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subjects, and be cultivated with as much assiduity as any other branch? It seems to be justly associated with elocution: and, as I have made conversation the special guide for reading and speaking, I have thought it not inappropriate here to add some examples, as a specimen, to show how free and familiar conversations can be improved for the benefit and the gratification of a school. It includes ten of the best scholars, in conversation an hour with their teacher.

Master Austin.-Sir, I should like to ask a question on a subject that came up last evening at our house,— is it not wrong to call any thing natural, which has been produced by art ?

Teacher. Certainly; if produced entirely by art.

A.-Why then should reading and speaking, when executed in the best style, be called very natural; since they are produced by education, and my book says that education is wholly a system of art?

T-Yonder clock is the entire product of art, the house in which you live, and your picture on the wall; but so far as the picture resembles you, it is natural: if it is a perfect copy, we say it is perfectly natural. Those white mealy potatoes you have every day upon your table are natural; for they are produced by nature: but without the hand of art, to cultivate and to render them what they are-a rich nutritious food-they would still be only wild, poisonous plants of the desert.

A. All this, Sir, is very plain; but I do not fully understand the analogy.

T.-You will, perhaps, before I get through. Education, as your book says, is wholly a system of art. It

is a skilful application of means, in perfect accordance with nature's laws, to accomplish what unassisted nature never does, and never will accomplish for any one when those means are therefore properly directed to improvement in elocution, it is not improper to say, when the reading and speaking of a person is free from affectation and awkwardness, and of a high order of excellence, he is very natural: for they are just what nature would produce, could she do it without the aid of art.

Art takes the wild savage, civilizes, trains, and moulds him to an accomplished gentleman. She takes the apple-tree, by nature a wild, worthless tree of the forest, and makes it one of the most valuable, the most useful the pride of the orchard. You were confined the other day with a severe illness: Doctor Parker gave you medicine, and you recovered. Now what wrought the cure; and what loads the tree with its rich, mellow fruit?

A. We all know very well, nature, Sir; nature, assisted and guided by art.

T-Yes, young gentlemen, when applied to the savage, it is called education; to the tree, culture; and to the body, cure. Nature did it all; and yet, without the aid of art, we should still be in savage life, the appletree a useless wild tree of the forest, and you perhaps in your grave. So education, in curing us of our unnatural and awkward habits, becomes a skilful physician; and in strengthening and improving all our faculties, in just and harmonious proportions, it acts the part of a wise and experienced cultivator.

Take a person from the field, or the workshop, and

begin to teach him graceful movements: he is wholly constrained and awkward at first; but his limbs are gradually brought into symmetry of action; and when education has finished its work, with equal power upon his mind, we no longer see the stiffness and awkwardness of the laborer; but the accomplished gentleman : all his motions now are natural, easy and graceful.

A.-Sir, I see where the difficulty was with me; the word nature has not so limited a signification as I supposed. I am glad I asked the question: for I shall be able to answer him who first proposed it. All real improvement is natural, because it must be made in accordance with nature's laws. All active improvement must come from a skilful application of art; and that is education. And I know very well that without such application, the world would have continued to be a wilderness. It would seem that man was placed here by his Maker in the wildness of nature, entirely to himself, to work out his own improvement, and to improve every thing else and all this he does by art; or rather art aids and directs nature to do it for him.

T. Even so our Maker has left us here to find out, and to follow the laws of our own being, and of other beings about us, for our own safety, improvement and happiness. As we look into His word—that higher dispensation-we see an extension of the same principle in regard to our higher nature and destiny. There it is said, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." So you see, it is implicit obedience to the laws of nature and of revelation,

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that forms the true-the only reliable ground of our improvement and happiness, both for this life and for that which is to come. And our ever-supporting encouragement is, that while faithful in this obedience, God works in us, in all that is agreeable to his will.

Master Burke.—We had quite a discussion the other day about gesture. My father thinks it is a subject that may as well be left to itself. There is Dr. Williams, who rarely lifts his hand to enforce a word he utters, and yet every body counts him an eloquent man; and all flock to hear him, when he is expected to preach.

T.-It is so, Master B.; but he always appears natural and even graceful,--except his making the head perform the movements which properly belong to the arms : yet sometimes, when fully roused by the nature of the subject, and the warmth of his feelings, I have observed him as forcible in gesture as it is becoming to any man in that sacred place.

Master C-I should never think of naming Dr. Williams as an eloquent man: for his preaching amounts to nothing more than merely talking to us; and in language too, so familiar and plain, that a simple child can scarcely fail to understand every thing he says: and it always seems to me I could preach just so, if I only had his knowledge, and his warm and deep feelings.

T.-Dr. Williams, no doubt, were he to hear you, would feel himself highly complimented, though you give him no credit for being a fine orator. The pulpit is not the place for oratorical display, in the proper sense of that term: every thing there, however impassioned and sublime, should comport with the simplicity of the

gospel and the manner you speak of his deep feelings, and plainness of language, shows conclusively how much he excels in his calling: how closely he follows his divine Master.

When I figure to myself the blessed Saviour delivering his sermon on the mount, I behold Heaven's love and mercy beaming from his countenance, and all his features radiant with the light of truth: but I see no rhetorical flourish from his arms; no vengeful, withering look from his eyes: the bare thought gives a shock to the feelings! He simply opened his mouth and taught them." There was mingled in his simplicity and love, the calm dignity of Omnipotence, as when the fiat went forth, “Let there be light, and there was light." “He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast."

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Master Drake.-And I find that many think of gesture just as Master Burke has expressed himself. I have labored a good deal at it, and still I feel my awkwardness. If I ever do improve in it, I think it must be from losing sight of it altogether: as it is, I find I succeed the best in pieces where the least of it is required. If we attend well to other things, would it not be well to let action take care of itself; or be left entirely to the guidance of nature?

C.-Yes, truly, and left free! for all attempts to change our natural habits-all criticisms upon our accustomed attitudes and gestures, must tend to rob us of our self-possession and confidence-two supports indispensable to the successful accomplishment of any thing; especially that of public speaking.