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capable than we are, or conceive ourselves to be, of enduring such exposure with impunity.

For the first two or three months the wants of the infant are confined almost solely to good air, good nourishment, and plenty of sleep. Afterwards, it changes this passive existence, for one of a more positive and active nature; and it then becomes an important inquiry how to regulate the development of bodily faculties now daily displaying themselves. Dr. Friedlander tells us, that in his opinion the French mothers play too much (jouaient trop) with their infants in the early months, and that they 'thus give too early a stimulus to their naturai vivacity, while, on the contrary, the German mothers pursue too far the ⚫ system of quietude. In England, (he says), where the phy'sical education of children has arrived at the greatest degree of perfection, the little ones are left more at liberty to obey 'the dictates of nature;'-and the more this is done, the better, perhaps. We think there is sometimes too much tossing; and averse as we are to forming any general conclusions from a few particular facts, it has now and then appeared to us, that serious affections of the head have been induced by that undue and violent agitation to which very young children are sometimes subjected. But let us on the other hand guard against a torpid, indolent, uninterested nurse, as one who is likely to do an irreparable injury to the constitution, and sometimes actually to the structure and shape of our children. It were better that the infant were put on the floor and left entirely to his own natural and unassisted actions, in the manner in which we are told the infants of the Caffres* are, than carried on the arm of a nurse who feels her charge a burden, and who, when out of immediate notice, will keep it in one position for perhaps an hour at a time, and that a very bad one; resting on the

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The children of the Caffres,' (says the author of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa) soon after birth, are suffered to 'crawl about perfectly naked; and at six or seven months they are able to run. A cripple or deformed person is never seen. In Egypt again, the haram is the cradle or school of infancy. The new-born feeble being is not there swaddled and filleted up in a 'swathe, the source of a thousand diseases. Laid naked on a mat, exposed in a vast chamber to the pure air, he breathes freely, and with his delicate limbs sprawls at pleasure. The new element in which he is to live is not entered with pain and tears. Daily • bathed beneath his mother's eye he grows apace. Free to act, he • tries his coming powers; rolls, crawls, rises, and should he fall, 'cannot much hurt himself on the carpet or mat that covers the 'floor."

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arm hanging by the side, instead of upon the hand with the arm somewhat extended, which is the only way in which a child should be carried; and if the nurse-maid have not strength to do this, she is not qualified for her situation. Constant change of position also, both when the child is carried in the arms, and when it is put down in bed, ought to be urged as a cardinal ingredient in good nursing; and that more especially when any disinclination to such change is discoverable on the part of the infant; otherwise a rickety conformation will appear before any injury may have been suspected even by a mother who is not careless of her charge. Daily frictions ought likewise to be employed, especially when any thing like a menace of a rickety disposition begins to display itself.

Art. VII.

(To be continued.)

Sermons to Young People. By the late Rev. Samuel Lavington, of Bideford, Devon: Delivered at a Lecture founded by the late Captain Young. 12mo. pp. 280. Price 6s. 6d. Bristol. Long. 1815.

IN

N the review of Mr. Cobbin's French Preacher, in the last Number, we have extracted a description of the style of the Author of these Sermons, accompanied with a testimony to the amiableness of his character, which, we believe to be strictly just. Two volumes of Mr. Lavington's Sermons have already obtained a wide circulation, and have made the Author extensively known, as a pulpit orator of considerable originality and elegance. A familiar, sometimes colloquial mode of address, admirably calculated to fix the attention; a happy adaptation of scriptural language; and an affectionate earnestness of manner in his hortatory appeals to the conscience, render these Sermons highly useful as models, though not for indiscriminate imitation, and still more valuable for domestic. and village reading. The present volume contains a series of annual addresses to Young People, which were delivered at Bideford, in pursuance of the directions of Captain Young. Mr. Lavington avails himself of this circumstance, to represent the Lecture as the Captain's legacy to the young people of the town. One can scarcely conceive of any thing much more impressive than some of the addresses and expostulations contained in this volume, if they were delivered with sufficient animation by the venerable minister. It is scarcely fair to judge of them by a detached specimen. There is occasionally a quaintness which marks the time when the Author was young; but this is more obvious in extracts, than on perusing a whole sermon. The Sermons form a complete series, the exordium

to each comprising a reference to the texts of the preceding years. The third is founded on Gal. i. 15, "When it pleased "God to reveal his Son in me, immediately I conferred not with "flesh and blood."

If he had,' exclaims the Preacher, he had never been a convert. Flesh and blood would have started so many objections and thrown so many difficulties in the way, as would have effectually stifled the kindling conviction. What! (they would have hastily cried) Saul "talk of turning Christian! Saul, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; a Pha"risee so celebrated for sanctity and zeal, wilt thou quit the eminent "station in the church thou wast born in, and join a sect that is every "where spoken against? Depend upon it, thou wilt be spoken against "too, and be persecuted thyself as violently as ever thou hast per"secuted others. What is this call and this vision which thou pre"tendest to have had? It may be only thy fancy, a delusion; better "take no notice of it. Thou art as good already as any need to be. "Don't meddle with those new opinions, they will only bring thee "into trouble. Master, spare thyself."-This is the advice which flesh and blood always give to those who are beginning to think seriously about Religion; and if Saul had consulted with them, he had been undone. But he did not consult them; he was so fully persuaded of the truth of his divine call, that he resolved upon an immediate compliance cost what it would-and this is what I wish to see in you. This is now the third time I have been called upon by the appointment of the late Captain Young to address myself particularly to young people: and it was a wise and kind appointment, and I hope some of you, and many that are yet unborn, will have reason to respect his memory and bless God for putting it into his heart. We then as workers together with God, do again and again beseech you, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. The last year I held up to you the example of Moses, who when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharoah's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Perhaps while you were hearing it, you applauded his choice, and thought when you were come to years, you would do the same. But alas, the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and ye are not saved. How many could I reckon up that are old enough to choose their business, their connections, their habitations, to choose almost every thing but their Religion; and you would have chosen your Religion too, very probably, if you had not conferred with flesh and blood.' pp. 34, 35.

