The 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 there with. Of those who are actually engaged in so developing the characters; and so establishing the habits of their pupils, 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. 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.