acquires a name in the fashionable world, to clothe the most trifling effusions of his muse in the most gaudy dress. Hot-pressed paper, new type, and a quarto volume, all combine to give consequence to the most unimportant and insignificant subjects; and subjects, too, of which insignificance does not always constitute the worst feature. It is therefore a matter of real surprise, in an age so frivolous, to see merit voluntarily assume a humble garb; and a poem on one of the most important subjects that can engage the attention of mankind, and executed too in a masterly manner, issued to the world in the humble guise of a duodecimo, without the smallest collateral assistance from type, paper, or plates. We are sorry for this, we confess; not that any such meretricious ornaments would give the smallest additional value to the book itself; but because we are aware, that the fashionable world, the wretched crowd of all ranks and descriptions, who purchase books for their external appearance and not for their internal excellence, will throw the little volume from them with disdain, and not condescend to bestow even a transitory glance upon its contents; which, though we admit they are often the worst parts of a book, it will not be disputed ought to be the best.

The poet seems impressed with much the same idea, respecting the system of education adopted at public schools, as was promulgated a few years since by the present learned Dean of Winchester, and which gave rise to something like a cankering, in which the learned Dean of Westminster bore a conspicuous part. We expressed our opinion on the subject, at the time, with our usual frankness, and nothing has since occurred to induce us to alter it. But the poet takes a wider range, and extends his animadversions, from our public schools to the whole system of fashionable education for both sexes, which he most pointedly and, in our opinion, most justly condemns. Respecting the use of the Pagan classics, his doctrines are strictly correct; and his observations are equally just on the frequent display of a riotous and turbulent disposition at our public schools, manifested in acts of open rebellion against lawful authority, and pregnant with consequences of a most serious nature, as engendering a spirit of restlessness, disobedience, and insubordination, equally hostile to religious, to political, and to social order. After pointing out the rapid growth of this last evil, he proceeds thus:

*

"You smile, my Lord; and rank with airy dreams
My fine apostrophe to Father Thames.'
But, ah! we need not rhetoric to display
Vices, that e'en in schools affront the day.
See tutors, masters strenuous to infuse
In each bosom all the lying muse'
pure
Of classic Greece, or classic Rome hath sung,
And tip with fable every lisping tongue;
Paint Jove descending into Danäe's lap,
And Daphne's flight, and Semele's mishap;
To striplings season'd in Ovidian lore,
Impart a taste of Chærea's sweet amour,
Till relishing the goût, each amorous elf
Exhibits dainty Chærea in himself;
Applaud in acting every lucky hit,
And hail in epilogues the prurient wit.
And, if from Homer's lay the unweeting tribe
The ideas crude of character imbibe;
If thence they draw opinions of mankind,
Or sentiment, to form the unfolding mind;
If stern Pelides fire the fervent youth,
How rich the source divine of moral truth!
And, turning from Achilles' fabled rage,
Hath admiration trac'd the historic page?
Yes! in our boyish fancies we become

The chiefs, the sophists of old Greece and Rome;
Proud trophies snatch from Marathon again,
And at Thermopyla thrice slay the slain;
Light up anew the philosophic torch,

Where winds Ilyssus, or where glows the Porch:
And kindling, like the sage, from virtue's charms,
The attractive lecture close-in Läis' arms.
Dipt thus in Aganippe's dye all o'er
We rise rank Pagans to the very core.
Nor wonder, if we deem ourselves debas'd.
By Christian meekness; or with sick distaste
Turn from the texts, that shew, in simple strain,
Poor erring man, how vicious and how vain! +"

P. 10.

"Pointing out some indecent passages in Horace to a gentleman of reputed sense and good morals, and lamenting that such impurities were not expunged from the school-books; I was surprised at his answer: Oh! 'tis all classical! 'tis classical!'

To keep the Christians in ignorance, Julian prohibited them the study of the Greek literature. During this prohibition, Apollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea, to supply the Christians with classics of their own, wrote the history and antiquities of the Hebrews to the reign of Saul, in twenty-four books;-a professed imitation of Homer. He also imitated Menander in comedy, Euripides in tragedy, and Pindar in lyric poetry. These imitations he designed for the use of schools. But, however good they might have been,

The bard next shows the vicious tendency of the mode in which the hours of play are employed by the boys at our public schools; plainly, in drinking and whoring. But, we trust, this disgraceful neglect of the most important part of education (we mean THE INCULCATION OF RELIGIOUS AND MORAL PRINCIPLE; and the enforced observance of a practice conformable thereto) does not extend beyond the metropolis, where the temptations to vice, and the opportunities of vicious indulgence, require a more rigid system of control, and a more constant superintendence on the part of the masters, than it may be necessary to adopt in the country; and should its adoption be found either incompatible with fundamental rules, or impotent in its effect, woe be to the parents who expose their children to the dangers of a London education! Connected with, and indeed arising out of, these radical errors in the mode of public education, is another vile practice, here most properly reprobated-the discouragement of all diffidence in boys-the removal of that modesty which nature has designed as the noble characteristic of youth. What object upon earth is more ridiculous and more disgusting, than a boy with the airs and manners of a man? A monkey is a preferable being, and much more pleasant company; for they are both mimics, mechanically repeating what they have been taught, and Pug is generally the best mimic of the two; while he only follows those impulses of nature, which the boy has been fashioned to check and to violate.

