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ing to his last will and testament, are not, on any pretence whatever, to be polluted by the footstep of a minister of the gospel, were in the first instance placed under the control of an excellent lawyer who resigned his seat on the bench, that he might bring Christian verities before those orphans. It is pleasant to think of that holy man's exertions, of his reading the Word of God, and of his prayers in those noble halls where it was designed they should be prohibited-of his regular family worship there, and his oral instruction of those lively and promising young people-and now, though circumstances have led to his resignation of that onerous position, his commencement has left an influence behind him stronger than that of him who held and who bequeathed the gold.

There is something in the soul of man, be it superstition if you will, that readily adopts an impression of interference from the invisible world in the case of any daring transgressor. People, to this day, shake the head and tell gravely or fearfully how Grierson of Lagg, the bloody persecutor of the Dumfries-shire and Galloway covenanters, could not get carried to his grave-how the hearse three times broke down, and how the people trembled at the token, and could not be prevailed on to touch it. It may have been a similar connexion with the recollection of poor Girard's ostentatious working of his garden in sight of church-goers-the Sabbath being the only day of the week on which he assumed the

hoe and rake—that produced this curious paragraph from the Philadelphia correspondent of the New York Tribune: "On the night that the remains of Stephen Girard were disinterred and conveyed to the undertaker's residence, previous to being deposited in Girard College, the coffin was to be opened in the presence of several persons. As they were about removing the lid, a slight explosion was heard, and combustible gas escaped from the inner case. No damage resulted, however, except a slight scorching of the coffin-lid. It is not known whether the fear of ghosts had anything to do with it, but it is certain that the occurrence caused the room to be vacated in the shortest possible time!"

It is earnestly to be desired, whatever may have been the designs of the founders, that all such ininstitutions may be overruled to train up citizens to fear God and hate evil.

It has been well for America, and its effects are visible on her educational institutions up to this hour, that her "world's gray fathers" were not adventurers in search of wealth, but men of wisdom in search of liberty of conscience. In the earliest settlement of the New England colonies, laws were enacted by which all townships were obliged to secure education to their young members. In cases where no government aid, or contribution from the mother country could be obtained, individual zeal and learning have wrestled with difficulty in a manner alike surprising and honourable.

Dr. A. Alexander's history of the "Log College," which the senior William Tennant commenced during his ministry at Neshaming, N. J., gives a lively view of what may be accomplished single-handed; and the galaxy of holy pastors who issued from that humble edifice to bless the land, and to co-operate with Whitefield in his life-bringing labours, was an enlightening to the State, and a rich reward to the founder. The "Log College," like its founder, has passed away, and given place to grander buildings and more dignified staffs of professors; but the mark of its vital piety, which shook the dead ministers and the formal worshippers from their sloth, remains and continues to descend to the present generation.

Some colleges are founded and sustained entirely by particular denominations such as Princeton, which is Presbyterian; and New Brunswick, which is Dutch Reformed. Others derive some aid from the State; for example, Cambridge at Boston, and Yale at New Haven, which are both Congregational in government; but I fear Cambridge is Unitarian in faith.

States often found universities; as in Virginia, North and South Carolina, Vermont, Michigan, &c. &c. But the State institutions are not always found to be the best, and often meet with difficulties in the management. The General Government grants lands to the new States for Colleges and Common Schools, so that they are provided with the means of instruction from their commencement,

though to arrange the machinery, and to set it agoing, often requires an impulse from intelligent benevolence.

An experiment has been tried in a few of the Western Establishments, which is thought by those most conversant with them to work prosperously— the combination of manual labour with study; three hours a day being given to printing, cabinet-work, or farming. Lane Seminary, near Cincinnati, which could receive a hundred young men, is the scene where this novel plan seems to have most prospered. But in Illinois, Indiana, and New York, plans nearly similar are pursued with varying success. Many reasons concur to make this a most suitable plan in a certain condition of society, especially for preparing missionaries and ministers for new and rough settlements. The very great majority of those to whom the gospel is to be preached, are not persons of refined manners, but such as earn their daily bread by daily toil. When a young man of good natural powers amongst them comes under strong religious impressions, and desires to become a teacher of his brethren, on the old plan of all study he is exposed to loss of health by a complete overturn of his early habits, and is probably, by his new pursuit, reduced to a state of dependence; whereas, on the manual labour plan, he secures three hours of exercise, and nearly, if not entirely, supports himself. His hours of study will be all the more vigorous that his hours of relaxation have been usefully employed; and his

manners, he being a Christian, will not be in any degree roughened by such an engagement. If some of our own students had such means of aiding themselves, we should not have so many who begin their ministerial lives enfeebled by unrelaxed, and perhaps poorly fed years of study; neither would they enter on their rustic charges less honoured, or less suited to encounter country hardships.

On Long Island I met with a missionary whose scene of toil had been for some years among the new settlers in Ohio. He talked of going from one preaching station to another on foot, leaping from one knob of solid ground to another in a morass, and of being wet through when he reached his post, with no prospect of dry raiment, except as the wet steamed up from, his person before a huge fire. And when he asked if he could have some hot tea, the mistress disappeared in the wood, and presently returned with a lapful of herbs, which she infused in boiling water and gave him to drink. Her husband not having got home from the distant mill, she could not make him a cake; and, indeed, the shrunk, bald old man might have been painted for Shakspere's starving apothecary. Had his years of preparation been passed in the luxuries of College halls, he would have endured this very hard life much worse than he did. He spoke of having rejoiced to find a nook beside the blazing hearth of two active men who welcomed him and his message, the tion of whose menage is strange to those u

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