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couple of books of Herodotus, or three, will put him in possession of the elder Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, Cræsus, and Solon, and last, not least, with the Egyptians. He is then prepared for the easier parts of Thucydides, and soon gets familiar with the Peloponnesian war and its heroes, Pericles, Alcibiades, Nicias, and Hermocrates. Of course it is to be understood that those parts of our best histories that treat on these subjects must be contemporaneously read and read again if necessary. Thirlwall and Grote are never more intelligible, never more interesting than when Thucydides is lying open before us at the same time. With so much of knowledge acquired in an easy and interesting way-connected too as it would be with practical use in the daily reading of classical authors and served up at the same time-the digestion of the whole of their intellectual food is natural and wholesome, and the result is a strong-minded, well-furnished man, fitted for his work and useful in his generation.

While thoughts like these have been for some time floating in the mind, it could not but be highly gratifying to us to find one of the most sensible writers-if not the most sensible writer-of our day using language which we propose to lay before our readers in extenso. We make no apology for the length of the extract, and indeed we need not make any, unless to the author himself for having mixed up his welldigested thinkings and clear pregnant sentences with our own.

"I suppose that many who now connect the very word history with the idea of dulness would have been fond and diligent students of history, if it had had fair access to their minds. But they were set down to read histories which were not fitted to be read continuously, or by any but practised students. Some such works are mere frame-work, a name which the author of the 'Statesman' applies to them-very good things, perhaps, for their purpose, but that is not to invite readers to history. You might almost as well read dictionaries with a hope of getting a succinct and clear view of language. When, in any narration, there is a constant heaping-up of facts, made about equally significant by the way of telling them, a hasty delineation of characters, and all the incidents moving on as in the fifth act of a confused tragedy, the mind and the memory refuse to be so treated; and the reading ends in nothing but a very slight and inaccurate acquaintance with the mere husk of the history. You cannot epitomize the knowledge that it would take years to acquire, into a few volumes that may be read in as many weeks.

"The most likely way of attracting men's attention to historical subjects will be by presenting them with small portions of history, of great interest, thoroughly examined. This may give them the habit of applying thought and criticism to historical matters. For, as it is, how are people interested in history? and how do they master its multitudinous assemblage of facts? Mostly, perhaps, in this way. A man cares about some one thing, or person, or event; and plunges into its history, really wishing to master it. This pursuit extends: other points of research are taken up by him at other times. His researches begin to intersect. He finds a connexion in things. The texture of his historic acquisitions gradually attains some substance and colour, and so at last he begins to have some dim notions of the myriads of men who came, and saw, and did not conquer-only struggled on as they best might-some of them-and are not.

"When we are considering how history should be read, the main thing perhaps is, that the person reading should desire to know what he is reading about, not merely to have read the books that tell of it. The most elaborate and careful historian must omit, or pass slightly over, many parts of his sub

ject. He writes for all readers and cannot indulge private fancies. But his tory has its peculiar aspect for each man: there must be portions which he may be expected to dwell upon. And everywhere, even where the history is most laboured, the reader should have something of the spirit of research which was needful for the writer: if only so much as to ponder well the words of the writer. That man reads history, or anything else, at great peril of being thoroughly misled, who has no perception of any truthfulness except that which can be fully ascertained by reference to facts; who does not in the least perceive the truth, or the reverse, of a writer's style, of his epithets, of his reasoning, of his mode of narration. In life our faith in any narration is much influenced by the personal appearance, voice, and gesture of the person narrating. There is some part of all these things in his writing and you must look into that well before you can know what faith to give him. One man may make mistakes in names, and dates, and references, and yet have a real substance of truthfulness in him, a wish to enlighten himself and then you. Another may not be wrong in his facts, but have a declamatory or sophistical vein in him, much to be guarded against. A third may be both inaccurate and untruthful, caring not so much for anything as to write his book. And if the reader cares only to read it, sad work they make between them of the memories of former days."

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Thus writes the author of "Friends in Council," one of the most real and suggestive works that has ever been written a book full of sound sense, thoughtful reflections, and practical usefulness, and which we are delighted to hear is making slow but sure way among those to whom it is more especially addressed-a book which we feel sure cannot fail to bring both pleasure and profit to every right-minded reader, and of which we are anxious none of our readers should be entirely ignorant. C. P.

