I LIBRARY OF CONGRE&S. ^^/. LLlL. ^/U^ .2)..5! ! UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. \ '■'•SVS^ i^T/Hi^jftSP^f^),^^ NECESSITY POPULAR EDUCATION, A NATIONAL OBJECT. NECESSITY POPULAR EDUCATION, A NATIONAL OBJECT ; HINTS ON THE TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS, AND OBSERVA- TIONS ON HOMICIDAL INSANITY. V — By JAMES SIMPSON \>Y^^ ^y^iu i Serene Philosophy ! Effusive source of evidence and truth, Without thee, what were unenlightened man! BOSTON: MARSH, CAPEN & LYON, 1834. I. air ^ PREFACE. A deep conviction and solemn feeling of the neces- sity—the urgency — of a great National measure for enlightening, and morally elevating, the great body of our countrymen, are the author's motives for offering the following pages to the deliberate consideration of the public. Whether they shall think his views more just and practical than those that may have been be- fore them, in a hundred other works on the '' inter- minable theme of education," it is not for him to an- ticipate ; but he ventures to hope that they will find the subject placed in a light somewhat different from any with vi^hich they are already familiar. He appeals to the Crisis — a great increase of popular power, an immense extension of popular influence, without com- mensurate directing knowledge, and controlling vir- tue ; and he claims a patient hearing, as the right of the humblest contributor to the difficult subject, to receive, and the duty of every well wisher of his coun- try and his species, to bestow. In this treatise the reader's attention will be called to larger views of the subject of education, in its principles and prac- tice, than he may have m^t with before, and that in relation to all classes of the community, for the education of man, adapted to his nature, knows ▼1 PREFACE. no distinction of ranks ; but he will likewise, il is humbly hoped, see the limit defined, to which the education of every sane human being ought to be carried, in order to fit him for that place in the social system, and in the creation of God, for which he was called into being. With the diffi- dence becoming the attempt, and the deference due to his masters in the science of national economy, the author has ventured to propose a plan of po- pular education for public approbation, and legisla- tive adoption ; content if it shall move that discussion, by which it cannot fail to be greatly improved. He will be more than enough rewarded, too, if he shall succeed in reviving some share of interest in the neg- lected subject of the philosophy of Man, and his rela- tions to external things, without which the science of education must remain, as it has hitherto remained, incapable of practical application, and therefore a dis- carded weariness. He repeats that the object presses, — that it is exciting anxious inquiry, — and that it is shortly destined to rouse the attention of the most careless and inobservant dweller in the land, CONTENTS, INTRODUCTION. Page Education not yet placed on a right basis— Sound views exist, but are not systematised — The present an attempt at their combi- nation — " Ignorance prevails to a horrible extent" — The truth that it is connected with suffering practically disbelieved — Ap- peal to fear — to justice and benevolence — Just notions of the general happiness — Intellectual and moral necessary to physi- cal improvement — Direct enjoyment from intellectual and mo- ral elevation — The higher faculties of man are the gift of God, and intended for cultivation, use, and enjoyment. . • 13-16 CHAPTER I. ON THE EFFECTS OF IGNORANCE ON THE CONDITION OF THE MANUAL-LABOUR CLASS OF THE PEOPLE. Manual Labourers seven-eighths of the population — Twofold divi- sion of the people — 1st, Physical condition of manual-labour class — Their ignorance of the conditions of health — Neglect of air, houses, beds, skin, ablution, muscular exercise — Cholera — Ardent Spirits and Sunday drunkenness — Temperance So- cieties—Transmission of diseases to offspring— Mortality of in- fants — Faults of Servants — Manufacturers. — ^2d, Intellec- tual condition of manual-labour class — Their prejudices, &c. •—The dupes of the designing— Absurd flattery addressed to them— Labour market— Striking for wages.— 3d, Moral con- dition of manual-labour class— Their faculties work as instincts —Malicious destroying and defacing— Cruelty to animals- Other causes of low condition— Effects of the Poor laws and Vlll CONTENTS. Page Allowance system— Religious condition— Present provision for education— Reading and writing— Scotch parochial schools- Prevailing prejudices, ....•• 17-33 CHAPTER II. ON THE EFFECTS OF IMPERFECT EDUCATION ON THE CONDITION OF THE CLASS OP THE PEOPLE ABOVE MANUAL LABOUR. The term "Educated class," relative— Our vast attainments in Physical Science — Confusion and error in Moral world — Con- troversy and party divisions — Contrast of sound legislation — General selfishness — Demands of Christianity — Religion of the "Educated" — Large provision for it — Want of educa- tional preparation— Fanaticism and insanity— Certain social defects remnants of barbarism, national jealousies, offensive wars, criminal code, &c. — Barbarous customs, fox-hunting, engrossing rural sports, &c. — Happiness not attained, reasons —False views of life— Young men of fortune— Waste of life, wealth, and happiness, by the affluent — Their marriages — Se- dentary study— Instructive illustrations on this head— Incogi- tate pursuit of wealth— Over-trading, glutted markets— Un- welcome inquiry — Good admitted — Causes of our social evils —No moral training in education — Milton, Locke, Kames— Reading — Dead languages — False morality of classics — Bar- barism of the ancients — Scientific studies— Science of man, physiological, mental, and moral, a blank in Education, . 34-59 CHAPTER HL ON THE FACULTIES OF MAN, AND THEIR RELATIVE OBJECTS. Man the being to be educated — Knowledge of his nature required —Training horses and dogs— Education, its three essentials — Human body, improvement of — The senses — their objects — Faculties of mind disputed — Modes mistaken for faculties — Ad- mitted view of man's nature— Shakspeare's and Scott's— Pos- tulates to be conceded— Physiological evidence not founded on —Experience— nine animal propensities— Self-Love— Desire of estimation— Fear— Inferior feelings what— Law in the mind — Benevolence — Justice — Veneration — Ethics — Christianity —Seven other moral sentiments— Intellect— Knowing faculties —Reflecting— Language— Tabular view of faculties- CONTENTS. IX Page ed by all, but in different degrees— Innate and Permanent- Combination— Degrees of rank in faculties — Supremacy of Sentiments and Intellect illustrated— Mr. Combe's original views, ....... 60-83 CHAPTER IV. ON EDUCATION AS ADAPTED TO THE FACULTIES INFANT EDUCATION. Faculties improveable— Man, how made wiser, how better— Law" of exercise of faculties— Each faculty on its own objects — Exercise of one faculty does not improve another— Faculties that require regulation, excitement, direction of intellect — Loadstar of education— Pupil's study of his own faculties, and their objects— Education, Physical, Moral, Intellectual— In- fant Education, to commence in the cradle— Infant school, Physical training. Moral, Intellectual— Real and verbal— Pes- talozzi and Mayo — ^Lessons on Objects— Summary of education of faculties— Edinburgh Model Infant School— Religious im- pressions, no distinction of sects, preparative — Agency of Man in this— Divine blessing — Intolerance deprecated— Edinburgh Infant School on liberal basis— Progress and success of th^ school — Prizes and places— Great merit of Wilderspin — Pre- judices against Infant education, objections answered, . 84-103 CHAPTER V. ON EDUCATION AS ADAPTED TO THE FACULTIES CONTINUED EDUCATION SUBSEQUENT TO INFANCY. Pupils six years old— School till fourteen—Moral training conti- nued—Record of duties-^Monitorial system— Writing— Draw- ing — Arithmetic— Continuation of the Mayo lessons — Inci- dental teaching— Incidental reading— Incidental grammar— N o spelling— Lessons on chyraical substances, solid, fluid, gaseous •!— Chsonical experiments — Chymical elements — Knowledge of man in body and mind — Geography— Globe — Incidental As- tronomy—Civil History— Geometry— Mechanical Science- Natural History— Incidental Natural Theology— Study of na- ture naturalized— Lessons on political state— Lessons on poll' tical economy— Exercise of the reflecting powers— Maxims and proverbs— Education for all— For peculiar talents ov , CONTENTS. Page turns— Science taught to the young, to the working classes, to females — Educational Code — Training Teachers — Schools of Industry — American schools of manual labour — Domestic ser- vice — ^Ulterior education — Languages — Classics — College, 104-124 CHAPTER VI. ON A JUST ESTIMATE OF cIviL HISTORY, AS A STUDY FOR YOUTH. History as an advanced study— Just views of it— A chronicle of the animal propensities — Characteristics of antiquity — ^Fall of empires when natural— Details hurtful to youth— Patriot he- roism—Passion for war— Martial glory applauded and reward- ed—Internal polity of antiquity— Asia and Egypt— Monotony of propensities — Tyrannies, caprices, and childishness — " Free" states of antiquity, Greece, and Rome — No recog- nised principle of Hberty— Ingratitude to public benefactors- Benevolence and justice foundations of free institutions — Self- ish ambition of public men in Athens and Rome — Tribes that overthrew the Roman empire — How history should be written —How taught— Abridgment— Dark ages— Since Reformation ^Should be a late study, , . . . 135-133 CHAPTER VII. ON POPULAR EDUCATION AS THE DUTY OF THE NATION — PLAN PROPOSED. Burdens from popular ignorance— Education ought to be free — Working class cannot obtain it — Always has been at public expense — School fees — ^Voluntary schools precarious — ^Work- ing class indifferent — Gratis experiment — Claims of working class — They pay bulk of taxes — Nation must educate them — Commissioners — Minister — Code — The What of education — ^Practical arrangements — Proposed building and airing ground — School and scientific apparatus — Normal schools for training teachers— First and second grants— Control and super- intendence — No lack of teachers— Legitimate compulsion on parents— Something immediately to be done— Extract from . the Edinburgh Review, .... 134-149 CONTENTS. *1 CHAPTER VIII. DIFFICULTIES — OBSTACLES — ENCOURAGEMENTS. Page DirFiCTTLTiES—Counteraction by adult population—Reaction up- on them — Decrease of drunkenness— Course with adults — ^In- curable class— Edinburgh Association for cheap lectures — Provision for free instruction to the adult workman — Schools of Arts — ^Denial of leisure to the manual labourer— Proposed restriction of labour— Workmen will restrict it— Farther re- striction in factories— Poor Laws' abuses— Criminal popula- tion-— Obstacles — Humble indifference — Remote results — Ex- ample of direct enjoyment from moral sentiments — Direct benefits — Great expense — Prejudice against educating the people — Existing interests — Sectarian zeal — Origin of clerical superintendence — Solecism in our laws — Church in danger — Opposition to Lancasterian Schools, to London University, to Irish National Education— Parallel in Catholic bigotry in Glasgow— Practical inference— Appeal to the dominant sect, to the government, to the people. — Encouragements — Advoca- cy of the Press — We are outstripped by other nations — Wishes of the Government and Legislature— Existence of improve- ments already— Education of all ranks together— Conclu- sion, . . 150-175 APPENDIX. No. L Hints on the Necessity of a Change of Principle in our Legisla- tion for the Efficient Protection of Society from Crime, . 177 No.IL Observations on the Degree of Knowledge yet applied to the In- vestigation of Insanity, in Trials for Crime, chiefly Violence and Homicide . . .... 209 No. III. Extract from Report of the Edinburgh Infant School Society, 8th May, 1832, . . . ... 235 CONTENTS. Page No. IV. Letter from Mr. Cunningham, Head Master of the Edinburgh In- stitution for Languages, Mathematics, &c. • • 248 No. V. Specimen of the Daily Record of Duties, Organic, Moral, Reli- gious, and Intellectual, as kept for one Week, , . 250 No. VI. Summary of the Proceedings of the Association for procuring In- struction in Useful and Entertaining Science, from its Institu- tion in 1832 to April 1834, ; . . . . 251 No. VIL Extract from the First Report of the Commissioners appointed by the Lord Lieutenant to administer the Funds granted by Par- liament for the Education of the Poor of Ireland, ordered to be printed by the House of Commons, 3d March, 1834, . . 260 POPULAR EDUCATION INTRODUCTION, Education not yet placed on a right basis — Sound views exist, but are not systematised — The present an attempt at their combination— "Ignorance prevails to a horrible extent" — The truth that it is con- nected v>'ith suffering practically disbelieved — Appeal to fear — ^to justice and benevolence — Just notions of the general happiness — Intellectual and moral necessary to physical impz;ovement — Direct enjoyment from intellectual and moral elevation — The higher faculties of man are the gift of God, and intended for cultivation, use, and enjoyment. It is matter of deep regret to the first men of the age, that Education has not yet been placed upon a practically useful basis. It is felt that it is imperfectly enjoyed even by the educated, utterly withheld from the multitude, and not yet sys- tematised either in principles or plan. In presuming to oiFer to the public the following treatise, there is one avowal which the author cheerfully and gratefully makes. While failure to sys- tematise education has disappointed much talent and worth which have been engaged on the subject, yet in many a reflective and eloquent page there are views unfolded which possess the character of essential truth, and offer ready materials to the hand of the architect of a more practically useful structure than the authors themselves erected. It may safely be predicated, that there already exists a large proportion of the materials of a philosophical system of education, not rough in the quarry, but almost marked by their symmetry for their places in the build- ng, and inviting their own combination, as a comparatively easy task to a very inferior workman who will collect them together. Such is the utmost pretension of the following attempt. The 2 14 SOUND VIEWS — IGNORANCE — SUFFERING- reader who is familiar with works on edacation, will perhaps scarcely discover in these pages a thought which in substance he has not met with before; but if he shall find known thoughts in combinations different from any in which he may hitherto have recognised them, and better adapted to the great end to which they were directed, the utmost success for which the author dares to look, will have attended his humble labours. A new combination, for a beneiicial end, of existing constracllons, is an invention entitling to the royal patent. Every one is welcome to claim for himself, or any one else, any such stray idea, if he detects it in the following vvork : all the author asks is the use of it. it is most important for us all to be aware that much intel- lectual and moral darkness broods upon our land ; that " igno- rance PREVAILS to a horrible extent" * in our country ; that on ignorance must ever attend suffering, physical and moral ; and suffering accordingly abounds. In the resolutions of the British and Foreign School Society of March 1831, the con- fession is more than once emphatically made, that " England is YET uneducated." Dr. Chalmers says yet more despondingly, " In the grievous defect of our national institutions, and the wretched abandonment of a people left to themselves, and who are permitted to live recklessly and at random as they list, we see enough to account for the profligacy of our crowded cities, and for the sad demoralization of our neglected provinces. "f But connexion, in the closest relation of cause and effect, be- tween ignorance and all this profligacy and demoralization, is by no means a practical belief with a large portion of the educa- ted classes themselves ; and this is the only assignable reason for the amazing indifference, the incredulity, and even scorn, with which all plans, schemes, and projects, for the enlighten- ment of the great body of the people, are yet treated. The Edinburgh Review | has made a pointed appeal against this error to the public fears. None are safe, must certainly, in the centre of pestilence, in daily contact with profligacy, de- moralization, and crime ; but our fears are inferior impulses, and are not adequate to generous purposes ; of these purposes, higher motives are the fitting guides, noble faculties the ministers. Our fellow-men shall share our lights, if we have any ; not that we may be more safe, but that they niay be more happy. The best selfishness is justice, and, higher yet, an unselfish benevo- lence, overflowing in its ov.m disinterested exuberance. The Creator will not bless any lower motive to do good. His sys- * Lord Chancellor Brougham's Speech at the Wilberforce Meeting at York, October 1833. t Bridgewater Treatise. t No- 117. i JUST NOTIONS OF HAPPINESS. 15 tern IS arranged upon the supremacy of justice and benevolence in Creation, and Ciiristianity is mainly addressed to these facul- ties in man. Till we ourselvfes have light and truth and love enough to see and feel that our own g-ood flows as a secondary but invariable consequence, from our efforts exerted, primarily and, in their motives, exclusively, for our fellow-men, we shall in vain attempt to improve them, — we must first im.prove our- selves. ■■" ' Besides being actuated by a powerful impulse to increase the general happiness, we must arrive at just notions as to the true nature of that happiness. It is an error, springing from limited views of human capabilities, to rest satisfied with the physical weal of our fellow-men. The benevolence of Henry IV. of France yearned for the happiness of his people, but his lights were satisfied with wishing that there was "a fowl in the pot <>f every peasant in his kingdom." Had he directed his utmost kingly power solely to achieve this physical object, he would have failed. It is by operating on the moral and intellectual man, that the only steady and permanent provision is made for his physical wants. The peasant must be capacitated ' o provide his own fowl, if he is to enjoy it often. The kind-hearted mo- narch would have give?! the fowl, if he could, and often repeated the dole ; but he would thereby have degraded the whole charac- ter of his people, and unfitted them for the attainment of sub- stantial permanent prosperity. The only true channel of physical comfort will be found in cultivated intellectual and moral powers. Besides attaining the self-denying, upright be- nevolently-co-operating, and industrious habits, which live in the very atmosphere of an improved moralhy, an enlightened intellect looks before and after, observes relations, calculates conse- quences, and, according to the nature of things, avoids evil, and secures good. But this is not all ; it is the humblest office of an elevated moral and intellectual character to improve the physical condition ; when it has established bodily comfort, and, what is a new contemplation for the thinking few, reasonable leisure from reasonable toil, — an indispensable element, as shall here- after appear, of human weal, physical and moral, — it is in itself a positive good, a source of direct enjoyment, far above the richest material possessions. This scarcely requires illustration to the enlightened and the moral. They have only to reflect how small a proportion of their enjoyment is physical or sensual, when compared with that which consists in the refined delights of knowledge, of taste, of feeling, and of sentiment, reaped from books and social converse, from the acts of benevolence, and from the acknowledgments of religious thankfulness and adora- tion. These give the chief value to easy circumstances, not the mere command of material accommodations ; and it is from these 16 INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL ENJOYMENT, that the great bulk of our fellow-men are excluded, by the ex- haustion of their time and strength in labour, and by their want of capacity, from deficient education, to convert their leisure, if any they had, to these higher enjoyments. The Creator has given to every man some portion of intellect, some share of moral sentiment, intended not merely to control his animal ap- petites, for the preservation of his own safety, but to furnish him with pure and refined delight, which we have only to conceive sufficiently intense, to gain a faint glimpse of Heaven. Let those who despair of human nature, reflect that, if He has given to man a share of those high endowments which are the only real approach to his own image, then assuredly he has designed them for cultivation, for use, and for high enjoyment. To deny this,, —and it is practically denied in our abandonment of seven eighths, of our countrymen to ignorance and all its evils, — is to deny- that the intellectual and moral nature of man is the work of God 17 CHAPTER I. ON THE EFFECTS OF IGNORANCE ON THE CONDITION OF THE MANUAL-LABOUR CLASS OF THE PEOPLE. Manual Labourers seven eighths of the population — Twofold division of the People — 1st, Physical condition oi manual-labour class — Their ignorance of the conditions of health— Neglect of air, houses, beds, SK.in, ablution, muscular exercise— Cholera — Ardent Spirits and Sun- day drunkenness — Temperance Societies — Transmission of diseases to offspring — Mortality of infants — Faults of servants — Manufactur- ers— 2d, Intellectual condition of manual-labour class — Their pre- judices, &c. — The dupes of the designing — Absurd flattery address- ed to them — Labour market — Striking for wages. — 3d, Moral condi- tion of manual-labour class — Their faculties work as instincts — Ma- licious destroying and defacing—Cruelty to animals — Other causes of lo^y condition — Effects of the Poor laws and Allowance system — Re- ligious condition — Present provision for education — Reading and writing— Scottish parochial schools — Prevailing prejudices. The production and preparation for man's use, of the mate- terial necessaries, comforts, luxuries, and elegancies of life, oc- cupy the hands of nearly seven eighths of the population of this country. Machinery is only a combination of tools to ex- tend the power of the hand. JStill more than seven eighths of our population live by labour of some kind, either of hand or head; so that there is not perhaps a fiftieth part of the whole popula- tion of Britain who live entirely independent of labour. This last mentioned limited class, for my present purpose at least, may be ranked v/ith those who work not with the hands ; so that we may assume a tvvofold division of the British people into the manual-labour class, and the class above manual labour, in considering the condition of the manual labour class, it must not be lost sight of, that they are endowed in kind, though not ge- nerally in degree, with the like capabilities of education with the class above them, with the like faculties for the attainment of knowledge, moral elevation, and genuine religion. 1. The Physical condition of the whole class of manual 18 PHYSICAL CONDITION---AIR — BEDS — ABLUTIOJf, labourers, is much worse than it might be rendered, and render- ed by themselves, if they were more enlightened than they are. Making allowance for grades in their condition, and individual exceptions, a great majority of that class are left utterly unin- structed in, and live of course in disregard of, the simplest con- ditions of health. In too many instances* the light and air, which Heaven bestows and man excludes, very imperfectly en- ter to cheer and purify their dwellings, noisome with animal and vegetable effluvia, and accumulated refuse. In the worst cases they sleep in beds, — often several persons in one, — which rarely know cleanly change, and have become infectious as the depositories of weeks of insensible perspiration, ascertained to be nearly a pound weight from each adult in twelve hours. The nocturnal consumption of the air of a crowded room, ren- ders it a positive poison to the lungs, the heart, and the blood ; and when the workman has to contend with a deleterious trade during the day, what must the effect be, upon his health, of the atmosphere and contact of his repose 1 Rising from this dor- mitory, of whose operation on his constitution he is profoundly unconscious, the manual labourer resumes his day garments, in part of which he has probably slept, and "unwashed" returns to his labour. He has never learned the import of the word " un- washed,"— the diseases external and internal of an unheeded skin,~the consequences of obstructing that exquisite organ which exhales waste, and therefore hurtful, matter from the system, aids importantly in the regulation of the anim.al heat, is an agent of absorption, and the seat of touch and. sensation. Nature lavishes water, as she is profuse of pure air for which every vital function pants ; but water is refreshing, detersive, and luxurious, in vain to the son of toil.f Mr. Thackrah of Leeds, the able and useful writer upon the diseases incident to trades, says, on the subject of ablution, " There are other trades, in which the surface of the body is affected, though in a less degree, by the peculiar substances applied; but, without en- tering into further detail, I would urge the necessary effect of * It is important to cffer a caveat against being thought to state the case too strongly against this class oT my countrymen. We have all seen many clean and comfortable houses belonging to workmen. Very generally, ho v/ever, we observe a disregard of ventilation ; and if wx perceive a want of this essential of liealthin their houses, we are led to suspect the state of their beds. I not only will permit every manual labourer, who conscientiously can, to claim exemption from my descrip- tion, but should rejoice tha^. the exemptions were numerous. t This, and other conditions of health, are admirably treated of in a work just published by Dr. Andrew Combe of Edinburgh, on the "Principles of Physiology applied to the Preservation of Health, and to the Improvement of Physical and Mental Education." Republished in Harper's " Family Library"— New- York, 1834. MXiSCULAR EXERTION — DISEASES — CHOLEKA. 19 almost all the occupations of a manufacturing town, in foaling the skin. When we consider the functions which this organ is known to perform, independently of those which physiology suspects but has not ascertained, when we refer to the natural products of the skin, insensible perspiration, sweat, unctuous matter^ &;c., we wonder how men can endure the compound crust of soot, dust, and secretions, with which they are envelop- ed. Throughout the whole of the labouring classes, and indeed among the majority of the middling and upper, this subject is strangely neglected. Cleanliness is practised in a very imper- fect manner, the whole surface is seldom washed; and, in most persons, the body, with the exceptions of the hands and face, is cleaned only by the removal of those impurities which adhere to the linen. Bathing is rarely used in any form." It is another condition of health that the muscular frame shall be suitably exercised by motion and exertion. Some kinds of manual labour, and these besides often in the open air, exercise generally the muscular frame, and such labourers are the most healthy ; while other kinds are carried on in confined and ill- aired rooms, or manufactories which are loaded with flying dust, and deleterious eiHuvia, and afford no exercise beyond a movement of the fingers, ojaturn of the wrist. A few minutes of fresh air between his work-shop and his home, is the work- man's portion of that cheapest and best of luxuries ; and worn out in mind as well as body, by the monotony of twelve or four- teen hours' employment, he swallows his meal, often drinks ardent spirits,, which aggravate greatly the power of every other destroyer of his constitution; and in the same bed, and the same air, he spends the night, as he did the night before, in the unre- fieshing sleep af already formed disease. Can we wonder that fevers, cutaneous, and other infectious diseases, originate in the unheeded persons, neglected bed?, ard unventilated dwellings of many of this class of the people. When the irruption of the ('holera forced us — I wish I could say from higher impulses than " fear" — to enter the manual labourer's abode, and explore the state in which he lived, a very general want of cleanliness was discovered, and in many houses a horrible state of filth. S.-vine- sties were in some instsmees found in the same room, already squalid with human crowdedness. The disclosure was too hu- miliating and alarming ever to be forgotten, and it Mas the first step to the cure of so great an evil, that it should be fully known. When to all now described is superadded the curse of ardent spiiits, the physical degradation of the mianual labourer is com- plete; and as a temporary stimulus to weakened nerves and a vacant mind, this vice is dreadfully prevalent among his class. He has from his childhood been left in profound ignorance of the effects of the practice upon the functions of his body, and in the 20 DRUNKENNESS— TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES*: degradation of his character. In the society in which he lives? on the contrary, he has been accustomed, from his childhood, to connect drinking with manly privilege, conviviality, and plea- sure, and to deem it not only safe, but wholesome and beneficial. Sunday is a day of too prevalent intoxication among the manual- labour "class; and their employers well know, that Monday and even Tuesday are in consequence what are called slack days in the workshop and manufactory. I have been assured, by be- nevolent medical practitioners v/ho visit the worst classes of manual labourers, that they find it unsafe, as well as disgusting, to- go among them on the days oftReir orgies, when the scenes of beastly drunkenness which they witness are altogether indescrib- able. It will afcerwards appear how education may be brought to bear upon this shocking rice, which is, in a greater degree than is generally supposed, a sin of ignorance. Without early moral training and intellectual enlightenment, it is to be feared that those well-meant experiments called Temperance Societies, will do little to reforni that part of the class in question who most require it. YS^hat is their vow to abstain, if you should get it, against their appetite to indulge 1 The vow binds none whom light and knov/ledge would not have more securely bound ; and it is well known to be a fact, that the example of the vovr has no effect on the ignorant and the debased. Yov/s are rejected by the truly moral: they would as soon think of tying their own hands: they are on principle members of the society of temipe- rance, without such artificial or mechanical aid; they use all things as not abusing them, and need not the compulsion of -an oath or an undertaking. It is knowledge of the mischiefe of spints-da inking that has brought all the sincere adherents of the societies within their pale ; their only error is their vow. None will join tiiem without knowledge, and when knowledge is at- tained generally, Temperance Societies will cease to be neces- sary. However, by all means, let all tie their own hands, who think they need that mode of restraint; the motive is inferior, but much direct good ^vill follow the restraint. The manual labourer whom filth, foul air, muscular and nerv- ous relaxation aggravated by ardent spirits, have combined to predispose to and affect v/ith disease, has had no lesson ever taught him that his v/eakened frame, predispositions, and actu- ally formed diseases, will be tb.e wretched inheritance of his children, if he shall become a father. The same ignorance that i;as induced his own condition, renders him reckless of the misery if not guilt of transmitting it. He himself derived a tainted constitution, perhaps, from his progenitor,-and, with his own actual deteriorations superadded, conveys it to his offspring; a few §uch generations must extinguish the stock — the very source of such a population. If infants are born in poisonous air. FAULTS OF SERVA>'TS. 21^ nursed in infectious beds, swathed in scanty and unchanged clothing, denied those ablutions so notoriously indispensable to the skin, when most vasculent and more active and important in the infant economy than all the viscera put together, — the last tasked beyond their power by the reflux circulation w-hich an un- conti acted and unobstructed skin would have disposed of, — is there just cause of wonder that they are swept away in thousands by convulsions, croups, and bowel-complaints, or tbat the seeds are sown in infancy of the numerous diseases of after life 1 The London bills of mortality prove that nearly a fourth of the infants baptised, die within the first two years from their birth. This mortality is not the design of the Creator : it is not true of the inferior animals, and therefore must have removeable causes: w^hich causes will assuredly be found in gross ignorance. The animals are guided aright by their instincts ; man ought to be di- rected as truly by his observing and reflecting powers, which were given him for that end; but then the condition of cultivatioa and improvement was annexed to the gift, and that command of the All-wise is forgotten or disobeyed. I have often thought the general complaint of aniioyance from, the faults of domestic servants scarcely reasonable, when we con- sider the class from which we receive them. With all the habits of negligence, disorderliness, and insensibility to filth and foul air, in which they have, in many cases, been born, nursed, and bred, they enter our houses, and most readily undertake to keep them in proper order, to anticipate the numberless minutiae of our personal accommodations, and at once supply, by intuition or sympathy, our wants, nay our whims. We soon find, though here, too, there are rare exceptions, that their notions and ours on all these points, differ widely. Great disarray and want of cleanliness to us, is order, neatness, and sweetness to them ; ven- tilating of rooms, and airing of beds, are to them mere trouble- some fancies ; dusting is an unnecessary disturbance of what by nature, falls so noiselessly and lies so impartially ; they remove^, of course, only what is pointed out to tiiem, and sit down con=, tentedly in the midst of what remains. In nothing should wa reap more every-day satisfaction from judicious education, than in the improvement of our domestic servants. Mr. Thackrah directs an enlightened attentioa to the causes- of unwholesomeness in manufactories, and trades in general, but almost all his suggestions imply the co-operating_ enlightenment of the work-people themselves,* ^ * I have just heard of a very promising contrivance for at one and liie same tim-e carrying off the dust from the atmosphere of cotton and flax-mills, and affording them ventilation. A series of circular perfora- 'aens are made in the floors, cormected with the open air by tubes, ■^yheeia are fitted into the holes, flush with the floor, and are moved ra^ 93 CLEANLINESS — WASHING-STATIONS. I anticipate the answer to all that has been said to me on the subject of the physical negligences of the nnanual-laboar class, iiameiy, that they have nu leisure to be cleanly in their persons, beds, and dwellings. From rest barely sufficient, they are sum- moned to renew their toil, and, after the close of day, they have neither time nor inclination for any thing but food and repose, I admit the monstrous evils, physical and moral, of excessive or over-prolonged labour, and in the sequel will submit some re- marks on the practicability of a reasonsable abridgement of the toil of the manual labourer, /or the purpose of education and im- provement, and that by wiser and more efficient means than com- binations to obtain it by force, to be spent, as unquestionably it now would be, in idleness and sensuality ; but I deny that clean- liness and ventilation are incom.patible with even the present de- gree of labour. There is time found for the ale-bench and the gin-shop. If cleanliness had been constituted a want, with -an appetite as strong, there would have been no neglect of it in the most overworked labourer. Personal ablution is the operation of a few minutes, ventilation is the opening of a window and a door, airing a bed is turning it down for an*hour, instead of mak- ing it up warm ; while clean body and bed clothes might be made a benefit of cheap and easy attainment, by the establishment, in every town of public washing-stations for boiling and line- drying.* The real obstacle is the utter indifference to and drs* inclination to the trouble of, cleanliness, which arises from ig^- aorance of its benefitSj and of the evils of its neglect. I shall here- after show how simply this most useful practical knowledge may be early and habitually impressed on the minds of the manual-la- bour class, to the immense improvement of their physical condi- tion. 2. The INTELLECTUAL Condition of the working-class we can scarcely expect, after what has been said of their physical, to find much more advanced ; it is in truth very low, and this I fear with fewer exceptions of importance. Who has not felt and deplored, in his intercourse with nearly the whole class, even what are deemed the most " decent" and respectable, the mass pidly round by the machinery. The dust is sucked out by these wheels as through so many whirlpools, and a current of used air is kept con^ stantly foUowmg the dust, while fresh is supplied by other apertures, * A plan for this purpose v^'as submitted to the Lord Provost of Edin- burgh two years ago. But this is far outdone by a washing and dry- ing apparatus, both "by the agency of steam, for which Mr. Lemuel Wright, 91 London Road, London, has a patent. Hot water charged with soap is several times forced by steam through the clothes packed in a copper vessel ; — this is followed by ho: water Dure ; — and this by simple steam, which rapidly dries the clothes. Hal? an hour completes a washing, and that without manual labour, or the attendance of the ov/ner. FLATTERY — VIOLENCE — STRIKES FOR WAGES. 23 of prejudice, superstition, and general ignorance, which he is doomed to encounter ? The working man rarely knows how to better his lot m lite, by rational reflection on causes and conse- quences, founded on early acquaintance with the simpler princi- ples of trade, the state of particular employments, the legitimate relation between labour and capital, and between labourer and employer, the best employment of surplus earnings, the value of character, the m.arketable importance, to say no more, of sober and moral habits and intelligence, in short, on any practical views of the circumstances which influence his condition. On the con- trary, he is the creature of impressions and impulses, the unre- sisting slave of sensual appetites, the ready dupe of the quack, the thrall of the fanatic, and, above all, the passive instrument of the political agitator, whose sinister views and falsehoods he is unable to detect, and who, by flattering his passions and preju- dices, has power to sway him, like an overgrown child, to his pur- poses of injustice, violence, and destruction. He is told in the harangue from the wagon, and he believes the demagogue's hypo- critical slang, that his class, because the most numerous are the most enlightened, and generous, and nohle,-— that they ought to make the laws, and rule the State ; nay that their will ought to be la^V; as iheir judgment is absolute wisdom. The poor man who believes this, will believe any thing, and will act on his be- lief as a ready instrument of violence. Witness the peril of the merely accused, but yet untried and unconvicted, who chance to fall into his hands, and a single hint in the street will raise the mob against an innocent person ; witness, too, the eager destruc- tion of machinery and property, and the mad burning of food, Can we forget, moreover, the fury and violence with which be- nevolently offered medical aid in the cholera was repelled, under the impression that ''the doctors" induced the disease to obtain subjects for disseciion, and went the length of poisoning the wa ter! In nothing is the manual labourer more prof<;undlv uninform- ed, than as to his own position in tiie market of labour, and the due relation of labour and capital. He is readily seduced to join combinations to extort larger wages and shorter hours, both of which misapplied, as in his present condition intellectual and moral they would be, to the purposes of idleness and sensuality, would only render his condition worse ; and too often he is not slow to aid the physical force of such short sighted unions, in intimidating and even assaulting, and, it has happened, maiming, nay murdering, other labourers who prefer giving their work to any employer, and at any value they think fit, to joining in the " strike." By this attempt to force a larger share of capital than without force would come to him, the Vv-orkmen s.ucc-eeds in nsthing but driving it away from the place, or oat of the ccun- ^4 STRANGERS TO INTELLECTUAL PLEASURES. try, and by his own acts puts even the wages he quarrelled with out of his reach. Education alone will make it clear to him, that it is in vain for the labourers to expect, in a market where their numbers exceed the demand, to succeed ultimately in th6 objects of a strike. Strike they must, in another sense, in the conflict, and then they vvill find that they have reduced the amount of the capital Vvhioh alone can employ and maintain them, and that ^evfer hands can be engaged at the same wages, or else lower wages than those that induced the stop, must be taken by the same number.* The pleasures of intellectual recreation and taste are necessa- rily unknown to nearly the whole of the manual-labour class. In vain for them has the All-wise given to the intellectual facul- ties to reap the highest enjoyment from their own exercise ; in vain for them has he connected exquisite delight with the con- templation of his boundless works and wonderful ways, of the transcendant beauty and sublimity of creation, and the harmo- nious relations of its infinitely varied parts, all tending to effect benevolent ends to sentient beings. The whole Book of Nature is sealed, — aye in this enlightened country — sealed to the nu- merous sons and daughters of manual labour ! I am well aware of the benevolent exertions made to dispel the intellectual dark' nessby such institutions as the Society for the DifFasion of Use- ful Knowledge, by means of the cheapest periodical ever pub- lished, and by private undertakings, such as Chamber's Edin- burgh Journal, and information for the People. Yet I fear it will appear in the sequel, that these admirable repositories of knowledge, of taste, and of virtue, are to an immense extent lost upon the mass of ignorance and grossness to which they are di- rected ; and that, as shall likewise afterwards be shown to be true of religion itself, knowledge like that conveyed in the Penny Magazine and Chambers's periodicals, requires early elementary training both intellectual and moral, for its beneficial reception, 3. The Moral condition of a large proportion of the manual- labour class is as low, at least, as the intellectual. I formerly quoted Mr. Wade's description of the moral condition of the manufacturing population of Manchester. But much short of this extreme is a low moral, in the more enlarged sense of that term ; and this, I fear, characterises a mr.ch wider range of the manual-labour class of the people. " Left to themselves," with- out an attempt made to restrain or regulate in infancy their animal propensities, or to call forth, cultivate, and exercise their * Miss Martineau has demonstrated this economical result, with her \isual felicity, in the " Manchester Strike," — No. VII. of those truly ^yonderful productions of truth, feeling, and fancy, "Illustrations of Po- litical Economy," known to the universal reading public, and marvelled at, as the work of a female pen. MORAL CONDlTlON^^^SUSPIC'IOlJiS — ENVYlN6g. 25 itibral sentiments, their faculties are prone to work as mere in- stincts, not greatly more under the guidance of reason than those of the infeiior animals. It depends entirely upon his degree of natural endowment, whether each individual manifests more or less animal feeling, more or less selfishness, more or less civility, kindness, or integrity. Without cultivation the animalism may be expected to preponderate, whence the desires will be selfish, and the manners coarse and violent. Hence the suspicions, jealousies, and envyings of multitudes in that class, and, what when compared with their merits often surprises us, their vanity and self-sufficiency ; hence also their tendency to act under the impulse of their feelings, and the obstacles they themselves op- pose to all benevolent attempts to do them good. These they often repel, as covert evil intentions for a sinister end. Selfish- ness is suspicious, and it is notorious that charitable institutions and benevolent schemes are too often looked upon with distrust by those for whose benefit they are intended. Some have at- tributed the malicious destruction of ornament and elegant deco- ration, when exposed to persons of this class, to an envious ha- tred of these marks of a refined enjoyment denied to themselves, lam rather disposed to think that an animal tendency to deface and destroy, which we observe in the youngest children, and which no pains has been taken to suppress or regulate by education, is sufficient to account for this unamiaWe trait of character in the humbler ranks of our countrymen. They are certainly not yet fit for free admission into parks, gardens, and museums ; and these, if they have been opened to them, by way of experiment, have been speedily shut against their reckless destruction, and often disgusting abuse of the privile^-e. Infant-school trained children, it is well known, may be trusted in the saloons of a palace, or amidst the temptations of a flower or fruit garden. The same training is the best preventive of cruelty to animals, a vice prevalent among the working classes, beginning with un- checked insect-torturing and rat and oat killing, and increased in their after years by cruel sports, boxing matches, and public exe- cutions to the length, in many cases, of dangerous ferocity. The home of the manual labourer is often an uncomfortable one. I make exceptions here, and I trust they are numerous, as I have done under the heads of physical comfort and intellectual improvement ; but I feel safe in speal'ig of a large portion who are below the moral rank of a peacetul and comfortable home. Of scanty supplies it is to be expected that much self-preference will be manifested in the partition ; if the man frequents the pot- house, and drinks ardent spirits, his selfishness is always greatly aggravated, and fierce and often dangerous brutality is super- added. The habitually excited lower feelings debase the whole family. The wife, from ill-usage, often in spite of her best ex- 3 26 UNCOMFORTABLE HOME— CRIMINALS A HAPPY HOME. (&rtionSj becomes as violent as her husband — if she has not, by her own improvidence and recklessness, to answer for his faults. The children, capriciously treated, are often wayward and ob- stinate, and the family circle exhibits a scene of strife, brawling, and violence. If our domestic servants often come from such homes, can we wonder at their proneness to manifest feelings which annoy us, oppose our wishes, and interfere with our com- forts'? I wish I could say that a low cunning does not prevail to a great extent among the manual-labourers ; and that even the simple peasantry, as they are called, have not their share of this character ; advantage-taking, in other words, fraud, is often boasted of, as a proof of address and talent ; straitened circum- stances induce grasping habits, when nice moral distinctions vanish, and the transition to crime is too eas3^ It follows that this class, not more from their numbers than the miserable habits of many of them, furnish, in a great proportion, what is called the criminal population. This last unhappy class of beings have all the worst habits we have described, and others yet more deeply immoral and dangerous to the community. That de- plorable kind of human intercourse, by which the criminal cor- rupt and confirm each other, and seduce especially the young from honest labour to criminal courses, is described at length in the treatise on criminal legislation in the appendix, No. I. which will appear to the reader, in many particulars, to form an im- portant and necessary sequel to the subject now before us. There are who are blessed with a well-regulated liome, v;hose members are accustomed, in the family intercourse, to control the unsocial and selfish feelings, and to exercise towards each other all the kindness and gentleness of the moral sentiments ; where each brings his or her share of knowledge, reflective sense, refinement, and elegance, to the common stock of domes- tic enjoyment; and, contemplating in the luxury of such exalted intercourse, the temporal reward of the right use of the faculties which God hath bestowed, and a foretaste of the exaltation of these faculties in eternal bliss, keep Him steadily before their eyes, in a sustained consciousness of gratitude and love. Such have forced upon their view a more striking contrast yet be- tween the lot of the manual-labour class and their own than the greatest possible difference in the physical accommodations of life can suggest. Nor are the elements of this contrast confined ■•0 the working classes. The rich in moral feeling may draw the same contrast between their own social condition and that of a large proportion of the imperfectly educated, whose physical condition is much above that of manual-labour. But when mo- ral, intellectual, and physical privations combine to aggravate each other, a point of human degradation is reached, lower than which man can scarcely fall, and which calls aloud on every INCESSANT LABOUR — UNHEALTHY TOIL — POOR LAWS. 2^ friend of his species to do what in him lies to raise his fellow men out of the mire in which they lie, and place them in the road which will bring them to a right use of their faculties, and its consequences in physical, intellectual, moral, and religious im- provement. The condition of the manual-labour class is unfavourably affected by several causes, partly extraneous to the fundamental source of their sufferings, their ignorance. One of these will be found in the incessant demand for their labour, to accumulate the gains of their employers, which has immemorially devoted three fourths of the workman's waking hours to toil. Another is evident in the number ofunwholesome occupations on which that toil is bestowed. Much light has been thrown, as already observed, on this last evil, in its various forms of vitiated air, deleterious materials, posture of body, exposure to sudden changes of temperature, and likewise on the preventives and remedies of the manifold evils thence arising, by Mr. Thackrah, chiefly in relation to the manufacturing population of Leeds. But it is not likely that these preventives and cures of the effects of unwholesome toil, will have the full efficiency intended by their benevolent proposer, or the season of labour itself be judiciously and beneficially abridged, without the aid of the workmen them- selves, when more moral and enlightened than they yet are. Prolonged toil and unwholesome labour are, no doubt, in one sense, imposed upon the working class ; but were they more en- lightened, they themselves will abridge the one, and counteract the other; the first by their own economy, moderation, and re- source, and the second by the appliance of much qualifying self- protection. I shall have an opportunity of returning to this subject. But perhaps the most gigantic evil, acting in co-operation with the ignorance of the working classes, is one which afflicts our southern neighbours of England more than ourselves ; and that is, the abuse of the Poor Laws, especially that unspeakable social gangrene the Allowance System, as it is called. By this, defi- cient wages are made up by alms, and a bounty offered for idle- ness, improvidence, and abandonment. The overwhelming con> sequences, which every economist predicted, have resulted in even a more blasting operation upon the whole condition and character of the working-class who have the misfortune of being within their influence, than was foreseen. The report of the Royal Commission of inquiry into the administration and opera- tion of the Poor Laws, it is moral sickness to peruse. From the great mass of matter a volume of extracts, embracing its most important information, has been published under the authority of Government. It is a shocking detail. The miserable public .economy of maintaining a great part of the population as partial as ALLOWANCE SYSTEM— DEMORALIZATION. and often total sinecurists, in other words paupers, is tenfoM aggravated, when the allowance, as is notoriously true, is ex- torted by violence, threats of incendiarism, and actualfire-raising ; for many of the fires have been traced to it. The evidence is overwhelming of the destruction, by this system, of the " vera- city, industry, frugality, and domestic viitues of the labourer ;" of " the rapid increase of vice, and profligacy," — " the preva- lence of the opinion that destitution, however produced, consti- tutesaclaim to be supported by the community, and that depend- ence on the parish is preferable to independent labour," — "the destruction of reciprocal feeling between parents and children," — " desertion of wives by their husbands," — " gross sensuality," — " improvident marriages, to the great increase of the eviri of an over-stocked labour-market," — " crime as the result of pau- perism" — " increase of illegitimate children, the allowance for an illegitimate being greater than for a legitimate child, and illegitimate children being a great advantage to their mothers under the present laws." When such a moral pestilence as this spreads over a land, in addition to the desert already made by popular ignorance, the Creator's designs have been defied by his creatures, and they are suffering the penalty of their disobedience. The Poor Laws may be reformed, but it must be done with power ; an immense pauper populatioa will cling to their abuses with convulsive per- tinacity ; the only cure for the pauper spirit is popular education.* 4. We feel it almost a mockery, after the foregoing exposi- tion, to ask what religion's progress is in the manual-labour class. It is the constant complaint of the teachers of religion, that its principles scarcely mingle in the thoughts, much less influence the actions, of the great body of this class. f I have always thought it a mistake to impute this to their want of the means of attendance on public worship ; in their present state, intellectual and moral, if the doors of churches were thrown open to them freely, they would not, in any considerable num- bers, enter them. The great majority want the impulse ; that impulse is another word for th& activity of the superior human faculties; but the inferior, almost exclusively, move the manual- labour class. Religion is not addressed to these ; it calls upon the intellect and moral sentiments to control these, as the law * It is satisfactory to find, that this very conclusion with regard to education is come to by the Commissioners. I have seen their sug- gestions since the above was in type. t Dr. Chalmers, in his speech in the Presbytery of Edinburgh on 23d January 1834, repeatedly deplored the ""practical heathenisvi" in which thousands of the population of Edinburgh live. He had even recourse to the strong figure, that it is necessary " to excavate the populaticnn^^ firmly imbedded in a mass of practical heathenism'" RELIGION OF MANUAL-LABOUR CLASS. 29 in the members which wars against it. A weekly discourse is as the passing wind in the ears of the habitually greedy, the envious; the sensual, the tyrannical, the revengeful, the utterly selfish : a stated preceptive lesson to love God, and his neighbour as him- self, is unheeded by the man whose whole soul is drawn by a power, which he was never taught practically to resist, in the opposite direction. When Sunday comes, he has the choice of listening to a repetition of this to him unwelcome precept, for the thousandth time, of hearing perhaps a purely doctrinal discourse en what have been miscalled the mysteries of a religion "re- vealed unto babes," or of enjoying a day of indolence, amuse- ment, or sensuality, or all three. He would not be an unedu- cated, uninstructed, demoralized man, if he hesitated. In the towns, a very small proportion of the class in question attend public worship.* In the country parishes, especially in Scotlandj a considerable portion of this class habitually appear in church. The parish minister knows each individual, and possesses over him a prescriptive pastoral influence ;- he is known, moreover, to all his fellow parishioners ; he is a slave to what in Scotland is called " the fear of the folk," and dreads the loss of character with which irregular performance of ostensible religious duties is followed, t But the church-going of a person so influenced is his whole religion ; it has a set day, and is then suspended till that day week. Of natural religion, as inferred from the glo- rious manifestations of God in physical and moral creation, he has not an idea ; some religious teachers even forbid him this ground ; and his Christianity is a set of abstract notions, without the semblance of practical direction. Unqualified selfishness re- sumes its reign in his heart, if it was ever suspended, and an in- fluence the antipodes of Christianity masters him, and continues to impel his thoughts, words, and actions,^ When we speak of a class, we are bound to make allowance for exceptions, and .now, as I have done before, I cheerfully make it. But that I * The opinion in the text was written before the report was pub- lished which contains the confirmative fact, that in the churches of Edinburgh the low-rented si ttings for the working classes are in by far the largest proportions untenanted. t An Englishman lately witnessed in Scotland an instance of this mettis populij this religio loci. A native friend, with whom he was walking, fled from his side without uttering a word, and took up a safe position behind a hedge, — " the folk" were coming out of the parish- church, and although the fugitive must have known that half of them had been sleeping in it, he could not meet them ! X This is especially true, when the uneducated man's pastor is of a sect that ranks doctrines so far above Christian morality, as nearly to shut out the latter from his pulpit. This has been too much the case with nearly all Protestant sects ; their creeds scarcely allude to the moral precepts of the Gospel; some of them seem even to exclude them. 3* §0 ' EDUCATIONAL PREPARATION. have tightly described the character of the religion of a large portion of his "parishioners, will not only not be denied by any parish minister, but is bewailed by all, every day of their lives. Yet, for none of our wants is so much provision made as for our religious. There is error somewhere. Far indeed is it from my thoughts to impute blame to the excellent men who are labouring !o " excavate the people from the mass of heathenism in which they are so firmly imbedded." They have no power over an erroneous system, and one not of their own creating. But the application of their part of the process is prem-ature. It is as if the metallurgist were to attempt to melt the gold before it is worked out of the vein ; education is the only excavating process ; preaching, in its utmost conceivable perfection, is a defective engine for the purpose, purely doctrinal preaching is utterly impotent. If education shall elevate, as it will be shown that education alone can, the intellectual and moral, and, by necessary con- sequence, improve the physical, condition of man, education is the human means which must greatly aid in preparing him to receive religious impressions in their genuine spirit, and to apply them to their intended practical ends. Before the sower went forth to sow, the soil was prepared. This previous preparation is so plainly pointed out in the parable, that it is surprising that any one can lose sight of it. He was on his way to prepared ground, when some seed fell by the uncultivated wayside. He did not expect to prepare the soil by the act of sowing the seed, else the seed would have taken root by its own virtue on the bare wayside, and risen and ripened even among the thorns. I shall have occasion to return to the important subject of a legi- timate use of human means ; these are, intruth, God's means; for they are the working of the faculties which He hath bestowed that they may be employed, and as such must be perfectly recon- cileable with a rational and scriptural view of spiritual influences, which some sincere but over excited Christians regard as direct miracles. Alas ! that their ejects should be so little visible, and so limited ! What the desiderated educational preparation shall be which will aid in furnishing the impulses to Christianity, not only for Sunday, but for every day of the week, will appear when I come to treat of Infant Education. The reader is requested to view in retrospect, the sufferings of the manual-labour class of our country, arising mainly, if not entirely, from their own ignorance ; and then survey the extent and nature of the provision made for their education, and he will cease to wonder. The great majority receive no education at all. The education of the class is certainly extending in Eng- land, and the parochial schools of Scotland are two centuries old. Bat we come to the question, what is the nature of the READING, WRITING, CIPHERING^ 31 education of the humbler classes which is extending in England, and has been so long established in Scotland 1 Is it of a kind to impart useful practical knowledge for resource in life— does it communicate to the pupil any light upon the important subject of his Cvvn nature and place in creation, — on the conditions of his physical welfare, and his intellectual and moral happiness ;— does it, above all, make an attempt to regulate his passions, and train and exercise his moral feelings, to prevent his prejudices, suspicions, envying, self-conceit, vanity, impracticability, de- structiveness, cruelty, aud sensuality 1 Alas ! No. It teaches him to READ, WRITE, and cipher, and leaves him to pick up all the rest as he may ! It forms an instructive example of the sedative effect of established habits of thinking, that our ances- tors and ourselves have so contentedly held this to be education, or the sixadow of it, for any rank of society ! Reading, writing, and ciphering, are mere instruments; when attained, as they rarely or never are, after all, by the working class to a reason- able perfection, they leave the pupil exactly in the situation where he would find himself, were we to put tools into his hands, the use of which, however, he must learn as he may. We know w-ell that he will be much more prone to misapply his tools, and to cut himself with them, than to use them aright. So it is with his readiag ; for really any writing and accounting of this class, even the most respectable of them, scarcely deserve the name, and may be here put out of the account. Reading consists in the recognition of printed characters arranged into syllables and words. With this most abstract accomplishment may coexist unregulated propensities, selfish passions, sensual appetites, filthy and intemperate habits, profound intellectual darkness and moral debasement, all adhering to a man as closely after as before he could read; and, be it marked, these qualities will give then- bias to his future voluntary reading, and assuredly degrade and vitiate its character; it will tend to strengthen his prejudices, deepen his superstitions, flatter his passions, and excite his ani- mal appetites. Well is all this known to the agitator, the quack, and the corrupter. They know that the manual-labourer can read; but they know, as well, that he is incapable of thinking, or detecting their impositions, if they only flatter his passions. No just views of life have ever been given him, no practical knowledge of his actual position in the social system. We are always told, that the majority of criminals cannot reaJ, as if the mere faculty of reading would have diminished the number &f criminals. This is a great delusion. For the reasons I have stated, mere reading might have increased the number of crimi- nals, it would be quite ineffective in diminishing them. But if the investigation had gone the length of ascertaining with which of the criminals had an attempt at moral training and useful 3S SCOTTISH PARISH SCHOOLMASTERS. knowledge ever been made, we should have found that coIuniR of the table a blank, and something like cause and effect would begin to dawn upon us. It is needless to pursue so obvious a matter farther. If a national system of education is to stop at reading, Vv-riting, and ciphering, it would save much trouble and after disappointment not to attempt it at all. If I am reminded of the great improvements introduced by the Lancasterian Sys- tem, I answer, that I have not seen in the generality of such schools, any thing more than abridged methods — the monitorial chiefly — of teaching numbers to read, write and cipher.''^ I am aware, too. of what is called the explanatory system, at the head of which stands pre-eminently Mr. Wood of Edinburgh, which puts books of useful knowledge into the pupil's hands, and exer- cises him upon their import, with much collateral information, But that System does not introduce him to realities^ to external nature and its qualities, and the relation thereof to himself; it does not impart to him a knowledge of the condition of his weal and happiness, and his real position in life. It is, besides, almost exclusively intellectual, and, except in religious lessons, is not addressed to the moral faculties directly. If there be a school for the children of the working class, excepting always the Wilderspin Infant Schools, which systematically takes pains to educate the pupil of this rank of life against the evils which have been shown to arise from his ignorance, and to a deplorable ex- tent actually afflict him, I have not been so fortunate as to hear of it. In most schools, even the parochial, which by incogitate habit we call " the pride and glory of Scotland," some sprink- ling of the explanatory system has been introduced; twenty years ago, no attempt was made to explain any thing; but in none — certainly in none, is there any provision for the kind of education which is to make the working man wiser and better, in the manner I have attempted to describe. A new and better system will make a great change on " the pride and glory of Scotland," and, in that change, conferring a rather better claim to that title upon its parochial seminaries, greatly elevate the rank and endowments of their teachers. 1 know these to be in general excellent persons, much accustomed to be praised and starved by the Scottish public. I know some of them who are learned men, according to the usual acceptation of the word, that is, thorough Greek and Latin scholars ; others are mathemati- cians, and mechanical philosophers, and all are theologians; but they might as well be Brahmins for any good their manual- labour * Mr. Dun, of the Edinburgh Davie-street School, decidedly the best Lancasterian teacher I have yet met with, has introduced much useful knowledge into his plan; and, if the means were afforded him, would vet do much more. PREJUDICES. 33 pupils reap from such extra accomplishments, beyond reading, writing, and ciphering. The reader is requested now to estimate the value of an opinion, so common as almost to have grown into a set formula, which Ave are quite certain of hearing given forth, by several ladies and gentlemen at once, in every company where the edu- cation of the manual-labour class is mentioned. " I am no friend to over-educating the working classes, — education is running greatly too fast, — teach them to read and write, all beyond is above their condition, and only serves to make them discontent- ed with it." This current twaddle comes of the imperfection of the education of those who echo it; an imperfection that has other bitter fruits, to be noticed in the next chapter ; the only excuse for it, is the ignorance of these opinionists of the length, and breadth, and height, and depth, of the social error which they espouse and circulate. 34 CHAPTER II. ON THE EFFECTS OF IMPERFECT EDUCATION ON THE CONDITION OF THE CLASS OF THE PEOPLE ABOVE MANUAL-LABOUR. The term "Educated class," relative— Our vast attainments in Physical Science — Confusion and error in Moral world — Controversy and party divisions — Contrast of sound legislation — General selfishness —Demands of Christianity— Religion of the " Educated"— Large provision for it — Want of educational preparation — Fanaticism and insanity— Certain social defects remnants of barbarism, national jealousies, offensive wars, criminal code, &c. — Barbarous customs, fox-hunting, engrossing rural sports, &c. — Happiness not attained, reasons—False views of life— Young men of fortune— Waste of life, wealth, and happiness by the affluent — Their marriages — Sedentary study — Instructive illustrations on this head — Incogitate pursuit of wealth— Over-tradinff, glutted markets— Unwelcome inquiry— Good admitted — Causes of our social evils — No moral training in educa- tion—Milton, Locke, Kames— Reading— Dead languages—False morality of classics — Barbarism of the ancients — Scientific studies —Science of Man, physiological, mental and moral, a blank in Edu- cation. The term " educated class," as applied to the portion of our countryman who are above manual labour, will scarcely be ta- ken by any one to mean that they enjoy the means of education perfect, or nearly perfect. The term is relative, and certainly, when compared with the manual-labour class, who have no edu- cation at all worthy the name, we are an educated class. But no error is more profound, or more prevalent, than the persua- sion that we are an educated class in the best sense of the term. Our complacent conclusions on the subject are, however, ex- ceedifigly natural. Look, it is said, at our libraries, our ency- clopedias, teeming, as they do, with knowledge in every branch of science and literature. See our chemical, mathematical, me- chanical powers, with all their realized results, which seem to mould material nature to our will and render life proudly luxu- rious. Then turn to our classical literature, our belles-lettres, our poetry, our eloquence, our polished intercourse, our refined iociety ; consider our fine arts and elegancies ; and, above all? CONTROVERSY — PARTIES^ — IMPROVED LEGISLATION. 3^ think of our legislation, our political economy, our institutionss of benevolence and justice, and the gigantic combinations of our entire national system. There is much in these high-sounding claims that deceive us. We are prone to borrow from the large fund of credit we possess in the exact and physical sciences, to place the loan to the account of universal intellectual and moral attainment, and to conclude that a pitch of improvement, which enables us to travel thirty miles an hour, must comprise in it every thing else of knowledge and power. But alas! when we look beyond the range of physical tangibilities, and, it may be, elegant literature, into the region of mental and moral rela- tions, in short the science of man, upon which depend the wis- dom of our legislation, and the soundness of our institutions and customs, what a scene of uncertainty do we see ! Fixed princi- ples in social affairs have not yet been attained. Scarcely shall we meet two individuals who are guided by the same code. Hence controversy is the business of the moral, and assuredly, we may add, of the religious world. If any measure affecting the public is propounded, there arises a perfect hurricane of op- position and denunciation, as if it were the most monstrous of errors, and the most atrocious of crimes. No plan or project, re- ligious, civil, economic, or merely ornamental, can be proposed, without tearing to pieces the conventions of courtesy, nay, the feelings of common charity, and exposing a lamentable scene'of inconsistency and passion. We find sects of men combining to attain by their union certain proposed ends, and these seem to *be guided by principles which they all acknowledge ; for there is no want of party array, and skilful party tactics ; but when we find that the spirit of party is violence and hatred, we must search the humbler region of selfishness for the bond of their union, for we cannot recognise among them any thing which is entitled to be called profound philosophical, or high moral, prin- ciple. Nothing more exposes the low state of our present moral attainments than the endless disputes and hatreds, which are the sum and substance of what are called our politics. If the time shall ever arrive, when legislation shall be brief and practical, founded in benevolence and justice, purified of vain personal display, freed from selfishness, party spirit, pride of caste, and sacrifice to particular interests, — either of an exclu^ sive aristocracy on the one extreme, or a reckless, impatient, and often most aristocratic democracy on the other, — when it shall cease to be fettered by a constituency less enlightened than representatives animated by a single hearted love to their coun- try and their species, when it shall become an easier task, be- cause abuses will be already removed, and laws will come to be less retrospective remedies than onward meliorations, moving abreast with human improvement, what will be thought of the 36 SELFISHNESS — FASHION— CONTUMELY. political dissensions which'at present degrade and retard public affairs ! Of the game of parties, with all its frauds and hypocri- sies, — the irreconcileable varieties of opinion, — the diversity of views, — the fierceness of divisions ! A wide-spread selfishness alone accounts for this spectacle ; and who can deny that a systematic selfishness, regulated by law and conventional ex- pediency, is the impelling power, — at once the bond which unites, and the divellent influence which tears asunder, the centripetal and centrifugal forces which preserve yet disturb the circum- scribed orbit of our social relations. To engross as much wealth, gain as much of what is miscalled distinction, and outstrip our neighbour, is the business of life. We have, too, our cold hearted fashion, which denies those without its frivolous pale well-nigh a common nature ; and we have all the successive ex- clusions and repellants descending in society, and freezing up the sources of good-will and brotherly love, which should flow downward to soften and fertilize the humblest regions of the com- munity, and unite the whole in mutual good-will and contented co-operation. It is this habitual contumely \vhich separates the great body of the manual-labour class from all who merely enjoy more physical comfort and ease of life, in a scowling at- titude of distrust, envy, and hostility. Talk to us of a more liberal basis of social being, of a higher morality, a more wide spreading philanthropy, nay of a mitigation of selfishnsss, a moderation of wealth engrossing, a transference of our worship from artificial badges to real intellectual and moral merit, a kindlier feeling to our universal fellow men, and w-e meet you with, mockery, as we point to what we call " human nature," and leturn to our money-getting and self-exaltation. Buonaparte was right, — we are a nation of shop-keepers. Nevertheless, when It is put to us in the abstract, we admit that Christianity demands all, and we are terribly scandalized when our Chris- tianity is doubted. Do we not attend church, and yield our assent to the precepts and doctrines there taught? Do we not prove our zeal by cordially hating all other religious sects, cum odlo theologicol Are we not the foremost and the loudest in shouting the approved watch-words of " irrehgion," " infidelity," to raise the moh to put down all heresy and schism, — that is all opinions not our own? And are we not ready to shed our blood, if we refuse to mend our lives, for the Church, which has always formed an essential part of our politics, and been toasted by us in many an overflowing cup of conviviality. It can scarcely be averred, that any considerable portion of the church-going of the " educated class," have more practical week-day Christianity, than that which was predicated of the manual-labour class. If we should ask any of the first how much of what they listen to on Sunday influences their views RELIGIOUS STATE — MORAL DEFECTS — FANATICISM. 