ページの画像
PDF
ePub

positive skill in it, and with a great capacity for increasing that skill, from having distinct views of the objects to be aimed at, and of the methods of investigation by which the art can be carried forward. Further, the establishment of a system of national education would tend to the elevation of education and its professors, and to the growth of a numerous body of effective teachers, by holding out to men regularly qualified the prospect of a moderate independence; by investing the place of schoolmaster with the dignity of an established institution ; by opening a field for honorable ambition through a system of promotions; by introducing the principle of associations among teachers, for mutual instruction and assistance; by the large improvement which the changes thus brought about must stimulate in private teachers; and, lastly, by the general intelligence which the discussions arising from so great an educational movement must spread among the community. p. 129.

The essay by the Rev. Edward Higginson is distinguished by excellent sense, and is written in a style of remarkable perspicuity. We select a passage (by no means the most striking) which concisely gives his views on this subject.

The chief means, then, of elevating the profession of the educator in general esteem, must be the ordinary means of appeal to the minds and hearts of men. We must act upon the generally prevailing notions and feelings respecting education, by those slow yet sure appeals both to argument and to experience, which become, in the course of time, the means of establishing great truths and effecting great social improvements. All moral effects must be promoted by moral agencies. The great living heart of society can only be moved by living influences. Law, enjoining a conviction or a feeling in favor of education, would be a dead letter. The living spirit would be the cordial assent of society welcoming the educational law when given, or a strong and earnest feeling of society calling forth the law into existence.

The formation of teachers' institutes would, it is to be expected, contribute greatly towards raising the general estimation of education. They would not only train teachers for the community, but in some measure train the community to a right estimation of teachers. By putting advantages within easy access, people are taught to desire and aim at that which they might otherwise not have striven to attain, through ignorance of its value or distrust of its possibility. The supply may, to a certain extent, stimulate the demand, as well as the demand call forth the supply; but other things must concur to make that demand effective; and institutes, such as we have described, might be formed in vain, unless there is a probability of bringing the public mind into a condition to appreciate them when formed. raise the standard of educational taste, then, is the main object to be pursued, whether by the formation of new educational agencies, or by

Το

other means of acting upon the public mind. This alone will reach the root of the matter.'-p. 308.

This essay is followed by one from the pen of James Simpson, Esq., an advocate at Edinburgh, and the author of several popular works connected with education. He adopts as his motto the expressive words Video Meliora,' and the whole of his paper is distinguished by warm and sanguine anticipations of glorious results, if the system of education prevalent through this country, possessed more of a religious and moral than of an intellectual character-based upon principles of affection. In the following indignant passage, Mr. Simpson eloquently asserts the claims of the educator to emolument and honor.

The value in the incalculable improvement of the social state which, in all the relations of life, domestic and public, all would experience and acknowledge,—in the relations of parent and child, brother and sister, husband and wife, governor and governed, man and man,-in the happier face of society, the greater safety and comfort of existence, all of which would be the fruits of a sound education extended to the entire people, the triumphant answer to those who ask what is education to them'-such value we repeat warrants us in placing those who deal in it, in the high places of society; and while we never deny to our agricultural produce, our raw materials, and our manufactured goods, the full value which they are calculated to add to human happiness, is it not a proof, and a strong proof, of the want of sound education in ourselves, to deny to a species of value which transcends them all in itself, and tends demonstrably to increase those very valuable productions themselves, its well-earned return in the liberal endowment of that most valuable of functionaries, the educator? We claim for him, then, a fair share of that worldly wealth of which so disproportionate a part goes, and that without a grudge, as if it were the necessary course of things, into the coffers of the noble and the landed gentlemen, who make no return; of the physician and the lawyer, who sell us their advice; nay of the manufacturer, the merchant, and the banker, who produce and distribute the means of our material accommodations, and tell out its metallic sign, or its paper representative; for we do not anticipate contradiction, from those sufficiently informed at least, when we say that the educator offers us a value for our money which transcends all these put together. Away, then, with that miserable, grudging, niggard heart, which ignorance and prejudice has shut against society's truest and best benefactor, the schoolmaster! Away with all the associations which sink him below the grade of the handicrafts, and starve him, while we are enriched by him! Let us reward the educator, as he ought in character to be, fully up to his real intrinsic value, and we shall soon find that we are in little danger of overdoing our duty.'-p. 420.

