confummated in the magnificent foundation of Wolfey's college, to which all the Learned of Europe were invited. But thefe aufpicious improvements in the ftate of learning did, not continue long. A change of the national religion foon hap pened, and difputes with the Lutherans enfued, which embroiling the minds of learned men in difference of opinion, difunited their endeavours in the caufe of literature, and diverted their attention to other enquiries. Many of the abufes in civil fociety are at tended with fome advantages. In the beginnings of reformation, the lofs of thefe advantages is always felt very fenfibly; while the benefit refulting from the change, is the flow effect of time, and not immediately perceived or enjoyed. Scarce any inftitution can be imagined lefs favourable to the interests of mankind than the monaftic. Yet a great temporary check given to the progrefs of literature at this period, was the diffolution of the monafteries. For although thefe feminaries were in general the nurseries of illiterate indolence, and undoubtedly deferved to be destroyed, yet they still contained invitations and opportunities to ftudious leisure and literary purfuits. On this important event therefore, a visible revolution and decline in the ftate of learning fucceeded. Moft of the youth of the kingdom betook themselves to mechanical or other illiberal employments, the profeffion of letters being now fup.. pofed to be without fupport and reward. By the abolition of the religious houses, many towns and their adjacent villages were utterly deprived of their only means of inftruction. What was taught in the monafteries was perhaps of no great importance, but ftill it ferved to keep up a certain degree of neceflary knowledge. Hence provincial ignorance became almost universally established. Nor fhould we forget, that feveral of the abbots were perfons of public fpirit: by their connection with parliament, they became acquainted with the world; and knowing where to chufe proper objects, and having no other ufe for the fuperfluity of their vaft revenues, encouraged, in their respective circles, many learned young men. It is generally thought, that the reformation of religion, the most happy and important event of modern times, was immediately fucceeded by a flourishing state of learning. But this, in England at least, was by no means the cafe; and for a long time afterwards an effect quite contrary was produced. Yet, in 1535 the king's visitors ordered lectures in humanity to be founded in thofe colleges at Oxford where they were yet wanting: and these injunctions were fo warmly feconded and approved by the scholars in the largest colleges, that they feized on the venerable volumes of Duns Scotus, and other irrefragable logicians, and tearing them in pieces, difperfed them in great triumph about their quadrangles, or gave them away as ufelefs lumber. The king himself alfo eftabished fome public lectures, with large endowments. Notwithftanding, the number of ftudents at Oxford daily decreased: infomuch that, in 1546, there were only ten inceptors in arts, and three in jurifprudence and theology. In the mean time, the greek language flourished at Cambridge, under the inftruction of Cheke and Smyth; notwithstanding the abfurd oppofitions of their chancellor, bishop Gardiner, about pronunciation. But Cheke being. foon called up to court, both univerfities feem to have been reduced to the fame deplorable condition of indigence and illiteracy. 6 During the reign of Edward the fixth, whofe minority, which promised many virtues, was abused by corrupt counsellors and ra pacious pacious courtiers, little attention was paid to the fupport of literature. Learning was not the fashion of the times: and being dif couraged or defpifed by the rich who were perpetually grafping at its rewards, was neglected by thofe of moderate fortunes. Ava rice and zeal were at once gratified in robbing the clergy of their revenues, and in reducing the church to its primitive apoftolical state of purity and poverty. A favourite nobleman of the court held the deanery and treasurerfhip of a cathedral, with fome of its best canonries: while his fon enjoyed an annual income of three hundred pounds from the lands of a bithoprick. In every rob bery of the church, the interefts of learning fuffered. Exhibitions and penfions were subtracted from the students in the universities. At Oxford the public fchools were neglected by the profeffors and fcholars, and allotted to the lowest purposes. All academical degrees were abrogated as antichriftian. The fpiritual reformers of thofe enlightened days proceeded fo far, as to ftrip the public library, established and enriched by that noble patron Humphrey duke of Gloucefter, of all its books and manufcripts; to pillage the archives, and difannul the privileges of the univerfity. From thefe measures many of the colleges were in a fhort time entirely deferted. His fucceffor, queen Mary, took pains to restore the fplendor of the univerfity of Oxford. Unamiable as fhe was in her temper and conduct, and inflexibly bigotted to the glaring abfurdities of catholic fuperftition, the protected, at leaft by liberal do. nations, the interefts of learning. She not only contributed large fums for rebuilding the public schools, but moreover granted the university three confiderable impropriations. In her charter reciting these benefactions, the declares it to be her determined