THE CALIFORNIA MEANS AND ENDS OF UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. BY IRA MAYHEW, A. M., Superintendent of Public Enstruction of the State of Michigan, AND Author of a Practical System of Book-keeping. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY A. S. BARNES & Co., 111 & 113 WILLIAM ST., COR JOHN. AIMBOTLIAD LC75 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, by IRA MAYHEW, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Michigan. EDUCATION DEPT. ас PREFACE. WHEN about to engage in enterprises of any kind, it is befitting that persons should first settle in their own minds THE ENDS they propose to attain, in order that they may wisely adapt THE MEANS to be pursued, to the accomplishment of these ends. If the responsibilities about to be assumed are delicate in their nature, and far-reaching in their consequences, it is eminently proper that the candidate should seek to be duly and truly prepared, and well qualified, that he may prove in some degree adequate to the task to which he thus voluntarily devotes himself. But what relation is so delicate and responsible in its nature, and what so far reaching in its results, as that of the parent to his offspring? or that of the teacher to his pupils? And what positions are more thoughtlessly assumed, or sustained with less solicitude, than are these, in perhaps the great majority of cases! The consideration of these facts necessarily awakens deep and earnest solicitude in appreciating minds. It is lamentable to consider how many parents there are-and how many teachers, even--who never thoughtfully consider the ends of human life, and the means which are necessarily connected therewith. Of those 544284 who are actually engaged in so developing the characters, and so establishing the habits of their children, and of their pupils, as materially to affect their weal or woe, for this life, not only, but while being endures-whether conscious of it or not-how few, comparatively, answer for themselves, or even seriously consider, these and like questions: In what does a correct education consist? and, How can this education be best secured to the successive generations of men? What course of training is best calculated to fit my children, or my pupils, for the discharge of the various duties that will be incumbent on them as individuals, as social beings, as citizens of a free government, and as candidates for immortality? In considering these questions previously to the preparation of this volume, the author was led to treat the subject, in many respects, very differently from what most writers that preceded him had done. In the present state of being, the mind, which constitutes the real man, dwells in a material body, for the purposes of development and culture, that it may thereby be prepared to enter most advantageously upon that higher life which awaits us in the future. The body, properly developed, with its five senses all in a state of healthy action, is the medium, and the only medium, through which a correct knowledge of God, as manifest in the material world, can be communicated to, and his likeness daguerreotyped upon, the mind. Hence the great prominence given in this volume to physical culture, and the right education of the senses, as constituting the true substratum for symmetrical and most successful mental development. The author, in his present effort, has sought to awaken |