pected to be faithfully forgotten, more majorum,-affords a striking proof of the force of an ignorant custom enthralling an imperfectly educated people. Were the actual value, then, of classical study tenfold what it is, if it be true that ninety-nine in every hundred who engage in it fail, and for centuries have failed, of attaining to that degree of proficiency which is of any value at all, then classical study is not the proper education for ninety-nine in every hundred of those who at present lose their time in the pursuit of it; and who, as there is no substitute, are left uneducated to all useful practical ends and purposes. What is therefore wanted, is to abolish the exclusiveness of the dead languages; to allot them their proper place as subjects of study; to render them easily accessible to all who seek them, either as necessary to a learned profession, as a direct gratification of taste, or as an elegant accomplishment; and at the same time to substitute in early and general education, objects of study more practically useful, which, from their nature, will be better remembered, and will furnish the substantial power of knowledge and resource for life. All the real benefit to society from the classics, will thus be preserved; it being obvious that no benefit accrues in any way whatever, either to the student or the community, from their stated oblivion." The author supports his opinions by the high authority of Milton and Locke.

In chapter third is given a succinct, clear, and comprehensive view of the faculties of man, and their relative objects. "If the being to be educated," says he, "is man, some knowledge of his nature would seem to be a requisite preliminary to his actual education. Treatises abound in which we are told that man ought to be trained according to his nature, in harmony with his faculties; but, with a few recent exceptions, no educational writer has made an attempt which deserves the name of systematic, to inquire what that nature is, or those faculties are. 'The trainers of horses and dogs proceed much more philosophically; they leave nothing to hazard, but study, with the utmost care, the distinguishing qualities of the animals, and apply the best treatment to those qualities. But any kind of training is held good enough for the human animal, and moreover any kind of trainer who professes to undertake the office. When the principles which ought to regulate education are understood, this grievous error will be corrected. It will then be known, and the knowledge acted upon, that education is a process calculated to qualify man to think, feel and act, in a manner most productive of happiness. It will be known that he has a certain constitution of body and mind, having certain definite relations to beings and things external to itself, and that in these relations are the conditions of his weal or woe. Education will then be seen to have three essentials, first, by early exercise to improve

the powers and faculties, bodily and mental;-secondly, to impart a knowledge of the nature and purposes of these powers and faculties ;-and, thirdly, to convey as extensive a knowledge as possible of the nature of external beings and things, and the relations of these to the human constitution."

Now, as it is Phrenology alone that furnishes a practical analysis of the human mind, and makes known the faculties to be improved, education must continue to be vague, misdirected, and inefficient, as it has hitherto been, unless the aid of the new philosophy be called in. Mr Simpson has accordingly introduced with much skill an account of the human faculties as revealed by Phrenology, in such a way as to avoid collision with the prejudices of unphrenological readers. His mode of proving to such readers the existence of the faculties established by Phrenology is to describe them in succession, and to challenge the reader to deny their existence. "I feel so confident," says he, "that all my postulates as to human powers, impulses, instincts, or faculties, for we need not dispute about names,—will be conceded to me, from the impossibility, as I humbly view it, of refusing the concession, that I am content to peril the whole argument, upon the admission by every educated person-First, that the impulses now to be enumerated form constituent parts of man; and, Secondly, that, as is true of the physical structure and organic functions, each is related to some object or objects in nature, moral or physical, external to itself, but directly pointing to it, upon which it is exercised. I wish it, however, to be distinctly understood, that I do not found upon physiological evidence of the truth of the analysis of faculties which I am humbly to offer, because that evidence is not generally admitted; I do not require to trace each faculty to a disputed cerebral origin; the faculties shall be merely metaphysically submitted seriatim to the reader's judgment, and his own experience appealed to; and any one which he does not recognise in man, I am quite contented that he shall reject. If, too, he does not think the relative object correctly added to each faculty as we advance, that too he is at perfect liberty to disallow." A luminous and accurate description of the faculties is then given; this is followed by some useful general observations applicable to them all; and the chapter is concluded by a short dissertation on what has been accomplished by Mr Combe in throwing light upon the Deity's moral government of the world.

The fourth chapter is entitled "On Education, as adapted to the faculties-Infant Education." In this chapter the author expounds at considerable length the principle that each faculty must be exercised directly on its own objects,-explains the nature of physical, moral, and intellectual education, and discusses in detail the manner in which infant training ought to be conduct

ed. There are also some very just observations on the religious instruction of children, and on the employment of medals and prizes as a stimulus to exertion: and, finally, the objections urged against infant schools by persons ignorant of the principles by which they are regulated, are successfully demolished.

