DEE E    87No.   2 8.
Nor 28.  - 
j; / 
BULLETIN
OF  THE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
EDUCATION: ITS RELATIONS TO THIE STATE AND
TO THE INDIVIDUAL, AND ITS METHODS.
A Series of Lectures delivered before the General Assembly of
the Students, Tniversity of California,
B    c    BC,          B. A.,.D.,
MINING ENGINEER.
THE NEWLY AWAKENED INTEREST IN EDUCATION AND ITS CAUSES.
When those who have charge of the affairs of this generation
began their active labors, thie material millenium seemed at
hand; the railway had not ceased to be a novelty, the telegraph
was a new wonder, and ocean steamships were just proving a
success. The earth, the air and the water were each compelled
to furnish hitherto unheard of facilities for intercourse, and
that nothing might be wanting, California and Australia presently poured forth dollars and pounds by the hundred millions. These additional means of making the products of labor available so stimulated production that the industrial re
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sources of every civilized nation were taxed to the utmost to
execute the internal improvements justified by the condition
of commerce. The general prosperity was such as never had
been known, and there appeared to be no sulperior limit to its
increase.  Thie Cobden party sang hallelujahs over the end of
strife and inaugurated international exhibitions as a seal of
general concord. Since that time and at short intervals international exhibition has been followed by  expositioa iitert-atiotale and war by civil strife; wonders have been developed
in machinery and industrial enterprise, in manufactures and in
agriculture, yet commercial panics, strikes and lock-outs, riots
and communes have made the fabric of civilization tremble.
This country has had its full share of these calamities  and
blessings. Its commerce is just now returning to life from the
most prolonged swoon which has ever afflicted it. It is a
healthy sign of this convalescence that from one end of the
land to the other, earnest and penetrating inquiries are rife, as
to the fundamental facts upon which the welfare of society is
built up. Never has there been such an interest felt in the
principles of the exchange of values and the functions of currency; in the theory of government, the exercise of its power and
the distribution of its patronage; and in education, its scope,
its aims and its methods. Nor can it be said that this interest
is premature; a third of a century ago we had the vast treasures of a virgin continent to draw upon; enterprise was not
lacking and nature has proved herself bountiful. Yet nation,
state, county, city and town are loaded down with debt; savings banks, the last stronghold of security for the petty  capitalist, are collapsing everywhere; we are told that the great
obstacle in the way of the resumption of trade is the general
want of confidence, or the fact that nobody will trust anybody
else, as why should he when the men who have been regarded
as the inflexibly upright bones of the body of the commercial
world are found to have yielded before the wand of temptation like the weakest flesh. Even our sovereign states are refusing to repay the money which they have borrowed on the
strength of their sovereign dignity and have spent for their
own convenience and advantage; and the men  who, at the
solicitation of communities, have accomodated them with loans
in the hour of their necessities are opprobriously designated as
"bloated bondholders."
We have had industrial success in full measure and the re                             242
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sources of the country are not yet even developed; and still
we are not happy. Are industrial success and the fortunes
which result from it bad things, then? On the contrary, a high
order of civilization is impossible without them; but for some
reason commercial prosperity in our country, instead of pro ducing a higher order of civilization, has shown itself incapable
even of perpetuating itself. It has created a demand for luxuries
and left communistic mass meetings of unemployed workmen;
it has dotted the country with factories, mines and farms and
left armies of half starving men, women and children. Have we
then displayed a want ofeadaptibility to new industries? On
the contrary, no people ever accomodated itself to new pursuits
so readily. Have we shown lack of skill in the exercise of in dustrial callings? Unquestionably more skill would have been
advantageous, but our imuprovement in this direction has been
st'eady and rapid, and, moreover, thanks to the favorable cir cuinstances under which we have worked, our profits have ex ceeded those of any other nation. The cause of our unsatisfactory industrial condition must,therefore,be sought elsewhere;
and if neither nature, our industry, nor our skill have been in
fault, the trouble must lie in a want of symmetry in our efforts
and a want of equilibrium between their results.
It is not difficult to see how an unfortunate disproportion
has arisen between our efforts, as well as our achievements, in
different directions. The immediate effect of the application of
steam to locomotion, and of electricity to communication, was
to throw open the whole country to productive enterprise.
The industrial development of the resources of the United
States was the vastest problem of the sort any nation ever had
to solve; it occupied the public attention to the exclusion of
almost everything else; while it greatly increased the complexity of public affairs, it also complicated and increased the occupations of individuals, compelling them to confine most of
their attention to distinct and narrow channels. The temptation was to undue specialization, and most men, yielding to it,
devoted their powers exclusively to their own financial affairs,
leaving themselves neither energy nor time to inquire into, or
to reflect upon other matters, until indeed, from the destructive force of habit, they became incapable of doing so. Yet the
period was one at which the rapid growth of the country made
the careful management of its concerns exceedingly important
At the same time, owing largely to the shifting character of the
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population, money came to be regarded as the only standard
of success,and success,as almost the only claim to consideration.
Thus politics gradually became a trade in the lowest sense of
the word; the revenues were fraudulently-or foolishly expended;
demagogues and fanatics were allowed to brew mischief undisturbed, and ignoramuses and interested parties to frame laws
which stood in direct opposition to common sense and were
certain to inflict incalculable injury on the country.  At the
same time the standard of financial morality sank; clever speculators who managed to keep within the law won more esteem
than legitimate traders; and men who in other matters recoiled
at vice, who looked with horror upon drunkenness or violence,
were not ashamed to court notorious swindlers like Tweed, and
others, as bad but less known.
In the race to get rich, men disencumbered themselves of everything which they thought might hamper them, including
their morality; including the requisite klnowledge of the road;
whence they floundered headlong and by the thousand into
many a green bog which they did not know enough to distinguish from dry land, or, in other words, thousands embarked
in enterprises that a moderate amount of general knowledge
would have warned them were hopeless from the start. We
do not need to appeal to the higher principles of morality
against this sauve qui peut rule of life; every man for himself,
is not the principle of communities, but of the solitary barbarism which preceded them. The essence of the community is
mutuality; each member enjoys the protection and the advantages of the commonwealth in return for the performance of
duties to it. If he disregards these duties he becomes a public
enemy, dangerous in proportion to the scale of his operations.
He becomes his own enemy as well, and, if he evades the law,
will receive his punishment through the injury he has inflicted
on the body of which he is a part. The whole nation is now, the
guilty with the innocent, suffering from the effects of this shortsighted devotion to selfish ends. We are suffering, not, let it be
understood, from the pursuit of wealth, but from our long continued devotion to money-making, to the neglect of other duties.
And yet we are often told that the whole object, and not,
only one object, of education is to fit men to make their living.
If the present state of affairs indicates anything, it is that this
is a mistake. The logic of events proves, with a force which
we all of us feel, whether we interpret it rightly or not, that
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that the ability to obtain wages, or to judge the condition of
the prime object of education is to produce good citizens, and
the market correctly, is not all that is necessary to good citizenship. What we need, is men who understand the relations of
the individual to the community, and of the community to the
individual. Who know enough of the principles of legislation,
of finance, and of history, to take an intelligent interest in the
questions they are called upon to decide at the ballot-box.
Give them this, a liberal education, and they will see that they
are provided with remunerative occupations and the special
training requisite for the purpose. A child must be taught to
-keep its balance, as well as to reach out after the good things
the world offers; if this precaution is neglected, bruises, wails
and general discomfort will ensue.
THE RELATIONS OF THE STATE TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION.
Parallels are frequently drawn between the State and an
individual; and valuable hints are often obtained from such
comparisons, but to some extent they are misleading. In how
far the simile is apt, a little consideration will show. We live
in communities not only because it serves our private ends to
do so, but because, as the word almost explains, we have intere sts in common.  In order that these comnmon interests may be
properly subserved, we establish, or permit some one to establish, a legislative and executive organization. The functions
of this organization are not only implied in its origin, but are
strictly limited by the conditions of its creation. It has no
duty and no right except to foster and protect the interests of
the community. From the individual we have the moral right
to demand the exercise of the Christian virtues. A man who
shows   no charity, w      ho is never obliging and self-sacrificing,
who in all his actions is governed solely by self-interest, is a
despicable object. But suppose that an attempt were made to
contribute money from the State treasury, towards ameliorating
the horrible famine now afflicting India; or that the Executive
should extend an invitation to the convalescent sufferers by the
late conflagration at St. Johns, to come to California and recruit at the State's expense, would not these acts, good in
themselves, be a palpable violation of its duties? A State may
be generous or magnanimous or charitable; but, by the terms
of its existence, it can act obligingly only from interested mo                             245
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tives; in short, the government is the soulless personification
of a particular side of the character of the community, and the
dity of the State is what it is to the inte(rest of the State
to do.
The use of the term duty in connection with the State often
leads to erroneous conclusions b3cauie the word suggests the
possession of qualities, which the State is debarred by its con stitution from exercising or having.  Let us therefore drop the
term and ask:-what is the interest of the community regarding
education? It can hardly be anything else than to train men
to be efficient members of its body, good and capable citizens
of the State.  We have therefore to ask, what constitutes a good
citizen.  The first element of good citizenship, is a regard for
the rights of the comrmunity, and the first lesson the future
citizen should receive is in his obligations to it. It is one of
the most valuable features of the public school system, particularly when coupled with a compulsory law, that under it the
child is early brought to a personal experience of the authority,
which the State exercises over him, and is taught, both systematically and practically, that of him individually is demanded
industry and good behavior, and that failure to comply with
these demands, is followed by reprobation and punishment.
That precept may be mnade to assist in inculcating these lessons,
that a child's reading and instruction should be so chosen as
to impress upon him the wickedness, and not only the wickedness but the folly, of sloth and misdeeds, is a matter of course.
In addition to a thorough realization of the fact that morality
and industry are demanded of him, no one will deny that an
elementary education comprising "the three R's," is indispensable to a proper discharge of the duties of citizenship. Under
the arrangements (f modern civilization, it is impossible that
anyone should vote intelligently unless he can read, and this
amount of education ought consequently to be obligatory; the
lack of it creates a strong probability that the voter will become
the tool, unwittingly perhaps, of better informed and designing
men, and thus do the community an injury. Furthermore, at
least a portion, and if possible all citizens, must receive more
extended education than mere reading and writing, in order
that their influence may be not only not injurious, but positively beneficial in its effects upon public affairs.
When we come to ask what studies have the first claim after
the, fundamental branches, we step upon disputed ground;
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
yet, if it be steadily kept ill mind that the purpose is to pro duce men fitted to discharge their duties to the State, the
problem seems to admit of a definite solution.  What are
voters cailed upon to do?  What questions are submitted to
them at the polls?  At the last election we were asked to
decide whether the State Constitution should  be revised.
Suppose such a question were submitted to a single individ ual, how would he p])roceed to determine his answer. He
would probably be obliged to begin by reading our Constita tion, and then, in order to judge of the probabJe effect of
changes in it, he would need to inquire how its provisions
came to be what they are.  That is to say, to study the consti tutional and political history of the United States; moreover,
to understand the bearing of the provisions on the welfare of
the people, hlie would have to lknow something of the genieral
character of the state and its inhabitants, and of the laws
which govern production and trade; or in other words, lie
would require some knowledge  of geography and political
economy.  If we examine the bearings of other public questions
that have been, or are to be decided at the ballot box, such as
the choice between free trade and protection, between' hard
money' and'soft money;' the right of the political victors
to despoil the country; subsidies to transportation companies;
the Chinese question and many more, it will be found that
each and all of them imply, in varying proportions, a knowledge
of the same branches. It would seem, then, that upon these
studies the weight of the instruction in the secondary schools
shQuld be laid, in order to educate truly intelligent -voters. A
sufficient amount of attention is already paid to geography;
while history, and especially the constitutional side of the subject, might profitably have more time allotted to it than it at
present receives in our public schools. The study of political
economy has not yet been pursued, but there seems to be no
sufficient objection to its introduction.  It is true that political
economy, taken as a whole, is a very recondite subject, but
thent so is every science. Our high schools can never turn out
finished political economists, any more than they can turn out
geographers like Maury and Petermann.  It is also true that
there are points upon which good politico-economical authorities do not agree, as is and must be the case in all branches of
human learning.  But the disagreement is rather upon applications than upon principles and it is certain that an amount
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of elementary instruction, within the comprehension of boys of
fifteen, could be given in the doctrines of supply and demand,
rents, wages, values, exchange, the principles of banking
without touching on disputed points, which would wor 
assist them as voters, in conmprehending public questi 
might preserve the State from committing many a dis.
mistake.  France has very recently taken a step in this direc
and henceforward no one in that country can become a ms
trate or even a notary,without having studied and been examineu
in this science. In this country a very large portion of those who
have more than a primary school education, hold some office at
some time, and all are called upon from time to -ime,to exercise
a knowledge of economical science whether they possess it or
\ not. If it is considered best to introduce-the study, the ques tion of text books need cause no difficulty; there are books
already in existence which would answer the purpose, and
treatises especially adapted to our needs would be forthcoming
if there were a call for them. None of the United States have,
so far as my iilormation goes, as yet introduced tbhis feature
into the curricula of their public schools. Let California set
the rest an example of enlightened self-interest, and be the
first to give her sons public instruction, in the social principles
which underlie the production and distribution of the material
resources of the community.
Should the whole attention of scholars in the public schools
be confined to "the three R's," political and constitutional
history, geography and political economy? So close a limit ation of the subjects of study is neither necessary or desirable.
It is not necessary because, unless the subjects were presented
m or        e    rapidly t han th e  minds of children could properly assim ilate them, the pupils would have time and energy to spare.
It is not desirable because there are other, though less direct,
methods of increasing the capacity of the youth of the country
to act as efficient citizens. The broader a man is mentally and
morally, the better will he be fitted to act as joint manager of
the affairs of State, or to do anything else, and the narrower
he is, the less capable will he be of comprehending the relations
of any subject, or object, to others fromnt which it is insepar able.              This has  long been accepted as a truism; but para doxes are in fashion just now, and of late the assertion has
frequently been made, even by writers of a national reputa tion, that          people ma y  b e and are over-educated.  The state                               248
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ment needs no serious refutation; the whole course of modern
history proves the opposite. If the evil really existed, we
should hear something of it from the afflicted. To test the
d;n, suppose we inquire of those who complain that
<q.ople know too much, which of them wishes that he
..
- Sss.  Of course no one denies that a man can be edu       and can also be spoiled, so can tares be sown with wheat
5)oison be administered with food.
~_A selecting branches of study to supplement those which
%6ear directly on statecraft, it should be considered that the or dinary occupations of mature life are narrowing in their tend ency, because it is essential that the attention should be con centrated to force a passage through the obstacles that lie in
the way of success. In order to secure breadth of view on the
part of the future voter, his mind should, therefore, be led to
dwell on facts of wide and general significance rather than
upon minutiae upon principles rather than upon particular
applications of principles. But the term'general facts,' is
synonymous with the somewhat misleading expression'the laws
of science,' and it is difficult to escape the conclusion that what
is necessay, in addition to the branches already discussed, to
produce voters with the right kind of knowledge and with the
breadth of view to apply it advantageously, is instruction in the
principles of science. It appears, furthermore, that this instruction should deal in details, or particular facts, only so far as may
be necessary to illustrate and impress general facts, or principles; any excess of detail over this amount would tend to defeat the main object of the study. None but scientific studies
could effect the purpose of developing or expanding the mind,
for whatever possesses the essential requisites of generalization is science.
It has been suggested that trades should be taught in our
public schools. At first sight this seems to be a simple extension of the accepted doctrine, that science is a proper subject
of instruction. If it is a good thing to study the laws of heat,
why should it not be a good thing to give instruction in ironforging and casting? If it is well to study the principles of
vegetable cell formation, why not also wood-working, which is
directly dependent upon them? Were there no other reason
against this plan, it should be enough to point out that trades
represent the extreme differentiation of human knowledge, that
they consist in the application of principles to the minutest,
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the ultimate details of matter and manipulation;'-they are the
capillary arteries of thought.  To throw the attention of children into these channels would, therefore, be to anticipate precisely that narrow specialization, to obviate the evil mental tendencies of which is a main object of education on the part of
the state; and this, too, at a time of life when habits of mind
are most readily and firmly acquired. It is not the interest of
the state to teach the thought of her youth to flow in capillary
streams, feeding closely limited areas; but to develope in her
sons a broad and generous vascular system that will supply an
abundance of organized mental sustenance to whatever part of
the intellectual organism circumstances may call into activity.
