the metropolis, for children from the ages of one year to six or seven; in which, after mentioning the general plan of the establishment, which is to be "after the model of the infant schools of Westminster and Spitalfields," it is seriously added, that Mr. H., the husband of the conductress," will make use of the powerful means which the new and important science of Phrenology affords, for ascertaining the respective mental capabilities of the children; for which purpose he intends to take accurate measurements of the head of each child once in every three months, which will enable him to observe the growth of the organs of the different faculties of the mind, and assist Mrs. H. with advice on the proper application of correctives and preventives, with the least possible abridgment of the liberty of the child; and to determine what species of encouragement will be the best for drawing forth its peculiar and superior powers."

I am not aware whether the worthy conductor of this experiment will thank me for suppressing his name, address, and terms, the mention of which, he may consider, would assist the object of his advertising circular; but I should deeply regret that the cause of infant education should for a single moment suffer in the mind of any individual by being exhibited in connexion with this unphilosophical and absurd system of scullship. Various

benevolent and enlightened individuals having witnessed the benefits of the system pursued in our infant schools, in reference to the children of the poor, have been wishing to see schools on a similar plan, for the children of parents in more easy circumstances; and it is to be hoped that our numerous "preparatory schools" will soon be reformed, so far as circumstances allow, after these excellent models. Such schools, if conducted with suitable ability and parental tenderness, would be a benefit to society; for, though a child at an early age is best under the eye of a judicious parent; yet, as too many parents have neither leisure nor judgment, for which or some other cause or causes, many thousands of children are sent at an early age to preparatory seminaries, it is most important that such institutions should be conducted on the best possible plan. At present this is far from being in general the case; and it would be well not only for the parents and children, but the instructors themselves, if the latter could be induced regularly to learn the system of education practised at a well-disciplined infant-school. But let there be no foppery; no quackery; above all, no craniology to disgust the public mind with the new system, and thus to impede the success of one of the best schemes of utility ever contrived for the benefit of the human race.

Παιδοκόμος.

candid mind to pass over in examining the arrangement of those providential events which led on the great process of the Reformation, both in this country and on the continent. Among these we may notice the visits of Luther and Cranmer to the great seat of papal

superstition. They became eyewitnesses of the iniquities of Popery; and to men whose thoughts were full of the light which then had but recently dawned upon them from the word of God, the city of the seven hills must have presented features in which they could not, we may conceive, fail to recognize those of the spiritual Babylon of the Apocalypse; and they might, perhaps, appropriate to themselves the words addressed to the prophet, "Son of man, go in and behold the wicked abominations that they do here." Mr. Soames remarks on this subject,

"Cranmer had remained during a considerable time at Rome, in the vain hope of advancing his master's objects, either by means of a public disputation, or by the obtainment from Roman canonists of written opinions in concurrence with his own. He found himself, however, neither able to make any appointment for a solemn argument upon the king's case, nor to surmount that influence over the canonists which the pope might be reasonably expected to possess in his own capital. Thus the English doctor was left in the pontifical city, very much at leisure to contemplate the habits and pursuits of those who filled the principal stations in that celebrated place. Luther, while yet an obscure individual, had enjoyed a similar opportunity: nor can it be doubted that both he and Cranmer were supplied, by what they had seen at Rome, with many an argument to persevere in the arduous struggle which has conferred immortality upon their names. To the pope and cardinals a character of sanctity was attributed by the generality of those who passed their lives at a distance from those elevated personages; and to the city in which St. Peter was believed to have fixed his apostolic chair, pilgrimages from all the regions of the West had been made by devotees during a long succession of ages. When, therefore, the force of inveterate prejudice is considered, it is evident that an opportunity of judging for themselves as to the character of the papacy, at its fountain-head, was no light advantage to the two great reformers.

• The former as the deputy of his order on some question of discipline in 1510; the latter as one of the embassy with the Earl of Wiltshire, Dr. Stokesley bishop of London elect, Dr. Lee archbishop of York, and the civilians Tregonnel, Karne, and Benet, on the subject of the king's divorce.

