of the strongest of all human passions, had been struck by them to the heart, and by passions, too, as opposite to one another as mid-day and midnight.

These sudden shocks had for the time

communicated, as it were, a preternatural strength to their victim.

But when

the final excitation subsided, it left him weak as a reed. He was sensible, before others observed it, that a palsy had crept over him, that his powers of speech were benumbed, and that this must be the finger of death. There was no painful distortion to distress the hearts of his re. lations; his speech was not greatly changed; but a mortal weakness overspread face and figure, and there was an expression in his eyes that told the lids would in a few hours be closed. I am dying, children, let me have all your prayers;" and in a few hours he did expire, but not till he learned that Abel, however guilty, was not chargeable with the last crime of which he had been accused.

and found his Agnes sitting at her needle, dressed as he desired, and with their daughter, Lucy, at her work too, beside her knee, he felt his whole nature not only supported, but purified by the presence of so much beauty, innocence, and affection. At evening, he saw those for whom he had been toiling during the day; and a feeling far profounder than pride or admiration was constantly in his heart, whenever he left or entered the humble porch. An undisturbed quiet was for ever in his house, broken only by the sharp shrill voice of an aunt Isobel, who liked to speak in an upper key, or by her footsteps, still quick as those of girlhood and sweetest of all sounds, by the prattle and the singing of his Lucy, in features the very image of her mother, but the most gleesome of children, and wild as the fawn in the wood. Yet in the midst of all her mirth, Lucy would fall hush in a moment at her mother's voice, and all the smiles nearly disappear in the composed chearfulness of her eyes and her forehead. Then those golden clusters lay: still upon her fair temples; the child, at

the bidding of her mother's eye, would take up her book, perhaps the Bible-and read or in employment equally religious, with her little hands would set the house in order against her father's return, and arrange, upon the table, his frugal meal.

Such was the family of Michael Forester, and we do indeed labour under a grievous mistake, if there was not in such a groupe more of true dignity and happiness than is to be met with, aye, in mansions of princes. Time rolled on, and the only interruption, if it really could be called so, to all this life of satisfaction and love, was the accident which deprived Michael Forester of the light of day for ever. He be came reconciled, happy under his sore privation, and he went about doing good, even to a greater extent than before. Lucy had few companions, but every one who knew her was her friend. Mary Morison, the only child of a neighbouring tenant, .became a constant inmate at Brackenbrae, and an affection, pure as that of the kindest sisters, arose between these two children of Nature. Emma Cranstoun, the young, beautiful, and accomplished lady of the manor on which Michael Forester lived, entertained an attachment for Lucy, more resembling that of an equal, than of a person so far removed above her by birth, education, and fortune.

At length the consummation of the wishes of Miles Colinson, the vis car of Ellesmere's son, arrives. By slow and sure means, not by expressions of boiling passion, and nonsensical harangues, he gained the affections of Lucy Forester; and by the liberality of his father, and of an old London solicitor, his uncle, he lived on a scale suitable to his means, in a country abounding with the choicest of Nature's beautiful things, and with a treasure which he could call his own, but which he would not have parted with for worlds.

After eating the pine-apple and the peach, how can we return to these fuisionless fruits the crab and the dogberry? After such a luscious entertainment, how can we think of opening those fiddle-faddle storybooks, those Tom Thumb and Goody-two-shoes adventures, those Babes-in-the-wood tales, which are every day making their appearance

in bales, and which are only fit to make nurseries exult with unbridled joy, or melt in unbounded grief? These are the dainty things with which we are now usually supplied by our kind booksellers. We are quite resolved, however, that, after such a treat as this at Nature's own

board, we shall not soon touch a particle of that filthy artificial garbage which smokes, with deceitful fragrance, on the tables of the many rich, but obscure, book-jobbers, with whom the country is even more infested, than in the book-making days of the illustrious Martinus Seriblerus.

I HAVE before me the Fourth Annual Report of the Directors of the Edinburgh School of Arts, or Mechanics' Institution. The Report was laid before the Directors of the Institution by Mr Leonard Horner, their zealous and meritorious Secretary, on the 7th day of the present month. Few subjects can more appropriately find a place in the pages of the Edinburgh, or Scots Magazine, than an account of an Institution of great practical utility, which has been formed, and has now existed with daily increasing advantages, for four years, in the heart of the metropolis of Scotland. Fortunately for the interests of education, which are in the most direct sense also the interests of the great mass of society, the Edinburgh School of Arts, from its first establishment to the present moment, has received not only the countenance and patronage, but the solid pecuniary aid of multitudes of men in our community, distinguished from one another by all the most glaring, and the most minute shades of difference in political and religious sentiments. Without a single excep tion, the press of Scotland has applauded the liberality with which the enlightened and wealthy members of our society have contributed to extend the benefits of a scientific education to the mechanics of our city.

