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'5"^H-S!^^»tfM^.'. ii',

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION:

A LECTURE

DELIVERED AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SCHOLASTIC

YEAR OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER'S COLLEGE, ANTIGOMISH,

AUGUST 7th, 1860,

BT THE BEV. BONALD KcDOVALD,

Professor of Latin and Greek in the same Institute.

C^/li^tV^t^^^^M^^ ^*, ^lA^r'-^^- /S63.

HALIFAX, N. S.

PRINTED BT OOMPTON AKD BOWDEK,

186a

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION.

Mr Lord, Ladibs and Gentlembn : —

No subject has, of late years, more agitated the public
mind than Education. The discrepancy of opinions, that exist
regarding the means by which education is to be promoted, has
made this question one of party and religious consideration. As
nothing could be more injurious to the furtherance of any mea-
sure appertaining to the common good, than a distracted and
divided state of the leading minds ; so, from the present conflict-
ing position of the public opinion, results the most baneful to edu-
cation may necessarily be expected. This is an evil, which perhaps
time alone can remedy. But whatever may be the means whereby
education is imparted, — whether it is directed under the control
of the parent, state or church, or whether the energies of the
three combined are concentrated to ensure the success of its cause,
there are general features which can neither be ignored nor lost
sight of, without defeating every exertion that can be made.

The general features, to which I here allude, as characterizing
a system of Elemehtary Education, being based on reason and
the constitution of the human mind, will, I trust, recommend
themselves to the intelligence of every unbiassed person indepen-
4ently of creed or party.

By Elementary Education is generally understood a course of
mental training, which prepares the youth for entering upon
either a career of letters or science, or the study of the learned
professions, or, in fine, for embracing whatever calling the benfe
of inclination, or disposition and talent, seem to adapt him ; — a
training, in other words, that contains in r<utice the first elemenU
%nd germs of a more mature study. By this I do not mean to
say that the young b^inner should be initiated into the first and
abfltract principles of whatever profession riper yean may point

out as his particular sphere of action ; for the object of a pre-
paratory course of intellectual discipline is not so much to store
the mind with ready prepared information, as to bring out in
orderly and healthy succession the several mental faculties, to
give to each its appropriate nourishment and invigorating exer-
cise, and to teach the possessor the free and dexterous use of them
all. This object, evidently, is not to be obtained by making the
mind ot the pupil the passive and pleased recipient of the results
of scientific demonstrations. To elicit and bring into action the
latent faculties of the mind, and to enlighten the intellect for the
choice of a future career, should be the primary end of elementary
education. To accomplish this very desirable object two things
are requisite : In the first place, regard must be hud to the nature
and capacity of the growing mind, and in the second a choice is
to be made in the objects to which the thought is directed In
educing its dormant powers.

First. That we may the more easily understand the require-
ments of the mind passing from an untutored state to a state of
knowledge, we must duly weigh the functions it is capable of
performing. For in this sense only are we to understand what
is meant by the faculties of the mind. These are not constituent
parts of the indivisible soul, for such would be absurd ; but are
the soul itself performing different functions under different mo-
difications. Thus the intellect is nothing more than the soul
perceivinff or performing the functions of perception ; the memory
again is nothing but the soul vividly represenftng to itself the
past ; and so with the other faculties. From this we see that
mental development simply consists in exercising the mind in
acquiring a facility to perform its different functions. Just as
the muscles of the body are developed and strengthened by con-
tinual exercise, so the properties of the mind are elicited by the
practice of the exercise peculiar to each of them.

The reasoning faculties, from their very nature, claim our first
attention. For if we regard the course of human development
from the highest scientific point, we shall perceive that it con-
sists in educing more and more the characteristic faculties of
humanity in comparison with those of animality. It is in this
philosophic sense, that even the most eminent civilization must

be pronounced to be fully accordant with nature ; since it is in
fact but a more marked manifestation of man. Consequently
the superiority of one nation or people over another is always
determined by the degree of preponderance of the rational ele-
ment over the animal. Thus the habitual improvidence that
characterizes savage life, shows how little influence reason can
exercise in that style of existence ; for those faculties are then
undeveloped, or show some slight activity only in the lowest
order, which relates to the use of the senses. With justice, then,
do we say that the moulding and strengthening of the reasoning
faculties should occupy a most prominent part in a system of
preparatory education.

