Mental Culture; Or, The Means of Developing the Human Faculties

Fourth Stage of Intellectual Education, embracing a Period
from the Age of Twelve or Thirteen to the Eighteenth Year
-This Period determines the Usefulness or Depravity of the
future Man-How to treat Youth at the Age of Puberty—
The Advantage of having stored the Mind of Youth with

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180

193

Page.

Knowledge, and gained his Confidence-The Means of using

the Enthusiasm of Youth to advance him in Morality and

Intelligence-The Necessity of Relaxation: Science a Means

of Instruction and Relaxation: the Wonders of the Micros-

cope given as an Example-Possibility of Applying Dramatic

Representations for the Illustration of History-The Philoso-

phy of Shakspeare's Works, and his correct Knowledge of

Human Motives-Causes for the present vitiated Tastes for

vulgar Pageants, Cards, &c.-A Knowledge of the innate

Faculties of Man should be communicated to Youth, in order

that he may become acquainted with his various Duties-On

the Study of the Sciences, as a part of a System of a National

Education-The Creator, in every Part of the visible World,

has anticipated the Inventions of Men, and suggested Models

for Imitation...

CHAPTER XIV.

Practical Reflections-The reason why various Systems have

failed, owing to a partial Application of true Principles-Ob-

jections against educating all Classes refuted-Objections

to Mechanics' Institutions, particularly those drawn from the

Superficiality of the Knowledge of the Members, answered-

Recapitulation of the Advantages of a systematic Plan for

Moral and Intellectual Education, not suited to any particular

Country, but capable of universal Application-Concluding

Remarks

Explanation of Terms strictly technical, or rendered so by being

used in a particular sense in this work.

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purchoads 1834 May 6t

MENTAL CULTURE.

*The volume of nature is the book of knowledge; and he becomes most wise, who makes the most judicious selection."-Goldsmith.

WHEN a man ventures to enquire into the origin and progress of society, he is imperceptibly drawn into certain considerations as to the causes of moral and political error, and the intellectual aberrations which have hitherto rendered human institutions so very mutable. And, unless he commence dispassionately, and with some pre-knowledge of the philosophy of mind, his views will be too much obscured by early prejudices, and his conclusions will partake of fanciful conjecture, instead of being conformable to actual fact; and when once reality gives way to imagination, truth is sure to be lost amidst the mazes of mere metaphysical speculation. It is, therefore, our intention, in the succeeding pages, to submit only such opinions as are founded on a positive knowledge of man, and of the physical, organic, moral, and intellectual laws on which his being is dependant; and we shall endeavour to prove that the inconsistencies in all the common modes of education, the vicissitudes of all human institutions, and the consequent failure of their anticipated results, are ascribable to the fact that their framers and promoters have been ignorant of the number of the mental faculties, of their relative importance, and of the means of training them to produce the greatest possible good to the greatest number.

The records of antiquity will avail us but little in our enquiry, as the origin of society is too much obscured with mysterious legends by the poetical historians of the Greeks and Romans; and we can only infer the actual condition of mankind in the earliest periods of human history from the fact, that arts and sciences have been ages in progressing towards a state of comparative refinement.

It should also be remembered that in too many instances the gifted beings, to whom we have been indebted for every improvement, have, instead of receiving honour and rewards for their discoveries, been either neglected by their contemporaries, or regarded by them with the most narrowminded prejudice, and sometimes treated with the bitterest persecution. The least reflection must convince us that these circumstances have had a tendency to retard the advancement of knowledge, by damping the patriotic ardour and checking the growth of intelligence in many an aspirant for fame, who has been deterred from persevering in his solitary and unequal struggle against the selfishness and cupidity of power, on the one hand, and the passions and ignorance of an unthinking multitude, on the other.

If these observations are correct in reference to those individuals who have distinguished themselves as either inventors or improvers in the art of agriculture and the mechanical sciences, how much more cogent they appear when we examine the history of literature and moral philosophy! In these records we find that any innovation, however good and useful, invariably excited a frightful host of opponents, all influenced by selfishness, and tenacious of their own cobweb fame; and such persons, disguising their real motives by the unworthy pretence of fearing the bad consequences of new opinions, have often, for a time, retained a flimsy reputation at the expense of their

* In the succeeding pages we intend to confine ourselves to a philosophical investigation of the principles of human nature, as derivable from the zoological rank of man, and the natural history of the mind.

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