delicate sentiments of the individual soul. Testing questions were asked, which placed the child in the painful alternative of claiming the spirit of martyrdom, or denying her sincere affections for beloved friends. I believe there was no untruth told, and no selfexaltation felt, and consequently no harm done, in the particular instance; but I will admit that it was too much an analysis of the individual, and should certainly agree with those who think that the effect of such a course, might ultimately be to dwarf or dissipate, by forcing an expression of sentiments strictly personal, and perhaps to corrupt them. If there is one object more than another, to which may be applied Wordsworth's beautiful lines: "Our meddling intellect, Misshapes the beauteous forms of things, it is to the personalities of the soul. The instinctive delicacy with which children veil their deepest thoughts of love and tenderness for relatives, and their reasonable self gratulations, should not be violated I think, in order to gain knowledge, or for any imagined benefit to others. Indeed no knowledge can be gained, in this way. It would be as wise to tear the rosebud open, or invade the solitude of the chrysalis, with the hope of obtaining insight into the process of bloom or metamorphosis, as to expect to gain any knowledge of the soul, by drawing forth, by the personal power which an instructor may possess over the heart, conscience, or imagination, that confidence, which it is the precious prerogative of an individual to bestow spontaneously, when old enough to choose its depository. And Mr. Alcott, I believe, agrees with me in this, notwithstanding that he practically goes sometimes upon the very verge of the rights of reserve, as in the instance referred to. He doubted, immediately, whether that first lesson was wise, and materially changed the character of his questioning afterwards, and an attentive reader will observe, that questions of the same kind were not repeated after the first day. But I felt bound in conscience to put into the Record, every thing that transpired during that winter, and to present even the exercises that were afterwards modified; because I had called my book the Record of the actual School. I expected, however, that it would be read in the liberal spirit, a work on such a plan required; and that the general character of the exercises would be regarded, rather than the peculiarities of any one lesson, and especially of an introductory one, on entirely new ground. But what I have said of the rights of reserve, does not respect all that is in the soul. There are relations and sentiments which regard objects of common interest to all souls; such as God, Jesus Christ, the human race as such, and duties in the abstract. These are fair subjects of questioning, with the affections appertaining to them, and there is a great good, which may arise from the consciousness of these sentiments in each individual being analysed and discriminated, and the relations themselves being discussed in a large company, all of whom share them, and the duties which spring from them. For so all narrowness and peculiar associations have a chance to be exchanged for something more enlarged, and the clearer Reason of some may aid the dimmer apprehension of others, less favored by nature or education. And, in this case, there is no fear, as has sometimes been suggested, of the mind's being dwarfed. It may and will take narrow views comparatively of Truth itself, but the danger is less, if this subject is first apprehended in childhood, than if it is approached for the first time at a later age; for in childhood the sense of Justice, and the sentiment of the Good and Beautiful, have not yet lost the holiness and divine balance of Innocence, or the glow and impulse first received from the Divine Being, who projected the individual soul into time and space, there to clothe itself with garments, by which it may see itself, and be seen by its fellow beings. This view of childhood's comprehension, is confirmed by all, who have had much to do with cultivating the minds of children. Madame Neckar de Saussure, in her work on Progressive Education, says, that the younger children are, the more exclusively they are moral beings, a position which she defends with much fine remark, replete with her usual practical good sense. The phrenologists remark that conscientiousness is, generally speaking, larger in proportion in children, than in adults,—(what a satire is this fact, if it be a fact, on our modes of education!) and lastly, Jesus Christ always spoke of childhood as having peculiar moral sympathies ;-being of the kingdom of heaven, &c. There is however, one way, in which there is some danger of dwarfing the minds of children on these subjects. It is this. As it is sometimes necessary to imagine or refer to practical applications of principles, and to outward occasions of sentiments, in order to identify them, we are liable to present cases which are not entirely comprehensible by children who can perfectly realize the principle or sentiment, either in their own consciousness, or in application to a case whose terms they do understand. And Mr. Alcott may sometimes err in selecting his instances of application. But I think it is very rarely that he does. In the first edition of the Record, I noticed an instance, where I thought he had erred in this way. But after the book was printed, I found I had misrepresented his opinion. He told me he did not decidedly believe, as I there stated, that government had not the right of capital punishment. Still less did he mean to dogmatise on that point with his scholars. I thought at the time, it was a singular departure