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." P. H. SUZANNE B VOL. I. BOOK I. OF EDUCATION IN GENERAL. · "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. ? Letter to Placcius. 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 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 |