two things. If you do uot supply it with useful knowledge,-if it be not instructed in virtue and piety, it will abound in vice and wickedness. If it be not cultivated with good seed, the evil spirit will fill the deserted space with tares. Our late Brother of Sarum, Burnett, says very truly, that "The education of youth is the founda"tion of all that can be performed for 'bettering the next age:" and it must be to both of us a perpetual gratification, to reflect that we have contributed to this unfailing antidote against moral depravity. If the voluptuary did but once know the store of gratification, which may be derived from the instruction of the ignorant, the relief

of necessity, and the calming of an anxious and troubled mind, he would be able to enlarge greatly the scope of his enjoyments. And here let me observe, that independently of the pleasure of looking back on what we have done, a rich source of gratification is to be derived from the prospective view of the welfare of others; especi ally when we have been so fortunate as to contribute to their well-being. My wishes and hopes do, indeed, sometimes deceive me; yet the illusions are so satisfactory, and the error so grateful to the mind, that, for one at least, I cannot be persuaded to forego them; and whenever in the poor there is natural acuteness, and a pre-disposition to piety and the kindly affections, I have a

real gratification in assisting them to rise in the world, as objects of excitement to the other poor; thereby promoting among the labouring class, more general habits of exertion, industry, prudence, and virtue,

BISHOP GIBSON. The children of the rich often require the same kind of assistance, to enable them to be useful to themselves and others. But there is one particular in the education of the higher classes of life, in which there is a great defect. Sufficient attention is very seldom paid to the nourishing and promoting of the SYMPATHETIC AFFECTIONS. Without objects of social sympathy, the human heart becomes hard and callous.

BISHOP HOUGH. I perfectly agree with you; and have therefore been delighted with a little incident * which I have just heard, of a Gen eral Officer, whom we all love and value. He is left a widower, with three young and lovely daughters. He has a neighbour, whose youngest child, an interesting and beautiful. girl, has been long suffering with cheerful resignation, under a painful and hopeless malady and our friend, the General, has asked and obtained leave of his neighbour, for his three girls to make very frequent visits to her sick room, as the school of sym

A similar circumstance to this has lately occurred in the neighbourhood of London.

pathy; where they alternately attend, as the little nurses of their dear invalid; thus cherishing in their youthful minds, habits of gratitude for the health which they enjoy, and of pity for the sufferings of others.

MR. LYTTELTON. I know the General well. The anecdote is perfectly in character.

BISHOP HOUGH. Let me next draw your attention to another advantage of old age;-its legitimate right to indulge in ease and leisure, after a life of activity and exertion; with the consciousness, that this indulgence is then as beneficial to health, as in youth it is pernicious. When I had