Education. 215 



are of various kinds, and deserve our particular at- 

 tention, in estimating the progress of literature 

 during the period under consideration. 



The first circumstance deserving of notice unde.r 

 this head, is the great multiplication of Seminaries 

 of learning, in the course of the last age. This is a 

 most interesting feature in the period which we 

 are endeavouring to delineate. Institutions for 

 the purpose of instruction, from universities down 

 to the smallest schools, were never half, perhaps 

 not a tenth part, so numerous as at the close of 

 the eighteenth century. In every portion of the 

 civilized world they have increased to an astonish- 

 ing amount; they have brought the means of edu- 

 cation to almost every door; and, with opportuni- 

 ties, have presented excitements to the acquisition 

 of knowledge before unknown. 



Charity Schools, if not first established, were 

 greatly multiplied during this century; and, per- 

 haps, deserve to be considered as one of the most 

 useful plans of public beneficence to which the 

 age gave rise. These have been numerous for 

 many years, in several countries of Europe; but 

 probably in no part of the world have so large a 

 number been established, and on a footing so li- 

 beral, as in Great-Britain. Institutions of this kind 

 have also been, for some time, common and highly 

 useful in the United States. 



The establishment of Sunday Schools deserves to 

 be mentioned as a further improvement of modern 

 times. This is an excellent plan for disseminating 

 the elements of useful knowledge among the more 

 laborious and indigent portions of society; and 

 bids fair to be generally adopted throughout the 

 christian world. 



The last age also abounded, beyond all prece- 

 dent, in popular works, for facilitating and im- 

 proving the education of youth. Of this kind are 



