any worthy and fruitful effort, you must choose such as the world values, and such as may receive the allegiance of a manly mind. It has been said that six months of the language of Schiller and Goethe will now open to the student more high enjoyment than six years' study of the languages of Greece and Rome. It is certain, that six months' study of French will now open to the student more of Europe, than six years' study of that which was once the European tongue. There are changes in the circumstances and conditions of education, which cannot be left out of sight, in dealing with the generality of minds. Great discoveries have been made by accident; but it is an accidental discovery, and must be rated as such, if the studies, which were first pursued as the sole key to wisdom and knowledge, now that they have ceased not only to be the sole, but the best key to wisdom and knowledge, are still the best instruments of education.

HINTS ON EARLY PHYSIOLOGICAL STUDY.

(By PROFESSOR H. W. ACLAND, of Oxford.)

GENERAL physiological questions will, in a few years, become so universally understood, that much ordinary literature will be unintelligible to those wholly unacquainted with them. Advanced

physiological problems are already discussed in reviews, in this and other countries. Sanitary inquiries, of all kinds, now come within the range of town-councils and officials in every class of society. The standard of medical knowledge, and medical practice, will be raised in proportion to the diffusion of physiological knowledge among the general public. I look, therefore, to the increase of a general knowledge of physiology and hygiene as one of the greatest benefits, which will conduce, through science, to the temporal interests of mankind. Every form of quackery and imposture in medicine will, in this way, and in this way only, be discouraged. It is in great part on this ground-on the ground of the future benefit of the people, through dissemination of true perceptions of the groundwork of practical medicine-that I have laboured, for many years to promote physiological knowledge in this University, among students of whatever rank and destined for whatever occupation....

Probably no kind of literary composition will tend more to precision of thought and statement, than the early habit of describing correctly natural objects. Without precision of ideas, and accuracy of expression, true physiological science does not exist, and can neither be taught nor learnt. That this is so will appear more and more as time goes on-the ideas and the language of my own hitherto most loosely worded art will become every year more defi nite and significant. Its dogmas are becoming either precise or worthless.

Dr. Acland makes the following suggestions to teachers, as to the mode of teaching physiology :

I. For the sake of precision in a subject which contains necessarily many doubtful points, introduce, where you can, precise definitions and numerical calculations, weights, dimensions, micrographic and others.

II. For the study of external characters, encourage the collection of Fauna and Flora of the neighbourhood, including, in the case of all the boys, microscopic species. For the study of organs and functions, show dissections where you can. A rabbit, a rat, a sparrow, pig, perch, snail, bee, a few infusoria will enable you, at any time of the year, to show some of the most important types of structure in the animal kingdom.

III. Encourage the boys to put up microscopic objects. The minute manipulations will give neatness and precise habits. Little apparatus is required, and no mess" need be made.

66

THE STUDY OF CLASSICAL LANGUAGES.

(From the "Essay on the Athenian Orators," by LORD MACAULAY.) MODERN writers have been prevented by many causes from supplying the deficiencies of their classical predecessors. At the time of the revival of literature no man could, without great and painful labour, acquire an accurate and elegant knowledge of the ancient languages; and unfortunately those grammatical and philological studies, without which it were impossible to understand the great works of Athenian and Roman genius, have a tendency to contract the views and deaden the sensibility of those who follow them with extreme assiduity. A powerful mind which has been long employed in such studies may be compared to the gigantic spirit in the Arabian tale, who was persuaded to contract himself to small dimensions in order to enter within the enchanted vessel, and when his prison had been closed upon him fancied himself unable to escape from the narrow boundaries to the measure of which he had reduced his stature. When the means have long been the objects of application, they are naturally substituted for the end. It was said by Eugene of Savoy, that the greatest generals have commonly been those who have been at once raised to command, and introduced to the great operations of war without being employed in the petty calculations and manoeuvres which employ the time of an inferior officer. In literature the principle is equally sound. The great tactics of criticism will, in general, be best understood by those who have not had much practice in drilling syllables and particles. I remember to have observed among the French authors a ludicrous instance of this. A scholar, doubtless of great learning, recommends the study of some long Latin treatise, of

which I now forget the name, on the religion, manners, government, and language of the early Greeks. "For there," says he, 66 you will learn everything of importance that is contained in the Iliad and Odyssey, without the trouble of reading two such tedious books." Alas! it had not occurred to the poor gentleman, that all the knowledge to which he attached so much value was useful only as it illustrated the great poems which he despised, and would be as worthless for any other purpose as the mythology of Caffraria, or the vocabulary of Otaheite.

EXTRACTS FROM THE EVIDENCE GIVEN BEFORE THE ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS' COMMISSION.

Evidence of Professor William B. Carpenter.

2. I believe, Dr. Carpenter, you are Registrar of the London University?-A. I am. Q. How long have you been Registrar? -A. Six years. Q. I believe you are likewise a member of the Council of the Royal Society?-A. Yes. Q. Have you been able to form any opinion as to the use of the physical sciences, as a training of the mind, as compared with pure mathematics?-A. I think that their function is quite different. I think that each is a supplement to the other. I should be very sorry to see either left out. It appears to me, that the use of the physical sciences is to train a class of mental faculties, which are ignored, so to speak, by a purely classical or a purely mathematical training, or by both combined. The observation of external phenomena, and the exercise of the reasoning faculties upon such phenomena, are matters altogether left out of the ordinary public-school education. I am speaking of schools in which classics and mathematics are the sole means of mental discipline. Mathematical training is limited to one very special kind of mental action.