refo lution, to employ her royal munificence in reviving its ancient luftre and difcipline, and recovering its privileges. Thefe privileges the re-established with the addition of fresh immunities: and for thefe good offices the univerfity decreed for her, and her husband Philip, an anniversary commemoration. I need not recall to the reader's memory, that fir Thomas Pope, and fir Thomas Whyte, were still more important benefactors by their respective foun dations. Without all these favours, although they did not perhaps produce an immediate improvement, the univerfity would ftill have continued to decay and they were at least a balance, at that time, on the fide of learning, against the pernicious effects of returning popery. In the beginning of the reign of Elifabeth, which foon followed, when proteftantifm might have been expected to produce a fpeedy change for the better, puritanifm began to prevail, and for fome time continued to retard the progrefs of ingenuous and ufeful knowledge. The English reformed clergy, who during the perfecutions of queen Mary had fled into Germany, now returned in great numbers; and in confideration of their fufferings and learning, many of them were preferred to eminent ftations in the church. They brought back with them thofe narrow principles about church government and ceremonies, which they had imbibed, and which did well enough, in the petty ftates and republics abroad, where they lived like a fociety of philofophers; but which were inconfiftent with the genius of a more extended church, established in a great and magnificent nation, and requiring a fettled fyftem of policy, and the obfervance of external inftitutions. However they were judged proper inftruments to be employed at the head of ecclefiaftical affairs, by way of making the reformation at once effectual. But unluckily this meafure, fpecious as it it appeared at first, tended to draw the church into the contrary extreme. In the mean time their reluctance or abfolute refufal to conform, in many inftances, to the established ceremonies, and their fpeculative theology, tore the church into violent divifions, and occafioned endless abfurd difputes, unfavourable to the progrefs of real learning, and productive of an illiterate clergy, at leaft unfkilled in liberal and manly fcience. In fact, even the common ecclefiaftical preferments had been fo much diminished by the feizure and alienation of impropriations, in the late depredations of the church, which were not yet ended, that few perfons were regularly bred to the church, or, in other words, received a learned education. Hence almost any that offered themselves, were without distinction admitted to the facred function. Infomuch, that in 1560, an injunction was directed to the bishop of London from his metropolitan, ordering him to forbear ordaining any more ar tificers, and other unlearned perfons who had exercifed fecular oc cupations. But as the evil was unavoidable, this caution took but little effect. About the year 1563, there were only two divines, the dean of Chrift Church, and the prefident of Magdalene col lege, who were capable of preaching the public fermons at Oxford. Many proofs have been mentioned of the extreme ignorance of our clergy at this time: to which I fhall add one, which is curious and new. In 1570, Horne bishop of Winchester enjoined the minor canons of his cathedral to get by memory, every week, one chapter of faint Paul's epittles in latin: and this talk, beneath the abilities of an ordinary fchool-boy, was actually repeated by fome of them, before the bishop, dean, and prebendaries, at a public epif copal vifitation of that church. The taste for Latin compofition, and it was fashionable both to write and fpeak in that language, was much worfe than in the reign of Henry the eighth, when juster models were ftudied. One is furprized to find the learned archbishop Grindal, in the ftatutes of a school which he founded and amply endowed, prefcribing fuch ftrange claffics as Palingenius, Sedulius, and Prudentius, to be taught in the new feminary. Much has been faid about the paffion for reading Greek which prevailed in this reign. But this affectation was confined to the queen, and... a few others: and here it went no farther than oftentation and pedantry. It was by no means the national ftudy: nor do we find that it improved the tafte, or influenced the writings, of that age. But I am wandering beyond the bounds which I first prescribed to this neceffary digreffion. Yet I must add an obfervation or two. In government, many fhocks must happen before the conftitution is perfected. In like manner, it was late in the reign of Elifabeth, before learning, after its finews had been relaxed by frequent changes and commotions, recovered its proper tone, and rofe with new vigour, under the genial influence of the proteftant religion. And it may be further remarked, that, as all novelties are purfued to excefs, and the most beneficial improvements often introduce new inconveniencies, fo this influx of polite literature destroyed philofophy. On this account, fir Henry Savile, in the reign of James the firft, eftablished profeffors at Oxford for aftronomy and geo-. metry; becaufe, as he declares in the preamble of his ftatutes, mathematical studies had been totally deferted, and were then almoft unknown in England. Logic indeed remained; but that fcience was ftill cultivated, as being the basis