VOL. VI.

3 C

690

Art. VII. 1. The Westmorland and Cumberland Dialects. Dialogues, Poems, Songs, and Ballads, by various Writers, in the Westmorland and Cumberland Dialects, now first collected; with a Glossary of Words peculiar to those Counties. 8vo. pp. 403. London: John Russell Smith.

2. An Exmoor Scolding, in the propriety and decency of Exmoor Language, between two Sisters, Wilmot Moreman and Thomasin Moreman, as they were Spinning; also an Exmoor Courtship. New Edition, with Glossary. 12mo. pp. 57. London: Smith. 3. John Noakes and Mary Styles: or, an Essex Calf's Visit to Tiptree Races. By CHARLES CLARKE, Esq., of Great Totham Hall, Essex. 8vo. pp. 48. London: Smith.

4. A Glossary of Provincial and Local Words used in England. By FRANCIS GROSE, Esq. To which is now incorporated The Supplement by Samuel Pegge, Esq., F.S.A. 8vo. pp. 188. London: Smith. 5. A Biographical List of the Works that have been published towards Illustrating the Provincial Dialects of England. By JOHN RUSSELL SMITH. 12mo. pp. 24. London: Smith.

WE E are glad to see Mr. Smith engaged with such spirit in reprinting the best specimens of our different dialects, and also of the best glossaries. Were it for the sake only of the benefits to philology to be derived from the preservation of our provincial language, the enterprize is most laudable. The different dialects as they still exist in different parts of the kingdom, present the English language in a great measure as it was probably spoken at some particular period. As our language has progressed towards its present state, particular circumstances may have caused one province or district to stop short in that progress at one period, and another at another. In one district the Saxon may have originally retained its hold more forcibly, in another the Danish, and in a third the Norman. These, and the These, and the comparatively long period during which the corruptions of ignorance may have been operating, will probably account for the more prominent variations in our provincial dialects; but through all we trace numbers of the same ancient words, chiefly Saxon. It is desirable to secure the record of these before the spread of popular education has rooted them out. Good glossaries of all our local words will not only prove most valuable guides to the philologist in tracing the origin and constitution of the English tongue, but will throw great light on the meaning of some of our best writers of an early date. Besides this, while the dialects remain, it is a matter of importance that barristers and judges who have, on circuit, to receive in causes often of serious moment the evidence of country people, should be able to make themselves familiar

with the language of these districts, which if any one think them much less obscure to a stranger than Dutch or German, let him just take as a sample out of Exmoor,

Ah, bet, twos Jo Hosegood's zetting vore in tha vurst place. Ha wull lee a rope upreert.-Whan ha hath a took a shord, and a paddled, ha wull tell doil, tell dildrams, and roilly upon enny kesson zoul.— Ad! nifes come athert en, chell gee en a lick ;-chell ly en o'er tha years; chell plim en, chell toze en, chell cotten en, chell thorgen, chell tann en; chell gee en a strat in the chups; chell vagen, chell trem en, chell dash en, chell curry es coat vor en; chell drub en, chell make hes kep hoppy. Ad! chell gee en zutch a zwop!-chell gee en a whappet, and a wherret, and a whisker-poop too. Ad! chell baste en to tha true ben.'-Exmoor Courtship, p. 26.

Or from the northern extremity of the country,-The Appleby School-boy's Speech.

