Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/227

 success is certain, and will he in proportion to the ability he shall discover, the labour he shall bestow, and the means he shall employ. It is by instilling principles of religion and morality into the minds of the young, that he can best accomplish the ends of his ministry: it is by forming them to habits of diligence, industry, veracity, and honesty, and by instructing them in useful knowledge, that he can best promote their individual interest, and serve the state to which they belong, two purposes which cannot, in sound policy, or even in reality, exist apart."

With these feelings, and with this sense of duty, Dr Bell began his task. He had to work upon the most unpromising materials, but the difficulties he had to encounter led to that improvement in education with which his name is connected. Failing to retain the services of properly qualified ushers, he resorted to the expedient of conducting his school through the medium of the scholars themselves. It is in the mode of conducting a school by means of mutual instruction, that the discovery of Dr Bell consists; and its value, as an abbreviation of the mechanical part of teaching, and where large numbers were to be taught economically, could not be easily overestimated at the time, although later educationalists have improved upon the plan, and the Madras system is now less in use than formerly. The first new practice which Dr Bell introduced into his school, was that of teaching the letters, by making the pupils trace them in sand, as he had seen children do in a Malabar school. The next improvement was the practice of syllabic reading. The child, after he had learned to read and spell monosyllables, was not allowed to pronounce two syllables till he acquired oy long practice a perfect precision. From the commencement of his experiment, he made the scholars, as far as possible, do everything for themselves: they ruled their own paper, made their own pens, &c., with the direction only of their teacher. The maxim of the school was, that no boy could do anything right the first time, but he must learn when he first set about it, by means of his teacher, so as to be able to do it himself ever afterwards. Every boy kept a register of the amount of work which he performed, so that his diligence at different times might be compared. There was also a black book, in which all offences were recorded: this was examined once a-week; and Dr Bell's custom, in almost every case of ill-behaviour, was to make the boys themselves judges of the offender. He never had reason, he says, to think their decision impartial, biassed, or unjust, or to interfere with their award, otherwise than to mitigate or remit, the punishment, when he thought the formality of the trial, and of the sentence, was sufficient to produce the effect required. But the business of the teachers was to preclude punishment, by preventing faults; and so well was this object attained that for months together, it was not found necessary to inflict a single punishment.

An annual saving of not less than £960, upon the education and support of two hundred boys, was produced in the institution at Madras, by Dr Bell's regulations and improvements. This, however, he justly regarded as an incidental advantage; his grand aim was to redeem the children from the stigma under which they laboured, and the fatal effect which that stigma produced; and to render them good subjects, good men, and good Christians. After superintending the school for seven years, he found it necessary for his health, to return to Europe. The directors of the charity passed a resolution for providing him a passage in any ship which he might wish to sail in, declaring, at the same time, that, under "the wise and judicious regulations which he had established, the institution had been brought to a degree of perfection and promising utility, far exceeding what the most sanguine hopes could have suggested at the time of its establishment; and that he was entitled to their fullest approbation, for his zealous and disinterested conduct." The language in which Dr Bell spoke of the institution on leaving it, will not be read without emotion, by those who are capable of appreciating what is truly excellent in human