Supposing that this ticklish question, of the choice of a profession, has been conceded to a boy, there remains the still more perplexing problem—what is the fittest method of training him beforehand, so that he may enter his new life with best effect? The difficulty arises, I suspect, from two causes, one of which applies to education generally, the other to the particular case of a lad intended for the navy. Most people seem to think, and very naturally, that the object of a school is to teach knowledge which shall afterwards be practically available in the business of life; and they cannot well understand what is the use of teaching Latin and Greek, which appear to be so little applicable to real work. Much of this difficulty vanishes, however, if it be considered that the chief purpose of education is to discipline the mind, and to train up the character, so that it may be found equal to any task, no matter how unlooked-for it may be. In such a view, the Classics are as good, and probably better than any other. If the principles, the faculties, and the feelings of a boy be duly cultivated at school, he may be expected to enter the world in as fit a state to profit by the opportunities in his path, as his nature will allow of; nor does it, perhaps, much matter by what artificial machinery this degree of perfection in mental culture has been attained. All that seems essentially of importance is, that the endowments given him by nature, should have been so well exercised, that when brought to bear on the real, manly business of life, they may act with effect. If the process of education has been well managed, its utility will probably not be the least sensibly felt, in cases where the pursuits to be followed in earnest are dissimilar to those, by means of which the boy’s faculties were originally developed at school. In the instance of young men intended for the navy, I think this rule applies with particular force. The early age of thirteen, at which they must of necessity go on board ship, renders it almost impossible that they can have acquired any great stock of what is usually called knowledge. But, by proper management, they may, previous to that age, have secured a very large stock of that particular description of information which will be of most use to them in the outset of life; and their growing minds may have been fitted, by a good system of school discipline, to submit with cheerfulness, as well as advantage, to that singular mixture of constraint and freedom, which forms the most striking feature of a sea life. If this be true, it is perhaps of no great consequence whether the ground-work of such an education be the ancient classics, the mathematics, or modern languages: for the real object to be arrived at, viz. mental training, may, by proper management, be equally well attained by any of these methods.