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Untitled Article
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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consider , whether , because a pupil ' s head is filled with the wisdom oi others , and his mind saved the labour of thought for itself , he will be the more wise and well-judging ; whether he will not , in short , be a mere puppet in the hands of his teachers ? It is true , that , in defiance of the system of literalism in which he has been brought up , Harry Beaufoy , in the present work , quotes poetry with an ardour and enthusiasm which startles his father , and might confound a Necessarian , but we cannot help regarding this result as unnatural .
The hero ' s age ( fifteen ) is also , we think , too advanced , for the general tenour of his remarks , which are more like the prattle of an inquiring child of nine or ten ; and the respected author is mistaken if she conceives that the extent of his learning in one direction is an equivalent for the absence of all information on another . On the contrary , it does but render the childish tone in which he addresses , and is addressed by his parents , a more striking contrast . It is possible , indeed , that a youth of fifteen , chiefly conversant with books , might ,
through neglect of the powers of observation , have remained in ignorance of the existence of fossils in a neighbouring chalk-pit ; but from one who has made his reading so much his own , and displays such quickness and aptitude of application , as Harry Beaufoy , we should surely have expected some notions , however vague , respecting the changes of the earth , and the existence of fossil remains ; so also should we have looked for rather better acquaintance with the fate of Galileo * .
Having ventured to make these objections , we come with much greater pleasure to the subject of the merits of the book . Both the arrangement and execution have much delighted us . Mrs . Hack has not only great information and accuracy , but a most happy talent of selection . She has brought together nothing either irrelevant to her purpose , or far-fetched or dreamy ; but out of well-attested facts has contrived to make a most interesting , for ourselves we would say , evert fascinating , book . Its power of seizing the attention of the young " ,
however , owes nothing to the conversational form adopted , while the childish appearance given by that form may deter older readers , who otherwise wou \ d find in it much valuable and interesting information . The space allotted to volcanoes and earthquakes appears to us rather disproportioned to the extent of the volume , when compared with that assigned to mineral productions and animal remains , —far more extensive , if not rnore interesting subjects of inquiry . We shall make no quotations from Mrs . Hack ' s work , which , with the exceptions above recorded , we much admire , and heartily recommend .
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An Outline of English History . ( For the use of Schools . ) By Henry Ince . Gilbert , London . Bate heller , Dover . This unpretending little book is what it professes to be , and performs what it promises , It is a good outline ; and may be advantageously used by pupils to methodize and arrange the information which they obtain from histories , stories , biography , and other sources ; o ^ better still perhaps , by the teacher , as containing , in each reign , the heads of a lecture , which , if he well fills up , will not be surpassed , in the interest it excites , by any instruction which he cam bestow .
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214 Critical Notices , — Education .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1832, page 214, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1808/page/70/
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