144 LITERARY MISCELLANIES.' CASTLEREAGH, Talleyrand, Matternich, and Nesselrode once upon a time organized a Holy Alliance, and a Bonaparte died on an island rock! France was then the victim. Now a Bonaparte, some fifty years later, step by step, is organizing another Holy Alliance. Stuttgardt first, Villafranca next; possibly follows, demurely, Berlin. Who is now the victim? The cloud in the sky already is bigger than the hand! Smiles succeed frowns, and a typhoon is born in an hour! The same impenetrable mystery surrounds the Emperor. The same implacable silence. The same fascinating, melancholy smile. For twelve long years, with Catholic devotion, he has kept a terrible secret. He has gathered a world's audience to hear him think. Philip and the first Bonaparte disposed of courts, crowns, cabinets, camps, and churches as of the titular dignitaries of a chessboard. Another people's Emperor is making similar plans. No one individual since Adam's schoolboy days has elevated himself so far above other Emperors; so exalted by created fortune as to arouse the jealousy of sleeping nations into fear! Never on world's record was such moderationsuch judgment-such unheard of proceedings. When the world said peace, Napoleon made war. the world said war, Napoleon made peace. When Emperor's almost supernatural genius has galvanized The me into a Bonapartist; yet he must pardon me for writing what I think. PORTRAIT OF HUMBOLDT.-The "Memoriam" of this renowned man, in this number of the ECLECTIC, will furnish the reader with a brief outline sketch of his eventful and very useful life. In connection with this "Memoriam" we are desirous of gratifying our readers with a well-executed and accurate portrait of this great man, whose name and fame as a Traveler, as a Philosopher, as a man of Science and vast mental acquirements, are known in all civilized lands. We have had his portrait reëngraved in a good degree, to accompany his "Memoriam," to embellish further this number of the ECLECTIC, and add interest to the mind of the reader as he gazes upon the features of the venerable man now no longer a denizen of time. 66 [August, 1859. worthy gentleman of Rouen is at present receiving CURIOUS WAY OF RECEIVING A FORTUNE.-A a fortune which came to him by the drawing of a the state of his health, last summer, to change the cork, in the following curious manner: Obliged by air, he went to the sea shore at Villiers-sur-Mor, that a lad, who was also promenading there with near Tronville, and walking on the beach he noticed his father, had found a sealed bottle among the seathe dirty thing, and not to be soiling his fingers ;" weed. The father bade the child "throw away upon which the invalid picked up the cast-away botdrawn, the bottle was found to contain a written tle and took it with him to his lodgings. The cork document, properly signed, and dated on board a versel which had sprung a leak and was about to sink. It ran thus: my soul to God. I hereby constitute the finder of "About to perish, I commend this will, inclosed in a bottle, my sole heir. My fortune, most laboriously acquired, amounts to nearly 350,000 francs and the small house in which I have resided at Valparaiso. This tenement I wish converted into a chapel, and that a mass may be said there once a mouth for the repose of my soul. The fortune will be found deposited with Mnotary, of Paris, to whom, from time to time, it has been transmitted me. Pray for me. Signed ACCELERATION OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION.In the last number of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society appears an able account of the present state of the controversy on this subject by the Rev. R. Main, the President. The acceleration of the moon's mean motion was known to the celebrated Dr. Halley in 1695; was written upon by Dunthorne in 1749; and during the last fifty years has occupied the attention of Laplace, Airy, Adams, and other great astronomers. The present controversy relates to the amount of the coefficient by Plana, Pantecoulant, and Hansen, and impugned of the acceleration. The old coëfficient is supported by Adams and Delaunay. Mr. Main refers to many papers on the subject in the Comptes Rendus, Philowill be found exceedingly useful to persons interestsophical Transactions, and elsewhere. His resumé ed in this profound question. METEOROLOGY. M. Coulvier Gravier has at THE BRITISH MUSEUM.-An account of the inlength published his Researches sur les Météores, et the financial year ended March 31, 1859; of the come and expenditure of the British Museum for sur les Lois qui les régissent. The volume contains estimated charges of the expenses for the year ended the fruit of fifty years of study, the attention of its March 31, 1860, and sum necessary to discharge the author having been directed to the subject from his same; number of persons admitted, and progress of infancy by his mother, who loved to regard meteo-arrangement, etc., has been published. The expenrological phenomena as eminently glory of God." The volume treats of every branch cluding an item of £496 for publishing "cuneiform declaring the diture for the past year amounted to £73,500, inof the subject, and contains plates of comets, halos, inscriptions," and there was a balance in hand ou shooting stars rainbows, lightning, etc. vier-Gravier was greatly encouraged and aided by £35,004, house-expenses for £3253, purchases and M. Coul- the 31st of March of £25,241. the late M. F. Arago, the astronomer. Salaries figure for acquisitions for £19,830, bookbinding, cabinets, etc., for £13,116, and printing catalogues, making casts, etc., for £1717. The net amount of the estimated year 519,565 persons were admitted to view the expenditure for the year 1859-60 is £77,425. Last general collections, against 621,034 in 1857, 361,714 in 1855. VERTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY. M. Richbourg, a French artist, now engaged at St. Petersburg in photographing monuments, works of art, palaces, etc., for M. Gauthier's Treasures of Art in Ancient and Modern Russia, has succeeded in obtaining, vertically, representations of the interiors of cupolas, vaults, etc. He has thus been enabled to produce, for the first time, a copy of the immense composition painted by the Russian artist Bruloff on the dome of St. Isaac at St. Petersburgh.-La Lumière. of the solemn inauguration of a monument to the INTELLIGENCE from St. Petersburg gives details Emperor Nicholas, on the 25th ult. The monument consists of an equestrian statue in bronze, from the studio of Baron Klodt. Ir has been truly remarked that, in order of time, decoration precedes dress. Before yet he thinks of protecting himself against the weather, the savage bestows much care on the painting of his skin. Among people who submit to great physical suffering that they may have themselves handsomely tattooed, extremes of temperature are borne with but little attempt at mitigation. Humboldt tells us that an Orinoco Indian, though quite regardless of bodily comfort, will yet labor for a fortnight to purchase pigment wherewith to make himself admired; and that the same woman who would not hesitate to leave her hut without a fragment of clothing on, would not dare to commit Lectures on Education delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. London. 1855. such a breach of decorum as to go out unpainted. Voyagers uniformly find that colored beads and trinkets are much more prized by wild tribes than are calicoes or broadcloths. And the anecdotes we have of the ways in which, when shirts and coats are given, they turn them to some ludicrous display, show how completely the idea of ornament predominates over that of use. Indeed, the facts of aboriginal life seem to indicate that dress is developed out of decorations. And when we remember that even among ourselves most think more about the fineness of the fabric than its warmth, and more about the cut than the convenience - when we see that the function is still in great measure subordinated to the appearance -we have further reason for inferring such an origin. 10 It is not a little remarkable that the like relations hold with the mind. Among mental as among bodily acquisitions, the ornamental comes before the useful. Not only in times past, but almost as much in our own era, that knowledge which conduces to personal well-being has been postponed to that which brings applause. In the Greek schools, music, poetry, rhetoric, and a philosophy, which, until Socrates taught, had but little bearing upon action, were the dominant subjects; while knowledge aiding the arts of life had a very subordinate place. And in our own universities and schools at the present moment the like antithesis holds. We are guilty of something like a platitude when we say that throughout his after-career, a boy, in nine cases out of ten, applies his Latin and Greek to no practical purposes. The remark is trite that in his shop or his office, in managing his estate or his family, in playing his part as director of a bank or a railway, he is very little aided by this knowledge he took so many years to acquire; so little, that generally the greater part of it drops out of his memory; and if he occasionally vents a Latin quotation, or alludes to some Greek myth, it is less to throw light on the topic in hand than for the sake of effect. If we inquire what is the real motive for giving boys a classical education, we find it to be simply conformity to public opinion. Men dress their children's minds as they do their bodies, in the prevailing fashion. As the Orinoco Indian puts on his paint before leaving his hut, not with a view to any direct benefit, but because he would be ashamed to be seen without it; so, a boy's drilling in Latin and Greek is insisted on, not because of their intrinsic value, but that he may not be disgraced by being found ignorant of them that he may have "the education of a gentleman"-the badge marking a certain social position, and bringing a consequent respect. to the regard for comfort; while in their education the useful has of late been trenching on the ornamental. In neither direction has this change gone so far with women. The wearing of ear-rings, fingerrings, bracelets; the elaborate dressings of the hair; the still occasional use of paint; the immense labor bestowed in making habiliments sufficiently attractive; and the great discomfort that will be submitted to for the sake of conformity; show how greatly, in the attiring of women, the desire of approbation overrides the desire for warmth and convenience. And similarly in their education, the immense preponderance of "accomplishments" proves how here, too, use is subordinated to display. Dancing, deportment, the piano, singing, drawing-what a large space do these occupy? If you ask why Italian and German are learnt, you will find that, under all the sham reasons given, the real reason is, that a knowledge of those tongues is