treat moral qualities as pure abstrac tions, are stripped of their human in terest and few adults even could write endurably upon such subjects in such a shape; though many might have written very pleasingly and judiciously upon a moral case-i. e. on a moral question in concreto. Grant that a school-boy has no independant thoughts of any value; yet every boy has thoughts dependent upon what he has read-thoughts involved in it-thoughts derived from it: but these he will (cæteris paribus) be more or less able to express, as he has been more or less accustomed to express them. The unevolved thoughts, which pass through the youngest the rudest-the most inexperienced brain, are innumerable; not detached-voluntary thoughts, but thoughts inherent in what is seen, talked of, experienced, or read of. To evolve these, to make them apprehensible by others, and often even to bring them within their own consciousness, is very difficult to most people; and at times to all people: and the power, by which this difficulty is conquer ed, admits of endless culture: and, amongst the modes of culture, is that of written composition. The true value of this exercise lies in the necessity which it imposes of forming distinct ideas-of connecting them of disposing them into such an arrangement as that they can be connected of clothing them in wordsand many more acts of the mind: both analytic and synthetic. All that is necessary is-to determine for the young composer his choice of matter: require him therefore to narrate an interesting story which he has formerly read; to rehearse the most interesting particulars of a day's excursion in the case of more advanced students, let them read one of the English state trials, where the evidence is of a complex character (as the trials on Titus Oates's plot), or a critical dissertation on some interesting question, or any thing in short which admits of analysis-of abstraction-of expansion-or exhibition in an altered shape. Subjects for all this are innumerable; and, according to the selection made, more or less opportunity is given for collecting valuable knowledge: but this purpose is collateral to the one we are speaking of: the direct purpose is to exercise the mind in unravelling its own thoughts, which else lie huddled and tangled together in a state unfit for use, and but dimly developed to the possessor's own consciousness.-The three other modes of producing a love of knowledge, which the Experimentalist relies on, viz. the proportioning the difficulties to the capacity of the learner, the pleasure of success, and the communication of clear, vivid, and accurate conceptions, are treated with good sense-but not with any great originality: the last indeed (to speak scholastically) contains the other three eminenter: for he, who has once arrived at clear conceptions in relation to the various objects of his study, will not fail to generate for himself the pleasure of success; and so of the rest. But the power of communicating "accurate concep tions" involves so many other powers, that it is in strictness but another name for the faculty of teaching in general. We fully agree with the Experimentalist (at p. 118), that the tutor would do well to provide himself with the various weights commonly spoken of, and the measures of content and of length; to portion off upon his play-ground a land-chain, a rood," &c. to furnish "maps" tracing "the routes of armies ;" "plates exhibiting the costumes" of different nations: and more especially we agree with him (at p. 135) that in teaching the classics the tutor should have at hand "plates or drawings of ships, temples, houses, altars, domestic and sacred utensils, robes, and of every object of which they are likely to read." "It is," as he says, "impossible to calculate the injury which the minds of children suffer from the habit of receiving imperfect ideas:" and it is discreditable in the highest degree to the majority of good classical scholars that they have no accurate knowledge of the Roman calendar, and no knowledge at all of the classical coinage, &c.: not one out of every twenty scholars can state the relation of the sestertius to the denarius, of the Roman denarius to the Attic drachma, or express any of them in English money. All such defects are weighty: but they are not adequate illustrations of the injury which arises from inaccurate ideas in its most important shape. It is a subject however which we have here no room to enlarge upon. REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS.-It has already been mentioned that corporal punishments are entirely abolished ;* and upon the same principle all such disgrace as "would destroy self-respect.' "Expulsion even has been resorted to, rather than a boy should be submitted to treatment which might lead himself and his school-fellows to forget that he was a gentleman." In this we think the Experimentalist very wise: and precisely upon this ground it was that Mr. Coleridge in his lectures at the Royal Institution attacked Mr. Lancaster's system, which deviated from the Madras system chiefly in the complexity of the details, and by pressing so cruelly in its punishments upon the principle of shame. "Public disgrace" (as the Experimentalist alleges, p. 83) "is painful exactly in proportion to the good feeling of the offender:" and thus the good are more heavily punished than the bad. Confinement, and certain