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Thbough tlie combined influence of " The College of Preceptors" and the 'Oxford Examinations , " a powerful impulse has been given to the direct work of education in middle-class schools . The standard of acquirement has been greatly raised , and the method of instruction improved , in a number of these institutions . Am honourable rivalry has arisen amongst the masters to render their sjstem of teaching as effective as possible , and to test its working before a competent tribunal . These are important results , well worth the effort
made to secure them . Bat , notwithstanding the great improvement thus effected , the radical educational defects of middle-class boarding-schools still remain . They are , in fact , inherent to these institutions as at present constituted , arising out of their limited , local , and sectarian character . The evils may perhaps be summed up in the word " private / ' which is their usual and appropriate designation . However largely theoretical morality maybe inculcated in such places , their practical moral training must necessarily be weak and inefficient . Small partialities , narrow standards of excellence , and injurious personal influences must more or less prevail . Beneath the pervading influence of one man—the master—however good he may be , there can . be but little scope for the free play and healthful collision of individual character amongst the boys . There can be none of that vigorous public
Opinion , strong to reward and strong to punish , -which , acting continually in the whole social life of a mixed multitude of youths , forms such an admirable discipline in our great public schools . And m the moral training of boys , the mechanical pressure of superior authority , however wisely exerted , is hut a poor substitute for the vital force of mutual example . The commercial relation of supply and demand between the master and boys in such schools is a radically false and injurious one . The master will , consciously j or unconsciously , naturally tend to accommodate his own views of education to the supposed feelings and wishes of the parents . Hence one of the characteristic evils of the better middle-class schools—the adoption of the so-called " domestic system , " by which the bleak and hungry Dotheboys Hall of former days is converted into an attractive " Agapemone" of luxurious living and
abundant recreation . The advertisements of such schools now generally promise that the incoming pupil will be treated as " one of the family . " Such promises are generally delusive ; and even supposing they could be fully realized , one of the great virtues of school discipline would be altogether lost . The mutual influence of a number of boys on each other is a far more rigorous and practical moral training than any home education can be . Principles may be inculcated at home ; but , ui the family circle , there is but little opportunity of reducing them at once . to practice in circumstances and collisions similar to those of after active life . In a great public school , however , all principles are swiftly reduced to practice , in a boyish world of life and action , which , for diversity of character and temperament , as well as for the free play of individual responsibility , is a faithful mirror of the larger world of men .
Not only , however , in practical moral discipline * but in intellectual culture , public schools have immense advantages over private schools and domestic education . Tliese are well pointed out in a pamphlet recently published , to which we ' . are anxions to direct the attention of those amongst our readers who take an active interest in the subject of Middle-class Education . This pamphlet , by Mr . Hayman , Head Master of Southwark Free Grammar School , is entitled , Can tee adapt the Public School System to the Middle Classes ? It is a careful and minute discussion of this most interesting subject , written by a practical man , and abounding with practical suggestions . We have marked many passages , but have only space for two ; the first referring to the advantages of the public school system over that of day and private schools ; the second , to the general brunches of education at present neglected in the
education of boys : — But all these are trifling drawbacks , aa compared with the capital defect that the school itself is-weakened in all its vital functions , and sinks into a lower type of life , for want of that strong and active sonso of membernhip one of another , which beats in the pulse of , * public school , giving to the feebler members something of energy derived from the whole , and generating that ever influential public opinion amongst the boys themselves , for which nothing can be effectively substituted . In a day school , the home influence is still the predominant element , which a fellowship in lessons and in a small degree in recreations can but scantily counterpoise . There the temptations incident to the system of domestic and of public-school education are in a great degree combined , without the securities of either being proportionally enjoyableBut the faultwhich there
. s spring up , like weeds of the soil , and give the master no rest , are not those which boyish society , aa such , is apt to generate , but which originate elsewhere , and , through the laxity of the system , are constantly creeping in . The enfeebled esprit de corps , as compared with that of a publio school , shows itself not only in the truancy and kindred evasions to which boys tempt each other , in defiance alike of parental censure and of scholastic penalty , but in the loose attendance and frivolous excuses fox absence « o which parents too often lend themselves . If the family are in a poor condition of life , it requires a high degree of selfdenial in a parent to deprive himself on many occasions of the services of a ready and . willing boy ; and nothing but a determined resistance on the part of the schoolmaster can , in such circumstances , save the school from n mischievous system of licensed truancy .
