good initiatory schools, to receive children as early as possible from the nursery, or rather from the care of their mothers: mothers in most families must have time to attend to the habits of temper and early instruction of their children, till they are five or six years old, and if proper gradations of elementary schools were established, they need not be kept at home till they are nine or ten, as they now must be for want of such seminaries. In country places, the system of day scholars is impracticable; the pupils must be boarders, but the holidays should be more frequent in these schools, than they need be at a more advanced age. The first object should not be to teach them reading, or grammar, or Latin, or arithmetic, in any given quantities, or in any stated time; but gradually to give them the desire to learn, and the power to attend; their lessons should be made agreeable and short, their attention should be required and fixed for a short time; and then they should have intervals of recreation, air, and exercise. Most of what they learn should be first taught by conversation; and even their walks and hours of amusement may be usefully employed. Their masters should take them out into the fields; should let them run, and leap, and exercise their limbs, and make observations on the various objects they meet; from these objects, that strike their senses, he should lead to such knowledge, as will lay the foundation of a love of instruction in their minds. Masters should proceed, in short, exactly as judicious parents would do with pupils of the same age in private education; and it is needless here to repeat what has been said elsewhere* of the early modes of instructior by conversation. Great attention should be paid to the accent and manner of speaking and reading English in Scotland, Ireland, and those parts of England, where there is a vicious pronunciation; schoolmasters should be brought from other places, where therę is no peculiarity of tone or idiom. Much of the disgust and labour of learning to read may be saved by adopting in these schools Mr. Lancaster's, or rather Dr. Bell's method; the same may be used in teaching practical facility in arithmetic; and might perhaps be advantageously extended to grammar; parsing exercises might thus be given in classes. But all these technical methods must be accompanied with rational explanations of the lessons, and of the principles of the rules, in which the pupils are practised: otherwise this apparent expedition and facility will not really improve the pupils: they will only be arithmetical and reading machines; they must be taught to think, or they will not afterwards be able to make any further progress without the aid of their masters, their keys, and their rules. Instead of pressing forward the pupils to astonish parents by the rapidity of their progress, masters should patiently and courageously conquer by delay. They should make the children understand, as much as possible, the reason of all they do; in arithmetic* they should give the rationale of the rules, and be content to go slowly, that they may proceed surely; in reading, they should not suffer a sentence or an idea to pass that is not understood; in grammar they should in the first schools explain merely the nature of verbs, nouns, substantives and the different parts of speech. In the secondary schools for boys of nine or ten years old, the principles of general grammar should be explained; and masters should avail themselves of the profound discoveries of Tooke', and of the practical experience of the ingenious Sicard. It may be objected-it will and must be objected by hundreds of old schoolmasters, who have grown dull and positive in their own routine, that this explanation of the principles of grammar would not forward the pupils, and that it is much better, or at least safer, to go on regularly through old Lilly's Quæ genus, Propria quæ maribus, and As in præsenti, instead of plaguing them with metaphysical explanations. There is something in the words metaphysics and metaphysical, which puts to flight the understand Epea Pteroenta, or the Diversions of Purley. * Grammaire par Sicard, the able and benevolent instructor of the deaf and dumb at Paris. ing, and rouses the fears and prejudices of whole tribes of ushers and pedagogues, and of some parents, who have been subjugated to the belief, that nothing can be well or expeditiously taught, but what is learnt technically, that is, in most cases, without understanding in the least what is lodged in the safe custody of the memory. Frederick the Great was once inoculated by a certain ignorant General Buddenbrock with this diseased aversion to metaphysics. The general was superintending governor of Frederick's military school, and having quarrelled with one of the professors, revenged himself by complaining to the king, that the boys were taught grammar metaphysically, and that metaphysics would puzzle their understandings, and ruin the institution. The literary monarch sent for the professor, and in a most able and sarcastic declamation brought forth all the arguments, that ancient or modern times could produce against metaphysics. The professor's answer, if we make due allowance for the formal division of the subject into the first place, and the second place, and third place, is far superior in ability to the monarch's eloquent attack. The distinctions between useful and useless metaphysics, the necessity for having recourse to what are called refined explanations in teaching children general and rational grammar, were stated with so much perspicuity, that the imperious, but enlightened Frederick sat in motionless attention for half an hour, and then exclaimed, "I have listened to you, “and I believe that I understand you perfectly, Sir, and am happy to have given you an oppor tunity of convincing me by your reasons." General Buddenbrock was ordered to interfere no more with the explanation of grammar. Hoping that what convinced the understanding of Frederick may have some power over the attention of those who will be too modest to claim an equality with him in talents, the professor's defence is inserted in the appendix to this volume: and after having read it, parents and preceptors will probably no longer be alarmed by the species of metaphysical lessons, which are here recommended for initiatory schools. It is sufficient here briefly to observe, that metaphysics are of two sorts: those which treat of subjects beyond the reach of mortal faculties, such as the nature of the soul when separate from the body; free-will and necessity, and such subjects as Milton makes the fallen angels discuss: "Fixed fate, free-will, fore-knowledge absolute, "Vain wisdom all and false philosophy." The other class of metaphysics is popular: it unfolds the general principles upon which arts and sciences are founded; it leads the uuderstanding |