disabilities, are the severest punishments: but the former is "as rare as possible; both because it is attended with unavoidable disgrace" (but what punishment is wholly free from this objection?)" and because, unlike labour, it is pain without any utility (p. 183). The ordinary punishments therefore consist in the forfeiture of rewards, which are certain counters obtained by various kinds of merit. These are of two classes, penal (so called from being received as forfeits), and premial which are obtained by a higher degree of merit, and have higher powers attached to them. Premial counters will purchase holidays, and will also purchase rank (which on this system is of great importance). A conflict is thus created between pleasure and ambition, which generally terminates in favour of the latter: "a boy of fourteen, although " constantly in the possession of marks sufficient to obtain a holiday per week, has bought but three quarters of a day's relaxation during the whole of the last year. The same boy purchased his place on the list by a sacrifice of marks sufficient to have obtained for him twenty-six halfholidays." The purchase of rank, the reader must remember, is no way objectionable considering the means by which the purchase-money is obtained. One chief means is by study during the hours of leisure i.e. by voluntary labour: this is treated of (rather out of its place) in Chap. VII. which ought to be considered as belonging to the first part of the work, viz. to the exposition of the system. Voluntary labour took its rise from the necessity of furnishing those boys, who had no chance of obtaining rank through their talents, with some other means of distinguishing themselves: this is accomplished in two modes: first, by giving rewards for industry exerted out of school hours, and receiving these rewards as the price of rank; making no other stipulation than one, in addition to its being "tolerably well executed"-viz. that it shall be in a state of completion. The Experimentalist comments justly at p. 187, on "the mental dissipation in which persons of talent often indulge" as being "destructive beyond what can readily be imagined' and as leading to "a life of shreds and patches." "We take care (says he) "to reward no_boy_for fragments, whatever may be their excellence. We know nothing of his exertions until they come before us in a state of completion." Hence, besides gaining the "habit of finishing" in early youth, the boy has an interest also in gaining the habit of measuring his own powers: for he knows "that he can receive neither fame nor profit by instalments; and therefore "undertakes On this point there is however an exception made, which amuses us not a little, "In a few instances," says the Experimentalist, "it has been found or supposed necessary to resent insolence by a blow: but this may be rather called an assertion of private right, than an official punishment. In these cases a single blow has almost always been found sufficient, even the rarity of the infliction rendering severity unnecessary." He insists therefore that this punishment (which, we cannot but think, might have been commuted for a long imprisonment) shall not be called a punishment, nor entered on the public records as such: in which case however it becomes a private "turn-up," as the boxers call it, between the boy and his tutor. nothing which he has not a rational hope of accomplishing." A second mode of preventing rank from being monopolized by talents is by flinging the school into various arrangements, one of which is founded on "propriety of manners and general good conduct." We have thus gone through a pretty full analysis, and a very accurate one, of the new system as contained in the three first chapters. Of the five miscellaneous chapters, the seventh or last but one, (on voluntary labour) has been interwoven with our analysis; and the eighth, which contains a comparison of public and private education, we do not purpose to notice; the question is very sensibly discussed; but it is useless to discuss any question like this, which is a difficult problem only because it is an unlimited problem. Let the parent satisfy himself about the object he has in view for his child, and let him consider the particular means which he has at his disposal for securing a good private education, and he may then determine it for himself. As far as the attainment of knowledge is concerned, it is always possible to secure a good public education, and not always possible to secure a good private one. Where either is possible indifferently, the comparison will proceed upon more equal grounds: and inquiry may then be made about the child's destination in future life: for many destinations a public edu cation being much more eligible than for others. Under a perfect indetermination of every thing relating to the child-the question is as indeterminable as- whether it is better to go to the Bank through Holborn or through the Strand: the particular case being given, it may then be possible to answer the question; previously it is impossible.Three chapters therefore remain, viz. Chap. IV. on Languages; Chap. V. on Elocution; and Chap. VI. on Penmanship. Chap. IV. On the best method of acquiring Languages.