functions. There are two modes of instructing an individual in the preservation of health, the one informing him as matter of fact concerning the conditions on which it depends, and admonishing him by way of precept to observe them,the other by expounding to his intellect the constitution of his bodily frame, teaching him the uses of its various parts, the abuses of them, the relations established between his constitution and external objects, such as food, air, water, heat, cold, &c., and the consequences of observance or neglect of these relations. The former method addresses the memory chiefly, the latter the judgment. The former comes home to the mind, enforced only by the authority of the teacher, the latter is felt to be an exposition of the system of creation, and deeply interests at once the intellect and affections. The former affords rules only for particular cases; the latter general principles, which the mind can apply in new emergencies.

Such instruction as is here recommended implies an exposition of the principles of anatomy, physiology, and chemistry, with the practice of gymnastic exercises and dancing. These, then, ought to constitute important branches of education; but, for general purposes, it is not necessary to teach them in minute detail. Popular lectures, elucidating their leading principles and their application, would suffice.

The next use of knowledge is to exercise the mental faculties themselves, so as to render them vigorous and vivacious, and to promote their enjoyment.

One great evil attending the practice of teaching languages as the leading aim of education is, that it leaves the affections untrained, and the observing and reflecting powers imperfectly exercised, so that, at the close of a long course of study, the mind is very little fitted by the discipline it has undergone for feeling its way in society, for observing accurately and judging rapidly,-habits of the highest consequence to a citizen of the world. The remedy for this is to convey ideas of things that exist. These are the natural

food of the mind, and stimulates all its powers. Besides, every object placed under the control of man is capable of being turned to his advantage, if he applies it to its proper uses, or of causing him injury, if, through ignorance or inattention, he neglects its properties; so that knowledge essentially promotes success in life, and happiness. Geography, civil history, political economy, natural history, natural and moral philosophy, with religious instruction, complete a rational and liberal education. A taste or genius for poetry, music, painting, sculpture, or languages, is bestowed by nature on particular individuals, and these ought to be taught to those who desire them.

Farther, as long as the present institutions of society exist, some knowledge of Greek and Latin is indispensable to young men who mean to pursue divinity, medicine, or law, as a profession. An academy for public instruction, therefore, ought to contain classes serviceable to those who, either through natural liking, or from professional regulations, require to attain these languages.

The foregoing observations are, perhaps, too general to be useful; but I find it impossible to enter fully into minute points without writing a volume on education, which, from its length, would be little suitable for the perusal of a committee. Besides, DETAILS have been avoided, because it would have required a thorough acquaintance with a thousand minute local circumstances of which I am ignorant, to enable me to render my observations on them applicable to the case in point. With a view, however, to practical results, I may observe, that as clergymen, lawyers, physicians, and men of letters in general, have hitherto been accustomed to look with high respect on Greek and Latin, as essential branches in all systems of education, and as public opinion may not be VOL. IV. No XV.

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prepared to acquiesce in their general abandonment, some modifications may be adopted approximating to a sounder system, without venturing all the lengths recommended in the previous observations. For example,

As many classes for the physical and moral sciences as can conveniently be supported might be instituted, giving a preference to the most useful. This would place it in the power of those individuals who prefer a real education, or a knowledge of things and relations, to instruction in languages, to attain that object.

In the next place, the study of Greek and Latin, instead of commencing at 7 or 8, might be postponed till 11 or 12 years of age.

Sundry advantages would attend even these slight modifications; for example,

1st, If the dead languages are not prosecuted in after life, the time devoted to them is positively misapplied. It is a fact quite notorious, that nine out of ten of the children educated in a commercial town do not follow professions for which Greek and Latin are indispensable; and hence the time and expense bestowed by at least this proportion of pupils are most unprofitably expended. Indeed, there is a great delusion in the public mind in regard to the necessity of Greek even for the medical profession. Professor

when examined lately before the Royal Commission which visited the university of Edinburgh, stated, that at the school and college he had gained the first prizes for that language, and was naturally fond of it; but that from the time he had begun to study medicine, he had found his attention so fully occupied by the substantial elements of science, that he had scarcely opened a Greek book, while he had been obliged to study French and German, for the sake of the medical information they contained.

2d, Many pupils whose professions cannot be determined at 7 or 8, and who, under the present system, begin the study of the dead languages at these ages, merely to prepare for

contingencies, would avoid them altogether by being fixed determinately at 11 or 12 on a pursuit that did not require them.

3d, Young minds in general are passionately fond of the knowledge of things and events, when properly taught, and rejoice in instruction in them, while they nauseate the dulness and insipidity of learning mere words, which the dead languages are to them. This is proved beyond the possibility of question by the examples of Mr Owen's school at New Lanark, the sessional school of St George's, and the Circus Place school in Edinburgh. Under the present system, all children who ultimately abandon the learned professions, find themselves cheated as it were out of the intermediate years of their lives between 7 and 12, and discover, when too late, that instruction in words is not knowledge, and that they have endured suffering in pursuing a phantom, while they might have enjoyed pleasure in attaining a substance.

4th, It is erroneous to say that Greek and Latin enable a boy to understand his own language better. This must be the case only where no pains are bestowed by teachers in conveying fully the meaning and value of English expressions. All words are mere arbitrary sounds, and in itself a sound invented by an Englishman is as capable of being rendered, by proper definition, the sign of any idea or emotion, as one first suggested by a Greek or Roman. The grand requisites to the right use of speech are two,-clear concep→ tion of the notions to be announced, and accurate definitions of the words employed to designate them. The first will be best attained by studying things and their relations, and the second, by a careful exposition of our mother tongue by a person who knows scientifically both the things signified and the genius of the language.

Various obvious reasons exist why so little of English is understood by those who learn it alone at school. Owing to deficiency in their own education, teachers themselves, in general, do not possess distinct knowledge of the things sig

nified by the sounds which they communicate; and from not understanding ideas, they have it not in their power to define words accurately. Hence they cannot, and do not, bring together before the minds of the pupils a clear notion of the things signified and of the sign, without the combination of which the right use of speech is impracticable. Farther, schoolmasters, in general, communicate only the sounds of words, and the abstract rules of grammar,-but this is not teaching a language; the latter implies unfolding the structure, idiom, and power of the tongue,-a task which requires profound reflection and extensive information.

A professor of English, therefore, would be more useful to nine out of ten of the pupils of the Academy than professors of Greek and Latin; and it is only after English has been taught in this, or in such other way as may be best adapted to the human understanding, and without success, that the conclusion ought to be drawn, that it cannot be understood sufficiently for all useful and ornamental purposes without a previous knowledge of Greek and Latin.

It has often been observed, that the Greeks themselves studied no language except their own, and yet attained to exquisite delicacy and dexterity in the use of it; and why may not the English do as much? The objection, that Greek is a primitive and English a derivative tongue, is met by the answer, that every word is merely a sound designative of an idea or emotion, and that it makes no difference on the possibility of comprehending the thing signified, whether the sound was invented by the English themselves, or borrowed by them from the Greeks or Romans.

5th, From the higher development of the intellectual faculties at 11 or 12, as much progress would be made in Greek and Latin in two or three years at that age, as in five or six commencing at the age of seven; so that, even with these languages in view, no time would be lost by the proposed change.

6th, The intermediate years between 7 and 11 or 12