CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE SEVERAL MEANINGS OF EDUCATION

PAGE

I

Education, literal meaning of, 1; properly applied only to man, 2;

education of the race, 5; for a future existence, 9; for the duties of this

life, 12; definition of, 15; education of the faculties, 16; different

periods of their development, 19; physiology and psychology, 21; the

means of education, 22; different studies educate in different directions,

25; numerous works on education, 27; all men not equally capable of,

28; its aim, the perfection of humanity, 31.

CHAPTER II.

THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION

32

Perfection consists in the efficiency of the faculties for the performance

of their duties, 32; the object of education is to fit for the business of life,

34; mistaken ideas of reading and writing, 43; the test of education is

action, 45; mistaking the means for the end, 47; each individual endowed

with certain possibilities of life and work, 52; education enables him to

make the most of these, 53; it strengthens the faculties and enables them

to continue longer in action, ibid.; education is the cultivation of power, 56;

want of education is want of power, 58; exercise is the means by which

a faculty is educated, 62; we cannot educate a faculty by the exercise

of other faculties, 66; by means of exercise habits are formed, 70; the

stronger a faculty, the more pleasure attends its exercise, 72; happiness,

the end of education, 73; the faculties limited, and should be employed

only on what is of most importance, 74; learning should be made as

easy as possible to the pupil, 78; text books and grammars, 80; each

should strive to make the most of his life, 84; each is a commander of

forces, and his success depends on the ability and skill with which he

employs them, 85.

Education the divinely appointed means for the perfection of the race,

87; perfection consists in living in harmony with law, 90; by obeying

the laws of nature man is improved and perfected, 97; education teaches

obedience to them, 98; the importance of training the senses and form-

ing right associations of ideas, 99; a close correspondence between the

faculties and external nature, 102; the world a school, 104; the business

of education to discover and apply the laws of nature, 105; this a long

and tedious process, 106; had a man the power of living his life over and

over again he would no doubt at length reach a very high state of perfection,

107; the parent in a measure lives again in his children, 108; by educa-

tion he imparts to them the results of his own experience, 109; obedience

or submission to authority, 113; our powers called forth by opposition,

116; by education the knowledge of one individual is communicated to

another, 122; knowledge though long in growing is communicated by edu-

cation in a short time, 123; knowledge, conscious and unconscious, 128;

the one passing into the other, 129; an unconscious idea may prevail over

a conscious one, 136; in order to act right we must know right, 137;

knowledge, theoretical and practical, 143; value of knowledge, 149; the

degree of perfection to which man may be brought, 152; we find within

ourselves feelings that we are fitted for higher and better things than we

at present enjoy, 154; may not the time come when these feelings will

be gratified, when every desire of the heart will be fulfilled? 155; this,

we can believe, would be the state at length arrived at by the man

living his life over and over again, and there is no reason to believe

that the race will come short of it, 156; this, then, is the aim of educa-
tion, ibid.

CHAPTER IV.

THE HEREDITARY EFFECTS OF EDUCATION

PAGE

158

Each child inherits at birth certain feelings and tendencies from its parents,

160; intellectual and moral, as well as physical, qualities are transmitted

from parents to children, 166; these partake in great measure of the

education they have received, 169; each generation is not only educated

and trained by that which preceded it, but has incorporated in its very

nature the training and culture of that and many preceding generations,

170; the great value and importance of education lies in the fact that

the character, habits, and tendencies, which are formed in the parents,

are transmitted to their offspring, 178; may not thus, in time, everything

that is good and true in human nature be brought out and established

and all that is bad and false rooted out and destroyed? 178; may not

even new faculties be developed? 179; may not divine grace become a

hereditary quality, and man be born again when he is born? 185; both

theology and philosophy are too individualising, 189.

The duty of each generation to educate its successor, 194; a State's

wealth consists in its men, 197; labour the source of wealth, 199; labour

of human production, 200; by imparting skill to labour its value is

raised, 202; education the means of imparting skill to labour, 204; we

often find, even in the lowest ranks of life, men with talents qualified to

adorn a higher sphere, 206; by affording the means of education to all

the State will best aid each in reaching his proper sphere, 211; the

right to punish carries with it the right to teach, 213; the present a

mechanical age, 217; cramming, 219; the competitive system, 221;

man regarded too much as a machine, 224; education, by imparting

skill to his labour, will raise him from this state, 225; the claims of

labour at the hands of capital, 229; the claims of capital on labour,—it

claims its best, 234; the subjective value of labour, ibid.; the people's

right to education, 237; a State-controlled system, its defects, 238;

certain views of liberty prejudicial to education, 241; liberty and sub-

jection, 245; liberty exists for the discovery of truth, 247; truth is dis-

covered, not by each one discovering it for himself, but by one making

a discovery in one direction, another in another, and by these being

communicated by education, 248; we cannot, therefore, regard liberty,

as some do, as if no truth had been discovered, else we could have little

education, the first principle of which is obedience or submission to

authority, 249; liberty according to knowledge, 255; freedom to act

according to truth and right, 257; the best master one can serve is the

one possessing most knowledge, 258; in the case of the ignorant and

uneducated this must be considered to be society or the State rather

than the individual, 258; the State may rightly interfere with parents

neglecting the education of their children, 260; each requires a certain

amount of liberty to protect his interests, else he might suffer loss, 263;

