1825.] 
to the learning of the scholar, and be 
made the covering of deceit. Educa- 
tion may conceal, as well as correct the 
disposition: it may screen, as well as 
expose a fraud. Education does not 
ensure right principles, or a sound judg- 
ment: the most learned men are not 
distinguished for practical wisdom, 
But, although education be of less 
importance than some apprehend, it is 
a powerful engine in forming the cha- 
racter of a people. When properly di- 
rected, it brings to its aid, or creates, 
early impressions and hereditary dispo- 
sitions—a happy combination of which 
forms the great man; the benefactor of 
his species. But, if I wish that educa- 
tion be not over-rated, I am far from 
under-rating its benefits. It is the right 
arm of the understanding; it gives to 
man an elevation among his equals; it 
is a powerful agent in civilizing a coun- 
try; it puts man into possession of the 
property God has given him; and that 
property is the world. It places before 
him the beauties of nature, connected 
with the wisdom of the Creator; it 
manifests the blessedness of existence, 
and excites a desire for immortality ; it 
creates and gives efficiency to early im- 
pressions and hereditary dispositions, 
It was education that gave to Spartans 
their character ;—and, if we would give 
the English nation a higher character 
than Sparta could obtain, establish infant 
schools. By this means, the instinctive 
character of our children may be chas-~ 
tened and refined, and the nation rescued 
from an opprobrium, which no nation 
ever knew before—the opprobrium of 
having prisons filled with children; a 
circumstance, which it is impossible 
should happen, if early impressions had 
not erased the natural feelings of in- 
fancy, By the Chinese laws, the parent 
is punishable who brings up children 
who prove bad members of society : and 
hence China has escaped the degrada- 
tion which has been reserved for our 
day and our country. Sunday-schools 
have been tried, and crime still increases, 
and will increase, so long as the years 
of childhood are spent as we witness 
them. Infant schools promise a mighty 
aid in accomplishing a change of cha- 
racter ; and to the devisor of that plan 
the world is greatly indebted; and should 
it be pursued with the spirit, and be 
followed with the success, which may 
fairly be anticipated, his name will be 
deserving of a place among the greatest 
benefactors of mankind. 
Monrtuty Maa. No, 409, 
The Anatomy of Speech. 
— 805 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
The Anavomy of Sprecn.—No. Il, 
Primary Orcans or Voice. 
(Continued from No. 408, page 196.) 
1. The first of these—Tue tTrur 
Larynx, or mouth of the glottis, is 
the primary cause of all musical modu- 
lation, whether in speech or in song; 
for being so constructed as, within cer- 
tain physical limits, to enlarge or con- 
tract, at will (either by perceptible, or 
imperceptible gradations) the aperture 
of the glottis—and, consequently, to 
modify the resistance to the egress of 
the breath impelled: it renders, there- 
by, the sounds of the voice either 
sharper or deeper in their pitch (that is 
to say in the language of the gamut, 
either high or low); or more acute or 
grave in their inflections.* 
The larynx, or aperture of the glot- 
tis, is surrounded by five cartilages ; 
one of which constitutes 
2. Tur Vatve. It is placed over 
the mouth of the larynx, and is called 
the Ericrorris. It performs the de- 
fensive office of closing the passage to 
the lungs, in the act of swallowing; and 
the elocutionary office of stopping the 
passage of the stream of voice, when 
any abrupt suspension of the primary 
vibrations is required: an office gene. 
rally, but eroneously, supposed—to be 
exclusively assigned to the organs of 
the mouth, that form the consonant 
elements.+ 
3. The other cartilages (whose bar- 
barous names would distress the ears 
and perplex the organs of every one 
but 
* The terms “high and low’’ should not 
be used as synonimous with acute and 
grave. The former relate to pitch—as 
Ss. = 
=== is high, and ——— is low; but 
the latter relate to the motion; as (to 
exemplify by extreme instances) the slide 
== would be acute, from whatever 
part of the gamut it began, and the slide 
= would be grave, although it began 
at the top of the scale, and never de-~ 
scended so low as the pitch from whence 
the acute, in the former example, began ta 
ascend, or even that at which its ascent 
concluded. 
+ If the generally-received theory be 
correct in this particular, how is it that we 
come to a sudden close upon a full vowel, 
and with open mouth ? i 
2R 
