· ~~EACHING,
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. A SC IEN~CE.:
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TE A'GHER AN ARTI s T
BY

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REV. BAYNARD R.f HALL,
A.M.
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. PRINCIPAL OP' THE CLASSICAL AND MATHEMATIOAL INSTITUTE , NEWBURG II,
AND AUTHOR OP' uSOMETHING l"OR EVERY BODY," ETC.

NEW-YORK:
B A K E R A ND S C R I B N E R"

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C0 NTE NT·S.
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Pa&•·
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Entered according to Act oJ Congress, in the year 1847, by
BAKER AND SCRIBNER,
lo the Clerk's Office of thetDistrict Court for the Southern Dis'
trict ·or New-York. , .

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CHAPTER II .

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E. O. JENKINS, PRINTER,

No, 114 Nauan Street.

57422

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CONTENTS.

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CHAPTER VI.

Common Schools,

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CHAPTER VII.
P~l'l!Ons most saitable for Teachers,

PREFA·CE.

260

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CHAPTER VIII. ' ~

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? Facts' are here stated rather than theories; yet the
'-rormer -'verify ·the· latter ·as held by the author, in .
~common. with numerous educators of the past and
·"1he present. The . experienced may speak without
~ .1inmodesty, although many have already spoken on·
" jh~ s~e topic; while it° is not a necessary conse-. .:·
·queuce that nothing temains unsaid. Should nothing :
'n~Wf~m~, the"testioiony of a person for years con~"
·.·' v~rsa":4t;'.\,"i~'theoij'and J>ractice,: may aid ·the inqaf:
''rieS-ot liiatiy,larid' ~(pecially or such as are .influe'nced. .
~}>y)he·rt;~b.e.r ·as 'W~ll·as the' character of witnesses~
... ".~(rightto 'b~ '1eard conceded, an author must still .
. t onsider'whether his experience has been sufficientty
long and varied iii favorable circumstances, to ren-der 'his mere testimony of value, fo case he advances
'bthing new. Mis-judgment ' on this point is very
;i'P\>ssible. · For, while men over-rate th~r talents an~ .
'$der-rate their influence, yet mo!lt think that a spe•· •
" Cialiy:belongs to their lives which authorizes the
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.bl5iruslon of themselves upon the world.

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·. _i<lii~t\·-·.' ;~f-"t' . _. ~~·_...... .
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:;. . •· ~Tuxs book 'is bot an experim'ent, but an experience.

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TH'E 'l~OLS AND lNSTRUMENf'S·.

·85

:z: ~~~truments: ~f . one workman to ttie instr~me~ts 'of
~·~,_\he ;other! Th~ · teacher must h~ve' tools,'not only
·~<suitable,

but so ingeniously de-sigD;f!i that by their aid

,~·i-he "ma:y employ an apprentice, and turn ouf scholars '

THE . TOOLS AND INSTRUM.ENTS.

No error is more mischievous than to mistake
Illustration for argument, and yet no error is more
~requent. Illustration does no more than place what
is to be considered in a sufficient light· but when
placed in that light, what before was de~med truth
may be discovered to be falsehood. Analogy is thu;
a fruitful source of error. Often one thing resembles another in but a single respect ; in other respe?ts the things may differ greatly; they may even
be, m some re_spects, opposites. But from the strong
res~mblance m one point, it is hastily concluded the
subjects may agree in all ; and by applying the
same rules to both, the results in practice must of
necessity, disappoint expectation.
'
The teacher is an artist. As a workman he
therefore, needs tools, and tool.a must be made fo;
every branch of his business. A skilful artisan,
mo~eover, prefers patent tools-instruments so ingemously contrived that a boy may do the work
of a man, and the daily labor of a man equal the
l~bor o~ a week. The work, too, by such instruments, is better done. It is done, also, at less cost.
How natural the tr!nsfer of all that pertains to the

..: • in a . few months, that, by., the use of old-fashiofl.ed
· .tools; could not, by the master himself, be manufactured in as many years! Nay, his !ools judiciously
used, and in favorable citcumstances, :·will per se
work up his raw materi!l into .the b_est fabrics l and education may
done .almost by the' yard, a~d.
. nearly as cheap as domes.tic cottons i · ·
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.'TJlat school-books di'ffer, and may be classed as
good and bad, no man d<;:mbts ; that a teacher will
prefer the better to the· worse, is self-evident ; but
t'hat any 'book, or series of books, can obviate the
necessity of a teacher's direct efforts; and the ' skilful ' employment of his genius and talents, is the blunder of many book-makers, and of no~ a few teachers
themselves.
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· The exceJ.lency of a schoql tlepe~ds, not mainly,
but wholly, upon 'the teJJ.cber• . ''Qne':i cqmp·
E,'t,.e nt and _·
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'faithful'master, with»books 'illy prepared or with no
~boo1'~; i~.. woith man{:incompeterit ·teachers; aided
by . th~ .best ·contriv:Qd _books and ' systems. · The
_
-atmy .·o f stags, with.·a lion for genera1, can chase the
··- . -'. 'at_in y-oflions, with a stag at the head! ~n honest
•:~..: r~> meehanic, with proper instruments, and by implicit
· "f;~J,I?'~di_ence to his directiol)s, must wh_en diligent turn
-o~~~.ork not a whit inferior to work : done by me.,, 7'··;. "'cbanics 'greatly his superior in talents and ingenuity,
·~ · ,- :who·use the same instruments or. apparatu§l : the
. machinery would, m fact, _p erform the · same with ·

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,CHAPTER III.

86

any attendant; it ·can but act well, if it move at all!
Gunpowder .equl!-lizes powers: a dwarf and a giant
would fire a ,ca119on equally \\'.ell-the ball strikes
'Yith the.s.ame fo~p~, vyhoever .may be at the touch.
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. This is not ~o with bo~ks and bi>ys ! No schoolbook has any intrinslc ·force which will always exert
itself in the same direction, as soon as it is opened
and read, or even studied. The book does what
the master intends, not what the author designs or
wishes. And the boy, be well assured, ye theoretical gentlemen, that have never wielded the ruler,
nor flourished the birch, and yet teach by book-l;>e
assured, the boy is not that pliant, non-resisting material that runs into one grooved aperture a shapeless. mass, and,· transformed by some hidden power,
runs directly from some other smaller aperture, a
ready-made man and scholar! No; verily, iflike anything mechanically wrought, he is like a mass of rough
iron in the potent grasp of a blacksmith's tongs l
He needs many a heat in a furnace, and many a
twist and twirl, and many a hard knock from a dexterous hand, before he is transmuted, and before he
will remain changed !
Boys differ in a thousand ways-in age, intellect,
temper, industry, health, domestic training, and example and excitement : .wind, rain, sunshine, summer, wji)ter--all a_ffect them I No classification can
possibly. comprise individuals alike, save in a very
few g~neral features ! · Children can.not be thrown
as .one ,sort of gr,ain into a mill, and ground as the
same grist t

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THE TOOLS AND INSTRUMENTS.

