Mental Discipline in Education. 421 



the most priceless of all things is mental power ; while one 

 of the highest offices of education must be strictly to econo- 

 mize and wisely to expend it. Science made the basis of 

 culture, will accomplish this result. 



We have affirmed the broad principle of mental limita- 

 tions, but let none suppose that its necessary corollary is 

 narrow and stinted mental results. It has been explained 

 how this consequence is to be escaped. A limited outlay 

 of energy with results so vast as to seem out of all pro- 

 portion with it, is exactly the miraculous problem which 

 Nature has solved. It was at first supposed that prodi- 

 gious quantities of power were required to work the At- 

 lantic cable an error which probably led to its destruc- 

 tion ; but electricians have been recently startled by the 

 discovery that the force generated in a lady's thimble, or 

 even in a percussion cap, is sufficient to operate the ocean 

 telegraph. The lesson of this experience is, that a knowl- 

 edge of the laws of power is essential to prevent waste 

 of power ; and this is no more true in physical dynamics 

 than in mental. Let none indulge apprehensions that this 

 doctrine of limits to acquirement darkens the future of 

 education, or derogates from man's mental dignity. What 

 the human mind has already accomplished is our starting 

 point. Working waywardly, in isolation, by arbitrary 

 methods, upon chaotic materials, and in ignorance of the 

 mighty secret of its power, grand results have nevertheless 

 been achieved, and they are the indices of attainment 

 under the worst conditions. But in the new revelation of 

 a cosmical order, and of the correlation and interde- 

 pendence of all truth, Science utters a pregnant prophecy 

 of the mind's future destiny, and vindicates her right to 

 take control of its future unfolding. 



The ideal of the higher education demanded by the 

 present age, especially in this country, where it is becom- 

 ing most general, is a scheme of study, which, while it 



