Addresses, Essays and Miscellanies; From 1849 to 1890

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. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ... warms it with love and sends it forth for a noble career, he has done a mightier work than was ever done upon canvas or in marble. The plan of education should be the harmonious and natural de velopment of all the faculties of the mind, as each in propor tion to its cultivation yields enjoyment and power. One with but little musical cultivation could enjoy simple melodies, but to enjoy the musical entertainments which the resources of nations are taxed to produce, and in which the skill of a thousand masters is blended in great waves of harmony, requires a cultivated ear. The mind has its order of development as much as anything in nature. The bud aud the blossom must precede the ripened fruit. In childhood you find extreme acuteness of the senses and a wonderful development of memory. The mere infant will learn the use and meaning of words more rapidly than the adult can acquire a foreign language. Memory early provides the material on which reason, imagination and taste are afterward to act. We see in the early development of memory a hint as to its use. When it is most active the other faculties have not strength to make any use of its acquisitions. Then those who control education should direct its efforts to what experience has taught them will be most valuable in the future.-There is a great deal that must be learned that is arbitrary, that must be learned early or never. The art of spelling is a pure effort of memory, and can be learned so as to be retained forever when the child can have but a feeble conception of the meaning or use of language. I should consider that spelling bore about the same relation to education that the corner-stone does to the temple, if there were not so many ladies and gentlemen who cannot write a page without...