87

bVery many either will not, or cannot, perceive
Failure is repeatedly attribto the want of certain books, and forms, and
syst . s; when almost invariably the failure is owing to , e want of the ri~t kind of teachers: But
renewed . ilures only tempt fresh inventors-if such
they may bK~ed-to cont'rive new books, or,
more frequently, t~lter old ones; · and then, with
the most adhesive obs~g_cy, to insist with teachers
on a trial I . Unworthy n1~~ves are not necessarily
to be suspected or attribut~<t,~~S~_£h' ~ook-ma~~rs;
yet it is manifest that manTP'~c;ple, neither ongmal
autqors nor practical teachers, ·are .directly and indi1;ectiy interested pecuniarily in the production of
school-books. And the enormous prices such can
afford. to pay for newspaper advertisements 'a nd editorials, is presumptive proof that the business is not
wholly profitless. The columns of advertisements
paid for by the year, in several leading papers at
the same time, is a pretty fair index ·that ·a nostrumdqctor finds sales for his pills and plasters ; ·and yet,,
from the frightful increase of panaceists, ·diseases of
the most deadly character, arid in ~pite of the infallible cures, seem to be multiplying! So many of a
trade could not make fortunes if the diseases ·were
all stayed or eradicated. Nostrum-book doctors
augur badly for the heanh of learning!
Happy for the world, that the cause of etlucatio_n
. is prominent among the great causes of the age !
As a natural consequence, school-books become objeets of intense interest. Scholars, liberal and elegant, moralists .the mosr severe, and phil?sopher~

· th~' truth on this point.

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TJiE TOOLS AND INSTRUMENTS.

CHAl'Tl':R Ill.

the most ·profound, have all . lent assistance in the
writing and arranging of school-books; and, there. fore, it cannot be wonderful that works of great
ex_cellence, in every:depariment of elementary edu.cation;· abound. · But, :wjjle improvement here may
have' been needed, and while improvement may have
,been made, yet improvement in the artist or teacher
.himself would have done more for education than
any impr~vement in his instruments ~f . teaching.
Had ,many eminent men, instead of writing schoolbooks;betaken themselves to teaching school-books ;
or, if they had not, for the sake of writing, aban. doned teaching, ~chools would have been . still
.better.
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. , ·Ofthe two sorts of ~earned men who make school-.
.books, they who have l;Jeen teachers must be certainly
the task. However learned,
.the better qualified
if the authors have· had. little practical acquaintance
with teaching, and almost invariably, if they have
.had no acquaintance, their books become mere store..houses of knowledge. But if a school-book contain
all tbe principles and rules of a subject, literary or
scientific, that is a goofl book, although it give no
knowledge beyond what is essential fo:i: illustration
and ~raxis. Any knowledge beyond is not essen.tial to the purpose of the book. Yet, not very rarely,
while the principles .are all in the ·book, they are so
inartist!llJally involved with the mass of mere learn.ing as to defy· being disentangled. The · book is a
valuable book; but it is a bad school-book.
we have heard it said or a crabbed and petulant
.old ma~, " He forgets that he was ever a. boy." So

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89 .

it is with some authors· of school-books. "They forget how their soul loathed a text-book overlo~ded ..
with notes, observations, comments and exceptions .
They forget that they never voluntarily re.ad such,
and that if the master wis•d to find exceptions, and
learned annotations, he might fook for them himself.
They forget how, again and again, ma~ter and
scholar were alike bewildered in a th~ml"~ilderness
· of endless annotations, laced and :a -~~~1th subordinate note and comme ~-:' ilmpi'on to excep- •
tion, and blackene . .~·;ggers, suigle and·double,
..Jir.....,:__ and parawa~&ctions'. parentheses, dash_
es, bra~k·~nd exception struggled for the gwd,. .
anc~, and comment seemed · of more importance
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. than the principle it explained! Or, ~erhaps, an
author, remembering all ·this, determm~s to be
avenged on another generation ! perhaps, rememberina
how in some idle urchin's dog-eared book,
0
he ha d tur~ed from page to page, till somewhere
near the starting-point he found 'written, '' A fool
· for your pains I" Thus a malicious 'author sends
boys turning through his · whole · v~lume, by means
of references, from spot to spot, till he finds what
he wants, and that a wonderfully small needle,.in an
amazingly large haystack!
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Some authors cannot be said to overloolc the mam
intention ·of a school-book, for the books made · by
. them are designed to display their own ~eading ; ·
· and a text-.book is a convenient nucleus around
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which to heap all they know. These men cart and
wheel whole masses of learning from the great
quarries of ponderous folios, and empty load after

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TilE T OOLS AND INSTRUMENTS.

CHAPTER Ill.

91

.irrg some school-books, such as g~ammars, rhetori:s,

load .in this and that spot; here and there lreaping
.up piles of ~nwrought bullion ; and every now · and
then scattermg gems of value; in certain stations
placing indices to direct o~e's search to different
heaps of the stolen treasi.es l
Widel;y and l?udly vaunted are books and syst~ms of mstruchon built on the principle of indltc-·
tion. But, .· whi~e something may be. conceded in
favor of arithmetic and algebra, arranged in books. "
• on ·t,h at principle, yet, with due deference to the inductive authors, induction belongs to the man and
not to the boy. Boys are made to be directed and
?o.verned in an elementary course of education ; and
it'is a matter of very ·little consequence either in
its,el~ .or to the boys, whethe~ the process of induc, tion, on which rules and principles are formde for
their> incipient guidance, be understood or not.
Rule and authority are admitted by young persons,
and generally they are indifferent to their reasons.
The attempt to show their foundation is uncalled~
ro:-it not unfrequently unsettles the children's
faith l The master who begged the king to remain
uncovered in his school, while the master himself
ret~n~d his ?wn hat, that the pupils mig ht think no
one ID the kingdom superior to their teacher, well
under~tood the ?ature of boys ; and his boys considered him superior t_o all induction,s-his word was
.their 'laW. And they- knew that whatever he enjoined was founded in reason, and that; · in due season, they would fulLy understand what. was no"W
childlike; teceived in faifh.
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The application of the ·inauctive method in form-

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and the like, is preposterous. And where less preposterous, the parade of facts before resting do~n
in the rule, is an egregious trifling-an affectation
of philosophy, eminently.. disg~stful. . And how,
pray, do young persons, especially ch1l~ren, be.tter
understand by studying examples and illustrations
before the rule, than after the rule 1 And that is, in
~ most schools, the amount of the inductive method.
What is this but the fulfilment of the vulgar proverb--" ['he cart befo,re the horse 1" True-the
boy who sees the cart may infer the horse; but .what
advantage is this, beyond the natural way ~f ~nfer­
ring the vehicle from the quadruped.? . This is ~n­
shackling the mind ! forsooth. This ·1s breakmg
away from the tyranny of authority I This is the
light of "seven suns" in one day ! Courage:-_:re
priest-ridden ! modern philosophy will soon publish
the ten commandments, with an illuminated page of
induction ; and theri shall ye see the reasonableness
of the divine will l And then, w.hen the reasonableness of virtue is seen, all rational ' persons will of
necessity become virtuous I
In the rage for induction , o!J land -marks in schoolremoved. Nothing is to be taken for
books are
granted, except the assumptions, ~ften, in ~he induction itself; even where the rule is as plam as anything else, perhaps plainer. Is "I think, therefore,
I exist," bett er than, "I exist, therefore, I think?"
In which is less assumption-" T~ice one is two,"
.~r-" Two is one and another I one 7" To a child