the selfish principle, 268; deeply rooted in our systems of education,

270; love the highest feeling in our nature, ibid.; when the principle of

love comes to animate and guide men upon earth, as it will doubtless yet

do, then will a man put himself and all that concerns him into the hands

of another, perfectly assured that he will not suffer loss, 274; education

should be directed to bring out this principle of love, and to train each

to be kind, considerate, and helpful to others, 276; pleasing manners an

important part of education, ibid.

Religion imparts a knowledge of the future life, 281; man a religious as

well as a moral and intellectual being, 283; the religious faculty requires

to be trained like every other, 289; education teaches how religious

principles are to mould and animate the daily life, ibid.; action does

not necessarily follow thought or feeling, 294; hence we frequently find

the profession of Christianity apart from the practice of it, 305; Chris-

tianity not a mere doctrine or belief, but a life and a practice, 309;

religion not an end but a means to an end, which is the glory of God

and the perfection of mankind, 314; whatever tends to the perfection

of mankind is for the glory of God, ibid.; religion designs man's per-

fection even in this world, 315; in divine revelation God gives a higher

knowledge of law than could be obtained by reason alone, 321; the end of

all knowledge and of all religion is the perfection of our nature, 336;

education teaches how right habits are to be implanted, and evil habits

overcome, 340; to the educator religion shows the way in which he

should go, while by education the Christian is instructed how to put the

principles of his faith into practice, 346; the one is the necessary com-

plement of the other, 347; religious instruction cannot be well given in

the ordinary day school, or by the ordinary teacher, 356; special quali-

fications are required in the teacher, who, above all, should himself be

a religious man, 357; parents are the natural, and ought to be the prin-

cipal, religious teachers of their children, 359; failing, and in addition

to them, the duty devolves upon our churches and congregations of

seeing to the religious education of the young, 362.

Educators are the different influences that go to form the character,

366; the progress of civilization, 368; physical influences, 374; social

influences, 380; individual influences, 392; these three classes of in-

fluences have brought civilization to its present advanced state, 395;

they act upon individuals as upon peoples and races, 396; they are

mostly all capable of being changed or modified by man, and taken

advantage of in education, 398; each, in his sphere, is an educator, 401;

each exerts an influence upon others, 402.

CHAPTER VIII.

EDUCATORS-continued: PAREnts, Teachers, &c.

The parents, 406; the mother, 412; should be educated for this duty,

415; were mothers so educated, the health and training of their chil-

dren would be better attended to, 421 ; infant mortality, 422; the mother

imparts her own nature to the child, 423; nurses, 426; the teacher, 428.;

his qualifications, 431; should know child-nature and human nature in

general, 441; the training of the teacher, 448; its necessity, 452; pupil

teachers and training colleges, 455; defects, ibid.; chairs of education

in the universities, 458; the advantages of them, 460; teachers so

trained would enter on their work with knowledge and zeal, and success

would crown their labours greater, perhaps, than can well be imagined,

466.

INDEX

. 469

EDUCATION AND EDUCATORS.

CHAPTER I.

THE SEVERAL MEANINGS OF EDUCATION.

"The true idea of education is contained in the word itself, which signifies the art of drawing out or educing; and being applied in a general sense to man, must signify the drawing forth or bringing out those powers which are implanted in him by the hand of his Maker. It aims to do for man

that which the agriculturist does for the fruits of the earth, and the gardener for the more choice and beautiful productions thereof. What the forester does for the trees of the forest, and the tamer and breaker-in of animals for the several kinds of wild creatures; this same office in a higher kind, according to the higher dignity of the subject, doth education purpose to do for the offspring of man."-(Rev. EDWARD IRVING.)

THE term education is derived from the Latin word Educatio, which, as formed of the two words e out, and duco I lead or draw, literally signifies a leading or drawing out or forth. The Romans used the word not only in relation to man, but also to the lower animals, and even to plants to educate was to rear or cultivate them, to bring out their various properties or qualities.1 With

...

1 "The Latin word Educatio, from which our education is obviously derived, was not employed strictly or consistently by the classic writers. In its verbal form it was used in the sense of drawing out (properties) or bringing up, and so made to signify the germination of plants or training of animals; it was then extended to the first cares or training bestowed upon childhood. Cicero represents the earth as the Educator (bringer-up) and nourisher of all things; and Educatio he uses to signify the training of animals to labour; but he also uses it in the modern sense of education. Tacitus uses educare to signify the nursing of infancy, and educatio strictly as training; but he also, like Cicero, makes Educator the synonym of tutor, and elsewhere gives to educatio its present meaning. Quintilian, who with respect to words must have been a purist, makes educatio our preparatory, and institutio our academic education. Cicero, on the other hand, in some B