men thought like philosophers, and acted like heroes; and fully justified their imitation of the ancients, by their manliness of character.

At present the SCIENCES seem to have attracted the attention of the great and fashionable, in preference to polite literature: a knowledge of chemistry seems to have become even a female accomplishment; and the rising generation of studious youth devote much attention to it, as they do also to geology, mineralogy, and perhaps craniology. As to SCIENCE, properly so called, it is worthy of all honor: human nature is aggrandized by it. The mind of man, traversing illimitable space, measures the distances of the sun and of the planets, calculates their revolution and their diameter, discovers the wonderful power that directs their motions, and brings them all down to earth, if I may venture so to say, that we may become familiar with the stars. A Newton and a Franklin soar on the wings of intellect, and fetch light from heaven in a literal sense, as well as in a figurative. To them, and their many followers, in their lofty excursion, be all glory. But it may be remarked, without derogation from their merit or characters, which is indeed impossible, that the sublimest and most ingenious discoveries in the philosophy of nature, require the graces of style, the charms of polite learning, the classical excellence of composition, to render them long interesting and really entertaining to the great mass of the people. Fontenelle's Plurality of Worlds is read by tens of thousands, while few can read or relish the Principia of Newton. But to initiate boys at school in the exact sciences, without giving them a knowledge or taste for PHILOLOGY, is to disgust them with difficulty, and to prevent them from ever making their science acceptable to others by the elegance of the vehicle. A dry jejune style will never become popular. The man of science, who has nothing but science to recommend him, and whose taste has not been formed or improved by polite literature, must not expect, when he publishes his works, to become a favorite among the people at large. On all subjects, to write well, that is, to write with the polish and harmony which classical authors communicate, is necessary to general reception. The best books of science, dully, drily, heavily composed, have no

for the majority. Soon they mount to the upper shelves of the library, and there repose, as in a catacomb. Some polite writer extracts the kernel; and the husk is then burned or thrown away. The husk, rough and ugly, contained a fruit solid and sweet, and sought by all, when once the coarse tegument was removed.

worth, a Radcliffe, an Aikin, and many others, favored by the Muses no less than by the Graces. Miss Carter was, indeed, an excellent Grecian, and her LETTERS are admirable.

I fear a merely arithmetical education, whether preparatory to science or to trade, has a tendency rather to contract, than enlarge the mind, and certainly has very little influence on the taste and imagination.

The mind, like the waters that permeate the subterranean minerals, imbibes the nature of the thoughts and sentiments, through which it passes in the progress of its studies; especially at an age when all the senses are fresh and strong, and yet impressible with ideas either mean or liberal. Now the ancients have two languages, which, wonderful as it is, surpass in dignity and in harmony all the modern, however improved by academies, or adorned by the genius of the authors who have written in them. Both Greek and Latin are distinguished by melody and majesty. Like the ancient architecture, they present to the mind models of all that is magnificent and beautiful. But majesty and beauty of style, as they result from greatness of sentiment, tend also to produce it. They excite an emulous and manly elevation of mind, and create a certain dignity of character, such as is seldom to be caused, or long and uniformly supported, without a foundation of SOLID ORE. Without solidity they are, indeed, mere inflation. A man may be proud, and swell, and give himself haughty airs of superiority, upon a superficial education; upon acquiring a varnish only; the volubility of tongue, and flexibility of limb, of a mere master of the ceremonies, or dancing master, of a mere babbler of broken' and ungrammatical French; even of an expert fencer, and yet have nothing at all in him when the bloom of youth is gone, but a BRISK STUPIDITY. A brisk stupidity, the mere ebullition of animal spirits with diminutive intellect, a flippancy of manner, and a contracted, narrow, selfish spirit, will be found to characterise many who are educated in a mode guiltless of the grammar school, yet are well received in frivolous society. Though numbers cannot alter the essential nature of things, yet can they keep any error, and almost every folly in countenance, and therefore PERTNESS, with fortune and fashion, is not only tolerated but admired.

I will call as a witness to the value of classical education, a late master of Westminster school, certainly a grammar school of the first merit and dignity," Foreigners," says he, "allow that English travellers are better informed than all others. Where, he asks, did they acquire this superior information? In English schools, in English universities, where the plan of the schools is pursued, and in nineteen instances out of twenty, from the English clergy, who, in most instances, were themselves educated at the grammar schools in the vicinity of their birth place. Why are these foundations to be decried?" Why, I add, to be degraded by act of parliament, since they answer all the intentions of the founders?

Is their original mode of instruction and discipline altered? By no means. Are the instructors of a different description from those desiguated by the founders? By no means. They are still graduates and clergymen, not educated in superficial science, and in arts preparatory to commercial life alone, but in general literature. The clergy thus qualified for the task are, and have been, instruments, selected because of their peculiar fitness, to convey light, religious, moral, and literary, to all ranks of the people; and they illumed their resplendent torches at the ancient grammar schools in the vicinity of their birth-place. They availed themselves by parental direction, of the benefits which some opulent founder bequeathed to the place whence he originated and which he repaid for the benefits he enjoyed there in infancy, by establishing in them a fountain of perennial advantage; and shall they be deprived of a privilege intended as an everlasting inheritance, in order to multiply schools of an inferior character, which already abound to superfluity?

