LB 695 
 .B4 ^ 
 
 Copy 1 
 
 &[)t €m fxmi^U nf (gkrctinti 
 
 THE LAW OF NATURE, 
 
 THE LAW OP 
 
 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT: 
 
 A NEW VIEW OF 
 
 THE END OF JUVENILE CULTURE, 
 
 E8PKCrALLY AS REGARDS THE FEMALE MIND. 
 
 '' First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear."— Mark iv. 28. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 CROSBY, NICHOLS k CO,, 
 
 111 WASHINGTON STREET 
 1855. 
 
'^t &m ^riiiripU nf tgknitinii 
 
 THE LAW OF NATURE, 
 
 THE LAW OP 
 
 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT: 
 
 A NEW VIEW OF 
 
 THE END OF JUVENILE CULTURE, 
 
 B6PECIAL1.Y AS KEGAKDS THE FEMALE MIND. 
 
 BY E^A. BEAMAN, 
 
 PBINCIPAL OP A TOUNQ LADIES' SCHOOL, TEMPLE PLACE, BOSTON. 
 
 '* First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear."— Mark it. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 CROSBY, NICHOLS & CO., 
 
 Ill WASHINGTON STREET. 
 1854. 
 
^3<ff Oil 
 
 ^f tie 
 
 ^ 
 
 JOHN FORD, PRINTER, 
 
 OAM BRIDGSPOKT. 
 
 .B4 
 
MENTAL DEVELOPMENT, 
 
 The position of many pupils in school is very un- 
 comfortable, often painful and trying in the extreme. 
 Sometimes this is their own fault ; sometimes, perhaps 
 most frequently, it is the fault of the school. One 
 principal cause of the trouble is, that all are subjected 
 to the same rigid and unadapted system of instruction 
 and discipline. Yet nothing is more various than are 
 mental capacities, tastes and dispositions. 
 
 A school should be a nurser?/ of mind, in the widest 
 sense of the term ; and its leading object should be, first 
 of all, to furnish aids and facilities for the most perfect 
 health and groiuth of mind. Everything else should yield 
 to this object. Certain it is, that that which is not 
 adapted to promote mental health and growth, can have 
 but comparatively little efficacy in promoting any other 
 desirable object in education. 
 
 But health and growth imply the existence of two 
 things, namely, nourishment and action. This is the case 
 with the body. But food that is nourishing, if adapted 
 and suitable, is also palataUe. Action, if healthy and not 
 excessive, is also agreeable, at least it is not painful. Every 
 healthy being spontaneously seeks nourishment and ac- 
 tion, even for the pleasure they afibrd. These things 
 
are a demand of nature. Growth is the result of a 
 proper compHance with these conditions, which are a 
 Iklw of organic development. But the mind^ as well as the 
 body, is most essentially organic in its structure and in 
 its wants ; and these same principles apply to it, in its 
 every capacity. As the conditions of its proper health 
 and growth, it first needs nourishment and the means of 
 action. And, to be truly wholesome and promote any 
 proper object in education, its nourishment must also be 
 delightsome ; and its action, agreeable. These conditions 
 are certainly our only assurance of mental health and 
 consequently of growth. If these fail, therefore, all 
 fails ; for no proper end in juvenile education can pros- 
 per at the sacrifice of mental health. All ends are, as it 
 were, bound up in this end. 
 
 The true principle of mental culture then, is simply a 
 change of ends ; it makes the proper health and groivth of 
 mind, rather than qualification and the acquisition of 
 knowledge, the first objects to be aimed at and secured in 
 education. Let us, for a moment, look at these different 
 objects in contrast with each other. 
 
 It is customary to enquire, /r^^, what it is desirable for 
 a pupil to know and to be capable of doing. That is, the 
 great objects are Jmoiuledge and discij)line for the sake of 
 knowledge or some supposed /i«/??r^ advantage. A course 
 is therefore marked out in accommodation to these pur- 
 poses. Every thing must look to some future qualifica- 
 tion, or object to be attained. The first enquiry, 
 therefore, is, what will best subserve this qualification, 
 this accomplishment, &c. And progress is measured by 
 the amount of acquisition for these objects. The next 
 thing is to devise the means of securing these objects with 
 the greatest possible dispatch. The lessons and instruc- 
 tions must be so adapted, — and mark, this is the object 
 
of adaptation — as to enable the pupil to acquire as rap- 
 idly as possible ; the capacity is measured, if measured 
 at all, with this end in view. And when adaptation is 
 made as perfect as it conveniently can be, the mind must 
 " knuckle " to the task, whether there be any real fitness 
 or adaptation, or not. The lesson must be acquired, cost 
 what it may; for the future demands it. Peace and 
 health of both body and mind may be sacrificed, if need 
 fee ; the end justifies the means; the mind was made for 
 knowledge, and not knowledge for mind. The body for 
 food, and not food for the body. As if you were to feed 
 yowv child according to the quality of food which, for some 
 ulterior end, you wish it to learn to eat, and the number 
 of barrels, bushels, pounds, &c., which you deem it ex- 
 pedient to have consumed within a specific time. So 
 many branches of knowledge, so many booksful, so 
 much learning must, if possible, be stowed away in the 
 intellectual warehouse within a certain limited period ; 
 just as if the mind were an inert bag, indefinitely expan- 
 sive indeed, but by dead elasticity, rather than by living 
 organic grotvth. 
 
 But, according to our new guide, the first question 
 should be : What does the mind require as the conditions of its 
 health and groiuth ? And our first aim should be to anstver 
 these conditions. Every thing should bend to this object. 
 Nor is there, in any of the other proper ends of edu- 
 cation, anything inconsistent with this, if they are 
 aimed at through this as of prior importance. It is on a 
 similar principle that we feed our children, in obedience 
 to the demands of bodily health and growth. If ^ve act 
 Avisely, we always place these two things first, and never 
 sacrifice them to any ulterior object whatever. As a prac- 
 tical example of the operation of this principle, we do 
 not first ask the question, in regard to any particular 
 
branch of study : can we so adapt it that it can he acquired? 
 Nor do we make up onr mind that it must be acquired 
 at any rate, and then adapt it as well as we can io facil- 
 itate acquisition. But we first ask, is it so adapted, or can it 
 be so adapted, as to answer the wants of the mind ? If 
 so, we adopt it, if not we reject it till it is, or can be, so 
 adapted. In all cases, we regard the organic nourish- 
 ment and groivtli of the faculty, — as the faculty of 
 language, of history, of arithmetic, of music, &c., — as of 
 more importance than the furnishing or the qualifying 
 of that faculty. And this is by far the most efiectual 
 way of accomplishing every other pro|)er object in 
 education ; and for two principal and very obvious 
 reasons — first, because of a more perfect adaptation ; 
 secondly, because the faculties will thus act in a more 
 natural and vigorous, and therefore efiective manner. 
 All the knowledge thus acquired will have its roots 
 planted deep in the mind ; will, in fact, form a constitu- 
 tional part of the mind : it will thus be as it were spon- 
 taneous and eternal. 
 
