S'l'AI K Ilf^in Kl'l.'l rUAI. SOCIETY'. J.^J* 



thai he seemed lo liiiu.-,cir li> I'c hul u ( hild gathering a few pebbles 

 on tlie shore of tlie ocean. 



Now all this diversity of knowledge, so far as it can not be applied 

 directly to our own business, may be said to be unpractical; and yet the 

 possession of it is what makes the difference between the ignorant day- 

 laborer and the mai\ of ( ulture and intelligence. Its utility is not spe- 

 cial but general. It opcMMles l)\ stimulating and enlarging, — in a word 

 educating the mind, and thus filling it the belter to coi)e with the 

 complicated questions of life, whether of the individual or of the state. 

 An ancient king of Sjxirta, when asked what is the best education 

 for a child, replied, " That which he will have to practise when he becomes 

 a man." We sometimes hear this saying quoted as if it solved the whole 

 difhculty, and left nothing more lo be saicl. Hut I fear we shall not be 

 able to dispose of this vexed and comjilicated (piestion by any such 

 short cut, or by any single comprehensi\e ajihorism. If the old philos- 

 opher meant to say that the most urgent and the most necessary educa- 

 tion, is that which will enable a man to become an expert in that trade 

 or calling by which he is to get his living, no one will dispute its truth. 

 But if he intended to say that this is all that a man needs to know, 

 or all that it is desirable to know, his dehnition was very contracted and 

 utisatist'actory. 



1 thmk we can get a clearer view of this disputed matter of educi- 

 tion by classifying it. Education may be described as being of three 

 kinds, essenfial, special, and general. Essential education, is that which 

 evcrv one puts in practice in the affairs of civilized life. Special educa- 

 tion is instruction in the particular business, trade, or profession which 

 ai^y one may select whereby to get a livelihood. And general education 

 embraces the acquisition of all the knowledge that is not included in the 

 other two. 



Essential education, nr that which every man in business absolute- 

 ly needs, is extremely little. It is limited to knowing how to read, write, 

 and cipher so far as to include the four elementary rules of arithmetic, 

 with a smattering of vulgar fractions; as special education, or instruction 

 in anv particular trade or profession, does not come within the limits of 

 a common-school education, it follows that all such education beyond 

 the above meager catalogue, will under the head of general education, 

 and we can all form some idea what judgment and far-seeing wisdom it 

 must re(|uire, to make the selection from this wide and diversified field. 

 In doing this, there appear to me to be two opposite errors, against whidi 

 we must guard. 



In the first place we .must not occupy the time of the scholar with 

 studies which are very remote from that class of pursuits which he will 

 be most likely to follow, or that position in society, which he will be 

 most likely to occupy; especially if, at the same time, they are studies a 

 tolerable knowledge of which it will require much time to obtain. Both of 

 these objections apply very forcibly to the study of Latin and Greek 

 languages in common schools. A knowledge of these languages is of 



