NATIONAL EDUCATION.

LET any mart competent to the task survey his past life even from his earliest remembrance, and in the majority of cases what will

be the result? That the good, in health, in morals, and in acquire- ments, have been the work of chance or nature; the ill, of neglect or of teaching. His nurses have swaddled him; his relations have pampered him ; when he is or has been made sick, the doctor has

dosed him: but any systematic attempt to preserve health, or to improve it, has never been thought of. His hair most likely has

been attended to, probably his teeth, a prominent ailment possibly; but his constitution never. Has his mind or his morals fared better ? In nine cases out of ten, no. His earliest notions have been debased, if not corrupted, by maids and their acquaintance. A school and a man-servant have imbued him with precocious ideas of licentiousness, and infused a grovelling grossness, the taint of which is never altogether eradicated. In return, he is taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, the two latter of which must be learned over again to be available in the world; small Latin and less Greek, to be soon forgotten ; possibly a tolerable acquaintance with French, the pronunciation of which and the power of speaking are quickly lost ; and a useless and superficial smattering of geography. He is cast upon the world with a frame not only unimproved, but weakened in its original constitution ; with a mind not learned in words, profoundly ignorant of things, and unversed in all which he will be called upon to practise in life. For his most useful and complete acquirement, reading, lie has probably been indebted to a preparatory school; for such vir- tues as have remained in spite of the contamination around him, lie is beholden to the care and to the lessons of his mother. The best foundations of his character have been laid by these ; but the superstructure he must rear himself, beginning by demolish- ing and removing. In short, when we look round upon others and back upon ourselves—when we call to mind all that has been done which ought not to have been done, all that has been left undone which ought to have been done—a reasonable mind will not so much wonder that men are what they are, but that they are not a thousand times worse.

These observations apply to the educated. 'What is the state of the poor? that is, of the people ? of seven-eighths of the commu- nity? Strike off the hairdresser and the cook from the bodily enumeration ; take away from the mental advantages what is miscalled learning; add the frequent spectacle not only of moral, but of social and (so to speak) of legal depravity; and an idea may be formed of the training of some dozen millions of people, with the richest endowed teachers in the world.

To point out the evils of the present system, is one ob- ject of Mr. SIMPSON'S book ; another is, to inculcate the pro- priety of removing them; • the third and most important is, to suggest a mode in which it may be done. On the immediate importance of the subject, when the popul r energies, whether for good or for evil, are coming into play, we need. not remark. Without aiming at conveying an abstract of the work, or super- seding the necessity of a reference to it, we will detain the reader for a few minutes whilst we endeavour to convey some idea of Mr. SIMPSON'S views upon the subject of Popular Education.

The great blessings of life are health, goodness, and wisdom. The great objects of education should be to train the pupil to attain them. It is obvious that, for the first desideratum, health, the training should begin with birth, and that even in infancy something may be done to curb or to direct the temper. At this time of life, all must, however, be left to the mother and the nurse; and till education has operated upon a generation or two—till habits of self-control are spread through society—till some general knowledge of the human frame is imparted to every individual— little can be expected to be done at home. At present, therefore, the education of the people should begin with two years of age. From this period till six years old, their time will be passed in an Infant School. At six, they will be removed to other teachers; where Mr. SIMPSON would wish they should remain till fourteen.

To many persons, the notion of sending an infant only two years old to school, for any other purpose than to keep it out of the way, will seem visionary : nevertheless, to commence a course of moral and even of mental training at this earlyage, is not only practi- cable, but practised. And, thanks to the exertions of WILDER- SPIN, and some of those his enthusiasm infected, Infant Schools— few, indeed, and far between—are established both in Great Bri- tain and America; and what is more, are successful. For the course of instruction pursued, we must refer the reader to Mr. SIMPSON'S volume, or better still, to the work of WILDERSPIN.* We may say, however, that the body is to be strengthened by suit-

• A review of this will be found in the Fifth Volume of the Spectator; No. 208. 234 June 1832.

able exercise, cleanliness, and temperance; which lesser morals are by habit impressed upon the pupil till they become a second nature. The Moral training is accomplished imperceptibly by the constant superintendence, mildness, and skill of the teacher, and by that appeal to the goodness of nature which exists in most of us, though it is too often smothered by weeds. The mental teach- ing consists of reading, and, if we may so express it, of the philo- sophy of substances : a knowledge of things is thoroughly im- pressed upon the mind, instead of cramming the memory with words. Listen to Mr. SIMPSON.

