and situation, as well as books, will have a hand in educating us, the unhappy scholar is in the condition of one who is under the charge of a score of teachers with a score of discordant systems. Hence follows a discordant character in the person taught. Embroidery, the piano-forte, bad French, and for what is called composition,-worse English, do not exactly sort with the multifarious drudgeries of humble life. This would be a small matter, did it not bring along with it dissatisfaction at our condition, and an aim, not so much to be respectable in that, as to pass for belonging to a better-did it not fill the head with vain fancies, and destroy simplicity of character, by tempting us to ape that which we are not: accomplishments is the word, and a smattering on many subjects the thing; and the result of these is, with little of real knowledge, less or none of true wisdom. I will venture to assert, that with all our show of academies, and all the hodge-podge of lyceums, our fathers and mothers, in the same walks of life, possessed more rightly balanced, and quite as wise and discerning minds as we; for pretence to that which is not really ours, unfits us for the use of that which is. In their little, yet careful reading; in their limited objects of knowledge, yet thoroughness in what they knew, there was a harmony with their condition, the result of which was congruity of character, good sense, and a consequently prepared mind for any change of condition.

I might go on all through the multitude of conditions in life, and show how Law, having helped to produce this in the private relations, is acted back upon by these relations; but I have said enough to make the principle to be understood.

If the view here taken be, in the main, just, it will continue to be so. The principle must remain a fundamental one, though there may be modified applications of it, in particulars, to the changes that society may undergo. If Law is ordained to have an influence upon the passions, sentiment, and affections, let it be remembered, that these are constituents of man's nature, and must exist along with him; and that all endeavours to annihilate them, or to bring them into subjection to the understanding, by first of all pouring knowledge into the mind, is beginning at the wrong end, and attempting to subject the moving powers of the soul, to that which is moved by them. While, for instance, there is pride in the heart, it is in vain to attempt subduing it by adding to our knowledge; for here "knowledge puffeth up." While there is malignity, craft, envy-the more knowledge, the

The selfish prin

more is there for these to act with and upon. ciple may change its mode of operation, through its increased knowledge of means, but it is still the master mover, and will continue to be so, till the moral evil is first subdued, and the head be taught wisdom through the heart. I cannot doubt that God is permitting the popular system of education to be tried out, only to convince man how worse than in vain is the endeavour to bring society into order by any other way than by first bringing the heart into an ordered harmony with Himself. The first breach of God's Law was not a mistake of the head, it was a sin of the heart; and thus discord was brought in; and that man may come once more into harmony with himself and with his fellow-man, he must again come under obedience of heart to his God:-as ignorance was not the cause of sin, so knowledge will not cure it. And, in very deed, there cannot be a just perception of a moral truth, save through a first quickened moral affection. If this be so, that form of Law which is best fitted to awaken and keep alive these principles in man, will be just as necessary in ages to come, as it is now : man will ever need those influences which shall shed through the soul the spirit of Obedience, Humility and Content.

'But,' say some good people, Religion is to be a substitute, and is to come in, and do all which Law through Authority and Orders, may have done.'-It cannot be so! Right Law will always act upon the same principles in man that religion acts upon, they are co-workers; and from all we have yet seen of the christian world, it is in no state to spare it. True, when Christianity shall have had a more thorough and enlightening influence upon man, (being felt by him through all the relations of life) Law may not bear to him so severe an aspect as now; but it will be the change wrought in himself and not in Law, that will make its face more gentle, it will be because the spirit of Submission has spread throughout his soul, and Obedience is easy unto him, and his lot in life pleasant unto him, whatsoever it be-Had Christians more enlightened views of what will be their relations and duties in eternity, they would not be striving after such Utopias here.

It is not the end of Religion to put all men upon a footing. There is reason to believe that there will be quite as great a variety of duties to perform, of obligations to regard, of ranks and orders to be respected, each by each, in heaven, as now there are here. Can it be supposed that many of the faculties

not.

and affections of man are to be annihilated or forever to lie dormant within him? Are there to be no occasions, between spirits, for the exercise of humility, gratitude, kindness, condescension, content? No opportunities for considerateness and gentleness in commands? for cheerfulness and faithfulness in performing them? Are there not to be the helper and the helped? the weaker and the stronger, the more and the less wise? Is not heaven to be a social state? And if so, is it to be stripped of the best exercises of the virtues of that state? I think Law therefore, is to be a helper in preparing us for that state. And Christians will yet learn that it is not the purpose of religion to lay level these distinctions in the form of Law, but to prepare the heart to respect them; to fit it for contentment in its lot, faithfulness in its duties, and through the right use of these its earthly relations, to be helped in being made meet for those above,-to dwell forever in peace, amidst thrones, dominions, principalities and powers.-The great change that man is to undergo, in entering upon his labours and joys above, will not be in the paralyzing of any of his intellectual and moral powers and affections, or in laying aside their uses, but in the entire sanctification of them all. If we would but realize this a little more, how much better should we, even now, realize eternity, and how far better should we harmonize with our duties and relations here!

