the cast, he draws with more confidence and independence ever after. On the contrary, commencing with the paper models gives a feeling of timidity with regard to drawing from objects that is not readily overcome. In the third place, in making his own delineation of an object, instead of a mechanical copy of a drawing placed before him, the scholar feels that he is really producing something new, which increases his interest in the study, and is a constant stimulus to improvement. If he has any genuine taste for art, he may in this way, be gradually advanced until he has thoroughly mastered the art of composition, when he is prepared to design according to the ability with which his Creator has endowed him.

By commencing with the cast, is not meant that of the human figure, which is too difficult for a beginner. Architectural ornaments such as are used in house decorations, furnish a variety of simple curves, as well as combinations of curves, that afford excellent studies for the first lessons. These should be selected with care, and none adopted for the purpose that are false in taste and skill, because the scholar should be trained from the beginning to learn the laws of unity and harmony, which are indispensable to the composition of every subject however limited. The difference in the progress made by the scholar in using a series of good and correct models, or those that are poor and faulty is incalculable. For this reason, the selection of models should never be a question between scholar and teacher, or parent and teacher, for art is governed by established rules as simple, and by scientific laws as arbitrary as those that belong to music or to geometry. In other studies pursued, no difficulty of this kind occurs, for the teachers employed in the various departments are supposed to be better qualified to judge than the scholars. But, alas! for the teacher of drawing. In the first place, all children are allowed to say whether they wish to learn to draw, and their own inclination decides the question. This study being the only one in regard to which they are left free to chose, shows them, at once, that no importance is attached to it. If they object on the plea of having no taste for it, no one regards it as evidence of a deficiency in natural gifts;' but what parent ever allowed a child to say, that they had no taste for music; ear or no ear, taste or no taste, the master is summoned to make an accomplished musician of the subject given him; and ear or no ear, taste or no tase, the child is made to work with indefatigable diligence, and the lessons are steadily pursued, intermingled with alternate tears and remonstrances, which avail nothing with the parent, for musical skill commands a little coveted éclat. This the scholar does not always secure, but as a reward for the application made, her individual pleasure in after life is greatly enhanced by the

gratification of a cultivated taste, in the frequent opportunities afforded of listening to fine music.

In the next place, if latent talent is developed with the growth, the years that should have been devoted to the acquirement of elementary knowledge and skill in this, as well as in other studies, have passed by. But, during that period, the eye and taste have become somewhat cultivated, and if the art of drawing is then attempted, the very slow progress made, combined with the feeling of disgust at the puerile effort of skill, will discourage all who have not more than an ordinary share of ability.

Before closing, I would beg leave earnestly to recommend, that drawing should be taught scientifically in every school where it is taught at all, more particularly in the State Normal, the ostensible object of which is, to prepare teachers for all departments of instruction. Our people have yet to learn that the rules of art are founded in science, and that drawing, to be taught successfully and usefully, must be taught scientifically. The author of an exceedingly interesting and valuable article published in the "American Journal of Education," entitled "Science and Scientific Schools," (Vol. II., p. 354,) in speaking of the ancients, says, "they had, it is true, built magnificent temples. But, the taste of the architect, and that of the statuary, or poet, is simply an emanation from the divine breath within man, and is cultivated by contemplation, and only surface contact with nature." Will the writer pardon the liberty taken in commending to his attention the science of art? He will find, on understanding it, that magnificent temples, and beautiful statuary, as well as all works of art, are the result of study and scientific skill, and never in any instance, designed and accomplised simply by what he considers inspiration, and mere "surface contact with nature."

In the same article, (p. 369,) the writer speaks of the result of the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London, when the English, finding by comparing the productions there exhibited with their own, that the manufactures of other countries surpassed theirs in the display of artistic skill; the skill which of all others gives the greatest advantage in the great marts of the world, for the artistic will eclipse the mechanical, even in its greatest perfection. And what but scientific art gives the French artizan the advantage over all others, and in all markets commands the preference for their productions?

-In the comprehensive plan given in the article referred to, which embraces nothing superfluous to a thorough education, "drawing and the history and criticism of the art" are included. If the art of drawing is worthy of a place in the list of studies pursued, is it not worthy of the same thorough attention as the rest? And, if art is

not to be studied scientifically in a scientific school, why should it be introduced at all? We heartily sympathize in the hopes and ambition expressed by the writer for the New Haven Scientific School, and at the same time beg leave to say that when properly pursued, such is the influence of this study upon the whole mental culture, that if other scientific schools will give prominence to the study of art, "Yale, like other shaded plants, will begin to dwindle, and her laurels fade."

It is true, as he says, our young men go to Germany for the purpose of acquiring a higher mental cultivation than the facilities afforded them in their native land enables them to gain at home; and what is it that marks so decided a difference between the advantages afforded them in European institutions, and those in the United States? Is there any point of difference so material in the two systems, as that of art culture, which is there considered as of first importance, and here entirely overlooked? In Germany, no student of Greek is expected to understand the ancient classics, until he has attended lectures upon Greek art, and become familiar with the antiquities collected in their rich museums; and that he may understand these lectures, he is first taught the rudiments of art at school with elementary practice.

