BUCHANAN'S. JOURNAL OF MAN
Many Authors


BUCHANAN'S
                           JOURNAL OF MAN.

             VOL. I.         JUNE, 1887.        NO. 5.




CONTENTS OF JOURNAL OF MAN.


  The Most Marvellous Triumph of Educational Science
  The Grand Symposium of the Wise Men
  The Burning Question in Education
  MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE--Bigotry and Liberality; Religious
    News; Abolishing Slavery; Old Fogy Biography; Legal
    Responsibility in Hypnotism; Pasteur's Cure for Hydrophobia;
    Lulu Hurst; Land Monopoly; Marriage in Mexico; The Grand
    Symposium; A New Mussulman Empire; Psychometric Imposture; Our
    Tobacco Bill; Extinct Animals; Education
  Genesis of the Brain (concluded)




THE MOST MARVELLOUS TRIUMPH OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE.


In the dull atmosphere which stagnates between the high walls of
colleges and churches wherein play the little eddies of fashionable
literature, which considers the authorship of an old play[1] more
interesting and important than the questions that involve the welfare
of all humanity or the destiny of a nation,--an atmosphere seldom
stirred by the strong, pure breezes of the mountain and the
ocean,--the best thought and impulse of which humanity is capable is
stifled in its birth, or if it comes forth feels the overshadowing
influence that chills its life.

    [1] Mr. Lowell, having been minister to England, is profoundly
    reverenced in Boston for his social position. His position
    gives great weight to his suggestions. It is a moral power for
    the use of which he is responsible, but with which he has
    trifled. When a few earnest reformers thought that Mr.
    Gladstone's grand statesmanship in preserving the peace of the
    world deserved to be recognized and honored by Americans,
    conservative, rank-worshipping Bostonians thought it would be
    _indispensable_ to have Mr. Lowell's co-operation, and waited
    his return from Europe. When Mr. Lowell was appealed to be had
    nothing to say,--he _wanted rest_! And Boston had nothing to
    say on that grand occasion, though Boston has a perfunctory
    Peace Society!

    But now Mr. Lowell comes out to call forth Bostonians for his
    chosen themes, and what are they? The discussion of old
    English dramatists! If there is anything more dead and
    worthless than antiquated plays which are forgotten, what is
    it? If there is anything more worthy of the name of _rubbish_,
    pray let us know what it is. But Boston crowds to hear
    disquisitions which from men in a different social position
    would be voted a bore, and sits reverently and patiently to
    catch his feeble and to many, scarce audible utterances. Is
    not this the worship of triviality and trash! How different
    would have been the action of John Hancock, of Samuel Adams,
    of Fisher Ames, or of Wendell Phillips. The atmosphere of
    European courts is debilitating to American Republicanism,
    unless it be a profound sentiment of the heart. When my
    brother-in-law returned from his position as minister to
    Naples, I could see that he had learned to look upon the
    common people as a rabble, and to sympathize only with the
    aristocracy. Cassius M. Clay at St. Petersburg learned to
    sympathize with the Russians, but he returned with no
    impairment of his democratic principles.

Not there, amid the pedantries of "culture," do we find the atmosphere
for free and benevolent thought, but rather far away from such
influences, in the forests, the mountain and prairie, where man comes
more nearly into communion with nature, and forgets the inheritance of
ancient error which every corporate institution preserves and
perpetuates. It is to this widespread audience that the JOURNAL OF MAN
appeals and offers a new suggestion.

In sending forth the "New Education," hoping for some appreciative
response from educational circles in which collegiate influences
prevail, I did not deem it prudent to introduce some of the noblest
thoughts that belong to the great theme. The book was sent forth
limited and incomplete, hoping that, heretical as it was, and quite
irreverent toward the ignorance descended from antiquity, it might
still receive sufficient approbation and appreciation to justify later
introduction of matter that would have hindered its first reception.

It has reached the third edition, but it has been very apparent that
its reception was cordial and enthusiastic only among the most
progressive minds, the number of which increases as we travel
westward, and San Francisco called for more copies than the leading
cities of the East.

The time has now arrived (when this JOURNAL is hailed cordially
throughout the country) that I may venture to announce the most
remarkable feature of the art and science of education. There is an
additional reason, too, for speaking out at this time, which should
mortify the pride of an American citizen. The philanthropic science
which I thought it imprudent to mention then in this free country, is
beginning to be studied in France, where such themes are not
suppressed by the sturdy dogmatism which is so prevalent and so
powerful in the Anglo-Saxon race.


THE NEW METHOD IN FRANCE.

As the French National Scientific Association, in their meeting at
Grenoble, two years ago, recognized in their most startling form the
phenomena of human impressibility which are illustrated in the "Manual
of Psychometry," and reported the most marvellous experiments in
medicines,--an act of liberality which has no parallel in
English-speaking nations,--so at the late meeting of their Scientific
Congress, as I learn from the German magazine, the _Sphinx_, the new
principle of education was broached which I feared to present in the
"New Education," and was received with general approbation by that
learned body.

Of course there was not a complete presentation of the subject, for
that would require a complete knowledge of the brain, which no
scientific association claims at present, and which will have its
first presentation to the readers of the JOURNAL OF MAN, but the
process of educational development was studied by the French _savants_
from the standpoint of mesmeric science and its leading methods, which
are now (freed from the name of an individual) styled _hypnotism_; or,
the sleep-producing process.

