1796. | 
fying young men for their refpective 
ftations in life.» New cuftoms and habi- 
tudes may render ancient regulations not 
only fuperfluous but even ridiculous, and 
may. create a necelfity for new arrange- 
ments in difcipline. 
found exceedingly difficult, in acade- 
mical focieties, long fince eftablifhed, to 
make any alterations, which fhall tole- 
rably keep pace with the filent innova- 
tions of time Any 
Were we to ranfack the pages of an- 
cient hiftory, we fhould eafily find facts 
in. fupport of thefe obfervations : for, 
though, in the early -period of Greece, 
.we icarcely meet with any traces, ex- 
cept in Sparta, of national education ; 
each philofopher being the founder of 
his own {chool, and ‘fupporting it at his 
Own expence, or by the contributions of 
his fcholars; we find, at later periods, 
{chools in Alexandria, Athens, and Rome, 
maintained by, the ftate ; and numerous 
eftablithments of a fimilar kind both 
among Chriftians and Mahometans. But 
the neceffity of -hiftorical refearch is en- 
tirely fuperteded by faéts, which force 
themfelves upon our notice, in our own 
age and country. 
In thofe grammar {chools, which have 
been founded by the public, it is a fact 
well known, and by many perfons pain- 
fully remembered, that in the midft of 
the refinements of modern civilization, a 
mode of difcipline ftill keeps its ground, 
which could only have originated in an 
age of barbarifm. Another faét, of ftill 
greater importance to the public, is, that’ 
the pertinacity of the matters, in adher- 
ing to the old methods of claffical inftruc- 
tion, has almof entirely precluded the 
introduction of other at leaft equally ufe- 
ful branches of education: whence it has 
not unfrequently happened, that a youth 
who has acquired great honour by his 
{chool-exerciles, has gone to the univer- 
fity without knowing how to workia 
fum. in common arithmetic, and without 
being able to write, in his native lan- 
guage, with grammatical, or even with 
- orthugraphical propriety. : 
Inthe Englifh univerfities—with all 
due refpeét for thofe ancient and vene- 
-, rable inftitutions, be it remarked—the 
mifchievous effects of national interfe- 
rence in education are -but too vifible. 
Tt is impofiible.:to. cait the moft curfory, 
or the moft candid, glance over the pre- 
fent ftate of thefe renowned feminaries, 
without-obferving- many defects, which 
- gould fearcely have arifen in an -inftitu- 
tion free from the incumbrances of legal 
1 
The Enquirer. 
Yet it is always 
No. II, “95 
eftablifhment. To what other caufe can 
it be afcribed, that its fyftem of inftruc- 
tion and difcipline has not undergone 
fuch alterations, and received fuch im- 
provements, as were neceffary: to fuit*it 
to the ftate of knowledge and manners 
at the clofe of the eighteenth century > 
Were a new plan of public education to 
be formed, at the prefent time, by an | 
affembly of the wifeft and moft enlight- 
ened men which the nation could fur- 
nifh, it cannot be doubted that it would 
differ in many material points from the 
prefent academical eftablifhments.. It 
might be pretty confidently prediéted, 
for example, that {uch an affembly would 
not retain thofe unprofitable modes of 
difputation, which the {chools long ago 
learned from ‘Ariftotle, nor fuffer the 
public halls to be difgraced with the 
formal repetition of /irzzgs of fyllogifms, 
which either prove nothing, cr nothing 
worth knowing ;—that they would not 
beftow liberal endowments on profeffors, 
who dhould be too indolent to teach the 
{ciences they profefs ;—that they would 
not leave any uteful branch of academic 
inftruétion unprovided with competent 
preceptors, and. altogether - dependent 
upon the cafual exertions of enterprizing 
individuals ;—that they would not en- 
courage indolence and ‘felfifhnefs, by 
making the fchools a luxurious retreat 
for anzynatum pecus, who, if, perchanée, 
they ftudy themfelves, will do nothing 
towards iuperintending the ftudies of 
others ;—that they would not require 
from youths, at their matriculation, or 
graduation, fubfcription to articles of 
religious belief, which many of them 
may have never read, and certainly have 
never underftood;—in tine, that they 
would not adopt, as the bafis of their 
fyftem of ‘difcipline, ancient ftatutes 
which modern changes in opinions and 
manners muft neceflarily render intole- 
rably burthenfome. In the inftitution of 
a new cftablifhment for public education, 
it might reafonably be expected,. that the 
errors and defeéts of the old fyftems 
would be carefully avoided. Whence, 
then, is it, but from the combined force 
of pre{cription and autherity, that, in the 
old cftabliihments, fuch defe éts are fuffer- 
ed to remain, year after *year, ‘uncor- 
rected, and almoft unnoticed; -while 
thofe, from whom the public might rea- 
fonably expect fome efforts towards the 
reformation of abufes, and the correétion 
of errors, only fhake their heads, and 
whifper among themlelves—“ pudet hac 
opprobria nobis ? 
What 
