ethod of philosophizing, nearly all the sciences have been
advancing rapidly and steadily; and the cause of this is to be found in
adhering to the rules of induction. No science has been allowed to rest
its claims upon mere theory, or authority of any kind, but upon evidence
derived from facts. Mere opinions and suppositions have been rigidly
excluded; and that alone which was acquired by accurate investigation,
has been acknowledged in science as having the stamp of truth. The
inductive philosophy takes nothing for granted. Every conclusion must be
legitimately drawn from ascertained facts, or from principles
established by experiment; and the consequence has been, not only that
what has been attained is permanent, and will benefit all future
generations, but the amount of that attainment, in the short time that
has already elapsed, is actually greater than all that had been
previously gained during centuries. In this general improvement,
however, the science of Education has till lately formed an exception.
The principles of true philosophy do not appear to have been brought to
bear upon it, as they have upon the other sciences; and the consequences
of this neglect have been lamentable. In every branch of natural
philosophy, there are great leading principles already established. But
where were there any such principles established by the philosopher for
the guidance of the teacher? By what, except their own experience, and
conjectures, were teachers directed in the training of the
young?--Thirty or forty years ago, what was called "education" in our
ordinary week-day schools, was little more than a mechanical round of
barren exercises. The excitement of religious persecution, which had
been the means of disciplining the intellectual and moral powers of
Scotsmen for several previous generations, had by that time gradually
subsided, and had left education to do its own work, by the use of its
own resources. But these were perfectly inadequate to the task. The
exercises almost universally employed in the education of the young,
had neither been derived from science, nor from experience of their own
inherent power; and they would, from the beginning, have been found
perfectly inefficient, had they not been aided, as before noticed, by
the stimulant of religious persecution.--The state of education, at the
time we speak of, is still fresh on the memory of living witnesses who
were its victims; and some of the absurdities wh