ALL RIGHTS DERIVED FROM DUTIES.

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No man, nor any

entirely founded upon the former. other creature whatever, has or can have any right to the possession or enjoyment of any thing, but in as far as it is requisite for the fulfilment of his duties. God gives nothing without purpose, and consequently the creature cannot have a right to anything except it be in reference to that purpose; and as the purpose of God is the creature's duty, it is obvious that whatever rights the creature may possess, they are all immediately derived from his duty.

If this then be true, and if it be true, moreover, that man is a fallen creature, and that his restoration is God's purpose with him, is it not evidently the duty of the family and of society, to assist every individual from the first moment of his existence by every means in their power, in the attainment of that purpose? and is it not evident, likewise, that neither the family nor the society can have a right to lay any claims to, or assume any authority over the child, but such as is indispensably necessary for the discharge of that duty? What an immense change does the acknowledgment of this truth produce in the whole aspect of our question! and how incalculable are the practical conclusions, to which these premises, if once sincerely admitted, will lead us, in opposition to by far the largest proportion of the rules and maxims now generally followed in the business of education! For at present not only the greatest, but also the most efficient part of education is given on the assumption, that we have a claim to the future exertions of the individuals whom we train up, and with a view to secure to ourselves the greatest possible quantum of exertion at the smallest expense. This is not only the case with reference to that part of tuition, in public and private schools, which is commonly and not improperly, designated by the appellation "worldly knowledge," but even the cause of religious instruction is not unfrequently pleaded on this ground, viz. that it is the best interest of society

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FALSE VIEW OF EDUCATION.

that its members should be encouraged to industrious habits and good conduct by the influence of religious impressions.

Manifold are the evil consequences which arise from this primitive mistake in the view we generally take of education. We ourselves, approaching the field of labour in a wrong and false spirit, can neither apply the right means, nor even benefit by the experience we gain; for being blind to the real cause of our ill success, and of our repeated disappointments, we endeavour to account for them in some other way, and thereby necessarily fall into confusion and injustice. As regards the children, they cannot but perceive that there is something arbitrary and oppressive in our conduct, which, although they are not able to explain it, yet their feelings are acute enough to apprize them of, and which induces them in most instances unconsciously, but not on that account less perseveringly or efficiently, to oppose, and, if possible, to baffle our efforts. Lastly, if we ask what expectations we can, under such circumstances, entertain of the blessing of God attending our exertions, is it not plain that, however much we may affect to talk of its visible effects, when we pompously assemble to glorify less him than ourselves in the report of what we have done,-there can be no reasonable anticipation of the divine assistance in the pursuit of labours, which have for their object the attainment, not of his, but of our own purpose? Thus it happens that education, which was intended by God as a blessing to both parents and children, is considered, because felt by both as an intolerable burden, of which both long to get rid as soon as possible, and to which both submit only because they cannot help it. Is it not lamentable that man should thus in his folly and selfishness turn that which God has appointed for him as a source of improvement and of happiness, into an instrument of degradation and misery, and render a curse to himself that which divine wisdom and mercy had destined to be one of the greatest blessings?

ERROR IN DIVINITY.

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This unfortunate perversion of the relative position of parent and child, of teacher and pupil, is connected with a sad mistake in our systems of divinity, which seems to me to be of too great importance not to be mentioned on the present occasion: I mean the construction generally put upon that decree which the Almighty pronounced over man after the fall. By an assumption as gratuitous as any I ever met with, the whole of the laws laid down for human existence in its degraded state, in the latter part of the third chapter of Genesis, is considered as a venting of the divine wrath upon disobedient man, and commonly goes by the name of "the curse;" whereas it appears to me that it is one great and wonderful chain of mercies,—in fact, the comprehension of all the good gifts, which man was capable of receiving, in the condition into which he had brought himself, by withdrawing his soul from the rule of his bountiful Maker. It is not sufficiently considered that man had inflicted upon himself the sum and substance of all evil, which is, to be separated from God, and in a state of rebellion against him; and that the purpose of the divine arrangements after that unfortunate event, was not to aggravate that evil, but to mitigate it, and to open to man a way, by which he might gradually return to that state, for which he was originally destined. Man's preclusion from the enjoyment of the tree of life has manifestly that intention, as a continued possession of power, without an holy will to correct it, would only have involved man in deeper destruction. The same is to be said of the laborious life to which man is doomed : for although the expression is used, "cursed is the ground for thy sake," there is no reason why this should mean, "cursed is the ground that thou mayest be cursed indirectly;" but it may just as well be interpreted, "cursed is the ground for thy benefit."* And this is in fact the case.

