A Lecture on Physical Development, and its Relations to Mental and Spiritual Development, delivered before the American Institute of Instruction, at their Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting, in Norwich, Conn., August 20, 1858

ebbe - S. R. (Samuel Robert) Calthrop

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Lecture on Physical Development, and its Relations to Mental and SpiritualDevelopment, delivered before the American Institute of Instruction, at their Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting, in Norwich,Conn., August 20, 1858, by S.R. CalthropThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online atwww.gutenberg.netTitle: A Lecture on Physical Development, and its Relations to Mental and Spiritual Development, delivered before theAmerican Institute of Instruction, at their Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting, in Norwich, Conn., August 20, 1858Author: S.R. CalthropRelease Date: May 25, 2004 [EBook #12430]Language: English*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LECTURE ON PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT ***Produced by Curtis Weyant, Kelsey Innis and PG Distributed ProofreadersALectureOnPhysical Development, and its Relations toMental and Spiritual Development,delivered before theAmerican Institute of Instruction,at theirTwenty-Ninth Annual Meeting,inNorwich, Conn., August 20, 1858.ByS.R. Calthrop,of Bridgeport, Conn.,Formerly of Trinity College, Cambridge, England.MDCCCLIX.Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by Ticknor AndFields, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District ofMassachusetts.On motion of G.F. Thayer,—Voted, ...

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Publié le	08 décembre 2010
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LECTURE.Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:—We have met together to consider the bestmethods of Educating, that is, drawing out, ordeveloping the Human Nature common to all of us.Truly a subject not easy to be exhausted. For weall of us feel that the Human Nature,—out ofwhose bosom has flowed all history, all science, allpoetry, all art, all life in short,—contains within itselffar more than that which has hitherto beenmanifested through all the periods of its history,though that history dates from the creation of theworld, and has already progressed as far as thenineteenth century of the Christian era. Yes! we allof us feel that the land of promise lies far away inthe future, that the goal of human history is yet along way off.A large portion of this assembly consists of thosewhose business it is to study Human Nature in allits various forms, and who have taken uponthemselves the task of developing that nature inthe youth of America, in that rising generationwhose duty it will be to carry out the nascentprojects of reform in every department of humaninterest, and make the thought of to-day the fact oftomorrow.bSyo vmeer yd onuatbutlrees sa rteh ebroer na rTee aacmhoenrgs ,t chiasll endu tmob tehri,s who

sofpfiitcee ,o fa fso bolyi sah vdoeitcrea cfrtioomn, hoer ayveet n!m oMree nf, owolhisoh inopfa ttrhoenira cgael,li nugn;d ewrhsot aknndo twh et hdaitg tnhitey , otffhiec et roufe t hneobilityttreuaec hperro ipsh cetoicë vfaolr ewsitigh htth, et hwato rtlhd;e awnodr ldal, sfoif tfye eyle waritshhence, will be very much what its Teachers intend,by God's blessing, to make it.Brothers in a high calling! The speaker, proudlyenrolling himself in the number of your noble band,greets you from his heart this day, and invites youto spend a thoughtful hour with him; and to helphim, by your best wishes, to unfold in a manner notwholly unworthy of his theme, some small portionof the nature and method of Human Development.Ours is the age of analysis. We begin to see thatbefore we can understand a substance, it isnecessary to become acquainted with all itscomponent parts. Thus, then, with regard toHuman Nature, we must understand all at least ofits grand divisions, before we can comprehend themethod of developing it as a whole.Let us then say, that there are five grand divisionsin Human Nature,—the physical, the intellectual,the affectional, the moral, and the devotional,—orin other words, that man has body, mind, heart,conscience, and soul.Concerning these great divisions, I shall assert,first, that they are all mutually dependent uponeach other; that if one of them suffer, all the others

suffer with it; that man is dwarfed and incomplete,unless he is fully developed in all the five: and,secondly, as my special subject, I maintain thatphysical well-being, health of body, is thereforenecessary not only to the complete development ofHuman Nature, but that it is also essential to ahappy and harmonious development of each oneof the four other great divisions of Human Nature;or in other words, I assert the body has somethingto do both with the mind, heart, conscience, andsoul of man, not merely to all these collectively, butalso to each of them separately.First, then, I shall speak on the mutual dependenceof the faculties.Now, although it is not possible that any facultyshould be so completely isolated, as to act withoutmoving any of the rest at all; nevertheless, since acomparative isolation and separation of thefaculties is but too common, let us glance throughthe history of the past, and mark any notableinstances of such isolation; and if we find that aone-sided development has always proved afailure, we shall begin to discern the folly of tryingsuch disastrous experiments over again, speciallysince they would have to be made upon livinghuman beings, upon he young children of the risinggeneration, who cannot resent our folly, but whosedistorted natures will be living proofs of ourincapacity, of our impotence as educators, whenthe experiment tried for the thousand and first timefails yet again, as it always has done, and alwayswill do to the world's end, while Human Nature

