44 Middle-Class Education. 



languages. " They should ground the boys, but there should be a French and 

 German assistant under the supervision of the Englishman to read aloud to 

 the boys, to dictate to them also, and to give them any facility for acquiring 

 any exceptional knowledge of the language. Accent is very much an affair of 

 ear." " Almost impossible to remove a bad accent once acquired." " I believe 

 that a great deal of time might be saved iu the teaching of French at public 

 schools if it -were grafted on the knowledge of Latin which most of the boys 

 possess." " Goethe, in spite of his great partiality for physical science, I 

 believe would have grudged every hour taken from Greek and Latin in the 

 education of boys at school." 



Drawing. 



T. 1). AcLAND, Esq. — " By drawing is meant such expression of linear form 

 as may be learned by any one who can write : the cultivation of the artistic 

 faculty, which is rare, is another question." 



Eight Hon. Sir J. T. Coleridge — " Thought it very desirable for boys to be 

 instructed in drawing and music." 



" I remember that a great many years ago now I was at Pestalozzi's 

 Institute, when the old man was alive, and I brought away some of his copj'- 

 books and drawing-books, and it appeared to me that all the boys in that 

 immense school were drawing figures, chairs, and tables, and so on, all 

 drawing by perspective. He said he ibrmd everybody could do it. If it did 

 not go beyond that the boy would still have acquired that which would bo 

 useful to him in after life." 



Little hoys need not hegin. 



Dr. Hessey, Merchant Taylors'. — " Drawing is taught in the school to the 

 boys of the head, second, third, aud fourth mathematical classes." 



PJiysical Sciences, &c. 



Eei'Ort of the Commissioners on Rugby School (" the only one amongst 

 those constituting the object of the present inquiry in which physical science 

 is a regular part of the curriculum").- — " We are of opinion therefore that boys 

 even in the lower forms of the school may advantageously be permitted to 

 receive school instruction in the elements of physical science. Lectures treating 

 such topics as may be suitable to beginners, and handling them in such a con- 

 siderate style of statement, explanation, and illwstration as may divest them of 

 imnecessary difficulty, will perhaps be a more wholesome and agreeable relief 

 to the learning and application of grammar rules and to the technical working 

 of arithmetic than any other studies, and will furnish a most salutary exercise 

 of many faculties which at such an age are ripe for cultivation." 



Jjectures on these subjects cere recommended cdso hy Dr. Whewell and 

 Professor Faraday. 



Professor Owen. — " Would recommend every boy of a proper age, say 

 about fifteen, to be compelled to listen to a course of lectures on Natural 

 History, embracing Zoology, Botanj^, &c., one hour a week for six months," &c. 



