neither can they control and direct their own impulses and passions. Nations that are civilized are so precisely because they possess a higher kind of education. The ideas of other minds have been preserved among them, and have become their property; they have been communicatel from one individual to another, and have been written down, and kept in those registers of other men's thoughts which we call books. So that, as years roll on, the young start in the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, furnished, with all that has been already gained and laid up for them, by the toil of those who have lived before; and each age adds to the stores thus laid up for succeeding generations. Education, properly so called, therefore, consists in the training of all the powers of the soul. In the popular way in which we use the term, it is very often made to express the particular training of the intellect or the memory. If a man learns to read or write, he is said to have some education; if, in addition to this, he has been taught Greek, Latin, and mathematics, he is said to be well educated; and yet, in spite of his learning, he may only be half educated, after all. His intellect may have been developed, but his other powers may never yet have been "drawn out;" nay, his very intellect may not have been properly directed, nor shown on what it may most worthily employ its strength; and hence the man, with all his learning, may have less that will really serve his purpose than the nature-taught savage. To understand the full meaning and real value of education, let us remember that everything in the world approaches perfection in proportion as it is adapted to its end. A knife that is made of gold and ornamented with jewels may be a handsome trinket, but it is not a good knife unless it cuts. And so a man's education nust fit him for his end, or it would be simply good for nothing. It must call forth his powers of observation and reasoning, because in all the affairs of life he has need of good sense and sound judgment. It must strengthen his memory, and fill it with useful facts; and must aim at making him an intelligent being, with powers capable of being directed to the particular end which each man has to accomplish. But, It is obvious, however, that every man does not stand in need of the same kind of education. A physician requires a different kind of teaching from a priest, and a soldier has to learn many things which would be quite useless to a ploughman, or a shoemaker. Of what use would it be to an artisan's wife if she thoroughly comprehended the whole solar system, and yet knew not how to make a shirt, or keep her husband's house in proper order? Or if her husband himself were to be learned in Greek and Latin, yet unable to cast accounts or spell his own language? There are some things, therefore, in which people do not all require the same kind of education, because all have not the same aim. again, in other respects they all have the same requirements, because in some things their end is the same. The real end of man is not to be a carpenter, or a physician, or a soldier; it is to know God, to love God, and to serve God in this world, and to be happy with him for ever in the next. Without recollecting this, we can never form any true idea of what constitutes education. For without this thought in our minds, how can we know in what direction our powers are to be "led out," on what objects they are to be employed, and to what purpose we shall use them? If things are perfect in proportion as they are fitted for their end how can the powers of my soul reach perfection if they be not trained to do that for which God created them? Unless my memory shall have been taught to think of God, and my will to love him and serve him, by resisting what is evil and resolving on what is good, and unless my understanding, enlightened by faith, shall have been directed to distinguish truth from falsehood - my education is imperfect; for surely that would be a sorry education by which the intellect had only been nurtured in error. Never, therefore, let us fall into the common mistake of thinking a man well educated simply because he knows many things. Knowledge alone is not education, any more than it is wisdom. Knowledge is merely the information of the memory-a very useful part of education, provided always that the facts so communicated be good and true; for there may be a knowledge of evil. Neither is a man well educated merely because he can think and reason. Here again we have a great power; but does he think and reason rightly? Steam is an enormous power also; but what would be the result if it were set in motion for some mischievous purpose? Instead of propelling a railway engine or working a cotton-mill, it might crush a hundred men, or blow up a dozen houses. And human reason needs control and direction quite as much as any steam-engine. The education of the understanding is not intended merely to make a man into a reasoning machine, but to lead him to form true conclusions, and to teach him how sometimes to use and sometimes to submit his judgment. And what shall we say of the will of man- that gigantic power which all are conscious of possessing, and on the use of which all our other powers depend for good or for evil? Shall not this also have its education? Shall we know how to work our intellects, and yet never have learned how to command our passions? Shall our heads be trained to a thousand difficult exercises, and our hearts, from which are the issues of life and death, be still untamed, undisciplined, and savage? It is evident that religion and religious influences are required in order to "lead out" all our powers, and shape them to their true end, by training our whole intellectual and spiritual nature "to the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ." RAPT into future times, the bard began: A virgin shall conceive, a virgin bear a son! Returning Justice lift aloft her scale; Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, Feeds from his hand, and in in his bosom warms; |