340 WRITINGS OF JOSEPH HENRY, [1854 



a liberal education, and this may be spread over the whole 

 course of instruction, for like the reasoning faculties the 

 imagination may continue to be improved until late in life. 



From the foregoing remarks it will be evident that I con- 

 sider the great object of intellectual education to be, not 

 only to teach the pupil how to think, but how to act and to 

 do, and I place great stress upon the early education of the 

 habits. And this kind of training may be extended beyond 

 the mental processes to the moral principles; the pupil may 

 be taught on all occasions habitually and promptly, almost 

 without thought, to act properly in any case that may occur, 

 and this in the practical duties of life is of the highest im- 

 portance. We are frequently required to act from the 

 impulse of the moment, and have no time to deduce our 

 course from the moral principles of the act. An individual 

 can be educated to a strict regard for truth, to deeds of 

 courage in rescuing others from danger, to acts of benev- 

 olence, of generosity, and justice; or on the other hand, 

 though his mind may be well stored with moral precepts, 

 he may be allowed to fall into opposite habits alike preju- 

 dicial to himself and to those with whom he is associated. 

 He may " know the right, and yet the wrong pursue." 



Man is the creature of habit; it is to him more than 

 second nature; but unfortunately, while bad habits are ac- 

 quired with readiness, on account of the natural desire to 

 gratify our passions and appetites, good habits can only be 

 acquired by unremitting watchfulness and labor. The com- 

 bined habits of individuals form the habits of a nation, and 

 these can only be moulded, as I have before said, by the 

 coercive labor of the instructor judiciously applied. 



The necessity of early and judicious moral training is 

 often referred to, but its importance is scarcely sufficiently 

 appreciated. The future character of a child, and that of 

 the man also, is in most cases formed, probably, before the 

 age of seven years. Previously to this time impressions 

 have been made which shall survive amid all the vicissi- 

 tudes of life — amid all the influences to which the indi- 

 vidual may be subjected, and which will outcrop, as it were, 



