1854J WRITINGS OP JOSEPH HENRY. 325 



THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION. 



INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE BEFORE THE AMERICAN ASSOCIA- 

 TION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION.* 



(From the American Journal of Education, 1855, vol. i, pp. 17-31.) 

 Delivered December 27, 1854. 



No subject of human thought has perhaps received more 

 attention than that of education. Every one has the material 

 for speculating in regard to it in his own experience ; but 

 individual experience is too limited a basis on which to 

 found a general theory of instruction, and besides this, (para- 

 doxical as it may appear,) an individual is perhaps less able 

 to judge correctl}^ of the effects of the course of instruction 

 to which he has been subjected than another person. No 

 one can tell what he would have been under a different 

 course of training, and the very process which he condemns 

 may perhaps have been the one best suited to develop the 

 peculiarities of mind which have led to his success in life ; 

 and indeed in some very rare instances the want of all training 

 of a systematic kind may be the best condition under Prov- 

 idence for producing an entirely original character. Shake- 

 speare's genius might have been shackled by the scholastic 

 curriculum of Oxford or Cambridge: but these cases are 

 extremely rare, for genius itself, like the blossoms of the 

 aloe, is the solitary production of a century. 



I bring forward my own views on education with diffi- 

 dence. First, because I have read scarcely any thing on the 

 subject, and what I shall say may be considered common- 

 place; secondly, because my views may in some respects be 

 at variance with what are regarded as the established prin- 

 ciples of the day. But important truths cannot be too often 

 presented, and when re-produced by different minds under 

 different circumstances they can scarcely fail to awaken new 



* [Introductory Address delivered by the retiring President of the Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Education, at its Fourth Annual Session, 

 held at Washington, D. C., in December, 1854.] 



