lectual culture has been elevated; the bearing of education upon individual and national prosperity has been better appreciated; the employment of a teacher of youth is assuming the rank which it deserves; a higher degree of moral as well as intellectual worth is beginning to be expected in those who occupy stations of such influence; and the press teems with essays, which are leading to the adoption of important plans, and the modification of existing systems, to meet the additional demands of the present age.

On this score, the difficulties which the instructer has to encounter are immensely serviceable to the community, because they render it necessary for him to strain every nerve in forming and sustaining his intellectual character. But in some particulars the public sentiment is exerting a somewhat deleterious influence. We have no doubt that this influence will be temporary, because it is in the nature of most abuses to work out their own remedy. We allude, among other things, to the fashion, which seems to us to be in a good degree countenanced by the public sentiment, of placing, with all due parade, our public or private schools, upon the shoulders of some sixty or eighty sturdy sons of literature, who condescend to carry and recommend the bantling as a child of extraordinary promise.

In regard to the character and qualifications of an instructer, we hope to be able to say something below; and will only add, that we are deliberately of opinion, that not one in a hundred is "cut out" for a teacher of youth, and not one in a thousand, for a good disciplinarian.

The number of schools for the education of boys, in this country and in Europe, so far from affording any ground for discouragement to the teacher, who may wish to try his fortune in this way, may be hailed as an auspicious omen. It indicates a general degree of interest in the subject, an excitement, a public feeling and countenance. That the supply of pupils is likely to fail, at least on this side of the At

lantic, where every circumstance encourages population, will certainly not be pretended by our wisest political economists. We allude to this, for the consolation of well-meaning pedagogues, who are fearful that before the year 1840, there will be more schools than pupils.

Besides, we are inclined to believe, and experience is daily confirming us in this belief, that there may be more than one method of educating boys-even those of the same standing and prospects in life. All may be substantially right, or embrace enough of good to stamp the character of excellence and usefulness upon them; while the particular means employed to attain this end, may differ widely from each other, and would seem to promise very different, and even opposite results. It would not be safe to conclude, that of so many apparently conflicting systems, a few only can be valuable, while the far greater number are specious and hollow. Many of these institutions adapt themselves to a particular description of pupils, and aim to supply some acknowledged deficiency; or, as in our own case, are designed to meet some peculiar demand, growing out of the singular and interesting attitude of the Republic.

The various modes of education, which justly claim our regard on account of their amount of solid usefulness, and their long continued success, are not like straight paths, of which one alone can ever reach an object from a given point. They are bye-paths, remote at times from each other, and leading through plains, or forests, or flowery fields; over the noisy brook or the silent river; by the mountain side, or through lofty passes; but all arriving at the wished for land. One traveller, it is true, may reach this spot, torn by the brambles, bespattered with mud, and emaciated with foil; and another may arrive there as clean and fresh, and nice, as if he had just emerged "from my Lady's band box.” Still they are there,-liberally educated. The only difference, (no small matter we confess,) will be, that one is cal

culated to become an intellectual Hercules; the other, a pretty little compliant Ganymedes.

For the same reason as we confidently believe, and not from the mere pertinacity of prejudice, some institutions for the education of boys, (those of Eton and Westminster, for example,) have pursued a steady and undeviating course, undisturbed by the projected innovations, or the clamours for reform-venerable as their moss-grown towers and massive edifices; whilst others of very recent origin, and just launching forth upon the tide of experiment, have listened to the expression of popular opinion, have bowed to the influence of existing political institutions, have regarded the changes in the aspect of society, and the noisy demands for a modified system of education.

In England and Wales, the Endowed Grammar Schools are about 500 in number. Amid such a galaxy, only here and there a star of first magnitude can show its face; such, for example, as Eton, Westminster, and Winchester. These venerable establishments, founded by royal or private liberality, and originally designed for the service of the Church, have educated, as scholars on the foundation, and as "Oppidans," some of the brightest luminaries in every department that have ever shone upon Great Britain. The Greek and Latin classics (let our anti-classical men ruminate on this) have ever been cultivated here with eminent success. They are characterized by a rigid attention to the Greek and Latin quantities and metres. At Westminster, a boy must be able to repeat the greater portion of the Westminster Greek and Latin Grammar from memory, at the time of his admission; and no instruction is provided in the French and Mathematics.

These seminaries have necessarily been fettered by the requisitions of their original charters; and, like the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, have preserved a great degree of uniformity in the form of discipline and mode of instruction,

In a country where classical attainments are the only passport to distinction in literary life, and the number is so great of those who can afford the expense of a thorough classical education, such seminaries are immensely valuable. They occupy a very important part in the wide field, the whole of which ought to be assiduously cultivated.

We cannot, therefore, join in the outcry, recently raised, against these seminaries, as "monastic" establishments, some six or eight centuries behind the improvements of this "practical" age, and oppressing the intellectual energies with a load of Greek and Latin, to the exclusion of more palatable and congenial food. These objections may be traced, sometimes to malevolence and envy; sometimes to levity and superficialness; sometimes to a distaste for severer intellectual toil; and, not unfrequently, to sheer ignorance of the primary object of an elementary education, which aims to draw forth and invigorate the expanding energies of the mind, and not merely to furnish it with a knowledge of insulated facts, very useful, we admit, in their proper time and place, and furnishing materials upon which the well disciplined intellect may employ itself with success, at a subsequent period.

In France the schools for boys are closely interwoven with the other parts of the grand system of education, and form, together with them, "The University of France." This immense establishment stretches its branches over every part of the kingdom, regulating and controling every institution for education, with the exception of those connected with the public military and naval service. Its ramifications are exceedingly minute, and a large body of men is exclusively occupied in the management of its concerns. The Royal Council of Public Instruction, with the minister of ecclesiastical affairs at its head, holds its periodical meetings, and has a number of subordinate officers for the management of its complicated business. The academies, twenty-six in number, amongst which "the Academy of Paris" stands

forth in bold relief; the colleges, the institutions, the boarding houses, and primary schools, are all inseparable parts of this stupendous system. The academies, which are scattered in different parts of the kingdom, are visited regularly by the Inspectors General of the University, who are vested with full authority to examine the condition of each academy and its appendages. So that the movements of every establishment for education in France, must be subject to the control of the council, and its connexion with the University must be avowed and unreserved.

It is obvious that a fearful amount of influence over the minds and character of an immense population, is thus deposited in the hands of the monarch and his minions. The elevation or degradation of a whole people hangs upon the nod of a fellow-worm. On the other hand, by a wise administration, this connexion of the several parts of the system with one another and with the whole, this gradation of intellectual culture, this playing of one institution into the hands of another, may subserve the most important ends. The dependance of all the inferior schools upon the University and the Royal Council, represses individual enterprise, which frequently leads to valuable improvements. On the other hand, it prevents the impositions, so repeatedly practised, upon the credulous public, by ignorant pretenders or designing knaves, who catch the attention by some novel but futile plan, and expend their useless or pernicious labors on the most delicate materials ever committed to the care of man.

In Germany, where the most refined intellectual culture and the most grovelling ignorance are cherished side by side; where the light of science and the literary ferment which prevails in one portion of the community, serves, by its contrast, to deepen the darkness and to aggravate the stupidity which broods over the other; where literature, the sciences, and the arts, when unconnected with politics, se cure the patronage of dukes, electors and monarchs, and fur