 But this cannot be the case with those lessons which, 
 for laclz of adaptation to the mental wants and capacity, 
 are only temporarily lodged in the memory by an un- 
 natural, constrained, perhaps distorted and painful exer- 
 cise of faculty. In such lessons there is no congeniality, 
 no real nourishment ; they cannot, therefore, form a 
 component part of the mind. It is perfectly futile, nay, 
 it is worse than useless to attempt to croivd into a pupil's 
 mind that which excites no natural, healthy mental ac- 
 tion ; that which, for want of adaptation, is incapable of 
 affording the pupil the proper delight of acquiring 
 knowledge. It is futile, because knowledge thus acquir- 
 ed, is not really acquired. It is worse than useless, both 
 on account of the loss of time and the injurious habits 
 
thus induced upon the faculties. This latter evil is a 
 much greater one than most persons are aware of. I 
 have often found it a serious obstacle to a natural and 
 proper use of the mental powers. 
 
 It is plain that the adoption of this new principle — 
 new I mean as a controlling principle in practice — though 
 it would discard none of the important branches of in- 
 struction and disciphne, would yet introduce such modi- 
 fications in regard to adaptation as to make the real char- 
 acter of education a very different thing from what it 
 now is. It requires no argument to show that, as is our 
 end or object, such will be our means; for our aim is 
 always, if we act wisely, to adapt the means to the ends. 
 It must make a most essential difference therefore to the 
 child, whether we place the conditions of its health and 
 growth directly before our minds as the first objects to 
 be secured, and make its qualification for the future to 
 be attained through these as the most effectual means ; or 
 whether we aim directly at discipline and the acquisi- 
 tion of knowledge for their own sakes and for future 
 qualifications. For, while adopting the latter course, we 
 forget, in our zeal to accomplish our purpose as speedily 
 as possible, that the organic structure of the mind itself, is 
 affected, for better or for worse, by whatever it does, or 
 vainly attempts to do even ; we overlook its true naturCy 
 its wants and its state. Thus we sacrifice our otherwise 
 most potent instrument for the attainment even of our 
 coveted objects; we place burdens upon the mind which 
 it cannot carry by any proper natural action of the facul- 
 ties ; its whole machinery works awkwardly ; the mo- 
 tions of its cogs and wheels, if I may so speak, are 
 retarded by unnatural friction ; and thus its energies be- 
 come enfeebled and paralyzed when they should be 
 strengthened and invigorated instead. Let it always be 
 
8 
 
 understood that I am speaking of our objects or ends in 
 relation to the child, not of its ends in study, nor of our 
 own ends in respect to ourselves when we study. 
 
 As one of the first happy results of making the con- 
 ditions of health and growth our leading end in educa- 
 tion, it would prevent the use of those extraneous stim- 
 ulants and appeals to motives which are a cruel sacrifice 
 of morals to intellect, and of the purer and nobler aspi- 
 rations to base and grovelling ones ; it would lead to 
 such perfect adaptation that there would be more of the 
 stimulant and motive in the very nature of the lesson or 
 task itself, in which they properly belong. Indeed there 
 is, innate in the human mind, a love of action and a love 
 of knowledge, that is, of that which, by its adaptation 
 to state and capacity, is really knowledge. It would 
 also save much worse than wasted time ; for the pupil 
 would acquire more real growth, and more solid and 
 permanent instruction, in four or ^\e hours a day, than 
 in double that time spent in weariedly poring over les- 
 sons under learned and unadapted systems. And ttiis 
 would be so, because the action, thus excited, would be 
 natural, healthy and vigorous, yet pleasurable action. 
 
 As another desirable result, many pupils who, under 
 the usual course, are accounted dull and stupid, would 
 be wakened, as it were, into new life and energy under 
 a better adapted course, and take their rank among the 
 best. I speak from my own observation. School also 
 would become delightful, and from a legitimate cause, 
 even in many cases where it is now a burden. Again, a 
 little done under the proper conditions of growth, is more 
 effective than whole learned systems gone over with, un- 
 der the influence of false stimulants and motives, and a 
 forced, awkward and unduly constrained use of the fac- 
 ulties. How little of the learning supposed to be ac- 
 
quired in childhood remains of practical use in after 
 years ! Let every one examine his own mental treasure 
 house and compare his practical possessions there, with 
 the time and labor which they cost in their acquisition. 
 But whatever has been gained, as a secondary ob- 
 ject to the conditions of growth, has entered into the 
 composition of the mind itself, and is that which 
 gives it judgment and capacity. Think, ye who have 
 spent weeks and months, perhaps years, in mouthing into 
 a kind of artificial memory a dry epitome of history, a 
 volume of condensed geographical statistics, a learned 
 abridgment of grammar, &c., &c., — how many of those 
 dainty morsels of knowledge have such form and place 
 in the mind as to be of practical use to you ! Think, 
 too, of the processes through which your mind passed 
 in making the acquisition ; were they of such a character 
 as to contribute to its real health, strength and growth ? 
 Have not both mind and knowledge, in fact, been, in the 
 main, sacrificed to vain efforts to acquire as knowledge 
 what, for want of adaptation, was not such, and could 
 not therefore be acquired. It is true your mind has 
 received much useful discipline from some things that 
 were in a measure adapted. But how much do you now 
 really possess of that which you were compelled to try 
 to learn as hioivledge, and for the sake of knowledge, or 
 some future benefit ? How much, I mean, compared 
 with the time and wearisome labor it cost you ? And 
 then think, if you had had that only to do, which was 
 capable of calling your faculties into natural and healthy 
 and therefore agreeable action, how much more real 
 bone and muscle of mind you would now possess, — 
 how much more practical learning, — instead of the few 
 disjointed facts that remain to you, as the tattered frag- 
 
10 
 
 ments of old men's coats, which were attempted to be 
 hung upon you in childhood and youth. 
 
