CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 117 



wards been sent to national schools, make better servants, and are 

 generally more sought after as apprentices, than those who have 

 not enjoyed similar privileges. Add to this the extremely small 

 number of instances in which individuals educated at good national 

 schools have afterwards been convicted of any moral offence, or be- 

 come burdensome to society in any way, and no one who really has 

 the interests of his fellow creatures at heart can continue to be op- 

 posed to instructing the people. On the contrary, they will take 

 every opportunity of adding to their knowledge, and thereby in- 

 creasing their comfort and happiness. The building of churches 

 and the preaching of sermons may be all very well ; but until the 

 people are enlightened, instructed in the physical, intellectual, and 

 moral structure of man, by practical and intelligible illustrations, 

 the purely doctrinal tenets of the divine, and the brightest eloquence 

 that ever adorned the pulpit, will have no more impression on the 

 moral sentiments of the illiterate peasant than a passing shadow ; 

 drunkenness and every other vice will remain as before, and the 

 zealous but misguided priest will marvel at the obduracy of his 

 " beloved brethren." To strike at the root of the evil the benefits 

 of education must be extended to the lowest classes, and the altera- 

 tion effected in the community will be certain and striking. 



In the second volume we are presented with an account of the 

 state of education in Prussia, and most gratifying that report must 

 be to the educationist. Here the government provides for the in- 

 struction of a very considerable proportion of the labouring classes. 

 Children of a certain age are obliged to go to school, and the schools 

 appear to be conducted upon an extremely judicious plan. Com- 

 pare the miserable and imperfect system adopted in our own esta- 

 blishments with a Prussian normal school, wherein are taught Re- 

 ligion, Reading, German, Arithmetic, Geometry, Drawing, Writ- 

 ing, Singing, Mathematics, Geography, Natural History, History. 

 Only contrast this with our boasted establishments of Eton and 

 Westminster, our universities of Oxford, Cambridge, &c. ! The 

 introduction of Natural History and Music to the pupils we cannot 

 but perceive with the highest pleasure. The contemplation of the 

 works of Nature, and the exercise of the " divine art of Music'' 

 must be alike amusing and instructive to the young and pliant 

 mind, and form a highly desirable recreation even to those who are 

 unable to follow them in detail. JVIany of the Prussian schools 

 have excellent organs, piano fortes, violins, &c., and each pupil re- 

 ceives instructions on these instruments and in Singing. When 

 shall we arrive at this state in England ? 



The conclusion at which we arrive, after a perusal of Mr. Hill's 

 book is, that education is certainly advancing everywhere, and that 

 its advantages are obvious and undeniable. That very much yet 

 remains to be done, however, even where it is most flourishing, as 

 in Prussia and some parts of America, is certain, and no fear need 

 exist as to the possibility of advancing too rapidly. We are also of 

 opinion that normal schools ought to be move extensively establish- 



