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Rh nor sex. Cheap publications explained every thing—in a manner to be comprehended by everybody. The fathers of England were taught (with diagrams) the philosophy of their daily duties; the mothers, of their household avocations. Even unhappy little children, struggling through the sands of school, were caught and engulfed by the advancing wave. The great and good promoters of the original measure were overwhelmed by the cooperation of innumerable amateurs, who expected to make learning universal, by addressing, to the untaught, condensed statements of scientific results, and who looked forward to a time when the intellectual vigor of the community would be gauged by the reports of the Society for the Confusion of Useless Knowledge, or by the sale of illustrated penny serials, as the material prosperity is at present by the quarterly returns of the Registrar-General. The idea seemed to be, that the diffusion of knowledge would act as a stimulant upon all minds of sufficient natural power, and would call forth their energies—would set them thinking, comparing, judging; and that the rest of mankind, those not vitalized by the potent influence, were to be regarded as unworthy of consideration in a philosophical sense, however formidable in point of numbers.

Notwithstanding the great and sudden illumination to which we have referred, there is no evidence of any remarkable advancement, any increase at all commensurate with the pains bestowed, in that cultivation of mind by which alone knowledge can be applied or rendered useful. The words (already quoted) of Prof. Faraday may be taken as conclusive that the reasoning faculties, in all classes of the community, are very imperfectly and insufficiently developed—imperfectly as compared with their natural capabilities—insufficiently when considered with reference to the extent and variety of information with which they are called upon to deal. We are compelled to seek for the causes of this deficiency in an educational system that makes no adequate provision for mental training; and we think that a brief review of the relations between the nervous centres and the impressions that form the basis of knowledge will enable us to point out the precise nature of the chief errors in existing practice, and to define the principles by adherence to which those errors might be obviated.

The first point to which we would call attention is the existence, in the young of the human species, of a distinctly duplex educability, depending upon distinct functions of the brain. It may be taken as conceded, we apprehend, by all physiologists, that the encephalon of man differs from that of other mammalia chiefly by the super-addition of parts whose office it is to control the succession of ideas, and to determine the course of conduct. The powers of re-collection, [sic] comparison, reflection, and volition, are attributes essentially human, or, at least, are possessed by men in common with higher intelligences alone. The powers of sensation, ideation, and spontaneous remembrance, are