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ry Science, Accounts of Remarkable Persons, Places, Manners, Arts, and Incidents, with a Selection of Passages from the British Poets."

knowledge of God at all?" After a struction, Natural History, Elementamoment's thought, the blind boy of ten years of age answered, "Yes!""That," observed the gentleman, turning to Mr. Wood, is by no means a right answer. "Have you any reason," said Mr. Wood gently to his pupil, "for making that answer ?”— "Yes."-"What is it ?"-The little blind boy, ten years of age, laying an emphasis on the right words, replied, "The Apostle Paul, in the 1st of the Romans, says, that when THEY KNEW GOD, they glorified him not as God." We called the former anecdote a pretty-this is a noble one. Nothing indeed can be more affecting.

The unhappy man, we hope, slunk out of the school under the rebuke of the little blind boy, whose outward eyes God had extinguished, but given him, for holiest and happiest comfort, the clear inward eyes-the spiritual eyes that see things invisible to the material senses-whose orbs "no drop serene" ever veils, and when they shut on earth, open next moment in heaven.

Let it not be thought, however, that either Mr. Wood or his little blind boy of ten years of age, trusted too much to natural religion. For, had the gentleman (we take the liberty of putting that word in italics) thought proper, says he, to press the conversation farther, as we in consequence thought it necessary to do on the following Sunday, he would have been quite satisfied, that our pupils were by no means impressed with any undue or too favorable estimate of the extent of religious knowledge possessed by the wisest heathens, nor were at all insensible to the infinitely superior advantages in this respect, which may be enjoyed by the poorest child in a Christian land!—It soon became desirable to furnish the scholars with an additional book, which might afford them more interest and information than could be expected from the continued perusal of those with which they were already familiar. The desideratum was supplied by the publication of "Instructive Extracts, comprising Religious and Moral In

No articles, it appears, have been studied with greater avidity, or have been more thoroughly understood, than those which treat of the mechanical powers, and other elementary science. As a specimen of the method of examination employed in this department, we annex the following.

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"What is necessary to put a body in motion? What property of the body is it which renders force necessary in such a case? Will a body go quicker of itself? or slower? stop? Why then does a marble rolled along the floor first go slower, and at length stop altogether? On what two circumstances does the force of a moving body depend? How then can you increase the force of the same body? If two bodies move quite round the same centre within the same time, have they the same velocity? or which has the greater? Do you know any mechanical power that acts upon this principle? What is a LEVER? How many kinds of lever are there? What is the first kind? Can you give me any examples of its application? In what proportion is power gained by the use of this lever? In raising a heavy coal with a poker, whether will it be easier done by applying the hands near the ribs, or at the extremity of the poker? Why ?" &c.

In the Sessional School, great and unceasing attention is paid to Grammar. And pray, it may be asked, What use can grammar be of to poor people? Why, as much-sometimes more-and of the same kind-as to rich people. Its chief value lies, in its enabling us to understand what we read. Every sentence, at all inverted or involved, has been observed by Mr. Wood to be a stumbling block in the way of a child striving to understand. A lad once said to him, that he had never himself understood the metre translation of the Psalms, until the acquaintance which he there received with the principles of grammatical

construction, enabled him to turn them into the ordinary prose arrangement, and that he felt the same thing in some degree, with respect to sermons. There can be no doubt-surely-that a knowledge of grammar must enable a man to know any discourse at all in a different style of language from every-day talk in the shop or at the fireside, a hundred times better, than any man of equal natural vigor of mind altogether ignorant of it. Could any of us, without impaired faculties, totally forget all our grammar, how we should stare at a great preacher, or a small one either-and in what a painful and perplexing glimmer and gloom should we suddenly find all our powers of apprehension involved! Why, you may speak to some men in the lower orders, for hours, on very plain and simple matters, and they come to understand you about as well as a post. This does not arise from stupidity-for they are perhaps ingenious men in their profession-but they "have no grammar," and wonder what the deuce you, who have, we shall suppose, some little, would be saying, if you could speak like themselves; for, granting even that they have been told, and believe, that you are a scholar, they cannot, or will not, make mental effort sufficiently strong to enable them to think that you are not talking a parcel of sad nonsense. It is certainly desirable that human beings should, as generally as possible, be able to hold oral, or written communication with each other; and, for such pleasing and useful purpose, nothing, in our humble opinion, like grammar. If we seem to treat the subject too jocularly, do only think a moment on the ideots who can see no use in teaching the lower orders how to be intelligible to the upper, and vice versa-and indeed to themselves; for there is perpetual blundering, and badgering in consequence of that blundering-many mistakes, and not a few lies, daily disturbing and infesting humble life, from the want of grammar-that is, the proper and rational use of speech.

But how shall grammar be taught? That's the rub. Can it only be acquired by the memory arising from rules?

