330 On Education, and the proposed London University. (May I, 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. in consequence of, rather in spite of 
Sir: their education. Their intelligence 
AN you inform your readers, if 
there is any thing in the atmos- 
phere of London, that has hitherto 
prevented its inhabitants from forming 
a single institution, for the instruction 
of youth in the higher branches of use- 
ful learning? Do our worthy towns- 
men suppose, that they can inhale know- 
ledge with their smoke, while Edinburgh, 
Glasgow, Aberdeen, St. Andrew’s, Dub- 
lin, and many towns in France, Ger- 
many and America are obliged to re- 
sort to their respective colleges ? 
But our worthy townsmen are kindly 
informed, that they can send their sons 
to Oxford, or Cambridge. Very true, 
if they can send two or three hundred 
a year with each of them. If they can- 
not afford this—send them to Scotland, 
or France, or Germany. What! is 
England then, at last, reduced to the 
necessity of begging of Scotland, France 
and Germany, for a little instruction 
for her sons, while she is bestowing 
thousands, annually, for the instruction 
of the heathen? We are really the 
most disinterested nation that ever ex- 
isted on the face of the earth! —But, 
passing over all this, is it prudent to 
separate the inexperienced youth hun- 
dreds of miles from every relation, the 
prey of every folly and every sharper ; 
to the exclusion of the practical know- 
ledge and social experience, which no 
institution can supply; and to the de- 
struction of those warm and affectionate 
feelings, without which, man were little 
superior to the brute 2? Home must 
always contribute one part, to every well 
formed system of Education. 
We' may take it as an axiom, that 
boys learn nothing at school (except at 
the classical school) after ten, or, at 
most, twelve years of age; though they 
are usually kept there four or five years 
Tater. It is this valuable and unoccu- 
pied period of life that calls loudly for 
instruction : and why do we let it call 
in vain? It is said, however, that our 
middling class, those who are between 
the poor and very rich, are better in- 
formed than the rest of the community: 
and what can education do more. It 
is admitted, that this class is generally 
found to be the best informed,* but not 
* We do not admit it. 
diate class between the operatives, or Work- 
ing Mechanics, and the learned professions, 
are, we believe, in our great towns espe- 
cially, the Jeast intellectually informed (the 
peasantry of scattered villages alone ex- 
cepted) of any order in the commmwnity. 
The interme- 
sprivgs from great intercourse with the 
world; from the habits and institutions 
of their country, and from incessant 
competition. It is the knowledge of 
often dear-bought experience, little as- 
sisted by early instruction. 
The principles of the mathematics, 
of chemistry and natural history, are 
useful to almost every man, in every 
trade and profession ; indeed, they are 
the principles of most of the useful 
Arts. They also expand the mind and 
sharpen the faculties. Between the 
ages of ten or twelve, to fourteen or 
seventeen, there is ample time for ac- 
quiring these sciences thoroughly, to-, 
gether with the» most useful languages, 
history, geography, morals, and the prin- 
ciples of every science connected with 
man, as a social or political being: for 
unless the principles of these important 
sciences be acquired in youth, they will 
not, in nine cases out of ten, be cor- 
rectly acquired in maturer years. A. 
person in business and with a family, 
finds little time, or inclination for such 
studies, admitting, that he knows how 
to acquire them. : 
Collegiate education has three duties 
to perform : 
To communicate knowledge. 
To teach the art of applying know- 
ledge to useful purposes ; and 
To discipline the intellectual faculties. 
These three objects must go hand-in- 
hand ; if education only perform the 
first, a man becomes little better than. 
a walking dictionary. ; 
The Edinburgh Review, however, 
has discovered lately, that it is of no 
use to communicate knowledge, or the 
useful application of knowledge, to 
youth ; all that is required being to dis- 
cipline the faculties. The study of two 
dead languages is then prescribed as the 
most eligible mean of effecting this 
end. Still, Iam afraid, we must await 
a little more light from the North, be- 
fore we can admit, that twelve years of. 
our 
The times, perhaps, are a little mended, 
since the thriving tradesman exulted from 
his shop-counter, that he never looked 
into any book, but his journal and his 
ledger; and held the young man who 
opened any other, undone : but the more. 
enlarged reading of the rising generation, 
to judge of them by their manners, is not 
always so directed, we are afraid, as to be 
very expansive to the understanding ; and 
“ Life in London,” and “the slang Die- 
tionary of the Fancy,” seem to be among 
their favourite classics. — EDIT. : 
