-can read his native language with some municate to others knowledge of which he degree of correctness, can write a tolerably himself is not possessed; and consequently, good hand, and has acquired a knowledge of whatever knowledge it may be judged necesthe leading rules of arithmetic. For it would sary to impart to the great mass of society, be inexpedient to spend much time in such must previously exist in the minds of those elementary instruction, except in the higher who are appointed to instruct them. Even departments of arithmetic, and in demon- the lowest class of schools, such as infant strating its fundamental rules. No candidate schools, and the details of primary instruc should be under eighteen or above thirty years tion, require men of general knowledge as of age. From eighteen to twenty-four would, superintendents and teachers. For it requires perhaps, be the most eligible period for admis- more care and attention, more experience and sion. The course should continue at least sagacity, and a more intimate acquaintance three years; and if the student can afford the with the principles of human nature, to direct time and expense, it may be expedient to the opening intellect in its first excursions in extend it to four years. About eight or nine the path of knowledge, than to impart to it hours every day might be employed in public instructions respecting any particular science and private studies-and ten months every in after-life. An infant-school teacher, for year, allowing a vacation of a month about example, should be intimately acquainted with midsummer, and another of the same length the facts of sacred history, with general history, about Christmas. During the period now with physical and geometrical science, with specified, under the direction of zealous and the phenomena of nature, and the processes enlightened professors, a far greater portion of the arts, with human nature in its different of substantial and practical knowledge might aspects, and with the scenes of domestic life. be accumulated than is generally acquired at For, it is from these sources that he is to deour universities, in a course of instruction rive those facts, exhibitions, descriptions, and extending to more than eight years. Exami- illustrations, which are requisite to excite the nations should take place, at least once a-week, attention, to interest the affections, and to to ascertain the progress made by every stu- gratify the curiosity of the infant mind. He dent, and the degree of attention he bestows must tell them stories borrowed from sacred on the several branches of study. After having and civil history-he must describe the ap passed through the usual course of instruction, pearances of nature-he must perform enter a more minute and extensive examination taining experiments-be must tell them of should be appointed of all the candidates for other countries, and the manners of their the office of schoolmaster, on all the branches inhabitants-he must describe the conduct of of instruction, both theoretical and practical, bad children and of good, and have a story at to which their attention had been directed. hand to illustrate his descriptions. He must Those who are approved should receive a vary all his descriptions, experiments, and certificate, or license, signed by all the pro- anecdotes, as much as possible, so that new fessors, specifying the progress they have scenes and subjects may be gradually opening made, and their qualifications for the art of on their view, to prevent that satiety which a teaching-which certificate should be con- frequent repetition of the same topics would sidered as a sufficient guarantee to secure necessarily produce. It is evident, then, that their admission as teachers into any vacant no one but a person possessed of extensive schools for which they may apply. Those knowledge is qualified fully to accomplish who are found deficient in qualifications may such objects. be recommended to remain another year, or other period, to revise their studies. The teachers who had been inducted into office, previous to the arrangements now supposed, should be enjoined, or at least requested, to attend two months every year at the Preceptoral College for three or four years in succession, in order to finish their education in all those branches which are considered as necessary for an accomplished instructor. The proper training of teachers lies at the very foundation of a moral and intellectual system of education; and no class of men but those whose minds are furnished with a large stock of general knowledge are capable of carrying it into effect. It may be laid down as a general principle, that no man can com It is an egregious mistake to imagine, that the knowledge of a plan of teaching, or of the mere routine of a system of education, is all that is requisite for conducting the instruction of children. This is an error, which of late has been too frequently acted upon, and which threatens to strike at the foundation of many of our infant schools. A young man, or a young lady, who has acquired only the ele ments of a common education, and who has never been in the practice of teaching in any seminary, is sent for six weeks to an infant school, to learn the system, and to witness its movements; after which they are