EDITOR'S TABLE. 



267 



to which they are subjected ; and it is 

 little wonder, in general, that it should 

 be so. But, if an effort were being vig- 

 orously made to carry every natural 

 faculty they possessed to its perfection 

 to make the eyes quick and true, the 

 voice sweet and full, the hearing sensi- 

 tive and discriminating, the bodily move- 

 ments vigorous and graceful, and so on 

 the beneficence of the process would 

 impress itself even on the juvenile 

 mind, and thus half the battle would be 

 gained, for we want the children's con- 

 fidence before we can do them much 

 good. Nothing, we believe, would do 

 so much toward the development of the 

 all-important quality of self-respect as a 

 careful physical training. It would, on 

 the one hand, promote individuality, in- 

 asmuch as the child would be made to 

 feel what he or she was capable of in- 

 dividually, and, on the other, it would 

 promote a true comradeship, as it would 

 awaken a consciousness of that common 

 physical nature, with its varied powers, 

 of which all partake. 



Here, therefore, is a part of educa- 

 tion about which there can be no mis- 

 take a preparation for perfect living in 

 the physical sense that perfect living 

 which economizes both mental and moral 

 force, and places the individual in a 

 position of advantage for the accom- 

 plishment of all the ends of life. Un- 

 der a system which made due provision 

 for this kind of training, questions of 

 diet, of clothing, of exercise, of ventila- 

 tion, of bodily habits, and so forth, 

 would, of course, be carefully consid- 

 ered, and whatever was best in all these 

 respects would be suitably held up for 

 guidance and instruction. It is true 

 that there is much that is defective from 

 a hygienic point of view in the home 

 life of nearly all classes, and on that 

 very account it is important that true 

 hygienic principles should be incul- 

 cated, in a manner as free as possible 

 from pedantry, in the schools ; for if 

 the children can be taught simply and 

 clearly the conditions on which their 



health and comfort depend, they will 

 themselves exert a wholesome influence 

 in the household. 



What Paul said to the Athenians 

 might be said to-day to ourselves: .We 

 are in all things too superstitious, and 

 particularly in the matter of education. 

 Instead of seeking as we do now to see 

 how much we can cram into youthful 

 minds, or in other words how much ot 

 the elastic force of the brain we can 

 destroy for that is what it comes to in 

 at least a multitude of cases we should 

 consider all so-called knowledge con- 

 traband of the childish mind until its 

 assimilable character has been fully 

 demonstrated. When we are satisfied 

 that it will act as food and not as the 

 mere stuffing of the taxidermist to bulge 

 out the intellectual nature into a con- 

 ventional shape, let us impart it, and 

 not before ; but do not let us give too 

 much even of food, remembering that 

 the animal which goes in search of its 

 own food gets the highest and best de- 

 velopment, the most ingeniously adapted 

 structure, the widest range of faculty. 

 The most fatal fault we can commit is 

 that of unduly taming and domesticat- 

 ing the mind, so to speak, so that it ex- 

 pects to be fed by others, instead of 

 going abroad to see what the universe 

 will do for it. 



The more we expect from education, 

 the less we are apt to get from it in the 

 way of useful results. We form an idea 

 of a highly rationalized man of refined 

 intellectual and artistic tastes, with per- 

 haps a large element of moral idealism, 

 and generally "up to date"; and that 

 we set up, as Nebuchadnezzar did his 

 brazen image, for all the world to bow 

 down to. The object of education, we 

 think, is to produce something like that. 

 Well, education isn't going to do it. Men 

 of that kind have always been excep- 

 tional, nor is it education that has given 

 them the qualities we so much admire. 

 If education had done it for them, why 

 theji, doubtless, it could do it for others ; 

 but what do we see? From the same 



