Class Z . ' Book_i COFmiGHT DEPOSm THE TEACHER'S MISCELLANY, L^ A SELECTION OF ARTICLES PROCEEDINGS OF THE COLLEGE OF PKOFESSIONAL TEACHERS. By J. L. CAMPBELL and A. M. HADLEY, MOOKE, WILSTACH, KEYS & GO, NEW YORK: MILLER, OR TON & 3IULLIGAN. boston: whittemore, niles & hall. PHILA.: J. B. LIPPINCOTT <1: CO. 1 8 5 G. Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1856, by MOORE, WILSTACH, KEYS & CO.. In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United states, lor tlie Southern District of Ohio. Sterratyppil anrt Printed by WILLIAM OVEREND&CO. TABLE OF CONTENTS. I. Introductory. Albert Pickett, L. L. D., 9 IT. Domestic Education. T. J. Biggs, D. D., 15 III. Primary Education. Geoege R. Hand, 30 IV. Duties of Teachers and Parents. Wm. H. McGuffey, L. L. D., 44 V. Discipline. Daniel Drake, M. D., 70 VI. Moral Influence of Rewards. S. W. Lynd, D. D., 109 VII. Physical Education. Wm. Wood, M. D., 129 VIII. The Bible as a means of Moral and Intellectual Impi-ovement. C. E. Stowe, D. D., 156 IX. The Formation of Society ; the propriety of including the Ele- mentary Principles of our Government in Popular Instruc- tion. Hon. Judge McLean, 183 X. The Classification of Human Knowledge. Roswell Park, A. M., 205 XL Importance of Moral Education keeping pace with the Pro- gress of the Mechanic Arts. Rev. Benjamin Huntoon,...232 XIL The Classics. Prof. T. M. Post, 244 XIII. American Education. Nathaniel Holley, A. M., 286 XIV. Mathematics. E. D. Mansfield, L. L. D., 313 XV. American Education. T. S. Grimke, L. L. D., 343 XVL The Study of Modern Languages. J. F. Meline, 390 XVII. The English Language and Literature. B. P. Aydelott, D. D., 415 PREFACE In presenting this volume to the public, the compilers hope and believe they are rendering an acceptable service, and one which will assist in promoting education. The College of Professional Teachers was organized in 1833, at Cincinnati, and held annual sessions until 1841. Scattered through their published proceedings are many arti- cles of a superior character, and yet these, thus embodied, are locked up from those who would otherwise be profited by them. We hope we have made such selections from these proceed- ings as will render the volume useful to all who feel any interest in the true and solid advancement of our educational enterprises. Commencing with Domestic Education, it gives suggestions, in regard to the training of youth, until they have passed through a full course of instruction. The variet}' of topics makes it a Teacher's, Miscellany, alike profitable to instructors in the primary school, the academy or the college. We have preferred to give the whole of each article, in order to do full justice to the worthy author of it. To the list of valuable books forming the Teacher s Library^ we ask that this may be added, believing it to be worthy of Buch a place. Wabash College. Mardh. 1856. (7) TEACHERS' MISCELLANY. INTRODUCTOEY, BY ALBERT PICKET. L-L.D. The possession of knowledge reflects the highest dignity on our rational nature. It is this which diffuses a radi- ance through the darkness of the human mind, and con- verts the chaos of ignorance into morals, literature and science. Knowledge is derived from instruction and educa- tion. In the history of the world, we can trace the origin of the arts and sciences ; and, that civilized nations, as well as individuals, have received most of their light from one another. The philosophers of antiquity were instructed by some superior minds, in their various departments of learning : Theophrastus was instructed by Aristotle, and Aristotle by Plato. Wherever education has been cherished, knowledge has increased. From this cause, the present age has risen to its high state of literary and scientific greatness. The development of mind, in the progress of human im- provement, never fails to interest those who are reaping the rich triumphs of genius ; nor can the great progress which has been made in rational education be viewed with indifference by the wise and good ; although the science of it is not yet fully understood. The light of reason has, (9) 10 INTRODUCTORY. indeed, dawned, in all its brightness, on the few; but, the mists of ignorance and prejudice, which have so long en- veloped it, are not wholly dispelled. But, when we take into view, how much has been accomplished, in so short a period of time, in the West, and mostly by the combined exertions of the teachers themselves, we cannot but look forward, and hope that the errors which still cling to the practice of teaching, will give place to views more enlarged and more enlightend. It is when mind is brought into contact with mind, that we may expect to see the unfold- ing and expanding intellect applied to the great and benev- olent purposes of elevating and moralizing our race. System and aroused attention, in all educational matters, are indispensable to improvement. The human mind is so constituted, that it seems to be necessary to bring it into contact with some exciting causes to quicken its energies. And, though these causes may even be of an artificial kind, yet, if they exercise and discipline the mind, and prepare it for future efforts, one grand object is accomplished. What avail the refined intellect and splendid attain- ments of a teacher, if he have no talent or tact for com- municating his knowledge ? We greatly mistake, by sup- posing that the attainment of knowledge is the only requisite of a teacher. His ability to use his knowl- edge to advantage, is no less important than is his attain- ment. The criterion of merit should consist, not so much in what he knows, as in what he can do : he should be able to impart his knowledge to others. The human mind was never more active, as regards education, than at tJie pres- ent time ; yet the van does not progress — the movements are confined to the centre : — It is the schoolmaster who is abroad — not the alchymist, the astrologer or diviner of mysteries : — It is the age of useful knowledge, and decent mediocrity. INTRODUCTORY. 11 The intellectual condition of every school is in proportion to the capacity and skill of the teacher. His ability to teach assigns the limit in most cases to the intellectual im- provements of his pupils. A teacher of moderate qualifi- cations will leave the greater part of his pupils at that point at which his own progress ceased; while one who possesses the requisite ability, rarely fails of inspiring them with his own love of knowledge. He gives them a thorough insight into the branches which are taught, not only in his own, but in the higher places of learning, and thereby lays the foundation for extensive future improve- ment. He points out to them the sources from which they can derive materials for higher excellence and usefulness ; and prepares them for entering into competition with those whose intellectual advancement has been superior to their own. Such a teacher will render a school what it ought to be, and what justice demands. The possession of knowledge does not always carry with it the faculty of communicating it to others: — for this reason, the best methods of practical instruction should be the subjects of discussion, in the doings of this convention. Teachers should know how to command the attention of their pupils : — to communicate their ideas to them in the manner the best calculated to make a lasting impression on their minds : — to lead them into the habit of examining for themselves, instead of leaving them to be dependent, at every step, on some one else. They should be taught to observe, investigate, analyze, and classify objects : — combine the results of their own observations, and draw conclusions from the facts which they have obtained. Un- der such a system of instruction, the mind can not fail to gain strength, and to acquire a confidence in the result of its own operations, which is the best safeguard against the prevalence of error, and against those impositions which 12 INTRODUCTORY. are the fruit of imbibing opinions without a rigid scrutiny into the foundations on which they rest. In carrying out the system of instruction here recom- mended, it should not be forgotten, for a moment, by those who are engaged in this important task, that the object of education is not merely to amass the greatest possible amount of information, but to develope and discipline the intellectual and moral faculties. It is in vain that the stores of knowledge be enlarged, if the teacher's skill to employ them for useful purposes, be not also acquired. At every step, the mind should be taught to rely on the exer- cise of its own powers. The pupils in all our schools, at a proper age and advancement, should be required to assign some reason about what they are studying ; not only with a view to give them a thorough comprehension of the subject, but for the purpose of cultivating that habit of critical investigation, which is not satisfied until every part of the subject of inquiry is distinctly understood. The prevailing systems of education, in most cases, are calculated to burden the memory with mere facts, and undefined terms and rules ; of which the proper application is but imperfectly comprehended by the learners. This defect is at war with the spirit of the age, which is to probe to its inmost depths every subject of knowledge, and convert the results of the inquiries to useful purposes. Practical usefulness is the great end of intellectual discipline : — It should, therefore, be kept steadily in view by every teacher ; and he will soon discover that when the reason, or usefulness, of any thing he is teaching, is clear- ly presented to the mind of his pupil, it will arouse an in- terest, which, in the absence of it, he may labor in vain to excite. In too many of our schools there is much time lost and labor misapplied by injudicious methods of instruction — INTRODUCTORY. 13 these schools are places in which are collected isolated facts ; reading that which is not understood, or in following out trifling details, rather than for disciplining the faculties of the mind. This radioed error sJioidd he corrected. Pu- pils should he taught to think, and exercise their own judgment, instead of treasuring up the thoughts of others, or in wasting their time in idleness or frivolous lessons. The trainino' of the mind with a view to useful results, is what is expected from professional teachers. And the great instrument of reform in modes of teaching, will he, to teach principles ; and to make demonstration keep pace with knowledge. Nothing should he left unexplained ; and in cultivating the reasoning powers, the memory- should he strengthened hy hahitual exercise, and stored with truth and useful facts. The mind cannot he hrought into complete exercise, without a systematic discipline of all its faculties. It is this, in its higher degrees, that distinguishes one human heing so vastly from another, and is the primary cause of the achievements of the few who lead the way in philoso- phy and the arts. To this point, then, the most exact and systematic attention should he given ; for, it is certain, on the one hand, that any scheme of education which leaves this faculty of the mind either uncultivated or incidentally developed, must he extremely faulty ; — and on the other, that, if a method of training, consonant with the principles of the human mind, he digested and ahly put into practice, and the intention of which shall he to give the highest possihle advantage to this first power of the rational nature, every thing else will he easy and properous. IN CONCLUSION. There is nothing, save Religion and the worship of God, that more nearly concerns us, as a people, than Education. 14 INTRODUCTORY. It is the noblest upstay of our social, civil and political compact ; — tlie firmest support of our prosperity and hap- piness. Is sucli a subject to bo neglected, or paralyzed by indifference or apathy ? Oh no — no ! my friends, no — we have but one feeling in this holy cause. Then let us not be remiss or estranged ; — let us labor conjointly to diffuse its blessings far and wide. Although we have been misrepresented by apostates, imposters and speculators ; ridiculed and persecuted; yet we have firm friends who have encouraged us to go on in " the even tenor of our way ;" keeping constantly in view, that, in proportion as intellectual and moral culture is diffused, so will the chances of increasing the usefulness and happi- ness of man be multiplied. Yes — let us still be united, in carrying out the original design of our institution ; and ren- der it, what it was intended to be — *' The Teachers' Col- lege," — the object of which was, and is, to blend the principles and practice of the scholastic art into a system of instruction adapted to the wants of the people, and to elevate the Teachers' Profession to its proper standard. DOMESTIC EDUCATION. BY T. J. BIGGS. D. J). 1. The harbinger of our country's future weal is seen and heard, in the increasing solicitude of our nation for a sound and sdlMtary system of public instruction. Enlight- ened public sentiment now harmonizes upon the proposition, that the perpetuity of our civil institutions rests entirely upon the rightly balanced character of the rising age ; assuming the principle that hnoivledge is poiver — the most powerful engine which human agency can wield — the great problem is, to give the mind the right direction, so that the power thus entrusted, instead of being an Instrument of Univer- sal evil may, in the hands of a virtuous people, secure to all future time, the inheritance which we enjoy. 2. We regard with unfeigned delight, the claims now so freely and ably urged, in favor of universal moral education. The common sense of the community, hitherto too little intent upon this object, is now waking up, and the ener- gies of the heart and intellect are now urging the enter- prise of promoting moral culture, co-extensive with the diffusion of literary privileges. The fact is now recognized, and beginning to be felt, '' that high mental attainments afford no adequate security against moral debasement.'^ This discovery has been followed by an earnest call for such improvements in the system of education as shall [lo] 16 DOMESTIC EDUCATION. unite, most efficiently, the melioration of the heart, with the hest developments of the intellectual powers. The plain, indisputable maxim, that " The fear of the Lord h the beginning of wisdom,'^ is fast regaining its right location in the system of human improvement ; and the Bihle begins again to take its appropriate place, in the early formation of the youthful mind. 3. This I regard as one of the most propitious signs of the times. " Things as they should be," said the lamented Grimke, " demand imperatively, that education should be decidedly religious. It is granted, on all hands, that relig- ion is the higliest interest of man ; that it is the cement of society, and the foundation of government ; that it is the best safeguard of duty, and a fountain of the purest hap- piness." With these sentiments I entirely accord ; and I see not how American institutions can be preserved, with- out the universal diffusion of the Christian religion, *' emphatically the religion of the people." " Nothing" said the illustrious Rush, "can be politically right, that is morally wrong ; and no necessity can sanctify a law that is contrary to equity. Virtue is the soul of the republic. There is but one method of preventing crime, and of rendering a republican form of government durable, and that is, by disseminating the seeds of virtue and knowl- edge through every part of the state." Said another of our American Patriots : " To secure the perpetuation of our republican form to future generations, let divines and philosophers and statesmen, and patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age ; by impressing the minds of the people with the importance of educating their little hoys and girls.'' It is the sentiment suggested in the last quotation, to which, as the principal topic of remark, 1 would respectfully invite the attention of my audience. Domestic DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 17 Education. I select tliis topic for a variety of reasons : First, because I believe that here originates chiefly all that is either propitious or disastrous, in the subsequent development of character under the forming influences of public education. Here is the fountain whence flow streams which bless or blight wherever they flow. Second- ly, because I believe that our writers on education have not usually begun with the infant, and thence risen to a consideration of our duties to the youth. They have too generally begun with the youth; hoping that the evil of the existing system might be corrected at that period of life. Thirdly, because, as will be shown in the sequel, parental obligation in this matter, has too generally been regarded as extending to little more than liberal eflbrts to promote the cause of public instruction — and to secure from others as far as possible, the best instruction for their own children. In this way j^arm^aZ responsibility has sought to relieve itself by substituting others in its own place. Hence a fourth reason for selecting this topic. Our public instructors have in numerous instances-, been unreasonably required to render a service, in the very nature of things impossible — to fulfil the 'parents^ duty as well as their own. My fifth and last reason is, that unless information begins here, no matter what perfection may characterize the system exterior to Domestic Education, defect and failure are inevitable — for this most obvious reason, the 'pwpil comes too late — his character is formed. The disease is already deeply seated in the system. The infection is virulent, and, except by some extraordinary means, incurable. The reasons thus stated, will serve for the respective divisions of my whole subject. I. Domestic Education claims our attention, as being the fountain of all influences, affecting favorably, or not, the subsequent formation of character. This is a position so 2 18 DOMESTIC EDUCATION. evidently ascertained and recognized by all accurate observers, that it would seem to be a useless effort to bring it more distinctly before the mind. It is, however, true, that things the simplest, most obvious, as well as the most necessary, sometimes escape the public eye, and results the most deplorable follow. I will therefore endeavor to give this point a little more prominence, and ask my fellow-citizens to give it a more patient conside- ration. By Domestic Education I mean nothing more nor less than such a system of parental care and patient effort, as shall secure to the child, at the first dawn of its moral and intellectual life, good impressions, and protect it from the invasion of had ones. Here I introduce no claim for the early use of books. The system which 1 advocate, precedes, in its first application, all literary instruction. The infant mind exerts its powers long before books, however simple, can be of any service. A language is learned ordinarily within the first two years of infant existence, and the elements of future character are, for the most part, within the same period collected and ready for future action. It has not escaped the observer's eye, that an infant, even before it reaches the power of articulate sounds, has learned the language of signs, and exhibits frequent proof of possessing no little practical skill in the science of physiognomy. How early is it capable of a distinct observation, as to the meaning of a parent's coun- tenance, and thence to infer what course to pursue ? Assu- redly, then, this is the period in human existence in which neglect, mistake, or m^i-administration, in the treatment of mind, must be disastnms. The fountain receives pollu- tion — it is poisoned — and the streams must carry death in their course. ^ On this subject, the ma-.»:ims of Pagan antiquity were full of instruction, and might well be adopted even in DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 19 Christian communities : " Let nothing base to be seen or to be heard, enter the dwelling in which there is a child." Even the attendant upon the nursery was required to possess so much of literary improvement as always to use propri- ety of language in the hearing of the child. Heathen parents were instructed to use their utmost caution, to procure the best attendants for their children Vvdiicli their ability could command. The philosophy of that day taught them that the human mind was like the new made vessel, which retains the flavor first communicated ; or like the dyed wool, which never could be restored to its original purity. Now, so far as the tenaciousness of the mind for first impressions is concerned, their philosophy was right, as we know both from experience and from the testimony of the Bible, vrhose philosophy touching this point is, " train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.'^ If, then. Pagan philosophy, whose ken penetrated not beyond " the circumference of the thino;s that are seen," was thus wise and vigilant in protecting the infant "mind from vitiating influences, what should parental guardian- ship, directed, and enlightened, and cheered, as it may be, by the radiance of the sun of righteousness, secure for the protection of the infant mind? Shall it be said that the heathen were wiser in their generation than the inhabitants of this highly-favored land, in which moral influences are multiplied and secured by the Christian system? 11. My second position is, that, to a considerable extent, the mistake has prevailed among tl Ivocatcs of learning, of commencing with the youth, :^i). the supposition that existing evils, evils engendered ^*n earlier life, may be cor- rected and removed at that perio t of life. I am aware that this mistake, in some o'ood deo;K ., has been discovered, and that no small amount of pains has already been employed 20 DOMESTIC EDUCATION. to correct tins error, and to place this whole question in its right orde7\ The American press has, within the last few years, furnished some most valuable periodicals, as well as numerous essays, the object of which has been to rectify this popular mistake. The effort has been earnestly made, to give even to infants a new dignity in the eyes of the community, investing their earliest habits with the highest importance, and calling upon us to regard every little ark of bulrushes as the depository, if not of a ruler or legis- lator, " yet of a being possessing the elements of an immortal mind, and destined for an immortal existence." But with what success these efforts have been made, we ascertain with little difficulty. How far soever the theory of the subject may have been favorably received, the prac- tice urged has made but little progress. The popular practical philosophy, in the matter, pretty generally leaves the nursery to manage for itself. ' The business has seemed too small — too insignificant for attention from the legiti- mate source. A business demanding time for which there w^as no equivalent — a business to which any mind was com- petent, and which to all intents and purposes, could be as well conducted by the stranger, brought into the family, and whose only object in undertaking the charge is simply to secure a temporary home. The period of youth receives somewhat better attention ; for now the period is supposed to have arrived, when all previously contracted bad habits, are to be corrected and laid aside. Now, it is presumed, that the hinderances can be easily removed, and the way for successful progress, in moral and mental culture be ren- dered easy, plain and sure. But against this whole theory stands in firm position, experience almost universal. Here is the period of human existence in which the vitiating influences of early neglect, mismanagement, the mistakes of ignorance, and the still worse effects of demoralizing DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 21 example are realized, and give sad evidence of the advan- tage which these causes possessed, by operating upon the mind and forming the character, in its most impressible season. Habits thus early formed entwine themselves with the whole character — they give the predominant hue — and to exchange them for better is as little probable, as that *' the Ethiopian should change his skin, or the leopard his spots." Curative efforts by the influence of moral instruc- tion, are for the most part unavailing. The formation of the character at the proper period, to virtuous habits, and a preparation for a useful life by the early inculcation of right principles, is a work of easy accomplishment, compared with the almost hopeless toil of restoring a mind, spoiled through neglect of early and appropiate instruction. Let this error, therefore, in domestic economy be abandoned — the error of supposing, that the most impressible season in hu- man existence may be neglected and exposed, and that evils thereby incurred can bo obliterated from the charac- ter as it rises into youth. It is then in all ordinary cases too late — too late to send the youthful mind to be formed and guided by the influence of the public instructor. Un- practiced to yield to the early control of domestic dicipline, the youth knows not how to bring his untoward mind to submit to the wholesome regulations of the public semi- nary — acquainted with no will but his own, he can appreci- ate no obligation, wdiich binds him in the relations of pupil to his instructor, whose right to control he is ever prepared to resist. III. My third reason for introducing the present topic is, because, it appears to me that parental obligation in the matter of Domestic Education, has been too generally sup- posed to be fulfilled by liberal efforts to promote the cause of 'public instruction ; and by warm and energetic measures, to increase the facilities of general education. In this way 22 DOMESTIC EDUCATION. parental responsibility has been transferred. We indeed live in an age distinguislied for its liberality — a liberality prompted by the purest patriotism and enlightened benevo- lence. To the generous spirit of the age we owe much that has already been realized in the cause of general education. Our literary and theological institutions, now rising up, the ornament and security of this mighty West, stand, the goodly monuments of the noble munificence of the present day. They are pledges too, that the question of means for national and moral improvement shall never embarrass our country's advancement. In all this exibition of national character we rejoice and give thanks. But money will not answer all things ; nor can it by any means be a sub- stitute for that influence vrhich a parent is called to exert in the important duty of Domestic Education. Here is the point and burden of my whole subject — the necessity of securing in the business of home-instruction, the cooperation of those on whom the God of heaven has, by the law of nature, devolved the responsibility. Consider for a moment the circumstances surrounding parental obligation, and which demonstrate the ordination of heaven in this obliga- tion ; circumstances which, if duly appreciated and improved, would soon bring domestic instruction to something like perfection. First, what an undefinable controlling feeling of aff'ectionate solicitude for the welfare of his child, has the author of our existence implanted in the paternal bosom — . with what ceaseless effort does it operate in ways and means to promote the well being of the child. How continuous and prolonged is that sentiment in a father's heart. What an amount of benefit might not this solicitude secure, were it but rightly directed ! Second, that filial reverence, if not previously perverted by bad example or mal-administration, is prepared to bow to parental authority — that confiding reliance, which commits everytliing to the all-sufiiciency of DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 23 parental ability, and wliicli excludes distrust from the infant breast. Upon what vantage ground has heaven thus placed the parent, for every purpose of exciting a healthful moral influence in domestic education — and how certainly, by right administration, might the foundation be laid for virtuous, useful character, in youth and man- hood. Another consideration must here be added, and that is, the immense numbers that might and ought to be thus employed simultaneously. Suppose that all these cir- cumstances connected -^vith parental obligation were duly recognized — suppose that the numerous families which make up our communities were appropriately engaged in promoting, within their individual circles, a proper system of domestic education, what might be expectsd soon to be realized as the certain results ? They would be such as to show " things as they ought to be." The system and duty of domestic education which I here present, and which I wish to see adopted, demand especially the direct influence of the paternal presence — a demand not incompatible with the just claims of other avocations. Of the family circle, the divinely constituted head is the father. To him the eye of the family is directed for pro- tection, support, guidance, and counsel. Through him, as the earthly source, flow its richest blessings or its bitterest ■woes. If the principles of religion have formed his char- acter and constitute the basis of his domestic government, his presence is like the dew upon Hermon, cheering, refreshing, enriching to the sacred enclosure, and his chil- dren are " like olive plants around his table." Thus shall the man be blessed, whose pious care has rendered his home a habitation of righteousness. I am well aware how fashionable it has become to eulo- gize a mother's importance and influence in family educa- tion; and this, too, not seldom at the expense of the 24: DOMESTIC EDUCATION. father's. Far be it from me to undervalue tlie maternal office. Its value in this department is above all price, and how- ever commended, its worth has not been too highly praised. I appreciate and honor that influence ; and therefore I ask for it something better, more substantial, than the cheaply furnished material of eulogy. I ask for paternal sympathy and help in her countless, arduous, and momentous duties ; and I respectfully enter my protest against the current practice of rolling this tremendous responsibility upon the maternal charge, upon the plea that the avocations of public life allow no time for the indispensable aid which a father is bound to furnish in this important work. I will here quote, as entirely suitable to my purpose, the views of an experienced teacher on this very point: "Duty would seem to demand that every parent should make it a serious inquiry how far he is authorized, by the law of love for his offspring and his family, to engage in such an amount of business, of what kind soever, as to banish him from the bosom of a family of which he has voluntarily made him- self the head — to say nothing of that relation, as consti- tuted by heaven — as to keep him ignorant of concerns which no one else should know so well ; and as to abandon to the care of others, those whom nature and affection have taught to seek in him a guardian and guide. Would it not be well for parents sometimes to reflect whether it would not be better for their families to be a little less wealthy, if, in consequence of it, their children might be rendered more capable of using what they did possess to better advantage? Suppose that a legal practitioner should have some fewer cases on his docket — a physician should attend to somewhat fewer patients — a place-man should not continue quite so long in office, or be content to hold somewhat fewer posts — a merchant should be content with a sphere of business somewhat more contracted — the man- DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 25 iifactiirer should put somewhat fewer hundred spindles into operation — and the speculator should lose, now and then, a bargain : might not each case, in many instances, be com- pensated an hundred fold in the benefit done to his children by his own personal superintendence of their early educa- tion — by forming in them the love and practice of order, obedience, morality, temperance, and economy ?" IV. The fourth reason for selecting this topic is, that our public teachers have too generally been required to render a service in the very nature of things impossible — to fulfil the parenfs duty and their own too. Some people are wonderfully sagacious in finding out the faults and defects of teachers. They are surprised that their children don't learn faster; that they don't behave better. They send them to school, and pay considerable, and yet their children don't seem to be much the better. They then begin to find out that the fault is altogether in the teacher ; he don't understand his business ; or if he does, he neglects it ; or he is not fit to be a teacher ; he teaches only because he has nothing else to do, etc., etc. How many or how few of these sage suggestions are true or well founded, I in- quire not ; but I would respectfully ask, has not the parent, in making his estimate of the necessary means for the child's education, somehow or other, forgot to reckon the necessary help which parental cooperation ought to furnish ? Has not the parent, in accounting for the want of success in the teacher's efforts, forgotten to bring into tlie account the neglected infancy of the child, during which period it was acquiring those very habits which now hinder and prevent the progress of the youth in his educa- tion ? Don't blame your teacher, as though all the fault originated there. Do not suppose that the teacher, no matter what his competency be, can, by his exertions, compensate for the unpardonable omission on the part of 8 26 DOMESTIC EDUCATION. the parent. To such a task, the best teacher that never lived is utterly incompetent. The end to be gained in the education of the child requires the mutual aid of both parent and teacher. Separate these, and failure ensues. The teacher has his appropriate sphere, and it requires all his capabilities. In stating what I conceive that sphere to be, without remark on his literary competency further than to say, that defect here will soon be detected, because public sentiment now demands increasing literary worth in those who teach, I would, while I take for granted his lite- rary merit, ask, does he recognise the difficulty and delicacy of the business of acting with and directing mind? Is he himself a good man? Has he that elevated sense of his office, by which he recognizes his duty, not to man, but to his Maker, in this important sphere of action? Has he that high moral sense which religion inspires, and, while teaching youth, does he feel that he is forming mind for an eternity of existence? Questions like these show the importance, the magnitude of the office which the educator of youth sustains, and fully indicate that his own duty is indeed sufficient without any other addition. The parents' duty, therefore, he ought not to assume, for he can not discharge it. His talent, piety, wisdom, discretion, dili- gence, firmness, kindness, and industry, are in immediate demand for his own service ; and, when used to their best advantage, with much to encourage and reward his faith- fulness, he will see, from causes above his control, much to regret. Let him not, therefore, be asked to fulfil more than a faithful teacher's duty. But let early domestic education, shielding the infant mind from vicious impres- sions and vicious habits — preparing it by the bland and salutary influence of parental control, confirming it in the possession of every virtuous sentiment, and familiari- zing it with example drawn from the perfect pattern of DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 27 the autlior of Christianity — thus prepare the pupil to come to the phice of public instruction. Then will obedience, respect, and docility be the characteristics of his conduct as a learner ; and the result will be complete success. V. My last reason for suggesting this general topic is, that unless information begins at this point, no matter what perfection belongs to the systems exterior to Domes- tic Education, defeat and failure are inevitable. I do not by this statement mean to say that there will not be again, as there have been already, illustrious instances of those who have surmounted the greatest obstacles, and emerged from the deepest adversities of early neglect; and, in spite of the most untoward beginnings, have risen high in intellectual and moral worth, and become burning and shining lights. But these were exceptions to the rule, and such must be all similar examples, unless reformation shall begin at home. On what ground can we reasonably hope for success, while things at home remain as they have been ? The evil is radical, and what will it avail to prune the external branches while the root is allowed still to dete- riorate? "Make the tree good — the root — and then the fruit will be good." And why may not this reformation begin at home at once ? Is the necessity for it doubted or denied ? Does not every parent feel that something ought to be done, and might be done, to improve the domestic circle in this respect ? Has he done what he feels he ought to have done, and might have done ? Is not this proverb- ially an age of improvement? Is not our land full of the wonders of art from mechanical inventions? and are not the facilities for promoting our civil, commercial, and lite- rary institutions multiplying on our hands a thousand fold ? Shall we witness the efforts of literary associations, and the employment of the best talent of the nation, sedulously laboring to prepare the best system of education ? And, 28 DOMESTIC EDUCATION. with all these in our view, shall we still refuse to make the requisite and corresponding efforts at home ? Having now stated and discussed my reasons for selecting this topic for the present occasion, allow me to state what, in my opinion, are the desiderata to a competent system of Domestic Education : 1. A just recognition of the responsibility of parental obligation as constituted by the appointment of heaven. This sentiment lies at the foundation. It is a first prin- ciple in the doctrine of parental duty. To every parent is intrusted the care of an immortal mind — the heaviest of all human responsibilities. 2. A just appreciation of the native character of the child, inheriting a nature prepared on the first openings of the mind, to exhibit moral obliquity, and afiinity to any and every vitiating influence with which it comes in contact. 3. A faithful reference to the Bible for counsel and direction as to the appropriate means for the right man- agement of the infant mind, with a cheerful confidence of success in the faithful application of the means 4. The practical application of some such general prin- ciples as the following, viz : (1.) That more depends on the prevention of evil than on the application of the best remedy. Experience abun- dantly confirms this rule. It is comparatively easy to pre- vent the formation of a bad habit, but very difficult to lay it aside. (2.) That precept and advice, however good, unless en- forced by a consistent example, will avail but little. This every body understands. (3.) That to form a good habit is of much more impor- tance than to inculcate the wisest rules. Nothing within the range of human duty requires more patient effort than the serious business of Domestic Edu- DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 29 cation ; for this reason, no doubt, many a one shrinks from the attempt. Its difficulty is the reason why it should be vigorously undertaken, and perseveringly maintained. It has this encouragement, that success sooner or later will reward the faithful effort. To the specific subject of dis- cipline in Domestic Education, this essay makes but little reference. The best discipline, in my opinion, is that influence upon the tender mind, which the kind, affectionate, intelligent interest of the parent, for the good of the child, will in all ordinary cases not fail to exert. Let the heart of the child be secured by that exibition of conduct which flows from Christian principles cordially adopted, and all that is requisite in the use of discipline will usually be gained. And when the suggestions contained in this essay shall exert their due influence throughout the communities of human society, and by their seasonable application pro- duce the reform in the domestic circle for which this essay pleads, then will our homes be the abodes of purity, intel- ligence, and love. Our academies and colleges will be furnished with ingenuous youth, whose minds, brought by pious instruction into alliances with the infinite source of all knowledge, will range through the regions of truth and science, preparing by the best of all attainments, *' the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom,'^ for useful- ness on earth — and an exalted sphere of glorious action in a better and brighter world. And as it respects our beloved land and nation, we shall be beautiful for situation — the joy of the whole earth ; for " wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of our times and strength of salvation." PRIMARY EDUCATION. BY GEO. E. HAND. In a course of education, mucli depends upon commenc- ing right. That portion of education which we call 'primary ^ and which first leads the pupils into the paths of learning, derives additional importance from the fact, that to the manner in which it is conducted, may be attributed much of the success, and many of the failures in the succeeding course. It may be regarded as lying at the foundation of all education, and designed to prepare a sure basis upon which the educational superstructure may be erected. How important then, that this foundation should be laid well, as the superstructure in some measure depends upon it for its own stability ! The skillful architect will not look merely to the finishing off and adorning of the edifice ; but will first of all take care that the foundation is laid sufficiently broad, and deep, and substantial, to sustain the structure which is to be erected upon it. This he knows is necessary, in order to make it capable of answering the end for which it was designed ; for if the foundation be deficient, the entire superstructure is liable to injury, if not ruin, on its account. This is no less true in the business of the educator, than that of the architect. (30) PRIMARY EDUCATION. 31 The object of primary education is to prepare the mind for the reception of that knowledge which it is destined afterwards to acquire, rather than to communicate knowl- edge to minds unprepared to digest or appreciate it ; to ediicate rather than teach. For there is a difference between mere teaeliing and educating. The process of teaching communicates knowledge ; while that of educating draws out, cultivates, developes and strengthens all the faculties of the mind, and enables it to acquire knowledge for itself, and to digest and appropriate to useful purpose what it acquires. This is emphatically so in our primary schools. Here the pupils should pass through a course of mental training which will lay a solid foundation for future acquisitions, and prepare them to enter with credit and advantage to themselves, upon the higher branches of learning. It must be evident to all who have any experience in this matter, that the systems of instruction now in opera- tion in most of our primary schools, fail in a great measure to accomplish this object. Not unfrequently we. find pupils who have spent months, or even years, in the primary school, and yet, so far as correct mental training is concerned, are but little better than when they entered. Nay, sometimes even worse ! for they have acquired idle habits, which it will require more time and labor to correct than it would have taken to form correct ones at first. There seems to be a want of thoroughness and efiiciency in our methods of instruction. I speak not of any particular place, but of common practice and common defects, wher- ever such defects may be found. The colleges complain, that the students sent to them are not thorough in their iVVe.— Education is derived from educo are, to nourish, and not educo ere, to draw out. — Eds. 32 PEIMARY EDUCATION. academic course ; and the academics, tliat tliey have not been thoroughly trained in the primary schools. Errors imbibed, and injurious habits contracted by the pupils in the commencement, unless corrected by proper management, will cling to them, and " grow with their growth, and strengthen with their strength." As early impressions are the most lasting, great care should be taken that the instruction in our primary schools is such as to accustom the pupils to habits of attention and observation, and at the same time, guard them against those influences which will tend to foster idle, inattentive and vicious habits. I believe that one great source of the idle and inattentive habits of pupils in our schools and academies, may be found in the inefficient mode in which they have been taught in the preparatory department. Here, on the very threshold of the temple of learning, they are frequently initiated into ways of idleness, from a want of sufficient attention. The teacher perhaps, has more under his care than one individual can teach to advantage; or perhaps there is a want of efficiency in the mode of conducting the school, and while the teacher is employed with one class, the pupils of the other classes are allowed to sit in the school room unemployed, during a large portion of their time : or rather they are compelled to sit in idleness. And this is to them a punishment rather than a pleasure, for children are naturally disposed to be active, and it is fatiguing to their bodies and stultifying to their minds to be required to sit still without employment, for any considerable length of time. It requires more exertion for young chidren to sit still long at a time, than to be active. Nay, it is almost impossible for them to sit still when they have nothing on which to employ their minds. The activity of their thoughts is such that they must and will be employed in one way or another, and if no profitable employment is PRIMARY EDUCATION. 33 famished by the systematic arrangement of the school, for the pupils during that portion of the time in which they are not engaged in recitation, they will ho occupied in that which may be unprofitable, if not pernicious in its tendency. Or should they be able to comply with the requisitions of stillness without employment, they must, of necessity, become listless and inattentive to what is going on around them. And here is laid the foundation of idle habits in the school room, of inattention, and carelessness in regard to study. And whose fault is it? Not theirs, certainly ; for they are forced into it by the circumstances in which they have been placed. Now if this be the process by which they are initiated into the halls of learning, and these the habits they are driven into on their entrance there, need we wonder that the school becomes a prison to them ; and that they learn to dislike their school and their books, and carry with them the indolent and careless habits here contracted, into the higher walks of learning, if they are so fortunate as to advance so far? "This is a grievous fault," and griev- ously has the cause of education suffered from it. Now I maintain that pupils, whether primary or more advanced, should never be permitted to remain idle in the school room, for want of employment. They should be kept busy at something, whereby they will form habits of industry, and learn that the school room is not a place for idleness, but for mental activity. Those who are far enough advanced to study for themselves, can be kept employed without much difficulty. But it will require much ingenuity, and skill, and vigilance, on the part of the teacher, to keep those employed who have not yet learned to study for themselves, and w^ho are emphatically the primary pupils. Young pupils should not be confined in the school room 34 PRIMARY EDUCATION. longer tlian they can be profitably employed. If suitable play grounds could be procured, I would have them spend a much larger portion of their time in pleasant and healthful recreation in the open air, than is customary in our schools. In this respect, the country has the advan- tage over the city, for they can take their recreation in the pure air, among the groves, surrounded by the works of nature, where every thing is favorable to healthful and invigorating exercise. Here physical education will be carried on in connexion with intellectual and moral ; and the mind and body will both be invigorated by appropriate recreation. But long sessions will have the contrary effect. JFroni experience and observation, I am satisfied, that the great length of time the pupils in many of our primary schools are kept in the school room in each day, is a posi- tive injury to them, and that what is gained in time is lost in consequence of a want of vigor and energy of mind and body. And here we may discover another fruitful source of the idle dispositions of pupils, so much complain- ed of in our schools. But what subjects are to engage the attention of pupils in the primary schools? In what way are they to be introduced? How are the pupils to be provided with employment during the school hours ? And how are they to be trained to habits of thought and attention, and taught to study and learn for themselves, from books and from nature ! These are questions worthy our careful considera- tion, and upon which our united experience should be brought to bear. It is evident that young pupils, when first entering our primary schools, are not competent to study for themselves. They are not prepared to walk in the new path in which they have entered. At every step they require the skilful hand of the instructor, not only to guide and direct, but lead them forward, just as the infant PRIMARY EDUCATION. 