Life of Baron Cuvier, Arago's Eloge on James Watt, Colden's Life of Fulton, &c., would be adapted to the purpose.

4. If our object is to acquire right views and principles in regard to political life, we should use the Life of Washington by Sparks or Marshall, Jay's Life by his son, Sparks's Life of Franklin, Memoirs of the Duke of Sully, Life of Cecil (Lord Burleigh), British Statesmen by Mackintosh, do. by Lord Brougham, &c., &c. If the reader is destined for a military or naval career, he should read the Life of Washington, Sketches of the American Generals of the Revolutionary War in Sparks's American Biography, Memoirs of Napoleon, Southey's Life of Nelson, and the Public and Private Correspondence of Vice-admiral Collingwood, with Memoirs of his Life. In some of these works, the reader should guard carefully against the pernicious effect of brilliant exploits in blinding the author to the moral turpitude of his hero. South. ey's Life of Nelson is an instance in which a very pure and entertaining writer has not escaped this seductive influence. If the reader is looking forward to the medical profession, let him read the Life of Boerhaave, the Memoirs of Dr. John Mason Good by Olinthus Gregory, the Life of Dr. Samuel Bard by Rev. J. M'Vickar, D.D., &c., &c. If he is to enter the legal profession, the Life of Lord Hale, Memoirs of Sir Samuel Romily, Wheaton's Life of William Pinkney, Wirt's Memoirs of Patrick Henry, and the Life of Alexander Hamilton by his son, &c., &c. These works are selected in some instances more with reference to the formation of right principle in the reader than to the eminence of the person commemorated.

5. If we propose to acquire general views of remarkable men at different periods as a preparation for the study of History, Plutarch's Lives, Sketches of Eminent Men in the British Library of Entertaining Knowledge, Cunningham's Lives of the Painters, and other similar works, should be read. II. HISTORY.-This records the biography of nations and the great movements and revolutions of humanity. At first,

authors should be selected who are best calculated to inspire interest and awaken curiosity. Such interest depends partly upon the eloquence and skill of the author, and partly upon the connexion of the events described with ourselves, our own country and time. As a general rule, the student should, in commencing, prefer particular to general histories. Universal histories, so called, have very little value to the beginner, except as books of reference. When reading any particular history, allusions to the past and to other countries will occur, which ought to be explained, and reference to a universal history for the purpose, and also for getting a general view of the state of the world at the period under examination, is to be earnestly recommended. The student should remember that some knowledge of geography is indispensable in reading history to advantage, and that he ought to have by him when reading maps and chronological tables. Geography and chronology have been justly called the eyes of history. Synchronistic tables have recently been introduced, especially by the French and German historians, which are a great improvement upon those formerly in use. Parallel columns are assigned to the leading countries of the world, and contemporaneous events happening in these different countries appear side by side on the same horizontal line, and opposite to the proper date. (See Œuvres de Michelet, tome i., for a good specimen of modern tables, called "Tableaux Synchroniques de l'Histoire Moderne.")

1. Selecting historical works upon the principles suggested above, the student might begin advantageously with Botta's History of the War of American Independence, proceeding thence to one or more volumes of Bancroft's Colonial History of the United States; thence to Prescott's Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, or Robertson's Charles V., Miss Aikin's Court of Elizabeth, Lord Herbert's Life of Henry VIII., Bacon's Henry VII., Hume's Account of the Reign of Edward III., Irving's Conquest of Grenada, Ranke's History of the Popes, D'Aubigné's Reformation, &c. The author would mention here

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one of the very few useful purposes to which some works in prose fiction may be applied. He refers to historical romances, especially to those of Sir W. Scott, G. P. R. James, and J. F. Cooper. They furnish accounts, always graphic, and often correct, of the spirit, manners, and personages of the most remarkable eras commemorated in history. For instance, after reading the Courts of Elizabeth or James I., by Miss Aikin, it might materially assist both the memory and understanding of the student, if he should read Scott's Kenilworth, and Fortunes of Nigel, for the purpose, especially, of comparing the historian with the novelist. Shakspeare's historical dramas might be read in like manner, in connexion with the corresponding parts of history. The historian and dramatist could not but reflect mutual light and interest upon each other.

