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children's out-of-door play, soils them not inwardly. There is in it a kind of consanguinity between all creatures: by it we touch upon the common sympathy of our first substance, and beget a kindness for our "poor relations," the brutes. Let children have a free open-air sport; and fear not though they make acquaintance with the pigs, the donkeys, and the chickens-they may form worse friendships with wiser-looking ones: encourage a familiarity with all creatures that love to court them-dumb animals love children, and children them. There is a language among them which the world's language obliterates in the elder. It is of more importance that you should make your children loving than that you should make them wise —that is, book-wise. Above all things, make them loving; then will they be gentle and obedient; and then, also, parents, if you become old and poor, these will be better than friends that

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will never neglect you. Children brought up lovingly at our knees, will never shut their doors upon you, and point where they would have you go. Intellect alone, however cultivated, only makes monsters. We hear a great deal of "training-schools, Eusebius, as if children were to lead dogs' lives, and be trained for the pursuit of Trade's game. There should be some "training-schools" for nurses and mothers, to teach them the reverence that is due to children

“Maxima debetur pueris reverentia." Reverence is a good word; it means a thorough thoughtfulness and care in all we say and do before them, for all done and said before them is their lesson. They are always learning, indoors or in open air-they are teaching themselves most when they are oftenest reproved as idle, seeking a work suitable, and making for themselves experiences. They build with mud, they arithmetise with stones, they practise their fingers to handicraft, and their curiosity is teaching them a thousand things in the best way. It is a pity to stop the growth, and drive them into a hot school, where, not the mother, but strangers will take them in hand-and the lifeblood of home, of the "social family," stagnates. You once said, Eusebius,

that you felt sure Shakespeare meant to read a moral lesson to parents in his King Lear. That Cordelia had been sung to, and told nursery tales, and played with in sunny hours in green gardens; and that Regan and Goneril had been sent to a model school at the earliest age, never sang to, knew no nursery rhymes, and had been made wise in their generation. All a child sees and hears is a child's natural education; when that education is easy, inartificial, the temper is kept sweet,-and that is much. It is a bad thing when they honour strangers more than their fathers and mothers; and when they are taught to do that, and are packed off to factories, no wonder is it if they soon have not the blessing annexed to the family honouring, and that their lives are not "long in the land."

In looking into this Census, I see but two things noticed to make up a child's life-book-education and work. You may calculate ages, you may count hours-you will find none for amusement. If not at school, they are supposed to be sick, or employed elsewhere. When their factory-day work is over they are to go to "evening schools:" thus education is to them a poison, and not always a slow poison. They who escape the first dangers are placed in another hotbed of education, and forced, so that they often make up a fine show for the admirers of useless knowledge. I was quite delighted when I heard of a benevolent scheme to counteract the bad schemes, and to teach" common things."

Let there not be too much parrot education; show-children are made to appear amazingly clever, and, like the conceited birds, proud of their feathers but they have not a bit the more sense, and are too deficient in the knowledge of the common things they ought to know, and parrot work it is. Our old friend C, the kindest of men, who lived cheerful, good, and wise till past ninety, told me that, when invited to an examination of a school, he grew weary of the regular question and answer, and, unexpectedly taking a boy by the arm, asked him, "What is your duty to your father and mother?" The boy replied according to his routine card, "It's

