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-

THE

MEANS AND ENDS

OF

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION.

BY IRA MAYHEff, A.M.,

£uptiittitnttni of ijpubltc Jhistructtoit of lljc Stale of

AND

Stutljor cf a 3j3iartiral Sjjstnu of Jj

NEW YOEK:

PUBLISHED BY A. S. BARNES & Co.,
Ill & 113 WILLIAM ST., con JOHN.

1867.

LC75

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight
hundred and fifty-six, by

IRA MAYHEW,

iu the Clerk's Office of the District Court of ths United States for the
District of Michigan.

EDUCATION DEPT,

PREFACE.

WHEN about to engage in enterprises of any kind, it
is befitting that persons should first settle in their own
minds THE ENDS they propose to attain, in order that
they may wisely adapt THE MEANS to be pursued, to the
accomplishment of these ends. If the responsibilities
about to be assumed are delicate in their nature, and
far-reaching in their consequences, it is eminently proper
that the candidate should seek to be duly and truly pre
pared, and well qualified, that he may prove in some
degree adequate to the task to which he thus voluntarily
devotes himself.

But what relation is so delicate and responsible in its
nature, and what so far reaching in its results, as that
of the parent to his offspring ? or that of the teacher to
his pupils ? And what positions are more thoughtlessly
assumed, or sustained with less solicitude, than are
these, in perhaps the great majority of cases! The
consideration of these facts necessarily awakens deep
and earnest solicitude in appreciating minds.

It is lamentable to consider how many parents there
are — and how many teachers, even — who never thought
fully consider the ends of human life, and the means
which are necessarily connected therewith. Of those

PREFACE.

who are actually engaged in so developing the charac
ters, and so establishing the habits of their children,
and of their pupils, as materially to affect their weal or
woe, for this life, not only, but while being endures —
whether conscious of it or not — how few, comparatively,
answer for themselves, or even seriously consider, these
and like questions :

In what does a correct education consist? and, How
can this education be best secured to the successive
generations of men? What course of training is best
calculated to fit my children, or my pupils, for the dis
charge of the various duties that will be incumbent
on them as individuals, as social beings, as citizens of a
free government, and as candidates for immortality ?
In considering these questions previously to the pre
paration of this volume, the author was led to treat the
subject, in many respects, very differently from what
most writers that preceded him had done.

In the present state of being, the mind, which con
stitutes the real man, dwells in a material body, for the
purposes of development and culture, that it may there
by be prepared to enter most advantageously upon that
higher life which awaits us in the future. The body,
properly developed, with its five senses all in a state of
healthy action, is the medium, and the only medium,
through which a correct knowledge of God, as mani
fest in the material world, can be communicated to, and
his likeness daguerreotyped upon, the mind. Hence
the .great prominence given in this volume to physical
culture, and the right education of the senses, as con
stituting the true substratum for symmetrical and most
successful mental development.

The author, in his present effort, has sought to awaken

PREFACE. I, \ ''•'/;''.!

a deeper interest with all classes of the comm unity in
behalf of universal education, and to inspire confidence
in the redeeming power of improved Common Schools,
which constitute the only reliable instrumentality for
the proper training of the rising generation. He has
endeavored so to present the subject of Education,
which should have reference to the whole man — the
body, the mind, and the heart — and so to unfold its
nature, advantages, and claims, as to make it every
where acceptable. Nay, more ; he would have a good
common education considered as the inalienable right
of every child in the community, and have it placed
first among the necessaries of life.

This work was first issued by Harper and Brothers,
in 1850, under the title of " Popular Education ;" but
the right to publish having been recently transferred to
A. S. Barnes & Company, who propose to add it to
their valuable Teachers' Library, it has been deemed
advisable to so change the title as to render it at once
more specific, and more suggestive of the scope of its
contents.

The author is not insensible to the favorable opinions
which the press of our country, without regard to sect
or party, have been pleased to express of the earlier
editions of this work ; nor to the cordial endorsement
it has received from school officers and school teachers,
from legislators, and from the earnest friends of educa-

O '

tion generally. These constitute the pleasing assurance
that his efforts have not been entirely unsuccessful.

Hitherto this work has stood alone. But now, be
cause of its appearing with a new name, with a new
costume, and with new associates, it is hoped it may
lose none of its old friends ; for these changes are the

PREFACE.

result of circumstances not under its control. But, on
the contrary, while it shall find new friends in persons
possessing The Teachers' Library, as heretofore pub
lished, may it reciprocate the favor, and have the honor
itself of extending, in turn, their favorable acquaintance
among its early friends.

With this introduction we commend the work anew
to the regards of the friends of the cause which it seeks
to promote, while we suffer it again to go forth on its
chosen mission, with the hope that it may contribute to
a knowledge of the means which shall be instrumental
in securing the ends attendant upon a correct Universal
Education.

IKA MAYHEW.

ALBION, MICH., October, 1856.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
Ill what does a correct Education consist?..... Page 13

CHAPTER II.
The Importance of Physical Education 28

CHAPTER III.
Physical Education — The Laws of Health. . ................... 44

CHAPTER IV.
The Laws of Health — Philosophy of Respiration 81

CHAPTER V.
The Nature of Intellectual and Moral Education Ill

CHAPTER VI.
The Education of the Five Senses 146

CHAPTER VII.
The Necessity of Moral and Religious Education 193

CHAPTER VIII.

The Importance of Popular Education 224

Education dissipates the Evils of Ignorance -. 22G

Education increases the Productiveness of Labor 253

Education diminishes Pauperism and Crime 28G

Education increases human Happiness 311

CHAPTER IX.

Political Necessity of National Education 325

The Practicability of National Education 353

CHAPTER X.

The Means of Universal Education 3G2

Good School-houses should be provided .. 372

Well-qualified Teachers should be employed 410

Schools should continue through the Year 440

Every Child should attend School . „ 442

The redeeming Power of Common Schools , 454

INDEX 4G1

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION.

CHAPTER I.

IN WHAT DOES A CORRECT EDUCATION CONSIST?

I call that education which embraces the culture of the whole man,
with all his faculties — subjecting his senses, his understanding, and his
passions to reason, to conscience, and to the evangelical laws of the
Christian revelation. — DE FELLENBERG.

FROM the beginning of human records to the present
time, the inferior animals have changed as little as the
herbage upon which they feed, or the trees beneath
which they find shelter. In one generation, they attain
all the perfection of which their nature is susceptible.
That Being without whose notice not even a sparrow
falls to the ground, has provided for the supply of their
wants, and has adapted each to the element in which
it moves. To birds he has given a clothing of feathers ;
and to quadrupeds, of furs, adapted to their latitudes.
Where art is requisite in providing food for future want,
or in constructing a needful habitation, as in the case
of the bee and the beaver, a peculiar aptitude has been
bestowed, which, in all the inferior races of animals,
has been found adequate to their necessities. The
crocodile that issues from its egg in the warm sand,
and never sees its parent, becomes, it has been well
said, as perfect and as knowing as any crocodile.

Not so with man ! " He comes into the world," says
an eloquent writer, " the most helpless and dependent
of living beings, long to continue so. If deserted by
parents at an early age, so that he can learn only what

' 11 ' A CORRECT EDUCATION :

the experience of one life may teach him — as to a few
individuals has happened, who yet have attained matu
rity in woods and deserts — he grows up in some re
spect inferior to the nobler brutes. Now, as regards
many regions of the earth, history exhibits the early
human inhabitants in states of ignorance and barbarism,
not far removed from this lowest possible grade, which
civilized men may shudder to contemplate. But these
countries, occupied formerly by straggling hordes of
miserable savages, who could scarcely defend them
selves against the wild beasts that shared the woods
with them, and the inclemencies of the weather, and
the consequences of want and fatigue ; and who to each
other were often more dangerous than any wild beasts,
unceasingly warring among themselves, and destroy
ing each other with every species of savage, and even
cannibal cruelty — countries so occupied formerly, are
now become the abodes of myriads of peaceful, civil
ized, and friendly men, where the desert and impenetra
ble forest are changed into cultivated fields, rich gar
dens, and magnificent cities.

"It is the strong intellect of man, operating with the
faculty of language as a means, which has gradually
worked this wonderful change. By language, fathers
communicated their gathered experience and reflec
tions to their children, and these to succeeding children,
with new accumulation ; and when, after many gen
erations, the precious store had grown until memory
could contain no more, the arts of writing, and then of
printing, arose, making language visible and permanent,
and enlarging illimitably the repositories of knowledge.
Language thus, at the present moment of the world's
existence, may be said to bind the whole human race
of uncounted millions into one gigantic rational being,
whose memory reaches to the beginnings of written

IN WHAT IT CONSISTS. 15

records, and retains imperishably the important events
that have occurred ; whose judgment, analyzing the
treasures of memory, has discovered many of the sub
lime and unchanging laws of nature, and has built on
them all the arts of life, and through them, piercing far
into futurity, sees clearly many of the events that are
to come ; and whose eyes, and ears, and observing mind
at this moment, in every corner of the earth, are watch
ing and recording new phenomena, for the purpose of
still better comprehending the magnificence and beau
tiful order of creation, and of more worthily adoring
its beneficent Author.

" It might be very interesting to show here, in mi
nute detail, how the arts of civilization have progress
ed in accordance with the gradual increase of man's
knowledge of the universe ; but it would lead too far
from the main subject." The preceding sketch may
remind us of the low condition of man in a state of
ignorance and barbarism, and of the high condition to
which he may be brought by cultivation. We possess
a material and an immaterial part, mutually dependent
on each other. On one hand, we may well say to cor
ruption, Thou art my father ; and to the worm, Thou
art my mother and my sister. On the other hand, the
Psalmist says of man, Thou hast made him a little lower
than the angels.

In the Scriptures we learn the origin and history of
man — the subject of education. He was created in
the image of his Maker. It was his delightful employ
ment, in innocency, to dress the beautiful garden in
which he dwelt. Presently we learn he transgressed.
His subsequent career becomes infelicitous. In the
earlier history of the human race, the days of his pil
grimage were protracted several hundred years. In
process of time, because of the prevalence of sin, a

10 A CORRECT EDUCATION :

universal deluge swept away the entire family of man,
save one — a preacher of righteousness — and those of his
household. Subsequently his days were shortened to
three score years and ten. Much of this time is con
sumed in helpless infancy, in sleep, and in securing the
necessary means of supporting animal life. This, it
would seem, is calamity enough ; but not so. Man
finds himself beset with temptations on every side, to
deepen and perpetuate his degradation, by giving reign
to unbridled passion.

But a Light has shined upon his dark pathway, point
ing him to a brighter country, and beckoning him
thither. Under these adverse circumstances, it be
comes the duty of the Educator to unfold the opening
energies of his youthful charge ; to mold their plastic
character, and to assist their efforts in the recovery of
that which was lost, and in the attainment of immor
tality and eternal life.

These are strong views, I am aware ; but nothing
less would be adequate to the nature and wants of
man. In these views I am fully sustained by nearly
every writer of any distinction in Europe and Ameri
ca. In a volume of prize essays on the expediency and
means of elevating^ the profession of the educator in
society, published in London, under the direction of
the central society of education, one of the writers,
introducing a quotation from an American author,
says, I can not resist the pleasure of quoting a few of
Alcott's brief sentences, by way of conclusion to the
present division of the argument. The voice that has
been sent athwart the Atlantic may find an echo in
some British bosoms.

These are its words : " Education includes all those
influences and disciplines by which the faculties of man
are unfolded and perfected. It is that agency that

IN WHAT IT CONSISTS. 17

takes the helpless and pleading infant from the hands
of its Creator, and, apprehending its entire nature,
tempts it forth, now by austere, and now by kindly
influences and disciplines, and thus molds it at last
into the image of a perfect man ; armed at all points
to use the body, nature, and life for its growth and re
newal, and to hold dominion over the fluctuating things
of the outward. It seeks to realize in the soul the
image of the Creator. Its end is a perfect man. Its
aim, through every stage of influence, is self-renewal.
The body, nature, and life are its instruments and ma
terials. Jesus is its worthiest ideal — Christianity its
purest organ. The Gospels are its fullest text-book —
genius is its inspiration — holiness its law — temperance
its discipline — immortality its reward."

Says Dr. Howe, in a lecture before the American
Institute of Instruction, "Education should have for its
aim the development and greatest possible perfection of
the whole nature of man : his moral, intellectual, and
physical nature. My beau ideal of human nature would
be a being whose intellectual faculties were active and
enlightened ; whose moral sentiments were dignified
and firm ; whose physical formation was healthy and
beautiful : whoever falls short of this, in one particular
— be it in but the least, beauty and vigor of body — falls
short of the standard of perfection. To this standard,
I believe, man is approaching ; and I believe the time
will soon be when specimens of it will not be rare."

The following thoughts are drawn from a treatise
on the "Mental Illumination and Moral Improvement
of Mankind," by that very judicious and celebrated
writer, Dr. Dick, of Scotland. The education of hu
man beings, considered in its most extensive sense,
comprehends every thing which is requisite to the cul
tivation arid improvement of the faculties bestowed

18 A CORRECT EDUCATION:

upon them by the Creator. It ought to embrace every
thing that has a tendency to strengthen and invigorate
the animal system ; to enlighten and expand the under
standing ; to regulate the feelings and dispositions of
the heart ; and, in general, to direct the moral powers
in such a manner as to render those who are the sub
jects of instruction happy in themselves, useful mem
bers of society, and qualified for entering upon the
scenes and employments of a future and more glorious
existence.

It is a very common but absurd notion, and one that
has been too long acted upon, that the education of
youth terminates, or should terminate, about the age
of thirteen or fourteen years. Hence, in an article on
this subject in one of our encyclopedias, education is
defined to be " that series of means by which the human
understanding is gradually enlightened, between infan
cy and the period when we consider ourselves as qual
ified to take a part in active life, and, ceasing to direct
our views to the acquisition of new knowledge or the
formation of new habits, are content to act upon the
principles we have already acquired."

This definition, though accordant with general opin
ion and practice, is certainly a very limited and defect
ive view of the subject. In the ordinary mode of our
scholastic instruction, education, so far from being
finished at the age above stated, can scarcely be said
to have commenced. The key of knowledge has indeed
been put into the hands of the young ; but they have
never been taught to unlock the gates to the temple of
science, to enter within its portals, to contemplate its
treasures, and to feast their minds on the entertain
ments there provided. Several moral maxims have
been impressed on their memories ; but they have
seldom been taught to appreciate them in all their

IN WHAT IT CONSISTS. 19

bearings, or to reduce them to practice in the various
and minute ramifications of their conduct. Besides,
although every rational means were employed for train
ing the youthful mind till the age above narrjed, no valid
reason can be assigned why regular instruction should
cease at this early period.

Man is a progressive being ; his faculties are capable
of an indefinite expansion; the objects to which these
faculties may be directed are boundless and infinitely
diversified ; he is mo vine: onward to an eternal world,
and, in the present state, can never expect to grasp
the universal system of created objects, or to rise to
the highest point of moral excellence. His tuition,
therefore, can not be supposed to terminate at any
period of his terrestrial existence ; and the course of
his life ought to be considered as nothing more than
the course of his education. When he closes his eyes
in death, and bids a last adieu to every thing here be
low, he passes into a more permanent and expansive
state of existence, where his education will likewise be
progressive, and where intelligences of a higher order
may be his instructors ; and the education he received
in this transitory scene, if it was properly conducted,
will found the ground-work of all his future progres
sions in knowledge and virtue throughout the succeed
ing periods of eternity.

There are two very glaring defects which appear
in most of our treatises on education. In the first place,
the moral tuition of youthful minds, and the grand prin
ciples of religion which ought to direct their views and
conduct, are either entirely overlooked, or treated of
in so vague and general a manner, as to induce a belief
that they are considered matters of very inferior mo
ment; and, in the business of teaching, and the super
intendence of the young, the moral precepts ofChristi-

20 A CORRECT KDUCAT ION I

anity are seldom made to bear with particularity upon
every malignant affection that manifests itself, and
every minor delinquency that appears in their conduct,
or to direct the benevolent affections how to operate
in every given circumstance, and in all their inter
courses and associations. In the next place, the idea
that man is a being destined to an immortal existence,
is almost, if not altogether overlooked. Volumes have
been written on the best modes of training men for the
profession of a soldier, of a naval officer, of a merchant,
of a physician, of a lawyer, of a clergyman, and of a
statesman ; but I know of no treatise on this subject
which, in connection with other subordinate aims, has
for its grand object to develop that train of instruction
which is most appropriate for man considered as a can
didate for immortality. This is the more unaccounta
ble, since, in the works alluded to, the eternal destiny
of human beings is not called in question, and is some
times referred to as a general position which can not
be denied ; yet the means of instruction requisite to
guide them in safety to their final destination, and to
prepare them for the employments of their everlasting
abode, are either overlooked, or referred to in general
terms, as if they were unworthy of particular consid
eration. To admit the doctrine of the immortality of
the human soul, and yet to leave out the consideration
of it, in a system of mental instruction, is both impious
and preposterous, and inconsistent with the principle
on which we generally act in other cases, which re
quires that affairs of the greatest moment should occupy
our chief attention. If man is only a transitory inhab
itant of this lower world ; if he is journeying to another
and more important scene of action and enjoyment ; if
his abode in this higher scene is to be permanent and
eternal ; and if the course of instruction through which

IN WHAT IT C(J.\\SISTS. 21

he now pusses has an important bearing on his happi
ness in that state, and his preparation for its enjoy
ments — if all this be true, then surely every system of
education must be glaringly defective which either
overlooks or throws into the shade the immortal des
tination of human beings.

If these sentiments be admitted as just, the education
of the young becomes a subject of the highest import
ance. There can not be an object more interesting to
Science, to Religion, and to general Christian society,
than the forming of those arrangements, and the estab
lishing of those institutions, which are calculated tc
train the minds of all to knowledge and moral rectitude,
and to guide .their steps in the path which leads to a
blessed immortality. In this process there is no period
in human life that aught to be overlooked. We must
commence the work of instruction when the first dawn
ing of reason begins to appear, and continue the proc
ess through all the succeeding periods of mortal ex
istence, till the spirit takes its flight to the world un
known.

While we would bring clearly into view the nature
of that education which is needful for man, considered
as a candidate for immortality, we would by no means
overlook those subordinate aims which have reference
to his present condition, and the relations he sustains
in this life. The two are so intimately connected, and
sustain such a reciprocal relation to each other, that
each is best secured by that system of training and in
the use of those appliances by which the other is most
successfully promoted. In training the rising genera
tion for the proper discharge of their duty to them
selves and to one another — as children, and subsequent
ly as parents ; as members of society and citizens of
free and independent states — WTC at the same time best

22 A CORRECT EDUCATION I

promote their interests as candidates for immortality.
It is equally true that any system of education which
omits to provide for man's highest and enduring wants
as an immortal being, in a proportionate degree falls
short of providing for his dearest interests and best
good in this life.

The system of education which we should promote
comprehends whatever may have any good influence
in developing the mind, by giving direction to thought,
or bias to motives of action. To lead infancy in the
path of duty, to give direction to an immortal spirit, and
to teach it to aspire by well-doing to the rewards of
virtue, is the first step of instruction. To youth, educa
tion imparts that knowledge whose ways are useful
ness and honor, and by due restraint and subordination,
makes individual to intwine with public good in a just
observance of laws, comprehending the path of duty.
To manhood, it " leads him to reflect on the ties that
unite him with friends, with kindred, and with the great
family of mankind, and makes his bosom glow with
social tenderness ; it confirms the emotions of sympa
thy into habitual benevolence, imparts to him the elating
delight of rejoicing with those who rejoice, and, if his
means are not always adequate to the suggestions of
his charity, soothes him at last with the melancholy
pleasure of weeping with those who weep." To age,
it gives consolation, by remembrance of the past, and
anticipation of the future. Wisdom is drawn from ex
perience, to give constancy to virtue ; and amid all the
vicissitudes of life, it enables him to repose unshaken
confidence in that goodness which, by the arrangement
of the universe, constantly incites him to perpetual
progress in -excellence and felicity. Education is the
growth and improvement of the rrind. Its great object
is immediate and prospective happiness. That, then, is

IN WHAT IT CONSISTS. 23

the best education which secures to the individual and
to the world the greatest amount of permanent happi
ness, and that the best system which most effectually
accomplishes this grand design. How far this is ac
complished by the present systems of education is not
easily determined, but that it fails in many important
considerations can not admit of a doubt.

It is feared that, by a great majority, a wrong esti
mate is made of education. Is it not generally consid
ered as a means which must be employed to accom
plish some other purpose, and consequently made sub
servient and secondary to the employments of life ? Is
it not considered as being contained in books, and a
certain routine of studies, which, when gone through
with, is believed to be accomplished, and consequently
laid by, to be used as interest may suggest or conven
ience demand ? Education comprehends all the im
provements of the mind from the cradle to the grave.
Every man is what education has made him, whether
he has drunk deep at the Pierian spring, or sipped at
the humblest fountain. The philosopher, whose com
prehensive mind can scan the universe, and read and
interpret the phenomena of nature ; whose heaven-as
piring spirit can soar beyond the boundaries of time,
indulge in the anticipation of immortality, and discern
in the past, the present, and the future the all-pervading
spirit of benevolence, is equally the child of education
with him whose soul proud science never taught to feeJ
its wants, and know how little may be known.

As we have already said, man possesses a material
and an immaterial part, mutually dependent on each
other. These are so intimately connected, and sustain
such a reciprocal relation to each other, that neither
can be neglected without detriment to both. The
body continually modifies the state of the mind, and

2-1 A (JOilUECT KUL'CATION I

the mind ever varies thcuooaditUHi of the body. Men»
tal and physical training should, then, go together.
That system of instruction which relates exclusively
to either, is a partial system, and its fate must be that
of a house divided against itself. Education has refer
ence to the whole man. It seeks to make him a com
plete creature after his kind, giving to both mind and
body all the power, all the beauty, and all the perfec
tion of which they are capable.

Our systems of education have hitherto fallen far
short of this high and only true standard. Education,
in too many instances, lias been confined, almost en
tirely, to either the physical, intellectual, or moral en
ergies of men. With the greater part, it has been
limited to the physical powers. No effort has been
made to develop any but their bodily strength, ani
mal passions, and instinctive feelings. Accordingly,
the great mass of mankind are raised but little above
inferior animals. They labor hard, and boast of their
strength ; gratify their passions, and glory in their
shame; eat and drink, sleep and wake, supposing to
morrow7 wall be like the present. They are scarcely
aware of their rational, intellectual powers, much less
of their ever-expanding and never-dying spirits ; con
sequently they feel but imperfectly their responsibility,
and are governed principally by the fear of human au
thority. They have been taught to fear or reverence
nothing higher. Their education is confined to animal
feeling — physical energies. They have no conception
of any thing beyond. The whole intellectual world,
and all hereafter, is narrowed down to the animal feel
ing of the present time. How erroneous ! How bad
ly educated ! And what are we to anticipate when
only the physical energies of men generally are thus
developed? Why, surely, what we are beginning to

IN WHAT IT CONSISTS. 2o

witness — namely, physical power, trampling on all au
thority.

The education of others is confined principally to in
tellect. Not that their physical powers are not neces
sarily more or less developed, but that their attention
is directed almost exclusively to intellectual attain
ments. From the earliest infancy their minds are tax
ed, though'their bodies are neglected, and their souls
forgotten. Nor is it unfrequent that their physical
strength gives way under the constant pressure of
intellectual studies. And thus they are subjected to
all the evils of physical inability — the sufferings of
living death, in consequence of an erroneous educa
tion. Besides, they are destitute of all those kinder
feelings and sympathetic emotions which alone result
from the cultivation of the moral susceptibilities, and
become insensible to the more delicate affections of the
soul, and elevating hopes of the truly virtuous. They
have nothing on which to rest for enjoyment but intel
lectual attainments. And even these are small com
pared with what they might have been under a dif
ferent course of education. Yet with what delight
are the first developments of intellect discovered by
the natural guardian of the infant mind ! and with
what anxious solicitude are they watched through ad
vancing youth and manhood by those employed in their
education. In either stage the development of intel
lect alone seems worthy of an effort. And yet, when
carried to the utmost, what may we expect of one
destitute of virtue, and without strength of body?
Little to benefit himself or others. Like Columbus,
Franklin, or La Place, he may employ his intellect in
useful discoveries ; or, like Hume, Voltaire, and Paine,
to curse the world. In either case he may lead astray,
and should never be trusted implicitly. As the bark

B

26 A CORRECT EDUCATION !

on the ocean without compass or chart, that rides out
the storm or sinks to the bottom, he may guide us in
safety, or ruin us forever !

The education of others, again, is confined mostly to
their moral energies. Those of the body are almost
forgotten, only as nature forces their development
upon the reluctant soul within. And those of intellect
are deemed unworthy of a thought, except as neces
sary in the rudest stages of society ; while the moral
susceptibilities are cultivated to the utmost. They are
brought into action in every situation. They are em
ployed in private, in the social circle, and around the
public altar. Nor are those employing them ever
satisfied. They become fanatics — religious enthusi
asts. They have zeal without knowledge, and seem
resolved on bringing all to their standard. They en
list in the work all the sympathies of the soul — its ten-
derest sensibilities and most compassionate feelings.
Without intellect to guide, and physical strength to
sustain them, they sink under moral excitement, and
become deranged : a result that might be anticipated
from such an education ; and one that is often de
veloped, in some of its milder features, among the re
formers of the day. Nor may you reason with them.
Reckless of consequences and regardless of authority,
they are not to be convinced or persuaded. They are
right, and know they are right, for the plain reason
that they know nothing else, and will not be diverted
from their course. What degradation ! Who would
not shrink from such an education? the development
of the moral energies merely ? It never qualified men
for the highest attainment — the utmost dignity of which
they are susceptible.

Diversified as are the developments of human char
acter, and dissimilar as they may appear to the care-

IN WHAT IT CONSISTS. 27

less, observer, there are peculiar characteristics of men
that render them similar to one another, and unlike
every other being. In their natures, original suscep
tibilities, and ultimate destinies, they are alike. They
are material, intellectual, and spiritual ; animal, rational
and immortal. On these uniform traits of character
education should be based. It should develop and
strengthen the animal functions ; classify and improve
the rational faculties ; and purify and elevate the spirit
ual affections in harmonious proportion and perfect
symmetry.

The animal functions of the human system are to be
developed and strengthened by education. Hitherto
they have been assigned to the province of nature, and
deemed foreign to the objects of education. But a
more unphilosophical and dangerous theory has seldom
been embraced, as the melancholy results abundantly
testify. We shall therefore devote a chapter to phys
ical education, which seems to lie at the foundation of
the great work of human improvement ; for, as we
have seen, in the present state the mind can manifest
itself only through the body ; after which we shall pro
ceed t ) the consideration of the other grand divisions
of the great work of education.

28 THE IMPORTS NCE OF

CHAPTER II.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

The influence of the physical frame upon the intellect, moials, and
happiness of a human being, is now universally admitted. The extent
of this influence will be thought greater in proportion to the accuracy
with which the subject is examined. Bodily pain forms a large pro-
portion of the amount of human misery. It is, therefore, of the highest
importance that a child should grow up sound and healthy in body,
with the utmost degree of muscular strength that education can com
municate. — LALOR.

THE importance of the department of the great work
of education which we now approach has not hitherto
been duly appreciated by parents and teachers gen
erally. I shall therefore devote more space to this
subject than is usual in works on education, but not
more, I trust, than its relative importance demands.
Physical, intellectual, and moral education are so in
timately connected, that, in order duly to appreciate the
importance of either, we must not view it separate and
alone merely, but in connection with both of the others.
And especially is this true of physical education. How
ever much value, then, we may attach to it on its own
account, considering man as a corporeal being, we shall
have occasion greatly to magnify its importance when
we come to direct our attention to his intellectual
culture, and still more when we view it in connection
with his moral training. Then, and not till then, shall
we be enabled, in some degree,, properly to appreciate
the importance of physical education.

It has been objected, says Dr. Combe,* that to teach
any one how to take care of his own health, is sure to

* Principles of Physiology applied to the Preservation of Health.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 29

do harm, by making him constantly think of this and
the other precaution, to the utter sacrifice of every
noble and generous feeling, and to the certain produc
tion of peevishness and discontent. The result, how
ever, he adds, is exactly the reverse ; and it would be
a singular anomaly in the constitution of the moral
world were it otherwise. He who is instructed in,
and is familiar with grammar and orthography, writes
and spells so easily and accurately as scarcely to be
conscious of attending to the rules by which he is
guided ; while he, on the contrary, who is not instruct
ed in either, and knows not how to arrange his sen
tences, toils at the task, and sighs at every line. The
same principle holds in regard to health. He who is
acquainted with the general constitution of the human
body, and with the laws which regulate its action, sees
at once his true position when exposed to the causes
of disease, decides what ought to be done, and there
after feels himself at liberty to devote his undivided at
tention to the calls of higher duties. But it is far oth
erwise with the person who is destitute of this informa
tion. Uncertain of the nature and extent of the danger,
he knows not to which hand to turn, and either lives
in the fear of mortal disease, or, in his ignorance, re
sorts to irrational and hurtful precautions, to the certain
neglect of those which he ought to use. It is igno
rance, therefore, and not knowledge, which renders an
individual full of fancies and apprehensions, and robs
him of his usefulness. It would be a stigma on the
Creator's wisdom if true knowledge weakened the un
derstanding, and led to injurious results. Those who
have had the most extensive opportunities of forming an
opinion on this subject from extensive experience, bear
unequivocal testimony to the advantages which knowl
edge confers in saving health and life, time and anxiety.

30 THE IiMPORTANCE OF

If, indeed, ignorance were itself a preventive of the
danger, or could provide a remedy when it approach
ed, then it might well be said that " ignorance is bliss ;"
but as it gives only the kind of security which shutting
the eyes affords against the dangers of a precipice,
and consequently leaves its victim doubly exposed, it
is high time to renounce its protection, and to seek
those of a more powerful and beneficent ally. Every
medical man can testify that, natural character and
other circumstances being alike, those whose knowl
edge is the most limited are the fullest of whims and
fancies ; the most credulous respecting the efficacy of
every senseless and preposterous remedy ; the most im
patient of restraint, and the most discontented at suffer
ing.

If any of my readers be still doubtful of the propriety
or safety of communicating physiological knowledge
to the public at large, continues the author from whom
we last quoted, and think that ignorance is in all cir
cumstances to be preferred, I would beg leave to ask
him whether it was knowledge or ignorance which in
duced the poorer classes in every country of Asia and
Europe to attempt to protect themselves from cholera
by committing ravages on the medical attendants of
the sick, under the plea of their having poisoned the
public fountains ? And whether it was ignorance or
knowledge which prompted the more rational part of
the community to seek safety in increased attention to
proper food, warmth, cleanliness, and clothing? In
both cases, the desire of safety and sense of danger
were the same, but the modes resorted to by each
were as different in kind as in result, the efficacy of
the one having formed a glaring contrast to the failure
of the other.

Dr. Southwood Smith, the able author of a volume

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 81

entitled " The Philosophy of Health," says, The obvi
ous and peculiar advantages of this kind of knowledge
are, that it would enable its possessor to take a more
rational care of his health ; to perceive why certain
circumstances are beneficial or injurious ; to under
stand, in some degree, the nature of disease, and the
operation as well of the agents which produce it as of
those which counteract it ; to observe the first begin
nings of deranged function in his own person ; to give
to his physician a more intelligible account of his train
of morbid sensations, -as they arise ; and, above all, to
co-operate with him in removing the morbid state on
which they depend, instead of defeating, as is now,
through ignorance, constantly the case, the best concert
ed plans for the renovation of health. It would like
wise lay the foundation for the attainment of a more
just, accurate, and practical knowledge of our intellect
ual and moral nature. There is a physiology of the
mind as well as of the body, and both are so intimately
united that neither can be well understood without the
study of the other. The physiology of man compre
hends both. Were even what is already known of this
science and what might be easily communicated made
a part of general education, how many evils would be
avoided ! how much light would be let in upon the un
derstanding ! and how many aids would be afforded to
the acquisition of a sourrd body and a vigorous mind !
prerequisites more important than are commonly sup
posed to the attainment of wisdom and the practice of
virtue.

Human physiology, says Dr. Combe, in his admira
ble treatise on that subject, from which I have already
quoted, is as important in its practical consequences
as it is attractive to rational curiosity. In its widest
sense, it comprehends an exposition of the functions of

32 THE IMPORTANCE OF

the various organs of which the human frame is com
posed ; of the mechanism by which they are carried on :
of their relations to each other, or the means of improv
ing their development and action ; of the purposes to
which they ought severally to be directed, and of the
manner in which exercise ought to be conducted, so as
to secure for the organ the best health, and for the
function the highest efficacy. A true system of phys
iology comes thus to be the proper basis, not only of a
sound physical, but of a sound moral and intellectual
education, and of a rational hygiene ; or, in other words,
it is the basis of every thing having for its object the
physical and mental health and improvement of man ;
for, so long as life lasts, the mental and moral powers
with which he is endowed manifest themselves through
the medium of organization, and no plan which he can
deyise for their cultivation, that is not in harmony with
the laws which regulate that organization, can possibly
be successful.

Let it not be said that knowledge of this description
is superfluous to the unprofessional reader ; for society
groans under the load of suffering inflicted by causes
susceptible of removal, but left in operation in conse
quence of our unacquaintance with our own structure,
and of the relation of different parts of the system to
each other and to external objects. Every medical
man must have felt and lamented the ignorance so gen
erally prevalent in regard to the simplest functions of
the animal system, and the consequent absence of the
judicious co-operation of friends in the care and cure
of the sick. From ignorance of the commonest facts
in physiology, or from want of ability to appreciate
their importance, men of much good sense in every
other respect not only subject themselves unwittingly
to the active causes of disease, but give their sanction

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 33

to laws and practices destructive equally to life and to
morality, and which, if they saw them in their true light,
they would shrink from countenancing in the slightest
degree.

Were the intelligent classes of society better ac
quainted with the functions of the human body and tha
aws by which they are regulated, continues this judi
cious writer, the sources of much suffering would be
dried up, and the happiness of the community at large
would be essentially promoted. Medical men would
no longer be consulted so exclusively for the cure of
disease, but would be called upon to advise regarding
the best means of strengthening the constitution, from
an early period, against any accidental or hereditary
susceptibility which might be ascertained to exist.
More attention would be paid to the preservation of
health than is at present practicable, and the medical
man would then be able to advise with increased effect,
because he would be proportionally well understood,
and his counsel, in so far, at least, as it was based on ac
curate observation and a right application of principles,
would be perceived to be, not a mere human opinion,
but, in reality, an exposition of the will and intentions,
of a beneficent Creator, and would therefore be felt as
carrying with it an authority to which, as the mere
dictum of a fallible fellow-creature, it could never be
considered as entitled.

It is true that, as yet, medicine has been turned to
little account in the way of directly promoting the phys
ical and mental welfare of man. But the day is, per
haps, not far distant, when, in consequence of the im
provements both in professional and general education
now in progress, a degree of interest will be attached
to this application of its doctrines far surpassing what
those who have nut reiiected on the subject will be

34 THE IMPORTANCE OF

able to imagine as justly belonging to it, but by no
means exceeding that which it truly deserves.

Every person should be acquainted with the or
ganization, structure, and functions of his own body —
the house in which he lives: he should know the con
ditions of health, and the causes of the numerous disea
ses that flesh is heir to, in order to avoid them, prolong
his life, and multiply his means of usefulness. If these
things are not otherwise learned, they should be taught
— the elements of them at least — in our primary schools.
This instruction would come, perhaps, most appro
priately from the members of the medical profession.
But either society generally, or physicians themselves,
or both, have mistaken the true sphere of a physician's
usefulness, and what ought to constitute the grand ob
ject of his profession, namely, the prevention of disease,
and the general improvement of the health, and not the
CURING of diseases merely. The physician, like the
clergyman in his parish, should receive a salary; and
he should be occupied, chiefly, in teaching the laws of
health to his employers ; in imparting to them instruc
tion in relation to the means of avoiding the diseases
to which they are more particularly exposed, and in
laying before them such information as shall be need
ful, in order to the highest improvement of their phys
ical organization, and the transmission to posterity of
unimpaired constitutions. This he may do by public
lectures, at suitable seasons of the year ; and by visit
ing from house to house, and imparting such informa
tion as may be particularly needed. The physician
should not allow any of his employers blindly to disre
gard the laws of health, or, knowing them, to violate
them unreproved. He should be accounted the best
physician, other things being equal, whose employers
have the least sickness, and uniformly enjoy the best

PHYSICAL EDUCATION'. . 35

health. When the relation existing between the mem
bers of the medical profession and the well-being of
society generally comes to be better understood, and
physicians are employed in accordance with the prin
ciples just stated, their greatest usefulness to the com
munities they serve will be found to consist in teach
ing well men and women how to retain and improve
their health, and rear a healthy offspring, and not in
partially curing diseased persons who are constantly
violating the laws of health. These views will doubt
less be new to many of my readers, and seem to them
very strange ! But let me inquire of such what they
would think of the clergyman who should neglect to
instruct his parishioners in the ennobling doctrines of
morality and religion, and should suffer them to go on
in sin unrebuked, until they become a burden to them
selves? who should wait until his counsels were solic
ited before he sounds the note of alarm, and points the
guilty sinner to " the Lamb of God which taketh away
the sin of the world ?" and who should confine his la
bors almost entirely to condemned criminals ? Such
conduct on the part of clergymen would doubtless be
regarded by these very persons as passing strange !
The course commonly pursued in the employment of
physicians is equally unphilosophical, and floods society
with a legion of evils — physical and intellectual, social
and moral — three fourths of which might be avoided,
by the proper exercise of the medical profession, in one
generation; and ultimately, nineteen twentieths, if not
ninety-nine one hundredths of them. As I have al
ready said, this instruction would come, perhaps, most
appropriately from the members of the medical pro
fession. But if these things are not taught elsewhere,
I repeat it, they should be taught — the element? of
them at least — in our primary schools.

30 TIM; IMPORTANCE OF

I can riot better enforce the importance of physical
education than by quoting from a lecture "on the edu
cation of the blind," by one of the most distinguished
practical educators* in this country. " That the pro
portion of the blind to the whole population might be
diminished by wise social regulations, and by the dis
semination of knowledge of the organic laws of man,
there is not a doubt ; but whether the time has come,
or ever will come, is another question. At any rate,
to so enlightened a bodyf as I have the honor of ad
dressing, suggestions of methods by .which the extent
of blindness may be limited will neither be misapplied,
nor liable to offend a mawkish sensibility. That the
blindness of a large proportion of society is a social
evil will not be denied, nor will the right which so
ciety has to diminish that proportion be questioned.
But how ? in a very simple way ; by preventing the
transmission of an hereditary blindness to another gen
eration ; by preventing the marriage of those who are
congenially blind, or who have lost their sight by
reason of hereditary weakness of the visual organs,
which disqualifies them to resist the slightest inflam
mation or injury in childhood.

" I am aware that many people would condemn this
proposition as cruel, because it might add to the sad
ness of the sufferers ; and that the whole seven thou
sand five hundred blind in this country would rise up
and scout it, as barbarous and unnatural ; for I have
experienced the effects of contradiction to the wills of
individual blind persons in this respect. But my rule
is, the good of the community before that of the in
dividual ; the good of the race before that of the com-

* Dr. Samuel G. Howe, director of the New England Institution for
the Education of the Blind, 1836.

i The American Institute of Instruction.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 37

rnunity. To give you an instance : the city of Boston,
with a population of eighty thousand, is represented in
the Institution for the Blind by two blind children only ;
and I know of but four in the whole population ; while
Andover, with but five thousand, is fully and ably rep
resented by seven ;* and it has three more growing
up. /

" Now how is this ? Why, the blind of Andover
are mostly from a common stock ; three of them are
born of one mother, who has had four blind children.
Another of the pupils is cousin, in the first degree, to
these three ; and two other pupils are cousins in a re
mote degree. Then, from other places, there are two
brothers, who have a third at home. There is one
blind girl, who has two blind sisters at home. Then
there are two pairs of sisters.

" In the immediate vicinity of Boston, I know of a
family in which blindness is hereditary ; the last gen
eration there were five. Of these five one is married,
and has four children, not one of whom can see well
enough to read ; and if the others marry, they may
increase the number to twelve or twenty.

" Now apply this state of things to the whole coun
try, and have you any difficulty in conceiving how it
happens that there are seven thousand five hundred
blind in the United States ? And can you doubt
whether or not this great proportion of blind to the
whole community might not be considerably diminish
ed, it men and women understood the organic laws of
their nature ? understood that, very often, blindness
is the punishment following an infringement of the
natural laws of God ; and if they could be made to act
upon the holy Christian principles, that we should deny

* This makes the ratio of representation in the institution from
Ajidover j/S/jfy six times greater than from the city of Boston.

38 THK IMPORTANCE OF

ourselves any individual gratification, any selfish de
sire, that may result in evil to the whole community?

"I would that every individual whom I have the
honor to address would assist in the education of the
blind, so far as to give them just and Christian views
of this subject. I would that all should work for so
ciety ; not for society to-day alone, but for the society
of future ages ; not in any one narrow, partial way,
but upon a broad scale, and in every way in which
they can be useful. If a person congenitally blind, or
strongly predisposed to become so, or one who mar
ries a person so born or so disposed, has blind off
spring in consequence of it, I ask, is he not as responsi
ble, in a moral point of view, for the infirmity of his
children as though he had put out their eyes with his
own hands ?

" You may suppose, perhaps, that the infirmity of
blindness would incapacitate sufferers from winning
the affections of seeing persons ; and that, with respect
to two blind persons, the sense of incapacity to sup
port a family would prevent them from uniting them
selves. In the first place, I answer, that seeing peo
ple do no better than the blind. Even a blind man
may perceive that many marriages are mere matters
of course, resulting from juxtaposition of parties ; and
rarely matters where the purer affections and higher
moral sentiments are consulted. And, in the second
place, that incapacity of supporting a family will not
weigh a feather in the balance with desire, unless the
intellectual and moral nature is enlightened and culti
vated. Do we not see, every day, cases of misery en
tailed upon whole families, because one of the parties
had overlooked or disregarded moral infirmity, which
ought to have been a greater objection than any phys
ical defect — than even blindness or deafness ?

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 39

"But no process of reasoning is required, for there
stand the facts. The blind not only seek for partners
in life, but are sometimes sought by seeing persons ;
and numerous instances have occurred within my
knowledge. It is true, that despair of success in any
other quarter, or an equally unworthy motive, may
induce some to seek for partners among the blind, or the
blind to unite with the blind ; but still, there is the evil.

" My observation induces me to think that the blind,
far more than seeing persons, are fond of social rela
tions, and desirous of family endearments. A mo
ment's thought would induce one to conclude that this
would naturally be the case ; a moment's observation
convinces one that it is so. Now I have found among
them some of the most pious, intelligent, and disin
terested beings I ever knew; but hardly more than
one who was prepared to forego the enjoyments of
domestic relations. And how can we expect them to
be so, more than seeing people ? The fact is, but very
few persons in the community give any attention to
the laws of their organic nature, and the tendency to
hereditary transmission of infirmities. Very few con
sider that they owe more to society than to their indi
vidual selves ; that if we are to love our neighbor as
ourself, we must, of course, love all our neighbors,
collectively, more than the single unit which each one
calls I.

" I would that considerations of this kind had more
weight with the community generally. I would that
the subject were more attended to, and that the viola
tion of the laws of our organic nature wrere less fre
quent in our country. There is one great and crying
evil in our system of education ; it is, that but part of
man's nature is educated, and that our colleges and
schools doom young men for years to an uninterrupted

40 Till: IML'OUTAXCE OF

and severe exercise of the intellectual faculties, to the
comparative neglect of their moral, and still more of
their physical nature. Nay, not only do they neglect
their physical nature — they ABUSE it ; they sin against
themselves and against God ; and though they sin in
ignorance, they do not escape the penalties of His vio
lated laws. Hence you see them pale, and wan, and
feeble ; hence you find them acknowledging, when too
late, the effects of severe application. But do they
acknowledge it humbly and repentingly, as with a con
sciousness of sin ? No, they often do it with a secret
exultation, with a lurking feeling that you will say or
think, ' Poor fellow, his mind is too much for his body !'
Nonsense ! hig mind is too weak ; his knowledge too
limited ; he is an imperfect man ; he knows not his
own nature. But if he has no conscientiousness, no
scruple about impairing his own health and sowing the
seeds of disease, he has less about entailing them upon
others. And a consumptive young man or woman —
the son or daughter of consumptive parents — hesitates
»not to spread the evil in society, and entail puny faces,
weakness, pain, and early death upon several individ
uals, and punish their children for their own sins.

" Is this picture too high-colored ? Alas! no. And
if I showed you satisfactorily that sin against the or
ganic laws caused so great a proportion of blindness,
how much more readily will you grant that the same
sin gives to so many of our population the narrow chest,
the hectic flush, the hollow cough, which makes the
victim doomed, by his parent, to consumption and early
death ! Do you not see, every Sabbath, at church,
trie young man or woman, upon whose fair and delicate
structure the peculiar impress of the EARLY DOOMED is
stamped ? and as a slight but hollow cough comes upon
your ear, does it not recall the death-knell which rang

PHYSICAL EDUCATIONS 41

in the same sad note before to the father or mother?
Who of you has not followed some young friend to his
long resting-place, and found that the grass had not
grown rank upon the grave of his brother ? that the
row of white marbles, beneath which slept his parents
and sisters, were yet glistering in freshness, and that
the letters which told their names and their early death
seemed clear as if cut but yesterday ?

" They tell us that physical education is attended to
in this country ; and yet, where is the teacher, where
is the clergyman even, who dares to step forth in these
cases, and say to those who are doomed, you must not
and shall not marry ? and where are the young men
and women who would listen to them if they did ? It
is not that they are wanting in conscientiousness ; they
may be conscientious and disinterested ; but they do
not know that they are doing wrong, because they are
not acquainted with the organic laws of their nature.
All that is done in schools or colleges toward physical
education is the mere strengthening of the muscular sys
tem by muscular exercise ; but this is not half enough.
These remarks may be deemed irrelevant to my subject,
but they can not be lost to an audience whose highest
interest is the education of man ; and if I am mistaken
in supposing that little attention has been paid to the
subject, its importance will guaranty its repetition."

Before dismissing this subject, I will introduce two
additional quotations from American authors, whose
opinions are received by the medical profession in this
country not only, but throughout Europe. In both in
stances, I copy from works published in Great Britain,
into which the opinions of these American writers have
been quoted. In regard to hereditary transmission,
Dr. Caldwell observes : " Every constitutional quality,
whether good or bad, may descend, by inheritance,

42 THE IMPORTANCE OF

from parent to child. And a long-continued habit of
drunkenness becomes as essentially constitutional as a
predisposition to gout or pulmonary consumption. This
increases, in a manifold degree, the responsibility of
parents in relation to temperance. By habits of in
temperance, they not only degrade and ruin themselves,
t but transmit the elements of like degradation and ruin
to their posterity. This is no visionary conjecture,
the fruit of a favorite and long-cherished theory. It is
a settled belief resulting from observation — an infer
ence derived from innumerable facts. In hundreds and
thousands of instances, parents, having had children
born to them while their habits were temperate, have
become afterward intemperate, and had other children
subsequently born. In such cases, it is a matter of no
toriety that the younger children have become addict
ed to the practice of intoxication much more frequently
than the older, in the proportion of five to one. Let
me not be told that this is owing to the younger chil
dren being neglected, and having corrupt and seducing
examples constantly before them. The same neglects
and profligate examples have been extended to all, yet
all have not been equally injured by them. The chil
dren of the earlier births have escaped, while those of
the subsequent ones have suffered. The reason is plain.
The latter children had a deeper animal taint than the
former." — Transylvania Journal.

Physiologists in general coincide in the belief that a
vigorous and healthy physical and mental constitution
in the parents communicates existence in the most per
fect state to their offspring, while impaired constitu
tions, from whatever cause, are transmitted to posterity.
In this sense, all who are competent to judge are agreed
that the Giver of life is a jealous God, visiting the in
iquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 43

a tl burth generation of them that hate him or violate
hr'» % ~vs. Strictly speaking, it is not disease which is
trr\i:m/itted, but organs of such imperfect structure
th*v they are unable to perform their functions proper
ly, and so weak as to be easily put into a morbid state
or abnou.ial condition by causes which unimpaired
organs avt able to resist.

My last quotation on this point is from a lecture de
livered by Dr. Warren before the American Institute
of Instruction, v opied ihlo the "Schoolmaster," a work
published in I-uiidon under the superintendence of the
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge :

" Let me conclude by entreating your attention to a
revision of the existing plans of education in what re
lates to the preservation of health. Too much of the
time of the better educated part of young persons is,
in my humble opinion, devoted to literary pursuits and
sedentary occupations, and too little to the acquisition
of the corporeal powers indispensable to make the for
mer practically useful. If ths present system does not
undergo some change, I much apprehend we shall see
a degenerate and sinking race, such as came to exist
among the higher classes in France before the Revolu
tion, and such as now deforms a laige part of the noblest
families in Spain ;* but if the spirit of improvement, so
happily awakened, continues — as 1 trust it will — to an
imate those concerned in the formation of the young
members of society, we shall soon be able, I doubt not,
to exhibit an active, beautiful, and wise generation, of
which the age may be proud."

* I am informed by a latly who passed a long time at the Spanish
court, in a distinguished situation, that the grandees have deteriorated
by their habits of living, and the rectriction of intermarriages to their
own rank, to a race of dwarfs ; and, though fine persons are sometimes
seen among them, they, when assembled at court, appear to be a group
of manikins.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

CHAPTER III.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

If man is ever to be elevated to the highest and happiest condition
which his nature will permit, it must be, in no small degree, by the im
provement — I might say, the redemption — of his physical powers. But
knowledge on any subject must precede improvement. — ALCOTT.

Physical and moral health are as nearly related as the body and the
soul. — HuFELAiND's Art of Prolonging Life.

IF the reader is persuaded that the views presented
in the last chapter on the importance of physical edu
cation are truthful — and they are concurred in by phys
iologists generally — he will naturally desire to become
acquainted with the laws of health, that, by yielding
obedience to them, he may improve his physical con
dition, and most successfully promote his intellectual
and moral well-being. I might, then, here refer to some
of the many excellent treatises on this subject ; but I
shall probably better accomplish the object for which
this work has been undertaken by presenting, within
as narrow limits as practicable, a summary of these
laws.

In every department of nature, waste is invariably
the result of action. In mechanics, we seek to reduce
the waste consequent upon action to the lowest possible
degree ; but to prevent it entirely is beyond the power
of man. Every breath of wind that passes over the
surface of the earth, modifies the bodies with which it
comes in contact. The great toe of the bronze statue
of Saint Peter at Rome has been reduced, it is said, tc
less than half its original size by the successive kisses
of the faithful.

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 45

In dead or inanimate matter, the destructive influ
ence of action is constantly forced upon our attention
by every thing passing around us, and so much human
ingenuity is exercised to counteract its effects that no
reflecting person will dispute the universality of its
operation. But when we observe shrubs and trees
waving in the wind, and animals undergoing violent
exertion, year after year, and continuing to increase
in size, we may be inclined, on a superficial view, to
regard living bodies as constituting an exception to
this rule. On more careful examination, however, it
will appear that waste goes on in living bodies not
only without intermission, but with a rapidity immeas
urably beyond that which occurs in inanimate objects.

In the vegetable world, for instance, every leaf of a
tree is incessantly pouring out some of its fluids, and
every flower forming its own fruit and seed, speedily
to be separated from, and lost to its parent stem ; thus
causing in a few months an extent of waste many
hundred times greater than what occurs in the same
lapse of time after the tree is cut down, and all its liv
ing operations are at a close.

The same thing holds true in the animal kingdom .
so long as life continues, a copious exhalation from the
skin, the lungs, the bowels, and the kidneys goes on
without a moment's intermission, and not a movement
can be performed which does not in some degree in
crease the circulation, and add to the general waste.
In this way, during violent exertion, several ounces of
the fluids of the body are sometimes thrown out by
perspiration in a very few minutes ; whereas, after life
is extinguished, all the excretions cease, and waste is
limited to that which results from ordinary chemical
decomposition.*

* For the. views presented in the preceding paragraph (as also in sev

46 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

So far, then, the law that waste is attendant on aetior
applies to both dead and living bodies ; but beyone
this point a remarkable difference between them pre
sents itself. In the physical or inanimate world, wha
is once lost or worn away is lost forever ; but living
bodies, whether vegetable or animal, possess the dis
languishing characteristic of being able to repair thei.
own waste and add to their own substance. The pos
session of such a power is essential to their existence
But there is a wide difference between them in othei
respects. In surveying the respective modes of exist
ence of vegetables and of animals, we perceive the
fixity of position of the one, and the free locomotive
power of the other. The vegetable grows, flourishes,
and dies, fixed to the same spot of earth from which it
sprang. However much external circumstances change
around it, it must remain and submit to their influence.
At all hours and at all seasons, it is at home, and in di
rect communication with the soil from which its nour
ishment is extracted. But it is otherwise with animals :
these not only enjoy the privilege of locomotion, but
are compelled to use it, and often to go a distance in
search of food and shelter. The necessity for a con
stant change of place being imposed on them, a differ
ent arrangement became indispensable for their nutri
tion. The method which the Creator has provided is
not less admirable than simple. To enable animals to
move about, and at the same time to maintain a con
nection with their food, they are provided with a
stomach. In this receptacle they can store up a supply
of materials from which sustenance may be gradually

eral that follow)! would acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Andrew
Combe's treatise on the " Physiology of Digestion." From the " Prin
ciples of Physiology," by the same author, I have already quoted.
These admirable works will prove an invaluable treasure to persons
desirous of becoming acquainted with the laws of health.

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 47

elaborated during a period of time proportioned to
their necessities and mode of life. Animals thus carry
with them nourishment adequate to their wants ; and
the small nutritive vessels imbibe their food from the
internal surface of the stomach and bowels, where it is
stored up, just as the roots or nutritive vessels of ve
getables do from the soil in which they grow. The
possession of a stomach or receptacle for food is ac
cordingly a distinguishing characteristic of the animal
system.

The sole objects of nutrition being to repair waste
and to admit of growth, the Creator has so arranged
that within certain limits it is always most vigorous
when growth or waste proceeds with the greatest ra
pidity. Even in vegetables this provision is distinctly
observable. It is also strikingly apparent in animals.
Whenever growth is proceeding rapidly, or the animal
is undergoing much exertion and expenditure of mate-
riaJ, an increased quantity of food is invariably requir
ed. On the other hand, where no new substance is
forming, and where, from bodily inactivity, little loss is
sustained, a comparative-ly small supply will suffice. In
endowing animals with the sense of appetite, including
the sensation of hunger and thirst, the Creator has
effectually provided against any inconvenience which
might otherwise exist, and given to them a guide in re
lation to both the quality and quantity of food needful
for them, and the times of partaking of it, with that
beneficence which distinguishes all his works. He has
not only provided an effectual safeguard in the sensa
tions of hunger and thirst, but he has attached to their
regulated indulgence a degree of pleasure which never
fails to insure attention to their demands, and which,
in highly-civilized communities, is apt to lead to excess
ive gratification. Their end is manifestly to proclaim

48 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

that nourishment is required for the support of the sys
tem. When the body is very actively exercised, arid
a good deal of waste is effected by perspiration and
exhalation from the lungs, the appetite becomes keener,
and more urgent for immediate gratification; and if it
is indulged, we eat with a relish unknown on other oc
casions, and afterward experience a sensation of inter
nal comfort pervading the frame, as if every individual
part of the body were imbued with a feeling of content
ment and satisfaction ; the very opposite of the restless
discomfort and depression which come upon us, and
extend over the whole system, when appetite is disap
pointed. There is, in short, an obvious and active sym
pathy between the condition and bearing of the stomach,
and those of every part of the animal frame ; in virtue
of which, hunger is felt very keenly when the general
system stands in urgent need of repair, and very mod
erately when no' waste has been suffered.

We have seen that waste is every where attendant
upon action, and that the object of nutrition is to repair
waste and admit of growth. We come now to con
sider the Process of Digestion.

All articles used for food necessarily undergo several
changes before they are fitted to constitute a part of
the body. In the process of digestion, four different
changes should be noticed. More might be specified.

1. MASTICATION. — The first step in the preparation
of food for imparting nourishment to the system con
sists in proper mastication, or chewing. Food should
be thoroughly masticated before it is taken into the
stomach. This is necessary in order to break it up and
reduce it to a sufficient degree of fineness for the effi
cient action of the gastric juice. Besides, the action
o» chewing and the presence of nutrient food constitute
a healthful stimulus to the salivary glands, situated in

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 49

the mouth. By this means, also, the food not only be
comes well masticated, but has blended with it a proper
amount of saliva, upon both of which conditions the
healthy action of the stomach depends. We have here
another illustration of the beneficence of the Creator,
who has kindly so arranged that the very act of mas
tication gratifies taste, the mouth being the seat of this
sensation. But if we disregard these benevolent laws,
and introduce unmasticated food into the stomach, the
gastric juice can act only upon its surface, and changes
of a purely chemical nature frequently commence in
food thus swallowed before digestion can take place.
Hence frequently arise — and especially in children and
persons of delicate constitution — pains, nausea, and acid
ity, consequent on the continued presence of undigested
aliment in the stomach.

2. CHYMIFICATION. — As soon as food has been thor
oughly masticated and impregnated with saliva, it is
ready for transmission to the stomach. This interest
ing part of the process of digestion, called deglutition
or swallowing, is most easily and pleasantly performed,
when the alimentary morsel has been well masticated
and properly softened, not by drink, which should never
be taken at this time, but by saliva. When the food
reaches the stomach, it is converted into a soft, pulpy
mass, called chyme ; and the process by which this
change is effected is called chymification. This is the
second principal step in digestion, and is effected imme
diately by the action of the gastric juice. This pow
erful solvent is secreted by the gastric glands, which
are excited to action by the presence of food in the
stomach. In health, the gastric secretion always bears
a direct relation to the quantity of aliment required by
the system. If too much food is taken into the stomach,
indigestion is sure to follow, for the sufficient reason

C

50 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

that the gastric juice is unable to dissolve it. This is
true even when food has been well masticated ; but
it becomes strikingly apparent when a lull meal has
been hastily swallowed, both mastication and insaliva-
tion having been imperfectly performed.

The time usually occupied in the process of chymifi-
cation, when food has been properly masticated, varies
from three to four hours. Digestion is sometimes ef
fected in less time, as in the case of rice, and pigs' feet
soused ; but it more commonly requires a longer period,
as in the case of salt pork and beef, and many other
articles of food, both animal and vegetable.

By the alternate contraction and relaxation of the
muscular coat of the stomach, which is excited to ac
tion by the presence of food, a kind of churning motion
is communicated to its contents that greatly promotes
digestion; for by this means every portion of food in
turn is brought in contact with the gastric juice as it is
discharged from the internal surface of the stomach.
This motion continues until the contents of the stom
ach are converted into chyme, and conveyed into the
first intestine, where they undergo another important
change.

3. CHYLIFICATION. — As fast as chyme is formed, it is
expelled by the contractile power of the stomach into
the duodenum, or first intestine. It there meets with
the bile from the liver, and with the pancreatic juico.
By the action of these agents, the chyme is converted
into two distinct portions: a milky white fluid, called
chyle, and a thick yellow residue. This process is called
chylificalion, or chyle-making. The chyle is then taken
up by the absorbent vessels, which are extensively ram
ified over the inner membrane or lining of the bowels.
From the white color of the contents of these vessels,
thev have been named lactcah or milk-bearers, from lac..

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 51

which signifies milk. These lacteals ultimately con
verge into one trunk, called the thoracic duct, which
terminates in the great vein under the clavicle or
collar bone, hence called the subclavian vein, just be
fore that vein reaches the right side of the heart. Here
the chyle is poured into the general current of the ve
nous blood, and, mingling with it, is exposed to the ac
tion of the air in the lungs during respiration. By this
process, both the chyle and the venous blood are con
verted into red, arterial, or nutritive blood, which is
afterward distributed by the heart through the arteries,
to supply nourishment and support to every part of the
body. The change which takes place in the lungs is
called sanguification, or blood-making. The chyle is
not prepared to impart nourishment to the system until
this change takes place. Respiration, then, is, in re
ality, the completion of digestion. This interesting and
vital part of the process of digestion will be considered
more fully in the following chapter.

Before passing from this part of the subject, a few
remarks of a more general nature seem called for.
The nerves of the stomach have a direct relation to un
digested but digestible substances. When any body that
can not be digested is introduced into the stomach,
distinct uneasiness is speedily excited, and an effort is
soon made to expel it, either upward by the mouth or
downward by the bowels. It is in this way, says Dr.
Combe, that bile hr the stomach excites nausea, and
that tartar emetic produces vomiting. The nerves of
the bowels, on the other hand, are constituted in relation
to digested food ; and, consequently, when any thing es
capes into them from the stomach in an undigested state,
it becomes a source of irritative excitement. This ac
counts for the cholic pains and bowel-complaints which
so commonly attend the passage through the intestinal

52 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

canal of such indigestible substances as fat, husks of
fruits, berries, and cherry-stones.

The process of digestion, which commences in the
stomach, is completed in the intestines. Physiologists
have hence sometimes called the former part of the pro
cess, or chymification, by the more simple term stomach
digestion ; and the latter, or chylification, has been
termed intestinal digestion. The bowels have distinct
coats corresponding with those of the stomach. By
the alternate contraction and relaxation of the muscu
lar coat, their contents are propelled in a downward
direction, somewhat as motion is propagated from one
end of a worm to the other. It has hence been called
vermicular, or wormlike motion. Some medicines have
the power of inverting the order of the muscular con
tractions. Emetics operate in this manner to produce
vomiting. Other medicines, again, excite the natural
action to a higher degree, and induce a cathartic ac
tion of the bowels. When medicines become neces
sary to obviate that kind of costiveness which arises
from imperfect intestinal contraction, physicians usually
administer rhubarb, aloes, and similar laxatives, com
bined with tonics. But when the muscular coat of the
bowels is kept in a healthy condition by a natural mode
of life, and is aided by the action of the abdominal
muscles, it rarely becomes necessary to administer lax
ative medicines.

The inner or mucous coat of the stomach and bowels
is generally regarded by physiologists as a continua
tion of the skin. They greatly resemble each other in
structure, and they are well known to sympathize with
each other. Eruptions of the skin are very generally
the result of disorders of the digestive organs. On the
other hand, bowel complaints are frequently produced
bv a chill on the surface. The mucous coat and the

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 53

skin are both charged with the double function of ex
cretion and absorption. By the exercise of i\\Q former
function, much of the waste matter of the system, re
quiring to be removed, is thrown into the intestines,
and, mingling with the indigestible portion of the food,
forms the common excrement ; while by the exercise
of the latter function the nutritive portion of their con
tents is taken up, and, as we have seen, passes into the
general circulation, and contributes either to promote
growth or to repair waste.

4. EVACUATION. — This is the fourth and last principal
step in the process of digestion. After the chyle is
separated from the chyme and passes into the circula
tion, the indigestible and refuse portion of the food,
which is incapable of nourishing the system, passes off
through the intestinal canal. In its course its bulk is
considerably increased by the excretion of waste mat
ter which has served its purposes in the system, and
which, mingling with the innutritious and refuse part
of the food, is thrown out of the body in the form of
excrement. If the contents of the bowels are too long
retained, uneasiness is produced. Hurtful matter, also,
which should pass off by evacuation, is reabsorbed,
passes again into the general circulation, and is ulti
mately thrown out of the system either by the lungs
or through the pores of the skin.

This part of the process of digestion is very import
ant, for it is impossible to enjoy good health while this
function is imperfectly performed. To secure full and
natural action in the intestinal canal, several principal
conditions are necessary. These are, first, well-digest
ed chyme and chyle ; second, a due quantity and quali
ty of secretions from the mucous or lining membrane
of the bowels ; third, a free and full contractile power
of the muscular coat, and the unrestrained action of

51 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

the abdominal and respiratory muscles ; and, finally, a
due nervous sensibility to receive impressions and com
municate the necessary stimulus. The contractile pow
er of the muscular coat, and the free passage of the in
testinal contents from the stomach downward, are great
ly aided by the constant but gentle agitation which the
whole digestive apparatus receives during the act of
breathing, and from exercise of every description. By
free and deep inhalations of air into the lungs, the dia
phragm is depressed and the bowels are pushed down.
But when the air is thrown out from the lungs, the dia
phragm rises into the chest, and the bowels follow, be
ing pressed upward by the contractile power of the
abdominal muscles. During exercise, breathing is
deeper and more free, which gives additional pressure
to the bowels from above. The abdominal muscular
contraction is also, in turn, more vigorous and exten
sive, and thus the motion is returned from below. Per
sons that take little or no exercise, or who allow the
chest and bowels to be confined by tight clothing, lose
this natural stimulus, and frequently become subjects
of immense suffering from habits of costiveness. These
should be removed if possible, and they generally can
be by a proper course of discipline. This should have
reference to both diet and exercise. Such articles of
food should be used as tend to keep open the bowels.
This should be combined with the free exercise of the
lungs and the abdominal muscles. In addition to these,
there should be a determination to secure a natural
evacuation of the bowels at least once a day. This is
regarded by physiologists generally as essential to
health. Efforts should be continued until the habit is
established. Some definite period should be fixed upon
for this purpose. Soon after breakfast is, on many ac
counts, generally preferable.

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 55

TIME FOR MEALS. — Before passing from the subject
of digestion, I will submit a few thoughts in relation to
the times for eating. It has already been observed
that three or four hours are generally necessary for the
digestion of a simple meal. Usually, perhaps, a greater
length of time is required. It is also an established
doctrine, based upon the results of careful examination
and experiment, that the stomach requires an interval
of rest, after the process of digestion is finished, to en
able it to recover its tone before it can again. enter
upon the vigorous performance of its function. As a
general rule, then,^ue or six hours should elapse be
tween meals. If the mode of life is indolent, a greater
time is required ; if active, less time will suffice. Where
the usages of society will allow the principal meal to
be taken near the middle of the day, the following time
for meals is approved by physiologists generally :
breakfast at 7 o'clock, dinner at half past 12, and tea
at 6. Luncheons and late suppers should be avoided ;
for the former will always be found to interfere with
the healthful performance of the function of digestion,
and the latter will induce restlessness, unpleasant
dreams, and pain in the head. "A late supper," says
the author of the Philosophy of Health, "generally oc
casions deranged and disturbed sleep ; there is an ef
fort on the part of the nerves to be quiet, while the
burdened stomach makes an effort to call them into ac
tion, and between these two contending efforts there is
disturbance — a sort of gastric riot — during the whole
night. This disturbance has sometimes terminated in
a fit of apoplexy and in death."

THE SKIN. — This membranous covering, which is
spread over the surface of the body to shield the parts
beneath, serves also as an excreting and secreting or
gan. By the great supply of blood which it receives,

56 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

it is admirably fitted for this purpose. The whole ani
mal system, as we have seen, is in a state of transition,
decay and renovation constantly succeeding each
other. While the stomach and alimentary canal take
in new materials, the skin forms one of the principal
outlets by which particles that are useless to the sys
tem are thrown out of the body. Every one knows
that the skin perspires, and that checked perspiration
is a powerful cause of disease and death ; but few
have any just notion of the extent and influence of this
exhalation. When the body is overheated by exercise,
a copious sweat breaks out, which, by evaporation,
carries off the excess of heat, and produces an agree
able feeling of coolness and refreshment. The saga
city of Franklin led him to the first discovery of the
use of perspiration in reducing the heat of the body,
and to point out the anology subsisting between this
process and that of the evaporation of water from a
rough porous surface, so constantly resorted to in the
East and West Indies, and in other warm countries, as
an efficacious means of reducing the temperature of the
air in rooms, and of wine and other drinks, much be
low that of the surrounding atmosphere. This is the
higher arid more obvious degree of the function of ex
halation. But in the ordinary state of the system, the
skin is constantly giving out a large quantity of waste
materials by what is called insensible perspiration ;
a process which is of great importance to the pres
ervation of health, and which is called insensible, be
cause the exhalation, being in the form of vapor, and
carried off by the surrounding air, is invisible to the
eye. But its presence may often be made manifest,
even to the sight, by the near approach of a dry cool
mirror, on the surface of which it will soon be con
densed so as to become visible. It is this which causes

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 57

so copious deposites upon the windows of a crowded
school-room in cold weather. A portion of these ex
halations, however, proceed from the lungs.

There is an experiment that may be easily tried,
which affords conclusive evidence that the amount of
insensible perspiration is much greater than it is ordi
narily" supposed to be. Take a dry glass jar, with a
neck three or four inches in diameter, and thrust the
hand and a part of the forearm into it, closing the
space in the neck about the arm with a handkerchief.
After the lapse of a few minutes, it will be seen, by
drawing the fingers across the inside of the jar, that
the insensible perspiration even from the hand is very
considerable. Many attempts have been made to es
timate accurately the amount of exhaled matter carried
off through the skin ; but many difficulties stand in the
way of obtaining precise results. There is a great
difference in different constitutions, and even in the
same person at different times, in consequence of which
we must be satisfied with an approximation to the truth.

Although the precise amount of perspiration can not
be ascertained, it is generally agreed that the cutane
ous exhalation is greater than the united excretions of
both bowels and kidneys. Great attention has been
given to this subject. Sanctorius, a celebrated medical
writer, weighed himself, his food, and his excretions,
daily, for thirty days. He inferred from his experi
ments that five pounds of every eight, of both food and
drink, taken into the system, pass out through the skin.
All physiologists agree that from twenty to forty
ounces pass off through the skin of an adult in usual
health every twenty-four hours. Take the lowest es
timate, and we find the skin charged with the removal
of twenty ounces of waste matter from the system every
day. We can thus seu ample reason why checked

C2

58 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

perspiration proves so detrimental to health ; for every
twenty-four hours during which such a state continues,
we must either have this amount of useless and hurt
ful matter accumulating in the system, or some of the
other organs of excretion must be greatly overtasked,
which obviously can not happen without disturbing
their regularity and well-being. It is generally known
that continued exposure in a cold day produces either
a bowel complaint or inflammation of some internal or
gan. Instead of expressing surprise at this, if people
generally understood the structure and uses of their
own bodies, they would rather wonder why one or the
other of these effects is not always attendant upon so
great a violation of the lawrs of health, which are the
laws of God.

The lungs also excrete a large proportion of waste
matter from the system. So far, then, their office is
similar to that of the kidneys, the liver, and the bowels.
In consequence of this alliance with the skin, these
parts are more intimately connected with each other,
in both healthy and'diseased action, than with other or
gans. Whenever an organ is unusually delicate, it will
be more easily affected by any cause of disease than
those which are sound. Thus, in one instance, checked
perspiration may produce a bowel complaint, and in
another, inflammation of the lungs, and so on. Hence
the fitness, in prescribing remedies, of adapting them
not only to the disease itself, but of taking into the ac
count the cause of the disease. A bowel complaint, for
example, may arise either from overeating or from a
check to perspiration. The thing to be cured is the
same in both cases, but the means of cure ought obvi
ously to be different. In one instance, an emetic or
laxative, to carry off the offending cause, would be the
most rational and efficacious remedy; in the other,

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 59

a diaphoretic should be administered, to open the skin
and restore it to a healthy action. Facts like these ex
pose the ignorance and impudence of the quack, who
undertakes to cure every form of disease by one rem
edy.

It has already been remarked that the skin is charged
with the double function of excretion and absorption.
We have a striking illustration of the exercise of the
latter function in the vaccination of children and others,
to protect them from small-pox. A small quantity of
cow-pox matter is inserted under the external layer of
the skin, where it is acted upon, and in a short time
taken into the system by the absorbent vessels. Jn like
manner, when the perspiration is brought to the sur
face of the skin, and confined there, either by injudi
cious clothing or by want of cleanliness, there is much
reason to believe that its residual parts are again ab
sorbed. It is established by observation that concen
trated animal effluvia form a very energetic poison.
We can, then, see why the absorption of the residual
parts of perspiration produces fever, inflammation, and
even death itself, according to its quantity and degree
of concentration. This leads me to notice the import
ance of

BATHING. — The exhalation from the skin being so
constant and extensive, and the bad effects of it when
confined being so great, it becomes very important that
we provide for its removal. This can be most easily
and effectually accomplished by frequently bathing the
whole body. This is a luxury within the reach of all,
but one which is unappreciated by those who have not
enjoyed it. An aged gentleman said to me recently,
that in early life he " used to go a swimming frequently
and enjoyed it much ; but," he added, " I have not bathed
or washed myself all over for the last thirty years /"

60 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

This, it is believed, is an extreme case. But it is to be
feared there are not wanting instances in which per
sons do not bathe the entire person once a month, or
once a year even ! When the residual parts of the per
spiration are not removed by washing or bathing, they
at last obstruct the pores and irritate the skin. It is
apparently for this reason that, in the Eastern and
warmer countries, where perspiration is very copious,
ablution and bathing have assumed the rank and im
portance of religious observances. Those who are in
the habit of using the flesh-brush daily are at first sur
prised at the quantity of white dry scurf which it brings
off; and those who take a warm bath for half an hour
at long intervals can not have failed to notice the great
amount of impurities which it removes, and the grate
ful feeling of comfort which its use imparts. It is re
marked by an eminent physician, that the warm, tepid,
cold, or shower bath, as a means of preserving health,
ought to be in as common use as a change of apparel,
for it is equally a measure of necessary cleanliness.
Many, no doubt, neglect this, and enjoy health notwith
standing ; but many more suffer from its omission ; and
even the former would be greatly benefited by employ
ing it. Cleanliness, then, is as essential to health as to
decency. Still more, it promotes not only physical
health, but contributes largely to strengthen and invig
orate the intellectual faculties, and to elevate and purify
the affections. It comes, then, to be ranked among the
cardinal virtues.

To secure the benefits of bathing or ablution, a great
amount of apparatus is not necessary. A shower-bath,
or plunge-bath, may not be best for all. Every one
can procure a wash-bowl and one or two quarts of
water, which are all that is necessary. To prevent the
reduction of heat in the system by evaporation, and

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 61

especially in cold weather, it will usually be found best
to bathe the body by sections. It is generally agreed
that the morning is the best time for bathing. Imme
diately on rising, then, the clothing being removed, let
the head, face, and neck be washed as usual, and thor
oughly dried by the use of a towel. Proceed to wash
the chest and abdomen, which may be dried as before,,
after which a coarse towel or a flesh-brush should be
vigorously applied, until the skin is perfectly dry, and
there is a pleasant glow upon the surface. The back
and limbs, in turn, should be washed, dried, and excited
to a healthy and pleasant glow by friction. This last
is of the utmost importance. If not easily secured, salt
or vinegar may be added to the water, both of which
are excellent stimulants to the skin.* When these are
ased, and care is taken to excite in the surface, by sub
sequent friction with a coarse towel, flesh-brush, or
hair glove, the healthful glow of reaction, it will be
found to contribute largely to both physical and mental
comfort. The beneficial results will be more apparent
if, while bathing and rubbing the chest and abdomen,
pains are taken to throw back the shoulders, expand
the lungs, and enlarge the chest.

By an act of the Legislature of the commonwealth
of Massachusetts, passed in April last, it is required
that " physiology and hygiene shall hereafter be taught
in the schools of that commonwealth, in all cases in
which the school committee shall deem it expedient."

When physiology is not made a study in school, the
teacher should not fail to give familiar and instructive
lectures on the subject. I know of instances where,
by this simple means, the habits of a whole school,

* It will frequently be found more convenient, and will be well-nigh
as serviceable, to wash in soft water as usual, and excite a reaction in
the skin in the use of a towel that has been dipped in brine and dried.

62 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

composed of several hundred youth of both sexes, have
been radically changed ; and the practice of daily ablu
tion has ceased to be the luxury of the few, having be
come the necessity not only of teachers and scholars,
but of the families in which they reside. There is the
most satisfactory evidence that cleanliness is conducive
to health.* How important it is, then, that habits of
cleanliness be formed at an early age.

Dr. Weiss, a distinguished German physician, in his
remarks on this subject, says, the best time, undoubt
edly, for these ablutions, is the morning. They are to
be performed immediately after rising from the bed,
when the temperature of the body is raised by the heat
of the bed. The sudden change favors in a great
measure the reaction which ensues, and excites the
skin, rendered more sensitive by the perspiration dur
ing the night, to renewed activity. Cold ablutions,
he adds, are fitted for all constitutions ; they are best
adapted for purifying and strengthening the body ; for
women, weak subjects, children, and old age. The
room in which the ablution is performed may be slight
ly heated for debilitated patients in winter, to prevent
colds in consequence of too low a temperature of the
apartment ; this exception is, however, only admissible

* The friends of educational reform may well take courage from the
increased attention which the subject of physical education is of lato
receiving from the pulpit and the press, those mighty conservators of tho
public weal. Since the text was prepared for the press, the following
remarks and pertinent inquiry have appeared in the Family Favorite
for February, 1850. They are quoted from a Discourse by the editor,
the Rev. James V. Watson, on the First Sabbath of the New Year:

" The true interpretation of the providence of God in Asiatic cholera
perhaps has never yet fully been given. Is it not one of God's marked
modes of rebuking intemperance, physical uncleanness, and social deg
radation — evils which 1'esult from perverted appetite, wrong forms of
government, and a want of Christian benevolence? The reformer,
the philanthropist, and the Christian may learn a lesson here."

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 63

for very weakly persons. Generally speaking, ablu
tions may be performed in a cold room, especially
where persons get through the operation quickly, and
can immediately afterward take exercise in the open
air.

It is the opinion of Dr. Combe that bathing is a safe
and valuable preservative of health, in ordinary cir
cumstances,- and an active remedy in disease. Instead
of being dangerous by causing liability to cold, it is, he
says, when well managed, so much the reverse, that
he has used it much and successfully for the express
purpose of diminishing such liability, both in himself
and in others in whom the chest is delicate. In his own
instance, in particular, he is conscious of having derived
much advantage from its regular employment, espe
cially in the colder months of the year, during which
he has found himself most effectually strengthened
against the impression of cold by repeating the bath
at shorter intervals than usual. I shall conclude my
remarks on bathing by presenting a paragraph from
this transatlantic author.

If the bath can not be had at all places, soap and
water may be obtained every where, and leave no
apology for neglecting the skin. If the constitution be
delicate, water and vinegar, or water and salt, used
daily, form an excellent arid safe means of cleansing
and gently stimulating the skin. To the invalid they
are highly beneficial, when the nature of the indisposi
tion does not render them improper. A rough and
rather coarse towel is a very useful auxiliary in such
ablutions. Few of those who have steadiness to keep
up the action of the skin by the above means, and to
avoid strong and exciting causes, will ever suffer from
colds, sore throats, or similar complaints ; while, as a
means of restoring health, they are often incalculably

64 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

serviceable. If one tenth of the persevering attention
and labor bestowed to so much purpose in rubbing
down and currying the skins of horses were bestowed
by the human race in keeping themselves in good con
dition, and a little attention were paid to diet and
clothing, colds, nervous diseases, and stomach com
plaints would cease to form so large an item in the
catalogue of human miseries. Man studies the nature
of other animals, and adapts his conduct to their con
stitution ; himself alone he continues ignorant of and
neglects. He considers himself a being of superior
order, and not subject to the laws of organization which
regulate the functions of the lower animals ; but this
conclusion is the result of ignorance and pride, and not
a just inference from the premises on which it is osten
sibly founded.

CLOTHING. — The skin is very materially affected in
the healthy performance of its functions by the nature
and condition of the clothing. It is a very commonly
received opinion that one principal object in clothing
is to impart heat to the body. This, however, is an
erroneous idea ; the utmost that it can do is to prevent
the escape of heat. All articles of clothing are not alike
in this respect. Some conduct the heat from the body
readily, and are hence much used in warm weather ;
as linen, for example. Others, again, have very little
tendency to convey heat from the body, and are hence
sought in cold weather. Of this nature are furs, and
cloths manufactured frorrrwool. I do not intend in this
connection to speak of the merits of different kinds of
clothing, but to remark simply upon the necessity of
changing clothes often, or at least of ventilating them
frequently. This remark applies particularly to all
articles of clothing worn next to the skin, and to beds.
Clothes worn next .to the skin during the day should

THE LAWS Of' HEALTH. 65

be removed on going to bed, and a fresh sleeping-gown
should be put on. The former should be hung up in a
situation that will allow the accumulated perspiration
of the day to pass off by evaporation. By this means
they will become sufficiently freshened and ventilated,
by morning, to be worn another day, when the night-
clothes, in turn, should be ventilated. Beds also should
be thrown open and exposed to fresh air with open
doors, or at least windows, several hours before being
made. In our best-regulated boarding schools, and
literary and benevolent institutions of all kinds, partic
ular attention is now paid to this subject. In some in
stances, lodging rooms are furnished with frames for
the express purpose of facilitating the ventilation of the
bed-clothes. Immediately on rising in the morning, the
clothes are removed from the beds, and exposed upon
these frames to a current of fresh air for several hours,
the windows being opened for that purpose. Notwith
standing care be taken to promote personal cleanliness
by daily ablutions, if the ventilation of beds and cloth
ing be neglected, and perspiration be suffered to accu
mulate in them, it may be reabsorbed, and, passing
again into the circulation, produce all the mischief of
which I have before spoken.

THE TEETH. — I have already spoken of the relation
the teeth sustain to digestion. Their use in the proper
mastication of food is essential to the healthy and vig
orous performance of this important function. The
proper use of a good set of teeth contributes largely to
both the physical comfort, and the intellectual and
moral well-being of their possessor ; but when neg
lected, they very commonly decay and become useless ;
nay, more, they are not unfrequently a source of great
and almost constant discomfort for years. In order to
preserve the teeth, they must be kept clean. After

66 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

every meal, they should be cleaned with a brush and
water. A tooth-pick will sometimes be found neces
sary in the removal of particles of food that are inac
cessible to the brush. Metallic tooth-picks injure the
enamel, and should not be used. Those made of ivory,
or the common goose-quill, are unobjectionable. The

t brush should be used, not only after each meal, but the
last thing at night and the first thing in the morning.

{ This will prevent the accumulation of tartar, which so
commonly incrusts neglected teeth. If suffered to re
main, it gradually accumulates, presses upon the gums,
and destroys their health. By this means the roots of
the teeth become bare, and thus deprived of their nat
ural stimulus, they prematurely decay. Food or drink
either very hot or very cold is exceedingly injurious
to the teeth. Sour drops, acidulated drinks, and all
articles of food that " set the teeth on edge," are inju
rious, and should be carefully avoided. Should it be
come necessary to take sour drops as a medicine, they
should be given through a quill, and every precaution
should be taken to prevent their coming in contact
with the teeth. Even then the mouth should be well
rinsed immediately after they are swallowed.

Disordered digestion is a great source of injury to
the teeth both in childhood and in mature age. When
digestion is vigorous, there is less deposition of tartar,
and the teeth are naturally of a purer white. Especial
ly is this true when the general health is good, and the
diet plain, and contains a full proportion of vegetable
matter. This accounts for the fact that many rustics
and savages possess teeth that would be envied in town.
Tobacco is sometimes used as a preservative of the
teeth. It is, indeed, occasionally prescribed as a cura
tive by ignorant physicians, and those who are willing
to pander to the diseased appetites of their patients.

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 67

But there is the best medical testimony that the use of
this filthy weed " debilitates the vessels of the gums, turns
the teeth yellow, and renders the appearance of the mouth
disagreeable." Dr. Rush informs us that he knew a
man in Philadelphia who lost all his teeth by smoking.
In speaking of the moral effects of this practice, he adds,
" Smoking and chewing tobacco, by rendering water
and other simple liquors insipid to the taste, dispose
very much to the stronger stimulus of ardent spirits ;
hence the practice of smoking cigars throughout our
country has been followed by the use of brandy and
water as a common drink." A dentist of extensive
and successful practice in the Middle and Western
States, after listening to the reading of this article, said
to me, he had a patient, a young lady, two of whose
front teeth had decayed through, laterally, in conse
quence of smoking. On removing the caries, he found
it impossible to fill her teeth, because the openings con
tinued through them. He thinks, as do many others,
that the heat of the smoke is a principal cause of the
injury.

Among the conditions upon which the healthy action
of the voluntary organs depends is a due degree of
appropriate exercise. This is a general law, and holds
with reference to the teeth as well as to any other or
gan or set of organs. The proper mastication of
healthful and nutritious food constitutes the appropri
ate exercise of the teeth, and is a condition upon
which their health, and the healthy exercise of the
function of digestion, alike depend. If from any cause
the teeth of one jaw are removed, the corresponding
teeth of the other jaw, being thus deprived of that ex
ercise which is essential to their health, are pressed out
of the jaw, appear to grow long, become loose in their
sockets, and sometimes fall out. Hence the propriety

68 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

and advantage of inserting artificial teeth where the
natural ones fail ; an event which rarely happens when
they are properly taken care of. I need hardly add
that nuts, and other hard substances that break the en
amel, are injurious to the teeth, and should be avoided.

THE BONES. — The bones constitute the frame-work
of the system. They consist of two substances, being
formed of both animal and earthy matter. To the form
er belongs every thing connected with their life and
growth, while the latter gives to them solidity and
strength. The proportions of the animal and earthy
elements of which the bones are composed vary at.
different ages. In childhood and early youth, when
but little strength is needed, and great growth of bone
is required, the animal part preponderates. As growth
advances the animal part decreases, and the earthy
part increases. In middle life, when growth is finished
and the strength is greatest, and when nutrition is re
quired only to repair waste, the proportions are chang
ed, and the solid or earthy part exceeds the vital or ani
mal ; and in extreme old age, the earthy part so pre
dominates as to cause the bones to become very brittle.