In the sequel, I shall devote a part of my attention to the history and present state of this Institution, and

conclude with some remarks on a late pamphlet. by a Rev. Mr Grinfield of Bath, which has been written with a view to refute the opinions set forth by Mr Brougham in his admirable, and most extensively-circulated “Observations upon the Education of the People." I know not whether I should have ever heard of this Rev. Mr Grinfield, or his pamphlet in reply to Mr Brougham, had I not, by the merest accident in the world, opened, in a public library, an aged London Journal for May last, which I believe Lord Byron very appropriately designated My Grandmother's Review," and which contained a sort of analysis of Mr Grinfield's important work, in a spirit quite accordant with his own ultramundane notions on the subject of Mechanics' Institutes.

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Perhaps the best and most concise account of the origin and purposes of the Edinburgh School of Arts is that contained in Mr Brougham's pamphlet, which has deservedly excited so much attention in this, and the neighbouring country; and I do not hesitate in using it, for the purpose of putting on record, in an authentic form, the proceedings of this Institution, during the two first years of its existence. In the Number of this Magazine for the last month, I had occasion to state, that Dr Birkbeck of London had the honour of first delivering lectures on science to Mechanics, in the Andersonian Institution of Glasgow, about twenty-five

years ago. The eagerness with which the_artizans of that great manufacturing city flocked to hear those lectures, which opened up to them the principles on which their daily operations were conducted, shewed distinctly what success might attend si imilar institutions in equally, or even less favourable localities. However, it does not appear that the plan was adopted on any considerable scale till the year 1821, when a number of gentlemen in Edinburgh resolved, if possible, to form an Institution on a plan somewhat similar to that of Anderson at Glasgow. The promoters of the measure began by drawing up a short sketch of the proposed Institution, and causing it to be circulated among the principal master mechanies, with a request that they would read it in their work-shops, and take down the names of such of the men as were desirous of being taught the principles of those sciences most useful to artizans. In the course of ten days, between 70 and 80 names were entered, and a private meeting was held of a few gentlemen who were disposed to encourage the experiment. These resolved to begin a subscription for the purpose. In April 1821, they circulated a prospectus among the mechanics, announcing the commencement of a course of lectures on Mechanics, and another on Chemistry, in October following,-with the opening of a library of books upon the same subjects, for perusal at home as well as in the room; the hours of lecture to be from eight to nine in the evening, twice a-week, for six months; and the terms of admission to the whole, both lectures and library, fifteen shillings a-year. A statement was then issued to the public at large, announcing the establishment of a "School of Arts," with the particulars of the plan; and so well was it received by all classes, that in September notice was given of 220 mechanics having entered as students, and such a sum having been subscribed by the public, as enabled the Directors to open the establishment in October. When 400 had purchased tickets, the two courses of lectures were delivered by Dr Forbes and Mr Galbraith; to which one on Architecture, and one on Farriery, were added, with a class for

Architectural and Mechanical Draw ing during the summer recess.

The Mechanical Lectures had hardly begun, when some of the students, finding the want of mathematical knowledge, proposed to form themselves into a class under one of their own number, a joiner, who had agreed to teach them, gratuitously, the elements of Geometry and the higher branches of Arithmetic. This suggestion was warmly approved of by the Directors, and some assistance in books being given, thirty met once a-week for Geometry, and once for Arithmetic; and adopting the plan of mutual instruction, they arranged the class in five divisions, each under the best scholar as a nonitor, and going over in one night the lessons of the night before. The number of this class being limited to thirty, those who were excluded formed another on the same plan, under a cabinet-maker, also a student of the School of Arts. The joiner's name is James Yule; the cabinet-maker's David Dewar; and their successful exertions to teach their fellow-workmen are deserving of very great commendation. Mr Galbraith, the Mechanical Professor, adopted the plan of setting exercises to his pupils, and a list has been published of those who chiefly distinguished themselves by the number and accuracy of their solutions, being twenty-five persons.

The average receipts of the two first years were, from subscriptions, £.448 yearly, and from the students, £.300. The average expenditure was about £.620, and a saving of £.300 was made towards building a lectureroom. The expenditure includes, for furniture and apparatus, £.216 a-year; for books and binding, £.110; and for expenses incident to the subscriptions, as advertiseinents, collection, and meetings, about £.70 ; leaving of current necessary expenses about £.220 only; so that if the extrinsic subscriptions were at an end, or were confined to the accumulation of a fund for building, the students could themselves carry on the establishment, and have a surplus of £.80 a-year for the wear, and tear, and increase of the apparatus and the library; and if their contributions were increased to a pound yearly, which

would probably make very little, if any difference, in the number of students, an additional £.100 would be afforded for the better payment of the Lecturers, or for the establishment of new lectures.

In concluding his short historical sketch of the Edinburgh School of Arts, Mr Brougham has well remarked, that, as nothing can be more useful to the community of this great city than the formation of this establishment, so nothing can be more honourable to the inhabitants than the zeal and harmony with which all ranks have united in conducting it, and all parties among the rich, in giving it their support. He concludes with a well-deserved eulogy on the Secretary, of whose great and surpassing merits in forming, and in a great measure superintending the Institution, every enlightened citizen of Edinburgh has formed but one opinion, and that is in full accordance with the opinion of Mr Brougham.

