the end of six months, if this be in summer, cold water may be used; that is to say, water not artificially heated.

What would the never-doubting nurse think, if the harsh expedient were prescribed for herself, which, with equal want of judgement and feeling, she practises on her helpless charge.

In furnishing the infant's wardrobe, we should have reference to economy, convenience, health, and good taste: these are the objects to be attained. Anything like ornament, (unless it be something very simple and appropriate,) or undue expense, is equally opposed to economy and good taste. The infant himself is the jewel; and the casket should never be permitted to usurp the mother's or spectator's attention.

To be convenient, the dress should be so made as to be put on and taken off in as little time, and with as little labor as possible. To promote health, the dress should be suited to the various seasons of the year; never so warm as to be oppressive in summer, nor so light in winter as not to protect the child both from the irksome sensation of cold, and the risk of disease. Soft, thin flannel should be the prevailing material for three fourths of our year.

Noncombustible substances should alone be used during that portion of the year in which fires are kindled. This single precaution would be the means of preventing a number of painful deaths. Needles, when used for fastening the dress, are worse than pins; and pins should be as little used as possible.

At no period of life should any part of our clothing be permitted, in the smallest degree, to impede the freedom of muscular motion, nor by compression, to interfere with an easy and healthful performance of all the essential functions of life; such as circulation, breathing, digestion, &c.

Every day this rule is violated, and every day suffering or death is the consequence. Can any young lady think to entertain her friends by attempting to sing or read to them, when her chest is so compressed that she cannot by any effort distend her lungs with

air?

The resources of art are best applied when they are made to counteract the inequalities of nature. And with regard to temperature, that dress is the most perfect which adds least to the oppressive heat of summier, and protects the body most effectually from the

cold of winter.

One remark, in regard to clothing, as it respects temperature, is important; for persons in health the best temperature is that middle state, which is exactly midway between the sensation of heat or cold. Either deviation from this medium is equally unpleasant, or injurious, and equally to be avoided.

From a disregard of this fact, many children and adults are in

commoded or injured by too much heat. This renders the body tender, and more readily subjects it to disease from the common effects of exposure to the atmosphere. Infants require so much watching and fidelity to secure their wellbeing, that parents may well dispense with any labor or expense which does not contribute to this end. Such works of supererogation, we think, are all dresses for the head; they are certainly useless, and in the opinion of those who are best qualified to decide in this matter, they are worse than useless, for they make the head tender, subject it to catarrh, promote undue heat, eruptions, &c.

[The subject of this article shall be resumed in next number.]

REVIEWS.

Outlines of Philosophical Education, illustrated by the method of teaching the Logic Class in the University of Glasgow; together with Observations on the expediency of extending the Practical System to other Academical Establishments, and on the propriety of making certain additions to the Course of Philosophical Education in Universities. By George Jardine, A. M., F. R. S. E., Professor of Logic and Rhetoric in that University. Second edition, enlarged. Glasgow, 1825. 12mo. pp. 542.

PERSONS who take a deep interest in the subject of education, will find this volume the most interesting that for many years has issued from the press. Intellectual culture is in this work raised to that elevation to which it is entitled, from its dignity as a department of science, no less than of art, and from its important relation to the business of life. The author of the Outlines--an eminent practical philosopher and a veteran in the service of educationtakes the young instructer by the hand, and places him at the feet of a sound and enlightened philosophy, there to watch the developement of the mind, and to ascertain that course of discipline, which is best adapted to the constitution and the condition of man. The venerable professor ennobles the art of teaching by raising it above the mere process of mechanical routine and drudgery, and by infusing into its details the spirit of intellectual science. He carries the teacher to a point from which a commanding survey of the whole field of education may be taken, and enables him to enter on the duties of his station, with those comprehensive views

and inspiring principles which give efficiency and dignity to instruction.

The Outlines, though professedly written with a more immediate application to philosophical education, exhibit principles, and suggest improvements, of the utmost importance to every depart ment of instruction; and no teacher-whatever may be his sphere --will rise from the perusal of this work, without higher concep tions of his duties, and more adequate preparation for the discharge of them.

One great advantage resulting from the influence of Professor Jardine's treatise, will be a more speedy removal of false impres sions with regard to the profession (if we may so call it) of teaching. A young man of abilities has commonly been induced to believe that he owes it to himself and his family, or his friends, to aspire after something higher, as a business for life, than the humble office of teaching. The able and the enterprising among the young candidates for professional reputation, have accordingly pressed on in pursuit of other occupations; and with comparative disdain have passed by the avenue of employment which education opens to them. But the author of the Outlines has succeeded in giving so interesting and dignified an aspect to instruction, that it is rendered worth the notice of the most ambitious aspirant for a useful and reputable occupation. The tone of Professor Jardine's work, together with the increasing disposition to afford instructers a more adequate compensation for their labors, will, we trust, contribute to elevate still more the rising character of instruction in this country.

