CONTENTS. ✓ III, IV.. Of the Sources of Genius............... 10, 16 V. Of an Early Taste for Reading............ VI. Of the Study of the Classics......... VII. Of Public and Private Education................. VIII. Of the Happiness of Youth.......................................... IX. Of the Communication of Knowledge... X. Of Domestic or Family Life............. XI. Of Reasoning and Contention................................ XII. Of Deception and Frankness........ XIII. Of Manly Treatment and Behaviour..... XIV. Of the Obtaining of Confidence........... THE ENQUIRER. PART I. ESSAY I. OF AWAKENING THE MIND. THE true object of education, like that of every other moral process, is the generation of happi ness. Happiness to the individual in the first place. If individuals were universally happy, the species would be happy. Man is a social being. In society the interests of individuals are intertwisted with each other, and cannot be separated. Men should be taught to assist each other. The first object should be to train a man to be happy; the second to train him to be useful, that is, to be virtuous. There is a further reason for this. Virtue is es B sential to individual happiness. There is no transport equal to that of the performance of virtue. All other happiness, which is not connected with self-approbation and sympathy, is unsatisfactory and frigid. To make a man virtuous we must make him wise. All virtue is a compromise between opposite motives and inducements. The man of genuine virtue, is a man of vigorous comprehension and long views. He who would be eminently useful, must be eminently instructed. He must be endowed with a sagacious judgement, and an ardent zeal. The argument in favour of wisdom, or a cultivated intellect, like the argument in favour of virtue, when closely considered, shows itself to be twofold. Wisdom is not only directly a means to virtue; it is also directly a means to happiness. The man of enlightened understanding and persevering ardour, has many sources of enjoyment which the ignorant man cannot reach; and it may at least be suspected that these sources are more exquisite, more solid, more durable, and more constantly accessible, than any which the wise man and the ignorant man possess in common. Thus it appears that there are three leading objects of a just education, happiness, virtue, wisdom; including, under the term wisdom, both extent of information and energy of pursuit. When a child is born, one of the earliest purposes of his institutor ought to be, to awaken his mind, to breathe a soul into the, as yet, unformed mass. What may be the precise degree of difference with respect to capacity that children generally bring into the world with them, is a problem that it is perhaps impossible completely to solve. But, if education cannot do every thing, it can do much. To the attainment of any accomplishment what is principally necessary is, that the accomplishment should be ardently desired. How many instances is it reasonable to suppose there are, where this ardent desire exists, and the means of attainment are clearly and skilfully pointed out, where yet the accomplishment remains finally unattained? Give but sufficient motive, and you have given every thing. Whether the object be to shoot at a mark, or to master a science, this observation is equally applicable. The means of exciting desire are obvious. Has the proposed object desirable qualities? Exhibit them. Delineate them with perspicuity, and delineate them with ardour. Shew your object from time to time under every point of view which is calculated to demonstrate its loveliness. Criticise, commend, exemplify. Nothing is more common than for a master to fail in infusing the passions |