plication of philosophy to the comforts and conveniences of life, have increased a thousandfold the value, to each possessor, and to the whole human race, of the perceptive and conceptive faculties of the mind. Every one who observes the facts within his sphere, and reflects upon them, may find the key to some as yet unopened door in the temple of nature, or may excogitate results calculated to increase the happiness of man. The career that offers itself to the intellect surpasses immeasurably all that has ever been offered to the corporeal powers; and it might therefore reasonably be expected that intellectual development would be the subject of the same foresight now, which the development of the corporeal powers was wont to call forth in former days. It might be expected (although strength and activity of limb are left to come of themselves, under the unaided influence of that playful restlessness of the young which provides against muscular atrophy) that the training of the higher faculties of the mind into due vigour and perfect symmetry would be carefully studied as a science, and diligently practised as an art. It might be expected that the mechanism of observation and of thought, the nature and order of the processes by which, chiefly, wealth, and power, and fame are to be acquired, would be the subjects of an attention corresponding to the degree in which wealth, and power, and fame, are prized. It might be expected that every one-the poor man to the extent of his means, and the rich man to the extent of his knowledge-would seek to confirm and strengthen in his offspring the qualities by which the world is ruled.

The

That the endeavour would not be fruitless, we have abundant evidence. Reasoning from an analogy which cannot fail, we find that the human organism scarcely ever approaches, under the influence of casual impressions or spontaneous acts, to anything like the full measure of its powers. The average athlete is but the corporeal perfection of the average man-a perfection the result of labour, and which the common games of youth or pursuits of manhood are insufficient to produce or to maintain. most striking example upon record of the physical predominance of one class of men over all others with whom they came in contact, was furnished by the Roman legionaries, in the days of the Roman conquests. It may be explained by the system which trained each legionary like a gladiator; and it disappeared as that system was relaxed and abandoned. "Nulla enim alia re videmus populum Romanum orbem subegisse terrarum," says Vegetius," nisi armorum exercitio, disciplina castrorum, usuque militiæ." The citizens of Rome, as such, could possess no natural superiority over, and in some cases not even an equality with, the inhabitants of the countries they subdued; but the citizens of Rome were trained to the exercises and formed to the

discipline of war. Their physical powers were improved to the utmost, and they were inured to every variety of labour, fatigue, and hardship. The world has not witnessed a school of mental education upon a method so excellent, or upon a scale so grand; but the proverbial sagacity of the Jesuits, and the proverbial erudition of the Benedictines, may be cited to show that the mind will respond, always in some degree, and often vigorously, to a stimulus greater than that which is supplied by the usual events of life. It has been well said that nature throws forth her able men as a salmon does its spawn, but produces her great ones as a lioness does her cub-singly, and at rare intervals. Whenever the want of an able man is felt and acknowledged, it is almost invariably supplied from among a limited circle of lookerson, one of whom will find in the occasion a means of at once discovering and developing capabilities formerly dormant. The various persons whose duties have required them to undertake original investigations into the phenomena of physical science, have nearly always exhibited a remarkable intellectual growth as one reward of their exertions. They have become more cautious, more sagacious, more diffident than before; and there is not the slightest reason to suppose that they were, in the majority of instances, men of exceptional natural powers. On the contrary, the parallel facts connected with the muscular system, and the remarkable uniformity with which the faculties of reflection and judgment expand and strengthen under proper use, may conjointly be taken to prove that the ordinary life of civilized Europe does not develop either body or mind in a degree at all commensurate with their capacities for action. The cricket-field and the boating-club produce a certain amount of vigour and hardihood; but their most ardent votaries would be exhausted by the pastimes of a savage, or by the daily drill and duty of a soldier of old Rome. From the universities, and from schools of the first order, issue many men unquestionably of high attainments, and some of great and cultivated parts; but the aggregate of both classes may be said to have a point of resemblance to Brummell's finished cravat, and to suggest that a large number of "failures" have been quietly conveyed downstairs. In schools of an inferior kind, the attainments of the pupils are less conspicuous; and the existing state of mental education may be summed up in the earnest and weighty words of Professor Faraday, who declares that, "in physical matters, multitudes are ready to draw conclusions who have little or no power of judgment in the cases; that the same is true of other departments of knowledge; and that, generally, mankind is willing to leave the faculties which relate to judgment almost entirely uneducated, and their decisions at the mercy of ignorance, prepossessions, the passions, or even acci

dent." The same authority says again, that "society, speaking generally, is not only ignorant as respects education of the judgment, but is also ignorant of its ignorance."

It must be conceded, we apprehend, that in the present day no man is called upon to undergo a course of severe physical training, or to exercise the muscular system to the acme of its powers. But it must also be conceded that there have been conditions of society which rendered such training the duty of every one, and in which it was enforced by a public opinion of the most rigid kind. We think that, in the times in which we live, the duty of mental cultivation is at least equally binding, and that its performance requires to be prompted by the same incentive.

For we are convinced that a very large proportion of the stupidity now existing in the world is the direct result of a variety of influences, educational and social, which operate to the prejudice of the growing brain, either by checking its development altogether, or by unduly stimulating the sensorium at the expense of the intelligence. In the former case, general obtuseness is the result; and in the latter, subjugation of the reasoning powers to the sensations or emotions. We are entitled to think these conditions strictly artificial; and to look upon them as distortions, analogous, in some respects, to the physical distortions of Hindoo fakirism.