37 and acts in life, they would be sorely puzzled to answer the -question. Yet there are no institutions of public instruction, both as supported by state establishments, and by, the zeal of private associations, more largely, endowed than the ecclesiasti- cal, no part of our well-being more cared for. What is the cause of so small a harvest, from so immense a cultivation 1 Why does not the seed so plentifully sown fructify and produce ; Ther^ is but one answer to this question, we are not a mo- rally EDUCATED PEOPLE. There is a barrenness of soil among us, where genuine Christianity refuses to take root ; there is a worse, there are the thorns of an inherent selfishness, which choke it ; tares pre-occupy the whole field, and the husbandmen sow in vain. As vvas predicated of their efforts to excavate the lower classes from the heathenism in w^hich they are imbedded, our religious guides address themselves to unprepared minds much higher up in the social scale. Yet if a stranger to the actual religious condition of the " educated" were to hear our talk on the subject, he might mistake us for a religious people ; if he contemplated our animosity, division, and violence in the matter, although he might miss the spirit of Christianity, he could not fail to be struck with our zeal each for his own dogmas, and for their substitution, by the force of indirect persecution, for all others ; dogmas, too often adopted yesterday for others as dogmatically maintained the day before, — " As if religion were intended For nothing else but to be mended." Nay, he would see religious /ee/m^ running into the mo^^t extra- vagant credulity and fanaticism among us; and if he did not know that that melancholy extreme is capable of a physiologi- cal explanation, as an actual disease of the brain, which sees vi- sions, hears voices, and dreams dreams, he might conclude that we are an 02;er-religious generation. • But the indiiference and the enthusiasm have alike their origin in an imperfect education, in unprepared uncultivated feelings, which, according to the pre- disposition and temperament, are either roused to excess by the mere sympathy — the hysteria of a diseased enthusiasm, or are not stirred at all. A catalogue of our social defects, all referable to the educa- tion wherewith we are mocked, might be expatiated upon to the extent of a volume ; the remnants these, of barbarism which still clings to us and our institutions, customs, habits, and man- ners. 1 will venture to enumerate a few of these. We direct yet, for example, an evil eye to our fellow-men in other commu- nities, and speak of our " natural enemies !" W^e are disgraced by national jealousies, national antipathies, commercial restric- 4 38 SOCiAL DEFECTS — BARBAftOUS CUSTOalS^ tions, and often'offensive war. We have our game laws and cri- minal code also to^account for, Broughtto the standard of sound ethics and reason, there are many of our customs that have as little chance as these of escaping the reproach of barbarisms which an educated people would disown, cruel rural sports, for example, fox-hunting, horse-racing, betting, gambling, prize- lighting, duelling, and excessive conviviality. The character and engrossing claims of rural sports, as they are called, will astonish a future better educated age.* Such an age will scarcely believe ^' the butcher work that then befell" the un- sparing slaughter of all that is furred and feathered and finned, m field and flood, " on mountain, moss, and moor';" they will discredit the graft of the hunting stage of the race upon a civili- ■zation, at its lowest, immensely in advance of that stage ; they will reject the story that the boast of the Iroquois and the Es- quimaux was also the distinction of the most pohshed ornaments of our drawing-rooms, namely the havoc of their unerring aim, the life they have extinguished, the blood they hare shed, the " head of game" they have gloried over as trophies spread out dead before them, and the larders which they have outdone the butcher in stocking ! All is not right in our habits of thinking, —in other words in our education,-~when our " elite" can 'ciaim, and multitudes can accord, a certain distinction to a "capi- tal shot," the victor in what the Olympics knew not,—" a stee- ple chace," or the proprietor of a pony which can trot sixteen miles an hour. I know the ready answer to such strictures on rural sports, and that answer implies the very educational vacuum which there IS so much reason to deplore. It is of great importance, it is said, to our rural popuJation, that the aristocracy shall pass a reasonable portion of their time in the country. They are the spoiled children of excitement, and if you withhold that in the country, they will seek it in the capital, in pursuits and pleasures infinitely more debasing and more ruinous to health and fortune. Look at Paris. Is an educated aristocracy here spoken of? Is it indeed so, that in the alternative of their urban or rural ex- citement the objects are so low % Is it indeed so, that without the slaughter of its innocent animals, which spread a living poet- ry over its fields, our " better classes" find no attractions in the country, no delight in " the green fields of England in the merry month of May," no luxury in the roses of June, the pride of July, the mellowness of autumn ; that they indeed — ■ * I say engrossing claims, for I grant that killing game is as legiti- mate as killing mutton, and do not quarrel with a subordinate and mo- derate resort to the field by those whose main avocations are more use- ful and dignified. It is healthful exercise ; I cannot concede to it a higher merit. STSfKORANCE OF NATURE'S LAWS. 39* " Renounce the boundless store Of charms which Nature to her votary yields, The warbling woodland, the resounding shore, The pomp ofgroves, and garniture of fields, All that the genial ray of morning gilds, And all that echoes to the song of even, All that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields, And all the dread magnificence of heaven." Can we have a more rousing proof than this of a defective^ nay a perverted education 1 I say perverted, for the barbarism IS actually inculcated ; the vacuum is filled, by precept and example, with images of rural slaughter ; the young idea is taught to shoot most carefully, and the tender thought assidu- ously reared, which longs for manhood and bloodshed. The spirit of severity, and even cruelty and blood, of our criminal code, has with no small reason been imputed, in some respects, 10 this remnant of the hunting stage of society., The evils suffered by society from ignorance of the human faculties and their right application, will be more obviouss when we inquire what the faculties and their relations are ; it may suffice at present; to say, that happiness is rarely if ever attained, and that the preponderance of selfish feelings which are incapable of rational satisfaction, verifies the truth that ** a^l is vanity and vexation of spirit." Ignorance of physical and organic conditions of health produces disease, while it transmits the consequences in weakened constitutions to off- spring. The selfish desire of wealth brings together in matri- monial alliance the predisposed to disease and insanity^ and bit- ter domestic suffering is the consequence. The same desire of wealth, added to ambition to rise above others, regulates or rather detanges the whole system of life, and there is not one ray of light but disregarded Christianity, to guide in a direction more consistent with real happiness. This is ignorance of the moral conditions of human weal. An enlightened friend of the au- thor's once asked an excellent young man about to embark for India, what views he entertained of life, and the objects of his own existence ? The question was new to him. He had heew " well educated," in the common acceptation of the words, but he had never conceived that life had any higher aim than to ac- quire a fortune, marry, rear a family, live in a fine house, drink expensive wines, die, and go to heaven ! There was no provi- sion in this for reaping enjoyment from the higher faculties of his nature ; he was not aware that these had any other function to perform than to regulate his conduct in the pursuit of the grati- fication of his inferior feelings. This is the condition of mind in which almost all young men of the upper and middle classes of society enter into active life : and nothing can well be con- 40 FALSE VIEWS — PURSl/ITS OF MEN OF fORTUN^. ceived more disadvantageous to their success and happiness.. Those who are what is called religiously educated, are not more fortunate ; because no sect in religion has yet addressed itself ta the duty of teaching the nature of man, the value of pursuits in life, the institutions of society, and the relation of a]l these to the religious and moral faculties of man ; without understand- ing these, no person entering upon active life can see his way clearly, or entertain consistent or elevated views of duty, and the true sources of happiness. This deficiency in knowledge is also remarkably exemplified in young men born to large fortunes, who have succeeded in mi- nority to their paternal estates, and, on attaining majority, are by law entitled to pursue their own happiness in their own way. It is quite lamentable to observe the humble, the debasing course they almost ahvays adopt. Rational views of themselves, of hu- man nature, and of the institutions of society,, would be invalua- ble to such individuals ; but they have no adequate means of obtaining them, while positively false views have been implant- ed in their minds by a perverted education. I grant the case to be an extreme one, of a young gentleman of large fortune, not destitute of talents and good feeling, and regularly subjected to all the appliances of dead language education at school and col- lege, who, on the day of his majority, was declared a free man, v/ith power to choose the most likely road to real happiness. What did he do ? He established, of course, a stud of hunters, a pack of hounds, and a whole armory of fowling-pieces, — gal- loping and blazing and slaughtering being universally h^ld in- separable from wealth and rank, in the present state of civiliza- tion. Coach-driving, either of private four-in-hand vehicles or the public conveyances, is no longer sanctioned by general ap- probation, as suiting the age ; nevertheless our hopeful had a trial of coach-driving. From this he was diverted by matrimony, and postnuptialiy took to another gratification of his faculties of rather an original kind ; he placed cats upon a float in the mid- dle of a pond, and sent dogs to swim and attack them ! This last occupation would have been disdained by a young nobleman of immense possessions, who, at a feast in honour of his majority, manifested the best natural dispositions, by acknov^^ledging that he had always been taught, and had always felt, that the great duty imposed upon him by his rank and fortune, was to do good. The declaration was sincere, and the character of the speaker such as to warrant the belief that he would act upon it, if his education had been such as to have shown him hoio to do so, or rather, as the previous point, what to do. To keep a pack of hounds, to be followed over fields and enclosures by the elite of the county, does not stand very high in the scale of good : to engage keenly in party politics is not good, for these are gene- HOW TO DO GOOD. 41 rally incompatible with the general weal : to dispense costly and luxurious hospitality indiscriminately, is to do wide-spreading mischief: to pursue or encourage idleness or frivolous occu- pations, is not good : to strengthen, by influence and example, the pride of rank and its correlative sycophancy, to uphold the heartless, icy, withering, barriers of fashion, and, by external pomp, circumstance, and equipage, to shut out the knowledge of, and sympathy with the general mass of society, cultivated and uncultivated, are all severally bad, and, although much the practice of our nobility, injurious, in a degree to which their edu- cation shuts their eyes, to themselves and to society. Educa- tion rendered what it ought to be, will point out " what is good," both in its temporal and spiritual sense, to the wealth-loaded fa- vourites of fortune. " To do good and to communicate," is emi- nently in their power, if they will first, "with all their gettings, get knowledge," and apply it to useful purposes ; if they will learn and value the acts and manifestations of high intellectual and moral endowments, more than physical comforts, sensual en- joyments, and external pomp; if they will seek the society of enlightened and benevolent men, whose intellects are replenish- ed with knowledge of the Creator's works and ways, whose hearts swell with wonder, adoration, and love, whose whole minds are instinct with sympathy v/ith, and ardent desire for, hu- man happiness. With their aid they would know how to con- vert their wealth into a powerful engine of social benefit, and, from this the legitimate gratification of the higher faculties of their nature, they would enjoy as well as confer real good. The very proposition of such a course for a rich, splendid, ele- gant, " and spirited" young nobleman, would of course, at pre- sent, raise in himself and the whole table he presides at, a roar of incredulous and scornful laughter, the natural expression of the very barbarism so much to be deplored. But, with more enlight^ ened views, it will com.e to be acknowledged that the waste of life, fortune, and happiness, by the affluent, which characterizes the present, as it has marked the past ages of the world, is ow- ing in no small degree, to ignorance of human nature, its wants and capacities — in other words, to imperfect educationt A volume might be filled* with proofs of the suffering from igflorance which visits all classes, and none more than the high- er. The inactivity of the faculties of persons of fashion, is a per- fect tcBdium vitiB. Their vacuity and dislike to mental exercise is constant ennui, and their indisposition to muscular exercise and fresh air, brings in its train a who!© catalogue of ailments. Their * An admirable volnme has been so filled— -"The Constitution of Man in relation to External Objects"— by Mr. George Combe, of Edin- burgh, a work in its second edition in America, and already translated ento French, German, and Swedish. 4* 42 SEDENTARY STUDY — INSTRUCTIVE ILLUSTRATION. carriages " stop the way" to health, bloom, and beauty. Who has not pitied, wheo they were thought to envy, the pale-faced victim dragged to what is called an airing, in which lungs and limbs are alike unconcerned, and are both tending to a state of disease by impeded circulation and impaired digestion. Much of high life is an ignorant defiance of Nature's lav/s, and is visited with enfeebled functions, lassitude, uneasiness, anxiety, and a thousand evils, arising from infringement of institutions, which when observed and obeyed, lead to delight and happiness. No considerations but rank and wealth determine matrimonial alli- ances, and these are often in corsequence ill assorted. The en- feeblement and diseases of high life are by Nature's law trans- mitted to offspring, as surely as those of the reckless and disso- lute mechanic ; the powers of mind suffer deterioration from the influence of impaired nerves and brain ; the race itself degenerates, and imbecility and even insanity visit the palaces of the great, much more, in proportion to their numbers, than the hovels of the poor. It "is lamentable to see ignorance of the conditions of health inducing the aspirant to college honours to impose upon himself more prolonged labour than that to which the manual-labourer is forced by want of bread, reckless that he loses health and life in the pursuit. In the biographies of early talent, when I have come to the usual passage, " when his companions played, he remained to read and study," I have looked on a few pages, and always found that he died early. No attempt is made in our de- fective education to inculcate and impress such knowledge up- on us ; and we find the most talented men acting in practical disregard of these conditions of health and longevity. I cannot withhold the following apposite and most instructive passage from Mr. Combe's work, already referred to, on the Constitu- tion of Man. " No idea can be more preposterous, than that of human beings having no time to study and obey the natural in- stitutions. These laws punish so severely, v>'hen neglected, that they cause the offender to lose tenfold more time in under- going his chastisement, than would be requisite to obey them. A gentleman extensively engaged in business, whose nervous and digestive systems have been impaired by neglect of the or- ganic laws, was desired to walk in the open air at least one hour a-day ; to repose from all exertion, bodily and mental, for one full hour after breakfast, and another full hour after dinner, be- cause the brain cannot expand its energy in thinking and aiding digestion at the same time, and to practise moderation in diet ; which last he regularly observed ; but he laughed at the very idea of his having three hours a day to spare for attention to his health. The reply was, that the organic laws admit of no ex- ception, and that he must either obey them, or take the conse- iNCOeiTATfi PURSUIT Ot^ WEALTIf. 4S quences: bat that the time lost by the punishment would be double or treble that requisite for obedience ; and accordingly the fact was so. Instead of his attending an appointment, it is qttite usual for him to send a note, perhaps at two in the after- noon, in these terms : — ' I was so distressed with headach last night, that I never closed my eyes, and to-day I am still incapa- ble of being out of bed.' On other occasions he is out of bed, but apologises for incapacity to attend to business, on account of an intolerable pain in the region of the stomach. In short, if the hours lost in these painful sufferings were added together, and distributed over the days when he is able for duty, he would find them far outnumber those which would suffice for obedience to the organic laws, and with this difference in the results ; by neg- lect he loses both his hours and his enjoyment ; whereas by obe- dience, he would ber e warded by aptitude for business, and a pleas- ing consciousness of existence." Perhaps the most wide-spreading mischief to society comes of the only other ignorance with which I shall detain the read- er, the ceaseless, indiscriminate, and incogitate pursuit of wealth. There are no limits to this object with most men, but the stern barriers of law. Merchants and manufacturers hasten to be rich beyond the course of nature : they engage in adven- tures for which they have neither capacity nor talents ; they enter into the most inconsiderate partnerships ; they lend and borrow and involve each other in the consequences of the rashest specu- lations; and they live in splendour far beyond their means. Machinery should reasonably abridge bodily toil, and leave leisure for intellectual and moral improvement, with its con- comitant enjoyment; but machinery has been used only to over- labour workmen and overstock markets; prices fall ruinously low; the labourers lately overworked are thrown idle, and left to starve or be supported on charity ; what are called " better" times return ; the glut is removed, work is abundant ; avarice again overdoes, and again the market is glutted, and the labour- ers again thrown into idleness, starvation, and misery. In 1825- 6-7, these views were fearfully verified ; large bodies of work- men were supported on charity. For many miserable hours they were idle, which hours, distributed over the time of their labour, would have afforded them sufficient daily subsistence. The Creator intended man to labour a reasonable portion of his time, but when man infringes this law by abuse, he defeats his own end ; he is thrown idle longer than all the time put to- gether which, in each day, would have given him salutary leisure. This has been written in broad characters, and should be remembered. It is a curious and instructive fact, that when these miscalled good times returned, and labour was in re- quest, workmen struck for higher wages, and for months som& 44 GLUTTED MARKETS — UNWELCOME INQUIRY. manufactories were from this cause stopped ; when the glut re* turned and its consequences, these masters were the most fortu- nate, for they had less on hand, and, blind themselves, had been taught by their blind workmen in quest of a different object, that the overtrading of their neighbours was a folly which they had, by no wisdom of their own, but by an accidental combination of circumstances, escaped. At the present moment, prosperity has returned : the seconder of the Address, in the House of Com- mons, the other night, went into a detail to show that all our manufactures were thriving and affording full employment. Let as not boast. Love of money, hurry to be rich, still afflict our imperfectly educated capitalists. Competition will urge them on in the race, another glut will stop them, their workmen will again be thrown idle, and much commercial distress will be the consequence. In nothing is education more wanted, than for the attainment of principles which shall put the race for wealth under rational practical regulation, that it may not defeat itself, and subject society to a constant alternation of mock prosperity and overwhelming misery. But we must proceed, from the evils which visit the class of society above manual labour, although they are by no means ex- hausted, to a short inquiry into their causes. Before doing so, however, it may be necessary to guard the picture I have drawn from the imputation of being overcharged, and on that ground rejected as altogether false. This objection is most likely to come from persons who live in comfortable circumstances, and a fair external good will towards the circle of their acquaintan- ces, the world to them, and among whom they know kind-heart- ed, decent, moral, religious, and even a few generous individuals , who shrink from the disgusting task of examining the sores of society, or going deeper than a very satisfactorily varnished skin which covers them ; who feel in their own persons no in- convenience from alleged social evils, the degradation, physical and moral, of the M^orking classes, and the humble attainments and practical errors of the middle and higher ; and who even resent being disturbed by the tiresome people who are always croaking " that whatever is is wrong," instead of enjoying the far more consolatory conviction, that v/hatever is is right. Readi- ly do I concede to the most contented of these objectors, that there IS a large portion of genuine good, moral and religious, in socie- ty ; that this, with a much larger ingredient of conventional morality, and its result positive law, preserves the system from falling to pieces, which it would do in an hour were the picture I have drawn of the lower and higher classes of universal and unqualified application. The higher sentiments are at work in our legislation, and our social economy ; justice is extending its mfluence, and benevolence and charity are distinguishing the EVILS EXIST — NO MORAL TRAINING. 45' age.* But while all this is granted, it is maintained that the positive evils which have been enumerated, do exist ; nay more, that they immensely preponderate, and we should deeply miscal- culate if we glossed over and spared them for the sake of the good wherewith they are mixed. When the question is an- swered, What is our Education ? all that has been said of our condition will be easily and naturally accounted for. 1. There exist no adequate means, either in private famihes or public institutions, with the exception of Infant Schools, for educating the feelings, improving the dispositions, re- straining the inferior propensities, and exercising the higher sentiments, — in short, for moral training. In all this we took our chance, and picked up what we might from partial parents, nursery maids, and juvenile companions. The animal feelings being the strongest, acted in ns with all the blindness and all the power of instincts, and laid a broad and deep founda- tion for habitual selfishness. There is no greater change, nay, revolution in education, than will arise out of the nascent want, — the incipient demand which is felt by the more enlightened part of society, for this education's paramount object. Multitudes do not yet know what it means, or laugh at it as a wild chimera, when they succeed in imperfectly taking in the idea. The re- fracted ray — the full light, is seen from the mountain before it shines upon the valley ; but it must shine as the day, and widely influence our institutions, before we shall merit the name of an educated people. As a proof of the slow progress of truths which nevertheless concern man in his most vital social interests, it is instructive to look back and find such truths announced to an cige long past, by master minds that arose long before the gene- ration qualified to appreciate their genius, and profit by their wisdom. Milton and Locke both advocated moral training , they held it paramount to intellectual, and intellectual merely subservient to it. One hundred and fifty years have passed since they urged on the notice of their countrymen its superi- ority and necessity ; but no attempt was made to act upon the principles they taught, till within the last fifteen years, when the first Infant School realized their bequest to their country, and commenced the era of moral education. I cannot withhold the solemn words of these great men. Impressed, as I am pro- foundly, with a conviction of their transcendent value, they are * The entire generation is apt to take credit for the institutions of charity. The subscription lists of these tell a different tale. It has been observed, that about 1500 known individuals, of the 150,000 of which Edinburgh is composed, support all the charitable estabhsh- ments in the place. The London proportion would be 15,000. ^ It would be interesting to know how the fact stands, — charity balls and music^ ^Stivals, of course, excluded. 46 MILTON, LOCKE AND KAMES S VIEWS. to me, as it were, " the voice of the spirits of the mighty dead." Milton's words are these, " The end of learning is to repair the ruin of our first parents, by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest, by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the Heavenly grace of faith, make up the highest perfection." — {Letter to Samuel Hartlib.) Locke says, " It is virtue, then, direct virtue, which is the hard and valuable part to be aimed at in education, and not a forward pertness, or any little arts of shifting. All other con- siderations and accomplishments should give way, and be post- poned to this. This is the solid and substantial good, which tu- tors should not only read lectures and talk of, but the labour and art of education should furnish the mind with, and fasten there, and never cease till the young man had a true relish of it, and placed his strength, his glory, and his pleasure in ii.^''— Lockers Thoughts concerning Education, ^ 70. "Learning must be had, but, in the second place, as subser- vient only to greater qualities. Seek out somebody . (as your son's tutor,) that may know how discreetly to form his manners : place him in hands where you may as much as possible secure his innocence, cherish and nurse up the good, and gently correct and weed out any bad inclinations, and settle him in good habits. This is the main point, and this being provided for, learning may be had into the bargain." — ^ 147. " But under whose care soever a child is put to be taught, during the tender and flexible years of his life, this is certain, it should be one who thinks Latin and language the least part of education ; one who, knowing how much virtue and a well tem- pered soul is to be preferred to any sort of learning or language, makes it his chief business to form the mind of his scholars, and give that a right disposition; which, if once got, though all the rest should be neglected, would, in due time, produce all the rest ; and which, if it be not got and settled so as to keep out^ill and vicious habits, languages and sciences, and all the other ac- complishments of education, will be to no purpose but to make the worse or more dangerous man." — § 177. Lord Kames anticipated his age more than half a century. In his Hints on Education, with profound truth to us, but mere sentimental writing to the generation he addressed, he says, " It appears unaccountable that our teachers generally, have directed their instructions to the head, with very little attention to the heart. From Aristotle, down to Locke, books without number have been composed for cultivating and improving the under- standing : few in proportion for cultivating and improving the affections. Yet surely, as man is intended to be more an active |t)ian a contemplative being, the educating of a young roan to (OUR FIRST SCHOOL — CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 47 behave properly in society, is of still greater importance than the making him even a Solomon for knowledge." Society has suffered much, and suffers severely, for its ignorant neglect of these admonitions. The principle and the practice of moral training will be detailed in its proper place. Having, worse than lost five or six years in the nursery,— having passed the practicable season of moral training, with all our natural faults about us, tempers unregulated, pride and vanity decidedly pampered, and selfishness aggravated, we were sent to school to LEARN TO READ. That there is some improvement in schools, it would be great injustice not to acknowledge; but few adults can say that more than mere jeading was in their first school instruction vouchsafed to them. Even yet no attempt is made to direct aright the natural appetite of the young to know. Reading is a useful instrument of knowledge, but it is gross ig- norance to call it knowledge itself. Even at an age earlier than that of our " English school," the faculties ardently crave their natural food — knowledge. The infant purveys, in some degree for itself, to the great reproach of its unenlightened instructors. At school, these knowledge-craving faculties have little or no- thing done for them ; on the contrary, their natural neglect of the school-book, the result of their preference of something else much more instructive as well as delightful, was punished as idleness and, frivolity ; and we left our first school as we went to it, with scarcely any addition to our knowledge. We were now eight or nine years of age, and not past the season for yet commencing useful knowledge training. Crea- tion might yet have been made to open upon us to the incalcu- lable enlargement of the fund of our happiness, and these facul- ties might still have been delightfully exercised, by which know- ledge is acquired and stored ; — but no I " the usages of society" de- manded that we should then commence " a classical education:" in other words, the study, for from six to ten years, of the lan- guages which were spoken by the Greeks and Romans, and which being no longer the vernacular tongues of any living peo- ple, are called the dead languages. There is a strong feeling prevailing that this usage is a monstrous error; in the educational crisis at which we have arrived, it is beginning to be inquired into ; and there can be no doubt that the schools of the dead lan- guages are falling off in popularity. This is, therefore, a sub- ject v/hich I am not warranted to omit in this treatise. There is odium and imputed presumption in even approaching the strong holds of habit and prejudice with an inquiring purpose ; and that odium always holds an inverse proportion to the merit of the system or practice to be investigated. Truth and real merit neither dread nor resent free discussion. It is matter, too, of current observation, that the temperature of controversy is al- 48 ARGUMENT ON WRONG BASIS. ways increased when interests are endangered : when, thereforej we consider the splendid endowments, especially in England, for the study of classical literature, which have stood for centu- ries in venerable grandeur, and continue to dispense the richest prizes, it were in vain to look for dispassionate discussion in those who enjoy or look forward to these objects. Antiquity,and wealth, however, are not in themselves valid defences of social evils. The time is come for a grave trial of the claims of the dead languages to engross so many of the years of youth, to the exclusion nearly of all other kinds of education. If their advo- cates and incumbents be confident of the strength of their cause, they ought to court the inquiry, to save them from being pre- judged by a practical rejection which is daily gaining ground. It is a natural result of the long reign of an institution which it is held a sort of treason to question, that it is ill prepared for its defence when it comes to be put upon it. The treatises pro- fessedly defensive of classical literature are few, because, like the popish faith, it has long claimed infallibility, and the need of apologies for it was as little dreamed of as arguments for popery at Rome. When we do meet with that superfluity, as hitherto deemed, a defence of Latin and Greek, or rather a catalogue of their merits which is not expected to be questioned, it is wonderful how feeble we find it: scarcely an exception exists: even the talent of Vicesimus Knox is naught here. The ad- vocates of the dead languages uniformly avoid, or at least mis- take, the true ground of the controversy. They expatiate on the absolute merits of classical literature, but never dream of comparing it with the education which it excludes. When the question, however, is set on this latter ground, it is capable of great abridgment; for, though we should grant much of abso- lute value to the actual attainment of classical accomplishment, the experience of centuries has demonstrated that it is of value to so few of those who are forced to pursue it, that the patient repetition of the error from generation to generation, — the un- questioned duty of each oblivious father to enter his son in the classical curriculum, as he was entered by his son's grandfather, in which he is to devote years to what is expected to be faithfully forgotten, more majorum, affords a striking proof of the force of an ignorant custom inthralling an imperfectly educated people. Were the actual value, then, of classical study tenfold what it is, if it be true that ninety-nine in ever hundred who engage in it fail, and for centuries have failed of attaining that degree of pro- ficiency which is of any value at all, then classical study is not the proper education for ninety-nine in every hundred of those who at present lose their time in the pursuit of it ; and who, as there is no substitute, are left uneducated to all useful practical ends and purposes. What is therefore wanted, is to abolish the ARGUMENTS AND ANSWERS. 49 exclusiveness of the dead languages ; to allot them their proper place as subjects of study ; to render them easily acoessible to all who seek them, either as necessary to a learned profession, as a direct gratification of taste, or an elegant accomplishment : and at the same time to substitute in early and general educa- tion, objects of study more practically useful, which, from their nature, will be better remembered, and will furnish the substan- tial power of knowledge and resource for life. All the real benefit to society from the classics, will thus be preserved ; it being obvious that no benefit accrues in any way whatever, either to the student or the community, from their stated oblivion. When we come to the proposed educational substitute, however, it is hoped it will be admitted that the condition of the non- classical world, will, after all, not be so desolate ; and that, though labouring in another field, or travellers by another road, they will present an aspect of society at least as enlightened, as powerful, and as accomplished, as any to be found within the walls of the most ancient classical foundations. Now all this is true, even on the assumption of greater advantages than can well be conceded to the dead languages; but it is still more worthy of consideration, if it be true that their value is greatly overrated. What is arrogated for Latin and Greek, may be comprised in a few particulars. They afford, it is said, the best possible dis- cipline for the intellectual faculties : they are, from their per- fection as tongues, the best known subjects of philological exercise ; — for the same reason they are the most perfect instru- ments of thought with which we are acquainted; — as radical languages they are the sources of a most extensive and instruct- ive etymology; — they are the depositories of much useful science and sublime philosophy, physical and moral ; — they are finally, par excellence, the native tongues of poetry, eloquence, wit and taste. Generally, I would humbly argue, that none of these claims are exclusive, even if granted to their fullest extent. The study of English alone, to say nothing of other modern languages, affords ample scope for intellectual discipline, to the limited extent that language can supply it ; our own tongue is a copious and refined instrument of thought, and is capable of a most critical and logical analysis ; the Celtic, Saxon, and Scan- dinavian, have stronger claims on the ground of etymology, yet are never appealed to as necessary to explain their derivatives, and no more need the Latin and Greek. We are richer than Greece and Rome in poetry, oratory, wit and taste, because we have all theirs transfused, and all our own superadded ; and lastly, our science and philosophy reduce the pretensions of the Latins and Greeks, in this particular, to utter insignificance. It is no reply to say that all these advantages were originally 5 50 INCORPORATION AND TRANSLATION, borrowed from the ancient tongues. This is granted, and grate- fully acknowledged ; still, if it was borrowed, it is incorporated ; the loan is not merely enjoyed, but added to an immense super- structure of capital unknown to the lenders. Into English are transferred and incorporated correct logical grammar, — copious, refined, and exquisitely various, expression, — a store of taste, elegance, imagery, pathos, wit and criticism, — and all the science worth transferring ; while the ancient authors themselves are all translated, to the complete and undeniable appropriation of every thing but certain felicitous turns of expression, the only quality %vhich translation cannot transfer, but at its best a luxury, too dearly purchased by exclusive study for one fourth of a lifetime. It is undeniable, that as records of ancient civilization, such as it was, and of the institutions, laws, philosophy and literature of Greece and Rome, they are all transferred into our own lan- guage. An unfair use is made in the controversy, of the fact that the New Testament is written in Greek ; and a sort of charge of impiety is insinuated against those who object to the universal study of the tongue on this account. Now, no one has gone so far as to propose to extinguish Greek as an entity, or to deny that theologians ought to be master of it. But if the Christian message is only to be understood in Greek, why was it translated into English, and in that language alone read to and by the universal British people, with the perfect sanction of their spiritual guides, themselves masters of the original? This discussion might be extended far beyond the space which can be allotted to it here. It may be observed summarily^ 1. It is to mistake, as shall be made to appear in the sequel j, the nature and operation of the faculties of the human mindi^ to talk of cultivating an instrument of thought previous to using it in actual thinking. The use of the tool is learned by apply- ing it to the material, and cannot be learned without it; and moreover, the material must be understood before the tool can be even conceived. The faculties require knowledge first, and then expression in language ; to reverse the order were a sole- cism ; in a word, thought must precede language ; the utmost analytical refinements of language are only so many means of expressing varieties of thought ; the language did not create the thought, but the thought demanded the language ; so that when a mere philologist is engaged in his analytical task, and is deal- ing with ideas as well as words, he deceives himself if he thinks that the most refined expressions, the most delicate shades of meaning, suggested the ideas; much more if he imagines that they constitute the ideas themselves. How and where ideas are to be obtained by the right exercise of the faculties will after- wards be shown ; and it is trusted that it will then appear that nature has ordained a better course for this than translating. ETYMOLOGY — POETEV — ORATORY, 51 analyzing and parsing a page of Greek; nay, that this last operation itself v/ill be more intelligently and usefully performed by the student, who comes to it with the knowledge stores of an intellectual training more in accordance with nature. 2. It will likewise be shown in the sequel, that there are modes of disciplining the mind much more effectual than the most critical philology, which itself will be incalculably aided by that previous better discipline. As languages, Greek and Latin exercise but one faculty, — verbal memory ; their advocates who argue that they communicate a store of ideas, forget that these are as distinct from the languages themselves, " as is the swimmer from the flood," and that there are better, because more natural modes of obtaining them, modes much more en- titled to the name, of intellectual discipline, 3. The etymological argument is losing weight every day. The derivatives in English are made, and most successfully, direct subjects of study, and as easy of comprehension as their roots. As already said, we follow this course with all words of Celtic, Saxon, or Scandinavian origin ; it is followed now, with regard to derivatives from Greek and Latin, by every school girl ; till all the terms of art and science so derived, are becoming as familiar as such words as telescope, philosophy^ anatomy, panorama, &e. from the Greek, and mensuration, rejection, emancipation, caution, &c. from the Latin.* 4. No one who knows them, denies the splendour, — imagina- tive, however, more than moral, — of classical poetry and oratory, more than he disallows the claims of painting, music, sculpture, and architecture. It is, however, not too much to condition for the former, as we always do for the latter, that those only whose talents point in the direction of the objects so as to offer a chance o age or nation have men of more splendid talents appeared — more gifted statesmen, more lofty orators, more graphic histo- rians, more ingenious philosophers, more consummate generals, more able lawyers, more sublime poets, more exquisite artists, and, considering the state of physical science, more skilful me- chanicians. Their cities were models of architectural grace and symmetry ; their ways and aqueducts were stupendous ; their temples, their theatres, their palaces, have no parallels in mo- dern times. Elegance and luxury were carried to their very acme among them. The Roman armies were the most trenien- dous engines of human power ever produced by human combi- nation. The description given by Josephus, of the army which invaded Judea and destroyed Jerusalem, impresses us with the idea of the art-military improved to its ne plus ultra in discipline, tactic, promptitude, and co-operation, as if it had been one com- plicated, yet simply and irresistibly acting machine of iron and steel. We are accustomed to associate all that is graceful with 5* 54 MORALITY OF €HRISTIANITY UNKNOWN- Greece, and all that is powerful with Rome; we were early told that the world was refined by the one, and prostrated by the other ; we were trained from boyhood almost to worship their books, and the very langiiages in which they are written; we -are familiar with venerable institutions and vast endowments in our own island, for the study of these languages alone, while Greek and Roman wisdom, valour, patriotism, and virtue, have been to us as household words. It is time for us to try all this by another standard, and one which, had we been educated on right principles, we would have applied long ago. The barba- rism of the ancients may be summed up in a word, — Christian MORALITY WAS UNKNOWN IN Greece AND RoME. Mercy and justice did not form the foundation or the actuating principle of their institutions, their polity, or their private life. The virtue of their republics was mere self-exaltation, called patriotism, which was accompanied with gross injustice and cruelty to all other nations ; while a pampered appetite fot military glory, and a systematic grasping ambition, produced almost perpetual war for conquest and plunder, with all the horrors and miseries of that worst form of crime. The Roman share in these wars, with a few exceptions of retributive invasions by the iiore powerful victims of their injustice, was exclusively ag- gressive. The nation, and every individual of which it was composed, either joined in, or heartily sympathised with, these grand outrages of moral principle. Hence war, bloodshed, pride,, ambition, with an insatiable rapacity, formed the basis of the Ro- man character, actuated their policy, controlled their education, and constituted their very being. This is what is meant by Roman barbarism. It differed from the savage state only in the extended intellect and improved combinations w^hich enlarged its range, and increased its power of evil. Poets sung its atrocities as the summit of human glory, — for there is no greater test of barbarism than blindness to its own features, and the mistake of its crimes for virtues ; orators lauded the deeds of blood and ra- pine, in which sometimes as soldiers they had borne a part, and lis- tening senates hung upon their lips, as they fed to fulness the coarsest appetites of national vanity and selfishness. Historians v/ere ready, in their turn, to record in their imperishable pages, the proud crimes of their countrymen : and philosophers systema- tised a spurious virtue out of the inferior impulses of human nature. Such was the actual national practice from the days of Romulus to those of Constantino. We do not find that even the sage philosophers themselves condemned, and we are left to sup- pose they countenanced and witnessed, the savage scenes of the amphitheatre, where Pompey slaughtered 500 lions, and Trajaii 11,000 wild beasts, OLd 5000 gladiators, to glut the Roman de- light in blood. Whoie days were spent in these theatres by th^ TALENT WASTED — COLLEGE. 55 citizens of all ranks, witnessing the combats of men and beasts with breathless interest, and feasting their eyes with torture and death. The custom continued to debase and brutalize the peo- ple for centuries. Certainly, there never existed on earth a more sanguinary race than the admired Romans. This thirst of blood added to gross sensuality, and the corruption which arose out of and ministered to it, the falsehood and dishonesty which characterized public and private life, were barbarism in the midst of all the gorgeousness of physical, luxurious, and literary civilization. INlorally, the Romans, and not less the Greeks, were uncivilized, and as the course of the selfish faculties which swayed them is downward, they gradually sank and ultimately perished. The talent bestowed on classical pursuits is sometimes such as would master the sciences and extend their range. The prize list of a great grammar-school often presents wonderful productions of difficulty and labour. The efforts at College are still more hercul in making them. The grammar-school finished about fifteen, the acquisition of useful practical knowledge may even yet be made, though under great disadvantages. 15ut the feast which Nature spreads is especially withheld from the devoted youth destined to the classical glories of College. Special, laborious, and expensive care is taken to exclude the chance of his picking up even stray knowledge, by engaging him engrossingly in pursuits which lead away from it. When finished at school, he is said to be " prepared for College," and it is the greatest boast of a grammar-school, that its pupils are well fitted for this advance- ment, and become renowned for bearing away the University honours. Now " College," in the sense alluded to, does not mean the attainment of physical and moral science, the know- ledge of Creation as revealed in the works of God ; it means more yet of the dead languages, more yet of these standards of science and morality, the Greeks and Romans ; it means ad- vancement in the " higher classics ;" a greater elevation still above all vulgar studies which are to be of practical use in the attainment of good and the avoidance of evil in after life.* The school keeps an eye upon its former alumni, and glo- * The term higher classics recalls a mode of reasoning adopted by scholars to silence the gainsayer on! the score of his incompetency. They tell him he is out of his depth when he questions the suprema- cy of classical literature, it being the privilege o'i few to attain to a knowledge of its exquisite beauties and perfections. The first an&wer to this is, that there could not be a stronger reason for forthwith aban- doning the custom of wasting, on such a pursuit, the time of the many; while the second is a challenge to point out any passage in any au- thor, Greek or Latin, which, saving always a certain fehcity of expres- sion, may not be given in English, to all the effect it possesses of de= lighting or improving the thinking or feeling faculties of man^ 56 ASStrMPTlON Br GfiAMMAR-SCHTOOLS' ries in their triumphs in the dead languages, in the rank they take at College, the scholarships, the fellowships they achieve. Nay, tiiis is not all, the school preposterously claims to itself the credit of the whole future fame and fortune of its quondam pupil, the whole fruits of that education which he subsequently gave himself; and which the time he wasted within its walls only postponed ; while his Greek and Latin have not only contributed nothing to his advancement, but have been most probably almost entirely forgotten by him. There is no part of this solemn mockery of intellectual cultivation more tan- talizing than the fact, that classical honours are borne away by efforts, not in the direct, but the inverse ratio of the value of the attainments rewarded. Ambition performs feats almost incredi- ble ; it furnishes an impulse which makes light and pleasurable tasks which, without it, would be an intolerable grievance. The literary performances are often of great merit, and were they not aZ/,were they an elegant surplusage to practical wisdom and useful knowledge, they would be so much gained, an additional grace well worth possessing. But when they are all the hard earn- ings of the noonday and the midnight, when the same time, talent, and labour, properly directed, would have rewarded the young student with an extent of knowledge, and accomplish- ment, and resource, which few by their own efforts subsequently attain, we can only account for the dead languages^continuing for another day to occupy so long exclusively the seat of education, by reflecting that the men who suffer its continuance were once boys, whom it at one and the same time cheated of sound know- ledge, and intrenched in impregnable prejudice.* If all this shall appear to be strongly stated, if it shall excite, as it will no doubt do, angry feelings in those attached to the •^ As these strictures will very probably be objected to, as referring to grammar schools as they were, and written in ignorance of the im- provements now introduced into them, it was thought desirable to ob- tain some of the recent reports and prize lists which are statedly pub- lished by the more important of these seminaries, and all that I have seen, indicate as yet paramount the old subjects of study and compe- tition. It is worthy of remark, too, that the im.provements claimed, are neither more nor less than partial introductions of the very useful knowledge now advocated; in other words, partial displacements of Greek and Latin. In the two great seminaries of Edinburgh, the High School and Academy, there is considerable improvement in this way ; but both establishments, put their scholarship foremost, in their appeal to the public. We find prizes for "best Grecian, best Greek prose, best Greek verses, best Latin verses;" and themes written by boys of fourteen, when the faculties are unfit for the subjects, which it would task the powers of the ablest tacticians, politicians, and philosophers to deal with, such as "Was the attack of Saguntum by Hannibal, and the invasion of Italy, justifiable on the reasons which he alleges ? — Which was the ablest general, Caesar or Hannibal ? — On the pro- gress and decline of commercial nations — Whether was Livy or He- rodotus the most correct historian ?— Onthe progress of mankind from AUTHORITIES AGA.INST THEM — MILTON — LOCKE. 57 classics by habit and by fame, and angrier still in those linked to them by interest, the writer has two grounds of deprecation ; First, he abjures all personal feeling in his strictures on a system of centuries. He knows the talent and the worth of many of its advocates and retainers ; to some of them he is closely bound by the ties of friendship and affection. He re- members, with almost filial respect, the venerable men, now no more, who were his kind and sincere instructors ; respects the existing- generation of classical teachers ; and so far is he from wishing to affect their patrimonial status, that he would be the first to compensate them for the loss occasioned to them by the adoption of a system of education more in harmony with the age, and more consistent with the nature and faculties of man. Secondly, the author claims the shelter from their displeasure of names, which they will certainly join him in venerating. — Milton has these words: "Hence appear the many mis- takes which have made learning generally so unpleasant and so unsuccessful. First, we do amiss to spend seven or eight years merely in scraping together so much miserable Latin and Greek, as might be learned otherwise easily and delightfully in one year f and that which casts our proficiency so much behind is, our time lost in too oft idle vacancies given both to schools and universities, partly in a preposterous exaction from the empty wits of children, to compose themes, verses, and orations, which are the acts of ripest judgment." In another place, Milton says, " Though a linguist should pride himself to have all the tongues that Babel cleft this world into, yet, if he has not studied the solid things in tliem, as well as the words and lexicons, he were nothing so much to be esteemed a learned man, as any yeoman or tradesman competently wise in his mother-dialec?; only." Locke, on Education, says, "Would not a Chinese, who had notice of our way of breeding, be apt to imagine, that all our young gentlemen were designed to be teachers and professors af the dead languages of foreign countries, and not to be men of business in their own?" Again, the same author says (for he reprobates the practice in several passages :) "-But though th© barbarism to civilization and refinement.-^Whether is aristocracy or democracy ultimately more dangerous to pubhc hberty !— On the man^ ners of the heroic ages," &c. It will astonish a more rationally edu- cated age than our own, that the most enlightened men of the second quarter of the -nineteenth century were satisfied with this as the fruit of seven years labours in their sons ; well aware, at the same time, from their own experience, that the self-education, which is tofitfor active life, has yet to begin after all the prizes for long and laborious scholas^ tic trifling have been awarded, and all the applauses bestowed. * On saving time, and other matters, see Letter from Mr. Cunnings ham, head master of the Edinburgh Institution for Languages, &t^ App,JS'o,IV/ .- . . . 58 GIBBON — SMITH — BYRON. qualifications requisite to trade and commerce, and the business of the world, are seldom or never to be got at grammar-schools, yet thither not only gentlemen send their younger sons intend- ed for trades, but even tradesmen and farmers fail not to send their children, though they have neither intention nor ability to make them scholars. If you ask them why they do this? they think it as strange a question as if you should ask them why they go to church 1 Custom serves for reason, and has, to those that take it for reason, so consecrated this method, that it is almost religiously observed by them ; and they stick to it, as if their children had scarce an orthodox education unless they learned Lilly's grammar." A passage follows on the subject of the special oblivion of Greek. " How many are there of a hundred, even among scholars themselves, who retain the Greek they carried from school, or ever improve it to a familiar reading and perfect understanding of Greek authors ]"* Gibbon observes, that a finished scholar may emerge from the head of Eton or Westminster, in total ignorance of the business and conversation of gentlemen, in the latter end of the eighteenth century." Adam Smith makes the. remark, that " it seldom happens that a man, in any part of his life, derives any conveniency or advan- tage from some of the most laborious and troublesome parts of his education."' Byron, on the authority of his biographer Moore, was a bad Greek and Latin scholar at Harrow; hated the drudgery they imposed upon him, and acquired his copious, flexible and splen- did style by extensive English reading. It is necessary to repeat the qualification of the whole argu- ment, — for nothing is more apt to be forgotten by the advocates of classical studies, — that not a word which has been said can even be perverted to mean absolute hostility to Latin and Greek, to the length of banishing them utterly from education as a pursuit. The study of them, but at a more advanced stage of education, and for a moderate portion of time, as advised by Milton, is necessary for the divine — who must add Hebrew — the lawyer and the physician. Nay, more; even the higher classics afford an object which will well reward the kind of genius which is fitted for the pursuit. What is contended for is, the rescue of our entire youth from the dead languages, — from the engrossing exclusiveness of that one object, during all the period when real knowledge is most naturally and beneficially attainable. It will at once occur to the reader, that this qualifi- * A singularly confirmatory letter from Dr. Christison, present profes- sor ofMateriaMedica in the University of Edinburgh, who obtained the highest honours for Greek, both at school and college, and nevertheless has nearly forgotten that tongue, was lately published in Mr. Comhe'a ^■^Lectures on Bducation." PHYSICAL SCIENCfi — MENTAL. B9 cation is precisely that which is likely to be most unwelcome to the teachers of the dead languages, whose emoluments depend upon the numbers of their pupils ; but this cannot affect the truth of the distinction. Our scientific studies are unexceptionably provided for at College. In all the branches of natural history, chymistry, and mechanical philosophy, we have the means offered us of the highest attainments. Suppose us to have completely mastered all these branches of physical science, the question remains. What is our access to the science of mind, or, more extensively, the science of man 1 To physical man, there exist ample means of being introduced ; but anatomy and physiology are never dreamed of by any one not destined to the medical profession ; the most highly educated gentleman knows as little about his own bodily frame, or its relations to external nature, as the most uninformed of the manual-labour class, and is nearly as ignorant of the conditions of health, though, practically and by habit more than principle cleaner in his person and dwelling. But it is in the philosophy of mind that our Universities present the grand blank.* Yet truth in this science must be arrived at before human affairs can be placed on a sound moral foundation. If it be undeniable, that the true guiding principle of human affairs can only be the accordance of human affairs with human facul- ties, what must not be the extent of the evils which humanity suffers, when yet in ignorance or uncertainty as to the nature of these faculties '? Can we wonder at the confliction in speculation, and the confusion in action, which prevail around us ? ■ Above all, what title have we to expect that education, — which is es- sentially the improvement of the human faculties, the guide to their right use, and the guard against that miserable abuse which far and wide imbitters life, — can be either theoretically or practically understood, when no two philosophers are agreed as to what the faculties are ; and few writers on education have thought of appealing to them, or considered it necessary to take them into account at all in their speculations. But this branch of the subject will be treated more at large in the next chapter; the utmost object of this and the preceding will have been at- tained, if they shall tend to open our eyes, not only to the deso- late state of seven eighths of our countrymen for lack of that knowledge which alone will enable them to co-operate in their own elevation, physical, moral, and intellectual, but not less to the imperfections of our own education, our ignorance of that imperfection, and, the natural result, our unfortunate apathy on the important subject. * Professor Dugald Stewart's confession on this head has been al- ready referred to. m CHAPTER IIL ON THE FACULTIES OF MAN AND THEIR RELATIVE OBJECTS, Man the being to be educated^-KnowIedge of his nature required- Training horses and dogs— Education, its three essentials— Human body, improvement of— The senses — their objects — Faculties of mind disputed — Modes mistaken for faculties — Admitted view of man's nature — Shakspeare's and Scott's — Postulates to be conceded — Physiological evidence not founded on — Experience — Nine animal propensities^ — Self-Love — Desire of estimation — Fear — Inferior feel- ings what — Law in the inind — Benevolence— Justice — ^Veneration'— Ethics — Christianity — Seven other moral sentiments— Intellect — Knowing faculties — Reflecting — Language — Tabular view of facul- ties — Possessed by_ all, but in different degrees — Innate and per" manent — Combination — Degrees of rank in faculties— -Supremacy of Sentiments and Intellect illustrated — Mr. Combe's original views. If the being to be educated is man, some knowledge of his nature would seem to be a requisite preliminary to his actual education. Treatises abound in which we are told that man ought to be trained according to his nature, in harmony with his faculties ; but, with a few recent exceptions, no educational writer has made an attempt which deserves the name of system- atic, to inquire what that nature is, or those faculties are. The trainers of horses and dogs proceed much more philosophically ; they leave nothing to hazard, but study, with the utmost care, the distinguishing qualities of the animals, and apply the best treat- ment to those qualities. But any kind of training is held good enough for the human animal, and moreover any kind of trainer who professes to undertake the office. When the principles which ought to regulate education are understood, this grievous error will be corrected. It will then be known, and the know- ledge acted upon, that education is a process calculated to qualify man to think, feel, and act, in a manner most productive of hap- piness. It will be known that he has a certain constitution of body and mind, having certain definite relations to beings and things external to itself, and that in these relations are the con- ditions of his weal or wo. Education will then he seen to have ESSENTIALS — THE BODY — SENSES^ 61 three essentials— first, hy early exercise to improve the powers and faculties, bodily and mental ;— secondly, to impart a know- ledge of the nature and purposes of these powers and faculties ^ — and, thirdly, to convey as extensive a knowledge as possible of the nature of external beings and things, and the relations of these to the human constitution. , . ' There is an education for the body, as well as the mind ; the body has bones, joints, muscles, tendons, all constructed in beautiful relation to the properties of matter, to the mechanical laws of force, resistance, gravitation, and equilibrium, and sus- ceptible of improved adaptation by proper training. The skin is adapted to its purposes of insensible perspiration, regulation of heat, absorption, and other functions, and is likewise capable of increase of healthy action. The lungs, heart, and blood, and the air of the atmosphere, were created in pointed relation to each other, and disease and death are often the consequences of man's ignorance of this relation. The stomach and alimentary canal form a perfect chymical apparatus for digesting animal and vegetable matter, with relation to whose properties they were formed, and for absorbing and assimilating the digested and wonderfully prepared material to the constant repair of the bodily waste, from the substance of a bone or fibre of a muscle, up to the exquisite texture of the eye, and the yet more mysterious essence of the nerves, the spinal marrow, and the brain. All these points of knowledge offer a fund of practical education ; the vigour of the body may, by judicious habits and exercise, be increased, and life improved in comfort and happiness ; whil_^ the havoc made by ignorance, and the sufferings of a shortened life by abuse of its functions, may be greatly diminished, if not prevented. That these bodily qualities form part of the constitution of man, is all to which it is necessary now to advert; the education which has relation to the body, and through the body to the mind, — which last owes much of its vigour and efficiency to the power of the muscles, the energy of the nerves, the regularity of the digestion, the puidty of the blood, the soundness and sanity of the brain, — belongs to the next chapter. The senses are an important object of education, as the 'media of man's communication with the material world ; the exquisite adaptation of these to the known qualities of matter, — of the eye to the properties of light, the ear to those of sound, and so of the others, is obvious and universally admitted. It is far otheTwise with the faculties of the mind. From the days of Plato downwards, no two philosophers have been agreed as to what they are, or in what they consist. How was it then possible to educate unknown faculties, and where is the wonder that, when the attempt has been made, systems of educa- 6 62 MODES MISTAKEN FOR POWERS. tidn have been so various and contradictory '? Nothing can form a more instructive proof of the non-practical character of the differing and contradicting analyses of the hunnan mind which metaphysicians have severally propounded, than the failure of one and all of them to systematise education. The grand obsta- cle has-been, that modes of mental actionh?iYe^ in various waySj been mistaken for primitive powers of mind; in other words, ©perations of mind, and not the specific operating energies, have been observed. Now it is manifest that operations, as such, are incapable of educational improvement, unless the operating powers be first improved; it is impossible to improve the act, - without previously improving the actor; henca no progress has been made in the education of man aceordii'g to his faculties, just because the acting powers, the faculties themselves, have not been ascertained, but their operations, or rather modes of operating, alone observed. Take for an example Consciousness, which is catalogued as a faculty by the most approved and popu- lar philosophers of mind : yet it is n;.t a faculty, but the opera- tion of several faculties, acting sometimes separately, sometimes together. It were in vain for a teacher of youth to set about improving Consciousness ; as a special act, or a succession of acts, it is incapable either of enlargement or restriction. As well might the arrow's flight be rendered m.ore swift and certain, after it has left the bow. The arrow's flight is a mode or act ; the impelling power is the elasticity of .the bow, and the mus- cular vigour and skill of the archer. - Both of these, especially the last, are capable of improvement. In like manner, the powers which produce Consciousness are the legitimate objects of education, and it will presently appear that it is not difficult to ascertain what these are. Again, An able female author on education* bestows some chapters on the importance of educat- ing Attention as a faculty. But Attention is not a faculty more than Consciousness ; it is the mode or act of many other facul- ties, which in. that act, direct themselves to their respective objects. Here too it were to pursue a shadow, to attempt to improve the mere act ; the powers that act must be ascertained, and improvement sought in exercising those powers; and that very exercise implies the mode called Attention. The same maybe said of such other alleged faculties, butmere modes of action, as Perceptiouj Conception, .Judgment, &c. Perception, must have a percipient, a power which perceives ; Conception a power which conceives, and Judgment a power or powers which judge. The metaphysicians come nearer to positive primitive facul- ties in what they call the active powers or affections. They acknowledge Benevolence, Hope, Conscience, Self-Love, Love * Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton. ADMITTED VIEW OF MAN's NATURE. ' 63 of Fame, Love of Wealth, &c. ; but although these are primi- tive impulses, capable of direct improvement or regulation by education, we know of no positive institutions for that momen- tous purpose, till Infant Schools were realized. Now it is plain, that until an approximation shall be made to somethins like a practical analysis of the mind of man, until the faculties to be improved by education are known, education must continue to be vague, misdirected, and inefficient, as it has hi- therto been. If, as is evident, we can make no practical use of a great part of the catalogue of faculties which we studied at Col- lege, may we not meet upon some admitted common groundl May vve not adopt those impulses or powers of mind, which di- rectly/constitute the view of man taken by necessity, although very unsystematicall)'-, in. the common affairs of life; but by philosgphers rejected, and therefore never reduced to any thing like system-, and above all, never resorted to in education.