Puslapio vaizdai
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existence, and to restore degraded human nature to its original privileges.

It may indeed be argued that a future eternal happiness is proposed to us as our great object by religion itself. But here we enter on an entirely different train of ideas. On this, as on many other subjects, the sacred writers have made use of language and expressions familiar to us; and with the more propriety in this instance, as all the ideas they give us of future reward are necessarily associated in our minds with that of perfect happiness. The mere idea of existence is of itself so delightful, that immortality, accompanied with an exemption from the troubles and evils of life, appears to us the height of felicity. But among the various imperfect representations afforded us to direct our hopes, we never find the idea of enjoyment held out as the great object, but always that of a state of greater purity and dignity. Sometimes we are told of "an incorruptible crown of glory," - "an exceeding weight of glory +,"-"the inheritance of the saints in light." Sometimes we are to be "partakers of the divine nature §;" we are told of new heavens and a new earth, where dwelleth righteousness |;" &c. &c. The word glory is

* 1 Peter, v. 4. Colossians, i. 12. 1 Peter, iii. 13.

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+2 Corinthians, iv. 17. § 1 Peter, i. 4.

constantly employed: and as this word is often used to designate the progress of a Christian in holiness in this world, and as we see that the faithful are, even here, "changed from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord," it appears that our reward is to be of the same nature as the means by which we are to obtain it, and that the regeneration begun in this life will be perfected in another. That law of our immortal souls, which impels us to seek after perfection, is thus sanctioned and confirmed by religion in the most energetic language. There is a natural instinct in the soul of man which leads him to the desire, the presentiment, of something nearer perfection. He continually examines, retouches, and corrects, not only his works, but the instruments with which he has produced them, and the methods of working devised by his sagacity. Hope, never realized, is yet never entirely frustrated. Though he cannot attain perfection, he gains improvement: to be always striving after more than he can accomplish, is a part of his lot in this world.

The great object of education should be to lay hold, as soon as possible, of this tendency; to excite, to foster, and to regulate it, should be our most sacred task. And as a rational being can attain the highest degree of hap

*2 Corinthians, iii. 18.

piness, only by following the course of his true destination, we should find that by inspiring our pupils with this desire of continually striving after perfection, we should in reality be forwarding the attainment of happiness itself.

Education, then, ought to agree with our two-fold destination: it ought to prepare a child for two successive states of existence: he is at the same time an immortal spirit, merely passing through this world, and a weak creature sent into it only to suffer and to die. We are so constituted that our nature harmonizes with both these vocations. The soul is endowed with some faculties which relate only to its sojourn upon earth, and with others which carry its hopes and views beyond this world. Both ought to be cultivated by education. Since God has not thought fit to call us directly to Himself, but has obliged us to seek Him by the path of human life, it becomes the strict duty of an instructor to furnish his pupil with every thing necessary for the journey.

But that life itself is only a journey, and that every period of it should be connected with the idea of advancement, are truths which should never be forgotten; and which seem to me not sufficiently dwelt upon in the various definitions which have been given of education. One would suppose that the object was to bring the pupil to a certain point, rather than to

give him such an impulse as would carry him. far beyond that point. And yet the most important thing of all is to give this impulse. The progress already made is not of half so much consequence as the wish to make still greater progress; so that we ought to be much less anxious as to how far a child has advanced in

his career, than as to the energy with which he seems disposed to pursue it farther.

Hence it is, that so many apparently wellconducted educations fail in their results ; hence it is, that so many minds become deteriorated. When there is no internal lively impulse, every thing decays, and dies away. Human nature is so constituted that we cannot stand still; if we do not advance we shall fall back; it requires a certain degree of strength to prevent our descent, and we never, perhaps, possess energy enough, except when we are endeavouring to ascend.

According to Kant, the object of education ought to be, "to develope in the individual all the perfection of which he is capable." This is an excellent definition; but as such a task cannot be completed in childhood, and requires an entire existence for its accomplishment, I would suggest a slight alteration, and would say, that it should be the aim of education, "to bestow upon the pupil the wish and the means of attaining that perfection, of

which he will at some future time be susceptible."

SECTION II.

How the greatest Improvement is to be made of the Natural and Social Inequalities of Human Beings.

FEW human undertakings resemble that of education; for the obstacle opposed by our natural imperfection to the accomplishment of every good work, is there presented to us in a double form, -in the teacher, and in the pupil in the workman, and in the material to be worked upon. Our zeal and our imagination are restrained on all sides, for our business is not to create, but to direct; and to direct, too, that opening of the mind, for the appearance of which we often have so long to wait. Our ideas of perfection would require, that when the work of education is finished, this developement of the mind should be completed, and that the noble attributes of humanity should display themselves in all their brightness: but we must not venture to hope for this satisfaction; for as social order imposes a certain limit upon whole classes of men, so does nature upon individuals.

We find from an attentive observation of children that they are severally endowed with faculties varying in power, and more or less

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