The Portland daily press., 1875-06-08
Stumbling Blocks.

education does not cleanse the heart and pre-
vent sin, it must also be conceded that a
good education gives an honest and honora-
BILE man new means of usefulness; and that,
so far as increase of knowledge has any effect
on the moral character, its effect is beneficial
not injurious. Whatever facilitates the ac-
QUESTION of learning by the child, or by the
adult, is an aid TO education also, and bless
ing to mankind.
Two great stumbling blocks in the way OF
an English or American child getting an ed
ucation are our alphabet and our tables of
weights and measures. This has been per-
ceived for more. than century, but the blocks
have been considered too large,to.b be moved.
In our days, however, we have become &C
customed to gigantic operations, and it is
time that we undertook the removal of these
two great hindrances and clogs to the tri-
umphs of civilization, and the progress of the
English Commonweaths.
The Arabic or decimal notation in Arith
metic is in use in so many nations OF the
earth, and is so naturally associate with the
figures, that we may not care to displace it.
There might be some advantages in taking
eight for radix; from the convenience in
architecture, carpentry, ETC., OF consecutive
halving; and from eight being the number of
the fingers, omitting the thumbs; but those
advantages would not counterbalance the dis
advantages of its change.
The tables of weights and measures ought
therefore to be as our money is, on decimal
scale. And of course it would be an addi-
tional advantagesif our units of measurement
conformed also to a universal standard. The
French system has been largely adopted by
other nations, and the only objection made
to our adoption of it, is that it was started in
France at time when infdeity triumphed,
and may therefore be considered as mark
of the beast;;' but this objection will hardly
weigh much with any branch of the Chris
tian church.
The only quantities to which decimal nota-
ton cannot readily be applied, are time and
angle. The French tried to divide the year
into 36 weeks of ten days each, but that was
a needless affront to Jews and. Christians,
since SO is not multiple of ten, and the
attempt failed. They also tried to divide the
quadrant into 100 degrees instead of 80, but
that also failed. Some future mathematician
may possibly suggest division of time and
angle more conveniently convertible than the
present; but the properties of the equiateral
triangle seem to require that the radix shall
not be decimal, but contain the factor three.
Were it not for our tables OBJECT, rods, &C.,
of grains, pennyweights, &C., of gills. pints,
gallons, bushels, &C., &C., the whole labor of
learning arithmetic would be reduced to
learning the four rules in whole numbers and
decimals, and years Of toll over the slate and
pencil would be saved, and be applied in
real education or the oyo, tho hand, aud the
judgment and Imagination.
For our defective alphabet there is no de-
fence and no excuse. The spelling match
mania which has RACED with such fury in the
United States for the last twelve month, has
called public attention forcibly to the mon
strous anomalies of English cacogray by falsely
called orthography. The Horatian law that
usage is authority and law in language, is not
applicable here; since the spelling of the
English tongue does not depend apon the
usage OF the educated, but upon the diction-
aries employed by the proof-readers Of the
largest publishing houses; which fix the
written form of the langu age ; and tyrannically
prevent individual authors from following
their own judgement.
The only complete remedy would be in a
complete revision of the alphabet, and the in
PRODUCTION of about a dozen new letters. to
represent the sounds which our English tongue
has in excess of the continental languages.
Actual experiments in the schools both in
England and America, has shown that a
child can learn to read first in SO or 40 let
ter alphabet.a afterward in ordinary books,
very mnch quicker than he can in ordinary
books alone How immense therefore would
be the saving of time did we use only 40 let
ter alphabet. And if the time saved by the
metrical system, and by phonotype were ap-
piled by Frobeps or any other scheme, in de-
veloping the child's power of perception, in
imagination, invention, judgment and ac-
ton, the gain would be still greater than the
mere saving of time would indicate; since the
ordinary mode of teaching to cypher and to
read, actually blunts the child's moral and
intellectual senses.