Part 1 (2/2)
At first sight such principles seeeneral will accept them Experience teaches that the public will accept, without question, almost any maxim or problem, provided it be for that does not demand reflection or complex examination For the sa that at first sight see Knaves and charlatans, knowing this, ience, that they may accomplish their own ambitious and selfish ends In this way a ious, social, and political ue, especially in reference to the question of public instruction Yet on the sound principles concerning this question of education, and on the right understanding of them, depend not only the temporal and eternal happiness of the people, but also the future maintenance and freedom, nay, even the material prosperity, of the Republic
In the discussion of the syste expressions, or to advance so principles to keep the public in the dark on this ih tihtened on the subject of education Everybody is talking about education,--the advantages of education, the necessity of education; and yet almost all have co, as i mere cultivation of the intellectual faculties, and even this is done in thetheit reflect and reason The great her view
The ter more thaneducated; but he cannot be educated without being instructed The one has a partial or li What, then, is theof Education?
Education co to Plato, ”to give to the body and soul all the perfection of which they are susceptible”; in other words, the object of education is to render the youth of both sexes beautiful, healthful, strong, intelligent and virtuous It is doubtless the will of the Creator that man--the masterpiece of the visible world--should be raised to that perfection of which he is capable, and for the acquisition of which he is offered the proper nity of his being, andof the universe Now the body is the dwelling of the soul--the palace of this noble king; the nobility of the soul must induce us to attend to its palace--to the health and strength and beauty of the body;--health, strength and beauty are the noble qualities of the body
The noble qualities of the soul are virtue and learning Virtue and learning are the two trees planted by God in Paradise; they are the two great luht to the world; they are the two Testaments, the Old and the New; they are the two sisters, Martha and Mary, living under one roof in great union and har is, next to virtue, the hest i that all the natural faculties of the ree of perfection The ly improved by appropriate exercise, and becomes, as it were, a storehouse of na to every one's exigency or purposes The understanding--the light of the soul--is exceedingly improved by exercise, and by the acquisition of solid science and useful knowledge Judgment, the most valuable of all the properties of the overned and directed, is forested studies and reflection; and by them it attains to true justness and taste The mind, by the same means, acquires a steadiness, and conquers the aversion which sloth raises against the serious employments of its talents
How much the perfection of the mind depends upon culture, appears in the difference of understanding between the savages (who, except in treachery, cunning and shape, scarce seem to differ froant and civilized nations A piece of ground left wild produces nothing but weeds and briers, which by culture would be covered with corn, flowers and fruit The difference is not less between a rough mind and one that is well cultivated
The same natural culture, indeed, suits not all persons Geniusesproportioned to the which suits all persons, and without which knowledge is nothing but ”a sounding brass and tinkling cymbal”: this is the supernatural culture of the soul, or the habitual endeavor of ht of God by the acquisition of solid Christian virtues, in order thus to reach his last end--his eternal happiness It is for this reason that our Saviour tells us: ”What doth it profit a ain the whole world, and lose his own soul? For what shall a e for his soul?”--(Matt xvi
26) It is, then, the _supernatural culture_, or the perfection of the soul, that is to be principally attended to in education
Nohat is the perfection of soul? The perfection of each being in general, is that which renders the being better and s cannot make superior ones better andis These, then, cannot make the soul better and more perfect, but rather worse than she is; for he who seeks what is worse than hiood of the soul can be only that which is better and more excellent than the soul herself is Now God alone is this Good--He being Goodness Itself
He who possesses God s; for whatever goodness they possess, they have froht; in a flower, beauty; in bread, the savor; in the earth, its fertility; all these have their being from God No doubt God has reserved to Himself far more than He has bestowed upon creatures; this truth admitted, it necessarily follows that he who enjoys God possesses in hiht which he would have taken in other things, had he enjoyed thereater measure, and in a more elevated manner For this reason, St Francis of assisiu to which he was so accusto else, and often spent whole nights inon this truth
Certainly true contentment is only that which is taken in the Creator, and not that which is taken in the creature; a contentment which no man can take from the soul, and in comparison hich all other joy is sadness, all pleasure sorrow, all sweetness bitter, all beauty ugliness, all delight affliction It is most certain that ”when face to face we shall see God as He is,” we shall have most perfect joy and happiness