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·two is two without either. formula; . and perhaps an
e.xten.sive induction . would st~rt a doubt whether
two were not something else; as ·one by a labored
p.r oof of his existence will come to have logical
doubts whether .he either thin~s or exists I In alI
things~ we need a starting-point-a fulcrum for a
.lever; and that, in school-book8> _are rules and principles .which the teacher knows are the embodiment.
of truth. Children · confide in his judgment ; and
that confidence
is necessary to their improvement.
r
In son)e books the inductive process is by piecemeal I The dis;"ecta m~hra of a little plain rule
are_. scattered over a dozen pages ; as if one took
delight in tearing the picture of a baby to pieces,
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.tQ 11how how··skilfully• and anatomically it• could all
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i . fie 'constructed again, somewhere in the middle of
: . \. a rbook; as well as if never ,'so ruthlessly torn r ·
T;-ue,-the boy saw, at lit;s~·it.was -a. bahy; .but how
could he be sure it was, unless he -examined a foot
'on on~ page, and a hand on another, and came to
the baby again by induction ? The first declension,
the first conjugation- in the Latin grammar, as.
. -"ither exists in all the ordinary methods, is short,
easy, perspicuous, -and to almost every child of the
usual capacity, so great a -novelty, as to be learned
with pleasure-sometimes to be devoured with
avidity ; and yet in Arnold's system, this brief and
pleasant unit is cut up and scattered into a dozen
little -bits I-and each bit is made a bitter pill, coated
· ·with sugar; as if it could not be swallowed otherwise without effort I And. thenl when all the. parts

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THE TOOLS AND INSTRUMENTS.

93 '·

d th poor· child finds, nev•
are separately swallowe ' et . . t be swallowed at
ertheless, that the. whole mus ye . . . . "
.
, I
e to
once t.
h
terns are agreeab
., We are told that sue sys .
iven time more
the order of nature ; ahnd t_ha:~: u::al methods.
is learned and better t an;: ins with .. the memory,
The or~er of ntat~~:ost gexclusively, for years .
and exe-rc1ses tha '
. . ly heard and reOne's own native tongue ~s simp
d A .child '
f:
words are concerne .
membered, as ar as
oundsi of articulate
d
mbers any s
·
imitates an reme
d th extent.of .his vocabspeech. But his style "dan t eHe talks alm~st like.a .
·d
d upon acc1 en .
., ·
d
ulary
epen · 1 s h e hear"s. He ' learns soun s,
·
parrot, precise y a .
. . and provided the ut,
d
·oper or improper '
.
.
.or wor s? p1
·.
of such sounds answers his exterance, m anyway,
h t "s needed and keeps ,
'
· ·
d procures w a 1
pectat10ns, an
.
. fi d Of gramma1· and
off what he fears, h~ 'IS S~:HIC:f~S nothing; and ' for'
_logic he learns nothmg, . r·1·r . 'he need neither"
d·
purposes o ue
all the . or mary . h.
'. The vocabulary:,of very .
know nor care any~ mg.
than ·two or three .:
d l
Prises not more
,nany a u ts com
.
d
d l Some men o no t ' use· more'than
hundred wor s
d verbs in all their lives I and
a hundred no~ns an ounced mis•spelled, and conare
' tax of their own-an
these
·
d mis-pron
·d · g to a syn
structe accoi m
fi ures of speech
idiosyncratic grammat~' wlth_oosne an~ motions of the
·
. ·
est ges 1cu a 1
C?ns1st
m
eadrn
. telligible . what it is suspected
the
f: ce to ren er m
.
. a '
.
failed to 'make plam.
beyond this, it must be ?Y
· · rues.
l
It matters no 1
teaching principles and g1v!ng
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CIL\l'TER Ill.

THE TOOLS AND INSTRUMENTS.

whether ·orally, or .. otherwise, little ,of our native
tongue, .beyond the point just named, is acquired
without rules and lessons. Much, indeed~ is learned
by· chii_d ren without rules and lessons; but it beai·s
O,\lly-a .small .proportion compared with what is
learne.d of the true . nature and genius of the Ian" guage, in the same time, with these helps.
'·~ut whatever may be iearned of the language by
imitation and mere memory, here is a very great
difference : we learn Latin through the medium of
our own language ; we learn our own without a
medium. To imitate nature fairly; our knowledge
of English should be ' entirely obliterated, and we
.sh9uld then be placed jn a Latin-atm.osphere I And
what ...would even·~hE)n be g~ined 7', Do we wish to
talk,.-and.f,ead, and,!~rite in_Latin, the . first thing?
And if we.did all this.fi::om imitation and memory, we
sh~uld . be no better. acquainted with .the philosophy
and. logic of the language· than myriads of o.ther.s are
with the nature of the · E~glish. Notwithstanding ass~rtion to the contrary, children-English children-:
iaught to talk, and read,-and write Latin, by Enf.(lish
teachers, in the way recently proposed as the order-of
nature, wjll be inferior to other children taught in the
usual way, of equal -age and capacity, and equal ad.vantages, in the same time. The time should, however, not be Jess than what is mutually agreed upon as
a reasonable period for the mastery of the language ;
for while superiority does belong to any .time however short, that superiority could not be. made 'appa• rent to others, in the shortest time. In a race the
victorious horse is for on~ or two rounds, often, ap~

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· the commg-o
· · ut de'parent! y b ea t :. the advance at
.
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.t . called does well
termines the victory:
.
d
f nature, as I is
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o have t Iwroug hly mastered one
.This or·1 er ho
. an- with pup1 s w
'th them the mstruSuch carry w1
d
.
cient language. .
lmost any other language ; an
to fore o their advantages
ments of mast,erm? a
it would be folly, -i~de~d,
. gfme at the beginh
k of begmnmg eve1 y I
I
ts,
sa e thmgs
. . are a!together proper for
d adu
h
' for
. t e Many
nmg.
·t bl for children; an \'ence,
which woul~ be unsm ~lleendorff's method fo~ disci_.
while we might favor , . II ror such'. as were verse~
. d · d and especia Y 1'
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plme mm s, of grammar, we
- should. deprecate
- it
in the nature
d d. .pline and particularly
for children that nee . isc1d G ' k
,
.
r
t the Latm an
ree .
d
in re1erence
. of a II these often-repeate
h
dd no popuIanty
.
T e su e
.
Jans tested by ages, is owmg
. but in regard to
attempts of changm~ P
.dental circumstances '
to many acci
. . ·. part• owing to the ind d I g· uages it is, m
,
t' chers of the languages,
·the ea an
of so many ea
. '
·r I ·deptli and accuracy. o{ t he1r
competency
- and the <leplorably ihtt e
·parison · of. results is
']
Hence w en com
th
pup1 s.
' th d having superiority over e
made, the new ~e do ~ od and not properly emold met~od misu~a:~e~ t~ the skies ! In medicine,
h . laces because professed
ployed, is at one~
quackery often tnumJ. s ;nfaculty' are themselves in
members of the me ica .
k l
those places _little bette~ thae~h~uda;~rsues the order
The old, ~1me-hono.r~ m . ·pally at first, the
·
. · by exermsmg prmci
'
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pf natme,
n ·it with mere knowledge,
memory ; no: by ito ngd principles. If such are
qut rather with ru es' an

96

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'l'HE TOOLS AND INSTRUMENTS .

