characters might be sketched, and exhibited in the best light! how many useful hints, upon almost every topic, might be given! and, as the scriptures are the standard of moral excellence, as well as the guide of our faith, and the unerring rule of our practice, they should be daily read, in the originals, if understood, and, if not, in our generally correct translation.

It has frequently been objected that, according to the present system of classical education, the minds of youth are rendered familiar with the vices attributed by the writers to their deities. But, it deserves attention, whether their portrait should not be adduced, as furnishing indubitable evidence of the necessity of a divine revelation; as illustrating the degraded ideas which the greatest writers of antiquity had formed of Deity; and as proving what their morals must have been, since their standard was so low, and that the streams can never rise higher than the fountain. Let their descriptions be compared

with that of the sacred writers, and the deformity of the one will more clearly appear by contrasting it with the surpassing beauty and correctness of the other.

Without, however, mooting so delicate a question, it is certain that the standard of education ought not to be lowered; and that every one, to whom the instructing and guiding of youth are intrusted, occupies a station in society, which has ever been looked upon as one of the most interesting and important; and, therefore, as one, which of all others, perhaps, requires the most liberal attainments, the most enlightened views, the most benevolent heart, the most disinterested motives, and a manly, but ardent and enlightened piety. His patience is, indeed, largely drawn upon, and, like the husbandman, he has to wait long for the fruits of his labour; but, he has one, perhaps, under his care, who will amply compensate him for all his toils, inasmuch as that one may contribute to the happiness of thousands. The pre

ceptor of a Howard, or of a Martyn, ranks infinitely higher, in my estimation, than the preceptor of an Alexander.

Every physician of generous principles, as Plutarch expresses it, would have an uncommon ambition to cure an eye intended to watch over many persons, and to convey the sense of seeing to numbers; and a musical instrument maker would, with uncommon pleasure, exert his skill in perfecting a harp, if he knew that it was to be employed by the hands of Amphion, and by the force of its music, to draw stones together for building the walls of Thebes." Tutors and preceptors, in our colleges, and schools, and academies, are makers of harps for building the fabric of society, and for laying the foundations of the walls of Zion.

Conductors of the Press.

At no period of our literary history were there either so many facilities afforded to the diffusion of general knowledge; or was the press itself conducted with greater ability than it is at the present time. As

the means of conveying information to all classes of the community upon every subject, within the range of the human intellect, so easily, so rapidly, and so universally, we cannot evince, more appropriately, the deep sense we entertain of our obligations to Him who excited the artist powers of those who first invented, and subsequently improved it, than by employing it in his service.* Then alone is it used in character when it teems with generous sentiments, advocates the cause of religion, stimulates every virtuous

It

"It is a striking circumstance that the highminded inventors of this great art tried, at the very outset, so bold a flight as the printing of an entire Bible, and executed it with astonishing success. was Minerva leaping upon earth in her divine strength and radiant armour, ready, at the moment of nativity, to subdue and destroy her enemies. The Mazarin Bible (the first book, properly so called, now extant, and which appeared about 1455) is printed, some copies on vellum, some on paper of choice quality, with strong black, and tolerably handsome characters, but with some want of uniformity, which has led, perhaps unreasonably, to a doubt whether they were cast in a

feeling, frowns upon vice, endeavours to diffuse patriotism among all classes, and lifts its all-powerful voice in behalf of humanity. Its capabilities cannot, however, be enumerated. It is an engine of immense powers, which may be worked, with infinite advantage, for the welfare, not of the British empire merely, but of the world at large. And every wellwisher of his species cannot but regret, that it should ever be desecrated by employing it for any other purpose; while, on the contrary, it reflects an honour upon, as it will be eminently consoling to, those who conduct it, when, reviewing their labours, they can adopt the language of the great apostle to the Gentiles and say,— "We have corrupted no

man."

matrix. He may see in imagination this venerable and splendid volume leading up the crowded myriads of its followers, and imploring, as it were, a blessing on the new art, by dedicating its first fruits to the service of Heaven."-Hallam's Introduction to the Literature of Europe, chap. iii.