LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 Shelf-fyo.... 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER ESSAYS 
 
 CHIEFLY RELATING TO 
 
 EDUCATION AND CULTURE 
 
 ^ ^-'^ 
 
 W. H. VENABLE LL.D. 
 
 Author of "The Teacher's Dream" " Beginnings of Literary Culturi 
 IN THE Ohio Valley" "History of the United States" etc. 
 
 BOSTON 
 LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS 
 
 10 MILK STREET 
 
 1893 
 
 \-%<=3^V>\ 
 
A 
 
 Copyright, 1892, by Lee and Shepard 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 Let Him First Be A Man 
 
PREFACE 
 
 It is hoped that this book will encourage teachers, 
 especially j/<?;/;/^ teachers, and help that large class 
 of self-helpful students who are seeking guidance in 
 the broad field of general culture. The author has 
 not attempted a formal statement of the science or 
 philosophy of education ; many excellent treatises 
 on Pedagogy are already at the teacher's hand. 
 But there is always room for one more volume of 
 educational essays dealing with the common prob- 
 lems of teaching and learning, and derived from 
 actual experience in school and out of school. One 
 may obtain benefit from a new statement of old 
 truth, or by comparing his thoughts with those of 
 another who has striven, like himself, to answer 
 the questions, " What is education ? and Why do we 
 educate ? " 
 
 A glance at the contents of the following pages 
 shows a considerable variety of topics, but the miscel- 
 
IV PREFACE 
 
 lany is not without plan. The opening chapters are 
 intended to depict the potential man, the ideal being 
 which it is the highest purpose of education to per 
 feet. On the teacher's conception of the worth and 
 dignity of human nature, and equally on the learner's 
 self-respect, and reverence for the divine workman- 
 ship which makes his body the " quintessence of 
 dust," and his soul "the infinite in faculties," — 
 on these depend the processes of that nurture and 
 training which fit men to live the best and most 
 useful life. 
 
 After discussing, in brief, the nature and educa- 
 bility of man, and the motive of all education, the 
 writer ventures to make a few suggestions concern- 
 ing the special function of schools in the vast work 
 of general education, and touches slightly upon 
 methods of government and instruction, under the 
 inclusive heading " Schoolmastery." Then follow 
 brief essays on the essential elements of mental and 
 moral development, and on the importance of reading 
 as a means to superior culture. About a third part 
 of the volume is taken up with studies in the history 
 of education. 
 
 Many of the articles here printed were addressed 
 originally to popular audiences or Teachers' Insti- 
 tutes, and might with propriety be called familiar 
 
PREFACE V 
 
 "Talks," rather than essays. Some of the pieces 
 have appeared in "Education," the "Ohio Educa- 
 tional Monthly," " Intelligence," and other journals. 
 The dominant purpose of the several essays and of 
 the collection is to oppose the deadening influence of 
 mere mechanical routine in the training of children, 
 whether in school or at home. The " Procrustean 
 bedstead," the "cramming-machine," the "conser- 
 vative groove," still find a place in the generality of 
 schoolhouses, and there is still need of abolitionists 
 to urge their removal. 
 
 The incentive that led to the making of this book 
 is the same that induced the author to compose the 
 several sections originally, — the wish to be of some 
 service, even the slightest, to the vital cause of pop- 
 ular education. The melioration of the children of 
 the people is the reform that underlies all other 
 reforms. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 I. Let Him first be a Man i 
 
 1. The End and the Means I 
 
 2. The Foundation and the Superstructure .... 6 
 
 3. Cui Bono? 9 
 
 4. Young America at School 12 
 
 5. What is a Man? 15 
 
 II. The Paragon of Animals 18 
 
 III. Functions of the Preparatory School .... 36 
 
 IV. Schoolmastery ." 43 
 
 I. Guide, Shepherd, and Pilot 43 
 
 . 2. What the Schoolmaster masters 44 
 
 3. Teaching and Governing 45 
 
 4. Persuasion and Force 46 
 
 5. Doctor Arnold's Way 49 
 
 6. How not to govern a School $0 
 
 7. The True Story of " Rusty Nails " 52 
 
 8. The Ideal Teacher 53 
 
 V. Nature the Sovereign Schoolmistress .... 61 
 
 VI. Topics of the Time 71 
 
 1. " Experiments of Light " 7^ 
 
 2. Both Sides are Right 74 
 
 3. Disco 77 
 
 4. Natural Ability plus Education 79 
 
 vii 
 
Vlll CONTENTS 
 
 VI. Topics of the Time {continued). 
 
 Page 
 
 5. The Quick Coal go 
 
 6. Does it Educate? 82 
 
 7. The Beginnings of Education 84 
 
 8. Education and Temperance 85 
 
 9. Universal Education 87 
 
 VII. Books and Reading ^i 
 
 VIII. Unclassified Trifles 105 
 
 1. Stray Thoughts 105 
 
 2. Woman's Rights 112 
 
 3. Past, Present, and Future 112 
 
 4. Progress of Civilization 113 
 
 5. Use of the Ideal . 114 
 
 6. Combinations vs. Individuals . 115 
 
 7. A Collection of Men 115 
 
 8. Education Out of School 116 
 
 9. The Old-Fashioned Elocutionist 118 
 
 10. "It's Books" 123 
 
 11. The Cultured Snob . . -. 127 
 
 12. Natural Science Teaching in the Common Schools . 128 
 
 13. How to say It 131 
 
 IX. Studies in the History of Education .... 135 
 
 1. Confucius 135 
 
 2. Education in Ancient Greece 153 
 
 3. Plato and Education 157 
 
 4. Aristotle and Education 168 
 
 5. Quintilian 179 
 
 6. Goethe as an Educational Light 195 
 
 X. The Utility of the Ideal 213 
 
 XI. Sylvan Mythology, Poetry, and Sentiment . . 235 
 XII. William Downs Henkle — Memorial Address . . 246 
 
" The discipline of Slavery is unknown 
 Amongst us, — hence the more do we require 
 The discipline of virtue ; order else 
 Cannot subsist, nor confidence, nor peace. 
 Thus, duties rising out of good possessed, 
 And prudent caution needful to avert 
 Impending evil, do alike require 
 That permanent provision should be made 
 For the whole people to be taught and trained. 
 So shall licentiousness and black resolve 
 Be rooted out, and virtuous habits take 
 Their place ; and genuine piety descend, 
 Like an inheritance, from age to age. 
 
 Change wide and deep, and silently performed. 
 This land shall witness ; and, as days roll on, 
 Earth's universal frame shall feel th' effect. 
 Even till the smallest habitable rock. 
 Beaten by lonely billows, hears the songs 
 Of humanized society ; and bloom 
 With civil arts, and send their fragrance forth, 
 A grateful tribute to all-ruling Heaven. 
 From culture, universally bestowed. 
 Expect these mighty issues ; from the pains 
 And quiet care of unambitious schools 
 Instructing simple childhood's ready ear, 
 Thence look for these magnificent results ! " 
 
 Wordsworth. The Excursion, Book IX. 
 
ESSAYS 
 
 I 
 
 LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 
 
 I. THE END AND THE MEANS 
 
 Of many passages that shine like gold in a cabinet 
 of less precious ores in Rousseau's celebrated Essay 
 on Education, the followins: is one : " According: to 
 the order of nature, men being equal, their common 
 vocation is the profession of humanity ; and whoever 
 is well educated to discharge the duty of a man can- 
 "not be badly prepared to fill up any of those offices 
 that have a relation to him. It matters little to me 
 whether my pupil be designed for the army, the pul- 
 pit, or the bar. Nature has destined us to the offices 
 of human life antecedent to our destination concern- 
 ing society. To live is the profession I would teach 
 him. When I have done with him, it is true he will 
 be neither a soldier, a lawyer, nor a divine. Let 
 HIM FIRST BE A MAN ; he will, on occasion, as soon 
 become anything else that a man ought to be as 
 any person whatever. Fortune may remove him 
 
2 ESSAYS 
 
 from one rank to another as she pleases, he will be 
 always found in his place." 
 
 The doctrine thus proclaimed by Rousseau had 
 been announced centuries before by Plato, who says 
 in the sixth book of the Laws that "■ a nurture per- 
 fectly correct ought to show itself able to render 
 both bodies and souls the most beautiful and best." 
 What is such a nurture but adequate preparation for 
 the ''profession of humanity".? This comprehen- 
 sive view of the purpose of education is always held 
 by those who march in the van of civilization. It 
 is a general truth to inscribe on the ever-advan- 
 cing banner of educational progress. Like the 
 gospel of religion, it must be preached anew in 
 every age. 
 
 The child is born into the world ignorant, feeble, 
 plastic, — a mere lump of organized protoplasm, — 
 yet living and endowed with germs of all human 
 powers, — a potential man. His education begins 
 with his first breath. His parents are his primary 
 educators ; they must nurture his body and nour- 
 ish his mind. The cradle is the first room in the 
 school of life. The Kindergarten of home is the real 
 preparatory department. Unless the child's early 
 training, and the parents' ideas of the purpose of 
 education, be correct, later teachers must work at 
 great disadvantage. The father and mother give 
 their child his constitution, his health, his habits. 
 They call forth and direct the first motions of his 
 mind, foster his tastes, set up standards for him, fur- 
 
LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 3 
 
 nish his surroundings, determine his associations, 
 advise him, control him. How important, then, that 
 parents adhere to the best-known principles of edu- 
 cation in dealing with their children, and in relations 
 with those to whom their children are intrusted after 
 they leave the nursery for the schoolroom. Right 
 systems of education will be adopted by teachers if 
 right demands are made by parents. Popular opinion 
 determines the character of the schools. The best 
 and wisest teacher in the world cannot bring his good- 
 ness and wisdom to the proof when the prevailing 
 sentiment is against him, or not with him. Superior 
 teachers need sympathy in their purposes and aspi- 
 rations more than they need co-operation in the 
 actual discharge of their duties. 
 
 The vital question is not what books to use, or 
 what subjects to teach, or what classes to form, but 
 what is the ultimate object of teaching.? What do 
 we want to do with or for boys and girls .'' What is 
 education } 
 
 ''Give our children a practical education " is the 
 exhortation of many parents ; and little miss and 
 master in the infant grade ''tackle " the schoolma'am 
 with, "What good '11 it do us.?" The schoolma'am 
 does not easily give little miss and master a satis- 
 factory answer to their question. Nor does the 
 superintendent find it possible to explain the utility 
 of the course of study to the anxious, inquiring 
 father, especially if the father be pertinaciously 
 practical. 
 
4 ESSAYS 
 
 What good ? What use ? Ctii bono ? The old 
 stumbling-block. 
 
 Suppose we permit the school-boy to erase from 
 his schedule of studies all subjects that appear, to 
 him useless, how much is left ? The boy cannot 
 know what he needs. The chances are he is prej- 
 udiced against all studies that tax his pleasure 
 and freedom. He obeys the call of his blood, not 
 the sedate voices of forethought and wisdom. If 
 our extremely practical philosopher advises the lad, 
 the advice and argument may be something iike 
 this : " Of what advantage is it to study geography.^ 
 The ignorant emigrant is carried over the sea as 
 safely and swiftly as are Ritter and Guyot with all 
 their grand conceptions of continents and seas. 
 Tea comes to us from China whether we know 
 where China is or not. And what real benefit can 
 you get from grammar } So long as you make your 
 meaning understood, who cares whether verbs agree 
 with their subjects or not, or that there are such 
 things as verbs and subjects } Again, why waste 
 time in learning the;r-|-j/ of algebra.? Who keeps 
 accounts in algebra .? Will reading history provide 
 you food, or pay debts, or cure cholera } Why, even 
 reading, writing, and arithmetic are of very little 
 practical use. You will generally hear the news 
 told, and may avoid the trouble and expense of a 
 daily paper. Your * mark ' will secure legal rights. 
 You may calculate interest and add up sums in your 
 head. Common sense is all the education you need. 
 
LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 5 
 
 My father never went to school a day, and yet he 
 became a rich man. Learning spoils a man for 
 business." 
 
 Such is the absurd logic, pushed to the extreme, 
 of a certain class of self-styled practical men, when 
 they talk about education. Nor is our imaginary 
 case much overdrawn. There are hundreds of well- 
 to-do men and women, of average intelligence, who 
 act as if they really esteem education in the abstract 
 as a sort of evil, or, at best, an unnecessary good. 
 They seek schooling for their children, not from a 
 conscious belief that schooling is in itself valuable, 
 like money, and land, and office, and respectable 
 family connection, but because custom compels them 
 to send their boys and girls to school. They seem 
 to begrudge the time and money spent in education. 
 And, therefore, cheap and rapid transit through 
 schools is much in demand. If thorough education 
 takes time and labor, let us have a superficial educa- 
 tion that looks like the genuine article. Walnut and 
 mahogany are expensive, — will not veneer answer 
 every practical purpose.? veneer, or even paint, in 
 imitation of the true grain ? 
 
 The end of education is, indeed, practical, but the 
 means to that end are not simple and easy. The 
 making of a child into a complete man is a process 
 requiring time, skill, science, and wisdom. The most 
 tcsefid knowledge, and the most valuable process of 
 education, furnish facilities to ward the boy in his 
 progress toward ideal manhood. 
 
ESSAYS 
 
 2. THE FOUNDATION AND THE SUPERSTRUCTURE. 
 
 The ardor of professional teachers is perpetually 
 checked by the popular clamor for easy education, 
 simplified education — education that anybody may 
 obtain without study and use without skill. The 
 call is for a commodity that no man can supply — a 
 commodity that does not exist. Education is not 
 an article that one may buy at a shop and carry 
 away in a basket. The training and storing of the 
 mind require a long process. It is a vital, cumulative, 
 continuous effort. The results of education — the 
 fruits — cannot precede the conditions that produce 
 them. First the bud, then the blade, then the ear. 
 The applications of power imply — power. Let the 
 boy become a man, mentally, before expecting him 
 to do a man's mental work. The whole object of the 
 teacher should be to train the man ; not the artisan, 
 the merchant, the professor. To train the whole 
 man — not the hand alone, the head alone, the heart 
 alone. 
 
 Nature demands of the faculties disinterested 
 activity. She is exacting, and will not pay until 
 the work is done. The student shall not know the 
 joy of victory until he conquers. He shall not 
 overcome the hard problem until he has wrestled 
 and strained with it. He shall not express a 
 thought clearly before he has conceived it clearly. 
 He shall not become a scholar without the proba- 
 tion of the student. He shall not be master except 
 
LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 7 
 
 through the tasks of apprenticeship. He shall not 
 be competent to do independent and special duties 
 until he has enfranchised his faculties by discipline, 
 and learned to distinguish the particular from the 
 general. The school catalogues propose to fit boys 
 for the duties of life. This is the legitimate work 
 of preparatory schools, academies, and colleges. 
 They are introductory to life itself, not to stations 
 in life — not to vocations. There is necessity of 
 commercial schools for mercantile training, law 
 schools for lawyers, medical schools for physicians, 
 normal schools for teachers, theological schools for 
 divines ; but before all there is need of educational 
 schools for men and women. The special school is 
 supplementary or complementary to the general 
 school. Neither is a full substitute for the other, 
 though the training for life is the foundation of any 
 training for a living. The person who is without 
 the developed power that the fundamental training 
 of his faculties gives, cannot make good use of the 
 opportunities afforded by schools devoted to special 
 objects. Every building, be it designed for resi- 
 dence or factory, castle or cathedral, requires a firm 
 foundation. Solid stone walls first, deep laid and 
 level. This lower work is much the same for all 
 houses. 
 
 Well-grown wood makes reliable timber, and a 
 stick of timber may be turned to various uses ; it 
 may be fashioned into a mast, a beam, a piano, a 
 pulpit, an exquisite carving. But it must become 
 
8 ESSAYS 
 
 timber first. Sap-wood cannot be wrought into dur- 
 able forms. Time must elaborate the tissues of the 
 tree. 
 
 Education in school is the building of basement 
 walls — it is the growing of sound timber — it is the 
 confirming of tissue, physical, mental, moral. The 
 child must be educated because he is a man — to- 
 morrow. He must be educated simply because he 
 can be educated ; because it is the nature of man to 
 improve by culture. As Ruskin epigrammatically 
 says, "There is an education which in itself is 
 advancement in life." 
 
 This education, though it does not aim to fit men 
 for any station, goes far to fit them for all stations. 
 But not by special training for particular vocations. 
 As John Stuart Mill puts it, "Education makes a 
 man a better shoemaker, but not by teaching him to 
 make shoes." Is this a hard saying.? Cannot our 
 practical philosophers see that education must edu- 
 cate before it can claim to have benefited its subjects } 
 What is it that teachers, books, schools, studies, 
 recitations, examinations, gymnasia, should be ex- 
 pected to do for youth } What does education bestow } 
 
 We answer, education gives general increase of 
 power — discrimination, versatility, command. It 
 gives each faculty habitual exercise of its function. No 
 one knows his destiny, — what he maybe required to 
 become, do, or endure, — and if he neglects any power 
 of body or mind it may be the very power he will 
 have greatest need to employ at some important 
 
LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 9 
 
 crisis. Predominant talents become more effective 
 by general training. Though Pascal learns geometry 
 by intuition, and Burns sings spontaneously as a bird, 
 and Mozart's baby fingers know, untaught, every 
 secret of the clavier, it does not follow that education 
 is wasted on Pascal, Burns, and Mozart. The fine 
 nature is the one most hurt by wrong, and most 
 benefited by right culture. The highest achieve- 
 ments of genius depend somewhat upon the general 
 strength and health of the faculties, as the perfection 
 of a flower depends upon the condition of roots, 
 branches, leaves, and all the other organs of the 
 flowering plant. Wrong culture is ruinous, but right 
 culture invariably adds to the gifts of nature. Edu- 
 cated genius is indomitable. 
 
 3, GUI BONO .'' 
 
 The more complete and extensive a man's educa- 
 tion, the more able is he to accomplish whatever he 
 undertakes. If he be naturally well endowed, and 
 then thoroughly educated, failure can scarcely surprise 
 him. Each part and power of man is educable. The 
 educated hand is strong, steady, active, graceful, and 
 sensitive. The educated eye is alert, telescopic, 
 microscopic, discriminating, capable of many tasks, 
 accomplished in many arts. The educated memory 
 is comprehensive, unconfused, accurate, retentive, 
 quick. The educated reason is ready, logical, tran- 
 quil, profound, masterly. The educated affections 
 are tender, constant, vigilant to seek and do their 
 
10 ESSAYS 
 
 office, beautiful, robust. The educated will is decisive, 
 prompt, unwavering — immovable in its rest, irresist- 
 ible in its god-like motion. An educated man is a 
 grand congeries of organs and forces, material and 
 spiritual, working together in health and harmony, 
 mutually dependent, mutually helpful, — many in 
 one, — subordinate only to Him who is Supreme. 
 To educate a man is to give his hand, brain, and 
 heart their maximum life, power, and facility. '* Know 
 thyself " is the theoretical end of education ; — use 
 thyself is the practical end. The Orient said kiiow 
 and be : the Occident says know, be, and do. 
 
 Practical education ! it is not the knowledge of 
 crafts, trades, and professions. It is not that which 
 confers skill in the use of this or that instrument ; it 
 confers upon man the right understanding and ready 
 use of himself. That is a practical education, worthy 
 of the name, which enables a person to maintain 
 bodily health, strength, and comeliness ; to command 
 his own muscles and nerves ; to employ his organs 
 of sense with accuracy and effect ; to adapt himself 
 to outward physical conditions ; to subdue unruly 
 appetites ; to compel the material world to yield 
 most benefit at least expense. That is practical edu- 
 cation which enables a man to transact miscellaneous 
 business with ease and despatch ; to preside with 
 dignity at the called meeting ; to perform the duty 
 of trustee or guardian ; to meet the requirements of 
 family relations ; to plan a house ; to choose a book ; 
 to select a picture ; to derive profit or pleasure from 
 
LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN II 
 
 travel. Practical education introduces a man to 
 mankind, and acquaints him intimately with himself. 
 That is practical education which assists one to rise 
 above prejudice, bigotry, partisanship, superstition, 
 and conventional folly ; to estimate himself and others 
 with candor and correctness ; to discern the signifi- 
 cancy of actions and the tendency of opinions and 
 events ; to sift the speech of the demagogue ; to vote 
 for the right man ; to advocate the best measure. 
 That is practical education which educates a human 
 being to think his own way to conclusions, and to 
 express conclusions with forcible accuracy ; to ask 
 and answer questions pertinently ; to generalize with- 
 out vagueness, and to specialize without triviality ; 
 to marshal his mental forces for attack or defence in 
 a sudden emergency as an able commander marshals 
 his regiments. 
 
 Yes, practical education should make of each man 
 the most that the limits of his constitution will ad- 
 mit. Education, like religion, offers a second birth 
 to the soul. A good schooling regenerates the intel- 
 lect, adding to the natural man an inestimable growth. 
 The school is truly a second mother to nourish youth 
 to manhood. Let the boy become a man. Then 
 will he remain a man, not dwindle to a manikin nor 
 lapse into a brute. Then may he trust himself and 
 be trusted by his fellows. Then may he master the 
 art of living, having served his rigorous apprentice- 
 ship. Then may he confidently meet the years, 
 clasping their friendly hands as, one by one, they 
 
12 ESSAYS 
 
 welcome him onward to success. For education 
 helps to preserve body and soul from functional 
 feebleness and decay. One of the sages of the 
 Talmud declares that " As the wise grow old their 
 minds become more substantiated." When boys 
 and girls grow restive in school, and over-anxious to 
 escape the discipline of study, they should be reminded 
 that the acquisitions of eighteen may prove the most 
 precious resource of eighty. 
 
 4. YOUNG AMERICA AT SCHOOL. 
 
 The American boy considers himself a man at 
 about the age of sixteen. To him the idea of re- 
 maining in school after his voice begins to change 
 is preposterous. He will never consent to squander 
 the prime of life in humdrum exercises with slate 
 and lexicon. That sort of thing is for children, but 
 men of sixteen must be doing for themselves in the 
 arena of actual life. There is something pathetically 
 ludicrous in this young American scheme of doing 
 for self. How many, alas! have done for the7nsehcs 
 by engaging prematurely in the tasks that should 
 have followed practical education ! 'Tis a delusive 
 precept that urges youth to grasp frantically at the 
 forelock of Time, — a capillary remnant much 
 abused. Time flies, says the impatient father and 
 more impatient mother, therefore our son must fly. 
 
 Let us have a school on wings to bear him through 
 an aerial course of study. The brief flight ended, 
 the boy begins life. He esteems himself not only a 
 
LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 1 3 
 
 gentleman and a scholar, but a man of business, a 
 lion in society, a politician, a critic, a philosopher. 
 He has graduated into the self-importance of inex- 
 perienced ignorance. He sits cross-legged before 
 the Sunday newspaper, sucking cigarettes ; he has a 
 theory of "finance," and talks ironically on the 
 "woman question;" he bluffs his seniors in con- 
 versation, and indulges in a thousand other manly 
 performances. 
 
 Young America feminine is the counterpart of her 
 precocious brother. She, too, is impatient, — even 
 more impatient of the school restraints, and longs 
 to cast them off. She gets through the seminary 
 before you supposed her through the Third Reader. 
 Her mental acquisitions culminate in the graduating 
 essay, — thrilling production! — elegant flower of 
 originality that blossoms, alas ! only to exhaust the 
 parent stock which flowers so no more forever. 
 After Commencement all study ceases, all reading 
 drops excepting the lighter novels ; even the piano 
 lessons intermit, like the chills of a half-defeated ague. 
 For is not Esmeralda's education finished .'* She 
 finished that at school. And now Esmeralda is 
 doing for herself. She is practically educated. She 
 is accomplished. She is done for. She is ready to 
 marry. 
 
 The eagerness of parents for immediate results in 
 education defeats its purpose by communicating a 
 feverish restlessness to the youth, who, instead of 
 regarding their school duties as regular business to 
 
14 ESSAYS 
 
 be discharged with fidelity, are constantly looking 
 beyond their books to an imaginary "actual life " of 
 business or pleasure. This illustrates exactly the 
 national fault which Herbert Spencer criticised when 
 he visited the United States, He observed as a 
 general fact, "the American, eagerly pursuing a 
 future good, almost ignores what good the passing 
 day offers him ; and, when the future good is gained, 
 he neglects that while striving for some still remoter 
 good." The dreadful delirium for early participation 
 in what are called the actual affairs of life prevents 
 all moderate living. 
 
 Actual affairs ! What affair can be more actual 
 than that of bringing youth to the state of manhood 
 and womanhood ? What business can be so impor- 
 tant as the acquisition of power to do business ? It 
 is not education to send children through school, or 
 to send school through them. The pupil must 
 absorb the school ; must digest and assimilate the 
 elements of knowledge and virtue. This takes time. 
 The boys and girls who " go through " are sometimes 
 diseducated : they lose their natural aptitude for 
 the very pursuits which schools profess to fit them 
 for. They go through and come out half-developed 
 physically, not half-developed mentally, without estab- 
 lished moral principles or power of self-government ; 
 without the strong armor of experience, or the sharp 
 weapons of discipline, and, rushing into the conflict 
 for subsistence, for pre-eminence, for riches, for 
 happiness, they miserably fail 
 
LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN I5 
 
 5. WHAT IS A MAN ? 
 
 '' Let him first be a man." But what is a man ? 
 There are so many ideas and so few ideals. Some 
 one relates that an English school-girl answered the 
 question "What is the difference between man and 
 brute ? " by saying, " The brute is an imperfect beast ; 
 man is a perfect beast." Shall our education develop 
 such an animal ? What kind of man shall our Ameri- 
 can boy become before he begins the special duties 
 of life } What shall be his preconceived notion of 
 success ? To judge by the Plutonic standards which 
 many follow, success consists mainly in acquiring 
 riches. '' How much is he worth } " means not at all 
 what is his intrinsic value, but how much money has 
 he .-* If the power to pile up wealth is the chief end 
 of school-training, being the chief end of man, then 
 should the conscientious schoolmaster train his 
 pupil to be sharp and shrewd and self-seeking. The 
 boys should be taught to spell the word educate 
 e-d-g-e-u-c-a-t-e, to give ed^^e to the mind. He who 
 would cut his way to the many-mansioned place of 
 the millionnaire must be a keen blade. But how if 
 the young man don't want to be a money-maker ? 
 Perhaps, like Matthew Arnold, he would prefer the 
 heaven of ''sweetness and lisfht " to the Eden of 
 riches. When Arnold died his estate was valued at 
 only a few thousand dollars, yet who will say this 
 great lifter-up of civilization was an unsuccessful 
 man or that he left the world no rich bequest ? 
 
l6 ESSAYS 
 
 Who will say that Agassiz, who whimsically said he 
 had no time to waste in making money, was not 
 a winner in life's battle ? How beautifully other men 
 drew golden swords for him that he might pursue 
 the paths of science and so aid mankind ! He 
 needs must be about his Father's business. Or, take 
 the case of Emerson, who, though he gained material 
 fortune, did not seek it, but devoted himself to amass- 
 ing a capital of thoughts and dreams, — a millionnaire 
 of ideas. 
 
 " Planter of celestial plants, 
 What he has nobody wants." 
 
 Is it the object of our schools, or should it be, to 
 make Vanderbilts, or Arnolds, or Emersons ? or to 
 make Grants, or Gladstones, or Beechers ? When we 
 say, " let him first be a man," do we have any particu- 
 lar man or class in view ? Not at all. The shining 
 lights of the world may serve to guide and illumin- 
 ate all men ; but each man must work out his own 
 destiny self-impelled and directed by the inner lamp 
 of individuality, or he can never become a " success " 
 in any sense. It is wrong to deceive children or 
 college students with the belief that the general 
 training they receive from books and teachers will 
 make them poets, or presidents, or railroad kings, or 
 this or that. The knowledge, the study, the physi- 
 cal exercise, the discipline of body and soul, which 
 the school should afford, are to preserve an ideal type, 
 not to differentiate a unit. First, the typical man, 
 sound in body, sound in mind, endowed with the 
 
LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 1/ 
 
 possessions which the wisdom of ancient authority 
 and the prescience of modern reason have agreed to 
 consider the best culture, and then the practical 
 man, exercising his special talent according to the 
 bent of his will. 
 
ESSAYS 
 
 II 
 
 THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 
 
 In the Book of Genesis we read that "The Lord 
 God formed man of the dust of the ground." 
 
 Josephus says more particularly, that Adam was 
 made of red clay. According to Grecian mythology, 
 Prometheus compounded the first man of clay and 
 particles taken from various animals. The Moham- 
 medans say that God made Adam of seven handfuls 
 of earth from different depths and of different col- 
 ors, collected by the angel Azrael. The alchemists 
 and astrologers, in their vague but bold speculations, 
 wrote much of the human body, the Microcosm, or 
 little world, supposed to be made up of every ele- 
 ment to be found in the three kingdoms of nature, 
 
 — in the Macrocosm, or great world. The modern, 
 ingenious, and beautiful theory of evolution — recog- 
 nizing the kinship of man to all that lies below him 
 
 — was it not symbolized and foreshadowed by the 
 old philosophies ? 
 
 Francis Bacon, commenting curiously on the be- 
 lief of the alchemists, remarks that *' the body of 
 man is of all existing things the most mixed and 
 the most organic," and that '' this, indeed, is the 
 reason it is capable of such wonderful powers and 
 
THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS I9 
 
 faculties ; . . . abundance and excellence of powers 
 reside in mixture and composition." 
 
 Science determines with accuracy the kind of 
 material of which the body is made. About twenty 
 simple substances have been detected by the chemi- 
 cal analysis of the human organism ; these combine 
 to form between eighty and ninety physically differ- 
 ent components, technically called "immediate prin- 
 ciples." The immediate principles make "structural 
 elements," such as cells and fibres, and from "struc- 
 tural elements " are developed all the tissues, such as 
 fat, muscle, nerve, and bone. Of tissues are fash- 
 ioned the organs of motion, digestion, circulation, 
 respiration, sensation, generation, that are severally 
 called systems, and that collectively make a complex 
 mechanism named the system. 
 
 The human body comprises about two hundred 
 bones, — rods, plates, levers, shields, — deftly articu- 
 lated, bound together by silvery ligaments ; four 
 hundred red elastic muscles — lithe, half-reasoning 
 laborers that serve King Brain ; veins pulsing purple 
 currents, and arteries conducting crimson streams — 
 the bright brooks that water the Little World and 
 purify themselves in their own swift-running ; innu- 
 merable pearly nerves — the telegraphic wires of the 
 Microcosm. Hundreds of millions of these wires run 
 from the brain ; by their means any part of the "skin 
 of the hand is brought into connection with, per- 
 haps, two hundred muscles." 
 
 Within the body, by mysterious processes, bread is 
 
20 ESSAYS 
 
 transformed into blood, and blood into flesh and 
 bone and brain. Fluids of subtile quality thread their 
 intricate way through a thousand " natural gates and 
 alleys," building and destroying ; vital air permeates 
 minutest vessels, diffusing heat and energy to every 
 fibre. A man requires three thousand pounds, or a 
 ton and a half, of food a year to keep his body in 
 repair and to keep it alive and warm. Twenty mil- 
 lions of blood cells are born, and as many die, at each 
 beat of pulse. In the lungs are six hundred million 
 air cells, presenting an aggregate surface of seventy- 
 four hundred square feet with which oxygen comes 
 in contact. We use in a lifetime about one million 
 cubic feet of air — enough to form a solid air-castle 
 a hundred feet square and a hundred feet high. 
 
 The surface drain-pipes of the body, the sweat- 
 tubes of the skin, taken together, Carpenter com- 
 putes, are twenty-eight miles in length ! What 
 extents ! What forces ! What effects ! Is the delicate 
 body of yonder slight school-girl the storehouse of 
 so much material ? Is it the theatre of such enor- 
 mous activity ? Is it such a power-hall ? Yes ; the 
 physical forces which we unconsciously employ are 
 vastly greater than those controlled by the will. 
 
 The stark, cold corpse of man, the cadaver, 
 awakens in the reflective mind admiration and 
 reverence. The surgeon dissects it with ever-in- 
 creasing interest. He is never done inspecting its 
 parts, contemplating its structure. 
 
 The prying microscope, the delicate knife and 
 
THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 21 
 
 probe, the searching chemical test — all the fine 
 appliances of science, are employed in the study of 
 anatomy and physiology. But how much is im- 
 perfectly known, how much undiscovered in the 
 mysterious "little world," even after the incessant 
 explorations of thousands of years ! 
 
 Regard the body as divided into extremities, trunk 
 and head ; or into locomotive, vital and thinking 
 organs. It will aid us to form a conception of the 
 perfect and admirable structure of man, if we make 
 a brief examination of a single representative in 
 each of the divisions named. No more interesting 
 member of the locomotive or mechanical group of 
 organs can be named than the hand. So suggestive 
 a topic is the hand, and so prolific in '' proofs of 
 design," that Sir Charles Bell made it the subject of 
 one of the Bridgewater Treatises, devoting two hun- 
 dred pages to an account of its mechanism and vital 
 endowment. Bell and many other writers define the 
 hand as belonging exclusively. to man, and from com- 
 paring it with the paw, or other prehensile instrument 
 of the brute creation, they deduce some of the most 
 convincing proofs of the essential superiority of man. 
 The number, form, and adjustment of its parts ; the 
 freedom, variety, and celerity of its movements ; the 
 firmness of its texture ; the peculiar power it pos- 
 sesses of resisting the injurious action of poisonous 
 or corrosive substances; its exquisite sensibility, — 
 all tend to make the hand the most perfect instru- 
 ment conceivable for the purposes to which it is 
 applied. 
 
22 ESSAYS 
 
 Should we survey the group of organs termed 
 vital, we would at once single out the heart — that 
 *' metropolitan city of the blood," as it has been 
 poetically called. The heart is strong and tough, 
 yet smooth, soft, and elastic. Its muscular coats 
 consist of several layers, each made up of an 
 incredible number of fibres twisted, inwound, and 
 woven together in the most compact and intricate 
 way ; its partitioned cavities, each of peculiar form, 
 communicate by various openings with one an- 
 other, and with the great veins and arteries ; its 
 variform valves open and close with rhythmic pre- 
 cision that the skill of mechanic art cannot imitate. 
 Even after the brain and spinal cord have ceased to 
 act — when life is extinct — the heart will sometimes 
 throb. (Faithful servant, beating the march of life to 
 the end — yea, and even the funeral march of dead 
 life!) 
 
 We are, when in good health, unconscious of the 
 action or presence of the heart in our breast, so 
 gently and noiselessly it performs its unceasing labor. 
 And what a mighty labor it performs! Small as it 
 is and light, only about five inches in length, and 
 not more than ten or eleven ounces in weight, it yet 
 pumps eighteen pounds of blood from itself to itself 
 in less than two minutes. 
 
 Calculations made by Professor Houghton demon- 
 strate that " the daily work of the human heart is one 
 hundred and twenty-four tons lifted through one foot." 
 In other words, the heart exerts one-third as much 
 
THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 23 
 
 muscle power in one day as does a stout man engaged 
 in hard labor. Or, to employ another of Professor 
 Houghton's illustrations, " If we suppose the heart 
 expends its entire force in lifting its own weight ver- 
 tically, then the total height to which it could lift 
 itself in one hour is 19,754 feet," and that is twenty 
 times as high as an active pedestrian can lift himself 
 in ascending a mountain. 
 
 Sovereign in the highest group of bodily organs 
 is the brain. No brief description can convey an 
 idea of this. Occupying the highest place in the 
 structure, the dome of the temple, it is the medium 
 through which the soul acts and enjoys. To reason 
 and to will are its supreme functions. Chemistry 
 and microscopy have labored diligently to dissect, 
 magnify, and analyze the fine forms, textures, and 
 substances of this extremely interesting organ. It 
 remains in many respects a puzzle to the scientific 
 investigator. To those unacquainted with anatomy, 
 a mere enumeration of the terms used in a descrip- 
 tion of the brain is bewildering. A thorough and 
 exact knowledge of -the complicated organ itself is 
 only to be acquired by years of industrious and scru- 
 tinizing application. Its several parts, the medulla 
 oblongata, the pons, the cerebellum, the cerebrum, 
 are each great chapters of a greater volume. 
 
 The brain is composed of several peculiar sub- 
 stances, differing in consistency, color, and texture. 
 It is massed in hemispheres, lobes, and convolutions; 
 and cut up by ventricles, fissues, and sinuses. The 
 
24 ESSAYS 
 
 average weight of the human brain is three pounds. 
 The exterior surface, owing to numerous convolu- 
 tions, presents an area of about five square feet to the 
 action of the blood. Some physiologists believe that 
 intellectual forces are generated upon this brain sur- 
 face in a manner similar to that in which electric 
 currents are developed upon metallic plates. The 
 brain is hence regarded as a great galvanic battery of 
 thought. Wilkinson, in his book, "The Human Body 
 and its Connection with Man," says the brain 'Ms the 
 heart of hearts, for it receives from the body and the 
 universe spiritual blood, which its cortices pulse out 
 in infinite streams;" that "it is the lung of lungs, 
 for its animation is the breathing of the soul in the 
 all-communicable ether ; " that " it is the stomach of 
 stomachs, because of its bold chemistry in the prep- 
 aration of the food of food, which is the nerve, 
 spirit ; ay, and it is the primal womb of life and 
 thought." 
 
 Consider the organs of sense, the instruments by 
 which the mind receives the world. 
 
 The acuteness of sight and hearing is often spoken 
 of and needs no illustration. The lower senses — 
 feeling, taste, and smell — are not so much studied 
 or so well appreciated as their nobler sister.^ By the 
 touch, the blind not only read, they have been known 
 to model portrait busts, to distinguish genuine coins 
 and medals from spurious ones, to recognize the dif- 
 ferent specimens in a large conchological cabinet, 
 and even to distinguish the colors of woven fabrics. 
 
THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 2$ 
 
 A blind man at Indianapolis turned aside to avoid 
 a wood-pile, which, unknown to him, had been placed 
 in the line of his usual walk. When asked how he 
 knew there was an obstruction before him, he replied, 
 "I felt it." Perhaps he should have said he heard it. 
 
 The sense of pressure enables a man to use his 
 hand as an accurate balance. Experiment proves 
 that we are able to distinguish nineteen and one- 
 half from twenty ounces by muscular sensibility. 
 
 Exact calculations also show that the finger can 
 perceive a difference of temperature of about one- 
 fourth degree C. ; a sensibility, says Bernstein, 
 " greater than we should have expected, since it is 
 greater than that of an ordinary thermometer." 
 
 By the sense of taste we can detect "one part 
 of sulphuric acid in one thousand parts of water." 
 Carpenter states that ''the experienced wine- 
 taster can distinguish differences in age, purity, 
 place of growth, etc., between liquors that to ordi- 
 nary judgments are alike ; and the epicure gives an 
 exact determination of the spices that are combined 
 in a particular sauce, or the manner in which the 
 animal on which he is feeding was killed " 
 
 Bernstein asserts that the sense of smell has a 
 delicacy surpassing that of any of the other senses. 
 He says, " No chemical reaction can detect such 
 minute particles as those which we perceive in the 
 sense of smell, and even spectrum analysis, which 
 can recognize fifteen-millionths of a grain, is far 
 surpassed in delicacy by our organ of smell." 
 
26 ESSAYS 
 
 Bacon says, in the " Advancement of Learning," 
 that he thinks " it would contribute much to mag- 
 nanimity and the honor of humanity if a collection 
 were made of what the schoolmen call tcltimitics, 
 and Pindar, the tops or summits of human nature, 
 especially from true history, showing what is the 
 ultimate and highest point which human nature has 
 of itself attained in the several gifts of body and 
 mind." Bacon further states that such a collec- 
 tion had been designed in ancient times by Valerius 
 Maximus and Caius Pliny. 
 
 Influenced by Bacon's suggestions, one Thomas 
 Wanley, an Englishman, about a century ago com- 
 piled a work which he called "The Wonders of 
 the Little World ; or, A General History of Man." 
 In the introduction to this work we are told that 
 its author ransacked the history of all times and 
 nations and at a great expense of labor and learning, 
 which renders him as great an instance of human 
 industry as is to be found in his own book ; he 
 o-ieaned several thousand facts which he had dis- 
 
 o 
 
 posed in such order as to form a complete system of 
 the mental and corporal powers and defects of 
 man. 
 
 Upon examination, I find Wanley's book, though 
 quaint and entertaining, by no means authentic, nor 
 is it made up of matter sufficiently important. It 
 deals largely in the traditional, the marvellous,. and 
 the monstrous, and entirely fails of furnishing " that 
 volume of human triumphs " which the great author 
 
THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 2J 
 
 of " The Adv^ancement of Learning" says is want- 
 ing to finish what Valerius Maximus and Pliny the 
 Elder had begun. 
 
 The first and most general reason why we admire 
 man is that he presents himself to our view as the 
 paragon of animals. Whatever may be the origin 
 of the human species, that species is now, by many 
 degrees, superior to the brute. However perfect the 
 missing link may be, we know how much the average 
 man of this period surpasses the average ape. Man 
 '' is the only living creature that can walk or stand 
 erect. ^ His face and eyes look straight to the 
 front." His anatomical structure is in many ways 
 different from that of the ape. The facts are all 
 old but strong. 
 
 The great distinction of man, however, is that the 
 range and quality of his reason and his power of lan- 
 guage lift him immeasurably above the brute creation. 
 His glorious body, quintessence of dust, is worthy of 
 the faculties which manifest themselves through it — 
 reason, imagination, love, will power, speech. Man 
 is majestic. His power over tilings is absolute. 
 
 The grandest statue, the most impressive por- 
 trait, cannot compare with the reality which it 
 strives to imitate. 
 
 Praxiteles carves well; Raphael paints skilfully; 
 but what artist can compare with the Divine Mas- 
 ter } No colored outline or chiselled form can ex- 
 press power, stateliness, symmetry, as does the 
 person of a Coriolanus, an Alexander, a Napoleon, 
 
2S ESSAYS 
 
 a Webster. Long before Goethe was celebrated as 
 a writer, he was admired as an Apollo. We read 
 that when he entered a restaurant people laid down 
 their knives and forks to look at him. Plutarch 
 relates that ** Caius Marcius, being in the depth of 
 winter, and in great hazard of his life, was saved by 
 the majesty of his person ; for while he lived in a 
 private house at Minturn, there was a public officer, 
 a Cambrian by nation, that was sent to be his execu- 
 tioner; he came to this unarmed old man, with his 
 sword drawn, but, astonished by' his noble presence, 
 he cast away his sword, and ran trembling and 
 amazed." 
 
 What glowing canvas or shapen marble reveals 
 queenliness and grace as do the form, attitude, 
 and movement of a splendid woman ! Marlowe, the 
 painter, writing of Mrs. Siddons, said that when, in 
 the character of Queen Katherine, she addressed 
 Wolsey in the words, " Lord Cardinal, to you I 
 speak," her statuesque attitude was the sublimest 
 thing in ancient or modern sculpture. 
 
 What in nature or art so satisfying to the aesthetic 
 sense as a perfect human form or face ! Tradition 
 says that Apelles, ambitious to paint a picture that 
 should worthily represent the Goddess of Beauty, 
 travelled for many years, and, having beheld innum- 
 erable fair women, he mingled the charming features 
 of all in a composition of surpassing loveliness, and 
 produced an ideal Venus to which all Greece yielded 
 adoration. There is another account of the origin 
 
THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 29 
 
 of both this work, the Venus of Cos, and the equally 
 celebrated Venus of Cnidos, executed in marble by 
 Praxiteles. Alexander Walker informs us in his 
 ''Analysis of Female Beauty," that ''both these 
 productions are said to have represented Phryne 
 coming out- of the sea on the beach of Sciron, 
 in the Saronic Gulf, where she was wont to 
 bathe." 
 
 Madame Recamier was so beautiful that the French 
 people all but worshipped her. Once she consented 
 to carry around the purse at St. Roche for a charit- 
 able object. The church was crowded, the people 
 standing upon chairs and pillars to get sight of her 
 as she moved down the aisles. Twenty thousand 
 francs were dropped into her box. At the reception 
 of Bonaparte, on his return from Italy, she rose from 
 her seat to get a good view of him, the crowd caught 
 sight of her, and, turning from the conquering gen- 
 eral, gave a long murmur of admiration. 
 
 We pass from the contemplation of beauty to the 
 study of strength and endurance. What can the 
 " Paragon of Animals " do and bear ? What can he 
 not ? Though man in infancy is helpless, he be- 
 comes at maturity very powerful for a creature of 
 his size. A man's power is estimated to be one-fifth 
 of a horse-power ; that is, the daily labor of a 
 workingman is performed at the expense of force 
 sufficient to lift three hundred and fifty-four tons 
 through one foot. A man of ordinary strength may, 
 by the advantageous application of his muscular 
 
30 ESSAYS 
 
 energy, lift two thousand pounds at a single effort. 
 Dr. Winship of Boston was enabled, by patient prac- 
 tice, to raise the enormous weight of twenty-seven 
 hundred pounds. 
 
 Dr. Bellows says, in his letters from Europe, that 
 the Alpine climbers of the Rifel make their twenty 
 miles' tramp over glaciers and cols eleven or twelve 
 thousand feet high without serious fatigue and with 
 great enjoyment. Frederick Hassaurek reports sim- 
 ilarly of the Equadorean arrieros, ''who trot fourteen 
 or fifteen leagues a day over rugged mountain roads, 
 now ascending steep acclivities, now hurrying down 
 steep and muddy ravines." Byron and his friend 
 swam the Hellespont in emulation of Leander ; Ida 
 Pfaff crossed the Andes on foot ; Marie Mathsdotter 
 made a journey of six hundred miles alone on skates ; 
 a diver won a wager by walking several miles at the 
 bottom of the Hudson. 
 
 There is something more than amusement in the 
 equestrian performances of the circus, the perilous 
 leaps of the Hanlons, the difficult evolutions of the 
 ballet-dancers, the skill of accomplished swordsmen. 
 Yet not in miraculous feats of trained gymnasts 
 and athletes does human strength show at its best. 
 The application of man-power and endurance to 
 useful purposes gives dignity to muscle. Bodily 
 strength and fortitude make it possible for man 
 to obtain and hold dominion over the lower animals 
 and over the substances and forces of nature. Read 
 Victor Hugo's iron description of the man and the 
 
THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 3I 
 
 canon, Vt's et Fzr. Not alone to brain and heart 
 belongs the credit of the conqueror ; the God who 
 makes soul makes sinew too. Samson has a 
 mission to perform as well as Solomon or Isaiah. 
 There is fitness in the just worship of Hercules 
 and Thor. 
 
 Whoso honors labor must honor muscle and nerve. 
 Thanks for the working hand. It is this that piles 
 the wharf with box and bale, builds up the mason's 
 solid stony wall, controls the locomotive's course, 
 flings from his rocking boat the whaler's spear, 
 overcomes the frenzy of the rearing horse, hauls the 
 deep anchor from the ocean bed, holds fast the ship's 
 helm in the roaring storm, directs the musket's fly- 
 ing: shot, and wields the flashino; sabre in defence of 
 liberty and truth. The body is as remarkable for 
 fortitude as for active power. It has the endurance 
 of St. Simeon Stylites : 
 
 " Patient on this tall pillar, 
 I have borne rain, wind, frost, heat, hail, damp and snow." 
 
