Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/385

 power to carry on business, if it should be their lot to engage in any."

"That is to say," replied Mr Gourlay, "that you are anxious to give your children such instruction as may enable them faithfully to discharge their religious and social duties: your object is laudable; but it is not merely by teaching them to read and write that it is to be accomplished. If their minds are not in some degree opened, they will never use the means thus put into their hands; and if their hearts are not in some degree cultivated, the means of knowledge will lead them rather to evil than to good. Even as to the art of reading, the acquirement of it will be useless, if the teacher has confined his instructions to the mere sounds of words, especially where these sounds are very different from those which we are accustomed to use in conversing with each other. "I confess, sir," said William, "I never could find out the reason, why all the children at our schools are taught