7 OCTOBER 1871, Page 1

We have explained elsewhere Mr. Forster's calculation as to the

number of those rho maybe expected to pass with advantage from the primary into the secondary schools of the country. Ile calm- hated that of the 9,000 children who ought always to be undergoing education in the primary schools in Bradford, 27 would always profit by the chance of a higher education, and he hoped, there- fore, that there might be 27 scholarships soon open to the children esf the primary schools, admitting them to the newly reformed Bradford grammar-school. For two of these he proposed to make himself responsible. He further insisted on the necessity of pay- ing more attention in the secondary schools to the modern lan- guages, even at the expense of the ancient, and asked how,—if dead languages be the only fit instruments of intellectual discipline,—the Greeks and Ronaaus got their high intel- lectual discipline out of Greek and Roman literature ? The question is pertinent,—indeed, we heartily agree with Mr. F orater's general drift,—but we do not know that it is unanswer- able. It may be said that it is the vast complexity of modern interests and thoughts, and the consequent want of simplicity and .of severity in our languages and literatures, which render our modern tongues unfit instruments of mental discipline. But the Greek and Roman literatures, though not dead, were at least far more free than ours from this defect as educational instruments. Greek literature differs from ours as a grand avenue differs from a tropical jungle.