Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

Депогану ошен, по

degree, in discussing questions of political economy. Undoubtedly he ha great advantage, if he is careful to keep in view the true principles of the scien but otherwise he may even labor under a dis-advantage, by forgetting that (a just now observed) the kind of transactions which are made most prominent : occupy the chief space, in the works of historians and travelers, are usually those of every-day life, with which political economy is conversant. It is in same way that an accurate military survey of any district, or a series of sketel accompanying a picturesque tour through it, may even serve to mislead one w is seeking for a knowledge of its agricultural condition, if he does not keep mind the different objects which different kinds of survey have in view.

"Geologists, when commissioning their friends to procure them from any f eign country such specimens as may convey an idea of its geological charact are accustomed to warn them against sending over collections of curiosities—i specimens of spars, stalactites, &c., which are accounted, in that country, curio from being rarities, and which consequently convey no correct notion of its ge eral features. What they want is, specimens of the commonest strata,—t stones with which the roads are mended, and the houses built, &c. And sor fragments of these, which in that country are accounted mere rubbish, th sometimes, with much satisfaction, find casually adhering to the specimens se them as curiosities, and constituting, for their object, the most important på of the collection. Histories are in general, to the political economist, what su collections are to the geologist. The casual allusions to common, and what a considered insignificant matters, conveying to him the most valuable information

“An injudicious study of history, then, may even prove a hindrance inste of a help to the forming of right views of political economy. For not only a many of the transactions which are, in the historian's view, the most importan such as are the least important to the political economist, but also a great propo tion of them consists of what are in reality the greatest impediments to the pro ress of a society in wealth: viz., wars, revolutions, and disturbances of ever kind. It is not in consequence of these, but in spite of them, that society h made the progress which in fact it has made. So that in taking such a surve as history furnishes of the course of events, for instance, for the last eight hund red years, (the period I just now alluded to,) not only do we find little mentio of the causes which have so greatly increased national wealth during that perio but what we chiefly do read of is, the counteracting causes; especially the wa which have been raging from time to time, to the destruction of capital, and th hindrance of improvement. Now, if a ship had performed a voyage of eigh hundred leagues, and the register of it contained an account chiefly of the con trary winds and currents, and made little mention of favorable gales, we migh well be at a loss to understand how she reached her destination; and might eve be led into the mistake of supposing that the contrary winds had forwarded he in her course. Yet such is history!"

In reference to the study of history, I have elsewhere remarked upon the im portance, among the intellectual qualifications for such a study, of a vivid imag ination,—a faculty which, consequently, a skillful narrator must himself possess and to which he must be able to furnish excitement in others. Some may, per

haps, be startled at this remark, who have been accustomed to consider imagination as having no other office than to feign and to falsify. Every faculty is liable to abuse and misdirection, and imagination among the rest; but it is a mistake to suppose that it necessarily tends to pervert the truth of history, and to mislead the judgment. On the contrary, our view of any transaction, especially one that is remote in time or place, will necessarily be imperfect, generally incorrect, unless it embrace something more than the bare outline of the occurrences,-unless we have before the mind a lively idea of the scenes in which the events took place, the habits of thought and of feeling of the actors, and all the circumstances connected with the transaction; unless, in short, we can in a considerable degree transport ourselves out of our own age, and country, and persons, and imagine ourselves the agents or spectators. It is from consideration of all these circumstances that we are enabled to form a right judgment as to the facts which history records, and to derive instruction from it. What we imagine may indeed be merely imaginary, that is, unreal; but it may again be what actually does or did exist. To say that imagination, if not regulated by sound judgment and sufficient knowledge, may chance to convey to us false impressions of past events, is only to say that man is fallible. But such false impressions are even much the more likely to take possession of those whose imagination is feeble or uncultivated. They are apt to imagine the things, persons, times, countries, &c., which they read of, as much less different from what they see around them than is really the

case.

The practical importance of such an exercise of imagination to a full, and clear, and consequently profitable view of the transactions related in history, can hardly be over-estimated. In respect of the very earliest of all human transactions, it is matter of common remark how prone many are to regard with mingled wonder, contempt, and indignation, the transgression of our first parents; as if they were not a fair sample of the human race; as if any of us would not, if he had been placed in precisely the same circumstances, have acted as they did. The Corinthians, probably, had perused with the same barren wonder the history of the backslidings of the Israelites; and needed that Paul should remind them, that these things were written for their example and admonition. And all, in almost every portion of history they read, have need of a corresponding warning, to endeavor to fancy themselves the persons they read of, that they may recognize in the accounts of past times the portraiture of our own. From not putting ourselves in the place of the persons living in past times, and entering fully into all their feelings, we are apt to forget how probable many things might appear, which we know did not take place; and to regard as perfectly chimerical, expectations which we know were not realized, but which, had we lived in those times, we should doubtless have entertained; and to imagine that there was no danger of those evils which, were, in fact, escaped. We are apt also to make too little allowances for prejudices and associations of ideas, which no longer exist precisely in the same form among ourselves, but which, perhaps, are not more at variance with right reason than others with which ourselves are infected.

“Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability."

We should, then, cultivate, not only the cornfields of our minds, but the

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

land is the field of ancient and modern literature-of philosophy, in almost a departments-of the arts of reasoning and persuasion. Every part of it ma cultivated with advantage, as the Land of Canaan when bestowed upon G peculiar people. They were not commanded to let it lie waste, as incurably luted by the abominations of its first inhabitants; but to cultivate it, and dwe it, living in obedience to the divine laws, and dedicating its choicest fruits to Lord their God.

To understand the real progress which has been made in the organization, administration, and instruction of institutions of learning in this country, and at the same time to appreciate the importance of many agencies and means of popular education besides schools, books, and teachers, we must, as far as we can, look into the schools themselves, as they were fifty and sixty years ago, and realize the difficulties and deficiences under which some of the noblest characters of our history were developed. As a contribution to our knowledge of these difficulties and deficiences in our schools, we bring together the testimony of several eminent men who were pupils or teachers in these schools, and who assisted in various ways in achieving their improvement.

LETTER FROM NOAH WEBSTER, LL. D.

NEW HAVEN, March 10th, 1840. MR. BARNARD: Dear Sir-You desire me to give you some information as to the mode of instruction in common schools when I was young, or before the Revolution. I believe you to be better acquainted with the methods of managing common schools, at the present time, than I am; and I am not able to institute a very exact comparison between the old modes and the present. From what I know of the present schools in the country, I believe the principal difference between the schools of former times and at present consists in the books and instruments used in the modern schools.

When I was young, the books used were chiefly or wholly Dilworth's Spelling Books, the Psalter, Testament, and Bible. No geography was studied before the publication of Dr. Morse's small books on that subject, about the year 1786 or 1787. No history was read, as far as my knowledge extends, for there was no abridged history of the United States. Except the books above mentioned, no book for reading was used before the publication of the Third Part of my Institute, in 1785. In some of the early editions of that book, I introduced short notices of the geography and history of the United States, and these led to more enlarged descriptions of the country. In 1788, at the request of Dr. Morse, I wrote an account of the transactions in the United States, after the Revolution; which account fills nearly twenty pages in the first volume of his octavo editions.

my opening Door, urы рионном ш བ་པད ་སས་འ

great change in the department of spelling; and, from the information I c gain, spelling was taught with more care and accuracy for twenty years or mo after that period, than it has been since the introduction of multiplied boo and studies.*

No English grammar was generally taught in common schools when I w young, except that in Dilworth, and that to no good purpose. In short, the i struction in schools was very imperfect, in every branch; and if I am not m informed, it is so to this day, in many branches. Indeed there is danger of ru ning from one extreme to another, and instead of having too few books in of schools, we shall have too many.

I am, sir, with much respect, your friend and obedient servant,

N. WEBSTER.

Dr. Webster in an essay published in a New York paper in 178 "On the Education of Youth in America," and in another essa published in Hartford, Ct., in 1790, "On Property, Governmen Education, Religion, Agriculture, etc., in the United States," whi setting forth some of the cardinal doctrines of American educatio as now held, throws light on the condition of schools and colleg in different parts of the country at that date.

The first error that I would mention is a too general attention to the dea languages, with a neglect of our own. * * *This neglect is so gener that there is scarcely an institution to be found in the country where the En lish tongue is taught regularly from its elements to its pure and regular co struction in prose and verse. Perhaps in most schools boys are taught th definition of the parts of speech, and a few hard names which they do not u derstand, and which the teacher seldom attempts to explain: this is calle learning grammar. * * * The principles of any science afford pleasure the student who comprehends them. In order to render the study of languag agreeable, the distinctions between words should be illustrated by the differenc in visible objects. Examples should be presented to the senses which are th inlets of all our knowledge.

Another error which is frequent in America, is that a master undertakes teach many different branches in the same school. In new settlements, whe the people are poor, and live in scattered situations, the practice is often u avoidable. But in populous towns it must be considered as a defective plan c education. For suppose the teacher to be equally master of all the branche which he attempts to teach, which seldom happens, yet his attention must distracted with a multiplicity of objects, and consequently painful to himsel and not useful to to his pupils. Add to this the continual interruptions whic

The general use of my Spelling Book in the United States has had a most extensive effe in correcting the pronunciation of words, and giving uniformity to the language. Of th change, the present generation can have a very imperfect idea.

†These essays were afterwards collected with others in a volume entitled "A Collectic of Essays and Fugitive Writings, etc." By Noah Webster, Jr.

Boston: 1790.

« НазадПродовжити »