35 requires assistance in learning to walk. But as they grad- ually receive strength and skill from daily exercise, they are soon capable of advancing with less assistance, until at length they are able to walk and run alone, and only require the direction of the teacher to keep them in the right path. Pupils in the early stage of learning, then, it would appear, require more of the teacher's attention than those farther advanced. And great skill is necessary here to render the exercises interesting enough to fix the attention of the pupils on the subjects presented. We are too apt to think that any person who can read, is capable of teach- ing in the primary schools, whether they have any experi- ence or skill in teaching or not. But herein is a great error. If any teacher requires talent and skill, and vigi- lance and life, and activity and ingenuity, and a practical acquaintance with the juvenile mind, it is the teacher of the primary school, for he must operate upon the untrained mind, and mold and fashion it, and lay the foundation on which others are to build. It should be born in mind that the subjects studied in our primary and common schools, are not so much the objects of learning, as the instruments for the acquisition of knowledge. Hence pupils are to be trained to the proper use of these instruments, that they may be prepared to wield them skilfully, and with effect. Of these, Language and Numbers may be regarded as the chief, the elemen- tary principles of which constitute the basis of a course of primary education. As Language, either written or oral, is the medium through which w^e are to derive most of the knowledge we ever acquire in the various departments of science, it would seem to have strong claims to our early attention in a course of primary studies. Indeed, the acquisition of 36 PRIMAKY EDUCATION. knowledge on this subject, may be regarded as having commenced with the earliest dawnings of intellect, and the firs-t lisping of the infantile voice. The little prattlers are every day making additions to their stock of knowledge, in the application of oral language to the objects around them. But when we receive them into our schools, we introduce them to language in another form, that is, to written language. And care should be taken in the com- mencement, and throughout, to show the connexion between oral and written language, and between the words, and the ideas and things represented by them. It is possible for pupils to learn to spell and read, without recoOTiizino; the connexion between written and oral language ; and they sometimes learn in that way. They appear to regard the words as combinations of letters, representing certain mysterious sounds, which they learn to pronounce mechanically, without attaching to them any ideas. But this ought not so to be. They should be taught that articulate sounds are the signs of our ideas, and that the letters or written words are the representatives of those sounds. In order to do this properly, their exercises in reading, and indeed in all their studies, should be agreeably interspersed with oral instruction, by which means also they may acquire a knowledge of things, the nature and uses of the objects with which they are surroun- ded, and the senses by w^hich they perceive these objects. Much may be done by conversing freely with pupils of all grades, upon the various productions of nature and of art, which come under our observation, however familiar they may be, by daily contact, or however strange and unknown. In this way the most ordinary objects, which from familiarity scarcely attract a passing notice, may be made interesting and fruitful subjects of conversa- tion for a class, as well for reflection as examination. PRIMARY EDUCATION. 37 But tliey need some person to put them on the right track for investigation, and to lead them on till they have acqui- red sufficient experience and practice to enable them to think, to analyse, combine and classify the objects of their attention. They need be at no loss for subjects for carry- ing on this exercise. Subjects will daily present them- selves, and crowd upon the attention unasked. The great store-house of nature is open before us, pre- senting inexhaustible stores of rich subjects for our consid- eration, by the examination of which the mind is led " through nature up to nature's God.'' The productions of the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms, in all their innumerable varieties, present themselves in array before us and claim our attention ; while the various departments of the mechanic arts, in all their ramifica- tions, are daily furnishing us with interesting subjects of profitable investigation. In view of this may we not find it to our advantage to be engaged in picking up a few pebbles on the shore of that vast ocean which spread itself in prospective view before the mind of a departing Newton. The books in which they are learning to read, the slates and pencils which they daily use, the seats they occupy, the house which shelters them from the storm, the clothes that they wear, the food that they eat, and the objects which attract their attention along the path to and from school, all may be made interesting topics of thought and conversation. The untutored Indian who *' knew not the God of revelation, beheld the God of the universe in every thing around him." And shall not the children of enlightened freemen be taught to consider these subjects, and trace the footsteps of the author of nature, in his works. Now suppose when a lesson has been learned, we make the mechanical structure of the book itself the subject of a 38 PRIMARY EDUCATION. short conversational lesson. The pupils perhaps have never thought of the book in any other light than that of a unit — a single inanimate object — and perhaps will be surprised to be told that enough may be said about it to make an interesting lesson. But we w^ill proceed to analyze and examine. We very readil}^ perceive that we divide the com- ponent parts into two general divisions, viz : the back and the leaves. The back is composed of paper and leather or cloth, put together with paste ; and the leaves, with their contents, consist of paper and ink. We may then take each of the substances which constitute the subdivisions, and trace them through all the various processes they have undergone in their preparation, and w*e shall have made out a very interesting lesson. The leather we may trace back through the various pro- cesses of tanning and currying, until we find that it was once the skin of some animal, and is now chemically com- bined with a substance obtained from the bark of trees. Likewise, the paper may be traced through the paper mill, the power loom, the spinning factory, and the cotton gin, back to the field where it grew. And so of the other parts. We shall find tliat almost every mechanical art has been called into requisition, either directly or indirectly, in the production of the materials of the book, even before they came into the hands of the printer and binder. An examination of this kind, however simple it might appear, may give rise to inquiries, and elicit trains of thought, which may lead to the discovery of much useful knowledge, and the developement of many an active mind. If we ask the pupils occasionally to give us a description of the objects they may have seen on the way to or from school, they wdll soon learn to observe more closely every thing they pass, in order to be able to give a description of PRIMARY EDUCATION. 39 it. And objects which they have heretofore passed unno- ticed, will now be scanned with minute observation. These descriptions shoukl usually be given in writing by those pupils who are far enough advanced to write them on slates. They will then learn to commit their own thoughts to writing. Though the immediate object of this may be to enable them to give a description of what they had seen, the ultimate advantage will be to give them habits of ob- servation, thought and attention. The exercises should be conducted in a lively and interest- ing manner, in order to secure their attention, and teach them to think and act briskly. Celerity in thought and action, both on the part of the instructor and the pupils, will add much to the interest of the exercises. Pupils will learn the alphabet, and learn to spell and read, with more facility, by writing the words and letters of their lessons on slates. The forms of the letters, and their combinations in words, will be much more per- manently fixed in their minds if they make them for them- selves. The slates will furnish the pupils with the means of agreeable exercises in writing and drawing, for their em- ployment while not engaged in recitation. They will very soon learn to write their reading lessons with accuracy and despatch, and in a plain neat manner. In learning to read they should be taught accurately and thoroughly so far as they go. There is not enough atten- tion paid to this branch of learning in our schools. Bead- ing, instead of being a mere mechanical operation, should be made an intellectual exercise. Pupils should not be al- lowed to read over whole pages in a careless superficial manner, but they should learn thoroughly, and be able to read and spell accurately and understandingly every lesson before leaving it. I am fully convinced that the general 40 PRIMARY EDUCATION. deficiency in reading, is owing to inefficient and superficial modes of instruction. Tlie quantity read is not so much an object as the manner in which it is learned and read. One suitable book, accurately and understandingly read, thor- oughly learned and well digested, will be of more real ad- vantage to the pupil, than a multitude of books perused in the usual careless superficial manner. As soon as their minds are prepared for it, they should be taught to analyze words and sentences, and examine the parts of which they are composed. The analysis and syn- thesis of words may be made a very interesting as well as instructive exercise, and will tend to promote habits of at- tention^ and lead to an accurate and critical knowledge of language. The pupil not accustomed to analyzing, will regard each derivative word as a whole, or a unit, with a meaning according to the definition he has found for it in his dictionary; while he who has been taught on the analytical plan, will regard them as individuals of a family of words derived from one primitive, but modified in their significa- tion by their different inflections. It has been said that, " written language is crystalized thought.^' Let us then teach our pupils to analyze those crystals, and arrive at a knowledge of the thoughts contained in them. They will then learn to examine for themselves, to investigate, and" to think. And this is one of the chief objects of education, and perhaps the most difficult to accomplish. It is certain- ly one in the accomplishment of which there is a very great want of success. If pupils are not placed in situations where they are compelled to think, they are very apt to dispense with that most important exercise. If the think- ing is all done for them by the teacher or the author of their books, so that they will have nothing to do but to remember the results in the words of the instructor or the book, they will PKIMARY EDUCATION. 41 lose the most valuable part of the exercise ; — they will culti- vate the memory to the detriment of the reason and judgment Those teachers will render the most permanent and abiding assistance to their pupils who place them in situations where they will be compelled to think, — to call up the energies of their own mind to aid them in their work. Too much direct assistance given to pupils, instead of being a real advantage to them, will render them helpless and dependent upon others for the solution or removal of diffi- culties. The exercises of the pupils should be active rather than passive. Instruct them to search for knowledge rather than wait for it to be brought to them. Lead them to the fountain and teach them to draw for themselves the rich draughts of learning. Now suppose we take a class and assign them a lesson which they are to read at a stated hour. They come forward at the appointed time and read their specified lesson. If mis- takes are made they are corrected of course, and all passes off without much difficulty on the part of the pupils. Now those who expect that the pupils will use much mental exertion in the preparation of a lesson of this kind, know but little of the nature of the youthful mind, and will be disappoint- ed in their expectation. Perhaps they are called upon to define some of the most important words in the lesson, in preparation for which they have committed to memory the the definition from the dictionary, which is all very well in its place ; but yet it does not entirely accomplish the leading object, which is or ought to be mental exertion, — not merely the exercise of the memory, but of the reason- ing powers. Now suppose we take another class, with perhaps the same lesson, but who, in addition to spelling, reading and defining, are required to be prepared to take their slates 4 42 PRIMARY EDUCATION. and write out their lesson, substituting for many of the sig- nificant words, others that will convey the same idea. Here they are compelled to rely upon their own judgment in determining what definitions are most suited to the place that each word occupies in the sentence before them, and they cannot decide with certainty without getting at the sense of the sentence. Now let them write upon their slates, a list of the variations and inflections of all the words in the lesson that admit of inflection. Here they must think in order to determine which words admit of inflection, and which do not. And then some discrimination is nec- essary in determining what variations will suit the differ- ent words and make sense, and in placiug the accent properly on the derivatives thus formed. If they will then form original sentences in which they will usfe these deriva- tive words, it will render the exercises still more valuable. Pupils may commence the study of Aritlimetic in connec- tion with reading, on their entrance into school. They will soon learn to carry on operations in the mind, by which their reasoning powers may be cultivated and strengthened. The various combinations of numbers will gradually become familiar operations that they can perform with facility. Their exercises, however, in numbers, need not be confined to mental operations exclusively, without any visible signs. Exercises on the slate and black board may accompany the earliest lessons in the primary school, which will furnish additional employment for pupils, when not engaged in recitation. The particulars of this branch, however, I leave for those who are to report on that subject. Care should be taken not to burden the minds of young- pupils with too many studies at once. To set them to study- ing a great many subjects at the same time, and that with- out the necessary previous training, and allow them to get PRIMARY EDUCATION. 43 a smattering of many before they learn any well, is, in the estimation of your reporter, an unwarranted waste of time, and an introduction to superficial habits of study. Yet I have seen grammars and geographies put into the hands of children who could scarcely read intelligibly, or spell the words which they contained. I am convinced that the practice of simplifying and intro- ducing the higher branches into our schools before the pu- pils are prepared for them by previous mental training, is unfavorable to sound mental culture, and calculated to foster superficial acquisitions. The intellectual exercise necessary in the acquisition of knowledge is the most important object to be aimed at in a course of primary education. DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. BY WILLIAM H. M'GUFFY, L. L. D. Fellow Citizens: — The time has gone by in which doubts were entertained by the intelligent, as to the necessity and practicability of general education. Our public servants and professional men are educated ; and the 'people must speedily be educated, that they may, on the one hand, protect their own interests, and on the other, prevent the suspicion and temptation to which popu- lar ignorance must always expose the better informed por- tions of the community? Our citizens at large are less informed on subjects connected with the medical profession, than perhaps any other ; and, consequently, it is in that profession that their credulity is most extensively abused. But, ila all the pro- fessions, the suspicions that haunt the public mind, and the credulity that tempts to public abuse, are alike the offspring of popular ignorance. Honest men, therefore, of all ranks, will, for their own sakes, desire and strive to promote the thorough education of the whole people, as the only means of allaying suspicions of fraud on the part of the public, and removing temptation from the path of those who serve that public. The 'practicability of educating the whole community, seems to be less convincingly before the minds of those (44) DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. 45 concerned than the necessity of such education. And yet the proof of this proposition is both more conclusive and more abundant. What has been done can be repeated ; and in no country under heaven are there to be found such facilities for universal intelligence amongst the citizens, as in our own favored land. Here, a competency can be acquired, in the lowest classes, by the well-directed labor of four or live days in each week ; and thus, two-sevenths of their whole time may be appropriated to intellectual and moral improvement. That state of society must add largely to the eflects of the curse pronounced upon the rebellion of our first parents, which requires the poor man to spend more time in earning his bread, than is fairly compatible with piety and intelligence. This enterprise, then, if earnestly undertaken, must be successful. There are in the commu- nity abundant resources, both physical and moral, for the education of the people — the whole people — to any extent that may be found desirable. But this can not be effected without effort, and united effort. There must be concert between the people and their legislators ; between those who are already educated, and those who have yet to acquire their education ; between the instructors of youth and the parents of the children. The object of the present lecture is to point out some of the respective and relative duties of teachers and 'parents ; in order that they may the more successfully cooperate in their mutual work of training to intelligence and virtue the future citizens of our happy republic. 1st. There must be an increase of teachers. Not more than thirty pupils ought ordinarily to be committed to the care of a single instructor, at any one time. - This ratio must, when all our youth shall be in the schools, augment the number of teachers beyond that of any other profession, or even mechanical employment, in the whole land. 46 DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. It is the duty, therefore, of our young men of liberal edu- cation, to till up the ranks of this most respectable (and, we trust soon to be respected) of all professions, the profession of teaching. It is the duty of those already engaged in this profession, resolutely to decline all offers of patronage that would involve the necessity of dividing their attention between a greater number of pupils than they can thor- oughly instruct. And, as interest and duty are, in the moral government of God, inseparably connected, those who engage in the business of instruction, with a capable facility, can not fail of employment, and a competent support. In the business of instruction, where is the professional teacher, much less an adequate supply of professional teachers, to be found? This field of enterprise, if not new, is certainly almost unoccupied. No where else can talents and learning and worth find such certain and prof- itable investment. But if it were not even so, still it would be the duty of teachers to persevere ; and of those who are competent to teach, to commence and persevere until the ranks should be filled up, and the public compelled, by the force of truth and experiment, to award to the faithful and competent instructor of youth the honor and maintenance which are his due. The work must be done. The existence of our institutions depends upon it. The people have been com- plaining (and they have had cause to complain) that teach- ers were not worthy of their patronage; and the teachers have, in turn, complained that their compensation was not equal to their toil ; and these complaints have been but too lamentably just. But, fellow-teachers, crimination and recrimination will not reform the abuse. Grant that our compensation has not been equal to our pains : is there any better way to liberalize our patrons than by doing our DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. 47 work faithfully, and on more patriotic principles? But, fellow-teachers, we are not to depend upon the mere fee for tuition as even our ^pecuniary reward. Our profession has a rare felicity in this respect — that while others find em- ployment from the miseries and vices of mankind, our gain, both in the extent and profit of the employment which we receive, will be in proportion to our success in diftusing through the community a love of learning, and an adherence to sound morals and true religion. The more intelligence is diffused through the community, the more will the desire to improve be increased. And in proportion as the business of instruction is understood, will impossibilities cease to be expected of the instructor. Be- sides, the eflPect of correct knowledge, in promoting the general prosperity of society, and in enhancing the value of property already acquired, must secure for the teacher, as a member of the community, an adequate, though sometimes protracted, reward for his labor aud his time. It is knowledge that prompts to enterprise and devises plans for the general good. It is knowledge that renders available facilities for the accumulation of prop- erty, and the suppression of expensive crime. It is knowledge, and morality — the oftspring of knowl- edge — that alone can give general prosperity to society, and thus benefit all, and, consequently, the school-master, whose business it is to promote both knowledge and moral- ity in his ofiicial capacity. It is our duty, then, fellow- teachers, and we rejoice to add, our privilege, to labor assiduously in our vocation — a vocation which, though it might receive no direct reward, must compensate us, by the general prosperity which it cannot but promote, and with the least possible tendency to selfishness, because it is in common with all our fellow-citizens. 2d. In the former topic we deduced our interest from 48 DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. our duty ; in tins let us learn our duty in the light of our interest. We may know what we ought to do, when we have learned what is rightly expected of us. The faithful and competent teacher never fails to secure the confidence, respect, and even afiection of his pupils. He is, as he ought to be, esteemed " in place of a parent." He is thought to be infallible. He mglit, therefore, to be correct. He is esteemed as possessing the whole cyclopedia of knowledge. He ought, therefore, to be a man of exten- sive acquaintance with the principles of science. He is thought by the confiding pupil to be incapable of any measure, or even intention, at variance with honest views of promoting the best interests of those intrusted to his care. And he ought, accordingly, to enlist all his energies in promoting the solid improvement and moral growth of every mind submitted to his influence. Nor does his influence stop here. We go out into the world, and retain our school-house impressions of our former instructor. No matter what may be our mental superiority or subsequent acquisition, we still think of our former school-master as the same great man which, rela- tively to ourselves, he was in the period of our novitiate. And from this, fellow-teachers, our duty is clear. We ought, as far as possible, to continue through the whole period of our lives as far in advance of those who were once our pupils, as we were found to be upon their introduc- tion to us. The same proportion can not be preserved — but the same distance in advance may. I am not twice as old as you, who are more than half my age ; but I shall always continue as many years older than you as I was at first. The more we know, the more rapidly can we acquire. Why, then, is our improvement less in riper years than it was in youth ? Obviously, because our industry has declined, or our attention to the business of our profession has become DLTJES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. 49 relaxed. The experience of individuals alone can increase the knowledge of mankind. He, therefore, who is faithful to himself, will, while he contributes to the general im- provement of the species, by his own accurate observation, be able, by the same means, to avail himself of all the advantage of the general stock of information to which he is a contributor. Here are two men, equally ardent in their pursuit, of useful discoveries. The one has knowledge enough to fit him to become the instructor of the other ; and they are about equal in strength and capacity of mind. Which do you suppose will most likely succeed in making discoveries? The one, undoubtedly (other things being equal ) who has the most knowledge. If we were unacquainted with their relative acquisitions, we should feel safe to infer, as a general result, that he who succeeded best must necessa- rily knoAv most. " Knowledge is power ;" and in proportion to the efficiency, so will be the effect, wherever that power is applied. Why, then, should old men fall behind the age in Avhich they live ? And of all old men, aged teachers are most inexcusable for this, which so fpequently happens. The expectation, then, that teachers will continue to improve, is a rational one — nay, almost instinctively rational ; and we are bound, therefore, to verify it by our industry. We, fellow-teachers, must mold the opinion of society, especially on all subjects connected with education. I say must because, from the nature of the case, we can not avoid it, if we would. The future opinions, plans, and enterprises of our pupils, on these subjects, will be not only tinged, but characterized, if not created, by our influ- ence upon their forming minds. All that they shall here- after think will, in a great measure, be the results of what we have previously thought and inculcated. With us rests the tremendous responsibility of laying the foundation of 5 50 DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. a nation's literature, of saying what shall be its future character for morality and religion. The foundation can be laid but once. The character of the superstructure does not depend so much upon those who shall complete the edifice, as upon us, who are called upon to lay the corner-stone. Let us, then, divest our- selves of all selfish views ; of every narrow prejudice ; of every local preference ; and of the whole class of tempo- rary expedients, and come up to the work with a zeal, a devotedness, and perseverance, worthy of so good a cause. Let us remember, too, that when those who are now our pupils shall have become the legislators and governors of the republic — when they shall have devised means, raised funds, organized colleges, and founded universities, and are lookino: out for those to whose care these institutions shall be intrusted, their attention will most likely be directed to us, their former instructors. This will be both natural and just. All these their doings will, we have said, take their character from our former instructions. Who, then, so suitable to carry into effect those principles and plans, as those with whom they have virtually originated ? But in order to this, we must never sleep at our post ; we must continue to improve ; we must add the experience of yes- terday to that of to-day, and the experience of both to the business of to-morrow. We must accumulate the experience of the whole profes- sion in the person of each individual, and personally add to the stock from which we so largely borrow. We must study the human mind, and watch it, in all its varieties of development and growth. We must become scientific and not empirical teachers, who shall know how to give perma- nent direction to the public mind ; and not content ourselves with that evanescent or erroneous impression which disap- pears of itself, or requires to be efi'aced, to make room for DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. 51 that which shall be both more correct and more enduring. If we become dilatory, and cease to improve, we shall be guilty of alternately defeating those very plans which, through our earlier pupils, we have ourselves matured. For, that we shall not be permitted (or be inclined) to retire, is demonstrated by facts. Most of our presidents of colleges have been called to these present places of honor and trust by their former pupils. Many of the professors in our literary institutions have been selected, by intelligent men of other professions, from among those to whom they recited in the log school-house, or the but little more pretending academy. And it will, because it must, continue to be so. Illy qualified for promotion, as most of our profession may be found to be, still, our expe- rience, in despite of Our indolence, gives us a decided advantage over gentlemen of any profession, in the man- agement of literary institutions. Few instances are on record of gentlemen taken from the bar, or the pulpit, or the profession of medicine, that have succeeded as the presidents of colleges or universities ; and fewer still are the recorded instances of teaching professors (for any one may compile and read lectures), who have not found their way to the professor's chair through all the grades of elementary instruction, up 'from the "common school.'' Let us take special care, then, to acquire the skill which shall be requisite to cultivate, in its approaching maturity, that tree of science, which we ourselves are planting, and which, if left by us, must be abandoned to still less skilful hands. 3. In the preceding remarks, we have noticed duties that are less relative than those which remain to be men- tioned. But here, as before, we may discover our duty, fellow-teachers, from the trust reposed in us. Parents commit to us their richest treasures, their dearest hopes. 52 DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. Ill this they are too exclusive ; but their fault can not lessen our responsibility. It rather increases it. We have the formation of character committed to us. The intel- lectual habits of our pupils will be very much as we form them. Their modes of thought, their principles of taste, their habitude of feeling, will all take their complexion, if not their character, from our methods of training the mind. Who, then, can enter the class-room without trem- bling. Where is the spirit stout enough to try experiments upon an immortal mind ? No man is fit to teach who does not understand human nature ; nor will an empirical knowl- edge of the mind suffice. Principles and experiment must go together. Theory without practice will be mischievous ; and practice without theory must, of course, be at random. We owe it, then, to our pupils, and to their parents, thoroughly to understand what we profess to teach ; for who can communicate intelligibly to another that which he himself does not clearly comprehend? That man is a swindler of the worst description, who " procures, upon false pretences," the intellectual wealth of the community, and submits to, he cares not what, venturous process, for his own paltry and sordid gain. The fraudulent merchant destroys but the fortunes of those whom he plunders ; but the incompetent teacher ruins the immortal mind, which is of more value than all temporal riches. Nor is it enough once to have understood what we profess to teach. We must constantly review our studies. This is necessary in order to promptness of explanation, without which much time must be lost to our pupils, and sluggish habits of mental action unavoidably induced upon both us and them. We should be master of our subject — familiar with its details — clear in our explanations — rapid in our mental movements — glowing in our conceptions of truth — impassioned in our admiration of its beauty — and incessant DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. 53 in our endeavors to produce the same results on the minds of our pupils. But the most difficult part of a teacher's duty arises from the great variety of intellectual and moral character found amongst his numerous pupils. No two minds are alike in all their powers and susceptibilities. Every mind, therefore, requires a mode of treatment somewhat different from that which is suitable for any other mind : and here, both the skill and the honesty of the teacher are put to the test. Every new pupil is not only a new lesson, but a new BOOK, which the teacher must study ! and a book, too, in which new pages are continually unfolding, which require a new analysis, and frequently compelling a change of estimate, and consequently a change of procedure, in regard to the whole matter. In such cases, fellow-teachers, it is feared that ability, sometimes, and industry, much more frequently, may fail. Let us be on our guard here. Let not temptation of a higher fee induce us to advance a pupil to higher studies, for which he is not prepared. Let not our indolence prevail with us, to class others with those who are obviously their inferiors in either talents or ac- quirements, much less in both, that we may thus lighten our own labors at the expense of their improvement and "mental training." Let not our misjudging desire for popularity or patronage, ever suggest the thought of low- ering the standard of education in our public institutions. Such conduct is not only dishonest in public teachers, but clearly impolitic. A " short course " can be a recommenda- tion only to short-sighted judges, whether pupils or parents. Those are certainly enemies to the dearest interests of their country, whether intentionally or not, who erect depositories for intellectual chaff; scrape together that which has not substance enough to abide the siftings and winnowings of a thorough education, nor weight enough to find its proper i'A DL'TIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. level when separated from the purer mass; manufacture it by some new but patent process, w^hich requires but little time and less labor, though frequently at great expense to the owners ; and then throw it into market, bearing falsely the brand of a genuine article, to the defrauding of an unsuspecting public, and the ultimate disparagement of all sound education. Nor can any censure too severe be passed upon that instructor, who can, for the sake of popularity, or any such motive, lower the standard or relax the discipline of a coordinate department in a college or university, or of either a coordinate or subordinate school, or department in a school, connected with our general system of education. Let us, then, be honest with ourselves ; honest with our pupils; honest with their parents, and honest with the public. Let us not drive a pupil too fast, and thus destroy the vigor and energy of his mental action. Let us not check the natural activity of his thought, and thus induce a habit of mental inoping, alike unfriendly to accuracy and dispatch, whether in acquisition or execution. Let us not flatter our patrons, that their children are capable of pro- fessions for which nature never intended them. Let us be careful never to inculcate any doubtful principle of morality or religion ; or to recommend, by precept or example, any wrong, or even equivocal sentiment of feeling. We may — nay, we must — have our own speculative opinions — hypotheses in morals, w^hich we have not yet been able either to verify or disprove by inductive expe- rience. But in this state, fellow-teachers, let them never once be named in our schools, nor let them begin to influ- ence our conduct as practical teachers. The intellectual and moral character of our pupils is too valuable to be made the subject of rash and hazardous experiment. The Christian religion is the religion of our country DUTIES 0F TEACHERS AND PARENTS. 55 From it are derived our prevalent notions of the character of God, the great moral Governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institu- tions. From its sanctions are derived the oblis^ations to veracity imposed in the administration of justice. In its revelations are found the only certain grounds of hope in reference to that else unknown future, which lies beyond the horizon of time. It alone places a guard over the conscience, which never slumbers, and whose eye can not be evaded by any address of the delinquent. Its maxims, its precepts, its sentiments, and even its very spirit, have become so incorporated with the mind and soul of civiliza- tion and all refinement, that it can not be eradicated, or even opposed, without imminent hazard of all that is beau- tiful, lovely and valuable, in the arts, in science, and in society. Let us, then, fellow-teachers, avoid, on the one hand, the inculcation of all sectarian peculiarities in religion ; and on the other, let us beware of incurring the charge (which w^ill not fail to be made, and justly made) of being- enemies to our country's quiet, by teaching to our pupils the crude notions and revolutionary principles of modern infidelity. It is, at best, but an unsustained hyiMhesis. 4. The duties that remain to be noticed, in the fourth place, as incumbent on teachers, in relation to the parents of those who are their pupils, are, if possible more impor- tant than any that have yet been noticed. Teachers ought to know best how to do that w^hich is required of them ; but parents are, or ought to be, better judges as to what is to he done. We, fellow-teachers, are the servants of the public. We have a deep interest, as has been shown, in the results of our own labors, in their effects upon public prosperity and national character. But, much as we love, and ought to love, those committed to our care, they are but 56 DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. our pupils, not our children. This last relation is one which can be constituted only by the Author of our being. All attempts artificially to form it, must end in compara- tive defeat. None but the natural parent can feel that natural affection which is adequate to the duties of jproferly educating an immortal mind. Our duties, then, paradoxical as it may seem, are only subordinate in that very business which we pursue as a profession. The teacher, I repeat, should know better than any other man, how to produce a given result in mental training ; but the parent, who is the natural guar- dian, or in want of parents, the authorized adviser, alone has a right to say what that result, which is attempted, shall be. We may and ought to advise with our friends as to the best methods of accomplishing their wishes in the educa- tion of their children. But there our jurisdiction ends. We have, as teachers, no right to dictate ; and we ought to use the most constant caution and vigilance, not to impair that sacred attachment to the persons, and respect for the character of parents and guardians, which, to the credit of human nature, generally do, as they always ought, charac- terize the unsophisticated mind of youth. Let us, then, pursue such a course as shall be most likely to interest parents in the progress as well as the results of our labors. Let us encourage them to visit our schools — to take part in the examination of our scholars, but their own children. Let us refuse those whose parents will not cooperate with us, or who decline giving a specific view of what they wish us to accomplish in behalf of their chil- dren. Let us, like the mechanic, insist upon definite instructions as to what is to be done ; and then, like him, let us throw ourselves upon our skill, and the intelligence of our patrons, for our character and our reward. DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. 57 The second general division of our subject is, the duties incumbent on parents, in the business of education. And here, as in the first division of this discourse, 1 have the pleasure to rank with those whom I address. I have long been a teacher, and expect to remain in tbe profession for life. But I am also a parent, who has cbil- dren to educate, and may therefore be supposed to feel, in some degree at least, the importance of those duties which I venture to urge upon my fellow-citizens. As, in the preceding remarks, the duties of teachers have been shown to be subordinate to those of parents ; so in what is to follow, I wish the paramount importance of the parent's interests and the parent's duties to be kept distinctly before us. We who are parents are the employ- ers — teachers, our assistants, in the all responsible business of training up the future governors of this republic, who are to give character to the world, and to form characters for eternity. 1. In the first place, we must provide suitable accom- modations for our schools. Children can not learn when uncomfortable ; and they can not be comfortable, either in cold weather or in hot, unless the school-house or recita- tion room be such as can be both warmed and ventilated, as occasion may require. How much time and money, and that vvdiich is more valuable than both time and money — I mean mind — is wasted, simply for the want of suitable buildings for schools ? Nor is mere convenience, of itself, sufiicient. Children are creatures of association and habit ; and much depends upon the cheerfulness and taste of that which is connected with their early mental efforts, as to whether . they shall become attached to study, and take a delight in thought, or shall contract a disgust for every thing like literature and science. Time was, when the log school-house, Aviih gable-end chimney, clap-board door, and 58 DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. long, narrow windows, papered and greased, was all that could be looked for in a country that was still a wilderness. But that time is now passed ; and yet, even these cabin colleges were often more comfortable and better conducted than some of our public schools at the present day. It must make the heart of philanthropy bleed, to see the youth of our country so frequently collected (when in school at all) in uncomfortable and even filthy, hovels,''-^ in which the farmers of the neighborhood would hardly consent to house their sheep ; surrounded by every thing calculated to disgust them with learning, and to make them loathe even the sight of a slate or a book; but, on the other hand, in contact, as if by design, with whatever can minis- ter to grossness of sentiment, confusion of thought, and ferocity of character. And all this for want of such accom- modations as could be procured for a less sum than one half of that which those most intimately concerned are known to expend upon that which is worse than useless. I make these remarks with the greater freedom, because they are generally known to be true, and because, from the enterprise of this city (Cincinnati) they can not be con- strued as conveying any reproof to those who constitute the present audience. And yet, the newly-painted spires of your public school-houses, and other literary edifices, seem to imply, fellow-citizens, that it is but recently since the spirit of improvement commenced its work even among you. But the extent of that work, in so short a time, is the more honorable to the enterprise that has accomplished it. 2. The next duty devolving upon parents, in relation to teachers, is to furnish them with suitable tools, with which * There has been great improvement in school-houses since this lecture was delivered. — Eds. DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. 59 to work. They must, we have seen, have comfortable sliops — a school-house is the teacher's shop — but this will not avail, unless those shops be furnished. We must fur- nish, or compensate the teachers for furnishing, uniform sets of suitable class books. No teacher can instruct success- fully when the variety of books is nearly equal to the whole number of scholars. Every thing that saves time to the teacher must benefit the school ; and nothing is more desirable to a conscientious instructor than to be able to devote a large portion of his time to every individual under his care. But this can not be done without careful classi- fication, which classification is impossible without a uniform- ity of class books. As we value the improvement of our children then, we ought not only to permit, but to encour- age, the instructors whom we employ to introduce as rigid a system of classification and as great a uniformity of books into the schools as possible. But still more than books and classifying is needed to furnish a school-room. Our teachers must have maps and globes, and a variety of apparatus, suitable to illustrate these branches of knowl- edge, which we expect our children to learn. But the compensation which we ordinarily allow them is not sufld- cient to warrant or enable them to procure these articles at their own cost. We must furnish them ; and in doing so, we shall be the gainers. Our children will learn more rapidly, understand more clearly what they do learn, and retain with more permanency and greater accuracy the principles of those practical sciences, which even a school apparatus is suflScient to illustrate. 3. But, to keep up the figure of a shop, it is not enough that our teachers have tools ; they must also have stock, or the raw material upon which these tools are to be em- ployed, and their skill expended. This material parents are to furnish ; and it is of vast importance to success in 60 DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. the result, that it be of the right kind. Children receive their characters from the preponderant impressions to which they are habitually exposed. Thus their characters will be formed within the domestic circle. Teachers can do but little to alter the tendencies of that almost uninter- rupted intluence exerted upon young minds by the example of parents, domestics, aiid friends. Nay, it has before been shown that it was not the province of the teacher to oppose what must be presumed to be the deliberate arrangement of the family circle in relation to children. Teachers must not only take children as they are, but must permit them to remain as they were in the respects just noticed. For where is the parent that will patiently permit any teacher to obliterate those impressions, or change those characteristics, or to interfere with the formation of those habits in his children, which he has been so solicitous to secure ? For I can not, I will not, suppose that there is a single parent who hears me, that is so ignorant of the facts, or so regardless of the consequences just stated, as not to give all possible attention to the arrangement of every part of his domestic relations, in reference to its influence upon the education, and consequently upon the character of the children belonging to the family. We, then, who are parents must, from the constitution of society, form and sustain the character, intellectual and moral, of those who reside under our roof. The teacher can not do it without our aid, nor ought he to be permitted to do it w^ithout our cooperation. We must lay the foun- dation ; he may help us build. We must furnish the materials ; he may fit and adjust them — but only under our direction and supervision. The teacher may and will exert an incalculable influence upon the minds of his pupils, and, through them, on society. But parents are responsible for a great part even of that ; because it will DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. 61 be modified by their superior and antecedent influence. The result will be different, and something more than would follow from parental education alone — or else the employment of teachers would be useless. But it never can be much different, in kind or degree, from the general character of that influence which is exerted by the specific circumst/ances of the domestic fire-side. What, then, is our duty in this business? We shall best answer the question by ascertaining what are the cliief hindrances to success in our own attempts to commu- nicate information to the infant mind. We will not stop to enumerate, much less to classify, these hindrances here. We shall take for granted that they are familiar, and dis- tinctly recognized by all, as they must be, by every parent who has done his duty in the instruction of his family. These we must labor to remove, as much as possible, out of the way of the teacher. We must, as far as practicable, so arrange matters at home, that our children may come into the hand of the school-master docile, ingenuous, affec- tionate, intelligent, honorable, magnanimous, rational, conscientious, and pious children. These are the funda- mental elements of a right character, and not one of them can be dispensed with in the very commencement of a school education. Or if there is one, which one will any father or mother in this audience designate to be excluded? or which one would any parent be willing, were it possible, should spring up in the mind of the child under the fos- tering care of any hand but his own? Where is the mother that would not resent the imputation that her child had grown old enough to attend school without her having cherished or implanted in its opening mind one, and every one, of the principles above enumerated ? I know it was once objected that piety was not compatible with the infant mind. But the author of the only true religion ever 62 DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. professed by men was of a different opinion. He recog- nized in the minds of "little children" something so like to piety in the adult mind, that he made the former a test of the genuineness of the latter. "Except ye be con- verted, and become as little eliildren, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Piety is right sentiments toward supreme excellence; and would not the parent who should discourage that run an awful risk of obliterating all right sentiments in relation to every species of moral excellence? How could he, after this, hope to maintain his authority as a father, or command the respect of his child? But it may be said that these are the traits of an edu- cated mind, and instruction has become useless where these principles exist. It is admitted that education, neither purchased, nor domestic can implant such princi- ples — piety for example. But some of the above traits are habits; and all require to be cherished at first by a parentis hand; and if they are not, it will be little less than miraculous, should they survive the rude culture and the chilling atmosphere of public instruction in its best forms. They can be cherished at home. They are suc- cessfully cherished in many families. But we might chal- lenge the world to produce even a few instances where they have been successfully cultivated in any other field. Let me not be misunderstood. I do not say that any principle can be implanted by education. Piety is the result of divine agency, but may be cherished by human means. All I contend for here is, that the fundamental elements of character can not be so well, if at all, developed anywhere else as in the family, nor by any other hand so appropriately as by that of a parent. Infant piety, youthful ingenuousness, and juvenile honor, are of too delicate a texture to bear an early transplanting into our DUTIES OP TEACHERS AND PARENTS. 