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CHAPTER XXV. 



EDUCATION. 



JlLDUCATION has always been considerea 

 among the most difficult and important of those 

 duties which are intrusted to man. Correspond^ 

 ing with its arduous and interesting nature have 

 been the numerous plans to facilitate its accom- 

 plishment, or to improve its methods. Of th^se 

 plans the eighteenth centiiry was eminently pro- 

 ductive, 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 

 €ducation, 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 

 the course of the last age, there are few entitled 

 to particular attention. Among these, perhaps 

 the celebrated work of Rousseau, under the title 

 of Emillus, is most extensively known. This sin- 

 gular production undoubtedly contains some just 

 reasoning, many excellent precepts, and not a 