 The only cosmopolitan, man is at home on the 
 scorching sands of Sahara, and among the wind- 
 beaten crags of Labrador. He explores the marshy 
 tundras of Siberia, and the pestilential jungles of the 
 Dark Continent. He plies his task in the deep, 
 dread mine, and scales the snowy height of Chimbo- 
 razo. He dives to the pearl-strewn bottom of the 
 sea, and rises with Mongolfier's silken ball, above 
 the storm cloud, into the dizzy, empty spaces of 
 eternal silence and cold. 
 
32 ESSAYS 
 
 Men have been known to survive for days, weeks, 
 and even months without sleep ; and numerous 
 examples are on record of persons whose daily 
 slumbers did not exceed four or five hours. Fred- 
 erick the Great was one of these. Soldiers sleep on 
 the frozen ground and rise instantly to arms at the 
 bugle-call. The tough Britons slept on beds of sticks, 
 scorning a softer couch. Canadian lumbermen sleep 
 soundly with their bodies half submerged in the 
 water of a raft, their head pillowed on a log of 
 wood. 
 
 Life may be prolonged from twenty to forty days 
 without food, and from eight to twelve days without 
 either food or drink. Fairly authentic reports assure 
 us that certain Indian fakirs retain vitality for six 
 weeks buried in underground cells of stone. 
 
 The fortitude with which the body suffers pain 
 is amply exemplified in the history of martyrdom. 
 Even more to be admired than physical strength 
 and fortitude, even more than beauty, is manual 
 dexterity. What cannot the hand make and manip- 
 ulate ? Observe the skill of the base-ball player, 
 the oarsman, the archer, the rifleman, the composi- 
 tor, the engraver, the phonographer, the micro- 
 scopist. Not to weary you with illustration, let only 
 the art of the musician engage your mind for a 
 moment. Can we conceive a finer and more com- 
 plex mechanical accomplishment than is exhibited 
 by the violin-playing of a master like Wilhelmj ? 
 Think of what his fingers can do ! 
 
THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 33 
 
 The human hand becomes a thing divine. Even 
 more wonderful are the vocal organs. A trained 
 singer can determine the contraction of the vocal 
 organs to the seventeen-thousandth part of an inch, 
 so nicely is the instrument tuned. Then hear it 
 play ! Listen to Gary or Kellogg or Patti : — 
 
 " The melting voice thro' mazes running, 
 Untwisting all the chains that tie 
 The hidden soul of harmony." 
 
 Do we ask more proof that the human body, with 
 all* its infinite capabilities, is the master-work of the 
 Creator ? 
 
 Shakespeare portrays man in a few sublime sen- 
 tences : — 
 
 " What a piece of work is man ! How noble in 
 reason! How infinite in faculties! In form, and 
 moving, how express and admirable ! In action 
 how like an angel ! In apprehension how like a 
 God ! The beauty of the world ! The paragon of 
 animals ! " 
 
 If the temple wherein the soul dwells for a time is 
 so perfect, if it is so deserving of honor and admira- 
 tion and care, how much more perfect and wonder- 
 ful and worthy of care is the soul itself, and what 
 inexpressible perfection and wealth are comprised in 
 body and soul together, — in man, — in the august 
 creature who was made only a little lower than the 
 angels. 
 
34 ESSAYS 
 
 What a theme is this to invite research, to excite 
 imagination, to inspire reverence for the master- 
 work of the Master-worker ! Mind of Man ! Who 
 can estimate its forces or enumerate its modes of 
 action ? In what language can we portray the intel- 
 ligence which informs the body, making dust divine? 
 
 Is the body beautiful — how can we paint the in- 
 effable loveliness of the spirit ? Is muscle swift and 
 strong ? Thought flashes in an instant to the verge 
 of space. Thought is stronger than Titan, heaving 
 the earth when he breathes. Does the body endure 
 a hundred years .-* The mind endures forever. Is 
 nerve sensitive ? Can the ear discern whispers, and 
 the eye catch the gleam of distant stars ? The mind 
 receives the music of the spheres and sees the pro- 
 cession of ages filing along the shore of time. 
 
 If from the pages of history we should select 
 examples showing the vast intellectual and moral 
 achievements that individuals have actually made, as 
 we have attempted to show by authentic facts what 
 physical accomplishments men really possess, what 
 an overwhelming array of evidence would we have of 
 the possibilities of human nature. Whatever facul- 
 ties or powers have been manifested in any human 
 being exist in embryo, or in a more or less devel- 
 oped state, in every complete individual. 
 
 The thorough development of all the faculties, 
 bodily and mental, of a complete man, would furnish 
 the world with a perfect man. Human culture em- 
 braces all the processes by which we approximate to 
 
THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 35 
 
 such development. These processes are the means 
 of culture. The ends are as numerous and diverse. 
 Culture aims to secure every true, good, and beau- 
 tiful thing, mortal and immortal, to which man can 
 aspire. 
 
36 ESSAYS 
 
 III 
 
 FUNCTIONS OF THE PREPARATORY 
 SCHOOL 
 
 The preparatory school, because it is preparatory, 
 holds a position of peculiar trust among educational 
 institutions. No one loses the impress made upon 
 him, the impulse given him, by the first schooling 
 he receives. 
 
 What is the main purpose of education ? What 
 the essential duty of the teacher } — To develop mind, 
 brain power, mental and moral force. This develop- 
 ment is effected not merely by accumulating knowl- 
 edge, as one puts gold in bank, but also by training 
 the powers of thought and feeling, by arousing the 
 faculties to original action and conscious achieve- 
 ment. The subjects taught are of a value propor- 
 tioned to their good effect on the mind. Lessons, 
 like food, are taken for their nourishing quality. 
 They must enter into the intellectual circulation. 
 Not the studies, but the study educates. 'Tis labor 
 lost to store facts in the brain if they serve no other 
 use than when in books. 
 
 Your pupil is fitted for college when he knows how 
 to answer the entrance examination questions, and, 
 
FUNCTIONS OF THE PREPARATORY SCHOOL 37 
 
 besides this, knows how to think, how to listen, how 
 to learn, how to co-operate with books and teachers, 
 and how, in some degree, to direct his own course. 
 
 For, as Ouintilian says, " Why do we teach pupils 
 but that they may not always require to be taught ? " 
 
 Much is it desired that some plan be devised by 
 which competitive examinations shall test the powers 
 as well as the possessions of the mind. 
 
 None know better than college professors how 
 important it js that the freshmen start with right 
 habits, motives, and aspirations. Some educators 
 make a strange distinction between fitting for college 
 and fitting for life, as if one fitting were incompatible 
 with the other. Better not fit for college at all if 
 that fitting unfits for life, present or prospective. 
 
 Do the most for your pupil to-day, and he will 
 have the best possible preparation for to-morrow. 
 Each day's mental growth should be a beautiful con- 
 clusion to all preceding growths and a hopeful begin- 
 ning to all following. 
 
 The object of all schooling is to strengthen and 
 enrich the human faculties. The best education 
 gives to man's natural powers the right direction and 
 greatest efficiency. The superior teacher endeavors 
 to impart to his pupils both knowledge and the art 
 of getting knowledge. He conveys by his teaching, 
 not only the contents of books, but also correct 
 habits of study, thought, and speech. He seeks to 
 expand the intellect, regulate the affections, and 
 impel the will of his pupils, so that they may be 
 
38 ESSAYS 
 
 trusted to use their minds and acquisitions rightly, 
 at all times and places, without supervision. 
 
 The cramming system, fostered, I fear, as much 
 by the colleges as by the lower schools, is opposed 
 to every axiom of pedagogics, and earnest teachers 
 everywhere protest against it. 
 
 In Strasburg a method prevails of compelling 
 geese to eat in order to increase enormously the 
 size of the liver, iox pates dc foies gras — fat liver 
 pies. The unhappy goose is shut up in a box barely 
 large enough to hold him, and is crammed with food 
 several times a day. His bill is forced open, and the 
 pabulum is poked down his throat with the finger. 
 Alas for the poor goose or gosling who is crammed 
 with indigestible knowledge, be it science, mathe- 
 matics or classics ; whose memory grows prodigious 
 at the expense of health, reason, wit, fancy, feeling, 
 taste, manner, and conscience. 
 
 This process of cramming is part of the compli- 
 cated operation known as machine education, so 
 much, but not enough, criticised and condemned. 
 The terrible '' machine," though found in the most 
 mischievous perfection in large public schools, in 
 cities whence it is difficult to remove it, is set up also 
 in many schools, where there is no excuse for tolerat- 
 ing it. Teachers are not so much to blame for the 
 existence of the "machine" as are the people, too 
 many of whom, though theoretically opposed to it, 
 practically regard it as a useful and necessary part 
 of school apparatus, and, unless they see the usual 
 
FUNCTIONS OF THE PREPARATORY SCHOOL 39 
 
 forms, papers, reports, per cents, text-books, and 
 external routine in general, are apt to take alarm and 
 suspect something visionary. Too often the friends 
 of better education are like the temperance man in 
 Maine, who was in favor of the prohibition law, but 
 opposed to its enforcement. 
 
 Reforms go forward but slowly when not encour- 
 aged by public sentiment. Nevertheless, as a Ger- 
 man philosopher says, *' To elevate above the spirit 
 of the age must be regarded as the end of education." 
 We must pursue in patience the path of our feet. 
 
 Education should proceed with free steps along a 
 broad way. Learners, properly instructed, take an 
 active, happy interest in their work. Teachers 
 often quench desire by pouring in knowledge. They 
 should create thirst for knowledge, and the pupil's 
 eagerness will lead him to the fountains. The 
 only thoroughness possible proceeds from willing 
 effort. The boy who does not care for his own 
 progress does not advance. You cannot teach a 
 pupil what he zvill not learn. A humble mood is 
 the first requisite of the student. Only the docile 
 have discovered the secret of power. Obedience is 
 victory. The demands of a good school are rigorous 
 and exacting. True are the words of Joubert : " Edu- 
 cation should be tender and severe, and not cold and 
 soft." 
 
 Youth needs guidance ; no greater evil can befall 
 a boy than to be left to do as he pleases. The duties 
 that a preparatory school prescribes are imperative, 
 
40 ESSAYS 
 
 and should be done with scrupulous integrity. Let 
 no one hope to reap the sheaf of scholarship except 
 with the sickle of toil. 
 
 One of the functions of a preparatory school is to 
 discover and respect the individuality of pupils. We 
 cannot fashion all characters in the same way, and if 
 we could, we should not. We defy nature when we 
 force John to be James, or either of them to imitate 
 ourself. You must be you ; he, he ; and I, 1. Nature 
 fixes that; education must accept nature's condition. 
 Yet children cannot know themselves or their own 
 bent ; teachers must discover the natural tendency, 
 and act from a knowledge of it. Diversity in dispo- 
 sition does not necessarily call for great difference in 
 treatment. A beginner in learning cannot be a cor- 
 rect judge of what he ought to study or not to study. 
 The young are almost certain to mistake their 
 wishes for capacities. 
 
 The competent educator recognizes diversity of 
 ability in young people, as in older ones, whether 
 owing to hereditary influence, state of health, or 
 other cause. It is not to be expected that pupils 
 develop with equal rapidity or in the same degree 
 under similar schooling. Enough if each works up 
 to the limits of his power. 'Tis a misfortune, not a 
 vice, to be, like Snug the joiner, "slow of study." 
 
 The merit of a teacher is tested by what he does 
 for the tortoise, not by the fact that he causes the 
 hare to run swiftly. Take care of the blockheads 
 and the heads will take care of themselves. 
 
FUNCTIONS OF THE PREPARATORY SCHOOL 4I 
 
 Yet the blockheads and the incorrigibles may, in 
 the long run, win the goal of scholarship and virtue. 
 Stupidity, stolidity, inaptitude for special studies, 
 vicious tendencies, are to be regarded as chronic 
 diseases ; the wise physician of mind may cure them 
 by patient treatment. 
 
 The perfect work of education cannot be accom- 
 plished except in the individual who comes from a 
 stock prudently cultivated for generations. Train- 
 ing your pupil you are continuing the work of 
 his ancestors' teachers, and you are possibly edu- 
 cating his posterity. Seed brain, like seed corn, 
 propagates its kind, improved or deteriorated by cul- 
 ture. When we grade our pupils, is it not just to 
 bear in mind what share of their success or failure 
 depends upon birth and family influence, and what 
 upon their own independent effort ? 
 
 Finally, the preparatory school must take time 
 and pains to cultivate goodness, courtesy, and deli- 
 cacy in pupils. Every class should be a class in 
 conduct, though no precepts need be announced. 
 Every relation of teacher and learner should induce 
 in both gentle and gracious behavior, self-respect, 
 dignity, and sense of honor. The greatest value of 
 any education is its moral value. The schools are 
 the foremost promoters of civilization. They should 
 illustrate the best habits of the best society. 
 
 In a word, the ideal duty of the educator is to 
 make the best of his pupils by preventing all per- 
 versions and assisting all normal faculties to attain 
 
42 ESSAYS 
 
 their true functions. Beautiful and inspiring is that 
 sentence of a wise French thinker : — 
 
 '' Man might be so educated that all his prepos- 
 sessions would be truths, and all his feelings virtues." 
 
 Sacred is the task of the teacher ; let us approach 
 it with reverence, and discharge it with religious 
 fidelity, for education is the science of life, and con- 
 duct is its cognate art. 
 
SCHOOLMASTERY 43 
 
 IV 
 
 SCHOOLMASTERY 
 
 I. GUIDE, SHEPHERD, AND PILOT 
 
 The word paidagogos, from which we derive peda- 
 gogue, a teacher, and pedagogics, the science of 
 education, means primarily, "■ child-leader." The 
 Greek pedagogue, as is well known, walked with the 
 children to and from school, took care of them, 
 helped carry their books and harps, taught and pro- 
 tected them. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon term for pedagogue is child-herd, 
 shepherd of human lambs. 
 
 The word schoolmaster is a strong, serviceable 
 compound containing both Roman and English blood. 
 Master is derived from magis, greater, and stoer, to 
 steer, and hence means chief steerer, principal pilot, 
 or ruling director ; in other words, one who is able 
 to control his affairs so as to obtain successful re- 
 sults, to helm his ship to the desired port. There is 
 a suggestive antithesis between the words inagister 
 and minister, the greater and tlje lesser pilot. The 
 fact that we say schoolmaster and church minister 
 suggests that the teacher has more absolute power 
 
44 ESSAYS 
 
 than the preacher. The former commands and con- 
 trols the young and plastic ; the latter persuades the 
 mature and fixed. 
 
 The function of the teacher has widened, and the 
 dignity of his office has been magnified in modern 
 times. We call the teacher not only pedagogue, 
 child-herd, schoolmaster, but also instructor, pre- 
 ceptor, disciplinarian, educator. The efficacy of his 
 work has doubled because it has come to include 
 her work ; for girls now go to school with the 
 boys, and women teach with men. What an ac- 
 cession to the civilizing forces of the world ! There 
 once was a time when literature was addressed to 
 men only, and when women who wrote or read were 
 considered out of their proper sphere. Now men 
 and women write alike for women and men, and both 
 sexes participate in teaching and learning. 
 
 2. WHAT THE SCHOOLMASTER MASTERS. 
 
 Schoolmastery is a double mastery. It puts and 
 keeps the school, as a whole, and every pupil, in the 
 best condition to learn, and also causes all to learn 
 what is best to know. Further than this and more 
 important, it compels the school and every pupil to 
 do the things they know, thus making bodily, intel- 
 lectual, and emotional acquirements, practical forces 
 in bettering society and self. 
 
 The dual purposes of his office will be present 
 constantly to the mind of the master. His duties 
 are both impersonal and personal, — the class he 
 
SCHOOLMASTERY 45 
 
 teaches is a thing ; the members of it are persons, 
 boys and girls. The school must be regarded as a 
 community working out a problem of social and 
 political duty, and as a number of individuals each 
 destined to a personal existence and bound to pur- 
 sue a special ideal. The master fashions the opinion 
 and colors the conduct of his small republic. He 
 masters both brain and heart. The schoolmaster 
 masters the school's will. 
 
 All this he does, not despotically, not to oppress 
 or to suppress, but to strengthen and expand the 
 powers of his subjects. He bears them up on eagle's 
 wings, for the sake of teaching them to fly. 
 
 3. TEACHING AND GOVERNING. 
 
 Usually the excellent instructor is the successful 
 ruler. The teaching faculty seems to carry with it 
 authority. The disciplined mind makes itself felt 
 as a disciplining mind. Whatever regulates the 
 thoughts of a pupil also regulates his outer conduct. 
 When a boy is thinking, he ** comes to order." Skill 
 in imparting knowledge commands respect and elicits 
 attention. The teacher whose stock of knowledsre 
 is large and varied, and whose method of communi- 
 cating ideas is clear, captures his school by charming 
 their intellect, and thus he escapes conflict with 
 their passions. 
 
 Yet it must be conceded that skill in teaching is 
 not always associated with ability to govern. The 
 pulses of the blood cannot be reached by appeals 
 
46 ESSAYS 
 
 to reason. Man is an animal, especially when he 
 is a boy. The schoolmaster must learn the '' art 
 Napoleon," which, though difficult to acquire, is 
 learnable. Some are born to rule. Equally true 
 is it that some are born with tact for teaching. 
 Now and then one appears in the flesh, endowed 
 with special gifts of rulership and teachership. But 
 if the schools wait for Providence to send them 
 miraculous masters, they must wait too long. 
 
 The professor of pedagogy should give his scheme 
 scope enough to include the art of governing youth 
 as a necessary part of the teacher's preparation. 
 The normal-school graduate, when he goes forth to 
 seek a position, ought to bear with him as distinct 
 understanding of how to govern as of how to teach. 
 He must widen his conception of the training that 
 fits him to educate boys and girls. How can he 
 educate them in the elements of learning, unless he 
 knows how to hold them in a receptive attitude ? 
 He must o-et at them in order to instruct them. Per- 
 haps more than half the teacJdng zve do is ivasted 
 becaiLse we do not, by controlling their wills, prepare 
 pnpils to receive knowledge. 
 
 4. PERSUASION AND FORCE. 
 
 Themistocles, the Athenian general, demanding 
 tribute of the revolted cities, gave it out that ''he 
 had on board his ships two powerful divinities — Per- 
 suasion and Force ; and whoever would not follow 
 the former must submit to the latter." The school- 
 
SCHOOLMASTERY 47 
 
 master relies on the same ''two powerful divinities," 
 to secure obedience to the necessary laws by which 
 the intellect, the affections, and the will of youth are 
 rightly educated. 
 
 Obedience to proper authority for just and desira- 
 ble objects is necessary from every one. The teacher 
 should assume that every salutary school law is 
 sacred, and must be observed, not because he com- 
 mands so, but because it is salutary. The teacher is 
 as imperatively bound to execute good laws as his 
 pupils are to comply with them. No personal issue 
 need be made. The law is impersonal ; the teacher 
 reveres the law because it is the means of doing 
 good to his pupil; he says, like Paul, "The law is 
 ojir schoolmaster," — yours and mine; he rejoices 
 when the pupil conforms to the rule of right; he is 
 sorry when the pupil falls below the required stand- 
 ard and compels the lawgiver to become judge and 
 executive. 
 
 The teacher, like the parent, unites in his office 
 the three governmental functions. He must define 
 what is to be done ; he must decide the manner of 
 doing it ; he must enforce the duties demanded. 
 There is constant danger that he will abuse his 
 unlimited power, through ignorance or want of self- 
 control. Therefore he should be forever on his 
 guard. The history of education shows too many 
 examples of the mistakes of the pedagogue in the 
 art of rulership. The records unhappily prove that 
 Force has often been appealed to when Persuasion 
 
48 ESSAYS 
 
 should have been sought. If this were not so, the 
 literature of the world would not present so fright- 
 ful a gallery of the pictures of ill-tempered and 
 despotic schoolmasters. 
 
 Books on school government repeat the maxim 
 that force should be resorted to only after other 
 means are exhausted. This is often, but not always, 
 true. Force should occasionally be the first resort, 
 especially with very young pupils and with older 
 ones in whom, as Plato says, '' The fountain of rea- 
 son is not opened." It is impossible to persuade a 
 mind incapable of reasoning, or to move feelings 
 incapable of activity. The object of both persua- 
 sion and force is to set the wrong right. When the 
 wrong is set right, both persuasion and force become 
 useless. 
 
 The purpose of government, and therefore of its 
 agencies, persuasion and force, is twofold, having 
 reference to scholarship and to conduct. The stu- 
 dent must study — must obey the laws that regulate 
 the development of memory, reason, judgment, lan- 
 guage. But since conduct is more than learning, he 
 must also behave properly — must obey the laws of 
 his moral nature. The kind of persuasion and the 
 kind of force that induce him to master his lessons 
 and to control his general conduct, visible and invisi- 
 ble, is what the schoolmaster must go in quest of, 
 and seek till he finds. That secret is his holy grail. 
 
SCHOOLMASTERY 49 
 
 5. DR. Arnold's way. 
 
 Mr. Stanley, in his biography of Thomas Arnold, 
 says of that celebrated teacher : — 
 
 " Pie recognized in the peculiar vices of boys the same evils which, 
 when grown, become the source of so much social mischief. He 
 governed his school on precisely the same principles he would have 
 governed a great empire ; and constantly exemplified to his own mind, 
 or the minds of his scholars, the highest truths in the simplest rela- 
 tions of boys towards each other and towards him. The boys were 
 treated as school-boys, but as school-boys who must grow up to be 
 Christian men; whose age did not prevent their faults from being 
 sins, or their excellences from being noble and Christian virtues, 
 whose situation did not make the application of principles to their 
 daily life an impractical vision. ... In proportion as he disliked an 
 assumption of false manliness in boys was his desire to cultivate in 
 them true manliness, as the only step to something higher, and to 
 dwell upon earnest principles and moral thoughtfulness as the great 
 and distinguishing mark between good and evil. Hence his wish 
 that as much as possible should be done by the boys, and nothing for 
 them ; hence arose his practice of treating the boys as gentlemen and 
 reasonable beings, of making them respect themselves by the mere 
 respect he showed them, of showing that he appealed to their own 
 common sense and conscience." 
 
 Dr. Arnold's method of dealing with the boys of 
 Rugby has been applied in more than one American 
 school with the most beneficial results. Indeed, 
 the plan seems more American than English, being 
 founded on a democratic idea. Mr. Hughes tells us 
 that the Rugby boys told Dr. Arnold no lies because 
 they knew he would believe tJiein. Confidence begets 
 confidence, suspicion excites suspicion. The conflict, 
 open or secret, that goes on between teacher and 
 pupils in many, if not in most schools, is unnatural 
 
50 ESSAYS 
 
 and unnecessary. The majority of boys and girls 
 will co-operate fully and sincerely with a competent 
 teacher who, without reserve, takes them at their 
 word, in full faith, and acts upon the theory of 
 mutual trust. The minority he can master com- 
 pletely with the aid and sympathy of the majority. 
 
 The emphasis that Arnold placed upon inculcating 
 ''earnest principles and moral thoughtfulness " in 
 his pupils points to the central fact in the science 
 and art of school government. Boys and girls can 
 never be trusted by parent or teacher who does not 
 rely on their own moral sense, and learn to exercise 
 their minds in the direction of conscious, thoughtful 
 self-sfovernment. In other words, individual charac- 
 ter must be educated and developed in boys and 
 girls. 
 
 6. HOW NOT TO GOVERN A SCHOOL. 
 
 A gentleman owning suburban grounds, with fruit 
 orchard and flower garden, put up at conspicuous 
 points on the border of his premises, the warning 
 inscription, "No Trespass," painted in threatening 
 capitals of black on a white board. The purpose of 
 these imperative notices was to prevent depredation ; 
 the effect was to provoke the wanton spirit of all the 
 boys of the neighborhood. The curt notice was con- 
 strued into a challenge ; the boards were battered to 
 pieces with stones ; raids were organized to spoliate 
 the unwise gentleman's vineyard and water-melon 
 patch. His vigilance to anticipate trouble antago- 
 
SCHOOLMASTERY 5 1 
 
 nized Tom, Dick, and Harry, and precipitated the 
 evil it was easrer to avert. 
 
 The gentleman's wife employed a different and 
 more successful method of protecting the place. 
 She caused a hedge of rose-bushes to be planted 
 around the premises, and the obnoxious warnings 
 were removed. When the next June came, " the 
 boys " came also ; but instead of marauding, they 
 paused to admire the beautiful and friendly barrier 
 of blossoms, and, after consultation, concluded that 
 it would be a shame to destroy what Mrs. Thompson 
 had provided for the pleasure of the wayfarer. The 
 prudence of Mrs. Thompson had quite changed the 
 disposition of Thomas, Richard, and Henry. 
 
 Prohibitory orders, when uncalled for, are sure to 
 bring out antagonism. Forbidden fruit is ever 
 sought, whether it be good or evil. Blue Beard's 
 wife looks into the closet. Tell a boy that a few 
 drops of nitro-glycerine will blow his head off — he 
 straightway studies chemistry to find out how to 
 make nitro-glycerine. Tell him you will skin him 
 alive if he don't behave himself, and he will set all 
 his wits to invent ways and means of misdemeanor. 
 
 Therefore think twice before you threaten to pun- 
 ish for prospective violations of the law. Expect 
 your pupils to do right, yet be prepared for them to 
 do wrong. Neither require nor prohibit acts that 
 you are unable to control. 
 
52 ESSAYS 
 
 7. THE TRUE STORY OF '* RUSTY NAILS." 
 
 A very unpromising lad, reputed incorrigible, 
 applied for admission to a certain city school. He 
 sullenly admitted that he had been expelled. The 
 urchin rejoiced in the peculiar nickname " Rusty 
 Nails." Rusty Nails had been rattaned until his 
 body was all callous. He had won some reputation 
 as a teacher-fighter. The proprietor of the new 
 school decided to take him on probation, at the 
 beseeching solicitation of his father, an eccentric 
 gentleman of frail will but stalwart affections. So 
 on Monday morning Rusty Nails entered the new 
 school, filled from crown to toe top full of direst 
 insubordination. Now, it happened that the first day 
 glided by under influences strangely pleasant, and 
 no occasion arose for any sort of conflict. The 
 teachers and schoolmates of the notorious bad 
 boy acted towards him just as if he were one of 
 the family, showing him perhaps a little special 
 courtesy because he was a stranger. The second 
 day shed its civilizing light and warmth on him, and 
 a curious change began to take place in Rusty 
 Nails. A month elapsed, and the boy carried home 
 a '' Report," giving his father the astonishing 
 intelligence that his son's '' deportment " was '' ex- 
 cellent," and that he had ninety-four per cent in 
 "problems." 
 
 *' What is the meaning of this } " asked the in- 
 credulous parent. " There must be some mistake ; 
 
SCHOOLMASTERY 
 
 53 
 
 your ' Reports ' before this always gave your conduct 
 as very bad. Were they true, or is this ? " 
 
 "Well, pa," said Rusty Nails with a broad grin, 
 " I'll tell you how it is. Them ' Reports ' was true, 
 and this here one is true. The fact is, nobody in 
 the new school seemed to want to lick me, and there 
 was no use in being bad." 
 
 8. THE IDEAL TEACHER. 
 
 The model teacher should be — should he not be a 
 perfect man ? Surely should the teacher whose mis- 
 sion it is to point the way to perfection, whose special 
 work in life is so grand in its scope and objects, 
 surely should he be a developer of men. Yes, " let 
 him first be a man " in the full and vigorous exercise 
 of all those qualities that go to make up human 
 nature. Let him be a man armed at all points for 
 the varying fortunes of the battle of life. Let him, 
 so far as in him lies, be such a man as in his own con- 
 ception excellent education may produce, so that he 
 may stand both as guide and example. Let him be 
 a man each day rising towards his ever-receding 
 ideal, each day realizing his highest possible destiny 
 in the constant endeavor to attain unto the unattain- 
 able, each day approximating unto perfection. 
 
 Within the circumference of his activity as a 
 human being and professor of humanity is included 
 the smaller circle of his particular vocation as an 
 educator of the young. But each special calling de- 
 mands some peculiar qualities in its votary, and some 
 
54 ESSAYS 
 
 distinctive adaptations. While practising his chosen 
 profession, art, or trade, every man should be appro- 
 priately costumed and equipped, and should give 
 himself up with all his mind and with all his might 
 to the duties of the day. The soldier, armed and 
 uniformed for war, is familiar with the manual of 
 tactics, and is prepared to march and to fight. The 
 surgeon, differently trained, attired, and provided, has 
 mastered anatomy and knows how to use his case of 
 instruments. The priest has a preparation, apparel, 
 and manner suited to the pulpit. The teacher, like- 
 wise, requires a professional outfit adapted to his 
 field of operations. This field is the school and its 
 environments. The obligation of the schoolmaster 
 is to educate to the best of his ability an assemblage 
 of children, over whom he exercises an almost un- 
 limited authority. This authority is not natural, but 
 delegated, and, acting in the place of many parents, 
 the teacher occupies a very delicate position, beset 
 with difficulties. He holds responsible relations to 
 private confidences and to public trusts; he links 
 families to the State. At once he is nominally 
 parent and magistrate, yet suffers the disadvantage 
 of being neither of these in reality. He has no blood 
 claim to the obedience and affection of his pupils, 
 and seldom thinks of appealing to police force or 
 judicial intervention in the management of his small 
 community. In fact, the family and the State both 
 stand aloof and trust him, or, rather, require him to 
 sustain his position, and establish his reputation by 
 
SCHOOLMASTERY 
 
 55 
 
 virtue of independent judgment, skill, and sagacity. 
 The tenure of his office depends upon the results he 
 achieves. In many schools, especially country and 
 village schools, everything is trusted to the teacher. 
 He can do as he pleases, provided only that he gives 
 satisfaction. He is expected to understand what he 
 is about. ''Nothing succeeds like success;" but 
 how achieve success ? How acquire the mastery of 
 the situation and the confidence of pupil, parent, 
 trustee, and people ? 
 
 Circumstances may do much to aid the teacher : 
 an intelligent and liberal community, a good school- 
 house eligibly located, convenient furniture and ap- 
 paratus, attractive books to study and read, pictures 
 on the wall, a piano, flowers. But all these are non- 
 essential : the teacher is more than circumstances — 
 he is centre. Circumstances are things which stand 
 around ; the master creates circumstances for his 
 necessity. Garfield's noted and notable saying can- 
 not be quoted too often — "A bench with Mark 
 Hopkins seated on it becomes a university." The 
 teacher who ascribes his failure to the schoolhouse, 
 or the text-book, or the incorrigible boy, resembles 
 the farmer who condemned the prairie because it was 
 destitute of trees, and the forest because it was 
 covered with woods. We must take things as the); 
 are. 
 
 Leaving out of consideration the teacher's deal 
 ings with his employers, patrons, and the neighbor- 
 hood in general, let us inquire what qualifications 
 
56 ESSAYS 
 
 and deportment will best promote his success in the 
 specific work of his six or eight hours' daily educat- 
 ing within the schoolroom. Happy for him if nature 
 has cut him out for the business he has chosen. Un- 
 happy for him and his charge if he is unfit in body 
 or mind for that business. To win and sway his 
 school, to secure respect and love, he should possess 
 an attractive exterior, a dignified bearing, a pleasant 
 face, an agreeable voice,, a charming manner: to 
 command obedience and inspire awe, he should also 
 have the look and manner pertaining to authority, 
 — must be every inch a king, and ready to sacrifice 
 inclination and sentimental softness to order and 
 law. The sternest are sometimes the gentlest. He 
 must be a benignant angel to loyal and trusty pupils, 
 but a terror to the shirk, the sneak, the liar. Yet 
 there need be no putting-on of threatening airs, or 
 clothing the offended powers with thunder. Napo- 
 leon did not " swell round." 
 
 Too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the 
 necessity to the teacher of bodily vigor, activity, and 
 vigilance. The master, or mistress, must have good 
 eyes and ears — keen senses generally, and know 
 how to employ them. Ever on the alert, and yet 
 never perturbed, he must know what is going on and 
 what is coming on. His will, like a reserved military 
 force, must rise at call, if need be, to meet and over- 
 throw the combined rebellious will of his school ; for, 
 be he never so just, there will tumults arise on 
 occasion, and the very best pupils will sometimes 
 
SCHOOLMASTERY 5/ 
 
 conspire to resist their own good. Veterans in 
 teaching will tell you that when everything seems 
 perfectly serene in school, and all goes, as it 
 were, without effort or friction, then look out for 
 trouble ! 
 
 It is bad policy for the teacher to appeal to the 
 school for personal sympathy by alluding to tasks, 
 sacrifices, headaches, or the like. But if it should 
 hap to become known to the pupils that the teacher 
 suffered and made no complaint, the moral effect is 
 powerful. Boys especially admire one who takes 
 hurts without '' squealing." 
 
 Due attention to external appearance and what may 
 be called physical accomplishments, no less than to 
 social arts, is quite as necessary as the regular mental 
 and moral preparation for which the teacher's license 
 vouches. The certificate may testify that its bearer's 
 character is irreproachable and his scholarship supe- 
 rior, but in spite of all that, boorish behavior, slovenly 
 habits, vulgar associations, will counteract every paper 
 recommendation, and defeat every ambition of the 
 candidate for high position in the teacher's profession. 
 In saying this I do not underrate the supreme im- 
 portance of complete intellectual equipment. 
 
 The usual preparation of teachers for the practice 
 of their profession is desultory and confused. It 
 should be definite and methodical. 
 
 The special training, the professional fitting or 
 finishing, should be preceded by a sound education. 
 The young man or woman who contemplates becom- 
 
58 ESSAYS 
 
 ing a teacher should first obtain a clear and full 
 knowledge of the leading facts and principles of sci- 
 ence, language, and literature ; should get a good 
 academic education, a large fund of information, a 
 ready facility in mental operations. Such funda- 
 mental schooling is what every cultivated man and 
 woman nowadays is assumed to possess. This is 
 the usual American stepping-stone to the profes- 
 sions. 
 
 But the person of sound general education is not 
 a teacher any more than he is a lawyer, a doctor, a 
 theologian, an artist, an actor. There maybe " born 
 teachers," as there are born musicians and orators ; 
 but I am now writing of the rule, not the exception, 
 of made teachers, not the miraculous few who came 
 into the world labelled First Class Edjtcator. Was 
 there, in fact, ever such prodigy, or is the ''born 
 teacher" a myth.? The "born teacher," if there 
 be such, will not bring a knowledge of algebra and 
 parsing into the world with him, and therefore he, 
 too, must go to school awhile. The basilar education 
 furnishes whomsoever has it a pedestal on which to 
 erect any tower of particular knowledge, but is not 
 itself a professional fitting. It it true, however, that 
 as teachers deal with the elements of learning, the 
 experience of every student is, in some sense, a prep- 
 aration to teach, wherefore all good schools partake 
 of the nature of normal schools, and especially so 
 when they exemplify the best methods of instruction. 
 The scholar who has been taug-ht and trained bv an 
 
SCHOOLMASTERY 59 
 
 expert will not fail, if he becomes a teacher, to imi- 
 tate the example of his own preceptor. 
 
 Nevertheless, no matter how fortunate may have 
 been the general education of a student, he needs 
 his special course before entering a special profession. 
 It should be the function of the Normal School, or 
 the pedagogical Chair of the University, to conduct 
 him along this special course, just as special institu- 
 tions and professors guide students to the degree of 
 Medical Doctor, Civil Enginefr, or Bachelor of Laws. 
 The student who, on account of poverty, or any 
 other cause, cannot go to normal school or univer- 
 sity, may study at home. He will miss the advantage 
 of lectures, quiz, and examination, and the benefit 
 which comes from attrition with other minds, but 
 there are some compensations for his loss. Books 
 know everything that is known. Books are not ex- 
 pensive. Books rival the professors and compete 
 with the university. What must the student read 
 in order to learn the business of teaching ? 
 
 Of course he must master, in detail, the branches 
 he is expecting to teach. These he has studied al- 
 ready, in the childish way, at the common school. 
 They must be restudied in the manly way. The 
 maturer mind will discover in the elementary text- 
 books much that escaped the beginner. The one 
 or two manuals to which the school-boy's lessons 
 were confined will be supplemented and corrected by 
 many others which the grown-up investigator will 
 peruse. 
 
60 ESSAYS 
 
 But it is not enough to know accurately the contents 
 of the text-books. The pupil reads to acquire and 
 memorize; the teacher reads to impart. His voca- 
 tion requires him to know how to teach in general, 
 and how to teach every particular branch with the 
 best economy of his own and the pupil's time and 
 strength. This requisition calls for a close, clear, 
 and complete study of methods of teaching. 
 
 Furthermore, since the great object of education 
 is to develop the humar^iind, the teacher must know 
 the structure and nature of the mind, — must know 
 psychology, the science of mind. 
 
 And as the mind is manifested through the bod- 
 ily organism, and is dependent on the brain, the 
 teacher should know, thoroughly as possible, the 
 science of physiology and collateral branches. An 
 understanding of psychology and physiology — mind 
 and body — must underlie any scheme of education 
 that can justly be called scientific. 
 
 Educational practice, as now conducted, is largely 
 empirical. Yet much of it rests upon sound maxims 
 derived from successful experiment. Perhaps it can 
 be said with truth that modern education is an ex- 
 perimental science, and that our progress depends 
 not alone upon the direct study of the faculties of 
 mind, but also upon what has been demonstrated in 
 the past by actual trial. The History of Education 
 therefore contains the philosophy of education, and 
 the teacher must give hundreds of hours to the study 
 of that history. 
 
NATURE THE SOVEREIGN SCHOOLMISTRESS 6l 
 
 V 
 
 NATURE THE SOVEREIGN SCHOOL- 
 MISTRESS 
 
 Mother Nature is the sovereign schoolmistress. 
 The teacher who does not co-operate with her fails ; 
 who does co-operate with her, succeeds, for she is the 
 authorized principal of all the schools. Her creden- 
 tials come from on high. Her certificates are signed 
 by the Great Examiner. 
 
 Man has his part in training his fellow-man ; he is 
 his brother's keeper ; but his duty is limited by his 
 ignorance. Human responsibility extends to the 
 verge of human wisdom and virtue, which is soon 
 reached, and beyond that verge Divine hands relieve 
 us of our tasks and cares. Children come out of the 
 mystery of Heaven, and are consigned to our trust 
 to be nurtured, taught, made ready for the career 
 called living, and the destiny called dying. From 
 God we come into the world ; out of the world we go 
 to God. From the infinite unknown to the infinite 
 unknown is the brief flight called mortal existence. 
 
 Nature, the daughter of God, sits in the earth to 
 interpret her Father's will. Her lap is filled with 
 
62 ESSAYS 
 
 the records of centuries, and she opens to man sibyl- 
 line chapters foretelling what humanity shall become. 
 She is the Sovereign Schoolmistress. Hear ye her 
 voice. 
 
 Man's first duty is to educate his kind ; and to 
 educate is to assist nature, not to supplant her, not 
 to oppose her. Could we only know how to adjust 
 ourselves to the laws of God (which are nature's 
 laws), we might hope to educate with a potency 
 hitherto not dreamed of. 
 
 We must educate children — must instruct, con- 
 trol, inspire, direct them, by the wisest means we 
 know ; but we must not forget that they also educate 
 themselves, or are educated by inworking forces ; 
 that the very structure of their being determines 
 their culture ; that nature gives impulse to every 
 faculty, and defines every function of body and mind. 
 
 Teachers cannot create mental and moral elements 
 in pupils ; as well may they try to create physical 
 organs by gymnastic training. We may retard, de- 
 velop, regulate, harmonize existing organs and forces, 
 but that is all we can do. The educator's utmost 
 science is to know nature's laws ; his supreme art is 
 to co-operate with them. This is the economy of 
 economies. 
 
 Boys and girls should not be left to run wild ; 
 nevertheless, the same instinct and energy which 
 runs them wild is the power on which to rely in pro- 
 pelling them up the hill of civilization. The misap- 
 plication of power is evil, but power itself is good. 
 
NATURE THE SOVEREIGN SCHOOLMISTRESS 63 
 
 As where there is life there is hope, so where there is 
 mental force there is promise. It is a radical mistake 
 to regard the faculties of the soul as essentially bad 
 or wrong. There are no evil passions or base pro- 
 pensities. The complete man possesses all the fac- 
 ulties named or not named in mental and moral 
 philosophy. The perfect man uses all, misuses none, 
 of these faculties. Evil springs from misuse, and 
 misuse is the result of ignorance more than of con- 
 scious law-breaking. The teacher has cause for dis- 
 couragement and grieving when he discovers a strong 
 faculty perverted ; yet he should take heart from the 
 reflection that conversion is always possible ; that, in 
 fact, the best skill of his days must be employed in 
 converting. One may deal confidently with a devel- 
 oped faculty, — with an active, positive, vigorous 
 force ; but how much more difficult and perplexing it 
 is to germinate an embryo, to hatch an ^g^ of the 
 mind, and feed the chick through the gaps of infantile 
 feebleness ! 
 
 There must be some natural order of development 
 in man. Each individual grows, feels, wills, acts, 
 according to the tendency and possibility of his 
 nature. As observations in meteorology bring us 
 nearer and nearer to the realization that every change 
 in the weather depends on fixed laws, and that even 
 the variable winds and electric storms obey an invari- 
 able force, so the study of man's nature tends to 
 prove that what seems accidental and irregular in 
 character and conduct may be in accordance with 
 
64 ESSAYS 
 
 persistent forces understood and applied by superior 
 wisdom. Men are alike in elementary constitution, 
 but diverse in development. From unity education 
 produces infinite variety. Nature seems to abhor 
 sameness. She differentiates, and we err when we 
 oppose her method. 
 
 The organization of the human being is so in- 
 tricate, so complicated, so multitudinous, that science 
 is foiled in her attempts to discover the law of its 
 operation. Here is a clock-work which no one but 
 the maker understands. It has been running for 
 thousands of years, — some say for millions, — and 
 yet it has not revealed the mystery of its structure. 
 We can see the index moving, but we cannot see the 
 wheels and springs, the weights and pulleys, within. 
 We observe eccentric attachments, but know not 
 how they are organically connected with the machine. 
 We may break open the case, and curiously pry 
 within, and learnedly name the parts, — protoplasniy 
 and gray matter, and iiei^vc-force ; but, alas ! when 
 the clock is broken, it is not a clock. 
 
 The most pedagogical pedagogue must frankly own 
 that man is a mystery. But this mystery is not all 
 mysterious. Some things we know, and much we 
 may learn, and all is known to the Creator. Using 
 what we know, learning what we can, and trusting 
 Him for the rest, let us enter our schoolrooms and 
 do our work 
 
NATURE THE SOVEREIGN SCHOOLMISTRESS 6$ 
 
 II. 
 
 Much time is wasted at school in attempting to 
 teach children what they are not old enough to learn. 
 The farmer is not so unwise as to plant corn in 
 January. And how foolish the parent or teacher 
 who thinks to grow, in the child's brain, the reason- 
 ing powers, the conscience, the moral sense, before 
 the season ! When my pupil was six years old he 
 could not comprehend the simple elements of arith- 
 metic and grammar, though he studied by the hour, 
 and stained his slate with tears. When he was 
 twelve he found no difficulty in elementary arith- 
 metic and grammar ; and he wondered that he had 
 ever regarded these studies with disgust. Nature, 
 thou patient schoolmistress, why didst thou not 
 teach me not to teach ? 
 
 We do not look for ripe fruit on succulent sprouts. 
 Why expect the elaborate essence of morality in 
 early youth.? Green apples are bitter and sour. 
 The fond mother weeps at what she deems the 
 depravity of her young son. Remember the boy is a 
 boy, not a man. He is yet in the savage state of his 
 individual life. The marvellous insight of Plato 
 long ago discovered the real state of the case. 
 ''The boy is the most unmanageable of all animals. 
 He is the most insidious, sharp-witted, and insub- 
 ordinate of animals." But hear how the wise Greek 
 explained the fact. The boy is thus, because " he has 
 the fountain of reason in him not yet regulated." 
 
66 ESSAYS 
 
 Yes, boyhood is the primitive period of human 
 life. It is a heroic age, a dramatic era, a time of 
 war and love, but not civilized, much less enlightened. 
 Shall we call it the Thor period, of which the lead- 
 ing idea is Jiammej-f Boy as boy is interesting to 
 contemplate, but who could bear to exist with a 
 perpetual boy } He is a never-ending noise, and 
 a ceaseless explosion of dynamitical violence. Our 
 mental ejaculation to the average boy is that of 
 Dickens's benevolent Cheeryble to his brother : 
 " Devil take you, Ned, God bless you ! " 
 
 Have patience with these obdurate young brethren. 
 Their ugly transitional traits will not last. Let the 
 surgent blood leap while it will, and let the animal 
 grow. Bear and forbear. Yes, be thankful that 
 Sam is Thor, hammering thunder out of the sky ; 
 not pale Narcissus, drooping by the brook of death. 
 The finer principles of benevolence, pity, piety, 
 gentleness, self-sacrifice, are of slow culture. You, 
 there, who sit at the teacher's desk, have you quite 
 tamed the savage in you } 
 
 Trust Mother Nature to punish the boys. Gracious 
 Matron ! she forever whispers deep lessons to their 
 hearts. Sam weeps on her consolatory bosom, after 
 .disdaining his mother's plea, his father's condemna- 
 tion, and his master's rod. Yes, rigorous yet gentle 
 nature knows the boys will not forever stone the 
 pigs, slay the cats, and pull off the birds' heads ; 
 they will not always monopolize the nicest of the 
 apples, and beat their sisters for reporting the facts. 
 
NATURE THE SOVEREIGN SCHOOLMISTRESS 6/ 
 
 Experience discovers limitations to their tyranny, 
 and teaches even their selfishness to seek gratifica- 
 tion in less objectionable ways. They throw away 
 the Thor hammer of their own accord, seeing it is 
 not the best instrument with which to win hap- 
 piness. 
 
 The farmer finds it almost impossible to crush, 
 with roller, harrow, and hoe, the stubborn clods of 
 his field ; but under the action of rain, frost, 
 sunshine, and gravity, how often those same 
 stubborn clods fall to pieces of themselves, and 
 crumble down about the roots of the wheat and the 
 barley ! So the teacher finds it difficult to subdue 
 and reform incorrigible propensities that, if left 
 alone, will soften, yield, and disappear, under the 
 beneficent influences which commonly bear upon 
 youth. How many efficient assistants every teacher 
 might have if he were wise enough to recognize 
 them ! The first assistant ought always to be the 
 teacher's own pupil. Ah ! I spoke without reflec- 
 tion, and should have said the teacher is only first 
 assistant to the learner ; for real education must 
 always be, in the main, self-help. 
 
 III. 
 
