en impressed on their memories;
but they have seldom been taught to appreciate them in all their
bearings, or to reduce them to practice in the various and minute
ramifications of their conduct. Besides, although every rational means
were employed for training the youthful mind till the age above named,
no valid reason can be assigned why regular instruction should cease at
this early period.

Man is a progressive being; his faculties are capable of an indefinite
expansion; the objects to which these faculties may be directed are
boundless and infinitely diversified; he is moving onward to an eternal
world, and, in the present state, can never expect to grasp the
universal system of created objects, or to rise to the highest point of
moral excellence. His tuition, therefore, can not be supposed to
terminate at any period of his terrestrial existence; and the course of
his life ought to be considered as nothing more than the course of his
education. When he closes his eyes in death, and bids a last adieu to
every thing here below, he passes into a more permanent and expansive
state of existence, where his education will likewise be progressive,
and where intelligences of a higher order may be his instructors; and
the education he received in this transitory scene, _if it was properly
conducted_, will found the ground-work of all his future progressions in
knowledge and virtue throughout the succeeding periods of eternity.

There are two very glaring defects which appear in most of our treatises
on education. In the first place, the moral tuition of youthful minds,
and the grand principles of religion which ought to direct their views
and conduct, are either entirely overlooked, or treated of in so vague
and general a manner, as to induce a belief that they are considered
matters of very inferior moment; and, in the business of teaching, and
the superintendence of the young, the moral precepts of Christianity
are seldom made to bear with particularity upon every malignant
affection that manifests itself, and every minor delinquency that
appears in their conduct, or to direct the benevolent affections how to
operate in every given circumstance, and in all their intercourses and
associations. In the next place, the idea that man is a being destined
to an immortal existence, is almost, if not altogether overlooked.
Volumes have been written on the best modes of training men for the
profession of a soldier, of a naval office