and labours have proved their title to unfading laurels : and exemplified a maxim given us on an authority not to be questioned: First seek ye the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you.

LETTER XI. On Retributive Justice.

As the visible signs of retributive Justice constitute one of the most remarkable features in the moral history of man; so it ought, in the cource of intellectual education, to be early pointed out to children, who should be taught to regard it as affording the strongest evidenee of a Divine Governour and supporting in the highest degree the doctrine of rewards and punishments, forming thereby a solid basis whereon to found a moral code. So we should particularly point out to them those passages in Holy Writ which declare that, the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, and shall be multiplied as the cedars of Libanon. We might then go to the very words of Jesus Christ himself in the ever memorable Sermon on the Mount, wherein he declares that: Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy together with other beatitudes all declaratory of an invisible principle of retribution. We might then shew them that profane authors afforded a collateral testimony to the existence of such a principle, making them get by heart such passages as declared:

Nec lex sit justior ulla.

Quam necis artifices arte perire sua.

Plainly indicating that it were a matter of common observation that the contrivers of mischief would be caught and would perish in their own snares that he that draws the sword shall perish by the sword that

Raro antecedentem scelestum,
Deseruit pede Pœna duro.

By degrees we might give them to read Spelmans History of Sacrilege, wherein so many judgments of God are recorded as to leave no doubt, on the mind, of the temporal punishment of the wicked in this world, and to confirm at once the moral rules of Christianity, the holy doctrine of the church, and the sacred character of public institutions of charity. Lastly we might let them read, Lactantius de morte persecutorum: wherein it is clearly shown that great persecutors have generally been the victims, before long, of persecution. The burner has too often been burned, the assassin assassinated, and the slanderer scandalized, to suppose that the coincidences were natural and belonged to the common chapter of accidents. When tyrants be repeatedly brought to a bad end by means analogous to those which they had employed to destroy their victims; we cannot avoid seeing, in their punishment, the hand of divine justice. If we attentively observe Nature we shall be able to trace the wounds of this flail of Justice in almost all the consequences of evil actions. Not even the most seemingly trifling act of oppression or cruelty, whether to man or other animals ever escapes an appropriate punishment. And it is therefore that God directs us not to avenge sins. He says nevertheless, revenge is mine: I will repay. Poets have represented Justice as a female of perfect

beauty and symetry, to represent the harmony of the judgments of retributive equity, with the horn of plenty in one hand ready to fill the storehouse of the merciful; but with a scourge in the other always flourished on the backs of the rebellious, while she treads with heels of iron on the tyrant and oppressor. I know of some remarkable cases of persons who have been cruel to animals, and who have afterwards fallen victims to animals of the same species. And the story is well known of a person who having shot another, in a particular spot in Dublin, during the interregnum of the rebellion, was himself shot by accident, being mistaken for another person, twenty years afterwards on the same place in that city! But we need not add fresh examples to what is well known of the judgments of Heaven on the wicked; but conclude with a more pleasing side of the picture; while we point out to children the security afforded to virtue by the same sacred power which punishes vice.

Integer vitae scelerisque purus.

Non eget Mauri jaculis neque arcu.

In short we cannot place morality on a firmer basis than by convincing children that every deviation from duty will be punished here; and that this temporary castigation is but the epitome of what the wicked must expect in purgatory, and a fleabite to that which awaits the finally impenetent in Hell — that on the otherhand happiness both now and hereafter will be the portion of the just; and that the true recipe for peace of mind is:

Nil conscire sibi, nullá pallescere culpá.

It is lamentable to find, on the contrary, that our schools

are almost seminaries of inquity; every bad habit is there engendered, every vice srengthered; and the child by turns is slave and slave driver, under the foolish nic names of fag and master. He learns every thing but Christianity, which word remaining as it were on his breastplate, and in his mouth is the mere badge of the hypocrite, and serves only to teach the child how more securely to sin under the deceitful mask of Virtue, which his whole education has taught him to wear. Exceptions there are to this general description among many amiable individuals, who have become both great and virtuous, in spite of a bad education; and perhaps a large portion of exemptions are to be found among the society of Quakers; in our well overlooked schools and colleges, and in many academies on the continent. But in no one institution have I yet seen that strict and constant attention to the evil influence of dangerous impressions on youth, which it is the object of these letters to point out, and which alone, when well applied in substance to all classes of the community, can sinsure a virtuous population, by placing the pyramid of social compact on a firm and imperishable basis.

If any patriot shall desire to say, on quiting this world, Exegi monumentum aere perennius!. let him found a college of real, and not pseudo Christian, education, on the principles which I have herein endeavoured however imperfectly, to recommend to the consideration of the more able conductors of this important branch of political œconomy.

LETTER XII. Physical Education considered.

By physical education is understood the bringing up a child in those habits of temperance, exercise and cleanliness which give the greatest strength and durability to the body. On this subject I shall be rather brief, since much has been written thereon in all books of popular medecine.

Observe first, that the principle thing to be attended to is the state of the bowels. Whenever the alvine evacuations be deficient or of a green or unnatural colour, a few grains, say three, of the pulvis scammoniae with one of calomel, may be safely given, even to infants of one and two years old. Later in life a pil of 3 grains aloes and one of calomel taken, .now and then, before dinner will keep up a healthy action of the bowels, and consequently tend to maintain health. Some of the antibilious pills, as Morisons or Hunts, and other patent medecines, are very useful in this respect.

The following rules for children will be found highly beneficial.

Let children always rise early, and take exercise before breakfast, which should take place between seven and eight o'clock, according to the season. They should be sponged all over with tepid, or in summer, cold water every morning on first getting up. They should dine about two or three o'clock; and by no means be allowed to eat between meals. Their dinner should be of good bread, light pudding, well boiled vegetables, and every sort, of ripe fruit in plenty. Their soup should not be too strong,