Accession No. /•- /• - L ■
«« EMORY COLLEGE LIBRARY^
OXFORD. GEORGIA.
—! \>
REGULATIONS.-
1. Two books may be taken at a time by any student or member of the Faculty,
or any other person in the village paying Library fees, and no volume shall be re- v
tained more than two weeks without a renewal, and no second renewal will be
allowed without special permission of the Faculty.
2. A fine of ten cents per week will be assessed for each book detained over time, .
payable cn i'.s return.
3. Any person taking books from the Library will be held responsible tor their
loss or injury. No pen or pencil marks shall be made in the books, and no books j
shall be lent out of the household of the person responsible for the same.
4. No general reference work shall at any time be taken from the Library Duilding.
5. Any person willfully violating an" of the foregoing rules shall thereby forfeit
all right to the use of the Library.
DISCUSSIONS
IN
Jiteraim i»t& ILIigbit.
BY
WILLIAM J. SASNETT, D.l).,
AUTHOR OF "PKOGRESS."
EDITED BY THOMAS 0. SUMMERS, D.D.
NapbtUe, Cemt.:
SOUTHERN METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE.
1859.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by
WILLIAM J. SASNETT,
in the office of the Clerk of the District Court for the Middle District
of Tennessee.
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY A. A. STITT,
SOUTHERN METHODIST PUBLISHING} HOUSE, NASHVILLE, TENN.
PREFACE.
The following work is a compilation of Essays
and Addresses, heretofore published separately,
carefully revised and corrected. I have been
induced to reproduce them in this form by the
advice of friends in whose judgment I have
confidence, and by the hope that any power
they may intrinsically have to do good may he
thus enhanced and perpetuated. The success of
my former work, "Progress," especially in the
efiect I have reason to believe it has had 'in
awakening many minds to broader and more
enlightened views of Church activity and enter¬
prise, has also encouraged me to issue the present
volume.
I am aware that in these "Discussions" I have
advanced opinions and sentiments that are not
likely to find acceptance with every person. My
readers, however, one and all, will do me the
(iii)
IV PEEFACE.
justice to believe that as respects even these I
liave been at least deliberate in their promulgation
and sincere in their advocacy. In all my attempts
at authorship, my earnest aim has been to set down
nothing which, dying, I would wish to blot.
I do not expect that this work will command
the attention of the most numerous class of
readers. Dr. Johnson said, on the publication of
the Rambler, that " he was not much dejected by
his want of popularity, for he only expected those
to peruse bis essays whose passions left them
leisure for abstracted truth, and whom virtue could
please by its naked dignity." My object has not
been to please the public fancy, or to pander to
an existing public taste, but to lead the thinking
mind, as far as I might be able, to the embrace-
ment of right views of subjects of great and per¬
manent interest, and relevant to the times in which
we live. Should I be successful in achieving this
O
object to any extent, I shall be thankful to God,
and feel that I have not written in vain.
Oxford, Ga., 1859.
CONTENTS.
PREFACE v iii
I.
THE UNITED STATES, PAST AND FUTURE 7
II.
AMERICAN SOCIETY 52
III.
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 93
IV.
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 124
V.
THE PULPIT 182
VI.
OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION OF HIGHER EDU¬
CATION 218
(v)
vi
CONTENTS.
VII.
THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION 275
VIII.
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION 31G
IX.
THE CONSTITUENTS OF TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION 359
X.
" THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION" VINDICATED 404
DISCUSSIONS
IN
LITERATURE AND RELIGION.
I.—THE UNITED STATES, PAST AND
FUTURE.
The unexampled progress of the United States is
the wonder of the world. A simple glance at the
condition of our country at present, in comparison
with her condition at the time of the Revolution,
fills the .mind with the greatest astonishment. Be¬
ginning with a population of three millions, she now
embraces nearly or quite thirty millions. Cov¬
ering, in the outset, a territory reaching from the
Atlantic to the Mississippi, she has gradually ex¬
tended her western borders, until, stretching across
the vast continent, she has established her western
boundary on the shores of the Pacific. "With but
(D
8 THE UNITED STATES,
ten or twelve colleges and a few more liigli scliools,
and a corresponding deficiency in all the facilities
for general elementary education, she now lias sev¬
eral hundred colleges, with the means everywhere
afforded for the diffusion of the highest order of
literary instruction. With hut a few, and those
imperfect, manufacturing establishments, and the
absence of well-nigh all the artificial elements of
public wealth, she now has establishments for the
manufacture of every kind of her raw material,
internal improvements for the development of her
industry, enterprise, and natural resources, and
everywhere indications of the highest national and
individual prosperity.
The inquiring mind is naturally incited to inves¬
tigate the causes of these wonderful results. These
are doubtless many; some of them being rather the
conditions or occasions of progress, without which
it would not have occurred, rather than the efficient
agents of it.
1. The particular era in the world's history in
which our country has existed has been highly fa¬
vorable to this progress.
Other nations have begun their career in periods
of comparative darkness, and have been compelled
to struggle during all their history with elements
of weakness, which in these periods were imbibed.
PAST AND FUTURE.
9
But ours began with the benefit of all their expe¬
rience, and in the midst of the light they had
stricken out. Hot merely the light upon the
great problems of government and of national
policy which the experience of other nations had
elicited, but all the treasures of literature, science,
and art, which the wise of other "ages and countries
had accumulated, were all ours from the first mo¬
ment of our national existence. It was in that pe¬
riod of the history of nations when they had come
to a juster appreciation of the true elements of na¬
tional glory—when, as the result of former pre¬
paratory experience, they had begun fully to avail
themselves of the advantages of science in its ap¬
plication to industrial pursuits, of commerce in its
most extensive rauge, and of those elements of ac¬
tivity and energy which have so much contributed
to the prosperity of the world, that our coun¬
try began her existence; and it has been under
all these favorable influences, and surrounded by
these propitious circumstances, that her course thus
far has been run; so that she never had, like .other
nations, a childhood of probation and weakness,
but sprung fully grown into existence, with all the
elements of maturity, and with all the benefits of
culture and experience.
2. The sturdy, self-denying qualities, the lofty,
1*
10 THE UNITED STATES,
independent spirit which tlie colonial condition of
tlie people and tlie peculiar character of tlie then
wilderness country tended to develop and foster,
gave to the American population in the outset a phy¬
sical, moral, and intellectual character peculiarly
favorable to national progress, while the protracted
and doubtful character of the struggle for independ¬
ence, and the teachings of a bitter experience, all
conspired to produce a love of liberty, a heartfelt
patriotism, and a capacity, for self-government, the
very qualities essential to a successful republic.
3. The rich, abundant, and varied character of
the natural resources of our country have furnished
many facilities for extraordinary prosperity.
ISTo nation, perhaps, in this respect, has enjoyed
equal advantages. These resources have opened up
to our people well-nigh every advantage afforded by
the material world, and, obviating the necessity of
those artificial helps to which most countries are
compelled to resort, make the means of abundant
living everywhere easi]y attainable. Their promis¬
ing, inviting character is a perpetual incentive to
industry and enterprise, and calls into constant
activity the elements of social well-being.
But though these have been the occasions, with¬
out which probably American progress would not
have been such as it has been, yet there are other
PAST AND FUTURE.
11
facts to which it is to he referred as immediate and
efficient causes.
1. The studied abstinence from all international
difficulties, which has been a fixed principle in our
national policy, has been among the prominent of
these causes.
While most other governments, either from a
desire of power, or from weakness or bad manage¬
ment, have been, during much of their history,
engaged in actual wars, or under that constraint
which results from a constant apprehension of such
catastrophes, our government, acting upon the noble
policy of non-intervention in foreign broils, lias
sought in a high and honorable way only to pursue
its own interests in its own legitimate sphere.
Though ever sympathizing with the oppressed of
all countries, and deeply interested in the prevalence
of free institutions, of civil and religious liberty
everywhere, yet it has ever felt that these ends
could be best subserved by the force of moral sua¬
sion and the light of its own brilliant example,
rather than by the stern edict of the sword.
Those drains of population and treasure; those
immense national debts, the interest on which have
rendered necessary oppressive and ruinous taxes;
those inroads upon social economy and happiness;
those blights upon public morals and individual
12
THE UNITED STATES,
character, which a contrary policy has brought
upon other countries, contributing so much to
cripple their energies and resources, ours has,
for the most part, escaped. But not merely in this
negative sense has our country gained, in compari¬
son with others, by this policy, but positively, in
that these advantages thus retained have themselves
constituted most efficient elements of individual
and social progress.
In the absence of these interfering warlike entan¬
glements, our people have not been under the dis¬
tracting influences of a military spirit, or squan¬
dered their time and diverted their energies in
constant and extensive warlike preparations, hut
have been in the condition all the while to devote
themselves exclusively to the arts of peace, to the
ordinary pursuits of life, to those interests which
are the proper foundation of individual happiness
and national greatness.
This peaceful policy, securing to us relations of
amity, and even of confidence, with all nations, has
opened up to us uninterruptedly the most extensive
range of commerce, and all the benefits of the widest
international intercourse; advantages which, while
they are inferior to none in their influence upon the
prosperity of a nation, have been enjoyed in like
degree, and with like constancy, by 110 other nation.
PAST AND FUTURE.
13
2. That principle, so distinctly guaranteed by our
free institutions, of throwing every man upon his
own resources, and allowing him the largest liberty
compatible with the rights of others, to work out
his own fortunes, has been among the most efficient
of the causes of this astonishing national progress.
It would be impossible that a people as enlight¬
ened as the Americans have ever been, and in a
country enjoying so many natural advantages, should
not, when thus unrestricted, rapidly improve their
condition. In the enjoyment of this principle, the
American people have had every opportunity for
the development of the individual man. It is this
which, more than all else, has fostered industry,
enterprise, self-reliance, the spirit of self-culture—
indeed, every quality which tends to elevate man
individually, and to improve his outward circum¬
stances. In allowing merit, in whatever rank it
exists, to seek and obtain its own reward, it has
furnished the most powerful incentive to all classes
of men to elevate their condition. Talent of every
kind, all the resources of the people, therefore, are
being brought constantly into use, and are contri¬
buting their full benefit to the entire community.
Allowing, and, indeed, encouraging all to select
their vocations according to their tastes and genius,
the various departments of life are supplied with
14
TIIE UNITED STATES,
the "best possible qualifications, and the whole ma¬
chinery of society has every possible advantage for
its successful operation. Under the influence of
this great principle, the various interests of society
have been allowed to regulate themselves. Nothing,
therefore, has been premature and partial; but the
various departments of a just, social, and political
economy have been developed just as the country
has demanded them. The growth of every interest
has been healthy and sound. The resources of the
country have been brought into use at the right
time and in right degrees, making its prosperity
symmetrical and durable.
Indeed, whatever other causes may have contri¬
buted to the prosperity and glory of our country,
it has been, after all, to this all-pervading principle
that they are indebted for their efficiency and suc¬
cess. So related is it to all the sources of progress,
that it needs but to have a distinct recognition and
application everywhere to secure every possible
advantage to every possible interest. It is not,
therefore, by an interfering, partial legislation that
our progress is to be perpetuated; it is by the
removal of all restrictions not necessary to civil
liberty, and the dissemination of those influences
of education and religion which improve the peo¬
ple's capabilities for this enlarged sphere of self-
PAST AND FUTURE.
15
government, that this glorious result is to he se¬
cured.
3. But there is in the American race an actual
superiority, and in this is found another prominent
cause of the rapidity of our national progress.
All the races now existing are hut the results of
combinations of different races, and the superiority
of a race is dependent upon two facts—the mixture
of which it is composed, and the nearness of the
time at which the mixture took place. Every race
has some qualities in higher degree than others,
which are in fact the characteristics of that race.
The French, for example, are distinguished for their
excitability and enthusiasm; the Germans for their
plodding, philosophic cast; and the Spanish have
their distinctive qualities. Now, though these
qualities are all desirable in themselves, yet it is
their harmonious combination that constitutes a
perfect race. Such a combination, by the mixture
of these races, would he approximated. For while
in many instances the result of the mixture might
not he different from one of the original elements,
yet the effect of the law applicable to the case would
he to secure a combination of the qualities distinct¬
ive of the original stocks, and consequently a supe¬
rior race. The French race is composed originally
of a small number of distinct races, being descended
16 THE UNITED STATES,
mainly from tlie Gallic. Hence the predominance
in it of certain qualities, and the absence of certain
others, giving rise to that evident want of balance
in their constitution, and' that light, vacillating
temperament so characteristic of it. The German
race was originally derived from a somewhat greater
variety; hut those constituents were distinguished
mainly for the same attributes, the phlegmatic, the
patient, the philosophic, the qualities in which the
Trench original was deficient. Hence, though this
race is distinguished in a remarkable degree by these
characteristics, yet being denied opportunity, by rea¬
son of the limited variety of its original elements,
to combine other qualities, it is without them, and,
therefore, like the French, though in a different
way, is partial, and without balance. How, the
English race is a compound of a greater variety
than any that preceded it. . The original character¬
istic element of the German, viz., the Teutonic, the
light mercurial element of the Gaul, found now in
the French, as well as other important elements, found
in the Dane, have all combined to form the Eng lish.
Accordingly, there exists in that race a more perfect
and harmonious blending of all qualities than in
any of its predecessors. In it are found the philo¬
sophic, the esthetic, and the practical. The ele¬
ments were sufficiently varied and comprehensive
PAST AND FUTURE. 17
to embrace all tlie qualities of a perfect constitution,
and tlie result is shown in the presentation of a race
combining these characteristics. But the American
race lias not only been formed from a greater num¬
ber of races, embracing nearly every prominent
variety on tlie globe, by which the chances for
happy combinations have been increased, but those
varieties being to a large extent of races more or
less cultivated, while the original elements of most
other races were barbarian, have made the ingre¬
dients of these combinations more marked and
distinctive, and hence the combinations themselves
more perfect.
But the increased opportunities for these favora¬
ble combinations in the American race have been
owing not only to the greater number of elements
upon American soil, but to the greater facilities for
their intermixture. In .all other countries the dis¬
tinction of caste has- greatly hindered the combina¬
tions their limited varieties might have allowed;
but here, under the benign operation of free insti¬
tutions, no such restrictions exist, giving among
the American people a still greater application of
the principle upon which the superiority of a race
depends.
But this combination is not only more extensively
existing, and finer, thus securing nobler specimens of
18 THE UNITED STATES,
the human race, hut, because of this greater variety
in the elements of commixture, the combinations
themselves are more varied, giving rise to a greater
variety of talent and character, an element of supe¬
riority of race, which a mere glance at the variety
of qualification the different departments of life
demand, and the evils of that sameness in mental
constitution which most other races exhibit, will
not fail to render obvious.
For the same reason that the superiority of a race
is dependent upon the variety and character of the
elements which compose it, that superiority will be
relatively great in the ratio of the nearness of the
time at which the mixture took place. The effect
of time, where there is no foreign admixture, is to
give ascendency to some one class of qualities, the
consequence of which is a want of equilibrium and
power in the mental constitution, and a general
sameness of mental development. This was the
case in the Roman race, which, though in the outset
a highly superior one, yet, not enjoying this constant
accession of foreign ingredients, ultimately ran
down into feebleness and decay; and the English
and French would have long since thus decayed,
but for the constant accession of foreign blood.
Rut in this respect, likewise, the American race has
had advantages over all others. The origin itself
PAST AND FUTURE.
19
of the race is not only more recent, but in every
moment of its history foreign ingredients have
been pouring in, giving to it all the benefit of near¬
ness of time in the combinations which form it. In
both particulars, therefore, in respect of which the
superiority of a race depends, the American race
has advantages over all others, and hence is, without
doubt, superior.
But in addition to these causes of a mere philo¬
sophical character for the superiority of the Ameri¬
can race, every influence arising out of the nature
of free institutions, and the favorable character of
the country itself, which has tended to the develop¬
ment and improvement of the individual man, has
contributed to heighten this result.
This superiority, thus demonstrated on philoso¬
phical principles, is confirmed by all those exhibi¬
tions which have been furnished in contests of arms
with other races, and by its evident higher advance¬
ment in all the important departments of human
interest.
4. The wide diffusion of enlightened Christianity
among the American people has been another cause
of our wonderful national progress.
The original colonists of this country brought
with them a high degree of the religious element.
This was particularly the case with the Puritans,
20 THE UNITED STATES,
wlio settled New-England; with the Quakers, who
settled Pennsylvania; and was more or less so with
all the other colonies. Starting with a population
of this character, with all along an unrestricted
access to the Bible, and a full enjoyment of the
rights of conscience, it naturally would he expected
that Christianity would prevail in a remarkable
degree. But when, in addition, the fact is con¬
sidered that in the equal privileges which all the
various denominations composing the Church en¬
joy, all classes are accommodated in their religious
preferences, and are allowed unrestrictedly to push
the claims and interests of their own peculiar reli¬
gious views—a state of things nowhere else exist¬
ing—a still further reason is seen that Christianity
should have had an extraordinary diffusion in this
country.
But while this country has enjoyed a diffusion
of Christianity in this remarkable degree, the free
competition existing among the various Christian
denominations, the effect of which has been the
elicitation of truth—the absence of all restriction
upon the circulation of Bibles and religious books,
and any proper modes for the spread of religious
knowledge, and the high character of those spe¬
cially engaged in the propagation of religious light,
the result of this high and general appreciation ot
PAST AND FUTURE.
21
Christianity, have all tended to make the Christ¬
ianity prevailing, in a remarkable degree, en¬
lightened, pure, and liberal.
If, therefore, Christianity tends to promote na¬
tional progress, that tendency has been felt in the
United States in a high degree. That such has
been its tendency in this country is evident from
these considerations:
Eight Christianity, fixing in the mind correct
notions of the objects of human life, and of the
relations sustained to God and the world, is favor¬
able to correct thinking, and hence to the forma¬
tion of right opinions and sentiments in regard to
all the various affairs of life. In its removal of
low and grovelling tastes, of bad passions and
appetites, it creates dispositions practically to con¬
form to this knowledge, and hence a devotion
to the real interests of life, to that which elevates,
refines, and makes life happy, honorable, and useful.
Its benevolent feature prompts to enterprises to
relieve the needy, to elevate the degraded, and to
the employment of such ameliorating processes as
secure the constant improvement of the less fa¬
vored classes. And in this country, where the
competitions of sects are unrestricted, it gives rise
through their instrumentality to ample educational
facilities. Indeed, statistics show that Christianity
22 THE UNITED STATES,
is doing more, in tlie scliools and colleges it lias
reared, to secure tlie diffusion of education, than
all other agencies now in operation. And by other
instrumentalities which it founds and sustains for
the dissemination of hooks, and the various means
of information, especially among the common
people, it has contributed largely to the general
prosperity of the country.
But not only by its influence upon the intellect
of the country does it contribute powerfully to its
progress, hut in a not less degree by its influence
upon its morals. That sort of conscientious regard
for right which restrains men from wrong-doing,
where civil law is inapplicable—that sort of integ¬
rity which inspires mutual confidence in the various
relations of life, in the very nature of things, are
powerful elements of progress. Their importance
is rendered evident by reference to Trance for ex¬
ample, in which, in a marked degree, they have
been wanting. But it is the effect of Christianity
to promote these elements. It is evident, there¬
fore, from all these facts, that Christianity in this
country, enjoyed as it is in such a remarkable
degree, has contributed powerfully to its progress,
especially as, from the nature of our free institu¬
tions, these effects have been unrestricted in their
legitimate power and influence.
PAST AND FUTURE.
23
Indeed, so powerful is the influence of this great
element—so efficiently does it tend to rectify man,
to keep all his energies within their right channel,
that itself alone, under the fostering, protecting
care of .our free institutions, would suffice to con¬
duct our country triumphantly and gloriously to
its highest, noblest destiny.
The motives which prompted the settlement of
this country were unlike those which actuated
perhaps all other colonists. The Europeans, who
originally colonized Mexico and South America,
were influenced mainly by the desire of mere
gain. But the motives of those who sought a
home within the limits of our territory were
higher and purer, looking in most instances to
strictly religious ends. It is not surprising that
such a people should become highly prosperous.
A nation starting with such motives, and becoming
in its onward course the brightest example of
religious purity and efficiency, could not fail to
propitiate and enjoy the favor of Heaven. Such a
nation, presenting so bright a spot amid sur¬
rounding darkness and gloom, could not fail to
attract the especial regard of Divine Providence.
But to be the object of the favorable notice and
special blessing of Heaven—who can estimate the
importance of the advantage in all that pertains
24 THE UNITED STATES,
to progress ? To liave all that class of circum¬
stances which lie without the sphere of the nation's
control, but to whose operation, whether favor¬
able or unfavorable, it is inevitably subject—to
have all these directed to the promotion of the
nation's weal, a condition of things enjoyed when
that nation is the object of Divine complacency—
who can estimate the value of the advantage to
national prosperity ?
But while these causes, so well calculated to
produce the wonderful progress which has marked
our national history, have had such untrammelled
and abiding existence, and have indeed etfected
such wonderful results, yet it ought not to be dis¬
guised that as our peculiar social organization and
civilization have had time to advance toward ma¬
turity, and to assume their own distinctive de¬
velopment, principles and tendencies have begun
to exhibit themselves which naturally lead to
decay, and which therefore may reasonably excite
the fearful apprehensions of the friends of American
civilization.
1. A high degree of the philosophic element, of
the capacity for that kind of reflection and extended
generalization which secures to the mind a just
appreciation of broad general principles, is essen¬
tial to every successful form of civilization. In our
PAST AND FUTURE.
25
country, and in all republics, government is main¬
tained not so much by physical force as by an
appreciation of fundamental principles, which prin¬
ciples are embodied in the written constitution,
and in the established modes of its administration.
Not merely intelligence, therefore, but a certain
order of intelligence is demanded by free govern¬
ments. "Without it, these great principles being
unrecognized, the proper guides of the state are
lost sight of, and the government becomes the
subject of the caprice of an unregulated, vacil¬
lating public.
All successful social compacts demand a con¬
stant accession of new truths, of new and pertinent
ideas. The original thought, the abstract truth,
which emanates from profoundly philosophical
minds, leads the way in all progress, and must
be in the advance in any prosperous condition of
society. As existing ideas are worked up and
receive their full development, society, without
additional accessions, loses its enterprise and means
of progress, and, though it may rest awhile at its
attained elevation, it will soon retrograde into
decay. To this principle is to be referred the
decay of various nations, of which Spain is a
distinguished instance. In her palmy days the
philosophic element blended with her form of civil-
2
26
THE UNITED STATES,
ization in sufficient degree to secure this necessary
condition of national progress; but when, by
reason of the vast resources her newly-acquired
possessions opened up, her attention became en¬
grossed in those grovelling interests, then, her
higher nature being no longer stressed or employed,
these accessions of new truth ceased, and Spain
was shorn of her strength, her superiority, and her
glory.
A correct understanding of the doctrines of
Christianity, of the peculiar exercises their practical
realization involve, and especially of that system
of Christian principles which constitutes moral
philosophy, all likewise demand a prominent de¬
velopment and culture of the philosophic or re¬
flective faculties, a large capacity for generalization,
for the appreciation and application of abstract
principles.
But in our country, where the popular element
prevails, and the standard of knowledge is univer¬
sally sought to be regulated by the popular appre¬
hension—where, from the abundance of external
resources, there exists none of that stress of circum¬
stances in which, men being thrown back upon
themselves, the higher powers of the mind are
taxed and brought into use—where the impatience
PAST AND FUTURE.
27
and restlessness of the people, and especially of
youth, the result of habits of self-indulgence,
and the early period of the transition to manhood
conventionally established, are fatal to all plans of
extended education, and of protracted mental
discipline—where, indeed, the utilitarian, practical
spirit of the age so modifies the meagre system
of education that does exist, as to divest it of all
power i't might otherwise have for the cultivation
of these higher powers of mind, it is not to be
expected that the philosophic element will find
that culture necessary to the maintenance of its
proper place among the mass of the people, but,
on the contrary, it must assume a gradual de¬
cline.
That this decline has already begun to exhibit
itself in our country, existing facts abundantly
prove.
ISTo longer does the public mind hold first in im¬
portance those abstract principles which constitute
the foundation and framework of our government,
and by which its genius is determined. Such a cha¬
racteristic is contemned, and often derided as meta¬
physical and impracticable. But, rather, expe¬
diency and practicalness, as determined by the
immediate bearings and consequences of measures,
28 THE UNITED STATES,
are the only points surveyed in the determination
of political questions. IsTo longer are statesmen
appreciated, as in the days of Jefterson, Hamilton,
Madison, and Jay, for their profound acquirements
in the philosophy of government, and the weight
they give to the great principles of the Constitution
in all their political sentiments and policy,, the
result of a profound capacity justly to appreciate
and construe those great principles; hut brilliancy,
the power to captivate and sway the people by
specious declamation and the charms of a striking
elocution, are the most favored passports to public
promotion and influence. Authors of deep origi¬
nality, whose pages everywhere abound with speci¬
mens of the widest, truest philosophy—who, indeed,
as the originators of new truths, extend the bound¬
aries of knowledge, and are properly the great
teachers of the age, are scorned as visionary and
unintelligible; while writers who, for the very rea¬
son that they are destitute of the highest attributes
of mind, deal in topics secondary in importance
to the great problems of human life, but accom¬
modated to the apprehension and tastes of the
common mind, are everywhere admired and em¬
braced as the true prophets of the age. Writings,
whether old or recent, whether found in books or
reviews, abounding in deep, comprehensive thought,
PAST AND FUTURE.
29
and spreading out to the gaze of the thoughtful
the profoundest results of research, the deepest
lessons of wisdom, and the brightest illuminations
of a true, all-embracing philosophy, and that, too,
upon subjects relevant to the times and the exist¬
ing wants of men, are unpatronized, neglected,
despised; while the Pen-and-ink Sketches, the
"Hurry-graphs," the Random Shots, the Passing
Glimpses, crude, meagre, undigested, impromptu
productions of the superficial, teeming from the
press in the form of books, periodicals, and news¬
papers, constitute the staple reading of the country.
Indeed, philosophy, as that term signifies great
abstract principles, and those principles in their
application to the great problems of human life,
finds but few admirers in our favored country; and
none encounter denunciation more unsparing, and
ridicule more bitter, than those who have caught
its spirit, and manifest its teachings in their public
exhibitions.
2. Another ground of apprehension in regard to
the permanence and success of American institu¬
tions, is found in a decline in a proper regard for
the tenure of liberty. Our forefathers knew from
bitter experience the value of liberty, and in their
political opinions and conduct were mainly in¬
fluenced by this consideration. They knew what
30 THE UNITED STATES,
was involved in tlie want of liberty, and tlie diffi¬
culties of its acquisition. It was not, therefore,
to be expected that they would do aqy thing to
forfeit liberty. But our generation, inheriting
from their birth this happy condition, and knowing
from experience no other, are without opportunity
to learn from contrast its inestimable value; and
for the same reason, together with the fact of the
steady success of our institutions, are without any
salutary apprehension of the possibility of its loss.
Our people, therefore, give but little attention to
the tenure of their liberties. But such a state of
things must necessarily be full of danger to our
institutions. In this country, where there is no¬
thing but the controlling power of principle to
keep government within its legitimate sphere, and
to secure uniformity in its general movements and
policy, the absence of this great guiding conserv¬
ative spirit, the real foundation of all free govern¬
ments, necessarily involves an abandonment of the
government to the mere chances of accident and
caprice. The effect of the declining influence of
this spirit is already seen in the formation of parties
upon principles, and looking to ends, not having
respect to the true interests of the country, but
rather to selfish results, giving rise thereby to
political corruption, and a general depravation of
PAST AND FUTURE.
31
the moral sentiment of the country. Still further
is it seen in a general looseness of opinion as to the
objects and policy of the government, its powers
being appropriated to the accomplishment of any
favorite schemes of personal interest, and recklessly
wielded to promote any designs at home or abroad,
which passion, prejudice, or any visionary theory
of human amelioration may suggest. In short, it
is seen in the growing unpopularity of all treat¬
ment of and reference to the principles of the
Constitution, growing out of the irksomeness of
their hampering, restraining influences, and a
general carelessness of the effect of measures upon
the integrity and security of those principles. It
is true the American people love liberty, and, in
any final contest in which its safety might be in¬
volved, would defend it to the utmost; yet the
danger is, that through this recklessness of its
tenure and the increasing tendency to its abuse,
the government will at last be swung so far from
its true position, that any exercise of this affection
may be unavailing for its restoration, and, in spite
of it, our free institutions will fall into ruin. Our
country is not, even at this early clay, without
examples of the dangerous consequences of this
growing evil. Already has government, in a reck-
32 THE UNITED STATES,
less disregard of lier true functions, "been souglit
to be wielded to sectional oppression; and even
now, with a vain belief of the omnipotence of the
nation and its necessary perpetuity, is the dangerous
experiment, new in our history, and contrary to its
settled policy, sought to be tried, of making it the
umpire and dictator of all other nations.
3. There is a growing demagogism in our country
that is destined to endanger our institutions. Men
of the highest popular talent, especially in this day,
in which public speaking is so common, and, in¬
deed, a requisite for the attainment of all grades of
office, can attain a controlling influence over the
public mind. But when once attained, such is the
charm of their names, that with their opportunities
of access to the popular ear which the hustings
afford, and in the general absence of any sensi¬
tive regard for the integrity of our institutions,
the political direction of the people is almost en¬
tirely subject to their dictation. But such is the
insidious corrupting character of political ambition,
that many of these men, thus given up to its sway,
are for the most part selfish in their aims, and are
restrained in their efforts to compass these aims by
no law, but the fear of the forfeiture of the position
already attained. • In this power of control over the
PAST AND FUTURE.
33
masses, thus held by a few, and which is so liable
to be wielded,to corrupt purposes, there is just
reason for the apprehension of radical evil to our
institutions and general national interests.
There can be 110 doubt that the practice of public
speaking for office, and, as is the custom more
recently, for the highest offices, is destined to work
the most serious harm. It gives undue influence to
a few men, and those, too, (as oratorical ability is not
generally accompanied by the soundest judgment,)
men not the most safe and reliable in council, while
it closes the way to preferment and influence of men
who are without the gifts of oratory, but who, from
the ripeness of their judgments, the extent of their
acquirements, and the integrity of their character,
have the highest capabilities for public usefulness.
It gives, too, increased facilities for political com¬
binations and for increasing the tyranny of party-
ism ; and, hence, for the perpetration of all the
mischief resulting from the forcible direction of the
masses to corrupt and selfish ends. And as elo¬
quence is destined to be increasingly used and
increasingly potent as an instrument of political
ambition, these evils are destined to be felt in in¬
creasing weight upon the country. Already they
are seriously felt in the scheming and trickery prac¬
ticed in political life for the high offices of the
2*
34 THE UNITED STATES,
government, of which the people have occasional
casual intimations, and which plainly show the ex¬
tent to which the country is subjected to a corrupt
political demagogism.
4. There are various social evils that are gradually
diffusing themselves, which are calculated to work
much harm, as well to our institutions as to our
form of civilization.
There is in some sections of our country a species
of religious fanaticism, the result of a good degree
of the religious element, uuchastened by common
sense and the light of the Bible, that, taking a par¬
tial and perverted view of religious obligation,
assumes the ultra ground, that every man may de¬
termine the extent of his allegiance to civil govern¬
ment, and is therefore competent to set aside the
obligations of government in the pursuance of any
extravagant notion his own disordered fancy may
suggest: an assumption not only at war with all
government, but which in ours, the result of mutual
concession and compromise, must result in revolu¬
tion and anarchy.
In a country like ours, enjoying the largest
amount, of civil liberty, and abounding in all the
means of easy living, and fostering consequently
habits of self-indulgence and personal ease, there is
almost necessarily a spirit of insubordination, of
PAST AND FUTURE.
35
restlessness, under tlie restraints of law. This
spirit, thus incidentally arising out of the nature of
our free, institutions, has been greatly strengthened
by prevailing radical defects in the government and
training of the young, which themselves are at¬
tributable perhaps to the same general cause.
Such a spirit did not exist" in the early period of
our government, when the sturdy, self-denying,
law-abiding virtues prevailed. It now manifests
itself, however, in all the departments of life, civil,
social, and religious, presenting everywhere a con¬
dition of affairs most unsafe for successful go¬
vernment, and destructive of the chief conservative
element, both of Church and State.
In no country will the socialist principle, of an
equality of circumstances as the right of every man,
have more chance for ultimate prevalence than in
ours. The very equality of political rights guaran¬
teed by our civil institutions naturally suggests this
notion. The political importance of the lower
classes, with the consequent pandering to them of
political aspirants, fosters it; and the foreign ele¬
ment of our population, among whom this senti¬
ment, from the reaction of political views, the result
of their altered political condition, so generally
prevails, contributes to its acceptability and in-
36 THE UNITED STATES,
fluence. This agrarianism, in some of its specific
forms, already has extensive prevalence. Already
is the doctrine proclaimed, of the political right
of the poor to support from the rich; and already
has it been practically embraced in some quarters,
by legislative enactments in their behalf in the
shape of exemptions, bounties, and other forms of
special protection. And even in the high precincts
of the National Assembly the doctrine is seized
upon for partisan purposes, and practically acted
upon, in the recent system it has adopted of ex¬
tensive appropriations in the form of gifts of the
public property of the nation. The danger is,
that this principle, thus recognized and favored
with all the facilities for growth and expansion our
peculiar national condition affords, will gradually
diffuse itself through the public mind, until, reach¬
ing its full limits, it will assume its place as a
controlling element in our social state, and conse¬
quently effectually change the whole character of
our institutions.
But while the country has much to fear from
these evils, especially in their progressive growth,
yet to the patriot it is a source of the most heartfelt
self-gratulation that there are still in our happy
constitutional provisions, and in the framework of
J* A S T AND FUTURE.
37
our social fabric, elements of a conservative charac¬
ter in addition to those fundamental causes of our
national prosperity already adverted to, most of
which are destined still to operate .beneficently, that
justify the hope of a yet long and glorious future
for our country.
1. The relations of the States to the General
Government established by the Constitution, will,
if properly observed, prevent many evils that might
otherwise jeopard the perpetuity of the government.
Under this arrangement, the sphere of the Gene¬
ral Government is so restricted as that it can never
become a burden either by invading the rights of
particular sections or classes, or by any general sys¬
tem of oppression; while the absence of necessary
government functions, which this restriction would
otherwise involve, is amply supplied by the powers
of the State Governments, which, having more
immediately a local bearing, leave no interest with¬
out its rightful protection. Whatever antagonism
of interest or opinion may exist between different
sections, this system, properly observed, excludes
entirely from the sphere of the General Govern¬
ment. The causes, therefore, which have often
rendered other governments oppressive, and led to
their overthrow, this system provides against; while,
at the same time, it is none the less adequate to
38 THE UNITED STATES,
fulfil all the purposes which government is designed
to subserve.
There will he, without doubt, growing out of the
various causes of decay already stated, all of which
impinge on the fundamental principle of this sys¬
tem, and likewise out of the contrariety of sectional
interests, strong influences existing, tending practi¬
cally to set aside this cardinal feature of our national
constitution; yet there will always exist a strong
counteractive tendency in the fact of the clearness
in which it stands forth in the written Constitution
itself, and in the additional fact that there will
always be a portion of the country—that is, the
weaker portion—whose interest it will be most
firmly to maintain it.
The doctrine of States' rights is indeed the great
conservative element of our system of government,
the balance-wheel by which alone the constitutional
adjustments of the system are maintained, and the
operations of government so restrained as to be
incapable of working change in our institutions.
Securing the great principle of concurrent majori¬
ties, so necessary to wholesome restraints upon the
powers of government, it is the only protection to
minorities against sectional aggression and tyranny.
2. The vastness of our territorial extent will be
exceedingly favorable to our national permanence.
PAST AND FUTURE.
39
The dangerous increase of responsibilities, and
tlie general unwieldiness that might be supposed to
result, are obviated by the division of this vast ter¬
ritory into separate States, by which the business
of local legislation is thrown upon local legislatures,
while the General Government has jurisdiction only
over those general interests which, as they are com¬
mon to all sections, are comparatively few, and free
from all the necessary causes of dangerous collisions.
Indeed, this increase in the diversity of sectional
interests, and consequent multiplication of concur¬
rent majorities, by increasing the number of checks
and balances in the operations of the government,
is in itself a powerful safeguard to national perma¬
nence and prosperity.
A dense population is one of the greatest evils a
republican government has to fear. It is only in
such population that social evil has opportunities to
propagate itself to any fearful extent. Ultraism
and humbuggery flourish nowhere else. The col¬
lision of interests, the result of this multiplication
of the points of contact between men, originates
and presents facilities for the indulgence of criminal
passions and purposes from which sparser popula¬
tions are comparatively free. Dense populations
always present a larger class who are seeking to live
by fraud, and without legitimate employment, and
40 THE UNITED STATES,
among whom are to be found the worst elements of
discontent and insubordination. Indeed, all ele¬
ments of mischief having, by the opportunities of
combination and concert afforded,'greater facilities
for development and propagation, are more to
he dreaded in this state of society. These evils,
incident to a dense population everywhere, will he
necessarily felt to a greater extent under the relaxed,
indulgent system of a republican government.
Indeed, since the execution of law under this system
is dependent more upon public opinion than the
intrinsic authority of law, it is easy to see that these
evils, in many communities, might he free to develop
themselves without restraint.
But from this unhappy condition of society,
which lias been the bane of the strongest govern¬
ments, and which is so ill suited to ours, the ample
extent of our territory must continue to relieve us.
Men will not submit to the inconveniences of a
crowded population, when the opportunities for
less restricted situations are abundantly afforded.
They will disperse into ampler fields, where, free
from the vices and excitements of an unhappy
social state, they will'eujoy ample facilities for the im¬
provement of their own circumstances, and the cul¬
tivation of the virtues of upright, useful citizenship.
The vast extent of our territory will still further
PAST AND FUTURE.
41
contribute to our national prosperity, in that it will
continue to furnish, to the largest possible extent,
all the natural advantages for easy living. A
country that affords the means of easy living, of
rapid improvement, individually and socially,
need not apprehend danger to the govern¬
ment from the people. Happy themselves, and
buoyant with hope, they are content with the
government. They are its friends and supporters.
This is particularly true, when, from the nature
of the country, the agricultural interest preserves
its just predominance; since, while in this state
of things the country is relieved from real depend¬
ence upon foreign powers, and consequently from
all those entangling, exciting questions of foreign
policy which a dependent state might involve, there
is something in the nature of agricultural employ¬
ments, which, tending to isolate and to individual¬
ize, frees from the distracting, demoralizing influ¬
ences of an intensely social life, and cultivates
those sturdy, substantial qualities, that native force
and strength of character, the proper foundation
of a stable republic. These .abundant external
resources invite the attention away from the imagi¬
nary evils of the social state, forestall those
demands for protection from government which
in other countries it is thought to be its prerogative
42
THE UNITED STATES,
to bestow, and, relieving it thereby from the
clamors of corrupt selfishness and restless discon¬
tent, free it from those dreaded sources of danger.
This vast extent of territory, multiplying and
diversifying the resources of the country, increases
its independence of other countries, augments its
power, enlarges the sphere of social improvement
and enjoyment, elevates and expands the individual
as well as the national mind, and in every way
widens the basis of national permanence and
progress.
3. The purposes which the Almighty evidently
designs to subserve, through the instrumentality
of the American nation, authorize a confident
belief that it is yet destined to a long and increas¬
ingly glorious career. Brought into existence just
at .that period when the world had begun to rise
to that intellectual and moral eminence, and to
enjoy, through the widening range of commerce
and enterprise, guided by science and well-regu¬
lated intelligence, that extended intercourse be¬
tween the various portions of the earth which
would give to a great and prosperous nation the
utmost facilities for impressing itself upon the
world; starting with a population uncommonly
free from the errors of former and elsewhere-
prevailing systems, and which has developed, in
PAST AND FUTURE.
43
every step of its career, the elements both of mind
and heart most approved of Heaven, and best
calculated to supply the demands of human pro¬
gress ; occupying r geographical position, with
reference to the nations of the earth, which the
condition of the rest of the world would naturally
indicate as most favorable to adjust its capacities
of usefulness to the wants of mankind—the indi¬
cations are unmistakable, that the providence of
God has " marked out for our nation a career of
usefulness as broad and as grand as the interests
of "the world, and whose duration, therefore, must
he commensurate with the magnitude of these
appointed results.
Here, in this favored land, is to he illustrated in
living, actual example, those benign institutions of
civil government which give freedom and elevation
tD man; that system of religion which, coming
directly from God, brings the individual man in
direct relationship to his Maker—teaches him the
whole range of his responsibilities, and invests
him with the efficient motives for their successful
performance, and that intellectual emancipation in
which the mind, untrammelled in its aspirations,
is urged by all the power of its own spontaneous
activity, and the encouragements of enticing re¬
ward, to every field of inquiry and improvement.
44 THE UNITED STATES,
Tlie world around us is struggling for freedom
from intellectual and physical shackles, that it, too,
may enter upon this high and gloripus estate. It
is not by actual interference that we are to assist
in this struggle. It is not physical, hut intellectual
and moral aid, which the world in the present
crisis demands. These are the weapons by which
alone advancing nations can secure their prepara¬
tion for, and successfully assert their claim to, the
glorious emancipation we enjoy. It is, then, by
our own brilliant example, standing out, as it does,
midway the world, and offering conspicuously to
the gaze of surrounding nations the glorious exhi¬
bition and the hope of a higher, happier state,
that we are to secure to the world the redemption
it needs, and to usher in the era of happiness to
universal man. This, then, is the mission to which
Providence has assigned the American nation, and
this is the mission which, even now, it is most
gloriously fulfilling.
May we not hope that our national existence is
destined to a continuance as long as the duration
of this field of usefulness; and that its power and
glory will ever correspond with the increasing
extent and grandeur of the world's susceptibilities
of elevation and improvement ?
The relative position of the United States to the
PAST AND FUTURE.
45
nations south, and west of her, which embrace the
largest portion of the inhabitants of the globe,
points her out as destined to effect the most im¬
portant and permanent results in the history of
the world. It was in the East'that civilization first
began. Gradually it has extended itself westward,
but always developing itself in each step of its pro¬
gress in ampler proportions and brighter light, until
at last, in noontide splendor, it has displayed itself
upon the American continent. But in every case
it has been by colonization, and the consequent
amalgamation of races, by which the aboriginal
race was supplanted, that this western march of
an increasing civilization has been realized. The
capabilities of improvement in any race are circum¬
scribed by definite limits. And if the regions of
South America, of the Pacific Isles, and of the
vast continent of Asia, are destined to become the
seats of a civilization higher than any now en¬
joyed, which, as an inference from the general
course of its progress hitherto, and the apparent
design of Providence, seems quite certain, it must
be by the infusion of elements, botlpof race and
of knowledge, the offspring of a people and of a
civilization elsewhere existing. The relative posi¬
tion of the United States to these vast regions
designates her as the instrument by which these
46
THE UNITED STATES,
conditions of this advancing civilization are to be
fulfilled. Already has she, by a rapid course of
colonization, supplanted the inferior race of her
recently acquired Pacific territories, and with one
rapid bound extended the western limit of her
own noble race and civilization to the very shores
of the Pacific. Thus even now is she brought into
immediate contact with Mexico, South America,
the Isles of the Pacific, and even Asia herself.
It is not difficult to perceive that a people so
active and enterprising as ours, with all the facili¬
ties for immigration and colonization in respect of
these regions which" an increasing commerce and
a widening international intercourse will secure—
promoted by the remarkable improvements in the
modes of transit of later times—will not be long
in spreading in the midst of these regions. Put
wherever they go, this inferior native population,
as the result of amalgamation, and that great law
of contact between a higher and'a lower race, by
which the latter gives place to the former, must be
gradually supplanted, and its place occupied by
this highest of races.
It is highly probable, therefore, that in the revo¬
lution of years the descendants of the American
people, still higher elevated in the scale of being,
and possessing the vast treasures of a glorious
PAST AND FUTURE.
47
civilization, and tlie blessi ngs of a saving Christian¬
ity, willi occupy the entire extent of America, the
rich and fertile plains of Asia, together with the
intermediate isles of the sea, in fulfilment of the
great purpose of Heaven, of the ultimate enlighten¬
ment of the whole earth, and the gradual elevation
of man to the dignity and glory of the promised
millennial day. Results so far-reaching and grand
require for their realization a lapse of time and an
extent and grandeur of means that bespeak for our
country a yet long and glorious career.
A country so abounding in all the elements of
permanence and prosperity, so elevated by the dig¬
nity and grandeur of the objects to the realization
of which it is committed, and yet containing in
itself so many of the seeds of decay, must devolve
upon its citizens the highest and most sacred duties.
In those Countries where the responsibilities
of government jire confined to certain classes, that
part of the population excluded from those classes,
being without power to impress themselves upon
the government, may be excused from the duty of
familiarizing themselves with its principles and
operations. But in our country, where every man
may exercise an efficient agency in the machinery
of government, and where the entire sovereignty is
but the aggregation of the individual sovereigns
48 THE UNITED STATES,
which compose it, the obligation to study the Con¬
stitution of the country and the proper modes of its
just administration presses with the utmost sacred-
ness upon every freeman. It is not enough that
American citizens should have a mere superficial
acquaintance with the general character of the gov¬
ernment and the history and interests of parties,
such as may be derived from the common newspa¬
pers and political speeches of the day—such know¬
ledge both misleads and renders its possessor the
more susceptible of delusion by the ambitious—
but the Constitution itself should be read and studied
by every one for himself; its principles, and their
mutual relations as a regular system, should be
clearly apprehended: and the history of the appli¬
cation and the operation of those principles, as
exhibited in the entire history of the administration
of the government, should be the object of1 constant
attention and inquiry; so that every man, not de¬
pending upon others for direction in his political
sentiments and action, should be able to determine
for himself intelligently, by reference to the funda¬
mental principles involved, all questions in the
solution of which he as an American citizen is in¬
terested. Such a course is necessary to elevate the
masses above the delusions of the desisTiing", and
o o"
to secure to every man those high qualifications of
PAST AND FUTURE.
49
intelligence and statesmanship which the theory of
the government both presupposes and demands.
ISTo American should he without a printed copy of
the Constitution of his country; and, as the great
chart of his liberties and immunities, it should he
the text-hook of his constant reference and study.
That independence of judgment and of con¬
duct which holds well-settled opinions of the Con¬
stitution and political policy paramount to the
interests of party and the claims of men, is the
essential quality of true American patriotism.
Without it, the individual man is so hampered and
restrained as to he incapable, of that enlarged and
symmetrical development and progress which our
wise and liberal system of government is so well
calculated to secure. Without it, our government,
instead of being the expression of the people's will,
will he in effect hut an oligarchy, the instrument of
the ambition of bold aspirants. Without it, indeed,
the Constitution itself will cease to be the political
directory, and only be referred to and used as an
auxiliary to power and influence.
An enlightened public spirit, which seeks to
make the country prosperous and happy by the
development of its resources and the multiplication
of its conveniences and enjoyments, it is the sacred
duty of every American citizen to maintain. Such
3
50
THE UNITED STATES,
a spirit, thus practically exercised, necessarily pro¬
motes the well-being of every citizen directly, and
likewise indirectly by that security and permanence
which the general support of such interests neces¬
sarily secures to the whole nation. Enterprises
designed to forward the interests of Christianity,
of public education, of commercial and industrial
pursuits generally, on a scale of the highest mag¬
nificence, embracing the claims of the far-reaching
future as well as the wants of the present, should
engage the attention* and cooperation of every free
American.
Finally, recognizing the existence of a great
superintending Providence, which guards and di¬
rects the interests of nations, and especially of one
so evidently designed to compass the grandest
results of usefulness in the world's history as is
ours, every American should not only, by an en¬
lightened consultation of the providential hearings
of the nation, seek to conform his own course of
action to them, hut, if he he a praying man, should
constantly hold the vast interests of the nation
before the throne of Divine grace, and secure, by
the power of his own personal interest there, the
protection and guidance of the Almighty in the
onward destiny of our beloved Republic.
Thus, blessed with such glorious elements within,
PAST AND P UTURE.
51
and surrounded "by such, favorable circumstances
without, flie hearts of the American people may
justly swell with triumphant anticipations of the
increasing power, prosperity, and usefulness of the
nation.
52
american society.
II.—AMERICAN" SOCIETY.
The prosperity and glory of our common country,
the permanency and efficiency of our institutions,
the progress of American civilization, are subjects
in which we are all-profoundly interested. We
therefore bespeak attention to a brief discussion of
these topics. We do not propose to enter upon a
consideration of the causes which have contributed
to the present elevated and happy condition of the
American people. The indications of our national
greatness, however, are many, and it may be well,
before noticing other points, to pass some of them
briefly under review.
The territorial extent of our country, so much
greater than that of any other civilized power,
affording so many advantages of climate, abounding
so richly in natural resources, and presenting every
variety of combination for the highest development
of every department of human interest, is in itself
no inconsiderable proof of national greatness. And
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
53
this will he the more evident, when we observe the
contracted dimensions of almost all the principal
countries of the world, and the evils which, through
density of population, the dependence upon foreign
sources for necessary supplies, and the absence of
many natural advantages, particularly in respect
of agriculture and commerce, necessarily result
from it.
The rapid increase of population, as it shows the
absence of those influences that oppose the thrift
and prosperity of the people, and which are so
active in other countries, as well as the abundance
of the means of livelihood everywhere in the reach
of all, is a practical illustration of our enviable con¬
dition as a nation. ISTow, though we concede that
the rapid increase of population in a country does
not necessarily prove the existence there of all the
constituents which make up the sum of true national
greatness, and that a high degree of some of the
elements of an advanced civilization may consist
with a very slow rate of increase of inhabitants, yet
we do maintain that a rapid growth of population
indicates the presence of causes in themselves suf¬
ficient to make a happy society and a great country.
So intimately related is the multiplication of the
human race, not only to all those resources adapted
to man's physical wants, but to all those interests
54
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
which refer to his moral and social well-being, that
the rate of that multiplication among any people
may he held as a reliable test of their condition in
respect of every department of national welfare.
Ho country increases so rapidly in population as
ours; no country has ever increased so rapidly in
population, ancd it is a practical and striking demon¬
stration of its happy and prosperous condition.
But there are other considerations which present,
in more impressive light, the commanding position
and greatness of the American nation.
This country at present sustains the relation of
teacher to the rest of the nations. It is she that is
putting in circulation those ideas of government,
of practical improvement, of pure religion, that are
breaking up the oppressive systems of the old world,
and working out those processes of elevation now
gradually going on there, and which are destined
to end in the freedom of the masses, and in the
prevalence of a higher civilization. The bare ex¬
ample of a country in which the government, the
institutions, and the religion best suited to man
prevail—the proof of whose superiority is obvious
in the practical success of their operation and in
the general progress of that country—the bare ex¬
istence of such a country, especially when, through
commerce, through international intercourse and
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
55
association, tlie liglit of it may be so generally
recognized, conld not fail to interest the down¬
trodden masses elsewhere, and to infuse elements
which tend to their improvement.
The Americanmation was founded in great ideas:
in great ideas of man—of his capabilities, of his
destiny, of his relations to time and eternity.
These ideas have been the spring, the inexhaustible
source of her progress and prosperity; and iden¬
tified as they are with her very being and history,
they stand out impressively before all the nations,
rectifying by their light the errors of their philoso¬
phy, enlightening and enlarging their sentiments,
and directing the general mind everywhere into
those channels of thought from which, as a neces¬
sary sequence, has resulted, and must continue to
result, the removal of the shackles by which they
have heretofore been bound, and their rapid pro¬
gress to their destined individual and social ele¬
vation.
Interested as the rulers of the old countries have
always been in the continuance of the existing order
of things, their policy has ever been to discourage
those practical ideas which lead men, by activity
and enterprises of practical utility, to improve their
condition. The genius of the old world, for the
most part, has been directing itself to the solution
56
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
of tlie mighty problem of the best methods of hold¬
ing in check the active, aspiring tendencies of the
individual man; and its systems and institutions
have all been built up and established with specific
reference to the mental stagnation and passive sub¬
mission of the masses. But in this country, while
the social condition of the people has been, in every
way, favorable to the highest mental activity among
all classes, that activity has almost universally
taken the direction of practical enterprise and ex¬
ternal improvement. The ideas of the people are
principally practical, utilitarian ideas; all directly
and powerfully stimulating both to the progress of
the individual man and the improvement of his
external circumstances. Now, these ideas, these
intellectual tendencies, constitute the grand ele¬
ment which the mind of the old world now needs;
the specific infusion'required to arouse the stagnant
energies of the people, and to direct them into the
current of progress. Nor can these ideas, these
practical fruits of intellectual manifestation, con¬
nected as this country is with all others by so many
channels of communication, fail of universal dif¬
fusion. Already they are flowing in—despite the
counter movements of despotic rulers—and already
are these oppressed communities beginning to ex¬
perience their quickening, life-giving influences.
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
57
All Europe, South America, and much of the popu¬
lation of far-off Asia, have been awakened by the
light and power and energy of this American spirit
and these American ideas; and under the influence
of their increasing power of impress, as these points
of international contact are multiplied, these pro¬
cesses of amelioration and advancement, thus intro¬
duced, must everywhere go 011 with accelerated
impulse and efficiency, until all the world shall have
realized their redeeming and elevating power.
It is in America that we find all those elements,
on the grandest scale, which contribute to social
progress and individual elevation. Nowhere else
do we find so many great ideas seeking their devel¬
opment in the actual improvement of the people.
It is American civilization that is now giving motion
and activity to the upward, progressive tendencies
of mankind, and which, as the grand earthly centre
of the light and life and energy which the world
now needs, is, in fact, its animating, guiding power.
To sustain a relation to the rest of the world so
commanding and exalted, is one of the most con¬
vincing indications of true national greatness. And
what American does not feel himself elevated, and
his whole soul swelling with proud emotions, in
contemplating this position of his country ?
There can he 110 more certain test of the enviable
58
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
condition of a great nation, than that its people are
contented and happy. Society exists for the happi¬
ness of those who compose it, and the degree in
which it attains this end is the measure of its suc¬
cess—the true standard of its relative rank and
excellence. Ho community can he secure from
insubordination, violence, and even revolution, in
which any considerable portion of the people,
reduced to destitution and squalor, are discontented
and unhappy. In such a community, the social
organization existing must he unnatural and arbi¬
trary ; and shackled and restrained as are its reduced
classes, though, by the power of superior threaten¬
ing force, they may be for a while overawed and
hindered, yet the perpetual tendency is to outburst
and violence, and hence apprehension, suspense,
and dread, with all the attendant results, are neces¬
sarily its fate. A nation, on the other hand, whose
people are universally happy, is not only protected
from those elements which threaten the safety of
the existing order of things, but is in a condition
peaceful and conservative; the social organization
existing harmonizes with the natural laws of indi¬
vidual and social progress, and man is placed in just
those circumstances in which he enjoys, expands,
and achieves most.
But of all the nations of the earth, which is it
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
59
whose people are the most universally prosperous,
contented, and happy ? If we look beyond our own
country, even into those portions of the world the
most civilized, we shall find a no small proportion
of the inhabitants suffering from the pressure of
arbitrary laws, reduced to degradation, discontented,
and wretched. We may find, it is true, a large class
rich, and encompassed by all the circumstances of
abundant happiness, and we may find, in the high
state of improvement everywhere appearing, many
indications of the highest civilization; but all these
evidences of happiness and progress have arisen at
the sacrifice of the rights and happiness of a nu¬
merous class of the people—have grown up as the
result of a social system which has demanded as its
principal pillar of support the wretchedness of the
masses. We are accustomed to admire the highly-
cultivated aspects of the old countries of Europe,
and the splendid specimens of internal improvement
and art which there everywhere meet the eye, and
to regard these as the signs of a prosperous and
happy social state; but, after all, these are but the
memorials of destitution—of the desperate strug¬
gles of art to supply the shortcomings of nature,
in which, while the more highly-favored rise to the
surface of fortune and comfort, the weak and the
ignorant must necessarily sink to degradation and
60
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
misery. And it may well be doubted whether any
people ever resort to those efforts from which these
external signs of high cultivation and improvement
spring until they are reduced to such exigencies, in
respect of all that refers to physical support, as ne¬
cessarily imply the suffering and wretchedness of a
large class of the people.
But when we look into our own country, we find
comparatively none of these suffering classes.
Everywhere, and in all ranks, our own people are
contented and happy, hfo caste principle, no arbi¬
trary, oppressive system of laws, designed to build
up and sustain a pampered, imbecile aristocracy,
here prevail; but the abundant means of livelihood,
afforded by our own plentiful natural resources, the
equity and wise adaptation of our laws, secure to
our people the opportunity for expansion, for ease,
and enjoyment. And no people under heaven are
so generally, or in so high a degree, prosperous and
happy.
But perhaps nothing indicates our greatness as a
nation so convincingly and impressively as the
existence among us of so many of the elements of
national progress. Of these, space will allow us to
mention but a few.
And first, we notice the untrammelled condition
of the American people, and the liberty they enjoy
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
61
of reaping the entire fruits of their labor. In every
other principal country the people are hedged in to
certain employments; to all others, the way of ac¬
cess is closed; and even in those open to their
embracement, subject as they are to arbitrary,
capricious restrictions, and to the most oppressive
burdens of taxation, the crushing, withering in¬
fluence is felt which must always result from a
denial of the full rewards of labor. But here the
absence of all restriction invites every man to the
vocation suited to his genius and circumstances;
society receives the advantage of having every man
in the place in which he can render the most efficient
service; and here, every man having the prospect
of realizing, unrestrained, the benefits of his labor,
and possibly reaching the highest offices of the
government, experiences the strongest incentives to
improve his condition, and to contribute something
to the weal of the country. But motives such as
these, operating upon each and all alike, must, in
the aggregate, constitute inducements to enterprise
and effort, powerfully conducing to the progress of
society.
Another element of progress, is the existence
and symmetrical development of each of the depart¬
ments which make up a complete political economy
of a country. In all other, even the most advanced
62
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
communities, wliile some departments of na¬
tional interest may be prosecuted to a very high
degree of perfection, yet, from geographical, social,
or political causes, there are others, equally as
necessary to the happiness of the people, which
exist in very limited degree, and for the enjoyment
of the fruits of which the dependence is upon
foreign sources. Such is the condition of Great
Britain and France, and, perhaps, of every other
country of Europe. But in this country, there is no
department of human industry, there are none of
the agencies upon which the wealth and comfort
of a nation depend, which are not brought into
successful employment, and upon a scale to secure
a very general equilibrium in their relative develop¬
ment. Such a state of things must have a favor¬
able bearing upon our national progress. The
mutual presence and interaction of all these various
interests, constituting, as they do, a complete
system, must have a stimulating influence upon
each, and increase the active tendencies of all.
It multiplies the opportunities of the people to
obtain all those material supplies adapted to their
wants and convenience. It promotes national
independence, and, consequently, freedom from the
hazards of subjection to the varying condition of
other people, and from the hindrances to national
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
63
expansion which such subjection necessarily in¬
volves.
But there is a psychological effect resulting from
this diversity in the industrial pursuits of the
people, highly beneficial. "Where the departments
of national industry are comparatively few, the
mind of the nation necessarily flows in a few defi¬
nite channels—is restricted in its range, partial,
and contracted. Some of the characteristics of
mind may be highly cultivated, and exhibit them¬
selves with energy and effect; many fields of know¬
ledge may be thoroughly explored and appreciated ;
but there are other mental traits, which, being
unaddressed and unmet, are inactive and dormant;
and there are other important departments of
knowledge and of thought, which, lying without
the range of the general mind, are unattended to
and unappreciated, presenting a state of civiliza¬
tion which, being without many of the necessary
elements, and unbalanced, is often dangerous to
the safety and permanence of the nation, and ever
unfavorable to its most efficient progress. But
when, as in our 6wn country, the employments of
the people are so varied as to embrace in nearly
equal proportions every department of interest
important to any nation, then every feature of the
human mind is, in some degree at least, brought
64
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
out and cultivated; every variety of genius and
taste is encouraged; every class of knowledge is
cherished ; and the very variety of mental develop¬
ment secures a collision and interaction of mind
favorable to its further growth and expansion.
Then the national mind enjoys, in a good degree,
a safe equilibrium, and the civilization is sound
and well sustained, and well adapted to the con¬
stant progress of the people.
