est admixture of other motives; and how far the heads of our public institutions are right in availing themselves so largely of the emulative principle of our nature, I leave to the decision of more competent judges; but I have already trespassed too long on the patience of your readers, and shall resign the further investigation of this subject, "so full of matter," to others better qualified, by the possession of more time and ability, to arrive at a "truthful conclusion."

SIR,-It is not without much satisfaction, that I have watched the progress of your valuable Magazine, and I heartily wish it success, both for its cause sake, and for the principles which it advocates. May I, then, be permitted to enter my humble protest, if not against the views of the Article in your June Number on the Means of Exciting Diligence in Study," at least against the arguments by which those views are supported.

We are therein told, that one powerful incentive to study, which, either from a misapprehension of its nature and effects, or doubts of its moral tendency, it has lately become fashionable to decry, is emulation. Now I heartily wish, that the supposed depreciation of this incentive to study were far more fashionable than I believe it to be; and that the one great motive to obedience and improvement, to which in the Scriptures of truth all other motives are made subsidiary, viz., the love of Him who first loved us, were more generally substituted amongst our youth, who, although baptized into the faith of Jesus, are too often educated almost without a reference to His atoning sacrifice. But the point to which I particularly would draw your attention, is the following sentence :-"In numerous passages (of Scripture) favourable allusion is made to circumstances, which of necessity imply competition, as in reference to the Grecian games, striving for the mastery,' and again warning us 'lest any take our crown.' I cannot but think these texts most unfortunately and erroneously chosen. For, to take the whole passage, in which the first occurs: "Know ye not, that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things." Can it be believed, that the allusion of the apostle means more than that as there were many conquered, so there was only one winner of the Gentile games; and so also, it behoved the Christian to remember in his race, that without temperance, failure (the more common fate) and not victory, would be his portion? Thus, at least, it is that Bishop Pearce, quoted in Mant and D'Oyly's Notes, explains it: "So run that ye may obtain. It appears to be the apostle's intention to encourage Christians to run, because as many as run may obtain. In the Isthmian races, indeed, only one carried away the prize, and the

rest received no reward; but in the Christian race all may run, and all may win too. The preceding verse implies, that many may be partakers of the heavenly prize at the same time." Is it not the very glory of our Christian profession, and of its heavenly rewards, that our success is attainable so entirely without the detriment or failure of others, that it even adds to their glory and their joy? Thus St. Paul, 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8, using the same metaphor: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

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And this brings me to the other quotation, viz., the warning given to the Philadelphian church, that no man take her crown. Surely no interpreter has ever understood more by this phrase, than that "she lose not her crown?" Surely none has ever ventured to assert on the faith of it—and this would be the only hypothesis upon which the idea of competition could be admitted—that there are only a certain number of crowns laid up for the faithful in heaven, so that what one man takes another loses ! I must say, however, that the simple gloss in the Geneva Bible satisfies me much more than the more common acceptation of this verse, and by this it will be seen, it is carried altogether beside the question :- -"Let no man pluck them away, which thou hast won to God; for they are thy crown, as St. Paul writeth, saying, Brethren, ye are my joy and my crown. Phil. iv. 1; 1 Thess. ii. 19."

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I will not further follow the writer in his reference to Quintilian's opinions; the whole system of heathen ethics and heathen motives of action being, as I believe, not only incompatible with, but diametrically opposed to, the spirit of the Gospel. Whilst I have this blessed book to guide me, I shall never seek as an authority" in such matters, a man whose natural corruptions, unsubdued and unenlightened by divine grace, was most likely to lead him astray; and who was of the number of those, as the apostle speaks, whom, not liking to retain God in their knowledge, God gave over to a mind void of judgment, and who were not only themselves guilty, but had pleasure in them that were guilty of maliciousness, envy, malignity, despitefulness, pride, deceit, implacability! (Rom. i. 28-32).

I cannot, I confess, be surprised that the unhappy victims of judicial error and sinfulness, should commend emulation as a principle of action; but I am surprised to find Christians overlooking such commands as these: "Be kindly affectioned one to another, with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another."- In lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves." Look not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of others."

