Mental Discipline in Education. 401 



the study of the ancient classics and mathematics is supe- 

 rior to all other means. From the tone assumed by its de- 

 fenders, when speaking of its incomparable fitness to de- 

 velop all the mental faculties, it might be inferred that this 

 scheme of study was formed by the help of a perfected 

 science of the human mind. Nothing, however, could be 

 more erroneous. Not only was that system devised ages 

 anterior to anything like true mental science, but it ante- 

 dates by centuries the whole body of modern knowledge. 

 There was abundance of vague metaphysics, but hardly a 

 germ of that positive knowledge of the laws of mind which 

 could serve as a valid basis of education. The predomi- 

 nant culture of modern times had its origin, more than 

 eight hundred years ago, in a superstition of the middle 

 ages. A mystical reverence was attached to the sacred 

 number seven, which was supposed to be a key to the order 

 of the universe. That there were seven cardinal virtues, 

 seven deadly sins, seven sacraments, seven days in the 

 week, seven metals, seven planets, and seven apertures 

 in a man's head, was believed to afford sufficient reason 

 for making the course of liberal study consist of seven 

 arts, and occupy seven years. Following another fancy 

 about the relation of three to four, in a certain geomet- 

 rical figure, these seven arts were divided into two groups. 

 The first three, Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, comprised 

 what was called the Trivium ; and the remaining four, 

 Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, and Music (the latter 

 as a branch of Arithmetic), formed the Quadrivium. This 

 scheme has been handed down from age to age, and with 

 but slight changes, still predominates in the higher institu- 

 tions of learning, and still powerfully reacts upon the infe- 

 rior schools. 



Passing by various embarrassing questions suggested by 

 the hypothesis that the one perfect method of bringing the 

 human mind to its highest condition has not only been 

 18 



