promote perspiration: observing the erect posture, and adding the application of external cold, the necessity of which is much urged. On one point of practice, Dr. Clarke's notions are peculiar; we mean his rejection of the use of blisters on the head, because he supposes that so intimate a connection prevails between the external and the internal vessels, that we cannot irritate the one without communicating the irritation to the other; and, consequently, he recommends that the blisters should be placed on the outside of the legs. When we have reason to suppose that the inflammatory action has been succeeded by effusion into the ventricles, from the occurrence of screaming, dilated pupils, squinting, deafness, insensibility, slowness of the pulse, and convulsions, we are no longer to expect any benefit from evacuations; our object, if it be attainable, is to produce absorption; and for this purpose mercury is the only remedy which holds out any prospect of advantage. The volume concludes with a short chapter on Idiotism, Paralysis, and Epilepsy, in Children. We trust that the analysis which we have given of Dr. Clarke's work will induce every practitioner to make himself fully acquainted with it; and we will venture to assure him that his time and labour will not be mis-spent in allowing it a very careful perusal. He will meet with much useful information, well arranged and clearly expresse.l, respecting the symptoms and prognosis of the diseases of children; and with many candid and judicious observations on points of practice.

ART. VI. View ofthe System of Education at present pursued in the Schools and Universities of Scotland; with an Appendix, containing Communications relative to the University of Cambridge, School of Westminster, the Perth Academy; toge ther with a more detailed Account of the University of St. Andrew's. By the Rev. M. Russel, M. A., Episcopal Minister, Leith. 8vo. pp. 230. 6s. Boards. Baldwin, Cradock, and Co. ART. VII. Remarks and Explanations connected with the "View of the System of Education in the Schools and Universities of Scotland." By the Rev. M. Russel. 8vo. 3s. 6d. Rivingtons. 1815.

I we have been somewhat tardy in our notice of these

little works, the delay has by no means arisen from an indifference to the subject. Education has always appeared to us to rank among the most important objects of philosophic investigation, and the improvements made of late years in its elementary branches deserve to hold a place, with vaccination, among the happiest discoveries of the age. Scot

D 4

land,

land, also, has contributed so largely to the production of eminent literati, as to possess a particular claim to the attention of those inquirers who are anxious to ascertain the methods by which useful information may be successfully cultivated and diffused. We were accordingly not a little gratified at finding in Mr. Russel a writer disposed to do justice to his part of the kingdom, without over-rating its merits, and still less without adopting the curious notion of Mr. Windhan that the North Britons are a different breed from the rest of their fellow-subjects. From such a writer, we were justified in expecting a fair estimate of the merits and defects of the seminaries of education in his division of the country, whatever difference might prevail between us as to the objects of education in a general and speculative view.

Mr. Russel begins by remarking (p. 7.) that the public are by no means aware of the necessity of improvement in our plans of education, nor of the ease with which, under due precaution, it might be carried into effect. His object in drawing up these observations was not to make a comparison between the seminaries on this and the other side of the Tweed, but to confine his explanations to the existing differences, in point of method, between the several Scotish universities: though he was gradually led into a wider field by the interest of the subject, and by the utility of contrasting one mode of instruction with another. Still he has made it a point (p. 12.) to enter very slightly on the merits of the professional course of study which is adopted with regard to divinity, medicine, or law and he has confined himself to general education, or, in other words, to classics, mathematics, and philosophy. Nothing could be more prudent than this limitation of his subject: but, as the author has not been equally careful in another point, we mean the arrangement of his materials, we shall divide them under a few heads, and endeavour to exhibit them in distinct succession.

t

;

Education at School. One of the main arguments of Mr. Russel points to the propriety of continuing youths a longer time at school, and delaying the period of their going to the university. This observation applies chiefly to Scotland; where it is not uncommon to see boys enter on an universitycourse at the age of twelve or thirteen, and to bring it to a close exactly at the time at which it ought to have begun. The point is urged (p. 32. et seqq.) at great length; and in fact it appears so clear and unquestionable, that we can account for the prevalence of a contrary method, on the other side of the Tweed, only from the unacquaintance with the nature of an university-course which is so common among pa

rents,

rents, and the impatience of boys to enter on that which they consider as a station of promotion.

The majority of those who send their sons to a university, not having themselves had the benefit of a college education, naturally enough invest the idea of such a seat of learning with the most exalted images of accomplishment and polish; the consequence of which is, they come to a firm determination, that their offspring shall not succeed them in the labours of the warehouse, or assume the functions of the counter, without having trodden six months at least the pavement of a college-court. It is this ignorance of literary affairs, and this silly pride among the wealthy tradesmen of our larger towns, which has occasioned the late astonishing influx of students into the Greek and Latin classes, and which has also brought to pass a very disagreeable and unpromising condition of classical learning in Scotland;-too many having a smattering, and too many having nothing more.'

In contrasting the great classical schools of Edinburgh and Glasgow, Mr. R. gives a decided preference to the former; its course comprizing at least five years, while that of Glasgow does not exceed four. Now it is found from experience that pupils make more progress in the last year than in any two preceding; a fact which has been the cause of a late extension of the Edinburgh-school-course to six years with regard to the major part of the youths. This plan ought, in Mr. R.'s' opinion, to be farther extended to seven or even eight years, that boys might, before they leave school, be enabled to read Greek with considerable facility.

