1625.} - 
Pheenician priesthood. ‘The latter isac- 
cused by Isaiah, a writer on the spot (Ca- 
naan), of addiction to a similar oak-wor- 
ship : ‘Ye shall be ashamed of the OAKs 
that ye have chosen.’ Moses, himself a 
member of the Egyptian priesthood, (7. e. 
an Egyptian scribe) erected a Druidic 
eromlech, or ‘CIRCLE OF TWELVE PILES, 
on arriving inthe same country. During 
the funeral rites of Adonis, at Bythos, 
LEEKS and ONIONS wefe exhibited in ‘ pots, 
with other vegetables, and called the gar- 
dens of that deity.’ The leek was wor- 
shipped at AscaLONn, (whence the modern 
name of scallions), as it was in Egypt, at 
which latter worship Juvenal sneers : 
* Porrum nefas violare ac frangere morser.’ 
Lerks and onions were also deposited in 
the sacred chests of the mysteries, both of 
Iris and Ceres, the Cendvyen of the Druids. 
Lerxs are frequently seen among the Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphics. Sometimes a LEEK 
appears on the head of Osiris ; sometimes 
in an extended hand. Thence, perhaps, 
the Italian proverb: ‘ Porro chi nasce nella 
mano; a LEEK that grows in the hand for 
a virtue. Porrus, a LEEK, is derived, by 
Bryant, from the Egyptian god Pi-orus, 
who is the same as the Baal-Peor of the 
Pheenicians, and the Bel or Belinus of the 
Druids.” 
Q, But, after all, how many of our 
readers, think you, have made this 
green god of the Welch Pheenicians and 
Egyptians, or any thing connected with 
it, the topic even of their thoughts, 
half an hour longer than while the pro. 
cession of its sky-coated worshippers 
was passing before their eyes ? 
R. What say you, then, to 
ETON anp HARROW? 
E. That is a topic of more impor- 
tance. Recent events are calculated 
to awaken reflection and inquiry into 
the moral, the intellectual, and the 
political consequences of the present 
system of education at public schools; 
their fitness to the existing state and 
prospects of society; and some of the 
accomplishments so much patronized by 
those who have so been educated. I 
see you are prepared: so let ug haye 
your disquisition on the subject. 
“ The two events which have occurred 
at Eton and Harrow, both exhibiting how 
deeply those seminaries are infested with 
the degrading slang and habits of the pugi- 
Topics of the Month :—Eton and Harrow. 
231 
listic system, have excited, as they deserve; 
much public atfention, and revived all the 
dormant objections against the established 
system of education. In the instance at 
Eton, the application of brandy, as prac- 
tised by ‘the fancy,’ was resorted to: in 
that at Harrow, the language of the same 
class of persons, composed generally of 
thief, black-leg and bully, was the chosen 
vehicle of discourse employed. by the clas- 
sical students of Horace and Virgil! At 
Eton, if the fight was fair,—which it ap- 
pears to haye been, in all respects, but 
such as concerned the administration of 
brandy,—the astonishing neglect, we will 
say ignorance, of Cooper’s tutor of his dan- 
gerous condition, and the astonishing igno- 
rance of his companions, in mistaking the 
lethargy preceding death, for sleep,—are the 
most remarkable features of the transac- 
tion. But there, courage was shewn ; while 
the affair at Harrow exhibited, as its prin- 
cipal feature, an unmingled cowardice ; or, 
if mingled with aught besides, degraded by 
the pertinaceous ferocity of the assassin, 
and the hardened brutality of the prize- 
fighter. What can, what must result, from 
such a system of education? It has been 
justly contended, that it is inadequate to 
the spirit of the age, in both points of view 
—its intellectual and its moral training. 
Its great, irredeemable deficiency, how- 
ever, is decidedly in its moral purpose. 
Its two defects are, first, that boys, for 
years, are employed in repeating phrases 
and lessons by rote, of the meaning of 
which they have no definite comprehension 
during the whole period of the process ; 
and, secondly, that while their intellectual 
faculties are rather darkened than illumi- 
nated by this vague method of proceeding, 
their moral characters, rendered equally 
vague, are left to chance, to produce weeds 
or fruits, wheat or tares—just as the fortui- 
tous seeds of future experience, communi- 
cation, or example may happen to fall upon 
the fallow, rank and neglected soil. Milton, 
Locke, Addison and Cowper have all, by 
turns, expatiated on the disadvantages of 
the present system of education. ‘ We do 
amiss,’ says Milton, ‘ to spend seven or 
eight years in scraping together so much 
miserable Greek and Latin as might be 
learned otherwise, easily and delightfully, 
in one year.’ So much for the intellectual 
training. Locke touches the moral divi- 
sion of the subject, in deciding for private 
education against public, ‘ If’ says he, 
‘T keep 