'We were twoa lile lads at hed tae coe et a smiddy, tae hev our new clogs cakert on snout bandit. Hefter that we clanterd dawnt street, en hed tae gang tae a lile tawn coed Burrels: we set dawn that titter up sud coe tudder up neisht mornin, but it happened that I laid ower long en bed. I plaid trouen three heaal days, en then ventert tae gang tael skule. When th' maister sad me, he sed, You sir, come here. I went up sadly freetent. He sed, What for hev yee been sae lang away? I sed, I wod hae cum titter, but th' wedder was sae clashy, anth loans sae clarty, et me grandfadder sed I cud nivir get teaard throut.'-Westmorland Dialect, p. 90.

Authors who have occasion to introduce into their works country people speaking, will find such a collection of incalculable value, and for want of such a source of reference we daily see them make their peasantry talk such language as was not even spoken at Babel.

The Glossary of Grose is much enriched by Pegge's Supplement; but we could add to it still many words of regular provincial use. We should like to see the plan of writing a story, or a dialogue, carried out through any English county. That is the most popular scheme for embodying our dialects, at the same time that you get the local idiom and manner which are quite as peculiar. Tim Bobbin's celebrated works have done that admirably for Lancashire. Yorkshire is rich in such works. Westmorland and Cumberland equally so, as shown in one of the volumes here noticed. In it the dialogues by Mrs. Wheeler are some of the most excellent things of the kind conceivable. They are full of nature and knowledge of country life. We see her characters, and hear them speak. The ballads of Robert Anderson in the same volume, are equally good of their kind. Devon

shire has been well illustrated. The Dialogue in that dialect by the sister of Sir Joshua Reynolds is, independent of its value in this respect, a very interesting production; and is free from the vulgarity which deforms the Exmoor Dialogues. John Noakes and Mary Styles' exhibit the language of Essex perfectly. Durham, Yorkshire, Northumberland, Dorsetshire, Kent, Norfolk, Somersetshire, Sussex, have all their dialectic stories, but the rest of our counties still lack them. The midland counties have scarcely an example of their genuine dialects. Bilbery Thurland, which the publisher says he understands is a tract in the Nottinghamshire dialect, but which we can inform him is a three volume novel to be found in any circulating library, is almost the only exception. We trust Mr. Smith will proceed till he has in this manner completed the whole dialectic circle of England.

Art. VIII. 1. Finden's Tableaux: the Iris of Prose, Poetry, and Art, for 1840. Illustrated with Engravings by W. and E. Finden, from Paintings by J. Browne. Edited by MARY RUSSELL MITFORD. London: Charles Tilt.

By the

2. Gems of Beauty Displayed in a Series of Twelve highly finished Engravings on Various Subjects. From Designs by Edward Corbould, Esq. With Fanciful Illustrations in Verse. COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON. London: Longman and Co. 3. Heath's Book of Beauty for 1840. With beautifully finished Engravings, from Drawings by the first Artists. Edited by the COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON. London: Longman and Co.

4. The Keepsake for 1840. Edited by The LADY E. STUART WOrtLEY. London: Longman and Co.

5. Heath's Picturesque Annual for 1840. Environs. By LEITCH RITCHIE, Esq. the first Artists, after Original Designs. Co.

Windsor Castle and its With fifteen Engravings by London: Longman and

6. Forget Me Not; a Christmas, New Year's, and Birthday Present for 1840. Edited by FREDERIC SHOBERL. London: Ackerman

and Co.

7. The Oriental Annual; containing a Series of Tales, Legends, and Historical Romances. By THOMAS BACON, Esq., F.S.A. With Engravings by W. and Ě. Finden, from Sketches by the Author and Captain Meadows Taylor. London: Charles Tilt.

8. Friendship's Offering; and Winter's Wreath: a Christmas and New Year's Present for 1840. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. 9. The Little Forget-Me-Not. London: C. Tilt.

WE

E shall not detain our readers by any preliminary criticism on this class of publications. They have long since taken

« 前へ次へ »