Means and Ends of Universal Education

Teaching is so delicate and responsible in its nature, and what so far reaching in its results, as that of the parent to his offspring? or that of the teacher to his pupils? And what positions are more thoughtlessly assumed, or sustained with less solicitude, than are these, in perhaps the great majority of cases! It is lamentable to consider how many parents there are – and how many teachers, even – who never thoughtfully consider the ends of human life, and the means which are necessarily connected therewith.

Of those who are actually engaged in so developing the characters; and so establishing the habits of their children, and of their pupils, as materially to affect their weal or woe, for this life, how few, comparatively, answer for themselves, or even seriously consider, these and like questions: In what does a correct education consist? and, How can this education be best secured to the successive generations of men? What course of training is best calculated to fit children, or pupils, for the discharge of the various duties that will be incumbent on them as individuals, as social beings, as citizens of a free government, and as candidates for immortality? In considering these questions previously to the preparation of this volume, the author was led to treat the subject, in many respects, very differently from what most writers that preceded him had done.

In the present state of being, the mind, which constitutes the real man, dwells in a material body, for the purposes of development and culture, that it may thereby be prepared to enter most advantageously upon that higher life which awaits us in the future. The body, properly developed, with its five senses all in a state of healthy action, is the medium, and the only medium, through which a correct knowledge of God, as manifest in the material world, can be communicated to the mind. Hence the great prominence given in this volume to physical culture, and the right education of the senses, as constituting the true substratum for symmetrical and most successful mental development.

The author has endeavored so to present the subject of Education, which should have reference to the whole man – the body, the mind, and the heart – and so to unfold its nature, advantages, and claims, as to make it everywhere acceptable. Nay, more; he would have a good common education considered as the inalienable right of every child in the community, and have it placed first among the necessities of life.