It has not escaped my memory, that I said in the preceding book, (when I observed that education in schools was preferable to that at home,) that pupils commencing their studies, or but little advanced in them, devote themselves more readily to imitate their school-fellows than their master, such imitation being more easy to them. This remark may be understood by some in such a sense, that the opinion which I now advocate may appear inconsistent with that which I advanced before. But such inconsistency will be far from me; for what I then said is the very best of reasons why a boy should be consigned to the best possible instructor, because even the pupils under him, being better taught than those under inferior masters, will either speak in such a manner as it may not be objectionable to imitate, or, if they commit any faults, will be immediately corrected, whereas the less learned teacher will perhaps praise even what is wrong, and cause it, by his judgment, to recommend itself to those who listen to it. Let a master therefore be excellent as well in eloquence as in morals; one who, like Homer's "Phoenix,"* may teach his pupil at once to speak and to act.

STUDIES ADAPTED TO PECULIARITIES OF PUPILS.

It is generally, and not without reason, regarded as an excellent quality in a master to observe accurately the differences of ability in those whom he has undertaken to instruct, and to ascertain in what direction the nature of each particularly inclines him; for there is in talent an incredible variety; nor are the forms of the mind fewer than those of the body. This may be understood even from orators themselves, who differ so much from each other in their style of speaking, that no one is like another, though most of them have set themselves to imitate those whom they admired. It has also been thought advantageous by most teachers to instruct each pupil in such a manner as to cherish by learning the good qualities inherited from nature, so that the powers may be assisted in their progress towards the object to which they chiefly direct themselves. As a master of palæstric exercises, when he enters a gymnasium full of boys, is able, after trying their strength and comprehension in every possible way, to decide for what kind of exercise each ought to be trained; so a teacher of eloquence, they say, when he has clearly observed which boy's genius delights most in a concise and polished manner of speaking, and which in a spirited, or grave, or smooth, or rough, or brilliant, or elegant one, will so accommodate his instructions to each, that he will be advanced in that department in which he shows most ability; because nature attains far greater power when seconded by culture; and he that is led contrary to nature, can not make due progress in the studies for which he is unfit, and makes those talents, for the exercise of which he seemed born, weaker by neglecting to cultivate them.

This opinion seems to me (for to him that follows reason there is free exercise of judgment even in opposition to received persuasions) just only in part. To distinguish peculiarities of talent is absolutely necessary; and to make choice of particular studies to suit them, is what no man would discountenance. For one youth will be fitter for the study of history than another; one will be qualified for writing poetry, another for the study of law, and some perhaps fit only to be sent into the fields. The teacher of rhetoric will decide in accord

* Iliad, ix. 432.

ance with these peculiarities, just as the master of the palestra will make one of his pupils a runner, another a boxer, another a wrestler, or fit him for any of the exercises that are practiced at the sacred games.

TEACHERS SHOULD BE REGARDED BY THEIR PUPILS AS PARENTS. Having spoken thus fully concerning the duties of teachers, I give pupils, for the present, only this one admonition, that they are to love their tutors not less than their studies, and to regard them as parents, not indeed of their bodies, but of their minds. Such affection contributes greatly to improvement, for pupils, under its influence, will not only listen with pleasure, but will believe what is taught them, and will desire to resemble their instructors. They will come together, in assembling for school, with pleasure and cheerfulness; they will not be angry when corrected, and will be delighted when praised; and they will strive, by their devotion to study, to become as dear as possible to the master. For as it is the duty of preceptors to teach, so it is that of pupils to show themselves teachable; neither of these duties, else, will be of avail without the other. And as the generation of man is effected by both parents, and as you will in vain scatter seed, unless the furrowed ground, previously softened, cherish it, so neither can eloquence come to its growth unless by mutual agreement between him who communicates and him who receives.

