254 REMARKS ON THE NECESSITY OF 



genuity were taxed to devise a system of instruction diametrically 

 opposed to that which reason and justice dictate, it would be hard 

 to devise a plan more dissonant with every principle of humanity 

 than the one now generally adopted. After leaving college, the 

 embryo tutor is said to have " finished his education ;" but in what 

 way ? By having been instructed in the principles of the com- 

 monest phenomena which present themselves in nature ? By learn- 

 ing the simplest processes of art ? By being initiated in the won- 

 ders of chemistry, natural philosophy, astronomy, geology, and last, 

 though not least, anthropology ? No ! — but by having pored over 

 the vice-stained pages of the Greek and Roman authors — by having 

 been taught to sympathize with injustice, cruelty, and vice in every 

 shape. In The Phrenological Journal it is remarked : — " There is 

 a scarcity of teachers possessing knowledge sufficient to render them 

 capable of conducting an institution established on the principles of 

 reason or common sense. This is not to be wondered at, considering 

 how few are educated for the profession, and that every person who 

 has been reduced to poverty, by misfortune or indiscretion, comes to 

 swell the ranks of the guides and preceptors of youth :" and again ; 

 " In Britain, however, where no one can practice physic without 

 having his qualifications closely scrutinized, every body may take 

 upon him to teach.'^ 



It is a matter of astonishment how slow the world has been pro- 

 gressing in everything relating to education. IMost of the errors 

 condemned by Locke, as prevalent in his time, are prevalent now. 

 Among these may be reckoned the extraordinary custom of «tigaging 

 a tutor with scarce any previous examination. I will quote a pas- 

 sage from the work of that great man in illustration of this fact :— 

 " The character of a sober man and a scholar is, as I have above 

 observed, what everyone expects in a tutor. This, generally, is 

 thought quite enough, and is all that parents commonly look for. 

 But when such an one has emptied out into his pupil all the Latin 

 and logic he has brought from the University, will that furniture 

 make him a fine gentleman ? Or can it be expected that he should 

 be better bred, better skilled in the world, better principled in the 

 grounds and foundations of Irue virtue and generosity, than his 

 -fctftor is ?" 