 He who co-operates with nature in the work of 
 educating the young will discover that nature's text- 
 book is illuminated on every page with the inspiring 
 word, Freedom. Freedom is the best good. Freedom 
 is good for the body, good for the soul, good for 
 
6S ESSAYS 
 
 man — for each organ and part of him, even to the 
 minutest atom that enters into his composition, and 
 for every motion of life or spirit that stirs his being. 
 Freedom is strength, activity, life, — loss of freedom 
 is feebleness, paralysis, death. Freedom is neither 
 license nor constraint ; neither stimulation nor stu- 
 pefaction ; nor the condition of the over-nourished, 
 hot-house plant, nor of the neglected weed by the 
 barren wayside ; nor of the rank, untended wild vine 
 of the forest ; but it is the state of the cultivated 
 vegetation of the fertile, sunny garden bed. Free- 
 dom is the condition which allows man to become 
 his perfect self in the happiest way. It is favorable 
 opportunity to conform to the law of individuality, 
 to adjust man's faculties to their natural and proper 
 use, to seek and find one's own physical and spiritual 
 heritage, and to reach the full stature of independent 
 manhood. J Freedom is not the right to do as you 
 please ; it is the liberty to do and become what you 
 are capable of in the legitimate exercise of your own 
 powers — the privilege of obeying the eternal com- 
 mandments inscribed by the Creator i^on your 
 members and your mind. ' Freedom, ideal and abso- 
 lute, is the glorious liberty of the sons of God. 
 
 There can be no true obedience without freedom. 
 To obey the laws of health I must be permitted to 
 obtain proper food, practise suitable exercise, breathe 
 pure air, and sleep in peace. The mind's health, 
 also, requires wholesome surroundings and oppor- 
 tunity to enjoy them. Elegantly has Holmes elabo- 
 
NATURE THE SOVEREIGN SCHOOLMISTRESS 69 
 
 rated an old, familiar figure illustrating my subject: 
 " Look at the flower of a morning glory the evening 
 before the dawn which is to see it unfold. The deli- 
 cate petals are twisted into a spiral which, at the 
 appointed hour, when the sunlight touches the hid- 
 den springs of its life, will uncoil itself, and let the 
 daylight into the chambers of its virgin heart. But 
 the spiral must unwind by its own law, and the hand 
 that shall try to hasten the process will only spoil 
 the blossom that would have expanded in symmet- 
 rical beauty under the rosy fingers of the morning." 
 Not only must the plant blossom in its own way, 
 it must remain of its own species. Shall one say in 
 obstinate pride or blind conceit, '* I will make of this 
 plant what I please. I will conform it to my ideal, — 
 it shall bear peaches, — it shall bloom roses, — it 
 shall ripen corn, — it shall grow, like Jack's bean, a 
 hundred miles high, — it shall be a creeping moss " ? 
 Or shall we reflect, with humility, as co-workers with 
 God, " What will come of this marvellous perennial 
 that I am permitted to train ? What lovely and here- 
 tofore uiKieard-of blossom may it unfold ? How can 
 I best nurture and protect its tender leaves ? How 
 can I discover what soil, situation, and culture are 
 best adapted to it ? " 
 
 I Let us emancipate ourselves from the slavery of a 
 mechanical system which ignores nature, forgets 
 God, and reduces us to tasked operatives, supervis- 
 ing a spinning-jenny. Emancipate the children from 
 the tread-mill task of grinding out lessons for the 
 
JO ESSAYS 
 
 sake of recording the grists. Lead them back to 
 the freedom of nature ; make them conscious of 
 mind, thought, affection, duty, and joy. Feed them 
 not on husks, but call them to the fruity orchard of 
 vital knowledge, and to the flowing waters of living 
 .virtue. Measure success, not by the number of sub- 
 jects taught, but by the number of minds roused to 
 action. Count it no merit to have "passed" a class 
 with an average per cent of 99, unless you can claim 
 also that the class has learned to love learning. 
 Show one boy or one girl whom you have induced to 
 study as a pleasure rather than a tax, and you de- 
 serve the crown of praise. Make of this boy an 
 original man; make of this girl a woman whose 
 mind to her shall Kingdom be, and no crown of 
 praise can add glory to your brow, j 
 
 Oh, that some blessed revival could come upon the 
 brain and heart of our profession ; could fall like 
 sunlight from heaven and illuminate and warm us 
 for our duty ! For we forget the principal things we 
 should remember. We lapse into unconsciousness 
 of our greatest privileges. The teacher should more 
 than teach, more than govern, more than love ; 
 he should inspire his school. • Inspire, breathe into 
 the pupil the animative principle, the soul-breath, the 
 awakening spirit that gives consciousness of the 
 need of activity, power, culture, education. 
 
TOPICS OF THE TIME 7I 
 
 VI 
 
 TOPICS OF THE TIME 
 
 I. "experiments of light" 
 
 ''God, on the first day of creation, created light 
 only, giving to that work an entire day, in which no 
 material substance was created. So must we like- 
 wise, from experience of every kind, first endeavor 
 to discover true causes and axioms, and seek for ex- 
 periments of light, not for experiments of fruit. 
 For axioms rightly discovered and established supply 
 practice with its instruments, not one by one, but in 
 clusters, and draw after them trains and troops of 
 works." 
 
 This text, from that inspired, philosophic bible. 
 Bacon's "Novum Organum," suggests a sermon, not 
 more important to the scientific explorer than to the 
 practical educator. That ignorant men should fail 
 to see the worth of " Experiments of Light " is to 
 be expected, for they do not reason far enough to 
 comprehend general principles. But that educated 
 men — men educated to educate others — should 
 hold a prejudice against such "experiments" is 
 almost incredible. Yet we know that many teachers 
 do mistrust and disparage speculative discussions on 
 
72 ESSAYS 
 
 pedagogics, and emphatically call for '' experiments 
 of fruit" before "experiments of light." 
 
 It is noticeable that the majority of those who 
 attend teachers' institutes and normal schools seek 
 methods rather than systems, and are impatient with 
 even the most fruitful axioms, though grateful for 
 even the barrenest rule or regulation to imitate. 
 Young teachers are apt to regard the very terms 
 Theory and Practice as antithetic. What is theo- 
 retical they assume is impractical. To such an 
 opinion a wise rebuke is to be found in a very ancient 
 Hindoo poem, in which the deity himself is made 
 to say, '' Children only, and not the learned, speak 
 of the speculative and the practical doctrines as 
 two." 
 
 All intelligent practice must grow out of theory ; 
 that is to say, thought must precede correct action. 
 That workman bungles who does what he is told 
 without knowing why he does it. The teacher who 
 follows his master's advice, not comprehending the 
 motive, aim, and end of that advice, can never suc- 
 ceed. Such a teacher is an automaton — a mechan- 
 ism of springs and wheels that must soon run down 
 and cannot wind itself up again. 
 
 Imitating what another does is not doing, but only 
 pretending to do. The teacher's art, like all arts, 
 depends on its science. How profoundly true and 
 how encouraging is Bacon's assertion that ''theories 
 supply practice with its instruments, not one by o?ie, 
 biU in clusters y and draw after them trains and trvops 
 of works y 
 
TOPICS OF THE TIME 73 
 
 No sadder delusion can becloud the brain than 
 that broad, philosophical thinking unfits the thinker 
 for practical details of work. Experience proves 
 that the men who comprehend subjects in their gen- 
 eral relations are the men who set a true value on 
 particulars. 
 
 How may a teacher train a mind if he doesn't 
 know what mind is ? How can he educate without 
 conceiving an idea of education in the abstract ? In 
 a word, what is it to acquire the teacher's profession 
 if it be not to master a comprehensive science ; 
 namely, the science of teaching ? 
 
 To possess a good education is not to be a good 
 educator. The teacher should possess knowledge — 
 the more the better — for, as Goethe says, ''There 
 is nothing more frightful than a teacher who knows 
 only what his scholars are intended to know." But 
 no amount of learning minus the science of educa- 
 tion can make a person master of the teacher's pro- 
 fessio7t. The knowledge that distinguishes the edu- 
 cator from other educated men is the knowledge of 
 the principles of pedagogics, theoretic and applied. 
 
 The physician who thoroughly understands anat- 
 omy, physiology, chemistry, medicine, surgery, who 
 has studied the body in health and disease, is pre- 
 pared to practise his art. 
 
 The lawyer who comprehends the fundamental 
 principles of law and justice, who realizes the full 
 meaning of his text-books, is ready to undertake a 
 suit in court. 
 
74 ESSAYS 
 
 The teacher who has patiently examined the his- 
 tory, philosophy, and literature of education, who has 
 formed a definite conception of the human faculties, 
 and of why and how they may be developed best, 
 may begin to teach school. 
 
 The objection that the region of speculative ped- 
 agogics is a land of fogs, should incite explorers to 
 clearer discoveries. If we must walk in the fog, it 
 is better to light a lantern. Better, it would seem, 
 to pursue the divine method recommended by Bacon, 
 and illuminate our way. And if the teacher must 
 choose between the visionary and the empirical, is it 
 not barely possible that the visionary may prove 
 the more hopeful of the two ? Happier he who sees 
 visions and dreams dreams of professional progress 
 than he who is content to plod on, not knowing or 
 caring whither his steps tend, not sure that they tend 
 any whither except around a tread-mill. 
 
 2. BOTH SIDES ARE RIGHT. 
 
 There is much wisdom in taking both sides of a 
 disputed question, not in a partisan, but in a philo- 
 sophic spirit, and by taking both sides, learning the 
 truth and the error each contains. Every debatable 
 question is debatable because its affirmative and its 
 negative statement both appear right to some and 
 wrong to others, and may, in fact, both be true and 
 both false in some part or degree. 
 
 Dogmas in political economy, sociology, ethics, 
 religion, education, are seldom absolutely demon- 
 
TOPICS OF THE TIME 75 
 
 strable, by logical process, like a mathematical prop- 
 osition. The science of pedagogics is not yet an 
 exact science. The scope of it is infinite ; the themes 
 it discusses are too numerous and complicated and 
 too subtle to be caught in the net of definition. 
 
 How admirable is that magnanimity which, while 
 sincerely holding its own view, and even ready to die 
 for its convictions, can yet candidly say, **The other 
 view may be right, and, if I saw so, I would change." 
 
 The conflict of theories, in the pedagogical arena, 
 is productive of practical good ; and every attempt to 
 deduce first principles in education is a step in the 
 direction of reform. Yet it is never to be forgotten 
 that theory is theory, and is true only so far as it can 
 be verified by f^ct. We must have theories in edu- 
 cation, as in physics or chemistry, and for the same 
 reason ; namely, to give unity and direction to our 
 work. 
 
 A favorite dogma in the modern science of educa- 
 tion appears to be that the purpose of schooling is 
 not learning but development. Pupils used to go to 
 school to store their minds with knowledge ; now 
 they go, as we say, to strengthen their faculties, to 
 cultivate the power of thought and the habit of duty. 
 
 Are not both ideas correct, and is there not danger 
 that, in putting so much emphasis on the new state- 
 ment, we may underrate the value of the old } The 
 end of education is the same now as it used to be ; 
 that is, to benefit the educated individual by impart- 
 ing to him knowledge, in which process power must 
 
^6 ESSAYS 
 
 necessarily be imparted. There is no such thing 
 conceivable as mind-development unaccompanied by 
 the acquisition of ideas. Learning is the food of the 
 brain by which all thought and feeling are nourished. 
 The measure of a mind's actual knowledge will be 
 also the measure of its acquired ability, A confusion 
 arises, in our reasoning, from misunderstanding what 
 is meant by knowledge. Knowledge means more 
 than the memorized facts. The scholar comprehends 
 principles, causes, effects, differences, similarities, 
 and all the relations and combinations of facts. 
 
 The protest against mechanical education, against 
 cramming and working for per cents, is timely, and 
 cannot be too strongly put. This protest, however, 
 is hurled, properly, not against knowledge, but against 
 a false method of imparting knowledge. If the 
 mechanical methods were successful in conveying 
 knowledge, the fact that they are mechanical would 
 not stand against them. If you can cram knowledge 
 into the children, in God's name do it ; but you cannot. 
 The student who is crammed is not intellisfent ; he 
 does not know facts ; he gains neither information 
 nor discipline. There is no mechanical way of pro- 
 ducing intellectual results. Dean Swift's Academy 
 of Laputa is not what is, but only what Gulliver saw. 
 Why should we try the experiment of writing a geo- 
 metrical problem on a wafer and compelling our 
 pupil to swallow it, in order to impress the demon- 
 stration on his brain .? 
 
 Fire hot volleys all along the line of discussion. 
 
TOPICS OF THE TIME *J*J 
 
 against the stupid, old or new methods of teaching ; 
 but have a care that you do not hit what you do not 
 aim at, and wound the dignity of solid learning. 
 Both sides are right. The object of education is to 
 store the mind with knowledge, and it is also to 
 develop mental power and moral character. The 
 acquisition and retention of exact, systematic, true, 
 good and beautiful knowledge create a clear mind 
 and a pure heart. Knowledge and power are one ; 
 they coalesce and become wisdom, the prize that is 
 precious above rubies. 
 
 3. DISCO. 
 
 Disco means to know, to learn, in the widest sense. 
 From the word are derived disciple, a learner, and 
 discipline, learning, or the result of learning. Disci- 
 pline and knowledge are one. 
 
 When, therefore, we speak of subjects as having 
 special value in disciplining the mind, we do not mean 
 that such subjects are of a different nature from 
 other kinds of knowledge, or that they can be learned 
 or used in a peculiar way. That scholar is disciplined, 
 in a degree, who knows how to calculate the interest 
 on a note, or how to roast a turkey. Discipline is 
 required in order to write one's own name, or to tell 
 the difference between a ball and a cube. Greater 
 discipline is called for in doing more difficult things, 
 or thinkino; more difficult thouo^hts. 
 
 One must learn before he can do. The more one 
 
7^ ESSAYS 
 
 learns the more can he do. All knowledge is disci- 
 pline ; there is no discipline outside of knowledge. 
 
 It is a delusion to suppose that mental power can 
 be acquired by any exercise of the faculties that does 
 not imply the possession of ideas. How can we con- 
 ceive of a mathematical ability severed from a com- 
 prehension of mathematics ? or of logical skill with- 
 out logic .'^ or of linguistic power apart from knowl- 
 edge of language ? To assume that the results of 
 knowledge can be obtained without knowledge is to 
 assume that the whole is less than the sum of its 
 parts. 
 
 All knowledge is not of equal value, but power 
 comes only in proportion to acquisition. The ques- 
 tion is not, Can knowledge and discipline be sepa- 
 rated ? but, What knowledge, i.e., discipline, is most 
 valuable } 
 
 The orio^inal forms in which a certain kind of 
 knowledge may have entered the mind may be oblit- 
 erated or forgotten, while the essential knowledge 
 may be retained, as an algebraic formula contains, in 
 permanent, usable result, many particular examples 
 once solved but afterwards not thought of. The 
 mastery of the formula was the binding of many 
 straws into one sheaf — was gathering knowledge in 
 principle. 
 
 This grasping of principles or general truths is 
 what scholars understand by mental discipline. There 
 is no royal road to it. There is no short road to it. 
 There is no smooth road to it. The superficial and 
 inaccurate student can never attain it. 
 
TOPICS OF THE TIME 79 
 
 Teachers and learners should divest themselves of 
 the notion that education is only a key to unlock the 
 treasury of knowledge, or that discipline consists in 
 the mere effort of unlocking a treasury. Education 
 is not the key or the treasury — it is key, treasury, 
 and treasure. 
 
 4. NATURAL ABILITY PLUS EDUCATION. 
 
 Going to school or college may indeed spoil the 
 boy, but good education spoils him not. The for- 
 tune left to young Princely was his ruin, yet how 
 good a thing is money ! 
 
 Education may subtract some efificient qualities 
 from natural ability, but adds ten where it takes 
 away one. The wild peach has lovelier blossoms and 
 fruit of more piquant flavor than the cultivated tree, 
 yet the latter is most valued. An edge-tool, as 
 Quintilian says, loses something in the process of 
 sharpening, but who therefore thinks a dull tool is 
 best ? The marble loses substance and strength 
 when hewn into a statue. Rough stone is better 
 adapted to some purposes than polished blocks, 
 nevertheless the polished block is alone fit for finest 
 uses. 
 
 What can a keen blade do that a dull one cannot ? 
 What can a microscope do that the naked eye can- 
 not ? The dull knife may be fine steel ; it must be 
 sharpened, tempered, ground, whetted for the engrav- 
 er's hand or the surgeon's. The shaping, tempering, 
 grinding, whetting educate the good steel for its 
 
80 ESSAYS 
 
 exquisite functions. Something is lost, much is 
 gained. The eye must be a good eye before it can 
 be helped by the microscope or the telescope ; but 
 never can the naked eye, however good, see a blood 
 corpuscle or the rings of Saturn. Optical instru- 
 ments magnify and multiply vision. 
 
 Uncultured natural talent or genius is the naked 
 eye, the native iron. Education cannot create origi- 
 nal force. Falstaff longed to know where a "com- 
 modity of good names could be bought." 'Tis easier 
 to buy a good name than a good capacity. Schools 
 cannot furnish the stuff ; they only manufacture it. 
 Out of pot-metal pots can be made — most excellent 
 pots. Damascus steel will make Damascus blades. 
 
 Every mind is bettered by correct education ; the 
 greater the natural ability the more right culture 
 will add. 
 
 5. THE QUICK COAL. 
 
 " Man is no starre, but a quick coal 
 
 Of mortal fire : 
 Who blows it not, nor doth controll 
 
 A faint desire, 
 Lets his own ashes choke his soul." 
 
 These quaint but piercing lines from rare George 
 Herbert's poem " Employment " afford the student 
 a warning, the scholar an incentive. Activity is the 
 price of culture ; the intellect must be kept alive by 
 the breath of the will ; the faculties disused fall to 
 decay. It is a common observation that mechanical 
 
TOPICS OF THE TIME 5 1 
 
 skill is acquired and retained only by habitual prac- 
 tice. Wilhelmj, the celebrated violinist, said : ''If I 
 remit rehearsal for one day, I am conscious of dete- 
 rioration ; if I neglect practice for two days, the 
 critics observe it ; if I neglect for three days, my 
 audience notice it." The right hand loses its cun- 
 ning, so also do the memory, the inventive faculty, 
 the reasoning power. I used to know how, but I 
 forget — I have lost facility. Facts and processes 
 acquired at school seem to vanish from the mind. 
 One man discovers with dismay that his Greek and 
 Latin have flitted from him ; another cannot recall 
 the once familiar method of solving a quadratic 
 equation. One says, " I am rusty ; " another says, 
 " The cares of this world choke out the seeds of 
 culture." And so they do. Culture is a jealous 
 god, and demands earnest and constant worship. 
 To him that hath shall be given, and from him that 
 hath not shall be taken away. Old Confucius said, 
 " Learn as if you could not reach your object, and 
 were always fearing, also, lest you should lose it." 
 And again, " If a man keeps cherishing his old 
 knowledge, so as to be constantly acquiring new, he 
 may be a teacher of others." 
 
 The student's soul may be all aglow at the end 
 of his school days. The day after commencement 
 brings a crisis. Will the ''honor man" then blow 
 the quick coal without his teachers' prompting } 
 without the enthusiasm of class influences .^ without 
 the motives which emulation and ambition create ? 
 
82 ESSAYS 
 
 Will he control a faint desire for self-improvement, 
 or will he let his own ashes choke his soul? — his 
 own ashes : sordid pursuits, sensual pleasures, dull 
 indolence. 
 
 6, DOES IT EDUCATE ? 
 
 The core of one of Matthew Arnold's best books 
 is that "The object of religion is conduct," conduct 
 being at least three-fourths of life. The object of 
 education — rthe main object — is conduct. The men 
 and women that the teachers make of boys and girls 
 at school should be men and women who can do the 
 things of common life well, whether these things be 
 of the hand, the head, or the heart. Conduct is the 
 art of living. What is it that we value most in our 
 fellow-beings '^. Is it not their facility in doing daily 
 and hourly duties in a happy and generous way ? 
 We like the person who is able and agreeable ; who 
 applies his nature and his acquired powers to doing 
 right things pleasantly. 
 
 The child should learn to speak because speech is 
 conduct, is the means of humanization, concord, love, 
 and social service. He should learn to read for the 
 good that reading may do to himself and to others ; 
 for the meliorating, civilizing, sweetening use of 
 books. He should write in order to write legibly, 
 easily, for the convenience of life. To think clearly, 
 to desire purely, to perform beautifully, — these are 
 the purposes of training. 
 
 All that is attempted or done in giving tasks, 
 
TOPICS OF THE TIME 83 
 
 hearing recitations, advising or restraining pupils, 
 should aim at the golden centre of the target — 
 conduct. That is the best subject to teach which 
 imparts the most usable knowledge of the most 
 durable kind for common practice in affairs. That 
 text-book is best which wastes the least time on non- 
 essentials. Give something to each pupil at every 
 lesson-time, — something worth giving, — and that 
 will fashion his life in some degree for the better. 
 Clinch the nail instruction. Illuminate the boy's 
 mind. Quicken his moral perception. Sweeten his 
 disposition. Modulate and beautify his manner. Do 
 anything and everything that will tend to make him 
 a lucid-minded, clean-hearted, versatile, thoroughly 
 useful and happy citizen of the earth, heaven-bound. 
 
 The branches of learning, as we call them, are all 
 one in their grand purpose. They may all be com- 
 mitted to memory and do no good. To learn is to 
 learn. The book must be poured into the very 
 veins of the pupil and circulated through him from 
 brain to finger-nail. What is needed is the juice of 
 the book, not the husk. He who teaches arithmetic 
 well has taught all mathematics by anticipation. 
 Who teaches the First Reader rightly has given 
 his pupil a clew to Shakespeare, to Herodotus, to 
 Confucius. Education is all one — it is feedino: a 
 soul, it is bestowing upon faculties the readiest and 
 noblest use of their functions. 
 
 The school should put its pupils at once into the 
 conscious exercise of their educable organs, habits, 
 
84 ESSAYS 
 
 ideals. To-day this girl ought to walk, talk, look, 
 think, feel, wish, hope, better than she did yesterday. 
 These children, when they quit school, must move 
 in the world — work, play, earn, spend, sustain a 
 thousand relations to others. They must do their 
 tasks, they must bear their burdens, they must live 
 the life, die the death, and leave the record of a 
 mortal. 
 
 Education should fit them for all this. Does it ? 
 
 7. THE BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION. 
 
 It is curious to observe the first efforts of the 
 child to exercise his powers and enlarge his range 
 of experience. He begins to manifest his innate 
 tendency to do something, and to connect his little 
 intelligence with things around him, by vague, 
 unsteady motions of limbs and body, and by inartic- 
 ulate crying or crowing. The tiny fingers presently 
 become busy. The baby picks and pries into every- 
 thing, makes his mouth a universal test-tube, tears 
 paper, throws his spoon, likes to make something 
 tumble. His activity is incessant, like his quick 
 heart-beats. He rolls and sprawls, he babbles and 
 blinks. The first attempts to walk are most feeble 
 and ludicrous. After hundreds of trials he learns to 
 creep. After thousands of falls he is able to stand. 
 How little control he has over his motions! Start- 
 ing to go forward, he staggers backwards — tipsy 
 fellow ! 
 
 The child's endeavor to utter words is as wide of 
 
TOPICS OF THE TIME 85 
 
 its aim as the primary efforts to handle or to walk. 
 The organs of speech are unformed, — still less 
 formed the mind-power which sets the machine in 
 motion. Nature prompts the infant to imitate, and 
 he makes the oddest approximations to correct 
 speech. The tongue and lips must clamber and 
 stumble, as do the puny hands and feet. 
 
 The later attempts and struggles of the boy to ac- 
 quire a surer and stronger control over his muscles, 
 nerves, and mental faculties, are very similar to the 
 earlier trials of the infant. The boy of ten is a 
 baby when he grapples with hard studies or difficult 
 arts. The mind is trained to severer thinking by 
 repetition and practice only. And what are the 
 highest mental exertions of the logician or philoso- 
 pher ? They are baby endeavors to stand on in- 
 secure ground, with unsteady feet — baby efforts to 
 articulate unfamiliar language. The whole course 
 of education, from first to last, seems to be a series 
 of endeavors and approximations — a training of the 
 faculties to higher and higher uses. The baby 
 begins, but he has eternity to progress in. 
 
 8. EDUCATION AND TEMPERANCE. 
 
 The most profoundly efficacious "temperance man " 
 is the temperate man. Not by wind-power, nor by 
 water-power, but by power of example he reforms 
 others. His practice preaches. His conduct is a 
 moral prohibitory act. His influence enforces con- 
 stitutional amendments to the habits of his asso- 
 ciates and observers. 
 
86 ESSAYS 
 
 Self-control is temperance. The mind should be 
 the body's king. The temperate man is temperate 
 at the top. He reasons, decides, and then acts. 
 He administers the laws of moderation to his sub- 
 jects, the desires. Two giants. Will and Won't, 
 guard his appetites and propensities as the lion- 
 tamer rules caged beasts ; they drive or stop his pas- 
 sions, those flying fire-steeds of the brain. These 
 desires, these appetites, these propensities, these 
 passions are the driving-wheels of character. They 
 are the heat, light, electricity of the human engine, 
 all convertible into beneficent working force, yet 
 ever liable to produce conflagration, explosion, and 
 death. 
 
 Man should be educated to run his own machine, 
 namely, his body, according to the laws of its struc- 
 ture. The greatest man, when he loses self-control, 
 makes the greatest wreck and ruin. 'Tis the con- 
 summation of wisdom to conserve human power. 
 
 Few take the trouble to be moderate. Eternal 
 vigilance is the price of liberty in the world of indi- 
 vidual existence. The moment a man ceases to set 
 sentries at the gates of his palace, the enemy will 
 steal in. The temperance pledge must be taken 
 anew every hour and kept every minute. License, 
 excess, dissipation are every man's enemy always. 
 Whosoever is out of temptation is out of this world. 
 Temperance is as difficult as climbing a mountain, or 
 rowing against the stream. We float or fall to the 
 devil, but we toil and sweat on the road to redemp- 
 
TOPICS OF THE TIME 8/ 
 
 tion. The oarsman is a fool who complains because 
 the stream flows downward ; it is right that the 
 stream flow downward and necessary that the oars- 
 man pull hard against the rapid. 
 
 A temperate life is the consequence of a good edu- 
 cation. { A good education gives men self-control. 
 A good education means correct habits early begun 
 and firmly established. Sensuality, drunkenness, 
 lust are dreadful diseases, hardly curable ; but they 
 are preventable. Physicians use what they call j 
 "prophylactics" to lessen the probability of disease. 
 The prophylactic for intemperance is education, -j 
 moral education. Begin with the children. 
 
 9. UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 
 
 Education cannot confer every benefit upon a 
 nation, but it can confer incalculable good. Neither 
 population nor products, money nor machinery, bul- 
 lets nor ballots, will secure lasting prosperity to any 
 people. Nor will all these together secure it, unless 
 they become the agents of general intelligence and/ 
 sound morality. True education has never disap- 
 pointed the expectations of individual, community, 
 or State. It has always helped man in proportion to 
 his faithfulness in seeking its good offices. ' The 
 more general the diffusion of knowledge among the 
 multitude and the higher the popular standard of 
 education, the better in every way will be the con- 
 dition of man, whether in private or public life. ' 
 Vast material resources, unless controlled by intel- 
 
88 ESSAYS 
 
 lectual i.nd moral influences, are as systems of worlds 
 destitute of the attraction of gravitation. Education 
 is not everything ; yet without it a nation is nothing. 
 They who put their trust in legislation as a sure 
 means of maintaining good and preventing evil, are 
 no wiser than they who have implicit faith in the 
 saving power of wealth and enterprise. Solon, when 
 asked if he had given the Athenians the des^ laws, 
 replied : " Yes ; the best the Athenians are capable 
 of receiving." In a republic the citizens fashion the 
 government more than the government fashions the 
 citizens. They are their own Solons, and dictate 
 laws for themselves. But they cannot devise laws 
 above their own capacity, nor will they obey such 
 laws. Constitutions and statutes, banks and rail- 
 roads, farms and warehouses, reflect the spirit and 
 character of the men who make and manage them. 
 Acts of Congress and decisions of courts are only 
 marks upon the barometer scale of Popular Opinion, 
 and serve to indicate the state of the intellectual and 
 moral atmosphere. '. It is vain to expect wisdom 
 and purity to rule at the Capitol unless wisdom and 
 purity dwell at our firesides. Party corruption rages 
 among the ignorant and vicious, as cholera infects 
 the weak and debauched. Only education can depose 
 spurious office-holders and amend evil measures. 
 Intelligence desires excellent rule — petitions for 
 reform of abuses — is a good law unto itself when 
 thrown upon its own option. Ignorance hates all 
 rule — demands license — demands anarchy — gravi- 
 
TOPICS OF THE TIME 89 
 
 tates to barbarism. No statesmanship can save an 
 ignorant people from ruin. Exclaims the historian, 
 Michelet, " What is the first part of politics ? Edu- 
 cation. And the second.? Education. And the 
 third ? Education." 
 
 There are multitudes of uneducated men and 
 women in the United States, They weaken society, 
 as rotten threads impair the fabric in which they are 
 woven. And there are other multitudes so poorly 
 and superficially educated that they are not capable of 
 intelligent self-government. This nation, notwith- 
 standing its boasted educational facilities, permits 
 the existence of an immense class of foreigners, 
 native whites, and negroes, who can neither read nor 
 write, not to speak of that yet larger class of persons 
 who, though they read and write, are far from being 
 able to think rationally or act virtuously. These 
 classes are hostile to good institutions, whether they 
 know it or not, whether they wish to be so or not. 
 The State must lift them up or they will drag it 
 down. Universal suffrage is a doubtful good, unless 
 accompanied by universal education. To extend the 
 right of voting to the ignorant is to open new fields 
 to the spoliating hands of the demagogue. Would 
 we have the freedman appreciate his privilege ? Edu- 
 cate him. Would we better the condition of woman ? 
 Educate her, and she will better her condition for 
 herself. Would we save the expense of poorhouse 
 and prison ? We must incur the expense of school- 
 houses and library. Would we avoid civil war, estab- 
 
90 ESSAYS 
 
 lish business upon a sure basis, abolish the evils of 
 caste, repress sensuality, and induce men and women 
 to live rational, beneficial, and happy lives ? We 
 must let education do its perfect work for high and 
 low, rich and poor, male and female, black and white. 
 ' General education is general uplifting. The more 
 complete the culture, the higher the elevation. Uni- 
 versal and complete education is universal and com- 
 plete elevation — is human perfection on earth — is 
 the millennium of enthusiasts realized. 
 
 Material resources may fail, banks break, and cor- 
 porations go down ; trade may languish, and mechanic 
 invention slumber ; blight may fasten upon the grain- 
 fields, and drought dwindle the running streams ; the 
 army may disband, and the navy lie idle upon the 
 barren sea ; courts and congress may dissolve, and 
 the sacred ballot-box moulder from disuse — but yon 
 humble schoolhouse must not be abandoned nor neg- 
 lected. To sacrifice that were fatal indeed. To stab 
 the people's Free School is to pierce our country in 
 the heart — is matricide. 
 
BOOKS AND READING 9I 
 
 VII 
 
 BOOKS AND READING 
 
 Books, the main instruments with which teachers 
 work, are themselves substitutes for teachers. " The 
 true University of these days is a Collection of 
 Books," said Carlyle ; and Emerson repeated the 
 same idea in other language. 
 
 ''Strong book-mindedness," as Wordsworth forci- 
 bly calls it, is a great, if not the greatest, element of 
 scholarship and means of education. The student 
 graduates from the seminary, but from the library 
 never. Original men begin self-education where 
 school education ends. Books are their post-col- 
 legiate professors. 
 
 The ignorant disparage book-knowledge ; but, in 
 fact, books teach everything except, as Bacon says, 
 "their own use." He who knows how to use books 
 efficaciously has acquired a fruitful art. Books are 
 repositories of universal experience. They record 
 the wisdom and the folly of mankind. They perpet- 
 uate generations. In them the past lives and the 
 present moves. Whatever men know or do, books 
 tell. A book is an image of the mind that conceived 
 it. Authors reproduce themselves in their writings. 
 Books are phonographs that repeat the message origi- 
 
92 ESSAYS 
 
 nally received by them. Do not printed pages com- 
 municate to us the diverse brain product of the race ? 
 They instruct, argue, exhort, and amuse. They phi- 
 losophize — they prattle ; they soothe — they inflame ; 
 they laugh — they lament. 
 
 Plato objects to written discourses ; that they, like 
 pictures, though seeming to possess life, are silent, and 
 answer no questions. They do not continue the dis- 
 cussions in which they have awakened our interest ; 
 cannot explain or defend themselves when challenged. 
 This disadvantage of books is counterbalanced by 
 the negative merit that they do not take offence 
 when shut up, and have not the. tenacious persistence 
 of a living bore. A man cannot always choose his 
 flesh-and-blood companions ; but his associates in 
 printer's ink he may command absolutely. The 
 humblest reader may own the highest book. 
 
 Though books are silent, their voices are audible 
 to imao-ination. The charm of Plato illustrates this. 
 The art of his Dialogue is such that it illudes the 
 senses. The reader is absorbed, rapt ; he walks with 
 Socrates and Phaedrus by the Ilissus and worships 
 Pan. He reclines at the Symposium in the house 
 of Agathon, hearing eloquent discourse of love, and 
 is disturbed and amused by the troop of revellers 
 led by tipsy Alcibiades. He stands in the court 
 listening with breathless attention to the unavailing 
 Apology ; he beholds Socrates drain the cup of hem- 
 lock, and hears the last dying syllables of the tranquil 
 martyr. 
 
BOOKS AND READING 93 
 
 My bookcase is like the enchanted table in Faust, 
 from which, at pleasure, were drawn Rhenish wine, 
 champagne, Tokay. 
 
 "The choice is free : make up your minds." 
 
 Would I taste the vintage of science or history or 
 philosophy? Here are the works of the masters. 
 Here, in little space, is the labor of a life. Spencer's 
 forty years of toil and thought are in those few vol- 
 umes. There is Bacon. There is Gibbon. What 
 did Milton say.? "Books are not absolutely dead 
 things, but doe contain a potencie of life in them to 
 be as active as that soul whose progeny they are ; 
 nay, they doe preserve as in a vial the purest efficasie 
 and extraction of that living intellect that bred 
 them." 
 
 Here are the essayists, the novelists, the poets, 
 the dramatists. They proffer the honey and wine of 
 their genius. I have only to wish. I have only to 
 take my books from the shelves, and sit down, and 
 read. 
 
 Do I desire to hear eloquent speeches ? These 
 volumes pass me to the floors of senate, parliament, 
 court. I may call for whatever eloquent orator I 
 prefer, living or dead, and he will make for me his 
 greatest effort. Stand up, Demosthenes, and while 
 away my time. 
 
 Where shall we go to church to-day ? Already 
 have Spurgeon and Beecher been to my house this 
 morning, flying on the wings of the press, and they 
 
94 
 
 ESSAYS 
 
 have prayed and preached the prayer and the sermon 
 of the living present. This afternoon I shall hear 
 Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 Milton uses the word '' unbookishness " to denote 
 a certain rudeness of mind. In these days it is a 
 disgrace not to be able to read. A taste for reading 
 is regarded as a mark of refinement. The mere 
 '^ dipper into books " takes higher rank than his wholly 
 illiterate neighbor. Victor Hugo gives a quasi dig- 
 nity to an unlettered oddity, by making him delight 
 in knowing simply the names of philosophers and 
 poets. The smatterer is a plane above the ignora- 
 mus. A little knowledge is not dangerous, though 
 danger is incurred by mistaking a taste of the Pie- 
 rian Spring for a deep draught. Even the wish to 
 learn is commendable. 
 
 To possess books is not to possess their contents. 
 An author's writings are properly called his works. 
 It takes work to compose a substantial book, and 
 proportional work to read it. How presumptuous 
 that I should expect to understand in a day the 
 volume I could not have produced in a lifetime ! 
 
 Sir Walter Scott says in " Waverley," " I believe 
 one reason why such numerous instances of erudition 
 occur among the lower ranks is, that with the same 
 powers of mind the poor student is limited to a nar- 
 row circle for indulging his passion for books and 
 must necessarily make himself master of the few he 
 possesses ere he can acquire more." Michelet says, 
 "The workman loves his books, because he has few 
 
BOOKS AND READING 95 
 
 of them. Maybe he has but one ; and if it be a 
 sound work, he gets on all the better for having but 
 one. One book read and read over again, which you 
 ruminate upon and digest, often develops the intellect 
 more than a vast, indisfested mass of readin^r. I 
 lived for years with a Virgil, and found my account 
 in it." 
 
 The "Autobiography" of Stuart Mill, in its "rec- 
 ord of an education that was unusual and remark- 
 able," shows what an enormous amount of difficult 
 reading one man may do thoroughly. The complete 
 and exact reading of one solid book makes the read- 
 ing of a second easier. An experienced student, 
 whose mind is disciplined by systematic application, 
 acquires a grasp and facility of thought that bears 
 him on rapidly through labored discussions and intri- 
 cate mazes of knowledge. The scholar, like the 
 artisan, must take time and pains to learn the use of 
 his implements. 
 
 With what varying results do different readers 
 peruse the same book! One man brings riches from 
 a barren page; another comes away poor from the 
 very treasure-troves of literature. There are few 
 mental phenomena more puzzling than that of a sane 
 man or woman reading by rote from a sense of duty. 
 Is it not extremely curious that any one should con- 
 ceive it to be a virtue merely to read perfunctorily, 
 automatically, without comprehending the word-s 
 seen or uttered ^ Yet this is done, not only by 
 school-children, in their parrot-like lessons, but also 
 
96 ESSAYS 
 
 out of school, by grown people who seem to have 
 good sense on other matters. Persons impose upon 
 themselves the weary task of poring over number- 
 less, bulky volumes of history or science, under the 
 delusion that they are improving their minds, when, 
 in fact, they are only wasting precious time, and 
 inflaming their eyes. I once knew a young school- 
 master who had got it into his conscientious pate that 
 reading was the proper thing to do, and that the more 
 pages he pronounced, the more nearly he discharged 
 his duty to himself, his profession, his country, and 
 mankind. He plodded through Josephus, Rollin, 
 and Dick's works with incredible patience, and with 
 a scrupulous attention to notes and references that 
 was morally sublime. No tome was too massy for 
 him ; no subject was out of his range. He would 
 not have hesitated, I am sure, to undertake the 
 national poem of the Kalmucks, which De Ouincey 
 says measures seventeen English miles in length. 
 I can hear the sigh of tired triumph with which 
 Josiah (for that was his name) closed a finished 
 volume of Patent Office Reports. ''There!" he 
 exclaimed, "I am through that! " On a well-remem- 
 bered occasion a roguish girl put Josiah's bookmark 
 from volume ii. of Kane's ''Arctic Explorations" to 
 the corresponding page in volume i. The patient 
 plodder, when he came home from school on the day 
 of this trick, turned to the bookmark and continued 
 reading the whole evening, unconscious that he was 
 reviewing what he had gone over a week or so before. 
 
BOOKS AND READING 97 
 
 When, however, the sly maid by whose stratagem he 
 lost so much time, demurely asked in her Quaker 
 fashion, ''How does thee like Dr. Kane?" Josiah 
 answered that it seemed to him there was a good 
 deal of sameness in the book. 
 
 The young schoolmaster regarded himself as a 
 remarkably well-read man. He plumed himself on 
 his useful reading. He imagined that he derived 
 from books as much benefit as any person what- 
 ever. Yet he no more assimilated his crude acqui- 
 sitions than the mill-stone assimilates the corn it 
 grinds. The corn wears out the mill-stone, giving 
 it a mealy smell ; the books wore out the young 
 man, imparting to him only the faintest odor of 
 literary culture. 
 
 Reading, if it answers its true end, nourishes and 
 vitalizes the mind ; it goes into the intellectual cir- 
 culation, and is secreted in new forms of thought, 
 imagination, and emotion. It quickens the percep- 
 tive powers and deepens the reflective. He who 
 reads profitably absorbs from his book such ideas 
 and such use of language as are adapted to his 
 capacity and want. He reads actively, consciously: 
 every increment of knowledge falls into its place 
 and becomes usable. The more facts he accumu- 
 lates, the better does he see the value and bearings 
 of each. 
 
 The reader who speaks or writes may unknowingly 
 appropriate the ideas and even the sentences of 
 his favorite books. It sometimes happens that 
 
98 ESSAYS 
 
 what one has read in his youth and forgotten 
 comes back by some subtle association, rising in the 
 mature mind as if formed there. No writer alto- 
 gether avoids betraying the dominant influence of 
 the books that educate him. The tendency to imi- 
 tate that which we strongly admire is almost irre- 
 sistible. Carlyle is original to a fault, — defiantly 
 original, — and yet critics say Richter's style reap- 
 pears in Herr Teufeldrockh. Originality of lan- 
 guage does not consist in artful arrangement of 
 words, much less in paraphrase. It depends upon 
 the organic structure of the idea expressed, and 
 upon the form in which that idea figures itself on 
 the mirror of conception. The mode of expression 
 is dictated at once by the commanding thought 
 itself. Seneca says, " Great thought must have 
 suitable expression ; and there ought to be a kind 
 of transport in the one to answer to the other." 
 Perhaps a man's most original thoughts are those 
 he is least conscious of evolving. As dead, struc- 
 tureless chyle becomes living, cellular blood, through 
 the operation of biological causes, so knowledge 
 changes to thought — originality is the vitalization 
 of the mind's food ; it is the last process of mental 
 digestion. 
 
 Literary history does not show that invention 
 flags as erudition advances. On the contrary, the 
 great writers have been, generally, great readers. 
 Rabelais, Cervantes, Montaigne, — men of their class 
 . — feed themselves on books. 
 
BOOKS AND READING 99 
 
 To understand an author, we must understand 
 more than his words. We. must seize the spirit 
 of his thought. His words are the best vehicles 
 the writer could command to carry to us his mean- 
 ing. But be sure, no thinker ever was satisfied with 
 the words he uses. Days of thinking brought to 
 the printed page one or two sentences. Reading 
 those sentences, we may be provoked or allured to 
 other days of thinking. The ability to think is the 
 measure of our natural capacity with the effects of 
 education superadded. To read much and think 
 little may weaken the mind, not strengthen it. You 
 cannot always have a book to read, or a companion 
 to talk with ; but you can think without book or 
 companion, by daylight or in darkness, with or with- 
 out the aid of the senses. The mind takes up no 
 room in a travelling-bag, and yet it holds the world 
 and all. It holds the thinking apparatus. 
 
 The book that stimulates and enlightens Julius 
 may prove intolerable to Felix. Lady Jane Grey 
 likes Plato, Matthew Arnold likes Burke, Ruskin 
 likes Coventry Patmore. Beecher declares that for 
 twenty years Herbert Spencer's works had been 
 " meat and bread " to him. Macaulay, a gormand 
 of books, praises many, but places the seventh book 
 of Thucydides above all others. He calls it "the iie 
 plus ultra of human art." Carlyle names the Book 
 of Job as the first of literary productions. 
 
 Ruskin says in one of the two charming lectures 
 in *' Sesame and Lilies " (a book of diamond lustre 
 
lOO ESSAYS 
 
 and value), *' And if she can have access to a good 
 library of old and classical books, there need be no 
 choosing at all ; . . . turn your girl loose into the old- 
 library every wet day, and let her alone." 
 
 The formation of a library of standard books in 
 every private house would work wonders in educa- 
 tion and culture. The presence of books in a house 
 is civilizing. The father who provides wholesome 
 mental food for his family performs a duty at once 
 political, social, and individual. He supports his 
 children's souls. /' Fortunate the youth whose days 
 and nights are, in part, given to the dignified in- 
 fluences of high literature. 
 
 IN THE LIBRARY. 
 
 . . . " Loved associates, chiefs of elder art, 
 Teachers of wisdom." — Roscoe. 
 
 Once more the task-imposing sun 
 His proud imperious course has run. 
 I saw his blood-red ro^-al crown 
 Beyond the dreary hills sink down ; 
 While from a chariot of cloud, 
 Her stormy trumpet sounding loud, 
 The Amazonian Night made war 
 Against the moon and every star. 
 
 My jealous curtains, drooping, hide 
 Repose within from storm outside. 
 Rave on, thou wintry tempest ! beat 
 The flying snow from street to street; 
 
BOOKS AND READING Id 
 
 Against the rattling shutter dash, 
 And madly buffet window sash ; 
 Thy baffled pinions strive in vain 
 My still retreat serene to gain. 
 A safe redoubt this study chair, 
 From arrows of the icy air ; 
 My tranquil Argand's yellow ray 
 Creates a supernatural day ; 
 My Youghiogheny sunshine glows 
 Defiance to the boreal snows, 
 And, flushing, fills my tropic room 
 With rays that make the roses bloom. 
 
 Hence, haggard cares that vex the day, 
 Blind aches of head and heart, away ! 
 Vague sorrows that the memory haunt, 
 Pale ghosts of early griefs, avaunt ! 
 Forebodings of disastrous things, 
 Ye phantom brood, take wings, take wings ! 
 All sordid thoughts of loss or gain, 
 Alluring hopes, ambitions vain. 
 Delusive dreams — whate'er ye be. 
 Depart and leave my spirit free. 
 For I would consecrate the hour 
 To books and their restoring power ! 
 
 II. 
 Here, in my social solitude, 
 I make a new beatitude : 
 And Blessed are the Books, I say; 
 The Muses' harvest sheaves are they; 
 They are the vials that contain 
 The attar of Time's heart and brain, 
 The fragrance of the blossomed hours, 
 One drop drained from a hundred flowers ; 
 The sacred lanterns that emit 
 The light of science, wisdom, wit ; 
 The caskets and the shrines that hold 
 Thought's diadems and learning's gold ; 
 
102 ESSAYS 
 
 The full-brimmed beakers whence is quaffed 
 Imagination's sparkling draught; 
 The living-fountain-heads, where move 
 Deep waters of perennial love. 
 
 Enchanted heroes of the pen, 
 
 These books are living souls of men ; 
 
 Awake ! illustrious guests, spellbound, 
 
 Ye sons of genius, laurel crowned. 
 
 Your long, mysterious silence break; 
 
 I conjure you, arouse ! awake ! 
 
 Lo ! from each scroll and massy tome 
 
 The spirits of the masters come ! 
 
 They consecrate my humble home ! 
 
 Immortal sages, seers, and bards ; 
 
 They utter inspiration's words ; 
 
 They whisper meanings manifold 
 
 That printed pages never told ; 
 
 They break the esoteric seal. 
 
 And occult mysteries reveal ; 
 
 My marred ideals they renew ; 
 
 They speak, they sing the good and true ; 
 
 As many stars give one pure light, 
 
 Their diverse messages unite ; 
 
 Me to my fate they reconcile. 
 
 And prove life worth the living, while 
 
 Their lofty faith and converse high 
 
 Assure me soul can never die. 
 
