and who leaves off when he has said just enough, will exercise an influence, and be listened to with an attention unknown to those whose whole aim is to show their talents by flights of outcry, plucking flowers from the regions of fancy, instead of gathiering the more substantial fruits of sound logic and common sense.

only see the gay outside, and are dazled with the | all that is proper, and nothing more; whose every glare. But I have been behind the scenes. When sentence is charged with the arrows of conviction, I reflect upon what I have seen, what I have heard, calculated to reach the heart and inform the mind; and what I have done, I cannot persuade myself that all the frivolous bustle of the world had any reality. Shall I tell you that I bear this melancholly situation with the meritorious resignation and consistency which most men boast? Now sir! I really cannot help it. I bear it, because I must bear it whether I will or no. I think of nothing but killing time the best way I can." What a comment is this confession upon what is generally called worldly pleasure.

But it is not from public speakers alone that mischief arises by saying too much. In the walks of private life there are thousands whose tongues are The dying scene of such a man is a fearful com- full of deadly poison, spitting their venom on the mentary upon his misspent life. He lies upon his fairest flowers that bloom. The tongue of the liar, dying bed, annoying all around him by his irritabil- the slanderer and the backbiter often set families, ity. The retrospect of the past affords him no neighborhoods and even churches, on fire; and they pleasure, and the future is filled with fearful forebo-"being set on fire of hell." The sly whispering dings. And there he lies, brooding in sullen silence tongue, the mysterious tongue, the guessing tongue, upon the present pains, with no consolation in re- the inuendo tongue, the ambiguous tongue, the jealspect to the future. He dies and is forgotten. But ous tongue, are all, all prone to say too much. Many oh! this is not the end of his history. Judgment is a pretty, well-formed mouth has been disfigured by before him, and eternal retribution succeeds. The the scolding tongue. The malicious and revengeful imagination shrinks from following him into those tongue is ever charged with the poison of asps, and regions.—Abbot's "Path of Peace." delights in human misery, as much as Nero did in purple gore. The envious tongue calls to aid all other strange tongues, and another such a crew of desperadoes, with countenances distorted and eyes flashing fire, could not be mustered by raking Pan

From the Philadelphia Ledger.
NEVER SAY TOO MUCH.

SAVING too much has ever been a fault of frail man, and of lovely woman too. The evils resulting from this unconquerable propensity, are seen and felt from childhood to old age, from the mud hovel to the throne. Life, reputation, peace and fame have often been sacrificed and blasted, by saying too much. The tongue is an unruly member, that no man can perfectly tame; a wild colt that shudders at the sight of a bridle. Pythagoras tried the experiment of regulating the motion of this little member, by imposing silence on his pupils for months, but the moment the injunction was dissolved, their wild and unruly tongues ran more irregular and rapid than before. We would not enjoin silence, but only caution our readers never say too much. This admonition applies to hundreds in every grade of life in society. Many public speak ers are sadly prone to say too much. It is a truth worthy of notice and imitation, that Franklin, Washington, and other truly great men, were remarkably laconic in their public speeches, keeping close to the question under debate. They sought to inform, not to dazzle their audience. They were more anxious to despatch the business of their constituents, than to outshine each other in the galaxy of eloquence. If all our public speakers would follow in the same path, they would secure the fame they so much desire, much sooner, and the people's business would be more promptly and better done, and at much less expense, than it has been for years past. The legislator, the advocate or the preacher, who, without circumlocution or parade, comes to the subject matter at once; who seizes upon the strong points of argument, and presents them clearly, impartially and honestly; who says

demonium from stem to stern. Pandora could not

produce the like from the quintessence of her celetheir designs, that run at random. The young man brated box. There are other tongues innocent in whose stock of knowledge is small, who talks more than he listens, says too much. The man who enshow off his learning, or that he is gifted in gab, says grosses all the conversation in company, in order to too much. The pronoun I, in relating wonders and hair-breadth escapes, is often used too much. Those who relate anecdotes in long metre, making the preface longer than the book, tire their readers by saying too much. Some persons, when they are entrusted with a secret, always get some half dozen or more to aid them in keeping it, and thus they say too much. There are persons who, if they knew a fault of their neighbor, instead of going to him for the purpose of effecting a reformation, proclaim it upon the house-top, and thus violate justice and charity and in our convivial or passionate moments, we are by saying too much. In parties, in mixed company, all prone to say too much. Let all strive to lessen this evil by commencing at the fountain head; correct the heart and keep it purified with the chlorine of charity and wisdom. Put the bridle upon of discretion, and the reins of reason. Instead of the tongue, subject to the curb of caution, the bit applying whip and spur to this high spirited animal, form course of mildness and consistency, ever reendeavor to subdue its wild propensities by a unimembering not too say tomuch.

