OF EDUCATION 95 



and laws of mind. In the volume of nature there are 

 no faults. It is God's perfect text-book for the 

 young and the old of all nations and for all time. Its 

 ample pages are all illuminated with infinite skill, to 

 allure us to the study of the perfect wisdom of the 

 great Author of all. Ignorance of the laws of life 

 confers no exemption from the failure and suffering 

 consequent upon their violation. Nature's inexor- 

 able and unpitying penalties are meant to coerce us 

 to the study of her works, when their exceeding 

 beauty fails to allure our attention. 



The fatal error in the educational schemes of all 

 ages has been the futile attempt to ornament the 

 mind without informing it ; hence the world has but 

 just discovered even the existence of those laws whose 

 violation renders human life so narrow, so full of 

 pain and disappointment. Let us not boast of a high 

 civilization while the lives of half the human race 

 are crushed out before they reach the age of seven 

 years, and not one in ten of the other half makes a 

 successful life of three score years. 



The first law of mental development is symmetry. 

 Moreover this law manifests itself in all normal de- 

 velopment from the crystallization of the snow-flake, 

 through all gradations of plant and animal life. By 

 what perversity or blindness has the prevailing cult- 

 ure so completely excluded this law till the present 