 The delicate organism of the juvenile mind can be sub- 
 jected to the necessarily someiuhat constrained processes 
 of education but a few hours a day, with profit, or even 
 with impunity. There is even more difference between 
 its susceptible texture and that of the adult mind, than 
 between the body of the child and the hardened sinews 
 of the man. We can with no more just reason "cram" 
 the mind and overtax its energies, than we can treat the 
 body in this way. All know that absolute fasting is 
 better than surfeiting ; and no action, than over-action. 
 A pupil may be forced, or enticed by stimulating appeals 
 to pride, to self-love, &c., to perform seemingly herculean 
 tasks of mental labor ; but if it does not answer the true 
 conditions of groivth, what is the gain ? Such learning — 
 and much of the school learning is like it — is as leaves 
 and fruits artificially stuck upon trees, which have no 
 ^ real connection with the living fibre. All true learning 
 is woven into the very substance of the mind, and is 
 fastened there by some delight ; it extends its roots into 
 a deep and rich soil ; it is a part of the mental life, and 
 is ever fresh, nourishing and invigorating in its nature ; 
 it is such as faculties unduly strained, wearied and 
 exhausted, can never acquire. 
 
 Infinitely better then, in all respects, are a few hours 
 of mental instruction and discipline, in observance of the 
 true conditions of health and growth, than many hours 
 in violation of them. Yet many, perhaps most persons, 
 under an infatuated notion that the engine of education 
 cannot be worked too hard, will, for a long time to come, 
 subject their children to the ''cramming^' process ; — to be 
 crowded through high sounding and learned courses, 
 
11 
 
 better adapted to the adult than to the juvenile mind ; 
 
 and this at the expense of headaches and heartaches, 
 and at a sacrifice of both mental and bodily health. Just 
 as if, during the forming period of mind, the great end 
 was to freight the vessel, rather than to give its walls 
 capacity, strength and durability. But such expecta- 
 tions will never be answered ; even the coveted ends of 
 ambition and expediency will fail to be realized. Very 
 little of the learning that is not acquired by a natural, 
 free and easy action of the faculties, will remain to adorn 
 the mind ; it will most of it flee away, after the excite- 
 ments connected with the recitation are passed. Sacrifice 
 the conditions of health and growth, and all that is really 
 valuable is sacrificed. Better, far better is a vessel with 
 strong, capacious walls, whose every timber, plank and 
 nail have been woven into their proper places, and at 
 the proper time, even with nothing in it, than a weak 
 and rickety one creaking under a full but impradicaUe 
 freight. But a mind formed under these conditions is 
 far from being an empty vessel ; it is of all minds the 
 most full and the most practical. The very means 
 which give the mind the best and most perfect degree 
 of growth, are precisely the means that most effectually 
 store it with practical knowledge. 
 
 It is desirable that, when the mind acts for the 
 accomplishment of any object, it should act with energy 
 and vigor ; and that it should learn to control and con- 
 centrate its energies. It is this that gives the properly 
 educated mind so much power and advantage over 
 others of perhaps equal natural capacity. This power 
 can be acquired only by habits of severe application ; and 
 by application when the mind is in a healthy^ vigorous^ 
 unexhausted state. Such a state seldom exists with 
 those* who are ever weariedly dozing over unadapted 
 
12 
 
 lessons, through several hours at home, in addition to 
 the (to them) tedious hours of school. All pupils, and 
 most especially girls, should form such habits of applica- 
 tion as to be capable of getting through with all their 
 mental lahovy in the usual school hours. If they are 
 obliged to take their books home with them, it is a 
 proper inference that either they are in fault or their 
 teacher is in fault. But, in order to form these habits, 
 it is necessary to begin young, and that their lessons 
 should he in strict accordance with the principles which I have 
 stated. I am satisfied that such application, when the 
 habit has been formed and the lesson is properly adapt- 
 ed, is delightful, however intense it may be. The mind 
 in such states is drinking in a most delicious beverage, 
 and the intellectual action suffuses the whole mental 
 organism with a refreshing and grateful glow ; it is analo- 
 gous, in its results, to agreeable physical exercise. But 
 such states of application should not be continued after 
 the usual school hours, however agreeable they may be. 
 The practice of poring over books at home, when the 
 mind has been in such vigorous tension in school, cannot 
 be otherwise than injurious. The effect must be similar 
 to that of overtaxing the energies of the body, whether 
 with food, or with exercise. It blunts and stupefies the 
 faculties, and destroys their healthy tone ; and what is 
 acquired under such circumstances is more an appear- 
 ance than a reality. In fact, it is worse than an appear- 
 ance. It is a violation of organic laiv ; and this can never 
 take place without positive injury. 
 
 All sensible physicians will say, that every morsel of 
 food we take beyond the proper demands of nature, is 
 not simply useless; but that it helps to destroy the 
 healthy action of the digestive organs; and this renders 
 ineffective even what might otherwise have been nour- 
 
13 
 
 ishing and invigorating ; nay, it frequently converts the 
 whole mass into a nauseous and indigestible burden 
 and paralyzes the whole physical system. So, also, a 
 little overniction, a little straining of the muscular fibres 
 a little too long continued tension, beyond a proper 
 duration of healthful bodily exercise, does not sunply 
 defecd our end, if health is our end; but produces an 
 injury which must be followed by more or less incon- 
 venience, if not sufiering ; and which it will take time 
 and labor to repair. Thus over-domg, in any sense, is 
 ?mdoing; and thus a httle abuse, a little excess, of 
 whatever kind, is not simply so much waste, so much 
 iiTeparable loss ; but, worse than this, it destroys much 
 positive good. The organic 7nind is not an exception to this 
 law of nature ; but there is even more danger of abuse 
 in regard to it, than in regard to the body. For, when 
 we siu:feit and overtax the mind, the consequences are 
 not so immediately and so strikingly perceptible to our 
 obtuse senses, as when we treat the body in this way. 
 The danger must therefore be much greater ; for these 
 consequences are just as certain. When we violate a 
 physical law of health, nature immediately speaks her 
 complaint through a visible change in the features, as 
 the dimmed eye, the faded cheek, the paled lip, &c., if 
 not in racking pain ; unmistakable indications, at least, 
 of a speed}^ retribution follow, as it were, upon the very 
 heels of a breach of law. Xot so with the mind ; if we 
 abuse its organism, the result is first manifested in some 
 physical derangement which we very seldom ascribe to 
 its true cause ; and so tardy is this manifestation even, 
 and our dull and unwilling: senses are so slow to recoof- 
 nize it, that the roots of disease often get too firm a hold 
 to be eradicated, before we become sufficiently conscious 
 of the injury done, and done both to mind and body. 
 