all sin and misery." There is often acquired, too, a fine language which is not natural to them, and not "understanded" of their fathers and mothers. But the "mother tongue" will not be under perpetual restraint-"Naturam expellas furcâ tamen usque recurret"-It must be a strong gag that will ever keep on nature's mouth. A clergyman told me the other day that he felt a trifling gratification, of which it would be considered he ought to be ashamed. Leaving a parochial school where both inspector and scholars had been flourishing, he went his rounds, and came to a cottage where he found a natural language he did not expect to hear from a pet scholar. She was saying to her mother words unfit for educational report. "Thee wousn't if thee cousn't." Well, if that was her mother-tongue, I wonder what the amalgamation with other tongues will make it at last. It will be a poor education, indeed, that will not, and that very soon, setting aside the knowledge of common things, insist upon more languages than are yet taught; for educationists are encroaching upon all "languages, peoples, and nations"-their tongues will be to be taught as well as their histories and geographies. I see Latin and Greek have already invaded the Educational Report. Where so much is taught, how little can be really acquired. It is said of "Hearsay's" scholars that they learned in a trice, and discoursed fluently of things prodigious, the hundredth part of which would take a man's whole life to have well known. What are "common things" but those things which are to be done by men and women? Agesilaus, when asked what was best for boys to learn, wisely replied "What they ought to do wher shall be men." pproved of the uniof geometrical diaτων διαγραμμάτων, hard od, enough to occupy a d take away the scholar matters of useful knowis better if a ploughman measure of his own field Acreage of Attica, and the his own team than that phants. Individual

nothing by leaping over their own walls into the knowledge-preserves that belong to other classes. Geometry will be of little use to him who is 'prenticed to the pestle and mortar. It would be idle to send a tailor's boy to Woolwich to learn gunnery, who is destined "more to be honoured in the breech" than in making of breaches. There is, after all, some sense in "Ne sutor ultra crepidam." M. Soyer will not be so foolish as to examine his cooks in mathematics: pies, patypans, and lolipops are as noblesounding words for the young confectioner's science as parallelopipedons.

The old sophister's tricks, that were expelled by ridicule, are coming round again. Children, whatever their destinies are to be, will be taught, like the Laputans, to cut their bread into cones, cylinders, and parallelograms. Inspectors not learned in "The Clouds" will again be insisting upon the measurement of the leap of a flea. There is many a young woman who cannot make or mend a gown, and is ignorant of a thousand useful domestic items that contribute to home-comfort, who is to be asked such questions as I see in the Report-Educational, under heading "Female Training - Schools." "Explain the origin and formation of the following words: First-neither, if, twain, more, manly, which, wrong, farthing, Wednesday." "What English words are derived from the following-Sto, jungo, Mors, loquor, dens, fluo, mordeo, facio?" Don't think, Eusebius, this jingo-lingo is any fabrication of mine. Look in the Report; you will find the cask according to the sample. A list of inspectors' educational questionings should be headed, "The art of learning everything and knowing nothing;" or, how young ladies and gentlemen of every grade may be taught to converse or lecture fluently for the greatest length of time and yet say nothing

"E quella soavissima
Arte tanto eloquente
Che sa si lungo spazio,
Parlar, senza dir niente."

"That sweetest art to talk all day;
Be eloquent-and nothing say."

Examiners, too, busily set them

rofessions acquire selves to inquire what their scholars

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know, not what they think. They get from them what is on their tongues, not much that is in their minds. Master and scholar stand on non-conductors-electric sympathy is cut off. They know not each other really, and only fancy they do by the false signs of their learning. The natural curiosity of the scholar, which would impel him to ask and inquire, is driven into a corner, crowded and jostled, and in danger of suffocation from the multitude of dead men's thoughts: it cannot expand to the wholesome air of inquiry, shrinking from the "density and proximity" of the uncongenial and oppressive neighbourhood. I should like to see the inspector oftener submit to be questioned, that the scholar's mind may have a little play. Let him be set thinking; this would be good exercise: for lack of habit of this kind, when taken out of his routine, out of his knowledge-harness, the scholar is apt to be staggered, and can't go a step. But I heard the other day from a gentleman who was present on an inspector's examination of a union of schools, how unexpectedly a boy raised a laugh against his inspector. This examiner had ventured to ask the school for their thoughts, but in the mass they wanted practice, and had none to show. He had been-doubtless very properly, and I dare say with acute good-sense -descanting on the wisdom and benevolence shown in the structure of our organs the eye was the subject, and he most likely took the hint from the admirable dialogue Socrates held with Aristodemus the atheist. Be that as it may, however, he at last asked his scholars what they thought upon the matter had they any remarks to make, did anything strike them? No, nothing-they were dumb. Still the question was repeated, bad they observed nothing extraordinary in the eye? Then at last one boy, who had just had a thump in the back from a monitor for inattention, said, “I have a thought." "What is it?" said the inspector. "Why," said the scholar, "I am thinking that since, as you say, it is so good that our two eyes be placed in front, that if we had another pair at the back of our heads, we should see who comes a'ter us." "This palpable hit" touched every boy's practical ex

