Lectures on education

Contents

LECTURE L

SUBJECT RISE AND PROGRESS OF EDUCATION.

LECTURE II.

Preface

An author, who, uhinvited and of his own accord, brings before the public, the discussion of topics of prominent interest to community, must be supposed to have been influenced so to do, by motives sufficiently powerful to overcome that reluctance, which must, naturally, be felt, to introduce one's self to notice, as a monitor, adviser, and counsellor of others, as every author must be supposed to be; and, it is expected, furthermore, that he will make known those motives, in his address to the reader. In accordance with this reasonable expectation, the author of the succeeding series of Lectures would say, that, although he has been extremely diffident of his ability to do justice to the vastly important subjects, which he has undertaken to discuss, he has, nevertheless, been impelled, as it were, to discuss them, by the power of motives, which he could not well resist. During fifteen years of public service, as a teacher, in various parts of the Union, he had observed numerous errors in present systems of common education — errors, extremely pernicious — errors, the correction of which, the welfare of the rising generation, the stability of our free institutions, and the perpetuity of our republic, loudly demanded. He had, in his own experience, felt the blighting influences of those erroneous systems, in the destruction of his health, and in the debilitation of his constitution, which resulted, necessarily, from that over-exertion of the mind and the lungs, which is required in the proper explanation of the sciences in schools, tvhere Labor is not dividrd among Teachers, He had, also, heard the prevalent and palpable errors in education lamented and deprecated, by thousands of intelligent, observing, and patriotic individuals, in various parts of the Union, and had heard the question — the momentous question, asked, and asked again— echoed and re-echoed, from Maine to Georgia, and from the Atlantic to the wilds of the West — "What can be done to elevate the standard, and correct the errors of the present modus operandi of instruction.^" Long did he Avait to hear this question ansivered definitely, and to hear it answered by men, far abler to answer it, satisfactorily, than himself. But, he waited in vain. No definite response was given. Conceiving, however, that vi PREFACE.

such an answer could be given, and seeing no one else disposed to assume the vast responsibilities of giving it, he felt that duty to his country, to the world, and to his God, impelled him to speak out upon the subject, and to give publicity to the results of his experience and observation. Urged forward by such powerful inducempnts and motives, he has spoken out, in the pages of the succeeding volume — has endeavored to give that question a definite answer — and now submits it, respectfully, yet diffidently, to a thinking and candid public.

It may not be improper, here, to remark, that, when the author sat down to plan this work, the question arose in his mind, whether he should only point out the errors m preseni systems, and propose, what he considered, to be, but partial, not radical, improvements, and which the community mii^ht, in a mass, readily approbate; or, whether he should go to the ivhole extent of those improvements, \^hich the exigencies of the case seemed, to him, imperatively, to demand, and which, it miijht require ten, twenty, thirty, yea, evenfifli/ years to accomplish. While agitating the question, the latter alternative preponderated in his mind, and he determined, therefore, to go to the whole extent which the exigencies of the case required. For, he could not perceive a propriety nor an expedieney, as some might imagine, in stopping short of a theory which would aim at a thorough, complete, and radical, improvement, merely because the public might not, at once, and heartily, co-operate in experiments to test the benefits and the feasibleness of that theory.

But, in proposing such a system of radical improvement, the author has had no friendly guide to point out the way. He has traveled through a pathless and an almost untrodden region. He has had access to no publications of any extent upon the main subject of these Lectures. Indeed, so far as his knowledge extends, no one has ever written upon the subject, to any extent, or with any definiteness. It must be obvious, therefore, that the effort was attended with no common difficulties — difficulties which seemed almost insurmountable. So many more have been the difficulties of the undertaking, than were anticipated when it was comir.enced, and so vast and crushing have seemed its repponsibilities, oftentimes, that nothing but a sense of imperative duty would have induced the author to have persevered until its completion. But, this he has done; and now offers to the public, what, upon mature deliberation, and from the best information he could gather upon the subject, he considers to be that theory of improvements which the exigencies of the case demand. If it be not such a theory, it is because the author has erred in judgment, and not because he has not given the subject a patient and a thorough investigation.

