been conducted by a mind less original than that of the immortal discoverer, it must have failed, on coming into collision with formerly received opinions. He traced the power of attraction as being not sensibly diminished from the top of a tree, a building, a mountain, and thence inferred its action upon the moon and planets, and by a laborious mathematical calculation found the law of its ratio. But this truth being incompatible with the system that prevailed regarding the concentric circles of the planetary orbits, he was on the point of abandoning it as hypothetical and fallacious! Happily, however, by a collateral discovery, he found that system itself to be erroneous, and his law to be the origin of a new system, destined to overthrow the "vortices" of the Cartesian philosophy, and to establish its truths upon an investigation into the laws of matter and motion as exemplified by nature herself. No apology is deemed necessary for adducing such instances as illustrative of the subject of education-for no less has that science suffered through ancient prejudice and conventional system, than the sciences of astronomy and logic. Milton was perhaps the first who suggested a few original ideas on the subject, and pointed out a more rational course than the systems of his day exhibited. Locke followed in exposing the pedantries of what constituted the education of his time. Rousseau and other theorists went still farther. But it was reserved for a mind intellectually inferior to any of these to strike out the only path that can conduct to a right knowledge and practice of the art of mental training. Henry Pestalozzi may in one sense, therefore, be well compared to Bacon, Copernicus, or Newton, in having literally founded a new school' of education, and that upon the same natural principles of observation and induction which they pursued. By this plan the minds of children are brought into immediate contact with the objects of nature, instead of looking at them through the obscurities of language and the mysticism of books, in the same way that those philosophers arrived at truth by natural experiment, instead of groping after it among the speculative systems of their predecessors. Time, therefore, is all that is wanted to carry into effect and consolidate these Pestalozzian principles into an organized system, to supersede all former plans and methods not equally founded in nature. As an instance of the difficulty of such a task, however, what seems a more hopeless undertaking than any attempt to re-model the present system of classical study, pursued at the endowed universities and grammar schools, or even to depress that study to a secondary pursuit? Yet most people now admit that the mere study of dead languages ought not to consume so many of the precious years of boyhood and youth. But until lately the same error extended down through the whole apparatus of modern education, and "word-mongering and rote systems" constituted its principal elements. The following work is an humble effort to review the entire question in the light of nature and Scripture,—that is, to regard the subject of education as unfettered by system and prejudice, and from the manifestations of nature in a human being, to deduce its essential laws,—to show, not only the analogy of nature in training the inferior creation, but the necessity for building upon that principle as a foundation, and proceeding in a uniform line upwards through the very highest departments of intellect and morals. Man is not only a rational, but an instinctive animal; the latter part of his nature should therefore, be regulated rather than restrained by reason. So far as its legitimate influence extends, its promptings should be attended to by reason, which should assume the reins only when it has dropped them. How many of man's best instincts are lost or dwarfed in their development by having their legitimate operations performed by some artifice of reason, or "by that ultra-civilization which strangles the natural feelings!" The promptings of conduct are then not from within, but from without; but it is the inward desires and inclinations that must be attended to, and gratified by reason, up to that point where instinct fails to supply them-when reason must then not only regulate and gratify, but educe the higher and more spiritual aspirations. The Norma of education must, therefore, be drawn, not only from, but by, nature; else, like the addition of the Academic philosophy, to that of the Peripatetics, in monkish times, the institution of normal seminaries upon any other basis, will form but an excrescence upon existing systems, rather than any new system. CONTENTS. PAGE Subject introduced as a science-Danger of being mixed up with other questions-Analogy-Its universal and conventional appli- cation-Not adapted to most of the present arrangements of society-Its good and evil effects-Agency in improving humanity -Abstract subserviency to religion-Union of schools to churches not a union of education to religion-Intrinsic difference-Parallel drawn-Different influences necessary-Preparatory to religion- Definition-Union of the two only in Christian action-Its social importance-Obstacles to its diffusion-Supremacy of intellectual selfishness-Moral benefits a collateral, not intentional effect of most actions-Polish freedom-Patriotism-Charity-Missionary endeavours-Fancy bazaars-Charity balls-Necessity of educat- ing motives of conduct-Evolution of goodness out of all events. 1 Rise and progress of education-Parallel to language-Opinions |