THE EDUCATIONAL SPIRIT OF THE PRESENT MOVEMENT. A LECTURE Delivered at Her Majesty's Printing Office, Feb. 16, 1853. BEING AN ELUCIDATION OF THE LAWS OF MENTAL AND CEREBRAL DEVELOPMENT, OR MAN GROWTH. BY J. MITCHELL. LONDON: PRINTED BY GEORGE E. EYRE AND WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE, 1853. THE EDUCATIONAL SPIRIT OF THE PRESENT MOVEMENT. GENTLEMEN, As you are aware, one of the simplest problems in geometry is, to find the centre of a circle. ... There we see a class for reading, another for writing, another for geography; there is one for English grammar, and another for French. Some time ago we were favoured with a Lecture on "The Duke;" more recently with some Shaksperian readings; and here we are again to-night. Evidently all these are parts of one and the same circle. The circle, indeed, is not at present fully described; a great part is indicated by mere dottings. But such is the character and relationship of these lines and dottings, that we can at once perceive that they are all struck out from one common centre. What is that centre? what that emanating influence? What is the SPIRIT OF THE PRESENT MOVEMENT ? us Here our geometrical "point" of analogy cannot help This Moral centre is something more than a geometrical abstraction, "having neither length, breadth, nor dimensions." It is a living working principle. It is Life, Thought, Moral and Intellectual Development. The introduction of this element into the Establishment with which we are connected is a new thing; but it is quite in accordance with the Spirit of the Times. This is an Educational Movement. It deals with us as MORAL AGENTS, and not merely as INDUSTRIAL MACHINES. It introduces a principle of moral union and affinity among those who have hitherto had no closer connexion than that of juxta-position. Instead of, there is a press-machine, there a composing-machine, there a reading-machine, it recognizes there a man, there another, and there another. ; Yes, this is a strictly Educational Movement; and I, for one, am not only prepared to give in my adherence to it but it will likewise be my endeavour to bring under your notice certain facts and principles in connexion with the Educational question, which, I think, have not occupied so high and commanding a position as their importance demands. And if I shall succeed in fairly proving and establishing those principles, I will then be bold enough to anticipate that the Educational claims of the Present Movement will command your earnest and hearty cooperation. I am aware that in the advocacy of this question, any one in the present day occupies a high vantage ground. Not long ago, even the importance of Education was a disputed point. Now, however, the Popular Mind has so far mastered the question, that it is almost as needless to discuss the general merits of Education, as it is to prove the importance of the sun in enlightening and fertilizing the earth. They both stand among the accredited truisms of the day. But although we are all pretty well agreed in our appreciation of a certain abstract idea of "Education," yet there is a danger of our agreement on that point being too abstract. When we come to explain our meaning more precisely, it may perhaps appear that different people mean very different things by it. I am not desirous of disputing the meaning which any one else may attach to this general form of expression; but as I have a practical object in view, it is necessary that I should explain my own meaning of it. No one, I think, (especially those of the rising generation,—for there are now open to them means and facilities of intellectual acquirement, such as, a few years ago, could hardly have been dreamt of,)—no one, I think, ought now-a-days to rest satisfied until he is pretty well grounded in the general facts and principles of the Physical Sciences, --such as geography, astronomy, geology, electricity, chemistry, natural history, and physiology. . . . . He ought also to be well read in Biography,--Voyages and Travels, -History, ancient and modern, especially the history of his own country. . . . . In a commercial country like this, he should be well informed of the views and principles of standard writers on Political Economy; he should not be at the mercy of nostrum venders.... Nor should he be unversed in Mental Philosophy. Locke, Reid, Brown, Dugald Stewart, and others of the same school, well studied, will not only afford a deep insight into the mechanism of the Human Mind; but the mind of the student engaged in this work of intellectual analysis and ratiocination, will, from the very nature of the study, have acquired a degree of acumen and profundity, to which it might otherwise have been a stranger. Literary Composition is an invaluable acquirement. I don't mean "fine writing,”—a kind of literary dandyism, in which style is more studied than matter;-but the logical arrangement of the component parts of a writing or discourse, and clearness and force in the mode of expressing them. Lastly, Theology has its claims. When we consider the Religious aspect of the Times,-its wants and necessities,-the large amount of superficial Scepticism that presents itself not merely in the set form of Essay and Lecture, but is very much interwoven with the "light literature" of the day,—and in its most subtle and disguised form pervades the spirit of a large portion of the weekly and daily Press, as well as the writings and speeches of public men,—saying and unsaying, speaking and writing in every style save that of straightforward out-spoken English,-it is the more necessary that we should not merely be in a condition to confront the candid face-to-face opponent (of whom there are comparatively few), but also be enabled to detect that polite and politic Infidelism which conforms to Christian etiquette, while it abhors its principles, and seeks to poison where it dare not stab. At present I will not say more on this head. But if I am addressing any one of wavering or sceptical opinions, I would advise him to study carefully the standard writers on the Evidences and Philosophy of the Christian Faith. For I have often been surprised by |