Imperfections — many imperfections, the work, doubtless, has. Of these, tiic author is deeply conscious; and when he contemplates

PREFACE. vii

them, he cither regrets that he was not more able, himself, or that some abler person had not been willing to have undertaken the work, and, by his eloquence, have awakened public sentiment and aroused the entire community to active exertion.

It will be perceived, by a perusal of the Avork, that we have adopted Webster's Dictionary as the standard of Orthograpiiy and Pronunciation, not only because it is American, but because we consider it most correct. No standard, perhaps, can be made, or be expected to be, infallible. There can be some exceptions made to the most, perfect human production. Yet, if we adopt a system, we had better follow it throughout, for the sake of consistency and uniformity, even though there be a few errors, unless those errors are too glaring to be adopted. The ^author has, therefore, adopted Webster, as a standard, throughout, and if there have been any deviation from that standard, it has been owing to typographical mistakes, rather than to intention; which mistakes may be corrected in a future edition, if the partialities of the public should ever call for it.

Though it be of minor importance, it will also be perceived that we have departed, in accordance wiili our adopted standard, from that word which denotes the science, the object of which is, "to discover the nature and properties of all bodies, by analysis and synthesis," and have written it Chimisiry instead of Chemistry, or as formerly, Chymistry, because this orthography is in accordance with the French chimie, the Spanish chimia, and ihe Italian and Portuguese chimica.

Finally, in conclusion, the author has only to commend this, his sincere and arduous effort to benefit the rising generation, his country, and, more remotely, the world, to the candor and good sense of an intelligent community — this, his sincere and arduous e^orf, he repeats with emphasis, to benefit even the world; — for, who does not know that the hopes of the world — yea, of the whole world, hang suspended upon the success of our experiment of civil liberty; and who does not also know, that, unless education be universally disseminated, and the wholej^mass of the people be enlightened, that experiment will, most assuredly— FAIL? If this work shall have the happy effect, as the author most fervently hopes it may— to stimulate the patriot, the statesman, and the philanthropist, to put forth such exertions as the importance of the subject demands, the author will feel that his efforts have not been in vain, but have been abundantly rewarded. Cleveland, Sept. 23, 1833.

LECTURE I.

SUBJECT mSE AJVD PROGRESS OP EDUCATION.

Standing at the mouth of the Amazon, and beholding it ■emptying its vast sheet of waters into the ocean, the traveler naturally glances a thought backward along its narrowing channel, to the far off mountains of the west, where it dwindles to a little rill, and trickles down the declivities of the Andes. Or, standing in the valleys of Swit?;erland, and viewing some mighty avalanche bursting from the heights above liim, and crushing beneath its weight the village at the foot of the Alps, the beholder is prompted to glance his eye upward along its diminishing pathway, until he discovers, that, what had grown to a ponderous mass ere it reached the vale, was but a snow-ball when it leaped from the brow of the icy summit. So the present generation, standing upon Alpine heights of ages, irradiated by the beams of Science, and enraptured with the prospect, which there opens before the eye of the intellect, will naturally look back, through the vista of gone by years, to the period, when the day spring of science first dawned in the east; and comparing the dim twilight of its rising, with its present effulgence, and with those still increasing glories, which may rationally be anticipated, and which futurity will unfold, they arrive at the conclusion, that grand results proceed from small beginnings. To this conclusion all history assents, as well as all the operations of nature. Go back and explore the infinitude of past duration, and traverse the illimitable fields of space, and, if matter be not eternal, there was a time, when worlds and suns and systems began first to fill the solitudes of immensity, and intellectual beings began first to people the dwelling places of the planets. There was a time, when Gabriel first opened his eyes upon the wonders around him, and Michael 2 commenced his onward march through interminable duration, both destined to glean wisdom from experience and observation at every step of their progress, and to aproximate, every moment, nearer and nearer to the burning glories of the topless throne.

