Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1856-02-19

In infancy, and which never ends: and boyrevay
perfect and convenient and usefal the instrp-
mentalItles for its requirement may be. they
never can render unnecessary or supersede in
tense and continued mental application on the
part of the student himself The child and the
man must use the means afft rded and their i'm
provement will be exactly proportioned to their
industry.
The other objection to which allusion was
made. Is found in the fact that these authors look
upon the pupils mind as thing to be filled up
and cramined in the speediest and easiest man
ner possible, with facts and doctrines or in other
woras, as nothing more than reservoir of greater
or less capacity, into which the the teacher is TO
pour all that he knows and all the contents of
! the text books, just quickly as he can that
! the mere memorizing of dates, places events and
The school book enunciations of elementary laws
and principles, constitutes education. This is an
icea which is sanctioned to very great and very
prejudicial extent by the practice of teachers,
and the thoughtless concurrence of parents In
ny opinion 1t is altogether erroneous and wholly
/ pernIeious.
| The chiIds mind is a germ it has within IL
SELF inherent elements of growth it has powers
which are self-acting, self-invigorating and self
increasing The mind of man stripped of its
acquisitions is hv means the same thing as
that OF the child, any more than the giant oak
stript of its luxuriant foliage is the same thing
as the acorn from which it grew The acorn has
grown under the kindly influences of the sun
shine and the rain, solely Nv the favor of exter-
nal appliances, while the mind has grown bv
the force of its own innate energies assisted bv
It's disposition or will to make use of external
appliances or aies. Nothing is more helpless
than an infant nothing which gives such little
promise of future strength and capacity. No
one would suppose that there was the germ of
what would some day become n Newton-that
those feeble powers of perception which now
seek to grasp the rainbow, would one day COM
prehend its existence and see the plan and SYM
metry of its construction; that those weak pow
ers OF reason which now overwhelmed with
confusion by the falling of an apple, would after
wards from that simple fact educe the sublime
law of gravitation. The child might possess all
the facilities and the instrumentalities which the
man has, but he inherently lacks the ability to
solve these great mysteries, and he never Will
bt oJic " iItH ulltll NINA mas
terminated and developed It's nascent powers.
Strictly speaking therefore, education as the
word itself imports is the process of mental de-
velorment-the unfolding of incipienf power.
il is not ended by merely proving the existence
of normal capacities by their manifestation-th
is only the beginning of the work which must
run through life, and which requires lifetime
for Its full and complete operation. 1t is work
running through infinite series of gradations,
and the mind undergoing the process receives
constantly increasing accessons Of strength and
vigor and capability as it proceeds from one de-
gree to another, just as a falling body receives
accumulations of .locity and momentum the
greater the distance which it travels Nor is
this work accomplished by simply calling the
attention of the child to the existence within
himself of certain faculties, and persuading or
even commanding him TO cultivate them as per-
fectly as possible; nor by pointing out and fur
nishing him with the instrumentalities by the
use of which he may hasten and increase his
own mental growth. Every aid, every facility
and every assistance that can be rendered are
necessary and invaluable; but you may give
child all the books globes maps and states in
Christendom and if vou do not awaken his
thirst for knowledge, and arouse his sumbering
latent energies into active vigorous exercise they
viii be of no earthly use to him. The mind
may employ many auxiliares as it chooses
but it must be the principal agent in producing
its own transmutations. This is a fact which
the experience of every obscrvant teacher proves.
Philosophy teaches the truth. But in adj
dition 10 all these requisites in the process of
mental development, one other thing is neces-
sary, and that is the cultivation and stimulation
of the chiids disposition or Will to improve; for
ii is principle lying at the bottom of all meta
physical science, that the viii IS the rudder to
guide and the power TO put in motion the whole
mental machinery. Its cooperation can never
be dispensed with, and the greater is It's strength
and the more persistent its effort, the greater
viii be the mental results and the higher the
mental character. How many persons have we
all known who attended the best schools term
after term, and year after year, who We're fur
nished with books and all other conveniences
and vet MISUNDERSTANDING they were endowed
with more than ordinary talents, were no better
informed, no wiser, no better off in any sense at
the close of their pupilage than they were at It's
commencement; and all this simply because
they had not disposition uW TO study.
In further elucidation and illustration of my
own views concerning what education should be-
l wish to allude TO a class of persons to be found
in every community, who have been busy all
their lives in the accumulation of isolated facts
remarkable circumstances, dates, events, and
perhaps the statements of theories and princi-
pies; such persons usually full of quotations
from the ancient and modern classics, and abound
in references not only to the current and staple
literature of the day, but also to books and
obscure authors-their memories are curiosity
shops tlled full of importations from every quar-
ter of the globe, and almost always they able
to draw at will from these great storehouses and
to make an apt use Of their acquisitions as &C.
casions demand. 1t is a great mistake to sup
pose, that simply because their memories are
filed to oyerfiowing, these persons well edu
Gated
/ know man whose memory is so rernar kable,