The next element of progress we notice, as exist¬
ing in our country, is the purity of its prevailing
religion. So intimately connected is the religion
of a people with all their thinking processes, with
all their current feelings, with all their social cha¬
racteristics, that it may be regarded a philosophic
truth, that their religion and their internal condi¬
tion and prosperity are reciprocals the one of the
other. Nothing can be more true, than that the
religion of a people determines almost every thing
as to their condition and progress. But while,
either because of its absolute impurity or of some
unfortunate intermixture or modification, the reli¬
gion of almost all other countries has an influence
depressing to the energies and the expansive pro¬
perties of the people, it is the effect of the religion
of our country, pure and Heaven-born as it is, to
contribute extensively and powerfully to all the
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
65
important interests of society. This it does by
inculcating a sound system of morality, by which
the personal relations of the people are properly
regulated; by diffusing right sentiments of benev¬
olence, which lead to efforts promotive of the
public good; by securing a right appreciation of
the mind itself, the immortal part of man, and
consequently a direction of the public spirit and
benevolent enterprise which it creates, to those
higher interests of men and society which belong
to the mind, and which refer to immortality; and
by cultivating those sentiments of justice, truth,
fidelity, and honor, which, while they secure the
national independence, constitute those grand cha¬
racteristics which win the confidence, the support,
and patronage of other nations. As an element
of progress, it is astonishing to perceive the active
agency of the religion of this country. To it is to
be attributed the rise and successful operation of
almost all those instrumentalities, whether of an
educational, eleemosynary, or a purely moral cha¬
racter, so remarkably active and potential in this
country; and the existence of that spirit of indi¬
vidual improvement, and of that disinterested, self-
denying effort for the good of others, not natural
to earth, and the true cause of much of the pro¬
gress of American society. Surely it may £>e said
66
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
witli propriety and truth, that a country possessing
all these elements of progress, these agencies of
improvement and elevation, must be a great coun¬
try.
But perhaps there are no indications of our high
position, as a nation, more striking and impressive
than those facts which go to show the great purposes
which Providence designs to achieve through its
instrumentality. "Why was it that the discovery
and settlement of this country was reserved for a
period the most favorable to a development of it
usefully to the world ? Why was it colonized by
just those races best calculated to secure to it the
finest population on the globe ? and why was it that
the religion first introduced here, and which has
ever prevailed, was the most evangelical and pure
to he found anywhere on the earth, although in all
other portions of the American continent the origi¬
nal colonists were of races comparatively inferior,
and the religion introduced was feeble and corrupt?
"Why has it been that the early history of this
country, its struggles and its trials, its reverses and
triumphs, has been just that, out of all others it
might have experienced, the best calculated to lay
the foundation of a stable, mighty nation ? "Why
was it that the American Constitution was ever
framed—a system above all others adapted to the
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
67
expansive, progressive character of a people like
ours, but which in itself was in advance of the
wisdom of its founders ; greater than the men who
framed it; and which owed its origin to circum¬
stances not ordered, as to this result, by man ?
Why, we ask, all this conjuncture of facts and
events, each being the most favorable one for the
ultimate establishment of a great and influential
nation, and occurring, as to the peculiar order and
combination, without the contrivance and direction
of man, unless it was the arrangement of God's over¬
ruling providence to make this nation a mighty
instrument for the accomplishment of his own
grand purposes ?
Ho other country occupies a geographical position
rendering it capable, in the providence of God, of
so much usefulness to the world. However much
the diplomacy of foreign powers may seek to pre¬
vent it, the ideas and .institutions of this country
must' ultimately mould the character of the civili¬
zation and religion of the entire American conti¬
nent. Asia and the extensive islands of the Pacific
and Indian Archipelagoes, which are yet to enjoy
that higher civilization intended to cover the whole
earth, must receive it, it is rational to believe, from
.the United States; the extension of American
population and institutions necessary to embrace
68
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
so long a line of the Pacific coast, pointing empha¬
tically to this great result, and being ordered of
G-od for its accomplishment.
The commercial channels which have been opened
up between this country and the rest of the world;
the international relationships formed, and which
are destined constantly to multiply; all constitute,
under the direction of Providence, so many lines
of religious light, intended and actually contributing
to reform and bless the nations. And everywhere
throughout our vast population, under the prompt¬
ings of that knowledge and religion which prevail
among us, there are constantly and increasingly
generated the forces of benevolent and of mission¬
ary enterprise, which, not content with restricted
operations, seek an outlet in foreign lands, consti¬
tuting our own happy country the constant fountain
of those supplies that are to refresh, to reform, and
to bless mankind. A nation thus evidently conse¬
crated by Providence to the achievement of such
high results in the world's history—a nation thus
presenting so many evidences of being under the
special direction of Heaven for the accomplishment
of so many great objects, must be regarded as
occupying an exalted position.
But while Americans see so much in the condi¬
tion and prospects of their country calculated to
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
69
gratify their noblest impulses and to excite their
admiration, yet it cannot he denied that a discrimi¬
nating inspection will show the existence and
operation in American society of elements which
largely offset these encouraging views, and which
must powerfully .tend to hold in check, if not to
defeat, the national prosperity. "We come now to
notice some of these in detail.
The first to which we call attention is a prevailing
lack of all hearty concern for and watchfulness over
the safety and permanence of the peculiar privileges
and blessings of our form of government. We of
the present generation, having come into existence
since the establishment of our national independ¬
ence, have known nothing but our own free institu¬
tions and the inestimable blessings they secure.
We have had no experience of the ills which flow
from their absence, or of the difficulty of their
attainment when once destitute of them. More¬
over, the very abundance and commonness of the
blessings of free government everywhere around us
incline us to a depreciated estimate of tbem; and
the very fact of their uninterrupted continuance up
to the present time induces the belief of their
necessary perpetuity. Hence, there can be no doubt
that there is a less eager anxiety in respect of the
integrity and permanence and real glory of our
70
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
civil institutions; less, in short, of the true spirit
of patriotism, than existed in former periods of the
Bepublic—less than comports with our future safety.
The manifestations of this decline, of this unfor¬
tunate deficiency, are many. It is seen in the spirit
and conduct of the largest class of the politicians
of our times, who hold their own selfish ends, their
own schemes of ambition, paramount to all consi¬
derations of country, and who study to promote the
public good, and are solicitous for the permanence
of our free institutions and of the guarantees of
our peculiar national blessings, only so far as may he
necessary to further the ends of personal gratifica¬
tion and individual elevation. In the earlier days
of the Bepublic, when men knew by contrast the
value of good government, and the difficulties of
its successful establishment; in the days of "Wash¬
ington, of Hamilton, of the elder Adams, of Jeffer¬
son, of Madison, and Monroe; of the men, in short,
who had experienced the privations and trials of the
Bevolution, the idea of the country's weal was
paramount to all others, and public sentiment
demanded of every man a subjection of all consi¬
derations of self and of selfish ambition to the
higher, more absorbing consideration of national
independence—of civil and religious liberty. It
was this patriotic spirit, this supreme devotedness
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
71
to the country, this almost idolatry of country, then
everywhere prevailing, that occasioned the sudden
fall of Aaron Burr in public estimation, and the
universal infamy at once heaped upon his name.
And perhaps there could he no more striking
evidence of that decline in patriotic sentiment, in
the watchful jealousy of our liberties to which we
refer, than the manner in which such conduct as his
in a public man of this day would he held and
treated by the existing generation.
* But this decline is further seen in the substitu¬
tion of narrow, restricted views of public policy, in
the place of those broad national views which cover,
as to their objects, the whole country, and which
embrace all its interests. In former times, men of
all classes and of all sections entertained broad and
comprehensive views of national politics; sectional
feeling or partial views of the wants of the entire
country found hut little currency or popularity
among the people; the very suspicion of sectional
hostility was sufficient to ruin the fortunes of a
political aspirant. Then, devotion to the govern¬
ment was paramount: a deep solicitude for its per¬
manence, and for the continuance of the blessings
which it confers, subjected all other interests and
passions. The loss of this enlarged national solici¬
tude, this comprehensive statesmanship, so visible
72
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
especially in northern latitudes, and tlie substitu¬
tion of narrow local views, of a contracted scale of
thinking on political subjects, of restricted notions
of public policy, show too plainly a relaxation in
the spirit of watchful regard for the stability and
well-being of the government. The antagonist
feelings of individual selfishness and local attach¬
ments have already gained the ascendency, and all
high national feeling and exalted patriotism are fast
yielding to their sway.
Nor are these evidences of this decline confined
to the politicians. These but reflect, in this par¬
ticular, the general condition of the people. Men
in our times are largely controlled, in all their
political relationships and movements, by prejudice
or by passion. The great question everywhere is,
not what will be the bearing of proposed measures
upon the true interests of the government, the
stability of our institutions, and civil and religious
liberty; but upon the fortunes of parties, the
chances of favorite schemes, or the prospects of
individual preferment. The signs of venality, of
bribery and corruption," not without manifestation
in some quarters of the government, if public fame
is to be credited, would for ever ruin the fortunes
of all upon whom the breath of suspicion rested,
if the public spirit and patriotic sentiment of the
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
73
people were such, as marked the earlier days of the
Republic. The tolerance of these corrupt indica¬
tions, and of the prostitution to selfish ends of the
sacred functions of government; the selfish, debas¬
ing passions allowed to control in all matters
pertaining to politics and government, are unmis¬
takable evidences that that high sentiment of
country, that intense devotion to the great objects
of our free government, once so universally pre¬
vailing, have now, to a large extent, lost all con¬
trolling power over the impulses and actions of the
people. But what is to become of the government,
and of the liberties and blessings which it guaran¬
tees, when the point is reached to which we thus
seem to be rapidly hastening—at which, while all
these, lost sight of, are given up to the chances
of accident or of destiny, just that system of
passion and policy most in antagonism to their
favorable fortunes is allowed well-nigh universal
sway ? These high patriotic impulses; this supreme
devotion to the government, as the instrument of
privileges and blessings the most precious of earth ;
this supreme desire to maintain it in all its integrity
and in all its original characteristics, constitute,
indeed, the conservative principle of the govern¬
ment—the very element which alone can make sure
its steady continuance and success; yet their decline,
4
74
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
so rapid as already to have become largely subject
to other opposing principles of action, is an indi¬
cation at once fearful and deplorable.
Another characteristic of American society, in
many respects unfavorable to its future progress, is
the superficialness of the general mind; the very
limited development of the capacity for thinking,
and especially solid, consecutive thinking. We see
this in the intellectual character of most of those
who now are our prominent men; their intellectual
distinction resting more upon their capacity for
impassioned eloquence, for the forcible presentation
of statistics, or upon their power of popular adapta¬
tion by their anecdotal proclivities, than upon any
ability to grapple with great truth, and to give it
practical application to the wants and circumstances
of a great people. We see it in the intellectual
preferences of the people, as indicated in the litera¬
ture they read; in the diversions they take; in the
grovelling, earth-horn character of their tastes and
dominant objects of pursuit, and in the general
absence of all philosophic aptitude, both in the
subjects of thought and in the manner of thought.
It is seen, further, in all those agencies in the bosom
of society designed to discipline or to inform the
mind of the people, conducted as they are mainly
on a scale narrow and superficial, and without
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
75
capacity to bring out in effective predominance the
profounder intellectual powers. The predominance
of the popular element, and consequently of the
standard of popular taste; the tendency to diffusion,
to extension, rather than to elevation, have been
the causes which have hindered the development of
the higher attributes of mind in American society,
and to which, therefore, this prevailing superficial-
ness must be attributed. But it is not our design
so much to state the causes which have originated
this characteristic of the American mind, as it is
to note the fact of its existence, and the conse¬
quences which flow from it.
One of the evils resulting from it is the distinc¬
tion, the preferment, the power, and influence
which, by reason of it, are given to men of restricted
capacity, of the most moderate intellectual claims;
while talent, profound, thorough, genuine, is per¬
mitted to run to waste, neglected or despised. As
the masses govern, only those find favor and are
promoted whose intellectual manifestations are
conformed to the popular standard: the profoundly
intellectual, the truly wise and capable, being above
that standard, and removed from popular sympathy
and appreciation, often fail of their just position
and influence. But the evils which must flow to
society when its men of position and power are
76
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
weak men; when its greatest intellect is set aside to
give place to the short-sighted and the feehle; when,
in fact, its very power is employed to discourage
and repress all the highest exhibitions of mind,
must be productive of disastrous consequences.
Another evil resulting from the prevailing super-
ficialness of the American mind is its influence
upon the politics and the political action of the
country. The Constitution of the United States is
a theory, a system of great principles, which have
meaning and force only as they are appreciated and
maintained in the general mind. A capacity for
apprehending general principles, and a susceptibility
of their just impress, broadly diffused among the
people, are indispensable qualifications to all regu¬
lar constitutional government. Indeed, we hold
that an essential condition to all successful self-
government is a large infusion of the philosophic,
or, if you please, the metaphysical element. It is
not enough that there be mere intelligence; it is the
prevalence of mind of a certain order, of mind
capable of solid thinking, of calm, rational inves¬
tigation, that is indispensable. Moreover, in all
free governments there must be such ability among
the people to perceive and justly estimate the future
results of actions—so much speculative ability as
will always subject the promptings of the present to
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
77
the considerations of the future. It is the inevita¬
ble effect, therefore, of the prevailing shallowness
of American intelligence to preclude the fulfilment
of those psychological conditions upon which the
maintenance of the true character of our govern¬
ment depends, to disqualify the general mind for
that appreciation of the principles of the govern¬
ment necessary to give them dominant control in
the political thinking and action of the people.
That disposition, then, to ignore abstract principle,
and all those great landmarks intended to he guides
of action, and to heed only the dictates of practical
utility and present fitness; to subject all regular
and settled principles of action to the notions of
mere expediency; that disregard and thoughtless¬
ness of the future bearings and results of actions,
in the controlling desire to gratify the present—all
of which are commonly to be witnessed among the
people, and which are operating so disastrously upon
the interests and prospects of our government—are
characteristics of the American people by no means
surprising, being results that have legitimately and
necessarily followed from the existing character of
American civilization.
But the prevailing superficialness of the American
mind has operated unfavorably upon the politics of
the country, in that it has been the occasion directly
78
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
of all those partial, contracted political creeds, of
all those one-idea parties, with which our country is
beginning to abound. There was a time when the
political parties which divided the country were but
few, and these were each formed on the basis of a
variety of great and comprehensive ideas, embracing
in their sweep all the issues in which the country
was interested. But too evident it is that these
have been for the most part dissolved, and in their
stead have arisen numerous factions, each devoted
to one idea only; and that political systems, consti¬
tuted of some one specific object or scheme only,
find currency among a large portion of the Ameri¬
can people. "Were the public mind capable of
comprehensive thinking, of complex processes of
thought, there would have been generally prevailing
such enlargement of view, as to the wants of this
great nation, as would inevitably have precluded
results like these. They are the fruit, and the
necessary fruit, of a state of society in which the
general intellect is contracted and the range of
thought narrow and superficial. Incapable as the
masses of the American people are of thinking
broadly and consecutively, or of viewing the sub¬
jects before them in their extended and more
general relations, and yet, from their position,
required to adopt some course of political action,
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
79
the tendency is necessarily to concentrate upon
some one object, and, clustering around it every
feeling of interest, to ascribe to it not only dispro¬
portionate but exclusive importance. Indeed, mind
like this is largely incapable of appreciating or of
being deeply concerned about systems marked by
variety and complexity. With it, single ideas alone
have power to engage the attention or to deeply
interest the feelings.
But these narrow political creeds, these one-idea
parties, operate in a high degree disadvantageously
to the interests of society. Every people, and espe¬
cially every great people, must have a variety of
interests ; a variety of wants at the same time exist¬
ing, and equally important, to be provided for.
There may be, possibly, gradations in the absolute
value of the objects which concern them; but all
are so important that that policy would be fatal
which would seek to secure one by the neglect or
at the sacrifice of the remainder. It follows, there¬
fore, that among that people, systems of politics
which do not expand themselves to embrace the
wide-spread objects in which they are interested,
but which are restricted to one, or to but a few of
these, while all the rest" are lost sight of or repu¬
diated, must come far short of meeting the neces¬
sities of the public, and be wholly inadequate to
80
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
provide for its weal. But parties formed upon
this contracted "basis, not only tlius ignore and
neglect interests of equal importance, but inevi¬
tably give their own objects undue predominance,
become excessive and ultra in tlieir operation, and
destroy the equilibrium of tlie interests of society.
Moreover, it is a philosophic fact, that such parties
tend directly to unhinge the public mind—to
unbalance and derange it. An individual mind,
persisting in an exclusive devotion to one idea,
eventually loses its balance, and monomania en¬
sues. It is by no means surprising, then, that the
general mind, when similarly directed, should
manifest the same class of phenomena. It is
in the Northern States, thus far, almost exclu¬
sively, that one-idea parties have had currency;
and accordingly, in perhaps every case, they have
exhibited a degree of fanatical excess and extrava¬
gance disorganizing to society and destructive of
all its conservative elements.
Nor are these all the evils which flow from the
absence, in American civilization, of a proportion¬
ate development of the philosophic or reflective
element. In respect of all those interests whose
development and conduct are dependent upon the
correctness of theory; of all those operations in
society whose proper management rests upon the
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
81
capacity for enlarged philosophic thinking, and
of all those agencies whose efficiency is promoted
according as there are more of the solid traits
belonging to the public mind; many disadvantages,
many positive failures, are experienced, as the
result of this shallow, superficial character of intel¬
ligence. How many favorite theories would be
exploded ; how many opinions would be abandoned
or modified; how many errors would be rectified,
and that too in respect of matters of constant and
vital practical concern to society, by just one
advance in the power of thought, in the capacity
for calm ratiocination, among the masses of the
people! It \yould not, perhaps, be difficult to
show, that society is as much hindered and de¬
feated in its progress by a defective, badly disci¬
plined intellect, as by a corrupt, perverted will.
The free and unrestricted condition of American
mind among all classes, though constituting
one of our country's boasted peculiarities, yet, in
practical operation, is productive of evil. The
sense of equality and of personal independence
which it creates, is fatal to those gradations in
society, to that subjection to superior claim, to that
respectful deference, in all matters of intercourse
and sentiment, essential to well-ordered and pro¬
perly constituted society. The superior lights, the
4*
82
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
properly guiding elements of society, are always
distributed among a few classes; and in all rightly
organized and successful communities, these are
recognized and awarded their rightful influence.
But this sense of intellectual independence,when, as
in our country, universally prevailing, always tends
to a perfect social equality, to an obliteration of all
distinctions, and thus to the loss to society of all
that commanding conservative influence which
superior intelligence*"and worth, of right, should
enjoy. This want of reverence for superiority;
this want of respectful deference to whatever is
more elevated and worthy; this subjection, indeed,
of the higher and more deserving, to the mere
brute force of the masses, are social phenomena
already existing, in very marked degree, especially
in the States of the Xorth; and to them are to be
attributed many of the recent developments of
■^Northern society. But if the unrestricted condi¬
tion of American society, as at present constituted,
is disorganizing and disruptive, by reason of its
tendency to eradicate from the public mind the
cardinal qualities of reverence and respectful defer¬
ence, its effect is no less injurious by its tendency
to destroy all reverence for the past, all regard
for its authority. The general disposition to
ignore and repudiate time-honored institutions and
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
88
principles; the hold and reckless spirit of change
and innovation; the thirst for new and untried
experiment, the irresistible desire of wild propa-
gandism everywhere to he seen among the people,
are indications of this irreverent, inconoclastic
tendency, at once impressive and alarming.
But perhaps the most fearful element of mis¬
chief now existing in American society is the
growing tendency to identify politics and religion—
to seek to accomplish purely moral or religious
objects by legislative enactment. Until within very
recent years, the universal sentiment of the people
of this country was, that civil government and re¬
ligion have two wholly distinct and separate spheres
of action, and that not only is a total disconnec¬
tion of them necessary to the most favorable
development of each, but that any, the slightest,
connection would necessarily embarrass and hinder
the action of both. But the prevalence of looser
views of the powers and limits of government, and
of looser and more superficial modes of thought in
later times, has prepared the way for a change in
public sentiment; and now it is thought, by a large
and growing class of the people, to be a legitimate
function of government to accomplish, by its own
direct agency, purely moral results. If or can it be
denied, presenting, as this growing sentiment does,
84
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
the finest openings to ambition, that it has been
stimulated and developed by being seized upon and
pandered to by designing, aspiring demagogues, as
a means for maintaining ascendency, or for rising
to power and preferment. Starting in the North, it
has strengthened and diffused itself there, until it
enters into and controls almost all parties, and
determines the character of well-nigh all legisla¬
tion; until ministers of the gospel, turning aside
from their specific vocations, are mingling in all
the public excitements and strifes of the party
politics of the day, and are themselves becoming, in
a most shameful degree, aspirants for political place
and power; until the very pulpit is diverted from its
sacred functions, and made the instrument for pro¬
moting political objects and political parties. In
the South, this sentiment has already largely intro¬
duced itself, being the only one of the numerous
ultraisms which have originated and prevailed in
Northern society that has ever found extensive
favor in the more Southern portions of our Repub¬
lic. It is a mistake to suppose that moral reforms,
or the objects appropriate to religion, or the Church,
are to be accomplished by merely legislative enact¬
ment. Achievements of this kind rest upon the
internal, spontaneous promptings of the mind or
conscience of the individual man, rather than upon
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
85
any force of external pressure, or upon the mere
arrangement of surrounding circumstances. It is
the agency of light, and truth, and grace, which it
is the office of the Church and her own appropriate
instrumentalities to wield, that is to diffuse into the
bosom of society those principles from which these
moral improvements and these purely religious
objects are to be evolved. To use, then, the power
of the State to achieve such results, is to take it out
of its legitimate sphere, and to invest it with func¬
tions appropriate to the Church only.
But in this perverted use of government, in this
contravention of the great laws of social progress
which Heaven has originally and permanently
established, not only must these specific objects of
moral reform, of religious well-being, be defeated,
but the whole purpose and efficiency of government
be demoralized, corrupted, disappointed. While,
on the other hand, this detachment from the Church
of functions and aims properly belonging to her;
this transfer of responsibilities from her which, in
fact, are only to be met by her own spiritual ener¬
gies, greatly weakens her own strength, vitiates her
own redeeming agencies, and renders her less
capable of accomplishing this desirable work of
improvement, alone appropriately hers. There can
be no doubt that every attempt to invest the State
86
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
with, moral or religious functions, is so much
abstracted from the power and efficiency of the
Church; and that whatever is gained to the State,
or sought to he gained in these respects, is so much
lost to the spirituality, the renovating, redeeming
power of Christianity, as an experience and an
agency of society. Hor can it he doubted, whether
we consult history or the constitution of the human
mind, that these perversions of government always
give rise, in no slight degree, to a fanatical, intole¬
rant spirit among the people. The precedent
established, that government may he used for moral
or religious purposes, soon every man is induced to
seek to wield it, to establish whatever he recognizes
as true and important in religion, and to suppress
whatever he recognizes as false and hurtful.
Government accomplishing its objects of this kind
by physical force, and the terror it excites, soon
the idea becomes prevalent that the arbitrary arm
of power, of mere brute force, is the legitimate
weapon for the suppression of all heretical develop¬
ments. History shows such fanatical intolerance
to be the unfailing result of this unhappy, mistaken
policy. And can we hope, in its adoption, to avoid
a sequence so natural and inevitable ? Mixed up, as
religion and morals thus become, with faction, with
the malignant passions of men; identified as they
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
87
"become with, the worst features of corrupt human
nature, it is not surprising that the religious sense
of many should revolt at such a policy, or that
infidelity should frequently ensue as its own legiti¬
mate fruit. ISTor may it be less expected, that even
many of those who advocate this policy should, as
the result of their own fanaticism, their own extra¬
vagant one - ideaism, be driven on to such positions,
to the occupancy of such ground, as places them
virtually, both in sentiment and in action, in an
attitude hostile to the simple, saving Christianity
of the Bible. Results so disastrous and deplorable
are already beginning not unfrequently to exhibit
themselves, especially in those quarters of the Union
where this amalgamation of politics and religion
has been most thoroughly consummated.
But to counteract these unfortunate defects,
these various evil tendencies, these numerous
elements of mischief, so generally prevailing among
the American people, what are the steps to be
taken—the conditions to be fulfilled? The great
desideratum of American society, now, is a higher
elevation of the general mind; the spirit of deep,
earnest thoughtfulness more generally diffused
among the masses. Government is a sequence
of the social progress of the people; and there
necessarily is an interval between the period of
88
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
time when society reaches the point in which a free
government is inevitable, and that period when it
has become so far and so fully developed as to he
capable of successful self-government. Ours, at this
time, is that transition period. It is emphatically
the nation's trial-season—the grand crisis of our
national history. "With all the social growth from
which popular government necessarily arises, we
are yet without many of those elements of mind,
in proper strength and expansion, necessary to the
public safety. It is this deficiency, this want of
growth and right elevation, that has given rise to
those sources of evil—to those mischievous pro¬
clivities which we have noticed as so alarmingly
prevalent. "Were the general mind more tho¬
roughly, more profoundly cultivated; were the
popular intellect and taste more entirely pervaded
by the spirit of earnest tlioughtfulness, then would
all these corrupting, downward tendencies be
eliminated; then would American civilization be
complete, and American society would enjoy every
element of permanence and progress. But it is
not by mere legislation, as important as are whole¬
some laws, that the popular mind is thus to be
refined and elevated. The day has passed when
even error, or superstition, or ignorance is to be
put down by mere physical force; and the time
AMEKICAN SOCIETY.
89
never was when men could be essentially reformed
or elevated hv the mere force of statutory regula¬
tion. It is the powerful agencies of light and
truth and virtue, established in the bosom of
society, and brought to bear directly and pow¬
erfully upon the masses of the people, that, being
appropriated by them, fire to secure the needed
elevation of the general mind. It is the school¬
master and the preacher, everywhere diffused, that
constitute the agencies of light and improvement
now specifically adapted to the wants of American
society. These are the instrumentalities that
address themselves, more than all else, to those
resources, everywhere, of the individual man, whose
development would make American civilization
all that is desirable. Associations whose design it
is to diffuse knowledge among the people; to put
in circulation ideas adapted to stir, to inform and
cultivate the public mind, though less susceptible
of universal application and efficiency, yet belong
to the same class of social agencies, and are, in
fact, an essential part of that great system of
means best calculated to secure that development
now the grand desideratum of American society.
But if among the American people there is
needed a higher elevation of mind, there is an
element of conservatism already existing in our
90
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
portion of the Union, which, sanctioned as it is by
truth and righteousness, every consideration of
safety and of progress urges us to cling to with
unrelaxing tenacity. If we look into the iSTorthern
portions of our Union, we shall find that all those
exhibitions of restless insubordination; of wild
fanaticism; of extravagant, absurd sentiment, which
keep society there in such unceasing commotion,
and continually threaten the safety of the body
politic, originate in and are mainly confined to the
lower strata of the people. The higher classes
there enjoy an elevation of mind, an amount of
information, which raises them personally above
these absurdities; but placed upon the same level,
in all that pertains to civil and political privileges,
with this degraded, fanatical rabble, they are com¬
pelled largely to succumb to their spirit and to
partake of their wild excesses. Indeed, it will be
found, in all free governments, where all classes
within their jurisdiction are elevated to the same
degree of personal freedom, and to a general
equality of privileges, that there will be many
among the lowest ranks, who have not reached the
point of capability for self-government, and conse¬
quently of adaptation to free government, who need
a stronger government to secure their proper sub¬
jection and regulation, and who therefore will, by
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
91
crime, by insubordination, by reckless sentiment,
by extravagant excesses, perpetually disturb the
peace and good order of community; subject the
higher, better elements to their own sway, and
perpetually threaten the safety and fetter the
action of all the progressive forces of society. And
if such is the history of all free governments, it
must be especially that of ours, since these lower,
disturbing classes are perpetually added to and
enlarged by the constant influx of a degraded
foreign population.
But it is the happy effect of the institution of
slavery prevailing in the Southern portions of the
Union, that it excludes those who constitute this
corrupting, disturbing portion of the North, from
the privileges which would give them power to
threaten and retard the progress of society; that it
furnishes a system of government better suited to
these lower classes; and which, while it more
effectually controls them and contributes more
largely to their happiness and improvement, en¬
ables those qualified for the higher privileges of
our own free government to live in peace, and to
go on unhindered in the promotion of their own
ends of elevation and happiness. It is because
of this purpose, subserved by the institution of
slavery; it is because of this result, secured by its
92
AMERICAN SOCIETY.
existence, that society in the South is so free from
those elements of insnhordination, of discontent,
of fanaticism, of- wild extravagance, which now so
much threaten the safety of Northern communities
and the stability of the Union; that here, in our
own loved section of the Confederacy, the instru¬
mentalities of progress are so harmoniously and
symmetrically developed, and civilization exhibits
the indications of fulness and completeness no¬
where else to he witnessed. The history of our
country clearly demonstrates that the true elements
of conservatism, of wise and safe direction to which
society is' thus far indebted for its prosperity, and
the American government for its safety and per¬
manence, have always been found in the South,
and are traceable to the influence, upon Southern
society, of this Southern institution. The world,
then, may hate it, and combine for its overthrow,
but let us adhere to it with determined, unalter¬
able purpose, as essential to our own safety and
progress, and the truest conservative agency of all
free governments.
the english language.
93
III.—THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
Language must have been a direct gift of God to
man, and coeval with his existence. An endow¬
ment so essential to his position and the immediate
objects of his creation must have been enjoyed as
an instrument necessary to that perfection ascribed
to the first man. Its absence in his earliest moments
of existence would have implied a want of adapta¬
tion to the objects of his being, incompatible with
that idea of completeness which the account of his
original formation conveys. Adam, who is revealed
to us as possessing in his original constitution the
fully-developed faculties of a mature and perfect
man, must have enjoyed, the momeut he stepped
forth a living being, a capacity necessarily concom¬
itant with such a state, and without which many
of those faculties would have been inoperative and
inefficient. "Whatever may be the speculations
of men respecting the capabilities of the human
mind for any exercise without language, it must be
94 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
evident tliat there can be no perfection in such
exercise without that medium.
Divine Revelation not only warrants, but fully
confirms this theory. It informs us that, under the
direction of the Creator, Adam proceeded, in the
use of language, to give names to every living
creature: "And out of the ground the Lord God
formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of
the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what
he would call them; and whatsoever Adam called
every living creature, that was the name thereof.
And Adam gave names to all," etc. This state¬
ment fully implies that Adam had a language; and
its possession thus early, and in his then isolated
condition, is susceptible of rational explanation only
on the assumption of its being the immediate gift
of the Creator.
The specific statement of the Bible is, that for
seventeen hundred years, down to the destruction
of the tower of Babel, the world had but one
language : "And the Lord said, Behold, the^ people
is one, and they have one language." This, doubt¬
less, was the language originally given to Adam,
with such corruptions or additions as might, in the
progress of society, have been gradually incorpo¬
rated. But the same authority declares that, at that
event, this language was confounded; and that, for
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
95
the purpose of dividing the people into different
and distinct communities, various languages were
miraculously given; the people arranging them¬
selves together in separate divisions, according to
the language of which they found themselves in
.possession. This account furnishes a striking proof
of the Divine original of language. It is clear that
the confounding of the original language was the
immediate act of G-od, as was the gift of the various
languages substituted in its stead. But if these
new languages are thus clearly traceable to the
Creator as their source, the analogy thus afforded,
in connection with facts already stated, renders it
equally conclusive that the first language was like¬
wise an emanation from the same great Source.
The specified purpose of this act is a forcible
indication of the power of language. To obviate
that unwieldiness which would result from continu¬
ing the mass of the people in a single community,
and to place mankind in a condition in which to
facilitate the peopling of the earth and the main-
<
tenance of the order and prd^rehs of society, it was
necessary that they should be divided into distinct
communities. To accomplish this result—to break
up that attractive force which had hitherto bound
them together, and thus to organize states, the
power of language was employed as the only suffi-
96
the english language.
cient instrument. It is this power, therefore, which
gave origin to states, and which has contributed,
perhaps, more than all else to their protection and
permanency. And as God has thus employed the
power , of language to form and perpetuate states,
so, whenever, for the accomplishment of his great
purposes, he designs them specially to cooperate,
as in the instance of Great Britain and the United
States, which speak the same language; or to
exercise a peculiar influence either upon coming
generations, as in the instance of Greece and Kome,
the noble records of whose languages have been,
in a remarkable manner preserved, or upon sur¬
rounding countries, as in the instance of France,
whose language has largely prevailed among the
higher classes of the various continental commu¬
nities, he has employed the same potent instru¬
mentality.
"Whether the various languages thus given to the
world at the period referred to were all equally
excellent as to all the purposes which language is
designed to subserve, or whether there was an
inequality in these respects—a gradation in their
relative rank—are questions which, perhaps, we
cannot determine. So many changes, the result of
man's own act, have been made since the period of
their Divine bestowal, that it will be for ever impos-
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 97
sible so to understand their original character as to
allow any fair comparison. The general law of a
diversity in the gifts of talent and privilege, author¬
ize the inference of an original inequality in their
relative excellence. While, on the other hand, an
equally general law of probation, by which men
are put upon their own efforts to improve gifts
bestowed, would seem to intimate that whatever
inequality has existed was attributable rather to
human causes.
The Hebrew, the Greek, and the Roman are the
principal languages which preceded the modern.
The Hebrew owes its celebrity not so much to its
own intrinsic merits as to the fact of its being the
chief original medium of Divine revelation. Indeed,
as a medium for those complex ideas originating in
a high state of intellectual development, this lan¬
guage, employed only when mankind in a simple
state of intellectual life had no need for such terms,
is exceedingly deficient. The Greek and the
Roman, however, as they come down to us in the
immortal works of those who wrote them, have
justly distinguished merit, and will ever constitute
valuable sources of all subsequent tongues. What¬
ever opinions may be entertained as to the original
character of these languages, all must admit that
the perfection attained by them was the result of the
ft
98
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
highly-cultivated state of those who spoke them.
Assuming that language wTas a Divine gift, yet the
original gift must have been limited to the then
existing necessities of man. No more language
was furnished than was necessary to the expression
of such ideas as men were then capable of. This
is in harmony with the general plan of God already
alluded to, which contemplates man's own expan¬
sion and improvement of gifts as constituting that
great system of probation under which all are
placed. "While, therefore, mankind remained in a
simple state of intellectual development, as was
their original state, with hut few ideas, and those
referring to the commonest wants and relations,
their languages would consist of such terms only
as were expressive of these ideas. But as their
minds by expansion began to embrace ideas new
and complex, they would naturally employ words
either arbitrarily or derivatively formed, or else
known words, in a tropical sense, to convey those
ideas. While, therefore, language is a Divine gift,
as with all natural endowments, its improvement
and perfection are the work of men themselves.
Hence, there is a reciprocal relation existing between
the intellectual condition of any people and the
language they speak, whereby the latter is always a
test of the former. The great superiority, there-
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
99
fore, of the Greek and Roman languages over all
others of antiquity may be attributed not to any
peculiar original excellence, but to that superior
intellectual culture of those who spoke them, which,
in itself, necessarily involved the perfection which
these languages attained.
The English language, the next principal lan¬
guage after those of ancient date, and the most
distinguished of modem times, owes its origin to
several distinct sources. Its most ancient source-is
the Celtic, that being the language of the original
Britons. This element, however, is very limited,
being confined to a few names of localities retained
by the Saxons, who overran the country, and to a
few other words which were expressive of ideas
associated with this primeval population, and for
which other terms had not been invented. The
chief source of the English tongue is the Anglo-
Saxon, the language spoken by those Northern
hordes who overspread Britain, and from whom
chiefly the English race has sprung. About five-
eighths of the words composing our language are
supposed to have come from this source. Most of
the terms expressive of external objects — of the
simple elementary ideas common to the human
mind in its uncultivated state—are of Saxon origin.
The original Saxon mind being in a rude condition,
100 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
the language of tliat people embraced such terms
only as corresponded with that state. But as the
English mind, by improvement, became capable of
conceptions more complex and purely intellectual;
as its intellectual states of internal origin began
gradually to manifest themselves, the Saxon voca¬
bulary proved insufficient, and the languages of
Greece and Rome, as being vehicles for a higher
order of mind, came to be used; and hence the
Greek and Latin are found extensively in our lan¬
guage. Other languages, as the French, the Scan¬
dinavian, and even the Moorish, by reason of
association, and the need of terms which they
afforded, corresponding to newly discovered ideas,
have likewise contributed to form the English; so
that, while it has two or three elements which
constitute its staple, it may be fair to say that it is
made up of contributions from all other principal
languages.
The causes which have controlled the formation
of the English tongue, naturally indicate that the
elements which compose it would not subsist in the
same proportions.in different speakers and writers.
Two things determine the tendency among different
jiersons to one element or another. First, the order
of the mind. Minds perceptive in their character,
and whose action refers mainly to external objects—
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
101
whose ideas are direct and simple—naturally use
the Saxon element; while minds prone to generali¬
zation, and mainly concerned with ideas abstract
and spiritual, employ chiefly the Roman and Gre¬
cian elements. Secondly, the mental training.
Minds which have been trained in classical pursuits
after the ancient models, as the mind of Gibbon, for
example, incline to the classical element of speech;
while those which have been disciplined according
to the more modern standards, or have grown up
under the teachings of nature, being less artificial,
more direct and simple, naturally incline, as we
have said, to the Saxon element. The order of a
man's mind, therefore, and his education, generally
determine the element in the English tongue which
prevails in his speech and writings; and, recipro¬
cally, the character of that element, once ascertained,
is a very sure index to the character of the former.
The excellence of a language depends mainly
upon its variety; that is, upon the degree in which
it furnishes terms for the" expression of every
possible idea. A language may embrace only the
terms necessary to convey ideas belonging to a
certain class of faculties: as the Saxon, those of the
perceptive; the Oriental, those of the imaginative;
the Grecian, those of the reflective; but that which
furnishes a medium for all these faculties would, of
102 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
course, be best adapted to men, especially to men
in a proper state of intellectual development. The
English approximates this standard more nearly
than all others. The Anglo-Saxon mind, remark¬
ably well-balanced, exhibiting an uncommonly
proportionate and symmetrical development of all
these classes of faculties, would naturally have
created, without any peculiar extraneous facilities,
in the progress of years, a language combining
these necessary conditions of excellence. Such a
language, among such a people, under any circum¬
stances, was a consequence necessary and inevitable.
But the English people were not thus subjected to
the necessity of creating this language for them¬
selves. The sources from which they drew afforded
all the needed facilities for the incorporation of any
variety, however extensive, which their peculiar
mental formation required. The two great classes,
the perceptive and .the reflective, were met: the
first, in the Saxon constituent, and the second, in
the Roman and Grecian; while, by a combination
of the three, together with the aid of other limited
elements that have gradually infused themselves,
the imaginative have a fund richer, perhaps, than
any other language affords. It is this more perfect
adaptation to the whole mind, in all its depart¬
ments, that constitutes the superiority of the English
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 108
tongue. Every style of thought, .every manner of
expression, finds a more ready medium in it than in
any other. The English people, instead of having
to originate the materials of improvement in their
language, found them supplied in languages already
existing, each of which had its own peculiar excel¬
lence. These materials had already been wrought
out in detached parts, and they had only to he com¬
bined in order to secure those excellences which,
so wonderfully adapt the English .-language to the
wants of the mind.
And in all this is not the hand of an overruling
Providence visible ? God, it would seem, designed
to constitute the English nation a people from
whom should go out those civilizing and evangeliz¬
ing infiuences that were to withstand the powers of
darkness, and to elevate the world. A glorious
leaven was to be infused into the world through
their instrumentality. Their language was to pre¬
vail over the fairest portions of the earth, and to be
the vernacular of those to whom the world was to
look for redemption and elevation. Hence their
remarkable relative position to these extensive
sources of language, so well calculated to facilitate
the formation of a language adapted to every
diversity of mind. And may not these facilities
for the formation of so diversified a language have
104 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
themselves largely contributed to secure that com¬
pleteness and symmetry so peculiarly characteristic
of the English mind? Language, without doubt,
has a most powerful reflex influence upon mind.
And, as the English people can scarcely he said (in
any sense applicable to any other people) to have
created their own language, but may be said, in a
remarkable manner, to have received a language
already created for them, it is but fair to ascribe to
that language a powerful influence, not only ifl the
development of the English mind, but in that har¬
monious, symmetrical development of it, so peculiar
to it, and to which these various elements from
which it was formed were, in their combined state,
so well accommodated. Language, therefore, may
have been the special instrument of Providence to
bring out the excellences of the Anglo-Saxon race,
and to prepare-them for the wide sphere of useful¬
ness to which they are evidently destined.
This vast variety of the English tongue, by which
it is so peculiarly adapted to every style of thought
and expression, and which constitutes a chief
ground of its superiority, is readily seen by an
inspection of its numberless productions in every
department in which the human mind is capable
of exhibiting itself. Every form of philosophy,
however wide or subtile; every creation of the
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 105
imagination, .however towering or chaste; every
idea of practical interest, however refined or homely;
every emotion, however profound or transient; every
form of beanty, each and all have their specimens
in the works of the English language. And whether
regard is had to dignity, precision, strength, embel¬
lishment, or to any of the qualities used in pro¬
ducing conviction, arousing passion, or affording
pleasure, its capabilities are without parallel in any
of>flie tongues mankind have ever employed.
* l
Another ground of excellence in the English
language consists in its susceptibility of the admis¬
sion of new words. The advancement of society
always implies the discovery of new ideas. But as
the language of a people in any given period
embraces no more words than its existing ideas
require, these new ideas can be expressed only by
a form of periphrase, or by the use of new terms.
But as periphrase or circumlocution sometimes,
from the nature of the case, fails, and is always
incompatible with precision and force, new terms
are often unavoidable. These may be words of
another language, as is generally the case when the
ideas themselves are imported; or they may be
original or compound words, dependent for their
selection upon circumstances, as is generally the
case when the ideas themselves are original. That
5*
106 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
language which most readily admits of tlie incorpo¬
ration of such words possesses in this respect a
great excellence, as thereby the action of genius
and the advancement of the mind are greatly
facilitated. The English language, in that it is
almost entirely free from inflected terminations
characteristic of all other distinguished languages,
to the rules regulating which all words incorporated
into those languages are subjected, in consequence
of which a difficult barrier to the introduction of
new words has existed, is readily open to the
admission of such words; the various particles,
adjuncts, and connectives with which the language
abounds being themselves sufficient to limit or to
point out the relations of such words, and to secure
to them the places they are intended to occupy and
the significance they are intended to convey. This
peculiar advantage of the English tongue can be
properly estimated only by an extended view of the
destiny of the human mind as regards discoveries
and progress yet to be achieved, and a distinct
apprehension of the relation of language to these
as a medium of expression and communication. It
may be that this exception from the usual law of
language, whereby so great an advantage is obtained,
is but a part of the great plan of God to make
language the important instrument to effect his
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 107
far-reaclaing purposes respecting the Anglo-Saxon
race.
It has already, in the progress of its history,
availed itself largely of this peculiar advantage.
This, of course, is implied in the great advancement
which has taken place in English civilization. An
immense number of words, not in the language for
the first several hundred years of its existence, are
now incorporated as constituting integral parts of
it. An inspection of the various standard works
of English literature, in each period of its exist¬
ence, will give a very correct idea of what these
additions have been, and the order, as to time, in
which they were made. It will be found that while
these accessions have observed a general law, as to
their constancy, they have been more or less
numerous in different periods, according to the
intellectual activity of those periods, and the pecu¬
liar relations sustained to surrounding nations of
intellectual life and movement. Authors them¬
selves, of the same period, have differed as to the
number of these words they employed, accord¬
ing as they were original in their thinking, or were
subjected to foreign influence in their mental train¬
ing and associations. The originality of some of
our leading minds, and the influence of foreign
108 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
minds, particularly tlie German, wliicli lias been
felt in recent years more tlian in any former period,
are contributing at tbis time to give currency to
many words and phrases not heretofore belonging
to our language. It would not be difficult to point
out the writers who contribute to this result. They
belong to the same great classes who in all ages
have been most prone to innovation and amend¬
ment ; those bold and original thinkers who, though
too often ultra and without proper conservatism, yet
subserve many valuable purposes in the march of
human improvement, as Carlyle and his school, not
to mention others; and those of light, effeminate
minds, who, without internal and independent
resources of their own, affect originality and novelty
by devoting themselves to foreign importations.
But from both of these classes, now, as ever, the
language derives great and permanent benefit^ and
the country a lasting good, in the new and valuable
ideas they put in circulation. "Whatever is factitious
and merely affected will be evanescent; for time, in
this as in all other changes, will banish the inappro¬
priate and unnecessary, and will retain all that has
real value.
Nor is this improvement from addition destined
to stop with our age. Depending upon the origi-
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 109
nality of leading minds and association with other
languages, the representatives of different orders
of civilization, it is fair to conclude from the ex¬
tended system ' of intellectual results yet to be
achieved by the Anglo-Saxon race, and the inti¬
mate relation it is destined to sustain to all the
great nations of the earth, that the sphere of our
language is to he gradually hut constantly widened;
increasing in the number and affluence of its terms
and phrases with every succeeding march of human
civilization. And though, as in all other depart¬
ments of human interest, a just conservatism is
proper here, yet it is not wise policy to regard with
stern opposition and dread these proposed addi¬
tions to the variety of the language, especially in
this day of extraordinary intellectual movement
and invention. Language, after all, is but a me¬
dium. of the mind, and this being its purpose, it
must not hamper or restrict intellectual action;
it must yield and be subservient to it, and be con¬
trolled in its extension, as in all other respects, by
the higher considerations of the mind.
But the English tongue is susceptible of improve¬
ment, not merely in this particular, as important
as it is, but likewise in respect of its precision and
accuracy. Language, subserving, as to its leading
aim, the great purpose of a medium for ideas, will
110 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
accomplish that aim more or less perfectly accord¬
ing to the preciseness of the signification uniformly
assigned to its terms. Accuracy and clearness of
thought, justness and facility of reasoning, cer¬
tainty and success in the communication of ideas,
freedom from misconception and misconstruction,
strength, beauty, and grace, all largely depend upon
this important characteristic of language. But
language, sustaining the relation it does to the
human mind, will necessarily be in the early stages
of society loose and vague. Thought, indeed all
intellectual operation, is then indefinite. Nor does
it necessarily follow, that in higher states of the
same society there will be any great improvement
in these respects. It may be that its upward march
is the result of mere accumulation of ideas, rather
than of such inward training as will give accuracy
to its modes of thinking, and consequently to its
language. In progress like this, there would be, it
is true, from the enlargement of the general mind,
necessarily involved some advancement in the pre¬
ciseness of language; but the tendency would not
be such as to bear directly on this result. Such
has been very much the history of English civil¬
ization. Uncommonly active in all departments
of intellectual employment, and in circumstances
remarkably favorable to an extension of the range
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Ill
of mind, the advancement of English intellect, in
most of its history, has consisted in the multiplica¬
tion of its ideas, and in the enlargement of the
sphere of its knowledge, rather than in the develop¬
ment of its logical, critical faculties. The tendency,
therefore, has been to an increase of the number
of words, and to such a loose use of them as would
allow the greatest range in their applications,
rather than to the cultivation of precision in their
import; hence an accumulation of a vast number
of synonymous terms, and as many of equivocal
meaning, and the constant necessity for circum¬
locutory and complex forms of expression. But
in recent times a new order of intellect has arisen.
The powers of philosophic originality and inven¬
tion having, to a large extent, exhausted themselves,
the mind is turned back upon stores already accu¬
mulated, and the work of eliminating and perfect¬
ing constitutes the employment of leading minds.
Criticism is the spirit of the age. Discrimination,
critical insight, accuracy of distinction and method,
rather than bold, original thinking, are the leading
characteristics of controlling minds. Under the
influence of this improved accuracy in the move¬
ments of the mind, it is but natural that language
itself, being but the vehicle of thought, should
receive a similar improvement, while the rules of
112 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
criticism, to winch, it would, under the influence
of this prevailing critical spirit, necessarily he
subjected, could not fail.to enhance this result.
Not only because of this prevailing tendency in
the intellectual movements of our age, but because
of a specific direction of the critical spirit to the
general subject of philology, as a. distinct depart¬
ment of study, have great advances been made in
the definiteness and precision of our language.
For a long period after the rise of the English
language, even so late as the times of Bacon and
Newton, learned English writers, because of a
disparaging estimate of their own tongue, or
because of an anticipated wider and more perma¬
nent circulation of their writings in another, were
accustomed to put forth their productions through
the medium of the Latin or French language.
Thus underrated and discarded by leading minds,
it was, during all that long period, deprived, not
only of the benefit of their example, but, under the
discouragements of their apparent contempt of it,
of all those improvements which the researches of
learned men, specially devoted to its study, might
have effected. Until very recent years, other lan¬
guages than our own were much greater objects of
interest and study; and even now, in our higher
institutions of learning, there is, perhaps, a dispro-
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 113
portionate degree of attention to them. But being
recognized as a proper medium of communica¬
tion by the most learned, and as the leading lan¬
guage of the world, with a most glorious. destiny
yet awaiting it, in an age of so much intellectual
activity and learned research among those wThose
vernacular it is, it could not fail to become an object
of very general and learned study, and partake as a
science of the general progress of the age. The
master-mind of Dr. Johnson, devoted as it was for
many years to it, and shedding a flood of light
upon it, first gave impulse to the study of the Eng¬
lish language as a science. Since his time, Sheri¬
dan, "Walker, Kenrick, Perry, Bichardson, and
many others of Great Britain, and especially
Webster and Worcester of America, each availing
himself of all the benefit of anterior lights, have
brought to bear upon it every variety of philo¬
logical acquirement, and, as the result of their
labors, have placed our language in the position.it
now occupies, of elevated scientific improvement.
They have contributed to its precision and accu¬
racy, first, by tracing each word to its source or
sources, and giving it that definite signification by
which words have greater fixedness of meaning,
and the number of synonymous and equivocal
terms is reduced. Secondly, by furnishing ac-
114 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
knowledged standards of reference as to the proper
definition of words, by which a more general
uniformity is secured in the use of words. And,
thirdly, by elevating language as a distinct science,
by which a more general attention is directed to it
as a branch of study, and a more thorough know¬
ledge of its principles is diffused.
Still it must be confessed, notwithstanding all
these improvements in this important quality of the
language, there is yet a very great looseness and
uncertainty characteristic of it, which shows that
much is yet to be done before it can be regarded as,
in this respect, perfect. But as this development
depends mainly upon two causes—improvement
in the precision of thought and of the critical
faculty, and the generally increased attention to the
subject of philology—an increased cultivation of
this quality of the language may be reasonably
anticipated. The human mind must necessarily
become more and more exact and critical in its
movements, because the vast stores of knowledge
already accumulated and destined to increase, create
a necessity for it; and because the intellectual
demands of the world loudly call for a more rigid
mental discipline, from which will result greater
discrimination and accuracy of thought. And lan¬
guage, rendered itself, by this particular tendency
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 115
of the mind, still more exact and definite, will
react upon the mind, and in turn contribute to
enhance this tendency to which it is indebted for
this its own specific improvement. Nor will philo¬
logy, as a distinct science, be less progressive.
Having already begun to attract attention, the
general intellect, destined to renewed activity in all
departments, will not fail to throw around it greater
light and attractions, rendering it progressively
perfect as a system, and appreciable by all. And
if this progress is to go on, and in increasing ratio,
may not the time come when the demonstrative
mode of reasoning may'be made applicable to all
subjects? For demanding, as its essential condi¬
tion', that terms should be so definite and fixed as
to hold always the same phase of meaning, if the
mind should attain to such breadth and exactness
of movement as to be able to reduce the various
subjects which may employ it to their own .proper
general principles, and to comprehend and employ
these principles as distinct elements of thought, it
is conceivable that, with the precision and accuracy
we have shown the language may possibly attain,
nothing will be wanting, as to the essential condition
to it, to render the demonstrative mode applicable
to all subjects. And why may not this be the
destiny of the human mind ? The world can never
116 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
be brought to entire harmony in opinion, or to entire
certainty in its apprehensions of truth, until such
mental elevation is reached; and as this state of
things is desirable — and there are reasons on other
grounds for expecting it—may it not be that it is
by the ultimate perfection of this great quality of
language that this grand achievement is to be
compassed ?
In no respect, perhaps, has there been a more
marked improvement in the English language than
in its orthography. A reference to the standard
authors of the different periods of English history
will show both the extent of this improvement and
the order in which it has taken place. It neces¬
sarily followed, that a language made of several
languages, each of which attached, in a degree,
more or less marked, different sounds to the same
letters, would, whenever it was so matured as to
acquire any thing like a uniform and fixed character
as to the sound of its various letters, embrace a
great many words whose spelling, as it respects in
some cases individual letters, and in others sylla¬
bles themselves, would not be conformable to the
pronunciation. It might be expected, too, that a
people in a rude state, in the process of forming
their language, would hardly be sufficiently ac¬
quainted with or attentive to the etymology of a
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 117
language so composite as theirs, as properly to
regard, in fixing its orthography,. those rules re¬
specting it that the etymology properly understood
required; or that they would have such an extended
survey of the philosophy of language as to observe
such rules as arise from the analogy of words. In¬
deed, among such a people, comparatively untaught
and unlettered, and with these peculiar difficulties
in settling their orthography, it would be expected
that, in the outset of their language, much that was
incorrect, inaccurate, and crude in the spelling of
words, in the judgment and taste of their more
cultivated descendants, would necessarily exist.
In the progress of time, therefore, and of the culti¬
vation of the English mind, as might have been an¬
ticipated, the orthography of the language improved
in its more general conformity to its orthoepy; in
its freedom from superfluous letters and syllables;
and in its more general observance of its etymo¬
logical principles, and of the analogies of words.
All language, from the depressed intellectual
condition of the people with whom it begins, must,
in its early history, necessarily be exceedingly
defective in its orthography and orthoepy. These
require for their perfection the lights of science and
cultivated taste, and that not of one age merely,
but, perhaps, of a succession of ages. The English
118 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
language began, not only under the disadvantages
common to the early condition of all others, hut
with the additional difficulty of being compounded
of different languages, each of which had its own
distinctive standard in these departments, which,
while it had to be altered sufficiently to conform it,
as far as might be, to the general resultant stand¬
ard of the new composite language, required, even
in this process of alteration and adaptation, a re¬
cognition of the principles upon which itself was
founded. In both of these departments, therefore,
the English language was uncommonly defective.
Its standards of pronunciation were as various as
the sources from which the language sprung.
"Words and syllables of different spelling even now
observe no regular rules of orthoepy. Doubt and
uncertainty prevail everywhere. Without any ac¬
knowledged, uniform standard, the largest section
of the language is, in this respect, susceptible of a
variety of modes of pronunciation, each of which
may be defended by the authority of some lexi¬
cographer of acknowledged claims. Foreigners
complain of this glaring defect, and find it one of
the most formidable difficulties to the acquisition
of the language. Improvement in this direction
has not corresponded with that of other features of
our tongue. For this, several reasons may be
THE ENGLISH LANG U, AGE. 119
assigned. Pronunciation being botb a habit and a
fashion, and constantly of public use, any change
in it, as being more difficult and violent, will be
necessarily slow in its operation. Again, involving,
as it does, principles of euphony, th6 fancy and
taste of men will seek their indulgence in the
adoption of standards, which among different men
will be inevitably various. And further, in respect
to all words of foreign, source, the tendency has
been not to anglicize the pronunciation, but, from
a feeling too often merely pedantic, to retain the
original pronunciation, thereby extending and per¬
petuating the prevailing evil.
In the orthography of the language, a more
rapid improvement may be justly anticipated; as
the causes to which it is indebted may be expected
to be operative in the ratio of intellectual and
scientific cultivation. There has been, though ad¬
mitted to be slow, some gradual improvement in
the important particular of orthoepy. The learned
Walker and Hares, and others,, have contributed
much to this department of the language. The
critical and discriminating taste which is destined
to prevail will both observe any radical defect and
demand its rectification, while the class of profound
intellects devoted to the subject of philology, with
120 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
the lights of the future, will gradually approximate
a uniform standard, and. incline the masses to its
observance.
The tendency to retain the original pronunciation
of words of foreign source will be the most serious
barrier to this improvement. The number of these
constantly imported, and consequently referable to
opposing standards of pronunciation, is now great,
and, from the extent and intimacy of our interna¬
tional associations, is destined to become constantly
greater. It is the want of reflection, and too often
the love of vain ostentation, that has given such
general currency to an absurd and mischievous rule.
The object of the introduction of these words, as
respects any benefit to the language, is to obtain a
more direct and expressive medium for certain ideas
than is already afforded. But it is the words that
accomplish this, and not any particular form of their
pronunciation; and an adherence to this rule neces¬
sarily both limits and retards this benefit, since it
makes more difficult the general adoption and use
of such terms. "When a word is incorporated into
a language, it has not been adopted because of any
special respect for the language from which it may
have been drawn, but because it was believed to be
a useful addition, and that it would subserve a
valuable purpose.
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 121
There is, therefore, no obligation to retain the
original pronunciation, hut rather self-respect de¬
mands a conformity, in this particular, to the genius
of the language adopting it, especially when such
conformity, hy securing uniformity, will promote
the simplicity, the convenience, the beauty, and the
scientific character of the language.
The destiny of the English language is a pleasing
subject of contemplation, and exhibits in a striking
degree the importance of all suitable efforts to per¬
fect it. The great depository of the records of the
purest religion on earth; the prevailing tongue of
all who profess and of all who support that
religion; the great considerations which show
that that religion is destined to prevail over the
earth, and which authorize the inference that those
who profess and support it are to be the grand in¬
struments in the consummation of that glorious
event, all justify the belief that the English tongue
is destined to a wide-spread if not universal diffusion.
The mission of the Anglo-Saxon race is unques¬
tionably one of world-wide moral and intellectual
reformation. Its relative position to the other races
of the earth, and the spirit and facilities for its
universal spread by the vast machinery of coloniza¬
tion, even now enjoyed, show that this great end is
to be reached not so much by the elevation of
(>
122
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
existing races, but ratber by their supplantation,
and the establishment in their stead of those, how¬
ever modified in blood, by amalgamation and
aboriginal admixture, yet possessing the spirit,
the institutions, and the tongue of the Anglo-Saxon
original.
The language itself has a peculiar potency in the
great work of elevation. Enclosing, as it does, the
accumulated stores of past wisdom, the richest and
amplest fund of knowledge in all the departments
of human interest yet collected; the prevailing
tongue already of the noblest, most active, most
enterprising, and most extended of all the races of
the earth—wherever it goes it opens up at once the
intellectual treasures it has been so long gathering,
furnishing freely and without delay the means of
mature intellectual and national growth, and, by the
character and extent of the associations it immedi¬
ately secures, at once elevating the views and
springing the energies and enterprise of the people
to the grandest schemes, to the noblest career of
elevation and achievement.
The peculiar mode by which it was originally
formed, the particular period in the world's history
in which it has arisen, so peculiarly adapted among
those who speak it to power and extended influence,
its striking and singular capabilities for accommo-
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
123
elation to all stages of intellectual growth, and for
such expansion and improvement as might suit the
purposes of intellect, however exalted, and of know¬
ledge, however vast—all authorize and vindicate
the anticipation^ of an extraordinary' and glorious
destiny yet awaiting the English tongue.
124
german philosophy.
IV. — GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
German Philosophy, with the purpose which it is
subserving in the great scheme of human progress,
is hut imperfectly understood among us, even by
leading minds. Much is said of its intangible,
mystical, impracticable character; and much is
said of its tendency to undermine faith in the
Christian religion, and especially those interpre¬
tations and forms of it that are evangelical and
saving. But the views of most in regard to it are
evidently superficial and partial; and there are but
few who seem to have grasped its true meaning,
and the relation it sustains, and is destined to
sustain, to the intellectual and moral forces of the
world.
Germany has been distinguished, particularly for
the last one hundred years, for the intensely reflect¬
ive and philosophic cast of its leading mind; as
shown in the profound researches of its philoso¬
phers in the region of abstract speculative thought,
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
125
and in tlie profound and critical learning of its
scholars, and the original methods of their in¬
quiries. While during the same period the original
mind of other countries has been directed into
more practical channels, having for its object for
the most part the discovery of physical laws, and
their application to the arts and uses of life, or
else the unfolding of the great laws of social and
political progress, and their application to man's
individual and social elevation, the German mind
seems to have been absorbed in its own purely
reflective processes, turned in upon itself to work
out the great abstract problems of God, of man,
and of the universe; or else to have been purely
critical in its operations, devoted to inquiries into
the learning of the past, and by the application of
methods new, and of its own origination, eliminat¬
ing errors, and presenting to the world new and origi¬
nal fruits of unequalled research and perfected scho¬
larship. In short, while, in all this period, the
intellectual energies of all the other more ad¬
vanced communities have been specifically directed
to the material progress of man, to the accumulation
and enlargement of his external resources, the
German intellect seems to have devoted itself
mainly to metaphysical philosophy, to those im¬
material departments of thought, of speculation,
126
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
and of mysticism, which belong exclusively to
man's intellectual nature, and to an ideal world.
