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tional and enlightened manner . I have not unfrequently remarked the gradual change in countenance and manner that has , year by year , come over a boy from the first day of his entering school after leaving the watchful care of a sensible mother ; and I have grieved in very helplessness to see the fatal poison insidiously but surely creeping through his whole being . Such ought not to be the case ; such need not be the case ; but to prevent it will require the united energies of the best and bravest minds . I can merely throw out a few hints on the subject , and these with no pretensions to novelty .
The first and greatest rule in the education of the young is , to observe the way in which . Nature acts , and follow that . She will ever be found the safest guide ; and , in as far as we deviate from her course , just so far shall we err , and make an artificial , conventional thingno real man . What more than this can be said ? He who would educate , must first have studied Nature , and especially her greatest work—the human being . He
may then follow the inspirations of his own mind , and will want no directions . But , for the man who has not learned human nature , all the precepts and rules in the world would be of no assistance , he would be erring at every step ; and this , perhaps , is the reason why men of good feeling and admirable intentions , but without the necessary judgment and experience have , by their injudicious mode of carrying out correct principles of education , only brought contempt upon them .
Every educational establishment should be surrounded by a certain portion of land sufficient to give occupation in farming and gardening to all the pupils according to their strength and the natural bent of their faculties . The land would thus form the grand basis of education , as it is the great mother and nourisher of us all , and would be found to be the great moralizer and purifier of all , affording healthy , varied , and agreeable occupation ; the means of acquiring in the most delightful manner an immense
variety of information on the most interesting branches of science ; and opportunities for the cultivation of the higher faculties of man in the wonders of creation , the beauty and harmony of nature , so symbolical of love , truth , and justice . This would necessarily require a situation in the country , were there not other strong and powerful reasons for removing our youth as far as possible from the physical and moral contamintion of towns . The situation alone of Westminster School would be sufficient to condemn it in the eyes of every sensible man .
In the next place , let there be in connection with the establishment every kind of handicraft trade at which boys are capable of being employed ; thus affording them at all times and seasons some engaging , useful occupation , besides educating faculties that arc allowed to lie dormant in most schools . The door wouhl thus in a grout measure be barred against the entrance of the fiend . Of course the establishment would be filled up with every appliance of modern invention for the preservation of health , and all regulations of hygiene would bo strictly enforced . This will be found as necessary for the moral health as for the physical ; the one depending on the other , and both of far more importance at the ago we are considering than the cultivation of the intellect .
Above all , the dormitories should be well ventilated , under constant inspection ( which might be managed by a system of monitors ) , and the beds such as to give sound and healthy repose , without encouraging slothfulness . The first occupations in the morning should be of an agreeable character to induce the healthy habit of early rising ; the reveillee might be sounded by musical instruments . All the domestic duties , whether for the comfort and order of the house , or for the preparation of
meals , should bo performed by the pupils under the direction of one or more suitable persons ; for it should be a lesson practically and constantly inculcated thut no useful occupation is degrading to a man , and all should be ever ready to assist each other . 44 unto others as you would have others do unto you , " the heavenly precept of our divine teacher , has been preached in tho Church , in the school-room , and at tho domestic hearth , for nearly two thousand years ; with what effect lot every one answer for himself . In our educational
establishment it 7 rmst be practised . Every arrangement , every circumstance , must be contrived with a view to make this practice natural , and become a habit . A sound public opinion in tho school , tho watchful eye of nn intelligent educator , who can win the confidence and bo this companion of tho pupils , tho certainty of immediate inconvenience on a breach of this precept ; mid , by tho nnungomunts of the directing mind , the conviction thut tho interest of all is the interest of each . Such und similar means that circumstances would suggost -would bo employed for establishing the practice of Christian charity as a natural habit . Children might soon be made to understand how nuch better it is for e . ue . h one to have nil the rest for ii 8 friends , thun for all to be at variance with each ithcr .
"With respect to the cultivation of the intellect much would be included in the foregoing arrangements . The rest must depend , in a great measure , on the talents , dispositions , and character of the pupil . In all cases a vast amount of the most useful information respecting the various objects around us , the first principles of science , and the facts of nature , might be conveyed directly through the senses without the aid of books , and this would be found a much more rapid , effectual , and agreeable mode than that usually adopted .