remains the same.Let us then take a few examples, which are notiwntheicnhd eard et oo nsltya nusd etdh ea ts eilsltu sotfr asteiovners e ocf rtithicei sidme,a butwhich we are now considering.Let us then first suppose that the devotionalelement in man acts alone. The experiment hasalready been tried. Many a hermit in lonely cell orrocky cavern, has cut himself off from the societyof men, from action, duty and love, in order that hemay be devout without hindrance. How many suchmen have poured out their souls upon the ground,on barren sand or desert rock, souls which mighthave watered thousands with the dew of heaven,and all because they made one fatal life-mistake;—they thought, that to pray always meant to bealways saying prayers.Who could be more devout than Saint SimeonpSitllyalirt,e asb? sworhboe sd pien nct oanllt ehims plilfaet iounp,o ne ctshtea stoy,p roef mao traslleand prayer. Let the poet speak for him. "Bethink thee, Lord? while Thou and all the saints Enjoy themselves in heaven, and men on earth House in the shade of comfortable roofs, Sit with their wives by fires, eat wholesome food And wear warm clothes, and even beasts havestalls, I, 'twixt the spring and downfal of the light Bow down one thousand and two hundred times To Christ, the Virgin Mother and the Saints:

Or in the night, after a little sleep, I wake, the chill stars sparkle; I am wet With drenching dews, or stiff with crackling frost, I wear an undressed goatskin on my neck, And in my weak, lean arms I lift the Cross, And strive and wrestle with Thee till I die. O mercy, mercy, wash away my sin!"A mournful spectacle. Devotion excited tomadness, while mind, heart, and conscience, allare dumb, and the poor weak body only bears theheavy burdens which the tyrannous soul heapsupon it!Devotion, then, needs conscience. Conscience tellsa man that he must act as well as pray. Devotionmakes the great act of prayer. Conscience worksout into the actual of every-day life, the ideal ofwhich devotion has conceived. Will then devotionand conscience be sufficient for a noble manhood?Devotion and conscience alone developed, haveofttimes, in the days that are past, formed somestern old grand inquisitor, torturing the life out ofhuman sinews because he ought. The grandinquisitor's devotion and conscience told him thathe ought to advance the holy faith by every enginein his power, and therefore, as he considered thatthe rack, the thumbscrews, the rope, the fire andthe faggot were the best possible engines, he usedthe same to the utmost of his ability; and thought,alas for humanity! that he was doing God service.The grand inquisitor had devotion, he hadconscience, he probably also had nerves of iron;

but he could not possibly have had a heart.Devotion, then, and conscience need a loving,human heart. Will these three be sufficient? Thepicture grows fairer, we begin to feel less painwhen we turn away from the stern, dark portrait ofthe grand inquisitor, which frowns so grimly in thepicture gallery of history, and look upon that fairand gentle upturned face, half shaded by the veilthat covers her head. That is a nun of the order ofSaint Theresa.The pale, emaciated countenance tells of many avigil protracted through the long hours of the night;those wild eyes once saw, or thought they saw, thepicture of the Virgin hanging in her cell smiling onher as she prayed; yea, and have wept many atear as she repeated her sins over to herconfessor, or as she stood by the bed-side ofsome poor sufferer, while those gentle Christianhands smoothed the dying pillow. Rest in peace,soul sainted and dear! The tears thou didst onceshed, are wiped away now forever; the sins thoudidst once bewail, are all forgiven now, for thouhast loved much!But the day of nuns has gone forever. A higherdevelopment must be sought for. The nunbecomes impossible when we train the intellect;Devotion says, Worship; the Mind adds, The Lordthy God. The Conscience says, Do right; theIntellect shows what is right. The Heart says, Lovethy fellow-men; the Intellect tells the right way ofloving them. Piety and charity! these are glorious!these are the two angels from Heaven which

prompt us to help our brothers who need our help;but intellect must show us the way to do it. To takea single instance. Piety and charity cannot show ushow to drain and ventilate and rebuild the hovels ofthe poor in New York. No, every spade, every saw,every hammer employed in that most righteousundertaking must be directed by intellect, byscience. Piety and charity may prompt, but intellectmust guide.I know full well that many a woman's heart, guidedonly by her sacred instinct of loving, acts out thelaw of right without any conscious questioning ofthe intellect; that a thousand tender feet carry thegospel of Christ along the alleys of New York andLondon, or along the corridors of the Crimeanhospital, though even there also woman's wit hasto aid woman's heart. The noble heart, theChristian love of Florence Nightingale took her tothose eastern shores; this made the voice tenderand the hand gentle. But whoso reads the accountof what she did, will see that beside these, wit andwisdom, keen discerning of means to ends, abilityto see what ought to be done, intellect, reason inshort, was necessary in order to make a FlorenceNightingale possible, together with an exhaustlessfund of bodily endurance, fortitude and stoicism.Thus, then, we find that devotion, conscience,heart, and intellect are all necessary to each otherin the harmonious development of Human Nature.Will they be found sufficient for a perfect life?Put together a strong soul, a tender conscience, a