The subscriber would recommend here, as a useful compilation, “Great Events by Great Historians," prepared by Dr. Lieber; also "Historical Parallels," published by the British Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

Having thus introduced himself to history, the student might profitably read Hume's History of England, Hallam's Middle Ages, and the more popular work of Sir F. Palgrave on the same subject, Sismondi's Roman Empire, Ferguson's Roman Republic, or the compilation from Wachsmuth and Schlosser in the Cabinet Cyclopædia, portions of Livy and Tacitus in the original, or in a translation; also, Herodotus and Thucydides, Mitford's Grecian History, &c., &c., Sharon Turner's Sacred History of the Bible, and Prideaux's Connexions.

This course might be modified advantageously, perhaps, by taking up ancient history at an earlier period. On this and many other questions the student must judge for himself. He should remember that the grand object of history is to make him acquainted with man, by making him acquainted with the causes of events, and the motives which have influence human actions, and that these lessons can never be

duly learned by a torpid or listless mind, or by one that reads merely for amusement or excitement.

III. TRAVELS, VOYAGES, &c.-The object of these works is to enlarge our acquaintance with the world, and especially with civil and physical geography. They are cheap and convenient substitutes for travelling, with the advantage of enabling us, in many cases, to see through another more than we should have been likely to discover ourselves. To awaken an interest in this kind of reading, the student should begin with books remarkable for a spirited and graphic, as well as truthful delineation of character, incidents, and natural objects; such, for example, as Barrow's Bible in Spain, Dana's Two Years before the Mast, Stephens's Travels in Central America and Yucatan, and the different works of the same author, recounting his visits to different parts of the Old World, Miss Sedgwick's Letters from Abroad, Kohl's Russia and the Russians, Sir John Malcolm's Travels in the East, with many others belonging to the same class.

It would then be well to return to some of the travellers and voyagers of the last century, among whom More, author of Views of Society in Italy in 1776, and in France in 1771, and Lady Montagu, are excellent. The student will then be prepared for the voyages of discovery, the scientific travels, and the political and statistical tours which have been given to the world in such abundance of late. To this head belong Humboldt's Travels, the Voyages of Parry, Franklin, and Ross, in our own time, of Cook, Anson, &c., &c., in earlier periods, the visit of Reaumer and Prince PucklerMuskau to England, of Prince Saxe-Weimar, Buckingham, Chevalier, &c., to the United States, &c., &c., &c. The missionary tours and journals are especially rich in information and in materials for philosophical reflection.

IV. POLITE LITERATURE, including prose and poetry. Its principal object is to cultivate taste and imagination in connexion with the other powers and susceptibilities of the sou!, and hence special importance is attached to form or style of

composition. The following books are deserving of particular notice, and should be read in the order most congenial with the tastes and capacities of the student, viz.: 1. The Spectator and other British Essays, the Essays of Charles Lamb, Sketch-book of Washington Irving, and the best papers of the Quarterly, Edinburgh, and other Reviews (to be read occasionally). 2. Shakspeare, to be read in connexion with Schlegel's Critical Lectures, or Hazlitt's Essays, and Mrs. Jameson's Female Characters of Shakspeare. 3. Milton's poetry and prose writings. 4. Sermons of Jeremy Taylor and Dr. Barrow. 5. Ancient and modern orators, viz., Demosthenes, Cicero, Pitt, Fox, Burke, Canning, Webster, &c., &c. 6. British poets: Spenser, Dryden, Goldsmith, Akenside, Cowper, Wordsworth, Scott, Coleridge, Southey, Mrs. Hemans, Tennyson, &c., &c. 7. American poets: Bryant, Halleck, Dana, &c., &c.

V. SPECULATIVE AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.-Books in this department, if well selected and thoroughly read, are calculated to develop habits of thought and discrimination, while they accustom us to trace back moral and political facts to fundamental principles, and to consider practical questions in the light of those principles. Selecting books with reference to the wants of beginners, I know of none better than the following: 1. Abercrombie's Inquiry into the Intellectual Powers. 2. Dugald Stewart's Elements of the Philosophy of the Mind, and also his Active and Moral Powers, with frequent reference to the essays of his master, Dr. Reid, a delightful thinker. 3. Locke's Essay on the Understanding, to be read in connexion with Cousin's Review of the same, in his Psychology, translated by Professor Henry. 4. Berkeley's philosophical works, the model, so far as style is concerned, of metaphysical writing. 5. Smith's Moral Sentiments, rich in illustrations and examples, as well as in materials for thought, though unsound in theory. 6. Wayland's Moral Science, with parallel chapters in Palev.