If the Jewish records be credited, (and I see no plausible reason why they should not, as much as other records of antiquity,) by a certain progressive process of six days, the Almighty brought into existence that part of the material universe with which we are conversant. The dark chaotic mass of substance was first originated: — Then, from the foundation of that mass of matter, there arose, by degrees, into order, beauty, and magnificent vastness, this globe and her sister planets. At the command of the Eternal, light was poured upon the formless void of darkness and waters : — An interval passed away, and the nether fix'mament was spread out between the clouds and the deep: — Another interval passed, and the spirit of all-creating power breathed over that mass of unorganized material, and brought into visibility the dry land, and clothed the hills, valleys, and landscapes, with blossoms, fruits and vegetation. In a like gradual manner, the light of the sun was collected together into one mass of burning glory, and hung out, like an immense ocean of fire, in the vault of the sky, — the moon and the stars were located around it, so as to reflect its borrowed radiance with lesser intensity, — oceans, rivers and streamlets were filled with living substances, — flocks and herds were scattered in profusion "over a thousand hills," — and man, the angelic proprietor of the green earth, was introduced into the beauteous groves and arbours of Eden. Thus, after a process of seven days' continuance, was the whole structure, with its star-spangled canopy, and its amazing furniture of plains and mountains, of forests, rivers, and oceans, pronounced complete.

In all the operations of nature — in all the movements of the grand and complicated machinery of primary and subordinate causes, in the production of effects, from the formation of worlds, to the growth of a blade of grass, we see, that the order of progression prevails. The dawning light, for instance, precedes the rising sun, and the rising sun anticipates the splendor of noonday. The oak, monarch of the forest, springs up from an acorn, and the majestic Amazon rises from a little fountain. In the fields of the husbandman, the blade first appears, then the ear, afterwards the full corn in the ear. So commenced and so has continued the progress of the arts and sciences. Their march, in one department or another, has been onward, — gradual, indeed, and sometimes almost imperceptible, — but still ONWARD. Yet, however, although the present age be emphatically an age of. scientific illumination, — although our generation stand, confessedly, upon an Alpine height, when we look forward, and rationally anticipate those intenser degrees. of scientific illumination, which will, undoubtedly, be, hereafter, witnessed, and those loftier eminences, upon which some future generation will stand, —

" Th' increasing prospect tires our wond'ring eyes, "Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise."

The literary streamlet, in its progress onward to the shoreless ocean of intelligence, has not yet become an Amazon, nor has the acorn become an oak, nor the rising dawn, a meridian day, nor the springing blade, a ripened harvest. Such, however, is destined, one day, to be the consummation of human knowledge. Obscure in its origin^ and gradual in its progress, it is destined, at no far distant period, to be gloriously magnificent in its results, and completely to deluge the earth, with a pure flood of moral and intellectual illumination, as the "waters fill the channels of the great deep."

Lifting the dark pall from the tomb of the antediluvians, and searching carefully through the misty twilight, which envelopes the history of the morning of the world, we glean a few facts, respecting the "rise and pi'ogress of education," during the first ages.

Adam, the first rational inhabitant of the earth, opened his eyes upon the blooming scenes of Paradise, in the full vigor and manhood of his physical powers, but not in the full vigor and manhood of his intellectual powers. He had, indeed, been endowed with mental faculties as we are now, — was an intelligent being, — had organs of speech to communicate ideas and perceptions, but doubtless had not a dialect or language wherewith to communicate them understandingly, until some foreign agent gave him instruction upon this subject. We infer, therefore, that he was, for a while, the immediate pupil of the Eternal himself, who frequented the garden, and often favored the progenitor with his presence, while innocence abode in the bowers of Eden.

Soon after creation, we find Adam exercising his powers of speech, and evincing the rationality of his mind, by giving names to the various tribes of animate, and to the various objects of inanimate nature. But the divine tuition undoubtedly extended no farther than to the bare rudiments of language, and the original medium of intercourse must have been extremely simple^ composed principally of the names of objects or nouns, which seem to have been the root of all language, whence the tree has grown up and spread out its branches into innumerable ramifications.

