state of discipline, over youthful minds in Wales, and to ground them in enlarged and correct views of sound principles, would, in process of time, greatly improve the national character. It is of the utmost consequence that the powers of reflection should be trained to the habit of thinking, for then mankind would at all times be able to derive pleasure from their own resources, as rational as it would be exalted, and would be in a fair way of answering the purposes for which they have been placed on earth.

Next to the want of efficient education we have to lament the imperfect state of parental discipline in the principality. What is seen and heard at home is sure to act on the minds and hearts of youth, so as to give a bias to their dispositions, and create a habit which is likely to remain with them to the end of life. Every house with children is a sort of moral manufactory in which mankind are apprenticed to the trade of acting. An efficient discipline at home would act as a powerful auxiliary to the salutary lessons and course of training pursued at school, and in cases of entire exemption from the latter, would, in a great measure, establish the habit of correct acting, counteract the influence of bad example, and save many a child from ruin. Having shown that Wales, generally speaking, contains a virtuous population, it is clear that parents make some efforts to teach their children what is correct in theory and upright in conduct. But the discipline is not sufficiently enlarged and vigorous. It wants energy of mind, and the direction of sound and enlightened principles, to assist its operations. Too much severity must be avoided as equally injurious with too great a laxity. Long periods of laxness, occasionally interrupted by fits of severe correction, cannot fail to be not only ineffectual for good but highly productive of evil. Parental discipline should be a continual course of explanation and of reasoning. The more simple the whole process the

better will it answer the purpose.

Fathers are forbidden to

66

provoke their children to wrath. Objects of choice, of an innocent and useful kind, should be presented to children, and they ought to be allowed to select those that are most agreeable to themselves. But improprieties of conduct ought not to be passed over without correction. Plato, reproving a young man for playing at some childish game, the youth remarked, you chide me for a very trifling fault. Custom, replied the philosopher, is no trifle. And, adds Montaigne, he was in the right, for our perversities begin in infancy." Parental discipline in Wales seems to suffer more from laxness than from undue severity, of which there is abundant proof in the self-will and waywardness of the rising generation. Children should be subdued and trained to obedience from their earliest infancy, if not, they will most probably have to suffer much themselves, and will be very troublesome members of society. The following anecdote is very illustrative, and conveys a significant admonition. A woman, residing in some part of England, had a little girl, of about five years of age, whom she was quite unable to control. A lecturer on education happening to come to her neighbourhood, she applied to him for advice. He inquired the age of the child, and on being informed that she was about five, told the mother that she was too late in her application, and that he could give her no advice. It is dangerous to allow young people to form their own views of men and things, as such views are generally imperfect and inaccurate. Children are often suffered to persist in a course of conduct, framed by themselves, though very unsuitable to their station and capacity; it cannot therefore be a matter of surprise that they frequently make a shipwreck of their comfort, and ruin their character. Defective parental discipline, and an inefficient course of education, have reduced to degradation and misery many families, which might otherwise be moving

in the highest circles of society.

Some branches of them

are outcasts, who neither have respect for themselves, nor are respected by others.

A few years back, the writer happened to be in the society of two intelligent men, in one of the counties of South Wales, when their conversation turned on the importance of a collegiate education, in forming the mind and manners of the higher classes. One of the persons observed that, "setting aside the peers, there was only one accomplished lay gentleman to be found in the whole county. The other, mentioning the names of several wealthy people, demanded what his friend thought of Mr. G? Why, replied the other, he is a fop. And what think you of Mr. L? He is a coxcomb. And what is your opinion of Mr. R? Why, judging from his conversation and habits, he seems more nearly allied to the brute creation than to reasonable beings. And do you suppose, added he, that Mr. would have ruined his patrimonial estate, and annihilated a family which can trace its pedigrees for twelve centuries, if he had received a collegiate education?" Most probably he would not, especially if that education had been aided by a vigorous parental discipline. But a departure from propriety commenced with the head of the family, and he, having involved himself in difficulties, found it necessary to sell some portion of his property. The consent of the heir was necessary, and in order to obtain it, the father was obliged to allow him a large sum of money for his own use. Having commenced the race of dissipation, it was found difficult to stop. Onward the heroes of the tale proceeded, with a recklessness which is truly astonishing. In the course of a few years, it is reported that the younger member of the family expended above eighty thousand pounds, in gratifying his follies, and pampering his vices; and the patrimonial property, worth some thousands a year, has become alienated for ever from the family. As parental discipline, in this instance, did not produce the in

fluence which it might, if a virtuous example had given its aid, it is not improbable that a sound education would have done much to sober the mind of the son, and made him, in temporal affairs, the saviour of his family, instead of which he is now both an outlaw and an outcast from society.

Another case, illustrative of the same subject, is well known in a county of North Wales. The heir of a property, of some hundreds of pounds annual value, by a mad career of dissipation and gambling, scattered to the winds from twelve to fifteen thousand pounds, and at the present time performs the duties of one of the meanest and most objectionable offices in order to obtain a livelihood. The training which education, and a wise exercise of parental discipline, would have effected, in the case of this individual, might have saved a numerous family from proverty and its attendant evils.

About twelve years ago, the writer happened to be conversing with a gentleman farmer, residing in the principality, on the subject of education. Both of us agreed as to the importance of it to the well-being of the rising generation. This farmer had a son, about fourteen years of age, to whom a handsome fortune, amounting to several thousand pounds, had lately been bequeathed by a relative of the family. The father observed that he should be glad to find a private tutor for his son, who would be satisfied with his board and lodgings as a remuneration for his trouble! Had a thousand pounds of the money, belonging to the youth, been devoted to procure a liberal education for him, the benefit might have been immense. Instead of which, parental discipline and education were neglected, and the young man grew up in ignorance and dissipation; and the property at this time, if report speaks true, is nearly all wasted. It is lamentable to think how much more money is valued by many than knowledge, or I should rather say, than a course of vigorous and efficient training of the mind. The Demon of avarice has a numerous class of worshippers in the principality; on his

altar intelligence, morality, and religion, are sacrificed, for the purpose of obtaining his smiles, and be blessed with the riches that perish. But Mammon can impart no happiness; though, in the present age, he confers more power than knowledge. It should be remembered, however, that wealth, unless properly used, becomes a most corrupting agent, alienating the heart from virtue, and assisting the ignorant and undisciplined in their downward course to ruin and death!

It may well be questioned whether any part of the world has finer looking females than Wales; but their education is so much neglected that, though reading and needlework are considered indispensable, yet the practice of writing and the knowledge of arithmetic are so imperfectly acquired as to answer very little purpose. I fear the opinion held by many is too true, that not twenty females in Wales are acquainted with the grammar of their native tongue. The higher class of young ladies are educated altogether on the English system, and many of them are unable to speak the Welsh language. In some few towns this interesting portion of society make themselves useful, by visiting the cottages of the poor, and reporting their state to the minister of the parish, and by acting as collectors for the funds of missionary and other charitable institutions. But this practice is only in its infancy in any part of Wales, and in rural districts such a thing is hardly known. In this praiseworthy conduct, therefore, there is abundant room for improvement.

THE MEANS which would tend to raise the religious, moral, and intellectual character of the principality, have been repeatedly though briefly alluded to in the course of this Essay, but they deserve a further consideration. As I have already intimated, an efficient ministration of the word of God must be brought to bear on the various classes of society. We must not attempt to reform the world without the Gospel of Christ. This is the grand instrument, ordained by heaven, for the recovery and transformation of the human family; and