path of fact and experience by
either friends or enemies. No authority can make darkness light;--and
although he may be opposed for a time, and the public mind may be abused
for a moment, it will at last correct itself, and truth will prevail.

But the friends of education ought in no case to put the perseverance of
those who labour for its improvement to so severe a trial. They ought in
justice, as well as charity, to cultivate a forbearing and a candid
spirit; and they will have many opportunities of exercising these
virtues during the progress of this science. Education is confessedly
but in its infancy; and therefore it must grow much, and change much,
before it can arrive at maturity. But if there be an increasing
opposition to all advance, and if a stumbling-block be continually
thrown in the way of those who labour to perfect it, the labourers may
be discouraged, and the work be indefinitely postponed. Let all such
then guard against a blind opposition, or an attempt to explain away
palpable facts, merely because they lead to principles which are new, or
to conclusions which are at variance with their pre-conceived opinions.
If they persevere in a blind opposition, they may find at last that they
have been resisting truth, and defrauding their neighbour. Truth can
never be the enemy of man, although many inadvertently rank themselves
among its opponents. The resistance which has invariably been offered to
every important discovery hitherto, should be a beacon to warn the
inconsiderate and the prejudiced against being over-hasty in rejecting
discoveries in education; and the obloquy that now rests on the memory
of such persons, should be a warning to them, not to plant thorns in
their own pillows, or now to sow "the wind, lest they at last should
reap the whirlwind."

CHAP. III.

_On the Improvement of Teaching as an Art._

As Education on account of its importance takes precedence in the
sciences, so Teaching should rank first among the arts. The reasons for
this arrangement are numerous; but the consideration of two will be
sufficient.--The first is, that all the other arts refer chiefly to
time, and the conveniences and comforts of this world; while the art of
teaching not only includes all these, but involves also many of the
interests of man through eternity.--And the second is, that without this
art all the other arts would produce scarcely any advantage. Without
education of some kind, men are,