time, and are encouraged to enter upon advanced studies before they understand the simple rudiments. They forget that true progress depends less on the number of branches pursued, than on the thoroughness with which a few are mastered. Undertaking to learn too much, they become smatterers in every thing. Their acquirements are as superficial as they are extensive. Their knowledge will be more apt to make them wordy than wise; and,

"Words are like leaves, and where they most abound,

Much fruit of sense is rarely found."

They seem to act upon the principle that "knowledge is power,' but not in the sense of the great author of this maxim, who also tells us that "knowledge is the concoction of reading into judgment."

This system of instruction tends to inflate pupils with an over-estimate of their attainments, and such conceit as an element of juvenile character obviously has other tendenciesquite as pernicious as those to which we have referred. But the appropriate effect of true mental discipline and the highest culture is not self-admiration, but modesty. Since the first lesson which science teaches is the greatness of our ignorance and the littleness of our knowledge. It has been well said, "the greater the circle of our knowledge, the greater the horizon of ignorance that bounds it." Those who, flushed with their fancied achievements, are already complacently reposing on the very pinnacle of science, are invited to spend a little of their ample leisure in pondering a couplet of Cowper:

"Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more."

Or, if attic salt would give a better "relish," we would commend to their notice a classic proverb:

"Thou may'st of double ignorance boast,
Who know'st not that thou nothing know'st;
The pride of man in what he knows,

Keeps lessening as his knowledge grows."

But in plain terms, the conceit of wisdom is in inverse ratio to one's attainments. The less he knows, the more he thinks he knows. To the embodiments of self-satisfaction only, "a little learning is a dangerous thing." That pupil has not yet advanced far, who has not learned enough to know that his highest acquisitions are yet meagre indeed. The truly learned man feels that his knowledge is but a drop out of the boundless ocean of truth, "a few pebbles gathered from its shore." Thus, for example, Socrates represented his knowledge as

nothing; Bishop Butler compared his to a point; and Newton his to a few pebbles which a child picks up on the shore.

The very prevalent evils to which we have adverted, are the natural result of an erroneous, but common idea as to the primary objects of education. This error is fundamental. It would greatly impair the best system of instruction. A want of agreement and of concurrent action on this point is frequently the occasion of serious embarrassment, even to the best teachers. The most judicious instructors are particularly liable to incur the complaints and objections of parents, because their children are "put back." One of the greatest obstacles to thoroughness, and one which the most successful teachers are continually encountering, is found in the impatience of pupils at reviews, encouraged and sustained by the undue eagerness of parents to have their children get through the text-books. It should therefore be a familiar maxim in all common school instruction, that while the object of education is always two-fold, discipline of the mind is more important than storing it with facts. However valuable these may be, they should be learned, not primarily for their own sake, but as instruments of forming right mental habits. All the teacher's plans and methods of instruction should be modified by the paramount consideration that the prescribed studies are to be pursued-not so much as ends, as means to the higher end of disciplining and developing the mental powers. Knowledge is indeed essential to education, but, as we have already shown, does not constitute it. If right habits of mental activity and self-reliance are formed, knowledge will come in due time, as a matter of course; and any degree of knowledge, without mental discipline, will be of little use. It is the discipline of the intellectual and moral faculties that constitutes the man, and gives him his individual character and power. It is by the means of this discipline that he will be able to excel in any pursuit or profession.

Now the object of the Common School is not to finish the education, but to lay the foundation for future and higher attainments; to teach the pupil how to study, and to inspire him with a love of learning. If this be done, he will, for the rest, educate himself. He will feel that his education is only begun, when his school days are ended. To complete it, will be the aim and pleasure of his life. Place him where you will, let his calling be what it may, he will find leisure for study, and will feel an insatiable desire for self-improvement. Every child can ordinarily be so trained, that he will be a scholar through life, and occupy the intervals of labor and business

engagements in the cherished work of mental improvement. This great end of study should determine the methods of instruction. Such discipline is not to be gained by learning a few text-books by rote, nor by any degree of skill in mnemonics. It is the result of mental discipline, secured by close application and the thorough understanding of every branch pursued. From what has been said, it is obvious that it is the teacher's chief business to see, not how much he can get into the heads of his pupils, but how much he can get out of them. Drawing out is, in the end, the best way to put in. The culture of the mind is to be measured not by what it contains, but by what it can do. Efficiency is the proper test of mental improvement. Hence the teacher should make every effort to awaken and sustain a spirit of self-reliance. He should throw the pupil upon his own resources, and make him feel that he must train himself by his own efforts. In reference to education it is preeminently true, that "every one is the architect of his own fortune." In the breast of each pupil are the germs of those plastic faculties, which he can mould and shape as he will, and which, if rightly trained, will secure his usefulness and happiness. They are always the best taught, who in the highest sense of the term, are self-taught, who make use of the lessons of their teachers, chiefly as guides in the work of selftraining. The best scholars in our schools are those who lean least upon their instructors, and rely most upon themselves.