Several causes have conspired to give this direc¬
tion to the mind of Germany.
It is a fact which, from its universality, may he
regarded as a fixed law, that of all the original,
elementary races that now enter into the popula¬
tion of the world, not one has in itself and by
itself all the various elements of a conrplete mind
in harmonious and symmetrical proportions. While
each of these primal races lias, in a degree greater
or less, all the various characteristics which enter
into a perfect mind, yet in every one of them there
is such a disproportionate development of some one
class of these characteristics, as to make it distinct¬
ive of it, and give it a controlling influence in
determining the mental aptitudes and tendencies
of that race. The Teutonic race, for example, is
characterized by an excess of the reflective or
metaphysical element; the Gallic, or, more pro¬
perly, the Celtic, by an excess of the ideal or
aesthetic element. And just in proportion as we
are able by the lights of history to resolve the
present composite races into their original elements,
so as to examine each by itself, will we find the
statement borne out, that to each of these elemental
races there belonged some mental trait which
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
127
absorbed and predominated over all tbe rest, and
gave to it an unbalanced, perverted intellectual
development. Tbe mind of eacb pure unmixed
race is always an unbalanced mind, tbe result of
a disproportionate or excessive manifestation of
some one class of faculties. Indeed, all perfection
or completeness of mind is tbe result of tbe rigbt
amalgamation of races—is tbe development only
of a composite race. Tbat combination of all tbe
faculties of a complete mind tbat is symmetrical
and proportionate, and wbicb presents tbat mental
development tbat is most perfect and most desi¬
rable, is only obtained by a fortunate union of
races. God, it seems, never intended to realize a
perfected mental structure in any of tbe primal,
elementary races of men; but merely regarding
tbese as constituent, integral parts of a perfect
whole, contemplated tbat perfection of mental
development, wbicb it entered into bis design
gradually and ultimately to secure in bis creature
man, only by such combinations of these races as,
under tbe guidance of his providence, might
gradually and ultimately ensue. As under tbe
system of Divine administration the law of pro¬
gress obtains in tbe great work of reducing man to
tbe dominion of God, so it is intended that, by
means of this law of race-amalgamation, a law of
128
GEE MAN PHILOSOPHY.
progress should likewise obtain in the improve¬
ment and perfection of the inherent, original struc¬
ture of the mind itself of man. So that the glory
of the millennial day, and the ultimate triumph of
grace, shall consist, not merely in the universal
prevalence of the kingdom of Christ, hut likewise
in its prevalence over mind, which, by the provi¬
dence of God, has been everywhere gradually ad¬
vancing to an exalted and, hitherto, unrealized
degree of symmetry and perfection. The English,
or, more properly, the American race, is the last
and highest advance that has yet been made in this
great providential scheme of progress in the per¬
fection of the original mind of the race, by means
of this law of amalgamation. It is a conrpound
of several distinct races; and therefore combines
the distinctive characteristics of several, making
the English, or rather the Anglo-Saxon mind,
better balanced, more full and symmetrical in its
development, than any other that has preceded it.
The Teutonic race, however, is, of all the races now
known, the one possessing, in the highest degree,
that class of faculties which find their natural
expression in abstract philosophy. It is by emi¬
nence the metaphysical race of the world. It is
the element imparted by it to the English com¬
posite race, that has given rise to whatever of pro-
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
129
found thought English mind has originated. It is
to it that Anglo-Saxon civilization is indebted for
the profound element which existed in the mind
of Ilobbes, of Bacon, of Hartley, of Hutcheson, of
Hewton, of Locke, of Hume, of Jonathan Edwards,
of Eeid, and, indeed, of any other of its wTriters
who have evinced great power of philosophic
thought. But the German people are of the Teu¬
tonic race almost exclusively. The immediate de¬
scendants of that race, and having always main¬
tained, from various causes, in a remarkable de¬
gree, a state of isolation from all other races, its
original mind has been but little interfered with or
modified by this great law of amalgamation; but
has been, in a wonderful manner, perpetuated in
its primal purity. It is, then, but in virtue of its
original native constitution, that German mind
should be deficient in those faculties which lead to
practical life, and that it should develop those
highly reflective tendencies, that patient plodding
temper, which incline it to the fields of philosophy
and criticism.
But this tendency of German mind to those
departments of intellectual exertion in which it has
been distinguished, growing out of an original
constitutional bias, has been greatly encouraged
and fostered by specific facts in German history.
G*
130 GEEMAN PHILOSOPHY.
Bacon and Descartes have unquestionably largely
influenced the leading direction of the human mind
in all countries which have shared in modern civili¬
zation. The impress made by their philosophic
methods and spirit, has determined the destiny of
well-nigh all active mind of modern times. The
philosophy of Bacon, having in view purely practi¬
cal results, by reason of his local position, and the
natural congeniality of English mind with the
spirit of that philosophy, readily incorporated itself
with English modes of thought; and has been a
chief instrument in infusing that practical, utili¬
tarian element into Anglo-Saxon civilization, which
has in so marked a degree distinguished it. The
philosophy of Descartes, which was in a high degree
ideal and subjective in its character, by reason of his
continental position, and the more metaphysical
tendencies of central Europe, very naturally dif¬
fused itself among the thinkers of that region—very
naturally spread itself over German civilization;
and, to the extent of this result, encouraged and
enhanced its already idealistic and metaphysical
spirit—intensifying its already decided proclivi¬
ties to such intellectual pursuits as are abstract
rather than concrete, as are speculative rather than
practical. There was another reason which con¬
tributed to make more certain the prevalence of
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
131
tlie Descartean methods of philosophy over con¬
tinental Europe. "While the inevitable effect of the
spirit of Baconian philosophy was progress—positive
amelioration and advancement in the social state,
the Descartean methods, like the scholasticism of
the schoolmen, though furnishing in some sense
free scope to the human mind, and a suitable field
wherein any irrepressible desire of it to find freedom
and enlargement might develop itself, yet was of so
purely an ideal, abstract character, was so entirely
alienated from all those objects and aims that are in
their nature practical' and tangible, that its most
perfect impress upon the public mind could never
lead to any thing like actual movement—to any
thing like sensible progress, either in the actual
enlightenment of a people, or in their social state.
The spirit of Papacy, therefore, which largely
reigned even in Germany, arrayed, as it always has
been, against the spirit of progress, and favoring,
as it always has favored, every expedient which
tends to keep society passive, and satisfied with its
existing state, as between these two forms of mental,
activity, naturally inclined to the rejection of the
Baconian, and to the adoption of such policy as
would give prevalence to the more cold, less
quickening system of the French philosopher.
Indeed, this papal spirit, which has largely pre-
132
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
vailed even through, the Germanic States, has been,
in itself, one of the causes which have directly
contributed to give the German mind this powerful
metaphysical or idealistic tendency. Putting its
ban, as has always been its policy, upon all such
intellectual tendencies as lead to positive Improve¬
ment in social and practical life—knowing that such
improvement always opens the way for more en¬
lightened views of religion—it has brought its
powerful instrumentalities to bear to shut up the
irrepressible activities of the German mind to the
field of mere abstract investigation; and the only
alternative left it was to betake itself to that barren,
unproductive region.
The university system, which has prevailed in
Germany to an extent and 011 a scale more ample
and complete than in any other country in the
world, has had something to do in imparting this
intensely reflective, philosophic cast to German
intellect. Neither in Great Britain, nor in the
United States, does there obtain what is properly
termed a system of university education. Oxford
and Cambridge universities are nothing more than
an assemblage of distinct colleges, in which the
tutorial system mainly obtains, and in which the
course of study is but little more full or protracted
than in our own American colleges. In Germany,
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
133
however, they have their gymnasia, which corre¬
spond with the colleges in this country and Great
Britain, having the same course of study, and
prosecuting it about the same length of time; and,
supplementary to these, their universities, which
require a course through the gymnasia, or some¬
thing equivalent, as preparatory to them; and in
which learned lectures 011 the various departments
of knowledge, by the most learned men of their
country, are statedly given, the amplest facilities in
the way of books and apparatus are furnished, and
where scholars and authors continually reside for
the convenience of study and the literary advan¬
tages afforded; institutions, indeed, which begin
their course where that of our colleges leaves oft*
and to which young men of extensive previous
training and mature mind can resort to prosecute,
under the most favorable circumstances, and with
the greatest possible advantages, their studies to
any extent they may deem desirable, and in such
field as their interest or taste may suggest. These
conditions fulfil the ideal of a university proper;
and they are found nowhere else in such combina¬
tion and such fulness as in the prominent univer¬
sities of Germany.
It is true that these higher institutions of learn¬
ing, and this advanced educational system, are, in
134
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
fact, in some sense, but an effect of an already
profound intellectual development, and necessarily
imply it; yet, in enumerating the causes of that
deeply philosophical tendency so manifest in the
German mind, it would be a glaring omission not
to.mention as one of them the all-pervading, power¬
ful influence of their university system. This has
contributed to this result in two ways:
First, By the extension which it has given to the
period of mental discipline, and to the learned
acquirements of the student. It must be evident
that, if the object be to infuse a profounder element
into civilization, to impart to it a more philosophic,
thoughtful cast, "to bring into bolder relief the
higher, more reflective mental powers, it can be
accomplished by no method, so directly and suc¬
cessfully, as by that process of mental discipline,
during the educational career, which is decided and
thorough, and which is made so by a protracted
process of training, and by the persistent contact
of the mind with great and various truth. The
mind of a people will cease to be superficial, and
take on the philosophic type, just in proportion to
the thoroughness and extent of their educational
system. "Whatever it may be that decides the
employments, or the precise social circumstances
of a people, it is their educational status that
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
135
determines the measure of their intellectual power,
and the amount of the higher intellectual nature
they develop. These universities, therefore, carry¬
ing forward the educational process that much
beyond the elevation reached in English and
American institutions, and extending the period
of mental discipline and of mental furniture that
much farther, must have had a decided influence in
imparting that element of profundity, of severe,
philosophic thought peculiar to German philoso¬
phers and thinkers.
Secondly, By the opportunities which it affords
to authors. There are two advantages which, if
enjoyed by authors and literary men, will power¬
fully tend to intensify and deepen their intellectual
operations.
First, That their pecuniary support be obtained
in such way that they can be free to devote
themselves, without hindrance or interruption, to
their chosen pursuits. Men may become good
scholars, and write good books, and yet have their
attention divided by the necessities of personal and
family support; but to write profoundly, to carry
on those protracted meditations and reasonings
involved in the elaboration of profound philosophic
systems, in the unfolding of new and difficult philo¬
sophic theories, or in maintaining well - sustained
136
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
discussions in any department of far-reacliing, com¬
prehensive thought, the mind must not only he
undisturbed by such material business and care as
are involved in. making provision for pecuniary
sitpport, but must have its time unbroken and
undivided, as only it can have when relieved from
all concern in reference to such support. The
German universities, through their ample endow¬
ments, and the liberal patronage of government,
afford advantages, in this respect, to their authors
and thinkers such as are enjoyed perhaps in no
other country. Their learned or higher instruc¬
tion class may be regarded as disconnected from
the business world, from the cares of actual practi¬
cal life, in a sense and to a degree unknown in any
other country. And it is a circumstance that has
greatly facilitated the production of those remark¬
able works which have distinguished Germany,
and that has had much to do in promoting that
speculative tendency so characteristic of. German
intellect.
The second advantage which, if enjoyed by authors,
will tend to impart an element of depth to intellect
aud intellectual investigation, is the privilege of
constant access to the most extended libraries, and
all other collections calculated to afford light to the
learned inquirer, and of constant association with
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
137
congenial spirits engaged in similar pursuits. This
advantage will 'contribute to thoroughness of intel¬
lectual research, and, therefore, to develop the
profounder elements of mind, because it will afford
to the mind every possible auxiliary, every class of
assistance from without, which it can appropriate;
and because it places the mind in just such circum¬
stances as secure to it the stimulus best adapted to
encourage and to sustain its most powerful efforts.
But these universities in Germany have afforded her
literati, and especially those of her writers who have
contributed most to determine her intellectual
character, this advantage in high degree. Around
them are clustered its thinkers and its scholars; and
in their precincts are to be found all the advantages
which flow from the social combinations of this
class. And in their libraries and museums, through
? O
the munificence of their patrons, have been collected
the choicest literary treasures of the world.
In many important respects, therefore, the uni¬
versity system of Germany has largely contributed
to develop the higher intellect of her greatest men;
and accounts for that peculiar philosophic element
which has distinguished her philosophy and her
philosophers.
The products of German intellect, as respects the
purposes we have in view, may be reduced to three
138
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
classes : 1. Those that refer to history and classical
learning. 2. Those that treat of the science of the
mind. 3. Those that refer in a sense more or less
direct to Christianity and religion in general. It is
the third class, perhaps, which has attracted most
attention from the reading world; and constitutes
what has been designated " German Philosophy."
There are in man two great inlets of knowledge.
Reason was given him, in virtue of which he may
deduce for himself conclusions on all subjects the
nature of which allows of his possessing the neces¬
sary premises or data. Put man is a finite being,
and there is consequently a sphere of knowledge
whose premises are necessarily outside of his reason,
and which, if he ever embraces, it must be upon
evidence extrinsic to itself. And this second mode
of admitting truth into the mind is faith. Row
Christian revelation, whether considered with refer¬
ence to its authenticity or its contents, is made up
of these two distinct classes of knowledge: First,
that which human reason, from premises attainable
by itself, is fully competent to grasp; and, second,
that which, being above human reason, can only be
received on authority extrinsic; that is, by faith.
"With these facts in view, it is not difficult to perceive
that there are three different attitudes which the
human mind, in sitting in judgment upon the claims
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
139
and contents of the Christian Scriptures, may as¬
sume: 1. An attitude of superiority, which subjects
them to its own authority, and accepts nothing which
it does not thoroughly master. 2. An attitude of
humility, such as virtually ignores its own light and
every other source of light—however merely col¬
lateral and subordinate. 3. An attitude mediate
between these two, which, while it is reverent and
humble, yet assumes the validity of reason, and the
necessity of its use even in the acceptance that is
given to Divine revelation. In the first of these
methods of viewing the Sacred Scriptures, reason
is every thing and faith is nothing. In the second,
faith is every thing and reason is nothing. And in
the last, both reason and faith are regarded as being
addressed, and as having parts to perform in a
proper apprehension and interpretation of these
Divine subjects.
It is the third method, in which reason and faith
are properly combined, that secures the right appre¬
hension, the right appreciation, and the right inter¬
pretation of Divine revelation. All right religious
belief, all true evangelical religion, rest upon and
imply these two elements in right combination and
adjustment. Any disturbance in their just balance,
whether the preponderance be upon the one side or
the other, manifests itself at once in a defective
140
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
•apprehension and embracement of revealed truth.
And' just as numerous as are the various shades of
disturbance of this adjustment, from the extreme
of an utter repudiation of the faith element and
the erection of reason as supreme on the one hand,
to that of an utter abandonment of the element of
reason and the erection of blind faith as supreme
on the other, so numerous and various are the false
or defective creeds of men. The presence of reason
without faith gives rationalism or infidelity. The
presence of faith without reason gives mysticism,
fanaticism, bigotry, and bitter, malignant exclusive-
ness. And between these extremes there is a
tendency to the one or the other of these classes
of results, just as it is reason or faith that is in the
ascendant.
hTow the history of man shows that it has always
been difficult to maintain in the individual con¬
sciousness this just equipoise between these two
great elementary powers of the mind, and that
there has always been a tendency unduly to stress
and to become absorbed by the one or the other.
And just in-proportion as this tendency has mani¬
fested itself, (if wo except such opposition to Chris¬
tianity as proceeds from sickly sentimentalism, as
in Eousseau and Shelley, or from rancorous hate,
as in Thomas Paine and Byron,) has been the
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
141
measure of the prevailing skepticism, or of false
"biblical interpretation.
That one of these extremes in which the validity
of reason is repudiated, and faith alone, yea, blind
faith, is employed in reference to the Bible and the
general subject of religion, all must admit is the
excess of what would seem to be a commendable
state of the mind—is an error that leans to virtue's
side. It has its origin in a fault not uncommon to
good men—the disposition to take an exaggerated
and extreme view of principles that are in them¬
selves sound, namely, the insufficiency and unworthi-
ness of all that is human or natural on the one
hand, and the supreme reverence that is due to all
that is Divine on the other. But the true view is
this: God has, in fact, revealed himself through
various media—through human reason, through
nature, through his providence, and through his
Spirit, as well as through the Scriptures. And
while the last-mentioned revelation must be regarded
as tire all-controlling, the fullest, the most compre¬
hensive, the most definite, and in every sense the
most perfect, yet in interpreting any one of these,
even the last, it must not be considered in itself and
by itself, but under the joint light of them all. It
must be remembered that God never does super¬
fluous work, and that, therefore, having chosen to
142 GEEMAN PHILOSOPHY..
reveal himself through various subordinate chan¬
nels, as well as through the medium of his own
word, he intends not that any one of these shall
supersede or make unnecessary -the rest, hut that
all shall he taken together as necessary to a* perfect
whole, and that none shall he rightly interpreted
and perfectly understood except as it is considered
in the light of all. As, in interpreting the Bihle
itself, each part must he construed in the light of
all the other parts, and all must be understood in
order to the fullest, most perfect apprehension of
any, so, while the Bihle is necessary rightly to
interpret nature, reason, the impressions of the
Spirit, and the revelations of Providence, these latter
are themselves all equally necessary to a full and
proper apprehension of the Sacred Scriptures.
The consequences which have resulted from this
exclusive monopoly of the faith element in matters
of religion — from this repudiation of all other
lights in the spirit of a blind, unreasoning faith in
the contents of Christian revelation—have been, in
many respects unfortunate and disastrous. They
may he reduced to not less than four classes:
1. A profound, all-controlling spirit of bigotry—
of vain, contracted exclusiveness and intolerance;
that portion of the creed of any Church, or of in¬
dividuals of any Church, which claims for that
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
143
CliurcTi exclusive Divine right, and exclusive excel¬
lence, and unchurches all other ecclesiastical
organizations. Such views of Scripture as lead to
these conclusions and results are the offspring of
modes Of biblical hermeneutics that ignore reason,
the lights of common' sense, of history, of observa¬
tion, and experience; are the offspring of a blind
faith, unchastened and uncontrolled, which is
regardless of the consequences and conclusions to
which it leads, which never allows of the correcting,
moulding influence of any other sources of light in
the interpretations given or the conclusions deduced.
Now, who that has not denied to reason its rightful
offices in his views of Divine truth, and has not
given himself wholly to a mere unreasoning, irra¬
tional faith in religious dogmas, could shut his
eyes against those facts which show that piety,
that Christian enterprise, that efficiency and success
in the great work of redeeming and elevating
society "and evangelizing the world—that all the
great results had in view in the institution of
the Christian system, are found in other Churches
as well as his own, and that all the characteristic
marks of God's seal and approbation are as obvious
in the operations of other Churches as they are in
those of his own, and could in spite of all these
indications, and consequently all the teachings of
144
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
common sense and all just reasoning as to the
general purport of Christian revelation, and as to
the aims and ends of Christian revelation, solemnly
conclude that there was no true Church but his
own, that all else is out of order, out of duty, and
unsanctioned of Heaven?
2. Those rigid notions of Christian morality and
Christian manners which show themselves under
various phases, as ultraism, as fanaticism, as asceti¬
cism, or monastic austerity—elements of Puritan¬
ism existing in the past perhaps more than now,
and which have not been without manifestation
even in Methodism. These are but the fruits of
a zeal without knowledge—the results of a faith
in the Bible's teachings, which, though strong
and full, is undiscriminating, unenlightened,
and unaided by those additional lights of reason
and observation, without which the true meaning
and scope of those teachings can never be ade¬
quately apprehended. These, in short, are but
the legitimate sequences of that mode of viewing
the Scriptures, of that mental attitude in relation
to tlie Scriptures, in which the proper balance
between reason and faith is destroyed, and the
former is denied its appointed and appropriate
sphere of action.
3. Those interpretations of prophecy, and espe-
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
145
cially of that prophecy referring to tlie Millennium,
now so generally engaging the attention of the
Christian world. The hooks and essays that have
heen written, the discourses that have been de¬
livered, the time and thought that have heen
bestowed in attempts to arrive at the literal mean-
ing of prophecies in regard to the second coming
of Christ, and to set forth and establish theories of
the Millennium, constitute a remarkable pheno¬
menon in the religious history of man. And the
various discordant opinions that have heen held,
the number of incongruous theories that have heen
propounded, and the many failures in human calcu¬
lations upon these subjects, which time itself has
demonstrated, mark the fanaticism of all such
studies, and the folly of all such constructions of
Bible teaching as would make it unfold secrets
intended for the present to he hidden from view.
The amount of damage to the cause of true
religion which has resulted from the attention
which has heen given to these studies, it would be
difficult to calculate. In themselves they constitute
a field of inquiry which was never intended to
engross the Christian mind; the design of prophecy
being to afford in its constant progress of fulfilment
an accumulative argument of the truth of revelation, a
constantly developing argument of the ever-abiding,
7
146 GERMAN -PHILOSOPHY.
ever-active presence of the Divine Being with the
affairs of the world, and in the history of the
Church, and also, by the dim light which it throws
out upon the future, to furnish a basis and a
direction for such hopes and such faith, as to the
future, as human' nature needs to animate and
guide its exertions; and not, as these fanatical
views imply, to invest the mind of man with that
species of omniscience by which the future, in its
minute and various detail, might become a subject
of knowledge adequate to satisfy a mere prying
curiosity, but without power to confer benefit either
upon the faith or the moral nature of the inquirer.
It is essential to prophecy that it be invested with
elements of dimness and mystery, that its details
should lie out of the sphere of man's possible know¬
ledge, since prophecy can be adequate to subserve
its own great purposes in the scheme of God only
as the evidence is indubitable that its fulfilment is
not the work of man, but of God—evidence which
the discriminating inquirer never can have upon
any plan which, by allowing man to forecast the
fulfilment, gives plausibility to the plea that he, by
his own voluntary agency, provided for and secured
its accomplishment. There are prophecies in the
Revelation of St. John which are descriptive of
scenes and transactions that await us in heaven.
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
147
But who supposes that God intended by these any
thing more than to convey that dim outline which
would be sufficient to encourage our faith, and to
stimulate those desires for that happy home which,
constituted and surrounded as we are in this life,
are necessary as helps to stability and faithfulness ?
"Who supposes that by these prophecies it was ever
intended to gratify a vain and profitless curiosity as
to the precise state and employments of heaven ?
Who supposes that by these revelations it was
intended that faith should be swept away by actual
knowledge ? And yet if it be competent for us to
anticipate the details of prophecy yet to be fulfilled
in the case of the Millennium, why is it not com¬
petent for us to foreknow the precise import of that
which is to have its fulfilment in heaven ? These
classes of prophecy are both equally in the book,
and are both equally subject to our study and in¬
vestigation.
These studies that have for their object a minute
prognosis of millennial prophecies, which in modern
times have engaged so much of the attention of the
Christian world, are harmful 011 other accounts.
They constitute a field of investigation in which
time and talent the most precious have been sadly
wasted. And not merely has this negative disad¬
vantage resulted from them: they are, in fact,
148
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
positively demoralizing. As far as they engross
attention, they divert the mind from the true issues
of the soul—from those interests which really
concern the individual man, from those actual
results involved in his purification and elevation,
and by which he is made a more capable and
efficient laborer in the vineyard around him—and
that, too, into a field barren and unproductive, and
only fit to satisfy the cravings of a vain curiosity,
or to give room for the excesses of a vicious fanati¬
cism. Their tendency, too, is to become all-engross¬
ing, and hence to lead to one-ideaism and to wild
extravagance, to occasion the neglect of the more
vital departments of the Christian system, to give
speciousness to skepticism, and to promote unbelief.
blow it is because the lights of common sense, of
just reasoning, and of experience, are virtually
abandoned—in other words, it is because of a mode
of viewing the contents of the Bible ih which reason
is denied its rightful offices, that the mind is ever
brought thus engrossingly to pry into these hidden
matters, and to such extravagance of conjecture
and conclusion. If reason were allowed its right¬
ful place, and all the various channels of truth were
allowed their full current of hearing in discovering
the teachings of God's word, things of more press¬
ing moment would absorb attention, and this vain
GERMAN" PHILOSOPHY.
149
curiosity, this wild fanaticism, would find no sphere
for exercise, and this entire department of subjects
would attract only so much notice as is necessary to
secure to them their intended influence and effect.
4. Partial and inadequate views of Christian
experience and of Christian instrumentality. First,
That Christian experience consists merely in certain
frames of feeling, certain moods of mind, a cer¬
tain class of sentiments, or in a rigid observance of
certain forms and rules of manner, rather than in a
living faith demonstrated by good works. Second,
That Christian instrumentality repudiates all second¬
ary or subordinate agency, all machinery of human
arrangement, however potent it in fact may be,
when sanctified, to ameliorate and elevate the con¬
dition of man. These contracted views, evidently
the offspring of a reverence for the word of God,
unillumined by those broad conceptions of truth
which a right reason, applying itself to the study
of the Sacred Scriptures, would impart—evidently
the offspring of that attitude of the mind toward
the revelation of the Bible, in which, while faith
and reverence are active, reason is comparatively
dormant—have been and are yet by no means
uncommon. And while they often result in a
species of unhealthy enthusiasm and morbid fana¬
ticism that are in themselves hurtful, they at the
150
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
same time present some of the greatest barriers
which the Christian religion now encounters in the
right expression of itself, in the experience and
history of the Church, and in the development of
that machinery now so essentially necessary to
right efficiency and success. Existing as they do
in the bosom of the Church, and resulting as they
do from modes of apprehension that are religious
in themselves, there is an inclination among good
men in this day, when the tendency is rather to the
other extreme of rationalism, to treat them with a
forbearance and indulgence that only enhances their
influence in antagonizing the progress of the
Church.
But, though it is undeniable that that mental
attitude toward the Scriptures—that mode of view¬
ing the Scriptures in which faith is every thing,
and reason is comparatively dormant—does prac¬
tically exist, and is productive of no little harm, yet
it must be admitted that it is the extreme by no
means the most common ; and that, conservative as
it is of the essential religious element, and holding
fast, as it does, even in its excesses, to that class of
truth which is essentially religious, it never can do
unmitigated harm. At all times, and especially in
an age which has much difficulty in preserving its
evangelical character, it has much to extenuate it.
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
151
It is just tlie other extreme, the one in whicli reason
is every thing and faith nothing, to which there has
always, in all enlightened countries, been most
tendency, and which is now doing more than all
else to obstruct the development and progress of
right religion in the world. It has been in Ger-
© ©
many, perhaps, that this extreme has exhibited
itself most, and where the practical results of it are
most apparent.
There are two ways by which this state of mind,
in which reason has absorbed faith and become
supreme, may be brought about: either directly by
giving an excessive preponderance to the mere
reasoning function itself, or indirectly by paralyz¬
ing the element of faith. In Germany this balance
has been destroyed by both methods. The intensely
reflective power which German intellect has devel¬
oped has absorbed all other of its attributes; so
that there is not only an inevitable tendency in the
reasoning or philosophic powers to bring themselves
into action 011 all subjects to which the intellect
addresses itself, but likewise to monopolize all intel¬
lectual exercise by superseding or shutting off the
modifying, corrective action of all the other powers.
In other words, speculative faculties are made
supreme, not simply because of that mental law
which makes most active and constant the develop-
152
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
ment and use of those faculties which themselves
are the most vigorous and prominent, hut likewise
hecanse of that other law which makes feehle and
inefficient the action of those other faculties that
are relatively weak and limited.
But reason in the German mind has come to
supplant faith, and is supreme in the attitude which
it assumes towards the contents of the Sacred
Scriptures, not merely because of its own excessive
prominence, but indirectly because of influences
that have tended to paralyze the elementary power
of faith itself. In order that fliith, in respect of
Christian revelation, and reverence, which is the
basis of faith, may have their suitable development,
it is necessary, or, at least, it is important that those
a priori conceptions, those preconceived views of the
Christian religion which have a place in the mind
as the result of education or of observation, be
favorable to at least an impartial investigation of
the claims and contents of the Christian system.
That faith in the Bible may not be forestalled in
the very outset, it is necessary that the mind should
come to it, not as looking down upon it, not as a
superior, but with a sentiment of reverence and
submissiveness such as is inspired by a conscious¬
ness that it possibly, nay, probably, may be true—a
sentiment which, as thus incorporated in the very
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
153
structure and habit of the mind, can be generated
only as tbe result of a favorable early education, or
of favorable associations. But in Germany, while
tbe public mind is Protestant enough to be cut off
from such a process for tbe cultivation of reverence
for sacred things as Papal sway might employ, and
is allowed scope for free and independent action,
yet deprived, as it always has been, of all direct
communion with genuine Protestant countries, and
in close contact with French Catholic civilization,
and by position in close contact with Romanism in
all its various forms of manifestation, it has always
been just such aspects and just such representations
of tbe Christian system that it has been educated
in tbe midst of and accustomed to observe as are
revolting and absurd to every independent thinker.
And hence, so far from tbe silent educational
process, tbe scenes and associations spontaneously
pressing upon tbe general mind, being favorable to
tbe cultivation of that underlying sentiment upon
which faith in reference to sacred truth depends,
they are all just of that character effectually to
forestall even its existence itself. Allowed to think
in great degree'independently, and yet from position
shut up to such observations of tbe practical work¬
ing of tbe Christian system as give no favorable
view of its character or claims, it is not surprising—
154
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
indeed, it could hardly be otherwise than inevitable
—that the German mind should come to the investi¬
gation of this system without reverence for it, should
approach it as it would a mere human production,
should have such views in the very outset—such
preconceived views — as would deny all place to
submissiveness and faith, and as would consign it,
as a subject to be considered, to the umpire of reason
alone.
It has been then in both ways by causes which
have intensified the action of reason 011 the one
hand, and by causes which have weakened and
depressed the element of faith on the other, that in
Germany this right combination of these two great
primal powers has been destroyed. And it is
because these disturbing agencies have existed there
to an extent and in a degree found nowhere else,
that this maladjustment lias been so extreme, and
has manifested itself in those results of mischief
that have made German Philosophy dreaded and
despised by the enlightened Christian world.
This attitude in relation to the Christian Scrip¬
tures, in which reason is every thing, and faith is
nothing, necessarily leads to the rejection of what¬
ever is supernatural in the Christian system. It is
the office of reason, as has been said, to embrace
that, and that only, the premises of which lie within
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
155
its own spliere. But whatever is supernatural is, as
to its full contents, without that sphere, being cog¬
nizable by and answerable only to faith. Hence,
where reason is constituted the only arbiter—is the
only power employed in the conclusions formed—
all that is above it, that is, the Divine, must be
ignored or repudiated. It follows, therefore, that,
under this mode of viewing Christian revelation,
the least unfavorable result that is reached is one in
which all that is evangelical in Christianity is
utterly excluded, and the whole scheme is reduced
to the level of a mere human arrangement. But
reason, which has thus supplanted faith, if it be cul¬
tivated reason, stops not here, but from the pro¬
found depths of its own resources is continually
elaborating theories, in the light of which, and
under the moulding influence of which, as a priori
conclusions, the claims and contents of the Christian
revelation are interpreted, leading to every species
of infidelity, from that which claims for the Chris¬
tian system no more than equal position with other
specific forms of religion, down to that which puts
it into the class of mere myths or fables.
But while in Germany this rationalistic spirit has
obtained, and that to an extent greater than in any
other country, yet it must not be inferred that the
entire mind of Germany has reached this extreme.
156
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
Ill regard to mucli of German mind, it may be said
to be dispersed all along the intermediate points
between this extreme and that which we have
designated as the safe and reliable mean. The
Germans, therefore, considered in relation to the
Christian religion, may be divided into two classes:
First, Those who have reached the point where,
without faith or reverence, all that belongs to Chris¬
tian revelation is subjected to the exclusive authority
of reason, and who, rejecting all that is spiritual or
supernatural, under every variety of mystical, ideal¬
istic, and pantheistic form, give such constructions
to the Christian system as divest it of all efficiency,
and defeat its real aims. At the head of this class
may be mentioned Hegel and Schelling, hi elite and
Strauss, who, though differing in those philosophic
systems in the light of which revelation is con¬
strued, yet agree in the one principle of the supreme
ascendency of the mere reason.
Second, Those who, though not assuming this
extreme attitude, in which reason is every thing
and faith nothing, yet do not have a sufficient
amount of faith to establish the just balance of
these two great elements, and in whom, conse¬
quently, there is in all their judgment of the Chris¬
tian system a decided tendency to rationalism. To
this class belongs nearly the entire German mind
cTekman philosophy.
157
not embraced in tlie other ultra rationalistic or
infidel class. For though there may he .a great
variety of mental attitudes corresponding to the
relative strength of the faith element, yet throughout
all Germany there is, from the causes already men¬
tioned, an undue preponderance of the element of
the reason, so that it may he safely affirmed that
throughout the entire mass of German writers and
thinkers there is a rationalistic tendency. To this
class belong not only those who occupy a position
between the decidedly infidel school on the one
hand, and those who are recognized as the evangeli¬
cal school on the other—as, for example, Schleir-
maclier and others—but those who belong to the
evangelical class itself, as bTeander, Tholuck, and
even Chevalier Bunsen.
blow, while by reason of tlie remarkable balance
and soundness of English and American mind, and
of English ,and American civilization, there is a
guaranty that, if left to themselves, there would be
no spontaneous evolution of a state of mind, no self-
originated mental development from which, as in
German mind, this absolute rationalism, or this
rationalistic tendency, would flow as an inevitable
sequence, yet there are causes now in operation, in
both Great Britain and America, on account of
which, if suitable efforts were made to propagate
158
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
them, these exotics might he readily engrafted, and
become indeed an element of wide-spreading and
most disastrous influence. One of these causes is
found in Socinianism, which, embracing as it does
in its extended sweep various schools of free-think¬
ers, and resting as it does upon a basis of interpre¬
tation which repudiates much that is evangelical,
occupies a position of ready sympathy with German
rationalism, and turns to it as its most easy and
natural consummation. The other of these causes
is found in the utilitarian and strictly positive
tendency so characteristic of both English and
American civilizations. The practical element of
the Anglo-Saxon mind, fostered as it is, especially
in America, by the peculiar demands made upon it,
and by the facilities for material projects and
employments, is beginning to obtain an ascendency
over the faith element, in the same manner as the
speculative faculty has obtained it. in Germany.
Devoted as the general mind is to external life, to
mere practical affairs, the tendency is to reduce all
truth to the standard of the senses, and hence to
enfeeble the capacity upon which a just apprecia¬
tion of the supernatural and evangelical in revela¬
tion depends. And this tendency is enhanced in
America, where, from the prevalence of the popular
element, and the abundance of the means for
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
159
material progress, there is a constant pressure
toward a mere superficial development—toward that
kind of mental culture which fits only for grovel¬
ling utilitarian life, and precludes any specific
adaptation to the higher spiritual characteristics of
the Christian system. And even the higher intel¬
lect of both Great Britain and America has not
altogether escaped this sensational tendency. Par¬
taking of this utilitarian spirit which Baconian
philosophy first infused, and which the circum¬
stances of these countries have been well adapted
to foster, it has devoted itself mainly to material
science, and that too with such exclusive reference
to its positive tangible features as to betray a
tendency on the one hand to erect the teachings of
this science into an authority paramount to that'of
Christian revelation, and on the other to establish
the scientific standard, or, in other words, the
standard of accurate knowledge, as the only test of
truth: a state of things in which faith is necessarilj^
superseded, and with it all that class of elevated
spiritual truth which it is the office of that element
alone to embrace. That there is—owing to specific
characteristics of Anglo-Saxon civilization, and
especially owing to the material circumstances of
the American people — a psychological process
going on gradually, unfitting much of the English
100 GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
and American mind for the high, spiritual charac¬
teristics of the Christian scheme, mnst be obvious
to every close observer. "While in Germany it is
the idealistic or the speculative tendency which has
prostrated faith, in Great Britain and America, and
particularly in the latter, materialism is producing,
to some extent, the same disastrous result. Now,
though this exclusion of the faith element and the
truth to which it refers, which is found complete in
Germany, and to some extent in more Protestant
countries, is to be attributed to different causes—in
Germany to idealism, or an excess of the reflective
in the human mind; and in America to materialism,
or an excess of the perceptive or practical—yet it
will be found that between these two forms of
unbelief, as between all forms of infidelity which
tend to the same specific results, there is a mutual
sympathy, whereby the existence of the one makes
more easy the taking on and the diffusion of the
other. We hold, then, that the prevalence of
materialism in this country, and the rejection of
the spiritual in Christianity, to which it tends, is
a preparation of the public mind which would
greatly facilitate the introduction and prevalence
of German infidel philosophy.
The conclusion then follows, that aside from that
depravity of the human heart which always makes
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
161
it, under favorable circumstances, a fruitful soil for
any of the seeds of infidelity, there are specific
influences abroad wliich would greatly favor, even
in these Protestant countries, the success of efforts
to give currency to the peculiar forms of German
rationalism.
Put this conclusion rests not alone upon a mere
process of reasoning: it is abundantly verified by
fact. There are a few prominent minds which have
been active in introducing the German methods of
philosophy into Great Britain and the United States.
Once introduced, however, they have been rapidly
diffused, and mainly through the causes we have
mentioned as calculated to facilitate this result.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was much of his life
a Unitarian, but who was a man of extraordinary
genius, was, perhaps, the first of British authors of
distinction who called the attention of his country¬
men to the distinctive features of German philo¬
sophy. Since his day, mainly through Unitarian
writers, such as the Martineaus, and sympathizing
infidel writers, such as Thomas Carlyle, and pseudo-
evangelical writers, such as Morell, and more
recently that imposing organ, which holds itself
the convenient representative of every species of
skepticism, the Westminster Beview, German philo¬
sophy has obtained a solid basis on British soil,
11
162
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
and a currency, too, which even now constitutes it
not only one of the most active elements of British
literature, hut a controlling element of all British
skepticism. Once made known, it has been by
every rationalistic tendency, whether existing under
a Christian name or in the ranks of avowed free¬
thinkers, with the utmost eagerness seized upon as
just the system needed to give embodiment and
form to otherwise confused and shapeless views,
and as a furnished basis on which hitherto discor¬
dant, divergent, wandering elements might rally
and form with some hope of unity and unison.
Once made known, it has been as a centre of
attraction, toward which all skeptical affinities have
irresistibly tended—a mighty organism, which has
been potent to mould every thing within its reach
which, from congeniality and adaptation, it had
power to gather up and to assimilate. ISTor has its
introduction been limited to Great Britain; it has
already found access to our own country—the TJni-
tarianism and semi-infidelity around and within the
city of Boston, especially, furnishing a soil in which
it has been readily transplanted, and found a rapid
growth. Sympathy for that class of thinkers and
writers among whom it has found a lodgment in
Great Britain, and especially for that file-leader of
British rationalism, Thomas Carlyle, the natural
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
163
sequence of similarity in fundamental religious
characteristics, has been the principal medium
through which it has been invited to an American
home. And Ralph "Waldo Emerson, Theodore
Parker, Orville Dewey, and a few other lesser
lights, have been its principal American apostles.
Put the favorable acceptance given to this philoso¬
phy is not restricted to Unitarian and infidel circles.
Invested with an air of originality and power, as
these writings are that are perverted by the spirit
or that are devoted to the exposition and propaga¬
tion of this philosophy, they have a circulation both
in Great Britain and America hardly enjoyed by
any other species of literature. And the fact
of this extended contact with the public mind,
together with the other facts of the existing ten¬
dency to reject the spiritual and experimental in
Christianity, already noticed as resulting from the
utilitarian character of the existing civilizations of
both countries, and which serves so well to open
the way for and to invite the diffusion of every
form of rationalism and mysticism, are securing,
there can be no question, for this infidel philosophy,
and for its baneful spirit, a prevalence and a power,
even in these Protestant countries, that are at once
wide-spread and alarming. There can be 110 doubt
that that class of literature, which is serving as a
164
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
medium for the propagation of this philosophy,
either in its original character, or in sncli modified
forms of it as it assumes in passing through subse¬
quent minds, is now everywhere obtaining an
immense circulation; and that, attractive and
insidious as it is, it is gradually mixing itself up
with the thinking and the thoughts of the public
mind, and especially with certain active, influential
mind, in a way and to a degree that is destined, if
unchecked, seriously to imperil the religious faith of
society, and to constitute it an antagonism to the
prevalence of right religion, and to the instrumen¬
talities of right religion, as effective, perhaps, as
any other that is encountered. It is not that those
abstract, intensely metaphysical forms in which this
philosophy has developed itself in its native home,
are likely to be transplanted here to any general
extent. It is rather the rationalistic methods and
spirit of that philosophy which its American and
English expounders and advocates are seeking to
propagate, and which threaten as incorporated ele¬
ments of thought so extensively to modify religious
belief.
Indeed, so extensively is this element of thought
mingling with the sources of American and English
thought, so active and influential are all those
agencies that are seeking to diffuse it, that the
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
165
question as to tlie proper modes to counteract it lias
already become one of grave and' pressing import¬
ance. These modes, so far as the Church itself is
concerned, are two :
The first is the widest possible circulation of a
pure, elevated Christian literature. It is through
the medium of literature that this rationalistic
philosophy is diffused, and it is among the reading,
or, more properly, the literary class, that it finds
its first and warmest supporters. As well, then,
because of its own mode of diffusion as because of
the sphere of its diffusion, the literary medium
offers itself as the most suitable one through which
to counteract or to supplant it. This may be effect¬
ually employed in either of two ways: First, by
being made to take the place of this objectionable
literature; its character being made so attractive,
its provision so abundant, the machinery for its
circulation so efficient, as to secure for it a mono¬
poly that effectually shuts off this poisonous counter
current. And second, by putting in the reach and
in the way of all, through the abundance of its
circulation, so much of pure, living, quickening
truth as will furnish an antidote to the mischief,
and neutralize its baneful effects. In a reading; a°:e
O O
like the present, error, which circulates through
the medium of literature, is not to be forestalled by
166
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
any policy which, seeks in any direct sense the
banishment or the suppression of that literature,
hut rather by turning loose and giving the widest
possible diffusion to such truth as is adapted to
expose and supplant it. The same mental desires
which insure the reading of the one class of litera¬
ture, will not fail, under proper circumstances, to
give like currency to the other. And it is the
.excellence and the glory of the truth, that in this
competition for favorable regard and general adop¬
tion it need have no fear. If its friends but see to
it that it is properly brought to bear, and has free
scope, a career of triumph and of aggressive march
is its inevitable destiny. To ward off, then, this
rationalistic tendency, now threatening to become
so general in society, and which German philosophy
in its various forms has contributed much to create,
and is now contributing much to promote; to
expose and to explode in fact this very philosophy
itself, pregnant as it is with so much mischief, is
a responsibility which in no limited degree now
devolves upon the literature of the country: a fact
which ought to magnify this important department
of Church enterprise, and enlist the cooperation of
every Christian for its completest development and
efficiency.
The second is a more general and a more vigorous
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
167
assertion of the spiritual element of the Christian
system. It is this which this inticlel philosophy
mainly antagonizes, and it is by its tendency to
overbear and neutralize this that its principal mis¬
chief is done. Of course, then, no policy looks so
directly to the prevention of the evils of this philo¬
sophy as that which gives prominence everywhere
to the spiritual characteristics of Christianity.
Indeed, not merely in regard to these rationalistic
tendencies superinduced by German philosophy,
but in respect of every species of infidelity known
to our times, and of every untoward tendency
known to the Church itself, examination will show
that a profounder conviction and a bolder avowal
of the spiritual element of the gospel of Christ
and of Christian experience are the means most
precisely adapted to their arrest and counteraction.
Through all those modes, therefore, whether of the
pulpit or press, by which the public mind is im¬
pressed, the effort, perhaps the principal effort,
should be to give prominence to the evangelical
principles of the Christian dispensation, and to
secure both to Church instrumentality and to Chris¬
tian experience more of the supernatural element.
The great demand now is, not so much the power
and the fruits of intellect, as the power and the
fruits of the Spirit, the purity, elevation, and attract-
168
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
iveness of a simple gospel religion. A right
amount of spiritual religion in the ministry and
in the Church, showing itself boldly in all the agen¬
cies of usefulness, and in the lives of individual
Christians, will furnish the safest of all barriers
against inroads of any kind upon the claims and
fortunes of Christianity.
There can be no doubt that the arrogant, self-
sufficient, imperious manner in which the Christian
religion is treated by thinkers of Germany, and the
general rationalistic tendency of its philosophy,
have excited a very general prejudice among evan¬
gelical Christians against every thing of German
origin. But can nothing good come out of Naza¬
reth ? Must every product of German mind be put
under ban, and the whole be rejected "without
examination, simply because of this objectionable
characteristic of its prevailing philosophy? Is it
just to conclude that for this reason it is impossible
that German mind could confer any benefit upon
the world, and that therefore none of any kind has
been derived from it ? Such a course is unphiloso-
phic, unjust, and impolitic. It is unphilosophic,
because it is a deduction broader than the premises
themselves. It is unjust, because it is an assump¬
tion involving the most serious of all charges, based
upon a single aspect of the question, and not upon
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
169
an examination of tlie facts which alone can pro¬
perly settle the question. It is impolitic, because
it proceeds upon the principle of condemning the
whole on account of a part only, by which course
the moral force of the condemnation, as to all to
which it properly applies, is abated. The true
course in this as in all other cases is to discriminate,
condemning only the demerit, and crediting at its
just value the beautiful, the true, and the good.
God himself acts upon this principle ; since in any
and every combination it is only that which his
omniscient eye detects as evil that he opposes;
while the good, 110 matter where found, he recog¬
nizes and approves. And it will always be found
that the soundness and healthiness of our own
sentiments, and the moral power with which they
are invested, depend upon the certainty with which,
in our sanctions or condemnations, we avoid con¬
founding the evil with the good, and with which
we mete out approval where this is deserved, and
condemn only when condemnation is due.
A sober examination, characterized by this spirit
of discrimination, will not fail to discover, even
after this mass of extravagance; constituting its
peculiar philosophy is set aside,. that there are
achievements of German intellect, and specific
results of German intellect, that take rank among
8
170
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
the" most valuable of the conquests of the mind,
and that, have a most important hearing upon many
of the highest departments of human intelligence.
Without attempting an exhaustive classification, we
will mention some of those the most obvious and
important.
1. The improvements originated in methods of
learned criticism, and the light which, through the
use of these, has been thrown upon classical learn¬
ing and literature. However unsafe and liable to
abuse, when employed by a bold, irreverent genius,
the a 'priori method of tracing out and interpreting
history may be, there can be no doubt that as
originated by Hiebuhr, and employed by him and
Heander and Chevalier Bunsen, and other historians,
it has proved an instrument of immense value in
rectifying and enlarging our historical knowledge.
Philosophical as it is, and embodying the only true
scheme of history and of historical writing, it is an
achievement of the German mind in itself original,
and destined to give the department of history an
instructiveness and a dignity which it had never
hitherto attained, even under the master minds of
Bobertson, Gibbon, and Hume.
The same originality and accuracy which have
characterized the German historical methods, have
been imparted also to their extended labors in the
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
171
departments of philology and classical literature.
And tlie fruits of these labors are being gradually
diffused throughout every advanced community,
among those even who think of German intellect
only to condemn and despise. The most approved
editions of the ancient classics are those which have
passed under the eliminating, perfecting hand of
the distinguished scholars of Germany; and for
most of the improvements in the grammar of lan¬
guage, and especially for most of those refined
distinctions and rules which have thrown so much
light upon the syntax and prosody of language, and
upon the profound principles of philology generally,
we are indebted to German scholarship. The d
priori methods which they originated and have
applied as well to these departments as to others,
conducted with the patience and critical accuracy
characteristic of that peculiar race, have not only
put German scholars in advance of all the world, hut
enabled them to make additions to the sum of
human knowledge which constitute them, in an
important sense, the benefactors of the world.
2. The clear and satisfactory light it has thrown
upon the subject of the human mind, and especially
the analysis of the mind which it has given to the
world, of which Kant is the author, and the im¬
proved classification of the faculties consequent
172
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
upon that analysis. It has ever heen the case that
in all the departments of human science, the efforts
of the earlier thinkers are hut mere approximations
to the high standard of reality. These do hut a
preliminary work of collecting and preparing
material. It is always afterwards, at some later
period, that some intellect mightier than all arises,
and, taking his station far above the rest, and
brooding with philosophic eye over all the achieve¬
ments of the past, by an almost miraculous effort
of genius, reduces order out of chaos, and sub¬
stitutes for existing partial empirical views, a system
already perfect and complete, and whose truthful¬
ness, made but increasingly evident by the accumu¬
lating lights of time, commands the increasing
approbation and admiration of the world. It was
thus with the department of natural science, which,
though enjoying the contributions of able men
through a succession of centuries, was yet in uncer¬
tainty and confusion until, in the order of events,
or, perhaps we should say, of Providence, hTewton
arose, and, consecrating his powers to the noble
.achievement, planted this science upon a basis
which time and subsequent discovery have only
tended to strengthen and confirm. And if mental
science, by reason of the subtile nature of its sub¬
jects, and the limitedness of its principal field of
GEKMAN PHILOSOPHY.
173
survey, (individual consciousness,) has been later
in the period at which this hounding to perfection
has taken place, yet it has not escaped the operation
of the same general law. Though Plato, and Des¬
cartes, and Malebranche, and Locke, and Reid, all
struck out important lights in this great field of
human investigation, yet it was left for Emanuel
Kant, the imfnortal German philosopher, to rise to
the height of this great argument, and to originate
a theory which, however defective in certain of its
lesser features, is yet, doubtless, destined to stand
the test of all subsequent discoveries, as the only
true philosophy of the human mind.
The analysis of mind given by the Scotch and
French metaphysicians has never been satisfactory
to the deeply thinking mind. It has always seemed
to leave out of the classification, as unprovided for,
a class of mental phenomena which, in every self-
conscious state, all thinking men feel to exist, and
to violate that great law of classification which
requires the separation and not the blending of
phenomena whose fundamental characteristics are
dissimilar and distinct. But the great achievement
of Kant, of a division of the mental faculties into
those which give the matter and those which give
the form, or, in other words, into the intuitional
and logical consciousness, or into the higher reason,
174
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
to which belong the phenomena of ,the uncon¬
ditioned, and the understanding, to which belong
those of the conditioned, or into the primary facul¬
ties of sense, consciousness, and reason, which
give the elements of thought, and the secondary
faculties of understanding, judgment, association,
and imagination, which combine these elements
into forms of logic, of beauty, and of grandeur,
throws a flood of light upon the whole subject.
And while it strikes the philosophic mind as a
classification of the mind's faculties the most
simple and natural, and hence the most scientific,
it develops just that correlation of the faculties from
which the obvious laws of the mind are deduced,
not, as under the old analysis, arbitrarily, and in
great degree empirically, but philosophically, and
in the order of natural and necessary sequence.
There is one great error in Kant's system. It
consists in ascribing to the reason the power of
evolving through its own action conceptions which
are wholly irrespective and independent of what is
given in experience, and hence have no claim to
objective reality, and no evidence that any corre¬
sponding realities exist. It is from this feature of
his system that the idealism of Fichte sprung; and
it is the germ of our modern transcendentalism.
But. this is an objection which applies to a mere
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
175
incidental feature of his system, and not to the
classification itself of the faculties, which was his
great achievement, and the glory of his philosophy.
There can he no doubt that the Kantian analysis
of mind is destined to universal adoption, and that
the same relation which Newton's system sustains
to the science of matter, the system of Kant will
sustain to that of the mind. It will stand out as
the universally-admitted philosophy upon this
great subject, and as the basis upon which all
further efforts to extend and perfect it will, without
solicitude or question, be made to rest. Just in so
far as the science of mind is more recondite and
subtile than the science of matter, just in so far as
its standards of truth are more hidden or less
ocular, will it require longer time, and a more
lengthened discussion, to secure for it this universal
acceptance. But it is destined to grow, at a con¬
stantly accelerated rate, in favor with men. Already
in our own country it has obtained substantial
foothold. "The ablest treatise on mental science
which this country has yet produced, assumes it as
the true philosophy of the mind.
But in making this, the most important advance
ever made in the science of the human mind—in
propounding for the first time in the world's history
a true system of intellectual philosophy, Germany
1T6
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
has unquestionably conferred a great benefit upon
mankind. The relation which metaphysics sustains
to religion, to morals, to the social organism, and,
indeed, to all the great interests of humanity,
cannot fail to magnify, and set in its proper light,
this great achievement emanating from a German
source.
3. The tendency which the literature of Germany
has to secure the necessary balance to all other
existing civilizations, by imparting to them the
needed speculative or reflective element of mind.
A perfect civilization, psychologically considered,
implies the'presence, in proper proportions, of three
grand elements—the practical, the aesthetic, and
the reflective. The first brings society into relation
to external objects, and concerns itself exclusively
with the visible world. The second is related
exclusively to the beautiful and the grand, and leads
to developments of taste and refinement. The
third concerns itself exclusively with those abstract
principles that underlie all human interests. In
none of the forms of civilization that have ever
existed has there been a blending of these elements
in just and harmonious proportions. The English
has approximated it nearer, perhaps, than all others.
In the Greek, though there was a high degree of
the reflective and the aesthetic, there was a defi-
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
177
ciency in tlie practical. In the French there is a
due amount of the aesthetic, with a deficiency,
perhaps, in both of the other two. In the Ameri¬
can there is an excess of the practical over both the
aesthetic and the reflective, and especially the latter.
Various influences, the result mainly of circum¬
stances, have conspired to concentrate American
mind upon utilitarian objects, and thus to cultivate
its perceptive or practical element at the expense,
especially, of its reflective or philosophic power.
"While the effect has been a rapid augmentation of
external arts and resources, and a rapid accumu¬
lation of wealth, it has led greatly to the neglect of
the right cultivation of the individual man, and
especially of those higher powers of the individual
man, by which alone he rises to the apprehension
of great first principles. And it is this superficial
character of American mind—this incapacity to
apprehend the significance and force of abstract
principle—this deficiency in the power of deep,
comprehensive thinking—the result of the absence
of this reflective element now becoming so common
in American civilization—that has given rise to
those troubles in Church and State, those ultraisms
and excesses in sentiment and in action, that are
reaching the very foundations of society, and
threatening the stability of our social organization.
8*
178
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
Since, tlien, German civilization has in excess
the very element in which American civilization is
deficient, there can he no question that contact of
the former with the latter, through the medium of
its various literature, will contribute much to restore
to it a just equilibrium. There can he no doubt
that with whatever of ill has been consequent upon
the introduction of German literature and German
modes of thought, there has been infused a very
perceptible tendency to that thorough philosophic
thinking, implied in the active presence of the
reflective element. Indeed, it may be safely
affirmed that for whatever taste there is in this
country for these higher regions of thought, for
whatever disposition there is to cultivate this pro-
foundest element of mind, this the most exalted,
the most far-reaching and comprehensive of all the
attributes of the human intellect, we are mainly
indebted to those writings among us of either direct
or indirect German origin. Those writings, replete
though they may be in themselves with extravagant
speculation, yet open up to the mind many of the
most interesting problems of abstract philosophy,
cultivate a taste and a capacity for patient, com¬
prehensive thinking, and thus diffuse in progressive
degrees the philosophical element of mind. They
stand out now as well-nigh the only instrumentality
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
179
available to Anglo-Saxon intellect, for educating
and developing in it this essential characteristic of
a safe, well-balanced civilization. It is a remark¬
able provision of Providence, that the very excesses,
of one form of civilization are employed to supply
the lack in another—are turned over to restore the
balance which has been lost in another. It is not
an unreasonable supposition that in the great system
of Providence this surplus development of the philo¬
sophic in Germany has been permitted that it might
become a reservoir, from which, at the proper time,
should flow out upon other civilizations influences
that should educe it to such degree as might be
necessary to secure the just equilibrium. That as
English and American society must, in order to
such development of their material interests as were
stimulated and favored by their remarkable external
circumstances, and required by the wants of the
world, cherish its practical element to a degree and
under conditions that necessarily involved a neglect
of the reflective or philosophic, Germany, which,
from its continental position and peculiar social
organization, was favorably situated for speculative
pursuits, should devote itself mainly to the develop¬
ment of the reflective, and become, in process of
time, when Anglo-Saxon civilization reached the
stage at which without this element there could be
180
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
no further progress, the fountain whence should
flow out upon this civilization the teaching.required
to establish within it the just balance, and to render
jt what God designed it ultimately should be, sym¬
metrical and complete. But whether this is the
providential relation or not, it is the actual relation
of German civilization to ours. And a just appre¬
hension of the increasing tendency of American
mind to shallow, superficial employment, and the
urgent demand for higher, more vigorous mental
characteristics, will enable us to estimate at its just
value the benefits which German literature is con¬
ferring in contributing in any perceptible sense to
supply this demand.
4. There can be no doubt that German philoso¬
phy is making an immense impress upon the intel¬
lectual world. Its very infidelity and tendencies to
infidelity, new and original, as to their precise
forms, are taxing the strength of the defenders
of Christianity, and evolving a system of defence
which, while it is destined to theqsame fulness of
triumph the advocates of the truth have in every
age achieved, at the same time gives prominence to
a kind of testimony for the truth that has never yet
been so directly employed. It is showing that
every development of the domain of truth only
widens the basis and strengthens the resources for
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
181
the successful upholding of the claims of Christi¬
anity ; that philosophy itself, even in its most
abstract metaphysical forms, instead of furnishing
argument against the claims of evangelical religion,
is hut in harmony with jt, and that its discoveries
and achievements, like those of the natural sciences,
which were seized upon at first by vain, skeptical
thinkers, as at war with sacred truth, hut multiply
and extend the evidence which sustains it, and the
field for the display of its own universal dominion.
182
the pulpit.
v. — THE PULPIT.
The pulpit is the grandest of all instrumentalities.
In the character of the results to the achievement
of which it is consecrated; in the destined perma¬
nence of its existence; in the universality of* the
sphere of its application, and in its peculiar relation
to the Divine Being, both as to its appointment
and efficiency, it stands sublimely far above all
other institutions.
Brought to hear, without intermission or abate¬
ment, in constantly recurring periods, in every
precinct of the land, upon all classes of people, in
the barest conception of it, it is obvious that it is a
most extraordinary agency. But when, in addition,
it is understood that it is human speech which it
employs in all the forms of public address favorable
to the development and display of the most effective
kinds of eloquence; that it is the widest range of
talent and learning which it appropriates; that it
employs men who, from their connections and
identity with the people and their acknowledged
THE PULPIT.
183
purity of character, enjoy the highest advantages
for personal weight and influence; -that it is the
most extensive and richest of all departments of
subjects to which it refers—subjects which apply to
all men in all their relations to time and eternity,
which so spread themselves over every phase of life
and destiny as to come home tangibly and con¬
sciously to all the actual employments of life—
subjects which never grow stale and unafiecting,
but in a peculiar and striking sense have a per¬
petual warmth and freshness and interest—it stands
forth to our view as possessing elements of power
vastly superior to any other single instrumentality.
But when, still further, the pulpit is conceived of
as specially under the Divine guidance; as having
the Divine veracity plbdged to its success; as hav¬
ing the Divine assistance actually vouchsafed in
giving efficiency to its intrinsic power, and in the
removal of obstructions to its progress; as being
indeed God's own appointed agency for tfle attain¬
ment of the great ends he designs shall be realized
in the universal, prevalence of his kingdom and the
elevation and happiness of the human race, then
the transcendent power and glory of the pulpit
appears fully revealed.
The power of the pulpit may be seen historically,
in the results it has already achieved. Through its
184
THE PULPIT.
instrumentality men of every class, and everywhere
within the limits of Christendom, have yielded their
opposition and come under the mild sway of the
gospel, often in crowds, hut always so constantly as
to secure the progress of the kingdom of Christ.