^ Let any one think what are the tendencies or characteristics in his fellow men to Vvhich he traces their actions, and upon which he rehes with the utmost confidence for certain expected results. Let us turn to our most successfurportrayers ot nature ^ Shaks- peare and Scott, and observe what are their constituent charaC" teristics of that nature, to which the same faculties m ourselves echo with such delighted sympathy. Assuredly these will not be found in th'e catalogues of the metaphysicians. I should be safe in conditioning, that I shall not need to claim for human nature any one impulse not recognised and dealt with — practically though not systematically — by Shakspeare and Seott. These are capable, we think, of a much more satisfactory analysis than might be supposed ; an analysis v,^hich I only require to be grant- ed to me, even for argument's sake, to obtain a basis for education which would advance its efficiency to a degree almost beyond our calculation. I feel so confident that all my postulates as to human powers, impulses, instincts, or faculties, — for we need not dis- pute about nam.es, — will be conceded to. me, from the impossibil- ity, as I humbly view it, of refusing the concession, that I am content to peril the whole argument, upon the admission by eve- ry educated person — First, that the impulses now to be enume- rated forn\ constituent parts of man; and, Secondly, that, as is true of the physical structure and organic functions each is re- lated to som.e object or objects in nature, moral or physical, ex- ternal to itself, but directly pointing to it, upon which it is exer- cised. I wish it, however, to be distinctly understood, that I do not found upon physiological evidence of tha truth of the analysis of faculties which I am humbly to offer, because that evidence is not generally admitted ; I do not require to trace each faculty to a disputed cerebral origin ; the faculties shall be merely meta- physically submitted seriatim to the reader's judgment, and his own experience appealed to ; and any one which he does not re*' 64 INSTINCTS OF FOOD — SEX — OFFSPRING — ATTACHMENT. cognise in man, I am quite contented that he shall reject. If, toOj he does not think the relative object correctly added to each faculty as we advance, that too he is at perfect liberty to disal- low. 1st, I do not fear denial, when I claim for man an appetite FOR FOOD, an instinct which directs him, even when new-born, to remove the pain of hunger, the only pain then removable by an act of his own. Forming a variety or mode of the instinct of food, which last includes hunger and thirst, is the desire of the stimulus of alcohol in wine or some other shape. The abuses of these appetites are gluttony and drunkenness. That this in- stinct is primitive, is demenstrated by its being often manifested in a state of disease ; the insatiable craving of hunger, even when the stomach is full, is a common lunatic symptom ; while the temptations of wine and ardent spirits often become altogether btyond the control of the will. The relative objects of that in- stinct are edible animal and vegetable matter ; while the juice of the grape, and other extracts capable of being fermented and dis- tilled, gratify the taste for alcohol alluded to. 2df For the preservation of his species, man is endowed with an instinct of sex. As the abuse of this impulse leads to much evil and suffering, individual and social, it requires much [more educational watching and regulation than it ever receives. The consequences of this neglect to body and mind are often horrible. Its derangement is known in lunatic asylums, and detailed in works on insanity. Its object, relatively, is the other sex. Zd, Manilas an impulse to cherish his offspring. There are cases in which this properisity has been morbidly excited. Its relative object is the helplessness and innocence of childhood ; the feeling and the object w^ere intended for each other. ith, A propensity of attachment to his fellow men, in the alliances of society and friendship, is a part of man's constitution. This feeling is so strong, that solitude has often produced mental alienation, as has the unmitigated silence of some penitentiaries.* Man's fellows exist in manifest relation to this social tendency. _ 5tk, No impulse requires more the restraining hand of educa- tion than the propensity to contend and fight. We are made most aware of its being part of man, by seeing it in the various forms of its abuse, contentiousness, contradiction, vio- lence, assault, and war. But as no instinct or faculty was given for the purposes of abuse we shall find the use of this propensity in self-defence, courage, enterprise, and general activity. This impulse has a marked relation to external objects ; it was given to man that he may repel the dangers which often assail him from other animals, and the passions of his fellow men. 6thy It is not enough that man shall contend and fight, it is often ^ * See Appendix, No. L IMPULSES TO DESTROY — TO CONCEAL. 65 imperative upon him to destroy. Besides killing for food, he must in self-defence, kill dangerous animals, and more danger- ous men, that assail him : and to fit him for this, he has an INSTINCT TO DESTROY. The foelings which prompt this extreme, with regard to his own species at least, are resentment, anger, and rage ; these are often abuses, and certainly so is a cruel de- light in giving pain, and even depriving of life. In disease it is the most dangerous form of madness ; it produces murder with- out motive, appetite for blood,* ungovernable violence, and in- discriminate destruction of every thing within its reach. Much short of disease it is a troublesome propensity ; cruelty to ani- mals, and the tendency to deface and destroy, are its manifesta- tions; while the irascible tempers which disquiet the domestic circle, 'are its most ordinary form of abuse. It requires for its regulation, if not its repression, the^firmest and the gentlest educa- tional management. The impulse is widely spread in the ani- mal- creation ; it is the instinct of prey ; and teeth, tusks, beaks, and claws, are its mstruraents. It prompts man, too, to arm himself with destructive weapons, from the rude club to the bat- tery of cannon. LaMi^!/i it constitutes the impulse to punish, to inflict pain, torti"^) and death. 7th, In pithing will the observant instruc.ter of youth perceive more diversity among individuals, than in the characteristics of reserve or openness. 8ome individuals are so close, that no- thing can be extracted from them ; others apparently conceal nothing. The truth is, that all conceal much more than they declare, and an impulse to conceal is a constituent part of man, for the wise purpose of preventing that constant exposure of thought and purpose, wdiich would not only render society in- tolerable, but Vv^ould remove a material guard against the evils which by their selfish passions, men are inclined to inflict upon each other. The right use of the impulse to conceal is a prudent reserve ; its abuse is cunning, duplicity and deceit. Those w^ho are conversant with.the insane, are too well aware how often a morbid habitual cunning calls for increased vigilance. The re- lated objects of the faculty are the other faculties whose outw^ard manifestations it restrains : "the perfection of w^hatis called acting, in both a favourable and unfavourable sense, depends partly on the energy of this power: some children are consummate actors, and thereby greatly perplex their teachers who are ignorant of the spring and origin of that character. Several animals are strong- ly characterized by this instinct, for example, the fox, cat, tiger, and ail that steal upon their prey ; not less are those who use de- ceptions to escape their enemies, as the hare, &c. 8th, Man has a desire to possess . the material things that * See Appendix No. 11. on Homicidal Monomania. e* €6 AKIMAL PROPENSITIES. contribute to his well-being, and loves to accumulate them iis exclusive property. When the advantages to society of this accumulation are reflected upon, it is evident that what is called capital, is an institution of nature, confined to man as to indefi- aite accumulation, though observed in bees, beavers, and some other animals as to annual store. It is only necessary to think what would be the condition of social man if he lived, like most animals, on the chance of each day, to be convinced of the con- nexion between accumulation and social power and enjoyment. The use of the faculty to each individual, is the attainment of the means of regular subsistence for a family, and the benefit of inheritance: its abuse is avarice; its grosser abuse theft : its disease every one has heard of or witnessed in an impulse, not created by necessity, but beyond the will's control, to appro- priate things of value, and, in the worst cases, whether of value or not. The related objects of the propensity, are material things which afford enjoyment in some way to the faculties, and money their sign and convertible value. The regulation of this propensity ought to bean important object of attention in education. 9^^, Independently of his reason, mau has an impulse to con- struct, to change the forms and combination*;! of matter into in- struments and accommodations. Franklin called Mm a " tool- " making animal." The faculty is often possessed ix\ uncommon power by cretins and other idiots without an atom of intellect to guide it.' Reason and imagination greatly aid the faculty in man, as is evident when we compare the wigwam with the palace. Individuals diifer greatly in this primitive power; some can make whatever they see, others cannot fold a letter neatly. The relative objects of the impulse are manifest in the m.ateriai world. This power the judicious instructor will recognise and call forth in his pupil. It must have occurred to the reader, that in the inferior ani- mals are found all the nine propensities now described, for they are well, nigh essential to animal existence. On this ground I ask leave to di&.ingush them as a class, and refer to them in the sequel, by the name of the animal propensities. Before leav- ing this class of faculties, it seems the best time to appeal to the reader's experience if it be not truth, and press the fact on the Ettention of the educationist, that vice and crime, in all their phases and varieties, are but other terms for the abuse of One •or more of these specified impulses. The enumeration of a few will sufficiently illustrate this, every one can apply each instance to the impulse abused, for they are set down in the order adopted — namely, gluttony, drunkenness, incontinence, conten- tion, violence, cruelty, murder, robbery, fraud, theft, &c. 10/A, Scarcely anticipating the possibility of the rejection of any of the nine impulses [already submitted, I would next, with DESIRE OF ESTIMATION. 67 not less confidence, claim for the man we are compounding, a sentiment of self-love, in which is included as well self-ele- vation as self-preference. In due and beneficial endowment, it is a legitimate attention to our own well being; itjs self-respect, in- dependence, and confidence in our own poAvers and capacities. In abuse, it is pride, self-sufficiency, disdain, insolence, love of . power, tyranny, and general selfishness. It is a great exciting cause of the activity of the impulse to resentment and rage, and then it takes the deeper colour of revenge ; and, when combined with the impulse to appiopriate, it renders that propensity yet more steady, grasping, and exclusive. It is the especial faculty of quarrels and duels, and forms the ingredient of turbulence and tyranny, which is a nuisance in public, and a curse in private life. No faculty of man is more apt to run into abuse, and half the moral evils of man's lot spring from that abuse. The guide of youth cannot, therefore, too early begin to watch and repress its unamiable manifestations, and regulate its legitimate exer- cise. Under the present system of education, this important part of man is left to its own guidance. Need it be added, that it is often manifested in a form of insanity not to be mistaken ; the morbid self exaltation accounts for the straw crowns and wooden sceptres of Bedlam. The related objects of the feeling are obviously self and its concerns. lUA, Another sentiment, often but improperly confounded with self-love, exercises a mighty influence over man, and fur- nishes the key to much of the pursuit of his life ; and that is DESIRE of ESTIMATION. By the onc, a man esteems himself: . by the other, he courts the esteem of others. They are best distin- guished in their abuse. The one is pride, the other vanity ; the one assumes, the other begs ; hence it is truly remarked, that an individual is too proud to be vain. The use ef the sentiment now considered, as intended by the All- Wise who endowed man with it, is a proper regard to character, the feeling of shame, and, under proper regulation, the incitement to worthy conduct in the love of praise. The feeling shrinks from reproach, cen- sure, ridicule, and exposure. It leads to a careful concealment of vices, follies, and weaknesses, and, better yet, often to their cure.. The laws which enact disgracefqil punishments, as pil- lory, address it directly. It is essentially the love of glory, and, in combination with self-exaltation, it constitutes ambition. Finally, it often runs into disease, of which any one who has visited a large lunatic asylum must have been rather annoyingly made aware, by the eager competition of the vain patients to detail and display to him their merits, each at the same time pitying his neighbour for his vain-gloryo What, it may be asked^ has education ever done to regulate this and the previous power- ful and all-pervading feeling 1 The answer is, — Nothing I On 68 INFERIOR FEELINGS. the contrary, it has carefully instituted the means of aggravatiRg the evils of both, by all the competitions, prizes, preferences, and " honours" of our schools and colleges. The related ob- ject of this feeling is found in the tendency of mankind to ob- serve and judge each other. I2th, That a sentiment of fear is a part of man, no one will deny, and least of all the teacher of the old school, whose ever-brandished rod and cane make a personal appeal to the feeling. The sentiment is given as a self-protector from dan- gers, physical and moral, with which we are surrounded. Its abuse is cowardice, terror, and panic. The example of punish- ment implies our belief of its power as a motive. Its external objects are danger and evil in general. When diseased, it oc- casions the groundless fears and horrors of hypochondria, and is essentially that insane melancholy wliich furnishes the impulse to suicide, by sufferings far more intense than man is ever visit- ed with in what is erroneously distinguished as reality. The last and two preceding sentiments of self-love, and desire of estimation, evidently regard self; and, therefore, although very important constituent 'faculties in man, and intended in their. pro- per use forthe v^isest ends,|have nothingin them amiable or exalted. They are as self-seeking as any of the nine animal propensities, and therefore may conveniently be classed wdth these, under the general denomination of the Inferior Feelings, to which, in the sequel of this work, it will often be necessary to allude. The whole twelve instincts make up and constitute the -Scriptural entity of the "law in the members warring against the law in the mind."^ I3th, That there is a lav/ in the mind, is beautifully implied in the very distinction of Scripture alluded to; and it is the ob- ject of education, while it represses and regulates the law in the members, to strengthen and confirm the law in the mind. The first elenrent of the law in the mind is Benevolence. — the benign parent of a catalogue of graces, in kindness, desire of the good of others, generosity, compassion, mercy, and all the sympathies, of brotlierly love. It is the charity v.^hich " sufFereth ■ long and is kind," which "is gentle and easy to be entreated," and which, in its expansiveness and sincerity, "is without partiality and without hypocrisy." It is impossible to conceive a description of benevt)lence more just, as well as beautiful, than the Scriptural. Sentient beings, generally, are related objects of this exalted sentiment, and its scope and de- light is their happiness. It is an - error to suppose its function confined to compassion and lelief to distress and misery. It goes much beyond this; it is a well-spring of good-\sill to men, and reaps positive delight from the increase and extension of human happiness. Its manifestations appear to the selfish to be JUSTICE, TRUTH, CANDOUR, 69 mere sentimental enthusiasm, or weak sacrifice of substance and ease ; yet their most exclusive joys are vapid, in compari- son with the delights of benevolence. Truly, as well as po- etically, — " it is twice blessed. It blesses him that gives and him that takes, 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest, and becomes The throned monarch better than his crown/' It is rewarded v/ith the love of our fellow-men ; for to be gene- rally " Mec?," as it is termed, is the necessary effect of being benevolent ; and this popularity is not confined to those who benefit by its generous acts, but is universal. The field of be- nevolence is boundless, for it embraces all that can aid or ad- vance human happiness, physical and meral. It desires to see man free, enlightened, morally and religiously elevated, and placed in physical comfort and safety. It descends also to kind- ness to the lower animals. Even this high sentiment is capable of abuse. This appears in facility, indiscriminate alms-giving, and profusion. In disease,, it is beyond the power of thejwill of the individual, to whom, there- fore, the law appoints a guardian. I4iA, A sentiment of justice or conscientiousness belongs to man ; it respects the rights of others, and is also manifested in truth and candour. Its deficiency is a great defect of character, unamended even by benevolence. The individual so endowed is apt to be generous before he is just, according to an every-day expression. It is a mistake to recognise a defective conscien- tiousness in that palpable dishonesty only which calls for the interference of the law. It is a wide-spreading evil in society^ far short of that degree of its manifestation. It shows itself in a way and manner against which the law cannot make provisionj in the great variety of modes in which men^ for selfish ends, are unfair to each other, by taking advantages which they would noi give ; concealing the truth which ought to be told, or misleading with regard to it; disallowing others' claims, not capable of easy proof; shrouding others' merit ; misstating or distorting others' argument ; resenting fair competition ; envying success ; mani- festing a selfish jealousy ; indulging in evil-speaking and ridicule , and, in a thousand ways, " doing to others that which we would not they should do to us." The severest satire on mankind is really found in the distinction conceded to the fair; open, candid^ and considerate character, to the Aristides of his circle, who is marked for his whiteness, the etymology of candour, in the midst of the various shades of discoloration in his fellows, with which he is surrounded. There is not a more delicate task for the infant teacher — for the training must be early — than the g^ercise of the sentiment of justice and truth, not merely in it§ 70 VENERATION. broad lines, but in its minutest shadowings. The disease of the feeling-, for even conscientiousness may be over-excited, is ob- served in the melancholy self-accusatory ravings of some ma- niacs, especially in those too numerous cases in which religious terrors have driven reason from its seat. The related objects of the sentiment of justice are the rights and feelings of our fellow- men. It acknowledges the justice of God. \5th, The most superficial observer of man cannot have failed to feel in himself, andobserve the signs in others, ofa sentiment of. Veneration, a feeling of deference, submission, and rever- ence. These terms are used by us every instant of our converse with those we feel to be our superiors in intellect or conventional rank, as something that is their due ; and the whole strength of the feeling can be testified by those whom it has deprived of ut- terance when suddenly brought into the presence of majesty. Yet the trembler in the king's presence is not unnerved by fear, for his reason assures him that he is in no personal danger; but " the divinity that doth hedge a king," — Shakspeare's graphic de- scription of the feeling of homage to real or supposed superiority, •which is a facultj or sentiment in man,^ — is the true cause that " When the king doth look, the subject quakes."* _ But there is a higher related object of this feeling than earthly kings. The King of kings is its great end and object : it is then veneration, and constitutes the chief ingredient in the adoration of religious worship. A large natural endowment of the senti- ment often carries mere external" sanctity to excess, and, mis- taking it for religion, claims, and often receives, consideration and homage for it, to the inconvenient crowding of the calendar. The feeling also runs into monomania. The author once saw a yaungman in Bethlem Hospital in St. George's Fields, who dropt on his knees whenever at stranger appeared, raised' his eyes, united the palms of his hands, and remained in that devo- tional attitude for some time, without uttering -a word. The misdirection of this feeling, either towards the' Deity or our fel- * Without denying Jheextstence of the sentiment of veneration, and also without subjecting himself to the charge of ultra-repuUicanism, the American reader may very reasonably question this illustration; ascrib- ing the deferential emotions alleged to be produced by " the presence of majesty," solely to the influence of education and habit, and denying them existeuQe as the necessary result of the sentiment referred to. It would probably be difficult to establish that veneration, or any feeling akin to it, is naturally excited, that is, independently of the influence of education and habit, by the presence or contemplation of any accidental human attribute, such as power, intellect, or even goodness. A perfect- ly correct investigation would probably show that veneration can only be felt for Divinitv; and that the emotion excited by conceptions of vastness, either of possession, extent, capacity, or performance, al though similar, apparently, is yet tot^illy distinct" HOPE FIRMiTESfi. 71 Ibw-men, is attended with so much evil, that its proper guidance and exercise ought to form, what it never yet has formed, an object of the most attentive and enhghtened educational care. The three feehngs of benevolence, justice, and veneration, ^re- dominating over the inferior and selfish propensities, present u& at once with an intelligible system of ethics. This is that su- premacy of the moral sentiments which is partially admitted by ethical \\;riters, from Butler to Chalmers ; the latter, in his Bridge- water Treatise, constitutes conscience the sole ruler ; but benevo- lence is not less offended by vice and crime than justice; while veneration is shocked with the daring disobedience to God's will which these aberrations involve. The three sentirGents of jus- tice, benevolence, and veneration, aie powerfully combined in that preceptive keystone of Christianity, " to do justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly 'with your God." The humility so beautifully glanced at is that repression of self-exaltation, the tenth impulse I have treated of, which the instructor should never lose sight of; remembering that "pride was not made for man ;" self-love was intended for him, but not its abuse, "which bringeth a snare." The energy of these three feelings, acting as they always do in combination, constitutes the moral impossi- bility of committing crime ; for a man in whom they are supreme, is restrained from criminal -acts more effectually than, if fetters of triple brass were on his hands. -If there be means,— and it will appear in the serpel that there are beautifully simple and effectual .means,— of increasing the power of these invaluable sentiments, by the exercise of practical moral training, does it not vhally^ concern society, to apply theiif? I shall offer a few words more on the supremacy of the higher feelings, after treat- ing of the Intellect. I6th, I claim no more for man than rilmost all metaph3''sicians do, and all the non-metaphysical wor^.d, in attributijig to him a sentiment of Hope, the source of much worldly happiness, and the na^i^ra/ foundation of our prospects of a life to come. Hope is a chief ingredient in religious feeling; while, in com- mon life-, it is not confined to expectations and anticipations of the future, but is a permanent ga5^ety, lightness of heart, or buoy- ancy of spirits, which is contented with the present, dreads no evil, and constitutes in itself real happiness. Children, as well as adults, differ widely in this character of mind ; an enlight- ened teacher of youth will convert the feeling to useful purposes. 17th, The teacher will find hit pupils to differ in another re- spect ; he will meet with some of them pliant and obedient, and others obstinate and impracticable ;. there is, in different degrees, in man- a sentiment of Firmness, the use of which is perse- verance and fortitude, the abuse of which is obstinacy. It is of importance that this should be recognised in education as 72 WONDKR— RELIGIOUS FEELING FANATICISM. an innate feeling, by which much labour to the teacher, and suffering to the young, might be prevented by avoiding vain con- tests with obstinacy, persevered in by the teacher in the expecta- tion of curing the defect, while he is only strengthening the feeling, and confirming the habit. The struggle with an ob- stinate child, who is farther fortified by pride and self-sufficiency, may be compared to an attempt to extract a nail by striking it on the head, every stroke only driving it faster. The judicious teacher will take care never to bring the matter to that issue, but will address himself to other faculties, especially justice, benevolence, and reflection ; keeping in mind the fable that the storm could not induce the traveller to part with his cloak, which he only held the faster, but the sun was more successful. IQth, Man loves the wonderful. That the sentiment of Wonder is innate, will scarcely be doubted by any pne who observes its power as a motive, and the fortunes that are made by appeals to it. Well does the charlatan know the effect pro- duced by his cry of "wonder!" It is evidently bestowed as a source of delight in contemplating the wonders of creation, and as an impulse to inquiry. With veneration and hope, it con- stitutes the religious combination of faculties ; I mean what is called religious feeling, for conscience and reflection are the bases of religious duty. The joint operation, in due proportion, of the two sets of faculties, makes up the perfection, humanly speaking of the religious character ; while a separation of them is always more or less to be regretted. Take away or impair re- flection, and the remaining feelings will be apt to run into en- thusiasm, and even fanaticism; take away or diminish conscience, and we have the apparent anomaly of sanctity without honesty, of religious excitement with much unfairness, censoriousness, intolerance, and persecution. Wonder is met with in morbid activity ; its madness sees visions, and dreams dreams, nay, attempts miracles ; in combination with a high estimate of self, it constitutes the prophet of special revelation, and the angel of light admitted to the counsels of heaven. Of this we have not to go far for examples, — the leaders and their followers are all over excited wanderers. Education is called upon to watch this faculty ; it will show itself in a child in a tendency to exagge- rate and embellish, a marked delight to surprise and occasion wonder, with often an utter sacrifice of truth to attain that end. 19^A, I do not anticipate objection to a faculty for the sublime, the beautiful, the elegant, the perfect, the poetical, as a constituent of the mind of man. The Imagination of the metaphysicians comes nearest this sentiment, but it does not express it. Imagination is considered as a power which produces ideal creations ; — the feeling in question is a mere sentiment or habit of mind which aspires to the beautiful and perfect, and communicates an ele- THE LUDICROUS IMITATION MORAL SENTIMENT. 73 gant refinement to the whole character; it prompts other faculties to create, while itself merely feels, and views all nature with associations of beauty and of poetry. Its abuse is romantic en- thusiasm, nnguided by reflection. Its related objects are all that is beautiful and sublime in nature ; it is one of the gifts of Divine Benevolence which points directly at high enjoyment; like music it is something superadded to the necessary faculties. When it is absenc or deficient, the individual is gross and un- refined. Infant education takes much care of this feeling, and in various ingenious ways calls it into exercise, with differ- ent success, according to the degree of natural endowment ; for in nothing do individuals differ from each other more. With the explanation now given, I shall call this faculty Imagination. 20th. The love of the ludicrous requires a judicious educa- tional management. Man is the only laughing animal, the only one gifted with a specific enjoyment from the contemplation of incongruity. It is greatly abused in satire, tricks and mischief, and requires watching : it operates severely on many tempers who are made its butts, and often withers every purpose of ex- ertion or improvement. Certainly it has been greatly neglected in education. Its relative objects are found in the exhaustless field of incongruity. 21st. Imitation is a marked faculty in man, which shows it- self even in the youngest children. Its purpose is manifestly to bring society to a convenient uniformity of manners, without which it would present a scene of inextricable contrariety, and to aid in educing the powers of the young, by the energy of an impulse to do what they see done by their seniors. It aids, as is most obvious, the imitative arts; and has for its related objects no narrower field than universal nature. The reader is requested to glance back at the faculties just treated of, beginning with 13 and ending with 21,* which like the animal propensities, happen to be nine in number, and oblige the author, by recollecting that whenever he speaks of the moral SENTIMENTS, he means these nine faculties. The reader will at once observe that Nos. 10, 11, and 12, Self-Love, desire of Estimation, and Fear, are not of dignity sufficient to be classed with the moral sentiments; but being as selfish in their nature as the nine animal propensities, and being also plainly discern- ible in the inferior animals, they are classed with the propensi- ties under the general name of the inferior feelings; it fol- lows that the moral sentiments are meant, when the term su- * Benevolence, Firmness, Justice, Wonder, Veneration, Imagination, Hope, Love of the Ludicrous, Imitation. 7 74 HIGHER FEELINGS— KNOWING FACULTIES. perior or higher feelings is used. These last distingmsh maiW ©u this earth, from all the creatures of God. But the "Law in the mind" would be an imperfect regulatOF of the " Law in the members," if it consisted even of the moral eeiitiraents alone. Sentiments are but feelings, and feelings, however virtuous, are blind, and depend upon intellect for their proper direction. For example, benevolence prompts us tO' succour poverty ; but that feeling makes no inquiry into the cause of that poverty which it profusely relieves. It therefore requires to be itself directed by another class of faculties, namely the intellectual, which, ©bserving, perceiving, knowing, and reasoning, can ascertain, if so it be, that the poverty is the- result of idle and profligate habits, that the poor man is perfectly able-bodied and fit for labour, and that therefore the benevolence is wasted, and worse, upon the encouragement of an unworthy obj,ect. Man is endowed with intellectual faculties, and these may be divided into the knowing and reflecting. It is unde- niable that, intellectually, we know and we reflect. It is a common observation that knowledge is not wisdom, till it is compared and reasoned on by reflection. It is its combination with reflection, which constitutes that knowledge which is power. The weakest reflecting powers often co-exist in the sanfie individual, with a store of knowledge which excites our wonder. A walking encyclopedia is a title currently given to* a person who knows every thing, while his reasoning powers are nevertheless of the humblest order. Nothing proves more demonstrably than this, that knowing and reasoning are distinct powers of mind. The knowing powers cognize two classes of objects; namely existences and events, in other words, things that are, and thinga- that happen. Let any one reflect for a moment, and he \Aill find that whatever he knows, must be either an existence or an event. The paper on which I write is an existence — a thing that is; if I drop it on the carpet, it is an event, a thing that has happened, a change that has taken place : soldiers are ex- istences, their battle is an event ; the acid and the alkali are existences, their eflfervescence on mixture is an event. Natural history concerns existences, civil history records events. Now, from observing that the power of perceiving and remembering these two classes of objects, respectively, varies in a marl^ed de- gree in difi"erent individuals, we may consider them as distinct faculties, which will require in education a separate range of study and exercise, th€ one improving the faculty for existences, the other the faculty for events. I claim then, for man, — 22d, A power to cognize and remember existences. 22d, A power to cognize an© remember events. It is obvious that, to a great degree, man enjoys tbese faculties REFLECTING POWERS. 75 $H common with the inferior animals, which last could not exist without a considerable degree of perception and memory, both •of things that are and things that happen. These two faculties are most active in childhood and youth, possess a keen appetite for knowledge, and reap so much delight from its attainment, that an instructer, himself well endowed with knowledge, and distinguished by a lively and exciting manner of communication, who can keep alive wonder, and put into his lessons a fine ad- mixture of the higher feelings, will possess a power over his pupil's will and happiness, which will form, and it is already known to form, a striking contrast to the heart-withering irk- someness of the old schools, in which an antiquated and most hurtful system of appeal to the inferior feelings of fear, -sel£- ^xaltation, vanity, and covetousness, is found necessary t® jBtimulate the languid faculties. The knowing faculties are capable of great educational improvement, and, by judicious ex- ercise, often arrive at such a degree of comprehension, minute- ness, and accuracy, called cleverness and acumen, as to give great practical power in life, and to le tdto discovery and inven- tion which extend indefinitely the range of human attainment. We can now understand the mode of activity called attention-; it is the tension or active employment of the knowing faculties when in act of observation. The young must be called upon to observe, and that extensively and minutely : the educated know well how little was done for them in this exercise, when they were engaged exclusively in reading books, and dreamingly passing over the whole of existing things, though before their 5very eyes. In the lower classes of the people, observation je- mains utterly dormant, and much of the suffering of their con- dition is the consequence. The related objects of these two knowing powers aie Creation and Creation's changes; their scope is unbounded. There are other knowing faculties, of marked distinction in the different degrees of manifestation by different individuals, ' which aid in the acquisition of knowledge; such as a perceptive power for each quality of matter, as its form, size, colour, gravi- tation, sound, &c. and on these the talents of drawing, painting, sculpture, mechanics, and music depend. But these manifesta- tions, must be so obvious to the enlightened and judicious edu- cationist, that I shall not occupy time and space with a detail of them. The REFLEeTiNG POWERS suffer a twofold division, like the knowing, and we find individuals manifesting these powers differently, according to that division. The reflncting make use jof the materials stored by the knowing faculties, for the pur- pose of performing the operation of reasoning, — that consists in ,i©i)mparing Iw© existences er two aveats, and concluding thai 76 COMPARISON — NECESSARY CONSEQUENCE. something else exists, existed, or will or may exist, or thRt something else happens, happened, or will or may happen, in consequence ; in v.?hich range arc comprehended all the truths of the physical and moral world, 24:th, The process of reasoning, of conclusion drawing, is sometimes performed by a simple act of comparison, or percep- tion of analogy : a vast majority of mankind reason in this way ; such a truth follows from the resemblance of two truths which they have compared. The whole of the brilliant field of what in reasoning is called illustration is nothing more than this process of comparison; and, as many writers and speakers, and these like Dr. Chalmers by far the most popular, manifest al- most an exclusive preference f(jr analogical and illustrative reasoning, I feel that I am warranted in distinguishing in mai}, the reflecting faculty of comparison. 25th, Some reasoners, but comp-^ratively few, are more severe, and are contented with no conclusions which do not stand in \he relation of necessary consequence to their premises. This is truth, they reason, because it is deducible necessarily from the consideration of these other known truths brought together. These are the logicians who distrust analogy and comparison. The faculty they use is the highest intellectual power, the per- cipient of the relation of cause and effect, which I beg to be in- dulged in designating by the name of the faculty of neces- SARY consequences. When the distinct operation of the two mentioned faculties is understood by the instructor of youth, the different lines of talent will be obvious to him, and the educa- tional training will be made to correspond. It is a metaphysical error to distinguish Memory as a primi- tive faculty, seeing that the cognizing and reasoning powers must necessarily be the remembering powers ; remembrance being nothing else but the continued impression of cognition and reasoning, varying according to the energy of those powers. If memory were a distinctive power, it would, in each individual, be alike strong, and regard «// subjects of recollection alike. But as this is not consistent with fact, as one individual remembers existences, and another forgets existences and remembers events, while a third recalls with ease a train of reasoning, another mu- sical airs, and another the faces of persons he has seen, or the scenes he has surveyed, each perhaps weakly remembering something else of the matters now enumerated, we are forced to the conclusion, that there is no general faculty called memory, but that each faculty has its own power of recalling its impres- sions. The instructor of youth should ponder this truth well, and he will save himself and his pupil much time and labour m indefinite and desultory exercise of a supposed general faculty of memory, when in truth he will actually improve the memory t>f liJLNGUAGE — ^TSiBtrLAR VIEW. 77 •each faculty in the proper direct cultivation of the faculty itself. The reader is, it is trusted, now in a condition to see the pro- priety of disallowing Perception as a primitive faculty. Both the knowing and reflective percipient powers have now been ex- plained and distinguished ; the faculty of existences perceives ex- istences, that of events events ; that of comparison, resemblances,; that of necessary consequence, cause and effect ; so that a general faculty of perception is necessarily a nonentity. Last of all, I claim for man, whose composition we have now finished, the man-distinguishing faculty of language, whereby he converts his thoughts into the conventional signs called words, and, in oral and written discourse, excites the faculties of his fellow men in the boundless extent of social intercourse. Language is a mighty instrument, but great evil follows the -'error of mistaking it for more. Once more, before proceeding farther, the reader is requested to subject the foregoing analysis to the strictest scrutiny. He is not asked to surrender the catalogue of faculties which may be dear to him as associated with the venerable name of Alma Mater ; he is welcome to reserve that for the amusement of his metaphysical hours; all that is now asked is, that he will admit, or at least not deny, that the feelings, impulses, or faculties, just submitted to his consideration, have been recognised by him in that being called Man. The whole faculties which have been described, are now brought under the reader's eye in a table for the convenience of reference ; — INFERIOR FEELINGS. ANirorAL PROPENSITIES. 'Propensity of Food. Propensity to Conceal. Sex. Acquire, Offspring. Construct. Attachment. Sentiment of Self-Love. to Fight. Desire of Estimation J^estroy. Fear. HIGHER FEELINGS. MOKAL SENTIMENTS. Sentiment of Benevolence. Sentiment of Wonder. _ Justice Imagination. Veneration. The Ludicrous. Hope. .... Imitation. Firmness. 78 FACULTIES Possessed by all* INTELLECT. Knowing Faculties. Reflecting Faculties. Cognition af Existences. Comparison. events. Necessary Consequence. Percipients of Form, Colour, Sound, Sfc. Language. Several general points require a moment's attention. I. All the faculties in the preceding table belong to every sane individual of the human race ; the want of any of them would be the imper- fection of partial idiocy. 3. They are possessed in very differ- ent degrees of endowment in different individuals. It is this difference which constitutes the endless varieties in the charac- ters of men. Taking the faculties in groups, it is evident that individuals in w-hom the inferior feelings predominate, will be coarse, sensual, and animal ; while those in whom the higher feelings are the strongest, will be moral and refined. In each in- dividual, some faculty, or combination of faculties, is always so powerful as to mark the character; and observation and discus- sion of these characterizing peculiarities, in each other, are half the business of human intercourse. Any one could, on a very short notice, furnish a catalogue of the characteristics of his ac- quaintances, and that according to the order of the foregoing table. A, he would say, is a perfect gournrand ; B is abstemious and sober; C cannot bear children; D should hire himself for a nursery-maid ; E is argumentative, cojitentious, violent, and pas- sionate, F is as gentle and forbearing as a lamb ; G is reserved, cunning, and artful, H is open as the day ; 1 is avaricious and miserly ; K is proud ; L is vain ; M is a coward ; N is humble and diffident, and shrinks from notice; O is benevolent; but P is generous and almost profuse ; while R is cold hearted ; S is just and true ; T is ignorant ; U is an encyclopedia ; V is profound and logical ; W cannot put two ideas together, and draw a con- clusion from their comparison ; X has a turn for the fine arts ; Y excels in mechanics ; Z has a gift of language, so copious and fluent, that his thoughts form themselves into words with the precision and beauty of a crystallization. 3. It must occur to the reader, and he is requested to remem- ber it as a fundamental truth, that these characteristics of indi- viduals arise, from innate faculties, which are permanent, and, however improvable, not liable to be eradicated. The facul- ties modify each other, but the general character is fixed. The irascible man of to-day was so twenty years ago; so was the selfish, — though higher feelings cultivated render the conduct of the one milder and of the other more liberal. 4. Another point is to be kept in mind by the reader that the RANK OT' THE FACULTIES. 79 'human facnlties are capable of acting in combination with each other, at least of simultaneous activity ; the effect of which will be an increased tendency to a common end when the fa- culties acting are in harmony; or a modification of power, so that the balance in favour of the strongest will be the remain- ing force, when they antagonize each other. This is the state of what is called mixed motives, which scarcely needs illustra- tion. In a public subscription for a charity, for example,, Be- nevolence prompts to give, and often much more strongly does vanity; but their united operation manifestly strength(m.-^ the impulse ; self-love and avarice would save the money- Now , it it is perfectly obvious, that it will be given or withheld, accord- ing as one combination or the other prevails. Other examples might be supplied, but "they can be easily figured. It is plain that what is called individual character must essentially be the product of a sort of balance of power among all the faculties ; the strongest will stand out most prominent, as " the ruling passion," modified by others, and therefore only presenting it- self as a remainder. Thus a man has a powerful impulse of courage, and a thirst for glory, which would urge him on " to seek the bubble reputation even in the cannon's mouth,-" but he is also endowed with a cautious fear of wounds and death, the result of whose operation will be a certain deduction from his rash gallantry, and a practical feeling that " the better part of valour is disfretion." He is still a man for the cannon's mouth, but he will never go there but when influenced by a prudent sense of duty. It is needless to push so obvious an inquiry far- ther. It must be manifest that education should address itself pointedly to these combinations. 5. The last general observation which requires to be made will at once be admitted, that there are degrees of value and rank in the faculties of man. It is a law of our nature to look upon the moral sentiments with more respeet than the animal propensities ; while the profound powers of reflection and rea- soning are more elevated than the acutest facwlties of observa- tion. When superiority involves control, it is called suprema- cy; this control is exercised by the m.oral faculties, guided by the intellect, which is another word for ethics. And this con- trol is properly called the Supremacy of the Moral Senti- ments AND Intellect. No writer has thrown so much light upon this important sub- ject, as Mr. Combe, in his " Constitution of Man." He says, ject ; sight, by habitual looking at distant or minute objects, a talent of great value at sea, and in war; hearing, by acute practice in the perception of sounds ; taste, in the discrimi- nating use of the palate, as in wine-tasters, two of whom detect- ed an iron key attached to a leather thong in a cask of wine, t he one perceiving in the wine the taste of iron, and the other of leather. The savage acts upon this principle ; he does not con- tent himself with telling his son the advantages of hmg and minute sight and acute hearing, but he exercises his eyes and ears, by many ingenious devices. In the verj^ same manner, the observing faculties are rendered acute and diversified, by the constant practice of accurate observation of details in existing abjects and their qualities, and of passiny events. It will after- ward appear, that no exercise is less understood, or more par- tially and imperfectly practised, than that of observation. The reasoning faculties, again, «re enlarged and invigorated by long didactic p>ractice, by familiarity with premises and logical se- quence, and by many an essay of comparison and illustration. Language is rendered copious and fiaent by direct practice i-a ONE FACULTY DOES NOT IMPROVE ANOTHER. 87 clothing thoughts with words. The same law extends into the moral world. For the exercise of Justice the pupil must be made aware of his own and his neighbour's rights, and be habit- uated, practically, to respect them in all contingencies. For the exercise of iBenevolence, the habit of repressing the selfish feelings, and of actually doing good, kind, compassionate, and generous things, not by fits, but as a steady, unvarying principle of action, will be found indispensable ; while fur practical piety^ the attributes of God, and the wonders of creation, with all their benevolent purposes — the whole power, and wisdom, and good- ness, of the Creator, must, by exercise of all the faculties t© which these are addressed, be contemplated practically, exten- sively, and habitually, in order to found that pious gratitude and love, through which, the truths of Revelation itself touch the heart and influence the conduct. It is another vital [)ractical truth, forming a corollary to the last, that the exercise of one faculty will only improve that faculty, and is not adapted to improve any other. Notldng has more retarded education than ignorance and disregard of this great principle. It would be as reasonable to attempt to sharp- en the hearing by exercising the eyes, or the touch by the smell, as to improve reflection by simple observation, or, either, by learning languages; while all of these may be carried to the ut- most pitch of human attainment, and yet justice remain defec- tive, the heart cold and selfish, and the sentiment of piety almost non-existent. The evils of the practical disbelief or ignorance of this truth, which we find existing in the most learned men, are only beginning to be suspected. Some of the impulses require less the exercise of activity, than the habit of restraint ; or rather of regulation ; for the All- wise has given to man no faculty whatever to be utterly sup- pressed. In this His whole work is good. The lowest animal propensities have the dignity of utility, and adaptation to their end, worthy of their great Contriver ; and it is to libel his work to hold them up to reprobation, as some well-meaning but unreflect- ing religionists are apt to do, as proofs of innate human depra- vity ; there is no evil but in their abuse ; it is, therefore requisite that they should be restrained within the bounds of utility ; there is no need to increase their activity. But the moral sentiments act much more feebly in thpmselves, and are too often overborne bj the preponderating power of animal propensities; it is, there- fore, of the very essence of educ Uion, to strengthen them by exercise, and to bring to their aid the whole power of the in- tellect. It has been already said that all the feeli7igs, animal and moral, are blind impulses, and requirelhedirection of the intellect; the latter must be taught habitually to allay itself with the moral sentiments, to direct them aright, and, in combination with them ,aeting upon the animal impulses, to keep these to their legitimate 88 pupil's study of faculties and objects. uses. For example, the animal propensity of the love of money would prompt a debtor to withhold payment of his debt, by the force of that blind selfish feeling ; Conscience, as a moral sen- timent, would be wounded by such an act ; Reflection would point out the consequences to character, and the futility of the attempt; and Conscience and Reflection together would master the withholding propensity, and the debt would be paid. The inferior feeling of Fear, would impel even the patriot warrior to fly from the battle ; for the bravest fear wounds and death ; but better feelings, which need not be enumerated, antagonize the dastard purpose, and reflection coming to their aid, he meets the danger with heroism, and overcomes it. These are farther ex- amples of the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, over the animal propensities, explained in the preceding chap- ter; and as upon ibis principle creation is constituted, it ought to be the load-star of edncation, which therefore cannot be too early or earnestly pressed upon the attention. But, to enable the pupil to comprehend and act upon the princi- ple of the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, he must be early and habitually, as a point of knowledge, made acquaint- ed with the animal propensities, moral sentiinents and intellect, as elements of his own nature ; in other words, he must know and distinguish the various human faculties, with their relative value and their respective objects. If I have correctly enumera- ted certain powers or feelings which belong to man, it is obvious that the earlier the pupil knows that these pov;?ers or feelings belong to his nature, the sooner he M'ill know how to exercise them aright. It did no harm to reserve the unpractical metaphy- sics, hitherto called the science of mind, for the study of man- hood, as an intricate and abstract curiosity upon which much talent has been wasted : but whenever the study of mind is ren- dered practical, as it ought to be, its constitution should be made known to the pupil as early as his intellect is fitted to receive it. It vi?ill aid him in his future progress, moral and intellectual, just as a knowledge of his tools aids the operations of the me- chanic. Accustomed, as he ought to be, to trace his own and his fellows, motives and acts to their sources in the faculties, and to appreciate these motives according as they flow from the higher or the lower feelings, he will acquire a nice discrimination of human affairs in all their shades and varienies; and, aware of the rank and value of the faculties in operation in any act, the abuses to which they are liable, and the evils resulting from these abuses, he will have an additional guard upon his whole life, unknown to those who use their faculties as it were empirically, and, ignorant of the instruments they employ, and the principles of their operation, are good and wise by the fits and starts of natural impulse alone. When we have got the principle that education should har- PHYSICAL EDUCATION- 89 monize with the bodily constitution and the mental faculties, by imparting a knowledge of these, of their relation to external ob- jects, and of the mental faculties to each other, and by exercis- ing each mental faculty upon its own objects we have got a test of easy and universal application, a standard which will not de- sert us, so long as we do not leave it. Considering the bodily powers, and the division of the faculties into animal, moral and int.'llectiial, it is self-evident that education will divide itself into Physical, Moral and Intellectual. By Physical Education is meant the improvement of the bodily powers and functions. There is much useful instruction in medical writers on this subject ; but, from this very circum- stance, not only its theory but its practical application is too much held to be a medical more than a popular object, and there- fore is apt to be lost sight of altog-ether. This is a great error ; the physician may be required to direct the cure of actual disease, but the conditions of preserving health and preventing disease are in our own hands, and depend upon our knowledge of them. This is not the place to impart that knowledge, but only to urge the necessity of its being imparted, and of the teacher of youth being qualified to impart it, so that the pupil should not only ac- quire the habit of a judicious attention to health, in the different and Very simple requisites of air, temperature, clothing, diet, sleep, cleanliness, all as concerning himself, but should be able to apply his knowledge to the treatment of the infant of which he may become the parent. This last office concerns particularly the other sex. The physical education of the infant necessarily begins at birth, and the mother, and all employed about it, should not only be disabused of all gossip absurdities, such as swathing, rocking, and the like, but should know and apply as a matter of easy practice, certain rules as to temperature and clothing, avoiding cold and too much heat, — attention to the skin, and ablution from tepid water gradually to cooler, but never cold till a more advanced period, — food, from the niother''s milk, to other aliments, — air, — light,— sleep — exercise, with avoidance of all positions and premature movements hurtful to the limbs the spine and the joints, — dentition, &c. This care will occupy two years, when the child, quite able to walk alone, will commence a course of exercise in which he will have more to do himself than is done for him. Hi« habits ought still to be well watched and judiciously directed, in all the matters of air, exercise, food, sleep, cleanliness, clothing, temperature, &c., and the advantages of attention to these so strongly and practically impressed upon himself, as to become a. permanent habit for life — a maniere d'^etre, the contrary of which would be an annoyance and deprivation. Temperance and moderation in all excitements, should be inculcated and practised^ 8* 90 MORAL EDUCATION INTELLECTUAL. sedentary employment should be relieved by regular daily ex* ercise in the open air, and that so contrived by judicious gymnas- tics as to exercise and strengthen all the muscles. Health maybe benefited by the useful exercise of judicious manual labour in the open air. On the whole, physical education will depend on knowledge of physiology, of the parts of the body and their, functions, which, as will appear in the sequel, should form a part of education.* Moral Education embraces both the animal and moral im- pulses; it regulates, as has already been shown, the former and strengthens the latter. Whenever gluttony, indelicacy, violence) cruelty, greediness, cowardice, pride, insolence, vanity, or any mode of selfishness show themselves in the individual under training, one and all must be repressed with the most watchful solicitude, and the most skilful treatment. Repression may at fir&t fail to be accomplished unless by severity, but the instructer, sufficiently enlightened in the faculties, will, the first practicable moment, drop the coercive system, and awaken and appeal power- fully to the higher faculties of conscience and benevolence, and to the powers of reflection. This done with kindness, in other words, with a marked manifestation of benevolence itself, will operate with a power, the extent of which, in education, is yet to a very limited extent, estimated. In the very exercise of the superior faculties the inferior are indirectly acquiring a habit of restraint and regulation ; for it is morally impossible to cultivate the su- perior faculties without a simultaneocs, though indirect regula- iation of the inferior. Intellectual Education imparts knowledge and improves reflective power, by exercising the proper faculties upon their proper objects. Moral training, strictly distinguished, is a course of exercise in moral feeling and moral acting ; yet, from the nature of the faculties, moral and intellectual exercise must proceed together, the highest aim and end of intellectual im- provement being moral elevation, which is the greatest happi- ness in this lite, and an important preparation for a future. Yet nature and necessity point to an earlier appliance of direct moral than direct intellectual training, because there is but one time for moral training, and that is infancy. INFANT education. Isti A watchful observance and management of the temper, whose abuse is the impulse to violence and anger, should com- * Vide Dr. Combe's excellent work on the " Principles of Physio- logy applied to the Preservation of Health," also Dr. Poole on Edu- cation. INFANT EDUCATION. 91 inence when the subject is yet in the cradle. The utmost that can then be attempted is the diversion of the infant from the feeling, when excited, and its object, and the avoidance of all exciting causes of its activity. If this be neglected, a bent is given, which it is most difficult ever afterward to set straight, 2d, The child, so managed by his nurse as to escape the iirst trials of temper, should be introduced as early as possible to his fellows of the same age ; the best time is when he can just walk alone ; for it is in the society of his fello-ws that the means of his moral training are to be found. 3(i, It is advantageous, nay necessary, that his fellows shall be numerous, presenting a variety of dispositions, — an actual world into which he is introduced, a world of infant business, and infant intercourse, a miniature, and it is so, of the adult world itself. The numbers should rather exceed fifty than fall much short of it. 4/A, But this intercourse must not be at random, each infant only bringing its stock of animalism to aggravate that of its playmates, and establish a savage community. It must be cor- rectly systematized, and narrowly superintended and watched, by well instructed and habitually moral persons. bth, The conductor's own relation to his infant charge should be affection, cheerfulness, mirth, and that activity of tempera- ment which delights and keeps alive the infant faculties. 6^/i, The infants should be permitted to play together out of doors, in unrestrained freedom ; a watchful eye being all the while kept upon the nature and manner of their intercourse. 7iA, Unceasing encouragement should be given to the practice of generosity, gentleness, mercy, kindness, honesty, truth, and cleanliness in personal habits; and all occasions of quarrel, or cruelty, or fraud, or falsehood, minutely and patiently examined into, and the moral balance, when overset, restored ; while, on the other hand, all indelicacy, filthiness, greediness, covetous- ness, unfairness, dishonesty, violence, cruelty, insolence, vanity, cowardice, and obstinacy, should be repressed by all the moral police of the community. No instance should ever be passed over. Sth, There ought to be much well-regulated muscular exercise in the play of the infants, which should be as much as possible in the open air. 9^A, Their school-hall should be large, and regularly ventila- ted when they are out of it, and when they are in it if the weather permits; and the importance of ventilation, air, exercise- and cleanliness, unceasingly illustrated^ and impressed upon •them as a habit and a duty. \Qth^ Every means of early implanting taste and refinement should be employed, for these are good preoocupants of the soil 93 INTELLECTUAL TRAINING to the exclusion of the coarseness of vice. The play-ground should be neatly laid out, with borders for flowers, shrubs, and fruit-trees, tasteful ornaments erected, which the coarse-mind- ed are so prone to destroy, and the infants habituated not only to respect but to admire and delight in them ; while the entire ab- sence of guard or restramt will give them the feeling that they are confided in, and exercise yet higher feelings than taste and refinement. 11th, The too prevalent cruelty of the young to animals, often from mere thoughtlessness, may be prevented by many lessons on the subject, and by the actual habit of kindness to pets, kept for the purpose, such as a dog, a cat, rabbits, ducks, &e. ; and by hearing all cruelty, even to reptiles, reprobated by their teacher and all their companions. An insect or reptile ought never to be permitted to be killed or tortured.* 12l/i, The practice of teasing idiots or imbecile persons in the streets, ought to beheld in due reprobation, as ungenerous, cruel, and cowardly. In the same way, other hurtful practices, even those which are the vices of more advanced years, may be prevented by anticipation. For example, ardent spirits-drinking may, for the three or four years of the infant training, be so con- stantly reprobated in the precepts, lessons, and illustrative stories of the conductor, and the ready acquiesoence of the whole es- tablishment, as to be early and indissolubly associated with poison and v.'ith crime ; instead of being, as is now too much the case, held up to the young as the joy and privilege of manhood. f 13/A, Many prejudices, fears, and superstitions, which render the great mass of ihe people intractable, may be prevented from taking root, by three or four years of contrary impressions; superstitious terrors, the supernatural agencies and ap{3arition of witches and ghosts, distrust of the benevolent advances of the richer classes, suspicions, envyings, absurd self-sufficiencies and vanities, and many other hurtful and antisocial habits of feel- ing may be absolutely excluded, and a capacity of much higher moral prniciple established in their stead. lith, Besides the moral habitudes which we have exemplified rather than fullv enumerated, — habitudes gained by four years practice for at least six hours every day, — the Intellectual facul- ties must not be neglected in infant training. Those which be- gin early to act must be the better for early judicious direction and exercise. At six months' old, infants are commencing the use of the faculty of observing external objects, and are seeing, hearing, and touching with marked acuteness and activity. A judicious nurse, instructed in the infant faculties and their rela- tive objects, might direct and exercise all these powers to their great improvement, so as to render them better instruments for * See App. No. III. t See App. No. III. REAL AND VERBAL. 93 the infant's use, when, at two years old he joins a number of his contemporaries. The stimuloiis of numbers will work wonders on the child, and bring out his observing and remembering in- tellect in a manner that will surprise his family at home. The first objects of his attentive observation will be his numerous little •iriends ; then all the varied objects of that new world, the infant seminary; its pictures, numerous and highly coloured beyond his dreams ; the curiosities of the little museum ; the flowers, the fruit- trees, the dressed border ofthe play-ground, the swings for exercise, the wooden bricks for building, the astonishing movements, and feats, and learning, and cleverness ofthe trained pupils, will ail fill the youngest new-comer with wonder, delight, and ardour, and heartily engage him in the business of the place in a day or two. A skilful teacher will keep up the activity ofthe faculty oi' won- der, thus excited, as long as he can without the risk of ex- hausting it. Every object presented is now a wonder, to be eagerly gazed at, and curiously handled ; and here will com- mence, with zeal on the infant learner's side, that grand but re- cent improvement in education, real, as distinguished from merely verbal, intellectual training ; butyet real including verbal as an accessory, instead of verbal excluding real. The discove- ry, for it is so, that it is better at once to introduce the pupil to the real tangible visible world, than to do no more than talk to hina about it in its absence, is of immense value, and of admirable appli- cation to infant intellectual training. The child of two years is acutely appetised for things, but yet very feebly for ivords : when, by a grand error, words are forced upon him, things will invariably take off his attention, and often has he been punished for evincing- a law of his nature^nattention to his " book." If the instructer un- derstands and obeys nature, he will readily and judiciously supply things or objects to those faculties in his pupil, which were crea- ted to be intensely gratified with the cognizance of them. \\e mean by a judicious supply of objects, a scientific combination of the pupil's delight with his improvement. The objects should be arranged in lessons, and successively presented to the pupil's senses and faculty for observing existences. The simple and obvious qualities of any object, are inseparable from it. and should be carefully pointed out to him ; while, by a succession of objects, he will learn a variety of qualities, tiil he has mastered all the qualities of external objects, cognizable without chymical analysis. For example*, introduce a class of pupils to a piece .of GLASS. Let them each and all see it, handle it, weigh it, look through it, break it, cut with it, &c. They have thus got its .colour, smoothness, hardness, weight, transparency, brittleness, * 1 take these examples from Dr. Maya's "Lessons on Objects," for ithe Cheam School^ Surrey, on the Pestalozzi plan. 94 LESSONS ON OBJECTS. sharpness. Let them, at the same time, be familiarized with the words that express glass, and all these its qualities, and let them see each word printed, and written, and spelled, by which means their reading is incidentally begun. Ask them if they can name something else that is transparent ? They will proba- bly answer, water. Something else which cuts l A knife. If the piece of sponge tied to their slate is smooth] No, it is rough. Tell them the uses of glass. In their next lesson give them something very different from glass in its qualities as to transparency, smoothness, hardness, brittleness, sharpness, — tor example, a piece of india rubber. It is opaque, (write the word and exhibit it printed, as with all the others), soft, not brittle, not sharp, besides being flexible, elastic inflammable, black, tough, waterproof. Every quality must be shown in its own way, and the uses of the substance explained. Leather is the third les- son. Wherever any quality of the new object agrees with a quality found in any previous object, let the pupils find that out. Leather, like Indian rubber, is flexible, opaque, waterproof, tough, smooth, combustible. It differs from it in odour, &c. Loaf Sugar is the object of the fourth lesson. It agrees with the two preceding objects, in being opaque, and with glass in being hard and brittle ; but it is soluble (demonstrated by dis- solving a piece in water), fusible (in the flame of a candle), white, sweet, sparkling, &c. Its uses are well known to chil- dren. The lessons proceed, and by means of twenty-two of the most common articles, (including the four named above), viz. gum, sponge, wood, water, beeswax, camphor, bread, sealing-wax, whalebone, blotting-paper, willow, milk, spice, salt, horn, ivory, chalk, and oak-bark, are gained the real ideas, and the insepara- ble names, ofthe following qualities, viz. bright, yellow, semitrans- parent.adhesive when melted, porous, absorbing, soft, dull, light- brown, dry, light, liquid, reflective, colourless, inodorous, tasteless, heavy, purifying, wholesome, sticky, yellowish, aromatic, fiiable, volatile, soluble in spirits, medicinal, edible, nutritious, yellowish- white, moist, impressible, adhesive, fibrous, stiff", pungent, jagged, thin, pmkish, pliable, easily torn, fluid, greasy, granular, saline, sapid, uneven, hollow, odorous wlien burni, t ipering, efferves- cent in acid, rugged, &c. Of course, when the quality cannot be observed without it, an experiment is made, as by making chalk effervesce in vinegar. When the children are perfectly familiar with the objects which, in twenty-two lessons, form the first seiies, their qualities, names, the abstract ideas, and uses, can tell wherein they agree or dif- fer, and read and spell the words, they are introduced to a second series of fourteen lessons, each lesson on a specific object. This series is preceded by an explanation of the Jive senses, while the kaov\-ledge already acquired is classified according as it has come LESSONS ON OBJECTS. 