The bones, like other parts of the system, require ex
ercise. If properly used, they increase in size and
strength. But while a due degree of exercise is bene
ficial, it ought to be remarked that severe and contin
ued labor should not be required of children and youth ;
for its tendency is to increase the deposition of earthy
matter to a hurtful extent. It is by this means that
many children are made dwarfs for life, their bones be
ing consolidated by an undue amount of exercise and
excessive labor before they have attained their full
growth. Multitudes of children in our country, from
this and kindred causes, fail of attaining the size of their
ancestors. These remarks may be turned to a practi-

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. G9

cal account in the family and in the school. At birth,
many of the bones are scarcely more than cartilage ;
yet children are frequently urged to stand and walk
long before the bones become sufficiently strong to sus
tain the pressure ; and, as a consequence, their legs be
come crooked, and they are perhaps other ways de
formed for life. Children ought always, when seated,
to be able to rest their feet upon the floor. When they
occupy a seat that is too high, and especially when they
are unable to reach their feet to the floor, the thigh
bones very frequently become curved. If, in addition
to high seats, the back is not supported, children be
come round shouldered, their chests contract, their con
stitutions become permanently enfeebled, and they be
come peculiarly susceptible to pulmonary disease. The
back to the seat should afford a pleasant and agreeable
support to the small of the back, but it ought not to
reach to the shoulder blades.

Parents and teachers should never forget that chil
dren are as susceptible to physical training as to intel
lectual or moral culture. And here, especially, they
should be " trained up in the way they should go."
Physical uprightness is next to moral. If children are
allowed to contract bad physical habits, they are liable
not only to grow crooked, but to become deformed in
various ways. But so great is the power of education,
that by it even the physically crooked may be made
straight ; the chest may be enlarged, the general health
may be improved, and much may be done in many
ways to fortify those who have inherited feeble consti
tutions against the attacks of disease. The benefits
resulting from maintaining an upright form, and a free
and open chest, have already been considered, and I
shall have occasion to refer to them again. The chest
of most adults, although incased with bone, may be in-

70 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

creased several inches by drawing the arms back in
the use of nature's own shoulder-braces, and at the same
time taking deep inhalations of air, and filling the lungs
to their utmost capacity. Hundreds of individuals in
different parts of the country have borne testimony to
the efficacy of this treatment in the improvement of
their health. The good results of such discipline in
childhood are still more manifest.

A stooping posture is frequently induced by sitting
at tables and desks that are too low. It has been erro
neously maintained by some that the top of the desk
should be on the same plane with the elbow when the
arm hangs by the side. When the desk is higher, it
has been said the tendency is to elevate one shoulder,
to depress the other, and to produce a permanent curv
ature of the spinal column. Although this may have
been frequently the result of sitting at a high desk, yet
it is not a necessary result. To prevent the projection
of one shoulder, and the consequent spinal curvature,
both of the arms must be kept on the same level. For
this purpose, there should be room to support them
equally ; and care should be taken to see that this sup
port is regularly sought. If this be not done, the right
arm will be apt to rise above the left, from its more
constant use and elevation. A physician, highly cele
brated for the success that has attended his treatment
for lung affections, after dwelling upon the injury to
the health that frequently results from sitting at too
low desks, remarks, that "every parent should go to
the school-rooms, and know for a certainty that the
desks at which his children write or study are fully up
to the arm-pits, and in no case allow them to sit stoop
ing, or leaning the shoulders forward on the chest. If
fatigued by this posture, they should be called to stand,
or go out of doors and run about." The height of table

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 71

1 find most conducive to comfort for my own use is
midway between the two; that is, half way from the
elbow (as the arm hangs by the side) to the arm-pit.
It is necessary, however, to rest both arms equally upon
the table. The secret of posture consists in avoiding
all bad positions, and in not continuing any one posi
tion too long. The ordinary carriage of the body is
an object worthy of the attention of every parent and
instructor. The more favorable impression which a
man of erect and commanding attitude is sure to make,
should not be overlooked. But there is a greater good
than this ; for he who walks erect, enjoys better health,
possesses increased powers of usefulness, realizes more
that he is a man, and has more to call forth gratitude
to a beneficent Creator, than he who adopts an oblique
posture. It was just remarked that " physical upright
ness is next to moral." Physical obliquity, it may be
added, is akin to moral. If they are not German-cous
ins, there can be little doubt but that, considered in all
its bearings, the tendency of the former is to induce
the latter.

Important as an erect posture and a well-developed
chest are to gentlemen, they are in some respects even
more so to the fairer sex ; for, in addition to the advan
tages already considered, which both enjoy in common,
these impart to them a peculiar charm, that to men- of
sense is far greater than pretty faces, which Nature has
not given to all. " For a great number of years, it has
been the custom in France to give young females, of
the earliest age, the habit of holding back the shoulders,
and thus expanding the chest. From the observations
of anatomists lately made, it appears that the clavicle
or collar bone is actually longer in females of the
French nation than in those of the English. As the
two nations are of the same race, as there is no remark-

72 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

able difference in their bones, and this is peculiar to the
sex. it must be attributed, as I believe, to the habit above
mentioned, which, by the extension of the arms, has
gradually produced an elongation of this bone. Thus
we see that habit may be employed to alter and im
prove the solid bones. The French have succeeded
in the development of a part in a way that adds to
health and beauty, and increases a characteristic that
distinguishes the human being from the brute."*

THE MUSCLES. — The muscles consist of compact
bundles of fleshy fibers, which are found in animals on
removing the skin. They constitute the red fleshy
part of meat, and give form and symmetry to the body.
In the limbs they surround and protect the bones,
while in the trunk they spread out and constitute a de
fensive wall for the protection of the vital parts be
neath. The muscles have been divided into three
parts, of which the middle and fleshy portion, called
the belly, is most conspicuous. The other two parts
are the opposite ends, and are commonly called the
origin and insertion of the muscle. The origin is
usually fastened to one bone, and the insertion is at
tached to another. By the contraction of the belly of
the muscle, the insertion, which is movable, is drawn
toward the origin, which is fixed, and brings with it
the bone to which it is attached. This any one can
see illustrated in bending the arm. The muscle which
performs this function lies between the elbow and the
shoulder. It is attached to the shoulder by its origin,
and to one of the bones of the fore-arm, just below the
elbow, by its insertion. By grasping the arm midway

* Quoted into the Schoolmaster (a work published in London under
the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowl
edge) from a lecture delivered by Dr. .1. C. Warren before the Amer
ican Institute of Instruction, August, 1830.

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 73

between the shoulder and the elbow with the opposite
hand, and then bending the arm, the enlargement of
the belly of the muscle by the contraction will be at
once perceived. Then, by moving the hand down on
the inside of the arm toward the elbow, the lessening
muscle may be readily traced until it terminates in a
tendon, of much less size than the muscle, but of great
strength, which is inserted into the bone just below
the elbow. As the fore-arm is drawn up, and espe
cially if there be a weight in the hand, the tendon may
be felt just within the elbow-joint, running toward the
point of insertion. Extend the arm at the elbow, and
the muscle on the outside of the arm will swell and
become firm, while the inside muscle, and its tendon at
the elbow, will be relaxed. This example well illus
trates the principle on which all the joints of the sys
tem are moved. Those who are acquainted with me
chanics will readily perceive that the action just de
scribed is an example of the "third kind of lever,"
where the power is applied between the weight and
the fulcrum. The elbow is the fulcrum, the hand con
tains the weight, and the tendon, inserted into the bone
just below the elbow, is the power. This kind of lever
requires the power to be greater than the weight, and
acts under what is called a mechanical disadvantage.
What is lost in power, however, is compensated in in
creased velocity.

There are upward of four hundred muscles in the
human body. Some of these are voluntary in their
motions, as those I have described, while others are
involuntary, as the action of the heart and the respira
tory muscles. Had the action of these depended upon
the will, as does the action of the muscles of locomo
tion, the circulation of the blood and the process of
breathing would cease, and life would become extinct

D

74 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

whenever sleep or any other cause should overcome
the attention. Here, then, we have another beautiful
illustration of the wisdom and beneficence of the Crea
tor in so ordering that those muscles which arc essen
tial to the continuation of life shall perform their func
tions without the control or attention of the individual.

The study of the muscular system involves an ex
position of the principles by which exercise should be
regulated, and can scarcely fail to excite the attention
of the general reader, and especially of those who, as
parents or teachers, are interested in the education of
the young.

The muscles enable us to move the frame- work of
the system. Their chief purpose obviously is to ena
ble us to carry into effect the various resolutions and
designs which have been formed by the mind. But,
while fulfilling this grand object, their active exercise
is, at the same time, highly conducive to the well-being
of many other important functions. By muscular con
traction, the blood is gently assisted in its course through
the smaller vessels to the more distant parts of the
body ; and by it the important processes of digestion,
respiration, secretion, absorption, and nutrition are
promoted ; and by it the health of the whole body is
immediately and greatly influenced. The mind itself
is exhilarated or depressed by the proper or improper
use of muscular exercise. It thus becomes a point of
no slight importance to establish general principles by
which that exercise may be regulated.

In every part of the animal economy, the muscles
are proportioned in size and structure to the efforts re
quired of them. Whenever a muscle is called into fre
quent use, its fibers increase in thickness within cer
tain limits, and become capable of acting with greater
force and readiness. On the other hand, when a mus-

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 75

cle is little used, its volume and power decrease in a
corresponding degree.

In order to secure the most beneficial results from
exercise, reference should be had to the time at which
it is taken. Those who are in perfect health may en
gage in it at almost any hour except immediately after
a meal ; but those who are not robust ought to confine
their hours of exercise within narrower limits. To a
person in full vigor, a good walk, or other brisk exer
cise before breakfast may be highly beneficial and ex
hilarating, while to an invalid or delicate person it
will be likely to prove detrimental. In order to prove
beneficial, exercise must be resorted to only when the
system is sufficiently vigorous to be able to meet it.
This is usually the case after a lapse of from two to
four hours after a moderate meal. The forenoon, then,
will generally be found the best time for exercise for
persons whose habits are sedentary. If exercise be
delayed till the system feels exhaustion from want of
food, its tendency will be to dissipate the strength that
remains and impair digestion ; while, if taken at the
proper time, it will invigorate the system and promote
digestion. The reasons are obvious ; for exercise of
every kind causes increased action and waste in the
organ, and if there be not materials and vigor enough
in the system to keep up that action and supply the
waste, nothing but increased debility can reasonably
be expected.

Active exercise immediately before meals is injurious.
The reasons are apparent, for muscular exercise di
rects a flow of blood and nervous energy to the sur
face and extremities; and it is an established law in
physiology, that energetic action can not be kept up in
two distant parts of the system at the same time.
Hence, whenever a meal is taken immediately after

76 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

vigorous exercise, the stomach is taken at disadvan
tage, and, from want of the necessary action in its ves*
sels and nerves, is unable to carry on digestion with
success. This is very obviously the case where the
exercise has been severe or protracted.

Active exercise ought to be equally avoided imme
diately after a heavy meal, for then the functions of
the digestive organs are in the highest state of activity.
If the muscular system be called into vigorous action
under such circumstances, it will cause a withdrawal
of the vital stimuli of the blood and nervous influence
from the stomach to the extremities, which can not fail
greatly to retard the digestive process. In accordance
with this well-established fact, there is a natural and
marked aversion to active pursuits after a full meal. A
mere stroll, which requires no exertion and does not
fatigue, will not be injurious before or after eating ;
but exercise beyond this limit is at such times hurtful.
All, therefore, who would preserve and improve their
health, will find it to their advantage to observe faith
fully this important law, otherwise they will deprive
themselves of most of the benefits that are usually at
tendant upon judicious exercise. All, then, who are
forced to much exertion immediately after eating, should
satisfy themselves with partaking of a very moderate
meal. These remarks apply to both physical and men
tal exercise ; for if the intellect be intently occupied in
profound and absorbing thought, the nervous energy
will be concentrated in the brain, and any demands
made on it by the stomach or muscles will be very im
perfectly attended to. So, also, if the stomach be ac
tively engaged in digesting a full meal, and some sub
ject of thought be presented to the mind, considerable
difficulty will be felt in pursuing it, and most probably
both thought and digestion will be disturbed.

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 77

Another law of the muscular system requires that
relaxation and contraction should alternate ; or, in
other words, that rest should follow exercise. In ac
cordance with this law, it is easier to walk than to
stand ; and in standing, it is easier to change from one
foot to the other than to stand still. To require a child
to extend his arm and hold a book in his hand, or even
to keep the arm extended but a short time, is a viola
tion of this law which should never be permitted. Akin
to this is the very injudicious practice, which is some
times resorted to in schools, of requiring a boy to
stoop over, and, placing his finger upon a nail in the
floor, " hold it in." Teachers who are disposed to in
flict punishments like these ought first to try the ex
periment themselves. Such protracted tension of the
muscles enfeebles their action, and ultimately destroys
their power of contraction.

These remarks sufficiently explain why small chil
dren, after sitting a while in school, become restless.
Proper regard for this organic law requires that the
smaller children in school be allowed a recess as often,
at least, as once an hour ; and that all be allowed and
encouraged frequently to change their position. I fully
concur in the opinion expressed by Dr. Caldwell, who
says, " It would be infinitely wiser and better to employ
suitable persons to superintend the exercises and amuse
ments of children under seven years of age, in the fields,
orchards, and meadows, and point out to them the
richer beauties of nature, than to have them immured
in crowded school-rooms, in a state of inaction, poring
over torn books and primers, conning words of whose
meaning they are ignorant, and breathing foul air."

A change of position calls into action a different set
of muscles, and relieves those that are exhausted. The
object of exercise is to employ all the muscles of the

78 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

body, and especially to strengthen those that are weak.
It ought hence to be frequently varied, and always
adapted to the peculiarities of individuals. Different
kinds of exercise will therefore be found to suit differ
ent constitutions. Sedentary persons best enjoy, and
will be most profited by, that kind of exercise which
brings into action the greatest number of muscles.

To give exercise its greatest value, it should be taken
at the same hour every day. This is well-nigh as im
portant as the rule that requires meals to be taken reg
ularly. If exercise be taken irregularly, one day in
the morning, another day at noon, and another day at
night, if at all, it is possible that good may result from
it, but its beneficial effects would be greatly increased
if the same amount of exercise were taken every day
at the same hours. Give the system an opportunity of
establishing good habits in this respect, and it will de
rive great advantage from them ; but it is difficult for
it to derive any benefit from a habit of irregularity , if
such may be called a habit. Students, teachers, and all
persons who lead sedentary lives, should have their reg
ular times for exercise as well as for meals, and if they
find it necessary to do without one, they will generally
find it advantageous to dispense with the other also.

Walking, it has been said, agrees with every body.
But as it brings into play chiefly the lower limbs and
muscles of the loins, and affords little scope for the play
of the arms and muscles of the chest, it is of itself in
sufficient to constitute adequate exercise. To render
it most beneficial, the shoulders should be drawn back,
and the chest should be enlarged by taking deep inspi
rations of pure air. The muscles of the chest, and of
every part of the body, should be free to move and un-
confi'ned by tight clothing. Fencing, shuttlecock, and
such other useful sports as combine with them free

THE LA Wo 01' IIKAI/TH. 79

movements of the upper part of the body, are doubly
advantageous, for they not only exercise the muscles
of the whole body, but possess the additional advantage
of animating the mind and increasing the nervous stim
ulus, by which exercise is rendered easy, pleasant, and
invigorating. For the purpose of developing the chest,
physiologists generally concur in recommending fenc
ing as a good exercise for boys. Shuttlecock is a very
beneficial exercise for females, calling into play, as it
does, the muscles of the chest, trunk, and arms. It
ought to be practiced in the open air. When played
with boih hands, as it may be after a little practice, it
is very useful in preventing curvature, and in giving
vigor to the spine. It is an excellent plan to play with
a battledore in each hand, and to strike with them al
ternately. The graces is another play well adapted for
expanding the chest, and giving strength to the muscles
of the back, and has the advantage of being practicable
in the open air. It is very important that the muscles
of the back be strengthened by due exercise, for their
proper use contributes to both health and beauty.

When managed with due regard to the natural pow
ers of the individual, and so as to avoid effort and fa
tigue, reading aloud becomes a very useful and invigo
rating exercise. In forming and undulating the voice,
not only the chest, but also the diaphragm and abdom
inal muscles are in constant action, and communicate
to the stomach and bowels a healthy and agreeable
stimulus. Where the voice is raised and the elocution
is rapid, the muscular effort becomes fatiguing ; but
when care is taken not to carry reading aloud so far
at one time as to excite a sensation of soreness or fa
tigue in the chest, and the exercise is duly repeated, it
is extremely useful in developing and giving tone to the
organs of respiration and to the general system.

80 PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

"Vocal music is also very useful, by its direct effect
on the constitution. It was the opinion of Dr. Rush,
that young ladies especially, who, by the custom of so
ciety, are debarred from many kinds of salubrious ex
ercise, should cultivate singing, not only as an accom
plishment, but as a means of preserving health. He
particularly insists that it should never be neglected in
the education of females ; and states that, besides its
salutary operation in enabling them to soothe the cares
of domestic life, and quiet sorrow by the united assist
ance of the sound and sentiment of a properly chosen
song, it has a still more direct and important effect. 'I
here introduce a fact,' he remarks, * which has been
suggested to me by my profession, and that is, that the
exercise of the organs of the breast by singing contrib
utes very much to defend them from those diseases to
which the climate and other causes expose them. The
Germans are seldom afflicted with consumption, nor
have I ever known but one instance of spitting blood
among them. This, I believe, is in part occasioned by
the strength which their lungs acquire by exercising
them frequently in vocal music, for this constitutes an
essential branch of their education. The music-master
of our academy has furnished me with an observation
still more in favor of this opinion. lie informed me
that he had known several instances of persons who
were strongly disposed to consumption, who were re
stored to health by the exercise of their lungs in sing
ing.'"*

Bathing or ablution, when conducted as recommend
ed on pages 60 and 61, is not only a means of cleanli
ness and of exciting a healthy action in the skin, but it
constitutes, at the same time, a most admirable exercise.

* Mr. Woodbriflge's lecture before the American Institute of Instruc
tion, 1830.

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 81

If a lodging-room has been properly ventilated by leav
ing open windows, or otherwise, so that the air is pure
and healthful in the morning, ten or fifteen minutes
spent in bathing and friction, with a proper exercise
of the muscles of the back and abdomen, will contrib
ute more to invigorate the system and promote the gen
eral health than twice the amount of exercise taken at
any other time or in any other way.

From the foregoing remarks, it appears that the most
perfect of all exercises are those which combine the
free play of all the muscles of the body, mental interest
and excitement, and the unrestrained use of the voice.

CHAPTER IV.

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION.

Wo instinctively shun approach to tho dirty, the squalid, and tho
diseased, and use no garment that may have been worn by another.
We open sewers for matters that offend the sight or the smell, and
contaminate the air. We carefully remove impurities from what wo
eat and drink, filter turbid water, and fastidiously avoid drinking from
a cup that may have been pressed to the lips of a friend. On the other
hand, we resort to places of assembly, and draw into our mouths air
loaded with effluvia from the lungs, skin, and clothing of every indi
vidual in the promiscuous crowd — exhalations offensive, to a certain
extent, from the most healthy individuals; but when arising from a
living mass of skin and lungs in all stages of evaporation, disease, and
putridity, they are in the highest degree deleterious and loathsome. —
BIRNAN.

RESPIRATION is usually denned as the process by
which air is taken into the lungs and expelled from
them. It explains the changes that take place in these
organs, in the conversion of chyle and venous, or worn-
out blood, into arterial or nutrient blood. In order to
be clearly understood, I must premise a few observa-

D2

82 THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

tions on the circulation of the blood.* The blood cir
culating through the body is of two different kinds ; the
one red or arterial, and the other dark or venous blood.
The former alone is capable of affording nourishment
and supporting life. It is distributed from the left side
of the heart all over the body by means of a great
artery, which subdivides in its course, and ultimately
terminates in myriads of very minute ramifications
closely interwoven with, and in reality constituting a
part of, the texture of every living part. On reaching
this extreme point of its course, the blood passes into
equally minute ramifications of the veins, which in their
turn gradually coalesce, and form larger and larger
trunks, till they at last terminate in two large veins, by
which the whole current of the venous blood is brought
back in a direction contrary to that of the blood in the
arteries, and poured into the right side of the heart.
On examining the quality of the blood in the arteries
and veins, it is found to have undergone a great change
in its passage from the one to the other. The florid
hue which distinguished it in the arteries has disap
peared, and given place to the dark color character
istic of venous blood. Its properties, too, have changed,
and it is now no longer capable of sustaining life.

Two conditions are essential to the reconversion of
venous into arterial blood, and to the restoration of its
vital properties. The first is an adequate provision of
new materials from the food to supply the place of
those which have been expended in nutrition, and the
second is the free exposure of the venous blood to the
atmospheric air. The first condition is fulfilled by the
chyle, or nutrient portion of the food, being regularly
poured into the venous blood just before it reaches the
right side of the heart, and the second by the import-

* Taken, with slight alterations, from the description of Dr. A. Combe.

PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION. 83

ant process of respiration, which takes place in the air-
cells of the lungs. The venous blood, having arrived
at the right side of the heart, is propelled by the con
traction of that organ into a large artery, leading di
rectly, by separate branches, to the two lungs, and
hence called the pulmonary artery. In the innumera
ble branches of this artery expanding themselves
throughout the substance of the lungs, the dark blood
is subjected to the contact of the air inhaled in breath
ing, and a change in the composition both of the blood
and of the inhaled air takes place, in consequence of
which the former is found to have reassumed its florid
or arterial hue, and to have regained its power of sup
porting life. The blood then enters minute venous
ramifications, which gradually coalesce into larger
branches, and at last terminate in four large trunks in
the left side of the heart, whence the blood, in its arterial
form, is again distributed over the body, to pursue the
same course and undergo the same change as before.

It will be perceived that there are two distinct cir
culations, each of which is carried on by its own sys
tem of vessels. The one is from the left side of the
heart to every part of the body, and back to the right
side of the heart. The other is from the right side of
the heart to the lungs, and back to the left side of the
heart. The former has for its object nutrition and the
maintenance of life; and the latter, the restoration of
the deteriorated blood, and the ammalization or assimi
lation of the chyle from which the blood is formed.
This process has already been referred to as the com
pletion of digestion ; for chyle is not fitted to nourish
the system until, by its exposure to the atmospheric
air in the lungs, it is converted into arterial blood.

As the food can not become a part of the living ani
mal, or the venous blood regain its lost properties un-

84 THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

til they have undergone the requisite changes in the
air-cells of the lungs, the function of respiration by
which these are effected is one of pre-eminent import
ance in the animal economy, and well deserves the
most careful examination. The term respiration is
frequently restricted to the mere inhalation and expira
tion of air from the lungs, but more generally it is em
ployed to designate the whole series of phenomena
which occur in these organs. The term sanguifica
tion is occasionally used to denote that part of the pro
cess in which the blood, by exposure to the action of
the air, passes from the venous to the arterial state.
As the chyle does not become assimilated to the blood
until it has passed through the lungs, this term, which
signifies blood-making, is not unaptly used.

The quantity and quality of the blood have a most
direct and material influence upon the condition of
every part of the body. If the quantity sent to the arm,
for example, be diminished by tying the artery through
which it is conveyed, the arm, being then imperfectly
nourished, wastes away, and does not regain its plump
ness till the full supply of blood be restored. In like
manner, when the quality of that fluid is impaired by
deficiency of food, bad digestion, impure air, or imper
fect sanguification in the lungs, the body and all its
functions become more or less disordered. Thus, in
consumption, death takes place chiefly in consequence
of respiration not being sufficiently perfect to admit of
the formation of proper blood in the lungs. A knowl
edge of the structure and functions of the lungs, and of
the conditions favorable to their healthy action, is there
fore very important, for on their welfare depends that
of every organ of the body.

The exposure of the blood to the action of the air
seems to be indispensable to every variety of animated

PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION. 85

creatures. In man and the more perfect of the lower
animals, it is carried on in the lungs, the structure of
which is admirably adapted for the purpose. Iri many
animals, however, the requisite action is effected with
out the intervention of lungs. In fishes, for example,
that live in water and do not breathe, the blood circu
lates through the gills, and in them is exposed to they
air which the water contains. So necessary is the at
mospheric air to the vitality of the blood in all animals,
that the want of it inevitably proves fatal. A fish can
no more live in water deprived of air, than a man could
in an atmosphere devoid of oxygen, which is the ele
ment that unites with the blood in the lungs in sangui
fication.

In man the lungs are those large, light, spongy bodies
which, along with the heart, completely fill up the cav
ity of the chest. They vary much in size in different
persons ; and as the chest is formed for their protection,
it is either large and capacious, or the reverse, accord
ing to the size of the lungs.

The substance of the lungs consists of bronchial tubes,
air-cells, blood-vessels, nerves, and cellular membrane.
The bronchial tubes are merely continuations and sub
divisions of the windpipe, and serve to convey the ex
ternal air to the air-cells of the lungs. The air-cells
constitute the chief part of the lungs, and are the term
ination of the smaller branches of the bronchial tubes.
When fully distended, they are so numerous as in ap
pearance to constitute almost the whole lung. They
are of various sizes, from the twentieth to the hundredth
of an inch in diameter, and are lined with an exceed
ingly fine, thin membrane, on which the minute capil
lary branches of the pulmonary arteries and veins are
copiously ramified. It is while circulating in the small
vessels of this membrane, and there exposed to the air,

86 THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

that the blood undergoes the change from the venous
to the arterial state. So numerous are these air-cells,
that the aggregate extent of their lining membrane in
man has been computed to exceed twenty thousand
square inches, or about ten times the surface of the hu
man body. Some writers place the estimate consid
erably higher.

A copious exhalation of moisture takes place in
breathing, which presents a striking analogy to the ex
halation from the surface of the skin already described.
In the former as in the latter instance, the exhalation
is carried on by the innumerable minute capillary ves
sels in which the small arterial branches terminate in
the air-cells. Pulmonary exhalation is, in fact, one of
the chief outlets of waste matter from the system ; and
the air we breathe is thus vitiated, not only by the sub
traction of its oxygen and the addition of carbonic acid
gas, but also by animal effluvia, with which it is loaded
when returned from the lungs. In some individuals
this last source of impurity is so great as to render
their vicinity offensive, and even insupportable. It is
this which gives the disagreeable, sickening smell to
crowded rooms. The air which is expired from the
lungs is rendered offensive by various other causes.
When spirituous liquors are taken into the stomach, for
example, they are absorbed by the veins and mixed
with the venous blood, in which they are carried to the
lungs to be expelled from the body. In some instances,
when persons have drank copiously of spirits, their
breath has been so saturated with them as actually to
take fire and burn. An instance of this kind has re
cently been communicated to me by several reliable
witnesses, in which the flame was extinguished by clos
ing the mouth and nose, thus excluding the pure air
that supported the combustion, until the unfortunate ex-

PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION. 87

perimenler could remove the candle by which his breath
had taken fire. This illustration will explain how the
odor of different substances is frequently perceptible in
the breath long after the mouth is free from them.

The lungs not only exhale waste matter, but absorp
tion takes place from their lining membrane. In both
of these respects there is a striking analogy between
the functions performed by the lungs and the skin.
When a person breathes an atmosphere loaded with
the fumes of spirits, tobacco, turpentine, or of any other
volatile substance, a portion of the fumes is taken up by
the absorbing vessels of the lungs, and carried into the
system, and there produces precisely the same effects
as if introduced into the stomach. Dogs, for example,
have been killed by being made to inhale the fumes of
prussic acid for a few minutes. The lungs thus be
come a ready inlet to contagion, miasmata, and other
poisonous influences diffused through the air we breathe.

From this general explanation of the structure and
uses of the lungs, it is obvious that several conditions
which it is our interest to know and observe are essen
tial to the healthy performance of the important func
tion of respiration. The first among these is a healthy
original formation of the lungs. No fact in medicine
is better established/says Dr. Combe, than that which
proves the hereditary transmission, from parents to
children, of a constitutional liability to pulmonary dis
ease, and especially to consumption ; yet, continues he,
no condition is less attended to in forming matrimonial
engagements.

Another requisite to the well-being of the lungs, and
to the free and salutary exercise of respiration, is a due
supply of rich and healthy blood. When, from defect
ive food or impaired digestion, the blood is impoverish
ed in quality, and rendered unfit for adequate nutrition,

SS THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

the lungs speedily suffer, and that often to a fatal ex
tent. The free and easy expansion of the chest is also
indispensable to the full play and dilation of the lungs.
Whatever interferes with or impedes it, either in dress
or in position, is obviously prejudicial to health. On
the other hand, whatever favors the free expansion of
the chest equally promotes the healthy action of the
respiratory organs. Stays and corsets, and tight vests
and waistbands, operate most injuriously, compressing
as they do the thoracic cavity, and interfering with the
healthy dilation of the lungs.

The admirable harmony established by the Creator
between the various constituent parts of the animal
frame, renders it impossible to pay regard to the con
ditions required for the health of any one, or to infringe
the conditions required therefor, without all the rest
participating in the benefit or injury. Thus, while
cheerful exercise in the open air and in the society of
equals is directly and eminently conducive to the well-
being of the muscular system, the advantage does not
stop there, the beneficent Creator having kindly so or
dered it that the same exercise shall be scarcely less
advantageous to the important function of respiration.
Active exercise calls the lungs into play, favors their
expansion, promotes the circulation of the blood through
their substance, and leads to their complete and healthy
development. The same end is greatly facilitated by
that free and vigorous exercise of the voice, which so
uniformly accompanies and enlivens the sports of the
young, and which doubles the benefits derived from
them considered as exercise. The excitement of the
social and moral feelings which children experience
while engaged in play is another powerful tonic, the
influence of which on the general health ought not to
be overlooked ; for the nervous influence is as indis-

PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION. 89

pensable to the right performance of respiration as it is
to the action of the muscles or to the digestion of food.

The regular supply of pure fresh air is another es
sential condition of healthy respiration, without which
the requisite changes in the constitution of the blood,
as it passes through the lungs, can not be effected. To
enable the reader to appreciate this condition, it is nec
essary to consider the nature of the changes alluded to.

It is ascertained by analysis that the air we breathe
is composed chiefly of the two gases nitrogen and ox
ygen, united in the ratio of four to one by volume, with
exceedingly small and variable quantities of carbonic
acid and aqueous vapor. No other mixture of these,
or of any other gases, will sustain healthy respiration.
To be more specific — atmospheric air consists of about
seventy-eight per cent, of nitrogen, twenty-one per cent,
of oxygen, and not quite one per cent, of carbonic acid.
Such is its constitution when taken into the lungs in the
act of breathing. When it is expelled from them, how
ever, its composition is found to be greatly altered.
The quantity of nitrogen remains nearly the same, but
eight or eight and a hdlf per cent, of the oxgyen or
vital air have disappeared, and been replaced by an
equal amount of carbonic acid. In addition to these
changes, the expired air is loaded with moisture. Si
multaneously with these occurrences, the blood collect
ed from the veins, which enters the lungs of a dark
color and unfit for the support of life, assumes a florid
hue and acquires the power of supporting life.

Physiologists are not fully agreed in explaining the
processes by which these changes are effected in the
lungs. All, however, agree that the change of the blood
in the lungs is essentially dependent on the supply of
oxygen contained in the air we breathe, and that air is
fit or unfit for respiration in exact proportion as its

90 THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

quantity of oxygen approaches to, or differs from, that
contained in pure air. If we attempt to breathe nitro
gen, hydrogen, or any other gas that does not contain
oxygen, the result will be speedy suffocation. If, on
the other hand, we breathe air containing too great a
proportion of oxygen, the vital powers will speedily
4 suffer from excess of stimulus.

The chief chemical properties of the atmosphere are
owing to the presence of oxygen. Nitrogen, which
constitutes about four fifths of its volume, has been sup
posed to act as a mere diluent to the oxygen. Increase
the proportion of oxygen in the atmosphere, and, as
already stated, the vital powers will speedily suffer
from excess of stimulus, the circulation and respiration
become too rapid, and the system generally becomes
highly excited. Diminish the proportion of oxygen,
and the circulation and respiration become too slow,
weakness and lassitude ensue, and a sense of heaviness
and uneasiness pervades the entire system. As has
been observed, air loses during each respiration a por
tion of its oxygen, and gains an equal quantity of car
bonic acid, which is an active poison. When mixed
with atmospheric air in the ratio of one to four, it ex
tinguishes animal life. It is this gas that is produced
by burning charcoal in a confined portion of common
air. Its effect upon the system is well known to every
reader of our newspapers. It causes dimness of sight,
weakness, dullness, a difficulty of breathing, and ulti
mately apoplexy and death *

* Since the text was prepared for the press, I have noticed from the
Syracuse (New York) Journal of January 3d, 18-30, mention of the death
of General Rensselaer Van Rensselaer, of that city, from breathing " the
fumes of charcoal" burned in a " portable furnace." This, it should be
remembered, is but one of the many instances that are constantly oc*
curring all over our country, in which immediate death is the result of
breathing this destructive agent.

rlllLOSOPHY Of RESPIRATION. 91

Respiration produces the same effect upon air that
the burning of charcoal does. It converts its oxygen,
which is the aliment of animal life, into carbonic acid,
which, be it remembered, is an active poison. Says
Dr. Turner, in his celebrated work on chemistry, " An
animal can not live in air which is unable to support
combustion." Says the same author again, " An ani
mal can not live in air which contains sufficient car
bonic acid for extinguishing a candle." It will pres
ently be seen why these quotations are made.

It is stated in several medical works that the quan
tity of air that enters the lungs at each inspiration of
an adult varies from thirty-two to forty cubic inches.
To establish more definitely some data upon which
a calculation might safely be based, I some years ago
conducted an experiment whereby I ascertained the
medium quantity of air that entered the lungs of myself
and four young men was thirty-six cubic inches, and
that respiration is repeated once in three seconds, or
twenty times a minute. I also ascertained that respired
air will not support combustion. This truth, taken in
connection with the quotations just made, establishes
another and a more important truth, viz., that AIR ONCE

RESPIRED WILL NOT FURTHER SUSTAIN ANIMAL LIFE.

That part of the experiment by which it was ascer
tained that respired air will not support combustion is
very simple, and I here give it with the hope that it
may be tried at least in every school-house, if not in
every family of our wide-spread .country. It was con
ducted as follows :

I introduced a lighted taper into an inverted receiver
(glass jar) which contained seven quarts of atmospheric
air, and placed the mouth of the receiver into a vessel
of water. The taper burned with its wonted brilliancy
about a minute, and, growing dim gradually, became

92 THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

extinct at the expiration of three minutes. I then filled
the receiver with water, and inverting it, placed its
mouth beneath the surface of the same fluid in another
vessel. I next removed the water from the receiver
by breathing into it. This was done by filling the lungs
with air, which, after being retained a short time in the
chest, was exhaled through a siphon (a bent lead tube)
into the receiver. I then introduced the lighted taper
into the receiver of respired air, by which it was im
mediately extinguished. Several persons present then
received a quantity of respired air into their lungs,
whereupon the premonitory symptoms of apoplexy, as
already given, ensued. The experiment was conduct
ed with great care, and several times repeated in the
presence of respectable members of the medical pro
fession, a professor of chemistry, and several literary
gentlemen, to their entire satisfaction.

Before proceeding further, I will make a practical ap
plication of the principles already established. Within
the last ten years I have visited half of the states of the
Union for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the
actual condition of our common schools. I have there
fore noticed especially the condition of school-houses.
Although there is a great variety in their dimensions,
yet there are comparatively few school-houses less than
sixteen by eighteen feet on the ground, and fewer still
larger than twenty-four by thirty feet, exclusive of our
principal cities and villages. From a large number of
actual measurements, not only in New York and Mich
igan, but east of the Hudson River and west of the
great lakes, I conclude that, exclusive of entry and
closets/when they are furnished with these append
ages, school-houses are not usually larger than twenty
by twenty-four feet on the ground, and seven feet in
height. They are, indeed, more frequently smaller

PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION. 93

than larger. School-houses of these dimensions have
a capacity of 3360 cubic feet, and are usually occupied
by at least forty-five scholars in the winter season.
Not unfrequently sixty or seventy, and occasionally
more than a hundred scholars occupy a room of this
size.

A simple arithmetical computation will abundantly
satisfy any person who is acquainted with the compo
sition of the atmosphere, the influence of respiration
upon its fitness to sustain animal life, and the quantity
of air that enters the lungs at each inspiration, that a
school-room of the preceding dimensions contains quite
too little air to sustain the healthy respiration of even
forty-five scholars three hours — the usual length of each
session ; and frequently the school -house is imperfectly
ventilated between the sessions at noon, and sometimes
for several days together.

Mark the following particulars: 1. The quantity of
air breathed by forty-five persons in three hours, ac
cording to the data just given, is 3375 cubic feet. 2.
Air once respired will not sustain animal life. 3. The
school-room was estimated to possess a capacity of
3360 cubic feet — -fifteen feet less than is necessary to
sustain healthy respiration. 4. Were forty-five persons
whose lungs possess the estimated capacity placed in
an air-tight room of the preceding dimensions, and
could they breathe pure air till it was all once respired,
and then enter upon its second respiration, they would
all die with the apoplexy before the expiration of a three
hours' session.

From the nature of the case, these conditions can not
conveniently be fulfilled. But numerous instances of
fearful approximation exist. We have no air-tight
houses. But in our latitude, comfort requires that
rooms which are to be occupied by children in the

94 THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

winter season, be made very close. The dimensions
of rooms are, moreover, frequently narrowed, that the
warm breath may lessen the amount of fuel necessary
to preserve a comfortable temperature. It is true, on
the other hand, that the quantity of air which children
breathe is somewhat less than I have estimated. But
the derangement resulting from breathing impure air,
in their case, is greater than in the case of adults whose
constitutions are matured, and who are hence less sus
ceptible of injury. It is also true in many schools that
the number occupying a room of the dimensions sup
posed is considerably greater than I have estimated.
Moreover, in many instances, a great proportion of the
larger scholars will respire the estimated quantity of air.

Again, all the air in a room is not respired once be
fore a portion of it is breathed the second, or even the
third and fourth time. The atmosphere is not sudden
ly changed from purity to impurity — from a healthful
to an infectious state. Were it so, the change, being
more perceptible, would be seen and felt too, and a
remedy would be sought and applied. But because the
change is gradual, it is not the less fearful in its conse
quences. In a room occupied by forty-five persons,
THE FIRST MINUTE, thirty -two thousand four hundred
cubic inches of air impart their entire vitality to sustain
animal life, and, mingling with the atmosphere of the
room, proportionately deteriorate the whole mass. Thus
are abundantly sown in early life the fruitful seeds of
disease and premature death.

This detail shows conclusively sufficient cause for
that uneasy, listless state of feeling which is so preva
lent in crowded school-rooms. It explains why chil
dren that are amiable at home are mischievous in
school, and why those that are troublesome at home
are frequently well-nigh uncontrollable in school. It

PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION. 95

discloses the true cause why so many teachers who
are justly considered both pleasant and amiable in the
ordinary domestic and social relations, are obnoxious
in the school-room, being there habitually sour and
fretful. The ever-active children are disqualified for
study, and engage in mischief as their only alternative.
On the other hand, the irritable teacher, who can hard
ly look with complaisance upon good behavior, is dis
posed to magnify the most trifling departure from the
rules of propriety. The scholars are continually be
coming more ungovernable, and the teacher more un
fit to govern them. Week after week they become
less and less attached to him, and he, in turn, becomes
less interested in them.

This detail explains, also, why so many children are
unable to attend school at all, or become unwell so soon
after commencing to attend, when their health is suffi
cient to engage in other pursuits. The number of
scholars answering this description is greater than most
persons are aware of. In one district that I visited a
few years ago in the State of New York, it was ac
knowledged by competent judges to be emphatically
true in the case of not less than twenty-five scholars.
Indeed, in that same district, the health of more than
one hundred scholars was materially injured every
year in consequence of occupying an old and partially-
decayed house, of too narrow dimensions, with very
limited facilities for ventilation. The evil, even after
the 'cause was made known, was suffered to exist for
years, although the district was worth more than three
hundred thousand dollars. And what was true* of this
school, is now, with a few variations, true in the case

* In the district referred to there has since been erected a large and
commodious union school house, which constitutes at once the pride
and ornament of a beautiful and flou-p^imr "ilWe.

90 THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

of scores, if not hundreds of schools with which I am
acquainted, from far-famed New England to the Valley
of the Mississippi.

This detail likewise explains why the business of
teaching has acquired, and justly too, the reputation of
being unhealthy. There is, however, no reason why
the health of either teacher or pupils should sooner fail
in a well-regulated school, taught in a house properly
constructed, and suitably warmed and ventilated, than
in almost any other business. If this statement were
not true, an unanswerable argument might be framed
against the very existence of schools ; and it might
clearly be shown that it is policy, nay, DUTY, to close at
once and forever the four thousand school-houses of
Michigan, and the hundred thousand of the nation, and
leave the rising generation to perish for lack of knowl
edge. But our condition in this respect is not hope
less. The evil in question may be effectually remedied
by enlarging the house, or, which is easier, cheaper, and
more effectual, by frequent and thorough ventilation.
It would be well, however, to unite the two methods.

In the winter of 1841-2, I visited a school in which
the magnitude of the evil under consideration was clear
ly developed. Five of the citizens of the district at
tended me in my visit to the school. We arrived at the
school-house about the middle of the afternoon. It was
a close, new house, eighteen by twenty-four feet on the
ground — two feet less in one of its dimensions than the
house concerning which the preceding calculation is
made. There were present forty-three scholars, the
teacher, five patrons, and myself, making fifty in all.
Immediately after entering the school-house, one of the
trustees remarked to me, " I believe our school-house
is too tight to be healthy." I made no reply, but se
cretly resolved that I would sacrifice my comfort for

PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION. 97

the remainder of the afternoon, and hazard my health,
and my life even, to test the accuracy of the opinions
I had entertained on this important subject. I marked
the uneasiness and dullness of all present, and espe
cially of the patrons, who had been accustomed to
breathe a purer atmosphere. School continued an
hour and a half, at the close of which I was invited to
make some remarks. I arose to do so, but was unable
to proceed till I opened the outer door, and snuffed a
few times the purer air without. When I had partial
ly recovered my wonted vigor, I observed with delight
the renovating influence of the current of air that en
tered the door, mingling with and gradually displacing
the fluid poison that filled the room, and was about to
do the work of death. It seemed as though I was
standing at the mouth of a huge scpulcher, in which
the dead* were being restored to life. After a short
pause. I proceeded with a few remarks, chiefly, how
ever, on the subject of respiration and ventilation.
The trustees, who had just tested their accuracy and
bearing upon their comfort and health, resolved imme
diately to provide for ventilation according to the sug
gestions in the article on school-houses in the last
chapter of this work.

Before leaving the house on that occasion, I was in
formed an evening meeting had been attended there
the preceding week, which they were obliged to dis
miss before the ordinary exercises were concluded,
because, as they said, " We all got sick, and the can
dles went almost out." Little did they realize, proba
bly, that the light of life became just as nearly extinct
as did the candles. Had they remained there a little
longer, both would have gone out together, and there
would have been reacted the memorable tragedy of
the Black Hole in Calcutta, into which were thrust a

E

98 THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

garrison of one hundred and forty-six persons, n ne
hundred and twenty-three of whom perished misera
bly in a few hours, being suffocated by the confined air.

What has been said in the preceding pages on the
philosophy of respiration was first given to the public
nearly ten years ago, in a report of the author's in the
State of New York. He has since seen the same sen
timents inculcated by many of our most eminent prac
tical educators, some of whom had written upon the
subject at an earlier date. Allen and Pepy showed
by experiment that air which has been once breathed
contains eight and a half per cent, of carbonic acid,
and that no continuance of the respiration of the same
air could make it take up more than ten per cent.
Air, then, when once respired, has taken up more than
four fifths of the amount of this noxious gas that it can
be made to by any number of breathings.

Dr. Clark, in his work on Consumption, remarks as
follows: "Were I to select two circumstances which
influence the health, especially during the growth of
the body, more than others, and concerning which the
public, ignorant at present, ought to be well informed,
they would be the proper adaptation of food to differ
ence of age and constitution, and the constant supply
of pure air for respiration." Dr. William A. Alcott,
who has given especial attention to this subject, after
quoting the preceding remark of Dr. Clark, adds: "We
believe this is the opinion of all medical men who have
studied the constitution of man, and its relation to out
ward objects."

A distinguished surgeon* of Leeds, England, goes
somewhat further in praising pure air than most of his
contemporaries. " Be it remembered," says he, " that

* Dr. Thaekrab, author of a most valuable work on the " Effects of
Employments on the Health and Longevity of Mankind,"

PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION. 99

man subsists more upon air than upon his food and
drink." There is some novelty in this remark, I ad
mit ; but is it not truthful ? Men have been known to
live three weeks without eating. But exclude the at
mospheric air from the lungs for the space of three
minutes, and death generally ensues. We thus see
that life will continue with abstinence from food three
thousand times as long as it is safe to protract an at
mospheric fast.

Let us take another view of the subject. Men usual
ly eat three times in twenty-four hours. This is all
that is necessary to, or compatible with, the enjoyment
of uninterrupted good health. But we involuntarily
breathe nearly thirty thousand times in the same length
of time. We need, then, fresh supplies of pure air ten
thousand times as often as it is necessary to partake of
meals. Is it not apparent, then, that man subsists more
upon AIR than upon his FOOD and DRINK ?

The atmosphere which we so frequently inhale, and
upon which our well-being so much depends, surrounds
the earth to the height of about forty-five miles. The
surface of the earth contains about two hundred mill
ions of square miles, and-it is estimated that there dwell
upon it eight hundred millions of inhabitants. This
gives to each individual about eleven cubic miles of air.
But the air is breathed by the inferior animals as well
as by man. It is also rendered impure by combustion.
If by both of these causes ten times as much air is con
sumed as by man, there is still left one cubic mile of
uncontaminated atmospheric air to every human being
dwelling upon the surface of the earth. This would
allow him to live more than twice the age allotted to
man, without breathing any portion of the atmosphere
a second time. And still, as if to avoid the possibility
of evil to man on this account, the beneficent Creator

100 THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

has wisely so ordered, that while we do not interfere
with the laws of Nature, there is not even the possi
bility of rebreathing respired air until it has been puri
fied and restored to its natural and healthful state ; for
carbonic acid, the vitiating product of respiration, al
though immediately fatal to animals, constitutes the
very life of vegetation. When brought in contact with
the upper surface of the green leaves of trees and plants,
and acted upon by the direct solar rays, this gas is de-
composedT and its carbon is absorbed to sustain, in part,
the life of the plant, by affording it one element of its
food, while the oxygen is liberated and restored to the
atmosphere. Vegetables and animals are thus perpet
ually interchanging kindly offices, and each flourishes
upon that which is fatal to the other. It is in this way
that the healthful state of the atmosphere is kept up.
Its equilibrium seems never to be disturbed, or, if dis
turbed at all, it is immediately restored by the mutual
exchange of poison for aliment, which is constantly go
ing on between the animal and vegetable worlds. This
interchange of kindly offices is constantly going on all
over the earth, even in the highest latitudes, and in the
very depths of winter ; for air which has been respired is
rarefied, and, when thrown from the lungs, ascends, and
is thus not only out of our reach, whereby we are pro
tected from respiring it a second time, but this (to us)
deadly poison falls into the great aerial current which
is constantly flowing from the polar to the tropical re
gions, where it is converted into vegetable growth.
The oxygen which is exhaled in the processes of trop
ical vegetation, heated and rarefied by the vertical
rays of the sun, mounts to the upper regions of the at
mosphere, and, falling into a returning current, in its
appointed time revisits the higher latitudes. So wise
ly has the Divine Author ordered these processes, that

PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRAION^ - '\i

air, in its natural state* in any part of the world, does
not contain more than one half of one per cent, of car
bonic acid gas, although, as already stated, air which
has been once respired contains eight and a half per
cent, of this gas, which is at least seventeen times its
natural quantity.

There are other agencies than carbonic acid gas
which in civic life render the atmosphere impure. Of
this nature is carbureted hydrogen gas, which is pro
duced in various ways. This, says Dr. Comstock, is
immediately destructive to animal life, and will not sup
port combustion. It exists in stagnant water, especi
ally in warm weather, and is generated by the decom
position of vegetable products. Dr. Arnott expresses
the conviction that the immediate and chief cause of
many of the diseases which impair the bodily and men
tal health of the people, and bring a considerable por
tion prematurely to the grave, is the poison of atmos
pheric impurity, arising from the accumulation in and
around their dwellings of the decomposing remnants
of the substances used for food and in their arts, and of
the impurities given out from their own bodies. If you
allow the sources of aerial impurity to exist in or around
dwellings, he continues, you are poisoning the people ;
and while many die at early ages of fevers and other
acute diseases, the remainder will have their health im
paired and their lives shortened.

There are many instances on record where the prog
ress of an epidemic has been speedily arrested by ven
tilation. A striking instance is given by the writer last
quoted. " When I visited Glasgow with Mr. Chad-
wick," says he, " there was described to us one vast

* It would bo difficult to say whether carbonic acid gas is in the at
mosphere constitutionally, or accidentally, or both. — Dr. Wm. A. Alcott's
Health Tracts.

THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

lodging-house, in connection with a manufactory there,
in which formerly fever constantly prevailed, but where,
by making an opening from the top of each room through
a channel of communication to an air-pump common
to all the channels, the disease had disappeared alto
gether. The supply of pure air obtained by that mode
of ventilation was sufficient to dilute the cause of the
disease, so that it became powerless."

Sulphureted hydrogen gas is also exceedingly pois
onous to the lungs and to every part of the system.
When pure, this gas is described as instantly fatal to
animal life. Even when diluted with fifteen hundred
times its bulk of air, it has been found so poisonous as
to destroy a bird in a few seconds. " This gas," says
Dr. Dunglison, in his Elements of Hygiene, "is ex
tremely deleterious.* When respired in a pure state
it kills instantly ; and its deadly agency is rapidly ex
erted when put in contact with any of the tissues of
the body, through which it penetrates with astonishing
rapidity. Even when mixed with a portion of air, it
has proved immediately destructive. Dr. Paris refers
to the case of a chemist of his acquaintance, who was
suddenly deprived of sense as he stood over a pneumatic
trough in which he was collecting this gas. From the
experiments of Dupuytren and Thenard, air that con
tains a thousandth part of sulphureted hydrogen kills
birds immediately. A dog perished in air containing
a hundredth part, and a horse in air containing a fiftieth
part of it."

The preceding are far from being all the causes of
atmospheric impurity. Besides these, there are numer
ous exhalations, as well as gases, that are poisonous.

* Sulphureted hydrogen gas is the deleterious agent exhaled from
privies or vaults, which have been so fatal, at times, to night men, who
have been employed to remove or cleanse them. — Dr. Dunglison.

PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION. 103

Some of these exhalations are more abundant in the
night, and about the time of the morning and evening
twilight. " Hence the importance," says a writer on
health, " to those who are feeble, of avoiding the air at
all hours except when the sun is considerably above
the horizon."

Although the atmosphere, in its natural state, is not
at all times perfectly pure, still it is comparatively
so, and especially in the daytime. All, therefore, who
would retain and improve their health, should inhale
the open air as much as possible, even though they can
not, like Franklin's Methusalem,* be always in it. This
remark is applicable to both sexes, and to every age and
condition of life.

The following, from the pen of an American author J-
who has written much and well on physical education,
is pertinent to the subject under consideration : " We
breathe bad air principally as the production of our
own bodies. Here is the source of a large share of hu
man wo ; and to this point must his attention be par
ticularly directed who would save himself from dis
ease, and promote, in the highest possible degree, his
health and longevity. We must avoid breathing over
the carbonic acid gas contained in the tight or unven-

* Dr. Franklin, in his usual humorous manner, but with his accustom
ed gravity, relates, in one of his essays, the following anecdote, for the
purpose, doubtless, of showing the influence of pure air upon health,
happiness, and longevity.

" It is recorded of Methusalem, who, being the longest liver, may
be supposed to have best preserved his health, that he slept always in
the open air; for when he had lived five hundred years, an angel said
to him, Arise, Methusalem, and build thee a house, for thou shalt live
yet five hundred years longei'. But Methusalem answered and said,
If I am to live but five hundred years longer, it is not worth while to
build me a house. I will sleep in the air as I have been accustomed
to do."

t From Dr. William A. Alcott's Tract on Breathing Bad Air.

104 THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

tilated rooms in which we labor or remain for a long
time, whether parlors, school-rooms, counting-rooms,
bed-rooms, shops, or factories. The individual who
lives most according to nature — who observes with
most care the laws of life and health — must necessari
ly throw off much carbonic acid from his lungs, if not
from his skin. It does not follow, however, that be
cause this gas is formed we are obliged to inhale it.
We may change our position, change our clothing, ven
tilate our rooms of all sorts, shake up our bed-clothing
often and air our bed, and use clean, loose, and porous
clothing by night and by day. We may thus very effect
ually guard against injuries from a very injurious agent,
" One thing should be remembered in connection
with this subject which is truly encouraging. The
more we accustom ourselves to pure air, the more easi
ly will our lungs and nasal organs detect its presence.
He who has redeemed his senses and restored his lungs
to integrity, like him who has redeemed a conscience
once deadened, is so alive to every bad impression
made upon any of these, that he can often detect im
purity around or within him, and thus learn to avoid
it. It will scarcely be possible for such a person long
to breathe bad air, or nauseous or unwholesome efflu
via, without knowing it, and learning to avoid the
causes which produce it. Such a person will not neg
lect long to remove the impurities which accumulate
so readily on the surface of his body, or suffer himself
to use food or drink which induces flatulence, and thus
exposes either his intestines or his lungs, or the lungs
of others, to that most extremely poisonous agent, sul-
phureted hydrogen gas. Nor will he be likely to per
mit the accumulation of filth, liquid or solid, around or
in his dwelling. There are those whose senses will
detect a very small quantity of stagnant water, or vin-

PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION. 1Q5

egar, or other liquids, or fruit, or changed food in the
house, or even the presence of those semi-putrid sub
stances, wine and cider. But some will indeed say
that such integrity of the senses would be an annoy
ance rather than a blessing. On the same principle,
however, would a high degree of conscientiousness in
regard to right and wrong in moral conduct be a curse
to us. If it be desirable to have our physical sense of
right and wrong benumbed, it is so to have our moral
sense benumbed also. Yet what person of sense ever
complained of too tender a conscience, or too perfect a
sense of right and wrong in morals?"

EXERCISE OF THE LUNGS. — Judicious exercise of the
lungs, in the opinion of that eminent physiologist, Dr.
Andrew Combe, is one of the most efficacious means
which can be employed for promoting their develop
ment and warding off their diseases. In this respect
the organs of respiration closely resemble the muscles
and all other organized parts. They are made to be
used, and if they are left in habitual inactivity, their
strength and health are unavoidably impaired ; while,
if their exercise be ill-timed or excessive, disease will
as certainly follow.

The lungs may be exercised directly by the use of
the voice in speaking, reading aloud, or singing, and
indirectly by such kinds of bodily or muscular exertion
as require quicker and deeper breathing. In general,
both ought to be conjoined. But where the chief ob
ject is to improve the lungs, those kinds which have a
tendency to expand the chest and call the organs of
respiration into play ought to be especially preferred.
Rowing a boat, fencing, quoits, shuttlecock, the proper
use of skipping the rope, dumb-bells, and gymnastics
are of this description, and have been recommended
for this purpose. All of them employ actively the

E2

106 THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

muscles of the chest and trunk, and excite the lungs
themselves to freer and fuller expansion. Climbing
ap a hill is, for the same reason, an exercise of high
utility in giving tone and freedom to the pulmonary
functions. .Where, either from hereditary predisposi
tion or accidental causes, the chest is unusually weak,
every effort should be made, from infancy upward, to
favor the growth and strength of the lungs, by the ha
bitual use of such of these exercises as can most easily
be practiced. The earlier they are resorted to, and
the more steadily they are pursued, the more certainly
will their beneficial results be experienced.

If the direct exercise of the lungs in practicing deep
inspiration, speaking, reading aloud, and singing, is
properly managed and persevered in, particularly be
fore the frame has become consolidated, it will exert a
very beneficial influence in expanding the chest, and
giving tone and imparting health to the important or
gans contained in it. As a preventive measure, Dr.
Clark, in his treatise on Consumption and Scrofula,
recommends the full expansion of the chest in the fol
lowing manner : " We desire the young person, while
standing, to throw his arms and shoulders back, and,
while in this position, to inhale slowly as much air as
he can, and repeat this exercise at short intervals sev
eral times in succession. When this can be done in the
open air it is most desirable, a double advantage being
thus obtained from the practice. Some exercise of
this kind should be adopted daily by all young persons,
more especially by those whose chests are narrow or
deformed, and should be slowly and gradually in
creased."

In this preventive measure recommended by Dr.
Clark, some of our most eminent physiologists heartily
concur. They also express tiie opinion that, for the

PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION. 107

same reason, even the crying and sobbing of children,
when not caused by disease, contribute to their future
health. Dr. Combe says, " The loud laugh and noisy
exclamations attending the sports of the young have
an evident relation to the same beneficial end, and
ought, therefore, to be encouraged." But beneficial as
the direct exercise of the lungs is thus shown to be, in
expanding and strengthening the chest, its influence
extends still further, and, as we have already seen,
contributes greatly to promote the important process
of digestion. If, therefore, the lungs be rarely called
into active exercise, not only do they suffer, but an
important aid to digestion being withdrawn, the stom
ach and bowels also become weakened, and indigestion
and costiveness ensue.

The exercise of what has not unaptly been called
Vocal Gymnastics, and the loud and distinct speak
ing enforced in many of our schools, not only fortify
the vocal organs against the attacks of disease, but
tend greatly to promote the general health. For this
purpose, also, as well as for its social and moral influ
ences, vocal music should be introduced into all our
schools. That by these and like exercises deep inspi
rations and full expirations are encouraged, any one
may become convinced who will attend to what passes
in his own body while reading aloud a single paragraph.

There is danger of exercising the lungs too much
when disease exists in the chest. At such times, not
only speaking, reading aloud, and singing, but ordina
ry muscular exertion, ought to be refrained from, or be
regulated by professional advice. When a joint is
sore or inflamed, we know that motion impedes its re
covery. When the eye is affected, wo, for a similar
reason, shut out the light. So, when the stomach is
disordered, we respect its condition, and are more

108 'J'llK I-VVVrf Or HE ALT. I

careful about diet. The lungs demand a treatment
founded on the same general principle. When in
flamed, they should be exercised as little as possible,
All violent exercise ought, therefore, to be refrained
from during at least the active stages of a cold ; but
colds may often be entirely prevented at the time of
exposure by a proper exercise of the lungs.

In conversing with an eminent physician recently on
this subject, he expressed the conviction that one of the
most effectual methods of warding off a cold, when ex
posed by wet feet or otherwise, is to take frequent deep
inhalations of air. By this means the carbonic acid,
which the returning circulation deposits in the lungs,
is not only more effectually disengaged, but, at the same
time, the greater amount of oxygen that enters the lungs
and combines with the blood quickens the circulation,
and thus, imparting increased vitality to the system, en
ables it more effectually to resist any attack that may
be induced by unusual exposure.

A late medical WTiter, who has become quite cele
brated in this country for the successful treatment of
pulmonary consumption,* expresses the opinion that, to
the consumptive, air is a most excellent medicine, and
"far more valuable than all other remedies." He thinks
it " the grand agent in expanding the chest." In urg
ing the importance of habitually maintaining an erect
position, he expresses the conviction that " practice
will soon make sitting or standing perfectly erect vastly
more agreeable and less fatiguing than a stooping pos
ture." To persons predisposed to consumption, these
hints, he thinks, are of the greatest importance. While
walking, he says, " the chest should be carried proudly
erect and straight, the top of it pointing rather back
ward than forward." To illustrate the advantages of
* 8. S. Fitch, M.D., author of " Consumption C.ircd."

PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION. 109

habitually maintaining this position, he refers to the
North American Indians, who never had consumption,
and who are remarkable for their perfectly erect pos
ture while walking. " Next to this," he adds, " it is of
vast importance to the consumptive to breathe well.
He should make a practice of taking long breaths,
sucking in all the air he can, and holding it in the chesty
as long as possible." He recommends the repetition of
this a hundred times a day, and especially with those
who have a slight cold or symptoms of weak lungs.
When practiced in pure cold air, its advantages are
most apparent. To increase the benefits resulting from
this practice, he recommends the use of the " inhaling
tube." He thinks that inhaling tubes made of silver or
gold are much better than those made of wood or India-
rubber. In this opinion I fully concur, for I think with
him that gold and silver tubes will not so readily "con
tract any impure or poisonous matter." But there is
another and a stronger reason why I prefer silver, and
especially GOLD inhaling tubes, to those made of wood
or India-rubber. They would be more highly prized

and MORE FREQUENTLY USED.

The same writer entertains the belief that about one
third of all the consumptions originate from weakness
of the abdominal belts. He hence, in such cases, rec
ommends the use of the " abdominal supporter." In
order to favor an erect posture and an open chest, he
also recommends the use of " shoulder-braces." He
says the proper use of these, with other remedies, will
"entirely prevent the possibility of consumption, from
whatever cause." The inhaling-tube, together with
the shoulder-braces and supporter when needed, he
says are perfect preventives, and should not be neg
lected ; for if the shoulders are kept off the chest, ana
the abdomen is well supported, and then an inhaling

110 THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

tube is faithfully used, " the lungs can never become
diseased. Any person in this way. who chooses to
take the trouble, can have a large chest and healthy
lungs."

When persons have contracted disease they may
require these artificial helps; but it should be borne
in mind that an all-wise and beneficent Creator has
kindly given to each of his creatures two inhaling
tubes, admirably adapted to their wants. He has also
furnished them with a set of abdominal muscles which,
when properly used, have generally been found to su
persede the necessity of artificial " supporters." He
has, moreover, in the plenitude of his goodness, fur
nished each member of the human family with a good
pair of shoulder-braces. It should also be borne in
mind that Nature's shoulder-braces improve by use,
while the artificial ones not only soon fail, but their
very use generally impairs the healthy action of the
natural ones ; for these, like all other muscles, improve
by use and become enfeebled by disuse. Parents and
teachers, then, and all who have the care of the young,
should encourage the correct use of Nature's inhaling
tubes, shoulder-braces, and abdominal supporters ; for
in this way they have it in their power not only to
supersede the necessity of resorting to artificial ones
later in life, but of preventing much of human misery,
and contributing to the permanent elevation of the
race.

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION. Ill

CHAPTER V.

THE NATURE OF INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION.

In the cultivation and expansion of the faculties of the mind, we act
altogether upon organized matter — and this, too, of the most delicate
kind — which, while it serves as the mediator between body and spirit,
partakes so largely of the nature, character, and essential attributes of the
former, that, without its proper physical growth and development, all
the manifestations of the latter sink into comparative insignificance ; so
that, without a perfect organization of the brain, the mental powers
must be proportionally paralyzed ; without its maintaining a healthy
condition, they must be rendered proportionally weak and inactive.*
— DR. J. L. PEIRCE.

IT has already been stated that there exists such an
intimate connection between physical, intellectual, and
moral education, that, in order duly to appreciate the
importance of either, we must not view it separate and
alone merely, but in connection with both of the others.
However much value, then, we may attach to physical
education on its own account, considering man as a
corporeal being, we shall have occasion greatly to
magnify its importance as we direct our attention to
the cultivation and development of his mental faculties.
We have no means of becoming acquainted with the
laws which govern independent mind ; but that mind
separate from body is, from its very nature, all-know
ing and intelligent, is an opinion that has obtained to a
considerable extent. Be this as it may, it does not im
mediately concern us in the present state. This much
we know, that embodied mind acquires knowledge

* From an Essay upon the Physical and Intellectual Education of
Children, written by request of the Managers of the Pennsylvania
Lceum.

112 THE NATURE OF

slowly, and with a degree of perfection depending
upon the condition of the brain and the bodily organs
of sense, through the medium of which mind commu
nicates with the external world. We do not even
know whether education modifies the mind itself; and,
if at all, how it affects it in its disembodied state. Nei
ther is it important that we should possess this knowl
edge. There is, however, much reason for believing
that the mind of man in the future state will be perma
nently affected by, and enjoy the full benefit of, the pre
paratory training it has received in this life ; that then,
as now, it will be progressive in its attainments ; and that
the rapidity with which it will then acquire knowledge,
and the nature of its pursuits, will depend upon the de
gree of cultivation, and the habits and character form
ed in this life.

From what we know of the beneficent and all-wise
Creator, as manifested in his word and works, we have
abundant reason for believing that our highest and en
during good will be best promoted by becoming ac
quainted with, and yielding a cheerful obedience to,
the laws of organic mind. Whatever the effect of
education upon independent mind may be, we may
rest well assured that man's everlasting well-being in
the future state will be most directly and certainly
reached by a strict conformity to those laws which
regulate mind in its present mode of being. It should
be borne in mind, also, that just in proportion as man
remains ignorant of those laws, or, knowing them, dis
regards them, will he fail to secure his best good in
this life not only, but in that which is to come, to an
extent corresponding with the influence which educa
tion may exert upon independent mind. In order, then,
most successfully to carry forward the great work of
intellectual and moral culture, and to secure to man the

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION. 113

fullest benefits of education in the present life, and in
that higher mode of being which awaits him in the fu
ture, we have only to acquaint him with the laws by
which embodied mind is governed, and to induce him
to yield a ready, cheerful, and uniform obedience to
those laws. We shall therefore devote the following
pages to an inquiry into the laws which must be ob
served by embodied mind in order to render it the
fittest possible instrument for discovering, applying,
and obeying the laws under which God has placed the
universe, which constitutes the one great object of edu
cation, when considered in its widest and true sense.

All physiologists and philosophers regard the brain
as the organ of the mind. Although it is not befitting
here to give a particular description of this complicated
organ, still it may be well further to premise that, by
nearly universal consent, it is regarded as the imme
diate seat of the intellectual faculties not only, but of
the passions and moral feelings of our nature, as well
as of consciousness and every other mental act. It is
also well established that the brain is the principal
source of that nervous influence which is essential to
vitality, and to the action of each and all of our bodily
organs. As, then, its functions are the highest and
most important in the animal economy, it becomes an
object of paramount importance in education to dis
cover the laws by which they are regulated, that by
yielding obedience to them we may avoid the evils
consequent on their violation.

Let no one suppose these evils are few or small ;
for, in the language of an eloquent writer, " the system
of education which is generally pursued in the United
States is unphilosophical in its elementary principles,
'U adapted to the condition of man, practically mocks
nis necessities, and is intrinsically absurd. The high

1H THE NATURE OF

excellences of the present system, in other respects,
are fully appreciated. Modern education has indeed
achieved wonders. It has substituted things for names,
experiment for hypothesis, first principles for arbitrary
rules. It has simplified processes, stripped knowledge
of its abstraction and. thrown it into visibility, made
practical results rather than mystery the standard by
which to measure the value of attainment, and facts
rather than conjecture its circulating medium."*

A sound original constitution may be regarded as the
first condition of the healthy action of the brain ; for, be
ing a part of the animal economy, it is subject to the
same general laws that govern the other bodily organs.
When a healthy brain is transmitted to children, and
their treatment from infancy is judicious and rational,
its health becomes so firmly established that, in after
life, its power of endurance will be greatly increased,
and it will be enabled most effectually to ward off the
insidious attacks of disease. On the other hand, where
this organ has either inherited deficiencies and imper
fections, or where they have been subsequently induced
by early mismanagement, it becomes peculiarly suscep
tible, and frequently yields to the slightest attacks. The
most eminent physiologists of the age concur in the
opinion that, of all the causes which predispose to nerv
ous and mental disease, the transmission of hereditary
tendency from parents to children is the most power
ful, producing, as it does, in the children, an unusual
liability to those maladies under which their parents
have labored.

When both parents are descended from tainted fam
ilies, their progeny, as a matter of course, will be more
deeply affected than where one of them is from a pure
stock. This sufficiently accounts for the fact that he-

* Report oil Manual Labor, by Theodore D. Weld, 1833.

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION. 115

reditary predisposition is a more common cause of
nervous disease in those circles that intermarry much
with each other than where a wider choice is exercis
ed. Fortunately, such is the constitution of society in
this country, that there are fewer evils of this kind
among us than are manifest in many of the European
states, where intermarriages are restricted to persons
of the same rank, as has already been illustrated by
* reference to the grandees of Spain, who have become
a race of dwarfs intellectually as well as physically.
But even in this country there are painful illustrations
of the truth of the popular belief that when cousins
intermarry their offspring are liable to be idiotic. The
command of God not to marry within certain degrees
of consanguinity is, then, in accordance with the organic
laws of our being, and the wisdom of the prohibition is
abundantly confirmed by observation.

What was said of hereditary transmission in the sec
ond chapter of this work applies here with increased
force. It is of the highest possible importance that
this subject should receive the especial attention of
every parent, and of all who may hereafter sustain the
parental relation ; for posterity, to the latest genera
tions, will be affected by the laws of hereditary trans
mission, whether those laws are understood and obey
ed or not. The importance of this subject, already in
conceivably vast, becomes infinitely momentous in view
of the probability that the evils under consideration are
not confined to this life, but must, from the nature of
the case, continue to be felt while mind endures.

Unfortunately, it is not merely as a cause of disease
that hereditary predisposition is to be dreaded. The
obstacles which it throws in the way of permanent re
covery are even more formidable, and can never be
entirely removed. Safety is to be found only in avoid-

lit) THE NATURE OF

ing the perpetuation of the mischief. When, therefore,
two persons, each naturally of an excitable and delicate
nervous temperament, choose to unite for life, they have
themselves to blame for the concentrated influence of
similar tendencies in destroying the health of their off
spring, and subjecting them to all the miseries of nerv
ous disease, melancholy, or madness.

There is another consideration that should be noticed
here: it is this. Even where no hereditary defect ex
ists, the state of the mother during pregnancy has an
influence on the mental character and health of the off
spring, of which even few parents have any adequate
conception. " It is often in the maternal womb that
we are to look for the true cause not only of imbecility,
but of the different kinds of mania. During the agitated
periods of the French Revolution, many ladies then
pregnant, and whose minds were kept constantly on
the stretch by the anxiety and alarm inseparable from
the epoch in which they lived, and whose nervous sys
tems were thereby rendered irritable in the highest
degree compatible with sanity, were afterward deliv
ered of infants whose brains and nervous systems had
been affected to such a degree by the state of their pa
rent, that, in future life, as children they were subject
to spasms, convulsions, and other nervous affections,
and in youth to imbecility or madness, almost without
any exciting cause."*'

* The testimony of M. Esquirol, whose talent, general accuracy, and
extensive experience give great weight to all his well-considered opin
ions, quoted, also, and confirmed by the Physician Extraordinary to the
Queen in Scotland, and consulting Physician to the King and Queen of
the Belgians.

The same eminent author has recorded the following fact, illustra
ting the extent to which the temporary state of the mother, during ges
tation, may influence the whole future life of the child. A pregnant
woman, otherwise healthy, was greatly alarmed and terrified by the
threats of her husband when in a state of intoxication. She was ui'Uu*-

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION. 117

Dr. Caldwell, too, an able and philanthropic advocate
of an improved system of physical, intellectual, and
moral education in this country, is very urgent in en
forcing rational care, during the period of gestation,
on the part of every mother who values the future
health and happiness of her offspring. Among other
things, he insists on mothers taking more active exer
cise in the open air than they usually do. He also
cautions them against allowing a feeling of false deli
cacy to keep them confined in their rooms for weeks
and months together. At such times especially the
mind ought to be kept free from gloom or anxiety, and
in that state of cheerful activity which results from the
proper exercise of the intellect, and especially of the
moral and social feelings.

But if seclusion and depression be hurtful to the un
born progeny, surely thoughtless dissipation and late
hours, dancing and waltzing, together with irritability
of temper and peevishness of disposition, can not be
less injurious. Every female that is about to become
a mother should treasure up the remark of that sensi
ble lady, the Margravine of Anspach, who says, "when
a female is likely to become a mother, she ought to be
doubly careful of her temper, and, in particular, to in
dulge no ideas that are not cheerful and no sentiments
that are not kind. Such is the connection between
the mind and the body, that the features of the face are
moulded commonly into an expression of the internal
disposition ; and is it not natural to think that an infant,

ward delivered, at the proper time, of a very delicate child, which was
so much affected by its mother's agitation that, up to the age of eigh
teen, it continued subject to panic terrors, and then became complete
ly maniacal.

Many illustrative instances might be quoted from medical writers in
this and other countries. The author might also refer to cases that
have fallen under his own observation.

118 THE NATURE OF

before it is born, may be affected by the temper of its
mother ?" If these things are true — and they are as
well authenticated as any physiological facts are or
can be — then not only mothers, but all with whom they
associate, and especially/a^ers, are interested in know
ing these important physiological laws ; and they should
aim, from the very beginning, so to observe them as to
secure to posterity, physically and mentally, the full
benefits that are connected with cheerful obedience.

^1 due supply of properly oxygenated blood is another
condition upon which the healthy action of the brain
depends. Although it may not be easy to perceive the
effects of slight differences in the quality of the blood,
still, when these differences exist in a considerable de
gree, the effects are too obvious to be overlooked.
Withdraw entirely the stimulus of arterial blood, and
the brain ceases to act, and sensibility and conscious
ness become extinct. When carbonic acid gas is in
haled, the blood circulating through the lungs does not
undergo that process of oxygenation which is essential
to life, as has been explained in a preceding chapter.
As the venous blood in this unchanged state is unfit to
excite or sustain the action of the brain, the mental
functions become impaired, and death speedily ensues,
as in the case of a number of persons breathing a por
tion of confined air, or inhaling the fumes of charcoal.
On the other hand, if oxygen gas be inhaled instead of
common air, the blood becomes too much oxygenated,
and, as a consequence, the brain is unduly stimulated,
and an intensity of action bordering on inflammation
takes place, which also soon terminates in death.

These are extreme cases, I admit ; but their conse
quences are equally remarkable and fatal. The slight
er variations in the state of the blood produce equally
sure, though less palpable effects. Whenever its vital-

INTELLECTUAL AND MURAL EDUCATION. 119

ity is impaired by breathing an atmosphere so vitiated
as not to produce the proper degree of oxygenation,
the blood can only afford an imperfect stimulus to the
brain. As a necessary consequence, languor and in
activity of the mental and nervous functions ensue, and
a tendency to headache, fainting, or hysteria makes its
appearance. This is seen every day in the listlessness
and apathy prevalent in crowded and ill-ventilated
school-rooms, and in the headaches and liability to
fainting which are so sure to attack persons of a deli
cate habit, in the contaminated atmospheres of crowded
theaters, churches, and assemblies of whatever kind.
The same effects, although less strikingly apparent,
are perhaps more permanently felt by the inmates of
cotton manufactories and public hospitals, who are
noted for being irritable and sensitive. The languor
and nervous debility consequent on confinement in ill-
ventilated apartments, or in air vitiated by the breath
of many people, are neither more nor less than minor
degrees of the process of poisoning, which was partic
ularly explained in the preceding chapter, while treat
ing upon the philosophy of respiration.

That it is not real debility which produces these ef
fects, is apparent from the fact, that egress to the open
air almost instantly restores activity and vigor to both
mind and body, unless the exposure has been very long.
There is an interesting but fearful illustration of the
truth of this statement at the 96th page of this work, to
which I beg leave to refer. Where the exposure has
been very long continued, more time is of course re
quired to re-establish the exhausted powers of the brain.
Indeed, we may not, in such cases, hope for complete
recovery ; for when persons remain several hours a
day in a vitiated atmosphere, for weeks and months
together, both mind and body become permanently dis-

120 THE NATURE OF

eased. It is well known "to every person who has given
attention to the subject, that hitherto this has been the
condition of public schools, generally, in every part of
the United States, and throughout the civilized world.
This has, perhaps, tended more than all other causes
combined, to render the profession of teaching disrepu
table, and to constitute the very name of schoolmas
ter, or pedagogue, a hissing and a by- word. And why
is this? I can account for it in but one way. The
school teacher is subject to the same organic laws as
other men; and, either on account of the ignorance or
parsimony of his employers, he has been shut up with
their children several hours a day, in narrow and ill-
ventilated apartments, where, whatever else they may
have done, their principal business has of necessity been
to poison one another to death. And, as if not satisfied
with this, when the teacher has ruined his health in our
employment, and become a mere wreck, physically and
mentally, we despise him. This is a double injustice,
and is adding insult to injury. And the consequences
are hardly less fatal to the children. The situation of
the majority of our schools, when viewed in connection
with the physiological laws already explained, suffi
ciently accounts for that irritability, listlessness, and lan
guor which have been so often observed in both teach
ers and pupils. Both irritability of the nervous system
and dullness of the intellect are unquestionably the di
rect and necessary result of a want of pure air. The
vital energies of the pupils are thus prostrated, and
they become not only restless and indisposed to study,
but absolutely incapable of studying. Their minds
hence wander, and they unavoidably seek relief in mis
chievous and disorderly conduct. This doubly pro
vokes the already exasperated teacher, who can hardly
look with complaisance upon good behavior, and who,

INTELLECTUAL AND MURAL EDUCATION. 121

from a like cause, is in the same irritable condition of
both body and mind with themselves. He, too, must
needs give vent to his irascible feelings some how.
And what way is more natural, under such circum
stances, than to resort to the use of the ferule, the rod,
and the strap ! We have already referred to a case,
in which formerly fever constantly prevailed, but where
disease disappeared altogether upon the introduction of
pure air. Let the same prudential course be adopted *
in our schools, in connection with other appropriate
means, and we shall readily see the superiority of the
natural stimulus of oxygen over the artificial sedative
of the rod.

The regular and systematic exercise of the functions
of the brain is another condition upon which its healthy
action depends. The brain is an organized part, and
is subject to precisely the same laws of exercise that
the other bodily organs are. If it is doomed to inac
tivity, its health decays, and the mental operations and
feelings, as a necessary consequence, become dull,
feeble, and slow. But let it be duly exercised after
regular intervals of repose, and the mind acquires ac
tivity and strength. Too severe or too protracted ex
ercise of the brain is as great a violation of the organic
law just stated as inactivity is, and is sometimes pro
ductive of the most fearful consequences. By over
tasking this organ, either in the force or duration of its
activity, its functions become impaired, and irritability
and disease take the place of health and vigor.

So important is the law under consideration, and so
essential to the health of the brain and to the welfare
of man, that I deem it advisable to explain more par
ticularly the consequences of both inadequate and ex
cessive exercise.

We have seen that by disuse the muscles become
F

122 THE NATURE OF

emaciated and the bones soften. The blood-vessels, in
like manner, become obliterated, and the nerves lose
their characteristic structure. The brain is no excep
tion to this general rule. Its tone is impaired by per
manent inactivity, and it becomes less fit to manifest
the mental powers with readiness and energy. Nor
will this surprise any reflecting person, who considers
that the brain, as a part of the same animal system, is
nourished by the same blood, and regulated by the same
vital laws as the muscles, bones, arteries, and nerves.
It is the withdrawal of the stimulus necessary to the
healthy exercise of the brain, and the consequent weak
ening and depressing effect produced upon this organ,
that renders solitary confinement so severe^ a punish
ment even to the most daring minds. It is a lower
degree of the same cause that renders continuous se
clusion from society so injurious to both mental and
physical health. This explains why persons who are
cut off from social converse by some bodily infirmity
so frequently become discontented and morose, in spite
of every resolution to the contrary. The feelings and
faculties of the mind, which had formerly full play in
their intercourse with their fellow-creatures, have no
longer scope for sufficient exercise, and the almost in
evitable result is irritability and weakness in the cor
responding parts of the brain.

This fact is strikingly illustrated by reference to the
deaf and blind, who, by the loss of one or more of the
senses, are precluded from a full participation in all
the varied sources of interest which their more favor
ed brethren enjoy without abatement, and in whom ir
ritability, weakness of mind, and idiocy are known to
be much more prevalent than among other classes of
people. "The deaf and dumb," says Andral, " pre
sents, in intelligence, character, and the development of

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION. 123

his passions certain modifications, which depend on his
state of isolation in the midst of society. He remains
habitually in a state of half childishness, is very cred
ulous, but, like the savage, remains free from many
of the prejudices acquired in society. In him the ten
der feelings are not deep ; he appears susceptible nei
ther of strong attachment nor of lively gratitude ; pity
moves him feebly ; he has little emulation, few enjoy
ments, and few desires. This is what is commonly
observed in the deaf and dumb ; but the picture is far
from being of universal application ; some, more hap
pily endowed, are remarkable for the great develop
ment of their intellectual and moral nature ; but others,
on the contrary, remain immersed in complete idiocy."
Andral adds, that we must not infer from this that
the deaf and dumb are therefore constitutionally infe
rior in mind to other men. " Their powers are not de
veloped, because they live isolated from society. Place
them, by some means or other, in relation with their fel
low-men, and they will become their equals" This is
the cause of the rapid brightening up of both mind and
features, which is so often observed in blind or deaf
children when transferred from home to public insti
tutions, and there taught the means of converse with
their fellows.

I have myself witnessed several striking illustrations
of the benefits resulting from mental culture in persons
who have lost one or more of their senses. Among
these I would especially instance the American Asy
lum at Hartford for the education and instruction of
the deaf and dumb, and the Perkins Institution and
Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, located at South
Boston, to the accomplished principals and teachers of
both of which institutions I would acknowledge my in
debtedness for va' liable reports and the information of

124. TIIL: NAT HUE OF

various kinds which they obligingly communicated to
me at the time of my visits during the past summer.

Dr. Howe, the accomplished director of the Asylum
for the Blind, after many years of experience and care
ful observation in this country and in Europe, expresses
the conviction that the blind, as a class, are inferior to
other persons in mental power and ability. The opinions
put forth in almost every report of the institutions for
the blind in this country, in almost all books on the
subject, and even the doctor's earlier writings, may be
brought to disprove this statement. He is now, never
theless, fully convinced that it will be found true. This
erroneous conviction, every where so prevalent, may
be accounted for from the fact that none but intelligent
parents of blind children could at first comprehend the
possibility of their being educated, and even they
would not think of trying the experiment except upon
a child of more than ordinary ability. As soon, how
ever, as the experiment proved successful, and institu
tions for the blind became generally known, the blind,
without distinction — the bright and the backward, the
bold and the timid — resorted to them, which gave an
opportunity of judging of the whole class. The result
is, that now, while the schools for the blind present a
certain number of children who make more rapid prog
ress in intellectual studies than the average of seeing
children, they also present a much larger number who
are decidedly inferior to them in both physical and
mental vigor.

The loss of one sense makes us exercise the others
so constantly and so effectually as to acquire a power
quite unknown to common persons. This goes far to
compensate the blind man who is in the pursuit of
knowledge, and enables him to learn vastly more of
some subjects than other men ; but there are capacities

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION. 12f>

of his nature which can never be developed. Perfect
harmony in the exercise and development of his mental
faculties he can never possess, any more than he can
exhibit perfect physical beauty and proportion.

The proposition that the blind, as a class, are inferior
in mental power and ability to ordinary persons, has
been established beyond a doubt. Take an equal num
ber of blind and seeing persons, of as nearly the same
age and situation in life as may be, and it has been
established by well authenticated data, that when all
the blind have died, there will still be about half of the
seeing ones alive. In other words, the chance of life
among the blind is only about half what it is among the
seeing. The standard of bodily health and vigor, then,
being so much lower among the blind, the inevitable
inference is that mental power and ability will be pro-
portionably less also ; for such is the dependence of the
mind upon the body, that there can be no continuance of
mental health and vigor without bodily health and vigor.

It is also true that the deaf and dumb, as a class, are
inferior to other persons in mental power and ability.
The general reasons for this are the same as those al
ready given in the case of blind persons, and need not
hence be repeated. The truth of this proposition is
established beyond a doubt by the concurrent testi
mony of those who have had the greatest experience
with this unfortunate class of persons both in this
country and in Europe. The report of the directors
of the American Asylum for the year 1845 shows that
two pupils had died during the year. One of these
had an affection of the lungs which terminated in con
sumption, and the disease of the other was dropsy on
the brain. In a third, hereditary consumption was
rapidly developing itself. Others, still, had been sub
ject to more or less of bodily indisposition.

12G THE NATURE OF

Alter speaking of the case of a young man in whom
hereditary consumption had been rapidly developed,
the following statement is introduced : " This great
destroyer of our race is found extensively in Europe,
as well as in our own country, to be a common disease
among the deaf and dumb. It is brought on by scrof
ula, by fevers, by violent colds, and by various other
causes ; and there is often, no doubt, a hereditary tend
ency to it in families connected by blood." If this is the
effect of the loss of one of the senses upon the bodily
health, keeping in view the principle already stated, we
shall naturally enough be led to inquire what the in
fluence is upon the health of the mind. A careful ex
amination of the educational statistics of several states
has convinced me that an unusually large proportion
of the deaf and dumb — and perhaps an equally large
proportion of the blind, and especially those who have
remained uneducated and unenlightened — have been
visited with mental derangement, and have lived and
died insane.

