The family and school monitor, and educational catechism

Front matter

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Section I

" Man's character is formed by his ideas, and these are of three classes :

1st. Those which he has in common with inferior creatures — the mere reflex of nervous impression.

2dly. Those that are purely human, rational, reflective, but limited to natural or physical objects.

3dly. Those that are revealed and divine, and tending to bear the soul onward to futurity in consequence of Avhat it perceives as the moral neceasity of its own existence." — G.

Q. How large is the Chart of which a miniature is given as the frontispiece ?

A. Forty-two inches long ; thirty-six inches wide.

Q. What is the name of the Chart ?

A. The Family and School Monitor.

Q. Why was that name selected ?

$ EDUCATIONAL CATECHISM.

A. To intimate that there is a near and inseparable relation between the family and school ; and, further, that the education of children can never be properly and successfully conducted, unless there be a constant, cordial, and intelligent co-operation between the family and school.

Q. What is a Monitor ?

A. It is either a person or a thing designed to remind others of what they ought to do, or ought not to do.

Q. For what purpose is this Monitor intended ?

A. To remind parents, teachers, and children of some of the principal things which ought to be known and practically observed in the process of general education.

Q. What is the first thing aimed at in this Monitor ? A. To make it pleasing to the sight.

Q. Ought dwellings, school-houses, school-books, apparatus, playgrounds, &c, to be made pleasing to the sight?

A. Certainly — order and beauty ought always to be exhibited in the architecture, color, divisions, and arrangements of all buildings designed for the residence and education of the young. School-books, maps, and charts ought always to be made of good and durable materials, and printed with beautiful and distinct type. The health and happiness of children are highly dependent upon the proper observance of these things.

Q. How many ways is this Monitor to be read 1

A. Two : first, verbally; second, figuratively.

Q. When read in the first manner, where do you begin ?

A. At the top of the left-hand printed column.

Q. When read figuratively, where do you begin 1

A. At the bottom of the left-hand architectural column, and proceed across the Chart from left to right, and from the bottom towards the top.

Q. What is Education %

A. Education is that process by which the powers and faculties of an individual are duly and harmoniously developed, and disciplined ; in which he acquires a thorough practical knowledge of individual, social, religious, and political duties, and an ability and disposition to perform them all, fully, accurately, and promptly.

Q. What are the great departments of Education ?

A. Physical, Moral, Intellectual, and Special.

Q. What is Physical Education ?

A. It is that process in which the bodily powers are duly developed and disciplined, in which the individual acquires physical health, activity, and beauty.

Q. What is Moral Education ?

A. It is that process by which the moral faculties are duly developed and disciplined, in which the individual is made to perceive clearly the distinctions of right and wrong — good and evil — in his actions with regard to others and himself; and in which he acquires the disposition to do what is Eight and to avoid what is Wrong.

Q. What is Intellectual Education ?

A. It is that process by which the knowing and reasoning faculties of an individual are duly developed and disciplined ; in which he acquires a knowledge of the existence, relations, and reason of things.

Q. What is Special Education ?

A. It is that process by which an individual acquires a thorough practical knowledge of some department of labor.

Q. What do the first three departments constitute ?

A. General education, which of right belongs to every citizen of a republican State, and for which legal, full, and adequate provision ought to be made by the State.

Q. Where is general education acquired ?

A. In the family and school.

Q. Where is special education acquired ?

A. In the office, in the store, on the farm, in the shop, <fec.

Q. What do the three printed spaces between the pictorial columns represent ?

A. The three great departments in general education.

Q. What are the names of those departments ?

A. Physical, Moral, and Intellectual.

Q. Why are those departments equal in size and prominence ?

A. To indicate their equal importance, and that the process of education must be so conducted that the balance of the powers and faculties shall be duly preserved.

EDUCATIONAL CATECHISM. H

Q. Why is the Physical first named ?

A. Because, in the Creator's arrangements bodies have been made the first objects of the educator's care ; and, also, because it is through the physical organs that the soul first reveals itself in Sensation.

