EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 57 



erer, and has to receive a great deal with mere passive acquiescence, be- 

 fore venturing to suggest any improvements. Unreasoning blind faith 

 is indispensable in beginning any art or science ; the pupil has to lay 

 up a stock of notions before having any materials for discovery or 

 orio-ination. There is a right moment for relaxing this attitude, and 

 assuming the exercise of independence ; but it has scarcely arrived while 

 the schoolmaster is still at work. Even in the higher walks of univer- 

 sity teaching, independence is premature, unless in some exceptional 

 minds, and the attempt to proceed upon it, and to invite the free criti- 

 cism of pupils, does not appear ever to have been very fruitful.* 



Plat of the Emotions op Fine Art. — This is necessarily a wide 

 subject, but for our purpose a few select points will be enough. The 

 proper and principal end of art is enjoyment ; now, whatever is able to 

 contribute on the great scale to our pleasure, is a power over all that 

 we do. The bearings on education are to be seen. 



The art-emotions are seldom looked upon as a mere source of en- 

 joyment. They are apt to be regarded in preference as a moral power, 

 and an aid to education at every point. Nevertheless, we should com- 

 mence with recognizing in them a means of pleasure as such, a pure 

 hedonic factor, in which capacity they are a final end. Their function 

 in intellectual education is the function of all pleasure when not too 

 great, namely, to cheer, refresh, and encourage us in our work. 



There are certain general effects of art that come in well at the 

 very beginning. Such are symmetry, order, rhythm, and simple design 

 and proportion ; which are the adjuncts of the school, just as they 

 should be the adjuncts of home-life. Proportion, simple design, a cer- 

 tain amount of color, are the suitable elements of the school interior; 

 to which are added tidiness, neatness, and arrangement, among the 

 pupils themselves ; only this must not be worrying and oppressive. 



In the exercise suited to infants, time and rhythm are largely em- 

 ployed. 



Of all the fine arts, the most available, universal, and influential, is 

 music. This is perhaps the most unexceptionable as well as the cheapest 

 of human pleasures. It has been seized upon with avidity by the human 



* It would lead us too far, although it might not be uninstnictive, to reflect upon the 

 evil side of this fondness for giving a new and self-suggested cast to all received knowledge. 

 It introduces change for the mere sake of change, and never lets well alone. It multiplies 

 variations of form and phraseology for expressing the same facts, and so renders all sub- 

 jects more perplexed than they need be ; not to speak of controverting what is estab- 

 lished, because it is established, and allowing nothing ever to settle. Owing to a dread 

 of the feverish love of change, certain works that have accidentally received an ascen- 

 dency, such as the " Elements " of Euclid, are retained notwithstanding their imperfections. 

 The acquiescent multitude of minds regard this as a less evil than letting loose the men 

 of action and revolution to vie with each other in distracting alterations, while there is 

 no judicial power to hold the balance. It is a received maxim in the tactics of legislation 

 that no scheme, however well matured, can pass a popular body without amendment ; it 

 is not in collective human nature to accept anything simpUciter, without having a finger 

 i& the pie. 



