OF EDUCATION 99 



teacher begins by superimposing unnatural work in 

 order to enable the child, as quickly as possible, to 

 learn lessons about things instead of learning things 

 as before entering school — he is set to acquiring 

 second-hand knowledge, instead of being directed in 

 the acquisition of real knowledge in a natural way, 

 and as a consequence, his mind becomes vague and 

 abstracted in its tendencies and habits. Books are 

 but one element in true education ; libraries alone, 

 cannot make learned men. The best books are read 

 the least, because our education neither gives a taste 

 for useful knowledge, nor the ability to understand 

 the best books. 



The third law is, that education begins in the 

 simple and not in the complex. The violation of this 

 and the preceding law has made the study of arith- 

 metic very tedious, and unsatisfactory. The com- 

 plex and the abstract are so strangely mixed with the 

 concrete and simple, that a large part of the usual 

 course serves rather to confuse and weaken the facul- 

 ties than to strengthen them. 



In the ordinary study of science we begin not only 

 in the abstract, but also in the complex, and violate 

 two laws, at least. 



There are mountains so steep they cannot be 

 climbed ; others are abrupt on one side, but can 

 easily be ascended from another side, by travelling 



