nishing the number of subjects in which persons who are to spend their lives together take a common in

terest.'

One of the most agreeable consequences of knowledge is the respect and importance which it communicates to old age. Men rise in character often as they increase in years-they are venerable from what they have acquired, and pleasing from what they can impart. If they outlive their faculties, the mere frame itself is respected for what it once contained; but women (such is their unfortunate style of education) hazard every thing upon one cast of the die ;when youth is gone, all is gone. No human creature gives his admiration for nothing: either the eye must be charmed, or the understanding gratified. A woman must talk wisely or look well. Every human being must put up with the coldest civility, who has neither the charms of youth nor the wisdom of age. Neither is there the slightest commiseration for decayed accomplishments;-no man mourns over the fragments of a dancer, or drops a tear on the relics of musical skill. They are flowers destined to perish; but the decay of great talents is always the subject of solemn pity; and, even when their last memorial is over, their ruins and vestiges are regarded with pious affection.

provision; and the gentleness and elegance of women is the natural consequence of that desire to please, which is productive of the greatest part of civilization and refinement, and which rests upon a foundation too deep to be shaken by any such modifications in education as we have proposed. If you educate wo men to attend to dignified and important subjects, you are multiplying, beyond measure, the chances of human improvement, by preparing and medicating those early impressions, which always come from the mother; and which, in a great majority of instances, are quite decisive of character and genius. Nor is it only in the business of education that women would influence the destiny of men. If women know more, men must learn more-for ignorance would then be shameful-and it would become the fashion to be instructed. The instruction of women improves the stock of national talents, and employs more minds for the instruction and amusement of the world;-it in. creases the pleasures of society, by multiplying the topics upon which the two sexes take a common interest; and makes marriage an intercourse of understand. ing as well as of affection, by giving dignity and importance to the female character. The education of women favours public morals; it provides for every season of life, as well as for the brightest and the best ; and leaves a woman when she is stricken by the hand of time, not as she now is, destitute of every thing, and neglected by all; but with the full power and the splendid attractions of knowledge,-diffusing the ele gant pleasures of polite literature, and receiving the just homage of learned and accomplished men.

Remarks on the System of Education in Public Schools. 8vo.

Hatchard. London, 1809.

THERE is a set of well-dressed, prosperous gentle. men who assemble daily at Mr. Hatchard's shop ;clean, civil personages, well in with people in power,

There is no connection between the ignorance in which women are kept, and the preservation of moral and religious principle; and yet certainly there is, in the minds of some timid and respectable persons, a vague, indefinite dread of knowledge, as if it were capable of producing these effects. It might almost be supposed, from the dread which the propagation of knowledge has excited, that there was some great secret which was to be kept in impenetrable obscurity, --that all moral rules were a species of delusion and PUBLIC SCHOOLS. (EDInburgh Review, 1810.) imposture, the detection of which, by the improvement of the understanding, would be attended with the most fatal consequences to all, and particularly to women. If we could possibly understand what these great secrets were, we might perhaps be disposed to concur in their preservation; but believing that all the salutary rules which are imposed on women are delighted with every existing institution—and al the result of true wisdom, and productive of the most with every existing circumstance :—and, every greatest happiness, we cannot understand how they now and then, one of these personages writes a little are to become less sensible of this truth in proportion book;-and the rest praise that little book-expecting as their power of discovering truth in general is in- to be praised, in their turn, for their own little books: creased, and the habit of viewing questions with ac--and of these little books, thus written by these clean, curacy and comprehension established by education. civil personages, so expecting to be praised, the There are men, indeed, who are always exclaiming pamphlet before us appears to be one. against every species of power, because it is connected with danger: their dread of abuses is so much stronger than their admiration of uses, that they would cheerfully give up the use of fire, gunpowder, and printing, to be freed from robbers, incendiaries, and libels. It is true, that every increase of knowledge may possibly render depravity more depraved, as well as it may increase the strength of virtue. It is in itself only power; and its value depends on its application. But, trust to the natural love of good where there is no temptation to be bad-it operates nowhere more forcibly than in education. No man, whether he be tutor, guardian, or friend, ever contents himself with infusing the mere ability to acquire; but giving the power, he gives with a taste for the wise and rational exercise of that power; so that an educated person is not only one with stronger and better faculties than others, but with a more useful propensity-a disposition better cultivated-and associations of a higher and more important class.

