their existence and privileges, they must accomplish something that cannot be accomplished by books. But it is a remarkable circumstance that, before the invention of printing, universities viewed the activity of the pupil as the great mean of cultivation, and the communication of knowledge as only of subordinate importance; whereas, since that invention, universities, in general, have gradually allowed to fall into disuse the powerful means which they possess of rousing the pupil to exertion, and have been too often content to act as mere oral instruments of information, forgetful, it would almost seem, that Fust and Coster ever lived. It is acknowledged, indeed, that this is neither the principal nor the proper purpose of a university. Every writer on academical education from every corner of Europe proclaims the abuse, and, in this and other universities, much has been done by individual effort to correct it.1

The true end of lib ́eral education.

The conditions of instruction in intellectual philosophy.

But though the common duty of all academical instructors be the cultivation of the student, through the awakened exercise of his faculties, this is more especially incumbent on those to whom is intrusted the department of liberal education; for, in this department, the pupil is trained, not to any mere professional knowledge, but to the command and employment of his faculties in general. But, moreover, the same obligation is specially imposed upon a professor of intellectual philosophy, by the peculiar nature of his subject, and the conditions under which alone it can be taught. The phænomena of the external world are so palpable and so easily described, that the experience of one observer suffices to render the facts he has witnessed intelligible and probable to all. The phænomena of the internal world, on the contrary, are not capable of being thus described: all that the prior observer can do, is to enable others to repeat his experience. In the science of mind, we can neither understand nor be convinced of anything at second hand. Here testimony can impose no belief; and instruction is only instruction as it enables us to teach ourselves. A fact of consciousness, however accurately observed, however clearly described, and however great may be our confidence in the observer, is for us as zero, until we have observed and recognized it ourselves. Till that be done, we cannot realize its possibility, far less admit its truth. Thus it is that, in the philosophy of mind, instruction can do little more than point out the position in which the pupil ought to place himself, in order to verify, by his own

1 Compare Discussions, p. 772.- ED.

experience, the facts which his instructor proposes to him as true. The instructor, therefore, proclaims, οὐ φιλοσοφία, ἀλλὰ φιλοσοφεῖν ; he does not profess to teach philosophy, but to philosophize.

Use and importance of examinations in a class of Philosophy.

It is this condition imposed upon the student of doing everything himself, that renders the study of the mental sciences the most improving exercise of intellect. But everything depends upon the condition being fulfilled; and, therefore, the primary duty of a teacher of philosophy is to take care that the student does actually perform for himself the necessary process. In the first place, he must discover, by examination, whether his instructions have been effective, whether they have enabled the pupil to go through the intellectual operation; and, if not, it behooves him to supply what is wanting, to clear up what has been misunderstood. In this view, examinations are of high importance to a professor; for without such a medium between the teacher and the taught, he can never adequately accommodate the character of his instruction to the capacity of his pupils.

The intellectual instructor must seek to influence the will of his pupils.

But, in the scond place, besides placing his pupil in a condition to perform the necessary process, the instructor ought to do what in him lies to determine the pupil's will to the performance. But how is this to be effected? Only by rendering the effort more pleasurable than its omission. But every effort is at first difficult, consequently irksome. The ultimate benefit it promises is dim and remote, while the pupil is often of an age at which present pleasure is more persuasive than future good. The pain of the exertion must, therefore, be overcome by associating with it a still higher pleasure. This can only be effected by enlisting some passion in the cause of improvement. We must awaken emulation, and allow its gratification only through a course of vigorous exertion. Some rigorists, I am aware, would proscribe, on moral and religious grounds, the employment of the passions in education; but such a view is at once false and dan

The place of the passions in education.

gerous. The affections are the work of God; they are not radically evil; they are given us for useful purposes, and are, therefore, not superfluous. It is their abuse that is alone reprehensible. In truth, however, there is no alternative. In youth passion is preponderant. There is then a redundant amount of energy which must be expended; and this, if it find not an outlet through one affection, is sure to find it through another. The aim of education is thus to employ for good those impulses which would otherwise be

turned to evil. The passions are never neutral; they are either the best allies, or the worst opponents, of improvement. "Man's nature," says Bacon, "runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other." Without the stimulus of emulation, what can education accomplish? The love of abstract knowledge, and the habit of application, are still unformed, and if emulation intervene not, the course by which these are acquired is, from a strenuous and cheerful energy, reduced to an inanimate and dreary effort; and this, too, at an age when pleasure is all-powerful, and impulse predominant over reason. The result is manifest.