You may depend on it he is a good man whose enemies are characters decidedly bad.

ANECDOTE-A FAIR OFFER DISCONTENT.

SUPPLEMENT TO THE CONNECTICUT COURANT.

VOL. V.

JUNE 30, 1838.

No. 12.

The subjoined lines, which we extract from a piece entitled | up for public usefulness, while the proportion is as "To my Mother," in the Knickerbocker, are imbued with true feeling. The second stanza is a perfect gem of thought: I see the cradled form of one, whose features are my own, And love incarnate o'er its rest her guardianship has thrown; 'Tis true that eye of hope looks out from youth's untroubled shrine,

But oh! its wealth of tendernesss !-dear mother it is thine!
Soon from the cradle starts the babe, a happy, careless boy,
Enough of mother in his face, to be his father's joy;
Enough of father reigning there, to be his mother's pride,
And as their features he unites, so they his love divide.

But soon he sees the church-yard take that father to its clod,
Unknowing that the righteous have a better place with God;
And finds, ere yet his tender thought can grasp a father's worth,
One parent dear a saint in heaven, and one a saint on earth.

And now his arts essay to stem the spirit's overflow,
That channels the pale cheek of her whom death has left
in wo;

great throughout New England; and Pennsylvania and the Western States are following hard after in the same noble career? It is not by paying the whole expense of tuition from the public treasury. This would in a great measure defeat the object; for it is an axiom in education, as well as every thing else, that none will prize that which costs them nothing. It is by dividing the towns into school districts, and so lightening the burden, as to bring the means of early instruction within the reach of all, that this noble end is gained.

Now in England, they have no such system of general education, and nothing that can be regarded as an adequate substitute. Churches you will find everywhere, and this is as it should be; but where are the school-houses? You may travel from Liverpool to London, and from the Land's End to the Tweed, aud still ask, where? They do not exist. They have never been built. Such flocks of smiling and gambolling children, with their little dinner baskets as every where greet us in our most retired districts, you seldom if ever meet with, as you pass the English hamlets and cottages and farm-houses. Alas! alas! that childish love and piety should be I do not recollect a single instance of the kind; and . Such short-lived tenants of the heart, beyond the nursery; I am sure I should recollect it, if any had fallen unOh, saddest of time's ravages! sin's bitterest control! der my observation, since it would have reminded Our hardening frames but harder make the casement of the soul. me so vividly of my own dear New England, and

It grieves him much his little arms and puny frame to scan;
He might so help his mother, if he only were a man!

FROM THE NEW-YORK OBSERVER.

would have added new charms to scenery which I could never cease to admire.

I do not mean, when I say there are no common

DR. HUMPHREY'S TOUR.-NO. LXIV. or district schools in England, that the education of

EDUCATION IN ENGLAND.

the lower orders is entirely neglected; but that there exists no regular provision for their instrucThe richest, and, at the same time one of the tion; and that multitudes grow up without being freest states in the world, ought to provide most blessed with the simplest rudiments of knowledge. liberally for the education of the common people; There are many charitable foundations, particularly and yet, I believe that there is no Protestant com- in the large towns, for the benefit of poor children. try, at least, where its blessings are so unequally Upon some of these, very flourishing schools have diffused as in England. If the higher classes are been established; while others, owing to mismansignally favored, the lower are exceedingly neglec agement, do very little good. There are also orphan ted; and this, unquestionably, is one prolific cause asylums in the metropolis and elsewhere, which are of that frightful mass of pauperism which hangs liberally endowed, and upon which has come, and upon her skirts, and devours so many millions of will come, 'the blessing of many ready to perish.' her hard earned substance. But even if my leisure Sabbath schools, too, have imparted the first rudipermitted me to go fully into this subject, I have ments of education to thousands of poor children, not the requisite data and statistics at hand, and who, but for these blessed seminaries, would never must therefore content myself with a few observa- have been able to read the Bible, or any other book. tions, mostly of a general character. What would Nor must I omit to mention the benevolent labors become of half the children in this country, if no of the British Foreign School Society, which, withprovision was made by the government for their in these few years past, has carried light and hope education-if we had no town and district schools to so many humble dwellings in every part of the for their reception? Most of them would inevita-land. Besides these, there are various other assobly grow up without instruction, to fester in igno- ciations, more or less extended, for the education rance and crime, and to undermine those free insti- of the poor, which have done immense good; and tutions which they ought to strengthen and adorn. How is it that the State of New York has more than 500,000 children in her common schools training

nearly all of them I believe, like the noble Society last mentioned, are materially aided by the monatorial system of Joseph Lancaster. But what are

