On Education and Self-formation based upon physical, intellectual, moral and religious principles. From the German

Preface

. It may naturally be expected that some reason should be given for bringing a translation of a German work on Education before the English public, when so many excellent works on that subject have been already written and published in our own language. The present translation was undertaken in the hope that it might prove, in some degree useful, as affording well-grounded and enlightened views on one of the most important and generally interesting subjects in the present state of society. Education is now a subject of prevailing interest and inquiry ; and though much has been done, and many improvements have been adopted, observation must still continue to look around, in order to remark and confirm what is right, and to detect the false principles, which, either from ignorance or prejudice, still lurk in the different systems. For this purpose, it appears desirable that we should search for aid wherever it may be found, either in the writings of our own country-

PREFACE.

. IV men, or in those of foreign authors, alike engaged in the great work of improving the systems of Edu cation, and in diffusing the knowledge of the Art of Education amongst all classes. As a Science, it has been chiefly studied abroad, where alone a general and well-organized plan of National Education has been established. The Author of the present work published, some years ago, a Treatise " On the Fundamental Defects of Education," and had then no intention of writing on Education itself; but having, since that time, acquired clearer views of the true essence of Education, and its connexion with the entire Life and Being of Man, he was induced to give Lectures on the subject, at Leipsic, and afterwards to publish the substance of them in its present form. In the Preface, Dr. Heinroth says, " In Education, as in everything else, much depends on unity and connexion.

Now, in measuring the highly esteemed and comprehensive works of Niemeyer and Schwarz by this standard, the Author perceived, that the path which he intended to pursue, was untrodden, and the object, which he had in view, unattained. He discovered, in short, that Education — considered as comprehensive — not merely of a part, but — of the entire Life and Being of Man — in which way it can

PREFACE.

. v alone fulfil its complete destination — is still an uncul tivated field, which would repay culture with an abundant harvest," Of the nature of Dr. Heinroth's views, it seems unnecessary to say more here, as they will be better learnt from a perusal of the work itself, of which the Translator has endeavoured to give a faithful representation. February 12th, 1838. CONTENTS. Section I. PAGE On Education, and its relation to Formation of Character ; on the Nature of Self-Formation ; and on the Dignity of Man as a Being capable of both 1 Section II. Development of the Moral Powers, an internal condition of Education 15 Section III. External requisites for Education, with especial reference to the Teacher 29 Section IV. The consequences of bad Education and neglected Self-formation 43 Section V. Germ and Essence of Education.

General Principles of Education. Character of the different periods of Education . . 57 Section VI. Preliminary Education 70 Section VII. First period of Education 87 Section VIII. Second period of Education vin contents. Section IX. Maturity; or the entrance upon the period of Self-formation . .119 Section X. God and the World. Their relation to Man, and claims upon him after he has attained Maturity , 132 Section XI. The dangers of Youth, and the necessity of Self-formation . .148 Section XII. Definition, conditions, and different kinds of Self-formation . .165 Section XIII. Moral and Religious Self-formation 178 Section XIV. Intellectual Self-formation , . . 193 Section XV. Formation of the Taste 207 Section XVI. Self-formation for Social Life ON EDUCATION AND SELF-FORMATION.

Section I

On Education and its relation to Formation of Character; on the Nature of Self -Formation ; and on the Dignity of Man as a Being capable of both. It would be superfluous to recommend or to praise Education ; for without it, man is like a vine trailing on the ground, bearing, at best, but unprofitable fruit. On this point, all are agreed; but as to what education really is, we differ, according as our views are governed by our feelings, our understanding, or our interest. Nevertheless, it is absolutely necessary before we treat of education, that we should agree as to its definition. How then shall we define it1? In many inquiries, we come nearest to the truth, by finding out what is not true. Education, then, is not Training ; that belongs to animals, though it may be applied to human beings, in the sense of teaching any manual employment, as we say to train a servant or apprentice.

But there is something derogatory in the exnression, more than in the thing itself; for training B does require instruction, which is a part, or at least, a means of education. The term is used, too, in a bad sense, children being frequently trained to steal and beg, and such training it is the object of education to counteract. Education is not Instruction; for not only in the common use of language, but in practical experience, the one is the thing itself, the other, the means of attaining it. Neither is Education simply Cultivation, or Forma tion of the mind, to which great value is attached, the present century claiming particular distinction for having earned it to a high point of perfection. But considerable Cultivation may exist without Education, as when the intellectual faculties and practical powers are cultivated, but not the Soul, the inward Man, which is properly the Human Being, and especially that with which education has to do.

