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which announces itself as a general theory. Every attempt to give a scientific form to the maxims of tuition, and to rescue this most important branch of human knowlege from its degraded state as a collection of rules and devices without a centre to which they should all tend, or a connection which should unite them into one consistent whole, seems to us meritorious; because we are convinced that, from a sound theory, education must expect its most essential improvements, and that the neglect of theory is one of the principal causes of the want of success in the practice. It is most necessary to remind those, who are destined to undertake the care of the rising generation, that now to correct a fault as it makes its appearance; then to enjoin a virtue, when an opportunity offers; here to impart some kind of knowlege, which strikes as useful or ornamental; and there to cherish and cultivate a peculiar talent, which promises to reward the pains bestowed on it;-that all this does not deserve the name of education, unless it be a part of a regular system, the whole of which is constantly before the tutor's mind, and guides him in the choice of his measures. We consider it as a lamentable circumstance, that more system prevails in any merchant's counting-house in London, than (we will not say in most families, where the parents or servants can scarcely be expected to have formed and to observe general and enlarged views, but) in most schools, in which we have a right to look for an union of arrangements and labours, mutually supporting each other in the promotion of the common object: viz. not the learning of Greek or Latin, or Writing, or Drawing, or Dancing, but the formation of the mind and heart. Masters and governesses usually teach, and correct, and advise, as they may happen to deem it desirable, and leave the result to chance; hence they justly become doubtful of their own success, and begin to think contemptuously of education, as it is said that some physicians think of their own profession.

By these observations, however, we by no means intend to point out Professor HERBART's system to British pedagogues, as the oracle from which they may derive all that we wish them to possess. We are strongly attached to the main design which the author intended to fulfil, and are sensible of the great acuteness which he has evinced in the attempt: but we cannot approve the course which he has taken, nor compliment him on the success of the result. We shall probably incur the risk of being considered as extremely unphilosophical by him, if ever these remarks should reach his eye, for giving it as our opinion that, with much less art and reference to speculative philosophy, a system equally solid and more useful than that

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which he has offered may be constructed; and that we regard the plan, which forms the ground-work of Dr. Niemeyer's work, as far preferable to that of Prof. H. A comparison of the object of education with the acknowleged laws of the human mind may not have so scientific an appearance, as a strict deduction of truths from one single principle: but it will not stand less firm, and it will lead more easily to the appli cation of its precepts.

Prof. H. differs from those of his predecessors who considered moral perfection as the only worthy and leading object of education; and he unites with it another, which he terms the harmonious multiplicity of interests: which, however, he places under the guardianship and at the command of religion and virtue. His expression, of which we have given the most lite ral translation, we conceive to mean neither more nor less than an harmonious cultivation of the mental faculties. We feel no objection to the great purpose of education being expressed in this way, but the idea on which Mr. H. grounds the choice of his principle appears to us highly reprehensible. The person who educates, he says, stands in the place of his pupil as he will be when arrived at a mature age; and whatever objects of pursuit, therefore, the pupil may at that time choose, the tutor must have them in view in his instruction, and must prepare the mind for their attainment: consequently, as human pursuits are very various, the care of education must be equally diversified. This is placing education very low, and assigning to it a very vague sphere. Rousseau is scarcely a greater slave to his pupil than Prof. HERBART's tutor must be. Yet the whole tenor of the work convinces us that its author is very far from sanctioning any improper interpretation which may be made of this strain of reasoning, (immoral pursuits are in course out of the question ;) and he endeavours to ward off the reproach of recommending or promoting a superficial mode of education: but the necessity of doing this might have suggested to him doubts of the propriety of setting out from ideas that are so liable to be misunderstood. We cannot deny to education the right of limiting our future sphere of wishes and designs, even farther than by inculcating the principles of religion and morality. The most exalted ideas' of the importance and the effect of the treatment of young persons always animate this author's inquiries; the object, which he holds out to the guides and instructors of youth, is very high; and the minute distinctions, by which he endeavours to explain the hidden causes of the failure of pedagogical endeavours, are often very ingenious and essential: but we have been struck with the inequality of the different parts of his inquiry. Some branches of education,

by no means unimportant, particularly in an intellectual view, such as the proper treatment of memory, and the best mode of guiding the imagination, are scarcely introduced, even incidentally.

M. HERBART strongly advises an early acquaintance with the classics, particularly the Greek authors, because he supposes that in them alone, as pictures of the juvenile age of mankind, the juvenile mind can be sincerely interested. On this account he proposes that, at least in private education, the first classic book that is put into the hands of boys of eight or nine years old should be the Odyssey, in the perusal of which, an attention to precise grammatical analysis ought to be omitted. His own success has convinced him of the practicability and utility of this plan.

We may recommend to the attention of all persons who are engaged in educating young people, the remarks which Prof. H. makes on several occasions concerning the different shades and gradations which discipline ought to assume, according to the circumstances under which it is to operate; and on the watchfulness with which those who conduct measures of rigour ought to observe the changes which are constantly taking place in the minds of children. It is not, indeed, easy to calculate the mischief that is produced by the total neglect of the natural progress of the sentiments and feelings, in proportion as age and experience advance. Numerous schools labour, in this respect, under great disadvantages: but how much might not even there be done, if the labour and time bestowed on this object were not deemed unprofitably spent!-If these and some others of the observations which we have incidentally made, on the subject of education, should appear trite, it will perhaps be a sufficient apology for them, to allege that they cannot be more trite than the faults to which we have alluded are common.

