School and the Schoolmaster, p. 222, Horace Mann's Tour, Hodgson's ed. p. 44. Dr. Hodgson mentions, as containing a fair comparative estimate of the system, Beneke's Erziehungs- und Unterrichtslehre.)
In 1800 Bell married a Miss Agnes Barclay, daughter of a Scotch doctor; but the marriage proved unhappy, and ended in a separation. De Quincey, in his 'Essay on Coleridge,' gives an account of the persecution to which Bell was subjected by his wife; but one can well believe that the husband, a vain, imperious man, with a tendency to miserliness, was more than half to blame. In recognition of his public services he was elected a member of several learned societies, including the Asiatic Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh; he received the degree of LL.D. from his own university; in 1818 he was rewarded with a stall in Hereford Cathedral; and in the following year he was made a prebendary of Westminster. During his last years he was much troubled about the disposal of his money. He resolved to devote it to the support of institutions which should carry out his educational theories; but he seemed to have great difficulty in fixing upon the objects of his bounty. In 1831, deciding finally in favour of his own country, he transferred 120,000l. to trustees, half of it to go to St. Andrews, the other half to be divided equally between Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leith, Aberdeen, Inverness, and the Royal Naval School in London. In 1831 was established under his direction, in Edinburgh, the 'Bell Lecture on Education,' out of which have since grown the chairs of education, founded by the Bell trustees and aided by a government grant, in Edinburgh and St. Andrews universities. His writings were to him an object of as much care as was his money. His desire was that they should be collected and edited by Southey and Wordsworth; but this was never done. An abridged edition was published by Bishop Russell of Glasgow.
Bell died at Cheltenham, where he had resided for some years, on 27 Jan. 1832, and was buried with great ceremony in Westminster Abbey.
His writings include:
- 'An Experiment in Education,' &c. 1797; 2nd ed., with an exposition of his system, 1805; 3rd ed., 'An Analysis of the Experiment in Education,' &c. 1807; 4th ed., with an account of the application of the system to English schools, 1808.
- A sermon on the Education of the Poor, 1807.
- 'A Sketch of a National Institution for Training up the Children of the Poor in the Principles of our Holy Religion and in Habits of Useful Industry,' 1808.
- 'National Education,' 1812.
- 'Elements of Tuition,' in three parts. Part i. a reprint of the 'Experiment,' 1813; part ii., 'The English School; or the History, Analysis, and Application of the Madras System of Education to English Schools,' from the fourth edition of the 'Experiment,' 1814; part iii., 'Ludus Literarius: the Classical and Grammar School; or an Exposition of an Experiment in Education made at Madras in the years 1789-96, with a view to its Introduction into Schools for the Higher Orders of Children, and with particular suggestions for its application to a Grammar School,' 1815.
- 'Instructions for Conducting Schools through the Agency of the Scholars themselves, … compiled chiefly from "Elements of Tuition;"' described as 'sixth edition, enlarged' (i.e. of the 'Experiment'), 1817.
- 'The Vindication of Children,' 1819.
- 'Letters to the Right Hon. Sir John Sinclair, Bart., on the Infant School Society at Edinburgh, the Scholastic Institutions of Scotland, &c.,' 1829.
In the advertisement of this pamphlet are mentioned also a 'Manual of Public and Private Education,' 1823, abbreviated 1827, and an account of his continental tour.
[Southey's Life of Bell, 3 vols. Only the first volume was written by Southey; the work was finished by his son, Cuthbert Southey. About a third of each volume is made up of correspondence. It is the most tedious of biographies, filled with utterly valueless details. A short life, containing everything of importance, has been written by Prof. Meiklejohn under the title 'An Old Educational Reformer.' Southey's Life and Corresp.; Leitch's Practical Educationists; Ann. Biog. and Obit. vol. xvii.; Biog. Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen; Anderson's Scottish Nation, i. 271; Dunn's Sketches; American Journal of Education, June 1861; Bartley's Schools for the People; Colquhoun's New and Appropriate System of Education for the Labouring People, 1806; New Stat. Acc. of Scotland, Fifeshire; Bell's own writings, which are devoted to his life and work.]
BELL, ARCHIBALD (1755–1854), miscellaneous writer, was born in 1755. Admitted a member of the faculty of advocates, Edinburgh, in 1795, he became sheriff-depute of Ayrshire. He died at Edinburgh 6 Oct. 1854. He was the author of:
- 'An Inquiry into the Policy and Practice of the Prohibition of the Use of Grain in the Distilleries,' 1808, second edition, 1810.
- 'The Cabinet, a series of Essays, Moral and Literary' (anon.), 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1835.
- 'Count Clermont, a Tragedy; Caius Toranius, a Tragedy, with other Poems,' 1841.# 'Melo-
