The American Journal of Education

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cents, the Journal for 1860 will be sent, FREE OF POSTAGE.

F. B. PERKINS, Hartford, Conn.
F. C. BROWNELL, New York City.

I. EDUCATIONAL APHORISMS AND SUGGESTIONS,

ANCIENT AND MODERN,

We had made some preparation for a series of articles in successive numbers of this Journal, embodying the most remarkable sayings, more or less aphoristic, of wise and good men, in different countries and in different ages, on the subject of Education and Schools, when we found the labor of collecting very much abridged in a volume of Dr. J. F. T. Wohlfarth, of Kirchhasel, in the Principality of Schwarzberg-Rudolstadt entitled “The Pedagogical Treasure-Casket :* a Theory of Education, set forth in the most remarkable expressions of the wise men of ancient and modern times." The matter is arranged under the following heads :

I. Man-his dignity and destiny:
II. Education-its nature and value.
III. Parents and Teachers—their duties.
IV. Early Training-home education.

V. Obedience to Parents.
VI. Female Education.
VII. Intellectual Culture.
VIII. Subjects and Means of Education.

1. Language.
2. Natural Science.
3. Geography
4. History
5. Mathematics.
6. Philosophy
7. Books.
8. Poetry.

9. Music.
IX. Religious Instruction.
X. Discipline.

XI. Example. The contents are introduced by the following Preface. During the preparation of his "Pedagogy from a Practical Stand-point,” the idea of a collection of the more remarkable expressions of the wise men of all times, on a subject so steadily increasing in importance as that of education, had occurred to the editor with the more force because such an anthology was not forthcoming for his own use, and because it seemed to him that it would furnish a store of incitements to a holy enterprise not to be found in any other way, would disseminate the most fruitful seeds, and would offer a species of guide, Pedagogisches Schatzkostlein."

Gotha, 1867. 416

Von Dr. J. F. Th. Woblfarth.

pages.

before unattainable, to all whoge vocation and duty it is to labor, directly or in. directly, for the good of the next generation; especially for educated parents, school officers, and public and private teachers.

Acquainted by the nature of his studies with the treasures of ancient and mod. ern pedagogical literature, and in possession of a rich treasure of extracts, the editor seized with pleasure the hand which his publisher, so unwearied in his exertions for popular education, held out to him; and he now lays his collection before the public.

On the difficult point of arrangement, the editor concluded it best to proceed partly by chronology and partly according to subjects: which may account for the location of some extracts earlier or later than at first view might seem appropriate.

The editor would gladly have inserted still other extracts from useful teachers and celebrated wise men. But this would have rendered the extent of the work too great. According to the best judgment of the editor, however, at least all the chief subdivisions of his subject have been discussed. He is contident that under the circumstances his apology will be accepted, if any maxims of eminent men shall not be found when looked for.

The author introduces the following parable from Hawke, as symbolic of the work of the parent and teacher.

A gardener planted, by the garden-wall, a little tree of a remarkably fine kind.
As it every year grew stronger, it threw out strong shoots.
But every spring and every summer the gardener cut off many of these.

They were waste wood, he said, that injured the valuable branches, taking the sap away from them and keeping them in the shade.

The children wondered at his doing so, and could not understand it.

But after a few years the little tree bore its first fruit, which tasted excellently to the children.

But the gardener still continued to prune it.
The little tree is a child.
The gardener is his father, his teacher.
Children are endowed by God with good gifts and noble impulses.
But these easily degenerate, and destroy what is good, both in body and soul.

Therefore must parents and teachers continually direct the child, teach him, blame him, even discipline him.

Thus will grow up at last a lovely youth, and a useful man, or a good daughter.

We publish in this number the first three chapters of Wohlfarth's work very nearly as they stand. In succeeding numbers of this Journal, we shall give the remainder of the book, substantially as it was compiled; and shall also add, under the existing heads, such other selections as we have gathered, and others under additional chapters ; with the intention of ultimately completing such a comprehensive and valuable collection of detached thoughts, aphorisms, and suggestions, that every practical teacher and friend of education shall be enabled to find in it something to stimulate reflection, to suggest expedients, or to solve doubts.

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him;

And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he male and female created he them.

BIBLE, Gen. i; 26, 27. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the Garden thou mayest freely eat.

But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Bible, Gen. ii ; 15–17. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

What is man that thou art mindful of him ? and the son of man, that thou visitest him.

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor.

Thou madest him to have dominion of the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under him. O Lord our God, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

BIBLE, Psalms, viii; 3-6, 9. And they knew not the secrets of God, nor hoped for the wages of justice nor esteemed the honor of holy souls.

For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of his own likeness he made him.

BIBLE, Wisdom of Solomon, ii ; 22, 23. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and stcal.

For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.

Behold the fowls of the air ; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

And why take ye thought for raiment ? consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin ;

Therefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you,

ye of little faith?

BIBLE, Matt. vi; 19, 21, 26, 28, 30. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are the angels of God in heaven.

I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

BIBLE, Matt. xxii; 30, 32.

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