But what is that? or rather, what is man as man, — as a human being, independent of his faculties and powers ? The answer to this question demands a comprehensive inquiry. It has often been said, — and it is confidently asserted by those Naturalists of the present day who recognise no higher knowledge than Natural History, — that Man is the noblest Animal. But were man merely an animal, far from being the noblest, he would be the most unhappy, and the most imperfect. Man is an unsatisfied being, while an animal is incapable of dissatisfaction. Man is frequently unsatisfied either with his outward circumstances, his lot in life, with himself, or with others about him ; and whence arises all this discontent, but from his wishes being, for the most part, unaccomplished, his desires unattained ?

The desire of wealth, of power, or of pleasure, is predominant in man ; but pleasure often produces weariness and disgust, avarice never has enough, and the love of power, and of fame, which is nearly allied to it, often fails in its object, and encounters humiliation and contempt. The animal is unacquainted with all these, and lives contentedly within the narrow circle of its wants. It knows nothing of what renders man un happy — sorrow for the past, anxiety for the future, or the swiftly-flying present, often burdened with such suffering and misfortune as makes him wish it past. To the animal, the past and future are closed, and the present, with its wants and their supply, fills up his life. Sick ness and disease do not torment him in his natural state ; and when he is worn out by age, he concludes a life of enjoyment without the anticipation or fear of death.

But in man, precisely these peculiarities — his unsatisfied desires of wealth, of power, and of pleasure — prove him to be of a different and higher nature than the animal. He is not contented with a limited range, but seeks the Free, the Unboim<?^, in enjoyment, in possession, and in action. A striving after complete ness and perfection is inherent in his nature ; he does not voluntarily excite it in himself; it is implanted in him ; he receives it at his birth, and retains it to the end of his life. Now we see in animals, that no desire is given them without an object. Can it be otherwise b2 with man '? Can man himself give a wrong direction to his desires, spending them on unworthy objects, which, from their nature, are incapable of satisfying him ; while the animal is guided by Instinct, which never allows him to go astray?

Is man, then, left destitute of such a guide % Let us examine ourselves, and we shall be convinced that this is not the case. We shall find, that we, too, have a guide for our desires, thoughts, and actions, of whose existence we are per fectly sensible ; and this infallible guide to truth and right we call Conscience. Now, as we seek perfection, this truth and right can be nothing less than perfec tion, which, when we obtain it, must fully satisfy us ; the attainment of it, however, requires powers and capacities. The animal, we see, possesses powers and instruments fitted to obtain the objects of his desires. But what power, what instrument does man possess to obtain the perfection to which his internal guide points % It must be a power commensurate with the object. Now, perfection is, according to our view, the Un bounded, the Free ; and we must, therefore, possess a power whose essence is freedom.

Such a possession we have in the Will, which is the power of free determination and free actioji ; and by the direction of the Will, according to the dictates of conscience, we might hope to attain perfection, and satisfy our desire of unlimited enjoyment, possession, and activity. But where and what is that perfection towards which man directs his uncontrollable desire, and which he, too often with out his guide, vainly seeks in the world ? Truly, the world does not contain it ; for, notwithstanding all its endless variety, it is still absolutely limited, and en chained in the bonds of necessity. Perfection, there fore, is not the world, and yet it is something real, and not merely a deceptive appearance — a shadow. It must be, in short, a perfect being. But, how can we form the idea of a perfect being, or rather, — for there can be but one, — of the Perfect Being ?

The idea is already given us in freedom, absolute freedom. But, how are freedom and perfection connected? Most closely and intimately, might be the brief reply ; but we shall do better to avoid the direct road, and en deavour, though by a circuitous path, to obtain a satis factory answer to the question. We call the world, as we are acquainted with it, — the Material world ; and matter being incapable of motion, and motion being inseparable from life, we call the world, dead. Thus, stones, metals, &c. are, without the application of external force, incapable of motion from their state of rest, or, as it might be termed, the sleep of death, although they are capable of one kind of awaking, when they undergo decomposition and decay. The earth is, or rather was, in its original condition, full of the germs of life, which by the external influences of light and heat are roused to activity, and unfold themselves in the forms of vegetation ; and by this process, the earth may be said to become free.