-The Experimentalist had occasion to observe "that, in the Welsh towns which are frequented by the English, even the children speak both languages with fluency: "this fact, contrasted with the labour and pain entailed upon the boy who is learning Latin (to say nothing of the eventual disgust to literature which is too often the remote consequence), and the drudgery entailed upon the master who teaches Latin,-and fortified by the consideration, that in the former instance the child learns to speak a new language, but in the latter only to read it,-first drew his attention to the natural mode of learning languages, i. e. learning them from daily use. This mode never fails with living languages: but how is it to be applied to dead languages? The Experimentalist retorts by asking what is essential to this mode? Partly the necessity which the pupil is laid under of using the language daily for the common intercourse of life, and partly his hearing it spoken by those who thoroughly understand it. "Stimulus to exertion then, and good models, are the great advantages of this mode of instruction:" and these, he thinks, are secured even for a dead language by his system: the first by the motives to exertion which have already been unfolded; and the second by the acting of Latin dramas (which had been previously noticed in his Exposition of the system). But a third imitation of the natural method he places in the use of translations, "which present the student with a dictionary both of words and phrases arranged in the order in which he wants them," and in an abstinence from all use of the grammar, until the learner himself shall come to feel the want of it; i. e. using it with reference to an experience already accumulated, and not as an anticipation of an experience yet to come. The ordinary objection to the use of translations-that they produce indolent habits, he answers The details of the system in regard to the penal and premial counters may be found from p. 23 to 29. We have no room to extract them: one remark only we must make-that we do not see how it is possible to ascribe any peculiar and incommunicable privileges to the premial as opposed to the penal counters, when it appears that they may be exchanged for each other at an established rate." thus: "We teach by the process of construing; and therefore, even with the translation before him, the scholar will have a task to perform in matching the English, word by word, with the language which he is learning." For this natural method of learning languages he alleges the authority of Locke, of Ascham, and of Pestalozzi. The best method, with those who have advanced to some degree of proficiency, he considers that of double translations i. e. a translation first of all into the mother tongue of the learner, and a re-translation of this transla tion back into the language of the original. These, with the help of extemporaneous construing, i. e. construing any passage at random with the assistance of a master who supplies the meaning of the unknown words as they arise (a method practised, it seems, by Le Febvre the father of Madame Dacier, by others before his time, and by Condillac since)-compose the chief machinery which he employs for the communication of dead languages. Chap. V. On Elocution.--In this chapter there is not much which is very important. To read well, the Experimentalist alleges, presupposes so much various knowledge, especially of that kind which is best acquired by private reading, and therefore most spares the labour of the tutor, that it ought reasonably to bestow high rank in the school. Private reading is most favourable to the rapid collection of an author's meaning but for reading well-this is not sufficient: two great constituents of that art remain to be acquired-Enunciation and Inflection. These are best learned by Recitation. Thus far there is no great novelty: the most interesting part of the chapter is what relates to Stammering. This defect is held by the Experimentalist to result from inattention to rhythmus: so much he thinks has been proved by Mr. Thelwall. Whatsoever therefore compels the pupil to an efficient perception of time and measure, as for example, marching and music (p. 32), he resorts to for its correction. Stammerers, he observes, can all sing: let them be taught to sing therefore, if not otherwise corrigible: and from this let them descend to recitative: then to the reci tation of verses distinguished by the simplicity of their rhythmus, marching at the same time and marking the accented syllables by the tread of the foot; from this to the recitation of more difficult verses; from that to measured prose; thence to ordinary prose; and lastly to narrative and dialogue. Chap. VI. Of Penmanship.