Part 15 (1/1)

3 The value of all property, real and personal, averaged by the population, was in one commonwealth 496 to every inhabitant, in the other 965 to every inhabitant

4 The value of all property, real and personal, averaged by the acre, was in one commonwealth less than 26 to the acre, in the other more than 177 to the acre

To which facts I h not in the Census, it was the invention of Eli Whitney, a travelling schoolmaster from Connecticut, that has trebled the value of land in nearly every Southern State

I have been endeavoring to show that popular education, though it is expensive, tends to national wealth The argureater material results than a population uneducated can produce The exaests the other line of argument, which I shall now notice briefly in conclusion This second arguence in a community tends to quicken invention, and leads to the discovery of those scientific principles and of those ingenious labor-saving machines, by which the productive power of the coin, the stea-machine would never have been invented in a nation of boors It is not asserted that every boy who goes to school will become an inventor But it is as certain as the laws of mind and matter can make it, that inventions abound in a nation in proportion to its progress in science and the general spread of intelligence a the masses Multiply common schools and you multiply inventions Howpower, and so add to the aggregate of human wealth, it is needless to say The invention of Watt alone has quadrupled the productive power of the whole hule country, Great Britain, equals the muscular capacity for labor of four hundred millions of men--more than twice the nuate power throughout the earth is equal to the male capacity for manual work of four or five worlds like ours The coriculture, the mechanic arts of the hule invention not yet a century old

The application of scientific truths to the co every day e carpenter, no less than the builder of the Niagara Suspension Bridge, makes hourly reference to scientific laws The carpenter who th of materials, builds a house which falls down The properties of the various mechanical powers are involved in every machine Every machine, indeed, it has been well said, is a solidifiedthe li a house, the builder in planning his estimates, and the several master work, are all dependent upon geo, soap-, the reduction of metals from their ores, with innumerable other productive industries, are dependent upon chericulture, the basis of all the other arts, is in the sa for the productive powers of the soil what the application of steam has done for the increase of mechanical power The far so, not in e of the laws of chemistry to the cultivation of the soil already possessed Even physiology is adding to the wealth of the far interest The truth that the production of animal heat i the loss of heat prevents the need for extra food--which is a purely theoretical conclusion--now guides the fattening of cattle By keeping cattle warists have proved, not only that change of diet is beneficial, but that digestion is facilitated by a redients in eachIn the keen race of coe of the laws of aniricultural cheuess and by tradition

A general diffusion of scientific knowledge saves the coland, notco that a certain fossil belonged to the old red sandstone, belohich coal is never found In another enterprise, 20,000 were lost in the prosecution of a sche the alcohol that distils froht have been saved, had the parties known that less than one hundredth part by weight of the flour is changed in fermentation

But it is not necessary to multiply illustrations Suffice it to say, in conclusion, I hold it to be a eneral education of a coely its e has upon individuals inthem individually more productive, and by the increased control which the diffusion of knowledge gives to mankind over the powers of nature A nation or a state is wisely econoely and even lavishly upon popular education

xxx

WHAT IS EDUCATION?

My last chapter, like the first, begins with a question Strange to say, no satisfactory definition of education has yet been given, nor has a definition of it often been even atteh But writers have busied the, and so forth A few, of a more philosophical turn ofthese some have undertaken to develop their theories fro all these, from Plato, as the earliest systematic writer on the subject, to Herbert Spencer, the latest and the iven a definition of it which is not open to objection

It ain that in which soat least an endeavor What then are some of the elements which enter into our idea of education?

To educate is, in the first place, to develop It is to draw out and strengthen the powers and give the e is to the child's mind what food is to the body Each is a rowth As by the proper use of food and exercise the limbs and muscles expand, and acquire their full and appointed size, sye of various kinds, the various faculties of the mind attain their full power and proportion

For this reason es, Latin and Greek, have held their place in ale of these branches is likely to be called for in ordinary professional business, but because the study of these branches is supposed to be particularly adapted to develop and invigorate certain important qualities of the mind This development of the powers, then, is the first element involved in a just idea of education

But, secondly, nature plainly indicates a certain order to be observed in the development of the faculties ”First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear” So in the human plant The time for the efflorescence of some of the faculties is in early youth Other faculties e of manhood A wise educator will carefully observe these facts, and not waste his energies anda premature development of those faculties which God see to draw out and train in childhood those faculties which then rowth Youth, for instance, is the season, of all others, when the memory is to be cultivated; the season of all others, when the instinctive principle of faith is to have free play So, too, the ere in the history of the huins, indeed, with the first snition that passes between the infant and its e of manhood, and the norly near the end, rather than near the beginning, of an educational course It is not, however, my object here to mark out an order for the development of the faculties, but only to note that there is such an order, and that the observance of this order is a most important element in our idea of what education is

The next element in this idea is that a certain proportion and symmetry be observed in the developht not be strictly accurate to say that any faculty hly

Yet there certainly is an excess whenever one faculty or power is cultivated quite out of proportion to the other faculties and powers Ahis attention exclusively for a long ti, educated his body to the power of lifting enorility, grace, and many other bodily qualities quite as ihts So theThe memorypower, the reason at the expense of the iment, the mind at the expense of the body, the body at the expense of the ht education, therefore, the faculties are to be developed, not only in due order, but in due proportion

The next element that enters into our idea is that of a proper co committed to his care is one of a complex nature, and that every part of this complex nature is to receive its due attention Physical education is included in his duties as well as ious No part is to be neglected He should aiility, strength, symmetry, and power of endurance The bodily senses are capable of a degree of cultivation that few seem to be aware of Perhaps, in our ordinary schemes of education, no part of our conored, as the physical But, as in regard to the other points that have been raised, so here, it is not my object so much to particularize the several parts of hunize distinctly the fact that we are thus complex, and that the business of the educator is necessarily a e and experience

But there is one important limitation to be observed here, otherwise our definition would be seriously amiss In many works on education, it is stated, without qualification, that we ought to give to all our powers the fullest developels, the rule s, it certainly needs some limitation We have faculties and powers, not a fehich we need to repress rather than to cultivate

Are we to give the fullest developer, envy, jealousy, cunning, avarice, and lust? To state the question is to answer it It is not every faculty of the child, therefore, that is to be developed, but only those parts of his nature which are good and desirable, those by which he can best discharge his duties to God and attain his highest excellence as a ather up the several ideas which have been suggested, and see if we cannot compress them into some brief formula, as a definition of education, which, if not perfect and exhaustive of the subject, shall be both more comprehensive and more precise than those now afloat

Definition--Education is developing, in due order and proportion, whatever is good and desirable in human nature