Part 10 (1/2)

But even MILTON could not desist fro into the competition, and, two years after the appearance of _Paradise Lost_, when the writer was, of course, sufficiently well known both as a political controversialist and a poet, yet scarcely so famous as he became and remains, came out a little volume called _Accidence Commenc'd Gralish digest the Latin _Accidence and Grammar_, by which the illustrious writer declared and complained that ten years of an ordinary life were consumed

But advocates of particular theories had a very slender chance of success, even where their prouished as Ben Jonson and Milton, unless they possessed some adventitious interest or appealed to popular sentiment

_A Little Book for Little Children_, by Tho run, for instance; there were at least a dozen editions; but it was embellished with choice woodcuts of the Catnach school, and enlivened by a string of stories which, if they are not vapid and silly, are si feature is, that a the alphabets occurs what is sometimes called ”To,”--which is not found in the earlier primers, so far as I know, and may have been specially written by White or for him

But the numerous experimental essays of ambitious school which found their way into type at various tined to oblivion; the production of a successful school-book was a task de a rare union of tact in structure with influence in initiative quarters; and Lily's Prienerally adopted by the endowed schools throughout England, Wales and Scotland at first, and indeed till sohteenth century, with so, but at last in the form of the Eton or the Westminster Grammar, which Carlisle reports in 1818 as in almost universal use in this country The exceptions which he names were then very few, and we see that they were nearly always in favour of soency

This was the case at Reading, where it appears that the syste was founded on those of Westminster, Eton, and Winchester At Aylesbury, Owen's _Latin Grammar_ and the Eton Greek Grammar used to be employed At Bodmin, Valpy's _Greek Grammar_, and at Faversham, Lily's _Latin Primer_, edited by Ward, were preferred At soreat foundations, special books were placed in his hands to facilitate preparation

But the course of instruction at soe, was remarkably liberal and extensive, and enabled a boy of ability to ground himself, at all events, very fairly in the Greek and Roman classics This was, it must be borne in mind, however, the dawn of a new era--the first quarter of the nineteenth century

A class of men who influentially helped to carry on the succession of school-books and the slower process of auished faer required, if they did not obtain immediate preferment, received pupils or opened proprietary establishraduates and persons of fair attainh to introduce into print, with a double eye to their own scholars and the public, the system or theory hich they had started, and which in their hands underwent, perhaps, certain e, Oxford, and A Lane, MA, were at the outset of their careers retainers of this kind in the great Devonshi+re fanalised himself by the _Introduction to History_, which, whatever our verdict upon itits original purpose as a class-book for his private pupils, the sons of Sir Thomas Reynell, was printed and held the market for ence, makes his patron, Sir Richard Reynell, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, share with hi to the Latin Tongue_, 1695, which he had been encouraged by Sir Richard to pursue with young Reynell, a boy of eight, and which formed, no doubt, the basis of his system when he embarked on tuition as a career He presided at first over the free school at Leominster, but subsequently set up for himself at Mile End Green, where he would be at fuller liberty to follow his own bent

Lane desires us to believe that the progress e, was little less than miraculous; but an earlier writer, Christopher Sy the Latin Speech_, 1634, gives hope to the dullest boy that, by the use of his method, he may acquire it in four years

From the sixteenth century doard, there seems to have been a succession of competitors to public favour and support in this, as in every other, depart the whole crowd of aspirants there was not one who succeeded in discovering the true principles of the art till our own time

IV The absence of newspapers or other ready means of co educational establishh the es of particular institutions and the branches of knowledge in which instruction was to be had there As early as 1562, Humphrey Baker, of London, published an arith of Sciences_, which was frequently reprinted both in his lifetime and after his decease; but he was a teacher of the art, as well as a writer upon it, and there is a printed sheet announcing his arrange lessons in that and various other subjects For, as the terms of the document, herewith annexed, shew, Baker had in his eentlemen, who assisted him in his scholastic labours:--

”Such as are desirous, eyther themselves to learne, or to have theyr children or servants instructed in any of these Arts and Faculties heere under named: It may please the on the North side of the Royall Exchange, next adjoyning to the signe of the shi+ppe Where they shall fynde the Professors of the said Artes, &c Readie to doe their diligent endevours for a reasonable consideration Also if any be minded to have their children boorded at the said house, for the speedier expedition of their learning, they shall be well and reasonably used, to theyr contentation The Arts and Faculties to be taught are these,God save the Queene”

The case of Baker merely stands alone because we do not happen to be in possession of any similar contemporary testimony But schoolmasters who resided at their own private houses found it, of course, indispensable to adopt so their professional whereabouts known, as we find Peter Bales, the Elizabethan calligraphist, and author of the _Writing School-, at the foot of the title to his book, that it was to be sold at his house in the upper end of the Old Bailey, ”where he teacheth the said Arts” Bales probably rented the house, and underlet such portions as he did not require; for at the end of Ripley's _Compound of Alchemy_, 1591, Rabbards, the translator, asks those who had any corrections to suggest in the text to send them to hiregated near the centre of mercantile life

XI

Proposed University of London in 1647--The _Museum Minervae_ at Bethnal Green--Its catholic character and liberal prograht's system patented in 1588--Education in the provinces--The old school at Manchester--Shakespear's _Sir Hugh Evans_ and _Holofernes_--William Hazlitt's account of his Shropshi+re school in 1788

I It is a fact, probably within the knowledge of very few, that two hundred years and more before the actual establishment of the University of London, a project for such an institution was mooted by an anonymous pamphleteer, whothe Benthahams

I hold in my hand _Motives Grounded upon the Word of God, and upon Honour, Profit, and Pleasure for the present Founding an University in the Metropolis, London_, 1647 It purports to be the work of ”a true Lover of his Nation, and especially of the said City”

The lines and object in this piece are purely clerical The authorUniversities and the College in Ireland to rear as many ”sons of the Prophets”--an euphemislish and the Londoners

He puts down on paper statistics of the nuues that if the total were er--10,000 instead of 5900--there would be nothe 20,000 preachers necessary in his view to carry on the business of religion He pleads the fall of Episcopacy in support of his scheme, as ”we cannot hope,” he says, ”that so many will apply their studies to Divinity, and therefore have the greater need to maintain the more poor scholars at our Universities,” or, in other words, the absence of the prizes in the lottery had taken the best men out of the ether fro the commercial side of the question, for he observes:--”Without injury unto any, an University in London would increase London's Trading, and inrich London, as the Scholars do Cae and Oxford, where how es, yea, the countries round about theraph, strikes a chord which jars upon the ear We see that he is a partisan of that theory which flourished here down to our own day, and which contributed so powerfully to retard and cripple our scholastic and academical studies Hear what he says: ”If here in London there be a College, in which _nothing but Latin_ shall be spoken, and your children put into it, and froe, in those two years they will be able to speak as good Latin as they do English, and as readily The Rooes on as to Greek, Hebrew, Italian, French, and Spanish

The sole point here, in our uages into the curriculum, in order to qualify the students in later life to make themselves understood abroad either as merchants or as diplo of the kind was to be attelishues, and were to have not an English, but a Latin Grae

He talks about the Rolish; but he failed, perhaps, to perceive that they did not learn British or Gaulish as we do Latin His text is wealthy in Scriptural quotations and parallels; but whatever one es of such a plan, this unnamed ”true Lover of his Nation” is entitled, at any rate, to the credit and distinction of having been apparently the first to suggest e have now before us in the shape of an accomplished fact