thought lady-like. It is not that the books written in them may be utilized, which they scarcely ever are; but that Italian and German songs may be sung, and that the extent of attainment may bring whispered admiration. The births, deaths, and marriages of kings, and other like historic trivialities, are committed to memory, not because of any benefits that can possibly result from knowing them; but because society considers them parts of a good education-because the absence of such knowledge may bring the contempt of others. When we have named reading, writing, spelling, grammar, arithmetic, and sewing, we have named about all the things a girl is taught with a positive view to their direct uses in life; and even some of these have more reference to the good opinion of others than to immediate personal welfare. Thoroughly to realize the truth that with the mind as with the body the ornamental precedes the useful, it is needful to glance at its rationale. This lies in the This parallel is still more clearly dis- facts that, from the far past down even to played in the case of the other sex. In the present, social needs have subordinate the treatment of both mind and body, the individual needs, and that the chief social decorative element has continued to pre- need has been the control of individuals. dominate in a greater degree among It is not, as we commonly suppose, that women than among men. Originally, there are no governments but those of personal adornment occupied the atten- monarchs, and parliaments, and constituted tion of both sexes equally. In these latter authorities. These acknowledged governdays of civilization, however, we see that ments are supplemented by other unacin the dress of men the regard for appear- knowledged ones, that grow up in all cirance has in a considerable degree yielded cles, in which every man or woman strives the guidance of mere fashion, or liking, or prejudice; without ever considering the enormous importance of determining in some rational way what things are really most worth learning. It is true that in all circles we have occasional remarks on the importance of this or the other order of information. But whether the degree of its importance justifies the expenditure of the time needed to acquire it; and whether there are not things of more im to be king or queen or lesser dignitary. To get above some and be reverenced by them, and to propitiate those who are above us, is the universal struggle in which the chief energies of life are expended. By the accumulation of wealth, by style of living, by beauty of dress, by display of knowledge or intellect, each tries to subjugate others; and so aids in weaving that ramified network of restraints by which society is kept in order. It is not the savage chief only, who, in formidable war-portance to which the time might be betpaint, with scalps at his belt, aims to strike ter devoted'; are queries which if raised awe into his inferiors; it is not only the at all, are disposed of quite summarily, belle who, by elaborate toilet, polished according to personal predilections. It is manners, and numerous accomplishments, true also, that from time to time, we hear strives to "make conquests;" but the revived the standing controversy respectscholar, the historian, the philosopher, use ing the comparative merits of classics and their acquirements to the same end. We mathematics. Not only, however, is this are none of us content with quietly unfold- controversy carried on in an empirical ing our own individualities to the full in manner, with no reference to an ascertainall directions; but have a restless craving ed criterion; but the question at issue is to impress our individualities upon others, totally insignificant when compared with and in some way subordinate them. And the general question of which it is part. this it is which determines the character To suppose that deciding whether a of our education. Not what knowledge is of most real worth, is the consideration; but what will bring most applause, honor, respect what will most conduce to social position and influence-what will be most imposing. As, throughout life, not what we are, but what we shall be thought, is the question; so in education the question is, not the intrinsic value of knowledge, so much as its extrinsic effects on others. And this being our dominant idea, direct utility is scarcely more considered than by the barbarian when filing his teeth and staining his nails. If there needs any further evidence of the rude, undeveloped character of our education, we have it in the fact that the comparative worths of different kinds of knowledge have been as yet scarcely even discussed-much less discussed in a scientific way with definite results. Not only is it that no standard of relative values has yet been agreed upon; but the existence of any such standard has not been conceived in any clear manner. And not only is it that the existence of any such standard has not been clearly conceived; but the need for it seems to have been scarcely even felt. Men read books on this topic, and attend lectures on that; decide that their children shall be instructed in these branches of knowledge, and shall not be instructed in those; and all under mathematical or a classical education is the best, is deciding what is the proper curriculum, is much the same thing as to suppose that the whole of dietetics lies in determining whether or not bread is more nutritive than potatoes! The