ART. XIII. Discours sur les Progrès des Sciences, &c.; i.e. Discourses on the Progress of Science, Letters, and the Arts from the Year 1789 to the present Time; or a Statement made by the Institute of France to His Majesty the Emperor and King; with Notes relative to the Literati who are mentioned in the Reports, and a Specification of their Works; in which, Mention is made of the Publications of Holland during this Interval on these Subjects. 8vo. PP. 440. Printed in Holland. 1809.

T HE Emperor Napoleon wishes to appear (and indeed is, to a certain extent,) a patron of science and literature; and therefore it is contrived, by that sort of minor diplomatic arrangement which is understood and practised as well in the new

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court of France as in the old courts of Europe, that a deputation from the Classes of the Institute should occaionally wait on him with complimentary addresses. In order to give a representation of the progress and state of mathematical science, M. Delambre, a man of real eminence, is selected; and he delivers a short oration, in which Frenchmen of science have at least their full measure of commendation, and the Hero and Pacificator obtains his tribute of incense, but in which our astronomers and philoso phers are almost entirely overlooked. M. Delambre well apprehended the nature and duties of his deputation; it was his office to talk, for a quarter of an hour, in somewhat of a gentlemanlike style, on abstruse matters, and not to forget the Emperor Napoleon.

As this little exposé was destined to embrace a great variety of subjects, Geometry, Algebra, Trigonometry, and the Indeterminate Analysis; the three Calculi, differential, integral, and that of variations; Astronomy, plane and physical; Dynamics, and Discoveries maritime and terrestrial; the speaker was obliged to mention every thing in a slight and superficial manner; and on that account we should regard this part of the work as totally useless, if it were not for the appended notes, the matter of which is four times as great as that of the disM. Delambre, however, is not the author of the notes, but J. L. Kesteloot, M. D. of the Royal Society of Leyden; who collected these addresses from the Moniteur, and formed them into the present volume. This learned gentleman seems violently enamoured of the speeches pronounced before the Council of State; and, if asked for his opinion, he would not hesitate to give them place and rank among the best composi tions that have appeared for these twenty years.' In our judg ment, however, not only is the report of M. Delambre unsatis factory, but it can be understood only by men of science, to whom it is superfluous. The notes form a tolerably good catalogue of scientific books that have been published during the last twenty years: but the subjoined criticisms are all in the laudatory style. We have, indeed, rather an interesting abstract of the travels of M. de Humboldt in America.

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We are very well disposed to concede that France, at the present time, contains many highly distinguished men of science, and also that Bonaparte patronizes them; but the allegations in the adulatory compositions before us go farther, and seem to assert that the patronage of the Emperor has created them. This is not by any means exactly the case. When Bonaparte placed himself at the head of the French empire, the most distinguished athematicians and astronomers, La Grange, La Place, Le Gendre, La Lande, and De Lambre, had achieved

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the most important of their labours. These men were formed, if formed by any sort of government, under the French monarchy; and we think that Lewis the Fourteenth would never have so blundered in an attempt to patronize science, as to have created M. La Place, Chancellor of the Senate.

M. Delambre having finished his oratión, M. Cuvier undertakes to present the Emperor with a sketch of the progress of physical science. This gentleman is well qualified to give respectability to the scene in which he was to act: his extensive knowlege eminently endowed him for the office of the historian of knowlege; and from his well-known candour and liberality, it might be expected that he would not arrogate to his countrymen the sole merit of the advancement of natural philosophy. After some observations on the magnitude of his task, he remarks that the prodigious number of facts, which constitute this branch of science, seem all to be ultimately referable to what he calls molecular attraction; and he therefore selects this as the most convenient clue to guide him through the immense labyrinth.' The two immediate effects of molecular attraction, are crystallization and chemical affinity; which form, he says, two sciences entirely new, and produced within the period of which we have to render an account.' With respect to crystallization he is nearly correct, and he may be justified in the exclusive praise which he bestows on M. Haйy: but we cannot agree with him in the other part of his assertion; because, howmuchsoever we may admire the researches of M. Berthollet, we can neither admit his hypothesis to be proved, nor, if it were so, could we forget the preceding labours of Bergmann and Kirwan. It is, moreover, evident that neither M. Cuvier nor his commentator was acquainted with some of the late experiments that have been made in this country, on the subject of aflinities.

The reporter next undertakes to give some account of the discoveries with regard to the imponderable agents, as he styles. them, light, heat, and Galvanism. The subject of light he dispatches in a few lines, simply referring to the labours of Herschell: but the modern discoveries in heat are detailed more at length; and we are told that they constitute a body of doctrine entirely new, of which the philosophers of the first half of the eighteenth century had not even an idea.' We are, however, obliged to dissent from the speaker at the very outset, when he states that the first germs of this doctrine originated with Black and Wilcke; and we cannot admit the propriety of thus classing together, without discrimination, the names of two persons whose pretensions are so different. Some of Wilcke's individual experiments and calculations are useful,

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