The child of two years is acutely appetized for things, but yet very feebly for words: when, by a grand error, words are forced upon him, things will infal- libly take of his attention, and often has he been punished for evincing a law of his nature, inattention to his "book." If the instructor understands and obeys nature, he will readily and judiciously supply things or objects to those faculties in his pupil which were created to be intensely gratified with the cognizance of them. We mean by a judicious supply of objects a scientific combination of the pupil's delight with his improvement. The objects should be arranged in lessons, and successively presented to the pupil's senses and faculty for observing ex- istences. The simple and obvious qualities of any object are inseparable from it, and should be carefully pointed out to him ; while, by a succession of objects, he will learn a variety of qualities, till he has mastered all the qualities of ex- ternal objects, cognizable without chemical analysis. For example, introduce a class of pupils to a piece of glass. Let them each and all see it, handle it, weigh it, look through it, break it, cut with it, Age. They have thus got its colour, smoothness, hardness, weight, transparency, brittleness, sharpness. Let them at the same time, be familiarized with the words that express glass, and all these its qualities, and let them see each word printed, and written, and spelled, by which means their reading is incidentally begun. Ask them if they can name something else that is transparent ? They will probably answer, water. Something else which cuts? A knife ? If the piece of sponge tied to their slate is smooth? No, it is rough. Tell them the use of glass. In their next lesson give them something very different from glass in its qualities as to trans. parency, smoothness, hardness, brittleness, sharpness,—for example, a piece of India rubber. It is opaque (write the word and exhibit it printed, as with all the others), soft, not brittle, not sharp, besides being flexible, elastic, inflam- mable, black, tough, waterproof. Every quality must be shown in its own way, and the uses of the substance explained. Leather is the third lesson. Wher- ever any quality of the new object agrees with a quality, found in any previous object let the pupils find that out. Leather, like India rubber, is flexible, opaque, waterproof, tough, smooth, combustible. It differs from it in odour, &c. Sugar is the object of the fourth lesson. It agrees with the two preced- ing objects, in being opaque, and with glass in being hard and brittle; but it is soluble (demonstrated by dissolving a piece in water), fusible (in the flame of a candle), white, sweet, sparkling, &c. Its uses are well known to children.

When the pupil leaves the Infant School, the healthful and the moral course of training is still continued; or rather, is more rigidly enforced. At the same time, he is introduced to a higher course of studies, but still practical and useful :

"That which before us lies in daily life Is the prime wisdom."

The knowledge of substances—the science of physics, stripped of its forms—is impressed upon him. He begins the great study of all—of himself—of his body and his mind. Geography, geo- metry, mechanical science, natural history, natural theology, a skeleton of history, the knowledge of his political duties and of political economy, with writing and arithmetic, studied more or less completely, but always practically and thoroughly so far as the course extends, will fill up the time till fourteen. Those per- sons who are intended for the learned or the liberal professions, or whose rank in society enables them to devote a longer period to education, will now commence the study of languages. Those who have, in homely phrase, "their bread to get," will go forth well qualified to get it.

One part of Mr. Stsiesteses plan, and which he endeavours strongly to impress upon the reader, is that every faculty both mental and bodily is to be improved by exercise; that the animal faculties require to be restrained, the mental to be strengthened ; and that these two essentials can only be fully accomplished by a systematic classification of the faculties to which the attention of the teacher, and eventually of the pupil, shall be constantly directed. Upon this subject he dwells at a length far too ample for us to quote, or even to abridge; but the subjoined abstract will convey an idea of what is aimed at. Though its formality may startle some, and the strangeness of the phraseology excite the ridicule of others, it is perhaps upon some such plan that the moral training at all events should take place.

The whole faculties which have been described, are now brought under the reader's eye in a table for the convenience of reference.

INFERIOR FEELINGS.

ANIMAL PROPENSITIES.

Propensity of Food. Propensity to ConceaL Sex. Acquire.

— Offspring. — Construct. — Attachment. , Sentiment of Self-Love.. — to Fight. — Desire of Estimation. — Destroy. — Fear. HIGHER FEELINGS.

MORAL SENTIMENTS.

Sentiment of Wonder. —.. Imagination. — The Ludicrous.

Imitation.

INTELLECT.

KNOWING FACULTIES. REFLECTING FACULTIES.

Cognition of Existences. Comparison. - Events. Necessary Consequence. Percipients of Form, Colour, Sound, &c.Language.

It will be guessed, that upon the subject of Popular Education Mr. SIMPSON is an enthusiast : indeed, he is well known to many, for an amiable zeal and an enlightened knowledge in such matters. He would have it take place at once; carry it into effect by a grant

Sentiment of Benevolence.

— Justice.

— Veneration.

— Hope. — Firmness.

as large as that which was voted (certainly for an object to us of less importance) for the abolition of West India Slavery ; and regulate, if not altogether stop the employment of children, by a stricter Factory Bill. The last, we imagine, is an object beyond the direct reach of legislation : the belly has no ears ; and till every man is free to buy his bread where he can get it cheapest, and to exercise his industry how he listeth, leisure-decrees will avail little. The charge upon the public to carry a plan of National Education into effect, even in the complete way Mr. SIMPSON proposes, would be less than he seems to imagine. For there could be no objection to apply all charitable funds that have been left to educate the people to this purpose; and no Christian of the Established Church would object to devote to the same object such surplus revenue as shall accrue from its efficient reform. The first pro- posal is not likely to be effected at present. The bulk of the people are indifferent to the subject ; the middle classes indifferent or averse ; and the Tories nearly to a man opposed to it. Systematic Popular Education is perhaps one of the very few matters in which some of our rulers and legislators are in advance of public opinion. It will require some more books like the Necessity of Popular Education to be written, and extensively read, before the matter will be ripe for execution.

