364 Oh the Utility of Early Elementary Instruction 



commercial cities, and even among the middle classes including 

 the inns and hotels. Even in the towns of inferior consequence, 

 it has been remarked that the silversmiths, the watchmakers, 

 and the je\vellers, have increased greatly in their numbers, and 

 have found the demand for their goods keep at least equal pace 

 with the increase of their population.— ^a<?o5.y' Historical Inquiry 

 into the precious Metals, Vol, II, 



^On the Utility of Early Elementary Instruction in the Natural 



Sciences. 



By many, it has been long and anxiously wished that the study 

 of the Natural Sciences were rendered more subservient to the 

 every day concerns of life, and also a means of illustrating, not 

 only the existence, but likewise the attributes, of the Great 

 Creator. 



The system of education of youth so long pursued in the 

 public seminaries of this and other countries, is now generally 

 admitted to be very defective, and to have had baneful effects 

 upon society at large. The time and attention of the earlier 

 period of life have been wholly engrossed with the languages 

 and manners of people who lived many centuries ago, and whose 

 customs are exhibited by the writers of those times as the pat- 

 tern of honour and virtue. These languages, however, are of 

 little or no utihty to nine- tenths of those who are compelled to 

 study them ; and the customs^ with very few exceptions, must 

 now appear, to every enlightened and well constituted mind, 

 brutal and barbarous in the extreme. Hence the ignorance, 

 in regard to the practical concerns of their own times, which so 

 generally exists among even the better educated classes of so- 

 ciety ; and hence also the imperfect state of our religious and 

 moral institutions ; and, consequently, much of the immorality 

 and disease which now prevail. 



It is not at present intended to trace the causes of any par- 

 ticular class of evils, but merely to state our decided conviction, 

 that a great change is required in the general system of edu- 

 cation. Towards this object much has lately been done, not only 

 abroad but also in this country : words only are no longer 

 taught in many of our schools, but likewise ideas ; and these are 



