and if an institution exist for the purifying and elevating of society we naturally look for purity and sanctity of life from its teachers. The rigid censorship to which the drama is exposed is a plain proof that, were it not for that censorship, it would become a moral pestilence in the land; showing that its tendency is not towards purity and elevation.

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In contemplating the drama from a religious point of view we must regard it as the offspring of a false religion and an incomplete philosophy, and therefore unadapted to the wants of the present age, when the full revelation of gospel truth sheds its light over the land. The aim [of the Hebrew worship] was not grandeur of display, but the correct representation of certain mystic truths, for which reason the most beautiful parts of the workmanship, as the embroidery of the tabernacle, were hardly visible; agreeing in this respect with the hidden mysteries of wisdom. In the celebration of Greek worship, on the contrary, where art and not religion predominated, we have the drama on a scale so magnificent that it baffles description. The temples and the sacred groves became one vast theatre: the worshippers were themselves actors: the ingenuity of man was taxed to the utmost to overawe the senses and lead the soul captive." The drama then belongs to the earthy and the material, as opposed to that higher and spiritual nature necessary for preparing mankind for that existence which is to be hereafter. may be pleasing possibly to the senses, but it is defective for inculcating those great truths which are necessary to raise man above the level of earthly pleasures and enjoyments, and defective also in furnishing that knowledge so essential to the well-being of society— that of correct ideas of liberty of conscience and of the universal rights of man. NEMO.

It

THE cause of a wrong taste is a defect of judgment. And this may arise from a natural weakness of understanding, in whatever the strength of that faculty may consist; or, which is much more commonly the case, it may arise from a want of proper and welldirected exercise, which alone can make it strong and ready. Besides that, ignorance, inattention, prejudice, rashness, levity, obstinacy,-in short, all those passions and all those vices which pervert the judgment in other matters, prejudice it no less in this its more refined and elegant province. These causes produce different opinions upon everything which is an object of the understanding, without inducing us to suppose that there are no settled principles of reason. And indeed, on the whole, one may observe that there is rather less difference upon matters of taste among mankind than upon most of those which depend upon the naked reason; and that men are far better agreed upon the excellency of description in Virgil, than upon the truth or falsehood of a theory in Aristotle.-Edmund Burke's" Sublime and Beautiful," Introduction, p. 20.

"Encyclopædia Metropolitana," Edinb. edition, vol. xxxi., p. 7.

Education.

ARE PUBLIC LECTURES PROFITABLE FOR
INSTRUCTION?

AFFIRMATIVE ARTICLE.-I.

"Even those who wish for instruction will want to be tempted and invited to it, both in general and in particular; will want to have the advantages or entertainments of particular subjects or sciences, and even of knowledge in general, attractively set before them; and the road to each particular attainment made more easy. Every step in knowledge will create a fresh step in curiosity."Preface to Lectures read at a Mechanics' Institute in the country, by C. B. London: J. W. Parker and Son.

THIS question appears to us scarcely to admit of discussion. With it we have ever associated an affirmative reply, and even now, when it is a subject of debate, and we have consequently examined the arguments that we think can be urged both for and against it, we have, rather than anything to change or shake our opinion, found much to add to its strength and verification.

The question allows of no compromise. Yea and nay are the alternatives; and our arguments must tend to the one or the other. It is an inquiry whether certain means are profitable for education, and not whether they are more or less profitable than others. Our business is not with comparisons, but with the actual utility or inutility of public lectures as a medium for public instruction.

Instruction, of course, is the edifying and exercising of the human mind: the ground, as it were, is already supplied with materials, and a profitable employment of them is only wanted to constitute instruction. Whatever, then, supplies or tends to supply, directly or indirectly, these requisites, must necessarily contribute towards this mental upbuilding - the instruction of the mind. Whatever brings information or employment for the intellect must be considered as an agent in its education,--whether it be of a vulgar and immoral kind, such as comes of association with the low and "fast," and the reading of police news and divorce court (or other) scandal, or of a healthy and invigorating kind, as that which arises from contact with greater minds, and attendance at the lectures of those whose education or fortune entitles them to exercise the office of public instructors. If, then, lectures afford information only-and no one will deny this,-for as the word is now popularly understood and its very essence consists here, we are justified in asserting that they are profitable for the end in

question. And we cannot see how our opponents will surmount even this preliminary stumblingblock, active and eager as they may be at the commencement of the course.

Of all means of mental exercise, public lectures rank, in our opinion, amongst the foremost. They partake in a great degree of the character of this Magazine, and supply topics of moment or general interest for free and impartial discussion. This fact renders them invaluable for mental discipline. For, from our own experience and that of several others, we attach an infinite value to debate; and whatever stimulates people to this in an unprejudiced and inquiring spirit should be cherished and encouraged. In assigning this usefulness and importance to discussion we shall not be accounted singular, for the ancients, as is well known, held it among the chief means they employed in their education. Public lectures, even subjects of general agreement, never fail to produce questions and inquiry, and often inspire their hearers with a desire for further acquaintance with the subject. This adds immensely to their utility. It leads to reference and thought, to a more extensive acquaintance with books, and a deeper investigation into opinions and subjects, and in no few cases to the acquisition of a language or the study of a science. The education of boys as well as men depends more than is generally supposed on themselves; without the desire or ability on the part of the pupil, the labours of the best teacher are nearly useless. If facts are to be learnt, or a language acquired, the acquisition rests on the exertion of the pupil; the master can do no more than arrange and elucidate. Public lecturers, then, assume the office of the schoolmaster; and so far as the duties of such a person exist, with respect to adults, thus far do they fulfil this office. They give facts, they arrange, they elucidate, they state arguments, they draw conclusions. In short, they do for the public what the schoolmaster does for his boys-so far as his business is that of a teacher. If adults are capable of educationand the supposition to the contrary is impossible-then public lectures are profitable for instruction.