It is the teacher's office not so much to impart knowledge as to show his pupils how to get it; to give a strong impulse to their minds, and lead them, in conscious self-reliance, to put forth their utmost energies. He will thus inspire them with a love of study and delight in mastering difficulties, till they feel all the incitements of victors, and are encouraged to go on from conquest to conquest.

To train a school to such habits of study, is no easy task. Under the most favorable circumstances, it will involve great difficulty and demand persevering effort. The accomplishment of this one result is the greatest achievement of the successful teacher. It is the cardinal secret of a good education. These principles should guide committees in the selection of teachers; and any one who, on trial, is found to lack this important faculty, however excellent in other respects, and however popular in the district, is not equal to the responsible task assumed. It is a radical defect, for which no degree of literary attainments or suavity of manners can compensate.

Boys or girls educated on the system advocated above, can hardly fail of success, when they pursue, in a like spirit, their

appropriate callings in life. They will have clear ideas-and know what they are talking about when they speak at all. If they undertake to write, they will be capable of concentrating all their powers upon a given subject, and will write sensibly, and to the point. If they are called in the business of life, to decide in some novel emergency, they will think accurately, and decide promptly, for a thoroughly disciplined mind will always furnish a clue for the solution of the problem. Such a mind, even when overtaken by an unusual combination of circumstances, will not resolve on one thing to-day, and to-morrow the opposite; nor begin to doubt and waver as soon as any thing positive has been determined upon. It is not difficult to recognize such a person as well in a brief conversation, as in the whole course of life. He is distinguishable, at a glance, from those who are forever lingering among unexecuted resolutions and abandoned projects-always making up their minds, but never reaching a fixed and an abiding conclusion. Those who are alternately drawn in opposite directions, soon find their efforts frustrating one another, and come to feel demeaned in their own eyes. Conscious that they are powerless, they have neither the heart to attempt, nor the force to accomplish anything. Such instances of fickleness are not rare. is a tendency against which our youth need to be guarded with special care. The erroneous theory of education under consideration directly fosters fickleness, while thorough mental discipline imparts unity and force to the character. Without such discipline, a man will not think for himself-he will waver and hesitate now almost persuaded, and soon not persuaded at all. He will have neither accurate discrimination nor sound judgment; he may be very learned in appearance, but never strong, self-relying and original.

It

We have said that pupils can be so trained in the common sehool, and form such settled habits of thoroughness in study, that they will be studious through life, however early may be the daily summons to business or labor, and however late their release. To illustrate this point, we will cite a single instance out of many others which have fallen under our observation. An operative in one of the large manufactories of Massachusetts, who had enjoyed no advantages beyond a thorough common school education, was in the habit of spending all the leisure time he could command after twelve hours daily labor, in the study of the Differential and Integral Calculus, and the higher and more recondite branches of Mathematics. The late Professor of Mathematics in Yale College gave a particular commendation of his new and improved demonstrations of

VOL. XIII.

4

"Taylor's and Maclaurin's Theorems," and other theorems in the Calculus, and expressed in a letter to the writer, his strong hope that the mind which could achieve such results, in the face of such obstacles, should find some more fit and congenial employment-a wish that has since been realized by the transfer of the operative to the Office of the United States Coast Survey. Many similar facts might be mentioned for the encouragement of those just entering upon the active pursuits of life, who are so apt to think that they can find no time for selfculture. But is the little leisure which they have well improved? Should the evenings be idled away because the days are occupied with business or labor? How did Elihu Burrit get time at the anvil to conjugate Greek verbs, and make his varied attainments? Where did Franklin find time to educate himself in the printing shop for the philosopher and statesman?

It is due to the excellency and thoroughness of the Common Schools of Massachusetts, that so many of her sons have lately risen to eminence from the humblest walks of industry. Many of the agents and superintendents of her largest manufacturing establishments-receiving salaries higher than those of any civil office within the gift of the commonwealth-commenced their course as common operatives. Many prominent public men in Lowell, and elsewhere in the state, had an equally humble origin and enjoyed no educational privileges above those furnished in the Public Schools. Among them are found Mayors of cities, Members and Presidents of the State Senate, Speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, including the present incumbent, and Representatives to Congress. We might speak in the same connection of an eminently successful Boston merchant-a worthy representative of many others of the same class,-who though burdened with the widely different cares of extensive mercantile, commercial, and manufacturing departments of business, still by indefatigable industry secured time for the refinements of letters and the thorough study of the sciences, and who has made valuable discoveries in natural history-particularly in entomology and its practical application to horticulture. Indeed, facts stand out on every side, which clearly show that Massachusetts has never before furnished such facilities for intellectual improvement, nor presented incentives and encouragements so well fitted to call forth the highest aspirations of her youth.

It might be inferred from what has been said, that "keys in mathematics" would meet with little favor in Massachusetts. Indeed, a strong, though in some quarters ineffectual influence, has been employed for their suppression. In many towns,