higher powers of the mind, such instruction might be engrafted on a liberal education as would enable the upper classes of English society to take an intelligent and practical interest in these pursuits; and that, if we are content to lay aside some things peculiar to our present English system, those new elements which may be introduced will give an impulse to education instead of proving an incumbrance.

In the first place, as regards classical literature, there must be some error in our mode of studying it, if it cultivates powers and tastes opposed to those of the present day. It is the literature of nations, from whom we have also received specimens of art of a far higher order than our own, whilst the remains of their public works exhibit applications of practical science which even the superior knowledge of later times can hardly equal; a knowledge of the language and the writings of such nations cannot therefore, if it is real knowledge, disqualify the mind for art or for science, but the contrary. But it is not classical learning in itself, it is the method in which it is studied, and the peculiar form which it has assumed in England, which is the chief obstacle to those alterations in the system of education which the times demand. The greater portion of the time which boys devote to their classical studies is spent in many schools in acquiring an art which is certainly not essential to good scholarship, whatever may be its advantages-that of composing with ease and rapidity in the learned languages, both in prose and in verse. Even if classical scholarship were the sole end of education, we doubt whether this is the best method of attaining it; but as mere scholarship is not all that is now required for the majority of boys, it surely deserves consideration whether some other method might not be adopted of cultivating a correct taste, and giving them exactness and readiness, which would stand them in better stead in after life than the power of writing Latin and Greek verses. We are persuaded that this may be done by occasional exercises in the language, when the classical authors are studied with a teacher who enters into their spirit, without that expenditure of time and energies which is necessary in order to acquire the art of composition. It is very injurious to the cause of classical literature to confound those things which ought to be separated. The instruction which is required to qualify a boy hereafter for those pursuits from which his classical education too generally excludes him, is perhaps inconsistent with his devoting his best energies to composition in Greek and Latin; but it is perfectly consistent with such an education as shall give him a correct and thorough knowledge of the classical languages, an acquaintance through them with the great minds of antiquity, and a clear and intelligent perception of all that is noble and beautiful in ancient literature.

It seems almost unnecessary to point out the advantages which a welleducated man ought to derive in the present day from good mathematical instruction. Whatever may be supposed from the success of those who have been imperfectly educated in their youth, it is certain that there is no royal road to science. By algebra, the science of numerical relation, and geometry, that of form, the mind is trained to those conceptions which are essential to all scientific knowledge, and enabled to apprehend with clearness the necessary connection between cause and effect, without which practical science can never be living and progressive. We are very strongly of opinion that much is lost in the present day to several of the practical sciences-for example, to chemistry-from the fact that few of those engaged in them have received a mathematical education; and we are satisfied,

from instances which have come under our own notice, that those who are familiar with mathematical reasoning and operations have an advantage in these pursuits which has not as yet been sufficiently appreciated. The amount of time required for the mathematical instruction of boys is not great; the practical value of it depends upon the real efficiency of the teacher. The showy results, which masters without mathematical power or knowledge themselves easily produce by wasting sufficient time upon them, of processes in algebra, or the integral calculus, it does not signify, worked mechanically with ease and correctness, or propositions in Euclid, or perhaps Newton, repeated readily by the combined aid of the memory and the understanding, are no permanent gain to the mind, but very much the contrary. Vicious habits of thinking are formed by such teaching, which it is not easy to eradicate, and which enfeeble the mind instead of strengthening it. In no subject is it so necessary that the teacher should himself fully comprehend what he teaches as in mathematics; and it is far better, for all the purposes of after life, that boys should not begin them till fifteen or sixteen, than that they should learn them by rote from inferior masters. But with good instruction from the first, every boy, with the exception of those few whose incapacity for abstract reasoning good teaching makes more apparent, may be well prepared for an intelligent apprehension of practical science, and become a respectable and well-informed mathematician without the necessity of sacrificing classical studies.