This is easily accounted for. Uneducated persons,
who are deprived of one or more of the senses, are iso
lated from the world in which they live. The book of
nature is open before them, but they are unable to
peruse it. The simplest operations constantly going
on around them are locked in mystery. They are an
enigma to themselves. Even those who are endowed
with inquisitive minds are perplexed with the existing
state of things. They know nothing of the physical
organization of the planet we inhabit, of its political
and civil divisions, and of the whole machinery of hu
man society, and are profoundly ignorant of the past
history and future destiny of the race to which they
belong. It is not remarkable that mind so unnaturally
and peculiarly circumstanced — with its usual inlets of

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION. 127

knowledge so obstructed, and deprived of external ob
jects to act upon — should prey upon itself, and thus
superinduce insanity in its usual forms, and more espe
cially when unaided and undirected by education.

Keeping the same principle in view, we shall not be
surprised to find that want of exercise of the brain and
nervous system, or, in other words, that inactivity of
intellect and feeling, is a very frequent predisposing
cause of every form of nervous disease, even with those
who have not been deprived of any of their senses.
For demonstrative evidence of this position, we have
only to look at the numerous victims to be found among
females of the middle and higher ranks, who have no
call to exertion in gaining the means of subsistence,
and no objects of interest on which to exercise their
mental faculties, and who consequently sink into a state
of mental sloth and nervous weakness, which not only
deprives them of much enjoyment, but subjects them to
suffering, both of body and mind, from the slightest
causes.

In looking abroad upon society, we find innumerable
examples of mental and nervous debility from this
cause. When a person of some mental capacity is
confined for a long time to an unvarying round of em
ployment, which affords neither scope nor stimulus for
one half of his faculties, and, from want of education
or society, has no external resources, his mental pow
ers, for want of exercise to keep up due vitality in their
cerebral organs, become blunted, and his perceptions
slow and dull. Unusual subjects of thought become to
him disagreeable and painful. The intellect and feel
ings not being provided with interests external to them
selves, must cither become inactive and weak, or work
upon themselves and become diseased.

But let the situation of such persons be changed ;

128 THE NATURE OF

bring them, for instance, from the listlessness of retire
ment to the business and bustle of a city ; give them a
variety of imperative employments, and place them in
society so as to supply to their cerebral organs that
extent of exercise which gives health and vivacity of
action, and in a few months the change produced will
be surprising. Health, animation, and acuteness Will
take the place of former insipidity and dullness. In
such instances, it would be absurd to suppose that it is
the mind itself which becomes heavy and feeble, and
again revives into energy by these changes in external
circumstances. The effects arise entirely from changes
in the state of the brain, and the mental manifestations
and the bodily health have been improved solely by
the improvement of its condition.

The evils arising from excessive or ill-timed exer
cise of the brain, or any of its parts, are numerous, and
equally in accordance with the ordinary laws of physi
ology. When we use the eye too long or in too bright
a light, it becomes bloodshot, and the increased action
of its vessels and nerves gives rise to a sensation of fa
tigue and pain requiring us to desist. If we turn away
and relieve the eye, the irritation gradually subsides,
and the healthy state returns ; but if we continue to
look intently, or resume our employment before the
eye has regained its natural state by repose, the irrita
tion at last becomes permanent, and disease, followed
by weakness of sight, or even blindness, may ensue, as
often happens to glass-blowers, smiths, and others who
are obliged to wrork in an intense light.

Precisely analogous phenomena occur when, from
intense mental excitement, the brain is kept long in a
state of excessive activity. The only difference is,
that we can always see what happens in the eye, but
rarely what takes place in the brain. Occasionally,

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION. 129

however, cases of fracture of the skull occur, in which,
part of the bone being removed, we can see the quick
ened circulation in the vessels of the brain as easily as
in those of the eye. Sir Astley Cooper had a young
gentleman brought to him who had lost a portion of
his skull just above the eyebrow. " On examining the
head," says Sir Astley, " I distinctly saw that the pul
sation of the brain was regular and slow ; but at this
time he was agitated by some opposition to his wishes,
and directly the blood was sent with increased force
to the brain, and the pulsation became frequent and
violent." Sir Astley hence concludes that, in the
treatment of injuries of the brain, if you omit to keep
the mind free from agitation, your other means will be
unavailing.

A still more remarkable case is said to have occur
red in the hospital of Montpellier in 1821. The sub
ject of it was a female who had lost a large portion of
her scalp, skull-bone, and dura mater. A correspond
ing portion of her brain was consequently bare, and
subject to inspection. When she was in a dreamless
sleep, her brain was motionless, and lay within the cra
nium ; but when her sleep was imperfect, and she was
agitated by dreams, her brain moved and protruded
without the cranium. In vivid dreams the protrusion
was considerable ; ancl when she was awake and en
gaged in active thought or sprightly conversation, it
was still greater.

In alluding to this subject, Dr. Caldwell remarks, that
if it were possible, without doing an injury to other
parts, to augment the constant afflux of healthy arterial
blood to the brain, the mental operations would be in
vigorated by it. This position is illustrated by refer
ence to the fact that when a public speaker is flushed
and heated in debate, his mind works more freely and

F2

230 THE NATURE OF

powerfully than at any other time. And why? Be
cause his brain is in better tune. What has thus sud
denly improved its condition ? An increased current
of blood into it, produced by the excitement of its own
increased action. That the blood does, on such occa
sions, flow more copiously into the brain, no one can
doubt who is at all acquainted with the cerebral sensa
tions which the orator himself experiences at the time,
or who witnesses the unusual fullness and flush of his
countenance, and the dewiness, flashing, and protrusion
of his eye.

Indeed, in many instances, the increased circulation
in the brain attendant on high mental excitement re
veals itself by its effects when least expected, and
leaves traces after death which are but too legible.
Many are the instances in which public men have been
suddenly arrested in their career by the inordinate ac
tion of the brain induced by incessant toil, and more
numerous still are those whose mental power has been
forever impaired by similar excess.

It is generally known that the eye, when tasked be
yond its strength, becomes insensible to light, and ceases
to convey impressions to the mind. The brain, in like
manner, when much exhausted, becomes incapable of
thought, and consciousness is well-nigh lost in a feeling
of utter confusion. At any time in life, excessive and
continued mental exertion is hurtful ; but in infancy
and early youth, when the structure of the brain is still
immature and delicate, permanent injury is more easily
produced by injudicious treatment than at any subse
quent period. In this respect, the analogy is complete
between the brain and the other parts of the body, as
we have already seen exemplified in the injurious ef
fects of premature exercise of the bones and muscles.
Scrofulous and rickety children are the most usual suf-

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION 1'U

ferers in this way. They are generally remarkable
for large heads, great precocity of understanding, and
small, delicate bodies. But in such instances, the great
size of the brain, and the acuteness of the mind, are the
results of morbid growth, and even with the best man
agement, the child passes the first years of its life con
stantly on the brink of active disease. Instead, how
ever, of trying to repress its mental activity, as they
should, the fond parents, misled by the promise of ge
nius, too often excite it still further by unceasing cul
tivation and the never-failing stimulus of praise ; and
finding its progress, for a time, equal to their warmest
wishes, they look forward with ecstasy to the day
when its talents will break forth and shed a luster on
their name. But in exact proportion as the picture be
comes brighter to their fancy, the probability of its be
coming realized becomes less; for the brain, worn out
by premature exertion, either becomes diseased or
loses its tone, leaving the mental powers feeble and de
pressed for the remainder of life. The expected prod-
igy is thus, in the end, easily outstripped in the social
race by many whose dull outset promised him an easy
victory.

To him who takes for his guide the necessities of the
constitution, it will be obvious that the modes of treat
ment commonly resorted to should in such cases be
reversed ; and that, instead of straining to the utmost
the already irritable powers of the precocious child,
leaving his dull competitors to ripen at leisure, a sys
tematic attempt ought to be made, from early infancy,
to rouse to action the languid faculties of the latter,
while no pains should be spared to moderate and give
tone to the activity of the former. But instead of this,
the prematurely intelligent child is generally sent to
school, and tasked with lessons at an unusually early

132 THE 1VATLHE OF

age, while the heallhy but more backward boy, who
requires to be stimulated, is kept at home in idleness
merely on acount of his backwardness. A double
error is here committed, and the consequences to the
active-minded boy are not unfrequently the permanent
loss both of health and of his envied superiority of in
tellect.

In speaking of children of this description, Dr, Brig-
ham, in an excellent little work on the influence of
mental excitement on health, remarks as follows :
" Dangerous forms of scrofulous disease among chil
dren have repeatedly fallen under my observation, for
which I could not account in any other way than by
supposing that the brain had been excited at the ex
pense of the other parts of the system, and at a time in
life when nature is endeavoring to perfect all the or
gans of the body ; and after the disease commenced, I
have seen, with grief, the influence of the same cause
in retarding or preventing recovery. I have seen
several affecting and melancholy instances of children,
five or six years of age, lingering a while with diseases
from which those less gifted readily recover, and at last
dying, notwithstanding the utmost efforts to restore
them. During their sickness they constantly manifest
ed a passion for books and mental excitement, and
were admired for the maturity of their minds. The
chance for the recovery of such precocious children
is, in my opinion, small when attacked by disease ; and
several medical men have informed me that their own
observations had led them to form the same opinion,
and have remarked that, in two cases of sickness, if
one of the patients was a child of superior and highly-
cultivated mental powers, and the other one equally
sick, but whose mind had not been excited by study,
they should feel less confident of the recovery of the

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION. 133

former than of the latter. This mental precocity re
sults from an unnatural development of one organ of
the body at the expense of the constitution."

There can be little doubt but that ignorance on the
part of parents and teachers is the principal cause
that leads to the too early and excessive cultivation of
the minds of children, and especially of such as are
precocious and delicate. Hence the necessity of im
parting instruction on this subject to both parents and
teachers, and to all persons who are in any way charged
with the care and education of the young. This ne
cessity becomes the more imperative from the fact that
the cupidity of authors and publishers has led to the
preparation of " children's books," many of which are
announced as purposely prepared " for children from
two to three years old !" I might instance advertise
ments of " Infant Manuals" of Botany, Geometry, and
Astronomy !

In not a few isolated families, but in many neighbor
hoods, villages, and cities, in various parts of the coun
try, children under three years of age are not only re
quired to commit to memory many verses, texts of
Scripture, and stories, but are frequently sent to school
for six hours a day. Few children are kept back later
than the age of four, unless they reside a great dis
tance from school, and some not even then. At home,
too, they are induced by all sorts of excitement to
learn additional tasks, or peruse juvenile books and
magazines, till the nervous system becomes enfeebled
and the health broken. " I have myself," says Dr.
Brigham, " seen many children who are supposed to
possess almost miraculous mental powers, experiencing
these effects and sinking under them. Some of them
died early, when but six or eight years of age, but
manifested to the last a maturity of understanding,

134 THE NATURE OF

which only increased the agony of separation. Their
minds, like some of the fairest flowers, were * no sooner
blown than blasted ;' others have grown up to man
hood, but with feeble bodies and disordered nervous
system, which subjected them to hypochondriasis, dys-
pepsy, and all the Protean forms of nervous disease ;
others of the class of early prodigies exhibit in man
hood but small mental powers, and are the mere passive
instruments of those who in early life were accounted
far their inferiors."

This hot-bed system of education is not confined to
the United States, but is practiced less or more in all
civilized countries. Dr. Combe, of Scotland, gives an
account of one of these early prodigies whose fate he
witnessed. The circumstances were exactly such as
those above described. The prematurely developed
intellect was admired, and constantly stimulated by in
judicious praise, and by daily exhibition to every visitor
who chanced to call. Entertaining books were thrown
in its way, reading by the fireside encouraged, play and
exercise neglected, the diet allowed to be full and heat
ing, and the appetite pampered by every delicacy
The results were the speedy deterioration of a weak
constitution, a high degree of nervous sensibility, de
ranged digestion, disordered bowels, defective nutri
tion, and, lastly, death, at the very time when the in
terest excited by the mental precocity was at its height.

Such, however, is the ignorance of the majority of
parents and teachers on all physiological subjects, that
when one of these infant prodigies dies from erroneous
treatment, it is not unusual to publish a memoir of his
life, that other parents and teachers may see by what
means such transcendent qualities were called forth.
Dr. Brigham refers to a memoir of this kind, in which
the history of a child, aged four years and eleven

INTELLECTUAL AM) MORAL EDUCATION. 135

months, is narrated as approved by " several judicious
persons, ministers and others, all of whom united in the
request that it might be published, and all agreed in the
opinion that a knowledge of the manner in which the
child was treated, together with the results, would be
profitable to both parents and children, and a benefit to
the cause of education." This infant philosopher was
" taught hymns before he could speak plainly ;" " rea
soned with" and constantly instructed until his last ill
ness, which, " without any assignable cause" put on a
violent and unexpected form, and carried him off!

As a warning to others not to force education too
soon or too fast, this case may be truly profitable to
both parents and children, and a benefit to the cause
of education ; but as an example to be followed, it as
suredly can not be too strongly or too loudly condemn
ed. While I speak thus strongly, I am ready to admit
that infant schools in which physical health and moral
training are duly attended to are excellent institutions,
and are particularly advantageous where parents, from
want of leisure or from other causes, are unable to be
stow upon their children that attention which their
tender years require.

In youth, too, much mischief is done by the long daily
periods of attendance at school, and the continued ap
plication of mind which the ordinary system of educa
tion requires. The law of exercise already more than
once repeated, that long-sustained action exhausts the
vital powers of an organ, applies as well to the brain
as to the muscles. Hence the necessity of varying the
occupations of the young, and allowing frequent inter
vals of active exercise in the open air, instead of en
forcing the continued confinement now so common.
This exclusive attention to mental culture fails, as might
be expected, even in its essential object ; for all experi-

136 THE NATURE OF

ence shows that, with a rational distribution of employ
ment and exercise, a child will make greater progress
in a given period than in double the time employed in
continuous mental exertion. If the human being were
made up of nothing but a brain and nervous system, we
might do well to content ourselves with sedentary pur
suits, and to confine our attention entirely to the mind.
But when we learn from observation that we have nu
merous other important organs of motion, sanguifica
tion, digestion, circulation, and nutrition, all demanding
exercise in the open air, as alike essential to their own
health and to that of the nervous system, it is worse
than folly to shut our eyes to the truth, and to act as
if we could, by denying it, alter the constitution of na
ture, and thereby escape the consequences of our own
misconduct.

Reason and experience being thus set at naught by
both parents and teachers in the education of their
children, young people naturally grow up with the no
tion that no such influences as the laws of organization
exist, and that they may follow any course of life which
inclination leads them to prefer without injury to health,
provided they avoid what is called dissipation. Jt is
owing to this ignorance that young men of a studious
or literary habit enter heedlessly upon an amount of
mental exertion, unalleviated by bodily exercise or in
tervals of repose, which is quite incompatible with the
continued enjoyment of a sound mind in a, sound body.
Such, however, is the effect of the total neglect of all
instruction in the laws of the organic frame during
early education, that it becomes almost impossible ef
fectually to warn an ardent student against the dangers
to which he is constantly exposing himself. Nothing
but actual experience will convince him of the truth.

Numerous are the instances in which young men of

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION. 137

the first promise have almost totally disqualified them
selves for future useful exertion in consequence of long-
protracted and severe study, who, under a more ration
al system of education, might have attained that emi
nence, the injudicious pursuit of which has defeated
their own most cherished hopes, and ruined their gen
eral health. Such persons might be saved to them
selves and to society by early instruction in the nature
and laws of the animal economy. They mean well,
but err from ignorance more than from headstrong zeal.
I shall conclude this chapter with a few rules relat
ing to mental exercise, and the development and cul
ture of the mind and brain. It is a law of the animal
economy that two classes of functions can not be called
into vigorous action at the same time without one or
the other, or both, sooner .or later sustaining injury.
Hence the important rule never to enter upon contin
ued mental exertion or to rouse deep feeling immedi
ately after a full meal, otherwise the activity of the
brain is sure to interfere with that of the stomach, and
disorder its functions. Even in a perfectly healthy
person, unwelcome news, sudden anxiety, or mental
excitement, occurring after eating, will put an entire
stop to digestion, and cause the stomach to loathe the
sight of food. In accordance with this rule, we learn
by experience that the very worst forms of indigestion
and nervous depression are those which arise from ex
cessive mental application, or turmoil of feeling and
distraction of mind, conjoined with unrestrained indul
gence in the pleasures of the table. In such circum
stances, the stomach and brain react upon and disturb
each other, till all the horrors of nervous disease make
their unwelcome appearance, and render life misera
ble. The tendency to inactivity and sleep, which be
sets most animals after a full meal, shows repose to be,

138. THE NATURE OF

in such circumstances, the evident intention of Nature.
The bad effects of violating this rule, although not in
all cases immediately apparent, will most assuredly be
manifest at a period less or more remote.

Dr. Caldwell, who has devoted much time and talent
to the diffusion of sound physiological information and
the general improvement of the race, and whose op
portunities of observation have been very extensive,
expressly states, that dyspepsy and madness prevail
more extensively in the United States than among the
people of any other nation. Of the amount of our dys
peptics, he says, no estimate can be formed ; but it is
immense. Whether we inquire in cities, towrns, villa
ges, or country places ; among the rich, the poor, or
those in moderate circumstances, we find dyspepsy
more or less prevalent throughout the land.

The early part of the day is the best time for severe
mental exertion. Nature has allotted the darkness of
night for repose, and for the restoration by sleep of the
exhausted energies of both body and mind. If study
or composition be ardently engaged in toward the close
of the day, and especially at a late hour of the evening,
sound and invigorating sleep may not be expected until
the night is far spent, for the increased action of the
brain which always accompanies activity of mind re
quires a long time to subside. Persons who practice
night study, if they be at all of an irritable habit of
body, will be sleepless for hours after going to bed, and
be tormented perhaps by unpleasant dreams, which will
render their sleep unrefreshing. If. this practice be
long continued, the want of refreshing repose will ulti
mately induce a state of morbid irritability of the nerv
ous system bordering on insanity. It is therefore of
great advantage to engage in severer studies early in
the day, and to devote the after part of the day and

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION. 139

the evening to less intense application. It will be well
to devote a portion of the evening, and especially the
latter part of it, to light reading, music, or cheerful and
amusing conversation. The excitement induced in the
brain by previous study will be soothed by these in
fluences, and will more readily subside, and sound and
refreshing sleep will be much more likely to follow.
This rule is of the utmost importance to those who are
obliged to perform a great amount of mental labor. It,
is only by conforming to it, and devoting their morn
ings to study and their evenings to relaxation, that
many of our most prolific writers have been enabled to
preserve their health. By neglecting this rule, others
of the fairest promise have been cut down in the midst
of their usefulness.

Regularity is of great importance in the development
and culture of the moral and intellectual powers, the
tendency to resume the same mode of action at stated
times being peculiarly the characteristic of the nervous
system. It is this principle of our nature which pro
motes the formation of what are called habits. By re
peating any kind of mental effort every day at the same
hour, we at length find ourselves entering upon it, with
out premeditation, when the time approaches. In like
manner, by arranging our studies in accordance with
this law, and taking up each regularly in the same
order, a natural aptitude is soon produced, which ren
ders application more easy than it would be were we
to take up the subjects as accident might dictate. The
tendency to periodical and associated activity some
times becomes so strong, that the faculties seem to go
through their operations almost without conscious ef
fort, while their facility of action becomes so much in
creased as ultimately to give unerring certainty where
at first great difficulty was experienced. It is not so

140 THE NATURE OF

much the sou! or abstract principle of mind which is
thus changed, as the organic medium through which
mind is destined to act in the present mode of being.

The necessity of judicious repetition in mental and
moral education is, in fact, too little adverted to, be
cause the principle on which it is effectual has not hith
erto been generally understood. Practice is as neces
sary to induce facility of action in the organs of the
mind as in those of motion, The idea or feeling must
not only be communicated, but it must be re-presented
and reproduced in different forms till all the faculties
concerned in understanding it come to work efficiently
together in the conception of it, and until a sufficient im
pression is made upon the organ of mind to enable the
latter to retain it. Servants and others are frequently
blamed for not doing a thing at regular intervals when
they have been but once told to do so. We learn, how
ever, from the organic laws, that it is presumptuous to
expect the formation of a habit from a single act, and
that we must reproduce the associated activity of the
requisite faculties many times before the result will cer
tainly follow, just as we must repeat the movement
in dancing or skating many times before we become
master of it.

We may understand a new subject by a single pe
rusal, but we can fully master it only by dwelling upon
it again and again. In order to make a durable im
pression on the mind, repetition is necessary. It fol
lows, hence, that in learning a language or science, six
successive months of application will be more effectual
in fixing it indelibly in the mind, and making it a part
of the mental furniture, than double or even treble the
time if the lessons are interrupted by long intervals.
The too common practice of beginning a study, and,
after pursuing it a little time, leaving it to be completed

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION. 141

at a later period, is unphilosophical and very injurious.
The fatigue of study is thus doubled, and the success
greatly diminished. Studies should not, as a general
thing, be entered upon until the mind is sufficiently
mature to understand them thoroughly, and, when be
gun, they should not be discontinued until they are com
pletely mastered. By this means the mind becomes
accustomed to sound and healthy action, which alone
can qualify the student for eminent usefulness in after
life. Much of the want of success in the various de
partments of industry, and many of the failures that are
constantly occurring among business men, are justly
attributable to the fits of attention and the irregular
modes of study they became habituated to in their
school-boy days. Hence the mischief of long vaca
tions, and the evil of beginning studies before the age
at which they may be understood. Parents and teach
ers should hence, at an early period, impress indelibly
upon the minds of their children and pupils the ever
true and practical sentiment, that what is worth doing
at all is worth doing well. Although, at first, their
progress may seem to be retarded thereby, still, in the
end, it will contribute greatly to accelerate their real
advancement, and in after life, whether employed in
literary or business pursuits, will be a means of aug
menting their happiness and increasing their prospect
of success in whatever department of labor they may
be engaged.

In physical education most persons seem well aware
of the advantages of repetition. They know, for in
stance, that if practice in dancing, fencing, skating, and
riding is persevered in for a sufficient length of time to
give the muscles the requisite promptitude and harmo
ny of action, the power will be ever afterward retain
ed, although rarely called into use. But if we stop

142 THE NATURE OF

»

short of this point, we may reiterate practice by fits
and starts without any proportional advancement.
The same principle is equally applicable to the moral
and intellectual powers which operate by means of ma
terial organs.

The impossibility of successfully playing the hypo
crite for any considerable length of time, and the ne
cessity of being in private what we wish to appear in
public, spring from the same rule. If we wish to be
ourselves polite, just, kind, and sociable, or to induce
others to become so, we must act habitually under the
influence of the corresponding sentiments, in the do
mestic circle, in the school-room, and in every-day life,
as well as in the company of strangers and on great
occasions. It is the private and daily practice of indi
viduals that gives ready activity to the sentiments and
marks the real character. If parents or teachers in
dulge habitually in vulgarities of speech and behavior
in the family or in the school, and put on politeness oc
casionally for the reception and entertainment of stran
gers, their true character will shine through the mask
which is intended to conceal it. The habitual associa
tion to which the organs and faculties have been ac
customed can not thus be controlled. Parents hence,
in addition to correct personal influence in the family,
should provide for their children teachers whose habits
and character are in all respects what they are willing
their children should form. If they neglect to do this,
the utmost they can reasonably expect is that their
children will become what the teacher is.

The principle that repetition is necessary in order to
make a durable impression on the organ of the mind,
and thus constitute a mental habit, explains how natural
endowments are modified by external situation. The
extent to which this modification mav be carried, and

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION. 143

is actually carried in every community, is much great
er than most persons are aware of. Take a child, for
example, of average propensities, sentiments, and intel
lect, and place him among a class of people in whom
the selfish faculties are exclusively exercised — a class
who regard gain as the end of life, and look upon cun
ning and cheating as legitimate means, and who never
express disapprobation or moral indignation against
either crime or selfishness — and his lower faculties, be
ing exclusively exercised, will increase in strength,
while the higher ones, remaining unemployed, will be
come enfeebled. A child thus situated will, conse
quently, not only act as those around him do, but in
sensibly grow up resembling them in disposition and
character ; for, by the law of repetition, the organs of
the selfish qualities will have acquired proportionally
greater aptitude and vigor, just as do the muscles of
the fencer or dancer. But suppose the same individ
ual placed, from infancy, in the society of a superiorly
endowed moral and intellectual people, the moral facul
ties will then be habitually excited, and their organs
invigorated by repetition, till a greater aptitude will be
induced in them, or, in other words, till a higher moral
character will be formed. The natural endowments
of individuals set limits to these modifications of char
acter ; but where original dispositions and tendencies
are not strongly marked, the range is very wide.

In the cultivation of the brain and mental faculties,
each organ should be exercised directly upon its own
appropriate objects, and not merely roused or address
ed through the medium of another organ. When we
wish to teach the graceful and rapid evolutions of fenc
ing, we do not content ourselves with merely giving
directions, but our chief attention is employed in mak
ing the muscles themselves #o through the evolutions,

144 THE NATURE OF

till, by frequent repetition and correction, they acquire
the requisite quickness and precision of action. So,
when we wish to teach music, we do not merely ad
dress the understanding and explain the qualities of
sounds. We train the ear to an attentive discrimina
tion of these sounds, and the hand or the vocal organs,
as the case may be, to the reproduction of the motions
which call them into existence. We follow this plan,
because the laws of organization require the direct
practice of the organs concerned, and we feel instinct
ively that we can succeed only by obeying these laws.
The purely mental faculties are connected during life
with material organs, and are hence subjected to pre
cisely the same laws. If, therefore, we wish to -im
prove these faculties — the reasoning powers, for exam
ple — we must exercise them regularly in tracing the
cause and relations of things. In like manner, if our
aim is the development of the sentiments of attachment,
benevolence, justice, or respect, we must exercise each
of them directly and for its own sake, otherwise nei
ther it nor its organ will ever acquire promptitude or
strength.

It is the brain, or organ of the mind, more than the
abstract immaterial principle itself, that requires culti
vation, or can, indeed, receive it in this life. Educa
tion hence operates invariably in subjection to the laws
of organization. In improving the external senses, we
admit this principle readily enough ; but when we
come to the internal faculties of thought and feeling, it
is either denied or neglected. That the superior quick
ness of touch, sight, and hearing, consequent upon judi
cious exercisers referable to increased facility of ac
tion in their appropriate organs, is readily admitted.
But when we explain, on the same principle, the supe
rior development of the reasoning powers, or the great-

INTELLECTUAL AND MU11AL EDUCATION. 145

er warmth of feeling produced by similar exercise in
these and other internal faculties, few are inclined to
listen to our proposition, or allow to it half the weight
or attention its importance demands, although every
fact in philosophy and experience concurs in support
ing it. We see the mental powers of feeling and of
thought unfolding themselves in infancy and youth in
exact accordance with the progress of the organization.
We see them perverted or suspended by the sudden in
road of disease. We sometimes observe every previ
ous acquirement obliterated from the adult mind by
fever or by accident, leaving education to be commen
ced anew, as if it had never been ; and yet, with all
these evidences of the organic influence, the proposi
tion that the established laws of physiology, as applied
to the brain, should be considered our best and surest
guide in education, seems to many a novelty. Among
the numerous treatises on education, there are very
few volumes in which it is even hinted that these laws
have the slightest influence over either intellectual or
moral improvement.

As God has given us bones and muscles, and blood
vessels and nerves, for the purpose of being used, let
us not despise the gift, but consent at once to turn them
to account, and to reap health and vigor as the reward
which he has associated with moderate labor. As he
has given us lungs to breathe with and blood to circu
late, let us' at once and forever abandon the folly of
shutting ourselves up with little intermission, whether
engaged in study or other sedentary occupations, and
consent to inhale, copiously and freely, that wholesome
atmosphere which his benevolence has spread around
us in such rich profusion. As he has given us appe
tites and organs of digestion, let us profit by his bounty,
and earn their enjoyment by healthful exercise in some

G

146 THL EDUCATION OF

department of productive industry. As he has given
us a moral and a social nature, which is invigorated by
activity, and impaired by solitude and restraint, let us
cultivate good feelings, and act toward each other on
principles of kindness, justice, forbearance, and mutual
assistance ; and as he has given us intellect, let us ex
ercise it in seeking a knowledge of his works and of
his laws, and in tracing out the relation in which we
stand toward him, toward our fellow-men, and toward
the various objects of the external world. In so doing,
we may be well assured we shall find a reward a thou
sand times more rich and pure, yea, infinitely more de
lightful and enduring, than we can hope to experience
in following our own blind devices, regardless of his
will and benevolent intentions toward us.

CHAPTER VI.

THE EDUCATION OF THE FIVE SENSES.

If the eye be obstructed, the ear opens wide it8 portals, and hoars
your veiy emotions in the varying tones of your voice ; if the ear bo
stopped, the quickened eye will almost read the words as they fall from
your lips ; and if both be close sealed up, the whole body becomes like
a sensitive plant — the quickened skin perceives the very vibrations of
the air, and you may even write your thoughts upon it, and receive
answers from the sentient soul within.—- ANNUAL REPORT of the Trus
tees of the Perkins Institution and Massachrisctts Asylum for the Blind,
1841.

HE who formed man of the dust of the earth, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, has honored
his material organs by associating them with the im
material soul. In this life the senses constitute the great
conveyances of knowledge to the human mind. It
then becomes not only a legitimate object of inquiry,

THE FIVE SENS! P. 147

but one which commends itself to every human being,
and especially to every parent and teacher, Can these
senses be improved by human interference? And if
so, how can that improvement be best effected ?

The senses are the interpreters between the material
universe without and the spirit within. Without the
celestial machinery of sensation, man must have ever
remained what Adam was before the Almighty breathed
into his form of clay the awakening breath of life. The
dormant energies of the mind can be aroused, and the
soul can be put into mysterious communion with exter
nal nature only by the magical power of sensation.

The possession of all the corporeal senses, and their
systematic and judicious culture by all proper ap
pliances, are necessary in order to place man in such
a relation to the material universe and its great Archi
tect as most fully and successfully to cultivate the
varied capabilities of his nature, and best to subserve
the purposes of his creation. He who is deprived of
the healthful exercise of one or more of his senses, or,
possessing them all unimpaired, has neglected their
proper culture, is, from the nature of the case, in a pro
portionate degree cut off from a knowledge of God as
manifested in his works, and from that happiness which
is the legitimate fruit of such knowledge.

Much light has been thrown upon this subject with
in a few years by the judicious labors of that class of
practical educators who have devoted their lives to the
amelioration of the condition of persons deprived of
one or more of the senses. It is difficult to conceive
the real condition of the minds of persons thus situated,
and especially while they remain uneducated. He
who is deprived of the sense of sight has the windows
of his soul closed, and is effectually shut out from this
world of light and beauty. In like manner, he who is

148 THE EDUCATION OF

deprived of the sense of hearing is excluded from the
world of music and of speech. What, then, must be
the condition of persons deprived of both of these senses?
How desolate and cheerless ! Yet some such there are.

While on a visit to the Asylum for the Blind, in Bos
ton, a few months ago, I met two of this unfortunate
class of persons — Laura Bridgman and Oliver Caswell.
Laura has been several years connected with the in
stitution.

LAURA BRIDGMAN, the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Girl
— So remarkable is the case of this interesting girl, so
full of interest, so replete with instruction, and in every
way so admirably adapted to illustrate the subject of
this chapter, that I proceed to give to my readers a
sketch of the method pursued in her instruction, to
gether with the results attendant upon it. My informa
tion in relation to her is derived from both personal ac
quaintance and the reports of her case, though princi
pally from the latter source.

Laura was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on
the 21st of December, 1829. She is described as hav
ing been a very sprightly and pretty infant. During
the first years of her existence she held her life by the
feeblest tenure, being subject to severe fits, which seem
ed to rack her frame almost beyond the power of en
durance. At the age of four years her bodily health
seemed restored ; but what a situation was hers ! The
darkness and silence of the tomb were around her.
No mother's smile called forth her answering smile.
No father's voice taught her to imitate his sounds. To
her, brothers and sisters were but forms of matter which
resisted her touch, but which hardly differed from the
furniture of the house save in warmth and in the pow
er of locomotion, and not even in these respects from
the dog and the cat. But the immortal spirit implanted

THR FIVE SENSES. 149

within her could not die, nor could it be maimed or
mutilated ; and, though most of its avenues of commu
nication with the world were cut off, it began to mani
fest itself through the others. As soon as she could
walk, she began to explore the room, and then the
house. She thus soon became familiar with the form,
density, weight, and heat of every article she could lay
her hands upon. She followed her mother, and felt of
her hands and arms, as she was occupied about the
house, and her disposition to imitate led her to repeat
every thing herself. She even learned to sew a little
and to knit.

Her affections, too, began to expand, and seemed to
be lavished upon the members of her family with pe
culiar force. But the means of communication with
her were very limited. She could be told to go to a
place only by being pushed, or to come to one by a
sign of drawing her. Patting her gently on the head
signified approbation, on the back disapprobation. She
showed every disposition to learn, and manifestly began
to use a natural language of her own. She had a sign
to express her idea of each member of the family, as
drawing her fingers down each side of her face to al
lude to the whiskers of one, twirling her hand around
in imitation of the motion of a spinning- wrheel for an
other, and so on. But, although Laura received all the
aid a kind mother could bestow, she soon began to give
proof of the importance of language in the development
of human character. By the time she was seven years
old the moral effects of her privation began to appear,
for there was no way of controlling her will but by the
absolute power of another, and at this humanity revolts.

At this time, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, the distinguished
and successful director of the asylum, learned of her
situation, and hastened to see her. He found her with

150 THE EDUCATION OF

a well-formed figure, a strongly-marked nervous-san
guine temperament, a large and beautifully shaped head,
and the whole system in healthy action. Here seemed
a rare opportunity of trying a plan for the education
of a deaf and blind person, which the doctor had formed
on seeing Julia Brace at Hartford. The parents read
ily consented to her going to the institution in Boston,
where Laura was received in October, 1837, just before
she had completed her eighth year. For a while she
was much bewildered. After waiting about two weeks,
and until she became acquainted with her new locality,
and somewhat familiar with the inmates, the attempt
was made to give her a knowledge of arbitrary signs,
by which she could interchange thoughts with others.
One of two methods was to be adopted. Either the
language of signs, on the basis of the natural language
she had already commenced herself, was to be built
up, or it remained to teach her the purely arbitrary lan
guage in common use. The former would have been
easy, but very ineffectual. The latter, although very
difficult, if accomplished, would prove vastly superior.
It was therefore determined upon.

The blind learn to read by means of raised letters,
which they gain a knowledge of by the sense of feeling.
The ends of the fingers, resting upon the raised letters,
thus constitute, in part, the eyes of the blind. This,
although apparently difficult, becomes comparatively
easy when the blind person possesses the sense of hear
ing, and is thus enabled to become acquainted with
spoken language. ' On the contrary, the deaf, and con
sequently dumb, are unable to acquire a knowledge of
spoken language so as to use it with any degree of suc
cess. In their education, hence, the language of signs,
which can be addressed to the eye, is substituted for
spoken language. In communicating with one another,

THE FIVE SENSES. 151

by means of the manual alphabet, they substitute posi
tions of the hand, which they can both make and see,
for letters and words, which they can neither pronounce
nor hear.

To be deprived of either sight or hearing was for
merly regarded as an almost insuperable obstacle in
the way of education. Persons deprived of both these
senses have heretofore been considered by high legal
authorities,* as well as by public opinion, as occupy
ing, of necessity, a state of irresponsible and irrecover
able idiocy. By the education of the remaining senses,
however, this formidable and heretofore insuperable
barrier has been overleaped, or, rather, the obstacle
has been met and overcome. The experiment has been
successfully tried, once and again, in our own country.
The deaf and blind mute has not only acquired a knowl
edge of reading and writing, and of the common branch
es of education, but has been enabled successfully to
prosecute the study of natural philosophy, of mental
science, and of geometry. The accomplishment of all
this has resulted from the successful cultivation of the
sense of touch or of feeling. The raised letter of the
blind has been used for written language, and the man
ual language of the mute, taken by the finger-eyes of
the blind, has been successfully substituted for spoken
language.

Laura's mind dwelt in darkness and silence. In
order, therefore, to communicate to her a knowledge
of the arbitrary language in common use, it was neces-

* A man is not an idiot if he hath any glimmering of reason, so that
he can tell his parents, his age, or the like matters. But a man who is
bora deaf, dumb, and blind, is looked upon by the law as in tlie same
ttato with an idiot, he being supposed incapable of any understanding,
as wanting all the senses which furnish the human mind with ideas. —
Blackstotie s Commentaries, vol. i., p. 304.

152 THE EDUCATION' OF

sary to combine the methods of instructing the blind
and the deaf. The first experiments in instructing her
were made by taking articles in common use, such as
knives, forks, spoons, keys, etc., and ^pasting upon them
labels with their names printed in raised letters. These
she felt of very carefully, and soon, of course, distin
guished that the crooked lines spoon differed as much
from the crooked lines key, as the spoon differed from
the key in form. Small detached labels, with the same
words printed upon them, were then put into her hands,
and she soon observed that they were similar to those
pasted on the articles. She showed her perception of
this similarity by laying the label key upon the key,
and the label spoon upon the spoon. When this was
done she was encouraged by the natural sign of appro
bation — patting on the head.

The same process was then repeated with all the
articles which she could handle, and she very easily
learned to place the proper labels upon them. After
a while, instead of labels, the individual letters were
given to her, on detached bits of paper. These were
at first arranged side by side, so as to spell book, key,
etc. They were then mixed up, and a sign was made
for her to arrange them herself, so as to express the
words book, key, etc., and she did so.

The process of instruction, hitherto, had been me
chanical, and the success attending it about as great
as that in teaching a very knowing dog a variety of
tricks. The poor child sat in mute amazement, and
patiently imitated every thing her teacher did. Pres
ently the truth began to flash upon her ; her intellect
began to work ; she perceived that here was a way by
which she could herself make up a sign of any thing
that was in her own mind, and show it to another mind,
and at once her countenance lighted up -with u, human

THE FIVE SENSES. 153

expression ! her immortal spirit eagerly seizing upon
a new link of union with other spirits 1 Dr. Howe
says he could almost fix upon the moment when this
truth dawned upon her mind and spread its light to her
countenance. He saw at once that nothing but patient
and persevering, but judicious efforts were needed in
her instruction, and that these would most assuredly
be crowned with success.

It is difficult to form a just conception of the amount
of labor bestowed upon Laura thus far. In communi
cating with her, spoken language could not be used
for she was destitute of hearing. Neither are signs of
any use when addressed to the eyes of the blind.
When, therefore, it was said that " a sign was made,"
we are to understand by it that the action was perform
ed by her teacher, she feeling of his hands, and then
imitating the motion. The next step in the process of
her instruction was to procure a -set of metal types,
with the different letters of the alphabet cast upon their
ends ; also a board, in which were square holes, into
which she could set the types so that the letters on the
end could alone be felt above the surface. Then, on
any article being handed to her whose name she had
learned — a pencil or a watch, for instance — she would
select the component letters and arrange them on her
board, and read them with apparent pleasure.

When she had been exercised in this way for sev
eral weeks, and until her knowledge of words had be
come considerably extensive, the important step was
taken of teaching her how to represent the different
letters by the position of her fingers, instead of the
cumbrous apparatus of the board and types. This she
accomplished speedily and easily, for her intellect had
begun to work in aid of her teacher, and her progress
was rapid.

G2

154 THE EDUCATION OF

Six months after Laura had left home her mother
went to visit her. The scene of their meeting was full
of interest. The mother stood some time gazing with
overflowing eyes upon her unfortunate child, who. all
unconscious of her presence, was playing about the
room. Presently Laura ran against her, and at once
began feeling of her hands, examining her dress, and
trying to find out if she knew her ; but, not succeeding
in this, she turned away as from a stranger, and the
poor woman could not conceal the pang she felt at
finding her beloved child did not know her. She then
gave Laura a string of beads which she used to wear
at home. These were at once recognized by the child,
who gave satisfactory indications that she understood
they were from home. The mother now tried to
caress her; but Laura repelled her, preferring to be
with her acquaintances.

Other articles from home were then given to Laura,
and she began to look much interested ; she examined
the stranger much closer, and gave the doctor to un
derstand she knew they came from Hanover ; she now
even endured her mother's caresses, bat would leave her
with indifference at the slightest signal. After a while,
on the mother taking hold of her again, a vague idea
seemed to flit across Laura's mind that this could not
be a stranger ; she therefore felt of her hands very
eagerly, while her countenance assumed an expression
of intense interest ; she became very pale, and then
suddenly red ; hope seemed struggling with doubt and
anxiety, and never were contending emotions more
strongly painted upon the human face. At this mo
ment of painful uncertainty, the mother drew Laura
close to her side, and kissed her fondly, when at once
the truth flashed upon the child, and all distrust and
anxiety disappeared from her face. With an expres-

THE FIVE SENSES. 155

sion of exceeding joy, Laura nestled to the bosom of
her parent, and yielded herself to her fond embraces.
After this the beads were all unheeded, and the play
things which were offered to her were utterly disregard
ed. Her playmates, for whom she but a moment be
fore left the stranger, now vainly strove to pull her from
her mother. The meeting and subsequent parting
showed alike the affection, the intelligence, and the
resolution of the child as well as of her mother.

The following facts are drawn from the report made
of her case at the end of the year 1839, after she had
been a little more than two years under instruction.
Having mastered the manual alphabet of the deaf
mutes, and having learned to spell readily the names
of every thing within her reach, she was then taught
words expressive of positive qualities, as hardness and
softness. This was a very difficult process. She was
next taught those expressions of relation to place which
she could understand. A ring, for example, was taken
and placed on a box; then the words were spelled to her,
and she repealed them from imitation. The ring was
afterward placed on a hat, desk, etc. In a similar man
ner she learned the use of in, into, etc. She would il
lustrate the use of these and other words as follows :
She would spell o n, and then lay one hand on the
other; then she would spell into, and inclose one
hand within the other.

Laura very easily acquired a knowledge and use of
active verbs, especially those expressive of tangible ac
tion, as to walk, to run, to sew, to shake. In acquir
ing a knowledge of language, she used the words with
which she had become acquainted in a general sense,
and according to the order of her sense of ideas. Thus,
in asking some one to give her bread, she would first
use the word expressive of the leading idea, and say,

156 THE EDUCATION OF

Bread, give, Laura. If she wanted water, she would
say, Water, drink, Laura.

Having acquired the use of substantives, adjectives
verbs, prepositions, and conjunctions, it was thought
time to make the experiment of trying to teach her to
write, and to show her she might communicate her
ideas to persons not in contact with her. It was
amusing to witness the mute amazement with which
she submitted to the process ; the docility with which
she imitated every motion, and the perseverance with
which she moved her pencil over and over again in
the same track, until she could form the letter. But
when at last the idea dawned upon her that by this
mysterious process she could make other people under
stand what she thought, her joy was boundless ! Never
did a child apply more eagerly and joyfully to any
task than she did to this ; and in a few months she
could make every letter distinctly, and separate words
from each other.

At this time Laura actually wrote, unaided, a legible
letter to her mother, in which she expressed the idea
of her being well, and of her expectation of going home
in a few weeks. It was, indeed, a very rude and im
perfect letter, couched in the language which a prat
tling infant would use. Still, it shadowed forth and
expressed to her mother the ideas that were passing in
her own mind. She had attained about the same com
mand of language as common children three years of
age. But her power of expression was, of course, by
no means equal to her power of conception ; for she
had no words to express many of the perceptions and
sensations which her mind doubtless experienced. In
the spring of 1840. when she had been under instruc
tion about two and a half years, returning fatigued from
her journey home, she complained of a pain in her side,

THE FIVE SENSES. 157

and on being asked what caused it, she replied as fol
lows : " Laura did go to see mother, ride did make
Laura side ache, horse was wrong, did not run softly."
Her improvement in the use of language was very
rapid, and she soon became, in some respects, quite a
critic. When one of the girls had the mumps, Laura
learned the name of the disease ; soon after she had it
herself, but she had the swelling only on one side ; and
some one saying to her, " You have got the mumps,"
she replied quickly, " No, no ; I have mump?

About this time Laura learned the difference between
the presqnt and past tense of the verb. And here her
simplicity rebukes the clumsy irregularities of our lan
guage. She learned jump, jumped — walk, walked, etc.,
until she had an idea of the mode of forming the imper
fect tense of regular verbs ; but when she came to the
word see, she insisted that it should be seed in the im
perfect ; and upon going down to dinner, she asked if
it was eat, eated ; but being told it was eat, ATE, she
seemed to try to express the idea that this transposi
tion of the letters was not only wrong, but ludicrous,
for she laughed heartily. She continued this habit of
forming words analogically. When she had become
acquainted with the meaning of the word restless, she
seemed to understand that less at the end of a word
means without, destitute of, or wanting, as rest-less,
fruit-less ; also ili&iful at the end of a word expresses
abundance of what is implied by the primitive, as
bliss-ful, play-ful. This is clearly illustrated in the fol
lowing expressions. One day, feeling weak, she said,
" I am very strongless." Being told this was not right,
she said, " Why, you say restless when I do not sit still."
Then she said, " I am very weakful."

My primary object in referring to Laura has been
to illustrate, in a striking manner, the practicability of

158 THE EDUCATION OF

the education of the senses to an extent not heretofore
generally known. To such an extent has the sense of
touch been cultivated in her, that her fingers serve as
very good substitutes for both eyes and ears. I will
mention one or two instances which strikingly illustrate
the acutcness of Laura's sense of touch. When I was
at the institution a few months ago, she was told a per
son was present whom she had never met, and who
wished an introduction to her. She reached her hand,
expecting to meet a stranger. By mistake (for her
teachers design never to allow her to be deceived), she
took the hand of another gentleman, whom she recog
nized immediately, though she had never met him but
twice before. She recognizes her acquaintances in an
instant by touching their hands or their dress, and
there are probably hundreds of individuals who, if they
were to stand in a row, and hold out each a hand to
her, would be recognized by that alone. The mem
ory of these sensations is very vivid, and she will read
ily recognize a person whom she has once thus touched.
Many cases of this kind have been noticed ; such as a
person shaking hands with her, and making a peculiar
pressure with one finger, and repeating this on his sec
ond visit, after a lapse of many months, being instantly
known by her. She has been known to recognize per
sons with whom she had thus simply shaken hands but
once, after a lapse of six months. But this is hardly
more wonderful than that one should be able to recall
impressions made upon the mind through the organ of
sight, as when we recognize a person of whom we have
had but one glimpse a year before ; but it shows the
exhaustless capacity of those organs which the Creator
has bestowed, as it were, in reserve against accidents,
and which we too commonly allow to lie unused and
unvalued.

THE FIVE SENSES. 159

OLIVER CASVVELL. — Had I not devoted so much space
to this subject already, it would be interesting to con
sider the case of Oliver, who, like Laura, is deaf, dumb,
and blind. His experience is full of interest, though
less striking than that already presented. His progress
n learning language, and in acquiring intellectual
knowledge, is comparatively slow, because he has not
that fineness of fiber and that activity of temperament
which enable Laura to struggle so successfully against
the immense disadvantages under which they both la
bor. Oliver is a boy of rather unfavorable organiza
tion ; he had been deaf and blind from infancy ; he re
ceived no instruction until he was twelve years old,
and consequently lost the most precious years for learn
ing ; he has nevertheless been taught to express his
thoughts both by the finger language and by writing ;
he has also become acquainted with the rudiments of
the common branches of education, and is intelligent
and morally responsible. His case proves, therefore,
very clearly, that the success of the attempt made to
instruct Laura Bridgman was not owing solely to her
uncommon capacity.

Oliver's natural ability is small, and his acquired
knowledge very limited ; but his sense of right and
wrong, his obedience to moral obligations, and his at
tachment to friends, are very remarkable.* He never
willfully violates the rights or injures the feelings of

* I have omitted much in the case of Laura that I should have re
tained but for want of room. The moral qualities of her nature have
ieveloped themselves most clearly. She is honest to a proverb, having
never been known to take any thing belonging to another. That she
is a Christian there can be no doubt. It is said in the report of her
case for 1846, that "on the list occasion of her manifesting any impa:
lience, she said to Miss Wight, her teacher, ' I felt cross, but in a minute
I thought of Christ, how ^ood and gentle he teas, and my bad feelings
went away.' "

160 THE EDUCATION OF

others, and seldom shows any signs of temper when
his own seem to be invaded. He even bears the teas
ing of little boys with gentleness and patience. He is
very tractable, and always obeys respectfully the re
quests of his teacher. This shows the effect which
Kind and gentle treatment has had upon his character,
for when he first went to the institution in Boston he
was sometimes very willful, and showed occasional out
bursts of temper which were fearfully violent. " It
seems hardly possible," says Dr. Howe, " that the gen
tle and affectionate youth, who loves all the household
and is beloved by all in return, should be the same who
a few years ago scratched and bit, like a young savage,
those who attempted to control him."

We regard it as a fact fully established that the
sense of touch may be cultivated to a much greater
extent than most persons are aware of. The same re
mark will apply to the cultivation of all the senses. We
shall consider them separately.

THE SENSE OF TOUCH. — The remarks already made
apply chiefly to this sense. The nerves that supply it
proceed from the anterior half of the spinal cord. This
sense is most delicate where there are the greatest
number of nervous filaments, and those of the largest
size. The hands, and especially the fingers, have a
most delicate and nice sense of touch, though the sense
is extended over the whole body, in every part of which
it is less or more acute. In this respect, then, this sense
is unlike the others, which are confined to small spaces,
as we shall see when we come to consider them. The
action of the sensitive nerves depends upon the state
of the brain, and the condition of the system generally.
In sound and perfect sleep, when the brain is inactive,
ordinary impressions made upon the skin are unob
served. Fear and grief diminish the impressibility of

THE FIVE SENSES. 1G1

this tissue, while hope and joy increase it. The quan
tity and quality of the blood also influence sensation.
If this vital fluid becomes impure, or its quantity is di
minished, the sensibility of the skin will be impaired
thereby. Whatever affects the general health affects
the healthy action of this sense. It is also much affect
ed by sudden changes in temperature. If the skin is
wounded while under the influence of cold, the pain
will be slight. By carrying this chilling influence too
fiir, the surface becomes entirely destitute of sensation.
This is produced by the contraction of the blood-ves
sels upon the surface. On the contrary, when the
chilled extremities are suddenly exposed to heat, the
rapid enlargement of the contracted blood-vessels ex
cites the nerves unduly, which causes the pain ex
perienced on such occasions.

The sensibility of the nerves depends much upon the
habits of persons. Suppose two boys go out to play
when the thermometer stands at the freezing point, and
that one of them has been accustomed to exercise in
the open air, and to practice daily ablution, while the
other one has been confined most of the time to a warm
room, and has been accustomed to wash only his hands
and face. The skin of the former, other things being
equal, will be active and healthy, while that of the lat
ter will be enfeebled and diseased. The organs of
touch diffused over the body at the surface will be
very differently affected in these two boys, and the per
ceptions of their minds will be alike dissimilar. One
will be roused to action, and will feel just right for some
animating game. Both body and mind will be elastic
and joyous. He will bound like the roe, make the
welkin ring with his merry shout, and return to the
bosom of his famiiy with a gladdened heart, ready to
Impart and receive pleasure, while the other boy will

1(52 THE EDUCATION OF

be too keenly affected by the contact of the air, and
think it too cold to stay out of doors. He will thrust
his hands into his pockets, and curl himself up like one
decrepit with age. His teeth will chatter and his whole
frame tremble. Of course, very different reflections
will be awakened in his mind. He will hurry back to
the fireside, thinking winter a very dismal season, and
will be apt to fret himself and all about him, because
of the confinement from which he has not the resolu
tion to break out.

The sensibility of the cutaneous nerves in these two
cases depends upon the habits of the persons. If the
latter would practice frequent ablutions, and excite a
healthy action in the skin by friction and exercise, and
conform to other laws of health, he would experience
all that gladness of heart, and elasticity of body and
mind, which the other is supposed to enjoy. Hence
the advantages resulting from a strict conformity to
the laws of health in this particular as well as in others
that are generally regarded as more important.

The general law that the exercise of a faculty in
creases its power is applicable to the senses. We have
referred to the blind, who read as rapidly as seeing
persons by passing their fingers over raised letters, the
sense of touch being substituted by them for that of
vision. Nor is the education of this sense useful to
the blind merely. It may frequently be appealed to
with great advantage by all who have cultivated it.
The miller, for example, can judge more accurately of
the quality of flour and meal, by passing some be
tween his fingers than by the exercise of vision. The
cloth-dresser, also, by the aid of this sense, not only
marks the nicest shades of texture in examining cloths
of different qualities, but in many instances learns to
distinguish colors bv the sense of touch with per-

THE FIVE SENSES. 1G3

haps greater accuracy than is ccmmon with seeing
persons.

THE SENSE OF TASTE. — The sense of taste bears the
greatest resemblance to the sense of feeling. The
upper surface of the tongue is the principal agent in
tasting, though the lips, the palate, and the internal
surface of the cheeks participate in this function, as
does the upper part of the oesophagus. The multitude
of points called papillas, scattered over the upper sur
face of the tongue, constitute the more immediate seat
of this sense. It is in these sensitive papilla? that the
ramifications of the gustatory or tasting nerves termin
ate. When fluids are taken into the mouth, and espe
cially those whose taste is pungent, these papillae di
late and erect themselves, and the particular sensation
produced is transmitted to the brain through the me
dium of the minute filaments of the gustatory nerves.

In order fully to gratify the taste in eating dry. solid
food, it is necessary that the food be first reduced to a
liquid state, or, at least, that it be thoroughly moistened.
Nature has made full provision for this in furnishing
the mouth with salivary glands, whose secretions are
most abundant when engaged in masticating dry, hard
substances. These quickened secretions contribute to
gratify the taste and increase the pleasure of eating,
and, at the same time, materially aid in the important
processes of mastication and digestion. Nature, also,
with her accustomed bounty, has furnished man with
a great variety of articles for food. By this means the
various tastes of different persons may be gratified, al
though, in many instances, those articles of food which
are most agreeable to some persons are extremely dis
agreeable to others.

Many persons can not eat the most nourishing food,
us fruits, butter, etc., because to them the taste of these

1G4 THE EDUCATION OF

articles is disagreeable. But this is very easily ac
counted for, as in the mouth the food mixes with va
rious fluids that differ in different persons, and in the
same person at different times. These fluids, and par
ticularly the saliva, assist in the formation and change
of taste. This accounts not only for the different tastes
of different persons, but also for the varying taste of the
same persons, and for that fickleness of taste which is
so common in sickness, when the fluids of the mouth,
in a disordered and deranged state, mix with the food,
and produce the disagreeable taste so often complained
of at such times, and which, moreover, occasionally
create a permanent dislike for food that was previously
much relished.

This sense was given to men and animals to guide
them in the selection of their food, and to enable them
to guard against the use of articles that would be in
jurious if introduced into the stomach. In the inferior
animals, the sense of taste still answers the original de
sign of its bestowment ; but in man, it has been abused
and perverted by the use of artificial stimulants, which
have created an acquired taste that, in most persons, is
very detrimental to health. This sense is so modified
by habit, that, not unfrequently, articles which were at
first exceedingly offensive, become, at length, highly
agreeable. It is in this manner that many persons,
whose sense of taste has been impaired or perverted,
have formed the disgusting and ruinous habits of smok
ing and chewing tobacco, and of using stimulating and
intoxicating drinks. But these pernicious habits, and
all similar indulgences, lessen the sensibility of the gus
tatory nerve, and ultimately destroy the natural relish
for healthful food and drink. By this means, also, the
digestive powers become disordered, and the general
health is materially impaired. All persons, then, should

THE FIVE SENSES. 1G5

seek to preserve the natural integrity of this sense, and
to restore it immediately to healthy action when at all
depraved, for upon this depends much of health and
longevity, of happiness and usefulness.

This sense may be rendered very acute by cultiva
tion, as is illustrated by persons who are accustomed
to taste medicines, liquors, teas,* etc. It ought, how
ever, to be chiefly exercised in partaking of those simple
articles of food and drink which are most conducive to
health. In its natural state it prefers these, and if de
praved it will soon recover a healthy tone, if not con
tinually tempted by stimulating substances. This is
beautifully illustrated in thousands of instances all over
our country by persons who were once accustomed to
use strong drink, but who have substituted for it spark
ling water, a beverage prepared by God himself to
nourish and invigorate his creatures, and beautify his
footstool.

THE SENSE OF SMELL. — The sense of taste has re
ceived a faithful companion in that of smell. The be
neficent Creator, with that wisdom which characterizes
all his works, has very wisely placed the organ of this
sense just above the mouth, in order that the scent of
many things that are hurtful may warn us from par
taking of them before they reach the mouth. The air-
passages of the nose, in which this sense is located, are
lined with a thin skin, called the mucous membrane,
which is continuous with the lining membrane of the
parts of the throat and of the external skin. Upon this
membrane the olfactory nerve ramifies. The odorif
erous particles of matter that float in the air come in
contact with these fine and sensitive nerves as the air
rushes through the nostrils, and the impression is con
veyed to the brain by the olfactory nerve. The mu
cous membrane, upon which this ramifies, is of consid-

100 THE EDUCATION OF

erablc extent in man. In the lower animals it is less
or more extensive, according to the degree of acute-
ness of this sense. This membrane is full of little
glands that are continually giving off thick mucus, and
especially when the membrane is inflamed^. There is
a small canal leading from the eyes to the nose, through
which a fluid, that also forms tears, is constantly pass
ing when the passage is clear. It is the office of this
fluid to moisten and thin the mucus of the nose. When
this mucous is too abundant, as in some stages of a cold,
and especially if it becomes dry from the closing of the
canal leading from the eyes, or from any other cause,
as fever, the sense of smell will be greatly impaired, if
not entirely suspended. It is, indeed, not unfrequently
permanently injured in this way, and sometimes is irre
coverably lost.

The sensation of smell, it should be borne in mind,
is produced by a kind of odoriferous vapor, very fine
and invisible, that flies off from nearly all bodies. The
air which contains this vapor is drawn into the nose,
and is in this way brought into contact with the very
delicate nerves of smell that ramify the membrane
which lines the air-passages of this organ. It is only
when the exceedingly small particles of which the odor
of various bodies is composed come in contact with the
minute ramifications of the olfactory nerve that this
sensation is produced. In order to protect these sen
sitive nerves, as well as to prevent the introduction into
the lungs of injurious substances, the air-passages of
the nose are furnished with hairy appendages, which
are less or more abundant according to the size of these
passages. These intercept any foreign substances that
enter the nose, and thus irritate the mucous membrane,
and cause a quick and powerful contraction of the dia
phragm, by which the offending matter is immediately

THE FIVE SENSES. 1(57

expelled. This phenomenon, which is called sneezing,
depends upon a connection of the olfactory with the
respiratory nerves.

This sense not only comes in to the aid of taste in
enabling man and the lower animals to select proper
food, and avoid that which is injurious, but it also gives
us positive and varied pleasure by the inhalation of
agreeable odors, while, at the same time, it enables us
to avoid an infectious atmosphere, and all objects whose
odors are offensive and hurtful.

It is true that man can accustom himself to nearly
all kinds of odor, even to those that at first are very
disagreeable. He indeed not unfrequently so vitiates
the sense of smell as actually to prefer those scents
which, to persons who have preserved the integrity of
this sense, are regarded as exceedingly offensive, and
even filthy. But why, let me ask, did the Creator give
us the sense of smell ? Was it to be thus perverted ?
No, indeed : it was, without doubt, that we might enjoy
the refreshing fragrance of flowers and herbs, of food
and drink ; and also that we might distinguish between
air that is pure and healthful, and that which is impure
and infectious. As most articles of food which are
agreeable to the smell are wholesome, and as those
which are disagreeable are generally unwholesome, so,
also, those states of the atmosphere which are grateful
to this sense are salubrious, and those odors which are
pleasant are healthful, while air which is ungrateful
will generally be found injurious to health, as will also
all those odors which are unpleasant to this sense when
in a healthful state. He who has had occasion to entei
a crowded court-room, lecture-room, church, or assem-.
bly-room of whatever kind, which has been occupied
for a considerable time without adequate ventilation,
can not fail to remember the unwelcome impression

168 THE EDUCATION OF

made upon his nasal organs when first he inhaled the
vitiated atmosphere within, though by degrees he might
have become accustomed to it, did he remain, so as ul
timately to become well-nigh insensible to its noisome
influence. But let such and all others be well assured
that, however offensive such a fetid atmosphere may
be to the smell, it is equally injurious to the health.
And let those who, having returned from a morning
walk or healthful exercise in a salubrious atmosphere,
have had occasion to revisit the small and unventilated
lodging-room in which they spent a restless night with
out refreshing sleep, perceive, in the sickening smell, a
sufficient cause for all their pains and aches, and wonder
how they survived such a gross violation of the organic
laws.

All of the senses may be improved by education.
The sense of smell constitutes no exception to this rule.
Let none be discouraged, then ; for the more we ac
custom our lungs and nasal organs to pure air, the more
will they require it, and the more readily will they de
tect the presence of the least impurity.

This sense becomes very acute in deaf persons, and
even more so in the case of those that are blind. The
reason is obvious; for, as they are led of necessity to
rely upon it more than persons who have all the senses,
it becomes thereby developed, and is enabled more ac
curately to judge of the properties of whatever is sub
mitted to its scrutiny. Seeing persons rarely partake
of any article of food, and especially of any thing new,
without first smelling it, and blind persons never ; for
this is the only means by which they can judge of its
wholesomeness or unwholesomeness without tasting it.

Whatever stupefies the brain, impairs the healthy ac
tion of the nerve of smell, or thickens the membrane
that lines the nasal cavities, and thus diminishes the

THE FIVE SENSES. 109

sensibility of the nerves ramified upon it, injures this
sense. All these effects are produced by the habitual
use of snuff, which, when introduced into the nose, di
minishes the sensibility of the nerves, and thickens the
lining membrane. By its use the air-passages through
the nostrils sometimes become completely obstructed.
It is on this account that most habitual snuff-takers are
compelled to open their mouths in order to breathe
freely. It has been well said, that if Nature had in
tended that the nose should be used as a snuff-hole,
she would doubtless have put it on the other end up.

THE SENSE OF HEARING. — The external ear, although
curiously shaped, is not the most important part of the
organ whose function it is to take cognizance of sounds.
In the transmission of sound to the brain, the vibra
tions of the air produced by the sonorous body are col
lected by the external ear, and conducted through the
auditory canal to the drum of the ear, which is so ar
ranged that it may be relaxed or tightened like the
head of an ordinary drum. That its motion may be
free, the air contained within the drum has free com
munication with the external air by an open passage,
called the Eustachian tube, leading to the back of the
mouth. This tube is sometimes obstructed by wax,
when a degree of deafness ensues. But when the ob
struction is removed in the effort of sneezing or other
wise, a crack or sudden noise is generally experienced,
accompanied usually with an immediate return of acute
hearing.

The ear-drum performs a two-fold office ; for while
it aids in the transmission of sound from without to the
internal ear, it at the same time modifies the intensity
of sound. This softening of the sound is effected by
the relaxation of a muscle when sounds are so acute as
to be painful ; but when listening to low sounds, the

II

170 THE EDUCATION OF

drum is rendered tense by the contraction of this mus
cle, and the sounds become, by this means, more audi
ble. The vibrations made on the drum are transmitted
by the tympanum — an irregular bony cavity — to the
internal ear, which is filled with a watery fluid. In
his fluid the filaments of the auditory nerve terminate,
which receive and transmit the sound to the brain.

The ear has the power of judging of the direction
from which sound comes, as is strikingly exemplified
in the fact that when horses or mules march in com
pany at night, those in front direct their ears forward,
and those in the rear turn them backward, while those in
the center turn them laterally or across, the whole troop
seeming to be actuated by a feeling to watch the com
mon safety. This is also illustrated by four or six horse
teams, and is a fact with which coachmen are famil
iar. It is further illustrated by the dog, and many other
animals. The external ear of man is likewise furnished
with muscles ; and savages are said to have the power
of moving or directing their ears at pleasure, like a
horse, to catch sounds as they come from different di
rections ; but few men in civilized life retain this power.

The acuteness of this sense in men and animals,
other things being equal, depends upon the size of the
ear. In timid animals, as the hare and the rabbit, the
ear is very large. They are thus apprized of the ap
proach of an enemy in time to flee to a place of safety.

The ear-trumpet — which is a tube wide at one end,
where the sound enters, and narrow at the other, where
the ear is applied — is constructed on this principle, its
sides being so curved that, according to the law of re
flection, all the sound which enters it is brought to a
focus in the narrow end. It thus increases many fold
the intensity of a sound which reaches the ear through
it, and enables a person who has become deaf to com-

THE FIVE SENSES. 171

mon conversation to mix again with pleasure in so
ciety. The concave hand held behind the ear answers
m some degree the purpose of an ear-trumpet.

The Ear of Dionysius, in the dungeons of Syracuse,
was a notorious instance of a sound-collecting surface.
The roof of the prison was so formed as to collect the
words, and even whispers, of the unhappy prisoners,
and to direct them along a hidden conduit to where
the tyrant sat listening.

Acuteness of hearing requires the healthy action of
the brain, and particularly of that portion of it from
which the auditory nerve proceeds, combined with per
fection in the structure and functions of the different
parts of the ear. The best method, then, of retaining
and improving the hearing, is to observe well the gen
eral laws of health, and particularly to avoid every
thing that will in the least impair the structure or
healthy action of the parts immediately concerned in
the exercise of this function. Inflammatory fevers, af
fections of the brain, and injuries upon the head, are
among the more common causes of imperfect hearing.
Hence the impropriety of striking children upon the
head in correcting them, whether in the family or in the
school. The instances are not few in which deafness,
and the impairing of the mental faculties, have resulted
from that barbarous practice familiarly known as
" boxing the ears." This inhuman practice is likely to
result in injury to the drum of the ear, either in thick
ening this membrane, or in diminishing its vibratory
character. Inflammation of the ear-drum, either acute
or chronic, is the common cause of its increased thick
ness. How often this is produced by blows, the reader
may judge. Diminution of the vibratory character of
the ear-drum may result from an accumulation of wax
upon its outer surface. In such cases chronic inflam-

172 THE EDUCATION OF

mation of the parts is not unfrequently the result of the
injudicious practice of attempting its removal by intro
ducing the heads of pins into the ear.

This wax, it should be known, is designed to sub
serve an important end ; for the tube leading from the
external ear, being, like the nose, constantly open, is
liable to the entrance of foreign bodies, such as dust,
insects, and the like. But, fortunately, it is not left with
out the means of defense ; for on its inside there are
numerous fine bristles, which, interlacing each other,
interpose a barrier to the entrance of every thing but
sound. Moreover, between the roots of these hairs
there are numerous little glands, that secrete a nause
ous, bitter wax, which, by its ofFensiveness, either deters
insects from entering, or entangles them and prevents
their advance in case they do enter. This wax, then,
is very serviceable. But its usefulness does not stop
here. When the ear becomes dry from a deficiency
of it, the hearing becomes imperfect, as also when it is
thin and purulent. This wax not unfrequently be
comes hard and obstructs the tube, causing less or
more deafness. But this form of deafness may be
easily cured, even though it has existed for years ; for,
having softened the accumulations of viscid wax by
dropping animal oil into the ear, they may be removed
by the injection of warm soap-suds, which is an effect
ual and safe remedy.

The sense of hearing is perhaps as susceptible of cul
tivation as any of the senses. The Indian in the forest,
who is accustomed to listen to the approach of his ene
mies or of his prey, acquires such acuteness of hearing
as to be able to detect sounds that would be inaudible
to persons living amid the din of civilized life. The
blind, also, who of necessity are led to rely more upon
this sense than seeing persons, excel in the acuteness

THE FIVE SENSES. 173

ot their hearing. They recognize their acquaintances
by the exercise of this sense as readily as persons usu
ally do by that of sight, an attainment which very few
seeing persons make, and yet one that is perhaps within
the reach of ninety-nine persons in every hundred.
The blind judge with great accuracy the distance of
persons in conversation, of carriages in motion, and of
all sonorous bodies whose vibrations reach their ears.
They even estimate with remarkable correctness the
distance and height of buildings by the reflection or
interception of sound. It is in consequence of the acute-
ness of this sense, acquired by careful cultivation, that
the blind, as a class, have become so generally and
justly distinguished for their pre-eminence in instru
mental music. This enables them also to cultivate
vocal music with more than ordinary success.

The due cultivation of the sense of hearing will con
tribute vastly to promote our intellectual and moral
well-being. If it be true, as we are told it is by those
who have been engaged in teaching both the deaf and
the blind, that the absence of hearing is even a more
formidable impediment to the communication of knowl
edge than that of sight, we must infer that all imper
fections of the organ of hearing itself, or in the manner
of using it, must correspondingly lessen the^accuracy
of the knowledge we receive through that organ. The
meaning of language very often is conveyed not so
much by the words themselves as in the tones of voice
in which the words are uttered. If, therefore, the hear
ing be indistinct, or there be no habit formed of care
ful attention to the inflections of sound, the impressions
received from what we hear must often be inaccurate.
Our speech, too, will be far less agreeable, and be in
efficient, even if it be not positively inarticulate. We
owe it to others, no less than to ourselves, then, to cul-

174 THE EDUCATION OF

tivate the powers of the voice — the common instru
ment that God has given us for the interchange of
thought, sentiment, and feeling, and which, though so
common, is the most perfect of all instruments for the
transmission of sound. Yet how deplorably is it neg
lected ! how shamefully is it misused ! It can be fully
developed and made what it is capable of being only
through the influence of the ear. If this organ be neg
lected, the voice must needs be imperfect. And the
voices of many persons are through life imperfect and
disagreeable, because they were not carefully trained
in early life to articulate distinctly, much less to utter
musical sounds. The opinion is confidently expressed
by those who are best qualified to decide the matter,
that nearly all children might be taught to sing, if
proper attention were paid early enough to the use
they make of their ears and their organs of sound.
The careful training of these should be considered an
indispensable part of a school-teacher's as well as of
a parent's duty.

The ear will find appropriate discipline in distinguish
ing, without aid from the eye, the causes of various
sounds, as the opening of a door, the shutting of a knife,
the dropping of various coins, the moving of different
articles of furniture, etc. It may also find appropriate
exercise in determining the direction from which vari
ous sounds proceed ; in recognizing acquaintances by
their natural voices, and in detecting the counterfeit
voices of companions ; in arranging and classifying the
elementary sounds of the language, and in determining
all the different musical tones ; in judging of the genus
and species of birds by their chirping, of the distance
and nature of sonorous bodies of various kinds, etc., etc.
These are some of the direct means of improving this
sense : others will suggest themselves to the thought
ful reader..

THE FIVE SENSES.

THE SENSE OF SIGHT. — The sense of sight, which is
the most refined and admirable of all the senses, still
remains to be considered. The senses generally serve
as interpreters between the material universe without
and the spirit within. But it is more especially by the
sense of sight that we are enabled to hold converse
with the external world. Without it we should be de
prived of a large portion of the pleasures of life not
only, but even of the means of maintaining our exist
ence. It is through the sense of vision that the wis
dom, power, and benevolence of the Deity are chiefly
manifested to us.

I shall describe the apparatus of vision only so far
as is necessary in order to subserve my leading object,
which is the preservation and improvement of this
sense, and the means of rendering it tributary to intel
lectual and moral culture. The eye, which is the or
gan of vision, is an optical instrument of the most per
fect construction. It is surrounded by coats, which
contain refracting mediums, called humors. There are
three coats, called the sclerotic, the choroid, and the ret
ina ; and three humors, called the aqueous, the crys
talline, and the vitreous.

The sclerotic or outer coat, called also the white of
the eye, is an opaque, fibrous membrane. It has al
most the firmness of leather, possesses little sensibility,
and is rarely exposed to inflammation or other dis
eases. It invests the eye on .every side except the
front, and besides maintaining its globular form and
preserving its internal and delicate structure, serves
for the attachment of those muscles which move this
organ. The opening in the fore part of this opaque
coat is filled by the transparent cornea, which resem
bles a watch crystal in shape, and is received into a
groove in the front part of the sclerotic coat in (he

176 THE EDUCATION OF

same manner that a watch-glass is received into its
case. But for this arrangement light could not gain
admission to the eye.

The choroid coat, which constitutes the second in
vesting membrane of the eye, is of a dark brown color
upon its outer surface, and of a deep black within. The
internal surface of this membra*ne secretes a dark sub
stance resembling black paint, upon which the retina is
spread out, and which is of great importance in the
function of vision, as it seems to absorb the rays of light
immediately after they have struck upon the sensible
surface of the retina.

The retina, which is the third and innermost mem
brane of the eye, is the expansion of the optic nerve,
and constitutes the immediate seat of vision. Such is
the arrangement of the humors of the eye, and so per
fectly are they adapted to the functions they are called
upon to perform, that in the healthy state of this organ,
the light entering the pupil is so refracted as to paint
upon the retina an exact image of the objects from
which it proceeds. The optic nerve, whose expansion
forms the retina, receives this image and transmits it
to the mind.

Arnott has well remarked, that "a whole printed
sheet of a newspaper may be represented on the retina
on less surface than that of a finger nail ; and yet not
only shall every word and letter be separately perceiv
able, but even any imperfection of a single letter. Or,
more wonderful still, when at night an eye is turned
up to the blue vault of heaven, there is portrayed on
the little concave of the retina the boundless concave
of the sky, with every object in its just proportions.
There a moon in beautiful miniature may be sailing
among her white-edged clouds, and surrounded by a
thousand twinkling stars, so that to an animalcule sup-

THE FIVE SENSES. 177

posed to be within and near the pupil, the retina might
appear another starry firmament with all its glory."

Besides these three coats, and the cornea which con
stitutes about one fifth of the anterior portion of the
outer coat, it is necessary to notice the iris, so called
from its variety of color in different persons, and upon
which alone the color of the eye depends. The iris is
a circular membrane situated just behind the cornea,
and is attached to one of the coats at its circumference.
In its center is a small round hole, called the pupil;
and sometimes spoken of familiarly as the sight of the
eye, as no light can enter the eye except through it
The iris possesses the power of dilating and contract
ing, so as to admit more or less light, as it may be need
ed. This change in the size of the pupil is effected by
two sets of muscular fibers. The first set converge
from the circumference of the iris to the circular mar
gin of the pupil, and constitute the radiated muscle.
The outer ends of these fibers are attached to the scle
rotic coat, which is unyielding ; hence, when they con
tract, the pupil enlarges to receive more light. The
other set is composed of circular fibers, which go round
in the iris from the border to the pupil, and constitute
the orbicular muscle, the contraction of which dimin
ishes the size of the pupil. When too much light enters
the eye, the excited and sensitive retina immediately
gives warning of the danger, and the nerves, which are
plentifully distributed to the iris, stimulate the orbicular
muscle to contract, and the radiated one to relax, by
which the size of the pupil is lessened. But when the
light which enters the pupil is insufficient to transmit
a distinct image of objects to the brain, the orbicular
muscle relaxes, and the radiated one contracts, so as to
enlarge the pupil. The contraction of the pupil is
readily seen when a, person passes from a darkened
H2

178 THE EDUCATION OF

room into a bright sunlight, or when a light is first
brought into a room in the twilight of evening. Any
person may notice this contraction in his own eye by
beholding himself in a glass immediately after passing
from a dark to a well-lighted room. So, also, when a
person looks at an object near the eye, the pupil con
tracts, but when he looks at an object more remote, it
dilates. The muscles of the iris are somewhat under
the control of the will ; for most persons can contract
or dilate the pupil, in some degree, at pleasure. Some
persons possess this faculty to a great extent.

The three humors of the eye have been compared to
the glasses of a telescope, and the coats to the tube,
which keeps them in their places. The aqueous humor
is situated in the fore part of the eye, and is divided by
the iris into what are called the anterior and posterior
chambers of the eye. The crystalline humor, or lens, is
situated immediately behind the aqueous humor, a short
distance back of the pupil, and is a perfectly transpa
rent double convex lens, closely resembling in shape
the common burning glass. This resemblance does
not stop here ; for this lens, like the burning glass, pos
sesses the property of converging the rays of light
which fall upon it, and bringing them to a focus. When
this lens becomes so opaque as to obstruct the passage
of light, either partially or entirely, a person is said to
have a cataract. This can be cured only by a surgical
operation. The vitreous humor, situated back of the
other two, forms the principal part of the globe of the
eye. It differs from the aqueous in one important par
ticular. When that is discharged in extracting the
crystalline lens for cataract or otherwise, it will be re
stored again in a few hours, and the eye will continue
to perform its function. But if this be discharged by
accident, the eye is irrecoverably lost. This, however,

THE FIVE SENSES. 179

does not often occur ; for, as we shall presently see, the
eye is admirably fortified.

The eye is a perfect optical instrument, infinitely sur
passing all specimens of human skill. This is true,
view it in what light we may. It not only possesses
the power of so adjusting its parts as to adapt it to the
examination of objects at different distances, and in light
of different degrees of intensity, but we are enabled to
direct it at will to objects above, beneath, or around us.

The various motions of the eye are produced by six
little muscles. These are attached at one extremity
to. the immovable bones of the orbit, while at the other
extremity they are inserted into the sclerotic coat, four
of them near its junction with the cornea, by broad,
thin tendons, which give to the white of the eye its
pearly appearance. These muscles are so arranged by
the matchless skill of the Architect as to enable the be
holder to direct the eye to any object he chooses, and to
hold it there for any length of time that is compatible
with the laws by which muscular exercise should be
regulated. By the slight or intense action of four of
these, called the straight muscles, the eye is less or more
compressed, and the relative positions of its humors are
by this means so nicely adjusted as to enable us to view
objects near by or at a distance. The other two are
called oblique muscles, one of which, with its long ten
don passing through a cartilaginous loop, acts upon the
principle of the fixed pulley, and turns the eye in a di
rection contrary to its own action. When the external
muscle becomes too short, the eye turns out ; but if the
internal muscle is unduly contracted, the eye turns in
ward, toward the nose. One eye is sometimes turned
up or down, but this is of less frequent occurrence.

It would be interesting to notice the protecting or
gans of the eye, consisting of the arldt, which is a deep

180 THE EUrCATIOX OF

bony socket, in which the eye securely rests; of the
eye-brows, which arc two projecting arches, covered
with hair, and so arranged as to prevent the moisture
that accumulates upon the forehead, in free perspira
tion, from flowing into the eye; of the eye-lids, which
arc two movable curtains for the protection of the eye,
and which secrete a fluid that moistens and lubricates
it ; of the lachrymal ghuid, with its ducts, which keeps
the eye constantly moist, and whose secretions go on
while we wake and when we sleep, etc., etc. ; but the
preceding must suffice.

With this brief description of the apparatus of vision,
we proceed to the consideration of the means of pre
serving and improving this sense, and of rendering it
tributary to intellectual and moral culture.

The rule requiring that action should alternate with
rest, which has been so often stated, and which applies
to all the organs of both body and mind, should be es
pecially observed in relation to the eye. This organ
requires exercise, and light is its appropriate stimulus ;
but injury is the inevitable consequence of keeping it
too constantly employed, or too intently fixed for a long
time on any object. Whenever the eye is fixed for any
length of time upon an object which it distinguishes
with difficulty, it experiences a painful sensation, which
is a sure indication that it has been overtaxed. The
sight is also impaired when the eye is too little used,
or when its natural stimulus is shut out, as is strikingly
illustrated in the case of persons confined in dungeons.
A distinguished oculist has said that many men daily im
pair or destroy their eyes by immoderate use, and that
not a few have done the same by too little use of them.

The exposure of the eyes to sudden transitions from
weak to strong light is very injurious. This may be
regarded as one of the most prolific causes of weak-

THE FIVE SENSES. 8

ness of sight. The injury is generally gradual, it is
true, but it is none the less fatal on that account. The
immediate sensation of pain, when a strong light is
brought into a dark room, should be a sufficient warn
ing to avoid such sudden extremes. The iris dilates
and contracts, and thus enlarges or diminishes the size
of the pupil as the light that falls upon the eye is faint
or strong ; but this dilation and contraction are not in
stantaneous. There are numerous instances on record
in which total blindness has resulted from a sudden
transition from darkness to the brilliancy of day. The
habit of looking at a bright light of any kind, and es
pecially of watching flashes of lightning, which is prac
ticed by many, is exceedingly dangerous. The prac
tice which many students and others indulge in, of rest
ing their eyes as the twilight of evening advances, and
allowing the pupil to dilate until it is quite dark, and
then suddenly introducing a bright light, is a palpable
violation of this rule, and' one that is sure, sooner or
later, sensibly to injure the eyes. The exposure of the
eyes suddenly to a strong light upon waking from sleep,
and all sudden changes of whatever kind from darkness
to intense light, should be carefully avoided by persons
who would preserve their sight unimpaired.

The strength of light used should be regulated ac
cording to the powers of the eye. This is a general,
though a very important rule. Both the amount and
the distribution of light should be such as to produce
no unpleasant sensations. The eye possesses a certain
degree of adaptation to light, according as it is intense
or feeble. Some eyes require a stronger light than
others, but all eyes are injured by being used in light
that is too intense or too feeble. Reading by a strong
sunlight, and by moon or star light, may be adduced as
illustrations which are alike painful and injurious.

182 THE EDUCATION OF

Too little light is well-nigh as injurious MS too much,
as he can not fail to have noticed who has had occasion
to travel a difficult road in a dark night. The injury,
in such cases, is two-fold ; for while, on the one hand,
the radiated muscle of the iris is uhduljfrcontracted for
a length of time, in order sufficiently to enlarge the
pupil to render objects visible, the sensitive retina, on
the other hand, is overtaxed to gain a knowledge of
them in too feeble light. The pain which the strained
eye thus experiences is only an indication and a warn
ing to the individual of the permanent injury he is in
flicting upon this delicate organ.

Rooms should he well and evenly lighted. The irreg
ular and flickering light of common lamps and candles
is very injurious, and should be avoided in the study,
and in all mechanical pursuits where the eye is much
taxed. The best oculists concur in the opinion that
reflected and concentrated light are highly injurious.
Several cases of actual blindness are recorded as having
occurred within a few years from exposure to concen
trated light, and weakness of sight that has unfitted the
individual for usefulness through life has often been
thus produced. The rays of the sun are considered
as peculiarly injurious when reflected from an opposite
building or wall, or even when they pass through a
window, and, descending to the floor, are thence re
flected to the eyes. What, then, shall we say of the
habit of constructing school-rooms in such a manner
that perhaps a majority^of the scholars are obliged to
write and study at desks upon which the direct rays
of the sun shine for a considerable portion of the day
unbroken unless it be by a passing cloud ! And yet
thousands of school-houses are situated in such a man
ner as to create this very necessity all over our coun
try. At a moderate estimate, the eyes of one hundred

THE FIVE SENSED. Ib3

thousand children are taxed in this manner in the
schools of the United States every passing year. A
vast amount of discomfort and unhappiness is produced
in this way that might easily be avoided, would parents
and teachers take the trouble. Any exposure of this
kind should be immediately obviated, either by blinds,
or by curtains of some soft color. A few newspapers
are much better than nothing. The desks and furniture
should be of such a color that the eye may repose upon
them with agreeable sensations. Nature is clothed
with drapery whose color is refreshing to the eye ; and
it is false taste, as well as false philosophy, which at
tempts to dazzle in order to please it.

The use of side lights is injurious. The eye will ac
commodate itself to light of different degrees of inten
sity within a limited range, but both eyes should be ex
posed to an equal degree of light. The sympathy be
tween the eyes is so great, that if the pupil of one eye
is dilated by being kept in the shade, as must, of course,
be the case where the light is on one side, the eye which
is exposed" can not contract itself sufficiently for pro
tection, and is almost inevitably injured.

When viewing objects, we should avoid, as far as
possible, all oblique positions of the eye. By neglecting
this rule, an unnatural and permanent contraction of the
muscle is liable to be produced, as is illustrated in the
numerous instances of strabismus, or cross-eye, which
are every where too common.

We should accustom the eye to mewing objects at dif
ferent distances. The muscles upon which the form
of the eye and the size of the pupil depend are subject
to the general laws of muscular action. Their strength
and flexibility, which are increased by healthful exer
cise, are impaired by disuse. Hence students who have
neglected this rule, and have accustomed themselves

184 THE EDUCATION OF

for a long time to view objects near by, lose the power
of adjusting the eye so as to view things at a distance.
As a consequence, they become near-sighted, and put
on glasses, when, by a proper use of the eye, their vis
ion might have been preserved unimpaired many long
years. I know some students upon whom this habit
became so firmly fixed before they were twenty years
of age, that they felt compelled to put on glasses, but
who, unwilling to contract so pernicious a habit in early
life, commenced a course of discipline in accordance
with the suggestions here given. By perseverance,
their eyes not only recovered their former healthful ac
tion, but became so improved that they now possess
the sense of vision unimpaired not -only, but in a very
high state of cultivation.

Persons become near or long sighted as the objects
to which they are accustomed to direct the eye are
near or remote. This is illustrated in the case of stu
dents, watch-makers, and engravers, who are accus
tomed to examine minute objects near the eye, and, as
a consequence, become near-sighted ; and of surveyors,
hunters, and sailors, who, being accustomed to view
objects at a distance, become long-sighted. By a prop
er discipline of the eye, persons may attain and retain
the power of viewing objects near by and at a distance,
as is illustrated in the case of those gunsmiths who are
accustomed to manufacture guns, and to try them in
shooting at a mark at a great distance. The preceding
principles being borne in mind in their various applica
tions, I need, perhaps, state but one more rule.

