to be void of meaning to them: but it is necessary to be conscious of having a soul, and that the curtain which conceals it from itself should be drawn, before it can discover the indelible seal of the divinity imprinted on it by nature. Now, indeed, they comprehend that adoration and thanksgiving are due to him. What is performed in our temples is no more a mere spectacle in their eyes, as it used to be; they comprehend that we there ask, and they join with us in asking, whatever is most necessary for the good of our bodies and our souls." "Method of initiating the Deaf and Dumb even in the Mysteries of our Religion. "By the method we are about to lay down, it is practicable to teach the deaf and dumb even the mysteries of our religion. You exist, we say to them, you think, and you love. Your existence is not your thought: brutes exist, and do not think. Neither is it your love. "Nor yet is your thought your love, because you sometimes think of things which you do not love: neither is it your existence. fine, your love is neither your existence nor your thought. In Here then are three things in you distinct from each other, that is, the one is not the other. You can think of one without thinking of the others: yet these three things are inseparable, and constitute one self which exists, thinks, and loves; it is a kind of image or semblance of what is in God: it is what the great bishop Bossuet termed a created Trinity. "In God there are three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The Father is not the Son; neither is he the Holy Ghost. "The Son is not the Father; neither is he the Holy Ghost. Lastly, the Holy Ghost is not the Father; nor yet the Son. "These three persons are distinct from each other, that is to say, the one is not the other. You can think of one without thinking of the others: yet they are inseparable, and make but one God, a single spirit eternal, independent, immoveable, &c. This is what we are to believe, because it is what our faith teaches us; and after showing this doctrine in the Scriptures, to such of the deaf and dumb who are past their childhood, they repeat emphatically every Sunday at morning service, the symbol of St. Athanasius, and implicitly believe all the articles lie exposes touching the mystery of the Holy Tomity. "The comparison of the soul and the body, which is one man, unus est homo, as it is said in this creed, serves to make them understand how God and man is only one Jesus Christ, unus est Christus; and throws a light upon the sacred truths which necessarily result from this ineffable union. We eat, we drink, we sleep, we move by our body; we think, we judge, we reason by our soul. Jesus Christ, as God, is eternal, independent, immoveable, &c. Jesus Christ, as man, was conceived, was born, has suffered, and has died. (In the public exercise of the 13th August, eight deaf and dumb persons resolved eighty-six questions, in three different languages, concerning the three principal mysteries of our religion.) "The mystery of the Eucharist is likewise expounded in an appropriate manner. "The "The deaf and dumb see with their eyes that five or six drops of water, poured into a liquor of vivid red, turn it instantly to milk white. We remind them of what they have read in the Old Testament of the rod of Moses being changed into a serpent, and the waters of a large river into blood; also of what they have read in the Gospel, of Jesus Christ by his power changing the water into wine at the marriage of, Cana. "We tell them that a change still more miraculous is operated upou our altars, by virtue of the all-powerful words of Jesus Christ, pronounced in his name by the priest. Bread and wine are there changed into the body and blood of Christ. It is Jesus Christ himself that has said so: the church teaches us so; we are bound to believe it, though we comprehend it not. "In 1773, some of our deaf and dumb scholars went through a public exercise upon the sacrament of the Eucharist, of which the programma announced, along with other matters, that they would give four proofs of the real presence of the body and blood of Jesus Christ under the eucharistic forms, and answer the principal objections that might be brought forward against this article of our faith. "From the examples furnished by this chapter, the possibility of making deaf and dumb persons comprehend the mysteries of our religion, will, I presume, be admitted; and even the likelihood of their understanding them better than such as have learned them out of their catechism only." On the IMPORTANCE of the PRINCIPLE OF ASSOCIATION in educating YOUTH. [From Miss HAMILTON'S LETTERS on the ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES of EDUCATION. Vol. I.] "THE THE more deeply I contem plated the subject of education, the more thoroughly was I impressed with a sense of its importance. What I had at first considered as easy and simple, appeared upon close inspection to be difficult and complex; and as I traced effects to their causes, I frequently found circumstances I had overlooked as trifling, rise into magnitude, and branch out into consequences unseen and unexpected. "Every discovery I made, tended to increase