nd clear thought and their faithful experience.

Will it then readily be believed--and yet it is unquestionably
true--that, to this hour, neither the schools nor the teachers can be
found that are in possession and practice of a well-defined, positively
guiding, and always trustworthy _method_ of intellectual, and other
means and steps by which to conduct and consummate the education of our
children? Note, we do not here declare the want of the true and
universal method of educating, if there can be such a thing; but we
distinctly assert that no school and no living teacher employs or
conforms to any well-defined, positive, and, in and for its purposes,
completed method of educating the young; nor, since this latter is a
supposition better pleasing certain critically-minded gentlemen, have we
in anything like clear delineation and positive practice the _several_
methods that may be imagined requisite for minds of varying bent and
capacity. If we sum up in one word the most pervading, constant, and
obvious characteristic of our schools, and of the teaching and the
learning in them to this day, that word must be, _immethodical_.
Although admitting that the education of the young should distinctly
embrace the four departments of a training, _physical_, _intellectual_,
_moral_, and _social_, yet, for the sake of clearness in our discussion
and its results, not less than through the necessities of a restricted
space, we shall here confine our remarks wholly to education in its
intellectual aspect.

To move, for each subject, and for each part of it essayed, always along
the right way, and by the true character and order of steps,--that is
the thing to be desired, and which is, as yet, unattained. As a
consequence, the prosecution of studies is by attempts and in ways that
are generally imperfect, at best make-shift or provisional, often
radically erroneous or worthless. Doubtless, the defects in method are
now less glaring and influential at the two extremes of the
sensibly-conducted infant school, and the well-appointed and leisurely
collegiate course. There is no true study that is not what the origin of
the word implies--STUDIUM, a work of _zeal, fondness, eager desire,
voluntary endeavor, interest_. Such study has two essential
characteristics; where these are wanting, study does not exist; the
appearance of it is a sham; and though results disconnected and partial
are attained, real acquisition is meager, and apparent