ON EVENING SCHOOLS IN AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS. THE return of the present month, which brings with it the commencement of the winter half-year, and the suspension of the busier operation of husbandry, leads us to make some observations upon evening schools, as connected with the education of the agricultural labourer. In considering this subject in our last number we noticed the obstacles to the education of the agricultural poor, particularly boys, which meet us from opposite quarters; namely, that, on the one side, the parents take the children from school as soon as they are able to earn anything; on the other, when the child is continued at school until he has obtained a fair education, the farmer complains that from want of being earlier habituated to his work such child is unsuited for it. We also noticed the meritorious and successful endeavours of Mr. Batson to overcome these obstacles by the adoption of a system which combines industrial with other instruction, and adds to this the still greater advantages of discipline, training, and constant superintendence for a period of several years. It is too much to venture to hope that such an example will be generally followed. The main object of pointing it out, is to show what may be done by such a system when duly applied, and to induce others to attempt, if only at a humble distance, something of a like nature, and so to obtain some of the benefits which result from it. Undoubtedly the greatest advantages will. arise from

the full adoption of such a system as a whole, according to which boys are boarded, lodged, clothed, daily superintended in their out-doors work, and every evening instructed in religious and other knowledge for a period of four years. Habits of industry, regularity, cleanliness, and sobriety will thus be formed, temptations to the contrary avoided; a thorough knowledge of the different acts of husbandry and skill in performing them will be acquired; and daily instruction will open the mind and render the boys intelligent workmen, capable of quickly learning any new methods of cultivation that may be discovered, and such as are entitled to a degree of confidence that can rarely be placed in a dull and untrained labourer.

But where only parts of such a system can be applied, some of these advantages may be gained. Thus, it appeared from a reference in our last number to the Duke of Bedford's farm at Woburn, boys only hired by the day, if employed in gangs properly superintended, will make better labourers, and be more readily engaged by the neighbouring farmers after leaving the "gang," than others who have not gone through such a course of training. Again, boys when boarded, lodged, and instructed under one roof, though employed by different masters (according to the system recommended by Mr. Munro, which we noticed in our April number), will gain many of the advantages arising from Mr. Batson's system, if not the important one of being superintended and trained regularly in acts of husbandry. One advantage of Mr. Batson's system was shown to be, that, after being employed during the day in farm labour, when this was over, sufficient time remained for learning to read and write decently from the opportunity of having constant evening instruction during three or four years. If then instruction every evening is sufficient to enable boys who previously possessed no knowledge beyond the alphabet, to show fair acquirements in reading, religious knowledge, and arithmetic, it is obvious that two or three evenings in the week so employed would enable boys who can read and write, to keep up what they have already acquired, and to make some further progress. Here, therefore, it appears that the evening school may be made instrumental in carrying out a part of Mr. Batson's system, and in preparing the way for the adoption of other parts of it.

In Mr. Batson's account of his own establishment he mentions, that besides providing a superintendent to overlook the boys by day when at work, and to teach them in the evening, he himself assisted every evening also in the school. Now, certainly this is what few, who might be disposed to try other parts of the system, could bring themselves even to attempt. And the occasion for it is at once removed, wherever an evening school is established in the neighbourhood, and thus the existence of such a school would do away with one great obstacle to the adoption of the other parts of the system. An evening school might also do much towards preparing the way for the introduction of the system. It would greatly assist in confirming boys in habits of order and regularity, already acquired at a day school, and in cultivating their minds, and in thus rendering them better able to understand and duly value the benefits of such a system, in promoting the happiness of their future lives. Theoretical and practical instruction in acts

of husbandry might also be given in such schools, which would add interest and life to the daily occupation of the boys, teach them to observe what others are doing, and by observation of actual practice confirm them in what they may hear or read at school. It is plain that from boys thus prepared and brought into some degree of order, it would be easier to form such an establishment as Mr. Batson's, than from those who had not even learned their alphabet, nor passed through any preliminary training. And when formed, such an establishment and the evening school might be made mutually conducive to the benefits to be derived from each. Or, if any one should be disposed to hire boys only by the day in order to form gangs, as on the farm of the Duke of Bedford, encouragement to make such an attempt and considerable aid in making it might evidently be in like manner derived from a good evening school, which, therefore, may be instrumental either as an assistant in carrying on such systems, or as a step towards opening the way for the adoption of them. And it is on this account that we have been led to speak of evening schools in connection with what was said in the last number of the Journal upon the education of the agricultural labourer.

