I have read very carefully the third edition of the "New Education,"
and feel impelled, in order to satisfy my conscientiousness, to write
a short article relative to the impressions which the reading of the
book produced in my mind.
It is a work of extraordinary merit. Like George Combe's "Constitution
of Man," it is highly suggestive; the fascination of the author was
such that I could not help but write. To know its value and appreciate
its lofty moral outpourings, people must buy the book and read for
themselves. The first thought would be that it is the production of an
original thinker who had the courage to utter opinions fearless of
results, however antagonistic to the common-herd notions.
In all ages, the human understanding, the reasoning faculties, have
ever been considered to hold the supremacy in the scale of
development, of culture, and of advance toward a higher form of
civilization; the moral faculties were thought next in order, and then
the propensities common to all animal natures held the third or
inferior position. This view of human nature has been handed down from
an elder antiquity and still retains its hold largely in the
universities and great public schools of the present day.
If this view of the nature of man be a correct one, there ought to be
a vast intellectual brotherhood of mankind; but it is not so. From the
days of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, this culture of the
intellectual power has been continuously pursued, but with very
slender results; for were this kind of education pursued for 100,000
years, the morale of society would be little better than it is at the
present time.
Dr. Buchanan takes quite a different view and makes the moral or
ethical faculties supreme, in development and culture, the intellect
being the instruments for acquiring facts and the propensities the
steam to bring about the desired results. According to his views of
man, our emotional faculties are of a higher or more God-like order
than our intellectual powers. The intellect being the hand-maid to the
emotions, to _feel_ the force of truth is higher in mental excellence
than to _perceive_ it. Depth of emotions is the climax of spiritual
power.
The ethical and aesthetic being the foundation of the New Education,
Dr. Buchanan, in a series of beautifully written chapters, enters into
details in reference to what teachers should be, what the subjects
taught ought to be, and what are the shells and what the kernels of
knowledge. He shows clearly that woman will ultimately be the
regenerator of humanity, that education so far has been merely
fractional and one-sided--that true development consists in the
co-education of soul and body, the co-education of man and woman, the
co-education of the material and spiritual worlds.
There are a million of teachers, and every one should have a copy of
this work. No man is fit to teach in the high sense advocated by this
author unless he has thoroughly mastered this work. It is easy to pull
down a system, but not so easy to build it up; but in the New
Education the follies of the old educational systems are not only
levelled to the dust, but a higher and more practical, industrious,
and crime-preventing system of training and teaching takes its place.
This book will become the grand educational Bible for teachers in all
countries where the English language is spoken.
Nor should it be in the hands of teachers only. Every intelligent
father and mother, anxious for the development of their sons and
daughters should study this book night and day. It should be
translated into every European language, and also into Chinese and
other Eastern tongues; the refined, aesthetic, and knowledge-loving
people of Japan, were the work translated into their language, would
enjoy it intensely.
HAMBROOK COURT, near Bristol, England.
* * * * *
A Japanese scholar has already undertaken the translation of the "New
Education" in Japan. The JOURNAL has not room at present for the
essays of correspondents, and I have only given a small portion of the
essay of the learned Dr. Eadon, who is the most progressive member of
the medical profession in England.