Or, to drop metaphor, teaching children trades would rather
tend to unfit them than to prepare them to consider questions
of public policy and justly to weigh the claims of great conflicting interests. The narrower, but more highly developed, skill
and judgment which trades require, must form the superstructure, not the foundation of these broader powers.
Moreover, no rule of public policy is more definitely established than that it is inexpedient for the state to undertake what
private enterprise is quite capable of accomplishing. Now
private enterprise has sufficed since the beginning of the world
to train skilled artisans, and no one can say that this method
has been a failure.  From the shield of Achilles to the Waltham
watch, the products of industry have come from the hands of
artisans trained without the aid of the state. Why should
the state interfere now? Has private enterprise so degenerated
that it can no longer produce blacksmiths like those who forged
the beautiful gates of the medieval cathedrals, or stone-cutters
as those who built the Roman aqueducts? By no means!
The education of the masses of the people was also left to
private enterprise until the present century, but for that task
private enterprise was incompetent, and consequently there
was no education among the masses.
It is, therefore, not true that it is the duty of the State to
teach her sons to work as well as to read, because experience
has shown that the one they can, and the other they cannot
learn without her help. Why not say that it is the duty of the
State to teach children to walk? It is essential to the wellbeing of the community that they should learn, but private
enterprise has thus far succeeded in imparting the necessary
instruction.
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An argunment has been made in favor of teaching trades in
the public schools from the deplorable presence of idle youths
in our cities and especially in San Francisco. Give them
trades, it is said, and they will become useful members of society. Now, if it could be shown that, while the street corners
are infested with idle boys, the employers of labor were at
their wits ends to obtain skilled workmen, these facts might
serve a strong argument in favor of the remedy proposed, but
the reverse is notoriously the case; no small proportion of the
idle men in our cities are skilled workmen who can get nothing
to do at wages they will take, and to increase the number of
artisans would not tend to increase their opportunities for
remunerative employment. Evidently, then, the causes of the
presence of this unruly element are to be sought elsewhere.
So far as this inquiry is concerned, its existence points only to
a -lack of the faintest comprehension of the social problem;
else why, in a half-settled, gloriously fertile country like California, should lmen starve in the city instead of making themselves comfortable homes in the country?
It is sometimes asserted, however, that reasonable or unreasonable,'ight or wrong, this is what the tax-payers want and
will have. Perhaps it is so; tax-payers have blundered before
now; they have blundered into the miserable financial, moral
and administrative debility which at present afflicts the country.
All the more reason, then, that they should carefully consider
their future action, especially as regards the preparation for
public life they give those to whom the task will fall of amending their errors, or aggravating their blunders. But is it the
desire of the people that their children should be set to learn
trades at school? No reform of modern times has been more
urgently, more pathetically pressed upon the Legislatures of
this country and of England by the industrial classes than the
prohibition of the employment of young children in factories.
Did they urge this step with such' heart-breaking eloquence
merely that the State, instead of firms or corporations, might.
teach their children trades? Far from it! It was because they
recognized that man is something more than a mere moneymaking machine, and that it is due to the individual, to the
State and to humanity that the years of childhood should be
devoted to the development of a thinking, reasoning being, and
not of a special tool run by vital power instead of steam. Of
course some intellectual training could and would be given at
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the same time with trade instruction by the State,but this would
only mitigate the evil. It is of small benefit to teach a child
to read, unless he is also taught habits of mind which will
incline him to exercise the power.   One might think, perhaps,
that this would be a chimerical danger and that life offered
plenty of motives for reading to those persons who know how.
Assuredly, if they could recognize them, but to do so is usually
a matter of instruction. In Prussia, every child is taught to
read, but many a Prussian peasant has confessed to me that
he had forgotten how, for want of practice.
A protest has gone up from the industrial classes, as a whole,
the world over against teaching children trades in factories,
and if they were to consent to their children learning them in
school, it would only be under a misapprehension which time
would correct, though not until great harm had been done.
How do the artisans' organizations stand on the question? Far
from advocating such a course, the Trades-Unions jealously
limit the number of apprentices whom  they will permit to
learn their respective branches of industry.  The State would
have a somewhat awkward settlement to make with these
powerful and sometimes unruly bodies if it were to attempt
to teach the trades, to acquaintance with which they regard
themselves as having a proprietary right.
Suppose the system introduced; how should we distribute
the children among the various trades? Should we pass legal
enactments that a certain percentage should be shoemakers and
another carpenters and select them by lot? Or should they be
divided according to their individual capacities, and, if so, by
what criteria and with what reference to their future circumstances? Or should we allow the parents to select?  If the last,
and only not manifestly impracticable, course were adopted, we
should be compelled to teach all trades to satisfy all demands;
but the trades are countless, and so would be the expense. If,
finally, we were to select a fewtrades out of the whole number,
to which of them, if the instruction were considered an advantage to those branches of industry, should we grant state protection and the benefit of funds contributed by the whole community regardless of occupation? Or, if it were considered
detrimental to those who already, under the law of supply
and demand, occupy a given industrial field, indefinitely to
increase theirnumbers, which trades should be made a sacrifice
to the common weal?
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It follows that for the state to give instruction in the
details of any or all trades would be unwise, unnecessary,
and impracticable, but what it can and ought to do is to teach
what is common to all or many trades. It cannot teach a boy
to handle hides, or to weld iron, or to miix plaster; but it can
teach him the principles involved in these operations.  It can
prepare him to learn the details of these processes intelligently,
and  not by the "rule of thumb," by making him  familiar
with the fundamental ideas of chemistry.  The state cannot
teach a lad to build carriages, or to frame houses, or to make
ice, or run a telegraph office; but it can teach him the principal
laws of physics which come in play in these operations, and
thus increase his aptitude five-fold for learning their practical
application. In short, the state can and should teach its children science; and, as has been shown, this is its duty, because
such knowledge makes them better citizens.  It is an important, yet incidental, but not accidental, advantage of this instuction that it vastly increases their ability to promote their
own personal welfare.
THE RELATION OF THE STATE TO THE HIGHER EDUCATION
Has the State any interest in the higher education? It is frequently said, and by men who are, in general, good authority
on educational topics, that it has not; that all education, beyond what is needful for the exercise of the ordinary duties of
citizenship, should be acquired at private expense if at all.
This opinion is sometimes maintained on the ground that only
a fraction of the youth of the state has both the will and the
power to avail itself of the opportunities afforded, while the
expenses are defrayed, in their proportion, by all tax-payers
alike. Now, if the function of education as imparted by the
State were primarily to benefit the individual, this would be a
very valid objection; indeed, were this the case, it is questionable whether it would be proper for the State to undertake to
give its citizens any education, however elementary. As we
have seen, however, the true object of State education is
primarily the benefit of the community at large, and not of the
individual as such. But it is also asserted that no adequate
return is made the state for the outlay involved in imparting
the higher education.  This must mean either that the community derives little oi no advantage from the presence of highly
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educated men, or that an abundance of such would be forthcoming without State aid.
To ascertain whether a civilized community can get along
without highly educated men, let us consider what the State
has to do. The larger portion oS the community discharges
the most patent of its duties to the State when it votes with
judgment, but something besides voters is necessary to the
machinery of the State. We must have law-makers, judges and
school-teachers; there must be engineers to carry out public
-works; doctors for our public charitable and penal institutions;
and there are many other positions under government which,
like these, can be filled with credit only by men who have
more than a common-school education.  There are, too, in
addition, a large number of men in every community who
occupy what are really, though not nominally, public offices
with similar requirements. Physicians, lawyers, clergymen,
editors and, indeed, all of those to whose care is entrusted the
lives or welfare of considerable numbers of persons, are responsible to the community for their conduct, and are as indispensgble to the community as those who draw salaries from
the treasury. That it is no metaphor to call these men State
officers in a larger sense is apparent from the legal restrictions which the State imposes on the practice of law and medicine, and still more so from the fact that in Europe doctors,
lawyers and clergymen are nominally, as well as virtually,
officials.
It is true that one sometimes hears the higher education,
that is the accumulated results of experiment and reflection,
h e l d up to scorn.  Such remarks are made as -"I would rather send a good, plain fellow, who never read a half dozen
books in his life, to the Legislature than all the learned men
you can bring on." But what does this mean? It means that
we (men of the speaker's stamp, of course) are so gifted, that
we can not only transcend the results of the united thought
and experience of the most brilliant men of all nations and
many generations on just such questions as we have to solve
to-day, but that all this accumulated wisdom is absolutely infinitessimal a        s        compared with our native intelligence-that
there is not enough of it even to aid us in our decisions which
are so infallible that it is superfluous even to enquire whether
such have been reached before and with what consequences.
Such remarks show not only ignorance, but an arrogant con                            254
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tempt for common sense and for truth, and they are only tolerated because they flatter thoughtless men into the belief
that they are by nature as wise as others can become by the
diligent use of their own powers-a pleasing hallucination.
Highly educated men are, then, indispensable to the community, which would be incapable of a civilized existence
without them. They are not at all less essential than laborers,
artisans, or merchants; and have them we must, cost what it
may.
If the State refuses to impart the higher education, how
can men of the necessary acquirements be obtained?  Only
two ways are open; we can import them, or we can trust to
private enterprise to produce them. If we trust to other
states and countries to supply us with educated men, we shall
owe a debt of gratitude to the wisdom or the folly of the coinmmunities which, at their expense, prepare leaders in the affairs
of life for us, who are too poor, or too unenlightened, or too
selfish to train them for themselves; and we must accept the
risk to our welfare involved in the employment of men, who
come to us for remunerative occupation, but who regard themselves as.sojourners, and to whom  the real interests of the
country are unfamiliar and uninteresting.  This method could
only result, after a time, in making us virtually a province
dependent upon the country which furnished our rulers.
We might trust to self-interest to produce private institutions
intended to impart higher education, but gloomy indeed would
be our prospects should this be our only resource; for nothing
is more certain than that, fiom a financial point of view, the
higher education cannot be remuneratively imparted.   Harvard University is certainly not less well managed than other
institutions of the kind; but to make it a paying investment of
capital, it would be Obliged to charge each one of its present
large number of students at least five hundred dollars annual
tuition fees. Nor is there a single university, worthy, even
with great latitude in its application, of that name, in America or Europe, supported by its pupils. To trust to selfeducation-that most difficult, most costly and most imperfect
of all methods-would be still worse, and a mere make-shift
for higher education could, therefore, be furnished by private
exertions.
Unless, then, we are content to be led and managed physic
ally, morally, industrially and politically, from the cradle to
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~
the grave, by mercenary strangers; or to get along with a halftrained oligarchy, composed exclusively of the sons of wealthy
parents, we must as a Commnunlty furnish as many of our yonth
as need it with an advanced education.
How high should this education be? In answer, let us ask,
as I have done on a previous occasion:-what are the needs
which every thinking man feels in his own training every day
of his life? Is there any such who does not regret that his
knowledge is not deeper and broader, his grasp of principles
stronger, his knowledge of details fuller, his acquaintance
with the experience and thoughts of other men greater? Is
there anyone who does not feel that it would not be not only
to his own advantage, but to that of the community, if he and
others were better trained and better informed? The general
verdict is most unquestionably that we need more knowledge
than we can get.
Does not the whole course of events force the same conclusion upon us? No man can shut his eyes to the incalculable
losses which ignorant farming, ignorant mining, ignorant
manufacturing and ignorant banking entail upon the country.
In peace or in war, in good times or in bad, the annihilation
of hardly earned hundreds of thousands, through the failure
of enterprises ignorantly undertaken and ignorantly managed
goes on forming a constant drain upon the energies of the
community.  The same blight equally affects the admninistration of the affairs of the nation. Not to speak of our late war
and the horrible sacrifices involved in it, which greater knowledge might have averted, we may safely say that, were the
whole educational system-of the United States endowed with
but a fraction of the sum which France has saved in paying
her debt, as compared with our own country, by employing
in its management a highly educated political economist like
Thiers, instead of men destitute of a knowledge of the most
elementary principles of that science, American taxpayers
need never be called upon for another dollar for educational
purposes.
But is education an infallible remedy for the evils produced
by lack of wisdom? Certainly not.  There are some men who
are as incapable by nature of the mental development the
higher education is designed to produce, as others are of
musical attainments; but this incapacity is fortunately exeptional, and it is at least a recommendation for any man that
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every thing possible has been done to fit him for his business.
In short, the curative effects of education upon the ills pro duced by ignorance, are limited only by the imperfections of
nature.
In exercising its appropriate function of fostering the inter ests of the community, it behooves the State to regard not only
the intelligent exercise of the franchise and the proper per formance of official duties, or, in other words, the conservative
interests of the commonwealth; but also to provide, as far as
possible, for its progress. As we appoint teachers of various
grades for the youth of the country, so should we endeavor to
provide ourselves as a community with guides who will lead us
beyond the limits, which human intelligence has as yet con quered, from the unknown regions of thought and matter. Our
pride and ambition lead us to desire progress, both industrial
and intellectual, lest we sink in rank and consideration among
states; our interests demand it, for progress means greater
results from the same expenditure of power; it is indispensable
to our civilization, which, like a snow-ball, must move and
grow or stand still and melt.
In no way can the State so effectually encourage industrial
progress as by promoting the cause of the higher education.
It is frequently asserted that it is by men of small education
that great' inventions are made. This assertion is incorrect.
James Watt was a civil engineer and an accomplished scientific
man; he had been connected with the University of Glasgow
for years before his friend Robinson, Professor of Physics,
suggested to him to try to utilize the enormous motive power
of steam. George Stephenson had studied science ardently
for years and had the assistance of his only less eminent son
Robert, on whose education no pains had been spared, before
he invented tl  tubular boiler, which is the essential feature
of the locomotive. Electricity was first applied to telegraphic
purposes by Gauss, one of the profoundest mathematicians and
physicists who ever lived. The electric telegraph was independently invented and first applied to commercial purposes
by Morse, who had graduated at Yale and who was Professor
of the Fine Arts in another college. Whitney, the inventor of
the cotton-gin, was a Yale graduate. The first practical reaper
was invented by the Rev. Peter Bell, a Scotchman. Nasmyth,
the inventor of the steam-hammer, was a University of Edinburgh man. The safety-lamp was the invention of the great
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savan,  Sir Huminphrey Davy.   Sir William  Armstrong, of
hydraulic and artillery fame, was well trained in science and
studied and practised law. The greatest farmer who ever lived
was undoubtedly Liebig. Murdoch introduced the use of illuminating gas as the result of a scientific investigation on the
products of the dry distillation of matter.  Siemens, whose
wonderful furnace and its modifications, represents a yearly
economy of several million tons of coal, is one of the most
highly educated men alive. In short, it is only rarely that
genius, deprived of the assistance of antecedent experience
and thought, has been able to arrive at results which have
notably modified the industrial condition of mankind. That
important results can be arrived at in chemistry and the arts
dependent upon it, or in law or in medicine without profound
learning no one pretends.
In literature, too, which is essentially progressive, and the
influence of which now extends to every member of the community, the higher education is of the utmost importance.  It
is true that one may edit a newspaper and possess only a minimum of education, but in so far as the press is a blessing and
not a curse, in so far as it furnishes its readers with sound
views, accurate information and healthy amusement, instead
of pandering to their appetites for sensation, scandal and
nastiness, it requires for its conduct not only the highest order
of ability, but every aid which knowledge and training can
bring to bear.
Moreover, one of the great claims of knowledge upon our
consideration is that while we can often definitely predict that
it will be advantageous to our material and moral interests,we can
never safely assert that it will not. The Greenwich observatory
and the astronomers who have pursued their studies in it, by
rendering navigation safe and its extension possible, have
contributed as greatly to the welfare of mankind as the locomotive and its inventor; and what could we do with our iron
ships if the laws of magnetism, as well as those of astronomy,
had not been investigated? Volta's curious experiments paved
the way to the electrotype and Morse would have been impossible had not Franklin preceded him. To make Bessemer steel
we call in the help of spectral analysis, our sugars are bought
and sold according to their effects upon the plane of polariza tion of light, and most of our chemical manufactures are
founded upon facts and laws which were discovered not in
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pursuit of money but of truth. Science is not indebted to the
world for the thousands it annually costs, but the world to it
for tens of millions of its yearly profits.
