36 



the whole community which may be obtained through the improve- 

 ment of the educational system. 



It is very desirable therefore that plans should, if possible, be 

 adopted by our municipal bodies, which will admit of strict construc- 

 tion, and at the same time be no bar to the progressive improvement of 

 our methods of education. At present, book learning and education 

 are generally considered correlative terms, but the conviction is evi- 

 dently fast gaining ground in the public mind, which has long been 

 established with those who have given the most thorough consider- 

 ation to the subject, that, although the ordinary chances of observa- 

 tion may be sufficient to make many branches of knowledge which 

 are inculcated in books sufficiently intelligible, there are others, 

 progress in which is of special value with reference to the enlarge- 

 ment of the mind and the development of healthy inclinations and 

 habits, which cannot be pursued with much advantage in this 

 second-hand way. 



Hence, it may be anticipated that the common-school system 

 of a large city will, sooner or later, be generally considered incom- 

 plete, unless ample opportunity is found within it for the direct 

 exercise by every student of his perceptive faculties, in regard 

 to a large class of objects not likely to come under his ordinary 

 observation. The idea of education, it must be confessed by all, 

 unquestionably culminates in the development of the reflective 

 faculties, but the reflective faculties — which are secondary — can 

 never, it is obvious, be healthily exercised if the perceptive 

 faculties, which are primary — are neglected and starved. 



The question therefore is pertinent, even at present, whether the 

 city, without absolutely assuming the whole expense and the whole 

 control of undertakings for this end, may not wisely offer some 

 encouragement to associations voluntarily formed by citizens for 

 the purpose. 



Having some such views in mind as these, when we were pre- 

 paring the design of Central Park, we advocated the retention 

 of the building near the Fifth avenue and Fifty-ninth street 

 entrance, formerly used as an arsenal, simply because it would 

 probably, if retained, be found to be of sufficient value to be 

 converted into the nucleus of a museum, and although it was 

 very inconveniently located for any such purpose, taking the 

 proposed Landscape effects of the park into consideration, we felt 

 that the opportunity was one that ought not to be lost. Our 



