Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

INTRODUCTION, 17
defects and removing his inconvenient habits. Without some
degree of it, every man is in danger of contracting bad habits
before he is aware, and of suffering some of his powers to go to
decay, for want of proper exercise.
If the business of early education were more thoroughly and
more generally understood, it would be less necessary for individuals, when they arrive at maturity, to form plans of improvement for themselves. But education never can be systematically directed to its proper objects, till we have obtained, not
only an accurate analysis of the general principles of our nature, and an account of the most important laws which regulate
their operation; but an explanation of the various modifications
and combinations of these principles, which produce that diversity of talents, genius, and character, we observe among men.
To instruct youth in the languages and in the sciences is comparatively of little importance, if we are inattentive to the habits they acquire, and are not careful in giving to all their different faculties, and all their different principles of action, a proper
degree of employment. Abstracting entirely from the culture
of their moral powers, how extensive and difficult is the business of conducting their intellectual improvement! To watch
over the associations which they form in their tender years; to
give them early habits of mental activity; to rouse their curiosity, and to direct it to proper objects; to exercise their ingenuity and invention; to cultivate in their minds a turn for
speculation, and at the same time preserve their attention alive
to the objects around them; to awaken their sensibilities to the
beauties of nature, and to inspire them with a relish for intellectual enjoyment; — these form but a part of the business of
education, and yet the execution even of this part requires an
acquaintance with the general principles of our nature, which
seldom falls to the share of those to whom the instruction of
youth is commonly intrusted.
Nor will such a theoretical knowledge of the human mind as
I have now described, be always sufficient in practice. An uncommon degree of sagacity is frequently requisite, in order to
accommodate general rules to particular tempers and charac2*