There are other points in which we consider the present volumes worthy of censure, upon the same ground, that of uncharitableness. They are uncharitable towards that well meaning portion of our population, the Roman Catholics; and towards the whole nation upon the subject of slavery--on the other hand, in their anxiety to adduce America as a triumphant argument to their countrymen, in favor of the voluntary support of religion, which is all very right, we fear they have rather evaded the subject of Infidelity and Universalism. It would have been better worth their while to expose the quality and quantity of those forms of error, than to have aimed so furious a battery against the Unitarians, a brother sect of professing Christians who do not differ with themselves in one single point material to the practice of life, but who have the misfortune not to take the same intellectual views as they do of some acknowledged mysteries in religion.

There are still other points, (of trifling importance, however,) in which we observe enough inaccuracy to lead us to suspect more. For a random example, it is gravely stated, that there are nearly four thousand Irish Catholics in Cincinnati! Again he speaks of the small prairies between Sandusky and Columbus as specimens of the great western prairies and upon this, greatly deceives the English reader, who has not seen the phenomenon in all its grandeur. He describes the "Hawk's nest” in Virginia, as only two hundred feet high, whereas it measures one thousand and eight feet perpendicular. He was himself deceived by the optical illusion of the Kanawha running immediately at its feet. But to notice these minor inaccuracies seems too much like hypercriticism, and we conclude with one remark, that it is wonderful how so fair and full a report could be collected from so short a visit; one that if read candidly and generally by the educated of both countries cannot fail to produce the effect for which it was intended, viz: to ennoble the two nations and to unite them in the good work of pacifying and christianizing the world.

INTELLIGENCE.

SCHOOL BOOKS.

To make education efficient, proper books should be made use of, and we wish, by the insertion of the following circular, to call the attention of our readers to the books therein mentioned. They have attained much celebrity in the cities east of the mountains. They are introduced into the public schools in Providence, and are to be adopted also in Boston, and are in use in many of the schools in New-York. The plan and system of these books resembles very much those of the books made use of in the German Popular

Schools, and it is well known, that the German system of school education is one of the best that has ever been devised.

1. PRIMARY LESSONS, or First Book: designed to teach the first elements of reading and orthography in a natural and rational method.

2. THE INTRODUCTION TO POPULAR LESSONS, which is especially intended for the youngest class of learners. Its lessons are exceedingly plain, and systematically designed to please and inform children. It is illustrated by numerous cuts. This book is approved by the Public School Society of New York, and is used in their Schools.

3. AMERICAN POPULAR LESSONS is consecutive with the INTRODUCTION, and carries forward the learner to a further knowledge of the elements of morality, the manners of men, and the habits of animals. American Popular Lessons has been extensively used for many years, in town and country.

4. PRIMARY DICTIONARY, contains four thousand words in common use. It is intended to teach to think as well as to spell, and has been proved to be as useful as any in the collection.

5. SEQUEL TO POPULAR LESSONS, is a first book of history. It regards his tory as a great lesson of morality, and constantly suggests the distinction between right and wrong.

6. TALES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY, form Nos. 9, 10, 11, of Harpers' Boy's and Girl's Library: the several volumes form an entire series, and may be used separately and singly, or in succession. No. 9 embraces the important history of Maritime Discovery, and the Life of Columbus. This work is strongly recommended by the best judges of elementary books.

7. POETRY FOR SCHOOLS, is a series of Lessons on Poetry and Prose, fit for reading and declamation, and also comprising a brief system of rhetoric, and examples of English literature, from the age of Elizabeth to the American

Poets.

8. GRECIAN HISTORY, is the history of Greece, from a remote antiquity to the present time, and includes notices of the arts, laws and institutions of the Greeks, together with the Geography of Greece; it is illustrated by Maps and Engravings.

9. ENGLISH HISTORY, resembles the Grecian in its arrangement and execution, and attempts, in perspicuous details, to show the benefits of civilization and public virtue.

These Books invite the examination of teachers. They have been approved by the best scholars in the country. A book condemns or approves itself. We take the method of a Circular to give information to parents and teachers of the existence and design of the School Library. These books, without increasing the labor or expense, greatly extend the common plan of education. They are printed in the most convenient forms, and are cheap, and of a durable fabric. The writer has in view other works of the same character, which will carry on the intelligent object of the books above mentioned.

372

COLLEGE OF TEACHERS,

During the past month there has been in our city a meeting of the Teachers of the Mississippi Valley, at which have been discussed many subjects of great and enduring interest.

The question at what period of education the study of anatomy, physiology, &c. should begin, was reported upon by Mr. Kinmont, and argued by himself and Dr. Drake. The view taken by the reporter, was that early education was to develope rather than fill the mind, and that the study of language, and the mathematics, was better fitted thereto, than anatomy, chemistry, &c.; he therefore thought these studies should come late. The object of education being to form perfect men, the sole question was, which would tend most to perfect the powers,-the study of language and numbers, or that of bones, muscles and fluids? The former exercise the mind, the latter instruct it. Moreover, it was desirable, he thought, to give children a view of the wonders of the physical world, after they had, by previous study, been fitted to see and use their knowledge aright; and to see God everywhere.

