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'MILVERTON. Doubtless, to the free spirits who brought truth forward.

'ELLESMERE. You are only saying this, Milverton, to try what I will say: but despite of all sentimentalities, you sympathize with any emancipation of the human mind, as I do, however much the meagreness of protestantism may be at times distasteful to you.

'MILVERTON. I did not say I was anxious to go back. Certainly not. But what says Dunsford? Let us sit down on this stile and hear what he has to say.

'DUNSFORD. I cannot talk with you about this subject. If I tell you of all the merits (as they seem to me) of the Church of England, you will both pick what I say to pieces, whereas if I leave you to fight on, one or the other will avail himself of those arguments on which our church is based.

'MILVERTON. Well, Dunsford, you are very candid, and would make a complete diplomatist: truth-telling being now pronounced (rather late in the day) the very acmé of diplomacy. But, do you not own that our cathedrals are sadly misused?

'DUNSFORD. Now, very likely, if more were made of them, you, and men who think like you, would begin to cry out 'superstition;' and would instantly turn round and inveigh against the uses which you now, perhaps, imagine for cathedrals.'-pp. 121-123.

The essay does not pretend to discuss the whole subject of education, but only to contain a few points in reference to it, which may escape more methodical discussions. For the most part, these remarks are admirable. Here is one, on the formation of a groundwork of tolerance :

'Parents and tutors will naturally be anxious to impress those under their charge with the religious opinions which they themselves hold. In doing this, however, they should not omit to lay a foundation for charity towards people of other religious opinions. For this purpose, it may be requisite to give a child a notion that there are other creeds besides that in which it is brought up itself. And, especially, let it not suppose that all good and wise people are of its church or chapel. However desirable it may appear to the person teaching, that there should be such a thing as unity of religion, yet as the facts of the world are against his wishes, and as this is the world which the child is to enter, it is well that the child should in reasonable time be informed of these facts. It may be said, in reply, that history sufficiently informs children on these points. But the world of the young is the domestic circle; all beyond is fabulous, unless brought home to them by comment. The existence, therefore, of different opinions in religious matters being held by good people should sometimes be dwelt upon, instead of being shunned, if we would secure a groundwork of tolerance in a child's mind.'-p. 127.

The few remarks upon intellectual education are sound and weighty: we extract them all :

'In the intellectual part of education, there is the absolute knowledge to be acquired: and the ways of acquiring knowledge to be gained. The latter of course form the most important branch. They can, in some measure, be taught. Give children little to do, make much of its being accurately done. This will give accuracy. Insist upon speed in learning, with careful reference to the original powers of the pupil. This speed gives the habit of concentrating attention, one of the most valuable of mental habits. Then cultivate logic. Logic is not the hard matter that is fancied. A young person, especially after a little geometrical training, may soon be taught to perceive where a fallacy exists, and whether an argument is well sustained. It is not, however, sufficient for him to be able to examine sharply and to pull to pieces. He must learn how to build. This is done by method. The higher branches of method cannot be taught at first. But you may begin by teaching orderliness of mind. Collecting, classifying, contrasting, and weighing facts, are some of the processes by which method is taught. When these four things, accuracy, attention, logic, and method, are attained, the intellect is fairly furnished with its instruments.

As regards the things to be taught, they will vary to some extent in each age. The general course of education pursued at any parti cular time may not be the wisest by any means, and greatness will overleap it and neglect it, but the mass of men may go more safely and comfortably, if not with the stream, at least by the side of it.

In the choice of studies, too much deference should not be paid to the bent of a young person's mind. Excellence in one or two things which may have taken the fancy of a youth, (or which really may suit his genius,) will ill compensate for a complete ignorance of those branches of study which are very repugnant to him; and which are, therefore, not likely to be learnt when he has freedom in the choice of his studies.

'Amongst the first things to be aimed at in the intellectual part of education, is variety of pursuit. A human being, like a tree, if it is to attain to perfect symmetry, must have light and air given to it from all quarters. This may be done without making men superficial. Scientific method may be acquired without many sciences being learnt. But one or two great branches of science must be accurately known. So, too, the choice works of antiquity may be thoroughly appreciated without extensive reading. And passing on from mere learning of any kind, a variety of pursuits, even in what may be called accomplishments, is eminently serviceable. Much may be said of the advantage of keeping a man to few pursuits, and of the great things done thereby in the making of pins and needles. But in this matter, we are not thinking of the things that are to be done, but of the persons who are to do them. Not wealth but men. A number of one-sided men may make a great nation, though I much incline to doubt that; but such a nation will not contain a number of great men.

'The very advantage that flows from division of labour, and the probable consequence that men's future bread-getting pursuits will be more and more subdivided, and therefore limited, make it the more

necessary that a man should begin life with a broad basis of interest in many things which may cultivate his faculties and develope his nature. This multifariousness of pursuit is needed also in the education of the poor. Civilization has made it easy for a man to brutalize himself: how is this to be counteracted but by endowing him with many pursuits which may distract him from vice? It is not that kind of education which leads to no employment in after life, that will do battle with vice. But when education enlarges the field of life-long good pursuits, it becomes formidable to the soul's worst enemies.'-pp. 128-131.