Q. In the schools?—A. I mean that mathematical training exercises the mind most strenuously in a very narrow groove, so to speak. It starts with axioms which have nothing to do with external phenomena, but which the mind finds in itself; and the whole science of mathematics may be evolved out of the original axioms which the mind finds in itself. I do not go into the question, whether they are intuitive, or whether they are generalizations of phenomena, found at a very early age; in either case, the mind finds it in itself. Now, it is the essence of scientific training, that the mind finds the objects of its study in the external world. As Bacon says, Homo minister et interpres naturæ; so it appears to me, that a training which leaves out of view the relation of man to external nature is a very defective one, and that the faculties which bring his intelligence into relation with the phenomena of the external world are subjects for education and discipline equally

important with the faculties by which he exercises his reason purely upon abstractions.

2. Then you consider that the mind, if it only had the training that could be given by close study of classics and of pure mathematics, has not had so great an advantage in training, as if the study of physical science had been added ?-A. I am quite of that opinion; and I may add, that, having given considerable attention to the reputed phenomena of mesmerism, electro-biology, spiritualism, &c., I have had occasion to observe, that the want of scientific habits of mind is the source of a vast amount of prevalent misconception as to what constitutes adequate proof of the marvels reported by witnesses, neither untruthful nor unintelligent as to ordinary matters. I could name striking instances of such misconception in men of high literary cultivation, or high mathematical attainments; whilst I have met with no one, who had undergone the discipline of an adequate course of scientific study, who has not at once recognised the fallacies in such testimony when they have been pointed out to him.

2. I observe, Dr. Carpenter, that your matriculation examinations do not take place till the applicant is past sixteen? A. Yes. Q. Being of that age, you see great benefit in making natural philosophy and chemistry part of that examination, in addition to a certain examination in classics; and you consider that not merely as fitting a boy for success in the active business of life, but also as a means of training the mind, and that much benefit results from such combination. I should like to ask you, whether you consider that similar recommendations exist to the introduction of physical sciences at an early age? You applied your observations to your own candidates for matriculation?-A. I think that there is great advantage in commencing very early. I have commenced with my own children at a very early period in training their observing faculties, simply to recognise and to understand, and to describe correctly what they see,-showing them simple experiments, and desiring them to write down an account of them; and, from my own experience, I should say, that a boy of ten years old is quite capable of understanding a very large proportion of what is here set down under the head of natural philosophy.

2. Is there not a danger of disturbing the power of sustained attention, if too many subjects of instruction are brought before boys at an early age?-A. I think that very much depends on the manner in which it is done. A good teacher need never forfeit the training of sustained attention by directing the attention to the facts of nature, because the attention is as healthfully exercised in what is going on before the child, as it is in the study of a book.

2. Were you at a public school yourself?-A. I was not.

2. You were at a large classical school, were you not?-A. I was brought up in a private school. Q. A large school?-A. About twenty was the average number.

Q. Should you, from your experience as a boy, confirm the opinion

yu tere now exorssed?-A. In the school in which I was brought These sets were tangit mainly, and I certainly bewere, that there was a deficiency there of power of attention, and that the training aid was graz dams and mathemes Which was a very substance be—was at a 2 paired by the attention to these other subjects.

2. At what age did amerion to these subjects commence at your schoolt-A. 1orld think that about twelve years might be taken as the average. Have you any practical acquaintance with the system of our public schools?-A. Nx practically: I know the system generally. 2. You bow the amount of time, perhaps, given to particular subjects, speaking generally?-A. Yes.

2 Have you formed any opinion as to whether it would be desirable to diminish the proportion of time given, say to classics or mathematics, for the purpose of introducing physical science?— A. I have formed an opinion, that at the earlier age, say from ten to twelve or thirteen, the amount of study given to classics may be advantageously diminished. I have been led to conclude, from considerable opportunities of observation, that those who have commenced classics later than usual, and have been of average intelligence, have, by the age of sixteen, acquired as good a classical knowledge as those who have begun earlier,-whose minds have been fixed upon classical study for two or three years longer. I may state, that that is quite the opinion of many gentlemen of very large experience in education; and, I believe, I may quote Professor Pillans, of Edinburgh, as entertaining it. Dr. Hodgson, who had for a long time a large public school in the neighbourhood of Manchester, wrote a pamphlet some years ago in defence of that opinion.... I could quote several instances of young men who have shown very remarkable proficiency in classical study at the age of sixteen and seventeen, who began very late-at thirteen and fourteen. Q. I understand you to attach very high importance to the philosophical study of language?-A. Yes. Q. And to its being commenced early?—Yes. 2. I believe you are author of works called "The Principles of Physiology, General and Comparative,” “The Microscope and its Revelations," and of “An Introduction to the Study of Foraminifera”?—A. Yes.

2. Do you consider that your taste for those studies was awakened at school?-A. My taste for physical and chemical science was certainly awakened at school. The training that I had in my school-course, and the advantages which I had of attending lectures at the Philosophical Institution at Bristol, at the time that I was going through that course, certainly tended to develop my taste for science generally. At that time, I knew next to nothing of natural history; and I suppose it was the circumstance of my having entered the medical profession, and being led to seek for scientific culture in the subjects on which medicine is founded, that caused me to direct my attention to natural history and physiology-physiology as based on natural history, in fact.