Government of Boys, S/-c." 165 



" The boys learn almost every branch of study in classes, 

 that the Master may have time for copious explanations ; it 

 being an object of great anxiety with us, that the pupil should 

 be led to reason upon all his operations. 



" Economy of time is a matter of importance v>fith us; we 

 look upon all restraint as an evil, and, to young persons, a 

 very serious evil ; we are, therefore, constantly in search of 

 means for ensuring the effective employment of every min- 

 ute which is spent in the school room, that the boys may 

 have ample time for exercise in the open air. The middle 

 state between work and play is extremely unfavourable to 

 the habits of the pupil. We have succeeded by great atten- 

 tion to order and regularity, in reducing it almost to nothing,. 

 We avoid much confusion by accustoming the boys to 

 march, which they do with great precision, headed by a 

 band of young performers from their own body." 



The outline which we have here given is followed by a 

 minute detail of the means by which his principles are car- 

 ried into operation. 



Chapter 3d. is a review of the system examining and de- 

 fending the principles of the work. We give the following 

 extract, because it furnishes additional reasons to those which 

 we have enumerated for a popular form of government 

 among boys. 



" We shall be disappointed if the reader has not already 

 discovered, that by the establishment of a system of legis- 

 lation and jurisprudence, wherein the power of the master 

 is bounded by general rules, and the duties of the scholar 

 accurately defined, and where the boys themselves are 

 called upon to examine and decide upon the conduct of 

 theirfellows, we have provided acourse of instruction in the 

 great code of morality, which is likely to produce far rfiore 

 powerful and lasting effects than any quantity of mere pre- 

 cept. If morality is a science as well as a practice, (and 

 who will deny the classification?) it must assuredly be a 

 science of the highest importance : but in every other 

 branch of scientific education, that mode of instruction 

 wherein the pupil is merely passive, as in listening, has 

 been gradually exchanged for others which demand his ac- 

 tive co-operation. Who would think of teaching arithme- 

 tic by lectures, in which he should work all the problems 

 himself, w^hile his pupil sat silent and inactive ? or who 



