The London Review (Volume 11) (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1859. Excerpt: ... Memoirs of Saint Simon. 315 habits of the age, no doubt the laws of the various learned professions would be remodelled in conformity with theirs. At the very threshold, however, of their work, the Commissioners will have to encounter the ineradicable feeling in Scotland, that the highest education the country affords ought to be available to all classes of the community. To us it seems vain to hope that any educational institution can rise high if it stoops so low; that it can, as a general rule, form accomplished scholars on plans of study suited to the position of those who are earning their bread by manual labour. Scotland points with justifiable pride to Hugh Miller, the stone-mason, and not a few others of the most eminent men of this and other ages, who were raised from the labouring classes; and she argues that all are entitled to a chance of similar development. We point likewise to the sparkling gems which the lapidary exhibits as things picked up on the Grampian Hills; but we do not thence infer that establishments should be erected for cutting and polishing all the stones in Aberdeenshire. It is vain, however, to argue the point against the deep-rooted feeling of the nation. The Commissioners will probably not attempt to combat it. They will accept it as a settled point, that the conditions of education in the Universities must be such as to keep them available to the lower as well as the middle classes; and they will provide for carrying it to as high a point as may be compatible with these conditions. What that point can be we must wait for time to tell. Art. III.--MSmoires complets et authentiques du Due de Saint Simon sur le Siecle de Louis XIV. et la liegence. Collationnes sur le Manuscrit original par M. Cheiiuel, et precedes d'une Notice par M. Sainte-beuve, de l'...