day have some moral sentiment-some fine sayingsome admirable proverb-given them, to learn off, which may not merely exercise the memory, but also afford food for reflection. "It will oblige them often to turn their thoughts inwards, than which you cannot wish them a better intellectual habit."

Of the other branches of education, that which should have precedence of the rest is geography; for this is less irksome and more pleasing and various than the others, and children are seldom seen to set themselves with reluctance to it. Arithmetic comes next, and may be considered a sort of introduction to logic; it should first be made to wait on geography, and recommend itself by its utility in solving questions in connection with the globe, in exhibiting the longitudes and latitudes, and in helping to find places on the map. It will then come to be applied to the celestial globe, and so lead to the study of astronomy. If there are several children, there is no better way of fixing things in the inemory than, when one has learnt something, to make him teach it to the others, which the distinction attending the act will always cause him to be eager to do. For geometry, the six first books of Euclid will be enough to learn; if any child possesses a genius for the study, thus much will be sure to discover it, and will enable him to accomplish the rest by himself. With geography, chronology and history ought to be combined. The Roman historians should be the first classical authors put into the hands of boys, beginning with the easiest, such as Justin, Eutropius, Quintus Curtius, &c. For a course of ethics, after the Bible, Cicero's Offices should be well perused, to which may be added Puffendorf de Officio Hominis et Civis, and Grotius de

Jure Belli et Pacis, or the de Jure naturali et Gentium of the preceding writer. Such works as these cannot be too frequently in the hands of one who desires to perfect himself in the most necessary parts of knowledge. But above all he should never be content without acquiring a thorough insight into the nature of the constitution, and the history and laws of his own country, which it will be equally needful for him to have, whether he remains in a private station, or seeks to fulfil the duties of a magistrate, or aspires to ministerial honours. Without such knowledge, he cannot perform the part even of a private English gentleman with the dignity or justice proper to the character. Both rhetoric and logic may be useful, if properly pursued; but the logic of the schools, instead of leading to any advantageous employment of the reason, only sets the mind on quibbles and sophisms that perplex, not elucidate, the truth; it also teaches a disingenuous habit of trickery and evasion, a love of argumentation for its own sake, and a desire to triumph in words, whatever becomes of sense or propriety. Chillingworth may be read with advantage in connection with this department of knowledge. The art of extemporaneous speaking is of great importance, and should be begun early, children being encouraged to relate stories which they have read, and to give an account of what they know or have seen. The usual faults of stammering and ungraceful speaking are entirely owing to neglect in education, for no nation surpasses England in the charms of eloquence when her public men choose to exercise that art. As soon as a boy can read Latin with tolerable ease, he should study the writings of Cicero, and consider the rules of speech which are given in the first book de Inventione, § 20.

For the attainment of an easy and polished style of letter-writing, the same author's Epistles, and those of Voiture in the French, may be given him. How little study without practice can avail to give a man conversational ease or excellence in writing, will appear when we compare the cases of a learned country schoolmaster and a well-bred lady. Latin and Greek are to be desired in moderation; but for one who has no intention of devoting himself to a life of literature and criticism, but has to make his way in the world by the force of his general qualifications, the cultivation of his own language is of far greater moment; and we should imitate the Romans in this, who made the Latin language, though it was their mother tongue, a separate and particular article of study. Natural philosophy can never be made a science, and it is in vain to hope to reap any solid additions to our present state of knowledge from metaphysical researches; but as an enlargement of the mind and a means of elevating it to the contemplation of great moral truths, natural philosophy should be studied at all times, the Bible being to be considered as the first step to it. To promote this object, a history of the Bible for young people, with an epitome of the same for children of the earliest reading age, should be made. And it will be well if knowledge of this spiritual kind be made always to precede that other department of philosophy which concerns physics; for this reason, that material nature is so obvious to the senses, and so easily engrosses the understanding, that it is calculated to indispose the mind for the reception of spiritual ideas, if it be not early anticipated by them. And certainly without more than mere matter can suggest to us, it is impossible to

account for the various phenomena in nature,-gravitation for example, which only the express will of God can account for,—or the deluge, which may have been produced by the alteration of the centre of gravity, at God's command, from every point of a circle drawn, at a proper distance, from the centre of the earth. As all systems of natural philosophy may be considered hypothetical and inconclusive, it will not be proper to waste more time upon them than may just fit a man to take a part in conversation on such subjects. One thing may be observed, that the doctrine of the modern Corpuscularians is to be preferred to that of the Peripatetics. Dr. Cudworth's Intellectual System, as exhibiting the opinions of the ancient philosophers, will be well worth reading; and Newton, for speculative science, and Boyle, for practical information, cannot be too diligently perused. If classical literature is to be made an object of primary importance, then it will be well if the pupil be made to acquire proper habits of method and application; it is to be hoped he will have begun early in life, when the mind is fresh, and that he will not be content to receive his knowledge at second-hand, but from the fountain-head.* Music is an accomplishment which demands so much time, before even a moderate proficiency can be attained, and-" it engages us often in such odd company, that many think it much better spared and I have, amongst men of parts and business, so seldom heard any one commended or esteemed for having an excellency in music, that of almost all those things that ever came into the list of accomplishments, I think we may give it the last place."+ Fencing and

In this place Locke quotes several passages of a similar tendency from La Bruer's Mœurs de Siècle, p. 577-662,

It is to be regretted that Locke, who without doubt was

riding ought to be taught, both for the benefit of health and exercise and for the power they give. The only evil consequence to be apprehended from a skill in fencing, is that it may inspire presumption and a proneness to take affronts, and, what is worse, a readiness to give them, from a certain vulgar confidence in the issue of a quarrel. Expertness in wrestling is more to be desired than a moderate skill in fencing, and would always give advantages over the latter in the field of battle. The words of Locke in this place are important, as they touch on duelling. "I shall leave it therefore to the father to consider how far the temper of his son and the station he is like to be in will allow or encourage him to comply with fashions which, having very little to do with civil life, were formerly unknown to the most warlike nations, and seem to have added little of force or courage to those who have received them; unless we think martial skill or prowess have been improved by duelling, with which fencing came into, and with which, I presume, it will go out, of the world."

In whatever station of life a man may be placed, he ought to be acquainted with at least one trade—not superficially or by rote-but by actual practice. Some occupations will be recommended by the utility of what

indebted to Quintilian for many of his thoughts on education -as any one may satisfy himself who chooses to consult the first, and part of the second book of the Institutiones Oratoria-should not have considered, in a more philosophical spirit, what that author has so well advanced on the subject of music, who does not hesitate to rank it as an essential and indispensable part of education. A far different feeling from Locke's, on this subject, is now getting abroad, and people are beginning to perceive, what the ancients never doubted, that music, instead of being a trivial amusement, is a great agent of moral improvement, by offering a calm domestic enjoyment to take the place of grosser excitements.-Editor.