337 



SCHOOLS. 



SCHOOLS. 



333 





investigate the capacities of the human being. These being ascer- 

 tained, it follows that education is, in any particular case, an instru- 

 ment for developing them. Now we know that man has not only 

 physical and intellectual, but also moral and spiritual faculties, all of 

 which education ought to take under its care. That education is 

 incomplete which neglects any one of these faculties ; and that 

 education discharges its functions imperfectly which does not cultivate 

 the faculties in such degree that their action may be well adjusted, and 

 their general working be harmonious. But if there appear to be any 

 one of the faculties apart from whose influence the rest work indiffer- 

 ently or produce baneful results, and which is found when in healthful 

 vigour to strengthen, refine, and control the whole nature, this power 

 ought to receive primary and chief attention. The work then of 

 education is to foster, strengthen, and raise the physical, intellectual, 

 moral, and spiritual capabilities of man. Some important deductions 

 flow from these principles. Education ought to be universal both in 

 relation tu each individual and the community at large ; for it ought 

 to be co-extensive with the capabilities on which it is intended to act. 

 It is contrary to the constitution of man and to the designs of God 

 for any one of our capacities to remain undeveloped. They err who 

 neglect to educate the body, and they also who neglect to educate the 

 mind. These errors represent two different classes of men. A cer- 

 tain school of philosophy at least makes light of religious education ; 

 .:J education has been lamentably neglected by the recognised 

 teachers of religion. The latter error is now disappearing, but the 

 former has been gaining ground ; and this error is the more to be 

 deplored because its consequences must be serious and lasting. If any 

 one, certainly the religious faculty may be considered as the moving 

 power of the human being. Religion indeed rightly understood is the 

 1 science, round which all other branches of knowledge and all 

 other pure influences are grouped, towards which they gravitate, and 

 from which they receive their light, their heat, and their highest 

 value. But for the peculiar political circumstances of England, any 

 system of popular education which omitted direct religious culture 

 would probably have been considered by thinking men as defective. 



There is in truth no other way than that which is afforded by a 

 religious training for forming such a character as the trials and duties 

 of life require both among the rich and the poor. The mere com- 

 munication of knowledge, and even habits of reflection and inquiry, 

 can do very little towards real happiness. What the people want is 

 true wisdom and moral power, without which life is a scene of con- 

 flict and misery ; but wisdom and moral power are the peculiar gifts 

 of religion. 



Morality therefore should be taught in the schools in connection 

 with the sanctions of religion. Apart from religious influence morality 

 may direct but cannot control. Morality may enlighten and it may 

 enjoin, but of itself it is powerless to govern ; it is preceptive, not 

 impulsive, pointing out our path, but not urging us on to pursue it. 

 Now it is power rather than knowledge that man wants ; and all 

 genuine power for moral purposes has its source in religion. It may 

 be well to remember that these distinctions of morality and religion 

 are factitious and arbitrary ; they are not recognised in the records of 

 the Christian revelation ; they find no authority in the human mind. 

 Keligion includes morality, or rather, is morality as well as religion, 

 comprising in itself whatever ia necessary for man to know, do, and be, 

 whether in this state or the next, in order to fulfil the divine will, to 

 perfect his character, and work out his highest good. Consequently, 

 he that is well trained in the knowledge and practice of the Christian 

 religion has received both a moral and a religious education, and is 

 fitly prepared for the duties of life. 



From this it will be seen that the religious education here demanded 

 is not of a dogmatical, much less a sectarian kind ; but such instruc- 

 tion as may enlighten the mind of the child and the adult as to their 

 capacities, their duties, and their hopes ; and such a discipline as 

 may work the instruction into the character till it " leaven the 

 whole lump." 



It is not a little curious that in regard to education we may 

 take a lesson from the ancient Persians,* who, according to Xenophon, 

 removing education from the hands of the parents into the hands of 

 the state, gave the same attention to the moral training of the young 

 as is now under the best circumstances given to their intellectual 

 in '(ruction, and so brought them up under the influence of precept 

 and example, that the state was saved from the painful necessity of 

 inflicting punishment, in consequence of having taken such preventive 

 measures as relieved the youth from the desire of what is low and 

 unjust. Morals with them were a practical science, the principles of 

 which were first taught by word of mouth, and then by actual 

 examples and by daily practice. 



The morals taught in primary schools should have a regard to per- 

 sonal, domestic, and social duties, or the obligations which .111 

 individual owes to his family and to the state. The instruction should 

 consist not of a mere dry detail of precepts, but should appeal to the 

 reason and affections, that it may both develope them and gain such a 

 reception in the breast of the scholar as to become the living power 

 which governs his conduct. 



' Not that we inppott Xenophon represents a real state of society ; but the 

 . rpinions arc Jut u valuable as if he did.' 

 AKTS AMD SCt, DIV. VOL. VII. 