Besides these uses and advantages attending public lectures there are others in the tendency they possess of popularizing what they treat upon, to make known what would otherwise have been obscure, and to persuade their hearers to travel, and being thereby an indirect means of enlarging one's views and knowledge of things and people. Who, after listening to a description of the sights and wonders of foreign lands, is not inspired with a desire to visit those places and to behold those wonders? The beneficial results of travelling are seen by the most unobservant, and acknowledged by the most obstinate. For this reason then alone public lectures are profitable, were there no truth in our former assertions.

Then, again, they afford an opportunity of learning something of a subject, to many whose habits or tastes would never lead them to seek knowledge from other, if unexplained, sources. Few, even of the better educated, care to study a treatise on geology or

botany; yet few would omit the opportunity of hearing what a lecturer had to say on either, or on any science, however uncommon and abstruse it may be considered. And a smattering of a science is better than entire ignorance of it; as a little bread is better than no bread to a hungry man. Pope's line about a little knowledge being a dangerous thing may serve for a quotation where rhyme takes the place of truth; but fine feathers will not hide the nakedness of error and absurdity.

But we have only to look to the universities-the great seminaries of education-and the system pursued there, to prove the utility of lectures. On inquiry, it will be found that much that is taught to the undergraduates is done by means of lectures; and if the plan is adopted there and proved to be successful, why should not the same system prove equally beneficial when made public? What should destroy its efficacy? There are similar instruments and similar materials, and we cannot see what should prevent a similar result. One's education, as we showed above, depends chiefly on himself-on his own desire and industry,--and who are more desirous of improvement than those who undertake it voluntarily? Yes, we are convinced of the utility of public lectures for instruction; and we would consequently have them encouraged, and their influence extended to the humbler and poorer classes as it is felt by the higher and richer grades.

We are at a loss to conceive what solid argument our opponents will urge in defence of a negative view of the question. Perhaps they will discover that public lectures have a tendency to produce superficialness, and a distaste for laborious study; but granting that there is some truth in this, it does not militate against their being profitable, but the extent to which they are profitable. And, as was said before, we are required to consider the merits of various means, and not to draw comparisons between them, but merely to examine whether the given one is useful; that it is so, we believe has been proved by the foregoing observations already.

We shall be glad to hear what the holders of the opposite opinion have to say in defence, and to consider candidly their reasons. They will find us totally unbiassed, and ready to acknowledge the force of their arguments and the truth of their statements.

NEGATIVE ARTICLE.-I.

ELPISTICOS.

INSTRUCTION is edification, the upbuilding of the mind in knowledge. True knowledge consists in an accurate acquaintance with facts, their causes and relations. It implies absolute correctness of information, and a precise statement of the connections subsisting among facts. Instruction involves the laying down in a regular, orderly, and wise manner a distinct series of facts, truths, thoughts, or advice for the purpose of communicating knowledge, suggesting fresh ideas, or governing conduct; and it includes in its signification a notion of the superiority in age, station, information, or talent of

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the person imparting it. Are public lectures profitable for this purpose? Do public lectures as a general rule instruct, inform, and teach; or do they not rather seek to amuse, gratify, and please as their chief end? Let the experience of each one who has attended any "course of lectures," with its disjunct, amorphous, everything-by-turns-and-nothing-long" list of disquisitions upon The Marvels of the Sea-shore, Tahiti, Shakspere, Jokes and Jokers, This Day's Times, Lord Macaulay, Sponges, The Sidereal Heavens, Men and Manners in Morocco, Shipbuilding, Art among the Romans, The Chemistry of Cookery; Hood, Jerrold, and Thackeray; Five Days in Jerusalem, Moses, Pottery Ancient and Modern, and all sorts of other things-has not felt that they conduced to pas time, not to instruction? We have jotted down no imaginary list of subjects. We have used no suggestio falsi in our programme. We might easily have done so,-e. g., Shelley, Conchology, Burns, Scalds, and Scandinavians, Burke on the Sublime and Beautiful, Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts, Pope, Popery, Sheepfolds and Shepherds, Kings' Fools and Queens' Favourites, Mohammed, The Turkish Bath, The Arabian Nights, Days in Algeria, More and Littlemore, Skittles and Skits on Them, History of a Cockchafer, Theology in its Higher Aspects, Thumbscrews and other Screws; A. K. H. B., or Spin-thought Made Easy. Yet even this could scarcely be called a satire on the incongruous medley of haphazard topics often brought together during the currency of a course of lectures.

Well, we contend that such unsystematic, heterogeneous mixtures of ideas placed pell-mell before a public audience is fitted to confuse and stupefy, not to instruct and edify. The want of system is a fault, but a still greater one lies in the want of adaptation to the curiosity of the public, or to their intellectual condition. This tends to make confusion worse confounded.

This, then, forms objection the first, that public lectures are, in general, so unsystematic, unconnected, and desultory, that they destroy all conceptions of order, harmony, and consistency, and break down rather than build up human knowledge.

But a worse objection remains. Lecturers are, in general, men having hobbies. These they are given to riding to an extent demanding the cognizance of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Oh that there were one for the prevention of cruelty to audiences! There arises from this the fact that every lecturer conceives (or at least represents) "the topic upon which he is to address the hearers as one demanding the gravest attention and worthy of the deepest interest;" so that one's ideas get quite bewildered regarding the relations of things; for

"Everything is great, and nought is small."

Everything is seen, too, from the lecturer's point of view: he speaks the familiar language of his own thoughts, perhaps, or more probably he speaks the jargon of the subject, which is commonly