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localities may work the works of God.

If we, in any way, identify the vivid perceptions of the poet and the fresh, healthful feelings of the child, we may suppose that there is, or ought to be, a good understanding between the two beings, whensoever they are allowed to meet. Those who have entered the school-room, either as learners, as teachers, or as observers, know how rarely the poet is the instructor of the child; yet he was the instructor of nations in their infancy, and surely he might in part be trusted with the mental culture of the individual. Hymns and poems do certainly resound within school-room walls, but the poetic spirit, as such, rarely flings a gay and attractive colouring over the lessons of the teacher. Why do we marvel, that the many words or the many books of the instructor become indeed a weariness of the flesh to children who have, in most instances, a fount more or less sparkling, of lively fancy within? Why do you marvel that the child, whose keen sensibilities are every day blunted by a dry routine of instruction, should in after years become a hard-natured, worldly-hearted man or woman, seeking coarse or evil excitements, and delighting in things that are of the earth earthy? He or she has long ago forgotten the simple language of the bird and of the flower, and the interpretation thereof; has long ago forgotten the graceful, or the terrible legends of history:-but surely it might have been otherwise, surely it may for the future be otherwise, and this quite as much with regard to the poor and the lowly, as with respect to the class above them.

Are all bright and gay imaginings the fruits wherewith the boughs of the forbidden tree were laden? Was it of all these that God said, "In the day that ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die"? Are they all apples of Sodom, golden and glowing to the eye, yet poisonous and bitter ashes to the taste? We might suppose this to be the case, when we find everything essentially poetic excluded from localities where it would certainly prove attractive, and, as in blindness we might imagine, "good for food;"

when we find it as carefully shunned, and as coldly frowned upon, by many excellent persons, as if a branch of the deadly Upas tree lay in their path. Yet imagination is an important element of our nature-a good gift of God we might dream, and adapted to His service if used aright. Does it not link us in an especial manner with the things unseen? Are we, then, to cast it aside, or to constrain others to cast it aside, as a useless and objectionable implement ?

Of course, were we to enter the habitations of those who have lived through years of penury and neglect, and who may be at the moment pinched with hunger, and endeavour to awaken in their bosoms sentiments that have long slept and still slumber, never more to revive in this world, our labour would be lost; but with their children it is otherwise. The cottage infant beneath its dull, tangled locks, laughing aloud over a lapful of buttercups and daisies, has as clear a perception of the beauty of flowers, as the gently nurtured child of a fairer home, gazing placidly through its sunny ringlets on the large fragrant bud of the magnolia, or on glowing clusters of the camelia and the geranium.

The reader may perhaps think that allowing this to be the case, we should add but little to the happiness of the young cottager, or to the comfort. of the class above him, were we to cherish poetic feeling and an elegant taste in his lowly bosom. Rugged paths he must tread-rugged, unsightly work his hand will assuredly find to do; this we know, but might not the ruggedness of the way be a little beguiled were his mind early filled with mild and beautiful images which he might summon around him amid the dreary scenes of after life? Might not the rugged work become a little more sightly in the eyes of softly nurtured observers, were the inner soul of the workman subdued and refined by his early training, and might not a way by this means be paved for a larger measure of that sympathy which, without at all breaking down the distinctions of rank, ought to exist between himself and his more favoured Christian brethren,

and frequently does not? So far as the intelligent and the kindly are concerned, the coarse habits, gross tastes, and rude perceptions of the lowly, are the peculiarities which heap up barriers in the way of that sympathy which should bind together the members of the Christian body. Such tastes, habits, and perceptions cannot exist in close union with a simple, earnest love for the beautiful things which our Maker has scattered so lavishly around us, quite as thickly in the path of the cottager, as in that of the noble; those lilies of the field, so lovely to the eye, so eloquent in the ear of the poet and the child. But a little cultivation and direction of the imagination might render other subjects besides the lilies of the field attractive, as well as important to the lowly; subjects, that are generally presented to the young, undisciplined mind in a singularly dry attenuated form. Listen for an hour in a wellordered Sunday-school; the instruction given is often, we will hope usually, clear, simple, and evangelical, but very frequently altogether colourless and sombre. The sublime poetry of the Old Testament, and the graceful simplicity of the Gospels, forming as they do the groundwork of this instruction, might naturally, we think, lead to a different result. Would it not be easy in our comments, on the

