subject of which is enunciated at the commencement of it, the work has assumed a broken form, adapted peculiarly, it is conceived, to the purposes of scholastic instruction." **

**❝ If we conceive space spreading out its dimensions infinitely, still, through all its interminable fields, does science show it to us peopled with matter-stars upon stars innumerable-a vista in which suns and systems crowd themselves, and to which imagination affixes no limit. If in like manner, we conceive space to be infinitely divided—as its dimensions grow before the eye of the mind yet less and less-still does it appear a region peopled with the infinite divisions of matter.

"On either side is an abyss-an interminable expanse, through which the creative power of God manifests itself, and an unfathomable" [inaccessible?] "minuteness.

"It is in this last mentioned region, of the inaccessible minuteness of matter, that the principles of the science treated of in the following pages, have their origin. Matter is composed of elements, which are inappreciably and" [apparently?] "infinitely minute; and yet it is within the infinitely minute spaces which separate these elements that the greater number of the forces known to us, have their only sensible action. These, including compressibility, extensibility, elasticity, strength, capillary attraction and adhesion, receive their illustration in the first THREE chapters of the following work. The FOURTH takes up the science of Equilibrium, or Statics; applies in numerous examples the fundamental principles of that science, the parallelogram of forces, and the equality of moments; then passes to the question of stability, and to the conditions of the resistance of a surface; traces

the operation of each of the mechanical powers under the influence of friction; and embraces the question of the stability of edifices, piers, walls, arches, and domes.

"The FIFTH chapter enters upon the Science of Dynamics. Numerous familiar illustrations establish the permanence of the force which accompanies motion-show how it may be measured-where in a moving body it may be supposed to be collected-exhibit the important mechanical properties of the centres of spontaneous rotation, percussion, and gyration-the nature of centrifugal force, and the properties of the principal axes of a body's rotation-the accumulation and destruction of motion in a moving body, and the laws of gravitation.

"The LAST chapter of the work opens with a series of illustrations, the object of which is to make intelligible, under its most general form, the principle of virtual velocities, and to protect practical men against the errors into which, in the application of this universal principle of mechanics, they are peculiarly liable to fall. It terminates with various illustrations of those general principles which govern the reception, transmission, and application of power by machinery, the measure of dynamical action, and the numerical efficiencies of different agents-principles which receive their final application, in an estimate of the dynamical action on the moving and working points of a steam-engine."

Though, however, there were works even of far greater pretensions than the two here recommended for perusal, the author would close this section of his labours with reiterating the words, "Lectures! Lectures! Lectures!"

SUCH is the course of general study which the author ventures to lay down, after much consideration, experience, and anxious inquiry, for the guidance of his younger readers. The difficulty of the task which he has undertaken, can be appreciated only by those who may have preceded him in similar attempts. However his suggestions may be received, he has felt impelled to offer them, by convictions produced during many years' attentive observation of the various classes of students who have from time to time entered the legal profession and in conclusion, the author would whisper, in a friendly spirit, into the ears of any conceited and self-satisfied person who may chance to look at these pages, a caution uttered by a great man—

MULTI AD SAPIENTIAM PERVENISSENT, NISI SE JAM

PERVENISSE PUTASSENT!"

CHAPTER VI.

ON THE FORMATION OF A LEGAL CHARACTER.

PART III.MENTAL DISCIPLINE.

NEXT to the inculcation, upon his son, of the sublime and all-important truths of religion, an intelligent father's very earliest efforts should be directed judiciously, gradually, and perseveringly, to the mental discipline of that son; especially if the father's position in life warrant him in looking forward to the introduction of his son into one of the learned professions, but above all, into that of THE BAR. The earliest years of childhood very seldom receive that species and degree of attention which they imperatively require. Children are disposed to observe, and to consider, far more-they begin to think much earlier than even a watchful parent often gives them credit for but their little efforts in this direction, so far from being tenderly and vigilantly assisted, are too often either utterly neglected, or disregarded, by anxiouslyoccupied fathers, or overpowered and confounded by the premature and mechanical acquisition of knowledge. Those who have been accustomed to observe very young children, are often surprised at their pertinacious curiosity to find out the connection between cause and effect in

ordinary occurrences, and the reasons on which dogmatic information is based. Without unduly prosecuting this interesting and important topic, the author-himself a parent-would earnestly recommend parents to begin betimes, but discreetly, with the effort to form a habit of attention in their children-as one which will, in due time, prodigiously abridge the difficulty both of their acquiring, and of communicating to them, knowledge, and early train the mental faculties to encounter successfully with difficulty. Though nothing can be more cruel or perilous than to exact too much from a child in the way above suggested, yet a very great deal more may be safely and happily effected than is attempted in one out of a hundred instances. It is a just observation of the distinguished philosopher already quoted-Dugald Stewart, that "in general, where habits of inattention, and an incapacity for observation, are very remarkable, they will be found. to have arisen from some defect in early education:"* and the root of that defect, it is conceived, is often to be found in the prevalent error of cramming the memory, instead of exercising the understanding, of youth. These and similar considerations should be anxiously pondered by the parent who meditates sending a son to the Bar, if he would diminish the difficulties to be encountered by that son-and give him a fair, or a superior, chance of success and distinction.-How few young men who are considered to have enjoyed the advantages of the best education, have been really taught to THINK! How many only affect to think how many are given credit for being thinkers, who really have not a shadow of right to the title! How fatally easy it is for youth to slip into a slovenly habit of

* Elem, of Philos. c. vi. § 7, p. 469 (6th ed.)