all that he proposed to write in order to convey a connected idea of the subject to the reader, it must be equally necessary for the reader, if he wishes to understand the subject as well as the author, to gain possession of the entire series of facts which compose the subject as presented to his views. This, however, cannot be done, unless the pupil is taught to connect what he learns one day with all that he has learned, relating to the same subject, on every previous day, from the time when it was first urged on his attention. But the facts forgotten cannot, of course, be connected with those remembered; though it is easily seen that, were these supplied, the whole subject would be before the mind. This leads again to the remark previously made, that scarcely a thousandth part of what is learned (using the word in its conventional sense) at school, is retained for use in the actual business of life; though this most evidently was the ostensible purpose throughout the entire course. - If the considerations here adduced be thought to have any weight, they must evince one of two things,- either the positive incapacity of pupils of the usual scholastic age to comprehend any subject in the manner referred to, or the defectiveness of the customary method of tuition. It would be impossible, in the face of countless instances in opposition, to maintain the former assertion. If a child can be made to commit to memory and understand one sentence, for instance, there seems no physical obstacle to his doing the same with another, still retaining the first in his memory by constant repetition, and thus connecting the new fact with all that preceded it. This is the method of Jacotot, and he has proved incontestibly both the possibility and effectiveness of such a process."-As to the fitness of the old systems of education to the purposes for which instruction is valuable "Two or three facts, from which the inferences requisite to the view now intended may be drawn, are sufficiently obvious to the personal experience of all. After sedulously going through all the manœuvres of instruction for several years, we come from school to begin our education afresh, according to the particular objects which it

may be desirable for us to attain in life. We are in possession, indeed, of a vast number of facts, but they lie for the most part unconnectedly and incoherently in the mind. Of a number of others we have a loose and vague notion, just sufficient to admit of consciousness that they exist and have names attached to them, which names we know well, without knowing the things themselves. Still less, however, in these latter fragments of knowledge than in the former do we perceive any sort of coherency or natural connexion: and upon a review of the whole of our acquirements during the long time that we have been employed in making them, the feeling which takes full possession of our mind is, that nine-tenths of all that we learned has been forgotten; that we are well acquainted with no one subject whatever; and that in nearly every point which most concerns us, we are

Unpractised, unprepared, and still to seek.'

"But, by the system of Jacotot, the faculties of the mind are kept in constant action, from the commencement to the end of the course of instruction; the first acquisitions, as well as all that succeed, are permanently retained, and accordingly every thing learned once is learned for ever.”.

- pp. 2-6. If we ever learn any more languages, we shall be tempted to begin on this system, which seems to us admirably calculated to help such an achievement. Our readers will judge for themselves of the Synopsis of the Method; and as for the introduction to Latin, the Epitome Historiæ Sacræ, it can scarcely be too highly praised. The style rises from extreme simplicity (through a most ingenious choice of parallel idioms) to a considerable degree of involution; and the pupil is led on insensibly from phrases so inartificial that he cannot mistake them, to paragraphs of easy and even elegant Latinity. This little work, originally compiled by M. L'Homond, Emeritus Professor in the University of Paris, is used as an introduction to the Latin language in nearly all the Jacototian establishments on the continent,

We give the Synopsis of the method of learning a language; and (by way of specimen of the plan of the work) the first and the last sections of the Epitome, by contrasting which the extent of the pupil's progress may be perceived:

"Make yourself master of some one book written in the language you wish to acquire: that is, commit it to memory repeat it incessantly take notice of every sentence, phrase, word, and syllable it contains-study and compare these facts of the language, and analyze them first in the aggregate, then in the detail, so as ultimately to obtain a thorough knowledge of their minutest elements. Refer, by continual reflection, all or any other books in the language to the one you have mastered: that is, compare every sentence, phrase, word, and syllable that you meet with afterwards with those of the book you have learned, and thus make what you know serviceable in interpreting and acquiring what you do not yet know. And, in the last place, verify the observations of others by what you know yourself; that is, read the remarks that have been made on the language as you find them in grammars, books of idioms, dissertations on style, &c. Try or put to the proof the correctness of these remarks, by comparing them with the general observations you have yourself made on the facts that you know you will thus systematize your knowledge, and ultimately master the language." Epitome, p. vii,

ESSAYS ON THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH.*

WE have denied ourselves the pleasure of a more extended notice of the first two Essays, from a desire to enlarge upon the contents of the third, (on the Uniformity of Causation,) which forms by far the most important portion of the volume, as the positions it is intended to establish induce more momentous consequences than almost any others in the whole range of human inquiry. It contains little that is new; but the abstruse questions which formerly were debated among the learned alone are here presented in a manner likely to engage the attention of many who have hitherto been strangers to their attraction. As the influence of this Essay may therefore be powerful and extensive, it is of considerable consequence whether its reasonings are sound, and its conclusions just. If not, the time will be well bestowed which is employed in exposing their fallacy.

The two principal questions, to the elucidation of which our author's reasonings tend, are the doctrine of Philosophical Necessity, and the determination of the legitimate bounds of Testimony.

The first chapter is "On the Assumption implied in all our Expectations, that like Causes will produce like Effects, or of the future Uniformity of Causation."

The first declaration that we meet with is, that the belief in the uniformity of causation is an instinctive principle. We doubt it. Have we any belief in the connexion of

* Essays on the Pursuit of Truth, the Progress of Knowledge, and on the Fundamental Principle of all Evidence and Expectation. By the Author of " Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions." London: Hunter. 1829.