Until we have introduced some true phonetic system , of writing and printing , I fear that the difficulties of our language will never be overcome by the greater number without infinite pains on the part of pupil and teacher ; but , perhaps , to many it is of little consequence if they never learn to read or write fluently ; those who have the talent will acquire the knowledge with comparative ease . Grammar , as the science of language , should never be taught before the age of fourteen or fifteen , and then only to those of superior intellectual developments , nor should any foreign language unless by conversation .
As for Greek , Latin , and other dead languages , they should be buried , as all dead things ought to be , except to the select few , who showed real talent and taste for such studies ; and it would be quite time for them to commence after having passed the age of boyhood , for many of our greatest proficients in language did not commence the study till after this period : for instance , Professor Lee , Elihu Burritt , and many others .
Much of arithmetic , geometry , and algebra might be taught in connection with other subjects , as drawing , geography , natural history ; and by a modification of Pestalozzi ' s plan all the rules of arithmetic might be learned out of doors , and made very interesting . As a general rule , the pupils should be kept as much in the open air as our climate will
permit without injury to trie constitution . Engineering , navigation , chemistry , physiology , the arts and manufactures , would afford a thousand opportunities of combining theory with practice for every variety of talent , and would , some of them , be a necessary accompaniment to an agricultural training , the grand basis of all our proceedings . 44 A time and place for everything , and everything
in its time and place . The strictest order must , ot course , be maintained throughout every department . The means for preserving order and discipline must depend chiefly on the directing mind of the principal , and should be kept up rather by the general arrangements of the establishment than by any factitious rewards or punishments , which are at best but bungling substitutes far sound method and management . The principal of the establishment must be a man of a large mind , great experience in men and things , high moral character , sound judgment , and , above all , * ' let the corners of his mouth turn up rather than down . " He must choose his assistants from the highest to the lowest , with a careful view to their truthfulness and purity of character . There will be , as in De Fellenberg ' s schools , two classes of assistants : instructors and educators ; the former for intellectual teaching , the latter for moral training . I fear I have already extended my letter beyond all bounds , and will only add , in conclusion , that as it is not likely we shall find any man combining the necessary qualities of mind and the requisite capital for such an establishment , it must be founded by the united aid of a number of persons convinced of its desirability , determined to carry it out in good earnest , and to give it all the publicity possible , that similar establishments may spring up wherever they are required . I observe you have signed my last letter J . G . instead of J » E . S .
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LETTERS ON UNITARIANISM . Letteii V . November 6 , 1850 . Sir , —The natural fruit of religious life is the spirit of mercy . The love of God engenders the love of man . "Wherever , therefore , the religious life abounds , tho spirit of mercy must abound to the same extent . And wherever that life aboundeth not , no agency can take its place by which the spirit of mercy can be created . In the exact degree , then , that the religious life in the Unitarian body has been feeble , tho spirit of mercy of necessity has been absent .