14 
 
 It is not the one that labors the most hours, but the 
 one that works the most vigorously when he works, 
 though for a much shorter time, that really accomplishes 
 the most. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton is said to have 
 given the following history of his literary habits in a 
 recent public lecture : — 
 
 " Many persons seeing me so much engaged in active 
 life, and as much about the world as if I had never been 
 a student, have said to me— ^ When do you get the time 
 to write all your books ? How on earth do you con- 
 trive to do so much work?' I shall perhaps surprise 
 you by the answer I make. The answer is this : ' I 
 contrive to do so much, by never doing too much at a 
 time.' A man, to get through work well, must not over- 
 work himself ; for, if he do too much to-day, the reac- 
 tion of fatigue will come, and he will be obliged to do 
 too little to-morrow. Now, since I begun really and 
 earnestly to study, which was not till I had left college 
 and was actually in the world, I may, perhaps, say, that 
 I have gone through as large a course of general reading 
 as most men of my time. I have travelled much — I 
 have mixed much in politics and in the various business 
 of life, and, in addition to all this, I have published some- 
 where above sixty volumes, some upon subjects requiring 
 much special research. — And what time do you think as 
 a general rule, I have devoted to study — to reading and 
 writing ? Not more than three hours a day ; and when 
 Parliament is sitting, not always that. But then, during 
 those hours I have given my whole attention to what I 
 was about." Many examples might be mentioned simi- 
 lar to this. And will not the experience of almost every 
 distinguished personage bear out the remark, that the 
 most useful and the most brilliant results of intellectual 
 labor, are those which have followed from taxing the 
 mental energies but few rather than many hours a day? 
 
15 
 
 But the period of childhood and youth is not a pro- 
 ducing period; this is not the end of juvenile education; 
 it is rather the period of development ; in fact it is most 
 especially so. ' It is of comparatively little importance 
 how much, or what, children learn — store away in the 
 memor}^ — but of far greater moment that they have 
 the very best means of groivtL It is not the time for 
 gathering into barns and storehouses as an end; the 
 fields are not yet white ready for the harvest. It is not 
 even the period for the ripening of the grain ; but 
 rather for the preparation of the soil, the sowing of the 
 seed, and most especially for the formation and strength- 
 ening of the fibres of the stalk. It is the period for the 
 growth and development of the " hlade^ " The ear and 
 the full corn in the ear " come at a later date ; and it 
 would be well to remember that their quality, nay, and 
 quantity also depend upon the previous healthy forma- 
 tion of the blade. 
 
 Why then should not the best possible conditions of 
 health and growth be the leading and controlling aim 
 and end in education ? And why this insane ambition 
 to store away in our children's minds the ripe corn, as a 
 ruling end, before the formation of the blossom, or even 
 of the blade. But what else is the meaning of the 
 youth's being compelled to spend so many hours a 
 day — hours, too, after the faculties have become ex- 
 hausted — in endeavors to acquire knowledge; perhaps in 
 merely memorizing (to Mm) unmeaning and incompre- 
 hensible phrases ? and doing this when the parents' and 
 the teacher's leading aim and end are the laying up of 
 knowledge ? The adult age is the time to acquire 
 knowledge as an end, and the time to bear the fruits of 
 it. The juvenile age is the time to form the vessel — to 
 spin and weave the tender organic fibres of mind. 
 
16 
 
 But, even if the great business of youth were mental 
 acquisition, rather than growth or development, how 
 we sacrifice our end to our folly, when we subject the 
 delicate organism of our children's minds to a severer 
 experience than that of hardened manhood! Bulwer^ 
 whom few have surpassed in the products of intellect, 
 mentally labored (and his reading was a part of this 
 labor) but three hours a day. How many children, whose 
 mental sinews are but just coming forth from the germ, 
 are compelled, under the fashionable systems of educa- 
 tion, to work twice and even thrice that number of 
 hours! Nay, some young men and young ladies too, 
 whose ambition is excited by what is often a deadly 
 poison to their morals, will scarcely spare themselves 
 time from their studies, for their meals and their regular 
 hours of sleep ; much less for relaxation and invigorating 
 exercise. Just as if they were filling a cart, instead of 
 answering the wants of a forming mind ; — when, the 
 more you get in, the more you carry away. We cer- 
 tainly do not act according to the plainest dictates of 
 common-sense, when we thus overtax our children's 
 minds. Just as if they should be always studying^ be- 
 cause we have nothing else for them to do ! Why not 
 set them to eating to fill up a part of their waste time ? 
 
 But it is our fault, if our children have nothing to do 
 but to get lessons ; and a fault of no small magnitude it 
 is too. They mud he occupied^ in one way or another, 
 during all the hours not devoted to sleep ; and, if ive do 
 not furnish them the means, there are those that will do 
 this, and to our and their future, if not present, most 
 bitter sorrow. They cannot help being occupied, even 
 if they would. There is daily and hourly so much 
 mental, as well as so much physical energy that mud 
 
1' 
 
 come forth into act. It is for us to guide this energy 
 and to afford it the proper means of expressing itself 
 We cruelly wrong our children, and abuse our sacred 
 trust, so far as we fail to provide them with the proper 
 means of amusement — -which is essential to their well- 
 being — and also of useful employment which is equally 
 indispensable to their present as well as future happiness. 
 A good mother will find enough for her daughters, at 
 l6ast, to do at home, which will be of more service to 
 them than getting lessons, if they have properly done 
 their duty at school. And thus, school education and 
 home education, the latter at no period of growth, 
 the less important, may go hand in hand without 
 interfering at all with each other ; they will rather aid 
 each' other by producing a wholesome alternation of 
 action and rest of the various faculties. 
 