Moral education is but lightly touched on; physical education at more length, in a good spirit, but without novelty. The Education of Women' contains excellent matter; we have space only for the following, which is both new and true:

'There is a branch of general education which is not thought at all necessary for women; as regards which, indeed, it is well if they are not brought up to cultivate the opposite. Women are not taught to be courageous. Indeed, to some persons courage may seem as unnecessary for women as Latin and Greek. Yet there are few things that would tend to make women happier in themselves, and more acceptable to those with whom they live, than courage. There are many women of the present day, sensible women in other things, whose panic terrors are a frequent source of discomfort to themselves and those around them. Now, it is a great mistake to imagine that hardness must go with courage; and that the bloom of gentleness and sympathy must all be rubbed off by that vigour of mind which gives presence of mind, enables a person to be useful in peril, and makes the desire to assist overcome that sickliness of sensibility which can only contemplate distress and difficulty. So far from courage being unfeminine, there is a peculiar grace and dignity in those beings who have little active power of attack or defence, passing through danger with a moral courage which is equal to that of the strongest. We see this in great things. We perfectly appreciate the sweet and noble dignity of an Anne Bullen, a Mary Queen of Scots, or a Marie Antoinette. We see that it is grand for these delicately bred, highnurtured, helpless personages to meet Death with a silence and a confidence like his own. But there would be a similar dignity in women's bearing small terrors with fortitude. There is no beauty in fear.

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a mean, ugly, dishevelled creature. No statue can be made of it that a woman would wish to see herself like.

'Women are pre-eminent in steady endurance of tiresome suffering: they need not be far behind men in a becoming courage to meet that which is sudden and sharp. The dangers and the troubles, too, which we may venture to say they now start at unreasonably, are many of them mere creatures of the imagination-such as, in their way, disturb high-mettled animals brought up to see too little, and therefore frightened at any leaf blown across the road.'—pp. 146–148.

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In the succeeding essay on Unreasonable Claims in Social Affections and Relations," there are some opportune remarks; but on the whole we prefer the analogous essay he formerly gave us ;* and since we have referred to it, we must quote his fine reflection on gratitude which he has there made:

A little thought will sometimes prevent you from being discontented at not meeting with the gratitude which you have expected. If you were only to measure your expectations of gratitude by the extent of benevolence which you have expended, you would seldom have occasion to call people ungrateful. But many persons are in the habit of giving such a factitious value to any services which they may render, that there is but little chance of their being contented with what they are likely to get in return, which, however, may be quite as much as they deserve.'

Here is something noteworthy on Friendship:—

'Then, as to the complaints about broken friendship. Friendship is often outgrown: and his former child's clothes will no more fit a man than some of his former friendships. Often a breach of friendship is supposed to occur, when there is nothing of the kind. People see one another seldom; their courses in life are different; they meet, and their intercourse is constrained. They fancy that their friendship is mightily cooled. But imagine the dearest friends, one coming home after long sojourn, the other going out to new lands: the ships that carry these meet: the friends talk together in a confused way not relevant at all to their friendship, and, if not well assured of their mutual regard, might naturally fancy that it was much abated. Something like this occurs daily in the stream of the world. Then, too, unless people are very unreasonable, they cannot expect that their friends will pass into new systems of thought and action without new ties of all kinds being created, and some modification of the old ones taking place.'-p. 169.

The essay on 'Public Improvements' is excellent; but we have only room for the following passage:—

• What then are a nation's possessions? The great words that have been said in it; the great deeds that have been done in it; the great buildings, and the great works of art, that have been made in it. A man says a noble saying: it is a possession, first to his own race, then to mankind. A people get a noble building built for them: it is an honour to them, also a daily delight and instruction. It perishes. The remembrance of it is still a possession. If it was indeed pre-eminent, there will be more pleasure in thinking of it, than in being with others of inferior order and design.'-p. 183.

An essay on History' concludes the volume; it is far from exhausting the subject, but should be read and re-read attentively. It would lead us too far to touch upon its opinions.

*

Essays Written during the Intervals of Business. 3rd edit. p. 8.

We have thus taken a cursory survey of the whole volume, and the extracts quoted will render unnecessary any eulogy on its general merits. A more pleasant book we have seldom read. But one parting remark on the style may not be misplaced, when it is considered how careful and accomplished a writer we have to criticise. In one respect we perceive a falling off, as it strikes us, in the style of this book from the sustained excellence of the 'Essays written during the Intervals of Business:' we allude to the curtness, sometimes crabbedness, of occasional passages, where the sentences are so short and abrupt as to sound asthmatical. Concision is, doubtless, a great merit. Periods should be so constructed as not to need superfluous words to render them sonorous. But a concise writer is apt to become crabbed; and our author has occasionally sacrificed elegance and euphony to an unimpressive brevity; a fault certainly not discoverable in his other writings. We call his attention to the point, that he may reconsider it. He will understand our objection as springing out of the very respect we feel for his qualities as a writer-not as the idle carping of one desirous of finding fault.

ART. VI-The English Works of Thomas Hobbes, of Malmesbury. Now first Collected and Edited by SIR WILLIAM MOLESWORTH, Bart. 11 vols. Longman and Co.

Thoma Hobbes, Malmesburiensis, Opera Philosophica, quæ latine scripsit omnia. In unum corpus nunc primum collecta, studio et labore GULIELMI MOLESWORTH. 5 tom. Apud Longman et Soc.

AMONG the pleasures of an author, who has sufficient vanity to think that his works will live, and yet never become common, we have no doubt that the anticipation of a complete edition, printed in elegant type, and enriched with copious notes, is one that affords peculiar gratification. In past days, when there were fewer readers, and the press was slower in its operations, a sort of foreknowledge of the advancement of society must have given great vividness to the dream of posthumous renown. Nevertheless, when the author is no more, and his visions are realized, there is, in some cases, good reason for the inquiry, why they were not allowed to remain a shadow? Why he has been reanimated and brought again under the notice of the public? Is he introduced to us afresh, merely on the score of individual taste, or is there a large sympathy ready to welcome him, owing to the profound interest which he has inspired on the great

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