SECT. IV.-OF HABIT. No time will be lost, no effort will be fruitless, if each step is made sure as the child advances through the educational course. This can be effected only by the continual repetition of the exercises on which depend the energy of the faculties and the acquirements proposed by education. The more frequently any action is repeated the more easily and rapidly is it executed; on the other hand, ease and rapidity of execution tend to make it less perceived, more independent of the will, and, thereby, longer persevered in. Such an action is said to be a habit. All physical, moral, and intellectual operations are liable to become habits. These habits produce in us permanent and, as it were, instinctive dispositions which constitute a new mode of existence; hence they have been called "second nature." The acquisitions made through any of the faculties being rendered habitual by repeated exercise, adhere so tenaciously to our individuality, and are, in every respect, so closely assimilated with the elements of our native constitutions, that it is, in many instances, impossible to distinguish the acquired from the innate dispositions. Habits promote or impede our progress, according as they are good or bad. Good habits extend the power of our faculties and facilitate our improvement, because the readiness and spontaneity with which habitual ideas are recalled and habitual actions are performed, permit these faculties to apply their activity to new acquisitions, and these ideas or actions to be brought in aid of further improvement. Bad habits are obstacles to improvement, because, escaping attention as they do, the will has little control over them: it must therefore be difficult to guard against their intrusion, or avoid their evil influence. Habit changes good actions into virtues and faults into vices ; it enables us to add new to old acquisitions, and gives stability to all physical, moral, and intellectual acquirements. The chief business of education may be said to consist in forming good habits and preventing bad ones. Solomon declared the power of habit when he said, "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." It is by the admirable law of habit that man, although possessing very limited powers, can indefinitely extend his acquisitions and advance towards perfection. Dr. A. Combe has so clearly shown the effects of repetition and the advantage of habit as applied to study, that we cannot forbear quoting him at some length. "If we repeat," he says, "any kind of mental effort, every day at the same hour, we, at last, find ourselves entering upon it without premeditation, when the time approaches; and, in like manner, if we arrange our studies in accordance with this law, and take up each regularly in the same order, a natural aptitude is soon produced, which renders application more easy than by taking up the subjects as accident may direct. Nay, the tendency to periodical and associated activity occasionally becomes so great in the course of time, that the faculties seem to go through their operations almost without being conscious of effort, while their facility of action becomes so prodigiously increased, as to give unerring certainty where, at first, great difficulty was experienced. "The necessity of judicious repetition in mental and moral education is, in fact, too little adverted to, because the principle on which it is effectual has not been understood. To induce facility of action in the organs of the mind, practice is as essential as it is in the organs of motion. Repetition is necessary to make a durable impression on the brain; and, according to this principle, it follows, that in learning a language, or science, six successive months of application will be more effectual in fixing it in the mind and making it a part of its furniture, than double or triple the time, if the lessons are interrupted by long intervals. Hence, it is a great error to begin any study and then break off to finish at a later period. The ennui is thus doubled, and the success greatly diminished. The best way is to begin at the proper age, and to persevere till the end is attained. This accustoms the mind to sound exertion and not to fits of attention. Hence, the mischief of long vacations, and hence the evil of beginning studies before the age at which they can be understood, as in teaching the abstract rules of grammar to children, to succeed in which implies in them a power of thinking and an amount of general knowledge, which they cannot possess." *Elements of Physiology. SECT. V. THE FOUR EDUCATIONAL PERIODS OF YOUTH. Youth is the season of life designed by Providence for giving a proper direction to the faculties, for training the habits and laying the foundation of the physical, moral, and mental character. It may be divided into four periods, through which are distributed the various exercises indispensable to a good education, and to which we shall often have occasion to allude. These four periods are, 1. From birth to the age of 6 (Infancy). 