Fourth Lecture [pp. 561-568]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
they adopt an entirely different course from the most
common one, and pursue it, both with body and soul.
They must learn to consider children-not as machines
and spinning tops, to be governed by whips, cords,
springs, pullies and levers-not as mere living animals,
incapable of any other impulse than fear or ambition,
but as rational beings, made after God's own image,
and gifted by him with immortal souls, whose appropriate regulators are the high, celestial, ever glorious
attributes of reason, judgment, and understanding-all
which are to be kept in continual exercise by the ardent
love of truth, wisdom, knowledge, and virtue. The
faults of children will all continue to grow with their
growth, and strengthen with their strength; nay, they
will live and die with them, as surely as that death
itself will come to them all, unless their treatment in
all future time, be made to conform, from the nursery
even unto the college, to the principles just stated.
This is not said in any spirit of presumptuous dictation;
for neither is the principle itself any discovery of my
own, nor have there been wanting many writers of
great ability and experience in teaching, to recommend
it most earnestly and zealously. But it is a thing of
such deep and universal importance to the happinessnot only of the present generation, but to that of millions yet unborn, that it cannot be too frequently insisted upon-especially while so many parents and
teachers are to be found, who appear almost entirely
to disregard it. If this were not strictly true, could we
possibly find either so many private families or schools
as we do find, wherein it is manifest, that unpolished
manners and awkwardness of person appear to be infinitely more dreaded, than deformities of mind or diseases of temper; where external attractions are evidently
prized far above all intellectual acquirements, and where
children in fact are educated much more assiduously for
all the purposes of the present life, than for any of that
everlasting life which is to come?
Having now finished the particular examination of
the faults and vices most common among parents,
teachers and scholars, which form the mass of obstacles
to education, there are many general reflections that
suggest themselves as proper to be stated-so many
indeed, that the present lecture cannot embrace them
all, without trespassing too far on your time. A few
of them however, I beg leave to present on the present
occasion. To describe in general terms all the hindrances heretofore attributed to the three great classes
who establish, fill, and regulate schools, we may say,
that there is not, in the first place, sufficient care, either
in the selection of suitable means, nor subsequently, in
regard to the best means of applying them. Parents
themselves are too often badly educated, or not at all.
They are too frequently incompetent, either from sheer
ignorance —from defects in temper and principle-or
from utter blindness to their children's faults, to direct
in the great business of their education. Teachers are
much too often suffered to decide on their own qualifications, and are encouraged to proceed in the vital
undertaking, without any thing like an examination
into their fitness by competent judges. Scholars too,
are not unfrequent]y suffered to choose for themselves,
not only what, but where, and how they shall learn, as
well as to decide on the time to be devoted to scholastic
pursuits; although it is most manifest, on a moment's
reflection, that none are competent to form a correct
judgment on all these important points, but those who
have already received a liberal education, and have
some experience in the ways of the world, as well as
knowledge of the various advantages and disadvantages
of its chief callings, trades and professions. Upon the
prevalent let-alone-plan, boys and girls are often left
to do, as their immature judgments may direct, what
their criminally neglectful fathers and mothers ought to
do for them; and an inverse order of proceeding is thus
established, which cannot possibly end in any thing
but "confusion worse confounded." A still more fatal
error than this transfer of the right and duty of judging
for their children to the children themselves is, that the
religious principles (I do not mean sectarian opinions,)
of their teachers are rarely ever made a subject of inquiry, much less of anxious solicitude. They may be
heathens, or confirmed infidels, for aught that is known
or cared about them; neither is any concern felt or
taken to know what particular provision is made in
schools for the moral and religious instruction of the
many thousand children, who are there to form their
principles of conduct for all future time. Yet, if the
question were asked, whether any thing in the whole
circle of sciences and the arts, be at all comparable
in importance with these principles, a negative answer
would assuredly be given, even by the most careless of
all those persons who have the control of the whole
subject of education in all its parts. That the peace,
comfort, prosperity, and happiness of all orders in society, depend upon the soundness of their moral and
religious principles, none, I believe, will be either so
foolish or wicked as to deny. And yet, where shall
we find the schools in which the acquisition of knowledge in various other matters, such as physical science,
foreign languages, and what are called polite accomplishments, is not made the chief, if not the sole object
of pursuit? The great springs of all human action-the
powerful regulators of all human conduct-such as it
ought to be, are either not thought of at all, or it is taken
for granted that the whole have been so carefully adjusted while the poor children were taking pap in their
nurseries, or conning over their alphabet, while under
their good mother's supervision, as to require no farther care.
When we consider well the nature, tendency, and
general prevalence of the faults which I have enumerated among all the parties concerned in the great
business of education, together with the errors so commonly committed in regard to its chief ends and purposes, or rather in the choice of means for their attainment, and then endeavor to measure the destructive
power of their combined influence, the contemplation
is truly appalling. It is in vain to turn our eyes to the
bright region of science and the arts, displaying all their
glories, and diffusing their innumerable blessings over
the whole face of our happy country. None can rejoice
in such a delightful prospect, nor give nmore heartfelt
thanks to God for it, than I do. But alas! I cannot
always avoid the sight of the dark, portentous, and
terrific clouds of vice and crime which always obscure,
in some direction or other, and often threaten to destroy
this heavenly view. I cannot avoid asking myself why
these things should be; nor have I the power to shut
the eyes of my understanding against the soul-sickening
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