The nature of the change thus wrought, so radical
as to influence upon character, and so extensive as to
the numbers who are subjects of it, furnishes a very
just conception of the power of the pulpit. Its
great and wonderful effects under the ministry of
"W"esley and "Wkitefield, and of many others since
their day, show forth its superhuman character, and
give, in fact, the true indication of its capabilities
and excellence. Indeed, it is this wonderful power
of bringing men.under its sway that has secured
to Christianity the progress *it has realized. Tor
whatever may be the potency of other auxiliaries,
after all, most of what has been achieved, whether
of actual aggression or development, is attributable
to the pulpit. Until recently, but few other agencies
had been used, and actual inspection will discover
that it has been chiefly through its medium that
that truth has gone forth which has been to the
saving of the soul.
But its effects have not been confined to Chris¬
tians. Those without the pale of the Church,
indeed the entire masses of Christendom, have been,
THE PULPIT.
185
to a large extent, lielcl in restraint by the power of
the pulpit. The truth which it has disseminated
has secured the prevalence of principles and rules
of conduct that are the foundation of much of the
praiseworthy and useful with which society abounds.
It is an agency, therefore, whose salutary effects
have spread over all classes of men, and its restrain¬
ing, elevating influence is shared as well by those
who denounce as by those who yield to it.
But if the history of its past operations already
exhibits such wonderful capabilities, there can be
no doubt that a constant enlargement of its intrinsic
force, and of the sphere of its application, and the
constant increase of its facilities of access and
general acceptableness, (the result of the progress of
the gospel,) will secure to it not only yet greater
power, but an augmentation of power in accelerat¬
ing degrees in every future age.
God's love to man was not satisfied with the mere
revelation of his word of truth, but it likewise
entered into his plan that this word should be pro¬
claimed to and enforced upon all the world; and as
miraculous agency was not to be employed for the
execution of this purpose, the pulpit was ordained
in its stead, and it is this place, in the economy of
God, which it occupies. Whatever objects, there¬
fore, God intends to accomplish in this application
186
THE PULPIT.
and enforcement of his word, are tlie proper
objects of the pulpit. These objects are susceptible
of a classification according to the relations which
individuals sustain to God; and as these relations
may themselves be reduced to two classes, that of
sinners and that of believers, the objects of the
pulpit are properly two, that of such application
of the word as will secure the conversion of the
sinner, and that of such application of it as will
secure the building up of the believer. However
much, in the actual uses of the pulpit, these two
objects are blended, yet this grand distinction,
existing as it does in fact, must be ever recognized
and firmly maintained.
That part of the word which is directly applicable
to the wants of the sinner, is not that which is
directly applicable to the believer. It, of course,
embraces that which constitutes the conditions of
salvation, and the motives to the embracement of
those conditions. These are the truths which lie
nearest the sinner, and are first to be appropriated
before aught that lies back of them can bo brought
into saving relation to him. The fundamental facts
of the gospel, therefore, and the sinner's interest in
them, are the themes of the pulpit which are to be
employed in the attainment of its first great leading
object. These are the means adapted by Divine
THE P If L P IT.
187
appointment to this end. Nothing else, apart from
these, however skilful in its arrangement, intel¬
lectual in its character, or moving in its influence,
can have the slightest efficiency in its accomplish¬
ment.
But as these doctrines are the mere expression of
the modes by which God meets with and acts upon
the sinner—the mere conditions upon which his
Divine efficiency is exerted—it is not enough that
they should be simply presented intellectually and
abstractly, hut likewise under such impulses and
circumstances as will secure to them the Divine
sanction and the influence of a heaven-horn energiz¬
ing agency in carrying them home to the individual
in their renovating and saving power.
Nor is it at all derogatory to these specific
doctrines, as the precise and only appointed media
of the sinner's conversion, that every proper motive
arising out of man's nature and peculiar relations
should he appealed to and enforced as a part of the
employment of the pulpit to secure the embrace-
ment of these doctrines. God himself does all
things compatible with his own nature to save his
rebellious creatures, and it is therefore but in har¬
mony with his own plans, and indeed demanded by
them, that the pulpit, in its relations to such,
188
THE PULPIT.
should employ every influence, not in itself wrong,
which may lead to this happy result.
It is because of a failure duly to recognize this .
precise and only demand of the sinner in his relations
to the gospel, that much of the effort for his conver¬
sion has been ineffectual. Nicely wrought theories,
moral disquisitions, and learned compilations, are
too often made more prominent, even in efforts
especially designed for the sinner, than these pecu¬
liar doctrines which alone have a direct relation to
him. And even where these doctrines are intended
to he prominent, so much that is extraneous and
inapplicable is likewise incorporated as effectually
to obstruct their influence, and turn aside their
force. It is in seasons of revival, when the atten¬
tion is specially fixed upon the immediate wants of
the sinner, and the heart is, in an unusual degree,
interested for him, that the inappropriateness and
inefficiency of all else save these great facts, is most
signally evident. It is time that the Church, taught
by the experience of the past and the light of God's
word, should have done with mere subordinate
truth, and a humanly devised machinery, however
skilfully arranged, as the means for the conversion
of men, and learn to rely for the accomplishment
of this great result, as far as the pulpit is concerned,
THE PULPIT.
189
exclusively upon those simple yet all-efficient doc¬
trines which, alone reach the condition of a rebel¬
lious world.
But when these doctrines have been savingly
embraced, then the way is open for the application
of the remaining truth of revelation in the building
up and adornment of those whose foundation is
thus laid. Their relations are then changed, and it
is that light of revelation which tells them how
these new relations are to he conformed to, how
these principles, which in this change have been
implanted, are to be improved and exemplified,
how, in short, life is to be spent, which they now
need.
It is true, that in every stage of the Christian life,
these fundamental facts of the gospel are equally
necessary to be consciously embraced and relied
upon as the only ground for the maintenance and
growth of piety. It is true, that no other truth has
any value in its relations to salvation, except as it
elves force and illustration to these doctrines in
O
their application to personal experience; and, con¬
sequently, that no principles or precepts, however
explained or enforced, can ever be invested with
any vitality or power in the great plan of salvation,
except as they are made consciously to have their
origin in and dependence upon these cardinal doc-
190
THE PULPIT.
trines. It is true tliat for these reasons those who
contend that in the preaching of the day too much
prominence is given to these doctrines, and that the
times demand a devotion of the pulpit more exclu¬
sively to the ethics of the gospel, and to those ideas
which the mere intuitional consciousness of the
multitude may recognize and appreciate, are guilty
of the great and fatal error of identifying this latter
preaching with a mere system of moral lecturing
—lifeless, and without adaptation to the real wants
of man; a body without soul, an organism without
life-giving power—seeking to compass results
by means, the very source of whose vitality and
efficiency they purposely reject. But so related are
these fundamental doctrines to human life, that
every purpose and every act may be made to
enlarge the "sphere and increase the effect of their
actual application. All of life, therefore, as sus¬
ceptible of this use, may be rendered religious.
Every phase of human existence comes within the
purview of Heaven's claims, and the other great
leading objects of the pulpit therefore is to show,
in the light of God's own revelation, the relation
thus subsisting between these doctrines and the
entire sphere of human agency, and the practical
modes of their actual conformity. Over a wide
field, therefore, must the pulpit shed the light of
THE PULPIT.
191
revealed truth in determining the responsibilities
of the believer. Not merely the capabilities of man
as they have already; been exhibited, but all the
capabilities he might exhibit; not merely man as
he is, but man as he might be in every stage of
improvement; not merely man's powers as an
individual, but his relations socially and politically;
not merely life in its public exhibitions, but life in
its more private ways and aspects, life in every
form, both actual and possible; all must come
within the sphere of the pulpit in the application
of the truth of God to the savingly converted.
These are prepared for such extended application
of the truth. Such application their condition and
circumstances demand, and without it, deprived of
their appointed sustenance, they languish in a
sickly growth, and often wither and perish.
The history of the pulpit, however, shows that this
particular function of it has never yet been fully
executed. There is yet, in the various develop¬
ments of man, individually and in society, a wide
department to which the light of Divine truth has
never been applied, and which consequently has
never been brought within the sphere of Christian
appropriation. And as man's relations and connec¬
tions are constantly multiplying, this department is
becoming gradually more enlarged, and the effect
10.2
THE PULPIT.
of this failure of the pulpit increasingly deplorable.
Christianity as an actual development, and as a
progressive agency, experiences, from this defect,
its chief obstruction. The character and extent of
these shortcomings may be seen in a few specifica¬
tions.
To all who closely observe the condition of the
Church, it is apparent that there is a very general
failure to apply the principles of religion; prin¬
ciples which men profess, and under some circum¬
stances exhibit, to the common employments and
general intercourse of practical life. Indeed, it is
open to the observation of all, that there is a
standard of morality recognized in theory, and
often realized and practiced on Sabbaths, which is
wholly lost sight of in the common every-day
business of the world. So evident is this, that in
any attempt, ill individual cases, to harmonize the
true spirit of the gospel with the practice of its
professors, there is often such an appearalice of
unfitness and discord, as to give plausibility to the
belief, either that Christianity was designed for
certain departments of life only, or else that there
is such defects in its system as renders it unsuitable
to much that necessarily belongs to life. How this
apparent antagonism, or discrepancy, is not attri¬
butable to any deficiency in the knowledge of the
THE PULPIT.
193
cardinal facts of the gospel, or in the experience
of its rudiments. The pulpit, because of its ten¬
dency, in all periods in which the aggressive feature
of Christianity predominates over the social, to
interest itself chiefly with its fundamental truths, its
external rites and worship, has never yet directed
itself with constancy to a minute exhibition of the
relations which the interests and acts of men hear
to Christian obligation. This extensive -field it has
as yet but partially entered. Without the benefit
of the light of this great teacher, it is but natural
that this wide department of life should not only be
without the Christian element, but under the direc¬
tion of principles adverse to that element; that
indeed the impression should exist that the Chris¬
tian system has no universal applicability to human
concerns, but if so, in respect of that chosen few
only, whose circumstances are peculiarly favorable
to universal Christian obedience.
There are various instrumentalities for the relief,
amelioration, and elevation of men in the scale of
intelligence, morals, and general happiness, which
properly belong to the Church, as a part of her
grand scheme of operations, that have never yet
been incorporated into her system. Some of these,
as educational establishments, asylums, and chari¬
table foundations, have generally been taken into
9
194
THE PULPIT.
the care of the State, and others, such as tempe¬
rance associations, and other plans of relief and
reformation, have been, under the pressure of an
existing necessity, entered into by promiscuous
classes under the influence of motives largely
temporal. These properly belong to the Church,
because the objects to which they look grow legiti¬
mately out of the constituent principles of Chris¬
tianity, and furnish a suitable theatre for their
cultivation and display; and because these objects
attained, open the way for the progress of the
gospel, and contribute to the widening spread of
its sanctifying and saving influences. But they
have never yet been embraced as a part of
the Church's operations,, or even sought to be
employed by Christians, in a voluntary way, under
the promptings of purely Christian principles,
because they have never been taught that these
agents were susceptible of a direction to purely
Christian results, and that the obligations of useful¬
ness extend to the direct and constant employment
of such means. The pulpit, whose business it is to
apply the light of revelation to the proper education
of the conscience in respect of the whole field of
duty, has left the mind too much in the dark in
regard to this wide sphere of usefulness. As the
extent of Christian action will not exceed the con-
THE PULPIT.
195
victions of the mind, it is but natural that Chris¬
tians have never yet felt their obligations to appro¬
priate and control these numerous agencies.
The interests of Christianity have greatly suffered
through this neglect. A most powerful and effect¬
ive argument for the Divine character of the
Christian religion has been kept in abeyance. The
Church, indeed, has suffered reproach. These
subordinate agencies have been less numerously
employed, and when employed, under the direction
of inferior motives, they have been far less suc¬
cessful in compassing their appointed ends.
A very superficial acquaintance with general
literature will at once show that there is such a
difference between its spirit and objects, and what¬
ever is truly Christian, that it would seem to be a
department wholly foreign from the sphere of
Christianity. There is little or nothing in it indi¬
cative of a Christian origin and spirit, and but
rarely even any reference to Christian principles.
There is, indeed, so great an antagonism, that men,
under the influence of the literary spirit, as it exists,
have in most of their exhibitions evinced an abso¬
lute aversion to all reference to the subject. And
even those who profess Christianity, when occupy¬
ing this field, yield to the common conviction of the
inappropriateness of the spirit and peculiarities of
196
THE PULPIT.
their hoi}7 religion to their pursuits. John Foster's
celebrated Essay on the "Aversion of Literary Men
to Evangelical Religion," is based upon the general
fact here stated. And an examination of the
current literature of the day, and of the tastes of
literary men, will show that this fact is yet as true
and prevalent as when that essay first appeared.
Rut if Christianity he true, all the exhibitions
of the mind, and esjDecially those in the permanent
and accessible form of literature, ought to be con¬
trolled both in object and manner by its spirit.
Literature, at all times so potent in its influence
upon the opinions and character of a people, and
especially so in our age and in our country, where it
circulates in all forms among all classes : literature,
which has become in some of these forms a daily
demand among all ranks of society, and is already,
and is destined in a yet stronger sense to be a
controlling element in the formation of opinion, of
taste and of character, ought to be made to harmo¬
nize with the great principles and objects of the
gospel—ought to be, in fact, a positive auxiliary in
the achievement of its great ends. Christianity
Tevies its contributions upon all agencies, and an
instrumentality so powerfully efficient cannot be
permitted to run to waste. Indeed, in not being
turned to the use of Christianity, it is necessarily
THE PULPIT.
107
turned against it, and therefore not merely nega¬
tively, hut positively, impairs its success. It is not
enough that the effects of an unsanctified literature
should he sought to he superseded, or even counter¬
vailed, by a separate Christian literature. The
entire' fountain must itself be purified: the whole
field, in all its departments, must come under the
sway of a well-directed Christian effort ere its
deleterious tendencies can be arrested; much more,
ere its capabilities can be exerted for the highest
weal of man.
The antagonism here-referred to, presses heavily
at this time upon the interests of religion. Its
reactive influence is startling to those whose con¬
ceptions fully embrace the bearings of this import¬
ant subject. It shows that there is some great
defect in the operation of Christian appliances.
And what else is it but the narrow and restricted
exercise of the functions of that great teacher of
the Church, the pulpit? In its restriction of its
subjects to the mere technical theology of the
Bible, and to special and limited views of human
conduct, it gives an exclusive air to its objects,
repulsive to those not specially devoted to the
immediate interests of Christianity, and inadequate
to those broad, expansive, and all-embracing aspects
of man's capabilities and objects which are the
198
THE PULPIT.
proper domain of an enlarged and enlightened
literature. Christianity is made to fall short of the
entire sphere of man's "being, and especially of
those capabilities and relations to which the invit¬
ing themes of literature so strongly appeal. But
let the pulpit take wider views of its great objects;
let it seek to show the applicability of the gospel to
man in all his being; let it seek so to present its
claims as to secure its incorporation into human
thought as the all-controlling element of all
opinion, taste, and action; let it seek to show the
subjective relation of all that belongs to human
interest to the dominion of the Bible, and make
evident that its spirit and aims are as broad as the
range of the human mind; then will Christianity so
enter into the forms of human thought and human
expression, and prove itself by its superior influence
to be so powerful an auxiliary in all intellectual
operations, that literature will not only receive a
mould from its spirit, but will be, what God designs
it to be, an ever-active and powerful instrumen¬
tality in the furtherance of its gracious purposes.
There is an impracticable and, so to speak,
cantish character about the profession of religion, as
it is too often displayed, especially in certain com¬
munities and among certain classes, that renders it
repulsive to the common sense and tastes of men.
THE PULPIT.
199
It is often made to assume an exclusive air, a form
of eccentricity and partialness, instead of that con¬
sistent, wisely and beautifully arranged system
appropriate to the actual wants of man, and win¬
ning in its adaptations to the favorable notice of the
world.
This imperfect development of Christianity de¬
prives those who profess it of much of the benefit
it is designed to confer, and, as a defective exhibi¬
tion of it, retards its progress, both by its exclusion
of many of the most effective signs of its divinity,
and by the repulsive tendencies it presents, not
properly belonging to it. It is the failure of the
pulpit to seize its great features, and to present it
as one entire system;'to afford to the general mind
a consistent view of it as a whole, having all its
parts, both in their absolute and relative sense,
justly comprehended and appreciated, that has
given rise to this very common imperfection in its
general manifestations.
The powerful machinery required by the Church
to secure even the meagre liberality in its pecuniary
contributions to the objects of the gospel now
realized, and the revulsive effect upon manner and
feeling, even in times of highest religious enjoy¬
ment, so often noticed when the subject of pecu¬
niary contribution, even to the most sacred objects,
200
THE PULPIT.
is pressed upon the attention of Christians, indicate
that the Church has never yet been properly in¬
structed in this indispensable department of duty.
If Christianity in all the extent of its claims were
realized, those who enjoy it would not need so
much urging to support the necessary objects of
Christian benevolence; but voluntarily and spon¬
taneously the hearts of the people would expand
themselves to embrace every object having claims
upon them, and with zeal and delight they would
seek the openings to glorify God and to advance
his cause, by rendering unto- him. according to the
full measure of their earthly substance.
The marked improvement which has unquestion-
ably taken place, in recent years, in the liberality
of the Church, as is witnessed by the widening
spread of the cause of missions, by the multiplica¬
tion of educational enterprises, by the more general
support of the ministry, and by the increase of
purely benevolent institutions, the result of a more
pressing direction of the minds of Christians to their
duties in respect of these great interests, all evince
that the shortcomings of the past are attributable
mainly to a failure of the pulpit properly to
enlighten it in these instances. In no Church
has this failure been more marked and prevailing
than in the Methodist Church, the consequence of
THE PULPIT.
201
an error in its original policy; and in no Clmrcli
of corresponding activity, in other respects, is there,
in proportion to its temporal resources, a lower
scale of Christian liberality.
There may be in men all the elements of a true
piety, and yet the practical developments of it in
their lives will necessarily not transcend the mea¬
sure of their information as to the objects of the
Christian system. Those duties only will be con¬
stantly discharged, those regions of Christian action
only will be faithfully occupied, which are clearly
defined and understood as such, in the intellectual
consciousness of the Church. It is for this reason
that men will suffer martyrdom, if necessary, as the
seal of their devotion to creeds, who at the same
time might be guilty of actual violations of the law
of love, and come very far short of many of the
duties of the moral code. In regard to the first,
they have been so fully taught that their conceptions
of them are clearly defined; while in regard to the
latter, less effort having been made to inculcate
them, their conceptions are vague and indefinite,
and conscience is accordingly less urgent for their
observance. It is to this great end, therefore, of
applying the light of revelation to the proper
instruction of the Church, in the entire scope of
Christian duty, in all its breadth as well as in its
202
THE PULPIT.
more minute details, tiiat tlie pulpit should devote
itself. And this is its second great object, as distin¬
guished from its primary application to the sinner
of that light of revelation specifically appropriate
to him, rind designed to secure his conversion to
God.
The relative amount of these two kinds of preacli-
ing proper to a community, depends, of course,
upon the relative extent of the two classes who give
rise to this distinction in the specific objects of
preaching. The leading idea of Methodism being
aggression, its preaching has been chiefly directed
to the great object of conversion, leaving the other
great object of general religious instruction to class-
meetings, Sabbath-schools, and other subordinate
agencies. If faithfully executed in all its features,
110 system could be more perfect where the para¬
mount design is Church extension, since these
subordinate agencies are only inferior to the pulpit
itself in the promotion of social Christianity. The
restriction 'of the pulpit mainly to this field has
given to Methodist preaching of this kind a per¬
fection found in no other communion. Relying
less upon mere learning and human auxiliaries, it
has sought, by those intuitional perceptions of
spiritual things which faith alone produces, to bring
to bear upon the conscience of the sinner that
THE PULPIT.
20-3
supernatural light and motive which, in view of his
dark and perverted nature, is alone appropriate to
him in the great work of his salvation. And it
is because of this peculiar excellence—this employ¬
ment of means which God himself has appointed
for the sinner's conversion, unencumbered by aught
that is foreign to the specific end in view—that
Methodism has realized such unexampled success
in the great work of turning souls to Christ.
Now it may be that this concentration of the
energies of the pulpit mainly upon one of its lead¬
ing objects, in consequence of which this peculiar
excellence in Methodist preaching has been acquired,
has been for the best, and in entire conformity with
the plans of Providence, even though at the expense
of a failure in its other important function. Con¬
stituted as the human mind is, in any condition of
the Church which has heretofore existed, the
efficiency of its efforts would have been greatly
weakened by their diffusion over a variety of promi¬
nent aims. Success, and especially the highest
success, can never be achieved by any organization,
unless its aim is so single as to admit of a concen¬
tration of its energies. There never has been any
one Church organization which has embraced, in
their just proportions, all the aims which appro¬
priately belong to the whole scheme of the Church.
204
THE PULPIT.
Every one lias some peculiar excellence, some one
object which it makes prominent, and to which it
is mainly devoted, while the rest are but incident¬
ally recognized and cared for, so that a perfect
Church could only be realized by a combination of
the chief merits of all. Viewing this state of
things in the comprehensive light in which God
regards it, it is doubtless best for the great interests
of Christianity, since, while in this aggregate all the
great objects of a perfect Church are provided for,
that concentration of energy on each of these
objects is secured necessary to the fullest success.
This view properly realized, evincing as it does the
propriety of separate denominational organizations,
banishes sectarian bigotry, and secures that enlarged
and liberal feeling toward Christians of every name
so congenial to the spirit of true Christianity.
Still this distinction in the functions of the pulpit
ought to be maintained; and Methodism, so capable
as it has ever shown itself to be of adjustment to
the precise character of existing wants, might main¬
tain it; securing a direction of the pulpit to both
of these objects according as they present them¬
selves, and yet without setting aside the great
✓
principle of concentration so necessary to its
highest achievements.
Our system might be so regulated, that in those
THE PULPIT.
205
communities in which the unconverted class pre¬
dominate, its energies, as developed through the
pulpit, should be concentrated mainly upon the
work of aggression. But in those in which Christi¬
anity has already been very generally embraced,
the controlling aim should be the diffusion.of infor¬
mation in regard to the whole range of Christian
duty, the religious training and education of the
people. It is the social features of Christianity,
the diffusion of religion over the social relations
and aspects of life, which, in these communities, are
the proper objects of attention, and the functions
of the pulpit should be mainly directed to their
attainment. Such a use of the pulpit, involving as
it does the spread of influences the most favorable
for the suitable training of the young, from whom
mainly accessions to the Church in these communi¬
ties are to be expected, is likewise the most direct
means for aggression itself.
These views settle the question agitated in some
quarters, as to the propriety of condensing the
societies and confining preaching exclusively to the
Sabbath day. In those sections where aggression
is properly the chief object of the pulpit, and in,
which, consequently, the pulpit is the only instru¬
mentality to be relied upon for it, there should be,
as to its employment, no restriction as to time.
206
THE PULPIT.
But in more advanced communities, where the
chief demand is instruction in and the practical
manifestation of the social characteristics of Chris¬
tianity, the change proposed is both proper and
necessary. In those communities the religious
influence already prevailing will impel the people to
an attendance upon the pulpit without the use of
means to carry it to them by a multiplication of
appointments, necessary in less advanced society.
By the change, therefore, nothing will he lost, as
it respects the number to whom the pulpit has
access. And it will secure a more general ajipro-
priation of the Sabbath to religious exercises, and
an order of things more in harmony with God's
own appointment as to the distribution of time;
more appropriate views of the sanctity and uses of
the Sabbath; and, above all, opportunities for the
use of the secondary agencies of Sabbath-schools,
class-meetings, and social meetings of every kind.
It will also secure the devotion of the preacher's
time and gifts to those more private duties which
grow out of the pastoral office, by which the pulpit,
under whose direction all these are, can employ that
complete system of religious instruction and train¬
ing necessary both to the perfect development of all
the features of a Christian Church, and to the
practical manifestation of all the phases of a personal
THE PULPIT.
207
religion. It is a change, therefore, which, in all
sections where religious education is the chief
desideratum, is not only "necessary, hut exceedingly
important. The pulpit alone cannot supply this
demand. It must he aided by all the auxiliaries
which belong to a system in which the exercises of
the pulpit are restricted to the Sabbath. The pecu¬
liar character of Methodist economy, tending, as it
does, to the development of Christianity too re-
strictedly as a mere matter of experience, a simple
source of enjoyment, and consequently to the
neglect of many elements of infinite importance in
the great system of Christianity, gives to these
considerations, as they look to modifications in the
plan of Methodist operations having reference to
this defect, incalculable weight. Methodism needs
in its economy an element tending more efficiently
to the development of the social characteristics of
Christianity; to the employment of the domestic
and social relations as they exist in practical life in
the manifestation and the furtherance of the Chris¬
tian system; and the change proposed, where it is
appropriate and is effected with reference to the
employment of the auxiliaries it contemplates, will
contribute much to secure this element as it may
be needed.
208
THE PUiPIT.
Having now sliown tlie proper objects of the
pulpit, its shortcomings hitherto in respect of some
of these objects, and the circumstances which
should regulate its direction, the next step is to
determine the modes by which it may be so
guarded and trained as best to subserve its import¬
ant purposes.
A fundamental condition is that men should
not enter into it from any motives growing out of
the mere nature of the employment or the relation¬
ships which it secures, but exclusively- from motives
of religious obligation. These indeed are the only
pure motives. Unless actuated alone by these,
there can be no correct appreciation of the ends of
preaching or direction of the mind exclusively to
them. There can be 110 proper use of the instru¬
mentalities of the pulpit, or any suitable devotion
to them. Here mere arbitrary assumption or
affectation can avail nothing. It is only in the
light of true motives that men can rightly perceive
or feel in this great calling. Indeed, when these
motives are not really felt, men are not apt to
assume them, but rather regard the calling as a
mere profession, whose legitimate effect is neces¬
sarily useful, and which is to be pursued very much
as men pursue any other honorable vocation in
TIIE PULPIT.
209
life. The professional air is too much the character¬
istic of the pulpit in this clay, and is necessarily the
result of the absence of these motives.
Nor without these motives will there exist that
spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice which an
attention to many of the necessary duties of the
pulpit absolutely requires. The pulpit, as far as all
those exercises are concerned upon which popu¬
larity and fame depend, does not necessarily
demand a sacrifice of ease. But there are many
of its duties upon which its usefulness and true
success depend, which involve drudgery, and often
painful hardships, and these will not be discharged,
these self-denying labors will not be performed,
unless an all-absorbing, disinterested desire of use¬
fulness is the constant and dominant motive of
action.
To secure the exclusion of all other, save these
highest motives, various means should be adopted.
Occasion should be allowed for the existence of
as few others as possible. The circumstances of the
pulpit should ever remain such that men shall be
impelled into it by a controlling sense of duty,
rather than enticed into it by the attractions it
offers.
The limited salaries allowed to her ministers by
the Methodist Church, though attended by some
210
THE PULPIT.
disadvantages, have contributed much to the pre¬
servation of her purity. While there can he no
doubt that in many quarters they are now insuf¬
ficient, and altogether too fluctuating and uncertain,
it is yet true, that for the purity of' the ministry, its
devotion and success, they are in other places even
now sufficiently liberal. Uniformity and certainty
are absolutely required. But in amount they should
never be above the demands of a prudent economy,
or so exceed the avails of similar qualifications in
other walks of life as to constitute a temptation to
any sordid propensity.
Heither should there be any thing like ease in the
occupations of the pulpit. The range of its labors
should be as extensive as is compatible with health
and practicability. This is, indeed, demanded by
the objects of the pulpit, and by the nature of its
instrumentalities, which can be highly effective on
no other principle; but it is more especially
demanded as the indisjDensable condition for the
maintenance of proper motives in the employments
of the pulpit. Indeed, it admits of grave doubt,
whether there is not something in the relations of a
life of laborious toil and personal self-denial in the
work of the ministry to the development of right
ministerial qualification, that makes such a life
absolutely necessary to the highest ministerial
THE PULPIT.
211
success. Difficulties .and trials, such as are en¬
countered in a life of this kind, alone can secure
that forgetfulness of self, that dependence upon
Grod, that unfaltering faith, that vivid conception
of spiritual realities, that zeal and disinterested
affection for the souls of men, necessary to the
most effective consecration to the great objects of
the ministry. It is the practical departure from
this great principle that constitutes the difference
between the ministerial operations of Methodism,
in these days, and those of former years. And
to this departure may be traced most of the
changes and modifications in Methodistic economy,
so often deplored and sought in vain to be remedied,
since the remedies proposed are without reference
to their true origin. Personal ease, the convenience
of men, must be subjected to the interests of the
great work. "Without this principle, arrangements
or combinations of whatever kind, however skilful or
seemingly well adapted, will fail to remedy in¬
evitable evils, or to supply the necessary agencies.
But with this principle, the most important for
the maintenance of a pure ministry, there will
be a safeguard against every invasion to which the
interests of Christianity, and even of Methodism,
are liable, and a guaranty of the existence of those
active qualities of zeal and enterprise which are the
212
THE PULPIT.
efficient agents of constant progress. Methodism
should guard this point. Against it, in the very
nature of things, the heaviest pressure will he felt.
All that is unsaiictifiecl and merely human in the
ministry, will wage against it perpetual resistance.
This it has done and still does, and it is to he feared
not without partial success. It is a point vital to
Methodism. Maintain it, and its original integrity
and glory will survive all other changes. Surrender
it, and, under any other arrangement, all that is
distinctive of and peculiar to it must inevitably
perish.
But, perhaps, no means is more to he relied on
for the maintenance of right motives in the pulpit,
than a proper watclifulness on the part of those
who have the original appointment of ministers,
and of those who have the supervision of their con¬
duct after they are appointed.
In times of persecution, or when peculiar dif¬
ficulties encompass the path of the ministry, a
rigid scrutiny of the mere motives of men is not
absolutely important. This state of things is both
a safeguard and a purifier. But in our times the
door of admission into the ministry should he rigidly
guarded. Ho feeling of delicacy, no timid shrink¬
ing from personal consequences, or careless indif¬
ference to the responsibilities involved, should
THE PULPIT.
213
prevent tlie observance of the strictest principles
of scrutiny in all applications for this high and holy
office. All the tests of a Divine call, all the proper
indications of a high degree of suitable qualifica¬
tions, should be carefully noted, and none should be
allowed admission whose past history and present
circumstances do not fully warrant the assurance of
the purest devotion and a highly useful career. In
the Methodist Church, as the sanction of several
distinct bodies is required to secure a full and
perfect commission, and, consequently, a division of
the responsibility involved in the creation of minis¬
ters, each of the authorities concerned is apt to have
inadequate views of the solemnity of the respon¬
sibility, and, when tempted, .to evade the stern
requirements of conscience. Our Church has suf¬
fered from the want of due caution in the licensing
of her ministers. Any relaxation or failure here
necessarily entails consequences which no system
can successfully remedy.
The authorities, whose duty it is to supervise the
character of ministers, must be vigilant and rigid
in the examination of conduct. Such a system is
necessary to keep unsuitable men out of the minis¬
try, and to prevent the good from degenerating
into the bad. This has ever been one of the most
salutary usages of the Methodist Church. "Without
214
THE PULPIT.
it, she never conld have arisen above the conse¬
quences of her loose method of admission into the
ministry, much less have maintained a ministerial
corps which, in all the qualities of purity, of zeal,
and of self-sacrificing devotion, has challenged the
admiration of the world. There is great danger of
relaxation in this vital usage. As individuals of
prominence and influence increase; as the claims
of personal ease and indulgence -come to be more
generally heeded;" as authority in the advancing
spirit of insubordination and license becomes less
stringent, a rule like this, so repulsive to all that is
merely human, is apt, in its practical enforcement,
to be gradually relaxed. But if Methodism would
understand her true interests, she will hold to it in
all its rigor to the last extremity. It is vital to the
purity of her ministry, and to all the elements of
energy and enterprise which have their origin in
the ministry.
As it is not upon any particular class, but upon
the masses universally, that the pulpit is designed
to act, it should be so trained in a knowledge of
the modes of thought, tastes, dispositions, and
habits of the people as to be able to appreciate and
sympathize with them, and to adapt itself to them.
It is only when the people are understood, their
peculiarities of thought and modes of life appre-
THE PULPIT.
215
ciated and recognized, that the pnlpit can properly
apply itself to them, or enjoy their fullest con¬
fidence and sympathy. Politicians, and all in
secular pursuits who desire to make an impression
upon the masses, understand this principle, and
hence, in all their exhibitions, seek to adapt them¬
selves to the popular standard. Whatever of
learned disquisition or statement the country may
need, may he conveyed through the press, or by
occasional lectures. But the pulpit must he popular.
It must recognize the people as they are, and hase
all its movements upon an intimate acquaintance
and sympathy with their actual condition and cir¬
cumstances. Indeed, that class of preaching which
looks to the regulation of the social characteristics
of life, involves necessarily an intimate knowledge
of the XDeople, and cannot otherwise he successfully
conducted.
It is because the Methodist pulpit has been
trained to meet this necessary condition, that its
success has so far exceeded others of equal talent
and far greater learning. The itinerancy brings
the preacher directly and at once into contact with
practical life, and while it secures to him an increas¬
ing knowledge of men as they are found on the
great theatre of action, it disciplines his powers
and modes of popular adaptation to the actual
216
THE PULPIT.
wants of liis hearers. Theological schools, on the
other hand, establish a style of preaching and
modes of thought without reference to the popular
standard, and send out their preachers without
adaptation to those upon whom they are designed
to act. It is because of this superiority of the
itinerancy over all theological schools for populariz¬
ing the pulpit, for training the ministry to_an adap¬
tation to popular efficiency, that the Methodist
pulpit and the Methodist Church have enjoyed a
degree of success far beyond that of those who may
boast of equal talent and greater learning. The
itinerancy is the true theological school for the
ministry. Properly regulated, it is not unfavorable
to the acquisition of theological learning, but the
learning which is acquired is such as may be
directly available to the great purpose of immediate
usefulness, while the mental discipline and general
training secured are just such as popular efficiency
demands. If, to imitate the policy of other com¬
munions, the Methodist Church should ever incor¬
porate into her economy a system of regular theolo¬
gical schools, it would be indeed a great and fatal
error; it would be to surrender the most potent of
her agencies for practical adaptation and efficiency;
it would be to unhinge the great system of adjust¬
ment to the objects before her, and to render com-
THE PULPIT.
217
paratively impracticable a system wliicli time lias
shown to have no equal.
"We need, indeed, educated preachers, but not
theological schools to make them so. Our colleges,
if properly regarded and patronized, will supply the
pulpit with the needed quota of educated men.
This condition the}7 are already fulfilling. Provi¬
dence designs them to sustain this relation to the
Church. It is only necessary that the Church
should come up with her means, her prayers, and
her patronage, to the support of these institutions,
and annually she would receive from them into
her ministry such supplies of the educated as her
wants may require. These, not being required to
pass through the training of intermediate theolo¬
gical establishments, in which habits and tastes are
acquired totally unfitting them for practical effi¬
ciency, but being thrown at once into contact with
practical life, in the great field of the itinerancy,
will be trained to availability in the proper use of.
their talents and acquirements, securing to the
Church all the advantages of, learning and taste
combined with and controlled by such aptitudes
and capabilities as will render all tributary to
general usefulness.
10
218 obstructions to the diffusion
VI.—OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.*
This is to me an interesting occasion. Identified
as I am with the cause of education; appreciating
its wide-spread and momentous relations to every
interest of man; enthusiastically alive to whatever
promises an increase of its resources or an exten¬
sion of its facilities, I rejoice to mingle in occasions
like this, so elevating, honorable, and gratifying in
themselves, so well calculated to vindicate and to
illustrate the capabilities and the benefits of this
great interest, to concentrate public attention upon
it, and to rally and multiply its active patrons. But
in addition to these general reasons for personal
gratification to-day, there are also special reasons,
found in the relations I once sustained to those who
have the charge of this institution, in the peculiar,
and, as I think, model character of this institution,
* An Address delivered befoi'e the Carrollton Masonic Institute,
Carrollton, Georgia, July G, 1858.
OP HIGHER EDUCATION.
219
and in tlie interesting section of my own native
State in which it is located, and which have had
much to do in inducing me to accept the part in
the order of these exercises which I have now
undertaken to perform.
Profoundly convinced as I am that whatever
educational system there is, or is destined to he, in
this country, must rest for all that respects its ampli¬
tude and efficiency upon the basis of the academy,
I am delighted to know that you already have
among you, on this extreme western border, in this
populous, interesting section of our own Georgia, an
institution of the very highest rank in this class. I
congratulate you, from my heart, upon the existence
of this most important fact. I entreat you to rally
around a band of teachers who have proved them¬
selves so eminently worthy of their honorable
position. I knew them before in the most intimate
scholastic relations. I predicted then that they
would show themselves worthy of public confidence
in this high calling. And I feel flattered that in
the evidence I have of the thoroughness of the
instruction they impart, the firm parental govern¬
ment they administer, the extended patronage and
the general public confidence they enjoy, there is
already being realized a most ample fulfilment of
that prophecy.
220 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFEUSION
In discharging the duty with which I have been
honored 011 this occasion, it shall he my object to
make what I have to say both appropriate and
useful. I shall, therefore, enter at once upon the
topics I propose to examine.
I set out by stating that it is remarkable to what
a limited extent collegiate education is sought in
this country; how small a proportion of our youth
seek those higher forms of education that are dis¬
pensed in the literary colleges. In all the colleges
of Georgia there are only about four hundred
students; and if we add to these all that she lias at
college outside of her own limits, there are not
more than about five hundred and fifty. Let any
man cast his eye over this great State—one of the
most enlightened, wealthy, and populous in the
Union—let him think of the vast numbers of young
persons everywhere diffused over it, and then
remember that out of them all there are only five
hundred and fifty who are in attendance upon these
higher instruction agencies, and he will be im¬
pressed at once with the fact that there is a dispro¬
portion that is most remarkable. And if we extend
our survey, we will find that the ratio here indicated
is about the average for the whole Union. Let
any man look around him among all the youth of
his acquaintance, and how few are there who are
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
221
students at college! How small a representation
lias any community, in any one of the wealthiest
and most populous counties, in attendance at
college!
Why is it that this higher class of educational
establishments, and these higher forms of literary
education, are so limitedly patronized in this
country? This is, indeed, a great question—a
question than which none other connected with the
interests of American society is more important.
It cannot he owing to any inadequateness of
collegiate provision. Already in every State there
are a number of well-appointed institutions of this
kind, and the trouble is that the demand is insuf¬
ficient to maintain, in healthy growth the supply.
It cannot be owing to the poverty of the people.
All the wealth necessary for these educational
purposes is pretty generally diffused in this country.
There are thousands of youth in Georgia who are
not sent to these institutions wdio are just as able to
attend them as are those who do attend them. The
same is, 110 doubt, true in other States. As the
general rule, the great mass of college students do
not belong to the wealthiest class; they are, in fact,
less wealthy than many who do not go to college.
Besides, such is the cheapness of college education,
that, with the facilities for money-making in this
222 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
country, there is hardly any one who may not find
it practicable to avail himself of its advantages. In
almost all our colleges a large proportion of those
in attendance always belong to the poorer class of
society.
ISTor is this limitedness in the patronage of our
colleges owing to the fact that this class of educa¬
tional agency, and the instruction it dispenses, are
not eminently useful, indeed indispensable to all
the higher interests of American civilization. It is
the general rule that the intellectual and social
status of a people cannot go beyond the educational
provision they enjoy. The law is that the standard
of this latter, and the extent to which it is patron¬
ized, are the measure of the existing civilization.
It is only through the educational agency that those
vital elements are reached and acted upon, which
are involved in any substantial social progress, or
in any real elevation in the intellectual condition
of society. This is the only reliable leverage which
lifts the social state, and gives to its great intel¬
lectual and moral constituents a real upward im¬
pulse. These higher instruction agencies, then, are
the fountains of progress—the real centres of those
influences that are to develop and enrich American
mind. The actual chances that the American
people have for positive expansion and growth in
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
223
tlie region of pure intelligence—in tlie elements of
intellectual range and power—are dependent upon
tlie character of their best education, and the degree
in which it is patronized. It speaks hut poorly,
then, for the intellectual character of this country,
and for its future prospects in this respect, that
there has as yet been so little actual demand
for these higher forms of education. To the deeply
thoughtful there is presented in this important
fact much that is significant and profoundly sug¬
gestive as to the future of American society. It is
true that, owing to the peculiar history of the
American people, there have been all the time
among them elements of a quickening, energizing
character of an extraordinary kind, and never
before enjoyed by any people, which have subserved
the purpose of an educational instrumentality, and
in some sense compensated for the neglect of these
higher scholastic advantages. But the effect has
been to impart mere activity rather than power,
restlessness rather than thoughtfulness, a perverted,
contracted energy rather than range, comprehen¬
siveness and depth, a grovelling sense, a class of
mere stout, hardy, mental aptitudes, rather than an
intellect muscular, cultivated, and refined. And
the present superficial and strictly materialistic
character of American civilization—its destitution
224 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
of all those profounder elements which always flow
from an intense and highly developed intelligence,
while they show that 110 system of advantage will
supply the lack of an adequate educational training
for the young—a training full and abreast with the
amplest demands of the age—likewise show that
this at last is to he relied upon, and should, with
universal accord, he turned to as the most available
and best adapted of all the human agencies of
individual and social elevation. Indeed, such are
the relations which these higher instruction agen¬
cies hear to all the substantial results of social
progress, that with our abundant resources, and
the hopeful signs of future growth and expansion
everywhere indicated, I can but believe that all our
claims to the solid merits of a lofty civilization will
be narrow and partial, so long as the higher forms
of education proper are so limitedly diffused, and
that there can be 110 realization of the highest
progress—no achievement of those lofty aims which
Providence has evidently assigned to us as the
object of our national history—110 fulfilment of that
high destiny as a nation evidently intended for us in
the scheme of Providence, until the educational
system of our country has been raised to its highest
level, and the benefits which accrue from these, its
highest departments, more universally prevail.
OF HIGHER EDUCATION. 225
The intrinsic worth of the college is seen in any
just analysis of what it has actually accomplished.
The leading minds of this country, for the most
part, in every period, have been those who enjoyed
in early life the advantages of these institutions.
The cases of exception have been those remarkable
natural intellects which have arisen in spite of ob¬
stacles, and which always felt that they would have
risen higher, and made a more powerful impress, had
they been blessed in early life with the training of the
college. Not only most of the minds now occupy¬
ing those prominent official positions which demand
intellectual qualifications of a high and special char¬
acter, but well-nigh all the minds now engaged in
those pursuits that are specially intellectual, and are
contributing in any way to science, literature, or
any of the departments of intellectual interest and
achievement in this country, have enjoyed the train¬
ing of the college, and are indebted to it mainly for
their capacity to fulfil these intellectual functions.
Almost all that mind which is best known, has most
power, is contributing most fruit in this country, has
had the benefit of collegiate education. Colleges,
too, are contributing to break down that aristocracy
which is founded upon the distinctions of mere ob¬
jective possession and relationships, and are creating
a new aristocracy founded upon the distinctions of
10*
226 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
educational and moral worth, in which the classes
will he hut two, and education will make the differ¬
ence : a state of society more normal in its charac¬
ter, and consequently more conformed to the laws
of social progress. Colleges, by the advantages they
provide, invest young men with enduring claims to
respectability and high social position, and with a
capital more valuable than a legacy of gold, for
while in itself it is competent to secure all the ad¬
vantages of such legacy, it is identified with the very
being of its possessor, and is beyond the ordinary
contingencies of accident or fraud. Colleges are
bringing up to the surface, where it will have a
chance for fair competition, and may be made avail¬
able as a power in society, a vast amount of talent
that would otherwise for ever lie buried and un¬
known—kept back by the mere lack of that foster¬
ing care necessary to bring it to light, or else, as is
oftener the case, by the depressing influence of an
ill-adjusted social constitution. Scattered all over
the country are the purest gems of mind, which but
for the college would for ever lie hidden and worth¬
less ; but which, taken up hy its instrumentality,
and by its processes shaped and polished, are turned
out upon society its brightest lights and noblest or¬
naments. Its graduates are almost always the fore¬
most men in all communities, if not in the depart-
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
227
merits of practical drudgery and physical labor, yet
in all those higher departments which deal more
directly with the mind itself, and are the source of
all that elevates and adorns societ}r. The college
itself, clustering around it, as it generally does, the
philosophic and the learned, has always been, in its
own officers and attaches, the centre of the highest
learning and scholarship of the land. There most
generally have been struck out those lights, and ori¬
ginated those improvements in literature, science,
and philosophy, which constitute the most palpable
of the accumulations to the intellectual wealth of a
nation. And to that sofLrce, either directly or re¬
motely, is to be traced whatever of that spirit of
literary study, of learned research and speculative
pursuit that is abroad in the land—which, as the
measure of the intellectual activity and resources of
a people, is always the true index of their real pros¬
perity and happiness. Truly, then, the college is a
power in society, with a wider range of capacity to
touch the springs of human progress/and to bring
up in effective array and vigorous activity all the
varied elements of social development and elevation,
than any other mere human agency.
But, if it is not because the college is not an
agency of immense capabilities of usefulness, and
imperatively demanded, or for any of the causes I
228 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
liave mentioned, the question still recurs, Why this
limitedness in the patronage of the college ? Why
is it that the college has not yet had a greater num¬
ber to embrace its privileges and advantages ?
The first answer I give to this question is, that it
is owing to the want of a better and a more ex¬
tended system of primary education.
It is well known that in the Southern States, at
least, we have no regular common school system
arranged for universal application. The consequence
is, that there are thousands of youth in our land that
have what is equivalent to no school advantages
whatever; and many thousands more, whose ad¬
vantages are on the narrowest possible scale, so fluc¬
tuating, feeble, and defective are the school pro¬
visions afforded. Even in our towns and cities, and
most highly favored communities, there is a large
proportion of our youth whose education is never
carried beyond the most imperfect rudiments, and
may be said to stop almost as soon as it is begun;
while among our rural population there are many
communities in which there is rarely, if ever, a
school; and many more in which the school pro¬
vision is barely adequate to afford even the very
lowest facilities to the young. aSTow, this state of
things in a country like ours, however much it may
be redeemed by an abundance of the very highest
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
229
school provision furnished here and there' in con¬
stantly recurring localities, and by a numerous class
everywhere diffused, who have the advantages of the
most liberal education, yet does have a most un¬
favorable bearing, even upon the patronage and sup¬
port of the higher educational establishments them¬
selves.
This is evident, in the first place, from this gen¬
eral principle: that in all free society like ours, the
extent to which the higher forms of education are
appreciated and patronized, is always in proportion
to the extent and perfection of the education of the
entire mass of the people. There will always be
gradations in society. Differences in ambition,
energy, and natural gifts will always give the ex¬
tremes of an upper and lower class, with many in¬
tervening ranks. As the desire of relative superi¬
ority, and not arbitrary or conventional arrangement,
is the ground of these distinctions in this country,
the extent to which any class will rise must depend
simply upon the point necessary to be attained to
elevate them above others. It follows, therefore,
that the absolute condition of the highest will de-
pend upon and may he measured by the absolute
condition of those who form the lower rank, or the
basis class of society. If the absolute condition of
this latter class is a low or depressed one, that of
230 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
the former will be low correspondingly; and if we
would raise the highest, and all other intervening
ranks, to a still more elevated condition, one of the
most effectual methods is to begin by elevating the
substratum—those that are at the bottom in the so¬
cial scale. Now, precisely the same law of grada¬
tion applies to the educational system—and it is
maintained 011 precisely the same principles. It is
the extent and perfection of the education of those
who form the basis—the promiscuous masses of so¬
ciety—that determine the character of the educa¬
tion of those who are above. If this be partial, low
and imperfect, there will be less need of the higher
forms of education above, in order to the continued
maintenance of relative rank and influence; and,
consequently, less attention and patronage will be
given to those forms. It is by elevating and per¬
fecting the education of the underlying masses, that
the superincumbent ranks will be brought to a just
appreciation and general patronage of these loftier
styles of literary education. It follows, therefore,
that this want of a general system of primary or
common school education, and the consequent low
condition of the education of a vast mass of the
people, do have a marked tendency to depreciate
and to restrict the diffusion of higher education;
and consequently account, to a no inconsiderable
OP HIGHER ED IT CATION.
231
extent, at least, foi" tliis limited patronage of the
colleges of the country.
This conclusion is still further sustained by other
views.
This depressed condition of much of the educa¬
tion of the people, consequent upon this absence of
primary common school advantages, greatly lowers
the intellectual standard of the masses of the Ame¬
rican people. But in so far as it has this effect,
since in this country the people govern, and the
tendency .of all mind is to adapt itself to their stand¬
ard, it does have a superficializing influence upon
leading mind itself; it does limit the necessity for
that particular class of resources—that particular
kind of cultivation and taste which elevated educa¬
tion bestows; and hence curtails the patronage of
those specific institutions of learning in which it is
dispensed. There can he no doubt that were a sys¬
tem adopted by which the advantages of a good
primary education would be brought within the reach
of all—and through which the intellectual standard
of the masses, everywhere, would be very decidedly
elevated—our colleges would at once receive an im¬
pulse, and a demand for their advantages would be
created, never known before.
There are thousands in this country who are now
enchained in ignorance, and destined to a career of
232 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
obscurity, if not of degradation, that would have
been brought by the force of their own energy and
genius, or the direction and assistance of others,
within the range of the college, and would have
gone to swell its lists and to multiply its friends and
supporters, could they have had just that kind.of
help—could they have been enabled to realize just
that vantage-ground in early life which a good pri¬
mary education would have afforded. These thou¬
sands needed only that impulse and elevation which
such advantages would have secured, to have ulti¬
mately carried them up into the foremost ranks of
the educated of the country. This destitution of
suitable school advantages which extensively pre¬
vails, does have, beyond all question, an embarrass¬
ing, crippling influence upon every department of
educational interest. It is indeed the incubus, the
dead weight, which has more than all else contri¬
buted to dwarf our entire educational system, and
to render it so incommensurate in all respects with
the great wants of our national community. Could
this blot upon American society be removed—could
this destitution be superseded by such a system as
would secure to our entire population some good
degree of educational advantage, and at the same
time improve the character of this primary educa¬
tion dispensed—there can be no doubt that, as the
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
233
result of this achievement, there would he infused
into every department of society a quickened im¬
pulse and an increased interest in behalf of educa¬
tion, and every class of educational enterprise would
equally share in the upward, progressive tendency.
But, if it be so important to the patronage of the
college, and to all the interests of a general educa¬
tional system, that the country should be provided
with a better and a more extended system of pri¬
mary education—that the masses of society should
have better opportunities for the attainment of some
degree of education, it is important to consider how
these objects maybe hastened. Two modes of doing
this have been proposed. One is by the machinery
of the State, and the other is by voluntary or bene¬
volent effort. I am opposed to the policy of State
interposition for the accomplishment of these ob¬
jects: 1st. Because I regard it outside the proper
function of a republican system, which is one simply
of protection, and has no immediate relation to the
personal 01* individual interests of its subjects. Be¬
sides, its great fundamental principle is equality—a
principle which must be violated in any general sys¬
tem of taxation for the education of a class. 2d.
Because, on account of the impracticability of any
discrimination under this system, it is obliged to ex¬
tend its provisions alike to all who claim to belong
234 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIEFUSION
to the eleemosynary class—thereby helping those
who can help themselves—helping many even of the
needy beyond the limit of their need—taking from
parents a motive of action the most fundamental
and far-reaching in both its conservative and pro¬
gressive influence upon society, namely, the desire
to improve the condition of their offspring ; and fur¬
nishing a premium to indolence and poverty. 3d.
Because, sustaining, as State machinery does sus¬
tain, a representative relation to all the sects of
Christianity of which the State community is com¬
posed, it must, for the sake of avoiding a sectarian
or proselyting aspect, totally ignore, if not repudi¬
ate, the decidedly religious element in all its educa¬
tional processes : a policy which leaves out of the
educational scheme the most vital, the most effective
and saving of its agencies—which is positively in¬
fidel and damaging in its character, and totally un¬
worthy., the Christian faith and sentiment of this
country. 4th. Because arbitrary and empirical in
its character, by a hot-bed process, and in violation
of the normal laws of social progress, it prematurely
forces up masses from the bottom of society, and
places them in an unnatural position, and into un¬
natural, abnormal relationship—giving rise thereby,
throughout that class, to a prevailing spirit of rest¬
lessness and disaffection, to an unsound, perverted
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
235
mental organism, that make it a dangerous element
of society. The insubordination, the ultraism and
extravagance, the empty sciolism and reckless one-
ideaism of the masses of our Northern States, are the
fruit, mainly, of their much-lauded system of com¬
mon school education. 5th. Because, if there were
no other objection to it, it is utterly impracticable
so to apply any system by the State among us as to
make it accomplish the object contemplated.
It is by the other plan—that of voluntary or direct
benevolent effort—that I propose to extend the be¬
nefits of a suitable primary education to every com¬
munity. I favor this plan for these reasons: 1st.
Because it is free from the objections I have stated
as applicable to the former. 2d. Because, resting
alone upon voluntary individual responsibility, en¬
terprise, and effort, the whole scheme becomes in
its execution an educational process to the benefac¬
tors themselves, as well as to those who are designed
to be benefited—a receiving process to those who
bestow as well as to those upon whom the bestowal
is made. It is a scheme which realizes the benefit
of a leading economic principle of the gospel, that
"It is more blessed to give than to receive." The
reflex influence which it exerts, as realized in the
enlarged and enlightened views which it cultivates
and diffuses, the liberal and ennobling sentiments
2-36 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
of usefulness and of active benevolent enterprise
which it fosters, and to which it subjects the conduct
of men, are as valuable to society, become as im¬
portant agents in the promotion of its weal, as are
those results themselves whose achievement is the
primary and principal object of the scheme. 4tli.
Because, so far from being a forcing process, or in¬
volving any violent interference with the great re¬
gulative principle of supply and demand, it is simply
a development, an unfolding, of the social state in
obedience to already fixed laws of progress. And
instead, therefore, of leading by an inevitable tend¬
ency to such combination of those great primary
social elements as is ill-assorted, discordant, and
disorganizing, it secures just that growth which
preserves and perpetuates all the time the complete
conditions of a properly adjusted, well-balanced,
and healthy social constitution. 5th. Because it
allows full freedom in blending any amount of re¬
ligious agency with educational processes, and in
that complete subjection of education to the control
of the Church, which is its true and proper relation
under the Divine economy.
But how is the plan of voluntary benevolent
effort to be made effective in accomplishing the
desired diffusion of primary education ? Much may
be done by private individuals, acting in their own
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
237
way, and upon tlieir own responsibility. Many a
community, all over this land, has been supplied
with teachers and school privileges through the
active interposition of a few leading men. Many
a poor youth has received the boon of a good rudi-
mental education, and many an indigent young
man has enjoyed and is now receiving the benefit
of an academical, and even a first-class collegiate
education, by reason of the benevolent effort and
bounty of the generous and the good. And if
something has been done in this way in this
direction already, enough to vindicate the wisdom
and the practicability of the policy, surely there
would be witnessed a much wider scale of achieve¬
ment, could the present prevailing sentiment, that
the occupancy of this great field is the business of
the State, be eliminated from the public mind, and
those liberal views, that enlarged and enlightened
sense of personal obligation in these premises, be
everywhere diffused, which would naturally arise
from the general substitution of that other senti¬
ment, that this whole interest is a matter alone of
direct and immediate personal responsibility.
But it must be admitted that so broad a field of
usefulness could not be fully occupied if left alone
to the fragmentary, isolated efforts of individuals
acting singly, and in their own way. It is only by
288 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
sucli an association as enables the spontaneous
benevolence of the country-to act unitedly and
under a proper system of mutual understanding and
regulation, that its full force can he elicited, and its
operations be made commensurate with the objects
to be accomplished. hTow, such a plan of associa¬
tion is precisely realized in the various ecclesiastical
organizations of the country. And as well for this
reason of fitness as for the fact of their entire
harmony with such objects, and especially for that
other fact, that the education of the people is in
truth the function of the Church, these organiza¬
tions are to be relied upon as furnishing the proper
machinery for the development of this, as well as
every other department of educational enterprise.
Every ecclesiastical fellowship of the land should
consider itself charged with this great trust, and
with the duty of its faithful execution. There is in
the peculiar structure of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, with which I am, perhaps, more familiar, a
remarkable adaptation to the great end of applying
voluntary benevolent effort to the best advantage
in the education of the people. There is in the
successive governmental bodies of this Church a
precise and very remarkable adaptation to the
number and succession of those agencies which
make up a complete educational system: in the
OE HIGHER EDUCATION. 239
General Conference, wliose jurisdiction covers the
entire Church, to the "university, whose dependence
for support must he upon the entire Church; in the
Annual Conference, whose jurisdiction covers nar¬
rower geographical limits, to the college, whose
sphere of influence and patronage will always he in
the nature of things correspondingly restricted; and
in the Quarterly Conference, whose jurisdiction is
comparatively local, to the academy, whose sphere
of operations is usually hounded hy the same
confined limits. Indeed, analysis will show that
there is a precise correlation between the powers
and geographical spheres of these various govern¬
mental bodies of this Church respectively, and the
demands and geographical relations of these various
agencies of a full educational system, as perfect and
complete, in fact, as if the Church had been organ¬
ized with reference alone to this specific object.
It is then by the instrumentality of the Quarterly
Conferences, so far as the Methodist Church is
concerned, that I propose to make benevolent
• enterprise available in the diffusion of a suitable
primary education for the masses. There are three
objects which must enter into the plan of these
bodies in order to their encompassing of this gre'at
aim. First, To induce those neighborhoods which
are now destitute of schools, not from pecuniary
240 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
inability, but from ignorance, indifference, or other
like causes, to provide these establishments for
themselves, Second, To secure, by benevolent aid,
the erection of school-houses and the provision of
a suitable number of teachers in those communities,
so few and far between in this country, which, after
proper effort, are ascertained to be pecuniarily unable
to supply themselves with those advantages. Third,
To defray, in the same way, the necessary school
expenses of those scattering cases of poverty which
live in self-sustaining communities, and are unable
to encounter these expenses themselves. Could
these objects be accomplished, then it is evident
that the whole country, in every part, would be
supplied with the facilities of common school in¬
struction, and the splendid result would be achieved
of a fulfilment of all the conditions necessary to
the universal diffusion of a good primary education,
under the blessed auspices of the Church of God.
I do not undertake to say that a system so new,
so broad, and so replete with details, could at once
be practically developed and put everywhere iu the
most efficient and successful operation. I do
believe, however, that there are communities all
over this land that are even now ripe for this plan,
and only need so much encouragement and direc¬
tion as are necessary to marshal and to organize
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
241
already existing elements, to pnt them upon a
career of nohle and successful execution. Could
even these be once enlisted, their example, so
demonstrative of the feasibility of the scheme, and
of the excellence of its results, could not fail to
commend it to others, and gradually the process of
dissemination and appropriation would go on, until,
having extended itself over the jwhole country,
every precinct of the land would realize the direct
benefit of its salutary and beneficent operation.
I verily believe that the time has come when the
Church of God ought to direct her efforts, through
a suitable instrumentality, to this department of
educational enterprise. Heretofore her attention
has been restricted almost exclusively to the higher,
more dignified forms of educational provision ; but
the period has arrived when she is called upon to
enlarge her policy; when she must look clown as
well as up in the execution of her great educational
function; when she must look to what respects
diffusion, as well as to what respects elevation;
when she must provide for the wants and interests
that are common to the great mass, as well as for
those departments which belong alone to the higher
walks of life; when she must, in short, seek the
perfection and the universal diffusion of primary
schools and primary education, as well as the proper
11
242 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
development and tlie proper diffusion of those
higher forms of education that are appropriate to
the high school and the college. Hot the perfection
of the capabilities and influence of the college only,
hut the development of the fullest power of the
Church in the subjection of the masses to her sway,
and that fulfilment of the conditions of social
growth and elevation which realizes the noble ideal
of a safe, complete, and lofty civilization, all likewise
imperatively demand such a course of action.
Having now presented the first answer to the
question, Why is it that the college is so limitedly
patronized ? I proceed to the second, which is the
defective condition of the academy system of the
country.
As the college requires a certain amount of pre¬
vious preparation to admission- to its privileges, it
must rest upon the academy for all those accessions
that secure to it life and support. To whatever de¬
gree, then, and in whatever respects the latter comes
short of fulfilling its own appropriate functions, the
former must be embarrassed in its operations and
restricted in the degree and range of its influence;
while at the same time it is equally true that what¬
ever positively enlarges its capacities and the sphere
of its action, has a precisely corresponding tendency
to uphold and expand the sphere of the college.