In this, however, nature suggests a method and an order.
There are properties which, latent at first, come into full play
only at that advanced stage of life for which they are destined.
The memory is the faculty earliest developed, and consequently
the first exertions of the mind should be directed to expand as
much as possible its capacity of retaining facts present, recalling
past events, and receiving general principles. We must not re-
gard the mind as an empty blank capable of receiving only a
definite number of impressions, but as a vast surface, to use a
material illustration, capable of retaining an undetermined num-
ber of impressions and expanded by the very action of receiving
them. As none of the mental faculties can be exercised entirely
independently of the co-operation of the rest, for, as I said
before, it is not a part but the whole soul that acts, there is in
those exercises, which would seem to belong exclusively to the
memory, ample room to cherish the first feeble efforts of the rea-
soning faculties and the judgment, without blighting the first
buds of the pliant mind with intricate ratiocinations. To ex-
plain this by a very familiar example, lei us suppose that a child
has commenced to learn geography, where the nature of the sub-
ject matter would seem to demand an almost exclusive exercise
of the memory ; yet, if even in this reason and judgment have
no part, the study of geography will be alike painful and useless
to the pupil. For to what purpose would he learn the names of
foreign countries, cities, towns, &c., with their position and the
number of their inhabitants, unless his judgment were first in-

formed by knowing the relative position of his own district or
village, and its population. Without this, it is true, he could
recite with the utmost accuracy the latitude and longitude of
distant countries, enumerate with the greatest exactness their
thousands and millions of population ; but yet remain as ignor-
ant as before of the relative nature of their position and of the
intrinsic power of numbers. Real knowledge consists in a feeling
of consciousness, which memory alone cannot create. This state
of consciousness can never be arrived at, until the subject of our
knowledge is divested of that foreign idea which often renders it
inaccessible to the understanding, and until it is in a manner
identified with our very thoughts, with our very perceptions.
To do this is a function peculiar to the free use of our reason.
To continue my example, the principle of comparison, which
implicitly pervades all our reasoning, alone can familiarize the
knowledge of geography to the young beginner. He can easily
know the position of his native village and the number of its
inhabitants, for this falls under the immediate perception of his
senses, and then following the economy which nature teaches,
always to begin from himself, he passes on and compares the sta-
tistics of his own village with those of other countries, which in
point of population and position bear the aearest relation to it.
This is but one of the many examples that could be adduced tj
show how reason and judgment, if properly used, can come to
the assistance of the memory.

As nature has assigned a time when the memory is the pievail-
ing faculty, so also there is a period when the intellect estab-
lishes as it were its superiority. We must here avoid an error,
which perhaps is very common, to suppose, namely, that at an
early period of life the memory becomes physically weakened.
At no period, while the mind is in its normal state, does the
memory retire to give place to the functions of the intellect.
That the memory becomes weak means exactly the same thing
as that it ceases to be exercised, and not that, at an early stage,
it is enfeebled from a decay of nature. In youth, while there is
.no stock of knowledge to commence with, the memory, from
necessity, is to be dexterously employed in retaining impressions
conveyed by the senses from external objects ; at a more advanced