considered as properly qualified, and inducted as super intendents of infant seminaries, without much attention being paid to the range of informa tion they possess. I am aware, indeed, that several worthy persons of this description have conducted these institutions with considerable energy and success, especially when they entered with vigour into the spirit of their office, and felt ardent desires for their own further improvement. But it would be dangerous to the existence and utility of such institutions to recognize such a practice as a general rule, although in their first establishment, necessity compelled their patrons to select as teachers, pious and discreet persons, however deficient in general information. For the reasons hinted at above, I am clearly of opinion, that an infant school teacher should be instructed in all the branches of knowledge to which I have already referred as requisite for other instructors; and on this ground chiefly I rest my hopes of the permanency and efficiency of the system of infant training which has been lately introduced. In short, if the world is to be ever thoroughly enlightened and regenerated-if men of all nations and of all ranks are to be raised to the dignity of their moral and intellectual natures, and fitted for "glory and immortality," it is essentially requisite that teachers of every description, whether superintending infant, parochial, or Sabbath schools, or any other seminaries, be men of decided piety, of the highest moral attainments, and possessed of as large a measure of useful knowledge as mortal can acquire, And, although we may not be able to procure persons endowed with such high qualifications for another generation or two, yet nothing short of such an elevated standard should be ultimately kept in view. Such characters, of course, would occupy a rank and station in society far more respectable and elevated than they have ever yet attained, and be looked up to as the directors of the intellectual and moral faculties, and the best friends and benefactors of the human race. apparatus; which articles would be indispen sable in such a seminary, and the more extensive the better. In the meantime, as a temporary expedient, arrangements might be made for establishing such a system of instruction in the different universities and colleges which already exist; as the same class-rooms presently used for the different departments of academical instruction, might, without much inconvenience, at separate hours, be devoted to the system of instruction now proposed. The principal country in which such seminaries have yet been established, is the kingdom of Prussia, where they are designated by the name of Normal Schools. In 1831 there were thirty-three of these schools in full operation, containing from 40 to 100 pupils; that is, one Normal school for every 385,660 souls; the population of Prussia, according to the latest census, being 12,726,823. From these seminaries are furnished almost all the masters of the public schools, elementary and intermediate, in the kingdom. The annual expense of these establishments is 110,553 thalers, or £16,583, of which the state contributes £13,260. M. Victor Cousin, in his voluminous and somewhat tedious "Report on the state of public instruction in Prussia," states a variety of minute details in reference to the economy and regulations of these schools, but affords us no clear idea of the minner in which the different branches of knowledge are taught to those who are intended to be the future teachers of primary and burghal schools. Although these institutions are, doubtless, the most respectable and efficient that have hitherto been established in any country, yet the range of instruction is not so extensive as that to which I have alluded, nor is the office of a teacher placed in that elevated rank which it ought to hold in society. Teachers in Prussia are still considered as belonging to a grade inferior to that Four preceptoral colleges, at least, would of ministers of the gospel, and are placed require to be established in Scotland, and partly under their superintendence. But if about six times that number in England, for teachers were once endowed with all the the training of teachers. Much expense would knowledge and qualifications to which I have not be requisite in their erection, excepting adverted, they ought to be regarded as moving what behoved to be laid out in the purchase in a station equal to that of the most dignified of a library, a museum, and a philosophical clergyman. CHAPTER XI. On the Practicability of Establishing Seminaries for Intellectual Education. To any new proposals for the improvement practices, and in favour of existing instituof society, however just or rational, numerous tions. In attempting to establish such semiobjections from different quarters are generally started. Difficulties are magnified into impossibilities, and a thousand prejudices are mustered up against innovations on established naries as now proposed, the most formidable objection would be founded on the difficulty of obtaining pecuniary resources adequate to their erection and endowment; and, it is fray admitted, that a very large sum of money, reckoned not by thousands, but by millions of pounds, would be requisite for their establishment and support. A