some of the opinions contained in these "Strictures," have a direct tendency to check the ardour of benevolence, and deprive the mind of its best consolations, amidst the glooms of adversity. In regard to this apprehension, I shall only observe, that education is too important to be made a subject of inconsiderate experiment, and that it is a sufficient reason for deferring any attention to topics of controverted theology till mature life, -that every excellent effect may be produced without recurring to them, and that their introduction includes the possibility of danger.

After having thus stated what appears to me a capital objection to the "Strictures" of Miss H. More, I should be deficient in respect to the literary reputation of that lady, if I neglected to add, that this objection is the principal, and, perhaps, the only one that can be urged against them. Their perusal is due not only to their reputation, but also to the very considerable portion of practical morality, which is scattered through their pages. I shall particularly instance the chapter upon natural history, which contains some of the most glowing sentiments of an elevated and rational piety, which the compass of literature can produce, expressed in language at once animated and elegant. It would, indeed, be impossible to

rise from the perusal of this chapter without having derived instruction, and having at least formed a wish to be better.

The system of the Edgeworths is liable to an objection of an opposite nature. If in the Strictures of Miss H. More, religious opinions are inculcated with a minuteness which can produce no other effect than perpetuate the empire of prejudice, the authors of "Practical Education,” altogether neglect the sacred sanctions of religion, which furnish the best motives to the practice of virtue, and consequently are necessary to happiness. This system, it is admitted, leaves the parent and tutor at liberty to inculcate their peculiar religious opinions; but it is equally true, that the cultivation of the moral powers is an important, perhaps, the most important part of education, and that it may be ingrafted upon any religious opinions; but that to neglect this cultivation, is to introduce a defect for which the most splendid acquisitions, either in science or art, cannot compensate.

A feature peculiarly characteristic of the "Practical Education," is mental activity. Upon this system every thing is possible: to education alone must be ascribed all the difference, which is conceivable to exist between the highest point

of mental improvement, and the lowest degree of intellectual degradation. It was education that created the superiority of Newton to the herd of his contemporaries; and circumstances equally propitious would produce a generation of Newtons. The sentiment, indeed, of which the "Practical Education" may be considered an amplification, is, that all the circumstances, which in any state of its progress, can influence or affect the mind, constitute its education-and that the variety of these circumstances produces the various degrees of power or imbecility, which are found to exist in the human mind. It is impossible to conceive a system better calculated to produce the labour, which is, upon every system, acknowledged to be the only passport to eminence, or which more immediately tends to excite that emulation, which may be said to kindle the torch of genius, if it cannot impart to it that ignifying power, by which it is rendered capable of diffusing illumination through the regions of intellect.

I have now so nearly exhausted the limits usually assigned to my " ponderings," that I have only room to observe, that from both the extremes which constitute the principal defects in the systems of Edgeworth and More, the production of Miss Hamilton is entirely exempt. Formed in

the school of Locke and Hartley, this lady appears to have imbibed a large portion of the philosophical accuracy of those eminent masters; which she clothes in language so perspicuous and elegant, that it may be said of her, that she has brought metaphysics from the philosopher's closet to the drawing-room; and that metaphysical disquisitions, in the form of a tale, from her pen, have become sources of amusement.

Her letters on education, are calculated to form、 the mind to every moral, as well as intellectual perfection, while the several steps of the progress are in perfect unison with all the established laws of intellect. It would, perhaps, be impossible for the imagination to form a picture of excellence, to which Miss Hamilton's work would be much inferior, and consequently it is difficult either to peruse it too frequently, or to commend it too highly.

L.

THE PONDERER. No. 18.

Hic murus aheneus esto,

Nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescere culpa.

HORACE.

For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight,
His can't be wrong, whose life is in the right.

POPE.

TO THE PONDERER.

TIME consists of a succession of ideas; and when this succession is destroyed, time is a nonentity. This is peculiarly felt when an event long passed, and almost forgotten, is revived: the two impressions seem so near to each other, that it requires reflection to perceive their distance. Hence the complaints we constantly hear of the shortness of time, and the rapidity of its flight. Moralists have assisted to aggravate this complaint, because they have dwelt upon the rapidity with which time hastens away, as their favorite topic; and the dissipated and the gay never fail to urge the shortness of time, as an apology for their indolent inactivity. To the dissipated and the gay let this apology be confined. Wisdom will measure time by the number of impressions, or the rapidity of the succession of ideas; and the