period the mind operates npon the imprenions alr^vidj received,
and by its prooeflB of combination and reasoning can easily dis-
pense with the services of the memory. It is, then, on this very
account that the memory loses, in some degree, its fiioility of
retention. But since nature reserves for manhood the full de-
velopment of the intellect, it has a right to claim at that advanced
period a degree of superiority over the other faculties. It cannot,
however, perform its functions in a state isolated from the memo-
ry ; consequently, while it is undergoing its development, every
effort must be made to preserve the strength already acquired by
the memory. As it would be an error entirely to depend upon
the former ; so also it would operate as an obstacle to mental
development to discard the latter. To depend entirely upon the
intellect would be to disown the authority of the learned, and,
by consequence, to reduce science and knowledge to an inchoative
state ; while, on the other hand, to be exclusively led by the
memory would be to fetter down their progress to an everlasting
statu quo. Each must be used in its own place. But as the
object of elementary training is to bring into play the nobler
faculties, the highest attention is to be paid to the moulding of
the reasoning powers and the judgment. A defect in this is
always attended with consequences very pernicious to the pupU.
To make the memory the ruling agent in an advanced stage of
learning, is to place an obstacle to, if not to stifle, that originality
of genius, which under the free action of the intellect would
educe the inventive powers ot the mind. And, in fact, if we but
consult our own experience, we will find that those who, during
the course of their preparatory studies, were too servile in learn-
ing the opinions of others, without creating in their own minds
a conscious feeling of the truth, in after life lack the courage to
declare their own sentiments or to enforce them as their con-
victions.

Having explained the nature of the mental fitculties and the
rational process of their development, the subject now leads me
to consider what studies are in themselves most calculated to
bring forth these mental powers and serve at the same time as
instruments of their training. The mind being an active agent
requires always some object for its cogitations. By using that

continual communication existing between the external and
internal world, a species of attraction can be formed by which
the qualities of the mind can be elicited and expanded. The
memory is the faculty that first comes into action, consec uently
such studies must be presented as possess the power of cr using a
vigorous exertion on its part. Next to the immediate perceptions
of the senses, language is doubtless the subject in which the
young mind feels itself most at home. To learn the many terms
established by the arbitrary will of man, and sanctioned by
Hying custom even in a vernacular language, affords a vast field
for the cultivation of the memory ; while, unquestionably, the
initiatory processes of the classical discipline of the Greek and
Latin languages cannot but be fitted for exercising this faculty.
At the same time that the memory is thus actively employed in
acquiring the signs of ideas, the scientific construction of the
classical languages will present the reasoning faculties with am-
ple opportunity of fostering their first efforts, of being gradually
formed and prepared for those studies which are expressly design-
ed for their cultivation. The analysis and combination of ideas
with which classical syntax abounds, form an easy and agreeable
exercise in practical logic, and, above all, assist to bring out and
exercise that reflex power of attending to what is passing in the
mind, which is the distinctive characteristic of intellectual ex-
istence. Next to the study of languages, history will form a
fertile source for expanding the memory, and will, at the same
time, be a preparatory study to philosophy. For facts teach
that, since the birth of philosophy, the history of society
has been regarded as governed by the history of the human
mind.

Although the reasoning powers are sharpened and quickened
by a well digested course ot arithmetic so congenial to the tender
mind, yet their full exercise is reserved for the study of mathe-
matics, philosophy (mental and natural) . In these studies the
memory is also partially exercised in retaining the data and
principles which constitute the subject matter of operation for
the intellect But it is not unfirequently we see a false use made
of these studies, and particularly of the demonstrative parts of
mathematics. This error, which is to be guarded against as

opposed to the very design of constituting matliomatios as an instru-
ment of intellectual training, is to regard theoretical problems ia
all their parts as purely a task of the memory. The office of this
faculty, as I said before, is restricted to data and principles.
The province of mathematics, under the view of forming a part
of elementary education, is to put the learner in possession of a
true sense of scientific evidence, to enable him to form the habit
of rational and decisive argumentation, and to fulfil the logical
conditions of all positive speculation by studying universal posi-
tivism at its very source. For in the region of mathematics
alone do we find in full development the art of reasoning,-~all
the resources of which, from the most spontaneous to the most
sublime, are thrown open and applied with far more variety and
fruitfulness than elsewhere. The abstract portion, in fact, may
be regarded as an immense repository of logical resources, ready
for use in scientific deduction, while to minds less disposed to
abstract speculation, the practical parts will be a means of
improving their prac^'cal genius.

