It may appear, even from these few refiections and illustrations, that, if the sensations, which are most apt to give commencement to trains of ideas, are skilfully selected, and the trains which lead most surely to the happiness, first of the individual him self, and next of his fellow-creatures, are by ens tom effectually united with them, a provision of un speakable importance is made for the happiness of the race.
Beside custom, it was remarked by Hobbes, that appetite had a great power over the mental trains. But appetite is the feeling toward pleasure or pain in prospect; that is, future pleasure or pain. To say that appetite, therefore, has power over the men tal trains, is to say, that the prospect of pleasure or pain has. That this is true, every man knows by his own experience. The best means, then, of ap plying theprospect of pleasure and pain to render beneficent trains perpetual in the mind, is the thing to be found out, and made familiar to mankind.
The mode in which pleasure and pain affect the i trains of the mind is, as ends. That is to say; as a train commences, we have supposed, in some present sensation, so it may be conceived as terminating. in the idea of some future pleasure or pain. The in termediate ideas, between the commencement and the end, may be either of the beneficent description or the hurtful. Suppose the sight of a fine equipage to be the commencement; and the riches, which af ford it, the appetite, or end, of a train in the mind of two individuals at the same time. The interme diate ideas in the mind of the one are beneficent, in the other hurtful. The mind of the one immediate ly runs over all the honourable and useful modes of acquiring riches—the acquisition of the most rare and useful qualities—the eager watch of all the best opportunities of bringing them into action—and the steady industry with which they may be applied. That of the other recurs to none but the vicious modes of acquiring riches—by lucky accidents—the arts of the adventurer and impostor—by rapine and plunder, perhaps on the largest scale, by all the ho nours and glories of war. Suppose the one of these trains to be habitual among mdividuals, the other not. What a difference for mankind ! It is unnecessary to adduce farther instances for the elucidation of this part of oar mental constitu tion. What, in this portion of the field, requires to be done for the science of education, appears to be, to ascertain, first, what are the ends of human desire, the really ultimate objects at which it points ; next, to ascertain what are the most beneficent means of attaining those objects; and lastly, to accustom the mind to fill up the intermediate space between the present sensation and the ultimate object, with nothing but the ideas of those beneficent means. We
are perfectly aware that these instructions are far too general. But we hope it will be carried in mind how little, beyond the most general ideas, so confined a sketch as the present can possibly embrace; and we are still not without an expectation that these ex positions, general as they are, will not be wholly without their use.
II. We come now to the second branch of the science of education, or the inquiry what are the qualities with which it is of most importance that the mind of the individual should be endowed. This inquiry we are in hopes the preceding exposition will enable us very materially to abridge. In one sense, it might undoubtedly be affirmed, that all the desirable qualities of the human mind are included in those beneficent sequences of which we have spoken above. But, as it would require, to make this sufficiently intelligible, a more extensive expo. sition than we are able to afford, we must content ourselves with the ordinary language, and with a more familiar mode of considering the subject.
As the object is happiness, that intelligence is one of the qualities in question will not be denied, and may speedily be made to appear. To attain happi ness in the greatest possible degree, all the means to that end which the compass of nature affords must be employed in the most perfect possible mode. But all the means which the compass of nature, or the system in which we are placed, affords, can only be known by the most perfect knowledge of that sys tem. The highest measure of knowledge is there fore required. But mere knowledge is not enough; a mere magazine of remembered facts is a useless treasure. Amid the vast variety of known things, there is needed a power of choosing; a power of discerning which of them are conducive, which not, to the ends we have in view. The ingredients of in telligence are two, knowledge and sagacity ; the one affording the materials, upon which the other is to be exerted : the one showing what exists, the other converting it to the greatest use; the one bringing within our ken what is capable and what is not ca pable of being used as means, the other seizing and combining, at the proper moment, whatever is the fittest means to each particular end. This union, then, of copiousness and energy ; this possession of numerous ideas, with the masterly command of them, is one of the more immediate ends to which the bu siness of education is to be directed.