talents will usually give indication of their presence
amidst the most depressing circumstances. But when a mind of this stamp
has been allowed to unfold itself under the genial influence of large
educational advantages, how will it grow in power, outstripping the
multitude, as some majestic tree, rooted in a soil of peculiar richness
rises above and spreads itself abroad over the surrounding forest? Our
inquiry, however, at present, is not exclusively respecting individuals
thus highly gifted.

Geniuses are rare in our world; sent occasionally to break up the
monotony of life, impart new impulses to a generation, like comets
blazing along the sky, startle the dosing mind, no longer on the stretch
to enlarge the boundaries of human knowledge, and rouse men to gaze on
visions of excellence yet unreached. Happily, the mass of mankind are
not of this style of mind. Uniting by the process of education the
powers which God has conferred upon them, with those of a more brilliant
order which are occasionally given to a few, the advancement of the
world in all things essential to its refinement, and purity, and
exaltation, is probably as rapid and sure as it would be under a
different constitution of things. Were all equally elevated, it might
still be necessary for some to tower above the rest, and by the sense of
inequality move the multitude to nobler aspirations. But while it is not
permitted of God that all men should actually rise to thrones in the
realm of mind, yet such is the native power of all sane minds, and such
their great capacity of improvement, that, made subject to a healthful
discipline they may not only qualify us for all the high duties of life
on earth, but go on advancing in an ever-perfecting preparation for the
life above.

The second thing pre-supposed in education is personal application.
There is no thorough education that is not self-education. Unlike the
statue which can be wrought only from without, the great work of
education is to unfold the life within. This life always involves
self-action. The scholar is not merely a passive recipient. He grows
into power by an active reception of truth. Even when he listens to
another's utterances of knowledge, what vigor of attention and memory
are necessary to enable him to make that knowledge his own? But when he
attempts himself to master a subject of importance, when he would rise
into the higher region of mathematics, philosophy, history, poetry,
rel