I feel, however, that I have already occupied too much of your space and time. It was not, as I said, on the general question that I so much wished to speak, as on the arguments which your correspondent adduced in its support. Perhaps, if he has any sounder than these, he may be tempted to advance them; and, in the meantime, fully agreeing with him that "the exertions of the young would speedily languish, and eventually cease, unless a substitute for emulation were provided;"

but, earnestly suggesting that this substitute may be found in the love of Jesus Christ, I must for the present be allowed to retain my abhorrence of this motive of action, and to leave it still in the sad brotherhood with which God's word has coupled it" emulation, wrath, strife," &c. I have the honour to be your faithful servant,

C. W. B.

IRELAND; ITS EDUCATIONAL WANTS AND DIFFICULTIES.

A DIALOGUE.

It was on a brilliant evening in the Autumn of 1842 that I was standing with a dear and valued friend on his terrace at T. Before us lay

a noble reach of the river Shannon, with a solitary little boat breaking the calm expanse of its waters. At the extremity of the lake, for such it seemed, rose the square massy buildings of the city of L.; the tower of the old cathedral hanging over the smoke of the houses, and in the distance a glorious range of mountains purpled with the light of the setting sun. We stood for some time in silence watching the bright hues and shadows, tinting by fits the sides of the C. hills, which shot up from the opposite banks of the river, as a sun-beam fell on the old grey tower of C., or some streak of green pasturage, which ran creeping up the side of the hill-moor. And the thoughts of both were turning to the one sad subject which had occupied us during the morning, or rather on every day that we met-the state of Ireland— the contrast of that noble river, that old cathedral, those glorious colours, and all the charms of nature's scenery, set side by side with a group of half naked boys and labourers, whom he was employing, as a sort of charity, in completing his terrace, and who listlessly and vacantly, without plan or system, were shovelling away the earth, as if neither labour nor rest could bring to them any enjoyment. And this then at last," said M., as he rested sadly his tall manly figure on the wall of the terrace," this is to be the end of Ireland!"

"What!" I said. "This," he continued, pointing to his poor workmen, "their poverty, their listlessness, their miserable thraldom; and we, the landlords of Ireland, condemned to witness it from year to year, until we are finally swallowed up or destroyed, without the power to raise an arm for their relief or for our own safety. Must not this be the result of all you said this morning, when you refused to go to my school?"

"No," I said, "I should hope not. I do not think, if what we said was true and right, that truth and right can ever bring about so sad an end. Even if they did lead to it, those who have the spirit of faith would still follow them. But why press me again on a subject which is so full of pain, and on which I have said already more than I desired."

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Because," he continued, "I am in great straight, and cannot see my way from it; and when I look round for guidance or help in this country, on all sides the same difficulties present themselves, and none seem to know how to extricate themselves. We all alike own that some

thing is wrong in our system; and that we are persevering in this system from views of expediency, from practical considerations. Sometimes it occurs to me, that practical considerations are not the best or wisest to guide us in great questions; that fears and hopes may be pressing too closely upon us to permit us to see the depth of truth. And you whose life has been spent in a cloister, and who here have no temporal or local interests to bias your judgment, may view things more generally and more calmly. I do not promise to adopt your view, but it may be useful in some degree to shape my course.'

"" If you did make such a promise," I replied, "it would only bind me to silence. I believe, with you, that what are called practical modes of dealing with great moral questions are false and fatal-that without a deep theory, a sound and high philosophy, practice is but quackery; and it is quackery at this moment which has involved you in your present perplexities. But the theory to be safe must be true, and to be true it must be exactly applicable to the circumstances of each case. And whether a stranger, bred as you say in a cloister, and knowing comparatively little of Ireland, and not brought familiarly and habitually into contact with its people, can form a correct view of its peculiar circumstances, may well be doubted. And at any rate it is painful to increase, rather than relieve, your difficulties, by new suggestions; and to make such suggestions from a height and a distance, like a spectator encouraging a soldier to advance to battle, while he himself looks on. And more than all, are there not questions-the gravest questions— which can occupy the mind, and education the foremost among them, on which confessedly the present age is ignorant, and we are ignorant with them; ignorant, perhaps, not so much as a few years back, but still with eyes half open, groping about for information, dissatisfied with received doctrines, and yet grasping nothing new with firmness."

