a part of the requirements of the gospel system of morals, but as something that is to be tolerated from the prejudices of the public mind, rather than as work in which all are bound to engage. Such men are engaged in the maintenance of a church -they find that they cannot secure attendance and bring people under the influence of preaching, unless they have a minister who speaks good English, and knows how to think. They will give money to educate young men to meet such a demand, on the same principle that they pay a high price for a good organ, or give a salary to a careful and attentive sexton. The questions in such men's minds are: What is the least possible amount of learning that will enable a minister to keep together a congregation, so large that the pew rents will meet the necessary expenses of the church? What is the cheapest possible method by which this amount of learning (and no more) can be injected into a young man's mind? Now we can never hope to meet the wishes of such men by any institution of learning, not recognizing in its foundation their principles of action. One of these asks, Will your system make my son a better stock-broker -a better manufacturer-a better merchant? If he intends his son for the profession of Physic or Law, he asks, Cannot my son secure a good paying practice without spending so much time over these useless studies? He tells you that A, B, and C have got rich by practising physic, and drive their carriages, when they cannot construe the Latin on an apothecary's recipe; and D, E, and F have become rich lawyers, made Buncombe speeches, drawn extra mileage, and dodged perilous votes within the Representatives' Hall at Washington, with the smallest possible Latin, and no Greek at all.

With these views of education, and they are such as give rise to three-fourths of the outcry against high education, we confess that we have no sort of sympathy. If man however is, as Cabanis described him, a mere "digestive tube" without a soul; or as the political economists view him, a mere machine for the production of wealth, differing in no respect from a steam engine, except that he consumes beef and bread instead of coal, and acts without an engineer, they are all perfectly right.

But, on the other hand, if spiritual interests are really of infinitely more importance than any other, if the soul is of more value than the body, if its food, growth and health, its rights and its wrongs, are things for which God takes the most care, then these low, material views of education are unworthy of a Christian man. The development of the soul in all its capacities, in all its powers, becomes a matter in comparison with which material profit and loss, supply and demand, are matters of very small moment. In this work God has shown his interest. To draw out and perfect the intellect, he has given the

"choir of heaven and the furniture of earth." He has filled the universe with aliment for its growth. For this he has written his laws on the star and the dew-drop; he has left the footprints of his power and wisdom cast in the strata beneath the everlasting hills, and chiselled in the coral groves of the ocean. All science is but the classification of the truths that God has scattered abroad to be learned by man. If one part of the "end of man" is to enjoy God forever, it must be by learning to all eternity more and more of those great truths of God's mind, of which earthly science comprises the elements.

To develop the conscience, to recover this wondrous soul within us from the thraldom of sin, the great God has descended to earth and become our benefactor, our friend, and our brother. It was for the soul, and not for the body, that the Babe of Bethlehem sojourned amid the sorrows of earth-that the drops of agony fell in the shades of Gethsemane and on the cross of redemption. God shows us that he takes no such low commercial view of the soul and its mighty capacities for weal or woe. They are then certainly unworthy of a man created in God's image, and redeemed by the blood of Christ. A Christian man is the noblest thing under heaven, and to make Christian men is the great end of true education.

A true man is a nobler thing than a doctor, or a lawyer, or a merchant. Let us then shape our educational systems to make men, and then upon this foundation we can superimpose the special learning that will adapt them to any of the special pursuits of life. We would not, however, be understood as wishing the same means of development to be applied to all. Let the right principles underlie a system, and we would not be bigoted in our attachment to the course of study which we individually prefer. Show us the full-grown man, and we will not quarrel about the "how" or the "where" of his education.

We are glad, then, to see a movement which will meet the wishes of those whose pursuits in life are to be active, rather than literary or professional. The tendency of college education for years has been to meet the wants of such, and the present movement for organizing a distinct course of study for them, is but the final result of these tendencies. This will leave the old classical course to be pursued by those who are desirous of doing so, unencumbered by the attempt to adapt it to the wants of those for whom it was not originally intended. But we believe that there are some serious mistakes which are often made by those who contend for what they call practical education. The higher course of Mathematics in colleges is condemned by many on this ground, while they look upon a knowledge of the facts and principles of Natural Philosophy as a practical matter of the greatest importance. Now there can

be very little exact and positive knowledge of Natural Philosophy without an acquaintance with the elements of the higher Mathematics. Mathematics is the key to Natural Philosophy. A seaman can use the tables of distances in a Nautical Almanac without an extensive acquaintance with Astronomy; but unless the higher Mathematics had been used to establish and verify those distances, he never could have had his Almanac at all; and unless this branch is cultivated and cherished in our higher schools of learning, it would very soon become so imperfect that it would be an evil rather than a benefit.

