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injury, not only from the actual want of ideas, but from the debility and deterioration which such neglect directly occasions. Soil which is wholly uncultivated is not merely devoid of vegetation, but is of itself unfitted for its growth. So a grossly ignorant person is not only wanting in knowledge, but his mind is also debased and enfeebled. The understanding is, moreover, disciplined by the restraint to which it is subjected in obtaining knowledge, from its attention being fixed, and from the capacity so employed being constrained to pursue a direct course to the end of the allotted task.

Disciplining the capacities of the understanding to perceive ideas correctly, without which they cannot be rightly received, is analogous to disciplining the eye to view objects accurately, without which no true sensations from such objects can be communicated.

The efficiency with which the education of the understanding is attained, must moreover necessarily greatly depend on the correctness with which the reception of ideas, by whichever capacity, is accomplished. Our perceptions ought to be alike ready, clear, and adequate, in order to our obtaining due knowledge of each subject. Unless the intellectual food is duly masticated and digested, but little nutriment from it is derived. And this should be a leading object in mental discipline.

By the reception of knowledge according to its kind, is each particular capacity of the understanding both disciplined and cultivated according to its adaptation. As already pointed out in a former section, the kind of education best fitted for apprehension, is that which is natural, which qualifies it both for receiving ideas of, and for describing with readiness and facility, different common subjects, whether this is effected by speaking or by writing. This sort of education, however, although very valuable, and indeed essential, is but little resorted to systematically. The experience of daily life, for which also this exercise should completely prepare us, is the best mode of perfecting this capacity; and which in order to render it efficient and complete, should be fully carried out, although in such a way as not to render it artificial.

There seems to be no satisfactory reason, indeed, why the development of apprehension, which is a matter of very considerable importance, and which is accomplished mainly and directly by natural education-and indeed why natural education generally, should not be rendered as essential a portion of the regular instructory course pursued in every educational institution, as that of analysis, or of any other of the capacities of the mind. By the acquisition of ordinary ideas of common objects, the apprehension both gains facility in obtaining

such ideas, and is itself improved through their reception, drawing from them its nutriment as it were, by which this capacity is invigorated, and its development is promoted. Our powers of general observation, which we owe to the capacity of apprehension, become greatly increased by exercise, alike through the practice acquired thereby, and the experience that is thus gained.

The description of education best adapted for the capacity of deprehension, is that which is artificial, by which means it is trained to give an exact and minute description of any subject, as also to receive ideas of it of this quality. The exercise which of all others is probably mainly fitted to discipline this capacity for this purpose, is that of arithmetic, which is the most precise and exact of all pursuits. Learning a language is also an exercise well adapted for this purpose. Deprehension receives in general a certain amount of cultivation, indirect perhaps rather than direct, casual rather than systematic, and practical rather than actually perfect. It occasionally also comes in for a share of this by chance, owing to its alliance with, and essential service to the capacity of analysis.' Deprehension is moreover indirectly educated through the artificial education of, and the artificial efforts made to strengthen, the memory.

For the development of the capacity of comprehension, an education of a mixed kind, partly natural, and partly artificial, appears best fitted. This capacity is exercised and perfected by the act of taking a comprehensive and enlarged view of any subject, and affording a description of it, either by speaking or writing. The study of history is that which mainly conduces to a habit of this sort. And while engaged in this pursuit, it is serviceable for the cultivation of this capacity, to mark well the leading points for consideration to be embraced, and which constitute the prominent features in the events under our notice. Indeed, whatever tends to the enlargement and expansion of the mind, is effected by the education of the comprehension, either natural or artificial. Foreign travel is, consequently, one of the most efficient modes of the natural education of this capacity, both as regards its discipline and cultivation, but more especially the latter, although it is essentially and extensively disciplined as well as cultivated by this means. No regular, complete, or systematic plan for the education in any way of this important capacity has however been devised, nor has the necessity for it been pointed out. As a whole, the faculty of understanding is, as already observed,

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1 Vide ante, c. ii. s. 3, p. 228.

2 "Travel in the younger sort is a part of education."-Lord Bacon. Essays, xix.

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not only that which is the most susceptible of education, but it is also the faculty most dependent upon this for its development and improvement.

But even language, which is the grand instrument of intellectual artificial education, more especially as regards the understanding, and the general medium of mental communication. between mind and mind, has not only its defects, as already pointed out, but those defects have a deteriorating influence characteristic of, and inseparable from, this indispensable resort. Language, too, is ever fluctuating in its idiom and its form," so that the language of the people of one age, is unintelligible to those of another; and those words which are the most definite and exact, in the course of a generation or two change their meaning entirely.

The acquisition of a general, accurate, and extensive knowledge of facts, is therefore the especial province, and the main employment, of the faculty of understanding.

That part of education which relates to the storing of the mind with ideas, and the cultivation of the understanding, should be so contrived as that not only the mind be enriched with knowledge,-ideas constituting as it were the coinage of the soul, but that that knowledge be such as will naturally tend to fructify, and lead on to the acquisition of more knowledge. The ground should not merely be well tilled, and abundantly sown; but the seed ought to be such as will germinate extensively, and in its turn produce more. An acquisition of a knowledge of the elementary rudiments and outlines of any subject, which will both adapt, and also lead on, the mind at its leisure to follow up such a matter in detail, is of great use on this account.'