OP HIGHER EDUCATION.
243
Now, those defects in the present academy system
which operate to hinder the prosperity of the college
are several.
The first that I mention is the limited and inade¬
quate supply of this class of institutions.
There are many localities all over this country—
the centres of populous neighborhoods and dense
communities—which are now destitute, that, with
suitable enterprise and cooperation, might liave
well-sustained and useful institutions of this kind.
The sentiment so widely diffused, that education
can be sought under the highest auspices only in
towns, has contributed to confine the academy al¬
most exclusively to those localities—causing to be
overlooked numerous country places, which, as seats
of well-conducted academies or high schools, would
be better patronized, and have vastly greater facili¬
ties for efficiency and usefulness. And even in
many of our towns and villages—though they have
institutions that are called academies—though they
have the buildings and some of the appointments
of such, yet from various causes—among others the
very expense which this fashion of abandoning the
country and resorting to towns and cities for educa¬
tional provision incurs—these institutions have the
feeblest existence possible, and come so far short of
fulfilling the functions proper to the academy, that
244 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
they can liarclly be regarded as entitled to the name.
But just so far as the academy is insufficiently and
unsuitably distributed over the country, it must of
course to that extent fail to compass the patronage
of the country; for patronage can never go beyond
the provision for its accommodation. Besides, while
it is true that there are many who," self-prompted,
will themselves seek out and attend these institu¬
tions, even at distant and inconvenient points, yet
there are many others who, either , from pecuniary
inability or indifference, will never personally avail
•themselves of them unless they are brought to their
doors. But, if the patronage of the academy is
affected by this cause, then that of the college must
be likewise ; for the support of the former in this
respect, coming directly and alone from the support
of the latter, can hardly be expected to be other¬
wise than in the ratio of its own extent of range.
But, if the lack of a suitable supply of academical
provision over the country curtails the patronage of
the college, so likewise does the depressed condition
of the education of most of those academies that do
exist. While it is true that there are many acade¬
mies in which ample facilities are at all times afforded
for preparation for almost any stage of the college
course, and from which young men are constantly
going to the college—and to which, in fact, it is al-
OF HIGHER EDUCA'TION.
245
most exclusively indebted for its supplies—yet a close
observation will ,show, that either because of the
incompetency of teachers, or else of the constant
change of teachers, most of our academies never
carry the standard of education up even to the mini¬
mum or entrance standard of the college, and con¬
sequently never furnish students who are prepared
for admission into college. ' And even many of those
which' do seek to reach a higher standard, so badly
adjust and combine the various departments of
scholarship with respect to the college course, that
their members are rarely ever prepared to take what
is termed a regular position in college—and are
hence as effectually precluded from any attempt to
obtain admission into it, as if they had not the
slightest literary qualification. But as the academy
is the only feeder of the college, of course, in so far
as it fails to reach its lowest limit, and to prepare
young men for it, the supplies of the latter are cut
off, and the range of its action is restricted. Be¬
sides, there is a tendency in the academy when its
energies are fully developed, and the sphere of its
provisions is enlarged and elevated, by the very edu¬
cational momentum it creates, the very estimate of
the value of education it induces, the very ambition
to realize higher benefits it excites, and the very
easiness of the transition it occasions, to turn the
246 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIEEUSION
attention of the country to the college, and to mul¬
tiply the applicants for its privileges—all of which
advantages, and all of which accessions, this class of
institutions of course loses just in proportion to this
depressed condition of the academies of the country.
Another defect in the academy which affects in¬
juriously the position and the patronage of the
college is the want of the elements of criticalness
and thoroughness in the education which it dis¬
penses. That there is, for various reasons, which I
shall not now undertake to state, a loose, superficial,
and inaccurate character belonging to the educational
processes of most of the academies of this country,
is well known to college officers generally, and to all
others who, having the capacity, have taken the pains
to examine into the subject. The effect of this is to
diminish the popularity and influence of the college
in a twofold way. First, As the supplies of the col¬
lege come immediately from the academy, this de¬
fective preparation necessarily pervades in its tram¬
melling, hindering influence, the entire college
course, lowers its prevailing standard of scholarship,
restricts its capacity to make scholars, and hence
necessarily impairs the evidence of its utility, and
the strength of its claims before the world. The
difficulties and the discouragements to which it gives
rise in the prosecution of study, are the cause, almost
OF HIGH EE'EDUCATION.
247
always, of those frequent withdrawals before the
course is completed, which, though they are volun¬
tary, nevertheless have atendency, by no means small,
to weaken public confidence in these establishments.
These difficulties and discouragements thus pro¬
duced by this defective, superficial preparation, are
likewise the cause of much of that disgust of study,
of that idleness and crime, and, consequently, of
those expulsions and compulsory withdrawals, which
have contributed more than all else perhaps to de¬
preciate the standing of the college. Second, This
superficial, imperfect character of the educational pro¬
cesses common to the academy does have the effect,
in a large number of cases, to force a premature re¬
sort to the college. It creates a want of confidence
in the academy that induces many, who otherwise
would prolong their stay, in it to abandon it at the
earliest possible moment for the college, as the only
means of realizing such advantages as are reliable
and satisfactory. But the consequence of this policy
is that a good proportion of those who attend col¬
lege, though they might have succeeded well had
they postponed their entrance, have been placed
there too young to have that capacity for self-govern¬
ment which the loose disciplinary system of the col¬
lege presupposes and demands, and hence are liable
to fall into idleness, licentiousness, and trouble; and
248 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
too young to have that maturity of mind and expe¬
rience necessary to qualify them to pursue and
grapple with their studies to the best advantage;
and hence are liable to become discouraged and dis¬
gusted, or, at all events, to lose the highest benefits
of their educational course. There can he no doubt
that the practice which largely prevails of sending
youth to college at so early an age, has greatly im¬
paired its capabilities to accomplish its proper aims:
it has thus greatly contributed to lower in public
estimation its standing, and the claims of the higher
education it is intended to dispense. This practice
unquestionably has its origin in very great part in a
want of confidence in the thoroughness of the edu¬
cational processes of the schools below.
There is an antagonism often felt in the academy
to the claims and interests of the college which I men¬
tion as another defect in the former that has an un¬
favorable bearing upon the prosperity of the latter.
"While there are many academies all over the country
that have a liberal and enlightened appreciation of
their proper place and relationship in the great edu-
catipnal system, and are entirely willing to act as
tributaries to the college, yet it cannot be denied
that there are many others which, either because of
mistaken views of self-interest, or of that suspicion
and jealousy which naturally arises from the fact
OP HIGHER EDUCATION. 249
that the incumbents themselves have never enjoyed
collegiate advantages, or from other causes, cherish a
positive antagonism to the college—the antagonism
not simply of hesitation and indifference, hut, as is
often the case, of downright overt opposition. £Tow,
as the college is the outgrowth of the academy, de¬
pendent for all that respects its patronage and influ¬
ence upon its sympathy and cooperation, it is not
difficult to perceive the damage it must suffer from
such unfriendliness and disaffection.
But if our academy, system, as at present de¬
veloped, hinders so'much the power and prosperity
of the college, it is important to inquire next,
whether it may not he freed from these defects, and
placed upon a hasis whereon it may render its full
amount of support to the college.
There are three things which, in my judgment,
are necessary to the accomplishment of this object.
The first is this : The present plan of separating the
sexes in the educational process must he abandoned,
at least as far up as the college period, and that of
mixed schools must he adopted in its stead. The
first effect of this change would he to multiply and
more extensively distribute academies over the
country, and thus obviate the first defect in our
academy system to which I have call fed attention.
The great desideratum in establishing new acade-
11*
250 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE .DIFFUSION
mies, and in giving real life to those which now
have only a nominal existence, is patronage. Since,
then, under the proposed system, the chances of
patronage are doubled to each school, it of course
follows that under its operation a vast increase
would take place in the number of communities
brought within the range of capacity to provide
schools for themselves. There are many country
neighborhoods, many towns and villages, which
have not youth enough to sustain two academies,
hut which have youth enough, when both sexes are
thrown together, to sustain one academy. There
are in many of our towns academies that can hardly
he said to have the feeblest existence, that only
need the adoption of this union policy to have
imparted to them every element of a vigorous
vitality. Could the present policy, then, which so
unnecessarily hampers the educational energies of
the country, he abandoned, and this new one he
adopted in its stead, the effect of which would he
to unfetter so many communities, and to put them
at once into a position of capacity to provide for
themselves their own educational facilities, there
could he no doubt that a step would he taken that
would he followed by an immediate general
expansion of educational enterprise, and by the
diffusion everywhere of all the academical provi-
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
251
si oil that the country needs. The second effect of
this change of policy would he to improve the
character of the teachers and of the educational
advantages of the academy. It is the division of
the patronage into two classes of schools, which the
present policy demands, that has put the educational
character of these schools at so low a standard.
For it keeps the salaries which most of the different
schools afford at too low a figure to secure the
services as teachers of first-class men. But the
union of this patronage would so elevate the salaries
of most of these institutions as to render it com¬
petent for them to employ permanently as teachers
the higher order of talent and learning. Now the
effect of this would, of course, he to raise the
academy to that position of efficiency and influence
which its true relations to the educational system
demand, to elevate the standard and to extend the
range of the education it diffuses, to secure the
desired thoroughness and accuracy,—to make these
schools everywhere, in short, the constant feeders
of the college, and thus to relieve the academy
system of the second and third of those defects I
have mentioned as now characteristic of it.
The policy of mixed schools is further commended
by the following considerations : 1st. It conforms to
Nature's own model, the family association, the
252 OBSTRUCTIONS TO TIIE DIFFUSION
natural idea of which always implies a combination
of the sexes. 2d. An association of the sexes for
such objects is peculiarly favorable to the develop¬
ment and maintenance of those qualities of ambi¬
tion, of laudable desire and purpose to excel, so
necessary among the young to right educational
progress; and it is conservative and promotive of
good morals, of refinement and good taste, of
becoming manners and behavior. 3d. Intended, as
each is, to live in society composed of both sexes,
such a school educates each under the circumstances
in which they are to move in future life. It gives
opportunity during the rearing period for that
knowledge of and adaptation to each other which
itself is a valuable part of education. Indeed, the
very association is itself an educational agency,
affording the occasion for the outgrowth of qualities,
both of head and heart, vdiich, wdiile they are
essential to the full development and maturity of
each, are indispensable to right qualification for the
scenes and duties of future life.
The next thing necessary to rid the academy
of these defects, and to elevate it to its rightful
position, is the proper supply of a sufficient number
of well-educated, home-bred native teachers. Up
to this period, as insufficient in number as our
academies have been, many of the teachers cm-
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
253
ployed have been either men educated in distant
States, or else men who have had no collegiate
education at all. Of course, under such circum¬
stances, it is natural to expect that while there
would be in many of the academies a depressed
standard of educational advantage, there would be
in all, to the extent to which these classes of
teachers are employed, but little sympathy for the
collegiate establishments, at least of our own
section. But when our colleges have been suf¬
ficiently expanded, and have lived long enough to
complete the process in which they are now
engaged, of furnishing out of their own alumni our
own section with a full complement of teachers,
then shall we realize the important result of an
elevated academical system; then will the present
antagonism in the academy be broken down, and
the proper natural bond between the academy and
the college be everywhere established.
Still another thing necessary to free the academy
of existing defects, is the abandonment of the
present plan of discriminating in the rates of tuition
for the different classes, and the adoption of the
plan of making tuition one and the same for all
the classes. All must admit that whether we look
to the interests of the mature mind itself, or to the
final character of the education obtained, no period
254 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
of the educational career is so important as that
■which belongs to the primary or rudimental course.
But while this is true, it must he admitted that the
most marked defect in our whole educational system
at this time is the imperfect and superficial char¬
acter of the instruction afforded in the earlier
4
departments. To the present plan of discriminating
in the rates of tuition, this fact is doubtless to he
traced. First, Because it occasions an inattention
and neglect on the part of teachers in respect of
primary students, for the sake of those in higher
and, to them, more lucrative departments of study.
Second, Because it occasions a temptation in teachers,
constantly felt, and too often yielded to, to press
the young into higher classes before they are suf¬
ficiently drilled and grounded in the more rudi¬
mentary, for the sake of the pecuniary advantage
accruing from such policy. For one, conscious as
I am of the vital importance and valuable relations
of right rudimental education, I have never been
able to perceive the reason for this discriminating
policy, tending, as it does, evidently to discredit
and disparage these lower departments of instruc¬
tion, and this important class of the subjects of our
educational system. I verily believe that our
academy system will never be placed upon its right
basis, and the conditions of a thorough and com-
OF HIGHER EDUCATION. 255
plete course of academical instruction be realized,
until this policy is abandoned, find the tuition fees
in our academies, as in our colleges, are made one
and the same for all classes. Nor need the price
of education be changed under this plan. The
average of the present rates may be assumed as the
one uniform rate. The effect of this would be to
make aggregate incomes the same to teachers, and
aggregate expenses the same to pupils.
Too long has the academy in this country felt
these embarrassments and hindrances in its great
work of diffusing a sound education for the people.
The relation it sustains to the cause of higher edu-
cation, and the purpose it is subserving in furnish¬
ing the only educational advantages which a large
mass of the people ever avail themselves of, conclu¬
sively show that this is one of the great agencies of
social growth and elevation which ought never to be
fettered or restricted. And I confidently believe
that there is no aspect of the general subject of edu¬
cation now inviting the attention of the wise and
good in this country more important, when con¬
sidered in all its varied bearings, than that of the
proper development and perfection of our academy
system.
But there are still other answers'to the question,
"Why is it that the college is so limitedly patronized ?
256 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
The next one I offer , is the existence of certain
groundless objections in the public mind against
colleges.
One of these objections is that the benefits of col¬
leges accrue to the'rich arid not to the poor. . Now,
so far from this being true, I maintain that the col¬
leges of this country, especially such as are under
denominational control, are capable of doing as
much for the poor as for the rich—of conferring even
greater, or at least more marked benefits upon that
class than upon the rich. I argue this, in the first
place, from the pecuniary, social, and personal ad¬
vantages which they are capable of bestowing.
When a young man graduates at any of our colleges,
he has an education by the use of which he can
make $1000 a year in the business of school-teach¬
ing. This is indeed a low estimate, for many make
as much as $1200; others $1500; and others even
$2000. There are other employments, such as the
1 earned professions, in which he may engage, in which
lie'may make'more than any of these amounts.
But assuming school- teaching to be his business,
•since it is one always at once open to him, and $1000
to be his annual salary, then it is evident that the
effect of the college has been to endow him with a
capital equal to $14,300, or, in round numbers,
$15,000 ; for the former is about the interest on the
OP HIGHER EDUCATION. 257
latter amount at seven per cent, per annum. It fol¬
lows, tlien, that any indigent youth who can raise
from his own resources or by loan $1200, which is
the amount necessary to meet the expenses of the
whole four years in college, or even a lesser sum,
dependent upon the stage of the course at which he
begins, can by means of the college put himself
in possession of that which to him will be equal to
a fortune of $15,000. Hor need he necessarily be
able to pay even this in cash, for in many of our col¬
leges he can obtain indulgence for his tuition, and
sometimes for his board, either in whole or in part,
until.he can afterwards make and pay over the
money.
' But not only has the college power thus to make
the poor rich at this cheap rate, but it likewise has
the. power to elevate them at once into the highest
circles of society. . In this country, an elevated edu¬
cation, combined with right morals, is a passport with
any man, no matter how limited his external posses¬
sions or humble his origin may be, to the highest
social position. The intelligence, the information,
the refinement and taste he possesses, and the very
prestige which the fact of having enjoyed superior
educational opportunities imparts to him, are them¬
selves qualifications which in this country, where a
legally established aristocracy does not prevail, and
17
258 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
men are judged more according to the standard of
their own merits, will at once throw him up, no mat¬
ter what may have been his early or may be now his
present circumstances otherwise, into the upper walks
of life, and make him an acceptable associate among
the very best social circles. Such a man cannot "be
kept socially depressed. The very advantages he
has enjoyed, and the very development and furniture
they have afforded him, as naturally lead him by the
laws of social affinity into the upper classes, and as
naturally lead all the world to concede to him such
position, as if he had come into life with a hereditary
title to it, or it had been conferred upon him by pre¬
scriptive or statutory "regulation.
But not only has the college power to make the
poor rich, and to elevate them at once into the upper
ranks of life, but it has power to confer upon
them additional blessings in the resources of intel¬
lectual Strength, elevation, and happiness which it is
calculated to secure to them. It is the office of
higher education to exalt the individual mind, to
enrich it with the noblest acquisitions, to augment
its power and elevate its tastes, to dignify and adorn
personal character, to cultivate a lofty self-respect,
and to enlarge and divcrsif}7 the resources of occu¬
pation and happiness. Its greatest power, after all,
is in its development of the individual man—the en-
OP HIGHER EDUCATION.
259
largement of Lis individual capacities for influence,
usefulness, and happiness—the unfolding and ex¬
pansion of his nature preparatory to the immortality
that awaits it. Surely an agency which has capa¬
bilities thus so suddenly to alter the condition of the
poor, to break off the fetters and to remove the dis¬
abilities to which, their intellects were born, and to
raise them to the nobler inheritance of intellectual
freedom, cultivation, and happiness, must indeed be
the friend of the poor.
Now that the college has power to accomplish all
these results in behalf of the poor is not a mere
theoretic conception, but is a practical truth abund¬
antly confirmed by numberless examples all over
this land. Already has it achieved them in behalf
of cases to be seen in almost every community in
this country. Many there are everywhere scattered
who have been raised from obscurity and poverty,
and in many cases extreme poverty, to a condition
of abundant happy living, to a state of foremost re¬
spectability, to positions of highest influence, use¬
fulness, and happiness, simply through the advan¬
tages of a collegiate education, which by some ar¬
rangement that was made by or for them they were
enabled to obtain. I have myself, in my experience
of college operations, been cognizant of not a few of
such cases. And I must confess that in witnessing
260 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
tliese instances—tliat in witnessing the transform¬
ing, elevating influence exerted by the college upon
this class; the class of the indigent, the humble, and
obscure—I have had a conception of the power of
education, and of the glory of our free civil institu¬
tions, such as I had never before realized. It is an
important fact that as a general rule no other class
succeed so well in college, or realize so fully its
capacity to bless. Accustomed to hardship and to
self-denial, and appreciating the preciousness of their
opportunities, they are just that class most likely to
avail themselves of them, and to become to the world,
when they go forth from these institutions, the best
examples of their beneficent results. The number
of the poor who avail themselves of the college has
rapidly increased within recent years, since the estab¬
lishment of denominational colleges. Even now
there is a large class in almost all these institutions,
and the number is destined greatly to increase as
these institutions multiply and grow in their range
of influence, and as their eleemosynary function, to
which the country is gradually turning its attention,
becomes more completely developed.
But that the benefits of the college are not con¬
fined to the rich, but extend equally to the poor, is
evident, in the second place, from what it is doing to
supply the country with teachers, and thus to con-
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
261
vey educational privileges to tlie masses of the peo¬
ple. Every year there go from these institutions a
large class of teachers; these not only go out to fill
the vacancies in schools already established, hut, as
they multiply in order to obtain situations, seek out
new fields, and by personal effort create demand,
and thus establish schools in new places, and carry
education to districts and neighborhoods which in
this respect were before destitute. There can he no
doubt that there are thousands of the poor in all this
country who are indebted 'altogether to this feature
in the operations of our colleges for whatever edu¬
cational opportunities they now enjoy; and thou¬
sands more who "are. indebted to it for a vast en¬
hancement of their educational advantages. And
there can be no doubt, further, that as this feature
becomes more fully and broadly developed, as it will
be by the progress of denominational colleges,
it is destined to constitute in itself one of the most
effective of all the elements in a proper system for
the universal diffusion of some measure of educa¬
tion. Indeed, not only those who go out as teachers,
but all the alumni of our colleges, carry with them,
as they go to take their places here and there in so¬
ciety, a quickening influence in behalf of education
among all ranks of the people.
Passing from this, I proceed to notice another
262 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
objection existing in tlie public mind to tbe college,
which contributes no little to mar its standing .and
range of operations. When generalized into a
formal statement, it is something like this—that
among those who attend them, in a majority of
cases, colleges do more harm than good, and hence
are rather nuisances than agencies of benefit to
society. The public are apt to form their judgment
of the general internal condition of the college,
simply from those flagrant cases of moral obliquity
and transgression, and from those cases of severe
penal visitation, which, I regret to say, do occur in
college history. These cases being tangible *and
overt, often the subjects of remark in social circles,
and necessarily publicly known, while the instances
of subordination, of good conduct and devotion to
duty, are, from their nature, noiseless, unobtrusive,
and retired from public view, it is natural that they
should constitute that basis of facts upon which the
uninquiring and uudiscriminating will form their
opinion of the general character of college students.
And if these untoward cases did constitute any
tiling like a very large proportion of the entire
number who attend college, I am free to admit that
this would be a correct standard of judgment, and
that the conclusions that would naturally follow
from it in regard to the claims of the college would
OP HIGHER EDUCATION.
263
likewise be correct. But tire truth is, these cases,
so far as I have been familiar with the operations
of denominational colleges, bear a very limited
proportion to the whole number of college students.
In the college with which I have been connected
for the last nine years, there have, perhaps, never
been at any one time more than a dozen young men
who belonged to this corrupt, licentious, class, and
much of the time hardly the half of that number.
The great mass of our students are always con¬
servative, law-abiding, exemplary young men.
And I have reason to believe that what I have
here affirmed to be true in relation to Emory
College is likewise substantially true in regard to
most, at least, of the denominational colleges of this
country. Much is charged to the demoralizing
tendency of college life, and asserted to be in proof
of it, which was already implanted in the student
before he entered the precincts of the college, and
is due to bad early training and a defective home
government. The truth is, there is in all the denom¬
inational colleges many elements of conservatism,
and of the most valuable protection and training.
The untoward issues and fatal miscarriages anions;
O O
college students are, most generally, but the ripen¬
ing of fruit, the seeds of which were sown antece¬
dently to their college history, and not the conse-
264 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
quences of influences inherent in, or necessarily
incident to, the associations or the experiences of
the college. There is, too, in these institutions a
literary atmosphere, which, in its refining, chasten¬
ing influence, largely antagonizes debasing, grovel¬
ling tendencies ; and there are hut few who abide in
it for a protracted season who do not acquire the
elements of improved manner, of enlightened senti¬
ment, and elevated tastes.
There is still another objection urged by many
to the college which I wish to notice. It is this—
that the effect of the college is to monopolize the
educational zeal and enterprise of the" country, and
thus to induce the neglect of the lower forms of
educational provision. And to prove this, the
attention is cited to the fact, that in former years
common schools—old field schools—were numerous
over the country, and there was a general concen¬
tration of interest upon the lower forms of educa¬
tion ; but now, since the college has become more
prominent, and collegiate education more common,
these, schools have, in great measure, disappeared,
and the education appropriate to them has ceased
to receive such specific attention, blow it is true,
as here alleged, that these common schools are
much less numerous than in former days. But that
this process of disappearance has occurred since the
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
265
more general rise of the college, is, as I maintain, a
mere coincidence; and to put the latter fact in the
relation of cause to the former, is an instance of
that fallacy in reasoning which the logicians term
fallacia aceidentis. The true cause of this decline in
these lower schools is found in two facts: 1st, The
thinning out of the population in large districts,
and the consequent reduction of patronage below
the point of self-sustaining schools. 2d. The
abandonment of the old system of mixed schools,
which has hut tended to increase the difficulty of
insufficient patronage. So far from the college
having had an unfavorable effect upon the being
and prosperity of this class of schools, its influence,
in the very nature of things, must have been
precisely of an opposite character. There can, of
course, be no rivalry, no competition between these
lower and these higher schools. So far from it,
the latter rest upon and presuppose the former.
Their very existence implies their development and
encouragement; and it is their highest interest to
give them the utmost possible diffusion and the
utmost possible vitality. The college is everywhere
and always the natural ally and friend of the
common school. It could 110 more antagonize it
than the superstructure could repudiate the foun¬
dation which supports it. It could no more super-
12
266 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFEUSION
secle or dispense with it tlian could the flowing
stream the fountain which supplies it. hTo: the
college develops and sustains the common school.
The very value and importance of the former is a
constant argument and appeal for the latter; and
the very reflex influences which it exerts in the
teachers which it furnishes, and in the light which
it everywhere diffuses as to the dignity and benefit
of education, are but so many agents abroad to
arouse, to multiply, and to improve the lower
schools of the countiy.
There are other answers to the question, Why is
it that the college is so limitedly patronized ? that I
have space to notice but briefly.
It must-be admitted that the college cannot yet
claim to have been perfected. Indeed, if it had been
perfected in its adaptation to the wants and circum¬
stances of a former period, yet, as these wants and
circumstances of society are constantly changing,
there would be nothing surprising in the fact that,
as now constituted, there are in it, when considered
in relation to the purposes it is to subserve, palpable
imperfections. There can be 110 doubt that there
are facts in the present organization and manage¬
ment of the colleges in this country which do
cripple their efficiency and greatly curtail their
influence and patronage.
OP HIGHER EDUCATION.
267
One of these is the close system, as it is techni¬
cally 'termed—that is, the policy of a definite and
fixed course of study, to which all must submit as
necessary to the enjoyment of the fullest privileges
of the college and the honors of graduation. Now,
such a system operates unfavorably upon the
standing and general interests of the college in
several ways: 1st, In that it prevents that scholastic
success which would he realized under a system
which allowed option in the selection of depart¬
ments of study without disparagement of privilege,
since it often requires the pursuance of studies for
which the student has no natural aptitude. 2d, In
that it causes a neglect of study, and occasions the
crime and untoward issues which result from the
consequent idleness, and often an abandonment of
college before the completion of the course, because
it requires the pursuance of studies for which there
is 110 natural fondness or taste. 3d, In that it
prevents many from going to college at all, because
from inclination or circumstances they have not
studied with precise reference to the established
college curriculum. 4th, In that, even when it
admits students to pursue a course variant from the
established one, which it does not universally, it
disparages their position and standing h}r limiting
their privileges and franchises, in consequence of
268 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
which students of this class are discouraged, and
rarely ever realize a successful collegiate career.
The truth is, the whole policy, founded as it
is upon the dogma that all minds are naturally
alike, is sophistical and empirical. It is a pro-
crustean system that sprung originally out of
the Scotch metaphysics, and ought at once to give
way before the light of a newer, truer mental
philosophy.
The other evil in the college itself which restricts
its power to command favor and patronage is the
want of a proper amount of religious influence as
an element of college government. The govern¬
ment of the college, in the very nature of things,
must be loose and limited, and the suitable restraint
of its members must always depend largely upon
their power of self-government. But depraved as
human nature is, and defective as parental govern¬
ment generally is, in the associations of the college
such power of spontaneous self-control can never be
realized, can never be relied upon, without the super¬
added helps furnished by a dominant religious ele¬
ment. I jDroclaim it as a great fundamental truth,
as a great philosophic truth, that a prevailing reli¬
gious influence among the students of the college,
decided and thorough, is in the very nature of things
absolutely indispensable to successful college gov-
OP HIGHER EDUCATION.
269
eminent. "Without it no perfection of statutory re¬
gulation, no vigilance of police, no fidelity and firm¬
ness in administration, can forestall the liabilities to
untoward issues, or guarantee a subjection to neces¬
sary rule. There must be the frequent recurrence
of revivals in colleges, there must be that active re¬
ligious agency and that active religious influence
which find their proper results in frequent religious
conversions, and in the maintenance of a general
religious fervor and zeal, and in the prevalence of a
healthy, vigorous religious tone and sentiment, as
the only elements that can possibly secure the suc¬
cessful regulation of the college family. I hold it
to be true that the constant putting forth of efforts
to diffuse and maintain these Christian influences in
the college is as much part and parcel of the imme¬
diate official duty of the faculties of our colleges as
is the performance of any other labor appropriate to
and demanded by their official position. I greatly
doubt whether the true ideal of a college officer is
ever fully realized, whether the function of a college
instructor is ever entirely fulfilled, whatever his effi¬
ciency otherwise, unless he pursues his calling with
precisely the same motives of Christian usefulness—
with the same purpose of securing the salvation of
those under his charge—that actuate a true minister
of Christ in preaching the gospel. I war with all
270 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
the strength of the profoundest conviction, with all
the fervor of my soul, against the doctrine now
sought to he propagated, that the minister of the
gospel is out of his proper place when performing
the work of a college officer.
It is the praise of the college, that, since its estab¬
lishment under the auspices of the Christian deno¬
minations, there has been secured to it a very marked
accession of this necessary, conservative, protective
element. Still, such is the silent, overmastering in¬
fluence of a secular worldly philosophy—such the
difficulties of escaping the influence of the godless,
unchristian policy which has hitherto controlled the
educational processes of the country—such the in-
adequateness of the general apprehension of the re¬
lations of education to the great objects of the
Christian scheme—there can be no doubt that even
in our denominational colleges the religious agencies
employed and the religious influences enjoyed are
far below the standard adequate to fulfil these great
governmental purposes. And the consequence of
the depression of this great conservative element—
a depression which is much more marked in the se¬
cular colleges of the country—has been a degree of
failure in the internal police of the college that has
been not among the least of the drawbacks upon its
good name and general prosperity.
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
271
The want of a university system greatly hinders
the prosperity of the college. Any part of a closely
compacted scheme always works best when the
whole scheme in all its parts is in most vigorous
operation. The university is necessary to complete
the great system of educational agency of which the
college and the academy are respectively integral
parts; and not until the former is fully brought out
can the latter be perfected, either in their structure
or in the scope of their action. The university pro¬
per, by carrying up the standard of education and
extending the sphere of educational achievement,
would illustrate in clearer light the power and the
excellence of the educational interest, would give re¬
lief and clearer visibility to what the college itself
accomplishes, and vindicate its value before the
world. It is often the -case that the college carries
up the educational achievement to the stage where
just one step farther in advance would enable it to
put forth the ripest, noblest fruit, to exhibit the
highest, grandest excellences; but, because there is
no educational agency higher, this step is not al¬
lowed to be taken; and the results of the fullest
power even of the college fail to obtain recognition.
Could the university system as supplementary to the
college be once established, we should hear no more
of the inutility and impracticableness of college
272 OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION
education. The mature, perfected fruit would show
forth the nature of all the previous stages of growth,
and the important relation they sustain to the glori¬
ous final consummation. More and higher educa-
tion would make apparent the value of that we now
obtain ; just upon the principle that the greater the
value of the final result, the more obvious to us is
the value of any of the steps which lead to it. A
higher advance in educational agency would lead to
larger results from that we Jiave already provided,
just as further investments of money or capital often
render more profitable even that which has already
been advanced.
There can be no doubt that the establishment of
the university proper in this country would greatly
increase the patronage of the colleges, just as the
establishment of the college was followed at once
by an expansion everywhere in the demand for the
academy. So certain is it, that it may be regarded
as a fixed law, that every increased elevation given
to the educational agency which is prompted by the
growing wants of advancing society, will always be
followed by an increased demand for and patronage
of every successive stage of educational jwovision
below.
More than a year ago I proposed to the Methodist
Educational Institute, and secured its adoption of a
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
273
plan for a Southern Central University under the
control of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
To hasten the realization of the idea of a university—
as it seems that the Church, absorbed and divided
as it is in its present local schemes of educational
enterprise, is likely to he slow in its movements in
this direction—I have since then proposed, in the
public prints, that the State of Georgia should trans¬
form her college at Athens into an institution of this
high grade. I have no idea that that institution,
suffering as it now is, and is destined increasingly
to suffer, from the pressure of the theory and prac¬
tice of denominational education, and from dis¬
tracted councils, is likely ever to clo much in future,
although she has done much in the past, as a mere
college. But, as a university proper, amply en¬
dowed, ably officered, furnished with every possible
facility of library and apparatus, of cabinet and mu¬
seum, beginning its course where the college leaves
off, requiring a diploma from some one of the col¬
leges below as a condition precedent to admission,
having a two years' course in the literary depart¬
ment, at the end of which it may confer the degree
of Master of Arts, it might achieve the noblest results
in behalf of education, be an ornament to this great
State, and a blessing to the whole country.
But in spite of these numerous and formidable
12*
274
HIGHER EDUCATION.
obstructions to tbe diffusion of higher education,
which it has been my purpose on this occasion to
discuss, it must be admitted that, after all, we have
already reached a very gratifying stage of progress
in the extension of the college over this country.
If we contrast the condition of the country thirty
years ago, in this respect, with its condition at pre¬
sent, we shall certainly see much to encourage the
friends of the college. * There can be no doubt that
the elements are even now in operation in the bosom
of American society that are destined, wholly to un-
trammel this great interest, and to place it upon its
legitimate basis of fullest power and usefulness.
These elements must, in virtue of their own nature,
be slow in working themselves to the surface, and
consequently, in the achievement of this great result.
Let us be assured that, in obedience to our high trust,
we are contributing our part in giving them impulse
and right direction. Then may we be content, for,
laboring, we can afford to wait.
theory of female education.
275
VIL—THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
The country, within recent years, has been
greatly awakened to the importance of female
education;] and the number of colleges already
established in various important localities, and the
extended patronage afforded them, attest the reality
of the interest professed. The true friends of this
cause should he careful that this praiseworthy
movement do not receive a direction tending to
defeat its own ends. Such a result—since the
movement itself partakes somewhat of an experi¬
ment, on the issue of which many minds interested
for the race are looking with anxiety—would be
attended with inconceivable harm. It would, to
say the least, he attended by an injurious reaction,
and for a long time retard interests of the utmost
value to society.
That females should he educated—that their
powers should he developed and disciplined with
reference to a more suitable qualification for the
276 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
duties of life—no enlightened man will deny, and
nearly all men now admit.. But what that edu¬
cation should he, and the best course to impart it,
are questions in regard to which much difference
of opinion exists, and from which the only difficul¬
ties are likely to arise.
The popular mind -can scarcely conceive of
general principles otherwise than in some of their
applications. Convinced that education is import¬
ant, most persons conceive of it only in such forms
as they have seen, and with which they have been
familiar. Hence, the education which they desire
for their daughters is not such, the conception of
which is derived from the idea of development as
applied to females, but such as they have seen in
the higher educational establishments, and which
has grown up with exclusive reference to the male
mind. It is this misconception of the general idea
of education, as applicable to females, the result of
an incapacity in the public mind for just discrimi¬
nation, that is likely to occasion peril to the
present extraordinary educational movement in
behalf of females. There are a few minds which
rightly think on this subject, and perceive the
dangers likely to result from this misapprehension
of first principles; but the conclusion is, that
THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION". 277
popular opinion and taste must have their way;
and the hope is, that effects, which too often are the
only means of securing a right appreciation of
causes, will ultimately rectify public opinion, and
give to this great interest right direction.
There is a fundamental difference in the wants
of male and female minds, which must be recog¬
nized in the systems of education designed for them
respectively. Without going into the question of
any original inequality of mind in the sexes, this
principle is maintained as governing the whole
subject, namely, that every system of female educa¬
tion must make the cultivation of the affections
paramount to the cultivation of the intellect. The
term feminine, when analyzed, implies just what is
involved in this proposition. When with woman
the mere dry intellect predominates over the affec¬
tions, she ceases to be a woman, and becomes, in
all her mental structure, a man. She is naturally
constituted with a predominance of the sensibilities,
and it is such a constitution that gives to her her
delicacy, her refinement, her power of sympathy,
of deep, all-pervading benevolence and love. While
it is in the region of the intellect that man finds
his appropriate sphere of action, it is in that of the
affections that woman finds hers.
This peculiar constitution of woman is implied in
278 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
the nature of her paramount responsibilities. All
admit that these look to the domestic sphere—to
the positions of wife and mother. How all perceive
that while the highest powers of mind, of inven¬
tion, of ratiocination, of imagination, are not taxed
in this sphere, yet all that pertains to warmth,
depth, and strength of affection are. Man's pecu¬
liar duties call for a predominance of the dry
intellect. Undue sensibility would he an obstruc¬
tion to the discharge of the cool, sturdy respon¬
sibilities of his position. "Woman, however, who is
designed as his helpmeet, as the balance-wheel in
the otherwise excessive impulses of his mere intel¬
lectual functions, supplies the lack of his nature:
the one by his superior insight determining the
way; the other, by her better-regulated motive-
power, guiding the steps of both aright. Let him
who may, determine the higher endowment; we
shall not stop to discuss it.
But if this predominance of the affections over
the mere intellectual manifestations be the natural
constitution of woman, of course any system of
education designed for her ought to recognize it,
and to adapt itself correspondingly. Her own
development, in every stage of her being, ought to
be such as to maintain these great departments in
their natural proportions. Her happiness and her
THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION. 279
success demand it. The cultivation of the affec¬
tions, therefore, must be paramount to that of the
mere intellect. "Whenever the converse of this is
acted upon—whenever the development of the
intellect is mainly looked to in the system of educa¬
tion applied to her—the order of nature is reversed;
there is no adaptation to her mental structure, and
the purposes her creation was designed to subserve
are effectually defeated.
The failure to recognize this fundamental dif¬
ference between male and female minds, and to
adopt a system for the latter accordingly, consti¬
tutes the great danger to be apprehended in the
educational movement for females of the present
times. In consequence of it, the system which has
grown up with exclusive reference to the condition
and wants of the male mind is sought to be applied
without material modification to the female mind.
It must fail of the many beneficial results antici¬
pated. 1 But more and worse than this, until
changed it must work positive harm. The evils of
this system, as applied to females, are strikingly-seen
by reference to those cases where the principle has
been pushed to its fullest extent.i
The case of Margaret Fuller, afterwards Margaret
Fuller Ossoli, is a striking example. From earliest
childhood, through the ambition of her father, every
280 THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION.
effort was made to develop lier intellect; and under
the powerful stimulus constantly afforded her, and
the superior advantages she enjoyed, she did
become, perhaps, the most intellectual woman this
country has produced. But who that knows the
masculine character of her tastes and sentiments—
her general destitution of those finer sensibilities
and aspirations proper to a true woman—would say
that she was what woman ought to he ? And who
would say that this her character was not the
legitimate result of this undue reference to her
mere intellect, in the course of education applied to
her? There was nothing particularly unfavorable
in the circumstances surrounding her to the proper
development of her womanly nature. The defi¬
ciency can he chargeable to no causes of this kind.
But the system of education applied to her was
radically defective. It was such as suited man, not
woman. It looked mainly to the intellect, while to
have been natural, to have been in accordance with
the indications of nature, it should have looked
primarily and mainly to the affections.
Miss Harriet Martineau is another distinguished
example. In her the pure, dry intellect has been
cultivated without chief reference to her affectional
nature. The result is an intellect perhaps more
vigorous and highly capable of philosophic thought
THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 281
tlian any other woman ever possessed. But who that
is acquainted with her style of thinking, with her
tastes and general characteristics, would say that
she is the model of a true woman ?
Indeed, it will he found that, among all distin¬
guished females, those whose greatness is exclusively
the result of high intellectual power, have invari¬
ably exhibited a style of character unlike that which
in the consciousness of all is the true female char¬
acter. Their intellectual employments and tastes
are such as remove them from the true sphere of
woman; their feminine affections are held in sub¬
jection by the severities of their ordinary style of
thinking, and their whole character has a masculine
strength and tone. Such women are unfitted for the
gentle, amiable duties appropriate to the position of
wife, for the patient watching and assiduous care
involved in the responsibilities of the nursery, or
for the numerous details constantly springing up in
the sphere of domestic life.
On the other hand, those women who have been
distinguished, but who have yet exhibited, in their
general characteristics, the qualities of genuine wo¬
men, have been those in whom the affections proper
to their nature were paramount to their intellectual
powers. They may have possessed high intellectual
powers, but in all those exhibitions which have dis-
282 THEORY OE EEMALE EDUCATION.
tinguished them, these powers have "been simply sub¬
servient to the affections. Their products of mind
have not been such as come from the pure, dry in¬
tellect, hut have been the result of the blended action
of the affections and intellect, in which, however,
the affections were paramount, and exercised a con¬
trolling influence. They are not abstract, logical
disquisitions ; they are not productions which ema¬
nate purely from the simply intellectual faculties.
They are productions abounding in sentiment, fancy,
taste, feeling, emotion, passion, conscience; in short,
in whatever is peculiar to woman; and their excel¬
lence does not arise from the amount of pure intel¬
lect they exhibit, but rather from qualities which
owe their origin to the region of the affections.
Many such women might be mentioned, connected
with English literature—the ornaments of their sex
and contributors to the general advancement of the
human race. In all these cases, the high eminence
reached was either the result of great natural en¬
dowment, in which the rule of the relative superi¬
ority of the affections was observed, or a judicious
system of education, in wdiich the interests of the
affections were recognized as paramount to those of
the intellect.
But if the instances referred to of an excessive
cultivation of the intellect are extreme cases of the
THEORY OP FEMALE EDUCATION. 283
operation of a general principle, they serve well to
indicate the general effect of the principle and its
entire unsoundness. They show tliai(_the system of
education applicable to the male mind, and which
looks chiefly to the development and discipline of
the intellectual faculties, is unsuited to females.)
They show that in proportion as the intellect is cul¬
tivated, without suitable, and, indeed, chief reference
to the affections, the sensibilities are dried up, and
the whole character assumes a masculine aspect;
making the result, as manifested in the life, a fond¬
ness for the outward world and public display; an
undue interest in the public affairs of men; a dis¬
taste for the privacy and duties of the home circle;
a general want of adaptation to the purely domestic
duties ; a want of fortitude and power, of calm re¬
signation ; a hardness and sturdiness of character,
indicating the absence of the gentler, more amiable
qualities—the essential elements of true female ex¬
cellence.
In solving the problem, therefore, of the course
of education most suitable to females, the true ques¬
tion is, "What course is best calculated to develop
and give right direction to the affections, and which
will secure, at the same time, the highest amount of
intellect compatible with this highest and paramount
result ? Or, to simplify it yet more, "What course is
284 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
best calculated to secure a riglit development of all
the affections proper to woman ? For this neces¬
sarily involves the cultivation of the intellect, as far
as such cultivation may conduce to this result, which
is its legitimate extent and object. The affections,
to be brought out under the right sort of discipline
and direction, require intellect, and cultivated in¬
tellect ; but they require a cultivation of the intel¬
lect purely as subservient to the right education of
the affections.
In determining this question, the first remark is,
that the home circle is God's own appointed school
for females. With the father, mother, brothers and
sisters, and servants, better opportunities are af¬
forded than can be found anywhere else, for the ex¬
ercise of woman's best' affections. Supposing the
family circle to be rightly regulated, and that there
exists, among all the parties, right mutual respect,
confidence, and love, there are presented, in this
little sphere, constant occasions for the exercise of
well-nigh all the affections common to the human
heart. hTo other theatre presents as many advan¬
tages, because, from the relations sustained, no other
combination of circumstances can address itself to
so many of the affections, and with such constancy
and force.
The affections not only need a suitable theatre to
THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION. 285
call them forth, to develop them ; hut beings so full
of sensibility, so impulsive as female youth, require,
during the whole period of their formative state,
constant attention, vigilant oversight and care.
This is the more demanded by females, because, as
beings in whom the feelings predominate, they re¬
quire for their suitable training more attention to
minor matters; and because any defects of charac¬
ter, any imprudence of deportment, are more notice¬
able and attended with more serious consequences.
How who but the parents and friends at home
will furnish this constant oversight, this minute at¬
tention ? "Who feels the interest, the deep disinter¬
ested affection necessary to the sustained, selfide-
nying performance of such a duty? Whose rela-'
tions of confidence and intimacy justify it in all
possible cases that might arise ? The truth is, "the
parents and home friends are the natural guardians
in all these respects. God has endowed them with
a capacity of love for their offspring necessary to
this, and has appointed the family association to
afford opportunities for the discharge of the duty.
Home, the domestic circle, constitutes the real
sphere of woman—the great field of her duties. It
would seem, therefore, that her growth, her de¬
velopment ought to take place in it, as the best
course to secure a suitable preparation for what actu-
286 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
ally awaits lier in life. Animals do best, are more
apt to flourish, when reared in the climate and under
the circumstances in which they are intended to live.
This is more in accordance with the natural order of
things. Men are expected to pursue callings which
bring them into contact with the external world.
They need an early system of training adapting them
to -this sphere of action. But to educate women
away from home influence, outside of the home circle,
is to put them during their formative state out of
the system of things in which they are destined to
move; it is, in fact, not only to deny them the means
of preparation appropriate to their future position,
but actually to employ the whole force of the edu¬
cational process - to disqualify them for it. Its
effects are often manifest to the observation of the
world, such as a mortifying ignorance of the actual
duties incumbent upon them in domestic life, and of
the modes of their performance ; a want of a warm,
affectionate devotion to home friends; a spirit of
discontent with home; a disposition to rove in search
of amusement and occupation; a desire to mingle
with the external world incompatible with domestic
ties and obligations; and a general unfitness for the
quiet, the retirement, and sober responsibilities of
their own proper sphere of actiony
But it is admitted that mere home occupations
THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 287
and influences; potent as they are, are not enough
in themselves to complete the system of training
proper to females. The intellect needs more cul¬
tivation than these advantages secure. It is simply
contended that these are the most relevant and
-effectual, and are to he relied upon as the chief
instruments in the education of females. "What¬
ever additional advantages are consistent with these,
and which do not invade the great controlling prin¬
ciple in female education, of a chief reference to the
affections, are not only proper, hut, as far as may
he, ought to be afforded in every system of female
education.' How, in securing these advantages, we
maintain still that parents, where it is at all prac¬
ticable, are the most appropriate teachers. It is
admitted that this is not generally the case. Often
suitable literary qualifications are wanting, and
when not, more frequently, the requisite time cannot
he commanded. The assumption implies that these
difficulties do not exist, in which case parents may
afford the literary instruction needed in a manner
more suitable to develop the entire mental nature
of woman than any other class of instructors. The
relations of confidence and affection existing
between the parties are such, that even all the
purely intellectual exercises of the course of educa¬
tion may be so conducted as all the while to involve
288 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
the affections, so that in the whole process of
education, even in that department of it belonging
to the pure intellect, the best feelings of love,
gentleness, and confidence, may be constantly
elicited, securing a due reference to woman's most
important functions, and the education of her in
accordance with her true nature. Yo other circum¬
stances in which she may be placed afford like
advantages. Yery often they are of a kind to have
an opposite effect—to elicit and keep in exercise
sensibilities and passions blighting to a true char¬
acter, and productive only of evil. Girls, for the
reason that they are more the creatures of sensi¬
bility, need a nicer discrimination and a more
patient observance, on the part of teachers, of all
that pertains to feeling and taste, than do boys,
and none have so many opportunities to become
acquainted with these, or the affection necessary to
prompt to these offices, as parents of right quali¬
fication. From their constant association with
their daughters, they have more frequent oppor¬
tunities for oral instruction, to conduct their course
of reading, and to give direction to the general
operations of their powers—the most important
features, after all, in the intellectual education of
females—of which, as teachers, they may avail them¬
selves. These opportunities, it would seem, they
THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION, 289
might use just as efficiently, even if not their
regular teachers; hut practically this result rarely,
if ever, follows. The minds of parents are, to a
large extent, disqualified for these exercises, unless
the employment of instructor is regularly assumed,
and the energies of the mind are concentrated
upon it. Parents become accustomed to rely upon
regular teachers for the instruction they desire
imparted to their children, and thus freeing them¬
selves of the responsibility, under the pressure of
other cares and duties, too often neglect those
means of instruction which none are so competent
as themselves to afford. With daughters especially,
these sources of improvement are invaluable, and
as their regular teachers their parents would,take
pains to afford them.
But if it be impracticable for parents themselves
to become the regular teachers of their daughters;
still it is the correct policy (for at least the greatest
portion of the educational course, until the princi¬
ples are well established and the character is fully
determined) that their education should be con¬
ducted at home or privately, under the direction of
well-selected private teachers. The reasons which
make public schools better for males than private
schools, are chiefly these: First, they are more-
favorable to emulation, and, consequently, secure
13
290 THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION.
more of the benefits resulting from ambition;
second, tbej bring the mind more into contact with
the outward- world, and consequently are more
favorable to the acquisition of such knowledge as
is in demand in public life, and to tlie development
of principles that are brought into exercise in its
common affairs. But neither of these reasons applies
to femal.es. Indeed, in so far as they could operate
upon them, they would have an injurious effect.
Emulation or ambition in females tends to mar that
gentleness, amiability, and guilelessness of nature
proper to female character. It opposes the right
cultivation of woman's affections, tending to
develop the intellect at their expense. Neither is
this training for outward life, so important to males
whose destined sphere is a more public one, adapted
to females. Its effect is to develop the more mascu¬
line aspects of their nature, at the sacrifice of that
which is peculiar to and the glory of the sex.
Public schools, therefore, at least up to the period
when girlhood begins to assume the form of woman¬
hood, afford no advantages over those of a private
character. On the contrary, up to that period,
these latter are preferable. They secure all the
intellectual advantages necessary, free from such
associations and influences as oppose right develop¬
ment, without interfering with the claims and
THEORY OP FEMALE EDUCATION. 291
operations of that best and divinely appointed
school, the home circle. They are, therefore,
necessary to that system of educational means
which looks to woman as she is—a being in whom
the affections are paramount—and are indispensable
to true adaptation to her educational wants.' Public
schools, under any circumstances, address them¬
selves mainly to "the intellect; private schools, with
the cooperation of the home circle, tend rather to
the cultivation of the affections. Where the intel¬
lect is the predominant idea, as with males, the
former are preferable; where the affections are the
important element, as with females, the latter.
But while this private system is recommended, as
being more in accordance with the indications of
nature as to the educational wants of woman, we
would not ignore or depreciate the value of that
kind of refinement, ease, and elegance of manner
and general intelligence which are to be secured
by contact with society. 1 Hence, we recognize the
importance of girls being permitted, even during
their education, to see much society, and especially
to enjoy frequent social intercourse with others
their equals and superiors. As far as practicable,
however, this should be done under the protecting,
guiding presence of parents, and always with direct
reference to the interests of the affections. Parents
292 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
sliould make themselves the companions of their
daughters. This association itself, where it is intel¬
ligent, free, and aims at improvement, will secure
many of the educational benefits which result from
general social intercourse. It may he made to
contribute largely to refinement, and a general
preparation for the claims of society. And still
further, at suitable periods of their general training,
they should he encouraged to enter society, always
having in view, both as to the object and course
pursued, their improvement and not their pleasure
simply. Then will all the advantages of social and
public intercourse be secured, and in a manner
harmonizing with and tending to such cultivation
as will preserve, in due ascendency, right principles
and affections.
The degree of parental oversight and attention
involved in this system, it may be said, is incom¬
patible with that state of things practically existing
in the great mass of the families of the country,
and from this fact an argument may be derived in
the minds of many against its feasibility. The
assumption is admitted. The practical distance at
which parents keep themselves from their offspring,
in all that pertains to their suitable management
and training, is a great defect; in fact, the true
original source of most of the existing evils of
THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 298
society. The actual relations subsisting between
parents and children ought to he made closer, and
to cover a much greater variety of points of con¬
tact. Other interests should yield to these results.
Society, if necessary, should he remodelled to
secure them. The responsibilities involved and
the ends to be gained are too important and
precious to allow of their neglect. And it is a
great excellency of the system we advocate, that
while it necessarily presupposes 'the true doctrines
upon this subject, the tendency of its general appli¬
cation is to secure their general practical adoption.
But if, in the general operation of this scheme, it
should be found, as it often will, impracticable to
provide these schools at home, or, if practicable, only
such schools as are vastly inferior to others, which,
though distant, are yet of easy access, the question
arises, In such cases, should home advantages be
abandoned for the sake of others more conducive to
the interests of the mere intellect? This involves
the question—important, but practically difficult of
determination—At wdiat point ought the higher ele¬
ment" of woman's nature to yield its claims to an
equally necessary yet subordinate one ? Or, to be
more practical, At what point in a system of educa¬
tion ought the affections to surrender their claims,
as the main object of reference, to the claims of the
294 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
intellect ? "We have already assumed that the intel¬
lect, as subservient to the affections and contributing
to their development, must he cultivated; and the
more the better, so long as it occupies this place and
sustains this relation. We would, therefore, as be¬
tween the absence of a good degree of school op¬
portunities and the temporary surrender of the prin¬
ciple of supreme reference-to the affections, and
even such reference as is involved in the enjoyment
of home influence, in most cases prefer the latter.
We say in most cases, because there are some cases
of peculiar risk, the result of had temperament and
unfavorable natural endowment, in which we would
choose the former always with entire confidence.
The principle contended for is, that the intellect
must not he primarily and chiefly looked to in the
system of female education; and still further, that
the interests of the affections, or the most appropri¬
ate and properly appointed means of their cultiva¬
tion, must not he abandoned, until the very absence
of intellectual advantages would he a positive ob¬
struction to the affections themselves—until the ab¬
sence of intellect would he a greater evil to the
affections than the absence of their appropriate
means and modes of cultivation ; and then only so
long as would be necessary to remedy the difficulty,
and to secure to woman's higher nature its proper
THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 295
freedom of action. After all, this absence of school
advantages would not he so great an evil to the in¬
tellect as might he supposed. For the intellectual
structure of woman, in accordance with her general
passive nature, is constituted to absorb and to assi¬
milate knowledge, in whatever ways it may he ac¬
cessible, in a degree not enjoyed by the other sex.
And while there might be the absence of much of
such knowledge as is technical and common to the
schools, yet, with ordinary advantages of experience
and of intercourse with the world, her intellect
would be improved and furnished with a degree of
common sense which, if it did not win the admira¬
tion of the learned, would be, at least, available for
most of the purposes of her appropriate sphere and
functions. It must be admitted, however, that it
would be a choice of evils, but it would be a choice
from which, though there would be less knowledge
of books, of the far-off world, and of the forms of
polished life, there would be more love of home,-
stronger domestic attachments, and a more womanly
soul.
But while we thus strenuously contend for the
superiority of this home system, as constituting the
chief reliance in the education of females, we yet
freely admit, that after this system has been succes-
fully applied in the establishment of the true discip-
296 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
line of life—a result which, under the most favorable
circumstances, cannot, as a general rule, he con¬
sidered as decisively achieved until near the period
of maturity—there are many benefits which might
accrue from a connection, for a limited period, with
public schools; and when their merits are, decidedly
superior to others more convenient, even with such
as require a temporary residence from home. Trans¬
planted in this new field, the intellect would expand
and gather in new resources, giving the affections
wider and freer scope, a larger experience would be
gained, acquaintances would be formed, friendships
contracted, the manners chastened and refined, and
the whole nature receive a more symmetrical de¬
velopment. But these benefits, unconnected with
more than counterbalancing evils, are only to be ex¬
pected from this supplemental course when the great
preparatory work of home education has been pre¬
viously fully accomplished; and when its continu¬
ance is not so protracted as to allow the influence of
this less-favored system for the affections to undo
results already wrought, and to which all else must
be subordinate.
Since, then, this extended system for females im¬
plies the existence of public seminaries, the proper
location and management of these have a most im¬
portant bearing upon the general subject of female
THEORY OP FEMALE EDUCATION. 297
education. Those great immutable principles grow¬
ing out of the nature and relation of woman, which
suggest the kind of education suitable to females,
and determine the superiority of the home circle and
private schools for all that constitutes its staple, are
still to be observed and to govern as far as possible
in these higher and more public establishments.
Their location should be, as much as possible, pri¬
vate—away from the circle of the active, fashionable
world—as necessary to entire freedom in the use of
appropriate instrumentalities and influences. But
this is further important, because woman, the crea¬
ture of sensibility, needs a quiet, tranquil life for the
proper culture of her peculiar powers. Situations
admitting of much sight-seeing and associations
with the fashionable world, create and maintain a
degree of perturbation and flow of feeling incom¬
patible with the proper development of her best ele¬
ments of character; and, still more, they give rise
to an improper estimate of the duties of life—to a
love of excitement, an irrepressible thirst for outdoor
public display and public admiration; to a general
deceptiveness and unsoundness of character incom¬
patible with the existence of the genuine home vir¬
tues.
The great aim in the practical management of
these public seminaries should be, to assimilate them
13*
298 THEOKY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
as far as possible to the home circle. This should he
their tvpe. The affections here, as in the former pre¬
paratory course, must he chiefly referred to. These
schools should he made to assume a domestic char¬
acter, combining all the elements of the family as¬
sociation, and cultivating, by the mutual relations
made to subsist, the principles and qualities which
are brought out in the properly regulated home cir¬
cle. Hence the teachers, except the principal, who,
for several reasons, should be of the other sex—a
man of years, and distinguished for qualities of the
heart—ought to he females, whose acquirements and
matronly qualities might enable them to occupy the
position of mothers, and secure to them not only
that, influence calculated to call out the' affections,
hut the power to give them suitable training and
direction. And in all the internal operations of
these schools, while all suitable efforts should be
made to secure that intellectual training and furni¬
ture suited to the student's future wants, chief re¬
ference ever should be had to the proper protection
and cultivation of her emotive powers. Hence, all
public exhibitions should be discarded, as tending
to extinguish right modesty and delicacy of feeling,
and to cherish a love of display and public admira¬
tion, for ever unfitting for the calm retirement and
sober duties of home. Mere ambition, mere desire
THEORY OP PEMALE EDUCATION. 299
for public applause, should never be appealed to in
female training. These are qualities which, in a
highly cultivated state, are appropriate to man only,
and in him are designed to subserve important pur¬
poses. But woman should be educated without a
conscious reference to popular applause, and should
be trained to be satisfied with home, and to look to
its interests as furnishing the great object of her as¬
pirations and the true theatre of her enjoyments.
In the course of intellectual training pursued in
these schools, there should be no effort made to se¬
cure severe or protracted mental application. That
system of thorough investigation, of patient, labori¬
ous, intellectual toil, properly sought to be incorpo¬
rated in male institutions, ought to be discarded as
wholly inapplicable and unsuited to female minds.
The physical organization, the intellectual structure,
the whole framework of woman, are too delicate, too
strictly feminine, to bear such a system. The tend¬
ency of it, in so far as it can be imparted, is to re¬
mould the mental constitution natural to woman;
to break down the organization which God has given
her, by bringing into too prominent relief the mere
dry intellect, and subjecting to its sway what God
designs should predominate, the emotive powers of
her nature. The tendency is, by an undue develop¬
ment of her mere intellect, to create such fondness
300 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
for intellectual pursuits, and such thirst for purely
intellectual avocations, as will prevent the proper
sway of the affections and divert her from her true
sphere of action. Woman's tastes should ever re¬
main such that her chief employments would con¬
sist in the exercises of her affections and not in those
of the simple intellect. Extraordinary efforts to tax
her intellectual powers—to bring her intellectual
nature under a rigid system of discipline, to subject
her to habits of rigid investigation—will necessarily
incline to a merely intellectual life, and to a mode
of intellectual life away from the common duties
and employments df the domestic sphere.
Nor are the studies of a purely abstract character,
such as the higher branches of mathematics, and
pure metaphysics, appropriate to a course of female
education. These imply faculties of mere abstract
thought, of perceiving purely intellectual ideas, and
their abstract relations, with which God, for the rea¬
son that they could have no place in her sphere of
action, has not endowed her. The female mind is
so constituted that its operations are predominantly
of a perceptive, observing character; her ideas are
all practical, concrete ideas, the result, not of the
action of the pure intellect simply, but of the com¬
bined, blended exercise of the various faculties.
Her perceptions of truth arc not through a logical
THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION. 301
but ratlier through an intuitional consciousness, in
which a variety of faculties are combined to produce
the result. Such a constitution is afforded her be¬
cause it secures just such a relation of the intellec¬
tual faculties to the emotive powers, as allows the
latter to exercise an influence, and, when properly
regulated, a controlling influence in the operations
of her mind. Such studies, therefore, as demand
purely abstract thinking and a high degree of it,
furnish a regimen wholly unadapted to woman's
mental constitution. They are entirely out of place,
and have no direct relation to licr intellectual capa¬
cities. And as well might it be thought to be a
suitable course to restore blindness by merely afford¬
ing light to the eye, as to expect to improve and
elevate woman by studies such as these. The truth
is, they are unsuited to her nature; they only serve
to confuse, to distract and to destroy the healthy
action and tone of those faculties she does possess.