The subject of it is the advantage of public schools; and the author, very creditably to himself, ridicules the absurd clamour, first set on foot by Dr. Rennel, of the irreligious tendency of public schools: he then proceeds to an investigation of the effects which pub. fic schools may produce upon the moral character; and here the subject becomes more difficult, and the pamphlet worse.

In arguing any large or general question, it is of in. finite importance to attend to the first feelings which the mention of the topic has a tendency to excite; and the name of a public school brings with it immediately the idea of brilliant classical attainments; but, upon the importance of these studies, we are not now offer. ing any opinion. The only points for consideration are, whether boys are put in the way of becoming good and wise men by these schools; and whether they actually gather there those attainments which it pleases mankind, for the time being, to consider as valuable, and to decorate by the name of learning.

In short, and to recapitulate the main points upon By a public school, we mean any endowed place of which we have insisted-Why the disproportion in education, of old standing, to which the sons of genknowledge between the two sexes should be so great, tlemen resort in considerable numbers, and where when the inequality in natural talents is so small; or they continue to reside, from eight or nine, to eighteen why the understanding of women should be lavished years of age. We do not give this as a definition upon trifles, when nature has made it capable of high- which would have satisfied Porphyry or Duns Scotus, er and better things, we profess ourselves not able to but as one sufficiently accurate for our purpose. The understand. The affectation charged upon female characteristic features of these schools are, their an knowledge is best cured by making that knowledge tiquity, the numbers, and the ages of the young people more general: and the economy devolved upon women who are educated at them. We beg leave, however, is best secured by the ruin, disgrace, and inconveni- to premise, that we have not the slightest intention of ence which proceeds from neglecting it. For the care insinuating any thing to the disparagement of the or' children," nature has made a direct and powerful present discipline or present rulers of these schools,

as compared with other times and other men: we | conciliation towards others, and that anxiety for self have no reason whatever to doubt that they are as improvement, which result from the natural modesty ably governed at this as they have been at any pre-of youth. Nor is this conceit very easily and speedily ceding period. Whatever objections we may have to gotten rid of ;-we have seen (if we mistake not) pubthese institutions, they are to faults, not depending lic school importance lasting through the half of after on present administration, but upon original con- life, strutting in lawn, swelling in ermine, and displaying itself, both ridiculously and offensively, in the haunts and business of bearded men.

struction.*

exercises in which the greatest blockheads commonly excel the most-which often render habits of idleness inveterate-and often lead to foolish expense and dissipation at a more advanced period of life.