Whether, then, we regard the question fromt the point of
view of a justifiable patriotic ambition, or from that of purely
financial interest; whether we seek to promote the industrial
welfare of the State, the economy and perfection of its political
machinery, or to raise the standard of morality and increase
the intellectual capacity of the community, we are alike led to
the conclusion that no public educational system will answer
our needs which does not give every possible opportunity for
the deepest, broadest and most varied culture, and which does
not encourage every man to get as much of it as he has time
and strength for.  The turbid flood of ignorance is only kept
back by the levees of education, whose cause is therefore the
cause of the community and of humanity. To refuse to keep
this system, whose bulwarks are its profounder portions, in an
efficient condition and to add to it when necessary, is to suppress progress and to invite disaster.   Yet education has
many enemies, some open and some secret, so(me wilful and
some only mistaken: there are those who hate it because they
love darkness rather than light, and those who misunderstand
its nature, and there are those who oppose it because it involves
an outlay of money. There are men who, to save a plank, will
risk a forest; who, to save a day's work, will risk the labor of
years; who, to save a thousand dollars, will risk millions; but
the fruit of their counsels is not prosperity. Let the community narrowly watch those who, under whatever plea, have
designs upon its intelligence, and let the enemies of education
beware what they do; they oppose it not only at their own
peril, which is their right, but at their childrens' peril, which is
inhumanity, and at their country's peril, which is treason!
ON THE RELATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL TO THE HIGHER, EDUCATION.
Watch the crowds in our streets as they hurry past; or observe the inhabitants of a rural district in the pursuit of their
diverse and absorbing occupations; or note the ardent industry of a mining population; read in each face its owner's busy
devotion to his own affairs, and then ask; Have men any joint
motives and aspirations, and has civilization a definite tendency, or is the community simply an aggregation of individuals,
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each seeking the enjoyment of life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness in his own way?  Are we in league with our fellows
only for the purpose of mutual protection against the influences which would disturb us in seeking our selfish ends, or
is there something more and higher which binds us together?
The first answer that would suggest itself is, that private interests are paramount, and that the spirit of civilization has no
goal, but is a will o' the wisp, blown hither and yon by  the
panting respirations of men as they scramble after the most diverse objects. Yet on the other hand, if our motives are so
diverse, so antagonistic, as they might seem, why have they not
long ago disrupted the organization of the community? No
satisfactory answer to these questions is immediately apparent,
but as an astronomer is able to predict the course of a heavenly
body by comparing its positions at sufficiently distant points
of time, though a single observation gives him no clue as to the
path it is pursuing, so perhaps may we gain an idea of the tendency of the human soul and of our civilization by considering
mankind in different stages of his development. Should we
fail to discover that men have joint motives, that the tendency
of humanity is in one direction, which we are all consciously
or unconsciously pursuing, each at his own gait, it would be
futile to discuss any common preparation for the business of
life, or any general scheme of education.
Primeval man as we imagine him, as we still meet him here
and there, is engaged in a desperate struggle for self-preservation; his whole energies are directed towards contending with
the difficulties of procuring food, with the inclemencies of the
weather, and with the hostility of other men and animals, whose
efforts to sustain life his existence hampers, or his destruction
would facilitate. Yet even in this lowest stage of human existence man is not utterly destitute of the idea of improving
upon the resources of nature. This he shows by the use of
rude tools to intensify or to economise his natural powers,
which constitutes the first victory of mind over matter. He
is also in possession of a vocabulary, however limited, a fact
which proves him not destitute of an idea of organization, for
to what purpose except to procure co-operation could he employ it? As the savage.advances in the scale of humanity, his
first great step is to form an alliance for defence with others
like himself. This is a grand step, for it is a formal recogni_
tion of the existence of common interests. In all other res                             260
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pects his life is unchanged, but it is easier, because he has
less to fear. The association and the comparative freedom
from danger incidental to this form of society, which is a mere
aggregation of individual without diversity of functions, is
more favorable than the circumstances which preceded it to the
development of ideas. Songs, ballads, and the first traces of
decorative art appear during this era, and the savage, already
familiar with the power of mind over matter, confesses the
power of mind over mind. Then arises the first idea of mental differentiation.  The affairs of the community, as distinguished from those of the individual,are allowed to pass into the
hands of one or more men who make them their special business.
While progress has, at this stage, become very apparent, selfpreservation is still the paramount idea; but a time comes with
developing intelligence when the idea of progress acquires
a slight predominance. It is marked by organized efforts
at improvement upon the resources of nature, displayed in
the building of rude forts, the breeding of cattle, or in a
chief reliance for their support on the tillage of the soil
This point is the beginning of civilization.
MAan, thien, rose from the depths of barbarism to the threshold of civilization by the power of mind over matter and over
mind; by organization, protective and productive; and by the
division of labor. Each step consisted in the adaptation of
means to ends and was a triumph of mind, and each step was
strictly dependent upcn all those which went before. Moreover, the part played by progress, or the coefficient of mind in
the equation of condition became greater in proportion as society advanced.
The development of civilization has proceeded in obedience
to the same forces which determined its germination.  The em
bryo contained, in a rudimentary form every organ which the
perfect tree needed. The process of material development and
adaptation began when the primitive barbarian first selected
different flakes of flint with which to chop and to cut. These
splinters of stone have become, with or without the addition of
handles, the chisel, the knife and the saw, the axe and the
plough-share, the adze and the hoe, and the head of the javelin, the spear and the arrow. The raft was developed into the
"dug-out," from which sprung the canoe, the row-boat, the
sail-boat, the ship and the steamer. Man, no doubt, at first
bruised seeds in the hollow of a stone with a pebble, to save
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his jaws a task which they could perform only with difficulty,
or to which they were incompetent. This invention is not only
the origin of our grain mills, but was essential to the institution of agriculture, which would have been undertaken to small
purpose without it. The first records of experience and example possessing any permanency were ballads, which grew
by degrees into epics and didactic poems. These were succeeded by odes and dramas on the artistic side, while information and instruction, history and philosophy came to be clothed
in prose. Lines, or marks, were probably at first scratched
into implements to aid in their identification. They grew, by
readily conceived steps, into artistic ornamentation on the one
hand and into symbols of definite signification, picture writ
ing, hieroglyphics and alphabets on the other.  The commu-i
istie form of society, the simple alliance of individuals for
defence, grew into the tribal organization followed by despotism which, as the intelligence of the classes most favored by
nature or fortune grew, was succeeded by the feudal system
or its equivalent. This, in turn, still through the growth of
intelligence, was replaced by constitutional imonarchy, to which
the theory that thie fittest should be selected to govern, or
the republican system has succeeded here and there.
Civilization received its original impulse from the action of
mind on matter, and it would seem to be a necessary condition
of the advance of civilization that an intimate relation between
matter and mind should continue to subsist; for no one will
deny that most of the material for thought is derived, immediately or indirectly, from the external physical world. If,
therefore, a partial separation is effected between mind and
matter, the intellect is underfed and becomes unreliable, or
even ceases to act. In not a few cases the progress of civilization has been arrested from this cause; thus in Egypt the higher
castes were studious and intellectual, but the lower orders,
which alone encountered material problems, were scarcely
raised above barbarism, and, when the impulse received under
a more natural order of things was spent, decadence ensued.
In Athens and Rome, too, after their conquests, tributes, not
earnings formed the source of wealth, and only barbarian slaves
received the endless suggestions of nature. In the same way,
the thought of the-middle ages, though not without ingenuity
and even genius, was almost fruitless of results, because the
philosophers of that age attempted to develop ideas, without
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resorting to the facts of nature for fresh material, merely by
the recogitation of abstractions. When the mind of man once
more reverted to nature, the present era of progress began.
The germ of civilization must develop symmetrically if it is
to reach its highest perfection.  Beginning as a tiny, almost
homogeneous organism, the differentiation of its parts increases
with its growth. It throws out far and deep-reaching roots
which absorb the palpable, crude nutriment from the earth
and spreads to the intangible air, leaves in which, by subtle
processes, the useless portion of the crude sap is eliminated,
its valuable contents increased by the addition of an equal
weight of material derived from the invisible atmosphere, and
the whole is elaborated to form the tissue which, from year to
year, adds stability to the trunk and carries its still budding
crown nearer to heaven. Neither trunk, roots nor foliage can
suffer any injury, or lag behind the rest in proportionate development, nor can any disturbance of their connection occur,
without the tree suffering as a whole and in all parts. The
rootlets of civilization are those who deal with the material
universe; the crude sap is experience; the leaves are the thinkers of mankind, and the trunk is the accumulated result of the
action of thought on, and of the additions of thought to, experience; it is the net result of all the operations of civilization from
its inception to the present time; or, in other words, the trunk
of the tree of civilization is the sum of human knowledge.
If we examine our own state of society in the light of the
past, it will be seen that no fundamentalschange has occurred
in the character of civilization. The work the world is still
engaged upon is, as it has been, the progressive exercise of
the intellectual powers upon mind and matter, and the methods remain as they were thousands of years ago, organization
and differentiation. The apparatus of the primeval savage is
scarcely distinguishable from the fragments of material supplied by nature. With us it is very different, and the difference is in the ratio of thought to matter. When a storm
sweeps through the forest, it leaves in its path great heaps of
trees, overthrown, interlaced, in wild confusion; no longer
graceful, good for nothing but to rot and supply food for future
generations of plants. Yet this very material, overthrown by
the hand of man, can in a few weeks be transformed into a ship
which may transport thousands to prosperity, which may relieve
communities from suffering, or perform inestimable services to
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science, to civilization and to mankind. But the material of
the ship is the same as that of the decaying timber-heaps of
the forest; the difference is in mind, and the ship is rubbish
plus mind. It is not what it is, however, only on account of
the intelligence of the workmen who build it. The plan of con struction is the result of thousands,no,hundreds of thousands of
painful experimental and theoretical investigations into the
properties of force and matter, nor would it be the great thing
it is, but a mere lumbering toy, were it not for the science of nav i)ation and all the sciences which that implies; nor is it less de pendent for its efficiency upon the arts and the products of which
it is destined to transport, and on the steps by which they have
arrived at their present condition. There helped at the build ing of that ship Euclid, Bacon, Newton, Lavoisier, Watt and
thousands of others, each of whom, indeed, concentrated his
energies on his own well defined speciality, yet, through the
universal relations of thought, co-operated actively, though
unconsciously, in an enterprise which seemed as far removed
as possible from any purposes he entertained. Ina word, that
ship is, in its way, an epitome of civilization past and present.
Neither production nor progress, beyond a certain insignifi cant minimum, is conceivable without the co-operation of many
individuals. Not only is the consumer a nescessary comnple ment to the producer, but the latter, unless he be a primeval
savage, obtains the greatest part of his implements from his
contemporaries and his processes from his predecessors. There
are few men who know nmuch except what they learn from
others.  Even the originators of great improvements commonly
derive the main portion of their data from previous investiga tions. The enormous power of steam and the fact that it could
be utilized to produce motion had been proved by Watt's predecessors; and Adam Smith freely used the economical researches of Turgot and many other investigations of social
phenomena. If the great additions to the resources of the
world are dependent on facts elucidated by previous labors,
how much more absolutely is this the case with respect to
minor improvments? But we are prone to forget the claims
which the silent past has to our gratitude and to behave as if
we were really self-made men; as if the position we occupy
were not, as it is, the product of the labors of untold generations.  As a matter of fact, we are mere borrowers from  the
past, and many of us pay but poor interest on the loan. Strip
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from the best of us, what he owes to previous ages, and you
leave a mere wretched savage.
Failure to recognize the claims of the past to our consider ation, brings with it its own punishment. A producer,
who refuses to take into account what has been done elsewhere
in his own and allied branches, or, in other words, to call
in the aid of his fellow-workers, past and present, cannot suc ceed; nor can improvements be effected without a similar
reference to others.  Our  Patent Office is crammed  with
models which, however much talent or even genius they exhibit,
ate mere re-inventions, often, too, of devices that have proved
failures. They represent, on the part of thousands of men,
years of patient and ingenious toil, which might have added
blessings to the lot of humaijity,but are,as a matter of fact,good
for nothing, but to point the moral that it does not "pay"
to ignore experience.  "To ignore the past," said a famous
statesman nearly two thousand years ago, " is to remain for ever a child," and the history of the labors of his own profes sion, no less than the records of the Patent Office, evince the
truth of t]e remark. " Retrospect," said one of the British
Ministry, speaking of American affairs in 1774, "is not wise;
the proper, and the only proper subject of inquiry is, not how
we got into this difficulty, but how we are to get out of it."
How neat the phraseology, how plausible the labor-saving
idea! The phrase isnot so hackneyed, that it might not yet
sbrve aturn on the stump,or on the floor. To be sure, the philcsopher Burke had as neat, though not as striking a phrase to
match it, and retorted, that the honorable gentleman desired
the members of the House to consult their invention, and to
neglect their experience; but Burke was too philosophical for
his audience. The phrase with the matter-of-fact ring in it
won the day-at least it did so in the House of Commons.
On the outside, where plausibilities and shams melt before the
aqua regia of events, that catch-word cost England billions of
dollars, and by far the better part of the continent of America.
And yet the phrase has in it the very ring which is sometimes called "practical." A practical man is supposed to be
one who does not act from theory, but is guided by his own
experience. As so defined, the practical man is a sheer impossibility. No man can perform any act without a theory. A
theory is merely a generalization from facts, and is involved in
every operation of reason.  Ask a "practical" man how he
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knows that he will get more light from a lamp close to him
than from the same lamp at a distance. He will answer,'" Because I have tried it." That is to say, from his own experience,
he has discovered that the amount of light decreases in some
proportion to its removal. But this is pure theory, and not a
particle less so than that of the physicist, who would say that
the amount of light varies inversely as the square of the distance.  The only difference between the theories is, that the
one derived from few and inexact experiments is the 1 ess accurate. The practical man acts on theory just as much as any
one else, the distinction being merely, that he evolves his
theories only from the limited data which he has observed, or
with which he has become acquainted in conversation, instead
of systematically generalizing the observations made by men
all over the world and through ages. It is as little true that the
so-called "Ipractical" man is guided solely, or mainly, by his
own experience as that he acts without theory. Observe the
first blacksmith you see at work. Has he evolved the method
of making horseshoes, or of welding iron, from his own experience?  By no means; he performs these operations exactly as
he was taught them when he was an apprentice. Indeed, one
of the main difficulties in the introduction of any improvement
in technology, is, as all who have to do with industrial enterprises well know, the absolute rebellion of workmen  who
regard themselves  as "practical," against learning anything
different from the time-honored routine.  Let it not, however,
-for a moment be supposed that the disinclination to act according to the results of enlightened experience, is peculiar to
mechanics, or rather to certain of their number.  Consider the
representative "practical" man of the country, or the " practical" representative of the country, in the striking attitude he
has of late assumed. The United States is laboring under the
burden of a civil service system, according to which, the interests.
of the nation are treated like the plunder of robbers, who hold
a periodical partition of booty-the very adherents of thesystem boldly speak of it as a division of spoils.  It is a system
which was introduced as a desperate measure; a system so bad
that every other civilized nation on the face of the earth, has
cast it aside as an abomination of a corrupt age; a system so,
infamous, that its very friends of all parties were obliged to disown it and promise reform, in order to induce even careless.
constituents to vote for them.   Yet our "practical" represen
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tatives in Congress, now denounce the men who wish to make
a change as impracticable theorists, and confess that they, in
spite of the experience of all the rest of the world, and that of
their own grandfathers under other systems, are incapable of inventing, adopting or even imagining, any system of appointments exceptthat handed down to them by their misguided predecessors. Practical men of this sort are theorists as much as
anybody, but very bad theorists; and far from being guided by
their experience, are, for the most part, slavish copyists. The
truly practical man is one who, besides deriving as much assistance as possible from the experience of others, that is to say,
holding carefully-formed theories, is personally familiar with
the details of his business.
In a word, then, our efforts at improvement expend themselves in vain, and are sheer loss of power, unless we support
them on the results of the past. We advance by the use of
our inventive faculties, but experience is the fulcrum of the
lever of invention.
The exercise of his reason it is which man enjoys, rather than
its material results. If men loved ease well enough to work
for it as they do work, they would love it too well to work at
all. Your savage is, if not contented with his fare, too nearly
so to undergo hardships to secure better, and, if he has no
other impulse than love of luxury, will never rise to civilization.  An American merchant does not labor on, through the
prime and decline of life, merely to secure a softer bed and
more luscious viands than small means would purchase him.
