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    never heard the name of God , should in some moment be struck with the fact that he did not know the true cause of any thing . Supposing he were to make some such soliloquy as this ; ' The acorn is dropt into the ground , it then swells and sends its roots downwards , and its stem upwards , and grows to a mighty tree by merely assimilating to itself a few gases , and some moisture . Why is this ? And why will only an oak grow from an acorn ? Who has fixed the laws which limit these operations V He would eagerly ask the question of him who had educated him , and whose wise care and instructions had enabled him to feel intensely and understand scientifically the beauty and harmony of his own nature , and of the external universe . With the deep calm of intense emotion he would reply to his pupil ' s question , ' God / ' And who is God ? ' c The Father of Nature ; he whose will created all those forms which charmed your childish eye , and established those laws which keep all things in eternal order / Oh that moment ! It would give soul to matter , design to creation , hope ,, and joy , and peace , and love unspeakable to the being who then would hear for the first time the blessed sound , ' Heavenly Father . ' Surely such a question would occur to every mind \ em free from all human influence on the subject , save that of being initiated into the science of Nature . And how would it come ? As I have said * through the Reason ! Through the mind perceiving that it knew only effect , not cause !

    One thing which strikes me in B . ' s remark is , the powerful effect of countenance upon the child . Indeed , I think that the strongest effects produced in us are caused by things acting incessantly upon us , and silently , and slowly , and imperceptibly ; that as the physical constitution is in great measure formed by the atmosphere in which the being lives , so is the mental constitution affected by the secret workings of that moral atmosphere made by the beings who surround us . Looks , tones , habits , those manifestations of ourselves called ways , are far more influencing than words or direct lessons . How needful is it , therefore , that none but pure , and lofty , and loving creatures , should have the care of childhood . B . is peculiarly susceptible of this sort of

    influence . To-day , . came here ; the very si ght of her seems to irritate him , and put him in a resistful state ; she is just one of

    those people whose restless nature proclaims a sort of want of ease in all about her . Certainly , there are some who walk the earth , like the fabled goddess of old , surrounded by loves and dancing graces , and others whose heads are wreathed , like Medusa ' s , with hissing snakes , and to look on whose countenance is to feel one ' s heart turn to stony coldness .

    July , 1821 . —B . is very fond of doing what he calls his journal , that is , repeating to me at nig ht the deeds of the day . 1 find it ° f incalculable use . I learn therefrom the impression which things hare made upon him ; those impressions are strengthened and

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    and Experiments in Education . 555

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1834, page 555, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2636/page/25/