ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 17 



amount and the quality of training and knowledge which may be 

 given in these precious years. Those who say that to teach science 

 at that early age is to give a mere smattering, judge from what 

 would at present be the result if the listless victims of Latin and 

 Greek were to have science superadded to their other tastes, with 

 the short portion of time which would be spared for it on the one 

 hand, and the superficial attention which school-boys habitually 

 pay to anything that is taught by their present instructors. But 

 when the dead languages, and all other languages but the vernacu- 

 lar, are rigidly excluded from disturbing the important years of ele- 

 mentary education — when study from the infant-school upwards has 

 been made, not irksome, as it now is, but delightful, as it it may be and 

 ought to be, divested of fear of punishment, divested of the distract- 

 ing selfishness of honours, prizes, and captivating the faculties with 

 the rich food which a wise and benevolent Creator intended for 

 them, and, be it marked, especially suited to them in the natural 

 activity of their energies, we shall hear no more of smattering, but 

 shall see even middling talent master of all the useful knowledge, as 

 concentrated in the prospectus already quoted, by fourteen years of 

 age, and fitted for ulterior education and the business of life — a 

 striking contrast to the Latinists and Grecians at the same age, 

 who, for all useful purposes in life, are like creatures dropped from 

 the moon.* 



The elements of Chemistry and Mechanics have been practi- 

 cally taught to the youth of both sexes in Edinburgh, by Dr. Bos- 

 well Reid. The experiment has been made on boys taken indiscri- 

 minately from the different schools, and young ladies from an ex- 

 tensive ladies' seminary ; and, although the study was engaged in 

 over and above the ordinary pursuits of the pupils, the results were 

 completely satisfactory, and give promise of still greater success 

 when scientific studies shall have a more important and systematic 

 place in elementary education. 



Again, it is asked is this thorough elementary education to be 

 given to all, without modification according to different turns of 

 mind and degrees of talent ? I answer, to all, because all have 

 the faculties to which it is addressed, and all were intended to use 

 these faculties in gaining an acquaintance with the creation in 



• Until views like Jthese be adopted, and, what is more, acted upon by 

 every one engaged in the instruction of youth, we see no reasonable prospect 

 of attaining that success in education which can alone effect a sensible im- 

 provement in the human race. — Ed8. 



VOL. VI. — NO. XIX. C 



