If aptitude and capacity for any office, or profession, naturally manifest themselves in an individual, they are sufficient motives for his embracing it; he will have every prospect of success. If, on the other hand, his future station, or profession, has been previously determined, it becomes incumbent early to excite in him the aptitude and capacity indispensable for either, and to direct his attention to those branches of instruction which are more particularly requisite for attaining eminence and respectability in life.

SECT. VIII.-CONCLUDING REMARKS.

Education will perform a noble work, if, taking man from the cradle, it can train him to all that is required by society, if it raise him to the first rank among the useful and happy of his age, and if it render him worthy of the eternal life which God has in reserve for His creatures.

The art of directing all our faculties in the manner most likely to conduct us to these ends, is the most beautiful and the most useful application of mental philosophy. An acquaintance with the nature, power, and functions of the various faculties of man, with their connection and their dependence on one another, is indispensable, in order effectually to carry on the work of education.

A complete education is so vast and comprehensive in its details, that the instances must be rare in which it can be undertaken by a single individual. Its different departments should devolve on different persons-Physical education on the physician, Religious education on the clergyman, Moral education on the parent, and Intellectual education on the teacher.

In closing this rapid sketch, we cannot forbear regretting that we have been compelled by the limits of our plan to confine our observations to generalities of the briefest kind. We hope, however, that the little which we have said may suffice to show what are the instruments and what ought to be the objects of education. These two points were closely connected with our subject, because, on the one hand, an acquaintance with the instruments, or faculties, is subservient to the study of languages, and, on the other, we must know what are the objects which enter into a complete course of education, in order to give to each its due share of attention, and, whatever be the importance of languages, to guard against occupying young persons exclu

sively with them. We leave to others the details of the process by which these instruments may be used for education in general, and by which these objects may be accomplished. Such a process would constitute the Art of education, while the systematic investigation of the universal and immutable laws of human nature on which it is based would constitute the Science of education. In proportion as this science advances, man will obtain a better knowledge of his own powers, a greater command over external nature, and, consequently, more abundant means of improvement and happiness. Let us hope that before long this momentous subject will be viewed in its true light, and that education will be ranked among the most complete and the most regular sciences, as it is among the most useful and the noblest objects of thought.

The three departments of education respectively belong to physiology, moral philosophy, and the science of the mind, from which are deduced their fundamental principles; but, by their results, and the influence they have on society, they may be considered collectively as a branch of political economy. Conducive as education is to the best interests of men, to the prosperity, happiness, and glory of a nation, it should be recognised as a social duty, imperative on every one for the sake of all. It is a debt of the state to the people; and it demands the fostering care of a wise Government, that it may be universally diffused through all classes of the community, and be rendered productive of all its advantages. Hence it is that many civilised countries have a Minister of Public Instruction, whose office it is to promote education among the people, to raise the standard of instruction, to protect society against incompetent or immoral teachers, to secure the respectability of the educational profession, and to encourage the sciences, the arts, and literature. But, in Great Britain, at the present day, national instruction, from the lowest to the highest degree, is without guarantee: there exists none for knowledge or for morality. Everything is abandoned to private speculation. England has, to use an expression of Napoleon, more shops of instruction" than truly academical institutions.

As long as the British Government does not exercise its right to establish a comprehensive system of education, of diffusing and regulating the instruction which is required by the various classes of the community, of protecting and honouring those who, by their literary and scientific pursuits, raise the intellectual

character of the country, the nation will remain liable to the reproach addressed to it from all quarters by those who repudiate the degradation thus inflicted through the neglect of its rulers.

"There is neither unity, connection, nor plan in our education," says George Long; "and experience shows that education is always slow in progress, unless the state, which alone can do it, shall give to education that unity and definite purpose, which it gives to other branches of administration." * "England,” says H. Mann, "is the only one among the nations of Europe, conspicuous for its civilisation and resources, which has not and never has had any system for the education of its people. And it is the country where incomparably beyond any other the greatest and most appalling social contrasts exist. There is no country in which so little is effected, compared with the expenditure of means; and what is done only tends to separate the different classes of society more and more widely from each other." +

In adverting to the degraded state of science and literature in England, Sir David Brewster declares that "their decline is mainly owing to the ignorance and supineness of the Government, to the injudicious organisation of the scientific boards and institutions, to the indirect persecution of scientific and literary men by their exclusion from all the honours of the state, and to the unjust and oppressive tribute which the patent-law exacts from inventors." "Given up to politics and novels," says another modern writer, § “and looking at literature like any other trade, for its selling price, we have let the Germans get as much ahead of us of late, in the higher ranges of classical learning, as the French in those of abstract science." ||

The time is passed when the superiority of a nation rested exclusively on its navy and standing army. Literature and science now rank foremost in the estimation of mankind: Shakspeare, Locke, and Newton; Montesquieu, Descartes, and Buffon ;

*

Study of Antiquity. Central Society of Education, t. 3.

† Report of an Educational Tour.

Decline of Science in England. Quarterly Review, Oct., 1830.

2 Edinburgh Review, No. cxv.

If free access to books is a test by which to estimate the degree of encouragement afforded by a nation for intellectual pursuits, these Islands stand very low indeed in this respect, comparatively with other civilised countries. It was lately remarked by a statistician that Denmark has 5 libraries opened gratuitously to the public, Saxony has 6, Tuscany 9, Belgium 14, Bavaria 17, Russia 44, Austria 48, the United States 100, France 107, Great Britain one, Ireland none.

Goethe and Liebig; Dante and Galileo, are more highly venerated than great captains, or than the sovereigns themselves under whom they lived. And, when the present reigning monarchs are laid in the dust, their names will sink into insignificance comparatively with many literary and scientific men on whom some of them affect to look down from the lofty position in which they are placed by the exigencies of government. The aristocracy of rank, of birth, and of fortune, owes its existence to pride, ambition, and ignorance; the aristocracy of virtue, of talent, and of knowledge, is founded on nature and reason; the former is temporary, the latter immortal. The only imperishable glory of Athens and Rome is that which has been conferred by the exquisite refinement of their civilisation, and by the genius of their writers, orators, and philosophers. Modern governments should, then, attend to their educational and to all their literary and scientific institutions as they do to their naval and military establishments, if they wish their countries also to attain imperishable glory.