 School hours should be happy hours. It is essential 
 to progress. And there is no good reason why they 
 should not be so. And they should be happy hours, not 
 because the pupils are indulged in disorderly habits, 
 in wild fancies and in unreasonable desires ; not be- 
 cause their self-love is flattered, their ambition excited, 
 or they are permitted to have what is meant by the sig- 
 nificant phrase of ''a good time;'' but because of their 
 application. And all may, sooner or later, acquire a love 
 for such application, if they are judiciously trained in a 
 properly adapted course. A proper degree of study, 
 under such a course, energizes and invigorates the mind, 
 instead of exhausting and enfeebling the faculties ; the 
 spirits are not depressed by weariness, and the hopeless- 
 ness of the task ; but are preserved in their naturally 
 elastic, buoyant state, which is as essential to the health 
 of both body and mind and to progress in learning, as 
 is the study itself 
 
18 
 
 If it is proper for one to allude to his own experience^ 
 or his course with his own children, for the sake of illus- 
 tration, I may be permitted to say that I have adopted 
 these views in practice. In fact, it was my experience 
 and my desire to provide, daily and hourly^ in the best 
 manner, for my pupils and my children, that suggested 
 the changes of which I have spoken. These views 
 therefore are not mere theory, but the result of more 
 than twenty years of experience and' study. My school 
 is conducted, as far as possible, on these principles. I 
 have witnessed good practical results. I know that my 
 pupils have been happy m their studies, when they 
 have begun early to form proper haliU of application. 
 This has frequently been remarked by strangers who 
 have visited the school. Indeed, not unfrequently a 
 young lady, who had acquired a distaste for school 
 exercises, and the name of a dull scholar, when put 
 upon a course better adapted to her capacity, has 
 found even constant and vigorous application during 
 the school hours so pleasing — her time has passed so 
 agreeably — that she has remarked, she had "a very 
 easy time," or "not much to do." This feeling arises 
 from very contrast with her former experience, when 
 her time was spent in dreading her lessons, or in list- 
 lessly dreaming over them. Yet she was doing that 
 which both nourished and invigorated her faculties, 
 and was qualifying them for future action, which had 
 been much less perfectly the case in her previous 
 course. 
 
 It is not my aim to make great scholars of my pupils 
 or of my daughters, or to carry them along rapidly in 
 their studies. A teacher, or a parent, is but an humble 
 servant in rearing the temple of mind. God is the 
 architect, and the plans and the progress are in His 
 
19 
 
 hands. He calls upon us only to supply the materials, 
 as He day by day indicates their want through the 
 changing states of the mind^ which it is our province 
 above all things to study. But, in providing these mate- 
 rials, we are by no means to be blind to the future 
 destiny and prospects of the child or pupil; we must be 
 guided in a measure by these things; we must follow 
 His providence; but in no case does He require or per- 
 mit us to sacrifice a present want to an imagined future 
 one. He asks us only to aid Him in building that jmrt 
 of the temple now that is noiv in progress. This is the 
 order of nature. This therefore will really make great 
 scholars, if anything will. This will give a real progress 
 without any false appearances. Our children may not 
 ''go over'' as many studies; may not "learn" (?) as many 
 languages ; may not be able to talk so largely about 
 what they have done, or what they are doing ; but they 
 will be able to execute with vastly more efficiency. 
 Their learning will not consist in the greatest number 
 of soiled and dog-eared books, borrowed phrases, &c., &c.; 
 but in more expanded and energized faculties, in 
 strengthened and invigorated mental sinews, so to speak, 
 and in a greater, power of practically using their facul- 
 ties. And what a spectacle would be presented, if the 
 intellectual stomach of a common school girl, who had 
 been pressed through the fashionable course of a year's 
 study, could be laid open ! I can think of nothing more 
 appropriate as an illustration than the family rag-bag 
 which is the " omnium gatherum " of bits and patches of 
 every conceivable fabric, shape and color. You would 
 behold an undigested and indigestible hotch-potch of 
 broken fragments of Latin, German, French, Logic, 
 Ehetoric, Grammar, Arithmetic, &c., &c., all huddled 
 and mixed together in one impracticable mass. Now, 
 
20 
 
 in a natural course of education, where everything is 
 presented in order, in a properly adapted form, without 
 crowding, all these things would be taken into the 
 mental circulation, would become appi*opriated and 
 assimilated as a part of the mind itself 
 
 Children may begin the study of Latin, or of French, 
 in short properly adapted lessons, as early as ten years 
 of age, or even earlier. They may also attend to arith- 
 metic, geography, drawing, &c., &c., in many respects in 
 the usual way, but in no case when such study is seen 
 not to answer the jjroper conditions of mental health and growth. 
 The studies of my own children are limited to the 
 school-room. And I am satisfied that this is the only 
 way, according to the true philosophy of both mental 
 and physical health, to give them that education which 
 will realli/ fit them for the highest usefulness, happi- 
 ness and respectability in society. Yet I feel that this 
 course is hazardous to my reputation as a teacher, in a 
 community whose prejudices seem to be so decidedly in 
 favor of the daily satchel, and where the interest 
 and progress of the pupil in school are so apt to be 
 measured by the number of lessons to be studied at 
 home. 
 
 But I have good authority in favor of these views. 
 I have spoken only of the mental health, and of that as 
 an ohject and guide; medical writers would favor the 
 same course, I believe, without exception, on the ground 
 of physical health. Dr. Warren, in allusion to the abuses 
 prevalent in fashionable education, says : 
 
 " The importance of health to the regular exercise of the faculties of mind, as 
 well as those of body, is very well understood in theory, and very generally 
 neglected in practice. We are daily seen to accumulate the treasures of science 
 on intellects, where the physical machinery is disordered and made useless by the 
 burden. What is the value of a brilliant genius, or a highly cultivated mind, to a 
 weak and laboring frame." 
 
21 
 
 Butj as I have endeavored to show, a strict adherence 
 to the laws of mental health — and by this we secure 
 physical health also — is the only sure and effectual way 
 of really producing "a brilliant genius, or a highly 
 cultivated mind." We hazard all, when we risk health 
 in any sense or manner. 
 
 " When we regard the influence of a debilitated body on the more delicate sex, 
 we find it not less distressing. A young female at the age of twelve or fourteen 
 prjesents a beautiful figure, rosy cheeks, an airy step, and the fulness of life and 
 happiness in every movement. As she advances, her vivacity naturally lessens ; 
 but as if it would not be soon enough extinguished, it must be repressed by art. 
 The lively motions of the body and limbs must be checked, the spirits must be 
 restrained, and a sort of unnatural hypocrisy made to conceal every ingenuous 
 movement. The activity of disposition is destroyed; by confinement she loses 
 the inclination for exercise, and passes from her school to a state of listlessness at 
 
 home, or to frivolous and useless amusements, or perhaps to fresh tasks The 
 
 fruit, so fair without, is found decayed within, when scarcely matured. Next the 
 roses of the countenance wither ; the limbs are feeble and tottering ; the vivacity 
 is extinguished ; the whole system undermined, and ready to fall on the first 
 shock. Of what use now are all the finery of accomplishment, and the rich stores 
 of literature and of science, the fruits of so many years' labor ? 
 