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The education of children after the sixth year forms the subject of chapter fifth. Lessons from objects, according to the Pestalozzian system, are now to be more extensively given than at the infant school; by which means the pupils will acquire considerable knowledge of the external world. After this, Mr Simpson proposes to give them some acquaintance with their own nature. Why," he asks, "should not the pupil, who has reached nine or ten years of age, begin to know the faculties of his mind? Is there any thing in those, for example, which have been detailed in this treatise, which may not be made as plain to him as the lessons on objects and their qualities? There is no need for leading him deeply into metaphysical inquiry on the functions of his faculties: a simple elementary knowledge of them and their every-day modes of operation, above all, their inseparable connexion with their related objects, might be impressed on his mind in such a manner as not only to be perfectly comprehended by him, but firmly impressed on his memory, and applied in his ordinary experience. This branch should constitute a paramount object of concern with the teacher; he should spare no pains to put his pupils completely and intelligently in possession of it. The transition will be easy from the analysis of the faculties to their ethical combination, made plain to the young in their daily intercourse. I have seen the experiment tried on children under twelve years of age with the most flattering success; they have manifested a knowledge and estimate of motives, and a readiness in appreciating, and even regulating conduct, far above what the great mass of the educated' ever dreamed of being necessary to intelligent existence." He thinks also that the pupils may "with great ease and advantage be familiarized with the general structure of their own bodies, and with the functions of the digestive and other organs, which bear the most obvious relation to the preservation of health and strength; while uncleanly and unwholesome habits may be set prominently before their eyes, with their effects on health and life fully spread out to their view." Geography, Astronomy, History, Geometry, Mechanics, Natural History, and Natural Theology, as branches of education, are next treated of; but we pass on to what is said about political instruction, with Mr Simpson's views on which subject we completely agree. "Incidentally," says he, "throughout the whole time of the pupil in the school, and particularly in the latter years of his attendance, he should receive much and anxious instruction on

the subject of his political state, and his position as a member of the social system. There is no greater novelty in education than this; hitherto there has been an utter blank here. The elder pupils should be perfectly familiar with their social rights and duties, the principles and simpler practice of the constitution and government, the functions of representatives and of electors, the nature and powers of judicial establishments, the trial by jury, and the functions of magistrates, justices of the peace, and officers of the law, of all ranks and degrees. There is nothing in all this that a boy of twelve years of age may not comprehend and store up as knowledge, as easily as he would translate Cæsar. The knowledge should be given him in a series of lessons, and his progress ascertained by repeated examinations; and when he shall come to exercise his rights as a citizen, his early elementary training will be of great value to him.

"Lessons on political economy, the nature and principles of trade, commerce, manufactures, and money, will follow elementary views of political condition. Liberal relations may then be inculcated, and all the self-defeating prejudice and selfishness of dealing among nations and individuals anticipated and prevented. National antipathies ought to be especially reprobated. There are a few plain principles of political economy of which no individual ought to be ignorant, such as the balance of demand and supply, the doctrine of wages, of employer and workman, the economy of labour, the division of labour, the effect of competition, of overtrading, of machinery, of poor-laws, and pauperism, with all its degradation when not induced by unavoidable misfortune, &c."

The sixth chapter is devoted to the consideration of Civil History as a study for youth. The following extract will give the reader some idea of Mr Simpson's opinions:

"Before history can be properly taught, it must be properly written. It must be written under the direction of an enlightened philosophy of mind and human nature, and the sound ethics of the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect. It ought to be viewed as a record of the manifestations of the faculties of man, and the distinction of the animal from the moral faculties, the truth that creation is arranged on the principle of favouring virtue, being kept in view-its events should be classed according to their relation to the higher or lower feelings of humanity; exalting the former as worthy of approbation and imitation; and reprobating the latter according to their place in the scale of vice or crime, to which, in abuse, they essentially belong. The historian thus guided would not worship the false splendour of the Grecks and Romans,-a worship too unequivocally indicative of a sympathy in ourselves with the lower feelings, out of which that false splendour arose ;-but

tracing through all their ramifications and tortuosities, to their ultimate inevitable retribution, acts fundamentally immoral or criminal, would sternly refuse to them the slightest shelter from universal execration, in the most dazzling feats of heroism, the most munificent dispensation of plunder, the finest taste, or most gorgeous magnificence. The same guiding principles would impart to history a philosophical character, which would give it the highest practical value, and instead of an unedifying monotony of vice and crime, would render it a continued illustration of principle, and an instructive guide to national practice."

The details of a national plan of popular education are suggested in chapter seventh, which is one of great interest. The author contends for the institution of free schools by the nation; because experience proves that even the most trifling fees have the effect of preventing attendance,that private benevolence is of little avail in establishing and upholding schools, and that popular ignorance is a great national evil, peopling our prisons and our hospitals, desolating the land with pauperism, taxing us for the costly machinery of political establishments and criminal judicature, and, at the same time, deducting from the happiness of every feeling man, by making him witness and live surrounded by the numberless sufferings which it entails upon an immense body of the community. "Pay for it who may," says Mr Simpson, "the education of the working classes never has been, nor ever will, for it cannot, be paid by themselves. Besides inability, there is another obstacle to any thing like effort by that class to obtain education for their children, and that is, their utter indifference to it, arising from ignorance of its advantages. The very ignorance which we deplore is a mountainous barrier in the way of its own removal. The road must be levelled and smoothed, and almost strewed with flowers, to tempt the prevailing apathy to move in it. It is proverbial, but erroneous, that a thing must be paid for before it is valued, and many will tell us that the working class will not care to send their children to our gratis schools. Now that has not yet been tried; but it has, on trial, been found to be most certainly true that the maxim reversed holds good, namely, that a thing must be valued before it is paid for; and hence the empty halls of the pence-exacting schools. It seems an experiment well worth the while of the Government, who must have ultimately to deal with the great question, to guarantee, for a year or two, the loss to two or three infant schools, that shall arrange to open their door gratis. From many indications, and from inquiries made by them among the poorer classes, Mr Dun and Mr Milne, the teachers of the Edinburgh Lancasterian and Model Infant schools, have informed the author that they entertain no doubt