The first he was an Irishman,

The second was a Scot,

The third he was a little Welchman,
And all were knaves, I wot.

The Irishman loved usquebaugh,

The Scot drank ale called blue-cap, The Welchman he ate toasted cheese

'Till his mouth became like a mouse-trap.

Usquebaugh burnt the Irishman,

The Scot was drowned in his ale,

The Welchman had like to be choked by a mouse,
But he pulled him out by the tale."

into him that due perception of the difference between right and wrong, and that resolution to keep to the right, which was necessary, especially to one of his good-natured disposition. He soon established himself in the good graces of his companions, and was willingly admitted, nay, was invited by all parties, to take part in their schemes and amusements. It proved most fortunate for him, that, at his first outset, he was placed under the care of so excellent a boy as George Freeman.

CHAP. VII.

Great applause followed this effusion; and little Wilkins, after having sang it thrice over at their earnest request, at once took his place amongst the boys as a good-natured fellow, Though the worthy schoolmaster had thought and was treated by them accordingly. A it best to send his new pupil to join his comsulky boy seldom finds his level without hav- || panions without delay, under the care of ing to fight for it: and such scenes some- George Freeman, it was far from being his times took place at Mr. Primer's; although, habit to let an inexperienced boy "take his from the strong reprehension with which chance," as it is termed, amongst the rest, the worthy schoolmaster visited such delin- without such words of counsel and encouragequencies, and from the general good tone of inent as might assist him in his entrance upon the school, a battle was an unusual occur- So new a scene. Mr. Primer was deeply imrence. Indeed, he must have been an ill-tem- pressed with a religious feeling of the importpered boy that could have quarrelled with ance of the trust reposed in him, when a parent young Wilkins, who, in fact, was as good- || committed his child to his care. Whatever natured a little fellow as ever went to school may have been the character of the parents— -in truth, perhaps a little too good-natured. whether they had done their duty to their son, I would not say one word to disparage good or not -he felt that he at least was bound to nature. It is generally a sign of a humble, take those parents' place, and perform the part teachable, reverent, and kind disposition; and of a good parent. An immortal soul had been is deservedly esteemed and beloved. It is committed to his training; and on the way in sure to endear him who possesses it to his which he performed his duty, might depend family, his master, and his school-fellows; its character in time, perhaps its portion in and is more calculated than almost any other eternity. In that soul the spark of divine quality, if rightly guarded, to enable a man grace had been implanted at baptism; and it to go through life in peace and quiet, and was for him to cherish and improve the grace exercise a beneficial influence on all around given, and, if possible, prevent it from being him. At the same time, there is the danger overspread by the sins and follies of life. To connected with good nature, namely, that it save it from entering into the evil temptations is very commonly connected with a vacilla- of the world, he knew was not in his power. tion of mind, and too great facility of yielding, The school itself was a little world, in which which will lead a boy into a hundred scrapes, sharp trial would be made of the spirit. His and a man or woman into serious evils. A duty was, so far as in him lay, to ensure that too good-natured boy will sometimes remain the passage of a pupil through his school a shadow all his life; will attach himself to should not be, as it too often is, a training for some other boy of firmer and more decided the evil practices and corruptions of the great character than himself, and be content to fol- world; but that, on the other hand, it might low him as he may chance to lead; or else, conduce to save him from them, by warning which is still worse, will follow any boy who him to resist temptation from the beginning. wishes to lead him into mischief. The same docile temper which wins the love of the master will not unfrequently fall with equal facility into the ways of evil companions; and the temper which leads a boy to join with hearty readiness in the innocent amusements of his companions, will often render him unprepared to resist their solicitations to embark with them in more questionable schemes. Hence the absolute necessity that good nature should be accompanied by good principle, and by a rectitude of mind which shall keep a boy in the right course. John Wilkins was far from being an unprincipled lad. At the same time his parents had not instilled

With such views as these, it may be readily supposed that the arrival of each new pupil was a subject of much anxiety to our excellent schoolmaster. One of the first duties would, of course, be, to ascertain the extent of a boy's acquirements, before determining the class in which he is to be placed, or the studies to which his mind is to be directed; but with Mr. Primer there was an object of even greater importance than this, namely, to ascertain the character and disposition of his new pupil, with a view to his moral treatment.

Partly for this purpose, and in order to accustom him to such friendly intercourse as it is fit should subsist between master and

pupil, Mr. Primer sent for him out of the play-yard, on the evening of his arrival, to drink tea with him; and was pleased to find at once, from the cheerful face with which he entered the parlour, that he had been well received amongst his companions; and he discerned at once that little Jack had no sulkiness about him, but was, as we have described him, a good-natured, simple-hearted lad.