6S public scliools — even tliose which are under the host possible regulations. Let us then, who are parents, prepare our children for the school, bj training them to think by means of rational conversation ; by cherishing honesty of character, through a proper treatment of their natural ingenuousness : by culti- vatmg in them a respect for all that is valuable, and praiseworthy in human character around them ; by teach- ing them a rational subordination to just authority, as connected with intelligence, superior to their own, and an undoubted intention to promote their interests ; by encourag- ing them to examine into the grounds of even authoritative injunctions, not that they may find reasons to disobey, but that they may obey more intelligently ; by showing, what we must be careful honestly to feel, a uniform respect for those whom we employ, to assist us in the business of educating those minds, which God has intrusted to our care — and thus exciting in their minds that respect and confidence toward these instructors, which is ever found indispensable in the business of instruction. How incon- sistently some parents are found to act in this matter ! It is inconsistent to employ as an instructor a person whom we can not respect ; and even if this should happen through mistake, it is highly injudicious to manifest disrespect toward their teacher, in the presence of our children, until we are fully prepared to remove them from his care. Parents are commendably careful not to marry their daughters to unworthy men. But why should we not be equally careful, not to commit either our sons, or our daughters, to the care disreputable teachers? Will it be said that the former connection is for life ; the latter but temporary ? I reply, the influence of the former is upon happiness only — that of the latter upon character first and subsequently upon happiness. 64 DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. We owe it as a duty to the whole profession of teachers, to discourage every thing in them that is w^rong, by resolutely refusing to employ, at any price, those who are not of reputable character ; and to encourage whatever is commendable, by showing equal respect for virtue and excel- lence in that profession, as to that in any other. We owe it moreover, to teachers, and to the public, not to send to an institution of learning, a young man of insubordinate tem- per, or bad moral character. How often are both teachers and students in our public seminaries, most grossly imposed upon, by the stealthy introduction of such young men as never ought to have been admitted into any public institu- tion, unless perhaps it w^re a penitentiary. Schools and colleges are not houses of correction. They were intended to educate ; not to reform young men. But these are our own sons, and we are anxious to reclaim them. Very well. And so are all our friends, and the public. But this gives us no right to jeopard the morals of others, from the very slight prospect of good to our own unfortunate children. The risk of increasing, or at least spreading the moral contagion, is much toogreatto warrant any judicious, much less conscientious man, so to offend against the morals of his country, as to cast poison into the fountains of science. The whole community would unite in reprobating the man who should introduce the cholera into an institution of learning, induced by the hope of recovering the patient infected, even though that patient were an only son. But to introduce a moral jyestilence is still worse than this. 4. The last class of duties devolving on parents in rela- tion to teachers, must be briefly discussed for the present. It has been frequently hinted in the progress of the lecture, that the business of instruction was a joint concern, of the teacher and the parent. The part which the parent must take in it throughout, comes now to be noticed, in its most DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. 65 imporfcaiit aspect. And that is, fellow-citizens, we must ourselves be the prominent and persevering teachers of our children, during the whole period in which their characters are forming. We must subordinate every other concern to that. We must not leave it to hired help. We must not permit either business or pleasure, or even other duties, (none can be paramount,) to interfere with this class of oblio'ations. We must not allow anv man to dictate to us in the course which we pursue : nor must we ever lose sight of the actual engagements which employ our children from day to day. We must here, as in other business, superintend at least the whole concern, or it will not succeed. Let us decide wliat our children are to learn — procure for them suitable accommodations, books and apparatus — employ for their benefit the ablest instructors — and then keep our eye con- stantly upon them, their progress, and their instruction — encourage their despondency — repress their waywardness — show an interest in their studies, or we may be assured they will not. In a word, let us post up, every day, the whole concern, that we may have it under our eye, and let all concerned know that it is so. It is objected, that we have not time, thus to attend to the education of our children, in person. The answer is, we have as much time to spare from business as our chil- dren have from amusement and healthful exercise. But if time be wanting, then let us employ assistants in our other avocations. Why should ladies fear to trust the management of household affairs to the exclusive care of servants, while they make no scruple of abandoning the education of their daughters to those who are not, or are not known to be, any better qualified for their task, than servants are for theirs? Why should fathers consider it indispensable to superintend in person the concerns of 6 66 DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. tlieir farms or their shops, or their merchandise ; while they wholly neglect the proceedings of the school, to which are sent those sons for whom they are thus laboring ? If we want leisure, let us employ more help in every depart- ment of our business ; but let us not be seduced, nor with- held by any engagements, from carefully accompanying our children on the thorny path of elementary acquisi- tion. But we are ourselves ignorant of many things which we wish our children to learn ; and in these we may be excused from accompanying them. If tliey are valuable acquisi- tions, and useful in life, (and children should not be doom- ed to study any thing of a different character,) our igno- rance furnishes an additional motive why we should accom- pany our children in these very studies. We can hardly claim respect for our opinions from those who are confess- edly wiser than ourselves. We ought therefore, in defense of our authority, to keep pace with the improvements in school education. Besides, we can hardly hope that our children will be much interested in those studies which they are aware we are ignorant of, unless we show suf- ficient interest to be willing yet to attend to them. If, when they come to us with a difficulty, which they have met in their lesson, we put them off, with a declaration that either we do not understand, or do not care about what they are studying, can we be surprised, or blame them if they show but little farther concern in the matter ? But even if it should prove impracticable (which I believe it will do only through indolence) to learn what our chil- dren are learning, though we may not have acquired it before, still we can show an interest in their studies like that of the heathen mother, who, though she could not read, yet required her son to read to her his daily lesson at the school, and judged of his proficiency, as she could, DUTIES OF TEACHERS AXD PARENTS. Q7 by general appearances, so that she correctly applauded his industry and rebuked his indolence, as they respective- ly occurred. Your speaker has seen the grandfather of eighty years induced to look into a geography, in order to correct in his little grandson that glaring heresy of modern times, that the earth turns round on its axis; and after pro- nouncing the assertions of the little philosopher " nonsense^ "silly nonsense,'^ become interested in the child's artless defense of his book, and finally to take lessons from his pupil, and become a companion of hi^ studies hv months together. The results -u'ere valuable. They showed that an aged man, in the midst of business engagements, could learn a new science ; and that the effects of such a companionship were most salutary upon the mind of the child. That child was my pupil, and far surpassed his classmates from the time he took his grandfather into partnership in his studies. Every intelligent teacher will expect success, just in pro- portion as he can induce parents to take an interest in the business which he conducts, but which they must superin- tend. Let parents then be the instructors of their own children, employing all the assistance they may need or desire ; but never resigning the business into the hands of another. It must be obvious, from the foregoing remarks, that children and youth ought to be kept under the parental roof, during the period of their elementary education ; and the experience of public teachers abundantly confirms the remark. A very large proportion of those who leave their parental home before their characters are pretty well con- firmed, are more or less injured, and many of them ruined, by their residence at even our most respectable public schools. How can it be otherwise ? Who is to w^atch over the 68 DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. daily conduct of the stranger student? His instructors can not do it ; and if tliey are honest men, they will not engage to do that which they know is, from the nature of the case, im practicable . The young man is, in a great degree, cut off from the restraints of society, the advice of friends, and the protection of parents. He is exposed to the excitement of a hundred companions, who, like himself, are deprived of the ordinary amusements found in social life, and left to expend that buoyancy of spirit which even the severest study can not always suppress, in boisterous mirth, or acts of mischief. His steps are watched by the unprincipled and design- ing, who take advantage of the excellencies of his gener- ous nature, to lead him into vice, for their own sordid gain. And often, alas too often, all that remains, after the period of education has elapsed, is the wreck of what was once a noble spirit, but now fallen. How poor a compensation is a little knowledge for the loss of moral excellence ? How pitiful the acquisition of mental dexterity, at the expense of all correct habits. Teachers may instruct, but society must educate. And what society can be compared with that which is enjoyed around a father's table, and under the domestic roof ? No responsibilities are more reluctantly assumed, or more painfully regretted, than those which are imposed upon the officers of literary institutions in the west, by the absurd practice of sending sucklings to college. We must then have schools within the reach of every family, sufficient to give to the son of every American citizen an education that shall enable him to discharge the highest duties to which his fellow-citizens may appoint him ; and to the daughters of every American mother, such an one as shall fit her to become the wife and mother of freemen. Fellow-citizens, my thoughts, on this subject, are now DUTIES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS. 69 before you. The importance of the topics discussed, must be my apology for the length of the lecture. Let teachers fill up the ranks of the profession ; let them trust to the inevitable effects of their well directed labors, for their reward ; let them be careful to improve as society advances ; and let them be content with their subordination to par- ents, as the only effectual means of bringing every power of society into requisition in the business of universal education. And, on the other hand, let parents come up to the work as they ought. Let them provide suitable houses, suitable books, suitable apparatus, and suitable instructors for the benefit of their children ; and all this within reach of their own homes. And let them be careful to cherish in their chil- dren those traits of character that will make them at once active and docile, respectful and persevering. And, in addi- tion to all this, let them, as they would discharge the high responsibility that heaven has laid upon them, accompany their children through all their studies, and, in person, superintend the whole process of their mental, moral, and religious training. And, through the blessing of Heaven, the result will be as they could wish. " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it," — is a declaration that never has, and never will be falsified. It is the declaration of Eternal Truth. DISCIPLINE. BT DANIEL DEAKE.M.D. The universe is an empire, and God is its sovereign. It consists of masses of matter suspended in space, one of which is our earth. Of the others, we know very little from observation ; but, relying on several ascertained analogies, presume that in their intimate structure they may not be unlike our own. In it we observe two great divisions, the mineral, and the organized or living kingdoms. Pas- sing by the former, we find the latter divisible into two classes, vegetable and animal ; the last of which may be subdivided into two orders, the inferior animals and the human race. Thus we know that our globe comprehends and sustains an innumerable variety of bodies. The different objects which compose the universe, are not at rest, nor do they remain in the same relation. Motion is the condition in which most of those on the earth's sur- face exist ; the mass itself is in motion, and even the sun turns on its axis ; the other planets of the solar system, have the same movements with ours. It is even probable that the constellation to which our sun belongs, has a progres- sive motion in the heavens ; and, if this is the fact, we may suppose the whole, the entire universe, in action. Such being the probability, and in reference to our earth and its (70) I DISCIPLINE. 71 productions, the actual fact, it follows, that a state of chaos would sooner or later arise, unless these complicated move- ments were made on some kind of system. But the experi- ence of the human race in past times, and every day's observation, convince us, that disorder is not the conse- quence of this action, and, of course, there must be laws of motion ; and we believe that God, who made the worlds and all who inhabit them, is the great law-giver. To regu- late the revolutions of the planets, he has enacted laws ; to guide the actions of atoms of matter on other atoms, he has made other laws ; to direct the arrangement of those atoms in organized bodies, he has establislied other laws ; and, lastly, to govern man,he has made others, which refer both to his mind and body. Thus, every movement, from that of a satellite round the earth, to the revolution of the sun on his axis ; from the rise and fall of a particle of dust, or the growth of a blade of grass, to the voluntary actions of man himself, is regulated by laws, which God only can modify or repeal. The government, then, of the entire universe, is a government, of laws, and without them it would stand still, or speedily run into confusion. If such be the fact — and who can deny it ? we come direct- ly to the conclusion, that a violation of any of the laws of nature is eventually followed by disorder, and this disorder, involving as it does or should do, the agent which commits it, constitutes the punishment or penalty. Thus, on the plan of nature, every violation is punished ; for a law without a penalty is a dead letter. Let us apply this reason- ing to the human race. Was there but one man, it would be necessary to his welfare that he should not violate the laws which regulate the relations between him and the surrounding elements ; for if he did, he would suffer bodily pain, and perhaps per- ish. Thus if he exposed himself, unprotected, to the north 72 DISCIPLINE. wind, at midnight in winter, he would be frozen ; or, if he walked into the fire, he would be burnt — in both cases, receiving the penalty imposed on the violation. While on the other hand, if he scrupulously observed the laws which regulate the relations between his system and heat and and cold, his feelings would be pleasant, and, in that pleas- ure he would find the reward of his fidelity to the require- ments of his physical nature. Again, if we contemplate him associated with others in society, and suppose him to violate the laws which are nec- essary to its government and well being, we see him doomed to suffer a penalty ; while, on the contrary, a strict obser- vance of all the regulations of the social compact never fails to preserve his peace, and procure for him the reward of conscious rectitude, and the approbation and confidence of his fellow. Thus, both in the world of matter and the world of mind, we find punishment the consequence of vio- lation, and reward the beneficial effect of obedience. When we come to inquire into the reason of this rela- tion between the act and its consequences, we at once per- ceive that without it no law would be respected ; and that, in the economy of the world, rewards and punishments are the appointed means of securing obedience, and maintaining the supremacy of those enactments, domestic, social, politi- cal, and moral, without which men could not live in each other's society. Hence, from a survey of the physical and social world, we derive a warrant of rewards and punishments, and acquire a conviction of their justice and necessity. Turning from observation and reasoning, to revelation, we are at once confirmed in our conclusions. When God gave the first moral commandment in Paradise, he annexed to its violation a special punishment — such a one as would not have followed from any of the laws of nature — and in DISCIPLINE. 78 all the subsequent revelations of his will, he never failed to attach to every rule of conduct both a penalty, and a reward. From the first generation, when He avenged the murder of Abel, and pronounced upon Cain the dreadful malediction — " Thou art cursed upon the earth. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength ; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth ''—from the delivery of the commandment to little children, " honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee " — from the days when the holy prophet cried aloud, with the voice of inspiration : " wash you, make yourselves clean ; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn to do well ; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come, now, let us reason together, saith the Lord ; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be ivilling and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land ; but if ye refme and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it " — from the hour when the Saviour pronounced, that the ''Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels ; and then he shall reward every man according to his works " — -from the time when one inspired Apostle wrote, *' Blessed is the man that endure th temptation ; for, when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him," till the last added, in the consumation of revelation — " If any man take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book," — we find a succession of rewards and punish- ments, connecting themselves with all that is dear or dread- 74 DISCIPLINE. ful, both in this world and the world to come ; leaving no room to doubt that both are a^opointed means in the plan of Providence, for animating men to virtue and deterring them from vice ; demonstrating that the measures which God employs to secure an observance of the laws of the moral world, are, in principle, the same which he has provided to maintain the continued dominion of the laws of the physical world ; and, finally, establishing the universal fact that order and happiness every where flow from obedi- ence — disorder and misery from disobedience, to the stat- utes which govern the great empire of nature, including man. Having then the lights, both of reason and revelation, to guide us, we possess the highest assurance which the human mind can attain, that both rewards and punish- ments are not only right, but indispensably necessary ; and that in all cases, where, as individuals, it is our right to govern, it is our duty, in imitation of Him who ruleth all things in wisdom, to punish offenses and reward virtuous obedience. And what is the philosophy of this system ? One easily understood ; one that he who runs may read. It is to associate pain with the transgression, and pleasure with the observance of the law. By pain and pleasure God governs the whole animal world. In the lower orders they are limited to the body— in man, they extend also to the soul. God has not required of us the observance of any law, without making that obedience a source of pleas- ure, corporeal or mental ; nor permitted the violation of any, without annexing the penalty of pain, either present or prospective. The object and effect of all punishment should be, to establish this association of ideas, that when the temptation comes, the fear of the punishment we have felt may come also, and deter us from the act — and the end of every reward should be, to make the resistance of DISCIPLINE. 75 temptation an immediate source of pleasure. As far as we can fatlioni this matter, the moral government of the world could not be maintained by any other system ; neither pun- ishments nor rewards, alone, could accomplish the object. Has, then, a parent the right to govern his child? If he have, it is his duty to reward and punish it, according to the manner in which it acts, under the just and necessary rules which he lays down for its government. That he has such a right, can not be doubted by any who reflect on the relations of parent and child. It results from the depend- ence of the latter upon the former ; a dependence as great as that of the young scion on its parent root. Here, more- over, as in the other branch of our argument, we are not left to the lights of our own understanding, for revelation throughout recognizes this dependence, and commands, what reason and instinct had already made manifest. To children it says — "Honor thy father and thy mother.'' " This know, also, that in the last days perilous times shall come ; for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents.'' "Chil- dren, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleas- ing unto the Lord." To parents — "Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest : yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul." " Fathers provoke not your children to wrath ; but bring them up in the nuture and admonition of the Lord." Here, then, we have the fullest expression of the Divine mind, as to the relative duties of parents and children, and find it in perfect accordance with nature. But can this right with propriety be delegated to another ? It certainly can. The object is not to gratify the parent by the exercise of power, but to preserve the child from danger, qualify it for usefulness in life, and prepare it for happiness after death. But if both the parents should die, this must be done by friends or strangers ; and when its 70. DISCIPLINE. education and dicipline require it to be separated from them the punishment must be inflicted by those who have it in charge, or else the duty which God enjoins and nature re- quires, will not be performed. It follows, therefore, from these premises, that children require government ; that this government must be by laws : for where there is no rule of action, there can be noofiPense ; that rewards and punishments are the appointed means of securing obedience to the system, and that these can not be dispensed with, either by the parent or the teacher. Let us now inquire what these rewards and punishments should he. To prosecute this investigation in a proper manner, a thorough knowledge of the constitution of hu- man nature, as it exists in childhood and youth, is indis- pensable. Man being a compound of mind and body, can only be understood by observing and studying both, for they act and react upon each other. In the successive periods of life, in dijfferent individuals, and in the various grades of civiliza- tion, the relative power of the mind upon the body, and the body upon the mind, is different. Thus, in the civili- zed and intellectual state, the mind exercises greater power over the body than in the savage state ; and the mind of a philosopher, or a Christian, governs the desires of his body more effectually, that the mind of an ignorant or wicked person controls his appetites ; and finally, the mind of an adult rules over his bodily wants with greater success than the mind of a child. In the tender stages of infancy, the reasoning powers and the moral sentiments are but little developed, and the corporeal appetites and desires are strong. The reason is obvious. The body must be built up, and hence the appetite for food, and the pleasures of indulgence, are great, sometimes almost insatiable. The impatience of labor is quick, because its industry can seldom be turned to DISCIPLINE. 77 good account, and its limbs are soon fatigued, while they are growing ; its natural repugnance to close or long con- tinued confinement is equally strong, for fresh air and un- restrained exercise are requisite to the proper maintenance of health ; its curiosity for wandering among new objects is intense, because observation is the food of the young intel- lect, and indispensable to its growth ; finally, its love of play and of pleasure is almost indomitable, because on the plan of nature, no responsibility in regard to the future rests upon it ; and if it had not a desire for play, it would not take the necessary exercise, nor acquire the proper use and discipline of its limbs. Thus, almost all the pains and pleasures of infancy and youth connect themselves with the body. The gratification of the physical or material part is the great object ; that which answers to the wants and de- sires of the body aff*ords the chief pleasure. Like the lower animals, it lives for the body, and for the present moment. Its enjoyments are physical — its sufferings are physical ; and, when they extend to the mind, it is because something which administered to the pleasures of sense has been with- held, or applied in such manner as to mortify the few feelings and sentiments of the soul, which at that early period, are in a state of susceptibility. What is the deduction from these views ? Undoubtedly, that there is in the constitution of childhood, a foundation for physical correction ; and that punishment of the body is the most efiicient mode of reaching and affecting the mind. Such are the conclusions of reason, applied to this subject. And what are the results of experience ? Let the practice of the whole world return the answer. In every age, and in all nations, we find the hand of the parent uplifted in physical correction, or some other mode adopted, of punishing the body through its desires and sensibilities. It is, indeed, an instinct on the part of the parent, and, by an instinct 78 DISCIPLINE. equally intuitive, unerring, and universal, is acquiesced in by the child. Nature in fact, is at the bottom of tlie matter, and prompts, if she does not regulate, the whole discipline. But does God in his revealed will bear us out in these conclusions ? The Bible shall give the reply. " He that spare th his rod, hateth his son ; but he that loveth him, chasteneth him betimes." " Poolishness is bound in the heart of a child ; but the rod of correction shall drive it far away.'' "Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." Thus we find punishment of the body, even with the rod, expressly enjoined by Heaven, as a parental duty; and declared to be powerful, not only in driving away fool- ishness, and qualifying the child for the duties of this life, but in preparing it for the enjoyments of eternity ; and we are thus supplied with new evidence of the conformity of the law of the Bible, to the laws which govern the con- stitution of man. Corporeal punishments are of two kinds, those which act upon the body in a positive manner, and give pain, as the hand, the ferule, and the rod ; and those which act nega- tively, and give pain to the unindulged appetites, as with- holding luxurious articles of food and drink, and confine- ment to the house, or to a certain position. The latter, at first view, might seem preferable ; but they are not always practicable with the great mass of parents, who are poor, and are obliged to work, and for whom all general rules should be formed ; and they can not always be conveniently resorted to by teachers. There is, moreover, an objection of a different kind, which detracts something from their char- acter. If the child be not hungry, or its appetite be DISCIPLINE. 79 destroyed by its emotion of mind, the denial of good things will inflict no punishment ; and confinement will give no bodily pain if there should, at the moment, be no disposition to go abroad. Still fixrther, there are moral objections to restraints upon the appetites, which deserve deep considera- tion. The child is taught, by the estimate which it per- ceives the parent to place on the enjoyments of sense, when he withholds them as a punishment, to regard them as of paramount value, and is thus rendered more sensual ; w^hen, perhaps, the very offense for which he was punished, was an act of improper indulgence, or of depredation for the gratification of his appetite. Finally, if the hunger of children be not satisfied, they are tempted, secretly, to acquire tlie means of gratifying it ; and are thus led into habits of concealment, deceit, and theft, which, practiced to- wards the parent for a time, may at last be exercised on society. On the other hand, it has been said, that the use of the rod degrades the child in its own estimation ; debases it in the view of other children ; exasperates it toward its par- ents ; is liable to be excessive ; and contributes to maintain on the earth the system of violence and war, which must be abolished before the world can be christianized. These are serious objections, and it is our duty to consider them sep- arately. I begin by appealing to every judicious and observing parent and preceptor, to say, whether they have witnessed, under the application of the rod, any evidence of improper self-abasement in the child ; and would ask all who have felt it, to recollect whether its merited and proper infliction sunk them in their own estimation, below the point of that humility which children ought to feel, under the deserved chastisements of their parents or teachers ? From my own observation and experience, I should answer these questions 80 DISCIPLINE. in the negative; and, "believing, as I have already said, that the use of this instrument of correction is a kind of instinct on the part of the parent, acquiesced in by the feelings of nature in the child, I can not suppose that its employment, under proper regulations, can debase the feel- ings, or break down the manly spirit, but rather contribute to purify and elevate both. That it necessarily lowers the chihl in the estimation of others, there is as little reason to believe. If it be a natural punishment, such an efPect can not flow from it ; and that it does not, is a matter of observation ; for we generally see the surrounding children, if relatives or friends, disposed to pity the one which has been chastised, and often find them, subsequently, engaged in offering it their little consolations. That children who are frequently whipped, sometimes become objects of derision with their playmates, is certain ; but, as a general rule, such children are great offenders, and among children, as in society, those who continue to offend in the midst of correction, wall at length fall into contempt. That the rod may exasperate the child toward its par- ent, there is no doubt, if it be used when the child is inno- cent, or applied to a degree disproportionate to the offense, or with partiality, in reference to other children ; and under such circumstances, it ought to feel indignant. But where is the individual who can say that he ever loved a parent the less, for inflicting personal chastisement in a proper degree when he had a consciousness of having done wrong? So far from producing the alleged effect, it generates the opposite ; and children never love their parents more, than in the hour of repentance and returning joy, which follows this kind of punishment inflicted in a suitable manner and to a merited extent. That the rod is liable to be handled to excess, is an DISCIPLINE. 81 evidence of its power, but no objection to its regulated use. Any other mode of punishment may be abused ; and he who has not sense and self-commaud enough to use the rod discreetly, might be expected to err in any other means of correction. The objection that, being at hand, it is em- ployed while the parent is still in anger, we shall con- sider hereafter. The last objection, that it keeps alive a spirit of force and violence, and contributes to maintain war in the world, we may meet, as we might indeed have met the others, with the remark, that its use is of Divine appointment in the Old, and nowhere forbidden in the New Testament ; and that it can not, therefore, remotely promote the effects ascribed to it, for God is not the author of any command- ment that leads to violence and war ; nor would he have failed to prohibit every thing which interferes with the spread of his moral dominion on the earth. It is not, more- over, by abolishing war, that the world will be christianized, war and violence will cease. Although the advocate of corporeal punishments, I am far from intending to favor a system of cruel discipline ; and should, moreover, think little of the head and heart, or ratlier think much that was bad of the parents or teach- er, who might overlook the circumstances under which they should be inflicted. Let us inquire into a few of these conditions. Corporeal punishments influence the actions, but carry no instruction to the understanding. They should then, in all cases, from the cradle upwards, be preceded by a statement to the child of the offense and the reason for the punishment ; that is, it must be made to know and remem- ber, that the act was wrong, and that its repetition will bring a return of the pain of correction. It should also be instructed in the nature of the duty it has violated, and 82 DISCIPLINE. made to see that it has trampled some laiv under foot, the 'penalty of which it is about to sufter under a warrant of execution, derived both from nature and God. It will thus get considerations of duty, and a cultivation of its young moral sentiments, associated with the punishment, and the whole will be the better understood and recollected, from that painful association of ideas. It should likewise, when prac- ticable, be corrected in secret; for secret correction is most efficient, and it is less likely to lose its standing with its fellows, if they remain ignorant of its vices. Finally, in the midst of his anger, or his regret, the parent or teacher should manifest affection, and by all his eloquence, arouse that of the little offender into activity. Thus regulated in its use, the rod will be found, not merely an instrument of fear, but of penitence and respect ; and such has been the experience of the workl We come now to physical rewards, the opposite of phys- ical 'punishments. These act by giving bodily pleasure, and of course address themselves to the senses. Let us consider them in succession, beginning with the sense of taste. This is the earliest on which we can act, because it is the first that requires to be indulged. There can be no objection to granting a child the means of his indulgence as a reward for good conduct ; but as it generates a taste for luxury, it should not be continued after the other sen- ses are so far developed that we can act upon them with effect, which happens in different children, at various ages. The sense of smell is next developed, but the means of gratifying it are not so convenient as those of the sense of taste. Its gratification however, is less da?igerous to the future, than that of taste, and need not be abandoned, as long as its special enjoyments can be made a means of reward. Hearing is a sense, developed at an early period, as all DISCIPLINE. §3 who have observed the effect of music on young children are aware. Through this sense they may be pleasurably and powerfully affected ; but the frequent resort of mothers and nurses to its soothing influence, prevents in some meas- ure its use as an occasional reward. AVhenever it can be employed however it should not be omitted ; and as the indulgence of this desire does not contribute to debauch the mind, but to soften and elevate it, the rew^ard may be given, as long as discipline is required, or the child contin- nes to regard it as a favor. The sense of feeling includes the sensibility of the skin to heat and cold, and fresh air, that of the lungs for the last, and also, a want or desire seated in the muscles, for active exercise. These desires are all gratified by excursions in the open air ; and while confinement is a cor- poreal punishment, going abroad for play is, to children who are not permitted to run at large habitually, a real and most admirable reward. Its use in no manner or degree contributes to impair the intellect, pervert the moral sentiments, or excite the animal propensities ; but to elevate the two former and promote health and symmetry of body, with buoyancy of animal spirits. The last of the senses to wdiich I refer, is that of sight. At a very early period, infants, as all mothers know, are attracted by light. The young child as instinctively and steadily turns its eye to the candle at night, as the plant in a dark cellar directs its branches toward an opening in the wall. As it grows, the desire for this gratification also increases, and finally exceeds in energy that of smell, touch, and hearing. Hence, the confinement of a child in a dark room, even where it is not afraid, is a bodily punish- ment ; while the gratification of its vision with masses of light and shade, and variety and brilliancy of colours, may be made a most cherished reward. Vision has, with much 84 DISCIPLINE. propriety, boon called the intellectual sense, for, of the whole, its indulgence approaches nearest to the indulgences of the mind. It involves nothing sensual, in the bad accep- tation of the word, and may therefore be employed as a reward, till they shall cease to be necessary, whatever may be the age of the child. In resorting to the pleasures of sense, as a reward, we may press several, or the whole of them, into our service at the same time; and, when skillfully used, their united influences are of the happiest kind. Children are great lovers of nature. A flower, a little bird, a branch of mistletoe, with its pear-colored berries in winter, a babbling brook, which they can dam up in an hour, a fall of snow which lodo^es on the limbs of the shade tree in front of the door, or half buries up the grass in the yard, a butterfly, or a liffhtnino-buo:, the taste of a new fruit, the smell of a new flower, a whiter pebble stone, or a more retired play-ground surrounded by fresher natural objects, acts pleasantly on their senses, and may be made an indul- gence and a reward. But when the sensible and benev- olent parent or teacher combines a visit among the vari- ous objects of the natural world, as the reward he would bestow for obedience, or great effort at labour or study, he presents the highest sensual gratification which God has placed at his disposal. Diligence and propriety have characterized the deportment of the children or pupils, and he who has the care of them announces as the reward of those virtues, a ramble of all who have thus carried themselves, he being the leader and mentor, but not the master of the little company. What joy instantly beams from every countenance ! and how strikingly must each contrast Ms happy lot with that of the offender, who is left behind in confinement ! how directly must he associate the reward, with the observance of DISCIPLINE. 85 duty whicli procured it ! What bustle of preparation then ensues, what contempt of bad weather, and bad roads, what feelings of young enterprise and impatience to be gone, start up in every palpitating heart ! Spring is unfolding her beauties — the air is o;enial — the li2:ht is now and then interrupted by a passing cloud, raised high in the heavens, and threatening no shower to damp their ardour — the meadow lark, perched on the crag of a decaying stump, and the cat-bird in the thicket, raise their notes, and the urchins hasten to the spot and put the songsters to flight — the squirrel is then treed, and lies flat and quiet on the limb, while club after club passes harmless by ; one boy, more aspiring than rest, attempts to climb the trunk, becomes dizzy, and slides sheepishly down over its rough bark, ashamed to catch the eye of her whose admiration he sought to win, and half provoked at the shouts of merri- ment which his failure called forth, to die away the next moment, when some straggler announces a new violet, rais- ing its timid head through the faded leaves of the prece- ding autumn ! Then the steep hill, and the race of boys and girls to its top ; the descent to the new and shaded hol- low beyond ; the jumping of the little brook, with the young gallantries it brings forth ; the lying down to drink, by some thirsty boy, and another, filled with mischief, push- ing his face into the water from behind ; the discovery of a petrifaction and the gathering together, to wonder at its form, and struggle for its possession ! Now, the admira- tion of the half expanded buds, and a transient comparison of those of different bushes ! Then the union of all the boys, under some leader, designated as it were by instinct, to roll over the rotten log — and the discovery of a harmless little snake ; the instinctive impulse to kill, the haste and uproar of the execution, and the terror of the girls, who afterward see a snake in every stick they are about to 86 DISCIPLINE. tread upon ! The continuance of the ramble, till it reaches the dogwood, the red-bud, and the buckeye, with their blooming- limbs ; the climbing, the breaking, the throwing down, and the scrambling below, till all are loaded to their hearts' content, and by some new route they return home, fatigued and hungry, to tell of great discoveries, and boast of gi-eat deeds. And where has been the parent or teacher throughout this scene of pleasure ? If at the post of duty, in the midst of every pastime, and attentive to every opportunity of doing good ; explaining each object, pointing out every relation, disclosing the properties and qualities of each attractive plant, separating the different parts of its flower, and teaching their names and connections, lectur- ing on the woods, commenting on the thunderbolt whicli destroyed the ash, but passed instinctive and harmless over the beecb tree, by its side ; calling attention to the backwardness of vegetation on the north side of the hill compared with the south, and teaching that it is the effect of differences in heat ; thus inspiring a love of knowledge in the young mind, when excited by the pleasures of the body, disclosing to it some of the most beautiful laws of nature, and directing the young heart up to her great and benevolent Author. Such are the fruits of an excursion made in such man- ner as to gratify the senses of childhood, and none can fail to see in them a reward that may be pressed into the service of school and family government with the happiest immediate results, and the most admirable effects upon the future character of the objects of our affection. We come now by a natural and easy transition, to rewards and punishments which belong primaril}^ to the mind. These connect themselves with the desires and m.otives of the soul, as those w^e have just travelled through are connected with the appetites and sensibilities of the body. DISCIPLINE. 8f To view them accurately, we need not change our ground, but merely extend our vision a little deeper into the con- stitution of man. We have already seen that he is a com- pound of body and soul — of flesh and spirit, and that each half has its peculiar appetencies and wants. It is the improper indulgence of these that leads to transgression, and it is by acting on these, that he is both rewarded and punished. We have disposed of what relates to the body ; let us now ascend to the sentiments and propensities of the mind, considering them as nearly as practicable in the order of their development with the growth of the child. The first affection developed, is the love of mother ; to which succeeds in due time that for the father, and at length (the conduct and character of both parents being alike), the affection for both seems in general to be equal. Now, at the earliest dawn of intellect, the child may be rewarded and punished through this affection. When the mother frowns upon it or turns away her face, the sun of its happiness is dimmed — it is distressed and punished, through the medium of its filial affection. On the other hand, when the soft music of her voice falls upon its ear, and her countenance beams with love and praise, it rejoices, as the chilled and tender lily of spring expands, when the clouds are chased away, and the fountains of light and heat are opened afresh. Here then is the first, and let me add, the greatest of the means of moral government which God has given us ; and no mother honors the name, or deserves to be blessed with children, who neglects its use. Early and skillfully exercised, it fixes over the child a dominion, that, like the permanent colors which the light of the sun stamps upon the opening rose, must be felt till the individual is gather- ed with that mother in the grave. To maintain this influ- ence the parents however, must attend to all that 88 BisciPLmE. is necessary. They should view the child as having a ra- tional soul, capable, as it grows in years, of observing and reasoning, and having other desires and wants than those which, through infancy, make it cleave to its moth- er's bosom as the source of all its enjoyments, and its place of refuge in every danger. They should know that to pre- serve an influence founded on filial affection, they must, as the child increases in age and knowledge, keep them- selves in its respect and veneration. To do this, they should administer the reward of their approbation, and inflict the punishment of their displeasure, on such occasions only as demand tlieni, and apportion them to the acts that are to be rewarded or punished. They must, in the very midst of their chastisements, convince the child of their affection, and that they are but discharging a duty of love. They should again and again recite the law of duty it has violated, and instruct it anew as far as practicable, on the reasons for the law; thus making it conscious that the punishment was merited, and Avill finally be for its own happiness. In this way they will associate mental instruction with mental pain, and at the same time, appear as benefactors instead of tyrants. They will excite repentance, which never comes from punishment unaccompanied with the conviction of error, and instead of anger inspire a sentiment of reverence, when the parental government is placed on a foundation that can not be shaken. To accomplish this great object however, it is indispensa- ble that parents should look to their own conduct. In their lives, they must evince that they are governed by moral laws, which are but a stretching out to greater objects and duties of the laws they lay down for the government of the child. They should come into the family tribunal with clean hands, and engrave on the rod of correction, " Let Jdm tJiat is without sin, cast the first sione." DISCIPLINE. 89 Hosv is ifc possible that parents who give themselves up to passion and caprice, to deception and petty falsehoods, to instability of principle and fickleness of pursuit, to backbi- tings, to gluttony and drunkenness, to profanity, grossness, and impiety, can by any rewards or punishments, make themselves objects of veneration, or acquire over their offspring a moral power ? To do this, they must practice what they enjoin, show obedience to the laws of society and God, and present themselves as examples of whatever purity human nature can acquire. If I dwell on this subject, it is because it must be regar- ded as the root of all moral government, and viewing it thus, it is proper to say still more, addressed especially to mothers. By the plan of creation, and the providence of God, it is the peculiar duty of the mother to watch over her child for many of the first years of its life ; and on her, more than the father, rests the parental responsibility. It has been said tliat most great men have had talen- ted mothers. How much of their superiority might have been a birth-right, we need not stop to inquire, but there is little doubt that much of it, as far as the mother was concerned, arose from her instruction and discipline — train- ing the faculties and affections by times, insisting on their supremacy over the appetites, and directing even the tottering footsteps of INFANCY into paths that finally led up to the temple of fame ; a bight that is never reached by those who loiter on the way to eat and drink beyond the comforts of nature, or join in wild revelries, or prosecute schemes of vanity, avarice, or revenge. Much has been said and written on the influence of woman. This influence depends on two of our affections, conjugal and maternal love. But all the power she can exert on the man, sinks into insignificance, compared with that upon child. It is in shaping the character of the 8 90 DISCIPLINE. child, that her influence on society and its destinies is distinctly perceptible. If she neglect to exert this power, or exert it in favor of wrong objects, no labors of the teacher or the moralist can correct the bad effects of her errors. She may carry with her a mighty power on the earth, but must rely chiefly on those means which act on her ofl'spring. Using these with talent and skill she will indeed direct, if she does not govern the world. But how few mothers, of all whom I now have the honor to address, can lay their hands on their hearts, those hearts which burn perhaps with the purest flame of affection, and say that they are conscious of having discharged their duty in this respect ! How many are negligent and irresolute ! How many overlook offences which do not happen to annoy themselves ! How many from their necessary engagements, or from indolence, omit to find out with certainty that the crime was not committed by another ! How many reward when they should punish, — thus bribing the child to do its duty, so far as to save themselves the pain of inflicting salutary correction ! How many sink themselves in the respect of their children, by appealing on all occasions to the father, and suff'er themselves to be trampled upon, till he shall return to interpose ! In this way, mothers lay up for themselves '^ wrath against the day of wrath.'