urpassing
importance, for however judiciously physical and intellectual
cultivation may have been conducted, if we make a mistake here, all is
lost. Knowledge is _power_, it is true; but we should bear in mind that
it is potent for evil as well as for good; and that, whether its effects
be good or ill, depends entirely upon the dispositions and sentiments by
which it is impelled and guided. Numerous have been the instances
illustrative of the fact that the greatest scourges of our race are men
of gigantic _cultivated_ intellect. Where knowledge but qualifies its
possessor for inflicting misery, ignorance would indeed be bliss.

I find my views on this important subject so admirably expressed in the
writings of some of the most eminent men of the age, that I feel it both
a privilege and a duty to enforce the sentiments I would inculcate by
the introduction of their testimony.

Dr. Humphrey observes,[25] that "it must strike every one who is capable
of taking a just and comprehensive view of the subject, that the common
idea of a good education--of such an education as every child in the
state ought to receive--is exceedingly narrow and defective. Most men
leave out, or regard as of very little importance, some of the essential
elements. They seem to forget that the child has a _conscience_ and a
_heart_ to be educated as well as an _intellect_. If they do not lay too
much stress on mental culture, which, indeed, is hardly possible, they
lay by far too little upon that which is moral and religious. They
expect to elevate the child to his proper station in society, to make
him wise and happy, an honest man, a virtuous citizen, and a good
patriot, by furnishing him with a comfortable school-house, suitable
class-books, competent teachers, and, if he is poor, paying his quarter
bills, while they greatly underrate, if they do not entirely overlook,
that high moral training, without which knowledge is the power of doing
evil rather than good. It may possibly nurture up a race of intellectual
giants, but, like the sons of Anak, they will be far readier to trample
down the Lord's heritage than to protect and cultivate it.

[25] In a lecture before the American Institute of Instruction, on the
Moral and Religious Training of Children.

"Education is not a talismanic word, but an _art_, or rather a
_science_; and, I may add, the most important of all sciences. It is the
right, the proper training of the _whole man_, the