fact Education, to be complete, must develop all the varied powers of mind, in their just proportion. It must act with justice to the intellect, not cramping a part of the faculties, while it nurtures others into an extraordinary and unnatural growth. In proportion as it fails in this duty, just so will the mind be found wanting in the capacity to act. And in this may perhaps, be discovered some of the causes of difference of opinion between men of the greatest minds. It is not uncommon to find great intellects laboring under strange and inconceivable delusions on certain points, supporting doctrines at which reason revolts, and defending inconsistencies, of which far weaker minds can perceive the absurdity. I believe, that if the cause of this is faithfully investigated, it will be found to consist in the fact, that on such points, these intellects have never been allowed to act for themselves; they have been swathed, and cramped, and fashioned, from infancy, into the deformed and unnatural shapes in which they appear, till the original form is lost, habit becomes nature, and ugliness more attractive than native beauty. It is a remarkable fact, that in the despotic countries of Europe, where the censorship of the press exists in its strictest form, and passes its severest strictures on every thought that whispers of liberty, the Greek and Latin classics are still placed without reserve or fear into the hands of every child who is educated. There are no expurgated editions for the use of legitimacy; no skilfully selected and varied passages to suit the purposes of absolutists; no different readings for the accommodation of despotism. As the ancient writers spoke to their countrymen, so they now speak to the subjects of legitimacy in Europe,-but they call to the deaf, and they call in vain ;-they address themselves to those whose minds have never been taught to regard liberty but as an idle dream of antiquity, vain as the vision of the happy Isles and the fields of Elysium,—who have never comprehended, that freedom is a life-giving principle, which quickens the soul, but have looked upon it rather as an impious phantom, summoned up to lure them to destruction. In no sense are the ancient languages more completely dead, than to such readers as these. Upon them, the enthusiastic sentiments of patriotism, and the tale of heroic devotion are lost, -the sublime pæans of Tyrtous, the stern virtue of Thucydides and Tacitus, the dazzling histories of Marathon and Thermopyla, the thrilling page of Livy, and the magnificent eloquence of Cicero, find no responsive echo in their souls; for the fountains of such feeling were dried up, when they first gushed forth, and have forgotten how to flow; the chambers of the mind, which contain these treasures of noble emotion, have been sealed up, and there is no watchword to open them; and thousands have gone down to the grave, whom only the last trump of the archangel shall awaken to a knowledge of their rights, inherited from the Almighty, and enduring through eternity. In no way is the mind more perfectly the image of God, than in its universal capacity,—its power of receiving thought in every shape;-for within it, are enclosed the germs of infinity, which are destined to expand for ever; education can add no new power, no perception, no attribute, that was not originally implanted in the soul;—its native form, though undeveloped, is perfect, and all that education can do, or should aspire to do, is to call forth, in their intended proportions, the faculties which already exist. Wherever it fails to do this, it is imperfect, it does not perform its highest object. Education may fill the mind with knowledge; it may confer the learning of all ages; and yet if it does not expand the mind, if it does not draw forth with a genial power the immortal germs which are planted there by the hand of God, its end is not fulfilled. Finally, Christianity is the highest degree of education, because it completes that expansion of the mind, which education, in the common acceptation of the term, commences. Both act upon the mind in the same manner, but in a different degree; -education begins and Christianity finishes;-the former unfolds the bud; the latter ripens it into perfection;-the one lays the foundation, upon which the other rears the magnificent superstructure, till it reaches the heavens. There are different orders of truth. Those which belong to the material universe are in their nature finite. When the mind has once grasped them, they are entirely comprehended ;— their beginning and their end are gathered within the reach of the intellect, and are seen together. Of this nature are the truths of science, in all its variety of departments, and the axioms and demonstrations of pure mathematics. But there is a higher order of truth, which opens a boundless field to the mind, where it may range for ever, and still discover new beauty, and new wonders, and increasing variety. Of this nature are the truths presented by Christianity,-the wondrous revelations of Infinite Power, and Infinite Love, of dateless origin, and eternal duration. It may be said, indeed, and with justice, that infinite truths are beyond the comprehension of the human intellect. But this does not prevent them from acting on the mind. They beam upon it with a power to develop it for ever. They lead it on, in paths which never end, but which constantly reveal new glory and happiness. They enable the soul to rise up and meet its Creator, and they offer in the contemplation of his character, subjects of thought which will not fail to expand the faculties in their godlike proportions for ever. These are truths of the deepest moment, not merely to education societies and teachers, but to every human being. They show us that civilization, freedom, education, Christianity, have their birth-place and dwelling in the soul. They assure us that the noblest sphere of action for the patriot, the philanthropist and the teacher, is the inward world, where the germs of liberty, and power of happiness, and of religion are placed by the hand of God;-and they declare to us, that our highest duty is to unfold these germs of our own souls. The same immortal principle which in the beginning called the universe into being, and which sustains it through each moment of its existence, the action of Infinite Intelligence, is breathed into the soul of every human being, with power to quicken it into life. Let this principle but operate there, though all be void and without form, like the primeval chaos,-let the spirit but move on the face of the deep, and a world will arise from the confused and undistinguishable elements, which shall far surpass in loveliness the universe around us, and which shall not perish, though the heavens and the earth pass away. |