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tinue his observations, and at a future time present the results 

 for publication by the Society. 



The Eev. Mr. Howson, M.A., then addressed the meeting 

 On the Study of Ancient Art considered as an instrument of 

 Education, The following is an abstract of the paper : — 



He took the term "education" in its widest sense, not as 

 limited to the training of boyhood or girlhood, but as includ- 

 ing all that process of extending the knowledge, improving 

 the taste, directing the imagination and strengthening the 

 judgment, for which none of us are too old, and every instru- 

 ment in promoting which is valuable. The word "art" he 

 took in a narrow sense, including music, for instance, and 

 poetry, and addressed himself to that which may be called 

 representation art, which appeals directly to the eye. The 

 principle he wished to illustrate, was that expressed in the 

 well-kuown maxim of Horace, which was so justly proverbial 

 that it never can be obsolete : that the mind receives a weaker 

 stimulus towards knowledge from listening (and it might be 

 added, from reading) than from seeing. Not that the princi- 

 ple had ever been entirely neglected; but, since the invention 

 of printing, there had been a temptation to disregard the olden 

 method of teaching by means of direct representations of the 

 eye. Art was first considered as conducive to our knowledge 

 of the physical universe. After an allusion to its importance 

 as an auxiliary to scientific inquiry, as in the engravings 

 necessary to the naturalist and anatomist, — the important 

 functions of the landscape painter and the engraver in making 

 us acquainted with the picturesque physiogonomy of various 

 countries, was next pointed out. Thus, the writer said, he 

 would have every place of education supplied, not only with a 

 hbrary well stocked with wisely chosen books, but with port- 

 folios well stocked with engravings of scenery. Engravings, 

 however, are never satisfactory, because both of their diminu- 

 tive size and wanting colour. Hence the value of the larger 

 exhibition of scenes in dioramas and panoramas. They exem- 



