light in examining into the wonders of nature, they cannot deem that a trivial or useless occupation, which their teacher shares with them. Sir Isaac Newton, in his Philosophical Researches, was laughed to scorn by an ignorant blockhead, for blowing bubbles of soap and water. This is an amusement which children take peculiar pleasure in; and who that is able to appreciate the stupendous discoveries of that vast mind, will hold such an employment an insignificant one? Children are raised above their childish sports, when their teacher partakes their hours of relaxation: because puerile games have been taught them, that is no argument that they could not be as well entertained, as much interested, and certainly much better instructed, by games, if we may call them so, of a superior kind. We may think him an affectionate father who crawled about the room on all fours with his children on his back, in order to please them; but he might have maintained the dignity of a man, and pleased them quite as

well. If it be proper, in serious occupations, to accommodate our lessons to the capacities of children, it may be equally proper, in their hours of play, to aim at raising them above their condition; that we may thus avoid the extremes of making ourselves unintelligible on the one hand, and leaving them childish on the other. Games of exercise, unless bound hand and foot, children will find out for themselves.

CHAP. XIV.

AFTER all the care and watchfulness of wise and affectionate parents and teachers, there will still be, such is the depravity of human nature, ungrateful, unfeeling, unprincipled children; history, both sacred and profane, affords innumerable and me lancholy proofs of this truth. In all ages there have been those, over whom virtuous parents have shed bitter and unavailing tears, whom teachers have in vain instructed both by precept and example. Fathers and mothers have felt

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child;

and their grey hairs have descended with

sorrow to the grave. Profligate childrenhave been, and profligate children still exist: like the deaf adder, they turn aside from the voice of the charmer, charm he ever so wisely; but if parents and teachers have acted conscientiously, it is proper to warn such children, that their punishment will fall upon their own heads. A pious mother, had endeavoured both by her conduct and her admonitions, to train her son in virtue, but without success, he determined on and persevered in evil courses; his mother fréquently remonstrated with him but in vain; at length with great solemnity she addressed. him to the following purpose: "My son notwithstanding your career of vice, I still find that you are my child, and that I am your mother'; my efforts to reclaim you, dictated in a great degree by the tenderness of a mother, have been useless; but recollect that these bodies are to be laid down; and that at the awful day of judgment, the feelings of a mother can no longer plead for you: I must then acquiesce in the sen

tence which a righteous Judge will pronounce against a hardened criminal: my tears, so often shed for you, will be for ever wiped away; and the remembrance of my child will exist no longer." Her son heard her, but not now with contempt of her admo→ nitions: he was struck with awe, and melted into contrition; he reformed his life, and became a model of goodness. Young persons should be warned too, that their guilt is aggravated a thousand fold, by the opportunities for instruction and improvement which have been afforded them: for him who is determined to take the road to destruction, it were well that he had never been instructed in the path of virtue; his teachers must become his accusers, and bear testimony against him. We pity those who without direction wander and stumble, and are misled in the darkness of the night; but what do they deserve, who in the face of their guides, and in the face of noonday, resolve to follow the wrong path? they must infallibly be lost, because they will be