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by christian principles, and having in a letter addressed to me on my birthday, called my attention to the "fruits of the Spirit," as described in Galatians v 22, 23,-he added some simple lines composed for the occasion, which he said might prove useful as a help to self-examination. These he begged me for his sake, to commit to memory, and repeat each night before I went to sleep. I subjoin a copy of the verses, hoping my young readers may find them useful for the same purpose:

"Holy Father! God of love,
Listen from thy throne above,
Now Thy Spirit's aid impart,
Let it dwell within my heart!
I, this best of blessings, claim
Only in my Saviour's name.

"If this grace, Lord, Thou bestow,
Holy fruits my life will show ;
Love through all my actions run,
Heavenly life, on earth begun:
Showing forth the gospel plan,
Love to God, and love to man.

"If this love my thoughts employ,
I shall feel a holy joy;

-Joy that Christ has died for me,
Borne my sins upon the tree;
Bid my fears and follies cease,
Blest me with his perfect peace.

"Him may I my pattern make,
'Suffer long,' for Jesu's sake;
May I, meek and gentle be,
Filled with active charity;

Make me faithful, good and true,

Cleanse my heart and make it new.

"Make me willing to resign

My own selfish will to Thine;

Make me anxious to subdue
Sinful thoughts, and wishes too.
Body, soul, and spirit take,
Hear me, Lord, for Jesu's sake!

In compliance with my father's request, I learned the verses. I understood them, and for some time repeated them regularly; yet they failed to convince me of my sin, for I did not apply them to my own case. Do any of my readers wonder at this? Let them put the question faithfully to their own hearts, “ Have I not likewise resisted conviction?

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But to return,-it is high time I introduced to my young readers, another principal personage in my story. It was at the commencement of the second year I spent at school that Elizabeth Dalton became one of our number. She was then about eleven years of age; a tall, slender child, with a delicate but intelligent countenance. Although younger than most of her companions, she was even at that time what school girls call very clever, and there was that, in her manner, which conveyed the idea of superior station, or rather, of superior breeding. She was in mourning, and her dress was extremely simple and inexpensive. It soon became generally known in the school, that Miss Dalton was from London, that her father was a wealthy merchant, and that she had been previously educated at home, by a private governess, assisted by good masters. It did not at that time occur to me, there was anything singular in Miss Dalton's being sent to a country school, but I have since learned, that the delicacy of her health, was the motive which induced her parents to forego other advantages, for the important ones of a fine air and healthful locality.

There could not be a more engaging little girl than Elizabeth, on her first coming to school. She had evidently been treated with judicious kindness by her governess, and had given her warmest affections and confidence in return. She had little taste for the society or sympathy of her inferiors, in age or attainments; and was tacitly allowed to be beyond the pale of the little ones, her tastes and acquirements fitting her for intercourse with girls much older than herself.

She was an extremely docile pupil, and this, joined to her courtesy and good humour, rendered her a favorite with my godmother and the teachers, as well as with her school-fellows. It is true that she gradually imbibed the opinions and habits of her new associates, nor can this be wondered at, since the most open and confiding dispositions, are the soonest moulded into

conformity with those around them. In every community, be it large or small, the principle of self-love leads to some degree of union. In schools, especially, where the little individual members are guided, less by reason and judgment, than by impulse and feeling, great care should be taken, to avoid anything like separate interests, so far as teachers and pupils are concerned. Without tenderness and sympathy on the one side, and affection and confidence on the other, young people cannot be trained wisely and well; nor can any intellectual or worldly advantages, compensate for the want of such training. My godmother was a very well-meaning and conscientious person, and rigidly performed what she considered her duty to the young people confided to her care; but happily the art of education is better understood now than it was twenty years ago, and the relation of governess and pupil has more of affectionate interest, and less of distance and reserve than it had then.

But to continue my story-when Ellzabeth had been a few months at school, our ideas of her consequence and elevated position were greately increased by an incident, which happened during the election which took place, on the death of one of the members of parliament, returned by the old borough town in which Miss Percy resided: and as our electioneering adventures will require some description, we must defer the relation of them till next month. S.A.