He who would secure clear and distinct vision, must
observe all those rules which are necessary to keep the
body in health. The sympathy of the eyes with all
the other organs of the body is wonderful and intimate.
There is no other organ whose strength depends so

THE FIVE SENSES. 185

much on the general vigor of the system. Strict tem
perance in eating and drinking may be regarded as an
indispensable requisite for the preservation of healthy
eyes. To this may be attributed the clear heads of
the ancient philosophers, who, unlike most students of
the present day, exercised their bodies and limbs as
well as their minds. Their works are not the produc
tion of congested brains, for these were not oppressed
with blood belonging to other parts of the body. They
studied and thought, and exercised both body and mind
in the open air, and thus observed the laws of health.
But among the multitudes of close students of the pres
ent day, who complain of weakness of the eyes, the
misfortune is generally attributable to an almost total
neglect of the first principles of health.

While we reproach and loathe the man whose eyes
are red and weeping with the effects of intemperate
drinking, we cordially pity purblind students, as in
some sense martyrs to the cause of learning. Dr. Rey
nolds, a distinguished American oculist, administers a
rebuke to such which we fear is too often merited :
" A closer examination of their history presents a very
different result. Our sympathy may grow cool if we
regard them with a physiologic eye. It is a love of
the flesh, more than a love of the spirit, that too often
clouds their vision. It is too much food, crowding
with unnecessary blood the tender vessels of the ret
ina. It is too little exercise, allowing these accumu
lated fluids to settle down into fatal congestion. It is
positions wholly at variance with the freedom of the
circulation, and various other imprudences, which are
the results of carelessness or unjustifiable ignorance.
'The day laborer may cat what he will, provided it is
wholesome, and his eyes will not suffer. But let the
student, who is called upon to devote not only his eyes,

180 Tlti: K DUCAT! OX OF

but his brain, to severe labor, live upon highly nutritious
food, and such as is difficult of digestion, and we shall
soon see how his vision will be impaired, through the
vehement and persevering determination of blood to
the head, which such a course must inevitably occa
sion.' So speaks Beer, whose extensive opportunities
of observation have perhaps never been exceeded.
The daily practice of every observing oculist is filled
with coincident experience."

Among the prevalent habits of students by which the
eyes are injured, the same writer mentions the irri
tation produced by rubbing them on awaking in the
morning, a practice which has in some cases occasion
ed permanent and incurable disease ; reading while the
body is in a recumbent position ; using the eyes too early
after the system has been affected with serious dis
ease ; exercising them too much in the examination of
minute objects ; the popular plan of using green spec
tacles, and the use of tobacco.

Light which is sufficient for distinct vision, and which
falls over the shoulder in an oblique direction, from
above, upon the book or study table, is generally re
garded, and with great propriety, as best suited to the
eyes. Some oculists prefer to have the light fall over
the left shoulder.

The acuteness of this sense and the extent of its cul
tivation are very much greater in some individuals and
classes of men than in others. This is a fact that has
been remarked by observing persons. Its consequences
should not be overlooked, for they are neither few nor
unimportant. Those persons who have been long ac
customed, either by the necessity of their situation, the
example of those about them, or the judicious care of
parents and teachers, to observe attentively the rela
tions of parts, the symmetry of forms, or the shades of

THE FIVE SENSES. 187

color, have eyes that arc perpetually soliciting their
minds to notice some beautiful or grand perceptions.
Wherever they turn, they espy some new, and, therefore,
curious arrangement of the elements of shape, some
striking combination of light and shade, or some de
licious peculiarity of coloring. The multiplicity and
variety of their perceptions must and do increase the
number of their thoughts, or give to their thoughts
greater compass and definiteness. Such persons are
likely to become poets, or painters, or sculptors, or ar
chitects. At any rate, they will appreciate and enjoy
the productions of others who have devoted themselves
to these delightful arts. And will not such persons be
most readily awakened to descry and adore the power,
the skill, and the beneficence of the Great Architect
who reared the stupendous fabric of the universe, who
devised the infinite variety of forms which diversify
creation, and whose pencil has so profusely decked
every work with myriads of mingling dyes, resulting
all from a few parent colors ? To an unpracticed eye,
the beauties and wonders of creation are all lost. The
surface of the earth is a blank, or, at best, but a confused
and misty page. Such an eye passes over this scene
of things, and makes no communication to the mind
that will awaken thought, much less enkindle the spirit
of devout adoration, and fill the soul with love to Him
" whose universal love smiles every where."

Mr. May speaks no less sensibly than eloquently
when he says, " I may be extravagant in my estimation
of the importance of the culture of the eye and the ear,
but so it is, that while I have been reading the writings
of the Hebrew Prophets, and of those other gifted bards
who communed so intently with nature and with na
ture's God, it has seemed to me impossible that any
one could enter fuliy into all the tenderness, beauty,

188 THE EDUCATION OF

and sublimity of their language, or receive into hi?
heart all its peculiarity of meaning, unless his own eye
had been used to trace the skill of that hand which
framed and fashioned every thing that is, and to descry
the delicacy of that pencil which has painted all the
flowers of the field, nor unless his own ear has learned
to perceive the melody and harmony of sounds."

We can discipline the sight directly, and to a very
great extent ; and we can have the satisfaction of per
ceiving the progressive improvement of the faculty.
For this purpose, every school should be furnished with
appropriate apparatus. A set of measures is indispen
sable. I will illustrate by an example. For the bene
fit of the primary department connected with a sem
inary of learning that was formerly for several years
under my supervision, I constructed a set of rules for
linear measurement. Their breadth and thickness
were uniform, each being an inch wide and half an inch
thick. The set consisted of nine rules, whose lengths
were as follows : four were each one foot long ; one,
a foot and a half long ; two, two feet ; one. two and a
half feet ; and one, three feet. Every rule had a small
hole bored through each end. I had also a number of
small pins turned just the right size to fit these holes,,
I have since submitted to several hundred teachers, in
institutes and elsewhere, my mode of combining and
using these measures ; and from the deep interest
which a large number of intelligent parents and teach
ers in different localities have manifested in the sub
ject, I venture to refer to it in this connection. I first
tried the experiment ten years ago, with a class of about
twenty children from four to seven years of age. Sev
eral of these could not read, and some of them had not
learned the alphabet. The children were first led to
observe carefully the length of these several rules, uri-

THE FIVE SENrfES. 189

til they could determine at sight the length of each.
For several of the first lessons some of them would
misjudge. They would, for instance, call a two foot
rule one and a half or two and a half feet long. In
such cases their judgments were immediately correct
ed by the application of two one foot rules. They
were then led to observe with care, tables, desks, etc.,
and to estimate their length, and were afterward per
mitted to measure them, and discover the degree of
accuracy in their decisions. After obtaining the opin
ions of the children in relation to the length or height
of an object, I would measure it myself in the presence
of the class. When the class became a little experi
enced, we examined the length, breadth, and height of
rooms, of houses, and of churches ; and then the dis
tance of objects less or more remote, correcting or con
firming their estimates by the application of the rule
or measure, which gave a permanent interest to the ex
ercise. By exercising the class in this manner, not to
exceed half an hour a day, they would, at the end of
the first quarter, judge of each other's height, of the
height of persons generally, of the length of various
objects, of the size of buildings, and of the dimensions
of yards, gardens, and fields, with greater accuracy
than the average of adult persons, as was tested by ac
tual measurement in some instances where there was
a disagreement in opinion.

By holding these rules in different positions, the chil
dren readily became familiar with the meaning and
practical application of the terms perpendicular, hori
zontal, and oblique. They would also tell which term
is applicable to the different parts of the stove-pipe ; to
the different parts of the furniture of the school-room ;
to the floor, sides of the room, roof, etc. ; and to all ob
jects with which they were familiar.

190 THE EDUCATION OF

But the reader may inquire, what is the use of the
holes and the pins? By pinning two rules together,
one resting upon the other, and then turning one of
them around, the class will readily gain a correct idea
of the use of the term angle; also of the terms acute
angle, right angle, and obtuse angle. By pinning three
of these rules together at their ends, the children not
only see, but can handle the simplest form of geometrical
figures. When this figure is defined, they are enabled
permanently to possess themselves of the meaning of
the word triangle, by the simultaneous exercise of three
senses. By combining rules of the same and different
lengths, they become familiar with equilateral, isos
celes, scalene, right, and obtuse angled triangles. By
combining, in this way, such a set of rules as I have
described, the child readily becomes familiar with the
names and many of the properties of more than half a
score of geometrical figures, with less effort on the part
of the teacher than would be required to teach the
child the names of the same number of letters. These
exercises, then, may well precede the learning of the
alphabet, or, at least, proceed simultaneously with it
By this means the child's interest in the school is in
creased ; his senses are cultivated ; he is enabled bet
ter to fix his attention ; he progresses more rapidly
and thoroughly in his juvenile studies, and at the same
time lays the foundation for future excellence in pen
manship and drawing, and other useful arts.

The child may also be taught to discriminate the
varieties of green in leaves and other things ; of yel
low, red, and blue, in flowers and paints ; and to dis
tinguish not only the shades of all the colors, but their
respective proportions in mixtures of two or more.
Many persons, for want of such early culture, have
grown to years without the ability of distinguishing be-

THE FIVE SENSES. 191

twecn colors, as others have who have neglected the
culture of the ear without the ability of distinguishing
between tunes.

Drawing, whether of maps, the shape of objects, or
of landscapes, is admirably adapted to discipline the
sight. Children should be encouraged carefully to sur
vey and accurately to describe the prominent points
of a landscape, both in nature and in picture. Let
them point out the elevations and depressions ; the
mowing, the pasture, the wood, and the tillage land ;
the trees, the houses, and the streams. Listen to their
accounts of their plays, walks, and journeys, and of any
events of which they have been witnesses. In these
and all other exercises of the sight, children should be
encouraged to be strictly accurate ; and whenever it
is practicable, the judgment they pronounce and the
descriptions they give should, if erroneous, be correct
ed by the truth. Children can not fail to be interest
ed in such exercises ; and even where they have been
careless and inaccurate observers, they will soon be
come more watchful and exact.

It is by the benign influences of education only that
the senses can be improved. And still their culture
has been entirely neglected by perhaps the majority of
parents and teachers, who in other respects have man
ifested a commendable degree of interest in this sub
ject. That by judicious culture the senses may be
educated to activity and accuracy, and be made to
send larger and purer streams of knowledge to the
soul, has been unanswerably proved by an accumula
tion of unquestionable testimony. Most persons, how
ever, allow the senses to remain uneducated, except
as they may be cultivated by fortuitous circumstances.
Eyes have they, but they see not ; ears have they, but
t^ey hear not; neither do they understand. It is not

192 THE EDUCATION OF THE FIVE SENSES.

impossible, nor perhaps improbable, that he who has
these two senses properly cultivated will derive more
unalloyed pleasure in spending a brief hour in gazing
upon a beautiful landscape, in examining for the same
length of time a simple flower, or in listening to the
sweet melody of the linnet as it warbles its song of
praise, than those who have neglected the cultivation
of the senses experience during their whole lives !

This subject commends itself to all who regard their
individual happiness, or who desire to render their use
fulness as extensive as possible. Upon parents, teach
ers, and clergymen, who are more immediately con
cerned in the correct education of the rising genera
tion, its claims are imperative. Let them be met, in
connection with other appropriate means now in use
and hereafter to be put in requisition, and our schools
can not fail to become increasingly attractive; truancy,
hen?.e, will be less frequent, and the benign influences
resulting from the correct education of the whole man
will inspire the benevolent and philanthropic to renew
ed and increased efforts to secure the right education
of all men, a condition upon which the maximum of
numan happiness depends.

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 193

CHAPTER VII.

THE NECESSITY OF MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

The exaltation of talent, as it is called, above virtue and religion,
is the curse of the age. Education is now chiefly a stimulus to learn
ing, and thus men acquire power without the principles which alono
make it a good. Talent is worshiped ; but if divorced from rectitude,
it will prove more of .a demon than a god. — CHANNING.

Religion ought to be the basis of education, according to often-re
peated writings and declamations. The assertion is true. Christianity
furnishes the true basis for raising up character ; but the foundation
must be laid in a very different manner from that which is commonly
practiced. * * * We can, indeed, scarcely conceive of the purity, the
self-denial, and the power that might be given to human character by
systematic development. — LALOR.

WE have now reached a department of our subject
of surpassing importance, for however judiciously phys
ical and intellectual cultivation may have been con
ducted, if we make a mistake here, all is lost. Knowl
edge is power, it is true ; but we should bear in mind
that it is potent for evil as well as for good ; and that,
whether its effects be good or ill, depends entirely upon
the dispositions and sentiments by which it is impelled
and guided. Numerous have been the instances illus
trative of the fact that the greatest scourges of our
race are men of gigantic cultivated intellect. Where
knowledge but qualifies its possessor for inflicting mis
ery, ignorance would indeed be bliss.

I find my views on this important subject so admi
rably expressed in the writings of some of the most
eminent men of the age, that I feel it both a privilege
and a duty to enforce the sentiments I would inculcate
by the introduction of their testimony.

I

194 THE NECESSITY OF

Dr. Humphrey observes,* that " it must strike every
one who is capable of taking a just and comprehensive
view of the subject, that the common idea of a good
education — of such an education as every child in the
state ought to receive — is exceedingly narrow and de
fective. Most men leave out, or regard as of very little
importance, some of the essential elements. They
seem to forget that the child has a conscience and a
heart to be educated as well as an intellect. If they
do not lay too much stress on mental culture, which,
indeed, is hardly possible, they lay by far too little upon
that which is moral and religious. They expect to el
evate the child to his proper station in society, to make
him wise and happy, an honest man, a virtuous citizen,
and a good patriot, by furnishing him with a comforta
ble school-house, suitable class-books, competent teach
ers, and, if he is poor, paying his quarter bills, while
they greatly underrate, if they do not entirely overlook,
that high moral training, without which knowledge is
the power of doing evil rather than good. It may pos
sibly nurture up a race of intellectual giants, but, like
the sons of Anak, they will be far readier to trample
down the Lord's heritage than to protect and culti
vate it.

" Education is not a talismanic word, but an art, 01
rather a science ; and, I may add, the most important'-
of all sciences. It is the right, the proper training of
the whole man, the thorough and symmetrical cultiva
tion of all his noble faculties. If he were endowed witl
a mere physical nature, he would need, he would re
ceive none but a physical training. On the other hand
if he were a purely intellectual being, intellectual cul
ture would comprehend all that could be included in &

* In a lecture before the Americau Institute of Instruction, on the
Moral ami Religious Training of Children.

MORAL ;1ND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 195

perfect education. And were it possible for a moral
being to exist without either body or intellect, there
would be nothing but the heart or affections to educate.
But man is a complex, and not a simple being. He is
neither all body, nor all mind, nor all heart. In popular
language, he has three natures, a corporeal, a rational,
and a moral. These three, mysteriously united, are es
sential to constitute a perfect man ; and as they all be
gin to expand in very early childhood, the province of
education is to watch, and assist, and shape the devel
opment ; to train, and strengthen, and discipline neither
of them alone, but each according to its intrinsic and
relative importance.

11 When it is said that * man is a religious being/ we
should carefully inquire in what respects he is so. In
a guarded and limited sense the proposition is undoubt
edly true. Terrible as was the shock which his moral
nature received by ' the fall,' it was not wholly buried
in the ruins. Though blackened and crushed to the
effacing of that glorious image in which he was created,
his moral susceptibilities were not destroyed. The
capacity of being restored, and of infinite improvement
in knowledge and virtue, was left. In the lowest depths
of ignorance and debasement, the human soul feels that
it must have some religion, some support, some refuge
1 when flesh and heart fail.' There is a natural dread
of annihilation, a longing after immortality, a starting
back from the last leap in the dark. Men, if they have
not true religion, will cling to the greatest absurdities
as substitutes. Hence the pagan world is full of idols.
Tribes and nations seemingly destitute of all moral
sense, nevertheless have * gods many and lords many.'
If there are any cold-blooded, incorrigible atheists in
the world, you must look for them not in heathen lands.
You must go where the altars of the true God have

190 THE NECESSITY OF

been thrown down. In this view, man is a religious
being. He has a moral nature. He is susceptible of
deep and controlling religious impressions. He can, at
a very early period of life, be made to see and feel the
difference between right and wrong — between good
and evil. He can, while yet a child, be influenced by
hope and by fear — by reason, by persuasion, and by the
word of God ; and all this shows that religion was in-
tended to be a prominent part of his education. There
can be no mistake in this. It is plainly the will of God
that the moral as well as the intellectual faculties
should be cultivated. Every child, whether in the fam
ily or the school, is to be treated by those who have
the care of him as a moral and accountable being. His
religious susceptibilities invite to the most diligent cul
ture, and virtually enjoin it upon every teacher. The
simple study of man's moral nature, before we open the
Bible, unavoidably leads to the conclusion that any
system of popular education must be extremely defect
ive which does not make special provision for this
branch of public instruction.

" Even if there had been no fatal lapse of our race —
if our children were not naturally depraved, nor inclin
ed to evil in the slightest degree, still they would need
religious as well as physical and intellectual guidance
and discipline. It is true, the educator's task would be
infinitely easier and pleasanter than it now is, but they
would need instruction. They would enter the world
just as ignorant of their immortal destiny as of letters.
They would have every thing to learn about the being
and perfections of God ; every thing about his rightful
claims as their Creator, Preserver, and moral Governor ;
and every thing touching their duties and relations to
their fellow-men. Moreover, there is every reason to
believe that moral and religious training would be nee-

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 107

essary to strengthen the principle of virtue in the rising
generation, and confirm them in habits of obedience
and benevolence. As, notwithstanding their bodies are
perfect bodies, and their minds perfect minds at their
creation, no member or faculty being wanting, still they
need all the helps of education; so, if they had a per
fectly upright moral nature, they would need the same
helps. There is no more reason to think, had sin never
entered into the world, every child would have grown
up to the * fullness of the stature of a perfect man' in a
religious sense, without an appropriate education, than
that he would have become a scholar without it. But
the little beings that are all the while springing into life
around us to be educated are the sinful offspring of
apostate parents. How deeply depraved, how strongly
inclined to sin from the cradle, this is not the place to
inquire. All agree that they show an early bias in the
wrong direction ; and that, left to grow up without
moral culture and restraint, the great majority would
go far astray, and become bad members of society.
This is sufficient for our present argument. The evil
bias must be counteracted. For the safety of the state,
as well as for their own sakes, all its children must be
brought under the forming and sanative influence of
religious education. No adequate substitute was ever
devised, or ever can be. * Train up a child in the way
he should go, and when he is old he will not depart
from it.' This is divine ; and the opposite is equally
true. Train up a child in the way he should not go,
or — which comes to about the same thing — leave him
to take the wrong way of his own accord, and when
he is old he will not depart from that. His tread will
be heavier and heavier upon the broad and beaten track.
4 Men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles.'
'Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his

198 THE NECESSITY OF

spots? Then may those also do good who are accus
tomed to do evil.'

"Moral and religious -training ought, undoubtedly,
to be commenced in every family much earlier than
children are sent to school, and no parent can throw
off upon the school-master the responsibility of bring
ing them up in the ' nurture and admonition of the
Lord.' He must himself teach them the good way,
and lead them along in it by his own example. But
few parents, however, have the leisure and ability to
do all that is demanded in this vitally essential branch
of education. All are entitled to the aid of their pas
tors and religious teachers ; and every good shepherd
will feel a tender concern for the lambs of his flock,
and will feed them with the sincere milk of the word
both in the sanctuary and at the fireside. But the work
should not stop here. There ought to be a co-opera
tion of good influences in all the seminaries of learn
ing, and especially in the primary schools. This co
operation would be necessary if moral and religious
household instruction were universally given, and if all
the children of the state regularly attended public wor
ship, and enjoyed the benefits of catechetical and Sab
bath-school teaching. But those who would banish
religion from our admirable systems of popular educa
tion by the plea that it belongs exclusively to the fam
ily and the Church, ought to remember what multitudes
of children this exclusion would deprive of their birth
right as members of a Christian community. There
are tens of thousands in our own heaven-blessed New
England, and hundreds of thousands in these United
States, who receive no religious instruction whatever
at home, and whose parents are connected with no re
ligious denomination. What is to be done ? We can
neither compel ignorant and graceless fathers and

MORAL AM) RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 199

mothers to teach their children the fear of the Lord,
nor to send them to any place of worship or Sabbath-
school. I ask again, what is to be done ? These neg
lected children are in the midst of us. Our cities swarm
with them. They are scattered every where over our
beautiful hills and valleys. Grow up they will among
our own children, without principle and without morals,
to breathe mildew upon the young virtues which we
have sown in our families, and to prey upon the dearest
interests of society, unless somebody cares for their
moral and religious education. And where shall they
receive this education, if not in the school-house? You
will find them there, if in any place of instruction, and
multitudes of them you can reach nowhere else.

" A more Utopian dream never visited the brain of
a sensible man than that which promises to usher in a
new golden age by the diffusion and thoroughness of
what is commonly understood by popular education.
With all its funds, and improved school-houses, and
able teachers, and grammars, and maps, and black
boards, such an education is essentially defective.
Without moral principle at bottom to guide and con
trol its energies, education is a sharp sword in the
hands of a practiced and reckless fencer. I have no
hesitation in saying,' that if we could have but one,
moral and religious culture is even more important
than a knowledge of letters ; and that the former can
not be excluded from any system of popular educa
tion without infinite hazard. Happily, the two are so
far from being hostile powers in the common domain,
that they are natural allies, moving on harmoniously in
the same right line, and mutually strengthening each
other. The more virtue you can infuse into the hearts
of your pupils, the better they will improve their time,
and the more rapid will be their proficiency in their

200 THE NECESSITY O*

common studies. The most successful teachers have
found the half hour devoted to moral and religious in
struction more profitable to the scholar than any other
half hour in the day ; and there are no teachers who
govern their schools with so much ease as this class.
Though punishment is sometimes necessary where
moral inlluence has done its utmost, the conscience is,
in all ordinary cases, an infinitely better disciplinarian
than the rod. When you can get a school to obey and
to study because it is right, and from a conviction of
accountability to God, you have gained a victory which
is worth more than all the penal statutes in the world;
but you can never gain such a victory without laying
great stress upon religious principle in your daily in
structions.

"There is, I am aware, in the minds of some warm
and respectable friends of popular education, an objec
tion against incorporating religious instruction into the
system as one of its essential elements. It can not,
they think, be done without bringing in along with it
the evils of sectarianism. If this objection could not
be obviated, it would, I confess, have great weight in
my own mind. It supposes that if any religious in
struction is given, the distinctive tenets of some partic
ular denomination must be inculcated. But is this at
all necessary ? Must we either exclude religion alto
gether from our common schools, or teach some one
of the many creeds which are embraced by as many
different sects in the ecclesiastical calendar? Surely
not. There are certain great moral and religious prin
ciples in which all denominations are agreed ; such as
the ten commandments, our Savior's golden rule —
every thing, in short, which lies within the whole range
of duty to God and duty to our fellow-men. I should
bo glad to know what sectarianism there can be in a

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 201

schoolmaster's teaching my children the first and sec
ond tables of the moral law ; to ' love the Lord their
God with all their heart, and their neighbor as them
selves ;' in teaching them to keep the Sabbath holy, to
honor their parents, not to swear, nor drink, nor lie, nor
cheat, nor steal, nor covet. Verily, if this is what any
mean by sectarianism, then the more we have of it in
our common schools the better. * It is a lamentation,
and shall be for a lamentation,' that there is so little of
it. I have not the least hesitation in saying, that no in
structor, whether male or female, ought ever to be em
ployed who is not both able and willing to teach mo
rality and religion in the manner which I have just al
luded to. Were this faithfully done in all the primary
schools of the nation, our civil and religious liberties,
and all our blessed institutions, would be incomparably
safer than they are now. The parent who says, I do
not send my child to school to learn religion, but to be
taught reading, and writing, and grammar, knows not
* what manner of spirit he is of.' It is very certain, that
such a father will teach his children any thing but re
ligion at home ; and is it right that they should be left
to grow up as heathens in a Christian land ? If he says
to the schoolmaster, I do not wish you to make my son
an Episcopalian, a Baptist, a Presbyterian, or a Meth
odist, very well. That is not the schoolmaster's busi
ness. He was not hired to teach sectarianism. But
if the parent means to say, I do not send my child to
school to have you teach him to fear God and keep his
commandments, to be temperate, honest, and true, to
be a good son and a good man, then the child is to be
pitied for having such a father ; and with good reason
might we tremble for all that we hold most dear, if
such remonstrances were to be multiplied and to pre
vail. •
12

202 THE NECESSITY OF

" In this connection I can not refrain from earnestly
recommending the daily reading of the Scriptures, and
prayer,* in all our schools, as eminently calculated to
exert a powerful moral influence upon the scholars. It
is melancholy to think what swarms of children are
growing up even in Massachusetts — and what multi
tudes of them in every one of these United States —
who will seldom, if ever, hear the voice of prayer if
they do not hear it in the schools, and to whom the
Bible will remain a sealed book if it be not opened there.
I would not insist that every primary teacher should be
absolutely required to open or close the school daily
with prayer. Great and good as I think the influence
of such an arrangement would be, it might be impossi
ble, at present, to find a sufficient number of instructors
otherwise well qualified who are fitted to lead in this
exercise. The number, however, I believe is steadily
increasing. It is probably too late for me, but I hope
that some of you, gentlemen, may live to see the time
when the voice of prayer, and of praise too, will be
heard in every school-house of the land. Could I know
that this would be the case, it would give me a confi
dence in the perpetuity of our civil and religious lib
erties which I should exceedingly rejoice to cherish as
I pass off from the stage."

It would seem that these patriotic sentiments, en
forced by such persuasive eloquence by this venerable

* I would not be understood to recommend that any person who
does not love the Bible, and the doctrines which it inculcates, and who
does not seek after that purity of heart which it every where enjoins,
should conduct devotional exercises in school ; but I would respectfully
inquire whether any who do not delight in such exercises, and who do
not esteem it a privilege to lead the devotions of those under their
charge, do not lack an essential qualification to teach school. Our laws
generally require that the school-teacher be, among other things, well
qualified in respect to moral character TO INSTRUCT a Primary School.

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 203

man, can hardly fail to find a permanent lodgment in
every truly American bosom. The great principles of
natural and revealed religion, in which all are agreed,
ought to be inculcated in our common school-books,*
just as every teacher ought orally to instill these prin
ciples into the minds of his pupils. That will be a
happy day, especially to the children of ignorant and
vicious parents, when they shall learn more of that
" fear of the Lord which is the beginning of knowl
edge" in the school-house than they have ever yet
done. Nor is it discovered that the practice of teach
ing morals according to the Christian code, and using
the Bible for that purpose, the great majority adopting
it, is any infringement whatever on the religious rights
and liberty of any individual.

The anecdote of the Indian touching this subject
may arrest the attention of some reader who would
otherwise peruse these paragraphs without profit, and
fix indelibly in his mind the sentiment I would incul
cate, and I therefore insert it. The Indian inquires of
the white man what religion he professes. The white
man replies, " Not any." " Not any ?" says the Indian,
in astonishment ; " then you &VQ just like my dog ; he's
got no religion." We have men enough like the In
dian's dog, without teaching our children to be like him.

* The day of writing the above, a lady mentioned to me the follow
ing gratifying illustration of my idea. The subject of it is a little girl
only five years of age, who has never attended school, but has learned
to read at home, under her mother's tuition. After reading in the first
number of one of our excellent series of reading books, the story of " the
honest boy" who never told a lie, for perhaps the twentieth time, the
little girl said to her mother, " Mother, I like to read this story, for it
always makes me feel very happy." Similar instances I have witnessed
scores of times, in the family and in the school. Teachers may almost
invariably lead their scholai's to admire and copy the examples of good
children about whom they read, and to dislike and avoid those of bad
ones. This power over children should always be exercised for good.

204 THE NECESSITY OF

The French, in the da, vs of the Revolution, voted God
from his throne. They abolished the Sabbath, and de
clared that Christianity was a nullity. They set apart
one day in ten, not for religion, but for idleness and
licentiousness. History informs us that the goddess of
Reason, personified by a naked prostitute, was drawn
in triumph through the streets of Paris, and that the
municipal officers of the city, and the members of the
National Convention of France, joined publicly in the
impious parade. We need not wonder, then, that even
the forms of religion were destroyed, and that licen
tiousness and profligacy walked forth unveiled. How
unlike this is the state of things in these United States !
We are professedly a Christian nation. We recognize
the existence of a superior and superintending power
in all our institutions.

The New World was early sought by a Christian
people, that iled from oppression in order to find a
home where they might worship God unmolested, and
bequeath to posterity the same inestimable privilege
and inalienable right. In the days of the Revolution,
Washington and his coadjutors were accustomed to
invoke the blessing of the God of battles ; and without
His favor, they looked not for victory. In the Con
gress of this Great Nation, and in our State Legisla
tures, we are accustomed to acknowledge our depend
ence upon God in employing chaplains with whom we
unite in daily devotions.

The Constitution of the United States requires that
all legislative, executive, and judicial officers in the
United States, and in the several states, shall be bound
by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution. The
Constitution of each of the several states requires a
similar oath or affirmation; and some cf them further
provide that, in addition to the oath of office, all per-

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 205

sons appointed to places of profit or trust shall, before
entering upon the same, subscribe a declaration of their
faith in the Christian religion.

In our Penitentiaries even, we employ chaplains for
the social, moral, and religious improvement of crimin
als confined within them ; for our object is, not merely
to deter others from vice by the punishment of offenders,
but, if possible, to reform the offenders themselves, and,
bringing them back to virtue, make them useful mem
bers both of Christian and of civil society. Should we
not, then, recognize God in our common schools — the
primary training-places of our country's youth — by
reading His word, and familiarizing the juvenile mind
of the nation with the precepts of the Great Teacher,
whose code of morals is acknowledged, even by infi
dels, to be infinitely superior to any of human origin?
And should we not humbly invoke His aid in our efforts
to learn and to do his will ? and His blessing to attend
those efforts ? A Paul may plant, and Apollos water ;
but God giveth the increase.

The instruction in our common schools, I repeat,
should be Christian, but not sectarian. There is suffi
cient common ground which all true believers in Chris
tianity agree in, to effect an incalculable amount of good,
if honestly and faithfully taught. Which of the various
religious sects in our country would take exceptions
to the inculcation of the following sentiments, and kin
dred ones expressed in every part of the Scriptures ?

" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first- and great commandment. And the
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself." " As ye would that men should do to you, do
ye also to them likewise." " Love your enemies, bless
them that curse you, do good to them that hate you,

206 THE NECESSITY OF

and pray for them which despitefuliy use you and per
secute you."

If there is a single instance in which a sect of pro
fessing Christians would take exceptions to the inculca
tion of these and kindred sentiments in all the schools
of our land, I have yet to learn it. On the contrary, I
have received and accepted invitations from scores of
clergymen, representing not less than eight different
denominations, to address their congregations on the
subject of " Moral and Religious Education in Com
mon Schools ;" and, having expressed the sentiments
herein advocated, I have, in every instance, received
letters of approval and encouragement ; and their
hearty prayers and active co-operation have confirm
ed me in the belief that they are ready and willing to
" work together" upon this common platform, in ad
vancing the interests of this glorious cause.

I have spoken of the Christian religion as the most
important branch of a common school education. The
cultivation of the intellectual faculties alone constitutes
no sufficient guaranty that the subject of it will become
either a virtuous man, a good neighbor, or a useful citi
zen. But where physical education has been properly
attended to, if we combine with the cultivation of the
intellectual faculties of a child a good moral and re
ligious education, we have the highest and most un
questionable authority for believing that, in after life,
he will " do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with
God."

" The Bible, in several expressive texts," says Dr.
Stowe,* "gives emphatic utterance to the true princi
ple of all right education. For example, ' The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and a knowledge

* In a lecture before the American Institute of Instruction, on the
Religious Element in Education.

MORAL AM) RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 207

of the Holy is understanding.' Religion must be the
basis of all right education ; and an education without
religion is an education for perdition. Religion, in its
most general sense, is the union of the soul to its Crea
tor ; a union of sympathy, originating in affection, and
guided by intelligence. The word is derived from the
Latin terms re and ligo, and signifies to tie again, or
reunite. The soul, sundered from God by sin, by grace
is reunited to Him ; and this is religion"

I might present many and substantial reasons why
instruction in the principles of religion should be given
in our common schools and in all our institutions of
learning, and why those heaven-given principles should
be exemplified wherever taught.

The nature of the human mind requires it, as is clear
ly shown by the writer last quoted. " The mind is
created, and God is its creator. Every mind is con
scious to itself that it is not self-existent or independ
ent, but that its existence is a derived one, and its con
dition one of entire, uniform, unceasing dependence.
This feeling is as truly a part of the essential constitu
tion of the mind as the desire for food is of the body,
and it never can be totally suppressed. If it ever
seems to be annihilated, it is only for a very brief inter
val ; and any man who would persist in affirming him
self to be self-existent and independent, would be uni
versally regarded as insane. The sympathy which at
tracts the sexes toward each other is not more universal
nor generally stronger than that inward want which
makes the whole human race feel the need of God ;
and, indeed, the feelings are, in many respects, so
analogous to each other, that all ancient mysteries of
mythology, and the Bible itself, have selected this
sympathy as the most expressive, the most unvarying
symbol of the relation between the soul and God.

208 THE NECESSITY OF

" Till men can be taught to live and be healthy and
strong without food ; till some way is discovered in
which the social state can be perpetuated and made
happy, with a total separation of the sexes ; till the
time arrives when these things can be done, we can
not expect to relieve the human mind from having some
kind of religious faith. This being the fact, a system
of education which excludes attention from this part
of the mental constitution is. as essentially incomplete
as a system of military tactics that has no reference to
fighting battles ; a system of mechanics which teaches
nothing respecting machinery ; a system of agriculture
that has nothing to do with planting and harvesting ;
a system of astronomy which never alludes to the
stars ; a system of politics which gives no intimation
on government ; or any thing else which professes to
be a system, and leaves out the very element most es
sential to its existence. The history of all ages, of all
nations, and of all communities is a continued illustra
tion of this truth. Where did the nation ever exist
untouched either by religion or superstition ? which
never had either a theology or a mythology ? When
you find a nation that exists without food of some sort,
then you may find a nation that subsists without religion
of some sort; and never, never before. How unphilo-
sophical, how absurd it is, then, to pretend that a sys
tem of education may be complete, and yet make no
provision for this part of the me.ntal constitution ! It
is one of the grossest fooleries which the wickedness
of man has ever led him to commit. But it is not only
unphilosophical and foolish, it is also exceedingly mis
chievous ; for where religion is withheld, the mind in
evitably falls to superstition, as certainly as when
wholesome food is withheld the sufferer will seek to
satisfy his cravings with the first deleterious substance

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 209

which comes within his reach. The only remedy
against superstition is sound religious instruction. The
want exists in the soul. It is no factitious, no acci
dental or temporary want, but an essential part of our
nature. It is an urgent, imperious want ; it must and
will seek the means of satisfaction, and if a healthful
supply be withheld, a noxious one will be substituted."

THE BIBLE IN SCHOOLS. — Having taken the liberty
of recommending the devotional reading of the Scrip
tures in all the public schools as eminently calculated
to make them what they ought to be — nurseries of
morality and religion as well as of good learning — I
am now prepared to express the strong conviction, to
adopt the language of Dr. Humphrey, " that the Bible
ought to be used in every primary school as a class-book.
I am not ignorant of the objections which even some
good men are wont to urge against its introduction.
The Bible, it is said, is too sacred a volume to be put
on a level with common school-books, and to be thumb
ed over and thrown about by dirty hands. This ob
jection supposes that if the Bible is made a school-
book, it must needs be put into such rude hands ; and
that it can not be daily read in the classes without di
minishing the reverence with which it ought to be re
garded as the book of God. But I would have it used
chiefly by the older scholars, who, if the teachers are
not in the fault, will rarely deface it. A few words now
and then, reminding them of its sacred contents, will be
sufficient to protect it from rough and vulgar usage.

" The objection that making the Bible a common
school-book would detract from its sacredness in the
eyes of the children, and thus blunt rather than quick
en their moral susceptibilities, is plausible ; but it will
not, I am confident, bear the test of examination and
experience. What were the Scriptures given us for,

210 THE NECESSITY OF

if not to be read by the old and the young, the high and
the low ? Is the common use of any good thing which
a kind Providence intended for all, calculated to make
men underrate it? The best of Heaven's gifts, it is
true, are liable to be perverted and abused ; but ought
this to deter us from using them thankfully and proper
ly ? We, the descendants of the Puritans, are so far
from regarding the Bible as too sacred for common
use, that, however we may differ among ourselves in
other respects, we cordially unite in efforts to put the
sacred treasure in the hands of all the people. It is
one of our cardinal principles, as Protestants, that the
more they read the Scriptures the better. Are we
right or are we wrong here ? Let us bring the ques
tion to the test of experience. Who are the most moral
and well-principled class in the community? those who
have been accustomed from childhood to read the
Bible, till it has become the most familiar of all books,
or those who read it but little ? Of two schools, of
equal advantages in other respects, which is best reg
ulated and most easily governed ? which has most of
the fear of God in it, the deepest reverence for his
word, that where the Bible is read or from which it is
excluded ? It is easy for ingenious men to reason
plausibly, and tell us that such and such injurious ef
fects must follow from making sacred things too famil
iar to the youthful mind ; but who ever heard of such
effects following from the use of the Bible as a school-
book ? . It will be time enough to listen to this objection
when a solitary example can be adduced to sustain it.
" How do all other men out of the Protestant com
munion, Papists, Mohammedans, Jews, and Gentiles,
reason and act in the education of their children ? Do
they discard their sacred books from the schools as too
holy for common and familiar use ? No. They under-

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 211

stand the influence of such reading far too well, and
are too strongly attached to their respective religions
to exclude it. The Romanists, indeed, forbid the use
of the Scriptures to the common people ; but the Mis
sal and the Breviary, which they hold to be quite as
sacred, are their most familiar school-books. A large
portion of the children's time is taken up with reading
the lessons and reciting the prayers ; and what are the
effects ? Do they become disgusted with the Missal
and Breviary by this daily familiarity ? We all know
the contrary. The very opposite effect is produced.
It is astonishing to see with what tenacity children thus
educated cling to the superstitions and absurdities of
their fathers ; and it is because their religion is wrought
into the very texture of their minds, in the schools as
well as in the churches. Go to Turkey, to Persia, to
all the lands scorched and blighted by the fiery train
of the Crescent, and what school-books will you find
but portions of the Koran ? Pass to Hindostan, and
there you will find the Vedas and Shasters wherever
any thing like popular education is attempted. Enter
the great empire of China, and, according to the best
information we can obtain, their sacred books are the
school-books of that vast and teeming population. In
quire among the Jews, wherever in their various dis
persions they have established schools, and what will
you find but the Law and the Prophets, the Targums
and the Talmud.

" Now when and where did ever Protestant children
grow up with a greater reverence for the Bible, a
stronger attachment to their religion, than Jewish,
Mohammedan, and Pagan children cherish for their
school-books, to the study of which they are almost
exclusively confined, in every stage of their education ?
It is opposing theory, then, to great and undeniable

212 THE NECESSITY OF

facts, to say that using the Christian Scriptures in this
manner would detract from their sacredness in the
eyes of our children. If this is ever the case, it must
be where the teacher himself is a Gallio, and lacks
those moral qualifications which are essential to his
profession. Another objection which is sometimes
brought against the use of the Bible is, that consider
able portions of it — though all true, and important as a
part of our great religious charter — are not suitable for
common and promiscuous reading. My answer is, we
do not suppose that any instructor would take all his
classes through the whole Bible, from Genesis to Rev
elation. The genealogical tables, and some other
things, he would omit of course, but would always
find lessons enough to which the most fastidious could
make no objection.

" The way is now prepared to take an affirmative
attitude, and offer some reasons in favor of using the
Bible as a school-book. In the first place, it is the
cheapest school-book in the world. It furnishes more
reading for fifty cents than can be obtained in common
school-books for two dollars. This difference of cost
is, to the poor, an important consideration. With large
families on their hands, they often find it extremely
difficult to meet the demands of teachers and commit
tees for new books. Were the Scriptures generally
introduced, they would take the place of many other
reading-books which parents are now obliged to pur
chase at four-fold expense. This would be a cogent
argument on the score of economy, even if the popular
school-books of this year were sure of maintaining
their ground the next. But so busy is the press in
bringing forward new claimants to public favor, that
they rapidly supplant each other, and thus the burden
is greatly increased.

MORAL A.VD RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 213

" In the next place, the Bible furnishes a far greater
variety of the finest reading-lessons than any other book
whatever. This is a point to which my attention has
been turned for many years, and the conviction grows
upon me continually. There is no book in which chil
dren a little advanced beyond the simplest monosylla
bic lessons will learn to read faster, or more readily
catch the proprieties of inflection, emphasis, and ca
dence, than the Bible. I would by no means put it
into the hands of a child to spell out and blunder over
the chapters before he has read any thing else. The
word of God ought not to be so used by mere begin
ners. But it contains lessons adapted to all classes of
learners, after the first and simplest stage. Let any
teacher who has never made the trial put a young
class into the first chapter of John, and he will be sur
prised to find how easy the reading is, and with what
pleasure and manifest improvement they may be car
ried through the whole Gospel ; and as few are too
young to read with advantage in the Bible, so none
are too old. It is known to every body, that the very
best reading lessons in our most popular school-books
for the higher classes are taken from the Scriptures.
Just open the Sacred Volume with reference to this sin
gle point, and turn over its thousand pages. As a his
tory, to interest, instruct, and improve the youthful
mind, what other book in the world can compare with
it? Where else will you find such exquisitely finished
pieces of biography ? such poetry ? such genuine and
lofty eloquence ? such rich and varied specimens of
tenderness, pathos, beauty, and sublimity ? I regret
that I have not room for a few quotations. I can only
refer, in very general terms, to the history of the crea
tion ; of Joseph and the forty years' wandering in the
wilderness ; to the book of Job ; to the Psalms of Da-

214 THE NECESSITY OF

vid ; to Isaiah ; to the Gospels ; and to the visions of
John in the Isle of Patmos.

" Now if the primary qualities of a good school-book
are to teach the art of reading, and to communicate in
struction upon the most interesting and important sub
jects, I have no hesitation in saying that the Bible
stands pre-eminently above every other. If I were
again to become a primary instructor, or to teach the
art of reading in any higher seminary than the com
mon school-house, I would take the Bible in preference
to any twenty ' Orators' or * English Readers' that I
have ever seen. Indeed, I would scarcely want any
other. Milton and Shakspeare I would not reject, but
I would do very well without them, for they are both
surpassed by Isaiah and John. Let enlightened teach
ers, and members of any of the learned professions,
read over aloud, in their best manner, such portions of
Scripture as they may easily select, and see if they
have ever found any thing better fitted to bring out and
discipline the voice, and to express all the emotions in
which the soul of true eloquence is bodied forth. Why
do the masters of oratory, who charm great audiences
with their recitations, take so many of their themes
from the Bible ? The reason is obvious. They can
find none so well suited to their purpose. And why
should not the common schools, in which are nurtured
so many of the future orators, and rulers, and teachers
of the land, have the advantage of the best of all read
ing-lessons ? Moreover, since so much of the sense of
Scripture depends upon the manner in which it is reads
why should not the thousands of children be taught the
art in school, who will never learn it at home ? The
more I study the Bible, the more does it appear to me
to excel all other reading-books. You may go on im
proving indefinitely, without ever making yourself a

AI011AL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 215

perfect scriptural reader, just as you might, with all the
help you can command, spend your whole life in the
study of any one of its great truths without exhausting
it. Let it not be said that we have but few instructors
who are capable of entering into the spirit of the Sacred
Volume, so as to teach their scholars to read it with
propriety. Then let more be educated. It ought to
be one of the daily exercises in our Normal Schools,
and other seminaries for raising up competent teachers,
to qualify them for this branch of instruction."

I remark again, that were the Bible made a school-
book throughout the commonwealth and throughout
the land, an amount of scriptural knowledge would be
insensibly treasured up, which would be of inestimable
value in after life. Every observing teacher must have
been surprised to find how much the dullest scholar
will learn by the ear,x without seeming to pay any at
tention to what others are reading or reciting. The
boy that sits half the time upon his little bench nodding
or playing with his shoe-strings, will, in the course of
a winter, commit whole pages and chapters to memory
from the books he hears read, when you can hardly
beat any thing into him by dint of the most diligent
instruction. Indeed, I have sometimes thought that
children in our common schools learn more by the ear,
without any effort, than by the study of their own class-
books ; and I am quite sure this is the case with the
most of the younger scholars. Let any book be read
for a series of years in the same school, and half of the
children will know most of it by heart. Wherever
there are free schools — and the free school system is
now becoming extensively adopted in every part of the
United States — the great mass of the children are kept
at school from four or five years of age, to nine or ten,
through the year ; and in the winter season, from nine

210 THE NECESSITY <>F

or ten to fifteen or sixteen. The average of time thus
devoted to their education is from eight to ten years.
Now let the Bible be read daily as a class-book during
all this time, in every school, and how much of it will,
without effort, and without interfering in the least with
other studies, be committed to memory. And who can
estimate the value of such an acquisition ? What pure
morality ; what maxims of supreme wisdom for guid
ance along the slippery paths of youth, and onward
through every stage of life ; what bright examples of
early piety, and of its glorious rewards, even in the
present world; what sublime revelations of the being
and perfections of God ; what incentives to love and
serve him, and to discharge with fidelity all the duties
which we owe to our fellow-men ! and all these enfor
ced by the highest sanctions of future accountability.
Let any man tell, if he can, how much all this store of
divine knowledge, thus insensibly acquired, would be
worth to the millions of children who are growing up
in these United States of America. They might not
be at all sensible of its value at the time, but how hap
pily and safely would it contribute to shape their future
opinions and characters, both as men and as citizens.

Another cogent reason for using the Bible as a com
mon school-book is, that it is the firmest basis, and, in
deed, the only sure basis of our free institutions, and, as
such, ought to be familiar to all the children in the state
from their earliest years. While it recognizes the ex
istence of civil governments, and enjoins obedience to
magistrates as ministers of God for the good of the
people, it regards all men as free and equal, the chil
dren of one common Father, and entitled to the same
civil and religious privileges. I do not believe that any
people could ever be enslaved who should be thoroughly
and universally educated in the principles of the Bible.

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 217

It was no less truly than eloquently said by Daniel
Webster, in his Bunker Hill address, that " the Ameri
can colonists brought with them from the Old World a
full portion of all the riches of the past in science and
art, and in morals, religion, and literature. The Bible
came with them. And it is not to be doubted that to
the. free and universal use of the Bible it is to be ascribed
that in that age men were much indebted for right views
of civil liberty. The Bible is a book of faith and a
book of doctrine ; but it is also a book which teaches
man his individual responsibility, his own dignity, and
equality with his fellow-men."

These sentiments of the great American statesman
are worthy to be engraved in golden capitals upon the
monument under whose shade they were uttered !
Yes, it was the free and universal use of the Bible
which made our Puritan fathers what they were ; and
it is because, in these degenerate times, multitudes of
children will be taught to read it nowhere else, that I
am so anxious to have it read as a school-booL One
other, and the only additional reason which I shall sug
gest, is that, as the Bible is infinitely the best, so it is the
only decidedly religious book which can be introduced
into our popular systems of early education. So jeal
ous are the different sects and denominations of each
other, that it would be hardly possible to write or com
pile a religious school-book with which all would be
satisfied. But here is a book prepared to our hands,
which we all receive as the inspired record of our faith,
and as containing the purest morality that has ever
been taught in this lower world. Episcopalians can
not object to it, because they believe it teaches the doc
trines and polity of their own church ; and this is just
what they want. Neither Congregationalists, Presby
terians, Baptists, Methodists, Universalists, nor any

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218 THE NECESSITY OF

other denomination, can object to it for the same reason.
Every denomination believes, so far as it differs from
the rest, that the Bible is on its side, and, of course,
that the more it is read by all, the better.

For me to object to having the Bible read as a com
mon school-book on account of any doctrine which
those who differ from me suppose it to teach, would be
virtually to confess that I had not full confidence in my
own creed, and was afraid it would not bear a scrip
tural test. It seems to me an infinite advantage, for
which we are bound devoutly to thank the Author of
all good, that he has given us a religious book of in
comparable excellence, which we may fearlessly put
into the hands of all the children in the state, with the
assurance that it is able to make them " wise unto sal
vation," and will certainly make them better children,
better friends, and better members of society, so far
as it influences them at all. But some persons who
highly approve of daily scriptural reading in common
schools are in favor of using selections rather than the
whole Bible. I should certainly prefer this, provided
the selections are judiciously made, to excluding the
Scriptures altogether ; but I think there are weighty
and obvious reasons why the whole Bible should be taken
rather than a part. The whole is cheaper than half
would be in a separate volume ; and when the whole
is introduced, " without note or comment," there can
be no possible ground for sectarian jealousy.

Doctors of divinity not only, but the most eminent
statesmen in the country, hold the views here present
ed. The bold and noble stand taken by the Legisla
ture of New York more than ten years ago (1838),
has revived the hopes and infused fresh courage into
the minds of those who believe that the safety and
welfare 'of our country are essentially dependent on the

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 219

prevalence of a "religious morality and a moral re
ligion." The representatives of this great state, whose
system of education is becoming increasingly an ob
ject of imitation in all the rest, at one and the same
session doubled the amount of the public money for the
purpose of improving the education given in the com
mon schools — which, to the praise of that state, be it
said, are now free — and in reply to the petition of sun
dry persons, praying that all religious exercises and
the use of the Bible might be prohibited in the public
schools, decided by a vote of one hundred and twenty-
one to ONE ! that the request of the petitioners be not
granted. For the purpose of corroborating the doc
trines of this volume, I will introduce a paragraph from
the report of the Hon. Daniel D. Barnard on the occa
sion referred to, which was sustained by the noble, un
equivocal, and almost unanimous testimony of the rep
resentatives of the most powerful member of the Amer
ican states.

" Moral instruction is quite as important to the object
had in view in popular education as intellectual instruc
tion ; it is indispensable to that object. But, to make
instruction effective, it should be given according to the
best code of morals known to the country and the age ;
and that code, it is universally conceded, is contained
in the Bible. Hence the Bible, as containing that code,
so far from being arbitrarily excluded from our schools,
ought to be in common use in them. Keeping all the
while in view the object of popular education, the fitting
of the people by moral as well as by intellectual disci
pline for self-government, no one can doubt that any
system of instruction which overlooks the training and
informing of the moral faculties must be wretchedly
and fatally defective. Crime and intellectual cultiva
tion merely, so far from being dissociated in history

220 THE NECESSITY OF

and statistics, arc unhappily old acquaintances and tried
friends. To neglect the moral powers in education is
to educate not quite half the man. To cultivate the
intellect only is to unhinge the mind and destroy the
essential balance of the mental powers ; it is to light up
a recess only the better to see how dark it is. And if
this is all that is done in popular education, then noth
ing, literally nothing, is done toward establishing pop
ular virtue and forming a moral people."

This is but a specimen of an invaluable document,
which does honor to the heart and head of him who
penned it, and to the Legislature of the commonwealth
by which it was adopted by almost unparalleled una
nimity.

The Hon. Samuel Young, the eminently distinguished
superintendent of common schools in the same state, in
a report made in 1843, inculcates sentiments which so
well accord with my own views of the importance of
weaving scriptural reading into the very warp and
woof of popular education, that I gladly add his testi
mony. " I regard the New Testament as in all respects
a suitable book to be daily read in our common schools,
and I earnestly recommend its general introduction for
this purpose. As a mere reading-bofok, intended to
convey a practical knowledge of the English language,
it is one of the best text-books in use ; but this, although
of great use to the pupils, is of minor importance
when the moral influences of the book are duly con
sidered. Education consists of something more than
mere instruction. It is that training and discipline of
all the faculties of the mind which shall symmetrically
and harmoniously develop the future man for useful
ness and for happiness in sustaining the various rela
tions of life. It must be based upon knowledge and
virtue ; and its gradual advancement must be strictly

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 221

subordinated to those cardinal and elementary princi
ples of morality, which are nowhere so distinctly and
beautifully inculcated as in that book from whence we
all derive our common faith. The nursery and family
fireside may accomplish much ; the institutions of re
ligion may exert a pervading influence ; but what is
commenced in the hallowed sanctuary of the domestic
circle, and periodically inculcated at the altar, must be
daily and hourly recognized in the common schools,
that it may exert an ever-present influence, enter into
and form a part of every act of life, and become thor
oughly incorporated with the rapidly expanding char
acter. The same incomparable standard of moral vir
tue and excellence, which is expounded from the pulpit
and the altar, and which is daily held up to the admi
ration and imitation of the family circle, should also be
reverently kept before the mind and the heart in the
daily exercises of the school."

I will add the testimony of another whom we all de
light to honor. Never were sentiments uttered more
worthy to be remembered and repeated through all
generations, than those which fell from the Father of
his Country in his Farewell Address to the American
people. "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead
to political prosperity, religion and morality are indis
pensable supports. In vain would that man claim the
tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these
great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props
of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician,
equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cher
ish them. A volume could not trace all their connec
tions with private and public felicity. Let it simply
be asked, Where is the security for property, for repu
tation, for life, if a sense of religious obligation desert
the oaths which are the 'nstruments of investigation in

222 THE NECESSITY OF

courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the
supposition that morality can be maintained without re
ligion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence
of refined education on minds of peculiar structure,
reason and experience both forbid us to expect that
national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious
principles." How noble, how elevated, how just these
parting words.

Washington was an enlightened Christian patriot,
as well as a great general and a wise statesman. The
oracles which he consulted in all his perils, and in the
perils of his country, were the oracles of God.* No one
of the fathers of the Revolution knew better than he
did that religion rests upon the Bible as its main pillar,
and that as a knowledge and belief of the Bible are es
sential to true religion, so they are to private and pub
lic morality. I can not doubt, says the venerable Pres
ident of Amherst College, that could the greatest among
the great men of his day add a codicil to his invaluable
legacy, it would be, " Teach your children early to read
and love the Bible. Teach them to read it in your fam
ilies ; teach them in your schools ; teach them every
where, that the first moral lesson indelibly enstamped
upon their hearts may be to ' fear God and keep his
commandments.' * The fear of the Lord, that is wis
dom ; and to depart from evil is understanding.' "

How few are aware of what the Bible has done for
mankind, and still less of what it is destined to accom
plish. " Quench its light, and you blot out the bright
est luminary from these lower heavens. You bring
back ' chaos and old night' to reign over the earth, and
leave man, with all his immortal energies and aspira
tions, to * wander in the blackness of darkness forever.'

* John Quincy Adams, during his long and eventful life, was accus
tomed to read daily portions of the Scriptures in several languages.

A!..i?Ai. A XI) RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

It was by constantly reading it that our Puritan fathers
imbibed that unconquerable love of civil and religious
liberty which sustained them through all the ' perils of
the sea and perils of the wilderness.' It was from the
Bible they drew those free and admired principles of
civil government that were so much in advance of the
age in which they lived. It was this book by which they
* resolved to go till they could find some better rule."7
The Bible has built all our churches, and colleges,
and school-houses ; it has built our hospitals and re
treats for the insane, the deaf, and the blind ; it has
built the House of Refuge, the Sailors' Home, and the
Home for the Friendless. To it we are indebted for
our homes, for our property, and for all the safeguards
of our domestic relations and happiness. It is under
its broad shield that we lie down in safety, without bolts
or bars to protect us. It has given us our free consti
tutions of civil government, and with them all the stat
utes and ordinances of a great and independent people,
whose territory extends from the Atlantic to the Pa
cific. It is the industry, sobriety, and enterprise, which
nothing but the Bible could ever inspire and sustain,
that have dug our canals, and built our thousand facto
ries, and " clothed the hills with flocks, and covered over
the valleys with corn ;" that have laid down our rail
ways and established telegraph lines, bringing the East
into the neighborhood of the West, and enabling the
North to hold converse with the South. The Bible
has directly and indirectly done all this for us, and in
finitely more. Let not, then, the book which has given
to us sweet homes, and happy families, and systems of
public instruction, and has thus constituted us a great
and prosperous people — the book which diminishes our
sorrows nnd multiplies our joys, and gives to those who
obey its precepts a "hope big with immortality" — lot

224 THE IMPORTANCE OF

not this book be excluded from the common schools of
our country. In the name of patriotism, of philanthro
py, and of our common Christianity, let me, in behalf
of the millions of youth in our country who will other
wise remain ignorant of it, ask that, whatever else be
excluded from our schools, there be retained in them
this Book of books, the BIBLE.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE IMPORTANCE OF POPULAR EDUCATION.

Education, as the means of improving the moral and intellectual fac
ulties, is, under all circumstances, a subject of the most imposing con
sideration. To i-escue man from that state of degradation to which he
is doomed u03ss redeemed by education ; to unfold his physical, intel
lectual, and moral powers, mid to fit him for those high destinies which
his Creator has prepared for him, can not fail to excite the most ardent
sensibility of the philosopher and philanthropist. A comparison of the
savage that roams through the forest with the enlightened inhabitant of
a civilized country would be a brief but impressive representation of
the momentous importance of education. — Report of School Commis
sioners, New York, 1812.

HE who has carefully perused the preceding chap
ters of this work is already aware that we regard the
subject of popular education as one of paramount im
portance. The object of devoting a chapter to the
special consideration of this subject at this time is,
if possible, to remove from the mind any remaining
doubts in relation to it. The reader will bear in mind
that we regard education as having reference to the
whole, man — the body, the mind, and the heart ; and
that its object, and, when rightly directed, its effect, is
to make him a complete creature after his kind. To
his frame it should give vigor, activity, and beauty ; to

POPULAR EDUCATION. 225

his intellect, power and thoughtfulness ; and to his heart,
virtue and felicity.

We shall be the better prepared to appreciate the
importance and necessity of a judicious system of train
ing and instruction if we consider that, in its absence,
every individual will be educated by circumstances.
Let it be borne in mind, then, that all the children in
every community will be educated somewhere and
somehow ; and that it devolves upon citizens and pa
rents to determine whether the children of the present
generation shall receive their training in the school-house
or in the streets ; and if in the former, whether in good
or poor schools.

In the discharge of my official duties in this state, I
had occasion to visit two counties in 1846 in which
there were no organized common schools.* They
were not, however, without places of instruction, for
in the shire town of each of those counties there were
a billiard-room, bar-rooms, and bowling-alleys. I was
forcibly impressed with the remark of an Indian chief
residing in one of those counties. As he was passing
along the streets one day, he discovered a second bowl
ing-alley in process of erection. He paused, and, sur
veying it attentively, remarked to those at work upon
it as follows : "You have here another long building
going up rapidly ; and," he added, " is this the place
where our children are to be educated?" Such keen
and well-merited rebuke rarely falls from human lips.
Those two bowling-alleys, with their bars — indispensa
ble appendages — were thronged from six o'clock in tho
morning until past midnight, six days in the week.
They were, moreover, the very places where many of
the youth of that village were receiving their education,
And who were their teachers? Idlers, tipplers, gam-

* Common schools have since boon organized, in both of those counties.

K2

220 THE IMPORTANCE OF

biers, profane persons, Sabbath-breakers. Mark well
this truth : as is the teacher, so will be the school. Those
.pupils will graduate, it may be, at our poor-houses, at
our county jails, or at the state penitentiary. These de
basing and corrupting appendages of civilization spent
not all their influence upon the white man ; and this is
what gave pungency to the withering satire of the chief.
They were at once working the ruin of the red man and
of his pale neighbor.

The rudest nations or individuals can not be said to
be wholly without education. Even the wildest savage
is taught by his superiors not only the best mode of pro
curing food and shelter known to his race, but also the
most adroit manner of defending himself and destroy-
ng his enemy. But we use the term in a higher, broad
er, and more capacious sense, as having reference to
the whole man, and the whole duration of his being.
A volume might be filled in stating and illustrating the
advantages of education. We have only space to state
and elucidate a few propositions. We remark, then,
first, that

EDUCATION DISSIPATES THE EVILS OF IGNORANCE.

Ignorance is one principal cause of the want of virtue, and of the im
moralities which abound in the world. Were we to take a survey of
the moral state of the world as delineated in the history of nations,
or as depicted by modern voyagers and travelers, we should find abund
ant illustration of the truth of this remark. We should find, in almost
every instance, that ignorance of the character of the true God, and
false conceptions of the nature of the worship and service he requires,
have led, not only to the most obscene practices and immoral abomina
tions, but to the perpetration of the most horrid cruelties.— DR. DICK.

THE evils of ignorance are not few in number nor
small in magnitude. The whole history of the world
justifies the statement that ignorant and uncultivated
mind is prone to sensuality and cruelty. In what coun
tries, let me ask, are the people most given to the lowest

POPULAR EDUCATION. 221

forms of animal gratification, and most regardless of
the lives and happiness of others? Is it not in pagan
lands, over which moral and intellectual darkness
broods, and where men are vile without shame, and
cruel without remorse ? And if from pagan we pass
to Christian countries, we shall find that those in which
education is least prevalent are the very ones in which
there is the most immorality, and the greatest indiffer
ence to the sufferings of animated and sentient beings.
Spain — in which, until recently, there was but one news
paper printed, and in whi^h only about one in thirty-
five of the people are instructed in schools — has a pop
ulation about equal to that of England and Wales.
Popular education in the latter countries, although
much behind several of the other European states, is
still greatly in advance of what it is in Spain, and there
is an equally marked difference in the state of morals
in the people of these countries. In England and Wales
the whole number of convictions for murder in the year
eighteen hundred and twenty-six was thirteen, and the
number convicted for wounding, etc., with intent to
kill, was fourteen ; while in Spain, the number con
victed during the same year was, for murder, twelve
hundred and thirty-three ! and for maiming with in
tent to kill, seventeen hundred and seventy-three ! or a
more than one hundred fold greater number than in the
former countries. Facts like these speak volumes in
favor of the elevating influences of popular education,
while they show most conclusively the low and de
graded condition to which people will sink in countries
in which education is neglected.

Spain affords an apt illustration of the truth of the
statement just made, that ignorant and uncultivated
people are prone to sensuality and cruelty. Scenes of
cruelty and blood constitute the favorite amusement of

228 THE IMPORTANCE OF

the Spaniards, their greatest delight being in bull-fights.
An eye-witness describes the manner in which they
conduct themselves during these appalling scenes in
the following language. "The intense interest which
they feel in this game is visible throughout, and often
loudly expressed. An astounding shout always accom
panies a critical moment. Whether it be the bull or
man who is in danger, their joy is excessive ; but their
greatest sympathy is given to the feats of the BULL !
If the picador receives the bull gallantly and forces
him to retreat, or if the matadore courageously faces
and wounds the bull, they applaud these acts of science
and valor ; but if the bull overthrow the horse and his
rider, or if the matadore miss his aim and the bull seems
ready to gore him, their delight knows no bounds. And
it is certainly a fine spectacle to see thousands of spec
tators rise simultaneously, as they always do when the
interest is intense. The greatest and most crowded
theater in Europe presents nothing half so imposing as
this. But how barbarous, how brutal is the whole ex
hibition ! Could an English audience witness the scenes
that are repeated every week in Madrid, a universal
burst of' shame!' would follow the spectacle of a horse
gored and bleeding, and actually treading upon his own
entrails while he gallops round the arena. Even the*
appearance of the goaded bull could not be borne,
panting, covered with wounds and blood, lacerated by
darts, and yet brave and resolute to the end.

" The spectacle continued two hours and a half, and
during that time there were seven bulls killed and six
horses. When the last bull was dispatched, the peo
ple immediately rushed into the arena, and the carcass
was dragged out amid the most deafening shouts." — •
Spain in 1830, vol. i., p. 191.

The same writer, after describing another fight, in

POPULAR EDUCATION. 229

which one bull had killed three horses and one man,
and remained master of the arena, remarks, that "this
was a time to observe the character of the people.
When the unfortunate picador was killed, in place of a
general exclamation of horror and loud expressions of
pity, the universal cry was ' Que es bravo ese toro !'
(' Ah, the admirable bull !') The whole scene pro
duced the most unbounded delight ; the greater the
horror, the greater was the shouting, and the more
vehement the expressions of satisfaction. I did not per
ceive a single female avert her head or betray the
slightest symptom of wounded feeling." — Vol. i., p. 195.

A correct system of public instruction develops a
character widely different from that here brought to
light. Instead of a love for vicious excitement, it cul
tivates a taste for simple and innocent pleasures, and
gives to its subjects a command over their passions, and
a disposition habitually to control them. It acquaints
them with their duty, and enables them to find their
highest pleasure in its discharge. They order their
pursuits and choose their employments with reference
to their own advantage, it is true ; but still, a higher,
and the controlling motive with them is, the promotion
of the best good of the community in which they live.
In short, their supreme desire is to co-operate with the
beneficent Creator in advancing the permanent inter
ests of the whole human family ; in themselves obey
ing, and leading others to obey, all the laws which
God has ordained for the government and well-being
of his creatures.

Education, we said, dissipates the evils of ignorance.
But in this country we hardly know what popular ig
norance is. The most illiterate among us have derived
many and inestimable advantages from our systems of
public instruction. Occasionally persons are found

230 THE IMPORTANCE OF

among us who can neither read nor write. But even

CD

such persons insensibly imbibe ideas and moral influ
ences from the more cultivated society about them
which, in countries less favored, are denied to multi
tudes. Individuals who have had no early advantages
for learning, who have never even entered a school-
house, but have grown up amid a generally intelligent
population, trained by the institutions established by our
fathers, have in many instances acquired a mental char
acter and influence which, but for these fortuitous cir
cumstances, they could not have attained. The very
excellence of our systems of education in many states
of the Union, and the vital and pervading influence of
the schools upon the public mind, reaching as they do,
and improving even those that remain ignorant of let
ters, do not allow us to see the full extent of our obli
gation to them. This remark applies to all civilized
countries where any systems of general education are
adopted, but perhaps not to so great an extent in any
other country as in our own.

The evils which flow from ignorance are deplorable
enough in the case of individuals, although, as we have
seen, the disastrous consequences are limited in the case
of those who live surrounded by an intelligent commu
nity. But the general ignorance of large numbers and
entire classes of men, unreached by the elevating influ
ence of the educated, acting under the unchastened
stimulus of the passions, and excited by the various
causes of discontent which are constantly occurring in
the progress of human affairs, is not unfrequently pro
ductive of scenes, the contemplation of which makes-
humanity shudder. The following extract from a for
eign journal affords a pertinent illustration of the evils
which flow from popular ignorance. It relates to the
outrages committed by the peasantry in a part of Hun-

I'OrULAR EDUCATION*. 231

gary in consequence of the ravages of the cholera in
that region.

" The suspicion that the cholera was caused by pois
oning the wells was universal among the peasantry of
the counties of Zips and Zemplin, and every one was
fully convinced of its truth. The first commotion arose
in Klucknow, where, it is said, some peasants died in
consequence of taking the preservatives ; whether by an
immoderate use of medicine, or whether they thought
they were to take chloride of lime internally, is not
known. This story, with a sudden and violent break
ing out of the cholera at Klucknow, led the peasants to
a notion of the poisoning of the wells, which spread
like lightning. In the sequel, in the attack of the estate
of Count Czaki, a servant of the chief bailiff was on the
point of being murdered, when, to save his life, he offer
ed to disclose something important. He said that he
received from his master two pounds of poisonous pow
der, with orders to throw it into the wells, and, with an
ax over his head, took oath publicly, in the church, to
the truth of his statement. These statements, and the
fact that the peasants, when they forcibly entered the
houses of the land-owners, every where found chloride
of lime, which they took for the poisonous powder, con
firmed their suspicions, and drove the people to mad
ness. In this state of excitement, they committed the
most appalling excesses. Thus, for instance, when a
detachment of thirty soldiers, headed by an ensign, at
tempted to restore order in Klucknow, the peasants,
who were ten times their number, fell upon them ; the
soldiers were released, but the ensign was bound, tor
tured with scissors and knives, then beheaded, and his
head fixed on a pike as a trophy. A civil officer in
company with the military was drowned, his carriage
broken, and, chloride of lime being found in the car-

232 THE IMPORTANCE OF

riage, one of the inmates was compelled to eat it till he
vomited blood, which again confirmed the notion of
poison. On the attack of the house of the lord at Kluck-
now, the countess saved her life by piteous entreaties ;
but the chief bailiff, in whose house chloride of lime was
unhappily found, was killed, together with his son, a
little daughter, a clerk, a maid, and two students who
boarded with him. So the bands went from village to
village ; wherever a nobleman or a physician was found
death was his lot ; and in a short time it was known
that the high constable of the county of Zemplin, and
several counts, nobles, and parish priests, had been mur
dered. A clergyman was hanged because he refused
to take an oath that he had thrown poison into a well ;
the eyes of a countess were put out, and innocent chil
dren cut to pieces. Count Czaki, having first ascer
tained that his family was safe, fled from his estate at
the risk of his life ; but he was stopped at Kirtch-
trauf, pelted with stones, and wounded all over, torn
from his horse, and only saved by a worthy merchant
who fell on him, crying, * Now I have got the rascal.'
He drew the count into a neighboring convent, where
his wounds were dressed, and a refuge afforded him.
His secretary was struck from his horse with an ax, but
saved in a similar manner, and in the evening convey
ed with his master to Leutschau."*

A little knowledge on the part of the peasantry would
have prevented these horrible scenes. Had they learn
ed even the elements of physiology and chemistry, they
would have known that cleanliness is essential to health
at all times, and that during the prevalence of a malig
nant epidemic it is doubly needful. They would have
known, also, that chloride of lime is not a medicine to
be taken internally, but that it is very useful for dis-

* Quoted from an address delivered iu Boston by Edward Everett

POPULAR EDUCATION. 233

infecting offensive apartments, and that its tendency,
when properly used, would be to counteract the cause
of the disease which they so much dreaded.

Among all nations, and in all ages of the world, ig
norance has not only debarred mankind from many ex
quisite and sublime enjoyments, but has created innu-
merable unfounded alarms, which greatly increase the
sum of human misery. In the early ages of the world,
a total eclipse of the sun or of the moon was regarded
with the utmost consternation, as if some unusual ca
tastrophe had been about to befall the universe. Be
lieving that the moon in an eclipse was sickening or
dying, through the influence of enchanters, the trem
bling spectators had recourse to the ringing of bells,
the sounding of trumpets, the beating of brazen vessels,
and to loud and horrid exclamations, in order to break
the enchantment, and to drown the muttering of witches,
that the moon might not hear them. Nor are such fool
ish opinions and customs yet banished from the world.

Comets, too, with their blazing tails, were long re
garded, and still are by many, as harbingers of divine
vengeance, presaging famines and inundations, or the
downfall of princes and the destruction of empires.
The northern lights have been frequently gazed at with
similar apprehensions, whole provinces having been
thrown into consternation by the fantastic corusca
tions of these lambent meteors. Some pretend to see
in these harmless lights armies mixing in fierce encoun
ter and fields streaming with blood, while others be
hold states overthrown, earthquakes, inundations, pest
ilences, and the most dreadful calamities. Because
some one or other of these calamities formerly happen
ed soon after the appearance of a comet or the blaze
of an aurora, therefore they are considered either as
the causes or the prognostics of such events.

234 THE IMPORTANCE OF

Popular ignorance has given rise to the practice of
judicial astrology ; an art which, with all its foolish no
tions so fatal to the peace of mankind, has been prac
ticed in every period of time. Under a belief that the
characters and the fates of men are dependent on the
various aspects of the stars and conjunctions of the
planets, the most unfounded apprehensions, as well as
the most delusive hopes, have been excited by the pro
fessors of this fallacious science. Such impositions on
the credulity of mankind are founded on the grossest
absurdity and the most palpable ignorance of the na
ture of things ; still, in the midst of the light of science
which the present century has shed upon the world, the
astrologer meets with a rich support* even in the me
tropolis of Great Britain ; and soothsayers, if not as
trologers, get great gain by their craft in various por
tions of the United States. The extensive annual sale
of hundreds of thousands of copies of almanacs that
abound in astrological predictions in the United States
and in Great Britain, and the extent to which they are
consulted, affords a striking proof of the belief which is
still attached to the doctrines of this fallacious science,
and of the ignorance and credulity from which such a
belief proceeds.

Shooting stars, fiery meteors, lunar rainbows, and
other atmospherical phenomena, have likewise been
considered by some as ominous of impending calami
ties, but they are regarded in a very different light by
scientific observers. The most sublime phenomenon
of shooting stars of which the world has furnished any
record was witnessed throughout the United States on
the morning of the 13th of November, 1833. This as
tonishing exhibition covered no inconsiderable portion
of the earth's surface. The first appearance was every

* See Appendix to Dick'ti Improvement of Society, p. 338.

POPULAR EDUCATION. 235

where that of fire-works of the most imposing grand
eur, covering the entire vault of heaven with myriads
of fire-balls resembling sky-rockets ; but the most brill
iant sky-rockets and fire-works of art bear less rela
tion to the splendors of this celestial exhibition than
the twinkling of the most tiny star to the broad glare
of the noonday sun. Their coruscations were bright,
gleaming, and incessant, and they fell thick as the flakes
in the early snows of December. The whole heavens
seemed in motion, and suggested to some the awful
grandeur of the image employed in the Apocalypse
upon the opening of the sixth seal, when " the stars of
heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her
untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind."

While these scenes of grandeur were viewed with
unspeakable delight by enlightened scientific observ
ers, the ignorant and superstitious were overpowered
with horror and dismay. The description which a
gentleman of South Carolina gave of the effect pro
duced by this phenomenon upon his ignorant blacks
will apply well to many hardly better informed white
persons. " I was suddenly awakened," said he, " by
the most distressing cries that ever fell upon my ears.
Shrieks of horror and cries of mercy I could hear from
most of the negroes of three plantations, amounting in
all to about six or eight hundred. While earnestly
listening for the cause, I heard a faint voice near the
door calling my name : I arose, and, taking my sword,
stood at the door. At this moment I heard the same
voice still beseeching me to rise and saying, ' O ! my
God, the world is on fire !' I then opened the door,
and it is difficult to say which excited me most, the
awfulness of the scene or the distressed cries of the ne
groes. Upward of one hundred lay prostrate on the
ground, some speechless, and some with the bitterest

236 THE IMPORTANCE OF

cries, but most with their hands' raised, imploring God
to save the world and them. The scene was truly
awful, for never did rain fall much thicker than the
meteors fell toward the earth ; east, west, north, and
south, it was the same."

Those harmless meteors, the ignesfatui, which hover
above moist and fenny places in the night-time, emitting
a glimmering light, have been regarded by the igno
rant as malicious spirits endeavoring to deceive the be
wildered traveler and lead him to destruction. The
plaintive note of the mourning dove, the ticking noise
of the little insect called the death-watch, the howling
of a dog in the night-time, the meeting of a bitch with
whelps, or a snake lying in the road, the breaking of a
looking-glass, and even the falling of salt from the table,
and the curling of a fiber of wick in a burning candle,
together with many other equally harmless incidents,
have been regarded with apprehensions of terror, being
considered as unfailing signs of impending disasters or
of approaching death.

Dr. Dick remarks, that in the Highlands of Scotland
— and it should be borne in mind that the Scotch are,
as a nation, better instructed, and more moral and re
ligious in their habits, than any other people in Europe
— the motions and appearances of the clouds were, not
long ago, considered ominous of disastrous events. On
the evening before new year's day, if a black cloud ap
peared in any part of the horizon, it was thought to
prognosticate a plague, a famine, or the death of some
great man in that part of the country over which it
seemed to hang ; and in order to ascertain the place
threatened by the omen, the motions of the clouds were
often watched through the whole night. In the same
country, the inhabitants regard certain days as unlucky,
or ominous of bad fortune. The day of the week on

POPULAR EDUCATION. 237

which the third of May falls is deemed unlucky through
out the year.

With a very slight change, a part of this description
would apply well to our own country, even up to the
present time. How many thousands of days are lost
annually in the United States in consequence of super
stitious fears in relation to setting out upon a journey,
entering upon a new pursuit of any kind, or even be
ginning to plant or plow on Friday, the unlucky day
of the Americans. How many persons have had mis
fortunes attend them all their lives because they were
born, or christened, or married on Friday ! How many
houses have been burned because they were begun,
raised, or moved into on Friday ! How many steam
boats and vessels have been burned or wrecked because
they were launched or sailed on Friday ! And yet,
strange as it may seem, this is the very day on which
Columbus set sail on a voyage that resulted in the dis
covery of the New World.

Many people, and in some instances whole commu
nities, always commence plowing, sowing, and reap
ing on Tuesday, though by this rule the most favorable
weather for these purposes is frequently lost. Others,
again, will not, on any account, perform certain kinds
of labor on Friday. The age of the moon is also much
attended to in many parts of the world. Among the
vulgar Highlanders, an opinion prevails, that if a house
takes fire while the moon is in the decrease, the family
will from that time decline in its circumstances and sink
into poverty. In this country, equally unfounded and
ridiculous opinions are entertained. Passing by the
more commonly received opinions that if swine are
killed in the old of the moon, the pork will shrink in the
pot; that seed sown at this time will be less likely to
do well, etc., etc., I will mention one or two instances

238 THE IMPORTANCE OF

of opinions which, although equally well founded, are
less commonly received, and which may therefore more
forcibly impress the popular mind. A few years ago,
I spent some months in a neighboring state, in a com
munity where the belief was commonly entertained
that shingles should not be laid nor stakes driven in
the old of the moon, because the former would be more
likely to warp, and the latter to be thrown by the frost.
The same and kindred opinions are extensively held in
various portions of the United States.

These are a few, and but a very few, of the supersti
tious notions and vain fears by which the great majori
ty of the human race, in every age and country, have
been enslaved, as he who will take the pains to peruse
Dr. Dick's admirable treatise on the improvement of so
ciety by the diffusion of knowledge can not fail to be
convinced. That such absurd notions should ever have
prevailed is a most grating and humiliating thought,
when we consider the noble faculties with which man
is endowed. That they still prevail to a great extent,
even in our own country, is a striking proof that as yet
we are, as a people, but just emerging from the gloom
of intellectual darkness. The prevalence of such opin
ions is to be regretted, not only on account of the
groundless alarms they create, but chiefly on account
of the false ideas they inspire with regard to the na
ture of the Supreme Ruler of the universe, and of his
arrangements in the government of the world. He
whose mind is enlightened with true science perceives
throughout ail nature the most striking evidences of
benevolent design, and rejoices in the benignity of the
Great Parent of the universe, discovering nothing in
the arrangements of the Creator, in any department of
his works, which has a direct tendency to produce pain
lo any intelligent or sensitive being. The superstitious

POPULAR EDUCATION. 239

man, on the contrary, contemplates the sky, the air,
the waters, and the earth as filled with malicious be
ings, ever ready to haunt him with terror or to plot
his destruction. The former contemplates the Deity
directing the movements of the material world by fix
ed and invariable laws, which none but himself can
counteract or suspend. The latter views these move
ments as continually liable to be controlled by capri
cious and malignant beings to gratify the most trivial
passions. How very different, of course, must be their
conceptions and feelings respecting the attributes and
government of the Supreme Being ! While the one
views him as the infinitely wise and benevolent Father,
whose paternal care and goodness inspire confidence
and affection, the other must regard him, in a certain
degree, as a capricious being, and offer up his adora
tions under the influence of fear.

These and like notions have also an evident tendency
to habituate the mind to false principles arid processes
of reasoning which unfit it for legitimate conclusions in
its researches after truth. They manifestly chain down
the understanding, and unfit it for the appreciation of
those noble and enlarged views which revelation and
modern science exhibit of the order, extent, and econo
my of the universe. It is lamentable to reflect that so
many thousands of beings endowed with the faculty of
reason, who can not by any means be persuaded of the
motion of the earth, and the distances and magnitudes
of the heavenly bodies, should swallow, without the
least hesitation, opinions ten thousand times more im
probable. Notwithstanding the mathematical certain
ty of the truth of the Copernican system of astronomy,
I have never yet become extensively acquainted with
any community in which I have not found many per
sons professing a respectable degree of intelligence.

240 THE IMPORTANCE OF

and even official members of orthodox churches, who
entirely discredit its sublime teachings ; and yet some
of these very persons find little difficulty in believing
that an old woman can transform herself into 1i hare,
and wing her way through the air on a broomstick.
What contracted notions such persons must have of the
almightiness of the Deity, and of the infinite depth of
meaning of the following and like passages of Scrip
ture: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the
firmament showeth his handy work. Day unto day
uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowl
edge. — Ps. xix., 1-2.

It has been already remarked, that the whole history
of the world justifies the statement that ignorant and
uncultivated mind is prone to sensuality and cruelty.
Spain and Hungary were referred to in illustration.
We are now prepared to remark, what is worse still, that
where such superstitious notions as we have been con
sidering are held, even by persons who are somewhat
educated, they almost invariably lead to the perpetra
tion of deeds of cruelty and injustice. Many of the
barbarities committed in pagan countries, both in their
religious worship and their civil polity, and most of the
cruelties inflicted on the victims of the Romish Inquisi
tion, have flowed from this source.* Nor are the an
nals of Great Britain and the United States deficient in
examples of this kind. About the commencement of
the last century, the belief in witchcraft, which was al
most universal throughout Christendom, was held in
both of these countries. The laws of England, which
admitted its existence and punished it with death, were

* In the Duchy of Lorraine, nine hundred females were delivered
over to the flames for being witches, by one inquisitor alone. Under
this accusation, it is reckoned that upward of thirty thousand women,
have perished by the hands of the Inquisition. — Quoted by Dr. Dick
from " Inquisition Unmasked."

POPULAR EDUCATION. 241

adopted by the Puritans of New England, and in less
than twenty years from the founding of the colony, one
individual was tried and executed for the supposed
crime. Haifa century later the delusion broke out in
Salem. A minister, whose daughter and niece were
subject to convulsions accompanied by extraordinary
symptoms, supposing they were bewitched, cast his sus
picions on an Indian woman who lived in the house, and
who was whipped until she confessed herself a witch ;
arid the truth of the confession, although obtained in this
way, was not doubted. During the same year more
than fifty persons were terrified into the confession of
witchcraft, twenty of whom were put to death. Nei
ther age, sex, nor station afforded any safeguard against
a charge for this supposed crime. Women and chil
dren not only were its victims, but magistrates were
condemned, and a clergyman of the highest respecta
bility was among the executed. So late as 1722 a
woman was burned for witchcraft in Scotland, which
was among the last executions in that country.

It appears that these superstitious notions, so far
from being innocent and harmless speculations, lead to
the most deplorable results ; they ought, therefore, to
be undermined and thoroughly eradicated by all per
sons who wish to promote the happiness and well-being
of general society. This duty is especially incumbent
upon parents and teachers, and can be effected only by
rendering correct early education universal. Igno
rance of the laws and economy of nature is the one great
source of these absurd opinions. They have not only
no foundation in nature .or experience, but are directly
opposed to both. In proportion, then, as we advance in
our researches into Nature's economy and laws, shall we
perceive their futility and absurdity. As in other cases,
take away the cause, and the effect will be removed.

L

THE IMPORTANCE OF

Education will dissipate all these evils. It is true
that an acquaintance with a number of dead languages,
with Roman and Grecian antiquities, with the subtle
ties of metaphysics, with pagan mythology, and with
politics and poetry, may coexist with these supersti
tions, as was true in the case of the late Dr. Samuel
Johnson, who believed in ghosts and in the second sight.
However important in other respects these departments
of an extensive and varied education may be, they do
not form an effectual barrier against the admission of
superstitious opinions. In order to do this, the mind
must be directed to the study of the material universe,
to contemplate the various appearances it presents, and
to mark well the uniform results of those invariable
laws by which it is governed. In particular, the at
tention should be directed to those discoveries which
have been made by philosophers in the different de
partments of nature and art during the last two cen
turies. For this purpose, the study of natural history,
as recording the various facts respecting the atmos
phere, the waters, the earth, and animated beings, com
bined with the study of natural philosophy and astrono
my, as explaining the causes of the phenomena of na
ture, will have a happy tendency to eradicate from the
mind superstitious and false notions, and at the same
time will present to view objects of delightful contem
plation. Let a person be once thoroughly convinced
that nature is uniform in her operations, and governed
by regular laws impressed by an all-wise and benevo
lent Being, and he will soon be inspired with confi
dence, and will not easily be alarmed at any occasion
al phenomena which at first sight might appear as ex
ceptions to the general rule.

Let persons be taught, for example, that eclipses are
occasioned merely by the shadow of one opaque body

POPULAR EDUCATION. 243

falling upon another ; that they are the necessary result
of the inclination of the moon's orbit to that of the earth ;
that, if these orbits were in the same plane, there would
be an eclipse of the sun and of the moon every month,
the former occurring at the change, and the latter at
the full of the moon ; that the times when they do actu
ally take place depend on the new or full moon hap
pening at or near the points of intersection of the orbits
of the earth and moon, and that other planets which have
moons experience eclipses of a similar nature. Let
them also be taught that the comets are regular bodies
belonging to our system, which finish their revolutions
and appear and disappear in stated periods of time ; that
the northern lights, though seldom seen in southern
climes, are frequent in the regions of the North, and
supply the inhabitants with light in the absence of the
sun, and have probably a relation to the magnetic and
electric fluids ; that the ignesfatui are harmless lights,
formed by the ignition of a certain species of .gas pro
duced in the soils above which they hover; and that
the notes of the death-watch, so far from being presages
of death, are ascertained to be the notes of love and pre
sages of hymeneal intercourse among these little in
sects.