90

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES.

they among so many?' According to the most fa- that greater stress is laid upon accuracy of recitavorable statistics, there cannot be less than two tion, than is common in the same class of schools million of children in England and Wales, for whom in this country; the remark will apply to most of no adequate instruction is provided; and it certainly the higher seminaries. This is the way they make reflects but little credit upon the English nation, so many thorough scholars, and it is the only way that the systematic instruction of the great mass of to make them anywhere. A deep knowledge of the common people has hitherto been so deplorably the mysteries of science is never imparted by neglected. What should hinder the government dreams and reveries. Your miscellaneous and from adopting our system of popular education, or extemporary geniuses may set the multitude agape devising a better one, by which all the poor might for a while; but they will not endure. When you be taught to read and write and keep their own come to ask for solid capital, they are obliged to small accounts, at least? Half a tythe of what borrow, or send you away empty. Honor to whom Britain has squandered in a single war, would more honor is due.' If I could put my boy under such than do it; and can it for a moment be questioned, drilling as is common at Eaton, or Harrow, or even that a people who could pay from twenty-five at some of the Dissenting academies I should feel sure to thirty millions of dollars per month, for twelve that whatever he might have in him would be bro't years, to curb the ambition of a foreign despot, out, which is more than a parent can always be would most cheerfully contribute whatever sums certain of in our respectable preparatory schools. might be needful to educate every child in their Those who are connected with our higher public own country? seminaries, know too well how poorly fittted many are when they offer themselves for examination, and how much some of the most promising young nien suffer, from loose habits of study and recitation in the beginning of their academical course. This, I am aware, is not seldom owing to want of time for thorough preparation; and where a father insists upon having his son taken over twice as much ground in a year as can be thoroughly mastered, little or no blame, perhaps, attaches to the instructor. But it is highly encouraging to know, that the standard of scholarship is rising in most of our flourishing private and public institutions; and we hail these brightening prospects, as sure presages of still higher elevation and more extended usefulness.

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES.

It must not be inferred from the general ignorance of the lower classes in most parts of England, arising from the want of good common schools, that those who are more enlightened themselves, and better off in other respects, feel but little interest in the subject of education. On the contrary, they are willing to give their children as good opportunities as their means will allow; and there, as here, many parents of small means are willing to make almost any sacrifices, rather than not place them in the very best schools. The masters of grammar schools and academies are, I believe, as a class highly respectable for talents and acquirements; and in general, from what I saw and heard, I was led to think that they are more accurate and thorough in their instructions, than our own teachers are apt to be. If they do not go over so much ground, they plough deeper. If they instruct in fewer branches, they select the more important, and perhaps upon the whole, lay out their strength to better advantage. I am sure, at any rate, that they would be quite astonished to read one of our school advertisements, in which the preceptor promiscs, not only to teach ancient and modern languages; but chemistry, mineralogy, all branches of mathematics, natural, intellectual and moral philosophy, et cetera ceteraque. This we call "keeping up with the march of mind," and in truth it is marching very rapidly over the wide fields of science and literature. The English are certainly too sluggish and plodding to keep pace with us here; but if they do not drive the boy as fast, they require him to take more heed to his ways. His lesson he must get, if his brains do not utterly fail him; and if they do, his friends must be informed of it, that they may dispose of him accordingly. To put the singular for the plural, or guess at the tenses of his verbs, or go limping along over his Latin and Greek prosody, is too great a trial of the master's patience, to be ventured upon with impunity. What I mean is this, that in the respectable grammar schools of England, there is more thoroughness of drilling, and

The government of the English schools, like that of the state, is monarchial; and I am sure our republican boys would not at all relish so much of the green birch, as their luckless cousins are obliged to submit to in the parent land. Possibly the system of pains and penalties,' may there be carried to an extreme. The discipline of the masters may be too arbitrary and severe. It may savor too much, as I suspect it does, of coercion, and too little of moral suasion. But with us, all the tendencies are to the opposite extreme. We are getting to be so much wiser than Solomon, as to think, that if our children cannot be governed without the rod, they had better not be governed at all. Now a high degree of moral influence is essential in the management of every school; and strictly religious motives are rarely employed with all that affection and perseverance, which their paramount importance demands. But I am just so old fashioned as to believe that Solomon was right, after all, and that, as there is a time for every thing else, so there is a time for using the rod in the government of schools and families. Of the two, the English system is the safest. If it gives more pain, it insures more implicit obedience. If, for the moment, it afflicts the body, it bows and controls the wayward spirit. As the blueness of a wound cleaneth away the evil, so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.'

