] 827.] The Four Nations. 483 



cheaper and far less exclusive than the former so that it is open to a 

 greater number of the people ; and, under favourable circumstances, the 

 middle classes are, in consequence, certainly better educated, as to general 

 literature, than the English. But, somehow or other, there is a want 

 either of scientific stamina or scientific culture ; because one very often 

 meets with an eloquent and elegant scholar from Trinity, who is withal 

 a most inconclusive reasoner, and a most unskilful metaphysician. 



The colleges, however, with the exception of those of Scotland and to 

 a certain, but much smaller extent, that of Dublin have not much 

 influence upon the peculiar character of the people ; and, in so far as edu- 

 cation influences that, it must consequently be sought in the schools. Now, 

 the leading distinctions here are, that English education is always profes- 

 sional has some track marked out for it, from which it is neither expected 

 nor wished to deviate; and, if the party travels into general literature, it 

 is looked upon as an aberration, hostile to the main chance and gist of the 

 whole. It is all subservient to the one object of making and enjoying a 

 fortune; and, according to the general mercantile principle of the country, 

 it is reckoned worth no more than the money-price that can be obtained 

 for it. The Scottish education, on the other hand, is not professional ; it 

 is general, and aims at the cultivation of the whole powers so as that the 

 possessor may be able to trim his sails to the gale of fortune, however 

 that gale may set. It is this which gives to the Scotsman that inquisitive 

 look and manner, and that disposition to wrangle and debate his way to a 

 subject, which is so characteristic of him, and so disagreeable to those who 

 do not look to the right hand or to the left, and have no wish to speculate 

 out of the line of their profession. Upon the great body of the Irish, the 

 system of education does not appear to have much influence : they are far 

 more erratic than the English ; and though not so tedious and argumenta- 

 tive as the Scots, they are a good deal more confident and dogmatical. In 

 matters of learned application, the Englishman advances by precedent ; 

 the Scotsman by reasoning not unfrequently by sophistry ; and the Irish- 

 man by assumption and assertion. 



In these observations I have not been able to exhaust all the circum- 

 stances enumerated ; neither have I followed any one of the three which have 

 been stated into its minute details. It is not, therefore, time to draw any 

 general conclusions : but what has been said will, if carefully weighed, at 

 least assist those who may wish to study this highly-interesting subject; 

 and if the reader will have the goodness to bear this in mind, I shall feel 

 pleasure in resuming my subject in another paper ; in which I trust I shall 

 be able to bring it so far to a conclusion, as to shew how the characteristic 

 differences which we meet with in persons of the Four Nations, holding 

 the same ranks and offices in society, are explainable by circumstances, 

 over which they, as individuals, can have no control, and for the conse- 

 quences of which they are, therefore, as individuals, neither to be praised 

 nor to be blamed. X. 



