the heads of the various chapters, would occupy considerably more space than we can spare; but suffice it to say, that there is a little of every thing connected with scientific matters, and that a correct though not a deep knowledge of the subjects alluded to, may be gleaned from a survey and perusal of the book. The typography and binding are modest and unobtrusive, but neat.

Phrenology Vindicated: being a Reply to an article in the Quarterly Review for September, 1836; with Introductory Observations on the Science in general. By Joshua Toulmin Smith, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn. London: Longman & Co. 1836. 8vo., pp. 80.

NOTHING can be more gratifying to the true phrenologist, or prove more satisfactorily the rapid strides this glorious science is taking, than the number of excellent works on the subject which are continually issuing from the press; and we were much pleased at witnessing the readiness with which the attack on the science, in the Quarterly Review, has been refuted. This attack is a review of Combe's Outlines of Phrenology, and is, perhaps, the most imbecile attempt of the kind that has ever been made; abounding with inconsistencies and absurdities, of which any tyro in Phrenology would be ashamed. This being the case, it might be imagined to be an easy task to fell the reviewer to the ground: but no such thing. The anti-phrenologists are such marvellous dealers in the ambiguous, and couch their assertions in such a manner that it is often a difficult matter to deal with them. Mr. Smith has, however, faced this champion of anti-phrenology boldly, and acquitted himself exceedingly well. He has adopted the analytic mode, and has picked his antagonist to the bone in each of his assertions. The pamphlet is stated to have been ready for the press in forty-eight hours after the author first received the September number of the Quarterly Review. The style is good, the reasoning sound and clever; and if the author has sometimes spoken with more warmth than the occasion might seem to require, we, as phrenologists, can readily understand and excuse his zeal and enthusiasm in so noble a

cause.

The Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. Nos. 33 and 34. 1826.

AMONGST the great and constantly increasing number of periodicals, few are more likely to spread practical knowledge amongst farmers than this journal. All the communications inserted are of real worth and interest; and we would more especially draw the attention of our readers to the memoir of Sir John Sinclair contained in these two Nos. There are also some interesting, and we think original papers on hedge-birds, by Prof. Rennie; many spe cies are, however, included which cannot properly be termed hedge birds, and other errors are perpetrated which we are unable here to notice.

attachment to the teachers, and other excellent dispositions, are established as the characteristics of the place. Numerous letters from the parents speak, in terms of unbounded gratitude, of the change produced in their children, and of the comfort and pleasure they enjoy in their society when they return from school, instead of the wearisomeness of their former company. Objections to the infant education system, all of which were founded on ignorance of its nature, are now fast disappearing. I have not heard of any objections worth more than enumeration.* The system, it is said, tasks the infant brain before it is consolidated, and will send the precocious, more especially, to early graves. I have already given a solemn caution that the infants should never be tasked; but that all their intellectual exercises should be light amusement, and instruction as an accessory. The objection is reasoning from the abuse against the use of such institutions. Dr. Brigham's work was laid hold of by the opponents of infant schools and by their supporters at one and the same time; by the former as an instrument wherewith to demolish infant education, by the latter as a guide to regulate and improve them.

Again, we have from many persons an admission that infant schools suit the labouring classes very well, but that no mother above that rank would or should part with her infant to be trained in a public school. She is the natural guide of the infant's first feelings, and conductor of its early education. Now what, in most cases, will the mother do? She commits the child, for many more hours than are demanded by the infant school, to a nursery-maida creature utterly without education, and often with the very worst habits. Even if the mother kept the child beside herself, the most intelligent and excellent mothers will be the first to admit that they cannot systematically train their own nursery morally. The mother wants the element of numbers, a variety of dispositions. This alone is an answer to the objection which admits of no reply. She cannot give that unremitting and systematic attention which infant education requires; she must delegate; and to whom can she do so more beneficially than to the enlightened, mild, and practised conductors of that well-regulated nursery-as it was called by Lord Jeffrey-an infant school; where warmth, air, exercise, health,

Dr. Caldwell, in his excellent Thoughts on Physical Education, expresses himself averse to the infant school system. We think, however, that his views on this subject proceed from a want of a practical knowledge of such institutions, and of their aim and objects.-EDS.

safety, are all in better hands than they can be at home.* I would advise the formation of an infant school of the middle and higher classes in each neighbourhood, to which the children may easily be sent and sent for, while their nurse's hands would be liberated for some hours for other avocations. To this course things will come when prejudice gives way, because it will then be seen that they

must.

