The Jeffersonian Democrat. [volume] (Chardon, Ohio) 1854-1865, 1863-02-27
The Progress Of True Education.

Mr.. Beecher writes thus expressiveIy
in the Independent; .1f Il took as much
Of our time during pur whole life 10 think
abou, eating, sne drinking, and dressing,
and lifting our hands, as Il does when We
are children, we never should be any
thing else than children. ln some way
or other, progress requires that man
should abbreviato his lower physieal ac-
lions. There h to be ia some way or
other, conquest made over these actions.
And itis the peculiar constitution OF which
| I have been speaking that enables a man
to do this SO that In certain lines the will
acquires facility OF Influencing each fac-
ulty, and each faculty acquires an aciion
that amounts to almost inslanianeousne
Take, for instance, boy that Is begin
ming to read. Six months boy requires
to learn 10 read column, and hold up
his head, and speak loud and plain, and
/ make no mistakes, and mind bis stops
/ and the page Is we'll blurred with finger
marks before he can do that. But how
is Il afterward? can read thai column
down, and make no mistake, not only
without thinking what single word Is
/ There are no words to me. Imerely see
the ideas behind them. The matefia
} element is gone. And what Is still more
curious and familiar, page can be reat
aloud without the reader being conscious
/, that he has read a sentence. A man shal
begin and read, ,'For as in Adam all die
even SO in Christ shall all be made alive,
and 90 from enc end to the other Of tha
] whole argument, and yet, this shall b
{ his course Of thought, When go to NeE
York to day, I think ! will go np Fulio
street, and call and see Mr.. Evans, whom
aeresd 10 meet at eleven o'clock. AM
: must not forget TO go around to the BAN
,, al Two o,clock, and see If those noies havl
been attended to- So he viii 90 on viii
Paups reasonings, and atthe same tim
be posted up and down the streets OF Nel
York, looking after The business Of the day
What strange facility 10 thatl The bo.
: that, at first, with blubbering lips and re'
: eyes, used to spell each word, and labo
!. hard to get out one verse after another
4 has now come TO state in which he nj
y only car read without the slightest hes
r ,a,ion or appare n. yolition. but can rea
u and keep all tie organs performing the
u proper functions. while bis whole min
y sand will-power are going of in ano,hs
y direction. His life is there; his body
! \ shaving aud working here. And see whit
q a subjugalion OF the lower faculties, an
q what an abbreviation Of the processes |
d action. there has been. See what life hs
y done it. What may be called materi'
8 servitude Is over. The frst thing thi
: we gain, then, by this automatic action I
= the faculties, is vast reduction OF time
! and motive power, and labor required e
1. the processes ofthe mind. The result
d that is, that the faculties are left free
'eI reach higher and farther. Their scoI
i Is increased. All those things which ha'
o. been subdued to unconscious &C ion, Tel
D. to liberate man sc that be can go on
= things that are less familiar. and that 7
. . quire to be familiarised. This is the pr
n cess Of learning-namely, that oftakil
to unfamiliar things, and subduing them
Is familiarity, by oft-recurring performans
And nothing is learned until the mil
ns comes to that state in which we can ma
g age it without thinking Of IL. This Is Z
!. process oftfae education"