Gospel narratives for instance, to afford the little hearers some clearer ideas of the landscape, the costume, and the manners which really give colour to the events, than unassisted they can possibly form? This is one instance among many, in which the spirit of Christian poetry might surely render valuable aid. We must not add gaudy decorations of our own devising, to the simple beauty of the Holy Book, but we are bound to render the instruction we deduce from it as inviting and graceful as may be. A limner was once required to depict a cluster of perfectly white flowers. The blossoms were doubtless in themselves as elegant and spotless as snowdrops or lilies have ever been from the third day of creation until now, and seen beneath the sunshine, quivering in the wind, every tongue would have praised their loveliness; but it was no easy task to give interest and variety to their cold, colourless image. The painter, after a little perplexity, placed the group in a vase of purple glass so that many of the pallid flowers drooped over its edge, and caught the beautiful tint; the problem was solved, and his work was done. We have pure and beautiful truths to set before youthful eyes. Let us not reject the purple vase, and choose the unsightly earthen jar when both are at hand.

H. T.

WORDS OF PEACE.
VI.

"Give us this day our daily bread."

Our daily bread, not mine alone,
Thou Lord of harvest, hear me crave,
Thy sunbeams, far and wide are thrown
O'er ripening corn and shining wave.

By hall and hut the fountains pour,

The cottage children fill their hands, Hard by the laden threshing floor, Where, glad of heart, the rich man stands.

The needful bread, the gushing flood

Our earthly food, of thee we crave, And better than our earthly food,

The heavenly bread, the heavenly wave.

Our heavenly bread, not mine alone,
Father of all, I ask of thee,
One bread, one cup, amongst us known,
One loving household we would be.

Or earthly bread, or heavenly fare,

We always at Thy table eat, For where we break it, thou art there, And yet, thy guests we coldly greet.

Oh, let us spurn no guest of thine,

One, in Thy household daily fed; Lest for the sin, our soul should pine, Denied by Thee, our heavenly bread. H.T.

SCOTTISH THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY.

THE Free Church of Scotland has, as many of our readers are aware, established a College at Edinburgh for the purpose of training her candidates for the ministry. To carry out her aim, the Free Church has not merely appointed Professors of Divinity in its various branches, but has also founded two chairs for teaching Moral Philosophy, and what is termed in Scotland Logic and Metaphysics. These professorships are quite distinct from those already in existence under the same titles in the University of Edinburgh.

In extending the sphere of the New college beyond the mere routine studies of a Divinity Hall, we think the Free Church authorities have acted quite consistently-indeed, from the peculiar nature of the training which is demanded from a licentiate for the ministry in Scotland, we do not see how the Free Church could well have acted otherwise than she has done.

In Scotland, the grand outlines of the education for the ministry exacted by the establishment, and the various dissenting bodies, are very much the same. The period which is allotted for the studies of students in Divinity

is about eight years. Of these eight years, four are spent in studies of a secular character, while the remaining four years are allotted for the prosecution of studies strictly ecclesiastical, and classed under the general name of the Divinity Hall course.

During the four years devoted to secular studies, the students of the various Scotch religious communions meet in the same class-rooms, and study under the same professors in one or other of the four Scottish universities. But the Divinity Hall in each university is under the exclusive control of the Established Church, and is therefore attended chiefly by members of the Establishment. Various dissenting communions in Scotland have, from this cause, appointed Divinity Halls of their own, with proper complements of professors.

