PREFACE.

In order to ensure success in the cultivation of any branch of learning, it is a matter of prime importance to take care that the first principles and elements be thoroughly understood, and firmly fixed in the memory, by a sufficient number of suitable exercises and examples. This salutary maxim we have the advantage of hearing so frequently repeated, that an inattentive observer might reasonably be led to suppose its truth had obtained universal suffrage; but in this he would be mistaken, for though all seem agreed on the subject, the assent is for the most part merely verbal, and, like our assent to truths of higher importance, has too little influence on the practice. It would be beneficial to learning, and consequently to society, if no instance could be adduced to justify this conclusion; but whoever will take the trouble to examine the plan on which the business of some of our schools is conducted, will find abundant reason to acknowledge its truth-he will find that too little attention is paid to the introductory parts of learning, and that pupils are too frequently hurried on from one subject to another, with a rapidity which does not admit of their fully understanding any thing they pass through. This conduct is both cruel and impolitic; it deprives both the learner and society at large, of the benefits which might be expected from talents properly cultivated. But if part of the blame rest with the preceptor, a much larger share attaches itself to his employers, whose impatience for their children's hasty improvement is too generally productive of this abuse. The

preceptor, indisputably the fittest judge of his own business, and consequently of what methods ought to be pursued for the real benefit and improvement of his scholars, cannot always presume to follow the dictates of his own unbiassed understanding; if he did, he might soon "vaunt and vapour in an empty school." .

But one of the greatest impediments to successful teaching, is the undue deference which it is the fashion to pay to juvenile opinion; for although the extravagant doctrines of liberty, asserted by some modern philosophers, as far as they relate to politics, are justly exploded as absurd and impracticable, they still possess a considerable degree of influence on our system of education. No sooner has a young gentleman assumed the neckcloth, than he feels himself invested with a degree of consequence, which, a century or two ago, would have been thought dangerous in such hands, and is allowed a right to offer his opinion with unlimited freedom on every subject. It frequently happens that a father entertains such an extraordinary respect for his son's judgment and penetration, that almost every thing, relating to his. future studies, is submitted to his own decision: of course, he determines on that which he expects will be attended with the least difficulty to himself; but as he prefers amusements of his own choosing, none that are proposed will suit him exactly. He objects to grammar because its rules are dry; and if he is obliged to learn them, he is sure that his memory will not retain them he has not a genius for numbers, his father never had—he would consent to learn Algebra, but he has been informed that the symbols employed mean nothing; how then can the science have any meaning or use? but admitting it to be useful, the operations appear so difficult and complicated, that the advantage of acquiring it cannot be worth the trouble. Geometry, according to his determination (for he is always positive), is of no use to any but

common mechanics, and as he is not intended for one, it can be of no service to him. A pupil of this hopeful description, however he may object to the difficulties of learning, has generally sense enough to see the necessity of pursuing (at least in appearance) some one or more of these studies, in order to secure that respectability to which, in spite of indolence, his pride prompts him to aspire. In doing this, if he employs any effort of mind, it is only in contriving how to evade difficulties of every kind, get through the uninteresting rudiments as hastily as possible, and arrive at those parts which seem to promise more pleasure, or less expense of mental exertion. But in this, ere long, he finds his mistake; for, having obtained his wish, he does not fail to prove an incessant torment to his tutor, whose painful duty it now becomes to teach him the application of those fundamentals which he would never take the pains either to understand or remember, and which nothing can induce him now to resumea.

The consequences resulting from both the above cases, are in general the same. The pupil, weary of a pursuit which he is at length convinced will yield neither pleasure nor advantage, the moment he is completely at his own disposal, quits it with disgust-the money spent on that part of his education is totally thrown away, or would have been better employed in acts of charity; and, what is far worse, those precious hours, days, months, perhaps years, which

a If what M. Rollin says be true, viz. "That it is the end of masters to habituate their scholars to serious application; to make them love and value the sciences, and cultivate such a taste as shall make them thirst after the sciences when they are gone from school;" what grief, vexation, and disappointment must that master experience who is unfortunate enough to have in his school half a dozen such pupils as we have described. The best preceptor confined to the tuition of such would be in great danger of soon becoming good for nothing; and indeed, opposition of any kind, from whatever quarter it may arise, if it be sufficiently efficacious to disappoint or subvert the tutor's plans, will have a strong tendency to relax his ardour; it will by degrees bring on an increasing indifference to his duty, and at length reduce him to the state of a mere machine.

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constituted the only proper season for his improvement, are irrecoverably lost. When arrived at the state of manhood, he cannot but feel his deficiency, and is sometimes almost half inclined to regret his former obstinate misconduct. Nevertheless, he palliates it with the mild name of juvenile indiscretion; attributes the whole to the ignorance or negligence of his tutors, whose peculiarities (and perhaps their virtues) are the occasional subjects of his merriment; and if he has children, he educates them as nearly as possible after the same plan on which he himself was educated.

These are some of the bad effects which follow from parental authority being misapplied, ineffectually exerted, or not exerted at all; and might easily be avoided, if parents, with due attention to their children's talents, would themselves resolve on the studies to be pursued, and leave the plan and execution entirely to the wisdom and known fidelity of the master; and it is a happy circumstance for learning and mankind, that to the prevailing custom there are many exceptions of this kind. We readily admit, that our ancestors erred, by introducing too much strictness and rigid formality into their mode of instruction; but it is no less certain that the present generation deviate in theirs full as widely towards the opposite extreme, and, from a due comparison of both, it appears that the last error is by far, the worst but as the removal of the cause is not likely to be effected, various contrivances have been resorted to, in order to counteract as much as possible its bad effects: every possible means has been employed to allure the dull, the idle, and the frivolous of every description, to the pursuit of

b Dr. Knox delivers his opinion very freely on this subject; let the attentive observer determine how far it is correct. "It is certain" (says the Doctor) "that schools often degenerate with the community, and continue greatly to increase the general depravity, by diffusing it at the most susceptible periods of life. The old scholastic descipline relaxes, habits of idleness and intemperance are contracted, and the scholar often comes from them with the acquisition of effrontery alone, to compensate for his ignorance." Knox on Education, p. 31.