Mr. Primer soon found out, that after the usual preliminary cross-examination to which all new boys are subject, little Jack had been engaged in a racing-match with two or three others, who had been matched together by Harry Scamper; and also, that he had received certain gifts of marbles from several of the boys, as a capital to set him up in that necessary article. These, and other particulars, were satisfactory, as proving that little John Wilkins had been well treated, and was likely to suffer none of that inconvenience to which boys of reserved and timid disposition are exposed. Without entering into a regular lecture, Mr. Primer contrived to give his new boy such admonitions as he judged would be most useful to him; at the same time endeavouring successfully to win his confidence and attachment. He spoke to him seriously and affectionately of the new scenes into which he had entered; the importance of diligence and steadiness, and of a fixed resolution, with God's aid, to do his duty. Attention to his studies was not only necessary for his own advancement in life, but also was a duty which he owed his parent; nay, that God himself expected that he should improve the talents which he had entrusted to him, so as to be the more able to do good in his generation.

All this little Wilkins listened to with grave attention; the more so, as it was unlike what he had been used to hear at home-his father not having been used to speak with serious affection; but like most other parents, being apt to scold when angry, and joke when in good humour.

boy of considerable ability to have remembered with accuracy what was read, unless it had been mere narrative. Mr. Primer then tried him in sums; and then in reading. For the last purpose, the schoolmaster took a portion of Scripture, which not only served to try his powers of reading, which proved satisfactory, but also furnished a commencement for an examination as to his knowledge of religion, without a formal announcement of his purpose. Mr. Primer easily discerned, that with a general knowledge of the facts of the Bible, and of the common precepts which it enjoined, together with a notion of the necessity of obedience to the commands of God, and dutifulness to his parents, there was a great lack of information, both as to the doctrines and discipline of the Church, and the paramount and stringent nature of religious responsibility. For this, however, Mr. Primer was prepared, from a knowledge of Mr. Wilkins senior; who, though a good sort of man, was, like too many of his station at the present time, grievously ignorant of the real nature and requirements of the Church of Christ. Another deficiency which little Wilkins exhibited, was with regard to the Church Catechism, which he could not even repeat with any degree of accuracy, much less explain its meaning.

On the whole, however, the new pupil was, in attainments and quickness, somewhat above the average of the boys of the same age, in the middle classes, who were sent to Mr. Primer's school; and the worthy schoolmaster discerned at once that he had a good disposition to work upon, and a very fair portion of talent.

We need not go on to describe at length the initiation of John Wilkins into the business of the school. Under the guidance of George Freeman, he soon became accustomed to the duties, and set out with very good promise; and the regularity with which he began was of great service to him. However, after his days of shadowship were over, and he began 66 Well," ," said Mr. Primer, when tea was to stand on his own legs, his course was not removed, "now we must see what you have quite so steady. Sometimes he was late in a learnt, in order to know how to class you." morning; at other times his lesson was imHe then examined more particularly than he perfectly learned. He began to think more had done hitherto, how far he had advanced of play, and less of learning; and gradually in learning. One great test which Mr. Primer forsook the company of George Freeman, for found more readily than any other to elicit the that of Harry Scamper. The consequence degree of talent, or at least the acquirement, was, that he got into several scrapes, of which of a boy of that age, was to try him by dic- we shall perhaps read more in the following tation,—that is, reading a passage from some || chapters. book, and desiring him to write it after him. This little Jack did tolerably well, making but few mistakes in the spelling, and gencrally putting the right stops and capitals in their proper places. After that, Mr. Primer read a longer passage as much as half a page, and then desired his pupil to set down as much as he remembered of it. But in this little Jack failed; indeed, it would have taken a

TRADITION.

To the Editor of the Englishman's Magazine.

SIR,-The mischief which has arisen from the practice of calling things by their wrong names, may be exhibited, in a strong light, by considering the ill use which has been made of the word TRADITION by the Church of Rome. She has applied

the word most improperly to all the novelties and all the inventions with which she has corrupted the faith once delivered to the saints; and those who cannot distinguish between names and things have been filling themselves and others with vague apprehensions as to the danger which may arise from the use of the word tradition, instead of endeavouring to wrest it altogether out of the hands of the Romanists, that so it may be employed hereafter according to its just and lawful acceptation.