We infer that the Eternal taught Adam no superfluous language, nothing but what was absolutely necessary to answer the purposes, for which such a medium would be required by an infant race, from the analogy of divine economy, as well as from the fact, that the progenitor could not have known those modifications of natural objects, or articles of manufacture which had then no existence.

By our inferences and deductions, we arrive then at this plausible conclusion, that the foundations of science, and of human intercourse, were laid by the direct agency of the Great Architect, whereupon Adam and his descendants would, in after ages, erect the superstructure as occasion might require, and, as the affairs and pursuits of mankind should become more extensive and complicated.

But very few historical facts, respecting the advancement of mankind in art and science, during some of the first centuFies after creation, can, as has before been hinted, be discovered, amid the glooms which hang over ancient cemeteries. Oblivion covers them, or they are half ohscured by the exaggerations or mysticisms of fable.

Soon after our progenitors were turned out of the garden for apostacy, and the sentence, "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," was pronounced, the human race turned their attention to agriculture. But they could not cultivate the soil without suitable implements, and implements they could not have, until the inventions of genius should supply the destitution of the agriculturalist. Utensils of husbandry, at lirst, rude, perhaps, and misshapen, were constructed by the ingenious, to supply that necessity, and hence originated an important branch of mechanism, and an occasion to amplify the language in use was thereby produced, in order to express a new class of objects and ideas, which had, until then, had no existence.

Next in the order of progression towards periods of greater illumination, and very early in the morning of the world, after Hocks and herds had extensively multiplied, and had become a lucrative article of traffick, employment was given to a new class of men, called shepherds, whose occupation required that they should frequently keep watch by night on the oriental plains of Chaldea, Egypt and Palestine, under the mild influences of a sky peculiarly brilliant with stars and constellations, which attracted their attention from flocks and herds and scenes of the green earth, upward to the garniture of the heavens, and induced them to take cognizance of the varying seasons, and the probable causes of their variation, and to observe the alteration in the relative positions of the planets. Those worlds and suns and systems, which they surveyed, were early distinguished by them into clusters, each cluster having its particular name assigned to it, according to its real or imaginary appearance. Nor did these visible phenomena limit their researches, but their active minds soon passed from the contemplation of apparent effects, to search for hidden causes. As they contemplated those sparkling substances, scattered so profusely over the canopy of night, they instituted philosophical inquiries among themselves, and endeavored to ascertain how these sustained their position in the firmament, from age to age, without any visible pillars to support them, and by what secret principle their mystic movements were regulated. Thus was laid a foundation for the science of astronomy, and hence a new set of ideas sprung into existence, and a fresh occasion was thereby produced, for amplifying and rendering more complex the language in use.

At that period of the world's history, of which we have been speaking, the human race had increased greatly, — knowledge had probably increased in proportion, and people had begun to form themselves into separate communities. These separate communities, in the promotion of their separate and individual interests, originated the first commercial relations and systems of trafick, and these, again, in their turn, gave support to men of genius, encouraged the arts, and amplified the stock of human knowledge.

Cities were first builded by Cain: — Wandering tribes were collected together into encampments, by Jabal: — Musical instruments were constructed and music was taught upon the harp and the organ, by Jubal: — The bosom of the earth was explored for valuable metals, by Tubal-Cain, who also instructed workmen in all kinds of brass and iron manufacture, probably for the purpose of supplying proper implements of husbandry, and tools for the various branches of mechanism, which men then operated.

