98 FURTHER THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION. 
of impulsion can be only estimated by the effects which it produces. 
In infancy, we find the mind’s manifestations few and feeble ; in 
mature life, its full activity is developed ; while in old age it again 
loses vigour, and finally appears to be exhausted. May not the in- 
definable, unappreciable principle of mind be the same in all these 
cases; and may not the difference of exhibition proceed from the 
increasing and decreasing efficiency of the corporeal organs to obey 
its promptings? Death can obscure, but it cannot extinguish, the 
light of immortality ; and though the medium may be removed 
through which the radiations of mind were made apparent, still the 
lamp will continue to burn on, drawing its food from that eternal 
source by which it was first created. 
At what period of life should education commence, and what 
should be its duration, are questions often asked ; and they can be 
best answered by enquiring what education is? Education may be 
said to consist in a certain discipline calculated to exercise an influ- 
ence on the action and the direction of the various mental powers, 
as they are gradually unfolded through all their progressive stages. 
Now, as some of the mental manifestations display themselves from 
the earliest dawn of perception, and increase in number and inten- 
sity as the meridian of intellectual capacity approaches, it is, there- 
fore, fair to argue that education should commence with the first 
indications of mental consciousness, and always keep pace with the 
developement of greater capability of intelligence. The faculties 
which appear first associated with human life are the mere animal 
propensities of hunger and thirst. The infant applies instinctively, 
or, as it is termed, naturally, to that source from whence it can 
draw the sustenance necessary to its physical existence. The per- 
ception of external objects next shows itself, but without conscious- 
ness of their relative or intrinsic properties. Indications of passion 
are soon exhibited, and love and anger alternately elicited. By de- 
grees reflection becomes incorporated with impulse, thereby giving 
the ability to infer conclusions from the past, and to anticipate re- 
sults for the future. Perception and reflection, in union with ima- 
gination, or the faculty of conceiving original ideas, form the 
materials with which the intellectual fabric is constructed, while the 
religious and moral sentiments, which in due time are manifested, 
and exercise so powerful a control over the destinies of man, consti- 
tute the cement which binds the whole together, and enables the 
pile to be reared to a height apparently immeasurable. Now it ap- 
pears that the various mental powers are gradually and progressively 
developed, and are not simultaneously exhibited ; and as education 
pe pou 
