consideration of the context?" Suppose him to have looked out the first word with only a dozen different meanings in English, how can he tell which English will square with the other words which he does not understand? If he fixes upon one, and proceeds to investigate the second word, he becomes still more deeply embarrassed, by attempting to accommodate the latter to the meaning he has chosen for the former without any reason for such preference. The consequence is, that the boy either makes nothing at all of the whole sentence, or gives it a wrong interpretation. It is said that his errors are subsequently corrected in his lesson by the master. It is to be hoped that some of them are corrected; but it is no less to be wished that they had never been occasioned. What single advantage has been gained by this expence of time and trouble in attempting to prepare the lesson alone? The pupil is discouraged by his failure, and loses all interest in a task which leads to no satisfactory attainment: whereas a much less exertion would have enabled him to remember ten different words or sentences in which he could confide on the authority of the master, than to recollect his own doubtful decision among ten different meanings or constructions of the

same word or sentence. When we hear people gravely disserting on the improvement of the intellectual faculties ensured by the manual exercise of turning over the leaves of a dictionary, where the only idea that comes across the mind is, that some word or words unknown remain to be made out, we are led to believe in the progress of a very different species of "intellect" from any which has been generally recognized; at any rate entirely distinct in its nature and tendency, from the advancement of learning, of science, and of

reason.

If then the deterioration of the primitive method of instruction be justly attributable to the incompetency or negligence of schoolmasters, it may fairly be inquired-Why was such a corruption countenanced and adopted by the able and wellintentioned members of this profession? How is it that we still find the same corruption almost universally prevailing in the most esteemed academies of this country? We have already quoted a passage from Locke which seems to furnish some explanation of this anomaly. The authority of "fashion" is so frequently acknowledged in matters which involve inconvenience to its follower, that we can scarcely be surprised at the admis

sion of its claims, where resistance could only be attended with additional trouble to the protesting party. It is not an unnatural presumption, to suppose that the majority of schoolmasters would readily recognize a precedent which relieved them from the most laborious part of their original duties; the incompetent and careless would alike be concerned in its support; and the voice of the enlightened and conscientious few would be drowned in the clamorous appeals of an interested multitude.

Let us not be understood as wishing to reflect indiscriminate censure on this respectable profession. It is not the fault of the present generation that a bad system of classical instruction is still pertinaciously upheld. Each individual member is almost obliged in self-defence to conform to the established order of proceeding, till the public are more fully advertised of its manifold defects. We have said that the scholastic profession are interested in the perpetuation of abuses; but this imputation may often be understood with a negative rather than positive reference. The profession as a body is not so much advantaged by the continuance of a faulty system, as its individual members are exposed to disadvantage by attempt

ing to reform it. It cannot indeed be denied, that persons of confined attainments might adopt the most dilatory method of instruction, in order to protract the period of education, without multiplying its branches; but it is at least equally certain, that there are many enlightened tutors, who would gladly communicate the greatest possible variety of useful knowledge, in the shortest time, without any apprehension of the failure of their own resources, during the period now commonly assigned to pupilage. The time is gone by, when a knowledge of classic literature alone was considered amply sufficient for a gentlemanly education; but even those who are most conversant with ancient learning must find far more excitement, and less weariness, in giving reasonable instruction to their pupils, than in correcting the errors of raw schoolboys left to their own guidance. The great obstacle to reform in school education, is the general notion that the system now received is derived from ancient usage; and this prejudice is naturally retained by all who have been educated in schools of early foundation. But the remote origin of the prevailing method is no less questionable than its reason and expediency. Few people, however, take the trouble to inquire beyond the preceding

generation; and those, who, from practice and information, are most capable of effecting an improvement, are not always sufficiently at liberty to execute designs of apparent innovation. Thus, the masters of endowed schools are bound to preserve the same method of instruction, which they find in operation at their appointment; and although most competent to discern its defects, are not allowed to rectify abuses, which are supposed to have the sanction of antiquity. On the same principle, the heads of private academies are in great measure obliged to conform to the orthodox method recognized in our public schools; as less encouragement is given to those spirited reformers who venture to use their own reason and experience in varying this system of tuition; and the slightest opposition to received practice is commonly attributed to a discontented spirit of innovation, prepared to depreciate every ancient institution. A very little investigation however of this consecrated system, would prove that it is referable to a much less respectable origin than primitive enactment; and would show that, from its first stages of corruption to its present deplorable consummation, its validity has been not only questioned, but denied by the highest authorities in