When the Free Church, therefore, separated from the Establishment,

there was nothing wonderful in the attempt of her leaders to establish a Divinity Hall for their own students. But the novel feature in their scheme was their determination to establish chairs, under their own control, for moral and mental philosophy, branches of education which have been hitherto entrusted by the Establishment, as well as the Scottish Dissenters, to the professors of the respective Universities.

And the justification of their conduct is, we think, to be found in the peculiar nature of the studies pursued during the first or secular part of the Scottish Divinity student's course. And to this point we wish particularly to draw the attention of our readers. The subject is but little attended to even in Scotland, except by a few reflecting men; and in England although interesting it is wholly neglected.

First we may state, that the whole training of a Scottish Divinity student, secular as well as theological, is under the superintendence of the presbytery to which the student belongs. Each student is obliged to present himself before his presbytery, when required to do so, and to be examined on the studies in which, at the time, he is engaged.

At the University of Edinburgh, and we presume the system is much the same at the other Scottish universities, the Divinity student commences his secular studies by reading the classics-and as classical attainments in Scotland are rarely of a high order before coming to the University, a great deal of time is usually spent in learning what ought to have been known before leaving school. In the second year of his studies, the Divinity student, in addition to his classical studies, attends the lectures of the professor of Logic and Metaphysics, and probably also a mathematical

course.

In the third year, he pro

ceeds to attend the lectures of the Moral Philosophy professor, continuing also his mathematical, and very probably his strictly classical studies. The fourth year is chiefly given to Natural Philosophy.

Other branches of education are often pursued at this stage, but the above form the chief subjects of a Scottish Divinity student's secular studies and it is obvious at a glance, that if thoroughly attended to, they are quite sufficient to engross the student's time and energies.

We have given the above meagre, and perhaps not strictly, although essentially accurate, account of Scottish Divinity studies, to shew the exact place in the curriculum which the two new chairs founded by the Free Church are intended to occupy.

It is plain that mental and moral philosophy must engross a large portion of the student's time, during two years; and that, too, at the important period, when the mind having been enfranchised from the ferule of the schoolmaster and grammatical punctilios, is beginning to think for itself.

We hesitate not to say it fearlessly, that the usefulness of the future minister to the Church depends greatly upon the influence, whether good or evil, which is brought to bear upon his faculties at this most critical period when they are, as it were, passing through their chrysalis state.

The character of Scottish Divinity, and the peculiarities of Scottish preaching, are greatly traceable to the influence exercised by those two chairs.

The chair of logic is by no means devoted exclusively to the teaching that venerable science on which Oxford lays so much stress. In former days logic occupied but a very subordinate place in the logical professor's lectures, which were mainly devoted to the expounding the psychological theories of Reid, Stewart, and Brown. And the lectures of the ethical professor extended also over a very wide field besides his own proper domain of moral philosophy.

At the time we speak of, the standard writers in vogue on such subjects at Edinburgh, if not religious in their tone, contained in their works at least very little of a directly irreligious character. The effect in those days of metaphysical and ethical studies was the production of that somewhat subtle and dialectical, though evangelical preaching, which distinguishes

the Scottish divines, as a class, from their Southern neighbours.

But these days have changed. Reid and Beattie, Stewart and Brown, are now by no means, at Edinburgh, the exclusive genii loci. Later years have brought other influences than theirs to bear, and that too most powerfully, upon the favourite studies of the place.

Some years ago, Sir William Hamilton, a man of profound learning and extraordinary talents, was appointed to the logical chair at Edinburgh, then vacant. Enthusiastic in the prosecution of his favourite studies, he soon communicated his own ardour to his class; and logic and metaphysics assumed an importance in the studies of the University, which they had not possessed for many years. Sir William, not only a master of the antiquities of his science, but deeply versed in the modern German philosophy, began soon to awaken an intense interest in those abstruse speculations which have for many years attracted so much attention in Germany. Contemporaneonsly with this movement in the logical class, the late lamented Dr. Welsh, then professor of Ecclesiastical History, began to excite much interest in the works of the modern German writers on ecclesiastical history. From these and other causes, German literature has of late years acquired a prominence at Edinburgh, which must make it eventually tell most powerfully upon the minds of the rising clergy.