The preceding remarks lead also to the conclusion that the cultur 6 

 which ensues from education is in itself an end, if indeed it is not 

 the primary and great end of education. The husbandman sows the 

 seed in order to produce grain ; the educator disciplines the faculties 

 that he may bring them into vigorous, healthful, and pleasurable 

 activity. In both cases there is an adequate end, a result in which 

 the agents may satisfactorily rest. Education can have no higher 

 object than the creation of happiness by means of the formation of 

 character. This is the great object of the Deity himself ; and if even 

 the power which education gives is regarded as an instrument, as a 

 means to some outward result, still the pursuit of mental and moral 

 culture as a good in itself, can have no other than a, beneficial result. 

 It is important therefore that the purposes for which education is 

 sought should be placed and kept in their proper rank. That which 

 is secondary must not, however good, be thrust into the first place ; 

 and above all that must not be altogether lost sight of, which in reality 

 is in itself a most important result, if not the great end of education. 

 The formation of character then, to make (so to speak) true men and 

 women, beings with their faculties complete, and, in consequence, 

 with all their internal sources of happiness, entire, full, and active 

 this should be an object carefully studied and diligently pursued by 

 the educator. But here even superior minds halt behind the truth, 

 making the chief object of education some extrinsic result such as, 

 in the case of males, fitness for the duties of their station in life ; in' 

 the case of females, such as may prepare them to be pleasing wives 

 and useful mothers aims excellent in themselves, but scarcely 

 entitled to hold the first rank, if for no other reason than this, 

 that an outward accomplishment does not of necessity imply such 

 an inward culture as will ensure health and vigour of character, 

 and that durable and growing happiness which attends on genuine 

 personal excellence. 



The real nature of education considered as an instrument may also 

 be gathered from these remarks. If the subject on which education 

 operates is mental and moral in its character, and the effects which it 

 labours to produce and the aims which it ought to pursue, also mental 

 and moral, the instrument must be of a similar kind. Setting aside 

 then so much of it as is designed for a physical result, education is a 

 mental and a moral influence ; in other words, it is mind acting on 

 mind ; it is a superior acting on an inferior character ; it is human 

 thought and human sympathies brought to bear on kindred elements 

 in the bosoms of the young ; it is the power of religion living and 

 breathing in one soul, going forth into another, and kindling within 

 that other corresponding vitality. Whence it is obvious that much of 

 what is called education does not deserve the name ; that a mechanical 

 routine is not education, nor dexterity of hand, nor skill in shaping 

 certain forms, nor the utterance of articulate sounds. If so, then 

 reading, writing, and arithmetic, how well soever they may be taught, 

 ought not to be dignified with the name, though they may in favour- 

 able circumstances contribute something to education. 



The tenor of these observations has determined another thing, 

 namely, what ought to be the prevailing spirit and what the discipline 

 of a school. School in reality holds the place of home ; home is 

 God's school, but since present modes of life do not permit the parent 

 to give his child a suitable training, he transfers education to the 

 school. The school therefore should approximate as closely as possible 

 to the home. Now in theory the homes of this land are Christian 

 homes ; the school in consequence should be a sort of Christian home. 

 Such a union of terms calls up in the mind ideas of gentleness, for- 

 bearance, and affection. These then are the moral qualities which 

 ought to prevail in the school. If so, severity and harshness must be 

 banished as incompatible with the objects for which schools are 

 instituted. Nor are they only incompatible, but they are actually 

 preventive and subversive of those objects. The display of every 

 moral quality produces its like in those who habitually witness it; 

 and unless the aim in school-training is to produce a severe, harsh, 

 and unloving character, severity and harshness must be studiously 

 avoided. 



So also the intellectual influence employed should be such as is 

 likely to call out and strengthen the mental powers. The chief good 

 of education is not to be looked for in outward results, nor even in 

 the amount of knowledge communicated, but rather in such habits of 

 mind, power to fix the thoughts on any given object, to comprehend 

 many particulars at one view, to resolve a complex subject into its 

 component elements, to endure lengthened exertion, to carry deter- 

 minations into practice, to find resources for thinking and for happiness 

 within as may fit a young person for discharging his duty under all 

 circumstances. Mere instruction therefore is not education, but 

 simply an instrument of education. The aim should be so to inform 

 the mind, as by the very act of informing to develope and strengthen 

 its powers. The instruction then that deadens the appetite for know- 

 ledge and overloads the powers is not education, but something 

 foreign to its nature. 



There are two modes, corresponding with two processes, by which 

 the mind carries on its own education, namely, synthesis and analysis, 

 which should be studied and employed by the educator as his great 

 instruments. By synthesis he will, both orally and by means of 

 manuals, offer knowledge to the mind iu a simple, attractive, yet 

 systematic form, rising by degrees from the more to the lees easy, and 



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