REVIEW.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2060, 11 December 1869, Page 2

REVIEW.

A Few Leisure. Reflections on Training to Habit.—Printed by T, H. Snowden., Price 0 cl.

This tract has recently been published by Mr Thomas Halliwell, head master of the Middle District School, of this City. It contains about five pages of printed matter, and has been entitled “Training to Habit.” Wo have carefully perused Mr Halliwell’s essay, and we really cannot understand “what It is all about.” Fearing we had not, through want of “training,” and by absence of “ working and waiting,” not freely “obliged

our mental habits to work,” we, after one perusal of these “Reflections, read them backwards. Still, we are unable to comprehend Mr Halliwoll’s metaphysics. In one part of this little tract ha seems to imagine that there is no such thing as intuition, or genius; in another, he recognises both. On one page he enunciates, that all things are God’s gifts; on another that these gifts are “attainments ” which must be wrought for. His remarks are disjointed, contradictory, and absurd. We would not however have found fault with him had he merely erred in his “metaphysical researches.” The gross grammatical blunders in the essay are disgraceful. We have marked about seventy, and to show what the author of a grammar knows about the English language we quote a few specimens. On the first page we find “ such that ” for “ such as ;” then comes this very intelligible sentence, “ and, what we call physical habits—as, for instance, habits of rising our feet and bands, are mental habits , being only instruments of On such} an sssumption chewing” .obacco is a habit of the mind. “ Rising of the feet ” we cannot understand. Perhaps using such strange phraseology is “a mental habit” “ acting spontaneously. ” Our author remarks ;—“ There is such a thing as educating the lower faculties, so that they stay as they are put, and bear fruit, each according to its kind, without any great forthputting on the part of man.” We hope Mr Halliwell’s grammatical knowledge “ will not stay as it is put,” else there is small hope for him as a successful author. The last sentence on the first page we must quote, not only for the purpose of showing Mr Halliwell’s ignoring of the rule, that a plural nominative requires a verb in the plural, but also for affording information to those of our readers who are in “an untilled and unprofitable condition.” “A man is educated only so far as one or another of the classes of his faculties has been raised by training into that state in which they act easily in given directions. Yea, acts spontaneously,” We m*y also inform our readers that there are such things as “ Habits of thought, habits of abstractions, habits of combination, habits of intuition ,” and that “ all kinds of habits are established upon the mind, and men are beginning to recognise these habits”! 1 He (Mr Halliwell) says, “Susgeptjbility to habit is a part of the mental constitution 1 ’!! In the next senteh'cs “and” U omitted before when, which omission makes nonsense of the sentence, if that oould bo done by leaving out an “and.” We are then told of “repetitious action," which is perhaps an outcome of the “ habits of abstractions.” Mr Halliwell speaks of “ founder of machines,” of “that I ought to,” “ does not stick to it,” and we are told that “ it may well become us to wonder why man should refuse to train according to definite laws and processes to make angels of themselves.” This is perhaps, an example of “ patient energy brought tp bey fpr the pur* pose' of making ■beasts' of tjiemselve.j, ” as stated in the previous'sentence.’ ' ‘ * But we must stop. There are three mors pages, almost every sentence full of gramma; tical inaccuracies, apd our patience", if not that of our readers 5 , is exhausted. We will content ourselves with quoting Mr Halliwell’s creed—“ But it may be asked, Is there such a thing possible, to have a school in which a child that is irritable can learn to be mild in his disposition.”—(Such a thing possible to have!!) —“I believe it is pos- *« have a school in which a child that SIUHJ n • • J.. ~~.£C mO , is revengeful can be trameu to au.ier wrong without resenting it. I believe it js possible to have a school in which a child that is selfish cap be taught to he generous and magnanimous. I believe it is possible to have a school in which a child cau take many steps towards a realisation of religious truths, and have faith in them. I believe it is possible to have a school in which children can be so educated thet the presence of God shall he real and constant to them as the natural world is. This, doubless, belongs to future” (!) We hope Mr Halliwell believes that it is possible to have a school whose head master cau write grammatically, or does this also “ belong to future?” There are several orthographical errors that may be set down to the debit of the printer ; let it suffice for us to say that amongst them “Pentecostal” is spelled “ Pentacostale and that these sentences follow, “ If God wished to denounce with all the majesty of justice.” “ Some Isaiah was bom with the right tendency, and was trained. When God would open the realms of love, and disclose the richness of it, some John had been bom and developed to that aid ; and when the lire of God’s spirit touched him, it touched a man that was eminent in that regard. ” Mr Halliwell seems to have rushed into print without sufficiently elaborating his manuscript. There is much to he said in favor of training, that habits of industry and patient investigation may be acquired, but the recommendation comes with a bad grace from one whose writing evinces so little practical experience of their value.