ing, in accordance with the neglect with which a system of literature is regarded, is a merely extraneous one; for, though attendance on his class is, in some universities, necessary to those who contend for the honour of a degree, it is not imperative on those who qualify for the church or the bar. While such is the estimate of the literature of our universities, who can wonder that in the inferior schools it should be regarded as one of those subjects which are ill defined and merely accessory?

In the education of ladies, the neglect of such a course is to be deeply regretted. The leisure which they have after their school life has passed, is extremely favourable to the cultivation of literature. Their school-course, then, notwithstanding the distressing number of branches demanded by fashion, should be so regulated as to afford them sufficient opportunity to become acquainted with our literary eras and their leading authors. The judicious head of a boarding establishment can command this in a course of evening reading; in the public institution, or day-school of ladies, the same amount of time for the same purpose should, if possible, be given. There would be more difficulty in the latter case of carrying out the plan; the giving up of an hour of accomplishments, as they are called, would be regarded by many parents as too great a sacrifice for an object which seems, to many of them, of uncertain and dubious value. But the directors of such schools should be prepared to obviate these difficulties-to forego, for instance, if they are teachers, the importance of their own peculiar branch, and to recommend, even at a temporary sacrifice, the prosecution of a course permanently valuable. Without this magnanimous sacrifice the coalition of teachers in the many institutions with which the land is now filled, secures merely a matter of convenience, the obtaining of various branches under one roof. They

thus take no lead in the business of education, they originate no reform, they are ready to fulfil the demands made by the most unreasonable parents. An institution should do more than this; it should endeavour to correct, if possible, the erroneous views which parents have of the education of their children. It should dissuade the parent whose child has no ear from cultivating music; it should give a hint, when there is not correctness of eye, that drawing is unprofitable. At the same time it should. silently give that sort of accomplishment in English literature which we have been recommending. It should give also a course of reading in our principal authors; one hour a-day should at the termination of a course be devoted to this. And this hour, we have no doubt, if properly conducted, would, years afterwards, be found to have been the most usefully employed in their course; it would prove the chart which would guide their reading for life, and be the means, through the influence of the mother, of transmitting a healthy taste for literature to an after generation.

We are aware that all this is more easily said than done. Notwithstanding the charge which has been often made against teachers, that they are the last to adopt improvements-that they are wedded to old habits and associations -we have no hesitation in saying, that the teachers of this country are repressed in their educational aims by external influences over which they have little control. With respect to female education, their interference would be entirely disregarded; they dare not whisper that perseverance in "music," when there is neither ear, voice, nor taste, is a hopeless task, a consumption of time and money, and only leading to chagrin and disappointment. In many cases the parent is the entire disposer of the child's course of study, and she is sent to a number of private teachers, who cannot be expected to remonstrate on the subject of a

general education. In the great schools for boys, also, such a course as that which we have been recommending would be regarded by many guardians of schools as a vain imagination. It wants the palpability of a matter-of-fact acquisition; and in many inferior schools, when a teacher of high aims might thus attempt to break through the routine of a dull monotony, he would be regarded by the managers as an impracticable adventurer. The spirit of the managers, and frequently the parents, is often shared by the pupils themselves, who have generally more utilitarian than poetical comprehension. We have occasionally seen a number of stolid youth regard a teacher of poetic temperament, who postponed the hearing of the appointed lesson of the day for the indulgence of a "fine frenzy," with feelings not unmixed with contempt.

In the lower schools of our country, the children are perhaps taken away from school at an age too early for the cultivation of a literary taste. The rudiments of feeling, however, might be traced, even at this early age, on the youthful mind, by the selection and recital of pathetic and patriotic sentiment. It must ever, then, be a matter of importance to impress on the minds of the youngest of our common people the most select and tasteful of our compositions. These are never forgotten; they are lasting tests, in the minds of the rudest, by which the counterfeit literature of a more vulgar kind with which they may afterwards be assailed will be exposed and denounced.

With such a foundation in our elementary schools, there should be in our mechanics' institutes such expositions of the subjects and styles of our various authors as would tempt our young men into a profitable field of reading. Unless such a taste is created, the institution of libraries will fail in its great ends. The founders of these institutions, in their inaugural addresses, seem to be aware of this,

for the purport of these is to direct the minds of the young men to profitable reading-to our best historians and poets. Their elaborate beseechings on this point show the fear which is entertained of the attractiveness of what is merely superficial and exciting. In the efforts which are about to be made for the extension of education, care should be taken, then, to prepare the minds of youth for that higher provision which is in store for them in such institutions.

While insisting thus much on the effects of school education, it is but just that we acknowledge the impetus which has been given to the improvement of the public taste by cheap literature of a sterling kind. The Waverley Novels, so rich in historical portraiture, are now circulating extensively through the lower classes; and editions of our best authors, now published at wonderfully low prices, are gradually finding their way into our schools.

NOTE. Since this article appeared in the Scottish Educational Journal, (1853) English Literature has been taught systematically in many of our public schools, and excellent text books on the subject are now common.

EXAMINATION DAY.

ONE of the great days of the burgh of

was

that of the examination of its Academy, an institution which had its provincial celebrity, and some of whose teachers had found their way to schools of higher note, and even to universities, At the time I write of, this academy had been newly established; the town and neighbourhood had been for a time in a flourishing condition, and the contemporaneous existence of many numerous families had induced fathers and patriots to come down with handsome contributions, and establish on the foundation of the burgh school, whose masters about the same time opportunely died, a new school under the higher title of an Academy. Great exertions were made to procure for the new establishment popular masters; and, as the principle of the division of labour was then in all its strength applied to teaching, a more numerous staff of instructors was procured than the amount of subscriptions could warrant the continuance of. But this was not much regarded; "hope told a flattering tale," and vast sums were expected from abroad, from sons of denizens of the town in both Indies. The fame of the academy went through the whole neighbourhood; farmers ten miles round bought ponies for their sons, that they might ride past the parish schools to the new institution, and reports of boarders from a distance drove the newly appointed rector into a hasty marriage, that he might have the preference of two of his brethren who had already obtained the matrimonial stamp of steadi