Men do not take their ease when they have secured the means
of doing so. On the contrary, the insatiableness of all true
workers, is notorious.  If a merchant retires from commercial
business, he does not resign himself to idleness, but devotes
his energies to some other occupation-to farming, or literature, or the interests of some cause or some society. At least,
if he does not do so, he iscertain to be unhappy, and bitterly to
regret the day, when he abandoned the life in which his powers
found productive employment   The man who longs for fame
does not stop seeking it when he has found it. No man who
loved power ever had enough of it, and the discovery          a
truth, only stimulates the philosopher to profounder and more
daring investigations Besides the love of ease, only one material end has been suggested, as sufficiently desirable to induce
men to work as they do, viz; to lay by a provision for their
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children. While this motive is in many cases powerful, it
does not suffice to explain the facts, for confirmed bachelors,
childless and wealthy men, are not, as a rule, less industrious
than poor men of the same age with families.  Men also often
deliberately select professions, such as the church or the armiy,
in which the probabilities of their acquiring a fortune, either
for themselves or for their children, is infinitesimal; many
fathers, too, believe it kindest and best to give their sons no
start in life beyond an educa3tion.
History, then, answers our questions. The aim of civilization, it follows from the path it has hitherto taken, is to increase
the intellectual and material resources of mankind.  The typical member of a civilized community is one who adds to the
sum of human knowledge and power.   We work as we do, not
merely for the material rewards of labor, but because we should
not be happy in idleness; or, in other words, because we feel
a strong impulse to produce something, and to improve upon
something; and our great reward is the sober pleasure we
derive from the successful, that is to say, the productive and
progressive exercise of our faculties.  But neither production
nor progress, it appears, beyond a certain insignificant minimum, is conceivable without the harmonious co-operation of
many individuals. In short, what gives the community its
true solidarity, in spite of the diversity of individual interests,
is the universal longing in civilized man, to employ his faculties in production and improvement, and the dependence of
this longing for its gratification on the co-operation of others.
What the individual seeks in education, is unquestionably a
preparation for the business of life. That is to say, as we have
just seen, for the progressively productive exercise of his faculties. What he will demand of education, will depend upon
the clearness of his comprehension of the purposes of life, and
the direction which he proposes to give his energies. That
the degree, in which different persons exhibit a comprehension
of the problem of life varies greatly, it is unnecessary to say.
Some men suppose themselves, erroneously, however, to agree
with the Australian savage, that the object of life is merely to
make a living.  If a constructor were to plan an engine, whose
power barely sufficed to keep it in motion, we should set him
down as a dolt; yet men do not hesitate to insult their Creator,
by ascribingto Him, such a purposeless device in making them.
In proportion as a man comprehends the inter-dependence of
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human exertions, and feels within him the common impulse of
all mankind, will he demand more and more of education. This
is plainly perceptible in the wishes people express for their
children. Some, it is true, desire only that their sons may get
a trade, others, only to fit them to be merchants,  and  so on.
through endless variations. But where will you find a father,
from the President of the United States to a street sweeper,
who has so missed the lessons of life, that he does not desire
for his children, better opportunities and more education than
fell to his own share? If there are any such, they are simply
to be regarded as reversions to a lower type of humanity, and
the practically universal tendency to an increased respect for
education, as we accumulate knowledge and experience, shows
that our sense of its value, is in proportion to our ability to
appreciate it.
The true object of our ambition being to produce and to improve, the first purpose an individual has to fulfil in his education, is the development to the utmost of his capabilities. In
applying his developed abilities, to any particular subject or
object, he must, in order to attain any measure of success, acquaint himself with its details, and with its relations to those
subjects or objects, upon which it is dependent.   But a
course which cultivates the powers of the mind, exhibits the
interdependence of human pursuits, and teaches the details of a
particular occupation, is a thorough liberal and professional
education. The wants of the individual in respect to his education, are then, precisely what we have seen, that it is to the
interest of the community he should have. This need cause no
surprise; indeed, it might have been predicted, that in the
course of ages, the individuals whose interests were at variance
with those of the community, would have withdrawn  from the
association, or have been eliminated by it; and that the interests of the community and of its typical meniber,would have attained, by this time, complete coincidence.
In reaching these conclusions, we have not found it necess a r y to resort t   o        glittering generalities, to assert that man is
lord of creation, or that knowledge is power; we have not
needed, if you think with me, to appeal as we rightfully might
have done, to the higher motives of the human heart, to ambition, to a refined love of the beautiful, or a noble devotion to
truth, or yet to a regard for the happiness of mankind, or to a
sense of duty, or to a sentiment of gratitude towards the Crea
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tor, who so richly endowed us with powers and forbade us to
bury our resources in the earth. We have only needed, to
prove the incontestible conditions of the society in which we
live, to demonstrate the movement of civilization, which we
cannot stem if we would, and which drags us along whether we
will or no. We have appealed only to the lowest motives of
self-interest, and these have sufficed to show that what each
active, useful member of the community wants, is an education;
and not a mere elementary education, not a mere higher education, but the highest education, which our day and generation
can afford.
PRIMARY EDUCATION AND OBJECT-TEACHING.
It may fairly be said that the idea of truth, in the sense of
conformity to fact, is, as a popular conception, of very modern
origin-a result of the scientific investigations of the present
era. So long as the great thinkers confined themselves to
metaphysical speculations, their conclusions could not be sub mitted to the test of experiment, and supreme ingenuity of
argument, formed the ultimate basis of belief, which therefore
rested, not on fact but on authority. Material facts, too, before the scientific period,lost their significance, from the general
belief in interruptions on the part of the Deity of the natural
course of events, and inquiry in any direction was useless, or
even dangerous, on account of the universal acceptance of the
doctrine of the culpability of error. For this dogma, the wan
shadow of which still sometimes flits ominously across the stage
of human affairs, is equivalent to an assertion that to be mistaken
is to transgress a command, or, in other words, that truth rests
upon authority. For a person who believes it wicked to hold
erroneous opinions, there is therefore, no such thing as fact;
or, at best, if he entertain a dim notion of what fact might be, he
can only regard it as a matter which is no concern of his, but
of the authority which prescribes his beliefs. It was not until
modern science had proved the immutability of general facts,
the indestructability of energy and matter, etc., that mankind
tad at command, any body of facts to which all might appeal
regardless of authority. With the growth of science, men have
gradually become familiar with absolute truth, and with the
office of reason as distinguished from those emotions of fear
And reverence, which are involved in an appeal to authority.
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It is worth while to note in passing, the advance which has
been made in humane refinement, since the emotions ceased to
bear the whole burden of life.  So long, as in every department
of thought and action authority was supreme, the emotions
were called upon for every office, and the constant strain upon
hem, rendered them insusceptible to any but the most vigorous
exciting causes. You may count on your fingers the decades
which have elapsed, since general cruelty to animals, bull-baiting, habitual drunkenness, gladiatorial shows, religious manias
involving torture, and the torture of criminals were viewed with
approval; and since the insane, chained naked in prison were
visited by respectable persons and tormented into phrensy, for
the amusement their antics afforded the taste of the age. An
overloaded spring will not vibrate except in response to violent
shocks, while one which bears only an appropriate burden,
answers the slightest impulse. In proportion as the number
of known facts increased-as more and more of the matters
which occupy the attention of men, found support on the immovable foundation of demonstrated truths, the load of belief
borne by the emotions lightened, and the latter recovered their
elasticity'. Our pity, sympathy, sense of justice are more readily stirred than were our ancestors, because, the increased share
taken by fact and reason in our affairs, leaves to our emotions
an elasticity which theirs could not display, under the load of
authority. And this is the work of science, natural and social,
to which the humanity of civilization owes no less, than does
its material prosperity.
Some one may object, that the term authority, isfamiliar even
in the most exact sciences of the day. It is so, but not in an ultimate sense. No man is accepted as an authorityin science, until
the discoveries which form his claim to that distinction, have
been verified by other competent men.  Even when his claim
is perfectly established, any new announcement of a startling
character he may make, requires confirmation at the hands of
others. Mr. Hall is an eminent authority in astronomy, but
when he announced the discovery of the satellites of Mars, every
great telescope in the world, was directed at the planet to test
his assertion  Moreover, no  one is regarded as possessing
authority in science, outside of a limited field, in which it has
been proved that he is familiar with the facts, and if he venture
beyond it, his opinions will meet simply with respectful consideration, not with implicit belief.  The great names of Kant
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and Laplace were not able to raise the Nebular Hypothesis
above the level of hypotheses. All the statements and opinions
of a scientific authority are also liable to revision at any moment, and the weight of his name depends upon their resisting
this test. If, however, it needs to be elaborately proved of a
scientific manf that he is familiar with the facts, and is rigidly
truthful in communicating them, before his statements are received; authority in science is reduced to the catagory of fact,
and the word is robbed of its selfsufficing purport.
Men's minds have not yet become so accustomed to unbiased
reasoning, that it does not require an effort to shake off the convenient leading-strings of authority, to turn a deaf ear to persuasion, and coldly to weigh and sort facts; yet this is essential
to those who wish to keep abreast of the times, and to improve
upon the condition of things they have inherited. Facts will
assuredly remember us, and, if we have forgotten them, to our
cost; for our systems can be successful, only in so far as they
are in harmnony with nature.
In no branch of human exertion is it more necessary to seek
a firm basis of fact, than in the education of children; for none
is more burdened with obstructive precedent.  With the advance of knowledge, it is becoming more and more difficult,
under the best of systems,to attain an education answering the
increasing demands, which the affairs of life nnake upon mind.
A large majority of every community, however, receive and
must continue to receive, all the methodical instruction they
ever enjoy in their earliest years; and no question whatever is,
therefore, of more importance to the community, or more
worthy to engage the best minds of the country, than how it is
possible to increase the efficiency of primary school education.
It will hardly be denied, even by those who take the most
strictly utilitarian views of life, that education consists, first of
all, in devloping the powers and giving them a proper direction.
Information is not education; information is the mere raw
material to be elaborated by the trained mind. Without the
mental power to work information into shape, and without
judgment as to its application, a man of large acquirements is
a trial tohimself, a nuisance to the community, and is calculated to bring undeserved contempt upon knowledge.
The morose spirit of former ages-a relic of the primitive
struggle for existence, during which men were compelled to
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hood nothing but evil tendencies, to be repressed or eradicated,
and the course of education selected for children was calculat ed to accomplish this end. Children were regarded as a sort
of natural criminals, and the conceptions of teaching and of
beating went hand in hand.  In the word discipline these ideas
met. Science, however, has taught us that the human being
passes through a series of stages of existence, beginning very
low in the scale; and that to each of these stagesis appropriate
a certain set of qualities and conditions, which we may throw
into different combinations, but which it is alike undesirable
and impossible radically to change It has further taught us,
that healthy desires are the index of nature's requirements.
To ignore these facts, to assume a condition of things which
is non-existent, cannot but be followed by failure in our en deavors to do good, or even by injury instead of the intended
benefit.  All that we can do towards attaining a given result,is
to adapt the resources nature places at our command; and upon
the skill with which this adaptation is made, will depend the
degree of our success.
In order to ascertain how children can be most effectually
educated,' it is consequently necessary to inquire what capacities
they have, and in what order they are developed. The psychology of childhood, like other questions connected with that
stage of existence, has received far less attention than it deserves.  Men of intellect have commonly seemed to see in other
directions more promising fields for their ambition, and questions affecting children have been largely left to persons unused
to generalizations. This is not the place for a fundamental
discussion of this important subject, even if I felt the ability
to engage with success in such an investigation; but certain
principles have been elucidated, which must form the starting
point for all real progress in this direction. Pestalozzi, Froebel,
Herbert Spencer and others, if they have left much to be done,
have not labored in vain.
Wherever we look in nature, we see that development is an
advance from the simple to the complex. The human mind is
no exception, and if it were possible to arrange ideas and impressions in the order of their complexity, we should probably
be able to assert a priori, in what order the childish mind is capable of receiving them. The word simplicity, however, is not
free from the ambiguity which so often leads to error in
thought, as well as in the communication of thoughts. An idea
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is simple, so far as its reception is concerned, which does not
depend for its appreciation upon association with other ideas.
An-idea is complex, which cannot be appreciated except as a
member of a system of ideas. It matters not, in either case,
how elementary or complicated the idea may be in its causation.
Thus the idea of sound-is simple, and is among the very first developed in the infant mind, notwithstanding the numerous physical and physiological forces and qualities involved in its production. The impression a sound produces on the mind is the resultantof many forces,but this resultant is single and simple.  The
idea of pitch, on the other hand, that of sound being presupposed, is simple enough in its causation, but it implies the recognition of a difference between sounds. It is, therefore,
complex and is not recognized by a young infant, who reaches
a considerable age before appreciating the difference between
a mere clatter and music.  The same thing is observable in
the productive efforts of children, which is pertinent here; for
it can be shown, that they put ideas in practice, as they receive
them, in the order of their complexity.  A child thumps and
drums and emits monotonous cries, some  time before he
gives utterance to sounds of intentionally various pitch.
The first ideas received in childhood are those which appeal
directly to the senses; such as color, taste and smell, sound,hardness and roughness; to these simple impressions succeed combinations of them; there follows the differentiation of the impressions received by each sense, and the combination of these finer
sensations. It could be shown, if it were necessary, how each
successive occupation and amusement of childhood falls in with
this law of increasing complication; this, however, is a matter
of detail, and scarcely needs discussion in support of the general
principle, which seems' only to require statement to obtain
assent. Yet it may be observed, that a child is always interested
in subjects which fully tax his powers, and that his productive
energies are exercised only in those fields with which he feels
familiar. The same is true of what, in the strict sense of the
word, amuses a child. Hence arises the difficulty of the distinctio'n between play and work on the part of children; for
many of the voluntary occupations of childhood cannot possibly
be brought under any reasonable definition of play.
Up to the age of nine or ten, the mind of the child is occupied
almost exclusively with what may be called primary ideas, or
those received immediately through the operation of- the senses;
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and,indeed,it is not until a considerably later age that secondary
ideas, or abstractions, form any considerable part of his voluntary thought. What is this constant,restless activity in children,
which must handle everything, see, taste whatever it can reach;
which itches to get at the inside of everything it can penetrate,
no meatter what its fragility or its value; this curiosity never satiated,this inquisitiveness never satisfied? Is it the old Adam, left
by Providence in our offspring for our sins and their chastisement; or is itthe manifestation of some natural force, healthy in
itself and which we may waste or turn to account, like other resources of nature, as we choose? That the former view should
have prevailed is not surprising; but careful investigation does
not bear it out. All this restless curiosity is the result of the
natural and necessary impulse of the human animal, to acquaint
himself with the phenomena of the universe in which he is to
spend his days. IHIe is getting that knowledge of men and cl
things, without which his existence would be impossible, and
which it is the function of the highest departments of human
thought and industry to advance towards perfection. This
greed for information in the childish mind, is. one of the
strongest intellectual forces with which we have to deal; and it
is probably true, as has been said, that half the knowledge, as
well as half the growth we ever attain, is reached before the
third birthday. Do we turn this mighty force to account in
education?  Certainlynot.  A child is in luck whose inquiries
are not under constant repression. At home he is bidden to
be quiet and not tease; and at school he is set to learn, often
even to memorize, abstractions of which he feels no need,
which he cannot comprehend, and which are utterly distasteful
to him. The real work of childhood, acquaintance with the
material world and the human character, he accomplishes, not
by the help of, but in spite of, those who have him in charge.
Let us consider in how far the general methods employed are
adapted to fulfil the objects of education. I say, children, as
a rule, do not feel the need of the instruction they receive. Is
it then rational to force it upon them? It is not correct physiology to eat when one is not hungry; and farmers know that
beasts as well as men must feed with appetite, if the food is to
do good.  The very fowls in a stuffing-house are not pumped
full of food, till they gape to receive the expected meal. One
might seek to promote the circulation odf sap in a tree by
attaching a force-pump to the tap-root; but it is found better
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in practice to place it in a warm atmosphere where moisture is
evaporated from the leaves, thus creating a want. Then the
organism of the plant draws moisture from the soil, just as fast
as its nature permits. The analogy between the nourishment
of the body and that of the mind is not far-fetched; indeed, it
is well known that many modern physiologists maintain
thought to be a mere bodily function. It is not, however,
essential to the argument. The value of interest on the part
of pupils has always met with more or less recognition, little
as has been done in the instruction of young children to secure
it. Socrates, even, tells us how much better children learn
and retain what they have learned, when they are induced to
study by interest, instead of being driven to it by compulsion;
and Queen Elizabeth's school-master, Roger Ascham, wrote a
book, a main object of which was to show the advantage of
exciting an interest in study in the minds of pupils. Nor can
any one,who remembers his school-fellows and classmates,avoid
the same conclusion. This feature of education has been
comparatively neglected with children, simply because they
. are more amenable to authority than college youths.
