THE 



MONTHI.Y MAGAZINE. 



No. 353.] 



MAY 1, 1821. 



[4 of Vol. 61. 



If any one enquire in regard to the public feelings which guide the Conductor of this Miscellany, he re- 

 plies, that in Politics, he is an immovable friend to the principles of civil liberty, and of a benevolent 

 administration of government; and is of the party of the Tories, the Whigs, and the Radical Reformers, 

 as far as they are friends to the same principles and practices; — that in matters of Rr/igim, acting in 

 the spirit of Christianity, he maintains perfect liberty of conscience, and is desirous of living in mutual 

 charity with every sect of Christians;— and that, in Philosophy, he prefers the useful to the specnlative, 

 constantly rejecting doctrines which have no better formdation than the authority of respected names, 

 and admitting the assumption of no causes w hich are not equal and analogous to the eifects. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magcr.ine. 

 SIR, 



THE present age is remarkable for 

 general improvemciit,am ongst all 

 classes of society ; aud whilst the arts 

 and sciences are flourisliing under the 

 fosterinir hand of opnleuco, literature is 

 upheld by the universality of education, 

 and the thirst for knowledge which now 

 so universally prevails, in consequence 

 of the immense mass of mind which 

 hourly issues from the free press of tliis 

 country. 

 Amidst all f liese engines,whose mighty 

 f enei^ies are directed to the melioration 

 of man, an institution lias been esta- 

 blished in Bristol, which promises to 

 become as important in its consequence~s 

 as any of those which give to the present 

 centuiy its tone and character. 



A few years since. Dr. Spencer, then 

 a resident in Bristol, conceived the idea 

 of forming an institution, in which the 

 languages of Holy Writ and Scriptural 

 , knowledge should be taught gratui- 

 "•'tously; as a means of affording to all 

 mankind a metliod, whereby they may 

 becfmie more thoroughly acquainted 

 with Scripture ; and this institution he 

 proposed to found upon the following 

 principles : 



1st. That which a person is competent 

 to learn, if he be properly iustiucted, he 

 ■will be able to teach. 



2od. Tliat after a pei-son has Icarut any 

 thing, it will be hig-hly conducive to his 

 improvement if he begin to teach it. 



3rd. That a per.soii will learii more easily 

 and expeditiously iii a class than indivi- 

 daaily. 



4th. That it is more pleasant and easy to 

 teach a class than one alone. 



Upon these principles the Doctor 

 commenced his plan, which he deno- 

 minated " an [nstitution for acquiring 

 and conirauuicating an accurate and 

 critical knowbulgeof the Holy Scrip- 

 Itires, in their original languages, free 



Month LT Ma.i. No. 3.1J. 



of exi>euse,'"* by taking four young 

 men as students, whom he instructetl 

 in their own language giamniatically, 

 in rhetoric, logic, the Hebrew of the 

 Old Testament, the Greek of the Sep- 

 tuagint, and of the New Testament ; 

 besides which the students read with 

 him, the history of the empires with 

 which the Jews were connected, the 

 customs of the .Jews, aud otlier Easteru 

 nations. Christian ecclesiastical his- 

 tory, &c. &c. 



Previously, however, to his taking 

 this class, lie obtained from each indi- 

 vidual a solemn promise (verbal only) 

 that he would, at the expiration of tliree 

 years, (the time required for the attain- 

 ment of the objects in question) take 

 four Oilier pupils, and instinct them in 

 all those things whicli should be taught 

 him, in the institution he was then 

 about to enter. 



Thus the plan commenced, and I 

 sliall now proceed to show what is done 

 in it. and liow it is governed. 



AVhen a student has completed his 

 studies, at the end of three years, he 

 takes a class of four, wlio each engage 

 to teach four others, as the last did; 

 and when they have arranged amongst 

 themselves the days and hours of meet- 

 ing for the weekt tliej' proceed to bu- 

 siness, which consists in 

 Reading- - ^V^atts's Logic. 

 English Bible. 

 English Testament. 

 Scripture Geography. 

 English Grammar. 

 Rhetoric. 

 Learning ■ Hebrew Grammar. 

 Translating Hebrew Bible. 

 This constitutes the work of the first 

 year ; it is, however, by no means ne- 

 cessary that the said books should be 



* Saving that of Books. 

 t The plan requires six hours in the week 

 to be devoted to it, but the division of thi^ 

 time is quite immaterial. 



2 P read 



