THE ANNUAL MEETING. 153 



ought to present, for entering upon and carrying forward with all possible zeal 

 and earnestness this desirable improvement. Progress in this direction will 

 not fail to insure needed progress in other directions. An interest begun here 

 will spread itself over every part of the school. Better grounds and better 

 houses will not only tend to make, but actually will make better schools, and 

 will demand and will have better teachers. 



In concluding I desire to emphasize, if I may be able to do so, a few thoughts. 



I. The point is, that improvement in our district schools is absolutely nec- 

 essary, if they are to be preserved and perpetuated. This idea should be, iu 

 some way, impressed upon every citizen of the State. The schools are now 

 worth something, but they must be made of greater value in order fully to 

 justify the expenditures for their support. This work of improvement should 

 begin at once. It cannot safely be put off to some indefinite future. 



II. Second, the improvement now under consideration will not only render 

 the premises more inviting, but will help directly and largely to develop the 

 aesthetic nature of the pupils, and indirectly but still powerfully to develop 

 also the moral nature. 



It will not be denied that beautiful surroundings have a natural tendency to 

 refine the manners and cultivate the tastes of children. 



But, without doubt, it will be denied by some that good taste has any nec- 

 essary connection with good morals. However this may be, bad taste certainly 

 has no tendency to make either a man or a boy morally better. And I think 

 a very little reflection will convince any candid mind that a cultivated taste, 

 the love and appreciation of the beautiful, and tasteful and pleasant surround- 

 ings do have an influence over the behavior, over the thought, the feelings, 

 and the moral character, so far as character is manifested in the conduct. 



Everybody knows that nine boys out of ten, and in most cases the tenth 

 also, will conduct themselves better iu all respects, and will use better lan- 

 guage, will be more kind, respectful and obedient, when dressed in good 

 clothes and with clean hands and faces, than when clothed in rags and cov- 

 ered with dirt. The whole demeanor and deportment of scholars, both in the 

 school-room and on the play ground, are of a higher order, of a nobler char- 

 acter, when the yard, the house, the furniture, all the appointments are as 

 excellent of their kind as money, time and care can obtain. 



I am persuaded that the most serious and alarming deficiency in our present 

 school system, and in our courses of instruction, is the lack of any proper and 

 efficient moral training. 



It is most certainly as important to the best interests of the community and 

 of the State that children be thoroughly grounded in the principles of honesty, 

 truthfulness, purity and integrity, as that they be acquainted with the rules of 

 arithmetic or with the laws of grammar. The inculcation of right motives in 

 respect to obedience to law and to regularly constituted authority, is fully 

 as important to society as the ability to extract the square root or to solve 

 intricate algebraical problems. 



While intellectual acquisitions are by no means to be underrated, moral 

 principles and correct habits should be estimated at their true value. 



Another thing deserves to be remembered in this connection. There is an 

 intimate relationship between morality and good intellectual scholarship, 

 between virtue and wisdom. I am not unaware that this position is denied by 

 some men, but I am entirely confident that the records of institutions of learn- 

 ing and the testimony of history will confirm its correctness. 



Dr. Arnold, the great teacher of Rugby, says: "I have a strong belief in 