The volume which we here introduce to our readers, has peculiar claims on their attention. It is the fruit of fifty years' expe rience, in the arduous and honorable vocation to which its author devoted himself. We have here no precipitate conclusions, no rash assertions, no superficial theories, proceeding from a sanguine disposition, and an excited imagination. Every plan has been submitted to the test of half an age. The author had the magnanimity to begin the business of his office in the attitude of a learner, and to pursue it with the diffidence and the caution of a true disciple of the great father of modern experimental philosophy. With a self-command, too, which furnishes an instructive lesson in these days of premature and juvenile authorship, he reserved the publication of the invaluable results at which he had arrived, till the lapse of half a century had set its seal to their

certainty and their worth.

Another circumstance which gives an uncommon value to the work before us, is, that it not only looks on education through the medium of intellectual philosophy, but presents the first specimen

of a course of purely philosophic discipline being rendered subservient to the actual business of life, and to the existing circumstances of society. The student of philosophy has hitherto been regarded as the most strictly secluded of all the devotees of abstract science, -as a being privileged with an entire exemption from the realities and the activity of ordinary life. Professor Jardine has shown that the study of intellectual science may not only be rendered harmless to those who are to be engaged in the practical pursuits of science, of literature, or of business, but that it may be made to furnish the best possible preparation for active life, with all its demands for enterprise and effort-its unexpected calls on personal character-its unforeseen emergencies, requiring an instant and absolute command of thought, and a complete readiness in word and action. For those departments of business particularly, which demand the full,' the exact,' and the 'ready' man, in perfect combination, the philosophic course sketched in the Outlines, forms an admirable preparatory training.

The methods of mental discipline which have been commonly adopted in initiating the young in the arts of writing and speaking, have been very defective. The pupil begins at school the systematic study of English grammar, or the art of speaking and writing correctly;' at college he advances to logic, or the art of reasoning;' and he turns his attention last of all to metaphysics, or, in other words, to intellect and its operations. He is thus compelled to invert the order of nature. He learns first the art of expression, and then the art of thinking. Professor Jardine is entitled to the credit of being the first instructer who ventured to begin with the cultivation of thought, and thence proceed to that of expression. He furnishes the student, in the first place, with the materials of thought and the habit of thinking. He then applies to the mind thus furnished and prepared, the actual discipline of a course of practical logic; and finally applies all this previous training, to the department of written and oral expression. During a part of the course of instruction, all the branches mentioned above are cultivated simultaneously; but in no part is the last named placed first in order. The student's mind is thus made to develope itself, and to effect insensibly, but surely, the improvement of his style. The command of thought is first acquired; and this furnishes a command of words, which critical attention, and constant practice ultimately render perfect. Despatch in writing, an invaluable acquisition for professional life, is by the same method early attained, and is naturally accompanied by a facility and accuracy of extemporaneous address; than which there is no accomplishment more indispensable to the successful conducting of a great proportion of public business.

The prevailing arrangement in seminaries of learning, is, to keep mental and rhetorical discipline as distinct as possible-to render, in other words, the study of philosophy dry and useless, and that of rhetoric an unmeaning and mechanical process, as far removed as the other from the results which the student's destination in life will ultimately call for.

The Outlines of Philosophical Education will, we hope, be speedily introduced in every college and in every preparatory seminary in the United States. The book will be equally serviceable to students and to instructers. It will breathe the breath of life' into the whole form of instruction, and convert the class-room into an intellectual arena for vigorous and pleasing effort on the part both of the teachers and the taught. No work, we believe, could be mentioned so well suited to aid the progress of practical improvement in the useful departments of education. Professor Jardine's volume is one which every instructer who is really desirous of advancing his pupils, ought to consult daily, till all its plans and details are rendered perfectly familiar.

But it is time to introduce the work more directly, and in the author's own words.

'The author of the following Outlines has long been of opinion that philosophical education, as it is generally conducted in our universities, is too much confined to the mere communication of knowledge; and that too little attention is bestowed on the forma tion of those intellectual habits of thinking, judging, reasoning, and communication, upon which the farther prosecution of science, and the business of active life, almost entirely depend. He is fully sensible of the genius, the knowledge, and the eloquence, which have been displayed in the public lectures delivered by many professors in our universities,- -some of whom, during the last century, have attained to the highest rank in their respective departments; but still he cannot help thinking that little has been done to generate, in the student, that activity of mind, and that facility of applying his intellectual powers, which ought to be the great object of all

education.

The communication of knowledge is indeed necessary to furnish suitable materials for the exercise of the mental faculties; and, perhaps, with a few students, whose minds are easily awakened to scientific pursuits, little else may be required. But this can only apply to a very small proportion indeed of those who enter upon a course of philosophical education; and, even with regard to them, nearly the same advantage may be derived from the judicious and systematic perusal of the writings of ancient and modern philosophers, as from merely attending a course of lectures.