Symmetrical Education or the Importance of Just Proportion in Mind and Body

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1873 edition. Excerpt: ...to convince us, as similar principles did Humboldt, that we grasp principles of sublime simplicity and certainty. Those who accept the proportional theory of education, may perhaps, for some time yet be ridiculed as doctrinaires, but as no one can expect to be practically useful unless he first be theoretically correct, we must still cogitate and await the verdict of the future. The title proportionate or symmetrical may be too general for the apprehension of the ordinary reader; we must, therefore, descend further into exposition and detail, but before doing this, we would direct the reader's attention to that portion of our essay which demonstrated that human nature, mental and physical, is plastic and modifiable: this was a necessary preliminary, for if human nature were not plastic, it would be in vain to attempt the regeneration of mankind. All schemes for improving the moral, intellectual, or physical status of mankind are framed upon the tacit conviction that human, like other nature, is modifiable; divertible from, and convertible to the highest type of well-being. Education, then, is essentially a formative art; as essentially so as the plastic arts, commonly so called, and though its STRENGTHEN THE WEAKER FACULTIES 51 finished work may require a much longer period to accomplish than the painter or sculptor's, it will, when it shall be invested with full powers and in the plenitude of its mastery, be able to develop whatever manner of man it wills. It will be by this time fully evident that, in accordance with our primary confession, we have been driving full tilt against the vulgar error, that cultivating and still further exaggerating ' the iiatttral bias, ' as it is termed, is the true mode of educating. Only attempt to carry out this...