In our further quotations, we shall not follow any exact method, or aim at exhibiting any complete account of the detailed views of the author; for which, as we have said already, reference must be made to the volume. We shall, therefore, pick out a few odds and ends almost at random.

SHOULD EDUCATION BE UNIFORM?

The reader may further ask, is the above curriculum to be passed through by • LL pupils, without regard to the differences of talent, turns, and capabilities? The answer to this is affirmative. Whatever may be the particular power of mind or aptitude of body which points out a marked line for an individual's fu- turellfe, no one will surely say that he is to have no other education but on that specific object; for example, music, painting, sculpture, mechanics, classics. If his particular talent has not absorbed all the rest of his mind, which would render him a cretin or idiot with one faculty working like an instinct, he has other faculties to be educated : be has, in truth, all the faculties, and it does not require the highest degree of endowment of them to follow out all the branches of education, instrumentary and real, which have Len allotted, both to our infant and advanced school. His particular talent will not be diminished but aided by his general acquirements ; his Creator has given him all his talents for use, and the education now proposed is the very use of them as pointed out by their nature and relations, which has been designed. All should, if possible, be brought up to one elevated level of knowledge or morality ; and from that advanced position genius may take its new and higher flight. Nothing will more tend to bring out that genius into bold relief than the school training now proposed ; so that there will be no searching about for it at the period of pu- berty. No previous time will then have been lost, and the start to further at- tainments in the marked Hum of the special talent, will be immediate, well di- rected, and energetic. No provision can or ought to be made for particular hues in the general seminary. The schools for particular talent must and ought to be subsequent apprenticeship to the pursuits respectively.

SPECIMEN OF A WELL-EDUCATED YOUNG MAN.

This deficiency in knowledge is also remarkably exemplified in young men born to large fortunes, who have succeeded in minority to their paternal estates, and, on attaining majority, are by law entitled to pursue their own happiness in their own way. It is quite lamentable to observe the humble, the debasing course they almost always adopt. Rational views of themselves, of human na- ture. and of the institutions of society, would be invaluable to such individuals; but they have no adequate means of obtaining them, while positively false views have been implanted in their minds by a perverted education. I grant the case to be an extreme one, of a young gentleman of large fortune, not destitute of talents and good feeling, and regularly subjected to all the appliances of dead- language education at school and college, who, on the day of his majority, was declared a free man, with power to choose the most likely road to real happiness. What did he do? He established, of course, a stud of hunters, a pack of hounds, and a whole armoury of fowling-pieces,—galluping and blazing and slaughtering being universally held inseparable from wealth and rank, in the present state of civilization. Coach-driving, either of private four-in-hand vehickyor the public conveyances, is no longer sanctioned by genetal approba- tion, as suiting the age ; nevertheless our hopeful had a trial of coach-driving. From this he was diverted by matrimony, and postnuptially took to another gratification of his faculties of rather an original kind ; he placed cats upon a float iu the middle of a pond, and sent dogs to swim in and attack them !

PROPOSED COURSE OF EDUCATION NOT DIFFICULT.

Much of the useful knowledge desiderated is obtained in the Infant School, and four years saved which at present are worse than lost ; and when the pupil passes on to the advanced seminary, which is on the principle of systematic progress, the degree of his exertions and the extent of his acquisitions cannot be conceived by those who have only witnessed the drawling waste of time which, in most schools, for there are exceptions, is called children's education. Again, there is nothing in the whole course of our advanced school which may not be perfectly understood and practically applied by pupils from twelve to fourteen and making provision as is proposed, for gradations of occupation, there is much for which the age from ten to twelve is perfectly well adapted ; while there are divisions qf employment for the other two periods, of from eight to ten, and six to eight. Classical difficulties, far beyond the simple exposition of natural truths, are mastered by boys of ten ur twelve years of age, if the stimulauts of prizes and punishments—there are no other motives—are rendered sufficiently pungent. There is nothing in the facts of creation, illustrated to the senses by experiment, which is not of as easy comprehension as the objects and arrange- ments of a boy's voluntary amusements ; lie adapts his fishing.tackle to the conditions of angling; he studies the weather, the stream, the habits of the fish, and many other circumstances, and can instruct others in their .practical appli- cation : he is a master, too, in the natural history of rabbits, pigeons, and pets in general ; lie gets up a private theatre, paints the scenes, and writes the pieces; his spot of ground is the best kept and most productive in his father's garden ; and for mischief and IRO, he can lay a train of circumstances, moral and physical, which, when he comes to spring his mine upon the devoted Wight for whose peculiar benefit he has taken so much trouble and expended so much Dr.lie has often done more than, if engaged iu practical chemistry under Dr. Reid, he had finished a set of glass retorts with a blowpipe, and applied them in a dozen chemical experiments.

Besides the matters of which we have endeavoured to convey an idea, many other points arc alluded to in the book, upon which we cannot enter. Amongst them is a curious essay upon Homicidal

Insanity, the object of which. is to prove that murder is often the effect of madness.