perience. The laugh could not be put down. The inspector's attempt to turn it against the young Foureyes (a name he has acquired) failed. It was to little purpose he reminded the scholar, that, in such a case, he could not defend himself without turning round, his arms being placed as they are; for the boy's inference was, that four arms would be better than two. The inspector was fairly beaten, and relinquished a scheme he had proposed of lecturing on the ear and other organs. Notwithstanding which you will take it for granted, Eusebius, that the generous inspector joined in the general laugh. There was a double lesson learnt that day; master and scholar learnt something original. That boy should be encouraged. He is an incipient inspector.

A sympathy between masters and scholars is much wanted; it is the very soul of teaching well-a certain bond that those under instruction should have a share in it. There is something of this in the Bell and Lancaster system; but it had before then been carried into practice in our public schools. Their great advantage over private schools was, that much of the discipline, as well as some of the knowledge-teaching, was left to the youths themselves. Their responsibilities gave them thought, selfreliance, and drew out into action, preparatory for the larger world, their characters. The order of the school was far better than as if a master had done it all. Every one must remember the story of little Cyrus made a judge among his playfellows. make, in a great measure, the scholar the school's regulator is an educational maxim not sufficiently understood. Scholars, like men in a free State, love the order they themselves set up, readily obey laws which themselves impose. They thus learn at once two things which most in after life are called upon in some degree or other to do to command and to obey. Are you acquainted, Eusebius, with the little history of a very great thing

To

the setting up and continuance of Price's Candle Company's Educational Establishment? If you are not, get, if you can procure, their Reports, or read an account of it in the Quarterly Review for April 1852. It is the work of one

man. He has done more to show how to set about the education of the people than a century of legislative enactments could effect, and put upon a thousand blue-books. Blessed, indeed, has been the work of one man --Mr Wilson, the manager. His maxim has been from the beginning, Oversight, not interference; so did he wondrously influence both adults and children. The narrative is most touching. Oh, if such philanthropy were but catching! I will not give you a single quotation; for if you know not this little history, you must. You will love it to your heart's core, and the originator as a prime man in England, which you will love more for having him.

The beauty of such systems of education as Mr Wilson's is, that its tendency is to restore, to a better than its original state, that one good of feudality, too much of which it is the tendency of democracy to destroy the family institution-the mutual dependence-the virtue there was in later clanship-mutual relationship and dependence without a shadow of absolutism. It is the family Institution which civilises. Civilisation has been my theme throughout.

There was something civilising and educationising, too, in those old sports of ours, wherein all joined. They have been too much discouraged; the bringing people together into one enjoyment is a beautiful thing; and I cannot but think that Puritanism has done some damage to this "institution of the family," by making man's own individual state too much his sole concern. There is a selfishness begat in the indulgence of the notion of a solitary passage upwards. I cannot think the angels receive so pleasantly him that would come alone. But I must not leave Census to indulge in imaginations. Census, I cannot say,

"Cynthius aurem Vellit et admonuit."

"Census, not Cynthius, twitched me by the ear."