In its constitution, the Edinburgh School of Arts differs considerably from most of those Mechanics' Institutions which have been lately formed; and I cannot help expressing my wishes that it had some more ingredients of popularity infused into its system. Mr Brougham touches very tenderly upon this point, in speaking of the Edinburgh Institution; but in treating of the abstract question, he has delivered his opinion boldly and decidedly, that the active management of these seminaries ought to be vested in the mechanics themselves, as soon as, by the aid of men of superior wealth and education, they have acquired a degree of stability and apparent permanency. It is with much hesitation that any one would presume to differ with so great a master, on a point of such vital importance to all these institutions. The experience of Edinburgh, however, which possesses the oldest of these schools but one, would seem to indicate, that there should at least be such a number of leading and influential men, to mingle in the deliberations of the mechanics, as may tend to prevent them from running headlong into the abyss of untried, but clearly absurd theories, and from spending too great a portion of their precious time in idle or passionate discussions,

about the petty details of their Institution. Nothing of this kind has taken place in Edinburgh, from the circumstance that the Directors and Office-Bearers, with the exception of the managers of the library and apparatus, are chosen wholly from the class of contributors. I am well-informed, that in more than one place, which I studiously avoid naming, the little squabbles about the private affairs of the Institution have produced very injurious effects on the conduct of the members, and have, without doubt, retarded their progress in education in a very material degree. The observation applies to Institutions not above half the age of that in Edinburgh. However, if the higher classes in cities or towns, which can properly support such seminaries, neglect, what is their most palpable duty, to give their best assistance and advice to the workmen in the commencement and organization of their establishments, I hold it to be a matter of the first importance that the men should act a firm and independent part, and carry the principles which Mr Brougham has laid down, on the subject of constitutional regulations, to their fullest extent, by assuming the entire management into their own hands. I observe that it has been recommended, in circumstances where the object can be effected, that no more than twothirds of the Committee of Management should consist of artizans, and the remaining third of the higher classes of society. It is probable that this proportion may suit as well as any other, because if the higher class of the Committee should attempt to dictate to the mechanics, or, by dishonest or insidious means, to make jobs for themselves or their friends, of the funds or patronage vested in the Committee, the mechanics, having always numbers on their side, could at once rid themselves of such coadjutors. In practice, I should conceive that the union of prudence, with superior education and wealth, would always secure at least an attentive hearing to the minority, and that minority might influence and lead, most beneficially for their own interests, those very men who would otherwise have fallen into dangerous or fatal mistakes. In sup

port of the view which Mr Brougham has so decidedly taken up on this subject, 1 conceive it would be unfair not to mention what takes place in the management of dissenting congregations in Scotland. They have not only the sole power of electing their own religious instructor, from that class whose education and character has been approved by their own pastors, but the committees of their members, in almost every instance, direct peaceably, independently, and to the satisfaction of all parties, (not even excepting their controversial spouses and daughters, the most difficult to please of all mortals,) all the concerns of their chapels, from the first laying of the foundation-stone, to the collection of the last sixpence of contributions for the support of their minister, and the last halfpenny of their charitable offerings for the support of their poor. In drawing this parallel between a religious and a scientific association, I really cannot help, after all, paying a tribute of profound respect to the sagacity of Mr Brougham, in recommending so strongly, that, in all cases, the men themselves should be intrusted with the sole direction of their own affairs. He cannot, I am sure, be blind to the effects which the occasional quarrels among half-educated men must sometimes produce in scientific associations; and these quarrels are not rare among socii of far higher pretensions in the world than mechanics but his comprehensive mind has seen, that the risk of mischief from such disputes is to be rated in a far lower scale than the risk of indifference, which is almost certain to arise in those cases wherein the men are entirely excluded from the management of affairs in which they have the deepest interest.

When I consider these things, I own that I am very nearly converted to Mr Brougham's opinion; but I should like to have a little more experience of the practical working of these novel and wonderful machines, for the manufacture of philosophers by the gross, before I venture to express any very positive idea as to their probable permanency. One thing I may affirm in regard to them, without the fear

VOL. XVI.

of contradiction from any, except those crazy, superannuated bigots, whose ears never transmitted to their incorrigible brains one report that had the semblance of liberality, or even of common sense, that these Institutions, so far as we have yet seen their operation, have produced an elevation of habits, of understanding, and of moral feeling, among those who have attended them; that they have engendered mutual feelings of kindness and respect between the higher and the lower classes in our land; and that, in not a few instances, have the pupils already taken their station in a higher rank of society than they could ever have expected to reach, without the aid of that instruction for which they have been entirely indebted to Mechanics' Institutions.

To return from these general remarks, let us attend once more to the working of our Edinburgh Institu tion. I find from the Report of the Directors of last year, the third from the commencement, that 317 pupils had attended the various classes. By the present, or fourth year's Report, I find that the number was 340, of whom 262 were new students, and 78 had attended former sessions. Their several occupations were as follow: