ページの画像
PDF
ePub

idea of space was brought to a scientific precision. Of that step we still inherit the benefits; for example, all educated Europeans conceive the relation of the various parts and lines on the terrestrial globe with a distinctness in which the rude savage or uncultured boor has no share. The opening of the civilisation of modern Europe was distinguished, in the same way, by the production of a new science-Mechanics, which soon led to the Mechanics of the Heavens. And this step, like the former, depended on men arriving at a properly-distinct fundamental idea. The revival of the scientific idea of force (an idea which had been brought to light by Archimedes, and extinguished again amid the mists of Greek philosophy,) was, as I have elsewhere shown, the essential condition to which this step was due*. This idea, too, has now been communicated to persons of education in general, as the general reception of the Newtonian theory of the universe proves; while, at the same time, the very indistinct views which men of considerable cultivation often entertain of the mechanism of the universe, proves that the fundamental ideas on which a clear apprehension of the doctrine of universal attraction depends, have hitherto been very imperfectly diffused through the atmosphere of the literary world. And the cause of this remaining imperfection probably is, that elementary mechanics has not hitherto been made an essential portion of a liberal education, as for centuries elementary geometry has. Nothing forbids us to look forward to the time, when not only this defi

• History of the Inductive Sciences, Book VI. chap. i. sect. 2.

ciency shall be supplied*, but when men's minds shall have been carried much further in the same track. We may imagine a future period of mental culture, when the ideas on which our knowledge of the composition of bodies, or our estimate of the natural classes of organized beings, depends, shall be as clear in cultivated minds, as the conception of universal attraction is now, in the mind of a thoroughly educated man; or as the conception of the circles of latitude and longitude, in the thoughts of a welltaught child. And if we add to this, the possibility that the ideas which are the bases of sound criticism, morals, and politics, may become equally distinct and equally diffused, by means of an appropriate education, we catch a glimpse of the grand and boundless vista of possible and probable intellectual refinement and civilisation which the future offers.

Whether or not the reader may assent to the view thus presented of the nature of the future progress of civilisation, he will, I trust, sympathize with another reflection which offers itself to us at this point of our survey. If the destinies of the highest civilisation of man, be thus closely connected with the progress of truly liberal education; and if it depend upon the constitution and conduct of educational institutions, whether such civilisation shall continue to advance, or shall become retrograde: it is impossible not to

* Partly for the reasons here suggested, I have published a work on Elementary Mechanics (The Mechanical Euclid), such as I hope may fit that branch of knowledge for taking its due place in education by the side of geometry.

To do this,

reflect, how grave and weighty is the office of those, on whom it falls to found and to put in action new institutions of liberal education, intended to meet the requirements of present and future ages. is a great, and we may say, a solemn task. Those who are engaged in it, must act as men building for eternity. We see no reason to believe otherwise, than that this great nation, hitherto so highly favoured with outward and inward gifts, (and with it, its vigorous progeny, which, while peopling and civilising the other side of the globe, is involved in the intellectual fortunes of its parent,) is destined by Providence for an advance yet to be long continued, in civilisation and refinement of the best and highest kind. To what consummation the world is reserved by its Governor we know not, nor whether he has decreed, that, before the final close of all things, the brightness of civilised England must wane and become dim, as that of Greece and Rome has done before. But this we know, that it would be the most fantastical presumption of system-making, for any one to predict and reckon in centuries the calculated time and rate of the declension of Britain. We know, too, that if such a declension menaced us, the wisest, as well as the noblest course, would be to seek and apply our remedies in the spirit of considerate and hopeful regard for the future. And surely, even if our final declension were certain, and if we could yet, by our exertions, so retard its progress, that, during the ensuing three hundred years, our condition should be no worse than for the last three hundred years it has

been, this were a blessing, and a distinction among the nations of the earth, well worth the best resolves and exertions the nation can bring to the task. When, therefore, we attempt to construct institutions of education for the countless youth of centuries still to come, we enter upon a task full of solicitude and responsibility, but full also of hope and promise. And in this spirit should the office be discharged; all narrow views, and little jealousies, and limited regards, being laid aside, and the great object itself, the transmission of the best portion of the culture of this age to the Britons of ages now far removed, being steadily kept in view. With this view we should guard especially against bringing down the standard of our system to the level which transient and partial circumstances, or popular prejudices, may suggest. That education which will transmit to the future the civilisation of the past and present, is that which the country really requires; and modes of education which may attract for a moment, but can produce no effect of this kind, are of no value for the real purposes of education, and can satisfy none of the real wants of the age.

But a part of this subject requires a separate section.

SECT. 4.-OF THE LEARNED LANGUAGES AS SUBJECTS OF UNIVERSITY TEACHING.

Ir has appeared in a preceding Section, that the decision of the question, whether our teaching shall

be practical or speculative, in the sense already explained, in a great measure decides the subjects taught; since certain subjects only can be made the basis of practical education, and certain other subjects are peculiarly fitted for speculative discussion. But there are some other questions concerning the matter-taught, which may be considered here; for instance, the proposal to include in it modern languages and their literature, instead of, or along with, the ancient authors of Greece and Rome; and to introduce the modern sciences, as general physics, chemistry, natural history, and geology, along with pure and mixed mathematics. I will say a word on each of these questions.

It is one of the characters of the present time, alarming to many persons, but, if we use the occasion well, a blessing rather than an evil, that doctrines which have hitherto passed unquestioned, and on which the frame of the institutions of European states is founded, are unscrupulously and rudely assailed. The propriety of the use of what are called the learned languages (Greek and Latin), as one of the main instruments of education, is a doctrine of this kind. And the question whether, in modern education, these languages are to retain their ancient supremacy; or whether, on the contrary, the languages and literature of modern Europe are to be placed by their side, or before them; has been recently discussed with reference to educational institutions, both in this and other countries. In France, for example, this has been the subject of animated debates in the Chamber

« 前へ次へ »