Let rational information of this kind be imparted to
people generally, and they will learn to contemplate
nature with tranquillity and composure. A more bene
ficial effect than this will at the same time be produced,
for those very objects which were formerly beheld
with alarm will now be converted into sources of en
joyment, and be contemplated with emotions of delight.

To remove the groundless apprehensions which
arise from the fear of invisible and incorporeal beings,
let persons be instructed in the various optical illusions
to which we are subject, arising from the intervention

2'14 THE IMPORTANCE OF

of fogs, and the indistinctness of vision in the night-time,
which makes us frequently mistake a bush that is near
us for a large tree at a distance, and let them be taught
that under the influence of these illusions a timid im
agination will transform the indistinct image of a cow
or a horse into a terrific phantom of a monstrous size.
Let them also be taught, by a selection of well-authen
ticated facts, the powerful influence of the imagination
in creating ideal forms, especially when under the do
minion of fear; the effects produced by the workings
of conscience when harassed by guilt ; let them be
taught the effects produced by lively dreams, by strong
doses of opium, by drunkenness, hysteric passions, mad
ness, and other disorders that affect the mind. Let the
experiments of optics, and the striking phenomena pro
duced by electricity, galvanism, magnetism, and the
different gases, be exhibited to their view, together
with details of the results which have been produced
by various mechanical contrivances. In fine, let their
attention be directed to the foolish, whimsical, and ex
travagant notions attributed to apparitions, and to their
inconsistency with the wise and benevolent arrange
ments of the Governor of the universe.

There is no rational foundation for entertaining any
doubts but that, could such instructions as I have sug
gested be universally given, the effect would be the
banishment of superstitions of the nature contemplated
from among mankind ; for they have uniformly pro
duced this effect on every mind which has been thus en
lightened. Where is the man to be found whose mind
is enlightened by the doctrines and discoveries of mod
ern science, and who yet remains the slave of super
stitious notions and vain fears ? Of all the philosophei s
of America and Europe, is there one who is alarmt"!
at an eclipse, at a comet, at an ignis fatuus, or ?it tht?

POPULAR EDUCATION. 245

notes of a death-watch? or who postpones his experi
ments on account of what is called an unlucky day?
Who ever heard of a specter appearing to such a per
son, dragging him from bed at the dead hour of mid
night, to wander through the forest, trembling with
fear ? Such beings appear only to the ignorant and
illiterate, at least to those who are unacquainted with
natural science, and we never hear of their appearing
to any who did not previously believe in their exist
ence. But should philosophers be freed from such
terrific visions, if substantial knowledge has not the
power of banishing them from the mind ? Why should
supernatural beings feel so shy in conversing with men
of science ? These would, indeed, be the fittest persons
to whom they might impart their secrets, and commu
nicate information respecting the invisible world ; but it
never falls to their lot to be favored with such visits.
It may therefore be concluded that the diffusion of use
ful knowledge among mankind would infallibly dissi
pate those groundless fears which have banished much
of happiness from the human family, and particularly
among the lower orders of society.*

* Dr. Dick, to whom I have frequently referred, and whose writings
I have freely consulted, expresses in a note a sentiment in which I
fully concur. " It would be unfair," says he, " to infer, from any ex
pression here used, that the author denies the possibility of supernat
ural visions and appearances. We are assured from the records of
Bacred history that beings of an order superior to the human race
have 'at sundry times and in divers manners' made their appearance
to men. But there is the most marked difference between vulgar ap
paritions and the celestial messengers to which the records of revela
tion refer. They appeared not to old women and clowns, but to pa
triarchs, prophets, and apostles. They appeared not to frighten the
timid and to create unnecessary alarm, but to declare 'tidings of great
joy.' They appeared not to reveal such paltry secrets as the place
where a pot of gold or silver is concealed, or where a lost ring may be
found, but to communicate intelligence worthy of a. God to reveal, mid
of the utmost importance for man to receive. In these and many other

240 THE IMPORTANCE OF

I might, perhaps, safely dismiss this subject, and pra-
ceed to the consideration of other topics ; but, before
doing so, it may be well to state that many of the views
here presented, and all that come within the range of
the subjects discussed by him, are fully sustained by
Dr. Lardner, whose popular lectures on science and art
have been so well received both in Europe and Amer
ica. His publishers justly remark, that "probably no
public lecturer ever continued, for the same length of
time, to collect around him so numerous audiences."
The author himself states, in the preface to his Lec
tures,* that from November, 1841, when he commenced
his public lectures in the lecture-room of Clinton Hall,
in New York, to the close of the year 1844, when he
concluded his public labors in this country, he " visited
every considerable city and town of the Union, from
Boston to New Orleans, and from New York to St.
Louis. Most of the principal cities were twice visited,
and several courses were given in Boston, New York,
and Philadelphia. Nor did the appetite for this spe
cies of intellectual entertainment appear to flag by rep
etition."

I can not forbear making a few quotations from the
preface to the work under consideration, which are
creditable to the comparative intelligence of the Amer
ican people, and show the avidity with which they seek
instruction and useful knowledge. Dr. Lardner ob
serves, that " it was usual on each evening to deliver
from two to four of the essays which compose the con
tents of the present volumes, and the duration of the

respects, there is the most striking contrast between popular ghosts
and the supernatural communications and appearances recorded in
Scripture."

* In two large volumes, published by Greeley and McElrath, New
York,

POPULAR EDUCATION. 2l7

entertainment was from two to three hours. On every
occasion the most profound interest was evinced on the
part of the audience, and the most unremitting and si
lent attention was given. These assemblies consisted
of persons of both sexes, of every age, from the elder
classes of pupils in the schools to their grandfathers
and grandmothers. Frequently the audiences amount
ed to twelve hundred, and sometimes, as at the Phila
delphia Museum, they exceeded two thousand. Nor
was the manifestation of this interest confined, as might
be imagined, to the northern Atlantic cities, where ed
ucation is known to be attended to, and where, as in
New England, the diffusion of useful knowledge is re
garded as a paramount duty of the state. The same
crowded assemblies were collected, for a long succes
sion of nights, in the largest theaters of each of the south
ern and western cities ; in the Charleston Theater ; the
Mobile Theater ; the St. Charles Theater, New Orleans ;
the Vicksburg and Jackson Theaters, Mississippi ; the
St. Louis Theater, Missouri ; and in the theaters of Cin
cinnati, Pittsburg, and other western and central cities.

"It can not be denied that such facts are sympto
matic of a very remarkable condition of the public
mind, more especially among a people who are admit
ted to be, more than any other nation, engrossed by
money-getting and by the more material pursuits of
life. The less pretension to eloquence and the attract
ive graces of oratory the lecturer can offer, the more
surprising is the result, and the more creditable to the
intelligence of the American people. It is certain that
a similar intellectual entertainment, clogged, as it nec
essarily was, with a pecuniary condition of admission,
would fail to attract an audience even in the most pol
ished and enlightened cities of Europe."

While these statements arc highly creditable to the

248 THE IMl'OKTANCE OF

American people, the lectures themselves contain par
agraphs which show that the popular mind even in oui
own country is not sufficiently enlightened to eradicate
the superstitions just considered.

THE MOON AND THE WEATHER. — Dr. Lardner, in a
lecture on the moon, in answer to the question, Does
the moon influence the weather ? says,* It is asserted,
first, that at the epochs of new and full moon, and at
the quarters, there is generally a change of weather;
and, secondly, that the phases of the moon, or, in other
words, the relative position of the moon and sun in re
gard to the earth, is the cause of these changes. Now
these and kindred opinions are very extensively held
in this country. But the doctor refers to meteorolog
ical tables, constructed in various countries after the
most extensive and careful observation, and the result
is that no correspondence exists between the condition
of the weather and the phases of the moon. He hence,
after a full examination, comes to the conclusion that
" the condition of the weather as to change, or in any
other respect, has, as a matter of fact, no correspondence
whatever with the lunar phases."

In another lecture on the moon and the weather, the
following decisive opinion is expressed: "From all that
has been stated, it follows then, conclusively, that the
popular notions concerning the influence of the lunar
phases on the weather have no foundation in the the
ory, and no correspondence with observed facts. "f

TIME FOR FELLING TIMBER. — In another lecture on
lunar influences, Dr. Lardner observes that " there is an
opinion generally entertained that timber should be
felled only during the decline of the moon ; for if it be
cut down during its increase, it will not be of a good or

* See Lectures on Science and Art, vol. i., p. 315.
t Ibid., p. 419-120.

POPULAR EDUCATION. 249

durable quality. This impression prevails in various
countries. It is acted upon in England, and is made
the ground of legislation in France. The forest laws
of the latter country interdict the cutting of timber du
ring the increase of the moon. In the extensive forests
of Germany, the same opinion is entertained and acted
upon, with the most undoubting confidence in its truth.
Sauer, a superintendent of some of these districts, as
signs what he believes to be its physical cause. Ac
cording to him, the increase of the moon causes the sap
to ascend in the timber, and, on the other hand, the de
crease of the moon causes it to descend. If the timber,
therefore, be cut during the decrease of the moon, it
will be cut in a dry state, the sap having retired, and
the wood, therefore, will be compact, solid, and durable.
But if it be cut during the increase of the moon, it will
be felled with the sap in it, and will therefore be more
spongy, more easily attacked by worms, more difficult
to season, and more readily split and warped by changes
of temperature.

"Admitting for a moment the reality of this suppo
sition concerning the motion of the sap, it would follow
that the proper time for felling the timber would be
the new moon, that being the epoch at which the descent
of the sap would have been made, and the ascent not
yet commenced. But can there be imagined, in the
whole range of natural science, a physical relation
more extraordinary and unaccountable than this sup
posed correspondence between the movement of the
sap and the phases of the moon? Assuredly theory
affords not the slightest countenance to such a suppo
sition ; but let us inquire as to the fact whether it be
really the case that the quality of timber depends upon
the state of the moon at the time it is felled.

44 M. Duhamel ivluiieeuu, a celebrated French agri-

250 THE IMPORTANCE OF

culturist, has made direct and positive experiments for
the purpose of testing this question, and has clearly and
conclusively shown that the qualities of timber felled
in different parts of the lunar month are the same. M.
Duhamel felled a great many trees of the same age,
growing from the same soil, and exposed to the same
aspect, and never found any difference in the quality
of the timber, when he compared those which were
felled in the decline of the moon with those which were
felled during its increase : in general, they have afforded
timber of the same quality. He adds, however, that
by a circumstance which was doubtless fortuitous, a
slight difference was manifested in favor of timber
which had been felled between the new and full moon,
contrary to popular opinion"

SUPPOSED LUNAR INFLUENCES. — It is an aphorism re
ceived by all gardeners and agriculturists in Europe,
remarks the same author, that vegetables, plants, and
trees, which are expected to flourish and grow with
vigor, should be planted, grafted, and pruned during
the increase of the moon. This opinion, however, he
thinks is altogether erroneous ; for the experiments
and observations of several French agriculturists have
clearly established the fact that the increase or de
crease of the moon has no appreciable influence on the
phenomena of vegetation.

This erroneous prejudice prevails also on the Amer
ican continent. A French author states that, in Brazil,
cultivators plant during the decline of the moon all
vegetables whose roots are used as food, and that, on
the contrary, they plant during the increasing moon
the sugar-cane, maize, rice, beans, etc., and those which
bear the food upon their stocks and branches. Experi
ments, however, were made and reported by M. de
Chauvalon, at Martinique, on vegetables of both kinds,

POPULAR EDUCATION. 251

planted at different times in the lunar month, and no
appreciable difference in their qualities was discovered.

There are some traces of a principle adopted by the
{South American agronomes (farmers), according to
which they treat the two classes of plants distinguished
by the production of fruit on their roots or on their
branches differently ; but there are none in the Euro
pean aphorisms. The directions of Pliny are still more
specific : he prescribes the time of the full moon for
sowing beans, and that of the new moon for lentils.
" Truly," says M. Arago, " we have need of a robust
faith to admit, without proof, that the moon, at the dis
tance of two hundred and forty thousand miles, shall,
in one position, act advantageously upon the vegetation
of beans, and that in the opposite position, and at the
same distance, she shall be propitious to lentils."

Dr. Lardner gives numerous and extended illustra
tions of the supposed influence of the moon on the
growth of grain, on wine-making,* on the color of the
complexion, on putrefaction, on the size of shell-fish, on
the quantity of marrow in the bones of animals, on the
number of births, on mental derangement, and other
human maladies, etc., etc.

The influence on the phenomena of human maladies
imputed to the moon is very ancient, Hippocrates had
so strong a faith in the influence of celestial objects upon
animated beings, that he expressly recommends no phy
sician to be trusted who is ignorant of astronomy. Ga
len, following Hippocrates, maintained the same opin
ion, especially of the influence of the moon. The crit
ical days, or crises, were the seventh, fourteenth, and
twenty-first of the disease, corresponding to the inter
vals between the moon's principal phases. While the

On this subject the prevailing opinions in different countries dis
agree, as they do also on some of the others.

i ^ i r i ) K ' r A >: c rc o F

doctrine of alchemists prevailed, the human body was
considered as a microcosm, or an epitome of the uni
verse, the heart representing the sun, and the brain the
moon. The planets had each his proper influence :
Jupiter presided over the lungs, Saturn over the spleen,
Venus over the kidneys, and Mercury over the organs
of generation. The term lunacy, which still designates
unsoundness of mind, is a relic of these grotesque no
tions, and is defined by Dr. Webster as "a species of
insanity or madness, formerly supposed to be influ
enced by the moon, or periodical in the month." But
even this term may now be said, in some degree, to be
banished from the nomenclature of medicine ; it has,
however, taken refuge in that receptacle of all anti
quated absurdities of phraseology — the law — lunatic
being still the term for the subject who is incapable of
managing his own affairs.

Sanctorius, whose name is celebrated in physics for
the invention of the thermometer, held it as a principle
that a healthy man gained two pounds' weight at the
beginning of every lunar month, which he lost toward
its completion. This opinion appears to have been
founded on experiments made upon himself, and affords
another instance of a fortuitous coincidence hastily
generalized.

For all the progress that has been made in this
country toward the removal from the popular mind
of the numerous corrupting and debasing absurdities
which have hitherto enslaved it, we are indebted to our
enlightened and chastened systems of popular educa
tion ; and to these, and to these only, may we confi
dently look for entire freedom from the thraldom.

POPULAR EDUCATION.

EDUCATION INCREASES THE PRODUCTIVENESS OF LABOR.

Education has a power of ministering to our personal and material
wants beyond all other agencies, whether excellence of climate, spon
taneity of production, mineral resources, or mines of silver and gold.
Every wise parent, every wise community, desiring the prosperity of
its children even in the most worldly sense, will spare no pains in giv
ing them a generous education. — HORACE MANN.

The best educated are always the best paid. — Foreign Report.

The desirableness of education is manifest, view it
in what light we may, and whether as affecting indi
viduals or communities. We have already seen that
education, and that alone, will dissipate the evils of ig
norance. We now propose to discuss the equally tena
ble proposition that education increases the productive
ness of labor.

That knowledge is power has become a proverb.
If it be asked why the labor of a man is more valuable
than the same amount of physical effort put forth by a
brute, the ready answer is, It is because man combines
intelligence with his labor. A single yoke of oxen will
do more in one day at plowing than forty men ; yet
the oxen may be had for fifty cents a day, while each
of the men can earn a dollar. Physical exertion in
this case, combined with ordinary skill, is eighty times
more valuable than the same amount of brute force.
The strength of the ox is of no account without some
one to guide and apply it, while the power of man is
guided by intelligence within.

In proportion as man's intelligence increases is his
labor more valuable. A small compensation is the re
ward of mere physical power, while skill, combined
with a moderate amount of strength, commands high
wages. The labor of an ignorant man is scarcely
more valuable than the same amount of brute force ;

254 THE IMPORTANCE OF

but the services of an intelligent, skillful person r.re a
hundred fold more productive. I will pause and illus
trate, for I wish to have every person who arises from
the perusal of these pages do so with the fullest con
viction that mental culture is of the highest importance
even in the ordinary departments of human industry.
It is, indeed, hardly less important for the man of busi
ness, the farmer, or the mechanic, than for statesmen,
legislators, and members of the so-called learned pro
fessions.

An intelligent farmer of my acquaintance having a
piece of greensward to break up, and having three
work-horses, determined to employ them all. He
hence, possessing some mechanical skill, himself con
structed a three-horse whipple-tree, by means of which
he advantageously combined the strength of his horses.
A less intelligent neighbor, pleased with the novel ap
pearance of three horses working abreast, resolved to
try the experiment himself. But not possessing the
skill requisite to construct such a whipple-tree, he wait
ed till his better-informed and more expert neighbor
had got through with his, and then, borrowing it, tried
the experiment with his own team. Early one morn
ing, and full of expectation, aided by his two sons and
a hired man, he harnessed his three horses to the plow.
But one of them, for the first time, refused to draw.
After several fruitless attempts to make the team work
as first harnessed, the relative position of the horses
was changed, when, lo ! although this horse would
draw as formerly, one of the others would not. By
and by another change was made, and the third horse,
in turn, refused to draw. The farmer could not under
stand it, nor his sons, nor his hired man. His three
horses, for the first time, were each fickle in turn.
And, what was most surprising, they would all work

POPULAR EDUCATION. 255

'n either of two positions, but in the third none of them
would draw. The honest farmer thought the age of
witchcraft had not yet passed. At the conclusion of
the forenoon he gave up the undertaking in disgust,
and, carrying the whipple-tree home, told the story of
his unsuccessful and vexatious experiment.

" And how did you harness the horses to the whipple-
tree ?" inquired the more intelligent farmer. " Why,
one at the short end, and two at the long end, where
there is the most room for them, to be sure !" was the
frank reply.

The power at the short end, I need not say, should
be twice that at the long end ; whereas he had it re
versed. One horse drew against two with a double
purchase. He then would have to draw twice as much
as both of them, or four times as much as one of them.
The fickleness of the horses, then, instead of being the
result of witchcraft, as he was inclined to believe, was
chargeable solely to the ignorance of their hardly more
intelligent master. A knowledge of the first principles
of mechanics, or, in the absence of this, an ordinary
degree of active, available common sense, would teach
the proper use of such a whipple-tree. For want of
this knowledge, the farmer suffered much chagrin, lost
the time of four men, and did great injury to his team.

After mentioning this circumstance on a certain oc
casion, a gentleman present gave a parallel case, that
occurred under his immediate observation. His neigh
bor had a yoke of oxen, one of which was large, strong,
and beautiful. One day, as the neighbor was passing
the residence of the gentleman, the latter remarked to
him, " You have one very fine-looking ox." " Yes,"
replied the neighbor, with apparent satisfaction, " and
a bonny fellow he is too. He can carry the long end of
the yoke, and grow fat under it." Here, again, the weak-

256 THF IMPORTANCE OF

er ox had to tax his strength doubly on account of the
advantage which the ignorance of his kind master had
unintentionally given to his superior yoke-fellow.

A farmer, or laborer of any kind, who possesses a
knowledge of the merest elements of science, and is ac
customed to think and investigate, can not only work
more advantageously with iiis team, but he can do
more work himself, and do it easier too, than his neigh
bor of superior physical strength, though of inferior
mental capacity. The correctness of this statement
may be satisfactorily proved and amply illustrated in
loading timber, in moving buildings, in plowing, and in
almost every kind of work done on a farm or among
men, either on land or at sea. The ignorant man will
spend more time in running after help to do a supposed
difficult job, than it will require for a skillful one to do
it alone. This is true in carpentry, and in all of the
mechanic arts. Increase the practical and available
education of the laborer, arid you enable him to do more
work, and better work too, than his less informed asso
ciate. The following is a striking illustration.

A practical teacher employed some mechanics to
build him a barn. The day after the frame was raised,
the teacher discovered that it needed to be turned a
few inches upon its foundation, to range properly with
other buildings. While the mechanics went in several
directions to procure what they regarded as necessary
help, the teacher, who was familiar with the various
combinations of the lever, effected the work alone, and
before their return ! Other equally striking illustra
tions might be cited.

But education increases the productiveness of labor
in a wider and more extended sense, By its omnipo
tent influence, man is enabled to lay the elements under
tribute. The water and the wind, by its mysterious

POPULAR EDUCATION. 257

power, are made to propel his machinery for various
purposes. The utmost skill of the untutored savage
enables him to construct a rude canoe which two can
carry upon their shoulders by land, which is barely
capable of plying upon our rivers and coasting our in
land seas, and which can be propelled only by human
muscles, but the educated man erects a magnificent ves
sel, a floating palace, and, spreading his canvas to the
breeze, aided by the mariner's compass, can traverse
unknown seas in safety. To such perfection has he
attained in the science and art of navigation, that he
contends successfully with wind and tide, and makes
headway against both, even when he depends upon the
former for his motive power. Yes, education enables
man even to tax the gentle breeze to urge a proud ship,
heavily laden, up an inclined plane, thousands of miles,
against the current of a mighty river.

I can not, perhaps, so satisfactorily establish the prop
osition which I am now endeavoring to elucidate, nor
so well maintain the universality of its application, as
by referring to the writings of the most indefatigable
and successful laborer in the department of popular
education of which our country can boast. I refer to
the Hon. Horace Mann,* who, a few years ago, in his
official capacity, opened a correspondence, and availed
himself of all opportunities to hold personal interviews
with many of the most practical, sagacious, and intel
ligent business men in our country, who for many
years had had large numbers of persons in their em
ployment. His object was to ascertain the difference
in the productive ability, where natural capacities were

* Late Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Refer-
ence is here especially made to his Fifth Annual Report, bearing date
January 1, 1842, from which, with his consent, what follows under this
head has been substantially drawn.

258 THE IMPORTANCE OF

equal, between the educated and the uneducated ; be<
tvveen a man or a woman whose mind has been awak
ened to thought, and supplied with the rudiments of
knowledge by a good common school education, and
one whose faculties have never been developed, or
aided in emerging from their original darkness and
torpor by such a privilege. For this purpose he con
ferred and corresponded with manufacturers of all
kinds — with machinists, engineers, railroad contractors,
officers in the army, etc. ; classes which have means of
determining the effects of education on individuals
equal in their natural abilities that other classes do
not possess.

A farmer hiring a laborer for one season who has
received a good common school education, and the
ensuing season hiring another who has not enjoyed this
advantage, although he may be personally convinced
of the relative value or profitableness of their services,
yet he will rarely have any exact data or tests to refer
to by which he can measure the superiority of the
former over the latter. They do not work side by
side, so that he can institute a comparison between the
amounts of labor they perform. They may cultivate
different fields, where the ease of tillage or the fertility
of the soils may be different. They may rear crops
under the influence of different seasons, so that he can
not discriminate between what is referable to the boun
ty of nature and what to superiority in judgment or
skill.

Similar difficulties exist in estimating the amount and
value of female labor in the household. And as to the
mechanic also — the carpenter, the mason, the black
smith, the tool-maker of any kind — there are a thou
sand circumstances, which we call accidental, that min
gle their irfluence in giving quality and durability to

rOI'ULAll EDUCATION. 259

work, and prevent us from making a precise esti
mate of the relative value of any two men's handicraft.
Individual differences, too, in regard to a single article
or a single days' work, may be too minute to be no
ticed or appreciated, while the aggregate of these dif
ferences at the end of a few years may make all the
difference between a poor man and a rich one. No
observing man can have failed to notice the difference
between two workmen, one of whom, to use a proverb
ial expression, always " hits the nail on the head," while
the other loses half his strength and destroys half his
nails by the awkwardness of his blows ; but perhaps
few men have thought of the difference in the results
of two such men's labor at the end of twenty years.

But when hundreds of men or women work side by
side in the same factory, at the same machinery, in
making the same fabrics, and, by a fixed rule of the
establishment, labor the same number of hours each
day ; and when, also, the products of each operative
can be counted in number, weighed by the pound, or
measured by the yard or cubic foot, then it is perfect
ly practicable to determine, with arithmetical exact
ness, the productions of one individual and class as
compared with those of another individual and class.

So, where there are different kinds of labor, some
simple, others complicated, and of course requiring dif
ferent degrees of intelligence and skill, it is easy to ob
serve what class of persons rise from a lower to a higher
grade of employment.

This, too, is not to be forgotten, that in a manufar
turing or mechanical establishment, or among a set ot
hands engaged in filling up a valley or cutting down a
hill, where scores of people are working together, the
absurd and adventitious distinctions of society do not
intrude. The capitalist and his agents are looking for

TI1K JMl'.'HvTAlVCE OF

the greatest amount of labor or the largest income in
money from their investments, and they do not promote
a dunce to a station where he will destroy raw ma
terial or slacken industry because of his name, or birth,
or family connections. The obscurest and humblest
person has a fair field for competition. That he proves
himself capable of earning more money for his employ
ers is a testimonial better than a diploma from all the
colleges.

Now many of the most intelligent and valuable men
in the community, in compliance with Mr. Mann's re
quest, examined their books for a series of years, and
ascertained both the quality and the amount of work
performed by persons in their employment, and the re
sult of the investigation is a most astonishing superiority
in productive power on the part of the educated over
the uneducated laborer. The hand is found to be an
other hand when guided by an intelligent mind. Pro
cesses are performed not only more rapidly, but bet
ter, when faculties which have been exercised in early
life furnish their assistance. Individuals who, without
the aid of knowledge, would have been condemned to
perpetual inferiority of condition, and subjected to all
the evils of want and poverty, rise to competence and
independence by the uplifting pqwer of education. In
great establishments, and among large bodies of labor
ing men, where all services are rated according to their
pecuniary value ; where there are no extrinsic circum
stances to bind a man down to a fixed position after he
has shown a capacity to rise above it ; where, indeed,
men pass by each other, ascending or descending in
their grades of labor just as easily and certainly as par
ticles of water of different degrees of temperature glide
by each other — under such circumstances it is found,
as an almost invariable fact, other things being equal,

POPULAR EDUCATION. 261

that those who have been blessed with a good common
school education rise to a higher and a higher point in
the kinds of labor performed, and also in the rate of
wages received, while the ignorant sink like dregs, and
are always found at the bottom.

James K. Mills, Esq., of Boston, who has been con
nected with a house that has had for the last ten years
the principal direction of cotton-mills, machine shops,
and calico-printing works, in which are constantly em
ployed about three thousand persons, and whose opin
ions of the effects of a common school education upon
a manufacturing population are the result of personal
observation and inquiries, and are confined to the testi
mony of the overseers and agents who are brought
into immediate contact with the operatives, expresses
the conviction that the rudiments of a common school
education are essential to the attainment of skill and
expertness as laborers, or to consideration and respect
in the civil and social relations of life ; that very few
who have not enjoyed the advantages of a common
school education ever rise above the lowest class of
operatives, and that the labor of this class, when it is
employed in manufacturing operations which require
even a very moderate degree of manual or mental dex
terity, is unproductive ; that a large majority of the
overseers and others employed in situations which re
quire a high degree of skill in particular branches —
which oftentimes require a good general -knowledge of
business, and always an unexceptionable moral char
acter — have made their way up from the condition of
common laborers, with no other advantage over a large
proportion of those they have left behind than that de
rived from a better education.

A statement made from the books of one of the man
ufacturing companies will show the relative number

THE IMPORTANCE OF

of the two classes, and the earnings of each ; and this
mill, we are assured, may be taken as a fair index of
all the others. The average number of operatives em
ployed for the last three years is twelve hundred. Of
this number there are forty-five unable to write their
names, or about three and three fourths per cent. The
average of women's wages, in the departments requir
ing the most skill, is two dollars and fifty cents per
week, exclusive of board. The average wages of the
lowest departments is one dollar and twenty-five cents
per week.

Of the forty-five who are unable to write, twenty-
nine, or about two thirds, are employed in the lowest
department. The difference between the wages earned
by the forty-five and the average wages of an equal
number of the better-educated class is about twenty-
seven per cent, in favor of the latter. The difference
between the wages earned by twenty-nine of the low
est class and the same number in the higher is sixty-
six per cent. Of seventeen persons filling the most
responsible stations in the mills, ten have grown up
in the establishment from common laborers or appren
tices.

This statement does not include an importation of
sixty-three persons from Manchester, in England, in
1839. Among these persons there was scarcely one
who could read or write ; and although a part of them
had been accustomed to work in cotton-mills, yet, either
from incapacity or idleness, they were unable to earn
sufficient to pay for their subsistence, and at the expi
ration of a few weeks not more than half a dozen re
mained in the employment of the company.

In some of the print-works a large proportion of the
operatives are foreigners. Those who are employed
in the branches which require a considerable ctafree

POPULAR EDUCATION. 203

of skill arc as well educated as our people in similar
situations. But the common laborers, as a class, are
without any education, and their average earnings are
about two thirds only of those of our lowest classes, al
though the prices paid to each are the same for the
same amount of work.

Among the men and boys employed in the machine
shops, the want of education is quite rare. Mr. Mills
does not know an instance of a person so employed
who is unable to read and write ; and many have a
good common school education. To this, he thinks,
may be attributed the fact that a large proportion of
persons who fill the higher and more responsible situ
ations come from this class of workmen. From these
statements the reader will be able to form some esti
mate, in dollars and cents, at least, of the advantages
of even a little education to the operative ; and there is
not the least doubt, says the same authority, that the em
ployer is equally benefited. He has the security for
his property that intelligence, good morals, and a just
appreciation of the regulations of his establishment al
ways afford. His machinery and mills, which consti
tute a large part of his capital, are in the hands of per
sons who, by their skill, are enabled to use them to
their utmost capacity, and to prevent any unnecessary
depreciation.

Each operative in a cotton-mill, according to the es
timate of Mr. Mills, may be supposed to represent from
one thousand to twelve hundred dollars of the capital
invested in the mill and its machinery. It is only from
the most diligent and economical use of this capital that
the proprietor can expect a profit. A fraction less than
one half of the cost of manufacturing common cotton
goods when a mill is in full operation, is made up of
charges which are permanent. If the product is re-

201 THE IMPORTANCE OF

ducecl in the ratio of the capacity of the two classes ot
operatives mentioned in this statement, it will be seen
that the cost will be increased in a compound ratio.
Mr. Mills expresses the opinion " that the best cotton-
mill in New England, with such operatives only as the
forty-five mentioned above, who are unable to write
their names, would never yield the proprietor a profit;
that the machinery would be soon worn out, and he
would be left, in a short time, with a population no
better than that which is represented by the importa
tion from England. I can not imagine any situation
in life," he continues, " where the want of a common
school education would be more severely felt, or be at
tended with worse consequences, than in manufacturing
villages; nor, on the other hand, is there any where
such advantages can be improved with greater benefit
to all parties. There is more excitement and activity
m the minds of people living in masses, and if this ex
pends itself in any of the thousand vicious indulgences
with which they are sure to be tempted, the road to
destruction is traveled over with a speed exactly cor
responding to the power employed."

H. Bartlett, Esq., of Lowell, who has been engaged
ten years in manufacturing, and has had the constant
charge of from four hundred to nine hundred persons
during that time, has come in contact with a very
great variety of character and disposition, and has seen
mind applied to production in the mechanic and man
ufacturing arts possessing different degrees of intelli
gence, from gross ignorance to a high degree of culti
vation, and he has no hesitation in affirming that he
finds the best educated to be the most profitable help.
Even those females who merely tend machinery give a
result somewhat in proportion to the, advantages enjoyed
in early life for education, those who have a good

1'OPULAR EDUCATION. '265

common school education giving, as a class, invariably
a better production than those brought up in ignorance.

In regard to the domestic and social habits of persons
in his employ, the same gentleman adds, " I have never
considered mere knowledge, valuable as it is to the la
borer, as the only advantage derived from a good com
mon school education. I have uniformly found the
better educated, as a class, possessing a higher and
better state of morals, more orderly and respectful in
their deportment, and more ready to comply with the
wholesome and necessary regulations of an establish
ment. And in times of agitation, on account of some
change in regulations or wages, I have always looked
to the most intelligent, best educated, and the most
moral for support, and have seldom been disappointed ;
for, while they are the last to submit to imposition,
they reason, and if your requirements are reasonable,
they will generally acquiesce, and exert a salutary in-
influence upon their associates. But the ignorant and
uneducated I have generally found the most turbulent
and troublesome, acting under the influence of excited
passion and jealousy.

" The former appear to have an interest in sustain
ing good order, while the latter seem more reckless of
consequences. And, to my mind, all this is perfectly
natural. The better educated have more and stronger
attachments binding them to the place where they are.
They are generally neater in their persons, dress, and
houses ; surrounded with more comforts, with fewer
of « the ills flesh is heir to.' In short, I have found the
educated, as a class, more cheerful and contented, de
voting a portion of their leisure time to reading and in
tellectual pursuits, more with their families, and less in
scenes of dissipation. The good effect of all this is
seen in the more orderly and comfortable appearance

M

206 THE IMPOKTANCE OF

of the whole household, but nowhere more strikingly
than in the children. A mother who has a good com
mon school education will rarely suffer her children to
grow up in ignorance. As I have said, this class of
persons are more quiet, more orderly, and, I may add,
more regular in their attendance upon public worship,
and more punctual in the performance of all their duties."

Mr. Bartlett thinks it would be very difficult, if not
impossible, for a young man, who has not an education
equal to a good common school education, to rise from
grade to grade until he should obtain the berth of an
overseer, and that, in making promotions, as a general
thing, it would be unnecessary to make inquiry as to
the education of the young men from whom you would
select. Very seldom indeed, he says, would an unedu
cated young man rise to " a better place and better pay.
Young men who expect to resort to manufacturing
establishments for employment, can not prize too high
ly a good education. It will give them standing among
their associates, and be the means of promotion among
their employers.'1

The final remark of this gentleman, in a lengthy let
ter, showing the advantages of education in a pecunia
ry, social, and moral point of view, is, that " those who
possess the greatest share in the stock of worldly goods
are deeply interested in this subject, as one of mere in
surance ; that the most effectual way of making insur
ance on their property would be to contribute from it
enough to sustain an efficient system of common school
education, thereby educating the whole mass of mind, and
constituting it a police more effectual than peace officers
and prisons.'11 By so doing he thinks they would be
stow a benefaction upon those who, from the accident
of birth or parentage, are subjected to the privations
and temptations of poverty, and would do much to re-

POPULAR EDUCATION. 267

move the prejudice and to strengthen the bands of
union between the different and extreme portions of so
ciety. He very justly regards it a wise provision of
Providence which connects so intimately, and, as he
thinks, so indissolubly, the greatest good of the many
with the highest interest of the few ; or, in other words,
which unites into one brotherhood all the members of
the community, and in the existing partnership con
nects inseparably the interests of Labor and Capital.*
John Clark, Esq., of Lowell, who has had under his
superintendence for eight years about fifteen hundred
persons of both sexes, gives concurrent testimony.
He has found, with very few exceptions, the best edu
cated among his hands to be the most capable, intelli
gent, energetic, industrious, economical, and moral,
and that they produce the best work, and the most of
it, with the least injury to the machinery. They are,
in short, in all respects the most useful, profitable, and
the safest operatives ; and as a class, they are more
thrifty, and more apt to accumulate property for them
selves. " I am very sure," he remarks, " that neither
men of property nor society at large have any thing
to fear from a more general diffusion of knowledge, nor
from the extension and improvement of our system of
common schools. On our pay-roll for the last month
are borne the names of twelve hundred and twenty-
nine female operatives, forty of whom receipted for

* The New York Free School State Convention, held in Syracuse
the 10th and llth of July inst. (1850), unanimously adopted an Address
to the People of the State, written by Horace Greeley, in which tho
following passage occurs, inculcating the same sentiment: "Property
is deeply interested in the Education of All. There is no farm, no bank,
no mill, no shop — unless it be a grog-shop — which is not more valua
ble and more profitable to its owner if located among a well-educated
than if surrounded by an ignorant population. Simply as a matter of
interest, we hold it to be the duty of Property 1o Hs'-Jf to provide Ednca*
ticnfor All."

2(>8 THE IMPORTANCE OF

their pay by ' making their mark.' Twenty-six of these
have been employed in job work ; that is, they are paid
according to the quantity of work turned off from their
machines. The average pay of these twenty-six falls
eighteen and one half per cent, below the general av
erage of those engaged in the same departments.

" Again : we have in our mills about one hundred
and fifty females who have at some time been engaged
in teaching schools. Many of them teach during the
summer months, and work in the mills in winter. The
average wages of these ex-teachers I find to be seven
teen and three fourths per cent, above the general aver
age of our mills, and about forty per cent, above the
twenty-six who can not write their names. It may be
said they are generally employed in the higher depart
ments, where the pay is better. This is true ; but this
again may be, in most cases, fairly attributed to their
better education, which brings us to the same result.
If I had included in my calculations the remaining four
teen of the forty, who were mostly sweepers and scrub
bers, and who are paid by the day, the contrast would
have been still more striking ; but, having no well-edu
cated females in this department with whom to com
pare them, I have omitted them altogether. In arriving
at the above results, I have considered the net wages
merely, the price of board being in all cases the same.
I do not consider these results as either extraordinary
or surprising, but as a part only of the legitimate and
proper fruits of a better cultivation, and fuller develop
ment of the intellectual and moral powers."

Mr. Mann gives the entire letters from which I have
so freely drawn, and also introduces into his report ex
tracts from a letter of Jonathan Crane, Esq., who has
Deen for many years a large rail-road contractor, and
has had several thousand men in his employment.

POrULAR EDUCATION. 209

The testimony of this gentleman is corroborative of
that already presented. Testimony similar to the pre
ceding might be introduced from the proprietors and
superintendents of the principal manufacturing estab
lishments in America not only, but from every part of
the civilized world. Before concluding this chapter, I
shall, for another purpose, refer to statements made by
extensive manufacturers in England and Switzerland.

These are no more than a fair specimen of a mass
of facts which Mr. Mann obtained from the most au
thentic sources. They seem to prove incontestably
that education is not only a moral renovator, and a
multiplier of intellectual power, but that it is also the
most prolific parent of material riches. It has a right,
therefore, not only to be included in the grand invento
ry of a nation's resources, but to be placed at the very
head of that inventory. It is not only the most honest
and honorable, but the surest means of amassing prop
erty. Considering education, then, as a producer of
wealth, it follows that the more educated a people are,
the more will they abound in all those conveniences,
comforts, and satisfactions which money will buy ;
and, other things being equal, the increase of compe
tency and the decline of pauperism will be measurable
on this scale.

EDUCATION AND AGRICULTURE. — The healthful and
praiseworthy employment of agriculture requires
knowledge for its successful prosecution. In this de
partment of industry we are in perpetual contact with
the forces of nature. We are constantly dependent
upon them for the pecuniary returns and profits of our
investments, and hence the necessity of knowing what
those forces are, and under what circumstances they
will operate most efficiently, and will most bountifully
reward our original outlay of money and time.

'270 THE IMPORTANCE OF

Our country yields a great variety of agricultura.
productions, and this brings into requisition all that
chemical and experimental knowledge which pertains
to the rotation of crops and the enrichment of soils. If
rotation be disregarded, the repeated demands upon
the same soil to produce the same crop will exhaust it
of the elements on which that particular crop will best
thrive. If the chemical ingredients and affinities of the
soil are not understood, an attempt may be made to re-
enforce it by substances with which it is already sur
charged, instead of renovating it with those of which it
has been exhausted by previous growths. But for these
arrangements and adaptations knowledge is the grand
desideratum, and the addition of a new fact to a farm
er's mind will often increase the amount of his harvests
more than the addition of acres to his estate.

Why is it that, if we except Egypt, all the remain
ing territory of Africa, containing nearly ten millions
of square miles, with a soil most of which is incom
parably more fertile by nature, produces less for the
sustenance of man and beast than England, whose ter
ritory is only fifty thousand square miles ? In the lat
ter country, knowledge has been a substitute for a ge
nial climate and an exuberant soil ; while in the former,
it is hardly a figurative expression to say that all the
maternal kindness of nature, powerful and benignant
as she is, has been repulsed by the ignorance of her
children. Doubtless industry as well as knowledge is
indispensable to productiveness; but knowledge must
precede industry, or the latter will work to so little ef
fect as to become discouraged, and to relapse into the
slothfulness of savage life. This is illustrated by the
condition of the inhabitants of Lower California, as de
scribed by an intelligent friend of the author, who left
this country a year ago. He says this is a " most beau

FOITLAR EDUCATION. 271

tiful country, with the finest climate in the world. Bir.
its inhabitants, who are principally Spaniards and In
dians, are in a state of semi-barbarism, and consequent
ly its resources are, to a certain extent, undeveloped.
The land, which is generally level and of the richest
quality, is divided into ranches or plantations, the larg
est of which are twenty miles square, and feed twenty
or thirty thousand head of wild cattle, with horses and
mules in proportion. But these are all. The arts are
in the lowest state imaginable. Their houses are mere
pens, without pen floors ; their plows are pointed logs ;
their yokes are straight sticks, which they tie to the
horns of their oxen ; and every implement of industry
shows an equal want of ingenuity and enterprise.
They are too indolent to raise much grain, though the
soil will yield, I am told, eighty bushels of wheat to an
acre ; consequently, wheat is sold to the immigrants at
three dollars per bushel, while the finest beef cattle in
the world bring from eight to ten dollars per head.
Butter, cheese, and even milk, you can not obtain at
all, for they are too lazy to tame their cows. A few
Americans, who own large ranchos, have American
plows, and are doing better than the rest. Many
ranchos have been abandoned, and their owners have
gone to the mines. This state of things the energetic
Anglo-Saxon will soon change. The immigration for
the next few years will be immense, and the whole
community will yield to American customs. The large
ranchos will be cut up into farms, and their products
i will supply the wants of a dense population. Property
will rapidly change hands, and it will be easy for the
shrewd Yankee to reap the benefit of the change."

But, without further exposition, it may he remarked
generally, that the spread of intelligence, through the
instrumentality of good books, and the cultivation in

272 THE IMPORTANCE OF

our children of the faculties of observing, comparing,
and reasoning, through the medium of good schools,
would add millions to the agricultural products of
nearly every state of the Union, without imposing upon
the husbandman an additional hour of labor.

EDUCATION AND THE USEFUL ARTS. — For the success
ful prosecution among us of the manufacturing and
mechanic arts, if not for their very existence, there
must be not only the exactness of science, but also ex
actness or skill in the application of scientific princi
ples throughout the whole processes, either of con
structing machinery, or of transforming raw materials
into finished fabrics. This ability to make exact and
skillful applications of science to an unlimited variety
of materials, and especially to the subtile but most en
ergetic agencies of nature, is one of the latest attain
ments of the human mind. It is remarkable that as
tronomy, sculpture, painting, poetry, oratory, and even
ethical philosophy, had made great progress thousands
of years before the era of the manufacturing and me
chanic arts. This era, indeed, has but just commenced ;
and already the abundance, and, what is of far greater
importance, 'the universality of the personal, domestic,
and social comforts it has created, constitute one of the
most important epochs in the history of civilization.

The cultivation of these arts is conferring a thou
sand daily accommodations and pleasures upon the
laborer in his cottage, which, only two or three centu
ries ago, were luxuries in the palace of the monarch.
Through circumstances incident to the introduction of
all economical improvements, there has hitherto been
great inequality in the distribution of their advantages ;
but their general tendency is greatly to ameliorate the
condition of the mass of mankind. It has been esti
mated that the products of machinery in Great Britain,

POPULAR EDUCATION. 273

with a population of eighteen millions, is equal to the
labor of hundreds of millions of human hands. This
vast gain is effected without the conquest or partition
ing of the territory of any neighboring nation, and with
out rapine or the confiscation of property already ac
cumulated by others. It is an absolute creation of
wealth — that is, of those articles, commodities, and im
provements which we appraise and set down as of a
certain moneyed value alike in the inventory of a de
ceased man's estate and in the grand valuation of a
nation's capital. These contributions to human wel
fare have been derived from knowledge ; from know
ing how to employ those natural agencies which from
the beginning of the race had existed, but had lain dor
mant or run uselessly away. For mechanical pur
poses, what is wind, or water, or the force of steam
worth, until the ingenuity of man comes in, and places
the wind-wheel, the water-wheel, or the piston between
these mighty agents and the work he wishes them to
perform? But after the intervention of machinery.
how powerful they become for all purposes of utility !
In a word, these great improvements, which distinguish
our age from all preceding ages, have been obtained
from Nature by addressing her in the language of
Science and Art, the only language she understands,
yet one of such all-pervading efficacy that she never
refuses to comply to the letter with all petitions for
wealth or physical power, if they are preferred to her
in that dialect.

Now it is easy to show, from reasoning, from histo
ry, and from experience, that an early awakening of
the mind is a prerequisite to success in the useful arts.
But it must be an awakening to thought, not to feeling
merely. In the first place, a clearness of perception
must be acquired, or the power of taking a correct

M 2

274 THE IMPORTANCE OF

mental transcript, copy, or image of whatever is seen.
This, however, though indispensable, is by no means
sufficient.

The talent of improving upon the labors of others re
quires not only the capability of receiving an exact
mental copy or imprint of all the objects of sense or
reasoning ; it also requires the power of reviving or
reproducing at will all the impressions or ideas before
obtained, and the power of changing their collocations,
of re-arranging them into new forms, and of adding
something to or removing something from the original
perceptions, in order to make a more perfect plan or
model. If a ship-Wright, for instance, would improve
upon all existing specimens of naval architecture, he
would first examine as great a number of ships as pos
sible ; this done, he would revive the image which each
had imprinted upon his mind, and, with all the fleets
which he had inspected present to his imagination, he
would compare each individual vessel with all others,
make a selection of one part from one, and of another
part from another, apply his own knowledge of the
laws of moving and of resisting forces to all, and thus
create, in his own mind, the complex idea or model of
a ship more perfect than any of those he had seen.

Now every recitation in a school., if rightly conducted,
is a step toward the attainment of this wonderful power.
With a course of studies judiciously arranged and dil
igently pursued through the years of minority, all the
great phenomena of external nature, and the most im
portant productions in all the useful arts, together with
the principles on which they are evolved or fashioned,
would be successively brought before the understand
ing of the pupil. He would thus become familiar with
the substances of the material world, and with their
manifold properties and uses; and he would learn the

POPULAR EDUCATION, 275

laws, comparatively few, by which results infinitely di
versified are produced. When such a student goes
out into life, he carries, as it were, a plan or model of
the world in his own mind. He can not, therefore,
pass, either blindly or with the stupid gaze of the brute
creation, by the great objects and processes of nature ;
but he has an intelligent discernment of their several
existences and relations, and their adaptation to the uses
of mankind. Neither can he fasten his eye upon any
workmanship or contrivance of man without asking
two questions : first, How is it ? and, secondly, How can
it be improved ?

Hence it is that all the processes of nature and the
contrivances of art are so many lessons or com muni
cations to an instructed man ; but an uninstructed one
walks in the midst of them like a blind man among
colors, or a deaf man among sounds. The Romans
carried their aqueducts from hill-top to hill-top, on lofty
arches erected at immense expenditure of time and
money. One idea — that is, a knowledge of the law of
the equilibrium of fluids; a knowledge of the fact that
water in a tube will rise to the level of the fountain —
would have enabled a single individual to do with ease
what, without that knowledge, it required the wealth of
an empire to accomplish.

It is in ways similar to this — that is, by accomplish
ing greater results with less means ; by creating prod
ucts at once cheaper, better, and by more expedi
tious methods ; and by doing a vast variety of things
otherwise impossible — that the cultivation of mind may
bo truly said to yield the highest pecuniary requital.

Intelligence is the great money-maker, not by extortion,
but by PRODUCTION. There are ten thousand things in
every department of life which, if done m season, can
be done in a minute, but which, if not seasonably clone,

276 THE IMPORTANCE OF

will require hours, perhaps days or weeks for their per
formance. An awakened mind will see and seize the
critical juncture ; the perceptions of the sluggish one
will come too late, if they come at all.

A general culture of the faculties, also, gives versa
tility of talent, so that, if the customary business of the
laborer is superseded by improvements, he can read
ily betake himself to another kind of employment. But
an uncultivated mind is like an automaton, which can
do only the thing for which its wheels or springs were
made. Brute force expends itself unproductively. It
is ignorant of the manner in which Nature works, and
hence it can not avail itself of her mighty agencies.
Often, indeed, it attempts to oppose Nature. It throws
itself across the track where her resistless car is moving.
But knowledge enables its possessor to employ her
agencies in his own service, and he thereby obtains an
amount of power, without fee or reward, which thou
sands of slaves could not give.

Every man who consumes a single article in whose
production or transportation the power of steam is used,
has it delivered to him cheaper than he could otherwise
have obtained it. Every man who can avail himself
of this power in traveling, can perform the business of
three days in one, and so far add two hundred per cent,
to the length of his life as a business man. What in
numerable millions has the invention of the cotton-gin,
by Whitney, added, and will continue to add, to the
wealth of the world ! a part of which is already real
ized, but vastly the greater part of which is yet to be
received, as each successive day draws for an install
ment which would exhaust the treasury of a nation.
The instructed and talented man enters the rich do
mains of Nature not as an intruder, but, as it were, a
PROPRIETOR, and makes her riches his own.

POPULAR EDUCATION. 277

Why is it that, so far as the United States are con
cerned, four fifths of all the improvements, inventions,
and discoveries in regard to machinery, to agricultural
implements, to superior models in ship-building, and to
the manufacture of those refined instruments on which
accuracy in scientific observations depends, have orig
inated in New England ? 1 believe no adequate reason
can be assigned but the early awakening and training
of the power of thought in her children. Improve
ments, inventions, and discoveries have been made in
other states of the Union to an extent commensurate
with the progress they have made in perfecting their
systems of public instruction, and these improvements
will ever keep pace with the attentions which a people
bestow upon their common schools.

Mr. Mann remarks that, in conversing with a gen
tleman who had possessed most extensive opportunities
for acquaintance with men of different countries and
of all degrees of intellectual development, he observed
that he could employ a common immigrant or a slave,
and, if he chose, could direct him to shovel a heap of
sand from one spot to another, and then back into its
former place, and so to and fro through the day ; but,
added he, neither love nor money would prevail on a
New Englander to prosecute a piece of work of which
he did not see the utility.

There is scarcely any kind of labor, however simple,
pertaining to the farm, to the work-shop, or to domestic
employments, and whether performed by male or fe
male, which can be so well done without knowledge in
the workman or domestic as with it. It is impossible
for an overseer or employer at all times to supply
mind to the laborer. In giving directions for the short
est series or train of operations, something will be
omitted or misunderstood ; and without intelligence in

278 THE IMPORTANCE OF

the workman, the omission or mistake will be repeated
in the execution.

It is a fact of universal notoriety, that the manufac
turing population of England, as a class, work for half,
or less than half the wages of our own. The cost of
machinery there, also, is about half as much as the cost
of the same articles with us ; while our capital, when
loaned, produces nearly double the rate of English in
terest ; yet against these grand adverse circumstan
ces our manufacturers, with a small per centage of
tariff, successfully compete with English capitalists in
many branches of manufacturing business. No expla
nation can be given of this extraordinary fact which
does not take into the account the difference of educa
tion between the operatives in the two countries.

One of our most careful and successful manufactur
ers remarks that, on substituting in one of his cotton-
mills a better for a poorer educated class of operatives,
he was enabled to add twelve or fifteen per cent, to the
speed of his machinery, without any increase of damage
or danger from the acceleration. How direct and de
monstrative the bearing which facts like this have upon
the wisdom of our lawrs respecting the education of
children in manufacturing establishments.*

* In Connecticut the statutes provide " that no child under the age
of fifteen years shall be employed to labor in any manufacturing estab
lishment, or in any other business in the state, unless such child shall
have attended some public or private day school where instruction is
given by a teacher qualified to instruct in orthography, reading, writing,
English grammar, geography, and arithmetic, at least three months of
the twelve months next preceding any and every year in which such
child shall be so employed. And the owner, agent, or superintendent
of any manufacturing establishment who shall employ any child in such
establishment contrary to the provisions of this act, shall forfeit and pay
for each offense a penalty of twenty-five dollars to the treasurer of the
state." Li Massachusetts the forfeiture is fifty dollars. Similar provi
sions exist in other American, and in several European states.

POTULAR EDUCATION. 279

The nu« Tiber of females in the State of Massachusetts
engaged in the various manufactures of cotton, straw-
platting, etc., has been estimated at forty thousand,
and the annual value of their labor at one hundred
dollars each on an average, or four millions of dollars
for the whole. From the facts stated in the letters of
Messrs. Mills and Clark above cited, it appears there
is a difference of not less than fifty per cent, between
the earnings of the least educated and of the best edu
cated operatives — between those who make their marks
instead of writing their names, and those who have
been acceptably employed in school-keeping. Now
suppose the whole forty thousand females engaged in
the various kinds of manufactures in that common
wealth to be degraded to the level of the lowest class,
it would follow that their aggregate earnings would fall
at once to two millions of dollars. But. on the other
hand, suppose them all to be elevated by mental culti
vation to the rank of the highest, and their earnings
would rise to the sum of six millions of dollars annually.

There can be no doubt but that education, or the
want of it, affects the pecuniary value of female labor
in the ordinary domestic employments of the sex not
less than in manufactures. If, then, the females of the
thirty states of the Union be estimated at eight millions
— and the number sustaining the relations of daughters,
wives, and mothers must exceed the supposition — the
effect of giving them all an education equal to the best
would at once raise their earnings, annually, two hund
red millions of dollars! But this is the lowest sense
in which we can estimate the value of education, even
in the sterner sex. This sum, vast as it may seem, is
as dross to gold when compared with the refining and
elevating influence which eight millions of educated
females would exert upon the domestic and social in-

280 THE IMPORTANCE OF

stitutions of our country, in uplifting our national char
acter and improving the condition of the race.

Not more than thirty years ago it was uncommon
for a glazier's apprentice, even after having served an
apprenticeship of seven years, to be able to cut glass
with a diamond without spending much time and de
stroying much of the glass upon which he worked.
But the invention of a simple tool has put it into the
power of the merest tyro in the trade to cut glass with
facility, and without loss. A man who had a mind, as
well as fingers, observed that there was one direction
in which the diamond was almost incapable of abrasion
or wearing by use. The tool not only steadies the
diamond, but fastens it in that direction.

The operation of tanning leather consists in exposing
a hide to the action of a chemical ingredient, called
tannin, for a length of time sufficient to allow every
particle of the hide to become saturated with the solu
tion. In making the best leather, the hides used to lay
in the pit for six, twelve, or eighteen months, and some
times for two years, the tanner being obliged to wait
all this time for a return of his capital. By the modern
process, the hides are placed in a close pit, with a solu
tion of the tannin. matter, and the air being exhausted,
the liquid penetrates through every pore and fiber of
the skin, and the whole process is completed in a few
days.

The bleaching of cloth, which used to be effected in
the open air, and in exposed situations where tempta
tion to theft was offered, and in England hundreds and
probably thousands of men have yielded and forfeited
their lives, is now performed in an unexposed situation,
and in a manner so expeditious, that cloth is bleached
as much more rapidly than it formerly was as h des
are tanned.

POPULAR EDUCATION. 281

It is stated by Lord Brougham, in his beautiful Dis
course on the Advantages of Science, that the inventoi
of the new mode of refining sugar made more money
in a shorter time, and with less risk and trouble, than
perhaps was ever realized from any previous invention.

Intelligence also prevents loss as well as makes prof
its. How much time and money have been squander
ed in repeated attempts to invent machinery, after a
principle had been once tested and had failed through
some defect inherent and natural, and therefore in
superable ! Within thirty years not less than five pat
ents have been taken out, in England and the United
States, for a certain construction of paddle-wheels for
a steamboat, which construction was tested and con
demned as early as 1810.* A case once came within
my own knowledge, says Mr. Mann, of a person who
spent a fortune in mining for coal, when a work on
geology, which would have cost but a dollar, and might
have been read in a week, would have informed him
that the stratum where he began to excavate belonged
to a formation lower down in the natural series than
coal ever is, or, according to the constitution of things,
ever can be found. He therefore worked into a stra
tum which must have been formed before a particle of
coal, or even a tree, or a vegetable existed on the
planet. Numerous similar and equally striking illus
trations might be cited, but this is not necessary.

These are a few specimens, on familiar subjects, taken
almost at random, for the purpose of showing the in
herent superiority of any association or community,
whether small or great, where mind is a member of the
partnership. What is true of the above-mentioned
cases is true of the whole circle of those arts by which

* This statement was made eight years ago. More such patents
may have been taken out within this time.

282 THE IMPORT ANCE OF

human life is sustained and human existence comfort
ed, elevated, and embellished. Mind has been the im
prover, for matter can not improve itself, and improve
ment has advanced in proportion to the number and
culture of the minds excited to activity and applied to
the work.

Similar advancements have been effected throughout
the whole compass of human labor and research; in the
arts of Transportation and Locomotion, from the em
ployment of the sheep and the goat as beasts of burden,
to the steam-engine and the rail-road car ; in the art
of Navigation, from the canoe clinging timidly to the
shore, to steam -ships which boldly traverse the ocean ;
in Hydraulics, from carrying water by hand in a ves
sel or in horizontal aqueducts, to those vast conduits
which supply the demands of a city, and to steam fire-
engines which throw a column of water to the top of
the loftiest buildings ; in the arts of Spinning and Rope-
making, from the hand distaff to the spinning-frame,
and to the machine which makes cordage or cables of
any length, in a space ten feet square ; in Horology or
Time-keeping, from the sun-dial and the water-clock
to the watch, and to the chronometer, by which the
mariner is assisted in measuring his longitude, and in
saving property and life ; in the extraction, forging,
and tempering of Iron and other ores having mallea
bility to be wrought into all forms and used for all pur
poses, and supplying, instead of the stone hatchet or
the fish-shell of the savage, an almost infinite variety
of instruments, which have sharpness for cutting or so
lidity for striking ; in the art of Vitrification or Glass-
making, giving not only a multitude of commodious and
ornamental utensils for the household, but substituting
the window for the unsightly orifice or open casement,
and winnowing light and warmth from the outward

POrULAR EDUCATION. 283

and the cold atmosphere ; in the arts of Induration by
Heat, from bricks dried in the sun to those which with
stand the corrosion of our climate for centuries or re
sist the intensity of the furnace ; in the arts of Illumina
tion, from the torch cut from the fir or pine tree to the
brilliant gas-light which gives almost a solar splendor
to the nocturnal darkness of our cities ; in the arts of
Heating and Ventilation, which at once supply warmth
for comfort and pure air for health ; in the art of Build
ing, from the hollowed trunk of a tree or the roof-shaped
cabin, to those commodious and lightsome dwellings
which betoken the taste and competence of our villa
ges and cities ; in the art of Copying or Printing, from
the toilsome process of hand-copying, where the tran
scription of a single book was the labor of months or
years, and sometimes almost of a life, to the power
printing-press, which throws ofF sixty printed sheets in
a minute ; in the art of Paper-making, from the prepa
ration of the inner bark of a tree, cleft off and dried at
immense labor, to machinery from which there jets out
an unbroken stream of paper with the velocity and con-
tinuousness of a current of water ; in the art of Paint
ing, from the use of the crayon, and artificial colors
imperfectly blended, requiring whole days to present
an incomplete picture, to the production, as by enchant
ment, of perfect likenesses in nature's own penciling,
executed in a few seconds ; in the art of Telegraphing,
from communicating information by signs which may
be seen from one station to another, to conveying in
telligence to any given distance with the velocity of
lightning ; and, in addition to all these, in the arts of
Moulding and Casting, of Designing and Engraving, of
Preserving materials and of Changing their color, of Di
viding and Uniting them, etc., etc., an ample catalogue,
whose very names and processes would fill volumes.

284 THE IMPORTANCE OF

Now, for the perfecting of all these operations, from
the tedious and bungling process to the rapid and ele
gant ; for the change of an almost infinite variety of
crude and worthless materials into useful and beautiful
fabrics, mind has been the agent. Succeeding gener
ations have outstripped their predecessors just in pro
portion to the superiority of their mental cultivation.
When we compare different people or different gener
ations with each other, the diversity is so great that all
must behold it. But there is the same kind of difference
between contemporaries, fellow-townsmen, and fellow-
laborers. Though the uninstructed man works side by
side with the intelligent, yet the mental difference be
tween them places them in the same relation to each
other that a past age bears to the present. If the ig
norant man knows no more respecting any particular
art or branch of business than was generally known
during the last century, he belongs to the last century,
and he must consent to be outstripped by those who
have the light and knowledge of the present. Though
they are engaged in the same kind of work, though they
are supplied with the same tools or implements for car
rying it on, yet, so long as one has only an arm, but the
other has an arm and a MIND, their products will come
out stamped and labeled all over with marks of con
trast ; inferiority and superiority, both as to quantity
and quality, will be legibly written on their respective
labors.

It is related by travelers among savage tribes that
when, by the aid of an ingeniously devised instrument
or apparatus, they have performed some skillful manual
operation, the savages have purloined from them the
instrument they had used, supposing there was some
magic in the apparatus itself, by which the seeming
miracle had been performed ; but, as they could not

POPULAR EDUCATION. 285

steal the art of the operator with the instrument which
he employed, the theft was fruitless. Any person who
expects to effect with less education what another is
enabled to do with more, ought not to smile at the de
lusion of the savage or the simplicity of his reasoning.
On a cursory inspection of the great works of art —
the steam-engine, the printing-press, the power-loom,
the mill, the iron fotindery, the ship, the telescope, etc.,
etc. — we are apt to look upon them as having sprung
into sudden existence, and reached their present state
of perfection by one, or, at most, by a few mighty ef
forts of creative genius. We do not reflect that they
have required the lapse of centuries and the successive
application of thousands of minds for the attainment of
their present excellence ; that they have advanced from
a less to a more perfect form by steps and gradations
almost as imperceptible as the growth by which an in
fant expands to the stature of a man ; and that, as later
discoverers and inventors had first to go over the
ground of their predecessors, so must future discover
ers and inventors first master the attainments of the
present age before they will be prepared to make those
new achievements which are to carry still further on
ward the stupendous work of improvement.

'286 THE IMPORTANCE OF

EDUCATION DIMINISHES PAUPERISM AND CHIME.

Education is to be regarded as one of the most important means of
eradicating the germs of pauperism from the rising generation, and of
securing in the minds and in the morals of the people the best protec
tion for the institutions of society. — DR. JAMES PHILLIPS KAY, Assistant
Poor-Law Commissioner, and Secretary to the Committee of Council on
Education*

The oliiFercnt countries of the world, if arranged according to the
state of education in them, will be found to be arranged also according
to WEALTH, MORALS, and GENERAL HAPPINESS; at the same time, THE

CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE, AND THE EXTENT OF CRIME AND VIOLENCE
AMONG THEM, FOLLOW A LIKE ORDER. NATIONAL EDUCATION, by Fred.

Hill, London.

That education increases the productiveness of labor
has been already conclusively established. It has also
been incidentally shown that mere knowledge, valua
ble as it is to the laborer, is not the only advantage de
rived from a good common school education, but that
the better educated, as a class, possess a higher and
better state of morals, and are more orderly and re
spectful iri their deportment than the uninstructed ; and
that for those who possess the greatest share in the
stock of worldly goods, the most effectual way of
making insurance on their property would be, to con
tribute from it enough to sustain an efficient system of
common school education, thereby educating the whole
mass of mind, and constituting it a police more effective
than peace officers or prisons. If, then, poverty is at
once a cause and an effect of crime, as is stated by a late
writer,f who has made an extended survey of the rel
ative state of instruction and social welfare in the lead
ing nations of the world, it is directly inferable that ed-

* Quoted from the Report to the Secretary of State for the Homo
Department, on the Training of Pauper Children, London, 1841.

t Fred. Hill, author of National Education, whose testimony is quoted
at the head oi this article.

POl'ULAK EDUCATION. 287

ucation will, and, from the nature of the case, must act
in a compound ratio in diminishing both pauperism and
crime.

This proposition is not received by a few individuals
merely in comparatively unimportant communities : it
is one which is generally adopted by enlightened prac
tical educators and by liberal-minded capitalists of
both hemispheres. The views of several of our prin
cipal American manufacturers have been already pre
sented. Let us now direct our attention to the testimo
ny of enlightened and liberal-minded capitalists residing
in some of the transatlantic states.

William Fairbrain, Esq., the sole proprietor of a man
ufactory in Manchester, and part owner of another es
tablishment in London, and who has between eleven
and twelve hundred persons in his employ, remarks in
relation to the habits of the educated and uneducated
as follows : There is no doubt that the educated are
more sober and less dissipated than the uneducated.
During the hours of recreation, the younger portion of
the educated workmen indulge more in reading and
mental pleasures ; they attend more at reading-rooms,
and avail themselves of the facilities afforded by libra
ries, by scientific lectures, and by lyceums. The older
of the more educated workmen spend their time chiefly
with their families, reading and walking out with them.
The time of the uneducated classes is spent very dif
ferently, and chiefly in the grosser sensual indulgences.
Mr. Fairbrain has given his own time as president of a
lyceum for the use of the working classes, which fur
nishes the means of instruction in arithmetic, mathemat
ics, drawing, and mensuration, and by lectures. In
these institutions liberal provision is very properly
made, not only for the occupation of the leisure hours
of the laborers themselves, and for their intellectual and

288 THE IMPORTANCE OF

social improvement, but for that of their wives and
families, in order " to make the home comfortable, and
to minister to the household recreation and amusement :
this is a point of view in which the education of the
wives of laboring men is really of very great import
ance, that they may be rational companions for men."*

Albert G. Escher, Esq., one of the firm of Escher,
Wyss, and Co., of Zurich, Switzerland, remarks as fol
lows: We employ from six to eight hundred men in
our machine-making establishment at Zurich : we also
employ about two hundred men in our cotton-mills
there, and about five hundred men in our cotton man
ufactories in the Tyrol and in Italy. I have occasion
ally had the control of from five to six hundred men
engaged in engineering operations as builders, masons,
etc., and men of the class called navigators in England.

After giving a list of the different countries from
which his laborers are drawn, classifying the workmen
of various nations "in respect to such natural intelli
gence as may be distinguished from any intelligence
imparted by the labors of the schoolmaster," and re
marking in relation to the influence of education upon
the value of labor — where his testimony corroborates
that of manufacturers in New England, already quoted
— the same gentleman makes a statement which is ap
plicable to the subject under consideration.

" The better educated workmen, we find, are distinguish
ed by superior moral habits in every respect. In the
first place, they are entirely sober ; they are discreet
in their enjoyments, which are of a more rational and
refined kind ; they are more refined themselves, and
they have a taste for much better society, which they

* See evidence taken by Edwin Chadwick, Esq., Secretary to the
Poor-Law Commissioners, a quotation from whose report heads this
article.

FOi'ULAIi EDUCATION. 289

approach respectfully, and consequently find much
readier admittance to it ; they cultivate music ; they
read ; they enjoy the pleasures of scenery, and make
parties for excursions into the country ; they are eco
nomical, and their'economy extends beyond their own
purse to the stock of their master ; they are conse
quently honest and trustworthy."

Scotland affords a very striking illustration of the
power of education in diminishing pauperism and
crime, and in improving the morals and increasing the
wealth of a country. Indeed, it would be difficult to
find another instance in the history of nations of a
country which has made such rapid progress in the
diminution of crime, the increase of public wealth, and
the diffusion of comforts, as Scotland. And this grati
fying change — this remarkable instance of progress in
the scale of being, has been concurrent with increased
and increasing attention to the education of the people.

At the beginning of the last century, Scotland swarm
ed with gipsies and other vagabonds, who lived chiefly
by stealing, and who often committed violent robberies
and murders. Of these pests to society it was esti
mated that there were not less than two hundred thou
sand. Besides these, there were the more gentlemanly,
though less tolerable robbers, such as the notorious
Rob Roy, who made no more ado about seizing an
other man's cattle than a grazier does of driving from
market a drove of oxen for which he has paid every
shilling demanded.

But now, the laying aside of a sum sufficient for the
education of his children is an object which a Scotch
man seldom loses sight of, both when he thinks of mar
rying and settling in life, and at every future period ;
and it is to this habit, handed down from father to son,
that the Scotch owe their morality. One of their own

N

290 THE IMPORTANCE OF

writers says, " we have scarcely any rural population
who are not perfectly aware of the importance of ed
ucation, and not willing to make sacrifices to secure it
to their children."

Having seen something of the excellence of educa
tion in improving the social and moral habits of a com
munity, and in banishing pauperism and crime from
among those who become the happy subjects of its up
lifting power, let us, for the purpose of becoming more
alive to its importance, consider the condition of a peo
ple where the masses are not brought under its benign
influence.

Spain, which has been already referred to in illus
tration of the evils of ignorance, affords a striking illus
tration for our present purpose. Until after the lapse
of one third of the present century, there was but ONE
newspaper published in this country ! " Yes, one mis
erable government gazette was the sole channel through
which twelve or fourteen millions of people, spread
over a vast territory, were to be supplied with infor
mation on the momentous affairs of their own country,
and of the whole external world." — National Educa
tion, vol. ii., p. 136.

" The most authentic return of the number of chil
dren receiving education in Spain was made in the year
1803, and it is believed that but little change has taken
place since that time. According to the returns, the
number of children receiving education, exclusive of
those brought up in convents and monasteries, was
only one in every three hundred and forty-six of the
population ! M. Jonnes estimates the population at
about fourteen millions and a half, and assuming, as he
does, that about the same fraction of the population is
receiving education as in 1803, he estimates the present
number of children in school in the whole of Spain at

POPULAR EDUCATION 291

not more than about forty-three thousand ; and, pur
suing his calculations, he shows that, if his data be cor
rect, not more than one child in thirty-five ever goes
to school. He further states that the children thus
favored are exclusively from the middle and upper
classes."* — National Education, vol. ii., p. 130-1.

How far the education given to the favored few is
of a practical and useful kind, may be conjectured from
the following extract from M. Jonnes's work. After
speaking of the many libraries, schools, colleges, and
universities, the creation of past times, but which still
exist, he remarks, that " these institutions were intend
ed for a state of society which had nothing in common
with that of the present day. The kind of instruction
afforded in them, confined as it is to prayer, church dis
cipline, and the dogmas of theology, has no connection
with the interests and wants of the existing generation.

"What every enlightened man in Spain has long
called for is a national, popular, gratuitous education,
extending to all classes, as well in the towns as in the
rural districts. Up to the present time, the people
have received no other instruction than that offered by
the clergy, which has had scarcely any other object
than the performance of religious ceremonies."

In addition to what has been already stated, it may
be remarked, that even with those who know how to
read, " books and study are almost out of the question,
because, unless in the principal cities, public libraries
are nowhere to be found, and private libraries are
luxuries that few possess."

If education is conducive to virtue, and ignorance

* The writer would here remark, in reference to extracts made from
various authors, that, for the sake of abridging, he has often, as in this
case, left out parts of a paragraph, but never so as to modify the mean
ing. Some ideas, not connected with the subject in hand, arc omitted,
but none are changed.

292 THE IMPORTANCE OF

fosters crime, what must be the social and moral state
of a country in which ignorance is so prevalent! ''The
amount of crime in Spain is appalling. We have be
fore us a return of convictions for the year 1826, from
which we shall make some extracts. Our reason for
taking this year is simply because we are unable to
procure any return for a later one. The number of
convictions for murder in England and Wales in the
year 1826 was thirteen, and the number convicted of
wounding, etc., with intent to kill, was fourteen. These
numbers are lamentably large. That the horrible
crime of murder should ever be perpetrated is a most
melancholy fact ; and that so many as thirteen mur
ders should be committed in one year must fill the
mind of every moral man and lover of his country with
grief and shame. But great as this number is abso
lutely, it sinks into insignificance when compared with
the number of murders perpetrated in Spain ; for in
that unhappy country, in the single year of 1826, the
number of convictions for murder reached the fright
ful height of TWELVE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE ! in
addition to which, there were seventeen hundred and
seventy-three convictions on charges of maiming with
intent to kill, and sixteen hundred and twenty persons
were convicted of robbery under aggravated circum
stances. We doubt not for an instant THIS MASS OF

CRIME IS THE OFFSPRING OF IGNORANCE." National Ed-

ucation, vol. ii., p. 144.

It has been well remarked that the truest proofs of a
good government are just laws, and that the best evi
dence of a well-organized government is to be found in
the strict execution of these laws. "Judging the Span
ish government by these tests, it will appear the worst
and weakest government that ever held together. Jus
tice of no kind has any existence ; there is the most

POPULAR EDUCATION. .293

lamentable insecurity of person and property ; redress
is never certain, because both judgment and the execu
tion of the laws are left to men so inadequately paid
that they must depend for their subsistence upon brib
ery. Nothing is so difficult as to bring a man to trial
who has any thing in his purse, except to bring him to
execution : this, unless in Madrid and Catalonia, is im
possible, for money will always buy indemnity.

" I can state, upon certain information received in
Madrid, that the principal Spanish diligences pay black
mail to the banditti for their protection. This arrange
ment was at first entered into with some difficulty ; and
from a gentleman who was present at the interview be
tween the person employed to negotiate on behalf of
the diligences and the representative of the banditti,
I learned a few particulars. The diligences in ques
tion were those between Madrid and Seville, and the
sum offered for their protection was not objected to,
but another difficulty was started. * I have nothing to
say against the terms you offer,' said the negotiator
for the banditti, * and I will at once insure you against
being molested by robbers of consequence ! but as for
the small fry, I can not be responsible ! we respect the
engagements entered into by each other, but there is
nothing like honor among the petty thieves.1 The pro
prietors of the diligences, however, were satisfied with
the assurance of protection against the great robbers,
and the treaty was concluded ; but not long afterward
one of the coaches was stopped and rifled by the petty
thieves : this led to an arrangement which has ever
since proved effectual ; one of the chiefs accompanies
the coach on its journey, and overawes, by his name
and reputation, the robbers of inferior degree." — Spain
in 1830, vol. i., p. 2.

A volume might be filled with similar testimony,

294 THE IMPORTANCE OF

showing the great insecurity of person and property
in various parts of this unhappy country. Even " a
woman who dares prosecute the murderer of her hus
band speedily receives a private intimation that effect
ually silences her ; and it has not been uncommon for
money to be put into the hands of an escrivano* pre
vious to the commission of a murder, in order to insure
the services and protection of a person so necessary to
one who meditates crime."

Spain abounds in poverty. Ignorance conduces to
crime, which, as we have seen, is at once a cause and
an effect of poverty. In view of what has already been
said of the ignorance and immorality of the Spaniards,
one would readily enough infer that poverty exists
among them to a deplorable extent, and it is even so.
In this country " every thing, indeed, appears to have
conspired to paralyze industry, and to render of no
avail the natural fertility of the soil. The havoc of
war ; the plunder committed by organized and power
ful bodies of robbers ; the rapacity of government and
of its army of officers ; the exclusion of foreign goods,
and the consequent shutting up of the foreign market ;
the ignorance of the people as to the best modes of ag
riculture ; and, last of all, the want of capital — all these

* The escrivanos, who figure so largely in Spain, are the representa.
lives of the lowest class of attorneys. Nothing can be done without
them, and they are not unfrequently almost the sole authority in a place
capable of reading and writing. Notwithstanding the miserable state
of the rural districts, they contrive to make money, and many of them
rise from this humble office to much higher places in the state. Their
wretched appointments are, consequently, objects of competition. I
witnessed the execution of one at Seville by accidentally entering the
Plaza, where the Capuchins were bawling out the last words for his
repetition, announcing to the crowd that they had done their duty, and
he died in the true faith. He had been superseded in some village in
the vicinity, and assassinated his rival. — Cook's Sketches in Spain, vol.
i., p. 197.

POPULAR EDUCATION. 29{>

combine to produce squalid poverty in a land which
ought to," and, with a good system of popular educa
tion, most assuredly would, " ABOUND IN WEALTH."

Scotland and Spain have been referred to, not to
bring out a few facts in history merely, but to illus
trate an important truth. Where a good system of
popular education is well administered in a country,
and, as a consequence, intelligence, industry, and mo
rality become universal among its citizens, they will
eventually become a wealthy, and a highly-prosperous
and happy community, even though they derive their
subsistence from a naturally unfruitful soil ; but, on the
contrary, where popular education is neglected in a
commonwealth, and its future citizens, as a conse
quence, grow up in ignorance, idleness, and vice, squal
id poverty and flagrant crime will become prevalent
throughout a wretched and degenerate community,
that is scarcely able to gain a mere subsistence from a
naturally productive soil.

In further confirmation of the truth of the proposition
that education diminishes crime, I will introduce the
following statistics, gleaned from various official docu
ments respecting prisons. According to returns to the
British Parliament, the commitments for crimes in an
average of nine years in proportion to population are
as follows : In Manchester, the most infidel city in the
nation, 1 in 140 ; in London, 1 in 800 ; in all Ireland,
1 in 1600 ; and in Scotland, celebrated for learning and
religion, 1 in 20,000 !

The Rev. Dr. Forde, for many years the Ordinate of
Newgate, London, represents ignorance as the first
great cause, and idleness ns the second, of all the crimes
committed by the inmates of that celebrated prison.
Sir Richard Phillips, sheriff of London, says that, on
the memorial addressed to the sheriffs by 152 criminals

296 THE IMPORTANCE OF

in the same institution, 25 only signed their names in a
fair hand, 26 in an illegible scrawl, and that 101, two
thirds of the entire number, were marksmen, signing
with a cross. Few of the prisoners could read with
facility ; more than half of them could not read at all ;
the most of them thought books were useless, and were
totally ignorant of the nature, object, and end of re
ligion.

The Rev. Mr. Clay, chaplain to the House of Correc
tion in Lancashire, represents that out of 1129 persons'
committed, 554 could not read ; 222 were barely capa
ble of reading ; 38 only could read well ; and only 8,
or 1 in 141, could read and write well. One half of
the 1129 prisoners were quite ignorant of the simplest
truths ; 37 of these, 1 in 20 of the entire number, were
occasional readers of the Bible ; and only one out of
this large number was familiar with the Holy Scrip
tures and conversant with the principles of religion.
Among the 516 represented as entirely ignorant, 125
were incapable of repeating the Lord's Prayer.

In the New York State Prisons, as examined a few
years ago, more than three fourths of the convicts had
either received no education or a very imperfect one.
Out of 842 at Sing Sing, 289 could not read or write,
and only 42 — less than 1 in 20 — had received a good
common school education. Auburn prison presents
similar statistics. Out of 228 prisoners, only 59 could
read, write, and cipher, and 60 could do neither.

The chaplain of the Ohio penitentiary remarks that
not only in the prison of that state, but in others, de
praved appetites and corrupt habits, which have led to
the commission of crime, are usually found with the
ignorant, uninformed, arid duller part of mankind. Of
276 at one time in that institution, nearly all were be
low mediocrity, and 175 arc represented as grossly

POPULAR EDUCATION. 297

ignorant, and, in point of education, scarcely capable
of transacting the ordinary business of life.

The preceding, it is believed, is no more than a fair
specimen of the criminal statistics of this country and
of the civilized world. I will conclude this dark cata
logue by introducing a statement in relation to educa
tion and crime in a state which, according to the last
general census, contained fewer persons in proportion
to the whole population who were unable to read and
write than any other state in the Union. From this
statement it appears that as a people become more
generally intelligent and moral, a greater proportion of
their criminals will be found among the ignorant and
neglected classes.

The chaplain of the Connecticut State Prison states
that, out of 190 prisoners, not one was liberally edu
cated, or a member of either of the learned professions.
Of the whole number, 109 were natives of Connecti
cut ; and of these, many of them could not understand
the plainest sentences which they read, and their moral
culture had been more neglected than their intellectual.
From the investigations of this officer, it appears that
out of every 100 prisoners only two could be found who
could read, write, and were temperate, and only four
who could read, write, and followed any regular trade.

It is evident, thdn, that while education increases the
wealth and general happiness of a community, the want
of it will reduce a people to a state of poverty and
wretchedness ; or, to repeat a sentiment placed at the
head of this article, the different countries of the world,
if arranged according to the state of education in them,
will be found to be arranged also according to wealth,
morals, and general happiness ; at the same time, the
condition of the people, and the extent of crime and
violence among tlium, fuilow a like order.

N2

298 THE IMPORTANCE OF

J might appropriately add under this head t.uit a
proper attention to the subject of education would
greatly diminish the number of fatal accidents ; that it
would save many lives, prevent much of idiocy and in
sanity, and a multitude of evils that ordinarily result
from ignorance of the organic laws.

FATAL ACCIDENTS. — He who understands the laws
of motion knows that a man jumping from a carriage
at speed is in great danger of falling after his feet reach
the ground, for his body has the same forward veloci
ty as if he had been running with the speed of the car
riage, and unless he continues to advance his feet as
in running to support his advancing body, he must as
certainly be dashed to the ground as a runner whose
feet are suddenly arrested. If, then, there is danger
in leaping from a carriage in motion, how much greater
is the hazard in jumping from a rail-road car under full
headway. And yet many do this, jumping off side-
wise, so that it is impossible to advance ; and some
even jump in the opposite direction from the motion
of the car, which increases the already imminent haz
ard. From statistics recently collected, it appears
that the great majority of accidents on the rail-roads
of this country have happened in this way, a want of
practical conformity to this one law of motion being
the prevailing cause of fatality along these thorough
fares. This is but a specimen of the fatal accidents
that are continually occurring in the every-day trans
actions of life, which might be prevented as easily as
this by the practical application of a single scientific
principle.

Loss OF LIFE. — In a single hospital at Dublin, during
four years, 2944 children out of 7650, about 40 in 100,
died within a fortnight after their birth. Dr. Clark,
the attending physician, suspecting a want of pure air

POPULAR EDUCATION. 299

to be the cause, provided for the ventilation of all the
apartments; and by means of pipes six inches in di
ameter, introduced into every room a current of fresh,,
pure air, which is essential to vitality, and allowed that
which was vitiated by respiration to escape. The
consequence was, that during the three succeeding
years only 165 out of 4243 children died within the
first two weeks, or less than 4 in 100. As there was
no other known cause of improvement in the health of
these children, it may be justly inferred that, during the
four years first mentioned, 2650 children, nine tenths of
the whole number, had perished for want of pure air.
It has been estimated that about 40 in every 100 of
the deaths annually occurring in Great Britain and the
United States are of children under five years of age.
To avoid every possibility of exaggeration, we will
place the number in this country at 30 in 100. At this
rate we lose about 200,000 children under five years
of age every year. Now, if nine tenths of the mortal
ity among infants in the Dublin Hospital were caused
by breathing bad air, we may reasonably infer that at
least one half of the deaths in the United States of chil
dren under the age of five years proceed from the same
fatal cause. And those who have noticed what pains
are taken by excessively careful mothers* and ignorant
nurses to exclude from the lungs of infants the " free,
pure, unadulterated air of heaven," and, by means of
many thicknesses of enveloping shawls and blankets,
require them to re-respire portions at least of their own
breath, until it becomes a virulent and deadly poison,

* It would seem that the great majority of " educated mothers" do
not realize the necessity of supplying pure air to the new-born child.
Before birth, the blood of the fetus is purified in the maternal lungs;
after birth, in the lungs of the child, if at all ; and for this puq>oeo pure
air is necessary.

300

THE IMPORTANCE OF

will think with me that this is a low estimate, and won
der that the swaddling-cloths of more infants do not
become their winding-sheets. But, even according to
this estimate, 100,000 children in the United States an
nually fall victims to the ignorance of their fond moth
ers. Many thousands more are subsequently sacri
ficed in consequence of occupying small and unventi-
lated bed-rooms and school-rooms, which, by a practi
cal knowledge of the principles of physiology, might
be saved. Perhaps as many more become sufferers
for life from the same cause, for a thousand forms of
disease, as it manifests itself in every stage of life, either
owe their existence or their severity to breathing bad
air. These, then, who drag out a miserable existence
in consequence of this cruel treatment, are to be more
pitied than those who fall its ready victims.

If so many thousand deaths occur annually in the
United States from this one cause, in addition to the
vast amount of misery which is entailed upon the
wretched survivors, how many hundred thousand pre
cious lives might be saved, and what untold wretched
ness might be prevented, by a strict conformity to those
physiological laws of our being which might and should
be generally taught in the common schools of the land

EDUCATION AND IDIOCY.* — The education of idiots
has hitherto been regarded as paradoxical, and still is
by the mass of mankind ; but that it is possible to im
prove the condition of this most wretched and helpless
class of persons none need longer doubt. The experi
ment has succeeded in both Europe and America.

* The statements under this head are drawn from Dr. Howe's Report
on Idiocy, made in February last, and communicated by the governor
to the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The au
thor visited the Institution in South Boston during the past summer,
and derived much information on the subject from personal observa
tion and inquiry.

POPULAR EDUCATION. 301

Massachusetts has the honor of taking the lead in this
country ; and it is meet that it should be so, for she
has long, like a wise parent, been accustomed to care
for all her children. She had most readily and gener
ously seconded the efforts of humane men for the re
lief of the insane, the deaf mutes, and the blind, and
made provision for their care and instruction. She
extended her maternal love to the bodies of those who
were in hopeless idiocy, but as for minds, they seemed
to have none ; they were, therefore, kept out of sight
of the public as much as possible until the year 1846,
when a board of commissioners were appointed " to
inquire into the condition of the idiots of the common
wealth, to ascertain their number, and whether any
thing can be done in their behalf."

In their report the commissioners say that, " by dili
gent and careful inquiries in nearly one hundred towns
in different parts of the state, we have ascertained the
existence and examined the condition of Jive hundred
and seventy-five human beings who are condemned to
hopeless idiocy, who are considered and treated as
idiots by their neighbors, and left to their own brutish-
ness. They are also idiotic in a legal sense ; that is,
they are regarded as incapable of entering into con
tracts, and are irresponsible for their actions."

