Thus it appears, that, while instinct is the guide of the animal world, education is the instrument by which children are to reach their true destiny. God meant us to be educated; and children who hate education, hate God’s will and God’s way; they hate the road that leads to their own happiness. Think of that――black-eyes and blue-eyes!――think that when you resist instruction, you resist the will of Providence, and sin against your own peace! The designs of Providence, in respect to animals and mankind, appear very striking from other considerations. Now a beaver is a natural architect, and his instinct not only teaches him the art of house-building, but he has a set of tools ready furnished. He has sharp teeth, with which he cuts down trees, and divides them into proper lengths: thus his teeth answer both as hatchet and saw. His tail is flat, and when he has laid on his mortar, he turns round and spats it with his tail, which operates like a mason’s trowel. So here is a carpenter and mason, both in one, educated by nature and provided with a set of tools, scot free. What a happy fellow! So it is with the woodpecker; he never learnt a trade, or paid a shilling for tools――yet he knows how to chisel out his hole in a dry tree――and his bill answers as both gouge and hammer. The spider has no shuttle or loom; he never had a lesson in the factories of Lowell――yet he weaves his ingenious web――and he sets it, too, so as to take his prey. Surely, Providence has taken care of these creatures in a wonderful way. And perhaps you think that God has been more kind to them than to human beings; for while He teaches the animal world, He leaves children to schoolmasters; and while He teaches the beavers and the birds their trade, and furnishes their tools, gratis――boys and girls must serve seven years for a trade, and pay for their tools when they have done! But let us look a little farther. It is true that if children refuse to learn――refuse to be educated――they remain ignorant, and like savages. But children can learn, if they will. Education is offered to them――and, if it is improved, what is the result? Look around, and see what mankind, who have obeyed the will of God, and who have improved their faculties by education,――see what they are, and what they have done. The instinct of the beaver is very wonderful――but, after all, it only enables the beaver to build rude mounds of earth, wood and stone, which serve as its abode; and also enables it to provide its simple food of roots and grass and fruits. This is the whole stretch of instinct.