 " What I have now stated as the result of the mode of female education in use 
 at present, is no picture of the imagination ; it is a fair representation of what we 
 are compelled to encounter in almost daily experience." 
 
 The following extracts are from Dr. Brigham's " Ee- 
 marks on the Influence of Mental Cultivation on 
 Health." 
 
 " An improvement in female education has become very necessary in this 
 country. It is lamentable, and in fact alarming, to find that the females of the 
 United States, especially those in cities and those belonging to the most wealthy 
 class, are in general more delicate and feeble than those in several countries in 
 Europe. From my own observation I am confident that a far greater proportion 
 of the females seen in the cities of this country, are pale, slender, and apparently 
 unhealthy, than of those seen in the large towns of England and France. 
 But there is no other country where the females receive so early and so much 
 intellectual culture; and where so little attention is paid to their physical 
 education." 
 
 Again: "Little attention is given in the education of females, to the physio- 
 logical differences of the sexes. Teachers seldom reflect that in them the nervous 
 system naturally predominates ; that they are endowed with quicker sensibilities 
 than men, and have imaginations far more active, that their emotions are more 
 intense, and their senses alive to more delicate impressions; and therefore require 
 
22 
 
 great attention ; lest this exquisite sensibility, which, when properly and naturally 
 developed, constitutes the greatest excellence of women, should either become 
 excessive by too strong excitement, or suppressed by misdirected education. If 
 here was the proper place, it would be easy to show that efforts to make females 
 excel in certain qualities of mind which in men are considered most desirable, — to 
 make them as capable as men, of long continued attention to abstract truths, 
 would be to act contrary to the dictates of nature as manifested by the organization, 
 and would tend to suppress all those finer sensibilities, which render them in every 
 thing that relates to sentiment and affection far superior to men. 
 
 "But in general the mental peculiarities of the female mind are not regarded in 
 education. Their intellectual powers are developed to the greatest degree, and 
 thus their natural sensibility is changed or rendered excessive." 
 
 It is no degradation to females that the qualities of 
 their minds are not those of the male mind, any more 
 than it is that their chins are not covered with a beard. 
 They would be most unlovely, if they were different 
 from what they are in this respect. No true man can 
 love a woman with a masculine mind; and no true 
 woman can love a man with a feminine mind. Both 
 sexes are most lovely in each other's eyes, and most 
 perfectly adapted to promote each other's happiness, just 
 in proportion as they are, in all their qualities^ most 
 distinctly male and female. They are different from 
 each other throughout their entire mental^ as well as 
 physical organization ; and the union of the two in one, 
 is perfect in proportion to this difference. The two 
 cannot be compared by the terms superior and inferior. 
 They are equals, though not alike. The only terms of 
 comparison are male and female. They are made for 
 each other. And it takes both to make a perfect one, 
 and each is equally an essential part. Justice to both, 
 then, requires that they should be educated for each 
 other; the male, as a male ; and the female, as a female. 
 It is cruelly wronging the female, therefore, to attempt 
 to develop in her mind the qualities of the male mind ; 
 and you rob her future spouse, as well as herself — just in 
 proportion as you succeed in doing this — of those things 
 
23 
 
 that render a wife, a companion, a mother, most happy^ 
 desirable and lovely. Is it not the part of folly then, nay^, 
 of blind insanity, to push the two sexes, during the tender 
 forming years of childhood and youth through the same 
 rigid and unyielding course of education. Think of a 
 college course for females ! As well might we educate 
 boys and young men to fill the relations in life of 
 female gentleness, affection and sensibility. 
 
 ' It is the province of true education to provide the 
 means of developing the mind according to its organic germi- 
 nal structure. The sex exists in the germ. The mind is 
 horn either male or female ; and whether it be the one 
 or the other, it is so in all its qualities. And we might 
 as well attempt to develop the apple seed into a pear- 
 tree, as the female germ into a masculine mind. Any 
 effort, therefore, to give the female mind characteristics 
 that do not naturally belong to it, is not only vain, — 
 would that this' were all! — but is a cruel violation of 
 the laws of health and growth; it is an attempt to 
 untwist the living fibres and pervert them to unnatural 
 purposes. If the female mind acts, it must act as a 
 female mind ; it must seek and appropriate nourishment 
 as a female mind, and must grow as a female mind ; it 
 cannot do otherwise, any more than an apple tree can 
 appropriate nourishment and grow as an elm. Child- 
 ren and youth are dependent upon others for the 
 means of such nourishment and growth. If these are not 
 supplied, the true qualities of the mind are not devel- 
 oped, but remain in infantile feebleness. The healthy 
 balance of the mind is destroyed, and the faculties are 
 marred and distorted. It is therefore cruelly depriving 
 the female of her rights, to attempt to educate her like 
 the male. Let her be educated according to the organic 
 structure^ nature and destiny of her mind. Let her true 
 
24 
 
 character and the real wants of her mind for the means 
 of nourishment and growth be oiir basis and guide in 
 education. That is^ let us observe strictly the conditions 
 of health and growth, rather than make some ulterior 
 object our aim and law, and we may then have reason to 
 hope that all will be well. We shall then educate females 
 as females and for the sphere of females, and shall not 
 sacrifice them, in the bloom and loveliness of youth, on 
 the altar of foolish and vain ambition, or to ignorg^nt and 
 misguided affection. We shall then do the best that can 
 be done, to preserve, in integrity, all the attributes and 
 peculiar qualities of the female character, and to give 
 them their proper means of growth. 
 
 Let it not be inferred, from what has been said, that 
 females are not to drink at the same fountains of knowl- 
 edge at which males drink ; that they are to be deprived 
 of any of the branches that are adapted and congenial 
 to their nature. Very far from it. They must study 
 language, science, philosophy, art, religion, &c., sometuhat 
 as males, yet essentially as females. They, as well 
 as males, must be made acquainted with the laws of their 
 structure, the laws of society, the laws of Nature and 
 the laws of God. And such studies, if adapted, will be 
 delightful to them. But the different sexes will naturally 
 study these things in a different manner, in different 
 proportions and to a different extent. For many things 
 are required to properly nourish and develop the 
 female mind, that the male mind does not need and 
 could not appropriate ; and vice versa. Females will 
 therefore excel in one thing, and males in another. In 
 fact, they will derive different instruction from the same 
 lesson, and often manifest equal excellence, though of a 
 different kind. 
 
