London. Save where the famin'd ghost of care, How happy he who wakes to find, That power-that wakes to sleep no more. W. A. DESCRIPTION OF FRIENDSHIP, A FRAGMENT. IN IMITATION OF SPENCER. Of goodly port, and tall, the lady was, Whose flow'rs did cast perfumes so rich and bright, And in the middle of this little bower For there her heart by cov'ring was not press'd, Still were its leaves unmov'd whatever tempest blew, THE MOTHER TO HER AFFECTIONATE CHILD, I would not give thy rosy check For all the ruby's glare; I would not give thy brilliant eye R. K. P. I would not give thy shining locks I would not give thy tender voice For music's flowing tide! And for the wealth of India's gold, For all it could impart ; For monarch's pow'r, or monarch's throne, M. THE SUMMARY OF HUMAN CONSOLATION, Her balm shall many a rising pang assuage, REVIEW. W. H. R. "STILL PLEAS'D TO PRAISE, YET NOT AFRAID TO BLAME." POPE. ART. I.—A new and appropriate System of Education for the Labouring People; elucidated and explained, according to the Plan which has been established for the Religious and Moral Instruction of Male and Female Children, admitted. into the Free School, No. 19, Orchard Street, in the City of Westminster: containing an Exposition of the nature and importance of the design, as it respects the general interests of the Community, &c. &c. By P. Colquhoun, L.L.D. Hatchard. 1806. 2s. 6d. THE improvements of our age individual till then unknown, and have been so numerous and so ra- by no means opulent, undertook pid, that it would have been truly the bold and patriotic task of estab surprising, if our mode of com- lishing one differing essentially municating instruction to the la- from any of those in use; and bouring people, had not been ame- rested his own fortune as well as liorated by the general taste. It the success of the system, upon was not in the nature of things, his ability to triumph over the that a system so defective should whole of those various prejudices, have retained all its imperfections which oppose innovations of every in the midst of universal reform; kind, however beneficial their ob accordingly, a few years since an jects. 1 sized slate, illustrates every lesson he gives, and, upon a great variety of subjects, teaches the whole school at once; whereas Mr. Lancaster, divides the youth attending his seminary, into classes of ten, over each of which, one of the most expert boys is appointed monitor, as well for the purpose of instruction, as of examination. This plan (commenced in St. George's fields by a general invitation to the labouring people of all sects to send their children to be taught gratis) took the name of its promulgator, and soon became spoken of as "Mr. Lancaster's plan," though in fact it was little more than a modification of that previously suggest ed by Dr. Bell. The leading principles of the system are, first, to ex- All the details of this plan, plode the insolent and tyrannical practical as well as theoretical, practice of conveying instruction have been entered into by Mr. by degrading punishment, and to Lancaster with so much spirit, substitute that of exciting emula- that he has laid the public under tion by suitable rewards: second- a very great obligation to him; ly, to preserve the mind of the and we entertained a hope, that pupil in a fit state to receive in the liberal world would lend him struction, by confining his atten- its undivided aid, for carrying it tion to scientific subjects alone, into general effect, up to the time instead of confusing him in the when this work of Dr. Colquusual way, by an incoherent mix. houn's made its appearance. ture of subjects scientific, moral, The style and arrangement of and religious: thirdly, to make a this publication, is in the manstrong impression upon the mind ner of the worthy magistrate's by the use of sensible images, in- other writings, and like them, stead of leaving the infant faculty it contains many trite observato fret itself, and wear out its re- tions, so replete with benevolence tentive powers by problems chief- and humanity, that we should ly intellectual. The lessons to be extremely happy to see the be taught, are traced upon a plain Doctor as zealous in reducing surface by the monitor, in pre- them to practice, as he is in putsence of the pupils of his class, ting them into circulation. Such who imitate his manner till prac- a hope however it is impossible tice enables them to form the ima- to indulge, after concluding the ges they represent. Mr. Lancas fourth page of his introduction, ter's mode of procedure, differs for instead of having any defrom that of Monsier Lambouil- sign to aid Mr. Lancaster's plan, let of Brussels, inasmuch, as that or to offer any improvements ingenious and indefatigable teach- upon it, he appears to have tres. er arranges his pupils in a semi- passed upon this province, from circle, their desks being raised one an apprehension that the peoabove another in the form of an ple would be too much beneamphitheatre, so as to leave no fited, unless he were to interobstruction between them and the pose his stultifying system in the preceptor, who upon a large- way of Mr. Lancaster's efforts. 