methods, or, at least, the fact of their existence, will at once start both a philosophical and a practical query. The first is, that this German way seems to be quite an improvement on good old Bacon, who, following Aristotle, said that only Duc viæ sunt atque esse possunt, ad inquirendam et inveniendam veritatem. Altera a sensu et particularibus advolat ad axiomata maxime generalia, atque ex iis principiis eorumque immota veritate judicat et invenit axiomata media: atque hæc via in usu est. Altera a sensu et particularibus excitat axiomata, ascendendo continenter et gradatim, ut ultimo loco perveniatur ad maxime generalia: quæ via vera est, sed intentata. On closer inspection, however, we shall find those methods with their uncouth names to be but subdivisions, or, at best, modifications of what we have been in the habit of calling analysis and synthesis, observation and induction. "Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.”

And this may aid us in disposing of the second point, the practical query: Is it true that, with our vast educational interest, our almost infinitely diversified machinery of instruction, and every kind and grade of teaching, we should have nothing similar to the many methods which the Germans draw up in rank and file before us? We may answer in the words of Macaulay, who shows that a government may be strong and efficient without its being reared by line and plummet, and that it is only a refined and speculative phase of national existence which is inclined to systemization: "In rude societies the progress of government resembles the progress of language and of versification. Rude societies have language, and often copious and energetic language, but they have no scientific grammar, no definitions of nouns and verbs, no names for declensions, moods, tenses, and voices. Rude societies have versification, and often versification of great power and sweetness, but they have no metrical canons: and the minstrel whose numbers, regulated solely by his ear, are the delight of his audience, would himself be unable to say of how many dactyls and trochees each of his lines consists. As eloquence exists before syntax, and song before prosody, so government may exist in a high degree of excellence long before the limits of legislative, executive, and judicial power have been traced with precision." It is thus with teaching in this country. There being but few attempts made to centralise the powers exerted, the energies expended, and the experiences gathered, uncounted methods may arise, and are actually arising, some doubtless extensively practised, all pursued with more or less success, or accompanied by failure, perhaps dying with the individual teacher, and * Novum Organum, lib. i. aph. 19.

affording no man a chance to give them “ a local habitation and

a name.

To become more intimately acquainted with ourselves, "to see ourselves as others see us," to be objective to ourselves, as it were, there is no better means than to compare ourselves with others, to look at others, their attainments, and their state. The sweep which intellectual activity in Germany has taken is so extensive, that whatever direction our national development may take, we shall certainly come into near proximity to some of the shoals and banks, of so few of which the Germans have steered clear. If we refuse to profit by the experience of others, we shall experience the same mishaps, which will be so much the greater disasters in our case, as we are so much nearer the ultimate stage of the development of the race, as our progress, in any direction whatsoever, is, without exaggeration, a hundredfold more rapid than that of any nation of the old world has been, and as, by the accelerated flow of our nation's blood, any injury received must so much the more swiftly communicate itself to all parts.

If we are told that our system of education (if the singular number can at all be used) is the offspring of our character, relations, condition, and circumstances; that is, what a German would call naturwüchsig; and that we ought not, we cannot imitate that of any other nation, our reply is twofold. The same objection is made by the Hindu to the Christian religion; he gives the same reason for refusing to examine its claims; and morover, we are not asked either to adopt or to imitate the German system; on the contrary, as a whole, we most earnestly hope never to see it introduced into this country. That it is perfect, not even a German would dare to affirm; but that it has some admirable features which it would be well to "naturalise,” there will be few, we presume, to deny.

Of most general interest among the works above mentioned, is the last one on the list, Scheele's Alte und neue Bildung. In a lively and pleasing style, with a thorough acquaintance with the subject, and a close logical coherence, the author pictures modern education, and evolves the historical necessity by which it has sprung from that of previous ages. He then criticises this modern system, and suggests the changes which the spirit of the age requires, and presents the necessity of other institutions of a high order besides those that mainly prepare for the study of one of the learned professions. The manner in which he shows the great importance of the Latin language, and how, like Napoleon, it still rules the nations, now from the grave as formerly from the throne, is well worthy of attention. He reasons mostly ex concessis. We should have to resort to fundamental truths to meet the doubts that are so often raised

among us respecting the "utility" of the study of ancient languages; for the grounds on which their importance is maintained are impregnable.

