vacant space left for the growth of such pernicious weeds. To evince this, we give the following outline of the history of a day:

At six o'clock the bell rings for the boys to rise; ten minutes after it rings again, when all are expected to stand prepared to march down stairs. To ensure perfect punctuality in observing these and every other rule which follows as to time, a single second too late incurs a fine. From 6h. 15m. to 6h. 35m. is allowed for washing. Then commences the morning prayers. At 6h. 55m. a rally on the drum summons all the officers to prepare for the general muster. At seven there is a general muster of all the boys. Then reading and parsing, French, &c. till 7h. 30m. Till 8h. preparations for Latin classes. At 8h. 5m. classes form for Greek and Latin, construing and grammar. At 9h. 10m. the bell rings for breakfast. At 9h. 25m. the defaulters go to work, (a mode of punishment while the rest are at leisure, till by a certain number of hours of extra labour they make up their defalcations.) At 9h. 45m. a general muster, immediately after which classes form for history and geography. At 10h. 35m. classes for mental arithmetic. At 11h. classes for ciphering and penmanship. At 12h. the Latin classes are exercised. At 12h. 30m. the reading and French classes. At one o'clock, a muster for dinner. At 1h. 20m. the defaulters (having again been subjected to temporary extra restraint) join the dinner party. At 1h. 40m. they are ready to go again to work. At two o'clock, a general muster, after which the boys again form themselves into classes for study. At three o'clock the same kind of exercises as at twelve are resumed, i. e. chiefly Latin. At four o'clock, the classes for gymnastic exercises assemble; after half an hour these exercises are varied; and, at five, refreshments are distributed. From five till a quarter before six, a few boys who have acquired a habit of stooping, lie down in the manner prescribed by the medical men of the present day. At 5h. 45m. a muster for evening school, when the boys, with the assistance of the classical teachers, prepare their lessons for the next morning. At 6h. 30m, the washing is again repeated, as in the morning. At seven o'clock, a muster for supper, the band playing. At 7h. 15m. the defaulters leave the table, and go to work, (another small deduction from their enjoyment). At 7h. 35m. prayers. At eight o'clock the younger, and 9 o'clock the elder, boys retire to bed.

But from this naked outline of the routine of a day, a very inadequate notion would be formed of the peculiarities of the system, and the means it presents for the development of the mental and bodily faculties. For the latter, to extensive play-grounds and gymnastic exercises, is added, a swimming-bath; and the intellectual powers are more fully exercised according to the natural genius of each individual, in what is called "voluntary labour," because the particular species of study is left to the discretion of the pupil, who is only enticed to it by the hope of reward in personal marks conferred on him according to the merit of the fruits of his ingenuity and industry, which may thus carve out a new path for attaining distinc

tion. Among the favourite subjects of such spontaneous exertion, are stated to be working the printing-press, penmanship, drawing, etching and painting, constructing maps, making surveys, studying music, modelling animals, and constructing machines; learning orations; taking reports of lectures, trials, or debates; and composition in prose and verse, in various languages. Amid these diversified fields of enterprise, there is no mind so sluggish or feeble but must, when stimulated by emulation, be drawn forth, and discover its peculiar powers. As a specimen of what is accomplished in this way, we quote from a Magazine, written and printed by the boys themselves, the account given of the muster at the close of the vacation in the commencement of last year. It is introduced by the editors to show the advantages of strict punctuality. They observe

To induce puctuality in our pupils, we find it to be of the first importance that the nominal and actual hour for assembling should with undeviating regularity be the same. There must be no uncertainty, no allowance for distance or accident-no excuse whatever must be admitted; and under this condition it is wonderful how easily the greatest distances are passed over, how few accidents occur, how soon all excuses vanish!

Two or three days before the close of the vacation the arrivals commence ; and on the last evening we find ourselves surrounded by a crowd of faces scarcely less happy than when we saw them last. But we cannot do better than extract from our little Magazine a description of the muster, at the beginning of the present half-year, as given by the Editor in the warmth of his juvenile feelings:

"Our present session commenced on Thursday, January 20th, but many pupils who reside at a distance, anxious to secure their attendance at the first muster, came on Wednesday, ourselves of course among the number; and from five P. M. to ten, noise and bustle reigned throughout the house; coaches came one after another, full of wearied travellers; who, after taking their refreshments, were ushered into one of the parlours, where Messrs. Hill had kindly provided cards, chess, and drafts, for such as chose to amuse themselves with these games; but the continual entrance of old and new school-fellows, and the consequent salutations and introductions, prevented any great regularity in these amusements.

