464 ; On Mental Education. [1 855. 



might be unpleasant to some of my audience, but as I know 

 that your Royal Highness is a champion for and desires the 

 truth, I will believe that all here are united in the same cause, 

 and therefore will give utterance, without hesitation, to what I 

 have to say regarding the present condition of Mental Edu- 

 cation. 



If the term education may be understood in so large a sense 

 as to include all that belongs to the improvement of the mind, 

 either by the acquisition of the knowledge of others, or by 

 increase of it through its own exertions, then I may hope to 

 be justified for bringing forward a few desultory observations 

 respecting the exercise of the mental powers in a particular 

 direction, which otherwise might seem out of place. The 

 points I have in view are general, but they are manifest in a 

 striking manner, among the physical matters which have oc- 

 cupied my life ; and as the latter afford a field for exercise in 

 which cogitations and conclusions can be subjected to the rigid 

 tests of fact and experiment as all classes employ themselves 

 more or less in the consideration of physical matters, and may 

 do so with great advantage, if inclined in the least degree to 

 profit by educational practices so I hope that what I may say 

 will find its application in every condition of life. 



Before entering upon the subject, I must take one distinction 

 which, however it may appear to others, is to me of the utmost 

 importance. High as man is placed above the creatures around 

 him, there is a higher and far more exalted position within his 

 view ; and the ways are infinite in which he occupies his 

 thoughts about the fears, or hopes, or expectations of a future 

 life . I believe that the truth of that future cannot be brought 

 to his knowledge by any exertion of his mental powers, how- 

 ever exalted they may be ; that it is made known to him by 

 other teaching than his own, and is received through simple 

 belief of the testimony given. Let no one suppose for a 

 moment that the self-education I am about to commend in 

 respect of the things of this life, extends to any considerations 

 of the hope set before us, as if man by reasoning could find 

 out God. It would be improper here to enter upon this subject 

 further than to claim an absolute distinction between religious 

 and ordinary belief. I shall be reproached with the weakness 

 of refusing to apply those mental operations which I think 



