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Children are fond of many employments which neither exert mind nor body, but give pleasant feelings of occupation without any fatigue. These are often condemned as loss of time. Perhaps Miss Edgeworth and Rousseau are too partial to them; and yet it may, possibly, be a greater error to reject them altogether. The hours of youth are long enough to allow a space for these harmless amusements. The day of childhood is long as a polar day,

Which will not see

A sunset till its summer's gone,

Its sleepless summer of long light.

That of advanced age, in comparison, seems contracted to a span. Nothing is more curious than this apparent, and therefore, as to its effects, real inequality of duration; this accelerated motion of time, like that which impelled the Caliph Vathek and his companions to the Hall of Eblis: this spiral line, contracting at every turn, till it comes to a point, and concludes all.

The mind is not of necessity idle, because the fingers are busy: while making a screen, or arranging a series of prints, thought may take flight, and the imagination ripen by long excur

sions into the ideal world. The time we pass in reflection is that which improves, not the hours we bend over a book or a pen. Technical employments promote calmness; and of those who are not forced to labour for subsistence, whose wants are supplied, and whose pleasures are prepared, the greater part require to be quieted rather than excited. One would hesitate in proposing these pastimes to a boy of genius, but it is ill-judged to forbid them. His own mind may discern what is good for him, better than any observer, however-clear-sighted; and the mechanical pursuit we condemn, may sheath some corroding sharpness, or tranquillize some irritation, which opposition or neglect might exasperate.

"Laissez-nous faire" is too much neglected in education, as well as in politics. Parents and governors are too anxious their pupils should be wise, good, and happy, exactly their way. They forget the infinite variety of existence, and diversity of excellence, this world affords, and would narrow all modes of actions to the breadth of that invisible hair, on which the Mohammedans suppose all true believers must pass, over a

fiery gulf, to reach their paradise. In the hands of such instructors, either all the blossoms of moral beauty are crushed, or the pupil, if his mind be ardent, and his sensibility acute, imbibes a silent and deep-rooted disgust towards his teachers; for which, internally, he sometimes reproaches himself, and sometimes them.

When this disgust occurs, their influence is over. The spell is broken. The vessel is adrift: perhaps to enter on a nobler career; perhaps to perish from the want of a pilot.

THE END.

LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.

APPROVED BOOKS OF INSTRUCTION AND

Those to which a

ENTERTAINMENT,

FOR YOUNG PERSONS.

is prefixed, are published under the Direction of the Committee of General Literature and Education of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

FIRST SUNDAYS at CHURCH; or, FAMILIAR CONVERSATIONS on the MORNING and EVENING SERVICES. By the Rev. J. E. RIDDLE, M.A. 3s. 6d.

THIS Work has been composed with a view to explain and recommend the chief of those principles of religious worship, and of Christian sentiment and practice, which are set forth in Scripture, and are maintained, in all purity, by that reformed branch of the Apostolical Church which is established in these realms.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL, or LINDENHURST PARISH, a Tale; by ROSINA M. ZORNLIN. 2s. 6d.

POPULAR DELINEATIONS OF YOUTHFUL
CHARACTER;

By CATHERINE GRACE GODWIN, Author of "THE WAN-
DERER'S LEGACY," "THE REPROVING ANGEL," &c.

FAMILIAR Tales of domestic life, wherein the results of education, and the effects of habit, for good or bad, are practically illustrated. The stories abound in sketches of life and character-the incidents are those of every-day occurrence -the scenes are at once instructive and cheerful-and the narratives are relieved by poetry and dialogue.

1. COUSIN KATE; or, the Punishment of Pride.

2. BASIL HARLOW; or, Prodigality is not Generosity. 3. ESTHER MORE; or, Truth is Wisdom.

4. LOUISA SEYMOUR; or, Hasty Impressions.
5. ALICIA GREY; or, To be Useful is to be Happy.
6. JOSEPHINE; or, Early Trials.

All with many Engravings. 2s. each.

TALES AND STORIES FROM HISTORY.

By

AGNES STRICKLAND. Two Vols., with many Engravings. 7s. EACH of these stories is either founded upon, or connected with, some important event in History, and furnishes useful and entertaining information as to the Manners and Customs of the peculiar era to which it relates.

FABLES and MORAL MAXIMS, in PROSE and VERSE. Selected by ANNE PARKER. With One Hundred Cuts. 3s. 6d. Of the numerous collections of Fables published from time to time, a large majority, and particularly some which are known as School Editions of Æsop's and of GAY'S FABLES, abound in subjects and expressions, not merely repulsive from their coarseness, but more gravely objectionable from their anti-social, and, frequently, immoral tendency. The grounds of such objections have been avoided in the present collection, into which it is hoped and believed that nothing has been admitted of which parents and teachers can disapprove.

POPULAR POEMS FOR YOUNG PERSONS. lected by ELIZABETH PARKER. 3s. 6d.

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*A FAMILIAR HISTORY of BIRDS: their Nature, Habits, and Instincts. By the Rt. Rev. EDWARD STANLEY, D.D., F.L.S., Lord Bishop of Norwich. Two Volumes, with many Engravings. 7s.

THIS work is intended for a class of readers to whom mere scientific details would be unacceptable, if not unintelligible. Such therefore have been, as much as possible, avoided, and only alluded to as inducements to those who are interested in the subject, to make further progress in so attractive a department of Natural History.

* DOMESTICATED ANIMALS considered with reference to Civilization and the Arts. By MARY ROBERTS. With Engravings. 3s. 6d.

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THIS work comprises a general survey of Domestic Quadrupeds, and the poses they subserve in the great economy of nature: their connexion, too, with the progress of civilization and the arts, with the history of nations, and the peculiarities of soil and climate, are also specified.

* WILD ANIMALS; their Nature, Habits, and Instincts; with Incidental Notices of the Regions they inhabit. By the same Author. With Engravings. 3s. 6d.

Who is willing to follow with me, in imagination, Wild Animals to their accustomed haunts, and to observe how wonderfully they are adapted for the places which they are designed to fill? Who is inclined to notice the grand or beautiful scenery by which they are surrounded, and to learn somewhat concerning the instincts with which their Maker has endowed them?

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