of polemical theology, and a neceffary inftrument for conducting our controverfies against the church of Rome.' We cannot but regret, that fo few memorials of the life of fo generous and refpectable a benefactor to the republic of let, ters as Sir Thomas Pope, thould have defcended to pofterity. But this circunftance has afforded our author an opportunity of difplaying his fingular abilities and addrefs, in adorning and enlivening a barren fubject. We may add, that his fubject is of a local and circumfcribed nature; but by the graces of style, and a happy application of what the French call the accompaniments of the picture, he has found means to render it agreeable and interefting to the general reader. On the whole, our lively biographer, in the execution of this work, has difcovered talents which feldom meet in the fame writer. He has united elegance with accuracy, and has ftrewed the path of the antiquarian with flowers. Perform ances of this kind are most commonly a dull detail of facts, merely calculated for information: the prefent compilation is a work of talte and genius. VI. An Effay upon Education. THE a By James Wadham Whitchurch, Becket and De Hondt. HE author of this Effay has divided his important fubject into three parts; in the first of which he confiders the management of children in infancy; in the fecond, at a more advanced age; and in the third, the advantages and difadvan tages of travelling into foreign countries. In order to establish the influence and utility of education, he begins with refuting. the opinion, that men's difpefitions and tempers are innate., Contrary to the practice of the Spartans, he thinks the pa rents are the most proper perfons to be entrufted with the care of children during the firft eight years of their life; on account both of the greater natural affection and authority which thote are generally observed to poffefs, and of the vicious ha bits which children are liable to contract, from being entirely committed to the care of fervants. Having laid down this propofition, he proceeds to deliver inftructions for rightly performing the parental tafk; and particularly mentions the qua Hities which ought to be attended to in the choice of a nurse, when the fituation of the mother renders the employment of fuch a perfon neceffary. We fhall prefent our readers with fome of the author's injunctions relative to the management of infants. In the fecond year, their eyes begin to fparkle with fenfbility, and you no longer obferve in them that ftupid ftare which they before conftantly expreffed. Hitherto they have been inattentive to the beauties of nature; every thing is VOL. XXXIII. May, 1772. C c now now in a manner new to them, every object, therefore, affords them pleasure. No fooner are their limbs become capable of exertion, than they discover a great propenfity to make a trial of them: of course they are now no longer under the influence of that inactivity, which was before fo pleafing and beneficial to them. Let the floor of the nursery be covered with a carpet, and you will fee them, as if guided by instinct, stretch, tumble, and roll themselves about upon it. These are to be confidered as the first efforts of the loco-motive faculty, and a prelude to the act of walking. Such infantine sports should therefore be encouraged; and children fhould not be permitted to walk in the open air, until they had acquired the habit of walking on a carpet, where a falfe ftep could not be attended with any dangerous confequences. Not that I would, by any means, deprive them of the benefit of air. On the contrary, I would have them enjoy it as often as poffible, in the middle of the day. And for this purpofe, they fhould be carried out in the arms of a fervant, whenever the weather is dry, and the air temperate. Let this fervant be a difcreet perfon, and one of few words: for children at this age begin to catch at, and imitate every found, and the language of fervants is not always the moft correct. Parents themselves, who know how to speak correctly, are often guilty of a very dangerous error, in fpeaking to infants in a strange unintelligible jargon. They would foon defift from this practice, if they were sensible of the confequences which may flow from a conduct fo injudicious. The tender organs of fpeech retain, for a long time, the expreffions to which they are at firft habituated: nor can children when they grow up, and are taught to speak grammatically, be perfuaded that any thing which they have heard their parents frequently repeat, can be an improper mode of expreffion. They find it extremely difficult to difuse the pronunciation to which they have been accustomed; and they cannot conceive, that thofe from whom they have received fo many marks of affection, fhould be capable of leading them into an error, by fo cruel a deception.' After prefcribing fuch rules as are proper to be observed in regard to the diet of young children, the author makes fome other remarks which are worthy of attention. 6 In the fourth year, fays he, children become extremely impatient of controll; their imaginations are lively; their ideas pafs on in a quick fucceffion. If their wishes are not gratified as foon as formed, they feel the moft exquifite pain, from a difappointment to which they are,. as yet, unaccustomed ; and they labour not to fupprefs the emotions of the foul, being as yet wholly ignorant of, and unpractised in, disguise, |