Q. Why is the Moral next named 1

A. Because, in the process of education, children are required to notice and observe distinctions of Right and Wrong — Good and Evil — long before they can understand the reasons on which those distinctions are founded. The moral faculties are, also, the organs of the affections, and through them the soul next develops itself in Feeling. And, further, as in the order of the Creator, so in the education and character of man, power and intelligence ought always to be rendered the servants and ministers of justice and love.

Q. Why is the Intellectual last named r i

A. Because, it is through the intellectual faculties that the soul manifests itself in the third place, in act of Thought. Sensation, Feeling, Thought, are the primary stages of the soul's manifestation.

Q. Are the departments of the human powers and faculties independent of each other 1

A. Not absolutely. ~No one department can be developed perfectly, without regard to the others. Health, morality, and intellect have strong and recij)rocal influences upon each other, so that the perfection of each will essentially depend upon the harmonious activity of all. Still, each department may, to a great extent, be developed independently.

Q. What result will be produced if education be restricted to the physical powers ?

A. A merely animal life will be exhibited.

Q. What will be the character of persons whose education is so restricted ?

A. Such persons, if employed in manual labor, will have little ability and less inclination for moral and intellectual culture. When wealthy, they will be in imminent danger of being enslaved by their animal appetites.

Q. When education is restricted to the first and second departments, or, when health is combined with morality, what will be the character of such persons'?

A. They will be honest and affectionate, faithful in the performance of what they regard as their duties, and trustworthy as neighbors and friends. They will, however, be incapable of self-direction, and therefore incompetent for self-control. Always ignorant and often superstitious, such persons are necessarily instruments in the hands of the intelligent and designing, for the accomplishment of their purposes.

Q. When the first and third departments are united, or, when health is combined with intellect, what will be the character ?

A. Such persons are often sagacious and efficient in action, but wholly unscrupulous with regard to the means they employ to attain their ends. Power and intelligence, uncontrolled by justice and love, constitute the most wicked and dangerous characters known in history.

Q. When the second and third departments are united, or, when morality and intellect are combined, what will be the character ?

A. Such persons will be honest, benevolent, and intelligent ; weak, nervous, and easily excited ; generally unhappy in their thoughts, and incapable of labor. Such persons often die young.

Q. When all three departments are properly united, or, when health, morality, and intellect are duly and harmoniously developed and disciplined, what will be the character ?

A. Such persons will possess sound minds in sound bodies : they will be eminently happy in themselves, and capable of the most extensive and permanent usefulness to mankind. Such a character is the most honorable and desirable possession for man, and it is the imperative duty of all to strive faithfully and perseveringly for its attainment.

Q. Whose character among the moderns does the great majority of enlightened men pronounce most perfect ?

A. Washington's.

Q. Will you give a brief description of his character — physical, moral, and intellectual ?

A. He was more than six feet in height, and well proportioned. He possessed a strength of nerve and power of muscle which defied physical hardship of every description. He was a swift runner, an expert wrestler, and the most accomplished horseman of his age. His integrity was not only unimpeachable, but beyond suspicion. His love and veneration of Truth, if not unequaled, were certainly unsurpassed. Mr. Jefferson declares that his justice was the most stern and inflexible he had ever known, and also that he was incapable of fear. His intellect was clear, strong, and penetrating. His judgment solid and unerring. His caution so great, that he never said or did a thing to-day, which he wished unsaid or undone to-morrow. His self-control was absolute. It was this rare combination of excellences which made him "first in peace, first in

WAR, AND FIRST IN THE HEARTS OF HIS COUNTRYMEN."

CHAPTEE II.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

LAW: ITS UNIVERSALITY, UNIFORMITY, AND INFLUENCE.

" Of law, no less can be said than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All creatures in heaven and in earth pay her homage ; the least as feeling her care, the greatest as not exempt from her power." Hooker.