The commissioners conclude that, " if the other parts
of the state contain the same proportion of idiots to
their whole population, the total number in the com
monwealth is between fourteen and fifteen hundred!"
Now if we make the same estimate in proportion to
the entire population, it will appear that in the United
States there are upward of thirty-five thousand persons
in the most wretched and helpless condition of idiocy.

In view of the great number of idiots in the common
wealth, the commissioners say, " it appeared to us cer-

302 THE IMPORTANCE OF

tain that the existence of so many idiots in every gen
eration must be the consequence of some violation of
the natural laws ; that where there was so much suf
fering there must have been sin. We resolved, there
fore, to seek for the sources of the evil, as well as to
gauge the depth and extent of the misery."

Some of the causes of idiocy are set forth in the re
port, two of which are as follows : first, the low con
dition of the physical organization of one or both pa
rents, induced often by intemperance ; second, the inter
marriage of relatives.

The report states that out of 420 cases of congenital
idiocy which were examined, some information was
gained respecting the condition of the progenitors of
359. Now in all these cases, save only four, it was
found that one or the other, or both, of the immediate
progenitors of the unfortunate sufferer had in some
way widely departed from the normal condition of
health, and violated the natural laws. That is to say,
one or the other, or both of them, had been very un
healthy or scrofulous ; or hereditarily predisposed to
affections of the brain, causing occasional insanity ; or
had intermarried with blood relatives ; or had been in
temperate ; or had been guilty of sensual excesses
which impair the constitution.*

INTEMPERANCE AND IDIOCY. — Out of the three hundred

* The subject of hereditary transmission of diseased tendency is of
vast importance, but it is a difficult one to treat, because a squeamish
delicacy makes people avoid it ; but if ever the race is to be relieved
of a tithe- of the bodily ills which flesh is now heir to, it must be by a
clear understanding of, and a willing obedience to, the law which makes
the parents the blessing or the curse of the children ; the givers of
strength, and vigor, and beauty, or the dispensers of debility, and dis
ease, and deformity. It is by the lever of enlightened parental li-ve,
more than by any other power, that mankind is to be raised to the
highest attainable point of bodily perfection. — DR. S. G. HOWE.

POPULAR EDUCATION. 303

and fifty-nine idiots, the condition of whose progenitors
was ascertained, ninety-nine were the children of drunk
ards. But this does not tell the whole story by any
means. By drunkard is meant a person who is a noto
rious and habitual sot. Many persons who are habit
ually intemperate do not get this name even now ;
much less would they have done so twenty-five or
thirty years ago. By a pretty" careful inquiry, with an
especial view of ascertaining the number of idiots of
the lowest class whose parents were known to be tem
perate persons, it is found that not one quarter can be so
considered.

From the pretty uniform action of a physiological
law, which is now becoming well understood, it appears
that idiots, fools, and simpletons, either in the first or
second generation, are common among the progeny of
intemperate persons, and may be considered as an effect
of the habitual use of alcohol, even in moderate quanti
ties. If, moreover, one considers how many children
of intemperate parents there are who, without being
idiots, are deficient in bodily and mental energy, and
predisposed by their very organization to have crav
ings for alcoholic stimulants, it will be seen what an
immense burden the drinkers of one generation throw
upon the succeeding one.

IDIOCY AND THE MARRIAGE OF RELATIVES. — Out of the
three hundred and fifty-nine cases of congenital idiocy
already referred to, in which the parentage was ascer
tained, " seventeen were known to be the children of
parents nearly related by blood ; but, as many of these
cases were adults, it was impossible to ascertain, in
some cases, whether their parents, who were dead,
were related or not before marriage. From some col
lateral evidence, we conclude that at least three more
cases should be added to the seventeen. This would

304 THE IMPORTANCE OF

show that more than one twentieth of the idiots exam
ined are offspring of the marriage of relations. Now,
as marriages between near relations are by no means
in the ratio of one to twenty, nor even, perhaps, as one
to a thousand to the marriages between persons not
related, it follows that the proportion of idiotic progeny
is vastly greater in the former than in the latter case.
Then it should be considered that idiocy is only one
form in which Nature manifests that she has been of
fended by such intermarriages. It is probable that
blindness, deafness, imbecility, and other infirmities,
are more likely to be the lot of the children of parents
related by blood than of others. The probability,
therefore, of unhealthy or infirm issue from such mar
riages becomes fearfully great, and the existence of the
law against them is made out as clearly as though it
were written on tables of stone.

'* The statistics of the seventeen families, the heads
of which, being blood relatives, intermarried, tells a
fearful tale. Most of the parents were intemperate or
scrofulous ; some were both the one and the other ; of
course, there were other causes to increase chances
of infirm offspring besides that of the intermarriage.
There were born unto them ninety-five children, of
whom forty-four were idiotic, twelve others were scrof
ulous and puny, one was deaf, and one was a dwarf!
In some cases, all the children were either idiotic, or
very scrofulous and puny. In one family of eight chil
dren, five were idiotic."

CONDITION OF IDIOTS. — From what has been said of
the character of parents to whom are born the greatest
proportion of this most wretched and helpless class
of persons, their condition and treatment might be in
ferred. To rear healthy. children properly, a knowl
edge of the principles of physiology and mental science

POPULAR EDUCATION. 305

is essentially necessary. This knowledge is still more
important in the treatment of idiots. Dr. Howe is of
the opinion that it requires a rarer and higher kind of
talent to teach an idiot than a youth of superior talent.
When the time comes that schools for idiots are estab
lished all over the country, he thinks " it will be found
more difficult to get good teachers for them than to get
good professors for our colleges."

After excepting five or six alms-houses in which the
idiots are treated both kindly and wisely, the commis
sioners say, " the general condition of those at the public
charge is most deplorable. They are filthy, gluttonous,
lazy, and given up to abominations of various kinds.
They not only do not improve, but they sink deeper and
deeper into bodily depravity and mental degradation.
Bad, however, as is the condition of the idiots who are
at public charge, and gross as is the ignorance of those
who take the charge of them about their real wants and
capabilities, we are constrained to say that the condi
tion of those in private houses is, generally speaking,
still worse, and the ignorance of the relatives and friends
who support them is still more profound."

This is not to be wondered at when we consider that
idiots are generally born of a very poor stock — of per
sons who are subject to some disorders of the brain, or
who are themselves scrofulous and puny to the last de
gree. Such persons are, generally, very feeble in in
tellect, poor in purse, and intemperate in habits. A
great many of them are hardly able to take care of
themselves. They are unfit to teach or train common
children ; how much less to take the charge of idiots,
whose education is the most difficult of all !

The commissioners ascertained, mainly by personal
observation, the condition of three hundred and fifty-
five idiotic persons who are not town or state paupers.

306 THE IMPORTANCE OF

Of these there may be, at the most, five who are treated
very judiciously ; who are taught by wise and discreet
persons, and whose faculties -and capabilities are de
veloped to their fullest extent but the remaining three
hundred and fifty are generally " in a most deplorable
condition as it respects their bodily, mental, and moral
treatment."*

The commissioners come to the unquestionable con
clusion in their report that " nothing can afford a strong
er argument in favor of an institution for the proper
training and teaching of idiots, and the dissemination
of information upon the subject, than the striking dif
ference manifested in the condition of the few children
who are properly cared for and judiciously treated,
and those who are neglected or abused. There are
cases in our community of youths who are idiotic from
birth, but who, under proper care and training, have
become cleanly in person, quiet in deportment, indus
trious in habits, and who would almost pass in society
for persons of common intelligence ; and yet their nat
ural capacity was no greater than that of others, who,
from ignorance or neglect of their parents, have be-

* One would hardly be credited if he should put down half the in
stances of gross ignorance manifested by parents in this enlightened
community [the State of Massachusetts] in the treatment of idiotic
children. Sometimes they find that the children seem to comprehend
what they hear, but soon forget it ; hence they conclude that the brain
is soft, and can not retain impressions, and then they cover the head
with cold poultices of oak-bark in order to tan or harden the fibers.
Others, finding that it is exceedingly difficult to make any impression
upon the mind, conclude that the brain is too hard, and they torture the
poor child with hot and softening poultices of bread and milk; or they
plaster tar over the whole skull, and keep it on for a long time. These
are innocent applications compared with some, which doubtless render
weak-minded children perfectly idiotic. — DR. S. G. HOWE.

What a striking illustration have we here of the necessity of diffusing
correct physiological information more widely among the masses than
has yet been done even in enlightened Massachusetts !

POPULAR EDUCATION. 307

come filthy, gluttonous, lazy, vicious^lepraved, and are
rapidly sinking into driveling idiocy. This fact alone
should be enough to encourage the state to take meas
ures at once for the establishment of a school or insti
tution for teaching or training idiots, if it were but a
matter of experiment."

Massachusetts is the only state in the Union that as
yet has attempted to do any thing for the education
and training of this hitherto neglected class of persons.
The result of the first year's experiment has been most
gratifying and encouraging. Of the whole number re
ceived, there was not one who was in a situation where
any great improvement in his condition was probable,
or hardly possible ; they were growing worse in habits,
and more confirmed in their idiocy. But the process
of deterioration in the pupils has been entirely stopped,
and that of improvement has commenced; and though
a year is a very short time in the instruction of such
persons, yet its effects are manifest in all of them.
They have improved in personal appearance and hab
its, in general health, in vigor, and in activity of body.
Some of them can control their appetites in a consider
able degree ; they sit at the table with their teachers,
and feed themselves decently. Almost all of them have
improved in the understanding and the use of speech.
Some of them have made considerable progress in the
knowledge of language ; they can select words printed
on slips of paper, and a few can read simple sentences.
But, what is most important, THEY HAVE MADE A START
FORWARD.

" There is ground for confidence that the reasonable
hopes of the friends of the experiment will be satisfied.
All that they promised has been accomplished, so far
as was possible in the period of a year. It has been
demonstrated that idiots are CAPABLE OF IMPROVEMENT,

308 THE IMPORTANCE OF

and that they can be raised from a state of low degra
dation to a HIGHER CONDITION. How far they can be
elevated, and to what extent they may be educated,
can only be shown by the experience of the future.
The result of the past year's trial, however, gives con
fidence that each succeeding year will show even more
progress than any preceding one."

EDUCATION AND INSANITY. — It is well established that
a defective and faulty education through the period of
infancy and childhood is one of the most prolific causes
of insanity. Such an education, or rather miseduca-
tion, causes a predisposition in many, and excites one
where it already exists, which ultimately renders the
animal propensities of our nature uncontrollable. Ap
petites indulged and perverted, passions unrestrained,
propensities rendered vigorous by indulgence, and sub
jected to no salutary restraint, bring persons into a
condition in which both moral and physical causes
easily operate to produce insanity, if they do not pro
duce it themselves.

We must look to well-directed systems of popular
education, having for their object physical improve
ment, no less than mental and moral culture, to relieve
us from many of the evils which " flesh is heir to," and
nothing can so effectually secure us from this most for
midable disease (as well as from others not less appall
ing) as that system of instruction which teaches us how
to preserve the normal condition of the body and the
mind ; to fortify the one against the catalogue of phys
ical causes which every where assail us, and to elevate
the other above the influence of the trials and disap
pointments of life, so that the host of moral causes
which affect the brain, through the medium of the mind,
shall be inoperative and harmless.

Those first principles of physical education which

POPULAR EDUCATION. 309

teach us how to avoid disease are all-important to all
liable to insanity from hereditary predisposition. The
physical health must be attended to, and the training
of the faculties of the mind be such as to counteract the
over-active propensities of our nature — correcting the
bias of the mind to wrong currents and to too great
activity by bringing into action the antagonizing pow
ers, and thus giving a sound body and a well-balanced
mind. Neglect of this early training entails evils upon
the young which are felt in all after life.

These positions are stated and amplified in the able
reports of Dr. S. B. Woodward, superintendent of the
State Lunatic Asylum, Worcester, Mass., to which the
reader is referred. They are also corroborated by
persons who have had the care of the insane in other
institutions. In the eighteenth annual report of the
physician and superintendent of the Connecticut Retreat
for the Insane, Dr. Brigham says, " a knowledge of the
nature of the disease would frequently lead to its pre
vention. Insanity, in most cases, arises from undue
excitement and labor of the brain ; for even if a predis
position to it is inherited, an exciting cause is essential
to its development. Hence every thing likely to cause
great excitement of the brain, especially in early life,
should be avoided.

" The records of cases at this institution and my own
observation justify me in saying that the neglect of
moral discipline, the too great indulgence of the pas
sions and emotions in early life, together with the ex
cessive and premature exercise of the mental powers,
are among the most frequent causes that predispose to
insanity. But these causes are in no other way oper
ative in producing insanity than by unduly exciting the
brain. By neglect of moral discipline, a character is
formed subject to violent passions, and to extreme emo-

310 THE IMPORTANCE OF

tions and anxiety from the unavoidable evils and dis
appointments of life, and thus the brain, by being often
and violently agitated, becomes diseased ; and by too
early exercising and prematurely developing the men
tal powers, this organ is rendered more susceptible and
liable to disease.

" I am confident there is too much mental labor im
posed upon youth at our schools and colleges. There
have been several admissions of young ladies at this
institution direct from boarding-schools, and of young
men from college, where they had studied excessively.
Should such intense exertion of the mind in youth not
lead to insanity or immediate disease, it predisposes to
dyspepsy, hysteria, hypochondriasis, and affections al
lied to insanity, and which are often its precursors.
Should that portion of the community who now act
most wisely in obtaining a knowledge of the functions
of the digestive organs, and in carefully guarding them
from undue excitation, be equally regardful of the brain,
they would do a very great service to society, and, in
my opinion, do much toward arresting the alarming
increase of insanity, and all disorders of the nervous
system."*

* In the education of many, very many, I fear, the same mistake is
made as in the case of Lord Dudley, thus described in a late number
of the London Quarterly Review: " The irritable susceptibility of the
brain was stimulated at the expense of bodily power and health. His
foolish tutors took a pride in his precocious progress, which they ought
to have kept back. They watered the forced plant with the blood of
life ; they encouraged the violation of Nature's laws, which are not to
be broken in vain; they infringed the condition of conjoint moral and
physical existence ; they imprisoned him in a vicious circle, where the
overworked brain injured the stomach, which reacted to the injury of
the brain. They watched the slightest deviation from the rules of logic,
and neglected those of dietetics, to which the former are a farce. They
thought of no exercises but Latin ; they gave him a Gradus instead of
a ci'icket-bat, until his mind became too keen for its mortal coil, arid
the foundation was laid for ill health, derangement of stomach, moral

POPULAR EDUCATION. 311

EDUCATION INCREASES HUMAN HAPPINESS.

What is a man

If his chief good and market of his time

Be but to sleep and feed ? a beast, no more.

Sure He that made us with such large discourse,

Looking before and after, gave us not

That capability and godlike reason

To rust in us unused. — SHAKSPEARE.

All the happiness of man is derived from discovering, applying, or
obeying the laws of his Creator ; and all his misery is the result of ig
norance or disobedience. — DR. WAYLAND.

If the doctrines taught and the sentiments inculca
ted in the preceding chapters of this work, but more
especially in the preceding sections of this chapter, are
true ; if it is established that education dissipates the
evils of ignorance ; that it increases the productiveness
of labor ; that it diminishes pauperism and crime — if
all this is true, it may seem a work of supererogation
to attempt the establishment of the proposition that ed
ucation increases human happiness. I admit this seem
ing impropriety ; for that the proposition is true may
be legitimately inferred from what has gone before.
But I wish to amplify and extend this thought, and to
show that education has, if possible, still higher claims
upon our attention than have yet been presented ; that
it not only has the power of removing physical and
moral evils, and of multiplying and augmenting per
sonal and social enjoyments, but that, when rightly un
derstood, it constitutes our chief good ; that to it, and to
it only, we may safely look for man's highest and endur
ing joys, and for the permanent elevation of the race.

MAN IN IGNORANCE. — That we may be the better pre-

pusillanimity, irresolution, lowness of spirits, and all the Protean mis
eries of nervous disorders, by which his after life was haunted, and
which are sadly depicted in almost every letter before us."

312 THE IMPORTANCE OF

pared to appreciate the advantages of education, and
its usefulness as a means of increasing human happi
ness, let us consider the state and the enjoyments of the
man whose mind is shrouded in ignorance. He grows
up to manhood like a vegetable, or like one of the lower
animals that are fed and nourished for the slaughter
He exerts his physical powers because such exertion
is necessary for his subsistence. Were it otherwise,
we 'should most frequently find him dozing over the
fire with a gaze as dull and stupid as his ox, regard
less of every thing but the gratification of his appetites.
He has, perhaps, been taught the art of reading, but has
never applied it to the acquisition of knowledge. His
views are chiefly confined to the objects immediately
around him, and to the daily avocations in which he is
employed. His knowledge of society is circumscribed
within the limits of his neighborhood, and his views of
the world are confined within the range of the country
in which he resides, or of the blue hills which skirt his
horizon.

Of the aspect of the globe in other countries, of the
various tribes with which these are peopled, of the seas
and rivers, continents and islands, which diversify the
landscape of the earth, of the numerous orders of ani
mated beings which people the ocean, the atmosphere,
and the land, of the revolutions of nations, and the
events which have taken place in the history of the
world, he has almost as little conception as have the
animals which range the forest.

In regard to the boundless regions that lie beyond
him in the firmament, and the bodies that roll there in
magnificent grandeur, he has the most confused and in
accurate ideas ; indeed, he seldom troubles himself with
inquiries in relation to such subjects. Whether the
stars are great or small, whether they are near us or

\ *

POPULAR EDUCATION. 313

at a distance, and whether they move or stand still, are
to him matters of trivial importance. If the sun gives
him light by day and the moon by night, and the clouds
distil their watery- treasures upon his parched fields, he
is contented, and leaves all such inquiries and investi
gations to those who have leisure and inclination to
engage in them. He views the canopy of heaven as
merely a ceiling to our earthly habitation, and the starry
orbs as only so many luminous tapers to diversify its
aspect, and to afford a glimmering light to the benighted
traveler.

Such a person has no idea of the manner in which
the understanding may be enlightened and expanded
by education ; he has no relish for intellectual pursuits,
and no conception of the pleasures they afford ; and
he. sets no value on knowledge but in so far as it may
increase his riches and his sensual gratifications. He
has no desire for making improvements in his trade
or domestic arrangements, and gives no countenance
to those useful inventions and public improvements
which are devised by others. He sets himself against
every innovation, whether religious, political, mechan
ical, or agricultural, and is determined to abide by the
" good old customs" of his forefathers, even though they
compel him to carry his grist to mill in one end of a
bag, with a stone in the other to balance it. Were
it dependent upon him, the moral world would stand
still, as the material world was supposed to in former
times ; all useful inventions would cease ; existing evils
would never be remedied ; ignorance and superstition
would universally prevail ; the human mind would be
arrested in its progress to perfection, and man would
never arrive at the true dignity of his intellectual nature.

It is evident that such an individual — and the world
contains thousands and millions of such characters —

O

314 THE IMF.RTANCE OF

can never have his mind elevated to those sublime ob
jects and contemplations which enrapture the man of
science, nor feel those pure and exquisite pleasures
which cultivated minds so frequently experience ; nor
can he form those lofty and expansive conceptions of
the Deity which the grandeur and magnificence of his
works are calculated to inspire. He is left as a prey
to all those foolish notions and vain alarms which are
engendered by ignorance and superstition ; and he
swallows, without the least hesitation, all the absurdi
ties and childish tales respecting witches, hobgoblins,
specters, and apparitions, which have been handed
down to him by his forefathers.

While the ignorant man thus gorges his mind with
fooleries and absurdities, he spurns at the discoveries
of science as impositions on the credulity of mankind,
and contrary to reason and common sense. That the
sun is a million of times larger than the earth ; that
light flies from his body at the rate of a hundred thou
sand miles in the hundredth part of a second ; and that
the earth is whirling round its axis from day to day
with a velocity of a thousand miles every hour, are re
garded by him as notions far more improbable and ex
travagant than the story of the "Wonderful Lamp," and
all the other tales of the "Arabian Night's Entertain
ments." In his hours of leisure from his daily avocations,
his thoughts either run wild among the most groveling
objects, or sink into sensuality and inanity ; and solitude
and retirement present no charms to his vacant mind.

While human beings are thus immersed in igno
rance, destitute ot rational ideas and of a solid sub
stratum of thought, they can never experience those
pleasures and enjoyments which flow from the exer
cise of the understanding, and which correspond to
the dignity of a rational and immortal nature.

POPULAR EDUCATION 315

AN ENLIGHTENED MIND. — On the other hand, the man
whose mind is irradiated with the light of substantial
science has views, and feelings, and exquisite enjoy
ments to which the former is an entire stranger. In
consequence of the numerous and multifarious ideas he
has acquired, he is introduced, as it were, into a new
world, where he is entertained with scenes, objects,
and movements, of which the mind enveloped in igno
rance can form no conception. He can trace back the
stream of time to its commencement, and, gliding along
its downward course, can survey the most memorable
events which have happened in every part of its prog
ress, from the primeval ages to the present day ; the
rise of empires, the fall of kings, the revolutions of na
tions, the battles of warriors, and the important events
which have followed in their train ; the progress of
civilization, and of the arts and sciences ; the judg
ments which have been inflicted on wicked nations,
the dawnings of Divine mercy toward our fallen race,
the manifestation of the Son of God in our nature, the
physical changes and revolutions which have taken
place in the constitution of our globe ; in short, the
whole of the leading events in the chain of divine dis
pensation, from the beginning of the world to the pe
riod in which we live.

With his mental eye the enlightened man can sur
vey the terraqueous globe in all its variety of aspects ;
he can contemplate the continents, islands, and oceans
which surround its exterior ; the numerous rivers by
which it is indented ; the lofty ranges of mountains
which diversify its surface ; its winding caverns ; its
forests, lakes, and sandy deserts; its whirlpools, boil
ing springs, and glaciers ; its sulphurous mountains,
bituminous lakes, and the states and empires into which
it is distributed ; the tides and currents of the ocean ;

310 THE IMPORTANCE OF

the icebergs of the polar regions, and the verdant scenes
of the torrid zone.

Sitting at his fireside during the blasts of winter, the
enlightened man can survey the numerous tribes of
mankind scattered over the various climates of the
earth, and entertain himself with views of their man
ners, customs, religion, laws, trade, manufactures, mar
riage ceremonies, civil and ecclesiastical governments,
arts, sciences, cities, towns, and villages, and the ani
mals peculiar to every region. In his rural walks he
can not only appreciate the beneficence of Nature, and
the beauties and harmonies of the vegetable kingdom
in their exterior aspect, but he can also penetrate into
the hidden processes which are going on in the roots,
trunks, and leaves of plants and flowers, and contem
plate the numerous vessels through which the sap is
flowing from their roots through the trunks and branch
es ; the millions of pores through which their odorifer
ous effluvia exhale ; their fine and delicate texture ;
their microscopical beauties ; their orders, genera, and
species, and their uses in the economy of nature.

Even when shrouded in darkness and in solitude,
where other minds could find no enjoyment, the man
of knowledge can entertain himself with the most sub
lime contemplations. He can trace the huge earth we
inhabit flying through the depths of space, carrying
along with it its vast population, at the rate of sixty
thousand miles every hour, and, by the inclination of
its axis, bringing about the alternate succession of sum
mer and winter, of seed-time and harvest. By the aid
of his telescope he can transport himself toward the
moon, and survey the circular plains, the deep caverns,
the conical hills, the lofty peaks, and the rugged and
romantic mountain scenery which diversify the sur
face of this orb of night.

POPULAR EDUCATION. 317

By the help of the same instrument he can range
through the planetary system, wing his way through
the regions of space along with the swiftest orbs, and
trace many of the physical aspects and revolutions
which have a relation to distant worlds. He can
transport himself to the planet Saturn, and behold a
stupendous ring six hundred thousand miles in circum
ference, revolving in majestic grandeur every ten
hours around a globe nine hundred times larger than
the earth, while seven moons larger than ours, along
with an innumerable host of stars, display their radi
ance to adorn the firmament of that magnificent world.
He can wing his flight through the still more distant
regions of the universe, leaving the sun and all his plan
ets behind him, till they appear like a scarcely discern
ible speck in creation, and contemplate thousands and
millions of stars and starry systems beyond the range
of the unassisted eye, and wander among the suns and
worlds dispersed throughout the boundless dimensions
of space.

In his imagination he can fill up those blanks which
astronomy has never directly explored, and conceive
thousands of systems and ten thousands of worlds be
yond all that is visible by the optic tube, stretching out
to infinity on every hand, peopled with intelligences of
various orders, and all under the superintendence and
government of the " King Eternal, Immortal, and In
visible," whose power is omnipotent, and the limit of
his dominions past finding out.

It is evident that a mind capable of such excursions
and contemplations as I have now supposed must ex
perience enjoyments infinitely superior to those of the
individual whose soul is enveloped in intellectual dark
ness. If substantial happiness is chiefly situated in the
mind ; if it depends on the multiplicity of objects which

318 THE iiiii'uUTAXCB OF

lie within the range of its contemplation; if it is aug
mented by the view of scenes of beauty and sublimity,
and displays of infinite intelligence and power; if it is
connected with tranquillity of mind, which generally ac
companies intellectual pursuits, and the subjugation of
the pleasures of sense to the dictates of reason, the en
lightened mind must enjoy gratifications as far superior
to those of the ignorant as man is superior in station
and capacity to the worms of the dust.

In order to illustrate this topic a little further, I shall
select a few facts and deductions in relation to science,
which demonstrate the interesting nature and delight
ful tendency of scientific pursuits.

There are several recorded instances of the power
ful effect which the study of astronomy has produced
upon the human mind. Dr. Rittenhouse, of Pennsyl
vania, after he had calculated the transit of Venus,
which was to happen June 3d, 1769, was appointed, at
Philadelphia, with others, to repair to the township of
Norriston, and there to observe this planet until its pas
sage over the sun's disc should verify the correctness
of his calculations. This occurrence had never been
witnessed but twice before by an inhabitant of our
earth, and was never to be again seen by any person
then living. A phenomenon so rare, and so important
in its bearings upon astronomical science, was, indeed,
well calculated to agitate the soul of one so alive as he
was to the great truths of nature. The day arrived,
and there was no cloud on the horizon. The observers,
in silence and trembling anxiety, awaited for the pre
dicted moment of observation to arrive. It came, and
in the instant of contact, an emotion of joy so powerful
was excited in the bosom of Dr. Rittenhouse that he
fainted.

Sir Isaac Newton, after he had advanced so far in

POPULAR EDUCATION. 319

his mathematical proof of one of his great astronomical
doctrines as to see that the result was to be triumphant,
was so affected in view of the momentous truth he was
about to demonstrate that he was unable to proceed,
and begged one of his companions in study to relieve
him, and carry out the calculation. These are striking
illustrations, and the effect is perhaps heightened from
their connection with a most sublime science, all of
whose conclusions stand in open contradiction with
those of superficial and vulgar observation.

But the discovery and contemplation of truths in
philosophy, chemistry, and the mathematics have, in
numerous instances, awakened kindred emotions. The
enlightened man sees in every thing he beholds upon
the surface of the earth, whether animal or vegetable,
and in the very elements themselves, no less than when
contemplating the wonders of astronomy, instances in
numerable illustrative of the wisdom and beneficence
of the Architect, all of which has a direct tendency to
increase his happiness. In the invisible atmosphere
which surrounds him, where other minds discern noth
ing but an immense blank, he beholds an assemblage
of wonders, and a striking scene of divine wisdom and
omnipotence. He views this invisible agent not only
as a material, but as a compound substance, composed
of two opposite principles, the one the source of flame
and animal life, and the other destructive to both. He
perceives the atmosphere as the agent under the Al
mighty which produces the germination and growth
of plants, and all the beauties of the vegetable creation;
which preserves water in a liquid state, supports fire
and flame, and produces animal heat ; which sustains
the clouds, and gives buoyancy to the feathered tribes;
which is the cause of winds, the vehicle of smells, the
medium of sounds, the source of all the pleasures we

320 THE IMPORTANCE UP

derive from the harmonies of music, the cause of the
universal light and splendor which is diffused around
us, and of the advantages we derive from the morning
and evening twilight. He contemplates it as the prime
mover in a variety of machines, as imperiling ships
"across the ocean, raising balloons to the region of the
clouds, blowing our furnaces, raising water from the
deepest pits, extinguishing fires, and performing a thou
sand other beneficent agencies, without which our
globe would cease to be habitable. No one can doubt
that all these views and contemplations have a direct
tendency to enlarge the capacity of the mind, to stimu
late its faculties, and to produce rational enjoyment.

But there is another view of this subject which is
perhaps still more impressive. The atmosphere, it has
been stated, is a compound substance. A knowledge
of its elementary principles, which chemistry teaches,
introduces its possessor to a new world of happiness.
The adaptation of air to respiration, and the influence
of a change in the nature or proportion of its elements
upon health and longevity, have already been consid
ered.*' We have seen that carbonic acid, the vitiating
product of respiration, although immediately fatal to
animals, constitutes the very life of vegetation ; that in
the growth of plants the vitiated air is purified and
fitted again for the sustenance of animal life ; and that,
by a beneficent provision of the Creator, animals and
vegetables are thus perpetually interchanging kindly
offices. It will suffice for our present purpose simply
to remind the reader that the atmosphere is composed
of the two gases, oxygen and nitrogen, united in the
ratio of one to four by volume. Oxygen is a supporter
of combustion, nitrogen is not. Increase the propor
tion of oxygen in the air, and the same substances burn

* See Chapter IV., especially from the 8Dth page to the 100th.

POPULAR EDl'CATION. 321

with increased brilliancy; but diminish the proportion
gradually, and they will burn more and more dimly un
til they become extinct. Iron and steel, as well as
wood and the ordinary combustibles, will burn with
great brilliancy in pure oxygen.

Water, I may add, is composed of the two gases,
oxygen and hydrogen. The former, as we have seen,
is a supporter of combustion, and the latter is one of
the most combustible substances known. These two
gases are nearly two thousand times more voluminous
than their equivalent of water, and, when ignited, they
combine with explosive energy. If, then, the Creator
were to decompose the atmosphere that surrounds the
earth to the height of forty-five miles, and the watei
that rests upon its surface, either or both of them, the
oxygen, being specifically heavier than the nitrogen or
hydrogen, would settle immediately upon the earth,
and, coming in contact with fires here and there, its
whole surface would, in an instant of time, be enveloped
in one general conflagration, and " the day of the Lord,"
spoken of in the Scriptures, " in which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the
things therein shall be burned up," would be speedily
ushered in. He who understands the first principles
of chemical science can not fail to perceive how readi
ly (and in perfect accordance with laws well under
stood) such a general conflagration would take place
were the great Architect simply to resolve these two
elements — air and water — into their constituent parts.
How full of meaning to such a one are the words of
the Psalmist, The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament showeth his handiwork.

One more illustration must suffice. All fluids, ex
cept water, contract in volume as they become colder
N2

322 THE IMPORTANCE OF

to the point of congelation. But the point of greatest
density in water is about eight degrees above freezing.
As the temperature of ALL fluids increases above this
point, their volume increases. As the temperature of
all fluids, with the single exception of WATER, decreases,
the volume decreases down to the freezing point. Water
increases in density as it becomes colder until it reaches
the temperature of forty degrees — eight degrees above
the freezing point — when it begins to expand. This only
exception to the general law of fluids is of greater import
ance in the economy of nature than most persons are
conscious of. As the cold season advances in the tem
perate and frigid zones, the water in our lakes and rivers
is reduced to the temperature of forty degrees ; but at
this point, by a beneficent provision of an All-wise
Providence, the upper substratum becomes specifically
lighter, and is converted into a covering of ice, which,
resting upon the wrater beneath, protects it from freez
ing. Moreover, when water is converted into ice, one
hundred and forty degrees of heat are given out, a part
of which, entering into the water below, retards the
further formation of ice.*

* I may here add, that exactly the reverse is true in the melting of
snow and ice. It requires as much heat to convert these solids into
fluids, without at all increasing their temperature, as it does to raise
the temperature of water from the freezing point, one hundred and
forty degrees, or from thirty -two to one hundred and seventy-two de
grees, as indicated by the thermometer. This principle is of vast im
portance to the world, and particularly to the inhabitants of cold coun
tries, where the ground is covered with snow and ice a part or the
whole of the year. The transition from the cold of winter to the heat
of summer, in some of the northern climates, takes place within a few
days. In these climates, also, there are vast accumulations of snow
and ice, which, but for this principle, would be converted into water
as soon as the temperature of the atmosphere becomes above thirty-
two degrees, which would produce a flood sufficient to inundate and
destroy the whole country. But the uniform action of this law renders
the melting of snow gradual, and no such accident ensues.

POPULAR EDUCATION. 323

It" water, like other fluids, continued to increase in
density to the freezing point, the cold air of winter
would rob the water of our lakes and rivers of its heat,
until the whole was reduced to the temperature of
thirty-two degrees ; when, but for the circumstance to
which we have just alluded, it would be immediately
converted into a solid mass of ice from top to bottom,
causing instant death to every animal living in it. The
lower strata of such a mass of ice would never again
become liquefied.

This is a striking proof of the beneficence and desigr
of the Creator in forming water with such an excep
tion to the ordinary laws of nature, and a knowledge
of it can hardly fail to exert a most salutary, elevating,
and ennobling influence on the mind of its possessor.
The field of human happiness, then, with the virtuous
seems to enlarge in proportion as a knowledge of the
works and laws of the beneficent Creator is extended
There is little ground for doubt as to what is GOD'S
WILL in relation to the universal education of the family
of man, when he has connected with the exercise of
mind in the study of his works superior enjoyments and
heavenly aspirations.

The various propositions stated and elucidated in
this chapter, we think, are as fully established as any
moral truths need be, and, we doubt not, they com
mend themselves to the judgment and conscience of all
who have carefully perused the preceding pages, if,
indeed, they had not been duly considered and adopted
before. If, then, a system of universal education, ju-

A similar law is observed in the conversion of water into vapor, which
is of great use in enabling us to cool apartments by sprinkling floors or
hanging up moistened cloths. The heat of even a whole city is in like
manner greatly moderated by frequently sprinkling the streets. It is
on this account that gentle showers in hot weather are so cooling and
refreshing.

324 THE IMPORTANCE OF

diciously administered, would dissipate the evils of ig
norance, which are legion ; if it would greatly increase
the productiveness of labor ; if it would diminish — not
to say exterminate — pauperism and crime ; if it would
prevent the great majority of fatal accidents that are
constantly occurring in every community ; if it would
save the lives of a hundred thousand children in the
United States every year, and as many more puny sur
vivors from dragging out a miserable existence in con
sequence of being the offspring of ignorant or vicious
parents ; if it would prevent so much of idiocy, and
would humanize those who are born idiots only, but
have hitherto been permitted, nay, doomed to die
BRUTES ; if it would prevent so much insanity, and
would save to society and their family and friends,
''clothed and in their right mind," multitudes of every
generation who now dwell in mental darkness and
gloom ; if it would increase the sum total of human
happiness in proportion to its excellence, and the num
ber of persons who are brought under its benign influ
ence and uplifting power ; if it would do all this — and
that this is its legitimate tendency there can be no doubt
— it would seem that no enlightened community could
be found in any country, and especially that there can
be no state in this Union, that would not at once resolve
upon maintaining a system of universal education by
opening the doors of improved free schools to all her
sons and daughters, and, if need be, employing agents,
vigilant and active, " to go out into the highways and
hedges, and compel them to come in." If this is not
done, thousands and tens of thousands of every gener
ation will continue to lead cheerless lives, and will go
down to their graves like the brute that perisheth, with
out knowing that He who gave to man life has also,
in his goodness, which knows no bounds, provided that

in the proper exercise of his faculties man shall find an
inexhaustible source of happiness.*

CHAPTER IX.

POLITICAL NECESSITY OF NATIONAL EDUCATION.

In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public
opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. —
WASHINGTON.

I do not hesitate to affirm not only that a knowledge of the true prin
ciples of government is important and useful to Americans, but that it
is absolutely indispensable to carry on the government of their choice,
and to transmit it to their posterity. — JUDGE STORY.

EVERY succeeding section of the last chapter went to
show more and more clearly that, in proportion as the
benign influences of a correct education are diffused
among and enjoyed by the members of any commu
nity, will existing evils of every kind be diminished,
and blessings be increased in number and degree.
The subject of popular education, then, claims, and
should receive, the sympathy and active support ol
every philanthropist and Christian, without regard to
country or clime. We come now to consider a topic
in which every patriot, and especially every true Amer
ican, as such, must feel a lively interest.

Every citizen of our wide-spread country should be
fully persuaded that the education of the people is the
only permanent basis of national prosperity not only,
but of national SAFETY. This, in theory, is now con-

* In the annual report of the Trustees of the New England Institu
tion for the Education of the Blind for the year 1834, this beautiful
passage occurs: "The' expression of one of the pupils, 'that she had
never known, before she began to learn, that it was a happiness to be alive,'
may be applied to many."

326 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

ceded, and the importance of education is very gener
ally admitted among men, especially in our own coun
try. It is evident, however, that the conviction of its
importance is not so deeply inwrought into the mind
of society as it ought to be, for it does not manifest
itself with all the power of earnest feeling in behalf ot
education which the subject, in view of its acknowl
edged weightiness, justly demands.

The objects and advantages of education heretofore
considered apply equally to men of every nation and
clime, under whatever form of government they may
chance to dwell. It is otherwise in regard to the po
litical necessity of popular education. Here a partic
ular training is required to fit men for the government
under which they are to live. In despotic governments,
the object of popular education is to make good sub
jects, while upon us devolves the higher responsibility
of so educating the people that they may become not
only good subjects, but good SOVEREIGNS — all power
originating in and returning to the sovereign people.

Only seventy-four years ago, our fathers of the ever-
memorable Revolution pledged "fortune, life, and sa
cred honor" to establish the independence of these
United States. Under the fostering care of republic
an institutions, the tide of population rolled rapidly in
land, crossing the Alleganies, sweeping over the vast
Valley of the Mississippi, nor resting in its onward
course until it settled on the waters of the Columbia
and the shores of the Pacific. Previous to the Revo
lutionary war, the English settlements were confined
to the Atlantic coast ; now the tide of immigration
seems to be to the shores of the Pacific, where states
are multiplying and cities springing up as by magic.
In a little more than half a century, the states of the
Union have increased i'i number from thirteen to thir-

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 327

ty, and in population in a ratio hitherto unprecedented,
from three millions to twenty-five millions of souls.

We stand in the same relation to posterity that our
ancestors do to us. Each generation has duties of its
own to perform ; and our duties, though widely differ
ent from those of our forefathers, are not less import
ant in their character or less binding in their obliga
tions. It was their duty to found or establish our in
stitutions, and nobly did they perform it. It is our es
pecial and appropriate duty to perfect and perpetuate
the institutions we have received at their hands. The
boon they would bequeath to the latest posterity can
never reach and bless them except through our instru
mentality. Upon each present generation rest the
duty and the obligation of educating and qualifying
for usefulness that which immediately succeeds, upon
which, in turn, will devolve a like responsibility. Each
succeeding generation will, in the main, be what the
preceding has made it. From this responsible agency
there is, there can be, no escape.

Trusts, responsibilities, and interests, vaster in
amount and more sacred in character than have ever,
in the providence of God, been committed to any peo
ple, are now intrusted to us. The great experiment
of the capacity of man for self-government is being
tried anew — an experiment which, wherever it has
been tried, has failed, through an incapacity in the
people to enjoy liberty without abusing it. We are,
I doubt not, now educating the very generation during
whose lifetime this great question will be decided. The
present generation will, to a great extent, be responsi
ble for the result, whatever it may be. We are, there
fore, called upon, as American citizens and Christian
philanthropists, to do all that in us lies to secure to this
experiment a successful issue ; to make this the lead-

328 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

ing nation of the earth, and a model worthy of imita
tion by all others. Never before this has a nation been
planted with so hopeful an opportunity for becoming
the universal benefactor of the race.

If for the next fifty years. the population of these
American States shall continue to increase as during

o

the last fifty, we shall exceed a hundred millions ; and
in a century, allowing the same ratio of increase, the
population will equal that of the Old World. Here,
then, is a continent to be filled with innumerable mill
ions of human beings, who may be happy through our
wisdom, but who must be miserable through our folly.
We may disregard such considerations, but we can not
escape the tremendous responsibilities rolling in upon
us in view of the relations we sustain to the past and
the future. We delight to honor, in words, those heroes
and martyrs from whom we have received the rich
boon of civil and religious liberty. Let us then, in
deeds, imitate the examples we profess to admire, and
contribute our full quota, as individuals and as a gen
eration, towrard perfecting and perpetuating the institu
tions we have received, that they may be enjoyed by
those countless millions who are to succeed us in this
broad empire.

" In this exigency," to adopt the language of an en
lightened practical educator and eminent statesman,
" we need far more of wisdom and rectitude than we
possess. Preparations for our present condition have
been so long neglected, that we now have a double
duty to perform. We have not only to propitiate to
our aid a host of good spirits, but we have to exorcise
a host of evil ones. Every aspect of our affairs, public
and private, demonstrates that we need, for their suc
cessful management, a vast accession to the common
stock of intelligence and virtue. But intelligence and

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 329

virtue are the product of cultivation and training.
They do not spring up spontaneously. We need, there
fore, unexampled alacrity and energy in the application
of all those influences and means which promise the
surest and readiest returns of wisdom and probity, both
public and private.

" When the Declaration of Independence was car
ried into effect, and the Constitution of the United
States was adopted, the civil and political relations of
the generation then living, and of all succeeding ones,
were changed. Men were no longer the same men,
but were clothed with new rights and responsibilities.
Up to that period, so far as government was concern
ed, they might have been ignorant ; indeed, it has gen
erally been held that where a man's only duty is obe
dience, it is better that he should be ignorant ; for why
should a beast of burden be endowed with the sensibil
ities of a man ! Up to that period, so far as govern
ment was concerned, a man might have been unprin
cipled and flagitious. He had no access to the statute-
book to alter or repeal its provisions, so as to screen
his own violations of the moral law from punishment,
or to legalize the impoverishment and ruin of his fellow-
beings. But with the new institutions, there came new
relations, and an immense accession of powers. New
trusts of inappreciable value were devolved upon the
old agents and upon their successors, irrevocably.

" With the change in the organic structure of our
government, there should have been corresponding
changes in all public measures and institutions. For
every dollar given by the wealthy or by the state to
colleges to cultivate the higher branches of knowledge,
a hundred should have been given for primary educa
tion. For every acre of land bestowed upon an acad
emy, a province should have been granted to common

330 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

schools. Select schools for select children should have
been discarded, and universal education should have
joined hands with universal suffrage"*

In the simplest form of civil government, there must
exist a legislative, a judicial, and an executive depart
ment. But no expression of the national will in a sys
tem of laws can be sufficiently definite to supersede
the necessity of a perpetual succession of Legislatures
to supply defects, and to meet emergencies as they
arise. However well-informed men may be, and how
ever pure the motives by which they are actuated, all
experience hath shown that subjects will come up for
consideration that will strike different minds in a vari
ety of forms. This, in a popular government, gives
rise to opposing parties. Every man, then, in casting
his vote for members of the Legislature, needs to under
stand what important questions will be likely to come
before that branch of the government for settlement, to
have examined them in their various bearings, and to
have deliberately made up his opinion in relation to the
interests involved, in order to vote understandingly ;
otherwise he will be as likely to oppose as to promote,
not only the welfare of the state, but his own most
cherished interests.

The same remark that has been made in relation to
the legislative department will apply to both the judi
cial and executive, and to the general government as
well as to the several state governments. When the
appointed day arrives for deciding the various ques
tions of state and national policy which divide men
into opposing parties, there can be no delay. These
various and conflicting questions must be decided,

* From " an Oration delivered before the Authorities of the City of
Boston, July 4th, 1842, by Horace Maun, Secretary of tho Massachu
setts Board of Education."

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 33l

whether much or little preparation has been made, or
none at all. And, what is most extraordinary, each
voter helps to decide every question which agitates
the community as much by not voting as by voting.
If the question is so vast or so complicated that any
one has not time to examine and make up his mind in
relation to it, or if any one is too conscientious to act
from conjecture in cases of magnitude, and therefore
stays from the polls* another, who has no scruples about
acting ignorantly, or from caprice, or malevolence,
votes, and, in the absence of the former, decides the
question against the right.

However simple our government may be in theory,
it has proved, in practice, the most complex govern
ment on earth. More questions for legislative inter
position, and for judiciaj exposition and construction,
have already arisen under it, ten to one, than have
arisen during the same length of time under any other
form of government in Christendom. We are a Union
of thirty states ; a great nation composed of thirty sep
arate nations ; and even beyond these, the confederacy
is responsible for the fate of vast territories, with their
increasing population, and of numerous Indian tribes.
Among the component states, there is the greatest va
riety of customs, institutions, and religions. Then we
have the deeper inbred differences of language and
ancestry among us, our population being made up of
the lineage of all nations. Our industrial pursuits, also,
are various; and, with a great natural diversity of soil
and climate, they must always continue to be so.
Moreover, across the very center of our territory a
line is drawn, on one side of which all labor is volun
tary, while on the opposite side a system of involunta
ry servitude prevails.

If, then, general intelligence and popular virtue are

332 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

necessary for the successful administration of even the
simplest forms of government, and if these qualities
are required in a higher and still higher degree in pro
portion to the complexity of a government, then are
both intelligence and virtue necessary in this govern
ment to an extent indefinitely beyond what has ever
been required in any other. And especially is this
true when we consider that our government is repre
sentative as it regards the people, and federative as it
regards the states ; and that, in this respect, it has no
precedent on the file of nations. We hence require a
double portion of general intelligence and practical
wisdom. But men are not born in the possession of
these requisites to self-government, neither are they
necessarily developed in the growth from infancy to
manhood. They are the product of cultivation and
training, and can be secured only through good schools
opened to and enjoyed by all our youth. The stability
of this government requires that universal education
should precede universal suffrage.

Under a free government, the intelligence of the peo
ple, coupled with their virtue, will be found to be a sure
index to a nation's prosperity, and to the individual and
social well-being of all who enjoy its protection. God
is a being of infinite wisdom and goodness, and no part
of his government can be successfully administered ex
cept upon the principles of knowledge and virtue. The
success that attends a nation of freemen will depend
upon the extent to which these are cultivated, and the
universality of their dissemination in the body politic.
While the cultivation of these will increase the safety
of the government, their neglect will hasten its down
fall.

Judge Story, in a lecture upon the importance of the
science of government as a branch of popular educu-

NATIONAL El C CATION. 333

tion, has well remarked, that " it is not to rulers and
statesman alone that the science of government is im
portant and useful. It is equally indispensable for
every American citizen, to enable him to exercise his
own rights, to protect his own interests, and to secure
the public liberties and the just operations of public au
thority. A republic, by the very constitution of its
government, requires, on the part of the people, more
vigilance and constant exertion than any other form
of government. The American Republic, above all
others, demands from every citizen unceasing vigilance
and exertion, since we have deliberately dispensed with
every guard against danger or ruin except the intelli
gence and virtue of the people themselves. It is found
ed on the basis that the people have wisdom enough
to frame their own system of government, and public
spirit enough to preserve it ; that they can not be
cheated out of their liberties, and they will not submit
to have them taken from them by force. We have si
lently assumed the fundamental truth that, as it never
can be the interest of the majority of the people to pros
trate their own political equality and happiness, so they
never can be seduced by flattery or corruption, by the
intrigues of faction or the arts of ambition, to adopt any
measures which shall subvert them. If this confidence
in ourselves is justified — and who among Americans
does not feel a pride in endeavoring to maintain it ? — -lei
us never forget that it can be justified only by a watchful-
ness and zeal in proportion to our confidence. Let us
never forget that we must prove ourselves wiser, better,
and purer than any other nation ever has yet been, if
we are to count upon success. Every other republic
has fallen by the discords and treachery of its own cit
izens. It has been said by one of our own departed
statesmen, himself a devout admirer of popular govern-

334 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

ment, that power is perpetually stealing from the many
to the few."

The institutions of a republic are endangered by the
ignorance of the masses on the one hand, and by in
telligent, but unprincipled and vicious aspirants to office
and places of emolument on the other. Where these
two classes coexist to any considerable extent, the
safety of the republic is jeoparded; for they have a
strong sympathy with each other, and it is the constant
policy of the latter to increase the number of the former.
They arouse their passions and stimulate their appe
tites, and then lead them in a way they know not. A
barrel of whisky, or even of hard cider, with a "hur
rah !" will control ten to one more of this class of voters
than will the soundest arguments of enlightened and
honorable statesmen. And yet one of these votes thus
procured, when deposited in the ballot-box, counts the
same as the vote of a Washington or a Franklin !

There is one remedy, and but one, for this alarming
state of things, which prevails to a less or greater ex
tent in almost every community. That remedy is sim
ple. It consists in the establishment of schools for the
education of the whole people. These schools, how
ever, should be of a more perfect character than the
majority of those which have hitherto existed. In them
the principles of morality should be copiously inter
mingled with the principles of science. Cases of con
science should alternate with lessons in the rudiments.
The rule requiring us to do to others as we would that
they should do unto us, should be made as familiar as
the multiplication table, and our youth should become
as familiar with the practical application of the one as
of the other. The lives of great and good men should
be held up for admiration and example, and especially
the life and character of Jesus Christ, as the sublimesl

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 335

pattern of benevolence, of purity, and of self-sacrifice
ever exhibited to mortals. In every course of studies,
all the practical and preceptive parts of the Gospel
should be sacredly inculcated, and all dogmatical theol
ogy and sectarianism sacredly excluded. In no school
should the Bible be opened to reveal the sword of the
polemic, but to unloose the dove of peace.

In connection with the preceding, and in addition to
the branches now commonly taught in our schools, the
study of politics, which has been beautifully defined as
the art of making a people happy, should be generally
introduced. " I am not aware," says an eminent jurist,*
" that there are any solid objections which can be urged
against introducing the science of government into our
common schools as a branch of popular education. If
it should be said that it will have a tendency to intro
duce party creeds and party dogmas into our schools,
the true answer is, that the principles of government
should be there taught, and not the creeds or dogmas
of any party. The principles of the Constitution under
which we live ; the principles upon which republics
generally are founded, by which they are sustained,
and through which they must be saved ; the principles
of public policy, by which national prosperity is se
cured, and national ruin averted — these certainly are
not party creeds or party dogmas, but are fit to be
taught at all times and on all occasions, if any thing
which belongs to human life and our own condition is
fit to be taught. If we wait until we can guard our
selves against every possible chance of abuse before
we introduce any system of instruction, we shall wait
until the current of time has flowed into the ocean of
eternity. There is nothing which ever has been or
ever can be taught without some chance of abuse ;

* Joseph Story, before the American Institute of Instruction.

330 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

nay, without some absolute abuse. -Even religion it
self, our truest and our only lasting hope and consola
tion, has not escaped the common infirmity of our na
ture. If it never had been taught until it could be
taught with the purity, simplicity, and energy of the
apostolic age, we ourselves, instead of being blessed
with the bright and balmy influences of Christianity,
should now have been groping our way in the dark
ness of heathenism, or left to perish in the cold and
cheerless labyrinths of skepticism."

Lord Brougham, one of the most powerful advocates
of popular education in our day, has made the follow
ing remarks, which can not be more fitly addressed to
any people than to the citizens of the American States.
"A sound system of government," says this transatlantic
writer, "requires the people to read and inform them
selves upon political subjects; else they are the prey
of every quack, every impostor, and every agitatoi
who may practice his trade in the country. If they dc
not read ; if they do not learn ; if they do not digest bj'
discussion and reflection what they have read and
learned ; if they do not qualify themselves to form
opinions for themselves, other men will form opinions
for them, not according to the truth and the interests
of the people, but according to their own individual
and selfish interest, which may, and most probably
will, be contrary to that of the people at large."

Two very important inquiries here naturally sug
gest themselves to us : they are, first, whether there is
at present in this country a degree of intelligence suf
ficient for the wise administration of its affairs ; and,
secondly, whether existing provisions for the education
of our country's youth are adequate to the wants of a
great and free people, who are endeavoring to demon
strate to the world that great problem of nations — the

NATIONAL EDUCATION*. 337

capability of man for self-government. We judge of
the literary attainments of the citizens of a state or of
a nation, as a whole, by comparing all the individual
members thereof with a given standard, and of their
arrangements for educating the rising generation by
the character of their schools, and the proportion of the
population that receive instruction in them. Let us
test the existing standard of education in various states
of this Union in both of these respects.

DEGREE OF POPULAR INTELLIGENCE. — According to
the census of 1840,* the total population of the United
States was, in round numbers, seventeen millions. Of
this number, five hundred and fifty thousand were
whites over twenty years of age, who could not read
and write. The. proportion varies in different states,
from one in five hundred and eighty-nine in Connecti
cut, to one in eleven in North Carolina.

If we exclude, in the estimate, all colored persons,
and whites under twenty years of age, the proportion
will stand thus : in the United States, one to every
twelve is unable to read and write. The proportion
varies in the different states, from one in two hundred
and ninety-four in Connecticut, which stands the highest,
to one in three in North Carolina, which stands the
lowest. In Tennessee the proportion is one in four.
In Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, and
Arkansas, each, one in five. In Delaware and Ala
bama, each, one in six. In Indiana, one in seven. In
Illinois and Wisconsin, each, one in eight.

* The census for 1850 is now being taken. Whether its results will
tell more favorably upon the general interests of education in the United
States than those of the last census, remains to be seen. Some of the
states daring the last ten years have done nobly; others have evident
ly retrograded." We have also a tide of foreign immigration pouring
in upon us hitherto unprecedented, averaging a thousand a day for the
past year, all of whom need to be Americanized.

P

838 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

On the brighter end of the scale, next to Connecti
cut, in which the proportion is one in two hundred and
ninety-four, is New Hampshire, in which the propor
tion is one in one hundred and fifty-nine. In Massa
chusetts it is one in ninety. In Maine, one in seventy-
two. In Vermont, one in sixty-three. Next in order
comes Michigan, in which the proportion is one in thir
ty-nine.*

But these statements in relation to the number of
persons in the United States who are unable to read
and write, although they give the fearful aggregate of
five hundred and fifty thousand over twenty years of
age who are destitute of these qualifications, it is be
lieved, fail to discover much of gross ignorance that is
cherished in various portions of the country ; for there
is no state in the Union, nor any section of a single
state, where men do not wish to be accounted able to
read and write. The deputy marshals who took the
census received their compensation by the head, and
not by the day, for the work done. They therefore
traveled from house to house, making the shortest prac
ticable stay at each. More was required of them than

* According to the last census, there were twenty states below Mich
igan, and only five above her. But even this estimate, favorable as it
is in the scale of states, does not allow Michigan an opportunity to ap
pear in her true light, for it is well known that a great proportion of
the illiterate population of this state is confined to a few counties. In
Mackinaw and Chippewa counties there is one white person over
twenty years of age to every five of the entire population that is unable
to read and write. In Ottawa, one in fourteen ; in Cass, one in twenty-
two ; in Wayne and Saginaw, each, one in thirty-six. On the other
hand, there were eight organized counties in the state in which, ac
cording to the census referred to, there was not a single white inhab
itant over twenty years of age that was unable to read and write. It
is an interesting fact, at least to persons residing in the Northwest, that
in Ohio also (on the Western Reserve) there were seven such counties,
making fifteen in these two states, while in all New England there
were but two — Franklin in Massachusetts, and Essex in Vermont.

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 339

could be thoroughly and accurately performed in the
time allowed. Their informants were subjected to no
test. In the absence of the heads of families, whose
information would have been more reliable, the bare
word of persons over sixteen years of age was accred
ited. It is, moreover, well known, that no inconsider
able number of persons gave false information when
inquired of by the deputies. From these and other
reasons, it is believed that numerous and important er
rors exist in the census ; and this opinion is corrobora
ted by a mass of unquestionable testimony, of which I
will introduce a specimen.

The annual message of Governor Campbell, of Vir
ginia, to the Legislature of that state, the year immedi
ately preceding that in which the census was taken,
clearly shows that the capacity to read and write in
persons over twenty years of age was greatly over
estimated in that state. Governor Campbell, after
stating that the importance of an efficient system of
education, embracing in its comprehensive and benev
olent design the whole people, can not be too frequent
ly recurred to, goes on to remark as follows :

** The statements furnished by the clerks of five city
and borough courts, and ninety-three of the county
courts, in reply to the inquiries addressed to them, as
certain that, of alt those who applied for marriage li
censes, a large number were unable to write their
names. The years selected for this inquiry were those
of 1817, 1827, and 1837. The statements show that
the applicants for marriage licenses for 1817 amounted
to 4682, of whom 1127 were unable to write ; 5048 in
1827, of whom the number unable to write was 1166;
and in 1837 the applicants were 4614, and of these the
number of 1047 were unable to write their names.
From which it appears there still exists a deplorable

340 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

extent of ignorance, and that, in truth, it is hardly less
than it was twenty years ago, when the school fund
was created. The statements, it will be remembered,
are partial, not embracing quite all the counties, and
are, moreover, confined to one sex. The education of
females, it is to be feared, is in a condition of much
greater neglect.

" There are now in the state two hundred thousand
children between the ages of five and fifteen. Forty
thousand of them are reported to be poor children, and
of them only one half to be attending schools. It may
be safely assumed that, of those possessing property
adequate to the expenses of a plain education, a large
number are growing up in ignorance, for want of schools
within convenient distances. Of those at school, many
derive little or no instruction, owing to the incapacity
of the teachers, as well as to their culpable negligence
and inattention. Thus the number likely to remain
uneducated, and to grow up without just perceptions
of their duties, religious, social, and political, is really
of appalling magnitude, and such as to appeal with af
fecting earnestness to a parental Legislature."

If there shall appear any want of agreement between
these statements and the returns made by the deputy
marshals, no one need be in doubt in relation to which
has the strongest claims for credence. These state
ments were communicated by the governor of a proud
state to the Legislature in his annual message. Unlike
the statistics collected by the marshals, each case was
subjected to an infallible test ; for no man who could
make a scrawl in the similitude of his name wrould sub
mit to the mortification of making his mark, and leaving
it on record in a written application for a marriage li
cense. The requisition was made upon the officers of
the courts, and the evidence, which was of a document-

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 341

ary or judicial character, is the highest known to the
law. The result was, that almost one fourth of all the
men applying for marriage licenses — more than thirty-
three hundred in three years — were unable to write
their names ! And Governor Campbell clearly inti
mates an opinion that "the education of females is in a
condition of much greater neglect !"

In round numbers, the free white population of Vir
ginia over twenty years of age is three hundred and
thirty thousand. One fourth of this number is eighty-
two and a half thousand, which, according to the evi
dence presented by Governor Campbell, is the lowest
possible limit at which the minimum of adults unable to
read and write can be stated. But the census number
is less than fifty-nine thousand, making a difference ot
nearly twenty-four thousand, or more than forty per
cent.

There are several states of about the same rank as
Virginia in the educational scale. Kentucky, Tennes
see, and North Carolina sink even below her. The last-
named state, with a free white population over twenty
years of age of less than 210,000, has the appalling
number, even according to the census, of 56,009 who
are unable to read and write. In other words, forty-
two hundred more than one fourth of the whole free
population over twenty years of age are, in the edu
cational scale, absolutely below ze?*o.

Now if to the five hundred and fifty thousand free
white population in the United States over the age of
twenty years who are unable to read and write, as
shown by the census, we add forty per cent, for its
under-estimates, as facts require us to do in the case
of Virginia, it would increase the total to seven hundred
and seventy thousand. Suppose one fourth of these
only are voters — that is, deduct one half for females, and

342 POI ETICAL NECESSITY OF

allow that one half of the male moiety is made up of
persons either between twenty and twenty-one years
of age, or of those who are unnaturalized, which is a
most liberal allowance when we consider where the
great mass of ignorance belongs, and that the number
of ignorant immigrants is much less at the South than
at the North — and we have 192,500 voters in the
United States who are unable to read and write.

Now, at the presidential election for the same year
that the census was taken, when, to use the graphic
language of another, " every voter not absolutely in his
winding sheet was carried to the polls, when the har
vest field was so thoroughly swept that neither stubble
nor tares were left for the gleaner,'' the majority for the
successful candidate was 146,081, more than 46,000
less than the estimated number of legal voters at that
time in the United States unable to read and write.
At this election a larger majority of the electoral votes
was given for the successful candidate than was ever
given to any other President of the United States, with
the exception of Mr. Monroe in 1820, against whom
there was but one vote. General Harrison's popular
majority, also, was undoubtedly the largest by which
any President of the United States has ever been elect
ed, with the exception above-mentioned of Mr. Mon
roe, and perhaps that of General Washington at his
second election. And yet this majority, large as it was,
was more than 46,000 less than the estimated number of
our legal voters who, in the educational scale, are ab
solutely below zero.

And then it should be borne in mind that hundreds
of thousands who are barely able to read and write
may never have acquired " a knowledge of the true
principles of government," which, in the language of
Judge Story, at the head of this chapter, " is riot only

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 8l3

important and useful to Americans, but is absolutely
indispensable to carry on the government of their
choice, and to transmit it to posterity." It should also
be borne in mind that popular virtue is not less essen
tial to the stability of a free government than is gen
eral intelligence. Nay, more ; if the liberties of this
republic are more endangered by any one class of peo
ple than by all others, that class consists of intelligent
but unprincipled political aspirants. The connection
between ignorance and vice has already been referred
to, and is well known among intelligent men ; but by
none so well, it may be, as by the unprincipled aspirant,
who, by pandering to the vicious appetites of the igno
rant and the vile, and then by base flattery pronouncing
them "highly intelligent, enlightened, and civilized,"
take advantage of their very want of qualification "to
manufacture political capital." These are they to
whom Lord Brougham refers when he says, " other
men will form opinions for them, not according to truth
and the interests of the people, but according to their
own individual and selfish interest, which may, and
most probably will, be contrary to that of the people
at large." We can not, then, avoid coming to the un
welcome and dread conclusion that there is not at
present in this 'country a sufficient degree of intelli
gence and virtue for the wise, or even the safe admin
istration of its affairs. It remains to consider whether
existing provisions for the education of our country's
youth are adequate to the wants of the American people.
EXISTING PROVISIONS FOR EDUCATION. — Of the seven
teen millions of persons in the United States, accord
ing to the last census, 3,726,080 — one in five of the en
tire population — were free white children between the
ages of five and fifteen years. This is the lowest esti
mate I have ever known made of the ages between

344 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

which children should regularly attend school. The
ages usually stated between which children generally
should attend school at least ten months during the
year, are from four to sixteen, or from four to eighteen
years, and sometimes from four to twenty or twenty-
one years.

But what is the actual attendance upon the primary
and common schools of the country ? It is only
1,845,244, or, to vary the expression and give it more
defmiteness, the total number of children in attendance
upon all our schools, any part of the year, is twenty
thousand less than one half of the free-born white chil
dren in the United States between the ages of five and
fifteen years ! And then it should be borne in mind
that the same general motives which would lead to an
under- statement in regard to the number of persons
unable to read and write, would lead to an over- state
ment in regard to the number of those attending school.
The educational statistics of some of the states, made
out by competent and faithful school officers, show that
the whole number of scholars that attended school any
part of the time during the school year 1840—41 — the
year the census was taken — was several thousand less
than the number according to the census.*

If we were to embrace in the estimate the whole
number of students in attendance at the universities,
colleges, academies, and seminaries of learning of every
grade, it would not materially vary the result, for ail

* In Massachusetts, according to a statement made by the Secretary
of the Board of Education, the whole number of scholars who were in
all the public schools any part of the school year 1840-41 was but
155,041, and the average attendance wag, in the winter, 110,398, and in
the summer, 90,802 ; while the number given in the census is 158,351,
which is greater by 3310 than the entire number that attended school
any purl of the year, according to the returns, and 55,751 more than
the average attendance for half of the year.

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 345

these taken together are less than one tenth part of the
number in attendance upon the common schools. That
the number of children attending schools of any grade
is less than might be inferred from the foregoing state
ments, will be apparent when we consider the follow
ing facts.

In the United States, taken together as a whole, only
one person in ten of the population attends any school
whatever any part of the year. Now it is well known
that a large number of children under five years of
age attend school in many parts of the country, and a
much greater number that are over fifteen \years of
age. I have already said that the entire number of
children in attendance upon all our schools is twenty
thousand less than one half of the entire number of free-
born white children in the United States between the
ages of five and fifteen years. This leaves two mill
ions of children uninstructed. We shall have a more
just view of the scantiness of our provisions for ade
quate national education if to this number, appalling
as it is, we add the total number of those attending
under five and over fifteen in various portions of the
country.

Again : no one supposes that in any part of the Un
ion adequate provisions are made for the education of
the rising generation, even in a single state. But in
the New England states, and in New York and Mich
igan, one fourth part of the entire population attend
school some part of the year. This is twice and a halt
the general average throughout the Union, and more
than five times the average attendance in the majority
of the remaining states.

In round numbers, the proportion of the entire popu
lation that attend school in the different states of the
Union is, according to the census, in Maine, New

P2

346 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

Hampshire, and Vermont, each, one in three. In Mich
igan,* Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, the
proportion is one in four. In Rhode Island, it is one in
five. In Ohio and New Jersey, each, one in six. In
Pennsylvania, one in eight. In no other state is the
proportion more than one in ten, while in ten states
it is less than one in twenty-five.

In fixing this proportion, the nearest whole number
has been used. In no state is the proportion in attend
ance upon the schools as high as one in three. Mich
igan heads the states in which the proportion is one in
four. In this state the proportion is somewhat greater
than one in four ; it is, however, nearer this than one
in three. In the other states the proportion is less than
one in four. The states are all arranged according to
the size of the fraction, there being less difference in the
attendance in Vermont and Michigan than in the latter
state and New York.

At the time the last census was taken, Michigan had
recently been admitted into the Union, and the state
government being but just organized, the school system
had only gone partially into operation. According to
the census of 1840, the proportion in attendance upon
the schools of this state was only one in seven. Dur
ing the interval from 1840 to 1845, at which time the
census of this state was again taken, the population had
increased from two hundred and twelve thousand to
upward of three hundred thousand, showing an in
crease of about fifty per cent. ; the number of primary
schools had increased from less than ten thousand to
more than twenty thousand, making an increase of
more than one hundred per cent. ; and the attendance

* In determining the proportion for this state, the census for 1815
and the school returns for that year were the data used. In the Jther
states I have been obliged to use the census returns of 1840.

NATIONAL LUtJC'AliuN. 347

upon these schools had advanced from thirty thousand
to seventy-six thousand, giving the very remarkable
increase of one hundred and fifty per cent, in five years,
when, as already stated, the proportion in attendance
upon the common schools was more than one in four
of the entire population. And during the next two
years the number of children in attendance upon the
schools increased from seventy-six thousand to one hun
dred and eight thousand, showing an advance of more
than forty per cent, from 1845 to 1847.

It is gratifying to know that this important interest,
which underlies all others, is receiving increased atten
tion in various portions of the United States. Among
the most striking illustrations that I have noticed of
these indications of national improvement, I will in
stance two.* The following interesting items of fact
are gleaned from an address by the superintendent be
fore the public schools of New Orleans, February 22d,
1850 — a most befitting day for a school celebration.
These statistics strike us more forcibly when we con
sider that they relate to the metropolis of the South,
and to the capital of a state in which, according to the
last census, only one person in one hundred received
instruction in the primary and common schools of the
state. The public schools of the second municipality
of New Orleans were established in 1842, comprising
at that time less than three hundred pupils. Now the

* My information is derived from the " Southern Journal of Educa
tion" for May, 1850 — a monthly for the promotion of popular intelli
gence, published from Knoxville, Tenn. — Samuel A. Jewett, Editor and
Publisher. This journal is ably conducted, and has now reached its
third volume. This certainly is a very encouraging omen, especially
when we consider that it has so long survived in a state where, accord
ing to the last census, only one in thirty-three of the entire population
attended school. May it loi
por taut cause.

348 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

constant attendance is upward of three thousand —ten
times what it was eight years ago. Bat even this in
crease, large as it may seem, is not sufficient to consti
tute the proportion in attendance upon the schools of
the state even one in fifty of the entire population.

Kentucky furnishes the other indication of improve
ment which I propose to notice. In this state, accord
ing to the last census, only one in thirtyrthree of the
entire population attended the common schools during
any part of the year. The number of children at the
present time ia that commonwealth, as reported by the
second auditor, between the ages of five and sixteen,
leaving out the colored children, is one hundred and
ninety-three thousand. The number provided with
schools, as reported in 1847, was twenty-one thousand ;
in 1848, thirty-three thousand ; and in 1849, eighty-
seven thousand ; showing a clear advance in two years
of sixty-six thousand.* But, with all this improve
ment, one hundred and five thousand children do not
derive any personal benefit from the public school sys
tem. In other words, eighteen thousand more children
in this state are still growing up without instruction
than as yet attend the schools. And the utter inade-

* This improvement well illustrates the advantages resulting to the
state from the able and faithful supervision of her public schools. A
correspondent of the Baltimore American speaks of the Annual Report
of DR. ROBERT BRECKENRIDGE, Superintendent of Public Instruction,
to the General Assembly of Kentucky, as follows: " It is the most im
portant document which has been submitted to that body during the
present session, and reflects great credit upon the energy, fidelity, and
comprehensive aims of the superintendent in the discharge of his high
duties. It is now but two years since Dr. Breckenridge was appointed
to the office, and the great service he has rendered to the cause of pop
ular education in the state is strikingly exhibited in the contrast be
tween the present condition of the common schools, and that in which
he found them when he received his appointment from the Board of
Education."

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 340

quacy of the common school privileges of even these
will be apparent when it is understood that in the great
majority of the districts more than nine tenths of the
schools are taught but three months during the year.

We have as yet only considered the great destitu
tion of schools of any kind, in which the moiety of the
children that attend school at all receive instruction,
and the fact that very many of these are kept open but
three months during the year.* The inadequacy of
existing provisions for the proper education of the ris
ing generation will be more strikingly apparent when
we consider the incompetency of, I may perhaps safely
say, the majority of persons who are put in charge of
the public schools of the country. It is readily con
ceded that, in those states where education has receiv
ed most attention, there are many teachers who are
thoroughly furnished unto ail good works. But it is
far otherwise with the majority of teachers even in the
more favored states. The testimony of Governor
Campbell already quoted, will apply to the teachers of
many other states. After speaking of the large num
ber of children* in Virginia that " are growing up in
ignorance for want of schools within convenient dis
tances," he remarks, that " of those at school, many de
rive little or no instruction, owing to the incapacity of
the teachers, as well as to their culpable negligence
and inattention."

President Caldwell, of the*Xlniversity of North Car-

* Even in Massachusetts the average length of time the schools o£,
the state continue is less than eight months, and the average continu
ance in several of the counties is only five months. The average at
tendance upon the schools for the time they are kept open is sixty-two
per cent, of the number between the ages of four and sixteen years ;
but in some instances only twenty-six per cent, of the children in a
town — about one fourth of the number within the school ages — attend
school.

350 POLITICAL NECESSITV OF

olina, in a series of letters on popular education, ad
dressed to the people of that state a few years ago
proposes a plan for the improvement of common edu
cation. The first and greatest existing evil which he
specifies is the want of qualified teachers. Any one
who "knows how to read, and write, and cipher," it is
said, is regarded as fit to be a "schoolmaster/'

"Is a man," remarks President Caldwell, "constitu
tionally and habitually indolent, a burden upon all from
whom he can extract a support ? Then there is one
way of shaking him off; let us make him a schoolmas
ter ! To teach a school is, in the opinion of many, lit
tle else than sitting still and doing nothing. Has any
man wasted all his property, or ended in debt by indis
cretion and misconduct ? The business of school-keep
ing stands wide open for his reception ; and here he
sinks to the bottom, for want of capacity to support
himself. Has any one ruined himself, and done all he
could to corrupt others by dissipation, drinking, seduc
tion, and a course of irregularities ? Nay, has he re
turned from a prison, after an ignominious atonement
for some violation of the laws ? He is destitute of char
acter, and can not be trusted; but presently he opens
a school, and the children are seen flocking to it ; for,
if he is willing to act in that capacity — we shall all ad
mit that he can read, write, and cipher to the square
root — he will make an ^xcellent schoolmaster. In
short, it is no matter what the man is, or what his man
ners or principles ; if he has escaped with his life from
fhe penal code, we have the satisfaction to think that he
can still have credit as a schoolmaster."

The Georgia convention of teachers, in a published
address, after speaking of the importance of giving a
more extended education to our youth as citizens, and
giving an outline of a liberal system of popular educa-

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 351

lion, go on to remark as follows : k' Alas ! how far
should we be elevated above our present level if all of
them were thus enlightened ! But how many sons and
daughters of free-born Americans are unable to read
their native language ! How many go to the polls who
are unable to read the very charter of their liberties !
How many, by their votes, elect men to legislate upon
their dearest interests, while they themselves are una
ble to read even the proceedings of those legislators
whom they have empowered to act for them !"

In accounting for this lamentable state of things, the
committee of the Convention say, " We seem to forget
that first principles are, in education, all-important prin
ciples ; that primary schools are the places where these
principles are to be established, and where such direc
tion will, in all probability, be given to the minds of
our children as will decide their future character in
life. Hence the idle, and the profane, and the drunk
en, and the ignorant are employed to impart to our
children the first elements of knowledge — are set be
fore them as examples of what literature and science
can accomplish ! And hence the profession of school
master, which should be the most honorable, is but too
often a term of reproach."

That other most unwelcome and dread conclusion,
that existing provisions for popular education in the
United States are inadequate to the requirements of a
free people, is, then, in view of all these facts, unavoid
ably forced upon us.

In the name of Christian philanthropy, in the name of
patriotism, then, I inquire whether there is any ground
for hope that our free institutions may be transmitted
unimpaired to posterity. " With the heroes, and sages,
and martyrs of the Revolution," to adopt the language
of another, " I believe in the capability of man for self-

352 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

government, my whole soul thereto most joyously as
senting. Nay, if there be any heresy among men, or
blasphemy against God, at which the philosopher might
be allowed to forget his equanimity, and the Christian
his charity, it is the heresy and the blasphemy of be
lieving and avowing that the infinitely good and all-
wise Author of the universe persists in creating and
sustaining a race of beings who, by a law of their na
ture, are forever doomed to suffer all the atrocities and
agonies of misgovernment, either from the hands of
others or from their own. The doctrine of the inher
ent and necessary disability of mankind for self-gov
ernment should be regarded not simply with denial, but
with abhorrence ; not with disproof only, but with ex
ecration. To sweep so foul a creed from the precincts
of truth, and utterly to consume it, rhetoric should be
come a whirlwind, and logic fire. Indeed, I have never
known a man who desired the establishment of mo
narchical and aristocratical institutions among us, who
had not a mental reservation that, in such case, he and
his family should belong to the privileged orders.

"Still, if asked the broad question whether man is
capable of self-government. I must answer it condition
ally. If by man, in the inquiry, is meant the Fejee Isl
anders ; or the convicts at Botany Bay ; or the people
of Mexico and of some of the South American Repub
lics, so called ; or those as a class, in our own coun
try, who can neither read nor write ; or those who can
read and write, and who possess talents and an educa
tion by force of which they get treasury, or post-office,
or bank appointments, and then abscond with all the
money they can steal, I answer unhesitatingly that
man, or rather such men, are not fit for self-government.

" But if, on the other hand, the inquiry be whether
mankind are not endowed with those germs of intelli

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 353

gencc and those susceptibilities of goodness by which,
under a perfectly practicable system of cultivation and
training, they are able to avoid the evils of despotism
and anarchy, and also of those frequent changes in
national policy which are but one remove from an
archy, and to hold steadfastly on their way in an end
less career of improvement, then, in the full rapture of
that joy and triumph which springs from a belief in the
goodness of God and the progressive happiness of man,
I answer, THEY ARE ABLE."

PRACTICABILITY OF NATIONAL EDUCATION.

The first duty of government, and the surest evidence of good gov
ernment, is the encouragement of education. A general diffusion of
knowledge is the precursor and protector of republican institutions;
and in it we must confide, as the conservative power that will watch
our liberties, and guard against fraud, intrigue, corruption, and violence.
— DE WITT CLINTON'S Message to the Ncio York Legislature, 1826.

If good is to be done, we must bring our minds, as soon as possible,
to the confession of the truth, that the education of the people, to be
effectual, must here, as elsewhere, to a great extent, be the work of the
state; and that an expense, of which all should feel the necessity, and
all will share the benefit, must, in a just proportion, be borne by all. —
JOHN DUER.

The desirableness of national or universal education
is now generally admitted in all enlightened commu
nities ; but there are some who, honestly no doubt,
question its practicability. If they provide for the ed
ucation of their own children, they claim that they have
done all that duty, or interest requires them to do.
They even aver that there is absolute injustice in com
pelling them to contribute toward the education of the
children of others. Now these very persons, when
called upon annually by the tax-gatherer to contribute
their proportion for the support of paupers— made so

354 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

by idleness, intemperance, and other vices, which, as
we have already seen, result from ignorance — do so
cheerfully and ungrudgingly, and without complaining
that they support themselves and their families, and
that neither duty nor interest requires them to aid in
the maintenance of indigent persons in the community.

The Poor Laws of our country, in the case of adults
who are unable to support themselves, require merely
their maintenance. But with reference to their chil
dren, more, from the very nature of the case, is need
ed. Their situation imperatively demands not only a
sustenance, but an education that shall enable them in
future years to provide for themselves. The same hu
mane reasons which lead civilized communities to pro
vide for the maintenance of indigent adults by legal
enactments, bear even more strongly in the case of
their children. These require sustenance in common
with their parents. But their wants, their necessities,
stop not here ; neither does the well-being of society
with reference to them. Both alike require that such
children, in common with all others, be so trained as to
be enabled not only to provide for themselves when
they arrive at mature years, but as shall be necessary
to qualify them for the discharge of the duties of citi
zenship. Then, instead of taxing society for a support,
as their parents now do, they will contribute to the ele
vation of all around, even more largely than society
has contributed to their elevation.

Let the necessary provision be made for the educa
tion of the children of the poor, iru common with al
others, and successive generations of the sons of men
will steadily progress in knowledge and virtue, and in
all that has a tendency to elevate and ennoble human
kind. But let their education be neglected, and their
rank in societv will of necessity be lower, when cum-

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 355

pared with the better educated and more favored
classes, than it would have been only two or three cen
turies ago, even since the invention of the art of print
ing in 1440. The reasons are evident. Until after the
invention of printing and the multiplication of books, all
ranks were, in relation to education, nearly upon a
level. But, in the language of the adage, •* Knowledge
is power ;" and, since ** knowledge has been increased,"
those who possess it are elevated, relatively and abso
lutely, while those who remain in the ignorance of
former generations, although their absolute condition in
the scale of being is unchanged, occupy, nevertheless,
relatively, a lower place in society than they would
have done had they lived in the midst of the Dark Ages.
Wherever improved free schools have been main
tained, not only are the children of the poor in attend
ance upon them elevated in the scale of intellectual,
social, and moral being, but, through their irresistible in
fluence, their degraded and besotted parents have been
reformed and become law-abiding subjects, when all
other means had failed to reach and influence them.
Of the truth of this statement I am well persuaded from
my own observation. I have also in my possession an
abundance of unquestionable testimony to this effect,
gathered in cities, towns, and villages which have be
come celebrated for the maintenance of a high order
of public schools. The public, then, on many accounts,
are more interested in the right education of poor chil
dren than in the preservation of their lives ! The lat
ter is carefully provided for. But if this only is done ;
if their bodies are fed and clothed, without providing
for the sustenance of their minds ; if we provide for
their wants as helpless young animals merely, but
neglect to provide for their necessities as spiritual and
immortal beings, the probabilities are that such chil-

356 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

dren will become a pest to society, while, in providing
for their proper education, we are sure of making them
good citizens, of constituting them a blessing to the
world that now is, and of brightening their prospects
for a blessed immortality in that which is to come.

Bishop Butler, in a sermon preached in Christ Church,
London, on charity schools, May 9th, 1745, recognizes
the principle that the property of the state should edu
cate the children of the state. " Formerly," says he,
"not only the education of poor children, but also their
maintenance, with that of the other poor, were left to
voluntary charities. But great changes of different
sorts happening over the nation, and charity becoming
more cold, or the poor more numerous, it was found
necessary to make some legal provision for them.
This might, much more properly than charity schools,
be called a new scheme ;* for, without question, the
education of poor children was all along taken care of
by voluntary charities, more or less, but obliging us
by law to maintain the poor was new in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth. Yet, because a change of circum
stances made it necessary, its novelty was no renson
against it. Now, in that legal provision for the main
tenance of the poor, poor children must doubtless have
had a part in common with grown people. But this
could never be sufficient for children, because their case
always requires more than mere maintenance ; it re
quires that they be educated in some proper manner.
Wherever there are poor who want to be maintained
by charity, there must be poor children, who, besides
this, want to be educated by charity ; and whenever

* Bishop Butler is here answering the objections of some "people
who speak of charity schools as a new-invented scheme, and therefore
to be looked upon with suspicion •, whereas it is no otherwise new than
as the occasion for it is so."

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 357

there began to be need of legal provision for the main
tenance of the poor, there mast immediately have been
need also of some particular legal provision in behalf
of poor children for their education, this not being in
cluded in what we call their maintenance."

Not only is it the duty of society to pro vide food for
the minds as well as sustenance for the bodies of poor
children, but their pecuniary interests equally require
it ; for, as Butler remarks, " if they are not trained up
in the way they should go, they will certainly be train
ed up in the way they should not go, and in all prob
ability will persevere in it, and become miserable them
selves and mischievous to society, which, in event, is
worse, upon account of both, than if they had been ex
posed to perish in their infancy."

I have already shown, by unquestionable testimony,
that persons who possess the greatest share in the stock
of worldly goods are deeply interested in the subject of
popular education, as one of mere insurance ; " that the
most effectual way of making insurance upon their
property would be to contribute from it enough to sus
tain an efficient system of common school education,
thereby educating the whole mass of mind, and consti
tuting it a police more effective than peace officers or
prisons." I might elucidate this subject by illustrations.

It has been estimated that a quarter of a million of
dollars has been expended in the county of Philadel
phia since 1836 for the suppression of riots occurring
within its limits, and in damages occasioned by their
outrages and violence, to say nothing of personal inju
ries and deaths arising from the same cause. Now it
will be readily conceded by most persons that half of
this sum judiciously expended in organizing and sup
porting a sufficient police, and in giving the leaders and
gangs engaged in those riots an early and suitable ed-

358 POLITICAL NECESSITY OF

ucation, whereby they would have been taught to thinly
and feel, and act as rational, moral, and accountable
beings, would have prevented the commission of such
crimes, together with the sufferings and losses resulting
therefrom, and the reproach thus brought upon public
and individual character.

Again : The whole number of paupers relieved or
supported by public chanty in the single state of New
York, in the year 1849, according to an authentic state
ment now before me, was, in round numbers, one hund
red thousand, and the entire expense of their support
during the year was eight hundred and seven thou
sand dollars, a sum exceeding by three hundred and
forty thousand dollars the amount paid on rate-bills
for teacher's wages for educating the seven hundred
thousand children of that great state ! Of fifty thou
sand of these paupers, the causes of whose destitution
have been ascertained, nearly twenty thousand are at
tributable, directly or indirectly, to intemperance, prof
ligacy, licentiousness, and crime ! Had even half the
amount that is now expended from year to year in
their support been judiciously bestowed upon their
early mental and moral culture, who can question that,
instead of now being a tax upon the communities in
which they reside, and a burden to themselves and a
grief to their friends, they would not only have provid
ed for their own maintenance, but would have contrib
uted their due proportion to increase the general pros
perity of the state.

Great as is her poor-tax, New York contributes an
nually an immensely greater sum for the support of
her criminal police ; for the erection of court-houses,
and jails, and penitentiaries, and houses of correction :
for the arrest, trial, conviction, and punishment of crim
inals, and for their support in prison and at the various

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 350

landing-places on their way to the gallows and to a
premature and ignominious death. Now, had one half
of the money which this state has expended in these
two ways been judiciously bestowed in the early edu
cation of these unfortunate persons, who can question
that the poor and criminal taxes of that state would
have been reduced to less than one tenth of what they
now are, to say nothing of the fountains of tears that
would be thus dried up, and of the untold happiness that
would be enjoyed by persons who, in every generation,
lead cheerless lives and die ignoble deaths.

Lest some persons may labor under an erroneous im
pression in relation to this subject, I will give the statis
tics of education and crime in New York, as derived
from official reports, for the last few years. Of 1122
persons — the whole number reported by the sheriffs of
the different counties of the state as under conviction
and punishment for crime during the year 1847 — 22
only had a common education, 10 only had a tolerably
good education, and only 6 were well educated. Of
the 1345 criminals so returned in the several counties
of the state for the year 1848, 23 only had a common
school education. 13 only had a tolerably good educa
tion, and only 10 were considered well educated ! The
returns for other years give like results. Had the
whole eleven or thirteen hundred of these convicts
been well educated instead of only six or ten — and the
moral and religious education of even these was de
fective — how many of them would society be called
upon to support in prisons and penitentiaries? In all
probability, as we shall hereafter, I hope, be able to show,
NOT ONE. And what is true of the city and county of
Philadelphia and of the State of New York, will apply
to other cities, counties, and states of this Union.