"The party whose arrival was most anxiously awaited, was that from London; for in this were expected the two Greeks, who were coming to be instructed here; and, as may be supposed, their appearance produced no

small sensation.

"Upon counting the number present this evening, it was found to bę fifty; but of these thirteen had remained here during the vacation.

"On Thursday, about ten o'clock, the scene of confusion was renewed; carriage after carriage rolled to the door till twelve o'clock, the time appointed for the first muster. The Greeks, whose names are Eustrathios Rallis and Stamos Nakos, were so good as to appear on this occasion in the costume of their country, which is very splendid; this morning the curiosity which they excited exceeded that shown the preceding evening, and was testified by the dead silence which their entrance produced.

"We have great pleasure in stating that more were present at this muster than at any previous one: ninety-six pupils arrived in time; one more

came during the muster, but the bell had ceased ringing, the drum had beaten, the doors were closed, and he could not be admitted.

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Upon examination it was found that only four individuals were absent who could have been present."-Hazelwood Magazine, Vol. III.

Another mode of calling the mental powers into action is too important to be passed over. In conducting the system of administration before described, every boy must, in his due turn, be called upon to discharge the functions of a legislator, a judge, a magistrate, a juror, an advocate, or a pleader on his own behalf; and in circumstances the most favourable for the exercise of his mental faculties, as he has to deal with persons of nearly his own age and acquirements. By this practice, embracing the greatest variety of offices, he is prepared, in the most admirable manner, for the business of real life; and if private debating societies have been the preparatory school of our greatest orators, we may, without being at all too sanguine in our expectations, regard this institution as probably the nursery of those varied talents which are to form the chief ornaments of the bar, the bench, and the senate, in the next generation.

Our limits almost preclude the possibility of entering at all into the mode of study followed here, in the various branches of learning. With respect to the great business of education in all systems hitherto, namely, the acquisition of languages, the method of tuition adopted is what is justly called the "natural" method. This is an imitation, as far as possible, of the mode in which every child acquires its mothertongue with extreme facility; and travellers become, with a little care, perfect masters of foreign languages. First, by means of translations of easy compositions, carried on in classes, and occasionally by dialogues, the boys acquire, periodically, a large stock of words and phrases, and become familiar with the more general principles of the language; after which, grammar is brought in to give them a more perfect and critical knowledge of its niceties. How much more rational, easy, and effectual is this, than the ordinary method of overloading a boy's mind with an infinity of abstract rules and technical definitions concerning an unknown tongue, before he possesses the substratum to which they are applicable? Such barren knowledge is like the art of painting to a blind man, or the science of music to one yet unacquainted with sounds:

In giving our pupils a knowledge of English Grammar we make but little use of the grammar-book; composition and parsing being the exercises on which we chiefly depend. In the art of composition our pupils receive regular lessons on the plan recommended by the Abbé Gaultier, and now practised with eminent success by Dr. Gilchrist, the Orientalist, at whose suggestion we adopted it.

In order to illustrate this, we subjoin a specimen of the exercises which have been distributed by Dr. Gilchrist throughout the kingdom, to promote the diffusion of this system, so well calculated for

4 Of these four, it was afterwards discovered that one had left the school, and that another was unwell.

exercising the faculty of memory or judgment in the young pupil, who is called upon to supply the blanks here left; and if in any case he feel himself incompetent, the figure of reference directs him to another part of the book :

4

LESSON.

3
5

8

12

10

Dancing was a continuance of. It was not work, and therefore was held in little by Charles and Louisa. It is very that people should acquire a 7 manner. It is proper also, that in family they should be to take such a part in the entertainments as may show them to 1o; but it would be a 11 to have it said that those young people as well as the first 13 dancers; for people would imagine, that all other 15 had been 16 in order to 17 this frivolous 18, the perfection of which is only 19 for the theatre, and 20 be considered 21 as innocent and 22 recreation. We 23 not, therefore, to 24 too much of our 25 to the acquirement of such 26 accomplish

ments.