There is ground upon which even iron-shod honesty must tread lightly, perhaps hesitatingly; but it is not for Honesty to draw back the foot after

the first movement to its position. Honesty has made her stand-I venture to be her interpreter. Sunday schools, are they indubitably good?— are all good? They are so general that it needs a bold face to ask questions. I put the case thus: If there be dayschools; where they are, may not Sunday be allowed to be in reality what in name it is said to be, a day of rest? I know some very excellent persons do entertain doubts if it should be in any way a day of toil: head-work is work. I should prefer the old practice, happily reviving, of catechising in church, where the clergyman, not the scholar, may make his applications, and take occasion so to do from the services of the day; and after the service let the poor children, at least for one day in the week, have a home, and enjoy it. On this day let them "do no manner of work." Harmless recreation is not work; and I am sorry to say I have known some ascetic preachers denounce as sinful a walk for pleasure in the fields on the Lord's Day. You will say these remarks relate only to the Church of England. Be it so. Census is compelled to give the Church of England people the largest area. But if I take into contemplation other Sunday, or, as they are usually called, “Sabbath schools," I have an awful remembrance of what is said of them by their own teachers, and which you will find at large in the Temperance Societies' tracts. Although I'utterly disbelieve what is there asserted, that they make drunkards (for so small a thing as small beer with tee-totallers entitles the partaker to the name), yet enough is shown of a teaching of a very intoxicating quality, in striking contrast to the humility-teaching of the Church of England. You will find some account of the matter in Maga for April 1853. I said that if the people were left more to themselves, they would still seek education for their children; on that account, the small contribution from the parents is a wise provision; but the desire may be somewhat weakened by the existence of Sunday schools where there is much teaching. Parents may think that sufficient.

"It is not for the sake of saving a penny per week," says the Census,

"that the child is transferred from the school to the factory or the fields, but for the sake of gaining a shilling or eighteenpence per week." This may be true in towns, and in some country districts, but in others wages are so low that even a penny for each child may be a consideration. They who employ labourers ought to take it to their shame if they do not mend this. It is, however, of great importance for the preservation of the "Family Institution," that the care and forethought should begin with the parent, however poor. I fear every proffered or promised good, if it relieves the parent from his responsibilities.

"The schools for children who have not attained that age (the sixth year) are mostly infant schools in character, if not by name. It seems to be admitted pretty generally amongst educationists, that unless a good proportion of the schooling which a child receives be given above the age of six, its value is considerably diminished, and cannot be looked upon as adequate. Upon this theory the facts above produced appear to indicate a state of education far from satisfactory; since the average length of schooling received by children of all classes between six and fifteen cannot exceed four years, and the average for children of the working classes cannot much exceed three years. So that, while upon an average the children of the labouring classes may perhaps, if all are under education, have 4 years of schooling, a very considerable part of their instruction is imparted during what may be described as the "infant period."

I may not agree with Census as to the number of years which should be devoted to education-of course meaning book-learning; but that a child should not begin too soon, I am quite convinced by the arguments of an able and philanthropic American physician, Amariah Brigham, M.D., whose little treatise on education I directed your notice to in a letter which you transferred to Maga so long ago as June 1837. He speaks deprecatingly of disease produced by too early education, asserting that disorders which are supposed to originate in the stomach, very many of them are

diseases of the brain, of which the stomach is sympathetic. I inserted in that letter, in a note, the following, which I again call your attention to. It will bear a general circulation, and you will distribute it.

"I have copied from this treatise a table taken from a late work of M. Friedlander, dedicated to M. Guizot. It must be remembered that education has much engaged the attention of the most learned and distinguished men. From the highest antiquity we have this rule,' says M. Friedlander, that mental instruction ought not to commence before the seventh year.' He gives the following table of rest and labour:

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Hours of

Sleep.

9 to 10

9

9

9

8 to 9

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By this table it would appear that the early stage of life (seven) is only able to receive one hour of occupation, and that the more advanced, though still young (fifteen), of nine times as much. You will observe, also, that repose, which I presume to mean recreation, is taken into consideration, of which I do not remember that much, if anything, is said in the Cen

sus.

But if children are sent to factories at six years of age, and are subject to factory-labour and to education, their time for repose or recreation must be very short; and who can wonder if the tables of mortality confirm the view taken by Dr Brigham? But is four years' schooling, or 43, so very short a period for the general population of children? Under good masters, much reading, writing, and arithmetic may be acquired in that time-at least enough to make adult education for those who, when grown up, desire it, sufficiently easy. The irksomeness of the task has been got over. I say good

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