this plan upon the principle of applying to practical use every thing susceptible of such application."

18th. "Study subjects. By this means a system of theology will be formed gradually, on the principle of attending to the most important things first. I should prefer beginning with the central truths in theology. We cannot do better than observe the order in which we become practically acquainted with divine truth. In its study the moral feelings should always be consulted, for without them the operations of the intellect will be in a great measure profitless. There are several things in religion I feel an ardent desire to know; why should I leave these and turn to others that excite no peculiar interest, and thus lose the advantage the present state of my mind would afford? I do not despise or neglect system, but every man should have a system of his own. It should arise out of the gradual advance of the mind, and be constructed according to the order of nature."

21st. "I have had considerable enjoyment this morning in prayer. I do hope I am advancing in religion; at the same time I express this opinion with fear and trembling. I feel I have a heart that can transmute the very best blessings into evils. Thus I often find that if God softens and humbles me, I soon make that humility an occasion of pride. But I feel a growing desire to dwell more upon divine things, and behold new beauties in them every day. Even while I write a rich, deep, tender feeling of love to the Divine character pervades my soul. May God increase it every day."-Every Christian experiences these gushes of religious sensibility. Does not every hearer of the gospel ? Can they be satisfactorily attributed to any other cause than the agency of the Holy Ghost?

March 4th. "To study the scriptures successfully we

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must read them variously. I want to imbibe the spirit of the divine word, to have it thoroughly ingrafted and made part of my nature. God must be my teacher. I see that without that delicate spiritual perception which His Spirit alone can impart, the Bible must be read comparatively in vain."

8th. "I have not half the affection for the people to whom I preach which I ought to have. From the tone of my feelings towards them, every sermon must undoubtedly take its character. Let me aim then to keep their best interests at heart, and be anxious to profit, rather than to please them. Let me often think of them-make myself acquainted with them-pray for them. This is the only way to do them good."

9th. "I have sometimes thought that the setting apart of a certain portion of time for prayer and reading the Scriptures each day, had a tendency to produce formality. But though we may sometimes be formal in the discharge of these duties, this is better than neglect of them. At that very time, in all probability, if the mind were not thus engaged, it would be dwelling upon something far less profitable."

"I have just taken tea and seated myself comfortably upon the sofa," he writes in a letter to me on the 15th, "and was reflecting upon the chequered scenes of human life, and 'chewing the cud of sweet and bitter fancy,' when I was aroused from my musings by the remembrance of my promise. I have stepped into my study to put down some of my many thoughts respecting subjects which concern us both, but I am sorry to say they have fled. However, like Anthony in speaking, I must write 'straight on;' and perhaps some of the fugitives will be attracted by the movements of my pen. I read, and write, and walk as

usual. My existence now glides along as smoothly as the retreating tide when unruffled by the wind. In general I am calm and happy, and if now and then a bitter blast sweeps across my spirit its agitations soon subside. I do not remember a period when I have enjoyed so much peace of mind as lately. I have been blessed with a happy freedom from annoyance without and agitation within. I attribute much of this change to a more diligent study of God's word and such writers as Howe. There is a peculiar moral elevation in his views. In company with him I get away from earth to regions where the atmosphere is pure and clear, where the sun shines brighter, and both earth and heaven appear in their due proportions—the one shrinking into insignificance, and the other beaming with a glory which fills the soul.

I have been reading a life of Owen in which the author places him before Howe. I never did much admire Owen. I have tried but cannot. There is a cloudiness, a verbosity about him, a working out his meaning with infinite labour. Reading Owen is like walking out in a cloudy morning— there is light enough to distinguish the outlines of objects but not to exhibit their complete beauty. Reading Howe is like walking when the sun shines from a cloudless sky and reveals the manifold beauties of nature. Both were great men, born to enlighten the world; but Owen is a clouded, Howe an unclouded, sun.

"I don't know how it is I have stumbled upon these divines, for I set out with the intention of writing upon more private concernments. But perhaps I never felt the difficulty of marking the boundaries of Ta dia so much as now. Sometimes it seems as if every thing belongs to me and I belong to every thing. In gazing upon a beautiful landscape, and marking the rich variety of crops with which it is adorned, gratifying the sense of beauty to the full, and revelling in delicious reverie, I have often thought

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that I have reaped as large a harvest from it as the owner. It is possible to make the whole universe our own. But more than this-we can make God our own, and what need we more if we possess the Supreme Good?

"For some time past I have been rejoicing in the consciousness of restored health, but how possible it is to be deceived! To my great surprise I had a return of the expectoration of blood this morning. It was only a small quantity, but it gives no favourable indication of the state of my lungs.

"I should like us to have more communication with each other. I have been thinking that if we both kept a kind of Journal it would afford us mutual benefit and pleasure. I often wish to say a few words to you, but shrink from the effort of formally commencing a letter. If you approve of the plan let me know in your next. There is no necessity for a daily record. Write when it is convenient."

Here are two extracts on education which well merit the attention of parents and teachers. The former relates principally to the design of education, the latter to the manner in which it should be conducted "Many seem to have forgotten the end of education. The object is the harmonious development of all the capacities and susceptibilities of human nature. What is the precise cultivation under which the mind will be best unfolded is an inquiry not easy to answer in definite terms. General principles may be laid down but the difficulty lies in their application. If every mind be educated in the best possible way, no two will receive precisely the same treatment. Such a state of perfection cannot however be looked for, yet we ought to make as near an approach to it as possible. There is a radical error in many plans pursued. It has been the aim of teachers to bend the minds of their pupils to their system of discipline, instead of adapting the means of moral and in

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tellectual culture as far as possible to the peculiarities of each pupil. The results flowing from such a course are highly injurious, especially upon spirits of refined sensibility."

"In effecting any change in human character, it is best to follow out as far as possible the laws which regulate our existence. When those laws are neglected, or their operations crossed by artificial arrangements, many evils must follow. In nothing, perhaps, is this truth more exemplified than in the culture of the human mind. The Creator has communicated to man certain faculties which require culture in order to their full manifestation. The objects and scenes with which he is connected are designed to exercise those faculties, and as they are various so should be his circumstances. One faculty should not be cultivated at the expense of the rest. The reasoning powers should not be exercised so as to destroy the fairer and more delicate productions of imagination. Memory should not usurp the place of judgment. The mental powers should not wither up the gentler faculties of our social nature. If the social feelings be not cultivated all other culture will be comparatively useless, for it is only by coming in contact with our fellow-men that we can hope to benefit and improve them. But these feelings can find their proper scope and stimulus in actual society only. If they are developed in an artificial community they will be cast in a mould not adapted to mankind in general. Upon these principles I think that those who recommend seclusion from the world in the improvement of the intellect have made a great mistake. In the attempt to raise one part of the structure to an unnatural height they throw down all the rest, and even render that comparatively useless."

I here present a number of terse utterances bearing on the importance of communicating thought :

Endeavour to be always either gaining or communi