95 through the channel of each sense, or through that ofmore than one sense at a time. Parts of objects are submitted to the pupils, as of a pin, a cube of wood, with its angle and surfaces, the cylin- drical form of an uncut lead pencil, a pen, a wax candle, a chair, a clock, an egg, a tray, a cup, a grain of coffee, a pair of scis- sors, &c. The third series of seventeen lessons, introduces the children to the notions of natural and artificial, such as wool, and wool- len-cloth, animal, vegetable, animate, inanimate, illustrated by a quill, a flower, an insect. Again the qualities and parts acquired in the former lessons, and the terms they have ased, are rehears- ed, the terras have been incidentally impressed by connecting them with real ideas. The derivation of the words from the Latin and Greek, is &c. is likewise made an exercise, and the ideas, the words, and their derivations, are all connected together, in one indissoluble association. In the lessons of the third series, the qualites, parts, conditions, differences, agreements, manufacture, and abstract ideas of -the following objects are impressed and connected with language : — Wool, a halfpenny, mustard-seed, an apple, a glass of a watch, brown sugar, refined sugar, an acorn, honeycomb, butter-cup, lady-bird, oyster, a fircone, fur, a laurel-leaf, a needle, a stone. It is evident that these few objects lead to a great variety of valuable ideas, with their cor- responding terms and derivations, their uses, places whence brought, abstra(;t terms arising, &c., for example, mineral, me- talic, fusible, indigenous, spherical, stimulating; stone, stony; milk, milky ; organized, inorganized, &c. At least one hundred new ideas are conveyed in this series. The fourth series has for its aim, the classification of objects according to their resem.blances and diflTerences. This is an ad- vance upon the former lessons, as it calls into activity the re- flecting faculty of comparison. The spices are chosen as form- ing a connected series of objects. The metals, woods, and grains, follow, and a store of collateral ideas are imparted, such as production, trade and commerce, uses of malt, hops, and many others. An exercise in the comparison of substances, showing the points of resem.blance and difference, concludes the series. The ideas imparted by the lessonss in these four series, are sufficient for infants from two years of age to six, the infant- school period. The fifth and last series of forty-nine lessons, will suit better the more advanced school, to which we shall come in the sequel. The reader, it is presumed, is now prepared to estimate the value of educating man according to his faculties. Under the department of moral training, he has seen' education applied to the regulation of the inferior faculties, which give rise to drunk- enness, gluttony, greediness, anger, violence, cruelty, insolence, 96 EDINBURGH MODEL INFANT SCHOOL. rapacity, dishonesty, cunning, and falsehood ; he has also seen it applied to the cultivation and increase of the superior moral faculties, wliich lead to justice, benevolence and. piety ; while^ under the branch of intellectual training, he has seen an expo- sition of direct training of the. faculties, by which we gain the simplest knowledge of material objects, and their qualities and relations, and of the faculty whereby we put ideas into words, give objects names^ and read and spell the same in letters, ia other words, incidentally learn to read. An excellent arrange- ment on the monitorial plan is mads for reading, by marching small classes of four or five children each, under a monitor^ round a succession of boards hung on posts ; the boards contain- both letter-press and pictures. All. the intellectual course described, is really accessorial to moral training. I say accessorial ; for moral training is the paramount object of the Infant system. In the Model Infant School in Edinburgh, Dr. Mayo's lessons on objects are taught and practised by Mr. Milne the present teacher. Dr. Mayo does not give his lessons till after the pupil has passed six and even eight years of age. Experience in the Edinburgh School has shown that this is an uncalled for lo^s of time ; the very simple, though useful knowledge we have de- tailed, which is in requisition every hour of our lives, and is used even in the most advanced investigations of the chymist and mechanical philosopher, being found to be beneficially mastered by infants, and impressed, it is trusted, never to be obliterated. But the Infant School system, as realized in Edinburgh, besides the Cheam lessons on objects, afibrds intellectual instruction on many other points, such as the elements of arithmetic, — by the visible method of small balls on wires in frames, — money, tables of weights and measures, geography, the elementary mathe- matical figures, with no inconsiderable portion of useful practi- cal knowledge, often conveyed in verse, and sung in chorus; while no opportunity is omitted by the teacher to amuse, as well, as to instruct, by anecdotes illustrative of the lessons, and told in an elliptical manner, so that the children themselves fill up the blanks as it were, the teacher stopping the narrative till they do so, or making some sign or motion implying the desired idea. The lessons are never continued too long, seldom beyond half aa hour ; while the intervals are filled up with short portions of ex- ercise in the play-ground m which the teacher often joins, keep- ing up spirit and active movement, while he is narrowly watch- ing moral conduct and social intercourse. The school-roorn is regularly ventilated by cross windows when the children are out of it, properly warmed in winter, and kept particularly neat and clean, and even showy ; while the pupils are habituated to value these attentions, and receive lessons upon their end and "RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS HOW MADE. 97 object, which they carry lo their homes, M'here they are most needed. Caisful provision is made in the Infant system to give early religious impressions, in a manner which shall connect religious ideas with every thing in hfe, and render them a means of hap- piness, and not, as is too much done — a source of tasks and punishments for the present, and terror for the future. Every lesson, every step in the simplest knowledge, is made a channel for allusions to, and illustrations of, the Creator's power and goodness : while His will that his laws, moral and physical, shall be obeyed, is rendered obvious, by an exposition of the evils re- sulting from disobedience, and the benefits from obedience. Thus, the Creator is always kept in view, not alone as an awful Judge sitting on high watching the thoughts and actions of his creatures to reward or punish them hereafter,— a view of him which addresses selfishness alone and never can produce eleva- tion — but as the present God, the Essence of every thing around us, guiding us to tem.poral as well as eternal happiness, by his infinite wisdom and goodness. These real impressions lay an early foundation for the love of God, which no mere precepts, still less ill-judged threats, can ever succeed in producing. Tlie Saviour's history, which exercises and delights the higher faculties, is detailed in the most attractive manner, and what he did for mankind simply expounded, as it ought to be to in- fants : while the morality of his precepts and benignity of his example are easily and beautifully shown to be the very kind- ness, justice, and truth, which they are taught to exercise in their mutual intercourse. Thus, the morality of their every day conduct, and their habitual love of God, are connected with the morality of Christianity, and associated in their minds &s identical with it. No creed or catechism of any sect whatever, dominant c.r dissenting, is taught; not only because the childrej] of many sects unite in the same schcol, but because leligion taught to the very young in that foim, has been found at once unintelligible and repulsive. Scripture history, illustrated by well chosen engravings, coloured to attract, conveys to them, in a Y^easing manner, the leading facts of both Testaments, and always with a heart-improving application ; while their prayers and hymns are of the simplest, most improving, and least secta- rian cli.aracter. This is a ixoie fitting culture for ulterior in- struction by the pastors of their o\\n respective persuasions, (upon whcm the duty should mainly fall, else their cfKce is su- perfluous,) than these or other persuasions will achieve by any other mode of religious instruction we have yet met with or heard of. Those v\ho, with tlse best intentions, but — I say it with respect — uninformed zeal, prefer, to the course now recom- mendedj what they mjscallj as applied to infants, a religious 9 98 SECITLAR FRIENDLY TO RELIGIOUS PROGRESS. foundation of doctrines and catechisms, and these of their own sect exclusively, and an early impression of God as an object of terror, which degrades religion to selfish calculation and interest- ed adulation, are little aware how signally they are defeating ilieir own purpose, and rendering more and more extensive the evil of which they so loudly complain, the want of practical vi- tal religion. What, on the other hand, is now proposed, is the preparation of the soil for the good seed formerly alluded to. It is at least the commencement of the process of preparation i it engages the affections, and connects religion with associations of delight, which will never leave the mind. The author has been assured by Mr. Wilderspin, and the statement has beei* confirmed by the two successive teachers of the Edinburgh Mo- del Infant School, Mr. Wright, deceased, and Mr. Milne, that whenever the children are allowed a choice of the kind of story 10 be told them, the vote is almost invariably for a Scripture story. Their intellectual improvement, and their habitual and moral exercise, will serve to strengthen the religious feelings as they advance in 'years. The Report of the Committee of Ma- nagement of the General Assembly's Schools in Scotland has borne valuable testimony to this, by declaring that progress in secular knowledge was accompanied by progress in religious attainment. If this is true of intellectual progress merely, how much more must it result from what the General Assembly has not yet made provision for, — the practical moral training of In- fant Schools, and the continued moral exercise which an en- lightened system of ulterior education will find means of uniting with all the subsequent stages. The author has been assured by the teachers of more advanced schools in Edinburgh, to which the Infant School trained children have been transferred, that they are the most docile, cheerful, and ready pupils in the school y and there cannot be a doubt that their religious teachers, when they come into their hands, will have the same experience. This is the first step of that effective excavation from heathen- ism, always with the blessing of God, which Dr. Chalmers de- siderates. There are excellent and sincere men, who will not concur in these views of preparation ; for them I entertain great respect and would yet greater, if they were a little more tolerant of others, who, wishing, as sincerely as they can do, that religion, sliould live in the heart, and breathe in the actions of every hu- man being, labour towards that blessed end in a somewhat dif- ferent direction ; but 1 beg them to consider, that in thus urging preparation, I am to be understood as speaking only of the pro- priety of using means, and nowise as touching, far less impugn- ing, the doctrine of free grace. As the Edinburgh Model School has now been at work for Working of Edinburgh infant school. ^ three years, this is the proper place to state shortly how the exe periment has succeeded. A Report has been published by ths Directors of the Society, which,— after detailing the progre of the children intellectually, which was witnessed on severa occasions by the public, at stated exhibitions characterized by the spirit, animation, and zeal inspired by the system,— add^, in an appendix, a series of incidents, the result of the moral influence of the place, classed according^ as they manifested — ^kindness, brotherly love, gentleness and mercy, — truth, honesty, and ho- nour — attachment, refinement, &c. ; and the picture, considering the class of life, is most satisfactory. I have extracted fully from the Report in the Appendix of this work No. III. and earnestly request the reader to peruse that extract, which, from its great interest, will well reward his labour. He will find quar- relling rarely occurring, fighting unknown, insolence and selfish- ness restrained, found money faithfully restored, provisions, however exposed, untouched, kindness — even generosity mani- fested, mercy to animals, cleanly habits, refinement and orna- ment respected, and horror of ardent spirits inculcated and ex- pressed. A few specimens, out of many letters received from the parents, are added, which show the improvement effected on the conduct and dem.eanour of the children at home ; namely a change from'filth, laziness, obstinacy, waywardness, and self- ishness, — to cleanliness, activity, docility, respect and kindli- ness. We might have mentioned in its place, but it is never out of season to do so, that, .while all appliances, direct and indirect, are resorted to, for the purpose of regulating the inferior, and cultivating the superior feelings, that grand solecism of ordina- ry seminaries of education,, an appeal to pride, vanity, and love of gain, three grand enemies of human weal, is avoided within the walls of an infant school. There are no prizes, me- dals, or places of distinction among the infants. These are ba- nished, or rather are unheard of, as incompatible with the essence of the system ; its chief object being to moderate selfishness, they would be as self-defeating as oil applied to extinguish fire. They are, moreover, quite superfluous under a system of training which gives delight by exercising so many of the facul- ties, and succeeds in keeping up for years a degree of anima- tion, attention, and zeal, which the selfish impulse of places and prizes never yet attained, in the dull routine which require these artificial stimulants. The author remembers once asking Mr. Wilderspin if he had ever tried place-taking? He answered, " My infants would scorn the baby practice ; it would lower the whole character of the school, and defeat my best endeavours for their moral improvement." It may be added, that it would lower the intellectual character of the place not less, inajsmucfe 100 OBJECTIONS EDUCATION TOO EARLT, as it would spur the clever few to learn in order to gratify a self- ish feeling, while the great majority would give up the race from despairing of the prize, which is absurdly rendered the chief attraction and motive to exertion.* We need not con- sume time on the other well known stimulus, in ordinary schools, punishments. These are directed to a base fear^ often excite the most malignant feelings of revenge, and would, unless under the most cautious regulation, be as hurtful as unnecessary in a well conducted infant school. Viewing infant education as the most powerful instrument of moral elevation yet invented by man, I am anxious to remove any objection u^hich inattention to its real nature is apt to throw in the way of its progress. Its novelty and utter dissimilarity to any preceding system, and its in<;onsistency with all the no- tions hitherto entertained of infant capabilities, have combined to raise against its first announcement the strongest prejudice. Ist^ The idea is ridiculed of teaching children from two to four years- of age any thing. It is called education run mad, — a hotbed of precocity,— parrot-training) — confinement and tasks when chil- dren should run wild,— realizing the adage, " soon ripe soon rotten," and so forth. It is impossible to present a more in- structive example of that ignorance of the human faculties which is yet nearly universal in society, than these objections, which, it must have been observed, are promptly and unreflectingly stated,, and with considerable dogmatism, in every company where in- fant schools are mentioned. It is utterly unsuspected by the ob- jectors, that man is a moral as well as an intellectual being; that he has feelings which require education, and that on the right training of these depend the happiness of the individual and wel- * I feel it not only a duty but a delight to devote a note to this sin-, gularly meritorious individual, whom it concerns the public to^know be- fore they are called upon, as they must be, to approve of his receiving a national tribute for the benefits he has conferred on his fellow men. —the toils he has cheerfully endured,— the pittance he has generally conditioned as, bare livelihood, — and lat-t, and not least, the obstruc- tions and persecutions with which his enlightened and benevolent la- bours have been met, chiefly, it cannot be concealed, from high churchmen. If an Infant School is to be organized in the extreme north of Scotland, Mr. Wilderspin: will come from Cheltenham, where he resides, for the humblest travelling expenses and means of subsist- ence, and devote six weeks to the training of the pupils and teachers ; while, by his lectures and zeal, he never fails to give such an impulse to the whole region which he visits, as often gives him several schools to set agoing before he is called elsewhere. He is ready for any infant- education enterprise, to the sacrifice of every selfish consideration; and once oflered himself to go to the West Indies to organize schools. for the children of the Negroes, if he should perish in the attempt. Mr. Wilderspin did not firsi; invent Infant Schools; but he has to so- great an extent improved them in principle and details, as beyond all( question to have ma.de them his own,. SEPARATES PARENT AND CHILD. 101 fare of society, infinitely more than on the highest attainments merely intellectual. Now, the education of the feelings has already been shown to be the primary and paramount object of the infant school system: it has, moreover, been distinctly laid down, that these feelings are incomparably more easily bent and moulded to good in infancy than in after years ; that after six years of age their effectual culture is, in many cases, nearly bopeless; hence, to delay it till this age would be to leave it out of education altogether ; and this, to the heavy cost of society, has been hitherto the ignorantly adopted alternative. But, again, while moral training is the primary object of in- fant education, and, in respect of its only practicable period of life, requiring that the schools for it should be schxjols for in- fants, it has been found natural and advantageous to ingraft upon that training a most beneficial intellectual culture, suited to the tender age of the pupils, and very far indeed from meriting the incredulous contempt with which our objectors treat it. No in- telligent or candid person can read Mr. Wilderspin's work on the system, but, above all, see the inspiring spectacle of a well conducted infant school, and persist in maintaining that the intel- lectual culture is injudicious, premature, annoying to the children, and useless : the intellectual faculties, and all these faculties,, not one or two of them as in ordinary schools, are moderately exercised, so as to combine amusement v/ith instruction : and as they are presented with their appropriate objects, they cognize and enjoy complete comprehension of every object presented. Their studies are varied with healthful exercise and constant amusement, story, song, and fun ; nothing like a task annoys them, and they obtain, without an exertion, much fundamental knowledge to serve them for life. 2(f, Those who are not so decided on the objection of prema- ture education, are yet extremely peremptory on the point of committing the early years of infants to any other hand than the mother's. It is to "break, they say, the hallowed bond which unites the parent and the child, to alienate the heart of the infant from his proper guardian^ and take away from the latter all mo- tive for parental solicitude. In answer to this, reference is tri- umphantly made to the letters from the parents of children at the Edinburgh Model Infant School, as the best possible evidence of the working of the system in this important particular ;* the let- ters dwell with pleasure upon the improvement perceived in the children in love for, and concern about, their parents ; obedience and obligingness are the e very-day fruits of this improvement, and there cannot fail to be that beautiful re-action w^hich, through the affectionate influence of the child, insensibly reforms and * Appendix, No. III. 102 NUMBERS REQUIRED—KIGHER RASKS. chrislianizes the parent*. Accordingly, the letters state the fact with gratitude, that the children, who used to be a nuisance at home, are now a pride and pleasure, and the parents look for their return from school as the most cheerful hour of the day. A slight reflection would, independent of such evidence, serve to convince any person of sense, that separation of the child from -the parents for six hours in the day, is no greater separation than actually takes place in every rank of life ; eighteen hours out of the twenty-four may surely suffice to recover the affections which six hours absence may have endangered: but there is so much nonsense in this objection, that it is really to lose time to answer it gravely. Will any one pretend, that parents in the lower class- es are fitted to exercise their children in moral, religious, cleanly and wholesome habits ! Nay, more, are there many parents in the middle and higher classes, who, committing their children, as they do, to the exclusive society of nursery-maids for much more than six hours a-day, can say that they have time, and me- thod, and means for communicating moral improvement to their children, superior to what is done according to a system founded on the m.ost philosophical principles, and the most enlightened views of human nature, — the Infant School system of Wilder- spin 1 I have heard mothers of intelligence, accomplishmeat, and experience, admit and regret that the principles of early mo- ral education cannot be regularly, systematically, and efficiently applied at home. The important, nay indispensable, element of numbers, to exercise practically the social virtues, is wanting, and is not supplied by a few children of different ages in the same nursery ; in no nursery is it possible to prevent selfishness, contention, and even fighting. Moreover, in the best conducted family, the children are left v/ith servants for a longer period than the hours of an infant school, — that " well regulated systematic nursery^'''' as it has been happily called,* where the children of ALL classes of society will be greatly benefited by spending several of their earliest years. .3f/, This word all has raiged the warmest opposition, and that from many who admit that infant schools may be beneficial to the lower classes, but maintain that all educated mothers ought to be the sole guides of the infant years of their children. This sounds beautifully ; but let anyone look around in the circle of his acquaintance and point out if he can, ten, — five,— nay, one mother qualified to communicate to her infant a tiths ©f the ad- vantages he will derive from the system of an infant school ? Why should an incogitate prejudice deprive an infant being of * By Jeffrey, in his speech at the meeting when the Infant School Society of Eldinburgh was formed in 1829. EFFECT OP REJECTION BY THEM. lOS this mighty blessing, because he chances to be born of richer pa- rents, — in that event a great misfortune to him, — than another who, because he is poor, is qualified to enjoy it 1 If it v/ere not certain that, when the infant education system shall come to be understood, it must be eagerly sought by parents of all grades in society, there would be reason to expect that, in the course of time, the class enjoying it would rise higher in character than the class rejecting it, and thereby higher in social rank. This would settle the question whether or not Infant Schools are suitable for the higher classes of society. 104 CHAPTER V= QN EDUCATION AS ADAPTED TO THE FACULTIES CONTINUED, — EDUCATION SUBSEQUENT TO INFANCY. Pupils SIX years o!i — School till fourteen — Moral training continued — Record of duties — Monitorial system — Writing — Drawing — Arith- metic — Continuation of the Mayo lessons — Incidental teaching — In- cidental reading — Incidental grammar — No spelling — Lessons on chyraical substances, solid, fluid, gaseous — Chymical experiments — Chymical elements — Knowledge of man in body and mind — Geogra- phy — Globe — Incidental Astronomy — Civil History — Geometry — Me- ; chanical Science' — Natural History — Incidental Natural Theology — Study of nature naturalized — Lessons on political state — Lessons on political economy — Exercise of the reflecting powers — Maxims and , proverbs — Education for all — For peculiar talents or turns — Science taught to the young, to the working classes, to females — Educational Code — Training Teachers — Schools of Industry — American schools ' of manual labour — Domestic service — Ulterior education — Langua- ges — Classics — College. The pupil is now sis years old, and ought not to remain in the infant school after that age ; as it has been found that the mixture of older children operates upon the younger too much in the way of influence, to the effect of diminishing the original working of the faculties. A limit should be fixed and scrupu- lously adhered to. At six the pupil should be introduced to the school in which he is to find occupation till he arrives at four- teen, the age of puberty, at which age, it is submitted to be prac- ticable that he shall have attained, besides moral habits, a sum of general elementary knowledge, sufficient as a basis, if his destination be manual labour, for farther voluntary progress as the employment of his leisure time, as resource in any situation in which he may find himself, and as the means of applying the faculties in which he is strongest to his own advancement in the world; while the just notions of social life which he has at- tained will regulate his future views ; and at once deliver him from the various impostors that now mislead him, and render MORAL EXERCISE IN ADVANCED SCHOOL. 105 him the enlightened and willing co-operator with yet higher intellects, in plans for the general welfare. If the pupil's des- tination be a pursuit above manual labour, his acquisitions, at fourteen, will form a basis on which to push yet farther the pur- suits of science, and apply these to exalt the character and U3e- fulnes>' of his future professional line of employment. 1st, The MORAL TRAINING begun in the infant school, must not be considered as finished there. Its principles and practice ought to have a prominent influence on all the subsequent steps of education, and be held as a directing and advancing system through the whole of life. Rules should be systematically laid down for the constant exercise of benevolence, justice and prac- tical piety, in all the intercourse and all tlie business of the school ; the readings and lessons should have a moral tendency ; all selfishness, rudeness, coarseness, and imprecation, should be habitually reprobated in the place ; and cooperation, disinterest- edness, and kindness, esteemed and encouraged. The subject of morals should be made prominent, and the scriptural founda- tion of all its charity and brotherly love unceasingly impressed upon the pupil's mind. There is a simple, and as it may be called mechanical, aid to the teacher's precepts and the pupil's moral practice, which, printed in a cheap form, should be in the possession of every pupil, and used by him every day of his con- tinuance in the school beyond the stage of infancy. It is the production of a female moralist, is called A Daily Record op Duties, organic, moral, religious, and intellectual, and, has been used in families both in England and Scotland for the last three years. The duties which the Creator has constituted the conditions of human happiness are arranged according to the classes mentioned in its title ; while the details have reference to the faculties, and these are adopted according to the analysis offered in Chapter III. of this treatise. A specimen of one week of the Record as kept, will be found in the Appendix, No. v., of which each of the other fifty- one is a repetition. Every night before going to bed, the pupil's attention is' called to the events of the day; and the array of duties which demand fulfil- ment is pondered by him. He weighs them all, for guilt in one is morally as well as religiously, guilt in all, and is inconsistent with the claim of having performed the duty of " Obedience to God," which is one of the entries; so that if nothing else were done than securing a diurnal perusal of the names of the duties, a daily reminiscence that these are human obligations, actual good cannot but result. But when this help to self-examination is really and sincerely used as a regulator of conduct, the good it is capable of doing is incalculable. It might be difiicult for one teacher of a numerous school, to superintend the fidelity of the entries made by the pupils in these registers ; but at least the 106 MONITORIAL SYSTEM — WRITING. books may be produced to the monitors of classes, and each pupil be required to explain his entries, and state upon what act or kind of conduct he felt authorized to make them ; any thing remarkable to be reported to the teacher. Of course the record- books of the monitors themselves will fall to be revised by the teacher. What is now stated will be easily understood by a glance at the specimen in the appendix. I need scarcely say, that the monitorial system which, from its many direct and indirect advantages, is adopted even in the infant school, should be continued in the more advanced semi- nary, as essential to its efficiency. On the benefits of this admira- ble educational improvement, which is in itself sufficient to im- mortalize the names of Lancaster and Bell, there is now, it is believed, scarcely a dissenting voice. In the advanced school, which is attended for eight years, there will be not only variety of pursuit, but different grades of progress ; but there must, of course, be classes of pupils at the same stage, and learning the same matters. There may be a call for more than one teacher to answer the degrees of pro- egress, — the infant teacher must be a different person from the more advanced, — but this is matter of economical arrangement, •which I am not at present considering. I shall therefore pro- ceed with the subject of educating the faculties on their objects, whatever shall be the mere machinery put in train for that pur- pose. Writing must be zealously practised according to the "briefest and best system yet adopted in the Lancasterian schools ; and the pupil habituated gradually to write down words on his slate, when required, and practise with pen and ink occasionally, Drawing is no more than writing down objects ; and its princi- ples, to the extent of sketching objects presented, ought to be taught in the writing class ; for allied branches should be prac- tised together. Design and painting are for those gifted with the talent required ; but every pupil should be able to form on his slate such objects as a square, a cube, a tree, a house, a ma- chine, &c., in correct drawing and perspective. Arithmetic, which has been well grounded in the infant school, by means of visible and tangible numbers, should proceed with its calcula- tions and applications, according to the abridged and clever sys- iem of Mr. Wood, of the Lancasterian schools, or Pestalozzi's saethod^ as may be found to succeed best.* The Pestalozzian lessons on objects of Dr. Mayo, it will be recollected, were left unfinished, as the remainder was consider- ed beyond the stage of the infant school. The fifth and last series of forty-nine lessons affords practice in combination. Each * I have much pleasure in referring to Mr. Biber's " Life of Pesta? hZ'ih" which contains a summary on this and all other points. ADVANCED LESSONS ON OBJECTS. 107 object is presented, as before to the pupils, who make their own observations upon it. They are then interrogated as to what they know concerning the substance ; and all the information which can be obtained from them is collected by the teacher, who may communicate any farther particulars on the subject, calculated to interest or instruct. The materials thus obtained should be arranged, and repeated to them; after which the class should be examined upon all that has passed ; and finally, requir- ed to draw up a written account themselves. Children from eight to ten years of age have derived great improvement from this exercise. It not only serves to stimulate their attention during the progress of the lesson, but also furnishes a test of their having well understood it, and leads them to express their ideas with clearness and facility. In this course the substance should be exhibited both in its raw and manufactured state. Thus in the Lesson of Flax, the plant itself, the fibres when separated from the stem, the thread when spun, and the various substances into which it is made, may be brought before the pupils, and like- wise models of the machinery employed in these operations. The first lesson of this series impresses the origin, appearance, qualities, preparation, and uses of Leather; and this includes oak- bark, lime water, alkali, &c. The second lesson treats of Cork in the same way, and tells where it is produced. The succeeding lessons are on India Rubber, Sponge, (for many of the objects were presented before for a less extensive description,) Cam- phire, Horn, Shell-lac, Wax-candles,— which brings in capillary attraction, Glue, Coffee, Tea, Sago, Rice, Paper, with a long- lesson on its manufacture ; Parchment, Glass, Whalebone, Bread, Sugar, Hemp, Flax, Cotton, Wool, Silk, Court-Plaster, Saffron, Butter, Cheese, Putty, Starch, Felt, and Porcelain. Many others might be added. The 33d lesson introduces the Metals, with the following ob- siervations : — " In these lessons on the common metals, it is necessary to present the specimens to the class in their several natural and artificial states; that is to say, the native ores and the manufactured metals. The teacher would find the interest of the pupils awakened by the examination of the several sub- stances, and consequently would find them more imclined to fe- ceive, wdth profit, the information conveyed. The plan of writ- ing down the list of qualities is again adopted with the metals, as they lead to a new range of ideas, and forming very decided- ly the characteristic distinctions of the substances." The first metal treaied of is Gold. It is a perfect metal, malleable, duc- tile, tenacious, heavy, fasible, incombustible, except by electrici- ty. A solid piece of gold, and a piece of gold-leaf, are shown ; the. almost incredible ductility of gold explained ; and its resist- ance to all acids except aqua regia, a mixture of the muriatic 108 INCIDENTAL READING* and nitric acids. Of course, at this stage, such ideas as electri- city and chymical acids, must be anticipated, the pupils being promised a subsequent acquaintance with them. Then conies the uses of gold in coinage and ornament,* as lace, gilding of metals and porcelain, the mode of beating it out, &c. The les- son concludes with the geographical localities of the metal, and its geological and mining description. In this way are treated, in successive lessons, illustrated by exhibition. Silver, Mercu- ry — with the Thermometer and Barometer — Lead, Copper, Iron, Steel, Cast-iron, and Tin. The 40th lesson compares metals with each other, which brings in the doctrine, illustrated practically, of specific gravity. The 41st lesson, one of much interest, is on the attributes of metals in general ; their metallic lustre, sonorousness, weight, ductility, tenacity ; their combinations and alloys in metallurgy, or the working of mefa's. This is followed by questions on all the metals, as an exercise. What are the chief qualities and properties of gold, silver, &c. ? How is gold beaten out 1- How are buttons gilt 1 What is lunar caustic? What are the spe- cific gravities of gold, silver, tin, lead, &c. The 42d lesson takes up the Earths ; Lime and its many com- binations, animal, vegetable, and mineral ; Alumine or Argil, with all its applications, in bricks, pottery, &c. to the use of man. The remaining lessons are on Coal, Granite, Salt, Slate, and Coral. I have been thus minute, I trust not tedious, from my convic- tion that a summary of the vthole system is necessary to its due appreciation. Of this I do feel assured, that the pupils will not weary of it; but tliat, connected as it ought to be, with a well ventilated school room and exercising ground, with active gym- nastics, vaiied with other studies to be mentioned, and communi- cated by the teacher in a friendly, cheerful, and exciting man- ner, it will be a delight to the young students ; put the barbarous artificial stimulants of punishm.ents, place-taking, medals, and prizes, for ever out of fashion, and render these matter of curious history to the better taught pupil, associated with the foolish methods of education, which, however incredible it may be to him, did once prevail in society. It is plain that all ihe intellec- tual faculties have their turn of exercise in these five series of lessons, that exercise constituting high enjoyment, and being, from its very nature, inexhaustible. Continuing the process of iiscibental reading, all the words and descriptions ot the objects in the difierent series should Le presented in a printed and written form, to the pupils ; thus their reading would be improved; and, by the time the whole lessons are finished, which may require perhaps a year or more, the pu- pils, assisted by occasional reading in classes under m.onitors. INCIDENTAL METHOD — CHYMISTRV. l09 ^lay easily have attained the power of reading any English book. Grammar, by parsing, should be incidentally taught. Mr. Biber has shown the Pestalozzian course concisely and clearly, and to his work I must be contented with a reference. It is obvious that, by the incidental method, knowledge of an object and its qualities, its name pron^.. meed, read, and written down, its de- scription read and parsea, are occupations and exercises all pro- ceeding at the same time, and actually aiding each other. In the connexion of nature's parts in one harmonious whole, to teach incidentally is to teach naturally. The saving of time and labour must be so obvious, and the unity and co-operation of in- tellectual exercise so advantageous, that a judicious and exten- sive application of the Incidental Method seems indispensable to the success of popular education. The pupils ought not to be tasked and annoyed with the absurdity of that laborious and generally abortive exercise, learning to spell. They do not need to spell till they come to write ; and spelling is never at- tained by the common school process, but by habitual perusal of the words in reading. No one who reads much can remain a bad orthographer, and no one writes much who has not previ- ously read much more. Although, from Dr. Mayo's series of lessons, a large field of qualities in nature has been gone through, there ought to follow an introduction to the primary substances of material nature as ascertained by chymistry; and lessons on the presence and combination of these substances in the articles or objects already submitted to the pupil's consideration. Another period of school should accordingly be devoted to a minute and thorough practi- cal familiarity with substances in nature, solid, fluid, and gaseous, so that the pupil may know them as well as he is now made to know the tenses of a verb, or the declensions of a noun. The progress from the substance to their relations, combinations, and results in chymistry, is easy and natural, so that a bmad and use- ful foundation of chymical knowledge may be laid at an age when little more than Latin words are, by the present system, stored up ; and it will take a better and more permanent hold of the memory than Latin words are found to do. Experiments will impress the varieties of chymical action, namely, attraction, cohesion, crystallization, combination, decomposition, the nature and effects of heat, &c. the gases, the acids, the alkalies, the earths, the metals, the chymistry of vegetable and animal sub- stances ; in short, the elements of chymistry may be fully and lastingly communicated. Before proceeding farther with external nature, it appears that this would be the proper time to introduce the pupils to a subject hitherto unheard of in schools, and misunderstood in colleges, AND that subject IS THEMSELVES. Without this all else is use- 10 110 Study of man within beack op the Youni?, less. Why should the teacher stop with the five senses 1 Why should not the pupil, who has reached nine or ten years of age, begin to know the faculties of his mind ^ Is there any thing in thoscj for example, which have been detailed in this treatise, which may not be made as plain to him as the lessons on objects and their qualities'? There is no need for leading him deeply into metaphysical inquiry on the functions of his faculties: a simple elementary knowledge of them and iheir every-day modes • of operation, above all, their inseparable connexion with their related objeibts, might be impressed on his mind in such a manner as not only to be perfectly comprehended by him, but firmly im- pressed on his memory, and applied in his ordinary experience. This branch should constitute a paramount object of concern with the teacher ; he should spare no pains to put his pupils com- pletely and intelligently in possession o( it. The transition will be easy from the analysis of the faculties to their ethical combi- nation, made plain to the young in their daily intercourse. I have seen the experiment tried on children under twelve years of age with the most flattering success ; they have manifested a knowledge and estimate of motives, and a readiness in appreciat- ing, and eveii regulating conduct, far above what the great mass of the " educated" ever dreamed of being necessary to intelli- gent existence. The same children, it must farther be observed, kept a faithful register of their own conduct, by entries in the "Record of Duties," already referred to. As a part of themselves, the pupils may, with great ease and advantage, be familiarized with the general structure of their OWN BODIES, the functions of the digestive and other organs, which bear the most obvious relation to the preservation of health and strength ; while uncleanly and unwholesome habits may be set prominently before their eyes, with their effects on health and life fully spread out to their view. For example, the effects of excessive indulgence in ardent spirits might, by drawings and preparations, be so plainly portrayed, and ;ro often pressed on the notice, as to aiTord a lesson, available for life ; so that if the individual should sin in after years, he should not sin in igno- rance. The habitual recommendation, accompanied with rea- sons and expositions of consequences referable to the organic laws, of cleanly and wholesome habits in ablutions, ventilation, &c., will soon tell practically on the pupils, and a great change v/ill be effected even among the working classes.* * Dr. Andrew Combe, in his "Principles of Phj'siology," a work which cannot be too strongly recommended to every family and school in the empire, suggests to manufacturers to estabhsh for their work- men the means of bathing. If time were given them they will willing- ly bathe, and will enjoy cleanliness, ijealthy skin, and less craving for the stimulus of spirits. The waste hot water of a steam-engine would GEOGRAPHY ASTRONOMY — CIVIL HISTORY. Ill All this time the course is proceeding of instruction in geo- graphy, the use of the globes, and the simpler elements of astronomy; so that at least the planetary system shall be made perfectly familiar. The pupil certainly should not leave school ignorant of the simpler phenomena of the heavens ; and this knowledge can be given incidentally to or following up geogra- phy. He should understand and see illustrated, by the planeta- rium and orrery, the relation of the Earth and the other planets to the Sun, and of the Moon and Earth to each other ; he should be aware of the rotation of the earth, at the rale of 1000 miles an hour at the equator, and its course round an orbit of 584 mil- lions of miles in a year; being 1,600,000 miles a-day, 66,600 in an hour, 1100 in a minute, and 18 in a second ; he should be in- formed of the course of comets, — the phases of the moon, — the solar and lunar eclipses, — the calculations of time, — the ecliptic and seasons,— the vast distance of the fixed stars, and the im- mensity of creation. No kind of knowledge more tends to ex- pand the ideas of Omnipotence than astronomy, and to dispel limited and unworthy impressions of the Creator ; no one should be ignorant that space is necessarily infinite, because there can be no point of space without a point beyond it; that our instru- ments have discovered eighty millions of fixed stars, every star a sun, probably with attendant planets invisible to us, but, it may be, ten times eighty, or 800 millions in number ; when, after all, if space be infinite and replenished with orbs in a proportionate degree with that part of it within our ken, the 80 millions of suns and 800 millions of planets, must be relatively but a speck in creation, whose annihilation would be an event of relative in significance.* Writing and calculating will continue to be practised ; and En- glish reading, with attention to its grammar, and even to its elo- cution ; for, in a well conducted system, several advantages may be reaped from one and the same act of instruction. The Scrip- tures will of course be read. Civil history should not be omitted in our seminary ; but in the manner in which it should be rendered a study, it is decidedly for riper years. — I should recommend little more, under and at puberty, than a chronologi- cal skeleton of it, that the pupil may know the tribes and nations that peopled the earth before his own tim^e, with a very general account of them; and certainly, for reasons to be stated in the give them easily the means of warm bathing once or -twice a-week. This was actually done at the Lochrin Distillery, near .Edinburgh, dunng the prevalence of Cholera. + Mr. Fulton, in exhibiting his beautiful orrery, impresses the rela- tive magnitude of the Earth and B"ti on the spectators, by stating that the ball representing the ea^iii Deing2 inches diameter, the brass globo for the sun would require to be 19 feet il2 GEOMETRY— MECHANICAL SCIENCE, sequel, as little of the details of their history as possible, or jus? as much as shall suffice to mark and distinguish each people. How history ought to be written and studied, will itself form the subject of a short chapter immediately after the present. In our pursuit of nature, the relations of geometry, without which a mason or ca/pentar cannot take a step in his trade, are well worthy of a portion of the pupil's attention. There is no occasion to go deep into mathematics ; but soi.ie knowledge, iu addition to that of elementary figures, imparled in the infant school, — of angles, triangles^ squares, parallelograms, perpendicu- lars, horizontals, &c., of the relations, of these, and of the demonstration of these relations, may be given to the more advanced classes of our seminary. The grand object with regard to all these branches of study ought to be, — and the aid of able men will be necessary to sketch out the plan for each, — to render the teaching of the subject or science elementarily broad and comprehensive, leaving minute details for after voluntary study. For example, in geometry, the study should not be some books of Euclid, and then a stop, but a general notion of the science a& applied to planes and solids, as a basis for after detailed study ; but sufficient to render the subject intelligible, and of easy applica- tion to the avocations of future life, in surveying, carpentry, &c.r and easily extended when more minute information is wanted. Provided with the elements of geometry, the pupil, probably now in his second last or last year, is prepared for practical les- sons in the elements of mechanical science. Nothing can be of easier or more delightful acquisition, and nothing is more com- mon, than for young persons of from twelve to fourteen eagerly to pursue the study, and perfectly comprehend it. Lessons, with, illustrative experiments, will be given on the mechanical proper- ties of matter, i:s extension, impenetrability, divisibility, porosity, gravity, inertia, — on gravitation and cohesion, — on statics, equi- librium, composition and resolution of forces, and the science of the centres of gravit}', percussion and oscillation, — on mechanics and the mechanical powers, — on the strength and strain of ma- terials, and the principles of carpentry, — on dynamics, motion y falling bodies, the pendulum, clocks, &c., — on central forces, — on hydrostatics, fluidity, pressure of fluids, conducting of water from a distance, &c., — on hydraulics or the power of water, water-wheels, &c. — on pneumatics and the practical applications., of the elasticity of the air, air-pumps, water-pumps, syphon, &c. , on acoustics and the philosophy of sound, — on optics, colourSy reflection, refraciion, lenses, telescope and miscroscope, — on, electricity, galvanism, and magnetism, — on the steam engine, &c. Well conducted experir.ients will both impress the truths and increase their interest. TK© foregoing enumeration is minute, that the reader may NATURAL HISTORY — NATURAL THEOLOGY. 113 have under his eye the kind of knowledge comprised in mechani- cal science, and judge how important it is to resource in life. Likewise that he may judge whether there is any thing in it which may not be taught to the young. There is no part of the study so intricate or difficult as a Greek verb, to say nothing of its in- trinsic attractions. The time allotted to school may be made to include an elemen- tary knowledge of natural history, or nature's external fea- tures, either preceding or following the study of nature's se- crets, as they are called, in chymistry and mechanical philosophy. It is a common, and not an ill-founded opinion, that natural his- tory is better understood with the aid of the other sciences men- tioned. The pupil, in this branch, will learn to distinguish the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, the atmosphere and its phenomena, the winds, the ocean with its tides and currents, the discoveries of geology, the nature of animals and plants, &c. Blended essentially with the whole of ihe branches of know- ledge now enumerated, and capable of being imparted incident- ally with an effect at once edifying and delightful, is natural THEOLOGY. The tcacher ought to be perfectly qualified to impress that important knowledge, as he enlightens his pupil on the Crea- tor's work=, with all their benevolent adaptations. He would require to return to these works were he to teach natural theology as a separate branch ; so that he will save that repetition, and teach the subject better, besides commanding yet another means of impressing more efficiently natural knowledge itself, by point- ing to the agency and design of the Creator as the key-note to the entire composition of his instructions, the diapason to all the harmonies of nature which science tmfolds, the highest and best end and object of the application of our faculties to the attainment of truth. It is in relation to the Great Artificer, that universal na- ture grows upon our opening eyes as one exquisitely harmonious system. It is man that divides nature's phenomena into branch-, es of study, and calls them chymistry, mechanical philosophy, natural history. Nature has no such divisions; her laws pro- ceed in exquisite order and beauty, independently of the artifi- cial mode in which man observes them ; while the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Creator inhere in every part of the great system, and illumine and gild, as they make plain, its stu- pendous fabric. It is in this beautiful, this essential, this neces- sary way, that the pupils of our school must become natural theologists ; and adding to that knowledge, or rather that habit or frame of mind, an improved moral, their preparation for Christian instruction will, as far as human means can make it, be complete. There will be an immense advance when knowledge is thus simplified and referred to Nature, and not considered as existing only within the walls of colleges, known by conventional names, 10* 114 POLITtCAL ECONOMY. and taught to full grown men alone, whom it is meant to distin- guish from all others by the name of philosophers. Every sane person ought to know the obvious works of God, and modes of his manifestation ; and every person may become acquainted with these in youth, with ease and pleasure. Incidentally, throughout the whole time of the pupil in the school, and particularly in the latter years of his attendance, he should receive much and anxious instruction on the subject of his POLITICAL STATE and his position as a member of the social system. There is no greater novelty in education than this ; hitherto there has been an utter blank here. The elder pupils should be perfectly familiar with their social rights and duties, the principles and simpler practice of the constitution and go- vernment, the functions of representative and of electors, the na- ture and powers of judicial establishments, the trial by jury, and the functions of magistrates, justices of the peace, and officers of the law, of all ranks and degrees. There is nothing in all this that a boy of twelve years of age may not comprehend and store up as knowledge as easily as he would translate Cesar. The knowledge should be given him in a series of lessons, and his progress ascertained by repeated examinations : and when he shall come to exercise his rights as a citizen, his early elemen- tary training will be of great value to him. Lessons on political economy, the nature and principles of trade, commerce, manufactures, and money, will follow elementary views of political condition. Liberal relations may then be in- culcated, and all the self-defeating prejudice and selfishness of dealing among nations and individuals anticipated and prevented. National antipathies ought to be especially reprobated. There are a few plain principles of political economy of which no individual ought to be ignorant, such as the balance of demand and supply, the doctrine of wages, of employer and workman, the economy of labour, the division of labour, the effect of competition, of over- trading, of machinery, of poor-laws, and pauperism, with all its degradation when not induced by unavoidable misfortune, &c. Miss Martineau is immortalized by her ingenious and exciting method of recommending this hitherto esteemed dry subject. She has shown that political economy mingles intimately with every- day life, and that its results can form the basis of narratives of great interest. I know of no way in -which the subject could be better taught than by a course of that singular lady's small vo- lumes, with her summary of principles in the last pages of each ; every principle is connected with its appUcation to reality, and remembered the better for that .connexion : the student at our school would not merely read the volumes as tales, but would be made to dwell on each as lessons, an'd treasure up every incident and every principle for use in after life. There are some questions upon the whole system, which the EDUCATION FOR ALL. 115 reader may feel inclined to ask. 1st, In the foregoing exposi- tion of education as adapted to the faculties, he may have thought that the Knowing powers alone have been provided for. To that I answer, that they have mainly, for the period of edu- cation treated of is the period of their greatest activity, the time to sow broadly and abundantly the seed of knowledge. But the REFLECTING POWERS havo not been idle ; every day and every hour of the da}'-, opportunities of exercising these, in com- parison and necessary consequence, must occur, and the judi- cious teacher will never omit the occasion of doing so, and en- couraging in his pupils, manifestations of good sense and saga- city, another word for the reflective process. He ought to be "full of wise saws and modern instances," that is, he should be able to test an occurrence, and clinch an advice, with a maxim or proverb ; this mode of rendering wisdom readily available has been subject to unmerited reproach, as a vulgar habit ; this is nonsense ; nothing is vulgar that is truly useful ; it may be unnecessary, and therefore annoying, to repeat obvious maxima upon all occasions to those who Imow them as well as the re- peater, in the way that Sancho distinguished himself; but a store of them in the mind for use and application, not for display — and there are several good selections published, — will be fonnd of great practical value. 2d, The reader may farther ask, is the above curriculum to be passed through by all pupils, without regard to the differ- ences of talent, turns, and capabilities ? The answer to this is affirmative. Whatever may be the particular power of mind or aptitude of body which points out a marked Ime for an individual's future life, no one will surely say, that he is to have no other edacation but on that specific object; for example, mu- sic, painting, sculpture, mechanics, classics. If his particular talent has not absorbed all the rest of his mind, which would render him a cretin or an idiot with one faculty working like an instinct, he has other faculties to be educated ; he has, in truths all the faculties, and it does not require the highest degree of en- dowirsnt of them to follow out all the branches of education^ instrumentary and real, which have been allotted, both to our in- fant and advanced school. His particular talent will not be di- minished but aided by his general acquirements ; his Creator has given him all his talents for use, and the education now pro- posed is the very use of them, as pointed out by their nature and relations, which has been designed. All should, if possible, be brought up to one elevated level of knowledge and morality ; and from that advanced position genius may take its new and higher flight. Nothing will more tend to bring out that genius into bold relief than the school training now proposed : so that there will be no searching about for it at the period of puberty. 116 CAPACITIES OF INFANTS. No previous time will then have been lost, and the start to far- ther attainments in the marked line of the special talent will be immediate, well dir^Bcted, and energetic. No provision can or ought to be made for particular lines in the general seminary. The schools for particular talents must and ought to be subse- quent apprenticeship to the pursuits respectively. I do not an- ticipate any difficulty on this head when the subject is so plain ; and, therefore, with the reader's permission shall leave it. 3d, It may be again asked, is it not extravagant to expect that so much educational work, as has been laid out for the ad- vanced seminary, can be done, at least to purpose, at so early an age as from six to fourteen ? To this it is answered, that there is no extravagance in expecting that that shall be done, for the accomplishment of which we have both principle and experi- ence. The faculties are competent at the age in question to achieve that for which they were given to man, and then most pointedly rendered acute and active. As this is a most import- ant question, and one which has the highest and strongest bar- riers of old habits of thinking to overleap, the reader is earnest- ly requested to apply his reflecting powers attentively and im- partially to it ; keeping in view that, if it be impracticable to educate up to the point proposed in eight years, from six to fourteen, all idea oi popular education must be abandoned. If Ignorance prevails, to the admitted extent of a blank on. the im- portant subject of the human faculties, there is no wonder that the mental capabilities of children have been erroneously esti- mated. The training to which they are at present subjected, not only does nothing to call out their faculties, but sends them to sleep in a drowsy system of reading and spelling words; so that they suffer that diminution of activity and force for life, w^hich unexercised nerves and muscles entail on the bodily frame. It was to be expected, that when we well nigh annihilate the facul- ties of children, we should doubt their existence. The sagacious active Wilderspin has thrown a flood of light on this hitherto obscure question. His infants manifest, at six years of age, the knowing, and to some extent the reflecting faculties, far beyond the pupils of the common schools, at double their age. In his work on infant education, he notices the pro- found ignorance which prevails on the capacities of infants, and has made good his right to do so by the irrefragable facts he advances, from his own fifteen years' experience. Much of the useful knowledge desiderated is obtained in the infant school, and four years saved, which at present are worse than lost ; and when the pupil passes on to the advanced seminary, which is constituted on the principle of systematic progress, the degree of his exertions and the extent of his acquisitions cannot be con- ceived by those who have only witnessed the drawling waste of CAPACITIES FROM SIX TO FOURTEEN. 117 time which, in most schools, for there are exceptions, is called children's education,* Again, there is nothing in the whole course of our advanced tchool which may not be perfectly un- derstood and practically applied by pupils from twelve to four- teen ; and making provision, as is proposed, for gradations of occupation, there is much for which the age from ten to twelve is perfectly well adapted ; while there are divisions of employ- ment for the other two periods, of from eight to fcn, and six to eight. Classical difficulties, far beyond the simple exposition of natural truths, are mastered by boys of ten or twelve years of age, if the stimulants of prizes and punishments — there are no other motives — are rendered sufficiently pungent. There is nothing in the facts of creation, illustrated to the senses by ex- periment, which is not of as easy comprehension as the objects and arrangements of a boy's voluntary amusements; he adapts his fishing-tackle to the conditions of angling ; he studies the weather, the stream, the habits of the fish, and many other cir- cumstances, and can instruct others in their practical appli- cation : he is a master, too, in the natural history of rabbits, pigeons, and pets in general ; he gets up a private theatre, paints the scenes, and writes the pieces ; his spot of ground is the best kept and the most productive in his father's garden ; and for mischief and fun, he can lay a train of circumstances, moral and physical, which, when he comes to spring his mine upon the de- voted wight for whose peculiar benefit he has taken so much trouble and expended so much genius, he has often done more than if, engaged in practical chymisiry undur Dr. Reid,t he had finished a set of glass-retorts with a blowpipe, and applied them in a dozen chymical experiments. In short, although the re- flecting pGv;'ersare in frequent requisition incidentally in our curriculum, the knowing are chiefly in exercise in storing up knowledge and gaining address, and there is no period of life when they are in greater vigour than at and about puberty. It will not be a smattering which will be gained, — another objec- tion ;-- -it is forgotten that, besides the infant school groundings eight years are proposed to be devoted to the advanced school * One of these exceptions, for there are several, is the Circus-Place School in Edinburgh, where realities are taught. 1 1 allude to this distinguished chymist's large and scientifically con= structed laboratory in Edinburghj^'unequalled in Europe, for practice m chymistry, in which every pupil performs nearly 2000 experiments with his own hands. Dr. Keid was, moreover, the first, here, to give chymical instruction to young people, as I have good access to know, He has had pupils younger than fourteen who made efficient progress •undor his tuition; and he has assured me of the perfect success of that early study. Not only chymistry but mechanical philosophy have been partially introduced into "some grammar schools, in deference to the ffliemands of the age. 118 ■ SCIENCE AND MANHOOD- course. Under competenl instructers no branch will be permit- ted to be superficially attained ; there is time, and there ought to be means to render the acquisition of. each subject complete up to the pitch of the pupil's powers. It is under the present sys- tem that every thing is superficial, smattering, and forgotten. Another prejudice arises from our erroneous habits of thinking ; we. associate science, even in its restricted sense of knowledge of nature, with manhood. We have been accustomed to see it the pursuit of the advanced students of College, and therefore conclude that manhood alone is competent to it. It is easy to see why it has become the occupation of manhood : under the old system, the dead languages absurdly took its place at the period which nature points out for it ; and this is precisely the waste of time which is deplored. When a new and better sys- tem shall prove the perfect capability of the young for scientific attainments, (these being divested of all the quackery and mys- tery through which we have been accustomed to view them, and called plainly and properly know'ledge of nature, in its simple beauty and most obvious harmony,) our habits of thinking will be greatly improved on this important subject. But the question is not limited to an a priori argument ; th« trial has been made in various establishments to be afterward • mentioned, and the suc- cess has been fully up-to what on principle might have been ex- pected. It cannot he too earnestly impressed on the attention of educationists, and of the legislature, that an early introduction to nature is the life and soul — the sine qua non — of popular edu~ cation. 4:th, Many may be inclined, on reflection and the conviction of demonstration, to surrender their ancient association of natural knowledge with manhood, who yet may be positively impracti- cable upon the wild theory of teaching all that has been pro- posed to all ranks of the people. This is really too much, they say ; What occasion can a man, who is to work at a handicraft trade, liave for a course of chymistry, mechanical philosophy, or natural history ] Will it make him a better tailor, carpenter, or blacksmith ? Will it not, on the contrary, tend to raise his ideas of life, and tempt him to despise labour, and be discontent- ed with his condition ] The answer to all this, humbly offered is, that it will materially improve and facilitate his trade ; but it will do much more, — It will elevate his character, improve his social condition, and render him both a better -and a happier naan. A scientific knowledge of nature will suggest to the manual labourer improved and abridged modes of working, counteraction of unwholesome trades, in materials, posture, at' mosphere, &c. ; it will show him the value of cleanly h^Wts, fresh air, and muscular exercise, and the physical safF"e»ings re- sulting from excessj vice, and e^peciiiUy the abm§ cf ations, and from inquiries made by them among the poorer class- es, Mr. Dun and Mr. Miln-e, the teachers of the Edinburgh L*^n- casterian and model Infant schools, have informed the authop that they entertain no doubt that their schools wo-uld be quite full in a few days on that footing.^ This might be expected by attention to the most obvious human motives. The parent must be depraved indeed, or insane, who shouM prefer being annoyed with wretchedly cared for children at home, or seeing * Both these teachers declare that their school-fees are irregularly' paid. In the Lancasterian scarcely one-half are paid when due, and a great proportion is never recovered. In the infant school it is better,, though there likewise irregular. Mr. Dun knows when a pupil will cease to come back : it is after running some weeks in arrear. He has oficn made the experiment of seeing the parents, whom he generally found drunk, and on wiping oft' the score the pupil was sure to come back agt.in. Mr. Dun and Mr. Milne state, that the opinion m favour of gratiL teaching is from experience general among the teachers them- selves. The boys in the Lsncasterian School are about SCO,— they used to be SCO. If the doors were opened gratis, a larger number- than 560 wauid attend with alacrity. There are abQut 300 girls. CLAIMS OF WORKING CLASS. 139 them playing in the kennels of the streets, in filth and wicked- ness, to placing them in the safety, comfort, and to them, inxury of an infant school. If they could be tempted only to Iring them there, the children themselves would most certainly come back again; if so, would the parents— could they hinder them? Let us once get hold of the children and we are sure of them ; they will make no demand on their parents on Monday morning for the non-existing twopence, which has gone for whiskey on Saturday nioht or Sunday ; the poor child is probably sent or driven out of doors at any rate ; he will infallibly find his way to Infant school ; and when once there, he may in most cases be counted upon, not only for the whole period of that first school, but for transference to the more advanced school, of our fifth chapter, also opened to him gratis ; and there also he will make out the total term. 2dl]/. The manual-labour class have a claim on the nation for the means of educating their children. If education can be adapted for the people at an expense only which would over- whelm any means short of national, it must be provided by the nation. But this is but another form for the expression that it must be provided by the people themselves; not in a partial and inefficient way, but by the equable means of a general con- tribution passing through the coffers of the state ; the waters would but partially irrigate the soil if they were not first carried by evaporation high into the atmosphere, and scattered in genial, impartial, and spreading showers over the whole face of the land. From some few direct taxes the manual-labour class is ex- empted ; but that class being seven-eighths of the population, must bear an immense proportion of the indirect taxation. They are, after ail, the grand consumers, and nearly every thing they consume is in some way or other taxed. What have they in return for this 1 They have protection.— Of what 1 they have no property to protect, their manual-skill or capacity of labour needs no protection ; their persons require little, already protect- ed as they are by their poverty ; the protection of the capital that pays their labour is a far-fetched personal value for their contribution to the public burdens. They are entitled to some more palpable and direct return, and what can that be more na- tural, more blessed, than education for their children, ''Dropping like the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath." and vivifying and fructifying all it falls upon. It is an error to call this gratis education ; the working classes pay for it not only in their extensive contribution to the indirect taxation, but iu 140 THE NATION MUST EDUCATE THEM. sustaining by their labour the entire physical fabric of the com- munity. For this they bestow one-half, and often more, of the' twenty-four hours, and three-fourths of their waking time ; and that for a remuneration which their numbers render limited, and thereby prevent from being adequate, if that remuneration is barely sufficient to provide necessaries for their families, can we yet reduce it farther by proposing that, over and above their labour and taxation, they shall provide education, such as it ought to be, for their ahildroi; 1 No! education denied to seven-eighths of a nation, should rouse a nation's energies. That it will be costly there is no concealing, but it must be attained at any cost. We must go to war with ignorance, and wage it uncompromisingly till it is conquered. No half measure will succeed ; the effort must be powerful, simultaneons, and worthy of a great people. It must have all the " agitation" of a mighty event ; " the peo- ple must take the matter into their own hands," this meaning, not that the people are expected to make unconnected and unsystematic efforts to educate themselves, but that they are to urge the great measure on the Government, as one which, they have at heart, and for which they are willing to pay, pro- vided all are made to pay in the fair proportion of an equable tax. But to the Government they will leave the mode of ap- plying the ways and means so provided ; they will thence best secure that uniformity of plan which will enHghten all the land alike, and bring it within the circle of one vast but united family; in most beneficial contrast to the phasis it now exhibits, general ignorance diversified with a little knowledge in the garb of a har- lequin, with no two of its patches alike. As a commencement to the glorious measure of national edu- cation, which is destined to illustrate the legislature that carries it through, its merits should be discussed fully and freely in. both Houses of Parliament, and resolutions voted in its favour. Peti- tions will not be wanting, when the subject is " agitated" by the legislature and the press, both combining to enlighten the public upon it, and render it popular. When the legislature have re^ cognised, by resolutions, the principles, first, that the educa- tion OF THE PEOPLE, FKOM TWO YEARS OF AGE TO FOURTEEN, ought to be furnished at THE NATIONAL EXPENSE; and, secondly, that the national system should be directed by THE GOVERNMENT, the v/ay will be paved for the first act of Par- liament which will empower his Majesty to name Commissioners, under the superintendence of his Secretary of State for the Home Department,* to constitute a Board of Public Education, * Pussia and France have each a Minister of Public Instruction, and the magnitude of the national object would warrant a similar appoint- ment in this country. In this proposition I am anticipated by the Edin- burgh Review, No. 117, p. 30^ — "In England^ where almost every thing THE WHAT OF EDUCATION. . 141 whose duty, under the responsibility of a minute report to Par- liament, it shall be, First, after the most extensive inquiries into existing impiovements, not merely in this country, where there is yet but little to boast of, but in countries which have made, and are making, popular education a grand national object, such as Prussia and France, and guided by sound philosophical prin- ciple, to prepare a system of primary education — a Code or direc- tory for the teacher's guidance, adapted \oall classes of the com- munity, and with a special eye to the education of the manual- labour class, physical, moral, and intellectual. The vital import- ance of such a book needs no illustration. On the table of every school in the country, it would be the teacher's rule, guide, war- rant, and hmit, and secure to the pupil education on an enlight- ened plan, and that uniform from one end of the empire to the other. This is of immense moment. There is a vague talk on the subject of popular education, even among its zealous friends, which appears never to get beyond the machinery, the multipli- cation of schools, and the methods of teaching ; but ^ev^ seem to think it at all necessary to settle the point, what is to be taught. In this, we of this country have the course clear for us to shoot ahead immeasurably of both Prussia and France. It would oc- cupy too much space to detail here the what of education in those countries on their new popular system. Those who have read their reports must have been struck with the preponderat- ing, the almost exclusive importance allotted to the machinery, — to the minister of public instruction, the boards, the norm.al schools, the primary schools, the control and visitation, the uni- formity, borrowed from the very war-ofiice and the barracks. This is all very right, so far as it goes ; but the education con- yeyed by all these appliances appears to rise very little above the old routine ; and this evidently because it is not suspected in Prussia and France that there exists any thing better. We miss, in the very front of the system a provision for infant edu- cation, for the chief object of all education, to which every thing else ought to be subservient, early practical moral training. We find no provision made for imparting to the pupil a knowledge of himself, and creation as related to him. Languages, geography, mathematics, history, music, drawing, penmanship, are ail exr cellent branches, but they are too apt to be thought the whole of school objects. The desiderated British Code of the substance is to do, and a great deal to be undone, we doubt wheher any thing can be effected of permanent utility, without a'Minister of Public Instruc- tion. The duties of the Home Office are already too heavy. The only way to secure unity, promptitude, energy, and we may add impartiality, in any organized system of national education, is to lodge the undiyided responsibility in the hands of a public officer, and to limit his duties to tbaV great object." 