a part of the system. The whole aspect of the plan should be such as comports with a "school of the prophets." Some of the missionary institutions and academies for training Dissenting ministers approach very nearly to our idea of the general character of such an institution. It should be a sort of family, rather than a mere college; and there should not only be public lectures and private study, but general habits of religious conversation; and the subjects, even of table-talk, should be such as befit a spiritual household. Upon the character of the studies we shall not expatiate: they should include whatever, under the Divine blessing, may conduce to the maturity of the Christian student and the well-furnished minister of Christ. The composition of sermons would be a particular object of attention; nor would their oral delivery, or the public reading of the service of the church by the students, be considered points unworthy of diligent care. The students might also, under proper regulations, visit the sick, converse with the poor, and assist in Sundayschool instruction, especially if the children of the city were collected for that purpose in the aisles of the cathedral. The chancellor or the archdeacon, being resident, might, if their other duties were not too great, superintend the seminary; and the dean and prebendaries, or a certain number of them, might give lectures in theology. A year or two spent thus would be of inestimable value through life to the young men; and advantage would arise from the plan in various ways. The talents, capacities, characters, attainments, and habits of the students would be in general so well known that a bishop or an incumbent could without difficulty fix upon the sort of person he wanted for any particular station. Young men of piety and suitable endowments would not be overlooked; and many would be far better qualified for the sacred office than universities will ever qualify them. The expense of the plan needs not be CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 362.

great; certainly not greater than many of the richer dioceses could afford from their present resources; but it would not be necessary to have such a seminary in every see, for one might serve for two or three of the lesser; though in general we should incline to the system of having only a small number of pupils in each institution, making it, as we have said, a clerical family, and allowing of ample supervision and personal knowledge. A large miscellaneous society would defeat the whole object. The students might pay a considerable portion of their actual expenses, which need not be large, as the members of the cathedral would, under the system, supply instruction without charge to the students, being remunerated either generally or specifically from the chapter funds; and some of the prebendal houses, or other superfluous chapter buildings might be devoted to the object without much immediate outlay of capital. Even as things now are, such a system might in many instances be carried into effect without much difficulty, where the bishop, dean, and chapter should set in earnest about it. Nor would it be any innovation, but a restoration; for in the times of Popery the cathedrals had their scholastic appendages for the priesthood, and some of the Reformers recommended similar institutions under the Protestant establishment, which has grievously suffered for want of them. We must say, that it was not honest to seize the chantry lands and kindred revenues, and to do so little for the church or the public as has been done for the last three hundred years.

But we must leave our readers to fill up the rest, our space requiring that we should conclude these extended remarks. We would only again observe, that unless more than the shell of religion, more than the name and form of piety, pervades the venerable precincts of our cathedrals, all routine, all verbal reformation, is vain. We must have the great matters of faith, and conversion, and the love of Christ, and the power of

M

the Holy Ghost conspicuous through every stage of the process, or every thing is worthless. How much the bishops might do in this work of cathedral reform, we have not attempted to point out. We have been much struck with the proceedings in the conventions (for they have no cathedrals) of the Protestant bishops in the United States: and it appears to us that many of their plans might be adopted with great advantage by our English bishops. We have been particularly impressed with many of their charges, and the nature of the topics touched upon in them, and with the general character of their questions to their clergy. As one instance among many, we cull the following heads from one of Bishop Griswold's episcopal addresses :—“The parishes he has visited; their condition and prospects; candidates for orders; ordi nations; changes by deaths and removals; religious institutions; new churches; deficiency of clergy; missionary zeal; prospects of the church; Sunday schools; parochial reports; importance of much prayer; union and love; devotion to God; danger of sectarian spirit; Evangelical preaching; missions, home and foreign, and the way to apply them." Each of these heads is filled up with much valuable and useful matter.

But we must pass on and conclude. It must be the desire of every member of the Church of England, that the church to which he belongs should be still seen assimilated as much as possible to the church of Christ, of which it forms a part; and like that be found "not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." That our cathedral establishments, as they exist at present, can be considered such, is not to be admitted; and whether they may not, in a moment of peculiar difficulty, be shorn of some of their splendour in order to relieve a more crying want, is open to consideration but sure we are that they are capable of being made efficient and effective parts of the body of the

:

church. Let but the individuals who fill them, and who enjoy the leisure and the advantages they include, remember that a reformed cathedral was not intended to harbour idle seculars, or even pious regulars, but men of intelligence, devotedness, and zeal; and let those who have the power of appointing to them bear in mind the great ends to which they may be made conducive, and there seems little reason to doubt of the result. A reformation of our cathedrals may be reasonably pressed by those who are most anxious for their maintenance; and if it is possible so to modify the system as to meet the exigences of the present state of things, it is likewise hoped that it will be easy to vindicate their value by the benefits which they are thus made to produce to the community. If they cannot be made useful in a high and obvious degree, so useful that the public at large may see and acknowledge their utility, their date is sealed, and the best of them is not worth many years' purchase. But we hope better things; and we trust that, even in this evil day, reformation will prevent spoliation.

