9. Development and Invigoration of the Mind, dependent upon Discipline and Cultivation.

The main, and indeed the essential end of education, is to perfect the development and exertion of the various endowments and powers which nature has given to us; invigorating those which are useful, correcting and directing, and in some cases even subduing, those which require such treatment. The application of our capabilities and resources of action, is to be considered in a twofold sense as regards the benefit to be derived to ourselves, and as regards the benefit to be derived to others,-to civil society, and the world at large of which we are members ;and in return for which we have a right to expect the same advantage from others, and from society generally, that we render to them.

In the case of military organization, the aim appears to be to gain force material, by diminishing that which is mental. We deprive the individuals thus disciplined, of all power of selfcontrol and exercise of judgment, in order to render them in the aggregate the ready agents or instruments of one single mind. To make man greater materially, we reduce him from a mental being to a mere machine. Armies, composed of legions of thinking and reasoning men, become, as it were, the body to the one soul who directs their operations. And the more completely by discipline this degradation and dementalization of the mass is accomplished, the more perfect and the more powerful are its action and prowess for all the purposes of its existence as an army.

According to Themistocles, the grandest achievement of human effort, is to make a small nation into a great one. Possibly it may be a more difficult matter still, to turn a small man into a great one; one of small mind and capacities, into one of great parts and powers. Education may do much, but it cannot make. It can only modify and amend; and is no more able to manufacture a wise man out of a fool, than it is to turn a man into a woman."

Discipline and cultivation are to the mind, what exercise and proper nutriment are to the material frame. Although not essential to its actual existence, they are absolutely necessary to its vigour, and health, and growth.' Unless the mind receives its

It is a remark of Lord Bacon that nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished. And that a man's nature runs either to herbs or to weeds.-Essays, xxxviii.

"Mutatis mutandis, all the governing principles. requirements, and activities of the soul and the body with regard to nourishment, are the same.”—Grindon on Life, c. xvi. p. 192 (third edit.).

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appropriate education, and obtains due development, it runs to weed, as it were, and becomes enfeebled and deteriorated."

As in the case of material, so in that of mental nutriment, something depends on the quality of the food itself, and something on the condition of the frame which is to imbibe and turn to account that food. Some food is adapted for one frame, and some for another; and the same food is not always adapted for the same frame under whatever circumstances it may be placed. That which is wholesome to one frame, may be poison to another; and what is salutary at one particular time, at another period may be very deleterious.

One of the principal advantages which the mind derives from education, and from a proper exercise of its faculties, is that it not only becomes stored with ideas, but that thereby it becomes more powerful and flexible, and better fitted for action; and that thus the individual obtains the opportunity for making constant improvements as regards his mental acquirements, and is enabled both to retain with more facility the knowledge that be gains, and also to use it more advantageously. Thus, also, the mind is adapted to improve itself constantly by reflection and continual communing within itself, which that of an uncultivated person is much limited in doing, especially as regards subjects of a scientific character. With respect however to certain degrees of knowledge, such as that of general objects in nature, and the common affairs of life, each person in a civilized community will probably obtain a tolerably correct acquaintance with these matters by means of what I have denominated natural education; and thus, without what is technically termed education, that is, artificial discipline and cultivation, or a great degree of it, his mind will be to a certain extent stored with ideas by observation and conversation. The higher branches of knowledge, and the ability to follow pursuits of an abstract and abstruse nature, such as society in a highly civilized and artificial state engenders, are those for which it is more especially the province of artificial education to adapt us. The importance, nevertheless, of what may be not unaptly termed natural education, and that as regards both discipline and cultivation, is very considerable; and is perhaps never more fully evinced than by the difference which is manifested between children who are brought up among others, as at a public school, where they imbibe a great variety of ideas independent of books, their habits are disciplined, and their faculties are developed; and those whose early days are passed in their own family, secluded from the familiar

2 46 Nobody knows what strength of parts he has till he has tried them. And of the understanding one may most truly say, that its force is greater generally than it thinks, till it is put to it. Viresque acquirit eundo. "— Locke. Conduct of the Understanding, s. 39.

companionship of several others of the same age, so that their minds are seldom, if ever, actively stimulated.

From the advantages which the mind directly derives through education, it is evident that it is imbued with an inherent natural tendency to advance in the career of improvement. By this means, and by placing the individual in a position where he will have the opportunity of associating with persons of cultivated minds, and of a high tone of character, a sort of healthy mental and moral atmosphere is created around him. There is, indeed, as already remarked, a mental and moral, as well as a material atmosphere. And as the latter is composed of various ingredients, and affects the condition of those who live in it, and inhale it, in several ways; so the mind, in a corresponding manner, is affected by the mental and moral atmosphere by which it is surrounded, and which consists in, or is the product of, the conversation, and tone of sentiment, and feeling, and manners, of those among whom we live, and with whom we associate. And as our material frames and organs vary greatly in health, and vigour, and activity, according to the material atmosphere by which they are encompassed; so, in a corresponding manner, is the health of our spiritual being more or less dependent upon the mental and moral atmosphere in which it exists.

Exercise is, moreover, as essential to the mind as it is to the body, alike to develope its functions, and to preserve it in health. And not only general exercise, but that of each of its faculties and capacities, should be resorted to. Indeed, a large portion of the diseases, both mental and bodily, which we experience, are occasioned by want of exercise, and from not taking it moderately and regularly, so as to excite each member to activity.