" Law governs the sun, the planets, and the stars. Law covers the earth with beauty, and fills it with bounty. Law directs the light, moves the wings of the atmosphere ; binds the forces of the universe in harmony and order, awakes the melody of creation, quickens every sensation of delight, moulds every form of life. Law governs atoms and governs systems. Law governs matter and governs thought. Law springs from the mind of God, travels through creation, and makes all things one. It makes all material forms one in the unity of system ; it makes all minds one in the unity of thought and love." Tappan.

Q. What is general education ?

A. It is that process by which all the powers and faculties of an individnal are duly and harmoniously developed and disciplined, in which a thorough, practical knowledge is acquired of individual, social, religious, and political duties, and an ability and disposition to perform them all fully, accurately, and promptly.

Q. What is the first object of general education 1

A. To make the body healthy, active, and beautiful.

Q. What is the second object ?

A. To make the heart honest, true, and warm.

Q. What is the third object?

A. To make the head cool, clear, and intelligent.

Q. How can these great objects be attained ?

A. Only by an accurate knowledge of the Creator's laws which regulate and govern every department of our being, physical, moral, and intellectual ; and by a prompt and cheerful obedience to their sacred requirements.

±Q EDUCATIONAL CATECHISM.

Section II. The Atmosphere

" And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a living soul?

" Four-fifths of the atmosphere consists of nitrogen ; but it does not appear that we have the power of withdrawing any of this by breathing, so that it shall become a part of our substance. It is the oxygen only that chemically acts on our blood in respiration. Thus we see that we are really kept alive by the air, in two ways : one, through the direct process in breathing, by which the oxygen acts on all the body ; and another indirectly through the nitrogen, which is withdrawn from the atmosphere by vegetables, to form our food. Thus our bodies are formed out of the earth and air, and kept alive by a power that subdues all the forces of the elements for a while to our use, so that they shall minister to the production and support of each individual body in a fixed manner ; and then, by some alteration in the balance of forces, be the means of again resolving that body into dead matter.

" To breathe air deprived of oxygen, or containing it in such combination as will not allow its proper action on the blood, or to breathe air containing any thing which prevents the healthy changes of the blood, is to breathe death."

G-. Moore.

Q. What is the first rule of Physical Education ? A. I must know accurately and observe strictly my relations to the atmosphere.

Q. Are those relations important ?

A. The most important of all physical relations. All the varieties of vegetable and animal life are constantly

EDUCATIONAL CATECHISM. If

dependent upon the action of the atmosphere for their continuation.

Q. Separated from the atmosphere, how long could a human being live?

A. Not more than four minutes.

Q. What effect is the atmosphere constantly producing in a human

A. It is continually changing and renovating the whole mass of the blood.

Q. What portion of the human being is blood?

A. In a state of health, the blood is nearly one-sixth part of the whole weight.

Q. How many motions has the blood?

A. Two : one from the heart, through arteries and capillaries of the body, to the extremities of the system; another from the extremities, through the veins and capillaries of the lungs, back to the heart.

Q. How rapidly does the blood flow?

A. So rapidly that, in a healthy state, the entire mass passes through the lungs of the human adult in less than three minutes.

Q. How many gallons of blood pass through the lungs of the healthy human adult in one hour ?

A. Sixty-five, and a fraction.

Q. What quantity of air is required to renew such a mass of blood ?

A, One hundred and two gallons.

IS EDUCATIONAL CATECHISM.

Q. What quantities of blood and air act upon each other in the lungs of the healthy human adult, in twenty-four hours?

A. About twenty-four hogsheads of venous blood, and fifty-seven hogsheads of air.

Q. How often does a healthy man, in a tranquil state, with a pulse at seventy-two, breathe in one minute"?

A. Twenty times.

Q. How much air passes into the lungs at every full breath ?

A. For every full breath a pint of fresh air is diffused over about fifteen square feet of the mucous surface of the air-tubes and air-cells of the lungs.

Q. What one word describes the process of renovating the blood by the action of the air?

A. Respiration. A perfect respiration is indispensably necessary to the possession of sound health.

Q. What is the first requisite of a perfect respiration ?

A. An erect carriage of the body. Whether sitting or standing, keep the body erect and the shoulders back. Parents and teachers ought to train their children and pupils, until an erect carriage of the body is as firmly established among them as it always has been among the ]STorth American Indians.