It follows, then, most clearly, that the nearer we approach to God in this life, the reater happiness of soul we shall enjoy; and this contentment and joy is of the self-same nature as that which we shall have in heaven; the only difference is, that here our joy and happiness is in an incipient state, whilst there it will be brought to perfection He, then, is a truly wise and learned, a truly well-educated, man, who here below has learned how to seek God, and to be united as much as possible with the Supreood education to the soul, who teaches her how to seek and to find her own Good
Nohat is it to teach the soul to find her own Supreme Good? It is to train, to teach, to lead the child in the way he should go, leading him in the paths of duty, first to God, and secondly to his neighbor All not professed infidels, it appears to me, must admit this definition
But as very ive the former's definition of education: ”Educate”--To instill into the ion_, and behavior
According to this definition of education, ion constitute essential parts of education Indeed, the first and most important of all duties which the child ious duties; for it will, I hope, be universally adate his species, make money, enjoy the pleasures of this world, and die” If he is not born for that end, then it is ht for what end he was born, and the way appointed by his Creator to attain that end
Every child born into this world is given a body and soul This soul, for which the body was created, and which will rise with it at the last day, be judged with it for the acts done in life, and be happy or unhappy with it for all eternity, is, in consequence of the ”fall,”
turned away froht reason, seeks its own gratification, like any irrational aniio_) is the means provided by a merciful God to reunite the chain broken by the sin of our first parents, and bridge over the chasive this knowledge of religion is the principal purpose of education Without this it is mere natural _instruction_, but no education at all It would be worse than giving, as we say, ”the play of Hamlet with the part of the Prince of Denion, then, forms the spirit and essence of all true education As leaven hout the entire ion hout the child's entire education, in order to be solid and effective Not a ious influence It is the constant breathing of the air that preserves our bodily life, and it is the constant dwelling in a religious atmosphere that preserves the life of the youthful soul Here are laid the priious principles otten, or partially effaced, in the journey of life, but they will nevertheless endure, because they are engraved by the finger of God Himself The poor wanderer, when the world has turned its back upon hi trusted to its pro yielded to its temptations and blandishments only to be cruelly injured and mocked, may, at last, in the bitterness of his heart, ”remember the days of his youth,” and ”return to his father's house” So long as faith re to build on, and room to hope for repentance, for reforone, all is gone Religion is the crystal vase in which education is contained, or rather the spirit which infuses and vitalizes it Religion is the very life of society, the very soul of a Christian State
All nations and governments know and understand that to exclude Christian education froislature, courts, and public and private ion, though distinguishable, is never separable frohtened statesious education as a overnton clearly asserts this in his farewell address to the American people: ”Of the dispositions,”
he says, ”which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports Where is the security for property or for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are administered in our courts of justice? And let it not be supposed that ly our legislatures are opened with prayer, the Bible is on the benches of our courts; it is put into the hands of jurymen, voters, and even tax-payers; indeed, fro under the Pentateuch, and that the whole moral law and Ten Commandments were bound to the brows of the public or State phylacteries
Indeed, the politics of every tribe, nation, or people, will reflect in an exact degree their ious convictions and education If these are false, the political society will be violent, disorderly, and abnor and happy If these propositions be true, and I claim they are as axiomatic and undeniable as any proposition in Euclid--yea more so, for they are the maxims of inspired wisdom--how immeasurably important is a true Christian education!
And if its influence is so great in deter even the political conduct ofthe character of true wohter The influence of Christian wo it possible, for a ht construct or direct an atheistical State, yet it would be utterly vain to build up the faanized communities, without the aid of the Christian woman She it is who, in the deep and silent recesses of the household, puts together those pri materials, each in its place and order, on which will rest and grow, to full beauty and development, the fair proportion of every well-ordained State This foundation is laid in the care and rearing of good and dutiful children
The task of the Christian mother may indeed be slow, and unobserved; but God , and this is beautifully illustrated in the Christian wo because she is weak, most influential when she is most retired, andthe work assigned her by Divine Providence, in the bosom of her household
It will be adirls demands a special culture Generally upon mothers the domestic instruction of the children, in their infancy, ht, therefore, to be well instructed in the ion, articles of faith, and all the practical duties and raphy, and soenius and spirit, may be joined with suitable arts and other accouided by and referred to religion, and provided books of piety and exercises of devotion always have the first place, both in their hearts and in their time