s new, for novelty's sake, and the
demolition of many things old and revered, has fixed upon them, half in
jest, half in earnest, the sobriquet. Not only on matters of faith--on
innovations on all established practice, do they take their stand.
Education they understand in no limited sense. The acquisition of the
_circle_ of sciences, and _nothing_ less, is the average of their
contentment. We are to live in an age when every man, or, at least, every
second, is to be an Admirable Crichton. Formerly, it was thought that the
mind of man was, even in its strength, so feeble, that strict adherence to
some single and well-defined line of study or path of action was
necessary, if a moderate skill in its command were desired. He who loved
and pursued his knowledge of ancient people, languages, customs, and laws,
was not expected to be erudite except in classical lore. The philosopher
and mathematician, if well acquainted in their respective spheres with the
laws and processes of mind, matter, and number, were thought to have
learned their part. The laborer in the field of active industry, who was
skillful in the taste and knowledge of his craft and the use of its tools,
was esteemed no cumberer of the ground. If, after this, he cultivated his
mind by a scrutiny of the labors of others, so much the better. Under this
_regime_, each man learned his own department, every one knew something,
better than his neighbors--could follow or elucidate his special study or
calling through ramifications the other could not trace, and thus
knowledge progressed, and became the great power that it has grown.

But now the "rising generation" will have matters altered. Education is
all wrong, and too limited. The spirit of unity, as the Germans call
it--that hidden elf which haunts all knowledge, and is the same, however
disguised--is not to be caught except by a search which involves the
acquisition of every science, art, and philosophy. This, in addition to an
insane and, we shrink not from saying, a blasphemous dallying with things
sacred, is the grand error of the "rising generation"--the rock on which
their bark will founder, if it has not already done so. Man can not be a
"universal genius." Let us by all means shake off the trammels under which
education has groveled--under which she still groans. Let us seek by all
means to make education so free, that, like the winds of heaven, and the
light of the sun, no man shall want a reasonable--a f