Q. What is the second requisite of a perfect respiration?

A. A loose dress : for the lungs may be more compressed, and the general circulation of the blood more impeded by a tight dress, than by a stooping carriage of the body.

Q. What is the third requisite of a perfect respiration 1

A. Thorough ventilation of all edifices and rooms, especially bed-rooms. Much improvement with regard to ventilation has been made within a few years past, but the good work is but just begun. The atmosphere in many dwellings, school-houses, and other edifices, is now almost actively poisonous.

Q. What is the fourth requisite for a perfect respiration ?

A. That, in all suitable states of the weather, not less than three hours each day shall be spent in free, cheerful, and somewhat brisk exercises in the pure open air.

(See Cutter's Physiology, from page 156 to 179; Mayhew's Popular Education, 81 to 111; Moore's Body and Mind, 12, 14; Moore's Health and Disease, 69, 291, 320; Spurzheim's Education, 69 and 70 ; Humphrey, Domestic Education.)

SECTION II.

LIGHT.

"Action, life, feeling, thought, are all associated -with light. Ere it flew forth like a pervading spirit, obedient to the word of God, this earth was unadorned, unfurnished, lifeless ; but wherever light has penetrated, there also beauty and order, will and mind, are manifested through .all the variety of appropriate organizations. The Promethean torch has quickened the cold marble ; but man, without the continued emanation from a purer world, would yet find his icy tomb in this, hopeless of a resurrection. The link with heaven is unbroken ; light still binds all worlds together, and its magnetic might reaches and rules the granite framework of our earth, awakening harmony more mysterious than that of Memnon's statue. Every color and every shape of visible creation discourses to man's spirit of an embracing, informing, vivifying power, which can only be shadowed forth by the sun, and of whose nature and benevolence light is but as the written name.

"The action of light on health is less observed, though not less important, than that of other agencies which constantly act upon us. This is best evinced in the vital depression, morbid sensibility, nervousness, and impoverishment of blood which the protracted exclusion of light from the body almost invariably induces. All who are blessed with sight must feel the animating power of the brilliant day upon the mind ; but we may well suppose that the benevolence of the Creator toward ourselves is not limited in this respect to our ability to see, and it is beyond question that color acts upon the body irrespectively of its effects upon the mind ; it exists not merely to please the eye, but it exerts a direct influence on chemistry and life. Each ray of the spectrum, each color beaming from the clouds, influences vital organism in a manner peculiar to itself. It is no chance-work that the sunshine is scattered and diffused, and melted into the sky ; it is no chance-work that the infinite heavens are spread out before our gaze like a blue ocean, ever attracting the eye and never fatiguing it ; it is no chance-work that ' rosy red, love's proper hue,' is apt to mingle with shadowings of glory, morning and evening, in the eastern and western sky ; it is no chance-work that each season smiles with a peculiar brilliance as it greets and blesses this living earth." p Moor

Q. What is the second rule of Physical Education ?

A. I must know accurately, and observe strictly, the laws which regulate and govern my relations to light.

Q. What are the general effects of light upon organized bodies ?

A. Light changes the color of plants and animals, and the complexion of man. Plants kept in darkness grow pale and yellow ; worms and insects confined to dark places remain white. Persons who spend their lives in their closets have pale and yellowish complexions.

Q. What sensations are produced by light ?

A. Light awakes us from sleep ; it excites all functions of the body, particularly those of the skin. Its sudden impression produces sternutation, or sneezing.

Q. How is the general health of the body affected by deficiency of light ?

A. The whole organization, being deprived of light, grows weak and fat. It is affected with scurvy or putrid complaints, and the liver enlarges. Hence dark habitations, narrow streets, high houses, little windows, and whatever shuts out light from dwelling-places, are always unwholesome.