A word upon the functions of kindness and encouragement
in education. Humiliation and chastening are sometimes
necessary to us all, in order to force us to review our actions
and compare them with our opportunities and resources, and
thus to ascertain how we may do better4n the future.  But if,
as no one doubts, this is the case, the opposite influences of
kindness, encouragement and reward,  must also leave their
appropriate functions; for both the one and the other act by
contrast, and lose their force if they are unremitting. Constant
reproof or punishment is torture, but does not incite to amendment; for why improve one's performances, if one's condition
is hopeless?  If the whip is constantly used upon a horse, he
soon ceases to respond to it; he comes to regard whipping as
his normal condition of misery.  Nor does human, differ from
equine nature in this respect. Similarly, unceasing and
indiscriminate praise is flattery and tends to sloth, yet praise
has quite as important an office as reproof. Success is a very
powerful incentive; we are able to accomplish twice as much
when we feel that we are working to good purpose, as
when we are uncertain whether or not we are laboring in vain.
In a great proportion of cases, however, we have no absolute
criteria of success; either such are incompatible with the
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nature of our work, or its fruits connot be tested till years
have elapsed.  Success is then, for the time being, a matter of
opinion, and one must rely either upon his own opinion or
that of others, as to the efficacy of his efforts.  It seems to me,
however, that nothing but the crassest conceit can fail to long
in such cases, and they are the majority, for the support
afforded by the approval of others.  Since praise and blame,
or punishment, act by contrast with the bare satisfaction
implied by neither, the emphasis required in the ordinary
intercourse with either children or grown people, can be
attained in two ways.  Either we may praise when we are
pleased and be silent when we are not, or we may be silent
when we are pleased and blame when we are not; it is comparatively seldom that the full possible contrast between
praise and blame, is necessary or useful. Acrid natures tend
to the lower scale of contrast, sympathetic ones to the brighter.
With the prevailing asceticism which marred the lives of
former generations, it is to be hoped that the unnecessary
application of reproof is disappearing also. How much more
efficient id the discriminating employment of praise to children,
(and there is nothing in the passage to exclude their elders)
is admirably set forth by Ascham. He says:-" beat a Child if
he dance not well, and cherish him tho' he learn not well, ye
shall have him unwilling to go to dance, and glad to go to his
Book; knock him always when he draweth his Shaft ill, and
favour him again tho' he fault at his Book, ye shall have him
very loth to be in the Field, and very willing to go to Schole."
Children are drilled into their lessons, line upon line, and
precept upon precept. Is this the right method of developing
the powers of the mind, and if so, what powers does it develop?
Our powers, bodily or mental, are developed by action and in
no other way.  You will not grow muscular by reading a
treatise on gymnastics; all that such a treatise can do is to
help you to a rational method of working in the gymnasium.
As our schools are at present arranged, the teachers, or even
the text-books, supply the greater part of the thinking, and all
that is left to the pupils is to remember, or even to memorize,
what they are told; i. e., memory is the only one of their
faculties which receives considerable training. Memory is,
however, a faculty upon which it is very easy to lay too much
stress. The function of memory is merely to aid in furnishing
material to the reasoning powers: it is a sort of portable
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library, and not always a very convenient one. Recall, if you
can, a rule of grammar you learned at school. You will find
that it is difficult to think of the sense as you repeat the words,
and that you know the rule simply as a succession of sounds.
A very strong and retentive memory is even a hinderance under
some circumstances. It is apt to be called in as a substitute
for thought, or for research, and not seldom fails just when it
is most relied upon.  Macaulay had an astonishing memory;
it was so strong that he often felt it unnecessary to verify facts.
The result was, in a number of cases, serious errors on the
part of the historian. The intellectual vitality may, too, be drawn
upon for the development of memory to such an extent, as to
dwarf the other mental organs. A good memory is, nevertheless,
an excellent thing, though too much may readily be made of
it; but memorizing without understanding is an unmitigated
evil; memory, the servant of reason, then becomes her master.
This faculty may be amply exercised in connection with the
reasoning powers and without special tasks.
The purpose of education being to develop men and women,
capable of solving for themselves the problems presented by
life, a main object to be kept in view is, surely, to teach them
to think. But they can learn to think only by thinking. Children learn to walk, not from seeing others do so, or from being
told how; but from their own independent efforts at locomrotion. Telling children facts, or imparting to therm the ideas of
others, may incite them to thought on their own part, or it
may not. If the acquisition of information is made drudgery
to them, or if, haply, they fail to comprehend what they are told
they will meditate as little as practicable upon what they hear.
It is not a common thing to find, that what a child thinks
about out of school, is what it has learned in school. Parnassus is the highest mountain in the world and the most difficult
to ascend. Many paths lead up it, though they are hard to
find; but whoever strikes one and perseveres in the ascent,
grows mightily as he approaches the summit. For every footpound of exertion he has put forth, an equivalent amount of
power-is stored up in his own being.  But he must scale the
peak himself; it will not answer for him to be lugged up hill
on others' backs. The school-master is the guide to Parnassus;
his office is to show little feet where they must tread, lest a
young soul, bewildered among wild gorges and precipitous
passes, wander from the path, to misery and destruction. But
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it will not serve the purpose to shoulder the little one and carry him up, with flaccid muscles and giddy head; for then he
must be set down at last, to stagger with untrained powers
among far more trying surroundings, than those which beset
the earlier stages of the journey.
A proper method of education is, then,one in whichl the pupil
does his own thinking under guidance. The key-note of this
method has been struck in the Inventional Geometry written by
Herbert Spencer's father. (True fame, some one has said, is to
be known by one's children.) In this admirable book, the premises are presented in such a form, that each conclusion lies
near at hand, and can be reached without assistance by the
childish intellect. The pupil is furnished with no deinonstations, but only with questions, so arranged that he can solve
each one in its turn, as independently as Euclid did. It is
easy to sum up the advantages of teaching Geometry by such
a method. It develops the reasoning powers, for it exercises
them, and exercises them successfully.  This is not the case
with the ordinary method,for while in manyinstances,the study
of Geometry on the usual plan has been followed by a great
increase of mental resources, in many other cases it has served
only to create an abhorrence for mathematics, or an actual stultification of the mathematical side of the intellect. This shows,
that in those cases where good results have followed, they have
arisen mainly through the independent efforts of the pupil outside the limits of the text-book. It was not so much the course of
instruction, as what the course of instruction suggested to him
to do for himself, which had an improving influence.  But it
surely is not proper to rely on the mere suggestiveness of a
course of study for benefit,for it is not every mind which is capable of finding suggestions. What is learned by the inventional method is retained. This needs no proof; we are all of
us aware that we know best what we have found out by our own
efforts; nor is it necessary to prove, that geometrical demonstrations learned from books are fleeting mental possessions.
The inventional method is attractive. Child and man, we
all love the successful exercise of our powers. I have found
that even persons to whom mathematics were an abomination,
to whom a mere sum in Arithmetic was a bugbear, were fascinated with inventional geometry from the first; and not only
is it an object in itself to avoid the infliction of discomfort on
our fellow creatures, but instruction is both more rapid and,
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more effectual when it is received  with  pleasure.   The
rapidity with which geometry can be acquired by the inventional method is, finally, a point of especial weight in its favor,
in consideration of the limited time which most children  can
devote to study.
If the development of the powers of a child is the first object
in his education, it is scarcely more important than, that his
powers should, at the same time, receive a proper and useful
direction. The appropriate direction of the powers of a human
being is determined by two plain considerations, his own prosperity and a suitable regard for the rights of others. It
would seem as if a consciousness of the rights of others were
instinctive in the human mind, for their rights are plainly the
converse of our own, and every human creature is keenly alive
to what he believes to be du3 to himself. A few moments consideration, however, will make it apparent, that we may easily
be over-confident in this particular; for children and many
adults are evidently unaware of what is due to others and, by
inference, of what is due to themselves. The fact is, that the
rights of the individual correspond to the constitution of society. Untenable statements are often made on this subject.
We often hear, for instance, that every child has a right to an
elementary education. This does not mean, that every little savage in the interior of Africa ought to be instructed in writing
and arithmetic, but only, that, under our form of society, such
a right exists. Rights and duties are inseparable, and complete
one another; wherever there is a right there is a corresponding
duty, and we have a right to receive from the community, only
what will enable us to fulfil our duties towards the community.
Our rights, therefore, and conversely the rights of others, are not
inborn, or an inheritance from nature; but are dependent on
the constitution of the community. Neither are they instinctively
appreciated; on the contrary, a knowledge of them requires to
be carefully instilled.
The influence of a proper regard for the individual prosperity of the pupil on the direction of his powers, may be
inferred from what has already been said. The child's efforts
should b)e so directed as to secure to him breadth of view, an
acquaintance with the relations of the objects of thought, and
familiarity with those fundamental facts upon which human
activity is based.
A discussion which is confined to generalities, is inconse
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quent. We know causes through their effects,and principles are,
or should be, inseparable from their applications. It is proper,
therefore, to do more than criticize the methods  at present
applied to the education of children, while, at the same time,
this cannot possibly be regarded as the proper place for the
development of a completely elaborated scheme of primary
education. Such contributions as I can offer in this direction,
form neither a perfect nor a perfected plan, but may show how
it is possible to give the general facts, that have been set
forth an application to practice, which would more nearly
realize the natural order of thought; and which would, therefore,
necessarily produce better results than the system at present
in use, if put in practice with equal skill.
Let us suppose that the time which can be devoted to education by the large majority of children, extends from the fourth
to the twelfth year. The problem is how, during this period,
we can produce the maximum development of mental power,
combined with such an acquaintance with matter and mind, as
will best fit the child to take his place in the world without further
formal instruction, if need be; while, at the same time, he is fitted
to pursue his education, should he have the opportunity, and
has not sacrificed his physical health to his mental development.
Such a problem can be solved only by approximations. We
must first decide upon what we wish a child might learn; then
examine the means at our command for imparting this amount
of instruction, and the capacities he possesses for receiving it;
and, finally, modify our demnands, if they are found to exceed
our resources. If we classify the subjects and objects which
enter largely into the daily life of the members of civilized
communities, we shall find that they comprise the vernacular
language, elementary mathematics and geography, and the
principles of morals, for all alike. But this is not all; the
farmer deals in plants, soils and animals, and should, therefore
be acquainted with botany, mineralogy, chemistry and zoology; the tradesman employs mechanical forces, and the science
of physics, which is not without its importance to tile farmer
also, must therefore be added to the list.  The  recognition of
these subjects in primary education seems to me imperative,
for not only is the part they play in the affairs of the community and the life of each individual most important, but their
efficacy in promoting that breadth of view and grasp of mind,
so essential to the advantageous application of knowledge, is
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of the first order. *Further inquiry fails to detect any other
branches of knowledge of prime importance to large classes of
the community, for most of the rest are outgrowths of those
already namled.
Is there any practicable method of imparting  to a child
under twelve, any thorough, consistent, and useful knowledge
of all these branches?  Hopeless as the task at first sight
appears, it seems to me that it is possible, with even less
wear.upon the childish organism than is involved in the
present system of education, on condition that striect regard
be paid to the principles which have been explained in the
foregoing. These are, thatthe simple precedes the complex;
that observation comes before reflection; that the inventional
method is that of nature; and that the mind works to the
best advantage when it works willingly and successfully.
Let us suppose, in the first place, that the sciences be reduced to the simplest form consistent with unity of idea and
utility of application; let us take botany as an example, and
Gray's admirable "First Lessons" as the minimized science.
Now let us suppose that fifty species of plants be selected to illustrate the "First Lessons," and let them be chosen, as far as
possible, from those which are of the greatest economic use.
Let us imagine  that, the present  system of education being done away with, children from four years old onwards
are, for six years, gradually familiarized with these fifty
plants by means of object lessons and the inventional method; that is, that by carefully selected questions, they are ledcl
to find out for themselves the nature and properties of fifty
important plants, beginning with those in which the characteristic features are the plainest. This would be at the rate
of one plant in five weeks, and no one, I think, who is familiar with the keen observation which children display in regard
to natural objects, will object that the rate is excessive, or not far
within their capacities.   During  this period  no  attempt
should be made to teach any botanical system, or anything
in the nature of an abstraction, for the childish mind is not
capable of receiving it; but, at the end of six years, when
the fifty plants are fully mastered,  when every  link in the
chain is ready forged, and the mind has developed sufficiently to take in a complex idea, who can doubt that the contents of the "First Lessons" would find a ready and facile
reception in the minds of the little botanists?  The study
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of elementary  systematic  botany  would  amount,  under
such circumstances, to little more than a methodical ar rangement  of the  facts  already in  their  possession,  a
stringing together of links, and could possess no diffi culty to  children of ten.  Thus by the time the child was
eleven or twelve, he would be in possession of such a thor ough knowledge, though an elementary one, of one of the
most important of sciences, as could not but be most strength ening to his mental grasp; he would have a mass of accurate in formation, which, unextended, would be of great value to him
and hlie would be well prepared to continue his studies to good
advantage, either under instruction or by himself.
The other natural sciences can be taught in an entirely sim ilar manner. Thus, before the child reached ten years, he
might have become familiar with twenty-five mineras, those
which are of the most importance to the farmer and the miner;
he might have acquired an amount of chemistry equal to that
of botany, equal, let us say for convenience, to fifty plants,
and including a knowledge of those elements which are industrially important, with their chief compounds. An equal
and similarly directed attention might be paid to physics, and
half as much to zoology, including a knowledge of the principal useful and noxious animals of the country. This would
make, altogether, the equivalent of two hundred and twentyfive plants, or a little less than one plant for each week of the
school year, during the period suggested. I feel sure that an
an hour a day would suffice to impart this information, provided that the instruction were so adjusted as to keep the
interest of the children thoroughly alive. The systematic
knowledge of the elements of these sciences could then be imparted between the ages of ten and twelve, and the children
would leave the primary school familiar with all the ordinary
phemomena of nature, in contact with which the occupations
of their later years would bring them, and with minds most
beneficially expanded and strengthened by the process.
Let us glance for a moment, which is all that time permits,
at the remaining subjects of instruction. In mathematical
science, as in others, the simple becomes clear to the mind,
before the complex, and the concrete before the abstract. The
relations of form are, therefore, more readily understood than
those of mere  quantities, whether numbers or letters, and
solid geometry is more readily apprehended than plane. A
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child can comprehend a sphere, or a cube, long before it can
think of surfaces without thickness, and lines without breadth.
As it seems in other cases more rational to familiarize the
infant mind with special instances, before  proceeding  to
general principles, so in mathematics does it appear more advisible to commence with drawing or, better still, with modelling. The latter is the more simple, because the suppression
of the third dimension, and the projection of bodies upon-planes
at different angles, requires the exercise of considerable analytical power. Children too, like nothing better; they evince a natural love of modelling in their games; they delight in building
houses of blocks, or cards, and exercise their ingenuity in
giving moist sand various shapes with great avidity. Why
should this instinct not be applied to their education?
Why should they not be led on to reproduce forms in plastic
material in such succession, that each effort would impress
some small new fact upon their memories?  If a child were
carried through a course of modelling, followed by drawing
and geometry, all by  the inventional method,  arithmetic
would have lost for him the difficulty it now possesses for so
many children, and he would have acquired, in addition, a
large amount of valuable knowledge.
Geography is a subject which should not be attempted until
a child has a considerable familiarity with drawing and the
conventional representation of objects;  otherwise, it is vain to
expect, that in the irregularly shaped blotches on the map, he
will be able to see the features of distant countries and continents. To realize the existence of far-off lands of various char acters is, under the best of circumstances, a mental operation
of no little complexity, and should be reserved for the later
portion of a primary course. The study of geography should
begin with facts of which the child may become actually cogni sant, such as the features of the city or town in which he lives.
If you show him that this line on the map means Kearny Street,
and that square the Palace Hotel; or that this group of lines is
meant for Grizzly Peak, and that mark for Strawberry Creek,
he will much more readily accustom himself to see the Missis sippi in a crooked ink-mark, and the Alps ill a confused blur.
A command of the vernacular, or, for our purposes, of the
English language, is a power which can scarcely be overrated.
-Not only is language the vehicle of our communication with
others, but it is the medium of thought. Wve think in words,
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and when we say:-I have the idea, but cannot find words to
express it; in nine cases out of ten the factis that the idea itself
is nebulous.  Teaching children how to use their own language
fluently is, therefore, to a great extent, teaching them to think.
The course of education which has been suggested, affords the
most abundant opportunity for giving children exercise in the
clear and elegant expression of their thoughts and ideas; not
by the compulsory manufacture of compositions on virtue,
fame and kindred topics which, at least formerly, were the
depressing themes assigned for literary exercises in school, but
in the description of the objects presented to them for study.