The original language, as we are informed by the historian, continued to be the universal language, and was the only vehicle of thought, and medium of communication between the different tribes of the earth's population, until several years after the deluge. For the purpose of keeping a vast community together, and acquiring fame among the nations, certain aspiring and talented men undertook, upon a spacious plain, to erect a tower of colossal dimensions, whose basement should overspread acres, and whose top should reach above the clouds. But the Eternal, it seems, was displeased with the ambitious projects of those builders, and, in order most effectually to disappoint their schemes, and thwart their views, he confounded their language, so that they could not understand each other, while the colossal structure was yet incomplete. Hence originated that great diversity of dialects and languages, which have since prevailed in the earth, no one of which, perhaps, is that pure, original language, which was spoken before the building of Babel. This fact of Jewish record, and the inference drawn from it, has, I am aware, been disputed by some, and sneered at by others, as one of the "cunningly devised fables of priestcraft," in order that their system of imposture might have the honor of accounting rationally for the great diversity and dissimilarity of languages, which prevail in the earth. But what fact or truth, in the whole scope of facts and truths, has not been disputed and sneered ed at, if it have given the least shadow of support to the idea, that a Deity reigns: — If it have not testified to the correctness of that darksome creed, which writes on the the canopy of Heaven, "There is no God:" — And inscribes — "Annihilation" — over the archway of the tomb: — And, with one fell swoop, erases all the principles of moral obligation from the human mind: — And, in the haunts of conviviality, sings the libertine's song, — "Evoe, lo Bacche," or that other song of recklessness, "Let us eat and drink, and enjoy ourselves, for to-morrow we die." The cavils of such are not worthy of an answer, and we pass them in silence.

Since mankind had, at this period, progressed so far in architecture, as to undertake the erection and completion of such a splendid and gigantic structure, as was the tower of Babel, we may be led to imagine, that they had, by this time, made great proficiency in science, and that they would almost rival even our own generation. Such, I believe, is the impression on the mind of almost every modern, who reads the histories of antiquity, and surveys the gigantic ruins of ancient towers, and temples, and pyramids. But such, however, is far from being the fact. The more rational conclusion is, that a few men, whom nature had, as she frequently does, endowed with more than com* mon abihties, might, by the energies of intellectual superiority, have directed the whole mass of physical force necessary to accomplish that magnificent design: — And the majority, at the same time, of the people, who constituted that mass of physical force, might have been sunken in the profoundest ignorance. Such an order "of things would, indeed, have been more favorable than any other, for promoting the accomplishment of the schemes of the talented and the ambitious: — For it stands confessed by all analogy and experience, that '•''knowledge is pozcer,'''' and, if that power be not equalized among the mass, but be all possessed by the few, those few can, it will appear evident, wield and concentrate, at pleasure, the whole physical strength of the many, to effect some one grand enterprise. And that such was the condition of ignorance and servility, in which a great proportion of mankind were then held, we infer from the fact, that they possessed no advantages like the moderns, for mental and moral culture.

Books and schools were then unknown. All their knowledge was derived, either from oral tradition, or from actual observation, and must liave been extremely limited and imperfect, if we may be permitted to form a judgment of their condition, from the condition of those barbarian nations, who, in our day, possess advantages equal to theirs, longevity excepted. Indeed, whatever of historic fact has been hunted up, amid the silence and gloom of remote ages, prove that their ideas were thus limited and imperfect. Of astronomy, for instance, their conceptions were extremely erroneous, owing to a want of the means, which we now possess, for obtaining a more certain knowledge. They had neither compass, nor telescope, nor other instruments, with which astronomers of the present day are favored, wherewith to to call those orbs of heaven down, as it were, from the immeasurable depths of blue, where they sparkle at night, within the ken of human observation, and there take their numbers, and dimensions, and relative distances. Judging from the appearance of the visible horizon, which was then, indeed, the only criterion, whereby to foum a judgment, they supposed that the earth, instead of being spherical, and revolving on its axis every twenty-four hours, was a vastly extended and an immovable plain, over which, to an immeasurable distance above, was bended the arch of the heavens, on the outer edges of which plain, the bases of this arch rested.

