We cannot too earnestly exhort philosophers to perfect this inquiry; that we may understand at last, not by vague abstract terms, but clearly and pre cisely, what are the simple ideas included under the term happiness ; and what is the real ohjeet to which education is pointed ; since it is utterly im possible, while there is any vagueness and uncer tainty with respect to the end, that there should be the greatest precision and certainty in combining the means.
1V. We come at last to the consideration of the means which are at the disposal of man for endowing the human mind with the qualities on which the ge neration of happiness depends; it is under this head that the discussion of the practical expedients chiefly occurs. It embraces, also, however, some points of theory.
One of the most important of the remaining ques tions, of that sort, refers to the degree in which the useful qualities of human nature are, or are not, un der the powers of education. This is the subject of a famous controversy, with names of the highest au thority on both sides of the question. Helvetius, it is true, stands almost alone, on one side. But Hel vetius, alone, is a host. No one man, perhaps, has done so much towards perfecting the theory of edu cation as Mons. Helvetius • and his books are preg nant with information the, highest importance, Whoever wishes to understand the ground-work of education, can do nothing more conducive to his end, than to study profoundly the expositions of this philosophical inquirer, whether he adopts his conclu sions, in all their latitude, or not. That Helvetius was not more admired, in his own country, is owing really to the value of his work. It was too solid, for the frivolous taste of the gay circles of Paris--assem blies of pampered noblesse, who wished for nothing but amusement. That he has been so little valued in this country, is, it must be confessed, owing a little to the same cause; but another has concurred. An opinion has prevailed, a false one, that Helvetiva is a peculiarly dangerous enemy to religion ; and this has deterred people from reading, or rather the old people, who do not read, have deterred the young who do. There is no book, the author of which does not disguise his unbelief, that can be read with more safety to religion. The author attacks nothing but priestcraft, and that in one of the worst of its forms, the popish priestcraft of the dark and middle ages, the idea of which we are well accustomed, in this country, to separate from that of religion in the ab stract. When his phraseology at any time extends, and that is not often, to Christianity itself, or to re ligion in the abstract, there is nothing calculated to seduce. There is nothing epigrammatic, and spark ling in the expression ; nothing sophistical and art.. fully veiled in the reasoning; a plain proposition is stated, with a plain indication of its evidence; and if your judgment is not convinced, you are not de. hided through the fancy.
M. Helvetius says, that if you take men who bring into the world with them the original constituents of their nature, their mental and bodily frame, in that ordinary state of podness which is common to the great body of out of the account the comparatively small number of individuals who come into the world imperfect, and manifestly below the ordinary standard,—you may regard the whole of this great mass of mankind, as equally susceptible of mental excellence) and may trace the causes which make them to differ. If this be so, the power of education embraces every thing between the lowest stage of intellectual and moral rudeness, and the highest state, not only of actual, but of possible per fection. And if the power of education be so im mense, the motive for perfecting it is great beyond expression.
The conclusions bf Helvetius were controverted directly by Rousseau ; and defended, against those strictures, by the author himself. We recollect few writers in this country who have embraced them." But our writers have contented themselves, rather with rejecting, than disproving; and, at best, have supported their rejection only by some incidental re flection, or the indication of a discrepancy between his conclusions and theirs.
One of the causes, why people have been so much startled, by the extent to which Helvetius has carried the dominion of education, seems to us to arise, from their not including in it nearly so much as he does.
They include in it little more than what is expressed by the term schooling; commencing about six or se ven years of age, and ending at latest with the arriv al of manhood. If this alone is meant by educa tion, it is no doubt true, that education is far indeed from being all-powerful. But if in education is in chided every thing, which acts upon the being as it comes from the hands of nature, in such a manner as to modify the mind, to render the train of feelings different from what it would otherwise have been; thequestion is worthy of the most profound consi deration. It is probable, that people in general form a very inadequate conception of all the circumstan ces which act during the first months, perhaps the first moments, of existence, and of the power of those circumstances in giving permanent qualities to the mind. The works of Helvetius would have been in valuable, if they had done nothing more than prove their vast importance, and call to them the concen trated attention of mankind. Rousseau began this important branch of the study of education. He remarked a variety of important facts, which,' till his time, had been almost universally neglected, in the minds of infants, and how much might be done, by those who surround them, to give good or bad qualities to their minds, long before the time at which it had been supposed that education could commence. But Helvetius treated the subject much more profoundly and systematically. He traced the circumstances to the very moment 'of birth; and showed at how wonderfully early an age indelible characters might be impressed ; nay, that of the cir cumstances over which man has a control (for he speaks not of others), some may be traced even beyond the birth, on which effects of the greatest im portance It is evident how much it imports the science of education, that these circumstances should, by care ful and continued observation, be all ascertained, and placed in the order best adapted for drawing from them the most efficient practical rules. This is of more importance than determining the question, whether the prodigious difference which exists among men, ordinarily well organized, is owing wholly to the circumstances which have operated upon them since the first moment of their sensitive existence, or is in part produced by original peculiarities. Enough is ascertained to prove, beyond a doubt, that if educe. tion does not perform every thing, there is hardly any thing which it does not perform : that nothing can be more fatal than the error of those who relax in the vigilance of education, because nature is power. ful, and either renders it impossible for them to as complish much, or accomplishes a great deal with. out them : that the feeling is much more conform able to experience, and much more conformable to utility, which ascribes every thing to education, and thus carries the motive for vigilance and industry, in that great concern, to its highest possible pitch. This much, at any rate, is ascertained, that all the differ ence which exists, or can ever be made to exist, be tween one body, or class of men, and another, is wholly owing to education. Those peculiarities, if any such there be, which sink a man below, or ele vate him above the ordinary state of aptitude to pro fit by education, have no operation m the case of large numbers or bodies. But large numbers or bo dies of men are raised to a high degree of mental ex cellence; and might, without doubt, be raised to still higher. Other large bodies, or whole nations, have been found in so very low a mental state, as to be raised but little above the brutes. All this vast dis- • tance is undeniably the effect of education. This much, therefore, may be affirmed on the side of Hel vetius, that a prodigious difference is produced by education ; while, on the other hand, it is rather as sumed than proved, that any difference exists, but that which difference of education creates.1 The circumstances which are included under the term Education, in the comprehensive sense in which we have defined it, may be divided, we have said, into Physical and Moral. We shall now consider the two classes in the order in which we have named them; and have here again to remind the reader, that we are limited to the task of pointing out what we should wish to be done, rather than permitted To attempt the performance.