Do we not see something of this now in the mosses and lichens with which decayed and mouldering rocks become covered ? But the plant is still rooted to its native soil, and its life b3 and activity are confined to growth, however great the variety of forms which the earth's surface produces. Our planet, however, is not entirely solid, but con sists partly of a liquid, moveable body, more active, and, as it were, more living than the earth, but forming one substance with it, as long as the two are combined. This body, called Water, covers by far the greater por tion of the surface of our planet. Water might be termed, land in a fluid state ; and land, water in a solid state ; which change water undergoes in becoming ice or crystal. And if a solid substance is capable of de composition, why should not a fluid ?

If the one can become active and living, why should not the other in a higher degree, since it is more susceptible of motion? And so it is. The same sunbeams which gave birth to vegetation, lay brooding, in the beginning, on the fruitful deep, and made it produce forms re sembling the vegetable world, but animated with a higher element of motion, — Plants with organiza tion, i. e. with organs of sensation and motion — nerves and muscles ; in short — Animals. And must not the primeval ocean have produced a world of living crea tures, since the latest discoveries shew that every drop of water contains millions of Infusoria ? Thus, vegetation becomes, as it were, free or living, in animal life, — which, excited by sensation, is capable of motion from one place to another, — as the earth became free in vegetation ; while, in proportion as the number and quality of the senses and desires increase, the higher becomes the life of the animal.

We see throughout our planet, a constant process going on of freedom from bondage, or materiality ; or, in other words, a constantly ascending scale of life, which surely does not pause or end in man. Far otherwise. Man would be still, as possessing form, a plant ; and, as by means of his senses and desires being capable of motion, an animal, if the ray of spiritual light, or consciousness — capacity for thought, and excitement to action — did not exalt and ennoble him. Thus the animal becomes, or, rather, ought to become free in man, and his own act — not the creative power of nature — can alone make him free ; for he is not already free, but capable of freedom ; he is not yet in possession of full life, but he must seek it by the use of the power of freedom which is lent to him, — the power of volition and action.

Action, freedom, and life are closely connected, and exist and advance in the same proportion. Now life declares itself in the feeling of pleasure or joy; for in pain, we feel our life checked and repressed, or, as it were, rent and torn ; whence it follows, that, as we ascend the scale of life, pleasure or joy must increase, and the highest life must be the highest joy, as well as the highest state of free dom and action. This perfect enjoyment, as eternal as it is unbounded, we call bliss. Whether we can now, or shall ever be partakers of such joy, is not at present the question, but thus much is certain, that we must conclude the All-perfect Being to be in possession of it ; and as joy could not exist without consciousness, He must also possess consciousness, which must be as eternal and boundless as his sphere of action, and the bliss which is the result : He must be the Highest In telligence.

At this point we will stop, and merely inquire, whether we have no name for this free, this all-perfect Being ? Yes, we name it, — in contra-distinction from all bondage, all materiality — Spirit ; and, — inasmuch as there must exist free beings, not yet freed from all bondage, and, perhaps, not capable of being so — the Spirit of spirits, or God. The single, and only perfect Being, of whom we are necessitated to think, is, therefore, God. We have thus, I trust, though by a long and cir cuitous path, sufficiently solved the problem which we proposed concerning ourselves and the object of our desires. We are not indeed free beings, for then we should be spirits ; but we are capable of freedom, i. e. capable of attaining to eternal life and happiness, in pro portion as we apply the gift of freedom which we possess in the will, in following the guidance of conscience.

Conscience is the voice of the spirit, of freedom, and of perfect life. We perceive this voice by the faculty which we call Reason, as the animal perceives the voice of life, which is to be the guide of his limited existence, by Instinct. Instinct is the reason of the animal ; rea son the instinct of man. But the reason of the animal is wrapt in the dark garb of feeling, while the instinct of man is enlightened and transformed into knowledge by consciousness. We have in Reason, the capacity of recognising the Supreme Being; in Conscience, the guide to the true objects of our desires ; in the Will the power of following that guide ; and these united possessions render us capable of freedom. A man in whom reason, conscience, and a will united to con sciousness exist, may be called an Adult, meaning a free, spiritual being.

He is also denominated a Person, because from his capacity for freedom, he acts as a free being, i. e. he represents spirit, as an ambassador does his prince. As a person, however, he is a being capable of duty, as well as of rights. His right is the rank of spirits, if he acts according to the directions of his conscience ; and this, again, it is his duty to do, if he would attain that rank. An adult, too, may be called an Intellectual being, because he under stands the guidance of conscience, and perceives and com prehends that by following that guidance he wdl attain happiness. He recognises the true End of his existence and his destination, and is not so blinded as to employ means ill-adapted to obtain that end. We see, there fore, that a ripened Intellect is necessary to the attainment of such maturity, because the reason requires the intellect to enable it to think and to recognise, which it alone can do.

