he would do so. The habits of mental attention and coherence of thought should be cultivated before the age of eighteen, or they will hardly be cultivated to much purpose. It appears to be, in the present state of things, quite necessary that youths who are to come to the University should become masters of some considerable portion of Euclid before they come. Indeed this appears to be the more necessary now, because, so far as I can judge, boys in general are more slow in understanding any portion of Mathematics than they were thirty years ago. It may be that I am mistaken, but so it appears to me: and I do not conceive it to be at all improbable that a long continuance of mere Classical learning, of the kind which I have already attempted to characterize, should have led to that which not I alone think likely to result from such an education; namely (316) an incapacity for all continuous thought and all intellectual labour. I do not think it at all incredible that a long course of indulgence in the pleasures of taste and imagination, without any corresponding exercise of the reason, may have emasculated the intellects of the rising generation, so that they prove feeble in comparison with their fathers, when they are called to any task requiring continuous and systematic thought.

369 I have already said (33) that along with Arithmetic, I think Mensuration, that is, Practical, as distinguished from Speculative Geometry, a subject well adapted to the teaching of schools, and suited to prepare the student for the University, by giving him the possession of the practical art of which Science afterwards explains the speculative reasoning. The relation is in some measure the same as between Arithmetic and Algebra. We may add that the application of Mensuration to special examples and problems gives great occasion to the exercise of ingenuity and clearness of thought, and is not only a good discipline of

the mind, but a very good arena for competition in skill and knowledge among young students.

370 If Arithmetic were already taught effectually at School, I should be disposed to add the Use of Logarithms (I mean the practical use) as an art of great value for abridging laborious Arithmetical operations. But I do not now insist upon this; confining myself to urging that which I do think a most important and essential improvement in English education, -namely, that Arithmetic and a portion of Euclid's Geometry should be taught to all the scholars in our Great Classical Schools: taught so as to be familiarly used and permanently possessed; and with that view, made a part of the daily system of those schools.

371 I will observe, once more, that a great part of the vice of the mode in which such branches of learning are now taught at Classical Schools is this:that they are taught, not as valuable for their own sakes, but as means of passing our Examinations in the University. And hence it comes that boys are not taught things the most fit for boys, and in the manner most fit (as the practical teaching of Arithmetic is); but are taught, as much as possible, in the manner most resembling the teaching of the University: And undoubtedly the teachers, looking only to the boy's University career in what they teach, think this a great improvement on the system of teaching Mathematical subjects in their schools. This, however, I will take the liberty of saying, is altogether a mistake. Boys should be taught Arithmetic and Geometry, and it may be, Algebra and Trigonometry, in the Great Classical Schools, in the same way in which they are in the best Commercial schools: at any rate, in some way in which the knowledge, and not the passing of examinations, is regarded as the valuable result.

372 I will now quit the subject of Mathematics, once more repeating, that the improvement of the

higher English education is to be effected only by improving the system of the Great Schools: and I will apply this remark to another subject:—a subject already noticed in the preceding pages as one of those in which this University has instituted Examinations and Honours, I mean Natural History, or perhaps I might say, the Natural Sciences at large.

373 I am by no means going to recommend that the Natural Sciences, or even Natural History, should be made a part of the ordinary course of instruction at Great Schools. But it will be generally allowed, I conceive, that knowledge of this kind acquired by young persons in whom there exists an aptitude for it, is an agreeable and often a valuable addition to the fundamentals of a good education; tends to give a more comprehensive character to their mental culture; and may be the beginning of a really scientific and effectual prosecution of those sciences. It is with these views, I conceive, that the University of Cambridge has resolved to encourage the study of the Natural Sciences by her Rules and her Honours. Now with regard to Natural History, especially, it is notorious that where the aptitude for the pursuit exists, it is commonly called into activity by some early event which brings before the boy's mind the objects with which the science deals. Many of our more eminent naturalists can trace the beginning of their scientific career to their having some early friend or relative, who was a collector, or had a collection, or to hearing some lecture on plants or animals, their habits, classification or structure. Such events, if they happen so as to impress the boyish and still plastic mind, may have an effect upon the mental habits, which nothing presented at a later period could produce. I should think that the effect would be likely to be very beneficial, if at certain intervals, the boys of our Great Schools were to hear some lively and intelligent lecturer on some branch

of Natural History, the lecture being of course abundantly illustrated with specimens or drawings. Even the general mass might retain enough of what they heard and saw to make an addition to their ordinary stores of innocent occupation and amusement; and when the naturalist's eye and the naturalist's mind existed in their embryo state in any boy, the developement of those peculiar faculties might begin early, and might, all the more easily on that account, affect the whole life. And if young men came from the Great Schools to the University thus prepared, the Natural Sciences, which are now offered to them as one of the objects of University study, would then stand upon more even ground, and have a fairer chance of attracting a proper share of notice, than they can have when they are presented to persons who for the first eighteen years of their lives have had an education entirely occupied about words; and have never been accustomed, or at least never taught, to look at Nature at all.

374 I should conceive that this suggestion of occasional or periodical Lectures on Natural History, to be given to the scholars of our Great Schools, might be carried into effect without any inconvenience, and might indeed be an arrangement agreeable and interesting alike to the Master and the Scholars, without interfering in any way with the business of the School; since I propose only lectures, without any examinations or lessons in the subject in any other form, except such as the pupils afterwards voluntarily give themselves by applying and extending, if they were led to do so, the knowledge which they had got at the lectures.

375 I repeat once more, that the further improvement of English education must begin in the Great Schools; and the two main steps which I now urge as the most likely to forward this object, are the establish

ment of Arithmetic, Geometry, (and I would add, Mensuration) as parts of the system of the Schools, so that they shall be constantly, universally and effectually taught; and the introduction of frequent Lectures on Natural History in addition to the business of the School. With such additions, the thorough Classical education which is given to the best pupils of our Great Schools would form the best foundation for a Liberal Education, to be afterwards completed at the University.

I cannot think that there would be any difficulty in finding time for these additions to the occupations of our schoolboys. At present they are employed during the ten or twelve years of life best adapted for learning, in learning Greek and Latin. Some do this very imperfectly indeed; some no doubt, not only learn these languages admirably well, but add also a knowledge of French, German, Italian, or the like. But even with those who do all this, there must be times for such additions as I have mentioned; while, with regard to the less complete Classical scholars, such additions would prevent their education from being so wretchedly poor and narrow, and themselves from being so illiterate and ignorant as they often are.

SECT. 7. The Stability of the University System.

376 Probably most persons will allow that a great degree of caution is requisite in legislating on the subject of education; and that our system ought not to be suddenly or hastily changed. In education, more perhaps than in any other subject, the results of our innovations turn out in fact quite different from what they were in design and theory. In education, again, the effect which studies produce upon the mind depends upon their being something permanent and stable, connecting one generation with another. In education,