and winding streams, and rich clusters of trees, and gentle slopes, and lofty hills, and white houses scattered through the fields and among the trees; and above, you look up to the wide blue heavens, with silvery clouds floating along. And again, with a thought, let that scene pass, and the vast rolling sea be there, and rugged, towering rocks, and wide sea beach, and vessels with white sails. Again, at the command of your thought, let these vanish, and a country all mountainous, rise beneath you, where mountain seems piled upon mountain, in vast confusion, and from the loftiest a vast dark column of smoke, illuminated with flashes of fire, is rising up towards the sky.

I said there was a mind-world like this, and that we could have such wondrous power therein. But we have not all such mind-worlds-none of us, till we have formed them, or built them up, and learnt, by exercise, to have power in them. And the mind-worlds of all who have them are not equally grand and beautiful. The mind-worlds of some are as vast and beautiful, in comparison with those of others, as this great world is vast and beautiful, compared to a poor miserable hovel. Now, do you not wish to have the great and beautiful mind-world, in which you may enter and live, and be in it like a pure and happy spirit, flying about, creating and changing as you please?

In childhood, all our mind-worlds are small, dark, and narrow, and we have little power over them. And it is the work of early life to draw forth (e-duc-ate) the powers within, so that they may ever go on building up or furnishing (in-struct-ing) the mind with beauty, truth, and grandeur. And this work of education and instruction is never completed. We can go on building up our mind-world, and making it more vast, glorious, and, beautiful for ever.

But how are we to do this? It is by what is called knowledge. What is knowledge? One large portion of it consists in true THOUGHTS or representations within of the THINGS that are without. Gaining knowledge of this outward world, means building up the mind within, by thoughts which correspond with the things without. God seems to have placed this outward world like a vast and beautiful picture, on which we may look, and according to which we may form our own mental world. And, no doubt, the out

ward world is, to some extent, a picture of the hidden mindworld of God, so that the more our mind-world corresponds in grandeur and beauty with the outward world—that is, the wiser it is--the more it will resemble the mind-world of God himself. And here again we see what a glorious thing it is to build up our mind-world, when to do this, is to make our life more like the life of the most perfect and august of beings.

I hope, then, you feel an earnest desire to build up your mind-world in great and beautiful thoughts. And if you have this desire, what should hinder you from following it, and going on day after day building up this glorious world? Indolence, a love of rest, a dislike of work may hinder you; for we cannot build up the mind without workno, not without hard work-hard work, I mean, of the mind. But is not the glorious world, which we shall obtain for ever, worthy of that work? What would you think of a being who has lived through years upon years, and had the richest opportunities for building up a glorious mind-world, and has been content with one, poor and mean as a hovel, and all because he cowardly feared a little labour, because he preferred the pleasure of an easy indolent life-though in this mean hovel, to an active working one in the magnificent temple of an enlarged mind? Would you not have a thorough contempt for such a being? Would you not turn from him as a poor, pitiful, abject creature? Take care, then, that you never have to think of yourself as this abject contemptible being? But, can nothing hinder you from building up your mind-world but indolence? Yes, the excessive love of play or amusement may hinder you. What is the love of play or amusement? It is often the love either of acting something which calls up the scenes of real life, or it is the love of striving to excel a companion in some rather difficult thing. Now, ask yourself, if anything you can act, can call up to your mind scenes more beautiful and interesting than those I have mentioned. Properly understood, the whole work of mind-building is play. It is acting over in the mind the wonders of the great world. The only difference is, that what you call play, is sometimes, though not always, an easier kind of work. Now, it is necessary, for the sake of rest to the mind, to turn sometimes from the harder play to the easier play. But what would you say of a being who had through many years had the opportunity, by engag