wonderfully strengthen by being properly trained. That subject which now seems very difficult and abstruse may in a few years become easy and clear. A book which seems now quite above our grasp may, after a course of severe mental discipline, unfold its treasures to our view, and we may be able to march through its pages in triumph.

On this point is is worthy of remark, that not one power of the mind simply requires training, but the whole mind-the mind with all its powers. To foster one power and neglect another is a course which intellectual philosophy condemns. Simply to train the memory and store therein a world of facts and thoughts, whilst no digestion, no assimilation goes on, would be to enlarge it, but only into a sort of huge sepulchral shrine unvisited by a resurrection's power. To make the imagination a sort of pet faculty, bestowing upon it excessive nourishment and care, would be to make it a sort of wild aerial monster, all wing and feather, too light for practical use in a world like this. To bestow all attention on the reasoning faculty even, important as that faculty is, would be to commit a serious mistake. A mind all reason would be a mind cold and dry to most other minds. Thus to discipline one power to the neglect of others is to form an unequal disproportionate mind. The whole mind wants cultivating. No faculty must be allowed to run waste; every power must be developed. Hence the plan of which we speak must be sufficiently broad to include the cultivation of all the intellectual powers.

This discipline is to be secured by subjecting the mind to severe study, by mastering difficulties, by slipping over nothing because it is hard. The student must never yield to the feeling, "I can't do it." Earnest application, nailing down the whole attention to the subject in hand, thoroughly cramming each hour with close thinking, is the sort of training the mind needs. The mind is prone to creep instead of run, to touch subjects instead of grapple with them; whereas its energies and powers being trained and brought out, it acquires a potency and can accomplish an amount of work truly surprising.

Sermonising, we conceive, is an excellent exercise to promote mental culture. By sermonising we mean the student making his own outlines, reading himself up on the subject, thoroughly digesting his acquired thought, and weaving his discourses out of his own brain. Here lies the difference between a pulpit weakling and a true man. "Thought," says an author, "engenders thought. Place one idea upon paper and others will follow it, until you have written a page. You cannot fathom your mind. There is a well of thought there which has no bottom; the more you draw from it the more clear and fruitful it will be. If you neglect to think yourself, and only use other people's thoughts, you will never know

what you are capable of. At first your ideas may come out in lumps, homely and shapeless, but time and perseverance will arrange and polish them. Learn to think and you will learn to write; the more you think the better you will express your ideas."

Logic or mathematics affords excellent discipline, especially for the reasoning powers. Each has its points of preference. The science of logic, besides the mental training it affords, gives an insight into reasoning, and furnishes excellent rules by which to detect fallacies and build up sound arguments. But geometry, whilst it does not profess to furnish such rules, does certainly excel logic as a cultivator of the reasoning faculty, and is thus better calculated to promote in the mind the "intuitive art of logic,” which we deem vastly more important than simply a knowledge of rules.

As means of discipline, the classics and mathematics have long taken the lead in all our principal educational institutions, and promise still to hold their position, being quite unlikely to be supplanted by anything worthy of their place. The inquiry is commonly made, "Why should men learn dead languages and geometrical problems which can be of no possible use to them in after life?" To which we cannot reply better than in the language of a contributor to the "Christian Observer," "It is to train their powers of mind, to develope their reasoning faculties, to accustom them to continued application, to teach them close accuracy, to cure them of slovenly ways of thinking and writing."

Classics and mathematics are so adapted to train the whole mind. There is not a power they do not call into action, and not a part of our mental nature they do not cultivate. But however intense may be the desire, however strong the relish of the probationer for these subjects, he can do little more than study their elements. At most he must content himself at present with treading the threshold of this grand old temple of learning, and giving his mental vision mere glimpses of the wealth and glory of the interior. For him to rush up to this high sphere, leaving behind him unmastered the elementary branches of a common English education, would be to waste much time and defeat to a large degree his own intentions.

Before leaving this part of our subject, there are several other important points which properly come within the range of description on which we should like to linger, but time will only allow a passing glance.

Good habits are the result of discipline. The probationer should consider that he is now forming most of his habits as a minister; habits that will to a great degree determine his course through time and materially affect his destiny in eternity. It is of the utmost importance to look to them and form them wisely. Inat

tention, fickleness of mind, carelessness in thinking and writing, laxity in pulpit preparation, a loose irregular expenditure of time, a spirit of slothfulness and procrastination, and vulgar manners, if yielded to and fostered now will in a few years constitute a part of the man, which no self-discipline, however severe, will succeed in totally sweeping away. Good habits constitute a model man; they are the sterling wealth of a minister, of incomparably greater worth than a mountain of rubies.