it is impossible that they could have superseded the classics in purity and elegance. And a boy cannot acquire taste from writings which possess not classic beauty. That the classics, therefore, ought to be banished from our schools, I would by no means insinuate. First, however, for the use of schools, I would erase from them all corrupting ideas; and, secondly, if a master of a school, I would continually point out to my boys, in the perusal of such authors, all the false principles in morality, all the mistaken sentiments as they occur, and contrast them with Christian ideas and doctrines. Yet the practice of the public school is far different. Boys are assisted there, in acting the most exceptionable plays; even the Eunuch of Terence-for which no one will presume to make an apology. And they are there encouraged in writing and singing obscene songs-witness "Miss Bailey." For an Essay on the tendency of the Pagan morality and Polytheism to corrupt young minds, see European Magazine, Vol. XXVI. pp. 334, 335, 336. Since the year 1794, when this Essay appeared, the subject has been discussed by Knox, Reynell, Vincent, and Foster."

"Once, ere the child to ape the man aspir'd, Or parents prompted vice, as passion fir'd; Each little neighbourhood own'd its classic school, Uncheck'd by fashion where the birch bore rule. There learning lent young truth her steady ray, As morn's pure star that silvers infant day. There, nigh their homes, the sons reap'd classic lore, Where erst their honest sires had reap'd before: And there, to nurture each expanding mind, The zealous master and the sire combin'd. Hence featur'd by simplicity and worth, A race of good Sir Rogers' issued forth: And, if (not like the cringing crew polite, Nor, from collision with high titles, bright) They ey'd the file of manners with distrust, Nor parted with their old provincial rust; Their's was the service of the heart sincere, The generous wish to warm affection dear; And, never doom'd from distance to decay Friendships, the growth of many a youthful day. "Now in each rural town, that whilom drew Its prime importance from its classic hue, The venerable master's morning-gown, His parent smile, his petrifying frown, His port majestic, his gold-headed cane, E'en his snuff coat-and all the satchel'd train, Their humming toils, and emulation sweet, And sports inspiring life thro' every street,Alas! how silent the once busy scene! Lo, the school-walls from putrefaction green! The old arch'd door-way nods, a crumbling mass; And o'er the play-place spreads the spiry grass:Whilst poor Minerva in a pet transports From parks or offices, from shops or courts, A numerous fry, to" distant towers and spires;' And lordlings mingle with degenerate squires; And the pert progeny (so fortune jokes)* Of sleek attorneys jostle gentle dukes! Hence, quick as from a hot-bed spring to view Such creatures, as our fathers never knew; Lads, on whose cheeks no ruddy tincture glows, Manerial lords, transmuted into beaux, Soft petit-maitres languishingly pale,

Scenting with sickly essence every gale.

List! where yon abbey, from desertion dark,

Frowns o'er fell'd oaks that load the untrodden park,

A hollow sound ou every zephyr swells,

And echoes start affrighted from their dells!

"Quoties voluit fortuna jocari.

1

No. 127. Vol. 32. Jan. 1809.

F

The rattling of light wheels-and now more near
The prancing of impatient hoofs I hear;
Lo! my Lord flashes on the view! I see
In sharp projection from his vis-a-vis
A countenance worn wan-a figure thin-
Amidst his prostrate woods the monkey-grin!
O Fashion! how thy spells pollute the heart,
And bid young genius act a borrow'd part;
E'en o'er his books arrest the studious boy,
Chase his dear sports and damp his eager joy;
For feeling, kindle up factitious flames,

And varnish many a vice with specious names."

P. 15.

How are

In this sickly progeny of fashion, the bard has very accurately described the ennobled creatures who infest the Park; insult the sober passenger on those modish parades, the foot pavements of St. James's and Bond Street; who are any thing but Englishmen; and who disgrace manhood, by their looks, their words, and their actions. we degenerated! Let us look back on the hardy offspring of our simple forefathers, and compare them with the animals whom interested marriages (contracted in vice and ending in adultery) produce, and whom fashionable education rears-and let us blush at the degrading contrast!

Indeed, the whole system of education, to whatever rank or description of persons applied, for whatever station the pupil may be destined, seems to be radically vicious. Is he designed for the church? -he first imbibes at a public school a high notion of Pagan virtue, while not the smallest pains are taken to teach him the rudiments of Christian knowledge, or to enable him to assign a reason for the faith which he professes; he then goes to an university-if to Cambridge, the primary object of his study is mathematics, he collects his politics from Paley, and his religion from Watson-but, without making an invidious distinction between the two universities, it is sufficient for the present purpose to observe, that at neither of them is a suitable education provided for candidates for holy orders. We never heard of a tutor giving lectures out of the Fathers of the Church; we never heard of a student in divinity being called upon to read the homilies, or of his having the thirty-nine articles expounded to him. We know, indeed, that there is a professor of divinity, but there is no compulsion to attend his lectures, and his audiences are miserably slender. There ought to be a tutor in divinity, at every college, specially charged