CHAPTER _Ill.

n~t ~e?,.i-n~d isoon, th~y c~nnot eas~ly be learned af!e~w9:r.d,;. p~rtly beca~se the r.nind is not so .capable
_. ~f , unc:hsc1phned, and , partly . because of our impat~e~~e -~t lnt~r periods qf committing , to memory
w~_at_ '-:W~ d() .t;t?.t .fi~lly;~ µnderstand, and yet think
;we ~~erstQ.?d• . _Undisciplined minds will not com.~ .~i~ v~rba~im_ ; and: yet '. that mode · is in mnny subject~ almost indispensable to future success. Childreq that are not mis-managed, and 1·endered indolent ~nd pert by 'va,_in at~mpts to make the;n pliiloaophical, care not what _they commit to memory ;
· and they; commit difficult words and sentences, al.. most as, readily as the opposite kind. Multitudes of
• . E_nglish wor_d~ are as ~~rel -as Latin ones: it would
~ scarcely ~e possible tq {W~ !-a.tin and Greek words
; ~~-~ . . ~Jf . so~ hard. as thous~nds of W.9~9s in g~ography,
. .r,,: . -~ ~otany,_ phys10logy, natural ~ist9ry; ' and which are
:( ·Ji'.'' · re9uire4, not .mer~,Y: _to . ,be ,pronounced,-,but to be
~·~·:
, ~ommit(ed ! ccurately 't~;-mem,ory, 'a,nd. ,by children
httle r,dvanced ~ey_opd babyhood I . The time spent
(m.ay 1_~, ~ot b~ said ·wasted ?) in committing geographies(: would, m many cases, if spent in Latin have
easily' and fairly put a child in possession of ~II the
..
essential forms and rules of that language f.
Many ·w riters of school-books aim to delight chil!r_en by fam~liarity, sprightliness, anecdote, and the
,; ! like; bewailing the barbarity that compels to severe
~d l~borious study-when all might be such a pleasure I , Why point 'to a steep hill, with a rugged asc~nt and thorny path? when the darlings could be
.so .swe~tlx . coaxed up an insensible . inclination,
pau~i~~....~e~~ to eat a peach 1 and. there to smell a

'

97

· rose I and, ever and anon, reposing a few mom~nts
:. _· on the grassy mounds near moss-crown~d_f~untams I
and regaled with the song of ~ea~teous .b~r_d~ feat?ered with rain-bow glories! till, m a delmous tlmll
of dreaminess, the innocents . found themse~ves on .
the pinnacle of all learning and 'science ! '
It may,be well enough to amuse in . e~ucation, as
a pastime ; but let once amusement become a
means of discipline, and children will not .stu~y, a-t
all. Like all other responsible . a~d moral. ~em~s,
these must find, if not the wqole, ye~ J he1r.. chief, . . ~
their daily pleasures and ·enj~yments,- in.. duty . and
obedience; and earn the good of learnin,g, as all other
goods, by the labor and S,'f~~t ~f the_ bro.w.. Any
book, or . system of books/ ' that obviat~, m any
degree, that necessity, so far counteracts the law
of our nature. · They weaken the. mind, they unfi~
for the fierce and endless struggles 'of life.
How far ·pictures may go< in the · w~y - of prop~r , .
excitement, the author f~r ,him.s elf can~o~. say: his
own experience has foun4. 'them neither ·goocj ·nor
evil, except that they . are always ·evil when they
, give.false or exaggerated views.
pare~ts choose
to pay few additional pence for pictures Ill schoola · momentary gratification, or that the
books
urchi~s may touch and r~-touch in the~r idle
moments-be it so. Booksellers have a nght to
live.-A friend of the author's was principal teacher
some years since in . a Sabbath school: . One~, in ·
his office 1 he was lecturing a class Of three httle
boys, on the final results of idleness. : He h~ld in
his hand a penny pamphlet-the dymg speeches ·

a
for

lo

!f

98

· - CHAPTER

m:

THE TOOLS

and«!onfessions of three murderers. T_he title-page
• was · very tastefullyf.embellished 'with three forms
something' ' like ·thet'\ human-that · distant resemblance \ Tay.lor lo'v~s:iin J boylpictures ;- and these
fotms· ~ we~e mournful.Iy dangling from .one gallows I
My friend marked';th~· deep and solemn· ·hush of the
class I ·~' The- truth 1was · silently · sinking into their
softened hearts I Why not ? there Was the picture
. of punishment-natural consequence before the
very eyes I He warmed more with benevolent
_
love~(he was a noble-hearted sailor)-he poured
\ti·~· • forth his full soul, and looked with moistened eyes !
~ ' , . Alas I the innocent, little darlings . peeped into his
.· _,. . facet-and ' one{.with 'Mltmi~al) ·expression in his
~-~~I '+ laughing ·ey!'; ·and Wit~fi~'er· pointl~ o.the' pie· dOn't' the\h ·look li 1·e
. · • turea•tragedy/'said: '"Mr:iM.
)' 1.
three: dried· herrings 71 ..,.;_,, ·.:.~· • • · :-~~'., ' . • · .:
·' The · effed of the ~'.ipo~f solemn' pictures in children's'" _bo()~1, " is' not/ always, precisely what ·the
tea~her wishes. But· pictures ·and ·questions · are
hobbies
of the day-we must ride ' even if we do it
.
.·, backwards and forwards, without advancing :-and
!~ese,~hings do add to t~e value of the book;!
· ~Far~ from us to say, · school-books admit no im'.. ~o~emen.t. Improvements -have, been made. Un~eces~a~y ,dryness has been relieved by sprightly
·illustration
; the forbidding frown has been relaxed
• • ·' ·-i
•
. mto a smile; the knotty points have in tf measure
been"!''. dlsentangled; needl.ess difficul~ies 'removed ; ·
rohghness and barbarism of style have been smoothed ·
and'.civilized; and many judicious helps h~ve been
furnished, . for ··which 'laborious and pains-ta~ing
i.,

,

'

)\.

AND--RUME~TS.

.

'"'~teachers should be thankful. :· And ·yet··we'(would

..,,.

.~· ."

~

·L,: gladly have retained in

Latin grammar, the .barba- • ,' ;\::
~ -. rous verses ! They jingle yet· in our ears!· · The
"'
'·~ noble linguists of by-gone days .owed them much I
~r We would welcome back this. exploded method -of
fixing the rules and exceptions in the ~ind !-y~s I
fixing it was! as if all were graved with the pomt
of a diamond on adamantine rock I If boys· learned
not to write and speak •atin in three months, before ·
they understood the language itsel:; they ~id, at
the last, come to translate Greek mto· Latin, to
parse in Latin, to· recite grammar in' Lati.n, .to r.end.
annotations in Latin, to translate any English author _
into Latin 1· and to comm.i l!t Latin poets .to m.en:iory
· as·if they were a native. tongue ! · · ~.
' ·
· .
· Few, in the fervor of improvement, can stop.
Because some things in the· school-books are wrong,
all must be changed. Excellent books1 one after
anothel\ disappear; · and under . P~ea of"'gr~ater improvements, the · latest· ~mpron~:·w.o:ks < g1v.e pl.a~e­
to stronger .pretensions. · ·Each roars'. and ,flashes:
like a rocket-and;like a rocket·; falls 'to·'the earth·
in . dying stars, amidst the :·~ gaze • and uproar·of · the e
crowd, crying ·for something 'still· more brilliant ! \ : ,JI
The mania for changing prevails even among.
original authors~ .These will not allow their s~hool­
book to pass
a new edition without essenlial al.:
terations, and sometime~ not for the better. Hence,·
not rarely teacher, pupil,_and parent are throv.:n into
an agony of fuI!Je and, fre.t, ~t .~eing not poss~ble to
class pupils_ for more: than a few months with the
same book from the same ·autho1: ! Except for the

to

"

..

