of which his body, his mind, and his soul* are capable, with a view to secure his well-being, to fit him for society, and to prepare him for a better world. Hence, general education is divided into three branches, Physical, Intellectual, and Moral, the latter including Religious training. The first aims at health, strength, and beauty; the second at mental power and the acquisition of knowledge; and the third at piety, justice, goodness, and wisdom.

These acquirements, carried to their highest degree of perfection, bear analogy with the attributes of the Divinity, of whom man is a feeble image; and it is only by constantly endeavouring to possess them that he can really be said to assimilate himself to his Maker. He cannot, it is true, reach perfection; but his efforts ought always to tend towards it. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect." The hope which arises from the consciousness of man's progressive improvement, points to happiness as his pursuit and to immortality as his destiny. The perfectibility of human nature and the progressiveness of truth will be placed beyond doubt when education is properly understood.

By perfectibility we mean not the power of reaching perfection, but the capability of always advancing towards it. This capability, consistent with the design of a bountiful Creator, is the foundation of human happiness. Man has been created to be happy his desires and the numberless means of enjoyment which God has placed at his disposal, within him and without, sufficiently prove this truth. His happiness is the better secured in proportion as his physical, moral, and intellectual constitution approaches nearer to perfection; for he will, in the same pro

* We have, consistently with common practice, adopted this subdivision, because it facilitates the classification of the various objects of education; but the terms, scul and mind, require to be explained; for they are often confounded one with the other, and are understood differently by different people. We therefore think it right to state the meaning which we attach to them in this place.

Man is a compound of spirit and matter, called soul and body. Mind does not constitute a third essence; the idea expressed by this word is included in that which is conveyed by the word soul; in fact, mind is a specific term, and soul a generic one. Mind, synonymous with understanding, comprises the faculties which have their sphere of action in the brain, and which operate on ideas; hence, the Philosophy of the Mind is sometimes called "Ideology." Soul, in its general acceptation, embraces all the spiritual nature of man, moral and intellectual; and the science which treats of it in this wide sense is called "Psychology." But used as it is here, in a restricted sense and in contradistinction to mind, it implies only his higher attributes, the moral faculties, the directing powers, all the inclinations and emotions which are figuratively said to have their seat in the heart. The soul and its attributes, viewed in this light, form the subject of Ethics, or Moral Philosophy.

St. Matthew, Gospel, ch. v. 48.

portion, possess greater means of physical, moral, and mental enjoyment. True happiness and perfection are inseparable. Such is the law of our nature, that, to arrive at happiness, we must advance towards perfection.

Civilisation, which originates in the principle of perfectibility unfolded by education and society, marks the progress of man towards the highest improvement which his constitution is intended to reach, and places within his power all the resources which external nature has in store for his well-being. Barbarism, which has been improperly called the natural condition of humanity, is only a state of retrogression: the first man was not created a savage. Civilisation is alone the true natural state of man, as being that towards which all his energies instinctively tend, and in which all his faculties are brought into activity. It arises from sociability, one of the principles of his nature. "Humanity is endowed with capacities which can be perfected only by the combination of minds; there is a life running through the whole mass, which, in the isolated individual, is entirely lost; there is a divine plan in human history, which shows that all minds are closely linked together in the chain of being; in brief, there is a purpose, a destiny, an end which can be accomplished only by humanity as a whole-by time, and by united labour." (J. D. Morell, Philosoph. Tendencies of the Age.)

SECT. II.-EXERCISE OF THE FACULTIES-THE BASIS OF
EDUCATION.

To effect the gradual perfectibility which can best promote man's well-being and secure the various acquirements which constitute his highest improvement, God has given him—in addition to the instinctive impulses which he possesses in common with the other animals-physical, moral, and intellectual faculties, or innate powers of action, susceptible of being improved, and which it is his duty, as well as his interest, to cultivate within rational limits. He is the more prompted to exercise these faculties, the essential elements of his constitution, as their very action is a source of pleasure to him,—a pleasure which increases, as they are invigorated by exercise. A want thereby arises, the satisfying of which calls for their constant activity. Thus has the Creator provided for their exercise, and pointed out to us the path we should follow.

Freedom is indispensable to man's perfectibility; he has, in consequence, been created a free agent, and he claims from society, as his imprescriptible right, that liberty of thought, of speech, and

of action, without which he could not cultivate and completely unfold all his faculties. So deeply implanted is the innate sense of this right, that ages of oppression and slavery have been unable to root it out of the human heart. Consistently with his original freedom, he has been endowed with the privilege of exerting over his faculties a voluntary control, by which he can modify, regulate, and perfect them: thus he becomes the subject of culture and discipline. Different from the animal tribes, which reach the perfection of their being, not by gradual development, but at once and without the aid of education, he is a progressive creature; his powers are unfolded, and his acquisitions made only through a process of slow and careful training. He has to learn everything, while they instinctively possess all the knowledge which they want. Education is the law of his nature, as uncontrollable and limited instinct is that of the brute.