diffidence in my own abilities; which I became truly sensible were inadequate to the due. performance of a task so arduous. With this consciousness, I should have been highly culpable, rashly to have undertaken it. "On every subject that requires serious investigation, our sex is doomed to experience the double disadvantage arising from original conformation of mind, and a defertive education. From the quickness of our perceptions we are frequently liable, where we see a little, to imagine a great deal, and so jump to a conclusion;" while, from an education conducted upon no regular plan, we acquire no no regular associations in our ideas, no accurate arrangement, no habit of mental application. Of nature, indeed, we have little reason to complain. She has sufficiently qualified us for that sphere in which she evidently intended we should move: and that this sphere is neither undignified nor confined, she has rendered evident, from the intellectual faculties with which she has endowed us. Why these should be given to us as a sealed book which ought not to be opened, I confess I cannot comprehend. Nor can I, perhaps, plead the cause of my sex more effectually, than by explaining the influence of early education; and thus rendering it evident to every unprejudiced mind, that if women were so educated as to qualify them for the proper performance of this momentous duty, it would do more towards the progressive improvement of the species than all the discoveries of science, and the researches of philosophy. 6 man remarkable for wisdom and virtue, who was the son of a foolish mother.' Nor, will the assertion appear extraordinary, when we consider how often the tempers and dispositions, falsely attributed to nature, may be traced to impressions received in infancy; a fact which might easily be ascertained by observation on the characters around us; but as objects pressing so closely upon the sight, as to have their parts necessarily viewed in succession, have a less striking effect than those that can be surveyed at a single glance, I shall beg leave to present you with some proofs of the influence of early education, which appear to my mind sufficiently convincing. "Whether we cast our eyes on the effeminate and indolent inhabitants of the east, or turn our attention to the more sturdy savages of the western hemisphere, still we shall find the effects of early education too potent for time to efface, or death itself to conquer. A sensible and accomplished traveller of my own sex, after having given a con cise, but striking account of the re ligion and manners of the Hindoos, observes as follows:† It is astonishing with what strictness the Hindoos observe these rules, even "Could the biographers of illustrious men attain a perfect knowledge of all they had received from early education, I am fully persuaded that it would shed a lustre on the maternal character, conspicuous as glorious*. Never,' observed a man of acknowledged sense and penetra-to starving themselves to death, tion, never have I known a rather than break through them. * « An honourable testimony to the truth of what is here advanced, is given by St, Paul in his epistle to Timothy, to whom he says: When I call to remembrance the 'unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also.'-2 Tim. i. 5. 6 "The historian Tacitus seems, likewise, to have taken a generous pleasure in pointing ent the influence of maternal instruction: an illustrious instance of which he has given in the life of Agricola, Julia Procilla, Agricola's mother, was,' says Tacitus, respected for the purity of her inanners. Under her care, and as it were in her bosom, the tender mind of her son was trained to science and every liberal accomplishment.' See Murphy's Translation of Tacitus, vol. iv. The degeneracy of morals under the emperors is, by this distinguished author, traced to the period when mothers began to give up the education of their children to slaves and hirelings." +" See Mrs. Kindersley's Letters from India." * The The children of the Hindoos are .. not to be tempted to eat any thing ⚫ forbidden, either by persuasion or by offering them the greatest ⚫ delicacies; which I have often • been witness of. It is the first • impression their minds receive; they are used to see it strictly observed by their own and other casts; it grows up with them as the first and most absolute law, and is perhaps observed with more strictness than any other law, religious or civil, by any na tion under the sun,' "Never, surely, was the abiding influence of first impressions more evidently displayed than in this firm and undeviating adherence to early principle, evinced by a people remarkable for feebleness of mind and gentleness of manners. That the fortitude, or rather torpid resignation, with which this feeble race have been observed to endure the extremity of bodily suffering, may with more justice be attributed to early inspired sentiment than to causes merely physical, is rendered obvious by the similar operation of similar causes on a people whose character and manners are in other respects very widely different. That contempt of pain and death, which forms such a prominent feature in