The assumption of their propriety proceeds upon
the false idea of the need of such a mind as these
studies are calculated to develop; for po one will
contend that the mere knowledge they afford can
have any possible relation to the appropriate duties
of woman. But this abstract thinking power—this
capacity for dry intellectual analysis and generaliza¬
tion, can never harmonize with a constitution in
302 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
wliicli the operations of mind must blend with the
influence of the emotive nature. Indeed, its tend¬
ency is necessarily destructive of all such power, in
the exercise of thinking and in the formation of
opinions, as comes out from the affections.
The true theory of female education looks to the
reception of ideas by a system of oral communica¬
tion from without, as furnishing the only proper
method for the improvement of the intellectual
powers. The intellect of woman, acting, as it always
should act, in cooperation with the affections, is not
formed for origination or for discovery. It is its
natural action to receive ideas, to absorb them from
sources which have already evolved them, and then,
by a process of her own, to assimilate them to her
own modes of thought, and to the uses of her own
peculiar nature. Her mind, true to her own pas¬
sive nature, improves, not by originating, but by re¬
ceiving ; not by its own spontaneous action, but by
being acted upon. The education of the two sexes,
therefore, proceeds upon two distinct and somewhat
opposite principles. In the one, the idea of discip¬
line predominates; in the other, the idea of acqui¬
sition. "While, therefore, in the intellectual training
of males, the exhibitions of the teacher are strictly
secondary and subordinate to the student's own
self-discipline and culture; in that of the other, the
THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 303
teacher's own communications, as constituting the
principal sources of improvement, become a para¬
mount consideration.
The lecture system, as best adapted to the com¬
munication of ideas, is most appropriate to the wants
of the female mind. From the earliest periods in
primary schools, through all the successive stages of
the educational course, it is an indisputable fact,
that girls improve more from oral communications,
from reading, from association and observation, than
by any processes of mere mental application and
discipline involved in the preparation of lessons.
But in these higher schools, the members of which
are supposed to have sufficient cultivation and ma¬
turity to constitute a preparation profitably to receive
a higher class of ideas, this lecture system is of spe¬
cial applicability. It furnishes a mode of acquiring
knowledge in accordance with the mental constitu¬
tion of woman, and, consequently, the most efficient
and successful mode. It consults the peculiarities
of her mind as to the mode of furnishing it, and
hence secures the kind of discipline best adapted to
her faculties. It is the only system by which the
knowledge she gains may be restricted to such kinds
as are suited to her wants and circumstances. For,
by a process of eclecticism it gives opportunity to
teachers to adopt, their communications may be
304 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
restricted to such ideas and facts as are relevant to
lier; a result which no system of text-hooks, how¬
ever well arranged, can fully reach. Moreover, this
system, implying a greater reliance upon the teacher
for sources of improvement-, necessarily brings him
more fully into relation to all modes of improvement
possible to her. He looks not merely to the recita¬
tion room, as affording the only place for contact
with her mind, but, feeling the increased responsi¬
bility of his position, seeks the direction of it in all
its modes of cultivation and development. Iler
reading is appointed and directed by him, her intel¬
lectual tendencies are sought to be properly con¬
trolled, her tastes and predilections are turned to
their appropriate channels. The medium of private
converse possible in all the various intercourse be¬
tween teacher and pupil is employed; and error is
corrected, faults are removed, and right sentiments
inspired.
A system thus tending to bring the teacher into
the closest and most intimate relation to the mind,
gives him great power, not only in the proper direc¬
tion of it, but in its suitable furniture—a consider¬
ation in female culture of weighty value. But more,
in the opportunities it affords of infusing his own
zeal and earnestness of spirit, it engenders in her
mind a love of learning, develops her latent powers,
THEORY OP FEMALE EDUCATION. 305
and springs her to industry and enterprise. And
yet further, by these advantages of communion with
her nature, of constant affinity with all her pursuits
and tastes thus opened up, and the result of this
system only, greater facilities are afforded to reach
and to direct all her emotive nature; while the sys¬
tem itself, eschewing that rigid and protracted
application of the powers involved in that other
system which gives the idea of discipline chief pro¬
minence, and in which all else is sacrificed to the
improvement of the mere intellect, harmonizes with,
and positively provides for, that great principle of
supreme reference to the affections properly control¬
ling the whole subject of female education.
The kinds of knowledge sought to be imparted
in these higher schools, ought to be such as have
distinct reference to her peculiar nature and destined
sphere of life. There are many departments of
knowledge which are properly adapted to male
minds, and appropriate to a system of education de¬
signed for them, which have no relevancy to the
nature or the wants of females. Woman's most im¬
portant duties, whether considered in her relations
of wife, mother, or neighbor—the threefold position
which embraces the entire sphere of her being—are
mainly of a moral character, and look to moral re¬
sults. The great prevailing influence she is to exert,
20
306 THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION.
the peculiar power she is to have in the movements
of society, all refer directly to the moral interests of
the world. And correspondingly with these, her
paramount responsibilities, she has peculiar capabil¬
ities of moral influence, and a nature which flnds
its most appropriate exercises in the region of the
moral world. That great department of knowledge,
therefore, which refers to morals, or the true prin¬
ciples of right and wrong in their applications to
practice, which refer to Christian duties, to the rules
of propriety and prudence in the various circum¬
stances of actual life, furnishes the grand staple in
that system of learning which should be inculcated
in these higher female establishments. This is the
knowledge suited to her nature, and which her fu¬
ture position will most demand. The wide field of
morals, therefore, of Christian morals, and so much
of a knowledge of mental science—not of the higher
abstractions of metaphysics, but of that which is
concrete and practical, a specimen of which is found
in Dr. "Watts's Treatise 011 the Mind—as may be
necessary to a full appreciation of the principles of
morals, and of the proper modes of conforming to
the laws of mind, must constitute the principal
department in a proper course of female education.
But while woman is thus related to the moral
world in respect of the widest section of her duties,
THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 307
slie likewise lias responsibilities which require for
their performance a knowledge of physical law, em¬
braced in chemistry, and of the general subject of
medicine, embraced in a knowledge of the human
system and of the remedies affecting it. To these
departments, therefore, special prominence should
be given. Adapted as she is to the great offices of
ministering to the sick, from position the most con¬
stantly present with her family in seasons of sick¬
ness, the subject of disease in her own person, which,
from the want of proper skill in her own sex, has
often been permitted to result in permanent infirmity
or premature death, a course of medical training
ought to constitute a prominent department in the
higher female seminaries of the country. The deep
principles of the science may not be brought out:
for these there is not the requisite time, nor is she
the best suited to their apprehension; but such know¬
ledge may be imparted of the general subject, such
directions given, as will facilitate improvement from
experience in future, and qualify her more fully to
meet the various exigencies of life in this important
field of her duties.
Education of this kind, looking to the actual
duties of life, will be to her of practical value, will
aid her in the discharge of real dudes, will relieve
her in emergencies, and, making life more easy, will
308 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
contribute to ber real happiness. But such edu¬
cation as is common in our times, which merely
looks to the improvement of the literary tastes, to
the mere promotion of general intelligence, and to
the accomplishments of the mind, though it may
make its possessors more attractive to the fane}*, more
interesting in occasional social intercourse, and better
fitted for all that pertains to the external glare and
embellishments of life, will yet furnish but little
qualification for the actual home-bred duties of life,
and will only contribute to discontent, in that, while
it entails a consciousness of ignorance and unfitness,
for what- necessarily cannot be avoided, it creates
tastes and aspirations which their inevitable situa¬
tion is unfitted to gratify, and only tends to disap¬
point and disgust. The greater part of woman's
life, and that on which, from the nature of her pre¬
dominant feelings, her real happiness depends, is
that which belongs to the home circle, to her condi¬
tion in the relation of wife and mother. Her ex¬
ternal contact with society is but occasional, and is
capable, at best, of influencing but very slightly the
real sources of her happiness. But the education
of modern times is made to refer mainly to this re¬
lation. IIow unwise to sacrifice that which is per¬
manent and necessary, to that which is minor and
only occasional! But the system we propose, looks
THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 309
to an impartation of knowledge, to an intellectual
training and furniture, with, reference to the great
mass of duties necessarily awaiting woman, and on
which, whatever else she may he, her real happiness
depends. ISTor do we discard a suitable provision
for the cultivation of whatever contributes to refine¬
ment in taste and literary accomplishment. "We
simply insist that these should not constitute, as
they do now, the predominant aim in her education.
It is by a suitable course of reading, by frequent
exercises in written composition, and. by general as¬
sociation with instructors and those of cultivated
intellect, which the system proposed contemplates,
that we would secure these minor, yet most valuable
results.
But only secondary in importance to a proficiency
in these classes of information, is the power of an
accurate and fluent expression of her own language.
ISTo mere accomplishment is higher than this. In
woman, it is the highest evidence of a cultivated
mind, of a refined, elegant taste. Females, perhaps,
excel men in the natural aptitude for language, which
fact shows not only that the appointed sphere of wo¬
man in some way peculiarly requires it, but that it
is one of her faculties, peculiarly susceptible of cul¬
tivation. Kature's indications, therefore, which con¬
stitute the great rule in determining the education
310 THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION.
proper to either sex, strongly point to the cultivation
of this particular endowment.
But the peculiar relations of woman to her chil¬
dren, making her the chief standard from which, by
imitation, they accpiire language, and the import¬
ance' of correct habits with them in the use and pro¬
nunciation of language from the earliest period of
its progressive acquisition—the necessity of accurate
distinctions, and consequently of precise expression
in the ideas communicated to the young, the im¬
portance of habitual care in expression, to secure a
just understanding of transient orders, as well as
of permanent rules in the operations of the family,
and the refining, purifying, order-loving influence
of habitual accuracy and chasteness- of language
upon the whole family circle—indicate that such
an accomplishment in woman is necessary to her
true position. It is a powerful instrument of influ¬
ence in her family, upon her children, upon her hus¬
band, and, indeed, upon the whole circle of her
associations. Cultivated language is always, in it¬
self, a moral power. It is elevating, purifying, at¬
tractive. "With woman, it becomes a medium for
impressing herself with greatest power upon her
family, the potent instrument for moulding all things
around her under her own influence and character.
It gives strength to her example, e'fficacy to her
THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 311
plans, and makes all lier useful acquirements a com¬
municated element of direction and activity.
The ancient languages, as far as a knowledge of
them hears upon a knowledge of her own language,
correct spelling and pronunciation, the principles of
syntax and even of prosody, definition, the right use
and relations of words, their right combinations into
sentences, the power and use of tropes, and the phi¬
losophy and beauty of language, all constitute pro¬
per objects of study. By information upon all these
subjects, gathered from suitable books and from lec¬
tures (as practical as may be) of teachers, by critical
exercises on the best writers and speakers, by habits
of strict attention to language in every act of con¬
versation, by exercises in written composition, in
which special reference is had to the power and
beauty of language, and by association with culti¬
vated minds, the process of education should be
made specially effective in the cultivation of the
capacity for accurate, easy, elegant language.
It is thus perceived, that acquisitions in moral and
physical philosophy and in language, with such re¬
finement and literary accomplishments as may in¬
cidentally arise, secured on the principle of absolu¬
tion and accretion, accommodated and conformed to
in a system of regular oral instruction from teachers,
312 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
and the associations in which pupils are caused to
live, rather than by any stringent and protracted ap¬
plication of the powers on the plan of self-discipline
and independent study, constitute the leading re¬
sults sought for in these higher educational estab¬
lishments. In this system, all the features of a per¬
fect course of education are brought together, and
act harmoniously and in cooperation, each having
its own relative influence, bringing out in propor¬
tionate growth and development the combined emo¬
tive and intellectual nature of woman, and sending
her forth to her family and society, with her affec¬
tions still in the ascendant, a rightly and truly edu¬
cated woman.
In the female colleges and high schools of the
country, established under a praiseworthy sense of
the importance of elevating the standard of female
education, there is much to commend. "We are
favorable to the existence of such establishments.
We believe they are necessary to furnish suitable op¬
portunities for the higher order of education, and as
living monuments of the country's appreciation of
woman. But with the views we have expressed and
conscientiously maintained, it is to be expected that
there are many things pertaining to their order and
management to which we object, and which we
THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 313
believe must be modified, if not radically changed,
before they can successfully meet the great wants of
the sex and realize the just hopes of the country.
Two or three of these objections only we have
space to mention.
First. The domestic home character of woman -is
contravened aud overborne by the public reference,
applause-seeking principle, too much recognized in
their whole system of operations. Conducted with
constant reference to public eclat, the desire of pub¬
lic admiration, of living in the atmosphere of public
society, is too much appealed to, and the specious,
dazzling accomplishments of mind and manner are
too much cultivated. Girls are thus too apt to come
out from them gay lovers of the world, and capable
of shining as stars in public walks, but having few
of the home virtues, of those sober, enduring quali¬
fications of mind and heart necessary to the true
sphere of womanly action. These results need not
necessarily follow from the plan of a high order of
education, conferred in our public educational
establishments. They only follow from a method
of management founded in an incorrect philosophy,
in false conceptions of the true nature of woman,
and of the processes necessary to secure its right de¬
velopment. A change in this method, founded upon
a deeper, truer philosophy, would obviate these per¬
il
314 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
nicious results, and make these establishments the
glory of the.sex.
Second. The educational course adopted is too
much a copy of that existing in male institutions,
which, having grown up with reference to a different
mental constitution and to a different sphere of
action, is unsuited to females. The whole system
has too much an intellectual reference, and embodies
too few features tending to bring out in just ascend¬
ency and in proper cultivation the emotive nature.
Too great a number of studies are embraced, some
of which have no relevancy to her wants, and others,
such as the higher branches of mathematics, have
no adaptation, hut are positively injurious to her
mental structure. The multiplicity of studies at¬
tempted to be pursued at the same time, often have
a most distracting, bewildering influence upon the
youthful mind. It is contrary to its philosophy, and
instances have been known of entire unhingement,
of temporary mental derangement, the result of it.
These difficulties, however, furnish no argument
against such institutions themselves, but rather
against the course they adopt, which, if altered to
adapt itself to the nature and wants of those they
are designed to benefit, would make them a blessing
to the country.
The objections to the course of these institu-
THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 315
tions may not "be at once obviotis to the popular
mind. The institutions themselves are yet too re¬
cent in their establishment to allow as yet the full
development upon society of these injurious results.
But great general principles can never be habitually
contravened with impunity. Time, which is often
necessary to evolve wide-spread disastrous effects
upon society, in the operations of general princi¬
ples, will at last bring out in actual disclosure what
a just system of reasoning might have enabled all
to anticipate. These institutions, iii the systems
they adopt, are founded in a false diagnosis of the
female constitution, and, as necessary as effect is re¬
lated to cause, without a change, consequences must
follow disastrous to society.
In the theory of female education presented, the
positions assumed might have been greatly amplified
and sustained by a greater variety of argument and
illustration. Restricted by the space allowed us, we
have given a mere indication of the points involved.
"We are aware that we oppose the opinions of many
whose judgments are entitled to respect. But where
fundamental truth is concerned, delicacy and re¬
spectful deference, virtues in ordinary intercourse of
great worth, must, if necessary, yield their claims.
We have performed what we believed to be a duty to
the public, and contentedly leave the results with God.
316
views of female education.
VIII.—VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
The perfection of all systems of mental training
implies two distinct conditions: first, a correct diag¬
nosis of tlie mental constitution; and, second, a
mode of culture precisely adapted to that constitu¬
tion. The cultivation of the mind is not unlike the
cultivation of a plant, which, as all experience de¬
clares, demands, first, an acquaintance with its gen¬
eral physiology; and then, a system of tillage
adapted to that physiology. In plans of education,
any failure to fulfil either of these conditions in¬
volves several unfortunate results.
It involves a waste in the educational agency em¬
ployed. It is not the function of education to cre¬
ate in the mind new faculties, or to arbitrarily develop
those already existing. The human mind has already
its own constitution and its own laws, and it is only
as this constitution is specifically recognized, and
these laws are observed, that systems of education
can be relied upon to address the actual mental
powers, and to secure their growth and expansion.
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 31T
Tlie particular aliment which, the mind needs—the
peculiar culture which it requires—is determinate
and fixed, being dependent upon its own specific
organization; and any other than this must he, in
the nature of things, 'wholly inapplicable, inopera¬
tive, and nugatory. It follows, therefore, that plans
of education not founded in an accurate apprehen¬
sion of the mind's structure, and not arranged with
precise adaptation to it, being unsuited and inappli¬
cable, must, to this extent, he fruitless and wasteful.
But more than this, a failure to fulfil these neces¬
sary conditions not only involves a waste, an unpro¬
fitable expenditure of educational instrumentality,
but, in many respects, is positively injurious.
Such is the nature of the human mind, that it de¬
lights in its own exercise, flourishes and expands
only as it is allowed to act naturally, and develop
itself in its own order spontaneously and "without
constraint. It must he treated as it is, and its de¬
velopment must be but the outgrowth, the enlarge¬
ment of its faculties, just as they are, in their ori¬
ginal constitution, and as indicated in their own
natural manifestation. Its powers improve by ap¬
propriation and exercise. It is its own action at
last that develops and expands it; and it is only
when its faculties act freely, following up, as to the
order and intensity of their relative exercise, their
318 VIEWS OE FEMALE EDUCATION.
own natural and spontaneous promptings, that they
are the most profoundly stirred, the most profitably
and successfully cultivated. "When, then, the pre¬
cise character of the mind, of the whole mind, is
not appreciated, and the systems of education em¬
ployed are not suitably adapted to it, so that its
various departments are not addressed as they are
in their relative rank; but, on the contrary, those
departments are mainly looked to and stressed which
are lower in the scale of natural development, while
those which nature indicates as the predominant and
paramount are comparatively ignored and neglected;
the order of nature being violated, several unhappy
results necessarily follow.
First, the mind, incapable, in this perverted exer¬
cise of itself, of putting forth the same energy, of
engaging itself with the same freedom, fulness, and
intensity, must be enervated.
Second, the natural tastes and intellectual tend¬
encies, the superior capacities of the mind, being
contravened or held in abeyance by this effort of the
educational agency to divert into unnatural chan¬
nels, discouragement and a distaste for all the objects
of mental improvement ensue; and energy, self-
reliance, and all high intellectual aspiration, as abid¬
ing traits of character, become for ever impossible.
Third, the whole force of the educational agency
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 319
being thus exerted to break down tlie natural com¬
bination of the mental faculties, instead of a sound
and healthy development, the tendency rather is to
revolutionize them; to render them unnatural in
their operation and modes of exhibition—to destroy
their natural vigor, and to create, instead, a facti¬
tious organization; and, when this process is suffi¬
ciently protracted and pressed, to disturb the mental
equilibrium ; or if not this, by forestalling all health¬
ful mental manifestation, as effectually to defeat the
real purposes of mind.
But, as essential as are these conditions to all
really successful plans of education, and as hurtful
as are the consequences which result from their
neglect, it must be admitted that even in this day,
so distinguished for extended and enlightened devo¬
tion to educational interests, there are not wanting
indications, even in the most admired and prevailing
systems, that these conditions are to a large extent
•without fulfilment. One of these indications is the
unvaried character of the plan of education as ap¬
plied to every class of mind; or, in other words,
the want of such flexibility in prevailing methods,
as naturally arises from a just discrimination of
mental diversities, and secures a suitable adaptation
to every individual case. Every mind has its own
peculiarities; and if it be true that a correct mental
320 VIEWS OE FEMALE EDUCATION.
philosophy, and a wise conformity to it, are indis¬
pensable to all successful education, then it is equally
indispensable that these peculiarities he understood,
and the modes of education he accordingly arranged.
But it cannot he denied that in the methods com¬
mon to our times there is a uniformity which,
based upon the idea of a universal sameness of mind,
ignores all varieties, and, regarding all alike, seeks
the subjection of all to one common standard of in¬
tellectual discipline. Our general systems provide
but sparingly for such discrimination, in the kind
and quality of that education, which the different
mental organizations would indicate; and when
sought to be practically applied, the whole tendency
of the labor-saving, generalizing spirit, which has
so largely infused itself into the school-room, directly
antagonizes, indeed precludes all of those nice dis¬
tinctions which are necessary to the individualizing
specific character of the educational process. A
deeper philosophy, a more careful study of human
nature, and a more accurate system of adaptation to
it, are now the specific demand of the schoolmaster,
.the crying want of the schoolroom.
Another of the indications of failure in the pre¬
vailing educational plans, is seen in the mistakes
made as to the degree of attainment practicable in
given cases ; and in attempts made in such cases, by
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 321
an extension of the period, to secure a still higher
degree of advancement. There are some minds
totally incapable of reaching the higher degrees of an
elevated educational course. Restricted by their
own limits, they are susceptible of only a certain
amount of culture, and all attempts to provide more
are both futile and hurtful. These minds, if arrested
when the limit of their literary capability is reached,
and then directed to employments of life for which
they are competent, would be successful; but urged
on, under the ordinary process, they are subjected
to tasks to which they are inadequate, and for which
they have no heart. Discouragement, idleness, and
often profligacy ensue; and the whole educational
course, instead of preparing for life's duties, unfits
the mind for all that is future, and buries the most
favorable opportunities for preparation for such vo¬
cations as offer the prospect of success. These con¬
stitute, too, that large class, who, idle and disorderly,
are the intractable materials of our higher institu¬
tions of learning, and who, by their own want of
success, and their own corrupting tendencies, give
encouragement to the sentiment, already existing in
the country, adverse to education in its higher forms,
and hinder the development and extension of our
most important literary interests.
IsTow, were the human mind, in its precise rcla-
14*
322 VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
tions to tliese agencies, more clearly apprehended—
were education not so much the empirical system it
now is, hut a science founded upon a distinct con¬
ception of mental philosophy, and made to accom¬
modate itself to the well-inspected condition of each
individual, just as the scientific physician adapts his
remedies to each specific case, then would the country
more generally understand the susceptibility and
wants of the young. Each case, judged of by itself,
would he continued no longer under the educational
process than its capacity for improvement indicated,
and educational opportunities, instead of being an
occasion of harm, would he provided just so far as
they could he appropriated and he made tributary to
the employment in which each could be most efficient
and useful. Systems of education, then, instead of
tending to develop a certain class of employments
only, would become the instrument of preparing
every man for his most suitable place in the drama
of life, and society would exhibit that completeness,
in all its various departments, always necessary to
its most efficient progress.
But if this empirical character of our educational
systems is indicated by the attempt to press upon
many, advantages which they are unable to appro¬
priate, it is no less shown by the failure to allow to
vast numbers those higher facilities which, if pro-
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 323
vided, they would avail themselves of efficiently.
Ho fact is more obvious, than that the country, gen¬
erally, has never yet had an intelligent conception
of the actual capabilities of education, or of its con¬
nection with happiness, or with success in the vari¬
ous vocations of life. Education is appreciated,
not so much because of its intrinsic value, but rather
as a fashion, a badge of mere respectability and dis¬
tinction. The country has never yet recognized it
a3 a duty involving the highest interests of the im¬
mortal mind, and contributing to the real power and
nobility of the human soul. Hence, even good men
too often ignore it as nugatory, and, under mistaken
notions of its worth, deny to their offspring advan¬
tages, the loss of which for ever embarrasses their
prospects and precludes their highest happiness.
Such meagre views are now holding back from many
a sprightly youth these highest advantages, which,
if afforded, would be the efficient means of making
him a noble specimen of his race, powerful in his
day and generation, and a blessiug to his country.
Hor can we anticipate any material improvement in
this respect, until our plans of education be per¬
vaded by a truer philosophy, and have a more dis¬
tinct relation to the mind as it is, and a more specific
relation to actual results. Then would be seen, in
bolder relief, the actual dependence of the mind upon
324 VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
educational agency; then would he evinced in clearer
light its enriching power; then would appear with
meridian evidence the advantages of mental im¬
provement in its hearing upon future happiness and
success; then would those defeats he obviated, which
now so often occur to neutralize zeal in respect to
education; then would its results be its own "epis¬
tles known and read of all men," and the whole
country, with all these evidences before it, 'would
learn to estimate at their true value the real functions
of education, and the young, instead of being held
back, to their own injury and the country's loss,
would everywhere be afforded, in fullest abundance,
the necessary means to their own elevation, and to
the fulfilment of their own proper destiny.
Another indication that our modes of education
are not, in all their practical operations, such as an
enlightened acquaintance with the mental constitu¬
tion would require, is seen in the general character
of the educational boards over the country, and the
manner in which they are constituted. Any system
of education that is based upon an accurate know¬
ledge of the mind's constitution, and of complete
adaptation in the methods employed, is both a
science and an art, requiring in those who conduct
it a certain class of natural qualifications, and then
a specific course of educational training adapting
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 325
them to it. It is a calling wliicli properly has its own
rules and conditions of preparation. But when we
consider the defective views which are generally en¬
tertained of the teacher's office and qualifications,
and the manner in which the educational corps of
the country is constituted—made up of men of all
orders of mind and education, and mainly of young
men and women who are hut temporarily engaged
in this vocation, with a view to other employments;
the scarcity of those who, having specifically pre¬
pared themselves for it, make the teacher's vocation
the study and the business of life ; and the general
absence of all those facilities for specific preparation
for this calling, which are regarded as indispensable
to an entrance upon other learned professions; when,
in short, we consider the undefined and random
character of the qualifications deemed necessary in
this day to the profession of the teacher, it is not
surprising—indeed, it is hut a natural consequence,
that the systems of education and the modes of liter¬
ary instruction in our country should he so largely
empirical, so deficient in that thorough acquaintance
with the human mind, and the modes of precise
adaptation to it, by which alone they are rendered
strictly scientific, and the conditions of certainty and
success are specifically fulfilled.
But if this inadequate constitution of the educa-
326 VIEWS OE FEMALE EDUCATION.
tional boards throughout the countiy is a cause of
these defective notions of the grand conditions of
the proper system of education for the young, it
is in an important sense likewise an effect. For if
the people generally entertained right views of the
philosophic character of all true systems of educa¬
tion—if they rightly appreciated the indispensable-
ness of their scientific adaptation to the human mind,
so as to require, in the systems which they sanction,
the fulfilment of these necessary conditions, this
large class of unqualified and merely temporary
teachers would not be tolerated; the calling would
be rightly magnified, and such would be the de¬
mands upon it, and the disposition manifested to
support it, that it would be constituted alone of that
class of persons who, by natural endowment and
proper preparation, would prove themselves com¬
petent to meet all the requirements of a well-regu¬
lated educational system.
But if our educational systems, generally, are de¬
fective, as we hold them to be—if they have never
been reduced to a science, based upon a philosophic
adaptation to the actual constitution of the mind—
those are especially so which are designed for fe¬
males. Nor is it difficult to account for this fact, so
mischievous and deplorable in its practical results.
In this country, the education of males had preced-
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 327
ence of that of females; and, instead of making the
system designed for females the outgrowth of their
own nature and wants, the preconceived notions de¬
rived from a consideration of the nature and wants
of man prevailed in giving form and direction to
that designed for females. The male mind has been
the ground of survey in all plans, even for the fe¬
male mind, and it has been the stand-point from
which all the measures in behalf of females have
been considered. Indeed, the standard adopted for
the male mind has regulated all the plans for fe¬
males ; and the system now adopted for woman is
but a copy of tbe system which, for generations has
been growing up and moulding with special refer¬
ence to the male mind.
Men themselves have been the authors of the sys¬
tems of education now applied to females ; and, un¬
able to look beyond their own nature, or else con¬
trolled by that superficial philosophy which places
the sexes upon a common basis of mental character
and aptitude, they have allowed such views to
govern them, in devising and arranging plans of fe¬
male education, as arise, not from a correct diagno¬
sis of the female constitution—not from an accurate
consideration of woman's peculiar nature and legi¬
timate sphere of action—but out of man's peculiar
constitution and relationship, and appropriate to
828
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
his own specific character and destiny. A deeper
philosophy, a more thorough, and thoughtful reflec¬
tion upon the fundamental characteristics and pro¬
per spheres of the two sexes, would have disclosed
differences and peculiarities incompatible with the
maintenance of an error so pregnant with mischiev¬
ous consequences, and abundantly sufficient to con¬
stitute a basis of educational organization for females
essentially different from such as is applicable to the
sterner sex. This total misconception of the char¬
acter and wants of woman, in consequence of which
the popular plans of education of this day arc so
unsuited to her—this lack of accurate appreciation
of woman's actual constitution, and, consequently,
of philosophic adaptation in the prevailing educa¬
tional methods applied to her—is, at this time, ope¬
rating most disastrously in respect both to her own
true interests and the well-being of society.
One of the evils which it occasions, is an almost
utter disregard of her paramount nature, and her
cultivation, almost exclusively, as an intellectual
being. Whether we judge of woman from an in¬
spection of her own actual nature, or from a know¬
ledge of her responsibilities, it will be equally evident
that she is not, like man, by eminence an intellectual
being, but a being of emotion, of sensibility, of
affection, with intellect subordinate as an endow-
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 329
rrlent, and only so mucli in degree as is necessary to
give proper development and direction to these
qualities. But, while this is her natural constitu¬
tion, indicating that such a system of culture only
is proper for her as has superior reference to her
emotive nature, and seeks in a subordinate sense
the cultivation of her intellect, yet, under the mis¬
taken view that prevails of her constitution, and by
the application to her of a plan of education suited
to the other sex, this order of her nature is sought
to be reversed; and, treated as man, the whole aim of
her education respects her development and discip¬
line as a purely intellectual being. That her intel¬
lect, in itself, is mainly regarded in all plans for her
education—that it is as a mere intellectual being
that she is sought to be trained—is obvious, not only
from the prevailing tone of public sentiment in re¬
gard to female education and the proper position
and destiny of woman, but more especially from the
curriculum of study, and the general and most
popular modes pursued in all our most admired fe¬
male institutions throughout the country. But what
must be the effect upon the condition and fortunes
of a class of human beings, when the whole tend¬
ency of a laborious and protracted educational pro¬
cess, carried 011 at the most impressible season of
life, is to break down the order of mental constitu-
330 VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
tion which. Heaven has ordained; to hold in check,
and, indeed, to suppress, functions of being designed
to he paramount, and to bring into predominant
action such as are intended to be secondary and sub¬
ordinate ? Education tlins conducted, instead of
accomplishing its legitimate design of enlarging and
perfecting the powers and functions with which
Heaven has endowed woman, and thereby 'fitting
her for a more efficient occupancy of her intended
sphere, becomes an agency whose only effect is to
reverse and defeat her original formation, to divert
her powers into unnatural channels, and to make
her, in all her actual manifestations, different from
what she was intended to be, and contrary to what
she must be, successfully to accomplish the true ob¬
jects of her existence.
Such education—and it is the prevailing kind now
applied to females—unsexes woman in all her mental
development and actual character. By ignoring, in
a great degree, her affections, and stressing mainly
her merely intellectual nature, as far as it makes
any impress at all, it accomplishes nothing for the
development of those powers and traits of character
which give her distinctiveness as a sex, and which
adapt her to her peculiar sphere of action. Its
whole force is felt in bringing into unnatural strength
and activity those faculties which assimilate her to
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 331
man, and wliicli determine him to his own field of
action. The necessary effect of such a system must
he to create a distaste and unfitness for all those re¬
sponsibilities and duties which woman's natural con¬
stitution points to and adapts her for ; to make her
restless and unhappy in that condition of life which
is her intended and appropriate walk; to preclude
all those feminine graces and employments that con¬
stitute woman's peculiar charm and excellence; to
create a masculine character, masculine tastes and
aspirations; a fondness for the life and pursuits ap¬
propriate to man; or, if not, to incline to a life of
mere sentiment, of mere romance and adventure;
in short, to produce a perpetual conflict between
dominant tastes and characteristics and necessary and
inevitable destiny; by which not only life's true ends
are defeated, but life itself is rendered one continued
scene of restless discontent, of painful disappoint¬
ment, of positive unhappiness. O, who that loves
woman and appreciates the important place she is
designed by Heaven to occupy, and the preciousness
of those responsibilities which it is her appropriate
function to meet and to discharge, does not grieve
to see her thus unconscious of her doom, the subject
of a system provided for her by those who ought to
be her friends and benefactors, by which her true
destiny is defeated, her efficiency and her glory are
832 VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
precluded, and her truest happiness for ever blasted!
It is time that the country had awakened to a con¬
sciousness of the unphilosopliic and ruinous char¬
acter of prevailing systems intended for the educa¬
tion of woman, and, with truer conceptions of her
nature and her sphere of action, had provided those
educational instrumentalities which, instead of con¬
tributing by all their energy to pervert and ruin her
fortunes, would develop the real resources of her
usefulness and happiness. There is too much in¬
volved to allow a fatal persistence in mistaken theo¬
ries, in false and misguided notions, upon this im¬
portant subject. Her dependence, her inestimable
•worth, and her importance, all appeal to our sym¬
pathies—to the noblest impulses of our common
humanity. The problem of her educational claims
ought 110 longer to remain unsolved, and the systems
suitable for her own appropriate culture ought no
longer to be repudiated and despised.
Another evil which results from inadequate con¬
ceptions of the true nature and wants of woman,
at the basis of all the prevailing systems of educa¬
tion, is, that those systems are all conducted with
specific reference to the preparation of woman, not
for the whole period of life, not for the successful
performance of her various duties, and to be happy
in all the successive stages of life, from youth to
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 333
old age; but rather to make an impression and to
shine while young, and while moving in the gay
circle of belles. "Whether it be attributable, as its
proximate cause, to the ambition of parents, or to
the fact of its being confessedly a critical period of
woman's history, yet, in the absence of all correct
appreciation of the relation of the educational pro¬
cess to the whole course of woman's being, it is
obvious that the paramount object generally, in all
plans of female training, is to fit her to make the
most attractive and impressive display during the
period of early maidenhood. To this period, parents
and friends look in all their enterprises in behalf of
female youth, and to a preparation for this period
all the modes of culture common to the schools are
directly accommodated. Hence the general neglect
of all those home-bred habits and tastes bearing
upon the demands and interests of mature life, and
the almost exclusive effort to bring out the brilliant
parts of the intellectual powers; to cultivate the
arts of elegant accomplishment; to invest with the
charms of mere exterior embellishment; to inspire
a taste for the refinements of fancy, and the enjoy¬
ments and amusements of fashion; to arouse the
pride of personal exhibition and display. These
are all known to point to the period of early wo¬
manhood, and to fit her for shining in ambitious
334 VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
circles ; for winning admiration and eclat at that in¬
teresting juncture.
But the supreme reference to this one period in
woman's history, rather than to her whole future
life, in the educational plans of the day, is the fruit¬
ful source of hindrance and embarrassment, in re¬
spect both of her efficiency and of her happiness
throughout her entire future course.
First. It starts her upon her active career with
wrong vievTs of life; with both incorrect and inade¬
quate conceptions of what is her true sphere of
action, and of her inevitable destiny ; so that when
she comes, necessarily, to grapple with life's stem
realities, and her own unavoidable duties, she finds
herself, not only surprised and disqualified, but the
victim of mortification and disappointment.
Second. It establishes a class of habits and tastes,
it brings her under the dominant influence of motives
and aspirations, which, though they well fit her for
the theatre of mere fashionable life, for occasions of
public enjoyment and display, yet are totally re¬
moved from all that actually await her; and, indeed,
constitute so many obstructions to the fulfilment of
the stern demands of her being.
Third. Intended to bear specifically upon the one
distinct and transient period of her history, it of
course fails to secure all suitable training for the
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 335
period tliat is to come after, and wliicli, from its
length, the multiplicity of its cares and responsibi¬
lities, is more important in view of her success and
happiness.
How little have all those splendid accomplish¬
ments and powers of brilliant display, how little
has all this gay devotion to fashion and refinement,
to do with those home-bred tastes and qualifications
which fit woman for the successful discharge of the
duties of wife, and mother, and mistress ! In these
latter, lies woman's true sphere of action. It is with
these that her real success and happiness are con¬
cerned. A system of training which ignores and
excludes these as the objects of prime importance,
merely to provide for that which, at best, is but in¬
cidental and occasional, sacrifices the greater to
'the less, the permanent for the transient, the sources
■of her- general well-being for that which can affect
but partially her career. What does it avail a wo¬
man in the position of a wife and mother, though
she once enjoyed all the qualifications to render her
a splendid and attractive young lady, if she now
finds herself destitute of all that are necessary to
success iu her present circumstances ? What does
it avail a woman, when she finds herself perplexed
and tormented to prepare a good dinner for her hus¬
band and friends ; to cut and fit and make her own
336 VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
dresses; to clothe her children; to manage with
system and success her servants and household in¬
terests; and in these, and all other respects, to arrive
at her own standard of excellence, and to meet the
reasonable expectations of her husband and friends,
that she remembers that she was once a shining
belle, adorned a parlor, and was the centre of at¬
traction in an admiring circle ? Ah ! could the
framers of the educational systems for females in
this country rightly appreciate the perplexity, the
disappointment and sorrow, to say nothing of the
positive disadvantage entailed upon families and so¬
ciety by this disqualification which married females
often experience in practical life, the result of this
mistaken policy of supreme reference to early maid¬
enhood— of concentrating educational effort upon
the one end of making brilliant and admired young
ladies, rather than efficient and lovely wives and
matrons—such systems would then 110 longer find
currency ; but, with a more enlightened grasp of the
real nature and interests of woman, those only would
be accepted which, while they did not ignore the
importance of any one crisis in her history, would
yet embrace, in their scope, the entire extent of all
her future demands.
Another evil which results from this mistaken
conception of the character and destiny of woman
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 337
is, that in all the systems of training for her now
prevailing, the idea is directly and perpetually fos¬
tered, that the paramount object of her life, the
great end and aim of her existence, is marriage.
"Who that looks attentively into these systems does
not see that this is the grand central idea which it
is their direct tendency to impress ? Originating in
the bosoms of families, the policy has communicated
itself, it may be almost unconsciously, into the
schools, so that from the first to the last lesson
taught, the mind is held more or less in contact with
this all-controlling, dominant idea. But there are
serious evils, in respect both of character and of
happiness, which flow from the fixed direction thus
given to the mind. It diverts the mind, at the sea¬
son when most susceptible of expansion and of ap¬
propriation, from many important sources" of im¬
provement, and, identifying it almost exclusively
with the topics and associations of matrimony, it
begets an uncontrollable fondness for matrimonial
schemes and adventures; an ambition to become
distinguished on the arena where matrimonial prizes
arc sought and won; an irrepressible aspiration to
indulge in the games of coquetry and flirtation; to
play upon the hearts of men; securing distinction
and gratifying pride by winning, when the object is
only to disappoint and to crush. Hence ensues a
15
338 VIEWS OP FEMALE EDUCATION.
looseness of views as to tlie obligations of contract
in these important matters of the heart—a reckless¬
ness of morals in the matters of word and promise,
which, starting thns with the softer sex, has, at last,
communicated itself in no small degree to the other,
producing, in its general effect, a relaxation of the
sentiment of truth and fidelity which, not to speak
of its influence upon the general character, has often
a blighting, blasting influence upon human hearts
and human destiny.
But there is another unfortunate consequence re¬
sulting from the early and constant direction thus
given to the subject of marriage. Becoming en¬
grossed with it themselves, and the cooperation of
friends being constantly afforded to impress it upon
them, and to further their interests in respect of it,
many are hurried into this relation from no other
motive than that the opportunity is presented, and
that if it is not at once embraced, the grand object
of life 'will be defeated, and their standing dis¬
paraged. Others go into it, not as a result of their
own heart and judgment, but as the issue of an ar¬
rangement prompted or consented to merely by their
own romantic fancy, their own ambitious or mis¬
directed impulse; or which, as offering a chance for
gratifying pride, or furthering worldly fortunes,
friends had originated and encouraged. But with
VIEWS OE FEMALE EDUCATION. 389
woman, the creature of affection and sympathy, and
identified as her very being becomes with this rela¬
tion, such an event is too serious and important to
be dependent upon accident, and the chances of
mere arbitrary arrangement. Marriage with woman,
even more than with man, must be a result which
heart and judgment, in their own spontaneous exer¬
cise, have prompted and sanctioned. And this tend¬
ency of prevailing systems of female culture to in¬
duce such action on her part as contravenes this
great principle of her being, and to subject her des¬
tiny to arrangements and influences so unnatural,
uncertain, and. arbitrary, is already issuing in many
sad cases of disappointment and disaster, to be seen
all over these lands. hTo, the education of woman
ought to have a higher aim than the mere inculca¬
tion and development of the sentiment, that her
chief and paramount business is to marry. Based
upon an adequate conception of her real nature, it
ought to be broader in the range of its purposes;
and, looking to the entire objects and all along the
length of her being, it ought to cultivate her entire
nature and have respect to her entire destiny. Then,
sending her forth a woman, with her powers and
aims in natural adjustment and symmetry, all en¬
larged, chastened, elevated, the objects and the
duties of life would all be rightly understood and
340 VIEWS OE FEMALE EDUCATION.
appreciated, and matrimony, instead of absorbing
every thought,- and modifying and controlling every
act and relationship, would be riglitly estimated in
its claims and responsibilities, and would be em¬
braced as it should be, not as a mere arbitrary or a
mere impulsive arrangement, but as the sequence of
an outgushing yet prudently directed affection, and
as the purest, richest source of woman's earthly en¬
joyments.
The education of woman, to be philosophical in
its conception, and in the fullest sense useful in its
results, ought to be conducted with direct reference
to the sources of her real power; and in order
to determine what such education is, it is neces-
* '
sary to consider what are the sources of her power.
Turn we now to notice them. The first we men¬
tion, and which must be regarded as paramount,
is found in those various affections, those warm and
gushing sensibilities, those quick and yet all-pervad¬
ing, ever-enduring sympathies, peculiar to woman.
These, in this predominant sense, constitute the true
feminine nature of woman, and those characteristics
of her. mental manifestation which separate and dis¬
tinguish her as a sex. It is because of these that
she is admired and loved by her husband, and by
means of these that he is drawn to her as his com¬
panion, as partner in his affections, hopes, and dcs-
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 341
tiny; and that blending of natures is secured by
which each enjoys, in character and history, the ad¬
vantages of the' other, which, indeed, is a main pro¬
vidential design of the matrimonial alliance. It is
not the fading charms of woman, or her mere intel¬
lectual capabilities, that constitute in her those at¬
tractive, cementing properties of this perfect and
happy union. In the latter, man feels that he is
to he superior and to take precedence. These are
not the elements which his nature seeks and has
special affinity for in this alliance, and which make
it the unfailing source of a happy existence. To
him they are valuable and attractive only as they
are subsidiary to and promotive of the right develop¬
ment and direction of her paramount qualities.
Mere intellect, in itself, and in predominance in wo¬
man, is masculine, is harsh, and forbidding to man,
savins; rise to manifestations and modes of life
O O
which, while man fails to find in them what his
nature prompts him to seek in woman, are often the
occasion of strife and mutual alienation. It is wo¬
man's heart-manifestations that give her power with
her husband, that hind him to her; that make her,
with him, the centre of attraction, and his home the
source of his richest enjoyments.
In woman's affections, too, lies her greatest capa¬
city for influence, within her own home circle,
34:2 VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
as a mother and mistress. It is not mere literary
attainments, or high powers of mind, that find
scope for action here. These are hnt little addressed
in this the important sphere of her being; but here
it is her affections, her womanly virtues, her "warm,
heartfelt sympathies, that are taxed and brought into
more constant exercise, and it is these that give her
power in this her principal field of action ; and it is
according as these are brought out in all their
strength, and are properly disciplined, that she
makes herself felt here, and wields a commanding
and yet salutary influence. And "when we look to
woman's relations outside of mere domestic life, and
as a member of society, we shall find that it is to
the same department of her nature that her chief
and most valuable influence is to be attributed. "We
shall find that it is not intellectual power or intel¬
lectual acquirement, or any of the higher accom¬
plishments of a mere literary education, that secure
to her the true respect, deference, and confidence of
men, or that are the grounds of the conservative,
elevating influence which it is her province to wield
in community. These, when constituting the pre¬
dominant development of character, present her in
aspects that are masculine and repulsive, and that
fail to meet the ideal everywhere-entertained of a
true woman; they excite distrust and suspicion in
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 343
regard to her even in her own sex, and alienate her
O " 7
from those sympathies and social relationships with¬
out which she is utterly incapable of any wide-sweep¬
ing social impress, or of wielding any decided salu¬
tary social influence. It is rather woman's modest
worth, her traits of amiability and loveliness, her
affectionate manners, her warm, gushing sympathy
and benevolence, running out, in all her intercourse
and in all the sphere of her social relationship, in
deeds of mercy and kindness; in short, the heart
affections in paramount development manifesting
themselves in the experience, and in all the various
phases of the life, that win the admiration and de¬
votion of men—that attract all within her circle, and
that impress her influence efficiently and successfully
upon the forces of society. Indeed, if intellect with
man is the instrument of force, it is the affections
in woman that constitute hers. And when she re¬
pudiates these, that she may take on the excellences
of man—when she renounces these, the sources of
lier own strength, that she may become as man—she
divests herself of her own true glory, she surrenders
the very citadel of her power, and effectually defeats
her own nature and destiny?
It obviously follows, therefore, that if woman is
educated to bring out her real strength—the means
of her fullest, most valuable influence—to secure to
344 VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
lier most effectively just that position and power she
is designed to enjoy, the system for her ought to he
arranged with specific reference to the cultivation
and discipline of her affections. All contrary views
in regard to her must he abandoned; and though it
may require a totally different scheme from such as
we have been most familiar with, and which has
grown up with reference to the male mind, yet we
must he satisfied to recognize her in her own natural
conformation, and to modify our plans for her to
meet the actual indications of her nature; assured
•that it is not by any mere arbitrary process that may
suit the views we happen to have of the educational
wants of a human being, but by thus conforming to
her own actual constitution, that we contribute most
to her positive development, to her real influence,
usefulness, and happiness. And though such a sys¬
tem might require a repudiation of all our precon¬
ceived ideas of education, as simply a discipline of
the mere intellectual powers, and consequently all
that systematic plan of protracted and laborious ap¬
plication to fixed and regular study proper to the
male mind, and all that class of abstract, abstruse
studies now belonging to the female college curri¬
culum, and adapted to and comprehended only by
the higher powers of the mind, simply because, in
the instance of females, they all involve a disregard
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 345
of what are the paramount features of her mental
organization—her affections and feminine character¬
istics—and the erection, in their stead, of powers
and attributes, as objects of supreme reference, de¬
signed to be subsidiary and subordinate; and though
such a system might require a repudiation of all
public exhibitions, all public reference, in the system
of motives plied, investing the whole of their in¬
ternal operations with the characteristics and retiracy
of the home circle ; and though, in fact, it would
give such predominance to the domestic idea in the
process of education as to make the principle of
home-culture and discipline, for well-nigh the entire
course of training, absolutely indispensable; yet,
with a firm conviction that such a system is better
suited to woman, is more fitly adapted to her actual
constitution, to her development in the way to
make most available her actual native resources,
and to enable her most successfully to perform her
appointed part in the drama of life, it is the duty
of her friends, unhesitatingly, and at onCe, at what¬
ever cost, to renounce all others, and to make this,
and this only, the prevailing policy of female edu¬
cation.
The second source of woman's power we notice,
is the capacity to speak and write her own language
with facility and readiness, and in conformity with
15*
346 VIEWS OE FEMALE EDUCATION.
the requirements of a pure taste. Conversation and
epistolary writing, when woman confines herself to
her proper sphere of life, are the chief vehicles
which it is practicable for her to employ for convey¬
ing; her thoughts to others. These are the media
O O
through which her associations with others are
maintained i by which her own ideas are diffused,
and which furnish, in great measure, the criterion
by which the judgment of others, especially in re¬
gard to her intellectual status, is formed. Precluded
by her necessary position from all other means of
communicating with the world, and of impressing
upon it her sentiments in any direct positive sense,
these, with her, are the only organs of positive utter¬
ance, and that give her capacity of any direct voice
in the movements of society. In the relation of
mother, it is from her mainly that children acquire,
by imitation, the knowledge and the use of lan¬
guage ; and their facilities in these respects, at a
period in their history which more than all others
fixes for their whole future career their capacity for
language and their general rhetorical taste, are de¬
pendent almost exclusively upon her example. And
in her domestic relations, the refinement that per1
vades her household, the precision of her orders,
and the consequent promptness and regularity of all
her domestic management, are always in large
VIEWS OE FEMALE EDUCATION. 347
measure connected with the element furnished in
hef powers and habits of language. The power of
ready and elegant expression, in conversation or in
writing, lias connected with it, in all persons, a pe¬
culiar influence and charm; hut in woman, it is
specially potent and enchanting. It at once elecides
her place and position. The chief standard by Which
others can judge of her intellectual or educational
claims, and the chief means by which she is capable
of making herself agreeable to others, it at once
settles the question of her relative superiority; of
the capacity of her mind; of the elevation and ele¬
gance of her tastes; of the character of her dispo¬
sitions and sentiments. It is attractive, winning,
impressive, constituting with woman the most po¬
tent of her agencies for making her thoughts influ¬
ential, and for determining the prevailing estimate
of her intellectual cultivation and peculiarities.
Conformably with these views of the demand of
woman for these peculiar powers, of their import¬
ance to her, and of their potency, she possesses
naturally no endowments of an intellectual character
in so high a degree. As if to qualify her in refer¬
ence to these necessities of her position; as if to
allow her these modes of influence and attractive¬
ness, which comport so well with her intended char¬
acter and sphere of being, Heaven has endowed her
3-18 VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
with, a larger measure of those powers required in
the arts of conversation and mere epistolary corre¬
spondence, than of all others found in her intellectual
organization. "Women naturally, as the world knows,
excel men in the gifts of conversation, and especially
in the power of ready, fluent, captivating dialogue;
and the finest specimens of letter-writing the world
has ever seen, are the productions of woman. And
when the entire amount of her intellectual power,
as compared with that of man, is remembered, it is
even more evident, not only that these are her most
prominent mental endowments, hut that relatively
they are found in higher degree in her than in the
other sex.
But if these are a principal source of "woman's
power, as discovered by an inspection of her actual
condition ; if it is with reference to these mainly
that she is intellectually constituted; if by her or¬
ganization it is indicated that it is through these
media, for the most part, that her intellect is to find
flow and expression, then it is manifest, that in her
intellectual, or rather literary education, these are
the powers to which paramount reference should be
had, and whose cultivation and improvement should
be specifically and mainly sought. How unadapted
then to woman, how out of place, is much that con¬
stitutes the present course of study in our most
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
349
popular female institutions—the higher mathematics,
the departments of metaphysics, the abstruse sci¬
ences, without relevancy, as they are, to these para¬
mount intellectual powers and aptitudes of woman,
and addressing themselves, as they do, to that class
of faculties which, for the reason that they are un¬
called for in woman's sphere of being, in any para¬
mount sense, God has given her only in subordinate
and inferior degree. No, instead of all this, it is a
system which grounds woman thoroughly in the ele¬
ments of education ; which teaches her to spell cor¬
rectly ; which gives her an enlarged acquaintance
with words and their proper use ; which familiarizes
her with the structure of language, with the prin¬
ciples of a pure and elegant rhetorical taste; which
gives her practice and accomplishment in the art of
literary composition ; which fosters in her a love of
reading ; which extends her acquaintance with pure
literature and the facts acquired from reading—it is,
in hue, the belles lettres department of knowledge
which is adapted to the intellect of woman, and to
the cultivation of those powers of her intellect which,
as we have seen, both her actual nature and position
indicate as most susceptible of improvement, and
as being those most to he used by her, and most
potent in her own actual relations. And, while
much that now belongs to the course of study in our
350 VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
female colleges, adapted to another order of mind,
occasions, in the attempts to master it, an actual
loss of time,- and worse still, in the failures encoun¬
tered, a distraction of mind, an unnatural develop¬
ment of powers, and often painful, blighting discom¬
fiture, this system, looking to the cultivation of those
powers she does possess in paramount degree, to
those arts for which she does have special aptitude
and need, and thereby harmonizing with the natural
structure of the female mind, will necessarily work
successfully, being attended by all the encourage¬
ments and incitements to pursuit which result from
the natural process of the mind. And the actual
results realized, instead of contributing to the per¬
version of her nature, will but insure the develop¬
ment of her intellect in its own intended order,
securing the ascendency and the proper cultivation
of those powers upon which she is most to rely, and
which, in any normal condition of her being, must,
in their manifestations, be paramount.
Another source of woman's power is her habit¬
ual neatness and refinement in all that pertains to
her person and dress. It is true that there is a spe¬
cies of extravagance and gaudiness often exhibited
in styles of dressing, from which woman realizes
but little of such influence as is desirable; still it
cannot be denied, that in the habitual display of
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION". 851
good taste and refinement in her dress and modes
of dress, in her personal carriage and bearing, there
is always a charm that none can fail to feel, and
which constitutes, in her, a chief means of influence.
Circumscribed and retired, as she is, in the sphere
of her being, and restricted to a limited number of
methods of exhibiting herself, these are among the
few means available to her, by which she may mani¬
fest her superiority, her cultivation, and her taste.
These, too, are in character with her, and have im¬
mediate reference to those traits and qualities which
are expected to be paramount, and which constitute
her distinctive peculiarity. The world, woman her¬
self included, absorbed, as it has become in modern
times, with extravagant notions of woman's higher
nature and mission, may profess to look with con¬
tempt upon the idea of woman's personal appear¬
ance and adornment, as an object of primary im¬
portance, and as a principal element of her power;
but it is nevertheless true, that these are practically
and actually a chief standard by which the opinions of"
others, in regard to her, are regulated, and a prin¬
cipal ground of her personal distinction and influ¬
ence. As little as the principle is provided for in
prevailing theories, yet there is, in fact, potency in
the dress of woman, capabilities of attractiveness
and power, to be found hardly in any other of her
352 VIEWS OE EEMALE EDUCATION.
resources ; and; perhaps, nothing else contributes so
much to fix her actual position in society. And it
is right that, this importance should he ascribed to
this1 feature in her manifestation. Whatever may be
said to the contrary, it is yet a fact, that there is a
philosophic connection between the personal neat¬
ness and the modes of dress in woman, and her
actual inward taste and cultivation, whereby "flie
existence of the former is an invariable test of the
existence of the latter; and external manifestations
of woman, thus the outgrowth and development
of qualities so essential to the sex, so necessary to
the fulfilment of the real functions of her being,
ought to be stressed and magnified as among tlie
first in importance; as an element among the most
controlling in its influence.
To cultivate, then, right views of personal neatness;
a true and properly regulated taste in all matters of
dress; to teach how to dress, and how personally to
cut, and fit, and arrange articles of dress, we hold to
be a primary and indeed one of the principal objects
in all proper systems of female education. And,
apart from the resources of power which women may
enjoy through these attainments, because of the ad¬
ditions they may make to personal attractiveness,
and the indications of refinement and good taste
they may afford, these, in their variety of detail,
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 353
constitute a principal part of t-lie necessary and un¬
avoidable business of woman. Her efficiency, her
freedom through life from perplexity and mortifi¬
cation, depend very largely upon her skill, the ex¬
tent and readiness of her resources in this important
department. These are the practical matters of her
life, rupon her success in the management of which
her fitness for her position, her adaptation to her
actual responsibilities, her true reputation, her own
free, happy career through life, all essentially
turn.
The almost entire failure to provide for this de¬
partment in the prevailing systems for females,
making attention to it merely incidental or acci¬
dental during the training period, is unquestionably
a fundamental error. The treasures of literature,
the highest intellectual cultivation, are indeed dearly
bought, and can avail woman but little, when ob¬
tained at the sacrifice or at the expense of whatever
gives taste and skill in its use and management.
Men of extraordinary genius, and devoted to the
more sturdy or to mere abstract pursuits, may be ex¬
cused for carelessness and inattention to these seem¬
ingly minor matters; but slovenliness or neglect, or
bad taste in woman, in reference either to her
person or to her household, especially in one whose
position justifies claims to refinement, is not only
354 VIEWS OE FEMALE EDUCATION.
inexcusable, but highly reprehensible. And we are
not sure but that this extreme devotion to the mere
literary aspects of woman's education, and the al¬
most contempt with which its domestic features are
beginning to be regarded, are already giving rise to
just those results in matters of personal taste which,
upon any correct principles of reasoning, might have
been anticipated. There is, it is true, no lack of
expensiveness or extravagant display, of rich and
gorgeous exhibition ; but that, in purity and refine¬
ment of taste, in accurate perception of propriety
and elegance, in the skilful use of the arts of pre¬
paration and arrangement in the various matters of
the toilet, there has been, at least, no advancement,
but perhaps decline—the result of this exclusive
concentration upon the mere literary objects of edu¬
cation—we think is increasingly obvious. There
can be no doubt that, in the systems of education
now most commonly applied to females, the literary
idea is allowed to prevail too decidedly over that of
the domestic. The latter must be allowed more in¬
fluence in controlling the type of female education.
Both at home, and in the school from home, females
must be provided with more advantages for the cul¬
tivation of the domestic arts, and whatever is pro¬
motive of a refined and elegant taste in the affairs
of the household. A principal source of her power,
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 355
and constituting with, her an important department
of practical life, it is but right, it is but natural,
that to these, and in consideration of these, the
literary element should yield some of its claims;
and not only at home under the parental supervision,
but even in our schools, provision should be made,
ample and thorough, for their cultivation and man¬
agement. And we are not sure but that the time
O
will come when the department of mantua-making
and millinery, whose object will be to teach young
ladies the art of fitting and making their own
dresses, and to cultivate good habits and correct
taste in all the matters of personal neatness and
dress, will be considered as essential to any well-
appointed female college as any other department,
whether of science or literature.
Finally, it is woman's prerogative, by virtue of
her high moral endowments, her home attachments,
the softening, chastening influence of her sensibili¬
ties, to constitute the grand conservative influence
of society; centralizing the aims of man, checking
his excesses, and guiding his steps aright. It is her
highest destiny, then, to be a religious being, a
domestic being, an affectionate being. "With this
threefold nature harmoniously blended, she becomes
what God intended her to be; wields the power de¬
signed for her, and achieves the destiny to which
35G VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
she was appointed. There is an error, then, in the
prevailing systems, which, bringing her out in the
public glare, and appealing to her love of admira¬
tion and public applause, would make her an ambi¬
tious being ; would make her dissatisfied with mere
domestic life, the true theatre of her activities, and
would urge her to modes of life and enjoyment
foreign from her destined position; would divest
her of her modest worth, her native impulses of
affection and sympathy, and assimilate her to the
masculine traits of the sterner sex. Such a system,
makes the educational process hut an agency to take
woman out of her true position, and to divest her
of those lovely elements of her nature by which
alone she realizes the appointed objects of her being.
The spirit of the times and the prevailing plans
of female education powerfully tend to foster the
disposition in woman to go beyond her proper sphere.
There is, with woman, a spirit of discontent with
that position of domestic retiracy wherein her
duties lie, and for which she was created, and a dis¬
position to follow up her activities and to gratify
her nature in fields appropriate alone to the mascu¬
line sex; and upon this mistaken view of her destiny,
the most popular schemes of education for her are
everywhere based. But woman, thus tending, as to
her mental manifestation and general course of
VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION. 357
action, to this imsexed, perverted condition, will
lose her hold upon the deference and respect of
men, and find her influence and power gradually
diminished, and the high and sacred objects of
her creation in great measure defeated. Society,
itself demoralized, will be in great degree revolu¬
tionized, and woman, disappointed and unhappy,
will become a hindrance rather than a blessing to
man.
The great demand, perhaps the greatest demand
of the age, is a correct psychology of woman; and
that knowledge of her appointed sphere of action,
with all its metes and bounds, which such discovery
of her actual nature would unfold. Until this is
attained, the system of training applied to her will
continue to be, as now, unpliilosophic, empirical,
✓
arbitrary, conferring blessings, if at all, at random,
and producing results directly and specifically in
antagonism with the interests of the sex. "When
attained, then, woman, properly apprehended as to
her nature and wants, will be educated according to,
her own appointed relationships and to her real des¬
tiny ; and the result of education will vindicate the
suitableness, the wisdom, and the superiority of the
system. Nature's laws cannot be contravened with
impunity; woman's natural organization cannot be
ignored and disregarded without damage to herself
858 VIEWS OF FEMALE EDUCATION.
and to society; and while the world is following up,
with eager haste, its own ambitious, ill-judged plans
of education for her, he is her truest friend, however
much he may he misconceived in the outset, who
seeks to call the country back to the true principles
of her nature, to right views of her intended sphere
of action, and to that mode of culture which, based
upon these, will unfold and send her forth to society
a true woman.
true eemale education.