Now we find by experience, that there is a considerable interval before all the requisites for this capacity for freedom are developed in man, and that he even fails altogether to obtain it, if external guidance be wanting. Without this development, however, he can take no step towards the object of his life or his desti nation, by which he would become a citizen of a spiritual kingdom, — of a perfect life. His existence, without this development, is invalid, nugatory, vain. This cannot be his intended lot ; he ought not to remain the Minor which he is at his entrance into this world, and which he will remain after he is grown up, if a helping hand be not extended, to draw him forth from darkness into light. And this helping hand is offered by Edu cation, who must be his guide. Even the adult has not yet reached his destined goal, but he stands at the starting point.

This is not the place, however, to dis cuss the means which education should employ at the commencement and completion of her work. We have now seen how far an inquiry into the nature of man can alone lead us to a comprehension of what is meant by Education. We shall now, too, be enabled to perceive the relation which formation of character bears to education. We have at the beginning of this section rejected formation, or cultivation as a part of education, so far as it relates only to his powers and faculties, whfle Man himself, i. e. his spiritual being, his person — that which is the peculiar charge of Education, is untouched and laid aside. For not the memory, the intellect, or the fancy alone will and ought to be educated, but the whole human being. It may, indeed, be said that all these powers and faculties belong to man ; but they merely belong to him as any other pos session belongs to its possessor ; and this is an important difference.

But though, in this point of view, we must reject formation from education, in another, we must claim its co-operation; for it signifies to give form and shape to what was shapeless, as Nature does in all her productions, when she converts shapeless fluids into solid fixed forms, mineral, vegetable, and animal; the original state of all these being fluidity. In the same manner, Art gives form to what is shape less, whether it be sound, colour, or marble, by forming them into harmony, pictures, or statues. The sub stance to be formed is the Material; the forming power is the Artist, who bears in his own mind the design, or idea to be worked out. Thus, for instance, the painter forms his picture after the idea in his mind ; and man, too, is originally a shapeless material, with this difference, that the law of his formation, or the idea after which he must be formed, lies within himself.

The art, therefore, of fonning man to become man, (the art of Education,) has no other employment than to excite and bring into proper action the powers capable of cultivation which already exist in him. Without this excitement and guidance, experience shows us that these powers and capacity of improvement would either remain entirely inactive, or would take a wrong direc tion. If, therefore, on the one hand, education can do nothing towards the formation of man without man's assistance ; so on the other, man can do nothing towards his own formation without education : for not only do the powers and faculties of man require to be excited and guided to action ; but that part of his nature which is formed for freedom, must also be excited and guided to its development and proper action ; and in this view, education and formation become one, since the excitement and guidance to the latter, without which there can be no education, is inseparably con nected with formation itself.

Wherein this excitement consists, and how varied it must necessarily be, will be the subject of future reflections when the essen tials of education are treated of. When, however, education has conducted man to maturity, or to a capacity for freedom, he is still only at the starting point of his course. He must acquire the rights of a citizen in the kingdom of spirits — he must become a free being. He possesses the capacity for freedom, or spiritual life, the guide to it, and the obli gation to enjoy it within himself. But education, or, at least, that which has conducted him thus far on his road, forsakes him, having no longer powyer over the adult. He must take the rudder in his own hand, and steer his own way in life. He will not, however, be left without a compass, or friendly stars to guide him with their light.

The spirit within him — the free being,whose voice is conscience, is his compass, and the beams of faith, love, and hope sent down from above — for whose reception, education has already opened his heart — are his companions on the stormy ocean of life. He may boldly grasp the rudder, for his hand is young and powerful, animated by the well-exercised powers of voli tion and action, while intellect guides the motions of his will. In the consciousness of his own knowledge, his own power of acting, and his own self-destination, he goes well prepared by education to his work — the work of Self-formation ; and though this goes beyond the limits of Education, it is, in fact, its aim and object. He who remains stationary where education has left him, will not only frustrate its aims, but will come short of his destination.

