We are then brought round to the point, that it is to a physical and not a moral necessity that we must look, if we would justify this disregard, I had almost said violation, of a primary law of human nature.  The link of eleemosynary tuition connects the infant school with the national schools upon the Madras system.  Now I cannot but think that there is too much indiscriminate gratuitous instruction in this country; arising out of the misconception above adverted to, of the real power of school teaching, relatively to the discipline of life; and out of an over-value of talent, however exerted, and of knowledge prized for its own sake, and acquired in the shape of knowledge.  The latter clauses of the last sentence glance rather at the London University and the Mechanics’ Institutes than at the Madras schools, yet they have some bearing upon these also.  Emulation, as I observed in my last letter, is the master-spring of that system.  It mingles too much with all teaching, and with all learning; but in the Madras mode it is the great wheel which puts every part of the machine into motion.

But I have been led a little too far from gratuitous instruction.  If possible, instruction ought never to be altogether so.  A child will soon learn to feel a stronger love and attachment to its parents, when it perceives that they are making sacrifices for its instruction.  All that precept can teach is nothing compared with convictions of this kind.  In short, unless book-attainments are carried on by the side of moral influences they are of no avail.  Gratitude is one of the most benign of moral influences; can a child be grateful to a corporate body for its instruction? or grateful even to the Lady Bountiful of the neighbourhood, with all the splendour which he sees about her, as he would be grateful to his poor father and mother, who spare from their scanty provision a mite for the culture of his mind at school?  If we look back upon the progress of things in this country since the Reformation, we shall find, that instruction has never been severed from moral influences and purposes, and the natural action of circumstances, in the way that is now attempted.  Our forefathers established, in abundance, free grammar schools; but for a distinctly understood religious purpose.  They were designed to provide against a relapse of the nation into Popery, by diffusing a knowledge of the languages in which the Scriptures are written, so that a sufficient number might be aware how small a portion of the popish belief had a foundation in Holy Writ.

It is undoubtedly to be desired that every one should be able to read, and perhaps (for that is far from being equally apparent) to write.  But you will agree with me, I think, that these attainments are likely to turn to better account where they are not gratuitously lavished, and where either the parents and connections are possessed of certain property which enables them to procure the instruction for their