PART THE FIRST. OF LANGUAGE, AS A BRANCH OF EDUCATION. “L'étude des langues est la première et la plus indispensable de toutes les études.” "La vie de l'homme n'est en réalité qu'une grande éducation dont le perfectionnement est le but."-J. M. DEGÉRANDO.* "We regard education as the formation of the character, physical, intellectual, and moral; as the process by which our faculties are developed, cultivated, and directed, and by which we are prepared for our station and employment." W. C. WOODBRIDGE.† INTRODUCTION. SECT. I.-DEFINITION OF EDUCATION. EDUCATION is the first want of society. It is the only safe basis on which can be firmly established the observance of the laws, the happiness of individuals, the prosperity of a nation, and the progress of civilisation. "Of all great objects of national policy, which can engage the attention of subject or ruler," says the untiring and eloquent advocate of national education in Ireland, "this is, by far, the greatest ;-great now, great at all times; not a helper only in the building up of society and of civilisation, but the only foundation on which all society and civilisation must finally rest. He who neglects this, may construct what social edifice he pleases; he will soon find, to his cost, that he has been but an architect of ruins." "I always thought," says also Leibnitz, "that mankind could be reformed by reforming education."§ So powerful, indeed, is the influence of education, that he, who should have it in his own hands, could change the face of the world. Education proposes to confer on man the highest improvement * Du Perfectionnement Moral. † American Annals of Education. Thomas Wyse. Speech in the House of Commons, May 19, 1835. 8 Letter to Placcius. B 2 |