"The discipline of Slavery is unknown
Amongst us, hence the more do we require
The discipline of virtue; order else
Cannot subsist, nor confidence, nor peace.
Thus, duties rising out of good possessed,
And prudent caution needful to avert
Impending evil, do alike require

That permanent provision should be made
For the whole people to be taught and trained.
So shall licentiousness and black resolve
Be rooted out, and virtuous habits take
Their place; and genuine piety descend,
Like an inheritance, from age to age.

Change wide and deep, and silently performed,
This land shall witness; and, as days roll on,
Earth's universal frame shall feel th' effect,
Even till the smallest habitable rock,
Beaten by lonely billows, hears the songs

Of humanized society; and bloom

With civil arts, and send their fragrance forth,
A grateful tribute to all-ruling Heaven.

From culture, universally bestowed,
Expect these mighty issues; from the pains
And quiet care of unambitious schools
Instructing simple childhood's ready ear,
Thence look for these magnificent results!"
WORDSWORTH.

The Excursion, Book IX.

ix

UNIV. OF

VINNOJIVO

ESSAYS

I

LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN

I. THE END AND THE MEANS

Of many passages that shine like gold in a cabinet of less precious ores in Rousseau's celebrated Essay on Education, the following is one : According to the order of nature, men being equal, their common vocation is the profession of humanity; and whoever is well educated to discharge the duty of a man cannot be badly prepared to fill up any of those offices that have a relation to him. It matters little to me whether my pupil be designed for the army, the pulpit, or the bar. Nature has destined us to the offices of human life antecedent to our destination concerning society. To live is the profession I would teach him. When I have done with him, it is true he will be neither a soldier, a lawyer, nor a divine. LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN; he will, on occasion, as soon become anything else that a man ought to be as any person whatever. Fortune may remove him

I

from one rank to another as she pleases, he will be always found in his place."

The doctrine thus proclaimed by Rousseau had been announced centuries before by Plato, who says in the sixth book of the Laws that "a nurture perfectly correct ought to show itself able to render both bodies and souls the most beautiful and best." What is such a nurture but adequate preparation for the "profession of humanity"? This comprehensive view of the purpose of education is always held by those who march in the van of civilization. It is a general truth to inscribe on the ever-advancing banner of educational progress. Like the gospel of religion, it must be preached anew in every age.

The child is born into the world ignorant, feeble, plastic, a mere lump of organized protoplasm, — yet living and endowed with germs of all human powers, a potential man. -a His education begins with his first breath. His parents are his primary educators; they must nurture his body and nourish his mind. The cradle is the first room in the school of life. The Kindergarten of home is the real preparatory department. Unless the child's early training, and the parents' ideas of the purpose of education, be correct, later teachers must work at great disadvantage. The father and mother give their child his constitution, his health, his habits. They call forth and direct the first motions of his mind, foster his tastes, set up standards for him, fur

nish his surroundings, determine his associations, advise him, control him. How important, then, that parents adhere to the best-known principles of education in dealing with their children, and in relations with those to whom their children are intrusted after they leave the nursery for the schoolroom. Right systems of education will be adopted by teachers if right demands are made by parents. Popular opinion determines the character of the schools. The best and wisest teacher in the world cannot bring his goodness and wisdom to the proof when the prevailing sentiment is against him, or not with him. Superior teachers need sympathy in their purposes and aspirations more than they need co-operation in the actual discharge of their duties.

The vital question is not what books to use, or what subjects to teach, or what classes to form, but what is the ultimate object of teaching? What do we want to do with or for boys and girls? What is

education?

"Give our children a practical education" is the exhortation of many parents; and little miss and master in the infant grade "tackle" the schoolma'am with, "What good 'll it do us?" The schoolma'am does not easily give little miss and master a satisfactory answer to their question. Nor does the superintendent find it possible to explain the utility of the course of study to the anxious, inquiring father, especially if the father be pertinaciously practical.