101 '
•

100

CHAPTER ill.

impolicy of the measure ·i . b
authors should ching t,h1 . is earable that original
. h
.
. - e e1r own work b
h
t -a .compiler the.' abb ._
s i ut w en
ot~er .irickst:;-rs - ~nd-·-;~:~~~~;t~e ·~larifier, and all
orj.ginators, and after cu~tin lSts, seize o.n works of
for serving· up as a fi l
g and carvmg enough
.
rs course-that th
appropriators should
d
h'
ese miserable
print a new edition ev; un er t r~ and that pretext,
is intolerable I Wh r~ year, with alterations-that
before them all that. wh~ the whole subject is
'
e matenals pre
d
.
very hands, the thinkin all do
pare to their
. rangement to be m d g
ne, and the mere ar- ,
a book. sa·'~ear . pe;ti \~annot these geniuses make
-.for some ten or twel:~ JOn, a\ first,. that it may last
trious little ants 'b ·. ;. ~ ~~ars :· Cannot these ind us• hel\j>li of corn·at .
~~ough ,frQm .their._ neighb9rs'
.- q;"a;~irig-.an
, d. ', b.90.~l~-~ ·'. . ~d y~~,. when ·so many are
·
" ·
1 mg ·m · the
th
h pa way to the treasure,. all ··cannot ' get
make a book from wh ~v~ryt ing, and each must
when his own book is a er. can grab _I And then,
t h.
manu1actured he
I b
h
'
must a or
o s ow the public th t th
get the best material ~rom et~~ ~r booksters d!d not
others have drawn f;
eap I and whwst all
forsooth, have culledr~~ the stme storehouses, they,
A: difference in spell' or odn y, and he the "truth!"
·fi . .
mg a ozen word
. .
or in a m d f
.
s, or m six
d e mtions
b
. '
o e o countmg f
a sufficient reason ti
.
ime, ecomes
.
.
or a new book on' th
.. e same subJect, and quarried from th
Then for the
. . e . same ongmal authors.
h .
h
movement of heaven and
eart ' till
t e new compend shall d' l
pronounce_ the last the. b rsp_afe the old! Editorials
ing lights hithert .
earned m~n and shin".
o not nown and .unseen, make

"1

et '

.! • .

t4~if, debUt i1:1 recommendatory notices, fl!J.shing for~h· . . ·
' . .in graceful pe.riods and studied1t elegance ; . and
agents, with oily smoothness and the flippancy of a, .
. , . circus-master showing off his beasts and birds, or -.
.his monkey rider and stunted pony in the ring, pour
. out their voluble praises it}- ip$issimis verbis ;-till ,
the younger teachers are effectually humbugged;
·the timid ones compelled to bite at the g~lZzle ; and
even the · knowing ones ·either bribed by presents,
or yielding to importunity , are silenc~d· and gained.
9ne would think, to hear som~:; agents·empt)'.' out
their lecture of prepared and set phrases, that, pro- "
phecy to the contrary notwithstanding, the millennium co\1ld not arrive till the universal adoption of
· . some new _spelling-book, _or some new a:rithmetic I
Prudence should doubtless restrain the pen in
writing, here ; and yet one could not exceed the
truth, if he wrote with a sharp pen dipped into
an ink of wormwood and gall I In .a lynching community, some pirates wo~.ld be flayeft •. alive I . And .
of libel; .
yet, under the protectio_n of the
these plunderers can carry off in the.open face Qf '
day ; and they are so unblushing as to demand:
praise, when they should stand in' the sto~ks I Agrarianism is not confined ·to acres ; and white msn,
disguised as red Indians, play 'the savage in · the
fields of literature as well as of agriculture.
·
In some branches of learning, are certain timehon01·ed text-books, whose authors are long passed_
away; and these books are so intrinsically valuable,:
. "' _.::-;;
: that, in all the e:hanges of .the day, they
'
maintain their place. in ,schools. .Suc_h books .it

•

~gis'.)aw

neverthele~s~,

_i~i"-';·.\;rJ:

102
:h&iAPTl:n m.
'
lawful to correct
d .. . .
Still, it is to bl'' a? now and then to mode .
th~se are from whr?gr~tted, .that many changrn1z.e.
;
im • and Ith
<
es ll1
d 0 not
affect th · .' .
a ough stich ch
they. prove ve e mtrms1c excellence of the · angkes
.
·
ry perpl · ·
Wor s
wishes to drill his' p ·1 exmg to the teacher wh '
. In this ·case the v up1 s as he '_ himself was d~1·11 do
ery words f I
e .
arrangement of the whole o. ru es, and the former
eel of his method A ti . subject, are part and p .
him more elegant. tools ·n~cuatl taste pretends to gi:~feel of the old articles th' t h ~he master prefers the
~peed a~d dexterity_' ~h e ad long handled with
imple~ents 1 He defies thy sho~ld he wish better
do, WI~~ the · tools imp
ed fanciful .modernizer to
. .' ~ave ' Work any better th
. b.efore.' ~- .. , .
·1 B
.
..
an
.
ut when a cha
..
.·
.'
.
t .. h .
nge is made . th ", tm,e- onored : text-books . . . m ~ i~bric of these
ba_d cha!Jge: it adds ra;··It is almost invariably a
worse rents-it dest .
lclotl1 to the old-it make .
T?e impertinence o~o~:;k~ bo~.tles with new wine~
With the sterling matter . mg-zn our own crudities
surpassed onJy ·by ti
fof an author's text-book .
g
1at o mend·
h
, is
~eat gen_iuses-a trick erfi . mg t e poetry of tl1e
With Chnstian psalms p o1 med every few years
Worship will be mo
an~ hymns, under plea th at
more fashiona~Je ! re ~c_ce:table if the poet~y be
. It may possibl . b . ;
.
.
it to be tru:_: :~:~~~mgk to some, but many
e_c!' Nor is it at all .
oo needs not be perbelon~~ng to the sub · . .1hmportant that everythin
book:·~ , ·A d
. ~ect s ould be cro d d ·
g
.
. n , spite of th ft
w_e mto the
children, Ol:iE( wa•' ~f
~ ear about misleadin
J
Wordmg rul . .
g
.
es is, zn manv
b
• SU -

;-n°7

TUE TOOLS AND INSTRUMENTS.

103

JeCts, just as good as another. Th~ rule 'cannot be
fairly understood till it is repeate~ ly applied ; nor
then, _w ithout the teacher. And when rules ·are
well understood in all their extent, and with ·all their
exceptions, they may be laid aside, or forgot, or
changed by the disciple himsel£ Ignorance of all
this, as well as vanity and presumption, and sometimes ." the love of money," have as much to do with .
. the alterations of standard text-books, as a benevo.:
lent regard for the ·pupils', and the wish to '•promote
true learning. · Such ·r emarks . may·" be!~eemed se"
vere ; but if such could prevent ·the conduct complained of, the ill-will they beget· could be more
cheerfully encountered. Indignation · will speak,
even when it knows the words will not be heeded. .,
The. inquiry may now be made as to 'what 'con'stitutes a good text-book, specially in regard to
schools and academies.
·
·
In some subjects it matters little about the plan.
They may be variously and yet equally 'well stu- .
died, and commenced in ·many' c:iitferen~ ·ways and" places.. Of this kind : are .spelling, ·reading, 'and ge~
ography. But in other subjects, one· mode of begin-:
ning is almost indispensable: such.· are mathematics
and languages. Yet, i,n general, it maibe said that .
elementary text-b<;>0ks ·should be1. Brief. If the end of discipline is to indoctrinate in principles, the text-book should contain little
beyond the principles. But many text-books are
naked in principles and st_utfed with knowledge, or
contain th~ principles diffused · and diluted. Some'
are mere ·scrap-books, or ' a kind of school '. album;

..

