falls before the contrary system. The idea is hopeless, that they can be concurrent means. Every present form of education must be weakened and absorbed, by the unitive and national measure which has been supposed. It cannot be a mere addition to what is now in subsistence: it must supersede. The "new piece" will destroy the ancient texture. Such contraries must dash in endless collision. No common basis, no reconciling solution, can be found. The man of enlightened and sincere principle must, in this conjuncture, be inflexible. He will find himself placed amidst conflicts of opinion. He will be condemned for the most opposite prejudices. He will be urged to move in the most contrary directions. His star is above, and he must steer by it.

"Virtus repulsæ nescia sordidæ
Intaminatis fulget honoribus;
Nec sumit aut ponit secures
Arbitrio popularis auræ.'

The sciolist, unread in history, unversed in constitutional knowledge, after a superficial glance of other countries, may repeat the verbiage, "that to this country the distinction is due, of being the least educated country of Europe, of being the only one

"True courage, unacquainted with defeat, shines on with untarnished honours; neither grasping, nor laying down, the ensigns of its dignity at every turn of the popular will."-Hor: Carm: lib. iii. 2.

which has no system of national education." And why, My Country, art thou thus arraigned? What means this charge? This treason to thy honour, from them who call themselves thy sons? These parricidal, though imbecile, bolts against thy Shield? Is it that thou art dark, while all around thee glows in light? Is it that thou art alien to the love of knowledge and the advancement of learning? Is it that science and erudition and poetry have fled thy shores? Is it that the Muses find in thee no haunt? Hast thou no theatre for the arts? Is it that thy swains and artizans do not think and will not enquire? Canst thou boast no cunning workmen? Is it that thy mind stagnates and thy conscience sleeps? Is it that thy literature, complete or serial, teems multitudinously for one great appetite and zest? Is it that the bird-hum of infant pupils swells upon the village breeze? Is it that in the far distant dale, the school, of no common lore, lifts its grey porch? Thy crime is known! Despots have banded themselves to mutter it! Thou art too enlightened and wilt radiate thy light! Thou art too free, and wilt proclaim thy freedom! Thou wilt not give thy limbs to be bound! Thou wilt not be cajoled into the surrender of thy rights! Thou art too high-souled, too erect, too thoughtful, for this abject education! Thou canst not be converted into a school! Thou canst not submit to the formula of a discipline! And, therefore, O my country! if I loved thee ever, I the more reverently love thee

now, now, that in thy greatness, thou hast broken the snare which aught less than thy jealousy of liberty might not have detected, and aught less than thy enthusiasm of independence might not have spurned ! Still may thine be,

Religion to thy God, peace, justice, truth,
Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood,
Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades,
Degrees, observances, customs, and laws."*

Others may desire the supple, slavish, unreflecting, race. We ask of men to think. We seek even the conflict of opinion. We know, in the language of Milton, that " opinion is knowledge in the making." They may afford the education which rather binds than unlooses the spirit of man. They would reduce society to a scale of exact degrees. Government they would erect into a universal control. They regard man as the mere accessory to higher aims. They play the game of their ambition, -the types of power and rank traverse their board,-and the people are the pawns with which they defend their privileged figures, and fill their vacant squares. We can take no such servile estimate. We renounce the cruel wrong. We desire to see the community astir : a thing of life and action. We hold that independence is its best virtue. The characteristic firmness

of a nation is its surest defence. We scorn the discipline which so many love, and whose covert intention is to lull the noble and the brave into unsuspecting confidence, to tame them into abject submission.

"What constitutes a State ?

Not high raised battlement, or laboured mound,
Thick wall, or moated gate,

Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned;
Not bays and broad-armed ports

Where laughing at the storm rich navies ride;
Not starred and spangled courts

Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride;
No :-Men, high-minded men,

With powers as far above dull brutes endued
In forest, brake, or den,

As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude,—
Men, who their duties know,

But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain,
Prevent the long-aimed blow

And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain :
These constitute a State !

And Sovereign Law, that State's collected will,
O'er thrones and globes elate

Sits Empress, crowning good, repressing ill."*

Instead, then, of seeking national education,—a figment, hopeless as the secrets which darker ages

Sir William Jones. The thought he confesses to be taken, and the poem imitated, from Lycæus.-Cicero has a similar idea in his Letters to Atticus: "Non est in parietibus Respublica."Lib. vii. 11.

frivolously pursued, let us gird ourselves for the glorious enterprise of educating more extensively, and, above all, more perfectly, the people of our land. Let not any factious statements, any ill-pondered charges, induce us to take up the flattering extreme. There is evil in the city, and throughout every region round about. Much is to be done. Liberal things must be devised. Personal exertions must be engaged. Our country grievously falls below its true altitude. By its privileges it is exalted to heaven. Why, then, the many recesses into which heaven's splendour has not pierced? Why, then, the many wastes upon which heaven's verdure does not bloom? Have we not suffered to grow up among us an anomalous state of things? We may find some excuse in the want of precedent. History holds out no light. Experience suggests no rule. But still, has the evil dilated itself before us! It is two-fold: the disparity of old means to meet new combinations, and the constant degeneracy of a certain number of the population into pauperism and recklessness. The plague must be stayed. Education does not stand alone: it marches on with a glorious fellowship. Yet more or less formally it enters into every remedy. must be made his own friend and healer. Melioration can alone proceed from himself. But how can this

Man

be, save as he becomes a creature of intelligent and virtuous aims? How can he become this, "except some man shall guide" him?