In all pursuits, we Americans look at the practical and the profitable, and in examining the statistics of art, we find that in Apelles' time, when every well educated Greek was well educated in art, pictures brought the highest prices to living artists; for then Apelles sold his picture of Alexander grasping the thunderbolt, which was deposited in the temple of Diana at Ephesus, for two hundred and eleven thousand dollars. Corréggio, who died in 1534, executed his "Saint Jerome" for about two thousand dollars. In 1749, the king of Portugal offered ninety thousand dollars for it. When the French had possesion of Pama, the duke vainly offered two hundred thousand dollars to redeem the same picture from being sent to Paris. Benjamin West, who in his day was honored in England as being at the head of his profession, received in 1817, four thousand dollars for his "Annunciation," then considered one of his best pictures. In 1840, the same picture was sold by auction for fifty dollars.

West undoubtedly possessed great natural gifts, and, by diligent application and study, found out for himself much that belonged to the practice of art. Still, he never overcame the disadvantage under which he labored from the want of early instruction, and never attained the excellence that he would have done, had he received thorough training from a master. Canova said of him, "he groups, he does not compose." In his time art was but little cultivated in England, and comparatively few then went to the continent; where, in

visiting the galleries, the taste becomes cultivated, and the eye gains the power of discrimination. During the present century, many have availed themselves of this great advantage; hence the different estimate made of the pecuniary value of West's pictures in his own time and the present; a fact worthy of note by all who claim for art, as for manufactures, a certain and available profit.

Many who go abroad for the purpose of seeing ancient works of art, are incapable of appreciating them, because in their education this branch of study has been entirely neglected; still, they claim to be judges, and are ambitious to procure fine pictures and statuary, the possession of which will prove their superior taste and judgment. In this they tacitly acknowledge the great importance attached to the subject, and at the same time unwittingly betray their ignorance, which is the necessary consequence of our having no schools of instruction. Our government pay great prices to native artists for their pictures, and thus by voluntary patronage distinguish them above their fellow countrymen; yet no importance is attached to a school of art. The great inventive power of our people is freely admitted by those of other nations with whom we come in competition, but our productions are less finished than theirs, because the inventors have received no artistic training, and of course their work suffers in the comparison.

Impressed with the vague idea that in the pursuit of art there is some radical defect, one says, "all that our artists need to enable them to compete with those of Europe, is a liberal patronage." Another says, "if we would have art succeed in America, we must have large public galleries, thrown open to the people." A third says, "artists can never do any thing here, they must go to Italy, the land of art." But the true question is, shall art be taught to our people scientifically, and with the same care as other studies pursued? or shall it be condemned as utterly useless, and therefore, unworthy the attention of educationists?

On this point let our educationists decide, and act conscientiously for the good of the young who are to perpetuate our Republic, and protect its future interests, and for whom they have in all other branches of education acted so judiciously and energetically. Let not those who are to follow after them, and on whom the same duties must devolve for the interests of their successors, while grateful that so much was done, mingle their gratitude and praise with reproach and regret that in the education given them, one valuable pursuit was neglected, one important thing omitted, a study which of all others, opens the way to profit, to honor, and to distinction, both individual and national.

XII. CULTIVATION OF THE REFLECTIVE FACULTIES.

Lectures addressed to Young Teachers,

BY WILLIAM RUSSELL, LANCASTER, MASS.

Ed. American Journal of Education, (Boston,) 1826-29.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.-In the preceding lectures of this series, we were occupied with the consideration of the perceptive and the expressive faculties, with a view to the plan and purposes of education. Following the historical order of development in the different classes in which the mental powers may, for such purposes, be grouped, we enter now on the study of the various modes of intellectual action which may be classed under the denomination of

REFLECTIVE FACULTIES.

Here we are met anew by a difficulty inherent in our native language, in the paucity and indefiniteness of the terms which it employs to designate the phenomena of mind. The vagueness of the phrase "reflective faculties," is a serious impediment to clearness and distinctness of conception, as regards any attempt at exact definition or satisfactory classification of intellectual acts or conditions. The term "reflective," however, if we resort once more to the serviceable aid of etymology, as a key to the interpretation of language, will prove strikingly suggestive of meaning; and, by its figurative force and peculiar significance, will atone, to some extent, for its deficiency in philosophic precision.

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The term "perceptive," (literally, taking through,) suggests the intellectual condition in which the mind is in the act of taking, receiving, or forming, ideas through the medium of the senses. The term expression" implies a state in which the mind is undergoing a process of pressing, or being pressed, from within outward. But the term "reflection," (bending back,) suggests, figuratively, that state or act of the mind in which it reflects, repeats, or gives back, inwardly, the images impressed upon itself,-the effects of which it is conscious, -whether produced from without or from within, whether occasioned by perception, imagination, conception, or emotion. In this condition is is implied that attention turns inward, and dwells, more or less consciously, on its internal subjects, rather than on the objects by which they may have been occasioned.