rude idea of the requisite expenditure will perhaps be conveyed by the following statements. It may be assumed as a fact, that the number of children in any State, from the age of two to the age of fifteen years, is about onethird of the whole population; at least this proportion cannot be materially different from the truth. We find that in the States of Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut, North America, there is one out of every four of the population attending a seminary of instruction. In the State of New York, the proportion of pupils to the whole population is as 1 to 3.9, a greater proportion than is to be found in any other country in the civilized world. The ages of the children attending these schools are, in all probability, from four or five to fifteen or sixteen years; for I presume that the children attending infant schools are not included in this enumeration. But although they were, it is well known that infant schools have not yet been multiplied to such an extent as to furnish instruction for one-fifth of the children who would require to attend these institutions. We may therefore fix on one-third as the proportion of the population that requires to be instructed at infant schools, and the higher seminaries of education. This position being assumed, the number of schools required in any city or country may be at once determined. Suppose, for example, we fix on a town of a medium size, such as Dundee, we can easily ascertain the number of seminaries requisite for the instruction of its juvenile inhabitants. The population of Dundee is about 48,000; the one-third of which is 16,000, or the number of individuals that require instruction. Suppose 80 scholars, at an average, to attend each school, there would require to be no less than 200 seminaries erected to supply adequate instruction for such a town. Of these, 50 would be requisite for infant instruction, and 150 for the instruction of children from the age of six to the age of fifteen, in the higher branches of education specified in the preceding part of this work. According to a statement made in Parliament, by Mr. Colquhoun, in June, 1834, there is only one-fifteenth of the population of this town at present receiving the rudiments of a common education; so that, instead of 16,000 receiving instruction, there are only 3,200, and instead of 200 schools, averaging 80 children in each, there are only 40 schools* on an average, containing the same number, *There is a greater number of schools in Dun dee than the number here stated, but the average attendance of scholars is only 43 in each school. which is only one-fifth of the number of schools which require to be established. In order to supply Dundee with proper education, a large building has lately been erected at an expense of about £10,000, which is called "The Dundee Seminaries," where about 200 or 300 children receive education. The expense was supplied partly by subscriptions, and partly by funds belonging to the town; and the whole of this sum has been expended merely to afford accommodation for the children of 100 or 150 genteel families! while the great mass of the population has been entirely overlooked. There is no law against the children of the middling and lower classes attending that seminary; but the fees demanded amount, in their case, to an absolute prohibition. With the same sum of money, ten commodious seminaries, capable of containing accommodation for 200 pupils each, or 2000 in all, might have been established. It has never yet been stated to the public, on what principle education is to be conducted in these seminaricswhether it is to be conducted on the old system, or whether a plan of intellectual instruction is to be prosecuted-a most important matter, which ought to have been determined before a stone of the building was laid, or even before a plan of it was selected. For the plan and arrangements of any building intended for intellectual instruction ought to be materially different from those of others, and to have conveniences and arrangements peculiar to itself. But the erection of an expensive and splendid building, as an ornament to a commercial town, seems to have been an object of far greater importance, in the view of the Committee of Education, than the arrangement of an efficient plan of moral and intellectual tuition. Such are the principles and views of many in this country who profess to be the patrons of education! Let us now consider the number of seminaries which the whole of Scotland would require. The population of Scotland, according to the census of 1831, is nearly 2,400,000, the one-third of which is 800,000. Supposing, as before, 80 children at an average in every school, there would be no less than 10,000 schools required for the efficient instruction of all the youth from two to fifteen years of age-of these 2500 would be infant schools. According to Mr. Colquhoun's statement, "the number of parishes in Scotland is 907, and the parochial schools of Scotland at this moment, 1005;" so that, in Scotland it would be requisite to establish ten times the number of schools that presently exist, in order to the efficient instruction of the whole population. On the supposition that there are about 1000 private schools, besides the parochial, or two schools, at