But as education should not be confined to the mere cultivation of the intellectual faculties and practical powers, neither should self formation limit its views to their further culture, making it a man's sole object to gain his livelihood by their means. Assuredly a man must be capable of doing this ; and partly by his own exertions, and partly by the assistance of others, be fitted for this world. But his destiny goes beyond this, and is expressed in the words, " he must become a free man, and acquire the rights of a citizen in the world of spirits." This is the highest employment of his after life, and is implied in the expression, moral and religious formation of cha racter ; for they are grossly deceived, who imagine that this is completed at the same time with education. The foundation only can be laid by education ; the adult must be his own builder of the superstructure ; the idea of which, — that of the image of God, — he bears in his own mind ; and as the artist must improve and regulate his original conceptions by the models of his great predecessors, so must those who strive for moral and religious attainments, — which it is the duty of every man to do, — contemplate the Image of God manifested in the person of the Redeemer of the world, who appeared in the fulness of time to lead mankind back to the path from which they had wandered, — exhibited in himself the object of our highest desires, — and set before us life in spirit and in truth, with the enjoyment of eternal life in heavenly bliss.

This is the true aim of self-formation, for which c every man is bound to strive, as those who are called to freedom, must freely grasp salvation. And here the dignity of man as a being capable of education and self-formation strikes us. A high destiny is ours. We must prepare ourselves for that perfect life, for which nature and her productions are not yet ripe. All creatures indeed aspire, (as a sacred voice has spoken, and as we may ourselves perceive in the universal striving of all corporeal substances after freedom and a higher existence,) " to the glorious liberty of the sons of God;" but on earth, Man alone is capable of freedom ; he alone is in a state to devote himself to the attainment of it ; the ray of consciousness of truth, and right, shines but upon him ; he alone is unsatisfied with imperfection, and strives after perfection ; he alone wdl (if he does not recklessly reject the guidance) be directed by the spirit of life which is in him ; and which, like the needle to the pole, points to the perfect Being and Life, to the Source of all that is sufficient and satisfying ; he alone, in short, has a living Original sent down to him in the course of time, and to which, as a vessel to its sheet-anchor, he must cling, to be secure of eternal life.

And all this by virtue of his capacity for education and self-formation, by which he is called to the rank of spirits. This very capacity then, is a rank, — a dignity : but such as man does not confer on himself, but receives from the unspeakably gracious paternal hand, which he has only to hold fast, — by which he must only allow himself to be guided through life, in order to experience and enjoy at the close of its brief career, what the inspired apostle has declared, V eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

Section II

Development of the moral powers, an internal condition of Education. That education is to lead man to maturity ; that is, to form him to be man, would be allowed by general con sent. But man is not, like the marble in the hands of the sculptor, an unresisting, inactive material ; the sources of his own life spring from himself, and by him self alone can be rightly directed. It is the moral powers of man which require this guidance, and they are awakened as soon as he comes into the world. His first cry proclaims this awakened self-feeling, which is followed in rapid succession by other tokens of a living soul. And what is the soul? To answer this often proposed question ingeniously would be a fruitless at tempt. We wTould rather simply say, that according to all experience and common agreement, the soul is a desiring being.

And what does it desire ? It desires Welfare from its first breath to its last. The soul of the new-born infant desires only corporeal welfare, and if it has pure air to breathe, wholesome nourishment, free motion for its limbs, and warm — but not hot — clothc2 ing, it is content. But it soon requires more than this. Its eyes require light as a higher source of nourishment, destined to awaken and feed the spiritual life of man. The child has, as it were, a hunger for light. It can not, indeed, at first distinguish objects, but it is attracted, and unconsciously roused to attention to external objects, by any thing bright and shining. Variety of colour is pleasing to its eye, though the power of distinguishing the different hues and forms of objects, in short, of seeing, is not acquired till the mind is more active, and produces in the strict sense of the term : Vision.

After a few weeks, when the child is able to hold its head upright and look around it, the look of the mother con veys a spiritual light to the eye of the chdd, and awakens a similar light in it. And now commences the great work of the formation of objects, the conception, as it were, of the visible world, of whose creation the child knows nothing ; and thus it is, that when we come to our senses, the external world is already completely formed to us. This period, however, is not yet come, but it draws near, when the tender ear of the child, already open to sounds, has learnt to distinguish the voice of the mother. When the maternal look and voice penetrate to the heart of the chdd, the feeling of consciousness is animated and enriched by the feeling of a second self. A new, a double life is awakened, and the sensation of delight arising from it, is expressed in the first smile which is bestowed upon the mother.