4-90 On Mental Education. [1855. 



is left untouched, almost ignored. I think that education in a 

 large sense should be applied to this state of the subject, and 

 that society, though it can do little in the way of communicated 

 experience, can do much, by a declaration of the evil that exists 

 arid of its remediable character, by keeping alive a sense of the 

 deficiency to be supplied, and by directing the minds of men 

 to the practice and enlargement of that self-education which 

 every one pursues more or less, but which under conviction 

 and method would produce a tenfold amount of good. I know 

 that the multitude will always be behindhand in this education, 

 and to a far greater extent than in respect of the education 

 which is founded on book learning. Whatever advance books 

 make, they retain ; but each new being comes on to the stage 

 of life, with the same average amount of conceit, desires, and 

 passions, as his predecessors, and in respect of self-education 

 has all to learn. Does the circumstance that we can do little 

 more than proclaim the necessity of instruction, justify the igno- 

 rance, or our silence, or make the plea for this education less 

 strong ? Should it not, on the contrary, gain its strength from 

 the fact that all are wanting more or less ? I desire we should 

 admit that, as a body, we are universally deficient in judgment. 

 I do not mean that we are utterly ignorant, but that we have 

 advanced only a little way in the requisite education, compared 

 with what is within our power. 



If the necessity of the education of the judgment were a 

 familiar and habitual idea with the public, it would often afford 

 a sufficient answer to the statement of an ill-informed or in- 

 competent person ; if quoted to recall to his remembrance the 

 necessity of a mind instructed in a matter, and accustomed to 

 balance evidence, it might frequently be an answer to the in- 

 dividual himself. Adverse influence might, and would, arise 

 from the careless, the confident, the presumptuous, the hasty, 

 and the dilatory man, perhaps extreme opposition ; but I believe 

 that the mere acknowledgment and proclamation of the igno- 

 rance, by society at large, would, through its moral influence, 

 destroy the opposition, and be a great means to the attainment 

 of the good end desired : for if no more be done than to lead 

 such to turn their thoughts inwards, a step in education is 

 gained : if they are convinced in any degree, an important ad- 

 vance is made; if they learn only to suspend their judgment, 

 the improvement will be one above price. 



