mind, and a fluency of expression,
which had never before been witnessed in children of a similar class, or
of the same age, by any person then present. The pupils were at the time
quite unprepared for any extraordinary exhibition;--the subjects were
chosen indiscriminately by the clergymen present, and were repeatedly
changed;--and what is still more extraordinary, it was found, upon
investigation, that the subjects were in general entirely new, or at
least they had never been previously used as exercises in the school.
The children, however, with all these disadvantages, were perfectly at
home in each one of them. There appeared to be no exhausting of their
resources; and the ease, and copiousness, and fluency of their language,
were remarked by all present, as extraordinary, and by some as almost
incredible. Many who were present, could scarcely believe that the
children spoke extemporaneously. All these phenomena were simply the
effects of the principle of which we are here speaking, regularly
brought into operation, in the weekly acts of drawing and applying their
practical lessons. The exhibition of so much mental power possessed by
mere children,--and these children collected from the very humblest and
rudest classes inhabiting a sea-port town,--appeared to be a
circumstance altogether new. The official persons present, and the very
Rev. Bishop Russell, who took an active part in the examination,
expressed their decided satisfaction at the results of the whole
experiment; and the effects of these principles, as illustrated by such
children, made the present Lord Murray remark publicly at the close of
the meeting, that it was obviously "a valuable discovery, calculated to
be extensively useful to society."

FOOTNOTES:

[28] Note Z.

PART IV.

ON THE SELECTION OF PROPER TRUTHS AND SUBJECTS TO BE TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS
AND FAMILIES.

CHAP. I.

_On the General Principles which ought to regulate our choice of Truths
and Subjects to be taught to the Young._

In all cases where our temporal interests are concerned, a proper
discrimination in the selection of such exercises and studies as shall
best suit our purpose, is considered as not only prudent, but necessary.
The neglect of this would, indeed, by men of the world, be esteemed the
height of folly. No ship-master thinks of perfecting his apprentices by
lectures on agriculture; nor does the farmer train his son and successor
to cultivate the land,