Page:Home Education by Isaac Taylor (1838).djvu/173

 the great interests of mankind, and, as a particular trait, a passion for history, such are likely to be the indications of this order of mind.

In speaking of the system of culture proper for such a mind, another of its characteristics must be mentionednamely, the disposition and the ability, in some degree, to lead the way in its own education. I do not intend a contumacious temper, resisting lawful authority, and spurning reasonable control; for, on the contrary, mild docility is more likely to belong to faculties of a high order; but there will be at once such a determination towards study as renders external incentives unnecessaryso quick a perception of what it is which is to be done and acquired, and especially so much tendency towards whatever is most important among the several objects of study, as will supersede almost any plans laid down by the teacher. An eminently superior mind, whatever may be its amiable compliance with the wishes or advices of others, will, from the first to the last be the author of its own course. The part of the teacher will be chiefly that of supplying those incidental aids which none can dispense with, and of furnishing the mere materials and apparatus of study.

This kind of superiority admits indefinite degrees, from the greatness which founds or governs empires, to the ability that takes the lead on a bench of justices of the peace: but the early indications of it, whether in his higher or lower degrees, are stilla quick apprehension of things complicated, an unusual ripeness of judgment, and a self-determining energy, intellectual and moral. And let it be observed that the maturity or correctness of judgment of which we here speak, is something altogether distinct from, and independent of, logical acuteness, or the acquired power of constructing an argument. Sound and vigorous understandings do not reach truth by threading inferences, in syllogistic style; nor could a greater injury be done to a