EEVIEWS — THE C0TJESE OE COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 185 



tains of erudite books, may we not ash, Cur boxo ? Is not sense better than learn- 

 ing : and can a man not see ■what is worth seeing in the world without the spec- 

 tacles of books ? Now, lest any person should be moved by vain talk of this 

 kind, which is not altogether without wisdom, though somewhat of a worldly 

 kind, I hope I have sufficiently taken care, to avoid leaving the impression that 

 I set much value on mere learning. A man may attain wisdom and virtue with- 

 out books and Universities — God be praised! Still learning performs an 

 important part in the intellectual culture of any educated people ; and it may 

 be difficult to name a single point in which the civilized life differs more radical- 

 ly from the savage than in the possession and in the use of books. It is easy to 

 laugh at the remote and unpractical character of the subjects on which many 

 German professors write books ; men of a Btrongly practical turn will always 

 have their joke at the expense of those who indulge in curious, recondite, and 

 apparently useless research ; but books are as much the natural expression of a 

 highly-trained intellect in this age, as ballads were in the age of Homer ; — " By 

 their fruits ye shall know them ;" — and it remains a fact that every educated 

 man who pens a paragraph for a newspaper, and every possessor of a pulpit 

 who sends forth a pastoral address to his people, makes use of some part of the 

 grand floating capital of knowledge with reference to the past, which is only the 

 results of learned research put into a popular shape. Without learniug, there- 

 fore, as an educated people, we cannot live ; the only question is, whether we 

 shall be content to take this learning at second-hand from the Germans and other 

 learned nations, or whether it would not be more creditable, more safe, and in 

 the long run, perhaps a shorter plan, to create that learning for ourselves at 

 home, by Universities properly organized, and by professors supplied with 

 proper opportunities and endowments, to make the advancement of a first-class 

 academical learning the great object and the sole ambition of their lives. " 



But indeed we have to begin our work at a much lower stage than 

 that of University organization. Much has indeed been done, and well 

 done under the persevering zeal of Dr. Byerson. But assuredly the 

 standard of our Common Schools has to be elevated. Our Grammar 

 Schools have to he made — what now they certainly are not — efficient 

 feeders to our Colleges ; and the status of our Schoolmasters must be 

 raised. At present the scale of remuneration, and the social rank, 

 awarded to this important class of functionaries, to whom is entrusted 

 the intellectual and moral training of the rising generatioD, reflects 

 little credit on the province. Setting aside one or two exceptional 

 cases, the average pay of a Grammar School teacher is £175 ; that of a 

 first class Common School teacher ranges from £S0 to a £100 ; a 

 second class teacher from £60 to £80, and a third class teacher from 

 £45 to £60 ! Can it be expected that such salaries will engage the 

 talent of the country in the all important work of education, when the 

 highest are not more than a clerk in a store would demand ; 

 while, failing such prizes, so far as regards the remainder, a 

 robust man may hope to make more by chopping wood ? It ought 

 not to be a matter of indifference to the people of this wealthy pro- 



