a space that not infrequently the heads of
the children and the animals would combine in a way more grotesque than
effective for educational purposes.

The amount of didactic efficiency to be expected in the teacher may be
surmised from the circumstance of his salary being sometimes less than the
munificent sum of threepence-halfpenny per day! With such machinery we may
feel it was an achievement to be grateful for, if by the end of the
winter's session the children had learnt to read, write, and cipher
moderately, and could repeat by heart a prayer for morning and evening, the
Lord's Prayer, the Decalogue, and the Apostles' Creed.

Second. There were also the PARISH SCHOOLS, open ten months in the year,
and attended during the winter by a large number of children, the majority
of whom had to leave on the advent of spring to work in the fields. Those
not so required remained in the district or hamlet schools. The buildings
in which the parish schools were conducted were not exactly stables, but
yet entirely destitute of the light, air, fittings, and furniture requisite
for school-work. The only reading-books were a French Bible and Italian
acts of parliament. So much, then, for the primary schools. The condition
of the _secondary or grammar schools_ was not much more encouraging. The
institution was migratory, and aimed to teach fifteen or twenty pupils,
divided into five classes, under one teacher, not always very competent,
and badly paid, as much Latin and Greek as would secure their admission as
students in the academies of Strasbourg, Lausanne, or Geneva. But we pass
from schools to things religious and ecclesiastical. Morals were
comparatively pure; there was a respect for religion; a frequent attendance
on public worship; a deep attachment to their ancestral faith; a
disposition to endure everything rather than deny it; and affection and
esteem for their pastors. As regards the pastors, they were, almost without
exception, faithful to the ancient evangelical orthodoxy.

But there was that which both pastors and flocks were very imperfectly
acquainted with, viz., on one side the aim and mission of the church, and
on the other the true nature of the fruits intended to be produced by the
preaching of the gospel. In a word, there was a lack of true spiritual
energy, a realization of the need and preciousness of salvation. There was
the outward shell of orthodoxy, but the living soul of godliness was
wanting. Jesus C