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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
thm ptipH * if lte wish to derelope properly the intellectual faculties , and worthily to fulfil his important and responsible duties . Pour not knowledge into the soul as b dry catalogue of fact * merely , but as stores for the understanding to work upon . Take history for example , which , involving as it does the most profound philosophy , the vastest field for speculation , is yet > in oomtnon systems of education , made a mere matter of memory . A boy is tau g ht that Agesilaus was king of Sparta , that Themistocles did so and so , and that Charles the Firgt wad
martyred" &c » He knows a certain number of facts , eati readily answer certain questions , and is consequently 6 et down as verged in history ! But is he taught to think on events , or to analyze characters ? No . He knows , at least he has been told and believes , that such an one was a hero , and another a
villain . In languages it is the 6 ame . A young man can talk learnedly on the Greek roots , is versed in the dialects , and so foraooth he is accounted a Grecian ! But he may also know Hebrew , And Latin , and German , and French , and Spanish ,
With Gaelic and Hindostanee if he please—he maybe a walking polyglott , and withal if he do not consider the acquisition of those tongues as means and not an end , as keys to unlock the
trea&ttneB of wisdom and learning , and not the treasuries themselves , he will remain a dunce or dull pedant to the end of the chapter , and not worth a tithe of the man who only knows hid Vernacular , but thinks , The lessons of reflection which should be instilled into a child are not book and slate tasks * to be conned while cramped
over a deal desk , but might be made his delight and recreation vvhile Walking in the fields ; aye , while playing at trap ball . No pomposity of diction , no dull didactic formality should disgust him with your instruction , and cause him to wish for a speedy release . Engage his attention , interest him , and the more you make him laugh the better , A boy will remember that which he has a hearty laugh over as well as we retain the recollection of matters which have engaged our fixed and
severe attention . The habits of thinking acquired by the boy will in all probability be continued by the man . It having been made a principle in his education that reason should precede decision , I \ e will in after life be cautious of receiving his opinions upon authority merely because they are presented to him as orthodox
by the sect or party with whom circumstances have thrown him into connexion . True , it is unneceRfiary to call up deep ^ flection to our aid upon every trifling occasion , or submit every insignificant proposition to the severe test of analysis . His impossible to regulate all modes of thinking and action l > y rule and square , with mathematical precision , and useless and absurd , were it possible . We bftve two kinds of judgment
Untitled Article
Catwortj HeiHtirki on Prtjaiict * yjS
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1836, page 375, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2658/page/47/
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