359
IX.—THE CONSTITUENTS OF TRUE
FEMALE EDUCATION.*
The influence of woman in shaping the destiny
of the world is hardly less than that of man. Though
she is intended to take hut little part in public
affairs—though she has not to participate as an actor
in those matters which make up the external history
of the world, but rather to occupy a private sphere,
the counterpart of that public sphere appropriate to
man—yet, after all, it is a question difficult of
decision which of the sexes does contribute most to
determine the history of the world.
The grounds upon which woman—notwithstand¬
ing her comparative physical weakness, her more
limited intellectual power, her more retired sphere
of action — does make this impress upon human
affairs, hardly less than that made by man, are
several.
* An Address delivered at the Commencement of Andrew Femalo
College, Cutlibert, Ga., June 2Gth, 185G.
360
THE CONSTITUENTS OF
First, lier superior influence in moulding and fix¬
ing the character of the young, and, consequently,
human character generally. That mothers contri¬
bute more than all others to the education and train¬
ing of young children is evident upon the slightest
reflection. It is from her that they derive most of
those ideas that afford the young mind the mate¬
rials of thought, and nourish it; and it is her influ¬
ence, for the most part, that determines the affections
and habits. When, then, we remember that the
child is the father of the man, that the entire super¬
structure of mind and character is built upon and
largely controlled by the foundation laid in child¬
hood—that the elements incorporated during this
formative season do, indeed, determine the character
of mature age, it is evident that it is woman's influ¬
ence, more than all else, that gives development and
cast to the entire character of the race.
The power of the family association, in moulding
the youthful mind, and, in that way, controlling the
progress of society and the destiny of the world, has
never yet been adequately understood. Perhaps no
part of the system of machinery which God employs
in the execution of his great scheme among men,
has capabilities of efficiency superior to this instru¬
mentality; and yet, it is woman's agency chiefly
involved in it, and by which it is mainly influenced
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION. 8G1
and directed. What matters it, then, that women
are not actors in the external public history of the
world ? They are the formers of the character that
make that history, and thus, though they and their
immediate work maybe obscured from public view,
they are, in fact, responsible for most that exists in
individual character, and for much that we see in
public atfairs. The actions of individual men, the
operations of masses of men, are all nothing more
than the overt expressions, the outgrowth of the indi¬
vidual mind, and woman's influence, which is mainly
concerned in unfolding and shaping this, must there¬
fore be secondary to no earthly agency in its power
of impress upon human destiny.
The second ground upon which woman impresses
herself so decidedly upon human affairs, is the con¬
servative influence she exercises over man. If we
could suppose the entire sex of woman suddenly
blotted from the face of the earth, and then picture
the altered state of things among the remaining
sex, which would soon exist, we would have some
adequate idea of the extent of the restraining, con¬
servative influence exerted by woman. Man, by
himself, and left to himself, wants the balance neces¬
sary to keep him in his right sphere. To be quali¬
fied for the accomplishment of the ends of his being,
it was probably necessary that his principles should
1G
362
THE CONSTITUENTS OF
be of such a kind and of sncb strength as would,
when unrestrained by outside influence, lead to irre¬
gularity, to violence and recklessness, and woman
was intended to supply the restraint by which a
just equilibrium may be maintained, and man be
kept in his proper orbit. Thus woman, though par¬
ticipating in no wise in man's own appropriate
sphere, may be necessary to his successful fulfilment
of it; being such a counterpart of man, such a
part of the system of which man is the principal
element, as that, without her, he is lawless and
desperate, and without any actual relation to the
objects of his being.
One of the causes of this restraining influence
exerted by woman upon man, is found in the attract¬
ive power she exerts over him. "With the view, no
doubt, to establish in woman this conservative rela¬
tion to man, by which she could hold in check the
otherwise excessive tendencies of his nature, and
keep him within intended limits, she is constituted
to exercise over him, in a marked degree, an attract¬
ive, winning power. Though inferior to him, alike
in physical constitution, in courage, in enterprise,
and indeed in all the qualities of spirit and power
which give boldness and activity to character, yet
there are qualities which she possesses, by reason of
which she holds man largely subject to her, and
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION. 363
secures a controlling power over his character
and life.
Another cause of this power exerted by woman
over man, tending to keep him in his proper place,
is her dependence upon him. There can he no
doubt that this recognized leaning of woman upon
man for protection and for support—this conscious¬
ness that she is so far in the power of man as to he
dependent, as to all her earthly interests, upon him—
does give to her an immense power of control over
him—a capability of decided influence upon his
course in life. It is not only that the business of
protecting and supporting her, devolved upon him,
restricts the large mass to definite lines of conduct
and employment, and thereby holds them to steadi¬
ness, and to regular useful life; but it is that this
conscious weakness of woman, with her acknow¬
ledgment of dependence upon man, cherishes in him
a spirit of deference, of gallantry, of tenderness, of
heartfelt respect, that constantly inclines him to yield
to her feelings and views. Woman's weakness is
the source of her power, and of immense power.
And it were well that the principle were more gen¬
erally understood, and allowed its proper weight, in
the course of female education. There can be no
doubt that every effort to claim for woman entire
equality with man, and sameness of privilege and
334
THE CONSTITUENTS OE
position—that every tendency, in systems of training
applied to her, to educate her to act independently,
or as the equal of man—contributes to relax the hold
that 'woman has upon him, and to make her less
capable of impressing herself upon his life and char¬
acter. "Woman, acting as dependent, and as desir¬
ous of man's protection, will draw liim tojier—will
control his respect and his actions; but assuming
the place of rival—challenging his competition—
demanding equality of privilege—she but excites
his disgust, and forces him into opposition.
There is yet another cause of this powerfully con¬
servative influence of the female upon the male sex,
and it is found in the operation of the matrimonial
relation. So accustomed are we to this relation, and
to its effects upon human life and history, that we,
perhaps, have never formed a distinct conception of
the influence to be ascribed to it in human affairs.
But when, by closer analysis, we perceive that it is
this relation that makes local the interests of men,
that concentrates their aims and identities them with
particular communities, and, hence, is the founda¬
tion of all public spirit and of all good citizenship—■
that it is this relation that supplies the strongest
motives to self-improvement, to progressive enter¬
prise, to virtue, and to the general spread of virtu-
pus, elevating principle—then it is evident that
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION. 365
woman, in tliis relation, must be tbe occasion of
circumstances and influences that contribute power¬
fully to tbe right restraint of men, and to tbeir con¬
tinuance in tbeir legitimate sphere of movement.
But it is not only because of tbe relationship sus¬
tained to the rising generation, and tbe powerfully
conservative influence exercised by woman over man,
that she contributes so largely to make up and con¬
trol human affairs; but, thirdly, because of tbe
humanizing, elevating power which she constantly
exercises over him. The sphere of man requires in
him the more sturdy virtues—those masculine traits
which, if unmodified by surrounding influences,
would descend into a grossness and debasement of
taste, degrading to nature, and incompatible with
all that is amiable, and lovely, and pure. To supply
that influence in a constant and pressing degree
which will prevent this downward tendency, and, at
the same time, have the additional effect to elevate,
woman is given to man, and with just such qualities
in the ascendant as are calculated to produce those
results. "Woman presents herself to the world with
the affections — those softer, more amiable, more
engaging traits and virtues—in the ascendant. Her
nature and circumstances all lead to their paramount
development in her character and life. These femi¬
nine aspects, thus prominently presented in man's
3G6
THE CONSTITUENTS OF
intercourse with lier, are indeed a power constantly
pressing upon him, tending to subdue his asperities,
to educate his nature to amiability, to refine, to
purify and to exalt his tastes, and, in short, to sup¬
plement his nature by whatever is necessary to its
completeness and symmetry. There can he no
question that man is indebted, for most that is chaste
and refined in his character, to the softening, puri¬
fying influence of woman, and that it is the element
which woman infuses into society which contributes
to keep up in it the just ascendency of the affections,
and which secures to it whatever of earthly capacity
it enjoys to mould human life to a higher standard
of amiability, purity, and refinement.
To say nothing, then, of the value of the positive
part which woman performs in human affairs, in the
proper occupancy of the domestic sphere, it must
he admitted that she does, at least indirectly, make
a most powerful impress upon the affairs of this
world. Her purticipancy in the world's operations
may he comparatively silent—there may he in it hut
little of that stir and publicity which characterize
the movements of the more active sex—hut still, in
developing those elements in men which control
their history, in moulding the mind, in forming the
habits, in supplying the fundamental motives to
action, upon which, after all, the operations and
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION. 367
the destiny of society are based, woman does, in
fact, have a controlling influence. Passive as woman
is, and retired as she is, she nevertheless does, in a
very decided degree, compete with man himself in
influence and power in the world. So broadly
related is her sphere of influence to all those agen¬
cies of society concerned in its progress, that it may
be regarded as a truth, that the condition of females
at any one period is a correct criterion, not only of
the existing stage of social progress, but also of the
existing prospect of future growth and improve¬
ment.
But if woman sustains relations so important to
the world, if she is capable of impressing herself
so decidedly and powerfully upon it, surely her
responsibilities are of the most momentous char¬
acter, and it becomes both sexes earnestly to con¬
sider the question, What constitutes a qualification
for the usefulness of which her sphere of action
renders her capable ?
The first thing we mention, as going to make up
this qualification, is a judiciously cultivated mind. It
is one of the glories of the present age, a striking
proof of its advancement upon the past in all the
higher departments of being, that the notion that
woman may be left to her own spontaneous mental
improvement, no special effort in this respect being
368
THE CONSTITUENTS OF
needed in her behalf—a notion wliich prevailed more
or less in all former ages—has in our times been
discarded, and that among us both the. importance
of her right education and the modes of securing it
have already attracted a large share of public atten¬
tion. Whether we argue from the intention of the
Almighty, as indicated in the fact that her mind is
capable of growth from education, or from the dig¬
nity and importance of the mind itself, or from the
fact of the increase of the resources of happiness
and power, which the cultivation of mind confers,
or from the evils which are entailed by her igno¬
rance, or from the extensive sphere of her usefulness
and the immense facilities for influence over all the
mighty interests of earth which intellectual resources
will afford to her, it ought to be obvious to every one
that woman, to be rightly qualified for her proper
position, must have a judiciously cultivated mind.
And especially is this necessary in this age, since from
the general diffusion of education of an elevated order
among the other sex, the general activity of intel¬
lectual agencies, and the degree in which all the
intellectual powers are stressed, it is evident that
females, without it, are not only unprepared for that
constantly advancing position in their sphere, cor¬
respondent with that constantly being taken by man
in his; but they will fall in the rear, lose their hold
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION. 3G9
upon the deference and regard of men, and become
increasingly inefficient in the great sphere of use¬
fulness they are designed to occupy.
In determining the intellectual cultivation which
woman needs, we remark that it does not consist in
profound acquisitions of any sort, whether of science
or literature. The higher branches of mathematics,
the deep abstrusities of natural science, the depart¬
ments of pure metaphysics, and any and all subjects
that greatly tax the powers of abstraction and gen¬
eralization, arc inappropriate to a system of educa¬
tion applied to her.
1st. Because, in her proper sphere of action, there
is no possible practical use for them—there is no
place in which she can apply them, or make them
in any wTay available. They are acquired, if at all,
to be forgotten, and, as a part of the mind's stores,
are of no more actual service than if the mind had
.for ever remained in ignorance of them. Since, then,
there is enough of that class of knowledge which
can be made available in future to occupy all her
time in the acquisition, this class must be in the
way, and the time devoted to it must be not only
thrown away, but in a most injurious sense mis¬
applied.
2d. Because such studies involve a kind of mental
discipline unsuitcd to woman, and consequently
Hi*
370
THE CONSTITUENTS OF
calculated to do lier serious and permanent harm.
They presuppose that she is an intellectual being, in
the same sense with man, having the philosophic
faculties, the powers of analysis, of abstraction, of
classification, of generalization, and the purely logi¬
cal powers in paramount degree; whereas she is a
being with these faculties in subordinate degree,
having the affections instead, as the predominant
and characteristic attributes of her mind. They
imply, too, that it is rigid discipline, severe process
of training that the female mind wants; whereas it
is not this, hut simply enlightenment of mind, the
informing, chastening influence of knowledge, of
ideas, that really constitutes the staple of female
education. And, even if the idea of discipline, as
understood in its application to the male mind, were
paramount in the education of females, that fur¬
nished by these studies would he unsuited and inap¬
propriate. The training they give the mind is
addressed exclusively to this higher class of intel¬
lectual faculties. And as these faculties are not
adapted to give development and expression to the
finer sensibilities, to the more feminine traits and
graces properly in the ascendant in females, just in
proportion as they are cultivated, these sensibilities
and these graces are precluded, the pure dry intel¬
lect, the masculine characteristics are brought out,
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION.
371
and the womanly nature is defeated. The tendency,
therefore, of these studies is of the most deplorable
character; it is to modify, essentially, the whole in¬
tellectual nature of woman, to abate all her feminine
traits, and to bring into relief those more severe
habits of thinking, those more rigid masculine traits
which suit well enough in men, hut are wholly out
of place, are repulsive and injurious, when found in
woman.
Again, woman's adaptation, in taste and prefer¬
ence, to her own sphere, to her own peculiar respon¬
sibilities, as a sex, is dependent, not upon the fact
that mere propriety or duty leads her in their direc¬
tion, but upon the fact of possessing a constitution
of mind which naturally and spontaneously develops
it, and leads her hither. Put the same mental con¬
stitution in woman that exists in man, and it will
be impossible for her to have the tastes and apti¬
tudes of a woman, but she will act as a man, will
evince the preferences of a man, and will, inevitably,
incline to the same sphere of action. It is only by
possessing a combination of faculties different from
man, and peculiar to her sex, that woman's continu¬
ance in a sphere of action different from that of man,
and appropriate to her own responsibilities, is made
certain. But it is the tendency of these depart¬
ments of study, by stressing and cultivating those
372
THE CONSTITUENTS OE
higher faculties which distinguish the male sex, to
make her, in intellectual constitution, like man, to
cherish those powers which find free scope and exer¬
cise only in man's public sphere; and hence, to
excite the tastes and aspirations in woman that
belong to men, and are designed to be peculiar in
them; to render her dissatisfied with her own proper
theatre of action ; to create an unconquerable fond¬
ness for such intellectual pursuits, for such enjoy¬
ments, as are incompatible with her own proper
duties, and are appropriate only to the more active
sphere of the other sex.
Indeed, these studies, so far from furnishing the
discipline which the female mind needs, being ad¬
dressed to faculties which she possesses only in
feeble degree, and, in her efforts to pursue them, not
thoroughly comprehended, they fail to constitute the
aliment which nourishes the mind. So far from it,
the powers, in their efforts to appropriate it, become
distracted and confused, and, from the want of suit¬
able culture, enfeebled; self-confidence is lost, and,
in the end, blighting discouragement, if not positive
impairment, ensues. And to aggravate the evil,
while this course, so positively contrary to the inter¬
ests of her mind, to its integrity itself, is being pur¬
sued, she is losing, in the very season when she is
most capable of improvement, and ought to have
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION.
873
every advantage, the benefits which would result
from a course, every part of which would be suit¬
ably adapted to her nature and wants.
But if the judicious intellectual cultivation of
woman does not involve these profound acquisitions
in science and literature, the question is, What does
constitute such education ?
"We remark, in the first place, that it is a necessary
part of it, that she have correct ideas of personal
manner, and of the modes of personal intercourse
with the world. There is, perhaps, no one criterion
of a properly educated woman more sure and unfail¬
ing than this. There can be no such thing as proper
refinement, no such external exhibitions that woman
of proper internal cultivation and taste would make,
without the controlling influence of such ideas.
There is an intimate connection between the per¬
sonal bearing of ladies in their social intercourse,
and all that internal purity, correctness of sentiment
and refinement which constitute the peculiar excel¬
lence of the sex, so that without the former it is
evident the 'latter does not exist. There are, in
these external accomplishments, an appropriateness
and suitableness to the peculiar character and sphere
of woman. They are always expected to be found
in her, and their absence involves blemishes and
defects that impair her entire character. There is,
374
THE CONSTITUENTS OF
indeed, in these accomplishments an immense power,
and, in the estimation of all elevated people, they
are, as much as any thing else, concerned in fixing
woman's proper influence and position in society.
"We remark, in the second place, that it is a neces¬
sary part of woman's judicious intellectual cultiva¬
tion that she have such knowledge of her own
language as to he able to use it with accuracy and
facility. That process of intellectual discipline
involved in grounding woman in the rudiments of
her language, perfecting her in the arts of grammar
and the principles of rhetoric, in accustoming her
to frequent written compositions, is perhaps the best
of all others adapted to the cultivation of her pecu¬
liar powers, and ought to be relied upon as the staple
of all that system of training specifically designed
to discipline her intellectual faculties. But it is not
merely that studies such as these secure to woman
the peculiar discipline her intellect requires, but
they likewise provide her with attainments "just
such as her position requires. Ho advantage that a
woman possesses will contribute more to relieve her
from distressing embarrassment, and to promote her
self-complacency and enjoyment in her various
social intercourse, than a facility in the use of ap¬
propriate and elegant language. How many women
of good minds, and intrinsically capable of making
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION". 375
distinguished impress on society, have been cowered
and hindered all through life in consequence of an
inability to express themselves in company with
readiness and propriety, the result of a failure, in
their educational career, to have their minds directed
to this important interest. It is necessary, there¬
fore, to the freedom, and ease, and happiness of
woman, that she he taught, as a part of her educa¬
tion, such a knowledge of her own language as to
enable her to converse with propriety and facility.
Again, as respects all modes of communicating
ideas, and indeed of bringing mind to bear upon
others, woman is shut up almost exclusively to con¬
versation and letter-writing, so that not only do these
furnish the principal criterion by which the world
estimates her intellectual powers, but they are the
chief media through which she is capable of giving
practical force to her ideas. If, therefore, the design
of woman's education is to develop and make more
active the appointed sources of her power, of course
attainments in the use of language, both in speech
and composition, constitute a prominent and essen¬
tial part of it.
■But if proficiency in the use of language is im¬
portant on all these accounts, it is even more so
because of its relation to the rising generation in
their acquisition of language and of practical rhe-
THE CONSTITUENTS 0E
tovic,.and to their habits in these respects all through
life; and because, further,.of .its relation to the
entire household, since the order and the refine¬
ment of the whole family are much dependent upon
the accuracy and elegance of speech of her who
presides over it.
"We would remark, in the third place, that as a
still further ingredient in the intellectual cultivation
of woman, she must he thoroughly trained to a taste
for reading. The difference between the male and
the female mind is evinced in nothing more decidedly
than in this fundamental fact, that, while the male
mind in its formative state is improved most by
those processes which involve mere discipline, the
female mind is cultivated most genially and success¬
fully by means of information bestowed: in other
words,. by such aliment as is furnished in mere
ideas. Such is the constitution of the male mind,
that those studies of a severer kind, and involving
laborious and protracted application, are required
for the most full and efficient education of the
faculties; but with woman, wanting as a sex, as she
is by God designed to be, in the philosophic or ab¬
stract faculties, training of this kind is unsuited to
her, and it is concrete thought, actual practical
ideas, that furnish the kind of regimen suited to the
evolution of her peculiar intellectual faculties. The
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION,
377
great business, therefore, in the discipline of wo¬
man's powers, is to give her ideas—is to impart to
her actual information. There can be no doubt,
therefore, that the lecture system, rather than the
plan of rigid application to the text-book, is most
appropriate to females, resting, as it does, upon the
general principle that facts, or, in other words, actual
knowledge, in the work of education, is paramount
to the idea of mere naked discipline. But the great
result to be looked to in order that such training
may be afforded, indicated by this peculiarity of wo¬
man's intellectual constitution, is to establish a
reigning fondness for, and habit of judicious, pro¬
perly selected reading, since, in the vast and various
literature specially adapted to the young, there
abound just those ideas and that general know¬
ledge most appropriate to the condition and wants
of the female mind. It cannot be doubted, that if
the mind of woman is best trained, by simple, prac¬
tical, concrete thought, rather than by symbols and
abstract conceptions—by actual ideas, rather than
by mere abstractions—that books of the right kind
furnish her with the best means for her intellectual
development and improvement.
Again. The object in male education is to give
strength of judgment, accuracy and power and
range of thought; but the main object in female
378
THE CONSTITUENTS OE
education is to refine and elevate the taste, and to
supply sucli information as the mind can readily
appropriate and employ. Books are therefore indi¬
cated as a principal instrumentality in female educa¬
tion.
Again. Females are, "by their natural circum¬
stances, the teachers of the young. But what can
impart to woman the taste which is to act upon the
young, or the kind of ideas available in interesting
the young mind, in affording it materials of thought,
in diversifying the modes of youthful cultivation,
and in making herself the companion and educator
of the young, as will hooks of the various kinds
now accessible to her ?
Moreover, the mind of woman is well adapted to
the appropriation of the ideas generally found in
hooks; and her power of intellectual display, and,
consequently, her influence and usefulness, arc all
improved by an extensive acquaintance with gen¬
eral literature. Beading improves the literary taste,
and furnishes profitable training in the knowledge
of words and of general rhetoric, and consequently
in the use of language, whether in speech or written
composition—objects, we have before remarked, of
cardinal value in a system of female education.
Indeed, while we know that the proper education
of the male mind involves a much more rigorous
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION. 379
and protracted process of discipline, so satisfied are
we of tlie adaptedness of a judicious system of .read¬
ing, begun in childhood, and continued through the
formative period, in itself, to furnish to the female
mind a principal part of its education, that we feel
in maintaining in the young female a taste for read¬
ing, and in affording the necessary literature for its
right gratification, we have achieved most of what
is necessary to her right intellectual cultivation.
From this specification of items that make up the
right intellectual education of woman, it is evident
that the object looked to, so far as it is an intel¬
lectual result, is essentially different from that looked
to in the education of man. In man, the great ob¬
ject is the increase of intellectual power; in woman,
it is refinement—refinement in the ideas of behavior
and manner, in intellectual taste and employment,
and in speech. Both the nature and the sphere of
woman indicate this to be the chief result to be
looked to in her intellectual cultivation; and it is
the failure to recognize this distinction between her
and the other sex, that has given rise to the miscon¬
ceptions of this day, as to the best course to be pur¬
sued in the intellectual training of females. For, if
this distinction were properly recognized, all that
part of the curriculum of study embraced in the
higher mathematics, in metaphysics, and in the
880
THE CONSTITUENTS OF
difficult abstractions and generalizations of natural
science, now pursued in our female colleges, would
never have been made a part of the course of study,
and those ambitious views of woman, now prevail¬
ing and giving character and tone to the spirit of
female education, would never have been embraced.
These more difficult branches of study are all proper
and valuable in a course for males, because they are
addressed to the higher powers of mind which are
found eminently in man, and tend directly to an in¬
crease of intellectual power; but where the object
is refinement, the elevation of the tastes, the multi¬
plication of suitable ideas, all these various depart¬
ments are not only out of place, not only in the way
of something more appropriate, but they constantly
promote a perverted, abnormal development of the
whole mental structure. It is time that this funda¬
mental difference in the results to be aimed at in
the literary education of the sexes were recognized;
and, instead of making the course applied to females
but a copy of that applied to males, and thereby
unsexing her mental constitution, such a system
were adopted for her as, founded upon her own
peculiar psychology, would tend to the achieve¬
ment of that specific result indicated by her nature
and wants.
From these views it would seem to be evident
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION.
381
that sucli a course of study as is suited to the mere
intellectual education of females, implies several
different requisites:
1st. That females he diligently and carefully in¬
structed in the ideas of proper personal hearing and
behavior, in their intercourse with the world; and
not merely to that extent in which they simply know
the rules of propriety, in any given case, but to that
extent in which those rules have become so incor¬
porated into their being, that to act with becoming
dignity and propriety is habitual, the result of her
prevailing taste and intuitive preference. But inas¬
much as these ideas are imparted more readily and
effectively by example than by mere oral instruction,
it is important that she be situated during her edu¬
cational course in the midst of refined and pure
associations, and especially that she be taught in
schools a majority of whose teachers are females,
distinguished as much for the purity and delicacy of
their taste, the dignity, refinement, and appropriate¬
ness of their bearing and manner, as for any other
excellence.
2d. That they be supplied with a well-selected
library, and instructive, elevating literature, during
their entire training period, from childhood to ma¬
turity; and that successful effort be made to create
in them an abiding taste for reading—for reading
382
THE CONSTITUENTS OE
good books—for reading in the most profitable way,
and with the highest and most useful objects.
3d. That the department of belles lettres, includ¬
ing the orthography, orthoepy, and syntax of the
language, as well as the higher department of rhe¬
toric, and all the various modes of perfecting a
knowledge of English composition, be made the
staple of the purely literary course.
4th. That lectures on every variety of useful sub¬
jects, calculated to give ideas and to improve senti¬
ment and taste, and especially on such subjects in
respect of which information will be available in
future life, constitute a very prominent part of the
educational agency employed—the principle being
true, and so important as to bear reiteration here,
that woman's relation to education is a passive
rather than an active one; that she improves by
being acted upon, rather than by her own spontane¬
ous active effort; that her powers enlarge, rather by
aliment furnished through the ideas of others, than
by her own originality, or by discipline secured
through her own rigid application.
Having now shown that woman's qualification for
the influential and important part in life she is in¬
tended to perform, demands a judicious, intellectual
cultivation, and what that cultivation consists in, we
proceed to the second feature in her system of quali-
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION. 388
fication, which is, that her amiable, kindly affections
be properly trained, and in the ascendant. Our
most fundamental conception of a woman, is a being
with the amiable affections, the feminine virtues of
kindness and love, ever active and controlling. If
woman has power in the world, hardly inferior to
man, if she, weak, and frail, and dependent, some¬
times controls the stoutest, and rivals man in the
impress she makes upon human affairs, it is mainly
to be attributed to the power which the softer, gen¬
tler affections are constituted to wield over the
human heart and life. These are the qualities which
modify and hold in check the asperities and excesses
of her husband, and give her positive influence over
his career. These are the qualities which, attracting
the young hearts of her children, and making happy
their early homes, insinuate themselves into their
whole character, and make a durable impress for
good upon their whole future histofy. These are
the qualities through which she may be felt by
society, and wield an influence in its movements,
in the highest degree salutary. There can be no
doubt that the law of kindness is one of the most
powerful in its capabilities of influence upon human
nature ; and that, when employed by woman, it has
a potency and a charm unknown in any other
hands.
384
THE CONSTITUENTS OF
To have these qualities in predominant develop¬
ment is necessary, too, to her own happiness, since,
being in so emphatic a sense the creature of sensi¬
bility, it necessarily follows that it is only as her
predominant affections are free from all malignity
and bitterness, by being of the opposite character,
amiable and kind, that the indulgence of her nature
will be pleasing to herself, and preservative against
difficulties.
But if these more kindly aspects of woman's
nature—these amiable, benevolent traits of her char¬
acter, when properly elicited—are so influential in
her sphere of action, it is important to know the
best modes to secure their proper training. The
systems of education applied to females in this day
are not, in our judgment, the best calculated to impart
this training and give proper predominance to this
part of woman's nature: First, because they all refer
to this department only in very slight degree, and
hardly at all of set purpose, the stress that is laid
being almost exclusively upon the mere intellectual
powers. Of course, if any department of human
nature is intended to be in the ascendant, and yet
the plan of educatiou ignores it, or leaves its cultiva¬
tion to accident, or to the action of random agencies,
such plan of education must be in the most decided
sense defective. Second, because in so far as the
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION.
385
prevailing systems clo act directly upon tlie affec-
tional nature of woman, it is upon objectionable
features of it—these public exhibitions on the stage,
this public glare in which the whole process of edu¬
cation is conducted, this herding together in closest
association promiscuous crowds of female youth, all
tending; to excite ambition and the love of admira-
tion, and their correlatives, envy, jealousy, and as¬
surance—qualities among the last to accord with a
truly feminine nature.
To bring out the elements of woman's nature
which are intended to be predominant, it is first of
all important that this result be chiefly looked to
and stressed in all views entertained of her proper
culture; and instead of those ambjtious views con¬
trolling, which would make woman a purely intel¬
lectual being, capable of understanding all know¬
ledge and the rival of man, let the prevailing purpose
be to make her affectionate, amiable, and kind, and
even in the cultivation of her intellect to have chief
reference to this paramount result. Let the object
be, not so much to make a brilliant or a profound
woman, but a woman lovely, and capable of loving,
kind and merciful; a woman with all those affections
that correspond with our most natural ideal of a
true woman in the ascendant. Much depends upon
the character of the idea that gives a specific aim to
17
386
THE CONSTITUENTS OF
tlie system of education employed; much depends
upon the theory prevailing as to the great design of
education. If the country could he induced to re¬
consider its views of female education, and abandon
the theory—the groundwork of all the difficulty—
that the system suited to the other sex is applicable
to her, and, adopting the opposite view, would make
the dominant idea in the system for woman tlie
cultivation of the affections, instead of the mere
increase of intellectual power, there can be no doubt
there would be potency enough in the mere rectitude
of the theory ultimately to conform all the practices
of education to this grand, object of securing the
right training of the affections. Such a theory would
remove the prominent institutions for females from
such localities as throw female youth greatly in
the public glare, and excite a passion for display
and for public admiration; would exclude all those
public exhibitions which bring this class of the
young before the public, under circumstances ex¬
ceedingly shocking to their nature, and calculated
to suppress the qualities of modesty and delicacy,
so becoming to woman, and to excite and cultivate
feelings of pride and ambition, which, in their
various operation, are so repugnant to every right
conception of true womanly character. Such a
theory, moreover, would conform the entire school
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION. 38T
establishment, as far as possible, to the domestic
type; would look less to the mere literary progress
of the pupil than to the correction of her bad quali¬
ties and the improvement of her right ones; would
make the cultivation of the amenities, and the kindty
relations between pupils themselves, and between
pupils and teachers, a leading department in the
system; and, in general, would make the whole
scheme employed, in all its variety of detail, conform
to this one object, the greatest care and improve¬
ment of the emotive nature of the sex.
Having now shown that the intellect and the affec¬
tions of woman should be brought out and culti¬
vated, I proceed to show the next thing involved in
the qualification of woman for her responsibilities,
which is, that she be a neat and industrious keeper
of her house. Home is the great theatre of action
for woman; it is the place in which, from natural
appointment, her own truest happiness is found; it
is the scene of the great mass of her duties—the
agency which she can bring to bear most efficiently
for influence upon the world. And both the
natural endowment of woman, and the wants of the
world, indicate that the domestic sphere, the home
circle, is essentially the place for her.
But to make home what it ought to be to all
parties, it must be managed with system, neatness,
388
THE CONSTITUENTS -OF
and industry. Tlie inspired writer says that a right
woman "looketh well to the ways of her household,
and eateth not the hread of idleness." Such a course
of household management is necessary to make
home happy, both to herself and to her family.
Home, and the associations of home, can never he
in the highest degree attractive, where there is dis¬
cord and slovenliness. But where woman presides
with neatness, and regularity, and energy, over all
the domestic interests, then husband and children
all rejoice in home, and " call her blessed." Such
a course of household management is necessary to
promote the thrift of the family. The value of the
part which a systematic, neat, industrious woman
may perform, in procuring a support for the family,
or in contributing to the increase of its means, it is
difficult to estimate. The experience of the world
sustains the assertion, that she is capable of render¬
ing large and effective cooperation. B-ut even if she
were incapable of rendering any very direct and
positive aid in this respect, her power to neutralize
the efforts of her husband, and to squander, when
controlled by the opposite qualities of idleness and
carelessness, none, perhaps, will question.
Again, such a course of household management
is valuable, because of its influence upon the char¬
acter of children. There can he no doubt that there
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION.
389
is a direct connection between a neatly arranged and
well-conducted household, and purity and refine¬
ment of sentiment in its members; so much so as to
give power to the former to foster the latter, espe¬
cially in children, whose whole nature is largely
moulded by domestic influences. A household
managed with regularity and neatness has an ele¬
vating influence upon the young; excites and estab¬
lishes refinement of feeling and sentiment. But
there is an intimate connection between refined,
elevated taste and moral principle, whereby the ex¬
istence of the former gives basis and development
to the latter. A household, therefore, managed by
a neat and industrious mater familias, tends to elevate
taste and sentiment in the young, and through these
to promote in them the strength and sway of virtu¬
ous, ennobling principle. Moreover, an industrious,
well-managed household is of immense value to
children, in the establishment, in them, of habits of
order, of industry, and of regular emploj'ment, and
in affording just instruction in the affairs of prac¬
tical life. Still further, such a course of household
management is valuable, because it constitutes one
of the best means by which woman can exhibit ex¬
cellences, and secure from others that admiration
and respect which give her influence over them.
Shut out, as woman is, from the ordinary paths to
390
THE CONSTITUENTS OE
public distinction open to man, this is one of tlie
few she may enjoy, wherein she can manifest her
merits. And, because of the acknowledged import¬
ance and prominence of the domestic sphere, as one
of the grand departments of human life, distinction
won for superiority here gives a position and a power
at home and abroad which hardly any thing else will
confer.
But, if these domestic qualities are so influential
in woman's sphere of action, it is important'to con¬
sider the best methods for their right development.
The first thing we mention, as necessary to this,
is that the rearing of female youth take place, as
much as possible, at home, and under home influ¬
ences. These domestic qualities can be expected to
have a controlling prominence, only as they are
brought out and thoroughly cultivated during the
formative season. To wait for their development
after character and habits are matured, is to make
their development in proper ascendency exceedingly
doubtful. Since, then, it is only at home that proper
opportunities are given, a proper theatre is furnished
for the exercise of these qualities, of course it fol¬
lows that, to insure their right cultivation and estab¬
lishment, the training of female youth ought to
take place, for the greatest part, under home influ¬
ences. It is only when in that close relation with
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION. 391
domestic affairs which is enjoyed when in the bosom
of home, and encircled within a mother's influence,
and subject to her own constant supervision, that a
suitable occasion is furnished for the outgrowth of
purely domestic virtues.
Again, that these domestic qualities should shine
in woman, it is absolutely necessary that she should
enjoy home above all other places, and that she
should take a peculiar pride and pleasure in its oc¬
cupations. But if woman is educated outside of the
associations of home, and is trained, during the sea¬
son when taste and habit are forming, to absence
from home, and to other associations, how can it be
expected that such results as these will be realized ?
There can be no doubt that these long separations
of daughters from home, and especially from mo¬
thers, during the formative period of life, does have
a most deplorable effect in many ways ; and especi¬
ally in regard to those qualities demanded in mature
life for the right management of the household. If
woman's chief business through life is to be in
domestic employment, nothing is more natural than
that she ought to be reared at home, under those
direct influences which adapt and determine'her
to it.
The second thing we mention as necessary to the
right prominence of these domestic qualities, is that
392 THE CONSTITUENTS OF
special pains "be taken during the whole educational
process to give right culture to these qualities. The
mere fact of being brought up at home, in the domes¬
tic circle, is not enough to make one a neat, in¬
dustrious, skilful housewife, or to give facility in
domestic employment; hut the attention must be
constantly directed to these things, and such in¬
struction given as will make this domestic training
O &
a specific part of their education. The notion of
many parents in our days, that daughters must not
encounter the drudgery or engage habitually in the
employments of domestic life, but must be waited
011 by servants in all these respects, because such
drudgery and such employments are coarse and
laborious; and that other notion, that these are
matters which are to be waived in youth, and re¬
served for after-life, are exceedingly unfortunate,
and for the most part disastrous, as to all suitable
qualification at any period for the duties of home
life.
The third thing wo mention as necessary to the
right development of these domestic qualities is,
that prominence be given, in every period of female
education, to the domestic feature. If the educa¬
tion of girls be conducted under the idea that the
literary aspects of an education are chiefly import¬
ant, these domestic qualities will rather be discour-
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION.
393
aged tlian cherished: First, because the impression
■will be that they are entirely secondary. Their im¬
portance will be depreciated, if not wholly ignored;
the ban of fashion will be against them. And,
second, because the tastes and aspirations which a
purely book education creates, are averse to the
employments of mere domestic life, and perpetually
tend to such as are foreign from them. But let the
literary idea of education yield something to the
domestic. Let it be understood that domestic "quali¬
fications must not be sacrificed to the mere ends of
literary education; then will the value of these
qualifications be rightly understood—plans of educa¬
tion will be arranged with reference to their right
development,- and women will be educated " to be
sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obe¬
dient to their own husbands;" and all the blessings
of refined, well-regulated household management
will he vouchsafed to the world.
Having thus shown that the qualification of wo¬
man, for the place she is to occupy, and the influ¬
ence she is to exert, requires a proper cultivation of
the intellect, the affections, and the domestic quali¬
ties, I proceed to the last thing to be mentioned
which this qualification demands, and that is, that
she be a Christian.
17*
891
THE CONSTITUENTS OF
Woman's nature, so full of sensibility and sym¬
pathy, so confiding, so capable of love and reverence,
and her sphere of action, so much removed from the
antagonisms presented by the forces of this world, and
whose power is great, generally, in proportion as the
life is in the public, are of such a character as to
give her peculiar facilities to be religious. These
facts, perhaps, explain those other remarkable facts,
that woman shows a much greater susceptibility to
religious influence than man, and that a much
greater number of her sex are religious than of the
other. It is doubtless true, that the sphere of every
human being is so arranged as to make the super¬
added pervading influence of religion necessary in
order to right qualification for its occupancy; but
that of woman requires this qualification in a pecu¬
liar degree ; and it is for this reason, doubtless, that
Gocl, who always observes the principle of adaptation
in his constitution of'things, has given woman a
nature, and surrounded 'her with circumstances, so
peculiarly adjusted to the system of Christianity.
One of the strong reasons which show that wo¬
man should be religious is, that she is indebted to
Christianity and the prevalence of Christian senti¬
ment for whatever of valuable privilege and high
social position she now enjoys. In all countries,
without Christianity, woman is degraded and cruelly
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION.
395
oppressed. It is only in Christian countries she is
elevated, and her elevation, even in these countries, is
precisely in proportion to the degree of the enlight¬
ened Christian feeling prevailing. "Weak and de¬
pendent as she is, man, when debased and brutalized,
as he always is when left without the chastening
influence of Christianity, will take advantage of her
weakness to employ her exclusively for the gratifi¬
cation of his OAvn selfishness. It is only when his
mind is enlightened by the teachings of Christianity,
as to the immortality of woman, and as to his own
final accountability, and when, by religious influ¬
ence, his own selfish passions are suppressed, and
his more benevolent and ennobling impulses are in
the ascendant, that woman is assigned an elevated
position in society, and treated with appropriate
deference and respect. She is, therefore, under
peculiar obligations to Christianity; she has a direct
personal interest in its prevalence and success; and
she ought to feel strongly impelled to sustain it by
example and effort.
But woman oimht to be a Christian for other
O
reasons. Such is the peculiar nature of woman,
that it requires the quickening, pervading influence
of Christianity upon that nature, and the practical
duties of Christianity, as a field of action, in order
rightly to unfold her, and to give to her character
396
THE CONSTITUENTS OE
its required finish and efficiency. "Woman's glory
and strength, are to have her refined, chaste affec¬
tions, her feminine delicate traits, in proper cultiva¬
tion ; and no possible agency is so well adapted to
secure these results as the power of an enlightened,
active piety. Christianity is peculiarly necessary to
chasten and adorn, to set off woman's character.
Woman can never reach, in the softness, the meek¬
ness, and the benevolence of character, the standard,
in all elevated Christian countries, raised for her,
without the added influence of a living piety. This,
and this only, gives completeness, gives feminine
grace and loveliness—indeed, all. those attractive,
winning attributes appropriate to the sex.
Hut a true Christian experience is indispensable
to the right qualification of woman for the part she
is designed to perform in the world, for still another
important reason, viz., that there is a vast amount
of good properly lying in her sphere of action,
which, without such experience, she can never ac¬
complish. Upon the moulding process undergone
by children depends largely their future state.
The right religious culture of the young will most
generally insure their future uprightness and final
salvation. By reason of the mother's relationship,
and many favorable opportunities, it is not only her
privilege to contribute this element so valuable to
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION. 397
tlie race, "but, if it be contributed at all, it must be
for tlie most part by her. If she be not personally
a Christian, of course she cannot have the heart, or
the capacity, for this work; but if a Christian, then
she has it in her power, and if properly enlightened
she has, too, the necessary will to do a work for her
children which will prove, perhaps, the most efficient
of all the agencies for the elevation and salvation of
the race.
Woman, though restricted by constitution and
natural appointment to a more private sphere, yet
has much to do in determining the amount of reli¬
gious influence in the world. The moral influence
of her example and efforts largely determines the
extent of the religious sentiment prevailing, and, in
great degree, regulates the standard of the existing
piety. If woman does not make a part of that
active force by whose immediate instrumentality
Christianity is made aggressive, it is she who, escap¬
ing the influence of those causes which produce
vacillation in the piety °f f^ie other sex, contributes
more than man to maintain uniformity and steadi¬
ness in the ranks of the Church.
But her pious influence is not negative only—
showing itself in its power to restrain; it is capable
of being rendered intensely active, and of becoming
an efficient instrumentality in the spread of Chris-
398
THE CONSTITUENTS OF
tianity. Such is the relation of woman's example
to man, that her active zeal, her avowed and open
participancv in religious affairs, has immense power
to encourage him, and to urge him to enterprise and
faithfulness. A community of pious women will,
sooner or later, insure a community of pious men.
Then, there is a field of religious action presented
to woman in the deeds of Christian charity, of active
benevolence, of pious intercourse, always and every¬
where possible to her, which, if well occupied, will
inevitably make her a successful instrument in the
propagation and maintenance of the Christian cause.
Indeed, not only is Christianity indispensable to
give completeness to woman's character, but it may
be said, perhaps, in a peculiar sense, to sustain such
a relation to all the parts of her character, to all the
various constituents which make up her right quali¬
fication for life, that these themselves will never be
rightly manifested, unless they are pervaded and
controlled by a true Christian experience. The
finish, and beauty, and grace, always expected in
every aspect of woman's character and life, ever
contemplate and demand the interweaving presence
of a consecrating spirit.
It is one of the most distinguishing characteristics
of this age, one of the most convincing evidences
of its advancement, that it has manifested something
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION.
899
approximating a just appreciation of the dignity of
the female sex; and that, for the first time in the
world's history, a spirit has been awakened, having
in view the qualification of woman for her true
sphere of action, for that impress upon the fortunes
of the world which she is capable of making. The
movement in behalf of female education, peculiar to
our times, is an honor to the age, and will he pro¬
ductive, as time will*show, of the most important
and far-reaching consequences.
But, while in this general awakenment to a juster
appreciation of woman's true position and claims
there is much to commend, yet we apprehend the
modes of education which are now generally pre¬
vailing, as the result of this awakenment, are not
the best adapted to the important ends in view.
These modes are, in our judgment, wrong in several
important respects, and we trust it will not he con¬
sidered out of place, on this occasion, briefly to
notice some of them.
1. They are wrong in that they do not, in the
course pursued, recognize the fundamental differ¬
ence in the mental constitution of the sexes, hut
treat the mind of woman just as though it were the
same with the mind of the other sex. But one
stereotyped notion of the course of education exists,
and that is the one which has grown up specifically
100 THE CONSTITUENTS OF
to meet tlie wants of the male sex; so that while?
there is a positive difference in the minds and wants
of the two sexes, that which has been gradually
formed to suit males is, without any material modi¬
fication, sought to he applied to the education of
females. Hence, the higher mathematics, the ab¬
stract metaphysics, the abstruse sciences, are em¬
braced in the course for females, though they have
no possible philosophic adaptation to woman, and
though they are in the way of other studies suitable
and valuable to her. Hence the idea of discipline
is so much insisted upon, and the effort made in
behalf of the mere intellectual- powers, although, in
woman, they are intended to he secondary to the
affections, and valuable, mainly, as they are subor¬
dinate and subsidiary to them.
2. These modes of female education are wrong,
in that they almost entirely disregard the affections
as a constituent of woman's nature to he trained
and educated, and, in so far as they do address
them, they are those out of place in woman when in
the ascendant. The long absences from home and
the immediate sphere of a mother's influence, and
herding together in promiscuous crowds, show that
the right cultivation of the affections is of minor
consideration. And these public exhibitions, these
appearings on the rostrum to he the objects of public
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION.
401
gaze, this publicity given to tlie entire educational
process, this constant enunciation of vain and false
ends looked to in tlie work of female education, all
tend to the cultivation of affections not desirable:
to overbear, for instance, the simplicity and modesty
so becoming in female character; to elicit the love
of admiration, a proud, ambitious spirit, and all
those vain aspirations that find their gratification
only in public applause.
3. These modes of education are wrong, further,
in that they repudiate, to too great an extent, the
domestic feature; and thus, for the sake of objects
that refer to but one period of life, or of a cultiva¬
tion which, if it is available at all, can be so only
occasionally, neglect that preparation upon which
her actual duties, her actual business, and her actual
happiness in future life depend.
4. These modes of education are wrong still fur¬
ther, in that they are not arranged specifically to
accomplish religious results, to sanctify and make
religious the education obtained; but, on the con¬
trary, by the worldly, ambitious ends to which they
are often devoted, the vain secular spirit they often
cherish, the weakness of the religious agency cm-
ployed, as compared with the activity of antagonist
influences abroad, their effect often, rather, is
to impair religious feeling, and to prevent the
402
THE CONSTITUENTS OF
just and appropriate ascendency of the religious
element.
But the education itself of woman is not to he
discredited because of errors or defects in prevailing
systems. It might have been anticipated, on any
just principle of reasoning, that, in the sudden emer¬
gence of this great movement in behalf of woman,
there would fall into the methods adopted for its
practical execution some mischievous errors; espe¬
cially as all the existing preconceived notions, being
formed with reference to the male mind, were essen¬
tially unsuited to the demands of the female sex.
There is, we have reason to believe, a process of
elimination going on—the gradual application of
the lights of juster theories, of truer, more enlight¬
ened views—that is destined to relieve these systems
of their defects, and to conform them to woman's
own psychology and appointed destiny. The appro¬
priation of the educational agency by the Church is
an encouraging sign, and it would he particularly
so were this bond of connection stronger and closer,
ISTo great and disastrous error, in the working of an
agency so comprehensive as the educational, can
long remain undetected; for if not anticipated on
some principle of reasoning, it will, in the practical
operations of the system, very soon disclose itself.
Let the educational instrumentalities abroad in
TRUE FEMALE EDUCATION. 403
the country stand. Let them he multiplied to the
utmost limit of self-support and right character.
"Whatever of wrong is in them, is destined to more
general detection and repudiation. The cause of
woman's right education is active and progressive,
and its inevitable destiny is toward the true stand¬
ard. Let us, then, give countenance to the spirit of
female education, and to whatever is good in the
systems for her now prevailing, satisfied that, by
such a course, we shall the more speedily bring the
country to the embracement of the true theory of
female education.
404
theory oe female education
X.—"THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION"
VINDICATED.
The basis of our " Theory of Female Education"
is, that there is a fundamental difference between
the male and female minds: a difference not in the
nature or principle of mind, in itself considered; but
a difference founded in, and growing out of, the
peculiar combination of the faculties which consti¬
tute the mind. "Woman has precisely the same
number of mental faculties that man has; and these
faculties in their essential nature, and in the laws of
their action, are the same with those which make
up the mind of man. But the difference between
the mind of man and that of womau, considering
both in their normal condition, is this: that while
in man the combination of these faculties is such as
that a certain class of them predominates over the
rest, in woman the combination is such as that a
certain other class is superior and controlling. The
mind of both sexes is made up of two grand depart¬
ments, the intellect and the sensibilities; and the
VINDICATED.
405
difference between the two, regarded as sexes, is,
that in man the combination is such that the intel¬
lectual department predominates, and in woman the
combination is such that the department of the
sensibilities is paramount.
There are but very few, perhaps, who are unwilling
to concede that there is a difference in the natural
structure of individual minds; that though all pos¬
sess all the mental faculties in some degree, yet
that in their relative combination in different indi¬
viduals there is a constitutional or native difference.
ISTow, what is so generally admitted to be true as
between individuals, we hold that God, for wise
purposes, has ordained as a fixed law as between the
sexes ; with this difference, that while in regard to
individuals these differences are as various as the
combinations themselves are susceptible of varia¬
tion, between the sexes the difference is one, uni¬
form, and pervading; and distinguishes the one
from the other as clearly and definitely as do their
respective physical characteristics.
Let it be understood that we are now speaking of
the mental characteristics of the sexes in their nor¬
mal condition, and as answering to their true and
proper ideal. For though the proper conception
of a man, as such, is a being with intellect predomi¬
nant and affections subordinate, and the proper con-
40G THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
ception of a woman, as sucli, is a being with the
affections predominant and intellect subordinate,
yet, in actual life, there are countless fluctuations
from these standards : in man, an approximation to
the female ideal, by an undue deficiency of the in¬
tellectual relatively to the emotional; and in woman,
an approximation to the male ideal, by an undue
lack of sensibility relatively to the purely intellect¬
ual. And so much has this great characteristic
difference in the mental structure of the sexes to do
with all those mental aptitudes which fit each for
its respective sphere, so much does the distinction
•of sex depend upon this peculiar difference in their
mental endowment, that it is practically true that
just in proportion as each departs from its own
normal standard and approaches that of the other,
it loses the characteristics peculiar to and distinctive
of it—the male developing feminine tastes and apti¬
tudes, and the female the stern, masculine qualities
of the sturdy sex.
Upon this view of the psychology of woman, as
distinguished from that of man, turns the whole
question of female education. If it is correct, then
the correctness of our " Theory of Female Educa¬
tion" demonstrably follows.
To clear the way for the argument we intend to
make upon this fundamental proposition, it is pro-
VINDICATED.
407
per to dispose of an objection which, as it has been
urged, meets us in the outset. This objection, stated
in its strongest form, is this, that as sensibility or
affection always implies and presupposes the action
of intellect, therefore, to suppose more affection
with a lesser amount of intellect is unphilosophical.
All mental philosophers agree that the sensibili¬
ties, though dependent upon the intellect as the
ground and occasion of their action, are yet not de¬
pendent upon it as their origin or cause; in other
words, that they are, as a department of mind,
separate and distinct from the intellect. If this is
correct, then, of course, the inherent strength of
the affections, or the strength of the affections in
themselves considered, is dependent upon original
constitution and endowment; and intellects of the
same grade may manifest a very different amount
of emotion, of affection, or of propensity of any
kind. If it were true that intellect is the origin of
sensibility—if, in other words, sensibility were but
a function or development of intellect—then, of
course, sensibility would always be as the intellect.
But since the sensibilities as mental powers are
separate from the intellect, and are only ^dependent
upon it as a medium of excitement and of action,
then, as it is evident that they may, by original con¬
stitution, be stronger in some minds than in others,
0RY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
,se follows tliat individuals possessing the
Aount of intellect may manifest a very un-
/mount of sensibility. The telescope is abso-
Jm y necessary to a proper examination of the
heavenly bodies, and yet two men may use the same
instrument with very different results, the one being
an astronomer and the other a dolt: showing that
the medium may he the same, and yet, owTing to a
difference in the power behind it, there is a differ¬
ence in the actual manifestation; and illustrating
with striking aptness the principle contended for,
that though intellect is the medium of the affections,
yet there may he such a difference in the strength
of the affections themselves, that, with precisely the
same amount of intellect, there may he a decided
difference in the amount of sensibility manifested.
But it may be replied, that though it is true that,
owing to a difference in the natural strength of the
sensibilities themselves, intellects of the same grade
may be mediums for different amounts of mani¬
fested sensibility, yet there is a dependence of sensi¬
bility upon the intellect, such, that a higher grade
of intellect will supply the lack of sensibility, and
cause a feebler endowment of it to have a fuller
manifestation, to make a fuller exhibition of itself,
than would a superior endowment wdien associated
with a lower intellect.
VINDICATED.
409
To meet this view, we" remark that the intellect,
when considered in its relation to the sensibilities,
is susceptible of a twofold division : First, of those
faculties which are directly related to the sensibili¬
ties, or upon which they are dependent as the occa¬
sion of their action ; and, second, those whose action
has no immediate connection with the sensibilities.
How the first are those faculties, consisting of per¬
ception, association, comparison, and memory, which
are common to mankind generally; and the second
are those powers of analysis, abstraction, and gene¬
ralization—in other words, the philosophic powers
—which constitute the highest faculties of the pure
intellect. God, who intended that the luxury of the
exercise of the affections should he in some degree
within the reach of all, has mercifully provided for
the realization of this result by suspending them,
not upon these higher rarer powers, but upon those
more common faculties of mind which are the pro¬
perty of all. It is evident, therefore, that though it
is true that the exercise of the affections presup¬
poses the action of certain intellectual faculties, yet
not of those which give most power, and range, and
dignity to the human understanding. Observation
testifies that while the sensibilities do depend for
their manifestation upon the intellect, yet such
manifestation is not always in proportion to the in-
18
410 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
tellectual power manifested; and, for the reason just
stated, that those faculties most concerned in secur¬
ing that power have no relation to the exercise of
the affections. It is evident, therefore, that a lower
grade of these highest faculties which impart intel¬
lectual power-—in other words, a lower degree of the
mere intellect—is compatible with a fuller, larger de¬
velopment of the affections ; these being dependent
upon the action of those more common faculties
which may exist even in ordinary minds in eminent
degree; and that, therefore, there is nothing in the
nature of the mind's constitution or laws which
would make absurd the supposition that human
beings might be so endowed as that, with lesser in¬
tellectual power, they should exhibit a higher degree
of the affections.
If it should be said here that, in claiming that
the exercise of the affections is suspended upon
the action of the. more common faculties which all
of both sexes possess in something like the same
degree, we are forestalling the position assumed,
that woman has more affection than man, let it be
remembered that we account for woman's larger
possession in this respect, not simply upon the
ground that she. has more of that intellect which
serves as its medium of manifestation, but upon
the ground of a superior endowment of the affec-
VINDICATED.
411
tions by her Creator in her original mental con¬
stitution.
Haying now disposed of this objection which met
us at the threshold, we proceed to the main propo¬
sition, which is, that woman is a being with the
sensibilities or affections paramount, and with intel¬
lect subordinate as an endowment. And to establish
it, we shall first show that she is not, by eminence,
an intellectual being; and, second, that she is, by
eminence, a being of sensibility, emotion, and affec¬
tion.
Let it be understood that in claiming; that woman
is not by eminence an intellectual being, we do not
mean to say that she is a lower species than man,
or that her intellect, in its nature and essence, is
different from his. We discard the idea of sex in
mind in so far as it may be understood to signify
that the immaterial principle or essence of mind in
woman is in any wise different from that which is
in man. Ho one would pretend to say, that in
asserting that one man had an intellect of a lower
grade or of more limited range than another, the
idea was necessarily conveyed that one was a lower
species than the other. Neither does it imply, when
it is asserted that woman has not as high an intel¬
lectual development as man, that she is degraded
into a species different and lower. We strenuously
412 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
contend tliat woman has precisely the same number
of mental faculties that man has, and that these in
their action are governed by the same laws. And,
in asserting that woman is not by eminence an in¬
tellectual being, we simply mean this: that those
faculties which are highest, which give most vigor,
comprehensiveness, and capacity for sustained
action—those faculties which give most power to
the intellect, and achieve its highest, most distin¬
guished results — God, for wise purposes, has not
made predominant in her intellectual constitution,
but has imparted them in a degree, relatively to the
rest of her intellectual powers, so limited, that they
do not nor are they intended to have any controlling
effect upon her intellectual life and general pursuits.
And though we thus contend for a lesser amount of
these higher powers of mind in woman, yet we
claim for her a higher degree of those other powers
included in the emotions and affections. And who
would say that feeling is not, after all, as valuable an
endowment as reason ? It is the seat of religion; a
principal source of the will, and of all those actions
that most interest and charm the human mind.
Indeed, profoundly convinced, as we have long been,
of a difference in the male and female minds, and
of just that difference we have stated, yet we have
Iicver asserted an inequality; believing that setting
VINDICATED.
413
tlie excellences of the one against the deficiencies
of the other, the average would after all put them
upon the same basis, and entitle each to that com¬
panionship with the other which equal though dis¬
similar excellences alone can maintain.
Our proposition then is, that woman, as compared
with the other sex, is deficient (by which we do not
mean totally wanting) in those powers of the pure
intellect that are properly considered the highest;
and for that reason is not by eminence an intellect¬
ual being. "We maintain that, in considering the
various classes of intellectual faculties in relation to
each other, it is perfectly philosophical to claim for
one superiority in kind over another. Without
doubt it is true that, in most intellectual results, all
the faculties of mind, in greater or less degree,
enter and are tributary; but just as it may be said
that the brain, the heart, the liver, the lungs, are
the superior and most important organs of the phy¬
sical system, and that too without disparagement
to the rest; so it may be proper to say that in the
great sphere of mind there are powers which,
because of their nature and relationships, are higher
than others. Those faculties which have constituted
the peculiar and striking excellences of the greatest
minds that have adorned the world; those faculties
which have been most concerned in the highest in-
414 THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION
tellectual achievements known to the world; those
faculties which are directly related to the broadest,
most comprehensive truth; those faculties to which
thought is indebted for its widest range, for its most
far-reaching, most comprehensive conclusions; those
faculties which, by their accurate reasonings, impart
to the mind most of prophetic power—these are
they which, as contradistinguished from those facul¬
ties of more ordinary and general possession, must
be regarded as the highest powers of the mind. If
we attempt by inspection to discover what these
faculties are, we shall find them to consist of the
following: analysis, abstraction, generalization, and
imagination. These are the great thinking powers
of the human intellect, to which it is indebted for
its profoundest and its loftiest results. These are
they which give to the human mind capacity for
independent thinking, for protracted investigation,
and these are the powers in which, as we contend,
woman is comparatively deficient, and in con¬
sequence of which she is not by eminence an intel¬
lectual being.
When we say that woman is deficient in these
powers, and is, therefore, not by eminence an in¬
tellectual being, let it be understood that we are
treating of her as a sex. In this sense we maintain
that woman has always shown that these powers are
VINDICATED.
415
not prominent in her intellectual, constitution. It
is generally observed that in childhood females are
as intelligent and as apt to acquire knowledge as
males, perhaps more apt than they; hut as soon as
they approach maturity, and the mind is brought in
contact with principles and abstract truths, and
requires for its further advancement in the educa¬
tional course an apprehension of these, as a general
rule the male evinces the most independent and
original capacity. The female may in some sense
learn these, hut it is generally superficially, and in
a way evincing that the intellect has no special
affinity for them, and that they do not enter into
the mind as its fitting, genial aliment; while the
male, as a general rule, grapples and appropriates
them by the inherent action of his own mind, and
finds in them the nutriment that nurtures and ex¬
pands his powers.
The philosophy is this: in early childhood, the
powers that are brought into action are mainly those
of simple perception, comparison, association, and
memory, which both sexes possess in common; hut
when they reach the years where principles and
abstract truths are in the process of education pre¬
sented to the mind, these addressing the higher
cognitive powers, which males possess by eminence
and females hut in feeble degree, of course, as the
416 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
males have an aptitude fortliem which females have
not, the progress of the one is natural and. easy,
while that of the other is difficult, if not a failure.
It is true that in modern times girls are sometimes
carried over some of the higher departments of
mathematics, and over the processes of calculation
and generalization found in the more scientific
treatises of mechanical philosophy and astronomy,
and over the abstractions of metaphysics as found
in Upham and Stewart; yet we venture to affirm
that, with rarest exceptions—and these exceptions
will generally he found to he of the class abnormal
as to their own sex, and approximating the male
ideal—there is evinced by these girls no spontane¬
ous, independent, original capacity for these studies,
such as prompts them to enter into and prosecute
them independently and understandingly, and to
appropriate their contents as actual accessions to
their knowledge and as well-digested food for the
mind; hut, 011 the contrary, whatever of proficiency
is evinced is, for the most part, the result, in the
instance of mathematics, of aid afforded by others,
and the use of mere powers of perception and imi¬
tation, and, in the instance of metaphysics, of
memory and association. These same girls, too, in
other departments of study, such as history, natural
and civil, the experimental portions of botany, of
VINDICATED.
417
chemistry, and of natural philosophy, rhetoric, the
right use and meaning of language—indeed, every
thing pertaining to belles lettres, manifest a fond¬
ness, an appreciative spirit, and a power to appre¬
hend and appropriate, which show that in certain
elements of mind they are as well secured as any
class of human beings ; and that in certain depart¬
ments of study they are as apt and as capable as
any; and therefore that the cause of their failure to
exhibit like capability in these other departments,
is found in the fact that they are naturally deficient
in those faculties which are addressed and demanded
by them, namely, these higher, more philosophic
powers, which we have asserted to exist hut feebly
in any normal condition of the female mind.
