preserve by industrious application, the advantages he has already required. His book is indeed before him; but how languid, how listless his posture! how heavy, how dull his eye! nothing is expressed in his countenance but dejection or indignation. Let him be examined respecting his lesson; he replies with confusion and hesitation, and soon will show that he has spent his time without making any progress in learning; that his spirits are broken, his native cheerfulness destroyed, and his breast armed with invincible prejudice against all application in the pursuit of literary knowledge. To all this must be added, that in a public school, there is something more than emulation to render learning less disagreeable than it naturally is to children. The slightest observation of life, or attention to our own conduct in various circumstances, will convince us that wherever mankind are placed in situations of distress, or subjected to disagreeable restraints, that which a single person bears with impatience or dejection, will make a much feebler impression on his mind, if a number of companions be joined with him in his restraint or suffering, It is esteemed a much greater picce of severity to confine a prisoner in a solitary cell, than to permit him to mix with others in the same situation: a journey appears far less tedious to a party of travellers, than to him who beats the path alone. In the same manner, when a number of boys in a great school are all busied on the same, or on similar tasks, a spirit of industry and perseverence is communicated from one to another over the whole circle; cach of them insensibly acquires new ardour and vigour, even though he felt not the spur of emulation, yet while 'all are busy around him, he cannot remain idle. These are facts obvious to the most careless observer. Neither are public schools so unfavourable to the virtue of their members, as they have been represented to be. If the masters be men of virtue and prudence, careful to set a good a good example before their pupils, attentive to the particular character of each individual among them, firm to panish obstinate and incorrigible depravity, and even to expel from the society those who may more probably injure the morals of others, than be themselves reclaimed; and at the same time be cager to applaud and encourage amiable and virtuous dispositions wherever they appear: under the government of such masters, a public school will not fail to be a school of virtue. There will doubtless be particular individuals among the pupils of such a seminary, whose morals may be corrupt, and their dispositions vicious: but this, in all probability, arises from the manner in which they are managed before entering the school, or from some other circumstances, rather than from their being sent for education to a public seminary of education. Again, at a public school, young people enjoy much greater advantages for preparing them to enter the world, than they can posssibly be favoured with, if brought up in a private and solitary manner. A great school is a miniature representation of the world at large: the objects which engage the attention of boys at school, are different from those which occupy their parents : the views of the boys are less extensive, and they are not yet capable of prosecuting them by so many arts, not always perhaps the most laudable or honorable: but in other respects, the scenes and the sets of actors nearly resemble each other: in both you perceive contending passions, opposite interests, weakness, cunning, folly, vice. He, therefore, who has performed his part on the miniature scene, has, as it were, rehearsed it for the greater: if he has acquitted himself well on the one, he may also be expected to distinguish himself on the other: and even he who has not been remarked at school, will at any rate enter the world with superior advantages, when compared with the youth who has spent his carlier days in the ignorance and solitude solitude of a private education. Besides, when boys meet at a public seminary of education, separated from their parents and relations, all nearly of the same age, engaged in the same studies, and fond of the same amusements, they naturally contract friendships one with another, which are more cordial and sincere than any that take place between persons of a more advanced age. A friendship is often formed between two boys at school which continues through life, and is productive of the best consequences to both. While at school, they assist and encourage each other in their learning; and their mutual affection renders their tasks less burdensome than otherwise they would be. As they advance in life, their friendship still continues to produce the happiest effects on their sentiments and conduct perhaps they are mutually useful to each other by interest, or by personal assistance, in making their way in the world; or when they are engaged in the cares and bustle of life, their intercourse and correspondence may contribute much to console them, amid the vexations and fatigues to which they may be exposed. Such are the principal arguments usually adduced in favor of a public education.-When we compare these with those which have been urged to recommend a private education, we shall, as in all cases where advantages are stated in the extreme, find each system to be eligible according to circumstances, and that some plan combining the good qualities of both, will be the most desirable. A public education is the most favorable to the acquisition of knowledge, to vigour of mind, and to the formation of habits of industry and fortitude. A private education when judiciously conducted, will not fail to be peculiarly favourable to innocence and mildness of disposition; and notwithstanding what has sometimes been advanced by the advocates for a public plan of tuition, it is surely wiser to keep youth at a distance from the seductions of vice, until they be sufficiently armed against against them, than to expose them to those seductions at an age when they know not whither these lead, and are wholely unable to make any effectual resistance to their force. Were we to give implicit credit to the specious language of the two parties in this contest, we should expect from either a public or a private education, beings more like to angels, than to the men we ordinarily find in the world: but these partizans speak with the ardour of enthusiasts; they must therefore be cautiously listened to on so important a subject as the education of youth, both as to the facts they state and to the inferences they draw. Were it possible, without exposing children to the contagion of a great town, to procure for them the advantages of both a public and a private education at the same time, we would by this measure probably be most successful in rendering them both respectable scholars, and virtuous and useful men. Upon the whole, therefore, it would be most desirable, (unless when unavoidable necessity of circumstances compels to the contrary), that parents should not banish their offspring from under their roof until they be advanced beyond their boyish years: let the mother nurse her own child, and let her and the father join in superintending the first principles of its education; then may they expect to be rewarded, if they have rightly acted their parts, by securing the gratitude, the affection, and the respect of their child, while he and they continue to live together. Let matters be so conducted that the boy may reside in his father's house, and at the same time attend a public school; but let the girl be wholly educated under her mother's eye. Education, in whatever way ordered, must still be imperfect without preparing youth for their appearance on the stage of life. Much has been said concerning the utilty of a knowledge of the world, and the advantage of acquiring this knowledge at an early period: but those who have with the greatest earnestness recommended it, have generally ex plained plained themselves in so inaccurate a manner that it is difficult to understand what ideas they affix to the expression. Some seem to wish (but surely it cannot be their serious wish) that, in order to acquire a knowledge of the world, young people should be very early introduced into what is affectedly called fashionable company, carried to all public places, and allowed to follow their headlong career through every haunt of folly and vice. Some knowledge of the world may unquestionably be gained by such means; but it is dearly purchased: nor are the advantages expected to be derived from it so considerable as to tempt the judicious and affectionate parent to expose his child to the infection. of vanity, folly, and vice, for their sake. Carry a boy or a girl into public life at the age of fourteen or fifteen; show them all the splendid scenes of London or Paris; tell them of the importance of dress, and of the ceremonies of good breeding, and the forms of intercourse; teach them that fashionable indifference and assurance which give the ton to the manners of the age. What effects can you expect the scenes into which introduce them, and the mysteries you disclose to them, to produce on their tender minds?—they must have a direct tendency to inspire the children with a taste, perhaps never to be changed, for vanity, frivolity, and dissipation. If you wish them to be like the foolish, the gay, the dissipated, you can hardly fail to obtain your end: but if on the contrary your views are to prepare them for discharging the duties of life, you could not take a more improper method to instruct them. They will perhaps become well acquainted with all those things on which you set such value; but they will not thereby have gained any accession of useful knowledge. The children are not now a whit more able than before, to judge of the real value of the objects around them: nay they are now more liable than before to form erroneous judgments and erroneous estimates of the worth of these objects, from the ideal value stamped yon on |