I come now to the second head of my address, in which I have undertaken to shew, that, all existing systems of education are imperfect and improper, and further, to give a sketch of a system that shall be more proper. In the first place I would remark that, in all the schools of this country, or with scarce an exception worthy of mention, the youth are subjected to a certain system of religious study and exercise. They have to attend certain ceremonies called public worship or prayers--they have to get those prayers by heart, and also a catechism of religious belief, or I should rather say religious dogmas, as there can be no real belief where there is no comprehension of the object in contemplation or discussion; however, altogether, about these religious ceremonies, one half of the time of youth is wasted; for the lessons in reading, lessons in grammar, copies for writing, and even those lessons in which foreign languages are taught, have their subject matter founded upon religious dogmas, either ancient or modern. Here and there a moral precept is thrown in, but the dogmas of religion have a decided preponderance, and more than half of the time of youth is wasted upon them. It is evident that these religious dogmas make not the least impression upon the minds of youth, further than to stupify them by so dull and so constant a repetition, and the reason of this is, that these religious dogmas have no foundation whatever in Nature. They neither instruct, amuse, interest, or delight, because the youthful mind has no comprehension of their object, and can perceive no real utility arising from them. They are viewed but as a matter of school discipline, and the youth returns to them with a loathing. Still they are continually pressed upon him as long as he remains under parent or tutor, and he grows up with a mind soured by an habitual distaste of that which he is told to venerate. If you were to instruct a child in the elements of Chemistry, you would find that it would be constantly amusing itself with such simple chemical experiments as its childhood could practise and comprehend: it would feel an interest in all the little experiments it could make, and that interest would lead on to a self-importance, to industry, to a knowledge and due comprehension of the value of time, about which children think so little, or rather think nothing at all, under the present system of education. They are exhorted to set a value on their time by written precepts, but they have no inducements to that object, owing to their system of education being one dreary monotony. No part of it is calculated to kindle the fire of genius, or to cherish the aspiring spirit of youth. It is from such a system of education that true genius has become so very scarce, and is so seldom seen: it blunts and stupifies the mind, and obscures that radiance to which the system I now propose would have given energy and opportunity to display itself.