 The structure of the female mind is more delicate and 
 
25 
 
 more susceptible ; it cannot, therefore, either with profit 
 or safety, be kept in that constant, continued and severe 
 tension of which the male is capable. It requires a 
 greater variety and more frequent change. 
 
 But I would not fail to express my dissent from the 
 practice of many parents who set aside, as it were, a 
 certain number of years for the technical education of 
 their daughters, and, during that, period, drive the 
 e'ducational engine to its utmost capacity. Just as if a 
 certain portion of human existence must be sacrificed to 
 pain, drudgery, and privation of various kinds, for the 
 sake of being qualified for a certain other portion. The 
 Divine Providence requires no such sacrifice ; but would 
 have the measure of evert/ period of life full of all the 
 education, all the enjoyments and all the usefulness that 
 properli/ belong to that period. And this is the Lord's way 
 of qualifying for the future. According to the Divine 
 Economy, we are never required to sacrifice to-day to 
 to-morrow. If we obey His commandments, and observe 
 His laws, each day, each stage of existence has its 
 allotted pleasures as well as duties, and both are at all 
 times essential to a perfect and healthy growth. 
 
 It is owing to one of the abuses of which I complain, 
 arising from the want of a proper adaptation, that 
 teachers are so frequently led to say to their pupils: 
 submit to this drudgery, perform this unadapted and 
 painful task to-day, and to-morrow's lessons will be all 
 the easier and all the pleasanter for it. This is like 
 " robbing Peter to pay Paul." We have no right to place 
 the child in such a dilemma ; and we should not feel 
 obliged to do so, if we were always led by the true ends 
 of education ; for this is a sacrifice of those ends. Each 
 day, each moment of life should have its due. The 
 child' should be deprived of nothing that its present 
 4 
 
26 
 
 state requires ; and should be subjected to no task 
 which its present capacity is not equal to, by a natural 
 exercise of its faculties, however loud may be the imag- 
 ined calls of to-morrow for aid. I would say, give the 
 study up at once ; nay, abandon it forever, if need be, 
 rather than sacrifice anything that properly belongs to 
 the existence of to-day. For we certainly sacrifice the 
 future well-being, just in proportion as we, in any sense, 
 sacrifice what belongs to the present ; for the good of 
 the future is built upon the good of the present. These 
 views do not preclude any properly adapted labor, or 
 task, however severely it may tax the natural and orderly 
 action of the faculties; provided such action is not 
 excessive. 
 
 It is thought by some that, during the period of school 
 education, every thing, or nearly every thing must give 
 place to that. This is a great mistake. There are many 
 things in the family relations, and in social life that are 
 quite as essential to the proper formation of the charac- 
 ter of the juvenile portion of human being as school 
 lessons. The former should not interfere with the 
 latter, nor the latter with the former. The faculties of 
 the mind, like the branches of a tree, should all be 
 growing at once ; it is not in accordance with the laws 
 of organic life to push forward a part and then go back 
 and bring the others forward. I have no sympathy 
 with that view or feeling that would deprive a young 
 lady of any proper degree of social intercourse, or of 
 cultivation of the society of the other sex, because of her 
 school ; neither would I say a word to encourage an 
 excess of either ; abuse is bad on either side. It is a 
 most unnatural state of society that requires, or permits 
 the separation of boys and girls in their school educa- 
 tion. They are designed by nature to grow up together, 
 
27 
 
 and to be formed by each other's influence. The relation 
 of brother and sister is not suflicient ; children require 
 society beyond the family circle. But where this 
 relation does not exist ; where a girl or a boy grows up 
 entirely without the influence of the opposite sex, it 
 is the oddest of created beings. One of the most 
 essential parts of the character is left in the germ for 
 want of the proper means of growth. Such beings 
 are therefore most lamentably deficient in that which 
 gives human society one of its sweetest charms. 
 
 And there is music, and needle-work, and many 
 seemingly unimportant little domestic affairs, which are 
 nevertheless much more essential to sound mental health 
 and growth, yea, and to happiness too, and this daily, 
 than so much French and German ; and not only this, 
 but all these things are at the same time aiding in 
 qualifying the female mind for her sphere in life. And 
 which qualifications does the sensible young man prize 
 most highly in a candidate for partnership for life, those 
 acquired from school books, or from the domestic duties 
 and the social relations ? Of course, neither should be 
 neglected. And neither should be sacrificed to the 
 other. Let each have its place. And then each, instead 
 of interfering, will contribute to the highest perfection 
 of the other. But I would be understood to regard 
 the hours of the school room, or an equivalent portion 
 of time, as suf&cient for school education. And I have 
 arrived at this conclusion, on the ground of mental 
 health and physical health, as well as of the led future 
 qualification. This is the true way to have a sound mind 
 in a sound body; and so to live as, in the highest 
 degree, to fulfill all the conditions of the present, and 
 be, at the same time, in the most perfect manner qualify- 
 ing for the future. 
 
28 
 
 I have long been convinced that^ if this principle, 
 naftiely, health, (and all is embraced in that one word,) 
 were adopted as a controlling ohjed, our children would 
 become more perfectly educated in everi/ sense of the 
 word ; that they would better fulfill the conditions of their 
 present being, and would be very much better qualified for 
 their place in future society ; for everi/ faculty would thus 
 receive its proper means of nourishment and growth ; 
 and none would be surfeited or overtaxed. And phys- 
 ical health would not be offered up a willing sacrifice 
 to the Moloch of pride and doting ambition. The virgin 
 might wear her roses into womanhood, and the young 
 man preserve his energy ; insane hospitals would be rob- 
 bed of many of their tenants, and the grave of a large 
 portion of its premature occupants. 
 
