EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 307 



wholly distinct fact from the prime supports of existence and the pleas- 

 ures of the five senses, and is not, in my opinion, resolvable into those, 

 however deeply we may analyze it, or however far back we may trace 

 the historical evolution of the mind. Nevertheless, as the supports of 

 life, and the pure sense agreeables and exemptions, come to us in great 

 part through the medium of fellow-beings, the value of the social re- 

 gards receives from this cause an enormous augmentation, and, in the 

 total, counts for one paramount object of human solicitude. It would 

 appear strange if this motive could ever be overlooked by the educator, 

 or by any one ; yet there are theories and methods that treat it as of 

 inferior account. 



The vast aggregate of social feeling is made up of the intenser ele- 

 ments of sexual and parental love, and the select attachments in the 

 way of friendship, together with the more diffused sentiments toward 

 the masses of human beings. The motive power of the feelings in edu- 

 cation may be well exemplified in the intense examples ; we can see in 

 these both the merits and defects of the social stimulus. The " Phse- 

 drus " of Plato is a remarkable ideal picture of the study of philosophy 

 prompted by Eros, in the Grecian form of attachment. The ordinary 

 love of the sexes, in our time, does not furnish many instances of the 

 mutual striving after high culture; it may be left out of account in the 

 theory of early education. We frequently find mothers applying to 

 studies that they feel no personal attraction for, in order to assist in 

 the progress of their children. This is much better than nothing ; a 

 secondary end may be the initiation and discovery of a taste that at 

 last is self-subsisting. 



The intense emotions, from the very fact of their intensity, are un- 

 suited to the promptings of severe culture. The hardest studious work, 

 the laying of foundations, should be over, before the flame of sexual 

 and parental passion is kindled ; when this is at its height the intellect- 

 ual power is in abeyance, or else diverted from its regular course. The 

 mutual influence of two lovers is not educative for want of the proper 

 conditions. No doubt considerable efforts are inspired; but there is 

 seldom sufficient elevation of view on the one side, or sufficient adapta- 

 bility on the other, to make the mutual influence what Plato and the 

 romancists conceive as possible. By very different and inferior com- 

 pliances on both sides, the feeling maybe kept alive ; if more is wanted, 

 it dies away. 



The favorable conjunction for study and mental culture in general 

 is friendship between two, or a small number, each naturally smitten 

 with the love of knowledge for its own sake, and basing their attach- 

 ment on that circumstance. A certain amount of mutual liking in 

 other respects perfects the relationship ; but the overpowering sensuous 

 regards of the Platonic couple do not furnish the requisite soil for high 

 culture. As a matter of fact, those attachments, as they existed in 

 Greece, prompted to signal instances of self-devotion in the form of 



