the morals of youth. What, indeed, can tend to deprave the character more than outward ſubmiſſion and inward contempt? Yet how can boys be expected to treat an uſher with reſpect, when the maſter ſeems to conſider him in the light of a ſervant, and almoſt to countenance the ridicule which becomes the chief amuſement of the boys during the play hours.
But nothing of this kind could occur in an elementary day ſchool, where boys and girls, the rich and poor, ſhould meet together. And to prevent any of the diſtinctions of vanity, they ſhould be dreſſed alike, and all obliged to ſubmit to the ſame diſcipline, or leave the ſchool. The ſchool-room ought to be ſurrounded by a large piece of ground, in which the children might be uſefully exerciſed, for at this age they ſhould not be confined to any ſedentary employment for more than an hour at a time. But theſe relaxations might all be rendered a part of elementary education, for many things improve and amuſe the ſenſes, when introduced as a kind of ſhow, to the principles of which, dryly laid down, children would turn a deaf ear. For inſtance, botany, mechanics, and aſtronomy. Reading, writing, arithmetic, natural hiſtory, and ſome ſimple experiments in natural philoſophy, might fill up the day; but theſe purſuits ſhould never encroach on gymnaſtic plays in the open air. The elements of religion, hiſtory, the hiſtory of man, and politics, might alſo be taught, by converſations, in the ſocratic form.
After the age of nine, girls and boys, intended for domeſtic employments, or mechanical trades,