142 PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS. of education may be made to exceed any thing yet known ; and, borrowed, as it would be, by the very countries from which we have copied the machinery, will overpay the boon.* Secondly, The next duty of the Board will, of course, be the framing of a practical scheme of popular education for the coun- try at large, — namely, the localizing of schools ; the kind «f school for each locality, best adapted to confer on the place as much of the approved educational system as possible; and, as the first step after ihe general ^pl&n is fixed, the best mode of train- ing the numerous teachers who will be required for so immense an undertaking. 1. The localities pointed out in the familiar parochial divisions of the country seem quite unexceptionable. A school on the ap- proved plan in every parish would realize the noble scheme to the utmost practical or wished-for extent. It is quite unnecessary to enter here into minute details ; when principle is establishedj practice comes naturally to the hand. By returns obtained, through Lords-Lieutenants, from local authorities, the educa- tional wants of the most remote parish may be familiarly known to the Board ; the numbers of children ; the distances from a cen- tral site for the school ; and all other statistical information bearing on the great object. In large towns, the number of schools adequate to the population will be regulated by a divi- sion into districts. This, besides many other obvious advantages, will incite to attendance, especially in the infant school, by vi- cinity to the pupil's home. 2. The WHAT to be taught, as it has been above called, will guide even the architect. The size of his building being regu- lated by the number of pulpils in the parish, or town district, the structure, for such a plan of education, let us suppose, as is hum- bly proposed in this treatrse, is obvious, — an oblong building, with enclosed ground on both sides of it. On the ground-floor there will be a hall for the Infant School, and over it ahall for the advanced school, taught either entire, or in two divisions, which will require another hall over the second proposed ; but all un- der one roof, which every builder, knows is a great saving. A most important moral advantage will result from the infant and aivanced school being in one building, nam.ely a feeling that they are parts of the same system ; the child of six ascends to the hall above, as a matter as much of course as his growing taller; and that without an interval of a year or two, between the in- fant and more advanced school, much complained of by teachers * I learn that books are coming out for the Irish Government Schools, of a much higher cast than any thing the pubUc have yet seen, and that the enlightened Archbishop of Dubhn is the author of some of them. I have not yet seen any of them, but I hail their appearance, and trust they will much assist the Code proposed, NORMAL SCHOOLS FOR TEACHERS. 143 as too common, during which much that has been acquired is lost. The upper hall or halls will enter from the other side, with- out interference with the infant school, and the airing-ground will be larger or deeper, to give room, not only for gymnastic exercises, but for simple workshops, gardening, and other manu- al employments.* In the infant school hall will be all the apparatus of the sys- tem, already well known and ready to be furnished. In the ad- vanced school will be established, in proper cabinets and resposito* ries, all the means of illustration, scientific and other, which is wanted for the series of lessons there to be taught. There is now great simplification, and of course economy, in chymical apparatus for the elementary experiments ; while in mechanical there is a capability of much abridgment of material, and of substitution for the more costly instruments. For example all the elementary experiments in pnuematics, formerly performed with the large air-pump, which costs above £30, can be per- formed with Chalmers' ingenious invention, which can be had for £3. In what I have called the Code for the schools, the apparatus vs^ill all be described and valued; and the great de- mand, with competition, would facilitate the supply. 3. I have said, that whenever the Board have ascertained their entire plan, of schools, their number, and localities, and the^probable number of teachers required, they should proceed to mature a mode of fitting the future teachers for their import- ant office. It is perhaps one of the most beneficial results of a great national plan, that the superintended uniformity w^ill se- cure qualified teachers, without whom the whole system would be a mockery, worse even than the present. The schools for teachers are called Norm.al Schools in Prussia, and are known also in Switzerland. Young men are assembled in considerable numbers, and instructed and trained in the branches to be taught, and the art of teaching, and a provision is made for their travel- ling expenses and moderate maintenance, when attending these preparative seminaries. The certainty of employment as teach- ers secures even a competition for admission, so that even se- lection becomes necessary. It is humbly suggested that as many of these schools for teachers should be established, as shall be deemed by the Commissioners adequate to train the required number of teachers, and situated in different convenient locali- ties. The Prussian system avoids the larger towns. Well qualified instructors of these schools could even now be procured, and still more when there shall exist a Code for their guidancCr * It is assumed that in both the infant and advanced schools, boys- and girls are educated in the same hall, only sitting apart. They ne- ver can be more improvingly or safely together. 144 Mode of training teachers. Some hundreds might learn under one instructer of the infant system and one of the advanced. Tne most effectual method of training teachers, is evidently to place them in the position of pupils, and, when sufficiently ad- vanced, to practise each to conduct the studies and exercises of the rest. The infant school teachers should visit well conducted infant schools, to observe their actual working ; and very perfect infant schools already exist, the only part of the new system where there is nothing left to do. The teacher of the more ad- vanced school will no doubt be the better fitted for his office, the more extended his attainments ; that is, he will not teach the chyraistry, mechanical philosophy, or astronomy, worse, that he has himself advanced much farther in these sciences ; and from what I have witnessed in the teachers of improved schools, both Lancasterian and Infant, there may be expected, if opportunity be enjoyed, energetic and persevering self-improvement. Of course the diploma of any of the schools for teachers will be ta- ken as credentials of qualification ; and it ought to be rigidly enacted by the legislature, that no one not possessed of that evi- dence of his having completed the prescribed time in the pre- parative school, should be appointed teacher of any of the national seminaries. As it will require at least tw^o years to educate the teachers, the jfinance of the measure will be regulated accordingly. The first grant will not require to do more than to constitute the Commis- sioners, of whom there might be two Boards, one for England sitting in London, and another for Scotland in Edinburgh, to correspond and co-operate with each other ; they should be ena- bled to devote their time exclusively to maturing of the measure, over and above the preparation of the Educational Code. The next grant will establish the schools for teachers, and provide for them total or partial maintenance during their attendance at these seminaries ; while the third, and of course the largest grant, will be called for when it is necessary to build and endow the schools. It has already been said that that grant must be large : it must be told in millions and raised by loan, like the ways and means of a warlike outfit, or the compensation of the West India proprietors. This will stagger the public who are unprepared to connect the benefit with the cost, and the grants will be sorely grudged; but the country, when more enlightened, will come to see and acknowledge that the treasure of Britain was never so beneficially expended. After the first erection of a school in each parish, the annual current expense will be^ although abso- lutely costly, comparatively light : but it is a burden which the n atio"^n will bear the more willingly, the more enlightened they become, the more they are divested of that indifTerence, if not CONTROL AND INSPECTION. 145 Uidisposidon, to popular education, of which ignorance of its real nature and value is the cause. The Board will axercise the most rigid surveillance over the schools for teachers, and subsequent parish schools. The teacher ought to be libejally paid, quite as liberall> as the parish minister, while his attainments will secure to hitn an elevation in society, far beyond what the " schoolmaster" has yet enjoyed. But to keep up zeal, and prevent the sedative effect of endow- ment, all the national school teachers should be appointed trien- nially ; when reappointment will depend upon previous conduct. The Board ought to have the sole appointment of the teachers, and the power of dismissal for suffic^. t>t reason. Returns at stated periods should be made to the Board, by the teachers, of the condition and progress of their schools ; and these should be countersigned y the Justices of Peace and Clergy in the parish, who should have power, and be enjoined to visit, ihe school at all times, and examine it once or twice a year. Occasional in- spections by members of the Board, or by qualified persons ap- pointed by them, going in circuit, so that the whole schc Is may be inspected in the course of a certain number of years, and their state published, would furnish a motive to teachers, justices, and ministers, alike to do their duty. It is not likely that there will be any lack of applicants for admission into the schools for teachers, and these previously possessed — for this should be conditioned — of all the instrumen- tary attainments of ordinary education, such as reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, mathematics. The evil of the want of channels of usefulness- and subsistence for well educated young men, is severely felt all over the country. Not only will a more respectable reward for their qualifications offer an inducer lent, which is at present unheard of, to follow the liberal profession of instructers, but the avocation itself will, in its excitement to the faculties, so far exceed all the power v/hich belongs to the pre- sent dull system, as to engage a much higher order of minds than those that are forced into employment for mere bread. This has been most forcibly exemplified in the V/ilderspin infant schools.* It has been already observed that there will be no want of pu- pils to fill the ranks o^ such schools as the national schools ought to be. The parents, it has been said, will scarcely hinder the resort of their children to these places of safety and improvement, unless worked upon by some counteracting influence. Besides the disrepute, which will become greater as the system extends, of withholding education from their children, from mere indo- * See Appendix, No. XXL 13 146 No LACK OF TEACHERS AND PUPILS. lence or perversity, the community, who pay for the advantageSf which are thus rejected, will come to apply a more intelligible stimulus to these selfish recusants, in form of refusal of work or domestic service to themselves, and the assurance that they will be refused to their children, not only as an expression of re- proach, hut because the educated young workmen will certainly be more skilful and more trust-worthy. Besides this, municipal powers, privileges, and advantages, should all be made to depend upon the evidence produced by the claimant that he attended lonafide one of the schools, for the appointed period ; and if, at the time of his application, he has chiidi-en of the stated age, that they are actually bona fide attending one of the schools. I allude to the elective franchise, votes for local offices, and elligi- bility to fill them, parish relief, certificates of character, prorno- tion in, and even admission into, the army and navy., &c. This seems the utmost limit of compt^Z^f on, if it ought to be so called, which seems either practicable or desirable. Even so much will 1)6 required in comparatively few instances, and these only in the first working of the system. The privilege, the high privilege, of education will soon recommend itself, and be eagerly courted both by parents and children.* Some observations on the obstacles which at present stand in the way of this great yet simple scheme are reserved for the con- eluding ohai-ter. The author has only to add here that it would 111 become so humble an individual as himself to expect the speedy realization of his views, when the first men of the age depsond when they alluda to the subject. It is thought that their despair regards finance, and perhaps prejudice, more than essen- tial impracticability. If the country will furnish the ways and means, and the interested or prejudiced will abstain from oppos- ing or thwarting, the measure, though vast, is beautifully sim- ple, and might be brought into operation in a very few years. It is of great importance to familiarize the public, through the medium of the press, with enlarged educational views; improve- ment of a temporary kind may even be adopted by the existing schools, although this is not to be generally reckoned upon ; but the public at large will advance in their habits of thinking on the subject, and become more disposed to make the great national effort which is so urgently required. It is humbly suggested that resolutions by the Legislature, and the measure of appoint- inP" a Board of Education to prepare that important work which I have called the Code, and to mature a national plan, should not be delayed even for another session of Parliament. Be- sides the practical operation of a regulating body of instruc- * In Prussia attendance at the national schools is rigidly enforced- EDINBURGH REVIEW — PRUSSIAN TEACHERS. 147 tions,* the existence of an organized power steadily preparing and forwarding the great cause in the country, towards a well-defined -end, would produce a powerful moral influence, and keep all eyes iixed upon the coming event, as an epoch in the annals of the country and the histoiy of the race. I cannot better conclude this chapter, than with an extract from the able article in the Edinburgh Review No. 117, already more than once alluded to.f At page 27, the writer says, — " Of all the preliminary steps, then, to the adjustment of this great question, by far the most important is the appointment of some means for training schoolmasters, not to any set of mechani- cal evolutions merely, but to a knowledge of the principles and practice of their profession, and to the able and enlightened discharge of its duties. The want of some such provision is the great vice of our Scottish system. Faults have thus crept into the practice of our parish schools, which nothing but the removal of the cause will eradicate. Our readers are aware what consequence the Prussian lawgivers attached to this object; wisely consi- dering that the best plans of teaching are a dead letter, without good and able teachers ; and that to expect good teachers without good training, is to look for a crop without plowing and sowing. In all their regulations on the subject of the ScJiuUehrer setnina- rien, there is an anxious consideration of vi'hatever can minister to the moral and intellectual improvement, and even to the per- sonal comfort and happiness, of the young teachers, which re- minds us more of the tenderness of parental care and admonition, than of the stern and authoritative precepts of law. Every De- partment is enjoined to have one of these seminaries ; the pupils to be admitted between sixteen and eighteen, to the number of from sixty to seventy in each; to be situated in towns of moda- rate size, that, on the one hand, they may be preserved from the corruption of very large ones, and, on the other, have access to schools which they can see and may improve in. The course of instruction delivered in these institutions presupposes that of the primary schools. Pupils are admitted, however, with whom it is advisable to go back on the primary instruction ; and the first of the three years, which form the complement of attendance for the whole course, is generally spent in revising and giving readier and fuller possession of previous acquirements. If that point, however, is already reached, it shortens the attendance by * I may mention another advantage of our Code,; it will be the war- rant for the pupiFs manuals, which may be little more than extracts from it; and thus a general complaint by parents will be obviated, viz. the great expense of the interminable variety and bulk of school-books, out of which, after all, but a very small portion is ever read. 1 1 beg to refer to Article 13th of the preceding number (116), for a very complete analysis of the mechanism of the Prussian system. That fiystem I cannot help thinkin,^ unnecessarily complicated. It is evi- dently modelled upon military notions of duties aad responsibilities. 148 PRUSSIAN TEACHERS — LECTURESHIP OF DIDACTICS'. one year, and the pupil proceeds at once to the business of the second, which is employed in giving him just notions of the phi- losophy of teaching, the treatment of the yo jng mind, the com- munication of knowledge, the airangement of school businessy the apparatus and evolutions necessary for arresting attention and husbanding time ; of alL in fine, that pertains to the theory and practice of moral education, intellectual training, and m-etho- dical instruction, — technically called Faedagogik, Didactik, and Methodik. The third year is more particularly devoted to the object of reducing to practice, in the schools of the place, and in that which is always attached to the seminary, the methods and theory he has been made acquainted with. We refer for other details to our preceding number. It is more to our present purpose to remark, that there does not exist, nor ever has existed, in the island of Great Britain, a single institu- tion of this kind, which the Prussian people think so useful, that they have voluntarily gone beyond the number prescribed by law. There were, at the close of 1S31, thirty-three of these seminaries in the monarchy, which is more than one for each department or circle. •' We cannot but think, therefore, that sorne effort should be made to apply part, at least, of the Parliamentary grant to the purpose of training schoolmasters, if it were only to mark the opinion of Government of the importance and necessity of such establishments ; and to direct public attention to a branch of knowledge which, new and unexplored as it is amongst us, has long taken its place in the circle of the arts and sciences, and long had its literature and its votaries, in Germany. Any thing approaching, indeed, tc the universal and permanent organization in that country (for it is by no means confined to Prussia), it would of course be vain to expect in this, at least for many years to come ; by means of opening up the subject, and commending it to the attention, not of teachers only and patrons of schools, but of the public generally, need not be regarded as out of our reach. Might not, for exam.ple, a lecturesliip or professorship of the art of teaching (or, if a name be wanted for the new sub- ject, of Didactics) be appended to one or two of the Scotch uni- versities ; and, if suoh a novelty could not be ingrafted on the old establishments of Oxford and Cambridge, tried, at least, in the infant institution of Durham 1 A very small endowment, if any, would be wanted^ provided Parliament would m^ake it im- perative on candidates for vacant schools (beginning at first with those cf the better kind only), to produce a certificate of having attended such a course, or even to undergo an examination on the subjects there treated.* * '^See some good remarks on this subject, in the Sketch of a Plan for the Education of Ireland, by R. J. Bryce, principal of Belfast Aca- demv. 1828." SMPROVEMENT OF SCOTTISH PARISH SCHOOLS. 149 " It is obvious in contemplating such an arrangement as this, that the greatest difficulty would be to find fit persons for such an office, — a difficulty which would scarcely, however, last beyond the first appointment. And even with regard to that, we need scarcely look farther than to the burgh and parochial schoolmas- ters of Scotland. As a body, indeed, they are not beyond being greatly benefited by attendance on such a course as we propose ; but there are men among them, and the number is on the in- crease, who, to an enthusiastic attachment to their profession, and a large experience of its practical details, add much know- ledge of its principles acquired by reading, and reflection, and an almost intuitive perception of what is right in the management of the youthful faculties, and in the manner of imparting instruc- tion. Philosophy and experience must go hand in hand, to fit a man for the purpose in view. If such lectureships were insti- tuted in places where there was access also to schools in which the doctrines might be illustrated, the practice exemplified, and the teaching partly conducted by the student, we should accept it as the greatest boon that could be conferred on the parochial education of Scotland. There are few, perhaps none, of the de- fects that still cling to our parish schools which would not disap- pear under the wholesome influence of such a measure, carried ably and honestly into effect. For example, next to that mea- sure itself, there is nothing more loudly called for to improve our parochial discipline, thau a plan of authorized inspection. This, we have seen, is regarded as an essential part of the Prussian and French system, and is executed by delegates appointed by the Minister of Public Instruction. It seems natural that the proposed lectures, with assistants, if required, should have this arduous duty devolved upon them. Again, a well-arranged suc^ cession of school-books is still a desideratum : none would be so likely to supply it well, as men whose lives would be devoted to the study of their art. But if such a project shall appear to some, as we are prepared to expect, visionary and impracticable, let strenuous endeavouis be at least made to multiply the number and increase the efficiency of the model schools we have. There is an endowment for such an institution, called the Barrington School, at Bishop Auckland ; and the Metropolitan schools of both the societies are open, and have been used for such pur- poses, as far as their means would go. To improve and assist these would be a far more profitable way of expending the grant, than to build schools for the jpropagation of imperfect jnethods." 13* 150 CHAPTER VIII. DIFFICULTIES — OBSTACLES— ENCOURAGEMENTS- Difficulties — Counteraction by adult population — Reaction upon then* — Decrease of drunkenness— Course with adults — Incurable class-— Edinburgh Association for cheap lectures— Provision for free in- struction to the adult workman — Schools of Arts — Denial of leisure to the manual labourer — Proposed restriction of labour — Workmen will restrict it — Farther restriction in factories— Poor Laws' abuses Criminal population.— Obstacles — Public indifference — Remote re-. suits — Exampleof direct enjoyment frorri moral sentiments — Direct benefits — Great expense — Prejudice against educating the people — Existing interests— Sectarian zeal— Origin of clerical superintend- ence — Solecism in our laws — Church in danger— Opposition to Lan- casterian Schools, to London University, to Irish National Education —Parallel in Catholic bigotry in Glasgow — Practical inference—^ Appeal to the dominant sect, to the government, to the people. — En- couragements — Advocacy of Press — We are_ outstripped by other nations — Wishes of the Government and Legislature— Existence of improvements already-^Education of all ranks together-^Conclusiou- I, DIFFICULTIES. - In treating of this head, we are to suppose the great measuie of popular education as a national object actually passed and in operation, and are now to consider the counteraction to its work- ing which is likely to be occasioned by existing social evils, and these in the very forms which education is meant to remove. 1. The education of children, on the principles of this treatise, in the midst of an uneducated adult population, will certainly- present the same kind of difficulties as those with which the husr bandman would have to struggle, who should watch the growth of a few bushels of grain in a field overrun with weeds. His grain would grow under great disadvantages, but it ivould grow ;• the increase sown again, a portion of the weeds having in the in- terval, by any means, disappeared, will yet more increase ; till the field, by this time well cleared, will be occupied, in its whole length and breadth, with good grain. The child of unfortunate- COUNTERACTION BY ADULTS — REACTION. 151 parents, who themselves suffer all the evils of ignorance and de- gradation, returns from our school, infant or advanced, into a socioiy v'here every thing he has learned, or seen, or done, or enjoyed, is, as i: were, reversed. In this society he must live for as long, if not a longer period, every day, than he remains in school ; and without doubt there must be a certain degree of re- trogression, a certain drag upon his progress, a step down, for at least every two steps up. But if there are two steps up for one down, and at the very least there will and must be this propor- tion, there is a step in advance on the whole, and this is an un- speakable gain. This acquisition will tell yet more in the next generation ; in it there will be still less retrograde motion, for the home will then have made a great advance towards harmony with the school ; till, perhaps in one generation more, the greatest improvement may be reached, to v,hich it is reasonable to expect the manual-labour class to arrive. 1 have in reserve a word or two, in order to reconcile the reader, whom the idea may startle, of being called upon to legislate for posterity, to sow, at vast ex- pense, that which a generation, not even the next, shall reap ; of which we are not destined to see more than the incipient growth, and scarcely our children, the " whitening unto harvest." In the mean time I beg to request the attention of my alarmed reader to another element, and a powerful one, of more imme- diate operation in the progression, and that is the reaction on the adults of the improvement of the children, the blessed influ- ence of infant kindness, and cleanliness, and piety, upon a natu- rally well disposed but ignorant parent, nay upon even a harden- ed ; for the man who s(;orns, perchance, the decencies of life^ and spurns alike the precept and tlie example of pastors and well- wishers, will soften in the presence of his own gentle child, and shrink abashed from the unfinished grossness or excess, as it lisps at his knee the lesson of refinement and temperance. But the domestic influence of children, it is well known, increases as they rise in years ; it is often, as things are, very great ; but when they shall have the moral force of good habits and good sense ovl their side, they will come insensibly to take the lead of the im- becility of animal degradation, and will exercise a steady check upon their less favoured seniors, and a reforming power in their own homes. If, then, the ignorant and immoral adult shall in some degree retard the improvement of the young, the improving young will act with an influence, and that always on the increase, on the adult, £0 that the balance of momentum will be onwards. The child of ten years of age> we shall suppose a girl, who attends the advanced, and has attended the infant school, will take, and the lazy parent will gladly yield to her, the care of the house ; the house will be cleaner and better aired ; the parents will purify 153 DECREASE OF DRUNKENNESS. their persons when urged or shamed to do so by their child, who has moreover provided the means ; she will watch her father's return with his wages, and induce him to come home to some prepared comfort, instead of resorting to the pot-house, and re- maining there perhaps all the night, and all the next day ; she has learned the lesson in school, in a variety of forms, how a home is to be made more attractive than a public house, and she v/ill soon see it her own happiness to act upon that knowledge, and to induce her mother to act with her. Our schools esta- blished in every quarter of the country, let the reader mark this, and actually educating the whole juvenile population, a pupil or two in every dwelling, cannot fail to act upon the adults, so es immensely to forward the general improvement.* As the plan of popular education advocated in this treatise concerns the young from two to fourteen years of age, there is, I have said, much discouragement, to the existing generation, in the idea of its distant fruits, in a social improvement which they are not to witness. Is there no means of extending some palliating portion of enlightenment to the vast mass of adults that now constitute the manual-labour classes % We cannot make them children again, and train them after the Vvilderspin fashion, or propose to open even advanced schools for them to * Since the first chapter of this treatise was printed, the question of the improvement or retrogression of the working classes in Edinburgh has been pubhcly discussed at the Town-Council Board ; and strong proofs, the result of very extensive inquiries, have been adduced by Mr. Macfarlane, one of the Magistrates, that workmen generally are improving in sobriety and steadiness. In his Historical Newspaper, No. 18, Mr. Chambers comes to the same conclusion. I have been led also to make inquiries, and rejoice to say that employers very generally de- clare that there is improvement in their workmen in sobriety, and of course in steadiness. This fact tends to increase the exceptions so liberally allowed in my first chapter, and it will do so still more, if the improvement extends to other places. The evil of drunkenness is nevertheless very general in the class below that to which employers look for respectable journeymen. It has already been shown to be fear- fully prevalent in manufacturing towns, and there is enough of it gene- rally to forbid relaxation of their efforts by the friends of mankuid for its abatement ; while the improvement already effected will tend to the production of yet earlier fruits, from an educational system which an improved moral will more readily welcome. After all, even the sober and steady workmen have much more to do before they get out of the pale of our first chapter ; their sobriety is an excellent commence- ment. It would be instructive to know how much of the increased so- briety is to be put to the credit of temperance vows; and how much of it is the fruit of voluntary prudence and principle. One example of the latter is worth a hundred of the former. I would strongly recommend to Mr. Macfarlane to prosecute his inquiries elsewhere, both in Scot- lana and England, and favour the public with, what I am sure they will welcome, the results in a pamphlet. The very discussion will very generally offer a motive to workmen to deserve a favourable report. COURSE WITH ADULTS, 153 make up their lost time ; but there is much we can do for them. We can make useful and entertaining knowledge as cheap to them as coarse paper, by the abolition of all taxes upon it ; — we can convey to them valuable instruction, in every parish, in the form of lectures by the national school teachers when esta- blished, by the minister of the parish, who ought to be qualified for this important duty, and by philanthropic and accomplished gentlemen,* resident in the parish or neighbourhood. -A great deal taught in our advanced school, and a general notion of what is done in the infant school, might thus be impart- ed to existing adults ; while those who are inmates, and a great proportion will be, of the same families with pu])ils of these schools, will unavoidably be assailed with oiFered know- ledge on that side also, and find themselves, whichever way they turn, breathing as it were a purer atmosphere, and looking on a brighter day, than they have ever before experienced. This will be a glorious result of the universality of the national schools. There are individuals, whole classes indeed, plunged in ignorance and debasement, deeper than moral plummet ever sounded. Them, alas ! we cannot help. As long as they ab- stain from crime, — for when actually criminal tb^^re is another mode of disposing of them, to a view of which the appendix (No. I.) is devoted, — although they themselves will continue to suffer every social misery, the rest of society will suffer less and less, as the numhers of these moral incurables are diminish- ed, and as education's day-light shines more brightly upon every other spot of society but their own. Instruction perfectly adapted to the adult manual-labour po- pulation, will require deliberate consideration and arrangement; but it is certain that much may be done to give them practical notions of their own nature, and of their place in creation and society ; much to remove their more hurtful ignorance, amend their habits, soften down their prejudices, and generally elevate their physical, moral and intellectual condition. 1 have already alluded to the association in Edinburgh for procuring cheap lec- tures on various branches of science ; the distinguished honour of the conception and realization of this institution belongs to a few respectable tradesmen ; and I refer the reader, for an account of its constitution, proceedings, and most encouraging success in the very first year and half of its existence, to the ap- pendix, No. VI ; this is purposely particular, in order to enable him, if interested in the elightenment of any other considerable town, to join with his fellow-citizens in forming a similar asso- ciation, and that of the same rank in life ; for this, be it observ- ed, is the grand novelty, which will form a sort of epoch in the * Sir George Mackenzie, well known to_ the scientific and literary world, has set a noble example of this society-improving novelty, by giving useful lectures in his own parish in Ross-shive, 154 INSTITUTIONS GRATIS TO ADULTS. history of Edinburgh ; and confer upon it a real name, instead of one borrowed from the fame of a few men of genius, whom it has occasionally produced. It is true that the class of students, of both sexes, who attend the lectures of the Edinburgh association, are generally above the class who work for day^' wages, though many of them have done so ; and accordingly they pay a fee which, moderate as it is, the actual journeyman could net atford. I allude here to that association more to show the easy practicability of in- structing a hitherto uninstructed adult class, than to sanction the demand of money from the mere operative, who comes from his labour to be regaled with useful science ; this, like the insiruction of the national schools to the young, must, a fortiori, to the less favoured adult, be as free as inviiing ; and the existence of the schools themselves, their teachers, and their scientific materiel^ will extend it directly, — I have already said it will do so influen- tially, — without an increase of expense worth the Nation's notice. What were the cost of a few models, drawings, an air-pump, a ehymical furnace, an electrifying and galvanic machine, a teles- cope, a microscope, &c. established in each parish, compared with the delightful and improving occupation of its adult, over and above its juvenile population ? The lessened jail to be built and maintained would provide these in every parish of a county, — to say nothing of the almost disbanded police, the reduced military establishment, the empty hospitals, the saved poor's rates. The Schools of Arts for the instruction of artizans in the prac- tical applications of science, which can only be established in large or considerable towns, will not only not be superseded by any preparatory establishment yet spoken of in this volume, but their usefulness will be thereby increased and extended manifold. These admirable institutions, placed, however, on a more popu- lar footing than they have hitherto been, like all otlier means of popular improvement, seeing that the whole country benefits by the skill, the industry; the enterprise, and the invention to which they have been found to give birth, ought also to be provided for by the Nation, and not trusted to precarious voluntary support. 2. The next difficulty in the way of the immediate and more diotant working of an educational system., is the denial of leisure to the working man. This social enormity, this sacrifice to the Moloch of money, must by some means be abated, else education is vain, and the elevation of the manual-labour class of our coun- trymen a moral impossibility. The reform must begin in the sanction, by society at large, of less extravagant ideas of accumu- lation than at present impel all who poasess the means, to en- grossing and ceaseless efibrts to make large fortunes. A higher moral will impress the conviction that wealth accumulated at the expense of the bodily sufiering, moral and intellectual degrada- dation, and religious privation, of a large portion of our fellow menj is obtained by jiieans little short of criminal. However h§ PROPOSED RESTRICTION OF LABOUR. 155 may despair of any vohmtury relaxation of the gripe of avarice fastened on the devoted bodies and souls of the human machines whom it commands, the most impracticable skeptic must admit that all labour beyond the limit of a reasonable, a liberal, return to the capitalist, is a gross abuse, which must be followed by social as well as individual suffering. If this be true, it was not the Creator's intention that manual labour should engross nearly the whole waking hours of a human being. When he bestowed intellect and moral feelings on all his creatures, he intended them in all for exercise and enjoyment ; hence it is a gross impiety to force upon any human being a course of life which obliterates these distinctive characters of humanity. Difficult as must be the remedy, for it implies an advance of society at large in mo- rality beyond what it has ever yet manifested, the existing prac- tice is a positive disease, an unnatural state of things, and there- fore not only calling for amendment but admitting of it, else the Creator's arrangemer.-s would involve manifest contradiction. Why should manuaMabour exceed nine hours a-day? Why should it not, by general consent of employers and employed, be so restri'^ted 1 Twelve hours is itself a restriction, for why does insatiable avarice content itself with even twelve? It does so in obedience to custom, and it would do so, on the same authority, were nine hours the maximum. If it is said that less work would be done, less produce realized ; it is granted, but asked who would suffer by this ! Suppose the employer's gains di- minished, this is surely not to be put in comparison with the la- bourer's rights as a human being. But it is not admitted that the employer's gains will be diminished. The difference between nine and twelve hours is not more than to meet the over-trading from which he has so often suffered, and from which he is inevitably, with his present motives destined to suffer again. In the average of the last fifteen years, the actually profitable labour, that which would have prevented ruinous gluts, and long intervals of idleness and starvation to the workman, will not be found, if spread over the whole time, to amount even to nine hours a-day. Aided, besides, by daily improving machinery, of whose abridgment of human labour surely the operative has a right to a share of the benefit as well as his employer, it might be demonstrated that nine hours a-day of British manual-labour will supply atTthe steady demand that is likely to be made upon it. The shortening of the hours of labour is a moral reform to which the workmen themselves must lend an important aid, in a great improvement of character which will make such a use of the leisure as will secure the sympathies of the entire people. While the leisure desired is at present refused, because it would be spent in idleness and debauchery, there is a moral fitness in the concession of it to self-improvement and innocent enjoyment, which render it matter of right. We assume that the m?.nual- 156 FARTHER RESTRICTION IN FACTORIES. labour class are actually improved by education ; one result of this will be juster estimates, by the operatives, of the labourer's re- muneration, more moderate expenditure when debauchery has ceased, the economy of steady habits and sensible methods of living, and an equitable adjustment of wages to work actually done. These it is not likely would much fall, if the shorter hours were universally adopted. This reform must not only affect labour without, but also within, great factories ; for the principle is the same in both cases. The factory act itself which has rescued infant life from the unhallowed altar of accumulation, stops short of the adequate means of education : it prohibits the employment of children till they are nine years of age, and limits it then to nine hours a-day, till the age of eleven, twelve, and ul- timately thirteen: it requires two hours' attendance at school for six days in the week, these horns not being included in the nine. I acknov/ledge that, besides all the infant school training, such children may have had three years of the advanced school with- out restraiiit; but two hours a-day for the more advanced age of that schooL is too short an attendance ; two more, or four hours in all, at It-ast, should be made imperative, the additional two hours to be taken from the nine hours of labour, till the child completes his or her fourteenth year. The parents themselves are, at present, as likely to -object to this restriction of labour n? the employers ; but we do not find that ikey have been consulted in the matter of the regulations already imposed ; th@ benevolent object of the legislature was the chiWs good and thereby the good of society; an enlightened lawgiver, acting upon a higher morality, is not bound to regard interests which justice disowns, and may quite as properly fix seven hours as nine. Seven houjs is labour enough for a child under fourteen, independent of all other considerations ; but when this degree of abridgment is essential to the individual's reaping any real and lasting benefit fi om the educational sys'em proposed, there seems an end of the question. I may add, that an educated generation of manu- facturing labourers will value education more than an ignorant and debasjd ; and will themselves zealously cooperate in the means of their children's enjoying its advantages. As it stands, the factory law will operate as a serious difficulty, amounting to an absolute impediment in the way of the working of a national edu- cational measure, in so far as regards the whole manufacturing population ; but I cannot allow myself to doubt that a modifica- tion of that law, to the extent above suggested, would form apart of a great plan of national education; from the blessings of which ii, would be grievous injustice and impolicy deliberately to exclude the manufacturing population. 3. The English Poor laws, it is hoped, will not be permitted long, in their present frightful perversion, to act as an impedi- ment to popular education. In the present state of the popula- CRIMINAL POPULATION. 157 lion, who are reduced to the moral debasement of able-bodied pauperism, the education of their children, if accepted by them even gratuitously,* would be inoperative, la the face of the per- verted views of life vi'hich the allowance-system renders habitual to all the members of all their families. Without an abatement of the grand nuisance of an aims-supported people, education need not be attempted. But the day of that abatement has already dawned, a«d will not set without effecting it. Jt is alluded to here more with the hope of furnishing another motive for perse- veranco in the reformation of the poor laws, than from any fear that the education measure will find this difficulty existing, to impede its working, when it shall come into operation. I repeat what I formerly stated on this head, that the Commissioners are right, when, in the conclusion of their able report, they declare their conviction, that whatever the law may do to put down its actual practice, the -spirit of pauperism will only yield to the moral and intellectual improvement of the working classes, by a national system of education. 4. The Criminal population must be unsparingly segregated from the innocent, if it is wished to remove yet another counter- acting power to the operation of education. Every criminal is a centre of corruption to the young. The havoc made by practis- ed proselyting thieves among the young, even among the infant, poor, is notorious ; and would continue to overbalance all that edu- cation is capable of doing with the class immediately exposed to the contamination of their society. I have elsewhere* endea- voured to show, that criminals ought not to mingle at all with honest society ; that a state of restraint and seclusion must come to be the lot of all convicted offenders ; a distinct society, an asylum, a hospital fitted for their disease, in which they must remain, maintaining themselves by their own labour, till it be safe to receive them again into ordinary society. Live some- where and in some way they must ; at present they roam, like beasts of prey, in the midst of us, plundering and often maiming and murdering the unsuspecting. Society is entitled to full protection from this monstrous evil ; and should provide, what it may do without any sacrifice either of pioperty or feeling, another mode of life for its dangerous members, with the means at once of subsistence and reformation. This purification of society would be one of the greatest benefits which could be con- ferred upon it; andthepracticability of its attainment, it is hoped, will be admitted by the reader when he has perused, which he is re quested to do, the treatise in the appendix. * Appendix'No. I. 14 ^ 158 PUBLIC INDIFFERENCEc- II. Obstacles. None of the difficulties just treated of are of a nature, or will eccur in a class of the people, likely to influence the fate of the plan of poDular ecucation, as a legislative measure. Under the title of obstacles I am briefly to consider obstructions, by influ- ence or other means, to the measure becoming the law of the land. 1. The first obstacle is of a negative, but not therefore less powerful, nature, namely, public indifference. There is an apathy, on the subject, in the great majority of the educated classes which would be altot occupied with the young, may, by many means, as already observed, enlighten their seniors, and thereby render the circula- tion of cheap periodical literature and knowledge yet more im- proving to them, will realize one o^the most powerful engines of humanization, ofwhichitis possible to conceive. The whole population, juvenile and adult, will be placed in a new position, *he one rapidly advancing, the other unwilhng, nay ashamed, — lor this even is much, — -to remain behind ; and the effects will '^e made sensible to us all in a well marked melioration even of our own times. 3. A more substantial obstacle ta the gigantic measure pro- posed, is its admitted and avowed costhness. It will require much light to reconcile the country to contribute millions to produce distant benefits, and these not yet appreciated or acknowledged. But no price is enormous which is not out of rule, out of proportion, to the thing purchased. The elevation ?/f an entire people by education is beyond all price. Two thousand millions lavished on the wars of the last and the pre* sent century is indeed an enormous expenditure, when we sit down to estimate the value received. Should we deem even that almost inconceivable sum misspent, if its result, and its sole result, had been the education of the British people ■? The one- hundredth part of this treasure has aboUshed colonial slavery ; what would a like amount not do in the object before us ; and would any enlightened mind say that that object would not be cheaply purchased ! How much should we not. cherish peace, and avoidance of all great public expenditure^ while national educa,- tion is yet to be provided for ' PRBJUPICE AGAINST EDUCATION. 161 4. I was about to enumerate among the obstacles a yet lin- gering' prejudice against educating the people at all, but I feel almost ashamed to do so, at this time of day. A few observa- tions were submitted upon this topic at the close of the first chap- ter. The prejudice is a remnant of the worst times, and its de- tection to be so is as old as Aristotle, who observed, that its only a system of government which sacrifices the many to the few that dreads the diffusion of knowledge, which qualifies mea to know and assert their rights ; whereas a good government encourages education, were it for nothing else than to enable the governed to appreciate the blessings which they enjoy. But it ought to be recollected by the most wedded to old habits of judg- ing, that the time has gene by for conserving that popular ignorance in which they erroneously think that innocence is en- shrined ; the least informed of the manual-labour class in this country can detect a lurking politics in the pious concern that the poor man shal) learn to read his Bible, but no more. To read his Bible with application and effect, every intelligent per- son knows, nQ ought to learn a great deal more. But it v/ere to recapitulate this treatise, to state what that more should be ; and with a general reference to v/hat has been said as to what the poor man's education should be, to render him at onde good and happy, and v/ithal the safe member of society which the restric- tor of his knowledge would wish him to be ; — I shall pass on from the humiliating objection. 5. There are too many lucrative incumbencies and exclusive privileges dependant upon the continued reign of the defective education, which at present cheats both the poor and the rich, to allow us to expect that a fundamental change in principle and practice, whose operation Vvill be to erapoverish the incuraben-- cies and annihilate the privileges, will be effected without the most strenuous opposition, — the most strenuous certainly of all, — from those interested quarters. The opposition of principle is often keen, but the obstruction of interest is always furious, — there is no surer test of its presence. An enlightened and ho- nest legislature will, of course, give every interest the most de- liberate consideration, and provide for all direct, and not merely consequential, loss, adequate compensation ; but this is not the age for sacrificing a great national good to any mere interest or mere privilege whatever. Ii is superfluous here to say another word on this topic ; existing interests require no more than a place in our catalogue of obstacles. 6. But sectarian zeal yet remains, and that has hitherto been, and will yet be, the most formidable obstacle wiih which a Na- tional system of popular education will have to contend. There exist between seventy and eighty sects of Christians. The zealots of every sect most conscientiously entertain the opinion that the only chance for the youth of the country obtaining what 14* 163 SECTARIAN ZEAL. IT calls a religious education, is to place the sole direction of education, secular and reiig^ious, in its peculiar hands. Most sects, so empowered, would then proceed to instil into the young, nay, even the infant mind, theology almost exclusively. This is the only idea the sects, if zealous, attach to education on a religious basis. It must begin with the creed and cate- chism of the sect, and never for a moment be permitted to lose sight of either. The consequence is, that lolh become objects of tedium and disgust, and neither religious nor secular know- ledge is attained. No one can have read this trealise without observing that religious education, or, what is the same thing, education on a religious basis, is strenuously advocated in it ; only a different mode, and a different order of inculcation are recommended, because of the signal failure of the prevailing method. While, in the order proposed, secular education pre- cedes the inculcation of Revelation, it cannot be said by the most scrupulous that it excludes it. By secular education the pupil is introduced to the God of Nature. He desiderates a Creator as the author of the wonders unfolded 1o him in creation, and, as it were, discovers him in his works. Thus prepared, he pro- ceeds to find that the God of Nature is the God of Revelation. Is it wise to reverse this order '? Is it not impious to exclude one-half of it 1 There is, in most countries, and our own among the rest, one seat politically stionger than the other; and the impression is not unnatural, among its less instructed adherents, that therefore its doctrines and discipline must be right, and those of all other sects wrong. Its better informed members do not found its merits on its political strength, but conscientiously be- lieving that their sect is the soundest, see no harm in using their political connexion to extend their influence, — that influence be- ing by them, of course, identified with the cause of true religion. Into the hands of the dominant sect education has, de facto^ fallen almost exclusively. In England, and in Scotland too, every school is under clerical superintendence, and four out of five teachers are, in some degree or other, in clerical orders. There was another reason for this than a concern for the inte- rests of religion, when the custom began. The clergy were the only educated persons, hence their name, and the only persons capable of educating others. Laymen were educated by the monks, who kept daily school in the convents. There is a habit of thinking henje arising, centuries old, that it is quite na- tural that the clergy should educate the young. But it is too instructive to be here left unnoticed, that the dominant sect in one of the two kingdoms of the British Union, is not the domi- nant sect in the oiaer ; and that each of the two dominant sects avails itself of its political alliance, in the country where it is dominant, to prevent the other from educating the youth of that country, as not worthy of confidence in giving education a reli- POWEn OF THE TWO DOMINANT SECTS. 163 gious basis ; and the solecism stares us in the face of existing laws, sanctioned by the sajne legislature, — for they are sanction- ed when unrepealed, — declaring both the dominant sects un- worthy of the care of the education of youth !* The practical couciusion from this ineffable position of our statute-book, is too obvious to require to be drawn in words. It recalls the appro- priate reply (without disrespectful application to either of our two dominant sects,) of the patron of a vacant office, when beset by a dozen of suiters, whose recommendations, by each of him- self, resolved into insinuations or direct declarations that the other eleven were scoundrels ; the dispenser of the place waited till the whole twelve had thus denounced each other, when he assembled and informed them that he sincerely believed them all. The dominant sect on the southern side of the Tweed has been not only more jealous of its legalized control over educa- tion, but from its direct share in the Legislature, over and above its indirect influence, it possesses much more power to guard and vindicate that control, than belongs to the dominant sect on the north of the same river : and il has resulted from this that the former has, when it was thought necessary, always moved with greater energy and greater effect than the latter. Iden- tifying religion with the church establishment, it was long thought reason enough to object to any measure, that it endan- gered the church ; and, for generations, there was an approved watchword for the hour of fancied peril. That cry has come so uruch into disrepute, from its notorious and truly unconcealable political and patrimonial meaning, that we have nearly ceased to hear it. It has therefore become imperative to substitute for it something more entitled to respect, namely, that religion is in danger. But seeing that, in many cases, one sect alone sees this danger, and that the dominant sect, while all the rest deny it, the chances are seventy or eighty to one that it is not re- ligion which is in danger, but the forms and endowments of it which distinguish and pertain to one sect, which happens to be do- minant, and to rest on political power; and this just brings us back to the old watchword, that the church is in danger. The symptoms of this lurking truth cannot be mistaken by the impar- tial. When in England there existed no means whatever, either secular or religious, fur educating the manual-labour classes, the dominant sect was tranquil and contented ; religion was in no- danger when nothing was taught at all. But when the disco- very was made, that, by a particular method, instruction might be * This is actually true. The English laws not only exclude the pres- byterians of Scotland from teaching in any public school or college, but exclude theni, when only learning, from obtaining the evidence of their completed studies. The Scotch laws do not exclude learners, but teachers in the universities and public schools must qiudify by signing the Confession of Faith. 164 J. LANCASTER SUBSTITUTION OF BELL SYSTEM. conveyed to large numbers at once, and the education of the mass of the people be thereby made cheap and practicable, the dominant sect roused itself from its long repose, and violently obstructed the noble plan. Its promoter was a dissenter. He pleaded, in vain, that his method of dispensing secular education to numbers under one instructor, did not and could not injure re- ligion^ inasmuch as, in order to be useful to the children of se- venty or eighty sects, it did not teach the doctrines of any one of these sects, and carefully avoided going beyond the admitted basis of them all. This was satisfactory to nearly all sects except the politically dominant and nationally endowed. Religion by almost all other sects, was held to be perfectly safe, each sect reserving the means in its power to inculcate its peculiar doctrines on the childien of its own members. It was intellectually and morally impossible that this was not the secret conviction of the leaders of the dominant sect ; and, accordingly, the objection changed its character, and came to be, that no religion was taught under the new system. Now this, had it been true, which it was not, was precisely the kind of provision previously made by the dominant sect itself for religious education, — that is, no provision at all. A-propos, another apostle of the same new system arose, who, although resident in the antipodes, chanced to be of the sect dominant in England, and was willing to give to its religious forms and discipline a prominent place in his practice : and al- though he did not make the minutest variation in the principle of the new system, the credit of introducing which to the British people was his rival's, he was brought home identified with the new method, and the very name of the other annihilated. What will an enlightened and more moral posterity say to this ! In Scotland as an additional proof at once of the Lancasterian system not being dangerous to religion, and of a less prevalent identifi- cation of religion with the dominant sect, there was a very ge-. neral disapprobation of the course pursued by the adherents of the sister Church, and the system and the name of Lancasterian continued, and still continues to be adopted and used in Scot- land, where all sects are found in the classes of the schools ; while in England the national or Bell schools are avoided by all sects ihat conscientiously dissent from the church. The next noted occasion for the opposition of the dominant sect in England, was the plan of facilitating the acquisition of secular education to the great population of London, by the establishment of a University. As it would have been to limit its usefulness, to have inculcated religion in it according to the doctrines of any particular sect, it was resolved that revealed religion directly taught — for natural religion is taught in every step of science — should not be included in its plan, which was limited to secular knowledge ; and that was considered perfectly; OPPOSITION TO IRISH SYSTEM. 165 consistent with religious safety, seeing there existed the most extensive and the best endowed machinery for its inculcation without the walls of the University, all over the country. No disinterested or impartial person, capable of judging, could pos- sibly find fault with this most reasonable compromise, which was necessary to render the new institution extensively useful. In Scotland, the great majority approved the plan of the London University, as an institution for the specific object of secular knowledge, in which there was nothing more incompatible with religion, than in a course of instruction in the fine arts, or the physical sciences ; certainly nothing nearly so inconsistent with Christianity, as a course of authorized heathenism in the Greek and Latin Classics, which the Church have not only not dis- covered to be dangerous to religion, but have connected with its study ; — so inconsistent are the acts and judgments of men, when inferior feelings lurk in their motives. Yet no opposition was deemed too strong, no obloquy too acrimonious, for the Lon- don University, " that God-excluding seminary !" The folly of this last imputation — seeing that no seminary which teaches science, can for one instant exclude God — becomes something worse when it is the cry of a sect, which presumptuously identi- fies God with its own exclusive dogmas ; and greatly worse still, if there mingles one atom of worldly interest or political parti- zanship in the most incogitate denunciation. It was to be ex- pected that the dominant sect, which never before thought of a University to protect religion in London, should forthwith find that instrument indispensable to religious safety, and King's College owed its birth to the purest zeal for that religion which the seminary in Gower-street endangered. The balance thus restored in the Metropolis, the dominant sect was at ease, and went to bed again for a few years, when it was summoned to the post of danger a third time, by the alarm that a national plan was on foot for the education of the mass of the people in Ireland, in which, to render it available, not only to Protestants but to Catholics, it was resolved to exclude creeds and catechisms, and inculcate Scripture by lessons introductory to the Sacred Volume, diflfering in no respect from the method of all persons v/ho treat of Scripture with children. In vain it was arranged that the pastors of any sects, having children at- tending the National schools, should, at stated periods, co7ne into the very school-houses, and assemble, each their own pupils, for their own religious instruction ; that was nothing to the domi- nant sect ; nay, was, beyond all doubt, the part of the plan it most disliked. But a tangible ground for a cry was necei; ary, and perhaps a more insensate, if not unfair, never was devised, the, lessons were said to be " mutilations" of the Holy Scriptures \ That which has been and is done in the school books, and school nnd pastoral teaching of the whole empire, beyond all memory 166 CATHOLIC BIGOTRY IN GLASGOW. of man, — that which must be done when a chapter or text is selected from an entire Bible, which the pupil holds in his hand at the moment, when he is asked to tell what he has read, was called mutilationof the Sacred Volume !* But the most humilia- ting- fact in this opposition remains behind ; it was discovered and made public that the plan proposed for the national schools of Ireland, was the literal transcript of a plan to which the domi- nant sect made no objection, when that plan was proposed by another party in the state four years before. This gave a new aspect to the opposition to the national system ; it connected it with politics, and annihilated all its moral weight, and of course its efficiency. A rival system is in. steady operation, according to the old established custom, v/hich excludes the Catholics, or four-fifths of the population. There cannot be a better way of testing the reasonableness of all this, than trying how the converse looks when another ex- clusive, though in Britain happily not dominant, sect distin- guishes itself in the matter of school instruction. In Glasgow there are estimated to be 27,000 Catholics, constituting, accord- ing to Dr. Cleland, the very lowest class of the people. The following is an extract from a small volu:i:8, entitled " Infant training, a dialogue explanatory of the system adopted in the Model Infant School, Glasgow, by a Director." " During the spring of last year (1832) about sixty Catholic children were enrolled in an Infant School, with the full consent of their pa- rents, who, in every case, brought their children, and paid the ordinary quarter's wages in advance. No sooner, however, did their superiors discover one of the Society's hand-bills, descrip- tive of the general object and bearing of such establishments, which had been widely circulated among the families in the neighbourhood, than on the following week every child was with- drawn, and no parent has yet returned to claim any part of the wages so advanced. Since that period, out of the surrounding dense Catholic population, an occasional mother has brought her child, and continues to do it, as if by stealth. The mother hur- riedly pays the wages, expresses great desire to have her child taught ' in Bible stories, equal to neighbour such a one's,' en- joining at the same time the utmost secrecy, lest by any possi- bility her name might reach the ears of certain high'officials. This frightful hand-bill was framed by the Rev. Dr. Welsh of St. David's, Glasgow, now Professor of Church History in the University of Edinburgh, and, during the last six years, has been uniformly used in every handbill respecting Infant Schools. It runs as follows : — * In the Appendix No. VII. will be found an extract from the Irish Commissioners' first Report, printed by order of the House of Com- mons. It is most satisfactory. Scripture reading, in any form, should be optional to Catholics, Jews, &c. PRACTICAL INFERENCE. 166 " Infant Schools are intended for the reception of children from the age of two to that of six years, with the view of imbu- ing their minds with the knowledge of rehgious truths — of train- ing them up in habits of obedience and good order, and of giving them such elementary instruction as will enable them to enter with advantage into parochial and other schools. The plan of communicating religious truth is by the narratives, the precepts, and plainest announcements of Scripture." What is the practical inference from such facts as these? Is it not that the example of Prussia should be followed ; and, in order that the schools to be provided ly the nation shall be bene- ficial to the nation, that all direction of the schools of secular in- struction shall be denied to sects, as such, dominant and dissent- ing ; and that all schools shall be constituted on the principle adopted by the Model Infant Schools of Edinburgh and Glasgow^, and by many others, both infant and advanced, all over the coun- try. The author begs to protest against the construction of one word above v/ritten, as intending disrespect to the dominant sect of either England or Scotland. To the latter he himself belongs ; but has never considered himself as 'a member of more than of a sect ; while he entertains charitable and respectful feelings to- wards all other conscientious sectarians. Were he to enter a child of his own at the infant or advanced school, under the pro- posed national plan, he would do so without demanding or ex- pecting any deference to his own dogmas more than was shown, or he should wish to be shown, to those of any other sectarian who placed his child there. He would know that his chief ob- ject for his child in school was secular knowledge, and that he possessed-another, and, in his own view, a much fitter school, elsewhere, for religious instruction, in which the pastors of his own persuasion are the teachers ; but he should be sorry indeed to see even those pastors influencing the general religious inculca- tion of the secular school, and thereby driving away from it the children of all other conscientious sects. The author is farther aware that what he has now said will be approved of by a very large proportion of the clergy of Scotland, many of whom sanc- tion and give active assistance to infant and other schools esta- bhshed upon what is called the liberal footing. Nothing more is wanted than the degree of liberality now ad- vocated to obtain for Britain at large the invaluable boon of popu- lar education. If dominant sects are listened to, we shall never see the day of its coming ; our people will remain uneducated secularly, uneducated religiously, and in their present state of debasement and suffering. It is trusted, it is entreated, that the conscientious of the dominant sects will lay the state of the question to heart, for it has come to this issue, education to EMBRACE ALL SECTS, OR NO EDUCATION ! Let them Hot, by holtW ing out, defeat both our object and their awn. The Govern-' 168 ENCOURAGEMENTS — THE PRESS. ment once persuaded that this is the alternative, — and there can be little doubt that they are so persuaded, and moreover that a large majority of the Legislature are so too, — ought not to vs^ait till they succeed in removing prejudices and reconciling clashiiig interests. On them a tremendous responsibility rests; the state of the country calls for the education of the people with a voice which overwhelms the dull and feeble tone of secta- rian opposition. An immense increase of political power has been given to a class as yet but imperfectly educated. Is it reasonable to expect a wise use of that power, without a great enlargement of the means of education ? Let the oppo- nents of such extension of enlightenment reflect that they cannot deprive the people of their political powder, by refusing them the means of using it well and wdsely. Finally, let the people do their duty to themselves, and demand from the nation that intel- lectual and moral elevation, to which their burdens, their labour, their common nature, entitle them. IIL Encouragements. Difficulties and obstacles, let us hope, lessened or removed, the author's concluding topic has a more animating title. Our hopes that the day of popular enlightenment has actually dawned are various. I. The Press has for some time powerfully advocated this grand necessity. The lead has been taken by the Edinburgh Review. A greater proportion of its pages have been devoted by this Journal to the subject, than by any other ; and there has been a gradual enlargement of its views during the last sixteen years ; so as to give reason to hope, that it will soon go all the lengths of this treatise. Decidedly next it in labour and libe- rality, and equal in eloquence and power, on the subject, is the Foreign Quarterly Review. The Westminster Review advo- cates popular education; the Quarterly Review fears the effect of over-educating. The Quarterly Journal of Education, published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, now thirteen numbers old, is an invaluable reposi- tory of information and sound principle. The iab'ours of this Society, generally, are above all praise. Professor Pillans, of the University of Edinburgh, in his " Letters to Thomas Kennedy, Esq." has made a powerful con- tribution to the light existing on the subject ; especially by ex-, posing the absurdities which are, to this day, sanctioned in schools. Mr. Combe's lectures have been already referred to, as have Dr. Drummond's Letters. The daily and weekly press afTord more examples of zealous national educationists than I ADVOCACY OF THE PRESS. lt)9 I'.ave space to enumerate. In London, the Courier, Times, Morning Chronicle, Herald, Spectator, and Examiner, may be j>articularized. In Edinburgh, the Scotsman is pre-eminent on ihe subject, having in December and January 1828-9, published a series of leading articles, which might be collected into a volume worthy of the front rank of the discussion. The Edin- burgh Weekly Chronicle ably supports the same cause, as a direct consequence of its liberal and philanthropic principles. In Glasgow, the Free Press advocates national education; and throughout the prov^incial press there is much doing to recon- cile the country to the gigantic effort which they must soon be called upon to make. Chambers' Journal, Information for the People, and Historical Newspaper, with their immense circula- tion, are pillars of the cause. In short, the reading public are busy with the subject ; it meets them wherever they turn ; it concludes every official report of inquirers into the state of the manual-labour classes, in all their relations and conditions, as the panacea, the sim qua non, of their permanent improvement; while the wa7ii is felt by all whose duties or avocations bring them into contact with the manual-labour population. 