From the tyranny of Dr. Syntax? Mr. Wood remembered too well his own gross ignorance of grammar, when a little boy at school, and it could not excel our own in spite of all that horrid and hideous committing to memory. O, dear! "getting off by heart!"- -a task which, in spite of our delight in angling, and other rural amusements, did often make us wish that we never had been born! He tells a good story of the proficiency made in grammar by the scholars generally, in the school in which he received, what were facetiously called, we presume, "the elements of his education."

"Nor could we avoid frequently calling to recollection a singular, but now highly instructive incident, which occurred in this stage of our education. In going over the grammar as usual, the boy at the head of our class was asked,What is an article?' to which he orthodoxly replied, An article is a particle, which'-does something or other that we do not at this moment precisely recollect, adding of course, in the usual manner, as a part of the definition, as, there is the lady I saw at church yesterday.' By some extraordinary accident, worthy teacher, on the particular occasion of which we are now speaking, contrary to all his ordinary practice, asked, What is the article in that example?' to which the boy replied, 'An article is a particle, which,' &c.

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But what,' rejoined the master, is the particular article in that passage?' -An article is a particle,' was again and again the reply. The next boy was now applied to, who insisted that the dux was quite right, and that it was in that way in his book. A similar attempt at procuring an answer was made all round the class, and with a similar want of success. The attempt was at length abandoned. We were permitted ever afterwards to repeat our grammar tasks, without being any more annoyed with troublesome questions, which were not in the book.

And it was not until a very long time afterwards, that we could discover what crotchet the good old man had taken on this singular occasion."

That there should be no such scene as this ever acted in the Sessional School, Mr. Wood adopted what may be called the inductive method-that is to say, he attempted to make them acquainted merely with some of its leading principles, by illustrations from the passages which they happened to read. At first, grammar-the pure grammar of their own vernacular tongue, without reference to the peculiarities of other languages-was confined exclusively to the highest class, then extended by degrees to the second, third, and fourth classes.

To understand Mr. Wood's very simple and efficacious method of teaching grammar, we must give a long

extract :

"In order to illustrate our method of teaching grammar, let us take the commencement of a passage in the school collection. The grandest, the most sublime, and extraordinary object, we have yet seen, is Fingal's Cave, in the isle of Staffa. It is a natural grotto of stupendous size, formed by ranges of columns,' &c. If the class be only commencing this study, after telling them that all names are NOUNS, we desire them to pick out the nouns in the passage before them when the first boy will give 'object,' the second Fingal's,' the third cave,' and so forth, till they have exhausted the remaining nouns, 'isle,' 'Staffa,' 'grotto,' size,' ' ranges,'' columns.' When they are a little farther advanced, the first boy at the time of naming the noun object,' will be asked why it is 'object,' and not objects, and the distinction of singular and plural will be pointed out to him, and so on with the rest. Af ter a little time, in place of putting the question in this form, the boy will be asked at once whether the noun is singular or plural? why? and what it would have been if it had been plural? As soon as these words singular and plural are so familiar, as not only to be easily distinguished

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from each other, but readily brought to recollection, the question is put in this form, Of what number is object? why? &c. A similar process is observed with regard to the Genders. The Cases, as we observed, are at this period omitted.

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"After the class have been for a sufficient time exercised exclusively on nouns, they next take the ARTICLES along with them. After their nature, object, and distinction, have been explained, the boys are then called upon to point out the articles contained in the particular passage. After the first boy has given the,' he is asked what every article is prefixed to? what noun the' is prefixed to in the present instance? what would be the difference between the object,' and an object? and the distinction between the definite and indefinite article is then explained. As the children become better acquainted with this distinction, they are asked at once, Whe

ther the' is the definite or indefinite article? and, when these terms are sufficiently familiar to them to be brought easily to recollection, the question is put generally, What kind of article is the ?' What other kind of article is there? &c. The second boy is in like manner called upon to mention the next article in the passage, which also happens to be 'the,' and to be connected with the same noun object.' The third boy will, in like manner, mention the subsequent article the,' and its connexion with the noun 'isle.' And the fourth will give the article a,' and mention at the same time its connexion with the noun grotto.' In this last case, in addition to the former questions, the child will be asked why the article here is 'a' and not an."

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In this manner all the different parts of speech in the sentence are gone through with. This routine, however, is very often broken in upon, (much oftener, indeed, than otherwise,) as the state of the class, the particular answer given, or any other circumstances, may suggest the propriety of more particular questions.

(To be continued.)

POPE LEO XII.

