Then bursts in triumph o'er the pole, Thus while the veil of flesh decay'd, Her beauties brighten'd through the shade; Dissolved its bonds, and clear'd its flight, "Yet shall the friends who loved her weep, With beaming eye and burning cheek, O Thou, who wert on earth unknown, They sooth'd thy pains, and through thy soul HEAR ME:-When slumber from mine That roll in irksome darkness, flies; When the lorn spectre of unrest At conscious midnight haunts my breast; Spirit of my departed friend! eyes, Calm through the troubled gloom descend, With strains of triumph on thy tongue, Such as to dying saints are sung; Such as in Paradise the ear Of God himself delights to hear: -Come all unseen; be only known If thus to me, sweet saint, be given Up to the Paradise of GOD.'—pp. 155, 160. We will not weaken by one comment the impression which the story and these lines must make upon the reader; if he has ears to hear, and understanding to perceive, and heart to recognize what is beautiful in thought, feeling, and expression, he will find it here. ART. V.-On National Education, by George Ensor, Esq. Author of National Government,'' Independent Man,' and' Principles of Morality.' Svo. Longman. 1811. T was some time before we could persuade ourselves that any of It was some time there were of sufficient importance, to aerit the attention of our readers. Of his Independent Man' we had heard and read something; but the other works announced in his title-page were utterly unknown to us; and the whole, we are inclined to think, belong too that class of publications, which are a great deal too silly, and a great deal to dull to do half the mischief in the world which the authors of them intended. We could have been well content, therefore, to let them pass on quietly to that oblivion which awaits them, had not the subject of the last acquired a temporary popularity, and been thus likely to gain some notice, notwithstanding the general character of the writer, and the meanness of the composition. We have toiled through the Political Justice of Mr. Godwin, and are no strangers to the virulent and vulgar publications of Thomas Paine. Mr. Ensor is a disciple in the school of both these friends of humanity.' He will, perhaps, disclaim all conneixou; and glory in the self-assumed title of Independent Man. And to say the truth, to the peculiar qualities of these celebrated writers he has superadded graces of his own, which give him an air of marked originality. If Mr. Godwin's work has done little harm, its innocence has, perhaps, been chiefly owing to its ponderous and repulsive dulness. At the same time we must do him the justice to say, that although his chief aim is to represent the whole system of society as radically and essentially wrong, and to extirpate all those principles which uphold its present constitution; yet, his work is remarkably free from all personal rancour : nor do his most extravagant opinions seem to be tinctured with any low or malignant passion. In the compound which these pages present to us, there is, however, no want of such ingredients. It is not the grave tone of philosophy lost and bewildered in its own speculations that salutes us; but the querulous snarlings of an irritable and disappointed misanthrope. His ravings against kings, priests, and nobles, are agreeably diversified by some contemptuous or opprobrious mention of almost every writer whose opinions he has occasion to controvert: nor do we recollect any living individual who is introduced for the sake of approbation, except it be once or twice Lord Erskine, and more than twenty times, himself. Hitherto, therefore, it might seem that Mr. Ensor has been no unsuccessful imitator of the other illustrious model whom we have named; nor indeed is it easy to conceive the coarseness, the vulgarity, the bold and insolent impiety of Paine to be transfused in a more genuine and unadulterated form into any composition, than what is exhibited in this treatise on National Education. Yet the parallel is far from being complete. The most dangerous weapons of that unprincipled writer are either unknown to Mr. Ensor, or (which is more likely) he is incapable of wielding them; his perspicuity, his point, his fertility of illustration, the earnestness with which he appears to follow up his argument, and the art of insinuating his doctrines under the disguise of homely truths, the dictates of unsophisticated common sense. In lieu of all this, we are presented with a sententious quaintness, which affects to dictate rather than persuade, and which seems ever occupied with the idea of its own importance. But the chief peculiarity, and that upon which our opinion chiefly rested, of its inability to do any great mischief, is a cast of pedantry so excessive and ridiculous as to surpass all that was ever yet exhibited to mankind of that folly. Every character, we will venture to say, which the fancy of the satirist or caricaturist has endeavoured to portray, falls far short of this one authentic specimen of real life. Instead of bringing down his doctrines, like Paine, to the level of ordinary apprehensions, with