A course of this length would require the appointment of six masters in our greater schools (Edinburgh and Glasgow); and, uniting the classes of the fifth and sixth years under him who, in the ordinary routine, should hold that of the fifth, and those of the seventh and eighth under the rector or senior teacher for the time, we should effectually provide against the risk of diminished income on the part of the masters; a circumstance which might be appre hended from the diminution that would probably take place in the number of the pupils after the fifth year of attendance. In the advanced stage of their progress which is here assumed, it would be perfectly easy to unite under one master two classes, each consisting of forty or fifty boys; and if this arrangement did not secure for the teacher a competent income, or if it were found necessary to retain the classes separate for a longer period, the fees might be raised a little upon the commencement of the fifth year.'

'As matters stand at present, Edinburgh is unquestionably the best classical seminary in this part of the island; and it derives its superiority chiefly from the more extended plan of study, which has been of late very generally adopted, in continuing the boys six years at school, and by introducing, at an earlier period than formerly, the study of Greek. Such of the pupils as attend this course throughout, and afterwards two sessions at college, enjoy

nearly

nearly the same advantages in point of time that are enjoyed by the students at Eton and Westminster: but while with the latter the attainments which have been thus made are to be followed up with more profound studies at the university, the former, after having made this progress in them, discontinue their philological pursuits altogether; for as philosophy is said to be postponed at Oxford in favour of Greek and Latin, so the student at Edinburgh hears nothing of literature after he has begun to attend lectures on philosophy.

Now, it occurs to me, that it would be a great improvement upon our system, to have the eight years which are devoted to languages, (and the term ought not to be shorter,) spent entirely at school; as, for the reasons which I have assigned, there cannot be the smallest doubt that lads from fourteen to sixteen would make much greater progress under the restraint, the close attendance, and the other powerful inducements of school discipline than in a college, where study must be in a great measure voluntary.'

The practice of employing tutors, so prevalent in our great schools and in our universities, is very little followed in the northern part of the kingdom, where the boys are expected to go through the studying part in the public class. Mr. R. points out (pp. 51, 52, 53.) a method by which the plan of tutors may be applied to the larger Scotish schools, and the business of the rector or master be confined to the task of examination.

University-Education. We have now seen, with regard to schools, that the general diffusion of education in Scotland is owing more to their number than to any judgment displayed in their constitution. The old error of teaching Latin to boys intended for business prevails there in all its extent; so that the part of the volume before us, which most deserves the attention of an English reader, is the inquiry into the comparative merit of our university-systems. In this more advanced stage, the Scotish course deserves attention, not from the mode of tuition, but from the variety of topics which engage the attention of the student; a variety much better fitted to prehim for the mixed intercourse of life, or even the prosepare cution of literature, than the almost exclusive preference given in one of our great seminaries to classics and in the other to mathematics.

Mr. Russel commences his observations on the northern universities with the subject of classics; and his great objection to them respecting this branch of study arises from its being frequently imposed on youths intended for occupations very different from those of literature.

Nothing is more common amongst us, than for parents, who are perfectly aware that all the classical knowledge which they can

acquire

acquire in so short a time will be of no use to their sons, to send them, notwithstanding, to learn the rudiments of the dead languages, and to urge as a reason for this conduct that they know nothing else upon which to employ their minds until they shall be fit for business. Now, as this want of occupation is supposed to occur long before boys are instructed as they ought to be in their native language; before their penmanship is good, or their knowledge of arithmetic extensive; before they have learned geography, or acquired any notion of history and chronology, it may be suspected that useful employment is not found merely because it is not sought after. It may not be improper, however, farther to suggest to such parents, that when the subjects which I have mentioned are exhausted, the elements of mathematics, with practical geometry, the more simple doctrines of natural philosophy, and the popular parts of natural history, will afford more suitable exercise for the minds of their boys, and store their memories with more appropriate knowledge than can be gained from the smattering of a language which they are immediately to forget.''It is folly to urge that the grammar of the English language is much better understood by those who have studied that of the Latin for, according to this mode of reasoning, we should attend a course of anatomy to learn to carve a fowl, and study the tightrope in order to acquire a ready and elegant equilibrium of the body.'

We must not, however, imagine that Mr. R. under-rates the value of classical attainments; on the contrary, he expresses himself with as much ardour in their recommendation as could be desired by their most zealous admirers.

By obtaining possession of Greek and Latin, a man gets access to the source whence have sprung more or less immediately, not only the languages of modern Europe, but also the greater part of the literature, the science, and the fine arts which at present adorn this portion of the world. It has indeed been said, that having obtained the sciences and arts of antiquity, the medium through which we have made the acquisition is no longer of any value. But, admitting the justness of this remark, as it respects the knowledge of facts and the reasonings of philosophers, it can have no weight whatever when it is applied to literature, -for literature in its highest and most valuable qualities cannot be transferred from one tongue to another. The argument of a poem, or of an oration, may, it is true, be detailed perspicuously enough in a translation, and the narrative and sentiments may be exhibited to any people whose vocabulary is sufficiently copious to supply a vehicle: but all that constitutes the charm of eloquence and the fascinations of poetry,-the language which delights by its music and its thousand associations, the ornaments of fancy which seem fresh gathered from nature, the vigorous efforts of native and unfettered genius which distinguish the first-rate classics of Greece and Rome, cannot be perceived and enjoyed but in their original expression. Homer was never read but in Greek; and he is yet a

stranger