At six years old the pupil will join the juvenile school, and remain for the rest of the period of elementary education, namely, till fourteen at least, and a year or two longer if convenient or necessary. Here the real system, and the verbal incidentally, will be continued; all instrumentary branches will be taught; useful knowledge fitting for life inculcated; and the elements of science practically acquired. The sum total of elementary education during this period is so admirably concentrated in the prospectus of the educational course of bookst now in course of preparation by those benefactors of their species the Messrs. Chambers, of Edinburgh, that I cannot do better than extract the following passage from that document:

:

"1. Reading, at least in his own tongue; 2. writing; 3. arithmetic; and 4. grammar, etymology, and composition. That he may enter life with a mind informed respecting that Creation of which he is a part, and that society of which he is a member, and qualified as well as may be to perform the part which will fall to his lot, he must be acquainted with at least the elements of the following kinds of knowledge: 1. Geography, or the surface of the earth; 2 Geology, or the structure of the earth; 3. Botany, or the vegetable productions of the earth; 4. Zoology, or the animals of the earth; 5. Meteorology, the phenomena of the atmosphere: 6. Chemistry, the composition of the substances of the material world, and the changes which are produced by the action of these substances upon each other; 7. Natural Philosophy, the mechanical powers and relations of the material world; 8. Geometry, the sci

We fear that, at present, many mothers who admitted the truth of this would be unwilling to part with their darlings out of their house, just at the time when their maternal feelings-phrenologically, Philoprogenitiveness— experience the most intense gratification in nursing, perhaps spoiling, their beloved offspring.-EDS.

+ Seven numbers are already published, and the demand for them has been very great. They are-Infant Education, Introduction to the Sciences, Rudiments of Chemistry, Elements of Plane Geometry, English Language and Literature, History of Britain and Ireland, Elements of Drawing and Perspective.

ence of measurement; 9. Astronomy, the relation of our globe to the other component parts of the vast system of Creation; 10. Anthropology, including Phrenology, or the physical, moral, and intellectual nature of man, with reference to the preservation of health and the attainment of happiness; 11. Political Economy, the production and distribution of national wealth; 12. the history of nations and countries, ancient and modern, especially those in which the pupil is most interested-of their literature, eminent men, resources, &c."

By means of the Incidental Method, several branches can be taught together, not only without hindering, but aiding each other. Grammar may be taught incidentally with reading, while reading is taught incidentally with realities. Rewards and punishments will be found unnecessary under such a system. These are addressed to the inferior and selfish feelings, and are the greatest possible impediments to moral training. Perhaps the rewards are the worse of the two. The punishment degrades the punished individual, but the reward excites the selfishness of the whole school. In the old system of tasks of useless words, and tedious and repulsive objects of study, these stimulants were indispensable; but when education shall suit and, in suiting, delight every faculty, they will remain a solecism in education, and scarcely be historically believed.

Objections and incredulity may be expected here, as well as on the subject of infant schools. It will be asked, is it intended or expected that the education now described shall ALL be given by fourteen years of age? It is intended and expected, I answer, because it has been accomplished. Much is done, and without overtasking, at the infant school. At six years old the pupils leave a well-conducted infant school much better informed and more accomplished in the instrumentary branch of reading than we find them, under the old system, at ten or even twelve years of age. This is great gain. But the juvenile school endures eight years, and no one accustomed to see the waste of time and, what is more, of mind, under the old errors, is in a condition to estimate the

To this list, although we are aware that little more than a taste for the fine arts could be attained by the inmates of infant schools, we would add Music, both vocal and instrumental, as tending materially to refine and elevate our nature, and, if properly taught, opening a wide and never-failing source of pleasure to its cultivators. In this department the Singing Master (see Analyst, v., 334) will be the best guide. Nor should Poetry, Painting, and Sculpture, by any means be overlooked, excepting where the talents requisite for such pursuits are decidedly deficient.-EDS.

amount and the quality of training and knowledge which may be given in these precious years. Those who say that to teach science at that early age is to give a mere smattering, judge from what would at present be the result if the listless victims of Latin and Greek were to have science superadded to their other tastes, with the short portion of time which would be spared for it on the one hand, and the superficial attention which school-boys habitually pay to anything that is taught by their present instructors. But when the dead languages, and all other languages but the vernacular, are rigidly excluded from disturbing the important years of elementary education-when study from the infant-school upwards has been made, not irksome, as it now is, but delightful, as it it may be and ought to be, divested of fear of punishment, divested of the distracting selfishness of honours, prizes, and captivating the faculties with the rich food which a wise and benevolent Creator intended for them, and, be it marked, especially suited to them in the natural activity of their energies, we shall hear no more of smattering, but shall see even middling talent master of all the useful knowledge, as concentrated in the prospectus already quoted, by fourteen years of age, and fitted for ulterior education and the business of life-a striking contrast to the Latinists and Grecians at the same age, who, for all useful purposes in life, are like creatures dropped from the moon.*

The elements of Chemistry and Mechanics have been practically taught to the youth of both sexes in Edinburgh, by Dr. Boswell Reid. The experiment has been made on boys taken indiscriminately from the different schools, and young ladies from an extensive ladies' seminary; and, although the study was engaged in over and above the ordinary pursuits of the pupils, the results were completely satisfactory, and give promise of still greater success when scientific studies shall have a more important and systematic place in elementary education.

Again, it is asked is this thorough elementary education to be given to ALL, without modification according to different turns of mind and degrees of talent? I answer, TO ALL, because all have the faculties to which it is addressed, and all were intended to use these faculties in gaining an acquaintance with the creation in

* Until views like these be adopted, and, what is more, acted upon by every one engaged in the instruction of youth, we see no reasonable prospect of attaining that success in education which can alone effect a sensible improvement in the human race.-EDS.

VOL. VI.-NO. XIX.

C