So also the intellectual influence employed should be such as is likely to call out and strengthen the mental powers. The chief good of education is not to be looked for in outward results, nor even in the amount of knowledge communicated, but rather in such habits of mind,—power to fax the thoughts on any given object, to comprehend many particulars at one view, to resolve a complex subject into its component elements, to endure lengthened exertion, to carry deter minations into practice, to find resources for thinking and for happiness within—as may fit a young person for discharging his duty under all circumstances. Mere instruction therefore is not education, but simply an instrument of eacation. The aim should be so to inform the mind, as by the very act of informing to develope and strengthen its powers. The instruction then that deadens the appetite for know ledge and overloads the powers is not education, but something foreign to its nature.
There are two modes, corresponding with two processes, by which the mind carries on its own education, namely, synthesis and analysis, which should be studied and employed by the educator as his great instruments. By synthesis he will, both orally and by means of manuals, offer knowledge to the mind in a simple, attractive, yet systematic form, rising by degrees from the more to the less easy, and f ann the simple to the complex. By analysis he will lead the child to decompose the matter of instruction which he has received, to trace out the relations of the several portions to one or more elementary principles, their connections with other branches of knowledge, and the more obvious deductions which may be made from them. Thus will he at once ascertain that he has succeeded in communicating his lemons to the pupil, and In making those lessons themselves prolific in additional information.
In the employment of these instruments the educator must be careful to follow nature in her order of unfolding the faculties ; he roust address those first which appear first, and he must carefully abstain from anything calculated to force any natural power into ',moisture activity, or to overwork any faculty when it has come forth. Now the sight, the hearing, and the touch are the gifts of nature which are earliest developed. The power of reflection comes at a later period, and only as a result of the operation and influence of the senses. 1110 mind of a child is an empty storehouse ; the eye, the ear, and the touch are the portals through which this storehouse is supplied with matter, which, received and laid up, is afterwards operated upon by the mind, pursuaut to its own laws. If then the senses are the first of our faculties which are fit for use, the senses should receive the earliest attention of the educator. A child can immediately observe ; therefore the power of observation should be first cultivated. It is important that all the senses should receive cultivation, not merely for the infor mation of which they may be made the vehicle, but also with a view to that training which is first among the purposes of education; but the eye may take some precedence, as the sense of sight comes first in the order of natural sensibility. At a very early period the educator
should begin to teach his scholar how to use his eyes and other senses, both by words and by examples; and as the other faculties are found to expand themselves, ao should they be from the first taken under his fostering care, that by exercise he may bring them to act harmoniously and efficiently.
It is, however, necessary that education should be also regarded as a means to some outward result, and here at once the social distinctions of life present themselves to our attention and modify our views. It is obvious that a child should learn that which will best prepare him for the labours, the trials, and the duties through which be will have to pass. In other words, the children of the poor ought to be taught what most concerns them to know, what they will have immediately to do, and what, other things remaining the same, will prove the most fruitful source of happiness. At the same time, the primary object of education—the formation of character—should also be kept in view • and the discipline through which a child ought to be conducted and the of knowledge to be placed before him, must be deter mined by a joint reference to his capacities and his probable future station iu life.
Now in treating of the mere external parts of education, health of the body is the first thing that demands our attention. The body is the instrument by which the mind executes its purposes, and by which therefore much of the good which education does makes itself felt. It would consequently seem to be of the first importance that this instru ment should be kept in the hiFhest state of efficiency. But this is an end which cannot be attained if men are brought up in total ignorance of the structure of their bodies, and of the laws of health. From the first, therefore, children should be habitually taught to know the con ditions on which health depends ; such as relate to the state of their dwellings, the condition of their persons as to cleanliness and other matters of the like kind, of which not only the labouring classes but many others are extremely ignorant. There is no peculiar difficulty in commuuicating the requisite knowledge, and on the part of the voting the reception of it would be easy and pleasant. If we measure knowledge by its real usefulness, that is, its power to promote happiness, what comparison is there between this information and a knowledge of geography, history, or other things of the kind '1 A man may be ignorant of all these matters, and yet live-a virtuous, happy, and long life, but he cannot with impunity remain ignorant of the laws of health. The most absurd and the most injurious pre judices prevail on this point among the people ; and in general they imagine that sickness, disease, and death depend on causes altogether beyond their mach, on luck or chance, and that they have no other resource than pa/wive submission.