The Press.
London, England, 1857-01-24 00:00:00

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90

spoken of you with regard, and who will yet be, if you will
let me,
Tour affectionate brother and humble servant,
Hon. WALPOLE.

We look with interest to the next volumes of
this work, which, taken altogether, must be
considered as the most important of all the
editions of Walpole's letters yet published.
The chronological arrangement, undoubtedly,
adds considerably to its value. At a future
time we may expect to see "The Select Letters
" of Walpole," containing his choicest compo-
sitions ; and amongst other effects which may
result from this edition now before us, we may
reckon upon a re-discussion of Walpole's
character. We shall have some remarks to
make upon that subject on another occasion.

The Education of Character. By Mrs. Ellis.
London : Murray.
Alas. ELLts has issued what must be termed a
suggestive volume on the " Education of Charac-
ter?' Its tone, we think, is rather too meta-
physical and didactic for popular use, and it is
wanting in that direct practical aim which sets
forth rules for the attainment of objects, and
apportions means to ends. Mrs. Ellis only
pretends to explain the principles which should
preside over the education of character,
her leading idea being, that as moral excel-
lence is the highest good of life, moral training
should be the first object of all educational
discipline. She shows that intellectual culture,
and even external refinement, may be void of
influence on the heart, and may tend to good
or evil according to natural disposition or cir-
cumstance ; she insists that in all educational
systems, moral training should go hand in
hand with intellectual training, and that
nothing can be more injurious to the welfare
both of individuals and of societies than that
the former should be sacrificed to the latter.
With this principle kept steadily in sight,
many of her remarks on education clash with
established ideas. She thinks, for example,
that competitive examinations should not be
encouraged, as injurious on the whole to moral
elevation :

In fact it has often struck me that the emulation so much
commended at schools is closely connected, if not abso-
lutely identified, with that kind of spirit which creates
some of the most selfish as well as the most Eerce and bit-
ter conflicts which have ever destroyed the peace of society
or frustrated the efforts of philanthropy. The keen desire
to gain something for self is not all that belongs to emula-
tion. Another person must lose if we gain, it may be the
first place, the first prize, or any other good which emula-
tion makes us anxious to possess. . . . The system is
generally advocated on the ground of the giving of prizes
being a useful means of stimulating effort. lint whom
does it stimulate? Not the dull boy who most requires to
be stimulated, because he knows that he shall never gain
the prize, and consequently does not try for it ; but the
sharp, keen boy, who is not unfrequently the artful and
selfish boy. I do not pretend to say that selfishness is
necessarily allied to sharpness, but he may be both selfish
and artful, and many other disagreeable things, and yet he
may work hard, and so receive public honours ; while a
far more really noble boy may leave the school without any
public testimony to his merit.

According to this, much may be said in
favour of routine. The reflection of Mrs. Ellis
must have occurred to most thoughtful minds,
but does not the principle of emulation pervade
all humanity—and even all animal life—too
deeply to be eradicated? Must not a senti-
ment so universal have been appointed to ful-
fil some wise purpose in the Divine Econony?
After all, the prize can only be taken for what
it is worth. It is not a certificate of moral
worth, but of some kind of intellectual profi •
ciency. It is no more in degree than a certifi-
cate of strength or of heizhth would be. It
may be urged that such certificates should not
be exclusively of an intellectual character.
But evidently certificates of moral excellence
would be far more invidious, and might not be
real, as moral worth could be counterfeited,
which intellectual ability could not be. Love,
reverence, and a sense of right are, Mrs. Ellis
thinks, the three principles in human nature
which a proper course of education should
zealously labour to develop, and she leans to
'on that schools might advantageously
heads, one for intellectual the other
culture. But, as we have said, her
• take a practical shape. With her
de all must agree, that the ethics.
ally defective, and may lead to
floes Act cultivate the

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