The first chapter of Part I, affords us this information.

"The new method of practical education, which has appeared u der different shapes in this country, originated in the Military Male Orphan Asylum, founded at Madras in the year 1789. There it gradually grew to maturity, and, after the experience of several years, was established in all its forms in that school. Hence it was transplanted into England in the year 1797, when it was partially adopted with good success in the oldest charity-school in London, that of Aldgate, and in several parts of the kingdom, and is now established at the parochial schools of White Chapel and of Lambeth, and at the Royal Military Asylum, Chelsea.

"This system rests on the simple principle of tuition by the scholars themselves. It is its distinguishing characteristic that the school, how numerous soever, is taught solely by the pupils of the institution, under a single master, who, if able and diligent, could, without difficulty, conduct ten contiguous schools, each consisting of a thousand scholars." P.1,2.

We shall now proceed to the scheme of education, which has in it, what must seem a great recommendation to boys, namely, making a sort of play of their work, according to Quintilian, "Lusus hic fit." To put this scheme in practice, it will be necessary to understand the Madras system thoroughly, which knowledge must of course be sought in the work reviewed, and not in the Review. We shall merely touch on some points which we may think interesting or strange, to our readers. No thing better can be devised, than the plan of making the superior boys tutors to their inferiors. This has many benefits.

"By teaching he is best taught.Qui docet indoctos, docet se.' "Still another advantage is, that here is a grand stimulus to emulation; for what disgrace attaches to the boy who, by his negligence, is degraded into a pupil, and falls, perhaps, to be tutored by his late pupil, promoted to be a tutor!". P. 23.

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On the Black Book, which relates to punishments, we shall say a word. Dr. Bell's style is by no means pure. What he would signify by calling his boys "unlicked agents," p. vi. is at first not very clear, but we have afterwards reason to be sure, that it is an epithet derived from a bear.

Flogging has been termed the Panacea in tuition. "Praise," it is said, " encouragement, threats, and various motives, apply to various descriptions of pupils, but flagellation to all." But Dr. Bell affirms, that had "whips or cords been required, my experiment

should have perished in embryo, or dropt still-born on the coast of Coromandel."-p. 3. Solitary confinement, in flagrant cases, is his substitute for flagellation*, and it is more efficacious.

"Corporal punishment, if it had no tendency to degrade and harden the offender, and if its efficacy were less problematical than, from its momentary impression, it is found to be, on the future behaviour of the culprit, does not reinstate him in the immediate possession of what he has forfeited by his idleness; whereas confinement at extra hours, is made an instrument of regaining what was lost in past time, as well as of preventing future loss. It has also the powerful effect wanting to corporal punishment, which distributive justice is ever fitted to produce, that what is lost by idleness is reclaimed by diligence.

"At Madras, the most obstinate and hardened offender, could not stand out for three days against an order to his schoolfellows not të speak to him or play with him." P. 12, 13.

Emulation, said to be condemned by St. Paul, Gal. v. 20. is recommended by Dr. Bell, p. 252.

"Aristotle has happily defined emulation to be a certain painful solicitude, occasioned by there being presented to our notice, and placed within our reach in the possession of those, who are by naturė our fellows, things at once good and honourable: not because they belong to them, but because they do not also belong to us?'

Έστι ζηλος, λύπη τις επι φαινομενη παρεσια αγαθών εντιμων και ενδεχομένων αυτῷ λαβειν περι τες όμοιες τη φύσει, εχ οτι αλλο, αλλ' OTI 8X1 XAI AUT 851.'-Aristot. RHETOR. lib. ii. ch. 13. Cantab. 1728. P. 253, 254.

Enty (too often confounded) is a base passion, inherent in mean souls, who seek not to exalt themselves, but to depress their fellows. On this subject the Rev. C. R. Cameron puts an interesting query, to which Dr. B. does not fully reply.

"Have you ever found, in the course of your experience, that giving scope to the principle of emulation (particularly in the case of tutors and pupils changing places) has produced personal feelings of envy and ill-will, destructive of that lowliness of mind, in which each should esteem others better than themselves; in a word, any thing contrary

* "He that spareth his rod, hateth his son." This aphorism of Solomon he ex. plains at page 249, and says it must not be taken literally. "The true sense of Solo. mon's aphorism will be found in this as in every other instance, consistent with sound wisdom. It is that, when offences are committed, and those in authority do not take measures to prevent the repetition, and correct the offender, his real interest is overlooked, and his true happiness committed."

to that spirit of humility and love, which is the Alpha and Omega of Christianity? And would these personal feelings be avoided, suppose any such exist, by subdividing the classes, so that instead of a competition and change between individuals taking each other's places, the object be, in the one case, to be raised into a higher subdivision, and in the other, not to be degraded into a lower ?" P. 258.

Leaving other matters, certainly of moment, we shall pass on to the novelties of this system. In Chap. II. "Of teaching the Alphabet, by writing its characters in the sand," he first urges, and most sensibly, the propriety of beginning at the earliest age, with elementary sounds, on the distinct pronunciation of which, depends the future perfection of speech. He then says→→→

"In writing on sand, a tray or board (thirty-six inches by ten) with a ledge of half an inch deep on every side, may be prepared for a school. A little dry sand is put into it, so that with a shake it will become le vel, and spread itself thinly over the bottom. The teacher, who is sometimes the boy who last learned the alphabet himself, often an expert boy selected for the purpose, traces in the sand with his fore-finger, the letter A, of which there is a prototype before him. The scholar retraces the impression again and again, the teacher guiding his finger at first, if necessary; the sand is then smoothed with a shake, Next, the scholar, looking at the letter before him, tries to copy it, and is assisted as before, and directed till he can do it with facility and precision. The prototype is then withdrawn, and the scholar must now copy it from memory. This first and very difficult task achieved, a pause, or interval of rest or play is allowed, and as often as is requisite, to unbend the stretched bow, and to ensure uniform and uninterrupted attention while at work. These interludes become every day less and less necessary, as a habit of greater and greater application is superinduced.