2. If pride be a legitimate motive for nations, our's ought to be piqued by the fact — 1 am inclined to call it the encouraging fact — that we are outstripped in the educational race by other countries. In the United States, Boston is a-head of us in achievement, and decidedly in intention. Germany is our teacher, not merely in the matured national plan of Prussia, so often referred to, but very generally over the empire. I have seen, for example, and wish I had space to detail, an account of the valuable education given at Hesse Cassel, and Gottingen. It is after the Pestalozzlan method of reality, and, besides all the usual and instrumentary branches admirably taught, includes use- ful knowledge, practical scientific study, manual labour, and bodily exercise; while Latin is taught to those only who desire it. A youth educated in this manner presents an instructive contrast to any thing our ordinary schools can boast of; and the pupils be it marked, leave the school at fifteen, and often at fourteen. France has sent a special educational mission to Prussia, and is proceeding rapidly in the establishment of a similar system. The grant of last year for national education, was £600,000! The British legislature, in the same year, voted £20,000, without any very obviously useful application, in the present diversity of deficiency which characterizes education all over the country ; but every friend to the great cause rejoices that a grant has been made at all ; it is real evidence of the animus of the government, and will operate as a test of the feelings of the public. I am not aware that a voice has been raised against it, either in or out of Parliament. 15 170 WISHES OF GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATURE;. 3. The encouragement by the government of the object ot'nac* tional education, has manifested itself in other ways besides the grant just alluded to. Information is sought for officially of the state of education throughout the country. A Home-office cir- cular has lately been issued to teachers all over the empire, order- ing returns of the number of pupils, their religious persvasions, education communicated, salaries of teachers, &c. The Lord Chancellor has likewise addressed extensively the trustees of pub- lic charities, inquiring if they are inclined to concur m a consolida- tion of their funds for the purposes of national education. The subject has been often incidentally discussed in both Houses of Parliament, with scarcely an unfriendly voice to the project of popular education as a national object; and on one day last session, the subject was Bfought boldly before the House of Commons, by the member for Baih, who moved resolutions, that the House should pledge itself to an early consideration of the great mea- sure of popular education ; and particularized the necessity of an infant school, and school of industry, in every parish. The resolutions were negatived solely on the ground of their involving- a pledge, which was thought premature ; but the discussion eli- cited the feeling of the House, and it was decidedly favourable to popular evducation. Since that discussion, the Lord Chancellor, long the most zealous, and now the most powerful, champion of national education, in his late speech at York, may be said to have declared to the country, from authority, the readiness of the Government and the Legislature to extend the blessing of education, as soon as the people are prepared in earnest to ask for it. His own exertions have been truly herculean. His me- morable speech, in the House of Commons, on the 8th of March, 1818, is an epoch in the history of the cause. The Education Committee of 1818 was of his suggestion, and he himself was the most enlighiened and efficient member of it. What has been called its Digest of information on the state of the country, and its wants in the matter of education, is a statistical docu- ment of great value ; and the " Practical Observations" which he published, have done much to remove prejudices and igna- rances on the subject. It is now sixteen years since these dis- cussions, and since Mr. Brougham's famous Education bill; yet popular education, as the Lord Chancellor observed at York, has not much advanced. It is earnestly hoped, that he himself is disposed to think that a much bolder and higher act of legisla- tion is absolutely necessary, than he at first contemplated ; that ihe new political position of the people, then undreamed of, de- mands it; and that the public mind, greatly advanced beyond what he had to struggle with in 1818, is much better prepared or its realization. 4. The meeting of teachers, held on the 15th March current, IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGLAND. 171 at Dumfries, is well worthy of notice, as a sign of the times. Their resolutions on the necessity of great improvement in the modes of education all over the country, in imitation of Germa- ny, Prussia, France, and America, their unqualified condemna- tion of the engrossing and useless study of Latin and Greek, — their concurrence in the enlightened views of Mr. Combe, — and their formation of themselves into an association,* have been hailed by all the friends of national education, to whose knowledge they have come, as highly honourable to all con- cerned, 5. The last, and not the least, encouragement consists in the actual improvement made and making in the substance of edu- cation itself, in the British dominions. In the possession of In- fant schools, alone, v/e have an advantage fully equalling all that is enjoyed by the countries alluded to asj before us in other re- spects, but which have not yet adopted these, the only means of efficient moral training. There are, in England, schools of 7'eal knowledge, in which almost every thing is taught recommended in Chapter V. of this treatise. There are Dr. Mayo's school at Cheam in Surry, and the establishments of the Messrs. Hill at Hazelwood, near Birmingaam, and Bruce Castle at Tottenham, near London; and it is well known, that these schools serve as models to others, and that the system of imparting real useful knowledge to the young is extending. In Mr. Bruce's acade- my, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in addition to the usual branches, which need not be enumerated, the following philosophical courses are taught : — " Chymistry, electri<:ity, magnetism, and pneumatics, as connected vt-ith physical geography, meteorology, &c. ; natural history, with reference especially to the mechan- ism and physiology of the human frame — making Paley's Na- tural Theology the text book, — mental philosophy, the evidences of Christianity," &c. There is a seminary in Bath, under the direction of Messrs. Clark, which bears a close resemblance to that of Mr, Bruce. The Belfast Academy, under Principal Bryce, has been for several years far in advance of every seminary of which I have heard in Ireland, and equal to any one in this country. Dr. Drummond is Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the Royal Institution of that town, and has great- ly contributed to its repute, especially as a naturalist. In 1828, mineralogy and geology were added to the usual course of geo- graphy. Into the study of these subjects, the pupils, from eight to eighteen years of age, all entered with the greatest alacrity : insomuch that some apprehension was at first enter- tained of these fascinating pursuits leading them away from their regular studies. But instead of this being the case, there was speedily a marked improvement in the manner in which the * The Dumfries and Galloway Education Society. 312 IMPROVEMENTS IN IRELAND — SCOTLAND. Other duties were performed, by those who had given themselvts most passionately to mineralogy and geology. The National education of Ireland has been already alluded (o, and its school- books ; which, fortunately before finishing this essay, I have seen. They are nine small vo'ames, from the price of tAAopencc for thirty-six pages, to sixpence for 150, and -one shilling for 360, neatly boarded and covered with iinen. The books for teaching to read are called the first and second books of leisons. There is a small volume on arithmetic, and another on book- keeping. The volume on the elements of geometry is a trans- lation from the French of the first part of Clairaut's Geometry, which applies the geometrical propositions to useful purposes as they follow each other ; this is a very sensible manner of mathe- matical inculcation for the benefit of the manual-labour student. The third book of lessons is Pestalozzian and has objects for its matter ; but certainly not so systerriatically as Dr. Mayo's, which it would have been much better to have adopted. The fourth book of lessons has a great variety of contents, viz. Natural History, Geography, Religious and Moral lessons. Political Econo- my and useful Arts^ Poetry, &c., v.^ith a useful appendix of pr.e-^ fixes, affixes, and Latin and Greek roots. The other two vol- umes contain the Scripture lessons, the one from the Old and the other from the New Testamacnt. Although they are abstracts of or exercises on Scripture, not Scripture itself, they are nearly given in Scripture language, and when not, the passage is put - within brackets. They are excellent specimens of what every- parent tries to do, and to teach the child to do, namely, to tell Scripture stories, and apply Scripture precepts, in their own way, in order to induce them to read them in the Bible. The outcry against them, where honest, is utterly unreflecting. It is presumed, that the series of manuals is not yet finished,. as there is none upon chymistry, or mechanical science. As manuals, the Irish books are well composed and selected : but they are detached and separate, and do not belong to a system. They may, like many other equally good school-books, furnish hints to the framers of a comprehensive and systematic Code of education, but they will by no m.eans supersede it. Above all, the National system of Ireland makes no provision for Infant education. In Scotland, we have had for a number of years Mr. Wood's school in Edinburgh, in every way excellent, except in omitting practice on realities^ and scientific exer:;ises ; the Circus Place School, which v/as established upon the real system, though it is rather thought not have very rigidly adhered to it ; and much of the best of'i both, in the Davy-street Lancasterian School,, taught by Mr. Dunn. Mr. Cunningham's Edinburgh Institution has already been mentioned, and a letter from him is published in the appendix. The allusion to him suggests the system of Mr. DIFFERENT RANKS EDUCATED TOGETHER. 173 lames Black,* for teaching a language simultaneously to any number that can hear his voice, or see his illustrations, — the whole pupils repeating the words after him for the sake of pro- nunciation. ■ The author has witnessed this mode of teaching, and has had occasion to see proofs of its success, both in Latin and French. Mr. Black has been for two years settled in Glas- gow ; and, under t!ie sanction of the Principal and the Senatus Academicus of the University, has lectured in the Humanity Class-room to crowded and approving audiences. His system is well worthy of consideration in any plan of abridging the time as well as his physical wants. Just because we have forced him into an artificial mode of life, established by ourselves for our own safety, we are called. upon to preserve his health of body, and to improve his mind, — intellectually, as far as he is capable, by useful knowledge and resource, and morally, by subduing and regulating his animal and vicious propensities, sensual, covetous, and violent, and exer- cising his moral faculties and social affections, some endowment of which, above the sad blank of idic."y, is the portion of every human being. We. shall of cour&e succeed in very different degrees, ac- cording as the balance stands between the superior and inferior feelings in each subject. The state of this balance will likewise re- gulate the duration of the individual's seclusion from ordinary society. When, by an enlightened age, penitentiaries shall be held to be hospitals for moral patients, and not engines to protect society, by holding out the spectacle of the sufferings of perfectly free agents, either paying back that loss which their actions have occasioned,* or deterring others from crimes, by their example, the duration of the convict's detention will depend, not upon the mere act which brought him there, but upon the continuance of his disease. As long as penitentiary discipline shall consist of severe and degrading compul- sory labour, of stripes, irons, insults and brutality, without an attempt at improvement mental or moral, beyond being herded into a chapel on Sunday for an hour or two, — and this constituted the old idea of a house of correction, — a prescribed and short duration of such irrational usage is imperative. Nay, it was and is the prominent problem of criminal legislation to proportion punishments to crimes, — to weigh out, to an odd scruple, the quantum of suffering which shall counterpoise the quantum of guilt in the act committed : and certainly it would be monstrous to detain the convict, on such a principle, one moment longer in the place of mere suffering,, than the exact time necessary to permit society to take out, in his groans, the supposed debt ex deZicfo contracted by him. But no one is ever sent to a hospital for a previously prescribed period. Sixty days of the infirmary, or the madhouse, as a medical prescription, would be justly ridiculed, in and out of the faculty ; and so it will come to be when moral infirmities, applying rational and effectual means of cure to those afflicted with that worst of diseases called a proclivity to crime, and being withal mild, benevolent, and encouraging to the patient, are substituted for the present irrational treatment. The un- happy ciiminal will then be regarded more in relation to his moral constitution than his conduct; or if the latter be estimated, it will be in the way of evidence of the former. His sentence for an overt act of crime wnll be restraint of the penitentiary, till an authority, beyond all question as to intelligence, and all suspicion 4s to uprightness and benevolence, shall deem it safe to venture him once more in society. It is evident that, for such a process, the shortest time must be long, * This is the etj-moloey of retribuf.iov, and is the vulgar rationale of punish- mer:t. " Qui non luit in pecunia, luet in pelle." Our law-makers and law-ad- ministrators disclaim this in the abstract; but it nevertheless enters largely into their practical judgments, as is well observed by Archbishop Whately. EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 195 Ordinary education is the work of years ; and a fortiori must moral training be when working against, the wind and tide and current of criminal propensity. Nay, as in lunatic asylums there may be cases of very long duration, there maybe cases for life in our asylum, cases of relapse after dismissal, and return to necessary restraint on fresh conviction. These last ought to be lield cases for life. If any one shall object that this is any thmg but mild treatment of criminals, and that there is more justice in inflicting a month's confinement for a first and slight offence, and then giving the criminal another chance for a good life ; I would answer, that the latter course is but the first step of a series of penal inflictions, alternating with intervals of the most wretched sensualities and profligacies called freedom, which necessarily brings the sufferer back to punishment — and that, on the proportion principle, more severe than the first — to be again dismiss- ed to greater misery than he leaves, and more resolved upon, and better fitted for, crime. He returns a third time, of course, to your bridewell, to be visited with yet increased infliction, till at last the account of proportion has so much accumulated to his debit, that a violent and ignominious death alone is held adequate expiation. — What is the resti-aint of a few — of a number of years — of a life- time — in a well constituted reformatory asylum, compared to the •cruelty, the injustice, the irrationality of this ? In no part of his treatise is the Archbishop of Dublin more un- answerable than in his argument on what are called first offences, or more properiy first convictions. Like the Archbishop, I w^ould never pass over first convictions 5 but when he would administer to them severe but short pain, I would apply to them long but mild corrective education. If these views are sound, it would soon be with first offences almost exclusively that we should be called upon to deal. In one view of first offences taken by Archbishop Whately I cannot agree, namely, that a first offence, even when slight, shall be visited by sharp and severe suffering, by way o^ example to others- This is as much against onr moral perceptions as it would be to punish a slight offence retributively v%^ith severe suffering. If it be said that it is expedient to do so, then are expediency and morality at variance, which is absurd. We should have no right, on the princi- ple of either retribution or example, to go beyond a nice apportion- ment of the penalty to the act ; but when the object in view is the moral cure of the individual himself, there is no variance between moral feeling and expediency, even although that cure should require a long seclusion. ^^ e never think the longest confinement to a sick- bed unjust or disproportionate. This is an answer to the natural question under the old impressions, "Woiild you send a boy for years to your penitentiary M'ho for the first time steals a shilling?" The theft of the shilling is the symptom of a moral disease which re- quires the boy's being put under treatment, and it is mercy to him to secludehim, and subject him to the education atid training which his unfortunate ease requires. Five children, three boys and two girls, were tried at the Old Bailey, the other day, for a course of depreda- tions in London. The eldest was thirteen years of age. One boy and girl lived as husband and wife in lodgings, where they received the ©thsr young thieves, and the stolen goods. The husband, twelve 196 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. years of age, pleaded an alibi, and gravely said that he was smoking^ his pipe at home when the theft was committed. They were con- victed and sentenced to pnnis-hment after the old fashion. Now, what friend to humanity, and to these unhappy children themselves, would have objected to their seclusion a year or two earlier in a mild penitentiary, and to their dwelling there for years, rather than be sub- jected to the neglect, and therefore the unjust severity, they actually experience] But wherein, it will be asked, does my asylum differ from the hi- theito most improved penitentiaries, to lead me to expect success, when all other'plans have presented a history of failure : and to entitle me to hold that the confinemeni proposed shall, not only by its mild- ness, but its advantages to the convict, counterbalance the evil of its duration ; and yet to those beyond the walls on whom example ever operates, serve all the purposes of motive to abstain from crime ? In the substitution of restraint for pain positively inflicted, which last has been found to do nothing, in the way of example, with class first, it is proposed to banish direct infliction entirely ; and to be con- tent with secluding the convict, and physically preventing him from doing farther mischief, while we subject him to the operation of a rational system of reformation. It is a remnant of the old leaven to devise ingenious methods of rendering a penifentiary as irksome and disagreeable as possible, that the convict may not be allowed to for- get that he is undergoing punishment. Novel though the thesis may appear, it is warranted by knowledge of the faculties of the human mind and their mode of operation, that it is morally impossible to pu- nish, by direct and severe infliction, and reform at one and the same tinie. The utmost punishment proposed, therefore, is seclusion and sohtude. I would inflict no other directly, but, with Mr. Livingston, would provide the means of an underserving convict punishing him- self, by falling back into degradation, confinement, and poor fare, just as by idleness he would do in free society. In his lowest state, white it lasts, I should not attempt reformation, because I should inevitably fail ; and this will at once appear if we consider what reformation really is. Reformation addresses itself to the moral and rehgious faculties, and to their activity the quiescence of the animal propensities is a necessary requisite. But directly inflicted punishment is addressed to these lower feelings.; it is avowedly intended to excite fear, but it cannot be prevented from rousing resentment, and with that the moral feelings of justice, gratitude and kindness cannot co-operate. It is a solecism to attempt an interchange of kindliness when your subject's back is smarting and bleeding from the lashes of your scourge, and he mortally hates, and could murder, his tormentor. You may quell his thirst for vengeance by the power of your position ; but his stripes must heal, and his resentment cool, before you will do more than waste your breath to talk to him of justice, or mercy, or industry, or self- respect, or pieLy. He must have time to come round from the settled sullenness of the degrading tread-wheel, that brute labour, before he will be in the mood to respect either himself or the society that tor- ments him ; nor is it with the same breath that he can be insulted, vilified, abusedj and tyrannically commanded, and also led, by th& EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME, 19 gentler accents of persuasion, to exchange a ruffian character, aggra- vated by ill usage and goaded to revenge, for a temper of peace and good will to all around him. It is one of the fallacies which result from ignorance of the nature and working of the human mind, to ex- pect reformation as a result of punishment. They excite feelings the antipodes of each other, and which, therefore, can as little co-exist as the noonday of London and New Zealand. It is a deplorable error that you can foice reform — that you can, in the active sense, reform the convict ; he must reform himself. It is your part to take care that you do not hinder him by your punishments: but that, on the contrary, you lead him to toiU to amend, by quieting his animal and^caUing into activity his moral feehngs ; gradually bringing back his self-respect, by according him a portion of your approbation as he deserves it ; and stimulating his industry, by realizing to him its fruits in a marked melioration of his condition, and improvement of his prospects ; with the ultimate reward of restoration to society, fur- nished with a means of livelihood and a re-established character, and not without the patronage and countenance of the friends and well wishers of a genuine return to virtue.* Mr. Livingston's penal infliction is never operating at the same time with his reformatory process ; there is no reform attempted while the convict has not yet left his original cell, or has by his own miscon- duct brought himself back to it. It is not attempted, because it would be fruitless. The beams of moral culture begin to shine upon him, and communicate their warmth and their light, when he is in the mood to come forth and willingly resume his labour. According to my humble view, it is essential that all the functionaries in a reforma- tory shall belong to the third class, and possess a predominating moral and intellectual constitution. With enough of courage and firmness, and general authoritative weight of character, to put down mutiny with a word, or even a look, and fearlessly suppress revolt if it should break out, — which solitude or well-earned society of small numbers would each render next to impossible, — the ordinary de- meanour of such persohs should be mild, kind, cheerful and encou- raging. These qualities would insure, not only the respect, but the affection of the convicts, and such society would itsell be the object of their desire, and an incentive to, and reward of, steady and un- wearying good conduct. The reform in the functionary department would require to amount to a revolution. You must reform the office- bearers as preliminary to reforming their charge. From the governor down to the humblest servant of the establishment, you must weed out carefully every remnant of classes first and second of human beings ; and having filled every department with class third, train the office-bearers in all their degrees to a systematic exercise of their best feelings in their intercourse with the convicts. Look at the grateful confidence which criminals place in a prison governor who has treated them considerately and kindly; or in a clergyman of tranquil benevolence and true Christian humihty, who, when they were in prison, has visited them, not to threaten, and denounce and terrify, but gently to lead his fellow sinners from the error of their way. *This would supersede the necessity of the separate establishment of what are called " Houses of Hefuge for discharged criminals." 17+ 198 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FHOM CRIME. The greatest change would be, that the functionaries, secular and re- ligious, — if these must be distinct, though it might lead more directly to practical religion that they were not distinct, — instead of, as now, guarding, coercing, punishing, locking-up, and always overbearing, degrading, and insulting their unfortunate charge, should devote a large portion of their time to intimate society with them, often share their meals, and generally associate with them.* I am well aware that, from the wretched mor^l education of the " better" classes of society, a towering prejudice will long be in the way of obtaining men of sufficient moral and religious elevation thus to follov^^ a blessed ex- ample, and consent to dioell with sinners. This repugnance has a deep foundation in the present degradation of the instruments of the criminal law, those who execute punishment. Nothing can be con- ceived more confirmatory of our whole argument than this very de- gradation. By a law of our nature, we cannot respect the animal feelings ; and from these, and these alone, come the actual infliction of punishment. But when, under a new system, the moral and in- tellectual faculties in every functionary within the precincts of the asylum, shall be in constant exercise, the contempt will cease with tise degraded character, and the office of a criminal reformator will take rank in social estimation according to the qualities required, and the social benefits bestov^ed. To many — to the great majority — all this will no doubt appear wild and preposterous ; but it is not the less true to nature. There are many evils under which society groans, which can only be cured by means which must shock exist-^ ing prejudices. But if we will cherish our prejudices, however to our reason they can be demonstrated to be absurd and hurtful, we have no right to complain of individual and social suffering. Yet it would not be difTicult, by proper management, in time to overcome the dis- positions to vilify the functionaries of a reformatory asylum. I sup- pose the Vv'liole system changed by a grand act of legislation, or an ex* '^ Coiitrast this with the tremeriflous infiictioa of silence for years. There are soiiie temperaments on which loug enforced silence seems to operate most alarm- nigly. These, I should conjeccare, are stout, healthy, active, bustling, social, and talkative persons, who have a strong impulse to speak. That there is such an im- pulse cannot be doubted, and the American prisoners bore their testimony that its enforced and long coutiiiued restraint is in the highest degree painiul. if this is true, we can conceive the impulse becoming morbid. Mr. E-ose, the humane aud enlightened governor of the National Jail at Edinburgh, lately communicated to me a painful confirmaiiou of this conjecture. .). C. was, three years ago, sentenced by the High Court of Justiciary to fourteen years transportaiion, which was com- muted for confinement in the Millbank penitentiary, where silence is enforced witjt a rigidity not exceeded iu America. The man was about twenty seven years of age, of unusually strong robust health, accustomed to a life of great bodily and considerable mental activity, and was particularly iii.patient, irritable, assuming, and talkative. This most unfit subject for the tailor's board was nevertheless squatted upou one, aud forbid to utter a syllable under pain of severe punishment I The unwonted employment aud siill more unwonted silejice affected his mind, aud one day durinff the chapel service, he started up, and burst into the most demo- niacal denunciations against the preacher and his doctrine, which he continued till he was taken away and put iu confinement. It was found that he had become so decidedly in-saiie, that it wa^ necessary to remove him to a lunatic hospital. It might have been assumed thatso unnatural a state as continued silence for mouths or years cannot be free from evil etfects. The experiment is at best empirical, and there is something revolting in such blind trials, when productive of severe huuiaa ^ufferiiig. EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME, 199 periment made, under high sanction, in one or two new establishments. Let a few men already high in societ}', at least of known talents and respectability, sst an example, by "taking oSce" under the system. Let liberal salaries, and even honours, be the reward of the high- mindedness which shall determine such men to devote themselves for so immense a public good. Let the King delight to honour such pa- triotism ; and let all sensible men and women of really good society agree to view it as a" passport to, instead of a cause of exclusion from, their circles. These moral physicians would come, in more enlight- ened times, to suffer no more of debasement from the duties of the moral hospitals in which they practised, than the medical officer now does by his assiduities in a cholera hospital, an infirmary, x)r a luna- tic asylum. Much of the time of the reformators must of course be devoted to the asylum ; but so to their respective vocations is the time of well employed professional men, v^ho yet have leisure hours for the pleasures of choicer society, and the solace of the domestic circle. The Archbishop of Dublin has evidently never contemplated this mode of reforming criminals. But there are yet farther recommendations of an enlightened refor- matory system. There is an element in it which will incalculably facilitate its work. It secludes the young offender the instant he has by an overt-act manifested criminal tendencies. In calculating the probabilities of the reformation of criminals, we are apt, as the .\rch^ bishop has done, to take them as we now find them deforming the face of moral nature in all the ages and degrees of hardened and all but hopeless depravity. There are criminals, I admit, upon whom even such an asylum would fail to produce satisfactory effects ; and it is to be feared that many of the presently existing criminal adults, if once withm the walls, must bid adieu to free society. But it is a noble feature of enlightened legislation, that it contemplates the well-being of the race more than that of the existing generation ; and listens not to the svlfishness which holds all improvement Utopian which our little selves of an hour are too far gone in moral disease and decrepi- tude to live to enjoy. V/e are well entitled to expect great re- sults with the young, and to look to a shorter duration of corrective discipline with them than with the more advanced and confirmed. A few years, — for ytars it ouglit to be, not as nov/ to punish a first of- fence, but to change a criminal character, — will reform all young offenders who are reformable. If the seclusion of young offenders shall lighten the labours, and assure the success of a wise reformatory system, there is yet a pre- vious treatment of the young which wiU greatly dinunish the number of young offenders themselves, and that is the practical moral exer- cise of infant education. Infant schools take children, from two years of age to six, off the streets ; collect them to the number of from lOO to 300 m a hall and a play-ground, for six or eight hours every day ; communicate to them, accessorily, no small portion of useful knowledge ; but, principally exercise them, on a religious basis, in truth, honesty, and mercy, the direct contraries of crimes against property, limb, and life ; and prevent by anticipation, all the wretched habits, prejudices, and ignorances, which render the lower orders in- tractable and even dangerous. Of course, the idea of certain separa* 200 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. tion from free society for years in the reformatory asylums, as the re- sult of even one slip from rectitude, would be a constant school les- son ; and would, at that age, make a more lasting impression, than at any other, upon the mind. No one who has read the first Re- port of the Edinburgh Infant School Society, which contains a series of incidents that had been noted and watching the workings of moral motives upon the plastic minds of the children, and who reflects that the creatures so engaged are of the rank in life which furnishes the great majority of criminals, will hesitate to join in the fervent hope that the Legislature will speedily come to see the vital importance, the indispensability of infant training, and from the public purse es- tablish schools for it universally in the country. " Give your pence," ft was said, when the public of Edinburgh were urged to contribute to the erection of the model school, established there three years ago, "give yaur pence to infant schools,, and save your pounds on police esta- bhshments, jails, bridewells, "transportations, and executions."* I have no doubt that this saving would follow the universality of infant training on the Wildorspin plan, which would be found the best and most rational, I may say the only effectual, prevention of crime. Mendicity, above all in its most deplorable form, infant mendicity, should be rigorously put down. 3ct, The convict's restoration to society, when so far reformed as to be fit for it, is the third requisite of our seclusion system. The sentence on the first conviction forcrime should be so extensive, as to justify any length of detention which his character may on trial be found to require. A sentence of seclusion, for life, for example, un- less declared fit for discharge in a shorter period, by a named com- mission in which perfect confidence might be placed. It is plain that the sentence for life would operate nominally in all cases in which it would be expedient to shorten the term, and would give legal power of indefinite detention in dangerous and incurable cases: which, if the first commitment were in youth, would rarely, ver}' rarely, occur. Before it is hastily concluded that this life detention is disproportionate to perhaps a first conviction, let it be recollected that the first overt act gives society the right to protect itself against the tendencies by that act manifested, and to seclude the criminal, not in punishment of that act, but for the safety of society, till his moral cure be com- plete. The present course is to train him on by a series of confine- ments and discharges, which combine to ripen him for the gibbet, by means of which society protect themselves against hi7n certainly very effectually. 4th, The fourth requisite is society's protection against the criminal tendencies of others, in so far as example may operate from the mode of seclusion which, inexorably, and without such a thing as pardon, I would propose to apply to every convicted criminal, on his or her first offence. Pardon would be as absurd on our system, as pardon of a sick person that he may not go to the hospital, take the medicine, or submit to the surgical operation. Now I know and acknowledge * The incidents alluded to furnish proofs of honest restoration of money found, of safety of property of all kinds, of kindness of the children to each other, and of sparing animals and insects when in their power, — not in a few instances, but as the general and ordinary habits of the little community. See Appendix No. III. EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 201 that the proposed treatment applied to others, will not dtter the un- fortunate beings of class first from crime But neither do the gal- lows, the scourge, the tread-wheel, forced labour, the hulks, or trans- portation. Double, quadruple, if you will, the severity of these inflic- tions, — re-establish breaking on the wheel, and the furnace, and their terrors will pass over the reckless heads of these slaves of criminal tendencies like the idle wind. Things, therefore, as to that class, suffer no change by any mitigation, or any aggravation, of punish- ment. But even as to them there is a vast gain to society on t];e sys- tem proposed. As things are, these dangerous members of society are all at large. The proper protection is not catching one of the tigers and hanging him up, or shipping him off now and then, while we trust to safety from all the rest who are roaming, to their being sufficiently moved to will to abstain from crimes. What sort of pro- tection is this, and who feefs safe from it ? Who trusts to such mo- tives for his security on the lonely road or in the detached house? Now, in the plan proposed there is almost a certainty of having the WHOLE OF CLASS FIRST SAFE WITHIN WALLS, AND UNDER TREATMENT. The first conviction of each entitles society to lay hold of him. He has declared the war, by committing the first hostile act. You trust to his will, we to our walls. You let the menagerie loose, we fence it round with ail the force of engineership, and we should go to bed probably with much more confidence than you possibly can do. ClaSb second, whom the present penal sanctions no doubt influ- ence will be equally influenced by the proposed seclusion. How- ever divested of severe infliction, mere seclusion for an indefinite term of years, complete change of life and status, and social hopes and prospects, are, in any view, enormous — or, if the Archbishop of Dubhn likes the term better, most formidable evils to class second. They are not reckless, but calculating, and will be more influenced by the change of condition — the nearly civil annihilation of an inex- orable system, which misses no criminal, pardons none, favours none, than even by the present more severe but more uncertain punish- ments. To the penitentiary they know they must go on the first ofTence ; prosecutors will no longer flinch ; juries no longer perjure themselves to screen them ; to the penitentiary for the first offence they must go, and commence a several years' task of rebuilding a character which they might have kept entire. It would, of course, be matter of trial, but we anticipate that not more of class second than now fall, would do so under the new system. It will, moreover, be kept in mind, that individuals of class second are just those who, in the nicely-trimmed balance of their characters between good and evil, and their dependence upon circumstances for the preponderance, are the most likely to benefit by the judicious PREVENTIVE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, w hich I am entitled to assume COEXISTENT, all ovor the country, with the reformatory asylums. This class are farther capable of much higher education and intel- lectual improvement than class first. It has been proved that a great extent of knowledge and resource may, at a veVy cheap rate, be put within the reach of the humbler ranks of society. Such pursuits, provided there has been previous education, elevate the mind above 202 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. the mere sensuality that leads to crime ; fill up, with these the time otherwise wasted in idleness and vice, and you will give those juster views of the relations of things, and ofcauses and consequences in the conduct of life, which form such important elements in prudence and respectability. If class first may, in various degrees, be morally im- proved within the new asylum, class second may be reformed out of it, so as never to require to come within its walls. It will be said by those who hesitate to place confidence in views so violently novel,— so contrary to all preconceived notions on the subject of crimes and punishments, that crime is a wide word ; that it includes violence to the person as well as plunder of the property — raaimmg and murder, as well as theftand robbery, forging and swind- ling ; that the maimer or murderer is a totally different kind of criminal from the thief, and that what may deter the one will not deter the other ; that the thief is a calculator, the murderer the momentary slave of a sud- den and often insane impulse Such murderer's crime the Americans denominate murder in the second degree. But the murderer in the first degree, wdio has coolly premeditated and planned his act of blood, is as much a calculator as the robber of a bank, who has laid his plan and watched its operation for a twelvemonth. Such a murderer has time and coolness to calculate all chances and consequences, and seclu- sion — in his case decidedly for life — must and will form a considera- ble element in his formula. If the history, of all murderers, in either degree, were inquired into, from their childhood to their exit on the scaffold, I will peril the whole question upon the fact that they will almost all be found to belong to class first. My own knowledge on this head is by no means limited, and I have seen no exception. Such persons have all manifested a vicious, ferocious, and revengeful childhood and youth, and an intensely selfish, sensual, and turbulent disposition ; and have come forth in overt acts of violenceand cruelty, long before their final crime of murder. Those sons ofviolenceare as well known, and as ascertainable in their progress to their last act of outrage against the person, as the thieves in their war against pro- perty, and require reformatory treatment quite as much ; and although the proposition may be new, and therefore startling, I would place the ferocious, vindictive, and cruel under treatment in their youth, whenever a conviction of criminal injury is recorded against them. But the plunderers are as five htindred to one to the slayers. Mur- der is abjured by your adroit thief; it is too clumsy and noisy a trans- ference of property ; and as a concomitant of robbery, it is now rarely resorted to. It is for the most pari the act of mere revenge, or sud- den rage, and not seldom of insanity. The murders by maniacs or monornaniacs, whose specific insanity is an uncontrollable appetite to shed blood, being deducted, as clearly the acts of iri-6sponsible agents, there will remain few sane murderers to be disposed of.* The obvious course with the infant violent and cruel— -for the pro- pensity can be dated from the cradle— is to exercise them practically in mildness and mercj, in an intercourse with children of their own ege J to wean them from all cruel practices and destructive habits, " Sea this importaat and novel subject treated of ju the Appends Nq. 11, EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 203 from all injui7 to other children and animals, and from all impulses to break, deface, and destroy.* When past the age of the infant school, young persons. who con- tinue dangerous should be narrowly watched ; and the first act of violent or cruel injury should, without partiality, consign the actor to the asylum. This, as in the case of other crimes, is justice and mercy to the individual himself. The real interest of the criminal and the public coincide in nature ; it is a false theory whicli would represent them as opposed. Insane homicides are of course fit subjects for a lunatic asylum ; the blood shed by them is as much inevitable calami- ty, as if it had been shed by a wild beast, or an accident. But society, from ignorance of the incipient and progressive symptoms of insanity, are remiss in observing the unhappy victims of this disease, who all exhibit insane tendencies to injure and destroy, long before they ac- tually take life. If the reformatory asylum be a moral hospital, and not a place of artificial infliction, insanity itself may, in its predis- posed inmates,t be warded off by its discipline. I a:m, therefore, of those who advocate the abolition of capital PUNISHMENT IN ALL CASES WHATEVER. In offcnccs against property, I deny both the right to inflict capital punishment, and the expedi- ency ; and, although in crimes against limb and life, I may grant the right, I utterly deny the expediency. Society will gain nothing, but lose much, by its infliction ; and ought therefore, in such cases, as have resisted all early preventive training, and eluded all subsequent watchfulness and restraint, to be content with seclusion for life of the miserable murderer. The Solicitor-General of England would punish capitally, as is observed in the outset, such crimes as the individual attacked might have repelled by taking life. With deference, there is a fallacy here. An individual assailed is urged and justified, by a law of nature, to defend his own life b}^ destroying his assailant ; but the relation be- tween. society and the criminal is totally different after the murder is committed. It can no longer be prevented, the urgency has ceased, and the treatment of the criminal is to be judged of by altogether different views of expediency, on the principles I have been endea- vouring to unfold. We may kill even a maniac who would other- wise kill us ; but, suppose he tinumphs who would dream of putting him to death for our homicide, because we had a right to kill him when he attacked us. The Prison. Discipline Society, and the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishments, are both for visiting even murder with a lesser punishment than death. The Americans, it is thought errone- ously, reserve it for premeditated murder. The humane and pro- found Beccaria, a century ago, denounced capital punishment in toto, and so much shocked an unprepared age, that he concealed his name. * For the beautiful results of this moral truining, see again Report of the Edin- burgh Infant School Society for 1832, Appendix No. IIL To that Report we would especially draw the attention of the societies for the prevention of cruelty to^animals. Infant schools, and these alone,- will meet their benevolent wiihes, and supersede the\r present fruitless labours. t Archbishop Whately's belief that insane persons may be restrained by the fear of punishment, proceeds from the entire mistake of the nature of insanity which yet pervades society. See Appendix No. II. 204 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRLME- The feeling is yet almost all-prevalent, that, murder deserves capital punishment, and will never be p-everjferf without it. Here are retri- bution and example again : — the first we have already shown, dis- owned in the abstract, and the last inoperative upon maniacs, and upon the same who would not be sufiiciently deterred by the prospect of detention for life in the proposed penitentiary. I trust, therefore, that we may be speedily delivered from witnessing tlie tremendous spectacle of man putting man to death ; that act which none can see without moral deterioration ; and of which the private perpetration, proposed by Archbishop Whately from the best motives, is only an aggravation of the horrors which we in vain attempt to banish from our mind when we think of capital punishments.* Lastly, The last requisite is economy. The present system is any thing but economical. The secondary punishment of transportation is notoriously costly and unproductive ; so are the hulks ; and so are all the houses of correc-tion and jails, — the great majority in this coun- try, — which do not, by the labour of the inmates, pay the Vvhole or a part of their own expense. Of course, all this expense, which would be saved, falls to be deducted from that of the general establishment of our proposed reformatory asylums ; nay, muclf of the loss, and it is immense, which society sustains b}'^ criminal depredations, will be saved, when the depredators are secluded and taken care of in a distinct society made for them. Some of the American penitentia- ries, by the introduction of profitable labour, have more than cleared their own annual expense, and might therefore rear a sinking fund to pay off the original outlay of the buildings. Auburn, in one year, realized 40,000 dollars, besides building 200 additional cells, and erecting a stone shop 150 feet long by 56 broad. What is to hinder this being done with every penitentiary in this country ? Glasgow bridewell comes near to it. t There must exist, at present, prisons and bridewells which do contain all convicted, besides all accused, persons. In these places of confinement, according to the Commit- tee of the House of Commons, 122,000 persons accused of crimes, in seven years ending in 1S31, weve actually -confined, t of these 85,000 were convicted. One-seventh of this number, or about 12,000, was the average amount of the annual convictions. But there would, under the new system, be no such amount of neio and distinct indi- viduals. Under the present wretched system of conviction and re- conviction we may presume that, in these seven years, the same in- dividual, in every case, contributed to swell the catalogue of convic- tions by repeated appearances. Besides, the average of actual con- * The writer of this paper thinks the Archbishop right, in holding the Old Tes- tament declaration, " VVhoso shjddetli man's blood," (fee, not binding- under the Christian dispensation. It is not thereon th-at he approves of capital punish- ment. ' . ' t It has often occurred thai our soldiers and sailors might be rendered more pro- ductive labourers than they are. Both services would even be benefited, if some useful manufacture were established in every barrack, and ship of war, at which the men could be easily taught to work for some hours each day when off duty. I I surely need not guard the reader from the supposition that 1 mean to include the detained for trial, the presumed innocent, in our penitentiary, — to put the un- proved sick into our hospital. Places of mere detention require their own re- forms to prevent injustice and contamination j and trial should^ speedily follotc apprehension. EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 205 victions in these last seven years has so immensely increased upon that of the preceding seven years, and still more on the same period antecedent to then?, (62,000 and 35,000 respectively,) that I cannot help indulging the hope that so vast a social retrogression has some cause which Av ill not operate permanently. But had each offender, when first convicted, been consigned to the proposed asylum, the convictions would have shown a greatly smaller sum, and the num- ber of iodividvial criminals--for that is the consideration in estimat- ing the extent and number of penitentiaries — a much more manager- able result. The securing, too, of the old offenders, who train the young, would opera+e most beneficially. The difficulties will of course, as in all reforms, be greatest at the first. The present race of adult criminals would prove a heavy load upon our working ; but even that is not insuperable ; and it is a necessary evil which we must meet, as we would a war, or any other object worlhy of a na- tional effort. We should be immense gainers in the end : in less than half a generation — for justice as well as benevolence legislates for posterity. Society would reap all the fruit of preventive train- ing and .early reformatory treatPiont which I so confidently antici^ pate ; and then the establishments and the buildings, which may be required by our prtiont circumstances, would be found unnecessarily ■extensive and nurrerous. Such are the views which I would humbly, but earnestly, press upon tiie consideration of the intellectual and moral leaders of public opinion, as hkely to solve that baffling problem of criminal legislation, the efficient, at least the reasonable, protection of society from crime. They involve, firsts the realization, — and that by the nation, FOR it is hopeless FROM VOLUNTARY PHILANTHROPY, — of A UNI- VERSAL SYSTEM cF PREVENTIVE EDUCATION, Commenced all but in the cradle, and carried on till useful knowledge and intellectual resource shall improve the character and elevate the pursuits ;— secondly, The instant and rigid seclusion — the earlier in life the better— of each raifortunate individual, whose disposition to crime is manifested by an overt act, for want or in spite of, previous pre- ventive education ; — thirdly, The appliance of a course of reformatory treatment to his moral disease, of sufficient duration to change his habits, and give a higher direction to his faculties ; and, as is done in .lunatic asylums, the detention of the patient until the cure is so far wrought as to render it safe to venture him again in society ;>— fourthly, ' — and it is an entire novelty in practice, if not in theory, — The ap- plication to this cure of moral and not of animal means. Medically, according to our light, we consult the patient's organic and function- ary constitution, in order ta determine the treatment of his disease: with a view to a moral cure, we must consult no less the principles of our subject's moral being ; and, contented with the safety we enjoy from his secure detention and seclusion, and with the operation of that seclusion, in the way of example, upon those without the walls whose mental and moral condition fits them to be swayed by example at all, we shall provide for him a mode of life so arranged that, with- out direct or artificial infliction of pain and suffering upon his body, beyond the calm turning of a key upon him when of himself he de- scends to zero, he may choose his own position between the extreme 18 206' EFFICIENT PROttCTIOI^ FROAt CtllMEf. of solitary privation, and as much of social comfort and happiness AB the necessary evil of detention will permit, which evil itself he shalx have it also in his power greatly to abridge. The moment he voliin^ tarily emerges from the lowest part of the scale, — which he must first endure that he may know it, and may aiterwards, if he chooses re- turn to it,— he shall breathe in an atmosphere religious, moral, and intellectual, and be thereby stimulated to improve his own condition, physical and moral, which, at one and the same time, will diminish the irksomeness of his confinement, elevate his character to self-re- spect, and fit him essentially for a reputable return to society.* If such views are yet in advance of the age — if we cannot brook the idea of divorcing two things apparently so naturally linked toge- ther,, as r^rli-ne and retributive and exemplary pain directly inflicted, we have no i i^ht to compla'n ofthe failure, and the suffering, with which the Creator has willed that all attempts to found our institutions upon the inferior propensities shall punish themselves. But the hour is on the wing when the g'.eat truth will be practically acknowledged, that the Author of Nature has constituted human affairs in relation to the supremacy of the moral part of man over the animal, — of the law in the mind over the law in the members, and when all human institu- tions will take a character in accordance with that truth ;— a truth old in Scripture, but new to human practice, — the most important in its height, and depth, and length, and breadth, the most all-per- vading in its application to human concerns, here and hereafter, that has ever dawned on philosophy ; — which the most advanced student of the relations of social man Avill find the load-star of his course^ steer he whithersoever he will through the expanse of the moral uni- verse, and alike his torch search he into the secret shadows of domes- ticlife and individual motive ; — at once the telescope for the vast and the microscope for the m.inute — the blood with which the heart swells and the extremest capillary beats ; — " the kingdom of Heaven with- in us,"— the essence of Christianity. We see the moral faculties, in many improvements in the social system, besides the benevolent mi- tigation of punishments, pointing instinctively to hear their legitimate results ; and we hail their influence with joy, because we are persuad- ed that the Constitution of Creation is "in harmony with their dic- tates, and that they will lead us to sound and successful practical conclusions, if once allowed to guide our social arrangements. Since the foregoing paper appeared in the Edinburgh Law Jout- * I earnestly recommer.d "A Treatise on Gaols and Penitentiaries, by Major Jsmes PLilmer, one of the Inspectors-Genera! of Prisons in Ireland." The coinci- dence of the writer's views, in almost every point, is a gratifyirg proof of the march of the high moral principles which I humbly advocaie ; wiule his practical experience leadhig him to adopt them, gives me yet stronger assurance that they mnst and will prevail. He is more of an i??/icfcr— though not much— than 1 am inclined to be ; cliiefly to take from the Penitentiary the attractions of a comfort- able settlement of fotohall be prefer- red to liberty. Assuredly no one would make the choice twice,— the best reason for not making it at all. I have also seen the presentment by the Grand Jury to the Chairman of the Middlesex Sessions, of loth March, 1833. It is a document credit- able to the age and country. 1 could adopt alraost every word of it. -EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 207 Kal, I have perused the Reports for 1833 of the Philadelphia Society Tor alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, and of the House of Refuge of Philadelphia. These convey the latest information which has yet come from America. The first of these reports is gratifying, in so far as it is, in its whole spirit and principle, a marked advance upon the Auburn, Weathersneld, and all the penitentiaries, except Mr, Livingston's, to which we have alluded. The improved model described is the State Penitentiary of the Eastern district of Pensylva- nia ; and the report states that it has been adopted by the V/estern Penitentiary, by the prison for the city and county of Philadelphia, by that for the counties of Alleghany and West Chester, and by the state of New- Jersey, in virtue of an act of its Legislature. The objects of this system are reformation of the criminal, and deterring others frpm committing crimes The means are the perfect and total separation of the prisoners, night and day, from the bsginning to the end of their confinement, with labour in their solitude ; while the visits of the pri- son-officers, who are moral, religious, and humane persons, constitute the only rehef to the'prisoner in his seclusion, and the means of his re- formation. The prisoner is taught to read if he requires to be so, and the Bible and well selected books of a library are lent him for his hours of leisure. He is taught a trade if unacquainted vv-ith one, the principal being weavmg and shoe-making ; but there are also carpen- ters, blacksmiths, dyers, wdieelwrights, &c. He is treated with kind- ness and encouragement, but firmness, and is never punished with the lash. Neatness and cleanliness are carefully observed, bath in the cells and persons of the prisoners, — exercise is regular, diet is plain and nutritive, and clothing and bedding suitably comfortable. The results have hitherto been satisfactory, and are highly spoken ©f in the report, as the admiration alike of natives and strangers. No convict discharged has ever returned ; either, it is said, from re- formation, or dread of the solitude. Health is not injured by the solitude, inasmuch as communication is continual with the prison- officers. No provision, however, seems to be made for the stated- visits of the members of an association of benevolent and enlightened persons, to aid the functionaries in lightening the prison solitude, and encouraging the prisoners in the progress of their reformation, — a christian duty^ in the exercise of which an unbounded source of use- fulness presents itself to both sexes. Occasional visits, however, of benevolent and pious individuals, are mentioned. Many instances of reformation are recorded, and others which prove that the solitary system is an object of terror to those criminals, at least, who have experienced it. Work is eagerly applied for to relieve the irksome- ness of solitude. Pardons are most wisely granted with so much difficulty, that they are rarely applied for. Lastly, the prison has paid hitherto, every expense but the officers' salaries, which it is ex- pected in due time also to defray. My humble observation on this system is, that, while it has more of terror in it than I hare recommended, it has less chance of produc- ing genuine and lasting reformation, — real improvement of charac- ter. If the plan I have submitted possesses example enough, to all virho are ever swayed by example, solitude for years is a fearful degree of severity. It farther does not present that encouragement to im- 208 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. provement in industry, skill, and character, which what has been called promotion in the prisoa itself, — namely to society and other advantages, — furnishes. It is too inflictive, too retributive, for those who are viewed as unhappy patients. But it possesses one essential advantage, namely, that were it once established, all the higher ap- pliances which I have advocated cculd be experimeiitally engrafted upon it. The Eastern Pennsylvania penitentiary is a grand advance in the general system. The Philadelphian House of Refuge for young oi?endars is the most perfect institution of tne kind I have ever seen described. It is a place of confinement, and so far is a penitentiary for the young. The magistrate can commit to it^ and the friends of the young offender often apply to have him ox her admitted. The educaiion and work however, are not, and could not well be, solitary. The expense is great, and cannot, to any considerable amount, be defrayed by the apprentice-labour of the inmates. Such an institution would be in- valuable for juvenile offenders discharged from our prisons, as they are now constituted ; but,, as formerly observed, entirely superfluous in addition to penitentiaries upon the plan recommended. The ob- jection that the inmates of our present prisons will not be received into honest employments, will be found to apply as little to proper- Penitentiaries as to the Philadelphia House of Refuge^ 209 No. II. OBSERVATIONS ON THE DEGREE OF KNOWLEDGE YET APPLIED TO THE INVESTIGATION OF INSANITY IN TRIALS FOR CRIME, CHIEFLY VIOLENCE AND HOMICIDE.* The state of judicial practice in dealing with the defence of insani- ty, is far from satisfactory. It is much to be feared that the capital punishment of the, insane, and, of course, the irresponsible, is not an Hnfrequent spectacle. No blame is imputable to judges and juries ; they conscientiously act, for the public interest, according to the best of their lights ; but these are yet weak and glimmering, in the crimi- nal courts of Europe, while stronger are shining on the outside than have yet penetrated their walls. I would not counsel precipitation in enlarging the boundaries of this most difficult branchof medical juris- prudence : but, convinced that these are actually narrow, and nnphi- losophical, I hold it to be the duty of all who have access to probable means of rendering them more comprehensive as well as accurate, to make their views as public as possible ; that if sound, they may work their way, and by degrees diminish the sum of unconscious injustice and cruelty which results from the crude notions yet pre- valent on the subject. That mind which God has visited with disease is irresponsible and unpunishable, is the law of both Scotland and England ; otherwise the defence of insanity would not be sanctioned in our courts of law at all. The too common but irrational doctrine that the insane, who, from the uncontrollable impulse of disease, commit acts which, in the sane, amount to capital crimes, should be immolated without mercy, is disavowed by the existing laws of civilized society. It is a doc- trine of ignorance, indolence, and selfishness We heard it lately propounded, in its usual dogmatical formula, "I am clear for hang- ing all criminal madmen," by an educated gentleman, and put down at once by a high officer of the criminal law, to whom in the worst taste, it was addressed, by the reply, that that might be very conve- nient : but it was not the law of Scotland. That law, we doubt not, would punish the practical application of such a doctrine. It would be a waste of time to enter here into a serious refutation of it.^ As- suming, then, as a fixed point, that insanity, when established, is fol- lowed by immunity from punishment, though not from constraint, the field in which we shall work most profitably seems to be, to assist in pointing out the means of discrim^inating, more satisfactorily than has hitherto been done, when and in what cix'cumstances defence of in- sanity is admissible. * This paper appeared, in substance, in No. V. of the Edinburgh Law Journal. 18* 210 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. Nothing can be more coarse than the tests or indicia upon which criminal courts at present judge. They recognise insanity only in the broad lines of fury and extravagance, and consider the presence of arrangement or design, or adaptation of means to a lational end, -quaintly called " method in the madness," as quite incompatible with mental alienation or irresponsibility ; — little recking that there may, and often does, exist in the mind a single isolated impulse, swaying, when in paroxysm, the will, in controlling the reason, to the extent of unquestionable irresponsibility, while all the mind besides, and that instanthj when the fit is ofF^Js entire, acute, and reasonable. Our criminal law itself is faultless in principle. All the writers down to Mr. Ahson concur in stating it to be law, that " to amount to a complete bar to punishment, the insanity, either at the time of committing the crime, or of the trial, must have been of such a kind as entirely deprived the accused of the use of reason, as applied to the act in question, and the knowledge that he was doing wrong in com- mitting it."*^ Of course, it is the aberration of min'das to the particu- lar act in the concrete which is considered ; although when question- ed, the patient may readily admit that the act, in the abstract, is a crime. But as no rule can be laid down by which the degree of in- sanity, which amounts to unconsciousness of doing wrong, is ascer- tained, all the authorities concur in the sound doctrine, that this must in every particular case be left to the jury, on considering the evidence. Now it is plain, that the jury will judge well or ill, according to their knowledge—or the knowledge of the professional witnesses who en-, lighten, and the judge who directs them— of the true indicia of that degree of menfal ahenalion which does take away the consciousness of crime in the concrete, or may be presumed to do so : and it is just here that knowledge is yet wanted. The law books furnish a number of instances where the plea of in- sanity was admitted or repelled. The cases in which the- defence has been admitted are all so broad, as to relieve the most scrupulous from apprehension that any person not insane has escaped the punish- ment of his crimes. It is not so certain that the converse is to be re- lied on. " It is not to be understood," says Mr. Hume, " that there is any privilege of mere weakness of intellect, or of a strange and moody humour, or of a crazy and capricious or irregular temper and habit. None of these things either are or ought to be law." Mr. Alison says : " But any thing short of this complete ahenation of reason will be no defence ; and mere oddity of manner, or half cr nzi- ness of disposition, if unaccompanied by such an obscuring of the conscience, will not avail the prisoner." We find the law books speaking of partial insanity ; half crazy, partially deranged, are the ex- pressions. Lord Hale is quoted' by Mr. Ahson as saying; " It is the condition of very many, especially melancholy persons, who for the most part discover their defect in excessive fears and griefs, and yet are not wholly destitute of the use of reason : but this partial insa- nity seems not to excuse them in the committal of any capital of- fence. Doubtless mad persons that kill themselves are under a. par- tial degree of insanity ; but it must rest upon circumstances, to be * AJison's Criminal Law, page 645. HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 211 duly weighed by the judge and jury, lest, on the one hand, there be an inhumanity towards the " defects of human nature, or, on the other, too great an indulgence shown to great crimes." Before I have done, I trust it will appear that the ignorance of insanity in- volved in an authority like this is lamentable. Mr. Hume's doctrine is approved by Mr. Alison, that such partial insanities should not be a screen from a verdict of guilty, but afford a good ground of appeal to the royal mercy. Yet that which both these autliors would, in all likelihood, deem partial insanity, may constitute more complete irresponsibility, than even the violence which the law denominates furiosity. Mr. Alison very properly dis- approves of the law, as laid down by Chief Justice Mansfield, in the case of Bellingham, who assassinated Mr. Percival. That judge held that Bellingham was accountable, because he knexo murder to he a crime, and could distinguish right from wrong. " On this case," says Mr. Alison, " it may be observed, that unquestionably the mere fan- cying a series of injuries to, have been received, will not serve as an excuse for murder, for this plain reason, that, supposing it true that such injuries had been received, they would have furnished no excuse for the shedding of blood ; but, on the other hand, such an illusion as deprives the pannel of the sense of lohat he did was wrong, amounts to legal insanity, though he was perfectly aware that mur- der in general was a crime ; and, therefore, the law appears to have been more correctly laid down in the cases of Hatfield and Bowler than in this instance, though no injustice may have been committed in the actual resuU.'"' Mr. Alison forgets that that result was the execution of John Bellingham, who suffered upon the laying down of the law which did not take into account the prisoner's consciousness or unconciousness that what he did was wrong. The opinion is now very general that Bellingham was insane, and that his punishment M^as a sacrifice to the excited feelings of the public, — in other words, an act of vengeance. Nicolson, too, the rmhappy murderer, "v^athout a motive, — every rational motive being on the other side, of a kind master and mis- tress, Mr. and Mrs. Bonar, could not possibly know what he loas doing. The impulse which hurried him to that deed will be explain- ed in the sequel ; it is one yet nearly unknown to courts of justice. The case of Robert Dean, tried at the Surry assizes at Kingston in 1819, and executed, alTords another example of how much our neighbours will reject as insufficient evidence of insanity. Dean was a young man, of weak intellect, and very strong animal passions. He had fixed his affections upon a young woman of situation in life superior to his own, and was rejected by her. The rejection excited ungovernable feehngs of revenge, and he determined on the murder of her whom he loved. He had, at the same time, stJ-ong religious feelings, and it occurred to him thatj by putting the young woman to death, he would^send an unprepared sinner into the presence of her Judge. But the impulse to shed blood had taken irresistible posses- sion of him, and there was a child of which he was very fond, whom he often carried in his arms and treated with sweetmeats, vvho, he concluded, had fewer sins to answer for, and this he determined should be the victim. He slaughtered the innocent child, and gave §12 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. himself up to justice. The act, itself a sufficient proof of insanit)", was strengthened by insane notions and actions, and absolute raving even on the scaffold itself. What did society, that could have con- fined that unhappy creature, gam by his death ? The case of Captain Moir, some time since executed at Chelms- ford, w^as one of very doubtful sanity. Matters are no better in France ; or rather were; for the exposure of some recent judicial murders has had the effect of making the French judges pause ; and persons have lately been treated as pa- tients, whom the previous practice would have put to death as crimi- nals. The instances which have staggered the thinking men in France, and have produced the most beneficial discussions, were those of Lecouffe, Fehkmann, and Papavoin, all of which occurred in 1823. The account of the two first forms the substance of a report by M. Georget, a celebrated physician of insanity in Faiis, published in the Archives of Medicine, vol. viii. p. 177. Louis Lecouffe, a young man of twenty-four years of age, was tried by the Court of Assizes at Pa- ris, for the murder, at the instigation of his mother, of a woman, with whom tie was on the most friendly terms ; and whom he farther rob- bed of plate, which was pawned for 230 francs, of which his mother, who possessed an extraordinary influence over him, gave him only 40. It was proved that he was epileptic from infancy, and had had what the witnesses called so7ne disease of the head. He was held by them to be an idiot or fool. At fifteen he showed manifest signs of insanity, and affirmed that God came often to visit him. A physi- cian who heard him, pronounced him deranged. He confessed the murder, directed, as he said, by an apparition of his father with an angel at his right hand, while God, placing his hand upon his heart, said, "I pardon thee," and commanded him to confess every thing in three days. One of the keepers of the Conciergerie declared that Lecouffe spoke incoherently in prison, and that he changed his system several times in half an hour. He appeared to this witness idiotical and weak-minded, feicfnof exactly what might be called insane. The chief keeper said, that he had often seen the accused with haggard looks and eyes filled with tears, complain of headach, but without manifesting any true derangement of mind. During the trial, Le- couffe was often seized with violent convulsions. A physician de- poned that he saw nothing in the appearances of Lecoufie which indi- cated a tendency- to epilepsy : and that the 5fci.