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the catechism of our Church not making any part of the instruction designated by the word.

I shall add a few remarks upon that letter in a late publication to which I have already referred. Besides repeating the usual objections to examinations, this letter accuses all of them, and particularly the catechetical examinations, of being so conducted as to produce, " pride, vain glory, hypocrisy, envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness." The effect of the examinations in Dublin College, I have witnessed from a period long before the writer of that letter was born, and I hesitate not to say, that their general effect has been to encourage and strengthen the virtues directly opposed to these vices, which he charges upon them; and that the individuals in whose breasts the seeds of those vices existed, have been deterred from exhibiting them by the fear of that disapprobation with which they were certain of being visited. The distinction between emulation, which desires to raise itself by the full exercise of every power that has been bestowed upon it, and envy, which seeks only to depress its opponents, has no where been more strongly felt, no where have those dispositions met the rewards and punishments which they respectively deserve, more promptly, nor with more effect. The persons who conduct catechetical examinations,

have all of them been trained in that College, and accustomed to that system; that they manage the catechetical examinations so as to produce the evil effects of which this writer complains, I do not believe. As far as I have witnessed those examinations, and I did witness them upon a most extended scale for several years while resident in Dublin, and have continued to pay much attention to them since that period, I believe the effects were such as I have already stated them to be in College.

This writer acknowledges, that to abandon the system of examinations and premiums entirely and at once, might be impossible, and "that if it were possible, it would be very injurious for at least one generation." But he proposes to diminish what he thinks the evil of the plan, by increasing the number of premiums, and the expense he observes would be but little," since the children do not regard so much the pecuniary value of the premium, as the possession of it," so that the rate of pre.. miums might be made lower. Let me first observe, that we have here a complete answer to the objections of the other writer whom I noticed that the system of premium trained up the children in a principle of gross self interest." We have it here confessed, and certainly by no willing witness, that it produced

in them a generous spirit which disregarded the pecuniary value of the reward, and was governed by principles totally the reverse of gross self interest. Let me observe also, that the necessity of continuing the system for the present generation is conceded, which is all that we of the present generation are concerned with. And finally, let me call your attention to the fact, that in our ordinary practice, two premiums are given to every seven children, and one of them not dependent upon talents, but upon diligence and good conduct alone. And that though the other is the reward of talents combined with diligence and good con. duct, yet where great merit does appear in a second candidate, there is always found some person to bestow upon him an additional reward. What this letter writer proposes to have done, is actually our practice.

But why should we pursue a system which may possibly lead to evil? The answer is obvious-Because it certainly leads to good that infinitely over balances that evil, good which cannot by any other means be attained.

And first as to the teachers. It gives to them, by bringing the children of various schools to be examined together, the mode in which those examinations ought always to be con

ducted, an opportunity of seeing what other teachers are able to effect, and thus each has the advantage of the experience and abilities of every other, and the knowledge thus acquired is put in action by a sense of the duty which they owe to the children under their care, and by a regard for their own character, and for their own interest also, which is surely a justifiable motive for exertion.

Then as to the children, they have opportunities of perceiving their own deficiency, if such be the case, by a comparison with others, brought into competition with them from different schools. They see what others have done, and are thus taught what they themselves might have done. They are not apt to acknowledge any natural inferiority in themselves, and are ready to agree with their parents and their teachers, that had they been diligent, they would not have lost the reward for which they sought; the consequence certainly will be, increased diligence for the ensuing year. They see that such increase of diligence in the first year has been profitable to other children, who had formerly been in the same circumstances in which they then find themselves to be, and great indeed is the probability, that they will follow the successful example. All these advantages result from the system of exami

nations, which I have described, and unworthy indeed must be the parents and the teachers, who neglect to make use of them. There is but one evil passion which can be excited, envy; and happily, that has no means of gratifying itself, placed within the power of the child, who might be so unfortunate as to feel it. He cannot stop the progress of the individual who has attained a superiority over him: the passion dies for want of food to keep it alive. Nay more, it is killed in its very birth by the consideration, that it is but a mere chance whether ever the individual who had been the object of it, will again be an opponent on a similar trial. When a great number of children are brought together from several schools, and separated into small divisions, it is probable, that the arrangements of each successive year will be different. The emotion of envy, if it ever should exist, will be immediately suppressed by the certainty that it is as impotent as it is criminal.

That the desire of obtaining the approbation of parents and teachers is laudable, the writers against whom I am contending, are willing to admit. They are indeed precluded from making any objection to the desire of growing in favour with man, unless the means of attaining that favour are displeasing in the

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