"In like manner the second letter, B, is taught. When he returns to A, and makes A and B till he can form both with readiness and exactThus ends the first lesson, which, at an average of capacity and age, may require an hour or two hours." P. 52, 53.

mess.

The two next letters will be acquired with more ease—

"Thus the capital letters are taught two by two, till the alphabet is gone through in this manner, when the scholar returns to his first letters, which by this time have escaped his memory, but are easily revived, and goes over his alphabet anew, at four letters to a lesson, and again at eight, and afterwards at sixteen; last of all the whole, till he is perfectly master of his capital letters.

66. ·The same process is followed in regard to the small letters; particular attention is shewn to the letters b, d, p, and q, which the pupil is taught to distinguish, by telling him that each is formed of an o, and a straight line; that the o in b and p is on the right, and d and q on the left hand, or by such like device, which will readily occur to the earnest teacher. In like manner the double letters, monosyllables of two letters, the digits and numbers are taught by writing them on sand. "The superiority which writing on sand possesses over every other mode, as an initiatory process, consists in its being performed with the simplest and most manageable instrument, the fore-finger of the right hand, which the child can guide more readily than he can a piece of chalk, a pencil, or pen. The simplicity of this process, and its fitness for children of four years, at which age they were admitted into the asylum, entitle it to the notice of all schools in a similar predicament. But with children further advanced, slates and pencils may be used after the sand," as is done in various schools in the metropolis, &c. To simplify the teaching of the alphabet, the letters are sometimes, when found expedient for the scholar, arranged according to the simplicity of their form, and not their alphabetic order." P. 54, 55.

It is perfectly true that this mode of tracing the letter in the sand "gratifies the love of action and of imitation, inherent in the young mind. As much as drawing commands the attention of children more than reading, so much does tracing letters obr tain over barely reading them." P. 56.

"When familiar with his alphabet, and able, without the smallest hesitation, both to tell every letter in any book, and write it on sand, then, and not before, he proceeds to his next stage.” P. 57, 58.

He is then trusted with monosyllables.

"In perusing this initiatory book, the scholar spells the syllables on and off book: thus on book, b-l-u-n-t, blunt; off book, blunt, b-l-u-u-t.”

P. 60.

"The Madras School is reduced to its first elements letters, and their combination into single syllables-and that in teaching and learning these constituent parts, all the labour of the master, and difficulty of the scholar consist." P. 61.

Mrs. Trimmer's "Monosyllabic Spelling-Book" is recommended, because it contains no reading which the child can either comprehend or readily learn by memory, or repeat by rote. While children are thought to be engaged in learning to read, they are often merely exercising their memories." P. 63.

In syllabic and other reading, the polysyllables are resolved into their respective syllables, as before the syllables were into letters.

Thus-he-pro-ceeds-through-the-child's-book-part-firstand-se-cond-Mis-tress-Trim-mer's-spel-ling-book-part-se-cond -and-is-ne-ver-al-low-ed-to-pro-nounce-two-syl-la-bles--toge-ther-till-he-can-thus-read-syl-la-ble-by-syl-la-ble-and

spell-e-ve-ry-word-dis-tinet-ly.

"The object of all tuition is to simplify. What else was the invention of an alphabet, if I may call it by this name, of syllables, which is said to have preceded the alphabet of letters? And what else is the invention of the alphabet of letters? Yet in the common mode of teaching we begin to read words before we can read syllables, and syllables before we know our letters, defeating, in a great measure, the facilities which these improvements afford. The Chinese have no alphabet, and their language is said to consist of 70,000 written characters. With them it is the labour of the life of man to learn to read. In some African and Eastern countries, there is said to exist an alphabet of syllables, which, compared with the Chinese language, where there is a specific sign for every word, or rather for every object or idea, greatly abbreviates the number of written characters, and abridges the task of reading. But the last improvement reduces these signs into a far narrower compass, by an alphabet of letters.

"The history of these improvements naturally points out to us our process in teaching to read. Let us avail ourselves of these invaluable discoveries in their full extent, by teaching every letter perfectly, in the first instance, then each syllable perfectly. The facility which this gives to teaching, is beyond the belief of those who never tried it and experienced its effect. For how many fewer letters are there than syllables? And how many fewer syllables than words? And how much easier is it to read a syllable than a word? Suppose we have no more than the letters to learn, and we could read; how soon were it accomplished? Now in this way we have only syllables to learn: the rest, the reading of a word at once, &c. always follows of its own accord, and often in despite of your efforts to prevent it. Be-sides-the-ve-ry-act--of— read-ing-thus-may-be--con-si-der-ed-as-in-some-mea-sure—

the-act-u-al-practice-of-spel-ling." P.65, 66.

"Having gone through his spelling-book syllabically, he now revises it, reading word by word (which he will be found to have learnt insensibly), making a pause between each word as he before did between each syllable. He next begins his Psalter, which he also reads word by word and now again let it be observed, that he is, on no account, allowed to join two words together, but is made to pause at the end of