ing in the careless hours of life, as to the case, it is an ill exchange for the bashful timidity so becoming in early youth, but I saw the lady in some agitation; her daughter was going to exhibit, and as I hold every maternal feeling sacred, though joined to an erring judgment, I forbore any further remarks, it was now time to return home. The party next morning at breakfast was very insipid,-I was reflecting-my host gloomy-Miss Myrtle pensive the young ladies languid, for they had been up late for many preceding nights -Maria was exhausted; for she had not slept, her buoyant mind had been so elated, that, like the waves of a swelling sea, it had not yet subsided into calm tranquillity; "Well Maria," said I, "How did you like the ball;" "O! papa, it was delightful, such a fine room,―such pretty Misses, and so beautifully dressed," so, so, thought I the poison begins to operate, and it must be a skilful physician that counter- Your obedient Servant, SONG. Do not ask me why I languish, 'Tis not for the frown of fortune, No, 'tis for the peerless maiden, THE REASON WHY. You mark my pale and languid cheek, I could a tale of grief unfold, Yet it is not the tale of grief, The heart that's form'd of tender mould. You bid me try reflection's power, EDINBURGH-Printed at the Star Office, (price 4d. a single Number, 48. 6d. per quarter, deliverable in town, and 59. when sent to the country), by A. AIKMAN, for the PROPRIETORS; where Subscriptions, and Communications, (post paid), will be received. 1811. The Spy. No. 33. SATURDAY, APRIL 13. * If a thing is aworth the doing at all, it is worth the || gress, so much volatility, so much in doing well." attention, so much imbecility, and so much obstinacy, that he discovers with sorrow, he has been pursuing a phan tom. THE maxim which stands as a motto to this paper, shall serve as a text to the following remarks. It shall be ap plied to some of the existing modes of education, and the object will be, not so much to examine whether or not they are good in themselves, as to ascertain whether the end proposed is attained by them. Of late years much has been written, many beautiful and ingenious theories have been given to the world on the subject of education, and a more important can hardly come under consideration; but it may be questioned, whether the improvement in practice has been such as might have been expected from the number of these ingenious speculations. It ought not, however, to be forgotten, that nothing is more easy, than to write fine theories and nothing more difficult than their application in any given case. By these remarks, the Spy has no design to depreciate the efforts of speculative men. Who has not been delighted and instructed by the writings of a Locke, a Rousseau, or a Hamilton? yet it is a melancholy truth, that when a man has heated his imagination by the systems of these eminent writers, and with exalted ideas of excellence, proceeds from theory to practice, he finds so many obstructions at every step in his pro-attentively, what is of most import It is astonishing, that while the shortness of life is universally acknowledged, so great a portion of it should be spent in busy trifling: that each of us should have to lament so much mis-spent time, so many unfinished schemes, so much fruitless exertion, because no one object is pursued with that undeviating industry, sufficient to ensure success. We undertake many projects with all the ardour of youthful lovers; we pursue them for a while with an enthusiastic keenness; we think, we talk of nothing else; they are the subject of our nightly dreams, and our daily meditations; but some new object captivates our fancy, for which our late favourite is deserted. This is the reason why so few men make any solid or rational acquirement. They are constantly changing the field of their exertion, and the ground over which they pass in this hurried manner is barren and unfruitful or produces weeds and thorns, instead of wholesome fruit, to nourish the understanding, or gay parterres of flowers to glad the mental eye. Men would be subject to fewer disappointments and vexations, were they first to consider ance for them to know, to apply to it with a zeal, which nothing can cool, till they master it in all its various ramifications, till they have so completely inwoven it in their minds, that there is no danger, they shall ever forget it, and then to proceed to that study which holds the second place of importance to their moral and intellectual improvement. How seldom does a parent proceed 'thus in the education of his child? The two grand considerations, for what a youth is qualified by nature, and what is likely to prove serviceable to him in life, are seldom taken into account. He is destined to move in a certain routine of tuition, because his father did so before him, because it is the fashion of the country in which he happened to be born, and because establishments have been endowed for the prosecution of certain branches of literature and science, and masters appointed to teach them. In this discussion, it shall be considered as an established fact, that the study of what have been called the learned languages, is of essential importance in forming the mind to literature and virtue, and the only object will be to ascertain what