From this it will be seen that the religious education hers demanded is not of a dogmatical, much less a sectarian kind ; but such instruc tion as may enlighten the mind of the child and the adult as to their capacities, their duties, and their hopes; and such a discipline as may work the instruction into the character till it " leaven the whole lump." It is not a little curioua that in regard to education we may take a lesson from the ancient Persians," who, according to Xenophon, removing education from the hands of the parents into the hands of the state, gave the same attention to the moral training of the young as is now under the best circumstances given to their intellectual instruction, and so brought them up under the influence of precept and example, that the state was saved from the painful necessity of inflicting punishment, in coneequeuce of having taken such preventive measures as relieved the youth from the desire of what is low and unjust. 3Iorals with them were a practical science, the principles of which were first taught by word of mouth, and then by actual examples and by daily practice.
The morals taught in primary schools should have a regard to per sonal, domestic, and social duties, or the obligations which an individual owes to his family and to the state. The instruction should consist not of a mere dry detail of precepts, but ahould appeal to the reason and affections, that it may both developo them and gain such a reception In the breast of the scholar as to become the living power which governs his conduct.
The preceding remarks lead also to the conclusion that the culture which ensues from education is in itself an end, if indeed it is the primary and great end of education. The husbandman sows the seed in order to produce grain ; the educator disciplines the faculties that he may bring them into vigorous, healthful, and pleasurable activity. In both cases there is an adequate end, a result in which the agents may satisfactorily rest. Education can have no higher object than the creation of happiness by means of the formation of character. This is the great object of the Deity himself ; and if even the power which education gives is regarded as an instrument, as a means to some outward result, still the pursuit of mental and moral culture as a good in itself, can have no other than a beneficial result. It is important therefore that the purposes for which education is sought should be placed and kept in their proper rank. That which is secondary must not, however good, be thrust into the first place ; and above all that must not be altogether lost sight of, which in reality is in itself a most important result, if not the great end of education. The formation of character then, to make (so to speak) true men and women, beings with their faculties complete, and, in consequence, with all their internal sources of happiness, entire, full, and active— this should be an object carefully studied and diligently pursued by the educator. But here even superior minds halt behind the truth,
making the chief object of education some extrinsic result—such as, in the case of males, fitness for the duties of their station in life ; in the case of females, such as may prepare them to be pleasing wives and useful mothers—aims excellent in themselves, but scarcely entitled to hold the first rank, if for no other reason than this, that an outward accomplishment does not of necessity imply such an inward culture as will ensure health and vigour of character, and that durable and growing happiness which attends on genuine personal excellence.
The real nature of education considered as an instrument may also be gathered from these remarks. If the subject on which education operates is mental and moral in its character, and the effects which it labours to produce and the aims which it ought to pursue, also mental and moral, the instrument must be of a similar kind. Setting aside than so much of it as is designed for a physical result, education is a mental and a moral influence; in other words, it is mind acting on mind ; it is a superior acting on an inferior character ; it is human thought and human sympathies brought to bear on kindred elements in the bosoms of the young ; it is the power of religion living and breathing in one soul, going forth into another, and kindling within that other corresponding vitality. Whence it is obvious that much of what is called education does not deserve the name ; that a mechanical routine is not education, nor dexterity of hand, nor skill in shaping certain forms, nor the utterance of articulate sounds. If so, then reading, writing, and arithmetic, how well soever they may be taught, ought not to be dignified with the name, though they may in favour able circumstances contribute somethiug to education.
The tenor of these observations has determined another thing, namely, what ought to be the prevailing spirit and what the discipline of a school. School in reality holds the place of home ; home is God's school, but since present modes of life do not permit the parent to give his child a suitable training, he transfers education to the schooL The school therefore should approximate as closely as possible to the home. Now in theory the homes of this land are Christian homes ; the school in consequence should be a sort of Christian home. Such a union of terms calls up in the mind ideas of gentleness, for bearance, and affection. These then are the moral qualities which ought to prevail in the school. If so, severity and harshness must be banished as incompatible with the objects for which schools instituted. Nor are they only incompatible, but they are actually preventive and subversive of those objects. The display of every moral quality produces its like in those who habitually witness it; and unless the aim in school-training is to produce a severe, harsh, and unloving character, severity and harshness must be studiously avoided.