THE CENTRAL SOCIETY OF EDUCATION. 505 



ent from that of place, place from that of music, music from that 

 of form, form from that of numbers, numbers from that of moral 

 principles. A careful consideration should be extended to the Phy- 

 sical Education, exercise clothing ventilation, as also to the 

 cultivation of the sentiments, and the formation of character, the 

 causing children to be as well as to know, the making- what they 

 learn enter into their habits. Many of the favourers of a change 

 in education have of late years been impugning the value of 

 the classics ; and the directors of the Edinburgh academy com- 

 plain of a prejudice against them in Scotland. If amid our changes 

 we are tempted to neglect the study of those two noble languages of 

 antiquity, the Latin and the Greek, it will be a subject much to be 

 lamented ; for if there was not to be found in them a sentiment 

 which is not embodied in modern literature, if the clearness and 

 melody of the languages, their force and accuracy are as nothing, 

 still it is of the highest importance that we should be acquainted with 

 the modes of thinking in ages far removed from our own times. 

 They afford us a point of comparison which greatly assists us in extri- 

 cating ourselves from the peculiarities of particular Epochs, and in 

 distinguishing the general principles of human nature from modes of 

 the time in which we may chance to live, which become easily mis- 

 taken for them. But in attaching importance to classical studies, 

 we do not allude to that slight and valueless acquaintance with the 

 Latin and Greek languages which is attained while at school by 

 those who upon quitting it are obliged to enter immediately upon the 

 active affairs of life, and there take leave of them for ever. The 

 manly literature of the ancients contains stuff for the mature intellect 

 to reflect upon. 



The Society, we understand, proposes publishing from time to time 

 in volumes, numbers, or small papers, according as its materials and 

 other circumstances shall determine upon the following heads : 



1. Primary on elementary education. 



2. Secondary education. 



3. Superior or university education. 



4. Special or professional education. 



5. Supplementary education. 



In the instance of a valuable article appearing upon any popular 

 subject, it is proposed to publish it separately in a cheap form so as 

 to be generally acceptable. Lists of valuable school books, and 

 criticisms upon them will also be given, and publication we under- 

 stand has also been contemplated, where a want of a work is felt 

 and the society finds means of efficiently supplying it. 



Mrs. Austin in her valuable preface to her translation of M. 

 Victor Cousin's report says u constituted as the government of this 

 country is, and accustomed as it is to receive its impulses from with- 

 out (a state of things approved and consecrated by the national ways 

 of thinking), it would be contrary to reason and to experience to ex- 

 pect it to originate any great changes. This is not recognized 

 either by governors or governed as any part of its duty. It is to the 

 public mind therefore that those who desire any change must ad- 

 dress themselves." And it is to the public mind that the Central 