The effects that are produced upon the mind by education, in increasing its store of ideas, and enlarging its capacities for exertion, are retained even long after the studies which occasioned them have been obliterated from the memory. Thus it is with the food that we eat, which serves to nourish and strengthen us, and is soon absorbed, or carried away in the usual course of nature, ceasing to have connexion with our frames; but the beneficial result of which we nevertheless continue to experience for some time after. Hence we

3 "Dirty air is the source of incomparably greater evils than dirty water. The temper of a public meeting is often influenced by the condition of the air which it is breathing. To talk of a moral atmosphere' is not altogether a figure of speech."-Grindon on Life, c. v. p. 61 (third edit.).

4"As it is in the body, so is it not in the mind; practice makes it what it is, and most even of those excellences which are looked on as natural endowments, will be found, when examined into more narrowly, to be the product of exercise, and to be raised to that pitch only by repeated actions."Locke. Conduct of the Understanding, s. 4.

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discern the futility of the argument used against the practice of studying the ancient classics, and many branches of learning, in our youth, on the ground that it is not intended that we should follow them up during our later years, and that they will become obliterated from our minds; for although they may be altogether forgotten, and no traces of them appear to be left behind, yet the effects they produced still remain uneffaced, and continue through life. An education well grounded endures for ever, and might be compared to the massive foundations on which were erected those splendid and during structures, the cathedrals and castles of the middle ages; in the case of which, although those foundations themselves are sunk deep into the ground, and may never meet the eye, yet the solidity and firmness which they impart to the entire fabric, continue so long as the mighty edifice itself rears its stately proportions, and render it a never-failing support, alike through the turmoils of earth, and the tempests of heaven, and remain when the walls which they uphold are mantled with ivy, and the lapse of centuries has crowned their venerable heads with glory.

Nor is the advancement of any one in mental improvement, by any means necessarily the less sure, or even the less rapid, because it is imperceptible to the individual himself in whom it takes place. The universe around us, and the great world in which we live, are ever in motion, and progressing rapidly onward through their respective spheres, although their course to us is wholly invisible.

The growth and development of the mind are, indeed, very similar to the growth and development of vegetation. This is not only true as regards the general expansion, and the increase of strength, which are observable during the progress of each; but is more peculiarly striking in the essential change which also in the case of both occurs in the very nature of the being, which, at first tender and susceptible, gradually acquires firmness and vigour, and imbibes in its career a series of qualities to which, during its infancy, it was entirely a stranger.

Nor is it impossible that something analogous to what we are told takes place in the soul of man as regards his religious condition, may occur as regards his intellectual state also, according as his intellectual growth and advancement proceed; when the mind first becomes opened to the importance of mental cultivation, sensual pursuits lose their attraction and their influence, and are superseded by the desire after knowledge which the soul acquires as its development proceeds.

Professor C.J.Plumptre writes as follows in relation to this paragraph: "I am thoroughly of opinion with regard to this passage, that the effects produced upon the mind by education, leave an influence that is often of an unconscious character as regards the individual, and yet is permanent throughout life in its effects."

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Whether the mind does actually, after a certain period of our existence, become formed and fixed, or obtain a peculiar bias, and to what extent this is the case, might constitute a subject for extensive inquiry, alike interesting and instructive. We know indeed that the organs of the senses very gradually arrive at maturity; and we also observe that intellectual habits and tastes are most easily imbibed during childhood: but whether after this period such habits can be acquired, or to what extent, appears to be in many respects doubtful. As I have several times observed, there is in many points a very close analogy between the constitution and workings of the mind, and those of the body. In the body, we see one part affording protection to, and aiding the functions and purposes of another. The body during infancy is also wonderfully guarded against the numerous injuries to which it would be liable, by the large supply of soft elastic flesh with which the frame is covered. So also in the constitution of the mind, we discern that the various emotions, and appetites, and passions, many of which might appear to be productive only of evil, all have their use, and answer their purposes in our medial, moral, and mental being, which we ought not to consider less perfectly formed than our bodily frames. In infancy too, the simplicity of mind which children possess, is often preventive of deep moral injury; and the vivacity of spirit with which they are endowed, bears them up under the pains and vexations to which they are necessarily subjected."

An individual who had altogether neglected the cultivation of his mind as regards the study of abstruse branches of learning, until he had reached mature age, would find it very difficult, if not impossible, to apply his faculties to those studies

In relation to the points embraced by this paragraph, Professor Huxley writes to me as follows:-"That the mental faculties become less flexible with age, is a matter of experience; but that there is anything to be called a settled formation or determination of the mind, so long as the brain is healthy, in any other sense than that in which such a proposition holds good for all periods of life, is not clear to me."

Discussing the several matters alluded to in the same passage with Mr. Smee, he tells me that he considers that the mind after a certain period is worn out. At different ages different capacities are in full vigour, and capable of being advantageously exercised. He is also of opinion that we are unable to educate the senses when the period of mature age has arrived. And he remarks that of all the powers, the senses are cultivated the earliest, and become the earliest developed. The boy, he observes, has less power at fifteen than in mature age. The judg ment he deems to be perfect about fifty. It begins then to decay.

On this head may advantageously be consulted the ingenions and explicit diagram to be found at p. 32 of Mr. Smee's valuable work on The Mind of Man, already several times referred to in these pages.

7 Professor Huxley observes that "in the individual man, consciousness grows from a dim glimmer to its full light, whether we consider the infant advancing in years, or the adult emerging from slumber and swoon."