Q. What effects upon health are produced by excess of light ?

A. Excess of light produces headache, inflammation of the eyes, of the skin, of the throat, and of the brain. Hence the proper regulation of light, both in regard to quantity and quality, is a matter of the highest importance.

Q. Wherein does sunlight differ from lamplight ?

A. Sunlight is composed of eight red, five yellow, and three blue rays ; lamplight is composed of five red, three yellow, and eight blue rays.

Q. Which is most conducive to health, sunlight or lamplight % A. Sunlight. As far as possible, therefore, all labor ought to be performed in the oj)en light of day.

Q. What properties of bodies are revealed by light? A. Form, size, and color.

Q. What effect has light upon morals and intellect? A. They are both determined, in a great measure, "by the relation of onr minds to light, and the character of our enjoyments in regard to color.

(See Cutter's Physiology, 57; Moore's Body and Mind, 136 to 147; Moore's Health and Disease, 178 to 183; Spurzheim's Educacation, 70 to 71.)

Section III. Temperature

" Since heat, magnetism, electricity, light, and nervous energy are proved to be intimately related to each other, we need no longer wonder that the sun should appear to be the fountain of all animation to this earth. The consideration of the effects of light on the human being involves also that of the influences which light seems to call into action ; the chief of which, as regards its manifest operation on vital development, is caloric, or that which causes the sensation of heat. The Almighty regulates all nature by the combination of opposing forces ; and as attraction gives origin to form and density, so heat, acting as the divellent force, imparts to bodies a tendency to expand. It is, therefore-, essential to fluidity and motion, which sufficiently demonstrates its importance in every thing appertaining to life.

" From the icy home of the Esquimaux to that of the savage that burrows in the sands of Sahara, we find man everywhere exhibiting habits and characteristics in a great degree derived from the peculiarities of his position with regard to warmth. Man, however, does not thrive simply as an animal. His physical frame may grow to perfection amid the general luxuriance of vegetable and animal life in a burning clime, provided water burst from the rock, or distill from heaven ; but still he is intellectually a dwarf, unless intelligence combine with his necessities to enlarge his thoughts and stimulate his exertions. "Where the very sun -which enlightens him at the same time excites his blood with a fervency that unfits him for tranquil reflection, and exalts his passions while depressing the springs of mental vigor, of course the tide of natural tendency must ever be toward vice and degradation, not because vice springs from sunshine, but because the human heart inherits evil dispositions, and therefore, unless restrained by religious conviction, always, and as a matter of course, takes advantage of every opportunity to indulge its selfish license.

" Knowing the nature of our dependence on the state of the brain and of the blood, we might determine the locality most favorable to mental and moral development ; and no one could doubt the probability of finding, what we find, in fact, that in the temperate zone man would appear in the highest state of intellectual cultivation." G. Moore

Q. What is the third rule of Physical Education %

A. I must know accurately, and observe strictly, the laws which regulate and govern my relations to temperature.

Q. What is meant by temperature ?

A. The degrees of heat and cold which exist in all bodies.

Q. In a healthy state, what is the temperature of the adult human body?

A. About ninety-eight degrees Fahrenheit.

Q. What is the usual temperature of the atmosphere in the temperate zones ?

A. Almost invariably many degrees below that of the human body ; consequently, the body is by far the greater portion of time imparting heat to the atmosphere.

Q. What temperature of the atmosphere is most conducive to health?

A. From sixty-five to seventy degrees. Thermometers ought to be constantly used in all rooms artificially warmed, and the temperature should not be allowed to sink below sixty-five, nor to rise much above seventy degrees.

Q. Does the healthy human body remain at nearly the same temperature under all circumstances ?

A. It is well known that in the polar regions and in the torrid zone, under every variety of circumstances, the human body is at nearly the same temperature, however different may be that of the air by which it is surrounded.

Q. How is this equal temperature preserved ?

A. By the evaporation of fluids from the skin and lungs.

Q. What would have been the condition of our race, deprived of this uniformity of temperature ?

A. Without this power of adaptation, it is obvious that man must have been confined to the climate which gave him birth, and also to have suffered constantly from the change of seasons; whereas, by possessing it, he can retain life in a temperature sufficiently cold to freeze mercury, and sustain, unharmed, for a time, a degree of heat more than sufficient to boil water, or even to bake meat.

