Kemp. — 0)i the Medical Aspects of Education. xxxvii 



tance to the stars, and yet be most imperfectly educated ; he may be able to 

 name all the kmgs that ever reigned, and yet be none the wiser, or the 

 more efficient for his learning. But the unfledged boy, who starts with a 

 mind empty and blank, is transformed by education. New ideas, new per- 

 ceptions are awakened in him, that is, new fitnesses for life, for its labom's 

 and its duties." 



Besides this, I think one of the ends of education should be to give 

 childi-en such an interest in work that they will continue to pursue it after 

 their school-days are finished ; I fear that, under existing circumstances, 

 children, instead of being made fond of work and learning, are pretty 

 sure to get to hate it ; because, what ought to be the work of many 

 years is now compressed into a few, and so the child gets to look upon his 

 work as a weary labour, and his master as a kind of natural enemy, who 

 imposes tasks for which the child has no real liking; and the probable 

 result is, that as soon as school-days are over, the child puts away the work 

 at which years have been spent, unless it has to be kept up in order to 

 carry on his daily duties. 



I suppose there are few who would question the statement, that the test 

 appHed to prove the efficiency of any school is, what place do the pupils 

 from that school take in examinations ? And yet this is a most unfair test, 

 for examinations, especially competitive, are merely a proof of the extent to 

 which the memory has been trained ; natural genius cannot compete in this 

 trial unless there is at the same time a good memory, and surely one is as 

 deserving of praise as the other. The test of educational success is not 

 solely or even chiefly the amount of positive knowledge which has been 

 acquired ; but the extent to which the faculties of the boy have been 

 developed, and his general fitness for life and for his action in it as a man ; 

 — the object should be to produce as perfect a being mentally and physi- 

 cally as possible, and one who is in both senses fit to enter the arena of life. 

 The want of the due cultivation of these two sides of a child tends greatly 

 to impair vitahty. On this point Dr. Eichardson says : — " Next to alco- 

 holic intemperance I should place as a cause of impaired vitality in our 

 people the physical and mental strain to which the younger members of our 

 communities are subjecting themselves that they may stand first in the 

 ranks, and, at middle age, retire to wither in empty competency. This 

 rage, amounting to insanity, is checked by nature at every step. Her off- 

 spring are not made for this end. To work moderately until the end of the 

 cycle of life is the plan pre-arranged for us all ; the condition under which 

 we are born, that we may live until the cycle is perfected. If we break 

 through this condition, if we destroy one organ only of the exquisitely 

 balanced economy through which our vital faculties ai'e construed into life, 

 we simply die," 