"Perhaps it is so," he said sadly.

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'And yet," I continued, we ought not to give up inquiry and thoughtfulness, provided only we resolve not to act hastily on new opinions, and not follow the advice of others without fully realizing and embracing the principles on which the advice is given. I know few things more likely to terminate in mischief, than to induce others to depart from a definite course which they are pursuing conscientiously, and to enter on a new path, until they can with equal definiteness and equal conscientiousness advance on it, and find their way to the end by themselves. If, therefore, I do venture to suggest what seems to be the faulty principle, and the cause of failure in your present school, and indeed in the general system of education, which has for years been pursued in Ireland, will you take it with the warning added to it—that no change should be made hastily, and that every new opinion from a stranger ought to be open in your eyes to distrust, and to be weighed with the greatest caution before it is received."

'I will," he said, "most willingly;" and he drew my arm in his, and led me down into the wood.

"One thing indeed," I said, after a pause, "might perhaps be urged to remove some of the prejudice which you are bound to feel against my novelties that in my case, in the case of persons connected with the

English Universities, and especially with Oxford, an opinion on your grand problem of United Education is not wholly a theory. Several years since it was brought home practically to ourselves. We fought the same battle which you yourselves are now fighting against the so-called National Board, when on the same principles of tyrannical liberality we were urged to admit Dissenters into our English Universities. I do not say that the whole question, in all its bearings, was then brought before us; for our eyes then were far less open to many great truths connected with it, than they have been since. We were happily startled from a deep slumber, and snatched up the first weapons which lay ready to repel the attack. Since then each hour has opened our views, and I believe, in thoughtful minds, has disposed us to look upon the existence of that day, rather in the light of a wonderful and providential interposition of Almighty God, to preserve his truth in its citadel, even while the guards were disposed to be unfaithful, or to sleep at their posts, than as an ordinary and casual manifestation of feeling or principle. If that resistance had not been made, humanly speaking, at this day all hope for truth must have been lost. That it was made, to those who know how it was aroused and how conducted, it seems a miracle. You, too, in the Irish Church, are now involved in the same great conflict. God grant that it will end as happily."

May

"And yet," replied M, "our position is not like yours in all things. You had not, as we have, the great mass of your population in your hearts, with the responsibility of providing, as far as lay in you, for their spiritual and moral, as well as their physical good. You were in possession of exclusive institutions, founded and endowed for exclusive purposes, and you maintained your possession of them. We, the landlords and the clergy of Ireland, have wealth, and zeal, and knowledge, which we are bound to bring to bear upon the happiness of the people, with no obvious, or, to common eyes, intelligible duty, to prevent our imparting them freely to all around us. Precedent and property, statutes and oaths, might be thrown up as barriers to the removal of your exclusive system. But we have none of them. All that do exist point in the opposite direction.”

Yes," I said," they do; and you, who know all that has passed in my mind on the subject of Ireland, since you first led me through it, will not charge me with wishing to estrange you from your duties or affection to your people. In these we both agree. Even if you were cold and selfish, and thought only of your rents and your comfort (which, blessed be God, you are not), your very selfishness would compel you to think of your peasantry, even before yourselves. Your existence depends on them. Let Ireland advance as it is advancing, in the same career of affected liberality and real determined Popery, and in a few years, landlord and clergy, England and Ireland, alike will be in the hands of "

Hush!" said M., "for there are persons working by the paths, and we must be careful what we say."

Yes," I continued, in a lower voice, "there are persons here, and persons all around you—the labourers on your farms, the servants in your houses, the poor mendieants whom you relieve at your doors, the