1854] WRITINGS OF JOSEPH HENRY. 339 



The order of nature is that of art before science, the entire 

 concrete first, and the entire abstract last. These two ex- 

 tremes should run gradually into each other, the course of 

 instruction becoming more and more logical as the pupil 

 advances in years. 



Thus far we have principally considered only the educa- 

 tion of the habits and the memory, and it is particularly to 

 these that the old system of drilling is peculiarly applicable. 

 I know that this custom has, to a considerable degree, fallen 

 into disuse, and the new and less laborious system of early 

 precocious development been substituted in its stead. In 

 this respect the art of instruction among us has retrograded 

 rather than advanced, and "Young America," though a very 

 sprightly boy may fail to become a very profound man ! 



I would not however by the foregoing remarks have it in- 

 ferred that the reasoning faculties of the child should not 

 receive due attention, and that clear conceptions of the prin- 

 ciple of every process taught should not be elucidated and 

 explained, as far as he is able to understand them; but that 

 the habits and the memory should be the main objects of 

 attention during the early years of the pupils' course. The 

 error of the old system consisted in continuing the drilling 

 period too long, and in not shading it off gradually into that 

 of the logical, or what might be called the period of the 

 acquisition and use of general principles. 



The last part of mental education as given in our classi- 

 fication is that which relates to the cultivation of the judg- 

 ment and the reasoning powers. These faculties of the mind, 

 as we have repeatedly said, are latest in arriving at maturity, 

 and indeed they may be strengthened continually and im- 

 proved progressively through a long life, provided they have 

 been properly directed and instructed in youth and early 

 manhood. 



They should be exercised in the study of mathematical 

 analysis and synthesis; in deducing particular facts in a 

 logical form from general principles ; and instructed in the 

 process of discovering new truths. The cultivation of the 

 imagination should also be considered an essential part of 