.
~MENTS.
THE TOOLS AND IN

104

PTER Ill.

full of.opinions and·sentiments of many authors collected, but ·not condensed.,: Others ar.e mere nuclei
for the aggr.ega;tion· of the ·author's learning-a sort ·
of buzzjpg hornet's nest. with wrapper after wrapper
· of all : sorts of things, real and imaginary, about a
~mall · twig. :·~ Many are but miniature· cyclopedias.
The difficulty in the way of the necessary brevity
arises, in part, from the wish to make a text-book
for all sorts of schools at once. If primary schools,
academies and colleges could be, either by compact
or law, kept distinct, honest men could and would
make suitable text:.books. But the insane spirit of
an ultra-democratical and abolition sentiment, is at
war with . distinctions:.- It ·demands . inexorably a
. dead. level. It ·would.have lands,rhouses, education,
;•·.·:_~·- teligion, ple¥u~e, ~llf ~like for. the mass; · and indus~
)ry; ; .~~11, :an~ · perseverance; thaF would naturally
. place one above another, must be' decried and ill. . . ; · suited.' · It says nothing shall .be special, private;
everything shall be common, public. It allows a ·
comn,mnity;' but not ari individual. It is as tyrannical, cruel and despotic as the most absolute and barbarous monarchy; it will bend the individual man
to it~ will, or trample on all his sacred rights, sport
·with his tenderest·feelings, ·yea I staf!1p :with its iron
"
';. heelQpona man's very: heart I "The people I the,peo. ~ ~ ' ple l.Jiberty: I liberty I" ~ is ·its .watchword"and: cry;
": · ~ bui-. his. the'.people:·as· a~mass;,asa~ abst:r:action, as a
-~. " soul~ess , body ;conventional, and liberty to live and
·act as .a crowd I · Individuals and individual libert~es ;it abhors and destroys I •
.
. . Behold., tp~ . teqdency 9f .this spirit as to schools!

105

d
,
.
ual academies, an
ffi t to eq
·
... Common schools a ec
I A single teacher in a
·1 rofesses
· ·
. t qual colleges ·
d d lementary· pupi s, p .
·academies o e
1
:. school with one hun re e d to carry 'th~ who e
·himself competent andhre! "! n i s of the topmost
·
b
up to t e 1• i, ' '
"ll d what
from the a, ' c,
f w shillings, he wi
o
.university I For a e
hundred dollars and a
"elsewhere requires many and science I . The hero
d en masters in litei:,ature
I Ile swells out
oz
h nirit of the age
I · Ile is
has caught t e st'_
onventional man .
'th the bigness of the c
., . 'a frog expanded
wi
·ir I . Here is
h
as large as the mi ~n by electro-magnetism \-t. ~1
by steam I Ile teac es d . t as well whether wit
' . . h. and poor alike"-an 3us I
. ..
.
nc
d breeches ·
' ·- or with!Jut books an
in despair or revenge, ~r
.
. A d then the colleges, . l t 'ily from their
' ~ i
n
d n vo un ar
. .
~' . . in self-defence;_ step ~V: ble .scrambling avid1~y,
. laces and with a pitia ' rn s of the inferior
~athe; up .the .half~fle.d?ed ~~:~:o ~eak for a ~ight
departments; and, findmg h
with moth~rly w1~gs,
'•
in upper air, b~oo.\ov;rli~n~: g~ubs;til! i~·. d~e tn1!t .
and feed .t~em wit ' . e.
r~duat~s··'to,; ftap awhi e
.. h
launch •forth their ~
.\ . .
to "fall down
.
. , .
' but alas soon,,
. •. .
t _ey
".
.th sheepskin wings, . ' .
I --~
, .
,
;: .
wi
.
'the many
' .
di' st'mgmshed among
ney loving authors .
.
un
: h ·. that mo
· .
·1 the'mselves of this
. , . ~ ' ils -"it wonderful, t en,
lv· avai .
11
.
.
': '. "'"'d ·booksellers . 3oy:ous • b ks that · will do for a
k a
_..
.. .
d make oo
"' --~tate of '.things, an
· the disinterested ma ~ ·
, .. 1schoo}s 1 , A,n_d how :c~n k " hen distinction exists ,
. ' •.. di stinc
-~ "- t"ion in .the text· boo s, w_._ ! ·~ .· : . , . . , ,
t' · ..
, , , • •- .
~
~ not' in schools 1 . ' ' .... ;..;" . ~ru~tio~ in primary schools ,
·~"i~ Books.for elementar.~·m\ gen~ral rule, contain1all ..
'.' . and academies~ should, -as '
.
.
,

r

'
I \

•

-

106

,CHAPTER

m.

the principles, . with important e . .
matter enottgh , for .
l . xcept10ns, and Jia ve
!Jooks for colleges ,
;i~~l.ustration ~nd praxis.
m ~ddition to the text-b~oks 11, because in colleges,
as one medium of .
. ' ectures are employed
Instruction ·and ii
are asked than elsewh
' . ewer questions
be , beyond the elementere.h Be's1des, pupils should
· ~ s hw en. .they en t er college ;
'th ey are now ready
·
ior t e ph1losoph
f h ·
y o t e1r subJects, and therefore th . b
ult
eir ooks may b
~
and contain more k
1d
e more diffithe college may furnish :~ e. ge. . The library of
book.
.. •\at is omitted in the text-

;:p

•

As tto libraries for .primar
.
emies, they serve mo fc y schools and even acadNot rarely.are theypere. ?r recreation than study.
his b .
· rn1c1ous If the
k
.. usmess, there can b r .
master nows
the.. schooI.books Th he ittle want of other than
e ours not de t d
.
•
us~ £
_ udying, should be honest/
voe ~o rigoryes.,.._to good · wh
Y dev.oted to playing 1.
.
•
o1esome playmg , t
Jumpmg, laughing ! , Pla is
_,- o running,
y . a duty for a hard student ; and if he will
1
at the play hours hp ay,fa1rly and conscientiously
'
• e cannot be hu t b
stu d ying. The library ma b
r y any hard
master, but the boy has y e ':ell enough for the
deed, libraries i'n acad ~o . busmess with it. ln,
em1es
·h
fromrone .end of th
are e1t er locked np
e
.
year
to
anoth
.
er, or more usu,a ll y are soon torn and
.th
·scattered .M
". em has been wasted.· Be 'd • .~ oney spent for
places town libraries and 1 s1 es, the_re are in all .
·
T
h as a domestic librar
•
I y
.a most. every private
famation have to be bou
'hand if books for rec reth~y ate, ~o~;n!'xt..to n~thi~g? can be had, _such as

h[

"rm:

TOOLS AND d .NST!UMENTS.