THE interest excited in our days by the death of a Pope, is much of the same kind as that with which we regard an event connected with the antiquities of the venerable city over which his Holiness presides. The head of the Catholic Church occupies the Vatican Palace, and performs the lofty functions of the papal office, rather as a show than as a real part-as the representative of by-gone times rather than as a participator in actual affairs. In this light, whether near or at a distance, we have ever regarded the occupier, for the time being, of the chair of St. Peter in the nineteenth century. We have looked upon him as the actor of a part in an historical drama, and in that view we find, in our reflections, the materials of the following sketch. Leo XII. was made a Cardinal by Pius VI., and affected much more the lofty hierarchical demeanor of his patron and benefactor, than the simple and humble bearing of his immediate predecessor. Della Genga, however, had more sincerity than Braschi, the consequence partly of his natural temperament, partly of the times in which he had lived, and of the disasters which the Church to which he was attached had endured, and which gave a more than ordinary degree of seriousness to his religious feelings.

No Pope had ever performed with more brilliant success the outward and ostentatious functions of the vicegerent of Christ than Braschi. He was fully conscious of the advantages with which nature had endowed him, and of the aptitude of his fine and portly person for the performance of the important character with which he was invested. His vanity, therefore, concurred with his ideas of the dignity of his sacred office to prompt him to make the most of the gorgeous ceremonies in which he was required to act the

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principal part, to do grace and honor to the one, and to display the other. Accordingly, the air of pomp and dignity with which from the grand balcohe dispensed the benediction of Holy Church on the assembled throngs below, is described as most imposing. How different the manner of his benevolent successor! In figure bent double with age, the traces of suffering and anxiety still marking his handsome features, the paleness of his placid countenance contrasting with the black though spare locks that, preserving their hue to the last, were scattered over his venerable forehead, he seemed to be giving the blessing, not of an ostentatious Church, but of one of the beloved of Heaven, the best and kindest of mortals. Braschi imposed on the senses; Chiaramonti touched the heart. Della Genga affected to follow Braschi; but he acted his part better than his model, because he felt it more, and more completely sunk the ambitious individual in the devout Pope. Braschi was the Kemble of. the Papal stage, Della Genga the Kean. In dispensing the benediction, he surrounded himself as Leo XII., with all the imposing formalities and circumstance which could add to the situation and uphold the splendor and dignity of the Church; he spread his arms abroad with an effect equally pompous but with fourfold fervor. He was a high Churchman, and had exalted ideas of the office of the holder of the keys of Heaven; but he was moreover a devotee, and crowned with the tiara, backed by the most glorious temple of Christendom, with St. Peter's Place thronged with 50,000 of the devout awaiting the holy dispensation at his feet, when the clamor of the assembled multitude was hushed, when the bands ceased their music, and all was dead and solemn silence for a moment, ere the air again re

* In the Facade of St. Peter's.

sounded with discharges of artillery their enormities, by withdrawing the military quartered in the neighborhood of the districts which fostered the lawless bands. He issued a proclamation, asserting the dignity of the Church, and breathing ill-timed confidence, that the sacred word of the Vicegerent of Christ, and the authority of the Virgin, were more efficacious than soldiers to reclaim the most obdurate. The presence of a Cardinal, it was deemed, would add weight and reality to the words of the proclamation, and one was accordingly sent to publish it; but, instead of submission and respect, he met with nothing but insult; the mayor of a town was massacred under his very nose, and he returned to the capital after a few months spent among the mountains, leaving the disturbed district in a more disobedient and wretched state than ever, and with a parse emptied of the 200,000 crowns with which it had been furnished. The foreign political acts of Leo have been of the same character: he has shown a desire to assert the high dignity and office of the Holy See; but, even among those most willing to acknowledge his supremacy, has he found none credulous enough to give practical proofs of their concurrence in his views or of their devotion to the Church. In the Irish alone, perhaps, as his predecessor once observed, did he find hearts thoroughly imbued with proper ideas of the sanctity of his character and functions; but with the Irish thus to regard him, it has hitherto been a point of honor rather than of superstition. We shall see how the successor of Della Genga will find them.

and the shouts of the collected thousands, he gathered himself and rose, and with a religious sentiment, more effective than his pomp, spread his arms over the people, as if he felt that he was actually dispensing the blessing of the Almighty Creator. But to have viewed Leo in the full glory of his character, he should have been beheld during the ceremonies of the feast of the corpus domini, when, robed in white, but bare-headed, on his knees, and bearing the Eucharist in his bosom, he is carried on a platform up the nave of St. Peter's Church. A more complete spectacle of abstraction and absorption, whether real or feigned, than he presented on those occasions, is inconceivable. It may be, that the weakness of his health, and the lassitude of his frame, evident in his countenance, increased the effect. However produced, it was perfect. For the rest, the countenance of Leo did not favor exhibitions of this kind, it was mean and sour; but in other respects his person was well adapted for them: he was tall, or at least appeared so when robed, and was dignified in his carriage. He entered on his government with a disposition to enforce the ancient usages of the Church; but he had evidently mistaken the character of the times in which he lived. No clearer proof of this will be required than his conduct towards the Brigands, who, as soon as they found the vigor of Government relaxed after Consalvi had ceased to direct it, broke out into the most frightful excesses. Leo XII. removed the only restraints left to repress

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