But while this foundation of elementary knowledge and discipline is being laid, it is not only possible but desirable on all accounts, as well as to prepare the student for the state of society in which his future life will be spent, to make instruction in practical science a part of a boy's education. That this may be done from an early age, not only without injury to other studies, but with advantage to them all, if practical science holds its right position and due proportion in the system, we are thoroughly persuaded. The usual and often-repeated arguments against thus enlarging the basis of education, that one thing learnt thoroughly is better than many known superficially, and that our object is not to impart information but to give the power of acquiring it, are no doubt wise precautions against distracting the energies with a multiplicity of pursuits. But the fact is, that most boys are in much greater danger of not having their minds aroused to a healthful and vigorous pursuit of one subject, than of having too much activity excited. It is lamentable to consider how many there are in all schools who dream on for years over the elements of Latin and Greek, and never acquire the power of earnest and continued mental exertion. Anything that will interest the mind of a boy, and dispose him to make some effort to gain knowledge, is in the hands of a good and judicious master of incalculable value; and experience proves, that many apparently dull boys, who make no progress in their classical studies, and cannot appreciate mathematical principles, will kindle into intelligence when the facts of nature are explained to them, or when pursuits suited to their abilities and tastes give them confidence in their own powers. And in all cases, if instruction of this kind is judiciously applied, it is a recreation from severer studies instead of a burthen; a general impulse is given to the character, tastes are cultivated which would otherwise lie dormant, habits of accurate observation are formed, all which is much gained to the general education; and in the meanwhile, by commencing this instruction

at an early age, the quickness of hand and eye, essential to future success in such pursuits, is acquired by many who, at a later period, would not be able to attain it even if they were willing.

We do not however anticipate that the method now adopted in many schools, of occasional popular lectures on scientific subjects, will in any degree produce these desirable results. Lectures, with well-chosen experiments and other illustrations, are indeed useful in exciting a taste for such knowledge; and if the boys are accustomed to take notes, and examined in them, may be made the means of imparting much useful information. But if anything is to be done effectually, so as to train a boy to think for himself ou questions of practical science, there must be a course of practical instruction in which he may be taught to observe and to manipulate, and learn the results of natural laws from nature itself. It is an error to suppose that education in physical science consists in burthening the memory with a mass of information: the chief object at which we must aim, is to give the student access to the material world and to the wisdom of the Creator therein, as through grammar and language we enable him to study the laws of mind. He who is accustomed to observe nature for himself acquires a sense of the fixity of its laws, of its perfect order and exact distinctions, which, though it needs to be corrected by other knowledge, is yet no small gain to the mind, independently of its practical use. At the same time we are not advocating such an amount of this instruction in the study of nature as would interfere with those studies which are of a higher order: we only maintain that no education is complete from which it is altogether omitted. If a boy begins early to receive this instruction, an hour or two every week thus employed will be sufficient; and our own experience has led us to the conclusion, that the actual benefit to the mind from such an occupation far more than compensates, even as regards classical studies, for the apparent loss of time.

The branch of natural science which is best suited for being thus engrafted on a liberal education is undoubtedly chemistry. We are aware that Dr. Whewell, a high authority on such a subject, has expressed an opinion adverse to the use of chemistry as an instrument of education. It is indeed unsuitable as a substitute for those branches of Natural Philosophy the first principles of which are fixed, because they are necessary truths which the mind is able to apprehend. Chemistry is, as yet, only an inductive science; a collection of natural phenomena in which a certain order and connection may be traced, but the principles of which are undiscovered and possibly beyond the reach of the human mind. This, however, is no objection to chemistry being used for the purposes of observation and experiment-but the contrary; inasmuch as being purely a science of induction, it demands the more exactness and variety in the experiments from which its laws are deduced. There are, indeed, many reasons which make chemistry well suited for the position which, in our opinion, it ought to hold in education. In the first place, habits of practical accuracy are acquired by chemical manipulation, and especially by analysis, which would not be gained in the study of any other natural science. We are disposed to attach great value to this result; we are satisfied that so far from boys becoming loose and inaccurate scholars, the opposite effect is produced by practical chemistry. In mathematics, indeed, the importance of a ready and accurate perception of apparently slight differences is sufficiently obvious; and we have found, as might be expected, those boys who are practical chemists to possess a clearer apprehension than others of the

principles involved in statical and dynamical problems. And though grammatical distinctions and physical are different in kind, yet an exactness of thought, by whatever means acquired, will be retained in all subjects on which the mind is exercised. Again, chemistry teaches the necessity of a simple and philosophical arrangement and nomenclature, and the use of a symbolical language, and thus tends to form scientific habits applicable to all purposes. But even if it were allowed that some other sciences, natural history for example, were suited to take this place in the education of the young, it is an important practical consideration that chemistry can be taught with much more facility, and at much less expense, the materials for chemical experiments being readily obtained everywhere, whilst for other sciences costly collections are necessary in order to illustrate them from the phenomena of nature.* It is a happy circumstance that the branch of physical science, which is thus on all accounts the best fitted for practical instruction in schools, is the one that especially and most immediately qualifies the student for the pursuits and researches of the present age. Whether he wishes to understand the various processes of our arts and manufactures, or to take a part hereafter in an improved system of agriculture, he finds that his chemical knowledge can alone supply him with materials on which to form a judgment. And it is no small recommendation to any pursuit, when it is so directly concerned with practical life, that a boy feels that his knowledge is giving him new powers of apprehension and enabling him to take an intelligent interest in those subjects which before were a mystery.