Q. Are sudden and great changes of temperature dangerous to health 2

A. They are always so ; still they are unavoidable, and must therefore be provided against.

Q. On passing from a high to a low temperature, what general rule ought to be observed 1

A. Accelerate the muscular action, and increase the clothing.

(See Cutter's Physiology, 42 and 43; Spurzheim's Education, 63 to 65.

SECTION IY.

ALIMENT.

" The different temperaments demand very different regimens, and, therefore, a few words may be properly devoted to what is appropriate to each. The phlegmatic or lymphatic constitution is connected with extensive and powerful digestive organs, and therefore the danger is from inordinate appetite. It demands moderate stimulation, steady exercise, brief sleep, occasional fasting, little drink, and strong food. The choleric (bilious or fibrous) man has too active a heart ; he should aim at obtaining bland blood and a quiet state of the nerves. Substances that irritate the stomach and excite the heart cause such characters to become outrageous ; and if they indulge in the abundant use of animal food, stimulant liquors, and spices, it is as well to reason with a whirlwind or a drunkard as to persuade them against their inclination. They must, then, be treated like madmen, for nothing will check the intensity raging within them but forcible restraint, abstinence, and solitude. The sanguine man is hurried on by the warmth and fullness of his heart to form attachments and to make promises which prudence and providence forbid him to fulfill ; hence he is regarded as inconstant and inconsistent, for his errors are not always looked on with the charitable indulgence with which he regards those of others. He requires especial management, for he is in the greater danger because ' his failings lean to virtue's side.' The regimen of the choleric man is not inappropriate to him, for although he is sometimes highly elated, and at other times equally dejected, his characteristic is want of self-control.

Therefore extreme moderation, using only three meals a day, without stimulants, is best for him. He needs a keeper, and a wise friend is essential to his safety ; therefore let him deserve to obtain one. Happily, this kind improves by time and experience. Probably the diet and discipline of a well-conducted union-house would not be amiss to such a temperament, for his flighty hopes would have their wings clipped, his appetences would be restrained, and affectionate fits and wayward impulses be checked by the magnetic touch of a charity sufficiently cold and decided. Steady employment, enforced regularity, a proper attachment, will be more useful to the sanguine youth than any strictness of dietary. The nervous have a predominance of brain. They should seek society, and employ themselves among the beautiful varieties of nature, not merely for the treasuring up of thoughts, but for the improvement of their senses and the development of their muscles. Their blood is apt to be disordered, because their digestive functions suffer from the exhaustion of the nerves, induced by study and excessive sensibility ; therefore their diet should be light and moderate, and every thing should be done with a view to preserving the proper balance between thought and action, muscle and mind. The nervous, the melancholic, and the bilious, are near akin to each other, and are often met with in the same person, as a confirmed dyspeptic, or still more miserable hypochondriac. In such, the whole being is alive to pain. All the universe seems inconvenient to the melancholy man, and whether his gloomy sensibility arise from a morbid body or a mistaken view of Divine Providence, his self-complacency is alike disturbed, and he feels his individuality not as faith dictates, but as his senses inform him, so that he is oppressed by the weight of his own helplessness, instead of casting himself, with all his cares, upon the Almighty. Every man is liable to this worst of all maladies, when his body fails, or he has unnaturally limited his attention; and the only remedy for it is found in the drawing out of the affections, so as to induce bodily activity, or in that assurance of soul which looks for sufficiency only in Him who brought each of us into existence for his own good pleasure, and orders our circumstances so as ultimately to prove that Omnipotence cannot be unkind. The will that is not resigned to God is always impatient of impediment, because it knows no law above itself; so that, after all, the end of our argument is the same as the beginning — namely, that true happiness or health of soul is simply what, in the New Testament, is called salvation, and which is begun in every spirit that can look forward with a steadfast eye, and say, Thy will be done.