At a public school (for such is the system established by immemorial custom), every boy is alter- There is a manliness in the athletic exercises of nately tyrant and slave. The power which the elder public schools which is as seductive to the imaginapart of these communities exercises over the younger tion as it is utterly unimportant in itself. Of what is exceedingly great-very difficult to be controlled-importance is it in after life whether a boy can play and accompanied, not unfrequently, with cruelty and well or ill at cricket; or row a boat with the skill and caprice. It is the common law of the place, that the precision of a waterman? If our young lords and young should be implicitly obedient to the elder boys; esquires were hereafter to wrestle together in public, and this obedience resembles more the submission of or the gentlemen of the Bar to exhibit Olympic games a slave to his master, or of a sailor to his captain, in Hilary Term, the glory attached to these exercises than the common and natural deference which would at public schools would be rational and important. always be shown by one boy to another a few years But of what use is the body of an athlete, when we older than himself. Now, this system we cannot have good laws over our heads, or when a pistol, a help considering as an evil,-because it inflicts upon postchaise, or a porter, can be hired for a few shil. boys, for two or three years of their lives, many pain-lings? A gentleman does nothing but ride or walk; ful hardships, and much unpleasant servitude. These and yet such a ridiculous stress is laid upon the man. sufferings might perhaps be of some use in military liness of the exercises customary at public schoolsschools; but, to give to a boy the habit of enduring privations to which he will never again be called upon to submit-to inure him to pains which he will never again feel-and to subject him to the privation of comforts with which he will always in future abound-is One of the supposed advantages of a public school surely not a very useful and valuable severity in edu- is the greater knowledge of the world which a boy is cation. It is not the life in miniature which he is to considered to derive from those situations; but if, by lead hereafter-nor does it bear any relation to it :- a knowledge of the world, is meant a knowledge of he will never again be subjected to so much insolence the forms and manners which are found to be the most and caprice; nor ever, in all human probability, called pleasing and useful in the world, a boy from a public upon to make so many sacrifices. The servile obedi- school is almost always extremely deficient in these ence which it teaches might be useful to a menial particulars; and his sister, who has remained at home domestic; or the habits of enterprise which it en- at the apron-strings of her mother, is very much his courages prove of importance to a military partisan; superior in the science of manners. It is probably but we cannot see what bearing it has upon the calm, true, that a boy at a public school has made more cb. regular, civil life, which the sons of gentlemen, des- servations on human character, because he has had tined to opulent idleness, or to any of the three learned more opportunities of observing than have been enprofessions, are destined to lead. Such a system |joyed by young persons educated either at home or at makes many boys very miserable; and produces those private schools: but this little advance gained at a bad effects upon the temper and disposition, which public school is so soon overtaken at college or in the unjust suffering always does produce; but what good world, that, to have made it, is of the least possible it does we are much at a loss to conceive. Reasonable consequence, and utterly undeserving of any risk inobedience is extremely useful in forming the disposition. Submission to tyranny lays the foundation of hatred, suspicion, cunning, and a variety of odious passions. We are convinced that those young people will turn out to be the best men, who have been guarded most effectually in their childhood, from every species of useless vexation; and experienced, in the greatest degree, the blessings of a wise and rational indulgence. But even if these effects upon future character are not produced, still four or five years in childhood make a very considerable period of human existence; and it is by no means a trifling consideration whether they are passed happily or unhappily. The wretchedness of school tyranny is trifling enough to a man who only contemplates it in ease of body and tranquillity of mind, through the medium of twenty intervening years; but it is quite as real, and quite as acute, while it lasts, as any of the sufferings of mature life and the utility of these sufferings, or the price paid in compensation for them, should be clearly made out to a conscientious parent before he consents to expose his children to them.

This system also gives to the elder boys an absurd and pernicious opinion of their own importance, which is often with difficulty effaced by a considerable commerce with the world. The head of a public school is generally a very conceited young man, utterly ignorant of his own dimensions, and losing all that habit of

* A public school is thought to be the best cure for the insolence of youthful aristocracy. This insolence, however, is not a little increased by the homage of masters, and would soon meet with its natural check in the world. There can be no occasion to bring five hundred boys together to teach a young nobleman that proper demeanor which he would learn so much better from the first English gentleman whom he might think proper to insult.

curred in the acquisition. Is it any injury to a man of thirty or thirty-five years of age to a learned ser jeant or venerable dean-that at eighteen they did not know so much of the world as some other boys of the same standing? They have probably escaped the arrogant character so often attendant upon this trifling superiority; nor is there much chance that they have ever fallen into the common and youthful error of mistaking a premature initiation into vice for a knowledge of the ways of mankind; and, in addition to these salutary exemptions, a winter in London brings it all to a level; and offers to every novice the ad vantages which are supposed to be derived from this precocity of confidence and polish.