We do not, therefore, in this state of matters, at all wonder at the conduct of the Free Church in appointing persons on whom they can depend, to fill the two important chairs of mental and moral philosophy. For it can be shown to a demonstration, that ethics and metaphysics, as studied in Germany, must tell, as they have done, upon divinity. And we quite sympathize with the Free Church in their desire that none but truly Christian men, in whose hearts as well as understandings they have reliance, shall fill those chairs.

One of these newly appointed professors, the Rev. A. C. Fraser, to whom the chair of Logic and Meta

physics has been assigned, has published his inaugural lecture by particular request, and we are sincerely rejoiced that Mr. Fraser has thought fit to accede to his friends' entreaty. The inaugural lecture so published is characterized by great depth of thought, combined with manly eloquence and extreme modesty. The professor's avowed object is to christianize philosophy, as the Germans term what we somewhat loosely call metaphysics. We quote his own emphatic and eloquent language.

"I shall not speak more of my own emotions, with which I commence our work to-day, and find myself called to take part in this rising academical institution in the cultivation of such fields as those at which we have been glancing, and that in circumstances of the public mind, to a few of which I have referred, which invest with a profound interest the somewhat novel experiment of a Christian Church, thus to connect the Christian ideas and spirit with the movements of the thinking world, and to have at work in the bosom of Scottish society an academical institution, meant to give a right direction to the higher thought of the country, and to train our youth in the habit of vigorous, chastened, and fruitful thought; associated with a living faith, resting on that rock of revealed, positive truth of inspired Scripture, enduring as 'the everlasting hills,' amid the surging fluctuations of the mighty waters of human opinions and human systems, and whose teaching philosophy may illustrate, but can never subvert nor supersede."*

We wish Professor Fraser every success in his undertaking. May he be directed by the almighty grace of God to save the minds of his students from error, and to "inform" them in the truth.

The Scotch are naturally a metaphysical people. You cannot talk with a peasant on any subject in religion, without seeing that he views it through the medium of subtle distinctions, intensely irksome to the

* Inaugural Lecture, p. 16. Lowe, Edinburgh,

practical understanding of his neighbour across the border.

And this metaphysical tendency of the Scotch requires to be carefully watched over by their Church. Useful in preserving a perpetual mental activity, it may also be converted into an exceedingly dangerous weapon, if dis-associated from the strong religious principle and devout family piety with which it has been hitherto conjoined.

A metaphysical mind undirected by religion, will always manifest a strong tendency to scepticism. Faith, after all, is the real anchor of the soul. If faith be removed, the soul will soon begin to drift down the channel into the dangerous ocean of infidelity.

Of this we have a melancholy instance in the recent history of German and French philosophy. Discarding, as unworthy of notice, the submissive faith of the Holy Scriptures, and daringly attempting to search into mysteries, which ought to be reckoned among the deep things of Godphilosophy, during the last century, unfurled both in Germany and France the standard of open rebellion against Christianity. At length wearied with the excesses which unbounded licence introduced, finding a climax in the French Revolution, the modern philosophers of France and Germany pursue a course somewhat different in appearance, but identical in reality with that of their predecessors. They simulate a certain reverence for religion, while, at the same time, they accommodate divine truth to their vain theories, and really use Christianity only as a transition stage to infidelity.

Hegel, a celebrated recent German philosopher, attempted to evaporate the adorable mystery of the blessed Trinity into abstract logical formule! And bold, unsanctified speculators, of a similar kind, are tainting, at this moment, like a moral pestilence, the philosophical atmosphere of France and Germany.

May God, who has so often shielded Great Britain from danger, avert this evil omen also, and protect us from all assaults of a philosophy "falsely so called."

There is every reason to believe

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