from the spirit of his method, to bring the children to a decision, on a disputed point of legislation, that most extensive and complicated of all applications of principle to practice, and necessarily entirely out of the comprehension of children. And the only excuse I can give for making this misrepresentation, is, that on that day for the only time, I left the record in the hands of another, and left the room, and then made my inferences from it as it stood. Mr. Alcott says, that had I been there I should probably have heard nothing to which even I should have objected, notwithstanding my own opinion is, that society, in its collective capacity, has a right to inflict capital punishment on individuals, in defence of its members. The contemplation of Spirit in God, is necessarily wrapt up in a study of language, leading to the study of the Soul, whose existence, sentiments, reason and strength of will, are God's gifts of spirit. But Mr. Alcott did not intend to confine himself to such allusions to Jesus Christ as are found in the Record. Having arranged the four gospels into a continuous story, to illustrate the career of Spirit on earth, he began the second year of his school, by reading these with conversations, and he expects to prove that this mode of studying Spirit, is peculiarly within the reach of childhood, and particularly congenial to its holy Instincts, strong sympathies, ready Imagination, and unsophisticated Reason. In this, as in all his other questionings, his plan is a perfectly liberal one. Having read the lesson for the day, he asks for their own associations with words, their impressions of events, the action of their Imagination, and the conclusions of their Reason upon them. All sides of every subject are presented by the various children, and dwelt upon, at least until they are fully expressed; and there the subject is left, Mr. Alcott making no further decision upon what is said, than can be derived from the paraphrase, with which he generally closes, and which he makes, on the impulse of the moment. He does not wish the children to think, that the meaning of Scripture is a matter of authority; and this is the chief reason why he does not decide in favor of particular views, dogmatically. He thinks it is enough to start the mind on some subjects, to "wake the echo that will not sleep again," and lays out to guard them from error, rather by the general influences of his moral and intellectual discipline, than by giving them the formulas of his own creed. So successful has he proved to be, in avoiding controverted points, and keeping free from the technology of sect, that one day, when two ladies,-one a Trinitarian, and the other a Humanitarian,-were present at a lesson, on the first chapter of John, each left the room, saying to Mr. Alcott, "I perceive that my views are taught here." Before dismissing this part of the subject, however, let me notice one thing, which is very extensively said, namely, that Mr. Alcott goes further, in his dogmatics, than to teach the existence of Spirit, in that relation to the body which the Deity holds to the Creation; for that he teaches the oriental doctrine of preexistence and emanation. But this is not the case. Mr. Alcott indeed believes, that the body of an individual is a consequence, and was the first consequence of the existence of the individual spirit, that the first act of the soul, when breathed from the Divine Spirit, is an arrangement of particles around itself, as a means of expressing its individuality. In other words, he believes that birth is a Spiritual act and factprior to embodiment. And does not every one believe this, who does not think the soul of an individual the temperament of a body, the effect of matter? For my own part, I believe, that this is the only way of conceiving the unity of a spirit; and that it is all the preexistence that is meant in Wordsworth's ode on Immortality, or that Plato himself meant to teach; and that it certainly is the doctrine of Christianity, taught by Jesus Christ. But even this doctrine, Mr. Alcott has never taught dogmatically. It has come out spontaneously from the children themselves; and almost invariably, as soon as they come to see the divine nature of the conscience and the sentiments, and the relations of the human with the divine Being. It is entirely against the spirit of Mr. Alcott's plan to dogmatise even on what he believes. Some of the children have expressed a materialist theory, and I would venture to say, that they have never thought, with which party Mr. Alcott agrees, so entirely is he out of the habit of expressing his own views; and so entirely Socratic is his method of instruction. Indeed it is almost impossible for one who has not been in the school, to understand, how truly the opinion of others, even that of Mr. Alcott, becomes a secondary object of attention, after the mind has been opened into the region of Ideas through consciousness, by the key of well understood words. There is real intellectual activity, in these little minds; and a pursuit of truth on the true principles. This is the case, before it is evidenced by ready answers. It often happens that a child is some weeks and even months or a year, at school, without saying many things; but perfectly absorbed and attentive, and giving a silent vote, on all questions so decided: at last he begins to speak, and almost astonishes us, by his thoughts and expressions. The journals which the children begin to keep, as soon as they can join letters, also, often give indications of attention and interest, before there is much said. Mr. Alcott requires from all, undivided attention; excepting from a small class, consisting of |