116 LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS. [vi. 



What is the purpose of primary intellectual educa- 

 tion ? I apprehend that its first object is to train the 

 young in the use of those tools wherewith men extract 

 knowledge from the ever-shifting succession of pheno- 

 mena which pass before their eyes ; and that its second 

 object is to inform them of the fundamental laws which 

 have been found by experience to govern the course of 

 things, so that they may not be turned out into the 

 world naked, defenceless, and a prey to the events they 

 might control. 



A boy is taught to read his own and other languages, 

 in order that he may have access to infinitely wider 

 stores of knowledge than could ever be opened to him 

 by oral intercourse with his fellow men ; he learns to 

 write, that his means of communication with the rest of 

 mankind may be indefinitely enlarged, and that he may 

 record and store up the knowledge he acquires. He 

 is taught elementary mathematics, that he may under- 

 stand all those relations of number and form, upon 

 which the transactions of men, associated in complicated 

 societies, are built, and that he may have some practice 

 in deductive reasoning. 



All these operations of reading, writing, and ciphering, 

 are intellectual tools, whose use should, before all things, 

 be learned, and learned thoroughly ; so that the youth 

 may be enabled to make his life that which it ought to 

 be, a continual progress in learning and in wisdom. 



But, in addition, primary education endeavours to fit 

 a boy out with a certain equipment of positive know- 

 ledge. He is taught the great laws of morality; the 

 religion of his sect ; so much history and geography as 

 will tell him where the great countries of the world 

 are, what they are, and how they have become what 

 they are. 



Without doubt all these are most fitting and ex- 



