ELEVATING THE PKOFESSION OF THE EDUCATOR. 115 



startling '* prospectus" ai?d " advertisement" impart to the world the 

 merits of the " establishment ;" the advantages of the " system" are 

 set forth as nicely and as numerously as the " bill of fare of a Pari ^ 

 sian restaurateur ; and the holy and dignified offices of education are 

 blazoned about the kingdom like the preposterous tirado of an " uni- 

 versal specific." To examine not too critically these " systems," so 

 loudly vaunted of in these " establishments," and to compare their 

 fixed and inflexible "process of education" with a rational and wisely- 

 yielding plan, necessary to accommodate the instruction to the many 

 and differently constituted minds of a school, the fallacy of such em- 

 piricism is palpable. Nothing can betray a more utter ignorance of 

 the requirements in the profession of teaching than to erect a stern 

 and invariable theory, as if it were an easier task to wrest the heredi- 

 tary and already biased minds of a number of children to one unde- 

 viating course of learning, than so to modify that instruction as best 

 may suit the idiosyncrasy and development of their particular mental 

 endowments.* But such preposterous fashions need no exposure ; 

 arising from the ingenuity, not the integrity of masters, who, judging 

 rightly of the ignorance and credulity of the public on matters of 

 education^ fail not to reap the reward of their novelties. Justifiable 

 frauds end often in severe retaliations ; thus, the sinful apathy of a 

 people towards the debasement of this inestimable office rebounds 

 upon them in the curse of a foolish and vicious generation. The 

 trade looks out through the whole system of education, either in the 

 profitless routine of the day, the specious method of its periodical du- 

 ties, the senseless loss of time wasted in frivolities, or the criminal 

 abduction of one-third of the pupilage to the advertising ceremony of 

 " half-yearly rehearsals" and " public exhibitions." Their pleasures, 

 which, in a wisely-governed school, would be a mere change of pur- 

 suit, not a premium for pain, are, like their studies, set off with an 

 advertisng novelty. The restless spirit of youth, which asks a wider 

 range than earth itself to satiate its curious hopes, is caged within the 

 limits of fifty or a hundred square yards, divided into the duodecimal 

 locations of a gymnasium, " palaestra," and " curiculum," where the 

 cives Romani of the " classical academy" are recreated ; the silent 

 with the boisterous, the sober with ihe gay, the tender with the cruel, 



* First endeavour, as well as you can, to discover the particular temper 

 aud disposition of children, that you suit and apply yourselves to it, and, by 

 striking in with nature, may steer and govern them in the sweetest and easi- 

 est way.—Tillotson, Sermon 52nd, p. 483. 



