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EDUCATION. 



We are not about to enter upon this subject with the limited view 

 of any party, sect, or individual, but to consider the receptivity of the 

 human being, and the present scientific powers of society to educate, 

 or administer knowledge. That the human being is born without 

 knowledge, without innate ideas, and that every thing of an intel- 

 lectual kind is referrible to the senses, is an axiom resting not only upon 

 . the authority of John Locke, but has its higher authority in the sacred 

 scriptures, where the leading exhortations, with the conditional pro- 

 mises of future good, are to get knowledge and to act wisely, which is 

 distinguished in the New Testament^ as a second birth, moral birth, 

 or birth of mind, from first or physical birth, birth of body. The first 

 care required for the human being is that of the parent; the second, 

 beyond what parent might be capable of giving, is that of the society 

 of which the new individual has to become a member. Education, 

 then, is clearly, first, the business of the parent, and finally, beyond 

 what parent may be| capable of doing, the duty and business of so- 

 ciety. 



^Ve have first to consider what is the extent of the receptivity of 

 the human being; and what is the power of society to educate. 



The receptivity is limited in part by the variety of organization, 

 by the state of health, by capacity for, or attachment to, an acquaint- 

 ance with some arts and sciences in preference to others, and limited 

 in general only by the period of human life. Still, with regard to 

 temporal capacity to acquire knowledge, the receptivity of the human 

 beinop may be delared unlimited. As there will ever remain something 

 to be added, so the capacity to receive the addition is the property of 

 life in health. In the pursuit, acquisition, and extension of know- 

 ledge there is always something that may be done by every indivi- 

 dual member of society, and, consequently, in a larger degree by 

 society in its aggregate. The pursuit of knowledge and the crea- 

 tion of every facility by which it may be assisted and forwarded con- 

 stitute, then, the rationale of the individual human being and of so- 

 ciety. 



The power of society to educate will be always greater than the 

 power of any individual, because it can concentrate a union of energy 

 for that purpose and form facilities or institutions beyond the power 

 of individual creation. A well-ordered community will become as 

 one family, with one interest, and with united energy to accomplish 

 every necessary and possible purpose for the increasing welfare of 

 each and of all. 



Z Society then, as well as individuals, has its duty ; and the moral 

 responsibility of individuals can exist only in the ratio in which so- 

 ciety perforins that duly. It is the duty of society, with its aggre- 

 gate powers of legislation and government, to provide for, command, 

 and enforce the fullest possible education of each of itn members. 



