Inaugural address delivered at the opening of Morrison College, Lexington, Kentucky : November 4th, 1833 / by the Rev. Benjamin O. Peers.

  • Peers, Benjamin O. (Benjamin Orrs), 1800-1842
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inaugural address delivered at the opening of Morrison College, Lexington, Kentucky : November 4th, 1833 / by the Rev. Benjamin O. Peers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    [ 17] which comes within the sphere of their observation. With re- gard to things remote, either as to time or space, they are comparatively indifferent. They are wholly occupied with the present moment and the present spot. Now and here, are their starting points, from which they go off gradually and in all directions, like the successive widenings of a circle in the water. Even were an angel to visit our world, subject- ed as we are, to the necessity of cultivating an acquaintance with it through the medium of senses, he would have to be- gin, and advance except perhaps with greater rapidity, pre- cisely as does the infant of a year. All the knowledge we possess in the world, relates either to things as they are, or as they affect each other; to their properties, or their chan- ges; and as these properties have no dependence whatever on our will; and as these changes occur in obedience to laws imposed by God; the only possible method, by which we can acquire a knowledge of the one or of the other, is that of observation. It is this alone which furnishes us with ma- terials for thought, as it is by this we are to test the correct- ness of our deductions. From this it is to be inferred, that the business of the edu- cator consists in simply taking up the lessons nature herself assigns and leaves unfinished, and in prosecuting them in the way prescribed by her own successful example. He will therefore, never consent to tie up, as it were, the senses of his pupil the moment he comes under his charge; to pin him down to a spot, and fasten his eyes immovably upon a book to learn by heart the thoughts of other minds. On the contrary, his first and highest aim will be to awaken his in- tellect, and stimulate it to voluntary interested effort. To accomplish this, he will intersperse his ordinary book and elate exercises with endeavors to excite curiosity by the pre- sentation of some new object, it may be a plant, an animal, or a mineral, which the pupil will be required, or rather permitted, (for he will consider it a privilege) to observe, analyse and ultimately describe and classify with the aid of a text-book, or what is far better, the guidance of the living C
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