In the same manner that the study of mathematics improves
the deductive powers of the mind, the study of natural philoso-
phy, reasoning as it does from effects, contributes to strengthen
the inductive powers. Thus the study of the structure of the
material world can be made subservient to mental discipline and
intellectual improvement. But to establish order in our thoughts
is the particular duty of mental philosophy. The mind, bearing
the impress of the Deity, according to the words of the Psalmest^*
signatum est super nos lumen vultus tui, Domine^ — and being an
emanation of the divine harmony of the Increated Intellect, has %
natural tendency to order, which shadows forth, although in a
feeble manner, its resemblance to the Creator. Order is invari-
bly the result of law. Now, the object of mental philosophy is
to establish and investigate the laws of the human thought and
of its real object ; consequently, while the mind is engaged in
this research, the reasoning and reflective faculties are greatly
improved, and that order is brought to view, which, otherwise,
might lie forever dormant in an untutored mind. A man, it is
true, may be possessed of a great amount of natural talent, or
what is in other words called common sense, and can, to a eer

tain extent, dispense in practical matters with scientific rules of
reasoning ; but this does not, in the least, exclude the necessitj
of an orderly cultivation of those natural parts ; on the contrary,
let them be what they may, they can never be used to their full
advantage, until they first, in some shape or otheit , pass through
the ordeal of science.

Besides the memory and intellect there are other subordinate
faculties which also can be made subservient to mental develop-
ment. The imagination, often the rebellious slave of reason, is
rather to be controlled than developed. The chastening influence
of taste can best exercise this control. A judicious use of dias-
sical studies, by refining the taste and improving the imitative
powers, will tend much to limit the extravagance of the imagina-
tion within the consistent boundaries of reason. For the early
ages of the world, so faithfully represented by classic vnriten,
were peculiarly favourable to the sublime emotions of the glow-
ing imagination. In the progress of science and art the habits
of men have undergone a change more favourable to accuracy
than to strength or sublimity. The taste, which in a manner
regulates the imagination, has no determined criterion ; but the
veneration, which the learned have now for many centuries paid
classical studies, establishes in their favour, as to their utility for
refining the taste, a verdicc from which there is scarcely an ap-
peal. Christianity itself, which, in the name of religion, con-
demned the mythology which classic authors embodied in their
works, preserved their writings in the name of science with the
same veneration as it paid to the pagan models of art. To explain
more fully the influence of classical studies on the taste, I will
here state what is told of Phidias the famous sculptor. Being
asked from what pattern he had formed his noble statue of the
Olympian Jove, he said it was from the prototype he found in a
line of Homer (Iliad Lib. 1, 530,) where the poet describes the
indignant God, and pictures his sable brows bent and his ambro-
sial curls shaken as he nods. The taste which the poet here dis-
played in words made the marble obedient to the imagination of
the sculptor.

From the view I have presented of these different studies, it
can be «eadily perceived that I have entirely left out of sight

v.*

their utility as constituting a part of the knowledge necessarf to
be acquired by youth. Languages I have considered apart from
their necessity in social intercourse ; Latin and Greek without
regarding their utility as preparatory to the learned professions ;
Arithmetic apart from its importance in th^ commercial world ;
Mathematics without paying regard to the part they occupy in
the whole science of inorganic philosophy. . I have taken no
account of the importance of the study of the physical laws as
governing modern invention. I explained mental philosophy as
a mere instrument of training without showing how it stands at
the very foundation of all sciences. These considerations might
a£ford a rich source for many discourses ; but it suffices for my
present purpose that I have shown how these studies, in-
dependently of their relative usefulness, conduce to mental
development.

