extension of instruction, both secular and religious, among these classes, the improvement of their dwellings, and their elevation generally in the social scale, are all points of consideration. You will, it is trusted, do the utmost within your sphere to aid in this commendable movement.

ON FORMING OPINIONS.

T

HE difficulties which beset all attempts at correct reasoning have already engaged our notice. It has been seen that opinions ordinarily expressed take their tone greatly from time, circumstances, and bodily temperament. The people of every country entertain opinions favourable to their own fashions, customs, laws, and religion, and unfavourable to those of other nations. A love of one's own country is certainly a commendable feeling, but it should be a love arising from examination and conviction, not from prejudice. The Hindoo worships the river Ganges. We know that this is superstitious folly. The conscientious Turk declares that Mohammed was a true prophet. We know that he was an impostor, though doubtless a man of transcendent abilities. The people who lived in our own country a hundred years ago, were of belief that certain old women, whom they termed witches, could, by supernatural powers, raise tempests by sea and land, and malevolently interrupt the course of human affairs. The people who possessed this belief were conscientious in holding this opinion; yet we know that this opinion was an absurdity. We know that our ancestors believed in an impossibility. Opinion is therefore, as we see, a thing of time and

place. The opinion that is supposed to be right in one century, is wrong in the next. What is considered to be a right opinion in Asia, is thought wrong in Europe. What is deemed a correct and praiseworthy belief in Britain, is reckoned an absurdity in France. Indeed, the opinion which is held good in one district of a country, is looked on with contempt in other districts-so that the whole world is found to be covered, as it were, with a variety of opinions and shades of opinions, like the diversified colours by which countries are depicted in a map. Opinion, we have said, is also dependent on temperament of the body. A fat man, of easy disposition, does not think in exactly the same way as a lean and excitable person. A man who enjoys all the comforts which opulence can purchase, has a tendency to think differently in some things from a man who is suffering under misfortunes or poverty.

What does all this wonderful contrariety of opinion teach us? Since we see that opinion is dependent on the locality of our birth, on the age in which we live, on the condition in which we may chance to be placed, and on the physical qualities of our bodies, have we therefore no power over opinion? Must we be its slave? These are questions of a solemn character, and we must answer them accordingly. The contrariety of opinion existing in times and places, teaches us, in the first place, humility, which is the foundation of many heavenly virtues. It shews us that the opinions we may form, particularly on abstract subjects, may possibly neither be the most correct nor the most enduring. Perhaps what we have taken up and cherished as truth, may after all be a delusion. In learning a lesson of humility and distrust of our own way of thinking, we are impressed with a tender regard for the opinions of others -opinions which most likely have been taken up on grounds equally conscientious with our own.

Although opinion is commonly dependent on those contingent circumstances which we have noticed, it cannot be

allowed that we have no power over it. We have a power over the formation of opinion to a certain extent; and it is our present object to shew how this power can be exerted in order to enable us the better to fulfil the duties of life. The reason

why opinion is so illusory in its nature is, that mankind have ever been excessively careless in the adoption of their opinions. They allow the chance notions of things that first present themselves to take possession of their minds without question; and when these ill-assorted ideas have once cohered into a habitual train, they fancy they have made up their minds, and will listen to no explanation of the opinions of others. Their obstinacy, their self-conceit, their self-interest, their wish to please the party to which they have attached themselves, induce them to hold fast to their original opinion, until time or experience in all likelihood wear it down, and its absurdity is secretly pressed upon their notice. But even after its absurdity is disclosed, they are sometimes ashamed to say they have altered it; and so perhaps they have one opinion which they keep locked up in their bosom, and another which they bring into daily use and exhibit before company.

It is certainly our duty to be cautious in the formation, and, most of all, in the display of our opinions. Many excellent men, on arriving at middle life, have deeply regretted that they should have heedlessly published their early and hastily formed notions. They had reasoned, as they thought, soundly, but it was without a knowledge of the world or its history. Speaking to the young, we would say-while yet under the training of parents, guardians, and teachers, it is your duty to receive with confidence the instructions by which it is attempted to enlighten your minds, and to put you in the way of welldoing. But these friends of your youth will probably tell you that when you pass from under their guardianship into the active scenes of life, you become a responsible being-responsible alike to human and divine laws--and that

you must now think for yourself. At this critical period of your existence, you have every chance of coming in contact with the idle, the dissipated, the frivolous, who will try to make you embrace erroneous opinions, and who will possibly put the most mischievous books into your hands for perusal. Do not be led away by such machinations; neither be dismayed by the number of wits or profane jesters who may assail you. Your proper object is the discovery of correct views on all subjects of importance; and for that, a course of private study is necessary. For the capability of receiving truth, there must always be certain preparations. I do not reckon freedom from error one of these, for then truth would be absolutely unattainable; no man being without false opinions who has not already imbibed true ones. But I mean certain qualities, moral and intellectual, which bestow a fitness to be acted upon by argument. One of the most essential of these is the fair honest desire of discovering the truth, and following whithersoever it may lead. But how large a portion of mankind is precluded from this state by previously determined interests and penalties! How few, even among the pretended inquirers after truth, can say with an old English writer: "For this, I have forsaken all hopes, all friends, all desires, which might bias me, and hinder me from driving right at what I aimed.” On the contrary, are we not very sure, that when persons of certain descriptions engage in what they call an investigation of truth, they have beforehand decided what conclusions to establish, and without such a decision, would never have undertaken the task. Further, how much diligence, how much study, what freedom from distinctions, what renunciation of common pleasures and pursuits, are not necessary for the successful search after truth. Truth in science is only arrived at by laborious experiment and patient deduction. Historical truth requires for its investigation perfect impartiality, and an acquaintance with every possible inlet to fraud and mistake.

Moral truth demands a heart capable of feeling it. Religious truth is not attained without a union of the requisites for all the other species of truth.'*

In these remarks of an intelligent writer is conveyed the sound admonition that a correct opinion on great debatable subjects is not to be obtained without laborious investigation, along with a close attention to grounds of evidence and a heart open to conviction. The more you learn, the more will you see cause to entertain a liberal view of the opinions of others. It is the exercise of this liberality of mind which forms a distinguishing trait in the manners of our country. By the British constitution, every one is allowed perfect freedom of opinion, a gift above all price, which it is our duty not to prostitute or abuse. Let us form our opinions on solid grounds of conviction-let us cherish these opinions and act on all occasions consistently with them-and let us, at the same time, so maintain a due regard for justice that we allow to others the same freedom of opinion which we are entitled to claim. It is further necessary, in consequence of the entangled state of many questions, to avoid those extreme views which would number us in the ranks of the crotchety and impracticable. Safety, as repeatedly said, lies in moderation. Without sacrifice of principle, you can at least exercise discretion.

These observations apply indifferently to various subjects upon which opinions may be formed; and we would, in conclusion, beg to say a few words in particular on opinions of a political nature, a correct choice of which is a matter of extreme difficulty, and should be made only with great circumspection. There is much dishonest and degrading as well as highly honourable partisanship. Nothing is more common than to see political subserviency, for mean selfish purposes. Among partisans there stand out many instances of single