 A school conducted on these principles, must neces- 
 sarily be limited in its numbers. The teachers must be 
 living teachers; and mind^ more than books, must be their 
 study, and their constant^ daily study. No labor-saving 
 machinery can be adopted. The teacher must be more 
 than an automaton, (wound up for action at some pre- 
 vious day, perhaps in college,) and his pupils more than 
 parrots. Parents must learn to be better satisfied with a 
 little real progress, than with much false appearance of 
 learning; — to be in the habit of thinking and of asking, 
 not hoiv much or hoiv rapidly their children are acquiring^ 
 but whether their faculties are healthily, happily, indus- 
 triously and vigorously occupied ; not hoiv much they are 
 doing ^ but ivhat they are doing and how they are doing it; 
 and most especially what is their state of mind when oc- 
 cupied. Then we may hope for a change which will be a 
 real improvement. But, if parents are apprehensive that 
 their children do not receive the greatest possible advan- 
 tage from their school, because it does not subdue the 
 
29 
 
 buoyancy and elasticity of their spirits and oppress them 
 with hard lessons at home, or because they do not study 
 this branch and that, which are supposed to be fashionable 
 or necessary to some future accomplishment — teachers 
 must, in a measure, accommodate themselves to the pre- 
 judices of their patrons, and sometimes submit to embar- 
 rassments which interfere with what they conceive to be 
 the highest good of the pupil. Parents are often not 
 satisfied with the slow progress o^ growth, whose processes 
 cannot be hurried; they want to see, forthwith, some 
 tangible results ; as they would count the volumes of an 
 increasing library. And yet the greatest benefits of a 
 proper course of mental culture, are out of sight ; they 
 consist of those internal organic changes which are rather 
 a development of moral and intellectual strength and capa- 
 city, than acquired learning. It is not till moral and in- 
 tellectual capacity, which is formed only by the properly 
 adapted means of nourishment and action, rather than 
 accumulated knowledge and accomplishment, become the 
 leading aim and end, and parents learn to appreciate this, 
 and judge rightly concerning it, that we shall witness those 
 changes which are most desirable to be introduced in 
 school education. It is a most discouraging fact — dis- 
 couraging to him who would zealously study out the 
 true principles of the art of education, and be faithful to 
 those principles in his calling — that parents often seek 
 the merely fashionable, the conventional, the external, 
 in preference to what the true interests of education de- 
 mand ; and that they frequently give their confidence 
 and their encouragement to mere tyros — where such 
 superficial objects can be most perfectly secured — 
 rather than to those of long and faithful experience. 
 
 • But it seems necessary to guard against misconstruc- 
 tion of the views that have been presented. I would 
 
30 
 
 not be understood as advocating any loose system of 
 education. I have no sympathy with the idea that 
 would leave the young to do what and as they please ; 
 very far from it. Their tastes and inclinations are fre- 
 quently in a very perverted state ; and, even if they 
 were not so, the rational principle of their mind is not de- 
 veloped. They know not how wisely to choose for, or 
 to guide, themselves. Of the various things that are 
 properly adapted to their capacity both to learn and to 
 do, some are capable of affording them more pleasure 
 than others ; and they are quite likely to avoid the less 
 agreeable as dbsolidely distasteful and repulsive, when the 
 question is really only one of degree of pleasure — and 
 when too the less agreeable is the more necessary and 
 useful. If left to themselves, the young and inconsiderate 
 will of course choose those things which they love lest^ 
 whether in mental or in physical action. It is for this 
 reason that they must often be compelled to do what we 
 think hest, rather than what they choose. Indeed com- 
 pulsion is an instrument of most constant and important 
 use in our own, as well as in our children's develop- 
 ment. We are often obliged to compel ourselves to do 
 the less agreeable of two things ; and we do it in obedi- 
 ence to our reason, to law, or to expediency. We must 
 treat our children in this respect as we treat ourselves; 
 for we are obliged to reason and to make laws for them. 
 Their judgment is not yet formed ; and they are incapa- 
 ble, but in a very imperfect degree, of compelling them- 
 selves to do what is, on the whole, best to be done. Pu- 
 pils often require compulsion, in one form or another, to 
 make them get their lessons — however well adapted 
 these may be — because of a natural repugnance, which 
 we all feel, at being subjected to any rules, or restraints 
 upon liberty. When, then, we have satisfied ourselves 
 
31 
 
 that what we think it best for our children to do is 
 ^properly adapted to their capacity^ we should insist, and 
 most perse veringly insist upon their doing* it, and doing 
 it with promptness and energy. We should never yield 
 to any plea of disinclination or of distaste. They must 
 obey. They must perform the task. And they will 
 find their reward certainly in the higher act of obedi- 
 ence, and in the act of performance also ; — unless we 
 have made a mistake in regard to adaptation. For we 
 are so organized by our Creator, that there is always a 
 rewarding pleasure in a proper^ healthy action of our fac- 
 ulties. 
 
 But, to compel them to do ivhat is not adapted, is a very 
 different thing. This is an unpardonable wrong. It is 
 a cruel abuse of our relation to our children, or our 
 pupils. It is what we have no right to do, whatever 
 may be our motive or end, and however great the imag- 
 ined future advantage to be gained by it. Another 
 abuse of compulsion arises from yoking the slow scholar 
 with the quick one, and then driving both up to the ex- 
 tent of speed of the latter; just as if we were to harness 
 the heavy, clumsy draught horse beside the light and 
 fleet coach horse, and expect the same duty from the 
 two. 
 
 Yet I would not be understood as encouraging, in any 
 degree, a tame and spiritless application. On the con- 
 trary it is very important that the young ^ho\Adi form 
 the habit, not only of doing thoroughly and well what 
 they do, but of working with vigor and energy while 
 they work. This is indispensable, and especially so, 
 when all the school labor is performed in the usual school 
 hours, which will -be the case, particularly with girls, in 
 proportion as we are guided by the true philosophy both 
 of mental and bodily health and mental acqukement. 
 
32 
 
 Again, we have no right, in any sense, to sacrifice any 
 of the present conditions of life, in regard to our child- 
 ren, to a supposed future advantage. The laws of de- 
 velopment forbid this. The true interests of the future 
 also forbid it. If we see fit to force ourselves through a 
 course of weeks, months, or years of unadapted and un- 
 rewarding "Jn^^/^^^y," for the sake of an imagined future 
 gain, it may be well perhaps for us to do so. But to 
 treat those in this way whom Providence has commit- 
 ted to our care, as He has our children, for the daily 
 means of human growth, is an outrage upon our trust. Let 
 the future enlighten the present, but never control it ; at 
 least no farther than the idea of a completed temple 
 controls the workmanship of the successively forming 
 parts. Each part should be formed in perfection for its 
 own sake as a part ; the foundation, as a foundation ; a 
 wall, as a wall, &c. There can be no greater folly than 
 an attempt to develop the man in the child. Let each 
 stage of human being be formed in perfection, as it 
 comes successively to be present. The best that we can 
 do towards building the man, is, in childhood, to pro- 
 vide the means of forming a perfect child.