got into trouble with the Bishop of Durham, his friend and patron, in the matter of Sherburn Hospital. The old men -"the brethren," as they were called-were dissatisfied both with the quality and the quantity of their food. Dr Bell had left them, the year before," in a state of unusual satisfaction and contentment;" and, in a letter to the bishop, he boldly takes the bull by the horns, and indicates that their complaints do not originate with the old men themselves, but with those "who are ever in search of something wherewith to annoy and oppress me." And his curious egotism makes him bring forward, as his reply to those charges, the following statement: "The crime, which will never be forgiven me, is, that a man, who has not given himself up to party, should have made a discovery, and prosecuted that discovery at every hazard and expense.' The bishop assured him, in return, that "the opinion he had formed respecting the necessity of inquiry into the situation of the poor brethren, was the result of cool deliberation." The Doctor replies that, "as soon as he can consistently shake off his positive, immediate, and imperative duties and obligations, he will hasten to the spot." The difficulty slumbered until the beginning of the year 1814, when the bishop wrote again. Dr Bell now made haste to put things right as far as he could. In a long letter to the bishop he quietly says that "the out-brethren never placed themselves under my observation. Still, however, I think it most reasonable that attention should be paid to their situation." This is a curiously abstract, far-off way, of stating a duty, by the very man who has to perform the duty. He then goes

on to descant upon "the advantages which the inbrethren enjoy." These advantages seem to have consisted of one suit of clothes a-year, an allowance of beer, an apothecary, a tip now and then, and food. "Each brother," says Dr Bell, "has also a small gratuity on signing a lease. Their diet and allowance are set forth in the accompanying paper, on which I observe that some of them use no beer, and none of them, I believe, small-beer, the table-beer alone being sufficient for their daily beverage; cheese they find unnecessary. Their meat, milk, and other allowances are much more than they can consume. part, and some of them lay up the money. Several die possessed of considerable funds; others give to their relations and friends; and others spend the money, to the injury of their morals and their health, at the public-house, or elsewhere." The bishop appears to have been satisfied with the Doctor's explanation; and he was now free to go to and fro in the country, and to give all his time to the pursuit in which his whole heart was engaged, while the old men went on vegetating, and wending their slow way towards the grave.

They sell a

In 1814, Dr Bell "added an important addition to his invaluable system." It illustrates the permanent condition of wonder and admiration of himself in which the Doctor lived, a wonder not "the seed of knowledge," as Lord Bacon calls it, but the fruit of ignorance, that "this important addition to his invaluable system" consisted of making "the children stand while they are learning their lessons;" and the humane persons intrusted with the execution of this new idea state "that

E

no inconvenience whatever has been observed from the children remaining at continued lessons, even two or three hours together." To keep young children standing for two or three hours together was surely something very like cruelty.

Mr Johnson, the head-master of the Central School, was obliged to give up a great deal of his time to showing visitors over the school, to explaining the system, and to the training of teachers (among whom was a young Persian); and Dr Bell thought it advisable that he should be relieved of his duties as master. Accordingly he one morning fell upon Mr Bamford with the sudden intimation that he was to be the master of the Central School. Mr Bamford was dumfounded. "I received the intelligence," he says, "with real grief.. I shed tears; but go I must, and that very morning." London was, in the year 1814, "crowded with foreigners, among whom were the Emperor Alexander and his sister, the Grand Duchess of Russia,-the latter of whom had expressed her intention of visiting the Central School." Dr Bell wrote several times to the Grand Duchess, sent her copies of his reports and works; and in one of his letters he asks permission

to lay his books at the feet of his Imperial Majesty, at any hour, as he goes out or returns, so as not to occupy a moment of that time which was so fully employed." The Emperor of Russia was not so scrupulous about his time,-which surely was also of some value. Dr Bell achieved the interview he sought; but he had to wait five hours in an ante-room for it.. The Grand Duchess," he says, soon" (this must mean soon

after the five hours of waiting) "brought in the Emperor, and after a while left us. After a time" " (Dr Bell's notions of time are singularly illogical and selfinconsistent) "the Emperor and myself were left alone, and I acquitted myself, on the whole, very badly, but had a very gracious reception, and very gracious leave." After a short time spent at Ryde, to recruit from the hard work of the London season, Dr Bell paid a visit to Ireland. In a letter to the Speaker, asking for introductions to persons of position in Ireland, he delivers himself of a neat and compendious theory of education: "Teach the Irish to read, write, cipher, and train them in the principles of morality and religion, as the Scots, Swiss, and Swedes are trained, and they will resemble in character and conduct the Scots, Swiss, and Swedes." In this year of grace 1881, it is interesting to compare this theory of Dr Bell's with the actual state of that unhappy country. He also quotes from Hume that the Irish "had all the vices of a nation not tamed by education." At the root of Dr Bell's theory there lay two fundamental blunders. The first was, that civilisation meant conformity to the type in the mind and conduct of Dr Bell himself, whereas civilisation is as multiform and as rich in types as Nature herself; the second was, that what has not been done by the great unconscious powers in thousands of years can be done by one conscious man in a few months or years. manity is not so shallow, nor are civilising processes so short and hurried. Let us do all we can, but let us not try to interrupt or to anticipate the work of vast cyclical currents.

Hu

CHAPTER XI.

GROWING FAME.

THE fame of Dr Bell had now spread over England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and letters poured in upon him every day requesting advice or assistance in the foundation of new schools. His mind was filled with the System-possessed by it through and through. He could think of nothing else; he spoke of nothing else; he wrote about nothing else. He was devoured by this single aim; he had become in every respect. a one-ideaed man. Everything, both external and internal every trait in the characters or minds of other men-was submitted to the standard of the System and approved or condemned by that. A teacher was looked upon as lost to his profession and to goodness if he thought of anything else at all; and there were no lights or shades in Dr Bell's appreciation of a character. "The Moorfields School insufferably bad; the Irish school bad; the master president of a debating society; what better can be expected of such a man?" The "discovery" he had made was of infinite value to the human race. He scolds his friend Mr Watts for thinking that his books were a little too