I admit that all this is very proper, by recalling to us the weakness of our nature, to put us on our guard against a vain confidence in our own strength. I think also that it is well to encourage every reflection which can carry back our recollection towards a state which we are too prone to forget. But although such a consideration may be little flattering to our pride, I do not see what it can have so singularly humiliating.

Let us suppose, if you please, the case the most favourable to the observations of which I have just spoken. Let us suppose that a sufficiently long time has passed, before the child shows the least indication of faculties superior to those of animals deprived of reason. Let us add, that no animal is physically more feeble than the child, even for many days after birth, and that thus the life of man is, in its beginning, above the existence of other animals.

Not the less for this do I persist in maintaining that, in a moral point of view, there is nothing humiliating in it.

Man placed on a level with the brute! This is undoubtedly enough to shock all those, who look with any pride upon the moral character of human nature; but what is this species of humiliation, compared to the fact to which I am going to call your attention ?

Is there any one who does not perceive an immense difference between this state of animal existence which is to be succeeded by the manifestation of intellectual life, and that moral and in some sort responsible existence, in which the powers of the understanding are already exhausted or annihilated? In the first case, we rise progressively; in the second, we march towards a degradation whose fatal progress nothing can check. Before the torch of intelligence has shone forth for us, before conscience has made us to hear its voice, error and corruption are equally impossible; but it is when the one has lost all its light and the other all its authority, that we may deplore the blindness and frailty of the human species.

Instead, therefore, of stopping at this absence of a moral and intellectual principle, let us seek to know the period of its first development. Instead of undervaluing the work of the Creator, let us admire that goodness and wisdom with which he opens, when he sees fit, the eyes of his creatures, and discovers to them at once a material world full of wonders, and a celestial world full of felicities. Instead of complaining, and accusing him of not having created us more perfect, let us ex

amine rather how far we are still removed from that perfection which he has nevertheless placed within our reach.

I have dwelt a little on this subject, because it too often gives place to reflections and remarks, the apparent justice of which might tend to weaken the zeal and affection of mothers. What I desire, what I ask above all, is, that a mother have recourse to her own heart and her own experience, rather than the sophistry of those who cannot think and feel as she does.

Let her then consider the being which she presses to her bosom as being destined to an existence superior to that in which he claims from her those succours which Providence has put it in her power to grant. Let her not be content with obeying that instinctive affection which does not permit her to be indifferent to the wants of her infant; let her extend her view to the time when, in the heart of this child, there shall awaken at once both the sentiment of its duties in this world, and the hope of happiness in the other; above all, let her not forget that, since such is the destiny of her child, it is on her that the task is imposed of aiding it, of sustaining it, and of teaching it to surmount the greatest difficulties that it can meet with in its

career.

And when the first weeks shall have passed, that time of painful anxiety for her and of blind weakness for her child; when she shall feel her strength to be wearied and attention to languish in discouragement, she will then have need of something to come and reanimate the scene, rekindle her affection, and excite anew her efforts.

And she will not be deceived in her waiting; for the day will come when the child will no longer claim from her those succours and those cares, so necessary to the satisfaction of its physical wants; the day will come when his look will seek the look of his mother, and will comprehend its mute language; when maternal tenderness, now better felt by him, will come to give him a new life, and to call the first smile to his lips.

Then also commences a new era in the existence of the child, and a new world opens upon his eyes. What an immense step he has made in the career of life! By his late efforts he has entered into possession of the rights belonging to his nature; he has acquired a true superiority over all other beings of the creation.

The smile of joy, the tears of sympathy, are denied to other animals. Man alone is endowed with them. These precious faculties constitute a dumb language, which is common

to all, and which all may understand, because all can feel. They are the first manifestation of a sensibility which belongs exclusively to man. Certain signs of our interior emotions, they have an expression which it is impossible to mistake. The character of these emotions may change; it may be momentaneous or permanent; their object may vary to infinity; but the signs of their manifestation are always the same; and in the whole course of life, they remain the incorruptible interpreters of our sensibility, whether it show itself in silent grief or sweet serenity, whether it rend the soul by the most cruel anguish or fill it with happiness the most pure. PESTALOZZI.

[To be continued.]

ART. V.-Encyclopædia Americana. A Popular Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature, History, Politics, and Biography, brought down to the present time; including a copious collection of Original Articles in American Biography; on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon." Edited by FRANCIS LIEBER, assisted by E. WIGGLESWORTH. Vol. I. Philadelphia. 1829. Carey, Lea, & Carey.

ALTHOUGH it is the principal object of this Journal, to give information respecting improvements in modes of education, and to furnish such notices of elementary books, as will promote the use of those only which are valuable, yet we regard every work as having some claim on our attention, that is adapted to exert an extensive influence on the literature of our country. We believe the work before us to be of this character. It is suited to the wants of every-reading family; its size is convenient; and its price is so moderate, as to come within the means of immense numbers.

