of 
a violence was herein offered to the 
rights of nature, icarcely lets injurious 
than when, at the birth, the child was 
brought before an affembly of old men, 
to.determine whether it fhould be pre- 
ferved and educated for the ftate, or 
thrown into the cavern at the foot of 
mount Taygetas*. 
Parents may want ability or leifure to 
educate their own children: but to deny 
them the liberty of choofing their affift- 
ants in this work-—to fhut up all {ehools 
which are not condufied upon plans, 
and by mafters appointed by the flate, 
would be a moit oppreffive ipecies of 
intolerance. If it be faid that this is the 
only way to prevent the {pread of mif- 
chievous errors, the fame plea has been 
urged in fupport of every eftablifhment 
for the coercion of opinion, which bigots 
ry, prieftcraft, or ftate-policy has ever 
Invented. Until the people can have 
fome better affurance than the experience 
of ‘ paft ages affords them, that their 
rulers poffefs infallible wifdom, and are 
always difpofed to employ it faithfully 
for the public good, it muft be their in- 
tereft to commit to the regulation of the 
ftate as few of their concerns as pofiible:: 
and, particularly, it muft be the beft fe- 
curity, which parents can have for the 
good education of their children, to keep 
the management of this weighty affair in 
their own hands. 
But, though it be admitted that com- 
pulfory plans of education are. injudi- 
cious, and even injurious, many perlons 
are difpofed to think it defirable, that 
governments fhould fo far interfere-in 
the education of youth, as to provide 
public fchools, with liberal endowments, 
and a regular eftablifament of inftruc- 
tion and difcipline. Such eitablifhments, 
it is faid, are more likely to bring for- 
ward into the fervice of the public, men 
pt fuperior learning and ability, to excite 
and reward literary-execllence; to ex- 
clude upftart. pretenders ;:to give ftabi- 
lity to thofe medes of inftruétion which 
are-ijanétioned by experience ; to afford 
a plentiful fupply ef books and. other 
meceflary aids Of learning; and, by 
Means of the two powerful ftimulants of 
rewards and puntihments,-to form young 
men to habits of induftry, fobriety, and 
regularity, chan any temporary inftitu- 
tion, the ephemeral offspring of private 
exertion and voluntary contribution. 
It. will be readily acknowledged, that 
eftablifaments for education, provided 
* Plut. Vit. Lycurg. 
The Enguirer. No. I. 
[ March 
with independent endowments, and con- 
ducted under the fanétion of the ftate, 
poffeis peculiar advantages which ‘no 
private inftitution can boaft. Large emo- 
luments will always have powerful at- 
tractions. High patronage, like a large 
convex lens, cannot fail to colieét inte 
its focus, numerous, rays. Stately edi- 
fices, largé libraries; valuable collections, 
and inftruments in ald of phyfical {ciencey - 
with every other kind of academical con- . 
venience and luxury, are certainly pro- 
vided more eafily by the vote of a na- 
tional affembly, than by the exertions of 
private munificence. Itmuft be admit. - 
q 
ted, too; that the weight of the civil 
authority is, or might be, a powerful 
lupport of academical difeipline, and 
that honorary and lucrative diftinétions, 
impartially and judicioufly beftowed, 
may, underifuch eftablifhments, operate 
very advantageoufly in foftering {cientifié 
and literary merit. ie 
Notwithftanding all this, however, 
national inftitutions for education are ~ 
lable to inconveniences, perhaps more 
than fuficient to counterbalance their 
advantages. In eftablifhments which the 
fiate has inftituted, it will, of courfé; 
claim, either directly or indireétly, the’ 
nomination to offices; and it may fome- 
times happen, in the eleét+on of fuper=' 
intendants or preceptors; that political 
interefts may clafh with’ thofe of the m=" 
fiitution. It is even a poflible fuppofi- 
tion, that offices, originally efficient, 
_ fhall- Become mere finecures,; convenient. 
enough, it may be, to ‘the poffeffors, 
but of no other ufe to the inftitution, than: 
to encreafe its cumbrous’ magnificence. 
The icruputous caution of a fuperftitious 
age may fubjeét inftitutions of this kind 
to forms ‘and reftri€tions, which, im @ 
more énlighténed period, may become 
exceedingly burdentome, but’ which, ne- 
verthelels, it may not be'thought fafe to 
alter. © Public academical €ftablifhments 
have, perhaps unavoidably, a degree‘ of 
ftability' in their inftitutions and forms, 
neither confiftent ‘with “the perpetual 
fluctuation of human ‘affairs, nor favour- 
able-to the advancement of ‘knowledge: 
It is from this circumftancé, poffibly, 
that, ina long courfe' of years, mftead 
of nurferies of icience, they may become 
“ fanéiaries of €xpleded fy ftems! and 
obfolete prejudices.” - ‘As the boundaries 
of {cience are extend@@;'a proportional 
enlargement betomes*neceflary im ‘the 
-field of inftru&tion: " Great*alterations in 
the ftate of LO sagt oa ‘corre’ 
Apondent changestin the methed’ of qualt_ 
fying 
