The Sun.
London, England, 1836-02-25 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

ESSAYS ON A FEW SUBJECTS OF GENERAL
INTEREST.
London, E. Churton. 1836.

he subjects of the finished Essays in this volume
are—" Fox-hunting," " Society and the Social Sys-
tem," " 'University Education," On the Present
Position of the English Aristocracy," " On the
Amusements of the People," and " On the Love of
Pleasure." Of these one half can hardly be regarded
with any degree of propriety, as subjects generally in-
teresting. Nevertheless the work deserves encourage-
ment ; albeit the writer is obviously a young man with
no very correct estimate of his own powers, either of
observation or reflection. In the Essay on the University
system of Education, we arc frequently offended by an
egotistical display of knowledge, more sounding and
pompous than intrinsically valuable. At the same
time we must acknowledge that in these Essays we
have the promise of valuable accessions to English
literature.

THREE LECTURES ON EDUCATION,
Delivered in the. University of Edinburgh,
Br PBOPBSSOR PILIANS.
The evident object of these Lectures is to counteraci
the strong and general feeling which has lately arisen,
not only against the system of classical education pun.
sued in public schools, but against classical education h
general. This feeling is particularly strong in the northern
parts of this island. Indeed a complete re-action has takes
place in the public mind there, and a vast proportion
of those classes who, some years ago, thought it encum-
bent on them to send their sons for seven or eight years
to school to learn Latin and Greek, now regard such
species of instruction as of the smallest possible value
to any but those intended for one of the learned pro-
fessions. The consequence has been, that in several
of the towns of Scotland, and more particularly in the
capital, the number of scholars attcnding the purely
grammar-schools has greatly decreased; and there have
sprung up to supply the demand for the new system of
instruction, numerous schools where Latin is not abso-
lutely excluded, but where it holds a very subordinate
place, not only to mathematics, but to that knowledge
which the advocates of the system consider alone
necessary for the great body of the people. No per-
son who has paid attention to the subject can be at all
surprised at the reaction,. The only matter of surprise
is, that the absurd system so long in use in our public
schools and universities should have been allowed to
exist for a day after priests and monks had been ex-
pelled from the cloisters of our cathedrals and colleges.
For these men there were great excuses. These
schools were established at a period when learning was
confined to the clergy, and were in fact established
chiefly for the education of that class ; and knowing
how much the perusal of the writings of the Greeks
and Romans had contributed to their power, as well as
to the civilization of Europe, they naturally adhered
to a system which had been productive of such bene-
ficial consequences. For the Protestant clergy, how-
flyer, there is no such excuse, and their only plea is
that urged against all reform—namely, the danger of
meddling with institutions hallowed by time, and
founded by the wisdom of our ancestors.
Of all classes the Clergy are the last to do away with
abuses, and to this anti-reform spirit may in a great
measure be attributed the present state of our Schools,
and consequently one of the great evils that spring
from it—the anomalous and absurd system of Church
Preferment. A Clergyman, for instance, is raised to