EDUCATION. 



357 



Mental 



Education, can be more interesting, or more worthy of a rational 

 '*~~^~~' being, than to investigate the laws by which the uni- 

 verse is regulated, to describe the phenomena which 

 result from these laws, and to trace them back through 

 the long chain of causes, which may have contributed 

 to produce them ? Such an exercise will necessarily 

 form the mind to habits of accurate and persevering 

 observation; of patient enquiry, of abstract speculation, 

 and of correct reasoning. While it restrains the thoughts 

 within the limits of reality, it at the same time affords 

 abundant scope for the most sublime conceptions, and 

 the most excursive flights of imagination. Carrying us 

 beyond the boundaries of sense, it weakens each selfish 

 feeling, by interesting us in every thing around us. It 

 is the best preparation for the study of mind ; for the 

 rigour with which its researches are conducted, and its 

 cautious mode of reasoning by induction from ascer- 

 tained phenomena, check that extravagant rage for 

 theory, which is the bane of all science. To religion it 

 is a most powerful auxiliary ; extending our knowledge 

 of the works of creation, and leading us " through na- 

 ture, up to nature's God." 



From the study of the material universe, let our pu- 

 pil be conducted to the higher and more important study 

 of the human mind. In some of our systems of educa- 

 tion, mental philosophy is very preposterously made 

 one of the earliest objects of the student's attention. In 

 our Scotish universities, it is not uncommon to see lads, 

 who should not yet have escaped the discipline of a 

 grammar school, occupying the benches of a metaphysi- 

 cal class, and listening to grave lectures on the powers 

 and operations of the human mind : powers, which 

 their minds have scarcely begun to exercise ; operations, 

 f which they are almost unconscious. How can boys, 

 whose faculties are only beginning to open, be sup- 

 posed capable of that reflective attention to their own 

 ideas and emotions, often too fleeting to be arrested, too 

 complicated to l>e unravelled, too faint to be perceived, 

 which is the basis of all mental philosophy ? Or, what 

 benefit can they be supposed to derive from disquisi- 

 tions on abstract subjects, of which they cannot form an 

 idea, and which can be presented to them in no pal- 

 pable shape? The inevitable, and almost the only con- 

 sequence, of engaging them at so early an age in the 

 study of what they cannot understand, is to excite their 

 disgust; and thus to leave them in hopeless ignor- 

 ance of a icimre, which, if not proposed to them till 



by previous discipline they were prepared for compre- 

 hending it, they would have found the most delightful 

 study, as it is the most important, in which man can be 

 engaged. To the successful pursuit of mental science, 

 an accurate and discriminating judgment, a clear and 

 penetrating understanding, and a habit of correct and 

 cautious reasoning, are indispensibly necessary : the 

 study of the mathematics and of natural philosophy is 

 peculiarly useful in cultivating these valuable qualities, 

 and ought, therefore, always to precede the more ab- 

 stract and difficult study of mind. 



One peculiar advantage of this study is, that, while 

 it gives exercise to the highest of , our faculties, it sug- 

 gests at the same time the l>est means for improving 

 them. By rendering us acquainted with human nature 

 in all its parts ; with its various faculties, powers, and 

 sources of enjoyment ; and the effects which are pro- 

 duced on these principles, by particular circumstances 

 Mi<\ situations, it aids us essentially in the proper and 

 liberal culture of the mind, enables us to judge of our 

 own acquisitions, and to employ the most effectual 



~i for supplying our defects, and removing our im- 



proper habits. A philosophical analysis of the princi- Education. 

 pies of the mind, is the only foundation on which can 

 be raised a proper system of education ; and as scarcely 

 any of the existing systems are founded on such an ana- 

 lysis, almost every person of reflection, when he arrives 

 at maturity, finds it necessary to begin a new course of 

 education for himself. Now, to render that course as 

 complete as possible, to enable him to estimate properly 

 his attainments, and to know how to supply his defects, 

 it is necessary that he should have an accurate and 

 comprehensive view of his intellectual and moral 

 powers ; and such a view it is the professed object of, 

 mental philosophy to give. All the different branches 

 of our knowledge bear a common relation to the philo- 

 sophy of the human mind ; and to that philosophy, of 

 course, must be referred all our inquiries concerning 

 the divisions and the classifications of the objects of hu- 

 man knowledge, and all the various rules for the inves- 

 tigation and the communication of truth. " As a phi- 

 losophical system of logic," says Mr Stewart, " would 

 assist us in our particular scientific investigations, by 

 keeping steadily in our view the attainable objects of 

 human curiosity ; so, by exhibiting to us the relation 

 in which they all stand to each other, and the relation 

 which they all bear to what ought to be their common 

 aim, the advancement of human happiness, it would 

 have a tendency to confine industry and genius to in- 

 quiries, which are of real practical utility ; and would 

 communicate a dignity to the most subordinate pursuits, 

 which are in any respect subservient to so important a 

 purpose. When our views are limited to one particular 

 science, to which we have been led to devote ourselves 

 by taste or by accident, the course of our studies re- 

 sembles the progress of a traveller through an unexplored 

 country, whose wanderings from place to place are de- 

 termined merely by the impulse of occasional curiosity, 

 and whose opportunities of information must necessarily 

 be limited to the objects which accidentally present 

 themselves to his notice. It is the philosophy of the 

 mind alone, which, by furnishing us with a general 

 map of the field of human knowledge, can enable us to 

 proceed with steadiness, and in a useful direction ; and 

 while it gratifies our curiosity, and animates our exer- 

 tions, by exhibiting to us all the various bearings of our 

 journey, can conduct us to those eminences from whence 

 the eye may wander over the vast and unexplored re- 

 gions of science." 



While the study of mind is thus useful in teaching 

 us how to exercise our own intellectual faculties, it is 

 found of peculiar advantage in those arts which operate 

 on the minds of others. The success of the poet, the 

 painter, and the orator, depends on the skill with which 

 they adapt the efforts of their genius to the powers and 

 sensibilities of mankind ; and a philosophical analysis 

 of the mind is the only solid foundation for the im- 

 provement of all the fine arts. The human mind, too, 

 is the subject on which the moralist and the statesman 

 have to operate ; and while the former endeavours to 

 allure men to their truest happiness, by the cultivation 

 of their noblest powers and their finest qualities, and 

 the latter proposes to second the benevolent intentions 

 of Providence, by diffusing as widely and as equally as 

 possible the advantages of the social union ; to each of 

 them an extensive and accurate knowledge of human 

 nature is equally necessary. To the moral improve- 

 ment and happiness of the individual, the study of 

 mental philosophy is still more eminently conducive. 

 Enabling us to trace back through all their intricacy, 

 our propensities and habits to their origin, it suggests 