"The tradition, which was of so much use in the primitive Church, did not consist in unwritten traditions or customs, commended or ratified by the supposed infallibility of any visible Church, but it consisted in the confessions or registers of particular churches, and in the unanimous consent of so many several churches as exhibited their confessions to the Nicene council out of such forms as had been framed and taught before that controversy arose about the divinity of Christ. And this being done voluntarily and freely (these Churches Hence it is that we are continually meeting being not dependent one upon another, nor overwith persons who have learned, from their very swayed by any authority over them, nor misled by infancy, to entertain the utmost abhorrence of the faction to frame their confessions of faith by imivery name of tradition, as if it were synonymous tation, or according to some pattern set them), with popery. But if every thing is to be con- was a pregnant argument that this faith, wherein demned as popery which has been used, or rather they all agreed, had been delivered to them by the abused, by the Church of Rome, might it not be apostles and their followers, and was the true said, with equal truth, that episcopacy is popery, meaning of the holy writings in this great article. simply because the papists have bishops? "So have And it evidently proved that Arius did obtrude they presbyters too," says Leslie; "they have the|| such interpretations of Scripture as had not been creed likewise, and the holy Scriptures; and all || heard of before, or were but the sense of some prithese must be popish, if this be a good argument." vate persons in the Church, and not of the geneNow it is quite evident that the manner in rality of believers." which the word tradition is employed by the Church of England exactly corresponds with its use in various passages of the New Testament, such as 1 Cor. xi. 2 (marginal reading); 2 Thess. ii. 15; and 2 Thess. iii. 6; and I know not by what word we can so well express the transmitted rites and usages, the transmitted doctrine and discipline, the transmitted faith and piety of the holy catholic Church. Let us carefully keep in mind this real scope and signification of the word tradition, and we shall at once perceive that the socalled tradition of the Church of Rome, unwritten, unrecorded, UNHANDED DOWN, is, in the true sense of the word, NO TRADITION AT ALL. For what the Romanists call tradition, so far from being an appeal either to antiquity, or even to the last generation, is simply an appeal to the present And it is invented by them as occasion needs, and held fast and reverently guarded as a divine deposit. Our tradition, on the other hand, is recorded in the acts and monuments of the Church, and it has been openly handed down from generation to generation. So far, therefore, from being linked, as some ignorantly suppose, with every Romish corruption, what is truly called tradition is most powerfully opposed to all corruptions in theology, and to none more effectually than the corruptions of the Church of Rome. And we may safely venture to affirm that, in this, its proper sense, tradition is as little regarded by the Romanist as by many

pope, or his doctors.

Protestant communities.

The Romanists, it is true, would willingly colour their novelties and their pretences by using as many fair words as possible; and so they make mention of Scripture tradition and antiquity. But when we examine these, their alleged proofs, they will not stand to them; but they immediately take refuge in their own alleged infallibility, saying that they are the sole judges of what is Scripture, and what is tradition, and what antiquity; nay, that they have a power to declare any new point of faith, which the Church never heard of before.

If called upon, therefore, to illustrate tradition, as that word was always employed by the early Christians, in relation to the holy Scriptures, we might, perhaps, be allowed to say, that while Scripture is interpreted by tradition, tradition is verified by Scripture: that while tradition gives form to the doctrine, Scripture gives life; and that while tradition teaches, Scripture proves. Or, as it is so well expressed by Archbishop Bramhall, we should always bear in mind that "Scripture and tradition are not two different rules of faith, but one and the same rule, dilated in the Scripture, and contracted in those creeds and formularies of the Church in which tradition mainly consists."

I feel that I cannot better enforce the correctness of the above definitions, than by giving the following extracts from Hooker, Bishop Jeremy Taylor, and Bishop Beveridge, as to the true and just interpretation of the word tradition.

"There hath been some doubt," says Hooker, in the first book of his "Ecclesiastical Polity," "whether containing in Scripture,' do import exprehending in such sort, that by reason we may press setting down in plain terms, or else, comfrom thence conclude all things which are necessary. Against the former of these two constructions, instance hath sundry ways been given. For our belief in the Trinity, the co-eternity of the Son of God with His Father, the proceeding of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son, the duty of baptising infants, these, with such other principal points, the necessity whereof is by none denied, are, notwithstanding, in Scripture no where to be found by express literal meaning; only deduced they are out of Scripture by collection."

"One great use of tradition," says Bishop Jeremy Taylor, in his "Ductor Dubitantium," "is in rituals, and in such instances, concerning which St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians these words: 'the rest will I set in order when I come' (1 Cor. xi. 34). Such are, 1. The observation of the Lord's day solemnly once a year, and less solemnly once a week; that is, the feast of Easter, and the But, to quote the admirable words of Dr. Jack-weekly Sunday. 2. The government of the Church son, in his "Treatise of the Catholic Church," by bishops, which is consigned to us by a tradition