the character of the American savage, can by no means be ascribed to an organization and temperament similar to that of the Hindoo. It is explained by the honest traveller Charlevoix in a few words; when, after having given some astonishing instances of the amazing constancy and firmness evinced by the savages of both sexes in bearing the extreme of bodily torture, suffering for many hours, and sometimes for many days toge-, ther, the sharpest effects of fire, ⚫ and all that the most industrious "If education can thus conquer the most powerful feelings of nature, subdue appetite, and render the soul superior to physical sensation; what may it not be expected to ef fect when directed to the control of the malevolent passions, the subjection of the irregular appetites, the cultivation of benevolence, and the improvement of intellect? The pains that are taken by the Hindoo to associate the idea of good with a strict adherence to the duties prescribed by his religion, and the idea of evil with the slightest deviation from the rules of his cast, are rendered effectual from the period of their commencement; while the associations thus produced are fendered permanent by the force of habit and example. Were the practice of the parent at war with his precepts: did he indulge himself in eating of the forbidden food, while he gave grave lessons to his children on the duty of abstaining from it; can we believe that the impres sions made upon their minds would be powerful or abiding? If while by words he expressed his abhorrence of those who, by a breach of the laws of Brama, had lost their cast, he received, cherished, and caressed these degenerate beings; would all the indignation he could express, lead the witnesses of his conduct to associate the idea of loss of cast with irremediable disgrace? Such inconsistencies the Hindoo and and the savage leave to the practice of the enlightened Christians of Europe. “To the instances I have adduced, thousands might be added from the more familiar scenes of life, to prove the infinite importance of watching over the early associations of good and evil; as on these depend the direction of the affections and desires of the heart. To this subject I mean to devote the first series of Letters. I shall then proceed to the cultivation of the un derstanding; not as a separate branch of education, for it will appear evident that neither heart nor understanding can be cultivated effectually, if an exclusive attention be at any time paid to either; but I shall so divide them for the purpose of more clear elucidation. And as I think it probable these Letters may be made public, I shall not -confine myself to such topics as might merely suit the particular circumstances of my friend. "From most of the writers on education it would appear, that it is only to people of rank and fortune that education is a matter of any importance. By such alone can the systems that are generally proposed, be adopted. To such, therefore, must we believe them to be exclusively addressed. To make fine ladies and finished gentlemen forins no part of my plan, which has for its object the subjection of the -passions, the direction of the affections, and the cultivation of the faculties that are common to the whole human race. "In treating of this important subject, I shall give precedence to the examination of those desires and aversions which are the springs of human conduct, because their influence commences, in some measure, with our existence.. In the 1801. production of our intellectual facul ties nature operates by a slow and gradual process. When her wise regulations are attended to, and not counteracted by our officious folly, one faculty attains sufficient vigour, before another is produced to assist in its developement. But desire and aversion, which may be termed the germ of the passions, appear in the early dawn of life; and show symptoms of strength and vigour at a period when the higher intellectual faculties are yet feeble and imperfect. Hence the necessity of paying an early and unceasing attention to every circumstance which tends to call forth these active pow ers, which, without such superintendance, may become instrumental to the misery of the possessor. "Upon the direction given to desire and aversion, the whole of moral conduct entirely depends. And if it be by means of early and powerful associations, that the desires and aversions of the soul are principally excited; it necessarily follows, that to watch over the associations which are formed by the tender mind, becomes a duty of the first importance. "The effects of association are daily experienced by all; but as the term made use of to explain these effects may not be familiar to every reader of iny own sex, a few observations upon it may not be unacceptable. This was omitted in the former edition, from a confidence that the application of the term would sufficiently explain its mean ing. But in this, I find, I have been mistaken. A lady, whose powers of wit and judgment can be excelled by nothing but her own candour and benevolence, has convinced me of my error, by assuring me that, nowever familiar the philosophical use of the term might be to a cer |