^ The father at length dies — the governor is gone, and the rod of correction is buried with him in the grave ! For a time the sorrow of the family may keep the house in order, but the elements of disobedience, discord and vice are only smothered; the devouring flames at length burst forth, and the happiness and dignity of the household are consumed like the withered grass of our fields. In the midst of this beginning desolation, she may have great amiability of heart and undying love, but the hearts around her do not respond to her affections, and, let loose from all DISCIPLI^'E. 9 1 salutary restraints, indulge themselves in every evil pro- pensity, regardless of duty, and cold to the sufferings they raise in the hosom which cherished them in the hours of their infancy. She exhorts in vain, and for the first time undertakes reproof and correction ; but her hand is inexperienced and powerless : they do not fear and rever- ence her ; they absent themselves for scenes of idleness and vice ; they come home altered in conduct and character, till they begin to seem to her like the children of strangers ; they grieve her spirit by day, and fill her nights with dreams of anguish and terror ; they eat out her substance, her spirits droop, she resigns herself to despair, her health consumes away, and like our beautiful locust, when the worm eats to its heart, she sinks into an untimely grave — from the verge of which she looks back on the floating wreck of her once innocent and playful family, and then turns her eyes for ever to her husband and her God. The next propensity in children, of which I shall speak, is the love of ornament. This is a universal principle, for we find it as deeply affixed in the children of the Indian, as in our own. It is stronger in female than male children, because they are designed to be more ornamented. The indulgence of this taste is a high gratification in early life, and withholding its objects of desire is of course a punish- ment. Much then may be done, at a small expense, to reward, and much may be omitted, to punish, on this princi- ple. The objection to it is, that the natural love of orna- ment is increased ; and to this due regard should be had ; but, on the other hand, it cultivates the taste of the child, especially the daughter, and prepares her for appearing in society in a better style of personal appearance than might otherwise be attainable, an object which deserves attention. I believe that not a little may be eff'ected, both of reward 92 DISCIPLINE. and punisliment through this principle, without vitiating the character; but "let every one be fully persuaded in his own mind.'^ Love of play has been already mentioned, in reference to its bodily effects; but it deserves a place among the moral influences; for when children play, they exercise their minds, call into action their ingenuity, give activity to their enterpri^3e, and set various feelings into opera- tion. To this gratification there can be no possible objection, but that founded on its too frequent recurrence; and as it promotes health of body, it may with great pro- priety be granted as a reward, and denied occasionally, as a punishment. Love of property is an inherent and powerful passion. In childhood it is feeble, but increases with years as other desires fade aw^ay, and in age too often swallows up every nobler propensity, leading the individual to hoard up, and give nothing out but what is extorted ; as an old pond in the field swallows up all the muddy water that flows toward it, and gives back only to the power of the sun and winds, which carry off its surface. Children desire merely that kind of property which they can use, for their object is not prospective but immediate gratification. Within this limit however, the desire is importunate; and hence we may act strongly upon them, by giving or withholding such toys and playthings as are adapted to the taste of different ages. Li selecting these, a judicious parent or teacher w^ill constantly prefer those which improve the taste and enlarge the knowledge of the child; for in this way much useful information may be conveyed on the mechanism and movements of the works of art ; or some of the first rudiments of natural history inculcated by choos- ing the productions of nature. The first lessons of economy ^ DISCIPLINE. 93 iii;iy also be given, for the child will listen attentively to the injunction not to destroy that which it prizes as a reward, or values as an acquisition. Curiosity and wonder are strong passions in childhood, and may be turned to good account in our systems of discipline as well as instruction. All activity and acuteness of observation depends on our curiosity to see new objects, and find out new properties and relations ; and upon our natural capability of feeling the emotion of wonder or admi- ration at what is novel or intricate, or beautiful or sublime, either in nature or art. The indulgence of these desires is not only another means of reward, but an actual duty towards the child, as contributing to the growth of its intellect ; and the denial is a punishment, which may be occasionally administered, with the effect of increasing these laudable desires, by refusing to it for a time the means of their gratification ; as the appetite is whetted by withhold- ing food. They are indeed designed to procure aliment for the mind; and may be played upon without any possible injury, either physical or moral The love of knowledge generally, is but an extension of the principle j ust considered. I speak of every kind of learn- ing, and all the branches of science which man has need of knowing. It seldom happens that we meet with a child or youth, in whom it is necessary to moderate this desire, or who might be injured by offering new and special facilities for study, as a reward. Such however, there are, and the destruction of health or intellect is occasionally the touching result of too much indulgence of this desire. Parents and teachers should be on their guard in respect to such uncom- mon pupils, and moderate them in their application, so as to ward off' its future consequences. These are but exceptions to our rules, which should always be adapted to the character of the many. I would say then that in them, 94 DISCIPLINE. the natural love of sound learning and useful knowledge, is adapted to the wants and duties of man in a state of nature, rather than civilization ; and that care and address are necessary to raise it to the proper degree. Hie labor hoc opus est; but when the work is accomplished, the teacher has little left to do, for as the steam-boat when in rapid motion is easily directed, so the pupil that is bent on study is governed with facility, and indeed seldom falls into transgression. Moreover, the chief object of all rewards and punishments in our schools and colleges, is to exact a compliance with those laws which require regular and accurate recitations, and he who, from love of knowledge, complies with this part of the system, can violate but few other rules of our institutions. The love of knowledge is not a desire which we can press into our catalogue of prin- ciples to which we address our rewards and punishments, but goes very far to render them unnecessary, and may be placed high in the list of the preventive means of offenses. It is then a great auxiliary to the teacher ; but how is it to be inspired? As it is a duty to study, all the means enumerated, as far as they can be used, may be employed in turn to reward and punish him who is idle ; but still the assigned lessons may be studied through fear of punishment, and not con amore; and when the pupil leaves the institu- tion, he may loathe the acquisition of further knowledge, even the more for having been punished into what he has acquired. Nevertheless, that which to speak figuratively, has been whipped into the mind is not without its use, as it has often happened that he who at first studied only from fear, comes at length to study from love. Severity of punishment in these cases, should however be the ultima ratio proeceptoris, and always connected with other means calculated to awaken the dormant passion. The plan of this discourse does not carry us into the consideratiou of DISCIPLINE. 95 this subject, and I should be little qualified to illustrate it before a body of enlightened practical teachers ; but I will throw out a few hints, although foreign in some degree to our immediate object. But are they in fact foreign ? Will not the scholar study if he derives pleasure from it ? He undoubtedly will, and this pleasure will reward him and incite him to renewed efforts. Let the teacher then secure to him this pleasure, and it will generate the love of knowl- edge. But how, in many minds, can this be done? In some it can not be done, for all intellects are not equal, and some were never designed to comprehend the proper- ties and relations of things. But omitting a reference to these, I would say. First, That the philosophical maxim — 'pass from the known to the unknown, should be observed, and that its violation has prevented many a scholar from acquiring a love of study ; because he was put carelessly or unskillfully on such plans as rendered the acquisition of knowledge difficult or impossible. Secondly, Different minds are differently constituted as to the balance among their faculties and tastes. One will have a strong talent, for language, another for collecting and treasuring up historical facts, another for the relations among natural bodies, and another for the idealities of the imagination. But our plans of school classification do not recognize this important fact ; and it must happen that many are repulsed from study, and go through school or go from it without acquiring a love of knowledge, simply by the influence of some branch for which they had no capacity ; who, if they had been tried separately, or in succession on all the branches, might at length have met with one which was to their taste, because adapted to their mental capability, and making progress in this, they would have passed by an easy transition to others, and finally acquired a love for the whole. Third, Something I think may be done by 96 DISCIPLINE. substituting the didactic conversation of the teacher, for the authors that are usually provided ; as many things are rendered clear and attractive in colloquial intercourse that seem obscure and incomprehensible in the formality of the books. Fourth, It may be possible to arouse the dormant attention, by showing the usual applications of knowledge of various kinds in visits to works of art, where that knowledge manifests its utility and power. Fifth, Going into the great domain of nature, where every young heart palpitates more actively, and directing the attention of the pupil first to curious or beautiful productions as mere objects of sense; and then calling his awakened attention to their structure, properties and relations, so far as to excite his curiosity and put his faculties of knowledge into action; and finally referring him for a full account to the books, which he may then be induced to read. By means like these, I have seen a love of knowledge aroused in the minds of students of medicine ; and there- fore speak from some experience, while I say that which seems to me to be in accordance with the laws of the human mind. We come now to other principles of action, and I ask your attention to self-esteem, the foundation of pride. This sentiment exists in A^ery different degrees in different children, and consequently the control which may be exer- cised by its instrumentality is various. "We generally entertain and express but a poor opinion of the child which has no pride, but on the other hand, we consider its inordi- nate manifestation a crime. Its offensiveness to man, and criminality to God depend entirely on its intensity, and the objects on which it sustains itself. To feel proud of the character of a father or mother, one's friends, or a good reputation, is noble, and he who does not, we look upon as degraded ; but we despise him who is proud of dress, of DISCIPLINE. 97 wealth, of personal appearance, of slender attainments, or of his own opinions. Self-esteem may, with propriety, under proper restrictions, be pressed into the service of family and academical government. The child should be taught to esteem himself in proportion as he discharges his various duties. When he has done well, the gratifica- tion of self love may be extended to him in moderation, by an acknowledgement of the fact, and when he tres- passes at home, in the primary school, or at the university, he may if possible, be mortified in his own estimation, as a punishment. Nearly connected with self-esteem in many of its exter- nal manifestations, but distinct in much of its internal constitution is the love of approbation, at once the fountain of vanity, ambition, and emulation. All the world con- demn the paltry and ridiculous displays of this sentiment which they have branded with the epithet of vanity ; but a different, though not unanimous estimate is made of those higher manifestations which have received the names ambition and emulation. Ambition in the ordinary acceptation of the term, involves a thirst for power and conquest over others, and in this view, must be condemned ; but when confined to objects of public utility, and studies that lead to knowledge and wisdom, although for the purpose of acquiring distinction, it assumes a different character. The principle which sus- tains it is too deeply rooted in the human mind to be erad- icated by ani/ discipline ; and we should rather seek to direct it on proper objects, and limit its invasion of the rights of others, by hemming it in with the principles of justice, benevolence, and piety, than to aim at its abolition. Confining ourselves to that love of relative distinction which is known under the name of emulation, let us inquire whether it should be employed in families, schools, and 9 98 DisciPLiiirE. universities, as a means of reward and punishment, suppos- ing it always to be directed upon admissible objects. That the love of relative distinction connected with the approbation and applause of those we respect, may be made a powerful means of restraining children from bad conduct, and animating them to good, including study, is generally acknowledged ; but several evil consequences are thought to flow from the operation of this principle. First — It is said to stimulate some minds to excess. This is true, but we must oppose to these cases the far greater number in which it excites the sluggard, the one who has no innate love of knowledge, and him who is prone to vicious habits, by rendering them unwilling to forfeit the good opinion of those whom they are taught to reverence, and mortifying them by being placed below their fellows. Second. — It is charged with generating unkind feelings among brothers and sisters and class-mates, which often amount to envy and strife, and sometimes involve both parents and teachers in the charge of partiality and injus- tice. That all these and other bad consequences may, and do in fact, very often come from it must be admitted ; but most of them are feelings that soon die away, the estimate of things made by the unsuccessful in the hour of disap- pointment being reversed perhaps the next day ; and the friendships that were severed for a moment in most cases becoming speedily restored. Third. — It is said to be the substitution of an inferior motive of action, the applause of man, for the approbation of God. We act incessantly however, from motives infe- rior to that of direct duty to God, and such is the economy of nature and of providence. According to the Bible, all men except christians act from motives inferior to that in every thing. Till religion takes possession of the soul and transforms our principles, we neither practice virtue DISCIPLINE. 99 and refrain from vice, nor acquire knowledge, nor prosecute any object whatever because God lias commanded us ; but because be has implanted in us desires both of mind and body, and connected with their exercise the sensations of pleasure and pain ; the former to animate us to action, according to the physical and moral laws that govern our systems ; and the latter also to incite us to action in certain caseS) as when wc take food to relieve the pain of hunger, or make great exertion to rescue a suffering child from danger, and thereby relieve ourselves from the 2)aiu of agitated parental love. Thus we may, indeed we must, (befor3 the influence of religion changes our motives,) act from other considerations than immediate obedience to God; and all that He requires is that our actions should in sincerity be the offspring of our natural desires, and such as his revealed will does not forbid. But does not the christian, as well as all others, necessa- rily act from motives that have their foundation in his natural desires ; for if they were extinguished, what would prompt him to action ? If for example, the desire for fresh air were destroyed, no one would alw^ays breathe because it was commanded of God. The moment his attention was directed on another object, he would of course forget that he was commanded to carry on that function. If the love of offspring were abolished, wdiat would recall the minds of parents from other pursuits, to the duty of looking after their infant children ? And were the desire for knowledge and for property expunged, who would recollect to leave off the search after the former to acquire the necessary amount of the latter for present and future support ; or think when his mind was imbued with schemes of business, of the command to cultivate knowledge ? We must then, act from the subordinate motives established by God, for impelling us on, as certainly as the principles of inanimate I 100 DISCIPLINE. matter in the physical world must move at the bidding of attraction and repulsion according to laws which, like those of human nature, are a part of the system that governs the universe. Eevelation in fact, was not given to instruct us in our duties to each other; hut to enforce their observance by presenting a system of rewards and punishments beyond the present life. It does not abolish our inherent desires, but teaches us to curb the unruly, repress the inordinate, and preserve such a balance among the whole, as that none shall gratify themselves at the expense of the rest ; or of the rights and happiness of others. He who does this because God has commanded it, lives in duty to God, though every action of his life may be the immediate offspring of the fundamental principles of his mind and body. The principle of emulation then, is subordinate to the principle of duty to God, and not at variance with it, except when improperly directed or excessively exercised. Under this view, I regard the workings of emulation as not necessarily/ immoral, and in reference to its influence in schools, the inquiry should be, how to obtain its valuable exciting influences without its disadvantages. This must be left to judicious practical teachers, who should always recollect that of all the motives to action, emulation stands least in need of being stimulated ; that in many minds it requires to be moderated ; and that it should be kept under the supremacy of the nobler motives of benevolence, con- scientiousness and veneration. It is undeniable that it has not always been thus regulated, and that its abuses have brought it into discredit. Teachers have found it a principle easily acted upon ; and through indolence or an ignorance of consequences, or indifference to the moral character of their pupils, have too often made it the sole means of animating them to study and regular conduct, DISCIPLINE. 101 instead of restraining it within limits not incompatible with other principles. Benevolence or an interest in the welfare of others, is an innate sentiment against which, as a means of discipline, moral and intellectual, there can be no possible objection, but its influence is rather preventive than corrective. The cultivation of the benevolent feelings of children modifies and controls the operation of their lower passions and propensities, purifies their desires, and on the whole, predis- poses them to other acts of duty than those of beneficence. This cultivation should therefore be carefully made, both by parents and teachers, and their labors will be bounti- fully rewarded by a diminution in the number of their transgressions. One mode of training this sentiment and pressing it into the course of education, is to direct the attention of your children to objects of charity, whenever we reward them with money for obedience. We are thus enabled to incite them to study, or good conduct, without administering to a sordid love of property, and at the same time augment their benevolence, by affording them the means of purchasing the laudable pleasure which comes from its practice. The last principle of action to which I shall direct your inquiries, is veneration for God. This, like the others, is innate, and the highest of all the moral sentiments. I have already spoken of its influence when the parent is its object. Veneration, in its perfect degree, involves gratitude, love, and respect ; but the two former are not indispensa- ble, for we often cherish the latter alone. Indeed, respect is but a lower degree of veneration, and this is what we feel for a great and good name of antiquity, or for an ancient and beneficial custom. Eeverence is the same feeling, cherished for things that are divine, or for persons who seem to stand as representatives of the divinity, such 102 DISCIPLINE. as pious and aged parents, or exemplary and hoary-headed teachers, or ministers of the gospel. The veneration or reverence of children for their parents, and preceptors, should comprehend love and gratitude with respect, and be ennobled with a looking up to God, as the fountain of whatever is lovely and reverential in them. Thus formed and directed, this sentiment gives to the parent and teacher control over the will and actions of the child, beyond every other. Of the means of forming it, nothing need be added to what was said in speaking of the rela- tions of parent and child. When this feeling exists, the fear of incurring the displeasure of the parent or preceptor, is constantly present, and constitutes a powerful means of prevention ; while it keeps down anger and resentment under correction, if that should be necessary. The setting up of the authority of this sentiment of adoration to God and reverence for the parent, in the heart of the child, is the great desideratum in discipline, from the cradle to the theater of life — from the primary school, to the university. It is an aegis of brass against immorality, and the palladium of liberty in every land where freedom is sustained by a constitutional government. The power of this principle, in a national point of view, is disclosed by the hesitation with which the subjects of a throne, held venerable by tradition and early impressions, come up to its overthrow, although it may have sent forth none but the edicts of despotism. The heroes of the revolution, and the authors of our federal constitution and the union it establishes, should be held up to our children, as patriots whom they ought to reverence — the works themselves as political institutions which deserve the deepest veneration. This should be a part of their education, at home, in society, in the primary school, the academy, and the university ; for a great object of educa- tion in this country, is, to make good citizens, and devoted DISCIPLINE. 103 friends of the liberty we now enjoy. The spread of this feel- ing of reverence throughout the whole republic would in no degree interfere with all necessary amendments to the con- stitution, but rather contribute to promote them, while it would afford the greatest of all possible guarantees against its abolition by combinations of wicked men, in whom the sentiment of reverence for what is good never finds a place. I am sorry to say, that in the United States, especially in the valley of the Mississippi, the sentiment of veneration is not as carefully cherished in our children, as it is in some other countries, where its power is pressed into the service of tyranny ; while here there is nothing which it could ope- rate to sustain, that ought to be destroyed. The neglect arises, perhaps, from the very nature of our free institu- tions, which give to all, even in youth, a very great amount of liberty of speech and action ; but we should take care that the altars of liberty are not profaned and demolished by a licentiousness of feeling, the offspring of that very freedom. Children who are taught to venerate their parents and teachers, the fathers of the land, who have labored for its prosperity, our aged and virtuous matrons, our benevolent, literary, and religious institutions, and those who conduct them on correct principles — finally, Heaven itself, for which they all labor — become a law unto themselves, and conform, in manhood, to what they had venerated in youth. Keverence for God, as a first and great, unseen, govern- ing power, is a universal principle of human nature, which in difterent ages and nations, has made itself manifest in various ways, according to the lights of the understanding. Thus among the ancients, while the Egyptians bovred down in blind and stupid adoration to the filthiest reptiles, the Greeks paid homage to the creations of a bright but 104 DISCIPLINE. licentious imagination ; and in one of the kingdoms of mod- ern Europe, when delivered over to a civil war and drenched with innocent hlood, though philosophy raised her voice above the din of anarchy, and proclaimed, there is no Ood, the people erected altars to the worship of Nature ! The sentiment of devotion may be sunk, obscured and perverted, but can not be abolished. Among ignorant and savage tribes, it is merely a passion of terror, and in this debased condition we observe it, in such of our own countrymen as have, from their ignorance, vice and superstition, but few claims to the character of civilized men, beyond that of being blended with them. But they who are instructed in the Bible, view the Creator as the author of rewards as well as punishments, and hve him with gratitude while they fear him in Jiumility. They know his attributes and decrees, and humble themselves before him as a being of infinite wisdom and goodness — worthy of all veneration — whose revealed will commands every moral duty — whose law is a law of universal kindness — who enjoins justice and generosity — and whose all seeing and sleepless eye watches over every object, from the sun glowing in the purple east, to the little child, that sports in his morning beams. When this fear of God is once established in the child, it becomes docile and dutiful, not prone to vice, easy to be admonished, and given to repentance under correction. On this fear depends the influence of the morality of the Bible. We can not dispense with this morality, but it would be pow- erless if separated from the theology of the Bible. Should the latter be despised and rejected by parents and teachers, the former would follow its fate in the estimation of the child. And this for the plainest of all reasons, that the morality is every where presented as the command of God, an expression of his will, a law enacted by himself and pro- mulgated on the earth for his own pleasure. If then the DISCIPLINE. 105 cliild should reject the author, according to the established laws of the human mind it will neglect his decrees. Let every teacher ponder deeply on this matter. He would not hope to see the rules of his institution obeyed, after he had fallen into contempt with his pupils, and why should he expect to see them obey the moral law if they do not rever- ence its giver ? Such logic would afford but a barren sign of talent, and he who might display it should be advised to adopt some other profession. He is not, either in head or heart, intended for the instruction of youth in any coun- try ; much less, in our own, where Christianity is, in fact, the sustaining principle of all our valuable institutions. Although I have detained you long with a survey of the principles upon which our discipline of children should rest, I can not close without recapitulating a few points, which must be thoroughly understood and conscientiously prac- ticed, or no system of rewards and punishments can be successful. First — Children, like grown persons, act from motives : and when they transgress they have an object in view," which at the moment is dear to them. They should then be carefully and patiently instructed in their duties, and have the reasons for the laws by which you govern them, as fully explained as possible. Second. — As there is among them a great variety in bodily and mental temperament, the characters of each should be studied, and the appropriate means of rewarding and punisliing selected accordingly. Third. — Children as well as adults have their periods of undefinable indisposition, and consequent irritability of the nervous system and feelings, when of course they are fro- ward, peevish and disobedient. Those who govern them should look into this matter; and in meting out their punishments, have respect to its influence, or, while the 106 DISCIPLINE. disease, not known perhaps by the child, shall continue, omit them alto<>;ether. Fourth — The excitation of fear is a legitimate means of correction, for all correction operates indeed by exciting it; but children should not be frightened by goblins, or threatenings connected with supernatural appearances, for an association of ideas may make them superstitious and timid throughout life. Fifth. — Both rewards and punishments should be pro- portioned to offenses. They should be dealt out with all the impartiality a man requires from a court of justice. Those which are promised and deferred should never be forgotten, and those which are inflicted as soon as the offense is committed, should not be greater than if the parent or teacher had no excitement of feeling. It is best to punish and reward upon the spot, that both may become associated with the offense in the memory of the child ; but he who can not apportion them in the right degree while his passions are up, should wait for them to become tran- quil. His manifestation of anger is not objectionable, for children have the laws which are to govern them so much identified with the will of the governor, as to think it a matter of course that he should feel indignant or angry ; and if punished when he is in that state of feeling, they are less likely to be resentful or to regard him as cruel, than if it be done in his cooler moments. Sixth. — It has been said of rewards and punishments, that they do not change or purify our motives, bat leave the desire to do wrong uncorrected, while they deter us from the act. The Bible says, however, " train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it ; and who has not seen and felt, that if we habitually make our actions right, our motives will gradually improve. It is of great importance, then, to compel children into reg- DISCIPLINE. 107 iilar conduct; for if their bad desires are not gratified, they are starved out and at length cease to grow, while the good motives, from being exercised on their proper objects, are established in power ; in which respect the mind and body are under the same laws of habit. We have thus traced the outline of a system of discipline for children and young persons, embracing both rewards and punishments, and founded equally on the constitution of the body and mind. We affirm of nothing set forth, that it is absolutely the best which could be suggested, and claim nothing as original. Principles have been embodied which are afloat in society, for the purpose of presenting them in order, to those who are competent judges. In doing this, no book has been consulted but the Bible ; and that for the purpose of discovering how far its wisdom is in accordance with the opinions of philosophy, when directed to the study of man in his physical and moral constitution ; and on all points we have found them in perfect harmony. Throughout the inquiry we have plead the cause of both parent and child ; but above all, that of the conscientious ■ and benevolent teacher, who can do nothing without the previous labors and continued aid of the natural master. We have catered for home consumption — for our own adopted and native West — for a western college and a wes- tern audience — for a new people, who must devise their own plans of education, establish their own systems of disci- pline, and teach their own children, like their elder breth- ren of the East ; from which the West is in fact but a scion, transplanted, and struggling for air and light in the depths of the wilderness. Its tender leaves are as yet scarce un- folded ; but their form bespeaks the sturdy and giant oak, that shall live on through a thousand years, unless blasted with the lightnings of an angry Heaven. The West will not go backward in numbers — no, not till 108 DISCIPLINE. her great river shall turn from the sea, and seek its icy- cataracts, among our distant hills. Forward will be her march — and day after day must add to her physical strength ; but she should not rejoice in this power, and become the Mammoth of the Union, or the bones of her prosperity will at last lie unburied in the valleys, and mingle with those of her lost archetype. Let all then w^ho love its name — who, beholding it in the dim and distant future, can now take delight in the strength and beauty which should mark its perfect growth, or mourn, while the day is yet afar off, at the vice and anarchy which may overwhelm it, as the angry snows of the mountain dissolve and swell with troubled waters the peaceful Ohio, till they deluge our pleasant places and rush in desolation along our streets — let all who feel proud that the voice of its infancy has called the enterprising stranger from lands beyond the sea — from the isles of Britain — from the banks of the Danube and the valleys of the Alps — from the frozen coasts of the Baltic and the classic shores of the Mediter- ranean — from the olive and the vine, — to build his cabin beneath our embowering sycamores — let all who would rejoice to see it not only the asylum of the exile from the uttermost parts of an oppressed world, but the chosen and permanent abiding place of knowledge, religion and liber- ty, stand forth, while it is yet in the morning of its days, and will bow its head to the rod of discipline, to lend a help- ing hand in training its young footsteps, and giving them an impulse on the path of loveliness and peace. MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS BY REY. S. W. LYND, D. D. That great and excellent man whom all regard as "the Father of his Country," in his farewell address, expresses his conviction that religion is essential to the support of national morality and prosperity. He says : ''Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who would labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness — these firmest props of men and citizens. The mere poli- tician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connec- tions with private and public felicity. Let it be simply asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in the courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without reli- gion. "Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." I presume that this whole assembly is prepared to adopt most cordially the sentiments of this distinguished man. The religion of the Bible is the great safe-guard of our (100) 110 MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. q political institutions. Let the principles of the Bible influ- ence the mass of the community, and we shall continue to be a free, prosperous, and happy nation. The chief design of the Bible is to form moral character, and to subserve the best interests of men through their entire existence. Its principles should therefore be con- nected with every system of mental improvement. They should be introduced into every place of instruction on the earth. No person should be considered properly educated, whose moral faculties have not been trained by these prin- ciples. Every feature of public instruction which is not conformed to them should be abandoned. It is not my design, however, to speak of the importance of the Bible in our halls of instruction. That was ably exhibited on a former occasion. I have selected as the subject of this introductory lecture, '' The Moral Influence of Eewards, in a system of Education founded upon the Doctrine of the Word of God." I use the term ^^ reward'' here in the obvious, ordinary sense, i. e., a recompense for something good performed. Not everything good which we receive can be called a reward. Suppose two men are desirous of obtaining an office, for which one is much better qualified than the other, and the place is awarded to him who is best qualified: the one who is selected receives a benefit, not a reward. Eewards and punishments always pre-suppose something that is voluntarily done well or ill. I take it for granted that a system of rewards and pun- ishments is necessary to efficient government. The laws of our physical organization involve such a system. He who regards these laws is rewarded by a healthy, sound action of the body, while he who puts them at defiance is punished with sickness, pain, and an enfeebled constitution. Eewards and punishments are among the essential elements MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS, 111 of a peaceful and prosperous community. They occupy an important place in the moral government of God. The Bible clearly teaches the doctrine of reward. Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He considered reproach for Christ's sake greater riches than all the treas- ures of Egypt. The reason assigned is, that he had respect unto the recompense of reward. David declared, *' Verily there is a reward for the righteous.'^ Eetribution was constantly held up by the prophets : " If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land ; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured by the sword ; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Our Lord and his apostles constantly exhibited this principle in the divine government. Paul says, " iie that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of all them that diligently seek him." But upon what principle does reward proceed in the Bible? It is uniformly the reward of moral character. Every man is to be finally judged according to his charac- ter. The reward of the believer is proportioned to his faithfulness. God never confers his promised blessings upon any person according to the talents which he pos- sesses, but according to the moral improvement of his talents. He does not say to any of his followers, *' AVell done, good and successful,'^ but '* Well done, good and faithful servant." This position may be illustrated by two of the parables delivered by our Lord: in the one case, a rich man going into a distant country, committed to his servants different sums of money — to one, five talents ; to another, two. When he returned and called them to account, he found that they had made an equal improvement — each having doubled his deposit. The reward conferred on each was equal. His commendation 112 MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. of eacli was upon the principle of faithfulness. " Well done, good and faithful servant : thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things : enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." In the other case, a rich man departing for a distant land, committed an equal sum of money to each of ten servants, and commanded them to occupy till he returned. These servants made a different improvement of their capital ; one gained ten pounds, and another five. They were therefore rewarded differently : one received authority over ten cities, and the other over five cities ; but both were rewarded upon the principle of faithfulness. This is particularly stated in relation to the one v/ho had gained ten pounds : *' Well, thou good servant, because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities." We may therefore regard it as an established principle in the divine government, that he will reward every man, not so much according to the talents he possesses, as according to his fidelity in improving them. The wisdom of this system must be apparent to every reflecting mind. If reward w^ere placed upon the founda- tion of talent, or of superior attainments resulting from superior talent, the mind would be diverted from the essential constituents of moral character, and would regard adventitious circumstances as formino* the basis of divine favor. This would naturally excite the envy of the human heart against those whose talents were of a higher order ; but when reward is based upon moral merit, there is no room for envy. Great talents in this case only increase the responsibility of the person who possesses them. They neither form moral character, nor change it ; and a person of small talents will not on that account be undervalued. All may reach a high moral character and a felicitous destiny who faithfully improve the trust committed to their charge. MORAL INFLUENCE OE REWARDS. 113 The influence of this system is encouraging and animating. It is decidedly good in relation to the forming of character. Now, if it be granted that every system of instruction should have regard to the training of the moral faculties, to the formation of moral character, and that the principles of the Bible are the great principles by which this charac- ter is to be molded, then the system of reward which the Bible furnishes should constitute an important feature in the education of youth. The moral influence of reward, founded upon the Word of God, should be brought to bear upon all our institutions of learning. Let me repeat the principle which the Bible uniformly teaches — the reward of moral merit This is a point to which all our youth may arrive by industry and correct behavior; but they can not all possess the same grade of intellect, or be equally successful in the acquirement of knowledge, during the hurried term of collegiate instruction. Here our plans of education are generally defective. They found the distinction of merit upon talent and ac- quirement, instead of moral character. Through the whole course of academical and college studies, our youth are carried onward by the impulse of ambition. It is a fair race for the superiority of fame, from the starting point to the goal, and reminds us of the Olympic games, as described by the Apostle Paul : '^ Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize ?" Happy would it be for society, if this principle of reward were confined to athletic exercises ! The medal of superior attainment adorns the breast of one — the first honor of the college pertains to one — and he, perhaps, the least moral of all. Could you look into the heart of that one ; could you see the motions of the spirit in those who failed to grasp this honor ; could you know the feelings of parents and friends on both sides, you would probably see one of 10 114 MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. the grand causes that originate and perpetuate the disorders of society. I can not but regard the distinction founded upon mental superiority as one of the most ruinous instru- mentalities ever devised. But as this is a subject of no ordinary importance, and worthy of a thorough discussion, it will be necessary to be more definite in pointing out its evil consequences. 1. It overlooks tlie arrangements of Divine Providence. The minds of some youth are not as easily developed as others. One of the most celebrated physicians and sur- geons of modern times, after having completed his medical course under the most favorable circumstances, was regarded by his instructors and particular friends as a man of very ordinary mind and attainments. He fell, in their estima- tion, below mediocrity, and it was supposed that he never could rise to any eminence in the medical world. More than once, if I am rightly informed, he was refused a degree ; but, nothing daunted, he went to Europe, and con- tinued his studies in the best schools. Returning to his native country, he rose to a character in the medical pro- fession which it is the felicity of but few to attain. But examples are unnecessary to an observant community. The facts are all around us, confirming the position that some minds are not as early developed as others. To create a distinction, therefore, by any system of reward, which exalts the inferior over the superior intellect because of the more rapid development of the former, is to over- look the arrangements of Divine Providence, and ei;ect our tribunal in opposition to that of the infinite God. Some youth excel in the power of memory, whose ability to originate trains of thought is exceedingly limited. By this faculty they acquire an apparent triumph, in the course of their education, above minds of far more vigor- ous mold. They receive the honor which properly belongs MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. 115 to others, even upon the principle of rewarding intellectual merit. In addition to this, many young persons have, perhaps constitutionally, a want of confidence in themselves; but, from whatever source it arises, their efforts to communicate thought become paralyzed, and, in many instances, the entire equilibrium of the mind is gone in an instant. Under these circumstances, the highest intellect can not arrive at the reward of merit for superior attainment. This v/ant of confidence may be conquered in after life by habitual practice in one sphere of operation, and by ming- ling considerably in society. Some, on the contrary, have a confidence, frequently only another name for impudence, which enables them to appear to greater advantage than others who possess more substantial knowledge. The reward which they receive is unjust, because it overlooks the arrangements of Divine Providence. As far as my observation extends, the manner in which education is frequently conducted has a tendency to per- petuate this error. All pupils are not equally quick in their perceptions ; and this may arise not from a ivant of intellect, but from a wide and powerful range of mind, which traverses connections and results before it is prepared to grasp a given proposition. In the meantime, the stu- dent is hurried forward in his class. The teacher j)roceeds onward according to his own well trained and accumulated perceptions, taking it for granted that all his pupils are prepared to follow him, when some of them are not yet perfectly settled upon the preparatory steps. I have heard lectures on Astronomy, Natural Philosophy, and other branches of science, delivered with great learning, which might as well have been uttered before a gallery of paint- ings as before a class of students, as to any permanent advantage which a class could derive from them. The 116 MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. number of lionorable exceptions, however, is daily multi- plying. 2. If this system of reward overlooks the arrangements of Divine Providence, it must have, to a considerable extent, a withering influence upon intellectual effort. Let us suppose that the celebrated physician and surgeon to whose case I have referred, had suffered his mind to be influenced by his failure to obtain a degree at the time he expected it: what would have been its effect? In all probability, he never would have made another effort, and his invaluable services would have been lost to the world. Had he not been a man of uncommon firmness and perse- verance, he would have yielded the point, and sunk down under the conviction that any further attempts would be useless. In nine cases out of ten, utter discouragement would have been the result. It is to be remembered, too, that the maturity of manhood was in his favor. Had he been a mere boy, it is probable he never would have over- come the discouragement ; but he labored with great perse- verance, resolved to prostrate every interposing obstacle, and as he labored, a mighty intellect began to develope, and he became great in the midst of greatness. How many would have fallen when he rose. Take a boy of his slow development of mind, and place before his ambition the reward of literary fame. Let him toil with ardor w^orthy of the highest honor, and fail in securing it, as the case supposes he will. Let the fact of his mental inferiority be made to stand out prominent in the distribution of commencement honors, so that he can not possibly mistake the estimation in which his talents and proficiency are held by his instructors. Let this fact produce the impression upon his mind , that he is stupid, and it is not in human nature to resist discouragement. That bright gem which another system might have brought MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. 117 out and polished, and which might have excited the admi- ration of a world, is destined to remain buried, till the unveiling of the mortal part displays its glory to the gaze of angels. Take, for another illustration, a young man wanting in confidence. Through the whole course of his education, he labors under this difficulty. Every step of his progress upon the system of intellectual reward, has a tendency to convince him that he can never attain to the elevation of others in the school or the college. What must be the effect upon his mind ? What, but to increase his embar- rassment, to paralyze his efforts, and to leave him, in con- clusion, far in the rear of others. It is a fact not to be concealed, that a considerable number of college students make no effort to obtain the first honor. In schools, but few comparatively think of obtaining the medal. They perceive, at an early stage, that disappointment would be the result. It is certainly worthy of inquiry how far this may operate in producing that indolence and indifference to learning whicli characterize so many pupils. In many instances the successful candidate himself will dwell with complacency upon his superiority of intellect, and, in fucure life, remit that industry and perseverance, without which the highest order of mind will ultimately become inefficient. What is the fact in a multitude of instances? Students have passed through their collegiate course with honor, and then have supposed that their edu- cation was finished. No one need be surprised at this, who considers the motive by which they were impelled to gain literary eminence. Inflated with pride and vanity, they have looked wdth contempt on those beneath them in attainment ; whereas those who, during the same period, were not above mediocrity in their class, have, by diligence and perseverance, overtaken the former, passed far beyond 118 MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. them, and ultimately reached the highest point of human attainment. The reward of mental superiority is, in the one case, injurious, and in the other, unjust. Upon this system of reward, many young persons of fine mind have not a fair opportunity furnished them to gain the highest honors. The class is hurried forward before they are prepared in the understanding of first principles to accompany them with advantage. Now, some minds are so constituted that if they can not thoroughly comprehend every point as it is presented, they will not move onward at all. Their conviction is, that it is per- fectly useless to make any efi'ort in this rapid race for distinction. What must be the inevitable effect of this system upon their mental development and their moral character? It entirely perverts the great end of educa- tion, renders the place of instruction a hated place, and induces that indolence which attaches to so many pupils. I believe that, in many instances, instead of punishing the pupil for idleness, want of perception, and dislike to the school, the instructor should be punished. View this system in any light whatever, and it will be seen to have, in a great number of cases, a withering influence upon intellectual effort. One of our most respected teachers in this city informed me, when I named to him the subject of this lecture, that on one occasion he promised a reward to the most successful candidate in a particular branch of study. A little girl, a competitor in this contest, exerted all her strength, striving by incessant diligence and perseverance to secure the reward. She failed to succeed. What was the consequence? For a considerable time after this failure, she was one of the most trifling pupils in the school. 