have been advanced on both sides of the question, than we care here to repeat. The wisdom of the past may be made the laughing-stock of the present; but it evinces no great wisdom so to treat it. The questions of who shall be educated, and to what extent such education shall be carried, have now, we may hope, in a great measure, given place to others of a more practical and beneficial character.

The Bishop of Lichfield's words occurring in his charge of 1836, are well entitled to consideration in connection with the present rule.

"The general desire for Education," he observes, "and the general diffusion of it, is working, and partly has worked, a great change in the habits of the mass of the people. And though it has been our lot to witness some of the inconveniences necessarily arising from a transition state, where gross ignorance has been superseded by a somewhat too rapid communication of instruction, dazzling the mind, perhaps, rather than enlightening it, yet every day removes something of this evil. Presumption and self-sufficiency are sobered down by the acquirement of useful knowledge, and men's minds become less arrogant in proportion as they become better informed. There cannot be a doubt, therefore, but that any evils which may have arisen from opening the flood-gates of Education, if I may so say, will quickly flow away, and that a clear and copious stream will succeed, fertilising the heretofore barren intellect, with its wholesome and perennial waters.

"Perhaps it may be thought that the true scope of education is rather to furnish the young with the skill and learning required for their particular callings in life. But consider this point: our callings in life are

not the end for which we are sent into the world: they are stations which God has appointed,-wherein we may do what is right and good, and practise certain duties, and serve him.

"We are not born to be mechanics or husbandmen, merchants or mariners; these callings and professions are temporary states of probation, giving birth and opportunity of exercise to integrity, patience, dependence upon God, contented and virtuous industry, and supplying the means of doing good in various

ways.

"Our particular callings diversify the occupations of life, whilst the great laws of God, and the business of our moral and religious duty resulting from them, follow us into every calling, and create the constant employment of our habits and principles.

"Whatever may be our post or profession, and whatever skill or learning it may require, which, no doubt, ought to be provided in youth, still our first and last care for ourselves and our young families should be, that we be instructed in our obligations and duties, and acquire the skill of being good men. It is only a debasement of the mind either for the young or the old to separate any of their studies or pursuits from this controlling moral direction.

"When we take in hand to educate the young, together with the care to inform their understanding with necessary truth must be enjoined the government and training of their habits and actions: the ethical instruction applied will be unavailing if there be no watchful and practised discipline to regulate their dispositions and conduct.

"Suffer me to explain myself in this important point.

"Education will never produce virtue by precepts repeated, and truths inculcated. To encourage the heart and affections of the young to a love of what is good, to restrain their wrong propensities, to watch their ways of behaviour, and deal with them according to their essential character as moral agents, by making them perceive that we are more intent on what they do than what they learn to say from their books,— this will give efficiency to instruction, and convert it into an instrument of practical good."*

But more particularly,

2. Deliberately fix upon a course of studies which you deem suitable to the circumstances of your pupils ; and when such a course has been so decided upon, steadily adhere to it, and carry it out as fully and efficiently as possible.

This rule is sometimes violated from two very dissimilar causes. A not inconsiderable class of persons are to be met with, who think that the studies of our elementary schools should be confined to the merest rudiments of knowledge, or rather the instruments of knowledge, viz.—reading, writing, arithmetic, &c. Another class think that knowledge of a positive kind, for instance, the elements of several of the sciences, &c. &c., may, and ought to be, communicated even in our elementary schools. Now we do not object to the acquisition of even a little knowledge, though this has been proverbially considered " a dangerous thing," and has been cited, by some, as an argument against the extension of popular education. For the proverb, we

* From a Sermon by J. Davison, quoted in the Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education for 1842.

hold, if it means anything, must mean that ignorance in whatever degree it exists, is dangerous; and that the smaller the amount of counteracting influence, that is, the less knowledge there is, the greater will be the liability to error and consequent danger. Still we are only prepared to give a conditional assent in favour of any attempt being made to teach these matters of science, that is, so far only as circumstances may render such subjects compatible with the primary, more pressing and legitimate objects of our elementary schools; the chief of which appear to be, that the pupils should acquire in them the means of obtaining knowledge; that their minds should be imbued, as far as practicable, with a love of it; and above all, that upon this-as an intellectual basisshould be grafted, a knowledge of their duty towards God and their neighbour; that they may be thus prepared to perform their part aright, "in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call them.”

The former class of persons to whom we have alluded, in complaisance, as it would seem, to those who differ from them, sometimes give out that they teach a more extensive course of study than they really make any vigorous efforts to come up to; and thus an improper feeling is engendered in the school. Work is pretended to be done in the school which is not done, and which, perhaps, on account of circumstances, cannot really be accomplished. The Teacher feels a degree of dissatisfaction with himself, because his pupils have not attained that standard, which it is ostensibly expected they should do.

Now this feeling, and its disagreeable concomitants, would have been avoided had our present rule been duly attended to in drawing up the courses of study.

On the other hand, the second class of educationists to whom reference has been made, in their anxiety to impart what they call useful knowledge to their young charge-to teach them things instead of words, &c.,—thrust them, at once, as it were, into a labyrinth of scientific terminology, and have them repeating a farrago of high sounding, but to them, unmeaning terms, before, perhaps, they can write their own names legibly-read or spell ordinary language, or work the simple rules of arithmetic.

Such a mode of proceeding is at variance with our rule, and is, of course, palpably absurd.

It may be thought that the different classes or grades of schools that exist among us, will meet the requirements of the present chapter without any forethought, or provision, on the part of the Teacher; and in reference to special or professional Education this is quite true; but when applied to ordinary elementary schools, it is only very partially so. status of such schools, we are aware, is frequently decided by the class in society whose wants they are intended to subserve. Yet, within these limits, there is still ample scope for the exercise of our rule.

The

For instance, to a rural population, it might be found useful in the more advanced stages of the pupils' education, to make them acquainted, to some extent, with agricultural chemistry, as a subject * likely to have a direct bearing upon their future callings.

In a sea-port town again, the attention of the elder pupils might, probably, be most advantageously directed to the elements of navigation, some parts of which may be understood and practised with only a very slender mathematical knowledge.