conduce to heighten the general effect. Some of these essays, such as the Hastings' and 'Clive,' will be read with avidity by the elder boys: but as Macaulay did not write for children, he abounds in words to them unintelligible. Had he been a married man, we might perhaps have had such a volume of historical sketches for boys as now we must wish for in vain. But there are good story-tellers left among us, and we might soon expect such books as we desiderate, if it were clearly understood what is the right sort of book, and if men of literary ability and experience would condescend to write them. At present, teachers who have a 'connection' make compendiums, which last only as long as the 'connection' that floats them and literary men, if they wish to make money out of the young, hand over works written for adults, to some underling, who epitomises them for schools. Of Mr. Charles Knight, who has done so much for sound education, I should have expected better things; but he tells us in a volume of some 500 pages, called 'Knight's School History of England,' condensed from his large history under his superintendence, that he trusts no event of importance in our annals has been omitted. This seems to me like trusting that the work is valueless for all purposes of rational instruction.

:

If in these latter days the individual withers, and the world is more and more,' we must not expect our children to enter into this. Their sympathy and their imagination can be aroused, not for nations, but for individuals; and this is the reason why some biographies of great men should precede any history.

BIOGRAPHY FOR CHILDREN.

281

These should be written after Macaulay's method. There should be no attempt at completeness, but what is most important and interesting about the man should be narrated in detail, and the rest lightly sketched, or omitted altogether. Painters understand this principle, and in taking a portrait, very often depict a man's features minutely without telling all the truth about the buttons on his waistcoat. But, because in a literary picture each touch takes up additional space, writers seem to fear, that the picture will be distorted unless every particular is expanded or condensed in the same ratio. As a model for our biographies, we may take Plutarch's Lives,' which should be read as soon as boys are old enough to like them.*

At the risk of wearisome repetition, I must again

say, that I care as little about driving' useful knowledge' into a boy, as the most ultra Cambridge-man could wish; but I want to get the boy to have wide sympathies, and to teach himself; and I should therefore select the great men from very different periods and countries, that his net of interest (if I am allowed the metaphor) may be spread in all waters.

There is no profane study better than Plutarch: all other learning is private, fitter for universities than cities; fuller of contemplation than experience; more commendable in students themselves than profitable unto others. Whereas stories are fit for every place, reach to all persons, serve for all times; teach the living, revive the dead; so far excelling all other books, as it is better to see learning in noble men's lives than to read it in philosophers' writings. Now for the author... I believe I might be bold to affirm that he hath written the profitablest story of all authors; being excellent in wit, learning, and experience,

...

he hath chosen the special acts of the best persons of the famousest nations of the world.'-Sir Thomas North's Dedication to Queen Elizabeth of his translation of Plutarch.

When we have thus got our boys to form the acquaintance of great men, they will have certain associations connected with many towns and countries. Constant reference should be made to the map, and the boys' knowledge and interest will thus make settlements in different parts of the globe. These may be extended by a good book of travels, especially of voyages of discovery. There are, no doubt, many such books suitable for the purpose, but the only one I have met with is Miss Hack's Winter Evenings; or Tales of Travellers,' which has been a great favourite with children for the last five-and-twenty years at least. This is a capital book, but the very childish conversations interpolated in the narratives would disgust a boy a little too old for them, much more than they would an adult reader. In studying such travels, the map should, of course, be always in sight; and outline maps may be filled up by the boys, as they learn about the places in the traveller's route. Any one who has had the management of a school library knows how popular voyage and venture' is with the boys who have passed the stage in which the picture-books of animals were the main attraction. Captain Cook, Mungo Park, and Admiral Byron are heroes without whom boyhood would be incomplete; but as boys are engrossed by the adventures, and never trouble themselves about the map, they often remember the incidents without knowing where they happened.

6

Of course school geographies never mention such people as celebrated travellers: if they did, it would be impossible to give all the principal geographical

OUTCOME OF THE COURSE.

283

names in the world within the compass of 200 pages.

What might we fairly expect from such a course of teaching as I have here suggested ?

At the end of a year and a half or two years from the age, say, of nine, the boy would read aloud well, he would write fairly, he would spell all common English words correctly; he would have had his interest excited or increased in common objects, such as animals, trees, and plants; he would have made the acquaintance of some great men, and traced the voyages of some great travellers; he would be able to say by heart some of the best simple English poetry, and his ear would be familar with the sound of good English prose. Above all, he would not have learned to look upon books and school-time as the torment of his life, nor have fallen into the habit of giving them as little of his attention as he could reconcile with immunity from the cane. The benefit of this negative result, at all events, might prove incalculable.

XI.

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

ALL who are acquainted with the standard treatises on the theory of education, and also with the management of schools, will have observed that moral and religious training occupies a larger and more prominent space in theory than in practice. On consideration, we shall find perhaps that this might naturally be expected. Of course we are all agreed that morality is more important than learning, and masters who are many of them clergymen, will hardly be accused of under-estimating the value of religion. Why, then, does not moral and religious training receive a larger share of the master's attention? The reason I take to be this. Experience shows that it depends directly on the master whether a boy acquires knowledge, but only indirectly, and in a much less degree, whether he grows up a good and religious The aim which engrosses most of our time is likely to absorb an equal share of our interest; and thus it happens that masters, especially those who never associate on terms of intimacy with their pupils out of school, throw energy enough into making boys

man.