effect upon the moral feeling of the man. It would be thought ridiculous by many were we to assert that evil is often chosen in preference to good, not from any lack of desire to do what is right, but from a want of means to distinguish clearly, in difficult circumstances, where the proper course lies. This opinion we are, notwithstanding, disposed to maintain, even to the extent of saying, that more evil is done by misdirected than by dishonest views, and that the accumulated mischiefs arising from error are of greater prejudice to the advancement of society than those which have their origin in abandonment of principle. There are but few who can say that the greatest portion of detriment which has arisen to them out of the conduct of others has proceeded from malignant or dishonest intentions. This being admitted, we must look for the rise of much evil to some other source than intentional departure from the principles of morality; and we have not far to go, if we recollect that the rules which are laid down for the guidance of any one member of society in his multifarious dealings with the rest are few and general, frequently misunderstood and as frequently misapplied. The first arises from the vague and erroneous use of words, the second from the want of habit of seizing all the circumstances of a case, and of reasoning correctly upon them. And this being the state of the majority of mankind, the criminal designs of one may be advanced by the errors of thousands. Thus a potentate, who incites his people to slaughter, declaring that God is with him and will fight against his enemies, utters his blasphemous nonsense in the conviction, that, of all whom he addresses, the few who have been taught to think are no match for the many, high and low, who are incapable of any such exercise.

At this moment we see hundreds on the verge of crime

*

and misery, because they cannot see through the misapplication of a few words. Never was there a time when it was more clearly shown that ignorance produces as many disasters as malevolence; and though unfortunately it is not yet universally true that better principles of education have reached the lower as well as the middling and upper classes of society, yet the obvious good effects of enlightenment, where it exists, upon the former should tempt those engaged in the instruction of the two latter to inquire, whether all the good which is attainable is yet attained, and whether there is not room for suspicion that the bad habits of mind, which, in their extreme state, lead to such fearful results, have always been producing a pernicious, though more quiet effect upon that portion of mankind which is supposed to have better opportunities of instruction.

The first education of children, though not formally called by that name, consists in the answers which are given to the numerous questions put by them on the nature, object, and cause of every phenomenon which catches their attention. The intelligent, and frequently unanswerable, inquiries of an infant, whose thoughts have not yet been chained by our common routine of expressions, and whose appetite for investigation has not been destroyed by receiving only words where he looked for ideas, furnish a lesson of no small profit to the philosophic observer. The first impulse given to mental action is the result of an instinct of curiosity, a desire to search to the very source the cause of all that is seen and heard. Hence children of any intelligence break

This was written at a time of great political excitement, when there were people who imagined that a conviction that their own rights were attacked gave them a right to abolish the right of their opponents to live in peace in their own houses.

and destroy their playthings, in order the better to examine their construction; and here begins the manège by which they are converted from inquirers into machines. Parents and nurses reprimand their charges for the indulgence of this desire to learn, and repeat for the ten-thousandth time their wonder that children love mischief. Under this last emphatic word is included. all that can give any trouble to an instructor, or by any means lead him to suspect that the desire of knowledge comes without his assistance, and all that is asked of him is the direction of it to proper objects. But since it is of consequence to repress this same desire of knowledge, and since the temper of the times no longer allows of accomplishing this object by force, either in boys or men, the method employed is to be provided with a stock of unmeaning words, mostly derived from the Greek, which are to be applied to the complete elucidation of all causes, final and secondary ; the teacher endeavouring to look as if he understood them himself, in which, to do him justice, he generally succeeds. Above all, he must never fail of giving some answer to every question, since to confess ignorance would perhaps reveal to the child that he is neither to know nor to expect to know all things; and this is not expedient. If, by any means, he should be unprovided at the moment, he must tell the pupil not to "ask questions," which, next to the destruction of playthings, is the second great offence of childhood.

To see the manner in which words are applied to the extinction of the desire of knowledge, let us take an example of the contrary method, where they are used in a reasonable manner. In the "Lessons on Objects," reviewed in the first number of the Journal of Education

the word which expresses a quality is introduced in the following way. The attention is first directed to the quality itself, in repeated instances of its existence; the sensible idea actually presented is dwelt upon and expressed, if it may be, in common phraseology. The single word which denotes the quality is then introduced as soon as the want of it is felt, and not before, It will be observed that the word is made the name of the quality and not its explanation. The usual way to convey the meaning of a word is as follows: A child asks, “ Why can I see through the window and not through the door?" The parent puts on the face of a Socrates, and answers, "Because the window is transparent and the door is not." The child is therefore led to think that a long word is a sufficient explanation, and, worst of all, that a new word is all he should look for in any case. He imagines that his papa knows everything, and that he himself will be as wise some day. Hence springs what is called the pride of knowledge, which is, in most cases, the direct consequence of ignorance. But suppose it should be thought worth while to tell him, in simple language, that the answer to the question, "Why," in the sense in which it is put, is in most cases impossible, in the present state of knowledge; that the word "transparent" is not the reason of the phenomenon, but the name of it; that we must know more about light and glass before we can pretend to explain why the first should pass through the second; that when he is older he may learn many useful and curious things about the two, but that, go as far as he may, there must always be some part of his question left unanswered,-would his knowledge be less, or would he be likely to make a worse use of it, than when he is left

to suppose that all the mysteries of nature are within his reach, as soon as he has got out of words of one and two syllables? The frequent misuse of the words "why" and "because" has produced a little work, containing many things which are true enough, but perverted by being formed into a catechism of questions beginning with " why" and answers with "because." For example: "Question. Why is ice broken before it is stored in wells? Answer. Because it may reunite in the interior." We say nothing of the method of teaching words as an exercise of spelling only; since, common as it once was, it is now, we hope, nearly exploded; and it is admitted, that he who knows nothing of such words as "transparent," except by t-r-a-n-s trans, p-a pa, r-e-n-t rent, transparent, can never be entitled to any other appellation than i-g ig, n-o no, r-a-n-t rant, ignorant.

But the evil is not by any means confined to the explanation of such qualities as are sensible; it runs through the notions of physics which are given to children to an extent which all will find some difficulty in correcting when they attain mature age. Granting that there are few grown people who would not, after a moment's reflection, agree with the censure in our last paragraph, we do not think there are so many who will coincide with us in what follows: We assert that the explanation of more complicated phenomena, as given to young people, is a traffic of unmeaning words, or, if there be any meaning, of errors and misconceptions. To prove this, nothing more is necessary than to recall the usual modes of elucidation, and particularly those contained in the story books of which children are so fond. We recollect distinctly seeing it asserted in one of these that the immortal Newton was the first who