Another point of much interest was the relative duties of parents and teachers; upon this, Professor McGuffy of Oxford, spoke long and well. We have rarely heard so long a discourse with equal pleasure; and regret our inability to give any idea of it. It will, however, we believe, be published with all the other discussions and lectures.

The subject of Common Schools was reported upon by Mr. Lewis, of this place. Much matter of value was brought out in a debate upon this report, but the great principles of the subject were passed by with too little remark. Nothing is of more vital import to us at this moment, than to go aright in popular instruction. We are called upon to fight a battle as difficult and as full of consequences as any that our fathers fought. The policy of universal education in a republic is undoubted; the question is whether it be possible so to educate as to attain the end in view, and no question deserves a cooler, and more candid inquiry. Tariffs and banks are unimportant beside it, their influence is for a time;-the character of our people lies beyond, and governs banks, tariffs, and all.

The subject of elocution was discussed by Mr. McLeod, in a thorough and clear manner. Various other points of education were brought up, which we were not fortunate enough to hear argued. One of the most new and important was upon the education of foreigners; Professor Stowe of Lane Seminary lectured upon this point.

We hope the idea of the Convention of Teachers, may be followed up, and country, and town, and in the cities, ward associations, meetings and lectures soon be on foot. The utility of such an institution lies much in the detail; and the detail must be carried into practice.

ERRATUM.

In the article on Western Poetry, for "daily brawlers," in the extract from 'A Lay for the Season,' fourth verse, last line, read “daily scrawlers.”

BY REV. DR. PALFREY, PROF. IN THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself.-Matthew, xvi. 24.

I NEED not advert to the particular tasks of self-denial, imposed on those to whom this declaration was originally made; because while their situation, and the corresponding sacrifices for which it called, were peculiar, the spirit of self-denial is of universal obligation upon christians, and they must be prepar ed to display it in all circumstances, more or less trying, in which they may be placed. Our Lord meant that it was indispensable for such as would come after him, to possess the power and habit of refusing indulgence to every passion, appetite, or other propensity, as often as it tended to any misdi rection or excess; whenever its indulgence would interfere with the thorough performance of duty, or obstruct that great purpose of preparation for another world, for which men are placed in this. Let us attend to some of the considerations which establish the reasonableness of this injunction to deny ourself.

I. In the first place, then, the importance of self-denial appears, when we regard it in the light of the means of virtue. Its most obvious use of this kind is, to keep us from the commission of positive sin. All self-indulgence is not sin, but all sin is self-indulgence. Offences against God, our neighbor and ourselves, are committed in consequence of some inclination being permitted to take a wrong course, or to transgress the due limits in a right one. Of this there is continual danger, constituted and circumstanced as we are, the world without

us perpetually presenting temptations, by which the dispositions within are of their very nature subject to be influenced, and our only security is in refusing indulgence to these latter. The voluptuary is he, who does not control his appetite. The malicious man is he, who has not checked his passions. The fault of the common slanderer is, that he does not set a watch over his lips. The worst crimes on record are to be traced to no other cause than the unrestrained indulgence of some impulse of the feelings. Inclinations, which are the elements of guilt, belong to every man's constitution. Occasions for gratifying them unlawfully are of frequent occurrence in every man's life. And accordingly a resolute purpose to deny them unlawful gratification, is the only way to hold fast our integrity.

Such, then, being our moral structure, and such our condition in this world, to retain innocence without self-denial is an impossibility. I observe further upon self-denial as the means of virtue, that besides being the only defence against positive sin, it is an indispensable foundation for the practice of positive goodness. It is impossible to name a virtue, foreign as the idea of it may be in our minds from anything like self-restraint or sacrifice, it is impossible to name a virtue capable of being practised conformably to the high standard of the Gospel, without a mastery over the selfish principle having been first acquired. Justice and benevolence seem to have direct regard to others, and the latter especially is a free and happy feeling, which scarcely admits alliance with the idea of constraint. Yet what is it to be inflexibly and punctiliously just, except to be prepared to disregard the temptation to benefit ourselves by an undue advantage? And as to benevolence,so dependent is it on self-denial, that in its best exercises it takes the name of disinterestedness or indifference to self. It often requires the surrender of some view to personal gain; sometimes it demands a conquest over the fear of man; continually it calls for restraint to be put on that most quiet and unpretending, yet most potent passion, the love of ease; and in its least difficult form, that of alms-giving. it requires a sacrifice, first of the love of spending, or prodigality, and then of the love of hoarding, or avarice.

Indeed when we remember that religious goodness does not wholly, nor in the first instance, consist in the character of the conduct, which is an external thing, but in the state of the affections, we cannot fail to see that self-denial connects itself with every point in the whole circle of the virtues. Who places under all circumstances an unwavering trust in the