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EDUCATION, AS IT IS AND AS IT SHOULD BE. 



" Phrenology is a science, without which the attempt at education must 

 ever be totally futile and unsuccessful, and its pretence nothing more than a 

 bitter satire upon human ignorance, folly, and presumption." — Toulmin 

 Smith. 



It would be difficult to point out a subject of greater interest to 

 the philanthropist than education ; and, whether considered as a 

 duty or a pleasure, it is a subject which should occupy the foremost 

 place in the thoughts of every one who looks forward with delight 

 to the improveraent of his species. It is a subject, however, which 

 has hitherto been left to a degree of neglect proportionate to its 

 merits ; and although appeals have, during the last few years, been 

 made to the public, these have been like a voice in the wilderness, 

 and there has been little apparent progress in forwarding the cause. 

 However, I consider it to be the duty of every one to apply himself 

 to the removal of the errors which compose that curious system 

 usually called a liberal education ; and, accordingly, I now propose 

 to lay before the reader a sketch of the way in Avhich education 

 might be conducted with a certainty of successful results, and with 

 equal pleasure to teacher and pupil. This has been done many 

 times by men of note ; but by various means the required impres- 

 sion has not been made ; the books of Locke, Kames, and Pesta- 

 lozzi, lie on the shelf: they are praised by the tongue, but are for- 

 gotten in practice. This has, no doubt, in some measure, been 

 owing to the want of some system by which the truth of their pre- 

 cepts might not only be enforced, but also demonslrated. 1, accord- 

 ingly, shall now draw an outline of " education as it should be ;" 

 and as my principal object is to enforce the ideas I shall pro- 

 mulgate, I shall in every case, where practicable, convey these in 

 the words of some great author ; for I know that the organ of Ve- 

 neration is usually at least as active as Causality: and I have fre- 

 quently observed, with pain, that an idea which is scouted when 

 propounded in plain terms by an humble individual, will elicit ap- 

 plause and gain assent when dressed in elegant or eloquent phrases, 

 and backed by some great authority. So much more active are the 

 feelings than the reflective powers in the generality of mankind ! 



