i 3 4 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



anduly stimulating the sensorium at the expense of the intelligence* 

 In the former case, general obtuseness is the result ; and, in the latter 

 subjugation of the reasoning powers to the sensations or emotions. 

 We are entitled to think these conditions strictly artificial ; and to look 

 upon them as distortions, analogous, in some respects, to the physical 

 distortions of Hindoo fakirism. 



The educational influence which, more than any other, is concerned 

 in producing them, appears to us to be due to confusion of thought on 

 the subject of those very distinct realities called knowledge and wis- 

 dom. While the prevailing weaknesses of the human mind those 

 apparent to the philosopher, and those also which are manifest to the 

 vulgar are alike due to want of wisdom, the efforts of ordinary in- 

 structors and the general current of the events of life are chiefly valued 

 as they appear calculated to impart knowledge. It is not surprising 

 that such should be the case, a great impulse having been given to 

 education in this country at a time when the operations of the mind 

 were not sufficiently understood to allow of a just discrimination 

 between them. 



Moreover, learning was a thing apparent and undeniable, easily 

 perceptible to many who were unable to fathom its depths ; while 

 wisdom could only be recognized by the kindred wise, or in a fruition 

 not always directly traceable to its causes. Hence, and in a manner 

 not difficult to comprehend, arose a general impression that the 

 acquisition of knowledge was the principal, or even the only, means of 

 gaining wisdom ; and this impression was confirmed by experience of 

 the fact that mental development is frequently coincident with efforts 

 to learn. The exact relation between the two is not easy to define, 

 even with all the aid afforded by recent advances in psychology ; but, 

 in former times, it was the opinion of the most advanced educationists, 

 that a certain routine of teaching afforded the best discipline for the 

 growing brain, and that this routine, when aided by good abilities, 

 was certain to produce the highest attainable results so that men of 

 moderate or inferior performance, who had received " a good educa- 

 tion," were considered to be the failures of Nature, and not of the precep- 

 tor. The hypothesis was most comfortable, serving to shift responsibility 

 from tutors and professors, and to place it where it was borne without 

 a murmur, while the necessary interval between the schools and life 

 was sufficient to render obscure any possible connection between bad 

 teaching and eventual stupidity. 



During the universal prevalence of such principles as these, com- 

 menced a movement which was formerly described as " the march of 

 intellect," but which was, more correctly, a march of schooling. Men 

 of various calibre, and various degrees of learning, were cordially 

 united in an attempt to elevate the masses by education. For this 

 purpose they organized a scheme by which to pour forth knowledge 

 like water, and, in carrying it into practice, they spared neither age 



