270 Education. 



have furnished a most instructive epitome of know- 

 ledge. They have thus contributed to enlarge the 

 mind, and to show the connection between the 

 several objects of study; and though they are far 

 from presenting a sufficiently minute and detailed 

 view of each of the various subjects of which they 

 treat; yet, to general readers, they give more infor- 

 mation than would probably have been gained 

 without them; and to readers who wish to investi- 

 gate subjects more deeply, they serve as an index 

 to more abundant sources of information. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



EDUCATION. 



EDUCATION has always been considered among 

 the most difficult and important of those duties 

 which are intrusted to man. Corresponding with 

 its arduous and interesting nature have been the 

 numerous plans to facilitate its accomplishment, or 

 to improve its methods. Of these plans the eigh- 

 teenth century was eminently productive, as no age 

 ever so much abounded in learned and ingenious 

 works on this subject; but the real improvements 

 to which the period in question has given birth in 

 the business of education, are by no means of that 

 radical kind which might have been expected by 

 the sanguine, from the progress of society in other 

 arts and sciences. Still, however, the last age 

 produced some events and revolutions, with regard 

 to this subject, which demand our notice in the 

 present brief review. 



Of the numerous treatises on the subject of 

 Education, which were presented to the public in 



