132 Phihsophy of Contemporary 



a publication the purpose of which is 

 to explain the design, and promote 

 the encouragement, of a j)roposed 

 educatory institution or day-school, 

 on the Lancasterian plan, as supposed 

 to be applicable to tlie higher branches 

 of learning. This intended establish- 

 ment is expressly designed for tiie use 

 of the middling and higher ranks in 

 life ; and is to bo called the " Christo- 

 matbia School." The plan (said to 

 be drawn from experience,) is by 

 Jeremy Bentham, and dir^^cted to the 

 liberal government and instruction of 

 boys in large numbers. That it is 

 *' one thing to have learned, and ano- 

 ther to be able to tencli," is a truism in 

 whieli we concur widi Mr. Bentham 

 and his reviewer ; nnd are also of his 

 opinion,that,ai(houghllieartorscience 

 of instruction has greatly advanced, 

 there is still considerable room for its 

 further improvement. But we cannot 

 join Mr. Bentham in thinking, that the 

 mode of instruction be suggests for the 

 higher and middling classes of society, 

 carries with it any promise of those 

 results with tiie certainty of which he 

 flatters himself. He would teach the 

 Jiigher and the middling ranks on the 

 Lancasterian system ; that is, he would 

 have the sons of noblemen and gentle- 

 men of fortune, of artizans and trades- 

 men, taught by that system the learn- 

 ed languages, mathematics, and the 

 sciences. Now, in the first place, the 

 prime, if not tiie only, object of the 

 liancasterian plan, is to render educa- 

 tion cheap ; and, applied as it hitherto 

 lias been to children of the labouring 

 classes, it has beyond all doubt proved 

 highly useful. It has served the pur- 

 pose of much more widely dissemi- 

 nating the first rudiments of education 

 than could ever have been hoped for 

 from the old system (if a system it can 

 be called), and, by inducing a wish for 

 further light, has tended to promote 

 among the multitude a degree of in- 

 formation by which, sooner or later, 

 their eyes will be opened to many 

 things, the knowledge of which will 

 awaken reilection, teaeli them to re- 

 spect tiicir superiors and themselves, 

 elevate their sentiments, and improve 

 their moral and intellectual charac- 

 ters. The cheaper such boys can 

 receive such education, the betler; 

 because, the easier the rate at which it 

 is provided, the greater will be tiie 

 number that are benefited. But, with- 

 out slopping to encjuire, whether tlie 

 higher branches of education can pos- 



Criticism, No. XXXVI. [March I, 



sibly be cultivated with advantage by 

 a system tiiat provides only one ortvvo 

 tutors for three or four hundred boys, 

 let us ask ourselves whether noblemen 

 and geiitlonien of fortune would brook 

 the iilea of sending their sons to any 

 school purely on account of its cheap- 

 ness; and whether their pride would 

 permit them to mix tlieir children 

 with those of artizans and tradesmen ? 

 It requires but a very slight acquain- 

 tance with the sentiments of men in 

 exalted or fortunate stations, to know 

 that they would not. By consequence, 

 the pupils of the " Christomathia" 

 would be confined to the latter descrip- 

 tion of boys. But then, again, we have 

 to ask ourselves, whether the sons of 

 artizans and tradesmen, regarded ge- 

 nerally, have any occasion for a clas- 

 sical and scientific education? In our 

 opinion, not only huve they no occa- 

 sion for such an education, but such 

 an education would bo detrimental to 

 their future happiness, because ob- 

 structive of their manual or mercan- 

 tile pursuits, by creating a taste for 

 what those pursuits would not permit 

 them to cultivate ; but the toil and 

 care attending which would be embit- 

 tered by feelings and inclinations 

 which they could indulge only at the 

 expense of their worldly ruin. Tiiis 

 reflection of our own brings us to the 

 consideration of the reviewer's opinion, 

 — that the acquisitions of Greek and 

 Latin, though not destitute of value, 

 are far from being, even to the higher 

 ranks, of that importance which they 

 have so long been allowed to assume. 

 He would have their cultivation limit- 

 ed to boys designed for the learned 

 professions ; and, when we reflect on 

 the time necessarily consumed in 

 their acquirement, we arc strongly, if 

 not perfectly, disposed to think with 

 him. If the almost incalculable num- 

 ber of hours devoted to their study be 

 compared with the few in which such 

 acquisitions are afterwards enjoyed, — 

 if it be considered that now almost 

 every information that can be obtained 

 through the medium of the dead lan- 

 guages may bo collected from the 

 stores of the living, — that all the scien- 

 tific intelligence of the ancients has 

 been comniunieated to the moderns in 

 their mother tongues, and that almost 

 all the noble discoveries, both in 

 science and philosophy, with which 

 literature has been enriched by mo- 

 dern genius and modern research, is 

 to be found in the modern tongues 



only, 