ON THE WESTMINSTER SCHOOL

LATIN PLAY.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THE newspapers lately contained an account of that annual nuisance, the Westminster Latin play, with the prologue and epilogue for the occasion. How it is that such a practice can be still continued in a Christian country, and a professedly Christian seminary, from which not a few of the future bishops and pastors of Christ's flock are drafted to the university? and still more, how is it that Christian fathers and mothers should allow their sons to be contaminated by such heathen pollutions ? What must be the feelings of a boy who has hitherto been trained up in the nurture and admonition of the

Lord, when carried into this digusting scene? The whole is one mass of corruption; whether we consider the speeches, the plot, the sentiments, the characters, or the very dresses and decorations; boys being clad in the attire of women, and acting their parts. And what women! What men also! Men and women whose conduct and occupations cannot be named in pages which may be read by the sisters and brothers of these very young men; speeches, characters, and actions so grossly licentious, that they would not be tolerated on the most profligate London stage. I have not attended one of these disgraceful exhibitions for many years; but the very last time I was present I was pained and disgusted beyond expression by the whole proceeding. I hardly know how to allude to some of the characters; but one may suffice boys are taught to utter distressing screams and exclamations behind the scenes; and what do the mothers who read these lines suppose their sons are being instructed to imitate? Let them imagine the most tender and anxious hour of domestic privacy-but I must refer to that blessed book which alone can speak on all subjects with a majesty which makes all subjects holy let them turn, for example, to the xxvith chapter of Isaiah. I have said enough; and if even a guarded allusion, for the purpose of solemn reprehension and correction, is not hazarded without pain, what will Christian mothers think of a public representation of such a scene by young men and boys, before bishops, noblemen, and clergymen, including their own tutors, and amidst the laughing and tumultuous clapping of hundreds of thoughtless spectators? But it is not such grosser circumstances only that are censurable; for were Terence's plays much more delicate than they are, it would be a serious evil to keep boys breathing a theatrical atmosphere for weeks and months together; thinking of nothing but spouting, gesticulating, dressing in character, and imitating what they

either guess, or are expressly taught for the occasion, are the language and demeanour of the most abandoned men and abandoned women; all the arts of cheating parents, corrupting female innocence-but I stop; let the Christian public, let common decency do the rest.

If

I feel unwilling to allude to individuals who are implicated in these proceedings, lending their sanction to them in their manhood and to their grey hairs, because they found them so in the days of their youth; for so, and worse than I have described, they were at the very moment when Dr. Vincent was vindicating Westminster School against the charge of the present venerable Dean Rennel, that the boys at our public schools are not educated as beseems their baptismal vow. proof were wanted of the ill effects of the whole system, it might be found in the annual prologues and epilogues manufactured for the occasion. Terence is made to hand; and the sin is only in the adoption of his heathen wickedness; but the prologues and epilogues are composed expressly for the occssion. And of what do they consist? What are the subjects which these Christian and clerical instructors teach or allow their pupils to write upon, and to spout upon, before their reverend, right reverend, noble and plebeian auditors? On the late occasion they consisted of flippant witticisms about the Bristol riots; putting things in schedule A;" and the concerns of the blackguard (I sincerely beg pardon of your readers, but there is no other word sufficiently expressive) theatres of the Adelphi, Sadler's Wells, similar places, with the feats of some man of the name, duly latinized, of "Ducrow;" the bad taste of introducing living animals on the London stage; and similar scholastic and Christian topics. Yet boys who are encouraged to write thus, and are honoured and rewarded for it, would be flogged for a false quantity or lame foot. Is this Christian edu

or

cation? What ought pupils at a seminary of godly and useful learning to know of the management of play-houses? Is it intended by way of contrast to teach them what they are to avoid, both as Christians and gentlemen, in after-life? Is it further meant as a suitable preparation to their becoming statesmen, clergymen, or senators? I blush and grieve while I write and I write strongly because I have seen and known the evil effects of such practices. Into the detail of these I will not enter; to the Christian mind no specification is necessary; and indeed even of practices less revolting it is argument enough to every spiritually-minded man that "these things are not of the Father, but of the world."

A PARENT.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEATHEN CLASSICS IN CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I READ with much pleasure an intelligent and well-intentioned article in one of your late Numbers "on the Influence of the Heathen Classics on Christianity." I cannot, however, but think that the writer has, in his zeal for the Gospel, been led to a conclusion which will to many appear unfounded. He does not, indeed, wholly discountenance the study of classical writers, but he has attributed to their pursuit many ill effects which have unquestionably arisen from other sources.