2. From 6 to 12 years old (Childhood). It must be well understood that this classification is only approximate; for the natural activity of the faculties is found to vary considerably throughout the different periods of youth. It is not unusual to see, for example, a child of eight years more advanced in physical or mental growth, than one of ten or even twelve. We must, however, observe that education does not end with youth: it continues through the entire of our earthly existence, The discipline to which man is subjected during these four periods, and especially during the first three, ought to be considered only as a preparation for the great education of life; its primary object is to enable him to improve himself afterwards, and to adapt himself to the particular circumstances in which it shall please Providence to place him. The threefold process which transforms the most helpless being into the noblest work of God on earth, is too vast in its details to permit us to do justice to the subject in the present initiatory Book: we will only briefly indicate what are, in the three departments of education, the faculties to be trained and the acquisitions to be made through their instrumentality. Our observations on these points are not offered as a treatise on education; they are merely intended to exhibit the fundamental principles of the science of Education, from which are deduced our precepts, and on which should be based the study and the teaching of languages. No system of instruction, in fact, can be safe or successful, which has not its foundation in a thorough knowledge of the constitution of man, and which is not formed with due regard to the end proposed in education. CHAPTER I. PHYSICAL EDUCATION. SECT. I.-DEFINITION. THE objects of physical education are the preservation of health, the cultivation of the physical faculties, and the acquisition of useful arts and accomplishments. Physical Perfection may be said to consist in bodily strength and beauty, which are the offspring of a healthy constitution, and of well-developed organs. SECT. II. THE ORGANS AND FUNCTIONS OF ORGANIC LIFE. The physical constitution of animals is invariably formed according to the instincts and kind of intelligence with which each species is endowed: that of man is divided into two systems which, although distinct, have a mutual dependence on each other; these are the organic and the animal. The organic system, or vegetative life, has for its principal organs, the heart, the stomach, and the lungs. Their functions, independent of the will, are confined to the preservation of health, the support of life, and the growth of the individual. The functions of organic life being involuntary, come only indirectly within the power of education: as health and life depend on them, the Creator has not permitted that they should be under the immediate control of our caprice; they are as active in infancy as in the maturity of life. Physiology makes us acquainted with the natural laws which govern these functions ; and it is our interest to conform to them; for, as long as man acts in accordance with the dictates of nature, in the gratification of his wants and appetites, she provides for the regularity and energy of the vital faculties. The child generally comes into the world in a healthy condition; it is the duty of the educator, whether a parent or his substitute, to preserve him so. This will be more particularly effected by a close attention to diet, sleep, cleanliness, clothing, air, and exercise, which have a direct influence on the organs of life. The manner in which these first wants of nature should be supplied is an essential part of physical education. Hygiene prescribes for this object rules, which are but too often neglected. It would be impossible to state the extent of injury done to humanity by the almost universal ignorance of this important branch of the medical science. The benefits of health are not confined to the individual; they extend to the community and to the future generation. The child will be a parent; and on the constitution of the parent depends, in a great measure, the constitution of the future child: man follows, in this respect, the laws of animal nature. SECT. III.-RECIPROCAL DEPENDENCE OF MIND AND BODY. By reason of the intimate relations which exist between all the parts of the animal economy, the judicious exercise of the physical faculties which obey the will, cannot fail to exert a favourable influence on those which are not subject to it. Not only do pure air, proper food, muscular exercise, and cleanliness of the skin, stimulate and improve the circulation of the blood, the digestion and the respiration; but moral feelings and intellectual occupations have, through the nervous communication existing between the brain and the three vital organs, a direct influence on their functions. A well-regulated activity of the mind, and cheerfulness of disposition, are essential to sound bodily health, whilst excess of intellectual labour, and violence of moral emotions are among the many causes of physical derangement. On the other hand, the state of the circulatory, digestive, and respiratory organs, has a direct influence not only on physical education, but on moral and intellectual training. Health is the foundation of the whole edifice of education. The mind is incapable of exerting all its energies and the heart its kindliest affections, if the body is in a state of debility or disease. The connection between the body and the mind, and their reciprocal dependence on each other, as established by physiology and psychology, must never be lost sight of. As the physical organs are the instruments which the soul employs in its operations, their soundness and activity must facilitate its discipline. Physical education cannot, therefore, be separated from moral and intellectual training. Physiology affords aid in psychological investigations. An |