Both arrived in Rome endued with a deeply so; and both were struck with knowledge of the Scriptures; Cranmer the discrepancy that existed between what they had read in God's word, and what they saw in the habits of those who claimed the exclusive right of deciding that word enjoined. When Luther was authoritatively upon the import of what in Rome, his reverence for the popedom was unshaken; but he could not fail to summon, in the more important stages of nessed in the city, vainly called eternal, to strengthen his convictions as they gradually flashed upon his mind. When, however, Cranmer trode the seven celehe saw the seat of a power of which, to brated hills, he had begun to suspect that say the least, the pretensions and spiritual character had been considerably exaggerated. Nor could he avoid remarking, as a confirmation of his suspicion, that the vain and voluptuous, the selfish and intriguing churchmen, who passed under his review, were utterly destitute of that sanctity which most of those who knew them not associated with their names." pp. 307-309.

his life, a recollection of what he had wit

The important aid which the cause of the Reformation in Germany received from the decisive and consistent support, afforded to Luther by his friend the Elector Frederick, is so well known that we need not dwell upon it: but the following circumstance so strikingly displays his superiority to the fear of man, as well as his enlightened views, at a period of such universal corruption, that we cannot withhold it from our readers. It occurred on the occasion of Charles V. visiting Germany after his coronation at Bologna, in the spring of 1530, and when he was, from motives of political expediency, paying a constrained attention to the ProHe arrived at testant princes. Augsburg in all the pomp of imperial state, to meet the diet which had been summoned to assemble there, on the 13th of June, the eve of the festival of the Procession of the Host.

"In the thirteenth century, a woman resident at Liege either pretended or conceited that she had received a Divine revelation, enjoining the institution of an annual service, in honour of the change wrought, according to popish authorities, of the sacramental elements into the corporeal substance of Christ. This fraud, or folly, being well adapted to keep alive

a superstitious reverence for the Mass, did not long wait for ecclesiastical patronage; and upon the strength of it, in the year 1264, Urban IV. instituted the festival known as that of Corpus Christi; upon which the members of his church exhibit one of their most elaborate displays of ritual pageantry. Amidst these ceremonies, usually deemed so imposing, Charles determined to make his appearance in Augsburg. But in forming this resolution, he grievously miscalculated. The Protestants utterly refused the sanction of their presence to the splendid procession. I will instantly offer my head to the executioner,' said the Margrave of Brandenburg, rather than renounce the Gospel, and approve idolatry.' When attempts were made to shake this embarrassing determination, the conscientious prince told Charles publicly, Christ did not institute the holy supper with any view to furnish materials for a holiday shew, and for popular adoration. When he delivered the bread to his disciples, he said, “Take, eat;” but he did not add, Put these sacramental elements into a

magnificent vase, which bear aloft in triumph through the streets, and let every man fall prostrate on its approach.' Soon after this rebuff, Charles had to encounter another mortification. The opening of the diet was customarily preceded by a mass of the Holy Ghost: to which ceremony, when the emperor was about to repair, the Elector of Saxony refused to bear the sword of state before him, as it was his office to do in quality of grand marshal of the empire. Charles then threatened to bestow the Elector's office upon another; but the prince remained inflexible, until the Lutheran divines, adducing the example of the Syrian Naaman, expressed their opinion, that a Christian attending Mass officially might stand excused if he only took care to withhold all appearance of worship at the elevation of the wafer. Under an intention of acting in this manner, both the Elector and the Margrave of Brandenburg were present at the Mass; and, accordingly, when, obedient to the tinkling bell, the Romanists fell upon their knees, these enlightened princes continued standing; and thus rebuked, in a manner not to be forgotten, the delusion of those who paid to the creature that homage which, according to the record of God's word, is due only to the Creator." pp. 328–330.

But the decisive course which was now being adopted in England could not be advanced without those sufferings which were foretold by our Lord, as the portion of those who should be faithful to his cause in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. In the early part of

Henry's reign, numerous persecutions had been instituted for heresy, and, as Mr. Soames remarks in the early part of his work, "at intervals some holy and undaunted spirit was freed from its earthly prison amidst the horrors of the gloomy pyre." The work of persecution afterwards increased; and the martyrs Bilney, Bainham, and others were brought to the stake. Their offences were against some of the doctrines of the Church, still papal in her principles as well as in her allegiance. In the view which our author has given of the first of these martyrs, we cannot yield the full tribute of our acquiescence; and, we fear, he has expressed himself in a manner which is calculated to induce many to mistake the holy boldness of the martyr for nothing better than enthusiasm, and the deep convictions of sin, which are felt in a greater or less degree by every true Christian, for mere constitutional and morbid melancholy. These may indeed exist together, as might possibly be the case in the have no necessary connexion. instance of this martyr, but they feel somewhat jealous on this subject, and wish to interpose our solemn caution against any view of it which would tend to make us merge the great and influential verities of the Gospel in the generalities of a loose and ill-defined creed. Besides the questions at issue between Protestants and Papists, we must recollect that there are questions of still higher moment which divide the world from the church of God; and we ought to be especially careful that to those who have suffered in the cause of pure and undefiled religion, first in the conflict of their own bosoms, and then in the agonies of the flame, should be awarded the tribute of a most warm and affection. ate admiration.-The case of Bilney is thus stated:

We

"The most remarkable victim that perished at this time was Thomas Bilney, Hall, in Cambridge. This martyr's stature a Norfolk man, who was fellow of Trinity was diminutive, his health delicate, his

turn of mind inclining to melancholy. He seems to have been seized early in life with that painful sense of human corruption, and that eager aspiration after more than human holiness, which sometimes give a morbid tinge to spirits warmed by genuine piety. Full of self-condemnation, he was ever disclosing his griefs in confession, and praying for advice as to how he could subdue the evil, which his too sensitive mind saw and exaggerated within him. He was directed to fast, and practise other mortifications, to purchase indulgences, and to offer masses. He did these things, but melancholy still weighed down his soul. At length a friend mentioned to him the New Testament, lately published by Erasmus, highly commending the manner in which the work was executed. Bilney, upon this recommendation, bought the book; not, however, so much with a view to comfort or instruction, as under an expectation of being delighted by the perusal of agreeable matter, enlivened by the graces of composition. His purchase gave a new and an irresistible impulse to his thoughts. He pondered with absorbing attention the words of eternal life; and now discerned, in the Sacrifice of the Cross, a refuge from the misery by which he had so long been haunted; the ascetic exercises, hitherto prescribed as medicines adapted to heal his wounded spirit, he at once considered merely as delusive palliatives: he felt that he, and those around him, had been deceived in points of vital importance; nor could he refrain from raising his voice to warn others of a precipice, down which, he believed, he had himself nearly fallen. His zeal, it may be his enthusiasm, then excited him to set all hazard at defiance. He laboured to disseminate his opinions among his fellow-academics; and Latimer, with others, became his converts. He preached earnestly in the neighbourhood of London against pilgrimages, penances, the invocation of saints, and perhaps every other peculiarity of Popery, except tran. substantiation, a doctrine which he held firmly to the last. As might have been expected, this conduct exposed him to a prosecution for heresy; of which he was convicted; but sentence being purposely delayed, in the interval his own fears, and the entreaties of his friends, overcame his resolution, and he recanted.

"After this escape from imminent danger, he returned to Cambridge, where his constitutional melancholy seized upon him with greater violence than ever. The cheerfulness once infused into his mind by the contemplation of Scriptural Christianity, the excitement arising from the communication to others of the knowledge acquired by himself, were exchanged for the intolerable gloom of a corroding, indolent despair. His meals were taken

without appetite or relish; the kind attentions of his friends were received with stagnant apathy; religious topics even no longer afforded him consolation. He viewed himself as an apostate and a reprobate; one who, for the sake of lingering upon earth during a few years of iniquity and misery, had basely denied his Saviour, stupidly bartered away the inestimable prize which had lately been the anchor of his hope, and perfidiously lured others to destruction. Such were the horrors engendered by the constant attrition of these gloomy thoughts, that those who loved him, apprehensive of some suicidal act, anxiously watched over him both night and day. For more than a year he continued thus to struggle with despair. At last he came one night into the collegehall, bade farewell to certain of his friends, and told them that he had set his face to go to Jerusalem. His meaning was soon apparent. When next heard of, he was in Norfolk, where, first among his family connexions, afterwards openly in the fields, he boldly preached the doctrines which he had once abjured, and exhorted his hearers, as they valued their own salvation, to renounce the principles in which they had been reared. As he probably had both anticipated and desired, his exertions in the discharge of his conscience led to his apprehension; and being again convicted of heresy, he was sentenced to the stake. The place of his martyrdom was a low spot of ground without the walls of Norwich, called the Lollards' pit. He met his fate with invincible constancy and cheerfulness, joined with such a bright display of Christian charity, that when some of the friars, apprehensive lest the people, imputing to monkish malice the guilt of his death, should contract their liberality towards them, entreated him to exculpate them from the charge; Bilney promptly complied, and begged of the spectators not to intermit towards these mendicants their accustomed kindness. After light was communicated to the pyre, his sufferings seem to have been of no long duration. The wind, indeed, raged violently, and twice or thrice blew from his scorched and blackened form the blazing mass in which he was at first enveloped. He was then observed to beat his breast; he was heard at intervals to ejaculate Jesus,' or 'I believe; ' but he soon drooped his head, and it was evident he had ceased to breathe. Anxious to relieve the eyes of those around from dwelling on the slow combustion of his withered corse, an officer with his halberd then loosed the staple by which the chain about it had been secured, and the martyr's body fell. Fresh fuel was then expeditiously supplied, and ere long a heap of ashes only marked the spot where lately stood the willing victim, anxious to atone