an average, for every parish Let us now consider the expenses which would be incurred in the erection of such schools. Estimating the expense of each school at £1000, that is, about £700 for the building and playground, and £300 for maps, views, library, apparatus, museum, &c. the neat cost of the schools for Scotland would be ten millions sterling. But, if infant schools, wherever they are required, were to be connected with the other schools, so as to be under the same roof, the former on the ground flat and the latter on the upper,-a building consisting of two stories, with suitable accommodation for both departments, could, I presume, be erected for the sum of £700. In this case, the number of erections would be reduced to 7500; and the whole expense would amount to £7,500,000. On the same plan, the number of school-houses required for England would be reduced to 43,750, and the expense would be £43,750,000; that is, about fifty-one millions for the whole of Great Britain. If we suppose, what is not improbable, that the number of infant schools, instead of bearing a proportion to the other schools as one to three, as here supposed, would require to bear a proportion of one to two, or half the number of the other schools, the number of school-houses would be reduced to 6666 for Scotland, and the expense to £6,666,000; and for England, to 38,889 schools, and the expense to £38,889,000; so that the whole amount of expenditure for both divisions of the island would be about 45 millions. there would still be required 8000 additional foundation of every moral evil-to counteract schools, or five times the number presently the principles of vice and criminality of every existing. Taking the population of England kind—and to make the moral world, in all its at 14,000,000, the number of children to be departments, move onward in harmony and educated will be 4,666,666, and the number order. Surely, if such objects could be acof schools, allowing 80 for each, 58,333, or complished, we need not grudge the expendincarly six times the number of schools re- ture even of a hundred millions of pounds. quired for Scotland; so that in the whole And such objects will never be accomplished, island of Great Britain there would require nor will the moral world be ever thoroughly to be established sixty-eight thousand three improved, till such a system of moral and hundred and thirty-three schools.* mental tuition as we have faintly sketched, be universally established. We sometimes talk about the approaching Millennium, and look forward to it as if it were to be introduced by some astonishing miracle, similar to that which caused the chaotic mass at the Mosaic creation to be enlightened, and reduced to beauty and order. But such views are evidently fallacious, and contrary to what we know of the general plan and tenor of the Divine government; and they have no other tendency but to unnerve our energies, and to damp our exertions in the cause of human improvement. Throughout the whole range of the Divine dispensations recorded in Scripture, we can point out no miracle that was ever performed, where the operation of the established laws of nature, and the ordinary powers of human agents, were adequate to accomplish the end intended. Man, under the present dispensation, is "a worker together with God,"-in accomplishing his purposes; and, under the agency of that Almighty Spirit which "moved upon the face of the waters" at the first creation, is able to accomplish all that is predicted respecting the Millennium,— provided his rebellious will were subdued, and his moral energies thoroughly directed to this grand object. It is owing to the sin and rebellion of man that this world has undergone such a melancholy derangement, both in its physical and moral aspect; and it will be by the moral and mental energies of man, when properly directed by the Divine Spirit, that the chaotic mass of the moral world will be reduced to harmony and order, and the wastes and barren deserts of the physical world adorned with fertility and rural and architectural beauty, so that "the wilderness and the solitary place will rejoice and blossom as the rose." It is one chief ingredient in the happiness of man, and an honour conferred on him, that he is selected as an agent, under God, for bringing about such a glorious consummation; and there is no man that ought to assume the name of a Christian, who is not ready to exert his activities, and to sacrifice a considerable portion of his wealth in this service. This will appear, in the eyes of many, a most prodigious sum-a sum which we can never hope to realize. It is admitted that the sum is great; but nothing in proportion to the magnitude and importance of the object intended to be accomplished-which is nothing less than to raise the great mass of our population from degradation and misery-to irradiate their minds with knowledge-to inspire them with moral principle and holy affections -to render them happy in this world-and to prepare them for the noble enjoyments of the life to come;-in short, to strike at the On the same data, the number of schools required for the United States of America, would be above 54,000. Under the Old Testament economy, the pions Jews brought forward to the service of God their tithes and free-will offerings, their