, 1875-11-17

he found stiff enough, but he was soon better
known for the introduction of what was general
ly known as the Swiss system in infant and
even higher education. In due time he worked
with Lord JOHN RUSSELL and KAY-SHUTTLE-
WORTH, always working with a will, and sure
to be doing as we'll as talking. Such q man
ought to be able to give US some positive
results of the grand opportunity which be
almost monopolized. Some errors We expect
in the labours of the best and wisest. for man
is falIible and the world is believed to be-
always mending. Self confident as this age IS,
1t does not expect to pass the scrutiny of the
next age entirely blameless. But what is the
lesson bequeathed by Dean CLOSE to p~osterity,
and, indeed, earnestly impressed on US as we
stand round his easy chair and listen to the
accents which still show the wonted 6rel 1t
is, "Softly. softly, my friends-take a little
"breath-don't go at such a pace-the world
evil wait for you. You needn't teach the
children everything-you can't they will
only take in words, and make a mess Of them
"too don't burden their tender minds teach
d" them what will be useful to them don't unfit
"them for their station reduce your standard
"let the system down altogether, and then you
evil secure a moderate success, instead of
" risking everything by q fight too high for the
~"olass, its material, and its opportunities"
Well, we have heard all this before. The air
was full of these warning notes, soft or shrill.
whispered or trumpeted, when DR.. CLOSE went
to Cheltenham. If not at once, yet before
long, DR.. CLOSE was ready to go as far as
anybody, so as religion was not left out Of the
programme. The fault we find with his present
advice is just what he would have found with
similar warnings q quarter of a century ago,
that something else is wanted than a cry for
the drag. There are difficulties, all agree
and deplore,-but we agree with our CORES
p~ondents of this morning that they are not to
be met by the simple relaxation of our Efforts
a mere slaokening of the bOwstring.
We apprehend that it is a very small proper
ton of schools and a still smaller proportion
Of scholars, that is suffering the i~nfliotion of q
knowledge which puffs up without %imparting
strength to the mental frame. A school or a
scholar taught more than he mastered, or real
ly understood. is a great, but also a fragrant
evil, sure to make itself known, and quite q
windfall to an Inspector naturally anxious to
relieve his dull work and his labOrious statistics
with a grotesque incident. We should doubt
whether there ever was a school OF any class
or sort that was not forced to proceed on the
supposition that the greater part of the scholars
must go away with the merest ~tinoture of
learning. Outside the very elite of society and
the high professional Glasses, few people know
what they are talking about, even if they hap.
pen to have something to say, and can put
words together. Education is the most labOri-
Gus of husbandries with the smallest of re-
suits. In the case of our Schools, Examina-
ton brings this out, and particularly paper ex-
animation, because the person or child examin.
ed must put down something on the paper,
whereas a little address or simple silence may
hide a world of ignorance when it is only a
conversation. Clergymen of DR.. Closes
school have from time to time attempted
adult Bible classes, and, in order to encourage
the ranks below, have sometimes induced
ladies, mothers of families, respectable house
holders, to sit round a table and submit to be
questioned. The result has been uniformly
disastrous. In the very first evening there
have been ridiculous answers, which, of course,
became the towns gossip. Even in an Ele-
mentary School there are many rates of pro-
gress and modes Of mental growth. In some
minds ideas get the start Of things, and In
others things get the start of ideas. Some
swallow in the lump and digest slowly.
Some are only capable of a very Intermittent
attention, such as the majority Of people give
to a sermon, while yet they manage to appro-
pirate and apply TO some purpose the bits
they hear and apprehend. Nay, they manage
it all the better, because they listen and re-
feet alternately, taking the preacher and
themselves by turn. Dean CLOSE does not
even tell US what 80 the subjects which he
thinks excessive< and burdensome. If he did,
it might probably turn out that it is not so
much the whole school and the general class