4 ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 



That ignorance itself must be removed. The human being, to be 

 educated, must be understood in all the parts of his constitution, 

 and his education — which is but another term for the improvement 

 of that constitution — will follow in the necessary relation of cause 

 and consequence. A correct physiology of body, and a true analysis 

 of mind, must then be the very basis of a sound system of educa- 

 tion. The first has been wellnigh attained, but the analyses of 

 mind with which we have been presented by various and conflicting 

 metaphysical systems are clearly inadequate to the desired end. 

 These have all mistaken the modes in which the mind acts, for the 

 faculties, the operations, and the powers of mind. Thus altention, 

 perception^ conception, consciousness , &c., were long taught as fa- 

 culties, while they were terms for the mere working of faculties. 

 To other and more fortunate philosophers it occurred to go in quest 

 oi powers to manifest attention, perception, conception, &c. They 

 found these powers in the practical philosophy of every-day life — 

 in the pages of the biographer, the novelist, the dramatist, and the 

 poet ; and observed that such writers owe their popularity to the 

 just and true pictures of human nature which the adoption of these 

 very impulses and faculties, as belonging to man, gave to their 

 works. The same philosophers have connected these faculties 

 with the physiology of the brain. Educationists, however, without 

 inquiring into the truth of this alliance, have adopted the facul- 

 ties themselves, and have thereby thrown a degree of light on the 

 subject of education — ^have given it a system and a practical appli- 

 cation, which have made it, compared with what it was, even in 

 the best period of the older philosophy, another, a better, and a 

 higher thing. 



The teacher ought intimately to know and handle this new 

 and powerful implement — this sound philosophy of human nature. 

 He should never lose sight of the physical, animal, moral and intel- 

 lectual nature of his pupil. He should have a competent know- 

 ledge of the structure and functions of the various parts of his body, 

 so as to know how to train its powers and increase their vigour, as 

 a condition of health and longevity. He should enumerate and 

 know the uses of his animal tendencies, as well as their abuses — 

 vice and crime. He should be familiar with the nature and func- 

 tions of his moral feelings, and have reliance on the influence of 

 their right guidance to human happiness. Finally, he should know 

 and distinguish all the intellectual powers, both for the acquisition 

 and use of knowledge. The body is divided into parts or systems ; 

 namely, the system of the bones, the muscles, the blood-vessels. 