A system of preparatory education, based upon the principles
here laid down, can scarcely fail of success. Its object being to
improve the mind, it renders it capable of applying itself indif-
ferently to any pursuit ; for it finds in all that common bond
of union and that species of natural affinity, which, as Cicero
remarks, connect together all those arts that have relation to
liberal knowledge. Whatever, then, may be the future career
of a youth thus trained, it will be marked with a manly discharge
of duty, directed by the dictates of reason and judgment fully
developed. His early education will impress itself as a seal upon
whatever calling an enlightened intelligence may point out to
him. I do not, however, deny that a man gifted with ordinary
talent, after a painful and laborious apprenticeship, can, unaided
by this systematic training, arrive at an honorary profession and
practice it with some degree of success ; but his ideas and know-
ledge of relative duties will ever remain as contracted as his
mental faculties are undeveloped.

The influence of this system is not limited to the individual,
it extends also to society. From enlarged views an interest for
the common welfare always results. .\ spirit of self-reliance it
fostered by cultivated reason, and all the members of society are
taught that they are not passive agents in their country's pro-
gress, that to aggrandize it is in their power. It is on the acting

in accordance Kith this conviction that social advancement in a
great measure depends. It has also a strong moral tendency.
For, not to speak of the humanizing influence of studies in gen-
eral, a system of education, that brings forth and strengthens
the reason and judgment, virtually establishes their superiority
over the inferior appetites and subjects all the passions to rules
imposed by an ever increasing intelligence. In one word, it is
from a sound system of elementary discipline that vre are to look
for the enlightenment, prosperity, and moral standing of society.

If, then, -we value the prosperity of the rising generation and
the future interests of our country, we are undoubtedly under
obligations to encourage and facilitate the means of acquiring a
rational course of elementary education. The first step to this
end certainly is, to have our schools under the direction of ex-
perienced teachers. It is a grave error to suppose that those
who take upon themselves the instruction of youth are sufficiently
competent if they are merely'initiated into the first elements of let-
ters and numbers. It is not enough that they know barely what
is necessary to be taught in their schools. The young is a tender
plant that requires most delicate management ; and, unless pro-
per care is taken from the very beginning to place learning under
an agreeable aspect, prejudices and disgust may arise, which with
difficulty can afterwards be removed. Are we to look for this
care, this management, from those who have never passed through
a course of elementary training, and who, as a matter of course,
are ignorant uf both method and order? This would be to expect
too much of uncultivated nature. Not only, then, must the
teacher have a liberal share of knowledge, but he must also have
the power and facility of communicating his knowledge; to
speak more plainly, he must know what quantity and quality
of nourishment the young mind can bear without aversion.

There was a time when it was impracticable to have all our
schools under the direction of efficient teachers, there being no
permanent high school in which they could be trained ; but since
the opening of our Seminary this can be no longer alleged. For
although the primary end of its founder was to educate for the
Church Levites who might meet the urgent demands of his mis-
sions ; yet, combining the spiritual interests of his people with

their temporal welfare, he diaigiied that, while it would be for
the missions a nursery of zealous labourers, it would at the same
time serve for the youth of the country as the best school of pre-
paratory education. These views it has from the very beginning
realized. For, not to mention the many missionaries already sent
forth, a number of its students are at present teachers in the first
schools of this and the neighboring counties. Here, however, in
justice to riu selves, I must remark that many wishing to qualify
themselves for teaching, and more desirous of a knowledge of
particular branches than of real mental training, have applied
for, and obtained, admission to classes, which in their regard
were on many reasons considered exceptionable. If the pro-
ficiency of such, leaving the Seminary with little more than an
imperfect acquaintance with their favourite branches, be taken
as a criterion, the reputation of the Seminary would necessarily
sufiTer in the estimation of the discerning public. Leaving this
consideration out of sight, there is reason to believe that the suc-
cess of the Seminary has met the most sanguine expectations even
of its friends ; and, if the past may be regarded as an earnest of
the future, that nothing mote than the co-operation of parents
is necessary to make it the means of diffusing that knowledge by
which general intelligence may keep constant pace with the fast
increasing population of our country.