In that passive and impressionable condition which is called hypnotic,
mesmeric, somnambulic, or somniloquent, it has long been known that
the subject may be absolutely controlled by the operator, or by a
simple command or suggestion, or by his own imagination. This has been
so often demonstrated before many hundred thousands of spectators,
that it is a matter of general knowledge everywhere among intelligent
people,--everywhere except, perhaps, in the thick darkness of medical
colleges, where ignorance upon such subjects has long been made the
criterion of respectability, and perhaps among a few very orthodox
congregations, where such things have been associated with the idea of
witchcraft, and considered very offensive to the Lord. Such was the
doctrine of my old contemporary at Cincinnati, Dr. Wilson, at the head
of the leading orthodox congregation; and it was equally offensive to
the champion debater of Presbyterian orthodoxy, the Rev. N. L. Rice,
whom I arraigned before a vast audience for his antiquated falsehoods.
If the church and the college are getting a _little_ more enlightened
now, I cannot forget the condition in which I found them, of stubborn
hostility to scientific progress, and these things _should not be
forgotten_ until they have repented, reformed, and ceased to be a
stationary obstruction.

We are not accustomed to look to a Catholic country like France for
advanced thought, yet, in these instances just mentioned, we find
French scientists entertaining advanced ideas which the leaders of
American science treat with either indifference or hostility. The
_Popular Science Monthly_ and medical journals generally treat all
such matters with stubborn aversion and injustice. The learned
collaborators of Johnson's Cyclopedia were unwilling even to have the
science of psychometry mentioned in it, and it was introduced by the
publisher against their protest. These things I mention now, that the
great public to which I appeal may better understand the real value of
the opinions of those who stand in positions of authority and
influence.

I would not wish to diminish by harsh criticism the sentiment of
reverence which is already too feeble in the American mind. We cannot
be too reverent to real intellectual and moral greatness, but to
reverence beyond their worth the teachers of old inherited falsehoods,
is to be a traitor to truth. The literature of to-day is controlled by
ancient or mediжval errors, and the fresh science seeking expression
in the JOURNAL OF MAN could not have found expression in periodical
literature. Our leading periodicals would not have opened their pages
to the exposition of educational methods which is to be given in this
essay. _Intolerance_ is the inheritance which the generation of to-day
has received from ancestors who two or three centuries ago delighted
in hanging or even burning the exponents of opinions contrary to their
own; and where intolerance is not in the way, the energy of literary
cliques is exerted to hold exclusive possession of the field.

With this exordium, which the occasion seemed to require, let us
proceed to consider the most powerful and radical measure, which
belongs to the science of education, and which has been developed by
the science of anthropology.


DEFINITION OF EDUCATION.

Education, rightly understood, signifies the development of all the
faculties or capacities of the soul, and, as a necessary consequence,
of the brain, in which that soul is lodged, and of the body, which is
as essential to the brain as the brain is to the soul. For without the
brain there is no soul expression, and in proportion to the condition
and development of the brain is the expression of all the soul
faculties. A soft and watery brain is always accompanied by feebleness
of character and mind. In like manner the manifestations of the brain
depend for their strength upon the body, when the lungs and heart fail
to send a vigorous current of arterial blood to the brain, its power
declines proportionally; and when the current ceases entirely, the
action of the brain itself ceases, and with its cessation all
manifestations of the soul cease also. Or when the disordered viscera
fail to supply a healthy blood, as in fevers of a low type, the brain,
like all other organs, is brought down to the level of the depraved
blood, and shows by its utter feebleness and by the incoherent
expressions of the patient that brain and soul depend upon the body
for their power and all their action in this life.[2]

    [2] The insane folly which assumes, without a particle of
    evidence, that everything depends upon mind, and that the
    brain, the body, and their environment, which is continually
    acting upon the _entire_ man, are of no importance whatever,
    would not be worthy even of mere mention if it were not for
    the fact that this form of delusion has of late become so
    common, under the deceptive names of metaphysics, Christian
    science, and mind-cure, when the theory is simply an attempt
    to get rid of science and common sense.


FOUR EDUCATIONAL METHODS.

The process of education by a teacher consists chiefly in establishing
the control of his stronger mind over that of the pupil, by placing
the latter in the most passive and receptive condition, in which the
pupil not only receives the intelligence he gives, but also feels the
influence of his will and principles.

There are four methods by which the influence of the teacher is made
effective: 1st, the power of conviction or reason; 2d, the spirit of
obedience; 3d, the spirit of imitation; and 4th, the spirit of passive
sympathy.

In the first method he addresses the understanding, enabling the pupil
to understand what is best for him. If Socrates had been right in
maintaining that knowledge was the one thing needful to overcome
practical errors, and that men sinned only through ignorance (which
was a very grave mistake), this would be the most effective method of
teaching. But it is effective only with those who are conscientious
and thoughtful, who are seeking to do right, and need only to be
instructed. It is entirely ineffective with the great majority of
wrong doers, whose moral nature and self-control are insufficient to
curb their animalism.

The second method, the spirit of obedience, is the method of religion,
which is far more effective. Jesus and other religious teachers
impress their followers that there is a great and benevolent power,
the power to which we are indebted for our present lives and our hope
of unlimited future happiness,--to which we owe a profound gratitude,
with an unhesitating love and obedience. Our