of literary composition which they exhibit, though few in number, will always stand models of excellence. The study of them ought not to be abandoned; it should only be kept within just bounds; it should be so regulated that young people may have time to attend to the arts and sciences which modern civilisation renders necessary to fit them for the different avocations to which they are destined. Every succeeding generation has more to learn than the preceding; it needs, consequently, to acquire knowledge with greater facility and dispatch.

As professional acquirements are to be gained not only through the native tongue, but often also through foreign living languages, those which among the latter contain the required information assume, in this respect, considerable importance. As stores of information and vehicles of intellectual communication, they excel the ancient languages; but these, in their turn, are superior to the others, as auxiliaries to mental discipline, grammatical investigation, and literary acquirements.

If, then, it is erroneous to give the name of learning to the knowledge of Latin and Greek exclusively, it is not less so to call modern languages mere accomplishments. This undue admiration on one side, and undue depreciation on the other-the effects of ignorance-are unworthy of an enlightened nation.

Let the mode of learning the ancient languages be more interesting, comprehensive, and philosophical, and the admirable productions of antiquity will become means of mental training and models of taste. Let also the teaching of the modern languages be based on more rational and practical principles, and not only will they be to the proficients sources of instruction and mediums of communication, but they, as well as the ancient languages, will assist in the great work of intellectual cultivation. The reform which we propose, in accordance with these views, consists not only in taking from the time at present allotted to classical studies a reasonable portion to be devoted to other departments of useful knowledge, but also in placing the ancient and the modern languages on an equality in the education of youth: we demand for both the same attention and time from the learners, the same capacity and information from the teachers, and the same rank in public esteem.

Our observations on the efficiency of language, considered as an instrument of the mind, and on the extent of the benefits conferred by the study of the dead and the living languages, have, we hope, sufficiently proved their usefulness as branches of

education; whilst our remarks on their relative importance enable parents to decide whether it may be more advantageous for their children to learn a dead or a living language; but learn at least one or the other they ought. Both are indispensable to a complete intellectual education. The mother tongue cannot, in mental training, supply the place of a foreign idiom, because it is so intimately associated with our feelings, so identified with our habits of thought, so much a part of ourselves, that it easily escapes analysis and critical investigation. It is by its comparison with other idioms that the powers of the mind are evolved, and sound notions of grammatical science are formed. At the same time, it must be remembered that, great as is the mental action which the study of a foreign language calls forth, it is limited in its effects; for each department of knowledge is addressed to some particular class of faculties. Intellectual superiority results from the harmonious development of all the mental power. Sciences and arts should, therefore, concur with literature and languages in producing a perfectly cultivated mind.

Society, as now constituted, is equally literary, scientific, and industrial. The middle and upper classes, more or less, partake of this three-fold character of modern times. A good system of education intended for them should, therefore, combine the branches of instruction which refer to these three conditions of society, and the more so, as they are calculated mutually to aid and illustrate each other. We have no doubt that, by adopting a rational method, and rejecting from literary studies whatever is useless, foreign languages, ancient or modern, may be learned not only concurrently with and subserviently to scientific and industrial pursuits, but in such a manner also as to insure both their complete possession and the incidental benefits which arise from their study.

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BOOK III.

THE THREE GREAT AGENTS OF EDUCATION.

"Mothers and school-masters plant the seeds of nearly all the good and evil that exist in our world; the reformation of education must therefore be commenced in nurseries and schools."-DR. RUSH.*

"One of the surest signs of the regeneration of society will be the elevation of the art of teaching to the highest rank in the community."-CHANNING.†

"La méthode décide du succès de l'enseignement; car elle est le guide de l'étude."-J. M. DEGÉRANDO.‡

CHAPTER I.

PARENTS.

SECT. I.-DUTIES OF PARENTS IN RESPECT TO EDUCATION.

In the acquisition of knowledge, and of foreign languages in particular, a young learner requires aid and direction. His improvement depends not so much on his intellectual capacity as on his parents, his teacher, and the method which he pursues : the parent gives the first impulse to the moral and mental energies of the child; the teacher guides through the course, and the method is, as it were, the manual of instruction. These three great agents of education act equally important parts. Educational reform must be commenced by them.

Parents lay the first stone in the edifice of education; no office, therefore, is more important than theirs. The legislator may enact laws to punish crimes; he may enforce duty by the dread of punishment; but the parent prevents the commission of crimes by an early cultivation of conscience, the direction of the will,

* American Annals of Education.

Cours Normal des Instituteurs.

† Ibid.

and the formation of moral habits: he teaches the practice of virtue for its own sake. The clergyman may, at the last hour, offer us the consolations of religion; but the parent enforces religious duties by early habits, and effectively prepares us for eternity, by laying the seeds of a virtuous life.

The skill of the teacher and the excellence of the method will be of little avail, if the pupil fail in the proper dispositions to study. These deficiencies, unfortunately too prevalent among young people, are often the fatal consequences of the carelessness of parents who, from ignorance or thoughtlessness, shamefully neglect the education of their children. When bad habits have been early acquired, it is doubtful whether an instructor can ever eradicate them. Besides, it is doing him an injustice to multiply the difficulties of his task. How can he effectually teach his pupils, while his attention is engaged in endeavouring to do away with the evil effects of parental negligence?

There would be little need of coercion at school if the child, by a judicious, moral, and religious education at home, were inspired with that eager taste for useful knowledge which cheerfully encounters difficulties; that filial affection which seeks to gratify the anxious wishes of parents; that respect for masters which prompts to obedience; that love of truth which abhors the idea of imposing on those who confide in him.

Most parents abandon to chance the early training of their children. Many, even, are under the impression that nothing can be done towards the education of an infant. This is a most pernicious error. If parents do not properly direct his first inclinations, he will imbibe those which chance throws in his way; he will be educated by circumstances; for there is no avoiding education: it unceasingly goes on from the moment of birth to the last stage of life. But that which is received in childhood is the most important in its consequences. Habits of order, truth, and industry in the child will make the prudent, honourable, and useful man.

Before the child has articulated a word, he has laid up thoughts, and formed habits of feeling which may exert a controlling influence on his scholastic pursuits-nay, on his whole life. Every expression of countenance caught by his eye, every tone of voice which strikes his ear, every action performed in his presence, every emotion, every passion exhibited by those who approach him, educates him, affects his character and future destiny.