A GENERAL VIEW OF EUROPEAN SYSTEMS OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.
No SYSTEM of public instruction was recognized by the ancients. Common schools are of comparatively recent date, and their benefits are mostly confined to Europeans and their descendants. Prior to Grecian civilization, education was the privilege of those who were designed for official or ecclesiastical stations. Moses was educated in a priestly school in Egypt; Cyrus at a seminary connected with the Persian court; the Indian Brahmins imparted instruction in secret schools; in Palestine, those conversant with the Scriptures taught in the schools of the prophets; at later periods in the synagogues, and in the schools of the rabbis. The advantages of these schools were accessible to few; the means of learning were limited to conversation, reading, committing to memory, and hearing explanations of the sacred books.
Sparta may be regarded as an exception to the invariable practice among the ancients, to leave the education of children exclusively to parents or special classes; but the system of Lycurgus was more intended for the development of the physical powers than the intellect. Still, the Greeks were not without conceptions of the great value to a commonwealth of