107

, . _Let a boy be well prepared for _college before he
- · : · enters, and he may read a little there, . and with
. profit ; if not designed for college, let him r~main at
the academy, and teach and read; if he goes to a
trade, let him ·work rmd read; but if he read before
these times, and during the period of severe study
and discipline, he becomes almost invariably' a ped•ant, often a mere idler, and very often an insufferable coxcomb.
.
vVe are aware that all this arid much more in
these chapters is deeme?, heterodo~y; b1,1.ti~ !l' far;
off imitation of Patrick : Henry, w~ say-:-If it ~~e
heterodoxy, make the most of it. .
2. Elementary text-books should be precise.
Whatever else be cultivated, we must, in education
worth the name, cultivate the memory. Rules and
principles should evidently, then,. be expressed in
short sentences, and with the most appropriate and
comprehensive words. What must be commiffed to
memqry should be wholly detached f!om inference
~nd exception, and s.hould ne".er. be . loape_d and
embarrasstld with parenthetica,l ~xplant:!-tfon: ' The
page should' _co~tajn all that' is; to be.committed at
the time-and nothing more. Boys do no,t like to
leaV.e work behind them;.. and experjenced teachers
know the difficulty in bringing back scholars to
commit something omitted at the,. first going over.
·Better that rules or paradigm~ .n ot .needed at first .
, should follow in natural order, than be placed improperly. We do not like .to leave forts .occupied
. by_the-enemy il) the_rear of an advance into the hosti~~.1 territ9ry. 'We, conquer · ,and garrison as we

~J

, JOB

proceed. An~ whe~ we -make
. ..
le~ve ' behind .. pa~1s· ·unfi ' h d a road, It .Is, folly to
to . grammars· . , .A
' ,.
DI~ e · All this applies
·
•
n ·error m Ieav·
.
co~mit.ted.'. af·' the.: outset '. .
mg a portion un1
1 p~rabl~.'.i~~~J · ,{..: 7· ·;'_:;;,.,' ~ 1::.._, ~ ;/
:~r~ frequently irre- . ;~:.t But . precisfon· is' of' "tital .i . . ..
.
•,
rules >-- Yet h . ., l
mportance m expressing
1 : ·.. , .. . ~ •., ' i ow . oosely are these oft ,
d
4,
tan<t how. entangled with 1 .
en · wor ed !
·'· ! if· the ~uth h d
ess Important matter ; as
or a no clear p
·
·
· .~ .•, 1
know wh · h
erceptwns, and did not
; ··
Ic Was of greater
:,..
or the restriction ·and
I co~sequence, the rule
-. .
t
.h
exp anation r Hen
IJ
eac ers compel the pup'! t 1 .
ce, some
.":; . conu~~nt-:--to swallow t~: o ear~ both text and
ff. ,
,meal. But the majont f b~an with the unl?olted
. : . -J'or ...where .. the '.autho· Y;oh puhpds do commit neither;
.. .often' ha·· '\ .r·. asad:n
.
.: ···
. ·othera
.
. o accurate sight
·1
Ve ·. misty views through his l
'
: ' .. d'
me 1um. ::. And-what .. d' 1 .
c oudy
1 ••; ,
;,~; ): ', de;Y~u.ed .; E . '._· 1s. i.m y perceived here is ·un·r'""·"". ·· · - quently·" ·
bven
. ' experience.d: teachers . are .fre..,· i'
so em arrassed by th
l
.
.
, . -~ext, .that in .despair the :ab e c umsy, martistical
-:.; . perid· upon a .few quest' y , an~on the book, .and de. .. to ~swer daily them IOI ns, .which they have usually
I
,
.
.
se ves, and to mak
:
t~on, to be re-repeat d
.h
. e exp anaW1t
endless
t
·
"
·
·
e
.
. ,,.:· •. every lesson till , th r I
I era ti on at
, l
•
•
ey iee very m h I'k
•
, , '. the<author .and not th , b
.
uc 1 e flogging
,....pi.
'
· · '
'
~ · oy
Bo k
~ .i. :. ~¥plained{. the ignorance ·or'. . . o s are over ex..::; '.!,'.)9~g*ithem to .
• conceit of author~ not al:.
·: - ;~: ..~~der8tan'd , the "' .s~~pose ~ ~asters and( s~h?,lars 'can
Jt·.":' ., _· ~~ti_ll plai~er.·~,_;J, p -.i:est : thing, ' w1tho~t .it' is made
-~~·.
.,;,:, p . h
.
...
. .
::- ~ .
_,.,~ ;~~.ha~~- t~e -text, .properly exp~ess.ed should occupy .t .e.,upper : part of the a . . '
. .
deemed :as; indi~p~nsable '; as phge, with exceptionli
·
·
t e rules themselves·

THE TOOLS AND INBTRU!llENTS'.

109

while all notes, remarks, observations, and the like,
should be placed below a line at the lower part of
the page.
· A few years ago, some grammars from across the
water were in use here, which, in a pre-eminent degree, possessed the essential requisites of a good
text-book-brevity and precision, and a disti1,1ct
·visibility for text and comment. But, unde-r some
silly pretext or other-perhaps to democratize them
-they were ruthlessly seized, and .so · marred by
mal-arrangement as soon to destroy their integrity I
And then, by degrees, the cunning of a dexterous .
legerdemain: substituted in their room new books I
It was equal to a · dissolving view--one melted so
insensibly into the other ! The schoolmaster is
indeed abroad in the land-and so is the ·book-wizard ! He touches a good book, and it becomes-anything else!
If it be asked, what should be committed to memory ; or in other words, ~hat should be put into the
text 1 the answer is, whatever is of daily and hourly
application. Different teachers may : differ as · to
what is to be thus used; but no other answer can be
given, because the book is a mer.e tool, and its effi, cacy depends upon the workman. The book cannot
make the teacher.
. ,,· Systems of bo~ks, from the foundation to the key.. stone, have been attempted by several, with what •
.' succes.s the author knows not:, _' In some cases, fail. ure may be attributed to uncalled-for changes in
:· ' long established forms and technical ;words. Perhaps the authors intended these small change~ should
6

110

CHAPTER Ill.

~how their originality, or their more extensive read~n~. .sometimes it arises from a sickly and slavish
1m1tabon of German writers-a wish. to train the
American mind like the German mind !-the one
s~rt of mind being of course coin.posed of material
<:f1fferent from the other. Or perhaps the ingenuity
of . ~he authors ·intended a snare by the· alterations;
for tf we could once be brought to commit the new
f?rms, w~ should have an almost insuperable aver~10n ~o us1~g others, even if better. But, alas ! what
is ?~med m velocity is lost in power ; the immoveab1h~y l of habit makes us reject what causes the perplexity ; and as long as we can ha'\re ·old forms we
hate the new. Get us to lay aside our prejudices
for the old. till .You can create them for the new,
and.'then we are caught I · But that is a feat beyond
ordmary legerdemain.
· :. · • ·
.·
• Vain the hope, however, that any syste~ of books
whatever be the real character, should ·come int~
very general use. Not only do ~uthors love change
-the people also love it. . The extreme and ultrademocra~ical feeling is adverse to the aristocracy of
one dommant system. ·It will .yield to -n th·
·
.
.
·
o mg um1
. ,. versa! ~l~ss a botamcal medicine; or an extract of '
sa~sapar!ll~. The cupidity of many will incessantly
,11tr1ve to displace popul~r books; and any book or
11y11tem of books can for a season J.>e advertised into
use. · ; ~
· "·
. I Beyond all doubt/~ery important advantages1?deed, some of them inc.alculable, would arise if one
~mgle sy~tem of text-books could be adopted for the
schools, m their distinctive character as primary,

THE TOOLS AND INSTRUMENTS.