In applying this singularly happy mode of "teaching the young idea how to shoot," the preceptor reads a passage aloud to his class, omitting such words, clauses, or sentences, as he supposes the pupils able to supply. The class then attempts to fill up those blanks; and, in the course of this exercise, when any inelegant or ungrammatical expression is offered, the teacher takes the opportunity to explain the reason for its rejection. These exercises may be carried to any extent, till the pupil acquires all the elegancies of his native tongue. For foreign and antient languages, (French, Greek, and Latin,) recourse is had to the process of double translation, practised by Roger Ascham with such eminent success in the education of Queen Elizabeth, and of "extemporaneous construing," used, it is said, in the tuition of the celebrated French classical critic, Madame Dacier, and resembling the mode practised in teaching Latin when it was the literary language of Europe. "A class opens at a passage with which the pupils are unacquainted, and they attempt to construe it, the master assisting them in their difficulties, not confining himself to the mere translation of obscure phrases, but intermingling explanations, and also such information as boys ought to find in the notes of their school-books; but which, as far as our knowledge goes, is seldom to be met with." To this is added, for the antient tongues, dramatic recitations, and for the French, conversation at table. For acquiring the latter, this establishment possesses a peculiar advantage, there being many foreigners in the school from various countries, and French being, in a great degree, their only common language, the English pupils are furnished with an additional motive and opportunity for cultivating its use; so that some of them speak it with fluency; many can use it for all necessary purposes.

While on the subject of acquiring languages, we are induced to advert to the extraordinary pretensions of Mr. Hall, a distinguished

6

proper; young; 7 grace12 danced, 19 opera; talent; 19 suitable; 25 time; 25 trivial.

only; 2 recreation; 3 called 4 estimation; 5 ful; festivals; 9 enabled; 10 advantage; 11 pity; naturally; 15 knowledge; 16 neglected; 17 acquire; 18 20 should; 21 merely; pleasant; 29 ought; 24 devote;

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teacher in this metropolis, who professes to communicate to adults "such a knowledge of the Latin language in three months, as shall enable them to translate any Roman author with ease and pleasure." We have before us a work of his lately published, developing his system, which informs us, in the Preface, that “ a young gentleman, well versed in English grammar, but unacquainted with Latin in the slightest degree," was able, under Mr. Hall's tuition, at the end of seven days," to undergo a public examination in translating, parsing, and scanning the whole of the first book of Virgil's Æneid." We should have been inclined to set down this incredible achievement as on a par with the miraculous effects attributed to the harp of Orpheus, if we did not happen to have conversed with some of the examiners on the occasion, who, though themselves sceptical, admit that the individual experimented on, went through the examination with credit. The outlines of the plan followed are these: The roots of the language, according to their three main classes, are divided each into six lessons; that is, six lessons of substantives, six of adjectives, and six of verbs. Then follow six corresponding lessons of what are called root sentences, which are composed methodically of the foregoing. Thus the learner having committed to memory the first lesson of root substantives, the first of root adjectives, and the first of root verbs, has in his mind all the materials of the first lesson of root sentences, which he then studies. He proceeds in the same manner with the second and third divisions of each class, and so on, till, at the end of six lessons, he masters the whole roots of the language, and at the same time familiarizes himself, in some degree, with the mode of using them in composition. This is certainly very superior to the common mode of committing indiscriminately to memory whole vocabularies of words, thousands of which, from no such arrangement being made, never occur again till they are entirely forgotten. It is, consequently, so much lost labour; whereas the root sentences, in which these words are instantly brought into use, serve to fix every one of them firmly on the mind. Another aid to the memory, of very great utility, which by this author seems to have been for the first time reduced into a system, deserves special notice. It consists in supplying for each word in the vocabulary to be learnt, another word in some way allied to it in sound and sense, which being already known to the learner, serves as a connecting link to recall the unknown word to his mind. The advantage of this discovery will be readily conceived from a few examples taken from his vocabulary, which is on the following pattern:

It is obvious how much an advertence to the third of these columns will assist the retention of the first in the memory; and with this