Foreign Notices : — South America. 325 



to maintain a decent external appearance in society, without either internal 

 tranquillity of mind or solid comforts ; alike without that relaxation which 

 continued exertion requires, and a prospect of final independence and retire- 

 ment from labour. A reform in parliament, we say, would tend to grant 

 us some relief; but how long would this relief be experienced by the country, 

 without the high education of the whole of the people, so as to create an 

 enlightened public opinion ? Education, therefore, we repeat, is every thing. 

 Happily in this country, and more especially in France, it is making consider- 

 able progress, but that progress is nothing to what it appears, by the above 

 extract, is taking place in America. According to the immortal Jefferson, 

 the effective part of society is changed every twenty years ; that is, the 

 majority of those whose opinions have most influence with the public in the 

 present year 1830, will be dead or hors de service in the year 1850. A new 

 class will then be on the stage, with totally new ideas and opinions, before 

 whom many of the institutions, ideas, and opinions now held sacred, or not 

 even to be spoken of, will give way like snow before the mid-day sun, or 

 like the debacle of a grand river. Whoever has seen the breaking up of the 

 Neva at Petersburgh, or of the Moskwa at Moscow, grand and sublime 

 sights which we have witnessed, and by which a broad street of ice, covered 

 with carriages and every sort of traffic, is in a few hours, and without noise 

 or injury to the bordering houses, turned into a broad clear river, and 

 covered with passengers in boats, may form some idea of what will one day 

 in this and in every country be the grand result of high, equal, and universal 

 education. Such a change we have compared to the quiet of the debacle ; 

 because, though it will like it be great, it will be without the slightest injury 

 to life or property; without injustice, and without violence of any kind; 

 the simple and grand result of enlightened public opinion ; a tribute of 

 reason and natural feeling to suffering humanity. — Cond. 



Classical Education. — At a meeting of Yale College, on Sept. 11. 1827, 

 a committee was appointed to enquire into the expediency of so altering 

 the regular course of instruction in this college, as to leave out of said 

 course the study of the dead languages, substituting other studies there- 

 fore, &c. (American Journal of Sciences and Arts, vol. xv. p. 297.) — We 

 have long considered the study of the classics as the bane of education in 

 this country. They consume the time which should be devoted to the 

 acquisition of useful and solid knowledge, while their value in themselves 

 is extremely small, and that value, such as it is, never comes into the pos- 

 session of one in fifty of those who sacrifice almost every thing else to 

 obtain it. These are doctrines which we have long held, and it delights us to 

 find that the good sense of the Americans, the most acute people in the 

 world in practical matters, has led them to the same conclusion. (Scotsman, 

 July 18. 1829.) 



SOUTH AMERICA. 



Mr.D. Fanning, in forming a botanic garden at Caraccas, received every 

 encouragement from the Colombian government, which, it appears from 

 letters received by Mr. Fanning, was fully sensible of the importance of 

 such an establishment in South America. Dr. Vargus being afterwards 

 commissioned by the government to inspect Mr. Fanning' s labours, gave a 

 most flattering and satisfactory account. On his departure from England, 

 Mr. Fanning intends taking with him a collection of all the fruit and forest 

 trees, shrubs, and flowering plants, medicinal as well as ornamental, that 

 can be procured, besides a great variety of seeds. It is to be hoped that 

 such a collection of plants from this country will prove of essential service 

 to South America, where fine fruits and flowers are held in such high esti- 

 mation. — A. R. Bee. 1829. 



The Milk-Tree of Demerara is a different genus from the cow-tree of 

 Humboldt, of which, though so many plants were lately brought to this 



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