It may be of some assistance to those who are disposed to avail themselves of the present season of the year for the establishment of evening schools, to add a few words upon the method of conducting them. In doing so we will first briefly recapitulate some valuable observations upon the subject which appeared in this Journal in the number for August of last year, and which the writer stated to have been suggested by an experience of seven years. After confessing that he had no great faith in teaching adults, as a general rule, more especially when of the country village species, and after expressing his belief, that the true work of evening schools is, to carry on education begun in the daily school, but prematurely interrupted by the boy being wanted for labour, and that in this respect the evening school, joined with a good Sunday school, is invaluable, and affords the only hope of increasing the knowledge of our labouring poor, he remarks: -1. That the manager of an evening school will not so much covet the attendance of men as of boys; and that, although there are of course exceptions to this rule, of its general truth he has little doubt. 2. That it is essential to success that the clergyman himself, or some person of superior station and intelligence, should be the chief teacher, since nothing but the presence of some such person will commonly preserve order and regularity. 3. That a warm and light room is indispensable, and that it is well to connect a lending library with the evening school, as a good opportunity is thus afforded for changing the books at the only time when the labourer has leisure. 4. That religious instruction will be best communicated in the evening school indirectly, by making a tract or book of an interesting but instructive kind the class-book; and that there will be the less need of direct religious instruction, if it be a rule, that all boys not confirmed who attend the evening school, should also come to the Sunday school; and that as to the boys paying or not, the writer, looking on the evening school as the only means of instruction open to the poorer children, inclines to the non-payment system. 5. That the school should not be held

oftener than twice or three times a week, for two hours each time, and only during the winter half-year. 6. That, as to the kind of instruction, reading will be the principal, with explanation of the matters read; that writing will commonly be found to be a very popular part of the school work; and that a little arithmetic will please the boys and do something towards producing accuracy of thought and reasoning; and that further than this he has never been himself able to get. He also observes that one good result of his own experience has been that, though farmers are in general no warm friends of education being given to the poor, such as they themselves have never had, they have always shown themselves friendly to the simple teaching of the writer's evening school, and often taken some pains to give such of their boys as wished it, an opportunity of getting there. He concludes with declaring his belief, that every clergyman, who has strength and time at his disposal, will find in the management of an evening school a real opportunity of doing his Master's work; and that the influence which he thus insensibly gains with the young members of his flock at this most critical period of their lives, will be to their and his great benefit.

In the Monthly Paper of the National Society for last month there are also some suggestions on the subject of evening schools from a correspondent, who recommends that the school should commence in the early part of October and continue until Easter; that it should be held on three evenings of the week from seven o'clock to half-past eight or nine; that the departments of study should be reading, writing and arithmetic; and that, if there be three teachers, each teacher should take a separate department, and each department be carried on at a distinct table or desk. According to this plan the scholars are to be divided into three classes, and the classification to be made according to proficiency in reading. There should be three sets of books; one set of ordinary difficulty but interesting in style, a second easier, and a third the most elementary. The time of school should also be divided into three portions of half an hour or forty minutes each, during the first of which, for instance, the first class will be engaged in reading, the second in writing, and the third in arithmetic. If each teacher takes a separate department, at the end of each portion of time, the classes will pass over simultaneously to fresh places and occupations, and so every class receive in the course of the evening instruction in all three departments under the respective teacher of each. If there are only two teachers, one may take the reading, and the other superintend both the arithmetic and writing. An important caution is given to beware of yielding to the impulse of explaining at once every difficulty which arises; also to put the pupil on a good system and afford him every needful assistance, but to remember that without habits of industry and self-instruction on his own part, he can make no solid advance in the cultivation of his mind. And we would here introduce a suggestion, which we have somewhere met with, that it would be well, at all events at the first establishment of an evening school, not to confine the older pupils to mere lessons in reading, writing, and arithmetic, but occasionally to read to them anything of great public interest, or likely to interest and benefit them, or upon which some useful observations might be founded, or to use in this way

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