with their present ability to say more, and perchance better too, at the sudden for that present than any others can do, use less help of diligence and study than they ought to do, and so have in them commonly less learning and weaker judgment for all deep considerations than some duller heads and slower tongues have.

And therefore ready speakers generally be not the best, plainest, and wisest writers, nor yet the deepest judgers in weighty affairs; because they do not tarry to weigh and judge all things as they should, but having their heads over full of matter, be like pens over full of ink, which will sooner blot than make any fair letter at all. Time was, when I had experience of two ambassadors in one place, the one of a hot head to invent, and of a hasty hand to write; the other cold and staid in both; but what difference of their doings was made by wise men is not unknown to some persons. The Bishop of Winchester, Stephen Gardiner, had a quick head and a ready tongue, and yet was not the best writer in England. Cicero in Brutus doth wisely note the same in Serg. Galba and Q. Hortensius, who were both hot, lusty, and plain speakers, but cold, loose, and rough writers. And Tully telleth the cause why, saying, when they spoke, their tongue was naturally carried with full tide and wind of their wit; when they wrote, their head was solitary, dull, and calm; and so their style was blunt and their writing cold." The author then quotes a remark from Cicero, to the effect, that the fault in question is one by which men of much natural ability, but insufficiently instructed, are often found to be characterized. "And therefore," he concludes, "all quick inventors and ready fair speakers must be careful that, to their goodness of nature, they add also in any wise study, labor, leisure, learning, and judgment, and then they shall indeed pass all other (as I know some do in whom all those qualities are fully planted,) or else if they give over much to their wit, and over little to their labor and learning, they will soonest overreach in talk, and farthest come behind in writing, whatsoever they take in hand. The method of epitome is most necessary for such kind of men."

V. Imitation Ascham defines to be "a faculty to express lively and perfectly that example which you go about to follow." "All languages," he continues, "both learned, and mother tongues, be gotten, and gotten solely, by imitation. For as ye use to hear, so ye learn to speak; if ye hear no other, ye speak not yourself; and whom ye only hear, of them ye only learn.

And therefore if ye would speak as the best and wisest do, ye must be conversant where the best and wisest are; but if you be born or brought up in a rude country, ye shall not choose but speak rudely. The rudest man of all knoweth this to be true.

Yet nevertheless, the rudeness of common and mother tongues is no bar for wise speaking. For in the rudest country, and most barbarous mother language, many be found that can speak very wisely; but in the Greek and Latin tongues, the two only learned tongues, which be kept not in common talk, but in private books, we find always wisdom and eloquence, good matter and good utterance, never or seldom asunder. For all such authors, as be fullest of good matter and right judgment in doctrine, be likewise always most proper in words, most apt in sentence, most plain and pure in uttering the same."

After examining what has been said upon the subject of imitation by various writers, ancient and modern, he advises "a good student to journey through all authors," but to dwell only, "after God's Holy Bible, with Tully in Latin, Plato, Aristotle, Zenophon, Isocrates, and Demosthenes,in Greek.”

V. EDUCATION, A PREVENTIVE OF MISERY AND CRIME.

[From a Prize Essay by Edward Campbell Tainsh.]

NUMEROUS and complicated as are the forms that misery and crime assume when arrived at full maturity, they are comparatively simple in their beginnings, and arise from causes not difficult to be traced by the careful observer. How far they act upon each other-to what extent misery, while the offspring of crime, may also reproduce it,though interesting in the extreme, it is not our province to inquire.

what are the causes of both it is essential to know, before we can e successfully to apply the remedies.

We can not do better than take a look into real life, and endeavor so to ascertain the causes of misery and crime. Some one of the wretched courts, so abundant in our towns, will supply us with facts ready prepared for our inspection.

Enter the first house, one room of it—you will not soon forget its close atmosphere (and indeed that of the whole house.) The furniture, what there is, is dilapidated and dirty; the floor bare, the children are in rags, and moaning with hunger. In one corner is a sick child lying on a heap of rags, pale and wretched. The mother is out, earning the shilling for which the miserable children are impatiently waiting to supply them with food. Sitting over the fire is the father. He is ill, surely? No! Why at home then? Where else should he be! But why not at work? He has none to do. How long has this been the case? Several weeks. Why did he leave his last employment? Well, he happened to be late once or twice, and when the slack time came he was turned off first. But why not looking for more? He did look till he was tired, and found none; at least, he had one job, but it was so far to go, and the hours were so long, that he gave it up. That will do. You need not question any farther, the man is idle, and this scene of misery is explained.

Go on to the next house. But stop; wait till midnight, then go in. The state of the room is not greatly different from that of the last in its forlorn wretchedness. The children are asleep on some filthy bedding, near the remains of the fire, huddled close together to keep themselves as warm as possible. Look at them and you will perceive by their moist cheeks, their red eyes, and broken sobs, that they have cried themselves to sleep. Poor things! the sad looks remain, though con

sciousness has gone for a time.
the shrivelled infant in her arms.
and weeps bitterly over her own sad fate, and the sufferings of her
children. Your heart melts for her, and you are just about to ask the
cause of her unhappiness, when you hear a heavy foot stumbling on
the stairs. A man enters the room swearing, and strikes the mother
for being up. It is the husband and father, and he a drunkard! The
key is found to this scene of misery.