-/Z showed no deformity, and did not indicate any species of mental derangement. The Ad-' vocate General, says M. Georget, supported the accusation, and strongly reprobated the allegation of imbecility ; a dangerous system, said he, which is resorted to i-a all desperate cases, and by which it would be so tasy to secure the impunity of the most atrocious. He then endeavoured to prove, by the tendency of the whole life of the accused, — by the very nature of- the crime imputed to him, — by the hypocrisy and maliceof his defence,— that Lecouffe possessed all his faculties in spite of the execrable abuse he made of them. He sup- ported his argument by the officers of the Conciergerie, who, he said, had never remarked in him the slightest sign of mental derangement. We are told, says the advocate-general, that he is sometimes heard groaning during the night, that he utters mournful cries, and com- HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 213 plains of being tormented by nocturnal apparitions, and thinks he sees his father and his victim issuing from the tomb to reproach him with his crime. But we know the source of these terrors ; they had already seized him on the field of murder, when conducted to the place where he had slaughtered his victim. They are the efi'ect of the implacable remorse \-hich pursues him. His frightful features announce the disorder, and the tempest of tumultuous passions which devour his heart. The advocate of the accused alleged in vain the existence of in- sanity, or atle ast great weakness of mind. Lecouife was condemned, and shortly after executed. On this unphilosophical, ignorant, and unfeeling rhapsody of the advocate-general, M, Georget remarks : " The alienation of the mental faculties of Lecouffe is abundantly evident from the account we have given of his state — from the nature of the crime — and from his conduct long prior to, as well as after the trial. The advocate- general, in giving way to his piece of eloquence, overlooks altogether the fact; that Lecouffe had complained of being visited by apparitions, and by the Deity himself, nine years before the deed was committed, to the remorse consequent upon which deed these visions are at- tempted to be traced. Remorse and fearful agitation he certainly did feel; but, instead of this being turned against him to his destruc- tion, it ought rather to have saved him, insomuch as it showed that he did not act from a ferocious thirst of blood, from which society could be protected only by his death,, but from the overpowering influence of a wicked adviser,, whom his imbecility had taught him to fear and obey. The deed itself was in opposition to his natural character. — He entertained a kindly feeUng towards his victim, and habitually paid her attentions. He, therefore, could not murder her with malice or revenge. He robbed her of 230 francs, which he might have taken without violence ; and yet, how much did he gain ? forty francs, to pay the expenses of hia wedding! Certes, the motives to the act are no more in relation to the enormity of the crime, than to the sentiments of Lecouffe for his victim ; and it is therefore else- where that we must seek the cause, and, in our opinion, it is evident- ly to be found in mental derangement." The advocate-general stated, without foundation, that the officers of the prison had never reniarked the slightest sign of mental derange- ment ; while, in point of fact, one of them stated that the prisoner talked incoherently, and seemed idiotical and weak-minded, but not exactly what might be called insane ; the vulgar notion being that in- sanity's characteristics are violent, furious, and dangerous ; this re- servation is greatly more common than just in criminal trials. But it was needless to require more than disease in the head when young, epilepsy from infancy, insanity at fifteen, and convulsions in court under the very eyes of his judges. Epilepsy frequently impairs the mind, and then very generally ends in idiotism. M. Georget, in noticing this important fact, copies a table from M. Esquirol, from which it appears that out of 339 epileptics in the Salpetriere of Paris in 1822, 2 were monomaniacs : 64 maniacs, of whom 34 were furious j 145imbecile, ofwhom 129 were so only after the attack: 8 were idiots ; 50 were generally reasonable but with loss of memory, exalta'- 214 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. tion in the ideas, sometimes a passing delirium and a tendency to idiotism; 60 were without any derangement of intellect, but possessed of great susceptibility, irascible, obstinate, difficiles a vivre, capricious and eccentric* It may be asked what testimony was adduced to determine the Court to de. lare this wretched creature sane, in the face of all this de- monstration of his insanity. To our grief and surprise, we find no- thing which does not carry its own refutation. A physician "saw nothing in the prisoner's appearance which indicated any tendency to epilepsy, and said that the skull showed no deformity, and did not indicate any species of mental derangement." Every person inform- ed on the subject will at once condemn this witness as having given a very loose and ignorant evidence. It is possible that he may have meant to convey only the impression made on his own mind by the outward appearance of LecoufTe ; but if the Court and Jury regarded his words as expressing his deliberate opinion of the mental state of the accused, then he has much with which to reproach himself, for it is notoriously impossible to tell from the external appearance that a person is subject to epilepsy, and equally absurd to say that the form of the skull indicates the existence of mental derangement. The caseof Feldtmann is one of unusual horror. This wretched man stabbed his own daughter with a knife, after several years, re- sistance by her to an incestuous passion which he h? ^ conceived for her. He at once gave himself up to justice, glorying in the deed. His wife spoke to his having often shown derangement. " la tete per- due.''^ He had had his skull fractured in his youth, and had been mad in consequence. He entered a Protestant church one day, covered with mud, sat down, talked incoherently, and wept without ceasing. There was rather a lack of evidence of similar eccentricities, which generally vs^eigh so much with courts and juries. Feldtmann was condemned and executed. The question of the existence of insanity may, in his case, be regarded as much more difficult of solution than in the case of Lecouffe, and yet many circumstances concur to prove that the disease actually existed. M. Georget, who was on the spot, gives it as his opinion, that Feldtmann was not insane in all his facul- ties ; but he thinks that the passion which led to the crime had aggra- vated into a disease, requiring for its cure seclusion from society ; and his opinion is greatly confirmed by the declaration of the excel- lent and experienced anatomist M. Breschet, who examined the brain, and who did not think it presented the appearance of health. The very existence, for so many years, of such an unnatural passion as that of Feldtmann's is itself disease, and will require but little aid from other indicia to warrant preventive measures for the safety of society, instead of vindictive, when the passion has broken out into some horrible act. In the sequel 1 shall add a few words upon the signs of that madness which is real, although the inexperienced eye does not mark it ; at present I am only enumerating some cases where the alleged maniacs were put to death. The case of Papavoin, had it occurred in Scotland, at least now, pould not have been treated as a case of sanity or responsibility. This * Pictionnaire de MedecinC; Art. Epii,ep?ie, HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 215 tuan was executed at Paris, for the murder of tivo children previously unknown to kirn, and lohorfi he accidentally saio, accompanied by their mother, in the wood of Vincennes. The very absence of all conceivable motive to such an act, forces us to take refuge, for the sake of hu- manity, in the belief of insanity, even had there been no other indicia. But even these last were numerous. It was proved at the trial that the prisoner's father had been subject to mental aberrations, — to fits of fury, during which he broke and smashed every thing. That the son had been marked as a solitary being, shunning society, fleeing from his companions, and always sombre and melancholy, walking often alone in solitary places. Nobody ever knew him intimately, and he never communicated his thoughts to others. In 1823, the utter ruin of his father" increased the prisoner's melancholy and irri- tability. He had besides an attack of mental alienation, which lasted ten days, and two witnesses deponed to it as follows : " He was," said a person employed in the Marine at Brest, where the prisoner had a clerkship, " in a state of fever ; he said that a man beset him, that he saw him, and wished to have a pistol to defend himself with. '^ An officer of health, under whose care the prisoner had been, deposed that he* was sombre, suspicious, believing always that people were occupied about him, fleeing the society of women, and often of men ; his temper was exasperated ; he saw a secret enemy who appeared to him as a ghosl, and attempted his life. The witness beheved the prisoner m^elancholy and hypochondriac. After his father's death he became worse ; gave up his employment at Brest, when he only the more required it for a livelihood, and returned home, where he insist- ed with his mother that his father was not dead, but had been buried ahve. He went to visit a friend for some days, who thought him '* physically and morally changed ;" he would often cry out with the accent of despair, " What ! not an instant of happiness ! I be- lieve in truth that I am mad !" A paper waa one day in his friend's hand, on which he remarked the letters O JST. " What is the mean- ing of that?" said Papavoin. " Nothing," said the witness. " I know what it means ; it means they droxon people here .'" {on noye id.) Seve- ral other strange fancies were provf-d, such as, horror of a razor, when they proposed to shave him, and such like. He came to Paris to settle accounts with his banker, still indulging in solitary walks, one of which happened to be in the wood of Vincennes. There he saw a lady walking with two young children. He returned to the village and bought a knife, came back immediately, accosted the lady with a pal6 look and troubled voice, and stooping as if to embrace one of the children, plunged the knife into its heart, and while the astonished mother was engaged with the first victim, he killed the other in the same -manner ; he tJmi fled with a hurried step and htried himself in the loood. The jailor of the prison of La Force, in which Papavoin was confined before- his condemnation, deposed that he Vv^as sometimes in a most terrified state : that he had moments of fury, when his hair bristled up, — the only time he, the jailor, ever saw the hair so affected, his countenance became of a lively red, and he terrified the very soldiers that surrounded him. All these facts are to be found in the process against the wretched Papavoin ; they did not save him, but they are quite sufficient to establish the conclusion that 216 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. he committed the dreadful deed, for which he suffered, in a fit of in- sanity. A case so extreme has done good in France. It was too much even for the present hghts. It divided the country into two parties, one of whom pertinaciously defended the judgment, while the other loudly denounced it as a murder by the arm of the law. The effect, however, has been seen in a more recent case in the Parisian courts, in which a patient like Papavoin was rescued from the execu- tioner, and given over to a keeper ; — an homage to truth and justice, when pride was no longer assailed. . A case occurred in the court of Assizes at Paris of simulated mad- ness, that of Jean Pierre, which tended to show how easy the detec- tion of this attempt is. This man's crime, in the first place, was forgery, which is essentially simulatio , and is rarely the result of in- sanity. There was no evidence of iubanity or any thing like it, till after his apprehension ; whereas the history of Lecouffe and Feldt- man went back for years. He v. as sent to the Bic^tre Hospital for the insane, to be observed. He contrived to raise a fire and escape, and during his freedom, for he was again apprehended, he proceeded to the despatch of business, for he was proved to have written, in the interval, a perfectly sensible letter to a correspondent, and completely to have recovered his reason. His mania returned with his reim- prisonment ; and, naturally led by the vulgar notion that madness is violence, he behaved furiously, when he thought himself seen, and remarkably so on his trial. It was observed that in an examination which he underwent, not one of his ariswei's would have been given by an insane person. For example, Q,. Have you ever had any busi- ness .\ /ai Messrs. Fellene and J3esgranger ? two of his dupes. Ji. " I don't know them. Q,. Do you acknowledge the pretended nota- rial deed which you gave this witness ? ^. I don't understand this, Q. You. acknowledged this deed before the Commissary of Police? t^. It is possible. Q. Why, on the day of your arrest, did you tear the hill for 3800 francs ? .^. I don't recollect. Q. You stated, in your preceding examination, that it was because the bill had been paid? t/4. It is possible." — Toothers of his own previous declara- tions the answers were, that he recollected nothing about them. ■ M. Esquirol, one of the highest French authorities, was examined, and stated that simulation of madness w^s easily detected, and that this was a case of it. We cannot have a more instructive example of the imperfection which yet attaches to this important and interesting subject of judicial practice in our own Courts, than the case of John Howison, lately executed for the murder of Widow Geddes, at King's Cramond. My own humble opinion agrees with that which is now very prevalent, namely, that that wretched man was not a responsible agent : and as I mean very freely to state the 'grounds of this opinion, for the sake of truth and justice, and with the humble hope of pointing out sounder views for future cases, I disclaim all reflections on the prosecution, court, or jury, for their part, in v>'hat I consider a painful matter, and to give them that credit which is thtir due, for having unwilhngly but conscientiously drawn conclusions, which the degree ofhght that has t/et entered Courts of Law, and even generally guides medical prac- ticCj appeared to them to permit. Homicidal insanitV, S17 JoKn Howison entered the cottage of an aged woman, whose good «t!ispositions were proved by her popularity with her neighbours, and withoutany motive that appeared, for he took nothing away, in a very short time fled from the house, having first cleft, with the sharp edge of a spade, the head ofits defenceless inmate almost in two, the spade having entered in an oblique direction above one eye, and sloped to below the other. The horrible act was proved by the most conclusive evidence ; but insanity was pleaded, to account for what it was amoral impossibihty that any sane human being could, in the circumstances, have perpetrated. As some evidence was obtained after the trial, with which—how- ever it might, and, I humbly think, should have influenced the lOyal mercy — the jury had nothing to do, I shall first state the substance of the judicial, and then that of the post-judicial, evider-^e of Howi- son's insanity. 1. He was proved to have been, what ma of the insane are, as has been seen in the cases of LecoufFe, Felt .nann, and Papavoin, and will be seen in several others to be noticed, a soli- tary, silent, moody, wandering creature, and that long before the Cramond murder. His only friends in his lodgings were the cat and a child, and he fed both before eating his own meal. 2. He was miserably superstitious, feared supernatural enemies, and resorted .to absurd ceremonies to protect himself against witches, salting his bed and head, wearing about his wrist, or round his neck, a Bible, which he never read, and folded papers attaching to his garments, and to the crown of his head, without which, he often said, he would long ago have been dead. He had a fancy to ber; ae a quaker, and attended the meetings of that persuasion some months, where he paid no at- tention to the worship, but muttered to himself, smelled his Bible, and pricked himself with pins or needles to the eifusion of his blood. He demanded instant admission to the society on one occasion, and with violence. He went more than once to the meeting-house early in the morning, and was seen to kneel, and heard to invoke the Virgin Mary, while he v.'ounded himself on both hands, and smeared the doors with his blood. 3. He had false perceptions, for he used to sit brushing away the flies with his hand for hours together, when there were no flies, and bis landlady told him so. He had struggles in the night with witches, and was sometimes noisy, and heard to cry out " hand oj^." 4. He had an almost incredible appetite for food, usually devouring half a peck of potatoes at a meal, with one or tv^'o pounds ofa bullock's liver, almost raw, and generally filthy, for he would never allow it to be cleaned. Immediately after this gross repast, he drank a quantity of coffee, and-eat twopence or threepence worth of bread ! He some- times saved a few of his potatoes, and took them to bed with him to be eaten in the night. He habitually wounded his hands, wrists and arms with needles or pins, and if he went to bed without his weapons, he rose and came for them. The blood sometimes flowed copiously, dropping from his elbows when his arms were bare, and in this state he has sallied out into the lane where he lodged, brandishing a stick, and playing extravagant tricks, till the neighbours interfered and got the " daft creature," as they called him, taken care of. When asked why he ate his meat so raw and dirty, he said he liked the blood, and the meat with the suction in it He farther sucked the blood from his 19 218 HOMICIDAL iNSANlTSr* own wrist, after every two or three mouthfuls of his food* Lastijj his landlady had known him some years before, when there was no' thing in his appearance or manner differing from other men ; but when he came lo her house, a fiw months before the murder, he was so much altered in eppearance and manner, and so squahd, dirty, and ragged, that she did not know him till he had been twenty-four hoars in the house. For a fortnig'-<^ before the fatal act, Howison appears to have been wandering ab(;Jt the country, and no evidence of his state of mind during that period was obtained before the trial. The facts at Cra- mond weie, that he entered the village with a black handkerchief covering the lower paic of his fac^^, which was otherwise proved to have be -a long his piactice, and, therefore, nothing was founded upon It OS a concealmt.'t, a stick in his band, and a book hanging from his wrist. He a^ked alms from several persons in the row of houses, without success ; was seen to enter Widow Geddes's cottage^ and in a \ery brief space to come out hurriedly, shut the doo: after him, and run from the village, quickening his pace when he thought himself observed. One 'vitness heard the sou d of a blovv-, which he called a chap, to come frtn the cottage, when lowison was in it, and the moment before he ct.; e out. He was i.^prehended next morn- ing some miles from King's Crarp';'iid ; was quite composed, denied all knowledge of the murder, and even of haying been at King's Cra- mond the day before, in this denial he persisted lo the last, making one uniform answer, both before and after his trial, " Jfobody saw mt doit.'' Upon these indicia the medical witnesses v/ere called to give their opinions on the important question of the prisoner's sanity.* - Dr.. Spens and Mr. Watson were examined on the part of the prosecu- tion. They were also called for tlie prisoner, who besides adduced Drs. Macintosh, John Scott, and W. P. Alison. " Mr. Alkxander Watson, surgeon, as a witness for the pro»8- cution, reads and depones to a report on the body. Saw prisoner ; he ansvvered questions correctly, and v.'ith consideration. Seemed to witness of sound mind, but of low and weak intellect, but showed no indication of insanity. His reason was, that on taxing the priso- ner with the crime, he denied it, and said he knew nothing about it, which, if he is guilty, witness would consider an indicatiou to sanity. Has had occasion to see a great variety of insane patients. Prisoner fold him the pricking of his hands was for a complaint in his head ; he said there was occasionally paiii and uneasy feeling ?n his head. Wit- ness examined his head ; suw nothing wrong ; saw the prisoner prick his hands with a pin or needle. '' Cross-examined. — There was no appearance whatever of the prison- er's siimdating insanity. Thinks if he were guilty and insane, he would have confessed." ^ ' The medical gentlemen were not permitted to remain in Court to hear (he evi- dence for the pro.secution, acourse for r.hichi am unable to conjecture a reason The facts w ere read to each by the presiding judge, from his notes. The medicnl eTidenre eiven here is printed from very accurate notes, taken by Mr, Dun, W. S. *he agent for the prisoner. HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 219 '* Dr. Spkns, as a witness for the prosecution. Ceitificate of pri- soner being fit for judicial examination. Saw no insanity nor idiot- jsm. Prisoner did not appear of a particularly low class of intellect : has seen him /or the last three days, for the purpose of ascertaining his sanity." Medical Evidence for the Prisoner. '* Dr. John Macintosh.— From the evidence he has heard read, said there are so many shades of insanity that a medical man is diffi- culted before a jury. What common people would call insanity, he might call sanity. As a medical witness he must look at all the facts. From all the peculiarities (details them), and, above all, wishing to change his rehgion, would have considerable doubts of such a man's sanity, supposing he had never seen the man. But supposing he had seen him, as he had seen the prisoner, and watched tVie motion of his eyes, as he has done,, he is still more inclined to say, auch a person ought not to be allowed to go at large,'? and is dangerous to others. From his expeiience of diseases of the mind, thinks such a person could not be depended upon any one moment. Has seen a good deal of insanity, and has attended minutely to every case which he has seen, and finds a great number of shades of the disease ; and from what he has seen of eomm>n people, they sometimes think a man in a delirium is madj while at other times, what a medical man v/ould confine a person for, they consider only sUly or foolish. Sometimes the imagination only Is disordered, while the'ieason may remain sound. Sometimes the moral feelings are deranged, and a man is inclined to cha)ige his re- ligion, and this is a very common occurrence when a man is labouring under mental disease^ Disorder in his mind makes him have this tendency, but the change does not make him mad. Sometimes one feeling is deranged, sometimes more. Perceptions may be diseased in another, and reason is embarrassed when one or more of these is deranged ; when several of these concur, he does not consider such a man to be safely at large. Always looks at adequate motive, along with other thing'?, to enable him to judge of the sanity or insanity of an act. Decidedly in this case it was the effect of amorbid state of the mind, while an ordinary observer could not tell any particular marks of insanity. Has repeatedly seen people who were absolutely insane in conduct, sensible in conversation and writing: Folia raisonnante. Has been in the profession for twenty-five years, and has been in the way of studying mental disease. Has wiitten and lectured on insanity. " Cross-examined by Solicitor-Gex^ral. — Does not thiidc much of the prisoner's attachment to the cat by itself Has frequently seen insane persons fondest of children. Change of religion a symptom, taken Avith others. Inadequate motive a strong point. Thinks rea- son occasionally diseased, but not nearly so often as feelings. Is firmly of opinion that at times pannel did not know moral right from wrong. As to his running away, witness has known as strong cases of flight and concealment in the insane. " De. John Scott.— Since 1813 in practice. Has paid consider^ §,ble flMenUon to jnf^anity. Fee|s difficulty in this case. Considers 220 HOMICIDAL INSANITY.. that no direct act of insanity has been proved ; but, taking afl the ciicumstances together, his opinion is, that pannel is of a weak antl unsound mind. Beheves there are cases when persons insane in ac- tion who are invariably sensible in conversation, Knoivs that in authors on insanity there is recognised a sudden morbid impulse to commit murder. Most frequently some motive is imagined ; but there are some cases where no possible motive could be imagined. Known cases where the murderer has been aware that murder is a crime, ttnd has warned those about him to take themselves out of the way. Even when perceptions of right and wrong are not indicated, this occurs. Esquirol is considered a great authority. A patient may be possessed of the homicidal monomania, without any morbid appear- ance. Mothers destroying their children, and feeling inclinations to do so. Pinel, also a great authority, believes be was the first who described this impulse accurately. Georget, a high authority, states tlie same. Jt is now admitted generally by the profession. His opinion is founded on the whole case. He never spoke to the pri- soner. Has seen nothing which makes him think pannel does no6 know right from wrong, and Was likely to cut offa man's head with- out knowing he was doing wrong. An insane man generally con- fesses, but would not infer either sanity or insanity from the running away, concealment, &c. A patient may commit murder, and imme- diately afterwards consciousness return. But we must always have some other proof of insanity. If the person was under restraint, he thinks he would know his situation and be cautious, and he the witness would place no confidence in the opinion of a medical man who had visited him so. Thinks his looks are more cunning than insane. Cunning is very common with the insane, and they can contrive ingenioHS schemes." Dr. Thomas Speks. — " Does not think conversation with a per- son, in confiaemsnt,^ without knowing something of his previous his- tory, would enable one altogether to form an opinion on insanity^ Confinement modifies symptoms — change from full to spare diet. There are cases of insanity where it cannoi be detected in conversa- tion. The prisoner seems to have laboured under a degree of mental derangement whAe at Mrs. Crombie's. Thinks he convalesced hefora the murder. Knoivs there are cases of sudden impulse leading to murder y the person very soon after becorning sensible that he had done wrong. Cunning is not absolutely exclusive of insanity. Absence of motive is an important consideration. Wandering about the country is not favour- able to convalescence. Knows no case of such an instantaneous re- covery as half a minute. Never saw any thing about prisoner's eyes like madness." Mr. Watson, Surgeon. — " Taking all circumstances into conside- ration, thinks that there has been no evidence of the prisoner's insa- nity at the time of the murder, and immediately after it. There are slight indications of insanity at a previous period, i.e. when he was at Mrs. Crombie's. But he was not in a state of decided insanity. Thinks his mind was in such a state that he vjas not to be depended upon." Dr. VV. P. Alison. — " Thinks it an exceedingly nice case, and difficult to say what was the state of the pannel's mind. There isii?^ HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 221 appearance of his having simulated madness or assvme'l any fictitious cha- racter. Thinks there is evidence that he was of unsound mind in Tseveral respects previonsly. There are cases of partial insanity, there are also cases of morbid determination to acts of violence, in per- sons otherwise partially iiisane. This ma}' co-exist with consciousness of crime. It is a hallucination which believes what is only imagined. There is no evidence wliether or not this ^\ as the case with the pri- soner at the time of the murder, but thinks it likely, frow his previous conduct, that such a delusion m.ay have existed. Does not consiaer his conduct afterwards any evidence that he did not labour i:nd'3i' some delusion at the time he committed the act. Speaks from general knowledge of partial insanity. There are cases where madmen are very cunning in screenhig themselves from the consequences of such a crime. He was struck v/ith the circumstance of the prisoner's com- mitting a murder with a Bible tied round his wrist, and with his cere* monies against the witches. May possibly have imagined the de- ceased a witcli. Interrogated, Suppose an act committed under a delusion, will no statement be made by criminal in reference to such delusion? Thinks it qaite possible, and that he might afterwards conceal it. Has seen patients who have laboured, to his knowledge, under delusion, and all his exertions could net induce them to let out any thing in reference to it. The conaahnent and denial are quite con- sistent loith insanity. There are three motives which lead the san^ to murder ; revenge, cupidity, or precaution. None of these could impel the unhappy Howison. The existence of the old woman was unknown to him tiU the moment of the murder ; — he took nothing from the house, although there was money open in a cup ; — and he had nothing to conceal by the woman's death, previous to inflicting it upon her. The Court and Jury held that John Howison was a responsible agent, and he was -condemned to death. In the argument against him, the possibility oi a sudden resentment on being refused charity was held to furnish mot've for the slaughter, dreadful as it was ; — in other words, that a helpless unoflendingaged woman had the power, either by refusmg him alms, or any other manner or way \\hatever, in out half minute, to provoke a sane man to such a pitch of fury as to lead him to glut hid vengeance by cleaving her head in two. The homicidal monomania, as a specihc insanity, probably for the first time pleaded in a British Court of Law, though noAv more famihar to the French tribunals, was, as might be expected with the present lights, treated as a groundlcs? theory. With due deference to the verdict of a British Jury, I cannot help observing that, on the indicia actually proved, and held of them- selves to amount to disease of mind by all the medical witnesses, even without the probabilities wh'ch v/ere added by several of them, especially Dr. Alison, of the existence of decided dangerous madness, there were grounds, on Baron Hume's view of such questions, for a recommendation to mercy. Juries take this course in much wsaker cases ; we hear of it every day on account of youth, seducticu by the more guilty, and even strong provocation. Had Howison's act been less horrible, had it chanced, that, instead of dasning out the brains 19* 222 HOMICIDAL INSANITY* of a helpless aged vvenaan, he had only made an assault on a sto-tH man, ta the effusion of his blood ; and moreover, had any medical man whatever previoudy given a certificate, as ought to have been done, that he was or might be dangei'ous, on which he had been ds facto shut up for a season, no one, we take it, will doubt thathis state of mind, as actually proved, would have moved the Jury to recom- mend him to mercy. Application was made, without success, to the Secretary of State, by Howison's law agent, for time to obtain further evidence of his in- sanity. To this that gentleman was emboldened by receiving the concurring opinion of several of the first medical men in Edinburgh, who had not been cited, that even the evidence adduced on the trial was suflicient ; but that, when several post-judicial facts were added, there could be no doubt that the unhappy man was not a fit subject for punishment. These last mentioned facts were, first, — That some time before his appearance at King's Cramond, Howison, on being refused alms by a gentleman near Edinburgh, to whose house he came, he made a savage assault upon him, for his muscular strength was very great,, often the case with maniacs, seized him by the scro- tum, and "kept his hold till the gentleman had nearly fainted. His whole demeanour was frightfully ferocious, and he was knocked down by one of the farm servants before he qviitted his grasp. When de- livered from his great peril, the gentleman soothed his assailant, gave him food, and sent him quietly away. Again, a gentleman of Dundee, made affidavit that he was one of the directors of the Lunatic Asylum in that town, and accustomed to observe insanity. That being in Edinburgh a short time before the Cramond murder, he chanced to go one day to witness the mode of worship at the duaker's meeting, his wife and daughter being with him. Near the place he saw Howi- son on the street in a mood so excited, violent and threatening, that he looked about for aid from the police, in the event, which he almost expected, of an attack or an outrage; and expressed his surprise that so dangerous a person was not taken care of. This affidavit was ti-ansraitted to the Secretary of State.* These were the additional facts which had they been permitted to be brouoht forvv'ard, although too late to prevent the sentence, might have prevented the execution. The Society of Friends petitioned the King ; but mercy, and even further inquiry, were refused. The closing scene of all, afiorded a powerfud confirmation of the sounder opinion that this unhappy man was insane. He confess&d, the niffht Before his execution, eight murders not one of which had ever b'een h^ard of, or could have occurred unknown. It cannot be doubted that this was the bloody dream of a homicidal monomaniac. At parting with the deputy-governor of the jail, he avowed that he felt at that momeiit a stong impulse to murder him, and he had been most kind to him ; while in the same breath, he inveighed against his lawvers for not resting his defence on the defective ^evidence, as he viewed it, of the murder, but pleading that he was mad, which, as he • Since Howison's execution, several persons have come forward who knew him long, and never doubted of his derangement. HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 223 alleged, was utterly untrue.* His voracious appetite for food ceased only with his breath. The ground upon which Howison's plea of insanity failed, no doubt was that he did not prove insanity enough ; — that, at the most, he had proved what Baron Hume holds insufficient, namely, eccen- tricity, a crazy or irregular temper — in a word only 'partial derange- ment. It is here the judicial practice requires revision. If it be true, that there is none of the phenomena of yet imperfectly understood human nature, over which hangs a thicker veil, to the general eye, than the phenomena of mental aberration, what are we to think of making distinctions as if all were clear, between partial and total insanity, and drawing the line of responsibility with perfect confidence ! It is hum- bly but earnestly suggested, that, instead of deciding for responsi- bihty in partial insanity, it is both more just and more merciful to doubt as to that essential, when disease of mind to a palpable AND considerable AMOUNT IS PROVED. It is morc just and more merciful, in such a case, to take care of the accused and of society-by his confinement, than to run the risk of putting to death an irrespon- sible agent. Insanity, as far as we have the means of perceiving, is a bodily disease; in other words, its visible and invariable condition is a morbid action of the brain, either structural or functional. A de- finition of the effect, in feeling and manifestation of a diseased brain, which shall be sufficiently comprehensive to include all the varieties of insane affection, is scarcely to be looked for; yet definitions are constantly sought after in courts of law, and the whole value of a wit- ness's evidence is often made to turn on its relation to a standard, which is in itself the merest assumption. It would be a safer rule for courts of law, t. to direct their attention to the proof generally of dis- eased manifestations of the intellect or feelings ; and when these are undoubted, as in Howison's case, to presume irresponsibility, because the contrary cannot be made sure of, and the balance of probability is greatly on the side of irresponsibility. If mercy, as we have said, is often extended to youth, to seduction, even to great provocation, how much more ought it to shelter disease of mind when clearly establish- ed? If it be true, and no physician denies it, that to diseases, espe- cially of the inflammatory class, it is impossible to describe limits, or to predict that new and aggravated symptoms shall not'suddenly follow in the course of the diseased action ; is it not presuming too much to decide, that inflammation of the brain, a usual cause of insanity, has known boundaries, and shall not suddenly extend from partial to pro- duce total insanity ? We feel assured that no one conversant with insanity will deny the fact, that the insane, however partially, ^are not safe from sudden paroxysms and aggravation of symptoms. * It is proper here to observe, that the legal defenders of Howison had hi? sanc- tion for their line of defence, lie said, in substance, "do as you like." But sup- posing, as often happens, that a palpably insane person asserts his sanity, and discliiims the plea of insanity, it is nevertheless his counsel's duty to make the Court aware of the state of the prisoner's mind, and to be prepared with evidence, which it isparsjudicis to call for, if the criminal fact shall be proved. t We mean criminal courts, for the inquiry as affecting civil rights and capabili- ties, where punishment — capital punishment — is not impending, may and must bs tried like other civil questions, by nicer scales. 224 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. In Howison's case, all the five medical witnesses swear to dis- ease OF MIND ; even Dr. Spans and Mr. Watson admit this, — the latter adding, that the prisoner's mind was in such a state, that he loas not to be depended upon. This is another mode of expression for as- serting that the disease proved to exist might increase, and the pa- tient become unsafe and irresponsible. This is well brought out in Dr. Andrew Combe's late work on insanity, page 23. " In civil and in criminal trials, physicians have been called in to fixthe line of de- marcation between insanity and the minor forms of mental disease ; but in practice the attempt has never been attended with great suc- cess. If the principles we have been advocating be true, this must ever continue to be the case. In no organ of the body, however inti- mately wc may be acquainted with its structure and functions, can we always chalk out a marked line of distinction between the various affections to which it is Hable. The slightest kinds run l)y such imperceptible degrees into the more permanent and severe, that we are daily unable to determine the point at which the malady stands, and it is often by the event alone, that we are enabled to form an ac- curate opinion. Many cases are, no doubt, so unequivocally marked, that we have no hesitation in determining the extent and nature of the disease. But it is not always an easy matter. For, at one time, an affection apparently of a trivial kind suddenly assumes the destruc- tive energy of a deadly disease." "The brain being a constituent part of an organized frame, and subjected to all the laws of animal life, exactly as the other parts of the system are, its morbid affections pre- sent precisely the same characteristics, modified of course by its pe- culiarity of structure and function, and it is very important, for the proper understanding of its diseases, that this analogy should be kept in view." After enumerating several exanrples of change in the symptoms of mental derangement, the author says, " A fifth (indi- vidual) may, under strong excitement, give way to manifestations of passion and singularities of thought, Avhich we are accustomed to meet with only in insanity, and yet recover himself when the cause has ceased to operate; or if he be highly predisposed, and the excite- ment have been very powerful, he may make a sudden transition from perfect health of mind to decided madness. But no one can pre- tend to point out the exact line at which the one of these states merges into tlie others This shows the dangerous error of the notion, that there is no madness liable to sudden paroxysms, unless violence is habit- ually or very frequently present. The celebrated Pinel, who was chief physician to the Salpelriere, the greatest bospital for the insane in the world, gives many examples of dangerous insanity co-existing with a calm and rational exterior, and in which the patient is the very reverse of a free and responsible agent. He mentions an instance of a rational madman liberated, on his own showing, by a band of revo- lutionists in 1792, who came io judge who were properly confined ia the different madhouses in Paris. Their protege soon showed them their error for, excited by the scene, he seized one of their sabres, and, striking at all about him, wounded a number of his very deHverers, who were glad to take him back to his cell. Howison was proved to have exhibited, what is almost invariable in insanity, a complete change of character from his former self — a HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 225 great deterioration in appearance, manners, and habits. lie was farther proved to have several pecuhar habits and practices, each re- cognised as a specific madness. 1. He had an almost incredible ap- petite for food. Of this many instances in the insane could be fur- nished, some cases manifesting no other symptom. The sight of food renders them fmious ; they will dispute it with the dogs and the swine ; they gorge the stomach beyond all powers of digestion, call- ing incessantly for more, and thereby injure all the other functions, including those of the brainMtself A man was taken into the Iniir- mary of Edinburgh in December 1830,raving mad for food, his stomach being distended with the quantity he had eaten, neveitheless his only cry was, "hunger, hunger, hunger!'^ Starvation has often produced insanity in those previously sane, as is well known in shipwrecks, and as was tremendously exempliiied in that of the Medusa French fri- gate. With his morbid calls for food, it is quite conceivable, that Howison might be excited to a high pitch of destructive mania, by a few hours' v/ant. 2. He ate animal food in large quantity almost raw, delighting in the blood which came from it. This, too, is'a well- marked symptom of insanity. A shocking case of literal appetite for blood occurred at Paris in 1323. Antoiue Leger was from his youth, sombre, ferocious, and sohtary. He fled the society of women, and of boys of his own age. Wandering in a wood for days together, and living on wild fruits, he caught a rabbit, killed it, and devoured it raw. He was seized with a horrible desire to eat human flesh, and drink the blood. On the lOth of August he saw a Httle girl, and run* ning to her, passed a handkerchief round her body, threw heron his back, rushed into - .; r;'ood, and murdered her. He avowed the fact to the minutest pa. ^.i-.,, and produced proofs against himself. He stated that, having opened the body of his victim, and seeing the blood flow in abundance, he slaked with it his thirst, and, " hurried on by the malign influence that controlled me," he said, " I went the length of sucking the heart." He was-calm, rational, and even indifferent at his trial, and was given over to the executioner, a sacrifice to the ignorance of his judges, who could see nothing in him but the most atrocious criminal, 3, Howison, like maniacs well known in mad- houses, was almost without ceasing, night and day, wounding him- self to the efflision of his blood ; he marked the chapel door-posts with it; he exhibited it dropping from his elbows; and he sucked it as he ate his meals. 4. He was solitary, silent, and sombre, like Lecouffe, Feltdmann, Papavoin, and Leger, and a whole class of madmen. Indeed, he was so uncommunicative, that his counsel could not draw from him one word of his history or connexions, in order to enlarge the evidence of his insane habits. Lastly, he was under the influence of superstitious horrors, and kept off" the super- natural evils he dreaded by strange ceremonies, and above ail, by the fancied protection of the Bible tied round his wrist, which it was proved he never read, and, when removed at his meals, placed round his neck, so as never to quit his person. This circumstance struck Dr. Alison as an insane accompaniment of a murder. Now, this is just the character of insanity, which, often by a sud den and uncontrollable impulse, sheds blood and takes life. Thi^ impulse itself is a specific raonorajmia, which the French physicianaij 226 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. who have seen it oftenest, denominate monomanic homicide. All the medical witnesses, including the two who did not consider Howison irresponsible, were in the knowledge that there is a specific madness of this fearful character. Nothing more important has been deter- rnined by the more enlightened views of insanity, which are begin- ning to prevail, than the existence and nature of distinctive monoma- nias, in which the patient is insane only on feelings or ideas related to one of the mental powers, and remains sound as to the objects and functions of all his other faculties. Diseased pride, for example, is a monomania, and fills the mad-houses, often more than any other dis- eased feehng, with great lords, kings, and emperors, most of whom are sane on every other point ; and even, in their peculiar disease, from the erroneous premises of their supposed condition reason cor- rectly. When the monomania of pride takes a religious turn, the patient believes himself inspired, and sometimes even the Supreme Being. Of twenty-two patients presented to a gentleman who lately visited the great Richmond Lunatic Asylum of DaLlin, eleven were insane on pride ; some of these with religious feehngs beUeved them- selves God, Jesus Christ, or inspired by'them : whilst others, with- out religious feelings, were kings and emperors. Many of the same patients were violent and destructive ; and several others had no syrnptoms but an impulse to tear and destroy every thing upon which they could lay their hands. Such patients are the most dan- gerous of any, as they invariably murder if they are not under re- straint. Murder committed under such an unhappy influence is not a crime but a symptom of insanity Dr. Marechal, in the Archives Gene- rales de Medecine, vol. xii., instances the deplorable case of a lady, who, after having nursed her infant for three months, suddenly be- ' came sad and taciturn, and much addicted to tears. One day sitting near the fire, she exclaimed with eagerness and agony, " Snatch the child from me, or I tvill throw it into thefiames^ She then confessed that, for a long time, she had been struggling against an almost irre- sistible impulse to destroy the child, and that on approaching a win- dow or fire the desire always returned. She became melancholy, lamented her \irJiappy propensity, and attempted suicide. Her reason was perfect, and she was inspired with horror at herself. Of course, from the state of light generally prevailing on the subject, had she killed her child she would have been held responsible, because of her reason and remorse, and condeip.ned to death, instead of being put un* der treatment as a lunatic. Dr. Otto of Copenhagen has lately communicated a striking in- stance of motiveless destruction, perpetrated under the influence of this dreadful disease, where all the feelings which should lead the un- happy patient to stay his hand, were, at the same time, in full activity. Peter Nielsen, the father of seven children, ivas seized with a desire^ which he fdt he could not resist, to destroy four ofhis children, whom, nevertheless, he tenderly loved. He took them to a turf pit, and after, passionately embracing them, pushed them all into the water, and re- mained till he saw them drowned. When they were taken out he kissed them again, and returned quietly to the town, in the same cart which brought back their dead bodies. He made no attempt tQ HOMICIDAL INSA-NlTYo 2'37 Hy ; but Dr. Otto omits to say what criminal result followed. Dr. Otto furnishes another instance of this sudden propensity to murder. Frederick Jensen lost his health of mind, in consequence of the death of a beloved daughter ; and, soon after, when one day walking with his son, a boy of ten years of age, was seized, as he related, with a strange confusion, '^ so that it appeared to him like a matter af absolute necessity to drown the boy and himself;'''' and, quite unconscious of what he was doing, he ran to the water with the boy in his hand. A per- son passing interfered, and took the child from him ; but he threw himself into the vvater, from which he was rescued, and, by proper treatment, restored to health of mind. He subsequently told the whole event with tranquiUity, but could give no reason for the sudden desire to destroy his child and himself. A case closely resembling this but with the unhappy difference, that the dreadful deed was done, occurred in November last in the vicinity of Edinburgh. The maniac was George Waters, who destroyed a boy, his own son, without mo- tive or end, and threw the body into a ditch. On proof of previous derangement, he was ordered into confinement. ^ I could adduce many authorities, entitled to the highest respect from their known experience and eminence, both on the Continent and at home, that the homicidal monomaniais often a sudden and irre- sistible impulse. Pinel, Broussais, Georget, Esquirol, and Spurz- heim, in France, — and Burrows, ConoUy and Combe, in this country, are all agreed on the existence and nature of this most dangerous insanity. Broussais has a chapter on this subject in his work, De I'Irritation et de la Fohe, page 361. " There result," says he, " from this per- version of feeling, cruelty, pleasure in destroying, an impulse con- demned even by the patient who is under itj influence. This per- version, and that of suicide, are often found together. The iu:!for- tunate patients often find pretexts to justify their atrocities. Some- times it is a voice which commands the slaughter; sometimes God himself; some have a mission from heaven to save men by the bap- tism of blood ; others think they secure the salvation of their children, or make them angels by putting them to death." Georget, also a high medical officer in the Salpetriere, is familiar with the ^^monomunie meurtrierey "It consists in a propensity to ferocity, in a desire, in a necessity to destjoy life, "even human life, without motive." Georget's work De la Folic, p. 110. Pinei, the highest French authority, among other instances, men- tions a patient in the Bicetre, who was brought to that great lunatic hospital, in consequence of a sudden fit having seized him in his own house, when he warned his wife, whom he loved, to fly from him, to avoid instant death, in the Bicetre, when the fit came on, he seized any sharp instrument, and would, unless prevented, have sacrificed any one near him. The superintendent, whom he at other times loaded with acknowledgements for his kindness, was especially the object of his sanguinary threats ; and he would have destroyed him- self if permitted, an act which he had once nearly accomphshed with a shoemaker's knife, having been secured, after giving himself a deep wound, "Hg enjoys," says Pinel, " in other respects"perfect exercise 228 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. of reason ; even during his paroxysms he answers questions, and letg slip no incoherencies or signs of delirium : he even feels all the hor- ror of his situation, and is penetrated with remorse, as if he had him- self to reproach for his dreadful propensity."-^Trait6 sur I' Alienation Mentale, p. 158. M. Georget devotes a small volume to the subject, and furnishes many examples. A woman of the name of Ny consulted him, in October 1826, evidently healthy and rational, whose irresistible pro- pensity was to murder her children. She abhorred herself for the feeling, avoided windows and sharp weapons, often fled the house, &c. By proper medical treatment this woman was cured. "Sup- pose," says M. Georget, " a little increase of intensity in that in- voluntary impulse, and the woman Ny would have committed, against her nature, the most horrible of crimes." M. Esquirol, the pupil of Pinel, wrote a treatise on the subject, in which he furnishes many instances. One lunatic suddenly rose upon his fellow patients in the hoppital, murdered two, and was proceeding, as he said, to baptize them all m blood, when he was mastered and secured. He had before murdered his own children for the same end, and attempted to kill his wife. A M^oman returned from a fanatical sermon, and murdered her child to make it an angel. A Prussian peasant believed himself commanded by an angel from heaven to sacrifice his only son on an altar. He bound him accordingly, and immolated him. M. N;, a patient at Charenton, was melancholy, sad, and silent, and believed harmless, till suddenly he sprung upon one of his neighbours, struck him with the heaviest article on which he could lay hands, and attempted to murder him, after which he sunk again into silence and melancholy. Another exactly similar in- stance occurred, the weapon being a full bottle. An insane was dis- missed cured, as was believed, v.ho next day murdered his wife and sister in-law. A young married lady was suddenly seized with an irresistible desire to murder her two infant children ; she loved and embraced, yet longed to strangle them. On one occasion one of her children came into the room where she herself was alone ; she im- mediately gave the alarm, and had the child removed. She was se- cluded for some months, and on her return was not allowed to see her children, although she inquired affectionately for them. When it v/as proposed to bring them home, her countenance altered in such a way as to convince her husband that it was not yet time. Several months more were allowed to elapse, after which her children were brought back, and she ever after manifested tov\'ards them the truest maternal tenderness. Another example of the same kind. In this was the singular mixture of the embraces of passionate affection and the propensity to strangle the child, with several attempts at suicide, because of the unhappy propensity. Several other examples follow of unhappy mothers with the impulse to destroy their children. One of a nursery maid, in the family of Baron Humboldt, who found that she never undressed a child under her charge without a wish to kill it. She fortunately avowed the propensity, and was taken care of. A young lady came regularly, when she felt the appetite for murder coming on, and had herself secured in a strait-waistcoat till the fit HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 229 "^'ns past. A gentleman in the same circumstances felt himself suf- ficiently restrained by having his thumbs tied together with a piece of ribbon. M. N. was silent and solitary, but reasonable, and confessed a de* sire to shed blood, and particularly that of his mother and sister by the poniard. He, too, deplored the Jreadful tendency, for he loved his mother and sister tenderly. Yet the fit returned, and he cried out, " Mother, save yourself, or I will cut your throat " One day in the street he met a Svviss soldier, a stranger to him, whose saore he attempted to seize, to murder him with it. Madame C. G., a young married woHian, was suddenly seized with a desire to kill, and had in son and feehng enough to deplore the propensity ; but the more she resisted it, the mere strong it be- came. Madame G^ was seiz, -i v/ith the murderous fit at table, and took up a knife to indulge the de-i.e, when she wc -5 secured and disarmed, A young woman of the name of Henriette Cornier, murdered her in- fant in a fit of insanity, and cut off" its head. The affair made a great noise in France ; and the same thing M'as done by a number of other monomaniacs mentioned by M. Esquirol ;* faut as they are all to the same'purpose, they need not be enumerated here. One woman said that something pushed her on by the shoulders io murder. A num- ber of similar cases were communicated from Germany, by different medical men, to M. Esquirol. The existence as a specific madness of the homicidal monomania, like other -lew truths, has been vigorously controverted in Franco. — A whok olume has been written against it, as a doctrine full of dan- ger, by an advocate of the name of R,€gnault. It is a conceited, irrelevant, unphilosophical rhapsody, and does nothing to shake the mass of tacts on which the doctrine is built. Hoflfbaur is the greatest German authority, and was translated into French in 1829, by Chambeyron. He advocates the doctrine of homicidal monomania, and furnishes many cases. Till the verv recent appearance of Drs. Burrows and Cono'Iy,.the latter professor of medicine in the University of London, as writers on insanity, and their works are of the highest authority, — no British writer took prominent notice of the homicidal monomania. Dr. <^ombe also describes, and satisfactorily accounts for, this form of mental disease. Willis, Haslam, and others, cite cases of patients murdering, if not restrained, as a mere effect of excited maniacal rage ; hut none of these have mentioned the existence of . sudden irresistible propensity to shed blood as a apecific monomania. Dr. Burrows gives some cases of persons committing murder, in order that they themselves might suffer death, — suicide by crime. A schoolmaster at New-Yoik reasoned on the subject, and on the idea that infancy has a "guarantee of eternal beatification," took a gun and shot a child only three years of age, and afterwards went and voluntarily delivered himself into the hands of justice, p. 436. * The numerous murders which often follow each other about the same time, ut no one can believe in the possibility of adequate provocation to such an act, in the circumstances, at all. The post-judicial evidence did not come out on the trial ; but it was offered to the Secretary of State ; and it is never too late to make far- ther inquiry which shall save the life of a wretched lunatic. It seems unnecessary to 'go into the argument founded on the alle- gation that Howison was intelligent, — that he fled with precipitation from the scene of his crime, and steadily denied it to the moment of his death, — in a word, manifested " method in his madness '•' I re- fer to the evidence of Dr. Alison on this point, and that of Drs.- Mac- intosh and Scott, as at leastof equal weight with that .of Mr. Watson, who, because of the frequency of avowal by the murderous insane, seems to have concluded, that denial of the act is a certain proof of sanity. Pinel gives the name o^ folie raisonnante to madness accom- panied with rationality, and even skill in adapting means to ends. " Hospitals for the insane," says he, " are never without some exam- ples of mania, marked by acts of extravagance and even fury, with a kind of judgment preserved in'all its integrity, if we judge of it by the conversation ; the lunatic gives the most just and precise answers to the questions of the curious, no incoherence of ideas is discernible ; he reads and writes letters, as if his understanding were perfectly Hound ; and yet, by a singular contrast, he tears in pieces his clothes 232 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. and bed-covers, and always finds some plausible reason to justify his wanderingand his fury." Many instances of this inconsistency might be quoted, and some in v/hich the reasoning isjusterand more forcible, in the exaltation of the disease than when the patient is in perfect health. Mead, Willis, Haa.am, Cox, Burrows, ConoUy, and Combe all concur in this, and agree with the French authorities. The reader must have observed the accompaniment of calmness, rationality, and even iemorse and self-reproach in several of the in- stances of murder, an]i attempts to murder, adduced in this paper. There is rationality and a perfect discrimination of right from wrong, not only in the abstract but iri the very act, common in many murdering maniacs, which induces them to surrender themselves to justice. Howison fled, — in other words, instantly after the act he saw its con- sequences to himself. Robert Dean knew the consequence, only he courted death, the other feared it. Papavoin, hke Howison, fled. In all the three,' the murderous paroxysm had ceased ; and nothing can be imagined more likely to bring the feelings into a new channel, and that instantaneously, — with all deference to Dr. Spen's opinion, — than the spectacle of horror which, the patient's own hand has produ- ced.* The patient anticipates the horror, in some cases, and warns the person near him, generally his beloved relatives, to fly, — to snatch away the child, &c. How much more may he not be appalled with the blood when actually sl>ed,— be seized with terror on his own ac- count, fly with precipitation, and deny with obstinacy, consistency, and cunning ? Dr. Spens said Howison could not have recovered from an insane paroxysm so suddenly, or rather that he, l>r. S., never saw an instance of such sudden restoration. So many cithers, with probably more extensive means of observation, consider an instant change of feeling, by a powerful cause, not only frequent, but almost invariable. The maniac is alwmjs calm after the slaughter is com- mitted ; but Dr. Spens assumes that there could not be an instant change of feeling in Howison, and on that assumption concludes, that in truth he did not act under a paroxysm of lunacy at all. It is to be feared that this opinion w^eighed heavily in the adverse scale against this poor maniac. There is so much evil in the very risk that man's vengeance should follow GodPs visitation, that all cases of crimes of violence, I repeat, in lohlch previous inental disease is unequivocally proved,^^ should have the lohoU benefit of the presumption that such disease may in a moment run into in^eponsible mania; and the imhaj^py patient be judged fit for confinement, and 7iot for punishment. I caanot withhold an opinion of great good sense on this point, by Dr. Haslam, in his treatise on Medical jurisprudence. .After some severe observations on the practice of making a show of bedlam for the vulgar gaze, from which, he says, the idea is impressed even on juries, That " insanity cannot exist without turbulent expression, ex- tra\agant gestures, and fantastic decoration," he adds, " When the madman has been tried in a criminal court, the counsel forthe prose- cution has usually and gravely inquired of the medical evidence, * A case occurred at Bristol. much about the time of Howison's trial. A maniac killed a person on the spot for refusing him a little tobacco. He fled, concealed, and even disguised himself with blacking and soot. When taken, he denied all knowledgs of the murder, till brought to the dead body, v/hen he coolly said, " I killed that man because he would not give me some tobacco^" HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 233 whether the prisoner, on ordinary topics, and on subjects unconnect- ed with his insanity, would not converse in a rational tnanner; and also, whether he did not possess sufficient understanding to discrimi- natfe between good and evil, right and wrong. V\hen a medical person is employed concerning any one to whom insanity is imputed, his principal inquiry is concerning his insanity ; it is not his object to as- certain how much reason he possesses, but how far, and on what topics, he is insane ; and having gauged his insanity, he has performed his duly. If it should be presumed that any medical practitioner is able to penetrate into the recesses of a lunatic's mind, at the moment he committed an outrage, to view' the internal play of obtruding thought and contending motives, and to depose that he knew the good and evil, right and wrong, he was about to commit, it mast be confessed that such knowledge is beyond the limits of our attainment. It is sufficient for the medical practitioner to know that the mind is deranged, and that such state of insanity will be sufficient to account for the irregularity of the actions; and that, in a sound mind, the same conduct would be deemed criminal. If violence be inflicted by such a person during a paroxysm of rage, there is no acuteness of metaphysical- investigation which can trace the succession of his thoughts, and the impulses by which he is goaded to the accomplishment of his purpose." In proposing confinement instead of capital punishment, I leave much to satisfy those who hold the opinion that the dread of conse- quences will restrain the maniac or monomaniac, even when the fit is on him. If capital punishment has preventive terrors, so has confine- ment for life. J\ay, I am disposed to think that the latter, if either are contemplated, would have the greater premonitive effect of the two. Death is often courted by the murderous monomaniac. Execution has high excitement for the actual state of his feelings. But the idea of confinement for life is sedative, repulsive to the insane person's hurry of thought, and more likely than the fear of death, to make him reflect and stay his hand if he is not, when in paroxysm, incapable of reflection at all. The opinioti promulgated by the Advocate-General of France in Lecouffe's case is yet greatly too common elsewhere, that the plea of insanity is dangerous; that it leads to encourage simulation, and defraud ' justice, and therefore ought not to be admitted at all in criminal trials. This, I have said, is not the law of Great Britain, nor is it that of France ; it is only the absurd dogma of the Advocate-General. But although, when stated in the abstract, it is certain of being scouted, yet in the concrete, the opinion has a sort of influence ; so that the proof of insanity (which lies on the accused), instead of being wel- comed as it ought to be by our own criminal courts, is almost always as if it were mere matter of public duty to do so, received with hostility, ajid stoutly redargued. The reason of this is dread that simulated madness will always be resorted to, and public justice set at nought There will be an end of this fear, when knowledge of the real indicia of mental disease shall extend itself: courts of law, and jurymen them- selves, better taught what sane mind really is, will become more fa- miUar with its diseases ; and medical men be more worthy of the con- fidence of courts of iaw than the great majority of them yet are, while they remain equally uninformed in mental philosophy on the 20* 334 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. one hand^ and the functions of the material organ of the mind, the* brain, on the other. I feel assured that there is not one of the au- thorities, French or British, whom I have quoted as advocating the truth of homicidal monomania, whom pretended insanity would de- ceive for one moment. The simulator must have at least all their knowledge, and be a consummate actor to boot, not to betray himself to them in many different ways! A simulator, too, who becomes mad for the occasion as a desperate attempt to escape punishment, wants one important branch of evidence, namely, previous history in which insanity was manifested, as in Howison's case, without relation to the particular act" under trial. There is no feigning past history. But even where there was no previous insanity, the detection of its actual presence, or the exposure of its fraudulent assumption, would be equally easy to those who are in the knowledge of the light which has within these few years been shed on the subject. They, assu- redly, would run no risk of making such an exhibition as was made in London by the medical witnesses in the memorable case of Davies the tea-dealer, which elicited one shout of scorn from the whole press of London, and excited a feehng of general surprise all over the country. • . An immense advantage, at the very least, will be gained, if a con- sciousness of want of knowledge shall render criminal tribuimls cau- tious, and diminish the dangerous confidence wherewith they repel the plea of insanity, and so often hold the insane to be sane. When the alternative is death or confinement for hfe, there is no risk of re- turning upon society a dangerous member, or of the guilty escaping from heavy punishment, even if a mistake should be committed on the side of mercy. But an error oh the other side, the actual execu- tion cf the irresponsible, is an unmixed calamity, without one palhat- ing element. When, then, the well-known symptoms of simulation, as Dr. Alison and even Mr. Watson said was the case with Howi- son, are absent, and when. recognized insanity is present, public jus- tice and expediency, as well as mercy, derriand that the scales shall not be made to tremble in nice adjustment, but that a large allowance shall be thrown into that of the accused. 235 No. III. EXTRACT FROM REPORT OF. THE EDINBURGH INFANT SCHOOL SOCIETY. At a General Meeting of the Edinburgh Infant School So- " ciety, held this day (18th May 1832,) in the Assembly Rooms, George-street, followed by an Exhibition of the Pupils of the School, Robert Wardlaw Ramsay, Esq. in the Chair, the following Report, by the Committee, called tlie Ordinary Directors, was read. , The Committee deem it expedient to preface this their First Re- port, with a short exposition of the principles of this association for the purposes of Infant Education. First, As it is well known that the Feelings or affections of human nature, in common speech termed the Dispositions, furnish the im- pulses, according to their direction, to virtue or vice, it is important to address education directly to these feelings, and thereby to combine moral with intellectual training, instead of confining education, as has hitherto almost exclusively been done in Schools, to the latter alone. Secondhj, The Dispositions are capable of great improvement by systematic practical training, brought to bear, by exercise, directly upon themselves ; and positive institutions, founded upon this truth, are as valuable as they are new to society. Thirdly, The Dispositions are most pliable, and capable of a bent to good in infancy, before bad tendencies are formed and bad habits are confirmed ; and, therefore, moral training ought to commence with the earhest manifestations of human feeling. Fourthly, Mere precept will not establish those moral habits which flow from well regulated dispositions ; and although example may do much, it is apt to operate only for a moment, leaving the mind that has been swayed by it still liable to the influence of exam- ple in any other direction. Practical exercise m m^ral habits for the course of time, is an essence of moral training. To attain this exercise, it is necessary to collect infants in suitable numbers, to form a society of equals, in unrestrained but well observed inter- course, where the selfish feelings may be regulated, and the social strengthened and improved ; in which the practice shall be habitual of cleanliness, dehcacj, refinement, good temper, gentleness, kind- ness, honesty, justice, and truth ; confirming good tendencies in the mind, and leading to virtvie in the conduct ; — while at the same time the body is strengthened by a judicious use of air and exercise. Fifthly, In this manner the dispositions are prepared as a soil for the precepts and spirit of Christianity ; and these last judiciously sown, as the foundation of morals, will not, in after life, be listened to merely as abstract ideas on Sundays, with no application to or- 236 INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. dinary life, but will be felt as practical laws, regulating every pact of everyday conduct. LasUy, lotellectual training, though of secondary importance in Infant Education, should form, nevertheless, provided it be calcu- lated to interest and amuse, and never to overtask, an important object of an Infant School. For the vigorous aevelopment of the faculties, — before they have been wasted on mere letters, -'vords, and signs, — practical lessons on real objects, and thsir relations to each other and to the pupii, constituting real ideas and useful knowledge of common things, should be the main intellectual occupation of Infant Schools ; to which end the objects themselves should be pre- sented, and their nature and qualities explained, white the printed signs or reading will be easily, incidentally, and almost insensibly conveyed. * - + ■ + * ♦ The Committee have much pleasure in reporting, that the progress of the School, under the tuition and superintendeijce of Mr. and Mrs. Wright has all along been, -and continues to be, in the physical, intellectual, moral, and religious branches, most satisfactory. Im- pressed besides, as the teachers both are on principle, with the vital importance of cleanliness, ventilation, air, and exercise, and of the alternation, at short intervals with children of lesson and sitting with play, they enjoy the satisfaction of witnessing strength and health restored to the weak and sickly, and increased vigour manifested by the robust ; while the guiding principles of the system have all along continued to direct their steps, which have not swerved to either hand into patlis which may lead far away from the results to which this Society looked when they associated. Mr. Wilderspin^, though distant, continues to guide its Edinburgh Model Infant School; and will continue to do so till its Directors are well convinced indeed, that something better than this system can be substituted. Visiters, who are numerous, have been much gratified by the varied knowledge of objects and their relations exhibited by such young children. The Teacher has himself collected a little museum of arti- cles, calculated to impress, in a systematic manner, a great number of natural qualities and effects. The friends of the Institution might greatly increase this collection, by sending articles which are to be found in their drawers and shelves as useless lumber. The attainments of the children in scripture knowledge afford the best commentary upon the method adopted for the earliest "inculca- tion of Christian Truth," and it is remarkable, that when a choice is given to them of the kind of anecdote to be told them by the Teacher, the vote is, in most cases, for a Scripture story. The whole economy and system of the play-ground has fully an- swered the most sanguine expectations entertained of it. Here is the true Infant School ; the school-room is but an accessory. In the play-ground are acquired cleanliness, cheerfulness, health activity, and resource ; and social affections are exercised and practised. The results in all these particulars are most cheering. Strangers are struck with the healthy, cleanly, happy, active and intelligent aspect of the groups. Dirtiness, indelicacy, and filthiness are unknown; and habitual kindliness, civility, justice, and scrupulous honesty, rule the intercourse of the little community. Pieces of bread have often INFANT SCHOOli REPORT. 