3. This system has a tendency to develop some of the worst passions of human nature. MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. 119 It will be granted by all that the most important season in human existence, in which lasting impressions may be made upon the mind, is the season of youth. This is just as true in relation to moral principle as it is in reference to intellectual improvement. This season once passed, and the mind, preoccupied by false principles, will resist any system of moral government that comes in conflict with its uncontrolled inclinations. Should a teacher, by any action, by any plan of reward, excite the very passions which the pupil has been taught to discipline by theory, what influ- ence would it have upon the mind of the pupil? What effect would the principle of fearing God, taught every day, have upon the mind of a youth whose parent should excite him to fight a duel, under the promise of a high reward, if he succeeded in killing his antagonist? What, if all the trustees and officers of all the schools and col- leges of the land should pass him a vote of thanks for the honorable deed ? If I understand the morality of the Bible, its design is to elevate the affections, to fix them upon proper objects, to perpetuate in the heart the love of God and man, and to discountenance every exercise of them which degrades, or which alienates man from man, and from his Maker. Hence doctrine, precept, example, and rewardy are all adapted in the Bible to the accomplishment of these ends. But of what use will it be to introduce into our schools and colleges the morality of the Bible, as long as the practice of rewarding intellectual attainment continues? This system fosters vanity, pride, ambition, and envy. It excites vanity, or that self-complacency which we feel in the consciousness of being superior to others. Add to this a contempt for those whom we consider our inferiors, and it becomes pride ; and pride necessarily grows out of this system. It cherishes in the soul ambition, the desire 120 MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. to obtain and increase this superiority. Ambition leads to discontent and envy, and connected with these, it is the most reckless, corrupt principle of the human heart. It is the prime mover of rebellion against the government of God, afflicts its possessor with an unsatisfied craving, fatal to happiness and virtue, and originates the most tremen- dous evils in society. The history of ambition is the histo- ry of cruelty and hlood, and lamentation and crmJdng empires. The progressive character of ambition is too well known to need illustration before this assembly. It is a raging flame that spreads with inconceivable rapidity, until it becomes extinguished for want of fuel. It is the breeze rising into the storm, and in the devastations of the tor nado concluding its course of wrath. Nor are we to be informed that the candidate for literary distinction may exercise a spirit of ambition without danger to society. AVho collected the materials and kindled the flame which burst in successive conflagrations upon the kingdom of France, in her revolution? Men who, by the pride of literary eminence, set themselves above the Bible ; invented a system of immorality which they falsely called philosophy*; unhinged the faith of the nation in the princi pies of the christian religion ; and threw ofl" the restraint of conscience and of the law of God. The heart of man is full of ambition. It needs a course moral training which shall control it to proper ends. But what is the influence of proposing reward to youth for rising superior to others in literary distinction? Is it not secretly and eff'ectually cherishing a wrong spirit, a spirit of vanity and pride, and ambition ? And can it be wise, or moral, or religious, to uphold such a system ? This principle of reward excites envy in the breast of the pupil, which often becomes an abiding passion, and leads hjm on to every means to accomplish the ruin of his rival. MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. 121 Anger and fury soon exhaust themselves, because they are too violent to be lasting ; but a life-time is too short to expend the resources of envy. How frequently has the candidate for intellectual honor felt as though he could anni- hilate his rival? Or to say the least, how often has he wished him dead, that there might be no obstacle between him and the object of his ambition? A young man at college is resolved to obtain the first honor. He studies incessantly, night and day. He prostrates his health in the enterprise. But the decision of the Faculty announces his failure. The honor is conferred on a more successful rival. What are his views of the result? He believes that he deserved the honor ; that partiality has operated to to his prejudice, and that he has been unjustly treated. What are his feelings toward the faculty and the success- ful candidate? We can not even approximate the fact. And what is the issue, as to his moral character? It has developed the strength of unholy passions, which not even death itself may eradicate, and which but for this system, might have been efficiently disciplined and subdued. It is training the spirit to vice. This system is opposed to the design of God in reveal- ing himself to men. One prominent part of duty, as exhibited in the Bible, is to love our fellow creatures as ourselves, and thus to form a peaceful and holy community on earth. But this system tends to alienate man from man, as far as its influence goes. It is important to distinguish between the reward of intellectual Buperiority, and the approbation of intellectual effort The latter is connected with a moral influence upon character, the former leaves character out of sight. I will endeavor to illustrate my meaning. When Mr. West, who became one of the most distinguished painters of his age, was a little boy, he showed his mother a drawing which he 11 122 MOKAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. had made. As an expression of her pleasure, she gave hira a kiss, which greatly delighted him, and increased his desire to proceed with his little pictures, because his mother was so much pleased with them. He frequently observed to his friends in subsequent life — '^ that t^iis kiss made me a painter.'^ That simple token of approbation kindled his desire to become a painter, while it tended to cherish a feeling of filial duty. But let us suppose that there had been a brother who made a similar effort, spent as long a time at the work, took equal pains, in short, did the best he could, and yet produced a very inferior drawing to that of his brother, and the mother had distinguished one by giv- ing him a kiss, and the other by a cold indifferent look, what would haVe been the effect? Every one is prepared to say that the mother would have adopted the best possi- ble course to alienate the affections of her child from her- self and from his brother. And can that which is wrong in parental government be right in the government of schools and colleges ? Here is a case in which the incon- sistency and error of intellectual rewards displays itself most glaringly and offensively. The late Mr. Fuller remarks—'' It is a distinguishing property of the Bible, that all its precepts aim directly at the heart. It never goes about to form the mere exterior of man. To merely external duties it is a stranger. It forms the lives of men no otherwise than by forming their dispositions. It never addresses itself to their vanity, sel- fishness, or any other corrupt propensity.'' But here is a system of reward that appeals directly to the selfishness and vanity of the human heart. It tends to increase the influence of self-love, already too predominant. I lay it down as a principle in morals, not to be contro- verted, that no motive which appeals to the selfishness, vanity, or pride of the human heart, can be morally MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. 123 virtuous : for if it be morally virtuous, tlien selfishness, vanity and pride are mo7^al virtues. This principle is fully sus- tained by the Bible, as has been shown in the quotation from Mr. Fuller. If then I have succeeded in proving, or if it is conceded, as I am persuaded it will be upon mature reflection, that the system of rewarding mental superiority furnishes a motive which directly appeals to these immoral propensities, my argument is established. Will any man at the present day, understanding these terms, maintain the affirmative, that selfishness, vanity, and pride, are moral "vir- tues? Will any one undertake to show that the Bible does address itself to these propensities as a motive to moral action ? And will any one say that this system of reward does not appeal to these propensities ? To what then does it appeal ? To humility ? or meekness ? or benev- olence? or in short, to any thing that can he regarded as a moral virtue? No, the system is wrong, decidedly wrong, and ought to be abandoned. It will be perceived that I treat this subject on the ground of high and holy principles ; and whatever objection. may arise upon the details, it can not in the least measure affect the force of these principles. Every motive to excel- lence in every department, must be morally virtuous or morally vicious. There can be no motives w^hich possess not the one or the other of these characters. If we ura^e young men to make high attainments in knowledge, that they may faithfully consecrate all their powers to the glory of God, and the good of mankind, we make an appeal to their sense of duty, and their obligations to God as their final judge. He has committed to them a mind which in all its developments must have respect primarily to these obligations. The faithful improvement of talent upon this principle is morally virtuous. The reward lies with their Maker. As far as we reward pupils for attention, 124 MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. diligence, faithfulness, and correct deportment, we employ a motive that is morally virtuous. All young persons have it in their power to receive the reward, and if they do not, it is entirely their own fault. It condemns them on the same principle that God condemns them, their own conscience being witness. But if we urge young persons to make high attainments in knowledge, that they may he superior to others, that they may occupy a high and honorable station in society, and excite them to this result by rewarding intellectual superiority, the motive is not morally virtuous. No good can ultimately result from it. It rewards for distinctions which are of no account in the sight of heaven. It exalts the most successful, and depresses the one who fails, where the failure is not from any fault of his own ; and his con- science testifies that he is punished upon a false and unjust principle. Whatever reputation may be awarded to knowledge, we should never lose sight of the fact that the moral character is the most important part of all that pertains to man. This is connected immediately with his eternal interests, and it is the duty of every one in society to promote the eternal interests of his fellow man, as well as his own. The formation of moral character depends, in a great measure, as far as instrumentality is concerned, on the moral train- ing received in the season of youth. While it is a solemn obligation, resting upon every parent, to give this training to his children, teachers are not divested of responsibility. In order to accomplish this end, the principles and motives of the Bible must be instilled into the mind ; and especi- ally the fundamental truths connected with the salvation of the soul through a Mediator. In addition to this, vicious propensities are to be eradicated. Pride, envy, malice, van- ity, and kindred vices must be subdued in their first motions, MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. 125 or they will acquire vigor by indulgence. Let it also be observed, that example must harmonize "Niih. precept Every course of instruction adopted, must embrace it as a friend and fellow-laborer. It is found by experience that when precept and example are at variance, the pupil inclines to the example. The most thorough induction into moral pre- cepts may be rendered useless by exciting or cherishing the vicious propensities of youth. In this view of the subject,' it is worthy of a serious consideration how far the system of rewarding pupils in a race for intellectual superiority, may influence their moral training. The impressions which are made upon the minds of young persons are generally of a durable character. Every argu- ment, therefore, that may be employed to exhibit the advan- tages of exciting youth to make high attainments in knowledge, by holding out the reward of intellectual supe- riority, is an argument in favor of forming a vidom haUt The motive presented becomes a ruling instrumentality. It becomes the main spring of action in subsequent life. In vain will you urge the politician, the lawyer, the physi- cian, to attain to eminence upon the ground of being useful, on the principle of glorifying God. This has been no part of his early training. The food of his intellectual strength was an appeal to his vanity, his selfishness, his pride, his ambition. His character was formed under this influence. It has incorporated itself with intellectual existence. Solo- mon says, " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." But the reverse is equally true. Train up a child in the way he should not gOy and when he is old, he will not depart from it. 4. We are not to suppose that the influence of this sys- tem is limited to a few college students. It is approved, and extensively practised. It is carried into families, and into the community. The influence is accumulating. It perverts 126 MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. the judgment in relation to the forming of right distinc- tions upon the subject of true merit. What is more natural than that the youth who has been taught to employ all his resources for the purpose of gain- ing literary fame, should esteem this the highest point of all true eminence ? You may give him precept upon precept to convince him that the formation of moral character is the most important part of his education ; but how is it pos- sible for him to believe it, when the very highest reward is appropriated to successful rivalship in knowledge ? He does not believe a word of it. If he believes the testimony, he must abandon the practice. If he believes the teaching of the practice, he must despise the precepts of his instructors. It is not the power of moral character which he is taught to appreciate by this course^ but the poiver of knowledge. And has not this idea pervaded the community at large ? Is not this system calculated to foster the pride of intellect, and to give a prominency to learning which does not justly belong to it? Is it not adapted to promote an almost universal impression that will ultimately be our ruin as a nation, if God prevent not? What is more common, and yet, what is more indefinite, than the prevailing motto, " knowledge is power ?'' The influence of language, and especially the language of unmotiified, confirmed maxims, in controlling the judgments of men, and imposing upon successive generations, is but little understood, even by the intelligent of the community. The bearing of that single oft-repeated motto, upon the whole circle of intellectual and moral enterprise, we shall probably never be able to appre- ciate. It is not hazarding much to say, that it has been associated in the minds of many with the idea of virtuous moral action. Hence, we are so frequently reminded that the principal reason why the Grecian republic did not stand, was because the power which knowledge confers upon its MORAL INFLUENCE OF REWARDS. 127 possessor was not equalized among the whole mass of the body ])olitic : and we are warned that the glories which now blaze round our free institutions, will go out in everlasting darkness, unless the great mass of the people be enlightened. It is admitted that a healthful moral senti- ment is usually associated with this public enlightening ; but who does not perceive that it is merely subordinate ? The grand, the controlling idea is the power of knowledge. No one who has made accurate observations can fail to perceive, that popular intelligence has been cherished as the principal bulwark of our political existence. Knowledge throughout the mass of the community has an important place in the preservation of our free institu- tions ; but however widely diffused, however accumulated, it is not the most important. Here lies the error. The maxim that knowledge is power, has operated impercepti- bly on tlie minds of men, and so has the system of intellect- ual reward, until education has become the idol at whose shrine they worship. It reminds us of the uproar at Ephe- sus, when for the space of two hours the people cried out— "Great is Diana of the Ephesians.^' " Knowledge is pow- er — knowledge is power'' — has rolled over the earth as the voice of mighty thunderings. I grant that knowdedge is power, but it may be power for woe as well as for weal. The greatest enemy to the happiness of the world is a being of gigantic, and highly cultivated intellect — a being of higher order than ourselves, but filled with almost infinite malevolence. What would be his terrific, destroying influ- ence, where he omniscient? AVe must change or modify our motto. We must aban- don the system of reward for intellectual superiority. We must educate the noblest part of human nature, the moral faculties ; educate them upon the principles of God's word, and abandon every system which infringes upon these 128 MORAL INFLUENCE OP EEWARDS. principles, or tends to exalt the power of knowledge above that of moral character. Whenever the motives exhibited in the Bible become the main-springs of human action, then, and not till then, will society be purified, free institutions be rendered permanent, and knowledge contribute to the happiness of man. Let the controlling impression be formed in the mind, that the Bible is power, that moral character is power : let the principles of the Bible be laid at the foun- dation of the edifice of knowledge, and it will be an edifice which neither time nor revolution can undermine, — the glory of the nations, the joy of the whole earth. PHYSICAL EDUCATION. BY WILLIAM WOOD, M. D. Gentlemen of the College of Teachers: I SOLICIT your attention to the means of preserving the health of those who are confined, either as teachers or pupils, in our schools and colleges ; for without the preserva- tion of health, the physical structure can never attain the perfection for which it was designed hy its Infinite Creator. No object is therefore of more importance, than the preserva- tion of health, especially at a period when the system is undergoing the various changes necessary for its complete development. Let the attainments of the scholar be what they may, they are worse than useless if procured at the expense of his physical organization. If the constitution be materially impaired in childhood or youth, it can never be restored to its primitive condition. Neither art nor science can arrest it in its downward course to premature decay. Indeed in many cases, a prolonged life is not to be desired, either by the victim of early imprudence or his immediate friends, for nothing but entire dissolution can relieve him from the penalty incurred by a total disregard of the laws of animal life. But the evils do not always stop here. The same penalty may be inflicted upon his off- spring, even to the " third or fourth generation," when his name will cease to be known. Notwithstanding this, there is no subject so much (129) 130 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. neglected in our system of education, as the preservation of health. While the student is carefully instructed in the literature of Greece and Rome, nations whoso habits, laws, and institutions present but little that is worthy of imita- tion, the influence of physical and moral agents upon his physical structure, the means of preserving the healthy play of his organs, or indeed any knowledge of so compli- cated a machine, or the laws by which it continues to act through a succession of years, are carefully denied him. It will therefore be the object of the present lecture to call his attention to the importance of attaining an end so inti- mately connected with his present and future welfare. 1. In order to preserve the health of the body as well as to procure the best possible development of all its parts, both teachers and senior pupils should be acquainted with its structure, and the various laws by which it is governed. This however is not the case. But few of either are unacquainted with the laws of inanimate matter, or the forces which maintain the relative position of the different parts of the solar system, while the number that understand the anatomy of the body or the means of preserving its vigor amid the changing scenes of life, is indeed limited. The efl'ects of this ignorance in the various ranks of society, can not be estimated. Perhaps they are most apparent in the higher classes, where little except rank and wealth are concerned in the promotion of matrimonial alliances, and where dissipated youth is consequently too frequently united to the fashionable belle, whose habits have been continually opposed to the preservation of health, or the means of securing an agreeable longevity. If either of the parties, or their immediate friends, were fully aware that the diseased lungs, the impaired nervous system, and the disturbed intellect would produce confirmed consumption, hypochondria, or insanity in their offspring, PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 131 tliey would not have urged the consunia'tion of an alliance which must bring misery, and even annihilation upon their race. It also frequently happens that the fashionable youth, not aware that physical imperfection may be trans- mitted to his posterity, either marries before his physical system is fully developed, or when he does so, he unites himself to a girl of immature years, or one w^hose family has been more or less afflicted with scrofula, epilepsy, or some other hereditary disease, and never discovers his mis- take until his own children become the subjects of pulmo- nary derangement or mental imbecility. The same ignorance of the laws of animal life, renders him incompe- tent to select a proper physician for himself or his family. The artful pretender frequently gains his favor, to the destruction of himself or his dependents. But this evil increases as we approach the more illiterate. To such, whether rich or poor, the pretensions of a foreign igno- ramus, the mummery of a stupid African, the high-toned assertions of a botanic superficial, or the absurd declarations of a designing notion vender, are vastly superior to tha learning and experience of a skillful and scientific physi- cian. These however, are but a few of the evils resulting from a total ignorance of anatomy and physiology. The aspirant after college honors often destroys the energy of both mind and body by protracted study, without the least knowledge of his errors. Had he studied the laws of the animal economy with only half the assiduity with -which he pored over the vulgar songs of ancient nations, he would have learned that distinction in life could never be obtained by study alone. The mind, like the body, requires repose, and the body like the mind, can never be fully matured without proper exercise. The above remarks relate to the educated and the great 132 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. mass that make up society. They apply to both students and pupils ; but there are still other and stronger reasons why the educator, as well as those who have charge of youth in the various stations of life, should be versed in the structure of the body and the laws by which its actions are regulated. If it be true, as it unquestionably is, that man ought to be trained according to his nature and in harmony with his faculties, how can this be done by a teacher entirely unacquainted with both? The instructor should not only know that man is composed of body and mind, but that these act and re-act upon each other so as to produce pleasure or pain, according to the external agents that are Drought to bear upon the one or the other. He should also be fully aware that there is an education of the body as well of the mind, and that if either be neglected, the student can not act, think and feel, in the manner that will secure the greatest amount of health, or produce the most happiness. AH the senses, as well as the appetites and passions, may be improved by judicious training. The skin is the most extensive organ of the body, and from its position it is subject to the influence of a variety of external agents, healthy and morbid. Its functions are complicated and require attention, to preserve it in a proper condition. The lungs too, from the office they perform, are continual- ly exposed to injurious impressions, from which it requires the skill of the physiologist to preserve them. The same may be said of the stomach and alimentary canal ; of the heart and blood-vessels ; of the brain and nervous system. But this is not all. They may not only be preserved in health, but they are capable of continued improvement by proper habits and exercise. This however, can only be effected by a knowledge of the animal economy, by which the teacher can perceive the relation that all these organs PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 133 bear to the agents which surround them, as well as their mutual dependence upon each other. The same knowledge would not only enable him to give his pupil the informa- tion that would preserve his health during his pupilage, but it would also impress upon his mind the importance of acting in consistency with the laws of his organization throughout his after life. It would indeed create a new department in our systems of education. The importance of clothing, friction, and the bath, in promoting the health and cleanliness of the skin — the effects of vicissitudes of temperature, of continued cold or heat, or of a confined and vitiated atmosphere, upon the liver, lungs and circulating fluids — the result of improper food or poisonous agents, upon the stomach and alimentary canal, with the various means of promoting or impairing the healthy action of the organs of motion, sensation, thought, perception, and reflec- tion, would certainly form the most important part of a judicious and useful education — ^an education that would continually elevate man in the scale of life, until he should reach that excellence of both mind and body, which his organization is capable of attaining. This brings us to the next proposition in our discourse. 2. If students and others would preserve their health, as well as attain the most perfect organization of both mind and body, they must cultivate all their faculties — moral, mental and physical. According to our present plans of education, this is not the case. They are framed with a special reference to the cultivation of the intellectual organs. The muscular apparatus receives no attention from the teacher. The student may spend his recess in muscular exercises if he chooses, but as he has received no instruction in relation to its importance, he seldom does so properly. He either confines himself to his room, or engages in something which 134 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. affords but little physical exertion. But the muscular system is not alone neglected. The cultivation of the social feelings and moral affections scarcely enters into a modern scheme of an elegant education. Indeed a great deal of the literature of our colleges is entirely opposed to a heal- thy moral training. The student spends about one third of his time in the cultivation of a single faculty of the mind — verbal memory — for the express purpose, it would seem, of effectually corrupting his morals. The literature of Greece and Rome, as handed down to us, is little else but selfishness, injustice, murder and idolatry, incorporate i by the classic writers of that degenerate age, into a kind of martial glory which is poisonous to the feelings and morals of youth. It awakens desires, arouses passions, creates appetites, and produces habits in the student, at variance with the principles of health, or the laws of the animal economy. And yet this is the principal aliment upon which his mind has to subsist during his college course. If the same time were occupied in imparting to him a knowledge of his own nature and place in creation ; the conditions upon which his physical welfare, or moral and intellectual happiness depends ; in attempting to regulate his passions, and in teaching how to exercise his social feel- ings, as well as to eradicate his prejudices, there would be less destructiveness, cruelty and sensuality in the present generation. I do not believe that any of the desires, passions and appetites, with which the Creator furnished man, should be eradicated, even if it were in the power of education to do so ; but they should not be improperly stim- ulated by a mistaken education. Destructiveness for instance, will always be a prominent trait in the character of youth, without surrounding it with a fascinating dress. Among scholars it frequently becomes a disease. Our lunatic asylums abound with Roman heroes or Spartan PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 135 leaders, all anxious to gratify a morbid propensity to commit murder or satiate revenge. Tlie teacher should, never permit the pupil who manifested a strong desire to torture animals or destroy life, to study books abounding in martial glory or bloody strife. Such a course would not only be destructive to his happiness, but it might derange his health and impair his intellectual powers. Again, the exclusive exercise of the intellect produces disease in some of the distant organs. It is one of the chief sources of dyspepsia among scholars. Digestion, like every other function of the body, requires the influence of the nervous system. When the brain is continually engaged in thought and reflection, the stomach of course sujffers. The food remains in it almost unaltered, until spontaneous decomposition commences. It then becomes a foreign substance, irritating the tender coats of the parts through which it passes. The continued repetition of this course at length produces disease, which saps the founda- tion of the system, and destroys the physical structure — the brain as well as the rest. The stomach at length yields, but Samson-like, it does not do so until it involves its enemies in the general ruin. But these are only a part of the evils produced by protracted study. The brain, or a part of it, at length contracts disease in consequence of the amount of blood contained in it. The declaration of the Eoman governor, although untrue in its application to the learned apostle, is founded upon observation and fact. " Much learning hath made thee mad," would unquestionably apply to many of our unfortunate maniacs. This kind of mental alienation however, is not so much the product of ''much learning," as it is the result of the continued exercise of a single intellectual faculty. If the learning were general, as it doubtless was in the case of the apostle, and all the 136 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. organs of tliouglit and reflection were properly exercised, it wonld augment the size of the hrain, and consequently strengthen the mind, and increase rather than disturb its healthy operations, especially if the other means for the promotion of health were not neglected. But if the mind be exclusively confined to the study of language, numbers, geometrical figures, poetry, or any thing else of an exclu- sive character, the continued excitement will at length produce disease in a corresponding portion of the brain, and total or partial insanity must ultimately follow. This may be the case however, when there is no sensible lesion in any portion of the cerebral mass. As the contin- ued exercise of a single organ invariably augments its size and activity, it may at length obtain an undue influ- ence in the general association. It will then usurp all the authority, appropriate every thing for its special purpose, and render the student a complete enthusiast, or even an entire monomaniac. In order to avoid this, the exercises of the pupil should be shifted from one branch of study to another. Whenever he becomes fatigued with mathemat- ics, he should be permitted to try history, philosophy, or something else, and so of all the others. There is still another subject so intimately connected with this, that I can not pass it by without a brief notice. I allude to the intense excitement produced by reading works of fiction. The present may be termed the age of novel reading, and its injurious results must continue to operate throughout the next. Works of fiction and romance excite the imagination, until a state of mind is produced, at variance with the healthy play of reason and judgment. This is especially the case with females, whose nervous systems are naturally delicate. A physiologist could readily select the sentimental novel reader from the social circle of any country. She might entertain a PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 137 modern knight with a mind similarly organized, with the incidents in Bulwer's last ; but she would be unable to con- tribute any thing to the higher orders of intellectual con- versation. Novels also give the readers unjust views of real life. When they come to act their parts they are disappointed, and a fretful and deranged sttite of mind is produced; a condition at variance with health, and opposed to social duty and domestic happiness. Works of fiction should therefore be excluded from the school-room. The student should not be permitted to read them, even in his private study. It is a law in physiology, that one organ can not absorb an undue proportion of nervous influence, without injuring all the others. The student therefore, who occupies his imagination for hours together, is depri- ving his physical structure of an essential agent in its growth and welfare. But while a single study, continued for a great length of time, disturbs the equilibrium of the intellect, a judi- cious exercise of the mental system is attended with the most favorable results. It has already been stated that a proper exercise of the intellectual organs augments their volume, power, and capacity. This is produced by an increased action in the capillaries of the brain. Whenever additional labor is thrown upon it, it calls upon the blood vessels for a greater amount of material to sustain it in its efforts. The demand is at once supplied, and the brain is not only furnished with enough to repair the waste, but it also receives sufficient to increase its size and power, so that it may perform all the duties reasonably required of it. This is an important principle in the animal economy, applying not only to the brain, but to every organ of which it is composed. The arms of gold beaters, the legs of dancers, and the heads of great thinkers, attest its truth. It is also equally as true, that a want of exercise 12 138 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. diminislies the size and power of either the intellectual or locomotiye organs. If the brain therefore, is allowed to remain quiescent, or as nearly so as the vital functions will permit, the mind necessarily continues feeble, and conse- quently exposed to a greater variety of morbid impressions. But this is not all. Every part of the animal body, endowed with life, requires the agency of the nervous sys- tem ; consequently if the brain be imperfectly developed, it will be unable to fulfil its duty, and the whole or a part of the body languishes. Idiots, Avho almost invariably have heads far below the ordinary standard, are never well formed in other respects, nor do they live for any great length of time. Indeed it is abundantly evident, from a study of the laws of animal life, that while an undue exer- cise of any of the organs of the body creates disease in some part of the system, it is equally true that a judicious exercise of the intellectual powers, moral feelings and social afiections, is productive of the best results. Some of our most learned men have attained the greatest age, and continued to the close of life in the full enjoyment of all their mental powers. 3. The next subject to which your attention is directed, in the preservation of the health of students, is the neces- sity of graduating the time occupied in mental labor, according to age, sex, physical organization, etc. This is of much importance in school and college discip- line. Many pupils will bear confinement at their books, for six or seven hours per day; while others can not undergo more than half the labor, without the most serious consequences. Young children should not be kept in school as long as their older associates. When six years of age, they may be confined without injury, two or even three hours per day, but never longer. Before this period, they should never enter the school-room, except for the purposes PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 139 of moral and physical training. Childhood is not the period for study ; and if spent in school or other places of confinement, the laws of nature are transgressed, and dis- ease or general debility must follow. Some of the best writers in our language could not study, even in the prime of life, more than four and a half hours per day, without impairing their health. What therefore, must be the results of a system, which compels the child, without men- tal discipline, and when the influence of the nervous system is necessary for the perfection of his physical structure, to remain in a crowded school-room for six hours every day ? But this subject received so much attention in the lecture on the influence of education upon the physical develop- ment of man, delivered before the College at its last meet- ing, that we will dismiss it at present. Those who wish to examine the objections against infant schools, and other associations, for the special cultivation of the juvenile intel- lect, are referred to the last volume of the Transactions of this College. Males in general, will bear more confinement than females. The minds of the former do not act as quickly as those of the latter. The one appears to leap at a con- clusion, while the other arrives at it by a regular process of reason and induction. The nervous system of the first is not endowed with as much mobility as that of the last, and hence the female acquires knowledge with greater facility ; but she can not undergo the same mental labor without injury. 4. The classification of pupils is a matter of much impor- tance in the preservation of health. All, even of the same age and sex, can not learn alike. Some can commit a given quantity, or solve a difficult problem, in a short time, with but little labor, while it appears almost impossible for others to perform the same, however untiring they may be 140 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. in their efforts. To require botli to remain in the same class, and to perform equal tasks in the same time, would be unreasonable. Close study impairs the constitution with great rapidity, especially towards the close of a pro- tracted pupilage, when the whole physical system is rendered extremely irritable by previous mental excite- ment. In many instances, the most important organs of the body, those of digestion and assimilation, are seriously crippled. Dyspepsia is only the forerunner of a series of diseases which destroys the health, impairs the intellect, and renders the student unhappy during the remainder of his life. These evils can only be removed, even in their commencement, by a cessation of study. A journey into the country, where a change of scenery and associations will divert the mind of the sufferer from his duties in the recita- tion room, will be almost the only means of cure within his reach. Those then, who are unable to keep pace with others without producing such disastrous results, should form separate classes ; their studies should be repeatedly changed ; and they should not be permitted to ruin their future prospects by their efforts to perform as much in a given time, as those more favorably organized. It is not however, the youth that can not learn, that is the most frequently injured in the school-room. It is the one that makes the most rapid progress — that is devoted to the study of some particular branch of science — and that requires restraint rather than stimulation in his college career. All the anticipations of such a youth may be blighted at an early period, by permitting him to study during a regular recess, or otherwise to perform more than a reasonable amount of labor, in order to overtake a class in advance of the one in which he is placed. It must also be recollected that a pupil may excel in one branch of literature, while he may fail in others. He may PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 141 learn a language in a short time, and still be unable to make any marked progress in mathematics, or vice versa. A single portion of the nervous system may be extremely active, while others are more or less sluggish, according to their development. It must be remembered however, that a judicious exercise of those faculties of the mind which appear to be the most inactive, will increase their powers until they shall equal the others. 5. It is a prevalent opinion, that the health of infirm children is either improved by confinement in the school- room, or that it is at least uninjured. This is an error productive of the worst consequences. The child that is unhealthy should be removed at once to the parental home, where it should remain until its physical organization is completely repaired. I say physical organization, because when this is perfect the health will be perfect also. This however, is almost invariably neglected. The unhealthy youth of the city or country is too frequently set apart for a profession, because he is unable to undergo the labor of the counting-room, the work-shop, or the farm. Such a course is fatal to the advancement of science, inju- rious to the cause of education, and destructive to the pros- pects of the youthful invalid. Without health of body, his mind can never be properly developed ; and hence he will be unable to grapple with the robust youth, in his efforts for distinction and honor. He must therefore either be contented with a contemptible mediocrity ; or conscious of his inferiority, must spend his life in useless regret, unable to contribute any thing* to the advancement of his profes- sion, or to t]).3 welfare of the society in which he is placed. Notliing contributes more towards the preservation of bealth, among all ages and classes of students, than exer- cise in the open air. To be useful, it must not be so severe as to exhaust the powers of the physical system, while it 142 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. should be varied in such manner as to call into action all the muscles of volition. It should also be continued until the approach of fatigue, but in no instance until prostration is the result. This is better accomplished by an unre- strained indulgence in youthful sports, than by the meas- ured step or mechanical efforts of gymnastic exercises. Boys enjoy the former, and will engage in them with activity, while the latter soon become a task, because they are prescribed by a teacher. In cities, where play-grounds are limited, gymnastics may be beneficial ; but in country schools, and even in cities where the means of unrestrained exercise can be obtained, they should not be urged upon pupils. It is to be regretted that girls are not allowed in gen- eral, as much exercise as boys. If they were permitted to pursue their own inclination, in extensive play-grounds, for a reasonable time every day, the female school would not present so many specimens of hurried breathing, short cough, flushed cheeks, and palpitation of the heart, — all of which are only the harbingers of more fatal maladies. It would be difficult to decide what kind of exercise would be the most beneficial in the preservation of health, in schools and colleges. As already mentioned, it would vary with the location of the institution. If surrounded by large play-grounds, many of the games at ball would be both useful and interesting. The exercise is not usu- ally severe enough to produce prostration, while the excitement of the game is sufficient to divert the mind from its previous engagements. But let the play be what it may, the teacher should never lose sight of those employed in it. All do not require the same quantity of muscular exercise ; hut where they engage promiscuously in an exciting play, an ambitious rivalry is encouraged, and each is anxious to continue until the contest is decided. This PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 143 may prove injurious to boys that are inclined to disease of the lungs, especially if they remain in a damp atmosphere after they cease their exertion, and before they recover from their fatigue. Manual labor schools have been projected for the purpose of rendering the necessary exercise to the student profita- ble, in a pecuniary point of view — thus enabling him to defray his expenses at the same time that he is improving his mind and invigorating his body ; but it is questionable whether they will afford all the advantages anticipated. Exercise, to be useful, must not only extend to all the muscles of voluntary motion, but it must also so far employ the mind as to divert it from its former engagements. In many of the mechanical pursuits it is possible for the mus- cular apparatus to perform a great deal of labor, while the mind is completely absorbed in the study of some difficult problem, which had entirely occupied it for some time previous, for it is well known that even sleep can not always cover with oblivion the mental excitements of the school-room. The student will occasionally solve a ques- tion in his dreams which had baffled all his eflPorts the previous day. That kind of exercise therefore, which affords no relief to the most important part of the pupil — the mind — will be of little avail in the preservation of his health. The material and immaterial parts of man are so intimately connected that the improvement of the one will generally benefit the other ; yet it is possible for either to be exhausted, nay, entirely worn out, while the other is under the most wholesome discipline. The student for instance, might walk, or even work at a bench, until he became absolutely fatigued, and yet his mind be as fully occupied with his lessons as if in the midst of his recita- tions. Indeed this species of exercise might not only do no good, but be decidedly injurious, according to the 144 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. temperament of the student and the times at which it is taken. It has already been mentioned, that the various parts of the system are not only supplied with blood in proportion to the amount of labor they perform, but that the differ- ent organs contain more when in a state of activity than when at rest. In sleep it is equally distributed through- out the body, according to the size and vascularity of the various organs, but when the system is active there is a continual ebb and flow from one to the other as the will, in part at least, determines. Thus, if the mind is intently engaged in the study of any particular subject, the brain makes greater demands upon the heart and arter- ies for blood than it does when inactive. The same is the case with the stomach. After it receives the proper quan- tity of food there is a flow of blood into it, to enable it to perform its part in the grand scheme of animal nutrition. So also of the muscular system. When walking, playing, or laboring, the vital fluid finds its way, in increased quanti- ties, into the extremities, or the other parts where the action is the greatest. Now if the student engages habitu- ally in intense study immediately after his meals, the stomach may be unable to obtain the quantity of blood re- quisite to carry on the process of digestion, and disease is the result. The brain retains what it can control, as long as it is required, and consequently the most urgent demands of the stomach will be unavailing. But suppose the student arises from his meals, and goes to the workshop, or walks over the same grounds he has traversed an hundred times, for the exercise he thinks high- ly important for the perservation of his health, what is the result ? In either case he may perform a great amount of of physical exertion and still his mind be absorbed in intense thought. The brain, the stomach, and the muscles of PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 145 volition, will tlieii simultaneously demand their appropriate stimulus, but they can not all receive it. The stomach, being less under the influence of the will than either the brain, or the muscles of the extremities, yields its claims, and the unaltered food passes onward through the remain- der of the abdominal viscera, irritating the parts with which it comes in contact, until it is finally ejected. The contin- ued repetition of this course results in an entire overthrow of all the organs of animal life. As the food does not digest, the fluids of the body become impaired, and the system is no longer able to protect itself from the attacks made upon it from without. It then yields to its fate and returns to its original elements. The student who adopts the plan just mentioned wonders why he is dyspeptic — why his energies are daily more and more prostrated — why he is constantly growing more and more languid ! His teachers tell him to take more exer- cise, but this he finds only increases his complaints ; besides he is sure he takes as much as his associates, who only phy while he walks abroad or labors in the workshop ; and yet. they are robust and healthy. It is true he takes quite as much exercise as they, but then he takes it at different times and in a different manner. It is probable that their choice is the result of accident, for but few of the best schol- ars, in our literary institutions, are at all acquainted with the laws of ^ animal life ; consequently they are unprepared to give their pupils the best instruction for the perservation of their health. Be the exercise what it may, no student should take it immediately after his meals, or when his mind is occupied by his daily studies. When he walks, works, or plays, he should think of the business of the moment, and not allow his mind to be occupied by the studies of the class-room. The most proper time to take exercise is immediately before meals, and the best place is in the open air. The IS 146 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. student who rises early, and walks rapidly over two or three miles, amusing himself with the various objects which fall under his notice, will not only eat his breakfast with a bet- ter appetite, but he will advance much faster in his studies than those who pursue an opposite course. If he have a taste for natural history, botany, or mineralogy, he may make his tour both pleasant and useful. While he selects specimens for his cabinet or herbarium, he may find abun- dance of enjoyment in study of the habits of the animals that present themselves to his notice. An hour after breakfast, which time he may spend in some innocent amusement, he is prepared to resume the labors of the day. He should spend at least two hours in the same way after dinner, and before supper he should take his axx?ustomed ramble, or res- ort either to the play-ground or work-shop, for the exercise which is so essential to sound sleep and a healthy circula- tion of the vital fluids. He may spend a part of the eve- ning in reviewing his lessons, but he should always retire to rest in time to get six or seven hours sleep before the following morning. The student who pursues this course, will not leave his alma mater, the pale and sickly shadow of what he was when he entered it. Instead of the hectic flush, the sunk- en eye, the trembling step, the deep sepulchral cough, the irritable temper and the feeble intellect, which so fre- quently accompany the student to his home, he will return in the full possession of a sound constitution and an invig- orated mind, fully competent to act his part in life, whether it be upon the field, in the forum, the halls of legislation, or elsewhere. 