The question undoubtedly deserves no small share of consideration, whether the present system of public education, which has been so often severely censured as having derived its origin from the blindness of our ancestors, and as being continued by those who were interested in its preservation, be so entirely void of utility as has been often supposed.

The writer affirms that heathen mythology, by encouraging the worst passions and the grossest sensuality,

is too apt to mislead the mind of youth; and this, with various degrees of assent, will be admitted by a great number of persons. But surely it cannot but be allowed that the absurd inconsistencies, the palpable contradictions contained in the mythology of Greece, are such as could not for a moment induce the mind even of a child to consider its characters as objects of imitation, still less of respect. Meekness is not so easily reconciled with malevolence, or the passions of envy, revenge, and strife, with the truly Christian temperament which the student knows from his Bible to be the only standard of imi. tation. Such a system, as your correspondent well observes, has been preserved from decay solely by the taste and genius of the writers by whom it has been adopted.

The writer has too, I think, by the introduction of extraneous facts, made out a somewhat stronger case than the question will of itself admit. For instance, he has mentioned public schools as a great cause of the demoralization of our youth. Now the evils arising from the method or plan of education should not be confounded with the studies which form its groundwork. The disadvantages in this case arise undoubtedly not from the nature of these pursuits, but from the natural tendency of man to evil; a latent corruption which, ever seeking occasion to burst forth, develops itself the more when aided by example and opportunity.

The question, whether what appears so great a sacrifice of the most valuable period of our lives should be devoted to the service of classic lore, is one which might afford matter for attentive consideration.

With regard to the good effects produced by the study of the writers of antiquity, it may not be superfluous to add a few words. If the cultivation of our morals were the sole end of our being, if mental improvement were a thing forbidden, then we should indeed do right in bidding farewell to the studies in which our

earlier days were employed. But it can hardly be denied that the taste and the imagination demand some degree of culture. And whatever objections be made to this in theory, yet in practice no firmer basis has been discovered on which to found the principle of our taste than the study of ancient writers. The fact is, that amidst numerous evils which the casual observer perceives in such a system, there is much good that he does not see. To say nothing of the knowledge of human nature and the profound philosophy displayed by the framers of the Greek language, it is not a small thing if the patient and steady habit of application acquired by its diligent study be carried on to the making more important acquisitions, and a calm endurance of the ills of life.

- Never, however, let the subservience of intellectual to moral excellence be forgotten; the simple wish of benefiting a fellow-creature, or the expression of thankfulness to a Divine Preserver, being in itself far more noble than the loftiest flights of human genius. R. A.

ON THE INUTILITY AND EVIL EFFECTS OF OATHS.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. A PAPER in your October Number, signed "An Esoteric," induces the attention of your readers to a regulation of King's College, London, which requires all its students to enter a declaration" that they will strictly abide by such rules and regulations as the council shall lay down for the government of the college, so far as the same may affect the students in attendance on the regular course or otherwise."

The question raised is, Whether it is judicious to require of boys of sixteen years of age such a stipulation; and your correspondent clearly shews that it is not. For his arguments I refer your readers back to his communication: and I should

not superadd any observations, but that he has tacked to his argument the consideration of the more extensively important question of the utility of the general administration of oaths.

A bill was lately introduced into parliament having for its object the reduction of the number of civil oaths, with reference to those now in practice in the House of Commons; but principally those which are required in the collection of the excise duties. Such an alteration will be hailed with satisfaction by every reflecting, not to say religious, man engaged in commercial pursuits, who witnesses their administration on exceedingly trivial occasions, and under circumstances least of all calculated to impress the mind with a sense of the awful responsibility which is assumed, and ought ever to be considered as adjoining itself to so serious a matter as an appeal to the Searcher of all hearts and the Judge of all mankind. I am inclined, also, to suppose that in judicial as much as in civil cases oaths are neither useful nor necessary -that they are unnecessary for the purposes of justice, and useless for the attainment of their original design.

In reasoning this matter, it may be well first to draw the attention of your readers to the consideration of the nature and origin of oaths.

The definitions which various authors give of the word" oath" are as diversified as language can possibly make them; not so much, however, in the meaning as in the mode of expression: but I take it that the meaning of an oath may be defined as twofold; first, as an appeal to the Supreme Being to witness the truth of what we assert, imprecating misery in a future state if our assertion is not borne out by the fact; and secondly, as a method which has been for ages adopted to enforce a reciprocal confidence for the performance of a promise, and for a strengthening assurance that the requirements of any agreement entered into will be the more faithfully complied with.