The educational effect upon children, in thought as well as in
expression, of describing natural objects, is truly remarkable;
as I have had' opportunity to observe. It is my belief, that
reading and writing should be taught, not as separate branches
of study, but in connection with the object lessons. This view
is founded on the principle, that children should be brought
where it is possible, to feel the want of what they are to learn,
and that, instruction should not be unnecessarily disagreeable.
In connection with the object lessons, nothing would be easier
than to teach children to read and write the names  and qualities of the things they study, and thus to instruct them in the
graphic expression of ideas, as they learn their vocal expression, as fast as occasion requires. It is more in accordance
with the development of the childish intellect, that writing
should precede reading, than the reverse; for, though children
dearly love to hear stories, it is noticeable that this desire
manifests itself when they are weary, or otherwise not in
their most vigorous humor,  When they are full of vigor,
just in the mood we should seek to take advantage of for
their own improvement, they prefer expressing their own
thoughts to listening.  They  are sure  to be interested in
putting their own ideas into shape, if only in a single word,
but they feel no confidence in the interest of a reading-lesson.*
Following the written thoughts of others is a valuable intellectual exercise, but it implies a habit of attention. Children's
lessons should be so selected, that attention is unavoidable
until it has become habitual. Since, in what they had
themselves written, they would read what they thoroughly
* Prof. Sill informs me, that he has tried the method here suggested
with perfect success.
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understood, this system might also avoid the monotonous
drawl,,or the stilted inflation in  reading,  which  children
almost universally acquire, and from which grown people
are rarely able to free themselves. The systematic, but
tiresome, exercise of. copy-books, might well be post  poned to the latter portion of childhood, especially where
drawing forms a part of the earliest instruction. We do not
insist on the utmost eleganc- of phraseology in children, who
are just learning to speak; nor need we be anxious if they do
not, at first, distinguish themselves by elegance of chirography.
Throughout the period of primary education, then, a strenuous
effort should be made to cultivate a clear and forcible oral
expression of ideas, and reading and writing should be taught
thoroughly-most thoroughly; yet as a means of expressing
thought and of obtaining information, not as ends in them selves   Of course, they are not really so under our present
system, but it is hard to see how a child can avoid receiving
the impression, that they are studied for their own sake.
Grammar may well be left to the higher schools. If the system
suggested were properly carried out, children would leave the
* primary school familiar with the use of elegant English, and
with the ftlsity'of every common mistake thoroughly impressed
upon tlhem. It is needless to say, that the study of Gram mar, as now pursued, does not have this effect. Moreover,
Grammar, though one of the most valuable of stud-es, is, properly appreciated, one of the most difficult, if not absolutely the
most so.  Grammnar  is the formulation  of  the relations of
thought to, and of the influence of thought on, its expression,
throughout the past and in the present.  It is, perhaps  the
most recondite portion of phenomenal metaphysics. Its elucidation has scarcely yet begun, and its ideas are further removed beyond the reach of-he childish intellect than the perturbations of the planetary system.  Committing rules of Grammar to memory is futile, so far as the appropriate use of language is concerned, and as for memory, that can be exercised
to better advantage in other directions.
The multiplicity of the subjects of studv is no objection, prosided that they are properly co-ordinated, as parts of a consistent whole. The childish mind is not adapted to prolonged
application to a single subject, a fact which it is idle to ignore.
MNultiplication of studies may be, indeed is, in many of our
schools a crying evil, but this is because the time is so divided,
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that no study is conducted to a logical issue; and because the
studies are not so selected as to lead up to an harmonious
combination of ideas.
This imperfect sketch must serve to show how it seems to
me, that children may be trained intellectually to the utmost
extent and with the best utilitarian results, in the shortest
possible time.  Good results may be obtained under the least
natural systems by sufficiently able teachers, because in the
details of their intercourse with their pupils they will instinctively conform to nature; but this fact does not militate ag,ainst
the  advantages  of  a  natural  method.   The scheme  I
have here developed without conscious abuse of logic, or violation  of  the  fundamental  constitution  of  the  human
mind, would, I believe, if intelligently carried into effect, produce boys and girls not yet quite past childhood,
with more and more thorough information, and more developed intelligences, than the graduates of many  a college can
boast; and this result could be attained by three hours daily
schooling from the fifth to the thirteenth year, a period which
every child should be compelled to devote to his education.
The enormous beneficial effect which such an additional diffusion of intelligence would produce upon the community is both
self-evident and incalculable.
If we turn to the moral side of education, instruction in the
relations of. man to his fellow, and ask whether improvement
is needed in this direction also, the answer must be unhesitatingly affirmative; but when we come to ask, how can it be accomplished, a reply is not so evident. That intellectual education may be without beneficial moral effects is sometimes
asserted and is partially true. It is, indeed, indubitable that
there are fewer crimes committed among the educated classes
in proportion to their numbers, than among the uneducated;
but they are also subject to fewer temptations to crime, from
the facts that they are, as a rule, better placed financially and
have a greater socialstake.  Yet this removal of temptation
and the creation of those restraints, are largely due to the
effects of education, which is, therefore, at least indirectly,
moral in its tendency. The influence of early training upon
the morality of mankind cannot be questioned for a moment;
but the inculcation of morality is complicated to such an extent
by the fact, that the moral education of a child is quite as
much a matter of home, as of school training, that no scheme
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has the same opportunity for a fair trial, as is the case with
those which may be suggested for the intellectual cultivation
of the mind.  It is, perhaps, all thle more important that such
points as can be made clear, should receive mention.
The childish mind eagerly enquires after the connection between cause and effect, and, if the relation be not too complex, thoroughly appreciates it. This curiosity should be taken
advantage of in the moral training of children, as Spencer
has shown, by teaching them the immutability of natural laws,
and the inevitable consequences of  their transgression.  As
far as possible, the same relation should be established between moral laws and their infringement.   In other words,
the penalties for transgression should be natural and comprehensible penalties, and neither be, nor seem arbitrary.  "Do
it, because I tell you to," is the most ill-advised phrase of the
home or the school-room. It may mean to the teacher or parent; "I have no time to explain," or "you cannot understand."
The words mean, and the child understands them to mean;
"you are in my power, and must yield to my will."  A few
minutes or hours later the child, obedient, not from conviction,
but to superior strength, will be seein ordering about a
smaller playmate and enforcing its wishes by; "do it or I'll
]hit you." Or circumstances so change that the peremptory
guardian, or his interests, come into the child's power; perhaps the preserve closet is left open. The tables are then
turned and the child followsits inclinations; "because I choose;
and in doing so he is only practicing the lesson he has been
taught.  "Do it because I tell you to," is, therefore, positively
immoral in its tendency, for itsubstitutes the momentary force
of a human will for the lasting pressure of moral principle.
Peremptory command may be, and sometimes is, unavoidable;
but there can be no doubt, that it is employad far more frequently than occasion calls for. The restraining power of reason is both higher and more lasting than that of fear. If peremptory command were made the sole guide of the child, the
man would act morally only when he w.ts afra;d of the penalty of
transgression. But we want to educate men of principle, not
cowards. The relation of guardian and ward is Jess trying on
both sides when the child is made to understand, as far as it
can, why it should not have its own way, and the phrase, "I
think you had better," is quite as effectual as, "do so and so,"
with a child who has reason to trust the motives of his adviser.
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In short, as much as possible of the weight of guidance should
be borne by reason, and as little as may be by mere authority.
'hat authority, however, should be as inflexible as the law of
gravitation. There is nothing in this conclusion to weaken
the control of parents or teachers over children; on the contra ry, the more that control is founded on conviction, instead of
fear, the more complete and permanent will it be; admonitions
will then not be deliberately neglected when the guardian's
back is turned, but will be heeded, both after school and in
after life.*
Many  duties can be made  clear to children, if they can
be brought to understand the mutual relations of members of
society. If, for example, it is explained to a child, what would
happen to him and to those he is interested in, were nobody
to tell the truth; he will be much less likely to lie, than if he
be left to suppose, that there were no important consequences
beyond punishment attaching to falsehood.   Many children
exhibit a distressirng tendency to theft, which may develop
into irradicable dishonesty, while in many cases it is a tem porary qvil. Some.of the best of men have robbed orchlards
in their youth and seem none the worse for it now; but it is
not possible, at the time this vice first displays itself, to be
certain that it will pass away and, even if its temporary character were assured, it would still be both an annoyance and
,a disgrace.  Parents often wonder how their children can be so
perverse as to steal, and not only to steal, but absolutely to
find an additional zest in their ill-gotten gains. The reason
seems to me a very simple one; namely, that they have no
comprehension of the nature of property.  The things they
call their own, come to them as gifts, and they are allowed to
treat much of the possessions of their parents as if they had an
owner's claim to it.  They are entirely unfamiliar with the
sense of ownership which attaches itself to property acquired
by labor. The farmer's dog, his angry servants and himself
are to the child, therefore, so many dragons, guarding the
apples of the Hesperides, and to circumvent them is, to him,
an heroic feat. Were they wild beasts and natural obstacles,
* Since the above was in the printer's hands, I have come upon a
passage in one of Mr. W. T. Harris's admirable papers on education, in
which the same conclusions, reached in a very different way, are expressed
in almost identical terms.  I gladly shift the responsibility to his stronger
shoulders.
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and had the fruit no owner, no one would be surprised
that the difficulties of acquirement should heighten the children's relish.  It is natural that boys should enjoy the fish
they catch.  If they were to poach  them, that fact would not
interfere with their enjoyment, unless they comprehended
the  nature  of  property.  This,  however,   children can
easily be brought to understand, and with it many lessons in
the principles of honesty, sure to be  needed in after life.
This can be accomplished simply by encouraging them to
produce property themselves.  If a boy is taught to make his
own tops on a lathe, or to raise a few vegetables by his own
labor, and for his own benefit, or otherwise is put in the way
of enjoying the fruits of his own industry; he can easily be
brought to see the sacredness of property and the necessity,
on mutual grounds, of honesty.
I cannot see why an inventional ethics might not be written
for children, as well as an inventional geometry.  A child's
sense of justice is keen, if it is rude; children have quite a
code of honor among themselves, and an accusation of
want of fairness in their games, is a great reproach among
them.  Is there n'ot here raw material, out of which a skilful
moralist could show the little hands how to fashion a lovely
image of Goodness, to which they might ever turn for inspiration, and with which they might compare every picture that
should arise in their imaginations? Then Evil would grow
repulsive, and love of Virtue would keep them in sight of her
image, whither, else, the hard blows of Experience must drive
them.
There is another side to education, nearly allied to the foregoing, the religious; but upon this subjectopinions differ so
radically, so hopelessly, that any general discussion of it
would be fruitless.  It is a branch of instruction which, for
the present, must be left to individual parental judgment.
If what has been said expresses the truth, however ill, there
are radical faults in the present methods of primary instruction. Children, whose parents cannot afford them the time
and the pecuniary help for an extended education, do not receive the benefit they might from the labors of the past generations; the State is not populated with as intelligent and useful citizens as might be furnished it; nor are they as eager to
improve their resources, or as able to do so, as they would be,
had they acquired what they know under a better system; and
Awni
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a large amount of the nervous force of children is unproductively consumed in avoidable restraint and annoyance, which,
under other circumstances, might inure to their own benefit and
to that of the community. I can conceive of no object more
noble than the improvement of primary education. Successful efforts in this direction would act upon the welfare of society through every one of its members, and would, therefore,
produce the maximum conceivable effect. No such prosperity,
or rate of progress, has ever been seen, as a community truly
well educated would realize. I do not offer the scheme I have
discussed as the best that might be devised, but only as one
which approximates to harmony with the inflexible laws of
nature. I shall be more than satisfied, if it serves to excite in
other minds reflections on the wasted possibilities of infant
education.
TEACHERS.
No side of education has attracted more, or more natural
comment. than the qualification of teachers. The best conceivable plan must self-evidently be a failure, if the attempt is
made to carry it into effect through incompetent instructors.
But positions in the schools of this country are notoriously
occupied, to an enormous extent, by persons who have no
claims to be regarded as capable instructors, or even as professional teachers at all. There was a time in our history,
when all that could be asked was, that every intelligent man
should turn his hand to whatever work, which was in any
measure within his capacities, lay near; for only on these conditions was it possible, that the essential needs of the community should be supplied at all. The time has past, however, when, unless young men and women took charge of
schools while studying their professions, or awaiting the moment at which they should assume the duties of domestic life,
there was danger that the children of the community would
grow up totally illiterate. The population has become
sufficiently dense, and society is sufficiently organized, to render permanancy of occupation practicable and desirable.
Moreover, knowledge and the science of teaching have so developed, that the methods of instruction, which could be
applied with some degree of efficiency by persons who turned
to the occupation only as a resource, are antiquated. It is
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not unnatural that the former conditions of this profession
should continue to exercise much influence on its present state,
but in the interest of the community, these effects must be
done away with as rapidly as possible. A very large portion
of mankind is constantly engaged, under the enormously powerful incentive of self-interest, in efforts to develop and
improve the applications of knowledge, in every department
of human exertion involving pecuniary gain. Another part,
small in numbers, but including much of the best intellectual
force of the world, is equally eager, under the influence of ambition and other notives, in the pursuit of pure science.  The
combined result is the astonishing progress which is the pride
of our age. Education being a preparation for active life, its
methods also must constantly be improved, if it is to keep
its appropriate position in the social scheme. The same
acquirements which sufficed for a teacher of fifty years since,
no more answer for his successor of to-day, than those of a
mechanical engineer of half a century ago, would serve for a
machine constructor of the present time.  The human mind,
indeed, has not changed; neither have have the properties of
force and matter, but the product in demand in both cases
has altered.
We have seen, that from whatever direction we approach the
subject of education, we come to the conclusion, that its purpose is to develop the faculties for productive and progressive
exercise. What is essential in the person to whose care this
development is intrusted? Plainly, hlie must possess certain
mental resources and the ability to impart them.  Conformably to the uses to which his resources are to be put, he must be
master of the subjects in which he is to give instruction, otherwise he will not be able to set his pupils on the level of the
times, so that they may begin life to advantage; and he must
himself be progressive and at least measureably productive,
otherwise he will be unable to inspire the youth committed to
to his charge with the spirit of civilization. A pupil looks to
to his teacher not only for knowledge, but for the methods of
employing knowledge; what he needs is not merely facts and
ideas,' but the inspiration which will set his own powers of
mind at work, and enable him to use his knowledge. Knowledge is not a mere curiosity, to be acquired simply, as children say, "to have;" it is the machinery by which the power
of mind is transformed into motion, in order that it may be
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brought to bear for a thousand useful purposes. A machinist
who were to display an intimate acquaintance with the details of steam-engines, but who knew nothing of steam, its
production or its application, would be good for nothing, or
only for the most subordinate positions, in a machine shop.
A teacher who is familiar with knowledge, but who does not
know how to excite the mental power of his pupils and set
their knowledge in productive action, is equally incompetent.
Unless he has more than a mere acquaintance with facts and
ideas, unless he is a thinker, who can handle facts and ideas
independently and effectually, he cannot communicate the
power of doing so to others; he cannot fit them  to take their
places as progressively productive members of society.
The demand here made, that a teacher should be not only a
learned man but an independent thinker, does not differ essentially from what we require of other professional men. If one
needs the services of a lawyer, he does not ask his friends; who
is the most erudite jurist of your acquaintance, who has the most
precise knowledge of the statute-books and of the decisions of
the courts; but, who is the ablest lawyer you know, who shows
the greatest acumen in the application of the principles of the
law to the attainment of specific results?  A man who is unable to effect fresh combinations of principles and instances,
and devise new paths through the mazes of legislation to justice, must become mere clerk to some one who is more able,
or retire from the profession altogether.
A different view of this subject has often been taken. Under some systems, originality has been discouraged, teachers
have been required only to familiarize themselves with a prescribed set of text books, and have been regarded as the almost
passive instruments, through which a certain quantity of information was to be transmitted to young people. But except
a man be born with the fire of genius burning in him, he
will not become productive and progressive, until his
enthusiasm and his power have been kindled by some
spirit in which these forces are in full action. If it be
left to chance to develop independent mental activity
in children, many fine minds will be wasted and few will ever
be able to take their places among the efficient workers in the
cause of civilization. This factory-like system of instruction
has never worked well as compared with the other.  Rather
than definitely commit ourselves to it, it would be far better
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to return to the plan our grandfathers practised. If the many
great men of this country, who taught school in their youth,
were far from being up to the standard of the pedagogic
science of to-day, they were still further removed from the
merely mechanical and perfunctory school masters, who  teach
if it may be called so, only by comparing the recitatations of
children with the open text book. One might as well try to
warm one's self at the reflection of a fire in a looking-glass, as
to kindle one's enthusiasm at the desk of such a pedagogue.