7. The next subject we shall examine is that of the con- struction and ventilation of the school-room. It has already been stated that the college, academy and school-house, should be situated in open grounds, where the PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 147 pupils of eit-her sex, could enjoy the advantages of unre- strained muscular exercise. If possible, it should also be surrounded by trees, shrubs, and flowering plants. A sterile enclosure is neither so pleasant nor so healthy as one cov- ered by vegetation. Many of the best medical writers affirm that miasmatic exhalations, so fatal to the health of all classes in marshy districts, seldom if ever reach build- ings surrounded by trees of a moderate height. This is probably true, for vegetables absorb many of the gases injurious to the health when mixed with air inspired. Eows of trees, standing between swampy lands or wet prairies and family dwellings, often afford ample protection from the poisonous gases continually arising from the decomposi- tion of animal and vegetable matter. But plants and flow- ers not only protect the pupils of literary institutions from the effects of deleterious gases ; they also afford a healthy and varied prospect, while their appearance and study are calculated to excite the better feelings of the heart, and thus elevate the mind from the study of abstract proposi- tions to the contemplation of the beauties of nature and the perfections of nature's God. School-rooms should always be larger in proportion to the number of their inmates, than other buildings. The ceilings should be higher, and if possible there should be an opening communicating with the atmosphere without, in the most elevated portions of the different apartments. K the rooms were spacious they would contain a larger quan- tity of healthy air, while the openings would permit the es- cape of that which was too much heated, with many of the gaseous vapors arising from the lungs and external surface of the pupils. They should also be warmed by air from fur- naces underneath, or where this is impracticable, the grates or stoves should be placed much nearer the floor than they usually are. Fire-places are always preferable to stoves, 148 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. and wood to coal, but as both are more expensive, the latter may be used safely with proper precaution. In all the churches, school houses, or even private dwellings, that have fallen under my notice, the fire is entirely too much elevated. It should be remembered that the specific gravity of cold air is much greater than that of warm, consequently when it is admitted into heated rooms it sinks at once to the lowest level. Rarified air also rises, so that when the fire is placed at a distance above the floor, the lower extremities are continually immersed in a cold medium, to the manifest injury of the general health. This subject has thus far escaped the notice of writers upon hygiene, but it is certainly one of much importance, not only to the welfare of the inmates of schools and colleges, but also to that of public assemblies or private families. Seats more or less elevated, should be provided for pupils, according to their respective ages. The heads of the small- er scholars should be as nearly as possible on a level with those of the larger, for cold air is not the only fluid that descends in the school-room. Some of the gases thrown off from the system are extremely injurious to health, and if they form a large proportion of the air inhaled, they are speedily destructive. Among these may be mentioned the carbonic acid, which, being heavier than atmospheric air, descends and forms a stratum upon the floor, more or less thick, according to the number of pupils and the length of time they are confined in the room. Small children, if placed on low seats, would therefore be exposed to the worst of consequences ; while the larger scholars, from their eleva- ted position, would remain entirely secure. This subject is also of sufficient importance to command the attention of those engaged in the education of youth. Imperfect ventilation is too often a source of disease in crowded school-rooms, especially in the winter season, where PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 149 many teachers think it advisable to keep them as close as possible in order to exclude the cold air from without ; a practice which not only destroys the feeble in early life, but also implants in the most healthy the seeds of premature decay. The blood in its passage through the lungs, requires pure air for the expulsion of the poisonous matter which it accumulates in the course of the circulation. When it leaves the lungs, its color is a bright scarlet, but when it returns, it is changed into a dark modena, and hence it is termed black blood. The former is found in the arteries, and the latter in the veins. The red or arterial blood not only furnishes the materials for the growth of the body, but it also contains whatever is necessary to replace the worn- out particles which are continually escaping from every part of the physical system by means of the skin, lungs and mucous membranes, as well as the remainder of the organs of secretion and exhalation. On the other hand, the dark or venous blood is loaded with gases and salts, which render it poisonous to every part of the animal, except the tubes- and cavities in which it is contained. Its composition must, therefore, be changed, before it can enter the arterial sys- tem, or perform any part in the grand process of animal nutrition. This can be accomplished only by an atmos- phere containing the proper quantity of oxygen, and in order to provide this, the lungs are continually calling for a fresh supply of pure air, for at every inflation a part of the oxygen, entering the lungs, disappears, and its place is supplied by a poisonous compound wliich would speedily be destructive to the general health. It is therefore, evident that a given quantity of atmospheric air will support life only for a limited period. When the oxygen it contained is removed, it becomes an engine of destruction, as the holds of prison ships and the confined apartments of captive 150 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. soldiers too frequently attest. What therefore must be the condition of the pupils in a crowded school-room, where the doors and windows are kept so completely closed that neith- er the air without can gain admittance, nor that within make its escape ? But the consumption of oxygen and the consequent for- mation of carbonaceous and other gases, is not the only source of contamination in the atmosphere of the school-room. There is more or less that is equally injurious to health, passing off from the surface of the body, which mixes with the air already polluted, and thus the whole mass becomes more unfit for respiration. It is also probable that there is some change in the electric condition of the air of a close room, which renders it unhealthy. Confinement in a close room will not alike effect all the pupils of a large school. Those inclined to disease of the lungs will suffer most, and it is quite certain that the seeds of consumption are frequently implanted in the lungs of those predisposed to the disease, by improper management during the period of their education. School-rooms, crowded manufactories, and other places where persons are daily congregated, should therefore be well ventilated, even in the coldest weather. They should also be so arranged, that this ventilation would not be left to the fancy or caprice of teachers or master workmen, for but few of either are aware of its paramount importance. As healthy air should always contain a proper proportion of moisture, a vessel containing two or three gallons of water should be so placed that a continued evaporation would be kept up when the room is occupied, especially if it be heat- ed by close stoves. If warmed from furnaces beneath, the air should pass through a reservoir of water before it is admitted into the room. As a committee has been appointed to report the best PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 151 plan for the erection of school houses, at the next meeting of the College, I shall dismiss the subject, by remarking, that whatever may be the shape or size of such building, it should always be furnised with apertures for admission of pure air, and the escape of that which has become noxious. This may probably be done by dropping a sash on one side of the room, and raising another on the opposite. The pupils, however, should always be removed from the vicini- ty of the aperture which gives admission to the air, especi- ally if it be either cold or damp. As school houses are now erected, even the imperfect ventilation they receive is injurious to many of the pupils. The temperature of the room is often so high that the inmates are thrown into a profuse perspiration, when the windows and doors are opened, and the house is filled with a flood of cold air, which contracts the pores of the skin, drives the blood from the surface, arrests the functions of the skin, and thus produces colds, pleurisies, or disorders of the lungs, which too often terminate in consumption or other disease equally fatal to the unfortunate pupil. Indeed, consumption often commences at a very early period, and it is quite probable that the discipline of the school-room frequently pushes it onward to a speedy termination. 8. Cleanliness is every where an important element in the preservation of the health, but in no place is it more necessary than in the school-room. If either the furniture, or the persons and clothes of the pupils are allowed to remain filthy, the functions of the system, corporeal and mental, must speedily suffer. The dust upon the floor is soon re- duced to an impalpable powder, which mixes with the atmosphere, and thus finds its way into the lungs, where it either remains until it is ejected by coughing, or it sinks deeper and deeper into the bronchial tubes, which are soon rendered entirely impervious. When fixed, it becomes a 152 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. most destructive irritant, and the vis medicatrix naturce exerts all its powers to procure its expulsion. A cough, more or less severe, immediately commences. At first it is short and dry, but eventually it is attended with a slight mucous expectoration ; sometimes bloody, at others puru- lent. It fails, however, in its efforts ; the cough increases, the cheeks become red near their center, but pale and sallow elsewhere, the system is emaciated, fever and night sweats occur, respiration is short and difficult, the chest ap- pears contracted, with a pain more or less acute in one of the sides, the teeth are white, and the eye glows with an unusual fire. Still the appetite remains good, and the un- fortunate sufferer confidently expects a speedy recovery. The symptoms, however, continue to increase until death closes the distressing scene, and a promising youth falls a victim to the unhealthy condition of a neglected school- room. All students will not suffer equally if placed in a dusty house. Those inclined to pulmonary disease will suffer most, and hence persons having narrow chests, or a chronic cough, should never be exposed to the dust. They should never be compelled to sweep, nor should they remain in their places while others are engaged in it. 9. The attitude of the pupil in the school-room, is of much importance in the preservation of his health. Cur- vature of the spine is often produced by the unnatural position so frequently assumed by scholars engaged in writ- ing, drawing, painting, or any thing else which admits of leaning forward, or laterally, or of the elevation of one of the shoulders above the other. When engaged in any of the above named exercises, or indeed in any thing else, the student should stand or sit erect. If he lean forw^ard, with either his breast or side upon the edge of the desk, he may become the subject of a permanent deformity before he PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 153 is aware of it. But this is not the worst. Curvatures of the spine continue to increase, during life, unless the sub- ject of the disease submits to a most rigid course of medical treatment. The spine is composed of a number of short oval bones, with processes extending backwards from the posterior surface. These bones are piled upon each other and tied together by a movable intervening substance, and ■ a dense ligament extending from one process to the other, throughout its whole extent. When the body is bent forwards, the anterior edges of the bones press upon each other, and absorption follows. As it progresses, the centre of gravity is removed, the weight of the body is gradually thrown forward, and the absorption, and consequent curva- ture, continually augmented until the deformity is complete. Sometimes the inclination is lateral ; at others both lateral and forwards, when the distortion is immense. The only remedy for this disease is proper regimen and a continued horizontal position, which must be maintained until the defective bones regain their original figure. If the curva- ture is forward, the same object may be accomplished by rest- ing on the hands and knees. The pupils in most danger of deformities of the bony system, are such as are predisposed to scrofula, or such as are slender in form, of sedentary habits, and take but little exercise. Females, from their organization and sedentary habits, are more frequently the subjects of spinal curvature than males. In some countries, and perhaps in some por- tions of our own, ten per cent, of the boarding-school misses are afflicted with diseases of the spine, the result of mis- management in the school-room. To prevent a catastrophe so fatal to the young female, she must take regular exer- cise in the open air, live on a wholesome nutritious diet, and stand or sit erect in the school-room. But deformity of the spine is not the only evil resulting 154 PHYSIC Ali EDUCATION. from leaning forward upon a desk when engaged in study. The pressure upon the breast bone decreases the cavity of the chest, and thus predisposes to diseases of the lungs and breast, which are equally as destructive to the well-being of the patient, although they are less obvious to the vision. If the student stands as much as possible, when writing or drawing, the evils complained of will not only be obviated, but the tone and vigor of the muscular system will be in- creased, and the general health thereby improved. 9. The diet of the pupil, although mostly beyond the control of the teacher, should be regulated with a special reference to his situation. It is unquestionably true that man requires a mixed diet, or one composed of both animal and vegetable food ; but in early life, and especially when the youth is confined in the school-room, the latter should form the greater proportion. Some however, require more animal food than others. If the temperament be sanguine- ous and the person is of a full habit, much meat will be decidedly injurious ; but if it be lymphatic and the circula- tion and actions are sluggish, a larger quantity of stimula- ting food will beneficial. The diet of children under twelve years of age should be decidedly vegetable, with a proper quantity of milk and its products. Students, and others of sedentary habits, err more in the quantity than in the quality of their food. They eat too much ; more than the stomach can digest, before it is called upon to receive an additional supply. In this condition the pupil cannot study. He may pass a few hours in a kind of dreaming meditation, but he will be unable to accomplish any thing until the stomach has disposed of its " stock of provisions." Indeed it is well that he is unable to concen- trate his mind upon his lessons, for were he to do so, he would cut off a part of the nervous influence from the stom- ach, which would be fatal, in time, to his general health. PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 155 The drinks of cliildren should never he stimulatino*. Strong coffee and tea should he entirely forbidden ; as well as wine, heer, or any thing else containing alcohol, even in the smallest quantities. To conclude, I will again repeat that children should sel- dom, if ever, he placed in school hefore they are six or sev- en years of age. In cities they are sent to school too young. Until the time specified, they should he solely under the protection of the parent. Their education should be strictly moral. They should be taught to love and venerate every thing that is good. The parent should rest satisfied with seeing his children attain the seventh year in health, with their chests fully expanded, and their muscular systems well developed by unrestrained exercise. But even then the confinement should be gradual — at first consisting of of an hour or two in the day, and gradually increasing to four or five. Numbers of children have been destroyed by being prematurely placed in school. To make the child a prodigy of learning when almost a babe, it is sent to an infant school, where it is kept still (an outrage upon na- ture ), for hours together, or until the system becomes weary of restraint, when it falls asleep and thus escapes the watchful eye of the teacher. It is true it will learn by a kind of imitation, and appear to solve problems astonish- ing to the visitors, but when closely examined it will be found that it has learned the whole hy repeating what it was told, without understanding the first principles of the subject under consideration. THE BIBLE AS A MEANS OF MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT. BTC.E.STOWE, D.D. This College has repeatedly declared, that the Bible is the book of all others best calculated, when properly used, to develop and exercise the intellectual and moral powers of the young. In this decision we are sustained by the unanimous voice of the most scientific teachers in all those countries where education has been most successfully reduced to a science. Knowing that God possesses every intellectual and moral excellence in the highest perfection, we should naturally infer that if he were to make a revelation of himself to his creatures, it would be one calculated to produce and cher- ish these excellencies in them. All experience shows that the Bible is a revelation of this character, that it does exert an influence such as we should suppose might proceed from an intelligent and benevolent Deity. As God always works by means, our present inquiry is, what are the means by which this influence is exerted ? In other words — I. What are the characteristic peculiarities of the Bible, which give it its enlightening and elevating influence over the mass of mankind ? 1st. The history contained in the Bible is peculiarly calculated to enlarge the mind and elevate its views. (156) THE BIBLE A MEANS OF IMPROVEMENT. 157 All faithful and well written history is calculated to produce this effect, hut the Bible history possesses many properties peculiar to itself. Other histories inform us of the rise and progress of particular empires and cities ; the Bible history opens to us that of the world itself, and the story of the several families by which its empires and cities were founded. Other histories relate to us the scenes in which masses of men have acted, and from effects endeavor to conjecture the causes which have produced them ; but the Bible history discloses the hand of a superintending Providence, and before the events take place, lays open to us the causes themselves as seen by Him who knoweth the end from the beginning, and calleth the things that are not as though they were. Other history, when it records the sorrows of oppressed virtue and the triumphs of successful vice, when it tells us of innocent nations crushed by the hand of ruthless tyranny, of the patriot and benefactor misunderstood and persecuted even unto death, and the heartless demagogue trusted, applauded, loaded with wealth, and honor, till he obtains power to trample on those by whose aid he has ascended, can only lament the evils which it can neither explain or obviate ; but the Bible history opens to us the bosom of God, deducing order from confusion, light from darkness, good from evil. All the intellectual and moral advanta- ges which can be derived from the best of human history, is conferred by the Bible history to a much greater extent, and in a far higher degree of perfection. 2. The biography of the Bible is peculiarly calculated to sharpen common sense, and improve the affections. It does not exhibit men merely on the stage of public life and acting the part assumed for the occasion, but it takes them just as they are in themselves, and develops those traits that come directly home to the business and bosom 158 THE BIBLE AS A MEANS OF MORAL of all mankind. It is not the biography of the outer man in his robes of ceremony, and shown off by the false lights of a deceptive world, but it is the biography of the inner man, disclosing his real character and his most secret motives, as estimated by the standard of unchanging light and eternal truth — it is the biography of the heart, in the light of Grod's countenance. Its point of view is domestic and individual, its mode of representation simple and truth- telling. Here are no palliations of crime from personal favor, no exaggeration of defect from personal hate, no concealment and no distortion of facts to favor a prejudice, but every thing is written down just as it occur- red, and the record is the portrait of the transaction. Eeading human biography generally, is like meeting men in company, where each one makes an effort to appear to the best advantage possible, or like seeing them in the public thoroughfare among strangers or enemies, where their actions and words, and very looks are liable to mis- representation and suspicion ; but reading the Bible bio- graphy is like seeing the man in his own home and associating with him in his daily business, where the mouth expresses the meaning of the heart, and the actions take the exact shape which the affections give them, unmodified by adventitious influences. He who studies the biography of the Bible, therefore, becomes acquainted with men as they really are, sees human nature as it actually exists, and ascertains to a certainty the consequences which must result from different combinations of moral traits, and from various modes of action. The simple herdsman^s life of the patriarchs, wandering from mountain to plain, and from wood to spring, in the luxuriant valleys of the Euphrates and the Jordan — the busy legislation and the energetic national development of Moses and his associates, the hardy warriors of the AND INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT. 159 period of the Judges, the stately courtiers of the monarchy, the faithful prophets and the flattering hypocrites of the degenerate days of the captivity, the little hand of reform- ers amid the gigantic corruptions of the Eoman Empire, are all portrayed, with the same simple, unpretending fidelity ; and though the strokes are often nothing more than the mere outlines of the profile, without coloring or finish, yet every feature is so distinctive, so characteristic, so true to nature, that the contemplation of it adds a new and complete idea to our previous stock of knowledge. Hence it is that so many preachers, who have had no advantages of early ciucation, but are diligent students of the Bible, become so distinguished for their sagacity, their knowledge of mankind, and their power of wieldiDg mind by the fr»rce of an^ument, and it is an early familiarity with the Bible, combined with habits of acute observation, that hah raised up from the ordinary walks of life, so many eminent statesmen in our own country, an illustrious class, of whom Koger Sherman and Benjamin Franklin may be considered fit representatives. 3. The views which the Bible gives of the human mind and human duty, or what may appropriately be called the intellectual and moral 'philosophy of the Bible, are in the highest degree favorable to intellectual and moral improve- ment. No one can doubt that our power of improvement must be very much afiected by the accuracy of our knowledge respecting our capacities and susceptibilities. He who knows what his mind is capable of, and what his heart demands, can take a much shorter and surer way to the attainment of excellence, than he who starts in ignorance and runs at random. The requisite knowledge is all con- tained in the Bible, in the form most convenient for gen- eral acquisition and best adapted to general use. 160 THE BIBLE AS A MEANS OF MORAL It is true there are no metapliysical definitions and no formal classification of the powers of the mind, nor any artificially arranged system of ethics. But the Bible was dictated by Him who knew what was in man, and Him who created the soul and gave it all the powers which it possesses (Ps. 94 : 9 — 10) : and He that 'planted the ear, shall He not hear ? He that formed the eye, shall He not see? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not He know ? These subjects are treated in a manner entirely practi- cal, and the statements are made in the form of aphorisms, maxims, proverbs, parables, and direct appeals to con- sciousness. Instead of saying that man has all the moral powers of a free agent, and is therefore hound to obey Gody it exclaims (Ezek. 18 : 30, 31, 32) : I will judge you every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Eepent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions ; so in- iquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit, for why will ye die. Por I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, wherefore turn yourselves and live ye. Instead of saying that man is a created being, and con- sequently limited and dependent on his Creator, it asks (Eom. 9 : 20 — 21) : Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor ? Instead of afiirming that man has a conscience, which when properly consulted, will warn against evil and lead to good; it expostulates (Luke 12: 57): Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right ? Instead of arguing, that whereas God forgives us great offences against Himself, we therefore ought to forgive the AND INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT. 161 small offences of our brethren against us, it propounds the beautiful apologue (Matt. 18: 21 — 35) of the forgiving master and the unformvina: servant. Instead of stating in the abstract form, that avarice is insatiable, and therefore he who indulges it will be exposed to constant want and misery, it says (Prov. 30: 15) Horse- leech hath twin daughters, Give, Give. A pair of twin daughters, both of them having the same name, and that name is Give. Always clamoring, never satisfied. In this manner our intellectual and moral powers and the duties arising from them, our relations and duties to God, to each other, and to ourselves, are all brought clearly to view in the Bible. The method is so striking, so interest- ing, so impressive, and the system so pure, so elevated, and so complete, that no one can make it a study without adding largely to his stock of knowledge, and feeling the transcendent excellence of real goodness. 4. The disclosures which the Bible makes respecting the condition and destinies of the human race, are admirably fitted to settle and tranquilize the mind, and give it that self-possession so essential to the highest improvement. The present condition of the human race is to the con- templative mind, without the light of revelation, inexplica- ble and distracting. There is such a mixture of good and evil, such exaltation and such meanness, capacities so admirable directed to ends so base, so magnificent provision and so miserable performance, such sublime conceptions and great desires, terminating in vanity and vexation of spirit, so much of the Deity, and so much of the brute, the feverish beginnings of an existence evidently of celestial origin, and so soon choked by the damps of the grave, that the thoughtful man, without revelation, is driven either to hopeless melancholy and misanthropic feeling, or to the 14 162 THE BIBLE AS A MEANS OF MORAL pleasures of sense, exclaiming, Let us eat and drink — for to-morrow we die. The most ingenious and beautiful theory to account for the present state of man, independently of revelation, is probably that of Plato. He supposed that all the souls which exist or have existed in human bodies, once dwelt in the spiritual world in the immediate presence of God, where they saw all things perfectly beautiful and good; and that it is the recollection of these perfect ideas that gives to the human mind the scattered fragments of shin- ing excellence which it still possesses, and the longing desires for something better which it still manifests ; and while its present connection with the gross earth makes it brutal and sensual — that the remedy lies in repressing the sensual, and cherishing the faint reminiscences of our former spiritual state, till they brighten again into beatific vision in the presence of God, beyond the grave. But the pre- existence of the soul, utterly without consciousness of any such state, can never become an object of firm belief — and to the remedy, how can man be just with God without a Eedcemer, or repress the carnal and cherish the spiritual, without a Saviour and a sanctifier ? And what encourage- ment to strenuous and long continued eff'ort, without some surer foundation of hope than the mere conjecture of a poor fallible mortal like ourselves. But the Bible solves the mystery of our existence, brings life and immortality to light, and lays the foundation of a sure and certain hope. The Bible speaks authoritatively, and maintains its claims by miracles, by prophecy, by the voice of God speaking audibly from heaven, and by the whole course of providence manifest on earth. Here we are told that God created man upright, breathed into him his own spirit, thus making him a living soul, destined him to AND INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT. 163 immortal life ; and this is the origin of all we see that is excellent and spiritually aspiring in man. That man being a free agent, voluntarily fell from the state wherein he was created, debased and brutified his soul by sensual indul- gence, brought death into the world, and all our woes, that "earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat sighing through all her works, gave signs ojp woe that all was lost f and this is the origin of all we see in man that is degra- ded, and wretched, and deathly. The Bible further tells us that Grod so loved the world, that he gave his only begot- ten Son that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life — that he is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God through him — that as sin had reigned unto death, even so should grace reign by righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord — that he is the great Saviour who shall bring us back again to yet greater glory than was lost by our first apostasy. Here the mind can rest and be satisfied, here it has encour- agement for all its eff'orts, food for its largest desires, and objects worthy of its highest aspirations. The tendons that bind the heart to heaven, and which were broken off by vice, leaving the severed part to throb like the divided nerves of an amputated limb, for something which it could not reach, are again united, and the aching wound is healed. The Bible afibrds us the further satisfaction of exhibiting God as arranging all the affairs of this world with refer- ence to the salvation of his chosen. By the light of proph- ecy, we see him determining ages beforehand, the fate of mighty empires and haughty kings, so as to secure the spiritual safety and highest moral improvement of his elect ; and as we witness the successive exact fulfilment of those predictions, they strengthen into absolute certainty our convictions of the unalterable determination of God to 164 THE BIBLE AS A MEANS OF MORAL accomplish fully his revealed purposes, and become a surer foundation of faith than even miracles themselves (2 Pet. 1:16—19). 5. The glimpses into the invisible world which the Bible affords us, greatly expand the mind and exalt the aims of the heart. You probably have seen how wonderfully the study of astronomy, the disclosure of the numerous worlds of the planetary system, with their startling phenomena and amazing revolutions, expands and elevates the youthful mind. Much more is this effect produced by the transient and overwhelmingly glorious glimpses of the spiritual world which we occasionally catch, while passing along the lattice-work of biblical representation and imagery. The first chapter of Ezekiel, the sixth of Isaiah, the book of Eevelations, many passages of Job and the Psalms, almost bring the Christian into the company of the Shepherds that inhabit the Delectable Mountains, who take desponding pilgrims to the top of the high hill called Qhar, and give them the telescope by which they discover the pearly gates of the celestial city and catch a glance at the glory within. (See Bunyan^8 Pilgrim.) 6. The character of God as represented in the Bible, is in the highest degree ennobling and purifying in its influ- ence on the mind. God is a being purely spiritual, almighty, eternal, won- derful, omnipresent, omniscient, holy. Ex. 15: 11. Isa. 57: 15. Ps. 139: 7—12. 1 Sam. 2: 3. Job 37: 16. Ps. 147: 5. Ps. 40: 28. Deut. 32: 4. 1 John 1: 5. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods, who is like thee? glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing won- ders? The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy — Whither shall I go for thy spirit, etc. The Lord is a God of knowledge — by him actions are AND INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT. 165 weiglied. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of earth, fainteth not, neither is weary ? there is no searching of his understanding. Dost thou know the balancings of clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowl- edge ? Great is our Lord and of great power — his under- standing is infinite — his work is perfect — all his w^ays are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. God is a spirit. He is a father, kind, compassionate, forbearing. Ps. 103: 8—19. Neh. 9: 17. Ex. 34: 6—7. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, abun- dant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. God is a sovereign, dignified, inflexible, unchanging, determined on Justice. Ps. 11 : 4. 2 Chron. 20: 7. Jer. 10:10. Ps. 96:13. Ps. 33:11. Jer. 16: 12, 13. Vs. 9 : 17. The Lord's throne is in heaven, his eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men. Oh Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in Heaven, and rulest not thou over all the kings of the heathen, and in thy hand is there not power and might so that none is able to withstand thee ? The Lord is the true God. He is the living God and an everlasting King. At his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation. 7. The character of Christ also, as exhibited in the Bible, is the most wonderful help to elevation and purity of life, that has ever been devised to aid poor human na- ture in its struggle against sin. 166 THE BIBLE AS A MEANS OF MORAL We are altogetlier more powerfully affected by example, than by precept or command, and a system of ethics, com- pared with the living man who embodies the system in his whole life, is like the mimic automata of the show-room compared with the organized army of living soldiers in the field. In the character of Christ, in his deportment, his actions, his words, as recorded in the Bible, we have a living exem- plification of every virtue enjoined in the Bible, a living picture of what every one who perfectly believes and perfectly obeys the Bible, must actually be. And the constant con- templation of such a character, how salutary must be its influence on every sincere admirer ! A character possess- ing every virtue, without any of the corresponding failings toward which in imperfect human nature each virtue leans : courage without rashness, humility without mean- ness, dignity without arrogance, perseverance without obstinacy, affection without weakness ; the most perfect simplicity united with all that is majestic in high minded self-respect ; always acting in exact consistency, and never ruffled by anger nor depressed by despair, in all the severe and aggravated trials through which he passed ! How short his stay upon earth ! scarcely three years of public life ! and yet how glorious, how permanent the results ! A world disenthralled, corrupting and debasing superstitions overthrown, men placed in circumstances of improvement by which they are continually advancing their social and public welfare ; and now, nearly two thous- and years after his death, while other founders of religious systems of more recent origin have already lost their hold on the human mind, the influence of Jesus of Nazareth is yet rife and fresh, and more extensive and powerful than it has ever been before ; still increasing, and strengthening, and brightening, and evidently going on till the affections AND INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT. 167 of every human heart shall be gained, and every tongue shall confess him Lord! How can it be otherwise than that the contemplation of so remarkable, so pure, so exalted a character, should afford a most essential aid to every one who is sincerely striving after excellence ? In this subordinate sense ever, it may be most truly said that Jesus Christ is made of God unto us wisdom and right- eousness, and sanctificaiion and redemption, (1 Cor. 1 : 30). Moreover, the character of Christ is exhibited under cir- cumstances the best calculated to affect us, under circum- stances of deprivation, sorrow and extreme distress, volun- tarily assumed for our sake, — so that whatever losses or sufferings we may endure in the cause of truth and right- eousness, still our deprivations and sorrows can never equal his — and whatever temptations we may have to despon- dency, to impatience, or to murmuring, they can never be equal to the temptations successfully encountered by him. Always may it be said to Christians in reference to the agony and bloody sweat of Gethsemane — Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin (Heb. 12: 4) ; and it will always be appropriate to say to them. Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that ye through his pov- erty might be rich, (2 Cor. 8 : 9). 8. The peculiar style of the Bible, and the difficulties which attend its study and interpretation, are in the highest degree favorable to intellectual and moral improvement. The style of the Bible is that of an ancient and oriental people, and to enter fully into it, one must know.something of the history and manners, the character, soil, and produc- tions of these nations. What a vast amount of historical and geographical knowledge of the most valuable kind is now imparted to the children of our Sabbath Schools, in the 168 THE BIBLE AS A MEANS OF MORAL course of their Bible recitations — more, far more, I will venture to say, than was formerly obtained at our best public schools. The style is peculiarly adapted to excite, awaken and exhilarate. The difficulties which attend the interpretation of the Bible, are also a great means of improvement. Their solution requires attention, close thought, and vigorous effort. It is exercise which gives power, and without exer- cise the mind can never be developed. The Bible was never intended to relieve men from the responsibility of thinking, searching, and judging — the labors of intellec- lectual and moral action — but on the contrary, to increase the responsibility, to call forth this action. It was never designed to pamper the soul in idleness, and raise it to heaven, as lifeless matter is raised by a cord ; but it was intended to rouse up all the energies of the soul, to pro- mote its most healthful growth, and by filling it with the spirit of heaven, to cause it to rise toward heaven sponta- neously, as to its own appropriate element. God did not lay out the physical world with railroads and canals in all convenient directions, and cause habitations ready furnished to spring out of the ground like trees, and to every habita- tion provide a garden well supplied with all that might be necessary for the maintenance of a family ; though all this might have been quite as easily produced hy creative power, as the present system of rivers and mountains, and vegetation. But without a necessity for the labors of agriculture, architecture, and the arts of life, the powers of man would never be developed. Why is not man as well provided with the means of self-support in infancy as the brutes? In those fruitful climes where there is any approach to this condition, man, for want of exercise and effort, becomes almost a brute. The physical world is wisely so arranged AND INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT. 169 as to give the highest and most vigorous exercise to the intellectual and physical energies of man ; and every part of this exercise is essential to his intellectual and physical development. So the Bihle is adapted to give the highest exercise to the intellectual and moral powers of man, and were this exercise to he superseded, his intellectual and moral pow- ers would never he developed, the Bihle would cease to be a blessing, and man would sink to the brute. Accordingly, wherever the Bible is the people's book, there is found an inquisitive, active, enterprising, and intelligent popula- tion ; but wherever the Bible is withheld from the people, there is a corrupting mass of sluggish mind, ready to be trampled upon by the foot of every tyrant. There are no difficulties in the Bible but what may be fully mastered by diligence, thought, and prayer — and difficulties of this kind are an essential part of that discip- line to which God subjects us in order to fit us for his kingdom : according as it is said, the God of all grace, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. (1 Pet. 5 : 10). Finally, the Bible is the direct channel of communion with the mind of God, and that in two respects. Being a revelation of the will of God to man, it is, of course, as far as it extends, a transcript of the mind of God, in human language, and thus we may say it natur- ally and of itself brings us in contact with the mind of our Creator. But there is another and still more important respect in which it is the channel of communion with the Divine mind. When read by the true christian with devotional feelings, the spirit of the living God moves upon the mind through the medium of the word, enlightening, quickening, exhilarating the soul, pouring into it floods of 15 170 THE BIBLE AS A MEANS OF MORAL light and rivers of joy, from every rill of that sajcred stream whose waters make glad the city of our God ; and it is to this spiritual peculiarity of the written word that the sacred writers generally refer when they ascribe to it its instructive and life giving influence. We now proceed to investigate II. The reasons why many who are in the habit of read- ing the Bible, make so much less progress than they should do, in obtaining a knowledge of its contents, and acquiring those qualities of character which it is so eminently fitted to produce. 1. They mistake the intention of the Bible in respect to its method of communicating instruction. They know that the Bible is given as a guide to truth and happiness ; but they would make it not only the guide, but the carrier also. A guide simply points out the way, and in order to be benefitted by his services, we must keep in sight of him, have our eyes open and our attention awake, and use our own limbs and muscles to go forward in the way he directs. The traveller would be sadly mistaken who should sup- pose that following a guide was the same thing as taking passage in a steamboat or stage coach, in which he can lie or sit at his ease until he reaches his journey's end. Because the Bible contains the revelation of God's will to man, many seem to imagine that it ought to be so con- strued that the most heedless, negligent and perverse reader, should come into immediate possession of its sub- lime truths ; that it should even offer a premium to indo- lence and be the reward of stupidity ; that there should be not only a fair possibility of understanding its communi- cations, but an impossibility of misunderstanding them ; that its truths should not only be susceptible of interpretation, but unsusceptible of perversion. To one who comes to the AND INTELLECTTJAL IMPROVEMENT. 171 Bible with such preconceptions as to its design, and with only such preparation as results from this prejudice, we must say in the language of the woman of Samaria, *' Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep." Almost every sentence of the Bible is calculated to put all such fancies to flight, and confound the man who indul- ges them. It is as if a man should purchase a farm cele- brated for its fertility, do nothing to it in seed time, and walk through his fields in harvest amazed that all this boasted fertility produces nothing but weeds and brambles: not thinking that it is a maxim which holds equally true in husbandry and in religion, that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. In the former part of the discourse, we illustrated the fact that the Bible was intended not merely to communi- cate knowledge, but also to give exercise to the intellect and moral powers, and that by affording this exercise it conferred its greatest blessing on man. Accordingly none of its rules of duty are mechanical, and its plainest max- ims are not to be understood without thought and compari- son. The celebrated precept, "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them," is not to be received without reflection, absolutely, and unmodified by circumstances. Otherwise the thief, when arrested by the sheriff, might say to him, " if you were the thief and I were the sheriff, you would wish me to let you go, and now therefore, whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." So all the precepts of the Bible, which are of course the plainest parts, require thought and honest reflection, in order to understand their application in the various cir- cumstances by which duty is modified. Much more stri- kingly is this true, in regard to the abstruse doctrines of the christian faith, and the sublime discoveries of revelation. 172 THE BIBLE AS A MEANS OF MORAL respecting the spiritual world. Neither the careless reader, nor the captious word-catcher will ever comprehend the meaning of the Bible ; the one will perish in his own stupidity, and the other will he snared in his own crafti- ness. There is nothing froward or perverse in the words of revelation. " They are all plain to him that under- standeth, and right to them that find knowledge. The integrity of the upright shall guide them, hut the per- verseness of transgressors shall destroy them." Who is wise, and he shall understand these things, prudent and he shall know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them. But transgressors shall fall therein. Hos. 14 : 9. According to the express declarations of the Bible itself, it requires both integrity and prudence on the part of its readers, as an essential condition of benefit from it. And no less are integrity and prudence required on the part of teachers and parents in the use which they make of it with their children. 