a studious rejection of all authority, Mr. Ensor takes extraordinary pains to shew upon every occasion, that some Greek, or Roman,or Egyptian, or Chinese, or Siamese, has said the same thing-or something like it-or something not like it-or that though he did not say it, he might have said it-or that Mr. Ensor does not care whether he did say it or no. It is not merely upon important and controverted points that this appeal is made; but the most illustrious names of antiquity are summoned to give evidence upon the merest trifles, while others who have been rarely heard of, such as Chylo, Crates, Masurius, Sosiades, and whose claim to immortality rests perhaps upon some line and a half preserved in Athenæus, or Stobæus, are mentioned familiarly by Mr. Eusor, as some of his every day acquaintance. They are awakened from their long slumber of ages to enlighten the world with some sage apophthegm; 'honour old age,' or 'speak the truth,' or 'be sober,' and then are sent back to their accustomed repose. But we cannot afford much time for exposing these petty absurdities, having a much more serious account to settle with Mr. Ensor, and owing as we do to our readers some justification of the severity with which our notice of this book was introduced. We will therefore attend him through a few of the principal divisions of his argument, and listen as patiently as we can while he is railing at every thing we most value. Having informed us, that this treatise is part of a more extensive work on national government, he proceeds to argue in favour of diffusing knowledge as widely as possible, adding that the clergy are most averse from affording the means of liberal knowledge; because public instruction is inimical to superstition. Education and its consequence, instruction, when disseminated among all the citizens of a state, acts as a universal monitor: it accuses, it con victs, it judges, and it executes its judgment: it does more, it selects, prefers, remunerates, and all these without exertion, almost without effort. Thus it pervades, controls, directs, and influences the various and complicated interests of domestic life, of civil society, of political communication; and, pervading the interest of all mankind, impresses an immortal energy on all.' p. 22. After throwing out this puerile tirade, and telling us in the language of the same school, that 'to education every thing may be referred, even the existence of man's mind,' he proceeds to give a sketch of the Spartan, Athenian, and Persian Education, chiefly, we presume, because those topics enable him to speak of Lycurgus, Draco, Xenophon, Diogenes, Pausanias. Nothing is told us but what is universally known; except, indeed, that the youth of Sparta exercised in a peninsula formed by the Euripus, which is just as if he had sent the youth of Rome to wrestle in an island in the straits of Gibraltar; while the chapter on the Persians affords a curious example of the use to be made of ancient authorities: for though Herodotus and Strabo tell us expressly, that to speak truth was the only moral part of their education, though Nicolaus Damascenus says, that the Persians taught truth to their children as a science, though Dion Cassius says no such thing of the PARTHIANS, though Mr. Ensor is anxious to shew that he knows all this; yet he assures us, the Persians did not speak truth, for,' says he, its government was monarchical; and truth and monarchy never have, nor ever can freely and effectually subsist together.' It is, however, where one would least have guessed, it is in China, that the best actual system of education is to be found: For here no endowments solicit the acceptance of the literary teacher, nor are there bounties for qualified doctors, nor are children at great expense seduced from their parents to be taught their letters in the state creed, nor are parents compelled by penal statutes to send their children to school.' He goes on to say, that the children are carefully examined by Mandarins from time to time, and promoted strictly, according to their merit, to the administration of provinces and the government of the state. Fortunate China! Enviable abode of taste, science, and philosophy! Education, which works such mighty wonders-education, which 'pervades, controls, directs, and influences the various and complicated interests of domestic life, of civil society, of political communication'-education, which in all other countries pursues a vicious and mistaken course, exists among the Chinese in it most perfect form; and its blessed effects are accordingly to be witnessed best among that moral, amiable, high-minded, and enlightened people. If any one should entertain a doubt of this fact, we have only to refer him to the view of society, manners, and govern. ment in China, for which we are indebted to the pen of Mr. Barrow. Mr. Ensor next passes sentence upon all the schools of Ireland and England. In the first it seems that many abuses were found to prevail, especially in those of charitable institution. These were principally brought to light by a committee, consisting among |