tought to to repeat This at ing, also of mind. it for the 1 good most a mour t and edge; Es up nowl eater al and children are sent to him expressly to learn them. The compensation that is afforded him, also, is in most cases so low, that he is compelled to receive more scholars than he can well teach; and, from the same cause, he is unable to procure the proper means and apparatus for instructing youth. The remedy for all these evils, therefore, can be applied only by the community. And to the community, we beg leave earnestly to commend this subject. It is a subject nearly touching the duties and the interests of society, and therefore worthy to be urged at all times, and through every medium of communication. The press of an intelligent and improving community ought to be considered as pledged to this cause. The third thing to be desired in a system of popular education, is, that it should be more practical. This step will naturally follow the two preceding; for if education is more intelligible, and more interesting, we may presume it will be more practical; that is to say, it will be directed to purposes of more obvious and real utility. It will be directed, in the first place, more to the culture of the mind, to the improvement of the character. It will be less an exercise of memory, and more of reasoning. For a child or youth to load his mind with thousands of rules, principles, and facts, will be judged to be of less consequence, than for him to reason on a few of them. The studies of the school and the college, instead of being looked upon as the ultimate point of attainment, will be regarded as the preparation, the furnishing and sharpening of the mind, for further discoveries and acquisitions. How quickly the books and studies of the school are laid aside, when the school is left, we all very well know; and this shows, that they never had any strong hold on the understanding, nor any obvious connexion with improvement. The other respect in which education should be more prac- me the business of a mechanic, and may, without relation to practical utility or personal improvement; it is impossible that such isolated facts, however true or important, should be really interesting, any more than the definitions of a dictionary, or the events of a table of chronology. It has been remarked by Dugald Stewart, that the amount of our knowledge does not depend on the number of ideas we have, but upon the number of relations, which we perceive between them. But many people imagine, that there is some absolute and singular good in certain ideas, in certain, though most inconsequential and useless statements, because they are set down in books; because they are what is called learning; and perhaps, also, because that most precious of all things, money, is paid for their acquisition. Now what pleasure, we beg leave to ask, what interest can be taken in the hundred rules of arithmetic, if not one in ten of them is ever to come to any use, and still fewer of them are ever understood in their principles; that is to say, are ever demonstrated by the learner? What statement of particulars can there be so barren or so trivial, that it is not equally entitled to interest and delight the mind? There is some intellectual effort elicited, it is true, but it is, after all, but a misdirected and vexatious toil. As to geography, there is indeed a satisfaction in being acquainted with foreign countries; there is a charm in the descriptions of noble rivers and mighty cataracts; of green and cultivated fields, and majestic forests and mountains; of flourishing kingdoms and splendid cities; and Malte-Brun has shown us, that a charm may be given to these descriptions even in a book of geography. But geography, as it is commonly taught, is divested of most of these attractions. It is reduced to a matter of geometrical survey; of lengths and breadths; of latitudes and longitudes; of heights and distances; dry statements of population and produce. We do not deny, that something of all this should be learnt; but it should be as little as possible, and always on a system of comparative geography. With regard to thick and crowded compendiums of history, we have really no patience with them. They are, and they ought to be, insufferably tedious. History is interesting, not as a collection of naked facts, which may be aptly repeated at an examination, and remembered, perhaps, the day after, and then, from the excessive and irksome load, which they lay upon the memory, necessarily and gladly forgotten; but history is interesting, as it spreads before us a mighty scene of human conduct, unfolds its springs. and traces out its consequences, displays the character of the actors, with something of the detail and interest that belongs to biography; and thus touches and quickens the moral sentiments of our nature And here again we allow, that something of the nature of compendiums is needful; but we are confident, that they should go but little beyond chronological and historical charts; landmarks to show the inquirer his course, his relative position, and his progress. It will be easily seen, that we would not have the branches of study, on which we have ventured to bestow these strictures, neglected. We would have them pursued in their place and measure; and we will, in a moment, endeavor to state our views on this point. But on the subject of studying rhetoric, or the rules of composition, we are obliged to doubt entirely. We should say, that rhetoric, considered as a set of rules, would be better learnt from reading; and that rhetoric, considered as the philosophy of language, is beyond the comprehension of almost all the pupils in our schools. The philosophy of rhetoric, however, is not attempted to be taught in them; and as to the rules, we believe they would be better learnt, if the time usually devoted to them, were given to reading the authors, who best illustrate them, and to composition. And we would recommend this latter practice, particularly to our female schools, since it would help, more than any other means, to correct what is considered as the most common fault in the female mind, the want of logical discrimination. Upon the whole, then, in fixing the proportion, that should be observed in the different departments of education, we should assign a much larger place than is commonly given, to the study of nature; that is, to natural history, chemistry, natural philosophy, and astronomy. The earth, its structure, the substances of which it is composed, together with their mutual relations, and their action on each other; its minerals, plants, and animals; and then its connexion with other planets, and with the system of the universe; these would be inexhaustible sources of interest to the learner. These, in their elementary principles, together with languages, and, along with these severer studies, accomplishments in the arts of reading, writing, music, and the like, might occupy the early years of education. At a later period, accomplishments of a more intellectual kind, as history, rhetoric, and matters of literary taste, might be introduced. It may be thought by some, that these objects would require a life of study; and, carried to their fullest extent, they would. But we speak of them only in their elements, especially the subjects of natural philosophy; and we are persuaded, that half of the children in the country might, to some valuable extent, pursue this course of education; and that, with the exception of languages and the higher accomplishments, the other half might. Let them only begin right; let them learn nothing that they do not comprehend; let them be interested in what they learn; let them feel the excitement of curiosity, and have their faculties put on the stretch with the love of knowledge; and we believe, that a new race of children would rise up among us. Let a few simple, and they might be cheap, instruments and apparatus be introduced into our school rooms, for developing the beauties and wonders of nature, and let them be judiciously applied to this purpose; and instead of the barren minutiæ of geography being committed to memory, let the great features of it be surveyed with the aid of good maps, and drawings of cities, and of curiosities, and let interesting portions of history be combined with the study of different countries; and, instead of a multitude of tedious rules of rhetoric, let works of taste be read, which exemplify in fact all the rules of good writing; let all this be done, and much more of the same kind, and the school room would become one of the most interesting spots in the world. But let the business of education be a business of learning names and dates, and barren rules, of studying grammar before it is comprehended, or the abstract principles of rhetoric, which are turned to no account or use, or wearisome compendiums of history, or technical maxims of arithmetic, or the petty localities of geography; let all this be, and schools must be dull. Children may study, from the love or fear of their parents or teachers, from a desire of respectability, from rivalship, but not from the love of knowledge; and wanting this motive, their minds will be too apt to rise only to mercenary exertion, or to sink down into a miserable apathy or disgust towards all learning, towards books and everything connected with them. Finding no proper vent for their energy, and nothing in study to interest them, they may give their spirits chiefly and heartily to play, to rude tricks, and vulgar entertainments. The fault here alleged is not to be laid to the charge of the intelligent teacher of youth. He is often obliged to go in a certain track; he is often engaged to teach certain branches, |