 III. 
 My Youghiogheny coal aglow 
 Illumes my treasures row on row ; 
 There Plato stands, half deified ; 
 There Burke and Bacon, side by side ; 
 Intense Carlyle by Goethe great; 
 There Shakespeare grand — for him no mate ; 
 Montaigne and white-light Emerson ; 
 Cervantes, Spain's immortal one ; 
 
BOOKS AND READING IO3 
 
 Wit Fielding and French Hugo, too, 
 
 Elected with the Golden Few; 
 
 There genial Dickens, clad in green, 
 
 Beside romantic Scott is seen ; 
 
 Satiric Thackeray is there, 
 
 And introspective Hawthorne rare ; 
 
 The poets, too, a troop divine, 
 
 From honored shelves and alcoves shine; 
 
 And all these precious leaves are mine. 
 
 IV. 
 
 No bookworm blind and cold am I ; 
 No friend to grim misanthropy. 
 That author best contents my mind 
 Who draws me nearest to mankind. 
 Not with a scientific greed. 
 For store of useful facts I read ; 
 Not with a pedant's pride, to know 
 That I my ample lore may show ; 
 Not with a worldling's lust of gain, 
 To gather gold by moil of brain ; 
 Not with the critic's art, to scan. 
 And praise or blame because I can ; — 
 Not do I pore for ends like these ; 
 I read my books myself to please. 
 The wise King Solomon, I wis. 
 Said ne'er a sager thing than this : 
 "Eat honey, thou, for it is good." 
 Sweet reading is a dainty food ; 
 Good honey is my book to me — 
 My author is good honey bee ; 
 Good honey, and because 'tis sweet, 
 That is the reason why I eat. 
 
 Reposing in my charmed chair, 
 I exorcise the demon Care ; 
 All yesterdays are past and gone. 
 And never did to-morrow dawn ; 
 
104 ESSAYS 
 
 Is not this moment infinite ? 
 
 Hei'e, now, immortal do I sit. 
 
 Without is black December night ; 
 
 Within is summer warmth and light; 
 
 I bend my fond, contented looks 
 
 On glimmering titles of my books, 
 
 As from the shelves they shine to me 
 
 In mute and dreamy sympathy. 
 
 " We are all here," they seem to say, 
 
 " Not comrades of a fleeting day. 
 
 But friends, unalienable, old, 
 
 Yet young forever, and warm-souled." 
 
 My soul, exalted, answers, " Yes, 
 
 Ye are the sons of blessedness." 
 
 I find upon the lettered page 
 
 More than the fabled Golden Age, 
 
 More than did Jove's symposia yield 
 
 To Lucian in the Elysian Field, 
 
 For all the best that men have thought 
 
 Or hoped or dreamed, have letters caught, 
 
 And God's own revelations shine 
 
 From holy books in words divine. 
 
UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES IO5 
 
 VIII 
 
 UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES 
 
 I. STRAY THOUGHTS 
 
 Many teachers of morality destroy the good effect 
 of judicious counsel by too much talk, as a chemical 
 precipitate is re-dissolved in an excess of the precip- 
 
 Repression is sometimes better than expansion. 
 A rose is but a crowded cluster of repressed leaves. 
 
 Wild fruits lose an exquisite flavor by the garden 
 culture which causes them to become large and beau- 
 tiful. So the mind may lose agreeable qualities by 
 the process of education. 
 
 In burning delicate pottery the utmost care is 
 taken to regulate the temperature of the oven, as 
 excess or insufficiency of heat ruins the ware. Simi- 
 larly, the nicest judgment is requisite in disciplining 
 sensitive children, for one may injure their very 
 nature by too much or too little severity. Virgil 
 says the same fire that makes soft clay hard makes 
 hard wax soft. 
 
I06 ESSAYS 
 
 A successful fruit-grower was asked how it hap- 
 pened that he always obtained an abundant crop of 
 peaches while his neighbors, with apparently better 
 facilities, so often failed to raise even half a crop, 
 and never got superior fruit. He replied : '* I know 
 my trees ; they tell me what they want ; I have a 
 special interest in every twig of this orchard. A 
 peach-tree won't produce unless it is loved." 
 
 If love brings forth the best that is in trees, will 
 it not much more develop the best that is in men ? 
 
 Some people practise their virtues so viciously 
 that it is a pity they have virtues to abuse. 
 
 Books are called the tools of teachers. Teachers 
 may become the tools of books. 
 
 Children are pleased with gay prints of high color 
 and with the discordant, loud melody of the grind- 
 organ. Gairish, gaudy hues and noisy sounds pain 
 the cultivated senses. As the eye and ear learn to 
 discriminate between harmony and inharmony, taste 
 grows more exacting. In like manner mental train- 
 ing brings the mind to desire truth and enables it to 
 detect and abhor error. The scholar demands cohe- 
 rence and logical connection of words. To the 
 trained thinker a bad argument jars on the mind as 
 an instrument out of tune distresses the ear. Educa- 
 
tJNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES 107 
 
 tion puts the mind in tune so that its strings answer 
 to corresponding chords of truth. 
 
 It would seem reasonable that the teacher should 
 be recognized everywhere as the highest authority 
 on the subject of education, and that he should dic- 
 tate how his pupils ought to be trained. In Germany 
 that parent is considered impertinent who advises 
 the professor in regard to pedagogical matters. In 
 this country everybody considers it anybody's busi- 
 ness to teach the teacher. Editors, clergymen, doc- 
 tors, lawyers, merchants, mechanics, farmers, — all 
 know how to teach school better than the school- 
 master does, and they all interfere, injudiciously, 
 with his art. There should be co-operation between 
 parent and teacher, but the school must proceed 
 on general principles to which the individuality of 
 families and single pupils must conform. 
 
 Wherefore fret if heedless Tom 
 Loses half the words I sav ? 
 
 What if sometimes dreamy Ben 
 Fails to learn his algebra ? 
 
 Culture is not everything ; 
 
 Farmers must not always hoe ; 
 Undisturbed the roots of mind 
 
 Oftentimes the deepest grow. 
 
 Action is not always gain ; 
 
 Crystals form when left at rest ; 
 What the teacher leaves undone 
 
 May perchance be done the best. 
 
lOS ESSAYS 
 
 Haply inattentive Tom 
 
 Thinks a thought beyond my reach 
 Peradventure Ben may dream 
 
 More than algebra can teach. 
 
 Purer than the mountahi dew, whiter than sky- 
 born flakes be the atmosphere of education. The 
 sentiment and the language of instruction should be 
 such that no blot or stain can touch the soul of the 
 pupil. A holy light should pervade tuition. Might 
 not boys and girls grow up with principles so sensi- 
 tive to truth and purity that they would be forever 
 self-shielded from the false and the foul ? 
 
 They are benefactors of youth who use pure words. 
 "Is not mine host a witty man.?" asks the hunter 
 of the fisherman in Walton's "Angler." The fisher- 
 man replies, "To speak truly, he is not to me a good 
 companion. A companion that feasts his company 
 with wit and mirth, and leaves out the sin which is 
 usually mixed with them, /le is the man. And let me 
 tell you, good company and good discourse are the very 
 sinews of virtue. But for sucJi discourse as we heard 
 last night, it infects others.'' 
 
 Whatever is obscene, vulgar, degrading, or of 
 questionable delicacy, infects the young. Blood poi- 
 soning is not so perilous as mind poisoning. What 
 germicide can destroy the microbe vile imagination } 
 We know temptation must be met, nevertheless," lead 
 us not into temptation." The school is the temple 
 of safety. Within its sacred walls we are delivered 
 from evil. There only good counsels and examples 
 
UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES IO9 
 
 and books and pictures and symbols should come. 
 There every low desire and every tainted fancy 
 should feel rebuked. There purity, like a guardian 
 angel, should abide. 
 
 We wish our sons and daughters to become supe- 
 rior men and women, and hope that school education 
 will contribute to that result. Therefore parents 
 confide in teachers with anxious trust. The teacher 
 stands in the parents' place, and has been called the 
 parent of his pupil's mind. 
 
 Yet the teacher's responsibility is much limited ; 
 he is, at most, but minister plenipotentiary, not chief 
 ruler. Seven-eighths of the school-boy's hours are 
 disposed of by direct will of parents — only one- 
 eighth under the immediate control of the teacher. 
 No amount of vigilance can secure the true ends of 
 education without vigilant home rule at the hearth- 
 stone. It is hardly to be expected that any teacher 
 can maintain a stronger influence with his pupil than 
 an equally intelligent and conscientious parent can 
 exercise over his own child. ^Mother, father, school- 
 master — these are the educational trinity,/ — these, 
 in complete co-operation, are the agents of Provi- 
 dence to train the child. 
 
 The schooling which the young obtain out of 
 school is no less essential than that received on the 
 recitation benches. Bodily exercise and deportment ; 
 skill in work and play ; walking, riding, rowing, 
 swimming, dancing; public amusements, such as the 
 
no ESSAYS 
 
 theatre, the concert, and the museum afford ; famil- 
 iarity with social usages ; conversation ; general read- 
 ing; travel, — these are branches of useful education, 
 quite as important as the contents of text-books. 
 Deprived of such schooling out of school, the mere 
 student of books is not prepared to enjoy himself or 
 to perform his duties. The teacher who disparages 
 these extra accomplishments forgets the breadth of 
 life. The parent mistakes the true relations of 
 things when he undervalues the worth and dignity 
 of school-training, and subordinates solid learning to 
 superficial accomplishments. There should be har- 
 mony between what is done outside and what is 
 done inside the seminary walls. Each set of tasks 
 and recreations should have its bounds, so as not to 
 trench on another set. 
 
 Because its time is limited and its authority cur- 
 tailed by many outside influences, a school, to be 
 efficient, must be rigorous. The teacher needs econo- 
 mize his opportunity, and use his five or six hours a 
 day with systematic efficiency. He knows that it is 
 not possible for any one to acquire mental strength 
 or accuracy, or to secure thorough knowledge of any 
 sort, without concentration and continuity of effort. 
 No matter how smart a boy may be, he acquires 
 scholarship only by steadfast devotion to study, from 
 day to day, week to week, year to year. No matter 
 how able his parents, the heir does not inherit his 
 A B C's. Stuart Mill says truly, that "the children 
 
UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES III 
 
 of energetic parents frequently grow up unenergetic, 
 because they lean on their parents and the parents 
 are energetic for them." How gladly the father 
 marks in his children every indication that they will 
 some time be able to fight the battle of life unaided, 
 if need be ; and yet indulgence often robs the loved 
 boy and the idolized girl of the weapon that alone 
 makes success possible — self-reliance. Relaxation 
 is necessary ; but there should be no break in general 
 purpose, no cooling of interest, no dissipation of 
 force. To suppose that teachers or schools can 
 impart a good education to a boy who scatters his 
 energy by idleness or other vice is as absurd as to 
 expect a plant to thrive that is pulled up by the roots 
 every night, though carefully reset every morning. 
 The wisest conservation of force is the conservation 
 of brain force. If the boy squanders himself, be- 
 coming the slave of his own feebleness, no outside 
 strength can save him. Why do we control our 
 children at all if it is not to invest them with self- 
 control ? The restraints of school are like the stake 
 that holds up a young tree that it may grow strong 
 and straight. 
 
 I conceive of a school in which the motives, 
 ambitions, and conduct are tuned to the same key 
 and play together the melody of reciprocal service and 
 good will. The teachers are exacting, but kind and 
 just ; the pupils docile, eager, persistent ; the parents 
 unremitting in their intellectual and moral support. 
 Believing knowledge to be, as the Bible says, '' more 
 
112 ESSAYS 
 
 precious than rubies," the learners will toil and strive 
 for knowledge ; will collect mental treasures and wish 
 to become millionnaires of thought. Imbued with the 
 sincerest sentiment of honor and purity, they will 
 respond with quick enthusiasm to every generous 
 and heroic idea. 
 
 2. WOMAN S RIGHTS. 
 
 • Rights spring from native powers, brute or human, 
 
 And vary as the powers rise or fall ; 
 
 The flying angels and the worms that crawl 
 Have meted rights. The liberties of woman, 
 
 Of man, of seraph, with their longings, grow. 
 
 Our brain and heart are torches to illumine 
 
 The path of duty ; by their inner glow 
 
 We ken the way we should have right to go. 
 He lives the best whose faculties are free 
 
 To do, and think, and feel, as God designed, 
 
 Who made the mortal members and the mind. 
 Each sex best knows its nature's mystery. 
 
 Most feminine is she whose free-winged soul 
 
 Feels no constraint except Divine control. 
 
 3. PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. 
 
 One of the sublimest thoughts of Carlyle is that 
 every day is the confluence of two eternities, the 
 infinite past and the infinite future. That man nar- 
 rows the scope of his existence who is concerned only 
 with things local and temporary. The far distant 
 and the long past may be more important to him 
 than the present and what he is doing in it. How 
 the wind is blowing a thousand miles away forewarns 
 
UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES II 3 
 
 the sailor to cast anchor or to set sail. What is 
 going on in Europe or Asia, in politics or in society, 
 may affect my happiness to-morrow. What went on 
 in Egypt, or India, or Palestine ages ago, trans- 
 mitted through the lives of nations and of men, and 
 through history, may control the thoughts and events 
 of to-day. The stream of influences flowing from 
 the past indicates what the tendency of the future 
 may be. Realizing what has been accomplished 
 towards civilization, and by what means, the indi- 
 vidual man may order his life according to knowledge, 
 and move forward with some assurance of making a 
 real advance. He will know that the passing is the 
 fruitage of the past, and will believe that he can 
 plant the future now. 
 
 4. PROGRESS OF CIVlClZATION. 
 
 Much has been accomplished within the past cen- 
 tury for human amelioration. The average length 
 of man's life has been increased by better sanitary 
 conditions. The material comforts of living have 
 multiplied beyond conception. What ancient king- 
 could command such powerful and willing slaves as 
 every common citizen now calls to his service — 
 steam and electricity. Steam carries me around the 
 world ; lightning lights my candle. But what are the 
 triumphs of material discovery and invention com- 
 pared with the moral conquests and products of the 
 century .'* Fetters have fallen from millions of slaves ; 
 the wheels, keels, and wires of commerce mix up the 
 
114 ESSAYS 
 
 interests of mankind and create a cosmopolitan sen- 
 timent of friendliness ; the rights of suffrage have 
 been greatly extended, and the sovereignty of the 
 majority has been conceded without depriving mi^ 
 norities of just representation. Persecution in its 
 grosser forms has ceased, and religious toleration, 
 like sunshine, has melted the frosts of bigotry. 
 
 5. USE OF THE IDEAL. 
 
 When Thomas More wrote " Utopia " his con- 
 temporaries thought him a dreamer. He was not a 
 dreamer, but a seer, and the vision he saw and 
 pictured in words succeeding generations beheld 
 materialized in beneficent institutions. Like an 
 architect's drawing, the book furnished a working- 
 plan, by which political and social life in England 
 built itself a new house. If More had not pro- 
 jected his speculative system on the imagination of 
 readers, the reforms he desired might not so soon 
 have been realized. Forever the conception of a 
 better state leads men to practical endeavors to 
 improve the existing condition of things. Said 
 Fichte, " The actual must be judged by the ideal." 
 Compelled to live among things as they are, man 
 grows stronger and more helpful by drawing inspira- 
 tion from things as they ought to be. The teacher 
 who is content with things as they are, and does not 
 see what might be and ought to be and labor for it 
 always, is dead and ready for burial. 
 
UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES II5 
 
 6. COMBINATIONS VS. INDIVIDUALS. 
 
 The present era of combinations does not indicate 
 the final extinction of individual influence ; it fore- 
 casts the approach of a day of universal concession to 
 the natural rights of each and all. Individuals com- 
 bine and organize class interests for the remote 
 object of liberating the individual from class oppres- 
 sion. When the battles are won, the regiments will 
 disband, and the privates will go each to his legiti- 
 mate place. How happy that condition of society in 
 which every person will count for what he is worth, 
 and will estimate his fellows at their full value ! 
 Honor will go to whom honor is due, and blame will 
 fall upon the wrong -doer. No man will be mis- 
 placed or without a place. Special aptitudes will be 
 stimulated by generous emulation, and the diverse 
 energies of the race will be utilized for the common 
 good. 
 
 7. A COLLECTION OF MEN. 
 
 Practical men are aware that success in life de- 
 pends upon a knowledge of human nature. The 
 world is not unlike a menagerie, and the man of the 
 world makes it a profit and a pleasure to see, not 
 only the elephant, but all the living wonders on 
 exhibition. Let us pass into the big tent and hear 
 the lion roar, the hyena howl, the .eagle scream, the 
 magpie chatter, the donkey bray, and the fox bark. 
 Having seen the typical animals, it will not be amiss 
 
Il6 ESSAYS 
 
 to enter the side-shows and look upon the mon- 
 strosities. 
 
 We make but one voyage on the Ship of Time — 
 why not become acquainted with our fellow-passen- 
 gers ? The excursion is free — who has more right 
 on deck than yourself ? He lives most who has 
 most to do with mankind. The science of human 
 nature is best learned by the study of representative 
 men — good and bad. There are specialists who 
 delight in collecting birds' eggs, or postage stamps, 
 or buttons. Mark Twain made a collection of echoes, 
 and he is not the only author who has done that. A 
 collection of photographs is valuable, for it brings to 
 the eye the image of men's faces ; a library is better, 
 for it gives portraits of men's minds ; but, best of all, 
 is a collection of men and women — a choice assort- 
 ment of fine specimens gathered by observation, and 
 classified in the glass-case of memory, for reference 
 and instruction. Only in gathering such a noble 
 cabinet, the student of human nature must not fail 
 to carry with him what Goethe calls the Three Rev- 
 erences ; namely, reverence for that which is below 
 us, for that which is around us, for that which is 
 above. 
 
 8. EDUCATION OUT OF SCHOOL. 
 
 Teachers are the radical reformers of political and 
 social abuses. They are the builders of permanent 
 nations. But the education of schools is not the 
 only education that life in a democratic state affords. 
 
UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES II/ 
 
 The citizen of a republic feels himself really a part 
 of a majestic system, and is conscious that his own 
 life, liberty, and happiness are bound up in the bun- 
 dle of the common destiny. Hence he learns to 
 respect institutions more than rulers. He will criti- 
 cise his senator, his judge, his priest; but he believes 
 in law, justice, and religion, and will not permit these 
 to be slighted. He fights, for the Constitution. The 
 Declaration of Independence is not a ''glittering gen- 
 erality " to him. The school system, the press, the 
 ballot-box — these he holds sacred. Nor does the 
 existence of humbug, fraud, and corruption prove 
 that sincerity, honesty, and purity are slumbering. 
 The prevailing sentiment is right ; the general con- 
 science is true. 
 
 The free mingling of all elements, possible only 
 in a democracy, tends not to level the mass down, 
 but to level it up. Intelligence, morality — these are 
 qualities that benefit all. It is good for the refined 
 gentleman and for the rude laborer that they discuss 
 together the questions of the day. When all classes 
 become acquainted they agree better. 
 
 Just after the last presidential election, before the 
 returns were in, and while the whole country was 
 waiting with anxious excitement to learn who would 
 be president, two little boys were observed on a 
 by-street in Cincinnati, talking together earnestly. 
 One was a colored lad, ragged and pathetically small ; 
 the other a sturdy white urchin, neatly dressed, and 
 with the air of one born in a stone-front house. Said 
 
Il8 ESSAYS 
 
 the white boy to the dark, '' What is the news ? " 
 "We sha'n't know anything for certain," was the 
 reply, "until six o'clock." — "Sha'n't we? Then, 
 Charley, meet me here at just six, for I want to know 
 all about it!" The little "nigger" promised, and 
 the two young Americans separated. 
 
 Here was an instance, sublimely simple, of the 
 workings of democratic institutions ; of the reaction 
 of mind upon mind in the beginning place of vote- 
 making. So long as Charley meets his brother baby 
 at just six o'clock to inquire all about the state of 
 politics, the republic will be safe. This is popular 
 education. 
 
 9. THE OLD-FASHIONED ELOCUTIONIST. 
 
 The old-fashioned elocutionist culminated about 
 the time of the civil war, and since then he has 
 gradually lost public favor. The species has declined, 
 though individuals of it are still to be seen rocketing 
 in the oratorial sky. 
 
 In a stray volume of the Philadelphia Port Folio 
 for the year 18 15, we read that Mr. Ogilvie of South 
 Carolina College had recently established " a new 
 branch of education," which was no other than a 
 course on oratory, and that he had "opened for him- 
 self a most splendid and useful career." The trus- 
 tees of the college testified over their official signatures 
 that there were none among Mr. Ogilvie's pupils 
 *'who could not recite with justness and intelligence; 
 
UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES I IQ 
 
 and some seemed to have made considerable advances 
 in the higher walks of impassioned eloquence." 
 
 We will not venture to assume that Mr. Ogilvie 
 was the founder of an actually " new branch of 
 education," and the father of American elocutionists. 
 But since he figured as long ago as 1815, we may 
 safely conclude that the old-fashioned elocutionists 
 have been illustrating the splendors of " impassioned 
 eloquence " for nearly a hundred years in this New 
 World. 
 
 ''Impassioned eloquence," both in writing and 
 speech, was the glory of the period beginning with 
 the close of the Second War of Independence. The 
 school of "our eloquent ancestors" was the political 
 press, the stump, and the revival pulpit. 
 
 " Impassioned eloquence " by degrees passed from 
 the domain of serious persuasion to the stage, the 
 lyceum, and the academy. It became ornamental 
 rather than useful. Fourth of July oratory retained 
 a sort of quasi meaning for a long time, and even 
 yet we occasionally see the spread eagle soar from 
 a rustic platform and flap his broad wings in the high 
 altitude of sublime noise. 
 
 Well do we remember the elocutionist of our 
 school-days — his name was legion; — we speak of 
 the species, not of any particular specimens. He 
 it was, wonderful-voiced, many-sounding man, who 
 amazed our youthful ears by rending, not rendering, 
 " Collins's Ode to the Passions," '' Rienzi's Address 
 to the Romans," and " Catiline's Defiance." Me- 
 
I20 ESSAYS 
 
 thinks I see him now in the act of clinching his fist 
 at the imaginary Conscript Fathers and exclaiming, 
 
 " He dares not touch a hair of Catiline." 
 
 "Parrhasius " was in his fierce repertory, and 
 who that once saw and heard could ever forget the 
 unqualified delight that the lively artist took in 
 commanding his attendant to — 
 
 "Press down the poisoned links into his flesh, 
 And tear agape those healing wounds afresh ! " 
 
 The impression upon small boys was ineradicable. 
 Every urchin old enough to articulate was saying, in 
 such sepulchral tones as he could simulate, — 
 
 " Gods ! if I could but paint a dying groan ! " 
 
 The recollection of one other *' piece " of declam- 
 atory " impassioned eloquence " comes back like 
 Banquo's ghost. 'Twas called '' The Seminole's Defi- 
 ance," a great favorite with the old-fashioned elocu- 
 tionist, and with nervous boys. By the way, how 
 curious the fact that it is not the big, rough, savage 
 boy who affects the terrific style, but rather the pale 
 and slender fellow. The "Seminole's Defiance" 
 is ferocious from beginning to end, but the closing 
 verse was the climax and the crucial test of the 
 orator's art. It runs thus : — 
 
 " I ne'er will ask for quarter, 
 I ne'er will be your slave, 
 But I'll swim the sea of slaughter 
 'Till I sink beneath its wave ! " 
 
UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES 121 
 
 Language cannot convey an adequate conception 
 of the gesticular strokes with which our old teacher 
 plunged into the "* sea of slaughter," as though that 
 crimson flood actually rolled before us ; much less 
 can words reproduce the exaggerated gurgle with 
 which he sank beneath the wave. 
 
 The old-fashioned elocutionist rather disdained 
 humor, regarding it as frivolous and undignified. 
 Blood was his chosen element. Yet often he resorted 
 to the other impassioned fluid — tears. A throng 
 of recollections clamor to be told, but we forbear. 
 Suffice it to say our old friend's pathos was more 
 harrowing than his tragedy. There zcurs a sort of 
 grim pleasure in listening to his murders and defi- 
 ances and death-rattles, but his tender speeches 
 gave unmitigated misery to the audience. Yet, 
 paradoxical as it seems, the popular taste was such 
 that we enjoyed the pain. 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable quality of old-fash- 
 ioned " impassioned eloquence " was its parlia- 
 mentary or senatorial element. The elocutionist 
 considered it his bounden duty to instruct his audi- 
 ence in the principles and practice of parliamentary 
 persuasion. As a rule, he preferred perorations 
 rather than plain argument. Pitt, Burke, and Web- 
 ster were the models he taught us to imitate, and 
 the elocutionist gave brilliant examples of the style 
 of those famous orators. Sometimes, also, he dis- 
 played samples of the art of Demosthenes or Cicero. 
 Randolph, Calhoun, and Clay often appeared before 
 
122 ESSAYS 
 
 US in the person of our lecturer. Demosthenes, 
 Cicero, and Burke were represented as very solemn 
 and even pompous. Webster and Pitt rolled their 
 R's, and emphasized all the big words, and flourished 
 their arms with great energy, and so far forgot their 
 dignity in moments of excitement as to beat their 
 bosoms and to storm. When it came the turn of Ran- 
 dolph, or Clay, or Patrick Henry, to take the floor, 
 "impassioned eloquence" found full vent. These 
 worthy statesmen were regarded as naturally eloquent ; 
 they were fiery and untamed ; they tore every passion 
 to tatters ; they ranted like mad men, and when, 
 exhausted with vociferation and frantic exercise, 
 Randolph or Clay dropped into his chair, the audience 
 thundered round after round of applause. 
 
 The recollection of these " elocutionary entertain- 
 ments " brings with it a sense of their irresistible 
 absurdity. What could be more ludicrous t Imagine 
 Burke in the British parliament, or Webster in Con- 
 gress, looking, acting, and speaking as the old-fash- 
 ioned elocutionist represented him ! Had Clay or 
 Calhoun behaved on any public occasion as the pro- 
 fessional declaimer used to personate him, his friends 
 would have consigned him to the nearest sanitarium. 
 
 In these latter days elocution is more rational. 
 Teachers of vocal culture are striving to base their 
 art on a natural foundation. The old-fashioned 
 elocutionist can no longer please an enlightened 
 audience. Perhaps the new-fashioned professor of 
 oratory runs to another extreme of refined artificiality, 
 
UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES I23 
 
 and has too much to say about the philosophy of 
 expression and the subtilities of Delsarte. As the 
 "blood-and-thunder " novel of yore has changed into 
 the introspective tale of Howells and James, so the 
 rant of the stage and the '' spouting " of the "school 
 exhibition" are supplanted by realistic acting and 
 recitations in a quiet style. 
 
 10. " it's books." 
 
 ''It's books." Such was the idiom of our dis- 
 trict. The phrase was familiar to my ears in boy- 
 hood. Perhaps the expression has become obsolete ; 
 maybe it was narrowly provincial and " countryfied." 
 I do not know. But I distinctly recollect that, in 
 the quiet precincts of old Ridgeville (an Ohio village 
 fondly remembered as the scene of my first school- 
 going), we used to say ''It's books." We meant by 
 the words that the hours of study and recitation had 
 begun ; that playtime was over ; that, to use another 
 peculiar form of "English as she is spoke," school 
 had "took up." 
 
 I recollect pedagogues who used to call in their 
 pupils by rapping sharply with a ferule on the 
 window-sash, and others who sent messengers to the 
 playgrounds to tell us that tt was books. The school- 
 master who first used a hand-bell to ring the children 
 in from Riley's Woods was regarded as quite a 
 magician ; and we fancied that he must be very rich 
 to possess a bell. 
 
 On the morning of the first opening of the city 
 
124 ESSAYS 
 
 schools in autumn, the streets present a lively and 
 suggestive picture. The official announcement that 
 it will be '' books " on a stated Monday morning in 
 September produces a flutter of preparation among 
 the school-goers, and no little stir and anxiety among 
 the school-senders. The various employments of 
 vacation are cut short. The children's wardrobes 
 are overhauled, repaired, and replenished. Tommy's 
 out-grown suit is fitted, perhaps, to his younger 
 brother. Lizzie is supplied with a new dress ; and her 
 last fall's hat is done over in the style of the coming 
 season. The family talk is of teachers, text-books, 
 and grades. The tents of rest are folded, and the 
 educational camp buzzes with the sound of prepara- 
 tion for another year's active campaign. The antici- 
 pated opening day arrives. Then, betimes, the boys 
 and girls issue from their places of abode and flock 
 together, laden with baskets, satchels, slates, and 
 books. The sidewalks are musical with the patter 
 of elastic feet. In the bustle and excitement of the 
 occasion, most are filled with hope and vivacity. 
 Here and there a reluctant urchin, opposed to the 
 school system in general, and perhaps personally 
 prejudiced against Miss Goad, the kind but firm 
 young lady who rules his room, creeps unwillingly 
 "and with heavy looks " toward the big brick edifice 
 which he considers not the goal, but the gaol, of 
 his wishes. An excess of forward-moving energy 
 propels the majority, causing the observer to wonder 
 at the force stored in young blood. Almost every 
 
UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES 125 
 
 lad or lass seems to belong to the fittest, having such 
 manifest power to survive. Yet the discriminating 
 eye may see in the crowd more than one timid, 
 shrinking child, to whom the rush and flurry of the 
 noisy procession is like the rude bluster of March 
 winds to the tender and tremulous violet. At the 
 home door stands the mother, her heart following 
 with infinite solicitude the darling who this day for 
 the first time ventures from the all-protecting en- 
 closure of the household walls to enter upon untried 
 scenes. Full of pathos to the parent's heart is this 
 first day of school. The mother may cry a little in 
 the lonely nursery when her baby is out of sight. 
 Ah, innocent, ignorant child, rejoicing in her em- 
 broidered cloak, proud of her pictorial primer, how 
 can she anticipate the realities of the long way that 
 .lies before her ! Perhaps she may discover an ap- 
 palling difference between home and school ; between 
 mother, whose love-kiss yet lingers on her lips, and 
 Miss Goad, who sets her to learn the twos in the 
 multiplication-table. Even father, undemonstrative 
 as he is, betrays some interest in the children's 
 movements on opening day ; and he cannot help 
 drawing a long breath over his high desk at the 
 office, as he recalls to mind the air of his five-year- 
 old namesake, who, after breakfast, set off so sturdily 
 towards the hill of science, his pocket plethoric of 
 tops and strings, his jacket and pants buttoned 
 together around the waist. 
 
 It is not the infants- only that interest and amuse 
 
126 ESSAYS 
 
 the observer on the morning when school begins. 
 Not only Minnie in her A B C's, but also 
 
 " Almira in the upper class," 
 
 who studies chemistry, music, and French, and who 
 wears her hair in the most outlandish style of the 
 extreme mode ; not only little Fred, whose mind, 
 yet in the soft cartilage stage, is sorely confused by 
 the simplest object lesson, but also Charles Edwin, 
 with misty mustache on lip and Latin lexicon in 
 hand, with golden charms hangi-ng to his watch- 
 chain, and, as he humbly conceives, manly dignity 
 stamped on his studious brow. Now roll the private 
 seminary omnibuses along, bearing the lilies and 
 roses that toil not nor spin ; and the roses and lilies 
 bend and nod with peculiar sweetness as they pass 
 Charles Edwin by, and that linguistic beau moves 
 gracefully on, a taller and happier man. 
 
 Meanwhile the swarms gather and increase in the 
 vicinity of the schoolhouses. There assemble the 
 children of the people — the rich, the poor — Ameri- 
 can, German, Irish ; the robust, the feeble, the beau- 
 tiful, the deformed, the intelligent, the stupid, the 
 virtuous, the vicious, the children of the people. 
 They will be men and women — to-morrow. They 
 have come from the privacy of the family to the 
 publicity of the school. They have stepped into 
 the world. They are weaving the individual threads 
 of life into the tissue of society and state. 
 
 The hour strikes, the bells ring out their sum- 
 
UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES 127 
 
 mons, the multitudes separate into orderly ranks, 
 and march to their appointed place. And '' it's 
 books." 
 
 II. THE CULTURED SNOB. 
 
 Young Mr. Acme Sweetlight, having completed 
 his college course and perhaps European tour, has 
 returned home to rest and recuperate. Sweet- 
 light is an illustrious example of what education and 
 culture may accomplish for a man. He manifests 
 his superiority in every way. His dress and de- 
 meanor proclaim him finished. Acme has absorbed 
 the learning of his times. Any one may see at a 
 glance that he is saturated with information and 
 intellectual power. 
 
 True, he does not say much, or read much, or do 
 much in any sort, to demonstrate his ability ; but he 
 looks very much indeed, and what he does utter is 
 oracular and final. Acme is a contemplator of other 
 men's defects, not a producer. He sits in judgment 
 on the words and works of lesser men. He sits 
 apart in a region of inaccessible refinement, surveys, 
 condemns, but never creates. Perpetual disapproval 
 perches at the sensitive corners of Sweetlight's 
 mouth. Censure and disparagement are written on 
 his classic forehead. Infinite scorn of crudity and 
 vulgarity lurks in the exquisite curl of his nose. He 
 takes it for granted that anybody who tries to do 
 anything is, according to the eternal fitness of things, 
 a special target for his cynical arrows. 
 
128 ESSAYS 
 
 There is that in Acme Sweetlight which may be 
 likened to what physicists call potential energy ; he 
 seems charged with some mighty force, which, how- 
 ever, has not yet vented itself in positive work. 
 The man is like a bent bow or a loaded gun, or ever 
 so much superheated steam confined in a strong 
 boiler. The piston of actual achievement moves not, 
 though certain spirts of hissing criticism do escape 
 now and then through the safety-valve of speech. 
 He smiles disdainfully at false syntax or bad rhetoric, 
 though he will not write himself. He goes to the 
 lecture and pronounces it a failure ; and he attends 
 church occasionally in a condescending mood, but is 
 visibly bored by the sermon and excruciated by the 
 singing. Doubtless this supreme being can do all 
 things better than anything has ever been done. 
 Conscious of latent ability, he cares not so far to 
 identify himself with the '' rascal multitude " as even 
 to set an example. 
 
 12. NATURAL SCIENCE TEACHING IN THE COMMON 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 Children should become acquainted with natural 
 objects, as parts of a complete whole, interesting and 
 important not only in themselves, but also in their 
 relation to other things. A stone-quarry teaches 
 more than a cabinet of minerals ; a woodland walk 
 more than a Jiorttis siccus ; an ant-hill more than a 
 card of beetles displaying their transfixed bodies 
 through glass. Collections, classifications, specific 
 
UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES 1 29 
 
 and generic names are very useful in their way ; but 
 nature and her works are best studied, loved, and 
 appreciated in action, — in life, not in death. Even 
 the inorganic world has its vital phenomena, — its 
 force in action. 
 
 Much better it is for a child to learn crystalography 
 by observing the manner in which solids are born of 
 liquid solutions, than by looking at a few labelled 
 specimens in a dusty box. Plants and animals should 
 be seen, if possible, in their native haunts. What 
 the beginner most needs is a taste for nature, habits 
 of observation, and a method of investigation, — not 
 laws, conclusions, scientific categories and results. 
 The summing up of facts and final statement of 
 principles is the work- of trained thinkers, not of 
 unpractised school-children. 
 
 The tyro needs knowledge — abundance of definite 
 knowledge. The reason it is so hard to interest boys 
 and girls in scientific text-books may be seen, when 
 we recollect that these books are mainly summaries 
 and general statements, dependent upon a vast accu- 
 mulation of facts and experiments, that the boys and 
 girls have not witnessed. On the very first page of 
 the book the pupil is told that " science is knowl- 
 edge reduced to system ; " it is the teacher's duty to 
 draw the inference that, without some knowledge to 
 begin with, it is absurd to suppose it possible to pos- 
 sess any science whatever. Science is not ignorance 
 reduced to system. The pupils must be induced to 
 take notice of what lies around them, or else all at- 
 
130 ESSAYS 
 
 tempt to teach principles and laws is hopeless. They 
 must study things and their properties, and learn to 
 distinguish what is significant in nature from what 
 is not. 
 
 Country teachers have peculiar facilities for ac- 
 quainting themselves and their pupils with the ma- 
 terial of natural science, and they are scarcely 
 excusable if they neglect their opportunity. Soils, 
 stones, springs, trees, moss, birds, insects, snails, — 
 ten thousand objects of interest maybe brought under 
 the observation of the farmer's children. Let the 
 scholars be induced to study the natural history of 
 their own homes. Put into their hands such books 
 as Wood's " Selbourne," and ''The Fairy Land of 
 Science." Ask them to write compositions about 
 familiar natural objects. Take them on excursions. 
 Make them realize the significance and worth of the 
 familiar. Teach them the use of the eye, the micro- 
 scope, — but, above all, the use of their mind. Bring 
 them close down to nature that they may feel her 
 mysterious life, and catch the spirit of her opera- 
 tions. There is a just complaint that scientific 
 teaching is apt to be sapless and soulless. It is a 
 pity if instruction tends to narrow the pupil's mind, 
 — to make him underrate other knowledge than 
 that of bare facts, — and to depreciate other than 
 scientific culture. 
 
 The practice of amusing children with the curiosi- 
 ties of natural history, chemistry, etc., without cre- 
 ating correct habits of study, or any real interest in 
 
UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES I3I 
 
 the more substantial parts of the subject taught, is 
 an evil that besets primary teachers. 
 
 It is easy to interest children in wonders, but minds 
 that are habitually aroused by novelty are almost 
 sure to lapse into hopeless lethargy when the novelty 
 has lost its charm. Many have experienced how 
 hard it is to make anything of a class that has had 
 the edge of its appetite for study blunted by feeding 
 on scientific marvels for a few months. The curiosi- 
 ties of botany and zoology, the brilliant experiments 
 of chemistry and physics, ought to be distributed 
 along the whole course of 'study, and be utilized as a 
 gentle and constant stimulus. It is as unwise to ex- 
 pect to develop a taste for scientific study by a course 
 of highly seasoned, marvellous lectures, as to create 
 a healthy desire for plain food by a preliminary diet 
 of spice and confectionary. 
 
 Inverting the usual order, I give, as the close of 
 this brief sermon, a pregnant text from the scripture 
 of J. J. Rousseau, who says " Among the many ad- 
 mirable methods taken to abridge the study of the 
 sciences, we are in great want of one to make us 
 learn them ivitJi effort!' 
 
 13. HOW TO SAY IT. 
 
 The use of language is to set the mind free and 
 send it forth that it may influence other minds. The 
 mind in print flies around the globe. Words are 
 deeds. He who speaks well, or writes well, does 
 
132 ESSAYS 
 
 service as practical as the sowing of grain, the steer- 
 ing of a ship, or the curing of a wound. 
 
 Language is the most potent instrument that 
 human power wields. The useful end of intellectual 
 education is to learn to think, and the value of 
 thought is measured by its adequate expression. 
 Therefore teachers should not undervalue "rammar 
 and rhetoric. The art of saying, sums up and tests 
 all mental acquisitions. '' I know it but can't tell 
 it " is the same as ''I possess but cannot use." But 
 the use of knowledge is to use. 
 
 Pupils must be trained to put their intelligence 
 into the breath of life which awakens the vocal 
 chords, and into the ink which talks from the written 
 page. Young folks are apt to assume that they can- 
 not make composition. It is easy to prove to the 
 dullest child that he possesses power to speak and 
 write. Take down in shorthand the answers he 
 gives to your familiar questions, and you have a lit- 
 erary composition. Let the boys and girls translate 
 tongue into pen ; let them put down from their 
 fingers what just now fell from their lips. How 
 teach a child to write sensibly and simply t You had 
 better study how to prevent him from losing the tact 
 which comes to him naturally. Babies of five are 
 often more expert at telling their meanings and feel- 
 ings than are the students in the rhetoric class. 
 Wonderfully fresh, idiomatic, and succinct is the ora- 
 tory of the nursery. How beautiful, direct, and 
 graphic the first letters written by boys and girls 
 
UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES I33 
 
 who have never been at school ! Children love to 
 communicate themselves. They are voluble and 
 eloquent. 
 
 The class in composition should be the most inter- 
 esting class in school, because it should bring into 
 use all the pupils' knowledge, thought, feeling, and 
 personality. But the fact is, the composition class, in 
 the generality of schools, is abhorred by both teacher 
 and pupils. 
 
 We begin wrong, and then go on from bad to worse 
 until we have quite spoiled the natural faculty of 
 language. We ought not to expect a pupil's school 
 composition to be more correct or original than 
 his average talk. When he can tell a story grace- 
 fully, then he may write it. Teach composition in 
 every recitation. Awkward words and half-formed 
 thoughts require correction in the geography class as 
 much as in the grammar class. But criticism is not 
 what is wanted so much as encouragement. Above 
 all, do not expect learners to impart what they have 
 not received. The substance of the composition is 
 the main thing, the form is secondary. Perfection 
 of form, elegant phraseology, bookish style, are 
 never to be encouraged. The smooth, elegant, con- 
 ventional essay, abounding in Latin derivatives, be- 
 tokens feebleness and not power. Such finished 
 productions are too often praised by teachers on Fri- 
 day afternoon. No sham more pitiable than the 
 ordinary school composition unless it be the ordinary 
 graduating address, which is, indeed, the school 
 composition gone to seed. 
 
134 ESSAYS 
 
 The written words of girls and boys should truly 
 represent the habitual, intellectual, and moral status 
 of the writer. First compositions should be like 
 sketches from nature. They may be sketches from 
 nature. Instead of requiring your pupils to write 
 the description of a landscape, instruct them to go to 
 a certain point and look out upon the scene, taking 
 notes of what they see, to use in a genuine composi- 
 tion that shall actually portray a landscape. 
 
 Remember the blunt old maxim: "Have some- 
 thing to say, — then say it." And the way to say it 
 will be found only by practice, practice, practice. 
 Write, write, write. Art is long. One cannot learn 
 to play the fiddle without years of practice, nor to 
 play the harp of language. 
 
 Let us hano^ around the neck of this discourse a 
 jewel from Macaulay. The jewel at least is worth 
 your attention. Macaulay says, '' The first rule of 
 all writing — that rule to which every other is subor- 
 dinate — is that the words used by the writer shall 
 be such as most fully and precisely convey his mean- 
 ing to the great body of his readers. All considera- 
 tions about the purity and dignity of style ought to 
 bend to this consideration." 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 3$ 
 
 IX 
 
 STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF 
 EDUCATION 
 
 I. CONFUCIUS 
 
 " Superior and alone, Confucius stood, 
 Who taught that useful science, to be good." 
 
 Pope's Temple of Fame. 
 
 Every process of teaching is suggested by some 
 theory of human nature, consciously or unconsciously 
 held by the teacher. Every system of education is 
 an exponent of its author's philosophy. He who 
 holds that the human faculties are essentially noble 
 and capable of infinite improvement, will conceive 
 profound and liberal schemes of culture; but he 
 whose estimate of man's worth and destiny is mean 
 will devise correspondingly mean plans of training, 
 from which he will neither obtain nor expect great 
 results. 
 
 There is no such thing as an uneducated people. 
 The most primitive varieties of the human species 
 have their notions of nature and existence, and make 
 some effort to conform their lives to an ideal standard. 
 The effort— even the desire — to become something 
 that they think superior to what they are, is a step 
 in education. Every influence exerted upon a per- 
 
136 ESSAYS 
 
 son, from within or without, to cause him to act with 
 the definite purpose of increasing his powers, is edu- 
 cational. The Indians have in mind a vivid picture 
 of the true brave, and their young men are drilled to 
 meet the severe exactions of the conception. 
 
 If we could range in a line of historic vision, run- 
 ning from the far past to the near present, the educa- 
 tional theories of representative men in various 
 nations, many vain speculations would be abandoned 
 and much wrong practice might be rectified. These 
 theories, set forth in their relations to one another, 
 would constitute the most valuable part of educa- 
 tional history, by showing what has been thought, 
 and indicating what has been tried, and with what 
 results, in the direction of culture and development. 
 The views of the ancients on the educability of man 
 are very instructive. What zvas helps to explain 
 what is. The roots of the present lie buried deep in 
 the past. No person is more likely to be *' behind the 
 times " than he who is ignorant of the great ideas 
 and achievements of antiquity. 
 
 The industry of numerous investigators is gather- 
 ing material upon which to base sound conclusions 
 respecting the primitive condition of man and the 
 beginnings of civilization. Bold hypotheses on the 
 origin of species have pushed tJiat question as far 
 back as inquiry can go. How and when man origi- 
 nated science has not determined ; but there is a 
 general agreement among learned men that Xh.Q place 
 of man's origin is Asia, as Moses declared it to be. 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 3/ 
 
 The Orient is the stage upon which the childhood of 
 humanity exhibited its first demonstrations of power 
 and purpose, — or shall we say, of weakness and 
 wavering ? 
 
 We do not know in what precise locality human 
 society first existed, or what was the first nation that 
 played its part in the world's history. Hundreds and 
 thousands of races and tribes may have made their 
 entrance and exit prior to the time of those faintly 
 revealed to us in the glimmering light of tradition. 
 There is no doubt, however, as to which is the most 
 ancient of existing nations. China is by far the 
 oldest. Authentic records testify the existence of 
 Chinese civilization nearly three thousand years ago. 
 We have no reliable account of the beginnings of this 
 nation. Far as her annals recede, — 
 
 "In the dark backward and abysm of time," — 
 
 China first comes into the range of study, a somewhat 
 enlightened country. The condition in which we find 
 her, when she first appears in history, justifies the 
 presumption that she had been growing for centuries 
 before. She possessed social and political institu- 
 tions, science, art, and literature, long ere Europe 
 emerged from barbarism. 
 
 The word isolating, which philologists use to de- 
 scribe languages like the Chinese, may be aptly used 
 also to describe the Chinese character. Until re- 
 cently, it has been the policy of the Chinese to keep 
 aloof from the rest of mankind. The great wall is 
 
138 ESSAYS 
 
 typical of this isolating tendency, and of Chinese 
 stability. The Chinese are the most industrious ot 
 people, and yet the nation has made but little progress 
 for thousands of years. What Taine says of the schol- 
 ars of the fourteenth century may be applied to the 
 Chinese : " They seem to be marching, but are merely 
 marking time." They do not get on, yet their 
 energy is not lost. It is expended in turning the 
 endless chain of a gigantic tread-mill. There are 
 five hundred millions of them, and each keeps his 
 place, and does his prescribed duty. Government, 
 institutions, families, individuals, are fitted like watch- 
 work into the respective places appropriated to them 
 by inexorable law and usage. The myth that the 
 world was cut and fashioned by Pvvanka, the first 
 man, with a chisel and mallet, symbolizes Chinese 
 philosophy and enterprise.^ 
 
 Five classes of duties are recognized by the Chinese 
 as of universal obligation, — those between sovereign 
 and minister, between father and son, between hus- 
 band and wife, between elder brother and younger, 
 and between one friend and another. There are, 
 also, three virtues considered binding upon all : knowl- 
 edge, magnanimity, and energy, or, ''conscience, 
 humanity, and moral courage, '' as translated by Maur- 
 ice from the French of M. Pauthier, To define and 
 enforce these duties and virtues is the object of a great 
 part of Chinese literature, especially of the so-called 
 
 1 Confucius and the Chinese Classics, by Rev. A. W. Loomis, San Francisco, 
 1867, p. 17. 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I39 
 
 sacred Five Classics and Four Books. Chinese real 
 life exhibits the approximate maintenance of these 
 relations, as explained by the scholars and enforced 
 by the emperor. The duties and virtues enjoined are 
 acquired by imitation, and practised in a manner 
 rather perfunctory than conscientious. As a neces- 
 sary result of this system of external restraints and 
 mechanical habits, the Chinese remain as they have 
 been for ages. Tylor, in his " Primitive Culture," ^ 
 asserts as a general fact that inferior grades of civ- 
 ilization are marked by strong conservatism He 
 says, — 
 
 "The savage is firmly, obstinately conservative. No man appeals 
 with more unhesitating confidence to the great precedent-makers of 
 the past; the wisdom of his ancestors can control against the most 
 obvious evidence of his own opinions and actions. We listen with 
 pity to the rude Indian as he maintains against civilized science and 
 experience the authority of his rude forefathers. We smile at the 
 Chinese appealing against modern innovation to the golden precepts 
 of Confucius, who, in his time, looked back with the same prostrate 
 reverence to sages still more ancient, counselling his disciples to fol- 
 low the seasons of Hia, to ride in the carriage of Yin, to wear the 
 ceremonial cap of Chow." 
 
