EDUCATION, AS IT IS AND AS IT SHOULD BE. "JS 



is a point generally as much misunderstood as the last. The manner 

 chiefly relates to the education of the propensities and sentiments, of 

 which there are twenty-two ; we now come to the treatment of the 

 remaining organs — the intellectual — of which there are eighteen. 

 These are the organs by which we acquire knowledge, about the va- 

 lue of which there can be little doubt, one should think, at the present 

 day. 



Knowledge is the most valuable acquisition within the reach of 

 man ; it is an acquisition never barren, but ever useful and pleasant. 

 Man's superiority over the rest of the animal creation consists chiefly 

 in his greater capacity for acquiring knowledge ; and we see that, 

 among those nations who have made little or no progress in know- 

 ledge, so far from man being lord over the brutes, the brutes are 

 lord over man ; and likewise that the happiness of these nations is as 

 scanty as their power. We frequently hear of modern nations being 

 stronger, and more intelligent and happy, than those which preceded 

 them ; and if we examine the cause of this we shall uniformly find 

 that it consists in the comparative ignorance of former nations. The 

 most celebrated of the ancient nations knew little or nothing of As- 

 tronomy, Chemistry, Natural History, Natural Philosophy, Geogra- 

 phy, Physiology, or Anthropology, and their unhappiness and dis- 

 union was in proportion to their ignorance. Thus we may safely 

 adopt the assertion of Socrates, the greatest philosopher of antiquity, 

 ■when he says " There is only one good thing, which is knowledge, 

 and only one evil thing, which is ignorance." 



Having thus decided on the importance of knowledge, the question 

 arises. How are we to set about its acquisition ? Are we to take up 

 the first subject which presents itself, and proceed without rule and 

 without deliberation, as whim or fancy may suggest ? No, certainly 

 not, and for two reasons : 1st. The life of man is short, and his ca- 

 pacity limited ; and 2nd. As it is thus impossible that he can have 

 time or ability for acquiring a knowledge of all that the Creator has 

 placed within his view, it is of the utmost importance that he should 

 direct his attention to the most useful, which, at the same time, will 

 almost always be found to be the most interesting. It is sometimes 

 said that a man should know everything ; but there never yet lived 

 the man who knew everything, nor will such a man ever exist. The 

 Creator alone knows everything ; and the more a man knows the 

 nearer he approaches his Creator. The widest range of knowledge 

 which the most talented of the human race can attain is, compared to 

 what remains to be known, as a drop from the ocean. 



VOL. VII., NO. XXI. K 



