mental discipline; it does not cultivate the higher faculties any more than manual occupations; it exercises the understanding less even than planing timber, or filing metal to a particular shape. It must not, then, be wondered at, if the children of the poor schools, in which the mechanical parts alone of reading and writing are taught, leave those establishments so deficient in intellectuality.

To the working classes, industrial and moral education would prove far more valuable than exclusive attention to reading and writing. The ultimate benefits expected from these two acquisitions cannot, in the present state of society, be calculated upon, dependent as they are on the accidental circumstances (rare among that portion of the people) of a love of reading and access to books. Besides, nearly all their time being taken up in earning a livelihood, they generally have little leisure to employ these arts to any advantage; so that, with the present system of elementary instruction, although they may acquire at school these instruments of knowledge, they remain all their lives deplorably ignorant of their duties as citizens and as Christians.

What this interesting portion of the community requires, in addition to reading and writing, and far more than these arts, of which they seldom avail themselves,-what they are entitled to, as a right, not as a charity, from the state, not from private benevolence, is to be taught the means of gaining a livelihood, to have their minds unfolded and stored with the elements of knowledge, to be enlightened respecting their political rights, their duties to God, to society, and to themselves, and, finally, to be inspired with an earnest desire for intellectual and moral improvement. The interest of society and their own happiness require, above all, that they should be impressed with the conviction that virtue is infinitely superior to knowledge, and that piety, justice, goodness, and wisdom are the greatest blessings of education, and the acquirements most worthy of their ambition. (2.)

(2.) See Appendix.

CHAPTER III.

INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION.

SECT. I.-DEFINITION.

INTELLECTUAL education consists in two distinct objects-the cultivation of the intellectual faculties and the consequent acquiring of knowledge, otherwise called Instruction.

Hence, we see that instruction is only one of the subdivisions of education. The latter has for its object the perfecting of the whole man, considered physically, morally, and intellectually; instruction proposes solely to store his mind with information. Education is a generic, instruction a specific, term. These words, education and instruction, educator and instructor, must not be confounded one with the other.

The highest natural energy which the mental powers can possess, constitutes genius; every species of useful knowledge is a branch of learning. Genius and the whole circle of learning combined constitute Intellectual Perfection.

SECT. II.-INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES.

The intellectual, like the physical and the moral faculties, should be cultivated by exercises calculated to produce their greatest development, and tending to secure intellectual acquirements. It is on the external world, and through the medium of his senses, that the child can most profitably exercise his opening intellect. His sensations and curiosity constantly call his intellectual powers into play, while conscience and will direct their action. On the other hand, physical and moral life require to be guided by the light of intellect. Thus are the operations of the mind intimately connected with those of the body and of the soul. The different orders of faculties assist each other through the whole course of education; but, although the physical and moral development of the first and second periods subserves intellectual

education, this education is in full activity only from the third. It is, therefore, from the tenth or twelfth year only, that exclusively mental studies should be commenced.

The following table indicates the faculties of the mind, with the qualities which it is the object of education to cultivate in them :

These faculties have for their common object the acquisition of knowledge, or instruction, constituting intellectual acquirements; each performs a particular office in the complicated mental process by which that acquisition is made. The posses sion of the various qualities of which they are susceptible would constitute an active and well-regulated mind-the greatest advantage which intellectual education can bestow. The instructor should then endeavour to secure that possession to the child, by a judicious and varied exercise of all his faculties, consistently with the various qualities to be cultivated. And, although it is almost impossible to attain to this high perfection, the efforts made towards it will not be lost; for intellectual excellence is usually in proportion to intellectual exertion. With a view to facilitate this object, we will examine what are the nature and use of these different faculties.

1. Attention.

Attention is the power of the mind by which the will directs the organs towards objects, in order to receive from them sensations, and from sensations, impressions, notions, or ideas. It is the most important of the intellectual faculties: through its means alone can the others be brought into action; without it the mind is powerless. The surest way, therefore, to succeed in cultivating and improving the other intellectual powers is to acquire a command over attention, and to give it a useful direction.

The force and continuity of attention are always in proportion to the interest excited by the objects which are submitted to its action. On the other hand, the intensity of the interest excited by anything is in proportion to the relations which it bears with our desires, our wants, and our well-being, as prompted by selflove, to the sympathies we feel for it, to the degree of curiosity which attracts us towards it, and to the energy of the will with which, in fact, it may almost be identified. Attention will then be invigorated by a suitable cultivation of the moral faculties, and especially of the will.

Attention, influenced as it is by the moral faculties from which it receives its impulse, forms another link between the moral and the intellectual energies. By reason of this very influence, it might, perhaps, be considered as a moral power; but as its action more particularly bears on the intellectual faculties, and contributes to their efficiency, we prefer placing it among them. However, it matters little how attention is classed, provided its importance in education be well understood.

This faculty, like all the others, when duly exercised, acts with readiness and energy, especially in reference to the objects frequently submitted to its action: a person may be very attentive to everything connected with his trade, profession, or favourite pursuit, who cannot, without difficulty, command his attention in other matters. Hence the necessity of properly directing this power in childhood.

The habit of general attention is the most favourable state of the mind for obtaining success in educational exercises, and in all the affairs of life: it continually directs the mind to what passes within the reach of the senses, and enriches the memory with all the facts which conversation and reading impart. Many persons complain of a want of memory, who are only deficient in attention. It is chiefly the inequality of attention which makes the difference observable between the intellectual powers of men. Attention assumes the name of observation when it acts conjointly with the sense of sight; of examination, when it is successively directed to the parts of a whole; and of investigation, when it is directed to a series of connected facts. When it is withdrawn from the external world, and directed to the ideas treasured up in the mind, it constitutes the three acts of thinking, reflecting, and meditating, which differ only in their degree of intensity. Comparison is attention alternately bestowed on two or more things considered relatively to each other. These

different modes of attention must be early cultivated and rendered habitual; for they have, each, their peculiar sphere of usefulness in the acquisition of knowledge, and in the various concerns of life.

Attention takes the name of abstraction, when it is exclusively absorbed in the contemplation of one particular subject, of one part of a whole, of a property considered apart from the object to which it belongs. Such is the effect of abstraction, that, in concentrating all the faculties on one isolated fact, it multiplies their power as regards that fact, and deprives them of their action on what passes beyond its limits. The efficiency of this mode of attention in overcoming the difficulties of human pursuits, has given rise to the subdivision of labour in mechanical arts and to generalisation and classification in science.

The power of abstracting the mind from every subject but that immediately before it, is indispensable as a means of instruction. The more concentrated is the attention of the learner on one branch of knowledge, the more rapidly and the more thoroughly will he master it. If reflection and abstraction are directed with intensity and perseverance towards an object, they can effect more than natural genius; for, although this heavenly gift may emit sparks which reveal its existence, it will never, without abstraction and mental industry, produce anything great or durable. The men who have left after them anything worthy of our admiration, have generally been hard mental workers, and have directed their energy towards one particular object. We must, however, beware of keeping the attention of young people abstractedly engaged, for too long a time, on any one branch of study, for it is apt to engender indifference to every species of knowledge not immediately connected with that under consideration.

Abstraction, when unduly exercised, produces absence of mind, and must prove prejudicial to its possessor. It is not rare to see men so much engrossed with the objects of their pursuits, and so unmindful of everything else, that, in the affairs of life, they seem destitute of common sense. It was under the influence of intense abstraction that Archimedes ran naked through the streets of Syracuse, on discovering the specific gravity of bodies, while, in a bath, pondering over the problem of Hiero's crown. He afterwards fell a victim to his excessive indulgence in abstraction.