OF THE EDINBURGH SESSIONAL SCHOOL, AND THE OTHER PAROCHIAL INSTITUTIONS FOR EDUCATION ESTABLISHED IN THAT CITY IN THE YEAR 1812; WITH STRICTURES ON EDUCATION IN GENERAL. BY JOHN WOOD, Esq. Ignorance is the curse of God; Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. Shakspeare. Second Edition. EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR JOHN WARDLAW, EDINBURGH: W. COLLINS, AND WARDLAW AND CO. GLASGOW; A. BROWN AND CO. JAMES M. LECKIE, DUBLIN. 1829. TO THE REVEREND CLERGY, AND THE KIRK-SESSIONS OF EDINBURGH. GENTLEMEN, To whom could I so appropriately dedicate the following Account of the Parochial Institutions of our City, as to you their benevolent Founders and most zealous Patrons? Nor, I trust, will the offering be the less acceptable, that it is presented by one, who, while he in this very work professes his steadfast attachment to another communion, has never, at the same time, been blind to the distinguished piety, exemplary worth, and extensive usefulness of the Clergy of the Church of Scotland; nor ceased to admire in particular that zeal in the cause of education, which, in every period, has been one of the most striking features of that establishment. If this little work should be attended with no other advantage, (and I am deeply conscious that its execution will disappoint the hopes of those who called it forth,) it at least affords me an opportunity of vindicating your just claims, and of directing the Public to the real quarter, to which they are indebted for those benefits, that have been so widely diffused through the medium of your excellent Institutions. In doing so, I would, at the same time, embrace the opportunity of returning you my warmest thanks for that liberality, which permitted me to become a partner in your labours, the results of which will, I trust, to the last hour of my life, continue to be a source of my highest gratification. May I venture to hope, that, on your part, the confidence, which you reposed in me, will not be considered to have been misplaced; and that, in the superintendance of the education of your interesting charge in those essential principles of our common faith, which ought to be the fundamental basis of all education, no inconvenience has been felt from the circumstance, that there were other points be hind, in which we happened conscientiously (though perhaps widely) to differ. In a work which, though it lies within a narrow compass, embraces a wide range of controverted opinions, I cannot flatter myself, that either you, or perhaps any one of my readers, will concur with me in every point. It is therefore proper to state, that for these opinions I am myself exclusively responsible; and that, the more effectually to protect others from a responsibility which might have proved embarrassing, I have even foregone the no small advantage, which my Treatise might have derived, from having been submitted to the consideration and able correction of the Office-bearers of the Institution. This circumstance it is more necessary to notice, on account of the general terms, which have sometimes been employed in the expression of these opinions. It was my original intention not to have prefixed my name to the " Account," and to have sent it forth to the world as from the Conductors of the Institution. In the progress of the work, however, I found it necessary to treat of so many questions, liable to diversity of opinion, that, in justice to others, I considered myself bound to abandon that intention, and to come forward in my own name; though, partly for the sake of uniform |