In these few and desultory thoughts upon the question-What Form of Law is best suited to the Individual and Social character of Man,—I have considered each of the two Forms spoken of in its tendencies chiefly; for nowhere can be found either men or Law, as they actually exist, doing more than making approaches towards what I have supposed. Nor will it ever be otherwise here. What are the true limits under either form, --how far the principle of Obedience, and of learning in whatsoever state we are, therewith to be content, should be carried; or on the other hand, how much of Liberty and an approach to Equality are necessary in order to manliness of character, well-grounded hope of prosperous, crowning endeavour, and to energy and activity of life,-no man can precisely measure.

If I have shown a preference for the former rather than for the latter, I have done no more than to declare my honest, thorough convictions. And let it be remembered, that on the side of these convictions lay the prophetic fears of our Fathers

for the safety of our land, to guard which the wisest of them surrounded us by as strong a Form of Law as the people would well bear.

Though it has been my purpose to treat this subject simply as an abstract principle, I cannot leave it without a word of application to ourselves.

The spirit of the age, as it is termed, which is now at work in the mother country, to the destruction, it is to be feared, of that which has constituted the peculiarity and the excellency of the English individual and national character, is rife here, and rife, too, without those needful checks and influences which are as yet spared to her. Need I speak of those reckless combinations of men, called mobs, which are breaking out over every part of our land? They They are but the momentary eruptions of those fires which are now burning at the very centre of our System itself. The principle may be found running through all classes of our society, from the lowest, up to the highest. And although, at this moment, a wholesome fear may be found operating upon the upper classes, is it not a fear for the security of property only, rather than an alarm which springs from a discerning of the poisonous growth which is rooted in our very soil? Yet, does not our condition show the truth of what I have endeavoured to make plain? Is there any need of going over the ground again, and of tracing up to the form of Law which is peculiar to us, that all-pervading, all-absorbing love of gain, which is our besetting sin; that tyranny of opinion, which leaves to no man the freedom of his own thoughts; that prying spirit, which mouses him out in his most secret retirements; and that meddling disposition, which puts shackles upon the freedom of all his acts? Are not these things so? Let any man walk our streets. How sharp, and eager, and careful, are the faces he looks into ! Let him lend an ear to what is said as he passes along; and will he not, when he goes home, and shuts his door after him, cry in weariness of spirit, with him of old, Their talk is of bullocks'? Let us lay aside awhile our sensitive national vanity, and ask the liberal and intelligent who visit us from all lands, as to the reality of these things. In our Form of Liberty, then, is there not a subtile and pervading spirit of bondage weighing upon the freedom of the soul of man?

But a more obvious and a tremendous evil is threatening us; the hatred of the poor to the rich;-no, not of the poor, but of

the middling classes of those who are well housed, and well clothed, and well fed, and who make their daily gains, and to whom the highway to wealth is as open as to those who have gone on before: These are they who are laying hold on their brother's heel, and would fain get from him his inheritance. And it is curious to remark how in the portion of God's heritage in which the principle of Liberty and Equality has been attempted to be most thoroughly carried out-in New England— this spirit is now most restless and alive. And why is it so, but from the very absence of checks and balances, and settled orders, and distinctive habits and associations, and the want of an agreement between the ordinary courses of Providence and our outward, public Form of Law?-The theory of perfect Liberty and Equality, when aimed at in act, ends in nothing more or less than despotism in its most awful form,-the despotism of the mad many over the considerate few. Money-loving as we are, this restlessness does not come mainly from our desire for wealth, but from our impatience at inequality of condition. Property happens to be its object, because property is tangible, and addresses itself to the sense, and because, too, it is not a peculiar, and individual characteristic of any one in particular, but intrinsically accidental, and in its nature within every one's reach: the very fact that it does not lie without the compass of any one, makes the possession of it the object of hatred to all. If this spirit went only to take wealth from the hands of its present possessors, it would be an evil comparatively light. But with the cry of Liberty and Equality, it goes to deprive each individual of the free exercise of his moral endowments and intellectual powers,-of his self-denial, his prudence, his sagacity, his enterprize, his industry, and his strength of will; for it takes away the motive to their exercise, and thus destroys their life in robbing him of their rewards.-What oppression is here! The impossibility of realizing the notion of Equality, can, perhaps, in no instance be more distinctly seen. It is in contradiction to the exercise of every moral and intellectual attribute, and shows us that there is no Liberty without settled limits and restraints; and without inequalities in the social system, no security to rights.

Although some may think that too little of the good and too much of the ill have been here pointed out in that Form of Law which our Constitution most resembles, few will think that the true character and causes of those ills have been mistaken,