-This is a subject on which we profess no experience which could warrant us in contradicting a writer who should rest his innovations solely upon that ground: but the writer before us does not rely on the practical issue of his own experiment (he does not even tell us what that issue was), but on certain à priori arguments, which we conceive to be ill-reasoned. The amount of the chapter is thisthat to write a good running hand is the main object to be aimed at in the art of caligraphy: we will go farther, and concede that it is the sole object, unless where the pupil is educated for a writing-master. Thus far we are agreed; and the question is-as to the best means of attaining this object. On which question the plan here proposed differs from those in use by the very natural error-that what is admitted to be the ultimate object, this plan would make the immediate object. The author starts from a false theory of the practice amongst writingmasters: in order that their pupils may write small and running hands well, writing-masters (as is wellknown) begin by exacting from them a long praxis in large hands. But the rationale of this praxis escapes the Experimentalist: the large hand and the small hand stand related to each other, in the estimate of the masters, as a means to an end; whereas the Experimentalist supposes them to be viewed in the relation simply of two co-ordinate or collateral ends: on which false presumption he grounds what would on his own view be a very sound advice; for justly conceiving that the small hand is of incomparably more use in life, hé argues in effect thus: let us communicate the main object, and then (if he has leisure and taste for it) let the pupil direct his attention to the lower object: "when the running hand is accomplished," says he, "the pupil may (if it be thought neces sary) learn to write the larger hands pears little better than a scrawl.” according to the received models." Now to us the result appears in a When it is acquired! "Aye, but in different light. It is true that the order that it may be acquired,"-the large hands reduced do not appear writing-master will reply, "I must good running hands according to the first teach the larger hands." As standard derived from the actual well might the professor of dancing practice of the world: but why? hold out as a tempting innovation to Simply because they are too good: i.e. the public-I teach the actual dances, they are ideals and in fact are meant the true practical synthesis of the to be so; and have nothing chasteps and movements, as it is in fact racteristic: they are purely generic demanded by the usage of the ball hands, and therefore want indiviroom: let others teach the analytic dualization: they are abstractions ; elements of the art-the mere useless but to affect us pleasurably, they steps to those who have time to should be concrete expressions of waste on superfluities. In either art some human qualities, moral or in(as in many others) that, which is tellectual. Perfect features in a hufirst (or rather sole) in order of im- man face arranged with perfect symportance, is last in the order of at- metry, affect us not at all, as is tainment: as an object per se, the well known, where there is nothing larger hand is not wanted at all, characteristic; the latency of the either before or after the running individual in the generic, and of the hand: if it does really contribute generic in the individual, is that nothing to the more accurate forma- which gives to each its power over tion of the letters, by compelling the our human sensibilities. And this pupil to exhibit his aberrations from holds of caligraphy no less than the ideal letter more clearly because other arts. And that is the most on a scale of greater magnitude perfect hand-writing which unites (which yet in the second sentence of the minimum of deviation from the this chapter our Experimentalist him- ideal standard of beauty (as to the self admits), then let it be abandoned form and nexus of the letters) with at once: for not doing this service, it the maximum of characteristic exdoes nothing at all. On the other pression. It has long been practihand, if this be its specific service, cally felt, and even expressly afthen it is clear that, being no object firmed, (in some instances even exper se, but simply a means to an ob- panded into a distinct art and project, it must have precedency in the fessed as such,) that it is possible to order of communication. And the determine the human intellectual chainnovation of our Experimentalist is racter as to some of its features from so far (in the literal sense of that the hand-writing. Books even have word) a preposterous inversion of the been written on this art, as e. g. the old usage: and this being the chief Ideographia, or art of knowing the principle of his "plan" we desire to characters of men from their handknow no more of it; and were not writings, by Aldorisius: and, though sorry that (p. 178) we found him this in common with all other modes declining" to enter into a detail of of physiognomy, as craniology, Lait." The business of the chapter vaterianism (usually called physiogbeing finished however, there yet nomy), &c. &c. has laboured under remains some little matter of curi- the reproach of fancifulness,—yet osity. 1. The Experimentalist affirms we ought not to attribute this wholly that "Langford's copper-plate copies, to the groundlessness of the art as or indeed any other which he has a possible art-but to these two seen, fail" if tried by a certain test: causes; partly to the precipitation what test? Why this: that "the and imperfect psychology of the large hand seen through a diminishing professors; who, like the craniologlass, ought to be reduced into the gists, have been over-ready to decurrent hand; and the current hand, termine the indicantia before they magnified, ought to swell into a had settled according to any tolerable large hand." Whereas, on the con- theory the indicanda; i. e. have trary, "the large hands reduced ap- settled what A, what B, what C, ear very stiff and cramped; and shall indicate, before they have inthe magnified running hand' "ap-quired what it was presumable upon |