greater than some books of Scripture, and as great as that of the Lord's day; and that so notorious, that thunder is not more heard, than this is seen in all the monuments of antiquity. 3. Offices ecclesiastical, to be said and done by ecclesiastical persons; such as are the public prayers and sacraments of the Church; the blessing of the married pairs, and joining them in the holy and mysterious rite of marriage; the consecration of bishops by bishops only, and the ordination of priests by || bishops and presbyters. These three are the most universal and apostolical traditions, which, although they also have great grounds in Scripture, yet, because the universal practice and doctrine of the Church of God, in all ages and in all Churches primitive, is infinitely evident and notorious, less liable to exception, and an apt commentary upon the certain, but less evident places of Scripture; therefore these may be placed under the protec-apostles, they were every where publicly received tion of universal tradition, for they really have it beyond all exception. And although in these the Scripture is sufficient to all wise and good men, to all that are willing to learn and obey, and not desirous to make sects and noises; yet, because all men are not wise, and good, and disinterested, tradition, in these things, is to Scripture as a burning-glass to the sun; it receives its rays in a point, and unites their strength, and makes them burn as well as shine; that is, it makes them do that which, in their nature, they are apt to do, and from which they are only hindered accidentally." "Yet, indeed," says Bishop Beveridge, in the preface to his "Essay on the Canons of the Primitive Church," "this holy Scripture, although in those precepts which are absolutely necessary Having thus endeavoured to shew what we are to the salvation of every man, it be very clear and to understand by the word tradition, according to plain to all; yet, in things relating to doctrine its received acceptation in every pure branch of and the outward discipline of the Church, it is Christ's holy catholic Church, I would now ask not, on account of its very depth, understood in whether, in every Christian country, it may not the same way by all; but different people interwith truth be said that, even from the lessons of pret its divine sayings differently, so that it would the nursery upwards to the canons of the synod, seem as if as many meanings almost might be ex- an educational economy has always been practitracted from it as there are men,' as Vincentius cally going on, whereby generation after generaLirinensis of old observed, and as it abundantly tion has been taught explicitly that which the appears from heretics and schismatics, who each Scripture is supposed implicitly to contain? and obtain their own perverse opinions and practices whether this process of guidance and instruction from holy Scripture, interpreted after their own way. may not properly be entitled tradition? We know In matters, then, of this sort, if we would be secure that catechetical instruction in the articles of the against erring or stumbling, first of all, beyond Christian faith, or, in certain compendious forquestion, we must beware of adhering too perti-mula of belief, was assiduously cultivated and pracnaciously to the private opinions or conjectures, whether of ourselves or others; rather should we review what the whole Church, or, at least, the majority of Christians, thought thereon, and acquiesce in that opinion in which Christians of all ages are agreed. For as, in all other things, the agreement of all is the voice of nature,' as Cicero saith, so, in things of this nature, the agreement of all Christians may well be accounted the voice of the Gospel. Now there are many things, which, although they are not read expressly and definitely in holy Scripture, yet, by the common consent of all Christians, are obtained from it. For instance, that, in the ever-blessed Trinity, three distinct persons are to be worshipped, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and that each of these is very God, and yet that there is only one God; that Christ is leάvoрwπos, very God and very man, in one and the same person: these and the like truths, al

though they are not delivered in so many words and syllables, either in the Old or New Testament, yet all Christians have been agreed upon them, as being founded in both; excepting only some few heretics, of whom, in religion, no greater account is to be had, than, in nature, of monsters. || So, also, that infants are to be cleansed by holy baptism, and sponsors to be employed in that sacrament; that the Lord's day, or the first in each week, is to be religiously kept; that the passion, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord into heaven, and the coming of the Holy Ghost, are to be commemorated every year; that the Church is to be every where governed by bishops, distinct from the presbyters, and set over them: these, and other things of the like nature, are no where directed in holy Scripture expressly and by name; nevertheless, for fourteen hundred years from the by the Church; nor can, within that period, any Church be found, which does not agree therein. So that they are, as it were, universal notions, implanted in the minds of all Christians from the first, not so much from any particular passages of Scripture, as from all; from the general scope and tenour of the entire Gospel; from the nature and design of the religion therein established; and from the uniform tradition of the apostles, who, together with the faith, delivered down Church-rites of this sort, and, so to speak, general interpretations of the Gospel, throughout the whole world; otherwise, it was incredible, yea, it were altogether impossible, that they should be received with such universal consent every where and always.”.

tised in the primitive times. We know that at all times the rudiments of the Christian faith have been more or less imbibed by baptised children from their mothers, or, it may be, even from their nurses. And we know that the torch of instruction has been handed on through a long series of ages by the ministers of Christ, who, with more or less of intelligence and faithfulness, have always exercised a constant superintendence over the belief and practice of the people.

But if the case be thus, must we not feel and acknowledge that to teach religion without the aid of tradition is absolutely impracticable? It is quite evident that we teach our children traditionally; and it is equally evident that, in some sort, the sectarians do the same. But the difference is, that with us of the Church of England all the leading principles of a Christian education are to be found in those formularies of our Church, which