If we study woman in those exhibitions which
she gives of her mind in ordinary life, we shall find
that while she has a quick perception, a ready and
lively observation, great power of intuition, remark¬
able tact, wonderful fertility of resource in personal
adaptation to circumstances, remarkable readiness
in the acquisition and use of language—indeed,
that she has all these faculties in a more marked
degree than man himself, for the reason that they
are the intellectual faculties specifically required by
her proper sphere of action—yet she has hut little
18*
418 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
speculative, or philosophical, or logical ability of
any kind. Her mind rarely deals with abstract
principles, never revels in the regions of pure philo¬
sophic thought, rarely analyzes, or abstracts, or
generalizes; rarely reasons on general principles,
or conducts processes of reasoning in the order of
logical sequence and conclusion; in short, rarely
evinces an}^ high degree of that thinking power
which constitutes the higher function of mind, and
which is necessary to make human beings, by emi¬
nence, intellectual.
If we study woman in all those exhibitions which
she has given of her mind in a public way—through
the medium of literature—we shall find the same
almost unvarying absence of these higher powers,
which we claim to exist feebly in the sex. Poetry
of the lighter sort, romance, epistles on slight and
transient subjects, history, biography, essays abound¬
ing in mere sentiment and feeling, make up the
great mass of the literature, the product of the
female mind. But works such as these are not the
offspring of these higher powers to which we refer;
they are no indication of a mind capable of philo¬
sophic thought, or of logical processes of reasoning.
And the fact that this long line of female literature
should be thus characterized by the uniform absence
VINDICATED.
419
of this specific class of powers, is a conclusive argu¬
ment that they exist so feebly as to be overborne
and overshadowed in the female mind.
There may have been in all the current of human
history an occasional exception to this general state¬
ment. The names of Madame de Stael, of Hannah
More, of Mrs. Somerville, of Harriet Martineau, of
Margaret Fuller, may be mentioned. How, even
admitting for a moment that the writings of these
women do evince the possession of the abstract
faculties in a high degree, are these instances suffi¬
ciently numerous to prove that woman, generally
and as a sex, possesses these faculties in prominent
degree, against all that long array of names, appear¬
ing in every age of the world, many of whom evince
a high order of genius, but in regard to whom it is
true that they give no manifestation of these pecu¬
liar higher powers to which we refer? Would it
not be more philosophic to conclude that the latter
are the representatives of the sex, and that the few
more philosophic writers are exceptions, wherein,
either by virtue of singular natural endowment, or
of a singular educational process, there was a depart¬
ure from the true standard of the sex, and an
abnormal development ? And especially is this the
most reasonable conclusion, as these females, if we
except Hannah More, the least philosophical of
420 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
them all, are not, as to their character, a suitable
type of the sex, fitting representatives of true fe¬
male character; hut stand out in history as blend¬
ing characteristics gross, harsh, and masculine, and
as pursuing a career of life unseemly and unwo¬
manly, such as indicate that they possessed a nature
approximating the male ideal, rather than that which
the world everywhere instinctively ascribes to the
female.
But, after all, it is not true that the writings of
these females do indicate any striking development
of the philosophic element. If their authorship
had been kept a secret from the world, and they
had been tried upon their own merits exclusively,
there can be 110 question that, while they would have
been regarded as very clever productions, and as
evincing a very fair amount of genius, they would
never have acquired any distinction for the amount
of philosophic ability they display, or in anywise
attracted attention on account of that specific char¬
acteristic. It is because they are the product of
female mind that their merits as philosophic pro¬
ductions have ever been noticed. And the fact that
such slightness of claims, in this respect, as com¬
pared with productions of the other sex, could have
attracted so much attention, only shows that any
positive or marked exhibition of these higher powers
VINDICATED.
421
of mind by females is unusual and remarkable,
and contrary to what, from the general character of
the mental manifestations of females, even in their
writings, the world instinctively regards as the natu¬
ral and normal character of the female mind.
Among the vast number of women now every
day sending forth their productions in this country,
in Great Britain, and in France, we venture to
affirm that there is scarcely one whose writings are
devoted to those subjects which involve in a high
degree the thinking powers. The great mass are
rather devoting themselves to that literature of
light, ephemeral character, or else to that which is
of a strictly devotional character, which, while it
furnishes a medium for the development of genius,
yet furnishes 110 occasion for the display of the
higher, more intellectual forces of the mind. liar-
O "
riet Martineau, now that Margaret Fuller is no
more, is the only female thinker of the age, if, in¬
deed, she can be called so with any propriety when
compared with those constituting that class among
the other sex; and her infidelity and close associa¬
tion with minds of the other sex, for which alone
she has any congeniality, demonstrates that she is
so at the sacrifice of all claims to the peculiar charms
and excellences of her sex.
Now, if the facts as manifested in the history of
422 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
woman, in lier youth, in matnrer years, in her
writings, and, in fact, in all the forms through which
her peculiar mind exhibits itself, are such in their
almost unvarying character as indicate that, what¬
ever of her other mental excellences she possesses,
she is deficient in these higher intellectual powers,
is it not just to conclude, is it not a legitimate in¬
duction, that this deficiency is characteristic of her
as a sex, and is the result of original constitution ?
Are not these facts observed in her history—her
history in every age of the world; her history in
every period of her life, from youth to old age; in
every form of her mental development, from that
which is given in her ordinary life to that which is
given in the higher forms of literature—are not these
facts, thus derived, sufficiently numerous and suffi¬
ciently wide in their scope and reference to justify
a general induction, and the induction that she, as a
sex, is not distinguished by the possession in any
marked degree of these higher powers of the mind ?
But it may be replied, that though it is true, as
we have shown, that woman has, in all her mental
development, manifested a deficiency in these higher
powers, yet that our conclusion that this deficiency
is therefore a natural one, the result of original
organization, is erroneous, for that it can be ac¬
counted for in another way—on the ground of the
VINDICATED.
423
circumstances which have always embarrassed the
sex, and prevented her full mental development.
Our rejoinder is, that this marked and unvarying
absence of these particular powers in woman's men¬
tal manifestation, this specific cast of mind which
she has always exhibited, is natural to her—a result
of her natural mental organization—and is not to
be accounted for on the ground of any thing grow¬
ing out of her mere experience.
There are two well-defined principles by which
this question may be settled.
The first is this : that any mental peculiarity—or,
to be more practical, any order of mind—which ex¬
tends so universally through a race, or, which is the
same, through one of the sexes, as that that race or
sex, in all periods—and it exists everywhere, is
universally marked and characterized by it—is, in
the very nature of things, the result of a fixed con¬
stitution; or, more properly, of natural organiza¬
tion. The very universality of it, the very preva¬
lence of it throughout the entire extent of that sex,
as found in all ages and eveiywhere, shows that it
cannot be accidental or dependent upon human
causes; but that it must be attributable to causes
as profound as the nature of the mind itself; in
other words, to the natural constitution of the mind.
Now, we have seen that this peculiar mental develop-
424 THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION
meat of woman is one of this kind, extending
throughout the entire sex, so as to he properly char¬
acteristic and distinctive of it. "We hold, therefore,
in virtue of the principle just stated, that this pe¬
culiar mental development of woman cannot he
occasioned by mere circumstances of any kind, hut
is traceable to natural organization as its cause.
Nature will speak out; and it may he safely affirmed
of either of the sexes, that whatever runs through
the whole, and that through the entire period of its
existence, with such uniformity as to become marked
and distinctive and contradistinctive, may he set
down as being made so by natural constitution, and
not by human causes of any kind.
The other principle is this: that whatever is found
to he true of the mind of either of the sexes, in any
and all conditions of that sex, is so hv virtue of
natural constitution. Every characteristic of mind
which is found in all the various periods and in all
the various conditions of a mere individual, must
be of that class which is natural; much more, then,
must that characteristic he natural which is found
in every class and condition of any given mass of
human beings; and much more still, when found
in every class and condition of an entire sex. The
philosophy is this : such is the diversity of develop¬
ment which, within a certain limit, exhibits itself
VINDICATED.
425
among individuals, even of the same sex, when the
field embraces every stage of maturity, every stage
of individual and social progress, every variety of
circumstances in which they may be placed, that
whatever can be affirmed of the whole of them
must be so fundamental, so thoroughly identified
with the very nature of the mind, as that it must
inhere in the very natural organization itself. In¬
deed, such is the force of circumstances in edviinr
J O O
variety to character, and in producing differences in
all respects, where differences are not barred by
nature, that we know no test of a fixed natural en¬
dowment so reliable as that afforded by the fact that
in all the mutations and diversities of being, that
endowment still exhibits itself as a characteristic
of the mental constitution. How, our analysis has
shown that in girlhood, at school, in maturer age,
in the ordinary walks of life, in the literature which
she has been for centuries accumulating, in any and
all of her intellectual exhibitions, in any and all
stages of her mind, from that of comparative igno¬
rance to that of advanced intellectual progress, we
find the same general cast of mind, the same gene¬
ral deficiency, as compared with her other powers,
in these higher, more philosophical, more logical
powers. Hence we again conclude, in virtue of
this additional test, that the order of mind which
426 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
we have ascribed to woman is the order which is
natural to her; is hut the development of a mental
organization that is, with her, natural and inherent.
But if this order of mind is natural to her; if
this comparative deficiency in these peculiar powers
of reflection and thought is -the result of natural
organization, of course it is in vain to attempt to
account for it on the ground of the want of educa¬
tion, or of the repressing influence of circumstances
of any kind. Education and favorahleness of posi¬
tion may develop and' they may enrich, hut they
cannot create. They may do as much for the mind
of woman as for the mind of man in cultivating
her peculiar powers, and in affording materials for
their appropriation and use, hut they cannot remould
her mental organization, any more than they can
that of man. They cannot take the Creator's pre¬
rogative, and change the intellectual structure with
which she was born. They cannot, by any work
of supplementary creation, make powers which
were intended to he feeblest, the strongest; and
those which were intended to he prominent, and to
give cast to character and adaptation to her sphere,
the weakest. No ! Nature's great laws cannot he
contravened after this style; nor will God suffer his
purposes to he so essentially defeated by any process
of this kind. The mind which woman has devel-
VINDICATED.
427
oped is her natural mind, is the very cast and order
of mind which her Creator designed her to exhibit.
And though her intellect has suffered in all periods
of her existence from the insufficiency of the educa¬
tional agency applied to her, yet it cannot he put
down as one of the consequences of this insuffi¬
ciency, that she has not exhibited a higher degree
of these more solid capabilities in proportion to her
other intellectual powers.
But that we may make the proof that this defi¬
ciency in certain intellectual powers, so uniformly
manifested by woman, is natural and constitutional,
still more conclusive, we shall now show that it
cannot be accounted for in the other way usually
resorted to, which is, that it is to be attributed to
the lack of education, and to the unfavorableness
of her position.
And, first, that it cannot -be accounted for on the
ground of the lack of education.
There is, we maintain, in all the powers of the
mind an inherent tendency to manifest themselves ;
and this tendency is strong just in the ratio of the
natural strength of these powers respectively. Ma¬
ture everywhere always tends to disclose itself; and
under just such forms as furnish a truthful mani¬
festation of this character. And this is particularly
true in regard to the human mind, created as it is
428 THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION
for development, and finding its sphere only in
action. And if this general law of development
should not hold true in every individual case, yet,
upon such a broad field as is furnished by an entire
sex, it will inevitably have a very general preva¬
lence. It follows, then, that the mere lack of edu¬
cation would not prevent an entire sex, as such,
from manifesting one set of mental powers as well
as another; that though the development would not
be of so large a pattern, or of proportions so stately,
as would have been realized under the fosteriug in¬
fluence of education, yet, what mind is exhibited
will be a true miniature of whatever is natural, and,
generally, in just those proportions relatively as is
natural.\ AVe hold, therefore, that if woman pos¬
sessed these powers in prominent degree, she would,
even in the absence of high educational advantages,-
Ave such mental exhibition as would show that she
possessed them in that degree, and that consequently
her deficiency in these powers, so commonly mani¬
fested, cannot be ascribed to the lack of educational
advantages.
But, if it is true that the law of natural develop¬
ment is such that, even when comparatively uncul¬
tivated, the mind will yet disclose its true features,
and that, too, in the proportions natural to it, of
course, when quickened and energized by such
VINDICATED.
429
advantages of culture as females usually enjoy in
modern times, it will the more certainly develop all
its natural elements in their proper proportions. So
that if still, in all places and under all circumstances,
she has yet failed to manifest this peculiar class of
faculties, the deficiency cannot he attributed to the
want of education.
Again : we can readily perceive that the want of
education would have a restraining, hindering in¬
fluence upon the powers of the mind generally; hut
why should it affect one set of powers more than
another ? Why should it affect one set of powers
so decidedly more than others, as that, though as
prominent naturally, they should become in fact
almost neutralized in the mental organism ? Why
should it utterly prostrate one set of faculties in
comparison with the rest, so that the cast and type
of mind should be wholly different from what it
would be under its natural development ? And
why should this effect not vary, but be common to
the sex everywhere ? Now, Ave hold that such regu¬
larity of effect as to the precise faculties thus suffer¬
ing ; such decisiveness of effect upon these faculties,
as compared with the rest; and then such univer¬
sality and uniformity of effect, running as it does
throughout the entire sex everywhere and in all
a<ies, cannot be accounted for on the ground of a
430 THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION
lack of education, but must be referred to causes
deeper and more fundamental in their origin.
The lack of education is not felt in this way by
the male sex. It does not seem among them to have,
as a general rule, any more blighting effect upon one
set of faculties than it has upon another. These
powers, which it is claimed are specially injured by
it, in the case of females, are often found among the
uneducated of the male sex in as marked degree as
any other of their intellectual faculties. Indeed,
some of those manifesting them in a high degree,
some of our profoundest thinkers and most accurate
reasoners, are among those who were denied an
education, as that term is technically understood.
In regard to the male sex, it is undeniable that it
has never been necessary that it should be highly
educated in order that it should give evidence of a
possession, in a prominent degree, of this peculiar
class of intellectual powers. In the earlier stages
of all the various civilizations that have existed,
when educational facilities were almost unknown,
we find the male sex still exhibiting as high a degree
- of these specific faculties, relatively to their other
faculties, as they have ever shown in any other more
favored ,periods. Such facts show that if woman
possessed these higher powers in as marked degree
as she does other powers, or as the other sex, the
VINDICATED. 431
mere lack of high educational facilities, however
much it would he felt as a hindrance to her general
intellectual development, would not prevent her, as
a sex, from manifesting these powers in their natu¬
ral prominence. And, therefore, to attempt to ac¬
count for this deficiency in woman on the ground
of a lack of education, is contrary to analogy, and
absurd.
There is another view, which is, if possible, still
more conclusive against this mode of accounting for
the deficiency which woman has shown in her men¬
tal manifestation. It is this, that however much
education has clone for the cultivation and furniture
of the mind of woman, yet it is nevertheless true
that, relatively to her other powers of mind, there
is the same deficiency in these specific powers in
question in the more educated that there is in the
less educated classes. It is true, there may be in
the educated classes a higher absolute development
of these powers than there is in the uneducated, be¬
cause these powers share with the rest in the upward
tendency imparted by the educational process. But
what we mean is this, that, relatively to her other
powers, there is no greater ctevelopment of these
powers in the educated than there is in the compara¬
tively uneducated; that the relative proportions of
these faculties with respect to the others continue
432
THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION
the same in both; and, consequently, that educated
women, though enjoying all the benefits of educa¬
tion, still show the same type of mind—the same
relative deficiency in these higher intellectual
powers—that we have ascribed to the sex generally.
For proof of these assertions we have only to appeal
to facts.
Compare the class of the more commonly edu¬
cated of our country with the class of the more
liberally educated, and though the difference in the
polish, the cultivation, and the amount of knowledge
they display, is obvious and marked, yet it is equally
obvious that there is, after all, a very general simi¬
larity in the type of mind they manifest. There are,
in all, the same general taste and aptitude for con¬
crete ideas, for facts and illustrations, and for senti¬
ment ; and the same want of taste and aptitude for ab¬
stract speculative truth, for general propositions, for
philosophic reasonings, for logical processes. Both
show a predilection and capacity for the same gen¬
eral class of subjects, and both show an aversion for
that class of subjects which address the higher
powers of reason and philosophy.
Again : it is fair to presume that those females
who write for the press, and who contribute to the
literature of the country, are to bo regarded among
the educated class. But the writings of these, made
VINDICATED.
433
up, as before stated, of romance, of poetry, of bio¬
graphy, of sentimental essays — contributions to
what is denominated the light literature of the day—
though indicating as many of them do a high degree
of genius, yet neither admit of nor display any of
the higher powers of thought; and show, in so far
as they illustrate the intellectual character of their
authors, the same absence of all the higher think¬
ing powers which we have all along predicated of
the entire sex. And even in regard to those produc¬
tions of the female pen of higher pretension, and
ostensibly treating the grave subjects of reason and
philosophy, we shall find, for the most part, that
their reasonings are but the groupings of associated
ideas, rather than processes conducted in the order
of logical succession and sequence; that there is no
grappling of the merits of the subject with the
bound and vigor of a philosopher; and that through¬
out are the marks, not of a deep, masculine, but of
a light, feminine tread. So that, after all, these at¬
tempts at graver disquisition, as rare as they are,
but furnish by their failures yet an additional proof
that the more highly educated class of females still
retain the same mental cast, still manifest the same
class of intellectual deficiencies, common to and
characteristic of the sex.
Ao-ain : no one will doubt that in the application
19
434 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
of educational agency to woman, there lias been
within the last half century a rapid progress ; yet a
comparison of the literature of woman of recent
production with that of former days, we venture to
say, will show that whatever other results have been
realized, there has been no perceptible advancement
in the philosophical or logical ability of the sex.
blow it will of course be admitted that if these
intellectual deficiencies shown by woman are ascrib-
able to the lack of suitable education, then those
classes who are more highly educated ought to man¬
ifest a much higher proportion of these faculties
than those less highly educated. But as this result
has not followed, but, on the contrary, these facul¬
ties are found to exist in both classes in the same
proportions relatively to their other powers, preserv¬
ing and perpetuating in all the same general type
or cast of mental development, it is conclusive that
this comparative feebleness of these faculties in the
mind of woman cannot be accounted for on the
ground of a lack of suitable education.
Having now shown that this deficiency cannot be
accounted for on the ground of a lack of education,
we now come to show, in the second place, that
neither is it to be attributed to the unfavorableness
of her position.
If the position of woman has been the cause, it
VINDICATED. 485
must have been so on one of two grounds: either
on the ground of the lack in the encouragement
which it has afforded to these powers; or else, 011
the ground of having absolutely forbidden the ex¬
ercise of these powers. On no-other grounds that
we can conceive of could it be claimed that this has
been the cause of this deficiency which woman has
shown.
Let us then first consider the position of woman
as having been the cause, on the ground of its lack
of encouragement to these faculties. We freely
admit that the sphere of woman does not specially
encourage the exercise of these faculties; but we
deny that that circumstance, if these faculties be,
as claimed, as prominent in the natural organization
of woman as any others, could have caused this sup¬
pression of their manifestation in the intellectual
development of the entire sex.
As has already been stated, there is in all the
faculties of the mind an inherent, spontaneous
proneness to develop themselves. It is of their
nature to seek action and to unfold themselves.
This is particularly true of the faculties naturally
most prominent; because the momentum of this
impulse is always in proportion to the natural ful¬
ness of these faculties. It is this proclivity of the
mind's faculties to give an expression of themselves;
436 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
it is this proclivity of the whole mind to unfold
itself according to its own peculiar constitution, that
makes individuality in mind, and especially those
differences in mind existing in the same community,
or in the same family, which have enjoyed the same
general system of education and training. There
is no law of the mind more fundamental than this,
or more extended in its application. But while it
applies to mind under all circumstances, it is of its
nature to he more active and effective just in pro¬
portion as the mind is free from the shackles of
ignorance and has adventitious aids to cultivation.
We hold it then to he true, that if woman pos¬
sessed these higher thinking powers in prominent
degree hy nature, there would he, especially under
all the intellectual freedom and cultivation which
the sex generally has enjoyed, a marked and active
tendency in them to show themselves in her intel¬
lectual development—a tendency so decided as that
this impulse alone, without any special encourage¬
ment from without, would he sufficient to give these
powers that prominence in the intellectual manifest¬
ation which is natural and due to them. And hence,
that if these faculties are naturally prominent in
woman, it is not absolutely necessary to their de¬
velopment that they have special encouragement
from without, hut that even if her position be one
VINDICATED. 437
in which there is no demand for these powers, even
if her sphere he unsuited to the exercise of these
powers, still—especially where worn an % enjoys the
advantages for cultivation which she has had in all
enlightened countries—they will naturally and spon¬
taneously, if not in every case, yet generally enough
to make it a characteristic of the sex, give such
manifestation of themselves, as truthfully to show
the rank they hold in the natural intellectual con¬
stitution.
But even if, under this want of encouragement
incident to her sphere of being, these powers should
not flourish as they would under circumstances more
fostering, yet it is impossible to conceive, if they are
naturally as prominent as any of her faculties, that
from this cause they could be so thoroughly re¬
pressed, and that throughout the entire sex. Under
this law of spontaneous self-development natural to
the mind, we hold that, with the quickening influ¬
ences which the intellect has generally enjoyed, it
would be more natural to the mind, and, conse¬
quently, more inevitable, that these faculties should
successfully resist obstacles from this source, than
that they should succumb to them so thoroughly and
so universally, as that a deficiency in them should
be characteristic of the sex wherever found.
It is in vain then to say that any mere lack of
438 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
encouragement or incitement to these faculties,
resulting from woman's sphere or position in life,
can account for the deficiency which she has mani¬
fested. Circumstances, though they may trammel
the mind and prevent its proper training, cannot
change its type. They may prevent as decided a
manifestation of mind as would otherwise have been
made, hut the mind that is manifested will he of
the same cast, of the same general type; and the
only difference will he one of degree and not of kind.
And even if circumstances could have the effect of
an utter prostration of this or any set of intellectual
faculties in the case of a single individual, yet it is
impossible that it could have it in an entire sex,
existing everywhere and in all ages. "Whatever is
natural will, over so broad a field, speak out; if not
in every case, yet often enough to give evidence of
its natural proportions in the original mental con¬
stitution.
The history of both sexes shows that it is not
absolutely necessary that powers of mind naturally
prominent should always have encouragement and
favoring circumstances in order to their just mani¬
festation. In many instances among the female
sex, powers that she has exhibited, in a high degree,
were not only not encouraged by the presence of
favorable opportunities, hut were absolutely autago-
VINDICATED.
439
nized by every circumstance of fortune and position.
And it has been tbe glory of man, that despite of
the lack of encouragement, despite of obscurity
and all tbe untoward influences of depressed and
depressing position, bis natural powers bave often
emerged to tbeir rightful development, and borne
bim aloft to usefulness and to eminence.
But if tbe position of woman cannot account for
lier deficiency in these higher powers on tbe ground
of its lack of encouragement to them, neither can
it account for it on tbe other ground, that it actually
forbids tbe exercise of these powers.
We bold it to be true that if tbe position of wo¬
man does not make those departments of intellect¬
ual pursuit in which these higher powers are in¬
volved any more inaccessible to her, any more diffi¬
cult to enter, than it does those departments of intel¬
lectual pursuit which she has entered and actually
occupied, it cannot be claimed that the position of
woman has denied her the privilege of a display of
these powers. Or, to vary the expression : if it has
been as easy for woman, so far as her mere position
is concerned, to occupy departments of intellectual
action involving these powers, as it has been to
occupy those departments which she has actually
occupied, then it is not true that her position is
such as to forbid her exercise of these powers.
440 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
How,-the field of physical science, of metaphysics,
and of speculative philosophy of every kind, con¬
stitutes the natural theatre of these higher powers.
Thither they may repair, and find full scope for all
their activities. And thither they do repair, as "by
an inevitable destiny, especially when, from taste or
circumstances, a field more directly utilitarian and
practical is not sought as the sphere of their activity.
But this is a field which neither from the nature of
its subjects, nor from conventional understanding,
is set off as the exclusive property of either sex. It
stands out upon its own independent basis, removed
from all claims founded on distinctions of sex or
sect or party, and invites all the race, with the
promise of equal privileges, to an investigation and
survey of its own inexhaustible truths. , Ho more
cut off is woman from this field than she is from
that of poetry, romance, and history. \ Ho more do
the mere distinctions of sex or the conventional
understandings of men restrict her from entering
the former, than they do from entering the latter.
They both constitute a common ground whereon all
the race may stand, with equal freedom and with,
equal privileges, in the great competitions of merit
and of excellence: They are each equally accessi¬
ble, so far as the mere conditions of her sex or the
mere restraints of her sphere in life might interpose
VINDICATED.
441
barriers to their entrance. But woman has entered
the one and successfully cultivated it: The unfavor-
ableness of her mere position has not been a barrier
sufficient to prevent this result. If, then, she has
failed to enter the other, it has not been on ac¬
count of difficulties which her position interposed.
But if her position has not been the cause of her
failure to cultivate those fields of thought which in¬
volve the exercise of these higher faculties, then,
of course, the conclusion follows that her position
has not forbidden the exercise of them; and the
fact of her deficiency in them cannot be accounted
for on the ground that her position has forbidden
the exercise of these faculties.
Having; shown that neither the lack of education
nor the unfavorableness of woman's position can
■account fbr this deficiency in certain intellectual
powers which she has manifested, of course we fall
back with increased confidence upon the other and
only alternative left us, which is, that it is a defi¬
ciency which is natural to her, and the result of her
own mental organization.
Here we might conclude the argument upon this
general proposition; but as it is one so vital to our
whole theory of female education, and so important
in itself, we do not intend to rest it upon these
grounds alone, impregnable as they are.
10*
442 THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION
We maintain that this conclusion in regard to the
natural character of this deficiency in woman, which
we have reached from the lights of analysis and
observation, is corroborated and sustained by the h
priori view of the subject.
We assume that God has appointed man and
woman to two different spheres of action: that the
sphere to which he has appointed man is a more
public one, and has its own responsibilities aud
modes of action; and the sphere to which he has
appointed woman is a more private one, with its
own distinctive responsibilities and modes of action.
We assume further, that in assigning each sex a
peculiar sphere, the mental organization of each has
been adapted to it. This is hut in accordance with
the general law of adaptation which he has im¬
pressed upon all created objects; and, on account
of which, all the lower orders are constituted with
precise reference to the sphere in which they are to
move. And this is demanded, too, by that wisdom
which adapts means to the end, and makes provi¬
sion against defeat in the purposes contemplated.
ISTow there are, as we maintain, two conditions
which are embraced as necessary to this adaptation
to its sphere in the case of either sex. The first is,
that it have no powers which are not brought into
use or are required by its sphere. Such powers
VINDICATED.
443
being uncalled for, would of course be useless in
that sphere—would be an addition to the mental
organization, to that extent, of what was expletive
and unnecessary. And tlieir bestowment would be
a kind, of supererogation which, if exhibited even
in a system of human workmanship, would effect¬
ually mar it; and cannot for a moment be ascribed
to any organism of Divine creation. The second
is, that it be endowed with no powers the necessary
tendency of which is to unfit for this sphere to which
it is appointed. Such an endowment would of course
be incompatible with all adaptation, and could not
comport with the Divine wisdom and efficiency.
ISTow, are the higher powers in question of that
kind which, according to these conditions, would be
found, in the mental organization of woman, adapted
to her sphere? We maintain that they are not.
They constitute a class of faculties which, in this
higher development of them to which reference has
all along been had, find no field for action in wo¬
man's proper sphere, and hence are excluded by this
first condition demanded in the law of adaptation.
To be convinced of this, we have but to consider,
first, the proper objects of these faculties, and then
the peculiar objects embraced in woman's sphere of
action, and the faculties of mind which they call for
and imply.
444 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
First. The objects of these higher faculties are
general propositions and wide comprehensive truth.
They range over the whole field of thought, deal
with the external interest of the world, and embrace
as their data the general history of human affairs.
But the business of woman is particular and special;
is constituted of minutite, of endless details, and is
restricted for the most part to that which is local
and immediately before her.
Second. These faculties deal with abstractions,
with general principles and laws, with the mere
relations of things. They are speculative and phi¬
losophical ; and their sphere is the discussion and
investigation of the reason of things. But the busi¬
ness which woman's sphere devolves upon her is
objective, concrete, practical, and concerns itself
mainly with external appearances and phenomena.
Third. These faculties are slow in their move¬
ments, requiring time for their processes of reason¬
ing and of thought. But woman's proper business
in her appointed sphere is made up of details, which
follow each other ih.such rapid succession, as that
not these, but tact and intuitive perception and
judgment, are the intellectual powers which her
circumstances and wants require.
Because, then, the objects of these faculties are
outside and beyond the sphere of woman; and
VINDICATED.
445
because the modes of their action render them unfit
for the exigencies of woman's sphere, it is a fact
that 'they are not necessary to that- sphere, are not
required by any of the responsibilities or modes of
action incident to it, and, are in it uncalled for and
useless.
But these faculties not only are unnecessary to
woman's peculiar sphere, but they likewise have a
tendency to unfit her for it; and are, therefore, ex¬
cluded by the second condition implied in this law
of adaptation. They have this tendency in two
ways: First. In that their effect is to divert her
from it. These faculties, as we have seen, have
their appropriate objects outside of woman's sphere,
and not within it. Of course, then, when possessed,
they have the effect to lead to those employments
that are foreign from those that lie within her
sphere, and hence, to that extent, to withdraw her
energies from the latter, to make her less qualified
for them, and to neutralize her taste for them. This
is illustrated in the cases of those women who have
manifested most of these peculiar faculties, such as
Madame cle Stael, Harriet Martineau, Margaret
Fuller, and others. Their history shows that they
left their own sphere, and that their career belongs
to that of man. Following the leadings of these
faculties, they were not only led away from the em-
446. THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION
ployments specifically appropriate to their sphere of
action, into those pursuits that properly lie within
the range of the other sex, but were unfitted, both
by taste and habit, for the specific responsibilities
and modes of life appropriate to that field of action
for which woman is designed. And just in propor¬
tion as these faculties have been developed in wo¬
man has this tendency to seek the employments and
modes of life proper to the other sex, and this dis¬
qualification in taste and habit for those of her own,
been manifested.
The other way in which these higher faculties of
reason and reflection tend to unfit woman for her
sphere, is by their incompatibility with those spe¬
cific faculties and tastes that are demanded and
necessarily employed in it, and their consequent ten¬
dency to preclude their action, and to paralyze them.
These faculties and tastes specifically required by
woman's department in life, may be considered
under three different header.
In the first place, her department of life is one
constantly demanding feeling, sympathy, affection;
and requires her to be so constituted as to be quali¬
fied for their quick and constant display. But such
is the nature of these higher faculties, especially
when in high development, that they are incompati¬
ble with this state of things. First, because their
VINDICATED. 447
intensely subjective character has the effect to turn
the attention inwards upon their own internal pro¬
cesses, and, consequently, away-from external ob¬
jects the observation of which is fitted and neces¬
sary to elicit the sensibilities. A habit of mental
abstraction, of absorbing the attention in one's own
thoughts, of lengthened processes of pure thinking,
always incident to the possession of these faculties
in a marked degree, necessarily holds in abeyance
the mere sensibilities, by its incompatibility with
that attention to external objects which alone are
specially fitted to excite them; and hence is unfavor¬
able to, if not incompatible with, a mental develop-
. nient characterized by a constant and preeminent
display of sympathy and affection. Second, because
their tendency to submit every subject to the dry
formulae of thought and reflection, to the processes
of cool calculation and reasoning, overbears and
supplants feeling, and makes it an inferior element
in all the mental consciousness and manifestation.
The history of those women who have most of these
faculties, shows that they are the class who are the
least distinguished for the feminine qualities of
sympathy and kindly affection. And the harsh,
repulsive, masculine tendencies they exhibit, the
fruitful source of domestic negligence and of
domestic discord, are but a proof that these higher
448 THEORY OF EEMALE EDUCATION
masculine powers of intellect are possessed at tlie
expense of all that is amiable and most lovely in
the sex.
Woman's department of life, in the second place,
is one constantly demanding the senses, a ready
discernment, and the power to transfer the atten¬
tion quickly and alertly. "Without these, so much
does her business refer to material objects and
forms, so much is it constituted of minute chang¬
ing details, her affairs must not onlj- fail to receive
that impress which it is appropriately hers to make
upon them, but must suffer from inattention and
neglect. But it is the effect of these reflective
powers, when possessed in any thing like predo¬
minant degree, to impinge upon and overbear
powers of this kind. Directing the attention to
that which is subjective, or to purely mental con¬
ceptions, their tendency rather is to abstract the
mind from surrounding objects, to close the senses;
at all events, to occasion mental characteristics and
habits not in unison with a life made up of the
smallest details. Accustoming the mind to continu¬
ous trains of thought, to lengthened modes of ab¬
straction, to slow, deliberate movements, and pro¬
cesses in search of the underlying principles and the
reason of things, they are, of course, in their action,
a constant antagonism to all quick, versatile move-
VINDICATED.
449
mcnts of the attention, to all intellectual alertness,
to all ready observation, and to that capacity for
transferring the mind readily through a succession
of minute objects so much demanded by woman
in her appropriate sphere. Indeed, such is the
overbearing relation of these higher powers of
thought to these necessary powers of woman, that
neglectful must she be of domestic life, of those
details which make up the duties of wife, mother,
and obliging neighbor, of those acts which impart
neatness, refinement, and beauty to the household,
and to the person and bearing of woman, who,
following up the leadings of these higher powers,
finds herself prone to indulge in mere reflection,
in those processes of reason and of thought inci¬
dent to this constitution of mind.
"Woman's department of life, to be properly oc¬
cupied, requires, in the third place, that there should
be in her an absolute fondness for it; that its duties
and employments should be congenial with her
dominant tastes, and that in them she should find
her chief enjoyments. But these higher powers
of reasoning and of thought, as they necessarily
impart a taste for those topics which have no rele¬
vancy to the immediate business of woman, and a
habit of mind which has no immediate relation to
that business, preclude all relish for it, and render
15
450 THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION
its details irksome and repulsive; so that lierproper
employments, instead of being the theatre of her
enjoyments, are regarded as drudgeries, to be sub¬
mitted to only in view of the necessities of her lot.
Those women who have had most of these faculties,
have generally looked with something like contempt
upon the details which make up the every-day occu¬
pations of domestic life. Their minds soar above
them. Their thoughts concern themselves about
other themes, and are accustomed to modes of action
which have no relation to them. With intellectual
tastes and habits which have no affinity for their
sphere, they are discontented and unhappy; their
proper employments are slurred or entirely neg¬
lected ; and the constant tendency is to break over
the limits assigned to woman into those departments
of life and enjoyment appropriate only to the other
sex.
It is manifest, therefore, that there is a psycholo¬
gical relation between these higher faculties of mind
and those faculties specifically demanded by woman's
proper sphere, whereby the existence of the former
in any predominant sense hinders the free develop¬
ment of the latter; and hence that it is the effect of
these higher powers to unfit woman, to impair her
qualifications, for her j>roper sphere of action.
If, then, the reasonable view is, that God has ob-
VINDICATED.
451
served the law of adaptation to the sphere in which
he designed her to move in the mental organization
of woman, and if, as we have shown, that sphere
does not require these higher powers of mind in
predominant degree, hut, on the contrary, absolutely
repudiates them in this sense, then, of course, the
natural and inevitable inference would he, that God
lias not endowed woman with this higher degree of
o o
these faculties, and that deficiency in them which
woman has always exhibited is only what we would
naturally expect.
There are other considerations which carry with
them convincing evidence in favor of the general
proposition we have sought to establish, and which
we would present, did our limits allow. But having
shown, both by analogy and by induction, by rea¬
soning a posteriori, and by reasoning a priori, that in
the highest powers of mind—the powers of thought,
of reflection, of reasoning, the powers which give
greatest vigor, range, and dignity to the human
intellect—woman, as a sex, is deficient, of course it
is conclusive that she is not in the highest sense, not
in the sense in which man is, not, in short, in any
eminent sense, an intellectual being.
We come now to the next proposition, which is,
that woman is by eminence a being of affection.
To establish this, we are confident that there need
452 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
be no long array of argument or illustration. It
is a truth which corresponds so universally with
the common sense and the common observation of
every man, that it needs but to be stated, to secure
from every one a ready acknowledgment. Perhaps
there is no proposition that could be presented
which, if men were left to their own spontaneous,
instinctive judgments, would be more readily
adopted. To believe it, is the natural dictate of
every sane mind; to disbelieve it, is a result which
is never reached except by a process of delusive
sophistry.
Woman, as a sex, has always shown that she has
a remarkable endowment of feeling. It is observ¬
able that in childhood and youth, females manifest
a tenderness, a susceptibility of emotion, which is
not seen in the other sex. An appeal to feeling, as
any one knows who has had the management of
the youth of both sexes,* is much more effective and
successful in the case of females than in that of
males. Put few there are of female youth who may
not be melted into tenderness and reduced to sub-
missivencss by an address to the sensibilities, such
as would be impotent in the case of the other sex.
* The author speaks from experience, having been Principal of a
flourishing Female Academy in Georgia, before his connection with
Emory College.
VINDICATED.
453
Indeed, experience shows that, properly executed,
this with the young of the female sex is the most
successful mode of control, and but few among them
need the application of any other. There is, as all
must admit, with female youth a liveliness of emo¬
tion, an exuberance of sensibility, a readiness and
facility of sympathy and affection, such as the other
sex of corresponding age never manifest, and such
as shows that feeling, affection, is the most remark¬
able endowment of woman.
The actual life of woman is, for the most part, but
a constant development of sympathy and affection.
In the manifestation which she makes of herself,
whether in public or in private, the affections, for
the most part, guide her movements and determine
her objects. These are the master principles of her
nature, and their exercises control all her develop¬
ments, and make up the great sum of her employ¬
ments. Deeds abroad which are the expression of
benevolence, of kindness and sympathy; an inter¬
course with the world characterized by soft amenity,
by traits of amiability and loveliness; an adminis¬
tration at home characterized by the watchfulness
and the undying devotion which the mastering
principles of love and sympathy inspire—these make
up the sum of woman's existence, and disclose hex
to the woi'ld a being in whom the affections aie the
454 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
predominant element of mind. The constituted
guardian and nurse of the sick and distressed; the
active friend of the poor; the tender, unfaltering
protector of infancy and childhood, the infirm .and
the superannuated; the affectionate, devoted com¬
panion of her husband—woman's life is hut a con¬
stant expression of sensibility and affection, and is
a living demonstration that in her nature her affec¬
tions constitute her paramount endowment.
Indeed, so uniformly and universally has the actual
life of woman—of woman under all circumstances
and in all conditions, the young and the old, the edu¬
cated and the uneducated, of woman everywhere
and in all ages—been but an expression of sensibi¬
lity, but a development of affection and sympathy,
that the general conception of a woman which has
spontaneously grown up in every man's mind is that
of a being preeminently distinguished for feeling
and affection.
But that woman is a being in whom the affections
are paramount is proved, not only by the fact that
in her actual life they have always shown themselves
as predominant, but also by the fact that her sphere
of action is such that to adapt her to it they must be
paramount.
"While, with man, intellect is the principal power
in demand, with woman the affections are more than
VINDICATED. 455
all else required. While man lias to grapple with,
those interests of life, and to adapt himself to those
forms of action, in which an excess of feeling would
he an incumbrance and often a positive disqualifica¬
tion, woman is called upon, as the constant business
of her life, to discharge duties in which she can be
sustained and for which she can be qualified only
by a high degree of unfailing affection and sym¬
pathy. The entire aggregate of duties which
humanity is called upon to perform, is made up of
two distinct classes—the one consisting of those
for the discharge of which the mere intellect is
chiefly in demand, and the other of those which
involve the exercise of the affections. As that con¬
stitution of faculties which fits for the one class is
different from that adapted to the other; and as the
same human beings, therefore, in being constituted
for the one would only be embarrassed and dis¬
qualified in respect of the other, the Creator has met
the difficulty and secured a complete system of quali¬
fication for the aggregate of all human responsi¬
bility, by dividing these duties between the sexes—
assigning to one the class of duties chiefly demand¬
ing the mere intellect, and giving it a mental organ¬
ization accordingly; and to the other the class of
duties involving mainly the affections, and giving to
it accordingly that mental organization in which
456 THEORY OE EEMALE EDUCATION
this element is predominant. An actual inspection
of the proper sphere of woman will at once show
that it is made up mainly of duties which demand
perpetually and in preeminent degree the exercise
of the affections. That delicate perception of pro¬
priety, that nice regulation of manners and deport¬
ment, by which woman is kept in her proper place,
and maintains her true position in society and in
her own family, is dependent as much upon feeling
and affection as it is upon the mere judgment. It is
right feeling and sympathy which, more than all
else, gives to woman that instinctive intuitive ap¬
prehension of propriety and right conduct which
keeps her always in her right orbit, and constitutes
the indescribable charm of her being. That great
duty of woman which requires her to lhake home
lovely and attractive to her husband and children
and to all its inmates; which requires her to bestow
all those- attentions of kindness and devotion by
which her husband and family are drawn to her and
made happy; which requires her to enter into all
the nature of her husband, subduing his asperities,
inspiring his energies, sympathizing with his enjoy-
Anents, and reconciling him to his unavoidable dis¬
appointments and sorrows, rests more upon the con¬
stant exercise of the warm, ever-active affections
than upon all other attributes of her nature. That
VINDICATED. 457
other great duty of woman which devolves upon her
the business of watching over and providing for the
tender years of infancy and childhood, of 'suitable
care of the sick and afflicted, of ministering with
unceasing vigilance to the constantly-recurring
wants of those under her charge, is hut a constant
appeal to her impulsive, ever-active sympathies and
affections. Those deeds of active charity, the over¬
flowings of active kindness toward all the world
around, which characterize all her social intercourse
and outward relationships, and by which, in her
legitimate sphere, she makes an impress for good
upon human beings outside of her own family, are
mainly prompted and sustained by this emotional
department of her nature.
Properly cultivated and rightly chastened, affec¬
tion is the one great instrument of power and
success with woman. It is this that gives her in¬
fluence over her husband; that invests her with
those charms which captivate his nature; that more
than all else has power to attract him to her, and to
make her the being "with whom he'is contented. It
is this which, imparting the element o'f loveliness
to her administration of household affairs, and
diffusing the radiance of happiness and delight over
all the family circle, wins to her the affection of all
its inmates, and makes her indeed the mistress of
20
458 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
the whole. It- is this that presents her in those
aspects of amiability, and that prompts her to those
exhibitions of beneficence, which.attract the admira¬
tion of her acquaintances and give her positive in¬
fluence in the world around her.
But if all these facts are true—if it is "true that
females evince in youth, not only that they have a
fuller endowment of feeling than males of corre¬
sponding age, hut that feeling and affection are
their dominant characteristics; if it is true that in
the life of woman, generally, the affections have
been chiefly prominent, and if it is true that the
sphere of woman is such as to require a predomi¬
nance of the affections in the mental manifestation
of the sex, then it is .conclusive, as we maintain,
that the affections do constitute the paramount en¬
dowment of woman, and that she is by eminence a
being of affection.
Having now shown, on the one hand, that woman
is naturally deficient in certain of the higher powers
of mind, and is therefore not by eminence an intel¬
lectual being, and, on the other hand, that she pos¬
sesses, in a preeminent degree, the affections, we
conclude that the proposition with which we set
out, and which is the basis of our " Theory of Fe¬
male Education," is philosophically true, namely,
that woman is a being with the affections para-
VINDICATED.
459
mount, and with intellect subordinate as an endow¬
ment.
This theory of woman's psychology makes her in
mind the counterpart of man. In that department
of mind where he is weakest, it makes her strongest;
and in that in which he is strongest, it makes her
weakest. So that while each, considered in relation
to the entire sum of human duties, is separately
incomplete, yet both taken together constitute a
perfect whole, with full adaptation to the entire
aggregate of all human responsibility. Hence,
according to this theory, there is, in the very mind
itself of the sexes, a foundation laid for mutual de¬
pendence—each having what the other needs. The
very constitution of the mind thus becomes a cause
determining. to union with each other; and that
union is one not merely of form and external
arrangement, but one which reaches to the mind,
and is cemented by and made to rest upon the
deeper relationships of the very mental affinities
themselves. "What a beautiful and striking illustra¬
tion of the wisdom of the great Creator—that while
he intended that man and woman should move in
different spheres, and yet that they and their spheres
should actually be as one, he has given to each that
mental constitution which, while it is specifically
and precisely adapted to that sphere in which each
460 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
is to move, yet tliat of the one is so related to that
of the other as that both parties find their proper
equilibrium and rest only when identified in the
closest bonds of sympathy and union! It is the
glory of this theory that it makes the matrimonial
union to which the sexes are, in the order of nature,
destined, not to rest upon the mere physical rela¬
tions of the sexes, but upon those higher, more en¬
nobling affinities which belong to the immortal mind.
Assuming, then, that this theory of the psychology
of woman is fully and incontestably established, we
proceed briefly to state certain conclusions which
flow from it, bearing upon the subject of female
education, and which will be found to be but the
principles embodied and set forth in our " Theory
of Female Education."
The first is the very obvious one, that the same
plan of education will not suit both sexes; but that
the course pursued in the education of females
must be different from that pursued in the educa¬
tion of males. To say that all conceivable plans of
education are equally good would, of course, be the
very height of empiricism. All must admit that,
as the design of education is to develop mind, that
is the most perfect educational agency which is
adapted to the precise character of the mind, and
conforms in its application to its precise laws of
VINDICATED.
461
action. Hence, tlie most perfect system of educa¬
tion would be one so flexible as to vary in its essen¬
tial features with every individual mind, since the
minds of no two individuals are precisely alike.
This, however, is not so pressingly important where,
as is the case for 'the most part with either of the
sexes, the general type of the mind, the great out¬
line of its constitution, is the same throughout. Hor
would it be practicable, in the present inadequacy of
our faculties, to discern in time these intellectual
differences, and to adapt means to the end to carry
such a scheme into practical execution; the most
that can be done.being to arrange the system so as
to vary merely with the more prominent and osten¬
sible differences, leaving it to instructors in the
practical execution of this system to employ such ex¬
pedients, in order to conform it to each individual
case, as their own tact and judgment may suggest.
But in regard to the sexes there is, as we have
seen, an essential difference in the very structure
and organism of the mind. The combination of the
faculties which compose it is wholly and essentially
different; so that the difference between the mind
of man and woman is not like the difference in the
minds of different men or different women—merely
variations in the same general type and constitu¬
tion—but is a difference in the type of mind itself;
462 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
a difference so marked as to present a wholly differ¬
ent combination of faculties in the one case from
that which exists in the other. Of course, then, it
follows that an educational agency which is well
adapted to the one is without adaptation to the
other; and if it is true that educational agency, to
he judicious, and in the highest degree efficient,
should he conformed to the precise character of the
mind, that which is sought to he applied to the
female mind must he essentially different from that
which is applied to the male mind. The distinction
of sex makes it practicable—" without the aid of a
phrenologist," as has been satirically remarked by
one of our reviewers—to. separate these two great
classes whose different types of mind thus make
necessary a difference in the character of the educa¬
tional system applied to them; and wTe conclude,
therefore, that our "Theory of Female Education"
is right in assuming that the course of education
which is suitable to the female sex is different from
that which is suitable to the male.
That policy which has prevailed of seeking to
make the system applied to woman but a copy of
that which has grown up to meet the wants of the
male mind; of calling the establishments for the
education of females "colleges," and then, of course,
in pursuance of their very name, adopting the cur-
VINDICATED.
463
riculum, the regimen, the general order of proced¬
ure which prevails in the college system, and which
has been for centuries moulding with the view to
specific conformity to the male mind—so that the
dominant idea all the while is to assimilate the one
to the other—is founded in an essential misconcep¬
tion of the nature of woman's mind, and is, in fact,
the blunder of the age.
The second conclusion which flows from this
theory of woman's mental constitution is, that in
the education of woman paramount reference should
he had to the cultivation of the affections; and the
' intellect should he looked to and trained only as it
is subordinate and subsidiary to this result. ■ If
woman is, as we have shown, a being with affection
paramount and intellect subordinate, of course this
is the mental constitution her Creator designed she
should have, and which he, in his wisdom, saw
would be best for her in the sphere in which she is
to move. It follows,, then, that any course of edu¬
cation applied to her, to be a judicious and proper
one, must address her mental constitution as it is,
and must seek to develop it in the form and order
in which it naturally exists. Woman is always
strongest and most efficient, as any human being is,
when unfolded naturally, and according to that con¬
stitution of faculties with which she was created.
464 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
Constituted as she is with the affections chief and
intellect subordinate, should we, in defiance of this
indication of what God designs the mind of woman
to he, seek mainly the development of her intellect,
making her affections a matter of subordinate
attention, or leaving them to take care of them¬
selves, we, in this act, virtually presume to know
better what kind of mind woman need's than does
God himself; and, in so far as we give practical
effect to our scheme, are instruments to defeat the
very plans of God. The true policy is to consult
the indications of nature as to the character of wo¬
man's mind; and if it is evident that God has con¬
stituted her as a sex with a predominance of the
affections, to take for granted, whatever may be our
views as to the superior excellence of mere intellect
over all other endowments, that he intended she
should develop a mind with the affections in the
ascendant, and that all the educational agency that
is applied to her must be arranged with a precise
view to this specific result. Instead, then, of arrang¬
ing the system of education with chief reference to
the intellect, as with males, precisely the opposite
policy must obtain; and the principal object must
be the right cultivation of the affections, giving just
that kind and amount of attention to the intellect¬
ual improvement that is necessary to realize this
VINDICATED.
465
design. Let it be understood that woman's intel¬
lect was given to her for the sake of her affections ;
that, with her, intellect is merely the subsidiary in¬
strumentality to give direction and effect to her
affections. These are her principal endowment.
And hence, with her, the proper development of
the affections is the paramount object, and to ignore
the affections, or to regard them as subordinate, in
the all-absorbing stress which is laid upon the mere
intellect, is not only unpliilosophical, but is in direct
antagonism both to the laws of her mind and the
great ends for which it was created.
Two things follow as corollaries from this general
principle of female education. The first is, that the
almost exclusive reference which is had to the mere
intellect in the plans of female education prevail¬
ing—the tendency to test the value of these plans
by their efficiency in securing purely intellectual
results—is in contravention of the philosophy of
the female mind, and the result of a fundamental
mistake as to the proper aim of female education.
The second is, that the home element, or rather the
domestic element of educational agency, as being
most potent in the right training of the affections,
and as being most concerned in that preparation for
life's duties which will best provide for and protect
the sensibilities in the after career, is always most
20*
466 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
important and most to be relied upon in tbe process
of female culture.
The next conclusion we notice as following from
this theory of woman is, that those departments of
study included in the higher mathematics, and in
the abstractions and extended generalizations of
philosophy and metaphysics, are without adaptation
to the female mind; and, consequently, are out of
place in systems of female education.
If we look into the mind for the purpose of dis¬
covering what are the faculties specifically involved
in the apprehension and study of algebra, of geome¬
try, of trigonometry, of analytics, of calculus, of
mechanical philosophy, of the more scientific trea¬
tises of astronomy—as Olmsted, for example—of the
Mental Philosophies of TJpham, of Mahan, of Stew¬
art, of Brown, of Locke, or of any other author
who treats the subject in the style of true science,
we shall find that these faculties are the following:
analysis, abstraction, and generalization. These
thinking powers—the powers of reflection and of
reasoning—are those which are mainly employed
in any and all of these studies, and by which they
are comprehended and made available. But these
are the powers in which, as we have shown, woman
is naturally deficient. In any normal condition of
her mind, they exist but feebly; indeed, are over-
VINDICATED. 467
borne and. oversliadowed by her other more promi¬
nent and more active powers. The mind of woman,
therefore, is not a mathematical nor a metaphysical
mind. She is constitutionally' lacking in those
powers which adapt her to the thorough understand¬
ing 'of the subjects which belong to these depart¬
ments. In the very nature of things, then, it is not
possible for her to master these studies, or to appro¬
priate understandingly their contents, any more
than it is possible for a man with defective vision to
discern with clearness the objects around him. She
may go over these studies, and, by the aid of other
powers of mind which she possesses in eminent
degree, she may make some show of understanding
them; but she cannot enter into them and, by an
intellectual grasp of their principles, make them
the property of her mind. The faculties that would
adapt her to such a result have too feeble an exist¬
ence in her mind; and, therefore, she might go over
these studies for ever, and yet the portals which
open into their real enclosures would he for ever
closed to her, and to their real contents she would
ever remain a stranger. "We refer now to the
female mind as characteristic of the sex; and not,
of course, to those very occasional minds which
show a capability beyond this standard, only by
virtue of their abnormal character, and approxima-
468 THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION
tion to the male ideal, so unenviable in the female
sex. To attempt, then, to teach females these de¬
partments of study, is a course that is met by these
objections:
First. It is to seek to do that which is impossible
to be done; that is, to make a set of human beings
understand that which they have no power to under¬
stand—which God, in his constitution of their minds,
withheld the capacity to understand. How absurd
the procedure! How variant it is from such a
course as true wisdom would dictate !
Second. By taxing the mind with a class of studies
which it is unable to comprehend, and consequently
unable to enjoy, their tendency is positively to en¬
feeble the mind; to confuse and distract it; to injure
its elasticity and tone; to discourage it; to impair
its confidence in its powers; and that, too, at the
season of life when the mind needs to be wholly
unencumbered and unembarrassed, when it needs
all its natural healthiness and vigor, when it needs
every possible buoyancy, every possible spring and
encouragement.
Third. Unadaptecl to the mind as it is actually
constituted, and, consequently, incapable of afford¬
ing it rightful cultivation and improvement, the
time devoted to these studies is not only worse than
lost, but is taken away from those other studies
VINDICATED.
469
which, by being substituted in their stead, would
be specially available at that season of life in the
work of right discipline and development.
But it may be said, that admitting that the mind
of woman is not naturally adapted to mathematical
or to strictly philosophical studies, yet these studies
ought to be embraced in a system of female educa¬
tion, because it is important to bring out in woman
these characteristics of mind, and give them a more
prominent development than they naturally enjoy.
To show the absurdity of this view, two remarks
only are necessary.
The first is this: Powers of mind improve in any
process of education only by a conformity to their
laws. To tax powers with what they are unable to
understand and appropriate, is not the mode to edu¬
cate them: it is only to embarrass and paralyze
them. To suppose that mental faculties in a feeble
state can be improved by a task which those facul¬
ties only when possessed in prominent degree are
adequate to, is a philosophical absurdity. If the
design is to give these faculties a more prominent
place in woman's mental development, the plan, it
would seem, should rather be, to hold her mind to
that lower class of studies belonging to these depart¬
ments which require less power to apprehend them;
and under no circumstances should it be encumbered
470 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
•with this extensive mass which we have mentioned,
under whose weight it must stagger and find no room
for expansion. But the object itself is a mistake.
If these mathematical and philosophical capabilities
are naturally deficient in woman, no mere process
of education can bring them into bold relief in
the mental development. hTo mere process of
education can change their relative prominence
without some process of positive damage to her other
mental faculties. It is not the business of education
to remould or to recast the mind. If it were, then
it might make all minds alike. Then, indeed, would
it be a Procrustean system, under whose influence
all minds might assume the same precise type and
reach the same standard. INo; if God has consti¬
tuted woman with a deficiency in these specific
powers, then will she always exhibit this same rela¬
tive deficiency. And it is in vain to embarrass her
educational course with these departments of study,
with the hope that they will give any greater relief
to these specific powers involved in their successful
apprehension.
The second remark is this: If God has created
woman, as a sex, with a mind not mathematical or
metaphysical—if he has created her deficient in
those faculties which give adaptation to these de¬
partments of knowledge—of course, that is the kind
VINDICATED. 471
of mind lie intended slie should have; and if his
wisdom is to he credited, that is the best mind for
her—the on'e best suited to human beings in the
sphere in which she is designed to move. The policy,
then, of seeking to bring out these faculties in wo¬
man, so as to give them greater prominence or relief
than is natural to them in relation to her other
faculties, virtually implies that God was mistaken
as to the constitution of mind which woman needs,
and that education must remedy his defective work.
It implies that woman needs a different constitution
of mind from that which her Creator has given her;
and that by processes of our own a supplementary
work of creation must be performed, giving her
what she needed in her original constitution, but
what God in his work of creation failed to bestow.
It follows, then, that to embrace these departments
of study in a course of female education, with the
view to a higher relative development of the mathe¬
matical and metaphysical elements of her mind, is
a policy, in one sense, as impious as it is unphiloso-
phical and absurd.
"We hold the true view to be, that if God has
created woman, as a sex, without those elements of
mind which qualify her for the successful apprehen¬
sion and study of these departments of knowledge,
it is a proof that she ought not to attempt to pursue
472 THEORY OE FEMALE EDUCATION
them; both because, on the one hand, she cannot
intellectually embrace them, and would therefore be
but hindered by them in her intellectual progress;
and because, on the other, God has indicated by this
very constitutional defect in these elements, that she
does not need the character of mind or the cultiva¬
tion which such studies are adapted to bestow.
The last conclusion that we have space to notice
as legitimately following from this theory of woman
is, that the lecture, rather than the recitation system,
is the one mainly to be relied upon in conducting
the process of female education. .
A close view of the subject will show that the
question of the superiority of the one or the other
of these systems is to be determined by the char¬
acter of the mind to which it is applied. "When the
mind is constituted, as is the case with the male
mind as such, of those faculties prominently which
are adapted to investigation and research, to analysis
and combination, to processes of nice discrimina¬
tion and continuous thought, then the recitation
system is preferable: First, because this constitution
of mind allows of and prompts to a prosecution of
study independently, and only needs the aid of the
instructor in removing obstructions and giving
direction — conditions which the recitation system
precisely fulfils; and second, because this class of
VINDICATED.
473
faculties, thus predominant, need, for their proper
education, that continued application, that constant,
laborious employment, which imparts severe discip¬
line and training—results that can be realized only
when the mind is thrown more constantly and
directly upon its own resources, as is the case under
the recitation system.
But when the mind is deficient in this specific
class of faculties, and has in predominant degree
the intuitive faculties—the faculties of perception,
of observation, of association, of fancy, of taste,
and of memory—then, both because such a consti¬
tution of mind is not adapted to deliberate processes
of independent investigation and study, and because
it is not mere rigid discipline which such a consti¬
tution of mind primarily needs, but facts, ideas,
illustrations, actual material' for appropriation and
use, the lecture system is more efficient, and hence
is to be preferred. Such a mind, without any spe¬
cial aptitude in itself for spontaneous original in¬
vestigation and research, leans upon others for assist¬
ance ; and needs a system of education which gives
the instructor every possible opportunity for its
illumination and guidance. Such a mind—requir¬
ing for its right unfolding, ideas, information, illus¬
trations, materials of knowledge, rather than mere
habits of rigid study—requires lectures from the
474 THEORY OF FEMALE EDUCATION
instructor abounding in ideas, in facts, in illustra¬
tions, in explanations, rather than the more concise
exhibitions of the mere principles and abstract
relations of science and literature found in text¬
books.
As, then, our theory of woman implies that she
has not this character of mind to which we have
shown the recitation system is best suited, but
that she has that constitution of mind to which
we have shown the lecture system is best adapted,
it follows that the latter system is the proper one
to be chiefly relied upon in conducting the pro¬
cess of female education.
This theory of woman—which we think we have
conclusively established, and from which we have
deduced by a rigid sequence these conclusions,
which are nothing more or less than the princi-
ciples embodied in our " Theory of Female Edu¬
cation"—has been derived, as all have seen, from
a consideration of woman subjectively, or from a
direct view of her own internal nature. Precisely
the same theory of woman, and, consequently,
the same conclusions in regard to female educa¬
tion, might be deduced from a consideration of
woman objectively, or in view of the sphere of action
which is appropriately hers. Our limits forbid an
entrance upon this field. And we have only to
VINDICATED.
475
say further, that if our reviewers, and all others
concerned, are not now satisfied that our " Theory
of Female. Education" is based upon the true
philosophy of woman, we may, at some future
time, develop the confirmatory proof which this
other line of argument so abundantly affords.
THE END.