Such might be called, to change the figure, stencil-plate
school masters, through whom the noble halls of the human intellect are frescoed with representations, such as they are, of
the grand spirits of Science, Art, Progress and Industry, who
hover over the destinies of man; but what can such mechanical daubs conceivably have in common with the inspiring and ennobling paintings, that grow under the brush of a
true artist?
That a teacher must have the faculty of presenting his
thoughts clearly, and in an interesting form; that he must be
able to see in the faces of his pupils when their interest flags,
and when they fail to comprehend; that he must have tact to
to enable him to keep order; and that, above all, his character
mnst be such as to command respect, is so plain as only to
need statement.
To insure the intellectual competence of inexperienced
teachers, no way has been found practicable, except to examine
them, unless they have given evidence to the world, in the
shape of original investigations, that they possess the necessary qualifications. As the quality of the examinations determines that of the body of teachers, too much care is plainly
impossible in devising the tests to which candidates must submit. A few general principles may be laid down on this subject, but more will depend on the ability and care of the
examiners than upon any rules.
The education which candidates have received, is of great
weight in determining their competence; for unless this has
been methodical and intelligent, there is danger that the
mind of the would-be teacher will be ill-balanced, however
brilliant it may be   A thorough education, too, is less likely
to be supplemented by "cram" than a bad one.  The number
of branches in which a teacher should be licensed to teach,
ought to be limited as far as possible. In high schools, no
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teacher should give class instruction in more than two, and
those cognate, branches, such as Latin and Greek, or chem istry and physics. It is still better, where practicable, to
limit each teacher to a single branch; for he is proportionately
likely to be inspiring and thorough. In p)rimary and country
schools it is not practicable closely to limit the number of
subjects to be taught by a single teacher, but in any case he
should be obliged to select one branch, in which his profic iency will bear severe tests. The scheme which has been de veloped in these lectures for primary education, includes the
elements of a number of sciences. No man can be proficient
in them all; but each candidate, besides evincing an amount
of knowledge of them severally, considerably in excess of what
he is called upon to impart, should be compelled to show, that in
some one of them he is sufficiently at home to add to knowl edge, as well as to communicate it. This would give assurance that the candidate was not a stranger to the spirit of
knowledge and allow scope for his individual bias of mind.
This latter point is one, the importance of which varies directly
with the intelligence of the teacher. A stencil-plate schoolmaster can follow one routine as well as another; not so a
truly thoughtful teacher. If his soul is in his work, his execution of it must be bound up with his individuality, and his
methods must, to some extent, be adjusted to it, if his results
are to be the best he is capable of.
That the specialization involved in the selection of one
most prominent line of thought, has inherent inconveniences,
is undeniable. There cannot but be a tendency on the part
of a botanist, to give to botany greater weight than it deserves
as compared with physics; but the fact of his possession of the
trained intelligence implied in his being a botanist, will tend
to keep him from any great error in this regard, and, at the
worst, it is better that botany should receive too much attention of the right kind, than that no subject should be understandingly approached.
Examinations should include theses, prepared at his leisure by
the candidate on subjects connected with the main branch he selects; for it is quite as important to know what a man can do
with that assistance, without which no sane person would attempt an important task, as to discover what stores of memory
he possesses, with which to supply an instant need. A doctor,
lawyer or engineer needs a ready wit and a good memory;,
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but we surely think none the worse of any of them for owning
a library and consulting it as often as he can draw assistance
from it. The trouble with an incompetent man is not,
that he cannot get along without books, but that he cannot
do himself credit with their assistance.
Oral and written examinations ought similarly to be directed
rather towards testing the candidate's grasp of subjects than
his mere information.
The examination of candidates should be confided to the
most competent men the State contains. I would suggest a
commission, consisting of two professors of the University,
two school-masters of the best reputation, two laymen and the
State Superintendent of Public Instruction. This body
should conduct all examinations of teachers, prescribe regulations for school examinations, and have a general oversight
of them. It should be appointed for a long term of years,
and be moderately recompensed.
Not only the knowledge, but the practical ability as well,
of a teacher needs to be tested. Candidates who pass successful examinations,  should receive only  conditional  certificates until they have taught a probational year under the
eye of an experienced school master, and shown those qualities of character essential to the successful inculcation of
knowledge. A real apprenticeship, whether that name be
applied to it or not, is essential in the profession of teaching,
as well as in every other.
In order to maintain a high standard among teachers, it is
indispensible, that the occupation of teaching should be made
at least as attractive as other professions involving the same
preparation and ability. Freedom from arbitrary dismissal;
a gradual increase of remuneration to correspond with
increased efficiency; and a well regulated system of promotions
based on merit, are the means at our command to accomplish
this end. The additional expense need not be very great, for
the salaries should be raised at the upper end of the scale.
-Men will work cheerfully for a low salary, if faithfulness and
success  are at last rewarded by greater compensation.  A
false system prevails, in the matter of salaries in this country.
A raw clerk or assistant, entering a manufacturing establishment will receive, say seventy-five dollars a month. The superintendent, who has had twenty years active experience, upon
-whom rests a vast responsibility, often receives no more than
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four times as much; when his value and importance are at
least a dozen times that of the stripling. This is all wiong.
It induces men competent for superintendents' positions to
set up for themselves or leave the business, if they are honest;
or to steal if they are weak. The system prevails nowhere
else and should be abolished, first of all, in our schools.
Such reforms as I have suggested, cannot be carried out in
a moment It must be years, at best, before we can gather a
truly competent body of school teachers. All the more necessary is it, that the appropriate changes should be begun without delay. An intelligent plan should be worked out and
confided to men, whose ability and faithfulness is unquestionable. There it should be left, free from those perturbations which so constantly jar the machinery of state, rendering
much of it totally unfit for fine work. Some increase of
expense must be endured. It is our boast that American civilization rests upon the pillars of universal education. They
must be strengthened; or what will become of the superstructure?
THE HIGHER SCHOOLS.
Of the secondary schools, intermediate between the university
and professional schools and the primary, I have nothing to
say. We have already seen, that history, political economy
and the natural sciences should take prominent places in the
course of instruction of secondary schools, with a view to producing broad-minded citizens and intelligent voters. Were the
primary schools established on the basis I have proposed, much
of what is now unavoidably studied in college, would take its
proper place in the high schools, to the great advantage of
both. Instruction in the secondary schools should be so
adjusted, as far as possible, as to give a thorough preparation
for the true university and, at the same time, to be complete
in itself; that is, the courses should be so arranged, that boys
and girls who were compelled to break off their school-life,
would not be in possession of a mere fragmentary education,
but of one which, while elementary, would be consistent and
thorough. If, however, the two ends of the educational system
are in line, little difficulty will be found in adjusting the intermediate portion.
The function of the highest schools of the educational sys-I
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tem, is to furnish those who need it with thorough and systematic instruction, embodying the profoundest knowledge to
which men have attained, in such branches of learning as are
related to the several pursuits and professions of life. These
schools, which are called universities, technical and technological schools, professional schools, and other names, stand in
the most delicate relations, on the one hand to the learning of
the day, and on the other to the pursuits and professions involving them.  They must stand in the most intimate connection with, indeed they must be identified with the profoundest
learning; else they cannot act as the medium, through which
the results of the laborious inquiries after truth, undertaken
for the benefit of mankind, are to be made familiar to the rising
generation of those who will give them material effect. So,
too, must they stand in the closest relations to the various callings upon which the several branches of learning bear, in order
that these may be most effectually brought to bear upon those.
In this respect, there is a radical difference between the lower
and the highest schools. The lower schools are compelled to
confine themselves to the well defined and thoroughly established rudiments of learning. The university must take notice
of and use, as best it can, the heterogeneous and half-understood discoveries which are made from day to day. The lower
school can only aim to give its pupil's mind a broad and
healthy tendency, and to impart some well systematized rudimentary knowledge; the university must furnish a special and
detailed training, calculated, with the needful supplements, to
make a broad-minded man, and thoroughly proficient member
of some calling.
The necessity for maintaining a close and systematic connection between the most advanced knowledge, which is at first
the property of a few scattered investigators, and the applications of knowledge, which are universal and unceasing, is evident. To assert the opposite, would be to declare, that the
results of thought and research have no beneficial influence on
the affairs of men; an absurdity which could be honestly defended only by the most pitiable ignorance. Comparatively
few men, after entering upon the active practice of their professions, have much time to devote to reading; and that little
will be unsystematic and of small benefit, unless they have in
their youth acquired a habit of earnest study, and unless a respect for truth, as such, has been instilled into them. A great part
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of their actual knowledge, and almost the whole of their ability
to apply new discoveries as they are brought to light, depends
upon their having acquired, during their student years, a
hearty sympathy with the spirit of fundamental research. Were
there no schools of learning, in its highest sense, the increase
of human knowledge, and the application to the welfare of
mankind of the additions made, would be left to hap-hazard,
and to the feeble and desultory efforts of self-taught individuals. The world would not progress; it would not be able
even to maintain its present state of civilization, but would
sink rapidly back towards the dark ages.
It is safe to say, that the inferior journalists and the demagogues who rail against the higher education and ridicule
profound learning, do not pass an hour of their lives without
employing conveniences essential to their comfort, to their
welfare and to their daily bread, which have come into existence by the help of the most recondite branches of human
thought. The clothes which cover them have been bleached
and dyed by processes which owe their origin to Scheele, Hofmann anl to their fellow "theorists"; the chairs they sit in
have been manufactured by machinery brought to its present
state of perfection by the intricate experiments of great physicists, the results of which could be discussed only by the
assistance of differential calculus; the pens they write with
involve in their production a whole cycle of sciences from geology to mathematics; on paper, which science has put within
their reach, with ink that could not have been  made had not
Lavoisier and Dalton labored for the cause of truth, they write,
that science, learning, and instruction in them, or the higher
education, are frauds; and they set their tirades opposite dispatches, which only the researches of Franklin and others into
the most obscure of sciences, have made possible. They
assert, that the children of the community,  who  are no  less
dependent than themselves upon the results of the unselfish
labors of men of learning, should be taught only to make a
living, or to regard their heads as mere appendages of their
stomachs. They use the means learning has furnished them,
to obtain a few ill-gotten dollars by betraying the love of
knowledge which has induced their readers toi learn to read,
with the flattering insinuation, that what those for whom they
write do not know, is not worth the knowing. Shame on the
ungrateful cowards! But learning advances in estimation and
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in importance in spite of malice. These libellous attacks serve
to impede the progress of civilization and the growing welfare
of the community, but not to stop them.  It is no longer possible to starve a man of science to death, as the immortal Norwvegian, Abel, was starved half a century ago. Men who are
successful in increasing the blessings of humanity, through
their additions to knowledge, are already paid about as well as
clerks in dry-goods shops; and the time is not far distant when
the most enviable position in the world will be that of an original thinker.
The adaptation of the instruction in universities to the requirements of the day, has always been one of the most serious of educational problems; and from the close connection of
these schools with the most rapidly changing departments of
knowledge and application, must always remain so. It is well
known what a struggle it cost to overthrow the supremacy of
scholastic metaphysics in the universities of a couple of centuries since, and to substitute the more fruitful studies of language, literature and exact science. Nor has it cost less of an
effort, in some cases in recent times, to force modern science
upon the time-honored routine. In providing for this essential adaptation, we have a number of influences to consider.
Educational experiments are dangerous. It must never be
forgotten, that the results of a change in the plan of education
are not manifest at the moment, nor is their full effect perceptible within a short'time. It is not until the youths who have
constituted the material for experiment, have come to
exercise their full influence upon affairs, fifteen or twenty
years after leaving college, that the entire benefit or injury of
the alterations is apparent. Caution in making changes is,
therefore, imperative. The demands made from the outside
for alterations in university courses are of great importance
and should always receive candid consideration, yet many of
them are spurious or captious. It is not seldom the case,
that criticism of university affairs comes from men who have a
scarcely perceptible acquaintance with university matters, or
with those branches of learning which form the substance of
university instruction. There are also attacks growing out of
insufficient thought, those incited by interested motives, etc.;
but many suggestions are intelligent, and none are too contemptible to be carefully considered. On the other hand it
must be borne in mind, that teachers, like other men, tend to
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conservatism in their own profession. Changes in well-established habits cannot be made, even when their expediency is
recognized, without an effort more or less painful.
The only reliances a university, or any similar system, can
have for deciding upon the modifications which the  progress
of humanity renders desirable, are accurate information and
common sense. The latter, while it should pervade every department, should be especially embodied in the executive.
The most successful rulers of countries, whether possessing
genius or not, have been remarkable for their energetic and
fearless manifestations of this quality; and it is as essential in
the president of a university as in the president of the United
States.  The only guarantee attainable that the administration
of a university is accurately informed as to what is desirable
and what is possible, in the way of imuproving the adaptation
of available knowledge to its professional application, is that
each branch should be represented in the faculty by a man
identified with the most advanced type of his own profession.
Botanists like Gray, engineers like Holley, farmers like Johnson, and.philologists like Whitney, may  make mistakes  and
would be the last to claim immunity from error, or to slight
counsel; but we may safely give them the credit of understanding, as well as any men alive, what are the resources of knowledge, what are the needs of their professions, and what considerations pointing towards changes in the subjects or the methods of instruction are decisive. They may err, but at worst
their errors will be in the letter; in the spirit, which is of far
more consequence, they are as true as the compass.  Most
naturalists now consider that some of Agassiz' zoological theolies were incorrect. That, however, had no deleterious influence upon the marvellous power of his instruction; witness
the crowd of distinguished naturalists whom his master spirit
ins)ired.
It is sometimes said, that a distinguished investigator may
b       e a        poor instructor,  a nd that an efficient instructor may be
incapable of original work. This seems to me more than doubtful. Of the many famous original thinkers with whom I have
come in contact, only two have had the reputation of poor instructors. In th        e       one c ase I can testify, that the trouble was in
the students who, brought up under a vicious system, wanted
all their work done for them. In the other, if the lecture-room
instruction left something to be desired, the teachings of the lab
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oratory more than made up for the deficiency. On the other hand
I have seen reason for thinking, that the instruction of men who
gave no signs of capacity to add to knowledge, was of a dead
and profitless kind, nearly as fruitless as artificial flowers; nor
can I recollect any historical instances which would tend to an
opposite conclusion. Any one may convince himself, by examining the history of schools of the highest learning, that those
institutions which have included in their faculties the greatest
number of original thinkers, have graduated a greater number
of eminently useful members of society and have  given more
general satisfaction than any others.
It is men who make Universities, not names; it is Dana
and W. D. Whitney, Johnson, Marsh and their colleagues who
make the name of Yale great; it is Gray, Pierce, Gibbs, BrownSequard and others who give Harvard distinction; and it is
men intellectually worthy of meeting these on an equal footing, who make any institution of learning a pride and an efficient instrument in promoting the culture and welfare of all
classes of the community.
As a mere guarantee, then, that the faculty of a school of
the highest grade is competent to give the highest grade of instruction, it should be encouraged and required to produce
investigations. Nor would original researches serve only this,
but the equally important object of adding to knowledge.
These additions too, would be not only of general, but of local
benefit as well, for a great portion of the investigations made,
would inevitably be into matters of local importance as well
as of universal interest. Every such school should have a
certain, not necessarily large, amount of funds disposable for
such purposes; and each of them should publish the papers
produced by its members, not to the exclusion of their publication elsewhere, as its contributions to  knowledge.  Then,
instead of idly discussing the superiority of this or that university over others, we should'be able to turn to the best evidence
they could give of their worth, and of the probability that
their pupils will become thoroughly useful members of
society.