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Art. VIII. Conversations on Political Economy; in which the Elements
of that Science are familiarly explained. By the Author of " Con-
"versations on Chemistry." 12mo. pp. x, 464. Price 9s. Longman
and Co 816.

IT
T is not so easy a matter as might at first be supposed, for
one intimately acquainted with a science, to introduce another
even to the elements of it. He may begin at the beginning,
define terms, lay down general principles, deduce particular
truths, and go on regularly, clearing as he goes, and leaving
nothing for an after parenthesis; and yet, only overwhelm the
memory, perplex the reason, and ultimately disgust his pupil
with the subject. Such a plan is, no doubt, the most natural
to the tutor, and the most proper for any one, who, in some
degree already acquainted with the subject, should yet wish
to refresh his memory upon it. He knows how the terms de-
fined are to come into play, and whither the general principles
tend; and, therefore, what he is about He sees that the
arrangement is, perhaps, the best that ean be adopted for the
science abstractedly considered, the one that will most concisely
develop truth, and is least liable to lead into repetition ;—and he
has that satisfaction which arises from the contemplation of order.

A mind totally unacquainted with the subject, knows nothing of all this. With such a one, we will venture to say, the most concise and least repetitious method, is not the best; the one which most regularly develops the science, is not the most philosophical. The most philosophical, because the most natural method, is that which accommodates itself to the mind of the learner; the best teacher is he who can most fully put himself in the pupil's place.

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Such a teacher, we imagine, would open a way into any science, by some observation likely to occur to an uninstructed and inquisitive mind ;~as upon the flight of a stone, the weight of a body, the game of see-saw, in mechanics;-the circumnavigation of the globe, or the vicissitude of day and night, in astronomy; the freezing of water, or the working of a steamengine, in chemistry:-no matter what the observation, so that it involves some grand principle of the science. By leading questions he will draw the pupil to the development of the principle, and place it full before him; he will follow, or in seeming to follow, he will in some measure direct the course of the pupil's mind; making observations, tracing consequences, starting objections. In such an introduction to a science, the form of dialogue is obviously very desireable.

We are very glad to meet with our old friend, Mrs. B., again. We know no one under whose guidance we should rather place a beginner in chemistry or political economy. The 'con

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versations on chemistry' stand in no need of any praise of ours. For its luminous order,-its power, we mean, of making a child think luminously upon the subject, and then aptly following up the train of thought thus excited,-its beautiful illustrations, its pertinent experiments, its natural and well-bred dialogue, and its easy and graceful style, it stands at the very top of the scientific library of the school-room. It is the best praise we can give to the work before us, to say that it is fully worthy of its predecessor.

From such a work it is difficult to know what to quote. It makes no pretensions to originality of matter, and of the arrangement of course, we can give no specimen. We shall venture at random.

Caroline objects to the substitution of machinery for human industry, as tending to throw the poor out of employment.

'Mrs. B. It may appear paradoxical, but it is nevertheless true, that whatever abridges and facilitates labour will eventually increase the demand for labourers.

Caroline. Or, in other words, to turn people out of work is the most certain means of procuring them employment!-This is precisely the objection I was making to the introduction of new machinery.

Mrs. B. The invention of machinery, I allow, is at first attended with some partial and temporary inconvenience and hardship; but on the other hand, the advantages resulting from it are almost incalculable both in extent and duration. When any new machine or process whatever which abridges or facilitates labour, is adopted, the commodity produced by it falls in price, the low price enables a greater number of persons to become purchasers, the demand for it increases, and the supply augments in proportion; so that eventually more hands are employed in its fabrication than there were previous to the adoption of the new process. When, for instance, the machine for weaving stockings was first invented, it was considered as a severe hardship on those who had earned a maintenance by knitting them; but the superior facility with which stockings were made in the loom, rendered them so much cheaper, that those, who before were unable to purchase them, could now indulge in the comfort of wearing them, and the prodigious increase of demand for stockings enabled all the knitters to gain a livelihood, by spinning the materials that were to be woven into stockings.

Caroline. That was a resource in former times, but household spinning is scarcely ever seen since Arkwright's invention of spinning jennies. Where are the spinners now to find employment? The improvements in machinery drive these poor workmen from one expedient to another, till I fear at last every resource will be exhausted.

'Mrs. B. No; that cannot be the case. Where there is capital the poor will always find employment. In countries possessed of great wealth we see prodigious works undertaken. Roads cut through hills, canals uniting distant rivers, magnificent bridges, splendid edifices, and a variety of other enterprises which give work VOL. III. N.S.

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