Education is, indeed, as regards its general results, and the advantages that it secures, closely analogous to learning a lan

3 Vide ante, b. iii. c. ii. s. 8, p. 256.

"It is not too much to say that half the vast defect of language as a method of utterance, and half the vast defect of thought as determined by the influence of language, are due to the fact that speech is a scheme worked out by the rough and ready application of material metaphor and imperfect analogy, in ways befitting rather the barbaric education of those who formed it, than our own."-Burnett Tylor. Primitive Culture, vol. ii. c. xix. pp. 403, 404.

5 As Mr. Hyde Clarke has well remarked:"The shape of man keeps the same for thousands of years; the Negro, the Arab, or the Nubian, as drawn on the Pyramids, is he of this day; but the speech of man is ever shifting; and writers, however skilful, however great, however mighty, will be left behind, while the swelling tide bears on."-Grammar of the English Tongue, p. 5.

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Barbaric philosophy retains as real, what civilized language has reduced to simile."-Burnett Tylor. Primitive Culture, v. ii. c. xix. p. 166. 7 Locke recommends a general knowledge of matters beyond our immediate concern, to enlarge and liberalize the mind.-Conduct of Understanding, s. 19.

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guage which we did not before understand. The circumstance of becoming acquainted with this new language confers no actual power upon us, and of itself affords us no information which we did not before possess; but it supplies us with the means of exerting our minds, and of constantly obtaining knowledge by inquiry, and by reading. As a man who is ignorant of the language spoken by a people of whose sentiments he desires to gain an acquaintance, is utterly lost, and in the dark; so a person without education is unable to pursue his researches after knowledge generally, because he has not the means and appliances by which to take it in.

A soul starved for want of knowledge, is closely analogous to a famished body; and a soul which is too weak to receive, or to imbibe information from the knowledge that it receives, nearly resembles a body wasted by sickness. And as in the case of the body, there is no sign more surely indicative of a healthful condition, than the excitement of a good appetite for food; so in the case of the soul, there is nothing which more clearly evinces a healthy state, than hunger after knowledge, the food of the soul. Nevertheless, in the case both of body and soul, this hunger, in order to be healthful, should be moderate, and well regulated; not too craving, on the one hand, and yet sufficiently vigorous, on the other; such as to excite a strong stimulant for wholesome food, and derive a hearty satisfaction, as well as nutriment, from it when it is imbibed.

The mental appetite in infants, is quite as keen as that which is material. What is that ceaseless and uncontrollable restlessness observable in all young children alike, turning their eyes in every direction, staring eagerly and earnestly at each fresh object, and feeling and examining each article with which they come in contact; but a proof of the ardent hunger of their minds to take in knowledge of every description, as the opportunity offers, and to inform themselves of whatever they can that presents itself to their notice is

The capacities of the understanding appear to be on the whole more dependent upon cultivation than they are upon discipline, for their improvement; although both alike are necessary to be pursued, and both conduce extensively to the growth and development of this faculty.

5. Education of the Reason by the Investigation of Science.

As the comparison of ideas one with another, has already been shown to be the proper function of the reason; so its education, 8 Vide ante, b. iii. c. i. s. 10, p. 216, note.

EXERCISES SUITABLE TO EMPLOY THE REASON.

and that of each of its constituent capacities, is most fully and completely effected by the investigation of science of different kinds.

The reason is however essentially cultivated, and improved, and invigorated, not by the quantity of arguments or of conclusions that are stored up in the mind; but by the exercise of reasoning upon different subjects in various modes, through the several capacities of this faculty, according to the nature of such capacity, corresponding with the particular topic upon which it is employed.

By this pursuit, each capacity of this faculty is both disciplined and cultivated, and it derives from this exercise its nutriment, as it were; so that the more it engages itself in this study, the more vigorous, and the more completely developed, do its powers become. In proportion as the reason is perfected, the greater is the facility, dexterity, and efficiency, with which it compares ideas one with another; and the more certain and precise are the conclusions that it draws therefrom. The neglect to educate the faculty of reason, is correspondingly injurious in its consequences with the neglect of the understanding. From such want of education, the reason is enfeebled, and is unfitted efficiently to exert itself when the occasion arises.

Education of the reason consists, therefore, in the discipline to which each of the capacities of this faculty are subjected through the process of reasoning upon, or comparing ideas one with another, in different modes, as hereafter pointed out, and according to the particular capacity employed. In consequence of the restraint to which every capacity is then subjected, great pain and labour are often experienced, and the severest exercises are imposed. Education of this kind is further promoted by the cultivation that each capacity receives, through the nutriment imbibed from the ideas with which it thus deals.

In the case, moreover, of the reason, correspondingly with what has been observed of the efforts of the understanding, it should be so disciplined as that the comparisons which it makes of ideas, by whatever capacity effected, be complete and perfect, so far as the data for such comparisons extend, and the precise nature and degree of the difference between them be fully and clearly perceived, corresponding with the characteristic adaptation of such capacity; in which consists the act of drawing a conclusion from an argument, by whichever of these powers it is accomplished, although this has been pointed out to be the ordinary and legitimate province of judgment." Judgment however draws conclusions from comparisons as well as ideas. Sense and analysis draw them mainly, though not solely, from ideas.

"Vide ante, b. iii. c. iii s. 4, p. 279.