Some animals, it is true, are found susceptible of a certain degree of education; but this exception, limited as it is, does not invalidate the general law of the immutability of the brute creation. Besides, the education which these animals receive from man is not required by them; it does not add to their well-being; it does not enable them to provide for their own wants better than other animals of their own species; it begins and ends with the individuals, without being in the least profitable to them or to their offspring.

All the acquirements which contribute towards human perfection, arise from a proper cultivation of the faculties. Exercise is the source of that cultivation; it is the vital principle of education. Exercise affects the original powers of man's constitution in two ways: it imparts to them energy in proportion to its quantity, and generates peculiar qualities, aptitudes, or capacities, consistently with its particular nature. But, in the application of this great principle, excess and exclusiveness must be avoided. An excessive or exclusive exercise of any faculty would be as prejudicial as its utter neglect. It is the preponderating activity of some one faculty to the exclusion of the others, or the overindulgence in one particular mode of its action, which produces those inconsistencies of character, those aberrations of mind, often observed in men. Although the innate powers are few in number, the qualities, aptitudes, and capacities to which their varied exercise and their different degrees of native activity give rise, are so numerous, so diversified, and so opposite in their kind, that man may be the noblest, or the most contemptible being of the creation, according as they are properly or improperly directed

and exercised. Hence, although his organisation is universal and invariable, his physical, moral, and intellectual character, which depends on the qualities acquired, varies with time, place, and the progress of civilisation.

The faculties have all their legitimate spheres of usefulness, and the benefits to be derived from each depend on their harmonious development. They are, in fact, different instruments, all of which are indispensable for attaining man's possible perfection; and, as such, they require to be duly improved and properly applied, to secure the ends for which he was placed on this earth. Although connected by secret ties, the faculties are yet so independent of each other, that each demands special and distinct exercises for its due cultivation. It is the noble office of education to direct their natural activity, to extend and multiply their various energies, as also to indicate the means by which they may best perform their work, and by which they are made subservient to happiness. Education may, in fact, be said to have for its object the securing of happiness through the perfection of all the faculties. The study of the three species of faculties—the physical, the moral, and the intellectual-and the investigation of their relations to external nature, have given rise to the three systems of philosophy which are respectively based on sensation, sentiment, and reason, and which, under the name of Eclectic Philosophy, M. Cousin has combined in so admirable a manner.

If our pursuit after happiness always proves vain, it is because the innate powers on the harmonious development and good direction of which it depends, have, many of them, opposite tendencies; and, consequently, their collective perfection can never be accomplished, even with our best endeavours. The highest state of happiness is reserved for a better world-for a world in which perfection does exist.

SECT. III.-SUCCESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FACULTIES.

In order to advance towards the three-fold perfection, education should take under her guidance the faculties of man, as they gradually dawn, with a view to aid their spontaneous action, and improve them by proper cultivation. At the moment of birth, the faculties are in complete torpor. The physical faculties are the first which manifest themselves, because they are indispensable to our existence; next appear the moral faculties to direct the organs of sensation, and to secure the well-being of the individual. The intellectual powers are usually the last to be in full

activity. Thus, nature indicates the order to be followed in the successive cultivation of these different classes of faculties, until the general manifestation of them all permits their simultaneous training. The principle of slow progression runs through all that is created to grow and improve. Gradation is an invariable law of nature; and it is in conforming to that law that the great art of education consists.

In aiming at the complete development of all the primitive powers of the child, the educator should observe, as nearly as he can, the order of nature. However, it is difficult to determine in a definite manner the order in which all the faculties should be brought under the control of discipline; for, our constitutions and characters being infinitely diversified, as are also the circumstances in which we are placed, the same means and principles of action cannot always be used with the same effect. But, whatever be the order followed in the cultivation of the faculties, the important point is gradually to bring the cultivation of each in unison with that of the others. In endeavouring to attain this harmonious development, the educator should avail himself of the intimate connexion and mutual relation which exist between them all, and which render the exercise of each subservient to the cultivation of all. The affinity which thus brings the three classes of faculties into immediate contact is one of the many manifestations of that admirable unity which marks all the works of the Almighty.`

*

Precedence, however, should be given to physical and moral training over intellectual pursuits, because the physical and the moral faculties provide for our first wants as living beings and as members of society. Their proper direction is useful under any circumstances, should even mental culture be entirely neglected. The latter, on the contrary, would be useless in the absence of health, and might be pernicious in the absence of morality. The worth of man is in proportion to his morality rather than to his intellectuality.

The proper development of the moral faculties is the safest foundation for the most extensive state of liberty in man; for their general activity and their good direction give him the right to gratify all his desires, which, under their benign influence, can only be virtuous and rational.

These three classes of faculties are considered by German philosophers as the three branches of one science, and are treated as such, under the name of Anthropology (science of man).