MEANS AND ENDS, OR SELF-TRAINING. CHAPTER I. WHAT IS EDUCATION? "WHAT is education ?" asked a teacher of a class of girls. Young persons, when asked such general questions, do not reply promptly. They have no thoughts on the subject, and therefore have nothing to say, or, their thoughts not being arranged, they are not ready to answer, or, they may be too diffident to answer at all. On this occasion half the girls were silent, and the rest replied, "I don't know, sir." "Oblige me, girls, by saying something," urged the teacher. "The word is not Greeksurely you have some ideas about it. What is your notion of education, Mary Bliss ?" "Does it not mean, sir, learning to read and write?" Mary Bliss paused, and the girl next B her added, "and ciphering, sir, and grammar and geography ?" "Yes, it means this, and something more. What is your idea of education, Sarah Johnson ?" "I did not suppose education meant much more than the girls have mentioned, sir. Mr. Smith said, at the Lyceum Lecture, that the great mass of the people received their education at the common schools; and the girls have named nearly all that we learn at the common schools." "Does not education mean," asked Maria Jarvis," the learning young men get at colleges? I often hear people say of a man that he has had an education,' when they mean merely that he has been through college.' "You are right, Maria, in believing this to be a commonly received meaning of the term 'education,' but it means much more; and as it is important to you to have right and fixed ideas on this subject, I earnestly beg you all to give me your attention while I attempt to explain to you its full meaning. "A great man, Mr. Locke, said, that the difference to be found in the manners and abilities of men is owing more to their education than anything else.' Now, as you are all acquainted manners with men who have never seen the inside of a college, and yet who are superior in and abilities' to some others who have passed some of the best years of their lives there, you must conclude that education is not confined to college walls. "You are born with certain faculties. Whatever tends to develope and improve these is education. Whatever trains your mental powers, your affections, manners, and habits, is education. Your education is not limited to any period of your life, but is going on as long as you live. Whatever prepares you to be a profitable servant of God, and a faithful disciple of Christ; whatever increases your reverence and love of your Maker-all that in scripture is called the nurture and admonition of the Lord,'—is a part of your religious education. 6 "Whatever you do to promote your health, to develope and improve the strength and powers of your body, is a part of your physical education." "What, sir!" interrupted little Mary Lewis, "do you mean that running, and jumping rope, and trundling hoops, and clambering over rocks, is a part of education ?" "I certainly do-but why do you laugh, my dear child?" 66 Because, sir, I never knew that education meant anything so pleasant as that. I wish my mother could hear you, sir; she would let me play more, instead of studying all the time, if she only knew that driving hoop was called education." The teacher smiled and proceeded—“ Whatever calls forth your affections and strengthens them, whatever directs and subdues your passions, whatever cultivates your virtues, and whatever improves your manners, is a part of your moral education." "Then," said the same lively little girl, "that is what my mother means when she says, there is a lesson for you, Anne!' every time any one of the family does any good thing. It seems to me, I am educating all the time.” "You are, Anne-the world is your school, and good examples are your very best lessons. Whatever unfolds the faculties of your mind, improves your talents, and augments your stores of knowledge, is a part of your intellectual edu cation. "Whatever improves your capacity for domestic affairs, or for business of any sort, is a part of your economical education. Now you will perceive from what I have said, that education is not confined to schools and colleges, but that, as Anne has very well remarked, we are 'educating all the time.' Nor is the conduct of education confined to professed teachers; we are educating one another. "While I am teaching you geography and arithmetic, you are perhaps trying my patience, or by your own patience calling forth my gratitude. If I make progress in these virtues, you are helping on my moral education. "The knowledge you impart to one another, the kindnesses you receive, the loves you exchange, are all a part of your education. When |