But the weakness of the bond which pervades a day school is perhaps most perceptible in tko feelinga with which its adult pupils in after life regard it What they feel i ' b rather a debt of personal gratitude to a teacher , than of affection for the institution . They do not regard it as public-school men look buck to the scene of the life of their youth , nor sympathize with it as with a living whole , of which they
once formed a part , and whose laws , customs , and privileges formed a part of them . A day school can hardly enter deep enough into a boy ' s heart for tbia . As regards the question of private boarding-schools , they lack the healthy influence of a senae of public law and responsibility , and suffer from the fact of the proprietor and chief teacher being often the same person , and of depending too much for their well-beioff oh the character of one individual ; besides which , though sometimes dear and bad they are seldom cheap and . good . With the exception , then , of afewraTe arid onesided characters , and a few more of boys who ripen late , and are a nachronisms in boyhood , a large public-school is the "best educational engine we have . . Amongst purely general branches of education there are , however , two , which ' our own country have not yet gained the position which they deserve . I speak of the training of the eye and of the ear , the noblest of the special faculties by which external phenomena enter the mind . The eye requires the hand , and the ear the voice , as the assistant , each of its respective operations ; nor does the ear wholly dispense w ' the use of the hand , by the help of which some of the primary distinctions of sound are most easily noted . The latter of these two has been the general favourite where either has "been allowed a place in education . There is little doubt that , although these
studies deserve such a place , they labour under some disadvantage , owing to the widely varying degrees in which individuals are gifted with the faculties necessary . But there is some reason to doubt whether some degree of this disparity be not chargeable upon the neglect itself . Another fact which we ought to consider is , that defects or disparities in respect to sound and form , strike not only the critic , but the general observer , with more force , precisely because they appeal to sensible observation . Of the defects or disparities of mental faculties , purely mental faculties judge , but of what is meant to be seen and heard , sight and hearing are the sole criteria ; thus such , disparities are more clearly marked and more broadly measured than those in the power of analysis or of computation can be . It 5 s curious to observe how their reputation as being " fine" arts has prevented the popularity of these studies , and how , by a similar result of moral » stheticism , they have been for some time constantly included in the studies of the female Bex in this country , and nearly as constantly , until very lately , excluded from those of the male . This latter fact is a practical answer to the objection , that the gifts-which their cultivation requires ate too irregularly distributed to admit of such studies being general . We may allow a degree of tlis irregularity to exist without being obliged to abandon the studies . '
; The greater prominence , however , which physical studies are gradually acquiring , in proportion to the extension of man ' s scientific empire over matter ,, claims for form , and in ajless degree for colour , a larger recognition than it has yet enjoyed ; and for some satisfaction of this imperative call education will have to find room . One might surely add , that geography cannot be worthily studied without the aid of drawings Every geographer ought to be in a degree his own draughtsman . Relative position , relief , and projection , these are what alone can give to that study the consciousness of reality which redeems it from being a thing of mechanism and memory . "VVith regard to the general usefulness of music , especially vocal music , as a study , I rnay quote the opinion of Mr . Hullah . who assures me that " one of the readiest and severest tests of the average refinement of any large body , whether of men orbovs , is
the quality of sound they produce in singing together . " Without claiming for myself , on such a subject , the authority and experience which "belongs to the author of this remark , I think there are philosophic grounds for its substantial accuracy . For it seems an admitted law , that , by combating the symptoms which give outward expression to any inward moral state , we effectually combat the condition which giv * s rise to them . As drill not merely corrects a particular outward clumsiness , but conveys a disposition in favour of orderly and methodical movement , and tends to form a habit of gracefulness , so it would , seem likely to be -with sounds , and with the inward condition from which their characteristic expression springs . With a view , then , to the general management of the voice , music ' is undoubtedly the best training , whilst as a mental discipline it enjoys the advantages of a regular science .
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FORESTER'S KAMBLES . Rambles in the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia . With Notices of their History , Antiquities , and Present Condition . By Thomas Forester , Author of " Norway in 1848-49 , " &c . Longman and Co . THurCoraicans , TMr . Forester assures us , hold the name of Pascal Paollin infinitely more reverence than that of Napoleon Bonaparte . They , least of all the European races , have been dazzled into injustice by the accident of the Emperor's fame . Paoli Is their hero . He fought the last battle of their independence ; he gave them constitutional government and a wise administration ; his public character was free from all taint ; but Napoleon despised the islanders , and did nothing for them except to construct those military roads -which ensurdft their subjugation . In recent French memoirs we have read reports upon Corsica from the imperial agents , accompanied bv expressions of wonder that Bonaparte never seemed to remember , except with disgust , his insular origin . That Mr . Forester , familiar with the beaten paths of travel , should turn aside to Corsica , was not surprising . He relishes the picturesque , and has a hungry eye for antiquities and manners ; in Corsica he found both , with the additional advantage that the world has not been wearied by the narratives of incessant tourists , published at the malicious instigation of friends . Boswell described the island nearly a century ago , and sat at the board of Paoli , and Benson , in 1825 , produced some short sketches of its history , scenery , and people ; but , with these exceptions , nothing of consequence had been written on the subject , and Mr . Forester hardly exaggerates when he affhrnB that up to a recent date Corsica was less known to the English reader than New Zealand . Gregorovious , it is true , had printed a work in Germany , which had been translated into English , but this volume , interesting and useful , although slightly extravagant , far from anticipated all that Mr . Forester has to tell . The book before us is in all respects new ; the brilliant lithographs bring new landscapes before our eyes , and new glimpses are opened by each of the hundred little pencillings which break , like bright islands , the broad flowof the narrative . The tour was commenced at Capo Corso , the northern point of the island , « nd thence Mr . Forester penetrated the interior with a companion , on mule or on foot , visiting the mountain hamlets , chatting with the peasantry , collecting anecdotes of Napoleon and Paoli , of brigandage and vendetta , and gathering the materials of a narrative more fresh and agreeable than has lately come before us . Almost the entire island is described in a style at once vivid and simple , and the illustrations of manners and customs which fell under Mr . Forester ' s observation were in all res pects of a singularly curious character , so completely have the Corsicans retained their traditions . In Snrdinin , though the ground is not so untroddei ) , Mr . Forester was also enabled , by his practice of striking into the seclusions of the country beyond the limits of orditmry travel , to possess himself of much remarkable information , especially in connexion with the survival of pagan
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Critics are notthelegislators , but the j-udges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review .
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568 _ _ ^ [ No . 429 , June 12 , 1858 .
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Leader (1850-1860), June 12, 1858, page 568, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2246/page/16/
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