will be hard to discriminate between his advantages and those of a common mechanic. Would you have him hang down his head in society in doubt and mistrust of his own advantages when the shallowest pretender quotes the very oldest Eton Grammar jest? No. Then teach him Classics. For really in society it is a decided advantage only to be able to see how little others know. For this alone tells us our level and establishes our confidence. Would you deprive your Son of every chance of availing himself of superior talents for literature should he ever prove to possess them? No. Then teach him Classics, for, to paint men and manners, or to form a correct opinion of the sketches made by others, it is absolutely indispensable that you should have studied the ancient masters. If, my good friend, you do not know Latin and Greek authors, to judge for yourself of the extent to which modern authors have borrowed from them, take Hawkins's edition of Milton and see the number of parallel passages quoted in the notes: and wherever you see one of these quotations be so good as to understand that in that part Milton has availed himself so largely of the ideas of Æschylus, Homer, Virgil, or others, that any writer who took the same liberty with Milton, would be laughed at as a most impudent plagiarist. But do we not see quotations from Tasso and other Italian writers? why not commence with modern languages by this very argument? Because by one step further back you may convict

them of the same practices. Latin and Greek are the parent languages. If grounded in these at school, you will with facility acquire any modern language; but study modern languages as you will, you must not calculate on the most distant chance of attaining any competent knowledge of Classics at a mature age. And when the first authority of late years says, "From the experience of former times I will venture to predict that no man will ever obtain lasting fame in learning who is not enlightened by the knowledge, and inspired by the genius of those who have gone before hima," what more need is there of argument? Unless we despise all experience, and deem ignorance no disqualification in our advisers, we must believe that in Classical literature there is involved an invaluable treasure. This treasure you may despair of ever becoming qualified to attain, but you cannot deny that it exists. You may say that the Latin and Greek authors will be thrown by for ever when school days are passed, yet, should they be, a beneficial result will continue when the means have long since been forgotten. But take a survey of the literary world, and then say whether the parents of the majority of its noblest characters had the faintest conception of the boon which by Classical education they were bestowing on their sons, and through the well-directed genius of their sons, on future generations. Grant that in the works of antiquity there is a mine of

a Sir J. Mackintosh's Lectures on Moral Science.

wealth, from which some derive more, and some less, according to the depth to which they penetrate. Consider that your Son has an equal pro- · bability with others of vindicating his title to its inestimable rights, and pause before you sell the reversion. But for what will you sell it? For more extensive knowledge of History? Then you are deceived by a mere sound. History, to a boy, does not deserve the name. History, as alone it can be made intelligible to a boy, is a detail of battles for kingdoms, executions for treasons, and birth and parentage of kings. All that is valuable to a man of reflection is utterly lost upon a boy : for, being unable to deduce general principles from widely scattered and apparently unconnected facts, he gains little more useful knowledge than from the Newgate Calendar, the Percy Anecdotes, or numberless books which he will read of himself without any peculiar mental discipline. To collect from the page of History the elements of Moral and Political Science, to reduce the Sibyl's leaves to prophetic order, requires a mind maturedmatured by discipline so awakening and so severe that I protest I can only find it in classical study. History, properly so called, is the result, but not the means of early education. If you barter the reversion of your Son's literary riches for this, you will receive but the shadow, though you pay most ruinously for the substance.

Having once talked rather in this strain, I was answered; "This seems all very well, but what did my friend-a man of good shrewd common sense,

and a man of business too-mean, when he advised me to give my Son a good Useful education? What did my friend mean by Useful education and Useful knowledge? What is it that will make a man fit for the world, and a good man of business?" My answer was, "Sir, you are reputed a good man of business; your position in society (a banker) proves it; what do you remember of all that you were taught at school?" "Why nothing." "But think, surely something?" "Well then, my Catechism, and that I have kept up by hearing the children." "Nothing else?" "Yes, the Latin roots of many of our English words. Writing, and the simple rules of Arithmetic." "Did you ever learn more

Arithmetic than the Rule of Three and Interest?" "Oh yes, to the end of the book.

to the end of the book.

All about how

much grass a cow could eat tied by her tail to ten yards of cord; but all the calculations I have ever wanted came by mere common sense." "Do you remember no History or Geography?" "None of what I was taught at school. My school knowledge of History was 'confusion worse confounded.' And as to height of mountains and length of rivers, I do not remember a word, because I have never wanted that minute sort of knowledge. I know a great deal of History now. I am fond of comparing past times with present; and as to Travels, I read those relating to all the countries in which any of my friends reside." "Then you seem to admit that the only available knowledge that remains in your mind of all you learned at school

Had

consists in Latin roots of English words. you learned more Arithmetic you admit it would not have been useful: more Geography and more History would only have made more confusion. All you know you have taught yourself. Had your school studies been increased to any extent, would not, in your own experience, the same task have devolved on yourself at last?" "Certainly it would." "Then do you wish you had never been at school at all?" "No, because perhaps I should never have acquired the art of teaching myself in figures, or in History, and though my Latin is not worth what it cost my father, six years' schooling, I should not like to be without it. I feel at home when anything is quoted, and I never could have taught it myself. Of Euclid, I read a little; this I have never quite forgotten. I comprehend scientific terms, and I believe it made me think and reason better." "Then the sum total amounts to this, that your experience justifies you in thinking that all a boy is likely to learn at school sufficiently to retain and make available, is Latin and Greek, and habits of enquiry and of thought to enable him to teach himself ever after." "Such, Sir, is the fact. Can you make any improvement, and teach anything more useful?" "In point of real use, Writing and Arithmetic must be preferred to everything, but these are of very easy attainment; so also is all that will ever be retained of Geography or History. Beyond this I can teach nothing Useful in your limited sense of the word.

C