 This quotation introduces the name, and indicates 
 something of the character, of the best exponent of 
 Chinese culture — Confucius. No countryman of 
 his — Mencius possibly excepted — has ever grown 
 to the intellectual and moral stature of this man. 
 The world acknowledges him as undoubtedly great ; 
 the Chinese regard him as greatest. Tsez Kung, one 
 of his prominent followers, declares that the talents 
 
 1 Tylor, Primitive Cultura, Am. Ed., vol. i, p. 156. 
 
140 ESSAYS 
 
 and virtues of other men are hillocks and mounds 
 which may be stepped over, but that Confucius " is 
 the sun or moon which it is impossible to step 
 over." ^ The celebrated Mencius says, "What I 
 wish to do is to learn to be like Confucius." And 
 further, " Since there were living men, until now, 
 there never was another Confucius." The very word 
 Confucius, Latinized from the syllables Kung-fu-tze, 
 signifies Kung the Master or Perfect Sage. This 
 title is conferred by imperial authority. 
 
 Confucius was born in the year 551 b.c. The Gre- 
 cian philosopher Pythagoras was then about thirty 
 years old, and the Persian general, Cyrus the Great, 
 had just begun his career of glory. The sage was 
 descended from illustrious ancestors. His father 
 died when Confucius was but three years old, leaving 
 his son no patrimony except a precocious intellect 
 and a studious disposition. A good mother conducted 
 the child's education with care. At the early age of 
 nineteen Confucius married. At twenty he was 
 appointed ''Keeper of the Stores of Grain," and at 
 twenty-one, *' Inspector of Pastures and Flocks," in 
 his native place. At twenty-two he began to teach, 
 receiving pupils at his own house. Shortly after this 
 his mother died. He conducted her obsequies with 
 great splendor, thus reviving an old custom, and, in 
 further imitation of the ancients, he shut himself 
 up and devoted three years to mourning and ethical 
 
 1 This and other following quotations are taken from Dr. Legge's translation of the 
 Chinese classics. 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I4I 
 
 studies. Filial duty thus discharged, he resumed 
 teaching ; studied music under a renowned master ; 
 and began to travel about the empire, examining into 
 the condition of the people, and visiting the courts 
 of princes. He felt it to be his mission to instruct 
 and elevate his generation. We are told that there 
 were four things which the master taught — 'Met- 
 ters, ethics, devotion of soul, and truthfulness." He 
 poured out the cup of knowledge to all who were 
 willing to receive, — kings or common subjects. The 
 Master said, " From the man bringing his bundle of 
 dried flesh for my teaching, upward, I have never 
 refused instruction to any one." His fame and name 
 spread. His disciples multiplied. Honor and office 
 called him from his wanderings home to his native 
 state, the kingdom of Loo. He was made succes- 
 sively magistrate, assistant superintendent of works, 
 and minister of crime. He effected many reforms, 
 and acquired vast influence. But the austerity of 
 his principles proving too severe for the king, the 
 Master finally lost power, and, at the age of fifty-six, 
 sadly took his departure from a court at which he 
 could be no longer useful. He resumed his journey- 
 ings, and continued for thirteen years the old work 
 of preceptorial instruction. Poverty and neglect fol- 
 lowed him. Once he narrowly escaped assassination. 
 Often he suffered for want of food. At last, in his 
 old age, he returned once more to Loo, and spent the 
 few remaining years of his life quietly and happily, 
 editing the sacred books. He died at the age of 
 seventv-three. 
 
142 ESSAYS 
 
 In the Confucian Analects we find the following 
 curious record of the moral progress of the sage : — 
 
 "The Master said, At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning. 
 At thirty, I stood firm. At forty, I had no doubts. At fifty, I 
 knew the decrees of Heaven. At sixty, my ear was an obedient 
 organ for the reception of truth. At seventy, I could follow what 
 my heart desired without transgressing what was right." 
 
 With- a Carlyle-inspired reverence for heroes, we 
 approach this wise man of the East, to pay him such 
 homage as his greatness can command. We survey 
 him, and find him, indeed, colossal for his age and 
 nation. He is extraordinary — but, after all, only 
 an extraordinary Chinese. He did not grow freely 
 to the form and dimensions of absolute human great- 
 ness. Like Pwanka's world, he bears marks of the 
 mallet and chisel. He was born into an artificial 
 world of inexorable requisitions and restraints. He 
 was trained from infancy in accordance with tradi- 
 tional usage. The circumstance that his social rank 
 was high subjected him the more entirely to the 
 exactions of conventional life. His native capacity 
 was remarkable, — he had cosmopolitan sympathies ; 
 he might have developed an original character even 
 in spite of hereditary tendencies, but circumstances 
 were always against it. He could only become a 
 full-blown and superior specimen of what Chinese 
 culture is able to produce from the most promis- 
 ing bud. He is the consummate flower of Chinese 
 civilization. 
 
 Confucius accepted the theory of government and 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I43 
 
 society that he found riveted in the history and habit 
 of his nation. ** There is government," he says, 
 '* when the prince is prince, and the minister is 
 minister ; when the father is father, and the son is 
 son." Believing that the relation of inferiors to 
 superiors should be that of the grass to the wind, 
 he submitted to the powers that be. Professing 
 himself only a lover of learning and a transmitter 
 of the wisdom of the ancients, he claimed no origi- 
 nality for himself. No one, he thought, could fall 
 into error who followed the example of the early 
 kings. As by the use of the compass perfect circles 
 may be made, so by the imitation of the ancient 
 sages may men be made perfect. '* If some years 
 were added to my life," said the master, '' I would 
 give fifty to the study of the Yih, and then I might 
 come to be without great faults." He endeavored 
 to walk in the path of the sage, which " embraces 
 the three hundred rules of ceremony and the three 
 thousand rules of demeanor." By these rules is to 
 be understood, not a mere code of etiquette, but an 
 elaborate system of conduct defining the highest 
 duties of life, civil, social, and moral. Etiquette 
 received an ample share of attention. Confucius 
 observed the directions of the manners-book with 
 scrupulous exactness. His behavior was exceed- 
 ingly circumspect. He would not eat his mince- 
 meat unless it were properly cut, nor sit upon his 
 mat unless it were straight. He practised attitudes 
 and gestures suitable to each several occasion of life, 
 
144 ESSAYS 
 
 and required his nightgown to be half as long again 
 as his body. A genius, naturally independent and 
 vigorous, thus tethered, reminds us of Gulliver 
 bound by the Lilliputians. 
 
 In the struggle to evolve, to rise to a better life, 
 Confucius broke many of his bonds. The conscious- 
 ness of his mission gave him strength. His itinerant 
 life tended to disinthrall him. With profound love 
 for humanity, he united a keen consciousness that 
 the world is not as good as it might be. He acknowl- 
 edges his own defects with humility, and laments the 
 degeneracy of others in language that recalls the 
 scriptural complaint, " There is none good, no, not 
 one." Yet, fully believing that good men have lived, 
 and that depraved human nature is capable of self- 
 rectification, he taught and admonished not with- 
 out faith in the efficacy of his labor. His system is 
 essentially moral. 
 
 There are things in Confucius that make one think 
 of Plato, as, for instance, his devotion to hard study, 
 his eagerness to discover truth, his exaltation of 
 sincerity, his delight in music, and his scorn of 
 mercenary gain. But he has none of Plato's poetic 
 faculty. Like Socrates, he was a great talker, and 
 derived illustrations from the commonest objects. 
 His disappointment at not being able to bring men 
 to accept his' doctrines reminds us of the despondent 
 moods of Socrates. "What do you mean," asked 
 one of his favorite disciples, *' by saying that no one 
 knows you.?" The Master replied, ''I do not mur- 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I45 
 
 mur against Heaven. I do not grumble against men. 
 My studies lie low, and my penetration rises high. 
 But there is Heaven that knows me." Such is the 
 refuge of all great reformers, of whom men say they 
 were born before their time. Every earnest soul of 
 vast purpose sooner or later enters into the gloom 
 of its own peculiar Gethsemane. 
 
 While in some instances Confucius distinctly rec- 
 ognized a supreme power, it cannot be said that it 
 was his habit to appeal to Heaven, or that the notion 
 of a future life had any strong influence over his 
 actions. ''To give one's self earnestly to the duties 
 due to men, and while respecting spiritual beings to 
 keep aloof from them, may be considered wisdom." 
 This is Confucian religion. It is eminently practi- 
 cal, if not very spiritual. It recognizes man as the 
 great object of man's love and service. All men are 
 accounted brethren, and owe one another the natural 
 debt of benevolence. The sage more than once 
 repeats the injunction, " Do not to others as you 
 would not wish done to yourself." 
 
 It is natural to suppose that Confucius, holding 
 such views as he did of human nature, should reg-ard 
 education as an important means of bettering the 
 world. This he did. Following the ancients, he 
 taught that knowledge is conversion from evil to 
 good — that knowledge is the pathway to both wis- 
 dom and virtue. According to a vigorous modern 
 writer,^ the religious idea is but one factor in the sal- 
 
 1 Dr. I. M. Wise: The Martyrdom of Jesus. 
 
146 ESSAYS 
 
 vation of the world, and science or culture is the 
 other. Many have relied wholly on the first, con- 
 temning the other ; but Confucius may be said to 
 have regarded knowledge as man's chief concern, 
 even to the exclusion of a higher spiritual motive. 
 He would redeem mankind by instructing them in 
 secular knowledge. Education, in his creed, is a 
 means quite adequate to produce a perfect man. 
 ''It is not easy," he says, "to find a man who has 
 learned for three years, without coming to be good." 
 Again, " The superior man, while there is anything 
 he has not studied, or while, in what he has studied, 
 there is anything he cannot understand, will not 
 intermit his labor." " Learn as if you could not 
 reach your object, and were always fearing, also, lest 
 you should lose it." " If a man keeps cherishing his 
 old knowledge, so as to be constantly acquiring new, 
 he may be a teacher of others." He puts more 
 stress on obtaining knowledge, on storing memory, 
 than on reflection. " I have been the whole day 
 without eating, and the whole night without sleep- 
 ing ; — occupied with thinking. It was of no use. 
 The better plan is to learn." Yet, in another place, 
 he says wisely, " Learning without thought is labor 
 lost; thought without learning is perilous." 
 
 Confucius would not confine the benefits of educa- 
 tion to a favored few. The doctrine of universal 
 brotherhood implied the duty of universal instruc- 
 tion. We are told that, " when the master went to 
 Wei, Yen Yew acted as the driver of his carriage. 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I47 
 
 The Master observed, ' How numerous are the peo- 
 ple!' Yew said, 'Since they are thus numerous, 
 what more shall be done for them ? ' — ' Enrich them,' 
 was the reply. ' And when they have been enriched 
 what more shall be done ? ' The master said, 'Teach 
 them.' " He recognized in education an equalizing 
 power. "There being instruction, there will be no 
 distinction of classes." This proposition is to be 
 taken with the mental reservation demanded in the 
 modern use of its equivalent ; for Confucius ad- 
 mitted a natural difference of capacity, and, indeed, 
 classified mankind into higher and lower ranks, 
 according to their quickness or slowness in learning. 
 The lowest class, he says, are they who are dull and 
 stupid and unwilling to learn. 
 
 It is a striking evidence of the sagacity of the 
 sage, that he discerned the importance of mental 
 prowess as a condition of military success. " To lead 
 an uninstructed people to war," he declares, "is to 
 throw them away ; " but that if they be competently 
 taught for seven yeai^s, they may be safely employed 
 as soldiers. 
 
 We cannot resist the temptation to gather here a 
 few more of the precepts of China's greatest philos- 
 opher. To us they seem suggestive, and of wide 
 application ; nor has modern culture grown entirely 
 beyond the need of the truths they embody. The 
 extracts are from the Analects : the headings are 
 ours. 
 
148 ESSAYS 
 
 Learning like Bnilding a Mound. 
 
 " The prosecution of learning may be compared to 
 what may happen in raising a mound. If they want 
 but one basket of earth to complete the work, and I 
 stop, the stopping is my own work. It may be com- 
 pared to throwing down the earth on the level 
 ground. Though but one basketful i'S thrown at a 
 time, the advancing with it is my own going for- 
 ward." 
 
 What is Knoivledge? 
 
 "■ Shall I teach you what knowledge is ? When you 
 know a thing to hold that you know it ; and when 
 you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not 
 know it — this is knowledge." 
 
 False Pride. 
 
 '* A scholar whose mind is set on truth, and who is 
 ashamed of bad clothes and bad food, is not fit to be 
 discoursed with." 
 
 Whom to teach. 
 
 ''The Master said, 'I do not open up the truth to 
 one who is not eager to get knowledge, nor help 
 out any one who is not anxious to explain himself. 
 When I have presented one corner of a subject to 
 any one, and he cannot from it learn the other three, 
 I do not repeat my lesson.' " 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I49 
 
 Teaching adapted to the Taught. 
 "The Master said, * To those whose talents are 
 above mediocrity, the highest subjects may be an- 
 nounced. To those whose talents are below medi- 
 ocrity, the highest subjects may not be announced.' " 
 
 Hozu Confucius taught. 
 ''The Master, by orderly method, skilfully leads 
 men on. He enlarged my mind with learning, and 
 taught me the rudiments of propriety." 
 
 Experience confers Authority. 
 " Fan Che requested to be taught husbandry. 
 The Master said, ' I am not so good for that as 
 an old husbandman.' He requested also to be 
 taught gardening, and was answered, ' I am not so 
 good for that as an old gardener.' " 
 
 Qualities of the Scholar. 
 *' The scholar may not be without breadth of mind 
 and vigorous endurance. His burden is heavy and 
 his course is long." 
 
 Gi-avity and Instruction. 
 " If the scholar be not grave, he will not call forth 
 any veneration, and his learning will not be solid." 
 
 Application. 
 " The Master said, ' Is it not pleasant to learn 
 with a constant perseverance and application .^ ' " 
 
150 ESSAYS 
 
 Duties of Youth. 
 "■ The Master said, ' A youth, when at home, should 
 be filial, and abroad, respectful to his elders. He 
 should be earnest and truthful. He should overflow 
 in love to all, and cultivate the friendship of the good. 
 When he has time and opportunity after the perform- 
 ance of these things, he should employ them in polite 
 studies.' " 
 
 The Scholar's Rest. 
 " Let relaxation and enjoyment be found in the 
 polite arts." 
 
 Blade, Floiver, and Fruit. 
 " There are cases in which the blade springs, but 
 the plant does not go on to the flower. There are 
 cases where it flowers, but no fruit is subsequently 
 produced." 
 
 Failure from Within. 
 " When the archer misses the centre of the target, 
 he turns round and seeks for the cause of his failure 
 in himself." 
 
 Virtue. 
 " If the will be set on virtue, there will be no prac- 
 tice of wickedness." 
 
 Law and Punishment. 
 I. "The Master said, * If the people be led by 
 laws, and uniformity be sought to be given them by 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I5I 
 
 punishmcjits, they will try to avoid the punishment, 
 but have no sense of shame 
 
 2. " * If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought 
 to be given them by the rules of propriety, they 
 will have the sense of shame, and moreover will 
 become good.' " 
 
 Higher Law. 
 
 " Without recognizing the ordinances of Heaven, 
 it is impossible to be a superior man." 
 
 The Master did not suggest new methods of instruc- 
 tion, or lay down an original course of study. He 
 only indorsed the scheme given in the Book of Rites, 
 and other ancient classics, which it was the crown- 
 ing work of his life to edit for the people's use. The 
 technical branches taught were reading, writing, arith- 
 metic, ceremonies, music, archery, and charioteering. 
 At the aofe of seven, children learned to count and 
 to distinguish the cardinal points ; at nine, to number 
 the days of the month ; at ten, the boys were sent to 
 live with teachers who instructed them for about ten 
 years, first in numbers and writing, later in music 
 and the odes, and lastly in archery and horsemanship. 
 Lessons in filial duty and the rules of propriety were 
 never intermitted. 
 
 Girls received little or no education of a literary 
 kind, but plenty of advice on the duty of submission 
 to the other sex. Mothers are honored in China as 
 such ; but woman as woman is, and always has been, 
 
152 ESSAYS 
 
 held in low esteem. Confucius hardly more than 
 alludes to the female part of creation. He says 
 somewhere, — 
 
 " Of all people, girls and servants are the most difficult to behave 
 to. If you are familiar with them, they lose their humility. If you 
 maintain a reserve towards them, they are discontented." 
 
 The system of lifelong studentship and competi- 
 tive examinations, for which China is famous, though 
 not instituted until many centuries after Confucius, 
 naturally grew out of his doctrines, and has always 
 been sustained by citing them. . . . The sage passed 
 from earth nearly twenty-three centuries ago, but 
 how vital his influence still is may be learned from 
 the following passage taken from a biographical sketch 
 by Dr. Legge : — 
 
 " At the present day education is widely diffused throughout China, 
 and in all the schools it is Confucius who is taught. . . . The whole 
 of the magistracy is thus versed in all that is recorded of the sage 
 and in the ancient literature which he preserved. His thoughts are 
 familiar to every man in authority, and his character is more or less 
 reproduced in him. 
 
 " The official civilians of China, numerous as they are, are but a 
 fraction of its students, and the students, or those who make literature 
 a profession, are again but a fraction of those who attend school for a 
 shorter or longer period. Yet so far as the studies have gone, they 
 have been occupied with the Confucian writings. In many school- 
 rooms there is a tablet or inscription on the wall, sacred to the sage, 
 and every pupil is required, on coming to school on the morning of the 
 first and fifteenth of every month, to bow before it the first thing as 
 an act of worship. Thus all in China who receive the slightest tinc- 
 ture of learning do so at the fountain of Confucius. They learn of 
 him and do homage to him at once. . . . During his lifetime he had 
 three thousand disciples. Hundreds of millions are his disciples 
 now." 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 53 
 
 2. EDUCATION IN ANCIENT GREECE.^ 
 
 The fundamental conception that every child 
 belongs to the state, and is destined to a prescribed 
 public service, had great influence in suggesting laws 
 and shaping institutions in early Greece. This is 
 particularly true of Sparta, where the grasp of civic 
 power was fastened upon the babe in the nursery, 
 and was not withdrawn from the veteran of three- 
 score years. Even in the Hellenic democracies per- 
 sonal independence was almost swallowed up in the 
 duties of citizenship. The conception which the 
 Greeks held of right life, the essence of their religion, 
 and the spirit of their education, tended to the sup- 
 pression of individuality and the promotion of the 
 state. The laws of Lycurgus assumed the power and 
 glory of Sparta to be the objects for which the Laco- 
 nian citizen existed. Military service was the Spar- 
 tan's first and greatest duty. Hence military educa- 
 tion was the chief concern of the state. Every male 
 child born in Sparta was a potential soldier, or nothing. 
 The children of the Spartans were subjected to an 
 examination soon after birth ; the robust and promis- 
 ing were adopted by the family amid festive rejoicings, 
 the feeble or deformed were exposed on bleak Tay- 
 getus. The barbarous custom of exposing infants 
 was legally authorized in all Grecian states excepting 
 Thebes. The laws and customs of Athens were 
 
 1 The principal authorities upon which this article is based are Curtius's " History 
 of Greece," Becker's " Charicles," and Schmidt's " History of Pedagogics." 
 
154 ESSAYS 
 
 more liberal and humane than those of Sparta. The 
 far-reaching mind of Solon recognized in the generous 
 education of youth a guaranty of the growth and per- 
 manence of the Attic capital. His laws held fathers 
 responsible for the education of their sons, and aimed 
 to foster popular culture without subjecting it to 
 stringent state control. The Athenian family was 
 freer than the Spartan. Individual liberty and the 
 prevalence of mental activity made Athens the centre 
 of ancient culture. Athens stands for (Greece ; her 
 life presents the best results of Hellenic civilization. 
 In the better class of Greek families the child, 
 when formally accepted by the father, was intrusted 
 to the care of a trained nurse, one from Lacedaemon 
 being considered best. The nurse suckled her little 
 charge, fed him honey, carried him much in the 
 open air, dandled him in her arms, and sang him to 
 sleep with lullabies. Great pains was taken to insure 
 bodily health and symmetry in babyhood. The 
 child's body and limbs were shaped with the hands. 
 No haste was allowed in teaching children to walk. 
 Nurture and growth were superintended with a wise 
 moderation that aimed at the sure if slow develop- 
 ment of a sound, strong body. The Greeks well 
 knew that nature cannot be forced. They let the 
 children have a long time and a good time in the 
 nursery. Toys were provided in abundance, such as 
 rattles, dolls, hoops, tops, and little wagons. Many 
 juvenile games were in vogue, one of which was 
 much like blindman's buff. The misdemeanors of 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 55 
 
 the nursery were punished by the appropriate ap- 
 plication of a slipper or sandal to the young Hellene's 
 person. Sometimes the offender was terrified into 
 submission by frightful stories corresponding to the 
 '* Raw Head and Bloody Bones " of modern times. 
 On the other hand, obedience and docility were re- 
 warded by copious narratives, usually of a marvellous 
 sort, from the rich repertory of fable and myth. Skill 
 in story-telling was a chief accomplishment of the 
 nurse. At the age of about six, the boys were sepa- 
 rated from the girls, put under the care of a peda- 
 gogue, and sent to school. The girls received little 
 or no education except from their mothers and 
 nurses. 
 
 The pedagogue was usually a slave of good char- 
 acter and education. ''The democratic atmosphere 
 of Athens," says Dr. Curtius, '' was in favor even of 
 the unfree class, and to the annoyance of the aristo- 
 crats encouraged the cultivation of humane and kindly 
 relations between the master and the slave." Polite- 
 ness and gracefulness of carriage were particularly 
 valued in the pedagogue, who was expected to serve 
 as a model of behavior to his charge. It was his 
 duty to accompany the boys to and from the school 
 and gymnasium, to carry their books and harp, and 
 to exercise a general superintendence over their con- 
 duct. He gave incidental instruction and advice, 
 but took no part in the regular work of the school. 
 This was intrusted exclusively to the preceptor. The 
 schools were all private. The state never entertained 
 
156 ESSAYS 
 
 the idea of building schoolhouses, or supporting 
 teachers at the public cost. But education was de- 
 manded and encouraged by law, and recognized by 
 the people as an element of power. Almost all the 
 Athenian boys were sent to some sort of school for 
 a longer or shorter time, according to the ability of 
 their parents. The rich could command the best 
 of teachers ; the poor were obliged to accept inferior 
 ones. As a rule, the office of preceptor was not in 
 high repute. It was regarded as menial, and often 
 fell to persons who were thought unfit to make a 
 living in any other vocation. 
 
 The elementary Hellenic education was simple in 
 kind and method. The art of reading was taught, 
 then the pupils were set to learn by heart passages 
 from approved poets and moralists. The fables of 
 ^sop and the poems of Theognis were among the 
 text-books used. Homer, however, was the great 
 fountain-head of instruction, the source alike of 
 knowledge, patriotism, and religion. Next to Homer 
 Hesiod furnished the Greek youth with material of 
 education. This preliminary instruction was fol- 
 lowed by a course including what were regarded as 
 the two essential parts of education — gymnastics 
 and music. Gymnastics included wrestling, dancing, 
 and many athletic and graceful exercises ; also bath- 
 ing, and whatever else conduces to perfect health, 
 strength, agility, and physical self-control. Sceoda- 
 mus says to Ulysses, in the eighth book of the 
 Odyssey : — 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 57 
 
 " I think 
 Thou must be skilled in games, since there is not 
 A glory greater for a man while yet 
 He lives on earth than what he hath wrought out, 
 By strenuous effort, with his feet and hands." 
 
 Bryant'' s Od. vol. i., p. 1S7. 
 
 Music comprehended not only singing and practice 
 upon the harp, but grammar, geography, and mathe- 
 matics — in the language of Grote, ''everything per- 
 taining to the province of the nine Muses." 
 
 Gymnastics and music, or physical and intellectual 
 culture, were inseparably united. The body was 
 considered as of equal importance with the soul. 
 The sound body was thought essential to the sound 
 mind. Curtius gives the following succinct character- 
 ization of the Athenian school culture: — 
 
 " Grammar, music, and gymnastics exhausted the circle of teaching, 
 the first two of these departments being closely connected with one 
 another. For, when the boy had learned to read and write, he read 
 the poets; he learnt to declaim them, and with the words appropri- 
 ated to himself the wealth of their subject-matter. Reason and feel- 
 ing, taste and judgment, were developed by his habituating himself 
 more and more to the ideas of poets of high and universal reputation. 
 The declamation of poems led to the accompaniment on stringed in- 
 struments, and to the accurate acquaintance with the different rhythms. 
 The power of the musical art proved its elevating and refining in- 
 fluence upon the minds of the young, without the intentional char- 
 acter of moral instruction disclosing itself to them." 
 
 3. PLATO AND EDUCATION. 
 
 All Greek culture points to Plato as the ripe result 
 of its influence. He is the summing up and embodi- 
 ment of the intelligence of his day. He knew all 
 
158 ESSAYS 
 
 that Athens could hnpart, all the science of the 
 Pythagoreans, and all the lore of the Egyptians. He 
 knew, and could use what he knew. Plato is the 
 greatest name in education, and his dialogues are the 
 true point of departure for whoever would trace 
 the winding road along which nations and individuals 
 have pursued human culture for the last twenty- 
 three hundred years. Pedagogy without Plato is like 
 a tree without a tap-root. Professor Jowett observes 
 that the Republic is the "first treatise on education 
 of which Milton and Locke, Rousseau, Jean Paul, and 
 Goethe are the legitimate descendants." It is a fact 
 curiously illustrative of the dearth of human inge- 
 nuity that twenty centuries have added almost nothing 
 to our knowledsre of the mind and the rio^ht method 
 of its development. 
 
 According to the scanty record which history fur- 
 nishes, Plato was born at ^gina, 429 b.c, the year 
 in which Pericles died. He lived through a period of 
 eighty-one years, and expired, it is said, in the act of 
 writing, or, according to another authority, with his 
 head pillowed upon some favorite books. He was of 
 doubly illustrious blood, his father being a descend- 
 ant of Codrus, a Hellenic king, arid his mother a 
 relative of Solon, the wise lawgiver. His book-edu- 
 cation was supplemented by extensive travel and 
 familiar intercourse with the most famous men of 
 his time, especially with Socrates, his great teacher. 
 How well was he fitted by nature, by study, and by 
 experience to comprehend the intellectual and moral 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 59 
 
 condition of the people of Athens, and to show them 
 the highway of reform ! He was wise enough to be 
 moderate. He saw evil enough, but was no rash in- 
 novator. He could wait patiently for the leaven of 
 his transforming philosophy to work. It is working 
 to-day. Transmitted through centuries and nations, 
 it swells and flavors the educational loaf of Germany, 
 France, England, and America. 
 
 I/'" What we call our advance ideas in education were 
 anticipated by Plato. To the Greeks they seemed 
 Utopian dreams and poetic rhapsodies. All of 
 Plato's works abound in educational hints and sug- 
 gestions ; but the Republic and the Laws contain 
 direct discussions on teaching and training, and may 
 be considered, as a commentator declares, "theories 
 and plans of civic education rather than schemes of 
 legislation and details of laws." In his two great 
 works Plato develops a philosopher's conception of 
 a perfect human society — an ideal commonwealth. 
 His scheme of education reaches its grandest propor- 
 tions in the Republic, though in the Laws, written 
 later, much of practical importance may be found, 
 and perhaps a nearer approach to the ordinary 
 modern conception of the aims and objects of 
 schooling. The materials upon which this article is 
 based are drawn mainly from the Republic. 
 
 It is not possible to separate in the Republic what 
 belongs purely to Plato from what belongs to the 
 prevailing system of education. In building his new 
 ship the philosopher would model it somewhat on the 
 
l6o ESSAYS 
 
 old plan, and would use such of the old timbers as 
 were sound and serviceable. The new ship was to 
 meet all the useful ends of the old, and to be infi- 
 nitely larger and grander. 
 
 As man, in Plato's view, was destined to live for 
 the state, his training should fit him for civic duties, 
 and it should be prescribed and enforced by the 
 state. It was the state's duty to educate the citizen, 
 as it was the citizen's duty to serve the state. Edu- 
 cation should be compulsory. This was new doctrine. 
 Teachers should be maintained at the public cost. 
 This was new doctrine. The girls should be edu- 
 cated in the same way as the boys, for a woman is 
 ''but a lesser man." This was new doctrine. Plato 
 urged women's rights and duties to an extent that 
 would startle Mrs. Livermore. He would have 
 women share in all the hardships of life, not except- 
 ing war. 
 
 His whole scheme of government and education is 
 tinctured with a strong admiration of Spartan severity. 
 In the Ideal Republic, the women and children were 
 to be in common, and no parent was to know his 
 own child. This is not the only Platonic notion -re- 
 pugnant to the modern mind. Like Wilhelm Meister, 
 we are shocked and saddened at the discovery of a 
 defect in a writer whom we honor. But a candid 
 recognition of Plato's shortcomings, or of his dijfcr- 
 ences from 7cs, is necessary to a correct appreciation 
 of his merits. He differs radically from enlightened 
 moderns in regard to the relative rank and value of 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION l6l 
 
 men. He adopted the Oriental idea of caste. He 
 represented the different classes of men, under the 
 symbols, gold, silver, brass, and iron. The husband- 
 man must remain a husbandman, the potter a potter. 
 He believed in the educability of men, not of man. 
 Brass and iron were born to menial stations, — born 
 to be governed and used. Gold and silver were by 
 nature susceptible of culture, were^ noble, were fit to 
 become guardians and rulers of the state. It is not 
 strange that with this aristocratic view of society, 
 Plato should associate contempt for common people 
 and manual labor ; or that he should see nothing 
 wrong in the fact that the proportion of slaves to free 
 burghers was as twenty to one in Attica. 
 
 Plato's primary conception of a state implies the 
 existence of a large number of ignorant, dependent, 
 but productive citizens, under the control and direc- 
 tion of a few select guardians and rulers of both 
 sexes. The guardians are to be soldiers as well as 
 civilians. The description of their nurture and 
 training constitutes Plato's scheme of education. 
 They are to be the offspring of the most perfect 
 parents. Their nurture even anticipates birth, and 
 prescribes that the conduct of a woman in pregnancy 
 should be moderate, gentle, and gracious ; and that 
 her physical habits should be such as to secure the 
 highest degree of health and vigor in her child. 
 The infant's first three years should be exempt from 
 fear and pain. Strong, prudent, and intelligent 
 nurses ought to be secured. The children require a 
 
I 62 ESSAYS 
 
 great deal of exercise and amusement ; and they 
 should be provided with toys and sports adapted to 
 their age. Much stress is laid upon the importance 
 of beginning right. Man is potentially a being beau- 
 tiful, strong, and good. If the body is healthy from 
 the start, if the mind is wisely directed in its first 
 motions, and if favorable influence continue, the 
 child will inevitably expand into the proportions of 
 a right man. The primary education is to give the 
 body natural growth, to surround children with all 
 good and wholesome stimulations by which they may 
 develop into happy youth, as a rose blossoms. Much 
 freedom is to be granted in childhood, but not license. 
 Respect for parents and elders must be maintained. 
 Punishments are sometimes requisite, but should 
 never be ignominious, or inflicted in anger. As 
 children grow older, they are to be held with a 
 tighter rein. ''Of all animals, the boy is the most 
 unmanageable, inasmuch as he has the fountain 
 of reason in him not yet regulated. He is the 
 most insidious, sharp-witted, and insubordinate of 
 animals." 
 
 At the age of six the sexes are to be separated, 
 and sent to school. And, now, what shall the train- 
 ing be } Is there a better than the time-honored 
 curriculum, gymnastics for the body, and music or 
 literature for the soul } 
 
 Literature is to be taught, not so much as a matter 
 of knowledge, as a means of forming correct moral 
 principles and mental habits. Tales and poems are 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 163 
 
 to be committed to memory, but only such as con- 
 vey a proper lesson. The young and tender mind 
 must receive only right impressions. To this end 
 mythology should be expurgated. Homer and the 
 other poets are to be cleansed of all that encourages 
 intemperance and lust, and all that tends to produce 
 terror, such as horrible descriptions of Hades. The 
 gods are to be represented, not as yielding to the 
 passions and vices common to men, but as beings 
 altogether pure and noble. Plato's education is 
 based on a religious creed at once simple and sub- 
 lime. God is good and unchangeable. All tales 
 that teach the contrary are to be rejected, no matter 
 how great their literary merit. True piety, sound 
 morality, must be inculcated, whatever be left 
 out. Do not Christian teachers stand rebuked 
 by a solemn voice sounding across the lapse of 
 twenty hundred years ? With us intellect comes 
 first, and morality is only incidental. 
 
 Music proper Plato would teach with reference to 
 its effect on character, not as a mere polite accom- 
 plishment. The form and quality of music best 
 adapted to educate are carefully considered. Words, 
 melody, and rhythm are discussed. The only instru- 
 ments thought desirable are ** the lyre and the harp for 
 the city, and a pipe for the country." The wonderful 
 influence of music in regulating the human mind and 
 heart is dwelt upon in eloquent strains. 
 
 " Is not this the reason why musical training is so 
 powerful, because rhythm and harmony find their way 
 
164 ESSAYS 
 
 into the secret places of the soul, on which they 
 mightily fasten, bearing grace in their movements, 
 and making the soul graceful of him who is rightly 
 educated, or ungraceful if ill-educated ; and also be- 
 cause he who has received this true education of the 
 inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions 
 or faults in art and nature, and with a true taste, 
 while he praises and rejoices over, and receives into 
 his soul the good, and becomes noble and good, he 
 will justly blame and hate the bad, now in the days 
 of his youth, even before he is able to know the rea- 
 son of the thing ; and when reason comes he will 
 recognize and salute her as a friend with whom his 
 education has made him long familiar." 
 
 Under gymnastics Plato considers the general care 
 of the body, recommending temperance and modera- 
 tion in exercise and^diet. Seasoning in food and all 
 the ''delicacies of Athenian confectionery" are to 
 be avoided. Extreme simplicity in all things is en- 
 joined. Simplicity in music "engenders temperance 
 of soul ;" in gymnastics, "bodily health." The rightly 
 educated person should need neither magistrate nor 
 physician. He should be a law to himself as to 
 conduct and as to health. Soul-culture should keep 
 him from violating the laws of the state ; gymnastics 
 should keep him physically well. Respecting the 
 relative importance of literature and gymnastics, 
 Plato departed from the established opinion of the 
 ancients. He was the first to declare the absolute 
 superiority of the soul to the body. " The good 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 165 
 
 body," he says, "does not improve the soul, but the 
 good soul improves the body. Then if we have edu- 
 cated the mind, the minuter care of the body may 
 properly be committed to the mind." 
 
 Plato regards studies and exercises as a means and 
 not an end. Every faculty exists in embryo in the 
 child ; education calls it out. The fewer the methods 
 of education, the better, provided they answer the 
 purpose of giving body and mind the use of them- 
 selves. Quintilian likens the mind to a vessel to be 
 filled ; Plato compares it to an eye turned toward 
 objects, and thus made sensible of its power of see- 
 ing. Education is " not implanting eyes, for they 
 exist already, but giving them a right direction, which 
 they have not." How beautiful, how elevating this 
 conception ! The soul is designed to compass the 
 universe in its bright vision. Education is the ad- 
 justment of the soul to the eternal verities. Pursu- 
 ing his own studies upon this lofty plane, even in the 
 glimmering light of ancient science, Plato reached 
 the grand generalization that all knowledge is one, — 
 a proposition which we are in the habit of regarding 
 as of purely modern development. 
 
 The preliminary education we have described is 
 interrupted when the pupils arrive at the age of six- 
 teen, and are subjected to a trial of practical life. 
 When they reach the age of twenty, a selection of 
 right natures is to be chosen, for a higher education. 
 Sure, brave, fair, and noble persons, of keen and 
 ready powers of acquisition and good memory, are 
 
l66 ESSAYS 
 
 to be selected. These only can become good guard- 
 ians. They must be " unwearied, solid men, lovers 
 of labor in any line." To these shall be imparted a 
 knowledge of arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. 
 Plato attached great value to mathematics as devel- 
 oping the power of abstract thought. Dialectic was 
 next to be studied. This is '' the coping-stone of the 
 sciences ; the nature of knowledge can go no further." 
 The dialectician is " one" who has a conception of 
 the essence of each thing," an abstract true idea 
 of justice, truth, beauty, virtue, wisdom. 
 
 Again, education is to be interrupted, and its value 
 tested, by application to practical duties. The edu- 
 cated man is not to rest satisfied with the contempla- 
 tion of his own attainments ; he must descend to the 
 aid of his fellows. He should be not only a right 
 thinker, but a perfect practical statesman. He must 
 not spend all his time in the '' heaven of ideas ; " he 
 must serve the state in the ''den of common life." 
 
 At the age of thirty, the best are once more to 
 be selected from the best, and put to school once 
 more. These choice natures finally become the 
 highest rulers, the kings of the state. Only ripe 
 philosophers can become kings. They are to devote 
 themselves to study for five years. They are to 
 review, classify, and sum up all the knowledge here- 
 tofore acquired. They are then to devote fifteen 
 years to the highest concerns of the state, — to lead 
 armies, to govern cities. 
 
 " And when they have reached fifty years of age, 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 167 
 
 th'^n let those who still survive and have distin- 
 guished themselves in every deed and in all knowl- 
 edge come at last to their consummation. The time 
 has now arrived at which they must raise the eye of 
 the soul to the universal light which lightens all 
 things, and behold the absolute good ; for that is the 
 pattern according to which they are to order the 
 state and the lives of individuals, and the remainder 
 of their own lives also, making philosophy their chief 
 pursuit ; but when their turn comes, also toiling at 
 politics and ruling for the public good, not as if they 
 were doing some great thing, but of necessity ; and 
 when they have brought up others like them, and 
 left them to be governors of the state, then will they 
 depart to the Islands of the Blest, and dwell there ; 
 and the city will give them public memorials and 
 sacrifices, and honor them, if the Pythian oracle con- 
 sent, as demigods, and at any rate, as blessed and 
 divine." 
 
 Having led us to this mountain summit of human 
 possibility, Plato points, with encouraging cheerful- 
 ness, to ultra-mundane heights, and fresh fields of 
 endeavor beyond time. Not discouraged at the 
 meagre results which the culture of this life returns, 
 he makes the best of mortality happy to even begin 
 ''something which* avails against the day when we 
 live again and hold discourse in another existence." 
 Plato's scheme of education, as a system, is totally 
 inapplicable to our modern wants. Nevertheless, 
 separated from the state, or modified as to certain 
 
l68 ESSAYS 
 
 impracticable features, and broadened at the base, so 
 as to embrace the many as well as the few, it might 
 ser.ve us a very good purpose — at least as an ideal. 
 Modern educational theories are better than ancient, 
 chiefly because they are more humane and universal. 
 They assume that all men are educable, even crimi- 
 nals, mad men, and idiots. Modern society appre- 
 ciates brass and iron, and modern education is the 
 bold alchemy which transmutes base into noble, and 
 noble into nobler still. 
 
 Plato's educational value to us is discovered, not in 
 his system, but in particular discussions and sug- 
 gestions. He is rich in maxims. He is the father 
 of object teaching and kindergartens. In the char- 
 acter of Socrates, he paints a model teacher. His 
 dialogues are acknowledged to be "the best examples 
 of the nature and method of dialectic." Joubert 
 says, '' Plato found philosophy made of bricks, and 
 made it of gold." I know of no other work so prof- 
 itable for the seeker of general culture to peruse as 
 Plato. Jowett's translation furnishes us with the 
 entire work in clear and beautiful English. So sen- 
 sible, so invigorating, so amusing are these splendid 
 dialogues, that one involuntarily repeats Emerson's 
 question, "Why not educate our young men on this 
 book?" 
 
 4. ARISTOTLE AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Aristotle was born nearly four centuries before 
 Christ, at Stagira, a city on the coast of Thrace. 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 169 
 
 He came to Athens while yet in his teens, attracted 
 by the genius of Plato. He became a disciple of the 
 great philosopher, and soon distinguished himself for 
 industry and ability. Plato called him the mind of 
 the academy. With what a copious flow the stream 
 of eloquent instruction must have run from such a 
 master to such a pupil ! The enthusiastic teacher will 
 credit the tradition which affirms that when Aristotle 
 happened to be absent from the lecture, Plato ap- 
 peared spiritless, and complained that he spoke to 
 deaf auditors. 
 
 Aristotle remained in Athens for about twenty 
 years, devoting himself to study and philosophical 
 pursuits. Shortly after Plato's death, which occurred 
 in 338 B.C., he removed to the Mysian city of Atar- 
 neus, where he spent three years at the court of 
 Hermias, his friend and fellow-student, — a philos- 
 opher king. Hermias, falling into the power of 
 the King of Persia, was taken prisoner, sent to Asia, 
 and hanged ; and Aristotle fled for safety from Atar- 
 neus to the Isle of Lesbos. He was accompanied in 
 his flight by Pythias, sister of Hermias, whom he 
 had just married, and whom he is said to have loved 
 with an extravagant passion. Pythias died within a 
 year or two, and Aristotle soon afterward sailed to 
 Macedonia, on the invitation of Philip, to undertake 
 the education of the prince, afterward Alexander 
 the Great. Philip and Aristotle were intimate in 
 boyhood, and they continued lifelong friends. Upon 
 the birth of Alexander, the king sent the phi- 
 losopher this message : — 
 
lyO ■ ESSAYS 
 
 " Know that a son is born to us. We thank the gods for their 
 gift, but especially for bestowing it when Aristotle lives ; assuring 
 ourselves, that, educated by you, he will be worthy of us, and worthy 
 of inheriting our kingdom." 
 
 Alexander was fourteen years old, and Aristotle 
 about forty, when they first came together in the 
 relation of pupil and tutor. This relation continued 
 for eight years, and we may conjecture that it was of 
 no small benefit to Aristotle, as affording prepara- 
 tion for his future work. By imparting knowledge 
 to others, we establish it in ourselves. What finer 
 culture can be imagined than to be taught by Plato, 
 and to teach Alexander ! 
 
 Aristotle, ripened by years and a varied experience, 
 returned to Athens and established his celebrated 
 schools in the Lyceum. This Lyceum was a ''gymna- 
 sium in the suburbs, well shaded with trees, near to 
 which the soldiers used to exercise, and adorned by 
 the Temple of Lycian Apollo, from whose peripaton, 
 or walk, Aristotle and his followers were called 
 Peripatetics." Aristotle, like other teachers of an- 
 tiquity, had two forms of lecture, aa-oatic or esoteric 
 and encyclic or exoteric. The acroatic lectures were 
 set discourses addressed to his regular pupils, and 
 were read in the morning at the Lyceum. The en- 
 cyclic discourses were on the same or similar topics 
 as the acroatic, but were popular in style, and adapted 
 to the general learner. They were truly peripatetic 
 lectures or talks, being given informally after supper, 
 and while walking about for exercise of body and 
 
•STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I /I 
 
 relaxation of mind. Only the acroatic treatises have 
 come down to us, and they in a mutilated condition. 
 For a period of thirteen years ATistotle continued 
 to instruct the young men of Athens in the science 
 and philosophy of his age. His splendid career 
 then drew to a dreary close, as the sun sets in gath- 
 ering clouds. Like Socrates, he was accused before 
 the Areopagus of irreligion ; like Socrates, he was 
 misrepresented and persecuted, and recalling the 
 fate of Socrates, he went, self-banished, to Chalcis in 
 Euboea, to prevent the Athenians, as he sadly said, 
 from committing a second sin against philosophy. 
 He died, in Euboea, before the expiration of a year, 
 at the age of sixty-three. 
 
 It was inevitable that a man of Aristotle's as- 
 sociations and pursuits should consider deeply the 
 subject of education. He did so, and some of his 
 conclusions on this subject may easily be gathered 
 from his preserved writings. There is a severe unity 
 binding together his treatises on Ethics and Politics, 
 and by reading these works, we learn his conception 
 of man and the training that fits man for the highest 
 duties and truest happiness. 
 
 According to the ethics of Aristotle, the soul is 
 capable of two kinds of virtue, moral and intellectual. 
 Moral virtue rules that part of our nature which is 
 most closely connected with the body, —the instincts, 
 appetites, and passions. It is not innate. It is not 
 produced by nature, nor contrary to nature. The 
 soul is passive to external influences. Moral virtue 
 
172 ESSAYS 
 
 is simply habit. It is impressed by examples, by 
 acts, by whatever may reach the mind through the 
 senses ; and the impression is deepened by practice. 
 If the tablet of the child's mind is not strongly in- 
 scribed with the characters of moral virtue, vice will 
 write possession there. Hence the circumstances 
 under which children are brought up are all-impor- 
 tant, and parents, families, and states are responsible 
 for their education until they reach the years of ac- 
 countability. Children are incomplete, and their 
 virtue is referable, not to themselves, but to their 
 guardians. Adults are free agents, and their con- 
 duct should submit to the control of reason. 
 
 Intellectual virtue belongs to that part of our being 
 which is farthest removed from the dominion of sense. 
 It relates to the powers of thought and contempla- 
 tion. The intellect is the noblest thing in man — it 
 resembles the divine. Intellectual virtue is not a 
 mere habit, like moral virtue, but it *' has its origin 
 and increase for the most part from teacJiing,'' and 
 requires time and experience for its development. 
 It is dependent upon the cultivation of the soul. In- 
 tellect grows thriftily only out of a moral soil. 
 Goodness predisposes to right reasoning. The object 
 of intellectual virtue is the discovery of truth, and 
 Aristotle gives it as the distinguishing mark of a 
 good or moral man, that ''he can see the truth in 
 every case, since he is, as it were, the rule and 
 measure of it." This is a re-statement of one of 
 Plato's ideas. 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1/3 
 
 The exercise of the virtues, moral and intellectual, 
 has for its end the supreme good of the individual 
 by bringing him to a condition of almost perfect and 
 constant happiness in the delightful contemplation of 
 truth. But the individual does not exist for himself 
 alone, he exists for the state. *' To discover the good 
 of an individual is satisfactory, but to discover that 
 of a state is more noble and divine." In Aristotle's 
 system, as in Plato's, education is regarded as a pub- 
 lic duty. '' No one ought to think that any citizen 
 belongs to him in particular, but to the state, and it 
 is the natural duty of each part to regard the good of 
 the whole." Aristotle's treatise 'on Politics applies 
 to the state the same principles that his Ethics ap- 
 plies to men. The good citizen is described as not 
 essentially different from the virtuous man. Politics, 
 which is the greatest of sciences, should direct the 
 citizen in all things that tend to a correct life accord- 
 ing to a fixed ethical rule. "■ It is evident that laws 
 should be laid down for education, and that it should 
 be public." The laws must prescribe such regula- 
 tions as will secure in the young those habits which 
 confirm moral virtue, and predispose the mind to in- 
 tellectual pursuits. Further, they must dictate what 
 individuals shall learn, and to what extent. 
 
