Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/144

134 unduly stimulating the sensorium at the expense of the intelligence. In the former case, general obtuseness is the result; and, in the latter subjugation of the reasoning powers to the sensations or emotions. We are entitled to think these conditions strictly artificial; and to look upon them as distortions, analogous, in some respects, to the physical distortions of Hindoo fakirism.

The educational influence which, more than any other, is concerned in producing them, appears to us to be due to confusion of thought on the subject of those very distinct realities called knowledge and wisdom. While the prevailing weaknesses of the human mind — those apparent to the philosopher, and those also which are manifest to the vulgar — are alike due to want of wisdom, the efforts of ordinary instructors and the general current of the events of life are chiefly valued as they appear calculated to impart knowledge. It is not surprising that such should be the case, a great impulse having been given to education in this country at a time when the operations of the mind were not sufficiently understood to allow of a just discrimination between them.

Moreover, learning was a thing apparent and undeniable, easily perceptible to many who were unable to fathom its depths; while wisdom could only be recognized by the kindred wise, or in a fruition not always directly traceable to its causes. Hence, and in a manner not difficult to comprehend, arose a general impression that the acquisition of knowledge was the principal, or even the only, means of gaining wisdom; and this impression was confirmed by experience of the fact that mental development is frequently coincident with efforts to learn. The exact relation between the two is not easy to define, even with all the aid afforded by recent advances in psychology; but, in former times, it was the opinion of the most advanced educationists, that a certain routine of teaching afforded the best discipline for the growing brain, and that this routine, when aided by good abilities, was certain to produce the highest attainable results — so that men of moderate or inferior performance, who had received "a good education," were considered to be the failures of Nature, and not of the preceptor. The hypothesis was most comfortable, serving to shift responsibility from tutors and professors, and to place it where it was borne without a murmur, while the necessary interval between the schools and life was sufficient to render obscure any possible connection between bad teaching and eventual stupidity.

During the universal prevalence of such principles as these, commenced a movement which was formerly described as "the march of intellect," but which was, more correctly, a march of schooling. Men of various calibre, and various degrees of learning, were cordially united in an attempt to elevate the masses by education. For this purpose they organized a scheme by which to pour forth knowledge like water, and, in carrying it into practice, they spared neither age