Let us approach the subject of professional education from
another side.  What is it that earnest students want of schools
of the highest grade? As a matter of course they want to gain
every assistance in the preparation for active life, which the
recorded experience of the world can afford them,  This is the
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simple secret of the fact, that institutions which are successful are constantly raising their requirements for graduation
and, as a necessary consequence, for admission as well; for
instruction in professional schools cannot extend over an indefinite period. Young men of energy and ability do
not like to end their studies with the conciousness, that they
have acquired only half or three quarters of the knowledge
which would have been useful to them. Why should they
be compelled to begin life only partially provided with the
results of experience, and be forced to work out for themselves
the valuable conclusions which have been already reached by
others, or get along without them? It is neither pleasant nor
reasonable to reply that they must shift for themselves, for it
is the very function of the highest schools to supply the most
perfect training, and one man thoroughly well trained is worth
several who are but half educated. The pressure exerted by
students to induce better and higher instruction, can be
avoided only by giving them all there is to give, or by deluding them into the belief that they are getting all, when this is
not the case. The latter course is both dishonest and fatal to
the usefulness of such instruction as is given. Nor are teachers, if they be worthy representatives of their various branches
of learning, less anxious to offer their pupils the full advantage of accumulated experience, than are students ready to demand it. Hence the standard of an efficient professional school
must constantly rise; and there are instances, in which famous
technical schools, founded with a view of admitting students
possessed of no greater acquirements than reading and writing,
now demand for entrance an education equivalent to our best
academical college courses. If, however, students are to
receive the full benefit of the labors'of other men, they must
not begrudge their time.  Improvements in the methods of
instruction and able generalizations in art and science, will do
much towards economizing time, but they cannot keep pace
with the advance of knowledge; nor will true education bear
procrustean abbreviation.
A professional school which insists on remaining on a low
plane, may possibly be successful in attracting students, but
they will be of that spurious kind, who desire the reputation
of having had an education, without the trouble of acquiring
it. Such schools are only one step above that Philadelphia corporation which, without a student, has been
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for years advertising all over the world, degrees for sale.
The same natural, proper and laudable desire on the part of
the students to make the most of what the accumulated experience of mankind offers in furtherance of their professional
ability, stands in the way of the success of schools, which
include among their features compulsory uninstructive labor.
If the instruction has a spark of inspiration, if the least love
for, or comprehension of  knowledge is communicated  to
students, they will necessarily begrudge the time and force
they are compelled to take from the pursuits, for which a professional school gives special facilities, and to devote to objects
which can be pursued at least as well elsewhere. The advocates of this plan commonly support it by the utterly untenable
assumption, contradicted by science, common sense and
experience, that m1en can do just as much brain-work besides
manual labor as without.  As a matter of fact, there is only a
certain amount of nervous force in each of us, and if a portion
of it be spent in physical labor, it is so much taken from the ability to labor intellectually.  Some men have worked by day with
their hands and studied by night, till they acquired a profound
education; but for one man who has had the constitution to
succeed in this attempt, scores have broken down, and have
wrecked themselves, both bodily and mentally in the effort.
It is also said to be necessary for technological students
to work with their hands under compulsion, in order
that they may not acquire an undue abhorrence of, or a
contempt for manual labor. Of this there is no danger under
any reasonable system of technical education. Indeed, if our
methods of instruction were so ineffectual, that so simple a
lesson as this could not be inculcated in less than, say six
hours a week for four years, we had better cease the attempt
to educate at all.
Compulsion is in itself an evil in education, as has already
been shown. Most of all is it so, in what professes to be the
highest education. If young men in the last stages of their
preparation for independent, active life, cannot be trusted to
follow advice and to exercise some judgment as to their own
best interests, what hope is there, that on graduation, they
will suddenly develop the ability of self-guidance? All
restraint, beyond what is essential to the maintainance of
decency and order, only tends to defeat the purposes of education and should be avoided, at least with students who are
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4
no longer boys. If no scope is left to individual talents, tastes
and capacities, the abler students will be hampered in their
progress, the dull pushed beyond their strength, and annoy ance and disgust will be excited in all.  The common sense
remedy is to make the requirements for graduation rigid, and
to allow students to cover the requisite ground as rapidly as
they can, wise counsel assisting the direction of their powers.
They will be better students and better men, than under the
operation of a rigid and unnatural classification.
This is hardly the place to enter upon the merits of individual institutions, but it may be flatly stated, that compulsory,
uninstructive manual labor, as a feature of professional schools,
has not proved a success anywhere, whether the success be
tested by the admissions of its advocates, or by the influence
these institutions have had upon the industries of the districts
they were intended to benefit.  The labor question is one of
perpetually recurring difficulty in their administration; their
graduates are rather less, than more, apt to remain in the occupations for which they were trained,than those of other schools;
and they do not distinguish themselves as promoters of the interests of their callings. The only schools where the pupils are
at the same time manual laborers, which have been successful,
either are, or amount to evening schools for workmen. These
are a great good and blessing, and they help many an energetic
man to rise to a master's place. But to infer that, because these
schools aid men obliged to labor for their bread, to greater
efficiency and prosperity, in spite of the disadvantages under
which they lie,-to maintain that therefore, these conditions
should be reproduced in professional schools, is an absurdity.
So in England, a few years since, the only opportunity for a
vast proportion of children to learn to read was in the Sunday
schools, which were, therefore, even from a merely secular
standpoint, highly beneficial and met with much success.
Shall we, on that account, upset our common-school system
and confine ourselves to Sunday schools?  The well-intended
attempts made in connection with the compulsory labor plan,
systematically to furnish students with remunerative labor, that
they might support themselves while they were gaining an education, have utterly broken down. When there is work to be
done, of course students may have preference over others, but
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ships and the like, than to agree regularly to furnish them
with work for wages.
To what extent labor designed to be instructive should be
introduced into technical education, has been much discussed
of late.  There are few persons connected with technological
pursuits, who will not maintain, that it is essential for every
young technologist, to have experience as a workman in the
branch he may select as his pursuit in life. A mere acquaintance with books is quite insufficient to make a farmer, engineer or technical chemist. It is indispensable that each of them
should familiarize himself with the details of construction and
manipulation, by which known principles are applied, or as
yet unknown priilciples are empirically allowed for. The only
subject of discussion is, therefore, how and at what period
this familiarity with concrete instances should be gained.
Some hold that applications, as they are met in industrial
establishments or enterprises, should be studied and carried
out contemporaneously with class-room instruction; and some
that one should precede the other, or that they should alternate
with one another. The question is thus one of detail, to be
settled only by calm consideration of possibilities and ways
and means.
Those who hold that the two species of instruction are
inseparable say, that as the purpose of teaching those branches
of learning which  are related to technology, is to put the
principles taught in practice; the more a technological student
practices what he learns, the better. Hence practice, in the
shape of iron-forging, pattern-making, ploughing and other
practical occupations, should form a part of the school curriculum. There is a fallacy in this argument, however, depending
as is so commonly the case, on the ambiguity of a word, in
this instance, practice. This word may mean either actual and
repeated performance, for the purpose of acquiring dexterity;
or it may signify what may be defined as, application for the
purpose of financial profit. This ambiguity has misled many
earnest minds. To restate the argument then; the object of
the teachings of professional schools is clearly, that the pupils
may subsequently give the principles taught application to
business purposes, to the conduct of factories, farms, etc.
The more students actually apply their knowledge, as we all
agree, the better; whether to impress principles upon their
minds or to gain familiarity with those details which books
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cannot teach. The conclusion drawn is, that the commercial
application of the principles taught to smith-work, farming
and so on, should form a part of the curriculum. But this
could manifestly be done only in shops or on farms conducted,
like other shops and farms, for profit and with small regard to
instruction, for otherwise the commercial element would be
absent.   No  one proposes, however, that the professional
schools should go into business. Were they to do so, they
would cease to be schools with shops, and become shops with
apprentices.  If the shops and farms of a schqol are not to be
conducted on the basis of financial profit (and this they cannot
be), then they must carefully avoid giving a false impression
in this respect, else they will deserve the name of "toy shops,"
which has been contemptuously applied to them. But an epi thet is not the worst consequence which will ensue, if an error is
committed in this respect. The pupils will carry away the im pression, that they have learned the commercial applications
of principles, instead of the truth which is, that they have
familiarized themselves with concrete instances of principles.
They will, therefore, have a set of ideas to unlearn, instead of
one to learn; but learning is notoriously far easier than un learning, and the result is consequently a loss, instead of a
gain to the young men.
The difficulties and dangers here mentioned are great in
proportion as the commercial element enters into the ordinary
exercise of the profession considered. While, for instance,
an analytical chemist has not a little to learn besides what he
gets in any university laboratory, his subsequent professional
labors are of approximately the same character as his studies,
because the price of his re-agents and apparatus scarcely forms
a consideration in determining his methods of executing analyses. An engineer, on the other hand, has to pay at least as
much attention to expense as to principle. If he makes a
drawing for a casting, he has to consider not only the purpose,
and the best possible form the iron can have to fulfil that
purpose, but the difficulties of the pattern-maker and the
founder in realizing it; and he has to adjust the proportion of
the redundancy of the  material to the economy of labor,
according to the end in view, the price of iron and the wages
of his men. The judgment needful in this simplest case he
can acquire only when all the conditions are present, that is,
in a shop running for profit; and he can advance to the more
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complex problems of his profession only by degrees. Work
in a commercial establishment, a sort of apprenticeship, is
therefore indispensable.
To shorten, simplify and facilitate the acquisition of the
complex judgment required in technological pursuits, is a
matter of the utmost importance. This can be done in two
ways; by familiarizing the students at the schools with as
many of the facts they will afterwards come in contact with,
as is practicable, but without any illusions as to the uncom mercial            character of t heir collocation, and by providing  oppor tunities for them to study industrial enterprises to the best
advantage; i.e., without the uninstructive drudgery, in which
regular apprentices spend the larger part of their time. The
first way is the laboratory method. This is already represented
by the chemical and assay laboratories, by practical exercises
in the determination of minerals, rocks and plants, and by
t    h     e      construction of drawings for machine elements.   I shall
be glad to see it extended as far as it can be without seeming
to do more than is possible. Prof. Runkle seems to me to
h      av e    made an         advance in his adaptation of the so-called Rus sian method which, in its original form, attempts enough to de f eat            itself. The other  means at our command for facilitating
the education of thoroughly competent technologists is to
make arrangements, formal or informal, with the many en lightened men who are in charge of industrial enterprises, to
permit students, during their vacations and for some consider able period before receiving professional degrees, to work at
their establishments, under their general supervision and at a
succession of employments suitably arranged. A satisfactory
certificate from a farmer or superintendent; accompanied by a
thesis on the occupations pursued, would be good evidence of
well spent time. I have ample reason to feel confident, that
no difficulty would be experienced, in finding such opportunities
for as many technological students as the University of California has, or for several times the number. Well behaved
young men are not in the way either in a shop or on a farm.
They lighten the labors of the men, and bring new ideas with
them, which excite interest and which are sometimes of sub stantial benefit. In recommending it I may add that essentially
the               same plan, more or less systematized, has been  tried
elsewhere with perfectly satisfactory results. To give pro fes sional  degrees before a    large amount of practical experi                              308
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ence has been acquired, something like one year passed in the
zealous study of instructive surroundings, is an abuse of
which the public has the best right to complain.   It is one
which the University of California has no intention of perpetrating. No man is an engineer or a farmer before he has familiarized himself with the commercial or economic exercise of his profession, and he has no right to the title.
It is worthy of note that in any profession whatever, either
public opinion or etiquette enforces a probational period equivalent to an apprenticeship. Graduates of law schools are compelled by law in some states, and by the sentiment of the profession in others, to pass a certain amount of time as clerks
or students in the office of some practising lawyer, and graduates of medical schools must walk the hospitals or act as assistants to older men, before the public will place confidence
in them.  If even in those professions which can be most completely taught in schools, an additional apprenticeship is
requisite, how much more ought this to be the case in technical pursuits, where all the conditions are subordinated to
financial considerations?
I might adduce almost unlimited authority in support of the
ground I have taken on this subject, but a single reference
must suffice.  In the summer of 1876, there assembled for the
purpose of discussing the subject of technical education, perhaps the most competent body of men which ever gave it serious consideration; a joint convention of the American Society
of Civil Eigineers and the American Institute of Mining Engineers. It included the greater part of the most celebrated
technologists of this country, and several of the best-known
European engineers.  There were men there, for whom  education had done all that education can do, and men who had
forced their way to distinction, through all the obstacles which
lie between success and the utterly uninstructed: there were
men whose books are authority the world over, and men whose
deeds will make them remembered, but whose sentences would
not bear printing; there were teachers and practitioners; in
short, there were representatives of every phase of engineering. This body of workers, heterogeneous in some respects,
but inspired in common with the spirit of true technology,
came unanimously to the conclusion, that technologists, to
become truly efficient, should receive both theoretical training,
the best that can be given, and practice in the commercial
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application of the theory of engineering. Out of the whole
body, however, there were but two or three who entertained a
hope, that the commercial instinct, the ability to adapt princi ples, which are eternal, to changing local circumstances, so as
to result in financial profit, could be acquired anywhere but in
shops, working under the stimulus and check of daily balances
The convention also, without a dissenting voice, and with many
an emphatically assenting one, declared, mark the word, that
it was of the utmost advantage to an engineer, to begin life with
a truly liberal education, not a mere pot-boiling preparation
for life, but a liberal education in the sense in which the term
has always been understood.
But we are sometimes told that the lands, granted by Congress in 1862, for the support of State Universities, were
given for the very purpose of making the experiment, of combining instruction in principles and in their application to
financial gain; an experiment which I have been compelled to
regard as necessarily futile. Is this the fact? The Morrill
Bill grants certain lands for the support of Colleges "where
the leading object shall be... to teach such branches of
learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts."
What, then, is to be taught, according to this declaration,
under the facilities granted by the  Morrill Bill?  Tres?
No. Agriculture and the mechanic arts? No; but such
branches of learning as are related to them. The term, branches
of learning, is one which is well understood, and which has
been used for centuries in a definite sense. The Bill refers to
botany, chemistry, physics and other well defined fields or
branches of human thought, the principles of which find application in industrial pursuits. Had it been the design of the
mover of the resolution to use the phrase in a new sense, to
refer, not to what had been hitherto understood under the
term, "branches of learning," but to those complex applications of the most various branches, which we designate, as
"agriculture" and the industrial or " mechanic" arts, he
would have written;-" those branches of learning which  constitute agriculture and the mechanic arts." Even were it proper to regard agriculture and the mechanic arts as branches of
learning, those branches which are related to them, would necessarily mean something not identical with them, but only
bearing upon them, as the physical sciences, and economic
science as well, bear upon farming, or mining, or metal-work
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ing, or any other of the arts which are "mechanical" as distinguished from the "fine arts." That there might be no mistake
as to the purpose of the bill, to found institutions for the
inculcation of branches of learning, as the world understands
the term, it is also expressly declared, that the object of the
Instruction shall be, to promote not only the practical, but the
liberal education of the people; and liberal even stands before
practical. Thus, far from forcing a particular plan of instruction upon the colleges founded under it, the Morrill Bill leaves
the utmost liberty to those, to whose charge its gifts are committed, to use their judgment as to the means,  by which the
cause of technological education can best be promoted, in view
of the various needs incident to different localities and times.
This explanation of the provisions of the bill is not new.
Not only are its provisions as clear as is compatible with concise language, but well known writers have more than once
laid stress upon the points which I have mentioned. Yet it is
not out of place to recall them, for they are sometimes strangely
forgotten. The Morrill bill was intended, to call into being
institutions which should serve to communicate to all who would
take them, the utmost resources for advancing the well-being
of the community, which the united labors of the whole body
of thinkers and experimenters of past and present generations have accumulated-institutions which should serve to
support and re-invigorate our common-school system, and give
new life to every department of technology.  It was not
intended that private enterprise, should be supplanted in the
communication of those details of manipulation, which are
essentially matters of private interest; but to establish direct
connection with the fountain-heads of knowledge, without
constantly renewed supplies from which, education and industry must flag.
Questions relating to education are frequently discussed
with a warmth, a partisan spirit and a pride of opinion, which
are             most prejudicial t o their correct solution.  The point at
issue  is not whether one person or another is right; but how
the interests of the community and of humanity can best be
promoted; a point which we can afford to consider impartially,
since our conclusions will affect our children rather than
ourselves. This cannot be ascertained by the exercise of
impassioned eloquence, orby ingenuity of argument, but only by
simple, unadorned discussions of fact such as I have tried to pre                             311
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sent. Let me then urge all those who have an influence upon
our educational system, to take a sober and comprehensive
view of this important subject; to consider not only details,
but the general relations of education to progress; for onesided opinions can only tend to divert us from the true path.
Yet one-sided opinions are almost the rule. There are some
who would have us mere dreamers, spending our lives in speculating on the future; some mere book-worms, spending all
our forces on what was accomplished before we were born;
and there are many who would have us live the life of the
beasts, careless of past and future, and anxious only for daily
bread. But none of these understand man's business on earth.
It is his distinction, that the past is his tool, the present his
material, and the future the result of his labors.
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