Page:Home Education by Isaac Taylor (1838).djvu/184

 The first of the above-named methods is necessarily the one which must be pursued in schools; while the latter is well adapted to the circumstances of private education, and, if ably carried out, may more than compensate for the disadvantages acknowledged to attach to the domestic system.

It is very true, that the mere conveyance of those branches of knowledge which constitute a school course, does, in fact, carry with it and imply, a training of the faculties; and such a training as may be altogether a sufficient preparation for entering upon the common engagements of life; but we have in view something more than this.

And yet, in speaking, as I am about to do, of the culture of the intellectual faculties severally, I by no means intend that each, singly, and separately, and in formal consecutive order, should engage the attention of the teacher; as if he were first and exclusively to bestow his pains upon the development and exercise of the power which stands first on the list, and then, in due course, to proceed to the second, and so on. Nothing could be much more ill-judged, or impracticable, than such a plan of procedure. What is really meant is this:first, that the teacher should, himself, distinctly have in prospect the several ends he is to aim at, in the general culture of the mind, so as shall enable him to secure, at the last, the energetic and well-balanced action of all parts of the mental machinery; and secondly, that, in aiming at these ends, he should observe, as nearly as he can, THE ORDER OF NATURE; that is to say, should not anticipate late developed faculties, nor put the mind wrong at the outset, by doing first what should be done last, and last what should have been preliminary.

It is very possible, even while we avoid the error of stimulating the faculties too early, yet to occasion some lasting