A few persons object to the use of Encyclopædias, and other abstracts of knowledge, on the ground that they are often made a substitute for the detailed information contained in other works; but it is said, on the other hand, that the general facts contained in these abstracts excite curiosity and a desire for more exact knowledge. However this may be, it is certain that every reader needs books to which he can refer for general facts; and no other book for reference is so complete, as an Encyclopædia.

The various departments of literature and science are so intimately connected, that no one can be well studied, without some general knowledge of many others. To understand any book, much information is requisite, which that book does not give. Allusions to history, biography, geography, and every subject of general literature, together with the various arts and sciences, are so frequently made, that none but the learned fully understand the most common publications, or the conversation of well educated society. In all these departments of knowledge there are certain leading facts and principles, which are thus commonly alluded to, and which, therefore, should be generally known, or should be within the reach of every person. These leading facts and principles give that general information, which is wanted in the mind, or at hand, while pursuing every study, and attending to the details of any branch of literature, science, or the arts. To furnish these facts, is the object of an Encyclopedia.

We have made this simple statement for the benefit of that small portion of our readers, who may be supposed imperfectly acquainted with the character and uses of such works, as we are recommending; and we shall continue our remarks in the same humble strain, and leave to journals of higher pretensions their proper task of learned criticism.

In the Journal of Education for July and August, we gave an extract from the preface of the work before us, from which our readers will infer that Dr. Lieber possesses the best advantages for making his work complete. Some further information of the same kind is furnished in the following paragraphs.

For the plan of this Encyclopedia we are indebted to the late Mr. Brockhaus, a bookseller of eminence at Leipsic, who was the publisher, and, at the same time the principal editor. He called it the Conversation-Lexicon, as being a work chiefly designed for the use of persons, who would take a part in the conversation or society of the well-informed circles. The character of the work, however, has been, to a certain degree, changed by numerous improvements in each successive edition; and its original title has therefore ceased to be strictly appropriate. But, as the book had become well known, and gained its well-deserved popularity, under that name, it was thought inexpedient to reject its original appellation it is accordingly included in its new title-Allgemeine deutsche Real- Encyklopædie für die gebildeten Stände. (Conversations-Lexicon.) Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus. 1827

29.

'The value attached to this undertaking of Mr. Brockhaus is

evident from the fact, that about 80,00 copies of the work, now consisting of twelve volumes, have been published since 1812; besides which two pirated editions have appeared in Germany. There has also been a Danish translation (published by Soldin, Copenhagen), a Swedish, and likewise a Dutch, (published by Thiene, at Zutphen). A French translation is also preparing at Brussels. More than two hundred contributors are enumerated in the preface of the original, of whom we will only mention a few, whose fame is by no means confined to the limits of their country-G. W. Becker, in Leipsic; Chladni, in Kemberg; Gruber, in Halle; Hassel, in Weimer; C. H. L. von Jakob, in Halle; Niemeyer, in Halle; Oken, in Munich; Kurt Sprengel, in Halle; von Aretin, in Amberg; W. Gesenius, in Halle; F. Jacobs, in Gotha; J. S. Vater, in Halle; Paulus, in Heidelberg; K. W. Bessel, in Königsberg; Fr. Mohs, in Freiberg; Schubert, in Erlangen.' pp. iv, v.

We cannot desire more full evidence that this important work is undertaken under suitable advantages, than is afforded by the preface. Its having been first published in Germany, where it commanded the learning of the most learned men in the world, gives it a value which it could not possibly have been made to possess, if it had been written in this country. Most of the articles are of such a nature, that the leading facts in relation to them, must always remain the same; and, for these, we may surely rely with most confidence on the scholars of Germany. Almost every subject which has not particular reference to America, can be treated of under greater advantages in Germany, than in the United States; but in relation to every subject concerning this or any other country, Dr. Lieber has at command what the genius and learning of the United States can supply. The character which this gentleman has established during his short residence in this country, would be considered by those who know him as a sufficient guaranty for the honest and faithful improvement of every means for perfecting the work, without an endorsement of the Publishers, Messrs. Carey Lea, & Carey. But in addition to all these, we have one twelfth of the work as a sample; and we find it executed to our entire satisfaction. These are some of our reasons for recommending the Encyclopædia Americana; but we shall be expected to be more particular; and shall therefore describe the work in this and subsequent articles, in a manner to satisfy our readers, whether it is suited to their means and wants.

This Encyclopedia is to be printed in twelve volumes, at two dollars and fifty cents a volume. A volume is expected to ap