The mother is up and trying to soothe
She herself is wasted to a shadow,

We enter another house. The place bears marks of poverty, but not so abject as in the other cases. There are indications of the inmates having seen better circumstances. Still, no doubt, they are in great want; all look pale, and weak, and sad. The husband lies ill, the wife is exhausted through nursing and want, the childrer pinched with hunger. In conversation you learn that the fathe had regular work for some years, that he has no such habits as ness or drunkenness, and that he bears a good character with his late employer; but by an illness which has already lasted some weeks, he and his family are plunged into distress. Here is a case, which, at first sight, might seem like one of pure misfortune, for which the man could not be blamed. But a moment's thought must correct this opinion. He has had regular work for many years, during which time he has saved nothing; he has been extravagant; that is, he has spent his means regardless of the wants and claims of the future, and, by so doing, has involved himself, and those whose well-being it is his especial duty to care for, in destitution and misery.

Such are but feeble examples of the ever-varying phases of misery, resulting from these prolific causes-Idleness, Drunkenness, and want of Forethought. The legitimate results of each are here pictured singly for the sake of perspicuity; but it is by far more frequently the case that the evil qualities exist, and consequently act together, thus intensifying the misery that is produced. Who can wonder if such homes turn out to be not only scenes of misery, but hotbeds of crime?

Instances of misery, as the result of ignorance, are everywhere to be met with. Ill-ventilated dwellings producing sickness; bad domestic management making the scarce food scarcer, and the comfortless home still more uncomfortable; the choice of unwholesome instead of wholesome food; the indulgence of habits injurious to the health; low wages obtained by a laborer not disqualified by bad habits; destitution resulting from a strike which was engaged in with a view of bettering the condition: these, and innumerable other instances, are every day occurring, illustrative of the baneful effects of ignorance.

The history of many a man convicted of embezzlement, burglary, orgery, or some other of the various forms of dishonesty, would furnish the teacher with an instructive explanation of the beginnings of crime. Not all at once did the criminal become capable of the act for which he has been condemned. Time was when his character gave promise as fair as most. A false excuse for being late at school offered to avoid the consequence of having loitered on the way; a sum shown up as his own, which had been done by another boy; an apple taken from a neighbor's desk; a penny kept back from some change; the wasting of an employer's time; the money borrowed from the till to gratify some otherwise unobtainable pleasure; the increased distaste for steady work; the more wholesale abstraction of money; the alteration in the books to correspond with the deficiency of cash; the forgery, or some such climax:-these are gradations, easy, almost insensible, when the first steps have been taken undiscovered, or have been improperly dealt with. The flagrant crime is the legitimate fruit of the so-called petty falsehood or dishonesty.

The condemned murderer was once, perhaps, just such a one as you, teacher, now have under your charge. You must watch that boy at play if you would learn his character. You will find things in it demanding your serious attention, and which, if allowed to go unchecked, may ripen into the worst crimes. One time you will see him amusing himself with the sufferings of a fly, whose limbs he has torn off; at another time teazing and ill-using a younger boy, whom he has selected to annoy; he prefers scheming to working, and is cunning in compassing an end, and unscrupulous in sacrificing the happiness of a school-fellow to his own; he is passionate and overbearing, and long remembers an injury done him; he is the subject, and may be the victim, of ungoverned passions.

The teacher who would successfully strive to prevent the growth of the causes of misery and crime, must thus study character; he must learn to detect a bad habit or an evil passion in its beginning, and to perceive to what that beginning may lead if unchecked; to see, in an equivocation, the germ of a forgery, and in a revengeful blow the first step to murder. Then, and only then, will he be capable of selecting and judiciously applying the means of prevention.

Such, then, are some, perhaps the most important of the causes of misery and crime-Idleness, Drunkenness, Want of Forethought, Extravagance, Dishonesty, Ungoverned Passions, and Ignorance. To prevent the existence of these causes is to prevent their results; to set in operation opposite causes is to produce opposite results.

The schoolmaster's question is, How can he best accomplish these ends? how can he best prevent these qualities appearing, and cultivate the opposite qualities-Industry, Forethought, and Economy; Sobri ety, Honesty, Self-government, Knowledge, and such other qualities as shall conduce to a state of wellbeing?

It is of importance to remember, that in the cultivation of a good quality there are two distinct things to be done; to produce conviction of its propriety, and to form the habit of exercising it. The former may easily exist without the latter, while the latter is not sufficiently strong without the former. Many an inveterate drunkard will, in his sober moments, confess that he feels how dreadful a thing drunkenness is, and that the misery it produces by far exceeds the pleasure he feels in it; but the habit is too strong for him. And, on the other hand, many a young man brought up in habits of sobriety has yielded when temptation came, because his conviction of its importance was not sufficiently strong and ready for use.

The question becomes then, What kind of teaching is best adapted for producing conviction upon the various duties necessary to a state of wellbeing, such as just indicated? And what kind of training is best adapted for forming habits in accordance with those convictions? To any thoughtful mind directed to the subject, suggestions will present themselves; among others, perhaps the following.

We may suppose the teacher with a class of boys before him, and shall attempt to follow him through a course of teaching. He begins by asking:

Have you any wishes for the future, when you are men?

Carefully followed up, this question may afford abundant matter for a useful lesson. The teacher will find some of his pupils wishing for impossibilities; the nature of such wishes should be pointed out, and also the folly of allowing the mind to dwell upon them. Others he will find wishing for things, to their minds desirable, but which he will be able to show undesirable. But in all their thoughts and hopes, wise or unwise, he will find one leading thought-happiness. He proceeds

Are you sure to be happy when you are men? If not, upon what does it depend?

Such things as chance, luck, undue reliance upon friends, are the errors that will show themselves here, and which will need to be wisely dealt with.

Will it depend upon yourselves at all?

The skillful teacher will find little difficulty in making his boys perceive how greatly it depends upon their conduct.