at last produce in the
children every desperate vice." As to this matter of education,

OUR GREAT SCHOOLS

have taken it largely out of the parents' hands to guide the course of
instruction, and where this would be done logically, I cannot but feel
it is to the disadvantage of the child; but the system is built for
public, not for individual benefit, and will probably do the greatest
good to the greatest number. If we could have a little less Latin and a
little better spelling, a little less long Latin and a little more good
short Saxon I believe our youth would make their mark easier. Our young
people dislike interest tables and are delighted with long words. Under
the present system and popular taste, our children despise

THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE

until they are thirty years old, whereafter they gradually learn that
the very essence of artful language is contained in its pages. There is
not much need of a long word when a short one sounds better. "The Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters." How like the ripple of
a brook the syllables drop from the tongue! The fall of the voice, and
_the fall of the idea_, make the passage a lovely instance of the
highest art in poetical expression. If our youth could be taught
respect, attention, multiplication and division, spelling, short words,
short sentences, Bible, Shakspeare, and geography, and could spend less
time conjugating foreign verbs, there would be a really higher grade of
intelligence in the end, perhaps, and there would, above all, be more of
that glorious independence of mind which makes a thing worthy of
commendation because it is appreciated, not because somebody else has
said it is good.

WORSHIP.

The Catholics say that if they may have the spiritual culture of the
child till he is ten years of age, they will willingly surrender him
into the hands of the teachers of any other faith, resting secure in
the permanency of early teachings. The great value of early religious
instruction has always been conceded by the most learned. "The first
thing, therefore," says Dr. Priestly, "that a Christian will naturally
inculcate upon his child, as soon as he is capable of receiving such
impressions, is the knowledge of his Maker, and a steady principle of
obedience to Him; the idea of his living under a constant inspection and
government of an invisible being, who will raise hi