APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 79 



infinitely wider stores of knowledge than could 

 ever be opened to him by oral intercourse with his 

 fellow men ; he learns to write, that his means of 

 communication with the rest of mankind may be 

 indefinitely enlarged, and that he may record and 

 store up the knowledge he acquires. He is taught 

 elementary mathematics, that he may understand 

 all those relations of number and form, upon which 

 the transactions of men, associated in complicated 

 societies, are built, and that he may have some 

 practice in deductive reasoning. 



All these operations of reading, writing, and 

 ciphering are intellectual tools, whose use should, 

 before all things, be learned, and learned tho- 

 roughly; so that the youth may be enabled to 

 make his life that which it ought to be, a con- 

 tinual progress in learning and in wisdom. 



In addition, primary education endeavours to 

 fit a boy out with a certain equipment of positive 

 knowledge. He is taught the great laws of mor- 

 ality ; the religion of his sect ; so much history and 

 geography as will tell him where the great countries 

 of the world are, what they are, and how they have 

 become what they are. 



But if I regard it closely, a curious reflection 

 arises. I suppose that, fifteen hundred years ago, 

 the child of any well-to-do Roman citizen was 

 taught just these same things ; reading and writing 

 in his own, and, perhaps, the Greek tongue ; the 

 elements of mathematics ; and the religion,, moral- 

 ity, history, and geography current in his time. 

 Furthermore, I do not think I err in affirming that, 

 if such a Christian Roman boy, who had finished 

 his education, could be transplanted into one of our 

 public schools, and pass through its course of 