A dead language must ever retain the place assigned to it by the experience of many centuries, as long as it furnishes the means of education; as long as it presents a rich literature, the real treasures of which can never be disclosed by mere translations; as long as its grammar is exact, and endowed with a variety of forms; as long as it furnishes materials for history; as long as it has an important bearing on the science of language, the complement of history; and as long as it contains the root of modern languages. Most of these requirements are found in the Greek language-all in the Latin. Drop the study of Latin, and you have removed the whole basis on which the literature of every modern nation rests. None of the languages of the present day contain the source of the history of the nation by which it is spoken; so that the history of the race from its remotest recollections, and their original oneness and mutual connection, depend upon the record contained in some ancient language; we lose ourselves, if we drop this thread. Let us relinquish the study of Latin and Greek, and we have exploded that vast storehouse from which, almost exclusively, modern science draws its terms, its words, the very instruments by which a science or a discovery becomes the property of the world, from being the property of an individual. Moreover, what can we substitute for that which now is the germ of the science of the age-the comparative study of language? This claim is not arrogance. For neither astronomy with its unceasing discoveries, nor geology with its startling disclosures, has any reference to man. They may teach us the wonderful laws which regulate God's great universe; they may permit us dimly to trace a few facts in the history of the little planet we tread on, we live and die on; but what is it that draws the curtain from the inmost recesses of the past, opening to us a view upon the nations migrating from a common centre; that proclaims, in unmistakable speech, what pyramids and mummies, mounds and graves, skulls and buried arms, fail to intimate clearly, namely, that men are a family of brethren; that confirms without hesitancy, that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth," and that, however great the diversity of the tongues and dialects of men now is, there was a time when "the whole earth was of one language and of one speech;"-what science is it but the science of language?-and the languages misnamed dead are at once its foundation, its material, and the field of its culture.

"There is, in fact, no sure way of tracing the history and migrations of the early inhabitants of the world except by

means of their languages; any other mode of inquiry must rest on the merest conjecture and hypothesis. It may seem strange that anything so vague and arbitrary as language should survive all other testimonies, and speak with more definiteness, even in its changed and modern state, than all other monuments, however grand and durable. Yet so it is; we have the proof before us every hour. Though we had lost all other history of our country, we should be able to tell, from our language, composed as it is of a substratum of Low German with deposits of Norman-French and Latin-the terms of war and government pertaining to the former of the superinduced elements, the terms of ecclesiastical and legal use to both of themthat the bulk of our population was Saxon, and that they were overcome and permanently subjected to a body of Norman invaders; while the Latin element would show us how much that language had been used by the lawyers and church

men.

Language, then, being the storehouse of tradition, living on from nation to nation;-the clue of material and spiritual connection, which joins century to century-the common memory of the human race;-the study of its noblest representatives has little to fear from those opposed to it, though they be giants. Vandalism and a low utilitarianism cannot triumph. But those friendly to it-its professed friends and promoters—aye, there lies the danger. If at this moment thorough classical training is in jeopardy in this country, through the encroachments of twenty subjects, which may all belong to what is called useful information, and may all tend to impart a knowledge of things (realia), but which have nothing to do with education proper, let us be candid and confess that the advocates of classical instruction themselves have left the door open for this host of harpies. If we, at any time, have had no well-defined conception of the real aim and object of education, if we have become formal and lukewarm in our attachment to it, if the cry of the vulgar has been allowed to undermine our honest convictions, if our indifference has shaken men's faith in our sincerity, if we have set half-taught men and youths to wield that chisel which requires the steady hand of an artist like Arnold, if we have substituted the fact of having read so many pages for the ability to read them, if we have given Virgil and Homer to children to read, if we have let smattering take the place of grammatical firmness, if we have made boys learn by rote like parrots, instead of learning by reflection like men,-then we need not wonder if our sin has found us out, and of all our harvest-hope we have

In a previous number* we gave an imperfect sketch of the method of instruction in the ancient languages pursued in the German gymnasia. We proceed now to some other branches, and first to the Hebrew.

As a branch of instruction, the Hebrew language has a history of its own. It cannot be surprising that a new interest in the study of the Scriptures should be coincident in point of time with the Reformation; in fact, the advances which have been made in the grammatical study of the Hebrew language have been due almost wholly to Protestants. That wonderful youth, the Franciscan Conrad Pellican, published his Hebrew grammar (De modo legendi et intelligendi Hebræa) in 1503, having compiled it without any aid except the Hebrew Bible and a Latin translation. However, John Reuchlin is generally considered the father of Hebrew learning in Germany, for by his Libri tres de rudimentis Hebraicis (published in 1506), which contained both grammar and dictionary, he transplanted David Kimchi's learning into Christendom, and became the author of those technical terms which are still retained in the books treating of the Hebrew language. Thus aided, the Hebrew was soon introduced into the schools, and accordingly, we find that about the middle of the sixteenth century it was taught in the Saxon princes' schools, and in the year 1580 it was established by law as a regular branch of instruction; the same was the case in the schools attached to the monasteries in Würtemberg. It retained its place undisputed in the gymnasia, which sprung from these institutions, at least for such pupils as intended to study theology, until very recently, when voices began to be raised against it. It was said that it was favouring that one class of pupils, the future theologians, whilst nothing was offered in compensation to those who designed to devote themselves to law or medicine; that it was overburdening the student, who had enough to do with his ordinary branches; that there was no reason why it should not or could not be studied with equal advantage, at least, during the first year of the university course; that the number of students of theology was so small in the gymnasia that it was unreasonable to waste the time of a teacher on a few, which could with greater advantage be employed in the instruction of a large class. Besides, the university must furnish the means to study the elements of the language, at any rate, since the students came there very unequally prepared, and since many do not resolve to study theology until they have entered the university.

*See British and Foreign Evangelical Review, vol. ii. p. 943.

Not long after the bolder monk of Erfurt had lifted up his voice, Pellican joined the Protestants.