The educational influence which, more than any other, is concerned in producing them, appears to us to be due to confusion of thought on the subject of those very distinct realities called knowledge and wisdom. While the prevailing weaknesses of the human mind-those apparent to the philosopher, and those also which are manifest to the vulgar-are alike due to want of wisdom, the efforts of ordinary instructors, and the general current of the events of life, are chiefly valued as they appear calculated to impart knowledge. It is not surprising that such should be the case, a great impulse having been given to education in this country at a time when the operations of the mind were not sufficiently understood to allow of a just discrimination between them. Learning, and (prior to the modern development of various branches of science) learning of one especial kind, was essential to the attainment of a position in which wisdom could be conspicuously displayed. It followed that every man whose wisdom was known to the public, was known also to be

"A scholar, and a ripe and good one;"

while the illiterate, whatever their natural powers, were almost compelled to remain among the "mute inglorious Miltons" of the community. Moreover, learning was a thing apparent and undeniable, easily perceptible to many who were unable to fathom

The

its depths; while wisdom could only be recognised by the kindred wise, or in a fruition not always directly traceable to its causes. Hence, and in a manner not difficult to comprehend, arose a general impression that the acquisition of knowledge was the principal or even the only means of gaining wisdom; and this impression was confirmed by experience of the fact that mental development is frequently coincident with efforts to learn. exact relation between the two is not easy to define, even with all the aid afforded by recent advances in psychology; but, in former times, it was the opinion of the most advanced educationists, that a certain routine of teaching afforded the best discipline for the growing brain, and that this routine, when aided by good abilities, was certain to produce the highest attainable results-so that men of moderate or inferior performance, who had received "a good education," were considered to be the failures of nature, and not of the preceptor. The hypothesis was most comfortable, serving to shift responsibility from tutors and professors, and to place it where it was borne without a murmur; while the necessary interval between the schools and life was sufficient to render obscure any possible connexion between bad teaching and eventual stupidity. During the universal prevalence of such principles as these, commenced a movement which was formerly described as "the march of intellect," but which was, more correctly, a march of schooling. Men of various calibre, and various degrees of learning, were cordially united in an attempt to elevate the masses by education. For this purpose they organized a scheme by which to pour forth knowledge like water, and, in carrying it into practice, they spared neither age nor sex. Cheap publications explained everything-in a manner to be comprehended by everybody. The fathers of England were taught (with diagrams) the philosophy of their daily duties; the mothers, of their household avocations. Even unhappy little children, struggling through the sands of school, were caught and engulphed by the advancing wave. The great and good promoters of the original measure were overwhelmed by the co-operation of innumerable amateurs, who expected to make learning universal, by addressing, to the untaught, condensed statements of scientific results, and who looked forward to a time when the intellectual vigour of the community would be gauged by the reports of the Society for the Confusion of Useless Knowledge, or by the sale of illustrated penny serials, as the material prosperity is at present by the quarterly returns of the RegistrarGeneral. The idea seemed to be, that the diffusion of knowledge would act as a stimulant upon all minds of sufficient natural power, and would call forth their energies-would set them thinking, comparing, judging; and that the rest of mankind,

those not vitalized by the potent influence, were to be regarded only as caput mortuum, unworthy of consideration in a philosophical sense, however formidable in point of numbers.

Notwithstanding the great and sudden illumination to which we have referred, there is no evidence of any remarkable advancement, any increase at all commensurate with the pains bestowed, in that cultivation of mind by which alone knowledge can be applied or rendered useful. In every rank, children are taught many things which were unknown to their forefathers; and the operations of the Committee of Council on Education have wrought a marvellous change in the position, with regard to learning, of the sons and daughters of the labouring poor. But school work cannot be correctly estimated by the results of the half-yearly examination; and requires to be tested more severely, and more truly also, by the events of life. The reports of Her Majesty's Inspectors, especially for 1855-6, are well calculated to direct attention to this view of the case; and they show that the improvement which was hoped for, nay, almost expected, as a result of teaching, has not yet been realized. The young adults who have passed through aided parochial schools do not present any marked superiority, either moral or intellectual, over others who have not had that advantage; and the learning acquired at these institutions would appear to be of the most transitory kind. The words (already quoted) of Professor Faraday, rendered doubly emphatic by the known and habitual caution of their author, may be taken as conclusive with regard to persons of a higher station; and the whole evidence appears to show that the reasoning faculties, in all classes of the community, are very imperfectly and insufficiently developed imperfectly as compared with their natural capabilities-insufficiently when considered with reference to the extent and variety of information with which they are called upon to deal. We are compelled to seek for the causes of this deficiency in an educational system that makes no adequate provision for mental training; and we think that a brief review of the relations between the nervous centres and the impressions that form the basis of knowledge will enable us to point out the precise nature of the chief errors in existing practice, and to define the principles by adherence to which those errors might be obviated.

The first point to which we would call attention is the existence, in the young of the human species, of a distinctly duplex educability: depending upon distinct functions of the brain. It may be taken as conceded, we apprehend, by all physiologists, that the encephalon of man differs from that of other Mammalia chiefly by the super-addition of parts whose office it is to control the succession of ideas, and to determine