The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-01-11
THE SCHOOL OF LIFE.


ing read at the last meeting of the Teach
evs Association.
/ Life is q school, in the first place, be-
cause we begin from the first TO learn in it..
We sometimes speak of children beginning
to 90 to school. But we do not speak cor
rectly. Children begin to go to school
/ when they begin to learn, and they begin
to learn as soon as they begin to open their
little eyes upon life. The face of the
mother is the first lesson set for a child to
study. It's first impression is the smile of
that face, which in due time awakens a
responsive smile upon its own face. 1t
passes then to the study of its own hands,
the furniture of the room, the inmates of
the family, strangers who may happen to
come in and enlarge its sphere. 1t ex-
plores the various apartments of the home.
These are its first object lessons; COM
prising faces, forms, colors, plays. 1t soon,
too learns some simple lesson in moral
duty: that there is a distinction between
right and wrong; that it is approved for
certain actions and blamed for certain
other actions; that Il superior will is placed
above it; that there are others in the home;
brothers and sisters whose rights it must
respect These and other things the child
at once begins to learn, on entering the
school of life. And these little accumula-
tons of knwledge, as insignificant as we
may deem them, are the foundation of all
that child can know in the great school
of life.
There are the first steps,-steps that
must be taken. 1t must begin at the be-
ginning, and that beginning is not the A,
B, c, of the public school. The mother is
the first teacher; the home the first school
room; the members of the family the first
schoolmates.
One must carry with him this idea that
life is school, by which l mean that this
existence is given for the purpose of our
instruction, development and improvement.
Education is not a matter confined to a
few years of the early life, but is to run all
through it. What we acquire at school
are but the implements of education, the
tools by which we dig it out. Or in other
words, and to use different figure, at the
public school we but lay in part, in con-
junction with the home, the foundation on
which we are to build all our days. | am,
for this reason, always panied to hear of
persons having finished their education.
The very expression shows that the one
who thus speaks has no idea what is in
volved in education.
Finished an education. This can never
be done, so long as there is truth to know
and human powers to discipline. No one
mind can possibly in single lifetime mas
ter even one department of knowledge.
Great men who take broad and philoso-
phic view of human knowledge never speak
of their work being done. They are con-
stantly pushing Investigations in new di-
rections. Indeed there is certain init
mate connection between all branches of
education, so that in order to fully compre-
bend one we must have at least knowl-
edge of the rudiments of the others. For
instance, astronomy is involved with math-
amatics and with many departments of
philosophy. No narrow view will do, and
surely there are subjects enough here to
command a life. The poet says:
Were man to live coeval Within sun
The patriarchial pupil would
Be learning still, and dying leave
His lesson half unlearned.
Nature is to be studied all through this
school of life.
Does any one believe that the short Pc
Rod of thoughtless school life is enough to
understand the great facts of nature? How
much do our studies involve of natural
facts and law and besides science is ever
changing. 1t is not now what it was at
the beginning of this cantury. New dis
coveries have been made, new principles
laid down, scientific writers are continual
ly opening up new paths of knowledge.
Nature itself is found to be larger do
main than it used to be.
The heavens and the earth contain more
than our ancestors ever dreamed of. New
sciences have wholly grown up in the pres
ent generation, and the theories of the old
ones have been exploded and replaced by
others. New theories of heat, electricity,
&C., have come into being, and the laws of
science are not only applied to matter, but
to mind and to social relations. One must
keep his eyes and ears open to receive
truth from all quarters, as it is revealed by
the powers of science. Think of the
science Of the heavens, involving theories
of the air, the light, the heat. Think Of
the science of the EARTH involving geology,
botany, mineralogy, natural philosophy in
all its departments, and then let me ask if
there is not room enough for the study of
life?
But there is man himself-suflicient for
the study of life.
"The proper study of mankind is man"
Persons often stock their minds with a
knowledge of everything else, but neglect
that which is the most important of ala
knowledge of themselves. How many
stumble through life and gather but little
information concerning the faculties and
functions and laws of their own being
Even the physical constitution, the condi
ton of health, the quality and quantity of
food, are subjects that receive no attention.
How few pay any adequate attention to
their moral AMI intellectual and social ma
lures. And yet there are separate philo
sophies that deal with the powers and laws
of all these departments. We have anato-
my and physiology fol- the body; moral