 Aristotle; in Greek fashion, lays much stress upon 
 the literal breeding of children, the advantages of 
 good stock, fortunate birth, and careful nurture. He 
 specifies that infants ought to be fed with abundance 
 of milk, without wine, allowed a free motion of the 
 
1 74 ESSAYS 
 
 limbs, and inured, very early, to the effects of cold. 
 Nothing should be taught the child, not even neces- 
 sary labor, before he is five years old, lest it should 
 prevent his growth. He must exercise freely, how- 
 ever, and his plays may be imitations of what he is 
 afterward to do as serious work. The conflicts of 
 boys are not to be forbidden, since the " struggles of 
 the heart, and the compression of the spirits," 
 which they produce, develop strength in a peculiar 
 manner. 
 
 The mental training of children requires the ut- 
 most watchfulness and circumspection on the part of 
 nurses, parents, ajid teachers. Aristotle declares 
 that *' it does not make a slight, but an important, 
 nay, rather, the whole difference," whether children 
 are brought up in right habits or not, from the begin- 
 ning. First influences are most important, because 
 "what we meet with first pleases best." The fables 
 and tales told in the nursery should be of a proper 
 sort. Children should be kept from the company of 
 slaves and all vulgar or Vicious persons. They must 
 hear no indecent language, see no obscene pictures 
 or statues, or be tempted, in any way, to violate good 
 morals or imitate bad manners. They should be 
 guarded and tended within the pale of the family 
 until they arrive at the age of seven. At that age 
 the first period of regular school education should 
 begin, to continue for seven years. Another and 
 higher course of education, also of seven years' dura- 
 tion, should complement the training of boyhood, 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1/5 
 
 and complete the citizen for the highest duties of 
 life, both private and pubHc. 
 
 The eighth book of Aristotle's Politics, evidently a 
 fragment, treats of the studies suitable to the period 
 of boyhood, and embraces many critical remarks on 
 prevailing usage among the Greeks. Lacedaemon is 
 especially recommended as being the only city in 
 which education receives proper attention from the 
 state. 
 
 Four branches are named, in the Politics, as com- 
 prising the matter which it was customary to teach 
 children. These are reading, gymnastics, music, and 
 painting. The utility of reading is taken for granted, 
 not only for its own sake, but also as a means of ac- 
 quiring other sorts of learning. The gymnastic ex- 
 ercises of boys, Aristotle thought, should be very 
 gentle, as violent exercise is brutalizing, and, also, 
 incompatible with study. " It is impossible," says 
 our philosopher, ^'for the mind and body to labor at 
 the same time, as each labor is productive of con- 
 trary evils : the labor of the body preventing the 
 progress of the mind, and the mind of the body." 
 Painting is recommended as of great and varied use- 
 fulness : for instance, to prevent mistakes in buying 
 pictures or vases. It should be learned, moreover, 
 not merely for its utility, but because it enables one 
 to judge of the beauty of the human form. Some 
 things are to be learned simply because they are 
 noble and liberal ; for " to be always hunting after 
 the profitable ill agrees with great and freeborn 
 
176 ESSAYS 
 
 souls." The subject of music is discussed at consid- 
 erable length, and the conclusion reached is, that 
 children should be taught to sing and play music of 
 a moral and elevating character, principally as a 
 means of relaxation and amusement. This course 
 of study seems meagre, and it is probable that Aris- 
 totle included much more under the term reading than 
 we do. 
 
 After the youth shall have arrived at the age of 
 fourteen, three years may be specially devoted to 
 severe gymnastic exercises. This will leave four 
 more years for the completion of education. Aris- 
 totle gives no outline of the course to be pursued 
 during these four years, but it is safe to infer that he 
 would have the young men instructed as he himself 
 taught them at the Lyceum. Indeed, the school of 
 Aristotle may be regarded as a sort of primitive uni- 
 versity, conducted by a single professor. It was the 
 Harvard of Athens, where the Stagirite read a con- 
 tinuous series of lectures to any and all who were 
 seeking a higher education. These lectures were 
 upon rhetoric, logic, metaphysics, ethics, politics, 
 economics, mathematics, physics, and natural history. 
 
 Aristotle must have exercised a powerful influence 
 upon his contemporaries, and especially his pupils. 
 He was the first really scientific teacher of whom 
 we have any account. His learning was vast. 
 Ouintilian refers to him as a prodigy of erudition. 
 He gave form and method to studies before shapeless 
 and confused. Centuries elapsed without adding 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I // 
 
 anything to the facts he left in natural history, and 
 Agassiz says that we must come down to Linnaeus 
 before we find systematic zoology taken up where 
 Aristotle had left it. His system of logic, according 
 to Grote, '' was not only of extraordinary value in 
 reference to the processes and controversies of his 
 time, but, also, having become insensibly worked 
 into the minds of instructed men, has contributed 
 much to form what is correct in the habits of modern 
 thinking." Burke declares, that of all Aristotle's 
 writings, only the treatise on natural philosophy is 
 unworthy of him, thus giving indirect testimony of 
 the sustained and varied power of the great philoso- 
 pher. Another distinguished voucher for Aristotle's 
 worth, and that to the modern student, is the late 
 Dr. Arnold, who stated that he found the Politics 
 of great and direct use to him every day of his life, 
 and who further said that he would not consent to 
 send his son to a university where he would lose the 
 study of ''dear old Tottle." 
 
 A just estimate of Aristotle's system of education 
 cannot be made unless we consider to what classes 
 the system is intended to apply. In the ideal state, 
 depicted in the Politics, the citizens are to be as 
 nearly equal as possible, and they are all to be edu- 
 cated. The citizens are to be served by slaves. 
 Slavery is recognized as the natural condition of a 
 portion of mankind. From the hour of their birth 
 some are marked out as slaves. This Aristotle em- 
 phasizes by frequent repetition. The slave is fated 
 
178 ESSAYS 
 
 to an abject life. His position is but a step above 
 that of the lower animals. He knows that there is 
 such a faculty as reason, but he is incapable of using 
 it. He has no deliberative faculty. He has a natu- 
 ral need of a master, and his condition of servitude 
 is right and just. The instruction which he is to 
 receive is, of course, that of a menial, and is very 
 limited. 
 
 And how about women ? Are they to be educated } 
 Aristotle's views are briefly these : The female of 
 animals is, as a rule, inferior to the male. Woman 
 is inferior to man, and in some respects opposite. 
 She is weaker than man in body and in intellect. 
 Man should exert a political government over his 
 wife. His duties in the family are different from 
 hers. It is his business to rule, hers to obey; his to 
 acquire subsistence, hers to take care of it ; his to 
 deal with the outside world, hers to order the house- 
 hold within. As to children, it is no more the 
 mothers' duty to rear them than the fathers' to edu- 
 cate them. That women should be educated, espe- 
 cially for the duties of the marriage relation, Aris- 
 totle distinctly affirms ; but he nowhere describes 
 the manner or place of their training. We may 
 fairly conclude that he would confine their education 
 to instruction in the domestic virtues, according to 
 the dictation of the "man of the house." 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 79 
 
 5. QUINTILIAN. 
 
 Mommsen, the best authority on Roman education, 
 draws a vivid contrast between the Grecian and the 
 Roman character, showing the former eager to pro- 
 mote individual freedom, and the latter resolute to 
 repress it. The historian says that the Roman judg- 
 ment " deemed every one a bad citizen who wished 
 to be different from his fellows." What culture was 
 to Athens, law was to Rome. Hence the supremacy 
 of civil power in Rome ; the subordination of people 
 to potentate, and of family to father. The Roman 
 husband was absolute monarch over wife and child, 
 yet wife and child felt no degradation, since they 
 regarded their subjection as inevitably fixed by the 
 just ruling of the gods. How rigid the fabric of old 
 Roman society ! It was as hard and inflexible as a 
 suit of iron mail. 
 
 Rights, duties, obligations, being sharply defined, 
 — the purpose of life being clearly recognized as 
 service to the state directed by law, — education must 
 force every child into the path prescribed for him. 
 The training of Roman youth, in early times, was 
 the shaping of Romans, not the developing of men. 
 The Roman must fight — therefore his body was 
 inured to hardship. His physical exercises were 
 useful rather than graceful. The Roman must obey. 
 The oldest Roman school-book was the " Twelve 
 Tables," the code of laws. This was committed to 
 memory by every boy. The Roman must speak in 
 
l8o ESSAYS 
 
 public. Correct and forcible delivery was taught in 
 every school. 
 
 There is no series of events in history more inter- 
 esting or profitable to the student of educational 
 philosophy than that embracing the intellectual rela- 
 tions of Rome with Greece. Every youth in the 
 high school knows that Greece conquered her con- 
 querors by the might of culture. Who can resist 
 fate ? The Romans at first feared and hated Grecian 
 ideas. They dreaded education, regarding it as a 
 " disequalizer " of men. They also feared, with good 
 reason, the corrupting influence of luxurious Athenian 
 life. Cato, the censor, moved in the Roman Senate 
 to dismiss certain Greek ambassadors, who, as Milton 
 quaintly says, " tooke occasion to give the City a tast 
 of their Philosophy." Cato would none of that 
 dangerous dynamite. Yet he himself was induced 
 to study Greek in his old age ; and his grandson 
 spent his last hours reading the divine Plato. The 
 Roman conquerors were conquered indeed. Their 
 very slaves became their rulers, swaying the sceptre 
 of intellectual power. No force can be destroyed. 
 The wave of Roman civilization combined with that 
 of Grecian, and the cumulated billow rolled on. 
 
 Each nation has a predominant genius. Each 
 banks its capital, sooner or later, in the treasury of 
 the world's progress. The wealth of Rome was law 
 and order. The riches of Athens was culture. 
 Modern nations draw interest on the two vast 
 funds consolidated. 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION l8l 
 
 Athens elaborated noble systems of education. 
 Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, created pedagogics for 
 Europe. The Roman mind could not improve the 
 theories which Grecian philosophy had devised. 
 Hence there are no eminent Latin authorities on 
 the principles of education. 
 
 Livius Andronicus translated the Odyssey into 
 Latin 207 b.c., and this was used as a text-book. 
 Greek schoolmasters flocked to Rome. Many were 
 purchased as private tutors. A specially elegant 
 article of Athenian pedagogue brought as high as 
 two hundred thousand sesterces, or about ten thou- 
 sand dollars. It became a custom for Roman youth 
 to go to distant cities to pursue special studies, as 
 modern American students go to London, Paris, or 
 Berlin. Rhodes was famous for her schools of 
 rhetoric ; Athens, for philosophy ; Alexandria, for 
 science. 
 
 Pliny the Younger, in a somewhat celebrated letter 
 to Cornelius Tacitus, writes : '' Being lately at Comum, 
 the place of my nativity, a young lad, son to one of 
 my neighbors, made me a visit. I asked him whether 
 he studied rhetoric, and where } He told me he did, 
 and at Mediolanum. And why not here } ' Because,' 
 said his father, who came with him, 'we have no pro- 
 fessors.'" Pliny goes on to say how he argued with 
 the boy's father and others to persuade them to 
 establish a home college, offering to pay one-third of 
 the cost himself. '' Your sons," he says, " will by 
 these means receive their education where they re- 
 
1 82 ESSAYS 
 
 ceived their birth, and be accustomed from their 
 infancy to inhabit and affect their native soil. You 
 may be able to procure professors of such distin- 
 guished abilities that the neighboring towns shall be 
 glad to draw their learning from hence ; and as you 
 now send your children to foreigners for education, 
 may foreigners in their turn flock hither for their 
 instruction." ^ 
 
 The so-called *' seven liberal arts " of antiquity were 
 grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, arithmetic, geometry, 
 astronomy, and music. These became the established 
 curriculum. They held their place as the essentials 
 of a finished training for hundreds of years, — in 
 fact, through the Middle Ages. They are still in- 
 cluded as organic to every course of study. 
 
 I said there are no eminent Latin authorities on 
 the principles of education. Varro, the most learned 
 of the ancient Romans, a correspondent of Cicero 
 and a friend of Caesar, wrote treatises on education, 
 but they are lost. In his time the Greek system of 
 schooling prevailed in Italy. Cicero was deeply 
 interested in education, and wrote on the subject. 
 He honors the teacher's profession, and expressly 
 says, in his egotistic way, " As to whatever service I 
 have performed, if I have performed any to the state, 
 I came to it after being furnished and adorned with 
 knowledge by teachers and learning." 
 
 The man who embodied the principles of Roman- 
 ized Grecian education in language was not born 
 
 1 Melmoth's Letters of Pliny. 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 183 
 
 until more than eighty years after Cicero died. 
 Thoughts are lived before they are written. As 
 Plato came after Pericles, so Quintilian came after 
 Augustus. I do not mean to put Quintilian on a 
 par with Plato. Quintilian is the best exponent we 
 have of Roman education. He is not a great, original 
 philosopher, but an excellent summer-up of other 
 men's philosophy, — a shrewd, practical, common- 
 sense man of much learning and rare powers of 
 expression. He was a clever, communicative Roman 
 lawyer and teacher, with a '' long " head, a good heart, 
 a sharp pen, a keen wit, and a commanding social 
 position. 
 
 Quintilian was born at Caluguras on the Ebro 
 River, about 40 a.d., some eight years before the 
 birth of Juvenal. He removed to Rome, where he 
 became a pleader, and afterwards a teacher of oratory. 
 He established a school in the eigth year of the reign 
 of Domitian, and received a salary of ^4,000 out of 
 the public treasury. Moreover, his pupils, many of 
 whom were distinguished, must have paid him large 
 fees, for he amassed property. Juvenal,- in one of 
 his satires, after speaking of the reluctance of fathers 
 to pay for their sons' education, and the miserable 
 condition of teachers in general, asks, '"' Where, then, 
 did Quintilian get money to pay for so many estates.^ 
 . . . It is good fortune ! Yes ! Quintilian was in- 
 deed lucky, but he is a greater rarity even than a 
 white crow." Quintilian spent about twenty years 
 in teaching-, and his famous work on the ''Instruction 
 
184 ESSAYS 
 
 of an Orator" shows on every page evidence of the 
 author's experience. The treatise is not a fine-spnn 
 theory, l)ut a well-woven record of actual school- 
 mastering. The l)()ok is saturated with the life of 
 its writer, and this personal element makes it enter- 
 taining to this day. I find its charm to hold after 
 a second and a third perusal, and I venture to tran- 
 scribe a few of the passages that seem worthy of 
 study as literature and as pedagogical science. 
 
 While engaged in the composition of his " Insti- 
 tutes," Ouintilian was intrusted with the education 
 of two of Domitian's grand-nephews. In the intro- 
 duction to the sixth book he laments the death of 
 his wife and children. He says, '* My youngest son 
 dying when he had just passed his fifth year, took 
 from me, as it were, the sight of my eyes. . . . Such 
 a child, even if he had been the son of a stranger, 
 would have won my love. It was the will, too, of 
 insidious Fortune, with a view to torture me the 
 more severely, that he should show more affection 
 for me than for any one else ; that he should prefer 
 me to his nurses, to his grandfather who educated 
 him, and to all such as gain the love of children at 
 that age. ... I then rested for my only hope and 
 pleasure on my younger son, my little Ouintilian, and 
 he might have sufficed to console me, for he did not 
 put forth merely flowers, like the other, but, having 
 entered his tenth year, certain well-formed fruits. I 
 swear by my own sufferings, by the sorrowful testi- 
 mony of my own feelings, by his own shade, the 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 85 
 
 deity that my grief worships, that I discerned in him 
 such excellences of mind that the dread of such a 
 thunder-stroke might have been felt even from that 
 cause, as it lias been generally observed that preco- 
 cious maturity is most liable to early death. He had, 
 also, every adventitious advantage, agreeableness 
 and clearness of voice, sweetness of tone, and a 
 peculiar facility of sounding every letter in either 
 language, as if he had been born to speak that only. 
 But these were still only promising appearances ; he 
 had greater qualities, — fortitude, resolution, and 
 strength, — to resist pain and fear; for, with what 
 courage, with what admiration on the part of his 
 physicians, did he endure an illness of eight months ! 
 How he did console me at the last ! How, when he 
 was losing his senses, and unable to recognize me, 
 did he fix his thoughts in delirium only on learning." ^ 
 
 The reader, if he be a man of feeling, will not get 
 over this touching passage without emotion ; to me 
 the last sentence seems pathetic, in a way of which 
 the writer, perhaps, was unconscious, for it suggests 
 the probability that the gentle "little Ouintilian " 
 may have been educated into eternity. The hardest 
 thing for an ambitious father, or an enthusiastic 
 preceptor, is to forbear urging a precocious child. 
 
 Quintilian indorsed Plato in the belief that youth 
 is the time for toil. He says it is not to be appre- 
 hended that boys will suffer from overwork, bodily 
 
 1 This and the extracts which follow are taken from Watson's literal translation 
 of Quintilian's Institutes. 
 
1 86 ESSAYS 
 
 or mental. ''The temper of boys is better able to 
 bear labor than that of men." " Yet some relaxation 
 is to be allowed to all : not only because there is 
 nothing that can bear perpetual labor, but because 
 application to learning depends on the will, which 
 cannot be forced. Boys, accordingly, when reinvigor- 
 ated and refreshed, bring more sprightliness to their 
 learning, and a more determined spirit, which for the 
 most part spurns compulsion. Nor will play in boys 
 displease me ; it is also a sign of vivacity; and I can- 
 not expect that he who is dull and spiritless will be 
 of an eager disposition in his studies, when he is 
 indifferent even to that excitement which is natural 
 to his age." While Ouintilian advocates a stalwart 
 training, and scorns ''that delicacy of education 
 which we call fondness, which weakens all the powers 
 of the body and mind," he strongly objects to corporal 
 punishment. "That boys should suffer corporal 
 punishment," he says, " though it be a received 
 custom, I by no means approve ; first, because it is 
 a disgrace and a punishment for slaves, and in reality 
 an affront ; secondly, because, if a boy's disposition 
 be so abject as not to be mended by reproof, he will 
 be hardened even to stripes ; and, lastly, because if 
 one who regularly exacts his tasks be with him, there 
 will not be the least need of any such chastisement." 
 Our Roman schoolmaster thinks that "no part of 
 a child's life should be exempt from tuition." " Let 
 us not lose even the earliest period of life, and so 
 much the less, as the elements of learning depend 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 8/ 
 
 on the memory alone." ''The chief symptom of 
 ability in children is memory ; the next is imita- 
 tion." 
 
 Quintilian takes a very encouraging view of the 
 educability of the average boy. He says : " Let the 
 father, as soon as his son is born, conceive, first of 
 all, the best possible hopes of him, for he will thus 
 grow the more solicitous about his improvement 
 from the very beginning ; since it is a complaint 
 without foundation, that * to very few people is 
 granted the faculty of comprehending what is im- 
 parted to them, and that most, through dulness of 
 understanding, lose their labor and their time.' For, 
 on the contrary, you will find the greater number of 
 men both ready in conceiving and quick in learning, 
 since such quickness is natural to man ; and as birds 
 are born to fly, horses to run, and wild beasts to 
 show fierceness, so to us peculiarly belong activity 
 and sagacity of understanding, whence the origin of 
 the mind is thought to be from Heaven. But dull 
 and unteachable persons are no more produced in 
 the course of nature than are persons marked by 
 monstrosity and deformity ; such are certainly but 
 few. It will be a proof of this assertion, that, among 
 boys, good promise is shown in the far greater num- 
 ber ; and, if it passes off in the progress of time, it 
 is manifest that it was not natural ability, but care, 
 that was wanting. But one surpasses another, you 
 will say, in ability. I grant that this is true ; but 
 only so far as to accomplish more or less, whereas 
 
I 88 ESSAYS 
 
 there is no one who has not gained something by 
 study." 
 
 Discussing the relation of natural ability and cul- 
 ture, our author says : " If you suppose either to be 
 independent of the other, nature will be able to do 
 much without learning ; but learning will be of no 
 avail without the assistance of nature. But if they 
 be united in equal parts, I shall be inclined to think 
 that, when both are but moderate, the influence of 
 nature is nevertheless greater ; but finished orators, 
 I consider, owe more to learning than to nature. 
 Thus the best husbandman cannot improve soil of no 
 fertility, while from fertile ground something good 
 will be produced even without the aid of the husband- 
 man ; yet, if the husbandman bestows his labor on 
 rich land, he will produce more effect than the good- 
 ness of the soil itself. Had Praxiteles attempted to 
 hew a statue out of a mill-stone, I should have pre- 
 ferred it to an unhewn block of Parian marble ; but 
 if that statuary had fashioned the marble, more value 
 would have accrued to it from his own workmanship 
 than was in the marble itself. In a word, nature is 
 the material for learning, — the one forms, the other 
 is formed. Art can do nothing without material ; 
 material has its own nature even independent of art; 
 but perfection of art is of more consequence than 
 perfection of material." 
 
 Ouintilian treats the important subject of diversity 
 of natural gifts with wonderful discrimination and 
 clearness. "Two things," he remarks, "are espe- 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 89 
 
 cially to be avoided, — one to attempt what cannot 
 be accomplished, and the other to divert a pupil from 
 what he does well to something else for which he 
 is less qualified." Yet he believes in harmonious 
 development, and does not think " that any good 
 quality, which is innate, should be detracted, but 
 that whatever is inactive or deficient should be 
 invigorated or supplied." 
 
 Some pungent observations are made on precocity. 
 '* That precocious sort of talent scarcely ever comes 
 to good fruit. Such are those who do little things 
 easily, and, impelled by impudence, show at once all 
 they can accomplish in such matters. But they 
 succeed only in what is ready to their hand ; they 
 string words together, uttering them with an intrepid 
 countenance, not in the least discouraged by bashful- 
 ness, and do little, but do it readily. There is no 
 real power behind, or any that rests on deeply fixed 
 roots ; but they are like seeds which have been scat- 
 tered on the surface of the ground and shoot up pre- 
 maturely, and like grass that resembles corn, and 
 grows yellow, with empty ears, before the time of 
 harvest. Their efforts give pleasure, as compared 
 with their years ; but their progress comes to a stand, 
 and our wonder diminishes." 
 
 Quintilian's model . pupil is described in these 
 words : " Let the boy be given to me whom praise 
 stimulates, whom honor delights, who weeps when 
 he is unsuccessful. His powers must be cultivated 
 under the influence of ambition ; reproach will sting 
 
1 90 ESSAYS 
 
 him to the quick; honor will invite him, and in such 
 a boy I shall never be apprehensive of indifference." 
 
 The " Institutes " does not stop with the por- 
 traiture of different types of pupils; the teacher is 
 also painted in lively colors. Here are some pas- 
 sages of keen truth ; '' The ablest teacher can teach 
 little things if he will ; first, because it is likely that 
 he who excels others has gained the most accurate 
 knowledge of the means by which men attain excel- 
 lence ; secondly, because method [ratio], which with 
 the best qualified teachers, is always plainest, is of 
 great efficacy in teaching ; and, lastly, because no 
 man rises to such a height in greater things that 
 lesser fade entirely from his view. ... It gener- 
 ally happens that instructions given by the most 
 learned are far more easy to be understood and 
 more perspicuous than those of others. . . . The 
 less able a teacher is, the more obscure will he be. 
 For none are more pernicious than those who, hav- 
 ing gone some little beyond the first elements, clothe 
 themselves in a mistaken persuasion of their own 
 knowledge, since they disdain to yield to those who 
 are skilled in teaching." 
 
 *' Above all, and especially for boys, a dry master 
 is to be avoided not less than a dry soil for plants 
 that are still tender. Under the influence of such a 
 tutor they at once become dwarfish, — looking, as it 
 were, toward the ground, and daring to aspire to 
 nothing above every-day talk. To them leanness is 
 in the place of health, and weakness instead of judg- 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION IQI 
 
 ment ; and while they think it sufficient to be free 
 from fault, they fall into the fault of being free from 
 merit. Let not even maturity itself, therefore, come 
 too fast ; let not the malt while yet in the vat 
 become mellow, — for so it will bear years, and 
 improve by age." 
 
 Here is Quintilian's outline of the ideal teacher : 
 " Let him adopt, above all things, the feelings of a 
 parent toward his pupils, and consider that he suc- 
 ceeds to the place of those by whom they were 
 intrusted to him. Let him neither have vices in 
 himself, nor tolerate them in others. Let his aus- 
 terity be not too stern, nor his affability too easy; 
 let dislike arise from the one, or contempt from the 
 other. Let him discourse freely on what is honor- 
 able and good, for the oftener he admonishes the 
 more seldom will he have to chastise. Let him not 
 be of an angry temper, and yet not a conniver at 
 what ought to be corrected. Let him be plain in 
 his mode of teaching and patient of labor, but rather 
 diligent in exacting tasks than fond of giving them 
 of excessive length. Let him reply readily to those 
 who put questions to him, and question of his own 
 accord those who do not. In commendins: the exer- 
 cises of his pupils, let him be neither niggardly nor 
 lavish ; for the one quality begets dislike of labor, 
 and the other self-complacency. In amending what 
 requires -correction let him not be harsh, and least 
 of all not reproachful ; for that very circumstance, 
 that some teacher's blame as if they hated, deters 
 
192 ESSAYS 
 
 many young men from their proposed course of 
 study. Let him every day say something, and even 
 much, which, when the pupils hear, they may carry 
 away with them, — for though he may point out to 
 them, in their course of reading, plenty of examples 
 for their imitation, yet the living voice, as it is called, 
 feeds the mind more nutriment, and especially the 
 voice of the teacher, whom his pupils, if they are but 
 rightly instructed, both love and reverence. How 
 much more readily we imitate those whom we like, 
 can scarcely be expressed." 
 
 Quintilian's directions for instructing children are 
 full and minute. As memory and imitation are the 
 faculties first developed, the talk of the boy's nurses 
 must be on proper subjects, and correct in grammar. 
 The next things to be learned after the nursery 
 stories are the fables of yEsop. Verses from the 
 poets should be committed to memory. As soon as 
 a boy has learned to read and write he should be 
 instructed by the grammarians, — that is, Greek and 
 Latin, — Greek first. This instruction includes the 
 art of speaking. The directions for teaching ele- 
 mentary grammar, and what we call rhetoric and 
 composition, are practical, suggestive, and luminous. 
 I know of nothing better of their kind in any modern 
 book. The suo^srestions on readinof are most excel- 
 lent, and as applicable now as in ancient times. 
 " For my part," says our author, "■ I would have the 
 best authors commenced at once, and read always ; 
 but I would choose the clearest style and most in- 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 93 
 
 telligible." " It has been an excellent custom that 
 reading should begin with Homer .and Virgil, al- 
 though, to understand their merits, there is needed 
 much of mature judgment ; but for the acquisition of 
 judgment there is abundance of time, for they will 
 not be read but once." " Those writings should be 
 the subjects of lectures for boys, which may best 
 nourish the mind and enlarge the thinking powers; 
 for reading other books, which relate merely to edu- 
 cation, advanced life will afford sufficient time." 
 "The love of letters and the benefit of reading are 
 bounded, not by the time spent at school, but by the 
 extent of life." 
 
 Teachers of composition may find a useful hint in 
 the following : " Let that age [youth] be daring, 
 invent much, and delight in what it invents, though 
 it be often not sufficiently severe and correct. The 
 remedy for exuberance is easy ; barrenness is incur- 
 able by any labor. That temper in boys will afford 
 me little hope in which mental effort is prematurely 
 restrained by judgment. I like what is produced to 
 be extremely copious, profuse even beyond the limits 
 of propriety. Years will greatly reduce superfluity ; 
 judgment will smooth away much of it ; something 
 will be worn off, as it were, if there be but metal 
 from which something may be hewn and polished 
 off ; and such metal there will be, if we do not make 
 the plates too thin at first, so that deep cutting may 
 break it." In another place we find this very true 
 maxim : " By writing quickly we are not brought to 
 
194 ESSAYS 
 
 write well, but by writing well we are brought to 
 write quickly." 
 
 After the foundations are well laid in reading, 
 writing, and grammar, the education is built up on 
 the old Greek plan. The superstructure consists of 
 music, geometry, astronomy, philosophy, eloquence. 
 Quintilian had in view the training of a perfect 
 orator, as Plato had that of a perfect philosopher. 
 Both conceived an ideal, completely accomplished 
 man. Plato's mind, however, was altogether poetical, 
 while Ouintilian's was altogether practical. Quin- 
 tilian's finished man is the successful man of the 
 world, but Plato's man is winged for other worlds. 
 
 The ** Institutes " is one of the very best books on 
 pedagogy that was ever written, and I do not see how 
 it can ever be altogether superseded. It seizes upon 
 the vital and the permanent. It is crammed full of 
 sound sense. It broaches almost every important 
 question in education. I could excuse the average 
 lecturer on '* Theory and Practice " for stealing 
 Quintilian to substitute for his own advanced views. 
 Where will we find better methods of instruction 
 than those 2:iven in the old treatise .'* Where finer 
 bits of criticism ? Quintilian actually teaches the 
 art of literary criticism. His comments on the 
 principal writers of antiquity have been the delight 
 of generations of scholars. 
 
 It would be a service to the teachers' profession, 
 and to the reading public, if some competent hand 
 would compile a little volume of Quintiliana. 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I95 
 
 6. GOETHE AS AN EDUCATIONAL LIGHT. 
 
 Goethe was only twenty-eight years of age, when 
 Jefferson brought to Carpenter's Hall that social and 
 political document which announced to the world the 
 independence of America and the inalienable rights 
 of individual men. We may say that the powerful 
 influence of Goethe began its active operation in 
 Germany about the time that democracy became 
 an actual shaping energy in the New World. Both 
 forces worked together for freedom, humanity, and 
 culture. Goethe's influence was scarcely felt in 
 England or America until after 1824, the year in 
 which deep-discerning Carlyle translated " Wilhelm 
 Meister" into English. During the last half cen- 
 tury the luminous message of Germany's profound 
 thinker has been conveyed throughout all civilized 
 lands ; and in this country it has become, if not pop- 
 ular, at least known and appreciated by the reading 
 and thinking class. Probably such books as " Wil- 
 helm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels " will 
 never attract the multitude ; neither will Plato, 
 Dante, nor Milton. Nevertheless, from such supreme 
 sources of knowledge, thought, and taste, come the 
 ideas, theoretic and practical, which fill secondary 
 books and finally permeate the common mind, as 
 from mountain lakes issue vital springs and sparkling 
 streams that flow downward to irrigate and fertilize 
 forest and field. 
 
 Goethe has been called the Apostle of Self-culture. 
 
196 ESSAYS 
 
 Though his name is not often mentioned among 
 those of renowned educational reformers, he may be 
 ranked high in the first class of teachers of man- 
 kind ; rather a former than a reformer, he deals with 
 fundamentals, — grasps the great first principles of 
 life and culture, and indicates the wisest modes of 
 activity for men collectively and man the unit. The 
 lesson of his life is most stimulating; contact with 
 his vigorous mind, even throu^rh the medium of his 
 books, leads to hopeful effort. How cheering, how 
 exhilarating, how strength-giving, must his presence 
 and intimate conversation have been to his associ- 
 ates. His personality surcharged the air. One 
 imagines that from him to his capable disciple, a 
 liberal education might flow by spiritual induction. 
 He was intensely alive physically and mentally to 
 every external impression, and, to his apprehension, 
 everything around, above, and below was also throb- 
 bing with life. "His education," says one biogra- 
 pher, " was irregular ; he went to no school, and his 
 father rather stimulated than instructed him." Yet 
 his surroundings were favorable. His receptive na- 
 ture took in knowledge from all sides. He began 
 consciously to /k'c as soon as he began to grow. 
 Teachers in schools and colleges propose to fit boys 
 and girls for living. His strong, spontaneous, and 
 happy being did not separate the fitting from the 
 living, but lived the fitting and fitted the living from 
 the start to the close of his career. The motto on 
 which he constantly dwells in his great work is this. 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION IQ/ 
 
 ** Think on living!' The burden of his song is in 
 the words : — 
 
 " Life's no resting, but a moving ; 
 Let thy life be deed ou deed ! " 
 
 Sincerely desiring to know and understand nature 
 and mankind in all their aspects, he sought and 
 studied languages, literatures, science, art, and insti- 
 tutions. Minerals he examined in mountain and 
 mine, plants wherever they grew ; libraries were his 
 workshops, books his tools. Goethe's museum con- 
 tained all the Muses. The encyclopaedia of human 
 nature he mastered by reading its speaking volumes, 
 — -men, women, and children. The human heart was 
 to him Bible and hymn-book. The world was his 
 orange, and he richly enjoyed the nourishing juice of 
 it. So great a brain as his, so richly endowed by 
 nature, and so amply furnished with the accumulated 
 knowledge of the past, corrected by present obser- 
 vation, could not fail to give out value to other 
 brains. There is hardly a topic within the wide 
 range of pedagogical science, or within the still 
 wider field of human culture, that Goethe has not 
 touched somewhere in his writings. And whenever 
 he touches a theme of this character, light appears, 
 as when a conducting medium approaches an electri- 
 fied body. Light and heat appear, and the warm, 
 luminous shock makes an impression and is remem- 
 bered. Commonplace writers say many true things 
 and many important things, but say things in an 
 ordinary and unsurprising way ; but men of origi- 
 
198 ESSAYS 
 
 nality and special force utter themselves home to the 
 heart and memory. Goethe does this. His concep- 
 tions are striking, his images novel, his expression is 
 large and suggestive. Whatever a really great man 
 says on any subject is precious ; what Goethe said 
 and thought about education deserves our reverent 
 attention. We need not worship him, nor adhere to 
 his errors ; but his serious opinions demand respect, 
 because he was a lover of his race, because he strove 
 to discover and announce the truth, and because he 
 had the rare gift to express his thought in artistic 
 and therefore admirable form. 
 
 " Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels," 
 while it purports to be merely a novel, is a somewhat 
 fantastic treatise in poetic prose on life and culture 
 in general ; it abounds in philosophical speculations, 
 criticisms on literature and art, and subtle disquisi- 
 tions concerning the innermost meanings of things 
 human and divine. Like the enchanted cask in the 
 drama of Faust, which yielded all varieties of wine 
 according to the drinker's taste, and even spurted 
 fire into daring cups, this miraculous vintage of 
 thought and imagination furnishes a flagon to suit 
 every palate. Here is geology for the scientific, art 
 for the artistic, literature for the literary ; here are 
 real life and ideal dreaming ; here are men and 
 women of common and uncommon types ; and here, 
 also, are allegorical creations of merely symbolic 
 character. 
 
 The entire work may be regarded as an attempt 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I99 
 
 to portray the processes of human development, and 
 to indicate the duty of the individual to himself, and 
 his relation to his fellow-man, and to the divine 
 power. Meister's apprenticeship is the apprentice- 
 ship or preparation for a no less serious trade than 
 the art of living. The conception is the grandest 
 with which human thouoht can concern itself. Is not 
 education the supreme science of life, and conduct 
 its application ? The second volume of the book 
 deals directly with the motives and processes of in- 
 struction and training as applied to youth, which we 
 recognize as education or schooling. The author 
 gives a picture or model of what he conceives to be 
 the best general mode of education. In a prolonged 
 episode detailing the nurture, instruction, and disci- 
 pline of little Felix, Wilhelm Meister's son, we are 
 introduced to an imaginary province of vast extent 
 and great beauty, which Goethe says he might justly 
 call a Pedagogic Utopia. The description of this 
 region, its institutions, officers, and appliances for 
 the development of boys into the full possession of 
 their powers, occupies many chapters of the book, 
 and constitutes a most admirable discourse on the 
 principles and practice of education. Nothing more 
 charming in the whole range of pedagogical litera- 
 ture than these vivid chapters, unless we except 
 the somewhat similar and equally lofty discussion of 
 the same subject by John Milton in his celebrated 
 ''Tractate," depicting an ideal academy, or in the 
 immortal '' Republic " of Plato. It may be remarked 
 
200 ESSAYS 
 
 that both Goethe and Milton adopt many of Plato's 
 views ; or shall we rather conclude that sublime 
 minds naturally see and think alike, as eagles soar in 
 planes of nearly the same altitude. Goethe attaches 
 to music an educational importance as high as that 
 which the great Greek philosopher conceded to it. 
 He says, '' Song is the first step in education ; all the 
 rest are connected with it and attained by means of 
 it." In the exact practice of musical technic, he dis- 
 covers not only a general harmonizing of the facul- 
 ties, but a preparation for the precise understanding 
 and use of arithmetic and other mathematical studies. 
 
 In Goethe's scheme, no exercise, bodily or mental, 
 is divorced from practical ends, no energy is to be 
 wasted in abortive pursuits ; all learning is for the 
 sake of doing ; all theory should be practicable. 
 The poet was himself a man of affairs, honored as 
 well for executive skill in business as for literary 
 genius. The power which created Faust could also 
 manage a theatre or transact a diplomatic commis- 
 sion. He somewhere says, '' Practical activity and 
 expertness are far more compatible with sufficient 
 intellectual culture than is generally supposed." 
 
 A leisurely excursion through the Pedagogical 
 Province would certainly prove profitable, but to en- 
 joy such journey completely, each excursionist will 
 be his own best guide, travelling with book in hand. 
 With Carlyle's translation as staff, I have wan- 
 dered many times through Goethe's wonderful edu- 
 cational Utopia, and each tour has revealed new 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 201 
 
 objects of interest, and also, it must be confessed, 
 new mysteries. Few books are more intricate and 
 puzzling, and at the same time more fascinating. 
 That must be an exceptional mind which is not 
 lured by one thing or another in this book ; the 
 man who understands it all is wiser than the author 
 claimed to be. 
 
 Without attempting a full or systematic survey of 
 the Pedagogical Province, I shall give a few of its 
 leading features, or, rather, some of the general ideas 
 which governed its imaginary denizens. In the first 
 place, Goethe believes in the educability of human 
 nature. Culture, though it cannot create capacity, 
 can develop the human powers to an unlimited de- 
 gree. The main business of life is an active training 
 of whatever faculties in the individual respond to an 
 external or an internal call. The universe is the 
 soul's necessity. When the child is born, he is in 
 school, and his training is begun by every object and 
 influence that surround him. The best that his par- 
 ents can do, is to provide the most wholesome and 
 happy circumstances among which the infant may 
 grow and enjoy. Freedom and opportunity are the 
 necessary conditions of fortunate development ; vi- 
 tality and activity are what the developing body and 
 soul of the child must bring to his own aid. It is a 
 thought of the French writer Joubert, that " Man 
 might be so educated that all his prepossessions would 
 be truths, and all his feelings virtues." Goethe main- 
 tains the like faith. He says, " Well-formed, healthy 
 
202 ESSAYS 
 
 children bring much into the world with them. Na- 
 ture has given to each whatever he requires for time 
 and duration ; to unfold this is our duty ; often it un- 
 folds itself better of its own accord." And again, 
 " Let no one think that he can conquer the first im- 
 pressions of youth. If he has grown up in enviable 
 freedom, surrounded with beautiful and noble objects, 
 in constant intercourse with worthy men ; if his mas- 
 ters have taught him what he needed first to know, 
 for comprehending more easily what followed ; if he 
 has never learned anything which he requires to un- 
 learn ; if his first operations have been so guided that 
 without altering any of his habits he can more easily 
 produce what is excellent in future ; then such a one 
 will lead a purer, more perfect and happier life, than 
 another man who has wasted the force of his youth 
 in opposition and error. A great deal is said and 
 written about education ; yet I meet with very few 
 who can comprehend and transfer to practice this 
 simple yet vast idea, which includes within itself all 
 others connected with the subject." 
 
 The passage just quoted sounds the keynote to 
 Goethe's symphony of education. Freedom, — free- 
 dom, — freedom ! action, — action, — action ! these 
 are the. master-words of his discourse and exhortation. 
 Give the individual elbow-room and breathing space. 
 Let him seek and lind the learning and the vocation 
 which God designed him to use. First of all, dis- 
 cover if possible what is in the child, what nature 
 suggests concerning his proper destiny, what he can 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 203 
 
 probably do, what are his potential adaptations to life. 
 He cannot be everything ; he must be one thing, 
 or some few things at most. Though he must de- 
 velop to the utmost all that lies germinal within him, 
 and become a symmetrical and perfect man, he is but 
 one viaii, a small part of the many that make up 
 society and produce civilization. In Goethe's lan- 
 guage, "It is all men that make up mankind; all 
 powers taken together that make up the world. These 
 are frequently at variance ; and, as they endeavor to 
 destroy each other, nature holds them together, and 
 again produces them. From the first animal ten- 
 dency to handicraft attempts, up to the highest prac- 
 tising of intellectual art ; from the inarticulate crow- 
 ings of the happy infant, up to the polished utterance 
 of the orator and singer ; from the first bickerings of 
 boys, up to the vast equipments by which countries 
 are conquered and retained ; from the slightest kind- 
 liness and the most transitory love, to the fiercest 
 passion and the most earnest covenant ; from the 
 merest perception of sensible presence, up to the 
 faintest presentiments and hopes of the remote spir- 
 itual future ; all this, and much more, also, lies in 
 man, and must Idc cultivated : yet not in one, but in 
 many. Every gift is valuable, and ought to be un- 
 folded. When one encourages the beautiful alone, 
 and another encourages the useful alone, it takes 
 them both to form a man. One power rules another: 
 none can cultivate another : in each endowment, and 
 not elsewhere, lies the force that must complete it : 
 
204 ESSAYS 
 
 this many people do not understand, who yet attempt 
 to teach and influence. Let us merely keep a clear 
 and steady eye on what is in ourselves ; on what en- 
 dowments of our own we mean to cultivate : let us 
 be just to others ; for we ourselves are only to be 
 valued in so far as we can value." 
 
 Keeping in mind the clearly distinguished rela- 
 tions of man, first to mankind in general and then 
 to himself, we can understand why it is that Goethe 
 places so much stress upon the importance of dis- 
 covering innate capacity. His philosophy would not 
 attempt to make silk purses of sows' ears, or sows' 
 ears of silk purses ; would not expect to grow thistles 
 on fig-trees, or fi,gs on thistle-bushes; would not 
 promise to fit every man for all positions ; or, in a 
 word, labor to frustrate the designs of nature, or 
 substitute the schoolmaster's will for the command 
 of Almighty God, written in the book of the child's 
 manifest idiosyncrasy. The teacher should endeavor 
 not to make his pupil over according to a precon- 
 ceived model, but to discover what pattern the divine 
 Creator has outlined for the guidance of human 
 instruction. '' For to uniform we are altoe:ether 
 disinclined," says the overseer of the pedagogical 
 province ; ''uniform conceals the character, and, more 
 than any other species of distortion, withdraws the 
 peculiarities of children from the eye of their supe- 
 riors." This was said in reference to dress, but the 
 spirit of it applies to any external that may tend to 
 obliterate individuality. Goethe looks with horror 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 20$ 
 
 upon the fatal mistake of disregarding the natural 
 differences in men. He would have all teachers 
 dread the ever-present possibility that their pupils 
 may waste effort by attempting what they can 
 never hope to accomplish. " In all men," he declares, 
 ''there is a certain vague desire to imitate whatever 
 is presented to them ; and such desires do not prove 
 at all that we possess the force within us necessary 
 for succeeding in these enterprises. Happy they 
 who soon detect the chasm that lies between their 
 wishes and their powers." 
 
 Once more he asks, "What mortal in the world, 
 if without inward calling he take up a trade, an art, 
 or any mode of life, will not feel his situation miser- 
 able ? But he who is born with capacities for any 
 undertaking, finds in executing this the fairest por- 
 tion of his being." And again, "Is there not good 
 hope of a youth who, on commencing some unsuit- 
 able affair, soon discovers its unsuitableness, and 
 discontinues his exertions, not choosing to spend 
 toil and time on what never can be of any value?" 
 Further still I quote on this important point, "We 
 should guard against a talent which we cannot hope 
 to practise in perfection. Improve it as we may, we 
 shall always, in the end, when the merit of the mas- 
 ter has become apparent to us, painfully lament the 
 loss of time and strength devoted to such botching." 
 Does not the truth of this come home with sad 
 emphasis to many a disappointed person who has 
 squandered time, money, health, and enthusiasm in 
 
206 ESSAYS 
 
 the forlorn attempt to cultivate a power the seeds of 
 which nature never planted deeply in his being? 
 
 Now, since children know not their own powers, 
 since everything seems easy to them, since they 
 readily imitate whatever they behold, since they 
 are liable continually to mistake wishes for capaci- 
 ties, is it not the first duty of the teacher to dis- 
 cover their true dispositions and tendencies, to set 
 them right when they chance to go wrong, and to 
 keep their activity exercised in lines that lead to the 
 best results ? The parent must at first think and 
 judge for his child ; the teacher, in place of the 
 parent, must assume the same delicate and difficult 
 responsibility. To blunder at the beginning of the 
 journey is to wreck the possibilities of a life ; there- 
 fore the science of sciences, and the art of arts, so 
 far as education is concerned, is the science and art 
 of approximating to the correct discovery of the 
 promising capacities of pupils. Tlie teacher needs 
 to differentiate his boys and girls. They may all be 
 taught from the same books, but not with the expec^ 
 tation that all will make the same use of the same 
 learning, or attain the same ends in life. Not uni- 
 formity but diversity will result from an education 
 which recognizes unlikeness in the very nature of 
 minds. The pupil who is so fortunate as to find for 
 himself, or to have discovered for him, his true bent, 
 and who sets about doing that which there is good 
 hope he can do, will not be long in coming to a full 
 consciousness that he is on the right track. Every 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 20/ 
 
 instinct, every hunger and thirst of his being, will 
 find daily gratification, and will grow by what it feeds 
 on. The student who is making progress towards 
 the vocation he was born to follow, will delight even 
 in the drudgery of his necessary task. His life's 
 work will be avocation indeed, — a calling, — a joyous 
 career of activity to which the inner voice invites 
 him. All this is enforced, over and over again, by 
 the author of '' Meister." He iterates and reiterates, 
 "Every capability, however slight, is born with us; 
 there is no vague, general capability in men. It is 
 our ambiguous, dissipating education that makes men 
 uncertain. It awakejis wishes when it should be 
 animating tendencies ; instead of forwarding our real 
 capacities, it turns our efforts towards objects which 
 are frequently discordant with the mind that aims at 
 them. I augur better of a child, a youth, who is 
 wandering astray on a path of his own, than of 
 many who are walking aright on paths which are 
 not theirs. If the former, either by himself or by 
 the guidance of others, ever finds the right path, 
 that is to say the path that suits his nature, he will 
 never leave it ; while the latter are in danger every 
 moment of shaking off a foreign yoke, and abandon- 
 ing themselves to unrestricted license." 
 
