Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-12-01
THURSDAY, DECEMBER !, 1854.
OLD AND NEW SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION.

deeply almost from the moment they began to
think, "and where, consequently, whatever is en-
tirely and fundamentally new must be fundamen-
tally false"
We have often been reminded Of this dictum
Of the great pulpit orator by the new systems
Of education which in modern times have been pro-
pounded by their respective votares for the pur-
pose of radically changing the processes by which
certain results are to be reached in given time
It seems to be forgotten by many that while the
world has made progress both in the discovery and
10 the diffusion Of knowledge, there has been no
change in the faculties or in the cabre Of iudivi
dual minds at their birth, and that if the minds
Of men are to be informed by culture and by study
there can be no dispensation from that labor and
assiduity which, in the nature Of things, are the
conditions of all mental improvement
We have before u.s. for instance, publishers
circular recommending certain textbooks for COM
mon schools in which popular work on English
Grammar receives the following clumsy endorse
ment:
the impartpg knowledge of English Grammar to the
youthful mind should hail with delight book which will
certainly relieve them Of at least hdJ their fT0nbte ana
make the remainder light"
Now, we are by no means certain that text
book, whatever may be its subject-matter, which
relieves youthful minds "of at least half their
trouble and makes the remainder ight" is for this
reason proper book to place in the hands of the
.arner. All schemes for facilitating the acquisi-
ion of learning which proceed on the assumption
that mental improvement can be attained by simply
nrelieving students of half their labor and max
ing the remainder light" are schemes founded on
m ignorance of the nature of faculties and OF
the real end of education. And all discussions on
this topic which imply that any "royal road to
knowledge" can be thrown up by human art or de-
vice are discussions which prove nothing save the
soiolism Of those who engage in them.
But, within certain limits, the processes OF edu-
cation afford not only Legitimate but very pro-
DER and interesting subject of inquiry. The rela-
tive place that should be given in complete and
liberal educational course to the physical sciences
and to the classics opens up such theme for dis
ousson and, in illustration of thi, fact, we OBJ
serve that Parliamentary Commission has recently
made new report in England "upon the revenues
and management Of certain colleges and schools,
and the studies pursued and instruction given
therein" of which perhaps the most interesting
portion is found in the appendix, giving the opin-
ions of some Of the first men in England upon the
relations and intrinsic worth Of the two kinds of
knowledge-tbe linguistic and the scientific.
The only danger Of all such inquiries resides in
the fact that the devoees of particular studies are
under the constant temptation of doing injustice
70 other branches Of human thought or investiga-
tion. The bigotted admirer Of the classics, as
means Of educational discipline and cultivation,
would fam crowd the physical sciences out Of his
curriculum, or give them only beggarly place in
it. The one sided physicist, in his addiction to
the positive sciences, may wish unduly to dis
psrspe athe humanities" In point of fact there
is no question of conflict between them. They
should both have their recognised place in every
system of education which processes to be liberal
and thorough One Of the classical 'nartinets Of
Rugby having expressed the opinion before the
Parliamentary Commission that the judgment OF
. 6rst-rate scientific man, who is not a frst-rate
man in classical attanments, if depreciatory of
the disciplinary value Of classical attainments,
is not of very high value, was immediately asked
II he did not think that the opinion Of 6rst-rate
classical scholar, not having the same rank scien
tifcaly, if tending to deprecate the disciplinary
vaue of scientific attainment, was also not of very
great value? He replied as follows:
.No, do not think it would be in the degree at
n. bscsnse il Il essentially part Of the Kind Of study
to hnov human nature and 1t s not part of the other
The one i naturally led to the study OF man. and to the
study therefore, Of what good for the discipline OF the
mind the other has not studied man. but Things ana 10
not his business TO know what good for the discipline OF
the mind The study of the philosophy of the queston
comes properly within the sphere oil one man sclenoe
but not properly within the sphere OF the other man
science"
There is both force and ingenuity in the reply,
but vet who can admit that it is Of sufficient avail
to confute those who claim disciplinary value for
the study Of the physical sciences2 The utility Of
this study was thus defended by DR.. Carpenter be-
fore the Commission
Mathematical training exercises the mind most siren
uously in very groove, so 70 speak It starts
Tn sroms which nothing 10 do with external pho
msna but which the mind finds IN itself and the whole
.,.nce a mathematics may be evolved out OF the oriena
syoms which the mind finds IN itself. Now IL 10 the
1920 NJ scientific training that the mind nnds the object
=, M study In the external world As Bacon says Homo
~ - ;rf,rpr,s nainrs so it appears to me that
s,a b;ch leaves out Of view the relation OF man to
trns nature very detective oDe and that the fscu