tive against the influence of superstition.* "At vere rem reputanti," says he "Philosophia Naturalis, post verbum Dei, certissima superstitionis medicina est; eademque probatissimum fidei alimentum. Itaque merito religioni donatur tanquam fidissima ancilla : cum altera voluntatem Dei, altera potestatem manifestet." And again, in his Advancement of Learning,"Let no man, upon a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far, or be too well studied, in the book of God's word, or in the book of God's works; divinity or philosophy." What a pregnant commentary on this text, does the recent history of the University of Oxford afford.

But it will doubtless be said, Whence comes it, that when, from time to time, proprietary Schools and Colleges have been established in this country, they will be found, with scarcely an exception, to have adopted a system, if not identical with, at least very nearly allied to, the established Grammar School plan. Is not their doing so, a proof, that this much decried method has the testimony of experience in its favour? Further yet, it is found that those schools, so instituted to supply the omissions of our older foundations, after a few years of doubtful prosperity, gradually decay and disappear.

It is unhappily a fact, that many, indeed it may be said with truth the great majority, of those proprietary schools and colleges, have not answered those purposes for which they were designed, nor supplied those defi

*Bacon, Nov. Org. lib. 1, aph. 89.

ciencies and omissions in education, whose glaring existence alone called for their establishment, and justified their institution.

It may not, however, be uninstructive to discuss, nor difficult to discover, the true causes, which have led to such results.

The promoters and founders of those institutions, not keeping steadily in view, the objects for which alone they were required, entered into competition with, and endeavoured to assimilate them, as nearly as possible, to the great public schools of the country. Accordingly, their first step usually was, to select a Principal, generally from Oxford, a man we shall say, of high classical attainments, well versed in the minutiae of ancient literature, one who, brought up at a public school, had devoted the whole of his previous life to the intricacies of classical criticism, or studied to excel in the elegant accomplishment of imitating with facility and taste, the usual models of Greek and Latin metrical composition. Little acquainted with the exact sciences, and still less with their applications to the phenomena of nature, usually termed mixed mathematics; profoundly ignorant of all the experimental sciences, and holding their processes in contempt, as the fitting occupation of chemists or manufacturers; can it excite our surprise, that such a man should naturally, and even conscientiously, give the preference to the only plan of education of which he had any definite idea; and discourage pursuits, proficiency in which he should feel himself incompetent to test? It cannot reasonably be

expected, that, having been highly distinguished at his University, he should now, arrived at mature age, become one of the "seri studiorum," and, full of honours, begin to follow the course indicated by the Satirist,

et quæ

Imberbes didicere, senes perdenda fateri.

It is much more likely, much more in accordance with imperfect human nature, that the subject of his ignorance should become the object of his contempt, and that such should not seldom incur the censure of a writer no less eloquent than philosophical, who truly remarks, that "A contempt for the exertions of intellect under forms different to ours, is as sure a mark of a narrow mind, as that hostility, almost to be called hatred, which is sometimes betrayed by men of talent against those sciences which they are incapable of learning."

Besides the facility of applying a system ready cut and dry, a process which demands but little labour, no originality of mind, nor fertility of invention, in devising new arrangements to meet those novel combinations of circumstances, "for which the file affords no precedent," and which "Time, that greatest of innovators," forces upon our reluctant attention; there is yet another cause, why nearly all those proprietary schools insensibly glide-if they do not plunge at once-into the vortex of this all prevading system. On no other plan, can such Institutions be so cheaply worked, or so

* Sir J. Mackintosh.

profitably conducted; for those who derive a direct emolument from the pecuniary prosperity of such establishments. Persons who will undertake to teach a little Latin, the rudiments of Greek, the elements of Arithmetic, in the form of the arbitrary rules of an art, not as the principles of a science, a smattering of what is called by courtesy, Mathematics, and a little of every thing taught at common schools, may be had in crowds to fill the subordinate offices of assistants, for wages even lower than those of a day labourer. And when an individual above the average attainments does sometimes present himself, he generally looks to his appointment, merely as a convenient resting-place, while waiting for ordination, or reading for a fellowship.

There is perhaps no opinion on this well-ventilated but ill-understood subject of Education, more widely spread, more unhesitatingly advanced, or more zealously defended as axiomatic, than that most fallacious one, that the rudiments of any subject can be well taught by him, whose acquirements on that subject are limited to an acquaintance with its elements. "There can be no greater error," as has been well observed by Professor De Morgan, "than the supposition that a very slight acquaintance with any subject is sufficient to teach the rudiments to beginners, for the first principles of every Science are among the last to be clearly understood."

On the other hand, men who are conversant, even in a very humble degree, either with Mathematics in their practical applications, or with natural and experimental Science, can always profitably dispose of their time, and

often at incomparably much more than it is really worth. It is not to be expected that such persons will lightly subject themselves to the drudgery of a school, or the irksomeness of confinement, or the insolence of superiors. Men who are qualified to teach such Sciences are rarely to be found, or, if found, still more difficult to be procured.

And here an evil of no small magnitude may be incidentally, yet appropriately alluded to; arising from the custom, almost universal, of teaching to some extent, Greek and Latin, in all our schools, except the very lowest, to the exclusion of what is really useful and important.

Take the case of a youth, at one of those schools, stinted in means, and mediocre in talent, for whom no suitable opening, at the fitting age, may present itself, for entering upon industrial or commercial pursuits, a contingency by no means means rare, in agricultural districts, or localities remote from manufacturing towns. Having nothing to turn to, he continues at school, till the proper age is past, learning nothing but Classics, or a smattering of Mathematics. Without funds to enable him to proceed to college-without abilities to secure any of those eleemosynary aids, so liberally provided at our public schools, to subserve the necessities of indigent talent;—without information to qualify him for admission into any of those productive professions, which, starting into existence almost in his own day, hold out the highest inducements even to plodding mediocrity; he is driven by the sheer force of hard necessity to