*The erroneous interpretation alluded to has been supported by the etymology of the word in the original, said to be derived from, which, in one of its manifold acceptations, means "to pass over," whence, by transition. The ground is cursed for thy sake, i. e. by transition of the

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INSTITUTION OF THE PARENTAL STATE.

For by the necessitous condition to which man was exposed, and in which he was brought into contact with outward nature, he had the opportunity afforded, nay, the necessity imposed upon him, of becoming conversant again with the laws of his Maker, against which he had rebelled. He had had access to them in their highest perfection and fulness, inasmuch as he was admitted to the divine presence, but having rejected them, he was incapacitated for approaching them in any other manner than as they are displayed at the very lowest stage in earthly existence. But what most immediately refers to our present subject, is what is most profanely called the curse upon woman,' viz.—the establishment of that sacred relationship between parent and child, which was the principal of the means of restoration appointed by God at that period. To this relationship no allusion whatever is made previously to the fall, and it is, therefore, highly probable that it was not intended in the primitive state of man; at least, it cannot, without a most gratuitous assumption, be asserted that it was. The supposition that it was not intended, is not only more conformable to the scriptural account, but it receives an additional weight from the fact, that the establishment of that relationship has a definite object, which could not possibly exist before the fall, but which was, most immediately and indispensably, required subsequently to that event.

After the fall, man was in a state, in which the knowledge of himself was of all things the most necessary to him, and at the same time that which he would most anxiously avoid. His nature was vitiated, and the first step to its

curse from thee upon the ground. This specious support of a profane view of one of the most important parts of Scripture falls, however, soon to the ground, if we compare the use of the word in other passages. We shall then find that both as a preposition and as a conjunction, it conveys the idea, with a view to, with the purpose, by reason of, on account of. So, for instance, in Gen. xxvii. 4; 2 Sam. x. 3, and in 1 Sam. xii. 22, in which latter passage the context, "The Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's

sake," altogether precludes the idea of transition.

ITS MERCIFUL PURPOSE..

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restoration was the knowledge of its vitiated condition. Where then should he acquire this knowledge?—In whom should he observe the baneful effects of his rebellion? In himself?-But self-love, the very root of his sin, would for ever prevent him from taking of his own nature that impartial view, which would have rendered him hateful to himself. Or was he to study the vitiated nature of man in his fellow-creatures, in his equals? But the same cause which deterred him from self-examination, would render him blind likewise to the faults of his fellow-creature, as long as their effects did not encroach upon his own wishes and desires. As soon, on the contrary, as he would feel himself wounded by them, his eyes would be opened; yet, acute as his sight might henceforth be in discovering them, he would not be able to make correct observations, from the excitement of his passions, of his feelings of wrath and vengeance, which would inevitably be called forth on those occasions. Thus, then, we see, that, neither from the observation of himself, nor from that of his equals, man could come to that knowledge of his nature which was the first and indispensable condition of his being ever rescued from his vitiated condition. To exhibit that nature and that condition before his eyes in a being different from himself, and at the same time in a manner which would not arouse his hostility, and thus to enable him to take of it a view at once impartial and unimpassioned,—this was the great object for which the relation between parent and child was established. In his own offspring, as it were the miniature likeness of himself, he was able to perceive the same seeds of moral corruption, by which his own nature was infected; and while, on one hand, his observation was as much as possible freed from the bias of self-love, he was, on the other hand, induced, by the interest which an innate feeling of his heart taught him to take in the condition of so helpless a being, altogether thrust upon his mercy, to meditate on the causes of its wretchedness and of its perversity, and to penetrate more and

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