As might be expected from her form of govern- pastoral office. While they have the best opportument, and from the general state of society in Eng-nities and helps in the world, almost, for studying land, her schools and higher seminaries are more mathematics and philosophy, and the heathen claswidely separated from each other, and are regarded sics, if they ever become sound theologians and able as belonging more exclusively to different classes Biblical expositors, it must be chiefly by their own and sects, than in this country. The best endowed self-directed industry, after they have taken upon of those schools belong to the established church; themselves the cure of souls. Instead of "putting and although the lower classes of Episcopalians are on the whole armor of God," before they enter the probably no better educated than the Dissenters, the field, that "they may be able to stand," they trust higher classes, as I shall have occasion to show, mainly to such helps and opportunities as they may enjoy advantages within the pale of the national find for doing it when they should be most actively church, which are denied to all that are without. employed in their Master's service. The conseNext to the Universities, Eaton and Westminster quence is, that however learned many of the estabare perhaps the most celebrated classical schools in lished clergy may be, in the abstruse sciences, and England. In some respects, the course of study however well versed in classical literature, the great and instruction in these schools, is like that in our body of them are not those "scribes instructed into most respectable colleges; though I doubt whether the kingdom of God, who bring forth out of their we have many in which ancient languages are treasures things new and old !" studied so thoroughly. They are almost exclusively for the Patricians of the land, however; and if I was rightly informed, nothing short of the thirty-nine articles can open the doors to any applicant however worthy and promising he may be.

While the dissenters keenly feel their disabilities, and certainly labor under many disadvantages, they are making very laudable efforts to elevate the standard of education in their respective denominations. Their common subscription schools are in general very well taught; and their grammar schools and academies are many of them of a high order. They have no colleges, in our sense of the term― that is, no institutions in which a four years' course of scientific and classical studies is prescribed; and if they had, so illiberal is the government in this respect, that the right of giving degrees could not be obtained on any terms. What a narrow and mistaken policy! How unworthy of a great and enlightened Protestant nation! I have often wondered how it is, that shut out from the Universities as they are, and without a single college of their own for general education in the higher branches, so many of the Dissenters rise to such eminence, not only in the professions, but in all liberal attainments. It shows great energy and resolution, in struggling with difficulties and surmounting them. But it seems to me, they do themselves great injustice, by not providing themselves with the higher and better facilities. They are numerous enough. and wealthy enough, to establish colleges of their own, on a broad and liberal foundation; and I wonder they do not do it.

THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION.

It is a remarkable fact, and one of which pious churchmen loudly complain, as a disgrace to the Establishment, that no adequate provision is made in the universities, or any where else, for the professional education of the clergy. Candidates for holy orders have opportunity to hear a few lectures on the subjects of natural and revealed religion, both at Cambridge and Oxford: but there is nothing in either like a systematic course of instruction and study, to prepare them for the duties of public instruction, and for the solemn responsibilities of the

In the Dissenting churches, candidates for the ministry are more thoroughly and systematically educated; at least this is the case among the Independents, with whose ecclesiastical polity I had better opportunities of becoming acquainted than with any other. They have two flourishing seminaries near London-Homerton and Highbury; the former of which I visited, and which has for many years been under the immediate instruction of that distinguished scholar and eminent theologian, Dr. John Pye Smith. They have another also, not far from Sheffield. Besides these, the following Dissenting academies of the same class are said to be well sustained, viz. Hoxton, Rotheram, Axminster, Wrexham, Bristol, Stepney and York. These seminaries are partly endowed by individual munificence, and partly supported by the contributions of the churches.Evidence of piety is required for admission. The course of study is both classical and theological, and embraces a period of six years. Literature occupies nearly the whole of the two first years, and theology the greater part of the four last. I much prefer our own system, which gives the student six years for his classical education, including the two before he enters college, and three years in a theological seminary; and I cannot but think, that our English brethren will ere long so modify theirs, as to extend the highest literary advantages which they can command, to other promising young men, besides those who profess religion and are destined to the Christian ministry; and also so as to prolong the term of classical and professional study.

Among the discussions which agitated the Wesleyan Methodist connection when I was in Eugland, none were more exciting than those which preceded and grew out of the establishment of an academy, to educate their young men for the ministry. Till that time they had never had any seminary of the kind; and a very large party was strenuously opposed to the measure, on the ground that they had always done well enough without one, and that such an institution would eat out the spirit of piety, by leading their ministers to rely too much on human learning instead of placing all their dependance upon the aid of the Holy Spirit; but the more enlightened