These views have determined my plan of practical instruction. Regarding the communication of knowledge as a high, but not the highest, aim of academical instruction, I shall not content myself with the delivery of lectures. By all means in my power I shall endeavor to rouse you, gentlemen, to the free and vigorous exercise of your faculties; and shall deem my task accomplished, not by teaching Logic and Philosophy, but by teaching to reason and philosophize.

1 Essay xxxviii.-"Of Nature in Men." -Works, ed. Montagu, volume i. p. 133.ED.

2 For Fragment containing the Author's views on the subject of Academical Honors, see Appendix I. — ED.

LECTURE II.1

PHILOSOPHY-ITS ABSOLUTE UTILITY.

(B.) OBJECTIVE.

IN the perverse estimate which is often made of the end and objects of education, it is impossible that the The value of a study. Science of Mind,-Philosophy Proper, the Queen of Sciences, as it was denominated of old, should not be degraded in common opinion from its preeminence, as the highest branch of general education; and, therefore, before attempting to point out to you what constitutes the value of Philosophy, it becomes necessary to clear the way by establishing a correct notion of what the value of a study is.

Ends and means.

Some things are valuable, finally, or for themselves, - these are ends; other things are valuable, not on their own account, but as conducive towards certain ulterior ends, - these are means. The value of ends is absolute, -the value of means is relative. Absolute value is properly called a good, relative value is properly called a utility? Of goods, or absolute ends, there are for man but two, perfection and happiness. By perfection is meant the full and harmonious development of all our faculties, corporeal and mental, intellectual and moral; by happiness, the complement of all the pleasures of which we are susceptible. Now, I may state, though I cannot at present attempt to prove, and I am afraid many will not even understand the statement, that human perfection and human happiness coincide, and thus constitute, in reality, but a single end. For as, on the one hand, the perfection or full development of a power is in proportion to its capacity of free, vigorous, and continued action, so, on

Human perfection and happiness coincide.

1 It is to be observed, that the Lectures here printed as First and Second, were not uniformly delivered by the Author in that order. The one or other was, however, usually given as the Introductory Lecture of

the Course. This circumstance accounts for the repetition of the principal doctrines of Lecture I. in the opening of Lecture II.-ED. 2 [Cf. Aristotle, Eth. Nic., lib. i., c. 7, § 1.]

the other, all pleasure is the concomitant of activity; its degree being in proportion as that activity is spontaneously intense, its prolongation in proportion as that activity is spontaneously continued; whereas, pain arises either from a faculty being restrained in its spontaneous tendency to action, or from being urged to a degree, or to a continuance, of energy beyond the limit to which it of itself freely tends.

Criterion of the utility of a study.

To promote our perfection is thus to promote our happiness; for to cultivate fully and harmoniously our various faculties, is simply to enable them by exercise, to energize longer and stronger without painful effort; that is, to afford us a larger amount of a higher quality of enjoyment. Perfection (comprising happiness) being thus the one end of our existence, in so far as man is considered either as an end unto himself, or as a mean to the glory of his Creator; it is evident that, absolutely speaking, that is, without reference to special circumstances and relations, studies and sciences must, in common with all other pursuits, be judged useful as they contribute, and only as they contribute, to the perfection of our humanity,- that is, to our perfection simply as men. It is manifest that in this relation alone can anything distinctively, emphatically, and without qualification, be denominated useful; for as our perfection as men is the paramount and universal end proposed to the species, whatever we may style useful in any other relation, ought, as conducive only to a subordinate and special end, to be so called, not simply, but with qualifying limitation. Propriety has, however, in this case, been reversed in common usage. For the term Useful has been exclusively bestowed, in ordinary language, on those branches of instruction which, without reference to his general cultivation as a man or a gentleman, qualify an individual to earn his livelihood by a special knowledge or dexterity in some lucrative calling or profession; and it is easy to see how, after the word had been thus appropriated to what, following the Germans, we may call the Bread and Butter sciences, those which more proximately and obtrusively contribute to the intellectual and moral dignity of man, should, as not having been styled the useful, come, in popular opinion, to be regarded as the useless branches of instruction.

General and Particular Utility.

As it is proper to have different names for different things, we may call the higher utility, or that conducive to the perfection of a man viewed as an end in himself, by the name of Absolute or Gen