"The luminaries of the church, (adds Dr. Vincent,) in all ages, in this country, from the venerable Bede to Roger Bacon, from Bacon to the illustrious men, who florished at the reformation, and from the reformation to the present hour, were all formed by the old grammar schools, upon the plan of classical instruction. And if the writings of our English divines stand higher than all others in the estimation of Europe, for solidity of reasoning and superiority of composition, what other cause can be assigned for it, but the excellence of the models, by which their style was formed and their judgment corrected. Tillotson, Barrow, Pearson, and a hundred others, however great their fame, and solid their excellency, were all versed during youth in the elegance of classical literature."

"If ever the human intellect was cultivated to the utmost extent of its power, if ever the arts were carried to the summit of perfection, if ever a generous competition effected more than the thirst of gain, it was in Greece; and, if the treasures of Greece are now to be hidden from the British youth, they will be replaced. probably by a CIVIC EDUCATION, and barbarism will prevail where once florished the studies of humanity."

That the French during the revolution, afforded a model for the degradation of grammar schools, by their civic education, appears probable from the following passage in Mirabeau's "Travail sur Education publique," printed at Paris De l'Imprimerie Nationale, in 1791.

"Dans chaque endroit, ou l'organisation nouvelle du clergé conservera un curé ou un vicaire, il y aura une école d'écriture et

Η Κτημα ες αεί. -Thucydides.

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de lecture** Le maitre d'école sera autorisé à recevoir une retribution, s'il enseignera à lire, à écrire, à calculer, et même, s'il est possible, à lever des plans et arpenter."

I know not whether the French did not derive their ideas of teaching things instead of words, from some celebrated writers of our own country, who, with all their good sense and genius, were visionaries on the subject of education.

Bacon, Milton, Cowley, Addison, and Locke, are great and illustrious names, and their celebrity must give weight to their opinions on all subjects; even on those which they might not have considered with the attention which they gave to the grand works which form the bases of their fame. Bacon, as appears by a very curious letter to king James, opposed the foundation of the Charter-house. He wished it to be a college for men, in some respects, I suppose, such an one as Gresham college, and not a school for boys, not a grammar school. His fear was, lest too many should be brought up scholars, so as to rob the plough of its laborers. It would be a kind of sacrilege, it would be a fruitless effort, to detract a tittle from his honors. 1 revere him on this side idolatry. But, in the present question, it should be remembered, that his forte was almost exclusively philosophy, in which he had no rival; and that though great in every thing but his love of money, he did not devote his attention, in particular, to the HUMANITIES. He would have had Sutton found a college of men qualified to promote the Advancement of learning, that is, of science properly so called; and not a seminary of boys, to be instructed in elements which are only preliminary to

science.

estate.

"I do," says he, in his advice to the king touching Mr. Sutton's "I do subscribe to the opinion, that, for grammar schools, there are already too many, and therefore no providence to add where there is excess; for the great number of schools that are in your highness's realm doth cause a want, and likewise an overflow. For by means thereof they find want in the country and towns, both of servants for husbandry, and apprentices for trades; and on the other side, there being more scholars bred than the State can prefer or employ, and the active part of that life not bearing a proportion to the preparative, it must needs fall out, that many persons will be bred unfit for their vocations, and unprofitable for that in which they are brought up, which fills the realm full of indigent, idle, and wanton people, which are but materia rerum novarum. Therefore, on this point, I wish Mr. Sutton's intention were exalted a degree, and that which he meant for teachers of These children, your majesty should make for teachers of men!" schools furnishing the "materia rerum novarum" was the chief

objection, and an objection which this "greatest, meanest, of mankind," as Pope calls him, thought, "would be pleasing to the king, to whom he was giving advice."

Bacon, I have said, would have founded a college, like that of Gresham, but Gresham College situated in the midst of the seats for money changers, has long been disused, through an experience of its inutility. Sutton college would have undergone the same fate; but the Charter-house school still florishes, as it has ever florished, and gives the public scholars of the first eminence, such as fully justify Sutton in his institution. We may say of it, "wisdom is justified of her children." Therefore, to obtain a scholarship there (so valuable is the education afforded,) requires the interest of the first ministers of the country. Bacon's other objection to grammar schools falls to the ground; since there is now no want of laborers in agriculture. On the contrary, men want employment; and thousands and tens of thousand that could dig, are not ashamed to beg, pressed, as they are, by the iron hand of necessity.

One can hardly help smiling, when we read this wisest of men observe that: "This act of Mr. Sutton, seemeth to me as a sacrifice without salt; having the materials of a good intention, but not powdered with any such ordinances and institutions as may preserve the same from turning corrupt, or at least from becoming unsavoury and of LITTLE USE. Some great person will take all the sweet, and the poor be stinted, and take but the crumbs; **** as it comes to pass in obscure hospitals-the poor, which is the propter quod, is little relieved. I wish this chaos of a good deed were directed rather to a solid merit and durable charity, than a blaze of glory, that will but crackle a little in talk, and quickly extinguish.'

But I proceed to Milton. Milton was himself a schoolmaster, but not the master of a grammar school; he was, however, the scholar of a grammar school, in the centre of the metropolis, and stands forth a prominent monument of the efficacy and excellence of that, and all such foundations. Yet he also is a visionary on the subject of education. He has given us an idea of his didactic skill and designs, in his letter to Mr. Hartlib, which contains beautiful passages, but upon the whole, is fanciful and delusive as a guide or directory. Few among the experienced in didactios, have read Milton's letter to Hartlib with approbation: curious as it is, and displaying as it does, scintillations of great genius, yet what parent or preceptor is persuaded by it to adopt the plan in his own case or practice? Milton complained, like many of the illiterati in all times, of the many years wasted in teaching the dead languages, and proposed a method of his own, more compendious. His bia