PART I. CHAPTER I. THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. SECTION I. WHAT IS EDUCATION? "I call that education which embraces the culture of the whole man, with all his faculties-subjecting his senses, his understanding, and his passions to reason, to conscience, and to the evangelical laws of the Christian revelation."-DE FEllenberg. THE term Education,* when employed in its primitive and literal signification, means the drawing out or development of the human faculties. When we look on a child, we perceive at once that, besides corporeal organs and powers, he has a spiritual nature. In these organs themselves, with their ceaseless but not unmeaning activity, we see evidence that this little being has intelligence, sensibility, and will. Such powers exist in early infancy but as germes, which are destined, however, to burst forth, and which, like the vegetating powers of the seed that we have planted, are ready to be directed and controlled by us, almost at our will. As we can train up to a healthy and graceful maturity the young plant, which, if neglected, would have proved unsightly and sterile, so can we train up in the way he should go that child, who, if left to himself, would have been almost certain to be vicious and ignorant. It is the peculiar pliability and impressibility of this early period of life, that give it such claims on the educator. When * From the Latin words e and duco, to lead or draw out of. "Certainly," says Lord Bacon, "custom is most perfect when habit has once fastened itself on the intellect and the heart, appeals and influences are comparatively powerless. In whatever degree, then, it may be our interest and duty to promote the welfare of our fellow-creatures, and especially of our own children, in the same degree does it become important, that we lose no portion of that which is the precious seedtime of their lives. Hardly any season is too early for the culture of this soil; and if it would be reckoned the height of guilt to refuse food or raiment to the body of a helpless little one, what must we think of that cruel neglect which leaves its nobler nature to pine, and finally to perish, for lack of knowledge? Educated in one sense this child will be-if not for weal, then for wo! "For nature, crescent, does not grow alone It is for the parent and guardian to decide what character this development shall take. The power of education we are not disposed to overrate. It has sometimes been described, even by wise men, as an all-prevailing agent, which can "turn the minds of children as easily this way or that, as water itself,"* and before it beginneth in young years; this we call education, which is, in effect, but an early custom. So we see in languages, the tongue is more pliant to all expressions and sounds; the joints are more supple to all feats of activity and motions in youth than afterward; for it is true, that late learners cannot so well take the ply, except it be in some minds that have not suffered themselves to fix, but they kept their minds open and prepared to receive continual amendment, which is exceeding rare." * This is the language of Locke in his Treatise on Education. In another passage he says, "I think I may say, that of all the men we meet with, nine parts out of ten are what they are, good or evil, useful or not, by their education. It is this which makes the great difference in mankind, and in their manners and abilities." which all original differences may be made to disappear. It seems to us, that a slight acquaintance with children is sufficient to refute this theory. Even when reared in the same family and subjected to the same course of physical and moral training, children exhibit, amid a general resemblance in manners and principles, the greatest diversity in endowments and disposition. It is evidently not to be desired, that all men and women should be cast in the same intellectual more than in the same corporeal mould; and hence, though compounded of the same primitive elements, these elements have been so variously mingled and combined, that each individual has his own peculiar and indestructible nature, as well as his own sphere of action—that thus every place and calling can be filled. As this variety, then, exists, and can never be entirely effaced, it ought to be respected in education. But does it follow that the work of education is therefore slight or unimportant? While we are bound to take the individual as he is, and having ascertained his peculiar type of character and measure of capacity, to keep these ever in view, is there not still a vast work to be accomplished? It is the business of education, to watch the dormant powers and foster their healthy and well-proportioned growth, restraining and repressing where their natural activity is too great, and stimulating them when they are too feeble. To respect each one's individuality is not only consistent with In a practical work, which aimed at convincing men that much greater care ought to be taken in the education of youth, this was an error on the right side. It is not likely that the bulk of mankind will, in practice, ever exaggerate the efficacy of care and culture. But, among theorists and philanthropists, the error is fraught with bad consequences. It leads them to undervalue the experience of the past, and to expect too much from new plans of training and instruction, and to vary those plans too frequently. this great work, but is indispensable to its highest success. Doing so, we can effect vast changes and improvements in character. The sluggish we may not be able to inspire with great vivacity, nor subdue the ardent and enthusiastic to the tone of a calm and calculating spirit. But we can arrest in each dangerous tendencies; in each we can correct mental obliquities and distortions, and cultivate a healthy and self-improving power. We can study the purposes of the Creator in framing such a mind, and strive wisely, as well as unceasingly, to fulfil those purposes. In one word, we can labour to rear this child, yet without fixed character or compacted energies, to the stature of a perfect man As one star differeth from another star in magnitude and splendour, though each in its appointed place be equally perfect, so in the intellectual and spiritual firmament one mind may outshine another, and yet both alike be perfect in their sphere, and in fulfilling the mission assigned them by God. or woman. Milton has called that "a complete and generous education which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously, all the offices, both private and public, of peace and of war." It is evident that such an education can be enjoyed by few; and that, though enjoyed by all, it would bestow, on but a limited number, the lofty capacities indicated by the great poet. A vast proportion of the walks of human life are humble and sheltered. Let us be grateful, however, that while in such walks we escape the fiery trials which await those who tread the high places of earth, they still afford scope and opportunity for the exercise of the most manly and generous qualities. He may be great, both intellectually and morally, who has filled no distinguished "office," either " of peace or of war." Let it rather be our object, then, in rearing the young, to form a perfect character-to build up a spirit of which all must say, as was said of Brutus by Antony, "His life was gentle, and the elements So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up, Such, then, in general, is the object of education. Let us be more particular. The child comes into life ignorant and imbecile. With faculties which, duly trained, fit him to traverse the universe of truth, he yet begins his course a helpless stranger. To him, this universe is all a mighty maze, without a plan. He is a stranger alike to himself, to the world, and to God. But daily his faculties open; his intellectual eye begins to turn towards the light of truth, as his organic eye turns towards the sunbeam that falls across his chamber. His senses, those fleet messengers, carry to him constant intelligence from the world without. Soon he comes to remember and compare these reports-to reason and resolve. His mind now yearns after more knowledge. Through the livelong day, save when tired nature claims repose, he is busy seeking, or receiving with unexpected delight, new accessions of truth. All the while his faculties of memory and comparison-of judgment and abstraction-of generalization and inference, are in exercise; and, though no book opens its mysterious light upon his understanding, nor living voice pours into his ear the fruits of another's experience and knowledge, he is still for himself a learner. Yet such a progress-which is only instinctive and spontaneous plainly needs direction, and will, if left to itself, soon reach its utmost limit. The forlorn condition of the untutored deaf mute shows how meager and deceptive are the attainments of every unaided mind; and, even where such a barrier has not been interposed by nature, we find that those who have been left without formal instruction soon become stationary, and that their minds are crowded with errors and prejudices. It is the province of education |