 Goethe admits that it is extremely difficult to 
 determine the child's natural bent, and therefore dif- 
 ficult to select the course of culture best suited for 
 each one's development. He seems to recommend 
 that some special art or occupation should precede 
 
208 ESSAYS 
 
 that general culture which belongs to the completed 
 man. In the imaginary Province of the novel, when 
 Meister presents his little son Felix to the directors, 
 he asks advice thus, *' * If I thought of sending Felix 
 for a while into one of these circles, which would'st 
 thou recommend to me?' — 'It is all one,' replied 
 Jarno; 'you cannot readily tell which way a child's 
 capacity particularly points. ... In all things to 
 serve from the lowest station up is necessary. To 
 restrict yourself to a trade is best ; for the narrow 
 mind, whatever he attempts is still a trade ; for the 
 higher, an art ; and the highest, in doing one thing, 
 does all ; or, to speak less paradoxically, in the one 
 thing which he does rightly, he sees the likeness 
 of all that is done rightly. Take thy Felix through 
 the Province : let the directors see him ; they will 
 soon judge him, and dispose of him to the best 
 advantage.' " In another place we find this more 
 general statement : '* In order to accomplish any- 
 thing by education, we must first become acquainted 
 with the pupil's tendencies and wishes ; that these 
 once ascertained, he ought to be transported to a 
 situation where he may, as speedily as possible, con- 
 tent the former and attain the latter; and so if he 
 have been mistaken he may still in time perceive his 
 error ; and at last, having found what suits him, may 
 hold the faster by it, may the more diligently fash- 
 ion himself according to it." 
 
 The reader cannot fail to observe that Goethe, 
 though he places upon the teacher much responsi- 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 209 
 
 bility in aiding the child to discover its true field 
 of activity, does not conceive it possible that the 
 teacher should think and act for the learner in the 
 vital processes of education. Human culture is neces- 
 sarily self-culture. The teacher may point out what 
 to do, and even explain how to do it, but the learner 
 must do his own thinking and feeling. One can no 
 more understand or enjoy for another, than he can 
 digest or sleep for him. " Each man has his own 
 fortune in his hands ; as the artist has a piece of 
 rude matter which he is to fashion to a certain shape. 
 But the art of living rightly is like all arts ; the ca- 
 pacity alone is born with us ; it must be learned and 
 practised with incessant care." These are Goethe's 
 words. He warns all earnest souls that eternal ac- 
 tivity is the price of culture. ''Nothing upon earth 
 without its difficulties !" he exclaims. The best cul- 
 ture is attained by the hardest work and at the ex- 
 pense of much time. '' Steep regions cannot be sur- 
 mounted," says the poet, ''save by winding paths; 
 on the plain, straight roads conduct from place to 
 place." 
 
 We must not hastily conclude that because a youth 
 is slow in manifesting talent or genius, he is desti- 
 tute of natural ability. " He in whom there is much 
 to be developed will be later in acquiring true per- 
 ceptions of himself and of the world. There are 
 few who at once have tJiougJit and the capacity of 
 action. Thought expands, but lames : action ani- 
 mates, but narrows." 
 
210 ESSAYS 
 
 The several passages quoted will serve to bring 
 out in sufficiently strong relief two or three of the 
 leading principles of Goethe's educational doctrine. 
 These principles are exceedingly suggestive and 
 fruitful ; and while we may not all agree with all the 
 deductions derivable from them, they undoubtedly 
 contain much of the essence of eternal truth. He 
 who agrees with them in theory, will not go far wrong 
 in practice, and he who raises objections to them will 
 at least get the benefit which comes from high think- 
 ing ; for these supreme questions cannot be intelli- 
 gently and candidly discussed without advantage to 
 both sides. 
 
 Passages from Wilhelm Meister. 
 The Superficial Teacher. 
 " Wilhelm signified his wish that Montan would impart to him so 
 much as was required for the primary instruction of the boy. ' Give 
 that up,' replied Montan. ' There is nothing more frightful than a 
 teacher who knows only what his scholars are intended to know. He 
 who means to teach others, may indeed often suppress the best of 
 what he knows ; but he must not be half-instructed.' " 
 
 Where to find Perfect Teachers. 
 " ' Where then are perfect teachers to be found ? ' one says. 
 * Where the thing thou art wishing to learn is in practice.' " 
 
 Good JVork takes Time. 
 " ' Was the world not made at once, then ? ' said Felix. * Hardly,' 
 answered Jarno; 'good bread needs baking.'" 
 
 First Steps in TeacJiing. 
 "To fix a child's attention on what is present; to give him a 
 description, a name, is the best thing we can do for him. He will 
 soon enough begin to inquire after causes." 
 
STUDIES IN THE HISTOKY OF EDUCATION 211 
 
 Head Versus Hands. 
 " Drawing was not hard for me : I should have made greater 
 progress, had my teacher possessed head and science ; he had only 
 hands and practice." 
 
 Conversation. 
 " What you do not speak of, you will seldom accurately think of." 
 
 StirjH Clint ing Difficulties. 
 " We look upon our scholars as so many swimmers who, in the 
 element which threatened to swallow them, feel with astonishment 
 that they are lighter, that it bears and carries them forward; and so 
 it is with everything that man undertakes." 
 
 Aesthetic Cjiltiire. 
 "Men are so inclined to content themselves with what is com- 
 monest; the spirit and the senses so easily grow dead to the impres- 
 sions of the beautiful and perfect, that every one should study by all 
 methods to nourish in his mind the faculty of feeling these things. 
 For no man can bear to be entirely deprived of such enjoyments : it is 
 only because they are not used to taste of what is excellent, that the 
 generality of people take delight in silly and insipid things, provided 
 they be new. For this reason, one ought, every day at least, to hear 
 a little song, read a good poem, or see a fine picture." 
 
 Men's Teachers. 
 " What in us the women leave uncultivated, children cultivate 
 when we retain them near us." 
 
 Reverence. 
 
 " One thing there is which no child brings into the world with 
 
 him; and yet it is on this one thing that all depends for making man, 
 
 in every point, a man. Reverence ! Reverence for that which is 
 
 above us, for that which is below us, and for that which is around us." 
 
 Hoiv to regard Others. 
 "When we take people merely as they are, we make them worse; 
 when we treat them as if they were what they should be, we improve 
 hem as far as they can be improved," 
 
212 ESSAYS 
 
 The Best. 
 " Words are good, but they are not the best. The best is not to 
 be explained by words. The spirit in which we act is the highest 
 matter." 
 
 Religion. 
 "I look upon religion as a kind of diet, which can only be so 
 when I make a constant practice of it, when, throughout the whole 
 twelve months, I never lose it out of sight." 
 
THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 2I3 
 
 X 
 
 THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL i 
 
 The subject of my address is The Utility of the 
 Ideal. I employ the word Utility to signify some- 
 thins; more than mere material usefulness. Manures 
 upon land are of utility ; so also are evanescent tints 
 upon dissolving clouds. The economic maxims of 
 Poor Richard are of utility ; so also are the dreams 
 and reveries of Ik Marvel. Comprehensively speak- 
 ing, we say that whatever can better the character or 
 condition of man is of utility. Whatever can ele- 
 vate thought, purify taste, awaken aspiration, or wean 
 the faculties from low and unworthy tendencies, is 
 of incalculable utility. 
 
 '' And yet," exclaims Ruskin, '' people speak, in 
 this working age, when they speak from their hearts, 
 as if houses and lands, and food and raiment, were 
 alone useful, and as if sight, thought, and admiration 
 were all profitless ; so that men insolently call them- 
 selves utilitarians who would turn, if they had their 
 way, themselves and their race into vegetables; men 
 who think, so far as such men can be said to think, 
 
 1 Annual Address before the Ohio Teachers' Association at Columbus, O., Wednes- 
 day, July 6, 1870. 
 
214 ESSAYS 
 
 that the meat is more than the life, and the raiment 
 more than the body ; who look to the earth as to a 
 stable, and to its fruit as to fodder ; vine-dressers and 
 husbandmen who love the corn they grind, and the 
 grapes they crush, better than the gardens of the 
 angels upon the slopes of Eden ; hewers of wood and 
 drawers of water who think that the wood they hew, 
 and the water they draw, are better than the pine 
 forests that cover the mountains like the shadow of 
 God, and than the great rivers that move like his 
 eternity." 
 
 To such persons, the title of this discourse. The 
 Utility of the Ideal, is an absurd collocation of words. 
 To such the word Utility has but a meagre meaning, 
 and the term Ideal is but empty breath, or, at most, 
 but a convenient negative, signifying the utter absence 
 of the actual. Such do not recognize the Idealist as 
 a rational being. They deny the existence of the vast 
 invisible world of which he speaks and sings. Their 
 experience acquaints them only with things tangible, 
 visible, sapid, odorous. They are cognizant only of 
 forces obvious to animal perception. They believe, as 
 Emerson humorously states it, "that mustard bites the 
 tongue, that pepper is hot, friction matches incendiary, 
 revolvers to be avoided, and suspenders hold up panta- 
 loons." With Plato's ''earth-sprung" Athenians, 
 they contend ''that whatever cannot be squeezed 
 together in the hands is wholly nothing." They 
 indorse the opinion of Dupaty, of the French As- 
 sociation, who declared to the astronomer La Place, 
 
THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 21 5 
 
 that the discovery of a new pudding is of much more 
 importance than the discovery of a new comet. In 
 gross and sensuous scepticism, they hardly stop 
 short of the Bosjesmen of South Africa, who, when 
 told that there is a God, incredulously exclaim, " Show 
 him to me ! " 
 
 Common to the matter-of-fact class is a disposition 
 to divest even the external world of whatever con- 
 tributes to sentiment or taste. Not satisfied with 
 contemning the adornments of art, they even seem 
 to regard nature's exuberant loveliness as useless 
 superfluity. Instead of rejoicing in the all-pervading 
 beauty of the earth, they frown upon it as though it 
 were a chief manifestation of God's curse upon a 
 disobedient race. They would make anchorites of 
 the sons and dau2:hters of men. In the name of all 
 the virtues, they would clip off the golden edges of the 
 summer clouds, change the many hues of vegeta- 
 tion to a uniform blue-^ray or butternut, veto the 
 melodious carols of the birds, plough up your flower- 
 bed and sow it with turnip-seed, batter the orna- 
 mental cornice from your house, pull down the 
 pictures from your wall, cast your fashion magazine 
 into the fire, and coin your jewels into Federal money. 
 
 It is foolish to underrate the value of material 
 good. Property is power. Houses and lands, food 
 and raiment, machinery and money, are excellent 
 so far as they go, and they go far. But these things 
 take care of themselves. No man needs arguments 
 to convince him of the utility of eligible town-lots, 
 
2l6 ESSAYS 
 
 paying mines, and bank-stock producing big divi- 
 dends. All admit that man is a fine aniuial, the finest, 
 — and that he is worthy to live in material splendor, 
 ease, and luxury. He must lie soft, feed rich, dress 
 royally. But is not man something more and better 
 than a superb animal ? more and better than vitalized 
 earth } Nay, he is also vitalized Heaven. He has 
 a soul in his body. He has spiritual faculties as well 
 as senses. All his powers and susceptibilities should 
 be recognized and nurtured. Who shall presume to 
 set aside any element of his nature as useless, evil, 
 or unworthy of care } Dare one assert that any 
 ingredient that God has put into the human constitu- 
 tion is misplaced t Nay, every faculty of body and 
 soul contributes to the perfection of our nature, and 
 demands a legitimate sphere of action. It is true 
 that faculties may be abused or perverted, but that is 
 no reason why they should be suppressed, or why 
 their normal function should be denied. 
 
 Ideality, as Tuckerman truly observes, is as much 
 a heaven-implanted faculty as conscientiousness. 
 They mistake who suppose that it is a noxious weed, 
 springing up in the mind to the injury of practical 
 sense, morality, or religion. Divine Wisdom drops 
 the tender seed of imagination into the unconscious 
 soul of the infant. The morning of life quickens the 
 seed, and it becomes an early flower, indigenous to 
 childhood, the very spring-beauty of that auspicious 
 season. Children imagine as naturally as they laugh 
 and cry. To them a few sticks laid around the stump 
 
THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 21^ 
 
 of a tree become lofty walls, enclosing noble apart- 
 ments ; in shapeless blocks and broken stones they 
 possess elegant fm-nitm-e ; in bits of shattered crock- 
 ery and refuse fragments from the tin-shop they 
 behold costly sets of china and magnificent silver 
 service. One littb girl prattling in a playhouse by 
 herself, is multiplied by the swift arithmetic of her 
 busy fancy into a parlorful of ladies and gentlemen, 
 voluble in polite conversation, and mindful of every 
 courtesy of society. Isn't a broomstick a veritable 
 horse to little Tommy .? and isn't Tommy a locomo- 
 tive when he noisily pulls three cigar-boxes tied to- 
 gether in a row along the gravel walk, puffing as 
 he runs ? Does not Annie's doll understand as well 
 as anybody .'' Is there not a crock of gold at the 
 end of the rainbow, and a Santa Claus at the end of 
 the year ? Do not the birds talk and the winds whis- 
 per a language intelligible to the children } In the 
 clouds they see cities, and armies flying, and marvel- 
 lous mountains ; and when it thunders, the mountains 
 change to stormy battlements, and the armies bom- 
 bard the cities, and set them afire with torches of 
 lightning. To them in other mood, the awful thun- 
 der may seem the voice of omnipotent God uttering 
 unto the ends of the earth, /AM, I AM. Oh, cred- 
 ulous, creative childhood! who' would rob it of its 
 irradiant atmosphere of imagination .? Who would 
 dispel the golden and roseate clouds that flush and 
 float along its marvellous horizon } Ideality is to the 
 child the very perianth of his young existence, as 
 
2l8 ESSAYS 
 
 necessary to his healthy development as are floral 
 appendages to the rudimentary fruit which they sur- 
 round. In due time the petals of youthful fancy are 
 scattered by the wind of experience, and a new mode 
 of growth begins. But, alas for the fruit, if the 
 flower be prematurely removed ! alas, if it be re- 
 pressed ! 
 
 " There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, 
 The earth, and every common sight, 
 
 To me did seem 
 Apparelled in celestial light, 
 The glory and the freshness of a dream." 
 
 Soon enough come the years that compel the sad 
 continuation of the verse : — 
 
 " It is not now as it hath been of yore ; 
 Turn wheresoe'er I may, 
 By night or day. 
 The things which I have seen, I now can see no more." 
 
 It is the spontaneous act of the child's mind to 
 transmute the real into the ideal. The radiance of 
 unobscured faith changes common earth into fairy- 
 land for the young and innocent. The magical 
 world of ideality moves along with the child as a 
 halo moves along with the moon. It guards the new 
 existence from worldly harm while it is yet too weak 
 to guard itself. It even alleviates pain and steals 
 away the monotony of irksome duty. Did you 
 never when a child, engaged in some disagreeable 
 task, banish the thought of present weariness by call- 
 
THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 2I9 
 
 ing the wizard Fancy to your aid ? Did you never, 
 while drudging over some repulsive work, fly away 
 in glad revery to wander amidst the delights of Alad- 
 din's palace ? What sensitive child has not, when 
 sick or lonely, or grieVed or afraid, found comfort 
 and peace by summoning a host of imaginary attend- 
 ants to sympathize with him, and perhaps gently 
 lead him out of himself into the healing paradise of 
 dreams ? There was a lad to whom the anguish of a 
 great bereavement would have proven insupportable, 
 had it not been for a comforting belief, dependent 
 upon an excited fancy, — the belief that a beloved 
 sister, though gone from earth, sometimes played for 
 him her angel harp, so that he could hear it faintly 
 sounding — oh, how faintly ! — in far-off mansions of 
 the Blest. 
 
 Charles Dickens has written more frequently and 
 pathetically than any other author in behalf of chil- 
 dren, and their divine right to exercise their faculties 
 in a natural and happy way. He has also given us 
 many graphic pictures of the stern materialist and 
 the unpoetic worldling. Perhaps he has drawn no 
 character of this kind more truly representative than 
 that of Thomas Gradgrind, " the man of facts and 
 calculations," whose favorite words are, " Now, what 
 I want, is facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing 
 but facts. Facts alone are needed in life. Plant 
 nothing else ; root out everything else. You can 
 only form the minds of reasoning animals upon facts ; 
 nothing else will be of any service to them. This is 
 
220 ESSAYS 
 
 the principle upon which I bring up my own chil- 
 dren, and it is the principle upon which I bring 
 up these children. Stick to facts, sir ! " You who 
 have read the . story recollect how Thomas Grad- 
 grind's model son and daughter lived in Stone 
 Lodge, and had a little conchological cabinet, and a 
 little metallurgical cabinet, and a little mineralogical 
 cabinet, with the specimens all labelled and arranged^ 
 and how, almost as soon as they could run, they had 
 been made to run to the lecture room ; how they had 
 never seen a face in the moon, nor said, — 
 
 " Twinkle, twinkle, little star, 
 How I wonder what you are ; " 
 
 for they were never permitted to wonder anything. 
 You remember how the children's instinct struggled 
 against a training at once rigorous, austere, and re- 
 pulsive ; how too much restraint turned their bet- 
 ter feelings inward, to work slow destruction upon 
 the character ; how their repressed fancy became a 
 maimed and distorted faculty ; how Louisa, step by 
 step, became morbid and sullen, then desperate and 
 reckless ; how Tom, the father's idol, naturally of 
 noble tendency, grew, by degrees, selfish and exact- 
 ing, then hypocritical and dishonest, then mean and 
 whelpish, and how he at last died a wretched vaga- 
 bond. 
 
 Is not the story logical and wise } Does it not 
 afford a warning that many a mother and father, 
 public teacher, and gospel minister should heed.'* 
 
THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 221 
 
 Nay, Thomas Gradgrind, not facts alone should oc- 
 cupy the growing mind, but fancies also, as nature 
 imperatively demands. Not realities alone, as you 
 define realities, but ideals too, as the well-being of 
 the soul requires. Man is not a calculating machine, 
 not a patent memorizer of dead facts, not a passion- 
 less, reasoning animal ; not a creature of few and 
 simple capacities easily estimated and readily supplied. 
 His spiritual dimensions cannot be taken ; his powers 
 and needs cannot be summed up. Above the plane 
 of ordinary sensations and conceptions lie the vast 
 plateaus of thought and affection, the towering sum- 
 mits of imagination, the fiery craters of passion, the 
 snow-white peaks of heavenward aspiration. Man is 
 the centre of a boundless sphere of which but a little 
 inner circle is to him actually and scientifically known. 
 Infinity encompasses him round about. He is conscious 
 of a mysterious relationship which his own nature 
 bears to a whole universe of material and non-material 
 things. His faculties strive uneasily towards attract- 
 ing forces created for them. By and by they grow 
 stronger, and reach toward the object of their desire 
 with assured confidence. The senses are not happy 
 until they know how to observe, and are furnished 
 with proper objects. The memory demands material 
 to memorize. The reason craves subjects upon which 
 to exercise its peculiar function. Love is feeble 
 without a beloved. Taste remains latent without 
 the beautiful to call it forth. The All-provident has 
 created in the vast storehouses of human resource 
 
222 ESSAYS 
 
 abundant supplies to answer every possible demand 
 of our nature. Perfect human culture would result 
 from the adjustment of all the faculties to the func- 
 tions which they are designed to perform. In other 
 words, right education finds out for man conditions 
 in which he can obtain suitable exercise for every 
 power — suitable supply for every innate want. If 
 these conditions are already favorable, man will not 
 need the offices of the educator. Only close the cir- 
 cuit of right influences around him, and, like the 
 electro-magnet, he becomes strong by a species of 
 induction that no man can explain. 
 
 While we condemn the philosophy of Gradgrind, 
 it does not follow that we adopt its extreme opposite. 
 The child's imagination, though it should be recog- 
 nized and cherished, needs but little artificial stimu- 
 lation. Unless impaired by hereditary neglect, or 
 paralyzed by false training, or enfeebled by baleful 
 surroundings, it will spring into activity, provided it 
 is only set free, and allowed a field of reasonable 
 extent in which to range. 
 
 There is in our day no good excuse for permitting 
 children to read books of indifferent quality. Many 
 most excellent juveniles have been written within 
 the decade. The highest genius in the world has 
 exercised itself in behalf of the children. But it is 
 with books as with money, — the less valuable circulate 
 to the exclusion of the intrinsic best. 
 
 Among the commendable things undertaken in 
 busy Boston, is the establishment of a commission 
 
THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 223 
 
 of cultivated women to sit in judgment upon the 
 merits of Sunday-school and other juvenile books. 
 Every volume submitted to the commission for exam- 
 ination is read and recommended by at least five 
 critics, before it is approved and entered upon the 
 catalogue of unexceptionable publications. It is to be 
 hoped that this commission and others like it, if they 
 should be formed, will make a thorough winnowing 
 of the chaff from the wheat in children's story-books. 
 We must not inconsiderately reject all fictitious ju- 
 venile literature because much of it is worthless, or 
 even worse. I would not deprive children of fairy 
 or dwarf, hunchback or magician. Jack the Giant- 
 killer, or Cinderella. Mother Goose, unexpurgated, 
 is good reading, and furnishes an excellent founda- 
 tion for primary education. The history of the 
 Babes in the Woods, as related in the quaint old 
 ballad, should be treasured in every nursery. How 
 many tears have moistened the page which records 
 the last sleep of the lonely children in each other's 
 arms, and the mournful rite of the sympathetic robins ! 
 Such tears are spring rains that quicken plants of 
 affection to bloom and bear fruit in the summer of ma- 
 turer years. One great function of the story-books is 
 to touch the feelings and evoke the moral sentiments ; 
 to convey ideas of justice and injustice, reward and 
 retribution, sacrifice and sufferance of wrong. The 
 sympathies and antipathies are aroused ; the young 
 reader measures himself by an ideal standard ; good 
 motives prevail, and character grows. The crying 
 
224 ESSAYS 
 
 part in many of the old nursery ballads is the valuable 
 part. This fact the publishers do not seem to appre- 
 ciate; hence we have so many mutilated editions of 
 standard story-books. The prevailing custom is to 
 leave out, or at least greatly to soften down, the tragi- 
 cal portion of the stories, in the mistaken belief that 
 nothing painful should be presented to the mind of 
 the little reader. There is a version of the pathetic 
 ballad just alluded to which, instead of terminating 
 with the death of the wandering babes, represents 
 them as only sleeping one night in the forest, to be 
 discovered next day and carried in triumph to the 
 palace of their inheritance. There is a rehash of the 
 romance of Red Riding Hood, according to which 
 the little maid did not go down the wolf's throat at 
 all, after the last fearful exclamation, " O grand- 
 mother, what great teeth you have ! " Instead of eat- 
 ing Red Riding Hood, the wolf is killed by a valiant 
 wood-cutter, and the child is rescued without a scratch. 
 This is as bad as bringing Romeo and Juliet to life 
 after the scene in the Capulets' tomb, or restoring 
 the king to reason and Cordelia to life in the tragedy 
 of Lear. 
 
 We can ill spare from the armory of educational 
 instruments such compositions, fictitious or true, as 
 serve to fire young people with noble enthusiasm and 
 heroic ambition ; or which cultivate in them a delicate 
 sense of poetic justice. The romantic ballad, the 
 trenchant fable, the florid allegory, the thrilling nar- 
 rative of imaginary brave adventure, are all service- 
 able allies of the prudent parent or instructor. 
 
THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 225 
 
 When we emerge from the enchanted wonderland 
 of youth into the more sober region of adult years, 
 the imagination changes somewhat in character, and 
 we naturally seek a different method of gratifying it. 
 Reason and experience, passion and sentiment, mod- 
 ify our ideal conceptions. Fancy is restrained. We 
 begin to judge fiction and poetry by a standard of 
 taste and propriety. In short, the lordly faculty, 
 imagination, which before was our ruler and master, 
 is now itself subject to cultivation, and made subser- 
 vient to the will. Still it continues, as it was, a pur- 
 veyor of profit and pleasure to the soul, and a magic 
 shield between its possessor and much that is offen- 
 sive in life. At maturity we minister to the ideal 
 faculty in many ways, but chiefly by means of fiction, 
 poetry, and the other aesthetic arts, appealing to the 
 imagination. 
 
 The time is not yet passed in which the novel is 
 occasionally arraigned before the tribunals more or 
 less representative of popular opinion, to answer for 
 its moral character and its influence upon the mind. 
 Many witnesses have from time to time given testimony 
 concerning it. Rousseau said that romances induced 
 in him fantastic and false notions of life, whereof he 
 was never entirely cured by experience and reflec- 
 tion. Samuel Johnson minutely depicts the perni- 
 cious effects of indulgence in revery, and shows how 
 "by degrees the reign of fancy is confirmed; how 
 she first grows imperious, and in time despotic. 
 Then fictions begin to operate as realities, false opin- 
 
226 ESSAYS 
 
 ions fasten upon the mind, and life passes in dreams 
 of rapture or anguish." Multitudes of writers of less 
 note than Johnson have asserted that the habit of 
 reading fiction unfits the mind for severe application, 
 and destroys a healthy interest in the practical affairs 
 of life. The novel has not unfrequently been de- 
 nounced from the pulpit as an unmitigated evil, 
 inflaming the passions and tending to confound all 
 moral distinctions. On the other hand, there are 
 not wanting weighty authorities in favor of fiction. 
 Hazlitt declares that "there are few books to which 
 he is oftener tempted to turn for profit and delight 
 than the standard novels. We find in them," he 
 says, "a close imitation of men and manners; we see 
 the very web and texture of society as it really exists, 
 and as we meet it as we come into this w^orld. We 
 are brought acquainted with the motives and charac- 
 ters of mankind, imbibe our notions of virtue and 
 vice from practical examples, and are taught a knowl- 
 edge of the world through the airy medium of 
 romance." 
 
 The novelist has not only to study the manners of 
 men, and the construction and visible operations of 
 society, but also to discern the laws of mind, and to 
 describe the sources and consequences of human 
 actions. He illustrates the possibilities of life by 
 supposing persons of various character influenced by 
 various situations and conditions. He depicts the 
 power and operation of the passions. He exhibits 
 in striking contrast the different states of humanity. 
 
THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 22/ 
 
 He portrays the struggles of pride and duty, the 
 triumph of virtue and heroism, the deformity of crime, 
 the omnipotence of love. To create such a work as 
 "Don Quixote," "Tom Jones," "Ivanhoe," "David 
 Copperfield," or "The Newcombs," is no easy or 
 frivolous task. On the contrary, it is a labor which 
 calls for an intimate knowledge of human nature, 
 clear judgment, and continued application, to say 
 nothing of the wonderful inventive faculty upon 
 which, more than upon all the rest, it depends. The 
 plot of a good novel must accord with the possibili- 
 ties of things. Like a perfect landscape painting, the 
 novel must truly represent reality, though no part 
 of it need be directly copied from nature. 
 
 There are many very excellent people who cannot 
 get rid of conscientious scruples against reading a 
 novel, so long as there is a history or a biography to 
 be had, not conceiving that a true record of thought 
 and sentiment may be as valuable as a record of word 
 and deed. They do not see, for example, how Char- 
 lotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" can be a better book and 
 a truer biography than Mrs. Gaskell's " Life of Char- 
 lotte Bronte," as it certainly is. 
 
 Fielding wittily said, in a satirical comparison of 
 his novels with the works of professed historians, 
 that, in their productions, nothing was true but names 
 and dates, while in his everything was true except 
 the names and dates. 
 
 Charles Reade boldly claims that fiction, " what- 
 ever you may have heard to the contrary, is the 
 
228 ESSAYS 
 
 highest, widest, noblest, and greatest of all the arts ; " 
 that it "studies, penetrates, digests, the hard facts of 
 chronicles and blue books, and makes their dry bones 
 live." 
 
 By their fruits shall ye know men and books. That 
 is the truest and most valuable book which most 
 benefits the character and enlarges the mind of the 
 reader. Precious is that reading which opens the 
 heart to humane influences, which widens our sym- 
 pathies for our fellow-creatures, which, by presenting 
 lovable ideals, increases our reverence for human 
 nature and our belief in its perfectibility. Precious 
 also is that reading which contributes to innocent 
 amusement ; for cheerfulness disposes to goodness, 
 and a hearty laugh is the best gymnastics for both 
 body and soul. Let us be grateful for the profit, the 
 pleasure, the inspiration, which we derive from the 
 works of great novelists. Among the literary bene- 
 factors of mankind, while we number famous philoso- 
 phers and historians and essayists and bards, may 
 we not forget to include the celebrated authors of 
 fiction, — Cervantes and Richardson and Fielding 
 and Scott and Thackeray, and above all — the great- 
 est novelist that ever lived and died, whose name is 
 in your warm hearts before my lips pronounce it — 
 Charles Dickens. 
 
 The objection to the novel on moral grounds is 
 seldom urged in the present day, since clergymen and 
 other public teachers, avowedly the champions of 
 virtue and religion, have taken to the invention of 
 
THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 229 
 
 stories as a direct means of Christian instruction, and 
 the religious novel finds a place on the centre-table 
 of the strictest deacon. 
 
 The conveyance of moral precepts or of practical 
 information is not a necessary object of fiction. The 
 so-called '' novel with a purpose " is generally a fail- 
 ure. The novel proper is not a didactic treatise under 
 an assumed name, nor a sermon travelling incognito, 
 nor a new philosophy sugar-coated. The novel is a 
 work of art, as a poem or a statue is. It is enough if 
 it be true to itself. Its unity explains its purpose ; 
 its consistency vindicates its character. 
 
 The literary creator hears the question, " What do 
 you mean } " with a feeling of humiliation. If he has 
 succeeded in producing what he aimed at, a work of 
 art, that work is self-explanatory to all who can ap- 
 preciate it ; to those who cannot, no amount of ex- 
 planation will prove satisfactory. What does any 
 work of fine art mean } It means simply approach 
 toward the realization of an ideal. Is there not sat- 
 isfaction in the mere contemplation of a harmonious, 
 consistent plan .-^ — skilful development of supposed 
 events.'* — lively and accurate representation of char- 
 acter and manners } — felicity of expression } " Eat 
 thou honey because it is good," is the counsel of 
 Solomon. There is an 3esthetic taste ! Its honey 
 is the artistic, the well-related, the beautiful, the 
 ideally true. If Lord Brougham makes the pleasure 
 of the mind a sufficient motive for the study of phi- 
 losophy, if Sir John Herschel is indignant when 
 
230 ESSAYS 
 
 asked "whither his researches tend," and feels that 
 there is a lofty and disinterested pleasure in his 
 speculations that ought to exempt him from such 
 questionings, how shall the literary artist humiliate 
 himself to explain the value of his productions ? The 
 true work of art has its practical uses. It signifies 
 many things to many minds. Each reader may in- 
 terpret Faust and Hamlet as he can, but Goethe and 
 Shakespeare only create. 
 
 " Say to what uses shall we put 
 
 The wildwood flower that merely blows, 
 Or is there any moral shut 
 
 Within the bosom of the rose ? 
 But any man that walks the mead, 
 
 In bud, or blade, or bloom, may find, 
 According as his humors lead, 
 
 A meaning suited to his mind ; 
 And liberal applications lie 
 
 In art, like nature, dearest friend ; 
 So 'twere to cramp its use, if I 
 
 Should hook it to some useful end." 
 
 Leaving the realm of prose fiction, we find the 
 next manifestation of ideality in the field of poetry. 
 Here imagination takes her noblest flights, and fancy 
 roams at will. The grossest air of poesy is ether ; 
 her eye is microscopic, and her ear catches the 
 sound of flowers blossoming. She breathes the 
 odors wafted from Paradise, and feeds on dews im- 
 palpable, shed from unseen skies, spanning the mys- 
 tic land of dreams ! Vex not the bard with questions 
 of time and sense. He dwells in spirit and in eter- 
 
THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 23 1 
 
 nity. Commiserate him not, though he seem poor 
 and lowly. The poet is forever blest. He loves all 
 things. His is the joy and peace of infinite hope and 
 faith. Surround him with poverty and squalor and 
 sin and woe, he will discover in the vilest face some 
 angelic lineament, and in the saddest spot some ray 
 of consoling beauty. Put him in dungeon "depths, 
 yet will his starry thoughts light up the gloom, trans- 
 forming it to glory. Poeta, maker — he is like a 
 god. Out of the void he creates immortal forms. 
 
 " The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling, 
 Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; 
 And as imagination bodies forth 
 The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen 
 Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing 
 A local habitation and a name." 
 
 The Utility of the Ideal ! How the glowing theme 
 expands as we strive to compass it ! In every high 
 department of human cultivation it is apparent. 
 Proud, calm science, poised in an atmosphere of 
 actual phenomena, is often borne to loftier heights 
 than reason kens, on the daring wings of imagina- 
 tion, as the discoveries of Kepler prove. Max Miiller 
 declares that '' the torch of imagination is as ne- 
 cessary to him who looks for truth, as the lamp of 
 study ;" and Sir David Brewster admits " that, as an 
 instrument of research, the influence of imagination 
 has been much overlooked by those who have ven- 
 tured to give laws to philosophy." And a great ex- 
 ponent of modern science says that *' Bounded and 
 
232 ESSAYS 
 
 conditioned by co-operant reason, imagination be- 
 comes the mightiest instrument of the physical dis- 
 coverer. Newton's passage from a falling apple to 
 a falling moon was a leap of the imagination. When 
 Sir William Thomson tries to place the ultimate 
 particles of matter between his compass points, and 
 to apply them to a scale of millimetres, it is an exer- 
 cise of the imagination. And in much that has re- 
 cently been said about protoplasm and life, we have 
 the outgoings of the imagination guided and con- 
 trolled by the known analogies of science." 
 
 Ideality is necessarily developed in the pursuit 
 of the aesthetic arts. Music, that divinest human 
 possession, is it not language without words .'' one 
 degree nearer to the absolute expression of our pas- 
 sionate longing for unutterable sweetness and har- 
 mony.^ Painting and sculpture, are they not at- 
 tempts to set forth conceptions more perfect and 
 lovely than any that are derived from natural ob- 
 jects ? Are not all great works of art, as Edgar Poe 
 has exquisitely expressed it, efforts " to apprehend 
 the supernal loveliness .'* to grasp, now wholly here 
 on earth, those divine and rapturous joys of which 
 we obtain but brief and indeterminate glimpses " ? 
 Is not the infinite desire with which we seek to real- 
 ize the ideal, a species of worship ? 
 
 The favorite subjects of high art have ever been 
 sacred. From the time of Solomon's Temple to this 
 day, the resources of architecture have been lavished 
 upon cathedrals dedicated to serving the Lord. 
 
THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 233 
 
 Rubens's masterpiece was the Descent from the 
 Cross. Michael Angelo's last work represented the 
 same beautiful and touching subject. The designs 
 of Raphael are chiefly drawn from Scripture history. 
 The last touches of his hand rested upon the head 
 of Christ in the picture of the Transfiguration. " It 
 was," says Vasari, " the greatest effort of an art 
 which could go no farther ; and this last term of 
 the painting marked also the term of the life of the 
 painter. He never touched pencil more." 
 
 The sublimest musical composition of Haydn is the 
 oratorio *' Creation ; " Beethoven's Symphonies are 
 the rapture of devotion ; the spirit of Mozart breathed 
 itself to Paradise in a prophetic requiem. 
 
 Tasso is immortal in ''Jerusalem Delivered." 
 Dante in the " Divina Commedia;" Milton's genius 
 culminated in the production of '' Paradise Lost ; " 
 and the sacred Book concludes with the magnificent 
 imagery of the Apocalypse. 
 
 Thus does the ideal evermore ascend. Thus does 
 it struggle up through earth's restraints and pains, 
 aspiring to immortal estates. The holiest efforts of 
 our lives are strivings towards the ideal good which 
 we vaguely comprehend. That which we call the 
 ideal is the only eternal actual. Is not the body the 
 simulacrum, and the invisible soul the real existence } 
 Are not the essential truth, beauty, good, love, of 
 this Universe abstract, indefinite, pure ideal .? The 
 fairest visions that float above the low confines of 
 earth, are they not hints and suggestions of heaven } 
 
234 ESSAYS 
 
 Mysterious heaven ! eye hath not seen, nor ear 
 heard, neither have entered into the heart of man 
 the things which God hath prepared ; yet when with 
 pure desires we climb the dazzling stair of Ideality, 
 up by the golden steps of spiritual culture, we feel 
 the airs of the city of rapture blowing in our souls, 
 and almost see, with spirit vision, the glory-tinted 
 pinnacles of the temple of perfection gleaming afar ! 
 Mount higher yet, O soul, on trembling wings of 
 faith and adoration ! pierce further yet, O anxious 
 eyes, into the uncreated light ! The music of the 
 spheres rings in celestial harmony around. The infi- 
 nite and eternal Paradise is entered, but the Ideal is 
 not attained. It evermore recedes, ascends. It is 
 inaccessible. From everlasting to everlasting we 
 shall pursue it, and the pursuit shall be one of end- 
 less happiness. For the ideal of those who have put 
 on immortality, is not other than God, the sum and 
 essence of all perfections. 
 
SYLVAN MYTHOLOGY, POETRY, AND SENTIMENT 23 5 
 
 XI 
 
 SYLVAN MYTHOLOGY, POETRY, AND 
 SENTIMENT i 
 
 Jacob Grimm, in his "Teutonic Mythology," 
 proves that the Aryan word for temple means also 
 grove. 
 
 " The groves were God's first temples." 
 
 Our ancestors held the woodland sacred, and wor- 
 shipped individual trees. A grand conception of 
 Norse mythology is that of the tree Igdrasil. The 
 intense prose-poet of Craigenputtoch puts the gigan- 
 tic idea in scenic words. *' I like, too," he says, 
 "that representation they have of the tree Igdrasil. 
 All life is figured by them as a tree. Igdrasil, the 
 Ash-tree of Existence, has its roots deep down in 
 the kingdoms of Hela, or Death ; its trunk reaches 
 up heaven-high, spreads its boughs over the whole 
 universe ; it is the Tree of Existence. At the foot 
 of it, in the Death Kingdom, sit three Nomas, 
 Fates, — the Past, Present, and Future, — watering its 
 roots from the Sacred Well. Its boughs, with their 
 buddings and disleafings, — events, things done, catas- 
 trophes, — stretch through all lands and times. Is 
 
 1 An Arbor Day Essay — Read before the Ohio State Forestry Association, 
 
236 ESSAYS 
 
 not every leaf of it a biography, every fibre there an 
 act or word? Its boughs are histories of nations. 
 The rustle of it is the voice of human existence, 
 onward from of old. It grows there, the breath of 
 human passion rustling through it ; or storm-tossed, 
 the storm wind howling through it like the voice of 
 all the gods. It is Igdrasil, the Tree of Existence." 
 The primitive people of Northern Europe conse- 
 crated groves. They felt the solemn influence of 
 imperial trees, and deemed that the gods throned 
 themselves among the sky-reaching branches. The 
 instinct is natural. Architects conjecture that the 
 gothic arch was suggested by the majestic aisles of 
 the cathedral-forest. The camp-meeting of recent 
 days depends for much of its picturesque and inspir- 
 ing power upon the essential dignity and sublimity 
 of the forest. The local worship of trees as symbols 
 of some mysterious power, survived in Germany 
 long after the introduction of Christianity. The 
 holy oak of Geismar, in Hesse, was cut down by 
 certain missionaries in about 725 a.d., and the tim- 
 bers hewn from it were built into a church edifice 
 dedicated to Saint Peter. As Kins: Olaf 
 
 *' Preached the gospel with his sword," 
 
 SO the militant priests preached with the axe. Many 
 a crusade was ordered against particular sacred 
 groves. The pagans held tenaciously to their syl- 
 van superstition. Grimm states, that " in the Prin- 
 cipality of Minden, on Easter Sunday, the young 
 
SYLVAN MYTHOLOGY, POETRY, AND SENTIMENT 237 
 
 people of both sexes used, with loud cries of joy, to 
 dance a rigan or rig around an old oak." Again, he 
 says, " In a thicket near the village of Wormeln, 
 Panderborn, stands a holy oak, to which the inhabit- 
 ants of Wormeln and Calenburg still make a solemn 
 procession every year." This recalls to mind our 
 English May-pole and its religio-social character. 
 And how inevitable the transition of thought to the 
 American liberty-pole, and the partisan pole-raisings, 
 in which hickory and ash represent, if not religion, 
 at least politics and patriotism ! Surely the tree yet 
 maintains a wonderful hold on imagination as a much- 
 suggesting emblem. 
 
 We call the oak King, but our forefathers named 
 it Divinity. Possibly the young oaks that Baron 
 von Steuben sent from Saxony to Eden Park, Cin- 
 cinnati, may be the progeny of some tough old 
 Northern god. Or may not the acorns that produced 
 them have been shaken down by some weird wood- 
 wife, clad in white garments, sitting in the tree-tops ? 
 Such wonderful maidens, old legends say, dwelt in 
 the woods, — sometimes were seen of men at an 
 uncertain hour, — either amid the thick foliage or 
 half-hidden in a hollow tree. The Christian priests 
 of the Middle Ages caused images of the Madonna 
 to be fixed on trees, that pagan adoration might be 
 drawn from the old religion to the new — from Odin 
 to Christ. 
 
 The Druids of Britain figured existence by a tree 
 — not the ash, but the oak. The very word Druid is 
 
23S ESSAYS 
 
 said to be derived from the Greek, meaning an oak. 
 The Druids worshipped one god, Hesus ; his emblem 
 on earth was the oak-tree. The parasite mistletoe, 
 growing on the tree, is man, the helpless creature, 
 dependent on the bountiful Source. 
 
 The Hindoos held the banyan in veneration. 
 They called it the sacred tree, the *' Bohdi tree " — 
 we may say the Igdrasil of the Brahmans. When 
 Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, underwent the 
 blessed transformation by which he attained a per- 
 fect virtue — became divine — he sat under a banyan- 
 tree. The miraculous event is described in the mag- 
 nificent sixth book of Arnold's " Light of Asia." 
 
 In the Persian Bible, '' Zend Avesta," are many 
 invocations to Ameretat, god of trees, one of the six 
 leading divinities, *' Praise to Thee — Tree, good, 
 pure, created by Mazda." 
 
 Ruskin in his greatest book, " Modern Painters," 
 thus glorifies the pine-tree : " The tremendous unity 
 of the pine absorbs and moulds the life of a race. 
 The pine shadows rest upon a nation. The north- 
 ern peoples, century after century, lived under one 
 or other of the two great powers of the pine and 
 the sea, both infinite. They dwelt amidst the forest 
 as they wandered on the waves, and saw no end nor 
 any other horizon. Still the dark, green trees, or 
 the dark, green waters jagged the dawn with their 
 fringe or their foam. And whatever elements of 
 imagination, or of warrior strength, or of domestic 
 justice were brought down by the Norwegian or the 
 
SYLVAN MYTHOLOGY, POETRY, AND SENTIMENT 239 
 
 Goth against the dissoluteness or degradation of the 
 South of Europe, were taught them under the green 
 roofs and wild penetralia of the pine." 
 
 And Emerson treats the same idea poetically in 
 these lines from his " Wood Notes : " — 
 
 " Old as Jove, 
 Old as Love, 
 Who of me 
 Tells the pedigree? 
 Only the mountains old, 
 Only the waters cold, 
 Only moon and star, 
 My coevals are. 
 Ere the first fowl sung, 
 My relenting boughs among, 
 Ere Adam wived. 
 Ere Adam lived, 
 Ere the duck dived, 
 Ere the bees hived, 
 Ere the lion roared, 
 Ere the eagle soared. 
 Light and heat, land and sea, 
 Spake unto the oldest tree." 
 
 The holy books of all nations symbolize much by 
 the tree. The first book of the Hebrew Scripture, 
 and the last book of the Christian, employ the tree 
 metaphor most impressively. In Genesis we read of 
 the "tree of Knowledge" with its fatal fruit, and 
 Revelation supplies a contrast, "The tree of Life, 
 which bore twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her 
 fruit every month ; and the leaves of the trees were 
 for the healing of the nations." 
 
 The mythology of Greece and Rome affords a 
 
240 ESSAYS 
 
 beautiful and most fanciful system of mild belief in 
 sylvan divinities. The wood-wives of the German 
 forest are kin to the Hamadryads of Southern Europe. 
 The Grecian wood-nymphs dwelt in trunks of trees, 
 from which they sometimes escaped, as a ghost from 
 a body entranced ; but the destruction of the tree 
 marked the term of the Dryad's life. The crackle 
 and groan of a falling tree is the death-struggle of 
 the imprisoned nymph. 
 
 Mythology, ancient and modern, abounds with sto- 
 ries of the metamorphose of animate creatures, di- 
 vine, human, and brute, into plants. Virgil relates in 
 the "^neid" that when the pious Trojan began to 
 pluck up a wild myrtle in Thrace, the voice of his 
 old friend Polydore cried out from the torn stock, to 
 the amazement and grief of JEne^s. 
 
 Dante consigned the souls of suicides to eternal 
 bondage in gnarly, infernal trees, on the sentient 
 boughs of which the harpies perch. In the thirteenth 
 canto of " Inferno," the poet describes his doleful 
 personal experience in one of these terrible man-tree 
 forests : — 
 
 " Then stretched I forth my hand a little forward, 
 And plucked a branchlet off from a great thorn ; 
 And the trunk cried, ' Why dost thou mangle me.'" 
 After it had become embrowned with blood, 
 It recommenced its cry, ' Why dost thou rend me ? 
 Hast thou no spirit of pity whatsoever? 
 Men once we were, and now we are changed to trees : 
 Indeed thy hand should be more pitiful, 
 Even if the souls of serpents we had been.' 
 
SYLVAN MYTHOLOGY, POETRY, AND SENTIMENT 24I 
 
 As out of a green branch that is on fire, 
 At one of the ends, and from the other drips 
 And hisses with the wind that is escaping. 
 So from the splinter issue forth together 
 Both words and blood." 
 
 Tasso, in ''Jerusalem Delivered," narrating the 
 adventures of Tancred in the enchanted wood, de- 
 scribes a sorrowful murmuring in the leaves of the 
 cypress ; the sound of a half-articulate, lamenting 
 voice that filled Tancred 
 
 *' With pity, sadness, grief, compassion, fear." 
 
 Overwrought with awe and indefinite apprehension, 
 the hero drew his sword and cut a deep gash in the 
 tender rind of the cypress. Drops of blood trickled 
 from the wound, a groan escaped, and a voice com- 
 plained in accents of tender reproach : — 
 
 "Tancred, thou hast me hurt." 
 
 It was the voice of Clorinda, the lost, loved mistress 
 of the unhappy knight. 
 
