According to the promise given in the last number of the Miscellany, we shall endeavour in future to adapt its contents to the largest class of society, for the purpose of forwarding that intellectual improvement which is the privilege and duty of all. In saying this we are not to be understood to mean that nothing but scraps of intelligence, old anecdotes, or amusing narratives, will be found in our pages;-which some persons suppose are the only materials with which the popular mind can be stored;—we shall still aim at that originality for which we have been conspicuous, and exercise a watchful superintendence over what we may select from others. Our sole object will be to furnish a

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monthly collection of prose and poetry which will rather elevate than depress the understanding of our readers.

There is one object of great importance to the middle and lower classes, to which we pledge ourselves to give much attention; we mean the formation and progress of LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS. Some towns are already distinguished by these valuable auxiliaries to civilization and religion, and our pages will be open to any communications respecting their proceedings. Those places which are deficient of societies of this kind we hope to stimulate to a more laudable imitation of their neighbours. Every manufacturing town should be provided with inducements for the persons employed in them to read and to think. No one will ever suspect us for a moment of a disposition to undervalue the exercises of the sabbath; they alone can effectively promote man's present and future well-being. But religious engagements should not supersede the cultivation of the intellect; the former being rendered more ennobling and effective by the latter.

EDUCATION generally will receive our best assistance. We hope to be able to confer some benefit on Sunday School Teachers. This useful class of philanthropists will be benefactors to their pupils in proportion as they possess, themselves, an enlightened understanding. The progress of

National, British, and Infant Schools, we shall be happy to mark with such observations, as, in our opinion, will promote their respective designs. On all these various

subjects we solicit the contributions of others, and hope to obtain them to a greater extent than we have hitherto done.

With these simple yet interesting claims upon public attention the Editor commences a new volume of the MISCELLANY.

MENTAL IMPROVEMENT.

A Lecture on the above subject was delivered at the Baptist School Room, Luton, on Thursday Evening, Dec. 15th, by the Editor of the "Miscellany.' The following outline is copied from the Hertford Reformer, a newspaper which shews a laudable anxiety to promote the best moral and religious, as well as political interests. This lecture is the first of a series which Mr. Burgess proposes to deliver during the present winter.

"The town of Luton has long been stigmatized as being regardless of those public institutions which are generally considered as the results of cultivated intellect. While the education of the children of the poor has been conducted with sufficient zeal on the sabbath, the establishment of day schools adequate to the wants of an increasing population, has only recently been attended to. With the excep

tion of a few select reading societies, no effort has been made to bear on the multitudes of young persons who are brought together by the manufactories of the place, or on the mechanics, who are always numerous in prosperous towns. A strong conviction of the benefits to be derived from increased mental improvement, both to the town in

general, and to those who are more immediately under his care, has induced the Lecturer to use his endeavours for that end.

The Divine Being has instituted a clear distinction between the corporeal and mental powers of man; so that while their strict union is necessary to the idea of humanity, they are broadly defined as entirely different in nature, capacity, and design. On the corporeal faculties, as connecting us with matter, and adapting us to our present passing existence, it is unnecessary to speak. The mental powers, not being the objects of sense, require to be continually brought out, to counteract that which is merely animal in our nature; and, from the dangerous tendency of those which are corporeal to engross our thoughts, the former demand our sedulous attention. For the purpose of simplifying, it may be proper to consider the ADVANTAGES of cultivating the understanding, and then to point out the SOURCES from which mental improvement is to be derived.

The

ADVANTAGES may be classed in the following order :First, the promotion of the designs of our Maker towards us must be considered important. The eye is not more fitted to take in the beauty of heaven and earth, nor the palate to enjoy the exquisite flavours of various fruits, than is the mind to reflect and reason. The more refined skill of Heaven is displayed in the formation and arrangement of our mental capacities, and consequently they are intended for a nobler end, which their cultivation alone can secure. Secondly, our own happiness is promoted by a cultivated understanding. The pleasures of sense are exceedingly transient; the joys of the intellect are lasting. There are moments, hours, and years of our life, over which the senses can throw no charm, and which must be cheerless, if mental exercises do not come to our aid. Thirdly, the secular interests of mankind must be promoted by efforts of the understanding. Mere industry can do but little; the

brutes are industrious. Industry, in the first age of the world, dug a hole in the soil for the seed, plucked off the grain from the stalk, and pounded it between two stones into flour; Intellect discovered the plough, the sickle, and the mill. Industry called in inferior animals to the help of man; Intellect brought to light the powers of the steam engine. Industry alone would have supplied Britain with the means of subsistence; Intellect has made her the mart of nations. The improvements in the cotton trade, which have conferred such incalculable advantages on our country, were the discoveries of mechanics of cultivated minds. Thus the progressive advancement of society is to be secured by human intellect. Fourthly, we can instruct others effectively only in proportion as we are reflecting ourselves. A regard to our offspring should thus stimulate us to improve. Sunday-school teachers ought now to aspire after a higher station than they have hitherto occupied. From being teachers of the mechanical art of reading, they should inform the understanding of their pupils. There is a vast disparity between the mere teacher of spelling, &c. and one possessed of mental cultivation. Fifthly, religion itself demands for the full exhibition of its graces, that it should оссиру the reasoning faculties. Religion does not demand learning, but it must not be dissociated from thought. Supposing equal sincerity and zeal in both cases, the religion of Dr. Johnson would have been far more effective to himself and others, than that of a person of neglected understanding.

Among the Sources from which the improvement of the mind is to be derived, may be mentioned the following:-First, an habitual remembrance of the importance of enlarging the intellectual faculties should be maintained. If a standard of excellence is set up, it will be a constant stimulus to exertion. The superiority of others around us should not be considered as the result of any radical difference of constitution, but of education.