Ill.

· academical, and collegiate. Such system mig?t not
be perfect; but without inconvenient changes m the
- essence and forms of rules, they would become better and better in time, provided learned persons,
' sacrificing their individual love of gain, ard the s~all
" . fame of being known as the author of a change m a
word or a phrase, would all aid to make that one
system perfect. But it is a chimera to expect one
system, unless under the authority oLa corporate
body of colleges and academies ; _and rather than
allow such a body to do good, the.spirit of the age
would crush every colleg~ in· the land l . It is an
aristocracy in literature to which it would .never
submit. Give us a thousand gods, but not one l
Amidst the countless systems and books, we choose
as we best can. To-day we get a good article, tomorrow a bad one. The meteors and stars of the
, · literary firm ament bewilder us. True, each partier-ular· star has its advocates, and bears on its head or
drags at its tail a -long flam~ of recommendation l
But, 'alas ! who can examine all 7 As well gQ to all
th~ streets ·and aijeys ·and lanes, in search of folk .
cured by all the opposite and ' conflict_ing systems of
q1,1ackery and nostrum l If the cold wa~er process
boasts its thousands, so does the hot water and steam
process ! One swears he was cured ·by a lfox of
pills, another by a bottle of liquid l . Hunqreds are
saved by hommop11thy, and hundreds by mesmer. ism ! · So every system of edt!cation, al!d each par-· ticular book, is sworn .to and parade~ ii~ · the grand
'
·desideratum!
~.. \..,n,...,
Of recommendatiohs, some are f i frrfr1men good

1

0:

•l

\'i.i

112

enough as lawyers, physicians, congressmen, and
divines, or as military and naval officers, but who of
practical teaching are as ignorant as a lord-I How
indignant would such frown" were we to trench on
their professions I .Some recommendations are from
vanity. ·Small people wish to appear in print-to
stand for once in capitals I Not a few recommend,
to be rid of importunity I Many sign what othets
have written, just as we put down our names upon
a paper, pledging ourselves to aicl in buying a fresh
milch cow for some poor fellow, whose former brindle has recently gone dry I Pity will move in favor
of a new book ! We knew a wortshy man that pur. chased a bottle of a popular carminative, not to save
his children from summer disease-for though a husband, he was. not a father-but that he might voluntarily furnish ·the druggist with a recommendation !
Be had rather be printed,' even i.if .destined to be
wrapped around a bottle, than' to remain in inglorious obscurity I And that person was a clergyman !
Perhaps the best of all recommendations is a book
. without any. Let recommendation be given to
books - that need it. It is the fashion to be recommended; but it is nearly the same as a newspaper, · •
in .which all the adv.ertis~ments appear in the column
reversed. Indeed; W!" · hav~ be~ome · suspicious of
all contri1ance. We -laugh ·witij the contrivers as
very ~erry fellows ; :and we give them their reward-not our custQ'1; but our applause. They
wished to be considered quizzes: we class them accordingly. ·
. For some twenty years past, school-books have

113.

THE TOOLS AND INSTRUMENTS.

CHAPTER 111:

been accompanied .with questions; but ~t does not
that the p·Jan has been productive of any
appear
h
· f
have
great advantages, evefi' where t e ques_10ns
referred to the subject, and not to the par~graph
.and page. No hesitation, surely; can b~ felt "m proa
.
many ques t'ions; a n d for., many
. . books,
..
nouncmg
. nuisnnce. When answers are f1,unished, the folly
is eminently preposterous. Of course, from su~h
ust be excepted all- subjects necessarily
censure m
.
. d" th
studied by questions, and all book~ compose m : ~
form of dialogues:' Questions, too, that ~ec~me topics or themes for essays, or discussion!!', on different
. parts of a subject, are not only excepted, but.· ~hey
- are praiseworthy.
.
.
.
,
But, generally, questions i~ grammars, ~istone~
-~f botanies, rhetorics, philosophies, a~d the hke, ar
i evils-and that, even if the questions refer · to the
'.." subject; for while ingenuity and dil~gence .are'. po~­
,~ sibly, employ_ed to find answ~rs, yet the mmd is di:(," verted from studying the subJeCt as a system,-.and
when well understood . as a system, any questions
,_ can b e answere d . The questions
. are· to spare the
memory by sharing the labor with the judgment,
.} •and are part of the perpetually repeate~ plan t~
Z~ !lhorten roads and smo9th roughness. Let t~e p~pil
· · les .' an d l et .not his mmd
' ·."
; . master~ rules and prmc1p
'. be·prevented i~s pr,er exercis_e, by hints urn: shed
·.-from the questions.
:.6l
·
;.- ' Doubtless, many authors p:rtnt questions co~trary
. to thei; own judgment. Books must appear m the
~· fashionable styl~, .e_v en _if grotesque; and the weak-

i

r .

!~.~· ~.~·:!~-

.

'

... .

., ..'

;,:?;'Z:lit;.

\

'\

114

'

CHAPTER

ur.

ne.ss of parents and indolence of teachers, sometimes
reject books that seem to be too hard.
In concluding ' this subjerf the author would say
that., ~hil~ c~rtain books, systems, and authors, hav~
bee~ m his view, some, on .the one hand, worthy all
praise ·, an.~ t~anks, and some, on the other hand,
worthy of severe censure ; yet, his present object is
~ath.er t? throw out hints and suggestions, gathering
m his.mmd for years past, and which are to be appropriated or applied where they may be suitable.
If no ~or~s and systems and authors exist, to which
t?e obJect10ns and censure apply, the animadv s1on.s .may be serviceable in deterring ignoran::,
cup1d1ty, and conceit, from making and publishing
.works and systems of the sort condemned.
'

"
.,

-·

••

•
CHAfi'TER IV.
ARRANGING

AND

MANAGING THE

MATERIAL.

THE author disavows all intention of teaching
teachers: Nothing is more abhorrent tha~ an 'essay
or book intended as a model of the art of tea_qhing.
A book, indeed, writt~n by any one ,long.prac~ised
in any art or profession, may be, in a d~gree~' pr,ofitable to the less experienced, provided the author
have talents or genius adequate to his task; but if a
_person be himself destitute of the essential qualities
of u teacher, no book can make him a teacher . . If
the · person have the qualities, he has anticipated
most that others can say. Or such an one has plans
and systems different, and yet not less v:alu~ble than
others; perhaps, his are superior 'to anything '"'.hich
may be written and disclosed. He is himself better
. fitted for the work of an author, than the very author he may be reading.
Men of talents and genius and learning, (and very
many such are teachers,) ace a law to themselves:
they embody all that can be said. Hence it is dis' tasteful to have obtruded the well-meant, but flippant and conceited smartn~,s.s of some .lectures and
_books, addressed to teachers. Some, self-elected,
,. and others legally appointed, have an ex-officio style
.in discoursing ·to "schoolmasters," as if they were

\.

I

·.