For the motion and phenomena of the planets, which they had observed, as they watched their flocks by night, on the plains of the east, the shepherds accounted, in a manner equally untrue and unphilosophical. They imagined, that those lights in the heavens were placed there, for the sole comfort and convenience of the inhabitants of this globe, and that they, somehow, performed their apparent revolutions, in "whirlpools of ether." But upon what philosophical principle, those shining substances maintained their position in the upper firmament, or what causes resulted in the regular alternation of heat and cold, of summer and winter, of day and night, or upon what pillars their supposed plain of the earth rested, they were utterly unable to tell, or even rationally to imagine. Could they have been transported to Jupiter or Saturn, and have there surveyed this globe, dwindled, as it would have been, to a little sparkling point, thrown at a vast distance, into the backgrounds of the blue canopy, and almost lost amid the immense profusion of the far off worlds : — Or could they have Stood upon this Alpine height of ages, with Herschel's telescope before their eye, on some starlight evening, they would have learned the utter baselessness of their theory, and would have considered this green globe, as it w, comparatively, but an insignificant speck in the vast cre^ition. But such sublime discoveries were reserved for after and higher stages of human progression.

At what precise period in the remote ages, mankind no longer trusted to oral tradition, for the transmission of knowledge, and the history of important events, but began, in various ways, to record the fruits of their experience and observation, for the information and benefit of posterity, cannot, now, be exactly deteimined. But, very probably, soon after the confusion of tongues at Babel, when the earth had again become populated to a considerable extent, and the length of human life had been materially curtailed, so much so as to make a dependence, for the transmission of knowledge and events, through the medium of oral tradition, very precarious.

History was first recorded by certain appropriate, and to the men of antiquity, intelligible symbols, denominated hieroglyphics. These hieroglyphics were engraven by the sculptor, upon trees, or stones, or marble pillars called obelisks. Some of those ancient obelisks have been transported from Egypt, whose inhabitants were the fathers and promoters of learning, and placed in the Vatican at Rome, where they are still to be seen by the antiquarian.

The Egyptians appear, as I said, to have been the fathers and promoters of learning. For antiquity, the court of the Pharaohs was, comparatively, an enlightened court. There Moses, the renowned leader and lawgiver of Israel, was nurtured and educated, and there he laid the foundation of all his greatness.

When the empire of the Pharaohs was successively overturned by the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans, the progress of science was checked among them, but their conquerors, in turn, profited by their stock of knowledge and experience, and increased that stock, by the researches and acquisitions of their own scholars.

At what period the Hebrew alphabet and language, which superseded the use of hieroglyphics, was invented, or by whom, has not, as I recollect, been precisely ascertained. Probably, however, by some one of the descendants of Abraham, if invented at all, soon after their separation from the surrounding nations, and their incorporation into a distinct community. We read, however, it will be recollected, that, on two tables of stone, the law was written by the finger of God, and now, whether these were not the first Hebrew characters or writings, and whether Moses was not, during his forty days residence upon the mountain of Sinai, particularly instructed, by the Eternal himself, respecting the formation of a national dialect for the Jews, and for the transmission of the Holy Oracles, or, whether, even before that period, the characters and language had been invented, I believe, we are no where definitely informed. Suflice it, however, to remark, that the Hebrew language is considered to be the oldest language, which was ever reduced to writing.

Very early in the ages of antiquity, letters were invented by some more than ordinary genius among the Phenicians, probably by Cadmus, who brought them into Greece. Their number, according to Diodorus Siculus, amounted, at first, to sixteen only. To those, four more were added, six hundred years before the Christian era, by Simonides, and four more by Epicharmus, a Sicilian, five hundred years before the Christian era.

Historians, sages, poets, and orators, began now to commit their literary productions to writing, for their own benefit, and the benefit of posterity. At first, palm and other leaves were used instead of paper. Upon these. Homer, the great Grecian poet, is said to have composed his Iliad. His poems, together with the writings of other authors, were afterwards committed to parchment, made of a certain Egyptian rush called papyrus, which grew on the banks of the Nile, or of the skins of animals, dressed smooth and pliable. These parchments were so combined together, as to contain volumes, and were rolled up for preservation, in the form of scrolls, some of which scrolls are now to be seen in the British museum, fifteen or sixteen hundred" years old.