bullocks and rams, and "the first fruits of their increase." When Solomon had dedicated the temple, he offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen, and of 120,000 sheep; and when Hezekiah set himself to purify the worship of God, and to promote reformation in Israel, he gave to the congregation a thousand bullocks, and seven thousand sheep the princes gave a thousand bullocks and ten thousand sheep-and the common people brought in abundance, the first fruits of zorn, wine, and oil, and honey; and of all the increase of the field, the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly, and laid them in heaps upon heaps," for four months in succession, so that Hezekiah was astonished at the voluntary liberality of the people, "and blessed the Lord and his people Israel." When the tabernacle in the wilderness was about to be reared, "both men and women, as many as were willing-hearted, brought bracelets and ear-rings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold; and every man that offered, offered an offering of gold unto the Lord. Every man with whom was found blue and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair, and red skins of rams, and badgers' skins, brought them. Every one that had silver and brass and shittim-wood for any work of service, brought them. All the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue and purple, and scarlet, and of fine linen. And the rulers brought onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod and for the breast-plate. Every man and woman brought a willing offering to the Lord, till they had much more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord commanded to make."* These offerings were, doubtless, emblematical of the exertions which would be made, and of the costly offerings which would be brought forward for rearing the fabric of the New Testament church. But what are all the offerings which have been hitherto received for this purpose, compared with the offerings now stated, or with what is requisite to accomplish this grand object! One of the offerings above stated as made by Solomon is equivalent to more than five hundred thousand pounds of British money, which is more than the amount of the funds of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and all its auxiliaries, during the first ten years of their operation. Christians do not seem to have yet recognized their duty, to devote a certain portion of their substance to the service of God and the improvement of man. The pitiful sums hitherto devoted to these objects, compared with what is expended in gratifying pride, and ambition, *See Exod. xxxv. 21-30, &c.—2 Chron. vii. 5, XXX 24, and xxx. 5-8. and luxury, is a libel on the Christian world. If we had right views of the grandeur and importance of such objects, instead of contributing sixpences, shillings, and guineas, we should behold wealthy Christians devoting hundreds, and even thousands a year, to the improvement of society and the advancement of the interests of religion; and all this could be done by thousands in our country, without depriving themselves of a single comfort or sensitive enjoyment. Let us consider, for a moment, the sums we have expended in madness and folly, in the pursuits of ambition and the desolations of war-and we shall then be able to determine whether it be not in our power to raise 40 millions of pounds for the improvement of society. It has been calculated, that, out of 127 years, commencing with 1688, and terminating in 1815, England spent 65 years in war, and 62 in peace. The war of 1688, after lasting nine years, and raising our expenditure in that period 26 millions, was ended by the treaty of Ryswick, in 1697. Then came the war of the Spanish succession, which began in 1702, was concluded in 1713, and absorbed 62 millions of British money. Without noticing the wars of the Pretender in 1715 and 1745, the next was the Spanish war of 1739, settled for at Aix-laChapelle in 1748, after costing 54 millions. Then came the seven years' war of 1756, which terminated with the treaty of Paris, in 1763, in the course of which we spent 112 millions. The next was the American war of 1775, which lasted eight years, in which crusade against the liberties of mankind, we expended no less than 186 millions. The French revolutionary war began 1793, lasted nine years, and exhibited an expenditure of 464 millions. The war against Buonaparte began in 1803, and ended in 1815. During those twelve years of extravagance and carnage, we spent the enormous sum of 1159 millions!! 771 of which were raised by taxes, and 388 by loans. In the war of 1688 we borrowed 20 millions; in the war of the Spanish succession, 32 millions; in the Spanish war of 1739, 29 millions; in the seven years' war, 60 millions; in the American war, 104 millions; and in the revolutionary war, 201 millions;-so that the sums borrowed in these 7 wars, during 65 years, amounted, in all, to above 834 millions. During the same time, we raised by taxes 1499 millions-forming a total expenditure of 2333 millions! which is equal to about £100 for every man, woman, and child in Scotland, or about £600 for every family; and which would be sufficient to establish a system of education, such as we have described, for a population of about 820 millions; |