proportion of young men issue from our schools who have acquired these languages. It will It will not be easy to peruse the productions of the Greek and Roman authors without inhaling a portion of that sacred fire which glows in every page, to contemplate their admirable delineations of virtue, without bending before the shrine of the divinity, without receiving impressions, not to be effaced even by our commerce with a cold hearted selfish world. In high and magnani mous efforts of virtue and patriotism, these nations are still unrivalled, and their writers have shed such a blaze of celestial light around all those qualities which enoble humanity, that it is almost impossible to read their works without a feeling approaching to devotion.They are besides, the great masters of whom the moderns have learned the art of style, and whom they would still do well to imitate. In works of taste, in history, poetry, and oratory, they never have been surpassed, and perhaps never will; but alas! how few of our young men have their style formed, or their minds exalted to virtue by the study of these authors? How few of them issue from our schools capable of understanding a page of the historians, poets, and orators of antiquity, much less of relishing their beauties. Let the teachers of our youth declare the secrets of their prison house, let them declare what proportion of a hundred young men really succeed in these studies, after having spent seven or eight years at schools and colleges? If they speak truth, they will answer, "not a tenth part," and if they be further asked what proportion of that tenth part prosecute them in after life, the same regard to truth will compel them to answer, in many cases, not one. Does any of my readers ask, would the Spy, with sacrilegious hand abolish the institutions formed by the wisdom of our ancestors, for the prosecution of ancient learning? By no means, gentle reader; he would only have what is worth the doing, done well. It six or eight of the most precious years of life are to be bestowed on the acquisition of one object, the acquisition ought certainly to be made. For it must not be forgotten, that ignorance of Latin and Greek, is not the only evil incurred; mischiefs of a much greater magnitude are produced. A boy cannot be confined five hours a-day within the walls of a school, (to him perhaps a prison), without doing something. If he does not apply to the prescribed task, he will be contracting habits of idleness, too often of vice, which will stick to him through life. off the palm of dexterity, even from veteran jockies; or to join the club and play at cards all days of the week, Sundays not excepted, with a knowledge of the game which Hoyle himself might approve! Nor is this surprising, these are accomplishments which are honoured by their seniors, while they seldom hear of literature at all-never of ancient literature but with a shrug or a sneer; and though some pains may be taken to conceal from little master a just contempt for that school-master-like knowledge, he pos sesses penetration enough to make the discovery of himself, and laughs at all the solemn advices which are occasionally-given him on the subject. It is true the boy is kept at school for the usual number of years, books are furnished, private tutors are employed to assist him in the preparation of his tasks, or rather to perform them for him; he is sometimes asked what place he occupies on his form, and carressed and rewarded if it be an honourable one, (though it may happen he is rewarded for a falsehood,) yet with all this seeming attention, in ninety cases out of an hundred, the parent is indifferent whether he acquires Latin and Greek or not. In general, the boy is sent to school because the sons of other gentlemen are sent there, or because the judicious parent does not know how to dispose of him otherwise. He is thus It were worth while to examine why so many boys fail.in these studies, while they succeed in every other; for the very same boys succeed in reading English, writing, and arithmetic, and, in deed, in every-thing else but Latin and Greek; nor is the difficulty of these languages the cause of the failure; by a skillful master, they may be made abundantly easy even to boys of moderate capacity. The radical evil is want of conviction of their utility on the part of boys, and not unfrequently on the part of parents likewise. While boys are perpetually putting the question, "What is the use of Latin and Greek?" it is vain to expect any improvement. During the hours of confinement, they will, in imagination, be rolling the marble, urging the ball, or flying over the race ground; those of the more advanced forms, who are looking forward to a speedy emancipation from servitude, will be indulging in nobler fan-free from the contagion of idleness, to cies. They will be anticipating the glorious day in which they will be permitted to enjoy the manly pleasures of the chase, to display a skill in pugilism that might astonish even the professors of the science; to mount the curricle and bear which he must necessaaily be exposed, running at large over the streets of a large city, or of the low, vulgar, or vicious habits of the stable, or servants hall. But it is certain that if a boy neglect the duty for which he is sent to |