(To be continued.)

SELF-EDUCATION.

(From the Working Man's Charter.)

How little do most men, and especially young men, understand what Education is. The common notion about it seems to be, the learning to read and write, and to do a few rules of arithmetic; and when a lad has reached a certain age at school, and has there acquired as much as he has been able to pick up in the time allotted him, he leaves it, and seems to think himself a man in understanding, and a wise man in learning, because he has attained some proficiency in the mere rudiments not of knowledge, but of the means of acquiring knowledge.

From this time forward, many seem to lay aside all further

care about their education, to content themselves for the present with what they do know; and, as they advance in years, necessarily forgetting what they once learned, but have never kept up, they comfort themselves with telling of what they did know, and what they did learn at school, as if this shadow of the past could be of any avail or benefit to them.

But is this little really Education? So far from this being education, it is the mere first steps towards it; it is nothing more than learning to handle the tools, that they may be afterwards skilfully employed in the hands of the diligent, to his own improvement, and his own benefit. The learning that we acquire at school is but the beginning of education, and because we have left school, our education is not necessarily complete, but only begun, for what we have learned, we have yet to learn the application and practice of, in all the requirements and duties of life.

And now it is that we must commence the most important part of education, Self-Education-the applying what others have taught us to the teaching ourselves—the carrying on what others have begun for us, to our own self-improvement. Now, in reality, begins true education, for whatever a man learns himself, he always knows better than what he learns from others. Not that, therefore, the help and the advice of others are to be disregarded at any time, for we must use all the aids of men or books that we can. But we must set ourselves to work upon ourselves, and we must no longer be children dependent upon others to teach us, but striving to teach ourselves.

When we were young, our food was provided for us, but even then we ate and digested it for ourselves; now we must not only do this, but we must earn it also, acquire it for ourselves, and so in understanding and in knowledge become men. "When I was a child," says the apostle, "I thought as a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things." So must we put away our childish things, our leading-strings, our mere spelling, writing copies, learning tasks, and the like; and we must find the best books, and the best means of instruction that we can; and we must set to work diligently to teach ourselves.

I will give you a most eminent example of this. The Astro

nomer Royal, who is always one of the most learned mathematicians and philosophers in the kingdom, and who has the charge and management of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, makes every year a report of his proceedings to the Board of Visitors. In that for the year 1837, having recommended some additions to the library, which had already been much improved under his care, he makes the following very important remark:-"I trust that I shall be supported by the approbation of the Board of Visitors, in regard to a point which affects in no trivial degree the education, not only of myself and my assistants, but of my successors also, and their assistants."

You will say, "Who can this Astronomer Royal be, who talks thus of educating himself? He ought to be a master at his trade, not a learner. What can he be worth as Astronomer Royal?"

Well, I will tell you a word or two about him. He is a member of the University of Cambridge, and there, when only twenty-one years of age, he took his degree, and was not only the best man of his year, having the highest honor assigned to him, but he was so far above the second man, that he more deserved to be placed by himself, as in a race the best horse wil! be alone named, and all the rest distanced, as it is called, or left far behind. In a word, it was said at the time, and that with great truth, that there had not been so good a mathematician since the time of the great Sir Isaac Newton.

Now, surely, you will allow that here was indeed a welleducated philosopher, and we might all of us be proud to know half as much as he did, when he took his degree with so much honor, in the year 1823. Many men, who like him have taken their degree at College, have no sooner done so, than they have thrown away their books, and cared no more about reading, or learning, or education, and all their former study has seemed thenceforth to be wasted. But not so with him. Fourteen years after, in the year 1837, when acting as Astronomer Royal, he was intent upon educating and improving himself. And although eleven years more have passed away since then, we may be sure that he is as earnest as ever in his plan of Self-Education. Now, what an example is this to us. Does not this fact speak powerfully to every one of us, "Go, and do thou likewise ;" and whenever we look upon either the building itself, or only, it may

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