 Ariosto, in that astounding string of cantos, called 
 " Orlando Furioso," also leads a hero, Rogero, into 
 enchanted realms of "false Alcina's Empery," where 
 the man of arms ties his courser to a myrtle-tree. 
 The stud made the myrtle shake, and brought down 
 a shower of leaves about his feet. Drops of sweat 
 appeared on the bark of the tree. At length the 
 myrtle spoke and told a long story, in which it, or he, 
 for this tree was of the ruder sex, claimed to be heir 
 to the crown of England, debarred his rights by the 
 
242 ESSAYS 
 
 unfriendly power of magic. This gallant myrtle had 
 no mean opinion of his own personal attractions, for 
 he said, 
 
 " More dames than one my beauty served to warm." 
 
 All readers are familiar with Shakespeare's Ariel, 
 whom the witch Sycorax imprisoned in a " cloven 
 pine," from which he was rescued by Prospero, who 
 afterwards threatened : — 
 
 " If thou more murmurest, I will rend an oak, 
 And peg thee in his knotty entrails till 
 Thou hast howled away twelve winters." 
 
 The belief that plants may possess a life, spirit, or 
 soul similar to that of man has almost faded out of 
 the world. Yet poetry still retains the mythical 
 conception in a refined form. Bryant sings: — • 
 
 " Nay, doubt we not that under the rough rind, 
 In the green veins of those fair growths of earth. 
 There dwells a nature that receives delight 
 From all the gentle processes of life, 
 And shrinks from loss of being. Dim and faint 
 May be the sense of pleasure or of pain, 
 As in our dreams ; but, haply, real still." 
 
 Wordsworth, in delicate sympathy with nature, 
 trod the woodland with deep reverence, and admon- 
 ished thus : — 
 
 " Move along these shades 
 In gentleness of heart, with gentle hand 
 Touch — for there is a spirit in the woods." 
 
 Tylor, in his ''Primitive Culture," says, "The 
 notion of a vegetable soul, common to plants and to 
 
SYLVAN MYTHOLOGY, POETRY, AND SENTIMENT 243 
 
 ':h.e higher organisms possessing an animal soul in 
 addition, was familiar to mediaeval philosophy, and 
 is not yet forgotten by naturalists." May it not be 
 added that the facts and speculations of biology and 
 evolution not only revive the ancient theory, but 
 attempt to extend it ? 
 
 The new philosophy may prove that man is organi- 
 cally akin, not only to baboon and bird, but also to 
 pine-tree and palm. Protoplasm is marvellously demo- 
 cratic. There is no doubt that all matter is alike. 
 Resolving nature puts all her kingdoms on familiar 
 and equal terms. 
 
 " Imperial Caesar, dead, and turned to clay, 
 May stop a rent to keep the wind away." 
 
 Some years ago I visited in Providence the spot 
 where Roger Williams is buried. I was told that an 
 attempt had been made to exhume his body. A 
 small tree was the monument that marked the grave. 
 The sexton's spade discovered neither coffin nor 
 bones, but instead was found a plexus of roots, so 
 massed and shaped as to bear the form of a human 
 body. Ten thousand rootlets, with their spongioles, 
 had eaten up the dust of Roger Williams, and arranged 
 themselves so as to preserve the exact outline of his 
 frame. Here was a direct transformation of human 
 flesh into wood, bark, and leaves ; maybe, into flowers 
 and fruit. 
 
 Considered merely as material changes, the meta- 
 morphoses of Ovid are not wonderful ; they are but 
 
244 ESSAYS 
 
 chemical experiments. One might actually taste the 
 blood of Thisbe in a ripe mulberry, or see the pale 
 cheek of Narcissus in the flower into which that 
 melancholy youth was transubstantiated. 
 
 When we consider how nearly allied in substance 
 are nerve and wood fibre, and how interwoven with 
 the religion, philosophy, history, and poetry of the 
 race the forest is, we may begin to understand why 
 trees and their associations so deeply interest a 
 thoughtful, and especially an imaginative or senti- 
 mental man. We can understand why the poets, 
 great and small, delight in celebrating woodland 
 scenery, and in idealizing individual trees. From the 
 simple lyric, " Woodman, spare that tree," to the 
 transcendental " Wood Notes " of Emerson, the wide 
 range of sylvan sentiment runs up and down the 
 whole gamut of poesy. Volumes could be compiled 
 of excellent poetry relating to the woods. Literature 
 fosters love for trees, and is, therefore, a most practi- 
 cal ally of forestry as a science. The idea of associ- 
 ating the memory of authors with the preservation 
 and admiration of trees is really an inspired thought. 
 Nothing more appropriate can be conceived. 
 
 I do not forget that there must be saw-logs as well 
 as sentiment, planks as well as poetry. Forestry is 
 a useful art, and common-sense cultivates trees for 
 timber. While we honor the spade, we must not 
 withhold the praises of the axe. Yet now it is well 
 that the axe should rest with the rifle which slew the 
 wild beasts and wild men that threatened the pioneer. 
 
SYLVAN MYTHOLOGY, POETRY, AND SENTIMENT 245 
 
 Hitherto, the very huzza of patriotism and progress 
 has been raised for that same sharp axe, ** Be Yankee 
 doodle doo and the felling of Western forest remem- 
 bered," wrote Carlyle to Emerson. 
 
 It now becomes startlingly apparent that the chop- 
 per's strokes have resounded too long in the primeval 
 glooms ; that the war on the woods is likely to prove 
 a war of extermination. No more is it so great a 
 virtue to chop. " A man was famous according as 
 he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees." Luckily 
 the patient earth will restore the majestic armies 
 slain ; recruit troops of trees on hill and plain. To 
 this end, we must cultivate a sentiment for planting, 
 as our fathers stimulated a passion for clearing. 
 
246 ESSAYS 
 
 XII 
 
 WILLIAM DOWNS HENKLE — MEMORIAL 
 ADDRESS! 
 
 Portia. Is it your friend. . . ? 
 Bassanio. The dearest friend to me. . . 
 
 merchant of Venice' 
 
 A FASCINATING interest attaches to inquiries con- 
 cerning the origin of the human species ; still more 
 intense is the interest when applied to the origin of 
 the individual. By what process of evolution, through 
 what series of natural selections and conflicts for sur- 
 vival, did this or that particular man come to being ? 
 What were his hereditary aids or hindrances } Who 
 and whence his ancestors ? 
 
 We are our forefathers. The prophecy of intel- 
 lectual power is in the fortunately organized brain. 
 Good organization is bettered by culture. The per- 
 fect work of education can be accomplished only in 
 the person well born of a stock rightly educated. 
 
 We are astonished at the rapid growth of a mind 
 apparently neglected. A country lad, without schools 
 or school-masters, suddenly absorbs the knowledge 
 and culture of the age, and gains recognition as the 
 flower of the college faculty. 
 
 1 Read at the thirty-third annual meeting of the Ohio Teachers' Association, at 
 Niagara Falls, N.Y., July 7, 1883. 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 247 
 
 The tree accounts for the branch. In the root and 
 the soil which nourishes it, seek for an explanation 
 of the flower and the fruit. 
 
 William Downs Henkle was fortunate in his an- 
 cestry. Many streams of good blood found conflu- 
 ence in him. We shall understand him the better 
 by studying his progenitors. 
 
 Tracing his paternal lineage back six generations, 
 we reach Rev. Gerhard Henkle, a German theolo- 
 gian of, Frankfort, chaplain to a grand-duke. Gerhard 
 Henkle espoused Lutheran doctrines, lost credit at 
 court, gave up his chaplaincy, and between the years 
 1720 and 1730 emigrated to America, for conscience' 
 sake and freedom's. He settled first at Germantown, 
 Pennsylvania, but later, removed to the county of 
 Lancaster, where he became pastor of a Lutheran 
 Church. He is said to have founded St. Michaers 
 Church in Philadelphia.^ 
 
 Gerhard Henkle's great-grandson, Moses Henkle, 
 born in Virginia, and educated in the College of Wil- 
 liam and Mary, became a Methodist, and preached 
 Methodism in a day when the sect was not popu- 
 lar. He married Margaret Montgomery, a descend- 
 ant of a distinguished family, and near of kin to the 
 poet. Moses and Margaret Henkle had five sons, all 
 of whom, following their father's example, became 
 preachers of the gospel. One of these five sons, 
 
 1 Rev. Socrates Henkle, D.D., of New Market, Va., possesses a silver spoon 
 three hundred years old, that belonged to Gerhard Henkle. It bears the Henkle 
 coat-of-arras. 
 
248 ESSAYS 
 
 Rev. Lemuel Green Henkle, was the father of the 
 late Hon. William Downs Henkle. 
 
 The name Downs comes from the maternal line of 
 Henkle's ancestry. Mary Downs was the maiden 
 name of his mother. She was of Quaker parentage. 
 Her mother, Elizabeth Morse, was a direct descend- 
 ant of Mary Wright, of whom we have this quaint 
 account in authentic Quaker records : " In the year 
 1660, Mary Wright, a young maiden of Oyster Bay, 
 Long Island, travelled several hundred miles and 
 preached openly to John Endicott and his Council, 
 in Boston, against the bloody work of executing sev- 
 eral of our ministers for no other crime than preach- 
 ing the gospel of Jesus Christ ; for which she was 
 imprisoned near a year, and then, with twenty-seven 
 other Quakers, released from jail and driven into the 
 wilderness." 
 
 Henkle, Montgomery, Downs, Morse, Wright — 
 good sources are these from which to derive a man 
 and compose a character. These names represent 
 simplicity of conduct, progressive ideas, sensitive con- 
 science, and tenacious adherence to principles. The 
 religious element dominates. 
 
 William D. Henkle was born Oct. 8, 1828, at Pleas- 
 ant Hill, six miles from Springfield, Clarke County, O. 
 His father's possessions were but small ; he owned 
 ' a humble cottage, besides which his horse, saddle- 
 and bridle, comprised about all his worldly wealth, 
 for he was an itinerant preacher. Obeying a call to 
 Louisville, Ky., Rev. Lemuel Henkle removed to that 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 249 
 
 city with his family, and was there stationed pastor 
 of the Methodist Protestant Church. There he died, 
 of confluent small-pox, in the year 1835. William 
 was at the time a lad of seven. He had three sis- 
 ters, one nine, one five, and one three years old. 
 
 After her husband's decease, Mary Downs Henkle 
 returned to her father's home at Urbana, O., where 
 she resided for two years, and then she removed 
 to her own cottage in Springfield. While living at 
 his grandfather's, in Urbana, William, or "little Bill 
 Downs," as he was familiarly styled, manifested that 
 disposition to inquiry which distinguished him in 
 manhood. His father had taught him to read, and he 
 conceived a love of books. The first school he at- 
 tended was at the old Urbana Academy, in which he 
 afterwards tried his "prentice hand" as a teacher. 
 
 William's aptitude for numbers, and his persever- 
 ing habit, were shown while he was a very small boy. 
 Failing one evening to get the right answer to a ques- 
 tion in arithmetic, he went to bed dissatisfied. In the 
 night he was heard, calling out to his sister, " I have 
 the answer ! I worked it out in my sleep ! " His mem- 
 ory was excellent, and often when at the old Downs 
 homestead, the family assembled in the large, cheerful 
 room, made bright by the roaring fire in the wide fire- 
 place, he entertained the company by reciting " On 
 Linden when the sun was low." It is no surprise to 
 learn that the future editor of Notes and Queries was 
 fond of working out puzzles. He was very quick- 
 minded, and made ready application of what he 
 
250 ESSAYS 
 
 learned. His sister relates that " nothing delighted 
 him so much as getting a company of children to- 
 gether and making a speech to them, generally on 
 temperance." From this we learn that the institute 
 lecturer began practice very early, and on a very im- 
 portant subject, to a very impressible audience. 
 When the widow and her son and daughters began 
 their independent struggle for subsistence, in Spring- 
 field, it was well for them that they were bound to- 
 gether closely in the bands of family love. Toil was 
 their portion. They were acquainted with privation. 
 The mother's needle helped to earn the children's 
 bread. Adjoining their place there was a brick-yard, 
 and some of the hands who worked at the kilns were 
 boarded at the widow's house. The owner of the 
 brick-yard hired William to drive a cart, paying him 
 a trifle for his service. To what use do you think the 
 black-haired, rosy boy put the first wages he received ? 
 He bought a bonnet for his mother. 
 
 His mother! The gentle Quakeress who had 
 given her hand to the earnest Methodist preacher, 
 — the mild, thoughtful, intrepid descendant of Mary 
 Wright ! From her William inherited his sweet- 
 est and his strongest qualities. From her he de- 
 rived his quiet way and his even temper. Her brain 
 transmitted to his the mathematical aptitude. Mary 
 Downs was potentially the author of the Algebra 
 which her son actually produced. " She could do 
 head-work more accurately than any other woman 
 I ever saw," writes one who knew her. Her daugh- 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 2$! 
 
 ter, Mrs. Spain, says, " Mother, when she was left a 
 young widow with four children, resolved to devote 
 her life to educating them ; she managed, by untiring 
 industry, to eke out the slender means left her in 
 such a way that we were kept constantly together. 
 . . . Losing our father as we did, we gave a double 
 share of love to our mother ; and having only one 
 brother, he was the idol of the family. I am sure no 
 happier family ever lived. Mother was always the 
 centre, ready to take an interest in all our lessons or 
 games ; but Will was the life of the circle, ever will- 
 ing to amuse and to instruct." The tribute which 
 Mrs. Spain pays to her brother has deep significance, 
 for relations peculiarly touching existed between her 
 and him. They were playmates from infancy, and 
 were tenderly attached to each other always. When 
 Ella was a child of four she one day fell into a mill- 
 race, and was rescued from drowning by Will, who 
 plunged into the water and saved her. He was her 
 only teacher. When he expired, this devoted sister 
 was at his side, and, with his wife and daughter, 
 caught the last whispered "farewell " from his dying 
 lips. 
 
 Mr. J. M. Milhollin, a second cousin of Mr. Henkle, 
 gives interesting recollections of his kinsman's boy- 
 hood and youth. He says, '' When we used to gather 
 about the streets of Springfield, Will was never a 
 ringleader. His favorite attitude was to stand, lean- 
 ing against a wall or other object, with his hands 
 behind him. He generally inclined his head a little, 
 
252 ESSAYS 
 
 and always smiled when addressed, or when he him- 
 self spoke. His own share of the talk was small, and 
 was composed of questions, answers, and vcrj' short 
 sentences. Often he saw a point where others did 
 not. Then he would be very apt to mention some- 
 thing about it to the boy next to him, but not to the 
 whole crowd." 
 
 To those who have watched the growth of Mr. 
 Henkle's library, and who know how his very heart- 
 strings were twined round his precious books, the 
 story of his first collection is very affecting. The 
 slender boy that drove a cart, hauling clay in the brick- 
 yard, spent part of his scanty purse in buying books. 
 His bookcase was a candle-box with a sliding lid. 
 Happy boy ! symbolic box ! the candles have shed 
 thsir glimmering light and are gone out ; but the 
 books, — inextinguishable torches, — shall shine on, 
 to illuminate heart and mind. 
 
 Young Henkle went to school in Springfield, first 
 to Mrs. Bassett, then to a teacher named Adams, 
 and for a short time to his uncle, Alfred Reed. 
 The effect of the school routine upon him was not 
 stimulating. He appears to have conceived a dis- 
 gust, not for learning, but for the teaching he re- 
 ceived. Possibly he felt a dim consciousness that 
 school was retarding his progress rather than pro- 
 moting it. Such feelin-gs do possess the unquiet 
 mind of youth at the period when conscious acquisi- 
 tion begins. There comes a time when the pupil 
 gets outside of himself, looks at himself, and sees 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 253 
 
 the necessity of conducting his own education, using 
 books and teachers as essential means, but not as 
 wholly responsible for his education, or as substi- 
 tutes for his own industry and will. We are told 
 that the docile, ingenuous boy passed into a state of 
 obstinacy. He is dissatisfied with the aridity and 
 the narrowness of the school. Surely there are bet- 
 ter modes than this, he grumbles. Better nothing 
 than this dull round. 
 
 He roves the streets, and rambles away to the hills 
 and woods of the wide country. But it is not list- 
 less wandering. It is not indolent dreaming. The 
 boy is in quest of the living fountains. He longs to 
 know ; to seize fast hold of realities. His restless- 
 ness is owing to that pang which Plato describes as 
 the constrained effort of the soul's wins^s strivino; to 
 expand and bear the man up and away. 
 
 Now the book-store, like a strong magnet, draws 
 him to its loaded shelves. The candle-box is no 
 longer large enough to hold the volumes that come 
 to Widow Henkle's cottage, and Will has a black 
 walnut box made and placed on the top of the bureau, 
 for books. As one awakened to a conviction of sin 
 feels that all his past virtues count for nothing, so 
 the boy, aroused to a sense of ignorance, begins hum- 
 bly to study and learn. His quick ear has caught 
 scraps of conversation between thoughtful men, and 
 he finds out who are the intellectual lights of the 
 town. He hears of this doctor, and that lawyer, and 
 yonder professor, who possess treasures of special 
 
254 ESSAYS 
 
 knowledge. The strong desire to become a scholar 
 warms his being. He is ready now for teachers and 
 schools. Do we not know that the work is all but 
 done ? Henkle is born into the kingdom of the 
 intellectually saved ! 
 
 When we are ready for them, our teachers come. 
 How, like a good genius in a fairy tale, came the 
 young high school student, T. D. Crow, to William 
 Henkle. ''I noticed the lad," says Mr. Crow, "sit- 
 ting in his mother's kitchen, intently poring over 
 such old books or newspapers as he could lay his 
 hands upon, and, indeed, seeming to care for naught 
 else. So I said to him one day, ' William, if you 
 will come to my room once each day, I will hear you 
 recite in anything you want to study.' . . . Next 
 evening he entered my room with three books under 
 his arm, viz.. Smith's English Grammar, Talbot's 
 Arithmetic, and Comstock's Natural Philosophy." 
 This fairy tale had its just, poetic sequel when, after 
 long years, Mr. Henkle made Mr. Crow acting com- 
 missioner of common schools, at the State capital. 
 
 Grammar, arithmetic, philosophy, — these only pro- 
 voked the desire for other branches. The passion 
 for learning increased by what it fed on. Young 
 Henkle sought the acquaintance of Mr. White, a 
 scholarly gentleman then teaching in Springfield, 
 who afterwards became a supreme judge. Mr. 
 White led his eager student into the mysteries of 
 algebra and the charms of Latin grammar. Ambi- 
 tion now pointed to the Springfield High School as 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 255 
 
 the next goal. Chandler Robbins, afterwards pro- 
 fessor of languages in Augusta College, Kentucky, 
 was principal of the high school when Henkle at- 
 tended it. The continuity of Henkle's high school 
 course was interrupted by his teaching his first 
 school in the winter of 1845-46. He was about six- 
 teen years old. He boarded with his mother, ate 
 breakfast early, walked four miles to school, came 
 home to supper, and then went one mile to a night 
 school to recite German and French, — ten miles' 
 walking a day, besides the labor of teaching a coun- 
 try school and learning lessons in two foreign lan- 
 guages ! 
 
 His teaching term ended, Henkle returned to the 
 high school, from which he was graduated August 
 7, 1846. At graduation the rising scholar delivered 
 a Latin salutatory. A proud occasion was that for 
 the Henkle family. Mother and sisters attended the 
 exercises, which were given in the Methodist Church. 
 " How happy we all were ! " reports Mrs. Spain. *' I 
 knew Will's salutatory as well as he did himself, and 
 could have prompted him had there been need of it." 
 
 From the high school Will went to Wittenberg 
 College, but he did not finish the college course. In 
 the catalogue for 1847 ^is name stands highest among 
 the classical students. He always cherished grateful 
 recollections of Wittenberg and of his instructors 
 there. '' But what, in faith, make you from Witten- 
 berg?" an intimate friend used to ask him playfully, 
 quoting Hamlet ; to which he would quickly reply, 
 "A truant disposition, good my lord." 
 
256 ESSAYS 
 
 Late in 1847 he taught a private school at Urbana, 
 and not long afterwards he was chosen principal of 
 the academy. His mother sold her house in Spring- 
 field and followed him to Urbana. 
 
 One obtains a curious impression from reading 
 formal recommendations given to eminent men before 
 they became eminent. Mr. Henkle's old teacher, 
 Chandler Robbins, in a document dated September, 
 1847, "takes pleasure in stating that Mr. William 
 Henkle was formerly a pupil of his," and "believes 
 him to be well qualified to teach youth in literature 
 and science as far as to prepare them to enter the 
 freshman class in college," and, finally, ''cordially 
 recommends him to the community as a young man 
 every way worthy of confidence." 
 
 While at Urbana, Henkle one day came into 
 Doctor Howell's office and discovered the doctor's 
 brother with a large work on anatomy in his hands. 
 *' I am trying to learn the names of five hundred 
 muscles and two hundred and fifty bones." — ''Give 
 me a dozen of them," said Henkle ; " I'll remember 
 them for you." His avidity for all knowledges led 
 him to undertake the study of medicine, in which 
 he made considerable progress. Dr. Howell was 
 astonished at the extent of the young school- 
 master's information, and said with emphasis, ''He 
 is tJioroiigJi.''^ 
 
 The Henkle family connections in Clarke County 
 were numerous ; and it was a custom for all the kith 
 and kin to assemble at stated times, and to hold what 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 25/ 
 
 Will called a " Henkle Jubilee." A memorable 
 gathering of this kind took place while William was 
 teaching in Urbana. He hired a substitute on the 
 day of jubilee, for on no account could the family 
 festival go on without him. He was the inspiration 
 and joy of the company. It was long remembered 
 by those present that Will made a wonderful, comic 
 speech, from a swinging perch in the branches of a 
 big white-oak tree that had just been cut down. 
 Certain teasing girl cousins made fun of the orator's 
 newly sprouted whiskers, and he retorted by smooth- 
 ing a large imaginary beard, and exclaiming, " My 
 whiskers ! oh, my whiskers ! " The day was drowned 
 in laughter. 
 
 One day an excursion was made, up the midde 
 branch of Buck Creek, by a dozen young people, in 
 a two-horse farm-wagon. Will Henkle was the soul 
 of the party. ''What we lacked of having sport that 
 day it would be hard to supply," reports the cousin 
 who drove the horses. A shower came up. William 
 borrowed of a farmer an enormous overcoat, nut- 
 brown, old-fashioned, short in the waist and long in 
 the skirts, with tail split almost up to the shoulder- 
 blades. In this coat did the future doctor of phi- 
 losophy masquerade, to the infinite amusement of the 
 others. He started a spelling-school in the wagon, 
 and gave out such words as sJioo, the exclamation 
 used to drive away chickens. Arriving at his uncle's 
 house he played beggar, imploring his aunt to 
 
 " Pity the sorrows of a poor old man." 
 
258 ESSAYS 
 
 Then there was strolling over the hills, and sing- 
 ing "Uncle Ned" and "Old Virginny," and recita- 
 tions, the whole concluding with a pathetic selection 
 by Will about an Alpine vulture carrying away a 
 child, ending with the lines, — 
 
 " The scarlet cap it wore that morn 
 Was still upon its head." 
 
 Such were the cheerful, innocent, social recrea- 
 tions of William D. Henkle at the age of twenty. 
 
 He now puts on the toga of manhood, and with 
 true Roman valor begins the campaign of mature 
 life. In 1848 he made his first appearance as insti- 
 tute instructor, giving a series of lectures on English 
 grammar. When the union system went into effect 
 he was employed as principal of the Urbana High 
 School. 
 
 In 1850 he went to Greenfield, O., and for one 
 term taught in the seminary there. From Green- 
 field he went to Mechanicsburg, whither his mother's 
 family also removed. He taught in a seminary, in 
 which he was associated with a superior scholar, 
 Mr. Robert Wilson, a graduate of Queen's College, 
 Belfast, Ireland. Prof. T. C. Mendenhall tells us 
 that "it is highly probable that Mr. Henkle there 
 learned, for the first time, through his association 
 with Mr. Wilson, the great value of accurate, thor- 
 ough, and exhaustive scholarship, a lesson which he 
 himself, in after-life, unconsciously taught all who 
 were so fortunate as to sustain intimate relations 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 259 
 
 with him." While at Mechanicsburg, Henkle gave 
 much of his mental energy to mathematical work. In 
 a letter to one of his mathematical correspondents, 
 Miss Fitch, now Mrs. A. F. Rabb, dated March 12, 
 1852, he says, "We have here a glorious mathemati- 
 cal trio, composed of Mr. Stribbling, an engineer; 
 my partner, Mr. Wilson ; and your friend, W. D. 
 Henkle. Our attention is devoted almost entirely 
 to geometry. Neither of them is an amateur in 
 algebra. Geometry is their forte. Hence, whenever 
 I receive an algebraic problem for solution, I don't 
 hand it over to them, but keep it all to myself. . . . 
 We go in for mathematics here among the ladies. I 
 took a class of girls through the Calculus." 
 
 His devotion to mathematics did not prevent 
 him from investigating other special subjects. In 
 December, 1853, he attended the second annual 
 meeting of the Ohio Phonetic Association at Colum- 
 bus, and read an able report on Phonetic Teaching. 
 At the third annual meeting of the same body, held 
 in Cincinnati, in 1854, he also took a leading part, 
 presenting a curious and elaborate paper on The 
 Bearings of Phonetics on Etymology. The paper was 
 published with the proceedings of the Association. 
 
 While living at Mechanicsburg, Mr. Henkle was 
 married to Miss Kate A. Estabrook of Dayton, O., 
 Oct. 13, 1851. 
 
 In the summer of 1854 Mr. Henkle and family 
 removed from Mechanicsburg to Green Mount, near 
 Richmond, Ind., where a college had been organ- 
 
26o ESSAYS 
 
 ized, in which he occupied the chair of ancient lan- 
 guages. 
 
 One of Mr. Henkle's pupils at Green Mount was 
 Wm. Henry Smith, afterwards secretary of state in 
 Ohio, and now manager of the Associate Press. Mr. 
 Smith prepared a sketch of Mr. Henkle's life for the 
 Type of tJic Times. 
 
 In a letter to his correspondent. Miss Fitch, 
 dated Oct. 15, 1854, Mr. Henkle speaks of visiting 
 Cleveland to attend the Ohio State Association, and 
 of going to Urban a, Mechanicsburg, Dayton, Oxford, 
 and Eaton. " I taught algebra at the Eaton Normal 
 School about two weeks, after which I conducted a 
 Teachers' Institute at Richmond. Professor Stod- 
 dard and Dr. Cutter were with us the first week. 
 It was the best institute I ever attended. Our 
 school began on the 3d of September, since which 
 time I have read about seven works, delivered three 
 scientific lectures, attended to school duties, and 
 written quite a number of pages of algebra, in series 
 and indeterminate analysis. I suppose you know 
 that Stoddard and myself intend to publish a Uni- 
 versity Algebra. . . . Perhaps you would like to 
 know what works I have been reading. I will tell 
 you. Trench, Tuckerman, ' Characteristics of Litera- 
 ture,' two vols., ' Plurality of Worlds,' ' More Worlds 
 than One,' and Chapin's Grammar." 
 
 The institute at Richmond alluded to in this let- 
 ter was really the first session of the Wayne County 
 Teachers' Association. Mr. Hiram Hadley says, " The 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 261 
 
 Wayne County Association, through the impetus 
 which Henkle more than all others imparted to it, 
 held its meetings uninterruptedly for more than ten 
 years, and set in motion educational forces that have 
 contributed largely, not only to the enviable rank 
 which Wayne County ^olds, but to the educational 
 progress of the whole State." 
 
 Mr. Henkle aided in the organization and main- 
 tenance of the Indiana State Teachers' Association, 
 of which he was a charter member. He was called 
 from Green Mount to Richmond, in which city 
 he organized the Union schools and became their 
 superintendent. The Supreme Court of Indiana, 
 through its representative, Judge Perkins, crippled 
 or killed the public schools by the decision, that local 
 taxes levied for school purposes are unconstitu- 
 tional. His schools broken up at Richmond, Mr. 
 Henkle went to Indianapolis, and started a private 
 academy. 
 
 In 1856 the first number of the Indiana School 
 Joimial was issued, with Geo. B. Stone as editor-in- 
 chief, and W. D. Henkle one of the associates. 
 Stone left the State in 1858, and Mr. Henkle became 
 the editor. But the educational field in Indiana was 
 blighted by the Perkins decision. Mr. Henkle said, 
 with dry wit, *' I examined the Constitution of 
 Indiana with extra care, to see if I could not find 
 some way of getting rid of Judge Perkins's decision. 
 I could not, until I found that emigration from the 
 State should not be prohibited. I got rid of the 
 decision by coming to Ohio." 
 
262 ESSAYS 
 
 The autumn of 1859 foi-i^""^^ Mr. Henkle. teaching 
 mathematics in the South-Western Normal School, 
 at Lebanon, O. The " University Algebra " had just 
 been issued. It was the privilege of his classes to 
 use that exacting text-book, and the author was the 
 teacher. The class assembled in the basement room 
 of the old academy building, and with enthusiasm 
 teacher and learners went through the book, though 
 not many of the learners could have made much head- 
 way without the guidance of the master. Guidance 
 it was, and that merely, for Henkle did not carry his 
 pupils. He marched ahead, showing the way, blaz- 
 ing now and then a tree in the wilderness of diffi- 
 culty, but never removing the knotty logs or the 
 thorny underbrush. If at times the students lost 
 sight of the path, they felt no misgivings in regard 
 to their leader's knowledge ; there was no losing him, 
 however labyrinth ian the way. 
 
 Mr. Henkle was perhaps at his best in Lebanon. 
 He was past thirty years of age, and in full physical 
 vigor. He surprised the students on the play-ground, 
 by his gymnastic skill, especially by his jumping and 
 quoit-pitching. 
 
 To the pupil who wished to learn he opened the 
 full storehouse of his mind ; but he was not distin- 
 guished for inspiring the sluggish, or sharpening the 
 dull. While patient and impartial in his class work, 
 he held the esoteric opinion that not all who had 
 the calling of students were elected to scholarship. 
 And, like Confucius, he thought it waste of time to 
 " carve rotten wood." 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 263 
 
 His chosen disciples worshipped him. A true 
 philomath, he stimulated investigation and promoted 
 acquisition. Not only the professors and pupils in 
 the Normal School recognized him as an authority ; 
 he was sought by the best intelligence of Lebanon 
 and of Warren County. He revived the Mechanics' 
 Institute, an organization that had been famous in the 
 days of Thomas Corwin's boyhood. He influenced the 
 press, the bar, the pulpit of Lebanon. Not the less 
 he reached the very rabble of the street ; for, like a 
 new Socrates, he went about in such a simple, honest, 
 candid way, that he won the confidence and esteem 
 of all. 
 
 In the Normal School the " Test Speller " was 
 evolved. The curious lists that are printed in that 
 odd book were pronounced to the students of the 
 Normal School long before Mr. Henkle had an idea 
 of publishing them for general use. 
 
 W. D. Henkle was a great reader. Not con- 
 tent with grasping the general scope and signifi- 
 cance of a volume, his penetration extended to the 
 subtlest thought of the author, while he took note 
 also of every verbal peculiarity, and of such mechan- 
 ical items as most concern the accurate proof-reader. 
 The pages of his books are marked with many sym- 
 bols, significant to him. On his back would this 
 omnivorous reader lie, stretched out upon a lounge, 
 with his book held above his face, with a pencil by 
 his side, and a paper-knife in his hand, and there 
 would he read, and read, and read. He luxuriated 
 
264 ESSAYS 
 
 in the Qicarterly Reviews, all of which he took. Any 
 book or magazine was delightful to him. The idea 
 of dry or tedious literature he could not conceive. 
 He bought the eighth edition of the Encyclopaedia 
 Britannica, and this vast work he actually read, in 
 regular course, omitting only the minor articles. 
 
 Dr. Mendenhall, as he has told us gracefully, was 
 attracted to Lebanon by the fascinations of Henkle's 
 tough algebra, and the fame of its modest author. 
 E. O. Vaile, nephew to Mr. Henkle, and now editor 
 of Intelligence, was for a time a member of the house- 
 hold at Lebanon. 
 
 In 1862 the Republicans nominated Mr. Henkle 
 for State commissioner of schools, but at the elec- 
 tion he was defeated with the whole State ticket. 
 After the campaign he became superintendent of 
 the public schools at Lebanon. 
 
 In 1864 he received and accepted an invitation to 
 go to Salem, Columbiana County, as superintendent 
 of schools there. He held this position until 1869, 
 when, on the resignation of John A. Norris as State 
 commissioner of schools, Gov. R. B. Hayes appointed 
 Mr. Henkle to fill the vacancy for the remainder of 
 the term. From Columbus he returned to Salem, 
 resuming the duties of superintendent of schools. 
 About this time he began the publication of the se- 
 rial Notes and Queries. In 1875 (September), when 
 Dr. E. E. White disposed of the Ohio Educational 
 Monthly in order to accept the presidency of Purdue 
 University, Mr. Henkle purchased the periodical. 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 
 
 265 
 
 and from that time mitil his death he was its 
 
 editor. 
 
 In 1868 Mr. Henkle was president of the Ohio 
 State Teachers' Association. He was a prominent 
 member of the National Educational Association, of 
 which he was the secretary for six years. In June, 
 1876, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy was con- 
 ferred on him by Wooster University. 
 
 Full of honors, but not of years, he died, aged 
 only fifty-three, at his home in Salem, Nov. 22, 1881. 
 
 At the beginning of his last illness, his wife dis- 
 covered him lying upon the lounge in the library, 
 and on the floor lay a book which he had just been 
 reading, and which had fallen from his tired hand. 
 
 The telegraph's tongue of fire told the sudden 
 news: ''Henkle is dead!" Ohio's teachers bowed 
 and wept. We had not thought of him as mortal. 
 
 •' Oh, what hadst thou to do with cruel Death, 
 Who wast so full of life, or Death with thee, 
 That thou shouldst die before thou hadst grown old ? " 
 
 Few had thought to praise him in his lifetime, 
 so unobtrusive was his serene wisdom, so unassum- 
 ing his philosophic repose. As soon would one think 
 of praising the wholesome air or the starry sky ! 
 But, gone, he was missed. '^ There is but one Hen- 
 kle." 
 
 Not only from his personal friends and fellow- 
 workers in Ohio came the echo of sorrow and the 
 tribute of admiration. Wm. T. Harris sent his 
 lament from Concord, Mass., saying, "I am one of a 
 
266 ESSAYS 
 
 very, very large brotherhood of educators, living all 
 over this nation, that are unspeakably shocked and 
 pained to hear of Dr. Henkle's illness and death. 
 He was universally beloved and respected." From 
 Worcester the veteran A. P. Marble wrote, ''Every 
 word of eulogy meets a response in my heart ; but 
 they all fail to do justice to the noble man that he 
 was." Mr. Bicknell, from his desk in Boston, said, 
 "We shall long remember his noble life and valuable 
 services for education, and his place none can fill 
 with equal ability and fidelity." And from Penn- 
 sylvania, Mr. Wickersham sadly voiced a general 
 thought, "The National Association will miss him 
 greatly — no other member would have been missed 
 so much." 
 
 William Downs Henkle, not seeking, won his high 
 rank by doing a true man's honest work. In a world 
 where sham often seems to be preferred to reality, 
 it is comforting to note a marked instance in which 
 merits such as his are recognized and honored. Not 
 for his education, or for his ability, or for his public 
 services, was he loved chiefly, but for his humanity. 
 
 The range of Mr. Henkle's studies was wide, and 
 in nothing was he superficial. As a mathematician, 
 he was regarded by mathematicians as first-rate. As 
 a linguist he was proficient, being able to speak in five 
 languages and to read in nine. So extensive were 
 his researches in philology and lexicography, that in 
 these and kindred studies he was regarded as an 
 authority, even among specialists. He gleaned from 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 26/ 
 
 his reading many words not found in the great Amer- 
 ican dictionaries until he added them. He estab- 
 lished the pronunciation of many words, especially 
 proper names. Professor Marsh of Lafayette College 
 wrote to him, " I do not believe that I have ex- 
 pressed to you my pleasure at the introduction of 
 so much good spelling, and so good rules for it, into 
 the last volume of the American Educational Asso- 
 ciation. We are much indebted to you for that, as 
 for so many other things." 
 
 The minute investigation he made in several de- 
 partments of study, particularly in grammar, enlarged 
 the boundaries of exact knowledge, and gave impulse 
 to right methods of research among teachers. He 
 did not concede that there is any such thing as use- 
 less knowledge. In his " Educational Notes and 
 Queries " he did what perhaps no other man in the 
 United States was capable of doing. His insatiate 
 desire to ferret out final facts made the man sni gen- 
 eris. At one time he became interested in ascer- 
 taining the exact pronunciation of the names of fixed 
 stars. Exhausting his own sources of knowledge, he 
 wrote to William S. Wheeler, the editor of Webster's 
 Dictionary, but Wheeler's vast resources could not 
 supply the desired information. Henkle wrote next 
 to W. D. Whitney, who replied that the subject 
 *' floats in an insoluble uncertainty." That was the 
 very reason why Henkle desired to clear the matter 
 up. His mind could not rest until he could put the 
 proper diacritical mark upon the name of every star. 
 
268 ESSAYS 
 
 His curious interest in facts remotely connected 
 with common activity did not prevent him from at- 
 tending to affairs familiar and practical. While he 
 sought the names of the stars in boundless space, 
 he also knew how butter is made, and what variety 
 of potatoes is best. 
 
 While living in Salem he put his astronomical 
 knowledge to practical account. He announced in 
 the town newspaper, " I have established a true me- 
 ridian on Lundy Street, by observation on the north 
 star, making a correction for azimuth." The school 
 clock at Salem kept true time, and it was suggested 
 that the mayor order the town bell to be rung on 
 true time. Thus would Henkle adjust himself and 
 the community to that order which is the first law of 
 the material heaven. Let us be rigJit by the north 
 star. 
 
 Scrupulous accuracy attended him in his travel, 
 his business affairs, and in all his habits. His wife 
 says, ''Whenever he left home he always told me on 
 what train he would be at home. Even if he were 
 gone for a week or ten days at a time, he would tell. 
 He knew the railroad lines and connections so well, 
 that when he went to Atlanta last summer he told me 
 when he would be at home, and he came as he told 
 me." He was extremely punctual and exact in all 
 money matters. He kept himself and wife supplied 
 with clean, new fractional currency, to discharge 
 every score to the cent, and on the second. The 
 north star of undeviating honesty controlled his 
 transactions. 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 269 
 
 His painstaking precision was visible in all his 
 private affairs. Mrs. Henkle says, speaking of the 
 condition in which he left his papers, etc., "If he had 
 arranged his business with a view of leaving it, he 
 could not have done it better." 
 
 As an educator Mr. Henkle was practical as to 
 what he advocated and what he did. While State 
 commissioner he said in a speech, " Not much legis- 
 lation is needed. If we were granted three things, 
 we would not ask for anything more for fifty years. 
 First, county supervision. Second, abolition of the 
 sub-districts. Third, a State normal school." 
 
 In an address at Sandusky he advised the teachers 
 never to abandon any feature of instruction simply 
 because it was old. They must remember that it is 
 always new to pupils. Determine what is proper to 
 infuse in your schools and then keep it. In the 
 same address he said, " No teacher should be em- 
 ployed on account of sympathy." Mrs. Henkle gives 
 the incident which perhaps fixed this principle in his 
 mind. She says, ''I remember at one time when he 
 was county examiner in Warren County, a young 
 lady was trying to pass the examination. He was 
 doing all he could to give her time, etc., and she, of 
 course, was in tears. I ventured some remark in her 
 behalf. I shall never forget his reply, nor the man- 
 ner in which it was given, I do not think that I 
 ever knew him to speak with so much force or feel- 
 ing. " Don't say a word ; I see the little children all 
 over the land holding up their hands to me and say- 
 ing, 'Don't send us such teachers.'" 
 
2/0 ESSAYS 
 
 In his inaugural address, before the State Asso- 
 ciation at Dayton, in 1868, Mr. Henkle expressed 
 tersely what may be regarded as the fundamental 
 philosophy of his educational belief. ''I confess," 
 he says, '' I have no great admiration for the word 
 discipline when its primitive meaning is banished to 
 give place to another. Discipline and disciple both 
 have their root in the Latin discere, to learn, and 
 hence, primitively, discipline is learning. I firmly 
 believe that if the ordinary idea of discipline were 
 traced critically to its source, it would be found to 
 be knowledge — a knowledge of methods, modes of 
 thought, etc., as contra-distinguished from the sim- 
 ple knowledge of facts without their relations. My 
 opinion as to what we should learn, to be thoroughly 
 and liberally educated, may be stated as follows : 
 As discipline is a knowledge of methods, our studies 
 should be sufficiently extended to embrace all species 
 of discipline. This is the ideal towards which we 
 should approximate." 
 
 There was a flavor of rather sweet irony in Mr. 
 Henkle, and a rich vein of humor. He was the 
 laughing philosopher, never the cynic. He distin- 
 guished a "joke with a point" from a ''joke with a 
 sting," and never enjoyed the latter. His sense of 
 the ludicrous found frequent gratification in real life 
 and through books. He relished reading ''Tristram 
 Shandy" and "Humphrey Clinker." Sometimes he 
 amused his friends by giving a burlesque lecture on 
 Spencerian Penmanship, illustrating on the black- 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 2^1 
 
 board with hypercritical discriminations the vital im- 
 portance of slope, shade, and terminal ciLrlyaie. 
 Sometimes he would ridicule the extravagances of 
 elocution by declaiming in the prevailing style, but 
 with many absurd exaggerations as to intonation, 
 facial expression, and gesture. 
 
 Without a touch of affectation, he yet had personal 
 eccentricities that often turned the laugh upon him- 
 self. Interested in conversation, he forgot to serve 
 his guests at his own table. He ate mechanically, 
 and, after dinner, sometimes asked his wife whether 
 he had eaten or not. One morning he came to 
 school with two shirt-collars on, one buttoned out- 
 side the other. 
 
 In morals, Mr. Henkle was rigorous with himself 
 and exacting of others. It angered him to see men 
 debase themselves. He indulged no vice, large or 
 small. Temperate, chaste, pure in speech, he resem- 
 bled the Zarathustra of the Persian Bible. 
 
 In politics and religion he was conservative. His 
 habit of uttering paradoxes, of setting half-forgotten 
 truths in a strong light ; his love of the curious ; the 
 wide range of his information, which took in all ages, 
 nations, and creeds ; his critical faculty, which deemed 
 nothing too high for its exercise, led many to set 
 him down as much more radical than he really was. 
 Conservative himself, and holding convictions firmly 
 settled, he yet encouraged controversy on all sub- 
 jects. Nothing of the bigot, nothing of the dogma- 
 tist in him ; he was open to conviction at all times. 
 
2/2 ESSAYS 
 
 He had special pleasure in discussion, not debate, 
 with clergymen of different denominations. He 
 was a member of the Methodist Protestant Church. 
 Well acquainted with the arguments of materialism, 
 he did not consider them conclusive. Believing in 
 evolution, he did not reject the First Cause. He 
 revered the holy Bible, and had faith in the efficacy 
 of prayer. All his religious views and observances 
 partook of the informal simplicity of his mother's 
 Quaker creed. 
 
 Socially, Mr. Henkle was delightful. Wherever 
 he went there was good society. Never to be for- 
 gotten are certain golden days and ambrosial nights 
 spent at the hospitable home of Hon. J. P. Siddall 
 of Richmond, Ind., when Henkle, Dr. John Hancock, 
 good old Dr. Hoshour, A. P. Russell, the genial au- 
 thor of '' Library Notes," and other gentlemen, with 
 a bevy of bright women, made life seem not only 
 worth the living, but made an hour seem worth a 
 lifetime. And without Henkle these rare symposia 
 could not have been. In Lebanon and Salem it was 
 the same. This self-made scholar, this serene gentle- 
 man, wherever he went created friends and made 
 them happy. His was a home-staying heart. His so- 
 journ at Columbus, away from his family, was a cross 
 to him. Kate and Clara, his wife and daughter, were 
 his angels, — home his earthly paradise. He writes to 
 Clara from the office of state commissioner, Colum- 
 bus, Nov. 30, 18^9, at four minutes after five, Tues- 
 day : — 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 2/3 
 
 Dear Daughter Clara, — When I began to write to mamma, I 
 had just come from a large children's meeting. It rained when I went, 
 and was raining when I came back. There were present a great many 
 children, come through the storm. Mr. Chidlaw, of Cincinnati, talked 
 first, and then Mr. Moody, of Chicago, the latter a great man for hold- 
 ing children's meeting. Mamma will tell you what the latter means. 
 The children voted to have another meeting to-morrow or next day. I 
 have not seen Cousin Ed yet. He was at the lecture last night, but 
 I did not see him. Mr. Mendenhall and Brown were here and went 
 with me to the children's meeting. 
 
 Last Sunday I saw a little girl on the street dressed in a scarlet 
 plaid like yours, with high blue shoes, and a blue hat with a white 
 feather. A man was with her. Do you think that man washer papa? 
 I do. I hope you are getting to be a better and better girl every day. 
 I will see how far you have read when I get home. Remember, you 
 we're to be where it says, " I saw a house and a mill," or something 
 like that. I must close. It is half-past five and I must soon go to 
 supper. From your papa. 
 
 Good evening. 
 
 Alas ! good evening, thou kindest of men ! 
 
 His humanity extended to dumb animals. The 
 family horse always showed a preference for him, and 
 the household cat had her favorite resort near his 
 chair in the library. After his death the cat con- 
 tinued for a week to visit his room and to lie in her 
 customary place, but, finding at last that her master 
 did not return, she came no more to the empty chair. 
 
 My task is nearly accomplished. Once more asso- 
 ciation draws us to the library. The library ! In it 
 he lived ; from it his dead body was carried to the 
 grave. His life was consecrated to books. Let us 
 name him Henkle, the Reader. Would you see the 
 sacred room ? the place of study ? the penetralia of 
 
274 ESSAYS 
 
 his intellectual life? You are his friends, and it will 
 surely not profane my trust if I read to you his wife's 
 touching words : — 
 
 " I am sitting just where he used to sit, in his library, at his table. 
 Every available space in this large room is filled to the ceiling with 
 cases full of books. Just as soon as Mr. Henklewas dressed he was 
 right here at work. Never idle one moment. His last entry in his 
 written catalogue of books is, Peck's Ganot's Natural Phil. Revised, 
 Num. 4426. His books, as you know, were accumulated one at a time. 
 Sometimes he would see advertised a book that he wanted, and would 
 order it, and after long waiting it came. It was always the contents 
 he wanted ; he cared nothing for the binding. ... I wish I knew just 
 what to tell you. I wish I could tell you what a pleasant home he 
 made. He was always pleasant. Every day it seemed to me he grew 
 dearer and dearer, — we lived so together — w'orked together. I cared 
 so little for anything so he was at home with me. . . . Always the 
 same busy, quiet man, but so bright and happy ; often has he spoken to 
 me in these months of how his love for me grew as the years went by. I 
 think you will not think me foolish in telling you these things. . . . 
 Yes, it is hard to think of him cold in death, that active, cheerful, 
 happy, big-souled man." 
 
 So speaks his wife, out of the fulness of memory 
 and love and devotion and bereavement. Her words 
 are the appropriate conclusion to this memorial. 
 

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