According to the general prejudice in favour of public schools, it would be thought quite as absurd and superflous to enumerate the illustrious characters who have been bred at our three great seminaries of this description, as it would be to descant upon the illus trious characters who have passsed in and out of London over our three great bridges. Almost eve ry conspicuous person is supposed to have been educated at public schools; and there are scarce. ly any means (as it is imagined) of making an actual comparison; and yet, great as the rage is, and long has been, for public schools, it is very remark able, that the most eminent men in every art and science have not been educated at public schools; and this is true, even if we include, in the term of public schools, not only Eton, Winchester, and Westminster, but the Charter-House, St. Paul's School, Merchant Tailors', Rugby, and every school in England, at all conducted upon the plan of the three first. The great schools of Scotland we do not call public schools; because, in these, the mixture of domestic life gives to them a widely different character. Spenser, Pope,

TOLERATION. (EDINBURGH REVIEW, 1811.) Hints on Toleration, in Five Essays, &c. suggested for the

Consideration of Lord Viscount Sidmouth, and the Dissenters. By Philagatharches. London. 1810.

The vital and essential part of a school is the master; but, at a public school, no boy, or, at the best, only a very few, can see enough of him to derive any Ir a prudent man sees a child playing with a porceconsiderable benefit from his character, manners, and lain cup of great value, he takes the vessel out of his information. It is certainly of eminent use, particu- hand, pats him on the head, tells him his mamma will larly to a young man of rank, that he should have be sorry if it is broken, and gently cheats him into the lived among boys; but it is only so when they are all use of some less precious substitute. Why will Lord moderately watched by some superior understanding. Sidmouth meddle with the Toleration Act, when there The morality of boys is generally very imperfect; are so many other subjects in which his abilities might their notions of honour extremely mistaken; and their be so eminently useful-when enclosure bills are drawn objects of ambition frequently very absurd. The pro- up with such scandalous negligence-turnpike roads so bability then is, that the kind of discipline they exer- shamefully neglected-and public conveyances ill giti. cise over each other will produce (when left to itself) mately loaded in the face of day, and in defiance of the a great deal of mischief; and yet this is the discip-wisest legislative provisions? We confess our trepi line to which every child at a public school is not only dation at seeing the Toleration Act in the hands of necessarily exposed, but principally confined. Our Lord Sidmouth; and should be very glad if it were objection (we again repeat) is not to the interference fairly back in the statute book, and the sedulity of this of boys in the formation of the character of boys; well-meaning nobleman diverted into another channel. their character, we are persuaded, will be very im The alarm and suspicion of the Dissenters upon perfectly formed without their assistance; but our these measures are wise and rational. They are right objection is to that almost exclusive agency which to consider the Toleration Act as their palladium; and they exercise in public schools. they may be certain that in this country there is always a strong party ready, not only to prevent the further extension of tolerant principles, but to abridge (if they dared) their present operation within the narrowest limits. Whoever makes this attempt, will be sure to make it under professions of the most earnest regard for mildness and toleration, and with the strongest declarations of respect for King William, the Revolu tion, and the principles which seated the House of Brunswick on the throne of these realms; and then will follow the clauses for whipping Dissenters, imprisoning preachers, and subjecting them to rigid qualifications, &c. &c. &c. The infringement on the militia acts is a mere pretence. The real object is to diminish the number of Dissenters from the Church of England, by abridging the liberties and privileges they now possess. This is the project which we shall examine, for we sincerely believe it to be the project in agitation. The mode in which it is proposed to attack the Dissenters is, first, by exacting greater qualifica tions in their teachers; next, by preventing the interchange or itinerancy of preachers, and fixing them to one spot.

After having said so much in opposition to the general prejudice in favour of public schools, we may be expected to state what species of school we think preferable to them; for if public schools, with all their disadvantagas, are the best that can actually be found, or easily attained, the objections to them are certainly made to very little purpose.

