It will be found that the ripest knowledge is best qualified to
instruct the most complete ignorance. It is a common mistake to
suppose that those who know little suffice to inform those who know
less; that the master who is but a stage before the pupil can, as well
as another, shew him the way; nay, that there may even be an advantage
in this near approach between the minds of teacher and of taught;
since the recollection of recent difficulties, and the vividness of
fresh acquisition, give to the one a more living interest in the
progress of the other. Of all educational errors, this is one of the
gravest. The approximation required between the mind of teacher and of
taught is not that of a common ignorance, but of mutual sympathy; not
a partnership in narrowness of understanding, but that thorough
insight of the one into the other, that orderly analysis of the
tangled skein of thought; that patient and masterly skill in
developing conception after conception, with a constant view to a
remote result, which can only belong to comprehensive knowledge and
prompt affections. With whatever accuracy the recently initiated may
give out his new stores, he will rigidly follow the precise method by
which he made them his own; and will want that variety and fertility
of resource, that command of the several paths of access to a truth,
which are given by thorough survey of the whole field on which he
stands. The instructor needs to have a full perception, not merely of
the internal contents, but also of the external relations, of that
which he unfolds; as the astronomer knows but little, if, ignorant of
the place and laws of moon and sun, he has examined only their
mountains and their spots. The sense of proportion between the
different parts and stages of a subject; the appreciation of the size
and value of every step; the foresight of the direction and magnitude
of the section that remains, are qualities so essential to the
teacher, that without them all instruction is but an insult to the
learner's understanding. And in virtue of these it is that the most
cultivated minds are usually the most patient, most clear, most
rationally progressive; most studious of accuracy in details, because
not impatiently shut up within them as absolutely limiting the view,
but quietly contemplating them from without in their relation to the
whole. Neglect and depreciation of intellectual minutiæ are
characteristics of the ill-informed; and where the granular parts of
study are thrown away or loosely held, will be found no compact mass
of knowledge, solid and clear as crystal, but a sandy accumulation,
bound together by no cohesion, and transmitting no light. And above
and beyond all the advantages which a higher culture gives in the mere
system of communicating knowledge, must be placed that indefinable and
mysterious power which a superior mind always puts forth upon an
inferior; that living and life-giving action, by which the mental
forces are strengthened and developed, and a spirit of intelligence is
produced, far transcending in excellence the acquisition of any
special ideas. In the task of instruction, so lightly assumed, so
unworthily esteemed, no amount of wisdom would be superfluous and
lost; and even the child's elementary teaching would be best
conducted, were it possible, by Omniscience itself. The more
comprehensive the range of intellectual view, and the more minute the
perception of its parts, the greater will be the simplicity of
conception, the aptitude for exposition, and the directness of access
to the open and expectant mind. This adaptation to the humblest
wants is the peculiar triumph of the highest spirit of
knowledge.--_Martineau's Discourses_.