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the purpose . It may then be demanded with Mason , of what use are literary attainment * in woman V * P . 8 . « Educatiou has two objects : the acquisition of knowledge and of habits . The fetter of these is the most important . That course of instruction must be acknowledged
to be the best , which is best adapted to develope the powers of the mind , and to call them into vigorous action ; to qualify the mind to become its own instructor 5 to acquaint it with its own uses , and enable it to think , combine , compare , discriminate , decide betwixt contending" probabilities , detect errors , and discover truths . As words are
the instruments which must be employed in all these operations , it is evident that great advantages must accrue from a predse acquaintance with them , from the habit of tracing them to their elements , of analyzing sentences , and exercising * the saga , city in annexing such meaning to phrases , and connecting them in such order , as will
bring out sense and beauty from the whole . Memory , judgment , taste , discrimination and invention , have each its due exercise in such an employment ; and the child that has been trained in such habits , will come to the investigation of facts , and the study of things in riper years , with
advantages never enjoyed , and therefore not to be justly estimated , by those who have bee \ i differently trained . If the knowledge acquired by this process were of less value than it is , the habits produced by it would be alone a recommendation of great authority . " Pp . 13—15 .
" The resolution of the intellectual power into the several faculties of memory , imagination , and judgment , is familiar , and sufficiently correct for the use of this inquiry . As to the power of memory , whatever system of education is adopted ,
it will be easy to give it sufficient exercise ; but that discipline must be acknowledged to be the best , by which the memory is roost habituated to systematic arrangement , and by which the use of the understanding is most certainly connected with » ie exercise of memory . Both these objects
* resecured in the acquisition of a regularly constructe d language , such as the Latin , w which too , it is well knOwn , that no progress can be made without the exercise ? «» e judgment . Whether both these objects are as well secured by any other labour in which the mind of a child can be eQ gaged , is yet to be shewn by the ad-** afet Of a different discipline .
As to the power of imagination , it may . * ° Nght that it is not necessary to protio u !? CaltUI * in . a system of educat On # When , however , it is considered , j * numerous and how exquisite are the P * aaures of imagination , how intimate is 2 * connexion betwixt them and some of most delightful ftympathfe * & 0 our fia ^ re how meny mai interesting we tfte
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subjects of human thought , on which it is ? impossible that the mind which imagines feebly should think with force , or even with correctness , some indulgence maybe granted , perhaps , to the opinion that a system of education should provide both for
the cultu / e and regulation of the power of fancy . The mind of man has but one spring * , one season of enchantment , when the lumen purpureum of youth irradiates the face of nature , whose charms are then beheld in all the bloom of novelty , with a depth of impression and a warmth of feel-1
ingnever to be renewed . But the mind derives from the enthusiasm , in which ils infancy was fostered , an ardour of character , which is displayed in maturity by a more vigorous exertion of the higher powers of intellect . If the power of fancy is to receive nurture , it must not be nursed
in the bosom of science , which is too rig-orously employed in the investigation of causes , to have leisure for the indulgence of those emotions which are produced simply by the contemplation of beauty . Poetry is the proper nurse of fancy , as philosophy is of reason . Poetical description must be associated with natural scenery :
and , while each transfers its power upon the other , the imagination acquires riches and strength . At the same time the mind is instructed in that particular exertion of the judgment , which is denominated taste ; the productions of literature and of the arts now begin to be tried by the standard of nature , and the understanding is prepared for the practice of sound criticism . " Pp .
40—43 . ** The female also , who has a well-cultivated taste in letters , will find no cjiarm in a life of dissipation ; frivolity cannot long entertain her ; tales of scandal will disgust her ; the cant of fashion will appear as ridiculous , but not quite so innoxious as that of pedantry 5 to her notice and favour , a well-instructed mind will be a better
recommendation than that silly adulation which means nothing , when it does not mean to corrupt ; an ^ thus her virtue and her happiness will be guarded by taste , as well as principle . " Pp . 44 * 45 . The arguments here brought forward in favour of a classical female
education , appear to us unanswerable ; yet * perhaps there is an objection of more weight than any that have undergone Jhis scrutiny , which the eloquent author has oVer-looked ; viz . the immorality and enrossness of some
of the popular Greek and Roman writers . While the plays of Terence are annually performed by youths before hundreds of their school-fellows , aided by the instructionf and sanetioned by the fMresence , of grave and reverend divine *;—while Ovid's Me-
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Review * —Morel ?* Heassnsfor ike Classical Education of both Sexes . 24 S
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1815, page 243, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1759/page/43/
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