Let it be remembered, that the advice requested does not relate to the government of the more dangerous passions, or to the fundamental principles of right and wrong as acknowledged by the universal conscience of mankind.  I may therefore assure my youthful correspondent, if he will endeavour to look into himself in the manner which I have exhorted him to do, that in him the wish will be realized, to him in due time the prayer granted, which was uttered by that living teacher of whom he speaks with gratitude as of a benefactor, when in his character of philosophical poet, having thought of morality as implying in its essence voluntary obedience, and producing the effect of order, he transfers in the transport of imagination, the law of moral to physical natures, and having contemplated, through the medium of that order, all modes of existence as subservient to one spirit, concludes his address to the power of duty in the following words: 

    To humbler functions, awful power! 
    I call thee:  I myself commend
    Unto thy guidance from this hour;
    Oh, let my weakness have an end! 
    Give unto me, made lowly wise,
    The spirit of self-sacrifice;
    The confidence of reason give,
    And in the light of truth thy bondman let me live!

III.  OF EDUCATION.

(a) ON THE EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG:  LETTER TO A FRIEND, 1806.

(b) OF THE PEOPLE, THEIR WAYS AND NEEDS:  LETTER TO ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM, 1808.

(c) EDUCATION:  TWO LETTERS TO THE REV.  H.J.  ROSE, 1828.

(d) EDUCATION OF DUTY:  LETTER TO REV.  DR. WORDSWORTH, 1830.

(e) SPEECH ON LAYING THE FOUNDATION-STONE OF THE NEW SCHOOL IN THE VILLAGE OF BOWNESS, WINDERMERE, 1836.

(a) ON THE EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG.

Letter to a Friend [1806].

MY DEAR SIR,

I am happy to hear of the instructions which you are preparing for parents, and feel honoured by your having offered to me such an opportunity of conveying to the public any information I may possess upon the subject; but, in truth, I am so little competent in the present unarranged state of my ideas to write any thing of value, that it would be the highest presumption in me to attempt it.  This is not mock modesty, but rigorous and sober truth.  As to the case of your own child, I will set down a few thoughts, which I do not hope will throw much light on your mind, but they will show my willingness to do the little that is in my power.

The child being the child of a man like you, what I have to say will lie in small compass.

I consider the facts which you mention as indicative of what is commonly called sensibility, and of quickness and talent, and shall take for granted that they are so; you add that the child is too much noticed by grown people, and apprehend selfishness.