BOYS CAPABLE OF MUCH STUDY, IF THE SUBJECTS ARE VARIED. The hours of the day may be divided among different kinds of study, especially as variety itself refreshes and recruits the mind, while, on the contrary, nothing is more annoying than to continue at one uniform labor. Accordingly writing is relieved by reading, and the tedium of reading itself is relieved by changes of subject. However many things we may have done, we are yet to a certain degree fresh for that which we are going to begin. Who, on the contrary, would not be stupified, if he were to listen to the same teacher of any art, whatever it might be, through the whole day? But by change a person will be recruited; as is the case with respect to food, by varieties of which the stomach is re-invigorated, and is fed with several sorts less unsatisfactorily than with one. Or let those objectors tell me what other mode there is of learning. Ought we to attend to the teacher of grammar only, and then to the teacher of geometry only, and cease to think, during the second course, of what we learned in the first? Should we then transfer ourselves to the musician, our previous studies being still allowed to escape us? Or while we are studying Latin, ought we to pay no attention to Greek?

The temper of boys is better able to bear labor than that of men; for, as neither the falls of children, with which they are so often thrown on the ground, nor their crawling on hands and knees, nor, soon after, constant play, and running all day hither and thither, inconvenience their bodies so much as those of adults, because they are of little weight, and no burden to themselves, so their minds likewise, I conceive, suffer less from fatigue, because they exert themselves with less effort, and do not apply to study by putting any force upon themselves, but merely yield themselves to others to be formed.

IX. ELEMENTARY EDUCATION IN IRELAND.

HISTORICAL SKETCH.

THE checkered experience of Ireland,—its dark and its bright sides,— forms one of the most instructive chapters in the history of popular education. It commences, according to the testimony of the earliest chroniclers, with institutions of learning, not only of earlier origin, but of higher reputation, than any in England or Scotland,-institutions which were resorted to by English youth for instruction, who brought back the use of letters to their ignorant countrymen. According to Bede and William of Malmesbury, this resort commenced even so early as the seventh century, and these youth were not only taught, but maintained without service or reward. The great college of Mayo was called "the Mayo of the Saxons," because it was dedicated to the exclusive use of English students, who at one time amounted to no fewer than 2000. Bayle, on the authority of the historian of the time, pronounces Ireland "the most civilized country in Europe,* the nursery of the sciences" from the eighth to the thirteenth century, and her own writers are proud of pointing to the monastery of Lindisfarne, the college of Lismore, and the forty literary institutions of Borrisdole, as so many illustrative evidences of the early intellectual activity and literary munificence of the nation. But Ireland not only abounded with higher institutions, but there were connected with monasteries and churches, as early as the thirteenth century, teachers expressly set apart "for teaching poor scholars gratis." When the country was overrun by foreign armies, and torn by civil discord, and governed by new ecclesiastical authorities, set up by the conquerors, and not in harmony with the religion of the people, a change certainly passed over the face of things, and there follows a period of darkness and educational destitution, for which we find no relief in turning to the history of English legislation in behalf of Ireland. Indeed there is not a darker page in the whole history of religious intolerance than that which records the action and legislation of England for two centuries, toward this ill-fated country, in this one particular. Even the statute of Henry VIII., which seems to be framed to carry out a system of elementary education already existing before the new ecclesiastical authorities were imposed upon the country, was intended mainly to convert Irishmen into Englishmen. By that

* These facts are stated on the authority of a speech of Hon. Thomas Wyse, in the House of Commons, in 1835.