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A good style is in a great measure the result of discipline, and will to a considerable degree be formed during the period of probation. A simple, lucid, vigorous style is the one best fitted for the pulpit. Johnson says, "Whoever wishes to attain an English style familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison." But we dare to think that Addison's is not the style for the pulpit of our day; it is too smooth. One more sinewy and strong is needed by the preacher, whose appeals in this age are chiefly addressed to slumbering professors, half-seared consciences, and indurated hearts. In our judgment, the two best books in the English language for forming a style for the pulpit, are the Bible and Shakspere. Let the young preacher live much amid the grand poetry of the Bible, amid the simple and forcible diction of Evangelists and Apostles; let him frequently read some of the best dramas of Shakspere, together with others of our best English poets, such as Spencer, Milton, Young-read them repeatedly, intelligently, earnestly, and strive to catch the fire of their poetry, and drink in the sweetness and music of their numbers, and thereby his style will be improved, his thought enriched, and an increased brilliancy and glow will be given to the whole of his public ministrations. But let it be distinctly understood that the first and most essential thing to form a clear style is to think clearly. For we labour in vain to make that clear to others which is not clear to ourselves. On this, the first and most indispensable quality of a good style, Quintilian remarks, "Discourse ought always to be obvious, even to the most careless and negligent hearer; so that the sense shall strike his mind as the light of the sun does our eyes, though they are directed towards it. We must study not only that every hearer may

Some strongly object to the writings of Shakspere on the ground of the coarse sentiments they contain. But it should be remembered the dramatist does not gild vice, but reveals it in its "native ugliness;" so that as revealed by him his readers will be the more likely to loathe it than become bewitched by its charms. Most people admit it to be right, and even important that the preacher should know much of human nature: he finds it most faithfully and skilfully delineated in Shakspere. And there is much of it we would rather learn from the poet than from practical life. However, those who do not feel themselves competent to gather up their robes and walk through Shakspere without being tarnished, may find a purged edition published by W. and R. Chambers.

understand us, but that it shall be impossible for him not to understand us."

Elocution claims a passing remark. It has always ranked high amongst human attainments. Among the giant minds of ancient Greece and Rome to be an orator was to be a prince amongst men -it was to occupy the apex of human greatness. Since those ages the art of elocution has much fallen into decay. However, the art combined with nature's gifts is a grand power, and is worthy of considerable attention. But there is perhaps no subject which needs studying with more watchfulness and care. The unassisted

tyro is liable to augment his faults and multiply his defects, instead of acquiring that accuracy, grace, and power for which he pants. We have no high opinion of the utility of those works on the subject that are crammed with rules. They may serve a good purpose as used by the elocutionist, but they are not the thing for the private student.

To the student of elocution two things are necessary. 1. The correction of his errors. It would undoubtedly be to his advantage to practice music, and thus cultivate the ear, making it more sensitive to harsh and unnatural sounds. Strict attention must be given to pronunciation, not overlooking the two simple laws of aspiration, the neglect of which is equally discreditable to the speaker and grating to educated ears. Reading aloud is a capital exercise; some passage in Shakspere for example, listening meantime for any unnatural inflection, and putting in that variety of intonation necessary to effect. Much may be learned too from hearing the best speakers; also by eliciting corrections and suggestions from an intelligent and faithful friend. 2. The other thing necessary to the elocutionary student is earnestness. This is the chief secret of the highest elocution, and is indispensable in the pulpit. All the embellishments of art are light and powerless without this. Stolid tameness in handling immortal themes is unbearable; and empty vociferation is still more offensive to good taste. To take physical exertion and free perspiration for earnestness is a fatal error; an error into which some of the unthinking fall. They remind us of the mistaken musician. The Sultan, Abdul Medjid, after listening to the performance of a very energetic French pianist, called the delighted professor to his side, and remarked, "I have heard Thalberg-I have heard Liszt-but of all the men I have heard I have never seen one perspire so much as you do."

The plan, we remarked, should also supply the most desirable information. There is so much that the minister ought to know, and so small a portion of it that can be acquired during the short term of probation, that we experience some embarrassment in giving prudent directions. Here is room for difference of opinion. We however venture to state that the plan must contain the fol

lowing subjects:-arithmetic, English grammar and composition, modern geography, ancient geography of Bible lands, history of England, Methodistic theology, general Biblical knowledge, evidences of Christianity, history of the Church, and homiletics. Such subjects must be known and known well. Indeed, much ought to be known of them before entering the ministry, so that the probationer should simply have to rub himself up on these branches. At a university examination there are subjects which are deemed more important than others, subjects in which candidates must be up, and which form the point on which their passing or plucking turns. We think that the above subjects ought to hold a similar position at the final examinations of our probationers.

But further, we suggest that the plan should include logic or Euclid's first four books, rhetoric, natural theology, ancient history, history of the English language and literature, one of the leading sciences, viz.: astronomy, geology, or chemistry. The phases of the leading forms of heresy and scepticism; and we should like the plan all the better if it recognised one of the classical languages. We hope, however, the number of subjects will not give alarm. It should be observed that a large book on each subject is not needed. The probationer has not time for exhaustive books; those can be reserved for future days. He should have the best elementary book on each subject, and having thoroughly mastered it, he has accomplished a feat over which he may rejoice. His work is not to finish his education but to get well grounded in its first elements to lay the foundation and then seek to finish the superstructure in after years.

If our plan be too extensive for some who have had but extremely moderate educational advantages in their early days, it is not sufficiently extensive for others whose circumstances have been more favourable. To meet this difficulty we have separated the subjects as above into two classes, distinguishing between that in which the probationer must be well up, and that in which he must have a considerable knowledge.

Having laid down the plan, the next thing is to work it out. To do this the student must be prepared for close and continued application; and he who is not prepared for this by no means deserves the name of student. "There is no royal road to learning." Were we placed in a college and could we even sit at the feet of a Plato or a Gamaliel we should yet be able to conquer only by labour. Sir Isaac Newton was once asked by a high personage by what means he discovered attraction, and his answer was, "By constantly thinking on the subject." This "constantly thinking on the subject " is the key which opens the temple and unlocks the treasury of knowledge. Wirt says, "Take your course wisely but firmly, and