PREFACE. IN offering the following details to the attention of the public, the author's principal motive was the hope that, by so doing, he might facilitate in some degree the introduction of the new system of education into village schools. He knows of some benevolent individuals, and feels assured that there are great numbers, especially among his brethren the clergy, who are zealously disposed to confer this important benefit upon their respective parishes, and neighbourhoods; but who are in want of a practical guide, which shall point out the precise way, in which the principles of the new method of instruction may be accommodated to schools of the above-mentioned description. If the ensuing pages shall be found to supply in any measure this deficiency; and shall be the means of extending, even in the smallest degree, the blessings of a sound, religious education; he will have no reason to regret his having been prevailed upon to submit them to the public eye. The chief merit to which the author presumes to lay claim is, that of having adopted what he considered to be real improvements in education, whereever he found them. After a careful perusal of the publications both of Dr. Bell and of Mr. Lancaster, and as careful an examination of several schools conducted upon their respective systems, as well in London and its vicinity as in different parts of the country; he has selected, from each system, what he judged to be truly valuable; and has taken the B |