Once more, and finally: Education, as we have al-

3(50 POLITICAL NECESSITY OP

ready seen, enables men to subdue their passions, and
to improve themselves in the exercise of all the social
virtues. Especially have we seen that the educated
portions of community, whose moral culture has been
duly attended to, are habitually temperate, while the
appetite of the uncultivated for intoxicating drinks is
stronger, and their power of resistance less. Cut off
from the sources of enjoyment which are ever open to
those whose minds and hearts are cultivated, no won
der they seek for happiness in the gratification of ap
petite ! No wonder that forty thousand of the citizens
of the United States annually die drunkards, when we
consider that this is only one in twenty of the number
who are unable to read and write !

The Hon. Edward Everett has expressed the opin
ion that the expenses of the manufacture and traffic of
intoxicating drinks in the United States exceed an
nually one hundred and fifty millions of dollars. Gen
eral Gary, in alluding to this statement, says, "This,
it is believed, is but an approximation to the cost of
these trades to the people. This estimate does not in
clude the money paid by consumers, which is worse
than thrown away. An English writer, well versed
in statistics, and having access to the most reliable
sources of information, says that ' the strong drinks
consumed in England alone cost nearly four hundred
millions of dollars annually? The expenditure for
these sources of all evil in the United States must be
equal, at least, to that of England."* Now one half
of this sum would maintain a system of common schools
in every state of this Union equal in expense and efficien
cy to that of Massachusetts or New York.

* See Tract on " The Liquor Manufacture and Traffic," prepared by
request of the National Division of the Sons of Temperance, by S. F.
Gary, Most Worthy Putrinroh.

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 361

But I need not extend these observations. Enough
I trust, has been said to show that every thing connect
ed with the good of man and the welfare of the race
depends upon the attention we bestow in perfecting
our systems of public instruction and rendering their
blessings universal. I will therefore close what I have
to say upon this topic with a summary of the conclu
sions we have arrived at in the progress of the last
two chapters.

We have seen that a good system of common school
education — one that is sufficiently comprehensive to em
brace all our country's youth in its benevolent design —
would free us as a people from a host of evils growing
out of popular ignorance ; that it would increase the
productiveness of labor, as the schools advance in ex
cellence, indefinitely ; that it would save to society, in
diminishing the number of paupers and criminals, a
vast amount of means absorbed in the support of the
former, and in bringing the latter to justice, a tax which
upon every present generation is more than sufficient
for the education of the next succeeding one ; that it
would prevent the great majority of fatal accidents
that are now depopulating communities wherever ig
norance prevails ; that, by imparting a knowledge of
the organic laws, the observance of which is essential
to health and happiness, it would save the lives of a
hundred thousand children in the United States every
year, and that by promoting longevity, in connection
with the advantages already enumerated, it would tend
more than all other means of state policy to increase at
once the wealth and the population of our country ;
that its legitimate tendency would be to diminish, from
generation to generation, not only drunkenness and
sensuality in all its Protean forms, but idiocy arid in
sanity, which result from a violation of the laws of our

Q

362 THE MEANS OF

being, which are the laws of God ; that it would, in >
numerable ways, tend to diminish the sufferings and
mitigate the woes incident to human life, while it would
acquaint man with the will of the benevolent Creator,
and lead him to cherish an habitual desire to yield obe
dience thereto ; and that it is the only possible means
of perfecting and perpetuating the inestimable boon of
civil and religious liberty to the latest generations,
and thus securing to the race the maximum of human
happiness. Yes, a system of popular education ade
quate to the requirements of the states of this Union
will do all this. None, then, it would seem, can fail to
see that true state policy requires the maintenance of
improved free schools, good enough for the best, and
cheap enough for the poorest, which are a necessary
means of universal education.

CHAPTER X.

THE MEANS OF UNIVERSAL EDUCATION.

I would recommend that each state should raise a school fund suf-
ficient for the entire support of the schools ; that a suitable school-
house and apparatus, with a convenient dwelling-house for the teacher,
be furnished by the state for each district; and that every school -house
be supplied with a well-qualified teacher, who shall receive from the
state a suitable compensation. — JOHN DUER.

Let there be an educational department of the government, and let
its details be managed by proper officers, accountable to the representa
tives of the people. — DR. HAWKS.

WE have already considered the nature of education,
which has reference to the whole man and to the whole
duration of his being. We have seen its importance
to individuals and families, to neighborhoods and com
munities, to states and nations, and that in proportion

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 363

as it receives attention in any community, will that
community become prosperous and happy. We may
then very properly inquire after the means to be put in
requisition in order to render the blessings of educa
tion universal among us. To the consideration of this
subject we shall devote the remainder of this work.
My first remark is, that

A connect public opinion should be formed. In the
language of Bishop Potter, " Our people have absolute
ly the control over the whole subject of education, not
only as it respects their own families, but, to a great
extent, in schools and seminaries of learning. If, then,
the people were fully awake to its importance and true
nature, we should soon have a perfect system, and we
should witness results from it for which we now look
in vain."

The formation of a correct public opinion is of the
utmost importance, for the primary cause of all the de
fects complained of in education, and the source of all
the evils that afflict the community in consequence of
its neglect, is popular indifference. From this we have
more to fear than from all other causes combined. Op
position elicits discussion ; and discussion, judiciously
conducted, evolves truth; and educational truths brought
clearly before the mind of any community will ulti
mately induce right action. Men may at first be in
fluenced by a comparatively low class of motives, but
one which they can appreciate. As they witness the
beneficial effects of reform, their motives will gradual
ly become more elevated, and their efforts at improve
ment more constant ; but no important advance can be
made without popular enlightenment.

When the majority of the individuals that compose
any community come to value education as they ought ;
when they duly estimate its importance in the various

3(54 THE MEANS OF

points of view already considered, then will their pub
lic servants take more pains to co-operate with them
in rendering its blessings universal. Good laws are
important as a means of improving our systems of pub
lic instruction ; but good laws, unsustained by a correct
public opinion, will be of no avail. Before any con
siderable advance can be made either in improving
our schools or in causing the attendance upon them to
become more general, a good common education — one
that shall give us sound minds in sound bodies; one that
bestows much attention upon intellectual culture, but
more upon the culture of the heart — must come to be
ranked among the necessaries of life.

Conventions of the friends of education have already
done much to correct popular errors in relation to this
subject, and have contributed largely to the formation
of sound and rational views in relation to its import
ance in the communities where they have been held.
In many instances, however, they have been composed
too exclusively of teachers. These should, indeed, be
in attendance ; but to increase the usefulness of such
conventions, and heighten the effect they may be made
to produce upon the popular mind, there should also be
in attendance members of the several learned profes
sions, statesmen, capitalists, and all the leading minds
of the communities in which they are held. In some
portions of the country this is now the case, but such
instances, I regret to say, are not yet very common
among us.

Fourth of July common school celebrations have, with
in the past few years, become quite common in several
states of the Union. This seems peculiarly appropriate,
being a practical recognition of the importance of pri
mary schools and universal education in a civil and
political point of view. One of the most befitting cele*

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 365

brations of this day which I have ever known was
held in Boston eight years ago, when an oration was
delivered before the authorities of that city by the Sec
retary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. The
theme of the orator was the importance of national or
universal education in a free government as the interest
which underlies all others, and as constituting the only
means of perfecting and perpetuating to the latest gen
erations the institutions we have received from our fa
thers, and " a demonstration that our existing means
for the promotion of intelligence and virtue are wholly
inadequate to the support of a republican government."
Such celebrations should be held in every state of this
Union, at every recurring anniversary of our national
independence, until there can not be found a single in
dividual in all our borders who does not know both
his duties and his privileges as a freeman, and who has
not virtue enough faithfully to perform the one and
temperately to enjoy the other. This, indeed, seems
to be in keeping with that most impressive passage of
the celebrated Ordinance of the American Congress,
adopted July 13th, 1787, which says, " RELIGION,

MORALITY, AND KNOWLEDGE DEING NECESSARY TO GOOD
GOVERNMENT AND THE HAPPINESS OF MANKIND, SCHOOLS
AND THE MEANS OF EDUCATION SHALL FOREVER BE EN
COURAGED."

The twenty-second of February has also been ob
served, to some extent, in several of the states, by hold
ing such celebrations. Nothing can be more appro
priate than these efforts to arouse the popular mind to
renewed efforts to improve the common schools of the
land, when we consider the import of that portion of
the Farewell Address of him, the anniversary of whose
birth we celebrate, which relates to popular education.
'* Promote, as an object of primary importance, iustitu-

3G6 THE MEANS OF

tions for the general diffusion of knowledge." There
can be no doubt that WASHINGTON here refers to the
maintenance and improvement of common schools as
the means of universal education.

The necessity of improving our common schools and
of opening wide their doors to all our youth should not
only be the theme at school celebrations, at educational
conventions, and on the occasion of our national anni
versaries, but it should be frequently presented by the
civilian and the divine, as well as by the legislator and
the journalist, until men generally well understand the
importance of education, and are willing to make any
sacrifices that may be necessary to secure its advant
ages to their own children not only, but to all our youth.

PROVISIONS FOR THE SUPPORT OF SCHOOLS. — The pro
visions which have been made for the support of schools
may be reduced to three kinds: first, by means of
funds ; second, by taxation ; third, by a combination
of both of these methods.

Connecticut, which has a school fund of more than
two millions of dollars, long ago adopted the first plan
named. But the inefficiency of her system of public
instruction, until within a few years, is proverbial, and
affords conclusive evidence that a large school fund is
of little or no avail in the absence of a correct public
opinion and a due appreciation of the importance of
education. The improvements in the schools of that
state during the last few years are not in consequence
of any increase in her school fund, but because the im
portance of the subject has been so frequently and im
pressively presented before the public mind, by means
of lectures, public discussions, educational tracts, school
journals, and in various other ways, as to overcome
that popular indifference which had well-nigh precluded
all advance. The late improvements in that state have

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION.

liken place in spite of the school fund rather tnan be
cause of any aid derived from it. Dr. Wayland has
expressed the opinion that school " funds are valuable
as a condiment, not as an aliment ; and that they should
never be so large as to render any considerable degree
of personal effort on the part of the parent unneces
sary." This is true only when a fund is so far relied
upon as to slacken personal effort for the improvement
of the schools, and to induce parental and popular in
difference in relation to them.

The second plan is by taxation, and Massachusetts
furnishes an example of it. In most of the counties of
this state there are small local funds, the avails of which
are added to the amount raised by tax for the support
of schools. There are also still less amounts appropri
ated from the income of the surplus revenue for the
purpose of increasing the educational advantages of
the children ; not to be subtracted from, but to be add
ed to, what the towns would otherwise grant. We
may, then, consider the school fund of this state as em
bracing the entire taxable property of the state, from
which such a sum is annually raised by tax as is nec
essary for the support of the schools. In Vermont,
New Hampshire, and Maine, the schools are support
ed essentially as in Massachusetts, the difference being
chiefly in the mode of taxation.

Dr. Wayland, in a letter written some years ago,
makes the following remark in relation to the support
of schools : " The best legislative provision with which
I am acquainted is that of Maine. They have no fund
whatever, but oblige every district to raise for educa
tion a sum proportioned to the number of its inhabit
ants or its property. If a town or a district neglects
to do this, it is liable to a fine."

In those states whose systems of public instruction

THE MKANri OF

are best administered — which have tiio best schools,
and the greatest proportion of the population in attend
ance upon them — the schools are generally supported
almost entirely by a direct tax, the great principle that

THE PROPERTY OF THE STATE SHOULD EDUCATE THE CHIL
DREN OF THE STATE being practically recognized. It
not only appears, then, that large funds are not required
for the successful administration of systems of public
instruction, but that actually the best schools, and those
which are doing most for the correct education of the
rising generation, may be found in those states that are
destitute of funds, and whose public schools are sup
ported by a direct tax upon the property of the state.
The third plan of supporting schools is a combina
tion of both of the others. New York until within the
last year,* Rhode Island, and Michigan may be cited as
examples of this plan. Where this plan has been adopt
ed, the districts or townships have generally been re
quired to raise by tax an amount equal to or greater
than what has been received from the school fund.
Where the expense of supporting the schools has ex
ceeded the whole fund derived from both sources, the
balance of the expense has generally been made up by
a rate-bill, parents who are able being required to pay
in proportion to the number of days their children have
attended school. This feature is objectionable even
where provision is made for the children of poor pa
rents to attend without charge, for it offers a pecuniary
inducement, although the schools be nearly free, to with
draw scholars from attendance upon them for the slight
est causes. This plan has obtained very generally in
the states northwest of the Ohio River, which have re
ceived from the General Confederacy a grant of one

* A year ago the schools of New York were made entirely free by
law. See the foot-note on the 2G7th pn^o of this work.

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 3G9

section, or six hundred and forty acres of land in each
township for the support of schools. In some of these
states the additional tax is already sufficient, when join
ed with the avails of the school fund, to render the
schools entirely free. If one plan is superior to both
of the others, this is, perhaps, entitled to the pre-emi
nence. The school fund lessens the amount which it
is necessary to raise by a direct tax ; and still the sum
which is levied in this way has a tendency to beget and
maintain a lively interest on the part of capitalists in the
administration of the educational department, and in the
maintenance and improvement of the public schools.

Without a correct public opinion and a due appreci
ation of the importance of education, either of the three
systems named, or any other which may be adopted
for the support of schools, will, and, from the very na
ture of the case, must, be inadequate to meet the neces
sities of a free people. But let the public be alive to
the advantages of education, and rank it first among
the necessaries of life, and almost any system will be
attended with eminent success. If, then, one system
is superior to all others, it is that which is best calcu
lated to beget in the popular mind a realizing sense of
the necessity of educating all our youth in good schools.
If this can be done in a state which has a large school
fund, without diminishing the interest of the people in
education, or relaxing their efforts to maintain improv
ed schools, then may such a fund prove serviceable, as
it will lessen^ the general tax. But if the citizens of
any state can not be brought to realize the importance
of maintaining an elevated standard of common school
education, and of rendering its blessings universal, with
out defraying the whole expense by a direct tax, then
will a school fund prove to them a curse, and not a
blessing.

Q2

370 THE MEANS OF

Where there is a will there is a way, says the adage.
Mr. Duer, as quoted at the head of this chapter, says,
" I would recommend that each state should raise a
fund sufficient for the entire support of the schools ;
that a suitable school-house and apparatus, with a con
venient dwelling-house for the teacher, be furnished by
the state for each district ; and that every school-house
be supplied with a well-qualified teacher, who shall re
ceive from the state a suitable compensation." In this
recommendation I fully concur. But with me it is im
material whether the state raises a separate fund, set
apart exclusively for the purposes of education, or re
gards the entire taxable property of the commonwealth,
personal and real, as a general fund from which there
shall be drawn annually a sufficient per centage to pro
vide for universal education in free schools. This only
do I insist upon, that the people be brought so fully to
realize the advantages of a good common education as
to place it high on the list of indispensables ; then will
they provide for rendering its blessings universal. The
mode of doing this in any one state may, in view of the
peculiar circumstances of a people, be different from
that which it would be most advantageous ordinarily
to adopt. If there is no other sure way of meeting the
expense of common schools, and of begetting and main
taining a deep and abiding interest in popular educa
tion, then let the property of the state be regarded as
a common fund from which there shall be annually
drawn a sum sufficient for the maintenance of improv
ed free schools, in which every child may receive a gen
erous education, as this is the interest first in import
ance to individuals and families, to neighborhoods and
communities, to states and nations.

The state should maintain an Educational Department.
The magnitude of the interests involved renders this

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 371

of the utmost importance. At the head of this depart
ment in every state there should be a minister of pub
lic instruction — whether he is called school superintend
ent, school commissioner, secretary of the board of
education, or superintendent of public instruction — and
he should be allowed time to make himself familiar
with all the leading writers on the subject of education,
in whatever age or language their works may have
been written. Such an officer can not in any other
way become qualified for the proper discharge of the
duties which pertain to his profession. He should also
be allowed time to acquaint himself with the current
literature belonging to his department as it emanates
from the press ; to examine new school-books, and new
kinds of school apparatus which claim to possess ad
vantages, that he may be prepared to give to school
teachers, school committee-men, and others whose op
portunities for examination and investigation are less
3xtended, and many of whom must be inexperienced,
such advice as shall enable them judiciously to expend
their means for their personal improvement or the im
provement of their schools. He should likewise have
time and opportunity to become so conversant with the
practical operations of different school systems as to
be qualified to give such suggestions in official reports
as may be of service to the Legislature in perfecting
their own, and to subordinate officers in its successful
administration. All this would be necessary were we
only to consult the pecuniary interests of the state in
the judicious expenditure of the means which are an
nually devoted to the support of common schools. Of
how much greater importance is it that there should be
such an officer in every state, and that he should enjoy
every possible means for increasing his usefulness,
when we consider that the successful bestowment of

372 THE MEAN'S OF

his labors will contribute greatly to increase individual
and social happiness, and the general prosperity of the
state in all corning generations.

In the further consideration of the means of render
ing the blessings of education universal, we shall intro
duce leading topics in the order in which they natu
rally suggest themselves.

GOOD SCHOOL HOUSES SHOULD BE PROVIDED.

A school ought to be a noble asylum, to which children will come,
and in which they will remain with pleasure ; to which their parents
will send them with good will. — COUSIN.

If there is one house in the district more pleasantly located, more
comfortably constructed, better warmed, more inviting in its general
appearance, and more elevating in its influence than any other, that
house should be the school-house. — Michigan School Report, 1817.

In considering the means of improving our schools,
the place where our country's youth receive their first
instruction, and where nineteen twentieths of them com
plete their scholastic training, claims early attention.
It is, then, proper to consider the condition of this class
of edifices, as they have almost universally been in
every part of the United States until within a few
years past, and as they now generally are out of those
states in which public attention has of late been more
especially directed to improvements in education ; for,
before any people will attempt a reform in this partic
ular, they must see and feel the need of it. Even in
the more favored states, comparatively few in number,
the improvements in school architecture have been con
fined mostly to a few localities, and are far from being
adequate to the necessities of the case. Did space
allow, I would present statements made by school offi
cers in their reports from various states of the Union ;

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 373

for, however wide the differences may be in common
usage, in other respects, there has heretofore been a
striking sameness in the appearance of school-houses
in every part of the country.

CONDITION OF SCHOOL-HOUSES. — In remarking upon
the condition of this class of edifices, as they have here
tofore been constructed, and as they are now almost
universally found wherever public sentiment has not
been earnestly, perseveringly, and judiciously called to
their improvement, I will present a few extracts from
the official reports of Massachusetts and New York,
where greater pains have been taken to ascertain ex
isting defects in schools, with a view to providing the
necessary remedies, than in any other two states of this
Union.

School-houses in Massachusetts. — The Secretary of
the Board of Education of this state, in his report for
1846, remarks in reference to the condition of school-
houses in the commonwealth as follows : " For years
the condition of this class of edifices throughout the
state, taken as a whole, had been growing worse and
worse. Time and decay were always doing their
work, while only here and there, with wide spaces be
tween, was any notice taken of their silent ravages ;
vynd, in still fewer instances, were these ravages repair
ed. Hence, notwithstanding the improved condition of
all other classes of buildings, general dilapidation was
the fate 01 these. Industry, and the increasing pecu
niary ability which it creates, had given comfort, neat
ness, and even elegance to private dwellings. Public
spirit had erected commodious and costly churches.
Counties, though largely taxed, had yet uncomplain
ingly paid for handsome and spacious court-houses and
public offices. Humanity had been at work, and had
made generous and noble provision for the pauper, the

374 THE MEANS OF

blind, the deaf and dumb, the insane. Even jails and
houses of correction — the receptacles of felons and
other offenders against the laws of God and man — had
in many instances been transformed, by the more en
lightened spirit of the age, into comfortable and health
ful residences. The Genius of Architecture, as if she
had made provision for all mankind, extended her shel
tering care over the brute creation. Better stables
were provided for cattle ; better folds for sheep ; and
even the unclean beasts felt the improving hand of re
form. But, in the mean while, the school-houses, to
which the children should have been wooed by every
attraction, were suffered to go w^here age and the ele
ments would carry them.

"In 1837, not one third of the public school-houses
in Massachusetts would have been considered tenanta-
ble by any decent family out of the poor-house or in
it. As an inducement to neatness and decency, chil
dren were sent to a house whose walls and floors were
indeed painted, but they were painted all too thickly
by smoke and filth ; whose benches and doors were
covered with carved work, but they were the gross
and obscene carvings of impure hands ; whose vesti
bule, after the Oriental fashion, was converted into a
veranda, but the metamorphosis which changed its
architectural style consisted in laying it bare of its
outer covering. The modesty and chastity of the
sexes, at their tenderest age, were to be cultivated and
cherished in places which oftentimes were as destitute
of all suitable accommodation as a camp or a caravan.
The brain was to be worked amid gases that stupefied
it. The virtues of generosity and forbearance were to
be acquired where sharp discomfort and pain tempt
each one to seize more than his own share of relief, and
thus to strengthen every selfish propensity.

UNIVERSAL EDLJCAT1 )N. 375

" At the time referred to, the school-houses in Massa
chusetts were an opprobrium to the state; and if there
be any one who thinks this expression too strong, he
may satisfy himself of its correctness by inspecting
some of the few specimens of them which still remain.

" The earliest effort at reform was directed to this
class of buildings. By presenting the idea of taxation,
this measure encountered the opposition of one of the
strongest passions of the age. Not only the sordid and
avaricious, but even those whose virtue of frugality, by
the force of habit, had been imperceptibly sliding into
the vice of parsimony, felt the alarm. Men of fortune
without children, and men who had reared a family of
children and borne the expenses of their education,
fancied they saw something of injustice in being called
to pay for the education of others, and too often their
fancies started into specters of all imaginable oppres
sion and wrong.

" During the five years immediately succeeding the
report made -by the Board of Education to the Legisla
ture on the subject of school-houses, the sums expend
ed for the erection and repair of this class of buildings
fell but little short of seven hundred thousand dollars.
Since that time, from the best information obtained, I
suppose the sum expended on this one item to be about
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually. Ev
ery year adds some new improvement to the construc
tion and arrangement of these edifices.

" In regard to this great change in school-houses —
't would hardly be too much to call it a revolution — the
school committees have done an excellent work, or,
rather, they have begun it ; it is not yet done. Their
annual reports, read in open town meeting, or printed
and circulated among the inhabitants, afterward em
bodied in the Abstracts and distributed to the members

376 THE MEANS OF

of the government, to ail town and school committees
have enlightened and convinced the state."

School-houses in New York. — About ten years ago,
special visitors were appointed by the superintendent
of common schools in each of the counties of this state,
who were requested to visit and inspect the schools,
and to report minutely in regard to their state and
prospects. The most respectable citizens, without dis
tinction of party, were selected to discharge this duty;
and the result of their labors is contained in two re
ports, made, the one in April, 1840, the other in Feb
ruary, 1841. "It may be remarked, generally," say
the visitors of one of the oldest and most affluent towns
of the southeastern section of the state, " that the school-
houses are built in the old style, are too small to be
convenient, and, with one exception, too near the pub
lic roads, having generally no other play-ground." —
Report, 1840, p. 47.

Say the visitors of another large and wealthy town
in the central part of the state, " Out of twenty schools
visited, ten of the school-houses were in bad repair,
and many of them not worth repairing. In none were
any means provided for the ventilation of the room.
In many of the districts, the school-rooms are too small
for the number of scholars. The location of the school-
houses is generally pleasant. There are, however, but
few instances where play-grounds are attached, and
their condition as to privies is very bad. The arrange
ment of seats and desks is generally very bad, and in
convenient to both scholars and teachers ; most of them
are without backs." — Report, 1840, p. 28.

In another large and populous town in the north
western part of the state, it appears from the report of
the visitors that only five out of twenty-two school-
houses are respectable or comfortable; none have any

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 37"?

proper means of ventilation ; eight of them are built
of logs, and but one of them has a privy.

According to the report from another county, where
the evils already enumerated exist, "There is, in gen
eral, too little attention to having good 'and dry wood
provided, or a good supply of any ; or to have a wood-
house or shelter to keep it from the storm." This neg
lect is very common. Another neglect, noticed by
many of the visitors, is " the cold and comfortless state
in which the children find the school-room, owing to the
late hour at which the fire is first made in the morning."

Three years later — and after the appointment of
county superintendents in each of the counties of that
state, who collected statistics with great care — the
Hon. Samuel Young, then state superintendent, after
making a minute statement of the number of -school-
houses constructed of stone, brick, wood, and logs; of
their condition as to repair; of the destitution of privies,
suitable play-grounds, etc., remarked as follows :

"But 514 out of 9368 houses visited contained more
than one room; 7313 were destitute of any suitable
play-ground ; nearly 6000 were unfurnished with con
venient seats and desks ; nearly 8000 destitute of the
proper facilities for ventilation ; and upward of 6000
without a privy of any sort; while, of the remainder,
but about 1000 were provided with privies containing
different apartments for male and female pupils ! And
it is in these miserable abodes of accumulated dirt and
filth, deprived of wholesome air, or exposed, without
adequate protection, to the assaults of the elements;
with no facilities for necessary exercise or relaxation ;
no convenience for prosecuting their studies ; crowd
ed together on benches not admitting of a moment's
rest in any position, and debarred the possibility of
yielding to the ordinary calls of nature without violent

378 THE MEANS OF

inroads upon modesty and shame, that upward of twa
hundred thousand children, scattered over various parts
of the state, are compelled to spend an average period
of eight months during each year of their pupilage !
Here the first lessons of human life, the incipient prin
ciples of morality, and the rules of social intercourse
are to be impressed upon the plastic mind. The boy
is here to receive the model of his permanent charac
ter, and to imbibe the elements of his future career;
and here the instinctive delicacy of the young female,
one of the characteristic ornaments of the sex, is to be
expanded into maturity by precept and example ! Is it
strange, under such circumstances, that an early and
invincible repugnance to the acquisition of knowledge
is imbibed by the youthful mind ? that the school-house
is regarded with unconcealed aversion and disgust,
and that parents who have any desire to preserve the
health and the morals of their children exclude them
from the district school, and provide instruction for
them elsewhere ?"

A volume might be filled with similar testimony ;
but one more quotation from another state must suffice.
After noticing the common evils already referred to,
the superintendent remarks as follows :* " But this
notice of ordinary deficiencies does not cover the whole
ground of error in regard to the situation of school-
houses. In some cases they are brought into close con
nection with positive nuisances. In a case which has
fallen under the superintendent's own personal observa
tion, one side of the school-house forms part of the
fence of a hog-yard, into which, during the summer,
the calves of an extensive dairy establishment have

* First Annual Report of the State Superintendent (Hon. Horace
Eaton) of Common Schools, made to the Legislature of Vermont, Oc
tober, 184G.

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 379

been thrown from time to time (disgusting and revolt
ing spectacle !), to be rent and devoured before the eyes
of teacher and pupils, except such portions of the mu
tilated and mangled carcasses as were left by the ani
mals to go to decay, as they lay exposed to the sun
and storm. It is true, the windows on the side of the
building adjoining the yard were generally observed
to be closed, in order to shut out the almost insupport
able stench which arose from the decomposing remains.
But this closure of the windows could, in no great de
gree, ' abate the nuisance ;' for not a breath of air could
enter the house from any direction but it must come
saturated with the disgusting and sickening odor that
loaded the atmosphere around. It needs no profes
sional learning to tell the deleterious influence upon
health which must be exerted by such an agency,
operating for continuous hours."

If such evils as have been considered have existed
so generally, and still prevail to an alarming extent,
even in the states where education has received the
most attention, what need must there be for the dissem
ination of information on this vitally important subject,
especially in those states where education has hereto
fore received less attention ! In remarking further
upon this subject, I shall consider several leading par
ticulars in the order they naturally suggest themselves.
I will, then, commence with the

LOCATION OF SCHOOL-HOUSES. — In comparatively few
instances school-houses are favorably located, being
situated on dry, hard ground, in a retired though cen
tral part of the district, in the midst of a natural or arti
ficial grove. But they are almost universally badly
located ; exposed to the noise, dust, and danger of the
highway ; unattractive, if not absolutely repulsive in
their external appearance, and built at the least pos-

380 THE MEANS OF

sible expense of material and labor. They are gener
ally on one corner of public roads, and sometimes ad
jacent to a cooper's shop, or between a blacksmith's
shop arid a saw-mill. They are not unfrequently
placed on an acute angle, where a road forks, and some
times in turning that angle, the travel is chiefly behind
the school-house, leaving it on a small triangle bounded
on all sides by public roads.

Occasionally the school-house is situated on a low
and worthless piece of ground, with a sluggish stream
of water in its vicinity, which sometimes even passes
under the house. The comfort, and health even, of
children are thus sacrificed to the parsimony of their
parents. Scholars very generally step from the school-
house directly into the highway. Indeed, school-houses
are frequently situated one half in the highway and the
other half in the adjacent field, as though they were
unfit for either. This is the case even in some of the
principal villages of all the states I have ever visited,
or from which I have read full reports on the subject.

Strange as it may seem, school-houses are sometimes
situated in the middle of the highway, a portion of the
travel being on each side of them. When the scholars
are engaged in their recreations, they are exposed to
bleak winds and the inclemency of the weather one
portion of the year, and to the scorching rays of the
meridian sun another portion. Moreover, their recrea
tions must be conducted in the street, or they trespass
upon their neighbors' premises. We pursue a very
different policy in locating a church, a court-house, or
a dwelling ; and should we not pursue, an equally
wise and liberal policy in locating the district school-
house ?

In the states generally northwest of the River Ohio,
six hundred and forty acres of land in every township

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 381

are appropriated to the support of common schools.
Suppose there are ten school districts in a township,
this would allow sixty-four acres to every district. It
would seem that when the general government has ap
propriated sixty-four acres to create a fund for the en
couragement of the schools of a township, that each
district might set apart one acre as a site for a school-
house. Once more : school districts usually contain
not less than twenty-five hundred acres of land. Is it,
then, asking too much to set apart one acre as a site for
a school-house, in which the minds of the children of
the district shall be cultivated, when twenty-four hund
red and ninety-nine acres are appropriated to feeding
and clothing their bodies ?

I would respectfully suggest, and even urge the pro
priety of locating the school-house on a piece of firm
ground of liberal dimensions, and of inclosing the same
with a suitable fence. The location should be dry,
quiet, and pleasant, and in every respect healthy. The
vicinity of places of idle and dissipated resort should
by all means be avoided ; and, if possible, the site of the
school-house should overlook a delightful country, and
be surrounded by picturesque scenery. The school
yard, at least, should be inclosed not only, but set out
with shade trees, unless provided with those of Nature's
own planting. It should also be ornamented with beau
tiful shrubbery, and be made the park of the neighbor
hood — the pleasantest place for resort within the bound
aries of the district. This would contribute largely to
the formation of a correct taste on the part of both
children and parents. It would also tend to the form
ation of virtuous habits and the cultivation of self-re
spect ; for the scholars would then enjoy their pastime
in a pleasant and healthful yard, where they have a
right, to be, and need no longer be hunted as tresinissers

382 THE MEANS OF

upon their neighbors' premises, as they now too fre
quently are.

SIZE AND CONSTRUCTION. — In treating upon the phi
losophy of respiration at the 92d page of this work, it
was stated that, exclusive of entry and closets, where
they are furnished with these appendages, school-houses
are not usually larger than twenty by twenty-four feet
on the ground, and seven feet in height. The average
attendance in houses of these dimensions was esti
mated at forty-five scholars in the winter. It was also
stated that the medium quantity of air that enters the
lungs at each inspiration is thirty-six cubic inches, and
that respiration is repeated once in three seconds, or
twenty times a minute. Now, to say nothing of the in
convenience which so many persons must experience
in occupying a house of so narrow dimensions, and
making no allowance for the space taken up by desks,
furniture, and the scholars themselves, a simple arith
metical computation will show any one that such a
room will not contain a sufficient amount of air for the
support of life three hours. But I will here simply re
fer the reader to the fourth chapter of this work, and
will not repeat what was there said.

In determining the size of school- houses, due regard
should be had to several particulars. There should be
a separate entry or lobby for each sex, which Mr.
Barnard, in his School Architecture,* very justly says
should be furnished with a scraper, mat, hooks or

* " School Architecture," or Contributions to the Improvement of
School-houses in the United States, by Henry Barnard, Commissioner
of Public Schools in Rhode Island, p. 383. This excellent treatise em
bodies a mass of most valuable information in relation to school-houses
and apparatus. It contains the plans of a great number of the best
school-houses in various portions of the United States, and should be
consulted by every committee before determining upon a plan for the
construction of a valuable school-house.

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 383

shelves — both are needed — sink, basin, and towels. A
separate entry thus furnished will prevent much con
fusion, rudeness, and impropriety, and promote the
health, refinement, and orderly habits of the children.

The principal room of the school-house, and each*
such room where there are several departments, should
be large enough to allow each occupant a suitable
quantity of pure air, which should be at least twice the
common amount, or not less than one hundred and fifty
cubic feet. There should also be one or more rooms
for recitation, apparatus, library, etc., according to the
size of the school and the number of scholars to be ac
commodated.

Every school-room should be so constructed that
each scholar may pass to and from his seat without
disturbing or in the least incommoding any other one.
A house thus arranged will enable the teacher to pass
at all times to any part of the room, and to approach
each scholar in his seat whenever it may be desirable
to do so for purposes of instruction or otherwise. Such
an arrangement is of the utmost importance; and with
out the fulfillment of this condition, no teacher can most
advantageously superintend the affairs of a whole
school, and especially of a large one.

In determining the details of construction and ar
rangement for a school-house, due regard must be had
to the varying circumstances of country and city, as
well as to the number of scholars that may be expect
ed in attendance, the number of teachers to be employ
ed, and the different grades of schools that may be
established in a community.

COUNTRY DISTRICTS. — In country districts, as they
have long been situated, and still generally are, aside
from separate entries and clothes-rooms for the sexes,
there will only be needed one principal school-room.

381 THE MEANS OF

with a smaller room for recitations, apparatus, and
other purposes. In arranging and fitting up this room,
reference must be had to the requirements of the dis
trict ; for this one room is to be occupied by children
of all ages, for summer and winter schools, and for the
secular, but more especially for the religious meetings
of the neighborhood. But in its construction primary
reference should be had to the convenience of the
scholars in school, for it will be used by them more,
ten to one, than for all other purposes. Every child,
then, even the youngest in school, should be furnished
with a seat and desk, at which he may sit with ease
and comfort. The seats should each be furnished with
a back, and their height should be such as to allow the
children to rest their feet comfortably upon the floor.
The necessity of this will be apparent by referring to
what has been said on the laws of health in the third
chapter of this work, at the 68th and following pages.
No one, then, can fail to see the advantages that
would result to a densely-settled community from a
union of two or more districts for the purpose of main
taining in each a school for the younger children, and
of establishing in the central part of the associated dis
tricts a school of a higher grade for the older and
more advanced children of all the districts thus united.
If four districts should be united in
this way, they might erect a central
house, C, for the larger and more
advanced scholars, and four smaller
ones, p p P P, for the younger chil
dren. The central school might be
taught by a male teacher, with fe
male assistants, if needed ; but the primary schools,
with this arrangement, could be more economically and
successfully instructed by females. In several of the

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. + 385

states legal provisions are already made for such a con
solidation of districts. This would invite a more per
fect classification of scholars, and would allow the cen
tral school-house to be so constructed, and to have the
seats and desks of such a height as to be convenient for
the larger grade of scholars, and still be comfortable
for other purposes for which it might occasionally be
necessary to occupy it. Such an arrangement, while
it would obviate the almost insuperable difficulties
which stand in the way of proper classification and the
thorough government and instruction of schools, would
at the same time offer greater inducements to the erec
tion of more comfortable and attractive school-houses.
CITIES AND VILLAGES. — The plan suggested in the
last paragraph may be perfected in cities and villages.
For this purpose, where neither the distance nor the
number of scholars is too great, some prefer to have all
the schools of a district or corporation conducted un
der the same roof. However this may be, as there
will be other places for public meetings of various
kinds, each room should be appropriated to a particu
lar department, and be fitted up exclusively for the ac
commodation of the grade of scholars that are to occu
py it. In cities, and even in villages with a population
of three or four thousand, it is desirable to establish at
least three grades of schools, viz., first, the primary, for
the smallest children ; second, the intermediate, for
those more advanced ; and, third, a central high school,
for scholars that have passed through the primary and
intermediate schools. While this arrangement is favor
able to the better classification of the scholars of a vil
lage or city, and holds out an inducement to those of
the lowest and middle grade of schools to perfect them
selves in the various branches of study that are pur
sued in them respectively as the condition upon which

R

380 THE MEANS OF

they are permitted to enter a higher grade, it also al
lows a more perfect adjustment of the seats and desks
to the various requirements of the children in their pas
sage through the grade of schools.

NEW YORK FREE ACADEMY. — In the public schools
of the city of New York, two hundred in number, six
hundred teachers are employed, and one hundred thou
sand children annually receive instruction. The Free
Academy, which is a public school of the highest grade,
and which is represented in our frontispiece, was estab
lished by the Board of Education in 1847. The ex
pense of the building, without the furniture, was $46,000,
and the annual expense for the salaries of professors
and teachers is about 810,000. Out of twenty-four
thousand votes cast, twenty thousand were for the es
tablishment of this institution, in which essentially a
complete collegiate education may be obtained. No
students are admitted to it who have not attended the
public schools of the city for at least one full year, nor
these until they have undergone a thorough examina
tion and proved themselves worthy. Its influence is
not confined to the one hundred or one hundred and
fifty scholars who may graduate from it annually, but
reaches and stimulates the six hundred teachers, and
the hundred thousand children whom they instruct, and
thus elevates the common schools of the city in reality
not only, but places them much more favorably before
the public than they otherwise could be.

Smaller cities, and especially villages with a popu
lation of but a few thousand, can not, of course, main
tain so extended a system of public schools ; but they
can accomplish essentially the same thing more per
fectly, though on a smaller scale. For the benefit of
districts in the country and in villages, I will here in
sert a few plans of school-houses.

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION.

387

Plan of a School-house for fifty-six Scholars.

I)

T

D

W

D

Site, 30 by 40 feet.

Scale, 10 feet to the inch.

D D, doors. E E, entries lighted over outer doors, one for the boys
and the other for the girls. T, teacher's platform and desk. R L, room
for recitation, library, and apparatus, which may be entered by a single
door, as represented in the plan, or by two, as in the following plan.
S S, stoves with air-tubes beneath. K K, aisles four feet wide — the
remaining aisles are each two feet wide, c v, chimneys and ventila
tors. 1 1, recitation seats. B B, black-board, made by giving the wall
a colored hard finish. G H, seats and desks, four fe^t in length, con
structed as represented on the next page. The seat and desk may be
made together, and instead of being fastened permanently to the floor,
attached in front by a strap hinge, which will admit of their being
turned forward while sweeping under and behind them.

389

PLAN FOR A GRADED SCHOOL.

Primary and Intermediate Department, on first floor.

, 36 by 54 feet.

A, entrance for boys to the High School. C, entrance for girls to High
School. P, entrance for boys to the Primaiy and Intermediate Depart'
ments. Q, entrance for girls to the same. D D, doors. W W, win
dows. T, teacher's platform and desk. G H, desk and seat for two
scholars, a section of which is represented at X, in the Primary De
partment. I I, recitation seats. B B, black-boards. S S, stoves, with
air-tubes beneath, c v, chimney and ventilator. R, room for recitation
library, apparatus, ar.d other purposes.

PLAN FOK A GRADED SCHOOL.

389

High School, or Third Department, on second floor.

\\

Cr

D -r-

w

B B

w

A, entrance for the boys, through the entry below. C, entrance for
the girls. G H, desk and seat: aisles from two to three feet wide.
D D, doors. W W, windows. S S, stoves, c v, chimney and ventila
tor. T, teacher's platform. R, recitation-room. 1 1, recitation seals
in principal room. B B, black-board: as a substitute for the common
painted board, a portion of the wall, covered with hard finish, may be
painted black ; or, what is better, the hard finish itself may be colored
before it is put on. by mixing with it lamp-black, wet up with alcohol
or sour beer.

390 THE MEANS OF

VENTILATION OF SCHOOL-HOUSES. — We have already
seen that in a school-room occupied by forty-five per
sons, thirty-two thousand four hundred cubic inches of
air impart their entire vitality to support animal life the
first minute, and, mingling with the atmosphere of the
room, proportionably deteriorate the whole mass ; that
the air of crowded school-rooms thus soon becomes en
tirely unfit for respiration, and that, as the necessary
result, the health of both teacher and scholars is en
dangered ; that the scholars gradually lose both the
desire and the ability to study, and become more in
clined to be disorderly, while the teacher becomes con
tinually more unfit either to teach or govern. Hence
the necessity of frequent and thorough ventilation.

The ordinary facilities for ventilating school-rooms
consist in opening a door and raising the lower sash
of the windows. The only ventilation which has been
practiced in the great majority of schools has been en
tirely accidental, and has consisted in opening and clos
ing the outer door as the scholars enter and pass out
of the school-house, before school, during the recesses,
and at noon. Ventilation, as such, I may safely say,
has not, until within a few years, been practiced in one
school in fifty ; nor is it at the present time in many
parts of the country. It is true, the door has at times
been set open a few minutes, and the windows have
been occasionally raised, but the object has been either
to let the smoke pass out of the room, or to cool it when
it has become too warm, not to ventilate it.

Ventilation by opening a door or raising the win
dows is imperfect, and frequently injurious. A more
effectual and safer method of ventilation consists in
lowering the upper sash of the window. In very cold
or stormy weather, a ventilator in the ceiling may be
opened, so as to allow the vitiated air to escape into

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. • 3^

the attic, in which case there should be a free commu
nication between the attic and the outer air by means
of a lattice in the gable, or otherwise. A ventilator
may also be constructed in connection with the chim
ney, by carrying up a partition in the middle, one half
of the chimney being used for a smoke flue, and the
other half for a ventilator.

But it is often asked, Why is it not just as well to
raise the lower sash of the windows as to lower the
upper one ? In reply I would say, first, lowering the
upper sash is a more effectual method of ventilation.
In a room which is warmed and occupied in cold
weather, the warmer and more vitiated portions of the
air rise to the upper part of the room, while that which
is colder and purer descends. The reason for this may
not be readily conceived, especially when we consider
that carbonic acid, the vitiating product of respiration,
is specifically heavier than common air. Three con
siderations, however, will make it apparent. 1. Gases
of different specific gravity mix uniformly, under favor
able circumstances. 2. The carbonic acid which is
exhaled from the lungs at about blood heat is hence
rarefied, and specifically lighter than the air in the
room, which inclines it to ascend. 3. The ingress of
cold and heavier air from without is chiefly through
apertures near the base of the room. Raising the
lower sash of the windows allows a portion of the
purer air of the room to pass off, while the more vitia
ted air above is retained. Lowering the upper sash
allows the impure air above to escape, while the purer
air below remains unchanged.

Lowering the upper sash is also the safer method of
ventilation. It not only allows the impure air more
readily to escape, but provides also for the more uni
form diffusion of the pure air from without, which takes

392 THE MEANS OF

its place through the upper part of the room. The
renovated air will gradually settle upon the heads of
the scholars, giving them a purer air to breathe, while
the comfort of the body and lower extremities will re
main undisturbed. This is as it should be ; for warm
feet and cool heads contribute alike to physical comfort
and clearness of mind. Raising the lower sash of the
windows endangers the health of scholars, exposing
those who sit near them to colds, catarrhs, etc. Indeed,
when it is very cold or stormy, it is unsafe to ventilate
by lowering the upper sash of the windows. At such
times, provision should, be made for the escape of im
pure air at the upper part of the room, and for the in
troduction of pure air at the lower part, as will be
shown while treating upon the means of warming.

MEANS OF WARMING. — Next in importance to pure
air in a school-room is the maintenance of an even
temperature. This is an indispensable condition of
health, comfort, and successful labor. It is one, how
ever, that is very generally disregarded ; or, perhaps I
should say, one that is not often enjoyed. School-
houses are generally warmed by means of stoves, some
of which are in a good condition, and supplied with
dry, seasoned wood. The instances, however, in which
such facilities for warming exist, are comparatively few.
It is much more common to see cracked and broken
stoves, the doors without either hinges or latch, with
rusty pipe of various sizes. Green wood, also, and that
which is old and partially decayed, either drenched
with rain or covered with snow during inclement
weather, is much more frequently used for fuel than
sound, seasoned wood, protected from the weather by
a suitable wood-house. With this state of things, it is
exceedingly difficult to kindle a fire, which burns poorly,
at best, when built. Fires, moreover, are frequently

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 393

built so late, that the house does not become comfortably
warm at the time appointed for commencing school.
These neglects are the fruitful source of much discom
fort and disorder. The temperature is fluctuating ; the
room is filled with smoke a considerable part of the
ime, especially in stormy weather ; and the school is
liable to frequent interruptions, in fastening together
and tying up stove-pipe, etc., etc.

This may seem a little like exaggeration. I know
full well there are many noble exceptions. But in a
large majority of instances some of these inconven
iences exist ; and the most of them coexist much more
frequently than persons generally are aware of. I
speak from the personal observation of several thou
sand schools in different states, and from reliable in
formation in relation to the subject from various por
tions of the country. I have myself many times heard
trustees and patrons, \vho have visited their school with
me for the first time in several years, say, "We ought
to have some dry wood to kindle with ; I didn't know
as it was so smoky : we must get some new pipe ; real
ly, our stove is getting dangerous," etc. And some of
the boys have relieved the embarrassment of their pa
rents by saying, " It don't smoke near so bad to-day as
it does sometimes !"

The principal reason why the stoves in our school-
houses are so cracked and broken, and why the pipes
are so rusty and open, lies in the circumstance that
green wood, or that which is partially decayed and
saturated with moisture, is used for fuel, instead of
good seasoned wood, protected from the inclemency
of the weather by a suitable wood-house. There are
at least three reasons why this is poor policy. 1. It
takes double the amount of wood. A considerable por
tion of the otherwise sensible heat becomes latent, in

394 THE MEANS OF

the conversion of ice, snow, and moisture into steam.
2. The steam thus generated cracks the stove and rusts
the pipe, so that they will not last one half as long as
though dry wood from a wood-house W7ere used. 3. It
is impossible to preserve an even temperature. Some
times it is too cold, and at other times it is too warm ;
and this, with such means of warming, is unavoidable.
Scores of teachers have informed me that, in order to
keep their fires from going out, it was necessary to
have their stoves constantly full of wood, and even to
lay wood upon the stove, that a portion of it might be
seasoning while the rest was burning. Aside from the
inconvenience of a fluctuating temperature, this is an
unseemly and filthy practice, and one that generates
very offensive and injurious gases.

Again : I have frequently heard the following and
similar remarks : " The use of stoves in our school-
houses is a great evil ;" " Stoves are unhealthy in our
school-houses, or in any other houses," etc. This idea
being somewhat prevalent, and stoves being generally
used in our school-houses, their influence upon health
becomes a proper subject for consideration.

Combustion, whether in a stove or fire-place, con
sists in a chemical union of the oxygen gas of the at
mosphere with carbon, the combustible part of the wood
or coal used for fuel. Carbonic acid, the vitiating prod
uct of combustion, does not, however, ordinarily dete
riorate the atmosphere of the room, but, mingling with
the smoke, escapes through the stove-pipe or chimney.

The stove, in point of economy, is far superior to the
open fire-place as ordinarily constructed. When the
latter is used, it has been estimated that nine tenths of
the heat evolved ascends the chimney, and only one
tenth, or, according to Rumford and Franklin, only one
fifteenth, is radiated from the front of the fire into the

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 395

room. Four-fold more fuel is required to warm a room
by a fire-place than when a stove is used. Oxygen is,
of course, consumed in a like proportion, and hence,
when the open fire-place is used, there is necessarily a
four-fold greater ingress of cold air to supply combus
tion than where a stove is employed.

And, what is of still greater importance, when a fire
place is used, it is impossible to preserve so uniform a
temperature throughout the room as when a stove is
employed. When a fire-place is used, the cold air is
constantly rushing through every crevice at one end
of the room to supply combustion at the other end.
Hence the scholars in one part of the room suffer from
cold, while those in the opposite part are oppressed
with heat. The stove may be set in a central f>art of
the room, whence the heat will radiate, not in one di
rection merely, but in all directions. In addition to
this, as we have already seen, only one fourth as much
air is required to sustain combustion, on both of which
accounts a much more even and uniform temperature
can be maintained throughout a room where a stove is
used than where a fire-place is employed.

But whence, then, has arisen the prevailing opinion
that stoves are unhealthy ? There are two sources of
mischief, either of which furnishes a sufficient founda
tion for this popular fallacy. The first has already
been referred to, and consists simply in the almost total
neglect of proper ventilation. The other lies in the
circumstance that school-rooms are generally kept too
warm. In addition to the inconvenience of too high a
temperature, the aqueous vapor existing in the atmos
phere in its natural and healthful state is dispersed, and
the air of the room becomes too dry. The evil being
seen, the remedy is apparent. Reduce the temperature
of the room to its proper point, and supply the defi-

396 THE MEANS OF

ciency of aqueous vapor by an evaporating dish par
tially filled with pure water. If this is not done, the
dry and over-heated air, which is highly absorbent of
moisture in every thing with which it comes in contact,
not only creates a disagreeable sensation of dryness on
the surface of the body, but in passing over the delicate
membrane of the throat, creates a tickling, induces a
cough, and lays the foundation for pulmonary disease,
especially when ventilation is neglected. The water
in the evaporating dish should be frequently changed,
and kept free from dirt and other impurities. Care
also should be taken not to create more moisture than
the air naturally contains, otherwise the effect will be
positively injurious.

The evil complained of is attributable mainly to the
maintenance of a too high temperature. Were a ther
mometer placed in many of our school-rooms — and a
school-house should never be without one in every oc
cupied apartment — instead of indicating a suitable tem
perature, say sixty-two or sixty-five degrees, or even a
summer temperature, it would not unfrequently rise
above blood heat. The system is thus not only enfee
bled and deranged by breathing an infectious atmos
phere, but the debility thence arising is considerably
increased in consequence of too high a temperature.
The two causes combined eminently predispose the
system to disease. The change from inhaling a fluid
poison at blood heat, to inhaling the purer air without
at the freezing point or below, is greater than the sys
tem can bear with impunity.

A uniform temperature, which is highly important,
can be more easily and more effectually maintained
where a stove is employed, furnished with a damper,
and supplied with dry, hard wood, than where a lire-
place is used. In the former case the draft may be

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 397

regulated, in the latter it can not be. A great amount
of air enters into combustion even where a stove is
used. A greater quantity enters into the combustion
where a fire-place is used, in proportion to the in
creased amount of wood consumed. Much of the
heated air, also, where an open fire-place is used, min
gling with the smoke, passes off through the chimney,
and its place is supplied by an ingress of cold air at
the more distant portions of the room. There is hence
not only a great waste of fuel, but a sacrifice of com
fort, health, and life.

But even where a stove is used there is a constant
ingress of cold air through cracks and defects in the
floor, doors, windows, and walls, which causes it to be
colder in the outer portions of the room than in the
central portions and about the stove. The evil is the
same in kind as that already referred to in speaking
of fire-places, but less in degree. This evil, however,
may be almost entirely obviated by a very simple ar
rangement, which will also do much to render ventila
tion at once more effectual and safe, especially in very
cold and inclement weather. The arrangement is as
follows :

Immediately beneath the floor — and in case the
school-house is two stories high, between the ceiling
and the floor above — insert a tube from four to six
inches in diameter, according to the size of the rooms,
the outer end communicating with the external air by
means of an orifice in the under-pinning or wall of the
house, and the other, by means of an angle, passing up
ward through the floor beneath the stove. This part
of the tube should be furnished with a register, so as
to admit much or little air, as may be desirable. This
simple arrangement will reverse the ordinary currents
of air in a school-room. The cold air, instead of enter-

398 THE MEANS OF

ing at the crevices in (he outer part of the room, where
it is coldest, enters directly beneath the stove, where
it is wannest. It thus moderates the heat immediately
about the stove, and being wanned as it enters, and
mingling with the heated air, establishes currents to
ward the walls, and gradually finds its way out at the
numerous crevices through which the cold air previous
ly entered. If these are not sufficient for the purpose,
several ventilators should be provided in distant parts
of the room, as already suggested. This simple ar
rangement, then, provides for the more even dissem-
inationTof heat through all parts of the room, and thus
secures a more uniform temperature, and, at the same
time, provides a purer air for respiration, contributes
greatly to the comfort and health of the scholars, and
fulfills several important conditions which are essential
to the most successful prosecution of their studies, and
to the maintenance and improvement of social and
moral, as well as intellectual and physical health.

By inclosing the stove on three sides in a case of
sheet iron, leaving a space of two or three inches be
tween the case and the stove for an air chamber, the
air will become more perfectly warmed before enter
ing the room at the top of the case. The best mode,
however, of warming and ventilating large school-
houses is by pure air heated in a furnace placed in the
basement. The whole house can in this way be warm
ed without any inconvenience to the school from main
taining the fires, on account of either noise, dust, or
smoke. But as this mode of warming can not be ad
vantageously adopted except in very large schools, it
will not often be found desirable out of cities and large
villages.

LIBRARY AND APPARATUS. — I have already said that
every school-house should have a room for recitations,

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 399

library, and apparatus. In country districts where but
one teacher is employed in a school, it will perhaps
generally be found convenient to conduct the majority
of the recitations in the principal school-room. But
even where this practice obtains, there is still urgent
necessity for a room for a library, apparatus, and other
purposes.

Several of the states have carried into successful
operation the noble system of District Libraries. These,
in the single state of New York, already contain near
ly two millions of volumes. In some of the new states
the system of Township Libraries has been adopted,
which, on some accounts, is better adapted to a sparse
population with limited means. These, in the State of
Michigan, already contain one hundred thousand vol
umes. The director of each school district draws
from the township library every three months the num
ber of books his district is entitled to. These, for the
time being, constitute the district library, and each citi
zen in the township is thus allowed the use of all the
books in the township library.

Now, whichever of these systems is adopted, the
school-house is the appropriate depository of the libra
ry. There are many reasons for this. It is central.
It is the property of the district. During term-time it
is visited daily by members from perhaps every family
in the district. There may, and should be, a time fix
ed, at least once a week, when the library will be open,
the librarian or his assistant being in attendance, at
which time books may be returned and drawn anew.
For this purpose, and on all accounts, no place can be
so appropriate and free from objection as the school-
house. The library may also be opened one or more
evenings in the week, and especially during the winter,
when evenings are long, as a district reading-room.

400 THE MEANS OF

Moreover, should a District Lyceum be established, the
use of a well-selected library, which will always be at
hand, and of appropriate apparatus for the illustration of
scientific lectures, will contribute greatly to increase
both the popularity and the usefulness of the institution.

With such an arrangement, the children of 'the dis
trict would most assuredly be much more benefited by
the instructions they would receive. The school would
also possess many attractions for adults of both sexes,
and by the co-operation of the wise and the good, its
refining, purifying, and regenerating influences may be
brought effectually to bear upon every family and every
individual within the boundaries of the district. Then
will the idea of Cousin be realized, who says, " A school
ought to be a noble asylum, to which children will
come, and in which they will remain with pleasure;
to which their parents will send them with good will ;"
and, I will add, one whose uplifting influence both chil
dren and parents will constantly feel.

Such a room as I have described will also be found
important for various other purposes, as a commodious
place for retirement in case of sudden indisposition, a
place where a teacher may see a patron or a friend in
private, should it be at any time desirable, or a parent
his child. It would also be of great service in giving
the teacher an opportunity to see scholars in private,
for various purposes, as well as in affording a conven
ient room for scholars to retire to, with the permission
of the teacher, for mutual instruction.

That able and judicious advocate of popular enlight
enment, and eminently successful school fficer, the
Honorable Henry Barnard, does not over-estimate the
importance of district libraries. In speaking of the ben
efits they confer upon a community, he says, " Wher
ever such libraries have existed, especially in connec-

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 401

lion with the advantages of superior schools and an
educated ministry, they have called forth talent and
virtue, which would otherwise have been buried in pov
erty and ignorance, to elevate, bless, and purify society.
The establishment of a library in every school-house
will bring the mighty instrument of good books to act
more directly and more broadly on the entire popula
tion of a state than it has ever yet done ; for it will
open the fountains of knowledge, without money and
without price, to the humble and the elevated, the poor
and the rich."

APPURTENANCES TO SCHOOL-HOUSES. — There are, per
haps, in the majority of school-houses, a pail for water,
a cup, a broom, and a chair for the teacher. Some one
or more of these are frequently wanting. I need hardly
say, every school-house should be supplied with them
all. In addition to these, every school-house should be
furnished with the following articles : 1. An evapora
ting dish for the stove, which should be supplied with
clean pure water. 2. A thermometer, by which the
temperature of the room may be regulated. 3. A clock,
by which the time of beginning and closing school, and
conducting all its exercises, may be governed. 4. A
shovel and tongs. 5. An ash-pail and an ash-house
For want of these, much filth is frequently suffered to
accumulate in and about the school-house, and not un-
frequently the house itself takes fire and burns down.

6. A wood-house, well supplied with seasoned wood.

7. A well, with provisions not only for drinking, but for
the cleanliness of pupils. . 8. And last, though not least,
in this connection, two privies, in the rear of the school-
house, separated by a high close fence, one for the boys
and the other for the girls. For want of these indis
pensable appendages of civilization, the delicacy of chil
dren is frequently offended, and their morals corrupted.

402 THE MEANS OV

Nay, more, the unnatural detention of the faces, when
nature calls for an evacuation, is frequently the founda
tion for chronic diseases, and the principal cause of per
manent ill health, resulting not unfrequently in prema
ture death. The accommodations in this respect pro
vided by a district in a country village of the North
west, whose schools have become celebrated, are none
too ample. Two octagonal privies are provided — one
for each sex — each of which has seven apartments.
These are cleansed every two weeks, regularly, and
oftener, if necessary.

Mr. Barnard, in treating upon the external arrange
ments of school-houses, has the following sensible re
marks : " The building should not only be located on
a dry, healthy, and pleasant site, but be surrounded by
a yard, of never less than half an acre, protected by a
neat and substantial inclosure. This yard should be
large enough in front for all to occupy in common for
recreation and sport, and planted with oaks, elms, ma
ples, and other shady trees, tastefully arranged in
groups and around the sides. In the rear of the build
ing, it should be divided by a high and close fence, and
one portion, appropriately fitted up, should be assigned
exclusively for the use of boys, and the other for girls.
Over this entire arrangement the most perfect neat
ness, seclusion, order, and propriety should be enforced,
and every thing calculated to defile the mind, or wound
the delicacy or the modesty of the most sensitive,
should receive attention in private, and be made a mat
ter of parental advice and co-operation.

" In cities and populous districts, particular attention
should be paid to the play-ground, as connected with
the physical education of children. In the best-con
ducted schools, the play-ground is now regarded as the
uncovered school-room, where the real dispositions and

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 403

habits of the pupils are more palpably developed, and
can be more wisely trained, than under the restraint
of an ordinary school-room. These grounds are pro
vided with circular swings, and are large enough for
various athletic games. To protect the children in
their sports in inclement weather, in some places, the
school-house is built on piers ; in others, the basement
story is properly fitted up, and thrown open as a play
ground."

A good and substantial room, well fitted up, and prop
erly warmed in cold weather, in which children may
conduct their sports, under the supervision of a teacher
or monitor, is of the utmost importance ; and especial
ly is this true of all schools for small children. Such a
room is, indeed, for these, hardly less important than
the school-room. Among other things, it should be
supplied with dumb-bells,* see-saws, weights and meas
ures of various kinds, etc., etc. These are important
for both boys and girls ; but, as they are uncommon,
it may be well to suggest the proper mode of using
them, and the advantages they confer.

Dumb-bells may be used, in connection with the
sports enumerated in the third chapter, for developing
and strengthening the chest and improving the health.
I would refer any who question the fitness of such ex
ercises to what has been said on the subject at the 77th
and following pages, and especially to the testimony of
Dr. Caldwell there introduced.

See-saws, in addition to the benefits that result from
the exercise, are attractive, and may be rendered high
ly instructive. For this purpose, the plank or board

* Dumb-bells are usually made of cast iron, and sometimes of bell-
metal, of the shape indicated by the figure, and
should weigh from two to ten pounds each, accord
ing to the strength of the person using them.

404 THE MEANS OF

used should be well hung and properly balanced. The
distance from the fulcrum or point of support should be
accurately graduated, and marked in feet and inches.
Then, knowing the weight of one scholar, the weights
of all the others may be ascertained by their relative
distances from the fulcrum when they exactly balance.
These interesting experiments may be tried by any
child as soon as he understands the ground rules of
arithmetic, and the simple fact that, for two children to
balance, the product of the weight of one multiplied
into his distance from the fulcrum will exactly equal
the product of the weight of the other into his distance
from the fulcrum. Such simple experiments, when
thus mingled with sports, and made interesting to
young children, serve the double purpose of attaching
them to the school, and of fixing in their minds the habit
of observation and experiment, and of understanding
the why and wherefore, which will be of incalculable
service to them all the way through life.

Weights and measures serve the same general pur
pose, and may be rendered well-nigh as useful as slates
and black-boards. Thousands of children recite every
year the table, " four gills make a pint, two pints make
a quart, four quarts make a gallon," etc., month in and
month out, without any distinct idea of what consti
tutes a gill or a quart, or even knowing which of the
two is the greater. But let these measures be once in
troduced into the experimental play-room, and let the
child, under the supervision of the teacher or monitor,
actually see that four gills make a pint, etc., and he will
learn the table with ten-fold greater pleasure than he
otherwise would, and in one tenth the time.

The same general remark will apply to the other
tables of weight and measure, to experimental philos
ophy, and to nearly every branch of study pursued iu

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 405

the common schools of our country. I have but one
other general remark to make on this subject, and that
is in relation to the

INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL-HOUSES. — Cicero observes that
the face of a man will be tinged by the sun, for what
ever purpose he walks abroad ; so, by daily associa
tions, the minds of all persons are influenced, and their
characters permanently affected, by scenes with which
they are familiar ; and especially is this true during
the impressive periods of childhood and youth. Many
persons seem to think that school-masters and school
mistresses do all the teaching in our schools. But it is
not so. Fellow-students, neighbors, and citizens teach,
by precept and by example ; and especially do school-
houses teach. And oh ! what lessons of degradation,
pollution, and ruin they sometimes impart ! as he can
not fail to be convinced who remembers the testimony
already introduced in relation to their condition.

I have seen the fond parent accompany his lovely
child of four summers to the school the first day of its
attendance. The child had seen pictures of school-
houses in books. Pictures, if not always pretty, usu
ally please children. It was so in this case. The
child, anxious to go to school, talked of the school-
house on the way. There arrived, the parent passed
his innocent little one into the care of the teacher, with
a few remarks, and was about to retire, when the child,
clinging to him, said, pathetically and energetically,
" Pa ! pa ! ! I don't want to stay in this ugly old house ;
I am afraid il will fall down on me : I want to go home
to our own pretty parlor." But the parent, breaking
away from his child, leaves it in tears, with a sad heart.
How cruel to do such violence to the tender feelings
of innocent children ! And how baneful the influence !
The school, instead of being a comfortable, pleasant.

40() THE MEANS OF

and delightful place, as it should be, is to the child pos
itively offensive, and the school-house a dreary -prison.
"Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." The
child learns to hate school, to hate instruction, and all
that is good. He soon becomes the practiced truant.
In a few years he arrives at manhood ; but, instead of
being a blessing to his family and a useful member of
society, he too frequently drags out a wretched life, in
ignorance and penury, dividing it between the poor-
house and jail, and terminating it, peradventure, upon
the gallows.

It needs the pen of a ready writer duly to portray
the influence of neglected school-houses. Parents seem
to have forgotten that, while men sleep, the enetny comes
and sows tares ; that if good school-houses do not ele
vate, neglected ones will pollute their children. I have
already alluded, in the language of others, to the rep
resentations of vulgarity and obscenity that meet the
eye in every direction. But I am constrained to add,
that, during the intermissions, and before school, "cer
tain lewd fellows of the baser sort" sometimes lecture
in the hearing of the school generally, boys and girls,
large and small, illustrating their subject by these vul
gar delineations.

But why are these things so? And how may the}
be remedied ? Different persons will answer these
questions variously. But when we bear in mind that,
in architectural appearance, school-houses have very
generally more resembled barns, sheds for cattle, or
mechanic shops, than Temples of Science ; that win
dows are broken ; that benches are mutilated ; that
desks are cut up ; that wood is unprovided ; that out
buildings are neglected ; that obscene images and vul
gar delineations meet the eye within and without; that,
in fine, their very appearance is so contemptible, that

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 407

scholars feel themselves degraded in being obliged to
occupy them ; when we bear in mind all these things,
and then consider that the impressive minds of children
are necessarily and permanently affected by scenes
with which they become familiar, we can not wonder
that they yield themselves to such influences, and con
sent to increase their degradation by multiplying the
abominations with which they are surrounded. And
especially shall we cease to wonder at the existence
of these things, when we consider that scholars are
very often unfurnished with suitable employment ; that
the younger scholars are frequently urged on by the
example and influence of the older ones ; and that
teachers are sometimes employed who are so far lost to
shame as to countenance these disgusting and corrupt
ing practices by engaging in them themselves !

A knowledge of the cause suggests the remedy.
Let, then, the school-house be commodious and clean
ly ; inviting in its appearance, and elevating in its in
fluence. Let every member of the school, at all times,
be furnished with entertaining and profitable employ
ment. Let the corrupting influence of bad example
be at once and forever removed. And, finally, let the
services of a well-qualified teacher, of good morals,
correct example, and who is scrupulously watchful, be
invariably secured.

But if the mean appearance of our school-houses is
one reason why they are so defaced, it may be asked,
w.by do not our churches, which are frequently among
the most elegant specimens of architecture, escape the
pollution ? The reason is evident. The foul habit is
contracted in the unseemly school-house, and it be
comes so established that it is very difficult to suspend
its exercise even in the Temple of God. Were our
school-houses, in point of neatness and architecture,

408 TIIK MEANS OP

equal to our churches, the evil in question would soon
become less prevalent, and, with judicious supervision,
we might safely predict its early extinction.

I would not suggest that too much pains are taken to
make our churches pleasant and comfortable, but I do
protest that there is a great and unwise disproportion
in the appearance of our churches and school-houses.
It is frequently the case in villages and country neigh
borhoods, that the expense of the former is from fifty
to eighty times the value of the latter. The appear
ance of our school-houses is an important consideration.
If we would cultivate the beastly propensities of our
youth, we have but to provide them places of instruc
tion resembling the hovels which our cattle occupy, and
the work is well begun. On the contrary, if we would
take into the account the whole duration of our being,
and the cultivation and right development of the nobler
faculties of our nature, while the animal propensities
are allowed to remain in a quiescent state, and adapt
means to ends, our school-houses should be pleasant and
tasteful. Every thing offensive should be separated
from them, and no pains should be spared to give them
an inviting aspect and an elevating influence.

It is easier to make children good than to reform
wicked men. It is cheaper to construct commodious
school-houses, with pleasant yards and suitable appur
tenances, than to erect numerous jails and extensive
prisons. George B. Emerson, in a lecture on moral
education, speaks to the point. " In regard to the low
er animal propensities," says he, " the only safe princi
ple is, that nothing should be allowed which has a ten
dency, directly or indirectly, to excite them. In many
places there prevails an alarming and criminal indiffer
ence upon this point. It is one toward which the at
tention of the teacher should be carefully directed. No

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 409

sound should be suffered from the lips ; no word, or
figure, or mark should be allowed to reach the eyes, to
deface the wall of the house or out-house, which could
give offense to the most sensitive delicacy. This is the
teacher's business. He must not be indifferent to it.
He has no right to neglect it. He can not transfer it to
another. He, and he only, is responsible.* It is im
possible to be over-scrupulous in this matter. And the
committee should see that the teacher does his duty ;
otherwise all his lessons in duty are of no avail, and the
school, instead of being a source of purity, delicacy,
and refinement, becomes a fountain of corruption,

* I would by no means free parents from responsibility in this mat
ter. They, if any class, may be said to be "alone responsible ;" but,
in fact, all who are intrusted with the care of children share in the re
sponsibility. Secret vice, in the opinion of those who have had occa
sion to remark the extent to which it is practiced, from colleges and the
higher seminaries of learning down to the common school, and even
in the nursery before the child is sent to school, prevails to an alarm
ing extent. It is often the principal, and, in many instances, the sole
cause of a host of evils that arc commonly attributed to hard study,
among which are impaired nutrition, and general lassitude and weak
ness, especially of the loins and back ; loss of memory, dullness of ap
prehension, and both indisposition and incapacity for study ; dizziness,
affections of the eyes, headaches, etc., etc. Secret vice in childhood
and youth is also a fruitful source of social vice later in life, and of ex
cesses even within the pale of wedlock, ruinous alike to the parties
themselves and to their offspring. Licentiousness in some of its forms,
as we have frequently had occasion to see, from the highest testimony
introduced into the text in various passages, in addition to the evils here
referred to, sometimes leads to the most driveling idiocy, and to insan
ity in its worst forms. All, then, who have the charge of children, and
especially parents and teachers, should exercise a rational familiarity
with them on this delicate but important subject. They should give
them timely counsel in relation to the temptations to which they may
be exposed, apprise them of the evils that follow in the train of dis
obedience, and endeavor, by kindly advice and friendly admonition, to
infix in their minds a delicate sense of honor, an abhorrence for this
whole class of vice, and a determination never to entertain a thought
of indulging the appetite for sex except within the pale of wedlock,
and in accordance with God's own appointment.

s

410 THE MEANS OF

throwing out poisonous waters, and rendering the moral
influence more pestiferous than that fabled fountain of
old, over which no creature of heaven could fly and
escape death."

In conclusion, on this subject, I would say, if there is
one house in the district more pleasantly located, more
comfortably constructed, better warmed, and more in
viting in its general appearance, and more elevating in
its influence than any other, that house should be the
school-house.

WELL-QUALIFIED TEACHERS SHOULD BE EMPLOYED.

All the provisions heretofore described would be of none effect if
we took no pains to procure for the public school thus constituted an
able master, and worthy of the high vocation of instructing the people.
It can not be too often repeated, that it is the master that makes the
school. — GUIZOT.

Society can never feel the power of education until it calls into ex
orcise a class of effective educators. — LALOR.

One of the surest signs of the regeneration of society will be the elo
vation of the art of teaching to the highest rank in the community. —
CIIANNING.

We come next to the consideration of school teach-
ers ; for, in order to have good schools, we want not
merely good school-houses. These, as already seen,
are of the utmost importance ; but, to insure success,
we must have good teachers in those houses. And here,
were I addressing myself exclusively to the members
of this profession, it would be appropriate to dwell in
detail upon the requisite qualifications of teachers. But
this would be foreign from my present design.*

Among the many excellent works already before the public, I
would name the following, which the practical teacher may profitably
consult : THE SCHOOL AND THE SCHOOLMASTER, by Dr. Potter and G. 13.
Emerson; THEORY AND PRACTICE OF TEACHING, by D. P. Pago; TUB

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 411

It lias not been my intention in any thing I have yet
said, nor will it be in any thing I may hereafter urge,
to overlook the importance of domestic education.
Napoleon once said to an accomplished French lady
that the old systems of education were good for noth
ing, and inquired what was wanting for the proper
training of young persons in France. With keen dis
cernment and great truth, she replied, in one word —
Mothers. This reply forcibly impressed the emperor,
and he exclaimed, "Behold an entire system of educa
tion ! You must make mothers that know how to train
their children." I may add, we want mothers not only,
but fathers too, qualified for the great work of training
their offspring aright ; for parents are readily admitted
to be the natural educators of their children. But the
literary training of children has always been accom
plished chiefly by delegation ; and not only the litera
ry, but, to a great extent, the moral and religious.

This course has been adopted on account of the sit
uation of families ; many parents being unable to teach
their children themselves, and others lacking the neces
sary leisure to carry forward a systematic and thorough
course of instruction. This course is dictated by pol
icy ; for the children of a whole neighborhood may be
better taught, and at less expense, in good schools, than
in their respective families. This course has also
been adopted as a matter of necessity ; for the great-

SCHOOL TEACHER'S MANUAL, by Henry Dunn ; THE TEACHER, by Jacob
Abbott; THE TEACHER'S MANUAL, by Thomas H. Palmer; THE TEACH
ER TAUGHT, by Emerson Davis ; SLATE and BLACK-BOARD EXERCISES, by
Wm. A. Alcott; LECTURES ON EDUCATION, by Horace Mann; CORPO
RAL PUNISHMENT, by Lyman Cobb; CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER,
by Win. A. Alcott; THE TEACHER'S INSTITUTE, by Wm. B. Fovvle ;
THE TRUE RELATION OF THE SEXES, by John Ware. These are also
useful to parents. A more extended list, with tables of contents, may
be fouad iii Barnard's School Architecture, p. 279 to 288.

412 THE MEANS OF

ness of the work of education requires, in order to carry
it forward successfully, that it should be studied as a
profession. The teacher then engages jointly with the
parent in the work of education, and with him shares
its toils, its responsibilities, and its delights.

From the greatness of the teacher's work, as we have
already considered it — training, as he should, his youth
ful charge for respectability, usefulness, and happiness
in this life, and for everlasting felicity in that which is
to come — we may infer what should be his qualifica
tions. And we remark, in the general, that the busi
ness of

School teaching should rank among the learned pro
fessions. The teacher should well understand the na
ture of the subjects of education, as physical, intellectu
al, and moral beings. The education of children can
not safely be intrusted to persons who are not practi
cally acquainted with human physiology, and with men
tal science as based thereon. The most serious phys
ical evils frequently result from allowing incompetent
persons to exercise the functions of this high and re
sponsible vocation.

In addition to a thorough knowledge of all the branch
es in which a teacher is expected to give instruction,
and an acquaintance with those collateral branches that
have a bearing upon them, the instructor of youth should
possess the rare attainment of aptness to teach. It will
be of little avail if the teacher has become familiar with
all wisdom, unless he can readily communicate instruc
tion to others. Paul, in speaking of the qualifications
of bishops, says, among other things, they should be
" apt to teach." This attainment is no less important
for schoolmasters than for bishops. It is especially
important that the teacher should be well acquainted
with intellectual philosophy and moral science. This

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 413

is necessary, in order to enable him to judge correctly
of character, and to teach, and govern, and train his
charge aright. But these attainments can never be
made until teaching is elevated to the rank of a pro
fession.

The lawyer is required to devote a series of years
to a regular course of classical study and professional
reading before he can find employment in a case in
which a few dollars only are pending. With this we
find no fault. But it should not be forgotten that the
teacher's calling is as much more important than the
ordinary exercise of the legal profession, as the imper
ishable riches of mind are more valuable than the cor
ruptible treasures of earth.

We seek out from among us men of sound discretion
and good report to enact laws for the government of
the state and nation. And with this, too, we find no
fault. It is right and proper that we should do so.
But it should be borne in mind that it is the teacher's
high prerogative not only so to instruct and train the ris
ing generation that they shall rightly understand law,
but to infix in their minds the principles of justice and
equity, the attainment of which is the high aim of leg
islation. While our legislators enact laws for the gov
ernment of the people, thd well-qualified and faithful
schoolmaster prepares those under his charge to gov
ern themselves. Without the teacher's conservative
influence, under the best legislation, the great mass of
the people will be lawless ; while the tendency of his
labors is to qualify the rising generation, who consti
tute our future freemen and our country's hope, to ren
der an enlightened, a cheerful, and a ready obedience
to the high claims of civil law. The well-qualified,
faithful teacher, then, becomes the right arm of the
legislator.

414 THE MEANS OF

The physician is required to become thoroughly ac
quainted with the anatomy and physiology of the hu
man body ; in a word, to become acquainted with " the
house I live in;" to understand the diseases to which
we are subject, and their proper treatment, before he
is allowed to extract a tooth, to open a vein, or admin
ister the simplest medicine. Nor with this do we find
fault, for we justly prize the body. It is the habitation
of the immortal mind. When in health, it is the mind's
servant, and ready to do its biddings ; but darken its
windows by disease, and it becomes the mind's prison-
house. But while the physician, whom we honor and
love, is required to make these attainments before he is
permitted even to repair "the house I live in," should
not he who teaches the MASTER of the house be entitled
to a respectable rank in society ?

It is common, in the various branches of the Church
universal, for men who feel themselves called of God
to preach the Gospel to obtain a collegiate education,
and then devote several years to professional study,
before exercising the functions of the sacred office ;
and this has been required by popular opinion. And
heretofore, I may add, the efforts of the minister have
been directed chiefly to the reformation of adults whose
early training has been imperfectly attended to, and to
the building up of a religious character where no cor
rect early foundation has been laid, when the time and
energies of a people upon whom labor is bestowed are
devoted chiefly to absorbing secular pursuits. The
competent and faithful teacher, on the contrary, enters
upon the discharge of his duties under circumstances
widely different, and with infinitely better prospects of
success. Jesus said, Suffer the little children to come
unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the king
dom of God. These are they upon whom the teacher

.UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 415

is called to bestow labor. He remembers that Solo
mon the wise has said, Train up a child in the way he
should go, and when he is old lie will not depart from it;
and he confidently expects that, with proper parental
co-operation, if he faithfully discharges his duty, and
directs his efforts in accordance with the will of the
Great Teacher, his youthful charge, when arrived at
the years of accountability, and in all future life, will
be like " the child Samuel, who grew on, and was in
favor both with the Lord and also with men." No
wonder, then, that Channing should say, " One of the
surest signs of the regeneration of society will be the ele
vation of teaching to the highest rank in the community."

The clerical profession can never equal that of the
teacher in moral sublimity and prospective usefulness
until religious teachers come to direct their attention
chiefly to the correct early education of the young in
the Sabbath-schools, but more especially in the com
mon schools of our country. Then, and not till then,
will it be entitled to the pre-eminence.

Should any teacher, in view of the immense respons
ibilities of his calling, be disposed to inquire, as all well
may, Who is sufficient for these things? we would say
to him, in the language of Wirt, " Let your motto be
Perseverando vinces — by perseverance thou wilt over
come. Practice upon it, and you will be convinced of
its value by the distinguished pre-eminence to which it
will lead you." Especially will this be true in case the
anxious teacher faithfully complies \vith the Divine di
rection, If any man lack wisdom, let kirn ask of God,
that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideUi not ; and
it shall be given him.

Parents and citizens generally should be impressed
with the truth of th« maxim, " As is the teacher, so will
be the school." They should desire for their own chil*

416 THE MEANS OF

dren, and for all others, teachers whose intellectual,
social, and moral habits are, in all respects, what they
are willing their children should form. They should,
at least, be well apprised of this fact : If the teacher
is not, in these respects, what they would have their
children become, their children will be likely to become
what the teacher is.

There is a story of a German schoolmaster, which,
shows the low notions that may be entertained of edu
cation. Stouber, the predecessor of Oberlin, the pastor
of Waldbach, on his arrival at the place, desired to be
shown to the principal school-house. He was conduct
ed into a miserable cottage, where a number of chil
dren were crowded together, without any occupation.
He inquired for the master. " There he is," said one,
as soon as silence could be obtained, pointing to a with
ered old man, who lay on a little bed in one corner.
" Are you the master, my friend ?" asked Stouber.
" Yes, sir." " And what do you teach the children ?"
" Nothing, sir." " Nothing ! how is that ?" " Because,"
replied the old man, " I know nothing myself." " Why,
then, were you appointed the schoolmaster ?" " Why,
sir, I had been taking care of the Waldbach pigs a num
ber of years, and when I got too old and infirm for that
employment, they sent me here to take care of the
children."

This anecdote may evince a degree of stupidity not
to be met with in this country. We are, however, very
far from being as careful in the selection of teachers as
we ought to be. Unworthy teachers frequently find
employment. I refer not to teachers whose literary
qualifications are insufficient, although, as we have al
ready seen, there are quite too many such. I refer
now more particularly to those wrho are disqualified
for the office because of moral obliquity.

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 417

Teachers are sometimes employed who are habituo1
Sabbath breakers ; who are accustomed to the use of
vulgar and profane language ; who frequent the gam
bling table ; who habitually use tobacco, in several of
its forms, and that in the school-house ! nay, more,
who even teach the despicable habit to their children
during school hours ! Several emperors have prohib
ited the use of this filthy weed in their respective king
doms, under the severest penalties. The pope has
made a bull to excommunicate all those who use to
bacco in the churches. One of the most numerous of
the Protestant sects once prohibited the use of tobacco
in their society ; but so strong is this filthy habit, espe
cially when formed in early life, that this society has
backslidden and given up this excellent rule.

Since writing the above, I have noticed an article
headed " Tobacco-using Ministers," which has appear
ed in several highly-reputable and widely-circulating
periodicals, from which it appears that a large annual
conference of divines of the same order, among other
resolutions, have adopted one recommending "that the
ministers refrain from the use of tobacco in all its forms,
especially in the house of worship."

In commenting upon this action, a religious paper
observes, that "by 'tobacco in all its forms' we sup
pose is meant chewing, smoking, and snuffing. But
can it be possible that a minister, whose duty it is to
recommend purity, and whose example should be clean
liness, can need conference resolutions to dissuade him
from a practice so filthy and disgusting ? And do they
even carry this inconsistency into the ; house of wor
ship?' So it seems !" But such is the severity of the
strictures in the article referred to, that, although just,
I forbear inserting them.

It has been suggested that, while Robinson Crusoe
S3

418 THE MEANS OF

was alone on his island, he may have had a right to
smoke, snuff, or chew ; but that, when his man Friday
came, " a decent regard for the opinions of mankind" —
as the Declaration of Independence has it — should have
debarred him at once from further indulgence.

One who has enjoyed large opportunities of observ
ing, and who is scrupulous to a proverb, has remark
ed, that " the ministerial profession is probably the most
offending in this particular. The Scriptures have
much to say about keeping the body pure. Had tobac
co been known to the Hebrews, who can doubt that it
would have been among the articles prohibited by the
Levitical law? St. Paul beseeches the Romans, by
the mercies of God, to present their bodies 'a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable.5 To the Corinthians he
says, * Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and
that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man
defile the temple of God, him will God destroy ; for the
temple of God is holy, which temjile ye are.1 He com
mands them to glorify God in their body as well as in
their spirit ; for * know ye not,' says he, ' that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?' What sort of
a ' temple of the Holy Ghost* is he, every atom and
molecule of whose physical system is saturated and
stenched with the vile fetor of tobacco ; whose every
vesicle is distended by its foul gases ; whose brain and
marrow are begrimed and blackened with its sooty
vapors and effluxions ; all whose pores jet forth its ma
lignant stream like so many hydrants ; whose prayers
are breathed out, not with a sweet, but with a foul-
smelling savor; who baptizes infants with a hand which
itself needs literal baptism and purification as by fire ;
and wrho carries to the bed-side of the dying an odor
which, if the ' immaterial essence' could be infected
by any earthly virus, would subject the departed soul

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 419

to quarantine before it could enter the gates of
heaven?"*

»' Touch not, taste not, handle not," is the only safe
rule in relation to all vicious practices ; and especial
ly is it true of this habit, which we can not call beastly,
for there is not a natural beast in creation that indulges
in it. I therefore congratulate my countrymen in
view of the prospect before us of ultimately being freed
from this disgusting and filthy habit, for the Board of
Education in some of our cities have already wisely
adopted the rule of employing no teachers who use to
bacco in any form. Let this rule become universal
among us, and the next generation will be compara
tively free from the use of that repulsive weed, which
only one of all created beings takes to naturally.
Wherever else the filthy practice may be allowed, it
ought never to be permitted in a house consecrated to
the sacred work of educating the rising generation.
And just look at the immense expenditure in this coun-

* A female teacher in the Bay State, in 1847, addressed the follow
ing inquiry through the columns of the Massachusetts Common School
Journal :

" I have been laboring for the last year in a large school, and havo
endeavored, according to the best of my ability, to inculcate habits of
neatness among the pupils, especially to break them of the filthy habit
of spitting upon the floor. I have often told them gentlemen never do
it. But at a recent visit of the committee, an individual, who has been
elected by the town to superintend the educational interests of the
rising generation, spit the dirty juice of his tobacco quid upon the floor
of my school-room with apparent self-complacency.

" Shall I say to the children that this person is not a gentleman, and
thus destroy his influence ? or shall I pass it over in silence, and thus
leave them to draw the natural inference that all I have said on the
subject is only a woman's whim ?"

Mr. Mann, the editor, gave a full reply through the Journal, from
which I have here quoted part of a paragraph. Ho closes by offering
a prize of the " eternal gratitude of all decent men" to the discoverer
of a remedy or antidote for the evil.

420 THE MEANS OF

try for the support of this pernicious habit. It is said,
on good authority, that for smoking merely we pay
annually a tax of ten millions of dollars, which is a
much greater sum than is paid to the teachers of all the
public schools in the United States.

But to return : teachers are sometimes employed
who are addicted to inebriety ; who are notorious liber
tines, and unblushingly boast of the number of their
victims. But I will not extend this dark catalogue.
Comment is unnecessary. My fellow-countrymen, who
have carefully perused and properly weighed the pre
ceding considerations, I doubt not, will concur with me
in the opinion that there is no station in life — no, not
excepting even the clerical office, that, in order to be
well filled, so much demands purity of heart, simplicity
of life, Christian courtesy, and every thing that will en
noble man, and beautify and give dignity to the human
character, as that of the primary school-teacher. He
influences his pupils in the formation of habits and char
acter, by precept, it is true, but chiefly by example.
His example, then, should be such, that, if strictly fol
lowed by his pupils, it will lead them aright in all things,
astray in nothing. It should be his chief concern to
allure to brighter worlds on high, and himself lead the
way. Then, and not till then, will he be prepared to
magnify and fill his office.

