d, there would
have been still fewer. But it is not necessarily attached to the
possession of either. Men may enjoy riches and honours, beauty and
health, and yet they may be unhappy. The highest mental attainments
also, when disjoined from moral excellence, tend only, as in the fallen
angels, to stimulate their pride, and to aggravate their misery. But
happiness is exclusively and unalterably attached to the cultivation of
_the affections_,--to the acquisition of moral excellence;--so that it
is equally within the reach of every individual, however obscure, or
however talented. Few men can be intellectually great,--fewer still can
be rich or powerful; but every man may, if he pleases, be good,--and
therefore happy. In choosing the subjects and exercises then for the
education of the young, those which tend to the production and to the
cultivation of the moral affections,--love to God, and love to men,--are
always to be preferred to those which have relation merely to the
attainment of _intellectual_ acquirements, or the possession of mere
_physical_ good.

4. In choosing subjects and exercises for the education of the young,
reference should be had, all other things being equal, to _the
prosperity and welfare of the community in general_.--We have already
shewn that, under God, the happiness and welfare of every individual
are his own special property, and must in all cases, therefore, be at
his special disposal. No ordinary combination of circumstances will ever
warrant an unjust encroachment on what is so peculiarly his own. But the
happiness and welfare of an individual are almost uniformly found to be
connected with the happiness and prosperity of those with whom he has to
associate. The Educationist, therefore, ought to have the welfare of the
community in view, while he is selecting those exercises which are
specially to benefit his pupil; and he will almost invariably find, that
by choosing those subjects and exercises for the individual, which will
tend most surely to promote the general well-being of society, he will
not only not require a sacrifice of any of the personal benefits to
which the child has a claim, but that he will greatly increase their
amount, and add to their value. When this is the case, to overlook the
good of the community in selecting exercises and subjects for the
school, would be of no advantage to the pupils, and would be an act of
positive injustice to the public at large.

These gen