There nro four things from which I would wish most carefully to distinguish the spirit of mercy : that spontaneous sympathy which prompts us to acts of neighbourly kindness ; that commonplace charity which is often nothing more than indifference or calculation ; that noisy philanthropy which bawls itself hoarse in chapels and on platforms , and which is one of the many vulgarities of dissent ; and th » t spurious liberalism which is tho great stock-in-trade of whiggery , and which is such an admirable substitute for true patriotism , energetic action , every noble qxiality , every brave achievement . The first is tho gracious gift of Heaven ; blessed are they that possess it : - \ vo can pardon much in him who , amid many defects and offences , has tenderness of heart and the
hand of the bountiful . But pity itself is but the luxury of affection . When not allied to strong convictions , to elevated principle , to comprehensive wisdom , it may do as much harm as good ; when not transfused by religion , it has no heroic self-denial , no persistency of purpose , and , though readily lavishing a plenitude of ministrations that the unfortunate may be relieved and that the desolate may be consoled , it shrinks from taking on itself a burden of crushing pangs that the wretch may no longer be wretched , that the eyes of the bereaved may cease to be dim . with tears , that the afflicted may mourn
and suffer no more . It is akin to the spirit of mercy ; it supplies that spirit with impulse and sustenance , and fruitful faith ; but , till hallowed by the breath of Heaven , it is not itself that spirit . If , however , natural pity can claim kindred with the spirit of * mercy , the charity which the world at present delighteth to honour can claim none . It seldom goes beyond words , and then it is one of our most detestable pharisaisms . When it expresses its sorrow for the poor , it really wishes to persuade you that they only are so who are wicked and improvident . When
it offers an apology for some aspects of a man ' s character and conduct , it is that you may see all that is black and abominable in other and more important aspects thereof . When it softens away the objections to a heretic ' s creed in detail , it is that it may more surely and comfortably damn him in the lump . When from words it descends to deeds , it is uglier still . It then swells the subscription list for the sake of securing or strengthening a conventional position ; or as a sort of imaginary absolution for bygone cruelties or dishonesties ; or as a price paid to God for the best room in the Hotel of the Immortals . Go to the hovels
where hunger , cold , disease have done their worst ; with along preface on the duties which we owe to each other , pompously present to the miserable inmates all the rubbish in your house which you can no longer use , and are ashamed to sell ; give to some old creature a petticoat older than herself with as solemn an air as if you were offering some consecrated relic—the toe of St . Peter or the tooth of the "Virgin ; tell a family of a dozen , whose whole support has never been more than six or eight shillings a week , that every curse that enters the abode of working men is the just punishment for their want of forethought
and economy—for their insatiate and incurable liking for beer and tobacco , —but that , notwithstanding , you are moved by the sight of their distress , as your failing through life has been your inability to keep your hand in your pocket when you saw a fellowcreature i : i need , and then , after a quotation from Miss Edgeworth or Benjamin Franklin , hand over a soup or coal ticket , it being well known to all tho readers of newspapers that you are a subscriber to societies for the distribution of soup and coals ;—do these and many similar things and we shall be compelled to confess that you excel as much in that
charity which the universal reign of cant has made fashionable as you are destitute of that mercy which is divine . As to the philanthropy which shouts the louder the less it has to say—which feels the keener the remoter the object—which has bowels forTanky-Wanky-Padderam-Burnpus-Mahoshky , or any other unpronounceable savage in Polynesia with a bushel of consonants to his back , but none for the poor needlewoman who is dying in the next lane—it has so recently and so powerfully been assailed by Carlyle with the mace and the thunders which he inherits from , the ancient Scandinavian gods , as to
dispense with any attempt of mine to prove how little it has , not only of the spirit of mercy , but even of common sense and ordinary decency . Liberalism , if less pestilent than philanthropy as a nuisance , is still more hollow as a semblance . If it were a reality , it would indicate the generosity of the man , the courtesy of the gentleman , the refinement of the scholar , the breadth of the philosopher in pregnant combination . But what is it , in its actual manifestations , but the coxcombry of intellect , the varnish of selfishness , the sophistry of indolence , the slang of political atheism—at once the affectation and the
mask of a mind which has lost its faith in all things . Seek in every corner of the universe for the spirit of mercy , but do not seek it here . For the spirit of mercy i 3 that ardour and affluence of love to our brethren which the continual feeling of God ' s presence , the consciousness of our sins , the weight and gloom of our sorrows , and the spectacle of sin and of sorrow everywhere around us beget . The first not of St . Francis of Assisi , when God had unveiled to him the infinite beauty , but at the same timts the infinite awfulness and most tragical import , of the religious life , , was to clasp a leper in his
arms and to kiss his wounds . Eternal emblem this of tho spirit of mercy . For , by that act , St . Francis avowed that , in the midst of foulest darkness and disfigurement , there was still hero the soul of a brother ; and that he also , though afterwards attaining the summit of holiness , was defaced and polluted by a deadlier leprosy — the leprosy of sin—which only the finger of God could heal . The spirit of mercy , therefore , is humbler than the humblest while pouring itself out in ceaseless sacrifice for others , never seeking joy from aught on earth , but reaping the richest harvest of joys from
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806 © f ) £ 1 L ££ & ££ ? [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 16, 1850, page 806, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1859/page/14/
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