THE

TRAINING SYSTEM.

CHAP. I.

INTRODUCTION.

OUTLINES OF THE OBJECT IN VIEW.

In the present treatise we propose, for universal adoption, a natural system of training the young, in tended to supply that most important desideratum in

oral economy, viz., an efficient method of training the whole man at the early and most impressible age of from two or three to fifteen years, a system, in fact, intended not to supersede but to carry out private and family training into public life. This has hitherto been a lamentable deficiency in all our plans, whether of political, social, or parochial economy. The promise has been made, that the child, if trained in the way he should go, will, when he is old, not depart from it; and it is to secure the more certainly such a glorious result, that this system is presented to the notice of all who either are, or ought to be, interested in the great work of popular education.

A

The parent looks round him in vain to see in what way, from morning till evening, he can have his children properly trained, when he himself is necessarily absent, and when they cannot, or will not, remain with their mother-how in fact he can best fulfil the divine command. At length, even under the most favourable circumstances, he is forced to send his children to a school where they are taught, it may be, all that is right, but where, from its construction and arrangements they cannot be trained; and there being no provision for the children during the time allotted to play, they are left to amuse themselves on the streets, and to be trained, as they must be, by any and every sort of companion with whom they may happen to meet. The Christian parent, therefore, sends out his children in the morning, and receives them in the evening, each day injured in their actual habits, both of mind and body, by the unsuperintended training of the streets. We desire to see a system established by which this evil will be completely neutralized, and, on the other hand, an improvement experienced.

It was evident that Moral Training, as a distinct branch, could not be established otherwise than by connecting it with the ordinary elementary branches of an English School. In working out this, an important discovery was made in the mode of conducting these and other branches, by means of which the requisite time was saved for Moral Training. These improvements in the mode of intellectual cultivation will appear in the sequel, and prove that this portion of the Training System is capable of being introduced