We have no hesitation, however, in saying, that that education seems to us to be the best which mingles a domestic with a school life; and which gives to a youth the advantage which is to be derived from the learning of a master, and the emulation which results from the society of other boys, together with the affectionate vigilance which he must experience in the house of his parents. But where this species of education, from peculiarity of circumstances or situation, is not attainable, we are disposed to think a society of twenty or thirty boys, under the guidance of a learned man, and, above all, of a man of good sense, to be a seminary the best adapted for the education of youth. The numbers are sufficient to excite a considerable degree of emulation, to give to a boy some insight into the diversities of the human character, and to subject him to the observation and control of his superiors. It by no means follows, that a judicious man should always interfere with his authority and advice because he has always the means; ne may connive at many things which he cannot approve, and suffer some little failures to proceed to a certain extent, which, if indulged in wider limits, would be attended with irretrievable mischief; he will be aware, that his object is to fit his pupil for the world; that constant control is a very bad preparation for complete emancipation from all control; that it is not bad policy to expose a young man, under the eye of superior wisdom, to some of those dangers which will assail him hereafter in greater number, and in greater strength-when he has only his own resources to depend upon. A private education, conducted upon these principles, is not calculated to gratify quickly the vanity of a parent who is blest with a child of strong character and pre-eminent abilities; to be the first scholar of an obscure master, at an obscure place, is no very splendid distinction; nor does it afford that opportunity, of which so many parents are desirous, of forming great connections for their children: but if the object be, to induce the young to love knowledge and virtue, we are inclined to suspect, that, for the average of human talents and characters, these are the situations in which such tastes will be the most effectually formed.

It can never, we presume, be intended to subject dissenting ministers to any kind of theological examination. A teacher examined in doctrinal opinions, by another teacher who differs from him, is so very absurd a project, that we entirely acquit Lord Sidmouth of any intention of this sort. We rather presume his lordship to mean, that a man who professes to teach his fellow creatures, should at least have made some progress in human learning; that he should not be wholly without education; that he should be able at least to read and write. If the test is of this very ordinary nature, it can scarcely exclude many teachers of religion; and it was hardly worth while, for the very insignificant diminution of numbers which this must occasion to the dissenting clergy, to have raised all the alarm which this attack upon the Toleration Act has occasioned.

But without any reference to the magnitude of the effects, is the principle right? or, What is the meaning of religious toleration? That a man should hold, without pain or penalty, any religious opinions-and choose for his instruction, in the business of salvation, any guide whom he pleases; care being taken that the teacher and the doctrine injure neither the policy nor the morals of the country. We maintain that perfect religious toleration applies as much to the teacher as to the thing taught; and that it is quite as intolerant to make a man hear Thomas, who wants to hear John, as it would be to make a man profess Arminian, who wished to profess Calvinistical principles. What right has any government to dictate to any man who shall guide him to heaven, any more than it has to persecute the religious tenets by which he hopes to arrive there? You believe that the heretic professes doctrines utterly incompatible with the true spirit of the gospel; first you burnt him for this-then you whipped him-then

you fined him-then you put him in prison. All this | pid preacher popular, and a popular preacher more did no good; and for these hundred years last past, popular, but can have no possible tendency to prevent you have let him alone. The heresy is now firmly the mischief against which it is levelled. It is preprotected by law; and you know is must be preached: | cisely the old history of persecution against opinions Waat matters it then, who preaches it? If the evil must be communicated, the organ and instrument through which it is communicated cannot be of much consequence. It is true, this kind of persecution against persons, has not been quite so much tried as the other against doctrines; but the folly and inexpediency of it rest precisely upon the same grounds. Would it not be a singular thing if the friends of the Church of England were to make the most strenuous efforts to render their enemies eloquent and learned? and to found places of education for dissenters? But, if their learning would not be a good, why is their ig. norance an evil?-unless it be necessarily supposed, that all increase of learning must bring men over to the Church of England; in which supposition the Scottish and Catholic universities, and the college at Hackney, would hardly acquiesce. Ignorance surely matures and quickens the progress, by insuring the dissolution of absurdity. Rational and learned dissenters remain religious mobs, under some ignorant fanatic of the day, become foolish overmuch-dissolve, and return to the Church. The Unitarian, who reads and writes, gets some sort of discipline, and returns no