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nament that can inspire a taste for them, and therefore will display all the graces which his subject admits, and which his classical education enables him to imitate in his maturer age. Esteem, lasting esteem, the esteem of good men, like himself, will be his reward, when the gale of ephemeral popularity shall have gradually subsided. Self-esteem also, will cause him to look back on his works with complacency. He leaves no baneful legacy of corruption to an unborn race. He has not lived in vain; much less to do mischief and aggravate the misery of human life. He has not adminis tered a poison, but an antidote. The liveliest imagination, the most brilliant wit, the most extensive knowledge, the most copious eloquence, have no just claim to the praise of posterity, if they have all been perversely employed to seduce a whole people from truth, and lead to those errors, which bring "confusion and every evil work" on society, and add bitterness and pungency to all the unavoidable evils of private life. These, and such as these, are the moral lessons given by the classic writers who studied, acquired, and recomended the elegancies of polite literature, both by rule and by example.'

I cannot leave this subject without adverting to a charge against grammar schools, which has asserted, that little attention is paid in them to religion. That because they require a knowledge of heathen mythology, they teach idolatry and polytheism, instead of religion, is a silly accusation, too absurd for a serious defence. The statutes of the ancient endowed foundations are very particular and peremptory in requiring daily prayers in grammar schools, and constant attendance on public worship. Many of the schools, indeed, are almost chapels; so much time do they devote to prayer and catechetical instruction. The intervals of public service on Sundays, are usually employed in giving lectures and expounding, the scriptures. The Greek Testament is always read in the classes. Exercises, consisting of versions from the Scriptures, are frequent, and in general nothing is neglected, which can be done, allowing for human infirmity, to inspire the scholars with a due sense of religion, and a love of "whatsoever things are pure are pure and praiseworthy." The steady, uniform purpose is to lead boys, (eiç xaXoxaya

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1 "Nec meus hic sermo est," sed quem preceperunt Cicero, Quintilianus, Seneca, aliique quamplurimi, qui puerorum ob oculos, in scholiâ literis humanioribus, dicatâ, quotidie versantur. Many of the French authors, too, treat admirably on the Belles Lettres, and on education, and concur in asserting the moral as well as literary excellence of the classics; and it would be culpable to omit the name of ROLLIN, the modern Quintilian, and the teacher of all that is good and amiable in life as well as in letters. I might have crowded the margin with references and quotations from Greek, Latin, and French, corroborative of all the opinions and sentiments expressed in these pages; but they would have occupied too much space.

Biav) to taste, and love, not only the beauty of arts and sciences, but of virtue and religion. The muses, the graces, and the virtues, seem to go hand in hand, and unite voice to voice, in giving glory to God, and commemorating their founder. In both instances they exclaim, (with an awful difference of devotion indeed,) “THY WILL BE DONE."

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Upon the whole, then, if the welfare of society require that a most reverential regard be paid to wills' and testaments in general, and particularly to the wills and testaments of founders and benefactors, in the punctual execution of whose beneficent deeds the interest of multitudes is deeply concerned; if there prevail (as in justice there ought) any public solicitude to preserve inviolate the BIRTHRIGHT and inheritance of persons now living, or who may hereafter live, in the towns, villages, or districts, intended, by the wills and testaments of founders and benefactors, to be benefitted in things of the highest moment,-to be benefitted FOR EVER, and to be benefitted also, in the mode by their wisdom and goodness plainly and imperatively prescribed;—if there remain any esteem for the treasures of ancient poetry, eloquence, history; any taste for the charms of elegant literature, whether ancient or modern, so conducive to meliorate and soften the human dispositition; any anxiety to maintain the national character, so promotive of its prosperity; any reverence for religion, or esteem for its authorized teachers; any vigilance to guard the morals, the manly spirit, the liberty of the country,-then, it is to be hoped, the legislature will pause, and ponder well all consequences of a measure that may degrade the old endowed schools, that may lower the education of the middle and higher ranks of the people, and discourage that sort of literature which, as it has been shown in the preceding pages, is not only in the highest degree ornamental, but beneficial to the community. Let, therefore, all the foundation grammar schools be rescued from the barbarous innovation, as well as the favored few, which, by a most unfair partiality, it is proposed to exempt; let the increased funds, wherever they exist to a sufficient amount, be expended in furthering the founder's original intention, by creating exhibitions and scholarships in the Universities; the college, (in the amended state of discipline,) being in most cases, necessary to complete a liberal education; and for the profession of the church, in the far greater number of dioceses, now rendered indispensable. With valuable advantages of this kind,

* ΝΟΜΟΘΕΤΕΙΤΩ μὲν γὰρ ἕκαστος ἐπὶ τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ τὰ εἰκότα, καὶ ἔστω ΝΟΜΟΣ ἡ TOUTOU BOTAH. NOVELL. 22.-In the Roman code, LEGARE, (to bequeath,) is a term of legislation. To sanction by a will, was to make a law, no less binding than the law of the land; and the testator was, in this instance, a legislator. Wills were like acts of legislation.

added from the augmented revenues, there can be, in no case, a FAILURE OF OBJECTS, proper and numerous enough to fill the classes of the grammar schools. Rugby school, for instance, since its improved estates have been thus employed, although the village was one of the very smallest, and in a district but scantily peopled, has become, in numbers, as well as fame, one of the first in the kingdom. By pursuing this course, not only will the founder's will be most effectually promoted, but a benefit, such as never will arise to this country again, (the benefit of endowments all over the kingdom, designed to diffuse polite literature,) will be handed down, as it ought to be, without diminution of effect, or abasement of character, to the remotest posterity.

ON

THE INTERESTS

OF

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

SECOND EDITION,

REVISED.

LONDON:

1821.

ON

THE INTERESTS,

&c. &c.

Of all the Religious systems, which have been established on the principles of the Gospel, by the knowledge of the Scriptures, the wisdom of experience, the sincerity of truth, and the zeal of piety, none can be compared,-in the opinion of one, who has not been an inattentive observer of Christian sects,-to that of the Church of England. That establishment was the result of long, deep, and severe investigation. It was not, as it has often been objected by the enemies of the Reformation, the casual effect of the passions of Henry VIII. The materials for the destruction of the system of corruption in doctrine, and abuses in practice, had been forming during many years; he himself had vainly endeavoured to prevent their accumulation. The pile was at last completed, and he brought the torch which gradually effected the conflagration; but his hand was only the instrument of the will of the people. To collect the component parts of the new edifice was the work of three reigns. Tenet was to be confronted with tenet, errors of interpretation were to be corrected, false opinions were to be rectified, original meanings were to be recovered, primitive simplicity was to be resorted to, and perfection, as far as it is compatible with the nature of man, was to be attained. Length of time was necessary; length of time was given, and the work was completed.'

For a satisfactory account of the progress of the Reformation in the Church of England, the reader is referred to Dr. Laurence's Bampton Lectures.

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