2. They read disconnectedly. From the remarks already made, it is easy to perceive the danger of taking any single sentence of the Bible, (or indeed of any other book), and pressing it to the extreme verge of its literal meaning, unmodified by circumstances, or by the connection in which it stands. The whole complexion of a thought generally depends on the circumstances in which it is uttered, aud the connection in which it occurs ; and he who isolates a sentence from these connections and circum- stances may, without violating any rule of grammar or rhetoric, utterly pervert the author's meaning ; and a really honest and sound mind which contemplates the sentence thus alone, may be entirely misled by it. Thus the apos- tle Paul says, *' bodily exercise profiteth little," (1 Tim. 4: 8) a sentiment taken absolutely, utterly at variancse AND INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT. 173 with common sense and all experience. But when we look at the connection in which the phrase occurs, we find that by bodily exercise, the apostle designates the physical expres- sion of religious emotion, such as rites, ceremonies, ascetic mortifications, tones and gestures, as contrasted with true inward godliness. And in this view of it, it is a sentiment which all experience confirms, and is one of those preg- nant sayings of Paul, which show his deep knowledge of/ human nature, and his elevated conceptions of the nature of religion. He therefore, who reads the Bible disconnectedly, how- ever closely he may attend to particular passages, is con- tinually liable to misapprehension and mistake ; and much the greater part of false reasoning in support of erroneous theology, is founded on perversions of this sort. There is great temptation for committed theologians to abuse the Bible in this way, and the unexpected turns which are thus sometimes given to a Biblical expression, by shrewd, untaught minds, help forward the same abuse. A French Canadian peasant once asked me what I thought of that text where our Saviour told his disciples when they went out to preach, not to take two coats with them; (Matt. 10: 10). I replied that the connection plainly showed that it meant to caution the disciples against anxiously providing for themselves food and clo- thing, but to depend for both on those to whom they min- istered. " No," says the Canadian, " it must be something more spiritual than that ; I reckon 'tis as much as if he had saicl to them, 'you must not go into one town and hold up the Calvinist doctrine, and then into another town and hold up the Universalist doctrine, just according to what is most popular. ' " One who would come to a correct knowledge of the truths of the Bible, must rigidly resist both the theological and the 174 THE BIBLE AS A MEANS OF MORAL allegorical temptations to this species of abuse, and look aa carefully at tlie whole connection of a piece as its single expressions ; and for this purpose the chapters and verses into which it has been broken by translators and editors, must often be entirely disregarded. 3. They read without thinking. This I apprehend is a very general fault. A person takes the Bible in his hand and opens it, his eye glances over the words, and they are successively reflected from the curious little mirror in the back part of the eye-ball — and this is all that he does towards reading the Bible. No idea has been received, no thought awakened, no feeling excited ; and if interrupted in his reading at any moment, it would be quite impossible for him to tell what he had been reading about the moment before. Do you expect that such sort of reading is to be of any service to you ? It is utterly useless even for the purpose of teaching you the mechanical art of reading — it leaves the understanding as barren as if your eyes had been wandering with the fools to the ends of the earth — and your heart as unbenefit- ted as if your ears had been listening to the croaking of frogs. However you may pour contempt in this way on human authors, do not thus insult the God of heaven. When you take up what professes, and what you admit to be a revelation from Him, let your mind at least be awake to what it communicates. Enter not the holy of holies to doze or fall asleep by the awful oracle which brings the voice of God from heaven to earth. 4. They read without expecting or trying to understand what they read. We make no effort after that whose attainment we con- sider hopeless ; and those who have often failed to under- stand, for the reasons already specified, acquire a habit of reading without understanding, which is fatal to their AND INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT. 175 progress in knowledge. It is a habit exceedingly difficult to break when once formed, and it often steals upon us unawares, after strenuous efforts have been made to subdue it. It is a habit much encouraged by reading without dis- crimination or selection, the most difficult parts of the Bible as well as the easiest, in equal portions, with the same preparation and the same amount of time and thought devoted to them. In the early periods of the formation of this habit, the plainer parts of the Bible are read with some perception of their meaning ; but the half-understood, and the entirely unintelligible occur so often, and are passed over with such entire indifference and so much as a matter of course, that the habit in time extends itself to all portions of the sacred word, and at length it obtains so complete a mastery, that the reader is rather surprised than otherwise, when a real thought happens by some acci- dent to find lodgment in his mind from the pages of the Bible. This habit is no less reprehensible and fatal than the one mentioned just before ; it is indeed but a contin- uance and completion of the habit of thoughtless reading. Always when we take up the Bible, expect benefit from its perusal — if there occur passages which you can not under- stand entirely, at least make an effort to get all the light from them you can — the effort itself will do you good — and the darkest texts of the Bible will cheer you with gloamings and twinklings of light, if not with a full flood. 5. They read without distinguishing the different kinds of composition in the Bible, or the different character of its several writers. The Bible was composed by more than 40 different wri- ters, scattered through a period of 1600 years, possessing every diversity of character, and living under the influence of every different kind of climate, country, government and mode of education. Inspiration, so far from destroying 176 THE BIBLE AS A MEANS OF MORAL does not even affect individuality of character ; and there is the same kind of diversity in respect to style, manner, and mode of thought in the Bible, as we find in any equal number of English writers from the reign of Alfred to the present time. Isaiah is as different from John as Milton is from Cowper ; and the style of Ezekiel is no more like that of Matthew than the style of Dr. Johnson is like that of Franklin or Cobbett. Since such great diversities exist, how can those writings be read intelligently without recog- nizing these diversities? And how can one read the Bible understandingly, unless he carefully considers which of the Biblical authors it is tliat he is perusing, and what the characteristic peculiarities are of that author's style. But there is not only diversity of authors, but great diversity in the different species of composition. There is plain historical narrative, close logical argumentation, bursts of impassioned eloquence, the highest flights of poe- try, simple didactic maxims, statute-laws, allegories, pro- phetic visions, lively dramatic dialogues, grave continuous speeches, indeed all the varieties which can be found in any national literature, all compressed within the compass of a single volume, and that of not very large size. The reader's attention must be awake to those different species of composition, and he must be able to feel the difference when they occur, whether he can call them by their names or not, in order to read the Bible understandingly. What should we think of the intelligence of the reader, who could read a page of Edwards on the Will, pass directly to a hundred lines of Pope's Homer, and then take up one of Patrick Henry's speeches in Congress, and not once be aware that the mode of composition had undergone the slightest change ? But in many parts of the Bible, you will find in equally short compass, diversities quite as great as those. As examples I would refer you to the 14th AND INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT. 177 and 15tli chapters of Exodus, or to the 1st and 2d chapters of St. Luke's Gospel. In order to understand the Bihle, or derive henefit from its perusal, it is indispensable that the reader be able to recognize such diversities as these. It is not at all neces- sary that he should in all cases be able to call the different sorts of composition by their appropriate rhectorical names ; he need not be able to say, this is narrative, and this is argument, this is poetry, and this is eloquence, and this is drama ; but his mind and his heart must be sufficiently awake to feel the diversities when they occur, whether he knows their appropriate names or not. 6. They read without the necessary preparatory knowl- edge, and without the habit of comparing the statements of the Bible with the other works of God in nature, and with the course of His Providence in the government of mankind. The written word is not the only revelation which God has made of Himself to man. The apostle Paul declares, in respect to those who had never been favored with the teachings of inspiration, that God had not left them all without witness in that He did good, and gave rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons (Acts xiv: 17), and that the invisible attributes of God are clearly seen from the crea- tion of the world — being understood by the things that are made — even his eternal power and godhead (Rom. i : 20.) The course of Providence and the works of nature bear testimony of God, as well as the written word ; and no one of these modes of revelation can be fully compre- hended without the aid of the other ; and no development made in any one of these will contradict any development made in either of the others. How would the inhabitant of another planet, who knows nothing of earth, or of man, or of God's dealings with man, be able to comprehend the 178 THE BIBLE AS A MEANS OF MORAL Bible, even if it were all placed before bim in tbe plainest terms ^ybich bis own language would afford? It would all be to bim an inexplicable enigma — a tale of wonders as mysterious and unwarrantable as tbe visions of tbe Zend Avesta, or tbe appalling marvels of tbe old Egyptian priestbood, for want of tbat knowledge wbicb tbe Bible everywbere takes for granted as already in tbe reader's possession. We, tlien, can not expect fully to comprebend tbe Bible, unless we are careful observers of wbat God bas done in tbe stupendous works of nature, and attentive listeners to tbe voice of God in bis dealings with mankind. Tbe more extensive and accurate tbis observation is, the better ; but a sufficiency of it for the interpretation of the essential truths of the Bible is within the reach of the most limited means. In respect to us, also, the Bible was written at a remote period, in a remote land, and amid institutions, habits, and customs altogether diverse from our own. To understand its allusions, therefore, and enter into its spirit, we must know something of the ages and countries and institutions amidst which it originated. Many passages which, inter- preted by our own customs, seem inexplicable and absurd, are at once cleared of all obscurity, and appeal* with the utmost propriety, when illustrated by the customs or history of the appropriate period. What more puerile, for exam- ple, than the earnest and repeated prohibitions in the Mosiac law, under tbe severest penalties, against boiling a kid in its mother's milk, or weaving a garment of linen and woollen mixed. (Exod. xxiii: 19; Lev. xix: 19). But when we know that the former was designed to restrain the Israelites from all approach towards cruelty to animals, which then was carried to such a revolting extent in the religious rites of their pagan neighbors, who were AND INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT. 179 accustomed to boil a living kid in its mother's milk, and sprinkle t]ie liquid over their gardens, orchards, and vine- yards, to render them fruitful, and the latter was a preser- vative against the extravagance and idolatry which they had been so long accustomed to see and admire in Egypt — linen and woollen mixed being the material of which the most expensive robes of ceremony were then made, and wrought with gorgeous embroidery of the plants, and ani- mals, and other symbols of their imposing and dark mythology, the statutes appear at once rational, and in the highest degree necessary. So of numberless other passages in the Bible, and some which have called down the heaviest denunciations of the unbelieving infidel. But how shall teachers and parents in common life, and even children, come in possession of this necessary prepara- tory knowledge ? Thanks to Sunday Schools and to the friends of these most excellent institutions, this knowled2:e is no longer hidden in ponderous volumes locked up in dead languages, and to be seen in the libraries of the learned ; it is transferred to the cheap and attractive vol- ume made for the child's use ; it can be found in every Sunday School depository, and it ought to be attainable in every Sunday School library. 7. They read witliout practical self-application. The Bible is a storehouse of supplies for all the moral wants of man ; but a storehouse is of little value unless its treasures be appropriated. Men seem much less selfish in regard to their moral than in regard to their physical wants. If God had provided a great storehouse for the physical wants of man — a place where dwellings and fur- niture, and clothing, and food, and especially money, were to be found ready prepared for them, we should probably see each one striving to help himself first, without giving himself much concern about his neighbor's supply. Nay, 180 THE BIBLE AS A MEANS OP MORAL it would not be surprising if one should happen to get there first, a good Christian man, too — one professing to love his neighbor as well as he loves himself — that he should grasp at all which he can possibly carry away, without troubling himself in the least with the disagree- able reflection that there will be little or nothing left for his poor neighbor who stands directly behind him, and whose claims and necessities are much 2;reater than his own. But in regard to their moral supplies, men are far more generous. They usually help all their neighbors to an abundant share before they think of taking any them- selves. Notwithstanding, there is this peculiarity about the supplies of the Bible : that, however large a quantity any one may take to himself, there is just as much left for everybody else as there would have been if he had taken nothing. The well is always full, for it is living water that supplies it, and it runs in as fast as all men. together can draw^ it out. o Eead the Bible, then, with self-appropriation of its in- structions and its admonitions, its warnings and its rebukes. Never fear that you will deprive your neighbor of any- thing that rightfully belongs to him ; for there is not the least danger of that ; and in regard to your spiritual im- provement, at least, there is no harm in your taking care of yourself first; and, by the way, this is the very best method you can adopt to take care of others: first cast the beam out of thine own eye, then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote that is in thy brother's eye. 8. They read without devotion. The Bible is peculiarly a devotional book, and, to be fully comprehended, it must be read with a devotional spirit. No learning, no attention, no study will compen- sate for a lack of this ; there is no substitute for it what- ever. There is a peculiarity in this which lies deep in AND INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT. 181 human nature. Anatomists tell us that when a liml) is amputated, the nerves and tendons which originally termi- nated in the severed part and connected it with the hrain, are liable to painful convulsions and throbs, which the patient seems to feel in the limb that is lost. So by sin we have cut off our soul from its natural connection with God, and the severed nerves and cords which bound the soul to its Creator are continually vibrating and throbbing towards Him, and thus fill the heart with unutterable emotions, which can find their center and resting point only in God. (See Rom. viii: 16, 26, 27). The Bible is full of passages designed to meet and relieve those billowings and heavings of the soul; but without a devotional spirit such passages can never be appreciated or comprehended. A man utterly destitute of poetical taste might as well undertake to read Homer or Milton with the expectation of pleasure, as to attempt to enter into and feel the sublime beauties and pathos of the Bible without a devotional spirit. The truly devotional reader seldom goes far wrong in any part of the Bible, however poor his opportunities or limited his means of information, for the spirit itself beareth witness with his spirit ; and the habitually undevotional reader, however powerful his talents or great his attainments, can ve^-y seldom reproduce to his own mind a Biblical thought in its exact Biblical shape ; for the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God ; they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritu- ally derived. ADDEESS ON THE FOEMATION OF SOCIETY, ITS LEADING DEVELOPMENTS, AND THE PROPRIETY OF INCLU- DING THE ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF OUR GOV- ERNMENT IN A COURSE OF POPULAR INSTRUCTION. BY HON. JOHN M'LEAN. There are few subjects, connected either intimately or remotely with education, which have not lost much of their novelty by frequent discussion. No one at this day can hope to present views original and striking, on themes which have called forth the research and exhausted the thoughts of so many distinguished minds. He must be a gleaner, who passes over the fields which have been har- vested by others. But the ever varying circumstances of society afford new aspects to the subject of popular educa- tion, which justly entitle it to the highest consideration. I shall not enter upon this subject at large ; but, having been invited to attend this Convention, and deliver an ad- dress appropriate to the occasion, I shall present a few general thoughts on the formation of society, on its leading developments, and on the propriety of including the ele- m-entary principles of our government in a course of pop- ular instruction. Much has been spoken and written on what has been called the golden age^ — an age in which man existed in (182) THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 183 comparative innocence, and was governed by liis own impulses, free from all restraint. This age, as repre- sented, never existed, except in the imaginations of poets and novelists. It is a state contrary to the order of our being. Combinations for purposes of protection and depredation result from the nature of man. Unrestrained, he seeks things which are not his own, and is ready to defend those of which he is in possession. His revenge leads him to trespass upon the persons of others, and his fears cause him to rely for safety on the power of numbers. This, if not the universal propensity, pervades the mass of men, in a state of nature, to so great an extent as to agitate and give character to the whole. And here is the origin of government. It is founded in necessity ; a necessity which results from the passions of our nature. This view is not in accordance with that which has been taken on this subject by some distinguished writers. In his " Kepublic," Cicero says: "A nation is a collection of individuals, united by a common law and a common gov- ernment. The origin of such an union is not the weakness of man in an individual state ; but the social instinct of our nature. We are not formed to live separately from each other ; and wherever men are found, it is in a state of society." The same doctrine is held by Grotius. Mon- tesquieu says : " Men are all united by birth. A son is born by the side of his father, and there he stays. This is society and the origin of society." That the social instinct of our nature, and the ties of relationship, have always had their influence, no one can doubt ; but they can only lead to the formation of society on a very limited or patriarchal scale ; and an association or government beyond this, must have a wider basis ; and a government once formed becomes more or less perfect, as 184 THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. circumstances tend to advance or retard the progress of society. In its first stage it may "be a simple association, for the subjugation of enemies or the protection of friends. But this step, when once taken, necessarily leads to the adoption of rules for the government of the associated community. These rules are modified and enlarged, as the association requires. The simplest form of government is that in which all powers are vested in an individual ; and this is called a despotism. The most complicated is that of a federal republic, consisting of distinct sovereignties, like our own. Whatever form the government may assume, to sustain itself it must concentrate the energies of those who formed it. There must be means provided to carry into effect the sovereign will, whether that will shall reside in an indi- vidual, in the people at large, or in a selected number of individuals. Isolated, man can accomplish but little; associated, it is difficult to fix the limit of his power. His concentrated energies change the face of the world, and bring into subjection the most powerful agents in nature. W-ar, it has been remarked, seems to be his natural ele- ment. Whether this be true or false, war has called forth his first, his highest, and most destructive energies. The early history of our race contains little else than an account of battles lost and won, of cities overthrown, and of empires ravished by fire and sword. Countries fa- vored by nature with the most prolific soil and genial cli- mate, teeming with population and wealth, have been converted into fearful wastes by this desolating scourge. These grand tragedies were first enacted in the East. On the plains of the Euphrates and the Tigris, on the hills of Greece, and the fields of Italy, and other countries subjugated by the Roman power, have been displayed THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 185 wonderful feats of liuman energy and depravity. And if the advance of civilization has, in some degree, mitigated the horrors of this scourge, it has not eradicated the pro- pensity for war. It has restrained its cruelties, and les- sened the causes which lead to it ; but the passion remains. In proof of this, I need only refer to the history of modern Europe, or to those fields of blood where, within the last half century, many millions of human beings have been sacrificed. There are evidences of the passion for war in countries the most pacific. The military hero has lost but little of the blazonry of his character. In modern times, he is not, in form, worshipped as a God, living or dead, as was anciently done ; but whether his victories were the results of accident or attributable to others, he is placed in the front rank of patriots and public benefactors. At his shriiie incense is poured out without measure, and crowds follow his footsteps. Who can portray the desolations of war? Pestilence, famine, and death are in its train. Hearts broken with anguish, and the tears of widows and orphans, are its accompaniments ; and these constitute the pyramid of mili- tary renown. What a basis for human glory ! If military services, through all time, had been rewarded only with the same degree of renown as other public ser- vices equally important, the world would have had fewer trophies of blood, and the scepter of despotism fewer subjects. Xext to the passion for war, religion has developed the highest energies of man. I do not speak of that religion which is from above, and which is gentle, and kind, and easy to be entreated, and full of grace and truth ; but of that which inflames the passions, and urges on its votaries to deeds of violence and cruelty. This passion, if not connected with war in its origin, 16 186 THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. often leads to it in its most dreadful forms. The standard bearers of fanaticism are indifferent as to consequences. They approach dangers and deaths with a firm and steady tread, and would scorn to turn aside from the deadliest shafts of their enemies. If they fall, they fall to rise to a blissful eternity. It was this that gave victory to the arms of the prophet of Mecca, and established Moham- medanism over so large a portion of the world. The same spirit originated and sustained the wars of the crusaders ; and a similar influence was overwhelming in England after the death of the first Charles, and during the protectorate. These were terrible developments of the concentrated energies of society. The spirit of war, mingling with the spirit of fanaticism, steeled the heart, nerved the arm, and gave force to the blow of death. Blood and carnage flushed the cheek with hope, and filled the heart with triumph. Such combinations, impelled by such influences, must gen erally be irresistible, whether we look to them as a whole, or examine the elements of which they are composed. The follower of Mohammed was low and vulgar in his actions, and sensual in his aspirations. The crusader was more lofty in his bearing and spiritual in his hopes. Of the puritan I can not speak but with respect. His history is nearer our own time, and the citizens of a most distinguished part of our country, boast of their parentage from him. He was fanatical in his religious feelings, and misguided in many of his wonderful efforts. But his zeal was as fiery and his spirit as unquenchable, as were those of the crusa- der or the votary of Mohammed. Each considered himself the favored object of the Deity, and especially called to ex- ecute his purposes upon earth. The spirit of fanaticism has shown itself, if possible, in a still more objectionable form. Under the sanction of law, and with the professed view of promoting the true religion, it has invaded the THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 187 private sanctuaries of life and attempted, by force, to control tlie rights of conscience. Its cruelties were the more shock- ing, hy the ingenuity with which they were contrived, and the relentlessness with which they were exercised. But the age of persecution has passed, and if the same spirit now manifests itself, it is rebuked by public opinion and the restraints of law. The energies of society have been displayed in the dissemination of the Gospel : not by legal enactment or the force of arms, but through tlie instrumen- tality of the word of truth and the missionaries of the cross. The reformation in the beginning of the sixteenth century gave a new current to the religious feelings of a considera- ble part of Europe, and constituted one of the most impor- tant epochs in history. Time will not permit either to trace this great movement or to notice others, which subse- quently took place, in the same cause. Voluntary associations and voluntary contributions have distinguished the present age, in this noble enterprise ; an enterprise worthy of the deepest consideration, and of the highest efforts of beings who are to inhabit eternity. On the success of this cause rests the destiny of our race. • It will succeed. Its missionaries are borne onward with a spirit which no difficulties can subdue. Neither life nor death, nor principalities nor powers, can shake their con- stancy or defeat their aim. They are surrounded and sus- tained by a special Providence, for whose power nothing is too vast or too minute. Yes, this cause will succeed. It will prevail over all other causes, until wars and conten- tions shall cease, and the sources of corruption shall be extinguished. In the physical world, the energies of society have been exerted, within a few years past, with signal success. By the application of the power of steam, and improvements in mechanism, a wonderful impetus has been given to industry 188 THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. in all its branclies. So rapid has been this advance that when we turn our eye backward we view with utter amazement the changes which have taken place ; they seem to partake more of the floating visions of the night, than the sober realities of life. By machinery alone is performed labor, in manufactures and other departments of industry, nearly equal to what would be the manual labor of one-third of the i)opulation of the globe. And this astonishing operation is still on the increase, and is principally limited to Europe and North America. Should the same degree of civilization, skill and enterprise, extend to other parts of the world, the advance and energies of society will defy the power of calculation. Commerce has expanded, as manufactures have increased. Every breeze that ripples the water fills the sails of vessels richly freighted, on ocean, sea and lake. But even the winds, swift as they are, seem too tardy for the great enter- prises of the present day. Our inland seas and rivers are not only covered with ships of fire, but they ride upon the wide Atlantic, in proud defiance of its winds and waves. Cars of commerce too, in fiery trains, traverse our hills and valleys, filled with the products of our soil and the fabrics of our artisans. And canals, that pass under our moun- tains and over our plains, are opened or beiug opened, which connect every part of our extensive country with the great arteries of commerce. And this same spirit of improve- ment pervades many parts of Europe. If the march on- ■»vard, there, is less rapid than our own, it is still onward. But the astonishing displays of the energies of society are not limited to the vast objects specified. They are seen and felt in the cause of education, and in the general pro- gress of intelligence. The schoolmaster — not the miserable pedagogue of former years, but the man of science, of ample qualification to teach — has made his appearance. He is THE FORMATION OP SOCIETY. 189 cheered by the legislation of sovereign States, and encour- aged by a hearty welcome into the bosom of society. The press, that mighty lever for good or evil, throws off its sheets with a force accelerated by fire. It would seem, indeed that the human intellect has received a new impulse and that its powers of production have been wonderfully enlarged. The literature of the age is spread over the land. We see it in its periodical dress, in the out-posts of society, in the cottages of the poor, and the dwellings of the rich. The gravest subjects of theology, of law, of politics, of science, are discussed in language so lucid that they are read and understood by all. It is said this is not an age of deep thought, of profound investigation, of polished composition ; that no standard work has been produced, which will distinguish the age or render its author illustrious ; that the productions of the press are too numerous for great accuracy and beauty of style, or great depth of comprehension. It may be that the style of the present day is less polished and vigorous than that of the past age ; but our loss in polished periods is more than compensated by practical thought and sim- plicity of expression. The literature of the present day is eminently popular in its language, and in the adaptation of its subjects to the general comprehension. Our writers seem more anxious to act effectively on the public mind than to make a display of scholarship. At no former period of the world have the productions of the press embraced so wide a range of subjects, or presented in such attractive and practical forms the top- ics discussed. At no time have they exercised so great an influence on mankind. This diffusion of intellio-ence has awakened enquiries in the public mind that can not easily be satisfied. It may be the means of creating and embodying 190 THE FOKMATION OF SOCIETY. a public sentiment which shall shake the thrones of despots, and correct the abuses of power. Works of the imagination in prose, of the present day, far excel those of the past age. Not to mention other writers of this class, Madame de Stael and Walter Scott have no equals in their predecessors. And if we have no poets equal to Shakespeare and Milton, we can boast of our Scotts, By- rons, Wordsworths, Southeys, Goethes, Moores, Campbells, Lamartines and others. A state of advanced civilization is unfavorable to poetry. Even Milton doubted whether " he had not been born an age too late.'' The illusions of poetry are better suited to the dark ages, when men reasoned less and yielded a ready cre- dulity to the reins of the imagination. Works or essays on government, on political economy, on currency, on commerce, on manufactures, and on all the great practical questions of society, which have been pub- lished within the last thirty years, with the exception per- haps of the works of Adam Smith and one or two others, evince greater ability and a more intimate knowledge of the subjects discussed, than all similar productions which preceded. It is well remarked that every girl who has read Mrs. Marcet's little dialogues on political economy, could teach Montague and Walpole many lessons on finance ; and that any intelligent man may now, by resolutely apply- ing himself for a few years to mathematics, learn more than the great Newton knew. As historical writers, the names of Hallam, Napier, Pres- cott. Mill, Gillies, Koscoe, and others, may be referred to as worthy of being classed among the historians of other times. If their works are limited in their scope, some of them evince distinguished abilities, and all of them are creditable. The present age is not without its philosophical productions. THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 191 Without enumerating others, the works of Lajilace, translated and commented on by our own Bowditch, place both the writer and the translator as deep thinkers and profoundly learned, in the first rank of any age. We have also writers upon law, and upon medicine, who deservedly occupy a high rank among those who have preceded them. We are prone to reverence that which belongs to the past age. And this reverence is often increased in propor- tion to the time which intervenes. This feeling leads us to underrate the abilities of our own time when compared with the past ; and such has been the predominant feeling of all ages. We are acquainted with the distinguished men of our own time : their foibles are known, and their errors and defects are published and often exaggerated with as much zeal by their enemies, as are their high quali- ties eulogized by their friends. Both sides run into ex- tremes, and the public may be made to doubt as to their true characters, or give a divided judgment. But this is not the case with those whose renown belongs to antiquity. Their foibles and errors were buried in the grave, or have not been transmitted to posterity, while their achievements have been recorded in history. We are inclined to consider them as in a great degree exempt from the common infirm- ities of our nature, and as having possessed talents of a higher order than belong to the times in which we live. There is a posterity for the present age, and when it shall pronounce judgment on the men and things of this day, no period in history will equal it in displays of mental and physical energy on all the great subjects connected with human happiness. We may here pause a moment on the literary character and prospects of our own country. Not quite twenty years ago, it was contemptously ob- tjerved in a foreign periodical, conducted with as much talent 192 THE FORMATION OP SOCIETY. as any other in Europe, and generally distinguislied for its fairness and liberality toward the institutions of this country ; " as for literature, the Americans have none — no native literature we mean. It is all imported. They had a Franklin, indeed ; and may afford to live half a cen- tury on his fame. There is, or w^as, a Mr. D wight, who wrote some poems ; and his baptismal name was Timothy. There is also a small account of Virginia by Mr. .Jefferson, and an Epic by Joel Barlow^ — and some pieces of pleasantry, by Mr. Irving. But why should the Americans write books, when a six week's passage brings them, in their own tongue, our sense, science and genius, in bales and hogsheads? Prairies, steam-boats and grist-mills, are their natural ob- jects for centuries to come." This is a short history though it covers some centuries. And it is characterized by that superciliousness and inflated consequence, which at that day, were often shown towards this country by Englishmen, who had some learning without much depth of understand- ing. I have cited this passage merely to remark that the tone of this periodical, which still sustains its former reputation, as wtU as others less friendly to this country, has been en- tirely changed within the last twenty years. The works of many of our writers are now republished in England, and are read wdth as much interest as their owai productions. Not only our writers are spoken of in high terms, but our orators, in the pulpit and in the Senate, are treated in the British periodical press with great respect. So far now from treating us contemptuously, they indulge a very na- tural pride to see their descendants so rapidly rising in the scale of civilization. These sentiments have been extorted from them in opposition to their deeply rooted prejudices, by the character for efficiency which this country has exhibi- ted. THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 193 In the learned professions we have as able men, as learned and as eloquent, as any of whom England can boast. And when we take a philosophical view of the future, and con- template the causes which are now in operation, and which must create that future, it may be said, without presump- tion, that this country will, in perhaps less than a century, in the empire of mind, surpass that of Great Britain. This may be thought a bold and hazardous expression ; but let us examine it. Causes are followed by their natural effects, on mind as well as on matter. This postulate will not be denied ; and we have only to enquire what circumstances are most favor- able to the development of mind. Here we may safely consult the lights of antiquity. At what period and under what circumstances were the most illustrious men of antiquity produced? Our attention is immediately fixed on Greece, as more distinguished for her intellectual achievements than any other country. Within the century preceding the death of Alexander, more great men were produced in this classic land than can be found in any other. They shed a lustre upon their country which no lapse of time nor change of circumstances can obscure. And what were the circumstan- ces under which they were producnl? They were citizens of free States which cherished among themselves a jealous rivalry ; and within the bosom of each there was a continual struggle for the ascendency. In the midst of these exci- tations, the highest powers of the human mind were called into action. The citizens of each republic felt them- selves elevated by the achievements of their distinguished men. And while they were proud of the glory of every part of Greece, they cherished most that which belonged to their own State ; and this feeling was never extinguished by the destructive wars which occurred amon^ themselves. 17 194 THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. Now of all existing governments, there are none so nearly assimilated to those of Greece as our own. The form of oar government, it is true, is entirely different, but it is free, and we have similar struggles for the ascendency, and similar excitements. If we have not the same jealousy among the States, we have in some degree the same rivalry. There is a local attachment felt by the people of each State for its distinguished citizens ; and a general pride in the character of the Union. These two elements combine as strongly in this country as they did in Greece : and if we shall avoid intestine war, which may God grant, may we not still look for those high intellectual developments which constituted the glory of Greece ? Nothing but the corruption or down- fall of our government can defeat this brilliant result. In England there is excitement, but there is a want of riv- alry between independent States, and that local attachment which arises out of it. The metropolitan power overshadows the empire and will admit of no local rivalries. Public at- tention is continually directed to the seat of political power, and although pride is felt in the axihievements of their dis- tinguished men, it is too general to produce a strong excite- ment. It is like the pride we feel in illustrious deeds which ennoble our nature. There is no special appropria- tion of the glory, no personal identity or elevation of our own character, by any connection which exists, either nat- ural or political, between ourselves and the actor. We can think of no distinguished man of Greece with- out associating with his noble deeds the place of his birth. When the names of Plato, of Demosthenes, and many others occur, we think of Athens. With the name of Leonidas we associate that of Sparta, and so of other distinguished Gre- cians. Who that thinks of Washington, Jefferson and Madison, does not at the same time think of the State in which they were born, and which they have rendered THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 195 illustrious. And the same remark may be made of other distinguished names and States. But in England no such association exists. Who recollects the birth-place of Bacon, Locke, Newton or Pitt. This important element of men- tal development is wanting in England, and is possessed in this country. In France the feeling is still more general tlian it is in England. Bonaparte once said that Paris is France, and and the remark was true. In that metropolitan city there is a concentration of almost every thing which gives charac- ter to the country. There are but few distinguished men in any of the provinces. If these causes operate upon mind and are as certainly followed by their natural effects as when they act upon matter, and if the action of our own institutions afford causes more diversified and similar to those which produced the highest mental development in G-reece, why may we not look for the same issue ? We may expect it, should our gov- ernment be maintained in its purity and no counteracting principles exist, with as much certainty as any effect that results from a cause under the laws of nature. Since the commencement of the present century, more has been done by governments and individuals to diffuse the benefits of education among the great mass of the peo- ple, than had before been done in many centuries. In many countries besides our own, provision is made for the education of the poor by a tax on property ; and this princi- ple should be universal. It was adopted, I believe, first in New England ; and it has mainly contributed to give to that part of the Union, less favored by soil and climate than others, the most efficient and best instructed population on the globe. In Prussia the system of instruction, in some respects, may be more perfect than in New England ; and in some 196 THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. parts of that country, under the influence of this system, its citizens may understand certain branches of education better than the mass of the citizens of New England, but the people of no part of Prussia, or of any other government in Europe, can be compared, in useful knowledge, with the yeomanry of New England. There are few of the latter who can not read and write, and who do not understand the common rules of arithmetic ; and they can discuss and com- prehend the elementary principles of trade, of personal rights, of government, and especially of their own govern- ment. This amount of knowledge is greater than is pos- sessed by the laboring class of any other country. In other countries the diffusion of instruction is necessary to the well being of the people ; in this it is essential to the maintenance of the government. The grand experiment, whether man is capable of self-government, is still here in progress ; and whatever may be our sanguine belief and hopes on the subject, the enemies of our republican system abroad do not yet admit that our institutions will be perpe- tuated. They see, or think they see, the seeds of dissolution springing up, which must prove fatal to the experiment. And are there no grounds of apprehension to ourselves? What are the tendencies of the political action of our sys- tem ? Has not party spirit usurped the place of patriotism ? Are not the lower passions of the people addressed and ex- cited with a view to successful party action ? Is not the press made subservient to this object? And who has not observed the corrupting influence of money and oflSce? Has not the value of the Union been estimated? Formerly this subject was held a political axiom, clear of all doubt, and too sacred for discussion ; but of late years is it not treated as a question of expediency, and in our legislative halls, in our newspapers, in common conversation, has it not become a matter of debate ? Thirty years ago who doubted THE FORMATION OP SOCIETY. 