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extent of : its operation * , its practices have been almost stationary in improvement . TJiink not , however , that I mean tor deny , the amount of good of which the Sunday School has been the medium . 1 acknowledge it ; as a lover of my species , gratefully acknowledge it . But oh ! how much is it short of what might be effect- '
ed ! They are the children of the poor who are taught there , and the day to them is of infinite value . Every moment of that day , which is spent in the school , should be devoted to instruction only , and that instruction should be practical , useful . Is it so ? I reply , without hesitation , the greatest portion of it is not . How much of the precious time is taken
up . in listening to prayers , the language and bearings of which , however well * intentioned they may be , are beyond the comprehension of infancy I Mow much of that time is devoted to the reading of matter which is foreign to the purposes of every-day life ! The great object of
such an institution ought to be the formation of character and the development of mind , aud the most powerful means will be found to be pride and interest . Engage their pride on the side of knowledge and virtue , and let the discipline of the school be calculated to inspire them with a conviction that it is their interest to
attain the one aud to practise the other . Elevate the character , and teach poverty that it has something to labour for , independent of riches—the greatness of mo- * ral worth . At no period of life are proper subjects for contemplation of greater importance than during childhood and youth ; and the curiosity incident to these portions of our existence , when
properly directed , becomes one of the most important coadjutors in the formation of character . Seize upon this disposition of our nature , and secure it in the cause of human progression by gratifying its anxious inquiries with useful information and philosophical facts . Let the youthful mind be stored each succeeding week with natural truths or moral principles , on which it may employ the activity of its thoughts ; and
discovering by degrees an increase of strength in that knowledge on which the mind reposes with satisfaction , the affections will be engaged in favour of knowledge and ' virtue , and the true foundation for an abhorrence of brutality and vice will be implanted . Let our Sunday Schools become the universities of the poor , in which the infant mind shall be taught to look through nature up to nature's Source , by teaching it the simple elements and ruditnental facts of natural
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philosophy , and lei our first book ' s Contain them . Teach it the dignifying truth I that the only acceptable service to that Source is , to love and serve their fellowmen . Let a reason accompany every moral precepf , and an illustration every principle in philosophy . " With one or two more extracts we conclude :
" If the working classes of this country would redeem their children from the political evils by which they are themselves oppressed , they must aid , by every means in their power , in the formation of a character which shall be prepared to obtain relief : " we add , and which shall use , improve , and keep it , when obtained .
" Proclaim to the working classes from morn to ulghtfaU that no political change can effect the melioration of his condition , who is the slave of drunkenness . " * - * The wisest political institu ^ tions cannot avert the natural consequences of individual vice ; whilst such is the force of individual virtue , that were a nation truly civilized , a vicious government could not exist . "
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yB 4 B Critical Notices . —Miscellaneous }
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Art . X . — The F ^ oice of Humanity ; far the Communication and Discussion of all Subjects relative to the Conduct of Man towards the inferior Animal Creation . Published Quarterly . Nos . 1—4 . 1830 , J 831 . The objects of this periodical are thus set forth in the Address prefixed to the first number :
* ' This work will be entirely devoted to the consideration of the proper treatment of the animal creation ; and a full aud fair discussion will be afforded to every authentic correspondent , as well as an opportunity of bringing forward every " subject worthy of notice .
" Those which most immediately press upon public attention we conceive to be , first , —the unrecorded atrocities and cruelties daily and hourly practised upon the animals slaughtered tor our tables , without the least regard to any laws of hu - manity either moral or divine , millions and myriads of which are hourly
suffering deaths of exquisite torture merely to gratify the covetousness of butchers and the voluptuousness of epicures . On this important subject / with which we conceive legislation ought , in the first instance , to have commenced , we shall ever readily insert well-attested communication of < w ^ u * 7 f * aw < tt 7 for the present system , which we denominate practical
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1831, page 546, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2600/page/42/
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