237 lain untouchetl within the reach of the whole school for days, when forgotten b}'- their owners. Instances of dishonesty have occasionally occurred, but they never have, without being made a lesson both to the little offender and his playfellows. The Teacher having been directed to keep a record' of instructive occurrences, has furnished many instances of the practical working of the system ; to which the committee have much satisfaction in addmg the answers ofabovethirty of the parents, to a circular letter addressed generally by the Teacher, to obtain the opinion of the effect upon the children of attendance at School. A few specimens are printed in the Appendix of those grate- ful testimonies. The letters are of course from the most respectable class of parents ; but there are many whose children are reaping perhaps comparatively the greater good, who themselves are of a character which cannot appreciate, and an education which cannot acknowledge it. It is only the Teacher, and those who, like him, have visited the homes — if homes they can be called — of many of the poor children, that can estimate the contrast between ihe squalor and Wretchedness of these abodes, and the light, air, cleanliness, warmth, cheerfulness, occupation, goodwill and happiness of the infant school and play-ground ; and who can fully comprehend why the resort to school is so willing, and the stay so' lingering. The Committee can- not withhold an affecting instance. One of their number when visit- ing the school, had his attention attracted by a little girl of about four years of age, whc was remarkable for the gentlest demeanour, and, at the same time, the most miserably starved and wretched ap- pearance. The child seemed to cling to him in the play-ground, and repeatedly took hold of his hand or his coat. To complete the pic- ture of infant misery, one eye. exhibited the mark of a severe blow. The Teacher's account of the little creature was, that she was the child of a drunken mother, who gave her the blacJc eye in a fit of fury ! This woman, he added, occasionally visits the school, where she creates a disturbance, sometimes abusing him for detaining her child, and sometimes for not detaining her. The child often comes without her breakfast, and without a mouthful of food for the day, a Want M'hich Mr. and Mrs. Wright have as often supplied, even at the hazard of encouraging the evil" which they deplore. Mr. Wright's explanation of the poor child's drawing near to the Director was as touching as true. *' She is a gentle .child," he said, " very unhke her mother, and seems to associate with school and every thing about it, that protection and kindness to which at home she is a stranger." As a school for teachers of Infant Schools, the Edinburgh Model School has, for its duration, done a fair portion of work ; and it has been found that there is a variety and intensity of interest in the sys- tem, which is calling forth a class of minds very superior to those of ordinary schoolmasters ; one and all of them increase in zeal as they advance practically in their studies ; afJbrding a satisfactory prospect of a command of efficient labourers, as the harvest of Infant educa- tion ripens, and the demandextends. When Mr. Wright was un- fsrtunately laid aside by illness, a young man, who had spent many a leisure hour in the school, left his occupation as a journeyman prin- ter, and efficiently supplied the vacancy for many weeks ; while another young man, the son of the building contractor, witnessing 238 APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. Mr. Wilderspin's first training of the school, as he worked about it as a carpenter, picksd up with alacrity and eagerness the whole plan, studied the book, mastered the songs, and actually established a gratis Infant School of h's own, of between thirty and forty pupils, which he still teaches in the evenings afte'r his work hours ! The Committee know that many young men are contemplating the fitting of themselves for the interesting occupation and the independence, which the multiplication of Infant Schools offers them. The exam- ple of Edinburgh (hei-self in ihe wake of Glasgow, whose success has led to many Infanc Schoolg in the ,Vest of Scotland) has produ- ced Infant Schools already at Aberdeen, Dundee, Kinghorn, Dun- fermline, Portobello, Inverness, and Dingwall, and they are projected in other towns and places all over the country. * • . • JAMES SIMPSON, Conr. Ordinary Directors. APPENDIX TO THE FOREGOING REPORT. I. — Effects of the Moral Training. 1. Incidents to show the good effects of exercising Kindness and Consideration for others, in opposition to reckless Mis- chief, Haraheartedness, and Cruelty ; vices which render the lower orders dangerous and formidable. 1. Two cf the children, brothers, about five and four years of age, coming one morning late into school, were to go to their seats with- out ctnsure, if they could give an account of what they had been doing, which should be declared satisfactory by fhe whole school, who should decide. They stated, separately, that they had been contemplating the proceedings of a large caterpillar, and noticing the different positions of its body as it crossed their path— that it was now horizontal, and now perpendicular, and presently curved, and finally inclined, vvhen it escaoed into a tree. The master than asked them abruptly* " Why did you not kill it ?" The children stared. " CovM you have killed it ?" asked the teacher. " Yes, but that would have been cruel cad naughty, and a sin against God." The little morahsts were acquitted by acclamation ; ha'^ng, infants as they were, mani- fested a character which, were it universal in the juvenile population, would in another geacration reduce our penal code to a mass of waste paper, in one grand department of its bulk.* 2. The teacher mentioned to the children one day, that he had been occupied about a boy and a girl who had no father or mother, and * This instance of practical mercy occurred stror.gVy to my mind, one day last spring in London ; when passing along a street, 1 saw several big boys with k live mouse at the end of a string ; I returned in a few minutes the same wf>y and fouad they had killed it, and were heating it to atom's loith their sticks ! ! APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. 239 whose grandfather and grandmother, who took care of them, were bedrid and in great poverty. The boy was seven years of a.ge, too old for the Infant School, but some gentlemen, he said, were exerting themselves to get the boy into one of the hospitals. Here he pur- posely stopped to try the sympathies of his audience for the giil. He was not disappointed, several little voices called out at once, "O! Master ! what for no the lassie too ?" He assured them that the girl was to come to the Infant School, and to be boarded with him and Mrs. Wright ; and the intellig' ace was received with loud plaudits. 3. One day when the children were in the play grouud, four boys occupied the boy's circular swing, while a stranger gentleman was looking on with the teacher. Conscious of being looked at, the little fellows were wheeling round with more than usual swift- ness and dexterity, w.V. a a creature of two or three years made a sudden dart forward into their very or- it, and in an instant must have been knocked down with great force. With a presence of mind and consideration, and with a mechanical skill, which to admire most we know not, one of the boys, about five years old,used the instant of time in which, the singular movement was practicable, threw his? whole body into a horizontal position, and wer : clear over the infam ': head ! But this was not all : in the same well eni^loyed instant, it occurred to him that that movement was not enough lo save ihe httle inuuder, as he himself was to be followed as quick as thouq'.t by the next swing- er. For this he provided by dropping his own feet to the ground and stopping the whole machine, the instant he had cleared the child's head! The .pectator of this admirable specimen of intellect and good feeling, which was all necessarily the thought and act of a mo- ment, had his hand instinctively in his pocket for a shilhng, but was stopped by the teacher, who disowns all inferior motives for acts of kindness and justice. The httle hero, however, had his reward : for the incident was related by the teacher in full school, in pres^^nce of the strangers, and was received with several rounds of hearty ap- plause. 4. J. J. accused H. S. of hemng eat up J. J.'s dinner. It was proved by several witnesses, that H. S. not only appropriated the dinner, but used force. The charge being proved to the satisfaction of the Jury (the whole school,) the same tribunal were requested by the teacher to decide M'hat should be the consequences to the convict. One orator rose and suggested, that as H. S. had not yet eat his own dinner, he ought to give it to J. J. This motion, for the children always welcome any reasonable substitute for corporal punishment, was carried by acclamation. When one o'clock came, and the din- ner was handed over, coram publico, to J. J., H. S. was observed by him to be in tears, and lingering near his own dinner. They were by this time nearly alone, but the teacher was watching the result. The tears were too much for J. J., who went to H. S. threw his arms about his neck, told him not to cry, but to sit down and take half. This invitation was of course accepted by H. S., who manifested a great inferiority of character to the other, and furnished an example of the blindness of the unjust to the justice of retribution, which they always feel to be mere revenge and cruelty. He could not bear to see J. J. even sharing his dinner, and told him with bitterness 240 APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. that he would tell his mother. " Weel, weell" said the generous child, " I'll gie y'd a' back again." Of course the teacher interfered to prevent this gross injustice ; and in the afternoon made their school- fellows completely aware of the part each had acted. It is not easy to render a character hke that of H. S. liberal ; but a long course of such practice, for precept is impotent in such cases, might much mo- dify what in after life would have turned out a selfish, unjust, and unsocial character. ■ 2. Incidents'^to show the good effects of practically exercising Honesty and Truth,— to the end of superseding, another branch of criminal jurisprudence. 1. One of the children lost a halfpenny in the play-ground. The mistress was 'so certain that it would be found arid accounted for, that she lent the luser a halfpenny. Some time after, when the inci- dent was nearly forgotten, one of the boys, J. F. found a halfpenny in the play-ground, and although no one saw him find it, he brought it at once to the teacher. As the latter knew nothing about the loss of a halfpenny already alluded to, it appeared to him a halfpenny without an owner ; but one of the children suggested that it must be the lost halfpenny for which the mistress had given the substitute. " What, then, shall be done with it ?'' Many voices answered " the mistress should get it." The girl who lost the halfpenny was called out, and at once knew her own. It was given to her, and she imme- diately transferred it to the mistress. The teacher then appealed to the vvhole school. " Is that right?" "Yes! yes! right! right!" was called out by the whole assemblage, with much applause and animation. This last accompaniment of their approbation is strongly contrasted .with the more tranquil and .evidently regretting way in which they condemn, when any thing is wrong. 2. A penny was found in the play-ground, which had laid so long as to be mouldy and rusty. It was held up for an owner, but claimed by none. . " What shall we do with it ?" " Keep it master, keep it." " Why should I keep it, I have no right to it more than any one here." This was puzzhng to all, till a little girl, not four years old, stood up and said, " Put it in the box." Many voices seconded this excellent motion, and the master referred it to a show of hands; up went every hand in the school, most of the children showing both hands for a greater certainty, -and the penny was put into the sub- scription-box amid cheers of animation \nd delight. 3. Immediately before the vacation in August 1830, three boys plucked a few black currants, which had ripened on the play-ground wall ; fruit and flowers being cultivated to exercise self-denial and refinement in the children. One of the boys kept to himself double the quantity whichhe vouchsafed to each of the other two, but gavd a part to a fourth boy, M'ho had seen the transaction, evide^itly to pur- chase his silence ; but thinking this hopeless, he took back the gift, and struck the boy to give it up, remarking, that as he knew he would tell, he the speaker need not lose his berries into the bargain. They all confessed, and expressed their sorrow, except the striker, decid- edly in all respects the most guilty, who maintained a bold and hard- ened countenance. The voice of the school was, however, merciful to them all, which so much affected the last^mentioned offender that he burst into tears. A clergyman, one of the Directors, was present, whose A5PPENDIX TO iNfANT SCHOOL REPORT. ^41 ©ye the boy caught, and instantly brushed away his tears, and join- ^ in the hymn which was sung at the moment. He staid behind the rest, assiduously assisted the master to put away the things, a civility he never showed before, and begged to shake hands with him \vhen he went away. 4. P. M. was brought to solemn trial, before the whole school, for keeping up a penny of his weekly school^fee. After the trial and award, which were both just and judicious, the teacher asked the school, " How many of us have been tried now!" A voice called out, " J. H, has been tided," This was indignantly denied by J. H. The teacher turning to J, M., asking him if he had ever been tried ? He hung his head, and answered " Yes." "What was it for?'* *' Master, do you not remember yourself?'' " I do ; but are you any the better of your trial and punishment?" "I've never stolen since, any how." " What was your reason for not stealing ? " I lis" tened to the thing in my breast, and that told me it was a crime." J. M's offence had been watching, all the time of school, a penny-piece which had been dropped under the stove, and secretly appropriating it when the school was dismissed. His confession bore that his first purpose was to buy bowls (marbles,) but he felt so unhappy that he could not make up his mind to look upon what he should purchase, and formed the singular resolution to expend the mpney in something eatable, that he might get it out of his sight ! This he did, and gave a share to a school-fellow. He was asked whether his conscience did not upbraid him. He answered " It did not speak very loud at first ; but I grew very unhappy, and was happier after I was tried and punished." His contrite tears mov-^ ed the compassion of his numerous judges, who wished to spare him j but this was not admissible in the circumstances, and a few pats on the hand were the form of corporal punishment allotted him. He was sorely tempted, for he confessed that he kept^ his eye on the penny-piece for two hours before he took it. 5. The following incident was communicated by agentleman from England, Dr. Harrison Black, who, in company with the Chevalier de Frasans, Judge of Assize under Charles X., witnessed the whole occurrence :— The Chevalier de Frasans being present, the master was suddenly called into the play-ground, in consequence of a cry that one boy had struck another on tire forehead, so as to make the blood flow : All the children were immediately called in, and in- quiry made as to who had been witnesses of the affair. Those who presented themselves w^ere sent into an adjoining room, and the in- jured party desired to state his grievance. He simply said, T. B. had " struck him with a spade"' (which had for a moment been left by a workman,) and that he did not believe it had been done on purpose. The offending party being called, saidj " J. M. had told him he could not lift up the spade, and in trying to show that he could do it, the blow was given." The witnesses were called in, one by one, and gave their testimony v/ith great clearness, particularly a little qua* ker girl. They all corroborated the statement of the accused party. The teacher then asked of the whole assembly of children, *' What punishment ought to be awarded ?" The general cry was, ** Three palmies," {i. e. three pats upon the palm of tlie hand,) 21 24:2 APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPOgf. because that punishment had been a few days before awarded to H. S. But one hoy rose, and exclaimed, "Noj that is notfair,'for H.S^ told a falsehood about the fault be had committed, and T. B. did not tell any falsehood." The justice of this remark seemed to be generally understood ; and part only of the punishment was determined upon^ The culprit was then reminded, that although the blow had not been given intention- ally, still he had broken a law which forbade all ihe children to touch the tools of the workmen, and was made sensible that the punishment was not inflicted because the teacher was angry, but because be, T. B., had broken a law. The truth of this the little oifender fully ac- knowledged to the bystanders, as well as to his master and school- fellows. The punishment actually inflicted was a gentle tap upon the hand. Hereupon a new and unespected scene arose, the offended parti/ seeing that all around concurred in condemning the offender, cried out, " I'll find a coachman's whip, and lash him." This gave oc- casion to another appeal to the children as to the injustice of this threatened second punishment, and ended by the threatener being made sensible that allpresent were now against him. As a proof, he said, " Don't be frightened, Tom, I'll not whip you, or tell my fa- ther." It appeared that he had been so short a time in the school, as not to have become imbued with the governing principles of the place. 7. A little boy came to school with his hands covered with paint. He applied to the teacher's sister to aid him in his extremity, which she did effectually by dint of hot water and soap. He promised to reward her with "a halfpenny, whenever he should get one. She wishing to try him, asked him some days afterwards if he had for- gotten his promise. He answered, No, but that he had put the first halfpenny he had got into the poor's plate at church. Having soon after got a halfpenny from a lady, he rung the teacher's house-bell, and gave the money to his creditor, who took it, but, after some days, restored it. 3. Proofs of the success of the System, in its fundamental principle ; of governing by Love, and not by Fear, and that consistently with the most perfect order and discipline. 1. The master one day intimated that he wanted a number of arti- cles, of a kind which he enumerated, to illustrate the lessons. He was next day inundated with all sorts of odds and ends, every child bringing with him something, — leather, feathers, cloths, silk, stones, wood, glass, &c. &c. 2. Accidentally saying that he would come and visit his pupils at their own homes, and if he did, how would they entertain him, the question was answered, by a burst of hospitalit}', and the number and variety of the articles of cheer enumerated were too much for his gravity. He observed, however, that ivhislcey 'was not among the temptations offered him, in the competition for the preference of his company. 3. A parent came one day to the school, expressly to be satisfied on the puzzle, as he said, it was to him, how a schoolmaster conld render himself the object of love ! His own was always the object of APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. 243 terror ; and, instead of running to him when he appeared, he and his schoolmates went offin the opposite direction, vAih the greatest alert- ness. His boy, he said, runs to the master whenever he sees him, and is proud to come home and tell that he has shaken hands with Mr. Wright, of whom, as well as of Mrs. Wright and Maggy (the lat- ter a worthy of three years old, the master's child, who sets an ex- ample to the whole school) he never ceases to speak. Mr. Wright requested the inquirer to remain, and see how he treated his scholars. He did so, and witnessed the kindness, the cheerfulness, and the fun which never flags, while he saw discipline and obedience at the same time. The children went to the play- ground, and to the amazement of the visiter, the teacher, ran out, crying, " Hare and hounds ! hare and hounds i" taking the first cliaracter on himself^ he was instantly pursued full cry by the whole pack, round and round the play-ground : at last he was taken, and worried by an immense act of co-operation. In his extremity, hs rang his hand-hell for school ; instantly the hounds quitted their prey, rushed into school, the door being scarcely wide enough for them, ajnd were within a minute as still as a rank of soldiers, seated in their gallery, and busy with the multiplication table. The visiter went away, with a shrug, muttering, " Na, the jikeo'that I ne'er saw !" Many pages might be filled with anecdotes illustrative of the bene- ficial effects of the system in preventing the numerous fears, follies, •env^ings, discontents, and prejudices, which render the lower class&s so intractable- The superstitious fear of ghosts, witches, &c. is prac- tically removed. A person informed Mr. Wright, that as he was crossing a ehurehyaid, not without the habitual dread which from his youth he could not separate from the place, he met a httle girl of five years old marching through all alone. " Was she not afraid ?' " Not a bit : we learn at the Infant School that ghosts and all that is non- sense." All dirty, gross, destructive, selfish^ and insolent habits are proscribed, and carefully prevented ; and, above all, luhiskey is held up as the greatest of curses to society, and many a lesson is taught of its effects on both mind and body. The children heard with much indignation, of a crowd in the street, insulting a poor Turk, — of some boys who teazed an idiot — of the mob breaking windows on occasion of the illumination — and of the people maltreating the Doctors for their kindness in trying to cure the Cholera. J^. B. It is unnecessary to give examples of the effect of Intellectu- al Practice, as there is less novelty in children being trained to acute- ness and sagacity ; and much of this is capable of exhibition to the public, which is not possible, on set occasions, with proofs of moral .advancement. The results in this department, it may, hov/ever, be mentioned, are most satisfactory. II. — Letters from the Parents. In order to ascertain that the effects of the moral training were not a mere show at school, Mr. Wright M'as directed to write a circular aote to a large proportion of the parents, requesting their opinion, in writing, of the improvement of their children attending the school, ixi learning, manners, affection, obedience, health, and happiness. Above thirty answers were received, of which we can only give a 244 APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPOiCr. very few as specimens, which we do at random. The originals mar be seen by any one who chooses, in Mr. Wright's hands. It may \u general be remarked that there is a striking agreement among them m a zealous readiness to express, in strong terms, their sense of and grati- tude for the advantages their children enjoy at school, and the im- provement of their own comfort in their intercourse with their chil- dren at home. The delight of the children in attending School, and affection for the Teacher, are mentioned in most of them. 1. Dear Sir, — I can scarcely express to you how much my children have been benefited by your more than excellent mode of tuition. Whether the many improvements so perceptible in them proceeds from our own qualifications, or from the general system, I know not ; but this I know, that before my children attended the Infant School, they were slow, dull, and unmanageable ; they are now active, lively, and obedient. I am, &c,. (Signed) James Forbes. 2. Sir, — I received your letter regarding the opinion I had formed of my son's improvement at the Infant School. I beg leave to state, that it has exceeded my utmost expectation ; and in answer to your questions, the Infant School system, so far from alienating the affec- tions of children to their parents, it increases them to a high degree,, and makes them more obedient, and promotes greatly their health and happiness, and they are greatly benefited by the instructions they receive. I have also to return my sincere thanks for your kind- ness and indulgence to them. I am, &c. (Signed) E. Graham. 3. Sir, — I have the pleasure to inform you, that my child has im- proved in every respect. The affection of the child is not alienated from its parents : it is more affectionate and obedient. The health and happiness of the child is greatly improved and much benefited by the instructions received at the School. I am, &c, (Signed^ James Fogo. 4. Dear Sir. — It gives me great satisfaction to inform you of the rapid progress the child is making under your care ; indeed it is won- derful for so short a time. Owing to your excellent method, she has acquired a taste for learning she never could get at home. She has forgot her playthings, and if the day is so bad that she cannot go to school, she either sings us a song, tells a story, or goes through part of her school exercises the best way she can by herself. She often mentions some part of Scripture, although she is only five years old. I assure you, Sir, her love and respect for her master is great. I think, Sir, all this will give you pleasure to hear, and with good wishes for the improvement of the children, and thanks for what has already been done. I am, &c. (Signed) Catharine Robertson. 5. Sir, — I am really delighted with my son for his intelligence since he went under your tutorage ; and I altogether approve of Mr. Wiiderspin's System of treating children, and, in my opiftion, it is not only now, but in future years, it will be instilled in his memory. And you, Sir, I am convinced, have done your duty from the affec- tion that he has towards you, for he is always speaking about Mr=, .APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. 245 %Vright, or giving us a recital of the useful information you give him : and so much I approve of the system, that I am going to send ano- ther boy of mine as soon as the days get a little longer ; and please accept of our best thanks for your attention to our son. I am, &;c. (Signed) Thomas Watson. 6. Sir,— With regard to our son's morals, wq think them very much improved, for he has a true sense betvi^een right and wrong, and the greatness and goodness of God. His intellectual parts are as far advanced as we could expect in the time he has been at School, and we by no means think his affections alienated from us. As far as our judgment can direct us, we think it must be a great benent to society. 1 am, &c. (Signed) James Thomson. Many of the other letters are both well written and worded, and all of them are interesting and satisfactory.* III.— Rules for the Society and/or the Management of the School ^ 1. The object of the Edinburgh Infant School Society is to establish and support in this City a Model School for the inculcation of Christiantruth on the infant mind, according to the mode of in- struction laid down in the fourth edition of Mr. V/ilderspin's work on Infant Education ; to establish such other Schools of the same kind as their funds may permit, and to promote the formation of similar Schools both in Edinburgh and elsewhere, by affording every facility and encouragement in their power in favour of the extension of Infant Education. 2. Donors of Five Guineas, and Subscribers of Five Shillings an- nually, to the funds, shall be^considered members of the Edinburgh Infant vSchool Society. 3. The affairs of the Society sh all be under the direction of a Pa- tron, President, Three Vice-Presidents, Twenty -four Extraordinary and Twelve Ordinary Directors, a Secretary and Treasurer. 4. The active management of the Institution shall be entrusted to the Ordinary Directors, the Secretary and Treasurer being ex-officio members of that body, and five being a quorum. They shall hold stated Quarterly M^eetings on the first Monday of January, April, July, and October. i 5. Every year one Vice-President, one fourth part of the number of Extraordinary, and also of the Ordinary Directors, shall go out in rotation,'and be replaced by an equal number of others elected at the Annual M-eeting, the individuals so retiring bein^ always eligible to be re-elected. 6. Three of the Ordinary Directors shall be appointed at each Gluarterly Meeting, especially to superintend the school, on the first Monday of every month to examine into the state of the school, and to re* ceive and determine on all applications for admission ; and such Direc- tors shall report their proceedings in a book to be kept for that purpose. 7. Such clergymen as are in the direction of the Society, together ' Mrs.W. did not write, but called at the School to bear her willing testimony to ber boy's change of character since he attended tiie School. She said he was previously a stubborn, wilful boy, and took twenty biddings, He nowobeys fo: one, and that-cheerfullv. 21* 246 APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOIi REPORT. with any other Members who may be appointed, shall be a standing Committee for rehgious purposes. 8. At the (Quarterly Meeting in January, the Directors shall nomi- nate a Ladies' Visiting Committee, who shall be requested to visit regularly, by Sub-Committees of their number, appointed from time to time, to examine into the state of clothing, cleanliness,and health of the children, and to suggest any improvement in the state of the School which may^occur to them, in a book to be kept for that purpose. 9. The master* and Mistress shall be elected annually by the Or- dinary Directors, and be under their control. 10. An annual General Meeting of the Society, with or without an exhibition of the children, as may be resolved by the Ordinary Direc- tors, shall be held at some convenient time in the month of May. At that General Meeting the Ordinary Directors shall be required to give in a Report of their proceedings, and of the state of their funds. 11. The Directors shall be empowered to form whatever pro- visional regulations may be found requisite to enable them best to ful- fil the object of the Society, such regulations not becoming permanent till they have received the approval of the Society at a General Meet- ing. RULES FOR THE MASTER AND fiHSTRESS. 1. The Master shall open and close the School each day with prayer. 2. The Master and Mistress shall read the Scriptures in the School daily, and shall endeaA'our to bring Scripture truth and sound moral principles to bear practically upon the minds and consciences of the children, with a simplicity and mildness suited to their tender years, and shall take care that all restraints or corrections which pro- per disciphnemay require, be exempt from every species of harshness, anger, and violence. 3. Either the Master or Mistress shall (dways superintend the chil- dren while in the play-grounds. 4. The School to be kept clean, to be swept every day, and the floor-gallery and seats to be washed every Saturday afternoon, so as to be perfectly dry before Monday. RULES FOR THE SCHOOL. 1. Each child to pay twopence weekly, 'which must be paid every Monday morning. When two or more children belong to one family, only one penny weekly will be required for each additional child. 2. Children to be admitted on the first IVIonday of every month only, when a Committee of the Directors will attend to receive them. 3. Children shall not be admitted before they are two years of age, nor after five years of age ; neither shall any be admitted who have any infectious disease, or who may not have been vaccinated or have had tlie small-pox. 4. Parents must send their children whh hands, face, and neck dean, their hair cut short and combed, and their clotlies as clean and decent as possible. 5. The hours of attendance to be, in the summer half-year from APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. 247 the Ist March to the 1st October, as follows : The School to open at Half-past Nine, and exercise to begin at Ten precisely, and to con- tinue till Five, with an interval of one hour from One to Two, for din- ner ; and in the Winter half-year, to commence at the same time and to continue till Three, with half an hour interval for dinner. The children to be at liberty to bring their dinner, and remain within the premises till the School recommences. 6. The Children absent three days, or late in coming to School for one week without leave, or a satisfactory excuse, shall forfeit their right of attendance. 7. Persons wishing to visit the School will be admitted on Tuesdays and Fridays. No individual to be admitted at any other time, except the visiters appointed to attend in rotation, or such as have permis- sion in writing from one of the Directors. IV. — Kinds of Articles which loill he thankfully received at the Infant School in the Vennel,from the Public, for the Museum of the School. 1. Models of ships, boats, simple machines, tools, curiosities, &c. 2. Specimens of manufactures, common and curious. 3. Specimens of metals, wood, nuts, and such Hke portable botan- ic articles, and of mineral stones. 4. Foreign articles, especially from rude tribes. 5. Pictures of costumes of various races of men, and historical and interesting pictures of all kinds. 6. Stuffed birds and animals, and pictures of them. 7. Miscellaneous articles of all kinds which will surprise, amuse, or instruct children from two to six years of age ; such as puzzles, dissected pictures and maps, changing figures, curious toys, &c. &c= &c. 248 No. IV. LETTER FllOil THE REV. MR. CUNNINGHAM, HEAD MASTER OP THE EDINBURGH INSTITUTION FOR LANGUAGES, MATHEMA- TICS, &c.^ Edinburgh, 6. Hill-Street. Zth March liU. Dear Sir, — Tn answer to your inquiries, I beg leave to state tfie result of my experience in teaching the Classics and IMathematica in George Watson's Hospital, and the Edinburgh Institution. The time allotted in Watson's Hospital, to the teaching of Latin in the higher classes, was two hours daily, Greek one hour, Arithmetic and Algebra one hour, and Geometry one hour. This portion of time was found sufficient for communicating a competent knowledge of Latin, and Greek, and the elements of Mathematics. In proof of this, I may state, that of three pupils, who were sent to College, during the time in which I acted as House-Governor, one obtained a prize in the second Greek class, the first year of his attendance at college, and a prize in the Senior Humanity class the second year of his attendance ; two obtained prizes in the Junior Mathematical class the first year of their attendance ; and the third, without obtaining prizes, distinguish- ed himself by his knowledge of the business of each of these classes. I may appeal also to the manner in which the pupils acquitted them- selves at the annual examination, as attested by written testimonials from tlie Professors and others who attended as examinators, and to the appointment of two Latin Masters of that Institution in succes- sion, the one to the Grammar School of Dumfries, and the other to Madras College, at St. Andrews. In the institution which I now conduct, two hours daily are allotted to the teaching of Greek and Latin. By limiting the number of pu- pils, by confining their attention to what is essential to the attainment of a knowledge of the language, and by unremitting exertions during the hours o-f teaching, I have been enabled to read and analyze mi- nutely, nearly as much as is read in classes of the same standing at the Academy and High School. I have found that the progress of my pupils in reading the classics, has been greatly faciUtated by the knowledge which they acquired in the other classes of the Institution ; and that they have been enabled to sustain their attention much more vigorously during the hours of teaching, by having it relieved by a change of employment. In the Institution one hour a-day is allotted to Geometry, and one to Arithmetic and Algebra. The age at which pupils usually enter on the study of Geometry, is fourteen. Two hours a-day devoted to these studies for two years by a boy of that age, ought to qualify him, in as far as regards Mathematics, either for 249 the'^business of life, cr for the liigher classes at the University. The pupils attending the Institution consist of two classes, those who combine the study of the ancient languages, with Mathematics and Modern languages, and those whose attention is directed chiefly to the two last. Both these classes prosecute at the same time the study of History, and Geography, and of Enghsh literature and composition'; a considerable number also attend the Masters for Writing, Land- scape, and Architectural Drawing, and Fencing and Gymnastics. In addition to the studies above enumerated, I have long been of opinion that Natural History, and the Elements of Natural Philoso- phy, and Chymistry, might be introduced with advantage. The difficulty of procuring a museum, andjthe necessary philoso- phical instruments, and a person properly qualified to give^ instruc- tions in these branches of knowledge, has hitherto prevented me from making the attempt. Until the public mind is more impressed with the importance of instruction in natural science, and the practicability of conveying this instruction, even to very young persons, such an attempt is not, indeed, likely to succeed. In the mean time as much information as possil»le on these subjects is conveyed by the English I am. Dear Sir, yours faithfully, ROBT, CUNNINGHAM, 250 No. V. SPECLMEN OF THE DAJLY RECORD OF DUTIES, ORGANIC, MORAL RELIGIOUS, AND LNTELLECTUAL, AS KEPT FOR ONE WEEK. H 1^ f fa CP ■2 r II 6. 7. 8. 10. 14. 15. a i ^,23, 24,25, Organic Duties. Moderate and 'Wholesoine Food, Air and Exercise, Cleanliness, . . . - Early Hours, but sufficient Sleep, Moral and Religious Duties. Gentleness, Forbearance, no Contention, Courage, no Cowardice, - - Activity, no Listlessness or Idleness, Good Temper, no Passion or Cruelty, Openness, no Cunning or Deceit, Frugality no Greedinec-s, or Miserliness; Huniilit3% no Pride, no Meanness, No Insolence, Derision, or Provocation, No Self-Prefer., no Jealousy, no Envy, Regard to good Opinion, no tfhameless- ness, ------ No Courtiuff of Praise, no Vanitj', Caution, Circumspection, no Rashness, Spontaneous kindness, no Coldliearted- ness, - - - . . Truth, Justice, Charitable Judgment, ' Candour, Gratitude, Conscientious Duty, seen or not seen, Love and Obedience to God, Religious Duties, . . - . Obedience and Deference to Parents, Respectfulness to Super., Equals, Inf. Cheerfulness, Content, Fortitude, Resistance of Temptation, no Obstinacy, - . - . No Exaggerat. or Marvellous Embellish. Refinement, no Vulgarity, Intellectual Duties. Accurate Obser. of Objects and Events, Attentive Study and Improvement, Order and Punctuality, Exercise of Reflection and Good Sense. I T N o N o N o w o vv o N o r N o N o T o T T T o T N o N T N o N o N o T o T N N o T T N o N o N N S T VW T S T T T S T S T S T S T S T T S T W T 3 T S T S T N W S T S T S T S T W W — ExPLANATfON. — The figures on the left denote the Faculties concerned in the du- ties, (see Table, p. 110.) The pupil enters in pencil, to be inked, if approved b}' the Teacher, the fulfilment, &c. of each duty, thus, — by the letter O, if obeyed, N, if neglected, — T, if transgressed, — ST, if seriously transgressed. The mother, or teacher, alone enters W for well done, — VW, very well, when respectively merited. The hyphen or score means no entry called for. Each book, in quarto size, exactly like the well kuovr'n annual house-book from which it was copied; lasts the pupil a year. 251 No. VI. SUMMARY OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE ASSOCIATION FDR PRO- CURING INSTRUCTION IN USEFUL AND ENTERTAINING SCIENCE? I ROM ITS Institution in 1832 to April 1S34. In the summer of 1832, several individuals engaged in mercantile and trading avocations, and who were then attending Mr. Coaibe's evening Course of Lectures on Phrenology, expressed a strong desire for a more extended course during winter, along with lectures ori some other subjects of Natural Science, With this view they resolv- ed to form themselves into an association for procuring such instruc- tion, at convenient hours, and on moderate terms ; and-in order to make the Public acquainted with their intentions, as well as to ascer- tain the support likely to be obtained, they printed and circulated the following "Proposal for Courses of Lectures on Natural History — Chymistry— and Phrenology combined Avith Physiology." " The want of the means of obtaining a general knowledge of these sciences has long been felt by the Middle Classes of society. Hitherto they have possessed few opportunities for becoming ac- quainted with a mass of highly useful and interesting information, which it would be the object of these Lectures to communicate, and which, in its numerous apphcations to the purposes of life, is calcu- lated greatly to improve our physical, moral, and intellectual nature. " The regular lectures delivered on the subjects before mentioned — besides being inaccessible to Females, and being delivered at hours inconvenient for persons engaged in ordinary business — are too pure- ly scientific, too little applicable to the advancement of individuals in general knowledge, and also too expensive, to benefit the unpro- fessional student. A wide field of usefulness therefore lies open, which may be successfully occupied by skilful teachers if duly en- couraged by the public. " It is unnecessary to enter into a lengthened statement of the ad- vantages of a knowledge of the sciences above named. To those who have been longing for such an opportunity as is now oifered to them, the mere proposal is enough ; but to others who may have been hitherto indifferent about such matters, or who would seek nothing more than amusement after closing their daily labours, it may be pro- per to state, that the branches which are included in the proposed Courses, afford an inexhaustible supply of the most varied and inte- resting amusement as well as instruction. Natural Science possesses charms to interest both the old and the young, the learned and the unlearned ; and were the simple and beautiful laws by which the whole of nature is held together more studied and better understood than they generally are, how differently, indeed, would the world be 252 PROCEEDINGS OF EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION. looked upon, and with what innocent, profitable, and lasting pleasure would those hours then be spent, which are now too often trifled away in frivolity and ennui, or dissipation. " To some it may appear strange, to many it may seem even ridicu- lous, to see Phrenology in the list of the proposed studies ; but the pro- jectors of this Course are persuaded, that Phrenology is the only phi- losophical system which has any claim to the character of a true theory of human nature, and that exhibits man in his true relation to the other beings in this world. While, therefore, two of the depart- ments of the Lectures, Natural History and Chymistry, are intended for instruction in the nature of inorganic or lifeless substances, and of organic and animal beings, — the projectors look to Phrenology combined with Physiology, for the most important of all scientific information — the knowledge of man's nature as an organized, anima- ted, and moral being. Without this, and a knowledge of the rela- tion in which man stands to other beings, the proposed lectures would be imperfect ; and, judging from what they have lately seen — the continued interest with which Mr. Combe's Evening Lectures on Phrenology have been attended, as also from what they have heard of the interest taken in similar lectures recently given at the London Mechanic's Institution and elsewhere — the projectors flatter them- selves that this part of the proposal will meet v/ith very general ap- probation among those persons for whom the Courses are intended. " While, however, it is considered of importance that all the three departments of the Lectures shall be attended, it will be left to the choice of Subscribers to attend any one or more at pleasure." And v/ith this view the folloAving fees are fixed : — For Geology alone, 7s. 6d. ; Chymistry alone, 10s. 6d. ; Phrenology and Physiology alone, 10s. 6d. ; Geology and Chymistry combined, 13s. 6d.; Geology, Phrenology, and Physiology combined, 13s. 6d.; Chymistry, Phre- nology and Physiology, combined, 15s. ; Geology, Chymistry, Phre- nology and Physiology, combined, 20s.— All the tickets transfer- able. It having soon appeared that the plan was generally approved of, arrangements were made with Dr. Murray to give the Lectures on Geology and Chymistr}', and with Mr. Cobibe to give those on Phre- nology^ and Physiology. In October a numerous meeting of Sub- scribers and others was held in the Waterloo Rooms, when a Report, explanatory of the measures which had been adopted, and of ihefarther objects in view, was read and approved of, and a Committee ap- pointed for superintending the details. The number of Subscribers, even at the commencement of the Lectures, exceeded all expectation, and in a short time it became necessary, owing to the crowded state of the rooms, to stop the farther sale of tickets, and limit the number of visiters, although the latter paid 6d. for admission to each lecture. The remarkable success of this Winter Course will be apparent from the following detailed Abstract of Pi.eceipt and Expenditure, pub- lished ill the Directors' Second Report. PROCEEDINGS OF EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION. 253 Detailed Abstract of Receipt and Expenditure, RECEIPT. Tickets Visiters Total Sold. Admitted, Received. Geology 251. ...£69 4 0.... 142. .,.£3 11 0.... £72 15 Chyinistry.,..229 90 0... .387. ....^O 13 6 99 13 6 Plirenology,..225 89 18 6.. .700 17 10 107 8 6 705.. .,£249 22 6... 1229.. ,£30 14 6. ..£279 17 EXPENDITURE. Oeology & Chymistry. — Paid Dr. Murrayi ^ £52: 10:0; Fittings in Waterloo Rooms, \ £16:11:8; Room Rent, DoorKeeper, and [£ 115 Q 3 Cleaning, £ 30 : 15:8; proportion of adver- f tising and Printing, £8 : 10 : 11 ; Gas, Coals, Stationery, &c. £ 5 : 12 : 0, . . . . j Fhrenolosy,— Paid Fittings in Clyde-street I Hall, £ 9 : 15 : 4 ; proportion of advertising i 107 8 6 and printing, £6:5: 10 ; Hiv. Combe, per j agreement, £91 : 7 ; 4 ; j Total outlay ______ Surplus on Geology and Chymistry Classes, .... £57 8 3 Donation from Mr. Combe, 21 Total Surplus at 22d March 1833, ...... £78 8 3 At the date of the above Report, on the 25th of March 1833, Mr. Combe's Course was not terminated, but continued till 25th April, in which intermediate period 293 additional visiters were admitted j being in all 1218 visiters and ticket-holders for his class. At the con- clusion of his Course, Mr. Combe also delivered three additional morning Lectures on Popular Education, which were well attended, and the proceeds of which were added to the funds of the Association. It having been originally intended that the subjects to be ^succes- sively treated of should embrace all the most interesting departments of Natural Science, and it being now deemed expedient that these should be considered in the order in which they would most advanta- geously or naturally follow each other, the Directors agreed with Pro- fessor Drummond of Belfast, a gentleman highly recommended, to give a course of twenty-five Lectures on Botany during the summer. These Lectures, notwithstanding several obstacles— such as the epi- demic which so generally prevailed in May, the usual press of mer- cantile business during that month, and other causes — wer^ respec- tably and regularly attended; 191 Tickets having been sold at 7s, 6d. each, and 1 62 Visiters admitted at 6d. — the proceeds amount- ing in all to £75, 4s., as appears from the detailed Abstract of Re- ceipt and Expenditure appended to the Third printed Report. Following ovit their plan, and considering it prudent, in the^mean time, not to repeat any Course of Lectures during two successive seasons, the Directors next arranged for the courses of Lectures de- livered during winter 1833-4, viz. on Natural Philosophy, by George 22 954 l»R0CEEDlN6S OF EDlJfBUftGH ASSOCIATiaN. Lees, A. M., of the Scottish Naval and Military Academy — on Astronomy, by the Rev. Thomas Gray of Kirkcaldy — and on Phy- siology and Zoology, by Mr. W. A. F. Browne, Surgeon, Stirling. The prices of the Tickets to each of these Courses were as- fol- lows :— Natural Philosophy, if taken alone (30 Lectures,) 10s. 6d.; Astronomy alone (20 Lectures,) 9s. ; Physiology and Zoology alone (25 Lectures,) 7s. 6d. ; Natural Ph-ilosophy and Astronomy, if taken togeiher, Hs. ; Natural Philosophy and Physiology, together, 13s, 6d. ; Astronomy and Physiology, together, 12s. ; Natural Philoso- phy, Astronomy, and Physiology, together, £1. — Visiters were ad- mitted upon paying 6d. at the door for each Lecture on Natural Phi- losophy and Physiology, and Is. for each on Astronomy. These Lectures were commenced in the Waterloo Rooms in the first week of November ; but preliminary to these courses, Mr. Combe, at the solicitation of the Directors, repeated his Three Lec- tures on Popular Education ; and, from the great satisfaction which they gave to the highly respectable and numerous audiences who at- tended, the Directors further ventured to request that they might be pubhshed, for the benefit of all who take an interest in so important a subject. This request has now been also very kindly complied with by Mr. Combe.; and it is not doubted that the enlightened and ' practical views advanced in these Lectures will speedily operate m effecting an important improvement in our pubUc and private semina- ries of Education, A Second General Meeting of the Subscribers was held on the 16th of January, when the Fourth Report of the Directors was read, and afterwards printed and widely circulated, — of which the following is an extract. " In the three Reports which have been published by the Directors, the highly interesting nature and general utility of the study of Na- tural Science to the young and old of both sexes were briefly explain- ec, ad have since been so clearly demonstrated by the lecturers as to render it unnecessary to recur to the subject at present. It is sufficient to remark, that, in general, the expositions of the various sciences allotted to the lecturers have afforded much gratification to the hearers. To many, the instruction thus imparted has been al- ready of incalculable benefit in their professions, and other concerns of life ; while it has, at the same time, opened up to them delightful and practical views of the human constitution — and external objects — of the relation in which these stand to each other — and of the wis- dom, goodnes3, and other attributes ofthegreat Author of all, — which it is probable, they would- never otherwise have obtained. It is true that it is impossible to acquire from lectures, either within or out;of the University, an intimate knowledge of the details of science, but still much benefit is to be derived fiom attendance on lecturers ; and it is hoped that the instruction provided by this Association has been such as to substitute clear and precise conceptions of subjects of great importance, for the obscure and confused notions which previously existed. To those who may wish to advance still fart ler in search of truth, the lectures are calculated to be very useful, by fccil tating their subsequent studies, and directing them to those subjects which are most deserving of attention. PROCEEDINGS OF EDINBURGH ASSOCIATIONS. 255 " It is also gratifying to be able to state, that at Glasgow and other places, popular lectures on Natural Science have attracted no less attention. A public meeting was some time ago held at Exeter for procuring similar instruction, at which extracts from the R,eports of this Association were read, and its proceedings otherwise highly commended. In the Autumn of 1833, Dr. Murray was called to Liverpool to deliver in the Royal Institution of that city, those excel- lent lectures on G eology which were so favourably received here last, winter ; and so attractive did the subject immediately prove, that only a few days after his arrival, he was solicited and engaged to re- peat the course, not only in the Mechanic's Institution of Liverpool, but also in that of Manchester. At Glasgow, both last winter and this, popular lectures have been delivered on Natural Philosophy, Chymistry, Anatomy, Physiology, and Phrenology, to crowded audi- ences ; — and Mr. Browne, our able lecturer on Physiology and Zoolo- gy, having complied with an invitation to lecture on Plarenology ai Dunfermline, began his course about three weeks ago, and is at present attended by nearly 400. persons of both sexes, and of the most select portion of the community, in point of intelligence, wealth, and gene- ral respectability. Other places might likewise be mentioned, but these are sufficient ; and it is not doubted that the interest and dis- cussion which have been excited by Mr. Combe's talented lectures on Education, will be influential in speedily bringing about the time when instruction in Natural Science will be everywhere considered an indispensable branch of elementary education. In the mean time, popular lectures will be beneficial in affording to parents and guardians a practical illustration of the highly interesting and useful nature of such studies and will in some degree supply the want of primary schools for youth in this'department of knowledge. " The success which has thus attended popular lectures, as well as cheap publications, is important, both as being an unequivocal symp- tom of the strong desire that prevails for substantial knowledge, and as having fully demonstrated the possibility of supplying information at a trifling expense to individuals, and at the same time suflficiently remunerating the instructers. " It only now remains for the Directors to lay before the Associa- tion a state of the obligations and income connected with all these courses of lectures. Detailed states of the receipt and expenditure up to 3d July last, have already been regularly printed and circulatedj and it is presumed to be unnecessary here to recur to them. 356 proceedings op edinburgh association. "Total Receipts for 1832-3. Phrenology, Chymistry, Geology, Three Lectures on Education, given sepa rately in April 1 833, Botany, day class, Botany, evening class, Three Lectures on Education, given ii November 1833 (in addition to the hold ers of tickets to any of the other class es, who were admitted to the Lectures on Education free), Natural Philosophy, . . .... Astronomy, Physiology, ,...,.... Tickets sold. 225 229 251 192 239 298 294 Visiters ad- mitted at 6d each. 993 387 142 242 at Is 33 do. 163 340 197 114 at Is. 166 Rec eipts. £115 16 4 100 73 12 2 38 5 75 12 8 10 101 3 105 19 6 89 11 6 1788 2777 £720 6 6 Paid to Lecturers, and other charges, . . 609 6 6 Siuplus at 16th January 1834,* . . . £111 " In the summary appended to Mr. Combe's lectures, the Directors intimated certain regulations which had been under consideration for the future government of the Institution, and which will now be laid before the meeting. With regard to the first of these, namely, — that there shall be twenty-four Directors^ one-half of whom shall be an- nually changed, and an equal number elected by a General Meeting of the members,-- it may be simply noticed, that as it was obvious the Directors must necessarily be intrusted with somewhat extensive powers regarding the selections of subjects for lecture, &c., it was desirable that they should be pretty numerous, and that an efficient management should be secured as much as possible by a regular change of the old and an accession of new and active office-bearers. "It was found somewhat difficult to fix on the most desirable qua- lifications for constituting ordinary members, in order that the condi- tions might be at once beneficial to them as well as to the Association. The Directors are of course aware, that in other public institutions, the payment of a sum of money, annually or otherwise, is the chief qualification required ; but they also know, that, in many instances, the subscribers derive little or no direct benefit in return ; and the consequence frequently is, that so soon as the public excitement or private zeal which originated, and for a time supported, the Institu- tion has abated, the members have gradually withdrawn, and the scheme has been finally abandoned. In the present instance, there- fore, it is recommended that full value in tickets to the lectures shall always be given for the contributions. * From the above date to' 5th April, 40 additional tickets have been sold and 36T visiters admitted,— being in all 871 tickets disposed of,, and 1184 visiters admitted,, during winter 1833-4. PROCEEDINGS OF EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION. 257 *' Lastly, in order to diminish, in future, the great expense attend- ant upon room- rent, seating, and repeated fittings, which, under the cir- cumstances, has been hitherto necessarily incurred, it has been pro- posed that measures should be speedily taken by the Association for raising funds, by subscription, to build a proper lecture-room for themselves. This being a matter, however, requiring mature deli- beration, the directors do not deem it necessary to enter into farther detail regarding it at present. It may also here be remarked, that they have not thought it expedient to recommend the purchase of ar.y scientific apparatus, or other materials, conceiving that it will be more advantageous to the Association, and more satisfactory to the respective lecturers, that each should furnish his own instruments, and leceive remuneration accordingly. Much trouble and responsibility will be thus also saved to the Directors." Upon this Report being read and approved of, the following Regu- lations were unani.mously agreed to. " I. The name of the Institution shall be, — The Edinburgh Asso- ciation FOR PROVIDING INSTRUCTION IN UsEFUL AND ENTERTAINING Sciences. " II. The subjects for Lectures shall be left to the judgment of the Directors for the time being. " III. There shaU be Twenty-four Directors, one half of whom shall be annually changed, and an equal number elected by a Gene- ral Meeting of the Members ; and the said Directors shall, from among their own number, choose a President, Treasurer, and Secre- tary. " IV. An annual payment of One Guinea shall entitle the contri- butor to Free Tickets for all the Lectures, to vote in the election of Directors, and to enjoy all the other privileges of an ordinary member. " V. Individuals shall be allowed to purchase tickets for admission to one or more of the Lectures, w^ithout becoming regular members. " VL The funds shall be deposited in a respectable bank (at pre- sent being so lodged,) in the names of the President, Treasurer, and Secretary. " VII. After the present season, the Annual Meeting of Members for the election of Office-Bearers, and other general business, shall be held in the month of March." Such is a short outline of the present Association. The leading points for observation in regard to it, as was well remarked in the Scotsman, are the following. 1st, It is composed of mercantile men, clerks in counting-houses and offices, manufacturers, with a few members of the legal profes- sion and students ; but almost all engaged in active industry of one kind or another. The lectures are delivered at half-past eight in the evening, to suit their convenience. There are among them no influ- ential literary or scientific characters. To use the words of the Lord Chancellor, they have " taken the business of education, with energy, into their own hands." They choose their own Directors, of whom twelve go out of office every year, and the Directors fix on the sub- jects to be brought forward, engage the lecturers, adjust their remune- ration, sell the tickets, and disburse all charges. 22* 258 PROCEEDINGS OF EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION, 2dly, No stated lecturers are appointed, nor is a fixed routine of instruction laid down. The Directors inquire what subjects will prove most interesting, select these, and then [look around them for the most able lecturers, to teach them, and stipulate with each his remuneration. If any lecturer fails to interest and instruct his au- dience, he will have small chance of being selected in a succeeding year. The tendency of this principle is to encourage the appearance of able lecturers, and to render it a matter of necessity for those who have not talent for the vocation to withdraw. We recommend to the Directors to be decided and uncompromising in rejecting every lec- turer who has not given ample satisfaction to his audience. They ought to allow no feeUngs of private friendship or supposed deli- cacy to individuals to induce them to tolerate feebleness, ignorance, or want of talent for instructing. 3dly, At these lectures, Females have an opportunity of receiv- ing instruction, which is denied them in nearly every other institution for education. They have largely availed themselves of the ad- vantages presented to them. Indeed, the Ladies of Edinburgh have earned a title to the highest estimation of the community, by the spi- rit with which they have entered into the study of useful knowledge. We could point out more than one mother in the higher ranks, who, after having received a fashionable education, the defects of which she felt in proportion as she became anxious to discharge her maternal duties, has repaired to these lectures, and gratefully acknowledged the benefits derived from them. And the same spirit has animat- ed the ladies of the middle rank, who compose the majority of the female part of the audiences, 4thly, These lectures, it has been seen, are remarkably cheap. The lectures on Natural Philosophy, thirty in number, cost 10s. 6d. j on Astronomy, twenty in number, 8s. ; on Physiology and Zoology, twenty-five in number, 7s. 6d ; or tickets for the whole three £1. Visiters are likewise admitted, upon paying Is. at the door, to the Astronomical Course, and 6d. to the other lectures. 5thly, The Directors have fearlessly and successively introduced subjects which persons of hterary and philosophical habits would probably have considered not adapted for the education of a popular audience of both sexes ; — we allude to Phrenology, Physiology, and Geology, particularly the first and second. The number of tickets sold and visiters admitted to each of these, aflbrds the best evidence of the sagacity with which the Directors judged of the public taste, when they selected these studies. Gthly, The last feature to be noticed, is the entire absence of eleemosynary assistance, and the success of the Directors in raising funds, adequate not only to remunerate the lecturers, but to meet the heavy charges of large lecture-rooms in a fashionable Tavern (Wa- terloo,) advertising, printing upwards of 7000 copies of Reports and comprehensive Syllabuses, and other incidents. The Fourth Report " shows, that, in the short period of fifteen months, they had drawn £720, and had in hand a balance of £111, after discharging all claims against them. PROCEEDINGS OF EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION. 259 This Association has received too little notice from the press, which may be attributed to the circumstance of no literary men being connected with it. Yet this is the very circumstance which gives it increased importance. It affords a gratifying example of what the middle class of society can do for itself; and, perhaps, no circumstance promises so favourable for the future glory and prosperity of Britain as this display, by the industrious part of the population, not only of the will but of the power of educating them- selves. 260 No. VIL EXTRACT FROM THE FIRST REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS appointed by the Lord Lieutenant to administer the Funds granted by Par- liament for the Education of the Poor of Ireland. Ordered, by the House of Coinmona, to be primed, March 3, 1S34. To his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant- General and General Governor of Ireland. We, the undersigned Commissioners appointed to administer the Funds granted by Parliament for the Education of the Poor of Ire- land, beg leave to report to Your Excellency as follows : We commenced receiving applications for aid towards Schools in January 1832, and the total number made to us to the present tim.e amounts to 1548. We have granted assistance to 789 Schools which are now in fall operation. We made- grants to 52 other Schools, Avhich have since ceased to be in connexion M'ith os ; iii general, we deemed it right to discontinue aid to them in consequence of the reports of our inspectors. We have promised aid towards the building of 199 Schools, which have not as yet been completed. We have rejected 216 applications, and have 292 now before us for consideration. The Schools which we already have in operation are attended by 107,042 children ; and according to the estimates transmitted to us, those which are to be opened in the houses not yet finished will be attended by a farther number of 36,804 ; so that the whole of the Schools existing and in preparation will afford the benefits of edu- cation to 143,846. We have the satisfaction to state, that throughout our correspon- dence with the patrons of schools, we have found them disposed to act with perfect integrity and candour : some instances of deviation from our rules have been reported to us, but on inquiryinto the cir- cumstances, we have in general received such explanations as have been satisfactory to us. ' An important part of the duty entrusted to us is the prepara- tion of books for the use of the Schools and School Libraries- We have hitherto directed our attention chiefly to the compilation of books for schools only ; we have prepared and published four num- bers of a series of reading books, to which we propose to add a fifth ; the lessons of which these books consist have been so written or se- REPORT OF IRISH COMMISSIONERS. 261 lected as that, while they are used in reading exercises, they convey elements of knowledge to the children in regular order. We have also published treatises on arithmetic and book-keeping and a transla- tion of Clairaut's Geometry. Some books having been hastily pre- pared to meet the urgent necessities of the schools, will require a farther revision, but we are enabled to add, that the whole have al- ready met with very general approbation, and we propose so to arrange the prices and mode of sale as to bring them as much as pos- sible into general use. Besides these works on the ordinary subjects of education, we have compiled and printed two numbers of a series of lessons from the Holy Scriptures, one from the Old, and the other from the New Tes- tament, and we propose to go on adding to them until we complete a copious abstract of the narrative parts of the Sacred Volume, inter- spersed with suitable passages from the poetical and didactic parts of it. We proceed on the undertaking with perfect unanimity, and anticipate, from the general circulation of the work, the best results. It having been imputed to us that we intended to substitute these extracts from the Scriptures for the Sacred Volume itself, we deemed it necessary to guard against such misrepresentations, by annexing to the first number of them the folio wing preface. "These selections are offered, not as a substitute for the Sacred Volume itself, but as an introduction to it, in the hope of their leading to a more general and more profitable perusal of the Word of God. The passages introduced have been chosen, not as being of more im- portance than the rest of Scripture, but merely as appearing to be most level to the understandings of children and youth at school, and also best fitted to be read under the directions of teachers not necessa- rily qualified, and certainly not recognized, as teachers of religion ; no passage lias either been introduced or omitted under the influence of any particular view of Christianity, doctrinal or practical." It has been farther imputed to us, that we denied to children the benefit of religious instruction, and kept the Word of God from them ; to guard^also against this extraordinary hiisrepresentation^ we have introduced the following notes into our regulations : No. 1. "The ordinary school business, during which all the children, of whatever denomination they be, are required to at- tend, and which is expected to embrace a competent number of hours in each day, is to consist exclusively of instruction in those branches of knowledge which belong to literary and moral edu- cation. Such extracts from the Scriptures as are prepared under the sanction of the Board may be used, and are earnestly recom- mended by the Board to be used, during those hours allotted to this ordinary school business. No. 2. " One day in each week (independently of Sunday) is to be set apart for religious instruction of the children, on which day such pastors or other persons as are approved of by the parents or guardians of the children, shall have access to them for that purpose, whether those pastors have signed the original apphca- tion or not. No. 3. " The managers of schools are also expected, should the parents of any of the children desire it, to afford convenient 262 REPORT OF IRISH COMMISSIONERS. opportunity and facility for the same purpose, either "before or after the ordinary school business (as the managers may deter- mine) on the other days of the week. No. 4. " Any arrangement of this description that may be made, is to be publicly notified in the schools, in order that those children, and those only, may be present at the religious in- struction, whose parents and guardians approve of their being so. No. 5. "The Reading of the Scriptures, either in the autho- rized or Douay version, is regarded as a religious exercise, and as such, to be confined to those hours which are set apart for reli- gious instruction. The same regulation is also to be observed respecting prayer. No. 6. "A register is to be kept in each school, recording the ' daily attendance of the children, and the average attendance in each week and each quarter, according to a form to be furnished by the Board." We have th\is shown to all who choose to read our rules, with the view of understanding, not perverting them, that, while we desire to bring Christian children of all denominations together, so that they may receive instruction in common in those points of education M'hich do not clash with any particular religious opinions, we take care that sufiicient time be set apart for separate religious instruction, and that the ministers of God's Word, of all Christian creeds, and those ap- ])roved of by them, shall have the fullest opportunity of reading and expounding it, and of seeing that the children of their respective de- nominations do read and imderstand it, not only "sveekly, but daily, if they think proper. The success which has attended our labours, as appears by the pro- gress we have made, abundantly proves that the system of education committed to our charge has been gratefully received and approved by the public in general ; we trust it will continue to spread and prosper. It shall be, as it ever has been, our constant object so to administer it as to make it acceptable and beneficial to the whole of His Ma- jesty's subjects ; to train up and unite through it the youth of the country together, whatever their religious differences may be, in feel- ings and habits of attachment and friendship towards each other, and thus to render it the means of promoting charity and good will amongst all classes of the people. We annex a statement of our receipts and expenditures to the 31st December 1833, and of our present Habilities, to which we beg to refer. (Signed) Leinster. Rd. Dublin. D- Murray. Franc Sadleir. James Carlisle. A. R. Blake. Robert Holmes.