History is sometimes called a practical study, and placed in opposition to that of Greek and Latin. Now every one knows, who has attempted to go to the roots of any subject in Modern History even, that he cannot proceed beyond the examination of its mere alphabet without some knowledge of the Latin and Greek. The sources of the modern history of Europe are, until the last two centuries, almost entirely locked up in Latin. If we would investigate thoroughly almost any historical question, the student will find that it connects itself with the remote past, and that the knowledge he requires is bound up in the languages of antiquity. No man can test the correctness of any considerable compilation, even on English history, without this knowledge. Almost the whole history of the middle ages is to be sought in the Latin of the monkish chroniclers, and the Greek of the Byzantine historians. Besides, the separation of modern times and modern learning from what is ancient, is merely imaginary. There is no question of law, politics, polit ical economy, diplomacy, philology, or moral and intellectual science, that does not depend on the past for its full solution. The tree blooms in the present, but the fibres from which it draws its sap and vigor, reach down to the remotest past. To the eye of the philosopher there really is no ancient time; the relations of the present are so interlocked with the past, that all that is called ancient history seems modern, and all that is called modern seems to be ancient. We cannot separate ancient from modern learning, and whatever course of education presupposes the possibility of so doing, must be inadequate and partial. The philology of the very language which we speak carries us back beyond the Parthenon or the Pyramids. The words spelled out by the child from his primer, are many of them diluvial fragments, swept down by the tides of emigration from the cradle of our race. In ancient tongues, too, have been embalmed the records of our religion. In them there are laid up, as in a precious casket, the rapt visions of the prophets and the story of Calvary. These should make them dear to a Christian's heart. Far distant be the time when a mechanical and money-making age shall banish profound science and gene

rous learning from the schools where minds are to be trained to act upon and form the future of our Republic, and of the Church of Christ. It is easy enough for men to become sensual, and prefer material interests to those that are spiritual and intellectual, without lending them the assistance of great seats of learning. We believe that the College, like the Church, should lead rather than follow the public mind. There is a great responsibility resting on those who have the direction of educational institutions. They should inquire what the people need, as well as what they will most readily pay for. They require these institutions for their instruction and guidance. The time has never yet been when men were willing to pay an enriching price for sound learning.

Socrates walked the streets of Athens in poverty, while he dispensed his words of wisdom. But the Sophists, who taught not learning, but its semblance-how to make the worse appear the better reason, and sapped the foundations of society and moral obligation, became immensely rich. They taught what men were most willing to pay for, not what was really the most valuable. A political economist might then have said that Gorgias understood the age better than Socrates, for he gave his countrymen what they asked for, while the other gave them what they needed; not so, however, the moralist or the Christian.

A BEAUTIFUL THOUGHT.

CHISEL in hand stood a Sculptor boy,
With his marble block before him,
And his face lit up with a smile of joy,
As an angel dream passed o'er him.
He carved the dream on that shapeless stone,
With many a sharp incision :

With heaven's own light the sculpture shone
He had caught the angel vision.

Sculptors of life are we, as we stand

With our soul uncarved, before us;
Waiting the hour, when at God's command,
Our life-dream passes o'er us.

If we carve it then on the yielding stone,
With many a sharp incision,

Its heavenly beauty shall be our own,

Our lives that angel vision.

Bishop Doane.

ESSEX COUNTY TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

THE Twenty-first Annual Meeting of this Association was held at Gloucester, Oct. 18th and 19th, 1850. Interesting lectures were delivered on a variety of educational topics, which elicited much animated discussion. The following distinguished individuals were among the lecturers: - Rev. John P. Cowles, of Ipswich; Prof. Louis Agassiz, of Harvard College; Rev. H. F. Harrington, of Lawrence; N. P. Banks, Esq., of Waltham, and S. S. Greene, Esq., of Boston.

The following resolves were adopted by the Association; on motion of Mr. Shorey of Lynn,

Resolved, That the members of this Association review with pleasure the services of Daniel P. Galloup, of Salem, as President of the Association, and they would return to him their sincere thanks for the able manner in which he has discharged his duties, assured that in leaving the honorable station he has occupied, his interest in the Association will in nowise abate. On motion of Mr. Batchelder, of Lynn,

Resolved, That the editors and proprietors of newspapers who have given and may give notices of the meetings of this Association gratuitously, be, and that they are hereby constituted Honorary Members of this Association.

The following preamble and resolutions were adopted:

Whereas, instances have frequently occurred in which teachers have absented themselves from the meetings of this Associ ation, when the privilege of dismissing school has been granted to them for the sole purpose of attending these exercises, therefore,

Resolved, That those teachers in the County who appropriate to their private use the time granted by their employers for the purpose of attending the meetings of this Association, conduct in a manner unjust to their employers, injurious to the interests of the Association, and unworthy of themselves.

Resolved, That the foregoing resolution be offered for publication in one or more of the papers of the County, and that it be read at each of the next three meetings of the Association.

Resolved, That the thanks of the Association be presented to the gentlemen who have favored us with lectures, to the Eastern, Essex, Lowell and Lawrence, and South Reading Branch Railroad Companies, for extra accommodations,-to the Selectmen of Gloucester for the use of the Town Hall,-to the Unitarian Church for the use of their house, and to the citizens of Gloucester generally, for the hospitalities offered us. GEO. A. WALTON, Rec. Sec'y.

Lawrence, Oct. 28th, 1850.