2 Dr. Colquhoun in all his writ- and individual, to procure as great ings, affects to regard the la- a portion of happiness as can bouring people as a distinct spe- be compassed by each single efcies, and he is afraid that they fort; and it is the super-abunshould by any means be led to dant quantity that is produced form a different opinion of them- by the continued struggle, and selves; hence, it is the object of found more than sufficient for inhis plan, to prevent the children dividual use, that constitutes the of the poor from being "edu- public good. But the degree of cated in a manner to elevate their happiness, either public or priminds above the rank they are vate, depends upon the struggle destined to fulfil in society," which being conducted on equal terms; he thinks would be the case, if and if the competitive powers be"extensive knowledge were dif- come engrossed on one side, both fused amongst them." In a state public and private happiness will of society rapidly improving, we diminish, and can only exist in cannot imagine a motive or prin- proportion as this equality beciple more impolitic or immoral. comes restored. No very labourThe distance between the lord ed research is necessary, to prove and his slave is a mere mathe. that the miseries and distresses matical, point, compared with the of the people of England, have distance between knowledge and uniformly increased, as literature ignorance; and is it not enough and the sciences have been improvfor the small minority which con- ed. It is not because literature stitutes the great men of the earth, and the sciences are unfavourable that they have reduced the major to happiness, but because they ity of the human species to con- have given the people new powers stant servitude, but they must which bigotry and covetousness degrade mankind to the state of have refused to extend to the mere machines? Is it not enough, whole of the combatants in the that they have acquired such a struggle, and therefore has left a control over the body, as ena. part of them unequal to the task bles them to say unto this man, of procuring happiness. "Come and he cometh, and unto that man, Go and he goeth," but they must usurp the dominion of the mind also? The monopoly of learning by the rich, is as ungenerous on their part, as would be the conduct of a wrestler, who should contrive The object of the worthy magis- to tie the hands of his antago trate, is at variance with every nist before he would contend for principle of moral justice, and the prize; and it is impolitic, every tie that binds men toge- because every design of the multither in civil society; and a state form occupations of the mind, that would act upon such prin- being to produce happiness, the ciples, would have no claim up- more talent and ability there is on the allegiance of its subjects. employed in their direction, the The whole business of life, is a more abundant must be the stock Competition between individual created. Can it be argued, that the increase of private happiness of injustice. The children adwould be injurious to the public mitted into his school, which is good? If such should be our au- situated in Orchard-street, Westthor's opinion, we should be glad minster, must be educated in the to learn whether he ever feels a Frinciples of the Established blush upon his cheeks, when he Church." The preservation of reads of a state, in which if one intolerance, is therefore another member rejoice, all the members re- reason, why this tract has presumjoice with him; and if one member ed to lift its head against the " Imsuffer, all the members suffer with provements in Education," pubhim. It is to be feared, that the lished by Mr. Lancaster. The Doctor's sensibilities are not quite work will doubtless be read by all so acute: he has indeed, it seems, those, who imagine that when a a great zeal to God, but his Deity person has acquired a name for is not that source of universal be- writing well upon any one subject, nevolence, whose tender mercies he is of necessity qualified to write are over all his works, but a limit- upon any other that happens to ed fugitive being, who shelters only enter into his head; but we canunder lofty steeples, and cannot not dismiss the article without exgain admittance there, until some pressing it as our opinion, that its mitred pigmy has told him he may moral and political tendency is evil, and that it is desirable that it It would be a subject of endless should be read only by those on regret, if a disposition to prefer whom reading makes no lasting Dr. Colquhoun's plan to Mr. Lan- impression, and those who are caster's should become general, able to discern sophistry and to for it is as clearly stamped with a repel temptations to bigotry. spirit of bigotry, as with a spirit enter, B. ART. II-A Summary View of the Evidence and Practical Importance of the Christian Revelation, in a Series of Discourses addressed to young Persons, by Thomas Belsham, Minister of the Unitarian Chapel in Essex Street. Johnson, 1807. pp. 204. 8vo. (Concluded from page 329.) Our author's fifth discourse il- articles of the Christian faith, and lustrates the practical value of then considers their tendency to the Christian revelation ;" his text meliorate the heart and to regu being Titus ii. 11-14-a passage late the practice. which the learned Selden "always admired, as comprizing, in a clear and excellent summary, the nature, the end and the reward of true religion." With good reason he calls the principles and expectations of which he gives a statement (160 — 163:) "sublime and animating ;” cold and uninteresting as they are Mr. B. in the first place, takes esteemed by those who prefer a summary view of the leading creeds of human fabrication to the |