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THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

FOR JULY, 1812.

Art. I. Report of the Military Male Orphan Asylum at Madras, with
its original Proofs and Vouchers, as transmitted from India in 1796,
and published in London in 1797, under the title of an Experiment in
Education. A new edition. To which are subjoined additional Docu-
ments and Records illustrative of the progress of the new system of
education, in the school in which it originated, and of its fruits in the
character conduct and fortunes of its pupils. By the Rev. Andrew Bell,
D.D. L. L. D. F. A. S. F. R. S. Ed. Master of Sherburn Hospital,
Durham. 8vo. pp. xxx. 126. Murray, 1812.

Art. II. The British System of Education, being a complete epitome of the
improvements and inventions practised at the Royal Free Schools,
Borough Road, Southwark. By Joseph Lancaster. 8vo. pp. xvii, 56.
1806. Longman and Co. 1810.

Art. III. Report of J. Lancaster's Progress from the Year 1798, with
the Report of the Finance Committee for the Year 1810. To which is
prefixed an Address of the Committee for promoting the Royal Lan-
casterian System for the Education of the Poor. 8vo. pp. 44. Printed
by J. Lancaster, at the Royal Free School Press. Southwark. 1810.
Art. IV. A Comparative View of the Plans of Education, as detailed
in the Publications of Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster; with Remarks on
Dr. Bell's "Madras School," and Hints to the Managers and Com
mittees of Charity and Sunday Schools, &c. By Joseph Fox. The
third edition. 8vo. pp. 67. Darton and Harvey. 1811.
Art. V. The National Religion the Foundation of National Education.
A Sermon, preached in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, London,
on Thursday, June 13, 1811. To which is added a Collection of Notes,
containing Proofs and Illustrations. By Herbert Marsh, D. D. F. R. S.
Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge.
Published at the Request of the Society for promoting Christian
Knowledge. The Fifth Edition. 8vo. pp. 33. Rivingtons. 1811,
Art. VI. A Vindication of Dr. Bell's System of Education, in a Series
of Letters, by Herbert Marsh, D. D. &c. 8vo. pp. 32. Rivingtons. 1811.
Art. VII. The Origin, Nature, and Object, of the New System of Edu-
cation. 12mo. pp. 210. Murray. 1812.

IN this country it is no longer a question whether the poor
should be educated. It is now the settled conviction of all
VOL. VIII.

3 I

intelligent persons, that the mischiefs to social order and the subordination of ranks, which a dastardly policy so confidently predicted would arise from the general diffusion of knowledge, were perfectly visionary. They have not failed to observe, what was in itself so obvious, that, while the poor receive the advantages of education, and thereby rise somewhat higher in the scale of rational existence, the superior instruction to which the rich will in consequence have recourse, will always preserve a sufficient distance between the classes into which society is distributed. They are satisfied, it is only despotic governments that have reason to be alarmed at the intellectual improvement of their subjects. Free states, on the contrary, whose principal object is the prosperity and happiness of the people, must be indebted for their permanence and stability, to a general persuasion of their utility; a persuasion which will be sure to take deeper root, as the mass of the subjects are well instructed, and thus enabled to attach themselves to the civil polity, not so much from prejudice and custom, as from a clear perception of the benefits it affords them.

The affectation of charity, which objected to the education of the poor, from the evils in which, it was pretended, knowledge would involve them, has likewise sunk into contempt. That education is injurious to the poor, as it serves to proinote indolence and vanity, is now universally regarded as among the most groundless of suppositions. Knowledge does not provide food for the hungry, or clothing for the naked. Industry is quite as necessary after instruction, as it was before; and the only difference is, that those who have been instructed, are able to turn the fruits of their labour to the best account. Nor is the other part of the charge more substantial. As education becomes general, its advantages cease to become excitements to vanity; since no man is vain of what he has in common with his neighbours. Nothing can be more untrue than the assertion, which was at one time so vehemently reiterated, that the diffusion of knowledge is the diffusion of misery. It is, on the contrary, the property of knowledge to elevate and refine our nature, to enable a man to find satisfaction in his own bosom,-and, not only to produce a taste for intellectual delights, but to destroy the keen relish for gratifications purely sensual. Contemplate man, as a being capable of religion, and designed for conscious existence in a future state, and it will appear still more desirable that he should be well educated, whatever be his condition in life while of the charity that it becomes us to cultivate as Christians, there cannot be a more appropriate object than the education of the poor. To them an especial regard has

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