THE BIBLICAL REPOSITORY AND Quarterly Observer. No. XXI. JANUARY, 1836. ARTICLE I. IMPORTANCE OF THE MATHEMATICAL STUDIES, CONSIDERED AS A BRANCH OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION. By A. Caswell, Professor of Math. and Nat. Phil., Brown University. THE object of a Liberal Education is not merely the acquisition of facts and principles, but also the attainment of skill and power in the varied uses of facts and principles. The former is of course, preparatory to the latter. The great object, I do not say the only one, of that early education, which may be denominated liberal, in distinction from that which is merely mechanical or physical, is the discipline of the intellectual and moral powers. To the accomplishment of this end, all the resources of education are made subservient. She directs her efforts to the attainment of a delicate and refined taste; of a bold and fertile, yet chastened imagination;-of a discriminating judgment ;-of a severe and rigid deduction ;-of a cautious and yet comprehensive generalization. These are the powers which give preeminence to mind. Acting in concert, they appear, as the one or the other predominates, in the forms of sublime poetry, and impassioned eloquence, and profound reasoning. VOL. VII. No. 21. 1 That these powers are in a high degree improveable is admitted by all. Nor can it be doubted that the peculiar character of those studies and mental occupations, which constitute the chief elements of a liberal education, must exert a vast influence in moulding and adapting them to the practical business of life. Hence the peculiar tendency and relative im portance of different collegiate studies becomes a question of deep and philosophic interest to the scholar and the statesman; -to the individual and the public. That these studies are fitted to produce different forms of intellectual character, is too obvious to need proof. For the purpose of refining the taste; of storing the imagination with images of beauty; of acquiring that elegant speciality and that copia verborum, so essential to true eloquence, and especially of understanding the genius and power of language as a medium of thought, the ancient classics must be read-and read too with critical exactness and laborious care. For the purposes of choice and varied illustration, Natural History, in all its branches, must be cultivated. For an enlarged acquaintance with man as a sentient, an intellectual and a moral being, we must have recourse to the philosophy of mind. And for the special improvement of the judgment and reasoning powers, which, if I mistake not, constitute the foundation and frame work of the mental fabric, to which all the other powers are attached as needful appendages, or graceful ornaments, we must call in the aid of the exact sciences. But the grand problem to be solved is, how can all these powers of the mind be best brought to their highest state of cultivation? What branch or branches of study,-what kind and degree of mental exercise will most effectually subserve this great end? To suppose that we have already devised the best course of studies and the best modes of instruction, and that on this subject, at least, nothing remains to be accomplished by the spirit of improvement and the genius of invention, is to indicate a very limited acquaintance with the progress of knowledge. Here, as in all the practical applications of science, the limits of possible improvement always recede beyond the horizon of a present view. And hence it is impossible to anticipate what the labors of but a single age may achieve in this respect. Judging of the future by the experience of the past, that much will be achieved, we can scarcely doubt. What two or three centuries ago was ranked among the occult sciences, and could be attained only by long seclusion and profound study, is now |