The only objections to the use of chemistry in the education of the young which appear to us of any weight are, first, that it is a science continually progressing, not only by researches into the properties of natural agents unknown before, but also by new combinations of the known elements, which modify and simplify from time to time the process of analysis; yet, although this somewhat increases the difficulty of instruction and may perplex beginners, we believe that it is on the whole an advantage, since it keeps before the mind continually the true nature of this knowledge, as empirical and not the result of reason, and also it serves as a stimulus to inquiry. The other objection is of a different character; namely, that to some chemistry becomes so attractive that it tends to divert the mind from more severe and less exciting studies. The master must guard against this, as he would prevent similar evils from the cricket-field or the library; and when the novelty of the laboratory has passed off, this effect will not be produced on any except those whose tastes and abilities peculiarly qualify them for the pursuits of physical science. With regard to them, it will of course be a question in each case, both for parents and for teachers, to what extent and at what period of life they ought to be allowed to cultivate those tastes which may be employed profitably both to themselves and to others.

We have been anxious, in the preceding remarks, rather to record the results of our own observations on the effect of some modifications of the old system, than to attempt a complete sketch of the changes required. We are aware that there are other branches of practical science which are not

*The expense of a laboratory, indeed, is considerable at first, and the materials for experiments cannot be supplied for nothing. But parents must not grudge the comparatively small amount thus spent, which they may be assured will be repaid an hundred-fold in after life, viewing the expenditure merely as a commercial speculation.

less important, and better suited for some minds, than the study of nature, those which may be more properly termed applied sciences, such as mechanism, geometrical drawing, the rudiments of civil engineering, &c. There is also the important question, how a taste for art may best be cultivated in schools for the upper classes. As we have already suggested, there is ample opportunity for doing this in connection with classical literature. But on all other points a little practical experience will be a safer guide than theory.

Notices of Books.

The Elegies of Propertius, with English Notes. Editor of Eschylus. (London: John W. bridge: John Deighton. 1853.)

By Frederick A. Paley,
Parker & Son. Cam-

We cannot look at the title page of this work without being painfully reminded of the many losses sustained by Oxford and Cambridge, in the last few years, of those who were once reckoned among the most gifted and eminent of their members. The editor of the present volume no longer seeks or confers honour by reference to the college and university where he received the lessons he has turned to so good account; and it may be a just source of pride to him that he need add no titles to his name to insure attention to his work, and that an edition of Propertius by his hand will be at once welcomed by all who know the value of his labours in elucidation of Æschylus. Unlike some others who have quitted the universities from the same cause, Mr. Paley has not turned his arms against his former friends, but is found labouring on the same side with equal zeal and greater experience than before.

Of the present state and probable future estimation and pursuit in this country of the studies to which Mr. Paley has himself applied to so good purpose, he speaks in his preface in no very encouraging tone. The notion of making education more practical, as it is called, is very widely spread. The extent and variety of the domain of natural science seems every day increasing, and discoveries are multiplying around us of which it is impossible to remain ignorant. Among those who have little time for independent thought, and who derive their ideas of what education should be, principally from the daily press, it seems to be considered that some short manual should be compiled for school use, by means of which a compendious knowledge of antiquity may be gained, as of electricity or mechanics. Great is the impatience manifested that Latin and Greek cannot be got up and got over in a short time, and the energies of youth devoted to something which is thought more profitable. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that if classical studies will not be so widely spread as hitherto, they promise to be more complete and systematic. If we must agree with Mr. Paley that classical learning is not prosecuted as it once was, we are not sure that we find herein altogether matter of regret. It is certainly true that we can point to no Bentley or Porson now living; at least, no living scholar enjoys in his own generation the fame which Bentley and Porson have acquired with posterity. It is, however, equally undeniable that the example of Porson and his contemporaries and immediate followers, and certain changes