But, it may be said, we have not a sufficiency of
well-qualified teachers, according to this standard, to
take the charge of all, or of any considerable part of
our schools. This is very readily admitted. Some
such, however, there are. These should be employed.
Their influence will be felt by others. The present gen
eration of teachers may be much improved by means of
teachers' associations and teachers' institutes. By the
establishment of normal schools, or teachers' semina-

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 421

nes, a higher grade of teachers may be trained up and
qualified to take the charge of the next generation of
scholars. These institutions have been established in
several of the European states, in New England and
New York, and more recently in Michigan, by the
several State Legislatures, and to some extent in other
states. " Those seminaries for training masters," says
Lord Brougham, " are an invaluable gift to mankind,
and lead to the indefinite improvement of education."
In remarking upon their advantages, the same high
authority says, ** These training seminaries would not
only teach the masters the branches of learning and
science they are now deficient in, but would teach them
what they know far less — the didactic art — the mode
of imparting the knowledge which they have or may
acquire ; the best mode of training and dealing with
children in all that regards both temper, capacity, and
habits, and the means of stirring them to exertion, and
controlling their aberrations."

Normal schools are essential to the complete success
of any system of popular education. The necessity
for their establishment can not fail to be apparent to
any one at all competent to judge, when he considers
the* early age at which young persons of both sexes
generally enter upon the business of school-teaching —
or, perhaps I may more appropriately say, of "keep
ing" school ; for the majority of them can hardly be re
garded as competent to teach.

For the purpose of being more specific, and of im
pressing, if possible, upon the mind of the reader, the
necessity of professional instruction, the author trusts
he will be pardoned for introducing a few paragraphs
from a report made nine years ago as county super
intendent of common schools in the State of New York,
and which was printed at that time in the Assembly

422 THE MEANS OF

documents of thai state. The author, at the time re
ferred to, exercised a general supervision over more
than twenty thousand children, aided in the examina
tion of the teachers of twenty large townships, and vis
ited and inspected their schools. Nine years' addition
al experience — four of which have been devoted to the
supervision of the schools of a large state, and a con
siderable portion of the remaining time to the visitation
of schools in different states — has convinced him that
the condition of common schools, and the qualifications
of teachers in those states of the Union where increas
ed attention has not been bestowed upon the subject
within a few years past, are nol in advance of what
.hey were at that time in the county referred to. The
paragraphs introduced are included within brackets.

[LITERARY QUALIFICATIONS. — Some of the teachers
possess. a very limited knowledge of the branches usu
ally taught in our common schools. This is true even
of a portion of those who have bestowed considerable
attention upon some of the higher branches of study.
There is in our common schools, and indeed in our
higher schools, an undue anxiety to advance rapidly.
A score of persons may be heard speaking of the num
ber of their recitations, of their rapid progress, and per
haps of skipping difficulties, while hardly one will speak
of progressing under standingly, and comprehending
every principle as he proceeds. When students speak
of their progress in study, their first qualifying word
should be thorough, after which, if they please, they
may add rapid.

The following circumstances, that have occurred in
classes of both ladies and gentlemen who have present
ed themselves for examination as candidates for teach
ing, illustrate the nature and extent of the evil. I have
more than once received, in answer to the question

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 423

* What is language ?" the following reply : " Language
is an unlimited sense" I have met with some experi
enced teachers, holding two or three town certificates,
who did not know one half of the marks and pauses
used in writing. They could, indeed, generally recite
the answers in the spelling-book with some degree of
accuracy ; but when the marks have been pointed out,
and their names and use have been asked, teachers in
service have sometimes mistaken the note of interroga
tion for a parenthesis, and made other as gross errors.
In answer to the question "What is arithmetic?" I
have several times received the following reply : " It
is the art of science" etc. Sometimes this constitutes
the entire reply. In one instance four fifths of the class
united in this answer. The terms sum, remainder, prod
uct, and quotient are frequently applied indiscriminate
ly in the four ground rules of arithmetic. There are,
hence, three chances for them to be used erroneously
where there is one chance for them to be correctly ap
plied. The following expressions are common : Add
up and set down the remainder ; subtract and set down
the quotient; multiply and write down the sum; divide
and write down the product, etc. : never so much as
thinking that sum belongs to addition ; remainder, to
subtraction ; product, to multiplication ; and quotient,
to division. In attending the examination of such
teachers, any person of discernment will soon become
satisfied that with them *' language is an unlimited
sense ;" that " arithmetic is the art of science ;" and
that grammar, too, is " the art of science ;" for the same
answer has been given to the question, "What is gram
mar?" I introduce these things, not for the purpose
of ridiculing any portion of our teachers, but to exem
plify the extent of the evil under consideration.

The majority of teachers manifest a tolerable famil-

424 THE MEANS OF

iarity with the branches usually taught in our common
schools. They have not, however, generally studied
more than one author on the same subject.

A portion of our teachers, it gives me pleasure to
add, are not only superior scholars in the common En
glish branches, but they have made respectable attain
ments in philosophy, astronomy, chemistry, algebra,
Latin, etc. All of these branches are successfully
taught in a few of our schools.

SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. — There is, perhaps, as wide a
difference in the administration of government in our
common schools as in any other particular connected
with them. Good government requires the healthful ex
ercise of a rare combination of good qualities. But this
can not reasonably be expected in inexperienced youth,
who, instead of being guided by enlightened moral sen
timent, have not only never subjected themselves to gov
ernment, but are totally unacquainted with the princi
ples upon which it should be administered. About one
third of our schools are tolerably well governed. A
portion of them are under a wise and parental super
vision, the government being uniformly mild, and at the
same time efficient. But indecision, rashness, and in
efficiency are far more common. Sometimes teachers
resolve to have no whispering, leaving seats, asking
questions, etc., among any of the scholars, and severely
punish every detected offender. Soon a portion of the
patrons justly manifest dissatisfaction. Then all at
tempts to govern the school are unwisely given up.
Many teachers thus rashly fly from one extreme of
government to the other, without stopping to test the
"golden mean," or even appearing to bestow a single
thought upon the subject.

Again : the feelings of the teacher have been out
raged by having frequently witnessed severity, and

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 425

even cruelty, in government ; and, in studiously avoid
ing them, he has inadvertently adopted a lax govern
ment, if government it may be called. The latter may
be the more amiable extreme, but it is hardly the less
fatal. I have heard scholars say in the presence of
such a teacher, " We have a good teacher, who gives
us all the good advice we need, and then lets us do as
we please ;" and then I have witnessed whispering,
talking, chewing gum and throwing it about the house,
passing from seat to seat, playing with tops and whirls,
tossing wads of wet paper about the house and to the
ceiling, cutting images upon the desks, imitating the
practice of botanic physicians, exhibiting and passing
from one to another roots and herbs, and discoursing
upon their properties, chasing mice about the house,
and in some instances slaying them, and practicing sun
dry other antics too numerous to be mentioned. Good
advice was freely given, but it was disregarded with
impunity.

Government in school, as elsewhere, should be mild
but efficient. The teacher should speak kindly, but
with authority. Every request should meet with a
ready compliance. The scholars will not only fear to
disobey such a teacher, but will, at the same time, re
spect, and even love him. This is not only good the
ory, but is susceptible of being reduced to practice. It
is, indeed, exemplified in many of our schools, as a visit
to them will clearly manifest. I know of no one thing
in school government more mischievous in its tendency
than the habit of speaking several times without being
obeyed.

MODE OF INSTRUCTION. — In some schools the instruc
tion is thorough and systematic. In them the scholars
generally learn principles, and understand, and are able
to explain, all that they pass over. But this is the case

426 THE MEANS OF

in comparatively few schools. Scholars generally are
poorly instructed, and understand very imperfectly
what they profess to have learned. I will give a few
illustrations:

First. Scholars are frequently introduced to the
twenty-six letters of the alphabet four times a day for
several weeks in succession, without making a single
acquaintance. They occasionally become so familiar
with their names and order as to repeat them down
and back, as well without the book as with it, before
learning a single letter.

This method of instruction is as unphilosophical as
it is unsuccessful. Were I to be introduced to twenty-
six strangers, and were my introducer to pronounce
their names in rapid succession down and back, giving
me merely an opportunity of pronouncing them after
him, I should hardly expect to form a single acquaint
ance with twenty-six introductions. But were he to in
troduce me to one, and give me an opportunity of shak
ing hands with him, of conversing with him, of observ
ing his features, etc. ; and were he then to introduce
me to another, in like manner, with the privilege of
shaking hands again with the first, before my introduc
tion to the third ; and \vere he thus to introduce me to
them all successively, I might form twenty-six acquaint
ances with one introduction.

The application is readily made. Introduce the abe
cedarian to but one letter at first. Describe it to him
familiarly. Fix its contour distinctly in his mind.
Compare it with things with which he is acquainted,
if it will admit of such comparison. It might be well
to make the letter upon a slate or black-board. When
he shall have become acquainted with one letter so as
to know it any where, introduce him to another. After
he becomes acquainted with the second, let him again

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 427

point out the first. As he learns new letters, he will
thus retain a knowledge of those he has previously
learned. It is immaterial where we commence, pro
vided two conditions are fulfilled. It would be well
to have the first letters as simple in their construction,
and as easily described, as possible. It would be well,
also, to have them so selected as to combine and form
simple words, with which the child is familiar. He
will thus become encouraged in his first efforts.

Suppose we commence with O, and tell the child
that it is round ; that it is .shaped like the button on his
coat, or like a penny, which might be shown to him.
After the child has become somewhat familiar with its
shape and na?ne, suppose we inquire what there was on
the breakfast table shaped like O. It may be necessary
to name a few articles, as knives, forks, spoons, plates.
Before there is time to proceed further, the child, in
nine cases out of ten, will say, " The plates look like
O." Suppose we next take X, which may be repre
sented by crossing the fore-fingers, or two little sticks.
We can now teach the child that these twro letters, com
bined, spell ox. We might then tell him a familiar
story about oxen ; that we put a yoke on them ; that
they draw the cart, etc. ; and that cart-wheels arc great
O's. Suppose we take B next. We might tell the
child that it is a straight line with two bows on the right
side of it, and that it is shaped some like the ox-yoke.
We might then instruct him that these three letters, B,
O, and X, combined, spell box; that its top and sides
are rectangles, and that its ends are squares, if they
are so. The child has now learned three letters, two
words, and a score of ideas. He, moreover, likes to
go to school. Any other method in which children
would be equally interested might be "pursued in
stead of this, which is only introduced as a specimen of

428 THE MEANS OF

the manner in which the alphabet has been successful
ly taught.* Better methods may be devised.

Second. The Roman notation table is sometimes
taught after the same manner. After spelling, I have
heard the teacher say to the class, One I. ? to which
the scholar at the head would reply, one ; and the ex
ercise would continue through the class, as follows :
two I.'s ? two ; three I.'s ? three ; IV. ? four ; and so
on, to two X.'s ? twenty ; three X.'s ? twenty-one. No,
says the teacher, thirty. Thus corrected, the class
went through the entire table, without making another
mistake. The thought occurred to me that they did not
know their lesson, though they had recited it, making but
one mistake. With the permission of the teacher, I in
quired of the class, " What does IV. stand for?" None
of them could tell. I then inquired, "What do VII.
stand for?" They all shook their heads. I next in
quired, "What does IX. stand for?" and the teacher re
marked, " They have just got it learnt the other way; they
ha'n't learnt it that way yet" They had all learned to
count; they hence recited correctly to twenty; and
when told that three X.'s stand for thirty instead of
twenty-one, they passed on readily to forty, fifty, sixty,
etc., without making another mistake. And this, too,
is but a specimen of the evil.

In teaching this table, the child should be instructed,

* Since these suggestions were first given to the public, several ex
cellent books for children have been published, constructed on a simi
lar plan to that here recommended. It will generally be found advan
tageous to teach the vowels first, and then to teach such consonants as
combine with the long sound of the vowel ; as, for example, first o ; then
g, h, 1, n, and s, when the child can read go, ho, lo, no, and so. After
this, e may be learned, and then b, m, and s, when the child can read
be, bee, me, and see. Then these may be combined as see me ; lo,
see me ; see me ho ; lo, see me ho, etc. The idea is, that every letter
and combination of letters be used as fast they are learned.

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 429

in the beginning, that there are but seven letters used,
by which all numbers may be represented ; that when
standing alone, I. represents one; V.,five ; X., ten; L.,
fifty; C., one hundred ; D., Jive hundred ; and M., one
thousand. The child should next be taught that, as
often as a letter is repeated, so many times its value is
repeated ; thus, X. represents ten ; two X.'s, twenty ;
three X.'s, thirty, etc. ; that when a letter representing
a less number is placed after one representing a greater,
its value is to be added; thus, VII. represent seven;
LX., sixty, etc. ; that when a letter representing a less
number is placed before one representing a greater, its
value is to be subtracted; thus, IV. represents/owr ; IX.,
nine ; XL., forty, etc. When the child understands
what is here presented, he has the key to the whole
matter. He is acquainted with the principle upon
which the tables are constructed, and a little practice
will enable him to apply it, as well to what is not in the
table as to what is in it. I have known scholars study
that table faithfully four months, and then have but an
imperfect knowledge of what was in the book. I have
known others who, with one hour's study, after jive
minutes' instruction in the principles here laid down, un
derstood the table perfectly, and could recite it, with
out making a single mistake, even before they had
studied the whole of it once over.

Third. The manner in which reading is generally
taught is hardly superior to the modes of instruction
already considered. In many instances, commendable
effort is made to secure correct pronunciation, and a
proper observance of the inflections and pauses. But
there is a great lack in understanding what is read.
When visiting schools, with the permission of the
teacher, I usually interrogate reading classes with ref
erence to the meaning of what they have read. Occa-

430 THE MEANS OF

sionally I receive answers that give satisfactory cvi.
dences of correct instruction. Generally, however, the
scholars have no distinct idea concerning the author's
meaning. They, astonished, sometimes say, " I didn't
know as the meaning has any thing to do v/ith read
ing ; I try to pronounce the words right, and mind the
stops." Teachers sometimes say their scholars are
poor readers, and it takes all their attention to pro
nounce their words correctly. They therefore do not
wish to have them try to understand what they read,
thinking it would be a hinderance to them. They oc
casionally justify themselves in the course they pursue,
saying, " I don't have time to question my classes on
their reading, nor hardly time to look over and cor
rect mistakes." At the same time they will read three
or four times around, twice a day or oftener. The idea
prevails extensively, judging from the practice of teach
ers, that the value of their services depends upon the
extent of the various exercises of the school. If the
classes can read several times around, twice a day,
and spell two or three pages, teachers frequently think
they have done well, even though one half of the mis
takes in reading are unconnected, and one fourth or
more of the words in the spelling lessons are misspell
ed, to say nothing of understanding what is read. The
majority of schools might be very much improved by
conducting them upon the principle that " what is worth
doing at all is worth doing well." I am fully satisfied
that it is incomparably better for classes to read once
around, once a day, and understand what they read,
than to read jfattr times around, four times a day, with
out understanding their lessons. Scholars should, in
deed, never be allowed to read what is beyond their
comprehension ; and great pains should be taken to see
that they actually understand every lesson, and every

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 431

book read. The early formation of such a habit will
be of incalculable value in after life.

I will introduce one extract from my note-book by
way of illustration. The reader will please observe
that it relates to neither a back district nor an inex
perienced teacher.

" This is one of the oldest and most important dis
tricts in town. The school is taught by an experienced
and highly-reputable teacher. The first class in the
English Reader read the section entitled i The Journey
of a Day ; a Picture of Human Life.1 Obidah had been
contemplating the beauties of nature, visiting cascades,
viewing prospects, etc., and in these amusements the
hours passed away uncounted, till ' day vanished from
before him, and a sudden tempest gathered around his
head ;' when, it is said, * he beheld through the bram
bles the glimmer of a taper.1 I inquired of the class,
'What is a taper?' No one replied. I added, 'It is
either the sun, a light, a house, or a man,' whereupon
one replied, ' the sun ;' another, * a house ;' another still,
' a house ;' and still another, ' a man.' I next inquired,
' What does glimmer mean ?' No reply being given, I
added, * It either means a light, the shadow, the top, or
the bottom.' They then replied successively as fol
lows : ' Top, shadow, bottom,' which would give their
several ideas of the phrase, ' the glimmer of a taper,'
as follows : The shadow of a house. The top of a
man. The bottom of the sun, etc. It should be borne
in mind, the class had just read that this * taper' was
discovered after * day had vanished from sight.' "

This example is selected from among more than a
hundred, scores of which are more striking illustrations
than the one introduced, which is selected because it
occurred in the first class of an important school, taught
by an experienced and highly-reputable teacher.

432 THE MEANS OF

The habit of reading without understanding origin
ates mainly in the circumstance that the books put into
the hands of children are to them uninteresting. The
style and matter are often above their comprehension.
It is impossible, for example, for children at an early age
to understand the English Reader, a work which fre
quently constitutes their only reading-book (at least in
school) when but seven years of age. The English
Reader is an excellent book, and would grace the library
of any gentleman. But it requires a better knowledge
of language, and more maturity of mind than is often
possessed by children ten years old, to understand it,
and to be interested in its perusal. Hence its use in
duces the habit of " pronouncing the words and mind
ing the stops," with hardly a single successful effort to
arrive at the idea of the author. To this early-formed
habit may be traced the prevailing indifference, and, in
some instances, aversion to reading, manifested not only
in childhood, but in after life.

The matter and style of the reading-book should be
adapted to the capacity and taste of the learner. The
teacher should see that it is well understood, and then
it can hardly prove uninteresting, or be otherwise than
well read. Children should read less in school than
they ordinarily do, and greater pains should be taken
to have them understand every sentence, and word
even, of what they do read. They will thus become
more interested in their reading, and read much more
extensively, not only while young, but in after life, and
with incomparably more profit.

Fourth. I have heard several classes in geography
bound states and counties with a considerable degree
of accuracy, when none of them could point to the
north, south, east, or west. Indeed, a portion of them
were not aware that these terms relate to the four car-

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 43IJ

clinal points of the compass. Still more : some of them
say that " geography is a description of the earth," but
they do not know as they ever saw the earth. They
have no idea that they live upon it. Scholars in gram
mar frequently think that the only object of the study
is to enable them to recite the definitions and rules, and
to parse. They do not look for any assistance in think
ing, speaking, or writing correctly, neither do they ex
pect any aid therefrom in understanding what they read.

Classes in arithmetic not unfrequcntly think the prin
cipal object in pursuing that science is to be able to do
the sums according to the rule, and perhaps to prove
them. Propose to them a practical question for solu
tion, and their reply is, " That isn't in the arithmetic."
Some one more courageous may say, " If you'll tell me
what rule it is in, I'll try it !" Practical questions should
be added by the teacher, till the class can readily ap
ply the principles of each rule to the ordinary transac
tions of business in which they are requisite. Gener
ally, in grammar, arithmetic, and elsewhere, there is
too much inquiry, comparatively, after the how, ond too
little after the why.~\

Now if these paragraphs, descriptive of the condi
tion of common schools and the qualifications of teach
ers at the commencement of the educational reform in
New York, are applicable to those states of the Union
whose provisions for general education are not equal
to what hers then were, nothing can be plainer than
that there exists an imperative demand for the estab
lishment of normal schools in every part of the Union.
Massachusetts has three ; but her provisions in this re
spect are not adequate to her necessities.

Union schools, and systems of graded schools in
cities and villages, should possess a normal character
istic ; that is, young men and women who have the

T

434 THE MEANS OF

requisite natural and acquired ability should be em
ployed as assistants in the lower departments, and
should sustain essentially the relation of apprenticed
teachers, to be promoted or discontinued according as
they shall prove themselves worthy or otherwise. In
the public schools of the city of New York there are
about two hundred teachers of»this description. These
and all the less experienced teachers meet at a stated
time every week for the purpose of receiving normal
instruction from a committee of teachers whose instruc
tions are adapted to their wants. A similar feature has
been adopted in other cities, and in many villages, and
should become universal among us.

In connection with the suggestions I have just intro
duced from a former report, I wish to say, I know of no
reform which is more needed in our schools than that
of rendering instruction at once thorough and practical.
The suggestion in the note on the 428th page, in rela
tion to teaching the alphabet, will admit of general ap
plication. As fast as principles are learned, they should
be applied. Practical questions for the exercise of the
student should be interspersed with the lessons in all
our text-books, when the nature of the subject will ad
mit of it. When these are not given by the author,
they should be supplied by the teacher.

I will illustrate by an example. Several years ago
a teacher had the charge of a class in natural philoso
phy. There were no questions in the text-book used
for the exercise of the student, as here recommended.
In treating upon the hydraulic press, the author said,
in relation to the force to be obtained by its use, " If a
pressure of two tons be given to a piston, the diameter
of which is only a quarter of an inch, the force trans
mitted to the other piston, if three feet in diameter,
would be upward of forty thousand tons." The teach.

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 435

er inquired of the class, How much upward of forty
thousand tons would the pressure be ? Not one in a
large class was prepared to answer the question. Some
of the scholars laughed outright at the idea of asking
such a question. After a few familiar remarks by the
teacher, the class was dismissed. This question, how
ever, constituted a part of their review lesson. The
next day found it solved by every member of the class.
Several of the scholars said to the teacher that they
had derived more practical information in relation to
natural philosophy from the solution of this one ques
tion, than they had previously acquired in studying it
several quarters.

In treating upon the velocity of falling bodies, such
questions as the following might be asked : Suppose a
body in a vacuum falls sixteen feet the first second,
how far will it fall the first three seconds ? How far
will it fall the next three seconds ? How much further
will it fall during the ninth second than in the fifth ?
If this paragraph should be read by any teacher or
student of natural philosophy who has not been accus
tomed thus to apply principles, the author would sug
gest that it may be found pleasant and perhaps profit
able to pause and solve these questions before reading
further.

The importance of reducing immediately to practice
every thing that is learned, is no less essential in moral
and religious education than in physical or intellectual.
Indeed, any thing short of this is jeoparding one's dear
est interests ; for " to him that knoweth to do good and
doeth it not, to him it is sin." The practical educator
should bear in mind that man is susceptible of progres
sion in his moral and religious nature as well as in his
physical and intellectual. "Cease to do evil f learn to
do well," is the Divine command. He who does onlv

43G THE MEANS OF

the former has but a negative goodness. The practice
of the latter is essential to the healthful condition of
the soul. It is important that we seek earnestly to be
" cleansed from secret faults." Without this, our prog
ress in excellence will at best be slow. While " the
way of the wicked is as darkness, and they stumble at
they know not what," it is nevertheless true that "the
path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more
and more unto the perfect day."

Understanding what we do of the nature of man, the
subject of education, and knowing that " the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and that the Great
Teacher, who " taught as one having authority," hath
said, " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his right
eousness," can we regard it any thing less than con
summate folly to enter upon the work of education in
the open neglect of these precepts? Should we not
rather cheerfully comply with them, and do what we
can to encourage all teachers, and all who receive in
struction, to regard this law of progression, so that,
while their physical and intellectual natures are being
cultivated and developed, they may not remain "babes"
in the practice of morality and the Christian virtues, but
" grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ?"

We can not expect the student will excel his teacher,
if indeed he equals him, in merely intellectual pursuits ;
much less can we reasonably look for superior attain
ments in morals and religion. If, then, the teacher
would secure the most perfect obedience of his scholars
from the highest motives, he must show them that he
himself cheerfully and habitually complies, in heart and
in life, with all the precepts of the Great Teacher, with
whom is lodged all authority, and from whom he de
rives his. When the members of a school become con-

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 437

vmced that their teacher habitually asks wisdom of the
Supreme Educator, whose will he aims constantly to
do, they will feel almost irresistibly urged to yield obe
dience to the precepts of Christianity, and, with suitable
encouragement, will take upon themselves the easy yoke
of Christ.*

Even common arithmetic, when well taught, and il
lustrated by judiciously constructed examples, may be
made not only more practical than it has usually been
heretofore, but while the student is becoming acquaint
ed with the science of numbers, it may be rendered an
efficient instrumentality in showing the advantages of
knowledge and virtue, and the expense and burden to
the community of ignorance and crime, thus promoting
the great work of moral culture, as is beautifully illus
trated by the following examples, selected from a recent
treatise on that subject :

" In the town of Bury, England, with an estimated
population of twenty-five thousand, the expenditure for
beer and spirits, in the year 1836, was estimated at
£54,190. If this was 24 per cent, of the entire loss,
resulting from the waste of money, ill health, loss of
labor, and the other evils attendant upon intoxication,
what was the average loss from intemperance, for each
man, woman, and child in the place, estimating the
pound sterling at 84.80. Ans. $43.332."

* In a former chapter, the necessity of moral and religious education
was dwelt upon at length. The importance of the Scriptures as a text
book, containing as they do the only perfect code of morals known to
man, and the objections sometimes urged against their use, were duly
considered. I wish here simply to add, that their exclusion from our
schools would be even more sectarian than their perverted use ; for
the atheistical plan, which forbids the entrance of the Bible into multi
tudes of our schools, under the pretense of excluding sectarianism, shuts
out Christianity, and establishes the influence of a single sect, thut would
dethrone the Creator, and break up every bond of social order.

438 THE MEANS OF

This one example may do more, in many instances,
toward establishing young men who may be engaged
in its solution in habits of total abstinence, than a score
of lectures on temperance, or as many lessons on do
mestic or political economy. The following, also, may
more effectually check existing abuses of some of the
laws of health and longevity than a month's study of
physiology and moral science : " It has been estimated
that a man, in a properly ventilated room, can work
twelve hours a day with no greater inconvenience than
would be occasioned by ten hours' work in a room
badly ventilated ; and that, where there is proper ven
tilation, a man may gain ten years' good labor on ac
count of unimpaired health. According to this esti
mate, what is the loss in thirty years to each individual
in a badly-ventilated work-shop, valuing the labor at
ten cents per hour? Ans. 85008." What an aston
ishing result ! Five thousand and eight dollars mon
eyed loss«te each individual who respires impure air,
estimating labor at but ten cents an hour.

Now suppose this loss occurs only in the case of the
eight hundred thousand adults in the United States
who are unable to read and write — and it must accrue
to a much greater number of persons — and one fourth
of the annual loss would be sufficient to maintain an effi
cient system of common schools in every state of the Un
ion the entire year.

It has sometimes been said, even by individuals oc
cupying high stations in society, that persons of the
second or third order of intellect make the best school
teachers. But in the light of what has been said, this
statement needs but be made to prove its fallacy. In
order properly to fill the teachers' office, we need men
and women of the first order of intellect, brought to a
high state of cultivation. A well-qualified and faithful

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 439

school-teacher earns, and of right ought to receive, a
salary equal to that paid to the clergyman, or received
by the members of the other learned professions. He
who can teach a good school can ordinarily engage
with proportionate success in more lucrative pursuits.
So true is this remark, that scarcely a man can be found
that has attained to any considerable eminence as a
teacher, who has not been repeatedly solicited, and per
haps strongly tempted, to relinquish teaching and engage
in pursuits less laborious and more profitable. Many
yield to this temptation, and hence much of the best
talent has been attracted to the other professions.
School committees, however, can generally secure the
services of teachers of any grade of qualifications they
desire, upon the simple condition of offering an adequate
remuneration.

We have said, as is the teacher so will be .the school.
We might add, as are the wages, so ordinarily is the
teacher. Let it be understood that in any township,
county, or state, a high order of teachers is called for,
and that an adequate remuneration will be given, and
the demand will be supplied. Well-qualified teachers
will be called in from abroad until competent ones can
be trained up at home. Here, as in other departments
of labor, as is the demand, so will be the supply.

The best means which citizens can employ to give
character and stability to the vocation of the teacher
is to select competent and worthy individuals to take
the charge of their schools, and then pay them so lib
erally that they can have no pecuniary inducement to
change their employment. Let this be generally done,
and teaching will soon be raised, in public estimation,
to the rank of a learned profession ; and tho fourth
learned profession — the vocation of the practical edu
cator — will be taken up for life by as great a propor-

440 THE MEANS OF

tion of men and women eminent for talent, cultivation,
and moral worth, as either of the other three profes
sions have ever been able to boast.

SCHOOLS SHOULD CONTINUE THROUGH THE YEAR.
Schools should bo kept open at least ten full months during the year;
in other words, the entire year, with the usual quarterly or semi-annual
vacations. — Michigan School Report.

It is not enough that good school-houses be provided
and well-qualified teachers be employed. Our schools
should be kept open a sufficient length .of time during
the year to make their influence strongly and most fa
vorably felt. The work of instruction, while it is go
ing forward, should be the business of both teachers
and scholars. If children are habituated to industry,
to close application, to hard study, and to good person
al, social, and moral habits during the period of their
attendance upon school, jthese habits will be favorably
felt in after life, in the development of characters whose
possessors will be at once respectable and useful mem
bers of society, and a blessing to the age in which they
live. On the contrary, if children are allowed to at
tend an indifferent school three months during the year,
to work three months, to play three months, and are
permitted to spend the remaining three months in idle
ness, the influence of this course will be felt, and it will
be likely to give character to their future lives.

Under such circumstances, the good, if any, that chil
dren will receive while attending an indifferent school
one fourth of the year, will be more than counterbal
anced by the evil influences that surround them during
the half of the year they devote to play and idleness.
We can not reasonably expect that children brought
up under such unfavorable and distracting influences

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 441

will become even respectable members of society, much
less that they will be a blessing to the generation in
which they live.

In villages and densely-settled neighborhoods schools
should be kept open at least ten full months during the
year ; in other words, the entire year, with the usual
quarterly or semi-annual vacations ; and, if possible,
they should not, under any circumstances, be continued
less than eight months. And, I may add, the same
teacher should be retained in the charge of a school,
wherever practicable, from year to year. The teach
er occupies, for the time being, the place of the parent.
But what kind of government and discipline should we
expect in a family where a new step-father or step
mother is introduced and invested with parental au
thority every six months, and where the children are
left in orphanage half of the year ! Much more may
we inquire, what kind of instruction and educational
training may we reasonably expect in a large school
whose wants are no better provided for ! A school
teacher should be selected with as great care as the
minister of the parish ; and when selected, the services
of the one should be continued as uninterruptedly and
permanently as those of the other. Then will be beau
tifully illustrated this interesting truth : It is easier,
cheaper, and pleasanter incomparably, and infinitely
more effectual, rightly to train the rising generation,
than it is to reform men grown old in sin.

Lalor, in his prize essay on education, published ten
years ago in London, has recorded a kindred sentiment
in this very beautiful and highly-expressive language :
" The school-master alone, going forth with the power
of intelligence and a moral purpose among the infant
minds of the community, can stop the flood of vice and
crime at its source, by repressing in childhood, those

T 2

442 THE MEANS OF

wild passions which are its springs. Nay, often will
the mature mind, hard as adamant against the terrors
of the law and the contempt of society, be softened ta
tears of penitence by the innocence of its educated
child speaking unconscious reproof."

EVERY CHILD SHOULD ATTEND SCHOOL.

The ,plan of this nation was not, and is not, to see how many indi
viduals we can raise up who shall be distinguished, but to see how high,
by free schools and free institutions, we can raise the great mass of
population. — REV. JOHN TODD.

I promised God that I would look upon every Prussian peasant child
as a being who could complain of me before God if I did not provide
for him the best education, as a man and a Christian, which it was pos
sible for me to provide. — SCHOOL-COUNSELOR DINTEU.

Good school-houses may be^built, well-qualified teach
ers may be employed, and schools may be kept open
the entire year, but all this will not secure the correct
education of the people, unless those schools are pat
ronized ; patronized, not by a few persons, not by one
half, or three fourths even of a community, but by the
whole community. As was said in a former chapter,
there is no safety but in the education of the masses.
A few vile persons will taint and infect a whole neigh
borhood. In the graphic language of the Scriptures,
One sinner destroyeth much good.

The better portions of the community every where
provide for the education of their children. If they
are not instructed at home, they are sent to good
schools, public or private, where their education is well
looked after. Unfortunately, those children whose edu
cation is most neglected at home are the very ones,
usually, that are sent least to school, and when at all,
to the poorest schools.

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 443

Bat how shall the evil in question 1x3 remedied?
How shall we secure the attendance of children gen
erally at the schools, provided good ones are establish
ed ? In the first place, diligent effort should be made
to arouse the public mind to an appreciation of the im
portance and necessity of universal attendance. This
will go far toward remedying the evil. It should be
made every where unpopular, and be regarded as dis
honorable in a member of our social compact, and un
worthy of a citizen of a free state, to bring up a child
without giving him such an education as shall fit him
for the discharge of the duties of an American citizen.

But there is a portion of almost every community
who feel hardly able to allow their children the neces
sary time to pursue an extended course of common
school education, and who are really unable to clothe
them properly, furnish them with useful books, and pay
their tuition. This class, although comparatively small,
is not unimportant. The legal provisions made for
such children vary in different states. Wherever the
free school principle is adopted, their tuition is of course
provided for. This provision in some instances ex
tends further. The statutes of Michigan relating to
primary schools make it the duty of the district board
to exempt from the payment of teachers' wages not
only, but from providing fuel for the use of the district,
all such persons residing therein as in their opinion
ought to be exempted, and to admit the children of such
persons to the school free of charge not only, but the
district board is authorized to purchase, at the expense
of the district, such books as may be necessary for the
use of children thus admitted by them to the district
school. The entire expense incurred for tuition, fuel,
and books, in such cases, is assumed by the district,
and paid by a tax levied upon the property thereof.

444 THE MEANS OF

We have now arrived at an interesting crisis. We
have exhausted the legal provision, generous as it is,
and yet the blessing of universal education is not se
cured to those who will succeed us. Good schools
may every where be established, in which the wealthy,
and those in comfortable circumstances, may educate
their children. Provision — yes, generous provision,
though but just — has been made to meet the expense
of tuition and books for the children of indigent parents.
Still, they may not sufficiently appreciate an education
to send their children ; or, if this be not so, they may
keep them at home from motives of delicacy, being un
able to clothe them decently. How shall such cases
be met ? How shall we actually bring such children
into the peaceable possession and enjoyment of a good
common school education, that rich legacy which no
ble-minded legislators have bequeathed to them, and
which is the inalienable right of every son and daughter
of this republic ?

Legislation has already, in many of the states, done
much — perhaps all that can be reasonably expected, at
least, until a good common education shall be better
appreciated by the community at large, and be ranked,
as it ought to be, among the necessaries of life. The
work, then, must be consummated chiefly by the united
and well-directed efforts of benevolent and philanthrop
ic individuals.

Benevolent females — and especially Christian moth
ers, who have long been pre-eminently distinguished
for their successful efforts in protecting the innocent,
administering to the wants of the necessitous, and re
claiming the wanderer from the paths of vice — have felt
the claims of this innocent and unoffending portion of
the community, and have, in some instances, organised
themselves into associations to meet those claims.

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 445

Benevolent and Christian females can doubtless ac
complish more, by visiting the poor and needy in their
respective school districts, and making known unto
them their privileges, and encouraging and assisting
them, if need be, to avail themselves of these privileges,
than by the same expenditure of time and means in any
other way. They have long and very generally been
accustomed to clothe the children of the destitute, and
accompany them to the Sunday-school, and there teach
them those things which pertain to their present and
everlasting well-being, and have thus accomplished in
calculable good ; but by co-operating with the civil au
thorities in securing the attendance of every child in
their respective districts at the improved common school,
they can hardly fail to accomplish vastly more.

Several associations have been formed for this noble
purpose, and many children who, but for their fostering
care, would have remained at their cheerless homes,
have, by this labor of love, been sought out, properly
cared for, and led to the common school, that fountain
of intellectual life, and of social and moral culture,
which is alike open to all. Gentlemen should every
where encourage the formation of such associations,
and, when formed, should offer every facility in their
power to increase their usefulness. Clergymen might
help forward such benevolent labors, where they are
entered upon, by preaching occasionally from that good
text, Help those women.

But there are two classes of our fellow-citizens — per
haps I should say fellow-beings — who, notwithstanding
the abundant legal provisions to which I have referred,
and the utmost that the benevolent and philanthropic
can accomplish by voluntary effort, will utterly refuse
to give their children such an education as we have
been contemplating. These are, first, men in comfort-

446 THE MEANS OF

able circumstances, who have so much blindness of
mind, and such an utter disregard for the welfare of
their offspring, as to deprive them of the advantages of
even a common school education ; and, secondly, those
who have such an obduracy of heart as absolutely to
refuse to allow their children to attend school, and who,
although the abundant provisions of the law are made
known unto them, in meekness and love, by " man's
guardian angel," prove utterly incorrigible.

Such persons are unworthy to sustain the parental
relation, and the safety of the community requires that
the forfeiture be claimed, and that the right of control
be transferred from such unnatural parents to the civil
authorities ; for, as Kent says, " A parent who sends his
son into the world uneducated, and without skill in any
art or science, does a great injury to mankind as well
as to his own family, for he defrauds the community of
a useful citizen, and bequeaths to it a nuisance." How
true is it that " the mobs, the riots, the burnings, the
lynchings perpetrated by the men of the present day,
are perpetrated because of their vicious or defective
education when children! We see and feel the havoc
and the ravage of their tiger passions now, when they
are full grown, but it was years ago that they were
whelped and suckled."

In the very expressive language of Macaulay, the
right to HANG includes the right to EDUCATE. This is
not a strange nor a new idea. It long ago entered into
civil codes in the Old World not only, but in the New.
In Prussia, when a parent refuses, without satisfactory
excuse, to send his child to school the time required by
law, he is cited before the court, tried, and, if he refuses
compliance, the child is taken from him and sent to
school, and the father to prison,

Similar laws were enacted raid enforced bvour New

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 447

England fathers more than two hundred years ago,
which history informs us were attended with the most
beneficial results.* Although their descendants of the
present generation should blush for their degeneracy,
still we should be encouraged from an increasing dis
position of late to return to these salutary restraints
and needful checks upon ignorance and crime. Said
the Honorable Josiah Quincy, Jr., late mayor of the
city of Boston, in his inaugural address, " I hold that
the state has a right to compel parents to take advan
tage of the means of educating their children. If it can
punish them for crime, it should surely have the power
of preventing them from committing it, by giving them
the habits and the education that are the surest safe
guards." Similar sentiments have been recently pro
mulgated by the heads of the school departments of
several states in their official reports, and by govern
ors in their annual messages ; and we have much rea
son for believing that the time is not distant when an
enlightened public sentiment shall demand the re-enact
ment of these most salutary laws of our ancestors.

COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE UPON SCHOOL. — Since the
preceding paragraphs were prepared for the printer,
the author has received the statutes and resolves of the
Massachusetts Legislature of 1850, relating to educa
tion, which recognize the principle here contended for.

* The following paragraph is from the Massachusetts Colony Laws
of 1G42 ; " Forasmuch as the good education of children is of singular
behoof and benefit to any commonwealth, and whereas many parents
and masters are too indolent and negligent of their duty in that kind,
it is ordered that the select-men of every town in the several precincts
and quarters, where they dwell, shall have a vigilant eye over their
brethren and neighbors, to see, first, that none of them shall suffer so
much barbarism in any of their families as not to teach, by themselves
or others, their children and apprentices so much learning as may ena
ble them perfectly to read the English tongue, and knowledge of the
capital laws, upon penalty of twenty shillings for each neglect therein."

448 THE MEANS OF

Each of the several cities and towns in that common
wealth is " authorized and empowered to make all
needful provisions and arrangements concerning habit
ual truants, and children not attending school, without
any regular and lawful occupation, growing up in igno
rance, between the ages of six and fifteen years; and,
also, all such ordinances and by-laws respecting such
children as shall be deemed most conducive to their
welfare and the good order of such city or town ; and
there shall be annexed to such ordinances suitable pen
alties, not exceeding, for any one breach, a fine of
twenty dollars."

It is made the duty of the "several cities and towns
availing themselves of the provisions of this act, to ap
point, at the annual meetings of said towns, or annu
ally by the mayor and aldermen of said cities, three
or more persons, who alone shall be authorized to make
the complaints, in every case of violation of said ordi
nances or by-laws, to the justice of the peace, or other
judicial officer, who, by said ordinances, shall have
jurisdiction in the matter, which persons thus appoint
ed shall alone have authority to carry into execution
the judgments of said justices of the peace, or other
judicial officer."

It is further provided that *' the said justices of the
peace, or other judicial officer, shall, in all cases, at
their discretion, in place of the fine aforesaid, be au
thorized to order children proved before them to be
growing up in truancy, and without the benefit of the
education provided for them by law, to be placed, for
such periods of time as they may judge expedient, in
such institution of instruction, or house of reformation,
or other suitable situation, ns may be assigned or pro
vided for the purpose in each city or town availing
itself of the powers herein granted."

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 449

This principle has been incorporated into several
municipal codes. Children in the city of Boston, under
sixteen years of age, whose "parents are dead,' or, if
living, do, frcnj vice, or any other cause, neglect to pro
vide suitable employment for, or to exercise salutary
control over" them, may be sent by the court to the
house of reformation. By the late act, establishing the
State Reform School, male convicts under sixteen years
of age may be sent to this school from any part of the
commonwealth, to be there "instructed in piety and
morality, and in such branches of useful knowledge as
shall be adapted to their age and capacity." The in
mates may be bound out ; but, in executing this part of
their duty, the trustees "shall have scrupulous regard
to the religious ajid moral character of those to whom
they are bound, to the end that they may secure to the
boys the benefit of a good example, and wholesome in
struction, and the sure means of improvement in virtue
and knowledge, and thus the opportunity of becoming
intelligent, moral, useful, and happy citizens of the com
monwealth."

The Massachusetts State Reform School is designed
to be a " school for the instruction, reformation, and
employment of juvenile offenders." Any boy under
sixteen years of age, " convicted of any offense punish
able by imprisonment other than for life," may be sen
tenced to this school. Here he may be kept during
the term of his sentence ; or he may be bound out as
an apprentice ; or, in case he proves incorrigible, he
may be sent to prison, as he would originally have
been but for the existence of this school.

The buildings erected are sufficiently large for three
hundred boys. Attached to the establishment is a large
farm, the cost of all which, when the buildings are com
pleted and furnished, and the farm stocked and provided

450 THE MEANS OF

with agricultural implements, it is estimated will be
about one hundred thousand dollars. A citizen of that
state has given twenty-two thousand five hundred dol
lars to this institution, partly to defray past expenses
and partly to form a fund for its future benefit.

" In visiting this noble institution, one can not but
think how closely it resembles, in spirit and in purpose,
the mission of Him who came to seek and to save that
* which was lost ; and yet, in traversing its spacious
halls and corridors, the echo of each footfall seems to
say that one tenth part of its cost would have done
more in the way of prevention than its whole amount
can accomplish in the way of reclaiming, and would,
besides, have saved a thousand pangs that have torn
parental hearts, and a thousand more wounds in the
hearts of the children themselves, which no human pow
er can ever wholly heal. When will the state learn that
it is better to spend its units for prevention than tens
and hundreds for remedy ? How long must the state,
like those same unfortunate children, suffer the punish
ment of THEIR existence before IT will be reformed ?"

Kindred institutions have existed in several of our
principal cities for a quarter of a century, among which
are the House of Reformation for Juvenile Delinquents
in New York, the House of Refuge in Philadelphia,
and the House of Reformation in Boston. Consider
ing the degradation of their parents, the absence of cor
rect early instruction, and the corrupting influences to
which the children sent to these institutions have been
exposed, becoming generally criminals before any ef
fort has been made by the humane for their correct ed
ucational training, one may well wonder at the success
which has crowned the efforts that have been put forth
in their behalf, for the greater part of them are effectu
ally and permanently reformed. This, however, only

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 451

shows more clearly the power of education, and the
advantages that may be derived from the establishment
and maintenance of improved common schools through
out our country.

But how are these reforms effected ? The means are
simple, and are slightly different from those already de
scribed for the correct training of unoffending children.
Take, for instance, the House of Reformation in the
City of New York. In the first place, they have a
good school-house, embracing nearly all the modern
improvements. The yard and play-ground are of am
ple dimensions, and are inclosed by a substantial fence.
This constitutes a barrier beyond which the children,
once within, can not pass. But the clean gravel-walks,
the beautiful shade-trees, the green grass-plats, the
sparkling fountains, the ornamental flower-garden, all
conspire to render the place delightful. It is, indeed,
a prison in one sense, but the children seem hardly to
know it. Then, again, well-qualified teachers and su
perintendents are employed. The spirit which actu
ates them is that of love. By proving themselves the
friends of the children, the children become their friends,
and are hence easily governed, considering their former
neglect. Being well instructed, they love study, and
generally make commendable progress. Their habits
are regular, and they are constantly employed. A por
tion of the day is devoted to study ; another portion to
industrial pursuits ; and still another to recreation and
amusements. Strict obedience is required. This may
be yielded at first from restraint, but ultimately from
love. The love of kind and faithful teachers, the love
of approving consciences, the love of right, the love of
God, separately and conjointly influence them, until
they can say ultimately of a truth, " The love of Christ
constrainelh us.'

452 THE MEANS OF

Their industrial habits are of incalculable benefit to
them. They all learn some trade, and acquire the
habits and the skill requisite to constitute them pro
ducers, and thus practically conform to this funda
mental law, "that if any man would not work, neither
should he eat." The other conditions that have been
stated as essential to success are also complied with,
the scholars being kept under the influence of good
teachers, and of the same teachers from year to year
during their continuance- in the institution.

The well-qualified and eminently successful teacher
who has long been connected with the Refuge in New
York, in a late report says, "The habits of industry
which the children here acquire will be of incalculable
benefit to them through life. Yet we look upon the
School Department as the greatest of all the means em
ployed to save our youthful charge from ignorance and
vice. As it is the mind and the heart that are mostly
depraved, so we must act mostly upon the mind and the
heart to eradicate this depravity.

" The education here is a moral education. We do
endeavor, it is true, by all the powers we possess, to
impress upon the mind the great importance of a good
education ; and not only to impress it upon the mind,
but to assist the mind to act, that it may obtain it. But
our principal aim is to fan into life the almost dying
spark of virtue, and kindle anew the moral feelings,
that they may glow with fresh ardor, and shine forth
again in the beauty of innocence. Our object is not to
store the memory with facts, but to elevate the soul ;
not to think for the children, but to teach them to think
for themselves ; to describe the road, and put them in
the way ; never to hint what they have been, nor what
they are, but to point them continually to what they
mav be.

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 453

" We feel assured that our labor will not be lost.
Judging the future from the past, we are sanguine in
our belief that our toils have left an impress upon the
mind which time can not efface. Scarcely a week
passes but our hearts are cheered and animated, and
our eyes are gladdened at the sight of those whom we
taught in by-gone years, who bid no fairer then to
cheer us than those with whom we labor now. Yet
they are saved — saved to themselves ; saved to so
ciety ; saved to their friends — who, but for this Refuge,
would have poisoned the moral atmosphere of our land,
and breathed around them more deadly effluvia than
that of the fabled Upas."

The success which has attended well-directed efforts
for the reformation of juvenile delinquents, and evening
free schools for the education of adults of all ages
whose early education has been neglected, ought to
inspire the friends of human improvement with in
creased confidence in the redeeming power of a cor
rect early education, such as every state in this Union
may provide for all her children. When this confidence
is begotten, and when a good common education comes
to be generally regarded as the birth-right of every
child in the community, then may the friends of free
institutions and of indefinite human advancement look
for the more speedy realization of their long-cherished
hopes. For one generation the community must be
doubly taxed — once in the reformation of juvenile de
linquents, and in the education of ignorant adults in
evening schools, and again in the correct training of
all our children in improved schools. This done, each
succeeding generation will come upon the stage under
more favorable circumstances than the preceding, and
each present generation will be better prepared to ed
ucate that which is to follow, to the end of time.

454 THE MEANS OF

THE REDEEMING POWER OF COMMON SCHOOLS.

If all our schools were under the charge of teachers possessing what
I regard as the right intellectual and rnoral qualifications, and if all the
children of the community were brought under the influence of these
schools for ten months in the year, I think that the work of training up
THE WHOLE COMMUNITY to intelligence and virtue would soon be ac
complished, as completely as any human end can be obtained by hu
man means. — REV. JACOB ABBOTT.

I might here introduce a vast amount of incontro
vertible evidence to show that, if the attendance of all
the children in any commonwealth could be secured at
such improved common schools as we have been con
templating for ten months during the year, from the age
of four to that of sixteen years, they would prove com
petent to the removal of ninety-nine one hundredths of
the evils with which society is now infested in one gen
eration, and that they would ultimately redeem the state
from social vices and crimes.

The Hon. Horace Mann, late Secretary of the Mas
sachusetts Board of Education, issued a circular in 1847,
in which he raised the question now under considera
tion. This circular was sent out to a large number of
the most experienced and reputable teachers in the
Northern and Middle States, all of whom were pleased
to reply to it. Each reply corroborates the position
here stated ; and, taken together as a whole, they are
entitled to implicit credence. The whole correspond
ence is too voluminous to be here exhibited ; I can not,
however, forbear introducing a few illustrative pas
sages.

Says Mr. Page, the late lamented principal of the
New York State Normal School, " Could I be connect
ed with a school furnished with all the appliances you
name ; where all the children should be constant attend-

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 455

ants upon rn y instruction for a succession of years ;
where all my fellow-teachers should be such as you
suppose ; and where all the favorable influences de
scribed in your circular should surround me and cheer
me, even with my moderate abilities as a teacher, I
should scarcely expect, after the first generation sub
mitted to the experiment, to fail in a single case to se
cure the results you have named."

Mr. Solomon Adams, of Boston, who has been en
gaged in the profession of teaching twenty-four years,
remarks as follows : " Permit me to say that, in very
many cases, after laboring long with individuals al
most against hope, and sometimes in a manner, too,
which I can now see was not always wise, I have
never had a case which has not resulted in some good
degree according to my wishes. The many kind and
voluntary testimonials given years afterward by per
sons who remembered that they were once my way
ward pupils, are among the pleasantest and most cheer
ing incidents of my life. So uniform have been the re
sults, when I have had a fair trial and time enough, that
I have unhesitatingly adopted the motto, Never despair.
Parents and teachers are apt to look for too speedy re
sults from the labors of the latter. The moral nature,
like the intellectual and physical, is long and slow in
reaching the full maturity of its strength. I was told
a few years since by a person who knew the history
of nearly all my pupils for the first five years of my
labor, that not one of them had ever brought reproach
upon himself or mortification upon friends by a bad life.
I can not now look over the whole of my pupils, and
find one who had been with me long enough to receive
a decided impression, whose life is not honorable and
useful. I find them in all the learned professions and
in the various mechanical arts. I find my female pu-

450 THE MEANS OF

pils scattered as teachers through half the states of tho
Union, and as the wives and assistants of Christian mis
sionaries in every quarter of the globe.

"So far, therefore, as my own experience goes, so
far as my knowledge of the experience of others ex
tends, so far as the statistics of crime throw any light
upon the subject, I confidently expect that ninety-nine
in a hundred, and I think even more, with such means
of education as you have supposed, and with such Di
vine favor as we are authorized to expect, would be
come good members of society, the supporters of or
der, and law, and truth, and justice, and all righteous
ness."

The Rev. Jacob Abbott, who has been engaged in
the practical duties of teaching for about ten years in
the cities of Boston and New York, and who has had
under his care about eight hundred pupils of both sex
es, and of all ages from four to twenty-five, has express
ed in a long letter the sentiment placed at the head of
this section. " If all our schools were under the charge
of teachers possessing what I regard as the right intel
lectual and moral qualifications, and if all the children
of the community were brought under the influence of
these schools for ten months in the year, I think the
work of training up THE WHOLE COMMUNITY to intelli
gence and virtue would soon be accomplished as com
pletely as any human end can be obtained by human
means."

Mr. Roger S. Howard, of Vermont, who has been en
gaged in teaching about twenty years, remarks, among
other things, as follows : " Judging from what I have
seen and do know, if the conditions you have mention
ed were strictly complied with ; if the attendance of
the scholars could be as universal, constant, and long-
continued as vou have stated ; if the teachers were

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 457

men and women of those high intellectual and moral
qualities — apt to teach, and devoted to their work, and
favored with that blessing which the word and provi
dence of God teach us always to expect upon our hon
est, earnest, and well-directed efforts in so good a cause
— on these conditions and under these circumstances, I
do not hesitate to express the opinion that the failures
need not be — would not be one per cent."

Miss Catharine E. Beecher, of Brattleboro, Vermont,
who has been engaged directly and personally as a
teacher about fifteen years, in Hartford, Connecticut,
and Cincinnati, Ohio, and who has had the charge of
not less than a thousand pupils from every state in the
Union, after stating these and other considerations, re
marks as follows : " I will now suppose that it could be
so arranged that, in a given place, containing from ten
to fifteen thousand inhabitants, in any part of the coun
try where I ever resided, all the children at the age of
four shall be placed six hours a day, for twelve years,
under the care of teachers having the same views that
I have, and having received that course of training for
their office that any state in this Union can secure to
the teachers of its children. Let it be so arranged that
all these children shall remain till sixteen under these
teachers, and also that they shall spend their lives in
this city, and I have no hesitation in saying I do not
believe that one, no, NOT A SINGLE ONE, would fail of
proving a respectable and prosperous member of so
ciety ; nay, more, I believe every one would, at the
close of life, find admission into the world of endless
peace and love. I say this solemnly, deliberately, and
with the full belief that I am upheld by such imperfect
experimental trials as I have made, or seen made by
others ; but, more than this, that I am sustained by the
authority of Heaven, which sets forth this grand palla-

u

458 THE MEANS OF

dium of education, ' Train up a. child in the way he
should go, and when he is old he will not depart from iC

" This sacred maxim surely sets the Divine impri
matur to the doctrine that all children can be trained up
in the way they should go, and that, when so trained,
they will not depart from it. Nor does it imply that
education alone will secure eternal life without super
natural assistance ; but it points to the true method of
securing this indispensable aid.

"In this view of the case, I can command no lan
guage strong enough to express my infinite longings
that my countrymen, who, as legislators, have the con
trol of the institutions, the laws, and the wealth of our
physically prosperous nation, should be brought to see
that they now have in their hands the power of securing
to every child in the coming generation a life of virtue
and usefulness here, and an eternity of perfected bliss
hereafter. How, then, can I express, or imagine, the
awful responsibility which rests upon them, and which
hereafter they must bear before the great Judge of na
tions, if they suffer the present state of things to go on,
bearing, as it does, thousands and hundreds of thou
sands of helpless children in our country to hopeless
and irretrievable ruin !"

Testimony similar to the preceding might be multi
plied to almost any extent. Enough, however, I trust,
has been said to remove any doubts in relation to the
redeeming power of education which the reader may
have previously entertained. Universal education, we
have seen, constitutes the most effectual and the only
sure means of securing to individuals and communities,
to states and nations, exemption from all avoidable evils
of whatever kind, and the possession of a competency
of this world's goods, with the ability and disposition
so to enjoy them as most to augment human happiness

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. . 459

Yes, education, and nothing short of it, will dissipate the
evils of ignorance ; it will greatly increase the produc
tiveness of labor, arid make men more moral, industri
ous, and skillful, and thus diminish pauperism and crime,
while at the same time it will indefinitely augment the
sum total of human happiness. By diminishing the
number of fatal accidents that are constantly occurring
in every community, and securing to the rising gener
ation such judicious physical and moral treatment as
shall give them sound minds in sound bodies, it will lay
an unfailing foundation for general prosperity, will
greatly promote longevity, and will thus, in both of
these and in many other ways, do more to increase
the population, wealth, and universal well-being of the
thirty states of this Union than all other means of state
policy combined.

At the late Peace Convention at Paris to consider the
practicability and necessity of a Congress of Nations
to adjust national differences, composed of about fifteen
hundred members, picked men from every Christian
nation, VICTOR HUGO, the President of .the Convention,
on taking the chair, made an address that was received
with great applause, in which the following passages
occur :

" A day will come when men will no longer bear
arms one against the other ; when appeals will no
longer be made to war, but to civilization ! The time
will come when the cannon will be exhibited as an old
instrument of torture, and wonder expressed how such
a thing could have been used. A day, I say, will come
when the United States of America and the United
States of Europe will be seen extending to each other
the hand of fellowship across the ocean, and when we
shall have the happiness of seeing every where the
majestic radiation of universal concord."

460 .THE MEANS OF UNIVERSAL EDUCATION.

Tliat such a time will come, every heart that glows
with Christian benevolence must earnestly desire and
fervently pray. But we can not hope to attain the end
without the use of the necessary means. So glorious
a result as this, that has become an object of universal
desire throughout Christendom, must follow when the
conditions upon which it depends are complied with.
What these are there can be little room for doubt. Let,
then, every friend of Universal Peace seek it in the use
of the appropriate means — Universal Education.

The same remark will apply to every form of Chris
tian benevolence an4 universal philanthropy; for, as
has been well remarked, in universal education, every
" follower of God and friend of human kind" will find
the only sure means of carrying forward that particular
reform to which he is devoted. In whatever depart
ment of philanthropy he may be engaged, he will find
that department to be only a segment of the great cir
cle of beneficence of which Universal Education is the
center and circumference ; and that he can most suc
cessfully promote the permanent advancement of his
mosj cherished interest in securing the establishment of,
and attendance upon, IMPROVED SCHOOLS FREE TO ALL.

INDEX.

Abbott, Rev. J., on the redeeming power of common schools, page 456

Abdominal Supporters, their use considered, 109.

Academy, New York Free, 386.

Accidents, cause and prevention of, 298.

Adams, John Q., accustomed to the daily reading of the Scriptures, 222

Adams, Solomon, on the redeeming power of common schools, 455.

Agriculture requires education for its successful prosecution, 269.

Air, want of, causes death, 85. Necessary to purify the blood, 89.
What composed of, 89. Quantity respired, 91, 93. How changed
in respiration, 86, 89. Once respired will not sustain life, 91. Im
portance of to health, 98. Abundance of for man's use, 99. How
freed from impurities, 100. Estimated loss of money and life froro
breathing impure, 299, 438. An excellent medicine, 108.

Alcott, Dr., on breathing bad air, 103.

Alphabet, how taught, 426. A better method, 42G-427.

Anecdote of the Indian, 203,225. Of Laura Bridgman,. 157-159. Of
Dr. Franklin, 103. Of a practical teacher, 256. Of a German school
master, 416. Of a farmer plowing with three horses, 254.

Apoplexy, how caused, 90, 92. Death by, 90, 93.

Apparatus and Library, 398. May be useful to adults, 399, 400.

Appurtenances to school-houses, 401.

Arithmetic, often poorly taught, 433. Its morals, 437.

Arts, the useful, require education, 272. Improvements made in tho
280, 282. How improvements are to be made in the, 285.

Astrology believed in, to what extent, 234.

Atmospheric impurities, 100, 101. May be detected, 104.

Barnard, Hon. Henry, School Architecture by, 382. Testimony of, in
relation to school libraries, 400. In relation to the external arrange
ments of school-houses, 402.

Bartlett, H., testimony of in relation to the productiveness of labor, 264.

Bathing, the importance of, 59. The luxury of, 59. The benefits of,
60, 62. The time for, 61, 62. A preservative of health, 63. A good
exercise, 80.

Beecher, Miss Catharine E., quoted, 457.

Benevolent females, means of usefulness of, 444.

Bible, its use in schools, 209. Vote on, in the New York Legislature,
219. What it has done for mankind, 222.

Black Hole in Calcutta referred to, 96, 97.

Blindness, hereditary, 36. How caused in schools, 182. Blind persons
inferior, 124. Injured by inaction, 127. How taught, 150.

Blood, circulation of the, 82.

Bones, how injured, 68. Lengthened by habit, 72.

Books furnished at the expense of tho district, 443.

Boxing the ears injurious, 171.

Brain, the seat of the mind, 113. Its functions the highest in the am-

402 INDEX.

mal economy, 113. Conditions of its healthy action, 114, 118, 121.
How affected by bad air, 118. Requires exercise, 121. Seclusion
injurious to, 122. Want of exorcise of the, a cause of disease, 127.
Effects of excessive activity of the, 128, 129. In childhood, 130-
135. Rules for the exercise of the, 135, 137, 140, 143.

Breath known to take fire, 86.

Bull Fights an amusement in Spain, 228.

California, state of agriculture and the arts in, 270.

Capital punishment and compulsory attendance upon school, 44G, 449.

Carriage of the body important, 71.

Celebrations, common school, recommended, 3G4.

Character, how affected by associations, 142, 143, 405.

Chest, how developed, 69, 79, 105, 106. Should not be compressed, 88.

Children, seats for, 69. How deformed, 69. Should not be confined
too long, 77. Rational treatment of, 77.

Chylification, the process and necessity of, 50.

Chymification, the second important step in digestion, 49.

Circulation of the blood, 81. Two circulations, 83.

Clark, John, testimony of, in relation to education and labor, 267.

Cleanliness a virtue, 60.

Clergymen, their relation to the primary schools, 414, 442. A text for,
445.

Clothing, office of, 64. Necessity of airing and changing, 65.

Cold, how to prevent taking, 108.

Combe, Dr., on bathing, 63.

Confinement injurious to children, 77.

Conflagration, general, how it may be produced, 320, 321.

Consumption, hereditary, 87. How death caused by, 84. How pre
vented, 80, 106. Common among the deaf and dumb, 126.

Conventions, educational, recommended, 364.

Costiveness, effects of, 53. How prevented, 54.

Crime diminished by education, 286. Statistics of, 295. Expense of,
358.

Deaf and dumb, why inferior to other persons, 125.

Deafness, cause and cure of, 172.

Digestion, process of, 48.

Diseases, hereditary, 41, 114, 126. Caused by mental inactivity, 127.

District libraries, 399, 400.

District lyceum, how rendered useful, 400.

Drawing an exercise in schools, 191.

Drunkenness becomes constitutional, 41, 42.

Dumb-bells, their use recommended, 105, 403.

Ears, how injured, 171.

Eclipses, a source of alarm to the ignorant and superstitious, 233.

Education, in what it consists, 13. Not finished in schools, 18. Should
have reference to man's future existence, 19. Not limited to man's
physical powers, 24. Not limited to his intellectual powers, 25.
Not limited to his moral powers, 26. Physically considered, 28. In
tellectual and moral, 111. Of the five senses, 146. Necessity of
moral and religious, 193. The importance of, 225. It dissipates the
evils of ignorance, 226, 242. It increases the productiveness of labor,
253. Necessary for females, 268, 279. It diminishes pauperism and
crime, 286. It improves the moral habits, 287, 288. It increases

INDEX. 463

human happiness, 311, 315. Degree of, in the United States, 337.
Existing provisions for, 343. The means of rendering its blessings
universal, 362.

Educational department, the state should maintain an, 370.

Emerson, George B., quoted, 408.

Epidemics arrested by ventilation, 101.

Evacuation, importance of, to the preservation of health, 53.

Evening schools for adults, 453.

Exercise, effects of, 74. When not to be taken, 75. Other laws of, 77.
Should be taken regularly, 78.

Experiment on breathing air, 91. In visiting a school, 96. In plow
ing with three horses, 254.

Eye, description of the, 175. Its sympathy with the other bodily or
gans, 184. Rational care of the, 180-192. See Sight.

Factories, labor in, requires education to render it productive, 261-269.

School teachers employed in, 268.

Failures in business accounted for in certain cases, 140, 141.
Farming requires knowledge, 269. Illustrative anecdote, 254. In

California, 270.
Females, benevolent and Christian, their relation to the primary school,

442, 444, 445.

Fortune-telling practiced in Great Britain and in the United States, 234.
Fracture of the skull, cases of, referred to, 129.
France infidel— the United States Christian, 204.
Franklin's Methusalem, 103.
Free Academy, New York, 386.

Freezing of water, law of, illustrates the beneficence of God, 221-223.
French ladies, posture of, 71.
Friday and other unlucky days, 236-238.
Funds for the support of schools, 366. When useful, 369.

General conflagration may be produced by the decomposition of air or

water, 321.

Geography, how taught in many schools, 432.
Gestation, state of the mother during, affects the health and happiness

of the offspring, 116, 117.

Grain, influence of the moon on the growth of, 250.
Greeley, Horace, extract from Address of, on free schools, 267.

Habits, mental and physical, how formed, 140.

Happiness increased by education, 311.

Health, laws of, 44-81.

Hearing, the sense of, 169. How improved, 171. How injured, 171

Cultivation of, 172-174.
Hereditary diseases, 41, 115.
Hot-bed system of education, 130-135.
House of Refuge for juvenile delinquents, 4-30-458.
Howard, Roger S., on the redeeming power of common schools, 456.
Howe, Dr. Samuel G., on the importance of physical education, 36.
Humphrey, Dr., on moral and religious training, 194.
Hypocrisy, why unsuccessful, 142.

Idiocy, extent of, 301. Causes of, 302, 303, 409.

Idiots, who are, in law, 151. Condition of, 301. May be educated,
300, 307.

464 INDEX.

Ignorance, its effects considered, 230. Of the correct treatment of

children, 133. Man iii a state of, 311.

Indians never have consumption, 109. Anecdote of an, 203, 225.
Indigestion caused by mental anxiety, 137.
Inhaling tubes, their use considered, 109, 110
Insanity, how caused, 126, 138, 308, 409.
Instruction, modes of, extensively practiced, 425.
Insurance of property, the best modes of, 266, 267.
Intellectual education, its nature, 111.
Intemperance, hereditary, 41, 42. A cause of idiocy, 302. Expense

of, in this country, 358, 360. See Breath.
Intermarriages, influence of, on posterity, 115.
Irritability of teachers accounted for, 120.

Juvenile delinquents, provisions for, 449. 450.

Knowledge essential to prosperity in agriculture, 269. Required in
the useful arts, 272. See Education.

Labor, education increases the productiveness of, 253. During rapid
growth often injurious, 68. Of females in factories and in the do
mestic employments of the sex, 268, 279.

Ladies in France, consequences of their erect posture, 71.

Lardner, Dr., on popular fallacies, 246, 248.

Laura Bridgman, the deaf, dumb, and blind girl, 148.

Library and apparatus, 398. Township and district libraries, 399.

Life, extensive loss of, how caused, 298.

Lunacy, origin and signification of, 251, 252.

Lunar influences considered, 250.

Lungs strengthened by reading aloud and singing, 79, 80. Blood
changed in the, 85. Exhalations from the, 86. Absorption in the,
87. Diseases of the, hereditary, 87. Exercise of the, a means of
preventing disease, 105. When they should not be exercised, 107.

Lyceums in districts, how rendered popular and useful, 400.

Mann, Hon. Horace, referred to and quoted, 257, 328.
Manufactories, to be productive, require educated workmen, 261—269

Education of children employed in, 278.
Marriage of relatives a cause of consumption, 126. A cause of idiocy,

303, 304.

Mastication, importance of, to digestion, 48.
Masturbation, 409. See Secret Vice.
Meals, proper time for partaking of, 55.
Measures, a system of, for schools, 188, 404.

Mills, James K., testimony of. in relation to education and labor, 261.
Mind, laws of, 111, 112. See Brain.
Moral education, its nature, 111. Necessity of, 193. Want of, a cause

of insanity, 309. Should be pursued practically, 435.
Moon, its influence on the weather, 248.
Mortality, cause and extent of, among infants, 298-300.
Muscles, how they act, 72. Of the eye, 179. See Exercise.
Music, vocal, a branch of education in Germany, 80.

National education, political necessity of, 325. Degree of, in this coun
try. 337. Provisions for, 343. Practicability of, 353. The means
of* 362-460.

INDEX. 465

Natural philosophy, the mode of teaching, 434.
Navigation among the ignorant and educated, 257.
Nerves, sensibility of the, 1G1, 162. Sec Brain.
New York, Free Academy, 386. Public Schools in, 386, 434.
Normal Schools, necessity for, 421-440.

Oliver Caswell, the deaf, dumb, and blind boy, 159.
Onanism, 409. See Secret Vice.

Page, D. P., on the redeeming power of common schools, 454.
Parents, the natural educators of their children, 411. Vicious, somo

times reformed by school children, 441.
Pauperism, diminished by education, 286. Extent of, in New York,

358. Expense of maintaining, 358.
Peace convention at Paris referred to, 459.
Petulancy in teachers and others accounted for, 94, 120.
Physical education, importance of, 28. A preventive of disease, 34.

The only correct basfe for intellectual and moral, 32, 111.
Physician, his office and that of the clergyman compared, 34. How ho

may be most useful in his profession, 34, 35.
Physiology, made by law a study in common schools, 61. Lectures

upon, by school teachers, 61.
Play-rooms, important for small children, 403.
Politics, definition of, 335. Should be a school study, 335.
Politeness should be habitual, 142.
Popular intelligence, degree of, in the United States, 337. Exioting

provisions for, 343.

Poverty, extent of in Spain, 294. How diminished, 253, 286.
Precocity of scrofulous and rickety children, 130. How they should be

treated, 131, 132, 133.
Pregnancy, the state of the mother during, influences the character of

the child, 116, 117.

Punishments, certain kinds injurious, 77, 171. See Capital Punishment.
Purblind students, suggestions for, 185.

Quincy, Hon. Josiah, Jr., on compulsory attendance upon school, 447.

Reading aloud a healthful exercise, 79. How reading is frequently

taught, 429. A better way, 430.

Reading-room in connection with the school-house, 399.
Recesses in schools should be frequent, 77.
Reform school. See State Reform School.
Regularity, in bodily exercise, 78. In mental exercise, 139.
Relatives, consequences of the marriage of, 126, 303.
Religion defined, 207. Of some kind unavoidable, 207.
Religious education, the necessity for, 193. Should be reduced to

practice, 435.

Respiration, philosophy of, 81.
Rickety children injured by study, 130.
Riots, expense of, in Philadelphia, 357.
Roman notation table, how taught, 428. A better way, 429.
Rush, Dr., on the use of tobacco, 67.

School funds, their utility considered, 366-369.

School-houses, their common oi/-, 92. Good ones should be provided,
372 The condition of, 373. The location of, 379. Size and coa

466 INDEX.

Btruction of, 382. For country districts, 383. For cities mid villages,

385. Plans for, 387-389. Ventilation of, 390. Means of warming;

392. Appurtenances to, 401. Influence of, 405.
Schools, the support of, 366. The redeeming power of, 454. Should

continue through the year, 440. Every child should attend, 442.

Compulsory attendance upon, 447.
Scrofulous children injured by study, 130. Proper treatment of, 131,

132.

Seclusion from society injurious to both body and mind, 122.
Secret vice, how increased, 405. How remedied, 407. Causes idiocy,

insanity, and other evils, 409.

See-saws, how rendered interesting and useful, 403.
Senses, education of the, 146. Loss of the, impairs the health, 124,

125. Loss of the, causes insanity, 126. General law concerning the,

162. Their cultivation increases human happiness, 191.
Shooting stars a source of terror to the ignorant, 234.
Shoulder braces, their use considered, 109, 110.
Sickness in school accounted for, 94, 95, 96, 119.
Sight, the sense of, 175. Influence of tobacco and spectacles on the,

186. How injured, and how preserved and improved, 180-186.

How persons become near or long sighted, 183, 184. How the sight

maybe disciplined, 188.

Skin, functions of the, 55. Cleanliness of, important, 59.
Skull, cases of fracture of the, 129.

Smell, the sense of, 165. Its uses, 167. How injured, 168.
Snuff, its influence upon the sense of smell, 169.
Spectacles, the use of, often injurious, 186.
Sports, what kinds most advantageous, 79.
State Reform School in Massachusetts, 449.
Statistics of education in the United States, 337-351.
Stooping, how induced, 70. Habitual, to be avoided, 70.
Study, best time for, 138. See Brain.
Sulphureted hydrogen gas poisonous, 102.

Summary of important principles, 145, 286, 323, 361. Of improve
ments in the arts, 282.

Taste, the sense of, its uses and abuses, 163-165.

Teachers, why their health fails, 94-96. Employed in factories, 268
Their relation to the school, 410-440. Books for, 410. Tobacc<
used by, 417. Indulge in other evil practices, 417-420. Who make
the best, 438. Qualifications of, 340, 350, 417, 420, 422. Institutes
for, 420.

Teaching, should be ranked among the learned professions, 412, 439.
Compared with the practice of law, 413. With the business of leg
islation, 413. With the practice of medicine, 414. With the clerical
profession, 414.

Teeth, their relation to health, 65. How to preserve them, 65. Acida
injurious to them, 66. Tobacco not a preservative of, 66.

Timber, time for felling, 248.

Tobacco, its use tends to drunkenness, 67. It impairs the sight, 186
Used by teachers, 417. Used by ministers, 417, 418. A lady's in
quiry concerning the use of, 419. The use of, expensive, 420.

Touch, sense of, 160. How improved, 161.

Township libraries instead of district libraries, 399.

Truancy, legal provisions concerning, 447-150.

INDEX. 467

Union or graded schools, 384. They should possess a normal charac

teristic, 433.

United States, the, a Christian nation, 204. See France.
Universal education. See Education, National Education, and Free

Schools.
Unlucky days in Scotland, 236. In the United States, 237.

Vaccination, how effected, 59.

Ventilation, necessity of, 91-99. Of clothing, 57, 64. Means of, 390,

397.

Vocal gymnastics, influence of, 107.
Vocal music useful as an exercise, 80. Dr. Rush's testimony quoted,

80. Should be introduced into all our schools, 107.

Walking, not the best exercise, 78. How rendered most beneficial, 78.

Washington, quotation from Farewell Address of, 221

Waste, the cause of, 44. The repair of, 47.

Water, the freezing of, illustrates the beneficence of God, 321-323.

Watson, Rev. James V., on the providence of God, 62.

Weather, does the moon influence the, 248.

Weights and measures for school apparatus, 404. See Measures.

Witchcraft in England and New England, 240.

Ifoung, the Hon. Samuel, on the use of the Bible in schools, 220.

THE END.

NOTICES OF THE FIRST EDITION,

FROM a large number of extended notices of the first edition,
we have space only for the following extracts :

We have read most of the worts of this character which have been
published in this country, and while we feel that comparisons are com
monly odious, we are free to acknowledge that we have not before
read a book which so ably discusses almost every topic connected with
popular education. * * Take it as a whole, we have never before
seen its equal. — Joseph McKecn, LL. D., Superintendent of Common
Schools for the City and County of New York, and Editor of the New
York Journal of Education,

We commend the work, not merely as a useful manual for teachers
and school committee?, but as one TO BE READ BY THE PEOPLE — every
man, woman, and child of whom is interested in the subject of which
it treats. — Methodist Quarterly Review.

A valuable treatise on the subject to which it is devoted, discussing
it, in its various details, with great comprehensiveness of view, with a
rich copiousness of illustration, and with excellent common sense. —
New York Tribune.

No greater service could be done to the commonwealth than to put
a copy of this work into every one of its families. — Michigan Farmer.

It is a rich concentration of the best principles on the noblest of
subjects ; and the man who can make its truths familiar to the minds
and operative upon the actions of our people, is their highest benefac
tor.— jfav. D. D. Whcden, D. D.

470 NOTICES OF THK FIRST EDITION.

Every Parent should have a copy of it. Each Teacher of our youth
should be familiar with its whole contents. I do not know of a book
upon that subject, in the world, which is so proper to be used as a
text-book in all our higher seminaries. — Rev. E. Cheever, D. D.

It is a work for circulation ; and the friends of free education could
hardly do a better thing than to set the volume freely at work in the
community at large. — New York Evangelist.

It may properly be regarded as a FAMILY BOOK, furnishing an amount
of varied instruction and entertainment to the intelligent households of
our countrymen, for which they will be sincerely grateful. — Christian
Quarterly Review.

This is truly a national work, and should be in the hands of every
educator throughout the land. We cannot speak too highly of it, and
earnestly recommend it to the careful perusal of all interested in the
educational reforms of the day. — Teachers' Advocate.

This is a most able and elaborate treatise, embracing physical, moral,
and intellectual education, with the proper training of the five senses.
It is the philosophy of the free-school system, and should be widely
read. — Democratic Quarterly Review.

The various topics introduced are most happily illustrated. The
work should find a place in every family. — Mich. Christian Herald.

We feel confident that no person interested in the subject can peruse
this volume without obtaining new views of his duties toward his off
spring, and of the means which should be employed to advance their
moral and intellectual welfare. — Boston Journal.

The author takes a philosophic, and at the same time a clear and
practical common-sense view of his subject. He is evidently acquaint
ed not only with general theories of education, but also with the mi-

NOTIONS OF TIJK FIKST EDITION. 471

nute details of teaching. His plans of school-houses are admirable, and
his instructions to teachers minute and comprehensive. — Pittsburg
Saturday Visitor.

This valuable work has been some time before the public, but like
other Standard Productions, it is rising in esteem the longer it is
known. During the last fifteen months, we have consulted no work
of the kind, as a book of reference, so frequently, and always with a
higher idea of its value, as a digest of facts and statistics. — Ohio Jour
nal of Education.

The volume before us is certainly the most complete, elaborate, and
practical disquisition on education we have yet seen. — New Orleans
Bee.

In the production of this volume the author has given commendable
proof of his industry, good sense, and thorough acquaintance with an
interest on which he rightly judges that the future prosperity of the
American Republic essentially depends. — Harper?? Magazine.

(f its principles pervaded our school systems, we should have a basis
fov future prosperity not to be realized in any other way. — Rev. J.
Holincs A.gnew, D. D.

I am highly pleased with its practical common-sense character ; I
believe in its general orthodoxy, and feel more confidence in recom
mending it to the public, than any other work on the subject with
which I am acquainted. I would that every teacher in our State —
nay, in the whole country — were in the possession of your book. Hard
ly less valuable is the work for families in general. — /. W. Bulkley,
Esq.) City Superintendent of Schools, Brooklyn, N. Y.

It is admirably calculated to advance the best interests of the pres
ent and coming generations. Hence, I hope it may be universally
read, and duly regarded. Its highly interesting facts, just principles,
correct reasoning, and pleasing style, must secure for it an extensive
patronage. It should be found in every family, and in every library,

472 NOTICES OF THE FIRST EDITION.

private and public, and should be studied in all our schools of learning.
— Rev. Dr. 0. G. Com stock, formerly Chaplain to Congress, Superin
tendent of Public Instruction, <&c., &c.

It embodies an immense amount of valuable information. It sug
gests right methods of culture for hand and head and heart ; for pro
moting health and worth and happiness. It advocates the doctrine
of the right of man to receive, and the duty of society to bestow that
culture. The array of authorities by which its arguments are sup
ported confers great strength on its positions. * * I feel confident
that no parent or teacher can fail to derive great benefit from a candid
consideration of its contents, and that in presenting it to the public
the author has done a service to his country. — Isaac Sams, President
of the Ohio State Teachers' Association.

Three or four chapters, at the commencement of the book, are de
voted to the subject of physical education, and the education of the
senses. These are topics of great importance, but so generally neglect
ed that the earnestness with which the author dwells upon them, and
the excellent practical precepts he lays down, gives the work a pecu
liar value in our eyes. — LittclVs Living Age.

This work should be in the hands of every parent who regards his
own welfare, that of his children, or the future well-being of his coun
try. The plain common-sense man who takes it up and reads it at his
clean and quiet hearth, will find it philosophical, but not abstruse, and
•will meet in it no line or word that he cannot fully comprehend, and
will be started in it by no attempt at pedantry or display of learning.
Let all sucb JU} and read it, depending upon it that they cannot bet
ter charm the ears of the wife and children, through a winter's even
ing, than by reading to them aloud from its pages. — Detroit Advertiser.

We know of no practical book that has given us so much pleasure.
The author's views of education are of such a sound, practical, com
mon-sense order, that they cannot fail to receive the attention of the
country in this age of progress. — Monthly Hesperian.

We have been highly interested and profited by a careful perusal of

NOTICP:S OF THK FIRST EDITION. 473

its pages. It is designed for parents and teachers, and for young per
sons of both sexes. Mr. Mayhew's name is intimately identified with
the cause of popular education in this country, and we believe that in
the production of this work he has furnished to the world an enduring
monument of his enlightened zeal and rare talents, so freely and effec
tually devoted to the cause of public instruction.— V. S. Miscellany
and Teachers' Manual.

This is not a new work ; but it is one that will never be old. Most
works in a few years become insipid, or are supplanted by some now
improvement ; but we are inclined to the opinion that it will be a
long time before this work is superseded. So long as there are men
to be trained physically and mentally, so long will there be a necessity
for this inestimable work, which is a credit to the author and the age.
We have been astonished at its richness. Every page has an excellence.
— Monthly Literary Miscellany.

This is an exceedingly valuable work, and should be read by all
parents and teachers — all school-committee men and legislators. The
author regards children as animals gifted with intellect, instead of in
tellects wasted on animals. He advocates the education of the whole
compound being, and consequently talks very differently from the old-
fashioned lecturers about cultivating the mind and teaching the young
idea how to shoot. lie talks about bathing-tubs, and soap and water
as essential means of education. He preaches the importance of food
and air. He enters into the philosophy of educating the whole body
as a substratum for educating mind. — Boston Chronotype.

We commend this work to the study of all who feel an interest in
education. The subject is thoroughly canvassed, and we sincerely
wish that every man in Kentucky would read it. — Louisville Courier.

The author clearly shows how education dissipates the evils of ig
norance, increases the productiveness of labor, diminishes pauperism
and crime, and advances the great end of life — human happiness. —
Hunt's Merchants' Magazine.

It certainly should be numbered among the effects of every school
teacher, and should also find a place in every family library. — Cold-
water Sentinel,

474 NOTICES OF THE FIRST EDITION.

Mr. Mayhew is a clear-beaded, intelligent man, and has written a
sensible book on Education. His views on the importance of harmony
in physical, intellectual, and moral training, are judicious and well ex
pressed. * * * On the whole subject of Christian education, dis
tinctively as such, without which all other culture would be worse
than useless, the public sentiment needs to be corrected. — Church
Quarterly Review.

We find that, for worth and ability, this work even surpasses our
anticipations. It has no superior in point of plain, practical good
sense ; while it more fully, and as ably, discusses the general bearings
of universal education, as any that has yet appeared. It is truly a
masterly exposition of the subject of popular education, as applied to
the individual and associated interests of our people. It is not of
worth to the teacher alone, but is of such a character as to make it of
the first importance that every school and family library be supplied
with a copy. Discussing, as it does, the general subject of education,
it is peculiarly the work to be studied by the whole people. It must
meet with a very wide circulation, as it ought; especially will every
friend of education secure a copy. — Eclectic Journal of Education.

National Series of Standard School-jBoofcs.

NATURAL SCIENCE-Continued

PHYSIOLOGY.

Jarvis' Primary Physiology, $ so

Jarvis' Physiology and Laws of Health, - 1 75

The only books extant which approach this suljject with a proper view
of the true object of teaching Physiology in schools, viz., that scholars
may know how to take care of their own health. In bold contrast with
the abstract Anatomies, which children learn as they would Greek or
Latin (and forget as soon), to discipline the mind, are these text-books,
using the science as a secondary consideration, and only so far as is
necessary for the comprehension of the laws of health.

Hamilton's Vegetable & Animal Physiology, l 25

The two branches of the science combined in one volume lead the stu
dent to a proper comprehension of the Analogies of Nature.

ASTRONOMY.
Willard's School Astronomy, 3 oo

By means of clear and attractive illustrations, addressing the eye in ,

many cases by analogies, careful definitions of all necessary technical
terms, a careful avoidance of verbiage and unimportant matter, particular
attention to analysis, and a general adoption of the simplest methods,
Mrs. Willard has made the best and most attractive elementary Astron
omy extant.

Mclntyre's Astronomy and the Globes, . f l 50

A complete treatise for intermediate classes. Highly approved.

Bartlelt's Spherical Astronomy, 4 so

The West Point course, for advanced classes, with applications to the
current wants of Navigation, Geography, and Chronology.

ZOOLOG-Y.
Chamuersr Elements of Zoology, l 50

A complete and comprehensive system of Zoology, adapted for aca
demic instruction, presenting a systematic view of the Animal Kingdom
as a portion of external Nature.

Any book sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of price. TEACHERS
desiring to examine— with intention to adopt for class use, if approved
—will be supplied with samples of any booh (except those marked *),
at ONE HALF PRICE.

Complete Catalogues sent without charge to any address. Illus
trated Descriptive Catalogues, Five Cents. The Illustrated Educa,
tional Bulletin (Publishers' official organ), Ten cents per annum.

Address A. S- BARNES & CO.,

Educational Publishers,

111 & M WILLIAM STREET. NEW YORK,

The National Series of Standard School -"Books.

THE CLASSICS.

BROOKS' SERIES.
Brooks' First Lessons in Latin $80

Is composed of s, regular series of inductive exercises for beginners, and
is a Grammar, Reader, and Dictionary combined.

Brooks' Historia Sacra, so

Selections from the Scriptures, in easy Latin, for lower classes. In
cludes copious notes and a Lexicon, with exercises in Grammar.

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

Brooks' Ovid's Metamorphoses 2 so

Possesses all the advantages claimed for the preceding volumes. All
objectionable matter is carefully expurgated.

Silber's Latin Reader, • • 1 50

A complete work, with Exorcises, Notes, Lexicon, and References to the
three leading Latin Grammars, Andrews & Stoddard's, Bullions', and
Harkness1.

D wight's Grecian and Roman Mythology.

School edition, $1 25 ; University edition, 2 50

A knowledge of the fables of antiquity, thus presented in a systematic
form, is as indispensable to the student of general literature as to him
who would peruse intelligently the classical authors. The mythological
allusions so frequent in literature are readily understood with such a Key
as this.

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