PROGRESS OF EDUCATION IN ASIA MINOR.

An American missionary and his wife have established a school at Smyrna, for the instruction of children of both sexes in the English language, and in general elementary education, after the most approved system. This school is chiefly attended by the children of English parents settled in the country. It must be productive of important good; for it is a positive fact, that only a few years ago, from the want of some such establishment, and the carelessness of their fathers, many of whom had married women of the country, these children were not only sadly deficient in those rudiments which the poorest among us now acquire, but positively ignorant of the English language. You would meet, for example, a Mr. John this, and a Miss Mary that, with names the most English, who would not know how to address to you a single decent sentence in the idiom of their fathers; and it need scarcely be added, that in English character, intelligence, and energy, they were almost equally deficient. Two or three respectable families of Dutch descent also send their children to this school.

The other European settlers, who are nearly all Catholics, have not yet had the good sense to overcome their religious prejudices, and to send their children to be educated by a Protestant minister; but, even confined as they are, we look upon the labours of the respectable American missionary in this part of the world as praiseworthy and important.

What, however, is of still more importance at Smyrna, as regards numbers and a whole people, is the settlement of a good Greek seminary for the education of the young Greeks. The British consul has been recently allowed to take this establishment under his special protection; and, with the arms of England over its gateway, it has now nothing to fear from the Turks, but goes on teaching steadily and quietly.

An intelligent friend, who was in England a short 75time ago, delighted us with an account of an annual examination of the pupils of this Smyrna school. The Greeks, who, with all their defects—defects that have mainly resulted from the oppression of the Turks, and their own want of education—are a quick, intelligent people, curious, and eager for information, crowded the place of assembly, and when, in the course of the examination, a son, or a younger brother, or any young relative or friend, acquitted himself well, their satisfaction and glee were forcibly expressed by their animated countenances. It added to our satisfaction to learn that many of this audience were common sailors or artisans—a proof that education is, as it ought to be, cheap, and within the means of the industrious poor. A number of the youths thus educated are so far advanced in the study of the ancient Greek (which glorious language will be gradually restored to common use, as the modern Greeks advance in civilization), that they get up and play scenes from the tragedies of Euripides. To these representations the Greeks of Smyrna throng with the most lively delight. They do not at present understand one-third of what they hear, but they will “live and learn.”

Queen Elizabeth.—Lord Chief Justice Coke told this anecdote of Queen Elizabeth upon the bench:—“When I was the Queen’s Attorney-General she said to me, ‘I understand my counsel will strongly urge the Queen’s prerogative, but my will is, that they stand for our Lady the Truth, rather than for our Lady the Queen, unless that our Lady the Queen hath the truth on her side.’ And she also used to give this in charge many times, when any one was called to any office by her, that they should ever stand for the Truth rather than for the Queen.” This was told thirteen years after Queen Elizabeth’s death; yet too many facts prove that she was accustomed to violate her own precepts.

Good Effects of a Predilection for some celebrated Author.—A predilection for some great author, among the vast number which must transiently occupy our attention, seems to be the happiest preservative for our taste. Accustomed to that excellent author whom we have chosen for our favourite, we may possibly resemble him in this intimacy. It is to be feared, that if we do not form such a permanent attachment, we may be acquiring knowledge, while our enervated taste becomes less and less lively. Taste embalms the knowledge, which otherwise cannot preserve itself. He who has long been intimate with one great author will always be found to be a formidable antagonist; he has saturated his mind with the excellences of genius; he has shaped his faculties insensibly to himself by his model; and he is like a man who ever sleeps in armour, ready at a moment! The old Latin proverb reminds us of this fact—Cave ab homine unius libri: be cautious of the man of one book.—Curiosities of Literature.