statute, every archbishop and bishop was bound to see that every clergyman took an oath "to keep, or cause to be kept, a school to learn English, if any children of his parish came to him to learn the same, taking for the keeping of the said school such convenient stipend or salary as in the said land is accustomably used to be taken;" and both higher and lower authorities, archbishops and their beneficed clergymen, are subjected to a fine for neglect of duty. The fatal error in this and in all subsequent legislation and associated effort for education in Ireland, until the last twenty years, was its want of nationality; the schools were English and Protestant, and the people for whom they were established were Irish and Catholics, and every effort, by legislation or education, to convert Irishmen into Englishmen, and Catholics into Protestants, has not only failed, but only helped to sink the poor into ignorance, poverty and barbarism, and bind both rich and poor more closely to their faith and their country. Every system of education, to be successful, must be adapted to the institutions, habits and convictions of the people. If this principle had been regarded in the statute of Henry VIII., Ireland, which had the same, if not a better foundation in previous habits and existing institutions, than either Scotland or Germany, would have had a system of parochial schools recognized and enforced by the state, but supervised by the clergy. This was the secret of the success of Luther and Knox. What they did was in harmony with the convictions and habits of the people. So strangely was this truth forgotten in Ireland, that until the beginning of this century, Catholics, who constituted four-fifths of the population, were not only not permit ted to endow, conduct, or teach schools, but Catholic parents even were not permitted to educate their own children abroad, and it was made an offense, punished by transportation, (and if the party returned it was made high treason,) in a Catholic, to act as a schoolmaster, or assistant to a schoolmaster, or even as a tutor in a private family. Such a law as that in operation for a century, coupled with legal disabilities in every form, and with a system of legislation framed to benefit England at the expense of Ireland, would sink any people into pauperism and barbarism, especially when much, if not most, of the land itself was held in fee by foreigners, or Protestants, and the products of the soil and labor were expended on swarms of church dignitaries, state officials, and absentee landlords. But even when these restrictions on freedom of education and teaching were removed in 1785, the grants of money by the Irish and Imperial Parliaments, down to 1825, were expended in supporting schools exclusively Protestant. Upward of $7,000,000 were expended on the Protestant Charter Schools, which were supported by a society which originated in 1733, on the alleged ground "that Protestant English schools, in certain counties inhabited by Papists, were absolutely necessary for their conversion." By a by-law of this society, the advantages of the institutions were limited exclusively to the children of Catholic parents. On the schools of the "Society for Discountenancing Vice," which originated in 1792, and which was soon converted into an agency

of proselytism, the government expended, between 1800 and 1827, more than a half million of dollars. In 1814, the schools of the "Kildare Place Society," began to receive grants from the Parliament, which amounted in some years to £50,000, and on an average to $25,000, and in the aggregate to near $2,000,000; and yet the regulations of the Society, although more liberal than any which preceded it, were so applied as practically to exclude the children of Catholics, who constituted, in 1930, 6,423,000, out of a population of 7,932,000.

In 1806 commissioners were appointed by Parliament to inquire into the state of all schools, on public or charitable foundations, in Ireland; who made fourteen reports. In their last report, in 1812, they recommend the appointment of a board of commissioners, to receive and dispose of all parliamentary grants, to establish schools, to prepare a sufficient number of well-qualified masters, to prescribe the course and mode of education, to select text-books, and generally to administer a system of national education for Ireland. To obviate the difficulty in the way of religious instruction, the commissioners express a confident conviction that, in the selection of text-books, "it will be found practicable to introduce not only a number of books in which moral principles should be inculcated in such a manner as is likely to make deep and lasting impressions on the youthful mind, but also ample extracts from the Sacred Scriptures themselves, an early acquaintance with which it deems of the utmost importance, and indeed indispensable in forming the mind to just notions of duty and sound principles of conduct; and that the study of such a volume of extracts from the Sacred Writings would form the best preparation for that more particular religious instruction which it would be the duty and inclination of their several ministers of religion to give at proper times, and in other places, to the children of their respective congregations."

In 1824, another commission was instituted to inquire into the nature and extent of the instruction afforded by different schools in Ireland, supported in whole or in part from the public funds, and to report on the best means of extending to all classes of the people the benefit of education. This commission submitted nine reports, concurring generally in the recommendations of the committee of 1805.

In 1828, the reports of the commissioners were referred to a committee of the House of Commons, who made a report in the same year, in which they state their object to be "to discover a mode in which the combined education of Protestant and Catholic might be carried on, resting upon religious instruction, but free from the suspicion of proselytism." The committee therefore recommend the appointment of a board of education, with powers substantially the same as possessed by the former commissioners. The following resolution presents their views on the matter of religious education

"That it is the opinion of this Committee, that for the purpose of carrying into effect the combined literary and the separate religious education of the scholars, the course of study for four fixed days in the week should be exclusively moral and literary; and that, of the two remaining days, the one to be appropriated