question which we contend is of such transcendent moment, is, not whether such or such knowledge is of worth, but what is its relative worth? When they have named certain advantages which a given course of study has secured them, persons are apt to assume that they have justified themselves: quite forgetting that the adequateness of the advantages is the point to be judged. There is, perhaps, not a subject to which men devote attention that has not some value. A year diligently spent in getting up heraldry, would very possibly give a little further insight into ancient manners and morals, and into the origin of names. Any one who should learn the distances between all the towns in England, might, in the course of his life, find one or two of the thousand facts he had acquired of some slight service when arranging a journey. Gathering together all the small gossip of a country, profitless occupation as it would be, might yet occasionally help to establish some useful fact-say, a good example of hereditary transmission. But in these cases, every one would admit that there was no proportion between the required labor and the probable benefit. No one would tolerate the proposal to devote some years of a boy's time to get ting such information, at the cost of much more valuable information which he might else have got. And if here the test of relative value is appealed to and held conclusive, then should it be appealed to and held conclusive throughout. Had we time to master all subjects we need not be particular. To quote the old song: "Could a man be secure That his days would endure "But we that have but span-long lives" must ever bear in mind our limited time for acquisition. And remembering how narrowly this time is limited, not only by the shortness of life but also still more by the business of life, we ought to be especially solicitous to employ what time we have to the greatest advantage. Before devoting years to some subject which fashion or fancy suggests, it is surely important to weigh with great care the worth of the results, as compared with the worth of various alternative results which the same years might bring if otherwise applied. In education, then, this is the question of questions, which it is high time we discussed in some methodic way. The first in importance, though the last to be considered, is the problem-how to decide. among the conflicting claims of various subjects on our attention. Before there can be a rational curriculum, we must settle which things it most concerns us to know; or, to use a word of Bacon's, now unfortunately obsolete we must determine the relative values of knowledges. To this end, a measure of value is the first requisite. And happily, respecting the true measure of value, as expressed in general terms, there can be no dispute. Every one, in contending for the worth of any particular order of information, does so by showing its bearing upon some part of life. In reply to the question, "Of what use is it?" the mathematician, linguist, naturalist, or philosopher, explains the way in which his learning beneficially influences action-saves from evil or secures good conduces to happiness. When the teacher of writing has pointed out how great an aid writing is to success in business-that is, to the obtainment of sustenance-that is, to satisfactory living; he is held to have proved his case. And when the collector of dead facts (say a numismatist) fails to make clear any appreciable effects which these facts can produce on human welfare, he is obliged to admit that they are comparatively valueless. All then, either directly or by implication, appeal to this as the ultimate test. How to live? that is the essential question for us. Not how to live in the mere material sense only, but in the widest sense. The general problem which comprehends every special problem, is-the right ruling of conduct in all directions under all circumstances. In what way to treat the body; in what way to treat the mind; in what way to manage our affairs; in what way to bring up a family; in what way to behave as a citizen; in what way to utilize all those sources of happiness which nature supplies-how to use all our faculties to the greatest advantage of ourselves and others-how to live completely? And this being the great thing needful for us to learn, is, by consequence, the great thing which education has to teach. To prepare us for complete living is the function which education has to dis charge; and the only rational mode of judging of any educational course is, to judge in what degree it discharges its function. This test, never used in its entirety, but rarely even partially used, used then to a very small extent, and in a vague, halfconscious way, has to be applied consciously, methodically, and throughout all cases. It behooves us to set before ourselves, and ever to keep clearly in view, complete living as the end to be achieved; so that in bringing up our children we may choose subjects and methods of instruction with deliberate reference to this end. Not only ought we to cease from the mere unthinking adoption of the current fashion in education, which has no better warrant than any other fashion; but we must also rise above that rude, empirical style of judging displayed by those more intelligent people who do bestow some care in overseeing the cultivation of their children's minds. It must not suffice simply to think that such or such information will be useful in after |