197 the permanency of our Union ; and who, at this day, is without distressing apprehensions on the subject ? These indications portend immeasurable calamity. They should "be deeply and solemnly considered, that the fatal conse- quences may be averted. All who have reflected upon the structure of our govern- ment and its tendencies, agree in this, that our institutions can not be sustained except by the exercise of a high degree of intelligence and virtue by the people. Where the sover- eign power resides in a monarch or in a few individuals, the government may be carried on successfuU}^, however ignor- ant the mass of the people may be ; and indeed the form of such government may be more certainly preserved where its subjects are ignorant, than where they are enlightened. How long would the people of this country submit to the despotism of any of the continental governments of Europe ? When I consider a citizen of this great republic, in refer- ence to the extent of his rights and privileges, the powers lie exercises, and the effects of those powers, I see a being of incomparably greater importance, in the scale of society, than a subject of a despotism. The latter may be better educated, and he may occupy a higher rank in society, but the destiny of the citizen is much more important than that of the subject. In the citizen dwells a portion of the sovereignty of his country ; and he is often called upon to act in this high ca- pacity. He has a voice in the formation of his own gov- ernment, and also in changing it. In the ordinary exercise of his suffrages he appoints, with the exception of the judicial department, the great functionaries of the federal and state governments ; and of the latter, many of the in- ferior officers. And in addition to this, he claims the right to instruct the public agents in the discharge of their high duties. On the most momentous questions his voice is 198 THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. heard and regarded. But more than all this, he may him- self become an organ of the government. There is no office in the vast range of executive, judical and legislative duties in the federal or State governments, to which he may not aspire. Powers so multifarious and important were never before exercised by the people of any country ; and all these aj^pertain to the humblest citizen. Need I ask whether intelligence and virtue are essential to the discharge of these duties ? Intelligence and virtue are tlie ground-work of our whole system. It is the basis on which the superstructure rests, and if this shall fail all must fail. As well might we expect a blacksmith to construct, with his sledge and anvil, the nicely balanced and curiously wrought machinery of a watch, of which he is ignorant, as for a people without in- telligence to maintain a free government. But virtue is not less essential to its maintenance than intelligence. These must be combined and they must be exercised with an untiring vigilance. If this be so, and no one will con- trovert it, it is of the last importance that the rising generation should be virtuous and enlightened. The establishment of our independence was a great achievement ; but the establishment and maintenance of our complex system of government, in its purity, is a much greater. In the one case high patriotism, dauntless courage, strong arms, and unyielding perseverance were required to roll back the tide of war. In the other a sleepless vigilance must be ex- ercised, to detect, expose and eradicate corruption, which interweaves itself into our government. When the crisis is at hand, and men's feelings become deeply enlisted, it is not difficult to rouse them to a sense of their danger and duty. This was the case in our revo- lutionary struggle ; a common danger was seen and felt, and this lead to a common effi3rt. But corruption is THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 199 sinuous, soft, and stealthy in its approaches. It not unfre- quently assumes the garb of patriotism, and covets popular applause by professions of the utmost devotion to the people ; and how often is it hailed in this form by thou- sands of unsuspecting citizens. So subtle is this poison, that to detect it requires the exercise of no unpractised eye, and of no ordinary intelligence. In the war against corruption, there is no public enemy in the field ; the foe is shadowy in his appearance, and so changeable that you can not always grasp him. If rebuked at one point, he may withdraw for the moment to practice his wiles in some other form or at some other point of attack. He never slumbers nor sleeps ; and he can only be repulsed by a vigilance that never tires. It is the order of Providence to suspend the blessings of this life on conditions. The farmer can not expect a harvest unless he prepare his grounds and sow his seed ; the artisan can not hope for a reward without the exercise of his skill and labor; and this rule applies with as much force in politics as in physics, in morals as in mechanics. We must have intelligence to perceive and virtue to dis- charge the great and important duties of freemen — duties higher and deeper, and of more lasting consequences, than any that ever devolved upon any people. The nature and importance of these duties should be inculcated on the youth of the country. On them will soon devolve the responsibility of conducting the great ope- rations of the government, and prior to this, they mingle with their elders in controlling it. They constitute a most important element in the body politic. Full of vigor, they are seen and felt in every political contest ; and if ignorant of the duties in which they engage, being unsuspicious and inexperienced, they are always liable to be used as instru- ments of evil. They are most likely to be fascinated and 200 THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. controlled by the noisy and unprincipled political adventu- rer, who, having little business of his own, floats upon the surface of society, ready to seize upon anything and every- thing which may better his condition. In a state of excite- ment he becomes an individual of importance and of no little influence ; and his great eflfort is to produce and keep up such a state. His note of patriotism is the highest and the loudest, his zeal for the people the most conspicu- ous, and of all men his motives are the least selfish. All who are opposed to him are denounced as selfish and un- principled. In him, and those who cooperate with him, are personified virtue, disinterestedness, and love of country. The great orator of Rome declared, " The republic is assailed with far more force and contrivances than it is de- fended, because bold and profligate men are impelled by a nod, and move of their own accord against it. But I know not how it happens the good are more tardy. They neglect the beginning of things, and are roused only in the last necessity ; so that sometimes, by their delay and tardiness, while they wish to retain ease, even without dignity, they lose both. Those who are willing to be the defenders of the republic, if they are of the lighter sort, desert ; if they are of the more timid sort, they fly. Those alone remain and stand by the republic, whom no power, no threats, no malice can shake in their resolution." This was the language of truth when used by Cicero, as applicable to the Roman republic, and is it not equally the language of truth as applicable to our own republic ? Who that hears me did not see the fitness of this application as the words were pronounced? It was a just and profound observation of Machiavel, that the real powers of government are often contracted to a narrower point in republics than in monarchies. In politics, as in the other great operations of society, THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 201 the elements of good and evil are closely connected. They are in conflict, and the victory over evil can only he achieved hy discipline of the head and lieart. Intelligence without virtue increases the amount of evil ; virtue without intelligence can oppose no effectual resist- ance to political corruption In a late statistical account of the progress of crime in France, it is stated that the violations of the law were most numerous in those departments where the people were hest educated. This shows that education, to he a national hlessing, must he accompanied hy moral culture. This, in a great degree, had been neglected in France, and the con- sequence is seen in the increase of crime. In this country moral principle is inculcated in our schools of instruction generally, from the highest to the lowest ; and I wish I could say the Bible (which is the foundation of moral prin- ciple) is studied in all our seminaries. The good sense of parents generally points out to them the propriety of having their children educated so as best to qualify them for that branch of business or profession to which they are destined ; so that when they enter upon its duties they may understand them and be prepared to discharge them. But are there no duties which a student will have to perform, except those which relate to his pro- fession or trade '? Does he owe no duties to his God and his country ? If he be left to learn them when he shall be called on to exercise them, why instruct him in the business or profession which he is to prosecute? Why may he not learn this when he engages in it? If the reply be that this knowledge is indispensable to his inter- est, I would inquire whether a knowledge of his political rights and duties is not equally indispensable to a proper discharge of them? And is not the interest of the public, superadded to his own, in this case, to outweigh a mere 202 THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. personal interest ? Can there be any just comparison of importance in the two cases ? And has not the attention of parents and teachers been chiefly, if not exclusively, directed to the lesser interest, to the neglect of the greater? It is not expected that the science of government at large should be taught in our common schools. This would be found impracticable; but those elementary principles which are easily comprehended and easily communicated, should be taught. This w^ould embrace an outline of our political system, the origin of the State and federal gov- ernments, and the powers of each as established by common construction or judicial decision ; the division of powers into three great departments — the executive, the judicial, and the legislative ; and the appropriate duties of each ; how the checks and balances of the government operate, and afford the highest security to the rights of the citizen ; the nature of the constitution as the fundamental law, and as the test of legislative and executive acts, should be fully explained. The responsibility under which every public functionary acts should be shown, and how he may be called to account ; and also, that he holds a trust which he is bound faithfully to discharge in conformity to the laws, and with a single eye to the public good ; and that every prostitution of this trust is an abandonment of principle, and w^eakens the moral force of the government. The qualifications required for an enlightened discharge of public duties in the various offices established, should be clearly stated ; and, above all, the political rights and duties of every citizen should be inculcated, as constituting the foundation of our political system ; that it is only by a vigorous and untiring discharge of these duties the government can be maintained and preserved in its original purity. Ample details on these points and others connected with THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 203 them, can be found in books already published ; and the subject could be enforced and variously illustrated by a reference to other governments. If these great principles were duly impressed upon the mind of every youth, as a part of his education, I hazard nothing in saying that they would never be forgotten, and seldom would they fail to influence his future conduct. Early impressions are the most easily made, and they are remembered the longest. Who has forgotten the inci- dents of his boyhood ? The events which transpired at school are cherished with a fondness of recollection which is as remarkable as it is universal. Even under the in- firmities of age, when the traces of memory become faint and confused of more recent transactions, these remain in all their freshness and vigor. Early impressions on important matters, when deeply fixed in the mind, become the axioms of life. They, in some degree, restrain the exuberance of youth, exercise an influence in riper years, and in the decline of life they grow stronger, as other causes cease to influence. Youth, then, is the period most favorable for the inculca- tion of the elementary principles of our government ; and next to moral principles, with which they are closely con- nected, they are the most important. They should be taught in our common schools ; and if this shall be done, long before the youth will be entitled to exercise the rights of suffrage, he will often discuss the principles he has learned, and apply them to the duties of practical life. He will be prepared to judge for himself, and instead of following in the footsteps of others, he will be able to in- struct and influence those whose political knowledge is more limited than his own. The inculcation pf these principles is recommended by considerations of the highest moment. Nothing less than 204 THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. the preservation of our political institutions is involved. The study recommended will be found as well calculated to fix the attention and enlarge the mind of the student as any other ; and as the knowledge acquired will find con- stant exercise in the political action of the country ; it will become matured by experience. We have seen what deep calamities have fallen upon the human race by a misdirection of the concentrated energies of society. The passion for war, the wild spirit of fanati- cism, unchastened ambition, demagogueism, corruption, are all to be encountered in the political field ; and are these enemies to be met and overthrown by men alike ignorant of the principles they sustain and oppose? This is impos- sible. A victory over these adversaries can only be achieved by virtue and intelligence. THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. BY ROSWELL PAHX. A- M. One of the most promising auguries for the future pros- perity and harmony of our beloved country, is the estab- lishment of institutions for the advancement of education, and the diffusion of useful knowledge ; among which the Western Literary Institute and College of Professional Teachers holds no inferior place. That its organization, together with its beneficial influence, may extend through- out the length and breadth of our Union, is the sincere wish and hope of the writer, who has been honored with an- invitation to address the present meeting. The subject selected by him for this occasion has long been a favorite one, and has engaged his most careful attention. Should it meet with a favorable reception from this intelligent assembly, the labor bestowed upon it will have been richly rewarded; especially if the result shall be deemed subservi- ent to the cause of sound learning and thorough education. The Classification of Human Knowledge has been studied by various distinguished scholars, from the time of Lord Bacon down to the present day. Many systems have been proposed, among which that of Lord Bacon, modified by D'Alembert and President Jefierson, is still the most prom- inent; though none of them has yet been generally (205) 206 THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. adopted ; nor do we think the importance of the subject has been fullj realized,- even among learned men. Lord Bacon classified the departments of knowledge according to the mental powers on which they chiefly depend. To reason be assigned the wide range of Philosophy ; to memory the broad field of History, both natural and civil ; and to imagination be entrusted the gay circle of the Arts. The system of Ampere is, in the writer's opinion, far preferable, though he conceives it to be liable to some objections ; but though published in France six years ago, it is as yet only slightly circulated and very imperfectly known. The fate of these labors might seem to imply that the subject is not of practical importance, and to justify D'Alembert's assertion, that a satisfactory classification of human knowledge is impossible. Such perhaps would have been the impression of the writer, had not the subject pre- sented itself to him in a peculiar light, several years since ; though leisure and opportunity have been but recently afforded him for pursuing it. He has deemed it possible to prepare a classification of all human knowledge, in a form both rational and useful ; to exhibit an outline of which, and to show its practical importance, is the object of the present address. It is hoped that this object is not irrelevant to that of the present meeting, for it is believed to have an important bearing on the engrossing theme of education. To know how much there is to be known, is of itself a stimulus to the inquiring mind ; and to perceive the relations of the different branches of knowledge, is no small step toward making their acquisition easy and pleasant. It is not pro- posed that these relations should be the first objects of study, nor at any time the most prominent ; but it is main- tained that in the progress of education they should at least be oa-asionally brought into view, and correctly THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. 207 understood. It is also maintained that although but few of the branches of knowledge can be thoroughly studied in our schools or colleges, yet that some general acquaintance with them all, including their history, relations and uses, and their leading facts and principles, is essential to a complete education. To illustrate these views by a comparison borrowed from Geography, we can not become thoroughly acquainted with every country in the world, so as to know every town and village, even though our whole life should be devoted to the task. Neither would this acquaintance be necessary, except in those parts with which we have particular rela- tions. But it is important that we should know what countries there are in the world, and in what direction they lie from us or from each other ; as also by whom they are inhabited, and what are their principal cities, institu- tions and productions. Now the survey which we propose, is to Pantology, or all Human Knowledge collectively con- sidered, what such a study of the world is to Geography, or a full knowledge of the earth and its inhabitants ; and we think it of similar utility and importance. Some may survey the ground slightly, others examine it more thor- oughly; but we think it desirable that every youth on entering the career of life, should have some definite (though they may be general) ideas of every branch of hu- man knowledge. Whether this be possible or not, remains to be realized ; and it can only be done by bringing the subject before the public, and by preparing suitable works for giving the principle an impartial trial. But if it indeed be practicable, how much will it not contribute toward expanding the youthful mind, by giving correc- views of knowledge in general, and inspiring them with continued ardor in its pursuit ! The classification which we seek, should be to knowledge 208 THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. in general or Pantology, what the natural classification of plants is to botany ; and formed on the same principle of placing those objects which are mostly similar, or most closely related, next to each other in the system. But here the same difficulty occurs in both cases ; that a given object has strong and perhaps equal relations to two or more others. Which of them therefore, shall be placed next to it ? Or if we adopt the idea of a map, and place the several objects around the one to which they are rela- ted, still on proceeding farther we shall find relations which it is impossible to represent, either by a map or by a series. Hence all such systems must necessarily be im- perfect ; and we find perhaps as great discrepancies among botanists in the natural arrangement of plants, as can be found among Pantologists in the arrangement of the branches of knowledge. As this however does not disprove the utility of such a classification of plants, neither should it disparage the similar classification of which we are now speaking. We would farther remark how useful an exercise it may be to study these relations of knowledge, consider which are the strongest, and arrange them accordingly in one connected whole. A love of system and order is thereby cultivated, which can not fail to have a beneficial influence in various mental operations, and in the active pursuits of life. It is true that this analysis of knowledge presupposes the acquisition of materials on which to operate, and that it can not be pursued without understanding at least the leading objects, facts and principles of the branches which are to be compared ; but this we repeat, is one strong inducement to the acquisition of those facts and principles, provided they are presented in the proper connection. The belief is fully entertained therefore, that a work of mod- erate size, giving correct views of general knowledge accord- ing to this method, would be of great service to the cause THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. 209 of education ; though to give an adequate idea of it would far transcend the limits here assigned. The same system might be applied to the arrangement of Encyclopedias, of which such a work would be an outline ; the usual alphabetical order being then superseded by a full alphabetical index at the end. It would be alike useful in the arrangement of libra- ries and manuscripts, public or private ; as it would bring those books or papers which relate to the same subject into juxtaposition, and dispose of the whole in the best practical order. Or, if the books themselves are not thus arranged, their titles may be so in the catalogue, which to be complete, should have both a systematic list and an alphabetical index referring thereto. Finally, the same system serves equally for arranging our ideas, as a nucleus for new accretions, and a mnemonical aid in treasuring them up in the mind. With these preliminary remarks, we proceed to describe and illustrate the proposed Classification of Human Knowl- edge, or system of Pantology. How far it may be original, or how far borrowed from the labors of other men, this is not the place to examine. Should it prove to be of practi- cal utility, the writer^s highest object will be accomplished thereby ; but should it fail of this, it will soon be forgotten, whether borrowed or original. In this system all human knowledge is primarily divided into four great provinces, each embracing of course, a wide range of subjects. They have been named and placed as follows :— 1. Psychonomy, or the Laws of Mind; including the Languages, Mental and Moral Sciences, Law and Govern- ment, and Keligion. 2. MJmology, or the Study of Nations, that is of man in society ; including Geography, Voyages and Travels, His- tory and Chronology, Biography, and Poetry and Eomance, with similar miscellaneous literature. 18 210 THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. 3. Physiconomy, or the Laws of the Material World ; including Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, with Astrono- my and Chemistry, and also Natural History, and the Medical Sciences. 4. Technology, or the Study of the Arts, limited as this term usually is to the Physical Arts, or those which operate with and on material objects ; including the Arts of Con- struction and Inter-communication, Agriculture, Manufac- tures and Commerce, the Arts of War, and the Fine Arts. Under some one of these four provinces it is believed that every topic of human thought may find an appropriate place ; though of course many topics have relations to two or more of the provinces at the same time. In such cases — and they must occur under every system — the natural course is to treat of each topic fully, under that province to which it most closely belongs, and more briefly under those to which it has minor relations, referring at the same time from each to the other, which may be called the principle of double reference. If we adopt Ampere's first division of Human Knowl- edge, into two great kingdoms. Cosmology relating to mat- ter, and Noology relating to mind, the first two of our pro- vinces will come under the latter, and the last two under the former kingdom. So closely however are mind and matter connected, in all human researches, that we regard this step in the division as of minor importance, though worthy of notice. Should it be objected that the names of our provinces are not absolutely precise, but admit of a greater or less extension, we must rely that the same holds true of most of the general terms of science, which are in a like degree arbitrary and exceptionable. But we add, that the names here chosen may be easily adapted, and without confusion, to the ground which they are intended to cover. THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. 211 The four provinces, Psychonomy, Ethnology, Physicon- omy, and Technology, we would next subdivide, each into four departments, making in all sixteen departments, in which we think all human knowledge may be comprehen- ded ; and this step in the division we regard as the whole system. Each of these departments embraces a group of several branches of knowledge which are closely connected or related to each other ; and thus by remembering the names and order of the sixteen departments, we have a key to the whole distribution of knowledge, as the alpha- betical order is a key to the finding of all the words in a dictionary. We should here observe that it was not pre- determined to have the same number of departments in each province ; but this appears to be their natural subdivi- sion, and it adds to the symmetry of the system, without doing violence to nature. Several of these departments have long been recognized, more or less definitely ; but there were still many fragments of knowledge, which, like the unformed stars in astronomy, had not yet found their definite place. To introduce these fragments in their proper order, and thus complete what Sir James Mackin- tosh has so happily termed '* An Exhaustive Analysis of Human Knowledge," was one important object of the pres- ent system. In arranging the provinces, departments, and branches of knowledge among themselves, four leading principles have been constantly sought to be kept in view as a guide to the natural method, viz : the Order of Time, the Order of Place, the Order of Bependance, and the Order of Re- semhlance. The difiiculty of adjusting these principles where they conflict with each other, and of deciding in such cases which of them ought to prevail, can only be appreci- ated by those who have attempted similar applications ; but this is a difiiculty which would arise equally under 212 THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. any other classification, being founded upon real anomalies and irregularities in the very subjects of knowledge. That classification which satisfies the greatest amount of impor- tant conditions, is the best, therefore, which the nature of the case admits ; and its imperfections can only be rem- edied by careful references to those connections or relations which the system does not bring explicitly into view. In giving names to the departments, those in common use have been applied as far as they were deemed prefer- able. As all of these were derived from Greek words or originals, it has been thought advisable, in preparing the additional names, to derive these also from Greek radicals ; having regard to their significancy, euphony, and symme- try or harmony in the system. It is hoped that they will all be recognized by the classic scholar, as legitimate and appropriate, and that they are not too numerous or cum- brous to become a part of our received vocabulary. A list of these sixteen departments, with the derivation of their names and definition of their objects, will now be given, as a first step toward making them familiar, and as preliminary to the reasons for their arrangement in the following order : 1. Glossology, from fXcoGoa, a tongue or language, and Xoyo^, a word or discourse ; including the study of Grammar and all Languages. 2. Psychology, from ipuxrj, the soul ; including the Eheto- ric. Logic, Mental Philosophy, Moral Philosophy and Education. 3. Nomology, from vofioQ, law ; including the studies of Law and Government, and Political Economy. 4. Theology, from deoQ, God ; including the study of all Religions, from the lowest Paganism to the purest Chris- tianity. These four departments we would comprehend in the first province, that is Psychonomy, or the Laws of Mind. THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDQE. 213 5. Geography, from ffj, the earth, and ypafTj, a descrip- tion ; including General and Civil Geography, with Sta- tistics and Voyages and Travels. 6. Chronography, from -^povoQ, time ; including Civil His- tory, Chronology, and Archieology, or the study of Anti- quities. 7. Biography, from /9^oc, life ; including Biography proper, and Genealogy and Heraldry, so far as they merit atten- tion. 8. Callography, from xaXXo^, beautiful ; including Poetry, Komance, and similar ornamental and miscellaneous lite- rature. These four departments we include in the second pro- vince. Ethnology, or the study of Nations, that is of man in social life. 9. Mathematics, from [xavdoyo), I learn ; including Arith- metic, Algebra, Geometry in all its branches, and the Fluxional Calculus. 10. Acrophysics, from (foac::, nature, and axpo^, high ; including Natural Philosophy in all its branches, with Astronomy and Chemistry. 11. Idiophysics, from cpocFi^, nature, and idco^, special or peculiar ; including all the branches of Natural History. 12. Androphysies, from avr^p, man ; including the Medical Sciences, from Anatomy to Surgery. These four departments we could place in the third pro- vince, Physiconomy, or the Laws of the Material World. 13. Architechnks, from ap-z^o^, chief, and Te-)(yrj, an art; including Hylurgy, or the study of the materials used in the Arts, together with Architecture, Civil Engineering, Ship Building, and Navigation. 14. Ohrestonistics, from ^pr^aro^, useful; including the most useful arts. Agriculture, Manufactures and Com- merce. 214 THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. 15. Polemistics, from TzoXefj-oc:, war; including Land and Naval Tactics, Fortification, Strategy, and the subsidiary- arts of war 16. Callotechmcs, from y.a/2o::, beautiful, and reyur^, an art ; including chiefly the fine arts, or Printing, Painting, Sculpture, Music, and personal exercises and amusements. The last four departments we have comprehended in the last of the four provinces. Technology, or the study of the Physical Arts ; and thus we think may be distributed the whole circle of human knowledge. We proceed to state some of the reasons, omitting many others which might be given, in favor of the arrangement here proposed. The acquisition of some one language, is necessarily the first of our mental attainments ; and hence, in the absence of opposing reasons, the department of Glossology, or study of Languages, is placed first in order. The study of Grammar naturally leads to those of Rheto- ric and Logic, Mental and Moral Philosophy, and these are closely connected with that of Education ; all of which are therefore placed in the next department, I^ychology, using the term in an extended sense. The mental sciences form a natural introduction to those of Law and Government, comprehended in the department of Nomology ; and from human laws we pass, by an easy climax, to the divine laws and the study of all religions, constituting the department of Theology, and crowning the first of the four great provinces of Human Knowledge. The descriptive, or exoteric study of mankind, naturally commences with Geograjphy, including Voyages and Trav- els, the greater part of which relates to man in society, and hence is assigned to the province of Ethnology. So much of Geography as relates to the external world, irrespective of mankind, should be treated of more fully in the third province, under Natural philosophy and Natural THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. 215 History. The study of Geography is a natural introduc- tion to CJironograpliyy or History and Antiquities, which are therefore placed next in order. The subject of Bio- grafliy^ though closely connected with History, is thought to be so extensive and important as to deserve a distinct place among the departments, as here assigned to it. And last in the ]3rovince of Ethnology, or the study of man in society, we would place Poetry, Romance, and similar mis- cellaneous or ornamental literature, constituting the depart- ment of Callography. It is admitted that these latter studies, and especially History, are auxiliary to those of the first province, particularly so to Law and Eeligion ; but this is not deemed a sufficient reason for interrupting both series, and intruding the latter among the branches of the former. Proceeding to the material world, the department of Mathematics is placed first in order, as being introductory to this entire kingdom of knowledge, and finding most of its applications among tlie physical sciences and arts. Closely connected with this follows the department of Acrophysics, including Natural Philosophy with Astronomy and Chemistry, and thus comprehending all the dynamical laws of matter. To Chemistry naturally succeeds Idio- physics or Natural History, which examines individually the various objects in nature of which Acrophysics examined the elements and dynamic laws. The study of Natural History prepares the way for that of Androphysics, or the Medical Sciences, and thus completes the third province, Fhyslconomy, or the laws of the material world. The fourth province, Technology, applies these laws to the various Physical Arts ; which doubtless liold a higher place in the scale of knowledge at the present day, than at any preceding period. In commencing these arts, the study of Hylurgy or the materials for constructions and 216 THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. fabrications, with tlie elementary processes of working them, including metals and their preparation, or Metal- lurgy and Mining, seems to demand the first place ; and this draw in its train the arts of Construction and Inter- communication, or Architecture, Civil Engineering, Ship Building and Navigation, which we have comprehended in the department of Arcliiteclinics. The department of Chrestonistics, including Agriculture, Manufactures and Commerce, holds the next place; as even Agriculture depends much on the elementary mechanical processes, which we have already embraced in the branch of Hylurgy. The only remaining departments are Polemis- tics, or the arts of war, and CalUtechiics, or the fine arts. The former are more closely allied to the preceding mechanical arts ; and the latter will naturally conclude this province, as Callography did the second ; so that each kingdom of knowledge will conclude with the more amusing or ornamental portion. This, with a suitable Introduction, completes the scheme of Pantology, or universal science, which we have ventured to propose. It is true that many of our division lines, between the provinces, departments and branches, are arbitrary, and not precisely commensurate with the general terms used to designate them. The principal explanation to be given on tliis point, is, that we have endeavored to follow existing arrangements and divisions, as far as they could be made to harmonize in one general system ; and thus to render that system more feasible, and practicable, than if the lines of demarcation were farther changed. Were the whole ground to be occupied anew, many improvements might doubtless be made by a superior intelligence ; but it is hard to straigthen crooked paths, when well worn and generally trodden ; and all such attempts at improvement must be moderate, or they will fail entirely. In selecting THE CLASSIFICATON OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. 217 names for the various divisions, reference of course must be had to their primary objects ; since many minor topics are necessarily included, and no one name could be found which would allude directly to them all. It may be objected that some terms now in general use, and applied to large divisions of knowledge, are omitted in this classification. The answer is, that these terms are so vaguely or variously applied, as to be unsuitable for a more exact division. Thus the term PJiilosopliy was for- merly understood to comprehend the principles of all hu- man knowledge, or in the words of Cicero, *' the knowledge of things human and divine, and of the causes by which they are governed." Strictly speaking, it applies rather to any limited portion thereof, or when thus applied, it requires another qualifying term. Knowledge is often spoken of under the three heads of Literature, Science, and Art. But Literature, as the term is now used in Europe, signifies written or printed knowledge of every kind ; and if the attempt be made to restrict the term, it becomes indefinite. Equally indistinct is the division between Sciences and Arts. Science is the theory, and Art is the practice, or the application of principles to some practical purpose. These are in many cases so closely con- nected, that to separate them would be an unreasonable divorce. Again, the name Metaphysics, originated in a treatise by Aristotle, which coming after his writings on Physics, began with the words fi^za za (puGcxa, that is, after physics ; and which speculated vaguely on subjects beyond the reach of exact knowledge. Hence this term was coined by his pupils, or by the schoolmen, to signify '' the science of the ultimate causes of all being." So much of this science as really exists, will be distributed through our arrangement ; but as a distinct division of knowledge, we can recognize 19 218 THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. Metaphysics only when used as synonymous with Mental Philosophy. The term Belles Lettres, is of French origin, literally signifying fine or beautiful writings. It includes Poetry and Oratory, hut how much more it would he diffi- cult to say, since, in the words of a standard writer, '' it is so exceedingly vague and indefinite, that miscellanies per- haps would he equally explicit." Alike vague, and still more general, is the term criticism, derived from the Greek xpiTcxo:;, a judge ; which, though sometimes limited to the rules of Ehetoric and Logic, properly applies to an examination of works on any and all subjects, and an expo- sition of their merits. It remains, if the effort be not tedious, to proceed one step farther in the proposed classification of knowledge, by proposing a sub-division of the departments into their appropriate branches ; which we shall endeavor to do as briefly as possible. Commencing with the department of Glossology/, we would subdivide it into the following branches. 1. Gen- eral Graynmar, explaining the structure, principles, and analogies of language in general. 2. Oriental Lan- guages; beginning with the Coptic and Hieroglyphics: thence proceeding to the Shemitic languages, including the Hebrew ; and thence to the Persian, Sanscrit, Chinese, and their allied tongues. 3. European Languages, commenc- ing with the Greek and Latin ; taking next the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French languages, of Latin descent ; next the Gothic languages, from the English and German to the Swedish ; and lastly the Sclavonic lan- guages, the Polish, and Eussian and their allied tongues. 4. Barbarous Languages; including those of the American Aborigines, the Africans, the North Eastern Asiatics, and the Oceanic Islanders, of which we omit here any farther details. The number of languages in the world is said to THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAX KNOWLEDGE. 219 be about 3000 ; of wliicli about 80 are primary ; but they may all be reduced into a few great families, and all com- prehended in the latter three branches of Glossology. In the department of Psychology, the branches have already been given as follows : 1. Hhetoric, investigating the rules of writing and speaking, or Composition and Elocution. 2. Logic, investigating the processes of reason- ing, and deducing rules for their application. 3. Phreiiics, or Mental Philosophy, examining the mental powers and affections, hence including a part of Metaphysics, and also Phrenology so far as it may be received as well founded. 4. Ethics, or Moral Philosophy, treating of our duties to ourselves, to our fellow men, and to our Maker, and of the reasons by which those duties are enforced. 5. JEducation, relating to the training and instruction of youth, from infancy to mature age. It is true that the study of the human mind embraces two great divisions, the one intel- lectual, the other moral ; but these are so closely connected, that although forming distinct branches, we think that they both belong to one and the same department of knowl- edge. It is also true that Education relates in part to our physical and corporeal nature, and not exclusively to the mind ; but this is not deemed a sufficient reason for divi- ding what is usually treated of as one single branch of knowledge. The department of Nomology, or Law and Government, we would subdivide as follows: 1. Political Philosophy, including all theories and general views of government, its different forms, and the means and modes of their administration. 2. International Law, defining the rights, and prescribing the duties of nations, in their intercourse with each other. It therefore includes Maritime and Com- mercial Law, so far as these are founded on the common consent and usage of nations. 3. Constitutional Law, or 220 THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. the particular study of the constitutions of nations, and especially of that of our own country. Under this head we would include all our Laws and Treaties made by the national government ; together with Martial Law, as being executed by the same high authority. 4. Municipal LaWj including the rules of civil conduct, founded partly on the Civil Law of the Romans y partly on Common Law or cus- tom, and partly enacted by express statutes. 5. Political JSconomi/f investigating the nature, sources, and proper management of national wealth. This last branch is here introduced as being chiefly subsidiary to legislation. The term Politics, properly signifying the science of govern- ment, has been, we think, too widely perverted from this signification to be eligible for the name of the present department ; and another has accordingly been applied. The department of Theology, we think best subdivided into the following branches : 1. Paganism, including all the fabulous systems of religion, most of them polytheistic, which have prevailed among pagan or heathen nations. 2. Mohammedanism, treating of the spurious religion estab- lished by Mohammed, the self-styled prophet of the Arabians ; and borrowed, it would appear, partly from Jew- ish and Christian sources. 3. Judaism, comprehending the religion of the Jews, pure as taught in the Mosaic scriptures, or modified by later commentaries and tradi- tions. 4. Christianity, or the religious system established by our Saviour and his divinely inspired apostles. This we regard as forming a sequel to the Mosaic system, and both together constitute the only religion which we can recog- nize as of divine origin. The great subject of Christianity may, we conceive, be divided into Ecclesiastical History, Biblical Divinity, and Sectarian Polity. Under Biblical Divinity, we would comprehend the immediate study of the Bible, of the Christian Fathers, as its earliest interpreters, THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. 221 and of the Evidences and Analogies by wliicli it is corrobo- rated and defended. Under Sectarian Polity we would include the immediate history, doctrines, and discipline of each particular sect which the Christian world presents to our notice. With these brief explanations of the first four depart- ments, we must here dismiss the province of Psychonomy, the first great quarter of the world of human knowledge. The department of Geography, after prefacing it with the requisite introduction, we would subdivide into 1. Asiatic Geography ; 2. European ; 3. African ; 4. North American y 5. South American ; and 6. Oceanic Geography; terms which here require no definition. Our reason for commencing with Asia, is that we may pursue the histori- cal order, or follow the same route geographically, that we are next to follow historically. This we regard as the best systematic order, though not the best for elementary instruction, in which we should always begin at home. "We would include the Ancient Geography of each country in connection with its modern ; as each elucidates the other, and we thus save repetition. Statistics we would also dis- tribute under the different countries to which it relates ; and the accounts of Voyages and Travels may also we think be best disposed of by the same arrangement. Of Physical Geography we would, in this department, treat briefly ; reserving the most part of what is usually compre- hended under the head, for Natural Philosophy and Nat- ural History. The department of Ohronography, or History and Antiqui- ties, we would subdivide into 1. Enclassic Qhronographyy embracing the History and Antiquities of ancient Greece and Kome ; and of those earlier nations which were known to the ancient Greeks and Komans. 2. Oriental Qhrono- graphy^ extending to the later Asiatic nations generally, 222 THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. and to tlie Mohammedan parts of Africa. 3. European Chronograjpliy, embracing modern European history and antiquities ; to which we would append those of the resid- ual parts of Africa. 4. American Ohronography, or the history and antiquities of our own continent. The sub- ject of Chronology might be regarded as forming a distinct branch ; but we prefer to give its general principles in the introduction to this department, and distribute the rest with History and Antiquities. It may be made a question whether Archaeology, or the study of Antiquities, should not form a distinct branch ; but as each of the arts in Technology has its own antiquities, we would, in this department, treat of such antiquities very briefly, and the civil antiquities which remain, such as manners, customs, and institutions, belong, we think, with the History of the different nations, distributed as above. The department of Biography^ we would in like manner subdivide into, 1. Enclassio Biography ^ or Ancient Bio- graphy as far as known to the ancient Greeks and Eomans ; their own Biography included: 2. Oriental Biography , including the remainder of Asiatic Biography, with that of the Mohammedan nations in Africa : 3. European Biography, relating to the Europeans since the times of Greece and Kome : and 4. American Biography, relating both to the aborigines, and to Americans of European descent. The reason for making distinct branches of Chronography, and of Biography, in so far as they relate to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and their acquaintan- ces, is in order to preserve the connection of the ancient classical literature ; to which we would afiix the epithet, enclassic, by way of distinction. The subjects of Genealogy and Heraldry, so far as they merit attention, we would consider as introductory to the department of Biography. In filling up this department, the philosophical method THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. 223 seems to be, to group together individuals of the same country, and under each country those of the same pur- suits, as having the closest relations with each other. The remaining department of this province, that is to say Qallography, we would in like manner subdivide into, 1. JEndassic Qallography, or the Poetry, Eomance, and like miscellaneous literature of the Greeks and Eomans, and the nations known to them. 2. Oriental Callographyy or the ornamental literature of the Eastern and Mohamme- dan nations. 3. Ewropecvn Oallographj, or the Poetry, Eo- mance, and similar literature of the modern nations of Europe ; and 4. American Qallography^ or the like litera- ture of America, being chiefly the production of our own country. In this department, all that can be proposed in a general work, is to give an analysis of the best produc- tions, with extracts more or less copious, to illustrate their style and spirit. Such is the plan adopted in several French works, bearing the title of Cours de Litieraturey and which are nearly coextensive with this department. But we must here dismiss the province of Ethnology, and pass on to the third quarter of human knowledge, com- mencing the immediate study of the material world. The department of Mathematics, we would subdivide, nearly as is usually done, into the following branches. 1. Arithmetic, treating of calculation by means of the ordinary characters, representing given numbers. 2. Algebra, expressing the relations of quantities by means of letters and other symbols. 3. Geometry, treating of the measure- ment of space, and the properties of lines, surfaces, and solids. 4. Descriptive Geometry or Graphometry, inclu- ding the representation of geometrical figures on planes, and the subjects of Spherical Projections and Perspective. 5. Analytic Geometry, or Ancylometry, including the appli- cations of Algebra to geometrical figures ; together with 224 THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. Trigonometry and Conic Sections. 6. Fluxions^ or Eheom- etrj, more commonly called tlie Differential and Integral Calculus, treating of the correlative increments of quanti- ties that depend on each other, and the relations of these increments to the quantities themselves. The study of Surveying belonging to the mixed rather than pure Mathe- matics, we would prefer to place among the Arts, in con- nection with Civil Enffineerino'. The department of Acrophysics, or Natural Philosophy in a wide sense, may he comprehended under the following branches. 1. Mechanics ^ treatin.o* of forces, acting upon matter, and the laws of equilibrium and motion, both in solids and fluids. 2. Optics, treating of the nature and properties of light, and the phenomena of vision. 3. Astronomy, investigating the motions, positions, and phe- nomena of the heavenly bodies, and their relations to the earth, the star which we inhabit. 4. Ceraunies; a name derived from the Greek xepaovot;, lightning, and which we would apply to Electricity, Galvanism, Magnetism, Electro-Magnetism, Calorics, and Meteorology, considered collectively as forming one great science, uniting the studies of heat and electricity, so closely connected in nature. 5. Chemistry, investigating the composition of all ponderable substances, with their mutual relations, properties, and uses; greatly depending on the laws of atomic attraction and repulsion, which connect it with Nat- ural Philosophy rather than Natural History. The department of Idiophysics, or Natural History, is gen- erally and naturally subdivided into, 1. Botany, treating of the vegetable world, the classification and localities of plants, their structure and mode of growth, their properties and uses. 2. Zoology, treating of animals, their structure and func- tions, their classification and distribution, their instincts, habits, and uses to man. 3. Mineralogy^ treating of THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. 225 minerals as found in nature, their arrangement, composi- tion, properties, and uses. 4. Geology, treating of the structure of the earth, the masses which compose it, the changes which it has undergone, or to which it is still sub- ject, and the organic remains which it has entombed, as the record of its mutations. This department, it will be seen, treats of the objects which compose the material world, under the two great divisions of animate and inani- mate, which are so connected however, as to belong, we think, in the same department. The branches of Botany and Zoology are placed first, because a knowledge of them is prerequisite to the study of the latter branches, especially Geology, which combines all the others. The department of Aitdrophysics, or Medicine, may, we think, be best subdivided, without making the branches too numerous, into 1. 'Somatology, from the Greek cFojua, the body, including both human Anatomy and Physiology, or the study of the structure and functions of the human body in a healthy state. 2. Pharmacology, including Phar- macy and Materia Medica, or the preparation, classifica- tion, properties,. and uses of medicines. 3. Thereology, or the science and art of healing, embracing the classification, symptoms, and treatment of diseases, together with the means of preserving health. 4. Cliirurgery, or the me- chanical operations for saving life or preserving health, including Surgery proper, and all other kindred subjects. In the branch of Zoology, the human race would of course be referred to, as at the head of the animal creation ; but in the present department, the study of the human frame is resumed, in the utmost detail, as one of primary impor- tance, in the circle of human knowledge ; belonging, we think moreover, to the study of the laws of the material world. With this hasty sketch we dismiss the province of 226 THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. Pliysiconomy, and proceed to the last quadrant of the great circle of knowledge, the province of Technology. In the department of ArchitecJmics, embracing chiefly the arts of construction and communication, we would place the following branches: 1. Hylurgy, so named from the Greek oXtj, matter, and 07:Xa, work, including the study of the materials used in the arts, the modes of obtaining them, their strength and other properties, and the elemen- tary processes of working them ; embracing therefore, the subjects of Metallurgy and Mining. 2. Machinery, rela- ting to the application of the moving forces used in the arts, and the construction of machines. 3. ArcJiitedurey or the construction of edifices, with all their subordinate arrangements, 5. Viatecture, or Civil Engineering, rela- ting chiefly to the construction of roads and bridges, rail- roads and canals, and the improvement of rivers and harbors. 6. Navitedurey or Ship Building, including the construction of all other vessels, from the small boat to the steamboat and ship of war. 7. Navigation j including Seamanship, or the entire management of a vessel during a voyage. The arts of Surveying and Topography we would connect with Civil Engineering, as being particularly subservient to that important art. In the department of Chrestonistics, or the most useful arts, we would comprehend the remaining arts of peace, so far as they are necessary to our physical comfort, in the following order. 1. Agriculture, or the cultivation of the field, and the rearing of domestic animals. 2. Horticul- ture, or gardening, including particularly the cultivation of fruits, flowers, and ornamental plants. 3. Domieulture^ or housekeeping ; including the arts of housewifery and cookery. 4. Clotliiery, including cloth manufactures of every kind, and the preparation of all the various articles of clothing. 5. Furniture, or the manufacture of the THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. 227 various utensils and moveable articles required for housekeeping or personal convenience. 6. Commerce, or the exchange of commodities of every kind, with the prin- ciples and considerations by which such exchanges are reg- ulated. We thus connect in one series the arts of Agriculture, Manufactures and Commerce, so closely associ- ated in their relations, and in the public mind. The department of Polemistics, or the arts of w^ar, we would subdivide into the following branches: 1. Oplistics, from the Greek 07L}